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“Hey,” Eddie teases, feeling the water tug at him as Buck pulls them both out to sea. “You finally decide to drown me? Live up to that reputation?”
Buck laughs, a musical sound that makes Eddie want to lean in closer—nearly impossible with the way he’s clinging to Buck’s chest—and never let go.
They’ve been on the beach for hours. It’s a secluded little patch of sand, a cove tucked away from the world. The spot Buck’s been coming to in LA for all the years he’s lived in the city, his safe haven when he needs to let the saltwater wash away his human disguise. It’s not the first time he’s brought Eddie here, but it doesn’t feel any less special for being one of many.
Buck stops, and they’re so far out that the shore is just a smudgy line on the horizon. Eddie doesn’t care to look at it, though—his gaze is all for Buck’s grinning, toothy face.
Out here, his eyes look impossibly blue, reflecting the water and the sky. Small scales dot the sides of his face, trailing up from the gills on his neck, and Eddie thumbs gently at them, feeling the difference between smooth skin and coarse scale. “Are these just to look pretty?”
Buck flushes. His cheeks, already pink from the sun, darken further, and Eddie can’t resist looping his arms around Buck’s shoulder and pressing light, butterfly-soft kisses to the apples of Buck’s cheeks. He murmurs mwah and mwah as he does, and another melodic giggle bubbles out of Buck’s chest.
It’s late afternoon, and the water is sun-warmed. Small waves lap at Eddie’s shoulders, and he can feel the current stirred up in the water beneath them by Buck’s swaying tail. Eddie feels small, in a way that washes all his worries from him. What’s there to stress about when he’s nothing more than a bit of flotsam, carried along by waves and wind?
Waves and wind—and Buck. With his tail made for moving quickly through the water, as blue and glittering as his eyes.
“Aerodynamics,” Buck answers, and it takes Eddie a long moment to remember what question he’d asked.
“Sure, bud,” Eddie says. He unhooks his arms from Buck’s neck, and though he misses the closeness immediately, being cradled by the salty water is its own kind of peace. He relaxes back until he’s floating with his arms and legs sprawled. He watches as the sky stains pink and orange.
He hears the sound of Buck’s head ducking under the waves. For a bottomless few minutes, he’s entirely alone in the world. But he knows Buck is just below him, probably looking at the fish and coral. He doesn’t worry. He misses him, but in that faintly aching way that only makes their inevitable reunion that much sweeter.
When Buck resurfaces, it’s near Eddie’s hand. His head pops above the water, eyes barely above the line of blue. Eddie watches him and his sunkissed curls, how they hold their shape even when wet.
Buck’s fingers wrap around his wrist, and he kisses Eddie’s palm. Slow and gentle, and Eddie would swear all those tales about the kiss of a mermaid are true—he’s utterly enthralled.
When Buck uses his grip on Eddie’s hand to pull him close again, Eddie goes easily. He wraps his arms around Buck’s neck again, feels Buck’s hands settle on his waist.
“See anything cool down there?”
“Mm,” Buck hums. “Nothing as cool as you. Definitely nothing nearly as handsome.”
There’s nothing Eddie can do but kiss him. Buck’s lips taste like salt, and Eddie knicks his tongue on the sharp points of his fangs, and he’d drown happily to have this forever. But he doesn’t need to—Buck has him.
When Buck pulls away, Eddie chases after his lips without shame. He gets one more kiss in, before Buck, with a dangerous twinkle in his eyes, says, “Hold your breath.”
And then he pulls them under the waves, and the world goes quiet in a rush of static. Eddie opens his eyes—knowing he’ll regret it—to find Buck looking back at him, eyes glowing blue. It’s a closed-mouth kiss that Buck pulls him into, with both of their heads under the water, but it still leaves Eddie buzzing with want and warmth.
When they emerge, he finds Buck looking a little dazed, and heart-wrenchingly happy. “I’ve always wanted to do that with you,” he says.
“Do it again,” Eddie says, and he sucks in a big breath this time before they’re submerged again. This time, Buck only kisses him for a moment before ducking lower and kissing over Eddie’s neck, scraping his teeth up and down the column of his throat in a way that sends sparks down Eddie’s spine.
He has to push himself to the surface when Buck gets a little carried away, biting at the junction of his neck and shoulder. At Buck’s sad puppy-dog look when he realizes he had Eddie under for too long, Eddie rolls his eyes. “I wasn’t going to drown.”
Buck pouts at him. “I could have-”
“If I died kissing an overgrown fish,” Eddie cuts him off. “Then it’s exactly how I wanted to go.”
“Embarrassing tombstone,” Buck snorts. The guilt clears from his face as Eddie presses a thumb to the corner of his mouth, pulling his pouty frown into a soft, lopsided smile.
They trade kisses back and forth until the sun goes down, above and beneath the water. Eddie’s eyes sting from the salt and the cuts on his lips burn, and he’s absolutely going to have a sunburn or seven, but he’s so happy he thinks it might be contagious. Buck is certainly affected—he’s looking at Eddie like he hung the moon.
“Back to the beach?” Buck says, and Eddie tilts his head back to look at the stars—so clear, this far out—before agreeing. “Hold on.”
Eddie pulls himself closer, and off they swim. Buck lies back in the water like he’s swimming a backstroke, but he only needs to use his tail to move them. His arms stay wrapped around Eddie, and Eddie kisses up and down his neck and chin as they go, careful over Buck’s sensitive gills.
They come to land too soon, though Eddie will be glad to get out of the sun. He rolls off of Buck when they’ve reached the shallows, and helps to drag him up and onto the beach, so he can dry off.
Eddie takes a moment to admire Buck’s tail when it’s free of the water. It’s otherworldly, scales overlapping and catching the sun. Small swirls of deeper blue create mesmerizing patterns, and Eddie sits in the sand and holds Buck’s hand while they wait for him to be dry enough.
They’re always quiet in this moment of transformation. Something about it feels almost holy—Buck letting Eddie see both of his forms, and everything in between. Eddie runs his thumb over Buck’s knuckles and traces the lines of his palm. He watches as the small scales on Buck's wrists fade away. The transformation is complete, and Buck lies naked on the beach.
Eddie stands, knees creaking as he does. He makes sure he has a good footing on the sand, before he leans down to scoop Buck up in his arms. This soon after the transformation, his legs are like jelly—and besides, Eddie loves carrying him.
A short distance away waits the cozy seaside cabin that Buck will never explain how he came to own. It’s got one room and an outdoor shower, and Eddie thinks it might be a little piece of heaven.
Buck is warm in his arms. Eddie has a hard time keeping his eyes on where they’re headed, distracted by Buck’s sleepy face and waveswept curls. He does stumble a little, in fact, making both of them gasp, sharp intakes of breath that quickly turn into laughter.
They make it to the cabin without any further incident. Eddie planned ahead and set out towels for both of them near the shower, so he carries Buck behind the building and to the small alcove of the shower. It’s mostly hidden away from the rest of the world, though Eddie can’t guarantee that if someone did manage to wander onto the beach, they wouldn’t end up with an eyeful.
“You good to stand?” he asks softly, breaking their gentle quiet.
Buck huffs a dramatic sigh and says, “I guess.”
“Not holding you while we shower, bud,” Eddie tells him. He sets Buck down close to a wall, but his legs don’t even tremble—Eddie has suspicions about how necessary the carrying is, but like hell he’s going to voice them. “You go first.”
Buck rolls his eyes at him. Both of them know the shower is big enough for two—but Eddie likes to watch while Buck washes the sand and salt off, stretching his arms as he scrubs.
And Buck doesn’t disappoint. He turns the water on and steps under the spray, closing his eyes as the warm water washes over him. Scales shimmer up and down his arms and legs for a breath at the touch of the water, but recede as quickly as they’d come.
Eddie shucks off his swimming trunks, leaving them in a wet, salty heap just outside the shower, and steps in behind Buck. He can’t resist wrapping his arms around him and resting his forehead against the back of Buck’s neck. It’s hard to be apart after a day spent holding each other, and Eddie has learned that with Buck, he’s safe to take what he wants. So he breathes Buck in, and lets his hands roam. Technically, he’s also getting clean—the water is hitting his hair. It’s not going to dry and look as perfect as Buck’s, but he doesn’t mind. They can’t both be magical creatures.
“Can I wash your hair?” Eddie asks, lips brushing Buck’s skin. He feels Buck nod, and they turn so Eddie’s more under the water. Buck looks at him with half-closed eyes, pushing up into the touch when Eddie rubs his soapy hands through his hair. It doesn’t feel dry from the salt, though Eddie does find a few errant flecks of seaweed.
He lathers the soap in until it gets foamy, and then reluctantly lets Buck duck his head under the water.
“My turn,” Buck says, and Eddie swears his eyes flash with the same bioluminescence he’s seen under the water as he reaches for the shampoo. Eddie submits to the hands in his hair, unable to hold back a low groan when Buck applies just the right amount of pressure.
Buck, the cheater, insists on double shampooing Eddie’s hair. “Yours is always worse than mine after the ocean,” he says cheekily, flicking the tip of Eddie’s ear.
They swap again for conditioner. While Buck leaves his to rest in his hair, Eddie takes up the bodywash and waggles his eyebrows at Buck. Sometimes Buck wants to do it on his own—his skin is more sensitive after the transformation—but this time he happily spreads his arms and lets Eddie get a little handsy as he rubs the body wash into his skin.
He loves every inch of Buck’s gorgeous tanned skin—but he won’t lie and say his hands don’t linger on the swell of Buck’s pecs and the lines of his stomach.
They leave the shower with pink skin, rubbed a little raw from chasing all the salt off. Eddie also might have taken the opportunity to suck a few marks into Buck’s neck, but that’s neither here nor there.
“You want to sit on the beach?” Buck asks, a little shy. Eddie turns from where he’d just pulled on a pair of shorts to find Buck dressed similarly. “I just- don’t feel like being inside yet.”
“Of course, baby,” Eddie says, reaching his hand out for Buck to take. He gets it—after so long under the open sky, even the cozy walls of the cabin feel a little oppressive.
They leave hand in hand, into the warm night air. Stars sparkle above the placid sea, and Eddie lays out a beach towel for them to sit on. It’s the kind of night dreams are made of.
He sits first, stretching his legs out in front of him and his arms behind him to watch Buck, still standing, look out at the sea. Eddie’s listened to him talk about it—how he misses the bygone time when it was his home, how it always calls to him. But he knows, too, that Buck wouldn’t trade their life together for anything.
He’s starting to miss the feeling of his Buck in his arms when, turning easily away from the sea, he comes to Eddie. Walking a little goofily over Eddie’s stretched-out legs and then kneeling so he’s sitting in Eddie’s lap—it all leaves Eddie feeling a little breathless.
“Hi,” he says, and his voice betrays him with how soft it comes out. “I missed you,” he adds, since there’s no part of him that can hide from Buck.
Like it’s a challenge, Buck settles in closer. Arms and legs around Eddie, his ankles crossed behind Eddie’s back and his hands splayed wide over Eddie’s skin. His fingers tap and stroke, like he wants Eddie to feel all that he feels.
“You smell like the sea,” he says.
“And what’s that like?” Eddie runs a hand through Buck’s hair and down his spine. “Salt? Fish poop?”
“Home,” Buck breathes.