Even Lovers Drown (Mermaid AU; Phan)

FIC: Even Lovers Drown (Mermaid AU; Phan)
Title: Even lovers drown
Artist: Bekkie (coming soon)
Beta: Brooke
Word count: 17, 200
Rating: R

Warnings: Bullying in the first part, and a little bit of smut later on. Also to be safe, there are two scenes that involve drowning, one where the character loses consciousness, but no character death

Summary: Dan meets Phil when he's nine and Phil's thirteen, and he very quickly becomes the best thing in Dan's life. But Phil's a merman and no one else believes that he exists.

"One day, tens of millions of years from now,
someone will find me rusted into the mud of a world they have never seen,
and when they crumble me between their fingers,
it will be you they find."
- Jeanette Winterson, the stone gods
i.

Dan's sick to death of the beach hut. He's sick of coming here every single summer where nothing ever happens and they sit around on the beach all day getting sun burnt. It's boring. Kids in his class are going to Disney World and to Spain and India, and Dan's going to Bournemouth, which is an hour from his house, to stay in a hut the size of a small shed. No wonder no one at school likes him, he's boring.

The paint on the beach hut is peeling and it's been raining for weeks so the blue is a lot lighter than Dan remembers. But when he mentions it to his Mum she says he's just imagining it, and she puts her sunglasses on top of her head before unlocking the door and walking inside. It's definitely paler, and it looks worse than it did last year.

"I'm bored already," Dan mutters.

Dan's Dad makes a tutting noise under his breath. "Can you just try and be happy for once? We might not get to come here next year, what with your brother on the way."

Dan rolls his eyes and shrugs because he is trying, it's just there isn't really much to be happy about. He's got sand in his shoes and between his toes and the red flags are up because it's still stormy, so he can't even go swimming. There's literally nothing to do, but sit on the rocks and listen to his walkman, and he can't do that for two weeks straight without actually dying of boredom. He's going to die of boredom and then his parents will be really sorry that they never took him to Disney World.
When Dan sits down on the rocks, he looks out at the sea. It's quiet because they've arrived late and also because no one comes here really, there are so many more exciting places in the world. The glare of the sun is in Dan's eyes. He's left his sunglasses in the hut, and he's thinking about going back to grab them when something moves into his vision. Dan blinks and shields his eyes with his hand, and then he's sure he sees it again. Maybe it's dolphins. Dan isn't sure how many dolphins live on the South coast of England but he's never seen one up close so he feels a rush of excitement. Jack in his class swam with dolphins once, and Dan's been jealous ever since. He wants to see the look on Jack's face when he tells him he's seen one out in the wild.

There's a splash and Dan stands up, but then he slips on the rocks and his knee hits a sharp edge, grazing the skin. Tears fill his eyes at the sudden pain, but he he isn't going to cry because he's nine years old and he isn't a baby. His earphones have fallen out and all he can hear now is the crashing of the waves against the rocks.

"Are you okay?"

Dan jolts, looking down at the source of the voice. There's a boy in the water, with a lot of black hair and really blue eyes that flicker from Dan's knee to his face, looking concerned.

"You can't swim today, the red flags are out. It's dangerous," Dan says.

"They don't apply to me. And if you wanna come in, I'll make sure you stay safe."