A Scaled Heart

Sent

"Get out, they said," I grumbled. "I'm not a bum."

I kicked the snow. "And I wasn't that loud. Sir Christophe was so much louder and the barkeepers know it."

I pulled my wool coat closer and folded my arms. The Russian winter winds of the night bit at my face as I stumbled my way home.

I rubbed my runny nose. "Why, if they knew I didn't have to be the- ah who am I kidding…."

My house was stuffy, empty whilst full of things. To be anywhere else than there was a welcomed prospect.

A faint sound of neighing and trotting came from behind me.

Ah, a carriage.

The driver pulled on the reigns. "Can I offer you a ride, my friend?"

Turning quickly to a popsicle I nodded. "The mansion to the edge of town, my….um, Master is waiting," I instructed.

"Of course," the driver replied.

"Welcome back, sir."

I handed my coat, thick gloves and hat to an elderly gentleman dressed in your standard suit and nodded. "Thank you, Yakov," I softly replied before walking on ahead.

"I took liberty to light the fire for you, Sir."

"You know me too well, my friend."

Without delay I numbly walked forward to the red sofa of the living space while pulling down the long sleeves of my black shirt. The fireplace was warm and exactly what I needed.

I sat down and leaned back on to the couch. My senses still numb from the cold and vodka as I looked up at the golden, hanging light fixtures above.

A bum indeed.

Yakov, having put away my things came to the right side of the sofa. "Hot wine?"

I shook my head and leaned to the left onto the small pillows while dragging a white throw from of the back it laid over my legs. "Not tonight. I think I'll be sleeping off what I drank here. Have a goodnight, Yakov."

I'm here most nights anyway…

The old man bowed. "Goodnight, Sir."

The moment he was gone I felt an itch.

Ah almost forgot.

I pushed my fingers up into the mesh and pulled off my curly, brown wig, freeing my silver hair from underneath before plucking my blue-rimmed glasses off my nose to set both items on the small, polished, wooden table next to me.

Yes. If they only knew who they had tossed out was.

"Probably would've brought more shame to me than them though," I mumbled.

The silver hair would have made it worse.

I furrowed my brow and shook the stray thought away.

But I'll never cut short as long as I live.

"This town never cared for oddity," I mumbled.

The fire cackled, the heat felt nice as I gently loss myself sleep.

An aria began to play. A nice humming, a ghostly tenor that seemed to come from a distance.

Hmmm…that sounds nice…

My eyes flashed open. "Wait- what?" I chided myself.

Yakov never played music this late.

Hell, the man doesn't sing.

Suddenly it stopped. Quickly puzzled, I pinched my eyes and strained to listen. However, in the silence of an empty home, all I could hear then was a fire cackling and the ticking of the grandfather clock.

Another period of time passed, and I felt myself relax once more into the couch. Once more my eyes grew heavy.

The humming returned. I almost wanted to ignore it, claim I'm crazy drunk and just sleep, but then it got louder.

"Can we just. Not?" I tore the white throw off of me and got up and I let my feet lead. I didn't know what I was doing, per se, but I briskly went about searching anyway. My feet led me to the closest windows that happened to face the back of the estate.

I placed a hand on the cold glass and leaned in to squint as I looked out in vain. "What? Are troubling kids trying to keep me up or something?"

Surely this was a trick.

I couldn't help but listen again. This time the melody was still happening. I wasn't going nuts. It was there.

It was out there!

Dreams be damned I was going to get to the bottom of this, even it all turned up fruitless, in which case, I could blame the alcohol later. I wanted to confirm with my two eyes and deal with whoever was singing and stop it so I could sleep. Once I had rushed to put my black coat and other winter items back on I hurriedly walked out back of the mansion to see if I needed to chase singing children away.

Or ghosts…I don't care.

The singing was louder now that I was outside. The lyrics were foreign, but the tenor sounds were, admittedly, lovely to hear.

I gripped my hands, making fists at my sides.

Aren't you bold you, troublemaker.

I rubbed my hands. "Though it is strange I can hear it from way over here…"

Without further ado, I just followed the voice. The skies cleared overhead as the voice coaxed me towards the lake of the estate.

I trekked past the trees lining a well worn path towards the clearing only to stop in my tracks once the passing clouds set the full moon free, revealing a silhouette of a person in the water facing my way.

"My God!" I cried and began to jog the best I could down a slight slope. "Are you all right?" I shouted. "Did you fall in? I assure you this lake was frozen-"

The singing had long stopped before I had approached and quickly reached for their hands.

"You're all right! I'll get you out! You're lucky!"

"I…am?" a voice of a young male questioned slowly.

I froze for a moment before taking a solid look at the half submerged person eye to eye. Under the moonlight, I saw damp, pale skin, large, coal eyes and dripping locks of, I assumed, matching color. His face had handsome features and, overall appeared kind.

What on Earth?

A chill ran down my spine, reminding me where I was. "I-I'm sorry the what?" I stammered as I briefly shook my head. "Aren't you freezing? It's dark, for heaven's sake, its Russia! What -wait- how are you even in this lake in the first place?"

How isn't it not frozen over? I just skated here this morning!

I looked over the lake, the surface had completely reverted to that of a normal lake during the summer as it reflected the light of the moon and innocently rippled and waved, reacting to the wind.

Curiosity gripped me as I took of a glove and dunked my hand in the water. It was warm.

What the hell?

I then heard a splash.

There aren't fish in this lake….

I slipped back onto my rear at the same time let the mysterious person go. The young man before me moved to rest his head in his hands, staring at me inquisitively.

Silence fell between us. Under a full moon, we did nothing but study the other as I, for one, unsure what to do next.

Snow started to fall again as the wind died down, puffs of air made visible were long and drawn out as I tried to make sense of it all with deep breaths.

"W-Who are you?" I asked. "Why are you singing in my lake? Where did you even come from?"

The young man shrugged his narrow shoulders. "Don't you know? We can appear in any body of water-"

I shook my head. "Hold up…appear?"

He raised an eyebrow. "W-why yes," he spoke with innocence, "the Currents' Keeper sent me."

Once again I heard another whoosh of bubbly water before there was a quick strike of the surface.

"Huh? And where is that darn splashing coming from?" I demanded.

The midnight mystery pushed his hair back and gave a small, sheepish, grin. "Sorry, it tends to have a mind of is own."

"Er, what does?"

With a nervous laugh he gestured with the same hand that was in his hair, pointing with his thumb behind him.

"My tail."

Huh?

I looked at him dead in the eyes.

He's serious?

I shot up and dusted myself off.

"Oo~k…enough surprises for one night."

"Er, what?"

I turned to leave. "I must be really drunk. Tomorrow I'm gonna have a hang over-"

"Hold up!" I heard another splash, but drove myself to ignore it.

"-and all this will be forgotten."

"Wa~it!"

I whipped back around. "Why!?" I yelled.

Silence fell between us again. With wide, pleading eyes, the self-proclaimed merman lowered his arm, cautious and appeared worried I was going to walk away at any moment.

"I really don't have much to say to a dream, or rather, whatever joke this is," I sighed, pinching between my eyes. "I have a splitting headache. I am going-"

"P-Please don't."

I looked back at him. "What now?"

The odd boy's eyes darted around and eventually he began to play with his fingers crumbling in self-confidence.

"Stupid…I feel so stupid…" he muttered to himself, lowering his head.

I held up my hands. "H-Hey now, you're not stu-"

An irritable splash after splash churned the lake water. "I am what I say I am!"

Cold, tired, and having quite enough, I wanted to dunk the boy and move on. "And I'm the mouse that collects children's teeth! Or are you more familiar with the tooth fairy? What? Are they your cousin? Why do you care if I believe you're a merman or not?"

"I-I thought…"

His startled, worried eyes fixed upon me as he bit his lip…a small part of me wondered if he thought this meeting would go entirely a different way. A twinge of guilt hit me in my chest.

"Hide your hair, Vitya, you'll only get hurt by those who don't understand."

I shook my head from the brief memory.

"Y-You…"

I looked over. "Yes?"

He ducked slightly from my tone and his eyes darted for a moment, slightly bashful. "The moon….it looks n-nice in your hair."

I brought my head back, my eyes widened, having forgotten about my usual wig, but I remained silent.

That was….random -nice- but odd…

With a sigh, he pushed himself up with one arm while hold up his other, reaching out to me with a small hand. "You're Victor Nikiforov are you not?"

I didn't budge, but I finally noticed there were small fins outlining his wrists. "Yes? How do you know that? Are you from here?"

The stranger took back his hand slightly, sensing things were getting awkward. "I-I thought humans understood...k-knew of us."

I kicked some snow aimlessly. "Around these parts, we understand nothing."

He cocked his head to the side. "You understand loneliness."

I shrugged. "So I am guilty of what is a part of being human."

The supposed merman sunk himself back into the lake, relaxing his arms. "So I suppose you know what love is too?" He sighed.

"Huh?" I deadpanned, rubbing my shoulders.

"You know, if you're cold, you could join me, you know," he offered.

"You wish. I don't even know who you are." I shivered. "And I'm fine." I lied.

He held out his hand again, this time a more casually. "The name is Yuri."

"B-Besides! I could just walk back into the house."

Yuri nodded. "You could."

There was an obvious 'but' in there, I could feel it. And he was right, my curiosity, tipsy or not, got the better of me. Not to mention the colder I felt the more aware of inviting steam rolling off the surface of the lake.

"You made my property into a bath house?" I deadpanned again.

Yuri chuckled, rolling his eyes as he turned around before fully ducking underwater, disappearing.

I stepped forward. "Wha? Hey? You're just gonna-"

Before I finished Yuri resurfaced in the middle of the lake with a big splash. His arms spread wide, his eyes were still closed but had a big, playful smile on his face. In that brief moment, I saw where his lean, human torso met a fish body where the moon reflected off scattered silver scales. He bobbed back down and back up before beginning to swim around in an oblong circle. For a moment here or there I caught sight of silver dorsal fins and tail slipping in and out of the water following their owner's movements.

Unbelievable!

"You sure you don't want to come in?" He gently teased after awhile as he still swam around the lake in a playful, yet, graceful manner. I couldn't bring myself to tell him off, he was-

Beautiful.

I found myself walking in closer. But just a few steps. With every dive and swirl, however, I began to walk closer. Unable to tear my eyes away from him. On the edge of the lake I was half frozen, my nerves were screaming to head back into the house, but my heart, apparently, had other plans the moment rose up from the water to meet me, holding out his hand.

"Are you joining me?" He asked simply.

I found myself lifting a hand. "Aren't you even tired?"

Yuri shook his head; his eyes were shining with hope.

"I…really must be drunk," I remarked, giving Yuri my hand.

Yuri shook his head and gave a reassuring squeeze. "No. Just tired of being alone."

I let go for a moment to shrug off my coat and gloves, unable to tear away from looking at Yuri who continued to look hopeful and encouraging. I couldn't sense any hidden agenda from him at all.

Taking a leap of faith, I let myself go in.

To hell with it.

A slithering sensation promptly wrapped around my torso, momentarily, underneath my arms.

"Ah! Y-Yuri?"

Just how long is his tail?

Before I could really struggle, unsure if I really wanted to, I was pulled in, close to Yuri's human half as I wiped the water from my face.

"Its all right," Yuri chuckled lightly, "I don't bite.

"Getting a little too familiar too quickly, aren't we?"

Together, gently treading the water, I couldn't deny I felt warmer. It was definitely more than pleasant.

"Heh, you kept saying you were drunk, so I don't want you to drown on me."

"You…people…know what 'drunk' means?"

Yuri smiled. "Yes. And it would appear, we Merfolk, know more than you know us apparently," he corrected before slowly raising a hand to the side of my face.

I narrowed my eyes slightly. "What are you doing?"

A ginger expression fell on Yuri's face. "I was just thinking…." His voice innocently trailed off.

I cocked an eyebrow as I took his wrist into my hand. "About what?"

"Could I stay?"

NOTES:

YOI X Merfolk AU

*I hope you enjoy it and I hope to get some feedback! :D

*How I choose to portray a merman or any merfolk here isn't necessarily based on any traditional mythological depiction beyond he's hot and got a tail. lol I mean, just look up a Japanese merman. It wasn't gonna work. XD