krystalkatzficz | The little merman part 2

Ohno Satoshi sang as he climbed aboard his boat. There was a slight drizzle falling around him, soaking into the t-shirt he was wearing but he paid it no attention. Other small pleasure boats would stay ashore but he liked being out on the ocean. It was strange even if he was alone he never felt lonely. It was as though somebody was with him, he had felt like that for months but a week ago he was sure he had seen something in the corner of his eye. White flesh and black hair. He thought he heard something too, a disapproving voice or at the very least it sounded disapproving whatever it was.

“Going alone again?” A rough voice said behind him and Satoshi turned to see the captain of a commercial ship he was friendly with looking at him with his lips twisted into the approximation of a friendly smile the scars around his lower lip making it impossible to smile completely. “Anyone would think you were ensnared by a siren”

“A what?”

“A siren, you know the stories right lad? The sirens on the rocks that call a man to go insane?”

“Can’t say I do” Satoshi shook his head slowly his mind filled with the near ghostly image of black hair and white skin. “What do they look like?”

“I dunno, never had the pleasure of seeing one myself” The captain laughed the sound throaty and deep. Satoshi had always gotten on with the man often sharing a drink with him in the bar of an evening but he had never asked where he came from. He was one of a few foreign fishermen around the docks but he spoke passable Japanese even if there was a twang every now and then of an accent “It’s just a story lad, but they are meant to be beautiful voluptuous woman, every man’s desire and their voices are the song of the sea. It’s meant to lure a man to his death”

“What about saving their life?” Satoshi asked. He couldn’t remember much from a week ago when he had been sick but he did remember that he woke up on the deck of his ship soaked to the skin in sea water but very much alive. “Would a siren save a life?”

“I don’t think so, they are more about taking lives than saving them, why did something happen?” Satoshi thought he could trust the old captain he really did but the thought that he would think him crazy prevented him from speaking. That and the thought that if had been saved by a siren it probably had its reasons for not wanting to be seen.

“No, nothing just wondering out loud, I should be going”

“Aye, if you head due north there was some fish this morning”

“Thank, Captain” Satoshi smiled climbing up onto his boat as the captain untied the rope and cast him off with a cheerful wave which Satoshi returned. He powered up the engine of the boat and rode the waves out of the port and into open waters. He knew the captain had told him to go north but he headed east heading to the spot he almost always went and floated. There was never much in the way of fish but as he didn’t catch for the profit he was always happy with the few he did get. He switched of the engine and cast his lines before settling into a camping chair he had stowed away inside his cabin.

Rain trickled its way down his face but he focused his gaze away from the lines and to the buoys on the other side remembering how one had managed to get itself loose the day he ended up unconscious and covered with water.

It took a long time, in fact Satoshi had almost drifted to sleep, until he heard the lightest of thuds and then the sound of something braking water. It was a normal sound he supposed being out on the ocean but the feeling of somebody watching him was strong.

“It’s wet today” He muttered his voice croaking just a little while he tried to be as calm as he possibly could. It was a difficult thing to do when he was probably speaking to something he didn’t understand but whatever it was had helped him and he wanted it to know that he was grateful. “Nothing’s biting” he tried again glad that this time his voice sounded normal. The rain had stopped for the moment but judging by the clouds that were coming overhead it was going to get worse soon.

He tried to talk for a while but when nothing happened he got up from the chair and walked over to his lines making pretence of checking them as he planned to fall into the water. It was a risk if he was wrong but he could feel eyes on him and he made up his mind and fell forward closing his eyes as his face met water. Nothing happened as he slipped beneath the waves and he had to fight his instincts to swim to the surface. His eyes were still closed until suddenly a hand came to touch his and then they opened.

The sight which greeted him was disturbing. An almost white body turned green from the ocean. It looked almost like a corpse given a water burial but it was naked with long black hair that was all around him like a loose cape. His eyes, because it was a he, were wide and he was breathing through slits behind his ears. His fingers were a little bit webbed as were his feet but otherwise he looked human. Forgetting that he was underwater Satoshi opened his mouth and a bubble escaped before suddenly he was pulled up out of the ocean. Out of the water he saw that the figure wasn’t as white as it had been under the water but his eyes were narrow watching him with his mouth still covered. Satoshi breathed deep almost taking in some water of his own gripping tightly at the hand knowing that if he let go his rescuer would flee.

“You…You’re…You’re the one that watches me?” He said slowly in surprise and it was clear that the siren could understand him but he didn’t speak just shrugged his shoulders slowly “You saved my life didn’t you…Last week? I don’t remember what happened but…I think you saved me…” The siren seemed about to pull away and Satoshi held him more tightly “No, please…Don’t go, I want to thank-you…I…I would be dead if it weren’t for you. Thank-you…” The siren seemed to give a sigh and then pointed to the boat and Satoshi understood that he was telling him to get out of the water and on to the boat. “Okay, but you will come too?”

The Siren nodded with a great deal of reluctance and Satoshi decided to believe him swimming to the boat and pulling himself up the ladder the siren following close behind. Satoshi took out a blanket from the storage and was about to cover himself in it before realising that the siren was completely naked. He didn’t seem to be embarrassed by it but Satoshi found it difficult to talk to a beautiful naked man even if he was a siren and offered him the blanket. The man looked at him confused and Satoshi let out a sigh and moved forward wrapping it around him and getting far too close to his neck as he did so.

For something that lived under the water he smelt fresh and warm reminding Satoshi of holidays spent in Okinawa with his parents. Realising that he was sniffing the young siren he moved away not before noticing that the gills on the boy’s neck had closed giving him the appearance of a scar on either side of his neck and his eyes were just a touch shiny in the light as though he was used to seeing in the dark.

“You are a siren?” He asked slowly surprised when the boy shook his head from side to side before shrugging and nodding. “Can you speak?” Again came the same shake and nod while his brow furrowed in irritation. “You can understand me?” The nod was more certain now and Satoshi gave a smile “But you can’t speak…Human?” Another nod and then a strange little mime where his young not siren touched his throat and then seemed to mimic somebody walking into water. “You make people walk into the ocean?” a shake and a nod before he held up two fingers in a cross in front of his face. “You don’t mean to?” A nod and a smile greeted his words and Satoshi hummed a little before asking “Did you save me? Yes? Why?” A furrow of confusion greeted his words as he cocked his head to one side “Sorry, too difficult, do you watch me?” A flush seemed to spread over his cheeks and Satoshi noticed he looked guilty to the side of the boat “Just you watch me?” A nod came reluctantly from the siren and Satoshi smiled guessing that he was flattered that the not siren had an interest in him. “Can you write? Um…write…” he said searching around for paper and a pen feeling the eyes of the siren on him at all times.

TBC

A/N: Whistles this wanted to be longer…I hope you don’t mind…They weren’t going to ever meet originally but…Yeah…I wanted some interaction.