chances under the purple sunrise (Harry/Louis Merman AU #1)

Chapter Three

Harry returned the day after again.

He would be lying to himself if he said he wasn't waiting for the man to show up again. He hoped he would. He hoped that he was okay without his little boats on his feet. A part of him felt terrible. It was selfish of him, wasn't it? His curiosity and gentle envy drove him to take them. That was probably really unhealthy in some aspect even if it wasn't hurting anybody. Even though he knew he would never be able to enjoy human things properly, keeping them close to himself made it all better in some strange way.

Lucky for Harry, he returned. He was singing something again today. Harry loved, loved, loved the voice that was carried through the air over to his ears. He hadn't really paid attention to the way the man's soft, high, raspy voice sang the tune. He'd heard humans speak, sure, and Harry had spoken like a human before himself, but he'd never until the other day and today really heard them sing. He wondered how the vibrato of the voice passed through his lips in such a blissful, calm harmony. It was so pretty to him. Harry nearly sunk against his side of the rocks, almost all the way down until just his eyes were above the water and the rest of him was submerged.

"...my lover stands on golden sands and watches the ships that go sailing." Harry's eyebrows pinched together, his eyes gentle and soft as he saw the red box rested on the rocks and the long stick leaning against it. He waited for what the man would have today for him to admire, and when the bottoms of the shoes peeked over the edge of the rocks, Harry pressed his lips together.

From where he was, he was perfectly under the man's little boats. This would be easy. He barely rose out of the water before his hands reached up and clasped around the tops of each little boat, but something had Harry pulling his hands back frantically. They were full.

"OI!" He heard, the singing stopping abruptly.

Harry leaned his back up to get a better look at the top of the rocks and saw that the man was facing his side of the rocks. He was sitting and hadn't taken his little boats off today.

Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no!

Harry ducked himself under the water as quickly as he could as the man leaned forward to look down. He lowered himself all the way down until his scaley bum touched the sand. Harry's heart was pounding in his ears in fear. Had the man seen him? Oh, he should've been more careful. Of course the man would get suspicious and stop being consistent. Harry covered his face, lowering his body flat against the sand with his hair falling around his head gracefully.

He should leave. He shouldn't ever come back. Harry supposed the day would come that he would get caught, and it looked like that day was inevitably today.

Harry couldn't move. He was so scared. The shout from the man, the unexpected fullness of the little boats that told Harry that the man hadn't taken them off of his feet had him completely frozen in fear against the shallow sand. Even his tail wasn't relaxed and wavy. All the way down to his caudal fin, it was straight out and flat. Harry was happy that the man wouldn't be able to see him from all the way down here. Even if the bottom was shallow—though not as shallow for humans to swim at—it wasn't as deep as the reef and where the kingdom was. This was nothing.

This was too much, actually.

A jolt went through Harry when he heard something. It was muffled from him being underwater, which meant that the man was speaking. Harry's hands shook and he dragged them down his face before he hugged himself tightly. This was so bad. He could hear small critters whispering at him, wondering what was wrong, could feel a tiny, bright colored latch onto his tail, moving around it quickly, and squeak out, "You're tense! What's wrong?" before he cleaned Harry's tail. It was like a little massage with a small tickle, Harry's caudal fin curled up elegantly and then back down, repeating the motion gently.