High Tide (boyxboy)

Chapter 15: Fish out of water

"Something tells me I need to take him there."

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Kai is laying motionless in the bath. Stan gets on his knees and pulls Kai up, shaking him slightly by the shoulders, his touch causing shimmering waves over the skin. "Kai. Kai. Nathan, why's he not answering?" 

Nathan looked panicked as he stood by the door. "I...I don't know. Has he drowned? He is a fish isn't he?" 

"Kai." Stan shakes him again. "I don't understand. He said that he was dehydrated. He said he needed water."

"Sea water." Nathan's eyes widened at the obvious mistake.

"What do you mean?"

"Stan. He's a sea creature. We need to take him back to the sea." Nathan looks over Kai's body, having seen it for the first time. His skin glistened in the water like pearls but his eyes were closed, bringing him back to reality. "Come on, we need to get him out."

Nathan grabs a large bath towel off of the rail and hands it to Stan, who tries his best not to make skin contact, at least until he is in the sea. 

Now with a towel around him, they are heading out of the apartment, to Nathan's car. Stan carefully lays Kai on the back seat, before getting in the passenger side and Nathan in the driver's seat. 

"You need to drive back to the caves." Stan says under a labourer breath. 

Nathan nods, applying his foot to the accelerator. "It's gonna take an hour, will he be ok?"

Stan looks back at the silvery blue being draped over the back seat. "He has to be." 

***

It's the beginning of a beautiful sunset at the small seaside town Stan calls home. Unfortunately, he did not have the time to appreciate it as Nathan pulled up on the cliff edge, next to the winding path, leading down to the beach. Nathan and Stan carefully manoeuvre Kai from the back seat and begin to make their descent down the path. 

The beach is reasonably deserted, with only one or two dog walkers who are looking at them with suspicion. Nathan looks at the onlookers then looks at Stan. "How are we gonna explain this?" 

Stan just focuses on Kai. "We'll worry about that later. Right now Nat I don't care." They are now at the mouth of the cave. "Lay him here." Stan says and they rest Kai on the soft sand at the cave's entrance. 

Nathan looks at Stan. "What now?"

Stan looks at Kai and then at the cave. "Something tells me I need to take him there." Stan checks his watch, then looks out to the sea. "I have about an hour before the tide comes in." 

Nathan looked at Stan. He had known him long enough to realise that he wasn't going to change his mind about this. "Ok...let's go."