Titolo: somewhere beyond the sea
Fandom: Free!
Personaggi: Haruka/Nagisa
Genere: idk o_o
Avvertimenti: mermaid!au, in inglese, pwp
Parole: 994
Note: COW-T, M3, "inverno".

On one hand, winter is the worst time for a walk on the beach. The air is humid and cold, it seeps deep under his skin, wrapping his bones in soft shivers as he looks over at the waves his heart belongs to. Even the sand seems to crackle with icy sounds under his feet, while a very nimble, soft fog dusts the empty view with the slightest shade of white. It looks like a veil of magic on the panorama, it hovers on the water that splashes gently amid the silence after last night's storm.
But winter is also the best time for a walk on the beach. It's calm, it's soothing. There aren't children yelling or people chattering, there aren't sounds to cover the gentle voice of the sea.
As he walks along the shore, with a slow and relaxed step, he sweeps across the scene with his eyes, taking in the deep blue color the ocean still has, the long lick of sand spreading towards the woods a few miles away, and- something. There's something on the beach, with a vague shape Haruka can't make out precisely, but it's curious. It looks like a person lying on the line between the sand and the sea, but the legs look wrong. It must be the fog making Haruka's sight confused. Anyway, there's a person lying there and not moving, so Haruka runs towards them, and a few steps before crouching near them he looks at their legs again. That... is a tail. It would be stupid to not believe his own eyes, and it wouldn't help the situation if he started debating it. That can be done later.
He rolls the body on its back - it looks pale, paler than any other kind of skin Haruka's ever seen, but it does not look like the kind of grey-ish pale color typical of dead people. At least, Haruka thinks so. He's never seen a dead person up close but this boy - because it's definitely a half-naked boy with a weird tail - clearly is not dead.
"Hey," he hums awkwardly, shaking the body a little. "Hey. Wake up."
Looking at the boy's face, he notices two things. First, he's got gills on the side of his neck. That's even weirder than the tail, if possible. The second thing is, this boy looks otherworldly. In sixteen years of life, Haruka never saw such an elegant body, and such a delicate face, not even on a girl. The boy's eyes must also be way bigger than most people's, and he can only imagine how huge they'll be once the boy opens his eyes - because he will.
"Hey," Haruka repeats, shaking the boy's shoulder with a little more urgency. "Wake up."
"Wa-ter," the boy whispers, with his voice coming out hoarse. "Wa-ter."
Haruka's eyes go wide for a second, but then he looks around.
"Sea water?"
Finally the boy's eyes open, slow and feeble, revealing a dark pink pair of orbs, and he looks around before locking Haruka's gaze with a scared shiver shaking his weakened body.
"Water– put... me... water."
He flicks his weak tail, then he sighs wearily. Haruka looks at it - its scales look dry and blurred, and they look like they would pulverize under a minimal pressure, and his heart shrinks for a moment. This half-fish boy is not in a good shape, to say the least. He must have passed out during the storm, and spent the whole morning to dry on land without being able to even attempt at going back to the sea. Haruka nods, moved to pity, and grabs the boy's wrists, beginning to tug and drag him gently back into the sea, uncaring of the ice cold water filling up his shoes and climbing up his legs immediately, until the weird boy's body begins floating on its own. And it keeps hovering on the surface, for a bit, under Haruka's vigil eyes, until finally the golden tail he's got on him begins to move more and more fluidly, and so does the rest of his body. The scales shine like glass without a smudge within minutes, rinvigorated by the salt, and the merman's body moves fluidly underwater for a while before he finally emerges, sporting a bright and thankful, beaming smile.
"Thank you!" He chirps, swimming closer. "You saved me! Friend!!" He says, hugging Haruka's waist right above the surface, and right then the sensation of cold from the water seems to disappear.
Haruka blinks, taken aback. He doesn't have many friends, and it's never been so easy to make one. And he's definitely never been a merman's friend, but to be fair it's likely no-one's ever been.
"Friend," he repeats, rolling the world in his mouth. He likes it.
"Yes, friend! My name is Nagisa. Yours?"
"Haruka," he replies right away, looking down again at those huge pink eyes. They are almost scary, with how they seem to suck him right into the wide, happy pupils.
"Haru-chan," Nagisa decides, and swims a quick circle around Haruka. "Now we're friends! But I will have to go," he says then, swimming back a little. "I'll see you! Thank you again!"
"Wait, will you come back?" Haruka asks, moving further into the sea.
"I will! So we could play, and you could tell me all about life on the land!" Nagisa yips, cheerful and excited. He really does not look like he's sick and weak anymore.
Haruka has a thousand questions - but they'll have to wait. He simply raises a hand and waves, spotting just the flash of a smile, before the merman disappears under the surface, as if he'd never been there.
Haruka blinks a few times, alone in the middle of the water, finally elaborating what just happened.
Nagisa's smile haunts his dreams for many nights, and his heart throbs each time.
And now, he finally has something to look forward to.

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