Song of the Sea
Title: Song of the Sea
Type: bandom
Pairing: Ryan/Brendon
Word Count: ~3700
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: I wrote this for redorchids 's Christmas Wish Exchange. watchingthe_sky requested some mermaid!Brendon and human!Ryan. Merry Christmas, watchingthe_sky :)
Summary: The wind tears at Ryan's hair, the rain soaking through his hoodie and stinging his eyes.
The wind tears at Ryan's hair, the rain soaking through his hoodie and stinging his eyes. The weather channel had said that this would be one of the worst storms in California's history, but he couldn't care less. He has to run.
Running has been his preferred form of stress relief since high school. As a kid, he was long and lanky, all arms and legs, and he stayed that way. It took about two minutes of being in Coach Calvin's freshman English class for him to get recruited as a long distance runner. And now he's running for UC Santa Barbara on a scholarship.
Or at least, he used to. That's what the fight with his dad had been about this time. He had decided to quit college in exchange for really pushing the band that he and Spencer had planned on starting since they were fifteen.
His dad had thought it was a big mistake. Ryan could understand that. Hell, Spencer thought it was a mistake. That didn't mean it was okay for his father to call him a selfish fuck up. The words had stung, and Ryan had had to get out of there as fast as he could, weather be damned.
Ryan is running along the beach, his socks squishing with sand and salt water at every step. The waves are starting to get higher, slamming just meters from him and just feet a few minutes later.
It isn't until water suddenly swarms over his ankles that Ryan starts to notice how fast it's coming in. He looks out at the ocean, at the near-black water swirling and crashing into itself. The sky is growing so dark that he can barely tell where it stops and the water begins.
"Shit," he mutters, swiping the hair that's sticking to his forehead from his eyes. The tide pulls out really far, and when it comes rushing in again, it nearly knocks him off his feet and drags him back out with it.
He has to find cover, but this is one of the few fairly secluded spots left in Santa Barbara, and it’s hard to see through the rain coming down in torrents. From what he can see, the few houses near the water have been boarded up and abandoned for dryer, safer places further inland.
When the water comes in again, it's almost to his knees. Things are only going to get worse from here.
He moves a little further up, his eyes scanning the beach for houses with lights on, or even just a house without boards over the windows. Nothing.
Ryan's legs burn. He's been running for a long time, and the weight of the water dreanching his clothes is starting to get to him. He knew better than to go out in weather like this. The ocean has surrounded him since he was five, when his parents finally split and he and his dad had moved out to California. He knows what to do when the weather goes bad, and going for a run is not on that list.
His eyes keep darting back and forth, trying to figure out a way out of this mess before the waves touch his thighs, when something catches his eye. There's a place that looks like a cave a little further down the beach. It's elevated, with a large rock in front of it that appears to be breaking the waves.
Ryan focuses on that rock, and he makes a dash for it. His legs are exhausted. He's pushed through that burning pain before, but he's never had to deal with so much excess weight. By the time he gets to the cave, his calves are cramping, and the water comes up almost to his hip when it comes in.
When the water goes out again, Ryan quickly finds a foothold and climbs as fast as he can. He knows that he doesn't want a wave slamming him against this rock, and with as fast as the water is coming in, he doesn't want to take the chance that he'll be facing a wave with the force of a bulldozer behind it. He finally reaches the top, his arms and legs both screaming at him now, and pulls himself over and into the cave. There's a small drop, about ten feet or so, and he lets go of the lip of the cave, falling gracefully onto his toes.
"Damn it," he hisses when his thighs announce their protest with a vicious cramp. The water occasionally splashes over the edge of the rock, so he crawls a little further in to stay as dry as he can. Ryan sits down, pushing his shorts up to rub at his skin. His teeth start to chatter, and it's only then that he realizes how cold the cave is. Well, at least he's not being carried off by a monster wave.
Ryan massages his legs for a little while, pressing his fingers deep into his muscles like he's been trained to do. His muscles ache under his ministrations, but he knows he has to work them to keep knots from forming and making it hurt later.
The cave is dark but for the small area that the mouth of it illuminates. It takes his eyes a while to adjust, but after he's done massaging both of his legs, they’ve had enough time to get used to the darkness, and he looks at his surroundings. Small puddles dot the cave, and he guesses that the water was higher earlier at this part of the beach and got in. A couple of dead fish dot the cave here and there, along with a few crabs scavenging their remains. Some of the crabs are clustered around what appears to be a large rock that's partly submerged in a deeper puddle.
Or. No, that's not a rock. It's a fish tail.
He squints his eyes. Yeah, definitely a tail. And a huge tail at that.
Ryan wonders what kind of fish it is. Maybe a swordfish or something. The tail looks thick, with a really large fin.
He crawls closer to get a better look, and his jaw drops. Instead of being attached to more a thick body and rounded fish's head, the tail is seamed to a human boy, light blue-green scales giving way to smooth, pale skin just below the boy's navel. His chest is bare, and one of his arms covers his face, but Ryan can see that he has short, dark hair. The only thing he’s wearing is a small silver chain around his neck with a single pearl dangling from it.
Ryan feels like he can't breathe for a moment, he's in so much shock, but he finally gasps out, "Oh, my god."
The boy stirs at his voice, and he mumbles something, his arm sliding away from his face. His eyebrows furrow, and his hand goes to his forehead as his eyes open. "Wha...What happened?" Ryan doesn't know what to say, so he doesn't say anything, just shuts up and stares in absolute awe at what he's seeing. He has got to be dreaming.
The boy seems disoriented, and he looks around the cave for a moment before his eyes land on Ryan and immediately come into focus. He sits up fast then, pushing his back quickly against the cave wall behind him. His eyes are absolutely huge, his breathing is quick, and he looks scared. "You, you're a human!"
"Yeah. I." Ryan stutters, his eyes as wide as the boy's. "I'm Ryan. You don't. I mean, I won't hurt you."
The boy looks him up and down fast, then around the cave again. "Where am I? Why did you bring me here?"
"I didn't," Ryan says quickly, eyeing the boy's twitching tail. "There's a storm going on outside. The waves have been really high. I think you might have gotten tossed in the cave accidentally. I came in here for some shelter. I didn't have anything to do with this." His hands gesture to the boy and then the rest of the cave.
"Oh." He says, looking up at the mouth of the cave. He seems to calm down a little, his shoulders relaxing. "I. I didn't mean to accuse you. I’m Brendon."
"It's okay. I'd be pretty upset too if I got thrown into a cave with some guy I didn't know." Ryan tries to smile reassuringly.
Brendon smiles back, a little bashful. "Still." He looks Ryan up and down, eyes landing on his legs. He's starting to look more curious than scared now. "Wow. You're really a human."
Ryan nods. "Yeah. Gluttony, materialism and all," he says, adding a little sarcasm for good measure.
Brendon smiles a little broader, but in a generic way. Ryan guesses he doesn't get the joke. "I've never met a human before. It's against the law."
"Sounds like a pretty good rule to me." Ryan shrugs.
Brendon's tail flicks. "Can I," he flushes, "would you mind if I could see your legs?"
"Uh. Sure." Ryan stands up, feeling a little absurd. "They're nothing special. I mean, I run a lot, so. kind of muscle-y I guess, but."
Brendon leans a little closer, grinning now. "I can't believe I'm meeting a real live human! With legs!"
Ryan stretches his legs a little, then sits down and crosses them. "Legs are kind of standard for humans."
Brendon waves a hand at him. "Legs are awesome! You can walk. And like. Run. I just kind of. Swim a lot." He wiggles his tail as if to prove a point.
"I guess they're kind of nice when you look at it like that." Brendon's actually not bad looking now that he doesn't look absolutely terrified. His hair is a dark, tangled mess plastered to his forehead, and his eyes are big and brown. His mouth his kind of pouty, and it's red, a little chapped.
"I really like them. Yours look nice. Do you guys really make all those pretty sounds that I hear from the ships? Gerard calls them 'musics'. Sometimes we sing in the ocean, and that’s kind of like the musics, but it’s not the same."
Ryan nods. "We make music, yeah. Actually, I play the guitar."
Brendon moves a little closer. "Really? What's a guitar?"
"It's one of the things that makes music," he explains, amused by how interested Brendon immediately is.
"There are other things that make music? Humans are so cool. Gerard- he's a friend of mine who's seen just about everything in the world and even met some humans on the East coast- anyway, he is completely right about you guys. Everyone always says that you're all so bad and they're all so scared, but I knew you'd be awesome if I could just meet one of you. Sorry, I'm kind of rambling, I know, but, just, humans, you know?"
Brendon kind of reminds Ryan of a puppy or something. "So... are you a mermaid or..?"
Brendon laughs. "Merman, thank you very much." He lifts his tail, shaking it at Ryan's face like it's supposed to mean something to him. Brendon likes to wiggle his tail a lot, Ryan is noticing. "Have you met one of us before?"
Ryan shakes his head. "Not really. We've got a lot of legends about you guys and stuff. It's supposed to be bad luck to see a mer, uh, merperson. You're supposed to bring bad storms or sing sailors to their doom."
Brendon makes a face. "Well, I guess it's not as bad as some merpeople say about you guys. They always talk about how you'd do terrible science experiments on us if you ever caught us."
Ryan inwardly winces. If anyone else had seen Brendon, he's sure they would have done just that, or sold him to a facility that would have done it. He doesn't say anything though. Suddenly, he's pretty sure he won't be eating fish any time soon.
Brendon gingerly touches the back of his head. "Ouch. I must have hit my head really hard." He shifts in the puddle he's in, cupping some water and pouring it over his tail's scales. He purses his lips, his eyebrows furrowing. "How am I going to get out of here?"
Ryan moves to sit next to him, leaning his back against the wall. "We'll think of something." He glances up at the cave's opening. The sky is turning a lighter gray, and the waves aren't breaking over the rock anymore. "Looks like the storm is settling down some. I don’t think it’s raining anymore."
"I bet everyone back home is really worried." Brendon sighs. "My mom is going to be angry. And Dad will kill me if he ever finds out I talked to a human. My brothers and sisters won't let me hear the end of it if they catch wind of me getting beached."
Ryan smiles. "Big family?"
Brendon snorts. "There are five of us kids. Two girls, three boys. I'm the youngest, so Mom gets really fussy about me. But I guess all moms are like that. Do you have a big family?"
Ryan thinks about telling Brendon about his mom, his younger half-siblings and his older sister, his step-dad, all in Vegas. He hasn’t seen any of them in over three years now. "No. Just me and my dad. I live in an apartment near the school, but sometimes I visit my dad on breaks. Right now I'm on Winter Break, so I was staying with him. Most of the time, it's just me, really."
"Oh," Brendon says a little uncomfortably. "Sorry."
"Don't be." Ryan stands, dusting off his shorts. "I think I know how to get you out of here. I have to go home really fast."
Brendon's eyebrows come together, and his eyes widened, a little anxious. "You're coming back though?"
"Of course I am." He moves toward the front wall of the cave, quickly finding a foothold and hoisting himself up. His legs ache faintly but nothing like before.
Brendon mumbles a, "So cool," presumably at Ryan's legs and their ability to climb.
He turns back to Brendon, having to squint to see him in the darkness of the cave. "I'll be right back, okay? Just sit tight."
Brendon nods. "Okay, Ryan."
***
By the time Ryan returns, it’s starting to get dark, but the sun is shining faintly between the clouds. Typical California weather. Raging storm of the century one minute, sunshine the next.
He actually has the good sense to drive as close as he could to the cave this time, rather than run all the way back again. His legs feel like they’re going to be killing him tomorrow morning as it is. He doesn’t want his calve muscles to commit a full out mutiny and tear on him or something.
Ryan grabs the sheet he got from home out of his passenger seat, then jogs the rest of the way to the cave. He climbs his way up, then peeks his head in, softly calling, “Brendon?”
Brendon’s face appears beneath the circle of light the cave’s opening creates, shielding his eyes. “Ryan! You came back!”
“As if I wouldn’t,” he says with an eyeroll. “Can you scoot a little closer to the front? I'm going to drop the sheet down, and I need you to crawl into it."
Brendon nods. "Okay." He uses his arms to pull himself forward, and it's then that Ryan notices the muscles of Brendon's shoulders and back. They're not bulky or anything, but they are defined, shadows dipping between them, against his spine, and pooling into the small of his back where his tail and skin finally meet.
He notices that Brendon is making painful faces as his scales drag across the sand and rocks lining the cave’s floor. He feels bad, but he knows that there’s really not much of a choice. Little blue-green flecks shine up at Ryan from the cave floor, even in the dim lighting.
“Okay,” Brendon says as he secures himself in in the make-shift cradle Ryan has created.
“All right, Brendon. I’m going to pull you up like this, okay? Just make sure your head doesn’t hit the cave wall on the way up.” He got this idea from watching beached whales get rescued. He only hopes it’ll work.
Brendon looks up at him, shifting a little before placing a steadying hand on the cave next to him. “Okay, Ryan. I’m ready when you are.”
Ryan nods. “One, two,” deep breath, “three,” he says, putting as much weight as he can into pulling Brendon up. The boy looks fairly light, he’s shorter that Ryan and has thin bone structure, but he’s surprisingly heavy. Ryan uses the lip of the cave for leverage, letting most of the weight rest on the rock while he pulls Brendon up.
It’s slow going and takes almost half an hour before Brendon’s hands grip the opening. “I’m gonna help you over the edge, but you have to hold on to me when you get out, Brendon. It’s a steep drop on this side.”
“Okay,” Brendon says, voice shaking slightly.
“I won’t let you fall, don’t worry.” Ryan uses one hand to help Brendon over and grips the cave’s opening as tightly as he can. Slowly, he pulls Brendon out.
Brendon clings to him like a limpet, one arm locked behind Ryan’s neck and the other curled under his arm while Brendon’s hand grips his shoulder. Ryan wraps his free arm tightly around Brendon. The sheet is still wrapped around him, and it makes him a little bit slippery. Ryan just holds onto him that much tighter. He looks down to see that Brendon’s eyes are shut tightly, and he’s biting his lip. “You okay?”
Brendon nods and stammers, “Yeah.”
“Just hang on. I’ve got you,” Ryan says, even though he’s not entirely sure that he does. Brendon is really heavy, and it’s still quite a drop down to the beach. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
“Okay,” he says, quiet.
Ryan takes a few shaky steps down, lowering them by about five feet before finally jumping the rest of the way down, still holding tightly onto Brendon. He’ll never admit to anyone that he almost drops him when his feet finally hit the ground. He readjusts, getting a firmer grip on Brendon. “See?” he says, a little breathless. “Everything is fine.”
Brendon smiles at him, and it’s almost blinding. “Thank you.”
Ryan nods. “How far out do you have to be?” They’re already in ankle-deep water, but he knows that there’s no way Brendon can get to the ocean from these shallows.
Brendon looks at the water, seeming to measure out distance. “Just a couple of meters should work. It looks like the ocean here gets deep pretty fast.”
Ryan nods and tries his best to stagger through the ocean, his hands supporting Brendon’s back and tail as best he can. When the water reaches his hips, he finally stops, his breathing labored. “How’s this?”
“This works,” Brendon says, his smile even reaching his voice.
Ryan carefully lowers Brendon into the water. As Brendon slips out of the sheet and through his fingers, he notices that there are shallow scratches and patches of missing scales that were scraped off in the rescue. He grimaces. “Sorry about your tail.”
Brendon ducks his head under water, flipping his hair back when he reemerges. “It’s okay. They’ll grow back. Kind of sting in the water though.”
“Yeah,” Ryan agrees, his hand moving to the back of his neck awkwardly. “I guess you should be getting back to your family, huh?”
Brendon deflates a little. “They’re probably worried about me.” There’s a short pause between them before Brendon says, “Would you, I mean. Would you mind if I saw you again?”
Ryan blinks, a little stunned. “Sure. If you want. But,” he adds, “I have classes during the day, I have music practice a lot, and I have track, so it might be hard to just meet up whenever.”
“That’s okay,” Brendon says, grinning as he reaches behind his neck, unclasping the necklace. “Here. Just keep this. It’s a family heirloom. If you hang onto it and come to the beach, I’ll always know where to meet you.”
He dangles it out to him, and Ryan slowly holds out his hand to accept it. “Are you sure?”
“Of course I am. Thank you again, Ryan. I’d be fish bait if it weren’t for you,” Brendon says, and then he disappears into the water.
***
When Ryan gets back to his apartment late that night, he can hardly believe what happened. He tries to map out the day’s happenings in his head, but it doesn’t make sense anyway he slices it. First he went to his dad’s house where he got chewed out, then almost drowned in a storm, then met a mermaid- sorry, merman, and then proceeded to save said merman’s life.
He wouldn’t believe it if someone else told him that story, even if Spencer had told him. Hell, he barely believes it now.
Ryan holds up his wrist, where he’s looped the necklace several times to make a bracelet. The pearl shines softly back at him. This necklace and a ruined sheet are the only reminders he has of what happened.
That, Ryan thinks a little thrill running through him, and the fact that I can see Brendon again, if I want.
Something in him says that today definitely won't be the last time he sees Brendon.
Type: bandom
Pairing: Ryan/Brendon
Word Count: ~3700
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: I wrote this for redorchids 's Christmas Wish Exchange. watchingthe_sky requested some mermaid!Brendon and human!Ryan. Merry Christmas, watchingthe_sky :)
Summary: The wind tears at Ryan's hair, the rain soaking through his hoodie and stinging his eyes.
The wind tears at Ryan's hair, the rain soaking through his hoodie and stinging his eyes. The weather channel had said that this would be one of the worst storms in California's history, but he couldn't care less. He has to run.
Running has been his preferred form of stress relief since high school. As a kid, he was long and lanky, all arms and legs, and he stayed that way. It took about two minutes of being in Coach Calvin's freshman English class for him to get recruited as a long distance runner. And now he's running for UC Santa Barbara on a scholarship.
Or at least, he used to. That's what the fight with his dad had been about this time. He had decided to quit college in exchange for really pushing the band that he and Spencer had planned on starting since they were fifteen.
His dad had thought it was a big mistake. Ryan could understand that. Hell, Spencer thought it was a mistake. That didn't mean it was okay for his father to call him a selfish fuck up. The words had stung, and Ryan had had to get out of there as fast as he could, weather be damned.
Ryan is running along the beach, his socks squishing with sand and salt water at every step. The waves are starting to get higher, slamming just meters from him and just feet a few minutes later.
It isn't until water suddenly swarms over his ankles that Ryan starts to notice how fast it's coming in. He looks out at the ocean, at the near-black water swirling and crashing into itself. The sky is growing so dark that he can barely tell where it stops and the water begins.
"Shit," he mutters, swiping the hair that's sticking to his forehead from his eyes. The tide pulls out really far, and when it comes rushing in again, it nearly knocks him off his feet and drags him back out with it.
He has to find cover, but this is one of the few fairly secluded spots left in Santa Barbara, and it’s hard to see through the rain coming down in torrents. From what he can see, the few houses near the water have been boarded up and abandoned for dryer, safer places further inland.
When the water comes in again, it's almost to his knees. Things are only going to get worse from here.
He moves a little further up, his eyes scanning the beach for houses with lights on, or even just a house without boards over the windows. Nothing.
Ryan's legs burn. He's been running for a long time, and the weight of the water dreanching his clothes is starting to get to him. He knew better than to go out in weather like this. The ocean has surrounded him since he was five, when his parents finally split and he and his dad had moved out to California. He knows what to do when the weather goes bad, and going for a run is not on that list.
His eyes keep darting back and forth, trying to figure out a way out of this mess before the waves touch his thighs, when something catches his eye. There's a place that looks like a cave a little further down the beach. It's elevated, with a large rock in front of it that appears to be breaking the waves.
Ryan focuses on that rock, and he makes a dash for it. His legs are exhausted. He's pushed through that burning pain before, but he's never had to deal with so much excess weight. By the time he gets to the cave, his calves are cramping, and the water comes up almost to his hip when it comes in.
When the water goes out again, Ryan quickly finds a foothold and climbs as fast as he can. He knows that he doesn't want a wave slamming him against this rock, and with as fast as the water is coming in, he doesn't want to take the chance that he'll be facing a wave with the force of a bulldozer behind it. He finally reaches the top, his arms and legs both screaming at him now, and pulls himself over and into the cave. There's a small drop, about ten feet or so, and he lets go of the lip of the cave, falling gracefully onto his toes.
"Damn it," he hisses when his thighs announce their protest with a vicious cramp. The water occasionally splashes over the edge of the rock, so he crawls a little further in to stay as dry as he can. Ryan sits down, pushing his shorts up to rub at his skin. His teeth start to chatter, and it's only then that he realizes how cold the cave is. Well, at least he's not being carried off by a monster wave.
Ryan massages his legs for a little while, pressing his fingers deep into his muscles like he's been trained to do. His muscles ache under his ministrations, but he knows he has to work them to keep knots from forming and making it hurt later.
The cave is dark but for the small area that the mouth of it illuminates. It takes his eyes a while to adjust, but after he's done massaging both of his legs, they’ve had enough time to get used to the darkness, and he looks at his surroundings. Small puddles dot the cave, and he guesses that the water was higher earlier at this part of the beach and got in. A couple of dead fish dot the cave here and there, along with a few crabs scavenging their remains. Some of the crabs are clustered around what appears to be a large rock that's partly submerged in a deeper puddle.
Or. No, that's not a rock. It's a fish tail.
He squints his eyes. Yeah, definitely a tail. And a huge tail at that.
Ryan wonders what kind of fish it is. Maybe a swordfish or something. The tail looks thick, with a really large fin.
He crawls closer to get a better look, and his jaw drops. Instead of being attached to more a thick body and rounded fish's head, the tail is seamed to a human boy, light blue-green scales giving way to smooth, pale skin just below the boy's navel. His chest is bare, and one of his arms covers his face, but Ryan can see that he has short, dark hair. The only thing he’s wearing is a small silver chain around his neck with a single pearl dangling from it.
Ryan feels like he can't breathe for a moment, he's in so much shock, but he finally gasps out, "Oh, my god."
The boy stirs at his voice, and he mumbles something, his arm sliding away from his face. His eyebrows furrow, and his hand goes to his forehead as his eyes open. "Wha...What happened?" Ryan doesn't know what to say, so he doesn't say anything, just shuts up and stares in absolute awe at what he's seeing. He has got to be dreaming.
The boy seems disoriented, and he looks around the cave for a moment before his eyes land on Ryan and immediately come into focus. He sits up fast then, pushing his back quickly against the cave wall behind him. His eyes are absolutely huge, his breathing is quick, and he looks scared. "You, you're a human!"
"Yeah. I." Ryan stutters, his eyes as wide as the boy's. "I'm Ryan. You don't. I mean, I won't hurt you."
The boy looks him up and down fast, then around the cave again. "Where am I? Why did you bring me here?"
"I didn't," Ryan says quickly, eyeing the boy's twitching tail. "There's a storm going on outside. The waves have been really high. I think you might have gotten tossed in the cave accidentally. I came in here for some shelter. I didn't have anything to do with this." His hands gesture to the boy and then the rest of the cave.
"Oh." He says, looking up at the mouth of the cave. He seems to calm down a little, his shoulders relaxing. "I. I didn't mean to accuse you. I’m Brendon."
"It's okay. I'd be pretty upset too if I got thrown into a cave with some guy I didn't know." Ryan tries to smile reassuringly.
Brendon smiles back, a little bashful. "Still." He looks Ryan up and down, eyes landing on his legs. He's starting to look more curious than scared now. "Wow. You're really a human."
Ryan nods. "Yeah. Gluttony, materialism and all," he says, adding a little sarcasm for good measure.
Brendon smiles a little broader, but in a generic way. Ryan guesses he doesn't get the joke. "I've never met a human before. It's against the law."
"Sounds like a pretty good rule to me." Ryan shrugs.
Brendon's tail flicks. "Can I," he flushes, "would you mind if I could see your legs?"
"Uh. Sure." Ryan stands up, feeling a little absurd. "They're nothing special. I mean, I run a lot, so. kind of muscle-y I guess, but."
Brendon leans a little closer, grinning now. "I can't believe I'm meeting a real live human! With legs!"
Ryan stretches his legs a little, then sits down and crosses them. "Legs are kind of standard for humans."
Brendon waves a hand at him. "Legs are awesome! You can walk. And like. Run. I just kind of. Swim a lot." He wiggles his tail as if to prove a point.
"I guess they're kind of nice when you look at it like that." Brendon's actually not bad looking now that he doesn't look absolutely terrified. His hair is a dark, tangled mess plastered to his forehead, and his eyes are big and brown. His mouth his kind of pouty, and it's red, a little chapped.
"I really like them. Yours look nice. Do you guys really make all those pretty sounds that I hear from the ships? Gerard calls them 'musics'. Sometimes we sing in the ocean, and that’s kind of like the musics, but it’s not the same."
Ryan nods. "We make music, yeah. Actually, I play the guitar."
Brendon moves a little closer. "Really? What's a guitar?"
"It's one of the things that makes music," he explains, amused by how interested Brendon immediately is.
"There are other things that make music? Humans are so cool. Gerard- he's a friend of mine who's seen just about everything in the world and even met some humans on the East coast- anyway, he is completely right about you guys. Everyone always says that you're all so bad and they're all so scared, but I knew you'd be awesome if I could just meet one of you. Sorry, I'm kind of rambling, I know, but, just, humans, you know?"
Brendon kind of reminds Ryan of a puppy or something. "So... are you a mermaid or..?"
Brendon laughs. "Merman, thank you very much." He lifts his tail, shaking it at Ryan's face like it's supposed to mean something to him. Brendon likes to wiggle his tail a lot, Ryan is noticing. "Have you met one of us before?"
Ryan shakes his head. "Not really. We've got a lot of legends about you guys and stuff. It's supposed to be bad luck to see a mer, uh, merperson. You're supposed to bring bad storms or sing sailors to their doom."
Brendon makes a face. "Well, I guess it's not as bad as some merpeople say about you guys. They always talk about how you'd do terrible science experiments on us if you ever caught us."
Ryan inwardly winces. If anyone else had seen Brendon, he's sure they would have done just that, or sold him to a facility that would have done it. He doesn't say anything though. Suddenly, he's pretty sure he won't be eating fish any time soon.
Brendon gingerly touches the back of his head. "Ouch. I must have hit my head really hard." He shifts in the puddle he's in, cupping some water and pouring it over his tail's scales. He purses his lips, his eyebrows furrowing. "How am I going to get out of here?"
Ryan moves to sit next to him, leaning his back against the wall. "We'll think of something." He glances up at the cave's opening. The sky is turning a lighter gray, and the waves aren't breaking over the rock anymore. "Looks like the storm is settling down some. I don’t think it’s raining anymore."
"I bet everyone back home is really worried." Brendon sighs. "My mom is going to be angry. And Dad will kill me if he ever finds out I talked to a human. My brothers and sisters won't let me hear the end of it if they catch wind of me getting beached."
Ryan smiles. "Big family?"
Brendon snorts. "There are five of us kids. Two girls, three boys. I'm the youngest, so Mom gets really fussy about me. But I guess all moms are like that. Do you have a big family?"
Ryan thinks about telling Brendon about his mom, his younger half-siblings and his older sister, his step-dad, all in Vegas. He hasn’t seen any of them in over three years now. "No. Just me and my dad. I live in an apartment near the school, but sometimes I visit my dad on breaks. Right now I'm on Winter Break, so I was staying with him. Most of the time, it's just me, really."
"Oh," Brendon says a little uncomfortably. "Sorry."
"Don't be." Ryan stands, dusting off his shorts. "I think I know how to get you out of here. I have to go home really fast."
Brendon's eyebrows come together, and his eyes widened, a little anxious. "You're coming back though?"
"Of course I am." He moves toward the front wall of the cave, quickly finding a foothold and hoisting himself up. His legs ache faintly but nothing like before.
Brendon mumbles a, "So cool," presumably at Ryan's legs and their ability to climb.
He turns back to Brendon, having to squint to see him in the darkness of the cave. "I'll be right back, okay? Just sit tight."
Brendon nods. "Okay, Ryan."
***
By the time Ryan returns, it’s starting to get dark, but the sun is shining faintly between the clouds. Typical California weather. Raging storm of the century one minute, sunshine the next.
He actually has the good sense to drive as close as he could to the cave this time, rather than run all the way back again. His legs feel like they’re going to be killing him tomorrow morning as it is. He doesn’t want his calve muscles to commit a full out mutiny and tear on him or something.
Ryan grabs the sheet he got from home out of his passenger seat, then jogs the rest of the way to the cave. He climbs his way up, then peeks his head in, softly calling, “Brendon?”
Brendon’s face appears beneath the circle of light the cave’s opening creates, shielding his eyes. “Ryan! You came back!”
“As if I wouldn’t,” he says with an eyeroll. “Can you scoot a little closer to the front? I'm going to drop the sheet down, and I need you to crawl into it."
Brendon nods. "Okay." He uses his arms to pull himself forward, and it's then that Ryan notices the muscles of Brendon's shoulders and back. They're not bulky or anything, but they are defined, shadows dipping between them, against his spine, and pooling into the small of his back where his tail and skin finally meet.
He notices that Brendon is making painful faces as his scales drag across the sand and rocks lining the cave’s floor. He feels bad, but he knows that there’s really not much of a choice. Little blue-green flecks shine up at Ryan from the cave floor, even in the dim lighting.
“Okay,” Brendon says as he secures himself in in the make-shift cradle Ryan has created.
“All right, Brendon. I’m going to pull you up like this, okay? Just make sure your head doesn’t hit the cave wall on the way up.” He got this idea from watching beached whales get rescued. He only hopes it’ll work.
Brendon looks up at him, shifting a little before placing a steadying hand on the cave next to him. “Okay, Ryan. I’m ready when you are.”
Ryan nods. “One, two,” deep breath, “three,” he says, putting as much weight as he can into pulling Brendon up. The boy looks fairly light, he’s shorter that Ryan and has thin bone structure, but he’s surprisingly heavy. Ryan uses the lip of the cave for leverage, letting most of the weight rest on the rock while he pulls Brendon up.
It’s slow going and takes almost half an hour before Brendon’s hands grip the opening. “I’m gonna help you over the edge, but you have to hold on to me when you get out, Brendon. It’s a steep drop on this side.”
“Okay,” Brendon says, voice shaking slightly.
“I won’t let you fall, don’t worry.” Ryan uses one hand to help Brendon over and grips the cave’s opening as tightly as he can. Slowly, he pulls Brendon out.
Brendon clings to him like a limpet, one arm locked behind Ryan’s neck and the other curled under his arm while Brendon’s hand grips his shoulder. Ryan wraps his free arm tightly around Brendon. The sheet is still wrapped around him, and it makes him a little bit slippery. Ryan just holds onto him that much tighter. He looks down to see that Brendon’s eyes are shut tightly, and he’s biting his lip. “You okay?”
Brendon nods and stammers, “Yeah.”
“Just hang on. I’ve got you,” Ryan says, even though he’s not entirely sure that he does. Brendon is really heavy, and it’s still quite a drop down to the beach. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
“Okay,” he says, quiet.
Ryan takes a few shaky steps down, lowering them by about five feet before finally jumping the rest of the way down, still holding tightly onto Brendon. He’ll never admit to anyone that he almost drops him when his feet finally hit the ground. He readjusts, getting a firmer grip on Brendon. “See?” he says, a little breathless. “Everything is fine.”
Brendon smiles at him, and it’s almost blinding. “Thank you.”
Ryan nods. “How far out do you have to be?” They’re already in ankle-deep water, but he knows that there’s no way Brendon can get to the ocean from these shallows.
Brendon looks at the water, seeming to measure out distance. “Just a couple of meters should work. It looks like the ocean here gets deep pretty fast.”
Ryan nods and tries his best to stagger through the ocean, his hands supporting Brendon’s back and tail as best he can. When the water reaches his hips, he finally stops, his breathing labored. “How’s this?”
“This works,” Brendon says, his smile even reaching his voice.
Ryan carefully lowers Brendon into the water. As Brendon slips out of the sheet and through his fingers, he notices that there are shallow scratches and patches of missing scales that were scraped off in the rescue. He grimaces. “Sorry about your tail.”
Brendon ducks his head under water, flipping his hair back when he reemerges. “It’s okay. They’ll grow back. Kind of sting in the water though.”
“Yeah,” Ryan agrees, his hand moving to the back of his neck awkwardly. “I guess you should be getting back to your family, huh?”
Brendon deflates a little. “They’re probably worried about me.” There’s a short pause between them before Brendon says, “Would you, I mean. Would you mind if I saw you again?”
Ryan blinks, a little stunned. “Sure. If you want. But,” he adds, “I have classes during the day, I have music practice a lot, and I have track, so it might be hard to just meet up whenever.”
“That’s okay,” Brendon says, grinning as he reaches behind his neck, unclasping the necklace. “Here. Just keep this. It’s a family heirloom. If you hang onto it and come to the beach, I’ll always know where to meet you.”
He dangles it out to him, and Ryan slowly holds out his hand to accept it. “Are you sure?”
“Of course I am. Thank you again, Ryan. I’d be fish bait if it weren’t for you,” Brendon says, and then he disappears into the water.
***
When Ryan gets back to his apartment late that night, he can hardly believe what happened. He tries to map out the day’s happenings in his head, but it doesn’t make sense anyway he slices it. First he went to his dad’s house where he got chewed out, then almost drowned in a storm, then met a mermaid- sorry, merman, and then proceeded to save said merman’s life.
He wouldn’t believe it if someone else told him that story, even if Spencer had told him. Hell, he barely believes it now.
Ryan holds up his wrist, where he’s looped the necklace several times to make a bracelet. The pearl shines softly back at him. This necklace and a ruined sheet are the only reminders he has of what happened.
That, Ryan thinks a little thrill running through him, and the fact that I can see Brendon again, if I want.
Something in him says that today definitely won't be the last time he sees Brendon.