Chapter Text
A light, cooling breeze carried the crisp scent of brine across the water, grazing the top of her head. Combined with the pleasant, heavy warmth of the afternoon sun baking her skin, it was all Coco could do to keep from nodding off to sleep.
Her hands gripped the worn wood of the fishing rod tighter. Leaning over the side of the small boat, she checked the bucket nestled at her feet for the third time. It was barely half full.
It had been hours, and the meager catch looked like something she and her mother would usually pull up within the first twenty minutes of a good day.
Coco stifled a heavy yawn, settling back onto the hard wooden bench. The silence out here was heavy. Her mother was still bedridden and still not better. Fishing alone left too much room for her mind to wander. There was no one to talk to, no laughter to pass the hours. It seemed even the fish had decided to be busy somewhere else today.
Her leg bounced restlessly against the hull, a nervous rhythm waiting for a bite that wouldn’t come. She wiped a bead of sweat from her eyebrow, staring into the surface of the water.
At this point, even a tiny fish would do. Anything to give her a sign of life. Anything to stave off the gnawing boredom.
After another few minutes of suffocating stillness, Coco let out a sharp groan of frustration. The sudden noise echoed over the open water, likely scaring away whatever stray fish were left down there if there were even any left at all.
Deciding a change of scenery was her only choice, she grasped the heavy wooden paddle and drove it into the water, forcing the boat forward. The old thing creaked softly under her weight, responding sluggishly as she steered herself toward the deeper, darker sections of the sea. The vessel shifted and rocked with each slow, practiced stroke. It was an old, stubborn boat, but it was reliable; Mom and her had been using this exact one for years.
Eventually, she spotted a massive, craggy rock cutting through the surface, casting a shadow across the water below. A better spot she hoped, aiming for the dark recesses where fish loved to hide from the midday heat.
She cast her line, the sinker breaking the surface with a soft plop.
Another hour crawled by.
Coco’s eyelids grew heavy, the calmness of the ocean lulling her into defeat. She was just beginning to seriously consider giving up and curling up for a quick nap when fate decided to finally answer.
The fishing rod jerked violently. A sudden, savage pull tore through the line, the sheer force of it nearly ripping the rod from her hands and dragging her straight off the side of the boat. The wood groaned as the boat tilted on one side sharply.
But Coco planted her feet and threw her weight backward, her arms instantly locked tight. The line strained, shaking as she attempted to reel the fish in.
Coco stubbornly pulled back, determined to win the tug-of-war. She was winning, inch by inch, forcing the heavy weight up from the dark.
The resistance vanished.
The sudden release of tension caught her completely off guard. With nothing left to pull, Coco went landing hard on her butt against the bottom of the boat.
"Ow!"
She groaned, rubbing the sore spot for a second before scrambling back to her knees to check the line.
…
She stared. The fish could have been a decent catch, but it was completely broken in half just a clean, missing tail section, leaving only the front half dangling pitifully on the hook.
“…Huh.”
Coco shrugged the oddity off. It didn’t matter. A single weird accident wasn’t going to bring her down. If anything, it just proved there were actually fish down here!
She gave herself a firm, confident nod.
Without a second thought, she tossed the useless half-fish aside, and went to cast her fishing rod again.
An hour later, the rod jerked again. Coco grinned, reeled it in with a struggle, and pulled up… another fish cleanly snapped in half.
“Okay, lightning strikes twice too." she muttered, completely unbothered.
She tried again and another massive tug of war. The third fish came up missing its back half. Coco looked at her bucket of fish heads. Half a fish is still food. Not even two or three weird accidents were going to ruin her day.
Coco inhaled slowly, taking a long, hard look at her fourth catch. It was, predictably, another lone fish head. She furrowed her eyebrows, staring at the empty eyes of the fish for a few silent seconds before sighing tiredly and tossing it back into the sea.
She grasped her rod and let out a long exhale, pushing the mounting frustration aside. At this point, her whole day felt like a cruel joke being played someone.
Leaning over the side of the boat, she stared down into the dark water
“Hey, stop stealing my catch,” she said flatly.
The water remained quiet and deaf to her complaints. Coco paused, realizing how ridiculous she looked scolding the ocean. She immediately giggled to herself. Shaking her head at her own silliness, she hooked a fresh piece of bait and began to fish again.
“Woah!”
A forceful pull hit almost immediately, something biting her lure the second it broke the surface. The fish pulled powerfully, far harder than any of the ones before it.
Coco gritted her teeth as she fought back. Her fishing rod bowed down dangerously, the tip nearly dipping into the sea as the line was dragged deeper and deeper. She struggled to reel it in, her knuckles turning white as she fought for every turn of the handle.
The water churned, and the old boat began to sway uncomfortably. Coco shifted her weight, attempting to regain her balance on the unbalanced boat while still refusing to let go of her rod.
This one seemed particularly determined to win, mounting a frantic resistance that had the line screeching, almost breaking the line of her rod entirely.
The small boat pitched sharply to the side, barely hanging on the brink of flipping over into the dark water. Coco threw her center of gravity backward, giving one final, desperate heave. Slowly, the screeching of her fishing rod began to regain control, forcing the thrashing weight back up toward the surface.
The fishing rod shrieked under the strain as the creature beneath the waves fought back with terrifying strength. Digging her heels into the deck, Coco threw her entire weight into one final, desperate pull.
*SNAP—!!
The sudden release sent the rod snapping back violently. A massive sheet of water exploded upward, splashing loudly and splattering the wooden boards of the deck. For a split second, time seemed to slow. Droplets of sea water rained down on her clothes catching the sunlight just as a heavy, dark shape launched out of the water and soared through the air.
Before she could even blink, the massive fish landed directly on top of her.
“Oof—!!”
Two distinct, startled voices resounded in the open air as their bodies toppled ungracefully onto the hard deck. The boat rocked violently under the impact, sloshing water over the sides.
“Ouch…”
Coco winced, rubbing the back of her head where it had smacked against the wooden bench, already feeling a tiny bump forming beneath her hair.
Coco gasped, her jaw hanging wide open as another pair of eyes with the color of deep plum fell directly on her.
She blinked rapidly, staring up at the strange, breathing figure on top of her. The heavy weight pressing into her ribs, the cool, damp skin, and the mesmerizing, dark violet of those eyes made her mind completely freeze.
The purple hues widened in absolute panic as the stranger’s mind registered the exact same thing Coco’s did. There was a whole, breathing human pinned directly beneath her.
Tangled up on the cramped and soaked deck, Coco felt a violent blush rush to her face, her ears scorching red. They were close dangerously close. She could feel the firm pressure of the stranger’s weight against hers, the shadow of her toned shoulders blocking out the sun, and the drip of cold seawater from her short hair landing right on Coco’s cheek. She smelled like sea salt with a hint of something sweet tickling her nose.
She looked at the stranger’s face, then at her soft lips, and in a fit of awkwardness, she offered a tiny greeting.
“Uh… Hello?”
Her words broke the spell, sending the unknown figure scrambling backwards. The quick and sudden movement made the small boat tilt violently, sloshing seawater over the edges.
Coco scrambled onto her elbows, her jaw dropping. Splashing against the deck was the most magnificent tail she had ever seen covered in shimmering midnight-purple scales that faded into an ink black fin. The mermaid possessed a sharp boyish jawline and a messy crown of short raven curls. An embroidered dark cloth was draped over her torso, and strapped to her back was an ornate spear.
She propped herself against the opposite side trying desperately regain her composure despite trapped in a tiny fishing boat. She brushed a wet, short curl from her forehead, glaring down her nose at Coco with a furious, reddened face.
“You outsiders are remarkably troublesome,” she muttered, her sophisticated accent dripping with annoyance. She pointed a sharp finger down at the deck. “Look at this. Your string is completely—ow!”
Her reprimand cut off into a sharp wince as she tried to pull away. The movement only caused the fishing line to yank her tail backward, wrapping even tighter around her dark, shimmering fins.
The fishing rod clattered against the wooden floorboards, completely trapping her to the bottom of the boat.
Her face instantly flushed a furious pink all the way to the tips of her slightly pointed ears. She tried to cross her arms to maintain a shred of dignity, but she was completely stuck.
“Unfurl it this instant,” she demanded, yet her voice lacked its initial bite, sounding a little more flustered now. “I have actual duties to attend to, and sitting in a puddle while tied to your pathetic stick was not on my schedule today.”
“Wow,” Coco whispered, her eyes sparkling with pure awe. She gave herself a proud nod. “You are way prettier than a regular fish.”
The mermaid’s sophisticated composure sank into the abyss of the sea.
“I—! A fish?!” she scowled at Coco, her face flushing bright red in sheer embarrassment and began to writhe against the tangled line miserably.
Coco felt a little guilty for causing such a mess in the first place, even if she hadn’t meant to.
“Sorry, sorry! Just hold still for a second,” she mumbled, crawling across the cramped deck.
As she leaned down to work at the knots. Upon a closer look, the shimmering midnight scales were even more amazing. They resembled brilliant, polished gemstones catching the golden sunlight, shifting from ink stained to deep sapphire with every tiny movement.
Coco’s fingers traced near the line, her mind putting two and two together. She blinked, looking up from the gorgeous tail straight into those plum-colored eyes.
“… so you’re the one who’s been stealing my fishes?”
Coco stared her mind a little too distracted by awe to be truly mad about a ruined day of work.
The hunter scoffed, crossing her arms and looking away with a proud huff. “I am doing no such thing, outsider. One cannot ‘steal’ what already belongs to the ocean. If anything, your little string was interfering with my hunt.”
“Right… right,” Coco murmured, barely listening as she carefully slipped the last stubborn loop of over the edge of a dark fin.
With the final tug, the line fell slack. Sensing freedom, the mermaid didn’t waste a single second. She scrambled backward, her powerful tail tensing as she hastily prepared to dive over the side of the hull to escape.
“Wait!”
Coco lunged forward and tightly grasped the mermaid’s wrist.
The mermaid froze instantly. The air between them grew completely still, the only sound being the gentle lapping of the waves against the wood. Realizing what she had just done, Coco immediately let go, pulling her hand back to her chest as her heart did a nervous little flip.
The mermaid slowly turned her head back, staring at her bare wrist before looking up at Coco.
“…What is it?” she asked, her sharp voice dropping into a quieter tone.
Coco offered a little shy smile, her fingers nervously tangling together.
“I haven’t got your name,” Coco said softly, feeling the flush behind her neck as she felt the gaze. “You can call me Coco!”
The stranger scowled, but the fierce effect was completely ruined by the fact that the tips of her pointed ears were still pink. She looked at Coco for a long quiet moment before her shoulders dropped a fraction.
“Agott,” she muttered.
Before Coco could even open her mouth again. Agott threw herself backward over the edge. A loud, massive splash echoed across the open water, sending a wall of spray into the air. Coco quickly raised her arms to shield her face from the splash, laughing softly as the water rained down over her hair and clothes.
As the mini rain ended, Coco eagerly leaned over the side of the boat, wiping the water from her eyes to peek down into the sea.
Agott was already underwater but before she disappeared into the blue depths, the tip of her midnight tail broke the surface one last time. With a quick almost playful flick, she gave the water a little slap sending a parting splash right toward Coco’s face.
It was a small gesture almost like a silent “stop staring!” from the proud mermaid.