Based off of foxmurphy's Mer!Rumple AU comics, who graciously gave me permission last year to write ficlets based off her works. Enjoy!

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Belle French breathed in the salty air of the seaside, dropping her beach bag onto the shelly sand. Storybrooke, Maine certainly lived to its postcard image. It was beautiful and quaint, like a picture from a fairytale book, a perfect place for a holiday.

However, Belle wasn't just in the tiny town to take in the scenery.

Belle was a Marine Biologist, a career she decided to take up after a childhood in Australia where the ocean life inspired and intrigued her. She had come to the small town after hearing about several unusual occurrences in the usually quiet waters of the Maine coast.

Bait was being stripped from hooks with hardly a warning from the line. Underwater debris would suddenly be lodged into boat propellers causing boats to tear up. It was damaging the local economy that strongly relied on the fishing boats and Belle had been hired by the city to find out what—or who—was causing such disturbances.

She had only been in town three days and had spent most of it with her reporter friend Merlin Knight, a local of the town, as well as her partner Ariel Benson to get interviews and evidence. Something strange certainly was in the waters of Storybrooke, but she nor her small team would have the chance to find out what until Monday when they would first-handedly explore the bay.

Until then, it was Sunday and Belle planned to catch up on some neglected reading as well to collect some water samples for her work. She pulled out the rugged quilt she used as a beach blanket and spread it out, taking her books and sunscreen and settled to relax.

The wind played on the ocean quietly, undisturbed until a head of matted hair and seaweed rose from the salty depths from beside a mass of rocks, taking in the site of the woman on the beach.

The creature couldn't quite describe what he felt at the site of her. She wasn't dressed in the yellow plastics the land walkers who dumped ink and relics into his waters wore. Instead she was woefully underdressed, her skin was as pale as fresh pearl, her hair as shiny as the underwater kelp in the sunlight.

Not to mention she had a pair of long, very lovely legs. Usually the site of the land walkers legs would surge anger and mistrust from the creature, but he did not feel such things at the site of the woman.

She was…beautiful wasn't close to the definition. Unfortunately, the creature didn't do a lot of talking thus his vocabulary was limited. But for now, he'd settle on beautiful.

The creature subconsciously edged closer for a closer look, disturbing the water around him.

Belle heard the disturbance and looked up just in time to see…something…duck back into the waters.

"Is someone there?" Belle called out, holding her book to her chest protectively.

Rumple ducked behind the rocks, sinking up into his ears in the water. She had seen him! She unknowingly looked right at him and didn't scream or throw one of the sharp sticks at him.

He dared a peak from behind the rock. The woman was gazing out into the bay but did not see him. Shrugging, she began packing her things, sticking something quickly in the water and pulling out. He wanted to call out to her, beg her not to go, but she was already walking to the pier, sparing one last glance at the waters before disappearing from his sight.

Despite the surge of loneliness that took him now that she was gone, an additional wave of giddiness spread through the creature.

The woman, she was human, and humans couldn't be trusted but she seemed so different somehow. She didn't shout and throw garbage into the waters. She was quiet and picked up after herself and looked at his waters with such admiration.

It was a risk, but he'd find a way to meet her again.

With an idea in place, he turned to go back into the depths of the water, his torn, golden tale lapping behind him.