warning: this is writing practice for me and it will have a lot of fucked up elements to it! there will be alien biology and transformations and a ton of angst, but i hope someone will read and review this anyway.

I'm from where the water is deep and warmed by the rays of the sun. I'm from where the fish know each other and blow kisses whenever they pass by. I'm from where you look up and see dark clouds swirling overhead, over waves, over emeralds glimmering on top of the foam. I'm from a place shrouded by misery and mysteries, coveted by simple men and simple women who travel with breathless lungs to the murky depths; often clutched in my hands because I love them so very much.

Because of this I have never seen the dead leaves of the island above us. I have never seen the features of the human face calm and gentle – not struggling, panicking, and suffocating. I have not seen the places in which they live, or the schools that they dwell in. I know of the jagged rocks and the smooth sand and the softness of the world around me. But in of this I barely know anything at all.

I rarely even see the face of the one who bore me – although I do know his face to be as cruel as mine, and his body plated with thicker scales and stronger magic and denser muscle. He sticks to the shadows and the murky depths while he is forever courted by another whose name I never learned but whose presence I am wary of, nonetheless. They do not play with mankind in the same why I do. It's a curious game I propose, after all, and I am a lonely being.

Perhaps I am seeking comfort, or love, or more bones for my sick and lovely hole in the base of the island where it melds to the sea floor and where the water is cold and pressing. Now I do not know what I seek, and I haven't since I hauled my body up onto the slicing rocks to bathe in the muted sunlight gracing the side of our tiny island. I did not see him, but he saw me. The only indication of him being there was the fact he gasped and stumbled backwards, his feet kicking gravel aside clumsily.

I rolled over and back into the water, my tail curved upward; brushing the reverse window of the surface. I waited patiently for his face to appear; and it did.

He had long dark hair and almond-shaped eyes. His lips were parted in awe and I knew the water was not bleak enough to cover my pale hide. There was an ache in the pit of my stomach to know his name, and it quickly spread to my heart and to my head. I stayed there, suspended, while he stared at me. He blinked and rubbed at his eyes.

I put my arms over my head and grabbed onto my elbows, rocketing up and startling him away from the edge so I could rest my arms on the jagged rock. I could sense the fight or flight in him. It was gratifying.

"Such a handsome face must have a handsome name." I teased as I rested my chin upon one of my wrists. He seemed to be more at ease around me; and that was a good thing for me. It would make things easier along the path we were headed on. Because after this encounter he would return, and he would crave me.

"Kaoru. My name is Kaoru."

I hummed at that, and made a move to duck back into the water. He stopped me; the tips of his fingers brushing against my forearm. They fluttered over the ridges of fins there.

"Wait."

"Yes?"

"What exactly are you?"

"I am many things. I'm sure you have heard myths." I supplied, hoping that he would let me go. But instead his fingers found a tighter grip upon my wrist and he dragged me back up with him.

"Will I see you around here again?"

"Perhaps," I whispered it, because he was leaning forward, and I was grabbing onto him forcefully. I wanted to drag him under and hold him close to me and show him the sharks patrolling the floor, show him the fish blinking as they floated in the dark, show him the jagged teeth I hid in my gums. His lips were chapped when they brushed mine, and he was warm and soft. His hand brushed my wet hair away from my forehead and his fingers stroked my neck, along my gills – but not touching them. His tongue probed my lips and slipped between them. His breath quickened when my tongue twined with his. After a few minutes I pulled away. I had grown bored of this. I knew he would sicken of the salt on my tongue and the feel of my teeth if they pricked him.

My tail could easily be melted away and replaced with strong but foreign things I learned to be 'legs'. But I didn't think this time called for it. He would suffer, and discourage himself, but he would return. With or without the knowledge of my ability.

"You will wait for me, Kaoru?"

I'm going to swim in your night-terrors.

"Of course."

I don't care.

"I'm flattered by your actions."

It will be hell.

"You're beautiful."

Your eyes are the water in my lungs.

"Farewell."

You forget to ask my name, but to me it's all the same. Another drop of crimson in an ocean of endless blue, no one but me will know what happened to you. Maybe it's a relic of what is and what was lost, because your eyes are brown like autumn, and mine are chilled like frost.