#riverphillips

Throw her a medicine ball or a kettlebell, she’d probably like that more than a party. You’re observant enough to notice she’s down but not observant enough to notice that she makes wallflowers seem like social dilettantes? Throw her a line, throw her a bone, throw her a glance, but ye gods and little fishies, DON’T throw her a party!

          His muscle tee already soaked in sweat Danny stood in front of the wall to wall mirroring and held the large kettle bell with both hands, shoulders tight and thumbs over his fingers his knees were bent and his arse was pushed on. With one movement he tightened his thighs and his arse, pushing forward and swinging the kettle bell up until it was over his head. He could feel it in his ankles and his core as he kept himself balanced and tight. He did this fifteen times before setting it down between his ankles, getting down to the ground, pressing ‘start on the timer on his phone sat down on the ground’ and immediately holding a plank.

            It was starting to strain as it drew into the thirty second mark, the man intending to hold it for a minute, when he felt someone pushing on his arse. Looking up it was one of the trainers there, putting a little bit of his weight on Danny to make the exercise harder. “Hey, she’s here,” he said with a smirk. “But you got to hold it for another thirty before I’ll let you up.”

            “Dick,” Danny responded, trying not to laugh as he eyed the phone before him, sweat droplets on his brow and running down his back. Finally it hit a minute and the man got off him, Danny bouncing up to his feet, red faced and muscles tight from the varying workouts he’d been doing since he arrived early that morning. Being at the gym or going to work, were two of the only things that could wake him up this time of year, the summer a good surf would be the only other.

            “Over there,” the guy pointed and Danny saw river, grabbing his phone, water bottle and towel, which he swung over his shoulders to soak up the sweat around his neck. He probably smelled like axe body spray and sweat, neither of which women were probably overly fond of, especially River who likely smelt douche from a mile away.

            “River,” he called out, walking past a few others to make his way to her. “Show us your missing fingers.”

      “Steve!” Danny called out loudly as he ran down the alleyways of Grieselle. Heavy boots slamming down on the stone pathways, bright graffiti surrounding him on the walls of buildings, the faerie was sweating. Partially this was because he’d been working for the past ten hours and at seven am he’d only been off work for an hour, but mostly it was because for the past hour he’d been running around the neighbourhood. Up and down streets, down alleyways. Most stores were not open, he couldn’t have gone into them, bars had closed when the one he worked at did and those that worked in them had been funneling out and had already made it home.

       The wallaby could often wander off from Soapberry Brewing Co., where Danny worked, while he was on shift but rarely did he not meet Danny back by the time his shift had ended. Rarely did the wallaby ever leave the neighbourhood he knew so well. It was the only one he knew too, the others he was rarely ever in and could not navigate. Without Danny and google maps Steve knew only his own backyard that was Greiselle. So the more than Danny searched the more worried he became that the wallaby familiar had left the neighbourhood and found himself turned around.

       “Come on, buddy,” he called out once more, turning a corner and making it back onto one of the main roads. “If you come home I’ll let you toilet paper the whole house,” Danny offered, one of the wallabies past times to annoy his faerie connection. When no response came, and merely the water on the street from early rain was run over by minimal passing cars Danny sighed and brought his hand to his forehead to wipe sweat from his brow. “Fuck,” the man let out, closing his eyes and kicking at a chair for a currently closed restaurant. 

[TXT] heyyyyy Kansas.  quick question for u.  how tall are you again?

That sounds like an issue between you and your secret selkie, my friend. Come to think of it, are you even sure it was a selkie? Maybe you cuddled up with a moss-covered beached buoy and that’s why it was so “attentive”. Maybe you’re slightly delusional and also all your friends are tired of listening to you jaw on. Maybe none of this even happened at all.

River stayed true to her promise, which Iann expected from the sturdy selkie.  What he didn’t expect was that it would happen so soon.  She had a lot on her mind right now, and when she did contact Iann again he was sure it would be related to needing some collaboration or plan formulation regarding Calloway.

He’d been thinking about it on his own, of course, asking around when it came to Grizzle Island’s whereabouts and the like.  The turtle island that he and Ash discovered was oddly hopeful as a clue. It wasn’t Grizzle Island they found, but what if they could find the ancient turtle again, ask it things?

But when River contacted him, it was about her shifting into her pelt.  This was where Iann was surprised.  Maybe she wanted a distraction, something light and fun to do that took her mind off all her current strife.  Iann could understand needing a break, but then choosing him as her distraction option? Who ever chose Iann to distract them?  He wasn’t particularly good at being fun.  

Well, not a distractiony sort of fun.  Maybe.  He didn’t even know anymore.

He mentioned none of this to River of course, just agreeing to meet her on Peck Beach. The nudie beach - but it was the place where Iann had mapped out the tunnel, that led them to the turtle island.  Iann figured he might as well get a bit of work thrown in with the play. 

He dressed for it too, bringing along the little wax nose plugs so that he could swim with River.  The merm Quinn was still working on his boat, so trusty noseplugs would have to do.

Iann showed up one day, with theories.  

And at first, River didn’t mind.  In fact she welcomed it.  As much as she was settling into an actual life here in Soapberry - with the job and the roommate and the apartment and the…other things - there was always that nagging reminder and guilt in the back of her mind. 

That she needed to be working and uncovering and discovering and investigating.  Solving the mystery, defeating Calloway, or who ever she needed to defeat to stop her siblings from being murdered.  Put an end to her family’s torment and nightmare once and for all.  All this on River’s strong little shoulders, that she carried with her day to day, through her job and apartment and even the…other things.

Well, not always through the other things, because other things could be mighty distracting.

Nevertheless, Iann showing up with ‘theories’ was a welcome respite.  A distraction from the rather pleasant normality of life, back to the mission.  Weird, how in Soapberry, the script got flipped like that.

“Okay,” River said, once they were settled in her RV (Iann seemed to believe it was the best place to talk.  “Give me what you got.”

Iann did.  He launched into various theories - about Calloway, about his underground fighting, the Soapberry border lair, the tunnels they’d discovered in the blob-dream.  About her parents, and her mom, and her siblings.  About ley lines and how magic worked and witches in general, and pinpointing what type of witch Calloway was.  About the pelt he was holding, in that blob-dream.  About the veracity of the blob dream itself.  

River listened intently at first, adding her own insights and getting into it with her usual driven eagerness.

After about an hour though, she found herself gazing out one of the tiny windows, planning a circuit training for work tomorrow.

No, River! Focus, concentrate.  River smiled up at Iann as he was still yammering away and…

…and wondered what Charlie was doing right now.

And suddenly there was a knock on the door.  

“Tell whoever it is to go away,” Iann said in irritation, as he continued to talk.  River nodded and got up and answered it.

“Hey you. Ash said you were in here, trapped by Cardero - “  Charlie was leaning against the door and they ducked in to peek. “I see Ash was right.  Want me to save you?”

“Yes please,”  River gushed, but she felt guilty about it immediately.  Iann was trying to help after all.  But all River could think about was the taste of Charlie’s lips, and the glitter in their eyes when River’s mouth did that thing just right.

Charlie was about to speak (no doubt say something that would make River’s knees weak) when River spontaneously pulled Charlie halfway into the RV, and kissed them.  A long, delicious kiss, as her face blossomed a bright red. She was kissing Charlie in front of someone else - River was doing it brazenly, and she was thrilled.

“Oh - ah - ohhhh man look at the time!  Look at. The time,” Iann said, glancing at his watch and quickly packing up his news clippings and files and miniature blackboard.  He slid past the pair, and out the RV door. “I should go, I got some work to do and - and you’re way too much of a distraction, Burke.”

“On your way, Cardero,”  Charlie grinned back, then hopped nimbly inside the RV. And River shut the door and escaped back into her wonderful, normal life.

—

(I chose underwater kiss, took some liberties with merm and selkie ways! )

They found him, eventually.  And Charlie was angry that it took them so damn long to find him.  Stupid human, going into places he shouldn’t go, trying to explore and access places he wasn’t allowed.

’I told you, I warned you.  Did you listen? No of course he didn’t listen.  Why would he listen to a merm telling him about merm things?  That makes absolutely no sense.’ In a way, Charlie knew that this wasn’t the case, they knew that Iann’s options had become so limited in the situation he’d gotten himself into, that this seemed like the safest course.

And the one thing that bothered Charlie most of all - how eager Iann was to do the underwater dive, shrugging off their ‘but you could drown’ with an almost gleeful ease.

So when Charlie found Iann caught between the corals, he looked almost completely drowned.  But Charlie was a merm, and merms could sense things that humans and other landfolk could not. 

Iann was was still alive, and Charlie could keep him alive.

“River will kill me if I let you die, you know that right?”  Charlie said, still trying to keep their cool as they extracted his limp form from the coral.  Even if they knew they could help him live, it didn’t mean Charlie didn’t feel a little afraid.

Because dammit, they kind of cared about the old coot themselves.

With an inhale using their special merm gills, Charlie opened Iann’s mouth and breathed in.  A firm suction like a kiss, that expelled the water from his nostrils even as Charlie filled his lungs with air.  

Over and over Charlie inhaled and breathed, and as Iann’s lungs puffed, they slowly rose.  He hadn’t come conscious just yet, for which Charlie was glad.  This deep and he could panic and that would be trouble. So Charlie continued, and couldn’t help but feel a bit pleased.  Their mom would be so proud of them right now, saving their friend’s life.  And they felt skillful and powerful. They were saving someone’s life.  

‘Eiw, now you’re kissing him?’  River swam up, fully seal, her communication coming in clicks and sonic barks underwater.  The eiw was her automatic seal reaction, before River then followed up with an anxious ‘Is he going to be okay?’

Charlie nodded, keeping their mouth pressed against Iann’s.  He woke up right as they surfaced, gasping for air and coughing and hacking in Charlie’s arms.

“I like kissing you a lot more, though,” Charlie said with a grin at the selkie.

River immediately got all shy and giggle-barked as she snuggled up against Iann’s back, both in relief  that he was alive, and to hide her little seal face from Charlie. 

“Whoa.  Are we having a threesome?” Iann croaked - the first damn thing the human said, right after Charlie saved him.  He got a tail and a flipper slap on both ends for that.

—