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Derek gasps as his eyes shoot open, breathing in a large gulp of air. He gives his eyes a moment to adjust, blinking against the bright sun shining like a halo around the person above him.
It’s man, a smiling man, who’s bent over Derek, hair wet.
“What-” Derek looks around him, starts to sit up to get his bearings straight. “Where am I?”
“You fell off your…the big white pointy thing. You couldn’t swim. You weren’t breathing.” The man’s voice is lower than Derek was expecting, slides along his skin in the best way and makes him shiver. But he’s just cold, that’s all. Nothing more.
“Big white pointy…” Derek looks over at the man, trails off when he fully takes him in. He’s bare chested, leaning back on his hands, and then he just has…has a…fish tail. As if he was a…a freaking merman. “What the fuck?”
The man only tilts his head to the side, making him looking younger, more boyish as he smiles at Derek. “Have you never seen a merman before?”
“You’re…real? You can’t be real right now.” Derek shakes his head, stands up.
“And why not?” The man says, tilting his head back to look at Derek, fins swishing up and down, up and down. Jesus fuck, it’s a sight to see. His fins, his lower body…or whatever you call it, his scales, are a light blue, and Derek tries not to think about how pretty they are.
“Mermaids, mermen…they don’t exist. They only exist in fairytales.”
“What’s a fairytale?” The man asks, looking confused. “Is it from those…what do you call them? Books?"
"I’ve gotta be hallucinating right now. There’s no way…how are you real?"
"As much as you are real. I just live in the water instead of land. You are a beautiful man.”
Derek, who had opened his mouth to speak, stops. “Excuse me?”
“I’m sorry, is that too forward? I’ve always been told I am such.” The man sits up, and Derek wonders how the hell he’s breathing right now. How can something - someone - that lives in the water also breathe on land?
“I…who are you?” Derek says, trying to understand.
“My fellow mer-people call me Stiles, if you’d so wish to call me that."
"Stiles…” Derek trails off, takes in the merman’s appearance, his attractive face, his brown hair, light, almost golden brown eyes, his lean, skinny, but also defined torso, the happy trail that leads to absolutely nowhere, and his tail, fins, scales. There’s no way this merman could be real, Derek decides. He’s too beautiful, too handsome.
“I hope I did the right thing in saving your life. I’m sorry if it’s not, I just felt…I felt that I couldn’t let you die, for some reason.” Stiles looks torn, as if he knew he shouldn’t have saved Derek, that he wasn’t supposed to, but was happy he did anyway.
“No…no, thank you very much. I’d hate to have died by falling off a boat.”
“A boat? Is that what they’re called?” And Stiles smiled then, blindingly, and Derek lost his breath for a moment, couldn’t stop the rapid pace of his heartbeat. “Well, it’s long gone, now. I hope you can get back to wherever it is your home is.” Stiles sounded sincere as he started moving toward the water that was only feet away. “I have to go now, though. I’m so sorry.” Stiles looked saddened by that, not meeting Derek’s eyes as he said it.
“Am I ever going to see you again?” Derek found himself asking, thinking he must be crazy. He’d barely spoken to the merman, knew he must be crazy, that this was probably all still a dream and he was passed out or something, anything. It would make better sense than this. But Derek couldn’t help it, couldn’t stop the panic at seeing Stiles swim back into the ocean, his light blue fish tail glistening in the sun.
“I don’t know.” And Stiles frowned as he looked over his shoulder at Derek. “I hope so. I like you."
And Derek…well, Derek found himself smiling, blushing as he looked down at the sand beneath his feet. “If I come back here? In a few days time? Will you be here?”
"I’ll check every day, when the sun is at it’s highest point in the sky.” And Stiles gestured at the sun then, at where it was shining brilliantly down at them, at the highest, center most point.
“Thank you,” Derek said, and as Stiles smiled back at him and dove under the water, Derek let in a breath, wished he hadn’t had to say goodbye so soon, but comforted himself with the fact that he’d see him again.
As Derek turned away, ready to find his way off this small, secluded beach and back to civilization, he heard Stiles’ voice.
“Oh, I forgot! What’s your name? If you don’t mind telling me."
And Derek grinned, turned around to see Stiles, a few feet out in the water, his head poking out of it. “Derek, my name’s Derek.”
"Well, It’s nice to meet you, Derek.”
“You too, Stiles.”
And with that, Stiles disappeared underwater, and Derek walked away.
But Derek knew they’d meet in the middle again, and it was that fact that kept a smile on Derek’s face as he walked further and further from the ocean.