Starr thought quickly. "I wanted to get some fish ... But, my legs gave out on me again." The merman tilted his head to the side so his hair fell fetchingly across his face, and his amethyst eyes were put into evidence. " You must be Cory, Andy's special guy." He stare straight at the man and stretched languidly, deliberately showing off. If he couldn't fight the other man, he could try and get Andy to see just how easily Cory wandered. He was certain that was really why the man was so absent from Andy's life.

"So what do you do again? Andy wasn't clear about that." He needed to act like a human. The merman didn't know anything about them, not nearly enough. This was crazy, trying to pass off as one of them after so little time.

Andy immediately felt a bit bad for staring so accusingly at Starr. Though he'd told the merman that he could get out to the freezer by his balcony staircase. The mention of fish had Andy glancing back to Cory, who apparently hadn't heard or hadn't cared to acknowledge the concept. Then he looked up when Starr spoke directly to him, and nodded. His face was blank, neither here nor there, and his eyes were steady on Starr's face, taking in the curious colors of his hair and eyes.

"Ah... High school teacher." Cory said simply. His words were clipped, and his body language hard to decipher. It was somewhere between tense and relaxed, his hands halfway in his pockets.

"Right... Go on, Starr, you know where it is." Andy nodded to the door. He wanted to get Starr away, out of sight, out of hearing distance or at least on the other side of a wall. This was far, far too awkward for his liking.

Starr pushed himself to his feet. White teeth flashed, just a little sharper then a normal human's, into a wide smile. "It was nice meeting you, Cory." He put emphasis on the name, rolled it off his tongue. Then, the slender merman turned away and walked for the back of the house. Of course, he leaned on doorways along the way. It made it more plausible for him to duck behind a wall so he could listen in on the two men's conversation. He wondered how Cory would react to seeing him being so openly inviting. Surely that would have some effect on the man. It looked like it had worked just a little before, and now with that added hint ... Well one would have to be blind not to see what Starr had hinted at.

Andy growled inwardly, glaring at Starr's back. Of course he couldn't put it past the merman to know what he was doing. Starr was perfectly aware, and it ignited an angry fire n Andy. When Cory nudged him with his shoulder, Andy whipped around. "What's he doing here?" He asked simply.

"What the hell do you mean? I always let friends stay here---"

"No. He could stay in a hotel or something. Where's his car? What's up?" Cory seemed to be getting defensive. "And he could put some pants on! Fucking... he's just a piece of meat waiting to be torn up. And what's stopping you?"

"You!" Andy boomed, and immediately lowered his voice. "The hell do you think's stopping me? I'm no cheater, you idiot. Just because someone like to live differently, likes to live like me, doesn't mean I'm about to jump them every chance I get. Do you think that little of me?" The thought was an awful one, one that Andy didn't want to think about at all. He stared at Cory, now the accusing one.

Oh it seemed his little plan had worked. Starr had to stuff a hand in his mouth to stop any sound from leaving him. The two of them were arguing, accusing each other. He felt bad for Andy, for putting the man in such an awkward position. Cory was making accusations against the one man who was more loyal to him then he deserved. The human was a fool. He couldn't even see what kind of mate he had.

The merman wanted to growl under his breath, but knew even that would let the others know they had a silent listener. Cory's next words would be crucial. Even if Starr was ignorant of humanity'S rules, he knew that. It was so obvious. The tension in the air just screamed it out.

Cory shook his head, his expression falling. "No..." He sighed. "No, 'course not. I don't."

Andy nodded, feeling the tension leave his body a little at a time. "Good..." He sighed, loudly. "Come on..." He put a hand on Cory's shoulder and leaned against him, heading toward the front of the house. "I should talk to Starr I think..."

"Weird name..." Cory noted. "He dye his hair?"

"Yep. Has some colored contacts too. He's kind of expressive."

"Hell, you don't gotta tell me twice..." Cory chuckled, opening the door. "So... I'll see you tomorrow? About five?"

"Five's good." Andy was relieved that Cory had let it go so well. Andy wasn't one to go behind someone's back and betray trust, he just wouldn't. He saw Cory out with a kiss and quick embrace and closed the door, finally allowing his anger at Starr to bubble up.

He moved when Cory left. It hadn't turned out like he'd hoped it would. The human was smarter then he gave him credit for. Starr would need to manipulate the other man into a compromising position as best he could. Perhaps he could ask Dean for some help. Thoughtfully, he walked towards the fish ... But didn't really know where they were actually stored. All he knew was that they were in the back of the house, in a box? He thought they were in a box. But there was more then one box. Putting his hands on his hips, the merman frowned as he looked down at the containers.

Giving himself a bit of time to get past the physical half of his anger, Andy moved away from the door to cross the room, go down the hall and out the back door the way. He found Starr standing with his eyes on a few of the boxes he kept on the back porch. For a moment he didn't say anything---he was beyond words, and had to work to keep himself still, barely able to stuff his hands into his pockets. "You're really a piece of work, aren't you?" He asked finally, surprised to find his voice extremely low and calm. He had expected it to waver, shake. "What the hell was that little show about, Starr? Trying to prove some perverse point? Are you happy about it? For God's sake, can't you let it alone?" Finally seeing Cory had calmed his concern that he was straying; Cory seemed to only be concerned for Andy.

Andy's voice was filled with squalls and turbulent waters. High waves crashed in those words, even though they were seemingly calm. "I can't leave it alone. This is how I am. Deal with it, Andy." Standing by without testing the other man's mate was beyond him. He needed to challenge, to push and tug at everything between the two. It was the only way he knew how to act, when he thought of himself as nearly Andy's mate. The need was undeniable.

"He hasn't proven himself to me yet. And that show was the only way I could think of to challenge him without bringing battle into it. It didn't show anything worth wile. " He turned to face Andy, lips pressed together in a grim line. "You have given me near everything a mate would, where I come from. And that means that I need to make sure that the mate you're with deserves you. I won't stop until the matter has been decided, by my standards. " The human practically exuded as much anger as an electric eel did shocks. If he made Starr leave ... The merman didn't know what he would do.

Andy shook his head hard. "Damn it, Starr, what do you expect? All you've heard is the problem we were having the day I found you. You wouldn't even give him a chance to prove anything to you today, when he came by! You wouldn't wear a pair of pants and come down to say hey, or see how he acted around you, you just stayed upstairs and fumed about it because you weren't getting your damn way. I'm sorry if human relationships are such a complicated mess to you, that your kind doesn't understand because apparently you never have romantic problems, but humans are diverse and different and they work very different ways, different professions, and they can't always be together all the time. Plans change, we do what we can."

He went around Starr to the main box. The white freezer, and slapped his hand down on its top. "I appreciate you trying to help and all, but trying to seduce Cory right in front of me was crossing a big red line and I didn't appreciate it. At all, Starr. If you want to stay here, you'll have to stop that. Now." He didn't give Starr a chance to reply. He stalked away after identifying the right box for him and headed to the beach nearby. He felt overheated, and needed to sit where the ocean would lap at him, cool him.

Starr snorted, and shook his head. Humans ...It seemed like there were a lot of misunderstandings between them. That had a lot to do with their different lives, they ever clashing cultural values. Starr had never sat down and told the other man why it was he acted as he did, not in detail. But Andy was so .. contradictory! He wanted no battles, and yet when Starr found a way around that, he was completely and utterly shoved aside, yelled at.

The merman swallowed hard and stepped down from the porch, with two fish in hand of course. Starr wandered to the beach, and settled down beside Andy. He didn't speak, but offered up one of the raw fish almost hopefully. It didn't cross his mind that humans liked to cook everything. He didn't know that, couldn't imagine it.

Andy's feet were soaked by the time he was no longer alone. He didn't want to waste the energy being angry anymore. It was hard to remember that Starr didn't come from here, he didn't know Cory, and he didn't understand human social limits. It was something he still had to teach the merman. He sighed, digging his heels into the sand and looking around at what was offered, nearly wrinkling his nose. But it felt like a sign of truce. He took it, carefully.

"Y'know, human bodies don't fight the natural parasites in raw fish like you do." He admitted, staring at the sightless eye of the fish he held. "Humans have to cook most of their meat to avoid illness." What would Starr think about that? That human bodies had once been able to consume raw meat and now it couldn't, that it had to now had to be cooked so they didn't die or get a debilitating illness. Human bodies were indeed rather weak, while simultaneously being shockingly strong and enduring.

Starr tilted his head. Just another thing to chalk up that was odd about humans. With a shrug, he bit off the fish's head and started nibbling on it. The body lay his knee as the merman considered what to say. "Merfolk don't have perfect romances. Mates fight with each other, but other things happen that make us forget about fights... I mean, why would you keep fighting when a swarm of sharks are swimming around? Or an enemy clan is going to attack the territory where you live? If we fight too much, if we cant fix it, well then we know it just won't work and we leave each other .. if we can. When you're won through a challenge, things can get really bad. You're more like a possession then." The merman threw fish bones out toward the sea.

"I was lucky to never have gone through that, but one of my mates did, before I won him. He needed protection, and someone to help him heal. I could protect him, and my other mate, she knew exactly what to do to help him." There was water falling from his eyes. Annoyed, Starr tried to wipe them away, but the little drops kept falling. "I hope they're alright now."

Andy let the slippery thing in his hand slide to the sand, and it lay forgotten when he turned to face Starr. His lip twitched, and he studied Starr. He didn't seem to know what tears even were. Maybe because he'd grown up under the water his whole life, he didn't experience the way they fell. "Starr, they have each other still. If they work together they'll be okay." He shifted a bit, pulling his thumb over Starr's cheek. "Haven't you ever felt tears before...? They're the product of strong emotion. And... I'm sorry. We have our own problems above the water, and they're not always as life-threatening as below. Mostly it's just disagreements. And sometimes we make up. Other times it's... harder. And mostly, we just have one mate. I just get defensive... We all do I guess. And knowing you hate Cory so much kind of... gets to me. So I say stupid things. I get preoccupied. So... I'm sorry." He sighed the words, defeated.

"Why would my hate of your mate get to you? We've only just met. And you see me as an annoyance, nothing more." The merman stared at him, lifted a hand to press his hand against his tear stained cheeks. With a shake of his head, the merman dismissed the tears. Sand shifted. The tiny granules fell away from Starr as he bent over so he could lean a little against Andy. "You don't need to apologize ... if you promise that next time you'll ask to hear why I act the way I do. I promise, I'll try and do the same for you." There were bound to be times when neither of them understood each other.

Andy let him lean, and put an arm around him. "I'll listen. But you have to give him a chance. Just one more. Give him a chance and if you still don't like him, I'll try to see it from your point of view. And that might be hard, so just give me a little time. I've never really had much luck with love, so this... is kind of hard for me to give up." He sighed, shaking his head and looking out at the water. It was calm, quiet, shushing forward and back with the waves. "Hey... Hey, I don't think you're an annoyance. I never did. Frustrating sometimes, yeah, but if I thought you were a bother I'd tell you to get out. But I would never do that." He was too protective, perhaps. Far, far too protective of Starr.

It was a cloudless kind of time, with a beautiful sky. Starr tilted his head to look up at it. "'I will .. Since you want it so much." The merman wrinkled his nose at the mention that Andy would never make him leave. "You already said you'd make me leave if I tested Cory again, by seducing. I assume you meant in anyway at all." He laughed a little, a bitter kind of sound. "So you already broke your word about that." There were so many things that could go wrong. And yet, Starr loved the comfort Andy offered. The former merman sank into the other man's embrace, wishing that he were as strong above the waves as he had been beneath them.

Andy rolled his eyes. "I was speaking out of anger. Don't you ever do that? I'd never kick you out into the world you know nothing about. If you'd go out there, you'd die... Because you don't know what's what yet. I'd never forgive myself. But I'll have to do something if you try to get Cory to do something stupid. I just won't accept that. There are lines you kind of don't cross up here, even if you're trying to make a point. Don't force someone to do something you assume they'll do, let them do it on their own if you're so sure." He sighed, turning his head slightly and putting his nose to Starr's hair. He could still smell the sea trapped in it. "Maybe I should call Dean to see if he'll come by. He's got a new 'friend' he kind of wants to show off, after all." And he needed someone at least somewhat on his side. Dean didn't like Cory, of course, but he wouldn't like Starr's behavior earlier. Not that he would bring it up purposefully.

Starr wasn't listening. He could feel the other man's nose, sniffling lightly at his hair. The merman's lips tugged up into a smile and he shifted, moved his head. Now he leaned even more of himself up against Andy, and let his lips dip forward to capture the other man's. All he needed to do was find how to win Andy to him. Then Cory would be forgotten, and there would be no ill ease at doing exactly what he did at that moment. He was sure Andy would pull away. Slender hands lifted to curl into soft hair.

Andy let himself be moved, suddenly a million miles away. The sight and smell, the sound of the sea let his mind seep out of his head, until a sudden rush of cool water flooded them and he broke away from Starr. "See... this could be considered crossing a line." He said once his voice would work. "I think you'll have to teach me the social interactions of your kind so I can do the same... so no one's... surprised?" In his mind's eye, Andy could just imagine Starr taking some action with a near complete stranger that would be considered harassment. That would be less than positive, and harder to explain away.

The merman was reluctant to pull back. That hadn't been just any kind of kiss, it had been borderline as possessive as it would have been between mates. Definitely, some lines had been crossed. The amethyst eyed man smiled a little. "You still need to teach me about the way humans interact. So I won't do anything ... improper." That would mean the excuse he had would disappear. It was easy to remember how shocked Andy had been by that first little kiss. It would be hard to stop himself from doing so again, with Andy or with his friend Dean. He would have, if given the chance, greet the exuberant human as he would have any merfolk friend.

Andy smiled a bit, shifting to sit more comfortably on the powdery sand. "That'd be best. You could get in a lot of trouble if you went around greeting people too familiarly. I don't think Dean would mind, or anyone in my little group of friends, but remember, we're not exactly normal by society standards..." In fact, they were very odd. They were too open by the standards of others. They talked about too much, did too much, and had very varying beliefs. "I should get you some books about history, too... Maybe help you with that... And a map of where we are and the area around us... I don't want to overwhelm you, but it'd be a good idea if you learned what you can while you're here..." He paused, going quiet. When would Starr be able to leave? Or would he be able to? It was overly obvious that Starr didn't like it on land, but for some reason he liked Andy. If given the chance he was sure Starr would dive right back into the water. And he almost wanted to follow. Andy had lived his whole life on the edge of the water and he was certified as a diver, but he would never see as much as Starr did.

Starr pulled back and sat cross legged on the sand. "What are books?" He would learn, if it pleased Andy. There was so much to pick up on, so many strange things to consider, in the human world. Things were different on land. There were so many rules and regulations that made no sense. Nearly all humans had forgotten their wild side. Their origins had faded with the seas of time. Tides had washed away the footprints that led them back to where they had come from. It was a sad state of affairs.

"A map? I think I know what that is. We draw them sometimes, using stones and other things that aren't easily swept away by the tides." They had mental maps, more often then not. Their directions were landmarks, their roads underwater canyons. Cities were built around existing cliff faces, or grown from coral with the use of magic. He wished he could show the wonders of the ocean to the other man, but doubted Andy would survive the dangers of it.

Andy shrugged a bit, moving to stand and then reach down to help Starr up. "I keep forgetting you don't exactly have books underwater. Just call me dense." He laughed a bit. "Books are what we use to record information... Or what we used to use to record information. We have different technologies to do it for us, so it's kept forever. Books break down over time, but the information on these technologies are never broken down. I think it might be better if you use books first, though..." He could only imagine if he taught Starr to use a computer. Innocent searches always turned up seedy, disgusting things that might make Starr question Andy. And Andy had yet to clear this week's history, on top of it.

"I think a bit of history and discovery on television might be nice help, too." He added thoughtfully. At least he didn't pay for those porn channels that were always advertised, or he would hear about when he got those harassing phone calls trying to get him to switch to another provider, so that would be safe and relatively censored.

The merman frowned. He let the other man help him up, and refused to let go of Andy's hand. "Aren't humans able to remember what happened in the past without them? We have Memory Keepers to do that for us, and to pass the knowledge on. "These merfolk were very well regarded. They were in fact considered to be more important then any tribe ruler. Without their teachers, there could be nothing else in the world. Knowledge was what helped them to hunt, to survive, in the seas. Without what they knew, what they had learned, each mer tribe knew that they would suffer tremendously.