Chapter Text
`Dave`
The boundary between sea and sky was blurred, both boundaries black as ink. The only way to tell where one ended and the other began was to break the surface and find no water left to swim through.
There were stars though, bright pinpricks of light with no interference from the shore to overrun them. The shadows of the Pacific were remote and desolate enough that out here the stars shone uninhibited.
Dave turned to the shore. Normally he would never risk coming so close to the back of the bay, but with no moon he felt safe and sneaky enough to risk the shallower waters. The subtle glow of magic crept across crimson scales and sleek skin as the siren twisted through the water.
He scavenged beneath the loom and lurk of the ruins and kept a watchful eye on the dark trees. This island was small, but there were still people on it. There was still the need to keep quiet and unseen. People were danger.
Dave carefully swam closer to the rocky tide pools, his tail cutting silently through the calm water. The bay was sheltered and the water still, its edge guarded by rocky outcroppings choked in wide-leafed floaters that strangled whatever surf made it past the crashing waves of the reef.
The ruins in the center of the bay drew him closer, five crumbling towers surrounding a central monument. Everything was slick stone and seaweed. Dave had never seen anything like it before. In the years that had passed since he’d last seen the monoliths, nothing had changed. The stone was untouched by time or wave, dark and mysterious.
The ocean bay was dark and calm, but Dave’s red eyes could see in the dark just fine. The faint starlight illuminated the bay down to the shallow sea floor, painting the white sand silver.
From here Dave could just make out the lights from the house on the hill, made small and dim by distance. He and his siblings hadn’t been at this island for long, just a few days, and they were still busy exploring their new surroundings and learning the dangers of these waters, the places the rough current drug and slammed swimmers against the reef, learned where the dock and its boats sat moored on the other side of the island, hopefully unused.
But the bay was nice. The bay was sheltered and secluded and full of ocean life, its center a deep and clear blue. It was far better than other places he’d lived in recently, and the lurk and loom of the monoliths drew his gaze.
It was late enough at night that the boat came as a surprise. Dave was not naturally a cautious thing. He had been taught to hide and observe and stay away, but he was also a creature made curious for want of knowing. The boat wasn’t close. The faint buzz and hum of its motor humming against his scales must be coming from the other side of the island, from where the people were.
He flicked his tail, crimson scales flashing even with the darkness around him as he propelled himself out of the bay and up the coast. Dirk was probably awake and on his way there already. Neither of them could stay away if there was danger nearby, and if the people here liked to enjoy a spot of night fishing then Dave needed to know about it for Rose and Roxy’s sake.
He found the boat easily. It was no small fishing vessel, but he’d seen other ships that would dwarf the craft with ease. He swam closer after confirming that they weren’t dragging trawling lines behind them. The last thing he needed was to get netted with hooks.
The boat came from the open ocean and trudged onward towards the island. He kept below the boat, hiding in its shadow even in the darkness as he waited on his brother to appear. Dave was no stranger to boats, or men. Boats, he was fine with. They were silly things that floated high and harmless and cut the water choppy with their propellers that made it impossible for one to ever sneak up on any siren. The men who controlled them were an altogether different thing.
He swam higher with a flick of his fins, till he was directly beneath the boat. It wasn’t that large a thing, and the seafloor was rapidly rising up to meet the shore as the engine cut off. The boat drifted under its momentum to where the dock reached out with its long and skinny wooden legs into the sea. The water was barely forty feet deep here, and it only grew shallower the closer to shore the dock sprawled.
Without the engine on he could hear things, voices that weren’t from his brother or sisters. Dave lounged hidden beneath them and turned a curious ear up, wondering what the fuck these humans thought they were doing.
…
`Karkat`
“Oh thank Jesus,” Karkat moaned, clutching at the boat’s railing as at last land came into sight. The deck rolled beneath his feet and his stomach heaved again as he gagged down more bile. He was going to kill Jade for convincing him to come on this summer vacation to the middle of absolute buttfuck nowhere.
A spotlight turned on from the shore and illuminated the end of a long wooden pier. Up the hill he could see lights from her house. He felt the miraculous shift as the boat began to slow and his sickness began to slack off.
“Are you feeling any better?” John asked cautiously, his friend’s figure nothing but a smudge of black and blue in the corner of his vision. “We’re nearly there.”
Karkat scowled at John. “I think I’m going to be sick,” he grumbled, holding onto the railing for dear life.
The door to the deck opened and two more people came out to gaze at the island. “I’ve never seen a volcano before,” Kanaya mused thoughtfully. “It is truly beautiful.”
At night the thing looked like any other pile of rocks in mountain shape. Karkat wasn’t impressed. He was much more interested in keeping his focus on the inch of steel under his eyes. Any time he looked away the world started to spin.
Karkat spat angrily over the side of the boat. His hair was a tangled a mess and his face was sweaty and disgusting. He felt miserable in a windswept and waterlogged way. He was never going on a boat again. The ocean was a terrible thing.
“JOOOOOOOOOHN!” A high-pitched voice yelled out gleefully, and Karkat risked picking his head up to see someone running full-speed down the dock. Oh hell. Here she comes.
“JAAAAAADE!” John yelled back, waving a hand recklessly above his head. “We made it!”
The boat slowed even more, and the engine cut off as it drifted into place beside the dock. There was an unpleasant lurch as it hit the wooden poles and rebounded back and Karkat resumed clutching at the rails. Jade threw a rope aboard and a crew hand tied them to the dock. A plank was lowered. They had finally arrived.
“Oh my God I can’t believe you’re here!” Jade squealed and threw herself onto the ship in a rush of black hair and blue skirts that promptly crashed into John with reckless enthusiasm.
“Sorry we’re so late,” John said, laughing as his cousin hugged him. “The boat got lost.”
“I was getting so worried,” Jade fretted, “You were supposed to arrive at noon.”
Karkat drew in a deep breath and forced his fingers to release the iron at his side. He took a cautious step, and when the boat didn’t rock under him he picked his way over to where the Maryams were gathering up luggage. He couldn’t wait to get solid land under him again. He’d had enough ocean for a lifetime. His belly was a bag of deflated nausea and the back of his throat tasted sour. Seasickness fucking sucked.
A dog barked and Jade’s furry white devil beast of a mutt reached the end of the dock, her grandfather coming up behind it while a sturdy-looking teen in cargo shorts followed with a smile every bit as wide as Jade’s.
“It’s good to see you all,” the old man called out, leaning on a cane he clearly didn’t need. “Let’s get you inside before this night air gives everybody a case of the willies. Was the trip nice?”
“It was very pleasurable,” Porrim Maryam straightened up and stepped off of the boat to shake the man’s hand. “I thank you for allowing us to accompany John.”
Jake made to separate his sister from John before she crushed her cousin with the force of her excitement. Karkat could feel a headache setting in between his temples. It had been a long day.
“Boy, I’d say you look a little green in the face,” Grandpa Harley commented cheerfully as he slapped a hand across Karkat’s shoulder. “Sea been treating you well, I hope.”
Karkat forced himself to be nice. This was the man that let him join John on his visit to see his cousins and spared him a summer spent locked in and bored out of his mind with his custodian in their small three room apartment. Karkat made himself not scowl, but the words still came out as a grumble. “No, the sea did not treat me well. In fact, I think I left most of my intestines back there in the Pacific somewhere a few hours ago.”
The man let out a booming laugh. At close quarters it was a percussive assault to Karkat’s ears, still upset from the sea and with zero-equilibrium between the two of them. He threw up over the railing again.
“Ah, you’ll get your sea legs soon, Karkat,” Jake called out as he scooped up Mrs. Porrim’s bags. “You’ll adjust quickly now that you’re out here.” He stood smiling as Kanaya offered to help him carry the luggage. He had stacked bags all along his arms and seemed determined to carry them all across at once. He waved away Kanaya’s hands. “Naw, I’m bloody alright, good dame. This is brilliant! I’m so glad you’re all here for the summer.”
“Jake! Jake, this is going to be so awesome!” John said, jumping up and down as Karkat began to regret every major life decision that could have led him to this point. This vacation was going to be the death of him.
Jade began to cackle at a pitch to make Terezi jealous and Karkat revised his last thought. That was- if he didn’t kill one of them first.
…
~Dave~
Dave listened closely to the odd exchange and watched them unload baggage from the strange boat. More humans were moving in. He let the current drift him closer, confident that the dark water and shadow would shield him as long as he didn’t break the surface. Humans were an unobservant species. They only looked for what they could already see, and as long as Dave kept out of the light he would be invisible to their eyes.
There was one human left to cling to the side railing, looking profoundly miserable. The fabric all humans wore across their chests was large enough to swallow him as he hunched himself into a smaller bundle. He looked a little like a drenched seagull with his hair going in every direction like that.
There were other, louder, more active and therefore interesting humans to watch, but Dave’s gaze kept coming back to the boy with the overlarge sleeves and the pissed-off look permanently glued to his features. It was magnetic. He found himself fascinated as he watched the boy interact with the others. He counted a total of two adults and five teens about his age. There were a few more men on board, but Dave didn’t think they were staying on the island for much longer.
The boy lurched seaward and threw up over the railing, choking on bile. Dave felt a surge of sympathy for the sick human. In this state it was hard imagine him as a danger. He looked ridiculous and pitiable, so far out of his element.
The boy wiped his mouth with the back of a hand and with a lurch met Dave’s shocked eyes.
The siren hadn’t realized just how close he’d gotten and froze as the boy squinted, not quite able to make out where the siren lurked beyond the light. Dave’s heart felt like he’d set his hand against an electric eel. His blood sang. His core ached with a battered recognition though he could have sworn he’d never seen any of these humans before. A scrap of song swelled up in Dave’s throat, something deep and mysterious and compelling, but he hastily choked it back down, sealing his lips firmly against the magic.
When Dave realized that he hadn’t been seen the strange energy began to reluctantly fade, but it left him buzzing and alert. He couldn’t look away.
A strong pair of hands seized him firmly around the thinnest part of his tail and yanked. Dave reflexively slapped the attacker upside the head with his tail and reared around with his hands in claws. Dirk shot him an angry look and glanced upwards to the boat. His brother’s orange eyes glowed faintly in the gloom.
“It took you long enough,” Dave whispered, lowering his arms. “You’ve missed all the good parts.”
His brother raised one pale eyebrow. “You mean the part where you were nearly seen?”
“Hell no,” Dave was quick to defend himself. “I meant the part where that one guy was hacking up his stomach. Nasty shit. I don’t think the sea agrees with him.”
“Serves him right,” Dirk whispered back, studying the underside of the boat. “Why are they here?”
“Summer vacation,” Dave answered, glad to share the dirty details. “An adult and three teens.”
Dirk said nothing as the group retreated down the dock and onto dry land. He only watched them with eyes that looked far older than they should have been.
“Hey,” Dave whispered, louder now that the humans had left, “it’s not as bad as it seems.” He turned back towards the bay, purposefully rolling onto his back in a lazy drift of fins to check and see if Dirk would follow him. “It could be worse.”
“It might just be a small family,” his brother answered, “but they’re still a threat.”
“They’ll be an entire island away,” Dave waved away Dirk’s concern. “There’s no reason for them to bother us.”
Dirk still didn’t look pleased. Dave could see his brother’s thoughts schooling around in his head like silver fish. He bumped the end of his tail fin against bright orange scales. “I’ll race you back,” he offered, twisting through the water with ease. “Loser gets stuck gathering oysters.”
Dave shot off before Dirk could answer. His gills opened wide, taking in cool ocean water through the three slits along his sides where they nestled snugly between his ribs as he drove himself faster. His brother was fast, but with a head start Dave might have had half a chance. He lost himself in the muscular sweep of fins as they tore back to the bay as streaks of red and orange scales with pale hair.
Dave didn’t mention what had happened when he met the stranger’s eyes. He didn’t say anything about the slow smolder he still felt in his core. He forced himself to ignore the unshakable urge to see the human again.