Name: Greenling
Story: Shatterverse/Mixed AU
Colors: Barbados Blue #15 (Reef), Ibiza Blue #9 (Eskadet - Solitudes(Feat. Amethyste 1:00 A.M. Mix))
Supplies and Styles: Eraser (Mermaid AU), Collage (Alyn), Stain (Silence propagates itself, and the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find anything to say. Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784))
Word Count: 841
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Summary: We meet Bryce and Lucas, and more exposition is had.

Comments, criticism, and questions are all appreciated.


Under the fog, the water became dark only a few lengths down. Near the bottom in the deep side of the lake, where tiny currents met the caverns and became vicious undertows, it might as well have been pitch.

Save for a single glowing smartwatch in a sandwich bag, flashing an alarm.

Lucas woke up gently as if from a wonderful dream, though whatever it was faded quickly, replaced with annoyance and a lingering sense that something was wrong. Was it a school day? Did he oversleep? No, it was summer. It was definitely summer. But on the other hand, he had been asleep.

He sat up with a start, looking around for his watch. Several feet away, it flashed with an alarm; he kicked over to it. Did he have something to do today? What time was it? What day was it?

It was Sunday, nearly 9 AM. The day he was supposed to help finish cleaning out the cabin for the summer tenants.

Lucas hissed between his teeth, causing a shower of bubbles that obscured the watch for a few seconds. He hit buttons: no calls, no texts. His mother may not yet have realized he was gone. Awesome.

He crouched against the rocky bottom of the lake and kicked off again, heading for the bridge and the surface. If he could sneak inside and dry off before anyone noticed, he would be good.

*

Bryce did not want to be there.

A month, his mother had said, though she implied the whole summer. Change of scenery. Whatever. He hated everyone. He hated his uncle for starting it, he hated his mother for the idea, he hated his one cousin for sleeping through it and his other cousin because his seat was way far back and Bryce could hear the video he was watching over his earbuds. Mostly, he hated having to live in a stranger's extra house for a "vacation" just so he could see trees. It was weird.

Alyn slowly woke up, yawning into her hand. Bryce didn't trust her; she was a prep school girl and she dressed like it, wearing a long skirt and loose layers even in the summer. They were even pastel and gray, so they were trendy. Trendy fashionable people reminded him of his parents' friends, who were mostly really fake or really loud or both. Jack wasn't much better: he was a jock. Bryce knew Jack a little better from when they were both little, and he seemed nice then, but he could have changed, or he could just be the kind of jock who was loud and rude and would want to do things together.

His uncle came over to his door, so he opened it door a crack and started grabbing his things, wanting to interact as little as possible. Maybe he could get something to drink, at least. There hadn't been any soda at his other uncles' house.

The adults were talking about stupid adult things as they headed in, keeping up a constant stream of background noise. Slowly, he dragged his backpack out of the floorboards and left the car. The air outside was nice at least, cool and crisp.

Actually, there was something about the trees in the distance that made him want to go down there and take a closer look. Something... beautiful. He paused, staring, trying to ignore the tiny red-headed figure of his cousin ruining the view.

But then Jack came up again with another boy, and he stared at him instead.

He was huge, almost as tall as Jack and about twice as wide, wearing a swimsuit and soaking wet. Bryce felt really awkward for a moment, wondering if... it probably wasn't attraction. He wanted it not to be. He wasn't ready for that crap yet.

Still, something was weird.

"Lucas?" The woman said with surprise. The boy (presumably Lucas) looked sheepish. "Lucas, don't you dare have been doing what I know you were doing. We're going to open up the pool this afternoon."

"Sorry," Lucas replied in a voice much younger than his size, "I woke up early this morning and I just-"

"No, no excuses. It's dangerous, Lucas- I'm sorry, my son is on the swim team at school, he can be willful." She broke off to speak to Uncle Dmitry, then to the rest of them. "Like I told your parents, the lake is very, very deep. The water is clean, it's fine for fishing, it's fine for boating, and there's even a nice area I'll show you that you can wade in, but there are all sorts of caverns and undertows in the deep end. Children, even adults, can get hurt." She was doing the weird adult thing where she was mad, but wanted to pretend she wasn't. "You're free to use our pool any time you want, though, so long as your uncle agrees."

A lake they couldn't even swim in. Great. Bryce found himself even more curious. Lucas muttered apologies to his mother as they went inside.