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Friends (G/t oneshot)

The wooden boat rocked gently as Jacob stretched out his arms and legs. He yawned and stared at the reflection of the moon across the water's slightly rippled surface. Maybe he was crazy. But he swore that he wasn't imagining things. Evenings were his only chance to sneak past his parents and figure out if he remembered that stormy night correctly. He wasn't even allowed to be out on the ocean alone after he nearly drowned. It was a miracle that he managed to survive, considering that he never learned how to swim.

Jacob reached for the box under his seat to retrieve a match so he could re-light his lantern. He was too busy scrambling through the wooden container to notice the ripple of tiny waves approaching his boat. Once he found the pack of matches, he opened the little door on the lantern that held its candle. He struck one of the matches across the matchbox and brought its flame close to the candle's wick.

As Jacob blew out the flame of the match, he heard splashing noises from behind. He slowly turned his head to meet a giant pair of large glowing yellow eyes staring back right at him. He gasped, nearly dropping his lantern.

The creature's head slowly emerged from the water, revealing an enormous humanoid face covered in shiny indigo scales. Fins protruded through his dark teal hair, perking up at the whimpering noises the human made. He watched as the tiny creature stared up at him, scooting to the other end of his boat cowering in fear.

"I-It's you again!"

The sea monster cocked his head and furrowed his brows in confusion.

"You're the one who rescued me several days ago! I knew I wasn't crazy!"

The creature's yellow eyes widened. "So you do remember me."

"I-I didn't think you could talk, heheh..." Jacob laughed nervously upon noticing the sharp teeth in the sea monster's maw as he spoke.

"And I didn't think you'd have the guts to come back here," he responded back sarcastically, now with a look of disappointment. "You barely survived, and you're back so soon? I thought you humans were smart with all the different ways you get through the water."

Jacob frowned. "Hey, I am smart! I just happened to lose one of my paddles because some fish dragged my fishing rod into the ocean, so I couldn't return quickly before the storm got worse. And I couldn't just swim all the way back!"

"'Course. Not with those tiny legs and arms. I suppose you're terrible at fishing too."

"It's not my fault that some stupid fish started dragging my boat all the way to the middle of the lake far away from the shore! How was I supposed to get back right away even if I had both paddles?

"Oh, right. Did this happen to be yours?" The sea monster brought a scaly webbed hand out of the water and dropped a long wooden stick in the human's boat.

"My oar! How did you find it?"

"Aaaand this." He dropped another long object into his boat.

Jacob immediately recognized its blue and silver coloring. "My fishing rod!" He picked it up to find that most of the fishing line was missing. "Wait a second-" he glanced back at the sea monster who now had a mischievous smirk plastered across his face.

He burst out laughing, flailing around in the water. "I will admit, it was pretty hilarious to hear you scream when I pulled you across the water," his movements created waves that caused the human's boat to gently sway.

Blood began to rush through Jacob's face. "It's not funny! I nearly died out there!" He scowled as he grabbed onto the edges of the boat to keep his balance.

"Ahh..." the sea monster sighed and brought finger to wipe a tear from his eye. "But...hey! Everything worked out, right? You're okay now!" His grin curved into a frown after noticing the human slumped down, sulking in his boat. He slowly sank back into the water and glanced down in shame. "Look, I'm sorry about messing around. I realized in the moment that I put you in danger. And I do feel even more bad now when you put it that way." He tilted his head back to look at the crescent moon, revealing gills on the sides of his neck. "So I had to do something about it."

Jacob looked back up at the sea monster. "That's why you saved me?"

The sea monster nodded. "You didn't happen to tell any other humans about me, did you?"

An expression of worry spread across Jacob's face. He did tell his dad about some mysterious creature leaving him on the shore. But the old man only laughed, telling him to not make any more excuses for getting into trouble all the time.

"Uhhh...yes? But no one believed me, I swear! People around here don't believe in sea monsters!"

"Is that what you call us? Sea monsters?" The creature's eyes saddened.

"B-but you're nothing like the stories! People just made that up to scare kids for fun-"

"Oh quit it, I'm messing with ya." The creature gently nudged the human's boat with his tail, causing him to yelp. "If I were a human, I wouldn't fancy myself either and make up silly stories about myself."

Jacob laughed at what the creature had said. He picked up the lantern and watched its flame dance inside. He didn't think he'd find himself talking to some goofy humanoid-fish giant. "Well, I won't tell anyone about you. You did save my life, so consider keeping my mouth shut as my thank you."

"Hmm..." the creature studied the human's face that was illuminated by the dim candlelight. "Rien."

"Huh?"

"Call me Rien. Not 'sea monster' or whatever uncreative names you humans come up with," he said as he raised his hand out of the water motioning two fingers. "What should I call you?"

"And why would you want to know that?"

"We're cool with each other now, right? Friends should know each other's names."

"Since when did you decide we were friends?"

"Since now?"

The human chuckled. "You can call me Jacob-ahh!"

Rien had lifted Jacob's boat out of the water and brought him closer to his enormous face. He giggled in amusement as he watched the human hold onto the boat for dear life. "So it's settled...Jacob. I apologized, and you've made a promise." He brought a finger to lightly poke the human in the chest. "That makes us even."

"How does that make us even when you're the one who caused most of the problems!?"

"You promised to not say a word about me, and I know you humans are such blabber-mouths."

Jacob rolled his eyes and shrugged. "Ehh, it's not difficult for me to do that. No one would've believed me anyways."

"Now that's what I like to hear." Rien placed the boat back in the water. "I suppose we'll meet here again tomorrow, same time?"

Jacob shakily stood back up in the boat so he could grab both of his oars. "Didn't you just mock me for coming back?"

"Well, yes. But it would be even more stupid if you didn't return to visit your new friend." The fins on the side of Rien's head drooped. "It gets lonely out here..."

Jacob looked across the ocean where the sky met the horizon. "Isn't there supposed to be more of you out there?"

Rien was silent. Jacob took that as a no. He didn't consider coming back again unless he was still trying to find out whether or not he imagined his rescue. "I suppose I could. I don't have much to do at home anyways."

Rien's eyes lit up and he swam up closer to Jacob. "Really?" He grinned, revealing pointy teeth.

"Yeah!" Jacob winced, but grinned back and nodded.

"Well, see you tomorrow!" The sea creature submerged himself back into the water, his dreads of long hair trailing behind him.

Jacob leaned over the side of the boat to see if Rien was still there. But the ocean only appeared pitch black. He let out a huge sigh and collapsed in the boat. It'd take some time to get used to Rien, being ten times bigger and a little scary, but there was something charming about his personality that made him feel more at ease.

Rien just needed a friend. Perhaps Jacob did as well.