#the gentle touch and martyn’s reaction has me WEAK

[elleberquist6]

Play Upon Me Like This Piano - chapter twenty-eight

Summary: In many ways, Phil’s life is perfect: he loves his life in London, he has a wonderful brother and parents, and he has a great job as a radio DJ for BBC Radio One. There’s only one thing missing in his life… A rumor reaches an executive at the BBC about a talented local piano player named Daniel. The executive decides that Daniel would be the perfect guest on Phil’s radio show, so she sends Phil to speak with the evasive and mysterious piano player.

When they finally meet, Phil starts to think that he has found the person who will make his life complete. Unfortunately, Dan has a secret that will make getting close to him difficult.

Rating: Mature

Word Count: 1955

Warnings: Smut

—

Siren fact: By the 1800s, hoaxers churned out faked mermaids by the dozen to satisfy the public's interest in the creatures. The great showman P.T. Barnum displayed the "Feejee Mermaid" in the 1840s and it became one of his most popular attractions. Those paying 50 cents hoping to see a long-limbed, fish-tailed beauty comb her hair were surely disappointed; instead they saw a grotesque fake corpse… To modern eyes it was an obvious fake, but it fooled and intrigued many at the time. Some researchers believe that sightings of human-size ocean animals such as manatees and dugongs might have inspired merfolk legends. These animals have a flat, mermaid-like tail and two flippers that resemble stubby arms.

They don't look exactly like a typical mermaid or merman, of course, but many sightings were from quite a distance away, and being mostly submerged in water and waves only parts of their bodies were visible… When you add in the factor of low light at sunset and the distances involved, positively identifying even a known creature can be very difficult. A glimpse of a head, arm, or tail just before it dives under the waves might have spawned some mermaid reports. [https://www.livescience.com/39882-mermaid.html/]

“Do you hear that?”

“Mmmh?” Phil groaned and opened his eyes a fraction of an inch. He was sitting in a slumped position on the sofa, with Dan sleeping cuddled against his chest. When they had both been too exhausted to be stiff with terror anymore, Phil had pulled Dan close and they had both fallen asleep. As Phil looked around, he noticed that Dan was still asleep, but Martyn was getting up from the floor and staring at the stairs. Phil asked, “What did you say?

“I hear something,” Martyn said, and then he ran up the stairs and out the door.

Phil blinked in the light that streamed down from the open door – it looked like a sunny day outside. He listened for whatever sound had alarmed his brother but heard nothing except for the soft swishing of waves. It sounded peaceful outside… Phil gasped and sat up a bit, jostling Dan who startled awake.

Dan looked around wildly before his eyes settled on Phil’s face. He asked, “What’s happening?”

“Um, I think that the storm is over. Martyn is up on the deck now… I think we’re okay!”

Dan tilted his head. “I hear something… Do you hear that?”

Phil started to shake his head because there was no thunder crashing, no pounding rain, and the sea sounded calm. But then he heard it: in the distance, Martyn was talking to someone. It was hard to make out what he was saying, but Martyn sounded excited.

“It must be someone from the Lifeboat Station,” Dan said with a smile, which then quickly faded. “Phil… how am I going to explain to them that I’m here? I was in the Lifeboat Station yesterday, but now I’m here being rescued. This is a disaster…”

“I’m sure it’s going to be okay. It will all be fine! They probably won’t even notice,” Phil said as he put a hand on Dan’s shoulder, but Dan stiffened under his touch.

Dan sucked in a sharp breath like he was trying to calm himself. He snapped, “Look, Phil, I know you’re trying to be nice, but stop! You can’t just say things like that!”

Phil removed his hand from Dan’s shoulder. “Are you angry with me?”

Dan sighed and shook his head. “No, of course not. It’s just that you don’t understand. Phil, this is my biggest secret, one that I have been protecting for my whole life. I’ve lived in fear of people discovering what I am for 27 years. And now you tell me that this risk is nothing? That it will all be fine? It sounds like you’re not taking this seriously.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry.” Phil bit his bottom lip as he thought. “Maybe you can jump off the side of the boat and swim to shore. Are you strong enough to do that?”

Dan opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment Martyn was bounding excitedly down the steps with a grin on his face. He was carrying two water bottles, which he ran over to give Dan and Phil on the sofa. He said, “Here, drink! We’ve got plenty of water now.”

As they both eagerly twisted the caps off the water bottles and took deep swallows, Martyn shifted in place before them, eager to share the news. Once they had both finished drinking, he blurted, “There’s a rescue boat here to save us! Since our boat is still operational, we are going to follow them as they lead us back to shore. We’ll be back on land within the hour.”

Dan swallowed heavily and asked, “Is the rescue boat from the Lifeboat Station?”

Martyn’s grin widened and he nodded. He didn’t notice the alarm on Dan’s face and he said, “Yeah, the guys from the Lifeboat Station were looking for us, just like you said. Thanks, Dan.”

Then Martyn started to pace the room like an excited caged tiger as he stared at the stairs like he was waiting for something to happen. Dan was staring at the door intently at the stairs too, maybe expecting one of the men from the Lifeboat Station to come through the door at the top of the steps.

Phil tapped Dan’s arm to get his attention. Then he mouthed the words, “Should you go?”

Dan nodded, though he didn’t look very sure of the prospect. Phil had hoped that since the storm passed that swimming would be easier, but Dan just looked like he would rather drown attempting to swim in this exhausted state than face the men of the Lifeboat Station and their questions. And suddenly Phil was terrified for him, as he was starting to understand what this secret meant to Dan.

Just as Dan looked like he had decided what to do and was bracing himself on the arm of the sofa to get up – not that Phil was going to let him leap off the boat if he was too weak to swim – there was the roar of a motor and the floor lurched beneath their feet. Phil gasped in surprise and said, “We’re moving! Mar, what’s going on?”

Martyn looked at them and smirked at the alarm on their faces. “Relax, one of the guys from the rescue boat is sailing us. I told you, we’ll be at the marina in less than an hour.”

Having no other choice, Dan settled down and took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself. Phil put a hand on his arm, but Dan didn’t appear to notice or be comforted by it. Now that he couldn’t jump unnoticed from the boat, he just looked trapped and miserable.            

By the time they arrived in the marina, Martyn had also noticed Dan’s distress – his tense shoulders, wild eyes, and the way he gripped the water bottle so tight in his hand that the plastic crunched – and he was looking at Dan curiously. Just as Martyn opened his mouth and looked like he was going to ask what was wrong, they heard the motor shut off and the familiar sounds of the marina were suddenly audible. The three of them became very still, straining to hear familiar voices in the nearby chatter of people who sounded like they were gathered on the dock, awaiting their arrival.

“Cornelia?” Martyn gasped, and he ran up the stairs to see if he could find her.

Phil was eager to see Corn and Mum too, but right now he was more concerned about the person sitting rigidly at his side, and he turned to Dan with a reassuring smile. He was ready with the typical phrases “it will be fine” and “it’s all going to be okay” on the tip of his tongue but he remembered Dan’s reaction before. He decided on something more serious, saying, “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

Dan’s mahogany eyes shimmered and he swallowed heavily. “I, um… I’m not just nervous of seeing the guys from the Lifeboat Station – and fuck, but I am really freaked out at the thought of that. But, um, the other thing is that after being in the sea, it hurts people like me to walk on land for a bit. It’s like a pins-and-needles sensation in the legs, but really painful. I’m probably going to cry, which is a bad thing for another reason…”

“You’re going to be in pain? For how long?” Phil’s mind was reeling. He still didn’t understand what Dan was, but he hated the thought of him being hurt.

“Dunno, about an hour maybe? I don’t do things like this a lot, so I don’t know…” Dan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He looked like he had settled his mind on something when he reopened his eyes. “Well, it’s not like I can spend the rest of my life on this boat, so I guess I should get this over with.” Dan laughed at his own words, but the sound was hollow. As he got up, he picked up the blue blanket and wrapped it around his shoulders.

Phil also stood up and he opened his mouth to mock Dan for wearing the blanket like a superhero’s cape, but his teasing died in his throat as he saw the way that Dan clutched at the blanket, looking like a scared child who wanted to hide beneath it. He put a gentle hand on Dan’s arm and said, “Come on, it will be alright.”

Phil led Dan by the arm up the steps and then across the deck. They both froze at the sight of the marina as numerous curious eyes fixed on their faces – apparently it was not every day that a boat was lost during a storm and retrieved by the rescue services, and this was enough of a sensation to cause a crowd to gather to witness their return. There were curious locals, looky-loo tourists, a harried looking cop who was trying to keep the crowd back, two ambulances with lights flashing atop them, and several reporters who were holding cameras and eyeing them like hungry vultures.

At the sight, Dan whined, “Phil.”

“I know. But we’re almost out of here. And then we can go back to the hotel.” Phil scanned the crowd for familiar faces, and he saw his brother near one of the ambulances. He was having his pulse taken by an EMT. It looked like one of the men from the Lifeboat Station was trying to ask him questions, but Martyn was too distracted by Cornelia, who was at his side, to pay much attention to anything else. Phil tightened his grip on Dan’s arm and said, “There’s Mar. Let’s go.”

Dan followed him as they climbed off the boat, but he gasped the second his feet touched the dock and his legs buckled beneath him. “Oh… fuck,” Dan whimpered and pulled the blanket up over his head, covering his face from all but Phil’s view. “I can’t…”

“Dan, what is it?” Phil crouched before him, aware that an EMT had spotted Dan’s distress and was pushing through the crowd to get to them. Phil hadn’t forgotten what Dan had said about the painful sensation he would feel when attempting to walk on land, and now he was panicked at the idea that someone might try to drag Dan to a hospital, seeing him like this. “Is there anything I can do?”

Dan whispered, “Don’t let anyone see my face.”

“Why? Oh…”