anothercontinuity | Red vs Blue pt 2

Stunned into temporary silence, Wash lowered his gaze numbly to the wound at his side. The harpoon. The ship. "I have to get back," he finally muttered, though squeezing the seaweed tighter to his side as he spoke. Regardless of what sort of creature Tucker was, it didn't change the fact that they were in the middle of the ocean, no land in sight for miles and miles.

"I have to get back to the ship before they get too far away."

I can't get left behind. Not again.

"...really? You want to go back with them? With the guys who tried to kill you?"

And this? This was why humans were weird, wanting to band together even after they stabbed them - accidental or not - and pitched them overboard. Tucker didn't get it, because to him, that sounded like a stupid place to want to get back to, a stupid place with asshole people. But hey, sure, land was cool? He guessed. Not as pretty as the sea, but shit did the sun feel good.

"Look, I don't think you're in any shape to get back to them, and the water's still pretty rough from the wind." His shoulders rolled in an easy shrug. "You're stuck here until another ship comes by."

Humans who wanted to try and kill him, at least, were a known quantity. Trapped here, possible dangers were so much varied and unpredictable. One merman in the midst of all of that did not a safe harbor make.

But what choice did he really have, at this point? Swimming to catch up to the ship would be damn near impossible, even without the wound in his side. Still, he looked far from happy, staring back at Tucker with no shortage of wariness, even for someone who supposedly was looking out for him.

Why? Weren't mermaids supposed to be...bad? Dangerous?

"And what would you suggest?" he finally ground out.

“You’re not good at the whole ‘Being thankful my life was just saved’, are you?”

Come on, that look? The way this guy was talking to him? Tucker could see through it, the same human reactions. No, it wasn’t like the rumors and he didn’t try to drag people down to drown; if he did, this really ungrateful ass would be swallowing half the ocean. Ugh. Humans.

“I would suggest being a little nicer before I leave you here and just go back home to my kid.” Tucker swirled his tail in the water, half-glaring. “But I can get you some fish and there’s water from the rain on the top of this rock, so you’ll be fine. And once you’re ready, I figured I could try to swim with you to the shore at night so the sun doesn’t cook you. Or we can wait until another ship goes by and try to get you on that; this is a pretty popular area.”

The skeptical look was challenging. "Unless you have a better idea?"

No. No, he did not. And if he was lucky enough to have a mermaid who spoke English and was more interested in helping him than devouring him or...whatever they were meant to do? He should be thankful for the fact.

Some of the tension around his face eased for a moment as he stared at Tucker, eyes once again taking this all in. He looked normal enough, save for certain details, and once you got down to the waist there was no denying exactly what he was.

"Right..." Closing his eyes against another wince of pain he pulled himself up further onto the rock, away from the water's edge as much as he could manage. Then, he gave Tucker another very long look before his shoulders sank.

"...thank you."

“You’re welcome.” Tucker wasn’t sure if the guy really meant it. Probably not; humans weren’t exactly known for being a friendly bunch. Still, this guy had protected him, had watched out for him, couldn’t be all bad, right? Reaching over, he tried to help him up out of the water a little more, then started to look for something dry.

There wasn’t anything down here. But up top…

“Look, we’re about to get really friendly, so you might as well tell me your name while you’re handing me your clothes.”

Yes. Yes, he did just say that.

"What."

Alright, he's soaking wet, but he can deal with that. It's fine. He'll dry out eventually, hopefully before he caught something, but there's no reason to go stripping off all his clothes just yet.

Except the merman obviously thinks so. That incredulous look returns, before he reaches to tug his shirt off. He needs to take his hand off the seaweed to do so, just for a moment, and the stretching hurts, but he grits his teeth through it and cautiously hands the garment over.

There. Fine. Happy?

Well, the shirt was a start.

Tucker stared at it, and still holding out his hand, he curled his fingers, beckoning more items to make their way over. All of it, sir. Pants. Shoes. Socks. Underwear (which, Tucker still didn't understand what the point of any of that was, but whatever). Stop being stingy.

"Come on, it's not something I haven't seen before. You guys love being in the water naked, but if you go on land, you pile on so many clothes. Why? You look at lot better without it."

He scooted towards the water, starting to drop into it again. "I'm just going to swim around to the other side, pull myself onto the rock, and lay them in the sun, Mr. Scaredy-dick. Also, that's your name now since you keep ignoring me when I ask."

Opinions on mermen were varied, with reasons. Those reasons might be because of this.

"What sun? How long have we been in here?"

Still, grudgingly, he's peeling off his boots and socks. More than that and he'd have to really consider what was being asked, and how vulnerable he really felt like being around a stranger. Merman or no.

All of this was starting to settle into some weird sense of normality, or else he was becoming numb to the absurdity of it all. Maybe he was hallucinating all this. Maybe he'd finally cracked, or drank too much salt water while he was under. Who could say?

"Okay, so it's not out yet, but it will be, plus the wind helps. Storms are faster out here." Which he wasn't exactly certain if that was even true considering getting far enough inland to compare was pretty much impossible for him. That was the on advantage humans had: was there a place they couldn't go? Seriously?

He took the boots and socks, then gave the poor guy a flat look. "Stop. Being. Stingy." Really, he was just trying to help here, let him help. "Keep whatever weapons you might have if it makes you feel better, but at least give me your pants."

Note, he didn't say his underwear. He was trying to compromise here.

"Besides, I'm already naked and you don't seem to get all weird about that?. I don't see what the big deal is."

"I am very weird about all of this. This is weird. There is absolutely no getting around that fact any time soon, when a mer...person is asking for my pants."

Wash had ground that last part out before sinking back to rest against the rocky wall of the cavern, chest rising and falling in slightly strained pants. Of course, even as he spoke he could feel a chill starting to settle in, one he couldn't imagine going anywhere if he took off even more clothing.

"You're the weird one for wearing them in the first place."

And that was logic for you, frank and blunt and honest. Tucker imagined that if he had feet, he wouldn't own a single pair; it had to chafe the inside of his leg-things, right? Right?

But Tucker was done trying to argue with him, so he huffed, took the few items, and slipped under the water, immediately swallowed by the darkness. Only the missing clothes supplied the silence with any sort of clue that he had been here at all. Pushing off the rock, he managed to fight the current as be as he could and come round to the other side, the sun side when it came out, gripping to the edge before he started to pull himself up. Ugh, this was a bitch, but...dry clothes meant no sickness, right? At least for a little awhile.

The muscles along his back, his arm strained as he pulled himself up the rest of the way out of the water, curled tail pushing to help him up. Higher. Higher so the crabs didn't come up and get them... But the edges were all craggy, rough, and it took longer than he hoped.

Sorry, stranger, it might be a minute.

It gave him time to deliberate on the state of things, settling back against a slopping rock wall and pressing his fingers more tightly still to the wound at his side. This was happening. This was all really happening, and the ship was leaving him behind, and he was trapped on a rock in the middle of the ocean with a merman.

Likely to die here.

His eyes closed, teeth sinking into his lower lip, as he tried to steel his nerves. No. He wasn't rolling over and dying that easily. They'd have to fight for every scrap of him they got. He hadn't made it this far just to accept his fate, or any such nonsense.

What part his new friend had to play in this, he couldn't begin to guess...

This guy was lucky that he was hot because Tucker wasn't sure he would be this okay exerting this much effort over anything that wasn't. He grunted, then laid the clothes out, hopefully in the path of the sun once the storm clouds left. He frowned a little because he didn't have anything to carry the rain water that had collected into the crooks and crags of the rock, but he'd be okay for a little while, right? Maybe?

Fuck. He hoped so. Human bodies were weird.

There. Out. Tucker took a selfish moment to breathe, to think about the situation, to hope the school kept Junior a little longer while he did this. He'd be here tonight and maybe a few days with the way things were going. Tucker took a rock and stuck it on the clothes so they wouldn't blow away. A few hours til they were dry.

Well, then... He pushed off the rock, half belly-flopping into the water before he swam around choppy waters to the front under the overhang. He emerged in the shadows, watching this guy for a minute. He looked strong, and this guy had protected him at the cost of his own safety, his own life. It really was only fair that Tucker returned the favor.

He swam over to the human and pulled himself up to sit beside him, tail idly dipping back and forth in the water. "So, they're up there and should be dry in a bit.The waves usually calm down in an hour and maybe then we can plot some shit on how to get you back to your own kind. Unless, you know, you find the merfolk life a little more fun, which I won't blame you for."

"Fun?"

Wash stared at him incredulously for a moment, before his free hand flopped into the air, gesturing around them. "This is fun, for you?"

Maybe it was. What else was there to do in the wide, open ocean but revel over these little mishaps? Probably the most exciting thing to come by in some time, but he was allowed to resent being someone's form of entertainment.

Hey! He had a lot of shit to keep him entertained! The amount of times he tried to not-die from certain wild life that would love to take a bite out of this beautifully fine tail? The ships that tried to harpoon him? The fishermen that tried to net him? A son who liked to get way too close to everything, including the deadly stuff? Yeah, his life wasn't boring, Mr. Sandwalker. It was just fine, with different dangers and different hobbies, but it wasn't dull.

"Okay, you being stabbed? Not fun. You being a dick about this? Even less fun." Want the scowl? Get the scowl. "But our life isn't bad! I know it seems shitty right now, but..."

His hands clenched in the rocks. "I mean, I'm trying to fucking help! I'm not the one that threw you off a ship! What else do you want me to do?!"

Red vs Blue pt 2

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