Mermen in Melbourne

The Confession

A/N: So this one is terrible lol don't kill me. I'll have another one up Wednesday as a kind of apology.

The whole Teach had spent the day training in defense, offense, and anything in between. Drills with unlikely odds were ran ten, twenty times in a row, working their way into the group's long term memory. Tanner looked as if he felt prepared. While this comforted Austin a little, it didn't keep the seeping feeling from his chest. Someone Tanner was close to, this Oliver guy, died because of Seth and his friends. Austin thought that Seth could be trusted, that he could be, well, an okay partner.

Yep, that was wrong.

Austin stood lookout at the front door, Mason by his side. Isaac and Wyatt were on the roof, and Tanner and Ian were waiting by the back. Russell, stood alone in his room, was going to be the bait. Tanner had mapped the whole plan out to the finest detail. The way he did it, though, made Austin think that he'd been planning this ever since the last attack. That was odd to think about.

"Are we supposed to just wait here, or was there some sort of command about going outdoors?" Austin asked, looking out the small window.

"Wait here. Command was that if we heard the codeword from the roof, we would then go outside," Mason said, leaning against the door.

"What was the codeword again?"

"I think it was 'attack,' which is a very Tanner codeword. I would of gone with something a little more conspicuous, but oh well. Not really my call," Mason said.

"Yeah." Austin agreed. A silence fell over the two boys as they waited for the call. Nothing came.

"Would you mind if I ask you something personal?" Austin said, turning to Mason. The thought had been bugging him ever since the morning prior.

"Go on," Mason said.

"Well, I mean, I'm just curious..."

"Yeah?"

"I don't want to be invasive-"

"Out with it, Nguyen," Mason said.

"Why aren't you and Tanner partners?"

Mason turned around, raising an eyebrow at Austin. "Well, simple answer. We are not partners because we are not compatible. My sign, Aquarius, is most compatible with the signs Aries, Gemini, Libra, and Capricorn."

"But can't you just love someone? Why do you operate around this Zodiac calendar so closely? It doesn't make any sense," Austin said.

"Yeah, you are telling me," Mason said.

"But I don't understand. If you love him, why don't you just be with him?" Austin said.

"Whoa. Who the hell said I loved the guy? Not everyone is as infatuated with Tanner as you might think. The guy doesn't shoot rainbows out his mouth, Aus," Mason said, his tone gone bitter.

"Oh. I- oh. You mean..." Austin stuttered out.

"Yes I mean. I, well, did not really plan on telling anyone, but." Mason said, his voice trailing off. Austin paused, cocking an eyebrow. He thought he knew earlier, but now he didn't really know where Mason was going with this.

"I think I might... hell. I think I might like women," Mason said. He was quick to avert his gaze.

Austin paused. That was hella anticlimactic, he thought.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything."

"What? Hold on, what? You've got to be kidding me." Austin said. "No guy is judged for loving girls. Shut up."

"Yeah, maybe where you are from, but look around, Austin! There's not a girl in sight. And I might try to love a guy, I might try as hard as possible, but it just doesn't work! And I know I'm not like Ian, I really do like romance and stuff, but just. I just want to be normal. I just wish I could say, yeah. I am completely normal. That is a lie, though, a lie I have been living for years. And when I met her, above water, just living life like nothing mattered, I was smitten. She had a laugh like wind chimes and hair that fell to her shoulders and she was a girl. And that cemented it for me. I like girls. Women. Honestly, at first I was a little worried that I would get kicked out of the Teach for saying so, but I no longer care. I do not. I am absolutely sick of this torn up feeling I get in my chest whenever I see Russell and Isaac dancing, or Trent and Wyatt doing that thing with their eyes. They look so fucking happy, Austin. That is all I want," Mason said. Austin stopped and looked at the boy. He wore a face of distrust, as if he expected Austin to call him a name, to break him even further.

"Mason, I. I don't know what to say," Austin said. He rubbed a hand down his neck, feeling the rippled gills that used to be skin. A constant reminder.

"Just. Avoid saying anything." Mason said, returning his gaze to the window.

They spent the last remaining hours of the night like that- Mason staring at the window with Austin right behind him. Austin was a little stunned at Mason's confession- he had no idea that a species with only one gender could find a way to love another.

The sun rose without noise from the roof. "Maybe they fell asleep," Mason said, and Austin yawned in response. He had stayed up well over 24 hours, and was planning to sleep the day away. "I would not be surprised."

"Austin. Mason. Did you guys hear anything?" Tanner called, swimming towards them.

"Not a peep all night," Mason said, smiling. "That seems like a good thing."

"Well, I mean, yeah, but we did not get to, you know, fight them, which I was really looking forward to," Tanner said.

"Hold on. Doesn't that mean that Seth never meant to target our Teach all along? Maybe he just wanted to talk to me," Austin said.

"Maybe up above people just talk to each other, but not down here. You are either being recruited or being marked for death. There is no in between." Tanner said.

"That's... that's horrible." Austin said.

"Yeah," Mason said with a sigh. "Yeah, it truly is."