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The first time Tommy sees the creature, it’s at night.
Moonlight was dancing along the waves and Tommy was watching his reflection in the water, watching it ripple and shift with the ocean waves.
Techno had dropped a blanket over his shoulders an hour ago, telling Tommy that if he was going to stay up with him he’d at least need to stay warm.
Techno usually manned the ship at night and Tommy would more often than not stay up with him. The difference was Techno didn’t need a lot of sleep. He enjoyed staying up later than the others. The peacefulness of waves crashing gently against the ship. Tommy was awake for different reasons. He couldn’t sleep. Nightmares chased him behind closed eyes and sleep was anything but kind.
They’d tried everything. Phil had stayed up with Tommy for a few nights, and even slept on the floor near Tommy so if he woke up in a panic, he wouldn’t have to run across the whole ship. Techno had spent hours sitting with Tommy, telling him stories and giving him jobs around the boat that didn’t exhaust him but kept him included. Being a dead weight on the ship and not helping out, even with sleep issues, was the last thing Tommy wanted.
Techno had also hunted through book after book for a remedy, he’d even talked to Tommy about the ways he would take naps instead of full rests in the hopes it might help.
But nothing worked. Tommy still woke up in a cold sweat. With his mouth dry and his face wet. Thrashing against his blanket and scrambling to get away from whatever his mind had finished throwing at him.
There’s dark circles under his eyes, but at least he can’t see them so obviously in his reflection.
The first time he sees the monster he thinks it’s a trick of the light. A tired mind conjuring up a vision amongst moving waves and moonlight.
He looks into the water and peering back at him are two eyes.
Sheltered beneath the water, a yellow-white glow and slitted eyes that narrow when Tommy makes eye contact.
Tommy jerks back, blinking at the spot. “What the fuck?”
He doesn’t believe it at first, eyes fixed to the spot. He leans forward slightly, hand tightening around the blanket over his shoulders in the hopes of getting a better view. The water stirs together, bubbles rising to the surface and the eyes are gone. He sees nothing. Just water as far as he can see and liquid white moonlight that runs along the surface like quicksilver.
“Tommy?” Techno snaps him out of his thoughts and Tommy’s at attention immediately, head turned and the ocean abandoned. Techno waves him over with his head, hands tight around a sail rope. “If I pull this tightly for you, can you tie the knot?”
“Too weak to do it yourself?” Tommy stands, calling out his answer and he lets the blanket drop down to his feet.
“You can keep staring blankly at the waves if that’s too much work for you.”
Maybe it was a fish. Maybe it was Tommy’s imagination.
But a seed is planted in Tommy’s chest of uncertainty, threatening to put down its roots and slowly seep outward, growing and growing.
“No, I’ll help you. Everyone needs a huge and buff man in their life.”
He walks over to Techno, trying to ignore the new pit in his chest.
Over the next few nights, it dims slightly. There’s no sign of anything and Tommy’s routine becomes waking up from a nightmare and sitting on top of the ship deck, watching the mesmerising shift of the ocean while Techno works quietly behind him.
It goes absolutely fine until he wakes up falling.
He knows exactly what happened as Techno shouts his name. He’d fallen asleep while sitting on the railings and slipped overboard.
He’s not fully aware of what’s going on until the water crashes into him, an icy chill stabbing into his body and forcing adrenaline into his veins. Instinctively he breathes in, only finding water in place of air and his lung constrict painfully. The flavour of salt water filled his mouth. His chest tightens and causes him to cough in the hopes of expelling the liquid.
Tommy flails, trying to kick him up to the surface and hating how his clothing weighs him down. His brain is in over drive, panic flooding through him. His muscles hurt from the effort of pulling himself up to the surface. His lungs are spasming.
He manages to break the surface, hearing Techno’s voice yell “Phil, help!” for barely a second before the waves rock him back and shove him into the side of the ship. He smacks his head with a dull thud, eyes squeezing shut.
The water acts like a weighted blanket, dragging him into the frozen depths despite his struggles. Eyes open or not, everything is a dark and blurred mess.
He fights against the ocean, the push and pull of the water. Trying so hard to get out and take a breath but he resurfaces and his instinct is to cough and get rid of all the liquid in his lungs.
The only light is what’s coming from the moon, beaming down in broken fragments beneath the sea. If he wasn’t so aware of the fact he’s drowning, it would be peaceful.
The rumbling noise of the waves underneath the water and the heavy-as-lead feeling making him sink.
He’s too tired to keep himself above the ocean. Too disorientated to be aware of anything except the cold numbing his body and the dull pain in his chest and head.
From there on out, Tommy’s not entirely sure of the full story. What he knows next is from the small pieces of memory he has and what Phil and Techno told him.
Phil claims that he and Techno threw a rope into the ocean, hoping Tommy would have the strength to grab on. Apparently Tommy was conscious enough to grab onto the rope they threw him.
He has no memory of trying to go for the rope, but apparently he did and he fought damn hard for it too. Thrashing against waves and holding on for dear life.
Phil says he screamed for help and Tommy wouldn’t have believed him, so confident that he was too busy hacking up salt water and panicking, if it wasn’t for the way it hurt to talk for days afterwards.
Phil had only told him about how he’d screamed when Tommy confronted him for acting weird in the days that followed.
“Mate, I’ve heard you scream and yell hundreds of times.” Phil begins kindly, always with that warm expression even when Tommy doesn’t deserve it. “But that night, your screams were so strangled and blood curdling it was like I was watching you die in front of me. You scared me, that's all.”
The weather was against them and misery loves company so it shouldn't be a surprise when a wave sweeps Tommy under entirely.
It’s about here the story is split into a few perspectives. Techno jumps in after him, holding onto the rope with white knuckles so he won’t lose the surface and the ship. Phil had run into the ship to grab blankets and towels in anticipation for their return (although really, Tommy thinks it was so he could keep himself busy.)
Tommy isn’t too sure what happened but there are feelings he knows which make the experience real. Visceral. There’s a copper tang in his mouth. A burning in his eyes which contrasts the numbing cold of everything else.
He remembers the ocean weighing him down until he feels like nothing more than a discarded apple core.
Then something happens which Tommy can’t explain. Something he thinks has to be his mind playing tricks on him or a broken memory that was created through the fear of the night but he sees something abnormal.
A monster.
With a dark tale, glowing eyes, sharp teeth and the ability to grab him. Tommy can’t fight it. He’s entirely limp, eyes half lidded as hair floats around his head. It’s all blurry but he’s all too aware of the feeling of being pulled.
A tight grip around his chest which Tommy couldn’t stop if he tried.
He’s fully unconscious for the rest, but he knows that he resurfaces because Techno tells him he saw him bobbing in the water. There’s an uneasy feeling in Tommy’s stomach that it was the monster.
Techno grabs Tommy and brings him back on board. They take him downstairs so they can work somewhere warmer, next to the lantern light.
Tommy’s lips are blue, according to Phil. He’s on his side, unconscious and frozen to the touch, a splotch of red bleeding through his hair and onto his forehead, eyes closed like he’s sleeping peacefully.
Techno and Phil pull out all the stops.
Phil presses down on Tommy’s chest, rhythmically trying to force life back into him. They shake him. Phil cries over him. Techno swears. They pull out smelling salts and vile mixtures to make him vomit. They move him into recovery position, they force air into his lungs, healing potions, all of it.
Eventually, they get a pulse. A shallow breath and the rise and fall of a chest that’s far too shaky and uneven for either of them to feel at ease.
Tommy dreams of the monster swirling around him in the water. He dreams of the word ‘breathe’ and blinks in and out of consciousness to see Phil and Techno surrounding him.
It’s a night of shaking hands and prayers sent to gods they don’t believe in.
Neither Phil nor Techno sleep a blink. Tommy wakes up shivering so badly he looks like he’s going to fall apart and it’s only Phil who’s holding him together. Techno keeps candles burning and lanterns lit all night. Phil promises Tommy that he’s right here, he can rest, it’ll be okay. Both of their kind words which reassures him, even as sleep constantly pulls him underneath and away.
He wakes up to Techno cleaning the wound on his head, who actually smiles at Tommy and pushes some hair out of his face in such an uncharacteristic way that Tommy stays awake until Techno tells him to keep resting.
He’s never been cared for so deeply, so openly, then how he is now.
He’d do the same for either of them in a heartbeat and he knew that they cared about him, but seeing it is different. The feeling of safety is so strong he can feel it squeezing his heart.
When Tommy is able to look after himself a bit better, able to feed himself soup and not feeling dizzy when he sits up, Techno and Phil still take turns staying with him.
During the silent periods, Tommy thinks about what happened. He’s all too aware of the memory gaps but what had happened, with the glowing eyes and teeth, doesn’t add up. Logically Tommy knows that and he uses that as the reason why he won’t tell Techno or Phil about it.
After all why would a monster of the sea save him? There was no reason. But it’s the seed in his chest that prevents him from throwing the idea away completely.
Tommy tries to convince himself that maybe it was just an idea he conjured up to try and cope with what happened. That maybe he was misremembering through the incident and what he saw was a warped version of Techno coming to help him.
Something prevents him from coming to terms with it all.
The next time he sees the monster is during the day. Tommy’s exhausted, but he’s trying to act like he’s not. It’s months later with only the occasional blur of motion beneath the ocean and sunny skies in sight for as far as the horizon stretches.
“If you try casting like that, you’re going to take my lip with you.” Phil wrangles the fishing rod from Tommy’s hand and moves him further away from Phils rod which was sitting idly with the line cast.
“If your mouth gets in the way of my swing, that’s not my fault.” Tommy huffs, side stepping away with the rod pulled back over his shoulder, ready to swing out.
Phil makes an uncertain sound. “No, that definitely sounds like your fault.”
“Maybe my fishing rod thinks you don’t deserve a lip.”
“Too bad.” Phil cackles, ruffling Tommy’s hair and then takes a few steps back. “Alright, now try it.”
Tommy doesn’t hesitate in throwing the line out. It makes a brilliant arc for someone who’s horribly sleep deprived, landing in the ocean with a light slap and it sinks downward. He manages to keep his attention on the line for about a while thirty seconds, looking between his and Phil’s, before getting tired of the inaction.
“So now what?”
“Mate, now we watch them until a fish comes around.” In response Tommy yawns loudly, exaggerating, and slumps over on the railings. Phil rolls his eyes, tuning Tommy out as he complains and moans about how fishing takes too long.
Phil drags up a chair and stool but Tommy opts to stand, wanting to stare out at sea and talk to Phil at the same time. Phil was much happier to drool over a map and work out where they’d be heading next.
Then Phil’s fishing rod tugs and Tommy yells, “Look!” frightening the ever loving shit out of the man. It’s the most energy Tommy’s shown in weeks and it’s enough to jolt Phil back to life.
Phil places the map down, putting one of the chair legs on top of a corner so it didn’t blow away, and then goes over to his fishing rod. His face loses the excitement it had when he starts to reel and realises it’s far too light. Tommy bounces on his feet in anticipation, not realising Phil’s disappointment.
As Phil’s reeling his line back in, Tommy’s line also tugs and he gasps happily, going to his rod and winding the line up.
When phil’s hook reappears, there’s nothing except a single torn piece of seaweed. Phil sighs, throwing it back in and shifting to go put more bait onto his hook.
Tommy, on the other hand, could feel a weight. It was heavy, whatever he’d caught and bubbles were rising from the water. Tommy thinks he sees a blur of movement and his heart is in his throat with anticipation.
He sees a smear of brown beneath the water, attached to his hook. When it breaks the surface, he’s never heard Phil laugh harder.
He’d caught a boot.
Tommy groans loudly, taking it off his hook (somehow, it had looped perfectly onto the hook, with very minor damage.) More bubbles rise to the surface in lieu of Tommy’s discovery.
“Nice catch.” Phil mocks and Tommy scoffs, throwing it into the water. It splashes loudly before sinking down.
“It still tastes better than your cooking.”
“Hey—” The boot goes shooting back out of the water and misses Tommy’s head by a hair. It leaves an arc of water behind it, spraying them as it clatters against the deck.
One single brown boot. The same boot Tommy had just thrown, very deliberately, into the ocean.
They’re both frozen in awe, a little bit of confusion, and overall surprise.
Tommy and Phil both go silent, staring at this boot and then Phil frowns, looking back out towards the water.
“What the fuck was that?” Phil questions out loud and Tommy shrugs, looking over the surface.
Something moves and there’s a flash of blue gills. Tommy points, gasping in shock.
“There!” He shouts and as the blur disappears out of sight, Tommy drags Phil’s chair right up to the railing and gets on top. They both hang their head over the edge, staring out for whatever it was. Bubbles emerge from the ocean and Phil’s brow furrows.
Tommy splutters, “What are you doing? Fucking throw the line, fishing rod that bitch!”
Phil hesitates to Tommy’s great frustration and then shakes his head. “I don’t think we should.”
Of all the ominous things Phil could say, that was right up there at number one. Right next to ‘we’re about to get eaten’.
Phil was usually eager to do these sorts of things with Tommy. If he wasn’t willing, Tommy would hold off.
The unfamiliar hesitance in Phils voice shuts Tommy right up.
But nothing bad happens immediately. the boat doesn’t start to rock or the sky start to darken. They aren’t eaten and no monsters appear. Instead Phil takes a few steps back, giving Tommy a reassuring shoulder tap.
“I’ll be right back, I’m going to get Techno.” Phil goes rushing off into the stomach of the ship and Tommy nods briefly, staring wide eyed into the waters.
There was a fish in there that somehow managed to launch the boot back on board.
In the excitement, Tommy doesn’t even notice that the map isn’t pinned down anymore. Not until the wind picks up and Tommy hears the parchment rattling as it goes flying down the deck.
“Oh, shit!” Tommy mutters, jumping down from the chair. It clatters sideways as he goes bounding off and running after the map. It swings around in the air, doing loops and pastes itself onto the side of a barrel before dislodging and soaring outward. It dances in the air and Tommy is taking this fucking piece of paper down.
His movements are sloppy from his lack of sleep but he puts his entire being into it, launching along after the paper. His hands thrust out and his feet scuff the deck. He trips over his own foot at one stage and manages to pull himself back up just in time to see the map get flung over the side of the boat.
“No!” Tommy groans, scattering towards the rails. “No, no, no, shit!”
He watches as it lands on top of a blanket of blue, lying limply on the top.
Tommy feels his heart sink, rocking back on his heels as the paper seesaws on top of the surface. Fuck sakes.
Phil would be back any second and he’d see his map floating in the middle of the ocean.
He watches as the map suddenly stills amongst the moving waves and Tommy’s eyebrows draw together in confusion. That wasn’t normal, right?
He knows for sure that something is up when the map starts to slide across the waves back over to the boat. There was a dark shadow moving underneath and Tommy realises in a flit of shock there was something moving it towards him.
With deep blue gills and scales that shifted under the light.
Tommy stares, amazed. It was bigger than any fish he’d seen but not only that, it was bringing him the map. A tail flicks out and Tommy holds his breath as the map goes slapping against the side of the ship.
Did… did he have to go and get it?
He feels sort of stupid at the idea of having to shout out and ask for the fish to throw it up to him but that was exactly what had happened with the boot, wasn’t it?
After a few more moments pass and Tommy realises he really doesn’t have time to waste with Phil on his way back with Techno, he pulls himself over the side of the boat, hanging on the outside of the railing.
His finger wrap around the wood of the rail, heart thudding against his chest as he hangs with one hand around the railing and one outstretched to get the map.
His shoes press against the wood of the boat, working hard to find a place they can grip. Eventually, he finds a spot where his shoes are firmly in place and he can crouch towards his goal. The map was still sitting on top of the water while something glided beneath the surface, scales flashing. Blue and yellow.
Tommy knows he should be concerned about the fish beneath the surface. Techno would warn him about losing his fingers and Phil would show him how to safely retrieve the map, but neither of them were there yet and Tommy was feeling oddly confident about himself. Whatever it was under water, it was bringing him the paper. That meant it couldn’t be all bad, as far as Tommy was worried about.
His fingers graze the water and Tommy grimaces as he misses it by a hair. Tommy sucks in a breath and dips down even lower, managing to pinch the paper between his fingers. He’s surprised it doesn’t come apart completely and tear when he grabs it, but it stays intact.
Tommy manages to lift the soaking paper up from the water and he freezes completely when eyes meet his.
He almost doesn’t believe it at first. The same yellow eyes from months ago. Staring at him, like he was waiting for Tommy to come down so he could get a closer look.
Tommy makes a noise of surprise, dropping the map and pulling himself back away from the water a bit. The eyes flinch back too, surprised to see Tommy up close.
With the light of day, he can see what it is a lot clearer now. The sight makes Tommy’s heart race. It was a merfolk. A monster of the sea, although this one seemed a lot smaller than sailors were typically warned of, who sank ships and killed pirates.
They hurt and slaughtered entire ship crews in all of the stories. Phil had warned him of the dangers. Techno had barely managed to fight one off, being injured as a teenager and not talking much about it at all.
This, Tommy thought, didn’t look like the face of a killer.
His eyes had a slit of cat like how you’d imagine a cats would look, but when they settle on Tommy’s face his pupils get wider.
The mer had brown hair that looked almost blue under water, swimming above and around his head like a crown, and poking out were two illicium. He only knew the term from one of Technos rambles; they were that part of an angler fish that came out and had a glowing orb on the end.
Tommy’s eyes widen, his voice whisper-quiet. “You’re the one who saved me, aren’t you?”
The mer tilts his head quizzically, like he can’t quite believe Tommy knows that.
His features were incredibly different from his own, but he still had clear human aspects. Parts of him that were nothing like a monster.
Tommy’s aware that the mer was looking at his features too. Soaking in his expression. How Tommy’s ears weren’t fins and his eyes had round pupils and didn’t glow. Tommy’s skin was pale and the mer looks down at his own hand like he’s comparing.
It was curiosity that kept him rooted to the spot, not naivety. There was no aggression on either of their faces, just an appreciation for the other.
He wants to say thank you. To learn more about why and get the words out even if the mer doesn’t understand him but they’re frozen on the tip of his tongue.
Tommy can’t see the rest of him and he doesn’t get the chance to keep watching in the mer’s expression because a voice startles both of them out of their trance.
“Tommy?” Phil shouts and both Tommy and the mer look equally shocked. Tommy’s head snaps away towards where Phil is and he could see the man was just coming up the stairs with Techno. He looks back and the mer is gone, nothing more than a splash in the water and a few stray bubbles.
He felt scared, not for himself but for the mer. Like this was a secret Tommy had to keep for the mer. As if he’d caught him red handed in the act of doing something and now Tommy was in on it.
But all they’d done is seen each other. It wasn’t really a forbidden kind of meeting between two sides. Sure, monsters and humans were different, but nothing wrong had happened.
When Phil asks him what happens, he keeps it to himself, his heart pounding out of his chest. He explains that he dropped the map but managed to fetch it by some spur of luck.
He’s watching the ocean nervously for the rest of the day. Terrified that the fish on the end of Phil’s hook is going to have those same yellow eyes.
After that, he starts to see the mer more and more, not bringing it up in front of anyone else. The mer starts to appear all the time. He appears once when Phil was with him and they were in the row boat, where the ocean is right next to you instead of over the ledge of a proper sailing ship.
The mers appearance comes when Phil is looking out through binoculars the other way and it scares Tommy so much, the idea of him getting caught, that without thinking he reaches over and pushes the mers head deep under the water before Phil could see him.
There’s a burst of bubbles and Tommy swiftly retracts his hands, stomach twisting at any possible consequences. But nothing happens.
The mer gets the hint. No visits when other people are around.
Despite all the sneaking around, Tommy loves it. It’s like trying to hide a stowaway. Or having a friend just for yourself. The mer will watch Tommy until it’s safe to appear and splash him when no one is looking.
It’s almost as if there’s a magnet pulling him towards the side of the ship, constantly trying to get a glance at the mer.
He knows that it’s dangerous, that the mer is a monster, but there’s something so lovely about having that thrill for a secret. For having something that’s just for him to know.
After a week of calling the mer ‘Mer’ he gets sick of it and then decides to spitball ideas at him. Somehow, they end up deciding on Wilbur. Tommy was mostly joking when he said it, declaring to call the mer by Billiam (an inside joke he had with Techno) which the mer utterly hated.
It sprouted off into names similar to Billiam, such as William (also not very good, given how much the mer splashed Tommy) then Will (much more acceptable, but still splash worthy) to Wilbur. An oddly acceptable compromise.
So his name was Wilbur and Tommy was proud to consider him a friend.
He gets used to two yellow eyes watching him beneath the sea, sometimes closer and further away. Most of the time, Wilbur’s head barely comes out of the water. He’d much rather stay beneath the blanket of the ocean.
If anyone asks, Tommy will lie about him. Tommy will talk to Wil at night and tell Techno he’s just talking to himself.
Tommy pretends a wave managed to catch him in the wrong spot or that he fell in. He tells them all that the reason their food is going missing faster than expected is because he was hungrier than usual and not because he wanted to see what Wilbur would think of human food.
But the mention of any fins and gills happen to stay glued in place in his head, his lips tightly sealed.
Wilbur’s favourite food, if anyone wanted to know, was apples.
Tommy goes sprinting to the top of the deck, an apple in his hand. Today it’s not cut in half but that was because he didn’t plan on sticking around to enjoy it with Wilbur.
The deck is slippery already, gentle showers of rain starting to pour out from above.
It doesn’t stop Tommy from running, nearly falling, and making his way to the other side of the ship. He grabs onto the railing and throws himself onto the other side with a practised ease.
Tommy reaches into the water, splashing it around and shoving the apple under the surface. He waves it back and forth, not yet letting go.
Then he sees the blur of a darker colour and smiles. The apple gets heavier and Tommy feels it pulled out of his grip, gentle but firm.
To be honest, Tommy’s only half convinced that Wilbur can understand him but he talks to him anyway.
“Wil!” Tommy grins, shifting his feet against the side of the ship, trying to get a good spot to help support his weight.
“Wilbur, c’mere!” Tommy slaps the water with his hand and a little jet goes squirting up, hitting him in the eye. Tommy yells with a laugh, shaking his head and holding his eye. “Okay, you fucking dick! I get it, you don’t want to come up and see me today. Just listen for a second?”
It’s hard to say through the roughness of the waves but bubbles come up and there’s a very faint warbling noise. He can see a blur of yellow which he thinks is Wilbur.
“I need to tell you, we’re going to head for land.” Tommy says. He can’t see any bubbles or hear anything. Tommy gives the water a kick, hoping to disturb the area. “Did you hear that? You won’t be able to follow us. It won’t be safe at the docks.”
The waves slap up against the side of the boat and Tommy can’t tell if that’s the storm or Wilbur’s irritation.
“We won’t be there long!” Tommy swears and he starts pulling himself up away from the ocean. “A few days at most!”
Wilbur listens, shockingly, to Tommy’s light hearted warning. They arrive at the docks and work on unloading their wares. Techno takes the heaviest items, telling Tommy what he can and can’t carry (no, Tommy, you cannot hold the cannon ball. It’s too heavy. Tommy, put that down. I won’t tell Phil you broke a hole in the ship’s deck if you won’t.)
Land, although not home for Tommy, is still beautiful. The docks are massive, this beautiful stretch of both wood and stone, pop up markets and stalls paired with piles of barrels spilling with freshly caught fish and nets lying on the side unused. Boats were lining the ocean, reaching far into the horizon. Sails waved of all colours and shades.
Most magnificent of all was the sunset blanketing everything in its soft, radiant warm glow.
Tommy thinks that’s the best part. He’s beyond happy when Phil shows him to his room in the house they were staying and Tommy realises he’s got the window that overlooks the dock, ocean, and a perfect view of the sunset.
He must spend hours at that window, looking out and watching the shifting shades of sky. His sleep issues hadn’t gotten any better, so he was more than happy to stay up to do so.
It’s not until something catches his eye that he realises how much time has passed.
Because he sees Wilbur. He sees him out of the water.
His tail is glinting, gold and black as it flails and only gets him more tangled in the net. There’s hands grabbing the net, dragging and pulling him onto the dock. The wood is soaked and all Tommy can focus on aside from his racing heart is the terrified expression on Wilbur’s face.
Tommy’s standing up, his chair flipping over from how fast he’s rushing out the door and down the stairs.
“Tommy?” Techno asks as he goes racing outside. “What’s wrong?”
Tommy doesn’t respond. He’s too busy running. He’s outside on the streets, legs feeling all too strange hitting the ground instead of a deck of a ship.
It doesn’t stop him though, nothing does. Not the burning of his limbs or the strain on his lungs.
He hears Techno yelling something behind him but Tommy’s sprinting so fast down the street that he doesn’t catch it.
Once he’s all the way down at the dock, he starts screaming out.
“Wilbur!” Tommy watches as hands reach for the mer, grabbing onto the net and causing him to panic. “Get off of him!”
A crowd was forming around Wilbur who was making high pitch noises; filled with a threat and fear. Tommy shoves his way through roughly. He pushes people out of the way unapologetically, ramming between them ripping his throat raw with screams.
“Stop!” He shouts. “Don’t hurt him!”
Tommy nearly falls over himself when he reaches the front of the crowd. It was a large circle, with the net entirely covering Wilbur. Tommy feels his heart sink down into his stomach like a weight when one man pulls out a fish spear and points it at Wilbur.
It’s all happening too fast. Wilbur looks at Tommy once, eyes meeting him. It’s like the world stops.
There is an entire worlds worth of hurt in his eyes and Tommy feels like he’s the one who did this, as though the spear is in his hand.
It was him who brought them together and hurt Wilbur in all the worst ways imaginable by bringing him into the life of humans.
Even though they’re only a few feet apart, it feels like the distance of an ocean.
In an impromptu decision, he decides to keep moving forward, throwing himself over Wilbur. Yells of objection erupt and Tommy does his best to shield Wilbur.
“Don’t!” Tommy yells, holding one hand up as he stares down the tip of the spear. He can’t bring himself to look at it, head tilted away nervously, forcing himself to keep his eyes open despite how much he wants to close them instinctively.
“What are you doing, kid?!” The man curses, jabbing the spear threateningly. “Get out of the way!”
Wilbur hisses when the man threatens Tommy, writhing against the net as though he’s more offended at the idea of Tommy getting hurt than the idea of himself.
“Let him go!” Tommy pleas, looking down at the tangle of the net. He starts to grab at it, hoping to find an end that he can take off so he can free Wilbur.
“Someone get him off.” The man with a spear spits and Tommy starts screeching like a banshee when he’s pulled away.
“Fuck off!” Tommy barks, elbowing someone hard in the face and kicking himself away. He goes racing back over to Wilbur, voice breaking in emotion. “No! Don’t hurt him! Don’t hurt him, please.”
A hand yanks at the back of Tommy’s shirt, choking off his sentence and causing him to fall into a coughing fit. More people grab at him, pulling him away whilst shouting to kill the monster.
“Why’re you doin’ that kiddo?” A rough voice asks behind him. “That’s a monster!”
Tommy sobs out, “He’s my friend.”
Tommy keeps twisting desperately to try and break free. He even tries to hit and kick the people grabbing him but they’re determined to keep him from helping Wilbur.
The spear is raised again and Tommy’s crying out to stop.
His throat is sore and his face is wet with tears. Every second that goes by seems to stretch into an eternity, making it harder and harder for him to keep fighting.
“Hey!” A voice shouts and Tommy registers it as Techno.
“Tommy?” Another voice, Phil, calls out. Tommy thinks he can even see them pushing their way through the crowd.
It ignites something deeper inside of Tommy, a second rush of adrenaline. In utter panic, Tommy’s looking out over the crowd, screaming back for help.
From then, it takes only a second for Techno to break through the crowd, stumbling through with a huff, weapon drawn. Phil pushes through, coming in behind Techno in the path he’d cleared.
Confusion dawns across both their faces for a second, locking eyes with spear guy, then Wilbur who’d grown tired of fighting and was curled up, trying to shield his head, then to Tommy who was very clearly crying.
“Help him!” Tommy takes a couple of shaky breaths, trying to will the strength into his voice. “Please— please help him.”
Techno doesn’t need to ask questions, instead passing his sword to Phil and then immediately placing himself in front of the man with a spear and staring him down with a glare.
Phil immediately starts shouting at the crowd to back up and slowly, with loud yells of objection and horror, they listen. They loosen up. Some people depart at the sight of weapons, other people take steps back and watch even more intently.
“Back up.” Techno seethes and when the spear man grunts irritably, trying to move around Techno and aim for Wilbur, there’s no hesitation. Techno lashes out with his hand, pointing the spear gun upwards so it fires above everyone's head. The crowd makes a loud yell of surprise but it doesn’t distract Techno.
He swings his fist at the man's jaw, colliding with a hollow, rattling smack. It doesn’t quite knock the man to the ground but when he grins at Techno there’s a bright red sheen of blood coating his teeth.
Phil turns on the people grabbing Tommy, approaching them with the deadliest glare Tommy’s ever seen in his eyes. Instantaneously, Tommy feels himself dropped and he falls to his knees.
Tommy gasps as he falls, hitting with a dull thud, hard enough to leave bruises.
It doesn’t matter to him right now. Not with the adrenaline pushing him forward, carrying him towards Wilbur’s side. He gets to Wilbur immediately, who was watching the scene play out with a slight detachment. When Tommy’s next to him, untangling the net, he makes a clicking noise and Tommy grins.
“You’re going to be okay.” Tommy promises and then the clanging sound of metal on metal causes his neck to snap up.
Tommy looks over, staring as the man who was holding the spear gun earlier had abandoned his weapon in favour of a sword. He’d clearly tried to get a cheap shot on Techno but had been stopped by Phil’s quick thinking because Phil was stretched over, a sword protecting Techno’s side from the other man's blade.
Phil turns on the man in an instant, glowering as he lashes out again, this time going for the man's neck.
He shallowly protects himself, face shifting into concern the more Phil pushes forward with attacks.
The crowd had cleared out almost completely by now, scared off by any actual action of a fight. A mer was a bad omen but a group of sailors who were willing to fight over that bad omen were a sign of something even worse.
With Techno unarmed, he turns around to check on Tommy, eyes roaming to make sure he’s uninjured. He looks… well, he looks more than confused to see that Tommy is so torn up about this mer, trying to untangle the net and let out little half sobs when he can’t figure it out.
Techno pulls out a small knife, waving it in question. Tommy nods and Techno looks content to move forward.
“Why didn’t you stab the spear guy?” Tommy asks with a croaky voice, pointing to the knife.
“Wouldn’t have been a fair fight.” Techno tries to hide a smile as he crouches down, grabbing the net. Wilbur panics at the sight of the knife trying to wiggle away.
“Wilbur, it’s fine!” Tommy explains, grabbing Wilbur’s arm. Techno shoots Tommy a questioning look but stays silent, waiting for Wilbur to stop moving.
At Tommy’s words, Wilbur goes dangerously still, staring Techno down as he shifts, gently cutting into the rope and making sure to pull the net up and off the mers skin to ensure there’s no more unnecessary panic.
Phil manages to knock the speargun guy onto his ass and Tommy notices, with slight delight, that there was a cut running along the man's cheek. Just deep enough to scar but not do any real harm.
Phil doesn’t make the final blow though, instead he waves his sword insistently and the speargun guy nods, scattering back before kicking himself onto his feet and running away like it’s nobody's business.
The net falls away from Wilbur as Phil starts to walk back and immediately, Wilbur’s backing up, using his forearms and hands to make some space between himself and Techno.
Techno panics at the sudden movement, not wanting to scare Wilbur and decides to drop the knife. Phil thinks something’s gone wrong and he comes running over.
Tommy’s trying to placate Wilbur the whole time, hushing his panicked clicks.
“Wil, they’re friends.” Tommy promises and he takes a few steps after Wilbur. “I swear, they’re not like the others.”
But that look of distrust is still there, doubt written all over Wilbur’s face. His chest was rising and falling in frightened breaths. After a few moments of staring Phil and Techno down, taking in their entire appearance, Wilbur relaxes slightly.
Tommy swears he can tell what Wilbur’s trying to say. He locks eyes with Tommy, a question in his eyes. A kind of gleam.
Why would you do that? He seems to ask. Tommy smiles sadly, lashes still wet from tears.
“They were going to hurt you, Wil.” Tommy whispers and Wilbur grabs Tommy by the arm and pulls him closer before pushing their foreheads and part of their nose together. Tommy laughs and pulls him into a hug which Wilbur reciprocates.
“I’m glad you’re okay.” Tommy chuckles and Wilbur makes a clicking noise.
So am I.
It was weird to finally see Wilbur out of the water. To be able to hold his arm and feel the actual coldness of his skin rather than just look at him through a shield of blue. Tommy thinks he much prefers it this way.
It takes a few minutes for either Phil or Techno to work up the courage and ruin the moment but eventually they ask Tommy what’s going on and he explains everything.
How Wilbur had saved him and been helping him, how they’d formed a friendship and Tommy had been stealing apples for him (to which Phil loudly proclaimed ‘My fucking apples? That's where they went?’)
The night was setting on them and the stars were appearing in the sky. Wilbur continued to sit there on the dock, occasionally ducking into the water and then pulling himself back up so he could continue to listen to Tommy talk.
Phil and Techno were oddly accepting of it. Phil was quick to warm up to Wilbur, to want to know more and even invite him to join the crew. His thinking was that if he’d been with them for the last several weeks and things had only gone great for them, then the myth of Mers being bad luck couldn’t be true. Considering Wilbur had even saved Tommy, Phil considered himself indebted if anything else.
Techno wasn’t sure, but he didn’t object. It would take Techno another week for him to fully adjust to having Tommy constantly have a mer around, talking to him openly and inviting him onto the ship whenever he pleased.
Techno and Phil both head off that night to sleep but Tommy stays with Wilbur.
He wasn’t tired yet. He thinks, while watching the stars with Wilbur by his side, that it’s impossible to imagine doing anything else.
Because where would he be, if Wilbur hadn’t saved Tommy on that night he fell into the ocean? And where would Wilbur be if Tommy hadn’t tried to step in, and stand between him and a speargun.
If anyone asked them why they did that would be clear, of course.
Because they were friends.
With time, maybe they’d even be family.