FemSPLASH!

—–

Corrin sets one last box on the ground, wiping sweat out of her eyes.

“Hey, Camilla!” she calls down the hallway. “Don’t bother looking, there aren’t any more boxes!”

“That fast? Well, if you say so, dear.”

Camilla strides back into the room and leans on the open door, gazing almost fondly at the disheveled room. “Finally going off to college? You’ve grown up so fast; it feels like you were just a toddler yesterday.”

“Camilla, please.”

A light blush makes its way onto Corrin’s face as she halfheartedly throws a loose pillow at her sister. “I really don’t need the entire hall knowing what I was like as a baby.”

Camilla’s eyebrow climbs the slightest bit up her face.

“Have you really not noticed the crowd of girls behind you trying to talk to you?”

A muffled shriek accompanies Corrin’s statement; Camilla only raises a finger to her lips and winks.

“Well,” she announces louder than necessary, “I’ll be going now! Wouldn’t want to intimidate your roommate, hm? Stay safe, call if you need anything, and I’ll bring Elise over for a visit soon.”

And with that, Camilla blows a kiss and walks back out.

Corrin stifles a laugh at the ensuing chaos - one girl yelling “w-wait!” turns into two, then five, then oh gods above, was that really all the girls that lived on her floor?

A quiet knock on the door stops Corrin from doing anything drastic. She turns around, mouth half open and phone raised, and just blinks.

Standing in the doorway was the most beautiful woman that Corrin had ever seen - and, if she were to be honest, the most beautiful woman she would ever see. Long, flowing blue hair; a striking face; a plain white dress that would look boring on anyone else but manages to look stunning on this particular figure…

“You’re. Azura? Roommate?” Corrin squeaks out, cursing the way her voice cracks at the end. “I’m Corrin. Sorry about the mess, I just got here a few minutes ago…uh, take whichever side of the room you want, make yourself at home, and. Um. Yeah.”

Azura’s lips part in a surprised smile, and that alone (along with the wordless thanks glimmering in her eyes) makes Corrin’s heart skip a beat. She watches Azura carry her luggage into the room and shuffle through her belongings, only daring to breathe when the other girl’s head is buried deep in a box.

“Don’t you dare,” she whispers to herself. “Don’t you dare fall in love.”

———————————————————————————-

“Camilla!” Corrin wails over the phone one day. “I think I’ve fallen in love!”

“Well, you don’t need to sound so distressed about it, dear.” Camilla’s tinkling laughter does absolutely nothing to calm Corrin’s nerves. “It was bound to happen one way or another…although do tell, who is it?”

“My roommate, that’s who! She’s the prettiest girl - no, human I have ever seen, and I LIVE with her! And, okay, so she’s barely said a word to me this whole time, but she leaves me small notes and smiles so much and she’s so considerate, and - ugh!”

Corrin throws a pillow at the door to punctuate her statement. “I don’t know what to do, Camilla! Aren’t you good with these sorts of things?”

“I suppose so, yes. Where’s this roommate of yours right now? She’s not in?”

“Um.”

Corrin scoots over to the edge of her bed, chancing a peek out of the window. “Nah. She’s down at the beach right now. Which - okay, another thing. Azura’s almost always at the beach. Whenever she has any free time at all, she makes her way down there and…I don’t even know. Stands there? And I can’t even ask her what she does because she doesn’t even talk to me.”

Camilla huffs. “Well, you can’t very well do anything if your crush won’t talk to you. Try to figure out if she even wants to be friends with you first, maybe? And then we can go from there.”

“Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks, I really don’t know how I’d manage without you.”

“Oh, please. It’s just common sense; I’m sure you would have figured it out eventually.”

“Don’t overestimate me. I’ve been told that I’m denser than leo sometimes.”

The door squeaks open and Azura pokes her head in, eyes widening in an unsaid question.

“Sister,” Corrin mouths, pointing at her phone. “Uh, hey I think I have to go, so. Talk to you later?”

“Azura just walked in, didn’t she.”

Refusing to answer, Corrin instead focuses all of her energy onto trying to fight back the blush threatening to appear.

“Oh, go on, do whatever your little heart desires. Just remember, don’t be afraid to talk to her. And if you ever need anything, I’m here for you. And Leo, even if he won’t admit it. Okay?”

“Got it, thank - “

The dial tone sounds before Corrin even has the chance to properly say goodbye.

Once again, Corrin has to restrain herself from doing something drastic, burying her head in her pillow to muffle her small scream. Only a timid knock on her bedframe reminds her that Azura is even still there. Which in turn reminds Corrin of the conversation that she had just had and her hand darts out to grab Azura’s arm before she even has a chance to think about it.

“Azura, wait, I. Need to talk to you about something really quickly.”

…Then Corrin actually gets a look at Azura’s face, and immediately feels awful.

“Oh, no, please don’t worry. It’s nothing bad, I promise, I just - “

(Corrin knows what’s going to happen, can already see herself scaring Azura off, but feels powerless to stop the words from pouring out of her mouth.)

“ - why do you never talk to me? I get that it’s nothing personal, but, like. I know that you can talk, so if it’s something that I’m doing or something that I’ve done tell me so that I can change! I mean, we’re going to be living together for the next year, maybe more, and as dumb as it sounds I really do want to get to know you better, and I - !”

She freezes, mouth quite literally hanging open, when she hears someone who was most definitely not herself…giggling.

“I’m sorry,” the mysterious voice continues. “Was I bothering you that much?”

“Oh. My. Oh gods, is that…?” Corrin lifts up her head, pointing at Azura in disbelief. “You? You’re talking?”

“My apologies, was that too sudden?”

The expression on Azura’s face immediately changes, going from amused to an almost motherlike worry. “Are you feeling affected in any way? Um…dizziness, sudden fixation, anything…?”

Corrin blinks. Frowns. Looks down at herself.

“No? I’m feeling perfectly like myself. Why, am I supposed to feel different?”

“No.” Azura shakes her head vehemently. “Absolutely not.”

“Well, uh. Care to explain?”

Azura flushes bright red, then proceeds to mumble something that sounds like “I’m a siren, actually.”

Corrin stays quiet for what seems like an eternity.

Azura fiddles with the sleeves of her dress.

“So, what you’re telling me,” Corrin says slowly, “is that magical creatures exist? And you’re one of them? But…how - why are you here, then?”

“The rest of my family was actually…killed by fishermen, to put it nicely. I was found stranded on the beach by a family that was kind enough to take me in. Sirens do have slight magical powers, so I’m able to take on a human form whenever I need to, so that’s how I’ve been living for the past ten years or so. I can’t be away from water for too long, though, so that explains why I’m down at the beach so frequently.

“Oh.”

Corrin can only blink. “Oh, okay, infomation overload. But is that why you were so afraid to talk to me? You didn’t want to accidentally enchant me, or something?”

“Ha, yeah. In hindsight, it’s dumb, because it only works when I sing, but I suppose one can never be too careful, right?”

“Well, that was dumb.

Azura raises an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“Not you, don’t worry, just this whole thing. I mean, if I’d asked you sooner, we  could have worked something out, and - mmph!”

Burying her face back into her pillow, Corrin lets out a muffled groan. “Sorry, sorry, go shower or do whatever you were going to do. I’ll, uh, talk to you later? I hope.”

Azura smiles and reaches for her discarded pile of dry clothes.

“And your voice is really pretty, by the way!” Corrin yells, taking pleasure in the small blush that crosses Azura’s face right before the bathroom door closes.

———————————————————————————-

“You have it bad,” Laslow states in the most serious voice he can manage. “You have it really bad.”

“I don’t need you to tell me, Mister Womanizer,” Corrin shoots back, pointedly ignoring the Very Interested Looks that Camilla and Peri were sending her. “Besides, what are you and Peri doing here? Xander never said anything about having visitors over.”

“We’re just picking up paperwork.” Laslow waves his hand and tips his chair farther back, grinning like a madman. “But don’t change the subject. When can I meet this Azura and when are you going to ask her out?”

“Laslow! I can’t just do that! I mean, you can, but she’s my roommate and I am not going to ruin a perfectly good friendship. Or housemateship. Whatever it is we have right now.”

“I know that look! That is the look of fear. Trust me, I’ve seen it on myself plenty of times to recognize it. You’re just too afraid of what could happen to see what would happen! Anyways, if Azura has any sense at all, she’ll like you too.”

“Speaking of your housemate,” Xander interjects, walking into the living room with papers and interrupting Corrin’s jumbled train of thought, “shouldn’t you text her that you won’t be getting back today? You did mention once that she was the type to worry.”

“Thanks, big brother. I completely forgot about that.”

Corrin reaches for her phone and sends out a few rapid-fire texts.

Corrin: hey

Corrin: remember when I said I was going to visit my family

Corrin: I don’t think I’ll make it back tonight, you good on your own?

Not even a minute later, Corrin’s phone pings.

Azura: don’t worry about me. you have fun, okay?

Laslow catches sight of Corrin’s sudden smile, and manages to yell out one last “you’ve got it bad!” before Peri drags him out of the house.

———————————————————————————-

“Azura? I’m back!”

Corrin lets the door slam shut behind her, focusing instead on not upsetting the heaping pan of casserole in her arms. “It’s only, what, eight am? But the traffic is insane, I’m guessing there’s some sort of festival going on today that I don’t know about. Oh! And I brought…food…”

She trails off, abruptly forgetting whatever she was about to say. Because 1) Azura was not present, 2) Azura was probably in the shower, judging by the sound of running water, and 3) Azura was singing.

Corrin had, in fact, remembered reading about how enchanting sirens could be; after finding out that many sailors had died after being exposed, she had raised an eyebrow and shuddered, imagining how worried Azura must have been trying to hide from her. But actually hearing the singing in real life couldn’t hold a candle to any written description, no matter how long and detailed.

The music flows over Corrin like her favorite blanket. She can practically smell home, and if she closes her eyes, she -

It stops abruptly, and Corrin reluctantly opens her eyes to see Azura standing on the other side of the room with a towel over her head.

Without thinking (she had been doing that a lot lately), Corrin crosses the distance between them with a few quick strides, holds Azura’s face gently, and just kisses her.

It lasts for all of ten seconds before Azura comes to her senses and jerks away. Corrin can almost see the walls coming back up in Azura’s eyes and just grips her shoulders tighter.

“Azura, no. This isn’t some…dream-induced reality caused by your singing. I wasn’t forced or anything, I just - I genuinely do like you, alright? And I completely understand if you don’t feel the same - in that case, we can just forget this ever happened - but you’re just. So beautiful and so kind and so much more than just a voice and I hope that you reali - “

Azura’s lips meet Corrin’s once more, effectively shutting her up.

“Did you mean all that?” Azura whispers. “I’m sorry…it’s been so long since…well, family is great and all but…”

“I meant every word. Please, Azura, it kills me when you don’t see how loved you are, by me or your friend or your family. Not talking to protect us is great, sure, but we don’t want to be protected. We’re find with you the way you are, and… if it means getting spellstruck every once in a while, it’s worth it.”

Azura buries her head into Corrin’s neck and holds onto her as tight as she can. “Can we…stay like this a little while longer?”

Corrin’s arms come up to rub Azura’s back, and she presses a kiss onto the top of Azura’s head.

The car ride to the beach is nothing short of a mess. They’ve brought floaties and rubber rings, plus their polka dot beach umbrella that Sully finds just a tad bit embarrassing (she vents out her frustration at the thing by stabbing it hard into the sand every time, it doesn’t help much) and their lunch for the day.

It’s packed to a dangerous degree, especially with two children in the car and Miriel too busy checking the directions to keep peace properly while Sully’s driving, so when Kjelle starts lamenting that she wants to watch her favourite movie on the tablet with a teary voice Sully feels cold dread slithering down her back.

“I believe we’ll reach our destination in just another twenty minutes,” Miriel says, taking her eyes off the gps to turn around and give their daughter a look she undoubtedly thinks to be effective. Then she adds, “darling.”

It makes Sully almost laugh at how ill equipped her wife still is at talking to the kids, but she doesn’t dare to utter a sound while they’re still under the threat of one of Kjelle’s temper tantrums. Instead she presses on the gas pedal a bit harder as Miriel continues to explain to a very unconvinced Kjelle that Princess Mononoke is indeed much longer than twenty minutes and that they can all watch it tonight once they’ve come back from the beach and showered, cross my heart and hope to die.

They exchange a pinky promise and the rest of the ride proceeds more or less peacefully, Laurent too busy dozing off in his car seat to cause any trouble.

The air outside once they’ve made it to the beach is hot enough to force a wheeze out of Sully but they’ve already put sunscreen on back at home, Miriel’s foresight be blessed, so she only needs to plant the beach umbrella and keep an eye on Laurent as Miriel disentangles Kjelle from her clothes and slides the floaties up her arms before they can both put Laurent in his rubber ring and follow Kjelle into the water.

Usually Sully would dive right in, maybe pretend to be a shark and pinch Laurent’s legs from underwater and laugh at his squeals (Kjelle has made it clear that she’s, as she herself put it, too old for all of that), but this time Miriel is stumbling by her side as she squints at the light reflecting in her face, glasses left in her bag, so Sully waits.

“I must admit,” Miriel says slowly, one hand now resting on Sully’s arm as she carefully puts one foot after the other towards where Kjelle is spinning Laurent’s rubber ring with the worst best intentions, “the water does feel rather refreshing despite the possible thermal shock it may cause.”

She gives Sully a pointed look as she says that, their argument about post-lunch swimming safety still unresolved from the last time they’ve mooched off Lissa and Maribelle’s private pool, and Sully dodges it by focusing on telling Kjelle not to drown her baby brother with her rowdy affection.

“My head spins,” is all Laurent has to say on the matter, and he puts so much sobriety in it that Sully can’t help but laugh out loud. Even Miriel is smiling if the way she leans further into Sully’s side is any indication.

.

“Man, I’m beat.”

Letting Kjelle climb to her shoulders to plunge in the water had been fun the first few times, not so much after the fifteenth or so. She’s playing with the humid sand by the shore now, the little demon, and Sully lets herself sprawl on her towel under the sun with a satisfied sigh.

There’s something cool touching her face as Miriel slicks her still wet hair back and carefully places a pair of sunglasses on the bridge of her nose; Sully hums her thanks as she leans into the touch, catching a glimpse of red hair on Miriel’s lap where Laurent’s taking his afternoon nap under the umbrella.

“I love you,” she murmurs into the salty skin of Miriel’s palm, smiles against it when Miriel’s fingers shake ever so slightly. It’s this kind of blink-and-you-miss-it moments that’s made her fall head over heels in the first place after all.

“I love you too,” Miriel whispers back, most likely more in fear of waking Laurent up than embarrassment, and her voice retains the warmth of the summer sun as she adds, “against my better judgement.”

Sully snorts in the most undignified way she can manage. “So cold.”

“Yes, well, I reckon some chill might benefit you in this heat. You may thank me later.”

“Did you just― gods, Miriel, was that a joke?”

This time it’s Miriel’s turn to laugh under her breath, light and dignified like everything about her in Sully’s not so impartial eyes, and the only thing preventing Sully from tackling her right there and then is their four years old son, fast asleep and oblivious to his mothers’ flirting. Lucky him, Sully thinks dryly.

Instead she nuzzles Miriel’s side and lets herself doze off for the time being, Miriel gently carding through her hair and Kjelle yelling something about her super duper sand castle the last things she clings to before letting warm content wash over her like the tides.

.

By the time the sun’s low on the horizon they’re among the few left on the beach. The sea is calm with no one swimming in it, vast and indigo and smooth, and Sully feels the familiar ache for a last dip in the water she knows she has no time for. She turns her attention to where Miriel is already helping Laurent into his change of clothes instead and starts working on packing their things, trying and failing to keep the sand from infiltrating their bags.

Well, that’ll be a problem for future Sully, she figures.

“We done yet?” she asks once she’s finished, to which three voices answer in a chorus of more or less enthusiastic yes, ma’am, the title courtesy of Kjelle and her newly developed fascination for one of Sully’s old action comics.

“I’m carrying the beach umbrella this time,” Miriel says, and Sully knows better than arguing with that. She’d tried to show off a bit when they first started dating― to be chivalrous; it didn’t end well, although getting her ego flattened by Miriel had been fascinating in a way she’d rather not dwell on too much.

“Okay, gremlins,” she starts, fishing out their last water bottle from one of the bags and uncapping it. “Get in line so I can wash the sand off your feet.” Both Sully and Miriel are adamant about this, though for different reasons: Miriel likes to be sensible about things, Sully just loves her car sand-less.

Kjelle and Laurent comply with little to no protests and by the time they’re all in a state appropriate for a car ride Sully lets herself gamble.

“Who wants to get shaved ice on the way back?”

The glare Miriel shoots her way is enough to send a chill down her spine, but the children are already yelling their delight over the proposal and whichever new flavour they want to try out this time, and even Miriel’s stern rules about snacks right before dinner crumble in the face of it.

“Just this once,” she tries to say over the mayhem, like every other time they’ve done this, and Sully can’t help but feel hopelessly, utterly smitten.

“You heard mom,” is all she says, laughter bubbling in her words, and leans in to give Miriel a quick kiss before hopping in the car.