Sharkboy and Logan
Happy Birthday @romantichopelessly!!!!!!! This is prezzie for you <3
He didn’t want to be here. There were a million other places on the planet he would have preferred, some of which were also places he despised.
But the beach? The absolute worst.
“Come on Lo!” Patton called out, waving from down the beach at his scowling friend. Logan refused to budge. Refused to wave back. Why did he let them convince him to go on this outing? Sand was nature’s glitter, it got everyone and refused to truly leave. The gulls were thieves. And worst of all, there was the ocean.
A shiver ran down his spine at the mere thought. Seeing it before him brought dread. There is no way he’s getting me anywhere closer. Logan thought, crossing his arms.
“I got Crofters jelly sandwiches!”
“Well, shit.” Logan mumbled, frowning as he debated over this new information. On one hand, the ocean and all its evils. On the other hand, Crofters. The gnawing of his stomach answered for him. With a sigh, he finally took the plunge from the parking lot onto the sand. Ugh. Nose wrinkled with distaste, Logan clung to himself and kept his head down. Just focus on the ground. If he just paid attention to his feet and the sand, horrid as it was, then he won’t see how much closer he was to the fathomless depths of the sea-
“See? Everything is fine.” Patton’s voice cut in, making Logan snap his head back up. “Nothing’s gonna get ya buddy!” Before he could protest the claim, the bubbly man grabbed his arm and tugged him a little further to where the twins had set up the blanket and chairs. Virgil was digging into the cooler. “Here we are!” Logan was guided to one of the chairs, of which he sat in with a grunt. “Nice and cozy.”
“The only thing that is remotely either of those two adjectives would be those sandwiches.” Logan remarked back, gaze stern as he sat stiffly. His comment caused Virgil to snort and he took out the sandwich bags that contained the promised offering.
“Here you go L.”
He sighed with relief and took the bag, opening it up. “Thank you V.” There was no hesitance in biting into that first sandwich, the taste of the jelly helped calm him somewhat. Or well, as calm as he could when he was so close to the terrifying tide.
“Relax will ya, Calculator Watch?” Roman all but demanded, patting Logan too roughly on his shoulder. Logan’s response was to scowl and chew more aggressively. The others seemed to clue in on leaving him alone after that. Letting Logan eat his sandwiches in peace. Good. Roman was distracted soon enough by his brother, who was challenging him to a sandcastle contest with Janus as acting judge. Virgil was content with sitting in another chair and drinking a soda. Patton, after making sure Logan wasn’t going to abandon them for the car (which he thought about but was useless without the keys), went off with his camera to take pictures.
Logan spent that time eating away his comfort food, occasionally drinking water from a bottle that Virgil graciously got for him out of the cooler. He didn’t want to move anywhere unless it was back to the vehicle. The sound of the waves made him tense, and despite his best efforts, Logan would find himself looking towards them. Just to make sure they weren’t somehow getting closer. Or pulling back drastically before a tsunami bared down upon them all.
“It’s gonna be okay.”
The spectacled young man turned his head towards his anxious friend, who gave him a nod of understanding. If anyone could relate to Logan and his fears, it was Virgil. His understanding was a comfort, but even with it, his fears could not be placated. He appreciated the gesture though.
“I suppose it is better that we do not have a crowd of individuals to trample us should there be an emergency.” Logan voiced, wanting to at least attempt to find some positive to focus on. Virgil seemed to approve at the very least.
“Yeah. Thank god for Janus’ grandparents.”
Yes, hooray for rich grandparents and their stereotypical purchase of private beaches. he thought, partially sarcastic. It saved him from trampling and harassment, but it also provided the excuse needed to drag Logan out to the place he couldn’t stand the most. I wonder how long they’ll force me to put up with this. He wondered, eyes finding their way back to the ocean. The same as it was the last time he saw i-
Was that a dorsal fin?
With a sharp inhale, Logan tried to move back, only to tilt his chair and cause it to fall over. “Shit! You okay L?” Virgil asked, scrambling to get out of his chair.
“S-shark.” was all he responded, forgetting to answer the question itself. Virgil’s eyes widened and looked towards the sea, searching for what he had seen. He had to get up, he knew it, but he was frozen. Too busy trying to catch his breath that suddenly would not come.
“I don’t see anything.” Virgil said after a moment, his brow furrowed as he helped Logan off the fallen chair and become upright. “I’ll tell the others to not go in the water though. Just in case.” And just like that he was gone, leaving Logan alone. He stared wide eyed at the coastline, searching frantically for that dorsal fin. But like Virgil said, there wasn’t anything anymore.
I’m certain I did not imagine it. Perhaps it went deeper down. Either way, it was all the more reason to stay far from the water. A mindset Virgil had as he rounded up their friends and brought them back to the blanket.
“Awwww but I wanna see the shark!” Remus complained, being dragged back by both his brother and Janus. “They’re so cool! Did you know some have fifteen rows of razor sharp teeth? And they never run out of any either! And that their skin is made of teeth-like scales? It’s so easy to rip their prey into shreds!” These were things Logan did not need to hear about after seeing one on their shore. “But they hardly ever attack people! It’s only when they mistake one for like a seal or a manatee cause they got shit eyesight. And it’s only ever like a bite cause humans taste like shit roasting in the sun. Hey do you think they’d hate pig meat too? Since that’s the flesh closest to humans?”
Logan tuned out the more manic twin’s info dumping, his heart skyrocketing at some of the knowledge offered. Any other time, where they were safe far far inland, he wouldn’t mind listening and theorizing with him about it. But talking about sea life when by the sea? No thank you. Thankfully, the subject of pig being similar to humans caused Remus to go into cannibalism instead, leaving behind any thoughts of sharks.
Janus and Virgil humored him, with Roman giving an occasional input, while Patton fixed Logan’s chair and helped him back in. With an apologetic smile, the freckled covered young man handed over another bag with more sandwiches. At least there was one good thing to come out of this. The others’ voices washed over him as he slowly came down from the panic, their loud antics nearly drowning out the waves while the taste of Crofter’s jelly soothed him.
Roman at some point grew bored of whatever path the conversation took, and went to make another sand castle next to the blanket. Then Remus grew bored as well and decided bothering his brother was much more entertaining. Somehow in the pestering, the castle collapsed. Which in turned created an enraged Roman who got up to chase after his cackling twin. The two ran around the blanket and chairs, not paying attention at all to where they were going. And as such, they knocked against Logan’s chair, just as he was taking out the last sandwich.
The jolt from it caused Logan to lose hold of it and with wide eyes, watched as it fell onto the sand. “Oh no!” he heard Patton say remorsefully. “That was all I had packed.” Silence fell over the group, even the twins halted their tom foolery. Logan himself said not a word, merely stared at the fallen food as he felt his eye twitch. With a steady hand he reached down and picked it up. It was covered in sand, rendered completely inedible.
Without a word, he stood up and turned to face the twins. His eyes were cold as he stared them down. “Run.” he instructed, the only warning he would give before he unleashed all of his anger and frustrations of the day out onto them.
Wisely, they listened.
The second they took off into a sprint, he rushed to follow. “I’m going to knock some sense into you two!” he yelled after them. The air rushed past his ears and his feet pounded against the sand. His eyes focused solely on Roman and Remus. As such, he did not realize when the impact on the sand changed, when it became more compact from being wet. He did not notice when the sounds of waves grew closer.
He was unaware that he had chased them all the way down to the shore until water licked at his feet from an oncoming wave. The sudden chill of it all startled him, causing him to trip over his own feet and crash into the sand. The moment he fell down, another wave washed over. Stiff from shock and fear at how close he was to the ocean, he didn’t realize until it was too late that his body was being dragged back with the water. An undertow!
Panic seized Logan as he was dragged out to sea, more waves crashing over him as the hidden current took him away. He couldn’t hear anything but the rushing in his ears, not even his calls for help. Water filled his mouth and then it was covering him all around. I’m going to die! He thought, trying desperately to hold his breath. I’m going to drown in the fucking ocean!
His body crashed against something firm and the feeling of arms wrapped around him. Panicked and confused, Logan wriggled in the grasp but it held tight. Then there was a sensation of propelling, rushing in a direction he could not gather in his dazed confusion. His lungs protested with the need to breath and he was sure it was going to be the end-
And then he breached the surface. Logan gasped and coughed, trying to intake air and expel the water. He shook from the force of it all. Chocolate brown eyes blinked, vision blurry from the salt water that got in them and covered his glasses. When he finally felt like he could breath, he took stock of his surroundings. He was still in the ocean, a fact which filled him with dread. And someone was holding him.
Blinking some more, Logan looked towards his savior. A stranger with a seemingly normal, if handsome, face. Save for the face had fin- like appendages sprouted from the head and very sharp looking teeth were grinning at him. Great Scott!
“You alright?” a deep voice asked, though it sounded much more melodic than any human voice he had ever heard. “You land creatures need to be more careful. You don’t have gills and aren’t nearly as good at swimming as dolphins or whales.”
“Wh-what?” Logan asked before coughing again. When the coughing ceased, his eyes opened to see that face much closer. Heat bloomed in his cheeks and he tried to lean back, before remembering he was being held.
“You’re cute.” More heat filled his face at that. “I like your shiny eye decorations.” His eye what?
“My- my glasses?” he asked, bewildered by the entire exchange. In the distance he heard voices calling out. Craning his neck, Logan was able to make out the beach and the faint blobs that were his friends. Oh god I’m so far out! Unconsciously, he clung to the stranger. Or tried to. Something was in one of his hands. Looking down at it, he realized he was still holding onto the soiled sandwich. Shocked, he lifted it up to blink at it.
“What’s that?” The stranger asked, leaning down to look at it as well.
“It- uh, it’s a sandwich.” He explained. Though really that was a stretch of the word now. With how soggy the sand covered bread had become. Some of it had even broken away.
“It looks tasty.” Logan honestly didn’t know how to respond to that. He was so confused about so many things. Wordlessly, he just held it up a little higher. Maybe whoever this was just needed a better look to see it did in fact not look appetizing at all.
And he ate it right out of Logan’s hand.
Oh my stars! Now his face really was on fire. “I- ah- uh-”
“I like your voice.” Oh that was not helping Logan at all. “I think your pod is calling for you.” Pod? “I’ll take you over.” Before Logan could question or protest or anything, he was being maneuvered around the individual, who he realized was topless, until he was pressed against the other’s back. “Hold on.” he was instructed, and Logan scrambled to listen. Though he felt something protruding from it, causing him to rest his torso off to the side while his hands wrapped around broad shoulders. Looking down to see what the protrusion was, Logan’s eyes widened at the sight of a dorsal fin. A very shark-like dorsal fin. “Here we go!”
Suddenly they were moving forward, his rescuer going under the water but not deep enough for Logan to submerge. The shore grew closer and Logan was able to make out the shapes of his friends more clearly. He couldn’t hear them over the roar of the waves, but he could tell they were freaking out. Then he and and his clearly not human savior fell down with a wave, washing up onto the beach.
“Oh my god he’s over here!” He heard Roman cry out, but was too busy coughing to look. Slowly he realized he was still on his rescuer’s back and rolled off it before sitting up on shaky knees. Now that he was no longer in the water, he was able to finally get a proper look at the other.
Along with the ear fins and dorsal fin, there were scales along patches of the arms and back. His hands were clawed and down where legs should be-
Was a tail. Its coloring and pattern was much like a tiger shark’s.
Merpeople were real. And one just saved his life.
“Hmmm… I did not think this through.” the mer...man, Logan assumed the merindividual was male, spoke, pushing up with his arms. “I am stuck.” Oh. Oh! That was bad.
“I- we- We’ll get you out.” Logan spoke, not noticing how his friends swarmed to his location and stilled at the sight of a mythical being. “Or in? I suppose?”
“Y-yeah!” Roman’s voice rang out, startling Logan and making him finally see his friends all there. “Never fear! We’ll get you back into the water before you can say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!”
“Supercali whata?” the mer attempted to repeat, clearly confused.
“Don’t worry about it.” Patton replied, giving a friendly smile. Soon rough, they all gathered around him and began to lift him up. With great difficulty.
“You sure are a… big.. Hmph.. fella.” Virgil grunted, face red with strain as they started to carefully move back into the sea. Logan remained in place, frozen for a moment as he watched the entire exchange. However, once he realized how far they were getting, how close they were to releasing the mer and him probably never seeing him again, Logan scrambled to his feet and hurried after.
“Wait!” he called out, reaching to hold onto those clawed hands from their dangled position. The mer blinked and squinted, as if having difficult seeing.
“Oh pretty eyes!” he remarked once recognition fully set.
“N-um.” Honestly Logan was unsure how many times he could be rendered speechless and blushing by this creature. “Name!” he spouted out, trying to push through the embarrassment. “Do you have a name?”
“Sure! It’s-” the sound which left the mer was pretty, but did not sound much like words at all. Logan’s brows furrowed at it as he thought of how he could attempt to replicate it. “But one of you land creatures a long time ago called me Nate. So you can use that.” Someone had met a merperson and kept quiet about it?
Not the time to dwell on that. Logan decided, giving a small nod. “Nate.” He would never admit it, but it had a nice feel on his tongue. “Thank you. For saving me.”
“No problem cutie!” Nate replied, grinning that sharp toothed grin. And yes, there was yet another blush to his cheeks. “I protect! It’s what I do.” That was... quite interesting to know. “Can I know your name?”
“I’m Logan.” he replied. Nate’s smile seemed to grow bigger, with a hint of more teeth hidden inside.
“Logan… I like it!” Suddenly everyone stopped walking, and Logan realized they were waist deep in the water. “Oh Logan!” Nate remarked, bringing the nearly drowned man’s attention back to him. Thankfully, despite the heaviness, his friends seemed willing to wait before setting him down. “Come closer!” Curious, he did as he was requested, kneeling down a bit as his hands were tugged.
Suddenly his hands were released as Nate instead wrapped his arms around his neck and pulled him the rest of the way. Cold lips covered his own, so smooth and strange compared to humans. But it didn’t stop his entire body from warming as he realized the merman was kissing him. Dazed, he blinked as it came to an end with Nate still grinning away. “I’ll see you soon okay?” the mer asked, and without thinking Logan nodded. “Great! Though I don’t want you drowning so you could go to the cave down the beach.” he went on, pointing off towards where many rocks were. “The pool is deep enough for me and no waves to wash you away!”
With a grunt from Virgil, who was struggling to maintain his grip, the others finally set the mer down into the water. Carefully, nate moved around their legs and turned around to head for deeper waters. But not before popping his head out for one last farewell. “See you soon!” his melodic voice rang, a hand raising up to wave before he swam away. Logan watched after him until the dorsal fin sunk under.
“No fair! I want a shark boyfriend!” Remus complained, only to get shoved by Roman. When Patton gently touched his arm, reality began to sink into Logan.
“I just agreed to meet with him again.” he murmured out.
“Yep.” came Patton’s clear voice, supportive but with a touch of worry.
“Oh stars above, I have to come back here to do that.”
“Afraid so.” came Virgil’s voice, moving to stand by Patton. “You’re also still standing waist deep in the ocean.” he added. The reminder made Logan look down and sure enough. He was. And it was… not as terrifying as before. Still scary, but… not as bad.
“This is my life now.” The thought should have been horrifying. It should have been horrendous. But… if it met seeing Nate again… maybe he could survive it. “I need more Crofter sandwiches.”
“You got it buddy!” Patton chirped before guiding Logan out of the water. Everyone else had begun to pack up their things and carry it back to the car. Janus was on the phone, hurrying telling whoever on the other end that it was a false alarm, no need to come out. It confused Logan for all of five seconds before he realized that his friend was talking to emergency services.
“Okay crisis averted.” the heterochromic eyed man announced as he hung up. “We should probably still take you to the hospital. Get your lungs checked out.”
“Ah yes, that would be a good idea.” His throat still itched from the sea water and all the coughing. When everything had been packed up, the group of friends gathered into the car, with Logan in the middle of the back seat. As they drove away Logan found himself turning his head back to look at the beach as it faded from sight.
He was actually looking kind of forward to coming back.
