Under the Ocean Waves

The drive to the hospital was probably one of the most nerve wracking things Vic had ever had to do with his life. What if Josh hadn’t made it out okay? What if he was severely damaged or worse, dead? The poor store owner had never done any wrong to anyone. All he wanted was to make a living off his thriving music store and thus far, it had worked, up until now. Vic didn’t stick around to check out the damage in the store and he could only pray that it wasn’t too bad.

Kellin glanced between the road and Vic, squeezing his hand as his own way of assuring him that things were going to be okay. They had to be okay. They just had to. He refused to let something like this ruin his relationship that he’d been building with the human… because he didn’t think he could handle going back to the lonely ocean without him.

When they pulled up to the ominous building, it seemed to loom over them, daring them to enter. It was terrifying, mostly for Kellin. Once they had gotten out of the car they immediately started to hold hands as they walked towards the entrance, both of them glancing around as if they did not want to see what lay ahead.

“Vic, what are hospitals like?” Kellin asked. “Down under we just heal each other, I don’t know what to expect…”

Vic sighed and squeezed his hand. They were almost to the door now. “Well, there’s a lot of sick people and some of them are hurt. It’s really quiet in there. People walk around in things called scrubs; those are the doctors and the nurses and they’re there to heal people and bring them what they need if they’re sick or whatever,” he explained, rolling his eyes up as he tried to recall anything Kellin would need to know. There wasn’t really any way to prepare him for all the things he could possible see in here though. “Just stay close to me, it’ll be fine; I hope…”

Kellin nodded, stepping forward to open the door for Vic - a custom that he’d seen once when they were out walking and asked the tan boy about. Vic thanked him and slipped his hand back in to his as they walked up to the front desk.

A pretty, young secretary was sitting there, looking bored out of her mind and finding something interesting in her long, acrylic nails. Vic stepped up and cleared his throat, gaining her attention. She peered at him through thick, false-looking eyelashes.

“Can I help you?” he said, waking up the computer on the desk.

Vic nodded. “Yeah, I’m here to see uh, Josh Ramsay? He was just brought it a while ago…”

“Fourth floor, intensive care unit. Room 316.” She didn’t even look up as she gave the room number and Vic didn’t thank her as he grabbed Kellin’s hand and pulled him along to the elevator.

“I’m nervous,” Vic admitted. “the ICU means he’s in bad shape… Kels, what am I gonna do?” Vic looked at him hopelessly. “This is all my fucking fault because for some damn reason, Spencer wants to kill me!”

“I wish we knew why,” said Kellin, grabbing a hold of Vic as the elevator jerked upwards. “I can’t think of any reason any sort of siren would want to hurt you, or me…”

Vic nodded and shrugged, thinking hard. It was possible that the mere fact that they were together was the reason someone wanted them apart, but it wasn’t at all likely in the slightest. Matty and Kellin were the only sirens Vic actually knew and they were both kind, although seemingly reserved. It didn’t make sense to him. He sighed and they stepped off of the elevator, linking hands as they searched the numbers on the wall.

An stressed out and tired-looking curly haired boy walked out of one of the rooms, looking like he hadn’t slept for days and it occurred to Vic that people actually died here. That this meant Josh was in serious, serious shape. They passed the other boy who stared off in to space sightlessly; and moved on to find Josh’s room was right next to the one that the boy had walked out of.

The door was unlocked, and so they stepped in quietly. Josh was awake, but looking pale and weak. Neither of them noticed the doctor until he turned from one of the monitors he was looking at to stare at them.

“Are you here to see him?” he asked, looking quizzical.

Vic nodded, not taking his eyes off his friend and boss. “Is he going to be okay?”

The doctor shrugged his shoulders and sighed and that’s when Vic noticed something. Josh’s eyes were open, but he seemed completely unresponsive. The heart monitors were beeping and he was definitely breathing, yet he hadn’t said anything or given any sort of sign that he knew someone had come in.

“Oh my God, there’s brain damage, isn’t there?” Vic stared at the doctor, shocked.

The man ran his fingers through his hair. “I think so, from inhaling so much smoke and not enough oxygen,” he said finally. “But he might recover.”

Vic didn’t stick around to hear the rest of what the doctor had to say. Instead he turned and walked straight out, with Kellin following straight behind.

Honestly, the thing that sucked about all of this was not only constantly worrying about his own safety, but Vic also had worry about the safety of everyone around him now, as well. Kellin had already almost been hit by a car and now Josh had nearly died in a fire and might even still be brain dead or something. What was next? Was he going to return home to find that his apartment had been bombed with all of his friends inside of it? Would he ever be able to live with the guilt if one of them was injured because some psychopath had it in for him?

The answer, of course, was no.

“Wait up!” Kellin’s voice, a few steps behind him, pulled Vic back to reality. He turned and saw the pale boy hurrying up to meet him in the elevator before the doors closed. Once they had he latched on to Vic. “Its gonna be okay, Vic,” he said quietly, giving his hand a squeeze.

“No, its not,” Vic argued. “And you’re not going to convince me that it is.”

Kellin tried to say something, but Vic just hushed him and pulled him out of the hospital. He couldn’t bare seeing Josh like that now that he knew just how damaged he was. His family and friends would probably be there any second now as well and Vic wouldn’t be able to hold it together in front of them.

They rushed out of the hospital lobby, and back in to the car. Still, Vic didn’t say a word and Kellin was too afraid to speak as well, not wanting to upset him or make things worse than they already were. As the car pulled out of the hospital parking lot, Vic had made up his mind.

“I’m driving back to the beach,” he said in a low tone. “And… and you’re staying in the ocean for a while.”

The siren whipped his head around and stared at him with that unnaturally bright gaze. “What?!” he exclaimed, sounding terrified. “Why?! But Vic!”

“Its for your own good!” Vic snapped. “I can’t risk you getting hurt, Kellin!”

Taken aback, Kellin frowned and stared down at his knees. He definitely didn’t want to go back, he wanted to stay with Vic. “I don’t wanna leave you alone,” he whispered. “I don’t want to be alone, either.”

“You’ve got Matty,” said Vic, gripping the steering wheel tightly. “I just don’t want you getting hurt up here because of me.”

An idea popped in to the siren’s head then. If Kellin couldn’t stay on the surface because it wasn’t safe… then maybe he would go back under the sea. “Come with me,” he whispered finally.

Vic looked at him for a moment, but quickly returned his eyes to the road. “What?” he said softly.

Kellin slid his hand in to Vic’s and gave it a little squeeze, urging him to accept the offer. “Come and stay with me under the waves tonight,” he repeated.

It took a few minutes of silence and driving, but Vic finally agreed with a nod of his head. “I wish my life made sense,” he murmured.

—

When they got to the beach, Vic turned his phone off and hid it in the glove compartment and proceeded to lock up the entire car. To be honest he was a little nervous to be going under the water for so long. He’d texted Mike to let him know that he wouldn’t be home that night and didn’t wait for a response.

“Ready?” Kellin asked him, leading him down on to the sand. It was a cloudy night; no stars were shining in the sky and no moon lit their path down to where the water washed up against the shore.

They stayed silent as they stepped in to those small waves and gradually went in to deeper water. Once they were up to their chests, Vic reached out to grab for Kellin, fearing that he’d lose him or something could go wrong, like last time. Kellin just took him in his arms and slowly started to pull him under. Vic released all the breath he had in his lungs and then the cold water was surrounding him.

When he opened his eyes, two bright blue ones were looking back at him, and his legs were gone. In their place was that purple tail that he was still growing used to swimming with.

“You’re such a beautiful siren,” Kellin purred, looking him up and down. “Purple is such a lovely color…”

Vic smirked; he was so much more relaxed down here. It was rubbing off on him; funny how it was Kellin that managed to put him in such a good mood when everything was so difficult at the moment and Vic was still finding it hard to believe everything that had happened today. But why stop and think about things when there were more things that didn’t make sense happening all around him? He threw caution to the wind and moved closer to Kellin, wrapping his arms around his waist.

“D-don’t,” Kellin said suddenly, pushing Vic away. “You can’t kiss me down here.”

“Why not?” asked Vic, frowning with disappointment. All he wanted to do was press his lips to Kellin’s and just feel… happy, and relaxed.

“It’s different, remember? Remember how it felt just to hold my hand?” Kellin reminded him, holding out his hand for Vic to take just to demonstrate. Vic laced their fingers together and yes, Kellin was right. It was a lot more intense and strange. And when the sun wasn’t out, it sure was darker than normal down here.

“Come on,” Kellin led him in to deeper waters. The further they went, the darker it got, and the more Kellin’s eyes seemed to stand out. They were so bright, they were almost acting as sort of headlights, lighting the way to wherever it was that they were going.

Schools of fish still passed by, but they seemed so much more menacing and strange in the dark. Regardless, as long as Kellin’s hand was pressed firmly in to Vic’s, he wasn’t going to feel afraid. Not even when a huge creature swam directly overhead - Vic swore it must have been a shark or something - did he even flinch. Was that all because of the fact that Kellin was there for him to touch? Things definitely were a lot more intense, and special, and important in the ocean. And Vic was fine with that.

Kellin eventually led them to the same hallowed out rock that they had been to before, only this time Matty wasn’t inside. Kellin figured he must just be out somewhere, as sirens didn’t always sleep. For tonight though, he would try. It might be a little easier with Vic cuddled up next to him, safe and sound.

“What do you guys do for fun down here?” Vic asked after a moment of silence, with both of them looking out of the crevice they had swam in to enter. Kellin’s eyes were like two bright orbs that illuminated the entire hallow.

“Uh… Mostly collect things, I guess. And sing. play tag. I don’t know…” his voice trailed off as he realized just how boring his life must be compared to Vic’s.

Of course, the tan boy was fascinated by everything, though. He was the only human to say he had ever seen certain things, however. No scuba diver could really appreciate half the things that Kellin had shown him.

“Do you collect anything?” Vic pressed him. He swam closer, wanting to settle in and wrap each other up in a warm embrace. Kellin moved so that they could lay against the rock with his head resting on Vic’s chest as they talked. It was a little like a sleepover - only, underwater.

“Well, yeah. I collected things from the human world,” Kellin answered.

Things from the human world? Vic frowned, trying to figure out what he meant. “like what?”

“Well, I guess you would call it trash…”

A giggle tumbled out of Vic’s lips. “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” he told him in a quiet voice, running his fingers through Kellin’s hair. It felt so different now that they weren’t on land. Everything was different - but it was a welcome change, especially since Vic felt safe down here.

Even though the rock they were laying on wasn’t as comfortable as a bed, it was alright. And Vic could make due. Kellin’s head felt heavy on his chest and his eyes were actually starting to want to close, so he leaned forward and brushed his lips across the top of Kellin’s head. It wasn’t so much a kiss; more like a cuddle of sorts. Something to express his contentment and affection for the boy nuzzled in to his chest. Rather than legs tangled together, their tails rested across each other, navy blue over purple.

It was absolutely absurd. But honestly moments like this were what made it all worth it.