Dan and Phil were walking next to each other with their hands occasionally brushing against the others, with Chris dawdling behind the pair dragging his feet through the sand.
"Why didn't you use your powers to dry yourself?" Dan asked in a hushed tone as they walked. Phil's hand brushed against his and Dan willed to entwine their fingers. Phil clearly had the same idea as he looped his pinkie to dans and gave it a little squeeze.
"To protect the secret" he said.
"But Chris definitely knows you're a merman" Dan said, slightly confused at what Phil meant.
"But he didn't know we had powers, if he did he would have probably put two and two together and figured your one too" he explained.
"You're a genius" Dan said smiling. Phil was amazing. Dan admitted it. He put Dan first in probably a stressful situation for himself and that fact made dans heart flutter in his chest. Dan was so thankful of Phil and didn't know how he could repay him.
Dan stopped walking, Phil following suit. Dan looked at him and smiled before wrapping his arms around Phil's body and holding him tight against him. His heart was beating in his chest and his stomach was doing backflips. He was filled inside out with tingles. Never would he have guessed that Phil would have such a large effect on him. Phil's arms wrapped around dans body equally as tight and Dan felt Phil rest his head in the crook of his neck. Dan swore he felt Phil smell him, but he brushed it off and spoke.
"Thank you" he said. His mouth was dry and his heart was beating loudly. He was almost certain Phil could hear his heart 'thump thumping' in his chest.
Phil loosened his grip from dans waist after a few seconds, however not letting go of the brunette's body completely. His arms snaked the way up to dans neck his fingers tangled around dans hair and their eyes met. Blue on brown electricity was flying the two looked at each other with their emotions on their sleeves.
Dan swore he saw Phil's head tilt to the side a tiny bit before he started to lean in. Dan closed his eyes and Phil followed suit a second later. Their faces grew closer by the second until their foreheads were touching, the space between them was not even three inches and Dan's heart was jumping out of his chest.
"Your welcome"Phil said breathily as he leant forwards a bit to try to connect their li-
"AAHH!" Chris cried behind them the two boys jolted forwards banging their heads against each other's fairly hard. Dan raised his hand to rub his forehead, Phil mirroring his actions.
"Ow" he spoke quietly.
Dan looked at Chris and his eyes widened.
The boy was on the flood doubled over in pain. He was clutching his foot in his hands. Dan rushed over to him instructing Phil to go and get the first aid kit as he walked.
Dan got a closer look at the injury, it looked deep. Dan looked at Chris' face it was all scrunched in pain. The wound had sand in it and was clearly causing Chris a lot of pain.
Dan panicked, what could he do.
He suddenly got an idea.
"Be right back" he told Chris as he ran the short distance to the shore line. He outstretched his hands and froze a bit of the water, as the wave retreated the frozen bit of water remained stationary and Dan removed his shirt and wrapped his shirt around the ice.
He bought it up to Chris and placed it onto the wound. He winced at the sudden coldness on the wound.
Phil returned seconds later with the first aid kit in his clasp.
The boys quickly cleaned out the wound, with lots of foul language from Chris' part. And in no time the wound was dressed with a bandage. Dan and Phil helped Chris to walk back to the boat before giving him a leg up onto Dan's speed boat.
"That was eventful" Phil said chuckling at Dan as he was about to hop onto the boat.
"Come on" Dan said gesturing to the boat.
"I was thinking of swimming back" Phil explained. Dan nodded as he watched Phil dive into the water swooning slightly as he resurfaced next to the boat and Dan could see his bare chest.
"Be careful" Dan instructed before Phil rolled his eyes and submerged himself under the water.
***
Dan and Chris had been moving steadily for a good ten minutes until the boats motor started to splutter and gargle.
"That doesn't sound right" Chris said as he sat up from his previous position on lying on top of their camping gear.
Dan frowned and pulled the cord on the motor a few times in attempt to restart the boat. No such luck. Dan looked at the gages on the side, they were at 25 m deep. Too deep for his anchor to go, and they were around ten minutes away from being able to see land.
They were stuck.
"Shit" Dan swore. "We're out of fuel" he sighed curing at past Dan for not filling up the fuel.
"We can always paddle" Chris said
No Dan thought paddling wouldn't work. The last thing they wanted was for Dan to grow a fucking tail that would just be more weight to pull.
Dan had an idea, but not one he wanted to do. But he was out of options. People would yell at him if they found out he had gone to Mermaid Island, the only way to brush it off would be to get back safely.
"Sorry Chris" Dan said before removing his t-shirt and diving into the water with minimal splash.
Chris panicked. Dan wasn't going to leave him in the middle of the ocean on his own?!
Dan resurfaced shortly after.
"What are you doing?!" Chris yelled are you mad? He thought.
"I'm sorry" he said once more
"What for. Dan what are you going to do you cunt"Chris cursed.
Dan swished his tail and forced his body out of the water in a leap ensuring Chris could see his orange-brown tail clearly.
"For lying" he said as he propelled his body through the air.
"I knew it" Chris smirked laughing.
"This is so cool" he said. Dan blushed and grabbed onto the sides of the boat looking up at his best friend.
"What are you waiting for? Push!" he laughed before Dan submerged his head under the water and gave his tail and fast flick propelling the boat through the water once more.
