"Dawg, are they gonna eat me or some shit?" Todd asks, stumbling back from the school of merfolk eagerly crooning "play" at him in warbling, chirping voices.
"Oh, I don't think so, not in a way you won't enjoy at least." Kurt answers from where he's splayed out sunning himself on a nearby rock, not bothering to offer Todd even the pretense of concern.
“Not reassuring.” Todd snaps and Kurt chuckles throatily.
This mission had taken a turn for the bizarre even by Todd’s standards. An electrical storm forced Kurt into an emergency landing on a nearby island, the clouds forming a near solid wall of fog and lightning as the air pressure plunged around them. They’d weathered the night in the plane, everyone either curling up on seats or rolling out the emergency sleeping bags to sprawl on the floor. Kurt and Todd had stripped down to their underwear, zipped two of the sleeping bags together, and curled up inside, drifting off to the steady rumble of the rain on the shell of the plane. Todd slept with his hand pressed to the scrapes on Kurt’s side, the result of a particularly nasty fall down a cliffside dodging an unexpected explosion. Kurt had run his fingers through Todd’s hair as if sensing the other mutant’s unease, chest vibrating in a near-silent purr that slowly pulled Todd under into dreaming as he tried to convince himself his anxiety was a normal ‘friends with benefits’ level of concern for the blue mutant.
The storm had broken, leaving a thin smattering of clouds in its wake by the time they’d all stumbled bleary-eyed out into the sunshine by late morning. Something about the sky still hadn’t looked quite right, though Todd couldn’t place it.
“We’ve been here before.” Kitty said, looking at Kurt. The perky mutant rarely did fieldwork with any team these days, but Frost had asked Kurt to have her join them as a favor, since this mission overlapped with an old Excalibur case of theirs.
Kurt’s eyes swept over the island and he’d nodded making an absent noise in his throat. He hadn’t bothered with a shirt or his uniform jacket and Todd’s stomach had rolled with a riot of feelings between the long stretch of blue-furred muscles and the mottled scabs along Kurt’s left side. The blue mutant had let out a surprised laugh as a shadow dove over them. Kitty had squealed like she used to when they were kids as a tall woman with wings in lieu of arms landed on the top of the plane calling the two mutant’s names. Todd shared a baffled look with Mirage, Quill, and Sunspot, who’d only shrugged as Kurt leapt up with Kitty to greet the stranger.
Apparently, they’d landed down on the same bizarre magic island that Excalibur had crashed on several years ago when Kurt and Kitty first joined the team. The woman, Harpy, was one of many mutants who’d made their home on the island alongside literal mythical creatures, who could care less about power misfires or unusual appearances. The bad news was there was a barrier around the island that only opened up once a fortnight. The good news was since the island was inhabited, they could crash with the residents, rather than sleep in the plane for two weeks.
Which is how, two days after landing, Todd found himself besieged by actual fucking mermaids when they’d all gone down to the beach for a swim.
“Why are they so interested in me?” Todd asks, wading back towards the rock Kurt is lounging on, afraid to swim lest the curious swarm take that as an invitation.
“Pretty.” Chirps an electric blue mermaid ringed with yellow stripes, they’re at least seven feet long. They skim gently against Todd’s thigh, their skin as cool and smooth as his as they glide against him still crooning.
Several of the others echo the first one as Todd hops up to sit against the rock, bumping elbows with Kurt, who seems entirely too amused by the situation.
“I think you have your answer.” Kurt says, tipping his head to smirk up at Todd. He’s spent the afternoon alternating between cooling off in the water until the sting of the salt on his injuries got too much and dozing on the rocks, occasionally heckling the pick up volleyball game on the beach that started as an islanders versus Hellfire and Kitty affair and devolved quickly into a red rover free for all that was at least 50% showboating in the name of everyone flirting with each other.
Todd shoots Kurt a look as a suspicion that feels too absurd to name rises to the surface of his mind. Kurt’s smirk blooms into the wicked smile he gives Todd right before crowding him into a shadowed alcove or empty alley, letting his powers shroud them both in the cool dark as those hot hands slide their way under Todd’s clothes. Todd swallows.
“When they say play?” Todd asks, gesturing vaguely down at himself and Kurt nods.
“They mean play.” Kurt says emphasizing the last word and the merfolk around them start-up that strange crooning, clicking song again as Todd glances down at them.
“Play.” Says a frilled magenta mermaid whose body is striped with an iridescent blue.
They roll over to show Todd their belly, one webbed hand sliding down their front until they reach where their torso swells into their tail. They press their hand to the middle of their body and Todd notices a slit there that slips open, revealing things that answer a few questions but raise at least half a dozen more. Todd feels his face heat at the display, swallowing as a tentacled mermaid swims up behind the magenta one, tangling around them while watching Todd with wet, eager eyes.
“Uh, are they, like us though?” Todd asks, “Like do they know what they’re asking?”
Kurt snorts, “Are you asking if they’re sapient?”
Todd winces, because if they are sapient then he’s being rude as fuck asking that in front of them, but if they’re not, then he’s not sure where being curious about their offer to ‘play’ with him leaves him on the morality scale. Kurt doesn’t make him answer, instead reaching out to run his hand over Todd’s back, palm warm against his skin in a way that makes Todd shiver.
“They’re like us. Surface languages are harder for them to speak, but their languages are all either flashing colors, sounds we can’t hear, or something closer to whalesong than anything we’d understand. A lot of them know Atlantean though, so if you speak any of that you’re in luck.” Kurt says, letting his hand trail through the water.
Todd raises an eyebrow, “Why the fuck would I know Atlantean, fuzz?”
Kurt shrugs, tipping carefully onto his good side to face Todd, “You were stuck with SHIELD for a minute there, wasn’t sure if you met that guy in the speedo with the little wings on his feet.”
“Namor?” Todd asks, laughing. “Nah, only from a distance. Loved when that dude came round though, always got Fury’s panties in a twist.”
“Jaguar.” A red and pink striped mermaid with fins that end in quills chirrups as they glide up to join the others and Kurt turns to smile at them, holding his hand out to grasp theirs.
“Tiger, tiger.” Kurt says, “Hallo old friend.”
“Good seeing you.” Tiger says, tail arcing through the water, splashing a few of the other mermaids in a way that makes them trill at them. “All okay?”
“All okay.” Kurt says, “You?”
Tiger rolls in the water, dipping down to submerge their gills as they make a long low cry that rises up at the end before poking their face up again, “Good good.” They squeeze Kurt’s hand and he laughs.
“Dawg, how the fuck do you know a mermaid?” Todd asks.
“I know an island full of mythological creatures and mutant runaways, but the mermaid is the one you’re questioning?” Kurt asks, glancing at Todd with laughter in his eyes.
“I gotta draw lines somewhere, yo.” Todd says.
“Sticky situation.” Tiger answers before Kurt does.
The blue mutant nods, “Yeah, that’s about right. We found ourselves together in a hard place a few years ago, and helped each other make our ways home.”
Todd could poke at that answer, but sees the look in Kurt’s face that means he’ll only get more half-jokes and smoke and mirrors today. He turns to look over at the cluster of mermaids still rolling together, half playing half what looks like the fish person equivalent of making out in the nearby shallows.
“I’m surprised they haven’t fucked off yet.” Todd says, shifting to sit up a bit more on the rocks, Kurt hums giving Todd a wry look.
“I’m not. They can tell you’re interested.” Kurt says, tail wending a lazy arc through the air “Und I think they’re willing to be patient for the pretty mutant to make up his mind.”
Todd blushes, hunching his shoulders a bit, “Think the others will give me shit?”
“Glass houses. I know Kitty and Harpy have gotten reacquainted, Quill and Mirage definitely crashed in that lamia’s room last night, and I am near certain Sunspot and Basil, that satyr with the carved horns, are a half-hour away from making some flimsy excuse to wander off into the foliage together.” Kurt says, propping his head up on his fist.
“And you?” Todd asks, glancing at Kurt out of the corner of his eye. The blue mutant smiles softly at him, hand slipping out of the water to stroke Todd’s hip.
“See the beauty in all kinds of beings and my dating history includes aliens from other planets.” Kurt says, then looks over to Tiger, “And the occasional friend in strange places.”
Tiger squirts water at Kurt who shoots them a faux sulky look, the red mermaid grins at Todd, tipping their head towards the blue mutant, “Playmates.”
They hold out their hand, palm up, to Todd, “Playmates?”
Todd glances at Kurt, who watches him with a fond amused expression. “You can breathe underwater so drowning is not a worry, you can keep up with them swimming wise, no one’s going to end up pregnant or anything, hand gestures and noises are a pretty universal way to express needs in this situation, and you’re all pretty flexible in a number of ways. If you want to go out and play, go out and play, liebling.”
The amphibious mutant snorts then lifts his hips to shuck off his swimsuit, tossing it onto Kurt’s bare ass. The blue mutant had sided with the islanders and foregone a swimsuit himself. “Hold that for me, will you?”
Kurt shoots him a look, but picks up the suit with one hand, slapping Todd on the ass with his tail as the amphibious mutant hops into the water. Todd catches Kurt’s chuckle as he skims under the surface, the shallows just deep enough to cover him without him hitting the bottom. He feels Tiger glide up alongside him as he closes the narrow distance between Kurt’s sunning rock and the knot of mermaids rolling around nearby.
The tangle stops to look over at him as he pulls up a foot away, crouching so his head and shoulders break the surface.
“Play?” he asks as Tiger curls themself around him. Four strange and beautiful faces light up, the head fins of the frilled mermaids perking up at his question.
“Play.” The blue and yellow mermaid purrs, gliding forward to press Todd onto his back and Todd can feel the power beneath that cool smooth skin.
Todd jerks a thumb towards the beach where the others are still playing, absently noting that Sunspot and the thick-waisted, shaggy-haired satyr Kurt pointed out before are no longer among them. “Too close. Can we go somewhere farther? More private?”
The blue and yellow mermaid follows Todd’s gaze to look at the shore, then turns to look at the others, making a low trilling sound. There’s a back and forth exchange of whistles and clicks, and a series of flashing colors across the skin of the tentacled mermaid before the blue one turns back to Todd and pats his neck with a cool hand.
“Breathe?” They ask, and Todd presses their hand to his throat, guiding it across his chest with a nod.
“Yeah, I can breathe underwater.” He says and the mermaid nods at him, taking his hand and towing him under.
The others glide along beside them, darting in close against Todd, brushing smooth skin against his own in ways that send pleasant shivers down his back. He feels the shift in his body as his airway closes off against the brackish water around him and his skin grows more sensitive, tingling in that hot-cold way it does when he starts pulling in oxygen through it. The magenta mermaid dips low to swim beneath Todd, twirling to press their belly against his as they move together and Todd falters, limbs losing their rhythm at the pleasant slippery glide of that soft, full body against his.
The mermaid's mouth opens in a wide laugh, the sound echoing through the water around them. Todd sticks his tongue out at them and they return the gesture, their short, wide tongue a pale blue that glows faintly in the sunlight filtering through the sea around them. The mermaids lead him around the rocks, to a little inlet deeper than the shallows, but not so far down that the sun’s rays don’t warm the waters around them. The fourth in the group, an electric green mermaid with delicate fins that seem more decorative than functional, pulls to a stop first, somersaulting in the water and looking back to Todd with a questioning sound.
Skin breathing always makes talking kind of awkward, like he’s trying to make speak around a lump in his throat. He croaks and nods instead, the noise vibrating low and deep in his throat. Instead of the startled reaction he’s used to, the merfolk all seem to understand this as a yes, the green one darting forward to press against Todd. They’re the smallest of what Todd’s begun thinking of as the school, scarcely longer than he is, but just like him, size isn’t an indication of strength, and they tug him close with firm cool arms.
Todd hesitates a moment, unsure where exactly to put his hands before shrugging and approaching things like he would any unfamiliar lover. He ghosts his palms down the mermaid’s shoulders, letting them skim across their sides before resting at the top of their tail. Green croons, rubbing closer against him as his hands reach the wide circle of deep blue that covers their sides and back. Todd slides his hands back up, letting them linger there, fingers trailing gently across that cool, rubbery skin. This was apparently the right choice as long-fingered webbed hands ghost over his back feather-light before pressing hard against his shoulders, sharp little claws skimming over his skin in ways that draw a fluttering croak out of him.
The others seem to take the sound as an invitation, hands and mouths and tentacles sliding over Todd’s skin, running up his legs, along his arms, pressing into the curve of his shoulder, down his back. He’s had encounters with multiple partners before, but usually, this many people created a tag team situation, people shifting between watching and touching as their energy ebbs and flows. Not here. All five merfolk press against one another, against Todd, answering his seeking hands and lips with their own, swelling calls and whistles mingling with his low croaking growls and the skittering chirps he makes.
When one of them grows tired, instead of swimming away, they let themselves be buoyed by the others, switching from more frenetic grinding and stroking to a sort of languid caress. Todd’s surprised at how easy it is to let himself flow into them, to trust when webbed hands shift his own closer or redirect them elsewhere, to let himself relax into their hold when he needs a rest, or take his turn cradling one of them as their pace slows, pressing open-mouthed kisses near the sensitive edge of frilled gills.
He only notices the sea’s gone dark around them when they’ve all finally tapered off in their pace, the intense writhing of before replaced with unhurried, long caresses, high staccato keening giving way to low lilting sounds. Todd’s body’s heavy, muscles tired with that well-used feeling from long swims and a good lay, the combination together mellowing him in a way that makes the shifting of the current lulling. He’s fairly certain the tentacled mermaid’s dozed off, coiled around blue and green, though their lack of eyelids makes it hard to tell. The end of one tentacle wraps around Todd’s ankle in a way that reminds him of Kurt and their skin flashes ripples of color that make the others coo and click in a way Todd interprets as fond and amused.
The sun’s heat is fading from the tide around them and Todd shudders a bit in a way that draws Tiger’s attention. They and Magenta share a look before turning back to Todd.
“Home?” Tiger asks, the word distorted and echoey in a way that takes Todd a minute to understand.
He nods, making the little croaking sound the others started taking as “yes.” He shifts a little bit dreading the idea of having to swim back when his whole body feels wrung out. Magenta catches something in the gesture because they give that clicking laugh again before holding out a hand.
“Ride?” they ask, and Todd only hesitates a moment before deciding piggybacking on a mermaid is probably the least weird thing he’s done today. He croaks again, stopping to look at the other three mermaids still balled together in a little drifting knot. He’s not sure how to say goodbye, or if mermaids say goodbye.
Merfolk apparently are less awkward about one-night stands than most people, because green and blue both chirrup at him a series of looping whistles with matching smiles.
“Good fun.” Blue says fins on the side of their head shifting in the water.
“Play again maybe later?” Green adds and Todd smirks, nodding, because why the fuck not?
“We say bye for you.” Blue says, giving Todd’s hand a squeeze and tipping their head toward the still sleeping tentacled mermaid. Todd squeezes back grinning.
Then Todd turns and hitches his arms around Magenta’s shoulders, nuzzling them back when they press their cool cheek against Todd’s. They and Tiger take him back towards the beach they came from. The ride is longer and shorter than Todd remembers the swim over being, and he’d worry about weighing Magenta down if they weren’t the longest of the five mermaids, dwarfing even blue at maybe ten feet long, with broad shoulders and a huge fanning tail fin to match. Tiger whirls around the pair as they go, long narrow body cutting trails through the water. Todd wants to crack wise about how the mermaid can have so much energy when Todd feels like overcooked spaghetti, but settles for a low, skipping croak and a flat look that Tiger seems to understand anyway by their trilling laugh.
They reach the beach, Magenta giving Todd a ride all the way to the shore, banking them where the water is maybe knee-deep. Todd unhooks from them, sliding off their back to lie belly down in the sand, slowly lifting his head from the water. His ears pop like they do when the plane takes off and he works his jaw against the discomfort, taking a stuttering breath as his lungs take over from his skin again. He glances around the shore, eyes catching on a colorful blanket he recognizes from the other day settled next to a campfire. There are scuffs in the sand that imply several other lounging areas previously circling the crackling flames, but the others have all departed. Todd’s bracing himself for a very long walk back up the beach when a warm voice calls out from a few feet away.
“Have fun?” Kurt asks as Todd swivels to look at him. The blue mutant’s crouched a few feet higher up the shore, water lapping around his ankles. He’s nude, save for a sheer, thigh-length robe a mutant with a long frilled crest instead of hair had lent him the other day. He’s gathered the edges of the lacy coverup over his legs to keep them from dragging in the water.
The magenta mermaid pulls Todd back before he can hop over to Kurt, and Todd glances back at them curiously.
“Not food.” Magenta says, looking at Kurt suspiciously.
Kurt chitters, a strange sharp little noise that lately makes goosebumps prickle along Todd’s neck, smiling at them, “Are you sure?”
Magenta trills, curling forward so their tail blocks Todd from Kurt’s view as a strong striped arm wraps around his waist. Todd sighs, glaring at Kurt’s blurry silhouette through the translucent membrane of Magenta’s tail before turning back to the big mermaid.
“He’s just fucking with you, yo.” He says, and Magenta squints at Todd in a way that implies they understand him, but don’t believe him.
Tiger shimmies their way up beside them in the shallow water. “Jaguar safe. Playmate. Rude.” They squirt water in Kurt’s direction as Magenta drops their tail, splashing the blue mutant in the process. Kurt splutters shaking his head, arms curling around his face, and Todd snickers.
“They really do have your number, dawg.” Todd says and Kurt raises his hand to give Todd what he understands as the equivalent of the finger. Todd turns to give Magenta a look, “You really think he’d eat me?”
Magenta chirrups, shrugging, “Teeth.”
Kurt seems unoffended by the implications of cannibalism on his part, “How are they to know we’re the same species? Though I don’t think they mean the accusation literally.”
As if to back up this guess, Magenta hesitantly scoots back from Todd, shooting Kurt a scolding look, “Tired, be gentle.”
Kurt holds up a placating hand as he creeps forward, no longer worrying about the robe now that Magenta’s soaked him, “Understood.”
Todd’s sour look at Magenta’s words is undercut by the tired groan and wince he gives as he shifts to crouch in the water.
“You can’t stand up, can you?” Kurt asks, Todd can hear the unspoken laughter in the blue mutant’s voice.
“Fuck you.” He says, but accepts the hands Kurt extends him as the blue mutant pulls them both to standing. Kurt darts forward, dipping to hook an arm behind Todd’s knees and sweep him into a bridal carry and Todd yelps.
“I don’t think you’re cashing that check tonight, little frosch.” Kurt says chuckling and Todd thumps his shoulder.
Magenta and Tiger both reach up to squeeze Todd’s hand, making low whistling hums. The bigger mermaid pushes off to glide back into the dark of deeper waters, waving their tail before disappearing below the surf, but Tiger lingers a moment, looking over at the pair.
“Jaguar play later?” Tiger asks and Kurt chuckles.
“Give me a week.” He says, tail curling absently against his injured side.
Tiger notices the motion and slides forward, pushing themselves up so their face hovers at Kurt’s waist, lifting the robe before Kurt can pin it down.
“Wreckless still.” Tiger says with a hiss and Kurt’s ears pin back against his skull.
"It wasn't on purpose." He mutters, looking away from Tiger and Todd both, sulking.
Todd snorts, “Definitely knows you.” Kurt jostles him a bit before jerking, expression twisting like he’s stepped in slime.
Todd tips his head and glances down to catch Tiger licking a thick trail of spit along Kurt’s injured side. The saliva has a faint blue luminescence to it. Kurt sighs, glaring at the lean mermaid.
“You know I hate that. Feels like you just smeared me in half-frozen petroleum jelly.” He says.
“Heal faster. Play sooner.” Tiger says and Kurt’s fake irritation softens into fondness. He squeezes Tiger’s hand with his tail.
“Danke, old friend.” He says and Tiger nuzzles his face against Kurt’s leg, reaching up to stroke Todd’s arm, before dropping back down into the water with a loud slap and pushing off and out into the dark water.
“Is there anywhere you can go without running into a friend?” Todd asks, only half-joking as Kurt wades them back to shore.
Kurt snorts, “You’d be surprised. There are certainly few in heaven happy to see me.”
Todd looks at him, but Kurt only gives that closed mouth smirk that means no elaboration will be coming, and the shorter mutant thumps him on the back. Kurt laughs, tail curving through the air.
He settles Todd on the colorful woven blanket laid out by the fire, hooking a second one that’s folded nearby with his tail and draping it over the both of them, pressing his warm furred side against Todd’s cool one. He picks up a covered dish set in the sand close to the flames and hands it to Todd. The amphibious mutant’s stomach growls as he peeks beneath the lid and catches a whiff of spiced meat swimming in what looks like a tomatoey onion sauce over some kind of root vegetable. Kurt holds out a basket piled with the flatbread the islanders eat most meals with and Todd takes it gratefully, ripping off a chunk and scooping up a massive sloppy mouthful of food.
“The others?” Todd asks, not bothering to finish chewing or cover his mouth.
He’s rewarded by a disgusted twist of Kurt’s lips, by now more a show than a genuine reproach. “Up at the main house, everyone went in for dinner.”
The group they were staying with lived in a ring-shaped, sprawling blue and white sloping stucco building with an open courtyard at the center. While several of them lived in smaller domed stucco homes that dotted the area around the big house, the main kitchen and bathroom were all in the big ring, and meals all seemed to center there.
“Not you?” Todd asks and Kurt shrugs.
“I ate and came back down.” He says, idly ruffling the pages of a worn paperback with his thumb, “We weren’t all back yet.”
Todd feels a little worm of guilt writhe in his stomach at the thought of Kurt alone by the fire instead of gathered among the others in the bright courtyard ringing with voices and laughter. Kurt nudges Todd’s knee with his own, expression knowing.
“You gave me an excuse for some time with the stars.” He says, tipping his head back to glance up at the sprawling sky above them. The milky way is clear as a window, and close enough Todd feels like he could stretch his hand up and skim stars from it like spiders’ silk.
Todd hums, remembering the handful of times he’d gone on missions with the blue mutant, and Kurt’s long silences in the days after, how he’d find ways to skirt around the edges of gatherings rather than rolling around in the center of them in his usual way. The watchful eyes that usually caught empty plates or pensive expressions, filling them up or coaxing them into shy smiles or startled laughter, dimmed with something weary.
“Always happy to be a wallflower’s alibi.” Todd says, going back to demolishing his plate where guilt had slowed him.
Kurt snorts, leaning forward to press a kiss to Todd’s salt curled hair, “My hero.”
Todd wilts against Kurt as soon as he’s licked his dish clean, the last of his energy going towards his full stomach. The blue mutant chuckles, rubbing a hand along Todd’s arm as he kisses his temple.
“I know you’re halfway to Nod right now, but you taste like a salt lick and need to at least rinse off or you’re gonna be so dry tomorrow.” Kurt says and Todd grunts because he’s right, but he’d rather be sulky than admit it.
Kurt snorts, “I haven’t showered off myself und salt gives my fur hell.”
Todd hears the offer hidden in the comment and swallows the protest on his lips before Kurt can give him another lecture about how receiving care is a gift to the offerer. Kurt seems to hear it on his sigh because he chuckles as he stands to kick sand over the fire. He turns back to Todd to hold out a hand but freezes as his eyes catch on the sprawling dark of the forest at the edge of the beach, head tilting and ears perking up as if listening to something. The shorter mutant turns his head to follow Kurt’s gaze but sees nothing save the deep inky green blue darkness of the shadows under knobby sprawling trees that grow in the island’s rocky soil. Todd’s struck by the utter silence from the forest, the contrast of it against the steady shushing of the tide on the shore, as if there were nothing there at the edge of the beach, despite all the animals he’d seen sunning themselves on branches or picking their way through the brush in the daylight. The hair on the back of his neck stands up at how little he can see beneath the trees, given the clear star-filled sky and how keen his eyes are in the dark.
“There’s weird shit in the woods here, isn’t there?” Todd asks, less for an answer and more to shake the distant hunting look that’s come over Kurt’s face, his hand still half extended to Todd as if in a dream. Todd shifts up into a crouch to grasp Kurt’s hand and the blue mutant jerks, blinking as he turns a grateful smile on Todd, not answering.
“Nothing in there planning to eat you, fuzz?” Todd asks and Kurt smirks.
“Not in any way I wouldn’t want.” He answers, and his smile falters, “But in ways I might not find myself the same after.”
“Glad you resisted temptation long enough to give me a lift then, blue.” Todd says and Kurt’s smirk shifts into a smile holding words Todd’s so afraid yet so hungry to notice.
“There were better temptations to wait for.” He says, tipping forward to kiss Todd, his lips a hot brilliant contrast to the cool slick mouths the shorter mutant spent the afternoon occupied with. Todd stands and Kurt gathers his book along with the empty dishes and the blanket they were sitting on in one arm, holding out the other to Todd. He ports them as the shorter mutant steps into the circle of his arms, planting a kiss on the underside of a velvet furred jaw.