Touch of the Ocean

She frowned a bit. "Dollars? I'm sorry...I know a bit of your words, but..."

I shrugged and smiled, "It's okay, it's not a big deal...I can help you out a bit...dollars are basically currency, or money. You know what that is?"

She nodded. "Money, like coins?"

I shrugged a bit. "Yeah, there's also bills and stuff. I'm guessing mermaids aren't exactly caught up with the times..." I replied.

She frowned a bit. "Mermaids?"

I blushed a bit. Did she not know the term we used for her? "Sorry...I hope I didn't offend you. Mermaid is the word we use to call...well...one like you...a woman of the ocean."

She giggled a bit at that, and replied, "It's okay, you didn't insult me."

"I wasn't even aware that your kind even existed..." I said, a bit dumbfounded.

"We've mainly kept to ourselves." she replied.

I shrugged. "I guess that makes sense...but if you want, I can tell you about these things."

She lit up at that statement, and held the phone to me. "What is it? What does it do?"

I accepted my dead phone, and held it in my hand. "It's my Samsung Galaxy S5. A cellphone. If it weren't underwater so long, it would probably be working, but underwater, it won't work. We use these things on land to talk to other people over a great distance."

"You can do that with that thing?" she asked in awe, laying her webbed hand on the blackened screen of the device.

I chuckled a bit, and nodded. "Yeah. They have a lot of functions, but mainly just communication. They're really expensive, and just don't like the water...I don't have a need for it anymore." I said, and handed it to her. "I don't know if you have some sort of collection, but you can have it if you want it."

She heard those words and looked at me as if I'd just given her the best gift in the world. "Really?" she asked.

I shrugged. "Well, yeah. It won't work for me ever again, so why not? You can have it."

She smiled and held it to her chest as if a dead cellphone was the best thing she'd ever been given in her life. She grabbed my hand, as if she were eager to know more and she said, "Please! Tell me more! That are these things?" she asked, as she touched my glasses.

I'd nearly forgotten that she had taken my glasses off, and had been confused when I had asked for them. I guess they were one of the many items she had been curious about. I took them off and once more, felt my vision get impaired slightly, much to my confusion. Did her kiss do more than just give me the ability of aquatic respiration? I felt my senses just tweaked. I had little trouble seeing down here (provided I still had my glasses), I could hear, the water wasn't cold...I didn't know how else to explain it really. I handed them to her, and she slowly and carefully held them. "They help me see. I'm what they call "near-sighted" which means I have trouble seeing things far away. These help me see further away."

She listened and looked at the small glasses from all angles, and even put them over her own eyes, before taking them off. "They make my vision strange..." she replied, somewhat disappointed and she placed them back on my forehead.

I chuckled as she awkwardly put them back on my face, and I straightened them out again. "Well, they're made specifically to fit my vision needs. They will disjoint any one else's vision..." I replied. "But without them, I wouldn't have learned for a while exactly...who you were." I said with a bit of a blush.

She smiled and her webbed hand grabbed my wrist as she pulled me through the water toward her makeshift rock table, and I was actually impressed. All my belongings were neatly arranged on the table, in some orderly fashion. It almost was like some archeologist find, if my things were of such value. She had all my belongings. She had even found my backpack, and emptied it of all its contents. My Headphones were neatly arranged with the cord spiraling around the earmuff design, my wallet was emptied next to my keys, with my cards, and cash neatly arranged underneath it, everything that had been in my backpack, books, my iPad (also dead), sketchpad, pencils, a few CDs, everything was just here.

"I see you found my backpack." I replied, holding up the empty black bag.

She saw what I held and nodded. "I saw it sinking in the water. and after I found it, I saw...I saw you..."

So that explained how she found me. There was a little coincidence, but I guess if she'd never found my backpack, which I had forced myself to drop, she never would have found me. I smiled and blushed a bit, because I don't know how, but I just now remembered that she was naked, and I was fully clothed. Did she even care that her breasts were exposed to me? Did she care that she was exposed? Did they even care about nudity or whatnot? Mermaid culture was just going over my head right about now, but I said nothing. It wasn't appropriate. If she was comfortable...I could be comfortable.

She picked up my watch, which was the only thing still working, as it was waterproof, and asked "What does this do?"

I held my watch, and looked at it. Dang...I had been down here a week?! At least according to the date on the watch. Well, if no one knew that I was in trouble a week ago, they knew now. "It tells time." I replied. "It's a watch. Just tells you what part of the day it is, day, afternoon, night..."

She didn't even hesitate to move to the next item which were my headphones. "And these?" she asked like an excited child on Christmas. Just eager to know what my strange items were. I put the watch in my pocket, as it still worked and I kinda liked my watch, and took the headphones in my hands. "They amplified sound, like music or other things, in order to help you hear the music or sound better. You wear them over your ears, like this..." I stretched the headphones apart, and moved to her face. She seemed a bit hesitant, or nervous, as if something I would do might hurt her, but she didn't move, as if in silent trusting. I gently placed one end of the headphones over one of her ears, which were shaped slightly different than that of a human. They were more pointed, and jagged in a way, yet soft to the touch. At my touch, she flinched just a bit, but relaxed as I set the headphones over her ears.

She closed her eyes as if she were expecting to hear something, before she opened them. "I can't hear anything."

I held up the other end. "I doubt they'd work down here, but you'd need to connect this end into a certain device or player of some sort. None of which would work underwater."

"Does anything you have work underwater?" she asked.

I gave an embarrassed chuckle. "Not a lot of the fun stuff." I replied. "You can have those too, if you want them."

She smiled, "You're too kind to be giving me such wonderful things."

I shrugged, "I just wish I could say they would work...and besides...you've been most kind and generous to me...it's the least I can do, and I wish I could do more."

She heard the words, and the look on her face seemed a little...well I couldn't read it. Like there was hidden sadness behind her eyes. She looked to me and said, "You should get some more rest..."

I frowned. "I only just got up..."

"I know, but...you should rest...you still have to recover from the shock of your accident...Once you're ready, I will return you to your world above..."

"My world? You mean you'll...you'll take me to the surface?"

She nodded and simply took my hand by the wrist as she began to pull me back to where I had always been resting. I looked to her, just unsure what I should say. I just felt like she wasn't sure what to say, or almost didn't want to say something. I didn't know, but I had to break the ice somehow! Make her feel comfortable. I didn't want her to think there was anything wrong. There wasn't, was there? "What's...what's your name?" I asked.

She looked at me. "It's Oceana." she said with a small smile.

I smiled in return. "That's...that's a beautiful name." I said. I mean yeah, it was practical. Oceana, and she lived in the ocean. Yet I just felt like her name was just divine.

"Do you have a name?" she asked, interrupting my thoughts.

I came back to my senses, and blushed. "Forgive me. My name is Travis...nothing special I know."

She smiled and continued to pull me into the area I would rest, and she lay me on the soft sand mound I had been resting on all this time. "Wait here..." she said as she lay me down. I watched her swim off and after a moment, she returned, with what looked like an old sheet, and she began to cover my body with it. I wasn't sure why. I mean I was comfortable on the sand, and not cold in this water...maybe it was just her way of showing me a small comfort of home? I didn't ask as she brought the old blanket over my chest, and floated above me, before leaning down once more, and giving that kiss on the forehead. For the first time in my life, I almost wanted to reach up and kiss her back, but I didn't. She just smiled and said, "Rest well, Travis...you're a very kind person..."

I felt my eyes getting heavy as if on her command, and I smiled at her words. "You have been kinder than I could have asked..." I said softly. I felt her webbed hand brush my forehead, and I took a long watery inhale as I felt that gentle and cool touch brush my skin...

And I wasn't sure if I was just experiencing déjà vu or something, but I could have sworn that I felt another kiss on my forehead...

...

A few days passed, and occasionally I would venture out of my room, and engage with her. She had taken a lot of interest to the items that had sunk with me, and she loved learning about each and every one of them. I wasn't even the best person to be teaching her, but I did what I could. She liked it, and as the days went by, and I felt my strength returning, I couldn't help but feel something else. Like there was something neither of us were saying to one another. I'd been with her almost two weeks, under her generous care. She'd fed me, cared for me, made sure my recovery was smooth, and I was just left in awe of this whole situation. I'd been living underwater for almost two weeks. No one could say that they have done the same thing.

And all this time, she'd just treated me like a special guest of honor. She'd been naked all the time I'd seen her, which made me jump to the conclusion that her kind did not wear clothing. But that wasn't what had been on my mind the past few days. She had told me she would take me to the surface when I was ready to leave. Truthfully, part of me was already feeling good enough to return to the surface, and perhaps Oceana knew that, because she was kinda distancing herself from me, almost painfully. At one point I had found her carefully flipping through the pages of my waterlogged, and ruined sketchpad. I'm honestly surprised some of the drawings survived. But she seemed to treasure the book, which I said I'd give to her, whether or not I returned. It wasn't like I'd be able to use that sketchpad again, and I wasn't the best artist anyway. I'd given her a majority of my belongings. Though with each thing I gave her, the more she seemed to be pained. I asked her one day why she seemed to be feeling like that, and I got no answer. It was as if she didn't want to speak about it for fear or crying or something...if that was possible for her underwater...

I felt her one day as I rested, and she woke me. I saw her tugging on my clothing, in curiosity. I had nearly forgotten that during my entire stay here, I'd not removed one article of clothing. I'd not really felt uncomfortable or anything to feel the need to undress. When I saw her tugging on my blue plaid jacket, I'd been reminded that, she might not be familiar with clothing. I saw her, and she saw me, and kinda blushed. I smiled a bit when I saw her blush, because I had to admit, she looked cute. She didn't answer for a moment before she said, "I...I'm curious to why you wear these...garments." she said.. "What's it like?"

I wasn't sure I knew how to answer a question like that. I mean, I wore clothes to clothe myself. Human beings were not pretty things to look at. Did she not know that? "Multiple reasons really...warmth, fashion, and just to hide our...well...hide our skin."

She frowned in confusion. "Hide your skin? Why would you do that?"

I blushed. "Well...we don't exactly look at ourselves in favor...in such ways..." I honestly didn't know how to answer that. I didn't just wanna straight up tell her, that it was inappropriate in our eyes to view each other naked publicly. I didn't want to just straight up tell her we didn't like looking at other people's manhoods, or that women didn't always feel comfortable showing their breasts off. What if she got uncomfortable? She was always swimming naked around me, and she wasn't uncomfortable by it. I don't think she was even trying to show off or anything. She was just in a natural state. I didn't want her to think that it was something wrong or anything.

She craned her head in confusion as she floated closer, just looking at the clothes I wore. After swimming around me, examining the strange garments, she asked, "May I see what it's like to wear them?"

I frowned. "You mean you want to try on...my clothes?"

She looked at me. "Is...is that okay?"

I thought for a moment, but not because I thought it a bad idea, I just wasn't sure about certain things I guess. She was just curious, so I guess there wouldn't be any harm. I said, "Sure, do you need help getting into this thing?" I asked chuckling as I took off my blue plaid shirt, exposing my grey hoodie that I wore beneath it. The jacket I slipped off floated in the water as I held it out with both hands. I nodded, beckoning her to come closer, and she gracefully came over, unsure what to do. As best as I could, I draped the jacket around her shoulders, and with hesitation, guided her arms through one sleeve, then the other.

She looked at herself in it, even floated in circles as she looked at it. "It looks nice...but feels so rough on the inside..." she said, moving her arms.

I chuckled a bit as she said so, and I replied, "It might just be my size. It's a little big on you, but it might also have to do with the water...but...yeah..." I had just realized that she was very close to me. She didn't notice me seeing this and she just kinda continued to admire herself in the jacket, before looking at my pants. "I wonder what it would be like to wear those."

I was shaken from my trance in that moment and I just kinda replied, "Well...I don't think they'd fit you." I meant that in a joking manner. I mean, I had two limbs that fit into each small legging, while she had one giant limb she controlled, which looked so beautiful, I wouldn't even dare think of covering it up.

Oceana giggled and even felt the black jeans which I wore. Oh man, was I glad she didn't see my blush right there. After a moment, she came back up, and smiled. "Travis...I've never had such an experience with surface items before..."

"Well...that makes two of us in a way," I replied. "I've never had an experience with anyone like you before..." I replied.

She placed her webbed hands on my shoulders, and pushed herself up and kissed my forehead. I smiled and I finally asked, "Why do you do that so often?"

She smiled and, blushed before saying, "It's just a small greeting we do. It's a way of saying good fortune, good health among a few other things..."

I was curious as to what exactly she meant by "a few other things", but I smiled and said, "I...can I be honest?"

She looked to me confused, and said, "What? What about?"

Honestly, I was unsure how I wanted to approach this, because I was still a bit uncertain of some thoughts. I was just beyond grateful for her taking care of me, making sure I didn't die that night, keeping me healthy, fed, just all around great. The experience down here had been beyond amazing. It was like the surface world didn't even exist. There was no noise, no commotion, no anything. For a long time, it had just been...me and her. Me and Oceana.

"Every time you've kissed me..." I said, softly. "Well...every time...I've just loved it, and...well..."

She heard my words, and that look came back to her face. That familiar look. No, I didn't want her to say it. Not now. Not when I was feeling ready to speak a bit to her about what I was thinking. It was like she could see through me though. "You should get some rest, Travis..." she said softly, taking off my jacket and turning away.

She let the jacket go, and I didn't even bother picking it up as I made an awkward move to keep her from going away. "Oceana, please! I really want to speak to-"

"Tomorrow," she said, "I'll take you to the surface. You are ready to go home."

"What?" You're going to take me...home?"

Oceana just turned and looked to me before she said, "Please get some rest..." before she just darted out of the cave, leaving behind a swirl of tiny bubbles in the room. I immediately felt my self try and run after her, as if I were still on land. It was awkward, and I was clumsily slow. I looked around, calling her, begging to wait. I checked every area of the cavern, until I found myself at the very entrance of the cavern. I looked around, but she had vanished. The water outside was still pretty dark, but I could make out the surface light up above. I didn't know how far up above it actually was, but I could tell just how deep it looked like. It was strange. I hadn't seen the surface world for so long, and for the longest time, I hadn't even been aware of this underwater world for so long. Heck, I was no biology expert, but I knew that everything we knew kinda pointed away from the existence of mermaids. It just didn't seem logically possible. None of this did. My ability to breathe, the fact that I wasn't freezing in this water, to just...Oceana herself. She was like an angel to me the first time I saw her. For all I knew, she really was one. She seemed very sensitive, and delicate in nature, and not only was that just beautiful, but I just wanted to hold her and protect that delicate nature.

I called after her, but she was gone. I gave a watery sigh, as I felt myself just sink to the sand bed. This wasn't what I wanted to happen at all. I wanted to talk with her because...well... I knew it was crazy thoughts, and knew she probably saw that it was crazy too, but I wanted to at least tell her how I felt...she'd saved me! That meant something! I wanted to show her that! I'd been gone from land for almost two weeks! How exactly was I supposed to resume life? Everyone thought I was dead! There wasn't anything I could do now, I just slowly "walked" back into the cavern, slowly, my boots kicking up small clouds of sand with each step. I walked back, and picked up my jacket, and put it back on. I had a mind to give it to Oceana as much as I did so many of my other things, but I just didn't think anything was enough for how she'd cared for me and made me feel overall. I wanted to give her more...I couldn't say anything now, so I just slowly made my way to that same room where she'd always taken me, and sank to the mound on the sand, and drifted to a deep sleep...

...

The sleep didn't last however, because it wasn't long that I felt myself being pulled through the water. I'd not felt that before. I'd felt her rubbing me, kissing me, taking care of me, but never quite this. I opened my eyes, and was surprised to see that we weren't in that cave, but we were in open ocean, going through a forest of what appeared to be kelp, and she was pulling me through the water by one hand. I woke myself immediately. I knew what was going on, and I didn't want it to happen.

"Oceana!" I said, surprising her. I had surprised her so much, that she had actually stopped swimming, and looked to me.