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Lando loves spending his time people watching.
Swimming near the coast so he can watch them while still being in safe distance. It’s fascinating really, how different but also similar they are to merpeople.
He’s never met a human, nobody of his generation has. But of course they get told stories about what humans are like by their parents or in school. How the humans had tried to exploit the merpeople in the past. Trying to capture them so that they could examine them or use them as some kind of attraction, like they do with other creatures from the ocean. It really is a horrible thought and Lando wouldn’t want to end up captured.
He still can’t help wanting to know more about humans though. His friends don’t understand, focusing on life in the ocean instead, but Lando can’t stop his curiosity. Taking trips to the shore to watch the humans from afar. Trying to learn more about them. Which is quite difficult from such a distance.
This doesn’t stop him from coming though. He’s still content just watching them walk along the cliffs and sit around on the beach.
To Lando, they appear friendly. Not like they’d take advantage of him. Which doesn’t mean he’d risk his life to meet them, but still.
Lately, Lando has especially loved coming to this particular spot opposite the huge cliffs. Now also going every day instead of only a few times a week. It’s just - the people to watch have turned more good looking than ever. Or well, there’s one guy specifically that has appeared a few days ago, and he’s just sexy.
It’s pretty normal that the humans he gets to watch change constantly, most only being visible for a week or two before Lando never sees them again.
Humans seem to be more mobile than merpeople – who spend most of their lives in one place because their habitats are so far from each other – which kind of makes sense, with all the weird things Lando has seen humans go from A to B in. Things that go over the earth, but faster than humans can, things that go over the water, and even some weird things that go into the air, you name it, humans seem to have it.
Lando’s current human of interest is always walking to the edge of the cliff, sitting down there, sometimes looking at something in his hands, but mostly staring out at the ocean. Lando likes to imagine the man is looking back at him, even though he knows that isn’t possible.
Still, the thought alone makes Lando like watching him even more. Taking in his blonde hair, the bright smile, the defined body covered by clothing that Lando would consider fashionable - although it has to be said that he isn’t an expert in human fashion.
Lando wishes he could get closer, find out if his eyes are blue, like he imagines them to be, and listen to his voice. But he doesn’t dare to. If he’d go any closer, he’d cross the border that hides him from the human eye. And as nice as the human looks, that maybe isn’t the best idea.
Instead, he stays watching the man take out something out of a bag, like he nearly always does, this time however, he doesn’t seem happy looking at it. Instead, Lando would guess there are tears on his face. Not that he could tell from this distance, especially not with the dark clouds in the sky, but he feels like there are tears. Sadness there is most definitely.
Lando gets so lost in the image in front of him, of the man sitting on the cliff, his mind zooming in on him and filling in details he would never be able to tell from this distance, that it takes him slightly aback when the man suddenly stands up. Has he been watching him for so long already?
The next moment however is unmissable, as something out of the ordinary happens. The man doesn’t just walk away, but instead stands there for a moment, before lifting his arm in a throwing motion, clutching the mysterious something in his hand, and then throwing it away before leaving at last.
And look, Lando’s always promised everybody and himself that he’d never cross the border. But when the item splashes into the water and Lando watches it sink down, he can’t stop himself, moving in its direction with quick strides. It’s the first real thing from the human world he sees, not some trash that flows into their area and he has to clean up with the other students, but something with a real story that Lando can connect to it.
The swim over to the bottom of the cliff is longer than he thought it would be, but when Lando reaches the thing the man threw away, it appears to be worth it for a moment. However, he doesn’t dare examine it closer yet. Suddenly realizing that this is freaking dangerous. Quickly swimming back behind the border to his usual spot. Then checking that there luckily seems to be no one standing on the cliff who could’ve seen him, before taking a closer look at what he got there.
He wanted to be excited about it, wanted his incredibly stupid risk to be worth it. In the end, it isn’t. Or it doesn’t appear to be.
What he’s holding, Lando thinks it’s something humans write on, judging by the last bits of washed-out letters on the white lump of something.
Whatever it is that humans write on, if his theory is even right, it clearly wasn’t made for spending time in the water. Lando tries to take it apart, get at least some interesting information out of this, something that makes taking that risk worth it, but he can’t.
The whatever dissolving to tiny bits in his hands.
If only he’d swam faster or looked at it sooner, he thinks to himself. But then again, if only he’d not put himself in danger, he wouldn’t be disappointed right now.
Maybe humans and merpeople really shouldn’t get closer to each other.
(Which doesn’t mean he’ll stop people watching.)
(But he’ll not swim to the next thing a human throws into the waves.)
(If his body doesn’t react before his brain has time to think at least.)
.
Pierre has gotten to the small but touristic town a few days ago, planning to spend his summer here to add some practical experience to his tourism studies. He’d discovered the spot at the edge of the cliffs right on his first day. Immediately falling in love with the calm atmosphere and stunning view.
So far, he’s taken a walk here every day of his stay. Sitting for a moment - his gaze fixed on a random spot in the distance, just above the light waves - or reading Charles’ letters. Leaving his boyfriend back home has arguably been the hardest part of this so far, the work on the other hand is really great, even better than he’d imagined.
Maybe he feels a bit lonely from time to time, but he has Charles’ letter for that. They’re always bringing a smile to his face.
At least it was that way. Now, it appears like the letters are quite the contrary. Rather the thing that is destroying everything. To be precise: the newest letter, which arrived today, is the destroying force.
Pierre tries the words that have been said, but he truly can’t wrap his head around it.
Is his boyfriend seriously breaking up with him? Over a letter? What is this! He’s not even been away for a week and Charles is already throwing everything away. Has he even ever truly cared for Pierre, or was he only with him because it was convenient?
By the time Pierre manages to tear his gaze away from the letters, big tears are rolling down his cheeks. The dark clouds overhead matching his truly horrible mood.
On an impulsive he stands up and throws the newest letter, tied into one small package with all the other letters, into the ocean.
If Charles can throw Pierre away so easily, Pierre can do the same to Charles.
(At least symbolically.)
He deserves better than that!
(Pierre tries to convince himself of that.)