Chapter Text
Cover: DeviantArt / Instagram
For the youngest son in a generational line of fisherman, Sonic hated the ocean. It was more than the respectful fear the rest of his family had. It was a terror that ran as deep as the trenches and crashed as hard as the waves. Nobody blamed him, even if it was a bit ridiculous considering how often he and his uncle went out into open waters. The whole island had known and adored his parents, too.
He would never admit it, though. And so he went out at least twice a week with his uncle to help cast and pull the nets, and often spent the weekends helping to careen or repair the boat, despite the lightning bolt of fear that struck his heart every time the tide pulled just a little too strong.
“Sonic!” his uncle called from the shore. “Are you coming? The tide will change soon.”
Sonic jumped a little at the sound of Uncle Chuck’s voice, but quickly shook his head and regained his composure. “Yeah, I’m coming.” He glanced back at their seaside home, the same way he did every time they went out, and sped down to the beach. As usual, it only took them a few moments to cast off, and then they were on their way, and Sonic’s nerves began to tingle. He rubbed his thumb over his silvery pendant to calm himself.
The weather had seemed pleasant as he and his uncle began their usual trip, but as soon as they left the reef and hit the open waves, the wind picked up and the sky grew dark. Sonic looked up at the sky and swallowed hard, his stomach rolling with the current. He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a few deep breaths, and then adjusted the sails at Chuck’s command.
“Might have to head back early,” the older hedgehog commented halfway through the day. It wasn’t intended to cause worry, but Sonic’s heart jumped anyway, and then jumped again as the boat rocked harder.
“Maybe we should head back now,” he said nervously. “Y’know, just in case.”
Chuck just hummed softly, neither agreeing or disagreeing. “Pull the nets,” he said. “Let’s see what we’ve got.”
It began to rain as Sonic reeled in the fish nets, but the rain wasn’t what worried him. While he didn’t exactly enjoy being wet, he was used to it by now. What worried him was the steady increase of wind speed and the growing height of the waves. The nets weren't as full as they usually were after each cast.
His uncle frowned as he saw them. “One more cast,” he decided, nearly shouting to be heard over the ocean.
Sonic obeyed, a sick terror gripping his heart. It’s fine, he told himself. Uncle Chuck’s sailed worse storms before. And it was true. If there was anyone he trusted with his life during a storm, it was him. Still, he couldn’t shake the fear, and his hand gripped his pendant again.
The rain pounded against his face as he and his uncle pulled the nets in after their final cast. Sonic slipped and fell as he ran the few steps to check their lifelines again, just as a massive wave crashed against their humble fishing vessel, throwing him across the deck. He slammed into the railing, the air rushing from his lungs, and then the boat dipped, flipping him back onto the deck.
“Sonic!” his uncle shouted from the helm.
Somehow, he managed to drag himself to the mast and tug the lines. “Lifelines secure!” he hollered back just as another wave crashed over, giving him a mouthful of seawater.
“Furl the sail!”
Sonic had never been more grateful for their small boat. He only had to step up once to reach the most of the rigging, and despite the wind threatening to tear him off the mast, he furled the sail in under a minute.
“Never had a storm worsen so fast,” Chuck muttered. The wind carried his voice further than he likely meant it to, because Sonic’s heart nearly burst right then and there.
“Are we gonna make it?” he shouted in panic, hugging the mast.
“We’ll be fine! Just hold on!”
Their boat dipped as lightning split the dark sky in half. Sonic squeezed his eyes shut tight as wave after wave slammed into his face. His fingers were numb from the frigid wind, and they slipped loose as a massive wall of water washed over their little ship, throwing him overboard. His lifeline jerked his waist with enough force to cut into his skin, but it held, and though he submerged, he was just able to pull himself back above the waves.
“Chuck!” he screamed.
His uncle immediately ran to reel him in. “Stay calm!” he shouted back. “I’ve got you!”
But thunder exploded through the air, followed instantly by a flash of lightning, briefly illuminating the sudden fraying rope, and one more jerk was all it took for it to snap.
How had he missed the fray before?
Instantly, the ocean dragged him under. He didn’t even have time to take a breath before the world went dark and salt stung his eyes. He flailed helplessly as the waves sent him tumbling head over heels as he sank. Even the most experienced swimmer wouldn’t have been able to stay afloat, and Sonic could barely swim as it was. His lungs screamed for air, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t break the surface again. He was going to die.
Darkness spotted his vision after only a few moments. He couldn’t tell which direction was up. He spun around and around until panic overcame instinct and he sucked in a breath full of water. Lightning burst in the sky, and the light seemed fathoms away. Sonic reached up in desperation, catching a glimpse of shimmering blue before his vision went completely dark, all the pain fading away.
There was a voice somewhere in the fog of his mind. It seemed to come from everywhere at once, and yet nowhere at all. His chest felt crushed and inflated all at the same time. The voice called again.
“Oh, Chaos, please wake up.”
Sonic groaned softly, his eyelids fluttering as he returned to the living world. A white blur moved across his unfocused vision, reaching out to him. Everything was too bright.
“Oh, you are awake. Thank Chaos. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you died.”
“Are you an angel?” he mumbled, his words slurring slightly.
The white blur pulled back a bit. “N-no, I—I don’t think so.”
Slowly, the memories came back to him—being thrown overboard; his lifeline snapping; drowning in the darkness—and as soon as they were clear, he jerked upright. Unfortunately, his body wasn’t ready for the sudden movement, and his chest clenched as he began coughing violently, fighting to clear the water from his lungs.
He squeezed his eyes shut as he coughed, and when he opened them again, the world slowly came into focus. He turned onto his side to push himself up to his feet and realized he was on some sort of rocky outcrop, near inches from a drop back into the sea. He scrambled up in panic, only to fall to his hands and knees after a single step.
“Hey, hey, careful,” the white blur said. “You’re pretty waterlogged.”
Sonic turned to see a soaking wet hedgehog, propped up on his elbows and leaning forward onto the outcrop in concern. He had never seen a hedgehog with rings around their eyes before, or with extra quills on their elbows and back. Extra fur came out of the sides of his ears and muzzle, and the fur on his chest would have been fluffy, if it wasn't so wet.
Then he looked down and saw it—a long fish tail instead of legs. The extra quills weren’t quills at all. They were fins.
A monster.
He yelped and jumped again, scrambling backward like a crab. “What—what are you?”
The hedgehog-fish’s ears twisted back and he seemed to shrink into his shoulders. “I...S-sea folk. Sorry, I thought you’d…”
“Sea folk,” Sonic repeated, his heart pounding a million miles an hour. “Like…from old pirate tales.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t think there were any left.”
“Oh, well…” The creature shifted a little back into the water. “We tend to stay away from the surface. Land folk aren’t exactly…kind.”
“What do you—” Sonic broke into another coughing fit, curling in on himself as his body shook. His hand found his pendant against his chest and he gripped it tightly. Somehow, it hadn’t gotten lost in the waves. The creature reached out, his golden eyes filled with concern, and Sonic jerked away. “Get back!” he managed to shout, though it only aggravated the coughing. His throat felt like sand.
Instantly, the creature retreated, sinking into the water up to his eyes. His black ears were pressed back against his head, and the water quivered around him. Why was he afraid? He had almost every advantage in the situation. “Sorry,” he said, the sound gurgling from under the water.
Sonic climbed to his feet as soon as he could breathe again, his legs trembling. He looked up and found himself in a massive cave with an opening at the top, letting sunlight stream in. The outcrop ended a few feet behind him, and then rose into a cliff with the top rounded off. There was another opening across from the outcrop, leading into the ocean, but the waves that rolled in were gentle. They must have been in a cove. The water was crystal clear, and under any other circumstances, he would have thought it was beautiful.
“What do you want from me?” he demanded, his voice shaking. The sound echoed.
The creature tipped his head slightly, his limp quills swishing to one side. He brought his face above the surface again. “What do you mean?”
“You must want something,” Sonic pressed. “Why else would you have saved me?”
“Because…I couldn’t just let you drown. And you weren’t…” He bit his lip, and Sonic noticed his fangs were longer and his teeth were sharper than a normal hedgehog’s. “My name’s Silver,” he said, completely ignoring his unfinished sentence. “What’s yours?”
He stayed quiet for a minute, before deciding that it wouldn’t hurt. “Sonic.”
“Sonic,” Silver repeated. “That’s a nice name.” He must have seen him shaking, because he added, “Why don’t you sit down?”
Slowly, he obeyed.
They were quiet for a long time, simply sitting in each other’s presence. The only time the silence was broken was when Sonic asked about fresh water, and Silver directed him up to the top of the cliff, where he said there might be some in the cracks left from the rain. Thankfully, he was right, and Sonic felt a little better after a drink. After that, neither of them spoke, and the gentle waves and occasional gull cry were the only sounds.
After the initial shock slowly faded, Sonic noticed how elegant Silver was, though his face heated slightly at the thought. His tail started at his waist above his hips—did he even have hips? Fish didn't have hips—and blended perfectly into his fur. His fins were black, but thin enough to almost see through, and he had a pair on his elbows and down the sides of his tail in addition to the caudal fin. When he shifted, he revealed a set of black dorsal fins instead of back quills, and as he moved to rest back on the rocks, he exposed the black stripe on each of his arms, starting at a circle printed on the backs of his hands and traveling up to his shoulders. And his scales—they were some of the most beautiful things he’d ever seen. They were the color of moonlight, and they shimmered beneath the water like coins. The sunlight reflected off of them, casting specks of light across the cave. Sonic subconsciously ran his thumb over his pendant again. Silver flinched slightly as he did.
Sonic thought back to all the stories he’d heard of sea folk as he wrung out his vest and bandana. “Don’t sea folk usually live in family groups?” he suddenly asked, the question coming out of nowhere. His voice seemed so much louder when it echoed back to him.
“Pods,” Silver corrected. “And yes.”
“Where’s yours? Isn’t it dangerous to swim alone?”
His eyes flickered across the cave before focusing on the green blue water beneath the rocks. “They…they’re gone. The fishers got them. I don’t want to talk about that.”
“Fishers?” Sonic blinked. “But we only fish for food. Why would fishermen take your family?”
Instead of answering, Silver pointed at him. No, not at him. At his pendant. Sonic looked down at it again. His parents had given it to him only a few weeks before they had died, and it was one of the only things he had left of them. He had thought it was a piece of a shell with a silver-pearly coating, but as he looked back and forth between it and Silver, his heart sank to his stomach.
Oh.
“Oh, Gaia,” he whispered, clutching it in his fist to hide it. “Silver, I—I’m so sorry.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
A deep ache settled in his chest. “And you’re all alone?”
“I said I don’t want to talk about it.”
“No, I get it. I know what it’s like to lose your fam—”
“No, you don’t!” Silver snapped back, baring his sharp teeth. His black marks and fins lit up in cyan. “You don’t know what it’s like to watch a whole school of ships invade your home! You don’t know what it’s like to watch your family speared and dragged to the surface by trophy hunters!”
Sonic could only stare at him in shock. The pendant around his neck—was it from one of Silver's family members? Had someone been murdered for it? "I…I'm sorry," he whispered.
Silver took a deep, frustrated breath and let it out in a long sigh. "Forget it," he said.
"I'm sorry I freaked out earlier."
"It's fine. I should have known."
"Why did you save me?"
The sea creature's ears flicked, and he dropped his eyes to the water. "I don't know," he mumbled.
"Well…" Sonic slowly put his vest back on, his fingers still lingering on the scale around his neck. "Thank you. Really."
"Do you think you're better enough to travel?" Silver asked suddenly.
Sonic blinked at him in confusion. "I…guess so. Do you know a way home?"
"You have to swim to get there," he said, "but it won't be hard. You won't even have to come up for air. You just drink a few drops of my blood and let the magic do the rest."
"I— excuse me? Drink your blood?"
Silver shrugged. "It won't hurt."
"That's disgusting!" All Sonic could do was stare at him in utter disbelief. This day literally couldn't get any weirder.
This time, the sea creature's expression saddened. "Not really. People used to do it all the time."
"Drink people's blood?" Sonic practically shrieked.
He shook his head, his long quills swishing again. "No, not just anyone's. Mermay blood. Our blood." Silver ran a hand through his quills and sighed. "People didn't just take us for our scales and fins. Our blood and bones have…unique magical properties."
Sonic thought about all the stories he'd heard about sea folk, and unfortunately, a few particular legends came to mind. Legends about pirates who sought immortality, drinking the blood of various creatures. Legends of corrupt kings capturing creatures and grinding their bones to dust. "You…you mean all that stuff is real?"
"Sort of. Our blood grants the user the ability to breathe underwater, and protects from the pressure for the most part. I don't know what our bones do. Strength, maybe? A transformation? Same sort of thing with harpies and gnomes and fae." Silver swished his tail a little and hugged himself around the chest. "That's why there aren't many of us left."
"Are you the last one?" Sonic whispered.
"Around here, yeah. I don't know about other parts of the ocean. I…" He rubbed the fins on his arm between his forefinger and thumb, likely some sort of nervous habit. "I hope there's more out there. Even if I never see them." Then he shook his head wildly before Sonic could respond, and straightened up, pushing up on the rocks with his arms. "Anyway. We should get you back. Just a second." Then he put his wrist to his mouth, flashing his fangs.
"Wait!" Sonic yelped before he could bite down. "Hold on. Isn't there another way? One that doesn't require me…drinking your blood?"
Silver sunk down into the water, his muzzle growing darker in color—was he blushing? "I…guess there is something else we could try."
"Okay, what is it?"
He was definitely blushing now. Even though the color on his face wasn't red, the dark shade spreading across his cheeks was most definitely a blush. "I, uh…I could…kiss you."
Sonic's eyes went wide, and it took all the concentration he had to keep his jaw from dropping.
"But—but it wouldn't be as effective," he said quickly. "The water-breathing effect would only last maybe fifteen minutes. So—so it's easier to just do the blood thing. That'll last a couple hours."
"Is it like…a full kiss?" Sonic heard himself ask. "Or like just a quick lip thing? I wouldn't have to make out with you or anything, right? No—no offense."
"I don't know. I've never done it before. The blood is safer—"
"I really really don't wanna do that." Sonic subconsciously scooted backwards, away from the mermay and the edge of the outcrop. "I'm not comfortable with that. Like, at all. Especially after learning all that magic stuff is real …" He swallowed hard, rubbing his pendant. "Can we—can we just try the kiss thing? And if it doesn't work, then—then do it?"
Silver's face was a deep shade of greyish blue now. Did that mean his blood was blue instead of red? "I—I guess so." Then he straightened up again and cleared his throat, and though his face was still flushed, his voice came out steady. "But it doesn't mean anything."
"Right. It's purely transactional."
"Yeah."
Silence settled over them for a long moment. Neither of them could look at each other. It's purely transactional, Sonic repeated to himself. He'd never kissed anyone before, and didn't exactly want his first kiss to be with some magical creature he'd just met. But the other option made his stomach twist in horror.
"Okay," he finally said, his voice embarrassingly high pitched. "I…I guess I'm ready now."
"Could you come a little closer?" Silver mumbled. "I can't reach you."
Sonic complied, turning over to his hands and knees and facing the mermay. He had to lean down to let Silver avoid holding himself up so high out of the water. "Have you ever kissed anyone before?" he asked suddenly.
Silver rubbed his nose and pinched his arm fins again. "Uh…no."
"Me neither."
Another horribly awkward pause.
"Okay, I guess we just…" Sonic leaned forward, trying to hide his cringe as he puckered up, and then their lips touched.
Nothing happened.
“Did it work?”
“There’s only one way to find out.” Silver backed up, giving him plenty of space to get into the water. Sonic didn’t move. “You have to put your head in,” he urged, as if instructions would ease the panic in his chest.
“So I just have to…try? And if it doesn’t work, I…” Sonic swallowed hard and tightened his grip on the rocks. What if the creature was trying to trick him? What if he thought Sonic was just as bad as the ones who had killed his family, and wanted revenge? More stories flashed through his mind—stories of mermaids dragging sailors down to the deep.
Silver turned over to float on his back. “Are you sure you don’t want some blood? It’s only a little and I’m sure that’ll work.”
“Yep,” he said without hesitation. “I’m good. Just gonna dip my face in, and if I drown, we’ll know it didn’t work.”
Silver gave him a confused sort of smile. “You’re not gonna drown. You can just pop back up if you can’t breathe.”
Yeah, after taking in a breath of water. Sonic didn’t say that. He just stared at his terrified reflection in the rippling seawater. But it was either this or drinking Silver’s blood, so he took a deep breath. Here goes nothing.
The moment his head was submerged, he panicked. He was still clinging to the rocks and most of his body was still dry, but he couldn’t stop himself from seeing the world spin around and around until he was too disoriented to find the surface. Everything was dark and cold and quiet. He couldn’t bring himself to take even the tiniest of breaths.
Something touched his shoulder, and he flinched hard enough to lose his balance. He tipped over into the ocean, and his eyes shot open as his hands and knees left the rocky outcrop before he had a chance to grab on. He flailed and clawed at the water, but he sank like a stone. Float. He had to float. People floated naturally. If he’d just stop panicking—
Somehow, he ended up under the rock, and when he finally managed to get himself upright, he hit his head on the stone. He was trapped.
He was nine years old again. The storm had thrown him overboard, and his head knocked against wood every time he tried to resurface. He tumbled around and around, slamming into the boat over and over again, until he sucked in a desperate breath of salt water, screaming for his parents, screaming for Chuck, for anything to save him as the world went dark—
Two hands grabbed the sides of his face, and Silver’s mouth smashed against his. Air rushed down his throat and into his lungs, and when the mermay pulled back, Sonic was left gasping for breath. Underwater. Breathing as if it was air.
“Are you okay?” Silver asked. The water distorted his voice a little, but it came out clearer than Sonic would have thought.
“I’m fine,” he managed to say. The pressure on his chest was still alarming, and his brain screamed at him to get back to the surface.
“I mean, you hit your head and then just locked up.” Silver twisted around and examined him up and down, swimming with just as much beauty and grace as a normal fish. “I don’t know much about land folk. Is the top of your head really that fragile?”
Sonic shook his head, creating an explosion of tiny bubbles. “No, I just…panicked.”
Silver faced him again, frowning with what looked like genuine concern. He had just saved him again, so Sonic tried to let go of the fear that he’d drown him on purpose. Still, he had to be wary, just in case.
“Well…” Silver swished his tail and moved backward. “We’d better get going before your breath runs out.” He rolled over and started toward the cave opening, cutting through the water like a knife. Sonic tried to follow, and, well…at least he was moving. A little. Kind of.
Okay, he wasn’t going anywhere.
Silver looked over his shoulder when he reached the entrance, and then swam back. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“Swimming,” Sonic said, though his face was already flushing red. “I can’t swim like you, you know.”
“It doesn’t look like you can swim like land folk, either.” Silver grabbed his hand before Sonic could protest, and gave him a tug as he started swimming again. “C’mon. I don’t know how long the magic lasts.”
He pulled him out of the cave and into the cove, and then further out into the open sea. Schools of little fish scattered as they swam through, and seaweed drifted lazily on the ocean floor. Thankfully, Silver stayed close to the surface, but Sonic's stomach still twisted nervously as the sand dropped farther and farther beneath them. The deeper the ocean got, the faster Silver swam, until Sonic's arm ached from the tug.
“S-slow down,” he barely managed to say.
The mermay glanced back at him. “Sorry. I can’t. It’s dangerous to be alone out in the open.” He frowned a little as Sonic grimaced at the next tug, and paused for just a second—to let go of his hand and wrap his arm around his waist instead. “Hopefully this won’t hurt as much.”
“O-oh.” His face flushed bright red as Silver’s fingers tightened by his hip.
Was he really that touch-starved? He hadn’t thought he was. Then again, he didn’t have many friends, and was usually too busy for anything more than Chuck’s hand on his shoulder. The last hug he remembered was from his parents.
It’s purely transactional, he reminded himself. When you get home, you can ask Chuck for a hug and maybe get out and make some more friends. Because it’s stupid to get all flustered over a fish.
But he thought about the way Silver had kissed him the second time—fully and without hesitation. He could have just as easily brought him to the surface, but he hadn’t.
It’s nothing, he insisted. I just met him, anyway.
“Will the magic just stop suddenly, or will I feel it start to go away?” he asked after another few minutes.
“I don’t know,” Silver said. “I guess we’ll find out.”
That answer wasn’t reassuring at all. It made his chest tighten and his breaths shallow. “Are we almost there?” he wheezed.
“We’re almost to the island, yeah. What part do you live on?”
“The south side. By the reef.”
“Straight ahead, then.” He pointed forward. “See that dark blurry bit? That’s the drop-off; the reef’s just past that.”
“You must come out here often,” Sonic said, only to distract himself from the panic.
Silver’s grip tightened, just slightly, but his waist was already more sensitive than the rest of him. “No, not really. Like I said, it’s dangerous to be alone. Most things won’t bother you unless you bother them first, but there’s always a chance, and there’s nowhere to hide in the open.”
“Oh—” And then water rushed into his throat, to drown him rather than to give him breath. The magic had worn off, and Silver was right. It had only lasted maybe fifteen minutes.
But before Sonic even had time to panic, Silver kissed him again and filled him with breath, leaving him frazzled and confused. “Sorry,” he said, his muzzle darkening again. “We’re almost there.”
They had to resupply the magic twice before they made it to the island, but other than that, the rest of the swim went smoothly. Sonic almost enjoyed it once they reached the reef. There were fish and plants and coral everywhere, and despite living on the island his entire life, he’d never seen anything like it before.
No one was at the beach, and Chuck’s boat was docked and empty, but Silver still squirmed uncomfortably a ways out from shore. “We’re here,” he said unnecessarily. “I’ll, uh…let you go now.”
He released the grip on his waist, and Sonic’s heart jumped to his throat. “I—I can’t swim.”
Silver tipped his head, his white quills swishing lazily through the water. “Really? I thought you were just panicking earlier.”
Sonic couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not. “I mean—I was, but…”
The mermay watched him sputter for a minute, and then very carefully poked his head above the waves before coming back down. “Okay, I’ll take you a little farther. But I can’t let anyone see me.” His ears shot up, but folded back a second after, and he pulled into his shoulders. Blue streaked through his fins again. “Please don’t tell anybody about me.”
“I won’t.”
Silver took his hand again and towed him closer to the beach. Sonic could feel him trembling. “Promise?”
Sonic’s feet finally touched the sand and he pushed his head out of the water, slowly making his way out of the ocean as soon as Silver let go of him. His companion’s ears and eyes poked above the surface, but he stayed where he was.
“Promise,” Sonic said, considerably calmer now that he was in control of his movement. “You saved my life. I owe you one.”
“Okay.” Silver backed up, still watching him carefully. “And…be careful, okay?”
The comment caught him off guard. “...sure. You too.”
Another few seconds passed painfully slowly, and then Silver flipped over and darted away, his glimmering scales vanishing beneath the waves.