Jim Hawkins made his merry way onto the beach with a bright smile, dressed in the best clothes he wouldn't mind soaked, he set off bounding and hopping down and about the dark, jagged rocks and onto the pale sand, taking care not to slip as his thick boots thumped and made soft prints; his wide, blue eyes found the tide-pool that matched the description he'd been given quickly.
Jim tacitly prided himself on being observant, he told himself that was why the prince (sorry, 'Eric') himself had hired him as crew.
As he drew closer his ears were met with a familiar, enchanting melody, he would've gone so far as to call it unearthly for it seemed to be able to ignore the roar of the crashing waves and the raucous cawing of the gulls overhead to rise to a pitch that had his racing heartbeat steadying and his previous gallop slowing to a respectful trot.
He knew the singer but that didn't seem to decrease his immediate trepidation as he neared a wall of rock, after all, though he was an eager explorer at heart that didn't mean he didn't suffer from bouts of irrational over-caution as much as the next person from time to time.
The ridge surrounding the tide-pool looked so well placed as to be artificial; it made an imposing ring around the gathering of water left behind from the high tide, almost as if it was set up with the explicit purpose of providing privacy and sanctuary.
It reminded him of a crown in some way.
Needless to say with its aggregates this particular collection of stones had a collection all its own, one of myths (superstition)
His hands were quite a bit more stilled by the time he first gripped the least unpleasant pocket and lifted himself up the face of the smallest pillar of rock.
Once he'd reached an agreeable height he pushed himself up until his head rose over the circumference of the clearing.
He spotted her in the middle of the pool, sat up on the mer equivalent of a human backside on a solitary stone that rose up out of the clear water, which was thankfully shallow enough for him to wade in. Her hands were immersing a… fork in her bright-red hair and her eyes had shut in a yawn when he decided to surprise her.
Her head snapped over to him and her yawn turned into an awkward gasp as he leapt into the water with a sharp splash.
She almost fell off the rock.
A petulant scowl was what he got in return causing his smile to lessen as he turned away slightly, fixing his eyes on the not-so-distant ocean.
"Don't scare me like that," she said even though she wasn't very good at scolding; her voce was far too soft to be anything other than pleasant, except when she was truly upset.
"Sorry" he replied sincerely.
He was still getting used to how paranoid she could be, not that he blamed her for being cautious, he'd been getting the impression that merely seeing him was considered dangerous, perhaps even taboo where she came from.
She rolled her eyes and huffed at an errant strand of crimson hair before she bore a familiar smile of her own; Jim spied her latest collection of accumulated human curiosities arranged in a pile against the opposite wall as he struggled to remain standing in the waist high water by locking his fingers around a low spike of rock.
She quickly made for her treasure, gliding through the water as swiftly and gracefully as you please to prop herself up next to her stuff before digging into the mound until she found what she was most interested in hearing about.
This time it was a tape measure.
It was part of a deal they'd made on their second meeting after he'd caught her spying through a gap in the railing on a fishing boat he happened to be stationed on. Before she'd leapt back into the sea she had asked him tearfully to meet her at the same tidal pool they were in now or 'bad things' would happen to him, (it was only later that he learned that she was only terrified at being discovered), he acquiesced her and he gave her his word that nobody would know about her as well as accepting her plaintive request to teach her about humans.
She then proceeded to talk his ear off with questions until he had to tell her that he still had duties to take care of but that he would return when the next opportunity came around.
From the first time they met up again and all their meetings since she would bring things from 'the surface' that she'd collected mostly from shipwrecks and he'd tell her all he could about them, and in return…? Well, he got to see a mermaid, a creature of legend; in his eyes that was more than enough.
So far he'd taught her about pipes, gloves, forks, knives, plates, chairs, thatched-roof houses and the decimal system, horses, chariots, hunting and fishing (the last one had been a sore spot for her, she'd made him promise to stop eating seafood).
She placed the housing in his grip and, with slight difficulty, drew out the tape to around fifteen inches; it roughly scraped along the edges of the slot she drew it from, sending small shards of rust to fly out and speckle the surface of the water.
"Is it for measuring things?" she asked.
"Yeah, how'd you guess that?"
She smiled bright and proud and pointed to the black lines running the length of the tape and the numbers she recognised, not quite completely obscured by their age (which he'd guessed as a few dozen decades) in that Jim found cause to smile himself, he'd been trying to teach her to analyze and hypothesize about her findings as well as merely enquire about them, he had a deep aversion to inculcation.
They proceeded just like this for a while and time passed all too quickly for his liking; he wasn't gladly anticipating the reprehension his mother was going to give him if he came home late again.
Then Ariel asked a question
"How do humans get married?"
Jim's eyebrows rose until they'd disappeared up into his soaked bangs but for the most part he managed to remain suitably composed.
"W-why do you want to know?" his voice on the other hand took a bit more effort to bring under control.
The mermaid's voice sounded sweeter than usual "Well, I was just thinking recently; you've told me lots about how humans make tools and machines to make their lives easier and I know that stuff's important to you and it is interesting, really" this part of her plea was spoken quicker than the rest "but I want to know about something I think I can understand completely" she pushed out her bottom lip widened her big, blue eyes trying to make them catch the light and clasped her hands together and, using her lovely, cotton-soft voice, uttered the most heart wrenching "pleeaase" Jim had ever heard: his face contorted at the tugging in his chest, pained at just how adorable she'd made herself look to him, he was trapped in her gaze and all his previous composure gave way.
"Alright, Just stop looking at me like that!" he cried, trying to suppress his trauma with a smirk and a good-natured chuckle.
Her expression changed to something more expectant and for a moment Jim's mind turned up nothing but blankness; he tried to find something with his eyes to jog his mind but the only thing his focus seemed to want to let him linger on were her rosy red lips or her equally red hair or her bright blue...
Jim shook his head suddenly and found Ariel still staring at him expectantly, her lips had thinned as the time had dragged on and there was a slight hint of hidden concern in her eyes.
"Well uh... I guess, two people who're in love decide they want to make their commitment official so they get a priest to… read to them or something, sometimes in a church or on a hill… um… and then bam, they're married"
"Does everyone..."
"Ariel, why do you want to know?"
"I already told you I was just thinking..."
"No, there are easier things that you know that are a lot less personal to ask about" Jim tried to fold his arms the same way he'd seen Eric do when he was trying to politely chastise a member of his crew.
"Look, I was just curious about it that's all" she pouted indignantly and folded her arms stiffly, pushing up her shoulders exaggeratedly.
Jim tried to keep himself from reflexively rolling his eyes at her display "if you don't tell me why you're asking then I won't tell you anything more at all"
She balked at that and turned to him, gaping, with her mouthing quivering as if several responses were swiftly running over her lips before she could articulate them.
It was her turn to sound caught "T-that's not fair!" she squeaked.
Jim sighed and pushed away some of his irritation "I'm not angry Ariel, I'm just confused. If you don't want to tell me you can just say so" his tone was as placating as anyone had ever heard it and Ariel relaxed again.
"Sorry Jim, I'm not the only one who wants to know this" Jim's boyish, sailor mind immediately jumped to the most exciting conclusion. "You're a spy?!" he yipped and his ecstatic smile came back unbidden which became reflected in Ariel's laughter.
"N-no s-silly" she said between flighty giggles "w-ell, not really," as quickly as it came her levity was under control again "you see I, um… well…"
Jim's head cocked to the side and his bangs leant into the seafaring breeze, Ariel suddenly looked as though she was having trouble keeping her train of thought.
Then quickly, all in one breath she said, "I kind of told my sisters about you well sort of I told them I was studying the human world and I only told some of them and one of them wanted to know about how humans got married and 'mmpfh'" Jim had suddenly covered her mouth with both his hands to keep her from turning any redder.
After a silence that lasted much longer than they felt it did Jim slowly took his hands off her mouth, trying to ignore how intensely she was staring at him or the pink on her cheeks while his face became a brotherly sort of stern, in sharp contrast the wide-eyed daze she seemed to have fallen in.
"Okay," he said slowly "but I thought you didn't get on with your sisters"
"I didn't say that" she replied sharply, Jim pressed on.
"Didn't you mention once when we first met here that you wouldn't trust them with knowing about me because you thought they'd tell your father?" he said.
Ariel took a deep breath.
"They think I'm looking out at some random human city on the coast from shallow water and taking whatever I can see by chance to come back and embellish to them about," she sighed, looking more despondent than he'd ever seen her, "I guess they think it's kinder to go along with my 'phase' than tell me I'm wasting my time or that I'm delusional or naïve or something, and it's not like I tell them exactly what you tell me, I know that it's safer to let them think that way, but it's still… painful"
Jim nodded solemnly and turned to the horizon to try and disguise his thoughtful frown: he had experience as the perceived oddball and while he understood what it was to be misunderstood by your family, he couldn't imagine being forced into accepting it like she had.
"That still doesn't explain why…" he cut himself off; he would've chuckled if the mood was lighter; he very dearly wanted to pry but if he was going to be a friend to this mermaid he was going to have to start taking a few things on her word, she hadn't done a single dishonest thing to him, though he expected to be left out of the loop regarding many things about her, he could stand lies of omission. He was used to them.
So he began again.
"When two people have loved each other, really loved each other for a while and they're both convinced they want to spend the rest of their lives with each other they ask a priest to marry them in a church, or on top of a hill or something, it varies on the persons I guess"
Ariel had got a bit of her smile back, and there was something else, something fanciful in her eyes while he spoke that he couldn't place.
"Does every human…" she began to ask.
He cut her off again.
"No, some never find that person, others just prefer to stay alone and more still only think they've found that person, some don't believe in the practice at all, doesn't mean they won't find someone though..." he trailed off, this was starting to make him feel uncomfortable again.
"I wish you'd stop interrupting me," she said with a wry smirk.
"Sorry."
He found out he couldn't shuffle his feet while they were beneath the water.
Ariel had gone quiet.
"Ariel? You okay?" he ventured closer and put a hand on her bare shoulder, secretly taking notice of how very warm she was.
Her eyes moved to where he'd made contact and then up to his face. He was now aware of how close she'd gotten, she didn't seem quite as savvy about the situation "I was just thinking, it's sounds very similar to how it's done where I'm from"
"Oh...?" he said intelligently.
"Jim, are you okay? You look a bit…" she trailed off as her hand rose up to rest on his forehead, pushing apart his bangs
"I'm fine" he said, quickly brushing her off, ignoring the familiar sting in his cheeks.
She shrugged with her eyes and returned to her pile to get another item.
Thankfully she didn't bring the subject up again and things got less and less awkward as time went on: they spent the rest of their afternoon a little more conservatively and conversation became far more amicable as a result, Jim found himself habitually growing ever fonder of his new friend, he could call her that right… she was his friend?
The sun steadily began to fall into the horizon bathing the eve in the traditional oranges, violets, and yellows of the sunset.
"It's beautiful" she whispered reverently.
"Yeah" he replied.
Jim sat on the rock, easing his legs, worn out from standing in the water for so long, he didn't complain when she moved to lean against him.