Meiko lived in a small apartment complex by the beach so it wasn't a rare occurrence for her to find the occasional sea creature or two washed up on the beach after a rough storm. She walked its shores often and, although she was never a particularly sympathetic person towards other humans, she was rather fond of animals and would try her best to save those that she could.
Last night an especially violent storm had passed through the area so she made a point of walking along the shore on her way home from work to check out the damage. At most, she expected to find a few fish or other small aquatic animals that had lost their way. But what she found instead, washed up on the shore, tangled in a fishing net and bleeding profusely from its side, was a mermaid. No, that wasn't quite right. It was a merman.
The merman seemed to be unconscious but she approached him cautiously just to be safe. Growing up, Meiko had heard many stories from the neighboring houses about mermaids that could lure you to your death through their enchanting voices. Of course, she was an adult now, and had long ago stopped believing in the fairy tales her elderly neighbors had told her, but on the other hand, against all odds, there was a merman lying right in front of her at this moment.
"Better to be safe than sorry." She mumbled under her breath as she inched closer to the unconscious sea creature warily.
His dark blue hair fell just over his closed eyes and his fin glittered in the soft moonlight, a light blue reminiscent of the sky on cloudless days. A sudden urge came over her to slide her hand along the scales, to see how they felt beneath her palm. She reached out slightly, but just as she was about to touch him, the merman stirred. His eyes snapped open and he began thrashing about in a sorry attempt to free himself from the fishing net and get away from the strange being next to him.
"Hey-!" Meiko began, but fell back as his fin smacked her in the face. She stood up, holding a hand to her mangled cheek. "I am TRYING to help you here! Was that really fuckin necessary?!" She had always been rather quick to lose her temper, and it usually resulted badly, but the merman grew noticeably calmer. Whether out of fear or understanding, she certainly didn't know, but she assumed it was most likely the former.
She squatted down next to him, blowing some stray hairs out of her eyes. "I'm a crazy lady yelling at a majestic creature. Some first impression I must have made on you, huh?"
Deep blue eyes stared back at her blankly.
"You probably don't even speak English, do you?" She sighed resting her head in her hand.
"Hh-elp" The merman said softly, moving his arms about in the net and motioning to his side, where blood was still seeping from the gash.
"O-okay." Surprised by the fact that the creature before her happened to know any words at all, Meiko drew nearer, slowly so as not to startle him. "Yeah, I can do that. But don't you dare slap me in the face again, you hear? I happen to be quite fond of it."
She helped him sit up as best he could manage and freed him from the net. His skin was unnaturally warm, and perhaps it was just a mermaid thing, but she figured he probably had a fever thanks to his wound.
Meiko moved closer to him. "I'm going to try and carry you, is that alright?"
He nodded, the faintest of smiles tugging at the corners of his lips.
She wedged her arms underneath him and stood up slowly. "Wow. You're a lot lighter than I thought you'd be."
Luckily, Meiko happened to get out of work at an ungodly hour when practically everyone in her neighborhood was asleep, so no one saw the odd pair bumbling over to the apartment complex nearby.
Meiko sucked in a breath nervously, hoping no one happened to be roaming the halls at this time. She hoisted the merman up again in an attempt to get a better grip on him. In response, the merman wrapped his arms around her neck.
"Sorry, this is probably pretty uncomfortable for you, isn't it?" She gave him a sympathetic look as they finally made it to the door of her apartment. "Okay, I'm gonna have to put you down for a little bit."
She gently set the merman on the floor, his back propped up against the wall. He looked even more feverish now and it seemed as if he was struggling to keep his eyes open. She quickly unlocked the door and stepped in to turn the lights on and fill the bathtub. When she returned to bring him in, he was lolling over to one side, eyes closed. She lifted him into her arms once more and hurried over to the bathtub, carefully placing him in.
Rummaging through her small apartment, she was only able to find some gauze, bandages, and an antiseptic spray, but she figured that would have to do as she couldn't just wander into a hospital with a merman in tow and demand they care for him. They'd probably have him sent to a marine biology research center. She propped him up to keep his wound above water, disinfected it to the best of her abilities, pressed some gauze to it to staunch the bleeding which had all but stopped, and wrapped him in, perhaps a rather excessive amount of, bandages.
She brought a chair in and sat leaning forward against the rim of the bathtub. "Sure has been a long day." She yawned, and the merman stirred slightly, opening his eyes. She studied him for a little bit, marveling at his glistening scales and equally dazzling blue eyes. He had toned muscles, probably from all the swimming, and strong shoulders but a rather sweet looking face that greatly contrasted with the rest of him. He seemed to be looking her over as well and she suddenly felt ashamed for staring at him. She turned her head to the side, averting her eyes.
"Thank you." He finally spoke, disturbing the silence. He had a rather warm sounding voice, with its own kind of elegance, but she didn't think it really sounded like the type that could enchant someone and lure them to their death. And he certainly didn't seem like the sort of merman to do something like that in the first place.
She smiled slightly. "You're welcome. So, what's your name anyway? Mine's Meiko."
"Kaito." The merman – Kaito – replied, his eyes alight as he smiled contentedly and leaned back in the tub. They both fell silent and soon he fell asleep. Meiko followed quickly, deciding to stay near him in case something happened, she slept leaning against the bathtub with her face in her arms.
Just a KaiMei fanfiction I came up with pretty quickly. There will probably be more. I didn't have anyone proofread it so if you notice any mistakes feel free to point them out to me.