Blood Runs Thicker than Water (The Shape of Water Fanfic)

Pool

    The ride to Josie's house was a short one, but it felt like an eternity. Alpheus' large head rested on my lap, and he was breathing heavily through both methods. His gills fanned out in a beautiful display of delicate lace and weaving, but I knew that despite the intricacy, that was a bad sign. I had no idea how long he would last outside of water. I hoped it was long.

His vibrant scales of tropical blue and deep jungle green began to take on a sheen of sad, stormy gray, and he began to tremble. Worry struck me deeply.

"Josie, hurry!" I called up to her, stroking the side of Alpheus' neck. His sparkling eyes glanced up at me, and I could see both fear and trust in those galaxies of swirling color and intelligence. "It's gonna be ok," I cooed to him, like a mother to a child.

He weakly lifted a large webbed hand up, and I grabbed it with my feeble, delicate one, squeezing it tight in reassurance.

At long last, the car rolled to a stop, and the trunk popped open. We lifted Alpheus together, propping him up on his weakening limbs, and assisted him over to the pool. He slid smoothly into the silky water, and for a moment, my heart stopped in my chest as he just laid there on the bottom. Had my plan been his death sentence?

Just as I was about to break down and cry, his gills fluttered and expanded, swishing and fanning the water. Light kaleidoscoped down his body, lighting up the pool. I let out a loud gasp of relief as he lifted his head. I had prepared the water correctly. He was going to be ok.

Before I could stop myself, I stepped over the inflated rim of the pool, not caring about getting my clothes wet, and submerged myself in the water. It was cool and caressing in the hot summer day, and paddling beside his still submerged body, I tenderly stroked his finned back. The S curve of his fin rippled with the movement.

He peered up at me through the water, and before I could react, surged at me as if he was going to attack me. I yelped in surprise as powerful hands lifted me up at the hips, lifting me out of the water completely, and then down again in a tremendous splash. For a moment I was submerged into the peaceful coolness of underwater, the water lapping at the inside of my ears, the swishing, almost bell-like sounds of Alpheus swimming around me. And then my head broke the surface again, and I shivered slightly as a random cold breeze tickled at my skin, but I didn't care and couldn't help but laugh at the turn of events life had thrown at me.

Josie was still awkwardly standing outside the pool, witnessing the strange embraces between the most unlikely of siblings. Alpheus swam around the pool a couple of times, and then stopped to rise regally out of the water, to stand before Josie. He regarded her in a purely investigative manner, as if he just wanted to figure out whether she was an immediate threat or not. Josie stared back at him, her brown, doe-like eyes widened with shock and a hint of fear. Alpheus shrugged, such a human gesture for something so far from human, and then sank back into the water, deciding to trust my judgement of who saw him. Or maybe he just really liked the pool.

I tapped his forehead as he swam by me, and he rose in front of me, watching me in a questioning manner. "I have something to tell you," I started. "I have to call you by something, and as you have no obvious manner of speaking to me, I came up with a name for you. Would you like to hear it?"

Of course, the still silence, not a yes or a no. Just there to listen.

I sighed. "Alright then," I said, and continued. "The name Alpheus means 'river god' in Greek," I explained to him. "Perhaps you're not a god, but you hold yourself as if you believe yourself to be one. It's a regal, grand name, and I think it suits someone as yourself."