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Andrew hears the thundering footsteps above deck and frantic shouts of his name. He’d been locked in his cabin since they’d docked, pacing back and forth attempting and failing to keep his mind occupied.
It had been four weeks since he’d last seen Neil and with every extra minute that Andrew didn’t see him his anxiety grew.
No matter what part of the ocean The Fox was in, Neil had managed to come and visit him at least once a week for the last two years.
Andrew still remembered the first time he’d seen Neil. The sky had been dark and angry and the waves had been crashing aggressively against the boat for most of the night. Most of the crew had been below deck, swaying in their hammocks and praying that the boat didn’t sink. When Andrew had heard the distinctive creak and crack of the wood above deck he’d cursed.
Barely a minute later Wymack had stormed into the room with all the hammocks and walked over to Andrew’s hammock.
“Newbie, you’re up. Go fix the mast.”
Andrew tried to be mad but compared to how Wymack had found him, this was basically paradise. He still remembered the putrid stink of the tiny room he’d been trapped in on The Drakon, locked in naked with his own filth with members of the crew coming in any time of day to use him how they pleased.
When Wymack had first stormed into his room, Andrew thought it was just another member of the crew ready to come and have their fill. When Wymack had instead picked him up, slinging him over a shoulder, and walked him out of the room Andrew had never been more thankful. He laughed as his eyes had skimmed over the members of The Drakon covered in their own blood, eyes staring lifelessly at the sky.
Andrew shudders out of the memory and looks back at Wymack, standing quickly and walking behind Wymack as they headed to the main deck.
When they reached the deck Andrew realized just how awful the weather was. The rain had made everything slippery and the ocean was angry as waves crashed into the side of the boat and slid across the deck.
“Up you get.” Wymack practically yelled to be heard over the crashing waves and rolling thunder.
Andrew would rather scale a mask in horrendous weather then be stuck back on The Drakon so he just nods and moves forward toward the mast, grabbing the tools as he goes and beginning the slow and treacherous climb up the mast.
“I think it’s the top yard” Wymack shouts from the deck as Andrew climbs the mast.
Andrew sighs, of course it’d be the highest possible thing that is damaged.
He continues his slow climb and is almost at the top of the mast when something tells him to look out to the ocean.
“Fuck.” He whispers as a massive wave builds beside The Fox.
Of course it would be like this, of course he’d survive years upon that hell ship only to die at the hands of an angry ocean.
“Fuck you.” He says as the wave reaches it’s peak practically on top of The Fox. He wraps his arms and legs as tightly as he can around the mast and braces.
The wave hits him in what feels like the force of a brick wall and his tightened grip around the mast loosens and despite how hard he tries to hold on, his grip fails and the wave knocks him aggressively off the mast and into the ocean.
Andrew’s lungs tighten in his chest at the freezing cold of the ocean, he tries to get his bearings as the wave tumbles him around, he tries to swim to what he thinks is the surface but in the pitch black of the night it’s hard to tell what’s up and what’s down.
The panic doesn’t set in until his chest tightens, not with cold but with the need for a breath, his swimming gets more desperate and his limbs start flailing in the water.
After a moment of desperate flailing he feels his body start to give in, his muscles relax and his brain goes hazy.
Just before he closes his eye’s he see’s a shimmering from the corner of his eye.
Andrew wakes laying on a hard surface and when he feels himself being pushed along with the distinct sound of a grunt his eyes spring open and he sits up, or at least he tries to sit up.
“Stop moving so much, Poseidon curse you!”
The voice comes from beside Andrew and he turns to see who had spoken. If Andrew’s ability to express emotion hadn’t been beaten out of him years ago he’d probably have screamed.
The face in front of him was lightly scaled, only enough to give the skin a glimmering effect, instead of the ears there were what looked like small orange fins, and the eyes that looked back at him were solid blue, not even a sliver of white peeking through the eerie monochromatic stare.
“What the fuck?” It seems like the only words for what he’s seeing.
He turns his head again and realises he’s on the deck of The Fox, although there’s distinctively less swaying then there was when Andrew was on it what was likely only hours ago. He turns back to the face now leaning over the railing of the deck.
Andrew notices the hands folded along the railing have a fine webbing between them.
“How?”
“It wasn’t easy, you’re heavier than you look. And you were half dead by the time I got to you. You’re lucky I have some control over water.”
Andrew studies the man, or the thing, in front of him again. Those blue eye’s stare right back at him, Andrew can’t tell where the eyes move, if they move at all.
“What are you?”
“I think you humans like to call us mermaids, or well, merman.” The merman says lifting a hand to gesture at himself.
“Am I dead?” Andrew asks, this certainly feels like an elaborate post death mind trick.
“I don’t think so.” The man (merman?) says from beside him, “I mean I don’t know a whole lot about you humans but I think if you’re up and talking you’re alive.”
Andrew stares incredulously at the man looking at him. Why had this merman bothered to save him?
Before he can ask Andrew hears footsteps walking across the deck.
The merman looks away from Andrew and towards where the footsteps are, he sinks further behind the railing and turns around.
“Wait!” Andrew calls before he can leave.
The merman turns back to him.
“Come back.” Is all Andrew manages to say, the merman stares at him for a moment before nodding quickly.
He flashes a wink and Andrew gets one last look at those haunting blue eyes before the merman turns and falls from view, a flash of something gold catching the moonlight before he disappears from view.
“Andrew?!” He hears someone’s surprised tone behind him and turns to find Dan, Wymack’s second-hand, staring incredulously at him.
The merman, Andrew later learned his name was Neil, had kept his promise and come back a week later.
Andrew had stood on deck staring out the ocean well past sunset every night waiting for him.
The crew had been confused how he’d managed to survive the fall and get back to the boat but Andrew wasn’t willing to admit what had happened, if it had happened at all, so he’d instead glared at anyone who dared ask him how he’d survived.
After a year of Neil coming to see Andrew, many quiet conversations and kisses later, Neil had allowed Andrew to tell the crew about him.
After finding out and not believing him, the crew had insisted on meeting the ‘merman’ (they put the word in air quotes every time, not believing the wild story for a moment).
When Neil had next swum up to The Fox, Andrew was joined with the rest of the crew behind him. Andrew and Neil had laughed at the expressions of shock on the crew’s face, which had only grown more bewildered when Neil had clasped a cool, webbed hand on the back of Andrew’s neck and pulled him in for a quick kiss in greeting.
Another year later and the crew had mostly gotten past that one of their own had a merman as a boyfriend.
“Where’s your little boyfriend?” Nicky had teasingly asked one night when he’d spotted Andrew leaning against the railing one quiet, raining night.
“I don’t fucking know.” Andrew had tried to go for an angry tone but instead his worry had bleed through.
“What’s wrong?” Nicky had asked, immediately recognizing Andrew’s worry.
Andrew had turned to look at Nicky, who was now leaning against the railing looking at Andrew with his brows pulled together.
“I haven’t seen him in three weeks. I don’t know where he is. What if-“ Andrew didn’t let himself finish the sentence but his mind couldn’t help but straying there.
“Oh.” Nicky had said softly and turned to look back out at the ocean.
“What if he just can’t find us?”
Andrew scoffed and pulled a pearl from under the tight black cloth he had wrapped around his forearm.
“He gave me this the day after he met you guys. I don’t know how it works exactly but he can sense it, so he can always find us.”
“Oh.” Nicky said softly again.
“Fuck!” Andrew had screamed loudly at the empty ocean and punched the railing with his fist harshly.
“Hey,” Nicky said, hovering his hand over Andrew’s clenched one, knowing Andrew’s aversion to touch, “we’ll find him ok.”
Andrew had looked back at Nicky.
“We fucking better.” Is all Andrew had replied before turning to walk back below deck.
A week later and still no sign of Neil they’d docked at on the ports they frequently visited. Andrew was on edge and it seemed that Nicky had told the crew about the reason for Andrew’s fouler than usual mood. They had all been treading around him carefully, trying their best not to annoy him, somehow that was more annoying then them acting normal.
When Wymack had given them the night off to roam the town as they pleased, they’d all happily cheered and jumped off deck as quickly as they could. Talking loudly about how shit the beer at the local tavern was.
Andrew had watched them go from the deck and when Nicky turned, noticing Andrew’s absence he spotted him on the deck.
“I’ll keep an ear out ok?” Nicky had called.
Andrew had nodded at him and turned to go back below deck.
Only a few hours later and he had Nicky panting in front of him attempting to get words out around gasping breathes.
“Erik he-“ Nicky takes another panting breath.
“He said-“ Nicky stops talking again and leans over trying to catch his breath.
“Jesus fuck Nicky, what is it?”
Nicky holds up a hand, his index finger up “Give me a second.” He manages to gasp out.
Andrew starts tapping his foot anxiously.
After another minute of Nicky breathing harshly he finally rises into a standing position again, when he tries to talk this time his voice comes out a lot less strained.
“Erik said that last week a group of pirates came to the whore house.” Nicky had no qualms about his boyfriend being a prostitute, “He said they were bragging about something they’d found. Erik said they wouldn’t tell anyone what it was but Erik got curious. He asked the man that paid for him.”
Nicky suddenly leaned closer to Andrew.
“He said it’s a mermaid.”
Andrew’s stomach drops, he feels the blood rush from his face and he struggles not to stumble back.
“Is it him?” Andrew’s voice sounds strangled, even in his own ears.
“I don’t know, Erik didn’t ask too many questions after that but he knows what boat they were on.”
“Which one?” Andrew’s dread turns to something else, it takes a while for him to place it, it’s been at least a few years since he felt this feeling. It’s rage, rage that someone would dare hurt Neil, that they’d take him.
“The Raven.”
“Fuck.”
The Raven was notorious for being one of the most savage ships on the seas, killing anyone they came in contact with on open water.
“Fuck.” Andrew repeats bringing his hands up to rub his palm against his eyes.
“Hey,” Nicky says softly and Andrew feels a tentative hand be placed on his shoulder, “I know it’s bad but at least we know where he is now right? We’ll find him, we can talk to Wymack.”
Andrew nods but his brain is swirling with all the things that could be happening to Neil right now, all the things that could happen to the crew if they go after The Raven.
He swallows thickly and meets Nicky’s eye’s again. Instead of sadness, or anger he see’s pure determination. The look fills him with a sense of hope. They’ll find him he tells himself and tries to believe it.
Neil doesn’t know how long he’s been on the boat for.
Days are harder to tell apart above the ocean and even if he could see the moon he thinks the days would have blended together as he fades in and out of consciousness.
Wounds were healing poorly across his whole body, the graft of skin that had been taken out of his tail has left behind a large hole that’s refusing to close.
Any will that Neil had in the first few days to fight back has been beaten out of him and he now sits in the corner trying to gather the strength to summon the water just beneath him to have something to fight back with.
He tries not to think about Andrew.
About how worried he likely is right now. It had taken Neil a while to figure out how the slight changes to Andrew’s face signified his mood changes. Neil can almost guarantee that Andrew currently had that slight pull between his eyebrows that he gets when he’s worried.
Neil shies further into the corner when the door to the small room he’s confined to opens, he relaxes slightly when he sees it’s Jean.
Jean is the only one on this ship with a caring cell in his body, he’d done his best to look out for Neil.
Riko was the worst, taunting and cutting at Neil for what seems to be fun.
“Hey.” Jean says softly, closing the door quietly behind him. Neil sees a sliver of moonlight reflect off the wet wood of the deck before the door closes behind Jean.
Jean’s got a canteen in his hand and he quickly walks over, handing it to Neil. Neil immediately takes a drink of the salty water inside.
Jean crouches in front of him and lightly prods at the edge of the open wound on Neil’s tail, Neil winches as a hot flash of pain emanates from the area.
“Sorry.” Jean says weakly, “I think it might be infected, I tried to bring something for it but they would’ve noticed.”
“I’m fine.” Neil says, leaning his head back against the hard wood of the cabin wall.
Neil closes his eyes, finding a brief moment of respite with Jean in the room.
In what only seems like moments later Neil hears a muffled shout from the deck. His eye’s fly open and he stares at the door.
“Did you hear that?” He turns to ask Jean.
Jean’s already standing up, hand on the saber at his hip.
Neil hears another scream, this time loud and distinct, before the thud of something hitting the deck.
“I’m going out there.” Jean says, taking a step forward.
“Wait!” Neil cautions, “I think I know who it is.” Well Neil hopes he knows who it is.
He doesn’t know Jean well but he knows him well enough to understand that Jean isn’t on this boat by choice.
Jean turns to look at him, a confused look on his face.
“Who is-“ Before he can finish his sentence the door to the cabin bursts open.
Neil sees a flash of multi-coloured hair before Jean has a knife pressed against his neck and his arm twisted behind his back.
“Renee, wait!” Neil yells.
Renee’s head pops out from behind Jean’s tall frame.
“Neil?!” She says incredulously, her knife not veering off Jean’s neck.
“He’s ok.” He tells her quickly.
Renee turns to eye Jean warily before slowly dropping her hands off of Jean.
“Try anything and I won’t hesitate.” Renee says ominously.
“I believe it.” Jean says, raising a hand to wipe at his lightly bleeding neck.
Renee quickly rushes to Neil and kneels next to him.
“Oh no, no no.” She says, eye’s travelling down Neil’s body.
She raises a hand hovering it over Neil’s face.
“Neil, your face.” Her voice cracks and Neil can see tears in her eyes. Neil regrets ever mistrusting her.
He manages to reach his hand up and grab Renee’s. He knows his face must look a mess, wounds are undoubtedly still open and long across his eyes and cheeks.
“I’m fine.” He reassures her. “Where’s Andrew?” He asks with some urgency.
Renee turns to look behind her, noticing Jean still in the corner of the room, she scowls at him.
She turns back to Neil.
“I’ll go find him.”
She stands up quickly. Before she leaves the room she walks up to Jean, standing right in front of him.
“You better not try anything, if you do, you’re dead.”
Neil see’s Jean’s throat work with an anxious gulp and he nods quickly.
Once Renee has left the room he turns to Neil.
“Thanks for that.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop Andrew when he sees you.”
Jean looks anxious again and pushes himself further into the corner.
It’s times like these Neil wishes he had legs, he wishes he were able to storm out of this room and find Andrew himself.
He need not be too concerned though because only minutes later Andrew bursts through the door.
He doesn’t even notice Jean, as soon as the door opens he sees Neil and rushes forward, practically sliding on his knee’s as he comes down to Neil’s level.
His eye’s travel over Neil’s entire body and Neil see’s the clenched jaw that shows Andrew’s anger on his usually impassive face.
“Andrew.” Neil breathes out.
Andrew immediately pitches forward and wraps his arms around Neil.
“You asshole. Do you know how fucking worried I was?”
Neil just grips him harder, holding him and breathing a sigh of relief. Andrew found him.
Neil pulls back and puts his webbed hands on either side of Andrew’s face before pressing his lips, now cracked and dry, to Andrew’s.
Andrew returns the kiss fervently. Neil knows his mouth must taste terrible and there’s probably dried blood on his lips that is making Andrew taste iron but Andrew doesn’t seem to care as he kisses Neil carefully.
They pull back after a moment and Andrew just rests his forehead against Neil’s. Neil closes his eye’s and breathes in, almost crying when he smells that distinctly Andrew scent that he’d missed so much.
Andrew pulls back after a moment and reaches his arm around Neil’s back, Neil tries not to winch but when Andrew puts pressure against the open wounds of his back he can’t help it.
“Sorry, sorry.” Andrew says, reaching his other hand under Neil’s tail. Neil wraps his hands around Andrew’s neck as he rises.
Andrew quickly turns for the door and it’s only then he notices Jean in the corner.
Neil’s pretty sure if he was any other person, or if he wasn’t as hurt as he was, Andrew would have dropped him to get to Jean. Instead his arms pulls Neil in tighter and he crouches slightly.
“Who the fuck are you?” Andrew growls at him.
“That’s Jean.” Neil says quickly, “He’s ok.”
Andrew looks down at Neil briefly before raising his eye’s back to Jean.
“He kept you locked in a room for six weeks.”
“It wasn’t him.”
Andrew gives him a look.
“Well it wasn’t exactly him, he was acting on orders.”
Andrew eye’s Jean again before conceding and walking from the room.
They pass Renee, who was standing on guard at the entrance of the room.
“He tries anything, kill him.” Andrew says.
“Already on it.” Is the reply he gets as he makes his way to the side of the boat.
Neil’s looks up at the moon and can’t help the smile that spreads across his face. He turns to Andrew.
“Thank you.” Neil says and leans up to press a quick kiss to Andrew’s cheeks.
Not even the bleeding bodies of The Raven’s crew can dampen the mood.
When they get to the side railing of the boat Andrew shifts Neil so that he is bent over upside down on Andrew’s shoulder.
“Hold on.” Andrew says as he swings his legs over the railing and slowly starts climbing down the ladder attached to the side of the boat.
Taking this prime opportunity Neil leans forward to bite at Andrew’s butt, his pointed teeth easily piercing through the material of his pants.
“Ow, what the fuck Josten?” Andrew complains.
Neil just laughs and squeezes his arms tighter around Andrew’s torso.
“Thank you for coming for me. I’m so glad to have you.”
“Stop being sappy.” Is the romantic response Neil gets.
Andrew steps a foot onto the small rowboat at the bottom of the ladder, undoubtedly how The Fox crew got onto The Raven.
As quickly and carefully as he can Andrew maneuvers Neil so he can carefully place him back into the water.
Neil lets out a loud sigh of relief as his body sinks into the cold of the salt water. It immediately reinvigorates him, he dunks his head under to close his wounds. Merpeople can survive out of water forever if they really wanted to but it’s a horrible life, being under the water again fills him with joy.
When he raises his head again he looks up to see Andrew looking down at him with what looks like fondness in his eyes.
Neil surges up and plants his lips against Andrew’s again.
“I missed you so much.”
Surprisingly, the admission comes from Andrew and Neil smiles against his lips.
“I missed you to.” Neil says before closing the distance between them.
When they eventually pull back from each other, both panting lightly, Neil looks down and notices a cut on Andrew’s arm.
“You’re hurt.”
“It’s fine. It’ll heal.”
Neil pulls his hand out of the water and raises it above the cut on Andrew’s arm. Andrew grabs his hand before he can do anything.
“Don’t waste your energy, it’s fine.”
Neil pouts at him, “I’m fine, being in the water makes me feel better than ever.”
Andrew raises an eyebrow to question Neil’s statement but knows he won’t win this argument so he releases Neil’s hand.
Neil was mostly telling the truth anyway, there’s only a few lingering pains and a slight hunger now. Neil can’t bring himself to worry about wasting energy on this anyway, not when he watches the relief on Andrew’s face as Neil channels the salt water of the ocean to heal the wound on Andrew’s arm before pulling back.
“Thank you.”
“Of course.” Neil says and grins up at Andrew.
“Poseidon, I’m so glad to see you again.” Neil reaches up and cups Andrew’s jaw.
“Same to you Josten.”
If Neil didn’t know any better he’d think Andrew was lying but the slight tilt to his lips that he’s slowly come to recognize as happiness tells him otherwise.