The Waves Are Ours |Virgato|

Chapter 3: Discoveries

"Rich is everything okay up there?" Erick's voice called from downstairs. Chris panicked, he was so worried about Richard that he'd almost forgotten about Erick. It was bad enough one of the humans finding out, let alone two.

What was he going to do? His eyes searched the room, his tail was too long to fit inside the bathtub and there was nothing to cover it. Besides, it was too late. Richard had already seen it.

He turned back to Richard, whose eyes and mouth were wide open just staring at the scarlet fin.

"Everything's fine!" Richard called back after a moment as he shut the bathroom door behind him. Chris could only watch as Richard picked the towels up from the floor that he'd dropped and placed them on the basin. He didn't say a word.

Christopher's fear increased with every moment of silence. He would have run straight out of there if he could, if only he knew how to get back those legs.

Instead he ducked his head under the bath water as if somehow that would hide everything. His thoughts raced. What was he going to do now that Richard had seen him? He couldn't stay here. He frowned. The problem was that the guy currently held his only hope of getting back to the ocean. It wasn't like he could just walk out of here anymore.

Maybe if he resurfaced, the human would be gone and he could drag himself back to the ocean somehow? Or hide and wait until it got dark. Yeah, that might even work.

When Chris eventually resurfaced, he was surprised to find that Richard was still waiting there.

"You held your breath under there for seven minutes, I'm impressed," Richard finally spoke. "I told you to wait before you went in, but I guess you didn't need to."

Chris blinked, he knew he could have stayed under there all day if he'd wanted. If Richard wanted to know why he had a tail, would he have really waited that long for him to come out?

"Uh... I can explain... I uh..." Chris didn't know what to say. He looked down into the water bubbles, not wanting to meet the human's gaze.

Through his wet hair, he made out Richard smiling warmly at him, "It's okay. Take your time. I'm not going to hurt you."

Chris looked up again and nodded slowly. True to his word, Richard didn't prompt for anything else. He just waited. Chris wondered if he could trust Richard after all. He'd been so helpful and kind to him. Of the two land people he had met so far, he liked him the most.

"You're not scared of me?" Chris spoke in a shaky voice as he peeked out of the bath.

Richard shook his head, "Not really... Okay, maybe a little," he sighed. "I'm just curious as to what exactly you are and where that tail came from."

Chris flinched. He had hoped he wasn't scaring him. He still wanted to hide, but he didn't have much of a choice. Richard's eyes were still staring at him, and now that the human had found out, he probably had a right to know.

"I'm sorry, I-" Christopher's voice trembled on his words.

Still, he barely knew Richard. Bad things happened to merpeople that revealed themselves. Perhaps he could simply refuse to say something and just ask Richard to take him back to the water, no questions asked. No, that was even worse, and rude too. He'd be in even more trouble. He pulled at the currently dark red strands of his hair in frustration.

"Sorry, maybe that wasn't the right thing to say," Richard blushed. "Maybe I should go..."

Chris quickly shook his head. He didn't want Richard to leave. He took a deep breath and the words spilled out on their own. "Look, I'm a merman. I know almost nothing about boats and ships or whatever you land people call them. I went swimming out on my own, there was a storm and I found myself lying on a beach without my tail. I thought it was gone, but..." Chris gestured to the bath.