Mulder slapped his forehead, infuriated with his own blindness. He’d allow his own fantasies of deep water and freedom to obfuscate the facts. The merman was a tropical water animal, warm shallow water.
"You’re afraid of the deep water, aren’t you? Is that it? Or you know you’re simply not adapted to these depths? Shit. I’m sorry." He stomped back on to the deck, followed by curious green eyes, and started to tack back towards the shore. Wasted time. But then, he had taken an indefinite leave of absence, and humans had been waiting a very very long time for more information on the merpeople. They could wait a bit longer. He chastised himself over his own greed for more information. Stupid mistakes. It would take the best part of the rest of the day to get back to the reefs. Still, at least he’d learned not to use the boat engine – an expensive lesson when he would have to get the boat fixed – but he now knew that if he was to find any other merpeople, no mechanical noises. Of course, they might run from a sail boat as well, but he could always try again later. And again. And again.
He tied the sails down. With the gentle breeze behind them they wouldn’t make terribly good speed, but he wouldn’t have to keep an eye on them all the time. The boat could sail itself for a while, leaving Mulder plenty of time to play.
His face pinched with concentration, Krycek was busy stalking a small hermit crab across the deck. How it had got there in the first place was a mystery to Mulder, but it had kept the merman occupied on and off for the past two days while Mulder tracked the oceans.
"I’m going to put your little friend in the fishtank for a while, okay?" Mulder rescued the crab, dropping it in with his pet fish. He lay down on the deck beside Krycek, "Don’t worry, Krycek, I’ll keep you occupied."
He took the paintbrush he kept for touching up the boat’s paintwork and gently ran it over Krycek’s face and lips, making the merman blink in ticklish surprise.
Mulder let the merman hold the brush, inspect it, lick it, gnaw on it a little, before taking it back to continue trailing it across Krycek’s body. Using his legs to flip Krycek’s tail back on deck each time it curled around him, Mulder continued tickling Krycek with the brush. Teasing gooseflesh out of his nipples until they were hard enough to cut glass, then soothing them with warm liquid tongue. He teased down the alabaster skin, watching muscles twitch and contract.
Krycek snorted and huffed as he was teased, grabbing Mulder’s upper arms – his hands clenched and tightened and his lips contracted, revealing sharp white teeth. Mulder wondered if he was going to be bitten anytime soon as he circled the brush around Krycek’s tiny navel and down to where scales met skin at the junction of groin and where thighs would be. As the bristles of the brush touched the outer edges of the genital pouch, Krycek arched his back, eyes half closed, his tongue pink and darting across his lips.
"That’s nice, isn’t it?" Mulder whispered to him, "Do you play, like this? Dolphins do Do mermen? ‘The more intelligent the animal, the greater the need for play’" Mulder quoted. "And I think you’re intelligent. Ignorant, in human terms, but definitely intelligent. And I definitely think you’re enjoying this!"
The very tip of Krycek’s penis was showing now, moist and pink, a drop of the viscous natural lubricant appearing at the top. Mulder started to circle the brush around and around the tip, running it up and down the glistening shaft as it oozed forth from its hiding place.
He watched, fascinated, as the soft skin of the lips flushed deep pink, swelling slightly as Krycek’s excitement increased. Mulder kept trailing the brush delicately over the soft membranes, dipping down the base of the shaft and just inside the inner lips. "So, am I more fun than a hermit crab?" Mulder laughed, and started edging away. Krycek followed him, clicking deep in his throat, confused that Mulder would apparently stop that delicious touching.
"Come on, sweetie, come into the water with me." Mulder kept edging towards the tail board of the boat, grabbing his re-breather on the way, "The water’s shallow here, and there’s no other boats around. Come on, I’ll blow bubbles on you again…" he coaxed.
Water closed over him, isolating Mulder in a world of his own, sliding over his body like a warm welcoming tongue. He struck down towards the bottom, enjoying the drag of the salt water against his heated flesh as his strokes took him deeper. He closed his eyes, gliding down effortlessly into his own private universe.
The woosh of increased pressure buffeting his side alerted him to the presence of the merman. He knew there would be few other fish in the area; nothing very dangerous seemed to stay around for long when Krycek was in the water. Like the shadow of sharks, his presence cleaned up the neighbourhood. The few fish that skated through the water, beautiful as they were in their coats of many colours, paled to insignificance beside the brilliant silver and aquamarine glistening as the merman, dappled by sunlight through the water, sailed past Mulder. He caught the sunlight on his scales and reflected it back again, catching the light on polished lustre.
The merman ignored Mulder for a while, circling around him, spinning a little. Mulder had the distinct impression he was under a disco ball as the lights speckled over his skin and the white sand. As Krycek swam over him, Mulder reached up and let his fingers run down the merman’s still protruding shaft. The pink flesh twitched, twisting against his fingers for a moment almost as flexible as the finger-like dolphin’s penis. It twitched away from his hands and the merman sailed past, pretending not to be interested.
He stroked the merman’s belly as he went under Mulder, effortlessly sliding upside down just inches above the sandy floor, small swirls of white twisted in his path, stirred by dorsals.
Oh yes, your disinterested act is really working, Mulder grinned to himself, not fooled for a moment. Hmm…I wonder…
Mulder started to twist and dance in the water, copying from memory as much as he could of Krycek’s mating display. He longed for fins of his own as he spun, almost dizzy with the awkward jerking of his own graceless turns. He grasped the edge of his shirt, using the multi-coloured fabric like it was his own set of colourful dorsals. Maladroit he might be, compared to the merman, but his clumsy attempts were certainly working. After a few passes, Krycek now floated upright in the water, apparently riveted by Mulder’s display. The lack of fins, of shimmering scales, apparently were no great hardship. The thought obviously counted.
Swaying slightly, Krycek followed every moment with rapt attention, giving Mulder a look that he could only interpret as wanting to eat the human alive. Mulder increased his turns, using his arms to spin himself when he lacked the tail to create the movement. Swaying in counterpoint to Mulder’s dance, Krycek seemed almost hypnotised, his eyes half closed, an expression of bliss capturing his features.
Mulder was exhausting himself and starting to feel like a clown, when strong arms wrapped around his middle. Relieved not to have to keep up the dance, he squeezed the merman’s shoulders to his chest. He rubbed his chin, the only part of his face not covered by the re-breather, over Krycek’s face, and massaged his back briskly. The merman was fully erect now, his penis hard and hot in the warm water, probing between Mulder’s thighs.
They twisted around together, their bodies twining in the ocean. Mulder could see their reflections on the underside of the surface of the water, breaking up into bubbles until he could see a thousand mermen churning with a thousand humans, wrapped around and in each other. As he slipped into the merman’s body, clutching the hard cool flesh to his own, he could see the watery world shattering into a million bubbles, the images of their joining surrounding him, reflected a million times in blue eternity.
Krycek’s firm hand kept their bodies joined, even after they had found their release together, holding Mulder inside himself with flexible sucking muscles, as they floated gently down to rest on the ocean floor. The merman was making quick jerking motions with his head, short upward nodding motions as if trying to communicate some idea to Mulder. But he seemed unperturbed at Mulder’s inability to recognise the signal, simply content to drift idly with the gentle tide.
The boat stayed within their vision. Mulder made sure that they didn’t get too far. The re-breather could operate indefinitely, but he still did not relish the idea of being stranded out here, even this close to shore. He had no idea if he could communicate the need to find the boat again to the merman, who would probably drift further and further out to sea unconcerned, so he kept a watchful eye on the boat’s shadow on the sand. At least he didn’t have to worry it would be stolen. Kraken had been found here once, to the detriment of a cruise liner. Since then the entire area had been declared a national park, and only idiots, or those in love with mermen, dared stray here.
The merman only released Mulder’s body when something else caught his attention. Mulder expected him to go hunting, foraging for something small and scuttly, but instead Krycek slipped away, tensing up, his fins quivering, obviously sensing something in the water, or the vibrations of the currents. Krycek reached back for Mulder’s hand, and when Mulder took it, he was dragged through the water at speeds he’d never felt before, not even when he’d fallen from water skis and been dragged for 50 metres, too stubborn to let go. Krycek left a motor boat for dead, effortlessly powering through the water with strokes of his tail. The force of the water displacement buffeted Mulder, despite being somewhat protected in the merman’s wake, forcing him to hold his mask in place. He was paranoid the sudden violent currents would rip it from his face. He gave up trying to swim, and just went along for a drag, cursing quietly to himself as the boat was left far behind.
There were a few minor course changes, but wherever they were going, the merman had a fairly unswerving heading, and he hauled Mulder with no change in speed towards their destination.
Eventually they came up against a drift net. Mulder swore violently under his breath. So many beautiful creatures were caught in it. Dead, dying. He pulled the knife from his ankle sheath and released a few weakly moving animals. An ugly-head fish was released with a few strokes, only its fins entangled, and it shot away into the water. Mulder was struck by how appropriate its name was, then scolded himself for his own bias.
"These are illegal, you know," he said, apologetically to the merman who watched his actions with obvious distress. Mulder, again, was ashamed of his own race. If there was a dolphin trapped here, they would all pay. The cetaceans had a powerful union now. They would extract their pound of flesh from the humans responsible. But there were no dolphins, nothing grouped around a distressed pod mate, not that he could see. The net had obviously been cut loose from a boat, possibly years ago. The seaweed and kelp had grown through the deadly mesh now, disguising it, and Mulder wept inside at the many creatures who had threshed out their last entrapped in human-greed. He dropped rocks along the top wire as he went, hoping that weighing it down would prevent too many more casualties. He made a mental note to get someone out here to remove it as soon as he had radio contact again.
Krycek was urging him along the length of the net, trying to get the human to move faster, but Mulder kept stopping to free anything he thought he could save, avoiding getting his fingers bitten whenever possible.
As a huge grey shape surged through the water towards him, Mulder screamed and twisted away. Short sharp fins stabbed towards him, and he narrowly avoided claws that aimed to tear him apart.
Barely maintaining bladder control, Mulder stared into the eyes of another merman. He got the fleeting impression it was virtually twice the size of his own, powerfully muscled, its scales and fins the same colour as a grey nurse shark, intentions as savage as a white pointer. Mulder was simultaneously terrified of dying, amazed to find another one, and overjoyed that the net was between them. One huge taloned hand came through the net for him, and Mulder scooted back in the water, narrowly avoiding being sliced.
Krycek was beside him in seconds, coming between Mulder and the new creature, his body jerking sharply as he tried to communicate with the newcomer, but was ignored. The new merman revealed rows of teeth and murderous intention, not caring at all if Mulder was friend or foe. Human equalled enemy. Krycek grabbed Mulder again, dragging him by his hand down the net a ways. The large angry animal followed them, churning the water with his agitated threshings, and Mulder soon realised why.
Another merman was trapped in the nets.
Much smaller than both Krycek and the big grey, this one was totally entangled, and apparent escape attempts had caused it to become more hopelessly trapped in the nylon mesh. Mulder took the knife and started to cut the animal free. This one was copiously endowed with fins, far more than Krycek, and much much more than the big grey. Shades of brown and gold, speckled with white like a lion fish, and oddly twisted and curled. Mulder had never seen such markings, and was fascinated. The animal’s face was hidden by the fins which trailed listlessly through the water, and Mulder got the impression it had struggled for a long time. Totally exhausted, it offered no protest as Mulder started to cut it free. His efforts were somewhat hampered as he had to avoid the large angry merman’s attempts to claw him through the net. It seemed certain that Mulder was trying to injure the small brown, and was becoming increasingly distressed, and, if possible, even more angry. It took a long time. Chew and claw marks on the net made it apparent the mermen had been working on it themselves, but it was also obvious the mesh had defeated them. As it had defeated dolphins, sharks and everything else that lived in the sea.
Finally the small merman was freed from the mesh, its fragile skin marked and burned from the nylon threads. It moved tiredly away from the net, and Mulder realised it had left behind a merman sized hole that the enormous savage now clawed his way through. It stared at both Mulder, and Krycek, square jawed and steely eyed, and Mulder could see where the legend of the Triton came from. All it needed was a trident to complete the image. It twitched slightly, all it needed to propel itself towards its companion, then engulfed the smaller creature, squashing him against an enormous chest.
Mulder’s mental ‘phew’ relaxed his whole body, he wasn’t out of danger yet, not necessarily, but it didn’t look like he was going to be man-kebabs anytime soon.
