A/N: So, this idea came to me, and I thought I would give it a go! I planned it as a one shot but if people enjoy it I may continue it. Lord knows there's a lot of mermaid AU's out there! Anyway's, here goes:

The bellies of a pair of ships floated overhead like overly large birds circling their prey from above. Lucy gazed up at them from where she lay on the ocean floor, wondering when the canon fire would begin. Her tail swished idly as she waited, churning the sand beneath her so that it floated into the rays of moonlight that drifted down from the surface.

"What's taking them so long?"

Lucy shifted her eyes to her friend, swimming back and forth in her impatience.

Their anticipation of a shipwreck was not the only difference between Lucy and Juvia.

Juvia had been what she was all her life; a creature of the ocean, thriving in all waters both deep and shallow. She was one of the most graceful of her kind, her long tail, with scales every shade of blue, propelled her through the water with a flourish unlike any other. She loved to swim close to the surface when it rained; her fascination with the droplets from above fascinating others in turn when they saw the look in her eyes as her flowing blue hair floated around her. How the others loved it when she smiled.

Lucy was vastly different. Having died at sea many years ago, the ocean had given her gills, webbed-fingers and a tail instead of oblivion. She remembered when she'd woken in that crystal filled cavern, knowing only her name and that her legs had never been coated with pale pink scales before. It was Juvia that had brought her out of her panic, staying by her side as she mastered the use of her new body, and staying with her even after that. Even when others turned away at the sight of the former human.

"Negotiations," A gruff voice spoke from behind Lucy, "Humans are all bark and no bite."

She turned and saw Gajeel approaching, grinning a sharp toothed grin. If Juvia was the most graceful of their colony of merfolk, Gajeel was the most ferocious. It was easy to lose track of him when he swam amongst the sharks. His tail was a dark grey that blended in with the sharp rocks in choppy shores, and whenever he accompanied Juvia to the surface, he would tease fishermen in their boats while she watched the rain. Letting the dorsal fin on his back protrude from the water as he circled their boat. He was vicious, but he had his own hand in teaching Lucy to survive life at the bottom of the sea, so she welcomed him.

"I can neither confirm nor deny." Lucy grinned as she spun through the water towards the more anxious of her two friends. Her comment had earned a snicker from Gajeel, but Juvia shot her a worried look.

Juvia was the only one within their whole colony that urged her to try and remember her old life. Sure, she could remember fragments. The faces of a couple she suspected might be her parents, the feeling of sand between her toes, the way her stomach had churned as she stood on the deck of the ship that had killed her. Other than that, nothing. And she didn't want to remember. Whatever she had been, whoever she had been, that wasn't what she was any longer. She'd only be frowned upon more if it appeared she yearned to be human again.

Light flashed from above, the sound of the cannon rolling through the water like thunder through the clouds. From down below, it could have been mistaken for fireworks, but they all knew humans were more prone to violence than celebration.

"Finally." Juvia sighed. The muscles in her tail tensed, but before she could cut through the water Gajeel grabbed her wrist.

"Wait." He growled.

His features were angry, and he looked not at the ships but rather straight ahead. Both girls followed his gaze.

Across from them three figures swam into view. Lucy recognised them; Jellal, Ultear and Meredy. They had once been human too, all three of them. It was easy to distinguish who among the merfolk had once been human and who hadn't. The scales of former humans ended at the waist, whereas the scales of a natural born continued on. Most ended at the collarbone, others covered their entire body. Only the natural born had fins as well. Lacking these attributes it was easy to determine that dark forces had pulled them under, bringing them to their untimely death. Unlike Lucy, however, they hadn't been lucky enough to be saved by Mavis.

Seeing them made her stomach churn, that could have been me, she thought.

Perhaps dying at sea wasn't so bad, if you were fortunate enough to be saved by Mavis. Those who managed to slip through her fingers did not have an enjoyable afterlife. They were claimed by a much darker colony, one that feasted on the flesh of dead sailors down to the bones. She didn't know what else they got up to, but she did know that they lived in the darkest parts of the ocean, and maybe that alone was enough to turn them into the hostile, mysterious creatures they were now.

They'd encountered this trio before. They'd found Lucy alone once, tried to convince her that all the repulsed glances she got from those people would be replaced by loving glances if she was to join their people. She'd almost accepted too, they'd seemed so genuine. She would have been across the water with them now if Juvia hadn't found her in time and told her of their true nature.

The group had caught sight of them too, but their stand-off was interrupted when the boats above drew their attention once more.

Their gazes snapped up to see one of the vessels burst into flames, debris landing in the water even far away from the ships. Some cargo from the ship sank, and some bodies too. It was the bodies that spurred them into action.

"Go!" Gajeel snarled.

The three of them propelled themselves towards the surface, their rivals doing the same. She noticed Juvia shoot away, following the direction Meredy was heading in, but she didn't see what the chase was over for she'd already singled out her own target.

Her eyes fixed on a large plank of wood floating on the surface of the water, but it wasn't the dismantled ship that concerned her, it was what was on top of it. Blood streamed down a sailors arm and into the water where their hand floated.

A sinister chuckle sounded close by, and Lucy looked down to see Ultear beneath her. So she wanted the same thing did she?

Lucy looped around in the water, changing her course and heading straight for her unsuspecting rival. Ultear blanched, giving Lucy the opportunity get up close and bare her fangs. She felt her face contort as she unleashed the fierce, hidden side that all their kind had. She raised her hands and bared her talons too, bringing them within an inch of her rival's throat. Ultear soon backed off and bowed her head in submission. Lucy, revered back to her normal state, smirking slightly as she thought, Gajeel taught me well.

She turned her attention back to the wreck. Her target had retracted their hand, but the smell of their blood still left a sweet smell in the water.

Slowly, she surfaced.

The sky was red, and filled with smoke. She could feel the heat of the flames on her face, even this far away from the main part of the wreckage, which could only be seen as a blazing silhouette through the smoke. Not even the stars she loved so much were visible through this disaster.

Her eyes came to rest on the body that she'd been looking for. The body that was still very much alive, and staring right back at her.

He was lying on his back on the plank of wood, his breathing coming in heavy gasps. Even in the midst of all this chaos, his onyx eyes still shone. His pink hair was wet, just like the rest of him, matting together on his forehead. He wore no shoes, and his shirt had been torn to pieces, his weapons lost to the sea. His gaze was curious, and slightly disbelieving. Perhaps he believed he was seeing things, most dying men did when they saw her. The angel of death with gills, so it seemed.

She swam closer.

"Prettiest fish I've ever seen." He smirked as her webbed fingers gripped the wood he rested on.

His smirked turned into a laugh, but his humour quickly faded when the laugh turned into a cough that brought blood up from his lungs.

She looked at him with sad eyes.

"I'm sure I'll be fine," he said when he noticed her solemn features, even as he wiped the blood from his chin. Her eyes scanned the rest of his body, and she noticed a large splinter of wood protruding from the side of his ribs. When her eyes met his again, he said: "Oh, that? That's nothing, I've had worse. You think it will leave a cool scar?"

She would have told him the only thing he was likely to get from this piece of wood was oblivion, but she didn't trust her voice. A mermaid's song could enchant any human, making them completely at the mercy of the songstress. It put them in a trance where nothing was felt, only serenity.

She wouldn't sing to him unless she had no other choice.

She leaned across his body, and gingerly grasped at the wood that impaled him. He let out a hiss of pain, and grabbed at her wrist.

"Please- don't." He begged.

Even through the pain there was hope in his eyes. Even when her expression pleaded with him he feverishly shook his head.

"I'm sure it would be a pleasure to be dragged to the depths by you," He wheezed slightly as he spoke, and he curled a lock of her blond hair around the fingers of his free hand, "But I can't abandon my friends."

Something stirred within her heart, and flashes of her own death came back to her. The fear, the loneliness, she'd felt so many things as the water filled her lungs, but bravery or loyalty hadn't been one of them. She made the decision then that she couldn't let this boy die.

Mermaids had a range of powers, some possessed by all, others, only a few had the power to wield. They could give, or they could take. They could steal a piece of your soul, condemning you never to feel love for the rest of your life. They could curse your ship, summon storms, turn the tides. Turn you into one of them, or something else entirely. Enchant you. Kill you.

Or save you.

She lifted herself up onto the board beside him, leaving her tail in the water so it wouldn't dry out. The fire was behind them somewhere, and she could feel the heat of the flames on her back. She felt heat on her cheeks too as his eyes roamed over her body. She crossed her arms over his chest, resting her chin on her hand as she lay on him, careful not to add too much weight.

"Wow, the others sure aren't gonna believe me about this," He laughed before coughing up more blood. As he spoke, she moved her arm and gently trailed her fingers up and down his side, careful to avoid going too near the wood that was draining the life out of him. "I-I didn't think mermaids were real, y'know? Despite everything, I thought it was just a fairy tale. But now I'm happy I was wrong."

She smiled at him, but offered no response. She knew her smile must seem sad, but she felt too bad of what she was about to do to offer him much warmth.

"You know, you look fam-AH." He screamed.

And he kept screaming. She'd grasped at the wood and attempted to pull it out, but it was wedged deeper than she'd imaged. He screamed and screamed as she pulled, almost passing out when it eventually came loose.

Blood gushed from the hole in his side as she threw the shard into the ocean. He tried to sit up to see his wound but the movement only made him cry out in pain, and the blood gush faster. His hands soon found it, and his eyes were full of fear as he saw the blood that coated them when he held them up to his face.

"Now I-I'm gonna die, I'm dead, I'm-"

She cut off his panicked words as she leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, placing her palm over his wound. She'd never done this before, given her kiss to a dying man. Some mermaids could only do it once. Some never gave it to anyone. Some tried to, and failed. She hoped she didn't fail.

His lips were wet from his own blood, but it didn't bother her at all. The taste was so enticing it might have worried her if she wasn't being drowned by another kind of feeling. Drowned all over again. If the taste of the sea repulsed him, he showed no sign of it. In fact, he kissed her back. Harder than she would have thought possible for a dying man. He placed one hand over her own that covered his wound, the other cupped her cheek before he entwined his fingers in her hair. She was as breathless as he was, but he only deepened the kiss, biting her lip as he kept her head held were he could still reach it. She tried to draw away-too long and she may kill him after all- but she was finding it too difficult to stop.

Her other hand rested above his heart, so she felt it when the hammering within his chest became too intense. With an effort, she wrenched herself away from him.

The boy took in a huge gulp of air, colour returning to his face and looking as though he'd just woken up from a dream.

Or was it a nightmare?

She moved her hand from where it had been pressed against his side, preparing herself for the worst. Her hand was covered in blood, but beneath it…

Flesh.

Slightly pink, but perfectly intact, skin.

She breathed a sigh of relief. The boy looked to her before bringing his hand to his ribs. He sat up abruptly when he found no evidence of injury. He struggled for words, and his bafflement made her smile.

He reached out to her and cupped her face in his hands. He brushed his thumb across her cheek, wiping away tears that she hadn't realised had fallen. He leaned in, and for a moment she thought he might kiss her again, of his own accord this time. But he only rested his forehead against hers.

"Lucy…" He whispered.

Her eyes widened. How did he know her name? She hadn't spoken a word!

"Natsu!" A voice called through the smoke.

Her head snapped up, and she saw the waves parting as the bow of a ship came into view. She looked back to the boy, and his features glowed with happy recognition. He must recognise the voice, which means his name… his name must be Natsu.

The voice called out again, and this time she recognised it to be that of a worried female.

She pulled away from him, casting him one last lingering look even as his own features sank.

"No- Wait!" He called as he reached out.

But she plunged back into the ocean.

She swam down and down, until the wreckage above was nothing but a constellation of debris on the surface of the water.

Looking up, she saw Juvia descending from the wreckage, carrying a body with her.

Once she swam close enough, Lucy noticed the sad expression on Juvia's face. The corpse she carried was that of an elderly man.

"You can't save them all, kid." Gajeel said from behind Lucy.

His voice startled her, he was always lurking in the dark. He carried a large trunk under one arm, clearly this was his loot from the ship. Juvia regarded him weary eyes.

"I could sense the sickness in him. He was going to die soon, and it would have been painful." She looked at the body, but turned away again soon after, squeezing her eyes shut against the image of the dead man's face, "I... I did him a kindness …Didn't I?"

Lucy wondered if drowning would ever feel kind to her.