Work Text:
The southerly had roared up the coast last night just before midnight, blasting away the dome of heat that had baked everything for the past week, slamming doors and knocking over pot plants and making the flags and boat sails snap and jingle. Like it always did, it made the temperature drop like a rock, which everyone welcomed, but it brought a couple of gifts for Taemi in particular. One was that the sudden cold and squalls and grey skies would clear the beaches, which had been packed for days. The second was that it brought the waves. Specifically, it brought the really mean nasty ugly brutal sort of waves she liked the most, because they were exciting and also because there wouldn’t be anyone else getting in her way. She was the only person crazy enough to brave these conditions, particularly the epic breaks on the northern tip of the beach where the huge swell rolled in all the way from the pole.
Dawn sees her running across the cool sand, her little feet light like a dancer, her board tucked under her arm, to the edge of the rushing foam. It’s warm, warmer than the wind, welcoming her. Dive in.
She kicks her way into the rip, lets it sweep her up, the current lifting her and letting her fly out to where she wants to be, out past the churning white to where the deep blue-green swells are rising high enough for them to be just starting to think about curling. First she’s got to get through the choppy mess of slapping, buffeting violent chaos which keeps the paradise beyond it private and exclusive. It’s brutal this morning, hitting hard and fast enough to scare her and make her think this was a stupid idea, which is how she knows she’s alive and about to have a really good time. Water rears up over her, wanting to smash her into a broken mess, but it can’t crush her if she’s already under it. She dives, eyes-open, deep enough to find the deep blue calm under the churn, time made slow and sticky by adrenaline.
There’s someone down here with her, under her, ten feet down, right against the sand.
At first she thinks the worst: it’s a body, some poor guy swept off the rocks. He’s young and muscular, his lean torso a deep bronze, his long black hair shot with traces of electric blue and gold.
Then he rolls, as agile as a seal, and looks straight up at her, his face bright with astonishment.
He’s so beautiful.
He blinks his huge gold luminous eyes, once, twice. His hands dance through the water to stabilise him, so he can stare at her like she’s the most unbelievable thing he’s ever seen: a crazy girl in a half-wetsuit with a short board, deep under a killing surf like she’s meant to be here, bold and unafraid. His lips part, like he wants to ask her a question.
Then her own buoyancy grabs her, yanks her gasping to the surface, her heart pounding, the wave behind her, nothing beneath her but swirling water and---
Is she losing it? She could swear he’d had a tail.
-
“Have fun out there?”
Glowing from his run, Ming springs out onto the sand and scoops her up the way he knows she likes, beaming as she kisses his sweaty cheek. She’s cold from the sea, and his warmth feels amazing.
“It was alright.” She grins. Understatement of the century. “The weirdest thing happened though!”
“Oh yeah?”
“This’ll sound crazy, but I swear I saw a mermaid.”
“Babe.” He rubs his nose against her, big puppy eyes all round and concerned, sneaking a glance at the pounding surf. “It’s rough. You hit your head or something?”
“No, I was going under a wave, and there was something – I guess it was a seal or whatever.”
“A seal! That’s pretty cool!”
“Yeah.” She scrunches up her nose. “Thing is, he was pretty hot for a seal though.”
“A hot seal guy. Taemi Lee, you’re crazy. My girl has a crush on a hot seal guy. Oh my god. What should I do?”
“Well. You could distract me ~”
His blush is so cute, it’s almost her favourite thing about him.
-
Nobody would be crazy enough to be in the surf right now, it’s a mess. Nobody notices a dark shape slipping through the waves; or a forehead, shaggy with black hair shot with electric blue, peeking above the foam; or big golden eyes staring at the snuggled pair on the beach, before blinking forlornly and dipping back into the safety of the water.
-
Ming’s opened up a huge lead in his race. He’s charged out through the surf into the deep blue way off the beach and is making his way out to the marker buoy all the way down the end at the point, where he’ll turn back for the shore and his bike. Hopefully if the swim keeps going as well as it has he’ll have a good solid minute on his rivals, but he can’t be spending energy thinking too deeply about that now. Now’s all about focus on breath, and stroke, and feeling the lift of the big long swell rolling in from the Tasman.
A hundred yards off to his side it’ll be piling up in pretty curling waves that Taemi will be dancing along. He definitely can’t be thinking about that either: Taemi-in-a-wetsuit is not going to enhance his performance here in the slightest. Phew. Damn. Look at all that water down there, isn’t it a pretty blue.
-
The way they swim is comical. They’re fun to watch from underneath, splashing and churning, so noisy and inefficient. Poor things, they try their best.
The one up there now is faster than the others. He’s almost a proper shape, long and streamlined, wide shoulders for lift and long limbs for thrust and a narrow tapered waist for lower drag. He’s pretty, pretty like the one he kisses on the beach, the fearless little one who goes out in the waves to ride on them, and who almost moves correctly.
These two are interesting. He likes to follow them and make sure the sharks don’t get any stupid ideas about them being edible, which he’s fairly sure they’re not.
Fine, he likes them. They’re pretty, and brave, and when they hold each other in their arms in the sunshine it makes his throat all tight because he wants that too, which is a bit ridiculous and he knows it. He’s too scared of them, for one thing. They’re scary, all of those creatures; he’s worried if they know about him they might send their awful noisy machines out to trap him, or something. That’s why he hides in the deep out past the rough waves, blending all golden and coppery and black into the sand and seaweed, where no one can spot him unless they look.
-
Ming’s used to looking at sand. While you're looking at it, you sort of keep an eye out for movement. It's not that the sharks bother people very often, but you want to know if they’re around, and they are, they cruise up and down here on their way to shark places to do shark things. Anyway, you want to notice big things moving near the bottom.
Hey shit, something big just moved near the bottom.
He slips out of his stroke for a moment, not wanting to splash, brings his hands up by his face to give him a clearer view. It looks like ---
What the hell
-
“I’m so proud of you~!”
He’s very tired and very sore, but also he’s got a beautiful girl in a tiny bikini climbing him like a tree. He’s not going to argue when she steals his gold medal, she looks cute with it, but also he needs a cold drink and a hot bath and a lie down, because he killed himself out there.
It’s not until he’s flopped across the bed, some hours, later, when he remembers something, and mumbles
“…hey Taemi?”
“Mmm?”
“Just remembered.”
“Mmm?”
“Out past the end of the reef this morning? I think I saw your hot seal guy.”
“Shut uppp” she smacks his bum. “Don’t make fun of me.”
“I’m not I swear! There was this dude right down at the bottom, looking up at me. He wasn’t a seal, he was pretty jacked honestly. But the weird thing is, he didn’t have any diving stuff or a mask or anything, and he had this weird fin on? Looked like he had a fish tail.”
“Wait. Long hair? Really pretty??”
“Um… I guess? I only saw him for a few seconds, I stopped swimming, I wanted to make sure he was okay, but he saw me spot him and he just took off. Never saw anyone swim that fast in my life.”
“Ohmigod!” She jumps off the bed and rummages in the hall cabinet for her sandals.
“What..?”
“Minho Choi! There’s a mermaid at the beach. Are you going to lie in bed and let me go looking for him by myself??”
-
It’s late afternoon and the shadows are getting long. A stiff onshore breeze has come up and is doings its best to knock over all the waves into disgusting chop, and the surf is deserted. The lifesavers have decided to call it quits, tell everyone to pack it in, the beach is closed for the day. They don’t bother lecturing surfers, who are assumed to know what they’re doing, but frankly there isn’t much for them to work with right now anyway. Even Taemi wouldn’t bother going out in this, and everyone knows Taemi’s crazy.
Here she is though, stalking down the beach towards the foam at the water’s edge, with such a look in her eye, like a fierce little cat on the hunt. Ming trots along after her; shakes his head, rolls his eyes, sighs as she vanishes smoothly under the first row of waves; and follows her into the ocean.
-
“I don’t know how you see anything like that.” He really doesn’t, she’s just stuck her face into the water with her eyes open, no goggles, nothing.
“Practice. Shh.”
They’re just bobbing up and down now. It’s pretty nice honestly, now they’re out in the deep past all the mess, but he doesn’t think she’s going to spot any mermaids. The sun’s almost down in the hills.
“See any?”
“No.”
“Well we’ve got the place to ourselves then!” He floats over to her, and pulls her close, and she giggles as she wraps her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his waist.
“What if there’s someone watching~?” She giggles again and kisses him. For a second he has an insane vision of a beautiful, wide-eyed mermaid guy, staring at them. Then she kisses him again, and he forgets.
-
The moon is only just starting to sneak above the horizon and the wind has stirred up the phytoplankton enough that the waves glow with traces of ghostly phosphorescence. The pale light traces the outline of something long and sleek cutting through the waves towards the point. The creature slips up out of the water on to a big smooth rock and rests there, sleek bronze tail and broad muscled back shining softly with residual biolumiscence, as he stares longingly towards the glittering lights on the hillside.
Which sparkling thing have they gone to hide in, that beautiful pair who’d wrapped around each other out past the surf? Do they curl up with each other to sleep? Where have they gone?
Bright glistening drops slide down his cheeks as he sits, holding his breath for as long as he can out in the air, and feels sorry for himself for being such a coward. They’d been right there, but he’d been too shy, and now he’s all alone again.
He doesn’t hear the pad of little bare feet across the wet sandstone.
-
Taemi hadn’t been able to sleep at all, which isn’t that unusual for her. She’d tucked Ming in to snore peacefully away for the next ten hours, and snuck back down the stairs to the path to the beach. There’s a rock under the cliffs she likes to sit on when the tide’s way out, like it is now. You have to get your feet a little bit wet to get there but it’s safe and the sea parts around it beautifully. There’s nothing more soothing than feeling the ocean breathe around you.
Also, you know, maybe she’ll see something interesting. She’s seen dolphins a few times when the moon is bright, like it will be tonight. When it’s calm sometimes you can hear the humpbacks singing. There’s all sorts of things. There’s
There’s a mermaid. On her rock! Just sitting right there!
It’s definitely the same guy. Is he a guy? He looks like a guy. A really handsome guy, wow, he’s so pretty, posing there and pouting like he’s expecting a Vogue photographer to show up.
He’s also got a six-foot long fish tail. Now she’s taken a look at it, it’s definitely not a one of those latex mermaid costume tails some of the freedivers wear over their legs sometimes. This isn't like that, there's no knees or hips in it; this thing is all slinky and bendy and it shines the way fish do, with translucent and delicate fins. He’s legit got a fish tail, how cool!
Obviously this raises all kinds of questions, like what even is he, is he dangerous, does he eat people or something, but he really doesn’t look like he eats people. He looks like a cutie, honestly.
Is he crying?
That settles it.
“Hey~”
She says it softly, the way she would to a wild bird or something, not wanting to spook him, but the poor thing jumps. He’s utterly silent, staring at her.
His eyes are gold and seem to capture all the light in the world, like he’s meant to be way down in the deep where’s dark rather than up here under the moon, face to face with a girl who’s reaching out one pale little hand very gently and carefully towards him. His skin is golden too. It seems to have little flecks of luminescence in it, which are getting brighter, almost like he’s blushing.
She’s so close to touching his hand where it’s gripping the rock when he pushes away, slips into the water, and ducks under the surface. Damn it!
But then: he comes back up. His big blinking eyes emerge above the water, but his nose stays under. She can see his shoulders move like he’s breathing deep, like a swimmer surfacing after a dive.
“You breathe water?”
He’s still staring at her.
“That’s so cool!”
He takes one more big deep lungful of water, and then pops out, and pulls himself out back onto the rock in a smooth fluid motion, his tail draped prettily over the edge, a few feet away from her, his body language cautious but curious.
And it is all body language. He’s silent.
“You can’t talk, can you? Can you understand?”
His head cocks, his lips purse.
“Sorry that’s a bit of a rude question isn’t it? Like why would you speak English? You’re from the sea.”
He lifts one hand, his fingers softly curled, moving it gracefully in the air like he wants to reach out and touch but isn’t sure he should.
She lifts her own hand to meet it. The lights on his skin pulse and brighten.
He is blushing! He is so cute!
Blushing, flustered, sparkling, he slips back off the rock into the water, and dips below the surface to breathe again. She scoots over to the edge to be closer. She wants to tell him something but she’s not sure how.
“Um. I have to…” She points at herself, and up the hill at the houses, as he pops up again to look at her quizzically. His face falls. “Nono it’s okay! Um, tomorrow I’ll come back the same time, okay? Um…” Pointing at herself, and the rock. The moon, where it’s sitting just above the horizon now, drawing a shining line on the surface of the sea. Miming its path up into the sky, overhead, down over the hills, all the way under the earth and then back up again to where it is now. “Yeah?”
He blinks, and ducks his nose under the water, and giggles, or something. He sounds like a dolphin. Then he comes back up, grinning. She can’t help but be a bit alarmed for a sec.
“Whoa your teeth are kind of scary hey!”
He looks mortified. He hides behind his hand. He’s the most adorable thing in the world, it doesn’t matter if he has scary teeth.
“It’s okay, they’re good teeth. Don’t be shy. You’re cute, aren’t you?” He’s propped up on the slippery algae-coated rock on his elbows, his tail twitching slightly in the shallow water. He reaches into a crevice, flexes his bicep, and raises something up as an offering to her. She takes it. It’s an oyster, cool and briny, fresh from the sea, which he’s just opened with his bare hand. Nice.
“Ohmygod. Thank you! Oh wow that’s so good.”
She’s beaming, as she hands him back the empty shell.
“That’s so sweet of you, really! I’ll think of something to bring you from the land tomorrow, hey. Goodnight!”
-
She’ll curl up smiling under Ming’s arm. In the tall kelp forests off the coast, wrapped in a long strand to stop himself drifting, someone else will fall asleep smiling too.
-
It’s calm and clear tonight. They’re early, the waxing moon’s just starting to make the horizon glow, but Taemi’s too impatient and Ming’s too intrigued. Worst comes to worst, they can sit on her rock and snuggle, the tide is low enough. But –
“Ming! Look!”
“oOh!” he clutches her arm. “Huh!”
“I TOLD you!”
There’s a graceful figure draped languidly over the rock, fingers idly trailing in the water lapping at its base, smiling at them. His pretty tail twitches and flicks, playfully. He waves.
“He’s seriously a mermaid. Holy shit.”
“I think he’s a merman, isn’t he?”
“I guess. What’s his name?”
“I told you, he can’t talk, he breathes water. He’s, like, diving right now.”
Ming’s clutching her hand in his as they get closer. His giant eyes are even more giant than usual. He’s looking this guy up and down, taking it all in. At some length.
“Wow. Huh.”
Taemi giggles, and pokes him.
“Say hi, you goose.”
“Um, hi.” He extends a hand, politely. The merman looks at it curiously. Then he reaches out with his own, and brushes his fingertips against Ming’s, the way he’d done with Taemi yesterday. He looks fascinated. Poor Ming’s just flustered. “Um. I’m Ming. Nice to meet you.”
He looks at Taemi.
“Wait. It’s not like we can talk when we’re diving. Do you reckon he can talk in the sea?”
“Maybe! Do you want to jump in with him and find out?”
Ming looks out at the dark swell. He swallows. That’s a bit much even for him.
“Maybe not right now.”
It doesn’t seem like the merman wants to go out in the deep either. He raises a palm, politely, excuse me, and dips into the shallow pool that’s trapped at the base of their big rock to breathe.
Ming drops in with him.
“So…” He points at himself. “Ming.” Then he points at the guy who’s looking up at him, only his eyes above the surface. He ducks down and puts is ear in the water, and listens.
“...Nini?”
“Come on that’s not his name.” Taemi rolls her eyes. “He should have some cool exotic name.”
“That’s what he said!”
“He’s not called Nini.”
“How would you know?”
“Oh what so you’re the mermaid expert suddenly.”
“I just asked the guy! Oh –“ Nini’s drawn himself closer, and patted Ming on the shoulder. “Oh hey, cheers! That’s” He slurps down the oyster he’s been handed. “That’s actually amazing, wow. Did you just open that with your hand??”
Nini grins, and hands him another. Taemi rolls her eyes, tosses her hair, folds her arms, her bare feet kicking off the edge of the rock.
“Of course you guys are bros already oh my god. I should have known. Boys.” Then she thinks of something. “Hey! Remember we brought him a present?”
“Oh yeah! Can he eat it though?”
“You just don’t want to give it to him because you love them too much!”
Nini’s sitting up in the shallow pool now, blinking at both of them. Taemi splashes down, something held carefully in her palm. She hands it to him.
“Here you go. It’s a good juicy one.” She winks at Ming. “He’ll finish it if you don’t like it.”
Golden fingers gingerly take the peach from her hand. He noses at it, wrinkling up his face as the fine fur tickles him. He licks at it. His tongue looks soft and pink. He looks so confused.
“You have to bite it, bro. Here –” Ming takes it gently from him. Juice drips from his chin as he hands it back, a big chunk missing. “It’s good. Whoa–” Nini’s taken the peach, and taken a lick, and might maybe have taken a lick of Ming's fingers too. Now a million tiny specks of light are blooming under his skin, mirroring Ming's blush. “Whoa. Do you glow??”
-
Taemi’s never seen her boyfriend kiss a boy before. Honestly, she hadn’t known it was his thing. As she watches him press his hands against Nini’s broad golden chest and pant against his sweet salty plump lips, she kind of suspects that he probably hadn’t known it was his thing either.
Who cares, though, seriously. They're both so gorgeous. She’s perfectly happy to sit here in the moonlight and look at them, one all pink and the other all glowing. They’re so pretty, she’ll have to think for a fair bit about which one she wants to kiss first once it's her turn.
CODA:
Ming and Taemi will stay by the beach for the rest of their lives. Everyone assumes it’s because they love the surf and the sea, which is true, but they love it all the more because they know who’s hiding under the waves waiting for them to visit. Sometimes he comes out onto the rocks, sometimes he beckons them in and swims way out into the deep sea with them held safely in his strong arms, so they can float together weightlessly in the peaceful dark under the endless stars and listen to him sing.
One night Taemi will down to the ocean with a new tiny person in her arms. Nini will stare like this is the most astonishing thing he’s seen since he first saw Taemi. He’ll dip below the surface and laugh in delight, then let her gently hold this little creature on her chest with one little ear in the water, so they can hear him chattering happily, telling stories of the sea.