A DNF Merman AU

Chapter 12

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Chapter 12

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"How would you feel about meeting my best friend?" Clay asks, looking down to watch his own hand play with the merman's silky dark hair.

"Mmm," George replies sleepily, voice muffled as he buries his head further into Clay's chest.

The boys have been trying to cuddle on Clay's surfboard for the past half hour, but unsurprisingly, balancing two bodies on one moving board is quite difficult. They've agreed to look for better cuddle locations next time. After lots of falling off and capsizing, Clay and George finally settle on a position that they can last more than a few seconds in.

Clay is lying on his back, one leg dangling in the water on either side of the board to balance them. George is practically on top of him, his hips and tail resting between the boy's legs. It had started off as the perfect makeout position, which Clay had wholeheartedly enjoyed. But, being George, the merman had started to feel tired, and eventually inched his body down so that he could curl up into Dream's chest. Clay had found this to be extremely adorable, and immediately wrapped his arms around the merman, and has yet to let go.

"You know the guy I sometimes surf with? Well he'll be getting off work in a bit, and he told me he might join me out here. If you're ready, I'd like to introduce you to him. If not, I can go back to pretending not to notice that you're watching me." Clay chuckles then continues, "What do you think, George?"

"Mmm," George says again, and then sits up a bit. He looks up at Dream with sleepy eyes, says "sure," and then lies back down, mumbling something against his chest.

"What was that, George?"

George lifts his head again. "That's pandas, right?" Clay looks at him with a raised eyebrow, confused, and the merman continues, "he has 'Sapnap' written on his board, but when I first saw it, I thought it said 'pandas.'"

"Ohhhhh. Yeah. That's him"

"He seems pretty cool."

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Eventually, Clay sees Nick paddling out, and gestures for the merman to hide. Clay watches as George slips silently under the waves, keeping just within earshot, then turns to observe his approaching friend.

Nick has always been a fairly happy person, but Dream can't help but notice that he seems even more chipper than usual. He has a huge grin on his face, and he either has an awful sunburn or is blushing like crazy. The last time he looked like this, he had just successfully asked a girl out on a date. Clay makes a mental note to ask him about it later.

"Sap!"

"Dream!"

"How was guarding lives?"

"Good. good. How have you been, Clay?"

"Pretty good! The waves have been pretty mellow today, so I've just been chilling."

"Yeah," Nick says, turning to look at the approaching waves, "seems pretty calm. Oh well."

The boys sit and watch the waves, casually chatting about random things and updating each other about their lives. Clay knows he's stalling, but he cannot quite get the courage to bring up George yet. He turns to where he last saw the merman and takes a deep breath to prepare himself.

"Hey Nick?"

"Yeah?" he answers, turning towards Dream.

"I know you didn't really believe me when I told you about what happened during the storm? But, um. I'd really like you to meet the uh.. boy... that I was telling you about. And before you say anything about me being crazy, just. trust me, okay?"

"Um.... okay."

"Please try not to freak out," Clay adds before turning over his shoulder and calling for George to come over. For a few moments, nothing happens, and Clay wonders if the merman has chickened out and left. He knows that in Nick's perspective, this could certainly turn into enough evidence to prove his mental instability. But then George pops his head out of the water a few yards away and swims to the edge of Clay's surfboard.

"Hi! I'm George. Nice to meet you," the merman pulls his body onto the board and waves his hand a bit. Much to Clay's enjoyment, Nick is completely and utterly frozen, eyes wide and mouth dropping open in shock. He watches Nick's eyes trace over the seaweed in his hair, the gills on his neck, and the scales on his sides, and finally stop at his tail. Seemingly completely entranced, he reaches his hand out, and croaks out, "can I touch it?"

Surprisingly to Clay, the merman just laughs and says, "of course." George looks up at Clay and winks as Sap places a timid hand on the blue scales. After a couple of extremely long and awkward seconds, Dream smacks the back of Nick's head, effectively bringing him out of his stupor. "Dude. Snap out of it and stop being so weird."

"Yes. Sorry. Hi. I'm Nick. Nice.. uh. Nice to meet you," he says, finally bringing his fingers away from the tail to shake George's hand.

George giggles, "it's nice to meet you, too! I'm guessing this is your first mermaid encounter?"

"Uh yeah. I guess. Yeah"

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After their humiliating but highly entertaining introduction, Clay is happy to see just how well they got along with each other. They're sharing life stories, playing tag, and already making a couple of inside jokes with each other. Something about fishes in boxes? Clay isn't really sure. After a bit, Nick mentions needing to leave for some mysterious "prior arrangement," waves goodbye, and paddles to shore. Dream is confused, but he's grateful for the chance to spend some time alone with George.

"Man. I'm so sorry for how Sapnap reacted. He can be a total idiot sometimes."

George lets out his adorable little laugh and says, "it's all good! That's pretty much the reaction I expected. Actually, that's the reaction I expected from you, too, but you were too focused on how pretty I was to process the whole merman thing."

"It's not my fault that you're so beautiful, George," Clay says, leaning down to press his lips against the boy's forehead.

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While paddling back to shore, Clay notices something a little strange in the distance. Sapnap is standing by his truck, but instead of opening the driver's door, he opens the passenger side. Clay's eyes widen in surprise when a figure that is clearly not Nick climbs into the truck. Nick closes the door behind him, walks around the car to the driver's side, and climbs in. As he starts the car, Clay thinks, maybe he really DID get a girl after all!