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thegoblinboy · 1 year

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Inspired by this post if you haven’t checked it out go check @resande art out it’s mind blowing how realistic it is

I wasn’t planning on participating in mermay until I seen this amazing peice of art linked above and the ideas started to cloud in. This is a quick one shot/blurb that I put together (: I had a lot of fun doing this and I probably might try writing more stuff out of my comfort zone like this one

The water was pitch black, darker then what Hawkins actual lake looked like. So black, that when Steve looked down into the water it felt like he was still looking up into the sky. The moon reflected off the water, a spitting image of the actual thing. (Which is how Reflections work Stephen) Steve's cold, rubbing his arms around himself as he was stranded in the upside down. That was supposed to be nonexistent, that's what the government had told him and the kids but yet here he was. Which made this whole situation even Stranger. There was no reason for him to be here, nor was there a reason for him to jump into the lake. It was as if he was a puppet to someone's game, his body being controlled by something else. Luring him into the deep end and pulling him down into the dark portal for the second time in his very short life. If he had a dime for every time he had been pulled by another force in this lake, he would have two. A thought that wasn't so comforting to him as he now sat on the side trying to gather himself. Like snapping from a dream he was slowly starting to gain control over his body again. He had been in some form of daze where his body moved by itself, and instead of waking up in his own bed he was waking up exactly where his dream had left off. So many questions to be answered and he doesn't know where to begin.

For one, why had he been out in the middle of the lake by himself in the first place? Going over the last couple hours of his life, he doesn't understand any of the reasons behind any action he done. Pulling a boat, that was coincidentally stranded off to the side set up just for him possibly, into a lake that he still had nightmares about seemed stupid. Something from a horror movie, that he would be yelling at the tv for even trying to normalize. Yet here he was. One of those dumbass characters who did something completely avoidable. He still doesn't understand where the urge to be near the lake yet dive into it had come from. Once again, he hasn't been in huge body of water for years now. Something was wrong, he needed to call a code red but whatever force that had lead him here had made sure to leave him mostly naked and alone. As if this was all planned out. Here he sat with no shoes, no socks and no shirt. Eerily similar to one of the last times he had been in this place. His first plan of action was to find clothes. Something to wear so he wasn't walking around naked in a apocalyptic like world. His survival instincts were heightened but his reflects weren't. It was still a tad difficult gaining control over his own body. Like whatever had pulled the strings to get him here still had a finger on one of the threads, gently strumming the string causing small vibrations to go up and down Steve's back. His whole body was vibrating now that he thought about it.

Though his body wasn't, his mind was staying on high alert. Hyper-vigilant in ways that only a warrior could be. Hearing everything that was currently taking place around him. Which is why when a small splash is heard from the lake he tenses up and try's to squint in the dark. It could easily have been mistaken for a small fish moving in the water, but this was the upside down. When a crack of stick is heard off to his right he's startled, digging his feet into the dirt to make a attempt at pulling himself up on this slight hill. Heart raising, chest heaving as he stumbles back only a few inches. Not that far as his body still felt heavy, like he had been hit with a tranquilizer. He was afraid, alone and if anything happened there was no way he was walking out of it alone. That thought alone raises his anxiety more, and the determination to live for Robin. For Dustin who was close to adult hood, who needed a big brothers guidance to manhood. Not only could he hear everything happening around him, he could feel everything. The cool and sharp edges of rocks digging into his feet creating small painful cuts on his heels and toes to the uncomfortable way he was sitting on the ground.

Feeling so much at once that he doesn't even react to the slight pain he felt through out his body. He doesn't even think about the numerous infections he could possibly get as the water from the lake moves at its own free will. Splashing up and hitting his feet. Sending a shiver up his body again. His blood mixing into the dark water, so dark that he couldn't even see the red turn to a light pink as it mixes in with what was normally clear liquid. Images of blood rinsing from his body, becoming clouded in his bath water is what triggers him into action. Coming up with a plan. His own personal Eureka as he remembers that this was just a flipped version of his Hawkins. He needed to get to the Harrington residence to get clothes on his body. Without them he would only grow colder, become sick and it would only slow him down. Letting anything to come out and eat him alive. He needed to stay alive, not for himself but for Dustin and Robin who were most likely freaking out about him. And if they weren't now, they would be soon when they discovered his empty house.

That thought along gives him the motivation to stumble up onto his feet, gaining some control over his body and over his mind. Pulling a hand through his damp hair as he looks out at the lake, never moving his eyes away from it. That gut feeling telling him that he shouldn't turn his back to it. Something was out there, lurking and waiting for him to let his guard down. Moving forward he quickly tries to rinse his feet off in the water, not liking the grimy feeling of dirt and stones between his toes. But it was no use, the dirt and rocks would stick back to his skin again irritating him more then it probably should have. Completely irrational compared to the situation he was in. Not even thinking about how his blood was mixing into the water, oblivious to what lurked in the water. Sensing something there, but unsure of what. He's stepping back after a moment beginning to work his way up the small path. Walking backwards up a hill wasn't easy, but there was definitely something watching him from the water.

Steve begins to wipe the sweat and dirt from his grimy face before crossing his arms around the middle part of his body again. Shaking, as his teeth shattered from the uncomfortable bite that the cold air left on his skin. Part way up the hill as he doesn't move his eyes away from the water. Not afraid of what possibly could be behind him, but about what could be in front of him. Then he stops again. Unsure why, until he hears the loud splashing of water again. Once again he can't see what was causing it, and he doesn't care to find out as he quickly turns on his heel in a attempt to run up the hill. Cutting his feet up only more as he trips over a tree branch that stuck out. As if it just appeared out of thin air. Falling forward with a loud grunt, he lands on his hands and knees. Scraping both up pretty good with a loud groan. He moves trying to get up again but he has no control over his body again, staying frozen in that specific position. Inside, he was mentally kicking himself in the ass. How did he let himself get so rusty, it had only been three years since they defeated Vecna. Three short and amazing years growing closer to the next decade. A fresh start, and hopes of not having any supernatural occurrences happening. But what ever was going on right now, seemed to have something else in mind.

He can hear something moving out of the water, the way the dirt and earth sound as if something was sliding up the ground. Like a snake. Steve can't even close his eyes from fear. All confidence of surviving this disappearing as he feels parts of his body shake from fear. In the back of his mind it was a little bit of a relief to have some control. Forcing his head to look over his shoulder, eyes wide as whatever that was forcing him to stay in place wanted his head to look forward. He try's to move as his heart starts to race faster. Seeing a glimpse of a tail moving around on the ground. Scale like, reminding him of a snake but yet not quite the same. Taking a shaky gasp he forces his limbs to move. Trying to get past whatever mental block that was holding him back. Failing once again, feeling the creature lurking closer. At a last attempt of survival Steve try’s to tune his brain into a random music station, that happened to have his favorite song. Though, he couldn’t decide in that moment and he ends up imagining that he was listening to the beginning cords of whatever song Dustin played nonstop. Some Black Sabbath song, as he feels it working a bit. Feeling the creature stopping where ever it laid as Steve takes a gasp of breath pushing himself up forward. Pants falling down his hips a but as his curiosity gets the best of him and he’s looking behind himself and seeing exactly what was coming towards him.

His face pales as he recognizes who it was. The brown curls and matching brown eyes that had left a stain on him for years. Steve stumbles back, falling on his ass as he accepts his fate. Shivering as the cold eats through him more. His arms falling back and hitting one of the vines that he had made a attempt at not touching. No words are said between the two, the other seemed to be equally in shock. His ears were not normal, similar to that of bat wings, his hair was wet and way longer then what Steve remembered it being, pink scars were over his skin wrapping around his arms and chest. Even though he was supposed to be some form of monster, he was beautiful. A loud noise cracks in the sky, both of them coming down from the shock as a vine wraps itself around Steve. Wrapping itself around his waist knocking the wind out of him as his eyes grow wide with fear. A chocked scream leaving him as he’s tugged away, cuts going up and down his back as Eddie reaches out for him. Hand moving and successfully grabbing at his angle. Skin on slimy skin as Steve’s eyes roll back in his head as he’s seeing images transferring into his head. They all go by so fast he can’t catch much before he’s opening his eyes again under water. Forcing himself up for air as water fall down his skin panting, gasping for air as he’s once again soaked in what looks to be his own bathtub. Alone. Shower curtain wide open as he felt tripped out. He doesn’t know what’s happening but he didn’t like it.

Moving, he carefully moves out of the water, that was black and not clear. Lake water. He wipes his face off as he stumbles back, letting his brain come back to as he quickly pushes himself to get to his room. Taking less then five seconds to toss on whatever he found first. Slipping dry clothes on, that he was sure would only get wet at some point. He freezes as he hears something. From outside a hideous laugh echos through the night. Unsure of what, and not wanting to know he quickly scurry’s to find a hiding spot. Passing the bathroom again, only to get pulled back in by a long scaly tail. A attempt at screaming failing as the tail wraps around him completely, part of it muffling his scream as it goes around his mouth. Pulling him into the bathroom aggressively. As predicted, the dry clothes don’t last long as he’s dumped back into a bath tub. A hand moving to close the shower curtain to close it quickly with a whoosh. Steve’s shaking from the cold as he quickly makes a attempt at not looking at the bloody hand prints on the curtain. Moving his eyes to look at who had him. Eddies eyes are staring back at him, wide and curious.

Unraveling his tail from Steve’s mouth he quickly replaces it with his hand. “She can’t get us if we are in water.” He says gently, as if that made any sense. Steve frowns confused as he feels the others tail moving around the water. Starting to wrap itself around Steve, who begins to feel the warmth. Relaxing as his shaky breath calms down a bit. Fear written in his eyes as he try’s to ask anything. Try to gather more of a understanding. “I’m so sorry Steve, normally it’s just a wolf or some animal that I lure down here. This has never happened before.” Eddies eyes are filling with tears as his face goes a bit pink. Steve’s more confused, nothing making sense as he feels something coming towards them. Moving as he feels the others hand back on his face. Images going through his head again, eyes rolled back as everything is explained to him. Taking a shaky breath as he comes down from whatever that was he realizes he’s wrapped around the other. Who seemed relax about the whole situation. Though that quickly changes as a loud voice booms from downstairs.

“You plan on hiding forever Harrington!” The voice is eerily familiar, he’s about to ask who but once again Eddie shows him. Shows him the slightly red hair, the bloody face of Barb, who had been assumed to have drowned in his pool. Shaking with more fear he looks at Eddie with even wider eyes as he doesn’t let himself let go of Eddie. He has always been a grabber when he was terrified, especially during horror movies. The other doesn’t seem to mind once again, and instead moves burying his face into his chest instead.

“Don’t worry Stevie, I’ll get you out of here.”

#resandtiys #mermay #mermaid Eddie munson #steddie #stranger things #eddie munson #steve x eddie #steve harrington #bxb #steveharrington #steveddie #eddie stranger things #steve and eddie

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ao3feed-iwaoi · 1 year

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A Heart, Stolen and Given

Read this masterpiece on AO3 at https://ift.tt/aA0hGe2

by mrhenn1669

When Emi, a reef healer, loses her most precious belonging, she will do anything to get it back. Even embark on a mission with two thieves and a royal. The thieves will make her question every moral she ever held dear. The King’s fiancé will make it clear she knows nothing about the underwater world she lives in if the monsters chasing her haven't already gotten the job done.

Might change this summary if I come up with something better. Can read as a xreader story, just without the 'x' part. I just wanted some wholesome mermaid shit, so here you go.

Words: 2605, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Haikyuu!!

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: Multi

Characters: Iwaizumi Hajime, Kageyama Tobio, Sugawara Koushi, Miya Atsumu, Original Female Character(s), Oikawa Tooru, Ushijima Wakatoshi, Sawamura Daichi, Ennoshita Chikara, Oohira Reon, Aone Takanobu, Kita Shinsuke, Ojiro Aran, Bokuto Koutarou, Kuroo Tetsurou, Sakusa Kiyoomi, Komori Motoya

Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi, Miya Atsumu/Sakusa Kiyoomi, Iwaizumi Hajime & Kageyama Tobio, Iwaizumi Hajime & Original Female Character(s), Kageyama Tobio & Sugawara Koushi, Kageyama Tobio & Original Female Character(s), Sugawara Koushi & Original Female Character(s)

Additional Tags: tons of cameos, I didn't even name all the characters, I'm tired, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternative Universe - Mermaids, MerMay 2023, MerMay, Chaotic Sugawara Koushi, Sugawara Koushi is a Little Shit, Thief! Sugawara Koushi, Not Beta Read, really no fish have read this yet, Light Angst, I've hurt Kageyama and I only partly feel bad for it, Mild Gore, I rather be safe then sorry on the warnings, Minor Character Death

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/aA0hGe2

#iwaoi #iwaizumi hajime #oikawa tooru #ao3feed-iwaoi #haikyuu!!

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levmada · 2 years

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Canal pt.1: Monster or Man

work summary » You think the greatest feat of your career is upon you when a mythical creature is stolen from the sea and thrust into your life—then, stubbornly, into your heart.

You both learn there is more to each other than circumstances, and appearances, let on—until an accident threatens to tear you apart. Soon, both of your fates depend on defending everything you’ve worked to build, or setting him free.

ch.summary: The opportunity of a lifetime is upon you, not only for the sake of your career, present and future—but your hero. Whether you can handle a vicious merman comes into severe question, but it soon becomes obvious that "vicious" is far too harsh a word.

content/warnings: chaotic+lovable Hange, themes of grief (past loss of a parent), kind of a meet-cute, very vague description of injury/blood, crippling perfectionism issues, anesthesia awareness, Levi is secretly adorable

wc: ~8.1k

a/n: hi hi! i feel like i wrote a chapter of smth at reasonable length for once, unfortunately there's some exposition (3 parts is 3 parts), so it's a good thing removing unnecessary scenes makes part 2 halfway done!

no way im finishing this before the end of mermay tho

also, im trying to write in past tense for the first time so pls excuse mistakes.

work masterpost・next part

Leading to your own little world, Sector 3, was a long, trailing hallway Hange (Dr. Zöe, you should refer to them as) referred to as the ‘canal’. You could, and you often did scoff at their unprofessionalism, but you couldn’t bring yourself to disagree.

In the mouth of its sealed sliding door, you slipped on your sticky gloves and plastic face shield—tasks you used to agonize over, years and years ago. These days it was more like putting on a second skin.

Today, Berner didn’t lecture you on why in the world you kept in your jingly earrings after all these years if you were forced to remove them every time you step into your own sector; that was your guarantee that Hange hadn’t exaggerated—that today was not only special, but extraordinary.

They always kept a perpetual bounce in their step, but today it was hard to keep up with them. Above you the floodlights buzzed. Berner could only try to keep up as they fidgeted, bounced, and rambled: “Oh, don’t be a party-pooper. I want to keep it a surprise. You’ve never seen anything like this, I guarantee it, and, ah!—I’m so excited I can’t wait.”

You chuckled. “Do you know how unprofessional you sound?”

“If I haven’t changed after 10 years, don’t expect a change yet!”

“You know I don’t like surprises.” You tuck your hair behind your ear. “Please? I’m even saying please. I’d like to know about the goings-on in my own sector.”

“D’awe, you’re so cute.”

Scoffing, you shake your head. You feel red. “Erwin loves to talk, but he just called this urgent, which could mean anything, knowing him.”

They burst into more giggles as Berner made a pained noise behind you both. Directly beneath the overhead floodlight at the very end of the hallway, Hange stopped dead, causing Moblit to smack right into them. They promptly ignored them, and then, with a resounding sigh, they swiped three crinkled photographs from the endless depths of their lab coat.

You stared at them like you’ve just been offered a handful of dope. “And where did you get these?”

“Not by following protocol,” they murmured mischievously, “that’s for sure.”

“Dr. Zöe—” Moblit tried, but the crisp photos, recently printed, were already in your hands. You inspected the backs first for additional information, but there wasn’t much: today’s date and a serial number, which identified any boat on any and all expeditions; these were taken on an ordinary fishing boat.

You whistled severely, as if surveying a bad crime scene, which you might as well have been. At first, you think you were staring at some gutted, red fish, but it was blood—bright red upon bright red upon a glossy white boat deck; parts looked like someone dipped a red paintbrush and flicked it at a clean canvas, but it was all smeared severely, like someone tried to mop it up and gave up.

Hange was jabbering something, but you weren’t listening. The next one was the deck again, but with four severe gouges taken out of the glossy teak—a synthetic material that didn’t scratch easy. This was the work of a very strong, pissed off animal.

Moblit shook you both. “We’re going to be late, you two.”

“It’s just like Nessie, or the colossal squid! A real-life mermaid, but a man! With the tail of a fish!” Hange was whispering, more like hissing, into your ear. At that moment Director Erwin, donning scrubs for once, appeared at the end of the canal. He parted the rubber flaps and called for you all, expectantly.

You cursed under your breath. Moblit abruptly cut in front of you as you both moved on side-by-side.

While trying to process what they just said, you scrambled for the last photo. “Say again, Hans?”

The last one—the image blurred by the shaking photographer—carried weapons. You were able to make out a few, mainly spears; one was split in half like a pencil, but all were painted in blood.

Their big brown eyes sparkled. “A man. With a fish tail. I heard all this secondhand but apparently there were three—but he was the only one who made it. Poor thing fought as hard as he could, and in the end it took five shots to tranquilize him. Can you believe it?”

“Hange—”

“Oh, I know it’s gory, but—” they throw their hands up, “—isn’t this incredible!?” they cry out. Your colleagues—including Mike and Nanaba, heads of their own sectors—now swarmed you two, and winced at the sound.

Information was on a need-to-know basis only, you found out: the Director, of course, was the only person who knew anything about him; the only exception was Hange, who got what they could through more illicit methods. You get the feeling they spoke to Armin—the overseer of the marina itself—who spoke to someone, or someones, who saw this supposed ‘merman’ firsthand.

You believed them, though. Sector 3 specialized in large sea-mammals, the bigger the better.

A merman, you thought. Hope pounded in your chest. This better be true.

The doorway was only welcoming for one person, so you were forced to cram to get in, but the crowd parted for you, first. Your reputation demanded it.

Erwin, formal and confident as always, already stood waiting beside a towering metal cylinder as wide as two double-doors. He nodded knowingly, and you nodded in return.

You forced a straight face; you couldn’t let yourself get too excited in case you were let down. Usually, aquariums like these were used as incubation tanks for pregnant orcas. Thus the glass wrapping around was thick, not to mention the sleek metal casing itself; they were also specially fashioned to allow more oxygen to circulate than any given tank a creature was kept in.

Thrill washed over your belly. An extraordinary day, indeed.

Once the few select personnel besides you, Mike, Nanaba and Hange were gathered, Director Erwin spoke frankly. Unfortunately, he gave the same report Hange had given you earlier, just reworded. Your interest only climbed, like balancing atop a high cliff, so high the sea was no more than a blue floor, preparing to jump.

You thumbed at the photographs now tucked away in your pocket as Erwin nodded to Hange, who clapped their hands once, bright and loud. They grandly presented the tank with both their arms thrown out to the side.

“Well then—doctor? Ready to take a look?” Hange asked, sounding genuinely seductive. “Up close and personal?”

You wanted to leap at the chance. Only briefly, lips slightly parted and eyes round, you shared a cautionary look with Erwin, who smiled and gave you a look that read, ‘Well? It’s up to you.’

Now that you were making the leap you crossed your arms, finally grinning and nodded for Hange to continue. On cue, your colleagues tensed and the air became like oil; no matter that your team was present, as well as the heads of each sector for that matter.

Hange fiddled with the keypad etched into the side of the dome. With a cheerful beeping noise, the metal casing began its steady slide open, like two walls crawling away from each other.

Even your jaw fell slack at the sight before you. At first, and brief glance, what you saw is an unconscious man suspended in still, distilled water—coated in rolls upon rolls of thick bandages, but a man nonetheless—following one hell of a fight. Now the photographs made sense.

So taken by his face, you studied the webbed curve of his ears before the obvious; what looked to be regular cartilage bled into a warm blue color, so you craned your neck to get a better look. You then had a front row seat to the gills which gently contracted just a tad below one of his ears—just as a normal fish has.

The man wore an uncannily neat haircut too: short, chopped, and a color so dark it could rival midnight. Your eyes raked his midsection, and even beneath the bandages it was plain to see he was well-built.

Not to mention—

A shocked breath fell off your lips as nervous chatter bubbled up around you. Moblit confirmed his height as just over 5 feet, but the long, hulking length of his tail made him look enormous. The tail .

You caught the end of a sentence behind you: “—a sea monster.”

The appendage was not simply one boring shade of blue; if you could’ve put this beast under a microscope, you still wouldn’t have been able to fully capture its speckled azure, its milky blues, the dashes of midnight, some the hue of rich jewels, the ocean at sunrise, a clean afternoon sky…

Like scattered pebbles, scales erupted in random spots where his hipbones should’ve been, and swallowed the entire lower half of his body in a fish’s tail where there ought to have been legs—if this was a man.

Webbed tailfins, similar to his ears, flared gently, wading in the water on either side of his waist.

You felt like Hange at that moment. You wanted to press your face to the glass to ogle the powerful fin kissing the flat metal bottom of the tank, but Hange beat you to it.

In their excitement—as always, never mind what Moblit told them—they did something outrageous and dangerous. They planted their palms down dead in the center and gawked up at his sleeping face. Hungrily.

“Zöe!”

That was Erwin, but it was too late: they launched up on their tiptoes, and as if he had been waiting for this moment, he came alive inside the tank, thrusting his fists out in the direction of Hange’s face with such force the tank shook—helped by the whips of his powerful tail.

Hange shouted a curse and launched back in Mike. Everyone froze for a moment; it was the kind of pause that erupts when a car explodes in a crowded street before the chaos begins.

He, it, snarled at all of you, bubbles streaming up from his mouth. The sound could only be compared to a drowning bear.

You were the first to pounce on the keypad, thrusting the thick metal halves back the way they were so all that remained was the twist in his venomous expression, the murder in his eyes; his sharpened talons made a horrible screech, like nails on a chalkboard. The glass would be scarred.

You looked on in frightened awe. There was no chance of him making even a dent in it, and yet he pushed on anyway. Fear or excitement—primal, burnt, unmistakable—pounded through your head and ran thick in your veins.

“That’s enough!” Erwin barked. He wrangled the situation, mostly those who bore witness—especially a red-faced Hange. It was the first time in a long time when, after they pulled a stunt like this, they shared your expression of bewildered fear.

No one stayed behind except you, Hange, and Erwin—but he stayed the same. The square window made his face perfectly visible; his curled lip displayed teeth like a human’s, a daggered glower holding gunmetal eyes like a human’s, and the murderous rage plenty of humans are capable of.

You wondered who those other two were that were like him, those who died. If he was capable of attachment, of relation, then who were they? Family? Friends?

Erwin was busy laying into Hange, so you were the only one left staring up wide-eyed while he kept that same hate-ridden expression. Either brave or stupid, you didn’t care.

Eventually, he seemed to realize his efforts—Could he have possibly waited for the perfect moment to break the glass? To terrify us? —were futile. The pounding stopped, but his lips remained curled in a snarl, sharp eyes tearing through you from above. He waited for your next move.

Behind your forced neutral expression, you felt in your blood that behind his eyes lied cold, hard intelligence. Monster or man, you couldn’t show your fear if you wanted any hope to communicate effectively in the future. It was that simple to you.

Two voices strained and rose behind you; Hange’s was the first to fall for obvious reasons. Their outright genius, and your good word, had saved them their job from the brink many times in the past.

“It will not happen again,” Hange repeated after Erwin. “I had no idea he was capable of planning!”

The creature (Could he have a name? Likely, if he was found with others) antagonized you still. It never weakened, never relented.

You wondered how, and why, and where; you held no concrete questions, only a special yearning sprouted from plain ignorance. What if he could talk? Where had he come from?

No matter the challenge, you wanted to figure him out—all the way from the deep dark depths of his past to this very moment in time.

Then Erwin called your name, and the spell was abruptly broken. “I want to speak to you in private. Dr. Zöe, you’re dismissed.”

Hange faltered. “You don’t mean dismissed, dismissed, correct?”

“No,” Erwin sighed, tired, but no longer angry.

After you nodded them away, you asked him, “Are you worried he can understand us?”

Erwin put on one of his trademark smiles, the one that dripped wit. “I’d be worried if it didn’t, after all the sacrifices that were made to capture it.”

As he spoke, you followed him through another pair of sliding metal double-doors. “You and Dr. Zöe are the only ones that call it ‘he’. Did you notice?”

You smirk, just a little. “Yes, well—appearances don’t make the man, don’t you think?”

He chuckled. “I have to agree.”

You and the Director shared a long, winding history all the way back to graduate school where he had taught, and even had coached you on your dissertation. Even though you were no longer a long-running teacher’s pet—even in high school, when you hadn’t been proud of it—years later your back-and-forth with him remained the same.

The room you stood in now was standard use for security, crammed with monitors and control consoles that gave eyes to every corner of Sector 3; yours out of the five the facility holds. It’s the perfect place for sensitive discussion.

Erwin explained everything he knew: A fisherman had been the one who spotted the three of them, and he had also been the one who had called others to aid him in throwing out a blanketed, barbed net without consulting facility staff. They had had no way of knowing what they were dealing with.

But by then it had been too late, and three creatures just like him had gone on the offensive; one, for her size and shape, had seemed to be a young female.

“None except the female were affected by what tranquilizers were on board, but by the time it was over, it had already succumbed to its wounds,” he tells you gravely. “The other male died as well.”

You hummed, short and stressed. Only so much information can be gathered from, for lack of a better word, dead bodies. “It’s hard to believe deadly force was necessary.”

Erwin’s expression grew tight. “Three fishermen and two researchers died, four of those fatalities due to, well, the man. Those on the deck had no choice, but even if they did, neither of us were there to change their minds.”

You were stunned into silence. No wonder everyone had been afraid, but would it have made you a bad person that that information intrigued you further?

“Did they speak a language?”

“Not on the ship,” Erwin replied. He smiled again. “You’re still interested in this case, then.”

You huffed a laugh and looked away. If it were anyone else (excluding Hange, you imagine), you’d be called heartless for your persistence. You’d be a fool not to be wary of a creature like this, but his potential spoke to you louder than your fear.

Yes, you were interested.

“If he doesn’t have a name, then I’ll assign him a number,” you mused. “Is this your way of assigning him to me, Director?”

That trademark smile. “It is."

Your first three encounters with the subject (despite what you had told Erwin, you decided not to assign him a name or number until you knew for certain whether he was capable of giving one) reminded you more of autopsies than appointments: he was too volatile to be kept conscious around the staff at first.

On the first day, a couple more after he was captured, you tugged on your rubber gloves beside two of your most trusted assistants beside you: Nifa and Petra.

Together you collected blood and hair samples, as well as a clipping from one of his nails. They were more like talons, but you opted not to trim the rest while you were at it—the procedure was invasive enough already.

And, if you angered him, it’d be harder to earn his trust.

While Petra scooted the cart along containing the samples, you further popped open the plexiglass domed top until it gaped open.

Inside what would serve as his home for the foreseeable future, he idled on his back with his arms pinned by his sides, unconscious and restrained. Enough heated salt water circulated from the tank’s various tubes and pipes that when you lowered your hands to turn his head towards the ceiling, a few ripples kissed his chin.

Your mind wasn’t so narrow to assume the tank was anything more than a drop of water compared to that endless blue sea. It was tragic, but good intentions always shined on most (injured, disabled, or sick) animals the facility took in—just not in this case, arguably.

Your opinion? This would no doubt be worth it in the end.

You sighed silently as you skirted your gloved pointer finger across the delicate, almost iridescent scales decorating his high cheekbones. They were very thin, indistinguishable from the ones decorating his hips.

Now that you could examine him more closely, you dove right in.

His wounds healed quickly, certainly inhumanly so. There was no more need for bandages after day five. Incredible.

His tail, that brilliant cacophony of blues, began its wide slope where his hipbones didn’t exist. Long fins, firm yet slippery, decorated each side. You imagined he used these to maneuver easier in the water.

Further down his tail, just before it unfurls into a tough, flexible clam shell, was thick enough to rival your forearm.

What a wild, beautiful creature. Silently you marveled, a smile pinching your cheeks without your realizing.

Now onto your least favorite part: his face—not because he was hard to look at in any way, but because it was the opposite. For a sea creature, he was uncannily handsome. Strong, yet feminine facial structure, and soft features.

It was creepy.

Carefully you carded his bangs away, keeping an eye on the display to your left showing rows of colored lines: his vitals.

It was imperative he didn’t wake up during this exam: besides the trauma, and the aches and pains that would be the first to greet him, the sticky pads on his chest and clipped to his fingertips gave you the readings; if he broke free, which you wouldn’t put past him, the paperwork for damaged equipment would be a bitch to fill out.

Your own safety was pointless to worry about. Thick glaring restraints bridged not only his wrists, but his neck and the dead-center of his tail.

Regardless, you walked a precarious tightrope here. Not only were the stakes high, but you had given him a limited dose of anesthesia. His x-rays showed that—despite all his human characteristics—his lungs are much larger than a humans to subsist underwater for unimaginable stretches of time.

Supplying him with a constant dose was too big of a risk. He was too special.

With a clinical touch, you examined beneath his eyelids for more abnormalities, beside yourself with interest. There were so many possibilities: light-sensitivity, maybe he was nocturnal and perhaps even colorblind like most sea animals.

You half expected him to snap to life again, biting, thrashing, chomping—but he remained as still as ever inside the tank.

His iris was a gloomy pool of gunmetal and dark waters, but you didn’t pause to ogle. You recorded down your findings as usual, set down the clipboard with a small clatter, before charging ahead. With his jaw cradled in both hands, you parted his lips slightly, but you didn’t even get that far.

Your attention snapped to the monitor. The endless stream of lines, his heartrate, spiked aggressively in kind with the rising beep-beep-beep.

You hissed a curse and snatched the oxygen mask by your side. More anesthesia.

Heart pounding, you struggled to snap the buckles around his head with his head swaying from side to side the way it was.

When his eyes pinched tight and you were still one buckle short, you knew it was too late and ripped the mask off. It was your fault he lurched to life with that awful a gagging sound, caused by his binds buckling on their screws.

His eyes flew open, expression twisted into deadly surprise. The rest was a mystery; you were too busy rounding the tank. Your lab coat billowed wildly behind you as you lurched it up before it slammed shut like a cement block slamming into concrete.

Somehow, he fought hard enough to rock the water to the domed top. Your equipment, shredded. The tank, wobbled by the wild flopping of that fierce tail. No wonder it had taken five men to overpower him on that boat.

But the fight drained from him quickly. You watched from the sidelines, fingering with your lanyard; clipped on was a fat yellow button that would alert security, but the anxiety evaporated now that there was no need.

His chest heaved hard and his back bowed back sluggishly to escape the restraints. It was useless, which made it that much harder to watch.

At least dropping restraints was procedure for these types of things. You thumbed the control panel until they shot back, but there was no pounding on the walls. The tank was still.

You waited on bated breath. The look on his face, you could have only compared it to a hurt turtle as he pawed at the glass. Left in his wake were pale, jutting lines from his nails.

You knew there wasn’t a crumb of comfort he would accept from the person at the scene of the crime, so you turned your back for the door.

Painkillers would be perfect—the tanks of which weren’t on hand in that room. You knew how to install them yourself.

Only, right as the sliding door whooshed open, you smacked right into Nifa, who—thank god—wasn’t carrying anything important. An orange crate crammed with protective equipment clattered to the floor.

You told her what you needed in a flurry of sentences, but she easily peered past your shoulder to get an eyeful of the disaster ensuing behind you. Your stomach dropped like a stone in a lake.

“What—?” She brushed past you a few paces, looking on in exasperated devastation. What she saw was his face twisted into a grimace, his fists flexed hard over his chest.

She whirled around. “W-Why medicate it? We should just anesthetize it again, there’s so much left to do—”

“He’s in no condition to keep going,” you argued, and stepped forward. “Waking up from anesthesia in the middle of a procedure is traumatic enough, just as it is for any other animal.”

She opened her mouth, closed it, then jabs a finger in his direction helplessly. “I have to disagree, doctor. With how precious—”

“Exactly,” you interrupted. “He’s precious, which is half the reason you’ll do what I tell you. The other half is because I told you to do it.”

His eyes had gone wide and afraid now, having noticed Nifa. Whining plastic tore through the air as he clawed and snarled, a low and dangerous sound. His ears, shockingly blue, flared out wide.

It was his only option, you knew. He was only acting out out of desperation—and that made you snap.

“Go, Nifa!” you barked, and mimicked her by pointing at the door. “Now! Not another word.”

Tearfully, she did. You breathed hard, hands shaking on the knobs of the control pad as you set about making him more comfortable.

You had a habit of muttering under pressure, and now you murmured, “Just one second, I’ve got it, I’ve got it it’s almost over…”

The water tank broke into a chugging noise, which only served to startle him more: his head shot about wildly in search for the source of the noise, hissing at nothing.

You rounded the tank, standing none too close to him, and put your hands up in surrender.

“It’s okay!” you said, in as reassuring a tone you were capable of. “I’m warming the water, so it’s gonna circulate faster for a minute. The air is also decompressing, so you can breathe.”

A sound rumbled in his chest, brow sunken in defiance as the water inside the tank swelled. What you said didn’t register, that much was clear—but you couldn’t be wrong about him.

So, you put it in simpler terms instead.

To your relief, he relented a little. Where he was curled up as far away from you as he could get, he curled up a little more, his tail bumping the glass, and finally laid his head down.

Being half-submerged didn’t bother him of course. His expression didn’t change, but the day had clearly caught up with him.

“Good. No more,” you told him, and you meant it. You may have been ambitious, but you knew when to stop. “We’re done.”

This is exactly what you told Nifa and Petra later, after taking the canisters the former retrieved. After Petra helped you set them down by the tank, looking apprehensive, you excused them both to other jobs. You wouldn’t forget Nifa’s insubordination—not by a long shot.

Then it was back to work. He fought sleep in hard blinks as he peered over the edge at your crouched form, installing the hulking white tanks.

“Painkillers,” you offered, feeling his mild suspicion. You didn’t look up. Out of a lack of response, you over-explained when only a muffled scoff broke the air: what was going to happen, and how it would make him feel.

Once it was all said and done, you stood, swiping your forehead of a thin sheen of sweat.

His blue-greys, opened into slits, watched you without faltering. You stared back in case words left his half-parted lips, but you knew he could tell what you wanted; he snapped his jaw shut.

A little closer. He inched back, but didn’t snarl.

“Did you hear what I told my assistant earlier? The woman that was here?”

After several beats, he nodded and made a light clicking sound. That meant that he was content, from your experience with dolphins.

He of course wasn’t a dolphin, but you took what you could get.

And it was the truth. Your humane techniques were a big reason you headed the sector for exotic sea animals in the first place.

You tried to explain that part to him too. When it came to ‘humane techniques’, his brow only knitted in sour confusion, but he knew 'truth'. No smiles, but you were satisfied.

You cleared your throat. “I’ll remain—” you recalled his limited understanding of your language, “I’ll be here for the next hour, for you. Then I have to go. You can sleep, if you want. You should.”

He said nothing, as usual; there was only a disconcerted little him. As you had for the entirety of this nightmare, you settled for the bare minimum.

Only when you were seated on the nearby stool—pivoting its wheels from one spot in the room to another to wrap your research up and contact the Director on this development—did he finally move.

His sneaky shifting reminded you of a mime who froze when he was being looked at, and came alive when he wasn’t. Light water swished in the tank as he maneuvered onto his other side; that massive tail curled with his frame, unable to bend completely.

To your surprise, he didn’t so much as shut his eyes for longer than a long blink for the whole hour. The painkillers couldn’t put an elephant to sleep, but they were always effective. That dose was ordinary for creatures almost twice his size.

He didn’t trust you, but could you blame him? Did you have a right for frustration to roil beneath your skin?

How could you slip up, making such a disastrous mistake? You were too lenient in the anesthesia; at the same time, you were tearing down the path blind. Nobody even knew something like him existed before a couple days ago.

Still inexcusable, you settled on.

At the end of the hour, you only briefly cracked open the tank. You needed to retrieve the oximeter and untangle the cords that had gotten twisted around in all that thrashing—which you prefaced before you acted.

You felt ridiculous asking for consent from a sea creature, even more so when he frowned, unimpressed, before shoving the bundle of tangling down, then away, like it burned to the touch.

“Ah,” you muttered dumbly. “Well, thank you.”

He locked up like a vice as you reached your hand in, but the chore was painless, in the end.

When that was done, you double-checked his habitat conditions.

Good. But then, open endless deliberation, you held down a fat orange button; it extended the size of the tank from one perfect for a pregnant orca—which was so small for him that his tail fins had to stay pinned to his sides—to one comfortable for an overweight male one.

That was as freeing as it got.

He blinked, curiously, then ducked around to the small round pipe dispensing the water, and plugged it with his palm, then letting it go. It looked like he was experimenting with it.

You craned your neck to watch despite the wince on your face for your action. This was a total insult to procedure. It wasn’t routine, it wasn’t right, a yellow puzzle piece in a totally blue picture—but neither was he.

He plugged it for over five seconds, brow furrowed, and then when he popped his hand away, a load of water spurted from the pipe and blasted in his face.

A laugh escaped you before you could help it. You clapped your hand over your mouth as he lurched back, shaking his head like a puppy after a bath.

Surprisingly he seemed entertained by this, snorting, rubbery ears twitching. He only sent you a single dirty look before scraping his bangs off his forehead and starting all over again.

It was rather… cute.

You let your eyes fall shut for just a moment, sighing from the bottom of your lungs.

You’re done for the day.

However, your mistake followed you into the next day, and the day after that. What you did, and didn’t do, ate away at you. Aggressively. Constantly.

In your career, you’d never made such a drastic mistake. It didn’t matter that you knew next to nothing about him, it didn’t matter that it was the worst-case scenario: waking up during surgery; that you, nor him, were brutalized in any way—you didn’t make mistakes, period.

During your degree, you’d recalculated entire strings of statistics if you got even an inkling that one decimal was off. If the vitals on an animal had been a few notches off, you had examined it and adjusted until all was right. In your final dissertation for your PhD, you had skipped out on life and rewrote it twice to make certain it was golden, and you had graduated valedictorian in your class for it.

Now, in the dead of night bordering on morning, you held your speech for the next day pinched between both hands. It was imperative (in your mind) to review it for mistakes, but only squiggles and jumbled lines stared back at you.

You had an important seminar tomorrow afternoon. Distractions would be troublesome, especially self-hating ones, which this one was. That pained madness etched across his sharp features was all you could see when you closed your eyes.

You had Hange check on him throughout the workday instead of your own team, because you trusted them more than anyone else, even your team. They were a wild card no doubt, but they cared for you.

Your explicit instruction was to do no more than bring him food. It was a simple task you couldn’t bring yourself to do. What if you’d already set yourself up for failure? Despite the treasure trove of data now at your disposal, it was not in its entirety, and what the hell was it worth if he continued lashing out in the future. Or worse?

For once, you found yourself at a loss. It wasn’t in you to treat your animals, much less one as precious as him, as a simple lab rat. That, more or less, was procedure—you worked in a lab after all.

As a result, you’d dropped a brick wall between you and Hange (and Erwin for that matter, even though he wasn’t what you called few people: a friend) the past couple days.

The brick wall was a pretty common occurrence for times like these, so Hange hasn’t badgered you too much. Yet.

They would, no doubt, even though you weren’t as close as you were before what happened three months ago. You’ve been stuck together since your college days.

Thinking back on it opened a pit in your stomach.

You let your burning eyes drift shut as you massaged a crick in your neck. Letting the frames from that night flash in your mind felt like snaps of a whip. You should’ve just talked about it, but you haven’t, and you haven’t been back to the houseboat since then, either.

Narrowing your focus, that was what you should do. Until it was over, the seminar tomorrow was all that existed. He could wait.

You’d share your findings—on a completely different subject, no less: global warming’s effects on wave currents—and reap what you could of praise and opportunity, if it happened that way.

Erwin always insisted it would, which is what always ended up happening, but it was never guaranteed in your mind.

If you got confident, you got complacent. And if you got complacent, you got sloppy; a mantra that was hammered into your brain when you were a kid.

You’d become a charlatan, and that wasn’t what your father would’ve wanted for you.

There was a tiny part of you that whispered that this way of thinking wasn’t sustainable, but that way of thinking only grew into a scream after your father passed away. He had meant well, always.

This phenomenal discovery was everything he had yearned for before his sudden death, and you’d be a fool not to pursue this once in a lifetime opportunity with everything you had.

This was your chance. You had to get it right.

Thick grey light stretched through your curtains before you were happy with your speech, so you made a choice: liquid adrenaline over sleep.

Nothing new. Not lately.

The concert hall was packed, from the most brilliant minds in zoology to the young people crowded near the rear isles, taking notes like their lives depended on it.

As a skill you’ve refined over the years, it was easy to mask this big ugly mishmash of issues of yours and carry on. The applause following your final words made your head spin.

Afterwards Hange tackled you in a tight hug, and Mike congratulated you in his own reserved, bundle of sunshine way.

A dinner sponsored by the concert hall itself followed thereafter, so despite how just the smell of your sweetened tea made nausea squirm in your stomach, you chowed down on a meal just like the rest that circled your table: Mike, Nanaba, and of course, Hange.

The topic of work was unavoidable, especially at an event like this. You could only nod and ask Hange to elaborate on their current research for so long before the specificities grew microscopic. Your coworkers clamored to learn more about your new “project”—the merman. Vagueness in the public eye was essential.

“Well …” You fiddled with the napkin knotted between your fingers. This would be the first time you’ve spoken about specifics to any capacity; the only exception being the Director. “…I may or may not have hit a roadblock.”

“Oh?” A smirk crept onto Hange’s face. “Do tell.”

Then, like popping off a cork, you rapidly launched into an explanation of your experiences with the subject so far—which, by the end of your retelling with the anesthesia, morphed into a frustrated rant.

You were afraid to move forward due to your past mistakes. He was already extremely volatile to anyone and everyone, let alone a person who harmed him. The road ahead held similar procedures, more invasive experiments.

As confident you were that he could speak, this wall meant that he was more likely to shut down completely. You’d get nowhere, and you would have failed not only yourself, but your father’s aspirations (the second detail you chose not to mention).

If you could only hit a breakthrough, you could gather all the knowledge you needed to complete your study, and as an added benefit, you’d be rolling in the highest success of your career (as high as it would reach, you concluded).

Then, your subject would be out of your hands. It was unlikely in this specific case he would ever see the ocean again, but you’d never have to agonize over him again.

Mike had one fist propped up beneath his chin by the end of your speech. Hange looked positively pensive. They were analyzing, which reassured you. You admired their mind most of all.

“Well—” they stalled, “—we all know you’re bad at the people thing, right?”

Your lips parted, then snapped shut. “I'm... I’m not ”

Mike hummed skeptically as you glared at Nanaba, who was snickering behind her hand.

Mike began. “In my opinion, you’re overthinking it. You said it yourself—he, it, communicates differently from us. It seems like he behaves more like a seal than a person—”

“I’d say a dolphin,” Nanaba cut in. “He played with the piping, right? Maybe he likes trinkets.”

She worked in animal intelligence.

“That’s not the point,” Mike sighed.

Hange pouted, having been cut-off. They tapped the table impatiently.

“Anyway, he sure as hell looks different, too. You should retrace your steps entirely and treat him like what he is: an animal. He’s a test subject, not some wayward sailor.”

You groaned. “No, there has to be some other way.”

“I kind of agree with both of you,” Hange said, tapping their cheek as the gears in their head turned. “How about treating him gently, like a feral kitten, you know?”

Nanaba laughed at this. She was totally ambivalent. “We know this: he’s an incredible creature. Maybe you could,” she gestures vaguely, “grow some sort of attachment? Maybe he’s capable.”

“No,” you stated, hard enough to leave no room for argument. No attachments.

Hange. “As I was saying, I think you’re on the right path. Coddle him, domesticate him even. He’s an adult, as far as you know, right? It’ll take time, but his awareness of people is obviously limited. No attachment needed.”

You hummed thoughtfully. Like gradually training a fostered feral cat not to hiss and bite when you pet it before giving it to another home.

They smiled. “Ah, yes, you’re agreeing! How about this: Talk about something he really cares about—I don’t know what, but you should—but only bring it up gradually, in a totally indirect way.” Then they lean back fully in their seat “Whaddya think?”

Your heart glowed. “ I think… that you’re full of brilliant ideas.”

Hange grinned.

One week before everything changed, there was a catalyst that would shoot your relationship with the merman into foggy, yet beautiful skies.

You had forgotten your lanyard at the lab and checked back in to retrieve it late. Very late.

You chastised yourself; not just for forgetting it, but with it you had access to a special private coastline, the owner being an old friend of your father’s. Every year you dropped by to pick bright daylilies and wide open gaillardia flowers—for your father, of course.

It would be five years since you lost him.

Only, while passing down a certain hall that included a certain room with a certain new specimen, you froze mid-step, not even daring to breathe. Just beyond the door, you could hear something softer than even a murmur, but you heard it.

With a furrowed brow, you crept in close. There wasn’t a chance any staff were still working at this hour, let alone with clearance to see him without your permission.

It must have been him. You squeezed your eyes shut, lungs burning and tight.

The smooth metal was a chilling slap to your cheek; even it felt like it impaired your hearing.

But what was he saying? Your heart throbbed in your ears, too loud. He was repeating something, softly, reverently.

It was no prayer, but the fact alone that he was speaking had you beside yourself with the ceaseless mania of being proven correct.

Your feet felt like cinder blocks by the time you thought you had it. No wonder you didn’t recognize the words, because they were names.

Isabel... Farlan. Isabel, Farlan.

“Hey doc, why’re you still here?”

You jumped off the door, and whirled around. “Jesus, Eren! You scared the crap out of me.”

His brow shot up as he held up his hands in surrender. Distantly, staticky feedback was fed into his ear by the headpiece he wore. He murmured into it while you collected yourself.

Eren was the head of security detail. Technically, part of his job was sneaking up on people, and he was damn good at it. It was also his responsibility to patrol after hours, especially in your Sector, whose research is considered “delicate” (top-secret).

Your moment had ended. If you were to try again, you knew you wouldn’t hear a thing, so you swiped a pen from your slacks and scribbled the names on your sleeve while also tugging Eren along down the hallway.

He went willingly. He had always reminded you of one of those humble old dogs that sometimes lied beyond a decrepit property sporting the sign, BEWARE OF DOG below a menacing sketch of a vicious rottweiler.

When you were finished, you asked him if he had ever overheard anything similar to what you did just now, and he shook his head, looking torn.

“That room has always been quiet. Damn.” He leaned against the wall casually, looking bummed. His job was usually only as exciting as watching a dolphin jump over water on video surveillance.

You shook your head, mustering a small smile. “Well, not tonight.”

Since you knew the merman heard you shout, and that he would undoubtedly remember it and resent you (possibly further) for eavesdropping, you made a choice. After jamming your key into the lock on his door, you stepped inside to find him wide awake.

You’d never seen him asleep naturally, and that night was certainly no exception.

He didn’t look up. The way he simply floated, tense, yet lifeless, reminded you of a crisp autumn leaf idling on lakewater.

You cleared your throat, but still nothing.

Words would be useless. Instead you turned your attention to the untouched bowl of tuna on the shelf inside the chamber, and approached calmly.

Even as close enough to notice the little scales dusting his cheeks shimmer, as close enough to hear his muffled breathing, he pretended as if you were a ghost.

But you were relentless, and eventually his gaze darted to you only for a split-second before he turned his head, arms crossed tight. Wisps of midnight hair danced in the water.

Despite yourself, you couldn’t conjure anything to say. At the module attached to his enclosure, you stretched it wider again. At some point, it had been reverted to its tinier size.

As the machine whired, “I couldn’t tell what you were saying. Don’t worry.”

He craned his neck back and shrewdly glared at you upside down. The result made it seem like he was smiling, which made you snort. At least that wasn’t a deception.

It weakened a little.

“I’ve been gone the past couple days, you probably noticed,” you began, terribly awkward somehow. “I felt—horrible about what happened. I don’t usually make a mistake like that.”

A grunt.

“But I’m still assigned to you, and I’m going to oversee you.” Even if you hadn’t been for some reason, you would have fought to. “I don’t think there’s any need for anesthesia in the future. What, what made you sleep.”

There’s a gentle sound as you round the module, like air hissing out of a balloon. Those sharp blue eyes were back on you, but he looked rather placated.

“Are you relieved?” you asked. He could speak, you knew for certain now, but you only received a long blink in return.

Again, the bare minimum with him. You put on a blank face and slid your rolling stool until you met his side at eye-level. Ever so often, the water would circulate, causing him to bob ever so slightly.

“Do you not eat meat?” you go on, nodding to the tuna.

Old myth says that mermaids possessed a siren call that would lure sailors to their deaths, torn apart by talons and razored teeth. When you explained that much, he showed the most emotion yet: his lips parted in disgusted disbelief.

“Plants, then?” you quipped, and hesitantly, he nodded.

The strange… innocence of the conversation warmed you.

Part of you didn’t think he was capable of that. For as long as he has refused to speak, it was always exceptionally clear what he wanted to communicate.

You observed him, an anxious kind of fascinated, as he reached up—there was no need to restrain him with the enclosure locked—and braced his hands on the round dome of the tank.

With that, he could dunk his head under the water. Air bubbled up before he surfaced, and, like you weren’t even there, he combed his hair back, made a whistling sound, and rolled onto your side, powerful tail swishing below him.

“Are you grooming yourself?” you asked, fascinated. By then you were resigned to the fact that you wouldn’t get a verbal answer; what you got was a throaty snort, like it was obvious.

You went on. “Can you eat clam shells? Barnacles? Algae?”

His lip curled in disgust. It contrasted wildly from the way he rested his head on his crossed arms, gills flexing under the water.

“Okay… How about seaweed?”

This caught his attention. His eyes grew a touch wide before he blinked rapidly, abruptly glaring at you; before anything else, he wanted it made clear that he didn’t trust you.

All he’s been fed so far was fish meat. No wonder. You had to physically bite the inside of your cheek not to smile to yourself.

“I’ll change your diet then. I’ll get some. Would you like that?”

It was funny. He turned away from you so half his face was submerged in the bubbly water before nodding.

Inwardly, you completely deflated in relief. Since he arrived here bandaged within an inch of his life, biting and snarling, you had concluded he would never cooperate like this.

Then again, you’d been kind to him back then.

You decided that it was in your best interests to stay a little longer that night in hopes of learning more. Sleep could wait.

It was almost heartbreaking. In your next report, you wanted, and you had to describe in detail what you heard: his voice, those names; likely belonging to the merpeople whom he was found with; along with questions. Why was he speaking them? Could he be spiritual? How did they even come to have names?—Were there parents?

So not only would you be lying to him, but deceiving him too.

But it had to be done. Mike was at least partly right: this merman wasn’t a human being.

Your priorities were crystal clear—or they would be for the following week. Little did you know, everything, especially your priorities, was about to come crumbling down.

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violetnotez · 4 years

Note

Hi! If this isn’t already done can I request headcanons for Kiri and Bakugo abt a class movie night and falling asleep on them in the middle of it, their reactions/the class’s reactions? Thank so much your stuff is literally amazing!

Omg, thank you for liking my stuff anon, that makes my day! 😭💕 and omg NO THIS HASNT BEEN REQUESTED THIS SO CUTE AHHHHHHH-

I used some prompts from @bnhabookclub Mermay Event from the discord, so deifnitely go check it out if you haven’t! Here’s the link

Pairings: Kirishima x reader, Bakugo x reader

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ

Kirishima

Oh my god are you trying to break this boy???

Kirishima has been pining for you for what seems like weeks-he doesn’t show his affection too outwardly

but his constant blushing and stuttering around you, and the fact he follows you like a dang puppy makes it very apparent he is head over heels for you

So when Class 1-A decides to do a movie night, he is more than excited cause it means more time to spend with you!

He honestly didn’t expect for the night to go as well as it did-he got to talk to you, even make you laugh, and somehow get you to sit next to him during the movie

He was literally on Cloud 9 right now, feeling the heat practically radiating off your skin as you sat next to him, your hands hugging your knees gently

The room was completely dark, only for the brightness of the TV screen projecting the movie

You all watched round after round of movies, until it was 3 in the morning and only a handful of you were still actually alive

Kamianri was passed out in a bowl of popcorn

You were now watching Mary Poppins for some odd reason, a yawn spilling out of your lips every few minutes

Kirishima instantly noticed your tired state, his sleepy eyes resting on yours

“You feeling sleepy?” He asked gingerly, his voice sweet as he gazed at your face

You gave him a numb nod, trying to surpress yet another yawn

He gave you a small smile, his voice quiet. “You can go to sleep if you want, almost everybody else is asleep now.”

“Oh-okay,” you closed your eyes, your head resting against his shoulder as you snuggled into his warm neck

Hahahah Kirishima has died

His face immediately erupted in red, his body stiffening-he honestly had meant that you would be okay to go up to your room and sleep, not sleep on him.

But was he complaining?

HELL NO

You were so adorable, your head resting on his body as you snuggled into him, your breath fanning his skin and giving him goosebumps

He was still in shock, his body still completely rigid with the sudden change in events

You felt this, though, your head lifting to look at his face

“Are you okay with me-?”

“Oh yeah, sorry!” He chuckled nervously, his hands scratching the back of his neck.

You gave him a small smile, deciding that his shoulder wasn’t the most comfortable spot and deciding to lay your head in his lap instead

HE IS NOW REALLY DECEASED

God, now you were snuggling into his legs

You seriously couldn’t be any more cuter in this moment

Kirishima felt the need to touch your hair, trying to justify that he was doing this to simply put you to sleep

Even though he just really wanted to feel how your hair felt

His fingers gently caresses your head, loving how calm you looked once he began to pet you

He couldn’t help but just be in awe of your beauty-you honestly looked like a sleeping angel to him as you snuggled into his lap

He noticed you had fallen asleep, your breathing much deeper and slower than before

“Your hair is so soft...” he allowed himself to say, his voice wispy from being in complete awe by you

“Oi dumbass, stop being a creep will ya? We all know you like her-just ask her out already,” he heard his loud mouthed friend yell from across the room

Kirishima jumped, fear riddling in his stomach

The hell was Bakugo thinking?!? You could have heard that!!!

Kirishima quickly looked down, searching your face for any sign that you had heard

To his relief, you didn’t seem to have heard anything, and that you were still asleep...

Oh poor Kiri tho-he seemed to have missed the small smirk you were sporting in your “sleep”

Bakugo

This boy right here

He is SOFT for this moment

He has been waiting for this for dayyyssssss-

Will he admit to it? No. But he has just take my word for it

Honestly when he heard the idea of a movie night he thought it was so stupid

He could be sleeping over dealing with his idiot classmates

The way his friends got him to go was they may or may not have dropped the info thatd you be there

“Please, can you stop being a party pooper and just go with us?!” Mina whined, her arms flailed out dramatically

Bakugo scoffed, wrapping his arms around his chest

“Oh cmon Bakubro, y/n’s gonna be thereeee,” Kirishima teased, his pointy teeth flashing

Bakugo turned his head-his damn friends would not win-but...

“Fine,” he acted like he was exasperated, as if he only gave in because he was sick of hearing them, “I’ll think about.”

What a damn lie he already decided to go the minute Kiri said your name

The night of the movie night, he was being sooooo possessive

It literally was a fucking miracle you didn’t notice his crush on you at this point

He always seemed to be next to you or a few paces away, watching you with intentful eyes

He was just making sure that nobody tried to touch or get with what was his-or-well-

would be his in the future

Bakugo sat himself on the couch, making sure to keep give anyone who tried to sit next him the biggest evil eye

That seat was for you and you only- he was somehow gonna get you to sit next to him if it was the last thing he did

To his relief, he watched your stride over, his body language loose even though he was freaking out internally

“Anybody sitting here?” You asked sweetly, a bottle of soda in your hand

He roled his eyes, moving his hand behind the couch so it would rest behind your head

“Does it look like anyones sitting here? Just go for it dumbass,”

You gave him a concerned smile, his harsh words making you a little hesitant to sit-but you did it anyway

Even though Bakugo was internally kicking himself in the ass for making you uncomfortable,he was over the moon you had actually sat next to him

Someone turned off the lights, and you all started the long ass movie marathon

Bakugo was bored in .02 seconds-who the hell in there right mind wanted to watch Disney movies??? The hell???

You seemed to be enjoying it, your body radiating excitement as you sipped your soda, so engrossed by the movie you didn’t even notice Bakugo’s staring

He honestly needed to stop-he felt like a creep as he gave you long side glances, his hand itching to wrap around your shoulder

Until this baby got tired.

Like hecka tired.

He was honestly gonna pass out on you before you did it first

Your head lolled onto his shirt, a heavy sensation erupting on his skin

He turned-and god he could have died right then and there

There you were, snuggling to him like a little puppy

Lowkey was internally screaming with happiness

He gave out a low chuckle, seemingly waking you up from you half asleep daze

Your heart shot up, your sleepy expression so cute and endearing to him

“I’m sorry-I didnt relaized I feel asleep-“ you whispered sheepishly

“Your tired right?” He asked, his voice gruff from being so low

You yawned, nodding your head at the same time

“Then it’s not that complicated, dumbass,” he grinned, a note of sweetness in his voice, “Just sleep on me,”

You grinned, nuzzling your head back into his neck-

“Good-‘cause your so comfy and warm Bakugo...”

His cheeks instantly erupted in red by your words, your sigh signaling you were fast asleep

Well shit-if your being so damn comfortable with him, mine as well do it too

Bakugo allowed himself to rest his head on yours, loving how soft your hair felt against his cheeks

Boy knocked out in 10 seconds

This whole scene did not go unnoticed by his friends and you bet your ass they were all giggling as they took photos of the two of you curled up all cute against each other-this was pure blackmail and they were ready to use it

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thiswasinevitableid · 3 years

Note

Hii uhhh this is for mermay, but it's not one of the fills so please feel free to ignore this if it doesn't catch your interest!!

Idea;; within a mostly-canon setting, Duck is turned into a merperson (probably while they're trying to deal with one of the abominations, but that part's flexible) and has to deal with it while still trying to like,, function. He gets a magic disguise, but hijinks ensue.

Here you go! I attached this to "Summer rain" and another mermay prompt. It's SFW

The last time he went flying through the air and into the water while fighting an abomination, he almost died. So he’s none too pleased when he surfaces from being chucked in Lake Brahe.

“What the fuck Indrid?!”

“I’m so sorry” Mothman flaps above him, both sets of hands tapping together anxiously, “I promise this is for the best but I’ll admit the exact process might have been overkill.”

“You fuckin’ think??” Duck kicks towards shore, grabbing his hat as it tries to float away, “the others are still back there with that thing. And I fuckin hate bein’ chucked into things without warnin.”

“I don’t think there are people who do enjoy such things.” Indrid alights on the shore Duck is swimming towards.

“Well then don’t fuckin do them.”

“It is for your own good, Duck Newton.”

“Yeah, heard that one before.” He hits shallow water, wades to shore trying to shake his hat dry, “now c’mon, fly me back so we can-”

His legs crumple, sending him face first into the lake. Crawling is no good, his whole body contorting and shaking, his throat and lungs burning. He claws at the pebbles and sand, coming away with fistfuls, grabbing for something, anything, to pull him from the water, as if reaching shore will free him from the pain wracking his body.

The world is coming in photo negative now, flashes of color that don’t make sense, the crack of his bones filling his ears. He might he crying, the pain is too deep to tell what else he’s feeling or doing.

“Help” he rasps into the night air.

Human hands cup his face, guide his aching head down across bony legs, “It will not last much longer.”

“Am” he gasps, feels the Sylph turn their bodies for some unknown purpose, breathing easier after he does, “am I gonna die.”

“No. And before you ask, your powers would not have done much for you if you still had them.”

“Fuck” he whimpers.

“Agreed.” Indrid strokes his hair, “five more seconds. Four, three, two, one.”

Duck passes out before Indrid can say anything else. He’s roused by the footfalls of combat boots and wingtips down the beach.

“Duck, Indrid-OH HOLY SHIT!”

“He’s not-”

“No, Ned, he is very much alive. Had I not moved him when I did, he would have suffocated before you could get him to any water.”

“Thank god.” Ned must be by his head.

“Aubrey, can, can you, it hurts-”

“Ummmmm” His friend sounds like she’s trying to come up with a comforting explanation, “which part of your tail hurts?”

Duck sits bolt upright, then falls back into Indrid’s arms, staring at the deep green and silver tail where his legs should be.

“Well….fuck.”

---------------------------------------------------------------

“How are you doing?” Indrid, red glasses glinting and pink and yellow sweater hanging off his tall frame, perches on a rock.

“Great. I’m a regular, breakable dipshit who turned into a fuckin merman without warnin, I had to have Barclay call work and tell ‘em I got a flu so they won’t fire me for disppearin, anything my friends bring me to eat gets soggy, and I ain’t seen my cat in three days.”

“So...not good then?”

Duck raises an eyebrow. Indrid smiles, not his usual confident, casual one. He looks unsure, which is in and of itself kind of unnerving.

“No, Indrid. Not good at all.”

“Ah. Apologies, I sometimes have trouble parsing certain tones.”

Duck swims closer, “Sorry.”

“It’s quite alright. You have every reason to be angry and upset. Even with me.”

“Pretty sure you didn’t curse me.”

“No. But had I moved faster, gotten to you all sooner, you would not have been in it’s path at all.”

It’s so matter of fact. The same way Indrid talks about anything troubling.

“Certainly my most newsworthy failure”

“Had you not arrived at the cottonwood, it would have been rather bad for me.”

“Oh, don’t worry about the eye. It hurt, but I have felt far worse.”

“And I have yet more bad news; while I can make a charm that will allow you to be in your human form for up to six hours at a time, the properties of that abomination mean eventually you’ll have to return to water.”

There’s a flicker in the smile, so swift Duck wonders if it’s only because his eyes are no longer human, slit pupiled instead of round, that he sees it at all. Or if it’s because this is the first time they haven’t been surrounded by heat, noise, or danger.

“Indrid, you know I don’t blame you, right?”

“Of course, Duck. I was merely being thorough in my apology.” Now it’s his normal, wide smile, but too tight across his teeth.

“He was before my time.” Vincent grins as he sets the DVDs on a well-dusted shelf, “though if Woodbridge is anything like he is now, I doubt they got along. The other ministers say he was...determined when he left. Like he could conquer any challenge earth presented during his quest."

Indrid’s glasses slip down his nose and he pushes them up before Duck gets even a glance at his eyes, “Now, where did I put that pin…” He pats his pockets, freezes when Duck manages to set a hand on his shin.

“Indrid, I mean it. Didn’t blame you then, don’t blame you now. Hell, from the sound of it you saved my ass, big time. So, uh, what I’m tryin to say is thanks. For lookin out for me.”

He squeezes in what he hopes is a friendly fashion. Indrid chirps, once, face losing all trace of eeriness. Then he schools it back to normal.

“You’re welcome. Punching aside, I’m quite fond of you. I’m going to use this for your charm, if that’s alright.” A souvenir pin from the Monongahela's tenth anniversary sits between slender fingers.

“Holy shit, I been lookin for that for ages. I, uh, I try to-”

“Collect them, yes. I saw that in a conversation between you and Juno. I was going to give this to you anyway, goodness knows it took awhile to find it in the trailer, but now it can serve a greater purpose.” With that, he pulls a folded piece of paper from his pocket. Duck’s image unfolds before them, Indrid smoothing it out and setting it on the rock as he begins working. Duck watches with interest, notices the process is much slower than it was when Indrid disguised Billy.

“Am I harder to get right than Ryan Gosling?”

“Yes. Well, not technically, no, but with Billy I just needed him to look human. I need you to look like, well, you. Such a fine specimen requires the utmost care.”

Duck’s about to toss back his usual line he gives to guys who compliment him, then realizes flirting with the Mothman might be weird, or that Indrid may not have meant it as anything more than some clinical, Sylph observation of humans. He tries to distract himself by swimming, but his tail still won’t do what he wants much of the time.

“You’ll have greater success on your back.” Indrid says without looking up.

He’s right, and Duck manages to swim without difficulty, tail shimmering in the sunset. The one time he glances at his friend, Indrid is staring at swaying and rippling in the water.

When the Sylph finally calls that he’s done, Duck speeds to the rock, let’s Indrid pin the charm to the collar of his undershirt that he keeps wearing because he’s still a human, dammit, just one with an inconvenient tail and he’s not gonna start skinny-dipping in a national forest. Again.

Duck flails when legs replace his tail, Indrid’s hand grabbing his a moment before he needs it to and helping him onto dry land.

“Satisfactory?”

“It’s fuckin perfect!”

“Wonderful!” Indrid claps his hands together, “what would you like to do? I may need to escort you for the first day, to be certain there’s no flaw in the charm.”

Duck studies the pink light tracing the angles of Indrid’s face, “Wanna meet my cat? She looks like a bobcat that lost a bar fight, but she’s sweet as can be.”

Indrid’s grin turns genuine for the first time all day, “I would like nothing better.”

The mothman becomes a staple of his life after that. With the charm, he’s able to help the Pine Guard track and slay the abomination, go to work, look after his house, and generally convince anyone not in the know that he’s totally fine. But he has to return to the lake every day, spends his mornings and nights there, even his lunch breaks when he knows he needs to give the charm a break then. It’s far enough away that he’s in no danger of being seen by civilians, but at least once Indrid had to fly him to it before they ran out of time (and Aubrey had to teleport them there, which made him nauseous).

Indrid keeps him company, sometimes with the others and sometimes on his own. He finds waterproof cards and games, listens to Duck talk about work and tells him about his travels. At first he worries Indrid is only doing it out of guilt, but as the weeks go by he comes to see that Indrid likes him. He laughs at his jokes, gives him as close to his full attention as he can, even scratches his scales with his mothed-out claws when they start driving Duck crazy with itchiness.

His friend always goes home to sleep, which is why, as Duck is drifting on his back, half snoozing and half star-gazing, the red eyes high in a tree come as a surprise. He’s on the other end of the lake, doesn’t seem to see Duck as he spreads his wings and flaps into the air. Then he nosedives, pulling up before he hits the water and then skimming across it in broad strokes. He shoots upward, spins, and then repeats the routine.

Duck’s seen him fly during fights and to escape the Cottonwood. Never like this, never so free and graceful. It’s such a joyful sight, makes Duck wish he had wings of his own so he could join him, dance across the stars and their reflections.

He swims towards Indrid, begins mirroring him on a whim, twisting, diving, and leaping as best he can in time with the cryptids flight. Pushes his tail to carry him faster, farther, all for the sake of keeping pace with the beautiful monster in the sky.

Surfacing after a particularly giant splash, a voice lilts down from the sky.

“Race you to the other side.”

Duck loses, but only just, cackles when Indrid buzzes him so closely he can feel the tickle of his feathers. When the mothman finally lands Duck swims to him, scooting up on land so he can watch Indrid fluff and clean his feathers.

“I come to this lake to practice flying without fear of being seen. I assumed you were asleep but, ah” his antenna twitch, “I’m glad you weren’t.”

Duck stretches, moans happily when Indrid gently glides his claws up his tail, “Me too.”

“Same time tomorrow night?” Soft hope flutters between them.

“Yeah.” He grins up at the cryptid, “bring your A-game, I’m gonna carb load tomorrow mornin so I can kick your butt.”

“I look forward to it.”

----------------------------------------------------

It’s been a month and a half since he transformed, which puts them smack in summer thunderstorm season. Duck’s used to it, though he’s more than a little nervous about what will happen if lightning hits the lake. Luckily, tonight it’s just soft summer rain instead of electricity and drops the size of robin eggs.

Indrid isn’t faring as well. The rain droops his antenna, compresses his fluff until Duck can see he’s still a twig under all those feathers. He shivers, chirrs in discomfort and shakes off his wings, but stays put on his favorite rock.

“There a reason you ain’t just turnin human? Could put on a raincoat that way.”

“I” Indrid sneezes, “I want you to feel comfortable. It can be so unpleasant, feeling like the only non-human in a place.”

Duck swims to the rock, flicking his tail up and down as he float, “You’re always changin form to make me comfortable.”

“Yes. Because I want you to not be unnerved by me.”

“But what about what you want?”

A feathery shrug, “That doesn’t matter.”

“Drid-”

Red eyes glare at him, “I am well aware of how I look, Duck. What people think of me. Would you have spent even a fraction of the time you have with me if your transformation had not forced it?”

“Y-fu-uh-I mean not no?” He sinks into the water as resignation becomes visible on Indrid’s inhuman features.

“I’m glad for our friendship, Duck. And I don’t doubt that you’re fond of me now. But please don’t pretend I was your first choice for company.”

“I mean...you weren’t. But that’s because we barely knew each other, hell, you only got back to town three months ago.” Duck takes the hand nearest him, “if this happened to me now? You might be the first person I’d want lookin out for me.”

Indrid chirrs, dips his head down to rub his cheek against Duck’s hand. Suddenly he wants nothing as badly as he wants to get Indrid warm and dry so he can run his fingers through every inch of those feathers.

“May I turn human?’

“Of course. Means you can come swimmin with me.”

Indrid, now in a tank top and yoga pants, cocks his head, “Why?”

“It’ll be fun?”

“My kind are not the strongest of swimmers.”

“Good thing I got a tail and gills, then. Besides, you’ll stop feelin as sticky from the humidity if you’re in the water.”

Indrid pulls off his shirt and pants, revealing duck-patterned boxers, and cautiously wades into the lake.

“Ooohhhh, that is so much better” his sighs, too blissed-out to notice the sudden drop, and only just manages to grab his glasses before going under. Duck zips forward, hoisting him easily into an embrace as he splutters.

“Blechhh, I despise the taste of lake water.” He clings to Duck, skinny legs teasingly tense around his tail.

Duck rubs his tail up and down his inner legs soothingly, “you, uh, want somethin to get rid of the taste?”

“Please.” Indrid smirks, clearly expecting a goof. When Duck tips his glasses up his forehead, he goes stone still.

“Can I kiss you?”

“This was not in any of the timelines.”

“Just came to me now. And that ain’t an answer.”

Indrid nods, tips his face forward to bring their lips together. Duck sighs, floats lazily backwards as Indrid slips his tongue between his lips. When they part, there are more stars in his eyes than in the whole milky way.

“Do you want some good news?” Indrid nuzzles his neck with an adorable trill.

“Lay it on me.”

“The futures just shifted; Aubrey and Janelle will have a cure for your condition tomorrow.”

“Hell yeah.” Duck flips them upright, Indrid “eeping” and holding tighter, “can’t wait to stop worryin’ about whether I’m gonna start suffocatin on land. And, uh” he nips Indrid’s lower lip, forgetting about his sharpened teeth until the Sylph lets out a little moan, “if you ain’t busy tomorrow night, like to take you on a date.”

Indrid beams, “I’d like that so very much. Though I will admit, I’m going to miss how this looks on you.” He squeezes his thighs around Duck’s tail.

“You can always whip me up one if we wanna, uh, relive the fun parts of this experience.”

“True. And with that in mind, my sweet; how do you feel about wings?”

#indruck #indrid cold/Duck Newton #taz amnesty #mermay #mermay fills

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witchersgoldenbard · 3 years

Text

@all-hail-the-witcher wrote this wonderful mermay hurt/comfort featuring Geralt/Eskel. Me being me, I had to add some softs. I hope you enjoy, dear 💕

Saph’s wonderful, amazing, masterpiece of mermay can be found here on ao3

Look At You, Love

Words: 1775 | insecure Geralt, soft Eskel, fluff

It’s alright love, we care about you, we love you, and we are not going anywhere.

As Geralt sleeps, soaking in the warm water of the springs and safe in his love’s arms, these are the words that stay with him. He is exhausted, slips in and out of consciousness for what must be a day or two, judging by the meals he is being fed.

As his body heals, his mind needs rest - and there is no better rest, he knows, than being in Eskel’s arms, hearing his slow heartbeat as a constant reminder that they are both here, both alive.

After the petrifying certainty that he was going to die alone in that cave, this reminder is welcome and needed.

Our heartbeats match, he thinks once as he wakes up, exhausted but alive. They match and nothing else matters.

And so he sleeps. He wakes. He eats. He is safe.

Now if only it weren’t for that damned fishtail, shimmering in hues of silver and gold in the dim light, making itself known even in darkness. Always there, always fucking there.

And Eskel is staring at it. He can feel eyes resting on his form, the one that is now so new to Eskel. The one that must be so repulsive. Still, Eskel holds him close. Keeps telling him It’s alright love, we care about you, we love you, and we are not going anywhere.

Geralt wants to bask in that belief for a moment more, wants to keep his heart as slow as Eskel’s for as long as he can. Before the inevitable panic will start. Before Eskel will leave him. Before—

“I know you’re awake,” Eskel says, pressing his lips to Geralt’s hairline in the gentlest of ways.

Geralt hums but doesn’t move, fearing that he will ruin this moment, this peace, this love, like the ripples of water disturb the calm surface where his tail moves.

His tail. His luminescent, gigantic fucking tail.

He breathes deeply and once more there are kisses pressed against his hair, his temple, everywhere Eskel can reach. For a moment, Geralt likes to imagine that Eskel would press the same kisses to his tail - fluttering, feather-light kisses that convey his love and devotion.

It’s a nice image. But a cruel one as well because that won’t happen.

Once again, the weight of his love’s stare is heavy and almost unbearable.

“You’re staring,” he rasps, suddenly aware of how dry his throat is. He doesn’t know, though, if it comes from the panic he tries to suppress, or if it’s really been that long since he last had something to drink.

A beat of silence, and Geralt almost expects Eskel to remove himself and put a distance between them. Instead, more kisses.

“I am, yes. You insist to keep staring at my face, love, so now I get to stare at your tail.” Eskel’s voice is light and tension bleeds out of Geralt.

So often had he imagined how to tell Eskel, how he would react. With anger or sadness or disappointment or even pity. Never had he allowed himself to imagine Eskel to be… well, Eskel about it. Gentle. Light. Loving. He doesn’t know how to breathe for a second there.

“Well, your face is nice,” he says intelligently and revels in Eskel’s snort.

“And you are beautiful, so we’re even.”

The way he says it… it’s no different than the way he had always said it. For years. For lifetimes. Forever, Eskel had said it like this. And to get it now, the same genuineness, the same honesty and love now that his secret is out? Geralt is sure this must be a fever dream. Something went wrong, his wounds aren’t healing right and now he is stuck in a dream. A wonderful dream. One he doesn’t want to wake up from.

There are so many thoughts running through his mind, so many questions and all of them pathetic and weak. He settles for one, though. One that will allow Eskel to be true and reveal as much as he would like.

“Am I?” It’s barely more than a whisper, and he is infinitely glad that Vesemir is not here. Even a near-death experience hadn’t rendered him as weak as this question had, and it’s only for his love to hear.

Eskel tightens his hold on Geralt minutely and peppers his head with more kisses that make Gerslt smile. He knows then that whatever words will follow, his heart will be safe. Forever beating the same rhythm as Eskel’s, their love united by the same beat.

“You are positively ethereal, Geralt.” A gentle hand slides down his tail slowly, feeling the scales as golden eyes follow. “Don’t get me wrong, you’re beautiful in your human form, obviously, but this? Believe me when I say I was speechless for a few hours just taking it all in. And I am not done taking it in, nor will I ever be. I have never seen anything or anyone more beautiful than you.”

The sincerity in his voice almost hits Geralt more than the words themselves. He can’t return any, but that doesn’t matter because Eskel is not done yet, his hand still exploring Geralt’s tail, touching it with a care that Geralt had never applied himself. He chokes on words he can’t say as Eskel continues.

“You know what my first thought was when I saw you like this? When you were,” his voice hitches, and Geralt leans in closer. “When you were bleeding out. Positively dying. And all I could think was how much I want to kiss you, all of you. How beautiful you are. How perfect. It’s stupid, to think that,” he gives a wet chuckle and Geralt’s heart, now beating faster and faster with each word falling from his love’s lips, breaks a bit for him. “But that didn’t stop me from thinking it. And I haven’t stopped thinking it. So, yes, Geralt. I am staring.”

And where is love suddenly has so many words for him, Geralt has none to give back. Because his throat is blocked and hurts. Because there are tears in his eyes, threatening to spill over and tell tales of hopes he never allowed himself. No words because his racing heart already speaks loud enough.

“You prepared that,” he chokes out, aiming for lighthearted and failing by a landslide.

Still, Eskel chuckles, because of course he does. “Well, I have basically been soaking in hot water for three days now. Gives you a lot of time to think.” He nudges Geralt and traces the edge of a scale absentmindedly. It feels nice. Geralt never did that. Calming, sort of.

He cuddles closer to Eskel, who seems to get the hint and hums against him. And suddenly, just like that, it’s okay. It’s all okay. Their hearts match, and so do their smiles.

“I love you, Geralt. I’ve got you. I’m not going anywhere.”

Geralt swallows and closes his eyes. “Love you, too. Thank you.”

Nothing else matters.

#the witcher #geralt x eskel #geskel #geralt of rivia #witcher eskel #Nat writes floof #hi saph I hope this made you smile #💕

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swedisheek · 3 years

Text

just realized i haven’t done anything for mermay yet so. merbathin pog

[id: a black and white sketch of bathin from stellar firma. he is a muscular merman with top surgery scars and scales that fade from black to grey on his skin. his hair is long and curly, and he is wearing a small crown on his head. there is a necklace with a sand dollar on it around his neck, and a trident with darkened tips in his hand. he is smiling as he looks backwards and quirks one eyebrow up. he is labeled, in cursive, “great duke bathin (my beloved)“. end id]

#yes those are top surgery scars i believe in he/they4he/they bathin7 supremacy #sf #stellar firma #roswell speaks #roswell drawswell #duke bathin #bathin galactonium #mermay #image description

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withoutmonsters · 3 years

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Updates

Okay, so I know I haven't posted any fanfic in a while, but I've been pretty busy with work and school stuff, so. I got a lot in the works, depending on how motivated I feel to write.

Firstly, an update on the Bird to Slay, because that's the biggest one. Right now, my word count for that one is at about 88,000 words and I still have about 15,000 more to write before it's really finished. The good news is that the next, maybe...15,000? words are down and now all I need to do is edit them and break them up into two chapters. So hopefully an update will be soon.

I am planning a word count for June and July to get the third timetravel!AU done. I'm going to be doing 2,000 words a day, which will supply about 60,000 words to publish in August. I have no idea if that will conclude things or not. I will also be publishing the rest of the Bird to Slay in June and July as well.

I also have a variety of AUs planned that will be much shorter! I have an idea for mermay (yes I know I am so late) that I am currently writing and I hope to get the first chapter up before May ends! It's a modern au about Steve and Robin spending a vacation in Cali and meeting mermaid!Billy. Harringrove, of course. That should be - hopefully - at most 7,000 words.

I also have had an idea for a PJO au that I've been just headcanoning right now but I think I want to write as well. Idk when that will get published tho because I still have work and the aforementioned word count.

I also have a witch!Billy au (it's not of any relation to the witch!Steve au which I know I know I still have work to do on as well it's just been pushed to the back of my mind) which I really want to write but I have a bunch more projects that I want to write more and it's all a little overwhelming. But! I think it would be a lot of fun.

I also have a variety of canon/just harringrove with no other real plot fics that i've kind of outlined but not written anything for yet. I have no idea when I'll get around to those but I'll do them sometime! I'm kind of thinking of just writing little snippets and posting them on tumblr and then compiling all of them once I've got a fic-length piece? Maybe?

So that's a little update for y'all. Sorry I've been so inactive these last few months.

#harringrove #monster writes #fic updates #i know i have been really inactive #sorry about that #timetravel!au #steve harrington #billy hargrove #max mayfield

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galactic-pirates · 3 years

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Where does the time go?

I mean I know the answer. I just lost over a week to a mental health downswing :( and that’s why I’m now so behind but still ugh. Where does it go? How is it July tomorrow?!?!

To go back to that list I posted some progress has been made but absolutely nothing is ready *cries*

For the Librarians prompt month I have 5 fics written but no graphics for any of them (so they aren’t ready to post yet). I still have the Sanctuary MerMay fic written (but again no illustration so I can’t post it). I’ve written more on Gentlemen of Blood but again it’s not finished. The two drawings for prompt month have had zero progress made on them for weeks *screams* and as for that Sanctuary OT3 gifset...

*falls over*

It is taking the most ridiculously stupid long time. Like no gifset should take this long ever. I’ve pored hours and hours into it already and it’s still only maybe I don’t know 60% done. If nothing else this proves how much I love my OT3. This gifset is like the ultimate love letter to them I swear.

Also that crossover fic. I haven’t written anything on that in a couple of weeks so I’m still sitting at 23k and it’s half-finished. The first prompt it uses is on July 2nd and *laughs hysterically* yeah there’s no way I can post in 2 DAYS!! So I’m going with Plan B for that and I’m going to post teasers linked to the prompts and then drop the whole fic at the end of the month. Which means I do need to do the fic graphics (and yes I have not even started).

Oh and to cap it all off I don’t have summaries for any of the fics written either...

It’s also Camp NaNo starting tomorrow. At least I’m going with Plan B for that (aka write All The Things) and so basically I’m just continuing with what I’m currently doing. Not very satisfying but extremely necessary.

Haha one last thing. After a content drought for months Warcraft is dropping the new patch today /headdesk. I’ve basically not played at all in months and I don’t have the time! But, but my guild. But, but, my to do list. *screams*

Honestly I think my mission at the moment is just to survive July. What have I done to myself? This is all crazy. I am not prepared!!

#sam rambles (a lot)#sam screams a lot because it's all too much what have I done I am so behind this is crazy I can't do this it's all a mess #I just need to finish some shit all this half-done not quite ready is making me insane

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weebsinstash · 5 years

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Like The Tide // yandere merman Izuku x Reader

I just had to do something for MerMay, and since I haven't done anything for our favorite little green bean yet, it seemed like the perfect opportunity

warnings for like idk, obsessive behavior, kidnapping, forced transformation, angst, drowning

---

Midoriya would never forget how the two of you met for the very first time. You had been swimming in the shallow ends of the cove where the waves were subtle and calm, sputtering ever so cutely whenever saltwater got into your mouth or eyes. The young man had watched you paddle back and forth, even climb back up on the rocks to retrieve something from your bag that went over your face and let you dive below the surface.

Joyfully you flipped over rocks in the tidepool and lit up at all the marine creatures you saw, pulling out something rectangular that flashed before you would pick them up with glee. Starfishes, hermit crabs, even little worms and tiny fish. You were so full of curiosity and life, and the creature watching you couldn't help but feel enraptured.

Izuku came back to the same spot every time the moon set and the sun rose, so happy to discover that you were coming to this place every so often. It wasn’t very long at all before he started to wonder all sorts of little things about you. What kind of things did you like? What was your favorite fish? Favorite color? What did you sound like? What would you say?

The other merfolk would surely mock him for his fascination, he's sure of it. Not the most graceful hunter, shy in temperament, not to mention it was a strong rule to avoid the surface dwellers. There had been contact between the species in the past, but it seemed to become dangerous for those in the ocean, and thus, the tailed ones relinquished most contact. Most.

But curiosity was something many still shared, and he just can't help himself. You're looking at that rectangular device again, perched on a rock with your toes in the water as the merman slowly wades up to you, and as you notice him the thing nearly slips out of your hands. Midoriya bobs in the water, those big green eyes staring as his face rests just above the current, his heart hammering in his chest and a warmth in his cheeks.

"Holy shit..." You finally gasp, carefully setting your cell phone down on the rocks, pure wonder in your voice as your eyes widen, looking at this mysterious being from head to tail. "you're a little seahorse person! You're so cute!"

Those large green eyes just sparkle, and Izuku practically glows as the shy young merman lets himself rise so you can see more of him, a big toothy smile on his face.

"Th-thank you! You're-you're really cute too!!"

You nearly stumble back in shock, almost falling off the rock as Midoriya jolts forward so he can grab your hand to steady you, cool webbed fingers foreign against your skin. "Y-you talk-" You stammer, and you start to look embarrassed. "O-oh gosh, I didn't think you would be able to understand me. Uh, er..." Nervously, you clear your throat, crawling closer to the edge of the rock to look at this-this mermaid. So all those stories in books and the internet weren't just urban legends?! Sea people were real???

"Hi." Is all you can manage to say, absolutely mesmerized, the crystal clear water letting you see the curl of his tail, the fins flapping at his sides that kept him afloat, the little stripes that ran over his skin. Sharp teeth suited for eating fish and sea life form a big smile, a pinkness to the young man's cheeks.

"Hello! It's-it’s wonderful to finally talk to you!"

The two of you chat for what seemed like hours, eagerly exchanging questions and facts back and forth until the sun was setting. Midoriya finally learned your name, some of the little tidbits about you that had made him ever so inquisitive, and you had no defense against the sad pout he made when you announced you had to be going. In fact, you said you wouldn't speak a word of this to other humans so that the young merman could stay safe, AND that you would come back to see him soon. You promised him! It made his heart dance with joy, yet he couldn't help but feel a pain as you walked further and further away from the cove.

But just as promised, you came back, again and again, and the two of you spent so much time together! Midoriya loved to swim next to you, touch you, ask you some of his many, many questions. One time you even took out that thing you told him was called a phone, and then you showed him something really amazing: it was like the object had captured his reflection! You even took more of the magical images, showing them to him, ones of him, ones of you, ones of the surface, ones of you two together. He especially loved those.

Yet at the end of every day, once it started to get dark, you would say your sweet goodbyes, crawling out of the water and throwing on those weird things that covered your body, hiding your wonderful form away from his loving eyes as you left. Oh, why couldn't you stay? Why couldn't you stay with him through the lonely hours of the night, swimming together in the waves under the light of the moon? It would be so romantic! It would be so perfect!

The other merfolk living in Izuku's home section of the sea noticed that the young man was acting... differently, to say the least, collecting all sorts of shining scales and rocks and lost treasures to hoard away, even as they spoke to him those eyes staring off into the distance like lost in a daydream. He would just laugh it off, if not outright avoiding any of their questions, with the most he really would say being "Oh, I just... met someone special!"

Midoriya was caught between wanting to introduce you to all of his friends and keep you all to himself, but in the end, that wasn’t even his choice. As the seahorse swam to your own special cove, he’s irritated to see a familiar and quite frankly unwelcome figure propped up onto a rock with his muscular arms, looking like he was listening VERY intently to what you had to say.

“Yeah, that so? Tell me more.” Bakugou props his chin into a hand, the leopard seal’s tail flicking back and forth in a telltale sign of amusement, interest. Midoriya can’t help but glare, forcing the nasty feelings back down inside as he swam up, a little bag of woven seagrasses hanging off of him. Your eyes left Bakugou and shined as they fell onto your friend, and you gave the sweetest little wave. "Hi Izuku!"

"Hiya! It's great to see you again!" Midoriya greets sweetly, his expression hardening as he looks to the irritated looking blonde. "...Hello Kacchan."

Katsuki gives one of his demeaning little snickers, gesturing to the seahorse bobbing in the water. “This is who you were waiting on? Deku? If I’d known you were wasting your time on this loser, I woulda shown up a lot sooner, give you a real man to cozy up to.”

Your kind smile fades into an angry scowl, and you scoot on the rock away from the blonde seal. “Izuku is my friend, and if you’re going to be such a creep then you can just go!” A finger jabs out to the sea. “Go on, get lost!”

There’s an irritated click of his tongue as Bakugou doesn’t too very kindly to being told what to do, let alone be rejected by a potential conquest, but as he looks between you and Midoriya, it’s all too clear that he isn’t welcome. “Tch, fine, be that way! I don’t need to hang out with you damn nerds anyways!” The aggressive merman pushes himself back into the ocean, letting his tail slap hard over the surface to spray you with saltwater as he shot off to bother someone else. Izuku just grinds his teeth at having the blonde show you such disrespect, but he represses the anger to join you near the rocks and sighing. “Sorry he got you all wet. He’s like that to everyone.”

You’re grateful that you left your bag and phone closer to the shore as you squeeze out some of the water from your shirt. “I guess I won’t take it personally then...” Came a grumble under your breath, and there’s a tension in the air as Midoriya is quick to change the subject, digging around in his little satchel. “S-so hey, I uh, I brought you some presents today! I... I hope you’ll accept them!”

A lovely smile is back on your face again as the seahorse began to produce trinkets, having old gold coins, abalone shells, colorful pieces of coral, and even gemstones he had dug out of the sand, agates and pearls, even an opal. His tender heart is absolute racing as he offered you his presents one by one, and you accepted every last gift. “These are really cool, Izuku, thank you!”

The young man is absolutely beaming, and he nuzzles his cheek against your leg hanging off of the rock and into the water. You thought nothing of it; his people were probably just more physically affectionate, and Izuku was so sweet. There wasn’t a single scheming bone in his body!

After that it was just another day of swimming in the ocean together, the seahorse keeping close to you, pointing out little things in the water and telling you all about what he knew. You would help keep an eye out for boats so he could dive under the water to hide, and there was a time when a particularly strong wave tried to sweep you further out to sea, and Izuku got to be your own little hero as he helped you back to the cove, holding your hand and squeezing tight.

He was so happy, he just wanted this to last forever.

Sunset comes all too soon, and Midoriya’s chest aches as he watches you climb out of the water onto a large flattened stone, drying yourself off with a towel and throwing on your dry clothes over your bathing suit. “Do you... really have to go?” The merman finally mustered up the courage to ask. “Can’t you stay just a little longer?”

You sigh sadly, shaking your head. “No, I can’t, I’m really sorry. Actually, um,” The way you hesitate is making him nervous, so so nervous, and your words do nothing to soothe him, far from it. “I’ve had a lot of free time to come here during the day since I have a part time job at night, but I’m going to be working more soon, so I won’t... I won’t be able to come as often.”

“What?” The young man’s voice cracks, and you won’t look at his face. “I-I mean I can still come every few days and on the weekends! But... I do have bills I need to pay, so-”

"Please don't go!!" Izuku cries out, those emerald eyes welling up with tears, and you seem caught off-guard by his outburst. "You always leave! I want you to stay!"

You seem conflicted at his sorrow, but you shake your head. "Izuku, I can't just hang out at the beach all day, every single day. I have a life of my own on land. My friends and family are here. The two of us are just... from different worlds."

"But-but there are ways you can live down here with me! We can have a new life together! You would have your own little tail and-and breathe underwater! Please, just come here and I can-"

You just hold up a hand, looking like you could cry. "Listen, you've been a good friend to me, but... I'm not going to give up... everything I've ever known for you."

Desperate hands grab your ankle, holding on for dear life as Midoriya uses you as leverage to pull himself more out of the water, a hand bracing himself against a rock to climb out of the ocean. "But I love you! I love you so much!! I could make you so happy if you would just let me! And I would never ever cheat on you; we mate for life!! You’d be my one and only!"

Your expression twists into a look of confusion and almost even disgust as you try and jerk your leg out of his hold, those arms of his strong and surprisingly muscular. He's openly weeping, clinging to you even as you try and step away, almost losing your footing as he refuses to relinquish his grip. "Izuku, stop this!" You demand, each of your steps only dragging him more and more out of the water until he's completely onto the rocks, but he just doesn't care.

An anguished cry tears from his lips as you manage to slip out of his reach and stumble back before he has a chance to grab you again. "Don't go! Please don't go!!" The merman wails, and you're crying too as you're at a loss. You don't know what to do, what to say, and now, it almost seems like the best course of action is... to simply leave, maybe even... for good.

"I'm--" There's a painful crack in your voice. "I'm sorry, Izuku.... Good bye."

No! No no no no no no no!!! He's going to lose you!! He's going to lose you forever!! Midoriya is all but hyperventilating as he tries to crawl after you, but he just can't maneuver quickly enough over these rocks. It was so much harder to move like this, and he's ready to scream in agony... when a thought occurs.

"Can you at least help me back into the water if you're going to break my heart?!"

At that, you halt, looking back to him as Izuku let his tears fall, face red and wet as he sobbed. "You're just going to leave me here to dry out?! Or do you want a predator to get me?! Or humans?!" He lets out a particularly pathetic, broken wail. "Did I never mean anything to you?! You just want me to die?! You want me dead, don't you?!"

There; your expression breaks out into a pained, panicked look as you quickly make your way back to him. He knew you were too sweet and kind, and you're next to the merman again as you're trying to figure out where to put your hands as your eyes flood with water. "No...! No, I don't want you to get hurt, I'd never want that!!"

His hands cling to you as you awkwardly grab his torso, struggling with effort as you slowly dragged him back towards the edge, tug by tug. Midoriya has quieted down into sniffles all of a sudden as you have him close enough to push himself back into the water, but as you try to pull away, his tail curls around your leg, hands grabbing your arms, and a smile graces his features.

"Gotcha."

With a push off the rocks and a big splash, Izuku pulls you under the waves. You're flailing and struggling, but his tail just winds tighter, arms wrapping around you. "I'm sorry I tricked you, but you'll be happier down here, I promise!" The young man says, his voice carrying perfectly through the water with clear joy and a big grin. Lungs crying out for oxygen, an explosion of bubbles escapes your mouth as you can no longer hold your breath. Drowning; he's drowning you, and you're choking, coughing, vision growing black as that gentle voice coos to you softly. "Don't be scared, it'll be ok! I meant what I said, so go to sleep for a little while, alright?"

The last thing you can recall was the faint sensation of his lips over yours in a passionate kiss, an almost supernatural heat covering every inch of you as you slowly, slowly, became lost to the dark.

----

Humming. There was... humming.

Pain is over every inch of you as your eyes open slowly, and the fear sets in immediately. All around you is a stone cavern, lit up by phosphorescent rocks and glowing algae, and you sit up, or at least, try to, as you become horribly aware that you're underwater.

"What the fuck?"

You're surprised to even hear your voice as you gasp in horror, but things only got worse as you tried to move your legs.

That is, the legs you no longer have. All that's left is a seahorse's tail, the limb awkwardly twitching as you try and struggle to move.

"Ah, honey! You're finally awake!!"

There's no time to retreat as Izuku happily swam over, eyes wide and excited. "You look so wonderful like this! Your fins and tail are so much more amazing than I could've hoped for!"

A choking sound leaves your throat as you look yourself over. The merman had taken your clothes, leaving you every bit as naked as him, and you're not accustomed to your new body as your fins flap and rest and then flap again, tail jerking and bucking as you can't figure out how to move.

"What-what did you do to me...?!" You rasp, shoulders shaking, rapid inhales of water that felt as natural as breathing air rushing in and out of your mouth as hyperventilating begins. Newly webbed fingers desperately run over where your stomach connected to this new, unwanted lower half of yours almost as if to check it was actually real. Your ears are no longer the same as well, the tips turned into little finned adornments, currently fanning out in a body language of fear and panic. "Change me back! Change me back right now!!"

Izuku's smile didn't fade one bit as his tail curled around yours, sighing lovingly at the sight of holding you like this. Oh, you looked so perfect, even as your eyes widened with terror, even as you stayed helpless on the new bed of soft plants the two of you would share. This was everything he had hoped for, and a lifetime of swimming means he's stronger than you as his arms pull you into an embrace.

"It's ok to be nervous." He shooshes softly, all but shuddering at feeling your chest against his own. "This is a big step for us, but I know we'll be happy. I know our new relationship will be a little... rocky at first, you know, like the tide! Most of the time it will be amazing, sometimes not so great, but don't worry! I love you, and I would never abandon you!"

You're sobbing without the tears as you're surrounded by nothing but saltwater, and Izuku just kisses your forehead, nuzzling his face into your hair like a lovesick school boy. “Ahhh, and the full moon is just a few sunsets away, too! I’m so happy I get to spend it with you!”

Cries and whimpers and pleads for help are just suffocated by his adoring cuddles. Midoriya flutters his fins to bring you to lie down on the velvety reeds, those cursed lips kissing your face, your cheeks, your neck, over and over as if he had been saving them, saving them all just for you.

Your family was never going to see you again and Izuku couldn’t be happier. As far as he was concerned, you were exactly where you belonged.

Here, under the gentle waves of the ocean, with him.

#yandere x reader #yandere bnha #yandere boku no hero academia #izuku midoriya #my stuff #not sure what to tag this haha #wrote this basically within a few days bc i expect the gang orca thing to take a while if itl even be done before may ends lmao #mermay

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boku-no-imagine-this · 5 years

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Siren

Izuku Midoriya x reader

a/n: my contribution to Mermay is finally here! It took a while since I’ve been getting through a lot of requests and have been going through a lot. This was supposed to be posted a few days ago but I was in a dark place and wasn’t in the right mind.

The viridian haired male grunted as he pushed the large chunk of metal. He gritted his teeth and winced, struggling to pull the ropes connected to the refrigerator.

“C-come…. On!” he winced, taking another step forward.

Midoriya let out a cry as he pushed it one last time to the pile. He looked at it from afar and saw that it had grown, yet was still lacking, considering a large amount of trash still scattered around the beach. He used his wrist to wipe of sweat that had built up on his forehead. Just as he was about to start pushing another one, a faint melody had made its way to his ears. Midoriya furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as the melody somehow kept getting louder and louder.

The melody was sweet; lilting and sonorous purity. It seemed melancholic but something about the song was beautiful. It allured him. He found himself involuntary walking towards the place the pleasant and delighting elegy was coming from.

Midoriya’s body found its way in the position where his knees and lower area of his legs were dug into the wet sand as waves gently moved and wet the edge of his shorts. He was dazed.

In front of him was the source of the melody. Now with it directly in front of him, the melody rang and echoed in his ears. His viridescent irises were aligned with e/c ones that reflected the warm colors of the sunset. The melody began to fade away with the figure in front of him inching closer.

Once the melody had finally stopped, Midoriya was still dazed but the fact that the song had stopped had become clear to him. His eyes widened at the sight in front of him and the warmth on his lips.

The figure had finally pulled away from the kiss.

After a few moments of processing the whole ordeal in his mind, Midoriya yelled in shock. “W-what just happened? Where am I? Who are you? What is this?” he began mumbling, going into his infamous spree of inaudible rush of words.

Your eyes had widened. “Woah Woah easy there” you spoke up, causing him to scream again. You observed the male. He had dark, curly and messy green hair that matched his eyes, along with freckles on his cheeks that were currently tinted with pink.

“Y-y-y-y-you have a tail!” he yelled, stammering, unable to believe what he was seeing.

“Calm down kid, just breathe in, breathe out.” you attempted to speak up. He did so and finally cooled down by what it looked like. “Alright. Now that you’ve calmed down, I may need some clothes or a towel” you said.

“Eh? What for?” he asked. “And what are you?” he asked. “Well, to be more specific, Who are you?”

“My name’s Y/n L/n. I’m human obviously, and if you haven’t noticed, and I’d be half naked if I got up now” you deadpanned.

“O-oh. I understand..” he softly trailed off.

You sighed, “I have a quirk, Siren, aside from my ability of hydrokinesis, the downside of my quirk is that I’m well… A siren unless I kiss someone then I can become human with legs for half a month. If it wears out, I have to stay back to the water or I’ll get severely injured. I can stay on land with legs but if half of my body makes contact with water, I go back to a siren, the only time I have legs is when I’m dry” you explained, “Understood?”

He slowly nodded, “That’s an interesting quirk and downside…” he muttered until a realization had struck him. “W-wait! Does that mean you kissed me?!” he asked, yelling. You nodded, “I just said that” you shrugged your shoulders.

“That means you used me to your advantage” he muttered once again, causing blood to rush up to your cheeks.

“It’s not counted as sexual harassment!” you yelled, hitting him with your F/c tail instinctively. “Anyways, do you have spare clothes or a towel I can cover up with?” you inquired and he nodded.

“I have a towel I haven’t used yet. You can borrow it for a while” he said as you smiled at him. “Thanks” you replied.

“I’ll go get it no-” he stood up but cut himself off. “If I let you borrow the towel, how will you give it back, and where would you go?” he asked.

You shrugged, “Food, do things I can’t do in the ocean, that is until I find someone else to kiss and the cycle would repeat”

“Have you ever done this before?” he questioned.

You shook your head, causing his eyes to widen. “Wait, how long have you been there?” He asked.

“I don’t know” You said, “If anything, I only know what I do and say through what people who pass by the beach say. I gave myself a name, my quirk a name, and learned how life is through eavesdropping on people’s conversations” you sighed.

“I see…” The male responded. “I know. I’m currently training to go to a school that will train me to become a Pro Hero so-”

“Hmn, that explains what you’ve been doing with the old man and the furniture” you cut him off, voicing out your thoughts.

“Y-yeah!” He squeaked out, hoping not to slip anything about All Might up. “Anyways, he doesn’t m-matter” he said, gulping.

“So, maybe I can help you out by bringing you food since I’ll be training here for the next several months” He offered.

“But that doesn’t solve my shelter issue.” you replied. “Hey, how about I live with you?” you suggested, causing him to choke on his spit.

“W-WHAT?!”

“You look like my age so I guess you live with an adult. The old man?” you inquired.

“No, but, what?! How could I even do that?” He spluttered.

“You can sneak me in every night then I promise I’ll leave before sunrise to do whatever I can then I’ll come back by Midnight. Maybe I can also do that hero training thing you do.” you said. “Then I won’t have to do the cycle anymore!” you said.

“That just means I’ll have to kiss you or some other person every month” You sighed, causing him to have the same reaction as earlier.

“I don’t think I can do that. What if something goes wrong, And I can’t train with anyone” He said.

“Then I’ll train on my own. There are many places I’ve heard of, Like America! I can probably walk there and see what people praise it for so much” you gushed. “America’s another country… I’m afraid you can’t go there” He deadpanned.

“Oh, I understand. Then another plus side is that You can teach me what I don’t know!” you stated.

“Which is…?”

“A lot” you sheepishly grinned. “So, please. I’m begging you” you bowed by slightly tilting your body.

He was unsure of what to say. He couldn’t just let some random stranger, let alone a girl who forced a kiss on him, sleep over in his house all the time. It was absurd. Even if she was telling the truth about her quirk, what if she was trying to deceive him? What if she was going to steal something then leave?

Several things had swirled in his mind making him contemplate about his choices, he glanced back at you, eyes meeting; however, when he met your eyes, he could feel something, something that was itching him and yelling that you were telling the truth. What kind of future hero would he be if he let someone helpless and alone on the beach.

“Alright. However, I think we’ll have to rethink our strategy soon” he smiled. You did so as well. “Great! I owe you a lot….” you trailed off, anticipating for him to introduce himself.

“Oh right, My name is Midoriya. Izuku Midoriya” he stated. You nodded, “Nice to meet you Midoriya, now let’s get that towel or yours and head hom- I mean, to your home!”

#bnha #bnha x reader #bnha x reader fluff #mermay #mermay2019 #siren #bnha mermay #bnha midoriya #midoriya #midoriya izuku #izuku midoriya #deku #midoriya x reader #izuku x reader #deku x reader #fluff #mermaid #boku no imagine this stories

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ariella-may · 5 years

Photo

Well I haven’t done ANYTHING yet for mermay, so I threw this together since scooby is just about the only thing I draw nowadays!

#mermay #ariel #scooby doo #scooby #mermaid #disney #hanna barbera

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writtingfiction · 5 years

Text

The Ocean’s Wave

pairing: Mermay!Noctis x Reader

genre: fluff, action

words: 3.4k

summary: Life as a scrapper is difficult when MT’s are chasing you, with guns.

Curses fluttered from your lips as you ran with your bag strapped tightly to your back. Black boots heavily hitting the ground as you ran through the rotting and collapsed buildings. Bullets hitting the fragile structure as you took a sharp turn, hand grabbing the wall to have more control as you turn. Loud orders were given to the MT’s chasing after you. It was times like these that made you wonder why you did this as a living, scrounging the fallen robotic soldiers for parts as a way to scrounge through life with enough cash to buy food. However, more often than not, it was easy, unlike today, they had just to be around looking for someone to shoot.

When you finally had breached through the maze of failing buildings, you made a beeline towards the forest on the other side of a field. How fortunate, you thought, can never catch a break. You had them by a few seconds, making it easier for you to cross the grass field before having the onslaught of bullets spray around you. But the large shadow that had appeared over you made you pause, but not stop your run. Eyes going wide upon seeing the ship inbound. Your feet picked up your pace, eyes forward, foot in front of the other reaching the woods.

It was a bit harder to not trip and fall in the woods in any hope of losing them. The large roots that stuck up from the ground and the fallen trees blocking half your path, forcing you to jump over them. Your lungs felt as if they were burning, legs aching from all the running. However, your life was on the line, you would gladly run a little farther if it meant you were safe. Finding the MT heart was a miracle of a find, the fact that it was still intact, and it wasn’t in pieces; it felt like you had won the lottery. You were prepared to cry right there and then, well, you would have if it weren’t for the party crashers.

There was a loud crash behind you, sparing a quick glance behind you to see a flash of red. Assassin magiteks. Sadly, the glance behind had costed you. There was a particular large root that your foot caught on, due to the fact of not raising your foot high enough. You fell hard, kissing the ground as your skin scrapped against the forest floor, body rolling through bushes. Although, the bushes had slowed you down, it wasn’t enough. The ground was underneath you, and then you felt nothing. Your hand reached out, grasping at any poor bush at the edge. You could feel your stomach drop to your knees, breath coming in sharp.

The quick reflexes had saved you, but it was only for a moment. The branch was slipping from your hands. You tried to even your breathing as you looked below, it was a steep cliff leading down into more woods before the ocean fanned out farther. You made quick note that falling from this height, you could break a bone or two, but then again, your cousin had broken his arm tripping on air. A sharp gasp escaped your lips at the feel of the branch starting to give away under your weight. You had to get back up, you weren’t going to let this sway you from your original course. However, you thought twice after hearing the magiteks come closer. Climbing now had triple more times the risk.

If you could pull yourself up, you’d have to fight off those pesky magiteks. That was if the branch would hold, and even if it did, could you fight off the magiteks with how exhausted you were. The branch was slowly giving away, pulling away from the dirt that once held it secure. Curses left your lips, two hands holding tightly, straining to pull yourself closer to the edge. Nevertheless, your attempt to save yourself was in vain. You looked up to the edge of the cliff to see the magitek there, sword in hand. It was too close for your comfort, at the root of the bush where it could cut your little saviour at any moment.

“Not yet, she still has what I want.” You couldn’t be angrier, seeing his ugly mug was not the thing you wanted. “Well, if it isn’t my favourite scrapper. Hanging around, haven’t you?” God, you would have laughed if it wasn’t your life that was hanging on by a thread, branch.

“Don’t you have more important things to attend too? What about terrorizing innocent lives Loqi?” You hissed harshly. Your arms were straining to keep the tight hold on the branch, the added wait of the MT scraps were now taking a toll. Loqi only shook his head.

“We’ve been over this. You don’t take what is mine, and I won’t bother you.” Loqi stared down at you. “And right now, you have something that belongs to me.”

“And that would be? From what I know is in my bag it’s scraps.” You barked. Loqi only sighed.

“Only you would think it would be scrap, but it is not. In fact, I know, because it’s in your pack.” Loqi said, keeping an even tone with you, dangling dangerously, hands slipping from the branch. “Give it to me and I’ll help you up.” He extended his hand forward, but you didn’t trust him. You’ve done dealings with him in the past, but he always finds a loophole. You gave him a death glare, decision made.

“Over my dead body.” Your hands let go of the branch, body falling freely for a few seconds before it hit the side of the cliff, body sliding down the rest of the way. Loqi’s screams of frustration were distant as you felt the rocks and dirt cut through you clothing and tearing away at you skin. Your thoughts were focused on trying not to hit a tree when you reached the bottom, seeing as it was quickly approaching you.

You were lucky, so, so very lucky as you tried to push yourself of the cliff and towards the grass at the bottom. Barely getting enough air to have the chance to roll against the grass instead of crashing against it. However, things were balanced out, you pack was lighter now, losing most of it in the ride down. You were lying face down in the grass, breathing heavily, body aching and in pain everywhere. You were sure that you were bleeding in multiple places, your left leg was wet, most likely with your own blood. You didn’t want to look but checking your bag was necessary.

You groaned in pain as you fixed yourself, raising to sit back on your knees despite the pain. Your fingers weakly pulled off your bag and opened it. Inside there was barely anything, a few low pricing parts that would get you barely enough to keep your spot in that one good building in town. Your eyes landed on the heart, you were hoping, wishing it wasn’t crush too badly. Your hands cradling it, hoping but your hopes were quickly crushed. It was flashing a slow red; it was going to explode.

You stood, almost collapsing to the ground. Everything hurt so much, it hurt but you had to press on despite the blood flowing freely. Your leg was painted red, along with other limbs. Your hands were scrapped, elbows, torso and you could feel the warm liquid drip down your face before you saw it out of the corner of your eye. You made a quick limp forward, the mechanical heart in hand, almost slipping from your hands with your blood spilling.

You could hear the ocean; it was closer and closer and closer. However, your vision was also getting darker. Everything was starting to blur as you had finally breached the treeline, dirt slowly turning into sand. You found it harder to keep your poor balance as you needed to get far enough. You were losing the war with your own body though, collapsing to your knees once more, a few meters away from the ocean waves hitting the beach. You threw the heart, which was now flashing a faster red, a rhythmical beep pounding its way through your head before it disappeared into the salty water. There was a moment of silence with the crashing waves before the heart actually exploded, water shooting upwards. You blacked out after seeing the water crash once again against the beach.

---

You gasped awake, pain surging through your body. It felt like your wounds were burning, you couldn’t stop the pained scream that left your lungs. Eyes closed shut as you tried to calm yourself.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit.” Someone was near you; you couldn’t care less. You were in so much pain. “Hold on, shit, where is it?” They were panicking whomever it was. You sucked in a sharp breath, thinking of how to ease your pain. The last thing you remember was the ocean. The ocean, oh boy, the tide must have risen while you had passed out. It was most likely late at night and the ocean water had risen. Cleansing your wounds but causing extreme pain in return. Your eyes opened finally; the ocean water was in fact touching the open wounds. Half of your body was soaked. A sharp tinge of pain surged through you. You cried out once more.

“Ah!” Your hands twitched from the sudden pain. Getting the figure beside you to flinch. Your gaze immediately looked towards them. His skin was pale, his hair a dark midnight, eyes like the night sky glittering with stars. He was handsome, pretty even. Your body flinched again as pain became stronger, closing your eyes tight as you tried to keep your screams at a minimum.

It was as if a switch had been turned on, the man beside you moved at a quicker pace to try and find what he was looking for. In a bag, most likely, you didn’t have the chance to look. There was a small cheer coming from him when he found it, you think.

“Hang in there.” His voice was soft. You also heard the sound of glass breaking just above you, but you couldn’t feel any shards that would have fallen. Instead, there was a rush of ease throughout your entire body. The pain had faded into a dull ache, nothing that could cause you too much pain unless you were to poke your wounds. Your eyes open, breathing easily for once instead of having to chase after it. You take a look over at the worried man. There was concern written all over him. “How do you feel?”

“Better.” Your voice sounded like sand, if it was possible. Your throat was dry, you were need of water. “Do you have water?” You looked up at him hopefully, but all you got was a nervous look.

“Uh, no, no I don’t.” You merely nodded, moving to sit up but his hands came towards you. Gently holding onto your arms. “Wait, wait. You shouldn’t move. I may have given you a potion but that doesn’t mean you can stand saying you’re cured.” You couldn’t help but giggle at his words. Although, you do as he says, going back to lay on the wet sand. That’s when you take note that he is shirtless, and that he has atail. The colour almost a midnight black but glimmers in the moonlight.

“You’re a mermaid?” You blurt it out quicker than your mind can process it. Yes, you knew they existed; you could just barely see the lights as the sun went down. However, it was a rule, never to venture out at night. Daemons ruled the night; walking, taking a leisure night swim was sure to end in your death. That’s when you realised, truly realised it was dark out. The only light being the moon itself, your heart picked up its pace.

“Mermaid?” The young man, repeated confused. He looked absolutely heavenly in the moonlight as he looked at you confused. “I’m a merman, there is a difference.” He said it so seriously, that you thought you my have offended him. “A boy, a man. I don’t have the features of a woman.” But the way he continued assured you he wasn’t.

“My apologies, merman.” You said, a smile showing on your lips, but it was short lived. You were still laying down on the beach, soaked to the bone at night. The merman gave you his own sweet smile.

“Have you never seen one before? We’re quite common.” He says. Sitting on his tail so comfortably. You wondered, pondered if he knew of the dangers being out at night.

“No, never have. I don’t hang out by the ocean often. Knew they existed though, can see your lights as the sun sets.” You said quickly. Now, wanting, needing to sit up and look around. The daemon’s couldn’t be far.

“That’s fair. Hey, wait! I said– “ You cut him off.

“There might be daemons.” He only looked at you surprised; jaw dropped. Like this is the first time someone told him that he could jump off cliffs withoutbreaking anything. You struggled heavily just to sit up, grunting as your muscles ached. You don’t think you’d be able to run if daemons did appear. You felt hands gently hold onto your shoulders and push you back into the sand.

“I can protect you, just rest at least until sunrise.” He said firmly. You gave him a quick once over. He didn’t exactly look muscular, never mind that but he had a tail. It’s not like he could suddenly sprout legs and run after the daemons. When your gaze locked with his, you could tell he wasn’t impressed. Scoffing at the way you looked at him. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.” His sarcastic tone was hard to miss.

“Sorry…” You mumbled, but what could you think? This is the first time you’ve seen a mermaid, merman. You knew that they existed, but you had no idea what their abilities were. Did they have magic? What did they wield as weapons? You had many questions, ones he most likely wouldn’t answer now.

The two of you stayed on the beach, listening to the crash of waves against the sand as your saviour of a merman looked out for daemons. Your eyes were locked on the sky above you. It was beautiful, a black purple canvas dotted with white stars. You could see the edge of the galaxy in the sky with how dark it was on the beach. You’d never be able to see this back in town, too much light to see anything. You never knew how breathtaking it was, being out here and enjoying the night air, despite being cold and wet. Perhaps, there will be a time when daemons didn’t take the night as their home and instead cowered and feared the light and dark because of what lurks in their own shadows.

“What’s your name?” His soft voice was heard. You shifted your eyes from the fathomless sky to him. He wasn’t exactly looking at you, keeping his eyes on the woods in case any daemon dared to come close.

“Y/N.” You said. He took a quick glance at you, before they looked back at the woods. “What’s yours?” You could see his brain work, debating whether or not to give you his name.

“Noctis.” He spoke softly.

“You have a beautiful name.” You said. You hear him whisper out a ‘thank you’, and the faint blush on his cheeks but that could just be your imagination.

The rest of the night continues on with the crashing of the waves and your quiet conversation with Noctis. The ocean swallowing your conversation, so no other being could hear you. You learned many things about him and his kind in general as the hours passed by. You learned there’s a large city under the water, Insomnia. You had giggled to yourself at the name, what a name for a city that seemed to thrive during the night. Insomnia seemed to be too big though, from Noctis’ description of it. Perhaps there was too much going on for him in the city, maybe that’s why he left it to explore so often. However, you couldn’t fail to mention your own life as well. You told him of what it was like to run on two legs from friends and enemies; to how busy and lifelike your own cities were. You figured he didn’t have to know what your living conditions were. Especially after what had happened earlier that day, running with those bullets almost hitting you. Nights like tonight, you wondered why you hadn’t been hit by one yet.

However, Noctis and you shared stories like old friends. Giggling and laughing about your friends’ antics as they did something stupid, or incredibly dumb. It was a nice feeling to have the chance to talk to someone that didn’t know what your world was like. So curious about a place they’ve never been, having hopes that it might be a nice place.

“Ah, here comes the sun…” Noctis said, shifting in his spot. You watched him shift closer to you, head facing the ocean and cliffs to your left. You only had to wait a longer as the sky started to shift to a yellow orange as it made a slow transition to a light blue. Your eyes were glued to his face, watching as the new sun rays hit his face. He was almost like a cat, sunbathing in the sun. Eyes shut as he breathed easy. Silence for just a little longer before he pulled away from a moment, to look at you. He smiled gently. “You can stand now.”

And stand you did, slowly as your muscle still ached in protest. You’d have trouble walking for the next few days. You wouldn’t be able to scrap over the next week most likely from healing. You stretched carefully, flexing a little, as if to test if they were still there. Noctis only watched in a slight awe. You were his first human, interaction and everything. When he was told that the beach, he often visited had an explosion by its’ surface, he was worried, upset. So, when the night had fallen, he left the safety and comfort of his home. Much to his shock, he found you, covered in your own blood. Your wounds looked horrid. He had to bite down on his own lip as he poured the salt water over the wounds, your body flinched when it touched you wound subconsciously. So, when you came too, he was, well, worried and quite flustered.

“Will you be okay?” He asked, as you reached for your toes. You hummed.

“I’ll be okay. I can make it home from here.” You said, fingers now reaching for the sky. “If the path that leads down to the beach is still where I remember it…”

“I see… I wish you save travels.” Noctis said, grabbing his own pack.

“Thank you.” You said, but you felt as if it wasn’t enough. You hadn’t properly thanked him for keeping you safe and giving you what he called a potion to help heal your wounds. “Noctis, thank you, for everything. For keeping me safe and… helping with my wounds.” He had a wide-eyed look before he gave shy grin.

“It’s no problem, see you around…?” He said, hopeful.

“Only if you’re here during the day.” Your comment caught him off guard, a blush rising to his cheeks before laughter spilled from your lips.

“…I wasn’t suggesting that you risk your life to meet with me again…” Noctis mumbled.

“I’ll gladly hope to see you again…” You said, regarding him with a smile. You could only hope to see him again. Home wasn’t far, but home wouldn’t be home any more if you didn’t keep the cash rolling in.

“Until we meet again.” Noctis said, waving before he left with the tide that escaped you.

“…Until we meet again…” You whispered to yourself. You could only hope as much as him to see him again as you trailed back home slowly. However, a smile pulled at your lips. There will definitely be a next time and that made your heart flutter happily.

#Noctis Lucis Caelum #prince noctis #ffxv noctis #noctis x reader #noctis lucis caelum x reader #FFXV #fluff #ffxv scenario #my boon and bane is having a need for detail #can never have anything too short can I?#also #is noctis in character?#i never know #also its marmay #mermay #oops #mermay 2019

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mistydragonflyart · 5 years

Photo

Ain’t nobody bringing us down!

I started working on this months ago when the music video actually came out but I haven’t gotten around to finishing it until now. So here it is. I still love the music video so much and if you haven’t watched it yet you’re missing out. Anyway I know I haven’t posted anything in almost two months. I’ve been busy. And I prob won’t until Mermay, which I need to get started soon if I want to get it done by then.

#fanart #digital art #kda #kpop #akali #kda akali #popstars #korean music #dragon #neon aesthetic #paint #illustrations

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spartanguard · 6 years

Note

Charming and Henry have experienced being mermen, but will Snow get a chance to try being a mermaid with her son-in-law?

snow in the water (A Tall Tail: MerMay/June)

Ahh, what a great prompt! Snow trying a fin on for size is long overdue! This also kind of ran away from me, and takes place shortly after the events of the main story. | Rated PG, 5.5k

update: check out Jules amazing art!

Only in Storybrooke could a moment turn from peaceful to petrifying at the drop of a hat.

Killian had been cleaning up on the deck of the Jolly Roger after a night spent below the sea with Emma, dressed only in jeans due to the summer humidity, and enjoying the calm of the morning. Emma had gone into the station early but he was due to meet her later.

As he was sweeping, a voice called out, “Permission to come aboard?”

He glanced up at the visitor, and smiled. “Of course, milady!” he replied, beckoning Snow to join him as he set the broom aside. “And what brings you to my humble abode this morning?”

“I was out for a walk when I saw you; just thought I’d come say hi, and maybe take a break so I don’t die of heatstroke.”

“An excellent plan, your Highness.”

“Killian—”

“You’ll never get me to stop.” She always protested when he used her official title, which was exactly why he did it. (And I suspect she’s at least somewhat amused by it.)

They made small talk for a bit until an ungodly screech came from the forest.

“Um, what was that?” she wondered aloud. It had sounded familiar, but Killian couldn’t place it.

More shrieks cried out, and the thunder of heavy wings flapping shortly followed. Then the first creature broke through the treeline. “Bloody hell, it can’t be.”

“Oh my god, it is.” Flying monkeys—a whole pack of them. And they were heading in their direction.

Frantically, Killian began searching for cover while Snow stared at the oncoming army in horror. But of course, there was none to be found on the ship’s deck, and I don’t trust that the winged beasts won’t follow us down the hatch. There was only one option, especially as it became more and more apparent that he and Snow were the targets.

The first creature reached the mast, landing on it and screaming bloody murder. Snow seemed frozen in place, staring at it, but Killian’s eyes fell on Emma’s enchanted bracelet, sitting on a barrel.

Another flying monkey landed on the mainsail, tearing jagged holes in it as he scrambled for purchase, and more were coming behind it.

“Snow!” he shouted. “We need to get underwater!” But she made no reaction to his command; she only stared at the oncoming assault, like a young sailor shellshocked by a first battle. There was no time for that, though.

Quickly, he grabbed the bracelet and jumped to her side in as few paces as possible. “Snow, put this on; we have to get under the surface—now.” She jolted out of her trance when he tugged her arm in the curve of his hook, then gaped for a moment when he put the enchanted jewelry in her hand.

As if clearing the fog from her mind, she shook her head, looked up, and nodded. “Okay.” She followed his lead in sitting on the railing, slipping the bracelet on while he pulled his cuff off, and then diving in without a backwards glance.

Immediately, he went as far down as he could, in case for some reason those monsters could swim. A glance back showed him that Snow was right on his tail, and thankfully no one else. He finally stopped when the murk of the harbor filtered the sun to just a hazy glow; Snow attempted to halt, but she was still unsure of how to work her new appendage, so he grabbed her to slow her down.

Both stared up at the surface with baited breath, waiting to see if their attackers had followed, but thankfully, nothing came.

“Good thing they can’t swim, too, eh?” he quipped, trying to lighten the mood, but Snow still seemed agitated.

“Where did they come from and why did they go after us?” she wondered aloud, still looking up. “And what are they going to do to the town?”

“Whatever it is,” he started, calmly, belying his own worried thoughts, “we’ll do what we always do: figure it out and defeat the foe. I once told your intrepid daughter this, but I believe the same applies to you: I’ve yet to see you fail.”

“Are you sure?” She was staring at him, clearly searching for affirmation; how odd to be the one giving Snow White hope.

“I’m positive, Snow.” She gave a tiny smile, but clearly needed some distraction. “Come on; let’s head to the cove and then get in touch with the others; it’ll be much clearer, and probably quieter, there.”

Wordlessly, she followed him as he slowly swam, giving her a bit of time to get used to the motion of having a fin; like the rest of her family, she picked it up quick. “That’s quite a fetching tail you have, milady,” he observed on the way.

“Oh, uh—thanks.” It was a pearly white, a few shades lighter than her pale skin, with darker gray and black splotches reminiscent of a koi fish. It was terribly unique and perfectly Snow. “It wasn’t what I was expecting, honestly.”

“No?” Perhaps she expected green, like her and Emma’s eyes? Or a dark, sleek color to match her hair?

“Well, this isn’t the first time I’ve had a tail. Ariel and I sort of…switched limbs for a hot second.”

“Ahh, I thought there was some history there.”

“It was only for a few minutes—I never even got in the water with it—but it was definitely her tail, looking back.”

“And which do you prefer?”

Snow finally gave him a genuine smile. “Mine. But don’t tell her!”

He chuckled. “Don’t worry; I won’t.”

They settled into the kelp beds once they got to the cove and Killian called up Emma on his shell phone, letting her know what had just happened in the harbor.

“Well, hopefully they don’t carry anyone away, because we’ve got a big problem in town. Zelena got out.��

“Bloody hell; what’s she doing?”

“Basically going on a rampage. She’s got Robin in a force choke and is screaming about how we ‘can’t take her baby away from her’.”

“The baby that she hasn’t had yet, and won’t have for several months?” Snow commented.

“Apparently,” Emma sighed.

Weeks ago, once everything had been squared away with Rumple, Emma and Regina had gone to retrieve Robin and Roland from New York after Regina fielded a call from “Marian,” who was really Zelena in disguise. And lo and behold, she was with child. She’d been locked up at the hospital ever since they got back.

“Emma, do you want us to come?” Snow asked.

“No; you’re better off where you are. Check back in a couple of hours.”

“Alright, love; stay safe.”

For a moment after saying goodbye, the two sat and looked around, neither one good with sitting idle while danger was afoot. “You’ve no intention of staying down here; do you, milady?”

“Hell no.”

He grinned. “Alright. Let me check to see if the surface is clear.”

When he broke through, the sky was empty save for a few gulls. He could hear the cries of the winged monkeys far off, though, and faint screaming from town. With his hand, he beckoned for Snow to come up; she’d followed him partway then let him do the reconnaissance.

A moment later, she popped up next to him and brushed her hair from her eyes, glancing at the sky. “Looks like we’re okay.”

He led her over to his rock and they both pulled themselves up on the ledge. Snow’s now-wet clothes clung to her, but at least she still had something; his jeans had definitely been lost. “I can see why you prefer to go shirtless,” she commented, tugging her soaked top away from her skin.

“It has its mobility perks,” he agreed. “Now what?”

“I guess I have to get pants on the way back into town,” she said with a shrug, starting to fiddle with the cuff. “Hopefully, I won’t—”

She was cut off by another high-pitched screech; the monkeys were back. “Oh, bloody hell,” he cursed, and they both slipped back into the ocean, but hovered just under the surface to watch. The monkeys began to circle overhead, but made no moves to dive down or attack like they had earlier.

“Well, they can’t get to us, but they definitely know we’re here,” he deduced. “Let me try something.” He popped his head out of the water, waiting to see if it earned any reaction from the beasts; curiously, it did not.

Again, he gestured for Snow to join, but this time, she’d barely broken the surface when the first monkey came swooping down, and she instinctively ducked back down below to get away from it. Calm returned when it was just him. He scowled to himself; it’s not hard to figure out what that means.

Back under, he quickly asked, “I know this is an odd request, but might I have your shirt? There’s a hypothesis I need to test.”

Unperturbed, she did as asked, stripping down to her black sports bra and handing the top to him. “What do you think’s going on?”

“Unfortunately, I think they’re only after one of us.” He resurfaced and tossed the shirt onto the rock; as expected, the monkeys swarmed it, latching onto Snow’s scent and proceeding to tear the garment to shreds.

He sighed as he submerged. “It seems, milady, that the simians have been sent after you.”

“Me? Why?” She was stunned.

“If Zelena is involved, who bloody knows. She likely has a vendetta against all of us for one reason or another.”

“But I haven’t done anything to her! If anything, she’s the one who’s—ohh,” she cut herself off, a look of realization taking over. “She thinks I’m going to do the same thing—that I’m going to take her baby.”

“A likely guess, milady.”

Heavy silence settled on them for a bit. “So now what do I do?” she wondered, voice small.

The captain in Killian knew there was only one thing for Snow to do. She won’t like this, though. Remorsefully, he told her, “I hate to say it, your Highness, but I think you’re going to have to stay down here for a bit.”

“I was afraid you’d say that.”

Don’t get her wrong: Snow loved spending time with her son-in-law. (Okay, it wasn’t official, but it may as well be; he was her daughter’s True Love, after all.)

And she had to admit, now that she’d actually gotten to try one out, there were definitely some perks to having a tail instead of legs and being able to breath both above and under water.

But I’ve done the hiding out thing enough for one lifetime. History had taught her that it was better to face a foe head-on than try to avoid it or run away; she’d learned her lesson there a few times.

She didn’t want to make anyone else a target, though, least of all her family. If lying low kept them safe, then she’d have to deal with it for a few days; hopefully, that’s all it will take.

She must have been visibly moping, because suddenly, Killian was in front of her. “Hey—like I said, we’ll figure this out; we always do. The important thing is keeping you and your family safe, and I’ve long since pledged to do just that.”

She gave a small smile; that was the second time today he’d been the one to bolster her—I guess we’re rubbing off on him. “Thank you, Killian.”

He nodded, blushing slightly, and continued. “I was planning on heading back up to see if I could be of any assistance, but I can stay here if you’d pref—”

“No, no—go ahead,” she cut him off. “I’ll be fine,” she said, feigning confidence—but she wasn’t sure who she was trying to convince more: him, or herself.

“Here.” He grabbed the shell that hung around his neck and pulled it over his head, offering it to her. “Take this so you can keep in touch.”

“Are you sure?” She knew how important that shell was to him; for a long time, that had been his main communicative link to Emma, and they obviously still used it often.

“Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I think you might need it more than I over the next few days.”

She sighed; he was right. If there was a hit out for her, there was no telling when she’d be okay to resurface. “Thank you. And thank you for getting me down here safely in the first place,” she quickly added. “I barely made it the last time I tried that.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “You’ve jumped into the ocean to escape danger before?”

“Yeah, once. Off a cliff, too. Only survived because of Ariel, though.”

“Is that why she gave you her tail? To prevent more death-defying feats?” he teased, smirking.

“That was probably part of it,” she laughed back. “I can kind of see her point now.”

He chuckled with her, then said his goodbye, letting her know they’d be in touch soon. And he swam off in the direction of his ship, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

Okay; now what exactly does a mermaid do?

For a bit, she just swam around, exploring; she’d never have guessed there was so much flora and fauna down here, nor that it was so varied. The murky, polluted harbor had given her a bad first impression, but the clearer cove was filled with grasses and plants, and all manner of fish and sea creature.

Late in the afternoon—well, she guessed, based on where the sun was—she was lying in one of the kelp beds, which she was surprised to find was as plush as Emma had told her it was. The silky fronds brushed against her skin and tail, which was still an odd sensation—that she had scales and not skin on part of her body. But she had to admit, lifting up her tail to admire it, that it was really beautiful, especially as the sun glinted off of it, even on the ocean floor.

She jumped when she heard a male voice breathe, “Wow.”

“David?” She sat up and looked to the side, and there he was, floating, with a tail too, and dropping the bag he was carrying (though it just kind of floated there). She’d seen his tail before, but she forgot how perfectly it fit him, with its striations of lighter and darker blue that perfectly complemented his eyes. Hello, gorgeous.

“Snow,” he said reverently. “You’re…you’re stunning.”

She had to shake herself from her own reverie to reply, and found she was blushing. “You’re pretty easy on the eyes yourself,” she tossed back.

In a second, he was on top of her, kissing fiercely. She wrapped her tail around his to anchor herself as she got lost in his kiss and touch and damn, now I understand why Emma and Killian spend so many nights down here.

They finally broke to catch their breath, but didn’t let go of each other. And Snow’s brain finally caught up to her. “Wait—how are you here?” she wondered breathlessly.

“I’ve got Hook’s cuff.”

“Then where is he?”

“Um…in our bathtub.”

She snorted. “Oh, I bet he’s not a fan of that.”

“Actually…it was his idea. He and Emma are going to watch Neal tonight and try to figure out the Zelena situation, and suggested I take the cuff to be with you. Oh! That reminds me.” He reached for the Shell now hanging on Snow’s neck and spoke into it. “Emma? You there?”

A moment later, they got their reply. “Yup. Everything okay? Mom, are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Snow answered. “What happened with Zelena?”

Emma’s sigh came through the shell. “We got close enough to try to slap one of the magic-blocking cuffs on her, but when she noticed, she just disappeared. We checked her old farmhouse but there were no signs of life there. So it’s quiet for now, but everyone is on alert.”

This is just like last time, she thought, remembering their first battle with the witch months ago. Trying to take the edge off the conversation, she quipped, “Leroy must be asleep, then; no way he’d stay silent when danger is brewing.”

“Actually,” Emma started, but David spoke over her.

“That’s the other thing…all the dwarves have gone missing.”

“What?” Where would they have gone? Are they hiding, too?

“Mom, how many monkeys were there?” Emma asked.

In the heat of the moment, Snow hadn’t really taken the time to count; but now that I think about it… “Seven,” she concluded sadly.

“That’s what I suspected,” Emma said unhappily.

“It makes sense that she’d use people familiar with you as her minions when you’re the target,” David added.

“So we can’t shoot our way out of this one, basically,” was what Emma got from it.

In the background, they heard Killian say, “Surely one or two won’t be missed.”

He received instant and simultaneous admonishment from Snow and Emma.

“Anyways,” Emma continued, “That’s where we are now. So unfortunately, you’ll have to lay low until we can either figure out how to switch the dwarves back, or stop Zelena altogether.”

It wasn’t what Snow wanted to hear, but she’d honestly been expecting it. “Yeah, sounds like it,” she agreed sadly.

“But don’t worry about it tonight, okay?” Emma was quick to assure. “Killian and I have everything taken care of here; so you and Dad just enjoy yourselves tonight.”

“Okay.” It was half-hearted. “How’s Neal?”

“Enjoying the novelty of taking a bath with a merman,” Emma laughed.

“Oh my god, take a picture! Take ten pictures!”

“I’ve probably taken twenty.”

“And you’ve been no help whatsoever!” Killian shouted. “Have you any idea how slippery an infant is?”

Well, that’s good practice for someday, Snow thought with a smile.

“Well, he looks pretty clean to mean. You did good, pirate,” Emma teased. “Alright, I’m gonna put him down now then get some salt in this tub. Talk to you guys in the morning!”

“Take care! Hug Neal for me!” Snow called, hoping she was heard over the ensuing giggles that faded out. “They’ll be okay, right?” she asked David.

“I think so.” He thought about it a bit more, then shrugged. “I hope so,” he corrected, and they shared a giggle.

She hummed and wrapped her arms around him again. “So…now what?”

“Well, I brought some food,” he started, nodding towards the bag he’d dropped, “so there’s that. Otherwise, the night is ours.” He pressed himself just a bit closer to her.

It’s been quite a while since we could say that. She tightened her tail around his and smiled—a sultry one she saved just for him. “I think I can handle that.”

The following morning, after a blissful night spent together, Charming checked the surface to see if the coast, quite literally, was clear. But he came back down, shaking his head. “They’re still there.”

“Dammit.”

“Maybe Hook was right; we wouldn’t miss one of them—”

She hit him in the chest. “David! Those are my friends! Think of all they’ve done for us.”

“I was just kidding,” he assured her, swimming out of her hitting range, but he still earned himself a sideways glare. I’m not sure I completely believe him.

“Well, I better get this back to its owner,” he continued, gesturing to his cuff.

Snow sighed sadly. “Yeah; he’s probably tired of the tub.”

David swam back to her, wrapping her in his arms. “Hey. We beat her once; we’ll figure it out again.”

“I know,” she answered, and she did. “I just hate feeling useless. Especially when I don’t have the excuse of pregnancy this time around.”

“You staying safe is the most important thing you can do right now.”

She huffed again; why does he have to be right? “I know. Give Neal a kiss for me?”

“Of course.”

It was the same thing for the next few days: David spent the night while Killian and Emma took care of Neal, and the days were mostly monotonous, exploring Storybrooke’s seafloor with the occasional visit from Killian (and Henry tagged along once).

She wasn’t out of the loop by any means—they let her know when anything happened. A few more people had gone missing, and the number of monkeys circling the cove had correspondingly increased. It looked like Zelena had ransacked the nursery Regina and Robin had started, but they didn’t see her do it; it was just safe to assume from the fact that everything was trashed and dyed green. But they’d come no closer to catching the witch, or figuring out how to reverse the monkey enchantment.

“I know we’ll figure this out; any minute now,” David assured her, but they were both losing confidence as the days went on. And dammit, I miss my babies.

Finally, several days into the debacle, Snow was just lounging around at lunch time, having exhausted any other options for the day, when Emma’s voice sounded from the shell.

“Mom! Mom? Are you there?”

“Emma? What is it?” She sat up in a flash, gripping the shell. What’s happening?!

“The monkeys are gone! We figured out how to switch them back. You can come up now!”

Snow grinned, but had to ask: “And what about Zelena?”

“Dad and Hook are cornering her now.”

“Oh, thank goodness.”

“I’m at the docks, if you want to come up; and I’ve got a change of clothes for you.”

“Give me two minutes.”

The muscles in Snow’s tail were burning with how hard she was working them, swimming faster than she had yet. Finally; I can be with my family and eat something that isn’t cold and wet!

The closer she got to the harbor, the cloudier the water got, until she was surrounded by dock posts and anchors, the Jolly Roger’s being the largest of them all. “Are you by the ship?” she asked, making sure she got the right one.

“Yeah,” came Emma’s happy reply.

Snow figured out which dock that was and then popped up at the end of it, greeted by her daughter’s smiling face kneeling at the edge. “Oh, Emma,” she started, just so overwhelmed after a week of being away. She reached up to cup her face. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“I’ve missed you, too,” she replied, joining her hand with Snow’s and lightly squeezing it.

Snow was about to pull her hand back so she could pull herself onto the dock, but when she even flinched her hand, Emma’s grip tightened—painfully. “Emma? Is everything okay?”

Before she could reply, those familiar, awful screeches rang through the air: the monkeys were back. Going into mom mode, she cried out, “Emma! Let go of me and take cover!” while watching the beasts begin to circle overhead.

A voice that was definitely not Emma’s answered. “Now why on earth would I do that when I’m the one who called them?”

No. Dread filled Snow as she looked back in front of her: Zelena. The witch was grinning wickedly in her thin hospital scrubs and robe, an almost manic glee in her eyes to match her riotous, fiery hair. Right away, Snow began to tug her hand, trying to free it from the witch’s grasp, to no avail. “Where’s Emma?” she shouted.

Zelena ignored the question. “You honestly thought you could hide from me under the sea? A lesson you learned from your little mermaid friend, no doubt. Clever, I’ll give you that, but given that you’re trapped now, you’re probably going to regret that.”

A monkey swooped down, screaming, only missing Snow by inches. “Zelena, I don’t know what you think I’m going to do to you, but whatever it is, I’m not,” she told her, hoping that would call off the assault.

“Do you expect me to believe that? I know you’re in league with my sister! I saw the nursery! It had your awful design taste all over it!”

Snow bit her tongue; now is not the time to debate interior decorating. (And besides, that room was all Regina.) “I promise you, I want nothing to do with you or your baby; I’m busy enough with one!”

Another monkey dive-bombed them, but this one was shot out of the air with a jet of water. “Oy!” Killian called out from where he floated, several yards away. “You and your hellbeasts go back to where you came from!”

“Oh, I’d almost forgotten about this little development,” Zelena stated, much too happily, turning her attention to Killian. “How ironic that I once baited him with a mermaid and now he is one. But we can’t have any interruptions like that, now, can we?”

Killian looked like he was about hit Zelena with another blast but abruptly froze in place, grimace locked on his face, and sunk below the surface.

“What did you do to him?” Snow yelled at her.

“Nothing of your concern; not in a few minutes, at least.” Suddenly, Snow was flying through the air, carried by an unseen force. “She’s all yours, my pretties!” Zelena shouted into the air.

The monkeys began to swarm dangerously close, circling her and getting within striking range. Pain erupted low on her tail as one scratched her, then her lower back stung with another. The dwarves-turned-beasts were screaming hysterically and flying incredibly haphazardly, striking each other and taking chaotic paths around each other.

This is it. Snow braced for an inevitable impact, a tear streaking down her face that she wouldn’t be able to say goodbye to her family—until she was falling back into the ocean.

Zelena’s voice sounded much different when Snow surfaced, the monkeys still swarming overhead. “Help! Somebody! I can’t swim!”

One of the monkeys must have knocked Zelena into the water, because she was struggling to stay above water a short distance from the dock. And then she disappeared in the waves.

Immediately, Snow dove under to find her, eyes scanning the murky harbor for a flash of red hair. She first caught a glimmer of gold; Killian was still frozen in place on the ocean floor, but seemed no worse for the wear. And she didn’t have to worry about him drowning like she did Zelena.

Finally, after a bit more swimming, she saw her, slowly sinking and flailing frantically. As fast as her fin would move, she darted to the witch, slipped her arms under hers, and kicked her tail to get them above water.

Snow barely broke the surface, to try to avoid simian wrath, but propped a coughing Zelena up so she could get air. Slowly, she towed her back over to the dock and helped her onto it. A monkey tried to attack, but Zelena stopped it with a wave of her hand, freezing it in midair.

When she finally caught her breath, she brushed her dripping wet hair from her face and gave Snow an incredulous look. “I tried to kill you; why on Earth did you save me?”

Does she seriously think I’d have left her? “I could never sit by and watch someone drown without doing something, regardless of our history.”

Zelena settled a hand on her midsection, a small bump now evident as her wet clothes clung to her. “And you really don’t want to steal my baby?”

“I wouldn’t wish that pain on my worst enemy,” Snow assured her, then added, “which is kind of you right now.”

To Snow’s surprise, Zelena started crying. “No one thinks I can handle this. They all think I got knocked up just to spite Regina, but that was only half of it! I’ve got no one else; just this baby. And I know it’s hard work, but I want to do it. I want this child, more than anything.”

Unable to turn a blind eye to someone in such emotional distress, Snow pulled herself up on the dock next to Zelena, literally offering her a shoulder to cry on—and, to her shock, she took it.

Crap. Now how do I console someone who has been my enemy for the past year? But she remembered what those crazy hormones and raging emotions were like.

“Okay, first things first, can you call off the army and unfreeze Hook?”

Zelena sniffed and nodded her head against Snow’s shoulder; with a flick of her wrist, the monkeys disappeared and the dwarves, and a couple others, were there on the dock.

“IT’S THE WI—” Leroy started to shout, until Snow told him to can it and head back into town.

Killian reappeared, looking puzzled at the picture before him but wisely not saying anything. Snow pulled the shell necklace off of Zelena as she continued to sob, tossed it to the pirate, and mouthed the words “Find Emma.” He nodded and slipped away.

“Alright, so you’re sure you want this child?” Snow began when they were finally alone.

“Yes; so much.”

“You’re not going to abandon it when you get bored or it won’t stop crying or anything?”

“Absolutely not! I may be wicked but I’m not heartless.”

“Okay. We’ll have to discuss it with Robin, and you’ll have to prove yourself, but if you really want to keep this kid, I’ll help you.”

“Really?” She asked, still sniffling, and sat up. “After all the awful things I’ve done to you, you’d help me?”

Maybe it was just her forgiving spirit, or maybe it was residual guilt for what they did to Maleficent. But she’d also seen how being given a second chance had affected Regina and Killian; maybe Zelena just needed that, too. Maybe this is my own.

“Really. But you can’t wreak havoc on the town anymore. And you’re probably still going to be locked up for a while.”

“That’s fair.”

Snow gave her half of a smile before running footsteps sounded on the planks of the dock. “Mom? Are you okay?” There Emma was—for real this time, followed by a still-shirtless Killian and a concerned David.

“Yeah, we’re all good here,” Snow said, giving Zelena an encouraging pat on the knee.

She smiled back at her through her tears, then carefully stood up in front of Emma, arms outstretched. “I believe I’m due for some cuffs.”

“Uh, yeah,” Emma answered, taken aback, but quickly slapped both a magic-restraining cuff and handcuffs on her while still staring at Snow. “Mom, what happened?”

“I’ll tell you later; just get her back to the hospital.”

“Alright…oh, and I love your tail!” she gushed before leading Zelena back to the waiting squad car with Killian.

She and David watched them for a bit, before he turned back to her. “What did you say to her?”

He knows me so well. She just shrugged and said, “I offered her a second chance.”

David chewed his lip in thought for a moment. “I’d argue it, but I’ve got nothing.”

“I know something you can get,” she said, playfully.

“Oh yeah?” he chuckled. “What’s that?”

She held her arms up. “Me?”

Laughing, he bent down to where she sat. “I think I can manage that.” And he scooped her up, only slipping a bit on the scales.

“My hero,” she teased as she wrapped her arms around his neck and planted a kiss on his cheek.

“Not that I mind carrying you, but why not just take the cuff off?”

“David! I’m not wearing any pants!”

“And that’s a problem because…?”

She lightly smacked him on the chest in admonishment…then gave him another kiss.

A few hours later, she was back on two legs, wearing a shirt and pants, and holding her son, finally feeling like everything was back to normal.

Oh, and Granny’s lasagna smells extra delicious tonight. (Though a week away probably had something to do with that.)

They were having a long-overdue family dinner in the diner, now that everything was relatively calm again. The cacophony of the restaurant was a bit jarring after so long in the quiet of the sea, but definitely a welcome change. And thank goodness for hot cocoa with cinnamon. Even if it was still the thick of summer outside, Snow was desperate for some hot food. You can only go so long on cold fruits and veggies.

When the meal had wound down and they were just relaxing, Neal asleep on her shoulder, Emma asked, “So, Mom, do you think you’ll be borrowing my cuff for anymore mermaid adventures?”

Snow chuckled back. “Don’t get me wrong; it had its perks, and there was definitely some novelty to it. And I totally understand why you guys spend the night down there so often,” she added with a wink (Emma cringed; Killian winked back). “But…” she started, trailing off as she gazed at her family around her. She was okay leaving the underwater thing to Emma and Killian and staying here on land. “I think this is where I belong.”

thank you for for reading! tagging some mermates: @kat2609 @mryddinwilt @cocohook38 @xpumpkindumplingx @optomisticgirl @thesschesthair @shipsxahoy @initiala @wingedlioness @fairytalesandtimetravel @clockadile @kmomof4 @snowbellewells @branlovesouat @wordsmith-storyweaver (if I missed you, let me know and I’ll tag you in the rest!) I’m trying to do one prompt a day; stay tuned!

#snowing ff #mermaid!killian #mermaid!snow #cs ff #why am i posting fic at 5am?#my ff #sherlockianwhovian #a tall tail

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