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Chapter Text

Dan hissed through his sharp teeth as he felt grime and gravel cut through his abdomen and tail. He wasn't able to fight well, if at all, on land and the werewolf knew it. Speaking of which, the silver bastard quickly turned its head around to lock his eyes to where he threw Dan. Dan looked up through soaked hair and rain as he looked at his attacker.

Fear bursting within his bleeding chest, Dan tried his best to scramble up on his arms and drag his body away from the wolf as far as he could manage. Unfortunately, being a siren prevented him from going very fast and he wasn't helped by the slippery dock as the hunting beast ran at him on swift, strong legs.

It grabbed Dan by the back of his neck and lifted him up like a cat by its scruff. Dan whined pathetically as it dug blunt, black claws into him. Cold, sinister amusement sparked in its sharp, venomous blue eyes. It brought Dan closer to its mouth, parting his snarling teeth to finish the poor siren off.

Just as Dan gave up, the door to a bar they were nearby slammed open. The wolf quickly threw Dan into the alleyway between the bar and another building and followed after, its attention snapping to the short haired man glancing around. His slightly drunken, blue eyes searching in front of the bar.

"Briiiaaan!" The man called. "Come on, man! Ya can' just bail on us! I know tha' you ar' ouh thera somewhera!" His australian accent booming around the quiet peer. The werewolf grumbled under its breath and turned its head to glare down at Dan.
It huffed angrily as it fixed its denim jacket over its shoulders and began to shift. Muffled yet disturbing cracks and pops came from the creature as the soaked, silver fur sunk back into it. Its claws, that left numerous marks and scars on Dan, flattened and shrunk on the tips of its now fleshy fingers.

After about thirty seconds of painful sounds later, the werewolf straightened back out, revealing an older-looking man. He glared at Dan, and he shivered. His body may not be as dangerous anymore, but his eyes were just as sharp.
"Move and I'll just make your death slower, and more agonizing," He growled, not even caring if the siren could understand him. He shook himself off a little before walking from behind the corner. "Hey, Ross!" He smirked, changing his demeanor effortlessly.

"Ah, Brian! Ya jus' got up an' le- why ar' ya so weh? I mean, I know it's rainin'. Buh ya soaked, man!" He poked Brian's almost black jacket, knowing it's supposed to be gray. He looked down and added, "Also, ya barefoot. Wha'? Why ya ba'foot?"

"I fell in the water and lost them," He said easily. It wasn't entirely a lie, he jumped in the water to grab Dan after he saw him on the dock to catch him. He lost his shoes while he shifted though, wolf paws not exactly fitting human shoes very well. "If you give me a minute, I could probably find them."

"Wha'? Ya goin' back inta wata to find ya fuckin' shoes?" Brian just shrugged. He just wanted an excuse to kill the siren before he slithered away. "Nah, mate. Jus' contina goin' ba'foot. Don' think tha' ba'tenda minds much. Arin goh kinda worried tha' ya jus' fuckin' ran ouh on us like tha'."

"Damn right I was! Holy fuck, Brian!" The big man burst through the heavy door of the bar easily, startling Ross. His long, brown hair beginning to darken and slick down thanks to the rain. "I thought you finally snapped at Ross's drunken bullshit and went to end it. And why are you barefoot? Also you're soaked through, what the fuck did you do? You didn't get drunk."

"I can barely understand Ross currently, how can you tell what he's saying?" Brian ignored Arin's questions with one of his own, not really having a lie ready for his questions. He tensed slightly seeing Ross look over Brian's shoulder.

"I've known him too long, that's how. Now care to tell-"

"Therisa dude on the ground ova thera!" Ross cut him off, pointing behind Brian. Brian spun around and sure enough, Dan was trying to sneak out of the alleyway.

Seeing the three men suddenly look at him, he quickly shimmied back into the alleyway, turning around to try to climb the opposite wall to no success whatsoever. The only thing happening is him ending up roughing his claws up on the hard bricks. He turned around fearfully as his pursuers blocked the only opening. The werewolf snarled at him angrily in his human form, the biggest one's eyes widened with surprise, and the short one screamed.

"Holy fuck, it's a mermaid!" He shrieked, fear sobering him almost immediately. "Don' they, like, eat people and shit?!" His accent wavering but not fading.

"I'm pretty sure that's a myth, Ross. But then again I was sure mermaids were to..." Dan would be offended by them calling him a mermaid if he wasn't terrified out of the living hell. He flexed his torn fins and hissed as mincingly as he could muster, making Ross take a step back and scream again.

"It fucking hissed! Did you see its teeth?! It's gonna tear us apart! Let's just get away from it!" Ross hugged himself as if it'll protect him. The tallest shook his head, not looking scared in the least.

"Dude, look! It's hurt. I think you're scaring it, Ross. Look at it," He took a step closer to Dan. Making him hiss on instinct, albeit it was much quieter. His fins flattened and lowered as the man took yet another step. Brian huffed angrily.

"We should just kill it. It's not a mermaid," He growled, "It's a siren, even more dangerous," He informed. Ross shivered, remembering stories.

"They're the ones that can mind control if they sing, right?" He squeaked. His grip on himself tightening. "I-If so, why isn't it singing now? Oh God, is it just fucking with us? Are we gonna die?!" His voice getting more and more shrill with every question.

"Oh my God, you guys need to chill the fuck out. If it wanted us dead it would've killed us on sight," Arin looked back at the siren. Then he grumbled under his breath, "Probably..." Ross took another step back, now only a few feet away from the edge of the peer.

"Listen, I know a lot about this shit, we should kill it and move on," Brian tried to convince. Arin shook his head again.

"Come on, dude. Look at it. It looks terrified. Look at how big its eyes are," He took another step closer to Dan. Now almost close enough to touch. Dan shrunk away from him, whimpering as the large gash on the side of his tail split even more. He quickly glanced at his injury then back at the human close to him. He bared his teeth for a second, desperately trying to scare the man off. It didn't seem to faze him, however, as the man crouched beside Dan.

Dan has heard stories of sirens getting captured and sold by humans. All of the tales were coming back to him quickly. Sirens' throats being ripped out, humans forcing sirens as pets, their tails and fins being ripped and cut off for humans' food, jewelry, and just straight, twisted humor. He flattened himself as low to the ground as possible, wanting to just melt into the ground. He felt himself begin to tremble as the man gently held out a hand.

"Arin, don't touch it," Brian warned, "It's a fucking siren. Just let me kill it," He stepped in beside Arin lightly pushing him away. Dan shrieked his lungs out and scrambled away frantically. Brian growled and grabbed the siren's arm, jerking him close.
The siren let out a choked sob, certain he was gonna die. Tears burned his eyes, flowing down his face even though they easily blended in with the rain. He weakly grabbed the werewolf's wrist with his free hand, trying to at least loosen his vise-grip. Arin steadied himself, confused to why Brian was so aggressive.

"Dude, stop! You're hurting it!" He tried to pry Brian's hands from the poor creature.

"I need to put it out of its misery," He replied. One of his hands moved to the siren's neck, gripping it fiercely.

"Brian! Quit it! What the fuck it wrong with you, man?!" Arin yelled, ripping the man's hands from the victim. Brian only glared at Arin, shoving off him and standing back up.

"You're making a mistake keeping that thing alive, Arin," Brian warned. Watching as Arin gently touched the creature's arm.

"Look, you made it cry," He gently rubbed the siren's shoulder as he coughed, gasped and sobbed. "Hey, hey it's okay. Calm down and breathe. Calm down," Arin cooed. He examined the creature's visible injuries while it was slightly distracted, admiring its strange body on the way.

Arin couldn't really see its face as it had fluffy, curly brown hair covering it, shaking with every cough and gasp that came out of its mouth. It was pretty skinny, its lankiness most apparent in its arms, which scales began to litter then cluster down it's forearms. The shinny, dark blue scales becoming neat and orderly as they got closer to his hands. It had dark, sharp, and roughed up claws at the end of each finger.

Its back was scrapped up; gravel, bruises, cuts, and splinters littering the tanned skin. The siren had a sail-looking fin that ran from its lower back to a third of its tail. The skin part of it was torn in places and bleeding, a couple of the delicate spines that hold it up broken in half, the ones that weren't erected then sunk a little with every cough that racked through the siren's body.

Its tail glimmered like blue sequins. It was dark blue like the sea creature's hands, and the way some scales were darker and others were lighter made it look like the ocean itself. One each side of its tail had fins similar to the one on its back. The one on the right seemed okay, a bruise was forming on the skin area though. The left side one the other hand, was completely crushed. The thin spines drooping lamely.

Just above the fins were ugly claw marks, bleeding quite heavily. Underneath the right fin was an even larger gash, slowly dying the scales underneath a dark red, the rain unable to wash most of it off. On the end of the siren's tail was a flowing, tattered fin. It looked more fish-like than whale-like than he expected. The glittery skin was a lighter blue than its scales, also a little transparent, adding to its beauty. He noticed that there was a large bite mark above it's main fin, the flesh inside of it was ripped slightly, scales missing, as if it was tugged. Humming to himself, he turned his gaze back to its head. The siren had stopped coughing, but it was still sobbing softly, unable to stop its terror but not wanting the men around to hear it.

Dan felt Arin's eyes on the back of his head, burning through his curls. He continued to cry as the human rubbed his naked shoulder. Giving up completely, he began to finally feel the blood loss as it made him light-headed. Falling on the hard ground beneath him, the last thing he saw before blacking out was searing, victorious, blue eyes.

Chapter Text

"Oh my God, is it dead?" Ross asked. He seemed more comfortable now that the siren was unconscious.

"Hopefully," Brian grumbled. A tiny smirk flickering on his face for a second. Arin ignored them and felt the creature's neck, flipping some of its hair out of the way. Once he felt the faint pulse, he let a breath out and began to flip it over.

"It's not dead yet," He declared to Brian's annoyance, "I think it's just passed out from blood loss. I mean, look at its injuries!" He turned the scrawny ocean mystery to its back, careful to not break its back fin anymore than it already was.
He took a quick glance at its scratched up abdomen before sliding his arm underneath its shoulders.

"Wait, Arin, what are you doing? Put it down!" Brian said. His brows furrowed at his friend's actions. A dangerous beast passes out in front of them and Arin picks it up.

"Y-y-yeah, Arin!" Ross joined in, "What if it's faking it? Just trying to get you c-closer to kill you!" Arin snorted, but continued to slide his other hand under its tail. It didn't have knees like Arin expected for some reason, it just kind of flopped. It reminded Arin of a snake as it began to slip limply out of his arm.

He adjusted it so his hand was splayed out on its lower back next to the back fin. His arm supporting its lower half bent under it. His other arm clutching the merman to his chest. Arin stood up with it, grunting at its weight.

"You're not supposed to lift with your back," Brian mumbled sarcastically. "I don't know why you're bothering with that beast."
"W-what are you doing with it?" Ross stared at it with fearful curiosity as Arin turned around.

"I wanna help it."

"What?! S-shouldn't we just throw it back into the ocean?" Ross's eyes flickered to Arin's before back to the thing in Arin's arms. Brian's eyebrows flew up for a second before quickly fixing it back to his signature stoic expression.

"Uh, I don't think we should do that. Um, Arin wants to save it I guess, so throwing back into the ocean will, um," He scratched the back of his head subconsciously, "Ah, there are sharks and shit, and..." He trailed off, realizing how hypocritical he sounded. Arin raised an eyebrow at Brian's sudden change of heart.

"You just tried to make me let you kill it, and now you're all of a sudden trying to explain how it'll die in the ocean, where it's no doubtably from and more comfortable in?" Arin asked, the accusation in his voice obvious.

"You're obviously not going to change your mind on trying to save it, so I'm just telling you!" Brian shot back quickly. Crossing his arms indignantly. Arin rolled his eyes and walked to the parking lot where the pier met the land. Ross shook his head and quickly followed him, albeit at a distance. Brian grumbled angrily under his breath before turning to do the same as they all went to the bar together in the same car.

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Dull and sharp pain alike woke Dan up. He sucked in a sharp breath as he felt water soaking into his wound on the side of his tail. His head and shoulder throbbed slightly as he squinted his eyes open. The first thing he noticed was the uncomfortable position his arms were in behind his back.

He tried to move them, only to realize that they were tied together. He also tried to take a deep breath to calm himself from panicking, making the gray rectangle sticking his mouth together apparent. He looked around at his surroundings, noticing he wasn't in his hidden cove where he slept normally. He had no clue where he was.

He was in a tub, red, room temperature water surrounding as much of his tail and body as could fit. Speaking of which, he was covered in white and red cloth, most of which clung to his body while one or two floated on the water loosely. He sat up, with effort thanks to his bound hands, and tried to examine his wounds, struggling to remember what happened.

The door creaked open slowly, forcing all the memories of last night into his head so quickly, his head throbbed harder. The same short haired man that screamed at him cane through the door, a roll of the same cloth that was around his body in his hands.

Dan thrashed fearfully and screamed through his closed lips and sticky cloth. The man's head immediately shot up to Dan and screamed as well, dropping the roll and running back through the door.

"Arin!" He screamed, "Arin, Arin, Arin, it's awake, holy fuck, Arin! It's moving and shit, dude! Oh my God, Arin!" His shrill voice soon accompanied by heavy footsteps. The blue-eyed man pointed at Dan with a shaky hand as a familiar larger one came into view. Dan shook uncontrollably as the man came into the small room.

"Hey, buddy. Calm down, I'm not gonna hurt ya," He smiled at Dan, his hands waving by his shoulders non-threateningly. Dan only whined and shut his eyes tightly, ducking his head into his aching shoulders in defense. "Hey, don't panic. You're okay," The man shushed Dan as he heard him come closer.

He flinched as he felt the human touch his head, expecting him to grab his hair and make him look at him. Dan just wanted to go home, heal from the werewolf attack in his cove and sing to the ocean.

Arin watched the siren quiver underneath his touch. He looked up at Ross who was watching curiously.

"Do you think it can understand us?" Ross whispered, his gaze fixed on the scared creature. Arin just shrugged. He knew next to nothing about this sea mystery, just that it was hurt.

"I don't know, but it's scared shitless right now," He crouched next to the bathtub and began to gently pet its curly hair. "Hey, man, you're okay now. I'm not gonna hurt you and Ross is too much of a pussy to even come near you," Arin smiled as he heard Ross huff indignantly. His grin grew as he saw the siren open one eye to look at him. "There ya go. See? I'm not a bad dude. I just wanna help."

"I don't think it knows what you're saying," Ross said as he bent to pick up the roll of bandages off the ground. The siren's eyes quickly snapped to Ross to watch his movements closely before landing back on Arin. He smiled softly at the creature, slowly moving his hand to its shoulder.

He studied its face now that the main danger dissipated. It was extremely human, aside from a few scales here and there. It seemed to relax slightly, un-hunching its shoulders from the sides of its head, but it remained tense and stared at Arin with unease.

The front door slammed shut, making the siren squeak from behind the duck tape and shake again. Arin huffed at the interruption and went to go see what Suzy brought back from the store.

"Heya, Suze!" He called cheerfully. She turned to him as he entered the kitchen. "Whatcha got there?" Arin peeked into one of the white, plastic bags that was on the counter. She giggled at his childishness, and opened the fridge to start putting things up.

"I got sodas and stuff. Also got all the fish you begged me for. May I ask, why? You've never been much of a seafood person outside of sushi," Arin only shook his head in response, eyes drifting up to the bathroom door where Ross tentatively stepped into.

Ross swallowed nervously as he stared at the siren. It had stopped shaking, but it was staring at Ross with nervous, yellow eyes.

"Um, c-can I fix your bandages?" He pointed to its tail. "Your thrashing made them c-come loose," The siren looked at its tail, lifted it up for a second before gingerly placing it down. "C-can you understand me? What I'm saying I mean," He asked, the question bouncing in his head since they found it. To his surprise it turned its head to him and nodded.

Ross blinked dumbly before shaking himself. "Really? Can I ask you some questions?" Gaining some confidence from the thought of it understanding him, he carefully walked closer to the bathtub. It shrugged, looking less terrified. "U-um, are you a mermaid?" He asked first, jumping back a second at the creature's glare.

"Or, uh, siren, I meant," It seemed pleased as it nodded. Ross gulped as he got even closer to it. "C-can you mind control w-with your singing? Isn't that what sirens do?" He looked at its eyes. It looked at him like he was stupid. With one eyebrow raised, it shook its head. "O-oh. Really? Isn't your guys' entire shtick singing to lure ships to their doom?"

It narrowed its eyes at him and shrugged. Not giving a clear answer. "What do you mean? Can you mind control me?" Ross asked, his voice going up an octave. It shook its head more firmly this time. "Then what the fuck! What does a shrug mean?" He threw his hands up, too confused to care that it flinched away from him.

Dan blinked at the man unable to do anything but shrug again. He huffed a giggle out of his nose when he groaned, frustrated. Then he tried to peel the sticky cloth on his mouth with his shoulder and looked at the man, hoping he'll understand and take it off him. The man noticed and looked behind him.

"I don't know if I can take that off of you," He looked back at Dan, his face softening when Dan looked at him pleadingly. He felt pathetic doing it, but as his hands were behind his back, he couldn't take it off himself.

He brightened as he saw the man sigh and said: "Okay, fine. Just, promise not to b-bite me or anything or I will put it back," Dan nodded his head enthusiastically and the man crouched next to the tub and cautiously grabbed the end of the gray rectangle. "This might hurt a bit so bare with me," He warned. He tugged the piece off quickly, getting his hand away from Dan's mouth as quick as possible. Dan licked his stinging lips, quickly getting rid of the unpleasant feeling. He opened his mouth to stretch it, only to pause and close it quickly as the man next to him yelped loudly at the mere sight of Dan's teeth.

The siren flinched away from Ross at his outburst. He immediately felt bad as it was just stretching its jaw but his nerves got the best of him. He was about to apologize when he heard Arin open the door, a second pair of footsteps behind him.

"What happened?" Arin asked, obviously confused and worried at why Ross had taken the duct tape off of the siren. Ross waved dismissively at him.

"Everything's fine. It wanted the duct tape off, so I took it off and got spooked at its teeth. That's all," Arin didn't look very convinced, but whatever he was going to say got shoved down as Suzy gasped, walking into the crowed bathroom.

The siren's eyes widened significantly at the sight of her. Ross began to regret his choice of taking the duct tape off because it began to do the exact thing the tape tried to prevent it from doing: it began to sing.