Under the Ocean Waves

Kellin awoke with the feeling of a warm, comfortable and well… heavy arm snaked around him, pulling him close. Vic was still face down in his pillow, sleeping soundly next to the siren who managed to sleep knowing Vic was by his side. “I don’t wanna leave you ever, if you can help me get to sleep like that,” he whispered softly, turning his body slowly so that he was facing Vic. Light snoring was his response, making him chuckle a bit. Vic was a cute sleeper.

The siren let him sleep for a while longer. He wanted to know what time it was; but he couldn’t read clocks to save his life. Was that a 6 or a 9? He didn’t know which way they went; he’d never known symbols for the numbers. The early looking light outside, streaming in from the window told him that it must be whichever one was earlier, and so he let Vic sleep. Not that he could do much else, anyways, considering A. He wasn’t leaving this warm embrace and B. If he left, well… a tail didn’t sound very pleasant right about now. Well, actually, the sun was up now… would the necklace work now? It didn’t matter; Kellin didn’t want to leave Vic for a single second to be alone on the surface.

And that led to his next thought - how would Vic like to go under the water for a little while with him? Would he enjoy that? He was constantly asking Kellin about his life back home, so surely he was curious. Kellin decided it was worth taking a shot. Because although he wanted to learn absolutely everything about Vic, he wanted to share things about himself too, and it would mean everything in the world to him if Vic actually wanted to learn about him.

After last night, it was a safe assumption. At least, Kellin hoped it was. Did this mean they were ‘together’? Like how the humans were ‘together’? Vic kissed him when he asked. It meant something, it had to. Ughh, and now that he was thinking about it so much, Kellin just wanted to kiss him again and again! Just like how Vic had been kissing him when they first got here last night, the sensations! God, they were to die for even though Kellin didn’t understand that. As a siren he had never felt something like that, granted he’d never really had someone special like how he had Vic.

“You’re up,” Vic’s groggy voice jarred Kellin from his thoughts. “What time is it?”

Kellin looked at Vic’s clock on the table next to his bed, but he couldn’t make out the numbers to mean something. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I don’t know it thats a six or a nine - oh wait, it changed.”

“Its 7:10,” said Vic, tightening his grip on Kellin as he lifted his head. “Which is normally early as fuck, but I’ve been getting up earlier to come and see you lately. But now you’re here, so we can just lay in bed all day if we want.”

That wasn’t exactly what Kellin had in mind, though. He struggled for a way to word his suggestion. “Um…” he started. “Well, I was thinking, um… you can… with the necklace, I mean… You can come down in to the water with me. If you want to, that is…”

Vic hesitated. “I- that sounds perfect,” he answered. “Are you sure though? Matty won’t kill me?”

“Not if I’m with you,” said Kellin. “Its up to you.”

“Okay,” Vic said simply. “Lets do it. But first, let me just kind of hold you here.”

The thing that stuck out to Kellin was how warm it was in Vic’s arms. Last night had been so comfortably perfect; he drifted off the sleep seconds or minutes after Vic had. Kellin remembered watching him close his eyes as he drifted away, and wondering if he was dreaming of anything. That was a weird thing about humans - they could dream. Sirens could not. Or at least, they weren’t supposed to. Kellin had definitely never dreamed in his life and he was curious to know what it was like.

“Vic?” he said suddenly, breaking the quiet that had settled over them after Vic had rolled on to his back. He turned his head to look at Kellin, willing him to continue. “What is it like to dream?” he asked.

Confusion clouded Vic’s eyes. “You’ve never had a dream?” he asked. Kellin frowned and shook his head. “Well, its like daydreaming… like imagining stuff… only sometimes you’re dreaming about stuff that you can’t come up with and I guess its really awesome sometimes. You’ve never dreamed? That’s so… weird,” he answered. Kellin shrugged his shoulders, looking in to Vic’s eyes. “I can’t really imagine that. Its such a normal thing for humans, you know?” Of course, he didn’t expect an answer from Kellin and didn’t get one. “Right, you really don’t know. Well, well.”

“Which is better? Kissing or dreaming?” Kellin asked. “Since both seem to be a really, really good thing to you humans…?” Was that an awkward question to ask? Kellin mentally kicked himself for being so weird, even though it always seemed to make Vic laugh or smile.

“When it comes to you, kissing,” he answered confidently, moving on to his side to softly kiss the siren, who smiled at him as soon as he pulled away.

“I like kissing you. And I like falling asleep next to you and I just… I like you, Vic.”

—

Far off in the distance, a fog-horn blew, signalling its return to the nearby harbor. Seagulls squawked overhead and the calming sound of waves gently washing against the shore filled the air with sounds of the sea. Next to him, Kellin was standing, squeezing Vic’s hand comfortingly as he led him now to his domain - the ocean. Vic was more than willing to admit that he was scared. Nothing would stom him from going through with it, though, as long as he had Kellin by his side holding his hand and telling him that everyone was going to be absolutely fine as long as they stuck together. They walked at the same pace, simultaneously taking the first step in to the water. Walking out in to deeper water was easy; this was fine, even though it was freezing. It wasn’t scary.

Trouble came with Kellin squeezed Vic’s hand, closed his eyes - and somehow, both of them changed. It was the strangest feeling in the world for Vic. Suddenly in a blast of cold, his legs felt as if they were binding together - and in reality, they were. All Vic knew for sure was that when he opened his eyes again, still keeping his head above water, there was a shimmery purple tail flicking underneath him.

“Oh my God,” he said breathlessly. “Oh, Jesus fucking Christ!” He felt like he was about to pass out. What else was he expecting? Maybe in the back of his mind, he had his doubts, refusing to believe that this could actually work. But by some act of some super being, he was a fucking mermaid. No, a siren. Whatever, he had a fish tail and it was really cool looking and the only thing keeping him from fainting was a comforting arm sliding around his back in the water.

“Its okay,” Kellin said softly in his ear. “I’m going to take you underwater now. Get ready.”

“Kellin, wait,” begged Vic, clutching his arm tightly. All the times Kellin had been hanging on to Vic, terrified of what was unknown to him, Vic had no idea just what he was actually feeling. But now that he was experiencing it first hand he had to admit it was a lot harder than he thought. Knowing Kellin was there made it bearable though. “I’m scared,” he admitted.

He felt Kellin tighten his grip around him, but only to start to pull him down with him. He was up to his chin in water before Kellin spoke again. “Take a deep breath,” he instructed, and Vic did as told. “Now force out all the air from your lungs. All of it, or you’re going to choke.” It was hard; all of his instincts told him to suck in the air, rather than force it out. When Kellin was sure that Vic had done as he was instructed, he quickly dragged him under, turning him in his arms so that they could see each other.

Under the water, it was so much darker. Granted, Vic had closed his eyes as he had been taught to do when he was very young so that he wouldn’t damage his vision. And everything seemed so muffled, so quiet, until he heard Kellin’s voice - clear as day. “Open your eyes,” he commanded, sounding so much louder than he did on the surface. “Vic.” Slowly, he opened them a sliver, expecting it to hurt. It felt fine though. As if he weren’t underwater. Slowly he opened them the rest of the way and gazed at Kellin, floating next to him in all his glory. God, he stuck out in the darkness of the water, even though it was day. That was when Vic realized that they were still drifting deeper and deeper, further out away from the beach. “Breathe, Vic, please,” said Kellin. “It’s just like up there.”

Well, it felt and sounded weird and crazy at first, but Vic decided to trust Kellin. His chest felt like it was going to blow up if he waited any longer. It hurt - water crashed inside him. But after a moment to adjust, he realized that Kellin was right; it WAS like breathing air even though it was sea water.

“How do you feel?” asked Kellin cautiously.

Vic thought about the question for a moment. He felt… fine. Almost. “Cold,” he answered honestly. “Its colder here.”

Kellin nodded with understanding; that was correct. But he was used to the lower temperatures of the sea. Good, Vic was fine. He turned and started to swim in the other direction, going slower than usual so that Vic could keep up. The human took a moment to figured out just how to move like Kellin did in the water before he catching up with him, looking around at everything they passed with huge eyes. It was amazing; the fish didn’t swim away - the coral, the rocks, the very way streaks of light shined through the top of the water down to the sand.

“Its beautiful,” he whispered, catching Kellin’s attention. He marveled at how their voices were able to travel through the water in such an eery way. It was quieter here, but the sound was not at all muffled in the way you’d expect it to be. The siren shrugged; to him this place was home and most of the times it was lonely. But looking at things through Vic’s eyes, realized how different it was from the surface. “Look! Oh may God, what even is that?” asked Vic, pointing at a strange looking fish a few feet away.

“Some type of sting ray, I think,” said Kellin nonchalantly.

Vic stared at the thing with wide eyes until they had gone by it completely. Everything was so interesting! He was like a kid in the candy shop and he had to look at everything. He wished Kellin would swim a little slower, but he didn’t want to bug him either - he was around this stuff all the time; it was nothing new to him. Vaguely Vic realized that this was what it was like to be a sea creature and honestly the only thing he’d get tired of was the constant, eery silence.

“Where are we going?” he asked after a few minutes of neither of them talking.

“I dunno. I was gonna show you where I usually sleep, whenever that may be. It’s just a cave but whatever. Matty might be there,” he added as an after thought. Vic nodded and before long they seemed to have reached their destination. It was inside a huge underwater rock formation, with barnacles and sea-plants growing on top of it. There was a sort of sky light in the top, letting in some of the light, although it was still darker than the rest of the ocean. “Matty?” Kellin called out as he swam inside.

“You brought him here,” came Matty’s voice through the water. “I figured you would.”

“I hope you don’t mind,” said Kellin. “I just wanted to show him around under here, like he did for me up there.”

Matty nodded, looking Vic up and down and motioning for him to come closer, further inside their little home. Upon closer inspection, he noticed Matty’s tail was a deep, fiery red color. “You’re purple!” the red-haired siren pointed out happily, sweeping his eyes over Vic’s tail. “Everyone has a different color down here… well, kind of. I’ve never seen purple before.”

“No, there’s another purple siren,” Kellin interjected. “Meghan, the one that tells all the stories. She lives with Alaina, how have you not seen her?”

His friend shot him a frown. “I forgot about her,” he said. “She kind of fades in to the back ground, you know? Besides, he stands out compared to her.”

Kellin turned and swept his eyes over Vic once more. “Yeah, I guess he does,” he agreed. Although, he was definitely biased. Truthfully when he first saw Vic in siren form he swore his heart had skipped a beat because it was probably one of the most beautiful things he’d ever seen in his entire life.

For lack of anything to say and for fear of saying the wrong thing, Vic just kept his mouth shut. He accepted Matty’s nods of basic approval and kept looking at Kellin for any sign of what he was supposed to do. He felt as awkward as Kellin had when they had gone to the music store the first day Kellin went beyond the beach.

“I’m going to show him more of this place,” Kellin said, turning away from his friend finally. Matty nodded and turned away himself, waving goodbye to Vic. Complete change of behavior - Matty was acting so much kinder now. Could it be that he actually trusted Vic after the conversation that they’d had? Well, regardless, he wasn’t going to screw it up. He quickly followed Kellin back out in to the brighter waters, swimming faster to catch up with him.

As soon as he was by his side he reached out to take his hand, and instantly stopped. The second they made contact a wave of happiness and good feelings spread through both their bodies; so strong they both stopped in their tracks. It was so tingly and pleasant, they couldn’t help but stop and smile at each other. It nearly took their breath away. “I should have mentioned,” Kellin said, squeezing Vic’s hand to send another wave of the tingly sensation coursing through their veins, “Littler things you humans do are amplified down here. Little touches like this mean so much more. I figured that out after the first day we went up on land.”

“I love this,” admitted Vic, giving Kellin another squeeze back. God, it wasn’t even good in a sexual way - it was just happy and pleasant and Vic really, really loved it, and he got butterflies when Kellin laced their fingers together. Now he knew there was no way he was ready to kiss Kellin while they were in the ocean; it was probably impossibly amazing and honestly, too soon.

So for now, he let the native siren pull him along by his hand. He saw so many things that you could never even remotely formulate if you weren’t from here. Amazing fish and plants Vic had never heard of; beautiful land formations, ship wrecks, an underwater cave with gems growing out of it that sparkled and set off little rainbows when the sun hit them the right way. Vic asked if they could venture inside, but Kellin simply shook his head, stating that they would save that for another day. Although disappointed, Vic didn’t let it become a setback and they quickly moved on to the next big thing that the ocean had to offer. They wanted to spend as much time under the waves as possible before night came, and Vic would have to return home before his friends and brother worried for him.

The human wanted desperately to forget work the next day, and chores back home. No, he would much rather stay here where it was peaceful and quiet, just happy to hold Kellin’s hand.