Forever and Always (Sciles)

94: Ben's Surprise

Stiles POV

Many hours later, after Max, Selena and Crystal left to go back to their homes, Ben and I continue lying on the bottom of the ocean, enjoying the feeling of sand on our backs and scales as we stare up at the deep blue above us. Even though you can hardly see the sun from this deep down in the ocean, I can see well enough that it's definitely starting to set. That probably means that Dad and I will be leaving soon. Unless I decide to stay the entire weekend, but I probably shouldn't do that. I do have a psychology assignment to finish by Tuesday, so I really should get started on it tomorrow. It may be the only assignment I have right now, but it'll take time to complete, especially since I can't concentrate on an assignment for more than five minutes at a time. Once I've graduated, I'll be able to come and stay down in Atlantia for longer periods of time. Well, that is until I go to college. That might make things difficult, but I'll face that obstacle when I come to it.

"This is nice," Ben comments after a while, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah, it is." I nod in agreement. I always forget how much I miss this. As great as everything is on land for me and as much as I see it as a home, the ocean will always be my home too and I always miss seeing my friends here, especially Ben. We were best friends when we were kids, after all. I still like to think that we're best friends now, but there have been so many years where we haven't seen each other and our lives have changed dramatically, and Scott became my best friend too, so I don't know if the term can still fit us anymore. We're definitely still really good friends though. It's just... Different, I guess. Maybe I can say we are best merfriends, or best ocean friends. Wow, I never thought I'd have to use those sorts of terms. Pretty sure I'm the only one who would ever need to use them.

"Stiles?" Ben asks quietly and curiously from beside me.

"Mm?" I respond, looking over to the blond teenager lying next to me.

"What's land like?" Ben asks me curiously. I'm taken aback by that question for a moment, not expecting it. The question seems really random, and I don't even know what Ben exactly means with that question. It's a very broad question.

"Um, it's good, I guess? As I've said before, having legs are a huge pain and it's still weird to look at them sometimes because it doesn't look right, but you do sort of get used to it eventually." I begin to explain and Ben listens intently to each word.

"What about school up there? What kind of things do you learn? What are the people like? What about the society? What do humans do for fun? What does it feel like to look out towards the ocean from land instead of the other way around? What does it feel like to run or feel sand between your... Um, I think they're called toes?" Ben asks me eagerly, and now I'm definitely confused by all of his rapid questions, but I answer them to the best of my abilities. Ben looks intrigued.

"Uh, why do you want to know all of this anyway? Some of this stuff I've already told you anyhow." I frown at my friend suspiciously. Ben just shrugs.

"I don't know, I'm just curious. You're one of my closest friends and you've been living in this whole other world for many years now, and you seem to really like it, almost as much as living here." Ben replies, giving me a quizzical look.

"Well, I don't know if I'd still be living up on land if it weren't for the people I've met up there. I couldn't leave them behind. However, if I didn't meet them, I think I would just give up dealing with the leg pains and just come back to live in Atlantia for good." I shrug, answering Ben as honestly as I can.