Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Mick’s blue rusty old fishing boat bobbed on the crashing waves of the ocean. It was a relatively nice day, and good enough day to go out fishing. Mick lives in a fishing village, a good length away from any other town. That’s what he loved about this place. The town was mostly self-sustaining, due to its fishing economy, which keeps it running. Not needing any more outside income, the town had a peaceful solitude feel to it.

Mick Mundy enjoyed his own personal company most days– which was also why he was the best suited for the job that he does. Every morning, he goes out, catches fish, and brings them back to shore. An incredibly simple job.

His favourite spot was near a steep shore of rocks, and tall trees which cast a nice, dark shade, creating a secluded corner where Mick could fish in peace, just as he always has. He planned on heading there today.

“MICK!!”

Well, just not today.

This morning, Mick was approached by a familiar friend. Jaques’ son. Before Mick could escape away on his boat, Jeremy Willis waved him down, catching his attention to run up. It was a warm day, he was wearing brown, knee length shorts, with a white shirt atop. His dogtags jingled and beat against it as he ran up.

“Heeey, Mick! Nice– nice day we’re having!”

“Speed it up, Jeremy. What do you want?”

Mick could detect his small talk, trying to butter him up and ask for something.

“I was wondering… can I come with you on the boat this morning? I… don’t have much else to do.”

“Really?”

“No.”

Jeremy seemed a little down. Mick decided he would let him ride on the boat this morning. He wasn’t afraid he would muck anything up, he had seen the boy when he was little, and he himself was not much older.

Jeremy was 8, Mick was 15. He watched him splash around in the rivers as he sat by himself on one of the tall rocks. He can recall the memory clearly. Jeremy and his friends were knee deep in the water, leaping ungracefully to try and snag a salmon swimming upstream. The boys were unsuccessful until Jeremy crept closer and closer to the water. Almost sneakily, calculating. The deep blue shadow of a hefty salmon swam up and he leapt underneath, and resurfacing with a fat salmon that writhed and wriggled in his tight clutch that used both of his entire arms. He waddled over to the riverbank and sat down his fish. It twitched in the grass as he and his friends towered over it to have a look.

“You gonna’ eat it?”

One of them asked.

“No.”

He scooped it back up, and stepped back into the river, lowering it down and releasing it. All his friends seemed unimpressed in him. Why didn’t he keep it? That thing was huge! What a waste.

Jeremy stuck his ground. He watched it swim up to the rest of its group to continue its run. He was one of the first in this town of his age to realise the respect he had to have for these creatures from the blue if he wanted to live and thrive here.

He was a well meaning boy.

“Fine. Hop on.”

Mick stepped over the side of his boat, gesturing to Jeremy to hop on with him. He happily obliged, leaping over the sides.

He could feel his presence as he bent over to untie the knot holding the boat to the dock. Mick was a little wary of Jeremy shadowing behind him. He knew the boy was a good member of crew to have from his qualities, but this was the first time he had someone accompanying him on his boat for a long, long time. Jeremy had always had a good eye for things. Maybe he would spot something interesting.

Maybe something interesting was going to happen today.

_______________________________

The waves splashed against the side of the boat as Mick stood at the edge, holding on to his fishing pole under his arm as he hung a piece of bait from the hook. Jeremy was sitting against the wall of the cabin, he had offered to help, so Mick asked him to untangle his old fishing line, which he was doing. The task was no bore for him as he was able to focus and keep his hands moving.

Mick could sense something was up with him. Contrary to himself, Jeremy was a social butterfly, usually. He could kind of imagine what was wrong with him. A fallout between friends seemed to be his diagnosis.
“Where are your mates today? You’re usually with them.”

“...Erm…”

Knew it.

“Not speaking to them, s’ all.”

“I know there’s more than that. What’s up?”

“It’s nothin’! Stop tryin’ to pry!”

Mick snapped his neck back, giving him a scowl.

“Don’t you speak to me like that.”

He growled through his sharp canines. Jeremy rolled his eyes and got up. Not wanting to anger the grumpy fisherman more, he slipped around the side of the cabin to the other side of the boat. Mick knew he had a weird feeling about him. Just some–

“EH– MICK!”

It’s always something with this one, isn’t it? The stupid bugger’s probably got himself stuck in that fishing wire of his. He slammed his pole down on the floor and grumbled over.

There he found the fishing wire bundled on the floor and Jeremy leaning over the boat as if he was being seasick. He was just staring down, deep into the water. Mick rushed over and did the same. There he saw a seal, with a speckled, tawny-pale coat. It was caught in some net that did not belong to himself, and was thrashing around in the water as the net grew tighter and tighter around its neck.

Mick immediately sprung into action.

“Help me get it up here.”

“What?”

“Don’t just stand there, help me pull it up!”

The pair both reached as far as they could into the water, grabbing hold of the net that clung so tightly around the seal. They pulled it up in unison and it rolled onto the deck with a wet slap. Mick was going to look around for something to cut off the part around its neck, but Jeremy already came prepared. He pulled out a folding knife out of his pocket and shuffled his feet around the seal to steady it.

“Why’ve you got that?”

“It’s my dad’s.”

Okay. Sure. Whatever.

Jeremy successfully managed to slice away the net that was constricting its airway, but it snarled and snipped and tried to bite his hands off as he did so. The only thing stopping it being the huge amounts of net it was tangled in.

It was clear that they couldn’t rescue this seal themselves without having their arms lost. They did know a man who was skillful enough to not let that happen to him.

Dr. Herbert Ludwig, The town’s marine biologist.

“We should bring him to the doc.” Mick suggested

“Yeah,- If Mikhail’s there, he can help us bring it in.”

Chapter Text

The motors of Mick’s boat roared as Jeremy steered it along the coast. He didn’t care about the dispute they just had, all he cared about was making sure this creature lived.

And also… Jeremy not crashing the boat. He put all his trust in him because he wanted to stay with the seal, make sure it didn’t freak out, or harm itself further. At the beginning of the drive, it snarled at Mick, bearing its teeth and scrunching up its face. But as they got closer and closer, it got tired of fighting. The only thing it could do was stare up at Mick with its giant, pearly orbs.

Putting all its trust in him.
The roar of the engine came to a stop as the boat bobbed towards the harbour right next to Dr. Ludwig’s research facility not too far from the town. It was right next to the ocean, and wasn’t in any usual paths that boats would take, so it was left mainly undisturbed.

The pair tied the boat to the wooden poles at the docks to stop it from floating away. Then they both stared, looking at their big, huge, heavy problem, rolling around on the deck.

Mick began,

“Do you think we should get the big g–”

“MIKHAIL!”

Jeremy hollered. Oh Jesus Christ. I suppose that’s one way to get his attention. Birds were startled as the sound travelled up the hill. Mikhail was probably the largest guy that Mick had ever met in his life, the best fitting way that Mick can describe him is simply a giant bear. He wouldn't be surprised if he learned to know that he thrived off raw salmon and berries like the diet of a North American bear.

Heeding his call, Mikhail stepped down the stone path, recognising the familiar folk and giving them a silent nod and a little smile. He walked down the dock, and stood over the boat, also looking at the big, huge, heavy problem.

“You want me to bring up to доктор?”

“Yeah, yeah. Thanks. We found it tangled up in a net in the water. We pulled it up and we were able to get off as much as we could– but it was snarlin’ and bitin’ so we thought to take it to the professionals.”

Mick explained.

“Did good job bringing it all the way here.”

…

Was he insulting their strength? I suppose he could do that as he was about 10 men stronger than the others. Mikhail picked up the seal and held it close to his chest as he took it up the hill, cumbersomely.

“Run ahead, Go tell доктор I am coming.”

Mikhail asked. The pair obliged and jogged ahead, Jeremy being miles faster than him.

They made it to the top of the hill and to the entrance of the facility. Mick pushed the doors open, and was greeted by the doctor himself in the lobby of a building, furiously scribbling at a keyboard. Hearing the door open and looking up, he flashed his iconic toothy, menacing grin.

“Herr Mundy und Herr Willis!" How good it is to see you!”

He put the clipboard under his arms and his pen hanging out of his white lab coat pocket. The Dr.’s heeled shoes clacked against the hard floor as he brushed past the pair and looked out of the door.

“Is Misha coming back? I heard you shout for him.”

Dr. Ludwig is the only one who calls him Misha.

Jeremy ought to tell him the situation.

“So, er, basically, me n’ Mick were out on the boat, and there was this seal! Really tangled up in all these nets n’ shit. It was really snappin’ at us at first! But it’ss… eh… It’s chilled out now.”

…

Mikhail burst through the door with a violently jerking seal who desperately tried to make its way out of the giant’s clutches. He hobbled in, trying to keep the seal in his grasps. Dr. Ludwig dashed to the double doors to the building’s medbay and opened it to leave enough space for him and the creature to make its way through.

Just as Mikhail was through the doors the seal leapt from the brute’s arms, crashing into a table before slipping off said table and into a cloth divider. It got itself tangled one again between the net and the cloth that had ripped off the metal frame of the divider holding it there. The four of them just stared at it. There was no point in trying to jump in and get it to hold still because that was absolutely a lost cause. It’ll tire itself out soon enough. And tire itself it did. The seal stopped moving under a giant mound of cloth and net. If it wasn’t seen by their eyes you would have no idea it was there.

It… seemed okay to approach. The Dr. crept closer and knelt down to peel away a corner of the fabric when something gripped the other side of it.

A webbed, human hand arose from underneath. The Dr. jumped back in surprise, and his ass would have hit into the floor if it wasn’t for Misha catching him, hovering inches from the ground. Misha pulled him upright.

The person underneath the cloth arose, they pushed away the fabric like a diver swimming up from the surface, itching for a gasp of air. The person underneath tore it off their torso to reveal no seal, but instead, a man. This seemed to not alarm anyone in the room immediately. There seemed to be a calming sense in the air this person gave off, like waves, sliding up the beach and melting into the sand. Their eyes were almost as dark as the seals, but they had a hazely glimmer to them. His hair and whole body was dripping wet with salt water.

His eyes scanned the room, looking at each face, afraid.

The Doctor knelt down to the floor, making eye contact with him. They stared at each other for a second and he seemed to calm down. It was almost as if they understood each other, somehow.

Without a doubt, the seal they had just brought into the facility was a Selkie. A mythical creature that is seal in the ocean, and human on land.

Mick had only heard stories of these mythical creatures. A story too wild to be true. He was never a gullible boy, but this time, he was being told the truth. And– he couldn’t call this man a ‘mythical creature’. He was no such creature. This man, Mick could only describe, in his words, as;

…Bloody beautiful.

Seawater dripped from his chin rhythmically, and it was the only sound that could be heard in the room for a while before the doctor sprung into action. He whipped off his own white coat, tossing it over for the selkie to cover himself up with. The coat was so long it reached the floor.

Dr. Ludwig seemed completely unbothered by the fact there was a selkie sitting on the floor of his lab. He just… carried on as per usual.

“Herr Mundy, Do some good and get him sitting up on a table. I need to find something to cut him out of zhat… stubborn net.”

…Oh boy.

He held out a hand for the selkie to grab on, it pulled itself up before stumbling into Mick’s shoulder.

“Not used to havin’... eh… land legs.”

The man had a thick Scottish accent which further intensified Mick’s infatuation for the gorgeous man from the sea clinging onto his shoulders. He led him over to a table and the selkie pushed himself up. He still seemed a little shaken up, looking down and reaching over an arm to pull at the strings around his chest.

Mick hesitated for a second. He didn’t know what part of him was holding him back but he pushed against it.

“Here, let me help ya’ get that off.”