#reader mention

It was a nice sunny day, the currents not too fast as they anchored on the edges of a reef that they were getting ready to explore. They did a quick equipment check before helping each other into their gear, “Okay, air?” Mira rattled off mindlessly.

“Check!” Zoey chirped in response.

“BCD?”

“Check!”

“Regulators?”

“Check!”

“Masks?”

“Check!”

“Fins?”

“Check!”

“Lunch for later?”

“Triple check!”

“Alright. And the receivers?”

“All good! We’re going full face today?”

“Yeah, as long as you’re feeling like you’re usually chatty self today?”

“Yup! Not currently experiencing debilitating depression so I’m happy to fill the comms with plenty of chatter!”

Mira nodded, “Okay. Ready to head down then?”

Zoey bobbed her head ecstatically, “Yeah! I’m really hoping to see a turtle today!”

Mira couldn’t help but snicker, “You wanna see a turtle every time we go diving. I wanna see a Mako shark.”

Zoey couldn’t help but grimace dubiously at her friend, “Aren’t those ones kind of… you know, aggressive? And don’t they prefer open waters?”

Mira merely shrugged, “Not typically unless they feel threatened or provoked. They’ve been getting caught by fishers more and more accidentally because of climate change. I doubt we’ll see one but it would be cool if we did.”

“Awww,” Zoey cooed sadly, “Poor sharkies. I wonder what other creatures have been changing locations because of the climate changing…”

“Well, let’s go find out,” Mira replied with a smirk and fell back into the water. Zoey quickly followed her.

Thankfully, Mira’s family was rich and she was able to purchase diver-to-diver receivers and full face masks so they could talk to each other beyond little hand signs while under water. It was the best birthday gift Zoey had ever gotten, especially since Mira wasn’t typically a very chatty person—it felt like permission to talk Mira’s ear off, like Mira was saying she didn’t mind listening to her even though so many people in her life got that empty look on their face when she talked for too long. There were of course days where they didn’t feel like talking. Days where they just wanted it to be them and the water around them. On those days they wore the simple eye masks instead of full face ones.

“Checking comms, can you hear me Zo?”

Zoey flashed her a thumbs up, “Loud and clear over here! All good with you?”

Mira returned her gesture, “Yup, can hear you perfectly and all my gear seems to be in order.”

“Same, now let’s go! Go go go!”

The two descended steadily, Zoey going on happily about the coral she could see, the fish, the way the sun glimmered through the water. And Mira was content to listen with her own sarcastic remarks every now and then.

They had another thirty minutes worth of air before they had to go switch their tanks when Zoey caught something strange out of the corner of her eye, “What was that?!” She pointed towards a gathering of rocks where the tail of a fish just disappeared. A large fish.

“I don’t know,” Mira replied candidly, already swimming in that direction. “Let’s go check it out.”

Zoey couldn’t help but snort, “Y’know, you’re that person in horror movies that goes to investigate a noise and ends up dead.”

“Like you weren’t two seconds from going to check it out yourself.”

Zoey had nothing to say to that.

The fish she had seen was larger than most sea creatures she had ever seen before. And that was just from her seeing the tail. It was strange, it had a huge, feathery looking caudal and dorsal fin that were dark purple with white tips that faded into the white body. The body was a shining white with strange iridescent patterned stripes that shimmered rainbow in the sun.

Quietly, the two swam to the rock groupings, looking to catch a glimpse of whatever it was that she had seen.

“What’s that sound?” Mira paused and the both of them stopped moving to focus on the sound in the water.

It sounded like… humming?

“The scars are part of me~ Darkness and harmony~ Fearless and undefined, this is what it sounds like~”

It was probably the most beautiful voice they had ever heard, powerful yet soft. Strong yet gentle. They couldn’t help but follow it, as if it was beckoning them closer and closer until they rounded a rock to see her.

A mermaid.

Her fish-scale tail faded into something more human-skin like at the hips, becoming a creamy, peachy color, a smattering of white scales covered her breasts and she had a long mane of light purple hair that was neatly tied back in a braid that went halfway down her tail. The patterns covered not just her tail but her skin all the way up to the edges of her face. She was ethereal. A literal fairy tale come to life before their very eyes.

“She’s so beautiful…” Zoey floated closer, the both of them entranced by the heavenly sea creature before them.

Well. Until she noticed them.

When she noticed them, her dorsal fin and the fins that must have been her ears flared threateningly, her claws suddenly sharpened, her eyes flashed amber, and she bared her fangs at them in a hiss.

“Ah!” The two yelped, swimming away, surfacing steadily but quickly back to their boat. They clambered into their boat, pulling off their masks with heavy breaths.

“That was a mermaid!”

“I know!”

“She looked ready to eat us!”

“I know!”

The two laid there, catching their breath and trying to process what they had just seen when they heard a curious chirp. They looked at each other then slowly raised their heads. Just over the edge of the boat, where their legs were dangling over the water, they could see the mermaid’s head peeking at them. They scrambled to get their legs all the way inside the boat.

“Did she follow us?” Zoey asked the older girl out of the side of her mouth.

“I don’t know.”

“Do you think she understands us?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’m gonna find out.”

“Wha—Zoey!”

Zoey didn’t listen though, smiling nervously at the mermaid as she inched closer to the edge of the boat. “Heyyyy…” Zoey greeted awkwardly, “So… Do you understand me?”

“She’s a mermaid, Zoey,” Mira hissed, “Of course she—“

“No, I understand you.”

Mira and Zoey blinked at the mermaid, now casually resting her arms on the edge of their boat while she smiled at them in amusement, curiosity in her warm brown eyes. “Oh.”

Zoey was not deterred for long, her excitement getting the better of her as she gasped and grinned, leaning closer to the mer, “Oh my gosh, hi! It’s amazing to meet you! You’re an actual mermaid, right? Not one of those people who like to wear the silicon tails?”

The mermaid chuckled, “Yes, I’m an actual mermaid. It’s nice to meet you too, I’m Rumi.”

“Hi Rumi! I’m—“

“Zoey!” Mira halted her, looking at Rumi cautiously. “How do we know we can trust you? Especially with how you chased us out of the water.”

Rumi grimaced apologetically. “Sorry about that… You guys just startled me and I reacted instinctively. I didn’t mean to scare you and I didn’t necessarily chase you out of the water… You guys just started swimming and I followed.”

“Hm,” Mira hummed. She shrugged, “Fair enough. I’m Mira and this is Zoey. What were you doing down there?”

“I was looking for coral and rocks to decorate my family’s new home. We just moved to the area,” Rumi explained, resting her head on her arms.

Zoey suddenly looked sad, “Oh. Did you guys have to move because of climate change too?”

Rumi chuckled again and this time, the two noted the almost musical quality to it. “Nothing like that. My mom just moved to an area nearby on land and my dad followed so the whole pod followed.”

”Your mom?” Zoey echoed curiously.

”Yeah, she’s human. I’m half mer and half human.”

”Sick,” Mira noted. “How does that make you different from other mers?”

Rumi hummed in thought, “It doesn’t make a lot of difference in most ways. When I’m in the water, I’m pretty much all mer except my appearance is a little more human.”

”You’re a mer considered more human?” Mira questioned dubiously, looking at her iridescent patterns and ear frills.

Rumi took it good naturedly, “Yeah, my skin tone is more human and my patterns are lighter. My sister has a more purple tinted skin tone and darker patterns than I do. But in our human forms, I have an easier time blending in with humans because my patterns are so light.”

Zoey gasped, bouncing, “ You have a human form?!”

”Yeah,” Rumi nodded, “I usually only use it when I spend time with my mom—it’s also how I can understand you guys, not a lot of mers speak human languages.”

”Wow,” Zoey awed. “Is your voice so…celestial because you’re a mermaid then?”

Rumi’s face flushed, her eyes widening. “What?”

Mira smirked, teasing the sea woman, “Yeah, your voice was so captivating that it was soul soothing.” Okay, maybe she wasn’t really teasing. But it was fun to see Rumi’s face flush so cutely.

Rumi almost seemed to fidget, not meeting either of their eyes as she answered, “Well… It depends. My sister’s voice is beautiful but it sounds different to her mates. Her voice sounds so lovely and enchanting to them that it drew them to her. Now she is very happy with her five mates. Similar happened with my dad, he found our mom when she was singing on a dock one night.”

It took a moment for the two human girls to process what she was saying. Then their faces flushed red as well. Oh. That was what was missing between Mira and Zoey, why they could never find themselves making that extra step toward each other.

It was quiet.

“Soooo…” Zoey drawled.

“You ever been to a bath house?”

Outtakes:

*meeting the fam*

Rumi: “Okay, everyone meet my girlfriends: Mira and Zoey!”

Rumi: *under her breath* “Be nice.”

Miyeong: *normal mom with mer husband* “Hello girls, welcome!”

You: *trying to be nice, smile full of fangs* “Hi, nice to meet you two!”

Dad: *reminiscing the time he met Miyeong, his precious human wife* *Also protective dad mode* “Hello.”

Saja Boys: *your five feral mates that don’t trust humans except Miyeong* “Hissssssss…”

…

Zoey: “And I really love turtles! They’re so cute!”

Rumi: *don’t know how human dating works* “I’ll bring you all the turtles you want then.”

Mira: “No, don’t do that.”

Zoey: “Please do that!”

Rumi: “Just to make sure, you want them alive, right?”

Zoey: “…”

Zoey: “…Yes…”

…

Miyeong: *peacefully singing at the end of her dock in the middle of the night, thinking she’s alone*

Dad: *poking his head out of the water beneath her feet* “Well hello there.”

…

I kinda based Rumi’s mermaid appearance on this betta fish I found on google, I was picturing her ‘This Is What It Sounds Like’ self so I thought it fit:

“Not allowed to. There’s res-restrict--” His face scrunched up as he furtively sought the word he thought he meant. “Something. Starts with ‘r’. Manager-san would yell at me. Don’t like it when he yells. Hurts my ears.” The realization of something hit him and he punched Ranmaru’s arm, earning him a glare in return. “If I can’t have Y/N then you can’t either. Gimme.”

Bracing his other arm on the bar counter, Reiji drunkenly raised himself upwards and draped the upper half of his body on to Ranmaru. “Gimme gimme gimme…” He continued to chant, both arms now wrapped around the wide expanse of Ranmaru’s chest.

Surprisingly enough Ranmaru made no move to push him off, although this could be because he himself was beginning to sway slightly in his seat. Using Ranmaru ’s shoulder, Reiji pushed himself up so that his lips lined up with his ear.

“Hey, Ranran.” he whispered. Ranmaru’s eyes were beginning to glaze over, the multiple glasses in front of him a solid testimony of how long the two of them had been drinking so far. “Does Y/N’s voice make you cum?”

This question pierced through Ranmaru’s drunken haze like a laser from above. His face rapidly ramping up to crimson, Ranmaru was about to roar at Reiji when the lip of a glass smashed suddenly against his mouth. Reiji held it steady, one hand gripping Ranmaru’s mouth open so that he was literally pouring the drink down his throat.

“Bottoms up~” he cheered, emptying the last few drops into his own mouth and pushing the glass away across the counter. The bartender caught it as it whizzed towards him. He was a little concerned for the customer who had just had the majority of a concoction that was said to be strong enough to put down a horse forced down his throat, but he figured that since Reiji was there as well there shouldn’t be any problem. Probably, anyway.

Reiji had been to this place enough times by now to have his own tab running. The bar was discreet enough for celebrities, although it was the first time the bartender had seen Reiji bring this customer in.

Taking the pink paper umbrella from his own glass, Reiji delicately slid it behind Ranmaru’s ear.

“Perfect. So pretty.” Throwing both arms over Ranmaru who was beginning to do a passable imitation of the hand of a metronome at this point, he rubbed his cheek against his. “Can’t have Y/N, Ranran. I don’t deserve someone like that. I’m no good, no good at all. People go away cos of me.” His voice grew thick with tears. “They go away and never come back again.”

Ranmaru finally turned to face Reiji and answered him with a resounding headbutt straight to the forehead. Reiji shrieked, both their bar stools teetering dangerously in circles as he frantically clung to Ranmaru to avoid falling over.

He pushed his face right up into Reiji’s. The bartender could practically see the fumes rising from Ranmaru’s mouth as he growled.

“Fuckin’ idiot,” he slurred.His voice was loud enough to make Reiji try to lean back, only to be stopped by Ranmaru’s arm around his waist. “Who says you’re no good, huh? Who’s the bastard who said that? Lemme at ‘em, I’ll show ‘em who’s no good!”

Reiji’s arm shot up and waved. “Me!” he announced, like a diligent student answering his teacher’s question. “I said that! Cos it’s true!”

The last dredges of Ranmaru’s logic that hadn’t been drowned in alcohol at this point told him that he probably shouldn’t punch the lights out of the same person he was trying to defend. He settled for giving Reiji a sharp cuff around the head, followed by hooking an arm around his neck to pull him closer.

“You listen here,” Reiji grimaced as he boomed into his ear. “You listen Reiji, you’re-you’re okay. You got that? You’re fuckin’ noisy and run off when you shouldn’t and don’t know when to shut up and get into so much shit that I dunno why the boss hasn’t fired your ass yet--”

Reiji was openly blubbering at this point.

“But you!” He jabbed a finger into Reiji’s chest, making him yelp in pain through his tears. “You got us together. You’re a-a magnet, yeah?” He jabbed a few more times for emphasis. “You pulled us all together. No wait, you’re glue. That’s right, that’s what you are. You’re what’s sticking us together, so you’re glue, Reiji!” He crowed triumphantly. To celebrate this discovery, he called for another drink and slammed it back the second it arrived.

“You guys,” Reiji sobbed, his tears and snot creating damp patches on Ranmaru’s shirt. “You guys wouldn’t work with me at all---” The last word ended in a drawn out wail. Ranmaru had to awkwardly pat him on the back before he continued. “I wanted to give up so many times! So many! Times!” Each word was punctuated with a much weaker headbutt of his own into Ranmaru’s now very wet chest. He finished by sniffing loudly and slumping his head on Ranmaru’s shoulder.

Ranmaru wasn’t sure when he was supposed to stop rubbing Reiji’s back, but the repetitive action was weirdly soothing in its own way to him as well so he continued.  

“But you stuck it out with us, yeah?”

Reiji nodded miserably and hiccuped. “I had to. I-I wanted to see it out to the end. The end…” he trailed off, the words nuzzled into Ranmaru’s neck. “I don’t want things to end like this… Don’t wanna...”

The fact that Reiji had stopped talking took a few minutes to make its way through the sea of alcohol currently sloshing around Ranmaru’s head. He looked down at the mess of brown hair occupying most of his chest. Getting no response despite how much he pushed Reiji’s head around or hollered at him, he took a look at his surroundings, at the impressive collection of glasses that both of them had managed to amass-and forbidden the bartender to clear, for some reason- and decided muzzily that it was probably time to leave.

It was a testament to Ranmaru’s alcohol tolerance that he had downed a second of the potent mixture that Reiji had poured into him just minutes ago and was still upright. Or vertically balanced at best. Well, balanced enough to need only one hand on the bar counter to stand up, his other arm occupied with supporting Reiji who had regained some consciousness and was now weeping noisily into his collar. The world whirled and he sagged for a moment.

He stared blearily at the bartender who shook his head and indicated with his chin towards Reiji, who was now beginning to resemble a koala clinging onto to the last eucalyptus tree left in the forest, the tree in this case being Ranmaru. Taking it to mean that he didn’t have to go to the extra effort of remembering where his wallet was (he was pretty sure that he had brought it, he just wasn’t very sure where on his person it was at the moment. Come to think of it, seeing as how Reiji had been the one to bring him here, he wasn’t sure where he was at the moment either), he nodded back in acknowledgement.

He turned to go, and continued turning. The damned place didn’t seem to have a door for him to exit from. After watching him angrily stomp around in erratic circles for a while, the bartender finally took pity on him and spoke up.     

“Taxi?” he asked quietly. Ranmaru glared at him but he remained unfazed. He met Ranmaru’s heavily inebriated glower with a level gaze of his own and asked the question again. His brain still trying its best to work despite the fumes practically rising from his head, Ranmaru nodded again, rasping out a rough thanks before gratefully collapsing onto the nearest bar stool.

It was a good thing that he wasn’t sober enough to feel much pain at the moment, because he missed the chair completely and ended up crashing spectacularly onto the floor instead. Reiji, vaguely aware that they had gone horizontal very suddenly, took the opportunity to wrap his legs around Ranmaru’s waist and stayed there.

***

Barely managing to give coherent enough directions to the taxi driver, Ranmaru had just closed his eyes to doze the rest of the way home when he heard Reiji mumble his name. He rumbled sleepily in response, one hand landing heavily on Reiji’s head.

“I’m sorry. It’s all my fault that I’m like this. So it’s okay if-if you wanna go,” Despite what he said, his hands tightened around Ranmaru’s back, wrinkling the material of his shirt. “I don’t want you to go. I don’t want any of you to leave. But I’ll understand if you want to.” His voice cracked into another sob. “But you gotta promise that you’ll tell me first. I’ll listen. I’ll pick up the phone this time, cross my heart…” He fell silent again, his tears slowly soaking into Ranmaru’s chest.

Ranmaru tilted his head back and sighed.

“Idiot,” He drawled loudly. His head swayed forwards with the movement of the taxi. His fingers hooked into the back of Reiji’s collar and tugged on it halfheartedly. “Couldn’t get rid of you even if I tried. See? So just shut up.” He went back to awkwardly thumping Reiji’s back. “I’m stuck with you now. Better get used to it.”

He didn’t know if he was telling that to himself or Reiji currently tearfully dozing off in his lap, but it sounded right to him.