As soon as James resurfaced, breaking the top of the sea into a multitude of small waves and ripples, his boss was hovering over him, asking hurriedly, "What did you see? Did you see anything?"

James didn't answer. Instead, he hauled himself up on the dock, pulling off his goggles and removing his oxygen tube from between his lips, thinking of his answer. What did he see? How was he supposed to answer that? Hey, Gustavo, I saw a pretty merman just didn't seem like a very scientific response.

"I saw…" From the corner of one hazel iris, James almost swore there was a flash of blonde hair, a flicker of glowing green. He closed his eyes. "…nothing new. I did take a couple routine coral samples. We can run them, but I doubt we'll learn anything new today."

There was a pause and the diver forced himself not to panic.

Gustavo couldn't know what was down there. Hell, James didn't even know what was down there and he was the one who saw it!

"…Okay, dog," the boss finally said, turning away and starting the distance back to shore. "Back to the office and hurry up and test those samples! Griffin wants an analysis by three!"

By the time James Diamond made it back to the offices-slash-laboratory, he was able to convince himself everything that happened that morning in the ocean was just a hallucination. He didn't eat breakfast that morning. It was the most important meal of the day for a reason.

He put it all past him and made his way to the lab to do the tests on the coral samples for Griffin before three. The C.E.O. was not someone to leave waiting.

On his way there, Carlos Garcia, a new intern who had quickly grown on James, stopped him with a bear hug and a huge grin. "James! Anything cool out there today?"

James' answer was immediate. "Nope! Nothing new. Coral. Bacteria. Rocks. You know, the usual. Ha ha… ha."

"Oh." Carlos didn't seem too disappointed. In fact, he was almost bouncing off the walls in enthusiasm. "Guess where we're going tonight!"

That could've meant a multitude of things. Dinner at the best local fast food joint, sky diving, out to a petting zoo, or even, on more than one occasion, honky-tonkin'. (James personally enjoyed the latter; he got to practice his acting skills and he looked damn good as a cowboy.)

So James just grinned, pretending to think for a moment. "I give up. What're we going to do?"

"Mermaid hunting!"

James almost choked on his own saliva. "Wh-what!"

James grumbled to himself, watching the beam of artificial light from his flashlight on the sand. How did Carlos talk himself into this? The boy had come in with talks about a rumor of mermaid sightings and big, brown puppy dog eyes. And, of course, James had caved.

Curse that boy.

Now he was stuck, walking along the shore line until Carlos had gotten bored enough to go home. Mermaids… James rolled his eyes. Had everyone skipped breakfast? He kept his trail, enjoying the waves crashing against his bare feet, lightly singing to himself.

Then his flashlight landed on a rock hanging over the water and the diver gasped.

There he was.

Even outside of the water, the merman seemed to glow, the pale skin of his back just gleaming in the moonlight. James could make out the smooth shoulders blades moving slightly beneath that creamy skin, the undersized yet defined muscle wrapped around his torso, the small bumps of his biceps, the blonde hair winding softly into the nape of his neck.

Slowly, James walked closer, just for a better look.

To make sure it was real.

At the sound of shifting sand, the merman twisted at the waist to face the stranger. He raised a challenging eyebrow at James, a perfect expression of come hither that had James' heart pounding. Or maybe it was just his glimmering green eyes, full of humor and interest and mischievousness. James swallowed once. That much beauty was almost hard to take.

Plus, the little fact about his, um, tail, positioned innocently on the rock, was a bit overwhelming, too.

Licking his suddenly dry lips, James stammered out a quick, "H-hi."

And the merman exhaled, "Hello."

As soon as the word left the merman's lips, James realized he expected something fishlike, maybe a dolphin's chirp or a whale's wail. English words? Wow. Incredulous, he asked, "You can talk? Why didn't you say anything last time?"

The merman looked up from beneath his blonde lashes, letting them flutter slightly. "I'm shy," he teased with a small grin.

And James chose to ignore the smoldering of green eyes, the flirtatiousness of the comment, and, of course, the blood rushing to his cheeks. Because he was so not blushing. James Diamond did not blush, ever. At all. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

The merman feigned hurt. "Aw, you don't like me?"

"No!" James blurted, totally not blushing. "I m-mean, I don't not like you. I'm sure you're a very nice mer-person in your own right, and, well, I think—what I mean is—ugh." The brunette shook his head in embarrassment, not even daring to look at the merman. No doubt he was smirking with his big lips with his mischievous twinkling eyes—

He had to stop that.

Thinking about the merman's beauty was definitely not helping to get James' mind focused.

The brunette sighed. "I'm James," he introduced quietly. At least, he could say his name without messing it up. What an accomplishment.

The merman grinned brightly, his smile lighting up the dark sky around them. "My name's Kendall," he replied smoothly, "and to answer your last question, I have something to give you." He raised one hand; lying innocently in his flat palm, were luminescent green scales piled against each other.

James' eyes widened. "Why are you giving this to me…?"

"You wanted them, right? I only took them last time because my baby sister wanted them. She likes using them to make brassieres." Kendall rolled his eyes. "She's a little too young for that, but whatever. These are different ones. You can have them, if you want. I don't mind."

James ran his fingers along the pile in the merman's hand, eyeing the scales with wonder, mind reeling at the smooth texture. And then the pad of one finger brushed against soft, pale skin and suddenly, like lightning, green clashed with hazel.

"Uh, thank you…" James muttered, (not) blushing again as he averted his eyes and quickly grabbed the scales and placed them carefully in his jacket, keeping his hands there, too.

Kendall was still staring at the tanned man when he answered, "No problem."

Finally, James looked up with a smile, saying, "You know, you're—"

"James!" Carlos' voice called from the distance. "James! Where are you? Did you find the mermaid?"

As the brunette's face grew hot with humiliation, Kendall leaned in with a smirk. "You were looking for me, pretty boy?" he whispered.

Another wave of embarrassment washed over James at the nickname. "W-well, not exactly… I—"

"James!"

The voice, while always boisterous, seemed to be getting louder, like he was—again, James' eyes widened. "You have to go," James urged; "He's coming now."

"Aw, you're being mean again," Kendall pouted playfully. "You don't want me to meet your friends? I thought we had something special, pretty—!"

Swiftly, James pushed the blonde back into the ocean with a strident slash.

"Sorry!" the diver whisper-yelled. But even as he apologized, he couldn't help the small grin that curled his lips. Ha, served Kendall right, being so smug and mischievous and pretty—

"James! There you are!" exclaimed Carlos happily from right behind him.

James turned around quickly, flashing a bright smile. "Yeah, 'course I'm here, buddy. Where'd you think I would be? With a merman—err, mermaid? Well, nope! Just right here!" He laughed noisily and fakely, but Carlos just continued smiling at him.

"Well, okay," the Latino said. "You ready to go?"

James spared one more meaningful glance to the sea, but the only sign there was that a majestic creature had just been there was the small ripples still circling. "Yeah, Carlitos," he drawled, tearing his eyes away. "Let's go."

Okay, so, for the record, I realize that James and Kendall are kind of out of character. But it's on purpose. Here's my reasoning: Kendall is a mermaid (merman…whatever) and merpeople are very sensual and seductive creatures. And in James' case, I don't care how confident and good with people (ladies) you are, if you ever met a merperson, you'd probably be a little shaken up and more or less dazed and amazed. I was going to make James the merman because he's such a slut, but then I thought, eh, he always gets to be the slut! It's Kendall's turn! So there you have merman!Kendall :) Hope you enjoyed!