Of Different Waters

John, Rebecca and Tiburon stood outside a normal everyday house. Rebecca’s brow crinkled in confusion. This didn’t look like the type of house the fisherman would live in. It was too… average.

“Are you sure he’s in here?” she asked skeptically.

“Yes,” was the serious reply from Tiburon.

“So,” John joined the conversation trying to shake some of his nerves, “what’s the plan?”

“Get Ronan out.”

“Oh yeah, of course,” he had been hoping for something just a bit more... elaborate than that.

Tiburon stepped forward and went to open the door.

“It’s the middle of the night, I doubt it’ll be-” the door squeaked open, “-open.” Rebecca rolled her eyes muttering, “forgot I said anything.”

The house opened up into a living room and there on the couch sat a person Rebecca recognized immediately. It was the Fisherman from the whale watch, just like Fisk had said.

She remembered how she had thought there had been something... fishy about him. Anger surged through her. This man had taken her son.

This man had taken her son.

“You bastard,” she growled attacking the man where he sat. She tackled him clawing at his face as they both fell to the floor.

The man was so shocked he didn’t even try to fight for a couple seconds. A particularly hard right hook jogged him out of his stupor.

“Well she looks like she’s doing okay. Wanna split up and look for Ronan?” John suggested. He knew his wife could handle herself against this man.

Tiburon didn’t need to be told twice. He nodded his head and then shot off to the room directly attached to the living room while John walked off to the left to begin his search. Tiburon looked around the room. He had studied humans and knew this room to be a kitchen. He looked to the left and saw a refrigerator, cabinets, and sink? Looked right and there was a table and chairs and a fish tank.

“Oh Neptune,” he cursed racing to the tank. He put his hands on it. This was bad. This was really bad. And so wrong.

Ronan was laying on the bottom transformed and bloody. The water was a dirty color from all of the blood that had already seeped out of his wounds.

The scales on his arm looked jagged and broken and his tail, that should have been a brilliant lapis-lazuli had big patches that still resembled flesh. The scales were a sick color that lacked the gentle shine normally associated with a mer’s tail. And he was breathing so shallowly. The gills on his neck barely opening before they would flutter closed again. As Tiburon was watching him those beautiful eyes opened and locked on him.

”Calo,” Ronan breathed before his eyes once more closed.

There was a yell of, “bitch,” from the other room and a loud thud.

Tiburon barely even registered it. He left his hands fall from the glass. “This is not natural,” his voice was quivering with anger and fear. What if Ronan died before he could help him?

There was a rough hand on his shoulder and he was yanked around, coming face to face with the fisherman.

“What did you do to him?” Tiburon snarled in the man’s face.

The man snaked his hands around Tiburon’s neck and tried to choke him. “I made him worth millions,” the man cackled. And that’s when Tiburon realized this man was insane. Really and truly crazy.

“It’s not right. Not natural,” Tiburon wheezed. Over the fisherman’s shoulder he saw John sneaking into the room. The man’s eyes were full of range and he carried a shovel menacingly over his shoulder.

“How would you know?” the Fisherman asked. Then his face lit up. Hid grip tightened and Tiburon gagged.

“You’re one too!” the fisherman could not contain his excitement. He began to choke the man in earnest hoping he’d pass out and then he’d have not one, But two mers for the government.

Tiburon acted like that man was really hurting him, like he was going to pass out any second. John was close now, he watched the man through narrowed eyes, face contorted in rage. “Duck!” John yelled while swinging the shovel at the fisherman’s head.

Tiburon quickly smacked the man’s hands away and crouched to the floor. He heard the shovel connect with the man’s head with a sickening crack.

The man seemed to stand there dazed until John swung the shovel again. Then he toppled to the ground.

“Don’t . You. Touch. My. Family. You. Bastard,” each word was accented with another bone shattering hit from the shovel. Finally the man lay broken and bleeding on the floor.

John threw the shovel down breathing heavily. His eyes rested upon Ronan. “Jesus, God, we need to get him out of there.”

He clamored up to the top of the tank and when to get into the water. “If I can get him over the top will you catch him?” he asked looking at Tiburon.

The mer shook his head. “I can’t.”

“Why the hell not?” John snapped.

“With that much saltwater, I’ll turn back into a mer”

There was a clearing of a throat and they both looked to the doorway to see Rebecca smiling grimly through a cracked lip. Her left eye was beginning to swell shut. She looked a mess. She limped over to them. “I’ll help. Tiburon Why don’t you wait in the living room? We’ll bring him there once he’s out of the water.” Tiburon nodded and went to wait.

A few minutes later John carried Ronan into the room while Rebecca dried him off a bit with paper towels trying to make sure Tiburon wouldn’t change back when he touched Ronan. Then set him down on the sofa. Ronan looked at them.

”Gamara, Imara?”

“What is he saying?” Rebecca asked a note of panic in her voice.

“Father, mother,” Tiburon translated.

”Calo ma,” he whispered eyes intense, pleading, not looking at his father or mother, but straight into Tiburon’s eyes. His breathing was fast, irregular and terribly labored.

“What’d he say that time?” John asked, a lot calmer than his wife.

Tiburon bit his lip and breathed, “help me.”

“Oh god,” Rebecca groaned. She grabbed at the collar of Tiburon’s shirt desperately. “You can help him, right?” more desperately, ”Please tell me you can help him.”

“I can help him,” the mer confirmed. He sat on the couch next to Ronan’s weak form.

Rebecca kneeled down and grasped her son’s hand. “He’s gonna help you, honey,” she smiled through the tears that had begun to fall.

Tiburon leaned close, very close to Ronan. He put one hand where the boy’s heart would be and threaded the other through his wild hair. “I can change you back,” Tiburon whispered in Ronan’s ear. “It won’t be permanent, probably only a couple of hours. But you won’t be in pain anymore.”

He looked Ronan in the eyes, begging forgiveness for what he was about to do. The mer beneath him gave him a small nod of permission. Not wanting to waste anymore time, Tiburon leaned down and put his lips to Ronan’s.

“You’re supposed to be changing him back, not tongue raping him,” John growled. He watched incredulously as Tiburon began kissing his son with more fever. Jesus, he looked like he was trying to suck Ronan’s tonsils out. He was about to rip the mer off his son when Rebecca put a hand on his arm. “Look,” she croaked gesturing to their son’s tail.

And before their eyes, the jagged scales retreated. The webbing between his fingers disappeared. His gills followed soon after. Every cut and bruise disappeared and his tail one again became a pair of legs.

Ronan let out a gasp of breath and shot up wrapping his arms around Tiburon’s neck. And kissed him gently on the corner of his mouth. Tiburon let out a happy but startled laugh.

~ODW~

They sat in the hotel a few hours later. John and Rebecca on one bed, Tiburon and Ronan on the other.

John folded his arm across his chest and gave Tiburon a look, “Ok so explain to me why it was necessary to kiss my son.”

Tiburon sighed. He didn’t think the man would believe him if he said it wasn’t a kiss. “Mer’s all have one unique power that is passed down through their family line. Ronan’s is-”

“Electricity,” everyone in the room said in chorus.

“Right,” Tiburon coughed, “mine is healing.”

“That still doesn’t explain the kiss.”

Tiburon rolled his eyes. Honestly. The guy was really hung up over that little detail. “For small healings my hands are sufficient. For massive healings I can kiss someone, giving them a breath of life. It makes them heal much faster which can be the difference between life and death in some cases. I wasn’t taking any chances with Ronan.”

“Oh,” John squeaked at a loss of words.

Ronan yawned loud and wide next to him. John and Rebecca realizing that they’re son deserved some much needed rest, said their goodnights.

Tiburon helped Ronan into bed and turned to leave.

“Tiburon,” a tired voice called. He turned to face Ronan. “Tiburon will you stay with me tonight?”

The mer’s gaze softened, “Of course I’ll stay.”

Ronan moved over and Tiburon crawled into the bed with him. The man snuggled close to his side and Tiburon leaned down to give Roman a kiss on his forehead.

“You missed,” Ronan whined through a yawn.

“What?”

“You’re supposed to kiss me on the mouth”

“Oh am I?” Tiburon said unable to keep the smile out of his voice.

“Tiburon, kiss me,” Ronan ordered sleepily.

“As you wish, Chromis-rasha,” and without further ado he did as his prince commanded.