Chapter Text
Curious eyes trailed the movement, watching in earnest as waves gently pushed them from behind, as if the world was prompting him to get closer, yet he didn’t.
The figures were playful, bounding through the sand in a palpable joy that made his heart ache in a soft, bitter envy. The two larger, holding their youngest by each arm, swinging her and prompting her to make a noise that made him feel free , just by hearing it. A noise that he never heard before, one that accompanied unfamiliar feelings that he couldn’t help but long for.
He tried to make himself scarce, shying away and hiding his small frame behind the rocks he found himself trapped. All he had wanted, all that he had hoped was to find some place to hide, to rest from the storm that had just passed, lick his scrapes and feel for once, safe, yet here he was, about to get found by humans, and all at once doom himself.
He flicked his tail as a reflex, his body wanting to dash into the deeper water and escape, but his mind knew better. For all his anxieties, and all his fears he knew that it wouldn’t be wise to try and escape, not with them so close, as they would spot him before he even got out into open water, the waves hiding a shallow bank of sand that did nothing but obstruct his exit.
He had been told, by his pod, that humans weren’t safe, tales of them hunting his kind, for what purpose he wasn’t sure. He was warned of their sharp sticks, and keen mind, monsters that created traps to prey upon their kind with great ease thanks to their numbers. As when one human shows, many will follow, which is why his pod had left the area moons ago.
His slim body tensed as he watched the two larger humans walk off, casual in their trust of the smallest one to not get into trouble and continue to look at seashells. She had moved closer to the rocks that he found to be his saviour, but hadn’t moved to climb them, nor pass, which gave him hope for the moment. If he stayed, he would surely be caught, even if it took longer than expected, and if he tried to escape, the chances of the little human seeing him was highly likely.
He hadn’t seen a human so close before, and he couldn’t help but take her appearance in. She wore some form of cloth over her body, covering herself from the world. It was largely pink, with some whites and blues, and he couldn’t help but think it suited her. Her hair was bouncy, with two slightly longer strands at the front, falling before her face. Her cheeks, a rosy pink, and her expression one of concentration as she observed the sea shell she had found.
He found that this human, this girl , seemed largely harmless, not as frightful as his elders had previously warned him humans would be. Still, ever cautious, he kept his cover, feeling the rough texture of the slick rock in front of him.
After a few moments, ensuring the human was facing away, he attempted to move further into the waves to conceal his body with the oncoming wash of waves.
He heard a gasp, and knew he was caught. With a panicked flourish, he dove as best he could into the welcoming ocean, and disappeared. His heart was beating a mile a minute as he sped away, hoping he wasn’t too late, and soon found himself far out from the beach, unable to see the sandbank under the waves that had trapped him.
Resurfacing, only allowing his head to emerge from the surf, he could see the small human in the distance, a look of… wonder? Amazement? Crossing her features as she had retreated to her parents and was excitedly pointing to where he had previously been trapped.
With the comfort of the cool ocean engulfing his body, and the placating looks on the girl's parents, seemingly not believing her but amused all the same, the mermaid boy felt himself relax, as relief flooded him.
Satisfied, he submerged himself once more, edging closer to the shore, though some distance from the girl and her family, and tentatively searched for patches of plant growth, seaweeds and rocks, hoping to find small prey so that he could eat. His patches of emerald scales attracted some fish to him, the light shining off of them as he swam, and they thought he was no predator. Swiping for the nearest one, he began to chase the fish like a game, his superior speed allowing him to easily catch them in his sharp teeth.
Some were very small, and he could swallow them whole without any issue, yet some others were much larger, taking multiple bites to finish them off. He was fortunate, all things considered, that he could keep to the shallow waters, able to avoid the larger predators that stalk the seas. Absent-mindedly, he touched the mangled flesh of his right hand, and felt sick at the thought.
His hunger sated, he began the search for a peaceful place to rest. He was heading towards the cove, the small cave inaccessible by the beach that he often called home, but when he resurfaced to gauge where he was, he saw her.
The same girl, who was struggling to keep her head above the water, having been swept up by the waves as she must’ve paddled in too deep, the current claiming another victim. She gasped as she struggled, and she could see her parents weren’t in view, likely having left for a moment, and had taken their eyes off of her.
Before he knew it, he was swimming top speed towards her, only slowing down as he approached to carefully grab her and steady her above the water. This only proved to make her panic even more, some unseen force grasping at her from below, saving her from drowning, sure, but could prove nonetheless dangerous.
Thinking this was a terrible idea, he did the only thing he thought could calm her down, and emerged from the water's surface in front of her, his own curious, yet panicked eyes locking into hers, trying to convey that he meant no harm. Her panicked flailing steadied for a moment, her entire body going still as she stared at him, before offering a smile of relief, somehow realising he wasn’t some deep sea monster that would swallow her whole. Hesitantly, he offered back his own smile, which made the girl in his arms gasp.
He shied away, making sure not to let her drown in the process, but still hiding his face below the surface. He began their return to the beach, and gently placed the girl close to the rocks she had initially spotted him on, before releasing his hold on her, and swimming away quickly, ignoring the pang of something that struck him through his core.
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He didn’t see her until a few nights later.
The moon cast gentle shades across the beach as the waves gently caressed the shore, eager and willing to lip at the rocks that adorned it. Sitting upon one particular rock, a rock he had found himself trapped behind, was the small figure of a human girl.
She made a low, vibration like noise, that almost sounded harmonic, and made his own nervous fidgeting relax. He floated out past the waves, obscured thanks to the darkness of the night, yet all the same cautious that his scales or eyes don't reflect in the moon night. His own ears perked up at the soft noises she was making, able to discern the tones and inflections she managed to sway with just her voice. Perhaps it carried farther than it should’ve, or perhaps his own hearing was much stronger than he had thought, but the small piece of melodic peace she had accrued resonated with him deeply.
He watched, enamoured once more with the vision of her, as she held in her hands very thin material and watched it intently. He wondered all at once, just what it was that she had, and how it had held her attention so raptly. The pale moonlight shining down onto it, all the same helping the girl look at it, but hiding just what it was in its own shadow to him.
Frustrated, he let out a huff, letting out a portion of his song , and catching the sudden attention of the girl. She looked up, frustrated herself, yet unable to identify why, as she searched the calm ocean for whoever had made the noise. He shied away once more, keeping his own head low, yet still maintaining vision of the girl. Blushing, he tried to calm himself down, tried to quell the urge to sing more and more as he continued to watch her warily.
Where had that come from? He had never had issues keeping his song his own, and suddenly he was spurred to share it, an involuntary instinct or desire, building in his chest and emerging from his maw.
He rationalised that it was out of a desire to share and understand, a moment of comradery between human and mermaid, but couldn’t quite rationalise why it had happened right then. A mermaid's song was special, an innate part of themselves that they rarely shared, but even more so was the act of a duet, a combination of two songs that denoted a sort of devotion he had not quite understood yet, one of trust, understanding and… love.
After a moment, she sighed, and returned to her sitting position, attention back on what she was previously doing, making small, almost playfully obvious glances out to the ocean as if she suspected he were out there.
She began to speak, looking down at the material she had been observing, vocalising in a way that was both foreign and intriguing, a mixture of noises that were remarkably dissimilar to his own native tongue, yet full of patterns he found himself curious about.
He couldn’t quite understand what she was saying, only that she was saying something, and he innately understood that it must be the human language. Why was she speaking? Had she seen him, or was she merely doing so for her own enjoyment?
Regardless of his worries, he remained there, just far away enough that he could keep hidden in the darkness, and yet close enough to hear her words, and attempt to comprehend them.
He had thought it would’ve been over by the next day, but as he had found himself hunting, he saw her once more emerge from the trees and settle herself down upon the rocks. Once more she began speaking, and once more he began listening.
She kept returning, almost every night, not quite at the same time but always there, under the cover of darkness, watched on by him, a creature of the sea.
Before long, it became routine for her to sit outside and speak, reading off of what he had soon learnt was called a book , as he listened on, much more relaxed than before.
As the moons went on, and the unknowing pair grew and grew, slowly, he began to learn , and understand the words she was speaking, and he found himself treated to stories of grandeur, adventuring humans hunting and slaying monsters, of heroes defeating great evils and finding love .
As the girl’s body grew and changed, so did her stories. Gone were stories of great adventurers vanquishing evils, and in came stories of longing, born from an honour bound duty to remain trapped, to serve or protect, but a wishing for more. She would settle down on their rock, and sigh in discontentment each night, and read stories of exploration of the world, and those around them, their relationships and their loves.
He found himself discontent as well, itching to learn more about the human settlement he found has arisen around him. Constructions began, on land, and soon more humans arrived to live in their new homes, ones made of stone and mud, and the humans began feeding themselves from the ocean, setting sail on their boats, deeper into the ocean hoping to feed themselves on bigger and bigger fish.
He never ventured that deep, he knew that without a pod, he was much more vulnerable than any Mer that has ever swam these waters. His smaller frame helped him be fast and slippery, hiding away amongst rocks and seaweed, but he still found himself wary, for if he were caught unawares, it would spell the end of him, with no pod to call his own.
He sometimes saw his human venture off onto one of these boats, hauling aboard nets and other tools that he’s seen humans use to hunt fish. She would board alongside her parents, going by memory and their resemblance, and she seemed to take great pride in her work. Often, they never strayed too deep, which he found in a way, comforting. He knew that in many ways they weren’t prone to be threatened by what sank below, not unless they themselves were to embrace the dark waters, but he knew that the danger was still a concern.
He almost always followed them when he could, just to be sure, and one day, he was thankful he had been so cautious.
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Ochako Uraraka heaved in the net, her muscles burning as the weight of the net, coupled with the wayward seaweed she had caught made it incredibly heavy. Pulling it in close enough that she could scoop out the muck, she tied the rope to the boat in a knot, and found purchase of the net proper.
She found herself panting as she wiped her brow, her exhaustion all the same clear as she surveyed the waters that surrounded them, feeling a peace overcome her as she adjusted her thick gloves, and began throwing the weeds out back into the deep waters, and watched as the handful of clumps drifted away.
“Ochako dear! Have you seen the knife?” her mother called out, equal parts of tiredness in her voice.
“Yeah ma’, I was cutting the weeds loose!” she called back, turning and walking towards her mother, “shouldn’t we be headin’ back soon? It’s getting dark.”
“Sorry Ochako, but we aren’t done yet,” her father chimed in, “I wanna try out a new fishing spot, i heard from the Fishmonger that a few of his better suppliers have been using, it’s a bit deeper out, but I think it’ll be worth it! So we’ll be out for a few more hours.”
Uraraka frowned, and looked up at the darkening sky. It wasn’t just the sun nearing its end for the day that concerned her, but rather the clouds above them, and the slight uptick in more rough waves. She swallowed her words though, knowing that they needed the money, and if they left now they may not have enough for the month. They had caught a few good hauls of fish recently, but it would prove not to be enough to meet their quota. Sighing, and then putting on false bravado, she steadied herself and let out a determined “Right!”
The next few hours were mostly hard, rough work, and Uraraka let her mind wander, thinking of the island of Musutafu, an idyllic island with pristine beaches, and a beautiful coral reef surrounding it. She remembered when her family had first moved here, coming from one of the colonies seeking some sort of living. Her father had once been a fisherman when he was young, working off of one of the local lords' boats, and with the prospects presented, her family soon found themselves in Musutafu, fishing off of the coast initially, and once that proved fruitful, purchasing a boat and venturing out deeper. They hadn’t gotten the boat until she was 9 years old, and even then she wasn’t initially allowed aboard, her parents worried about her, after her close encounter with drowning a few years prior.
Sighing, she recalled that day. The glint of a large, glimmering tail alluring her into the waves, and when she ventured too far, the pull of the current proved powerful as it pulled her further and further out, as she had struggled to tread water.
Then, he came to her rescue.
Those messy, wet curls, with big, curious emerald eyes, with scales like freckles across his face, and large, fin-like ears. Peeking out of the surface water.
No-one believed her when she came back ashore, they thought she had inhaled too much seawater, and disregarded her tale of a green boy in the ocean who had saved her, but she felt steadfast in her belief that she wasn’t dreaming.
She had, many times attempted to draw him, her saviour from the depths, but with only the feeling of his arms around her to go off of, and the top half of his head to go off of, she hadn’t made a convincing recreation. His messy tuft of hair often came off too much like a child's attempt at drawing a bush, rather than the wet, curly mess it was, and his scales always felt off.
She had always found that little outcropping of rocks at the edge of the beach much more appealing after that day, and often found herself relaxing there after nightfall, knowing her home wasn’t too far, and no-one else knew she was there.
Once, she had sworn she heard a voice, something almost human, sing out in the ocean in front of her, yet the moonlight hadn’t given her much of a chance to see just what, or who it was. At the moment, she was certain it was her ocean boy, but had no evidence, or reason to believe it was anything other than a dolphin's call.
It’s been a few years since then, and sometimes she thought that she had just dreamed it all, some made up delusion from the trauma of almost drowning. She didn’t like to think like that, she felt that she had been defending it for so long that it became a habit, a staple of her own life that she’d always be known as the girl who cried fish , but she couldn’t quite let go. Even though she hasn’t brought it up in a few years, and everyone assumed she either forgot about it or let go, secretly, she thought about it often.
It’s not every day your life gets saved by a fish.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a particularly loud, thunderous clap as she began to feel the soft trickle of rain. Concerned, Uraraka took stock of the waves, watching as they began increasing in their intensity, making her feel sick as the boat was moved about.
She looked to the sky and gulped, realising the dark, thick clouds were covering their only means of navigating back to Musutafu, the stars couldn’t help them now.
“Oh no,” she muttered, before turning and yelling out, “MA’! PA’!”
She turned in a fit of panic, trying to find her parents aboard their ship, but couldn’t see them amongst the increasing rain. Thinking they could be below deck, she rushed for the trapdoor and tried to swing it open. The trapdoor’s swing open was intensified by the now swirling winds. The rain was a blanket now, obscuring her vision in the dark world around them, the rain snuffing any chance for the lanterns to light up the ship.
“Ma? Pa? Where are ya?” she called into the ship, only to get no reply. Uraraka knew this wasn’t good. They had no reliable way to navigate in the darkness back to Musutafu, the town not showing on the horizon as she desperately searched around the ship.
“Ochako! There you are,” her mother yelled from the left side of the ship, rounding about to the back where Uraraka was panicking, “we need all hands, NOW, the waves are picking up and we have no way back to Musutafu. Your father thinks he can steer us back, but I don’t see how.”
“Where do ya need me?!” She called back, the rain proving to be too loud for their normal volume.
Her mother seemed to think for a moment, a hesitant, even scared look on her face as she took in what was needed. There were many jobs aboard the ship her parents just couldn’t do reliably anymore, and speed was what’s needed here.
“Go up the mast! The rigging is jammed.”
Nodding, Uraraka braced herself for the challenge ahead, knowing that out of her family, she was the only one well enough to climb so high up. Their mast wasn’t a fancy thing, large and tall, with rigging spanning the entire length. Interspersed along the length of the mast was an assortment of thick ropes, tied around it and nailed in to act as the holds for her to climb up.
Wiping her hands on the inside of her shirt, Uraraka eyed the rungs and began climbing up, feeling the rain soaked ropes hold firm as she gripped at them. She could see the storm worsening around her, the waves warring and the rain intensifying. She felt a powerful dread at the sight of the boat rocking, but quickly shoved that down, knowing she didn’t have the time to worry, only act.
She reached the midpoint of the mast and checked the pulley half way. The halyard was the rope giving her parents trouble, but all seemed fine at this point. She knew that if the issue wasn’t here, it had to be at the peak of the mast. Without the halyard working, the sails couldn’t be pulled to full. She groaned, and pulled herself up further and further the mast, until she was finally at the top.
The Pulley feeding the Halyard through wasn’t in the best shape, the screws keeping it in place having been dislodged and the pulley itself holding on by the breadth of its base. The Halyard was dislodged slightly, and the rest of the rope went slack.
“Damnit,” she yelled in frustration, wracking her head for what to do to fix this. The rope was slack, but still fed through the pulley that was barely hanging on. The purpose of a pulley atop the mast is twofold, to help a sailor haul the sail up to full, and to help lever the actual act of pulling so the strain is mostly on the mast, rather than the person struggling. The sail was a large sheet of fabric, and wasn’t heavy in small sections, but to haul the full weight of it without sufficient pulleys, not even mentioning keeping it there, would be exhausting.
Seeing no other option, Uraraka gathered as much of the halyard she could that was slack, and began wrapping it around the mast tight. She used her legs to hold herself there, along with her left arm to steady herself. With a heave, she managed to haul most of the sail, having to use both of her arms as it got higher because of the sheer weight, and wrapped the rope around the mast to tie it there. A few times, she had to stop, and steady herself there atop the mast, the rocking of the ship and powerful waves knocking her about.
Finally, she came to her limit, and tied the rope off as high and securely as she could, praying it would keep steady while they navigated the storm.
She moved to climb back down the Mast, when the ship rocked hard, and her arm slipped. She felt the wind and rain rush past her as she fell, and she attempted to grab back onto the ropes of the mast, but the angle she fell caused her to move further and further away. The sail came into view, then the spreader, and then she felt a sharp pain as her foot collided with the side of the ship, the rest of her body being embraced by the dark cold nothing of the waves.
For a moment, she was shocked, and tried to scream, her breath escaping her into bubbles that went upwards. The water was freezing, and the night sky made it cold and dark. She could barely make out any shapes, only the dark, blurry shape of her family's ship, and the surrounding dark waters. She tried to swim, but be it shock, or the pain of falling but she struggled to find the energy.
Her vision faded, the darkness encroaching, but for the last moment of her consciousness, she caught a glimpse of shining, emerald scales.