((This was written for rarepairweek Day 3 on tumblr. This was the only one I managed to write.))
The Young Man and the Sea (Creature)
The waves lap steadily against the boat as Carlos looks out towards the horizon. He's been following this school for three days now, and is beginning to run out of food and fresh water. If something big doesn't attack these fish soon, he'll have to herd them up and turn back.
A large fin breaks through the surface and Carlos is ready. He has his net and harpoon in position, his knees are bent, he's ready to bring this fish in. Something long and dark just below the surface grabs a fish, and Carlos throws the harpoon.
There is a shout, and a very angry, very human face appears. The face is female, long and thin. It has large blue eyes, a narrow nose. It's pale hair is loose, with a scrap of old fabric tied as a headband.
Carlos reels in the harpoon quickly. The girl glares. He looks frantically around, for another boat? An island? Something the girl could have come from and can go back to, because surely she could not have swum this far from shore.
"It's rude to steal someone's food," the girl says.
"Yeah," says Carlos, "so give it back."
The girl's frown deepens. She takes the fish a disappears back under the water, saying farewell with a mighty splash of her tail.
Her - tail?!
Later, as the sun is setting, the girl comes back to, presumably, steal more fish. Just to show she can, she surfaces to eat one of his fish in front of him. Blood and raw bits of fish run down her chin as she glares at Carlos.
"My brother told me humans are surprisingly intelligent. I don't see it," she says.
"You're a fish."
"And that's why I don't believe him."
"You're a fish, eating other fish. And also a person. Eating fish."
"That's what happens, in the ocean."
"So you're a mermaid."
"No."
Carlos, who was maybe beginning to believe that the stories the old sailors told were true, was again thrown for a loop. He blinks. "But you're a girl. And a fish. You have a tail!"
"Yes. But sometimes I don't. Sometimes I go on land, when I feel like it. My brother and sister do it more. Humans are too dumb for me. Not like it's any of your concern." The girl turns to go back under the water.
Carlos reaches down to where the girl just was. "Wait!"
She resurfaces on the other side of his boat. "What?"
"Come back with me. You can be my wife."
She laughs a mean laugh, showing off her rows of pointy, bloody teeth. "Didn't you hear me? No."
"But!" Before she can leave again, he reaches farther, and starts talking. "You can have my fish! All of them."
"To live on land? With you? No." She turns and, like the sun dipping below the horizon, is gone.
He tries sleeping that night knowing he must turn back when dawn comes. He must sleep, since he awakens at dawn. Carved into his arm are strange symbols. His fish are gone, but in their place is a large swordfish, tied up and sitting in his boat.
Carlos smiles.
Later, he is directed to the man who occasionally sells fish on the docks to decipher the characters on his arm. The man punches Carlos in the nose for talking to his younger sister, and how dare he let Natalya leave her mark on him like that! Carlos is lovestruck, and doesn't even mind having a broken nose. He thinks about what to gift her with and, because he is an idiot human, asks her brother what she likes. This time he is knocked out.