Mermaid romance (one-on-one//closed)

The alarms blared louder, still no sign of Jackson amidst the commotion of it all. It soared that Jackson had taken the base off if lock down so people could get in and out. But it looked like the front door would be blocked, unless Carter could weave his way through the mess, he’s have to find a back door to the ocean, which wouldn’t be hard but he’d have to be sneaky.

Carter briskly walked through the base until he neared one of the back door exits. He slowly his pace and moved closer to the back door. He tied his hair back up into a tight braid, biting his lower lip as he slowly moved for the backdoor. He tired to look inconspicuous, even though that was a little hard considering he was carrying a snorkel and diving mask.

“Carter!” It was Jenny, but she wasn’t with Jackson or anyone else, “You good?” She asked, motioning to the snorkel and mask. Jenny wasn’t the type of person to stop Carter leaving, knowing how hard it’d been on him so if he needed space she’d give it to him.

Carter froze, biting his lower lip as he turned towards Jenny. He out on a pained expression, “I- uh I fell, and broke my stitches. A man gave this to me to take out to Jackson, I, uh, have to go,” Carter cursed his stuttering. He’d been doing so good up until then, but Jenny had caught him off guard.

Jenny gave him a look that said she didn't quite believe him, but nodded, backing off, "Okay, stay safe, don't get hurt, and get someone to look at your arm." She said, nodding to the blood before walking away.

Carter took a breath, watching her go. She knows. And now she might tell someone… Carter swiftly exited, not looking back. He almost couldn’t believe himself… he’d chosen Jackson over Arria. Why? Why on earth had he been so stupid? Carter just didn’t want to face the three years of failure. Of how he kept coming up short for Arria, and it was all his own fault.

The backdoor led out to a long tunnel, illuminated by a few lights placed here and there along the rock wall. It was only around a five minute walk before Carter was out by the ocean again, a small hidden cove leading out into the open water. Gunshots and shouting could be heard from way back in the base and over the other side of the cliff.

Carter glanced back, wincing a little at the gunshots. Those were his friends in there, even if now he hated Jackson. Carter didn’t let him regret it yet, he could let his actions have consequences later. Carter jogging out, and was grateful when he saw light filter through. And water. Carter only slowed when he finally got out into the salty breeze of the air, to the small cove. This time… he didn’t care how long it took to find Arria. Sure, it probably wouldn’t be another three years, but in a way, this was just a continuation of that time. Carter first started his search with a goal of saving Arria and to have nothing threaten their love again. That goal wasn’t complete, not yet.

Now, it would take Carter less time then he probably thought to find Arria as he was fairly close by. Not that he knew it, he was half unconscious, actually. He'd headed into the city after he'd jumped of the boat, getting into a fight with another merman in a bar, resulting in a split lip, black eye and a few more cuts and bruises. He'd hit his head on the way out and was recovering, not quite knowing where he was. Not that he cared, he was too empty to care… he'd lost Carter, he didn't know where his friends or brother were… he was alone and wanted it to end.

Carter put on his snorkel and mask, knowing it wouldn’t be much help anyways but he was still going to try. Carter dove into the water and swam out, feeling sluggish with his feet instead of his tail. But Carter still swam, he went out into the open water, diving every now and then and looking around, before heading back up to the surface for breath.

The deeper Carter went into the ocean, the closer he got towards Arria, and sharks. With the blood from Arria's fresh cuts and the blood from Carter's injury? Well, there was one shark that seemed to take interest in them, mainly Carter. It noticed the man and the blood diving down under the water only to com back up a few seconds later and targeted it, slowly heading towards him.

Carter was unaware of the danger near him. He took a small break at the surface of the water, taking a moment to catch his breath. It was a little pathetic, but had been ages since he swam like this. Carter took a deep breath a dove back downwards, eyes scanning around him in search of some kind of flicker of scales or something that might point him to Arria. The blood coming from his arm didn’t bother him too much, it stung because of the salt water, but it was a small price to pay. In retrospect, he wished he hadn’t done it because he’d gotten out of the base with very little issues, but it was a precaution he had had to take.

The shark swam closer, passing right over the top of Arria. The shadow and the blocking of sunlight made Arria try and snap back to reality. He saw the shark, and saw where it was headed. He couldn't tell it was Carter from his far down, couldn't quite tell what exactly it was, actually but knew he should probably save it from being killed. He swam after it, ignoring the pain he was in before he tackled it, trying to push it back down to where it came from.

Carter’s eyes caught onto a flicker of movement, and fear hit him like a boulder. Shark. He scrambled up to the surface for much needed air, about to swim far, far away from here, but as his mind replayed what just happened… he hadn’t seen scale, had he? Surely not, probably just a fish or the trick of the light. Carter really wanted to believe himself, he really really did. But as he turned to leave, he realized he couldn’t. Because they was a slim, a very slim, chance that that was Arria. So Carter took one last deep breath and dove back down towards the shark, fear making his hands shake every so slightly. Either that, or the pressure building up as he swam deeper and deeper, not realizing that he might not have enough air to get back to the surface. And then Carter saw him. Arria. Tears welled in hit eyes and he swam faster, his huge fears of the shark being pushed to second priority when he saw the love of his life. Carter needed to get to him.

Arria didn't notice Carter, too focused on the shark. He punched it, dodging a couple of the sharks attacks as it circled. It was fairly big, slightly bigger then the merman but Arria had the speed to dodge the attacks thrown it's way. Luckily, the shark gave up eventually, the prey that it was after no where in sight and it swam away, heading off in the opposite direction to the other of them. Arria watched it go, panting and trying to catch his breath. When he turned around, he finally saw Carter and his eyes widened. He shouldn't be this deep, he'd run out of air soon.

Carter didn’t stop swimming until he was an arm’s length away from the merman. Tears poured out of his eyes and his body shook a little from both fear and from sobs that he couldn’t let out. His diving mask was getting all fogged up from his crying, and his lungs felt like they were going to burst, but Arria was right there. And even if the merman hated him now… Carter just wanted to be this close for a couple more seconds, he wanted to say all the words he hadn’t said even though he physically couldn’t.

"Carter you…" Arria swallowed, looking upwards. It was too far for Carter to swim all the way back up, he wouldn't make it. Even if Arria didn't really want to be around Carter right now, even if his heart hurt too much he couldn't let him die. He grabbed his hand and swam right up to the surface, pushing up and up and up as fast as he could. the breached the water, Arria immediately letting go of Carter's hand to swim back a few paces to let him breath.

Carter gladly let himself be tugged to the surface, realizing a bit too late he wouldn’t have made it himself. When he reached the surface, he became a mix of gasping for breath and sobbing. He took off his mask to reveal puffy red eyes, but he smearing his hand over his face as if he could wipe his tears away. Carter almost swam passed the distance between them so he could hug Arria, but he knew that would be wrong of him and he didn’t let himself. Carter wiped at his eyes again, but that only managed to get them to start stinging with salt water. “Shit this wasn’t supposed to go this way,” He muttered softly, trying and failing to compose himself so he jut ended up blurting out, “I’m sorry Arria, I’m such an asshole and I’m sorry.”

Arria blinked a couple times, opening his mouth to respond before closing it again. His head was still sore from the fight so he didn't think he heard Carter correctly, "I… what?" He tilted his head slightly, narrowing his good eye at the human. He hadn't been expecting this, not at all. After what Carter had said on the boat? It hurt too much to think about so he didn't let himself go back to that memory, to that moment and tried to focus on this one.

“I’m sorry, I was scared because I thought you didn’t love me anymore, I don’t even know, I’m such an idiot and a huge asshole and I regret every single word that came out of my mouth and I’m so sorry,” Carter got out all in one breath, more cursed tears falling down his cheeks. “I know you probably don’t want me anymore and I respect that, I just can’t live with myself without apologizing to you,” Carter said, his voice quiet and breaking a little as he looked down at the water beneath him.

Arria crossed his arms for a moment before rubbing at his face with one hand, closing his eyes. He wanted to forgive him, he knew he was going to forgive him but he just couldn't forget about everything that had been said, "What happened to your not-boyfriend-who-acts-like-your-boyfriend? Does he know you're out here?" He couldn't help but ask. If Carter was apoligising he knew something must of happened to change his mind and he wanted to know what.

“No,” Carter muttered with a small frown, “I think he thinks I’m still locked up in the base. I… he wanted to kill you,” Carter said softly, shaking his head. Carter made himself swim back a few feet away from Arria. What was he thinking? He didn’t even deserve Arria’s forgiveness, much less his love. “Listen… I’m just… I’m sorry. You don’t ever have to talk to me again, I- I can just go back,” Carter said softly, pressing a hand to his eyes to prevent himself from crying again and to hide his puffy red eyes from the merman. If Arria didn’t want him around, he’d have to face that.

Arria raised an eyebrow, eyebrows creasing slightly with worry when Carter talked about the other human. He was quite for a moment, contemplating his next actions and words carefully before he tackled Carter into a hug, holding him close and not planning on letting go anytime soon, “No. I… I forgive you, Carter. I’m not…” He swallowed, hiding his face in the crook of the humans neck, “We can talk about it later. About everything. But I forgive you.”

As soon as those arms were around him, Carter completely lost what little composure he had left. Carter wrapped his arms tightly around Arria and sobbed, “I- i thought I’d lost you forever, I thought I’d never get to see you again, I- I- I-“ Carter’s words dissolved into more sobs and he held Arria tighter. Carter could live with Arria never loving him again -even thought it’d be unbearable- but he couldn’t live with himself if he never saw the merman again. Athat would be too hard, it’d eat him up on the inside until there was nothing left.

Arria shushed him, running a hand through Carter's hair a few times to try and calm him down, "It's okay, I'm here, we're okay, shush." He was having trouble keeping the both of them afloat now. The tiredness and exhaustion, physically and mentally, was finally catching up on him and trying to keep two grown men above water, "Carter? Can we go to a cove or something? I can't keep us above water for long."

Carter nodded, not wanting to try to form words. He’d already had too many breakdowns today. Carter kicked his feet to help swim them to shore, but he couldn’t peel himself away from Arria. He kept telling himself just a little bit longer, he’d hold onto Arria for a little bit longer and then he’d let go, but the letting go part of that plan never came. Carter didn’t want to spend another three years alone, even though he knew he had it much better than Arria.

Arria swam them both to the nearest shoreline, a small beach not too far away. He was so tired, so drained. Even though he hadn't been crying like Carter he felt like he wanted to, but he just couldn't. It didn't take too long reach the sand and he stopped a little ways up from the water, the end of his tail just managing to stay in the water and made sure Carter was sitting as close as possible. They needed to talk about everything that had happened, but Arria knew he needed to give Carter a few minutes to calm down.