Chapter Text
The sky was painted a dark gray as the waves pattered across the rocky beach.
Edd’s boat moved with the slow ebb and flow of the sea. Edd let out a slow yawn, putting down his sketching pencil to rest on the easel’s tray. He was proud of this piece, the view from the sea to the mainland was always a gorgeous sight and with the slight sun peeking from the gray clouds to illuminate the shore, he was sure this would be one of his best pieces yet.
If only his eyes would stay stop fluttering closed as he let out more and more tired yawns. Well, he supposed he had stayed out here for quite some time now-- trying to sketch out all the details on the canvas while still fresh in his memory. He moved a hand to rest on an oar, letting out another loud yawn as he blindly reached out for the other oar, slowly beginning to paddle his way back to the shore.
As the boat approached the beach, Edd hopped out, nearly tipping over the small dingy as he grabbed the small rope, pulling the boat fully ashore. He quickly tied it to a small post near the cliff face, too far away for the tide to reach. He grabbed his art supplies from the boat, carefully tucking away the canvas in his rucksack, easel under his arm, and headed up the stairs leading to the road.
Packing up his things, he gave one last fond look to the sea before driving off back towards his apartment complex.
“You shouldn’t go out there when you’re so tired, dude, it’s not safe.”
“Yeah, besides, what about that painting you were going to do of me?”
Tom and Matt had come over to visit the next day, as Edd proudly displayed his canvas piece on one of his many home easels. The two were currently relaxing on his couch as he tried to do some tidying up-- never a complete success when you were a notoriously messy artist.
Edd rolled his eyes, “I never promised to do any painting of you, Matt.”
“You didn’t have to,” Matt replied flippantly, “I knew you were going to without me asking, remember?”
Edd squinted, “I don’t think that’s how that works Matt.”
“Sure it does. I’m too gorgeous not to capture in paint anyway,” Matt boasted, tucking a lock of ginger hair behind his ear.
“Yeahhhh… anyway, Edd. You’re not planning on going out today again, are you?” Tom quickly changed the subject back, peering over the back of the couch to look at Edd suspiciously.
“I mean, I was…?”
Tom frowned, “You promised that we would go out and have a drink together. We haven’t done anything for your birthday and you keep pushing it back.”
“I just don’t feel like celebrating,” Edd shrugged, picking up some loose paper, still making a valiant effort at trying to clean.
“Well, your friends want to celebrate for you-- and it wouldn’t really be the same if you didn’t come along with. Would be more sad than anything,” Tom crossed his arms.
Edd sighed and sifted through the paper, some with incomplete sketches of various landscapes, some blank, others accidentally having caught some paint splatters from the newspapered floor.
“Yeah… alright,” Edd finally conceded as he placed the stack to the side.
“Awesome, we’ll celebrate tonight then,” Tom grinned widely.
“Tonight? I thought we were celebrating tomorrow?” Edd questioned.
“Nah, too long for you to bail out or change your mind,” Tom stretched off the couch and lazily strolled over to Edd, patting his shoulder, “Actually, that’s a good point...We’ll leave in an hour so get ready.”
“Hey--” Edd tried to interject, but Tom was already ushering him towards his bedroom and trying to pick out his outfit for him.
Edd let out a small smile. Sure, his friends could be overbearing but they meant well. And he supposed he did deserve a small break from working. He couldn’t remember the last time he actually gave himself a day off, even on his birthday.
After a half hour of showering and picking out his own outfit-- to which Tom conceded willingly-- they were off towards the bar and drinking the night away.
Edd couldn’t remember having a hangover this bad in ages.
Ugh, he shouldn’t have had those triple shots.
Pulling the covers over his head he tried to will away the migraine but to no avail. Slowly making his way out of bed and towards the kitchen, he poured a glass of water from the sink, trying to find his stash of ibuprofen.
Swallowing the medicine harshly he rested his head on the cold kitchen counter. God, that felt good.
Lifting his head from the counter after a few moments he blearily looked over the kitchen bar to his living room, still a mess from yesterday. His eyes caught the trickle of light from the window leading to the canvas piece he was so proud of yesterday. The light caught the graphite just right and he blinked before his eyes widened and he could fully envision the finished piece in his mind.
Inspiration.
Fuck hangovers, he had to go out and paint. Right now.
The only solace he had as he made his way back to the seaside was the gray sky hadn’t cleared from yesterday. There was sure to be rain later from the way the air smelled, the humidity peaking quite severely from yesterday. He had to work quick.
Releasing his dingy from the post he pushed it back into the tide, which was a lot more rough than the previous day. Setting up his easel and swinging his rucksack back into the boat he jumped in after it as the tide took him away from the shore.
Three hours later the picture was finally starting to take form, and Edd was feeling incredibly sea sick from the combined rocking and the general queasiness of the hangover. He rested his back against the back of the boat, resting his eyes as he fought the urge to empty his stomach overboard.
The waves were not helping as they became more intense and Edd wrapped his arms around his stomach, trying to relax. It seemed to help, and his breathing became more steady as the nausea passed and the onset of exhaustion came. In the back of his mind he knew he should be paddling back to shore, but he was asleep before he could attempt reaching a hand out towards his oars.
Two more hours passed and Edd remained asleep, wind chilling him but not enough to wake him from his slumber. The waves were becoming violent, tossing the boat around the sea, further from the shore. It wasn’t until a particularly hard crash against the side of the boat did Edd wake up, and by then it was too late. His boat had flipped over and he was tossed into the ocean along with his painting and supplies.
His sleep addled brain tried to make sense of what was happening and he tried to gasp for air only to inhale a large amount of sea water.
He fought some more, arms flailing as he tried to make an attempt to swim back towards the surface, but felt something pulling him downwards. From a quick downward glance he could see his heavy bag wrapped around one of his ankles and sinking fast with its weight.
Shit, shit, shit.
He tried desperately for a few more moments to swim towards the surface, but the strap of the bag amidst his flailing had managed to tangle his other leg in it too.
As the last of his breath left him and his mind became hazy, a flash of red past his eyes amidst the blackness creeping in and heaviness took over his body.
Coughing intensely he felt water being pushed forcefully out his lungs as he took in desperate gasps of air.
He sat up sharply, knocking his head violently into something-- hearing a loud swear in return.
Shit, someone must have saved him and he just headbutted them.
“Sorr--” He broke into a loud coughing fit, eyes squeezed shut as more water was pushed out.
“Hey, hey, easy now,” the voice above him rung out. Foreign sounding, even from those few words.
He shuddered from the exhaustion and cold and slowly opened his eyes, taking in the form of a shirtless guy with piercing red eyes and as his vision slowly came to him, so did a red mermaid tail attached to the end of him. Ah okay, so he must have died or something. That made sense.
“Am I…” Edd began, his voice rough.
“You’re alive, yes. I saved you,” The man nodded, proud of himself.
“...I was going to ask if this was heaven or hell, actually,” Edd corrected, “But this is obviously a hallucination and I’m still drowning.”
The man rolled his eyes with an aggravated noise before grabbing Edd’s face between webbed fingers, pulling him towards him aggressively.
“You’re alive , idiot. I saved you, you’re not drowning or halluci-naughting or whatever word that was-- humans need to stop having such complicated words, I swear-- so a thank you or whatever would be great,” the man sneered, baring his sharp teeth.
“Uh…” Edd blinked, “Thank… you?”
“Yes, yes, you’re welcome,” he let go of Edd’s face, “Next time you might not be so lucky that I’m around so don’t be an idiot and do whatever it is you were doing when the sea is unhappy.”
He backed off and turned back towards the crashing waves, looking ready to leave.
“Wait!” Edd called out, grabbing his arm, taking alarm at the way the scaly skin felt.
“What?”
“Can I… at least know who it is that saved me?”
The man looked extremely confused and Edd quickly added on, “Your name, that is-- if… if you have one?”
“Oh… uh. My name is… Tord.”
“Tord…?”
“Tord. Nothing else. Just Tord,” With that he pushed himself off into the sea with incredible strength, tail flicking as he descended quickly back under the water.
“...Tord,” Edd repeated to himself, “Tord… thank you.”