Carter laughed, “No, not all of them. But they’re popular by the coast, we use them for surfing the waves.” Carter scanned the beach, aiming the surfboard for where he parked the plan. A wheel chair and a blanket, just near the edge of the beach. And no one was around anyways. It’d be perfect.
“Huh. That’s… interesting.” Arria said slowly. He instinctively searched the beach for anybody else and luckily, there wasn’t. Something in him relaxed when he saw the beach was empty.
Carter paddled the board up the edge, and step out, looking at Arria and asking somewhat shyly, “Would you mind if I carried you just a few feet? To the wheelchair.” As much as he wanted to carry the hot merman, Carter didn’t want Arria to be uncomfortable.
"Sure, that's fine with me," Arria replied, smiling up at the human, "But are you sure you can hold my weight?" He asked, his smile turning into a concerned frown.
Carter scooped Arria up bridal style without saying anything else, smiling smugly, “Yep,” He carried Arria to the wheelchair placing him down proudly. I just carried a really hot merman… Carter turned and grabbed a blanket from a pack in the back of the chair, unfolding it with a smile, “And then we can cover up your fin with this.”
Arria frowned at it, "It doesn't look big enough," He said, looking down at his tail. It felt extremely strange to have it out of water, it felt heavier then normal but Arria guessed that was to be expected. He looked back up at Carter, "And it looks weird." He reached out to touch it.
“People in wheelchairs do this all the time when they’re paralyzed, trust me,” He layer the blanket over his fin, and only the tips peeked out, “And it’s dark out, no one can tell.”
Arria nodded, "Alright… what does para-paralyzed mean?" He asked, looking down at his covered tail again.
“They don’t have paralysis is the merworld? Wow… Well, it’s just when you can’t move parts of you body, usually when you get something wrong with your nerves or something, I think,” Carter explained absentmindedly as he pulled his surfboard to shore. Thankfully his truck was nearby, so he ran and put it away without leaving Arria for too long.
"Oh, okay." Arria watched as Carter took his board to something further in land. He immedietly tensed up out of instinct even though there was no one to see him and Carter wasn't that far away. He ran a hand through his hair, I can't believe this, I can't believe this…
Carter came up behind Arria, putting his hands over the other’s eyes playfully, “Guess who~” Gosh, Carter was really toeing that line between friendship and… more than that.
"I can tell from your voice, you're Carter," Arria said, a smile tugging at his lips as he removed Carter's hands from his eyes and looked up at him, "Disguise your voice next time."
Carter laughed heartily, then started to pull the wheelchair out the beach, “I think you’ll like the land. I can take you anywhere, the city, the bike trails in the woods, whatever you want. I was thinking we’d start at the park, if that’s alright with you.”
“Yeah, that’s perfectly fine,” Arria replied, smiling widely, “I still can’t believe I’m doing this…”
“I can’t believe I’m taking around a hot merman in a wheelchair,” The words slipped out of his mouth before Carter could stop them. He turned a bright red, trying to ignore the words as he pushed Arria and the wheelchair down the sidewalk.
Arria’s smile grew into a grin, his cheeks turning a light shade of pink, “I also can’t believe that an extremely handsome human is pushing the wheelchair I’m sitting in.” He said, turning redder as he said the words.
Carter nearly choked on a breath, turning an extreme shade of red. He probably looked like a fire truck, gosh darn it. I just was called heckin handsome by this guy, oh my gosh… “Th-thank you, uh, yeah- um-“ Gosh, Carter could barely form words. He was still so tongue tied by the time he got to the park, he couldn’t even point out the beautiful stars.
Arria was still grinning like crazy as he looked up, his eyes sparkling, "Wow…" He couldn't believe it. The stars were gorgeous and Arria let out a laugh, "This is incredible…"
Carter forced himself to look at the stars, “Uh, well, yeah, the stars are really pretty. I, um, like to come out and see them a lot. I’m sure they look even prettier out in the ocean, where there isn’t land for miles,” Carter pointed out, slowly getting the reddish tint out of his face.
"I don't get to see them that often," Arria admitted quietly, "I've seen them before but not for this long." He rubbed at his neck and bit his lip, still looking up at the sky.
Carter smiled, then rolled Arria up next to a bench. Carter then sat down next to him, staring at the sky. He felt a distinct urge to reach out and grab Arria’s hand, but stopped himself. He let out a little laugh, “Let’s stay here, then. I’m sure no one would mind if we stargazed just for a little bit. Technically, it’s against the city law to be in the park at night, so we’ll be alone.”
"Wait really?" Arria drew his gaze from the sky to look at Carter, "It's against the law to be here… why is that?" He asked, leaning on the arm rest, resting his head on his hand.
“Something about vandalism, I think. I heard a rumor that a long while ago some kids came at night an tore out all the benches. On two occasions,” Carter let out a deep laugh, “But really, I only see the police around here like, twice a year.” Carter moved to look at Arria, but basically found himself nose to nose with the merman. Gosh you’re so beautiful…
Wow.. his laugh is just… wow. "Huh.. I wonder why people would want to do that. And it sounds like your police aren't the best if they only come round here twice a year." Arria said quietly, followed by a slight giggle.
Carter laughed again, “They’re mostly busy with other crimes. Like we have this one law where if you block a pedestrian crosswalk with your car, you’ll get a ticket. It’s never enforced, but, eh,” Carter shrugged, and took a few seconds to realize Arria probably didn’t know much about cars and crosswalks and tickets. He turned a slight shade of red from embarrassment.