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“Oh, come on. Really?” Rayleigh grumbles. “Why am I the only one who’s not assigned to a mermaid?”
Dr Crocus eyes him critically. “The fact that you would even ask that question is the reason.”
Rayleigh crosses his arms and leans back against the lab table, glaring at the whiteboard. All of the names of the research assistants are listed in a column, and next to them are listed the identification numbers of wild mer-people that the lab has tagged. Rayleigh is the only one who’s been tasked with collecting data about a male; everyone else has been assigned to females. Even the other guys who work in the lab.
“Not fair,” he grumps as he starts collecting the various parts of his field kit. Notebook, pencil, tape measure, various rulers, Petri dishes, swabs. He throws it all in a backpack.
“Mermen are relatively under-studied,” Dr Crocus points out. “Probably because they’re not fetishized in the same way the females are. There’s a lot of potential for doctoral research. Untrodden ground and all that. Really, I’m doing you a favor.”
Rayleigh gives him a side-eye. Favor, his ass. Dr Crocus just thinks he can’t keep it in his pants. So what if he’s dated three of the other research assistants? That’s irrelevant.
Rayleigh tosses the backpack over his shoulder, grabs a GPS, and casts Dr Crocus a final glare as he exits the lab.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rayleigh drives down to the coast. All of the lab’s studies happen in this area, and all of the mer-people they track were first tagged here. It’s always a crapshoot, though, when it comes to finding them a second time—there’s no way to predict when a mermaid will be on the shore versus in the middle of the ocean. As far as Rayleigh can tell, they don’t keep any kind of regular schedule. He doesn’t have high hopes that he’ll find his assigned merman today. It’ll probably take weeks. But, it’s worth a shot.
He parks in a windswept lot near a crummy beach. Like the responsible guy that he is, he slathers himself in the sunscreen he keeps in the cupholder of his car and throws a straw hat on. The price of being born a pale bastard. Grabbing his backpack and water bottle, he locks the car and begins hiking out onto the rocky coastline, GPS in hand.
The GPS is tracking every mer-person in the lab’s database, so Rayleigh has to find the ID number of his merman in the log and isolate it. When he clears the map of all other tags, he’s shocked to discover that—oh shit. His merman is on the coast right now! Suddenly, he’s a lot less pissed about being assigned a male—while the other research assistants languish for months waiting to make contact with their mermaids, he’s gonna have all his data and his report written in one week. With a pep in his step, he begins following the signal.
He hikes for about thirty minutes along the coast. He knows this area—the signal is taking him northward to a little cluster of protected coves that he’s been to once or twice before. It’s an ideal merman hangout spot. Quiet, safe, free from nosy humans. Well, except Rayleigh.
He has to scramble over a steep ridge to get to the coves—the ridge that usually keeps humans out—and down the precarious drop-off on the other side. The rock is slick with ocean spray and he almost slips and breaks his neck more than once. He’s grateful he decided to throw on his boots this morning instead of his sandals; it really seems like the stars are aligning for him today. He makes it down the cliff and finds himself at sea level with round cove basins spreading out before him like an egg carton. The merman should be here somewhere in one of them—which one?
This close to the tag, the GPS is sort of useless, so Rayleigh pockets it and starts strolling around, scanning the area for any sign of life. He wanders past a few sheltered pools, but doesn’t see anything.
When he rounds the corner of a rock formation and finds himself in front of another cove, though, he stops short. Wow. Okay.
It’s the merman.
He’s lounging against a rocky ledge on the far side of the cove, head pillowed on his arms, tail swishing gently in the turquoise water. Probably napping. Rayleigh is surprised by the merman’s appearance. To be honest, he was expecting King Triton from The Little Mermaid—but this merman looks young and handsome. He has warm brown skin and shaggy black hair, and he’s quite beefy. Maybe it’s for the best that Dr Crocus assigned Rayleigh to this guy—if he’d sent one of the girls, there might be problems….
Feeling equal parts trepidation and excitement, Rayleigh makes his way to the rim of the pool and sets his bag down near the water’s edge. He kicks off his boots, tosses his hat aside, rolls up his jeans, and sits down with his feet dangling in the water. Non-threatening. He doesn’t want to spook the merman or make him think he’s trying to, like, fight him for his territory or anything like that. But he does need the guy to be awake. To get his attention, Rayleigh kicks at the water a few times, sending up big crashing waves that echo loud in the quiet and protected cove.
It does the trick. The merman rouses with a jolt, and then yawns and stretches. He twists around and catches sight of Rayleigh, and his eyes pop. He freezes for a moment.
Is he afraid? Has he seen many humans, or is Rayleigh one of the first? Rayleigh holds his breath, half-expecting the merman to flee back out into the ocean.
But then the merman grins, wide and excited, and dives into the water and begins swimming over to Rayleigh. Oh. Not afraid, then.
He bursts out of the water right in front of Rayleigh and shakes out his hair like a dog. Rayleigh splutters as he’s immediately drenched by the deluge.
“Wow! A human!” the merman exclaims.
“Wow, a merman,” Rayleigh snarks back.
“Hehe, that’s right!” The merman grins. “I’m Roger! What’s your name?”
Gosh, he’s friendly.
“I’m Rayleigh.”
The merman’s smile is almost blinding, it’s so bright. He’s even more handsome up close—he has big lavender-colored eyes framed in thick black lashes, a big Roman nose, and beautifully-sculpted lips. Are all mermen this good-looking? Rayleigh has never seen a guy so beautiful.
“Whaddya doing here, Rayleigh? I never see humans around here. You’re not lost, are you?”
“I’m a marine biologist specializing in humanoid species. Or, well, I will be. Once I finish my degree,” Rayleigh explains. “I’m here to, uh.”
He cuts himself off. Suddenly feels very awkward.
Roger tilts his head in confusion. “Here to what?”
His eyes are so innocent. Christ, this is….
“I’m supposed to examine you. My boss said so,” Rayleigh admits sheepishly. It feels weird and degrading to say it to Roger’s face when Roger is obviously fully sentient. He’s not an animal in a zoo.
“Examine me?” Roger tilts his head even more. It’s not unlike a confused puppy. Then he grins. He backs up a little and puffs his chest and flexes his biceps, posing like a proud bodybuilder. “Okay! Examine all you want!”
Rayleigh laughs. This is not at all what he expected this merman to be like. He’s pleasantly surprised. He was expecting a reclusive, snappy creature, but Roger seems like he loves attention.
“No, I mean—I’m supposed to do a full scientific examination of you,” Rayleigh explains. “I’m supposed to, like… measure all your parts and stuff.”
“My parts?” Roger glances down at his groin, which is still submerged under the water.
“Not that part!” Rayleigh cries. “I’m just—we’re just researching the biology of mer-people. To see how you guys are different from humans.”
“Oh, I see!” Roger grins. “Well, okay then! You can measure me if you want!”
Rayleigh is surprised by his easy acquiescence. Is it a mer-person thing to be this easygoing? He can’t think of a single human who would respond well to being asked to submit to having their parts measured. The stars are really aligning for Rayleigh today.
He drags his backpack closer and fishes out his measuring tape and notebook.
“Alright then, I’ll just take some measurements and write down some observations. If you want me to stop, or if you don’t want me to touch a certain part of you, just say so. I’ll only do as much as you’re comfortable with. Sound good?”
Roger nods eagerly.
Rayleigh begins with Roger’s head. It’s the most polite place to start, he thinks. He urges Roger to come closer, and Roger obeys right away. He nestles himself between Rayleigh’s spread legs and plants his hands on the rock, keeping his entire torso above water and offering it for Rayleigh to poke and inspect. Rayleigh reaches out for a lock of Roger’s wet hair. To the touch, it feels like normal human hair. He lets it cascade over his palm as he rubs the inky waves with his thumb; it’s smooth and thick.
“Whaddya think?” Roger asks.
“Pretty similar,” Rayleigh shrugs. “How long does it grow?”
“Hmm, I dunno! I’ve always kept it this length. But I know other mermen who have super long hair! Down to their butts!”
Rayleigh hums and writes that down in his notebook.
“My face next, right?” Roger chirps, tilting his head towards Rayleigh.
“You’re very agreeable to all this,” Rayleigh chuckles.
“Well, I’m curious about you, too,” Roger says. “I’m doing my own inspecting now that I’m this close to you. Like now I’m noticing that you’ve got freckles.”
“Maybe you should consider a career as a biologist.”
After taking measurements of Roger’s skull, Rayleigh cups his face with both hands and strokes his thumbs across Roger’s cheeks to feel the texture of his skin. He does it delicately; Roger’s beauty is making him want to be gentle, to touch him the way you would touch an Ancient Greek statue. His skin is smooth, a little more slippery than a human’s. His pores are almost invisible, they’re so small; it’s probably to keep out debris floating in the water. Rayleigh takes some notes, and then returns to touching him. He brushes his fingers over Roger’s thick eyebrows and hums.
“You really have a lot of hair. More than me, even.”
“I wanna grow a mustache,” Roger muses. “Right now, I shave it. But I kinda wanna let it go wild! Do you think it would look good?”
“Yes,” Rayleigh says immediately. It would absolutely look good. “But you’re so handsome, I think you could make anything look good.”
Roger grins and bites his bottom lip, blushing a little. “Heh, really? You think I’m handsome?”
In his peripheral vision, Rayleigh can see Roger’s tail swishing wildly in the water. Joyously. He smirks.
“Definitely. Look at you. I’m not blind.”
Roger grins even bigger. Rayleigh never praises other men like this, not even his close friends, but for some reason, the words just come out of his mouth unbidden. Maybe there’s a sense of security and safety in the fact that Roger probably has no understanding of human social norms and taboos—if Rayleigh says something weird, Roger won’t even know that it’s weird. Or, at the very least, he’ll just attribute any weirdness to the difference in their species.
“Well, you’re really handsome too,” Roger says, all giddy.
Rayleigh feels a little squirmy in his stomach.
He moves on to Roger’s torso. He measures the circumference of Roger’s arms in three places, as well as the circumference of his waist and chest. He feels the skin here too, but he’s more interested in Roger’s musculoskeletal structure. It seems to be identical to a human’s—but is that just a trick of appearances? Rayleigh slides his hands over Roger’s shoulders, feeling the bones. Good god, Roger is broad. He’s built like—well, like a swimmer. He squeezes Roger’s deltoids and biceps, humming at the feel of the thick, firm muscle. Roger swallows audibly.
“Are all mermen this muscular?” Rayleigh asks. His voice comes out kind of low and husky for some reason.
“Erm,” Roger is blushing a little. “Yeah, I’d say so. We swim a lot.”
Rayleigh slides his palms to Roger’s hairy chest and squeezes that too. He’s not really sure why he does it; there’s no scientific question to be answered that requires him to test the firmness of Roger’s pecs. Regardless, Roger blushes harder and bites his bottom lip.
“Why the chest hair?” Rayleigh wonders aloud. “Wouldn’t you be faster in the water if you were hairless?”
Roger shrugs. “I dunno. By that logic, I should be bald, too!”
Rayleigh follows the hair down Roger’s stomach. It’s even in the grooves of his abs. Rayleigh traces it with a finger, and Roger shivers.
“What do you usually eat?” Rayleigh asks.
“Um.” Roger looks like he’s struggling to think clearly. “Fish. Squids. I really like crabs and shrimp too.”
“Raw?”
“Uh huh.”
All the protein and omega-3’s explains why Roger is so sculpted and has such beautiful skin. Rayleigh should try to eat more fish.
The last part of Roger’s torso he inspects is his hands. He holds one and examines Roger’s fingernails. They’re noticeably thicker and sharper than a human’s—more like claws. They’re dark too.
“Good for hunting,” Roger murmurs. He seems to enjoy Rayleigh holding his hand.
“Mm,” Rayleigh hums. He writes down some notes, and then claps. “Alright. Can I see your tail now?”
Roger immediately heaves himself out of the water and onto the rock, landing on his rear and stretching his tail out in front of Rayleigh. He leans back on his hands.
“Go for it!”
Rayleigh is distracted for just one brief moment by the sight of Roger’s genital slit—it’s kind of like seeing the outline of a guy’s junk in his pants—but he forces himself to refocus. He shuffles closer and takes a good long look at the lower half of Roger.
Roger’s tail is gorgeous. It’s an almost-iridescent orange, intensely saturated at the tips of his fins and fading out into a pale cream on the meat of the tail. There are no scales—he’s a mammal, not a fish—and overall it resembles a dolphin more than anything else. Rayleigh immediately becomes fascinated. He starts by examining the flukes at the base of the tail—their shape, the veins in them, the depth of the median notch. He sketches the flukes and then moves upward, testing the thickness of the tail’s blubber by squeezing. He isn’t even really looking at Roger, totally absorbed in observation. His hands slide farther and farther up, just feeling the smooth tangerine skin. But then suddenly there’s a strong, clawed hand gripping his wrist to stop him.
“Ray…. You’re gonna make me…,” Roger breathes, trailing off.
Rayleigh glances upward, and, oh.
Roger’s dick has emerged from his genital slit and is flexing eagerly in the air.
Oh. That’s…. Wow. Okay.
Rayleigh peeks up at Roger’s face. Roger’s eyes are half-lidded, his lips parted. He’s panting.
Are all mermen this easily aroused?
Heart pounding, emboldened by Roger’s enthusiastic reaction, Rayleigh shakes his wrist free and slides his hands up even higher. He doesn’t know why, he really shouldn’t, it’s super unprofessional, he shouldn’t want to, but…. He brushes his thumbs over the base of the genital slit. Just to feel. Just for… you know… science. Roger groans louder, tail squirming. He’s sensitive….
Hypnotized, Rayleigh goes even further. He dips his fingers into the slit, feeling the thick base of Roger’s cock where it emerges from the lips. He only gets half a second to marvel at the natural lubrication before—suddenly—he’s being grabbed and slammed down onto his back. Roger dives on top of him, and then he’s smashing their mouths together, kissing Rayleigh like he’ll die if he can’t get his tongue into Rayleigh’s throat in the next five seconds. He groans desperately into Rayleigh’s mouth. On impulse, Rayleigh struggles for a moment, but then he surrenders and lets Roger do it.
It’s his own fault, really. Sticking his fingers into the poor guy’s slit and all. He was asking for this.
Roger squirms on top of Rayleigh as they kiss passionately, grinding his slippery cock against any part of Rayleigh he can get to. He’s panting hard, tail thrashing wildly. Eventually, he breaks away and starts tugging aggressively yet ineffectively at Rayleigh’s clothes. He yanks hard on the front of Rayleigh’s jeans, but obviously doesn’t succeed in removing them at all. The look of absolute furious frustration on his face makes Rayleigh laugh.
“Jeez, alright, alright, hold on just a second,” he says. He reaches down to undo the fly and then tugs the pants down.
The sight of his bare skin sends Roger into even more of a frenzy and he rips the jeans the rest of the way off Rayleigh’s legs and throws them into the water. Then he parts Rayleigh’s thighs and flops down between them. Rayleigh feels his stiff and slimy cock nudging insistently between his cheeks. Jeez! Rayleigh clenches instinctively; he’s never had anything up there before.
“Christ, man! You’re eager—!”
He cuts himself off with a sharp groan as Roger shoves his entire cock inside him without any further ado. Fuck!!
“Hng!” Roger whines.
It’s a strange shape, that’s for sure. It’s thickest at the base (fuck) and tapered at the tip. But the strangest part is the fact that it’s prehensile—Rayleigh can feel it twisting and curling inside him, feeling up his insides. God, it’s so weird and yet… kinda good.
Roger braces his hands on the ground and starts thrusting. Rayleigh whines and wraps his legs around his hips as he gets driven over and over into the rock. What the fuck is happening…? Not five minutes ago he was just innocently observing Roger’s tail. If he had known mermen were so easily provoked, he would have….
Touched Roger anyways.
“Aughhhh…,” Roger groans. “So warm…. Ungghhh…!”
Roger only thrusts for maybe thirty seconds and then he makes a noise like he’s being tortured and Rayleigh feels a powerful gush of fluid inside him.
“Ah!” he yelps, his thighs tensing automatically and nails digging into Roger’s back.
It’s a lot. It’s very liquid-y, not nearly as viscous as human cum. It immediately fills Rayleigh to capacity and then gushes out down his asscrack to pool on the rock beneath him.
“Guhhh…,” Roger moans, eyes closed in bliss, tail flexing in pleasure.
Well, that was quick. Rayleigh wonders if all mermen cum fast, or if it’s just a Roger thing. He strokes Roger’s sides and arms through it, holding him tight against his body with his thighs. It lasts for a while. More and more rivers of fluid run down his ass. It’s probably soaking into the back of his shirt.
When Roger is done, he collapses on top of Rayleigh with a spectacular groan and nuzzles his neck, mindlessly licking and biting.
“Ah, man…. That felt so good…. You were driving me so crazy…,” Roger babbles. “Touching me all over my body like that….”
His cock slides out of Rayleigh, probably retracting back into his body now that he’s satisfied. Rayleigh’s own cock throbs between them, jealous.
Roger must feel it, because he hoists himself up again and glances down. He eyes Rayleigh’s erection, gaze still full of heat. He strokes a curious finger over it, making it jump. Fuck, Rayleigh wants to cum too. Really bad.
“I think now it’s my turn to examine you,” Roger drawls with a grin.
Oh. Yes please.
Roger grabs Rayleigh by the hips and promptly drags him off the rock ledge and into the water. It’s a good long while before they get out again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Aw man. Look at my shirt.” Rayleigh sighs as he scratches fruitlessly at the large stain bleeding across the bottom hem. It’s Roger’s cum, no question about it. It’s made the fabric all stiff, and it’s a faint peachy color. How is he supposed to go back to the lab like this? Will anyone know? If Dr Crocus saw it, would he realize what it was?
“Oops. Sorry!” Roger chirps, obviously not sorry at all. “I got most of the algae off your pants, at least!”
He draws them out of the water where he’s been washing them and hands them over. They’re sopping wet and still a puke-green color. Rayleigh sighs again. This is worse than a walk of shame. On top of everything, he’s also covered in claw and bite marks….
How did he end up here? His boss assigned him to a merman to—ostensibly—keep things professional, and yet Rayleigh somehow ended up naked anyways, and got himself fucked on a rock and in the pool by the merman in question. These are not the makings of a respectable career in academia.
“Are you gonna come back tomorrow?” Roger asks, leaning heavily against him and swaying his flukes.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Rayleigh teases as he starts tugging his shirt back on.
“Yeah,” Roger sighs dreamily. “I wanna see you again. And anyways, you’re not done examining me—you never measured my dick.”
Rayleigh laughs loudly. He grabs his straw hat—which has been perched on a rock since he arrived—and places it on Roger’s head.
“Alright, then you can keep this for now. Insurance. So you know I’ll come back for it.”
Roger beams.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Rayleigh, this is really incredible stuff,” Dr Crocus says with a puzzled frown as he skims the first draft of Rayleigh’s research report. “How did you manage to collect so much data?”
Rayleigh deliberately does not take offense at the way Crocus seems to be shocked by his competency.
“I told you. My merman was really cooperative.”
“I’ll say. How did you convince him to let you take a sample of his genital mucus?”
“Er. I just asked politely, you know….”
Rayleigh tactfully refrains from explaining that, in fact, he’s been “collecting samples” of Roger’s genital mucus every day for the past two weeks. In addition to his lab-sanctioned research, he’s undertaking the noble task of researching the long-term effects of merman jizz on the human digestive system. Hmm, maybe that could be his PhD….
“I’m heading out for the day,” Rayleigh calls as he makes his way to the door.
“Oh. More field work?” Dr Crocus asks.
“Yeah. I’ll return my gear tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow…? Don’t tell me you’re gonna stay out all night!”
But Rayleigh is already gone.