#merrhett

Lights meant humans. Humans meant danger. Something about this light felt different, so Rhett dared to swim closer. He surfaced, hoping to get a glimpse of the vessel that had drawn him here with its illumination. He unexpectedly found himself face-to-face with a human unlike any he’d seen before; the man floated peacefully in the water. When he heard the splash, he jerked upright, fixing his striking blue eyes on Rhett. 

“No freakin’ way.” The man reached out a shaking hand toward Rhett. “Are you real?” His voice was like music. 

Rhett smiled and dove under, letting the man get a good glimpse of his tail as he did so. He surfaced again, further away this time, but still close enough to hear that beautiful voice.

“Wait! Don’t go,” the man pleaded. “I’ve been on that boat by myself for so long. Please, stay for a little while.”

Rhett hesitated. He seemed harmless enough, but was it a trick? He’d heard tell of merfolk being taken by humans.

Set in the same AU as light

~

Link doesn’t want to leave the water.

Rhett doesn’t want him to leave either.

The sun’s almost reached the horizon, painting the sky in brilliant reddish hues. The air has a slight chill to it, bearing a promise of autumn. Link floats in the shallows, dark hair spread out around his head and undulating slowly with the rippling water. Bathed in ocean and light, he looks soft and peaceful.

He almost looks like he could belong here, Rhett thinks. Almost, if not for the fact that he has legs instead of fins.

"Do you plan to sleep here?” he asks.

“Nah.” Link stirs, swimming lazily to Rhett’s side. Rhett recalls the first days they swam together, months and months ago. Link had almost been too afraid to put his head beneath the water, but now he was a strong swimmer.

Not as strong as Rhett, of course. No human could swim as well as him, as he loved to remind Link whenever he could.

“Hey.” Link butts his head against Rhett’s shoulder. “What’s wrong? You look sad.”

He’s looking at Rhett with his eyes so wide and bright...

“I wish you could stay,” Rhett blurts out. He feels suddenly desperate, although he’d hate to admit it.

Link must have seen something worrying in Rhett’s eyes, because he comes around behind him, wrapping both arms around Rhett’s broad shoulders. He’s solid and warm. Rhett never stops treading water, but he closes his eyes for a moment, letting himself take in as much of the moment as he could.

“I know,” Link murmurs after a moment. “I do, too.” His breath tickles, but the feeling is quickly replaced with warmth as Link presses a kiss to Rhett’s ear.

“When you’re not here...” Rhett trails off. Vocalizing his thoughts sometimes makes him nervous. “I miss you.”

“I’ll be back next weekend, I promise,” Link says softly, his voice almost blending in with the sound of the water. “And the weekend after that, and after that, and...” He chuckles, and Rhett feels the sound through his entire body. “I always keep my promises. You know that, right?”

Rhett hums in agreement.

“But I really should go, before my family starts to worry.” Link gives him one last squeeze and lets Rhett go.

They share one last kiss as the final rays of sunlight fade on the horizon. Then Link kicks off for the shore, swimming in long, steady strokes. When the water is shallow enough to stand in, he turns and give Rhett one last wave.

Rhett lifts one hand in response.

He watches Link walk barefoot up the beach in his swim trunks, staggering occasionally in the sand. He doesn’t look away until Link’s out of sight.

Then, with an enormous effort, he flexes his caudal fin and dives beneath the surface with barely a splash, trailing bubbles behind him.