Chapter Text
Cole spent many days a week in a boat floating at sea. It was a responsibility he shared with his father: fishing. Typically, Lou took care of the selling of the fish, while Cole did the actual catching, and he generally did this with a good old fishing net.
Well, not that "good". Not to him. Cole just wanted to get it over with as fast as possible. He never particularly enjoyed the whole "fishing" thing. Odd as it sounded, he preferred the time he spent chopping wood and helping with building projects in town. Anything a bit more full-body physical than sitting around in a boat all day and yanking up fish was a far better option. But no, Cole couldn't just go and be a professional builder, or carpenter, or lumberjack, or any other job! They were fishermen, his father insisted! He had to fish!
It was why Cole was so excited as he collected his net full of fish for the last time that day. Finally, he could do literally anything else with the rest of his time.
One could easily imagine Cole's shock as he tugged an extra-heavy and extra-squirmy load from his last net into his boat and saw a person tangled inside it. He thrashed about even after being pulled into the boat and screamed, only causing the threads to tighten around his tail—
...Tail. The man had a fish tail. No, more specifically like a ray's tail in shape, but like a betta fish's in texture, the frills running down along his sides. Teeny-tiny, bright cerulean and sapphire scales sparkled in the sunlight, forming a mottled spot pattern.
"Oh, fuck!" Coke exclaimed.
"You! You piece of shit!" The man screeched at him. "You did this to me?!" His mouth was agape as he snarled, showing off four pairs of fangs and flaring gills along his neck. Two small, wide fins no longer than a finger flapped out on the sides of his nape.
"I— I'm so sorry, I— what are— no, first, I'll get you—"
"Let me go!" He wailed.
Cole grabbed the net and pulled out his pocket knife.
The man (?) only continued to thrash, jerking the net (and Cole's hand) around with him. "Let me go! Let me go! Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!" He shrieked, over and over.
"I'm trying! I can't—"
"Let me go!" He repeated.
"I can't get you out of it if you don't stay still!" Cole snapped.
He finally shut his mouth, and his body stilled. Thank fuck.
Cole got to work, carefully slicing the ropes. "I didn't know... I mean, are you... a mermaid?"
"Do I look like a maid to you?!"
"I don't know! I have no idea what you are, I was just trying to catch fish! I've never seen... people like you in the water! Or anywhere!"
"Are you getting me out or not?! Hurry up!" He flinched each time Cole's hands brushed against his skin, and his sharp blue eyes never once stopped watching him, even to blink.
"You can, uh... breathe, right? I mean, you've been screaming, so I assume you're fine, but. Well, you have... gills?"
Said gills flared up again as his nostrils did the same. "Uh, yeah, I can breathe. I've been breathing."
"Okay, good."
Cole pulled the netting apart, but the hole he'd made still wasn't quite big enough to fit his tail through, so he kept cutting. They were both silent for a moment.
"...I'm... kind of surprised you're not more freaked out about me," the stranger muttered.
"Kinda too focused on something else here," Cole replied honestly.
"You'd better not let that knife touch me, or you're gonna be sorry!"
"I won't!"
"And I'm supposed to trust the man who trapped me?!"
"How could I have possibly known there would be fish people in the water?! This is me learning they even exist! I've never caught one before, I've never seen one before!"
Oddly, there was no retort to that.
Finally, the hole was big enough for his tail. To guide it out, Cole put a hand on the scales, but the fish man yelped and retracted his tail as far as he could. Those dark pupils glared at Cole once again.
"I'm trying to get you out."
"You don't have to touch me to do that."
"Uh, yeah, I kinda do."
He made a big, dramatic huff and allowed Cole to guide his tail out of the hole.
"Gonna cut up along the rest of your body. Don't move."
Unusually long, webbed fingers gripped at the confines, and his tail curled up a bit. "If you cut me, I'll kill you."
"You don't need to threaten me. I'm doing my best."
Cole spotted a pattern matching his tail on the webbing between his fingers as he pulled up the threads one by one and sliced them, gradually freeing his freckle-dusted shoulders. Once it was possible, he stretched the net over his head and pulled it down his shoulders. At last, the fish man was freed.
"Ha-HA!" He launched forward and grabbed Cole's arm with both hands. "Justice!"
Before Cole could ask what the fuck he was on about, a blinding shock zapped his arm, inducing an involuntary spasm. The pain spread up and through his chest, like a small bolt of lightning was piercing through him from the inside. He swore he went blind for a moment.
"That's what you get!" The fish man tossed himself into the water and swam a good few feet away before stopping to watch Cole.
"What... the fuck, man?!" Cole rubbed his tingling flesh. "What are you, an electric eel?! I thought those were freshwater fish!"
"Eel?! I'm a ray!"
"There are electric rays?!"
The man flipped himself upside-down in the water and used the end of his tail to splash Cole's entire boat.
"Hey!"
But he swam off without another word, leaving Cole alone and soaked in his little boat full of fish.
——
TACK.
...
...
TACK.
...
...
TACK.
Cole sighed. He'd just gotten in bed, ready to sleep after such a long and bizarre day, and now this. It was good his father was staying in town; the sound would drive him completely insane.
TACK.
He rolled out of bed and peered out his window at the beach. The water was calm, and the sky was clear— a beautiful night. But a figure disrupted the gentle waves, sat on the edge of the water. An arm extended with great force to throw something small and hard that produced another TACK against the side of the house.
Cole could guess who that was. He hurried outside and jogged toward the water.
Indeed, the ray-man from before was sitting on the sand with an armful of sandy shell pieces and rocks. It occurred to Cole as he came into view, with awful timing, that this guy didn't have nipples.
"Hey." His calm tone was surprising.
"Hey... what are you doing here...? How did you even know where I live?"
"Uh..." He averted his gaze. "I didn't really left, exactly. I followed your boat here, and THEN I left."
"...Ah."
"Yeah. Well... look, I'm sorry for attacking you." His mouth tightened into a line.
Cole raised his eyebrows.
"You did, y'know, trap me in a net, and that's a shitty thing to do, but... it really does seem like that was an accident. And you cut me out right away. So I'm sorry the first thing I did after you freed me was shock you."
"Huh. I guess you're not all that unreasonable... thanks."
"And I, uh... brought you something." He dug through the pile of junk in his arm for a moment, then produced a perfect, shiny nautilus shell with deep orange stripes. "I— I'm not... usually the type to give presents like this, but... I'm proving that I'm sorry. So just take it. Even if you hate it." He held it out in an open palm.
Cole picked it up, his finger brushing against cool skin. "Thanks. This is really cool, actually. It's almost impossible to find shells like this anywhere around here." He tapped his foot on the sand. "And I'm sorry, too. I'm never going to use fishing nets out here again, I promise you that. Rods only from now on.
"Oh, you... probably don't need to stop using them if it's trapping merfolk you're worried about. We never usually come up so close to shore."
"Really? So why did you, then?"
The ray-man frowned. "I just... got bored."
"Hm." Coke squatted down, careful not to let his pajamas touch the sand. "Is it really that boring down there?"
"Well, it's... it's not that it's bad. I live just outside our city, and it's nice and all, I just... find myself wondering what's going on in other places. I'm curious, I guess. Can't help it." He drew random patterns in the sand with his free hand's fingers. It then seemed to occur to him that he no longer needed the rocks and shells, so he carefully dropped them, and the shallow end of a wave carried most of them off.
"Yeah, I get it. Humans can get like that, too, sometimes."
He looked at Cole curiously. "You're really not... I dunno, scared of me? Or weirded out?"
"Not... really? Well, actually, it did freak me out that you zapped me. So don't do that again."
He laughed a little. "You know, I really could have killed you instantly if I wanted to. That was a weaker shock for me. I never exactly wanted to seriously hurt you, just... un-seriously hurt you. Lightly."
Cole snorted, then cackled. "At least you're honest! So, what's your name?"
"Jay. What's yours?"
"I'm Cole. Let's start over, yeah?" He held out a hand for a handshake.
In spite of the 8 fangs, Jay's grin was adorable. "Yeah!" Instead of shaking Cole's hand, he brushed it with his tail a few times.
"Is... that how fish shake hands?"
"No, my hand is just sandy."
He laughed again.