Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

If anyone had the nerve to call Tucker stupid, he’d probably punch them in the face. In fact, it wasn’t even a probably he’d punched his fair share of friend faces. Well, one face in particular. Numerous times. But Church left years ago so he hadn’t really punched many faces recently. The point was, Tucker was not stupid.

And yet here he was, stuck in a tide pool at low tide.

In his defense, he wasn’t so much stuck as much as he just didn’t want to risk scraping his tail on any rocks trying to scoot his way back and waiting wasn’t that big of a deal. After all, when your lifespan was a big question mark and you hadn’t aged in 20 years, time starts to be a bit meaningless.

Anyways, this area of the beach was restricted -he had Church and Tex to thank for that - so he didn’t have to worry about anyone coming by. Granted, he was kind of hungry and the little fish in the tide pool with him weren’t all that satisfying, but Tucker didn’t want to deal with eating someone on the beach where it would leave a trail. Humans tended to get offended when they found one of their own dead.

Above his head, the sun shone and Tucker shrunk down into the water. He could handle the sun, but that didn’t mean he liked it directly on his skin, plus skin as dark as his absorbed heat uncomfortably. It was going to be a while before the tide was high enough for him to easily slip back into the ocean though, so he would have to put up with it.

The sun had barely moved and Tucker was completely bored out of his mind, so he decided to sing to pass the time. There was no one here after all, so it wasn’t like he’d draw someone in and kill them. Plus, some of the music the humans listened to wasn’t that bad.

Tucker was caught up in his own singing, changing songs he’d heard as he saw fit and mashing them together. It was fun, it was almost annoying the way humans always interfered with their weak minds being controlled by their voices. He was so caught up he almost didn’t notice a human walking towards him. Maybe walking wasn’t the right word. Completely entranced by Tucker’s song, each step he took looked more like a controlled fall than anything, like he was barely able to stay upright. Once Tucker locked eyes with him, his instincts took over. This human was beautiful, gold hair, silver eyes, bronze freckles, and Tucker wanted to keep him. He kept singing until his rational thought process came knocking and he remembered, fuck, no drowning.

Tucker immediately chastised himself, mad at himself for even having that thought in the first place. He couldn’t drown the human, and even if did want to he couldn’t exactly do that in a tide pool. Not properly.

As soon as the singing stopped, so did the human. The human stopped walking and blinked a few times as he snapped out of the trance. It didn’t take long for him to take notice of Tucker sitting in the tide pool. Tucker couldn’t exactly hide there, so he thought quickly for the best way to get the guy to leave. Maybe if he just ignored him the human would give up and go away and assume he was seeing things?
“Hey, that’s a cool fish-tail thing. It looks really real.”

Oh god, he thought Tucker was a human in costume. That, he took offense to. He barred his teeth and the human damn near jumped at the site of the shark-like teeth filling Tucker’s mouth. The stupid human didn’t leave though, he just looked scared and looked over Tucker’s body a few times before forcing out, “That’s…not a costume is it?”

You fucking think? Tucker thought to himself angrily.

“Are you a mermaid? Or a siren? I heard singing, was that you?”

The human kept guessing crap and Tucker decided he was still going to stick to his ‘don’t say anything and hope the human leaves and nobody will listen to him about me’ plan. It didn’t seem to be working that well. Tucker barred his teeth again. How is this guy not scared? Most humans would have run by now.

“I’m not going to hurt you. Are you stuck in there?”

Goddammit he wasn’t leaving. Worse than that, the human was talking down to him.

The human took a few cautious steps towards the tide pool, holding his hands up like he was approaching a scared or injured animal. Tucker just kept staring at him which the human must have taken as nonthreatening because he came the rest of the way over and sat down next to the water.
“I can help you out of there if you want.”

This stupid human was making things very difficult. Still, Tucker decided to stick to his no talking plan. Humans that he saw always seemed to get bored very easily. He might have been tempted to try to scare him off again, but by now he was pretty sure that wasn’t going to work.

“Can you understand me?”

If Tucker did bite him, a shark would probably get blamed for it.

“Of course you can’t, why would you speak English? You probably speak fish or something.”
Yeah, one bite wouldn’t be bad. This guy had it coming and any talk of merpeople would be written off as the ramblings of some guy in shock suffering from blood loss.

“Okay so uh… I want to help, pick you up” The human stood up and made a lifting motion, “And I can take you over to the water,” he pointed to the ocean. When Tucker didn’t respond the human repeated the motion, this time adding in a little walk towards the water while pretending to carry something.
Okay, maybe this human wasn’t so bad. He was kind of funny. Tucker’s be quiet plan went out the window then because he could not stop himself from laughing at the human trying to mime helping.

The human stopped and frowned. “You understand me, don’t you?”

Shit, he knew. Tucker nodded and tried to stop laughing.

“You are such an ass. Why didn’t you say anything?”

Tucker shrugged and tried not to grin.

“I know you can speak, you were singing earlier.”

And now the human was all pissy with him. “If you heard me singing why did you think I spoke fish?” Tucker finally spoke up. His plan failed. New plan, get the human to leave and not tell anyone about him. Granted, this section of the beach was restricted because people used to die and go missing here a lot, but he still didn’t want to have to deal with renewed interest and the search parties that would follow if he killed off whatever idiots this human brought to check out the mermaid.

“I- oh. Okay, I guess that’s a good question but uh, you weren’t saying anything, and the singing could have just been a siren thing! It was confusing, alright.” The human crossed his arms and sat back down next to the tide pool. “I thought if you understood me you’d be a bit more receptive to my offer to help you.”

“I don’t need help from a human!” Tucker quickly threw back, narrowing his eyes.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I guess you can get out of here any time you want then, right?”

“Well, I could.” Tucker began, “I just don’t want to because the rocks will scratch my tail. And have you seen this? It’s fucking beautiful and there’s no point in unnecessarily scraping off any of my scales.”

“So in other words, you’re stuck. Out of pride.”

“Shut up, human. You’re not even supposed to be here, this is my beach and it’s restricted.”

“First of all, my name is David. And secondly, why do you keep saying ‘human’ like that? It sounds like an insult when you say it. And I didn’t mean to invade your beach, I got kind of lost.”

Tucker shrugged. “It kind of is an insult. But I guess I can call you David instead. How lost do you need to get to end up on a restricted beach?”

The human – David – rolled his eyes but seemed to give up on the whole “human is an insult” thing for the time being. “I’m not very good with directions, okay. I thought this was the way to the bathroom. Now you should tell me your name. I don’t know how you fish do it, but us humans introduce ourselves by telling each other our names.”

“Hey now human, no need to get so uppity. My name’s Tucker.”

“Stop calling me human.”

“Fine, David. Now are you going to make good on your offer to carry me back to the water?”

“I don’t really see why I should.”

“Because you offered and because I could rip off your arm with my teeth if I wanted.”

“But you’re not going to.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Your weird siren song tranced me over here, then you showed off your teeth –twice, then laughed at me trying to help you. I think if you were really going to bite off any of my limbs you would have done it by now.”

“And I think that if you weren’t really going to help me you would have left by now. I’m not the only one here who’s fucking easy.”

“Don’t you mean ‘easy to read’?”

“Nah.” Tucker grinned. “I’m just easy. Bow chicka bow wow.”

“It really isn’t too late for me to just leave, you know.”

“Jesus Christ just pick me up, human. David.” Tucker quickly corrected himself for the human’s sake.

“Oh fine.” David smiled a bit but quickly pretended it never happened. This must be his revenge for Tucker laughing at him. He went over to Tucker and looked thoughtful. “Okay,” he began slowly, “how should I do this? It would probably be easiest to just throw over my shoulder…”

“If you do that I will bite you. That is fucking undignified.” Tucker growled.

“Well I don’t have a lot of options here!”

Tucker raised his arms a bit. “Which leaves this option. I’ve seen lots of humans carry other humans kinda horizontally.” He motioned with his hands as if that would make what he was saying more clear.
David fortunately understood and wrapped one arm under Tucker’s and went to put his other under Tucker’s tail before being stopped by Tucker’s voice.

“You know I don’t have legs, right?”

“Yes, I can plainly see that.”

“Then you wouldn’t be trying to hook your arm under my knee joints. The ones I don’t have. If you try that, you’re going to drop me and I will be pissed.”

“.. . Oh.” David looked critically at Tucker’s anatomy for a second. “So uh, where would you suggest..?”

“Closer to my center of gravity.”

“So you mean your ass.”

“Yes, David. Put your hand on my fucking fish ass. The one covered in scales and bearing no resemblance to your human ass. Which, while we’re talking about it, is pretty nice.”

David’s cheeks turned a pale red at the comment as he hoisted Tucker up. “Shit, you’re heavier than you look.”

“Now that’s just rude.” Tucker frowned and wrapped his arms around David’ shoulders to anchor himself as David walked towards the shore. “You’re stronger than you look.”

“Do I look weak?”

“You look like a human. And humans aren’t usually all that strong.”

“Just how many humans have you known?”

“Oh, just the ones I’ve hunted. They never put up much of a fight. But then again, you humans never did all that well in the water.”

“Wait, what?”

“You guys can’t swim worth shit.”

“No, not that! You hunt us?”

“Only sometimes. I mean, there’s so many of you and you’re only good for food and mates.”

“Excuse me?” He sputtered, and his face turned a brighter shade of red.

“Get over yourself, human. We eat you, alright? You poison our water, steal our fish and-“

“No no, that’s not the part, I mean I think it’s fucked up you eat humans but, mates?”

Oh, that’s what he had the problem with. “Yeah. Mates.” Tucker rested his head against David’s shoulder. “But as I was saying about the eating humans thing, all your bullshit kills us and then some of you assholes try to hunt us so-”

“How the hell do you mate with a human?”

“Are you still not over that? I’m not sure if mate is the right word. Is that the word humans use when they make more humans?”

“…Yeah.”

“Okay, then it is right the word.” Tucker grinned and looked up at David. “I can show you if you’re curious. Just drop me in the water.”

“Maybe I should keep you out of the water.”

“Come on,” Tucker dragged out the phrase trying to sound flirtatious but it really just came out like a whine, “you wouldn’t do that to me. You’re totally into me, I can tell.”

“I am not! You’re – you look good. I’ll admit that, but, no. I am not interested in mermating”

“Did you just say ‘mermating’?”

“And unless you stop being an ass I won’t even put you back in the water. I’ll carry you back and drop you on the sand.”

Tucker groaned and let his head fall back to make himself look exhausted. “Man you can’t just do that. I’ll die if I’m out of the water too long. Do I look like I was made to live on the land?” His voice came out sounding rough and he dropped one arm down reaching for the water. “Would you be able to live with yourself if you knew you got me killed?”

“Shit, I’m so sorry I didn’t know.” David immediately dropped to his knees and placed Tucker in the water gently.

“You’re really gullible.” Tucker laughed and yanked on David’s shoulders so he fell down on top of him. David yelped when he hit the water and flailed a bit before managing to push himself up and scoot to the edge of the water.

“Don’t be like that.” Tucker whined. “I wasn’t going to drown you.”

“You were just talking about all that weird shit, then you pulled me into the water. Backing away was a perfectly logical reaction.” David crossed his arms over his chest, but let his legs relax and dipped his feet back into the water so Tucker decided he couldn’t be that mad.

“You call that backing away? Damn, then I want to see what it looks like when you’re running away like a little piss baby. That has got to be a sight to see.”

Maybe he wasn’t that mad before, but David was definitely livid now. He stood up and started to walk away.

“Hey!” Tucker called after him.

At first he didn’t think David was going to stop walking, but after a few steps he did and turned around. “What?”

Tucker didn’t say anything at first, instead he ducked down underwater for a second. Above he could see David’s shoulders fall in clear disappointment.

After nothing was said for a few seconds, David turned back around and started to leave again.

“Sorry.” Tucker finally stuck his head out of the water and spoke up. When David didn’t respond, Tucker called out again. “Hey come on, come back.”

There was still no response, so he added a quick: “Please.”

This time David stopped and turned towards Tucker. “Alright. I’ll come back. Tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? Don’t be such a tease.” Tucker called back.

“Hey, I’m here with my friends and they’re going to be pissed at me as it is for disappearing for so long and if I want any chance of coming back tomorrow, I need to get back before Connie and Maine destroy the beach looking for me.” David spoke quickly. “I almost completely forgot about them while I was here and-”

“I got it, you got some interesting friends and you need to go. That’s the way you want to go.” Tucker pointed to a dirt path that lead back to the main beach.

“Thanks.” Tucker could see David smiling. “I’ll come back.”

You better, Tucker was tempted to say. But instead he just dove underwater and smiled.

Plan A failed, plan B failed. Maybe that wasn’t a bad thing.

Chapter Text

The tide came and went, as did the moon. It was a new day and Tucker felt a little bit apprehensive knowing that the human was going to come back.

Why had it been so hard to just stick to the plan and make him leave? Let the human leave him in the tide pool, he had already planned on spending the day in there since he got stuck. It would have made no difference to him!

But, that stupid human was nice. More than that, though. After all, plenty of people are nice. Caboose was nice most of the time but didn’t stop Tucker from being glad when he left with Church all those years ago. Church wasn’t nice, yet Tucker wasn’t so happy about him leaving. It was the parts where David wasn’t just being nice that Tucker liked. When he was being sarcastic, and poking fun at him. But then he’s actually nice enough that befriending him seems like a possibility and if they were friends they wouldn’t just yell at each nonstop like he did with Church. They’d probably only yell at each other some of the time. Or maybe that was hoping for too much, even thinking about friendship. It was the most he could hope for reasonably, Tucker knew that he could never have more than that, but why would a human even want to be close to him?

A human’s wanting wasn’t really a thing merfolk dealt with. He was stuck trying to remember how to deal with it, which wasn’t working at all.

Tucker could still get lucky, though. The sun was past the highest point in the sky; this was about the time David had left the day before and he still hadn’t shown up today. It did rain earlier. Humans definitely tended to stay away from the beach when it rained. Maybe David wouldn’t show. Although, it wasn’t raining anymore and the sky had cleared up, so that might not be an excuse anymore.

Part of Tucker clung to that thought, ‘maybe he just doesn’t want to come’, but the thought hurt a little bit. Although, maybe that would be for the best. Then Tucker wouldn’t have to deal with his urge to drown the human.

He was just about ready to give up when David finally walked onto the beach, dragging a pole covered in cloth that Tucker had seen humans use all over the beach both in the sun and rain.

“Get lost again, asshole?” Tucker called out. He quickly regretted it because he might as well have just told David know that he’d been waiting for him.

“Getting lost is how I find you. This place isn’t exactly easy to navigate! There are no paths here. I’m actually pretty good at directions, I’ll have you know.” David sounded a bit out of breath and maybe a little annoyed, either at Tucker or at getting lost but either way he was too distracted by whichever it was to take note of how Tucker had been waiting for him.

“Oh you are? Then how’d you get lost trying to find the bathroom?”

“That was an anomaly.” David stated plainly.

“I’m sure it was.” Tucker grinned. “Now come on, get in the water.”

“I didn’t put on sunscreen today; I don’t want to get burned.” David replied as he stuck the pole into the sand and made the cloth go out to make him shade.

“You can’t get burned in water! Water is like, the opposite of fire.”

“Sunburned, it’s a different than getting burned by something hot. How do you not know what a sunburn is?”

“Uh, thick skin? Dark skin? Never been a problem for me.” Tucker shrugged. “Come on, there’s no way a little light can burn you. If that were true, humans would have died off a long time ago.

“I burn really easily, and if I get burned badly, I won’t be able to come back.”

“Oh fine. I’ll just crawl onto land for you, and when I get stuck you’re going to have to carry me back.”

“You had better not get yourself stuck.”

“I’m not going to get stuck, I was making a joke.” Tucker said as he made his way on land, going slowly to prevent scratching himself on any sharp rocks that waves may not have sanded down yet.

“The tide is going down now, you can get closer to the water without worrying about getting burned.”

“It’s not the water that burns me- ” David started to explain before realizing it was probably futile. “Alright, I’ll move down a bit.” He picked up his umbrella and moved it down to the shore where Tucker was laying down and positioned it to shade the two of them.

Tucker’s tail was long, still touching the water just enough that he could splash water up onto his scales, but not enough to actually wash off the sand that had stuck there.

“You’re completely covered in sand, man.” David said, and Tucker could detect a hint of laughter in his tone, like he found it funny but didn’t want to admit it. He leaned over to brush some of it off so that Tucker’s aqua scales could glimmer in the light.

“Eh, that stuff doesn’t really bother me on my tail. It mostly bothers me when it gets all over my arms.” Tucker sat up and leaned on one arm, using the free one to brush the sand off the arm. “You can always see my gorgeous fucking tail scales, but my arm bling gets covered way too easily.”

“Your… arm bling?” David looked at Tucker’s arm, just now realizing it must have been covered in sand yesterday as well since he never noticed the scales that dotted his skin like freckles, though there were not anywhere near as many of those as the amount of freckles David had on his own arms.

“Yeah, also got some on my back. I know they’re there, but I don’t know how badass they look on me since I can’t see, I’ve just seen how they look on other people.” He turned to the side so David could get a look, and sure enough there were scales back there too. These ones went up his spine, more towards the bottom where human became fish and then the trail tapered off towards the top, becoming just spots of aqua on his vertebrae. “Pretty cool, right?”

David ran his fingers down Tucker’s spine and gently knocked off some of the sand as he did to see the color better. “Yeah, it is pretty cool.”

Tucker shivered and when David took his hand away he laid back down. “Dude, your hands are freezing. Did you dunk them in ice water before coming over here?”

“They’re not that cold.” David said as he started to rub his palms together for friction. “I just have bad circulation.” He added.

“Well then, here.” Tucker took the hand that David had on his back moments before and wrapped his hands around it. “I’m way hotter than you, so I can lend you some heat.” He threw in a wink after that and David looked away.

“Give me your other hand.” Tucker let go with one hand and held it out for David who was still intently staring at the shore. “Daviiid.” He whined until the human finally looked back at him.

“Yeah, yeah, alright.” David held out his other hand and Tucker held onto that one as well.

“Why don’t you get those uh, fuck I can’t even remember what they’re called. They’re like clothes, for your hands.”

“You mean gloves? I’m not going to wear gloves in the summer just because you don’t like my hands being a bit cold.”

“Uh, a bit? Dude, icicle hands. Get some gloves.”

“Or,” David pulled his hands away and Tucker let go. “I can always keep my icicle hands to myself from now on.”

“That’s so lame. Actually, strike that. You’re so lame.” Tucker complained. “Hey, lie down.”

“Why don’t you just sit up?”

“Does this body look like it was built to be sitting?”

“…No. I guess not.”

“So lay the fuck down.”

David rolled his eyes and laid down next to Tucker. “Maybe next time I’ll take a chair for you.”

“Unless a chair is going to magically make my body built to be sitting, that’s still not going to work.”

“Okay, I guess I didn’t think that one through. I’ll just bring myself a towel then.”

“That’s the thing humans dry themselves off with, right?” Tucker asked. He turned to the side to look at David as he spoke and started slowly pushing sand towards him, hoping to bury his arms before he could notice. That was a thing humans did for fun, right? They tried to bury each other? Something like that.

“Yeah, but I could also lay on top of it so I don’t get sand in my hair and in my pants like I’m going to have when I leave tonight.”

“It’s just sand, man.” Tucker flicked a small pile of sand that he had made, splattering it over David’s torso, to prove his point.

“Hey!” David sat up again and brushed all the sand down. “I always forget how much this shit sticks to me.” He grumbled as the sand he brushed off was now stuck to his arms.

“How do you forget something like that, but then remember that you can burned by the sun in the water?”

“You really don’t understand sunburns so don’t try to use them to prove a point about this, and I forgot how bad the sand can be because I almost never come to the beach.” David said as he brushed a little more sand off before deciding it was a lost cause and laying back down.

Tucker could feel his heart skip a beat and then sink. “Why don’t you come to the beach all the time?”

“I don’t live here.” David explained, “I’m just here on vacation. I have to go home in a couple of days, actually.” He frowned as he spoke those words, no more unhappy about it than Tucker was himself. He knew some people only came here for short times, but he wanted to hope that maybe David’s case would be different.

“What are you doing when you get back home?” He asked, deciding to go for some normal human conversation rather than dwell on the fact he was going to lose David in a few days.

“I’m going to college. This is my last free summer, so my friend who’s going there with me thought us and everyone else we know going to our school should spend some time here relaxing. We’re going into corp of cadets together.”

Tucker nodded thoughtfully before shaking his head and saying, “I don’t even know what half of that was.”

David snorted, “Right. I keep forgetting you don’t know about human stuff. Basically, I’m going to learn about some things I’m interested in, and on the side I’m going to be trained to be a soldier, and hopefully one day I’ll be a Marine.”

“One whole Marine.” Tucker laughed.

“No, Tucker. Don’t say it like that. It’s a real thing.”

“Yeah I know what marine is, I’m not stupid. It’s water. You want to be water. If that’s what you want, I can fucking help you with that.”

“Oh my god Tucker, no. A marine is a type of soldier, a fighter. I’d be serving my country and protecting it.” David tried to explain using simplest terms possible in hopes it would get through to Tucker.

It worked, Tucker was able to understand what David was trying to say that time and he grimaced. “Oh. That sounds way less fun. Also, way more dangerous. Why are you doing something so dangerous? You should just stay here and swim in the ocean with me.”

“That wouldn’t be much safer. I uh, I can’t swim.” David admitted. He looked away when he said it and the corners of his mouth were pulled up in a sheepish smile. “I know, it’s stupid. I just never got around to learning.”

Tucker hoisted himself up just enough to turn and look down at David. “Tomorrow then, wear your special swimming clothes and I’m going to teach you how to swim.” He held his hand out. “Let’s make a deal. I’ll teach you how to swim, and you’re going to keep coming here until you have to leave.”

“I was going to do that anyways, but alright. Deal.” Wash took Tucker’s hand and shook it. “Do you even know how to teach someone to swim? You don’t have legs.”

“Eh, I think I remember how it works.” He shrugged. “And I’m not going to drown you while we’re out there, so you’ll be perfectly safe.”

“Drown me? Okay, maybe I don’t want to learn how to swim.”

Tucker flopped back down onto the sand and threw his hands up in the air. “I just said that I’m not going to go out of my way to drown you and I’m not going to let you drown on accident either, so why are you suddenly nervous about drowning?”

“Because you keep saying it!” David sat up and brought his knees close to his chest. “You keep saying you’re not going to drown me, which only makes me think that you might drown me because why would you keep saying it if it weren’t on your mind?”

Tucker opened his mouth then closed it again. “I, wait you don’t know?” He finally asked.

“Know what?”

“How I became like this, how others become like this.”

“How would I know that? I don’t study mermaids!”

“Crap. I know so little about humans I kind of forgot you knew just as little about merfolk.” Tucker let his hands fall back down to the sand with a soft thump. “Okay so, when a human drowns, they don’t always die. Sometimes they become, this.” He gestured to himself, namely to his tail.

“That…doesn’t make any biological sense.” David frowned and eyed Tucker’s anatomy.

“It doesn’t have to make sense to you, that’s just how it works. We see humans we like, we get them into the water usually by singing, and drown them, then keep them forever. I just, I don’t really like that.” Tucker bunched his shoulders together like he was cold or just really uncomfortable.

David relaxed and stretched his legs out again. “Why not?”

“Because it’s not okay! When you’re taken under, you forget everything about your human life. You just become attached to your drowner which totally fucked up. I mean some fucking mermaid decided I was hot and took me away from my life and my family and I don’t even remember it because of her. How could I stay with her? How could I do that to someone?” Tucker stopped himself, “Fuck. Okay, I did not mean to spill all that to you. You can just kind of ignore that if you want. Pretend I never talked about anything personal at all if you want.”

Now David was looking straight at Tucker, with something Tucker couldn’t quite put his finger on. Oh wait, he knew what that was. Pity. “How did you know then? How do know you were taken away from something good?”

“You’re seriously interested in this shit?” Tucker asked. When David nodded he shrugged and expanded on his story. “My little brother found me. He recognized me, I didn’t recognize him. He started coming to the beach every day, bringing me Mom’s leftovers from dinner which were fucking amazing even cold. I started to resent the girl who drowned me, so I moved to a new beach. I told my bro where I was going, and he came by a bit for the first few months. But I haven’t seen him in a long time.”

David didn’t respond for a few moments as he soaked in Tucker’s story. He took a deep breath and turned to face Tucker. “What’s your favorite food?”

“Mac ‘n cheese.” Tucker smiled, remembering the last time his brother brought that to his beach.

“I’ll get you some.”

“Wait, seriously? Holy shit it’s been over a decade since I’ve had that stuff. You’re the best thing ever, David.” Tucker grinned widely, which didn’t really look so great with his shark teeth, but David smiled back anyways.

“So, plans for tomorrow. Mac and cheese, swimming, no drowning. Sound good to you?” David counted off the three things on his fingers and held them up for Tucker.

“Sounds great.” Tucker reached up and pulled David’s hand back down the sand, though he decided against letting go.

The two just laid in the sand for a while, not bothering to acknowledge their hands being together as the sun started to drift further across the sky and towards the water. Neither one spoke. They both knew David was going to have to leave well before the sun set, but they preferred ignoring that. It was mid-afternoon and the wind picked up the salt scent from the surf over the both of them, and Tucker decided that until they could stay together longer, this would be their sunset.

Tucker couldn’t find it in him to care that he couldn’t keep it. He let everything slip away except for right now, this moment, and the knowledge that he would see David tomorrow.

Chapter Text

Today David showed up earlier than Tucker expected. The sun wasn’t quite to the middle of the sky yet, but Tucker could hear David calling his name from the shore. He was glad he was near the surface at the time. Sound didn’t well transfer from air to water.

Tucker swam over to the shore and laid on his back at the furthest place the waves would reach. “Hey.” He said grinning.

David smiled and sat down next to him, holding out a clear box full of what Tucker remembered to be mac n cheese.

“Oh hell yes!” He almost yelled as he reached out for the box.

“I also got a fork—” David started to say, pulling out a plastic fork from a small pocket in his swim trunks. He stopped and stared when Tucker took the lid off that was separating him from his food and started eating it by hand.

“What’s that?” Tucker asked, pointing to the fork with cheesy hands and a full mouth.

David blinked and put the fork down. “It’s nothing.” He frowned a bit as Tucker went back to sloppily shoving food into his mouth. Whatever problem he had with Tucker’s actions, he didn’t say anything. Tucker figured that David had just come to accept their differences.

“Did you want any?” Tucker asked after eating half of what David brought and realizing he might be acting rude.

“No, it’s okay. I ate before coming here.”

Tucker shoved another few handfuls of mac n cheese before feeling satisfied and wiping his hands on his scales. “So, swimming?” Tucker asked.

“How about you wash the cheese off of yourself first.”

“That’s what water does, David.” He reached out and grabbed the human’s arm. From his position laying down, Tucker couldn’t actually do anything to try to get David into the water, but he sure could bother him.

“Hey!” David pulled his arm away and rubbed the cheese that got on him off on the sand. “You’re so messy.”

“The water will clean you. Come on.” Tucker wiggled in the sand to build some momentum to scoot back into the water. Once he was at submerged while on his back he was able to propel himself into deeper water. David followed behind him much slower, like being in the water made him nervous. While he waited for David to get to him, Tucker went ahead and scrubbed the bits of food off of his hands and let the bits float away.

“David!” Tucker whined when the human would not go further into the water once it touched his chest. “It’s not as easy for me to swim close to shore.”

“Well it’s not easy for me to swim anywhere! So if you want me to go out more, you have to come over here and help me.” David snapped back.

Tucker groaned and made his way over to his friend. “Alright, hold onto me.” He floated on his back and held out his arm so that David could hold onto him and together the two of them made their way out into deeper water. When David’s feet no longer touched the ocean floor he shifted closer to Tucker until he was practically hanging off of him.

“You’re not going to learn if you’re attached to me like a nurse shark.” Tucker nudged David a bit, although that only made him clingier. “Come on, really?”

David shook his head. “I think this was a bad idea. It’s not like swimming is that important anyways,”

“Wait, are you afraid? It’s just water!”

“It’s not that I’m afraid of water, it’s… survival instincts. I can’t swim, so obviously I wouldn’t like the water all that much.”

Tucker laughed and quickly put his hand over his mouth to try to stop it.

“Hey, fuck you Tucker.” David frowned. “It’s not funny and I’m not afraid of water. I wasn’t ready yet.”

“Are you ready now?” Tucker asked, using the hand he had tried to hide his laugh with to start nudging David again. In response to the pushing, David tensed up, but he quickly made himself relax and let Tucker move him out into the water, never letting go of his arm as he did.

“First, you need to trust the water. You’ll float if you don’t fight it.” Tucker told him. “So uh, get on your back.”

David nodded and with Tucker’s help positioned himself onto his back. Tucker kept a hand under him at first to make sure he stayed afloat, then pulled away and let David float on his own. It worked for a few moments, until David tried to turn to his side and sank just enough to scare him. Once he started flailing Tucker had to grab him.

“You okay?” He asked.

“Yeah just, surprised. I thought I’d keep floating.” David said sheepishly. “For a second there, I thought I was going to go under. I’m not exactly too keen to…” He trailed off. Tucker was pretty sure he was going to say something along the lines of “I’m not too keen to end up like you”.

There was a moment of silence, then,

“Is it a two way deal?” David spoke up again.

“What do you mean by that?” Tucker asked.

“I mean, you can turn into a mermaid, or merman or whatever you call yourself, so can you turn into a human again?” He clarified.

Tucker made a face like he just smelled something rotten. “Theoretically, yeah.” He told David. “But in all fucking reality? No.”

“And, why’s that?” David tilted his head.

“Cause.” Tucker said. “A selkie would have to do it for me.”

“A…what?”

“Oh my god humans know nothing about the world.” Tucker sighed. “Selkies look like seals, then when they take off their skin, they look like humans. They’re incredibly powerful and they’re fucking assholes. And they hate us. They think mermaids are disgusting.”

“I really don’t understand any of that.”

“What part are you confused about?”

“Well, all of it? Especially why those selkie things would hate you.”

Tucker took in a deep breath. “Because. The first mermaid was made when a human put on a selkie skin. She became a monster because magic cannot be shared like that. The gods took it as an insult to their divine powers or whatever. But it’s not fucking fair because that’s not why it happened. She was dating a selkie and he got injured by a fisher and she couldn’t swim so he gave her his pelt in hopes that she’d become a selkie and could swim away. But she became a monster instead. She’s maravfay. Just like me.” He scowled. “You understand it now?”

“You’re…what? Maravfay?” David questioned.

“It means ‘dead magic’.” Tucker told him. “We’re monsters, and we’re stuck in the middle of life and death and they call us maravfay. It’s an insult.”

“Then don’t call yourself that.” David said gently. “You’re not a monster, Tucker.”

“Yes I am. We eat and drown humans. We can’t love, we can only lust. And we-“ He tried to keep going, but David cut him off.

“You’re made from love.” Tucker shot him a confused look and he kept going. “That’s what it sounds like to me.”

Tucker scoffed. “We’re made from lust. Don’t try to make this shit romantic. I’m like this because someone thought I was hot and wanted to keep me forever.”

“No, the first one. She was made from love. Even if that’s not the reason you were pulled under, its’ the reason your species exists. Isn’t it?”

“Even if you’re right, that doesn’t change shit about what we are now. What’s the point of loving someone if I can only show it by hurting them? So I say I’m not made from love, I’m made from lust. The kind that leaves people feeling empty inside the morning after because they lost too much. I’m not going to do that to anyone. Ever. I can’t love you. I can’t hurt you.”

Tucker stopped, realizing what he said. He could feel his heart pounding, from nerves from anger from understanding the implications of what he just said and inadvertently admitted.

David didn’t respond, and Tucker felt like his heart was going to explode. Tucker was about to speak again, to apologize or just say anything to make light of what he just said but it didn’t happen. David closed distance between the two of them and pressed one kiss against Tucker’s lips.

Tucker’s thoughts stopped and he could feel the strong instinct deep inside him to grab David and take him with him into the dark and forever but he couldn’t.

So he dropped him.

Tucker let David go and with a strong kick of his tail he propelled himself away and into the depths of the ocean. He could hear through the water the sound of thrashing as David tried to push himself towards the air. Tucker knew he succeeded. He could hear every move he made in the water. He heard him when he calmed down and his feet touched sand and he walked slowly through the water and eventually made it back onto dry land.

Then there was nothing.

Chapter Text

Tucker was deep under water, paying no attention to the sun or the tide or the thought of David. At least, he tried to pay those thoughts no attention. The thought of David never did leave his mind and the more he tried to push it away the more focused it became.

He tried to focus on hunting, finding shiny things humans dropped, anything. Nothing worked.

The memory of David kissing him burned in his mind and he couldn’t figure out why David would have done that. It wasn’t as though Tucker didn’t want him but, he explained to the human why nothing could ever happen. It could only cause them pain and hey look, it was already doing that. Tucker’s memories had reset after he had drowned, the first thing he knew was the girl who dragged him down. While he didn’t remember it, Tucker was pretty sure what he felt now hurt more than running out of air.

He had to forget David.

Water is too clear. Even deep under the surface the sun reached the sand at the depths Tucker hid and let him know that now was around the time that David would typically show up. He wouldn’t show up today, though. Right?

Time slugged forward and Tucker felt like he was choking. He kept trying to distract himself, telling himself he only had to get past today and David could gone and he wouldn’t have to worry about anything anymore. Just spend the day normally, don’t pay attention to the sun.

Definitely don’t pay to what sounds like David shouting his name above water. Definitely ignore that. What is he doing here?

He stayed underwater, hissing a bit at the beach as though that would scare the human into leaving.

David kept yelling for what felt like forever until finally giving up. Tucker sighed in relief, he was so not up to dealing with this today or ever.

Silence, then the sound of splashing. David was getting the water.

Tucker stayed deep down underwater, deciding to completely ignore David’s attempts to draw him out. David called out to him a few more times, then stop splashing. He was still in the water, Tucker would have been able to tell if he had gotten out, but for some reason he wasn’t doing anything.

Against his better judgment, Tucker let himself drift towards the shore to look over and see where David was, standing waist deep in the water looking like he was thinking hard about something. What he was contemplating became pretty clear when David threw himself into the water in a sloppy attempt to dive and swim out as far as he could.

Fuck.

Tucker fought the urge to go and grab him, grab him for what purpose he wasn’t sure, either to save him or help him drown. He tensed up and hoped that the stupid human would turn around before he drowned all on his own.

“Tucker!” David started calling out again as he got too far out. “Tuck-“ He couldn’t finish it that time, his head dipped under the water. He fought his way back up and kept yelling.

Go back!

David started going under more and more. Each time it was another few seconds before he got his head up again and finally he was giving up, turning around and heading back to shore.

He must have been too tired. Humans were never that great at swimming in general and David barely even knew how to keep his head up. He went under. His arms went up, his legs kicked, he tried desperately to get up and get to the oxygen a foot above his head but he couldn’t.

If Tucker had a breath to hold, he would have. Part of him, however small, wanted to wait it out. Let David drown. Let David stay here, with him, forever.

Tucker could never do that. He swam out as quickly as he could, barreling into David hard enough that the human would likely be left with a bruise over his freckled skin. The pair ended up beached, David sunken in the sand and coughing up water while Tucker clung to him as though he had been the one to nearly die.

Once David stopped coughing, Tucker hit him. Not hard, it was just used as a show to let David know he was pissed.

“You have great bedside manners.” David said, his voice raspy and forced from the sea water.

“Who cares about that? You almost died!” Tucker snapped. “You could have died! You could have drowned!”

David shrugged and laughed it off. “Well, I didn’t, did I?”

“But what if you did? Do you not care that you could have drowned yourself?”

“I knew I wouldn’t.”

“Bullshit! You can’t swim. If I wasn’t here, you’d be dead. Or worse.”

“But you were here.” David told him. “And I knew you wouldn’t let me drown, because if you would have let me drown on my own then you wouldn’t have had a problem drowning me when we first met. And,” He paused for a second before continuing again, “If I didn’t know you were the kind of person who wouldn’t let me get hurt, I wouldn’t have kissed you.”

That made Tucker stop.

“You shouldn’t like me.” He finally said.

“Why not?” David asked

“Why not? The fuck kind of question is that? If the fact that I’m a monster isn’t enough, how about the fact that we can’t ever be together because I can’t get out of the water and you can’t stay in the water?” Tucker asked, raising his voice as he went on. “There’s no point of loving you if-” he stopped himself. He said too much. Again.

“Do you love me?” David asked. Tucker could feel his eyes burning into his head but he didn’t want to look him in the eyes.

“I… yeah. I think I do.” He admitted.

“Then why do you need a point?”

“Because…” Tucker started slowly, hoping he’d figure out something to say as he went.

“Tucker.” David interrupted, “I like you. I love you, and if you feel the same then what’s the point of not expressing that with whatever time we have together?”

“The point is to not get hurt.” Tucker told him. “What’s the point of being in love with you if I can’t keep you?”

“Just, being in love. That’s the point. You don’t love to keep something forever; you love because that’s just what we do. You love for the sake of being in love. And then when it’s gone, you remember it. That’s it.”

Tucker closed his eyes and let the words soak in his head for a second. “That’s pretty…deep.” He smiled a bit. “And I guess that’s a nice way to think about it.” He finally allowed himself to look up and meet David’s eyes.

“So?” David pressed.

Tucker turned to David and pressed their lips together. “So. I guess you have a point.”

“Damn right I have a point.” David pushed their mouths back together. He ended up having to pull back when he tried to deepen the kiss and ended up cutting his lip on Tucker’s razor teeth. “Ow!”

“Shit, sorry.” Tucker said quickly.

David whipped the blood off of his lip with his thumb. “No, it’s my fault. I guess I took that too far.”

Tucker leaned back in and licked the blood that was still beading off David’s lip.

“Okay, that was smooth enough to make it all okay.” David laughed.

“Hell yeah, I don’t need to sing to get me some bitches.”

“Are you calling me a bitch?”

“What? No I didn’t meant it like that I’m sor— You weren’t being serious.” Tucker frowned as David started laughing.

“No, no I wasn’t.” He grinned.

“You’re the worst.” Tucker tried to keep frowning, but he couldn’t help it, he was smiling too.

“You love me.”

“I do.”

They both relaxed in the moment, enjoying each other’s company and warmth for as long as they could. The moment was only broken when David spoke up.

“Tonight.” He said. “I’m uh, we’re leaving tonight.”

Tucker glanced away, then quickly back to David. “Will you ever come back?”

“Next summer.” David said. “I promise.”

“I’ll remember that.” Tucker grinned. “I promise.”