A/N: why does Luke have to look so good all the time

Calum has become aware, with quite pride, that Ashton has warmed up to him in the slightest, teeniest, microscopic bit. Having Ashton warm up to you when he previously hated your human guts is far more difficult than one would fathom. But whenever he joins the mermen and mermaids down in the ocean, he doesn't glare at him anymore. I mean, sure, they haven't spoken since Ashton showed him the good and bad places of the deep sea, but Calum doesn't get the harsh looks anymore, which has to be progress.

The mermaids don't seem to have an idea of time down in the ocean. They characterize time passing based on how the sunlight filtering into the water is positioned. He's learned that when the sunlight is facing almost straight down into the water if you angle yourself right, that it's almost three o'clock in the human world. Which promptly means that it's time for Calum to head back to civilization.

So when the sunlight filters in and Calum angles himself right and, yes, it is about three o'clock, he makes his move to leave. He's been in the water since eight this morning, as per usual, but he has to get back and get dried off before Michael gets to his house. Usually, if he's not there in time, he goes surfing, and then Calum can't leave the ocean because there's always that what-if of if Michael sees his best friend magically walk straight up out of the water as though he were some holy figure.

So, Calum says his goodbye's to his mother and Luke, to which Joy nervously replies, "Calum, the tide is strong today. Shouldn't you just stay here until it clears?"

And Calum says, "I'm getting better at swimming. Really, I'll be fine."

And Joy proceeds to knot her fingers together and look anxious, no doubt thinking about the last time Calum was involved in a thick undercurrent, and opens her mouth to protest again.

Calum quickly rushes to dissuade her. "I promise. If I feel like I can't do it, then I'll just turn around and come back. No worries."

To which Joy finally replies, "Okay, okay. That's fine."

And so Calum left. He swam back towards land a little more alert than usual, given the undercurrent. He had to push his tail a little harder than usual when he swam, so he swam a little closer to the surface in case he needed some more oxygen for strength. His tail continuously begins to grow tired, and he worries that he's going to be too late to get back in time since the tide is slowing him down, but he keeps swimming on anyway.

He's just about made it to the beach when he notices how many people there are today. Calum almost wants to smack himself when he realizes: strong tide means big waves. Big waves means an overload of surfers. Calum wouldn't even be surprised if Michael skipped going to his house and went straight for the water.

Calum hangs back a little, surfacing the water and breathing in some air. He searches the countless number of bodies littering the water to see if he can spot Michael. He gives up trying to pinpoint his face and instead starts to search for pink hair. Nobody has pink hair, apart from Michael.

Calum has just about given up when he sees him. Michael, leaning steadily on his board as he struggles to catch an oncoming wave, but he misses it by less than a second. Calum would have gotten frustrated, but Michael just lifts his head and turns to look out for another one. Calum ducks under the water before he could see his face. Calum curses into the saltwater, realizes he can't go back, especially when so many people are around and when Michael could notice him. He's sure nobody would take a glance if Calum walked out of the ocean because of how many people are doing that exact thing, but Michael would question it. Because according to Michael, Calum hasn't even dipped a foot in water in almost a year.

Calum huffs under the water, and he watches the little air bubbles float into the blue. Calum watches Michael climb onto his board as a wave builds up, and he closes his eyes, beginning to turn away.

But right as he does, Calum notices something off about Michael's posture, feels the twist of the tide against his skin, and he notices, quite suddenly, how not-so-strong Michael is in the water and how he doesn't have a tail to defy the tide like Calum does. An awful sinking feeling sits in Calum's chest as he turns back around, surfacing the water just in time to see Michael lose his grip on his board, his head ducking under the waves. Calum swims back underneath, seeing Michael's pale legs try and gain friction under the water, trying with effort to swim with all his strength to get back to the surface, but the undercurrent is too strong. He's farther back than everyone else, Calum notices, he's the only one trying to fight it.

Before Calum can stop himself, with a burst of energy, Calum swims faster than he's ever managed toward Michael's slowing body, his kicks becoming weaker as the undercurrent draws him deeper into the water, his head still not surfacing. Calum can see Michael's eyes scrunched closed, his cheeks burning red from the effort of holding his breath too long. He's about to give out. His legs are already giving out, too tired to swim in the powerful water. He has no choice, he has to help him.

Calum reaches out and grabs Michael's exhausted body, pulling him above the water just enough so he can get a lungful of air, and then Calum speed-swims to a more desolate area of the beach and carries Michael straight into the shallower waters. Michael is still trying to wipe water out of his eyes confusedly, his chest rising and falling both from panic and from lack of oxygen.

Calum absentmindedly feels his tail transition into his legs, the scales falling away, but not before Michael successfully wipes water from his eyes and stares shockingly down at Calum's lower half. Which definitely is not good, because Calum knows he's wearing pants, considering the scales just grow over whatever is on his legs, and Michael would not be turning so pale and looking so shocked at the fact Calum is wearing pants, even considering they're in the ocean.

"Calum!" Michael sputters, still regaining his breath. "You-- You, I saw-- you...?" And then Michael is looking so concerned and awfuly confused up at Calum and Calum isn't sure what to do or say. Michael stands up on the sand, his legs still shaking a little. Finally, Calum says, "It's a strong current today, dude? What were you thinking?"

And Michael is still doing that wide-eyed thing with his eyes, and he's saying, "Your legs, they were-- you were-- we were all the way out there, and you--"

Michael cuts himself off and shuts his mouth, possibly realizes how insane he might sound to anyone other than me, and he swallows roughly. His pink hair is flattened to his forehead, bright green eyes looking, unfortunately, less confused than before. Like he's made up his mind about something.

Before he can say anything else, Calum quickly takes his arm and leads him up the beach, across the burning hot sand and up towards Calum's house. They both make their way across the boardwalk until they reach Calum's front door, and then the two boys walk in. Calum doesn't say anything as he places Michael at the kitchen counter, making sure he's not choking on water or anything anymore, before leaning against the counter across from him. Calum feels like putting his head down on the granite surface and crying, because this was exactly what Ashton warned him not to do.

"Calum, your legs, they..." Michael trails off and Calum hopes he'll leave it at that, but instead he keeps talking. "They were shining. Like-- scales. Like scales as in a tail."

"Dude, you were drowning. You probably saw a lot of things that weren't there," Calum weakly attempts.

"I know what I saw," Michael says firmly. "You had a-- a tail. A fucking, honest-to-God tail and I swear I couldn't make this shit up if I tried."

"What kind of tail? Like, a dog tail? Or a lizard tail? Or... a horse tail?" Calum asks, attempting a joke. Michael frowns even more, as if that were possible.

"You know what I'm talking about, don't you?" Michael asks, except he didn't say it like it were a question. "You know exactly what I'm talking about and you're just not telling me."

The charming, pink-haired boy that is Michael Clifford has been Calum's friend since they were in kindergarten together. Calum could pick out every emotion that Michael felt on any given day, just be looking at his body language. Because of this, Calum knows Michael isn't joking. Michael is dead-ass serious, and Michael is not going to let this go unless Calum spills, which makes the situation about ten times worse.

Calum honestly can't believe himself. Literally four days ago, Ashton warned him of this very specific event, and Calum promised him he wouldn't tell anyone, but here he is. Michael staring him down, waiting for him to spill a secret that Michael has already probably figured out, and Calum can already feel the cold distance taking place again between Calum and Ashton.

"You-- You can't freak out when I tell you, okay?" Calum says, and Michael nods. Calum pauses, hoping his entire body will just spontaneously combust before he has to actually say the words out loud. But nothing happens, and Michael is still sitting there waiting, so Calum finally musters up whatever dignity he has left, and he says it.

"IamamermanwheneverIgetinwater," Calum says all in one breath.

Michael squints. "What?"

"I'mafuckingmermanwhenIgetintheocean."

"Dude, slower."

"I'm a fucking merman, okay? Whenever I get in the ocean, my legs fucking disappear and I get a fucking god damn tail!" Calum shouts, and honestly, Calum was expecting Michael to have already come to his conclusion, but the look on the pink-haired boy's face was far from familiarity.

"What the hell? You're joking."

"I wish I was," Calum says truthfully.

"You-- Oh my God."

"I know."

"That's why you wouldn't go surfing with me," Michael says with a lot more enthusiasm than Calum was expecting, and so Calum nods.

"Yes, that's why I didn't want to go surfing with you."

"Holy shit," says Michael.

"I know."

After a few moments of brief silence, Michael sits back and nods. "Okay. Okay, I can deal with this. I honestly would not believe you if I had not seen it with my own eyeballs, but I did, and I'm slightly regretting it."

And Calum doesn't really know what to say, so he lets a couple minutes pass before finally saying, "Yeah, well. Now you know."

"Now I know," Michael repeats, a little softer this time.

Calum sits back up, looking seriously at his best friend. "Listen, okay? You cannot tell anyone about this. I mean it. Absolutely no one, not even your mom."

Michael pouts. "You want me to lie to my own mother?"

"Yes, I do."

Michael groans and moans and whines for a little while but eventually he sits up and says, "Fine. Only because you're a mythological creature that is no longer mythological and I want to use this as blackmail against you someday."

"Deal," Calum says, and so they shake on it.

---
A/N: short and sort of uninteresting chapter that probably could have been more interesting if I had better writing skills but whatcha gonna do

so if you could be anyone in the world right now, who would it be?

I think I would like to see what it's like to live the day in the life of like. harry styles or someone. who knows

hope you enjoyed this chapter. I wrote it at 1 am so i'm lowkey delirious from no sleep considering i've been on school schedule for the past like 5 months.

vote and comment if you feel like it lol. catch u on the flip side

love u to the moon