Gavin and Tina are a buddy team, meaning they are diving together and watching out for the other under water. Gavin is at the sea because his always busy brother Elijah is working on some super-secret marine project here, he won't even tell him something about. So while Eli is busy with his colleague/subordinate Amanda in a base close to the shore or on one of those ships laying in the harbour, he and Tina will explore the island and enjoy their time diving.
At least the underwater world is pretty here, making them spend more time at the dive than planned.
When Gavin sees something like an extremely big fin rush past him in the corner of his eye, he abruptly turns his head. Nothing. That happens a few times, but every time he tries to get a closer look, the something disappears. Gavin screws his eyes shut a few times, but it doesn't help. Only when Tina gently touches his arm, he jumps back into reality. His friend looks concerned and taps her Fini (diving equipment showing you how much air you have left) and her diving computer. 40 meters. They should definitely swim up now, they can only stay 2 minutes here before it gets dangerous and they could fall into diver's paralysis. Gavin hadn't even noticed how deep they had gone down. Following Tina back up a bit, he looks but doesn't see anything. He probably had fallen into nitrogen narcosis, a state where you have too much nitrogen in your brain which causes you to hallucinate. That must be it. No way something that big and fast lives down here.
So he follows Tina back up to shallow parts and ends the dive with her.
"What was wrong with you down there? You looked like you saw a ghost, just stared into the blue."
Gavin scratches the back of his head. "Just thought I saw something. Shouldn't get that deep, my mind tricked me."
Tina nods as she disassembles her equipment. "Next time you tell me when you see Ariel, okay Gavin? Rapture of the depth is no joke."
Gavin knows she is serious despite the mocking, so he agrees.
A few days pass without a dive, because Tina is going on a trip to town with her girlfriend. When Gavin gets into a pretty bad fight with his brother one evening, he just needs to get away and out of that flat they are sharing. He does the one thing you are not supposed to do, breaks the one rule that stands above everything in diving: You never dive alone.
He angrily assembles his equipment before putting it on and jumping into the water. The sun is already setting, leaving him with just a small time window before he has to get back. It's nice and calm here. No one arguing. Just small fish rushing past him, the faint rests of light dancing in the water. Calmness. Peace. He needed that. He doesn't go deep to prevent that narcosis to happen again, but he stays under water for way longer than he planned to as he is lost in thoughts. There is a field of kelp ahead of him. When his equipment gets caught in the seaweed, keeping him from continuing on, he curses internally. He hadn't paid attention to where he was going and now he was stuck. Eyeing his fini he cursed even more. 15 bar. He had about 10 minutes left to get out of here if he kept on struggling like this. Gavin reached for his little knife bound around his calf, pulling it free to cut his way out of the kelp forest. He starts to slice away the branches and leaves wrapped around his legs and equipment that trapped him in place. When a giant shadow rushes past him, he drops the knife, almost jumping out of his skin. Cursing, Gavin tries to catch it, but he doesn't get it in time before it disappears in the seaweed. Perfect, now he is defenceless, tangled in kelp and with 8 minutes of oxygen left.
That shadow returns and now he gets a clear look on a big fin, glowing white and blue in the dim light. His heart is beating out of his chest now. Whatever this is, it's huge and it's circling him.
What he doesn't expect is a human face to appear in front of him. It's a man, pale skin scattered with freckles and moles, dark flowy hair and almost glowing ice blue eyes. Gavin eyes wander lower over a naked torso, down to the hips where skin melts into white scales. The phck? There is a fish tail connected to the guy's torso, long and elegant, ending in an almost transparent fan with bone rays. Blue lines cover the tail and a blue ridge was growing out of the back. The thing tilts its head before swimming closer and reaching out for him. Gavin struggles away, but that only gets him more tangled in the seaweed. The fish man lifts one eyebrow, but doesn't stop. His fingers grab the kelp and start to pull it away to free Gavin from his trap. Startled he stops to fight the other and lets him help him. Once he is free though, he quickly swims away to get more space between himself and that ... mermaid? Merman? What the actual phck is that?!
The guy has a small smile on his handsome face and just follows him calmly with a swift move of his fin, obviously much faster than the human. Still, Gavin tries to get as much space between them as possible, but the guy comes closer fast now. The moment he swims past him, the Detective can feel the scales brush against his arm. He is toying with him. The fishman circles him, always coming back and poking him with those long fingers.
Suddenly one of those claws pierce through his jacket, causing the air to rush out and the jacket deflates fast. Shit. Gavin begins to sink fast without the air holding him up and he falls faster and faster. It's deep here, almost 70 metres. If he reaches the ground, he is fucked. Quickly throwing off the plummet, he fiddles with the fasteners and curses internally when they won't open.
When something grabs him by the back and pulls him up, he winces, yet let's it happen. He is brought to the surface, where he climbs onto the stone shore and spits out the diving regulator to suck in some fresh air.
"Get away from me!", he yells at the fishy figure eyeing him from the edge of the water. The man just tilts his head like a phcking puppy.
"You humans are weird. Why dive when you can't even swim on your own?" That leaves the human baffled. He didn't expect the thing to talk. He is smart. Intelligent.
"What the phck, man?! You almost killed me! I could have sunk to the god damn ground of the ocean!!"
But the guy just rolls his eyes. "Calm down. Nothing happened."
They argue a while, but then reality slowly starts to come back and Gavin realises what he has in front of him. A god damn mermaid. Curiosity takes over and they talk, slowly getting to know each other. The guy, Nines, is just as curious as he is so they throw questions back and forth. Nines admits that he never saw a human dive before, only caught glimpses of them from afar and got interested although his brother, Connor, would probably rip his head off. Gavin promises not to tell anyone, though Nines just chuckles and says he isn't afraid of humans. So they keep talking until the sun is fully set and Gavin almost dry. He sighs at his broken equipment. He will need to get that fixed and his plummet is gone as well. Nines almost reads his mind and disappears for a minute before coming back with the weight belt, handing it to the human. Gavin thanks him and he almost doesn't want to go, because he just had the best conversation in a long time. Way more interesting than Elijah's rambling over his work. Nines seems to find the same thing and suggests meeting at this stone shore again the next day.
At first Gavin is sure he won't go. But then he catches himself wanting to go back to that stone. He somehow isn't surprised when he finds himself there a few hours after, waiting for a freaking half fish. And he does show up, white fin glowing through the water. This time they talk even longer and in a more comfortable setting as Gavin is in shorts and a tank top and not full diving suit and equipment. It's already dark when he finally gets up to walk back, throwing a last look at the man in the water. Nines has his chin rested on his arms, fin slowly ploughing through the water.
"See you tomorrow, fish head."
“Maybe you noticed that it’s my lower body and not my upper that resembles a fish. Also I have to disappoint you, my anatomy has nothing to do with a fish”
“Whatever fish head.” Gavin grins, making the other roll his eyes.
"Good night, Gavin."
With that Nines dark hair disappears in the water, white and blue glowing tail flicking up as he dives down and splashing Gavin with a bunch of water. Somehow that makes the human smile.
This habit of meeting continues over the following weeks until they know each other really well. You could basically call this a friendship. And somehow, without realising it, Gavin falls hard for that blue eyed jerk. He tells him how he spends his day with Tina and how annoying Elijah can be with his project that is so super-secret he can't even tell his own brother details about. Amanda is a major asshole as well. Gavin can't stand her, always asking questions about his dives and way too private things.
What he doesn't know is that Amanda has followed him this time. He doesn't know that she sits not far from them, listening to their conversation and taking pictures of Nines in the water. She is euphoric, finally she managed to get a good look on what she is watching out for her whole life, what she and Elijah are searching for. And that idiot Gavin just stumbled across what they have been hunting for years now.
She sees the smile on the merman's face, the way he looks at the human in front of him and she just knows. They mean a lot to each other. Perfect. Over the next days she sets up a trap, all very discrete not to let Elijah know of anything. She calls Gavin on one of their research ships in the harbour. When Gavin is called there, he is already having a bad feeling. Still, he goes and regrets instantly. Not long after he sets a foot on the ship, he is locked into one of the cabins. He punches against the door, but it has no use. He is trapped. And then the water rises around his feet. Phck. Everyone else gets off the ship and the last thing he overhears is someone saying: "That will get the fishman here."
Oh no. He is the bait for Nines because they think he will come and save Gavin out of the sinking ship. Normally Nines wouldn't get that close to the harbour, but for Gavin he would. Desperately trying to get out of the slowly filling cabin, he kicks the door and the window, but nothing happens.
Nines does indeed come after he heard about a ship sinking in the harbour. Gavin hadn’t shown up at their usual meeting spot and he never missed a meetup before. Never. That he didn’t show up without telling Nines the day prior really worries the merman. Something is wrong. And when he was told about one of the research ships belonging to Gavin’s brother sink in the harbour, he got a bad feeling. He should check this out.
Right when he gets there, he can see Gavin hammering against the glass from inside, screaming something at him with wide eyes. Bubbles of air rise from his mouth as the water has already filled the small cabin. Nines has to act quick, but he struggles with the door just as much. When he finally gets it open, Gavin is already floating unconscious on front of him, legs and arms limp, eyes closed. Panic rises in him and he pulls the human out the ship, holding him in his arms.
Right when he gets outside, a net closes around them. His first instinct is to cover Gavin with his body as they get pulled to the surface and he holds him close. When they get dropped on hard ground, Gavin is ripped from his arms. At least the impact makes the human wake up and he coughs up water and gasps for air.
Gavin comes back to consciousness, but when he realises the situation, he feels desperation rise in his throat. Amanda triumphantly stands over Nines as the merman is bound and shackled with ropes. He lashes out and fights against the grip of the men, but on land he has nothing against them.
"No." Gavin gasps through his coughs, too weak to get up and push the men away from his friend.
"Thank you for playing bait for us, Mr. Reed."
"No! You bitch! Let him go!" Somehow, he finds the strength to get up and throw himself at the henchmen tying up Nines, but Amanda just laughs.
"Good night, Gavin." Someone hits something heavy against the back of his head, knocking him out. Everything goes black around him and he drops to the floor. A terrified voice yelling his name is the last he hears.
That's how Tina finds him. Bleeding and knocked out on the ground. She curses and shakes him awake, half drags half helps him to their flat and cleans the wound on the back of his skull. Gavin is only half conscious, but he struggles against her.
"No, we have to help him, we have to save Nines!"
"Who are you talking about? Who is Nines?"
Gavin takes a deep breath and then he tells her. Tells her about how he met the merman, how they grew close over the last weeks. Tina sits in silence and listens. When he is finished, she first thinks he got hit over the head too hard. But when she sees the expression in Gavin's eyes, she believes him. She agrees to help Gavin if he lets her treat the wound. It's a deal. Amanda must hold Nines captive in this weird base she and Elijah are always working in. With teamwork they manage to get inside and after searching a bunch of weird looking rooms, Gavin finally finds the laboratory Nines is kept at.
He swims in circles in a giant, tall tank made of glass that is still way too small for him. His face looks so hopeless, it almost rips Gavin's heart in pieces. When he rushes up to the glass wall and Nines sees him, he presses his hands against the glass.
"Nines! Nines, it's me!" The merman quickly makes his way towards him and his face lights up. He presses his hands on the other side of the glass against Gavin's. Both of them smile relieved at seeing the other alive and their foreheads simultaneously drop against the tank, one from inside one from outside. "I thought I would find you already dissected on a table or something like that."
Nines can't answer as he is under water, but he lifts his gaze and sends a soft smile through the transparent wall separating them.
"Okay, let's get you out of here." Gavin climbs up to the top of the tank and help Nines out of the water. He has to carry the merman in his arms and sways under the weight, but it's their only possibility of getting Nines out to the sea. They are halfway there when Elijah steps in their way.
"Gavin? What are you doing?!"
Elijah is shocked that is own brother is sabotaging his lifework. Gavin can hear alarmed guards come closer, so he talks to Eli in hope to convince him to help. He tells Elijah how wrong this is, that he knows Nines and that he is a sentient and intelligent being. He tells him how Amanda trapped and almost killed him just to catch Nines. Elijah can't believe that his co-worker would do something like that. Gavin tells him this is the wrong way of going about this. Gavin's brother is silent for a bit as he thinks and the Detective almost panics when he hears the guards come closer. But then Elijah wakes and pushes him behind his back.
"Go down this hallway and then right, that's shorter. I will distract the guards. Hurry."
Gavin thanks him quickly and continues rushing down the hallway.
When Gavin makes it outside, there is nobody there. He carries Nines to the edge of the pier and slowly let's him down into the water. The merman could have just swum away and he should before anyone could see him. Instead he turns around, grabs Gavin by the collar and pulls the man down into a kiss. Gavin is so startled he almost forgets to kiss back, but finally he does. It's fast and sloppy, but sweeter than he ever imagined. Nines breaks away and leans his forehead against the other, this time without glass between them.
"I will find you." And with that he is gone.
A few days later, Gavin stares out on the water, sitting on a small cliff. Tina approaches behind him and lays a blanket around his shoulders.
"Are you still waiting for him? Gavin, you haven't slept or eaten enough the last three days, you need to rest. Come inside."
"No, I'll stay." Tina just sighs and turns around. "Thank you T."
Nines hasn't shown up the last three days and his mind is going crazy more and more as the days go past. Gavin falls asleep on the stones, head rested on his arms and covered in his blanket. He only wakes up when something wet drops on his nose. Something is splashing in the water and a blue glowing figure is visible under the surface. Nines leaps out of the water, supporting his upper body on the stone with his hands to push his torso out of the water. Without a word he leans forward and crashes their mouths together. The kiss tastes salty from the sea water, but Gavin doesn't care. He buries his fingers in that dark wet hair and skids closer until his chest is pressed against Nines. His shirt is getting wet, but oh well.
“What took you so long?”
“I’m sorry, I first had to convince my brother to let me go anywhere close to humans again.” Gavin looks down that gorgeous sight of Nines' wet abs and pecs and strong arms, making him go weak. Drops of water run down his pale nose, shimmering before dropping down. The merman leans forward to catch Gavin's lips with his own again, this time soft and tender. "I missed you."
"Missed you too, fish head." That earns him a roll of Nines' eyes.
"If I hear a joke about me kissing like a fish next, I will end you” Gavin just squishes his cheeks together and mimics a carp. Before he can react, he is pulled into the water on his collar and he is pushed under water. A mouth finds his and maybe he should struggle to get free, but he trusts Nines. This is his element. When they get up again, Gavin clings to Nines', arms holding onto his neck.
"Hmm, a monkey." This time it's Nines grinning. But Gavin only has eyes for that wet locks curling in his forehead, the soft glow of the blue lines covering the fin, emitting a faint light from underneath them.
"You're beautiful."
Nines gently smiles at him and holds him tighter before connecting their lips in another kiss.
