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One thing Caleb would never let himself be is idle. His self worth has always been something he measured with his hands, found in the tangible things he can do and provide for others. He couldn’t just take the summer off while waiting to start his new job, couldn’t indulge in some well deserved rest and relaxation after completing his masters in aerospace engineering. Of course not.
He had to come across that post titled "Lifeguards Needed!", had to dust off his old certification and end up here, out on the beach just after sunrise to check the buoys that demarcate the swimming area he keeps watch over.
Caleb grew up on these beaches, running the distance between his grandmother’s house and the shore more times than he could count. He’s helping her clear out that same house now, having long since known that she was losing her independence.
Which reminds him, he has to get the spare key to the realtor by-
A splash in the distance pulls Caleb from his thoughts. No one is ever in the water at this hour. He turns toward the horizon, but the water that stretches out before him is still, reflecting every piece of the azure sky above it in a perfect mirror. Caleb is about to brush it off when he hears it again.
This time he catches it- the faintest glimpse of a fin disappearing beneath the surf. Must be a dolphin. Satisfied, Caleb trudges back up the sand toward his station, ready to start another day.
The most eventful part of his shift, like always, is warning a few kids not to swim out of bounds. He doesn’t bother to change before heading out to his grandma’s place, eager to finish sorting through the last few boxes stacked in her living room.
The smell of jasmine and anise hits him as soon as he unlocks the front door, his grandmother’s favourite incense having seeped into the walls in the years, decades that Caleb’s known this house. He bounded up the steps for the first time when he was only as tall as her hip. Now she hardly reaches his.
After having lunch, Caleb sets to work. It’s mostly papers left at this point and he quickly does away with anything, like the receipt for a set of wine glasses bought fifteen years ago, that holds no practical or sentimental value.
There’s plenty of photos from Caleb’s childhood which he places into a smaller box, trying to avoid getting caught up in nostalgia. It doesn’t serve him, not when he has no one to share it with.
Once he’s reached the bottom of the box, something catches the light. Caleb lifts the small baggy to his eyeline, inspecting its contents. A single, pearlescent scale. It’s strikingly beautiful, about the size of his thumbnail and just as thin. He huffs softly. Even if it’s nothing more than a little souvenir his grandmother picked up off the beach with the same thought in mind, Caleb feels compelled to keep it.
In the days that pass, he all but forgets about the little scale tucked in the front pocket of his lifeguard bag. The beach sees more traffic than ever and, though perhaps it shouldn’t excite him as much as it does, Caleb has to swim out to rescue a young boy that panics after taking on a mouthful of salt water. His mother and sister lavish Caleb with praise once he helps the boy back to shore, making that deep seated desire of his to be useful, to be needed, preen even as he waves it off as “just doing his job”.
Caleb continues his watch until the sand slowly clears at dusk, tents and blankets packed away, children napping contentedly on their father’s shoulders. The sand beneath his feet is already cooling as he does a once over of the beach, checking for any items that will need to be added to the lost and found. It’s not what’s on the sand that catches his attention though.
Set on a small outcropping of rocks at the far edge of the beach is another scale. It’s perfectly placed on the highest peak, which Caleb knows remains above the tide at all times. Plucking it off the rocks, he examines the shape and subtle luster. It’s identical to the one from his grandmother’s house.
Caleb knows he should let it go. He’s on the beach half the day. Finding a scale washed up on shore isn’t worth a second thought, but he can’t tear his gaze from the way it manages to cast off a gentle shimmer even in the sun’s fading light.
He resolves to keep this one too. At least they’ll be a pair, then.
The sight makes your heart soar.
You watch, bobbing along with the waves as the human you’ve become so enamoured with pockets your little offering. Oh, how that same heart aches to see him up close, to have him see you. You long to call out to him, feeling confident now after observing him for weeks and weeks that he’d be kind and gentle with you. He’s kind to all the little ones on the shore. Strong, too. Swimming almost as fast as you is not small feat, considering-
“Hey!” A commanding, masculine voice calls out over the water. “It’s too dark! Get out of the water!”
You immediately submerge yourself beneath the waves, pausing for a moment. The tender gills over your ribs flutter in their efforts to keep you breathing as you silently chastise yourself for such carelessness. Even from here you can hear him calling out again, asking if you’re alright. Your understanding of human language is childlike at best, but the concern is clear in his tone.
The momentary lack of response is enough for Caleb. He dives into the ocean without hesitation, bubbles surging around him. He cuts through the water effortlessly, leaving you with mere seconds to choose- swim away and risk leading him into unforgiving waters if he pursues (he will) or face him.
Your young heart pounds, body frozen in indecision. In spite of all your faith in Caleb, you know he’s only human. And that humans fear what they don’t understand.
When he gets within ten metres of you, you surface once more.
“Stop!” It’s how parents on the shore keep their children from going too far, your voice mimicking the tone you’ve heard carried across the water so many times before. Caleb surfaces, perhaps a bit less gracefully than you did. He blinks the salt from his eyes, almost frantic until they focus on you.
“Hey, it’s okay.” He’s slightly calmer now that he can see you’re attentive and gently treading water. This is the first time you’ve heard his voice from so close. For a brief moment, it’s louder than the memory of your parents telling you to keep away from the shore.
“S-stop!” You repeat, brow pinching inward as your mind scrambles for the words that will get Caleb to turn around. Ignoring your pleas, he slowly brings himself closer to you.
“You’re not in trouble.” Caleb’s voice becomes even softer as he draws near, his suspicions of your age confirmed now that he’s able to get a better look. Fifteen at most. “But you have to come back to the shore with me, alright?”
The water between the two of you gently churns as he draws even closer. Caleb can sense how nervous you are and he knows it’s not in the way teenage girls usually get around him, causing them to walk past the lifeguard station five times in an hour.
“Please, come with me,” he coaxes you once more, voice like honey. Distress morphs your features into something so helpless, Caleb’s heart clenching at the sight. Your hair is long and unkempt, but he supposes that’s not unusual for a young girl half-submerged in the ocean.
“Can’t.”
“Why not?”
At last, you know you have no choice. Your tail crests over the waves, pearlescent scales catching the dim moonlight. Those scales that Caleb knows so well.
The sight renders him speechless, so thoroughly shocked that he nearly forgets to continue treading water for a moment. That moment gives you the head start you need. It’s late enough now that he quickly loses sight of you even when he ducks underwater, furiously blinking against the salt that stings at his eyes. All he finds is darkness and the subtle sway of the waves.
Caleb’s mind reels as he lets himself be carried back to shore with the rising tide. He saw the curl of your lashes, heard the stutter in your words. You were real.
He thumbs the two scales in his pocket as he makes the short walk home, images of your wide eyes and gentle expression playing through his mind in a steady loop.
A mermaid. It’s utterly ridiculous, the stuff of fantasy. Caleb has always dealt in calculus and physics, equations and theorems with tangible, predictable answers. He would be the last person to fall victim to such suggestion, but it’s not a suggestion at all, is it? He saw you.
And he longs to see you again. Caleb watches the water every day, like a sailor waiting for the sweet sight of land on the horizon. Your absence and how little he can do to absolve himself of it frustrates him. What is he meant to do? Search the entire ocean for you? As an entire week passes, Caleb finds himself believing he would.
He arrives early when he’s on the morning shift and stays late when he’s the one to lock up the lifeguard station, aware that you won’t appear while the beach is fraught with other humans. No, you only showed yourself to him.
“Come on...” He mutters under his breath, eyes scanning the waves beneath the early morning light. “Come on, sweetheart.”
As if responding directly to his call, your sweet, innocent face crests just outside the swimming area’s boundary. Caleb’s never dove in faster. His eagerness forces a smile onto your face, laughter bubbling along the ocean’s surface.
“Don’t run away from me this time, okay?” He calls out, casting a careful glance back to the shore to ensure it’s still empty.
Run- when the humans let their legs carry them fast and far. He’s asking you to stay. Gently, you nod.
“Good, good,” he smiles with relief, the sight breathtaking. “Just take it easy.”
For a few moments you sway along with the waves and one another, both in silent awe from the sudden proximity to a world you’ve never known.
“Do you have a name?” Caleb questions, desperate to know what to call this precious little thing in front of him. When you speak your name, it’s the sweetest gift. He repeats it once, twice, just to ensure he’s got the flow right. Then, he’s proven wrong. It’s your smile. That’s the sweetest thing he’s ever had the pleasure of witnessing, your pointed canines somehow adorable when set between your plush, pink lips. “Caleb,” he announces, pointer finger turned toward himself.
“Cay-lub,” you echo, expression serious in your effort to perfectly mimic each syllable. It makes Caleb’s chest ache.
“Yeah, that’s it.” He grins, hopelessly endeared by the way your brow pinches in thought each time he speaks. Even if you can’t understand every word that leaves his lips, it’s enough just to know the soothing tone of his voice, the way he speaks like a parent would to their child. “Do you live out here?”
Live, home.
“Y-yes.” Caleb’s eyes lock onto your slender wrist as you gesture to the water around you. “Shallow.”
“You live in the shallow water.” His heartbeats stutters when your eyes light up, obviously pleased by the successful attempt at communication.
Your body shifts to point out toward the horizon.
“Boat...fast.” Just two simple words, but they send a wave of nausea rolling through Caleb. Close to shore the boats have to move at reduced speeds, so that’s where you stay. How terrifying it would be for you to be caught in the path of a hulking piece of machinery, how cruel to be culled from the waters you’ve always called home by a predator that won’t even claim your body for sustenance.
“Stay close to the shore,” Caleb repeats, voice soft and encouraging. For the sake of your safety of course, not the resulting proximity to his watchful gaze.
Behind him, the days first beach goers begin their trek down the shore. Your soft gasp doesn’t go unnoticed, but he’s quick to soothe.
“It’s okay. No one’s gonna hurt you.”
The thought of you returning to the vastness of the ocean makes his stomach roil, but he knows it’s time.
“I’ll be here again in two days.” Caleb holds up his fingers for emphasis, relieved when you nod in understanding.
Those two days are painful, nearly forcing Caleb back to the shore on his day off in hopes of catching a glimpse of you. Those two scales aren’t laying forgotten in a pocket anymore, no. They’re on his nightstand, embraced in the warmth between his thumb and forefinger as he lies in bed each night. He has no doubt. They’re your scales, left just for him. He holds them tenderly, like he holds the memory of your toothy smile and your tangled hair floating atop the waves. It strikes him, as his free hand lazily trails above the waistband of his sweats, that he’s only seen you from the shoulders up. Christ, it’s just a fraction of your body and it’s already perfect.
How does your torso give way to your tail? He tugs his cock free from beneath the cotton fabric. Is it a sharp boundary, or a gentle ease from skin to scale?
Is your chest covered? No, Caleb resolves as he swipes away a bead of precum. Even beneath the waves he could see that there was nothing more to conceal you than your hair.
His grip tightens, slowly dragging from base to tip and back again.
Can you pleasure yourself like this? Your anatomy, or rather the enigmatic quality of it, makes Caleb jerk his hips up into his fist. Surely you have a cute little cunt tucked away, just below where your tail meets your stomach. Would your fins flutter and send ripples through the waves if he slipped a finger inside? Would your gills do the same, desperately drawing in oxygen as your chest heaves in pleasure?
Caleb’s does. He curses under his breath as he reaches his peak, the memory of your radiant smile shining light onto even the darkest desires in his mind. He mutters your name as he spills into his palm and comes to a conclusion. It doesn’t matter how impractical it is to accomplish.
Caleb needs you.
The next morning brings rain, but it does nothing to deter Caleb. If anything, it encourages him. Poor weather means less beachgoers and subsequently, more time with you. He waits at the water’s edge, squinting between sheets of rain and praying for you to appear. Against the dim grey sky, he spots a silhouette bobbing in the water. Already soaked, he doesn’t hesitate.
He calls your name over the cresting waves and you- sweet, perfect, beautiful you, hold out your hands to him. Caleb grasps them without hesitation, attempting to hold you steady against the increasingly turbulent waters. Words fail him for a moment, the way the length of your hand nearly fits in his palm sending an overwhelming surge of desire through his chest.
“Storm.” You nod up toward the clouds that seem to be darkening with each passing minute. “Careful.”
Caleb can’t stop himself from cooing. You’re worried for him.
“I’m alright. I just had to see you.” The conviction in his voice makes the words easy to understand. The concern you hold for him is mutual and it quickly spikes when thunder rumbles in the distance.
“Night.” Your body shifts to try and guide him back to shore. “Cave?”
Caleb lets your slender hand go to allow you to point down the beach. He knows exactly what you’re referring to. The intertidal caves are submerged during the day, but open up at night, often playing host to local teenagers looking for a place to crush cheap beers. After a storm though, they’re likely to be empty.
“Tonight?”
You nod eagerly.
“I’ll be there, sweetheart. I promise.”
Your snaggletooth smile nearly knocks him dead in the water. The waves claim you again, but Caleb takes solace in the fact that these goodbyes are numbered. He’ll make sure of it.
It takes a few hours for the storm to pass, a handful of curious souls venturing onto the sand in its wake. None of them approach the water though, much to his relief. Lifeguarding duties are far from Caleb’s mind as he counts down the minutes to nightfall.
He navigates the cave’s entrance with practiced ease, testing that each step will bear his weight before carrying on. Thankfully, the chamber at the bottom of the slope is silent, save for the gentle lapping of water against stone. Caleb lays out his windbreaker, taking a seat on a rock slab that juts out over the water. He props his flashlight upwards as well, bathing the cave in a soft white glow to make up for what the moon can’t reach. Then, he waits.
He’s not worried, lost in the mental image of you effortlessly gliding through the waves on your way to see him. It only takes twenty minutes for the slap of a fin to echo near the cave’s entrance. You surface just an arm’s reach from the rock he’s perched on, eyes wide as if you can’t believe he really kept his promise.
“There you are,” Caleb exhales, clearly just as delighted.
“Caleb.” Your voice reaches him as a gentle, reverent whisper.
“Yeah.” He grins, nodding slowly as he allows himself to take in all of you from his vantage point. The slim line of your shoulders, your rosy cheeks, the gentle ripples your tail sends out into the water around you. Caleb speaks before he can think better of it. “So pretty.”
For the first time since you met, Caleb watches your gaze fall away from him. You understood that he gave you a compliment and now you’re shy. He can’t help wanting to push a little more.
“Come here, sweetheart.” Gently, Caleb extends his hand.
Your hand is so slender placed in his, warm despite the cool water surrounding you. For a few moments, you can’t help simply tracing your fingers over his palm in awe, the veins and tendons mirroring yours so well.
“Caleb...old?”
He lets out a soft huff at the question, instantly understanding what you’re trying to ask.
“I’m twenty seven.” Caleb watches as you purse your lips, clearly trying to make sense of the number. How does one measure time beneath the waves? “A young adult. Do you know how old you are, sweetheart?”
The question only serves to deepen the quizzical expression on your face. Then, something seems to click.
“Born...light.” Your finger turns in a slow circle, intriguing Caleb.
“Light,” he echoes, watching the movement. A light that spins. “The lighthouse?”
There’s one a few kilometres down the beach, the peak of it just visible from Caleb’s lifeguard station. You nod, cautious but hopeful. Attempting to help along your understanding, Caleb pulls up a picture on his phone.
You blink in surprise as he turns the screen toward you, trying to comprehend how the lighthouse could appear on this tiny little device.
“It’s a photo,” Caleb explains gently. You’ve heard the word before, when families gather together on the sand and smile as wide as they can. It’s a memory.
“Lighthouse,” you nod gently, pointing at the screen. “Born, light on.”
“You were born when the lighthouse turned on,” Caleb repeats, almost cooing with pride. Your face shines brighter than its beacon ever could, reminded of your mother. She always said it’s guiding light was just for you.
Caleb scrolls down on his phone to find that the lighthouse was completed fifteen years ago. Right all along.
“You’re fifteen, sweetheart.”
“Fifteen,” you repeat slowly. It shouldn’t set his stomach roiling the way it does.
“Just a guppy, aren’t you?” Delighted laughter bounces off the walls, momentarily tempering the fire building in Caleb’s gut. Your cheek rise as you giggle, round and flush even in the dim light of the cave.
“Not a guppy!” It’s a siren song, your childish protest, reinforcing Caleb’s belief that he can’t live without you.
“You are,” he insists softly, reaching out his hand again. This time, you inch yourself toward him. His knuckles brush your cheekbone, gentle yet claiming. His eyes roam over your delicate features, the subtle adaptations like your enlarged pupils, meant for a life beneath the waves.
Carefully, so as not to startle you, Caleb’s hand drags down your neck.The air in the cave was thin before, but now it feels stifling.
“Come closer,” he beckons, prompting you to rest your forearms on the rock shelf. He can’t believe how soft your skin is, how small you are. As Caleb’s touch brushes over your collarbone, your tail flutters. No man, no human has ever touched you before. The very thought makes him ravenous.
Before he can think better of it, Caleb’s fingers dip below the water and skim along your side, along the gills that flutter over your ribs. He can feel them move with each breath you take, the rhythm hypnotizing. He can’t help hooking his finger under the skin as you exhale.
You squeal his name, thrashing helplessly in the water as his other hand darts out to grab your waist.
“Shh, shh,” he soothes, not removing his fingers. “You’re okay. I’ve got you.”
“Ca-aleb,” you hiccup, his touch maddening. It’s like he’s pressing into the edge of a wound, drawing out all of the things that should remain buried inside of you.
Caleb only shushes you again, eyes dark and set on the way your chest heaves with soft pants.
“Just let me touch you, sweet girl. I’m not going to hurt you.”
You can’t exactly follow what he’s saying, but the sound is as soft and soothing as a mother assuring her child.
“So soft here, aren’t you?” Caleb’s enthralled, unable to pull his fingers from beneath the flap of your gills. Slowly, your twitching and whimpered protests ease. “That’s it.” His hand slowly rises from your waist to tuck a damp lock of hair behind your ear. “You can trust me.”
“Trust...Caleb.” The words are tentative, but no less sincere. Caleb’s heart sings.
“Yes. Trust me.” His lips descend to your forehead, holding there just long enough to make you lose your breath. “That’s a good girl.”
Something in his tone, in the way he looks at you like you’re the only star in the sky makes you want foolish things, impossible things, and you can’t help sinking into his hold. He seems to read your thoughts effortlessly.
“I know. I know, sweetheart. I don’t want to leave you either.” His hand returns to gently cradle your cheek. “But what about your family, hm?”
It has to be your idea. It has to be your guilt he’s easing.
“Family.” You pause for a moment before uttering a single word that makes Caleb’s stomach lurch. “Left.”
“You left your family?” The mere thought causes his grip on your waist to tighten. You’re a child. If you were human you’d still be in school, years away from living on your own.
Aware of the disapproving tone in his voice, your expression falls.
“Oh, no sweetheart,” Caleb coos, cradling your face in one wide palm. “I’m not angry with you. You’re just too young to be on your own.”
Too young to be without him.
“I want you to come here every night, okay?”
“Every night?” You're so soft and sweet as you echo his words, chest pressing up against the rocks.
“Yes.” Caleb’s thumb swipes along your cheekbone. “When the sun goes down, I’ll be here waiting for you.”
He keeps his promise for the next night, and the next after that. Each time you glide into the cave just as dusk settles in, as ethereal as ever.
Caleb learns about what you eat (mostly small fish, but oysters are your favourite), where you sleep (a smattering of rocks a few kilometres off shore), and all the little adaptations that make you suited for a life beneath the waves. His heart pangs with affection as you proudly show off your pointed teeth, the fins that curve along your forearm and behind your ears, the shimmering scales of your tail.
As it sways in the water, Caleb feels the restraint he’s been holding onto so tightly begin to fray under the strain. Without a word, he slips off his trainers and t-shirt, sinking into the water beside you.
Your expression is something between awe and trepidation. In all your little trysts, he’s never been this close. You can see the defined muscles of his biceps, the gentle curve of his collarbone, his smooth, tanned skin in all its glory. So preoccupied, his next words barely register in your mind.
“Can I touch here?” Caleb’s hand slides beneath the water, moving to cup your hip where skin gives way to scales.
You give a gentle gasp, but otherwise don’t protest. Your scales are softer than he expected, almost silken when he brushes his palm downwards.
“You’re so beautiful,” Caleb murmurs, eyes trained on the dip of your waist, so fragile in his hands.
Your soft voice suddenly rings out in the quiet of the sea cave.
“Caleb...mate?”
In all the days you’ve known him, this is the first time Caleb’s looked unsure.
“Mate?” He echoes, clearing his throat as he tries to discern if you’re using that word as a noun or... “Like a partner?”
“Partner.” You think it over for a moment before nodding, allowing his shoulders to visibly relax.
“No, sweetheart. I don’t have a partner. No mate.” The subtle widening of your eyes, the pattering of your heartbeat, Caleb catches it all. You want him. Probably not even half as badly as he wants you, but that little spark of desire is enough, especially in an innocent young thing like you. All he has to do is fan the flames.
“Why do you ask, hm? My little girl doesn’t have a mate, does she?” It’s the first time you’ve heard that possessive ‘my’ fall from Caleb’s lips. The sound of it makes your tummy warm.
He hears your breath hitch and expects you to balk, but-
“Caleb mate.” It’s not a question this time.
You’re already at the age that many of your kind are giving birth, the pursuit of a mate your reason for leaving home in the first place. It’s only natural that, presented with a strong, handsome male, your instincts are sounding off. So what if he walks on two legs?
“Sweetheart,” Caleb chokes out, gripping you just a little bit tighter. Despite this very moment having already played out in his head on countless occasions, he never expected you to be the one to incite it. The pressure of his palm splayed flat across your back pushes the two of you together, lips just a hairsbreadth apart. “Are you sure about this?”
You nod, expression so painfully sweet in spite of what you’re asking for.
“Caleb is good.”
Oh, christ. You think he’s good. You want him to mate with you because you think he’s worthy, capable of taking care of you and your child.
“No, no,” he exhales against your ear. “You’re good, sweetheart. Too good for me.”
One thing Caleb would never let himself be is idle. He would never let an opportunity pass him by, and certainly not one as precious as this.
“I’m going to take care of you.” His exhale trails along the shell of your ear, sending a shiver down your back.
One hand comes to wrap around the curve of your hip, while the other drifts up toward your chest, the sensitive flesh that’s been hidden from him all this time.
“Beautiful,” Caleb murmurs as he pushes your hair out of the way, exposing your breasts to the warm night air. His eyes are locked on your face as he rolls a nipple between his thumb and forefinger, drinking in the way your expression pinches and your lips part. It’s so achingly clear you’ve never had anyone touch you like this and it sends his heart pounding.
Your body guides you through the motions however, prompting you to reach up and tangle a hand in Caleb’s hair, arch your back into touch. It feels good, knowing he’s here to take care of you.
Caleb’s tongue laves across the crook of your neck, lapping up every trace of salt he can find. He can feel your tail stirring the water beneath you, your body instinctively reacting to his attention. When his lips replace his fingers at your breast, your soft cry nearly drives him out of his mind.
“Shh, shh,” he soothes against your chest, “I’ve got you, sweet girl.” His firm grip on your waist keeps you in place, even as your body squirms in newfound ecstasy.
Caleb can feel himself growing painfully hard as he mouths at your chest, his body ravenous even if his mind knows he needs to take this slow, for your sake as well as his as he attempts to discern exactly how this is going to work. His first order of business is to tug his shorts off, the cool water around his cock providing some small relief.
Your eyes naturally trail downward to the sight of it, frozen in awe. Even if you have little to compare it to, the ache in your gut tells you it’s perfect. The visible weight, the way it curves up toward his belly button, the flush of his tip that’s dribbling out precum-
“There we go,” Caleb murmurs, snapping you out of your reverie. His cock ruts against your stomach, even hotter and heavier than you expected. “Nothing between us now.”
“Nothing between us.” Your gentle voice echoes as Caleb’s mouth dips to the crook of your neck again. His fingers trail downwards from your belly button, an intention in his movements that tells you he’s looking for something.
“H-here.” Your delicate fingers grasp his wrist, guiding him toward where the apex of your thighs might be. For a moment Caleb assumes you’re simply touching him for the sake of it, until he feels something warm and welcoming, like the slit of your gills only vertical and-
“Yeah, there?” He exhales, tentatively pressing a fingertip inside. Your reaction is instantaneous, a soft moan bouncing off the damp walls of the cave. Caleb could find heaven in the sound.
His finger sinks deeper, up until the knuckle. Your warmth around him is intoxicating, his cock throbbing with the need to be wrapped up in it.
“Good, you’re doing so good,” Caleb soothes against your ear. “Just a bit more then we can mate, my sweet girl.” Another thick finger eases in alongside the first, the water between you and Caleb quickly becoming warm.
The sound of Caleb’s name has never been more precious to him than it is falling from your lips in a desperate plea. He continues to try and calm you, his words effective if the way you flutter around him is anything to go off of.
Your fingers wrap around his bicep, head spinning when they fail to make it even halfway around the sheer width.
“You have no idea, the things you do to me,” Caleb husks, shuddering at the friction of your ridged scales against his cock. “The things I’ve dreamed of doing since they day I saw you.”
“Caleb!” He doesn’t mind at all that his name is almost the only word you can manage. If he has it his way, your vocabulary won’t even need to progress any further. You’re just so sweet, so oblivious like this, and it only makes him more desperate to wear in your little cunt.
Gently, Caleb eases his fingers out of you, impressed by how slick they are. Such a receptive little thing you are, made to breed.
“How are you feeling, sweetheart?” He pants against your neck, gliding the fingers that had just been inside of you over the tip of his cock. “You alright?”
“I-I’m alright.” You assure him in spite of the way his grip on your waist seems to be the only thing holding you upright at the moment.
“Okay-” Caleb shifts to give you a bit more support, leaning you against the rock wall. “How’s that?” He’s practically just babbling at this point, so desperate to be inside you that the reality of what he’s doing, sinking his cock into some kind of folk creature more than ten years his junior, being questionable at best hardly occurs to him.
“G-good. Please, Caleb.” You hardly even know what you’re begging for, but you can tell your body is ripe and wanting for him. His lithe fingers find that slit in your tail again, nudging in gently before they’re replaced with something infinitely warmer.
The intrusion hardly even pains you, you’re so soft and wet and good for him.
“Oh god,” Caleb grits out, fingertips digging into your waist as he attempts to maintain any semblance of self control. “Oh god, meimei.”
The word hardly registers in your mind through the pants and moans filling the cave. It sounds sweet, like all the other pet names he calls you, and you assume that’s what it is.
“Meimei?”
“Yeah, meimei.” He nods as his cock eases forward, finally bottoming out. “You’re my meimei.”
You look so much like her, after all. And the very same waters that took her gave Caleb you. It only makes sense in his mind.
“You’ll be my meimei.” Angling his cock just right, Caleb nudges against what he assumes is your cervix, a low growl of satisfaction rumbling through him. “And I’ll take care of you. I’ll never let anything happen to you, my sweet girl.”
The water around you sloshes as Caleb drives his hips forward with even more fervour, desperate to claim you, to make you believe the words that come out of his mouth through touch if you can’t understand their meaning.
He bundles you in his arms, wide palm cradling your head against his shoulder.
“My good girl. My meimei. God, I’ve waited so long for this.”
Sixteen years, give or take. He was only a child back then, wholly unable to rescue his sister from the rogue wave that swept her out to sea. She was Caleb’s everything, his entire world held in a little girl with pigtails and a laugh he’d give anything to hear once more.
Not a day goes by where he doesn’t dream of that tiny hand reaching above the churning waves, reaching for her big brother one last time.
Perhaps all those years of silently begging the sea to bring her back worked.
“So beautiful.” Caleb noses against your jaw, nipping and mouthing over any skin he can get to. “So perfect. My perfect little sister.”
“Caleb!” His cock ruts so deep, nudging against your cervix and making you cry out.
“Gege,” he corrects sharply. “Call me gege.”
Your mind is much too hazy to try and discern what it means, to remember how and when you’ve heard it used by the humans on your beach. All you want is to make Caleb happy.
“Gege.” The word is like a symphony off your lips, echoing in the damp cave and making Caleb’s heart throb.
“That’s it, sweet girl. That’s right. I’m your gege.” Caleb’s words are breathless now, his grip bruising as he approaches orgasm. “Just- just a little more.”
His teeth bear down on your neck, your nails digging at his shoulderblades as if the two of you could find a way to never be apart if you just tore away enough skin.
Caleb empties himself inside of you with a low moan, that unfamiliar name spilling from his lips once again.
“Meimei,” he pants, sweat dampened forehead pressing against yours. “God, you’re- you’re so good. Perfect for me.” A gentle rush of kisses washes over you, your cheeks, your jaw, your nose and lips, even as Caleb cradles you to his chest with far too much force.
You wouldn’t leave, not now, but he can’t take that chance.
When the two of you have had a moment to catch your breath, Caleb eases his cock out of your slit, a trail of cum turning the water between you milky. His wide hands cradle your face, gazing down at you with a tenderness that seems to wear away all your inhibitions.
“I love you.”
Those words you know, and repeat them back to him in the sweetest whisper.
The chill of the evening finally sets in now that your bodies are still, making you cling to him a little tighter. Caleb knows it’s time.
With a quick inhale his forearm finds its way beneath the seat of your tail, lifting upwards.
“Gege?” Your voice comes out pitched, clearly taken aback.
“Shh. It’s okay, meimei,” Caleb soothes, hauling you out of the water and setting you on the rock ledge. “Let me do what I need to.”
Your heart pounds, the sensation uncomfortable and stifling. It only gets this hard to breathe when you spot a fresh carcass in the water.
Caleb follows you up onto the ledge, still behaving as if this were perfectly normal. From his backpack he fetches his shorts and an extra shirt, the fabric eased over your damp form. The unfamiliar restriction of clothing makes you squirm, expression pinched.
“Don’t fuss. You can take it off when we get home.”
Home? Your home is-
Caleb catches your gaze darting toward the open water, moving faster than your thoughts can. Your tail is swiftly wrapped in a towel, concealed as Caleb lifts you into his arms once again.
“So light,” he murmurs, beginning to climb out of the cave with little concerted effort. The sky opens up, your head on a swivel as you experience the beach from an angle you’ve never seen before.
“Go home?” Your small voice questions.
“Yeah, meimei.” Caleb nudges your cheek with his nose while you cling to him. “We’re going home.”
Naturally, the streets are quiet at this time of night, but even the handful of tourists and locals that mill about don’t pay the two of you much attention. Caleb can’t help but be endeared as you stare at every little thing- the automatic doors on the convenience store, a passing delivery truck, a small dog walking with its owner.
In your awe, you forget to question what on earth Caleb’s thinking. You are not a human. You don’t belong on land. Surely he just wants to keep you close for the night and will return you to the ocean tomorrow. Surely.
After a few minutes, Caleb turns onto a side street.
“This is us,” he murmurs, tugging the keys from his pocket as he approaches a lowrise apartment building. You’ve never had anything as permanent as a brick and mortar home, the idea incredibly intriguing to you. Caleb carries you up two sets of stairs before stopping in front of a door marked ‘306’.
The apartment is sizeable and clean, every room imbued with Caleb’s scent.
“Let’s get you in here, meimei.” You’re carried to the bathroom, the tub already filled as if Caleb had planned this before he even left the house tonight. Bare once more, he lowers you into the tepid water. It feels nothing like the ocean and even as small as you are your tail awkwardly flips over the edge of the tub.
“Gege...” He can see the confusion in your eyes, the need for clarity and comfort.
“Oh, sweet girl.” Caleb sinks to his knees beside the tub, reaching for your hand. “Everything’s going to be alright. Gege’s going to take care of you now.”
His other hand reaches for your back, rubbing soothing motions between your shoulder blades.
“Stay...with Caleb?” Your breathing is shallow, every little thing around you so new.
“Yes.” Caleb nods, pressing his lips to your temple. “Just us, meimei. Like it was always meant to be.”
He’ll have to learn your routines, when you’re hungry and tired. He’ll learn how to keep you calm and happy, hanging on to his every word. Anything for you.
Caleb is off the next day, meaning he can spend every waking moment at your side. He brushes your hair and washes your face, constantly fussing over your comfort even as he keeps you cramped in a tiny bathtub.
“Say ‘ah’, meimei.” He raises a piece of sashimi to your lips. Fresh as it should be, it still churns your stomach. It’s not the same.
This continues for several days. Caleb feeds you, reads to you, grooms you, and changes the water in the bathtub each time he sullies it with a load of cum.
To him, there is nothing better than knowing that each time he leaves the house, you will be exactly where he left you upon his return.
“Gege,” your meek voice calls to him as he kneels down beside you after work. “Tired.”
A frown mars his handsome features. He knows you’ve been sleeping. This is something deeper.
“I know, meimei. I know.” Caleb soothes his hand over your hair. “You’re tired of this little tub. Gege’s going to figure something out.”
Caleb doesn’t want it to have to come to laying out all the surgical tools in his search history before you, but he knows you deserve some semblance of a normal human life.
“Let me freshen up the water for you, sweet girl.” As the tub empties, a familiar sheen catches Caleb’s eye. One scale against the porcelain, then two, then a whole patch of five or six appearing rotted around the edges.
“Meimei,” Caleb murmurs, holding up the scales with concern in his gaze. “Is this normal?”
The way your expression falls gives Caleb his answer. One or two wouldn’t be anything to bat an eye at, but you’ve never seen them slough off in a whole shard like that before.
Your arm isn’t faring much better, reddened skin receding away from where it meets the small fin there. It’s as if your body is protesting being away from the ocean for so long, trying to push out the parts of you it believes it no longer has need of.
Caleb’s heart pounds, praying his intuition is right.
“Let me take a look at you, alright?” He lifts you from the tub, your first relief from the cramped space in days. Carefully laying you on a towel, he begins to inspect the damage.
With a slight tug the fin lifts, exposing the bloody sinews that should be connecting it to your arm. You cry out Caleb’s name, clearly panicking at the sight.
“Shh, it’s okay. It’s gonna be okay. Gege’s got you.”
More scales begin to crack and flake away beneath his touch as he moves to your tail, the smell of decay in the air.
Propping up your hip a little, Caleb at last finds the spot that the patch of scales fell from. The gasp that sounds from his lips makes you tense, but he’s quick to soothe you.
“It’s okay, meimei. I promise. It’s just- there’s skin.”
“Skin?”
“Yes-” Caleb chokes out, heart thudding behind his ribs. His fingers move with more purpose now, plucking at every scale that seems to have a little bit of give. Every glimpse of pure, unblemished skin drives him to move faster, hardly flinching as you hiss at a scale that wasn’t quite ready to let go.
“Gege, wait-”
Blood pearls in the wake of every scale pulled away, your skin raw and sensitive. Another cry finally gives Caleb pause.
“This is gonna take too long,” he mutters, suddenly rising to his feet.
Caleb returns a moment later, a knife and wooden spoon in his hand.
“Bite.” He mimes the motion with his own mouth before holding out the handle of the spoon to you. The look in his eyes may be foreign, but you still do as he says. “Good girl.”
Caleb kneels, trapping your tail between his strong thighs.
“Breath through your nose. And trust me.”
With the blunt side of the knife, Caleb beings raking your scales off of you. Despite his instructions he can hear you panting and whimpering around the spoon, the pain like a hot needle pricking your skin over and over again with every scale lost. Each one that falls to the floor is a severed connection, a sign of your freedom’s slow death as the feeling of gliding through the waves and salt on your skin fades from memory.
Caleb seems blissfully ignorant to your plight, pupils blown and focused only on revealing more and more of the skin that lies beneath your tail.
“I knew it,” he murmurs, finally coming upon the gentle curve of your thigh. His knife continues, scraping and grating for what feels like hours.
Fingers bloody and chest heaving, Caleb sits back to survey his work.
“Oh, meimei. You’re so beautiful.”
Your legs are nothing like his. They’re woven together with a thin layer of webbing, far paler than the rest of you. Your feet are permanently pointed, still framed by the remnants of your fin that haven’t been scraped away.
“Gege-” You wail around the spoon. Crystalline tears trail down your cheeks, wrought with a flurry of emotions you don’t understand.
“I’m here.” Caleb pulls you into his lap, cradling your head to his chest. “I’m here, sweet girl. Don’t cry.” His free hand skims over your thigh, in complete awe.
It’s more bitter than sweet, seeing what was hidden beneath your tail all this time, but there’s a strange comfort as well, a reassurance that maybe you are meant to be here with Caleb.
“I’m gonna take good care of you.” Even if these legs can never carry your weight, that’s alright. It might even be what Caleb wants. He can push you through the supermarket, carry you down the beach. He can finally be the big brother he was meant to.
“I promise.”
The knife drives between your thighs, making you sob against Caleb’s chest as it severs everything that held you together. The bathroom is filled with the sound of skin ripping and bright crimson splatter as Caleb carves you into exactly what he needs you to be.
In his eyes, you’ve never looked more beautiful.
***
The ocean looks much smaller now that you’re on the shore, cradled in Caleb's arms. Your legs hang around his waist, weak and scarred but undeniably human.
“Pretty, isn’t it meimei?”
You answer with a soft hum, arms wound tightly around Caleb’s neck. Your home used to be bounded only by the distances you could swim, extending far beyond the horizon the sun descends toward now.
Now your home is Caleb, but that doesn’t mean you feel restrained. You feel his care each night as he massages your ankles, attempting to improve your range of motion. You feel it when he wakes early to get you the freshest scallops at the market, when he reads you your favourite book about dolphins for the third time in a row, applies cream over the marks that indicate where your fins used to be, or braids your hair just the way you like.
“The ocean gave you to me, sweetheart,” Caleb murmurs, knuckles brushing along your cheek. Now your world is bounded by the distances Caleb would go to for you. Those only have one limit. “And I’m never letting you go.”