Deep End - Chapter 19: The Great War
…in which this is the end.
AU: famous!harry, siren!mc, adult modern retelling of the little mermaid? lol, fake dating, enemies to lovers.
WARNING: MATURE THEMES
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Ezili paused just long enough to see Harry swim back to the surface for breath before she rushed forward and Koa’s fist collided with her face. The pain hit instantly as if everything was shattering all around her at once. Koa hit her again and grabbed her by the hair. They had fought like this before, but Ezi’s human strength wouldn’t stand a chance against her sister – a monster, a warrior, and an insatiable killer.
“You gave me an animal’s heart, you bitch!” Koa clutched Ezi’s throat and squeezed hard. “Mother punished me for it. Now you have to pay.”
In her dizziness, Ezi managed to grab Koa’s wrist. Harry’s face and voice ran on a loop in her mind, and the pain withered when she remembered what she was fighting for. She twisted Koa’s arm, and a crack splintered through the water. Koa roared, jaw stretching wide to show every one of her predator teeth. Just as Koa was ready to slam her elbow into Ezi’s chest, Ezi twisted out of the way and pounded her body into her sister’s as hard as her bones allowed. Ezi shoved her sister from her and started swimming back up.
When she broke the surface, the air was ridiculously warm. Dawson and Harry pulled her up and her legs felt like jelly as she dragged herself away from the water's edge. Koa’s head was all she could see from this distance. Her sister grinned at her, tail flipping and splashing. Koa stared for a little while; then she was gone.
Harry gathered Ezi into his arms, his fingers slipping into hers. “It’s okay. I’m here. I’m safe,” he whispered into her temple, the violent beating of his mortal heart against her own.
“The water’s rising,” Dawson’s voice trembled, and in an instant they could all feel the water begin to churn around them. More waves started coming from the deep end despite there being no wind within the cave. Tall pillars of salt water started splashing at them, and one wave crashed so hard it slammed them into the cave wall. Still clinging to Harry, Ezili felt as if there was a crack in her skull as warm liquid trickled down her face. Harry slipped from her, and she realised the tide was pulling her away from him.
The water vibrated violently as the waves crashed onto the rocks and the walls, causing a deafening rumbling inside Ezi’s ears. Her mouth tasted of salt and blood and her sight was blurry yet she could make out Dawson’s limp body lying a few feet across. She didn’t know if he was still alive, and she wanted to shout at Harry to go check on his cousin, but Harry wouldn’t leave her. He was on all four, somehow managed not to be knocked over by the waves coming from the deep end as he crawled toward Ezi, hand reaching out for her to grasp.
It was happening too fast. One second there was a blinding light coming from behind her, and the next she heard a snap as a greasy large black tentacle clasped around her torso and pulled her back into the water. Harry shouted out her name as she was lifted off of the surface into the air, feet dangling helplessly. Her mother had appeared, now ten feet tall, and her fishtail had morphed into thick heavy tentacles. She had taken the form of a giant octopus, at least her lower half was. Koa’s head broke the surface once again, and another siren emerged beside her, then another one, and another one, until the entire army of sirens swarmed the water. One thing Ezi knew for a fact was that her mother loved to put on a show, and every show needed spectators.
As her tentacle brought Ezi closer to her, Ezi’s mother’s long sharp claws reached out and pinched Ezi’s jaw, guiding her face up to meet her ink-black eyes.
“Mother, please…Let him go…” Ezi muttered in Séren, but that wasn’t her mother anymore. That was the Sea Queen.
Her yellow fangs glinted as she smiled, breath reeking of death. “First, you betrayed me. Now, you come back here asking me to spare its life? Koa, take its heart.”
The sound of shattered glass startled Ezili. She turned her head and looked back over her shoulder. Harry was standing in the shallow end, holding half a broken glass bottle. It must have been washed into the cave along with all the other human litter. What was he going to do with that piece of glass? Did he really think that he could fight off Koa–
Before she even finished the thought, Harry aimed the sharp tip of the broken bottle at his own chest. Ezi could see the panic in Koa’s eyes as she looked back at the Sea Queen, who was frozen in shock.
Harry drew a sharp breath, blood dripping from his fingertips cut by the glass. “Either you let her go and have my heart, or neither of us would have it.”
“Harry, are you fucking insane?” Ezi cried, her heart thumping as if the edge of the glass was pressing into her own chest. No, he wouldn’t do it, would he?
“Stupid creature,” the Sea Queen drawled. “How special do you think you are? If not yours, there will be another heart to take.”
“I guess we’ll find out,” Harry said, sounding way too confident for his own sake. Ezi wished he would just shut up for once. It was him against all of them. Even if it had been only him versus the Sea Queen, he still wouldn’t have stood a chance.
All of a sudden, the Sea Queen’s tentacle lashed out with a curl of water that sent Ezi hurtling through the air. She sank deep into the water with the force of the impact before she felt Harry’s hand on hers, dragging her back up to the surface.
The open wound on her head continued to bleed and she could barely get up now. Someone would need to carry Dawson out of here. “Take Dawson and go,” she told Harry, but he wouldn’t move.
“I’m not leaving without you.”
“Don’t be stupid. If you don’t leave me, we’ll all be dead!”
“How sweet,” the Sea Queen’s voice filled Ezi with disgust.
Catching her breath, she looked back at the monster that had been once her mother. “I thought I could make you understand,” she murmured, but somehow the Sea Queen had heard it.
“Understand what?”
“Me,” Ezi said. “Them. They don’t want to hurt us, Mother. There are good humans, too.”
“They’ve brainwashed you, you fool!” The Sea Queen roared. “Stop being delusional and think that these creatures won’t turn their backs on you when they can. The only reason this one is here is because his life is on the line. Their love always comes with conditions.”
“You don’t even know what love is,” Ezi snapped. “True love is unconditional. That is why Harry is here, defending me, a siren, from my own mother!” Then, she turned to her sister. Koa was floating in the water, almost frozen as if she wasn’t sure what to do next. “Do you really think she’ll make you Queen after she’s killed me?” Ezi said, then to the other sirens. “She wants Harry’s heart for herself. She wants to rule both land and sea, and she doesn’t care whose lives that would cost.”
“You’re lying,” Koa said quietly. “Mother wants to protect us.”
“I am here to warn you, Koa. She’d kill both of us to keep her throne and–”
Before Ezi even finished the sentence, streams of light burst and spread into the water, through Ezi’s legs, scorching her body, her eyes. She squeezed them shut and took hold of her skull. The pain extended from her temple to the top of her head, all the way down to the back of her neck.
She heard her bones snap and felt her organs realign themselves. Her blood boiled, burning her inside out as her legs stayed stuck together no matter how violently she shook. She clutched at her chest, nails digging in, trying to claw her heart out as its beats turned into a thousand fists, like a living thing trapped inside her, desperate to escape.
The cave blurred, and all she could see was whiteness. She tried to cling to consciousness, but the air was choking her. She tasted salt and blood in the back of her mouth until she could only gasp and thrash on the rock.
“My sweet sweet daughter,” her mother’s voice echoed inside her brain. “To think that you were different from the rest of us.”
Ezi tried to stand up, but her legs were no longer there. Her tail splashed and splashed as her gills opened and closed desperately. When she saw the horrified look he was giving her, she knew she was no longer the girl he loved. She was now a monster once again.
“Harry, run…” Ezi tried to scream, but her voice was hoarse. She started clawing at her own throat, feeling as if something was burning inside.
“Koa, finish it,” commanded the Sea Queen. Koa hesitated, and then, she started to sing.
Harry stood there, frozen, completely hypnotised. It took Ezi a second to realise what her mother was going to do. She was going to have Harry kill her.
Koa continued to sing, and Harry followed the stream of her voice to the edge of the water. He bent and picked up the blood-stained piece of glass he’d held earlier. The light gleamed from its sharp edge, and Ezi tried to crawl away, but it was harder now with her slippery tail. Harry began to approach her.
Koa sang louder.
Harry got down on his knees beside Ezi and pinned her down by her throat. Ezi tasted the salt in her tears streaming down her face. Sirens never cried, and yet…
Their eyes locked, he raised the piece of broken glass. But then something seemed to click in his eyes, like flipping a switch, and the glass fell from his hand.
Koa stopped singing when she realised her siren song no longer worked on him. What was happening? Why was he suddenly immune? Ezi could tell how shocked everyone was, while Harry fell back on his backside, blinking away the lingering effect of Koa’s song.
“What are you doing? Go on!” the Sea Queen screeched, yet Koa remained baffled. When no one seemed to listen, the Sea Queen roared and raised her Trident, but Ezi was quick to shove Harry aside before the rocks behind them exploded from the force of the Sea Queen’s magic. Ezi snatched the broken glass and plunged right into the water.
“Catch her!”
Nobody moved. The sirens were no longer on their Queen’s side, but they weren’t on Ezi’s either. They were now simply spectators. Ezi glided beneath the waves towards the Sea Queen and drove the tip of the glass right into one of her large tentacles. The monster bellowed as Ezi clung onto another tentacle and stabbed and stabbed and ripped another one right off. The Sea Queen’s blood dyed the water black. Ezi was merciless now. She’d learned enough from all those fights with her sister throughout the years that you needed to be brutal to win. She took hold of the Sea Queen’s long white hair and hauled herself up to the Sea Queen’s back. The Sea Queen tried to throw her off, but Ezi’s claws dug right into her mother’s blue skin and her fangs into the flesh of her mother’s arm. The Trident slipped from the Sea Queen’s grip and collided hard with the water, glowing as it sank. Ezi immediately let go and dove after it. Voices and sounds were all muffled as she sank further through the murky water. She was so close to reaching the Trident when a tentacle lashed out and tugged her right back by the waist. She fought to break free, but one smack from her mother turned her vision white. The tentacle’s grip tightened until she heard her bones crack and the light began to fade out when suddenly, she was released.
It was Koa who was fighting off their mother as she screamed for Ezi to go. Then another siren jumped out and onto the Sea Queen’s back, another one attacked her from the side, and another one from below. Then you could no longer see the Sea Queen, just tentacles whipping helplessly before going limp.
Ezi swam away from the horror, with her spine seemingly broken. She didn’t know how she was still moving; she only knew that she had to. She swam until she found the Trident stuck to some rocks, and used the rest of her strength to carry it back to the surface. There she was assisted by other sirens who draped her exhausted body onto a boulder.
Harry called out her name as he hovered over her like a shield. He ran his hands over her shoulders and then down her arms. For a moment, she wasn’t sure why, and then she realised that he was checking for injuries. His fingers slid into her hair, and even though she was not, Ezi felt whole once again.
Koa and the sirens watched them for what seemed like a lifetime. When realisation sank in, Ezi felt a wave of guilt washing over her. Black blood still stained the water, though for a moment Ezi thought the Sea Queen couldn’t possibly be dead. Even if she hated her, there was something heart-rending pressing onto her chest.
She searched for her sister, who was now holding the Trident. “I’m sorry it has to be this way,” she told Koa.
“Don’t be,” Koa said. “You were right. She never wanted to protect us. I never…I never wanted you dead, but I wanted to believe Mother knew best. It wasn’t until I saw that Harry wasn’t affected by my siren song that it hit me how much he must have loved you, and you loved him. Mother had lied to us.”
“Why was I not affected by the song?” Harry asked, still holding Ezi’s scaled body in his arms as if she was the same Ezi he’d always known and not a monster from the deep.
“Your heart is Ezi’s and her alone,” Koa said. “No one can steal it. Not even with magic.”
Ezi finally glanced up and Harry smiled down at her for what felt like the first time. “See?” he said. “Told you I’d prove it.”
Ezi’s pained laugh was cut off by a small shuffle of movement behind her and Dawson coughing out water.
“Never thought I’d be happy to know he’s still alive,” Harry said, but then cast a sad look upon Ezi’s tail. “I guess you’re not coming with us, then?”
Ezi nodded. “I guess not…”
Harry said nothing else. Ezi felt like he wanted to say more, but he knew his words meant nothing now, so he just held her close and tried not to cry. They shared one last kiss, tasting the blood and sweat and seawater off each other’s mouths, and after what seemed like a lifetime, he finally let go of her and limped to his cousin. Ezi watched from the rock as Harry carried Dawson back to the small entrance to the cave.
When they were out of sight, Ezi turned back to her sister, who looked more like a queen than ever with the gleaming gold Trident in her hand.
Koa sighed as her expression softened. “Don’t ever say I’ve never done anything for you.”
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When Harry and Dawson made it out of the cave, the light was fading. The horizon was pink and the waves came rolling in with a gentle muffled roar and then broke into crisp white foam on the shore. Who would have thought the aftermath would be so agonisingly beautiful?
Harry dropped his cousin like a sag of flour onto the sand as Dawson continued to cough out water. At least he wasn’t dead. Very side character of him to be unconscious throughout most of the fight, but Harry wasn’t complaining since he now had something to gloat over from now on. I, the hero–well, sort of–and you, just Dawson.
However, even that idea couldn’t bring him peace. Would there ever be peace from now on? Now that he knew he’d abandoned the only love he’d ever had inside that sea cave? Now that he knew he could never be close to her again. He could mourn the dead, but what about someone who’d left this world with no trace left behind?
For a second, he thought he heard her voice calling out for him. His heavy heart wanted it to be true, yet he knew she was now with her family, and he would have to go back to his. But then, the voice sounded clearer and nearer.
“Harry.”
He turned and couldn’t believe in his own eyes. Ezi stumbled in with the waves, naked and unscathed. Witchcraft, dark magic, or whatever power the Sea Queen’s Trident possessed. He didn’t care. He rushed towards her and caught her in his arms, hers tightened around his neck, legs around his waist. He kissed her hard and gently and caressed her face and every inch of her to make sure she was real and he wasn’t hallucinating.
“You came back,” he sobbed.
“Don’t make me regret it,” she whispered.
“Never.” He said between kisses. “Never, ever, ever.”
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Epilogue
No one knew where Maggie went. She’d left the bookstore for Ezi and disappeared without a trace. Ezi didn’t blame her; there was too much risk now that her identity was no longer a secret, at least to a few of them, but Ezi liked to think that Maggie had moved to a seaside town where she could be near the ocean again and perhaps, again, fallen in love with a sailor.
Dawson and Harry no longer bickered all the time, and no matter how much they denied it, Ezi could tell that they had grown to appreciate one another more. Niall’s career as an influencer blew up after he’d featured both Ezi and Harry on his podcast so they could tell their made-up story about how they had started out fake dating but ended up falling in love for real. One thing Ezi had learned about humans was that they adored a tragic romance with a happy ending, so Harry and Ezi were once again welcomed back by the public with open arms. Harry finally sat down with his mother to talk about his frustrations in trying to live the life she wanted. The woman apologised to Harry for not realising all this time how much music meant to him. Ezi couldn’t forgive her mother, but she was glad Harry decided to give his another chance.
As for Ezi and Harry, they still lived together with their cat Chilli, and well, they were actually…
“Engaged,” Ezi said as she slammed the pile of books down on the table, sending dust flying and causing Harry to sneeze. “What kind of sister would I be if my sister wasn’t one of the firsts to know I’m engaged!”
Harry rubbed his nose with a finger. “Well, it’s not like it’s easy to just go visit your sister, dear.”
Ezi circled the table to come sit on his lap. It was a Monday afternoon, so the bookstore was almost empty. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be having this conversation in public.
“She’s a queen now,” Harry went on while playing with her hair. “She has…queen duties. You know, ruling over the seven seas isn’t easy.”
“I know…” Ezi frowned. “I just feel bad that I cannot break this news to her. And…well…I do miss her.”
“You see her every year on her birthday. I know it’s not a lot, but you have no other way to communicate with her unless she comes to the surface. Her birthday is coming soon, though. You can break the news to her then. We’ll take Chilli with us and spend a whole week at the beach house?”
The doorbell rang, and Ezi knew it was time to end the conversation. ���You’re right.” She sighed and got up. “I just hope I’m not a bad sister.”
“Actually, you are.”
Ezi paused right as she turned around. Koa waltzed in and picked up a random book to scrutinise the cover, unimpressed. She was wearing a sundress with her hair falling neatly down her back like an actual human girl.
Before Ezi or Harry could mutter a word, Koa said in accented English, “Don’t worry. No civilian was harmed. I did steal these clothes from a cruise ship, though. Hello, Harry, didn’t see you there.”
Harry only lifted his hand awkwardly to wave. He probably still believed Koa resented him for taking Ezi away. If only he’d known Koa was the one who had ‘banished’ Ezi from Ginevra, just so Ezi could have this life with him.
“Koa. I missed you.” Ezi strode towards her sister and pulled Koa into a hug. Surprisingly, her sister didn’t protest it.
“You’re disgusting, with all these human emotions,” Koa drawled. “But I missed you, too.” She brought her hands to Ezi’s back and tightened the hug. “Now, let me see that ugly giant rock on your finger.”
THE END.
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Night Light (from the Flatmate series)
...in which Y/N never turns off her night light.
"Wait for me in my room. It's the door on the right," he whispered to the girl whose name he'd already forgotten. He'd just met her an hour ago as he was leaving the club.
The girl kissed him drunkenly, and when she was gone, he came into Y/N's room to turn the light off. She'd fallen asleep with her book covering her face, so he removed the book, put it on her desk and left quietly.
A/N: I always fall asleep with the light on, and ever since I moved in with my boyfriend, it's become a routine for him to go into my room (we have separate rooms) to turn off the light for me. That was how I came up with this :)
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She forgot to turn off her night light. Again.
See, this was why Harry hated sharing a flat with someone else. He had reminded her so many times before to turn it off before she went to bed, but every night, she would doze off with her book still in her hands. No wonder their electricity bill last month was so high. He had hoped that this girl would be less annoying when she slept, but she always managed to find a way to get on his nerves.
After a long moment of standing outside her door (which she left open for some reason), he decided to come in and turn off the light on her bedside table.
In the morning, he reminded her again. She promised she would turn off the light tonight.
She didn't.
~~~
Harry came home late, stumbling into the flat with his arm around the girl. She giggled too loud, so he shushed her and gestured to Y/N's door. The living room was softly lit by the warm light coming from her room, but he knew she was too deep in her sleep to know that he was home.
"Wait for me in my room. It's the door on the right," he whispered to the girl whose name he'd already forgotten. He'd just met her an hour ago as he was leaving the club.
The girl kissed him drunkenly and when she was gone, he came into Y/N's room to turn the light off. She'd fallen asleep with her book covering her face, so he removed the book, put it on her desk and left quietly.
~~~
Harry was in Paris tonight with his friends for Layla's birthday.
Y/N had stopped responding to his messages, so he assumed she had fallen asleep. As he sat on the sofa, drinking cheap wine with his friends while a shitty EDM song was blasting from Louis' Bluetooth speaker, he thought about Y/N sleeping with her light on.
~~~
"You're awake?"
Y/N looked up at him from her laptop, face lit by the cool light from her screen. "Yeah, deadline."
"That's what you get for procrastinating," he smirked.
"Can you procrastinate annoying me? I can't deal with you right now."
"Need help?"
"No, thanks."
"You sure?"
She gave him a dismissive wave. "I'm sure. Thank you. Goodnight."
"Goodnight," he said. "Remember to turn off the light."
"I will."
Harry went to his room and lay in the dark for an hour or so. When he came back to check on her, she had fallen asleep and her light was still on.
~~~
Harry was well aware that he was drunk when he entered the flat as the room was spinning. He didn't know how he managed to make it to Y/N's room without knocking over furniture, but he wanted to give himself a pat on the back.
As expected, she'd fallen asleep, again, with the light on. He sat down on the edge of her bed, not because he wanted to, but because he felt so dizzy that standing only made it worse.
"Goodnight," he whispered to her, hesitated for a moment before turning off the light.
Right after he'd left her room, he went straight into the bathroom to throw up.
~~~
He had been avoiding her all day, for reasons even he didn't understand.
It was 1AM when he came into her room to turn off the light. Before he left, he told her something he wasn't brave enough to say when she was awake. He went back to bed, worried that she might have heard it.
She hadn't.
~~~
Harry tried to be as quiet as he could, but when he came in to turn off the light tonight, Y/N stirred awake.
She blinked sleepily at him. "Hi."
"Hi," he said nervously. "Just gonna turn the light off for you."
"Thank you," she said with a smile.
"Goodnight," he said and switched the light off.
"Goodnight. I love you."
The three words froze him when he turned away. They'd confessed their feelings to each other last night, so why did it still feel like the first time?
"I...love you, too," he said, smiling shyly at her. He was thinking of kissing her before he left, but she'd already buried herself under the duvet.
~~~
"Do you want to cuddle before bed?"
Her bed was warm and smelt like her. He gave her a lot of kisses as she read her book with her head on his chest. When she fell asleep, he reached over to turn off the light.
~~~
Harry came back late for a business dinner today and she was still awake.
"It's already midnight," he said, loosening his tie.
She smiled up from her book. "We couldn't go to bed without you."
He kissed her on the lips and then her baby bump. "I'll take a shower and join you both."
When he returned, she'd fallen asleep. Harry turned off the light and carefully slipped into bed.
~~~
"Ria fell asleep with the light on, again," Y/N complained as she returned to bed from her daughter's room.
Harry chuckled, pulling her into his arms. "Like mother, like daughter. I had to turn off your light for you for years."
"I had my reasons."
"Oh yeah? What were they?" he asked, stroking her hair.
She grinned up at him. "At first, I wanted to annoy you. Then you kept doing that so I didn't bother to turn off the light anymore."
"Why am I not surprised at all?" Harry laughed, but he was glad she'd deliberately done it in the first place. "Now could you turn off the light on your side, please?"
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