Chapter Text
The day was bright and warm, and with no sign of the good weather changing, you decided that a trip to the beach would be a good way to start. You push your toes into the warm sand and sigh, today was relaxing and you were happy to get out and do something besides stay indoors. The sea was like your second home almost, and with a whoop you run out towards the water. The water was still freezing in the middle of June, but you didn’t care, it was refreshing to just get out. You laugh as a wave pushes you back onto shore and you lay there for a while just looking at the sun.
You were at your favorite beach spot, a secluded cove that had little to no people on it at any given day, with the bonus of good tide pools. You put your hand up into the air comparing it to one of the clouds billowing through the sky, and you hear a soft chuckle. Looking up and gazing around, you see nothing, so you shrug and get up, dusting the sand off your bathing suit and stretching your legs. You head back out towards the water and crouch down to get a look at one of the tide pools. You smile at the starfish wriggling around and the anemone waving in the soft currents rushing out to the water.
A splash in the water startles you into standing and you quickly look around again to see nothing. You felt goosebumps forming, you feel as if you were being watched. You rub your arms and shake off the feeling. You were here to have a good day, not be spooked by nothing. You rush to the bicycle you used to reach the cove and stuck your hand into the bag attached to the side. You grab out your book and a bag of frozen peas. Your elderly neighbor had taught you the trick of feeding animals peas instead of bread. You position yourself against a rock and sprawl. You open the bag of peas and spot a seagull, throwing a pea and watching the bird chase it. You giggle as more seagulls appear, squawking for attention. After a few minutes of feeding the gulls, you open your book and resume at the spot you dog-eared, occasionally tossing out a pea or two for the beach animals.
“Care to share, my darling?” A deep voice spoke from somewhere. You look around for the source, and find a man half submerged in the water clutching to the rock. You do a double take to make sure that there is in fact a man a few yards away. You shrug, clip the peas shut, and toss the bag towards the mystery man.
“Go ahead my man, you startled me pretty bad there, by the way” You say as you settle back down against your rock. You watched him as he grabbed a handful of peas and gracefully shoved them into his mouth. He tried to speak with a mouthful, and you laugh as a few go astray onto the rock. He got red and swallowed the rest in his mouth before nervously coughing.
“Heh, sorry, I like peas. I didn’t mean to scare you, I swear I wasn’t aiming to startle you, but you were really engrossed in that book, so when I tried to gain your attention you didn’t notice.” He put a hand to his forehead and huffed. You looked at him in confusion, was he posing? You think that maybe he’s a model, or maybe just a really embarrassing person. You ask him,
“That water is really cold, aren’t you freezing?” You pat the sand and look at him, “Come sit by me so we can talk properly.” You tell him your name and ask,” what’s yours?” It was his turn to look in confusion and he mumbled something about being painful, and shrugged,
“It’s Karamatsu, but you can call me anytime.” He shot you finger guns and you groaned. That was bad. “But if you insist, I’ll come sit by you.” The next thing you know, he vaults himself out of the water with his arms and thuds a few feet away, still gripping to the bag of peas. You laugh until you realize he had some sort of suit on his lower half, maybe a new type of swimsuit? You regard him until you realize it was a fin. A beautiful fish tail that was working hard to scoot Karamatsu up into a sitting position across from you. The tail was a deep blue that sparkled like nothing you have ever seen, it was so bedazzled you almost had to look away. You hear him laugh and say,
“My eyes are up here you know.” You mouth gaped open and you looked at Karamatsu and he continued to munch on your peas. He whipped out a pair of triangular sunglasses he seemingly pulled from thin air and set them across his nose and smirked. ‘’If I knew my figure would have you speechless, I’d have thrust myself upon you sooner.” You scrunch your nose at his comment and point at his tail,
“You are a mermaid, oh my god. Why are you trying to flirt with me when we aren’t even the same species, and beside the point OH MY GOD, you are a mermaid. They aren’t even real, and you just popped into existence to talk to me?” He looked at you and huffed,
“First off, I’m a merman, not a mermaid, and a handsome one at that. Second, obviously merpeople are real because I’m here talking to you now, but the point is not me but you, the beautiful soul in my vision.” He winked and sucked a pea into his mouth. You stared at him for a second and burst out laughing. He looked at you in confusion waiting for you to explain. You coughed your laughs away and smiled,
“I can’t take you seriously when you seductively suck a pea into your mouth Kara, it’s a little weird, you know?” He blushes and his fins of his tail wriggle seemingly on their own. It brought you back to the fact he’s a living breathing mermaid, or merman, merperson? “OK, first off, why did you choose me of all people to showcase your existence to?”
“You are the very being of perfection, in my eyes, fins or no.” He posed dramatically again, “I just had to meet you in person.” You roll your eyes and you notice he deflates a little. Quickly trying to cheer him up, you say,
“That’s very sweet of you Karamatsu, I appreciate all the attention, but you are a stranger to me. How about we become friends first, m’kay?” He perks up, and his mouth formed a million-watt smile.
“No one has really wanted to be my friend before, the only people I’ve ever had were my brothers.” You get excited at that.
“You have brothers?” You ask. He nods and seems to get even more excited,
“Yes! I love all five of them” You blanch, that’s a lot of brothers. But maybe it’s not for merpeople, you think. You ask him this and he barks out a laugh.
“No, the standard family has one to two, me and my brothers are sextuplets.” You stare in awe,
“That’s really cool, what are their names?” He lists them out,
“So the eldest is Osomatsu, then there’s me, then Choromatsu, Ichimatsu, Jyushimatsu, and finally Todomatsu.” He stares at you as you try to process the names, then nervously asks,
“Is it true you really wanna be my friend, or are you pulling my fins?”
“Of course I want to be your friend, you’re a pretty cool guy.” He puffs out his chest like a bird, and you panic as you notice behind his glasses he started crying.” You jump up and run to your bike for a towel, as you come back he’s smiling. You hand him the towel, and as he’s wiping his face, you ask what that was about.
“You really are perfect, my love. You are so nice.” You shove your hands into the sand. You wonder about the strange man sitting in front of you. It was still surreal that he was a merman, you glance at his tail and quickly get up, an idea forming. He looks at you and his thick eyebrows scrunch together.
“Beat you to the ocean!” You yell and jump off the rock as he gapes at your burst of emotion, until finally understanding.
“No fair! You have legs and a head start,” he laughs and then launches himself into the water after you. The water was still cold in the middle of the day, but refreshing. You try to locate Karamatsu, but start to worry as the water surrounding you was empty. You feel a pull at your ankle and look down to see Karamatsu smiling up at you. He was beautiful, you realized, his tail shimmered even more underwater, and his fins billowed in a way that reminded you of a beta fish. You rushed up for air and a few moments later he popped up. His hair was slick to his skull, and he poked you in the arm,
“You’re it” was all he said before disappearing back into the water. You gawked at your arm and laughed at the challenge. If he wanted to play, you were gonna win. Tail or no tail. You dive back into the water and search for the blue man. You spot him and start swimming. He avoids you easily as you try your hardest to catch him. You get a little irritated and swim harder, finally tagging him on the back. You don’t care if he let you tag him, you were triumphant, and you swim to the surface to erupt a victory yell. Laughter sounded behind you and you turn to find Karamatsu. Your cheeks dusted pink and you roll your eyes, relaxing into floating on your back.
You feel Karamatsu’s fins caress your body, and you look over to see he had joined you. After swimming for what seemed like an eternity, you notice the sun was starting to drop. Frowning, you head back to the shore. You grab the towel left on the beach and turn back towards the sea. Karamatsu had pulled himself onto the shore and looked at you sadly. You didn’t want to leave your new friend; he was so fun to be with. Sighing, you picked up the bag of peas and tossed them to Karamatsu. He caught them and looked up at you.
“Keep them, since you like them so much.” He smiled,
“Thank you, my dear, I’ll treasure them forever, or at least until I eat all of them.” You giggled and handed him his glasses.
“Where do you keep those anyway? Actually, that doesn’t matter, the real question is where you found those monstrosities.” He quickly placed them on his face,
“Found ‘em washed up on the beach. I think they’re real cool though.” You start to dry off with the towel and agree that they are pretty cool. You sigh and look at the merman,
“I have to go, I’m really sorry. It was super fun hanging out with you though. Let’s meet again sometime.” He looked at you with anticipation,
“It was! How about tomorrow?” You think of your schedule and then nod. Tomorrow you were free. You start to pack up the things left on the beach and turn back out toward the ocean. You see Karamatsu getting ready to head back out and you cup your hands around your mouth and yell,
“See you tomorrow, Karamatsu!” He turns and gives a thumbs up, making you smile. You mount your bike and head home, the sun starting to set behind the horizon.