Chapter Text
It was a very sunny and hot day. The sky was bright blue and there was no single cloud which blocked the bright sun and just the sight of the plain sea was ahead of them.
Little pearls of sweat were gathering on his forehead and he enjoyed the breeze which tickled his skin and ruffled up his short blonde hair, having the familiar taste of sea salt on his tongue.
He narrowed his eyes and held up his hand in order to see more of the endless sea and horizon which lay in front of them, being mesmerized by the amazing view.
Steve felt completely at peace until there came arms around him, and the blond didn’t even have to turn around to know who it was.
“Are you flying yet?”
What? What was Tony talking about?
He turned around in the embrace, leaning against the railing and looking down at Tony who wore his dark sunglasses with a wide grin.
“I was until you came by.” He responded, even though he had truly no idea what he was hinting at… Maybe he meant the feeling Steve had when he watched the ocean beyond them and felt small in comparison.
“No feeling for romance, Cap.”
“What does this have to do with romance?” He asked and noticed how Tony’s jaw literally dropped and he was fixed with a look of disbelief.
“You don-“
But Tony was interrupted by Natasha who now stood beside him in her black bikini top and denim shorts.
“He hasn’t seen your beloved movie or the scene which is somewhat understandable if you ask me.”
Natasha defended him and threw an arm around Tony as she smiled at Steve.
“Hope you lose your shirt sometime before you die from the heat.” She told Steve, glancing not so subtle at Tony for a second, her smirk growing in width before she looked back at him, her hand slightly tugging at his white shirt.
“I think, I’m fine at the moment. Thanks.”
He responded, but there was no way the corner of his lips didn’t tug upwards in this awkward situation.
“Sucks for you.”
She whispered loudly to Tony, so there was no way Steve didn’t hear what she was saying before she turned around with a sway to her hips.
It was hard to make out what expression Tony wore beneath his sunglasses but Steve noticed that his eyes were wide open before he composed himself and instantly turned around to follow Natasha without saying anything further.
“You know I have a girlfriend!”
Tony shouted after her.
“I know, but Pepper isn’t here and you ogle him like your eyes might fall out any second and follow him around.”
“You…”
The rest of the sounds were swallowed by the sounds of the ocean and Steve was thankful for it because their argument already had him flustered. He turned around again, trying to forget their talk and crossed his arms, his hip resting against the railing.
If their week started like that it could only get worse.
Months ago, Tony decided that it was time for him and their friends to make a trip. At first, it had been unsure what kind of trip but soon they had agreed to a one week trip to Tony’s private island.
Tony Stark was a billionaire who owned dozens of companies worldwide. His advanced technologies were respected and there was no one who hadn’t heard of “Stark Industries” at least once in their lives. Lately, he was working on new and better prosthetics. Not only had this improved his public image but it also helped a lot of veterans who had lost limbs in war.
And of course, he also owned a whole island for private use which still left Steve speechless, but well. So here they were. They all had made time for their journey and everyone but Pepper was on board. Thor was sitting beside Loki who read one of his books, Sam was leaning against the railing with his smartphone in his hands, Bruce was directing the boat which was also Tony’s, and Natasha was toying around with Clint while Tony looked a little annoyed.
Everything was perfect and he couldn’t wait to arrive at the island and to spend his time with his friends. It had been a long time since they all did something together and Steve kind of missed these times where they all were younger and in school, messing around every second day. Now they all had jobs and responsibilities and it sure was hard to find a day in the week where everybody could spare time or don't need to work. So this was special and he was going to enjoy every second of it.
But there was a storm coming up. Clouds were slowly filling the clear sky and blocked the sun’s brightness. Steve watched the sudden change of weather with astonishment and so did the others. Wasn’t the whole week supposed to have good weather? Still, it looked like there was a big storm coming up and he hoped they would arrive before it really started.
“Well, seems like I will never trust the weather forecast again.”
Tony said while he rolled his eyes and went to Bruce to discuss the turn of events with him.
“Dear brother, you don’t have to be scared of this force of nature.”
Loki glared at Thor from the corner of his eyes.
“I’m not a child anymore, Thor.”
“But you always came to my bed when there was a thunderstorm, even when you were a t-“
Before Thor could finish his sentence, Loki hit him with his book to stop him from spilling anything more embarrassing.
And he and the others couldn’t do anything else than to burst out into laughter, even more so when Thor threw an arm around his brother and Loki’s expression just turned into the famous “I hate my life”-look.
Something from the corner of his eyes caught Steve’s attention. There was something in the water, he was sure of it. He turned around and tried to make out what it is…It looked like a woman? And she seemed to come closer, but how come that there was someone out here? So far from the shore… In the middle of the sea.
“Stop the boat! There’s someone in the water!” Steve shouted and leaned slightly forward to get a better look while his friends followed his eyes.
But the weather just made it harder to see clearly since it started to rain and the sea became stormy.
Everyone was watching the woman who swam really fast towards them …Unnaturally fast.
“Is that a shark?” Clint asked and Steve immediately saw what he meant. There was the sight of a gray fin behind the woman before it disappeared under water.
“Oh shit.”
Sam responded in pure disbelief at the sight before them and Steve’s grip on the railing turned to steel so that his knuckles turned white and he clenched his teeth together.
They had to do something! He had to do something! They couldn’t watch how someone got attacked by a shark… But he didn’t know how to help. He was a good swimmer but that wasn’t the point when a shark was involved and his friends wouldn’t let him jump from the yacht.
“Pull down the ladder!”
He shouted and then climbed the ladder down, so he was able to pull the woman out of the water as fast as possible when she would be in reach.
“Be careful,” Natasha said above him in a kneeling position and he looked up to her in her worried green eyes, before he nodded to reassure her.
The woman got closer and closer and there was no more sign of the shark. Before Steve had the chance to see her from a short distance, there was a wave and then the woman disappeared.
Steve looked up at his friends with knitted eyebrows, his hand holding onto the slippery ladder while the other was hanging at his side.
“She just ducked under the water.”
Bruce answered him, while he kept his look on the spot the woman just had been.
“What the fuck is going on?” , muttered Tony, pulling off his sunglasses.
Then…There was singing? Someone was singing? He looked ahead, but there was no one, not a sight of anything but the stormy sea waves which got higher and higher and the rain that influenced his sight. Something definitely was wrong… He had a bad feeling about this.
“Do you hear that, too?”
“Yes.” Loki replied and Steve looked around, trying to make out the source of the noise.
The singing was weird…It was like something he had never heard before … even so, it felt so familiar…Like the gentle touch of his mother…He felt drawn to it. Steve looked up again and saw that his friends all stared... at him? In front of him?
He turned around and was met with the sight of blood red eyes. The pupils of the creature were slits and there were grey-blueish scales at the side of its face. The skin of it was pale and had a tint of blue to it, the hair was dark blonde and long. As he followed the length of the hair, he noticed with horror that there were gills at each side of its neck and it was covered in single scales. Steve became aware of the fact that this creature was the woman they saw… He tightened his grip and was about to pull himself up but suddenly there were razor sharp teeth that bored into the muscle of his shoulder and he was pulled underwater.
The creature had a tight grip on him and its nails dug painfully into his skin. There was no way he could escape or free himself. He looked down and saw the full body of this being. It had a long dark gray tail covered in tiny scales and also long fins on the side of its tail which looked like veils unfolding in the wind. There had never been a shark… The fin was actually this beast’s fin. Oh, God.
He trashed around in hope to be able to get to the surface but the creature just removed its teeth from the wound and Steve’s already blurry vision was filled with red. His blood. He screamed in pain which took his last supply of oxygen and he noticed how he was pulled deeper and deeper. This being was planning to drown him and even worse eat him. Steve lost the power to fight back, not being able to hold his breath any longer. He wanted to get a last glance at the surface but before he could make out anything else, his world became dark and he blacked out.
He blinked his eyes open with a loud groan, propping himself up against the rock and leaning back. Trying to remember what happened, these horrible pictures came back to his mind…But that had to be a dream, right? There was no way that these creatures, no, mermaids existed. It could only be a dream… Also, the fact that he was alive was also a hint that he dreamed about it, instead of it really happening. He looked around and found himself in something like a cave, which had a trail to the sea, but Steve was sure he needed to dive really deep and long to get out of it. At least he wasn’t surrounded by darkness thanks to the bigger hole on the top but it was still dark enough that he wasn’t able to make out any details. Still, there was the question of how he ended up here… He tried to stand up, pushing his body from the stone wall and immediately fell back against it as the pain from his left shoulder surged through his entire body and he had to clench his teeth together in order to suppress a cry. His hand shot up and pressed down on the wound which just made it even worse, but he knew the wound was still bleeding horribly.
His eyes instantly stared at the blue water and its surface. His hand added, even more, pressure to the wound as he backed up to the corner that was farthest away from the water and covered in darkness. Then there was quiet except for his heavy breathing and the sounds of his unsteady heartbeat filling the air. The ground was wet and cold - as the walls, he leaned on were - but he couldn’t care less at the moment… His thoughts and worries were elsewhere.
It was no dream… There was no woman… No shark… There was singing. There only were these monsters which resembled women and one of them had bored its razor-sharp teeth into his shoulder to taste his flesh… But how? How was he even here? There was no way he escaped the creature by himself. And… And what about his friends? Oh no, he didn’t even want to imagine that anything could have happened to them, but they were still on the boat, so there was no way these creatures were able to harm or reach them… They had to be safe… They just had to be.
Seconds, minutes and hours passed while Steve kept looking at the water… In fear that there could be one of the creatures any second, emerging from the water and tearing flesh from his bones. The fear of the unknown was not enough though, Steve was exhausted and so he dropped off.
He awoke only a little later and his gaze fell immediately back to the lagoon and he noticed as a dark shadow came from the depths of the sea and broke through the surface. He watched with horror as the creature pulled its body from the water and dragged itself towards Steve. He immediately pressed himself further against the cave wall, wishing the cave just would give in or swallow him whole, so he wouldn’t need to face the creature.
There was no way out.
The terrifying sounds of the wet body sliding over the ground made Steve’s pulse quicken and there was no single muscle in his body that wasn’t strained. His breath hitched as he heard the sound continuously.
SLIDE.
Closer and Closer.
The creature was now under the soft ray of light which was the only light source and Steve saw …him?
It was a man with brown hair that almost reached his shoulders. His eyes were pale blue, piercing through the darkness and were directly looking at him, even though he was hiding in the shadows. His body was muscular and instead of the pale color of the creature’s skin, he was tanned.
Maybe… Maybe he was also attacked? A human? But where was he from then? Steve was about to crawl towards the man before the light fell onto the man’s tail…Its tail...Like the one, the mermaid had which attacked him… Just not quite as long and instead of a simple gray, it was more of a mix of blue and purple, the scales reflecting the light. The fins were the same color, just not as dark. But there were no visible gills on his neck and also no scales that were covering the upper half of his body. But Steve wasn’t about to trust the rather harmless look of this one.
Why did he look different? Was he saved by this man/creature? Could he speak his language?
So he didn’t move an inch, knowing there was no use at all. He didn’t have a chance against him in swimming and he knew for sure that others of these creatures were still out there.
“What do you want from me?” He shouted at the still approaching being but didn’t get an answer.
It only stopped when it was right before him, staring at him, his eyes still have a glow to them even in the dark. His breath came heavy and he didn’t dare to move a single muscle. He couldn’t make out any movement from the creature either, so he repeated his question, but there was no answer.
“Why didn’t you kill me?”
No answer.
“Where are my friends?”
No answer.
“What are you? You don’t look like the other one I encountered?”
He didn’t know why he still asked questions but he didn’t know what else to do. There would still be no answer.
Suddenly, he felt immense pain in his wound as sharp nails were pressing into his flesh and pressed even deeper, stirring around. Immediately he covered the hand of the other with his own, trying to tear his grip from him but he was so much stronger than him and Steve screamed at the feeling of these fingers tearing through his muscle.
“That must hurt.”
The man in front of him said , removing his claws. His voice sounded deep and amused and Steve looked at him with an outworn expression. He panted and flinched when the man pressed something on his wound - something which thankfully wasn't his nails this time.
So it/he could speak? Steve didn’t know why he was still here, why this creature enjoyed inflicting pain to him or why he didn’t answer any of his questions.
There was no way Steve was giving up, though, so he asked another question. A simple one.
“What’s your name?”
The creature leaned back and his tail jerked slightly upwards before he answered.
“James.”