MERMAIDS ARE REAL

"Okay."

He nods tightly, once, before pulling her back in close to him, settling her head back under his chin. He's not sure why it feels like he can't get her close enough, can't pull her as tight as he wants her to keep her safe.

"Then that's all I️ need to know."

If she's unhappy, that's all that matters. It doesn't matter whether the problem is solvable or not, Shand will make a way to solve it.

Strangely, for the first time, his mind wanders back to the ship, to his rowboat, to the crew. Are they wondering where he is now? If the whale had eaten him, if he'd drowned or had been broken against the rough and barnacled hull of the ship? Against sharp rocks at the bottom?

The horizon is totally empty, no ships in sight, and Shand knows that even if the crew was even conscious of his absence in the least, it's not like they would even care. Not like they would ponder what had become of him. It wouldn't matter, it never had before.

The idea of a world full of people that couldn't care less about him is normal, a reality he lives with every day. But somehow, thinking about how Luna has lived her life oppressed by that other creature, with seemingly no one to care or do anything about it, makes him mad. Mad enough to do dumb things.

She must sense how his emotions are changing in the way his grip tightens on her, the way his neck muscles and tendons tense and the way his jaw grinds. She looks up at him questioningly, but he poses no answer to whatever unspoken question she may have.

Luna tugs on his arm but his grip is locked around her in a way she knows she can't break on her own. They've only known each other a short while but something deep in her tells her that he's thinking, planning something, something she probably wouldn't be pleased with.

Something she would much rather distract him from then allow him to form completely.

She takes her tail and splashes it down full force in the shallow water, sending a wave over both of them. When it catches him off guard, she pulls her arms free of his hold, squirming to bring her arms up and around the back of his neck, pulling his face back down to meet hers in the best way she knows to occupy him.

Her lips are a little obviously desperate at first but they melt into his over time, tail resting up and around him so he now can't pull away from her, but instead she pulls them both back so he's leaning over her again.

Regardless of being exactly like the mermaids from the stories humans tell, she still has some of those myth shrouded tendancies, the most noticeable one being she knows how to be highly enticing. Honestly, Shand is lucky she isn't like her fairytale counterpart or she could have easily pulled him to his death time and time again by now but she seems to be content just pulling him to hover over her and kiss her.

There's almost something frightening about the knowledge she could still potentially be a threat but something equally as calming by the knowledge that she never would, at least never at him.

Shand sputters a little bit from the sudden, unexpected splash, but it's no time at all before he's laughing into her mouth, hair dripping water back down into her face.

He could be content to kiss her like this forever, laying here in shallow water, like it's the perfect in between, the natural limbo between both of their worlds. He'd be happy to never move from this spot, to live his life in the onrushing tide of this sandbar.

But in the middle of their kiss, the thought comes back and becomes more pronounced, that this isn't sustainable, not possible as long as that thing is out there. As long as Luna isn't safe. A dark bruise on her light skin underneath him catches his eye, and it solidifies that idea even more.

He pulls his lips from hers, and although he can't pull away from her totally because of how her tail is wrapped around him, holding them together like some sort of anchor, he's far enough from her face for her to see the seriousness in his eyes, how he's preoccupied.

"She'll come looking for you, won't she?"

He can't pretend to have not seen her scanning the horizon earlier with that paranoid, fearful look before she'd pressed herself even tighter to him. Even Luna knows that this can't last unless something is done.

The look she gives him clearly says she doesn't want to discuss this anymore.

They could run away together, in hiding, forever with each other, forever on the run. Better yet, she could do like she did before and satisfy Olvreign for a bit then return back to Shand, knowing she bought them some time to journey forward and find a new place to stay until the next round.

It's not too different than her life now except now she has reason and purpose and the torture feels worth it knowing that he'll be kept safe and he'll still be with her.

It may not be the healthiest of plans, it may not even be a great future for him to live, but she's willing to try if it keeps him safe and them together.

Her tail flicks against his bare back, pushing the rest of the loose seaweed away, splashing more water up onto him impatiently, refusing to use anymore of her kind's tactics to distract him for the time being, trying to let him come to the conclusion that she's done on his own before doing anything drastic.

Still, she gives him a short simple nod, unable to bring herself to completely ignore any question he may ask her.

He jumps a little as the cold water flicks up his back, and the wounds are still raw but healing.

The way she hesitates to answer, even with a simple nod, concerns him. He knows there's an obvious communication barrier between the two of them, and clearly something is not translating. Something that makes her apprehensive and avoidant.

It seems like even more of a reason to go after this creature and be done with it for good.

"I'd much rather see you smiling, you know."

He lets the other topic go, at least verbally, and he takes her chin gently in his hand so that their faces can be as close as possible as he forces a smile down at her.

He's nothing if not stubborn, and even though he smiles down at her as he closes the gap between them and tries to melt her anxiety with a kiss, he knows that the first chance he gets, he'll confront the demon that's been torturing Luna and make it pay.

Luna blushes a little at the honest comment followed by his caving in to her pouting. He hasn’t dropped the subject, she can see it still in his eyes.

She’s willing to look past that when his lips find hers and she readily kissed him back, keeping her tail rested back up against him, wrapping her arms around him, pulling him so they lean back. She’s floating on the water’s surface and he’s over her with a hand buried in the sand to keep from pushes her under, though that really wouldn’t bother her. He’s the one who can’t breathe under water.

The more she thinks on it, the more she remembers that the tales of mermaids aren’t unknown to her kind. They use their looks and charm to drown sailors, and the myths aren’t completely wrong. The water against her skin with him following her down reminds her of that.

Is what she’s doing the same thing as all those stories? Is it any different? The way she moved her lips against his and their skin presses against each other’s... They’re all the same tactics others of her kind have used just for a sick game.

But... What would it be like to kiss him under the waves? Would it matter, make any noticeable difference? And if she lets him go and doesn’t hold him under too long, then she isn’t endangering him.

She allows herself to sink below the surface, feeling him follow after. This is a safe space to test this, in the shallow water, her back in the sand, really only his lips with her except for the occasional wave that temporarily raises the water across his face before retreating away.

She could never allow herself, or him, to go any further than this. What if what mermaids do is instinct and the second she gets him like that something kicks in that she’s not even aware of? There’s no way she could ever hurt him or get close enough to a perilous situation to see if it would happen.

Her eyes open and stare at him through the water, checking to see if he’s okay, if he’s still mostly in the dry air, able to breathe, comfortable and safe. There’s something addicting and smooth about how the water allows their lips to press together, slip around each other. It makes them work harder for friction but it makes them more desperate and forceful with their action.

Her tongue plays around with his, hands moving to the sides of his face. For a moment, she does pull his face from hers, lifting it completely above the water, making sure he takes a moment to catch his breath.

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It amazes him that her skin is even softer under water than it is above it. Everything slows underwater, the way her hair billows out from her face, the way the current plays with the seashells in her hair, the way their bodies want to press together.

He knows it feels more right to close his eyes when he's kissing her, but underwater, he can't help but open them, look right at her while her mouth is on his. Despite the light right above her, right on the surface, her skin takes on the most beautiful pale blue tint and between her hair, her skin, the softness of her lips, she feels like a sunset at sea.

He's not even paying attention to his breath, so when she pushes him above the surface of the water, he only then realizes that his lungs are pinching, still sore, but also desperately needing air. He breathes deeply once or twice, then tries to lean back into her, join her underwater again but she holds him up, separates them with her fin, until she can see that his chest isn't heaving anymore, and then lets him back under.

His arms slip around her now, fingers wandering over her shoulders, relishing in the light, gentleness of everything and wanting this to be everything. Wanting her to have this softness, this easiness in everything all the time.

He feels his body start to pull to the surface, so his digs his hand into the sand beside her, trying to keep himself anchored down on top of her. She smiles at his efforts, as if she finds it cute, like a human might find a crawling baby cute, as he tries to keep his lips close to hers while struggling against the buoyancy of his own body.

Luna rolls her eyes playfully, resting her tail lightly on his raw back, only to keep him in place, not to hold him under the waves.

While he's here, though, she lets her hands wander up and down his skin, feeling how the usually tense muscles are smooth and soft, even in his attempt to keep him in place. The water caresses him closely and, childishly, she finds herself envious of it, like it's mocking her.

She huffs, blowing air right up into him, bubbles around him, her hands getting a little more needy, pressing into the muscles rather than lightly tracing. Her teeth bite at his lip, pulling at least his face down to her, trying to force the water out of the way between their mouths so they can only taste each other and nothing else.

But she remembers he has to breathe again and that gets even more annoying. A small voice tells her to ignore it until he gives her a sign he absolutely needs air, but it's definitely a voice she doesn't trust. For his sake, she pushes him back again, but this time she sits up out of the water after him, grabbing hold of his wrist, forcing him to follow after her as the waves carry them both up onto shore.

She stops right where the waves crash, lying down on her back again, the waves folding and caressing around her lower half buried in the sand, pushing and pulling her long hair with their movements. With her hand still around his wrist, she pulls him back on top of her smiling with a sheepish blush at her own actions, but mostly at feeling his chest collide with hers, how the impact forces the air out of her lungs.

Her hands go back to work feeling his body, scrunching her face up a little when a wave splashes water up onto her skin. He shifts over her, like he's trying to ignore how he straddles her, but she impatiently leans up to gently and sweetly mouth at his bottom lip, trying to encourage him back to what they were doing.