What is hotter? A man in or out of water.

Aiden finished weaving his fishing net out of kelp. Then he picked it up and propelled himself through the water in search of prey. He found a school of fish swimming near coral bay.

He had wandered a little too close to the human's settlement on the mainland island but was certain no one would notice him because the bay was inaccessible for humans. 

He was busy catching fish when he heard the sound of thunder. He wiped his head towards the surface, but was surprised when he saw rays of sun still filtering through the water. He cautiously swam to the surface to check it out.

He broke the surface and found a rather handsome looking human gliding the waves on a plank of wood. The human howled and smiled confidently as he rode the wave.

Aiden was mesmerized by this human. Unlike anyone before, merman or human, he had grown curious of this male human in the short hours he had watched him. He wanted to know more, to learn about this human. 

If this human had been a merman he would have tried courting him, however the fact that he was a human made Aiden hesitant. So many things could go wrong in a relationship with a human. He wanted some advice before pursuing this man.

As the sun started to set the handsome humans started paddling back towards the human beach. Aiden flicked his tail and dove underwater.

Xander wiped his head towards the loud splashing sound just in time to see a green fin shimmer and dip below the waves. 

He thought smugly to himself, maybe there is a cute mermaid spying on me, or a very big fish. He cackled out loud at his own joke.

Xander paddled the rest of the way back with a smirk on his face.

***

Aiden's thought kept on circling back to his encounter with the human as he swam home. If he was going to woo the human he would need some advice. The only mermen with that experience were the elders.

The three mermen elders had taken on the human mate Lila and brought prosperity to the disappearing pod. Human Lila had birthed a third of their pod with her three mates.

If he was to ask for advice he would have to be cautious. When the elders had taken the human Lila away, they had promised the humans they would leave the rest of them alone. They had kept their promise and reinforced it throughout the pod. 

No pursuing humans.

This was how Aiden found himself observing the human. About one quarter of him convinced himself he was doing this out of curiosity, the other three not so much.

What could he say, the human was hot. 

The human would probably have done a better job enchanting land-dwellers then even him. He could definitely enchant mermen, Aiden knew that very well.

The first few days, Aiden spent them staring at the man from a reasonable distance while he hand paddled out to sea on his surfboard. He watched his new crush ride the waves.

Then he got bored.

One could only watch someone surf for so long. Honestly what was the point of risking his scales for a crush if he wasn't going to act on it.

He approached the board, his thoughts free floating in a mix of carelessness and abandonment. Aiden swam new to the boat, enjoying the feeling of closeness to his crush.

He twisted out of sight as the man plunged his head randomly into the salty water. Just as quickly, the surfer yanked it out of the water. As Aiden watched the man shake his head in a frenzy, he couldn't help but question the meaning of such an unusual custom. Nevertheless he found it hot, the sun reflecting off the salty water drops.

So very hot…

***

Aiden turned back to sea, he dived deeper, away from his sun. The dancing sunbeams fell into the water, illuminating the merman's tail. 

He needed to wake himself up. Aiden couldn't be in a relationship with a human, even if his crush felt the same as him they would never be accepted by the pod. They would view any relationship unbeneficial to the pod, therefore traitorous.

His minuscule chance at being with a human was fading. He dove into the darkness, the water reaching a chilling temperature as Aden left the last of the sun's warmth at the surface.

He could hold himself back.

At least for a little while.

***

Aiden sort of wished he could have kept his vow. He would be outright lying if he was ever planning on keeping it.

The human, somewhere on the surface, haunted his dreams. Aiden dreamt that his crush would look at him, smiling. Those stormy blue eyes and black hair, focused only on him, lusting only for him.

Aiden woke up with a strong longing. He left his sandy bed, swimming through the small crevice between the rocks and ruby red coral. He swam towards the direction of the sky.

***

Aiden broke through the water. He was surrounded by stars, shining in the sky and reflecting in the water. The moon glowed a white-yellow grow, creating shadows from the crests of the waves. On shore far off lights shone bright yellow from the buildings.

Aiden moved towards the beach. He found a sheltered clearing hidden behind a flowering bush. He dragged himself through the scratchy sand onto the dry beach. As his tail fell away from the water his scales started to shed. After all his green scales had fallen off his lower body, two long limbs emerged.

Cautiously, Aiden touched his new long limbs. Curiously, they were warm and meaty, squishy unlike his hard scale covered tail. He sort of missed his beautiful green tail, the green like the ocean. His new human walking sticks were the same colour as his sandy brown skin.

He tried to move his unfamiliar body parts like he did his tail, squirming and twisting his lower body. They slid and shifted strangely but did not move him at all. Aiden tried recalling how his crush had stood straight up on his board of wood while surfing the waves. He finally figured out that he was supposed to bend his human sticks in a certain direction. 

Unfortunately he wasn't quite moving like the example in his memory, he pushed himself to a tall long land-plant and tried to get himself upright. It was sturdy and held his body weight as Aiden pulled himself into the same position as the human. His meat tails felt wobbly. 

When Aiden let go of the tree, he almost tumbled back to the ground. He grabbed helplessly for the trunk of the land-plant as his lower body buckled under the new weight. He steadied himself then tried taking a step. Slowly he got more comfortable at walking, wobbling around.