Chapter Text
The waves, the clean air, the fresh breeze... Robert loved the ocean. It inspired him unlike anything else, the raw, wild beauty fueled his imagination and allowed the words to flow freely from his pen onto the sheet of paper.
Just like almost every sunday morning, the young blond man sat on one of large boulders right at the shore, the waves played around them as he sat there with his guitar, playing, singing and writing down whatever came to his mind. The humid, salty air made his blonde curls appear even bigger, frizzier and poofier, but Robert couldn’t care less. Nobody ever came here, there was no beach, only rocks and boulders, this was his safe haven. He loved this spot, it was his, and only his, nobody bothered him and he could practice in peace.
He usually spent his nights in little bars in town, playing and singing for the people. Those were his favorite moments, seeing their happy faces, the applause and the cheering, he loved the attention it got him, but from time to time, he also needed some time all by himself, to recharge his drained batteries. It made him a bit of money in addition to his dayjob and he was hoping that one day, he could live off of making music, especially now that he was starting to write his own songs, with his own lyrics.
He had just finished singing his heart out and completed the song with a few more chords on his old, beat up guitar, when he was startled by a strange, loud splashing sound coming from the usually calm ocean, just underneath the boulder he was sitting on. He looked around, but he couldn’t see anything that would have caused it, the ocean looked just as calm as it had all morning, just a few little waves licking at the rocks.
He couldn’t quite see below the boulder he was sitting on, there was a sort of cliff where the waves had hollowed out the rock. It wasn’t like it was completely silent all the time, there was some splashing, sure, but he’d never heard such a loud noise when the ocean was that calm.
‘Maybe a fish or a seagull or something...’ Robert thought to himself and plucked the strings of his guitar again with a content sigh. It was late spring, it was already quite warm, the sun was shining and he was enjoying his time alone at the shore immensely. He’d have to go back home soon, back to his loud, boisterous roommate John, or Bonzo, as he was known by his friends. This afternoon, he’d have to go see his parents and his little sister and as much as he loved them and spending time with them, until then, he really wanted to make the most of his time here.
He started singing another song, and this time, he wasn’t disturbed by any other noises until it was time to go home.
~
A week later, Robert found himself in the very same spot, looking forward to a few hours of solitude, just him and his guitar. He put the old guitar up on his favorite boulder and quickly climbed up as well.
Just when he made to sit down, he heard something he’d never heard here before, a distressed whimper along with some splashing and a strange, tearing sound, like fabric being ripped. He frowned and got up, looking around to locate the source of the noises, but he could not see anything.
Getting off of his boulder, he started searching around it, listening intently to find out where it was coming from. The distressed noises seemed to come from the water, from the cliff. He bent down and rolled up the legs of his jeans all the way up to his knees so he could walk in the shallow water on the rocks. It was cold and some of the rocks there were sharp, he had to be careful, but he couldn’t just ignore those sounds. Once he’d made it around the large boulder he usually sat on, he couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the strangest thing.
Just underneath his boulder, on a little ledge in the water, there was a young man in what seemed to be... a mermaid costume? Robert blinked and stared at him when he realized that the young man was struggling to get an old fishing net off of the fin of his costume. It was completely tangled and seemed to be cutting uncomfortably into his legs.
Robert kept staring for a moment, it was only May and while it was warm and sunny, the water was still way too cold to go for a swim, even his legs felt uncomfortably cold where he’d waded into the water, he couldn’t believe somebody actually went in there, in a costume nonetheless! The young man was shirtless and his long, dark hair was wet and a tangled mess. Robert couldn’t believe he wasn’t freezing to death. When he snapped out of it, he started to quickly make his way over to him, carefully balancing on the wet rocks.
“Hey! Let me help... what are you doing in here, aren’t you cold??” He asked as he hurried over. The other’s head snapped up and his eyes widened in what Robert could only describe as shock and fear as he saw the blonde coming towards him. He stopped trying to get the net off of his legs and tried to crawl away, off of the rocks, towards the open ocean. “No, wait... I just want to help! You can’t get that off on your own!” Robert called.
The dark haired man kept staring at him with wide eyes, but he stopped trying to crawl backwards, away from Robert. The blonde wondered why he was so terrified. Maybe he was embarrassed that he’d been caught dressing up as a mermaid... merman? Robert didn’t like that he was so scared of him, so he gave him a big, warm smile as he made the last few steps towards him and crouched down next to him. Luckily the water was shallow enough for him not to get his ass wet, here.
“Wait, I have a knife, I can cut the net...” He said and reached into the back pocket of his jeans where he kept a little swiss army knife just in case he ever needed any of the tools it offered. He flipped open the knife and quickly started cutting away at the net. Luckily, it wasn’t too thick and quite weathered, too, so it wasn’t too difficult to cut.
“Bloody hell, mate, your legs must be frozen in there, couldn’t you wait until it’s a little warmer??” He gasped when he touched the wet tail. It was just as cold as the water around it and he couldn’t help but marvel at how realistic it felt. He could feel the smooth scales, they were absolutely beautiful, dark green and shimmery. He had no idea they made such realistic costumes, it must have cost a fortune.
It still struck him as very odd that this guy had just gone for a swim in such cold water and that he hadn’t spoken to him yet, not even to thank him for his help, but he didn’t mind, he just wanted to get this stupid net off of him. He made short work of it, cutting here and there, quickly removing it. When he was done, he gave the other man a pleased smile.
“There you go, now you’re free as a fish again!” He said happily and took another moment to look at the dark haired stranger. The costume seemed to be incredibly intricate, there wasn’t even a seam where the fin met his torso, it seemed to just smoothly merge into it, he seemed to have glued additional scales on his belly, they faded out towards his chest.
Robert looked back up at his face again, and something about it, especially his eyes, struck him as very odd-looking, but he didn’t get a chance to look at his face for more than a split second. The other man quickly flipped over onto his belly and dragged himself off of the rock they were sitting on, back into the water, and swam away more quickly than Robert had ever seen anyone swim before. He thought he caught a glimpse of webbing between the guy’s fingers before he was too far gone.
Robert was left at the shore, still holding the nasty old net in his hands that he’d just freed this weirdo from, staring at the surface of the water that he’d just disappeared into. Never had he seen someone swim away that fast, dive down so quickly, especially not with a heavy costume clinging to their body.
Several minutes passed, the stranger did not resurface and Robert panicked. What if he drowned?? Should he call someone? Police? Ambulance? Lifeguards?? There were no lifeguards anywhere near here, maybe at the beach at the other side of the bay, but considering it wasn’t warm enough for anybody to go swimming there, there probably weren’t any there, either. Maybe the guy came from that beach and went back there? Robert just didn’t know.
He still couldn’t wrap his mind around any of this and he wondered if he just needed to smoke less weed. All of this was so fucking weird, maybe he’d gotten a bad batch or something and hallucinated all of it, that was entirely possible. He looked down at the net in his hands and shook his head. There was nothing Robert could do right now, so he made to get up and go back home, he’d lost his drive to practice his playing and singing.
He stopped when he saw something shiny in the water on the rock the stranger had been sitting on just moments ago and reached in there to pick it up. It was one of the scales of the costume and Robert turned it in his hand, inspecting it closely. It didn’t feel like plastic or fabric. It felt so real. At least he had proof that he hadn’t dreamed all of this. He sighed and looked at the beautiful, shiny scale once more before absentmindedly putting it in his pocket and leaving. He almost forgot his guitar on his boulder, went back for it, and made his way home.
Later that day, he was hanging out with Bonzo, listening to music, smoking and drinking some beer. He still hadn’t stopped thinking about what had happened that morning.
“Bonz’?” He asked with a sigh and rested his head on his friend’s shoulder. “D’you think there’s... d’you believe there’s other creatures on this planet that we don’t know about?”
“What are ya talking about, dimwit?? Of course there are, we’re discovering new species every day! Don’t you watch the news, or read a paper every once in a while?” The other man said with a laugh. Robert shook his head.
“That’s not what I mean... I don’t mean... animals. I meant... human-like creatures.” He said with a frown.
“What, like... apes? Monkeys?” Bonzo asked. “What is wrong with you, you’re talking shit. You need to lay off the weed, man.” He said shaking his head and snatching the joint from Robert’s hand, quickly taking a drag before the blonde had time to complain.
“You’re probably right.” Robert sighed and shook his head. He couldn’t believe he’d even brought this up to his best friend. A part of him wanted to take the scale he’d found out of his pocket and show him, but he was way too scared to be laughed at, he had no way to prove it wasn’t just a simple fish scale after all, so he just let it go. “I’m going to bed.”
“Yeah, get some rest, mate. You’ve been kinda... off, today.” Bonzo said and eyed him suspiciously. Robert gave him a crooked little smile and shrugged, then went to get ready for bed. In his room, he took the scale out of his pocket and admired it once more. He was so torn between believing he’d stumbled upon something amazing and fearing he was slowly going insane.
He sighed and put the scale into a little jewellery box that came with one of the many bracelets he was wearing, stashed it in the drawer of his bedside table, then he went to bed. Sleep did not come easily that night, he tossed and turned for a while, thinking, before finally falling asleep.