Laurence watched him closely.
It was an hour before Laurence caught waves regularly, and he had several wipeouts as he tried to stand up. Connor worried at some of them, but Laurence reassured him each time that he was fine and waded straight back out to catch another wave and try again.
Connor watched, sitting on his board, as Laurence caught a larger wave, and the nose of his surfboard went down under his weight that shifted too far forward as he tried to stand.
“Crap,” Connor said, immediately paddling as Laurence fell head over heels into the water, and his board flew up in the air behind him, crashing back down on him. It may be foam, but it was still heavy. And Connor knew from experience that getting hit by the board sometimes made you take in a surprised breath of seawater right into your lungs.
Hardly a second later, Laurence popped up from the water, half hitting the board as if he’d been thrown against it. Connor stilled, heart in his mouth as he spotted the dark shadow that circled Laurence.
Laurence blinked a few times and looked around himself, dazed. He caught sight of Connor, looking confused. “I swear someone grabbed me just now,” he said. He looked around himself in the water; Connor saw the moment he spotted the dark shape. His face whitened.
“Climb up on the board, no splashing,” Connor instructed. He drew his own legs out of the water and waded on his knees toward Laurence. He couldn’t tell what the dark shape was, not until he got closer, and it dipped around his board, and Connor glimpsed the human top to it. He exhaled in relief.
Adonis suddenly broke the surface of the water; he threw his arms around Connor’s waist and pressed his cheek affectionately to his thigh. He hummed a soft sound, like a cat’s purr, and gazed up at Connor with dark eyes.
Connor’s heart stirred at the affectionate greeting. He reached out to pet his hair. “Good to see you, too,” he said. His worry about Adonis’s absence from the dock dissipated. He’d feared that maybe he wouldn’t see Adonis again, that he’d somehow vanished, and Connor would never know where or why he had gone.
“Um. Connor,” Laurence said, his voice strangled.
Ah.
Laurence was staring at Adonis. The water was clear enough that Adonis’s bottom half was visible. He saw the gears in Laurence’s mind ticking, trying to figure out the trick.
Adonis looked at Laurence, running an affectionate hand up Connor’s side. With the other one, he pointed at Laurence and gestured from him to the water and then at himself and the board.
Connor rolled his eyes. “Yes, you helped him. Good job.”
Adonis’s expression brightened. He returned to rubbing his cheek against Connor’s leg, making that purring sound. The vibration felt good against his leg. Connor wanted to ask had he missed him, but Laurence was listening.
Laurence waded closer to them. He looked curiously at Adonis, and then he examined the way Adonis held onto Connor. “Is he your friend?”
“That’s your question?” Connor asked, a touch amused. “Not ‘what is he?’”
“I was going to get to that…” Laurence trailed off as he stared at Adonis in wonder. Adonis cast him a curious look but seemed more interested in hugging Connor. Guilty pleasure curled in Connor’s stomach that Adonis was favouring him. He reached out, running his fingers through Adonis’s wet hair, and lightly dragged his fingertips against his scalp. Adonis shivered, tightening his grip on Connor.
“What is he?” Laurence asked.
“No idea.”
“No—” Laurence scoffed. He gestured to Adonis. “You obviously know each other.”
“That doesn’t mean I know what he is,” Connor said.
“He has a giant tail.”
“He does.”
Adonis shifted, lifting the end of his tail out of the water and flapping the large tail fin. Showing off. Laurence went silent, staring. “That’s real. That’s a real tail. Holy crap. Connor, how can you be friends with a merman and not tell anybody?!”
“You’re not to tell anyone either,” Connor said. Protectiveness filling him as he imagined if people knew about Adonis. If people flocked to the shores trying to find him. And, undoubtedly, there would be people trying to catch him. “I don’t want anybody fishing for him, okay?”
“Oh. Yeah, that would be bad,” Laurence said. He stared at Adonis. “He’s very attached to you.”
Adonis pointedly rubbed his cheek against Connor’s thigh and pointed out to Laurence that Connor had his hand in his hair.
Laurence’s eyes widened. “You can understand me!”
Adonis snorted. That haughty expression he got sometimes filled his features, like he was dealing with someone stupid.
