Against the Current

by S. J. Lynn

  Four

  Caleb

  I dove into the water, trying to focus on everything around me to take my mind off the stranger I encountered weeks ago. I had been coming here like clockwork, but there was no sign of the beautiful creature my heart was seeking. I went deeper, with the water growing darker and colder around me. My body was taking over my mind, leading me into another direction I hadn’t even realized I was swimming in. I had lost all control, and it was as if the water itself was carrying me, leading me to something. And it was—it had led me straight into those same familiar eyes. His hair was floating around him, long and beautiful.

  His hand rested on the pink stone attached to his necklace with the golden rim of his bright green eyes growing wider as they took me in. Finally, I got to see him, all of him. He had glimmering skin that came off as too delicate to touch. His long torso led to... purple arms? Some seemed tentacle like. He was different from any cephalopod I had ever seen-something else entirely. These colorful limbs rested where his legs would be if he was human. I reached my hand out like before, but instead of taking his hand in mine, I wrapped my fingers around one of the purple limbs that was swirling around in the water. The long extremity curled around my fingers, while the rest of its friends explored the rest of me. His hand rested on my cheek as his face got closer to mine. My lips urged to be pressed against his, the way the ocean kissed the shoreline.

  His mouth moved against mine with a sense of urgency and desperation, as if I had become his new way to breathe. Our tongues danced against each other like they were moving to a sweet melody that was designed for us alone. My hand moved through the strands of his hair, and then it dawned on me that I no longer had my mask on, but somehow was breathing underwater. I'm not sure when the mask got removed from my face or if it was removed by me or him. Every time he was around, I was no longer in charge of my own actions. The suctions of his tentacles attached themselves to different parts of my body, holding me in place to keep me from floating away. Our mouths parted, and suddenly I was inhaling gulps of water and found my mask hanging from my neck and moved to slip it back on. Once it was adjusted, my eyes moved back to the place he last was, and I found that once again, he was gone.

  I’d told myself that if I found him, I wouldn't lose him again, but it seemed I did. At least this time I got to touch him more and got to have my lips on his. I was also able to confirm that he was definitely not a dream, and although he fit nothing of the descriptions of the Mer- folk, he certainly wasn't human. Whatever he was, he was magnificent and beautiful, and I was drawn to him in a way I had never been drawn to anything else. Something about being entangled in him just felt right. I should be freaked out; any normal person would be, but I was just more intrigued than before. Then again, I never did consider myself to be normal. Unusual things usually fascinated me.

  Five

  Emery

  The moment he ripped his mask off, I knew I had to quickly connect my mouth with his. I tried to stay away from him, but my body didn't want to listen; the pull towards him was much stronger than my willpower. In a way, it was almost as if the ocean brought us together and gave us no other option. I connected my mouth to his to offer him my air to keep him from inhaling the ocean water, but then our tongues moved against one another, and I couldn't control my mouth’s actions and what it craved. It wanted to taste him and feel him in a way it had never felt anyone else before. I swam away the moment he was distracted with his mask. I clasped my amulet as I swam back to the comfort of my cave, and I clung my body to my favorite rock. I never used the magic of the amulet. I saw what magic did to my mother, and I didn't want to experience the same fate she did. As much as I feared the power magic held, I felt the pull to use it in order to get closer to my human. I closed my eyes and wrapped my hand around the gleaming stone and imagined what it would be like to have human legs. Before I could open my eyes, I was sinking down, and I tried to move my tentacles and lower arms around to grasp the nearest rocks, but they were nowhere to be found.

  I pulled myself up onto the rocks with my hands and my eyes focused on two long flailing human legs. I gasped at the sight, and I didn't think what I was seeing was possible. My hands touched the new legs that replaced my tentacles, and they were really there! This wasn’t something I was seeing because I wanted to see it, they were actually legs. I pulled the amulet over my head, and my tentacles were back again. The magic was only possible when wearing the amulet. I moved my body up toward the surface, and once my head reached the top of the water, my eyes searched for the shore. I swam toward the sand as fast as my tentacles could take me, and as the water grew shallower and more of my body began to show, I stopped. I slipped on the amulet, falling forward onto my face into the water. I didn’t know what I was expecting, but I guess I thought my legs would catch me, until I remembered I’d never used legs before. I didn’t know how they worked.

  I practically crawled to shore, and once I reached land, my back collapsed against the sand. My eyes looked up toward the morning sky—it was morning! I'd never seen the sun before, and now was my moment to actually watch the sun rise into the earth's sky, lighting up the world with its brightness. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever laid my eyes on. I stayed there for what felt like hours, just watching the different shades of color the sky produced as more of the sun appeared. There were footsteps behind me, and I knew I had to hide before whoever belonged to them found me. I crawled behind a giant rock, hoping it was large enough to shield my body from whatever was coming my way. I didn't really have a thought-out plan of what I would do once I reached the shore. I just knew I wanted to get here. I wanted to see him, but he wasn’t anywhere in sight. I didn't even know where he lived or where to find him. Something brought me to this specific area as if I had some kind of built in map that would lead me right to him. I peeked around the rock, and a man stood searching the ocean for something, running his hand through his wavy brown hair. I saw that he was wearing clothes, and it made me wonder—did I need to be wearing these too? If so, where would I find such a thing?

  He turned in my direction, as if the thing he searched for was me, and that’s when I saw them, those same familiar green eyes I only thought I would see again in my dreams. Those same lips I badly wanted to touch again with my own, that were now formed into a thin line. I stuck my head out more, hoping his eyes would find me like they had before.

  Six

  Caleb

  I’d gone for a run, because that's what I did when I couldn't sleep, and something inside of me sent me in a direction I usually didn’t go. I followed this odd feeling, because the last time this happened, I was led to him. What if the same thing happened again? I stopped as soon as I came across a large rock, and my eyes moved around as if they searched for something, but for what I didn’t yet know. Something about the waves seemed different today as well. As if they knew a secret they had yet to share with me. The secret lay behind the rock. It was there I found him, and he was even more beautiful in the daylight. His hair was lighter with the sun landing against it, and his eyes were a brighter shade of greenish-gold. His smile stretched from ear to ear as if he had found what he had been looking for. My legs quickly moved his way, and I expected to see his purple limbs sprawled out against the sand, but instead I saw human legs. But that wasn’t all I saw; he was also completely naked.

  His pale skin stood out against the dark wet sand. I had a hard time catching my breath after my eyes fully took him in; he was such a magnificent creature. I slipped off my jacket and immediately set it against his waist and asked "What are you doing out here? What if someone else found you instead of me?"

  He smiled, clasping onto his amulet just like before, "They wouldn’t. I was meant to find you, and you were meant to find me. Can’t you feel it? Couldn't you feel me?"

  I bent down beside him and rested my right hand on the rock to help keep me balanced. My left hand moved to swipe the light brown strands of hair from his
face. "I felt you; you’re all I’ve felt all day, every day. I don't even know anything about you and yet I feel like I've known you my whole life. What's your name anyway, what should I call you?"

  He leaned into my touch. "Call me Emery. I shouldn't be here though. I should probably go back now."

  I shake my head, "No, don't go yet. You just got here. Stay. Come home with me. I promise I'll bring you back to the ocean later if that's what you want. I’m just not ready to say goodbye yet."

  His lips crashed against mine, and I was suddenly glad I was still holding on to the rock, or I was sure I would have lost my balance. I kissed him back, taking in the taste of the salt of the ocean on his lips. My hand fell from the rock and onto the sand, reminding me we were still outside. I stood up and offered my hand to him, and he hesitantly took it. "I'm Caleb by the way," I said before I pulled him up way too quickly. He landed right into my arms with wobbly legs. He didn't know how to use his legs, but how would he if he’d never had them before? I almost wanted to ask him how he even had legs, but instead I carried most of his weight with my own and let him lean his body on mine as I got him to my house. Luckily, I didn’t live too far from where we were, because I'm not sure how much longer I would have been able to drag his body along the sand while trying to remain hidden from other people.

  We finally reached my front door, and his eyes roamed around every bit of inside my house that was in his view before I set him on my couch. He stretched out his new legs, making my jacket fall from his lap, which left his entire body in full view again. It didn’t seem to bother him; it's not like he wore clothing in the ocean. I took a seat next to him, and he pulled at my shirt, "So, these must be what you humans call clothes. Should I be wearing some too?"

  I sat up straight. "Probably, if you ever plan to leave the house. Things aren't like the ocean out here. Clothes are required at most places. But you don't have to wear them here if you don’t want to."

  He looked at his body and back at mine. "But you have them on. Shouldn't I be wearing them too? Do you look like me under them, or do you look different?"

  I sucked in a breath. "Kind of like you, but maybe slightly different. No human looks exactly the same. We are all unique in our own way."

  He lifted my shirt as if he was looking for something. "How so exactly?"

  I rested my hand on his to stop him from pulling it up any further, "I can show you if you want?"

  His eyes remained focused on where most of my shirt covered my body, and he lifted it up again. That time I didn’t stop him. Once the shirt landed on the ground, his hands touched my chest and worked their way down to my stomach. "We certainly don't feel the same."

  I laughed as his hand continued to travel along my six pack. My left hand landed on his left leg, traveling up his thigh, "I like the way you feel."

  I didn’t stop right there either; my hand kept going, unable to get enough of him until it wrapped around his now hard cock, him trembling at the touch of my fingers. He moaned, and I claimed his mouth with mine causing his lips to quiver. We didn’t have to worry about other people seeing us. It was almost as if we were the only two people who existed in the world. I wanted to be the only one to see him this way, eyes half-lidded and left completely breathless from my kisses. I moved my hand along his length in slow and steady strokes, and his chest pressed into mine as his hands roamed in my hair. His body shook against mine and his eyes rolled back in his head as his body hung right at the edge of fulfillment. His fingers tightened their grasp on the strands of my hair as he continued to rock forward into my hand, chasing the waves of ecstasy, moving against the current to reach the surface of his pleasure. After my hand experienced the warmth of his cum, I moved it to my mouth to lick it clean, lapping my tongue in between my fingers. His hazy eyes watched me tentatively before he licked his lips, “Can I do that to you? I would like to touch you that way too.”

  I unzipped my pants and pulled them down my legs as I remained seated on the couch. I grabbed his hand to rest it on my exposed cock. He gripped the center with his fingers and mimicked the same moves I’d used on him. His eyes were focused on the precum dripping from my cock as his face moved close enough to lick it, and that was exactly what he did. As unexpected as it was, I jumped, causing my cock to push further into his mouth. He pulled away, covering his mouth with his hand, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what made me do that. I just really wanted to know what you tasted like.”

  I held his hand in mine, pulling it from his mouth so I could place a soft kiss to his lips, “It’s fine, I liked it. I was just caught off guard is all, but in a very good way. Feel free to taste me all you want, anywhere you want.”

  That brought out that adorable smile I loved so much. I barely knew the man sitting in front of me and was already growing accustomed to all the little things he did that I couldn’t get enough of. The way his eyes filled with desire for me, the way his lips curved up when I said something he liked, the way he touched me as if he was doing something for the very first time. I could never get tired of it. I didn’t want it to stop, but I knew it eventually would. He wasn’t meant to be on land for long. He would soon have to return home, and my life would once again lack that one thing I never knew I was missing, him.

  Seven

  Emery

  Once he said he liked what I did, and I could taste him anywhere I wanted, I did exactly that. I took his tip into my mouth, sucking and swirling my tongue around it and enjoying the salty taste of him. I moved my two fingers and my thumb up and down the shaft of his cock, moving them in sync with my mouth until his release was spilling outside my lips. I pulled away, licking the sticky substance that escaped my mouth. I was about to ask him another question, but it quickly escaped my mind when his lips crashed against my own, causing explosions to go off in my head, shooting sparks up and down my body. We remained that way for a while and couldn’t get enough of one another’s lips, as if we starved for the taste of each other. Kissing suddenly became one of my favorite things, and I knew I would miss it when I returned to sea. I would miss doing it with him. I would miss being able to touch him whenever I wanted. I would miss sinking my fingers into his soft dark hair, moving my hands along his angular jaw as we lay facing each other in his bed after he carried me from his couch.

  No one ever looked at me the way he did, no one ever touched me the way he did, and afterward I felt like no one else should ever be allowed to. Now I knew all these things were reserved for only him. I ran my hand up and down his chest as his left hand moved to grip my ass. His fingers slipped between my cheeks and softly rubbed against the outside of my hole. I never did put on clothes, and I’m not sure I ever would at this point. I think he preferred me this way, and I didn’t mind laying my eyes along his tan, naked skin. He was beautiful either way, but he was most beautiful lying next to me naked and vulnerable. He pulled his fingers away from me to reach inside a nearby drawer, from which he then brought out a tube filled with a clear liquid and something else in a shiny package. He then poured the liquid onto his fingers. The bed shifted as he made his way back over to me. His fingers slipped back in between my cheeks and pushed into my hole, making me gasp as they made their way past the tight ring of muscles. He brushed his lips to mine, “Are you okay? Did I hurt you, do you want me to stop?”

  I quickly shook my head, "No, don't stop."

  I didn’t need much time to think about my answer. I knew I didn’t want him to stop. I wanted him to keep touching me. I needed him to keep touching me, and the more he did, the more I wanted. His fingers moved in out of me, which caused a slight burning sensation. As his hard-throbbing cock rested on my stomach, I kept wondering what it would be like to have it inside me. I didn’t have to wonder for long. He dripped more of the clear substance from before onto his long shaft and then ran his hand along it, rubbing it in. Then, in a deep sensual voice, he said, “Lie on your back for me with your knees toward your chest; I want to look at your beautiful face
as I make love to you for the first time.”

  I quickly obeyed, and the bed shifted again as he covered my body with his own, which pressed my knees into my chest more as he claimed my mouth in a long-drawn out kiss, as if he was kissing me for the last time. Suddenly, my once full heart felt hollow knowing that one day, he would be doing just that, but that time wouldn’t come just yet. I would kiss him again later tonight and again in the morning. I would kiss him until our lips were bruised and raw. He tore an orange packet and removed what he called a condom before slipping it over his long length. He stroked himself a few times before his fingers slipped inside me again, but this time with more ease, and I moved against them and let out a sound of disappointment once they were removed. That was until I felt the tip of his cock lined up against my hole. As he slowly inched in, I clenched around him until I felt completely full. My legs were now laid out over his shoulders as he pulled out to push back in, making me lose all control as I pressed myself against him, and I needed him to move more. I felt my muscles relax as he moved against me in a soft and gentle way.

  He moved in and out of me slowly at first until my hands landed on his ass, and I pressed my nails into his skin, begging for more. His pace quickened and his kisses became sloppier, and I suddenly forgot how to move my tongue against his. He slammed in and out of me the way the waves did against the ocean’s sand. His hand stroked my cock at the same time, and I felt myself coming undone in all the best ways beneath him. His cock twitched inside me, and he looked as if he could collapse right there on top of me, but instead his hand kept stroking me until my cum was spilling out over him. Just like before, he cleaned up my mess with his tongue, and I don’t know why, but something about the way he did it seemed so intimate, like we were being connected in another way, and a part of me was now running through him. His arm grazed mine as his body landed in the empty spot beside me, and in a gravelly tone he said, “We could probably use a shower now, but I don’t think I can feel my legs just yet.”