mysterious fathoms below

                     WATCH & YOU’LL SEE. SOMEDAY I’LL BE.                                                PART OF YOUR WORLD.

Oh he liked her already! She had a very pretty smile and clearly she was more than happy to talk about something that Gabriel absolutely loved! Though admittedly he couldn’t help but wonder why Kobe was being so quiet … but it wasn’t uncommon for the man to take a backseat whenever others were talking, more content to fade back and listen rather than participate, especially when it came to somebody important to him getting along with Gabriel. 

“Magic?” Immediately beginning to laugh, Gabriel shook his head, “No no, its baking! No magic … its all my hands! I’m just a human,” though … really there shouldn’t be a need to clarify that. Funny thing was, Gabriel certainly had a knack for drawing in the supernatural towards him, like a low frequency magnet … and he even knew of some of those that were supernatural too! Though of course he never told … that wouldn’t be good. 

“No… not everything. Anything with nuts doesn’t taste good…” wrinkling his nose a bit, grey eyes soon found their way back to Ariel. “Are you staying for supper?” 

In a way, she almost felt like she’d missed out on so much.  Growing up, she didn’t have the luxuries of visiting a bakery or baking for fun, or creating anything of the sort.  Life under the sea was vastly different than on land, and it was something she was still learning and reminding herself of even now.  

Although she missed out on visiting bakeries and trying so many delicious and sweet pastries, she was allowing herself to try each and every single one that she could while she was on land.  “It’s a talent, nonetheless.  One I’m sure you’re amazing at,” she complimented with another grin. 

She liked Gabriel.  He was sweet, and she could tell he was passionate about his work.  It was almost contagious!  

Her mouth opened to speak, but she didn’t want to admit that she’d never tried anything with nuts in them.  “It sounds like it, I can’t imagine that’d taste very good,” she replied.  At his next question, she bit down on her lip and looked back to Kobe for a moment, a little unsure if she was invited to stay - she didn’t want to overstay her welcome.  After a moment, she looked back at Gabriel, and then back to Kobe.  “Would that be okay?”

Kobe was … well a bit more nervous than he thought he would be, though perhaps not for a reason that you might think. He wasn’t entirely sure how Ariel would react to Gabriel, and … well honestly anybody that couldn’t get along with Gabriel or thought poorly of him for various reasons, Kobe had no intentions of keeping around. He was highly protective of the younger man in many ways, and while he certainly didn’t think that Ariel would do or say anything … that certainly didn’t stop him from worrying.

Ariel’s attention, however, certainly did make Gabriel’s expression brighten up considerably, the mere mention of baking cheering him up considerably enough that he sat straighter than he had been moments before. 

“Almost everything! I couldn’t bake everything myself cuz that’s a lot of baking, but I really really like it! I like baking bread the most … the dough is really soft and when you get it just right with the perfect amount of yeast and flour its not sticky and it just feels really really good! They’re my favorite over anything to make! Even the danishes even though those are my favorite to eat … they’re really messy though so you gotta have a napkin…” 

Ariel was more than excited to meet the people who were close to Kobe; she really liked him, and the people he considered friends must have been just as incredible as he.  And he seemed to love Gabriel, and any friend of Kobe’s was a friend of Ariel’s.  

Especially if she got to learn more about humans!

Her smile grew as Gabriel spoke about the bakery and about what he liked to bake, and she wished she knew what other types of pastries were, even what the ones with the colors were called.  She’d certainly be interested in hearing about them all!  “It sounds like MAGIC, Gabriel.  If I didn’t know any better I would call you a magician.  Of baking!” she chuckled to herself.  “I bet everything tastes DELICIOUS!”

❝ Cross my heart and hope to die, ❞ She responded dryly, knowing that the girl MERMAID probably wouldn’t understand the dark-humor attached. ❝ So what are you doing here anyway? ❞ She asked curiously, unable to help wanting to know more. It wasn’t EVERYDAY that a girl got to meet a mermaid. And sure, vampires and werewolves and witches were a thing but…mermaids. ❝ And by your dad you mean…he’s a mermaid too? ❞ A pause, and Caroline smiled slightly, ❝ A mer-man. ❞    

“I like to see the LAND from time to time.”  She felt weird about admitting she liked to backpack from time to time, though if her father found out her cover had been blown she might not be allowed ashore... ever again.  His dislike for humans seemed to be eternal.  “Yeah; he’s actually a KING.  Pretty big deal down there, actually.”

The saltwater burned in his lungs, taking his focus off of anything else surrounding him for a moment. Sight as blurry as his memories - there had been a storm, he knew that, he remembered that, or … he was pretty sure of that, anyway. 

Were his people alright? Had they survived the tempest? Were they still out on the water, fighting for their life? Had someone pulled them out into safety as well? It should have been Noah, Noah should have brought them back to land, should have saved them, should have –

Coughing, still, Noah spit up some more water, one hand pressed to his aching chest. It almost seemed like he had forgotten how to breathe for a moment, and … it helped to hear her instruct him to ‘Just breathe’, and it also really helped to hear her reassure him that he was alive.

He was alive. He was alive. And if he was alive? That also meant he could go and save his men, those that could still be saved, anyway. Not that he wanted to consider that any of them might have already died while he had been on the verse of drowning, really. (God damn it - Noah couldn’t help but beat himself up over drowning, when really, he could have used that time to help!)

Noah already tried to struggle back to his feet, but his eyes were back on the … mysterious woman once more. He didn’t know what else to call her, mentally anyway. It was … it was a little bit hard, telling her apart from the waves rushing right behind her, like she was an extension of the sea. Noah blamed it on his spinning head and blurry vision, and still, as he fought to get off the ground, Noah felt entirely unable to take his eyes off of her.

“You saved me”, once more. “Who … Who are you? How did you find me?” And, most importantly - “Where is the rest of the crew? Are they alive?” Was she scared? It was hard to tell - and had he been fully conscious, Noah definitely would have picked up on her own weariness, and how she seemed to back away from him - towards the waves, where they had just emerged from.

Had she not heard him speak again, she would have inched all the way back to the waves and swam away, back to the safety of the deep waters below.  Back to her home.  And she wouldn’t tell a soul, it would be her own secret with herself; surely her father would blow an absolute GASKET if he ever found out about her saving the life of a human being, let alone a SAILOR, but she’d never be able to live with herself if she let him die.  He didn’t seem to be harming anyone.

But Ariel heard his voice, and she couldn’t help but feel so CAPTURED by it.  She couldn’t ever remember hearing the voice of a human up close like this, and he sounded... just like her!  She understood him.  They could communicate!  If her father hadn’t loathed his kind with his being maybe they could come to some sort of alliance...

Now was no time for politics, or for thinking of ways to change his mind.  Now, she had to make a decision: have him believe he was just SEEING HER, a side-effect of the almost drowning or...  or she could speak to him.  To a real life human.  

Watching Gabriel more than he was watching Ariel at this point, Kobe was admittedly unsure just how it’ll go with throwing something at him so suddenly … but then again Kobe always had been a bit of a worry wart. He had a tendency of babying Gabriel a bit too much when he shouldn’t, a fact that he was entirely unaware of that he even did… 

Though he certainly had nothing to worry about, Gabriel immediately smiling more at Ariel’s cheerful tone and even standing a bit taller. “Its nice to meet you too!” it was the proper thing to say, after all! Though the offer did have him pausing, glancing at the couch for a moment as he thought through his answer, a faint hum rising in the air as if he were considering it a bit more than perhaps another person would such a simple offer. Because to him? It was deviating from his normal routine …but he could be okay if he only sat for exactly a minute …! 

“Okay,” he agreed, coming around the table before taking the open spot that was offered to him, sitting with his hands in his lap. Though … he really didn’t know what to say now, lips parting and closing again as he fought for something. “So Ariel, Gabriel is a baker … he works at the little shop down on the corner of Louise and 6th.”

Once again Ariel looked toward Kobe, hoping the invitation toward his roommate was okay.  Blue eyes drifted back toward Gabriel, her smile still in place as she sat up a little more, tucking her hair behind her ear.  This was a good thing, she thought; she was beginning to meet his friends, and she was more than happy to.

As he agreed, Ariel smiled wider as she looked toward her newfound friend now.  The silence didn’t bother her in the slightest, there’d been plenty of times where she wasn’t sure what to say, either.  Especially when she first started venturing ashore.  At that point, she just observed human’s mannerisms and the words they spoke, their body language and their tones.