A/N: It's an AU mermaid fic, whaddya know! To be frank, I had no clue where I was going with this – I just wanted a scene where the pretty little merman Haruka saves the dashing young captain of the ship and through some trials and tribulations end up together but as for how... I'm still working on that part (*cries*) I guess I still have no clue how this will turn out! x'D
The story was meant to have possible elements from the PotC movies, but I definitely won't be able to keep up to such a standard, and will eventually grow sick of writing deep plot anyway. So I'm trying hard to keep it simple, so as not to bore anyone (too much). It's rare for me to want to post something I haven't really planned 100% beforehand, but I'm just curious to see the response...?
What I can say I -am- planning, are including the rest of the boys in this, plus having a bit of a drama and twists but that's just at the back of my head – I honestly haven't thought of anything concrete for this (*sobbing intensifies*). Any ideas are welcome, please! (:
And of course, a million thanks to everyone who faved and reviewed my previous MakoHaru fics! *bows to thee* I'm pleasantly surprised by the outcome, thank you so much! And I will continue to contribute my nonsense to this fandom as long as the inspiration is still there! (:
They say a mermaid is the herald to a great storm. With their lovely faces and lustful charm, it is no wonder many a sailor would gladly drown for a mere glimpse.
Makoto never quite understood the appeal, but drifting out here in sea for as close to two months now, looking at the same disgruntled faces day in and day out, even he wishes for an encounter with something as alluring and evanescent as a myth. He stares out from the stern of the ship and tries to make out silhouettes just beneath the surface, but all that's there are dark ripples and faint outlines of fish swimming past.
Ah, what he'd give to be one of them. Now, if only he weren't so afraid of the –
"Captain Tachibana," his navigator calls out to him. "We should speed up north, if we are to beat the storm ahead."
Lightning strikes in the far distance. He shudders, but it does not waver his gaze. Who ever heard of a sea master who's afraid of a little storm? He grips the handrail and braces himself internally.
'Where is that mermaid now?' he thinks, as he turns around to address his crew.
~ooo~
Since he was a mere fledgling, he'd been told to never wander near the surface without his brothers, so that was exactly what he did. Then again, in their clan, Haruka has always been known to be rather eccentric and stubborn and frequently acts on impulse. And thus, here he finds himself seperated from his kin yet again, in the midst of chasing down the current left behind by a breaching humpback whale.
Haruka flexes his tail and gives himself a little push, feeling the rush of bubbles tickling over his bare torso and over his neck and face. A trail of little fish rush past him, in pursuit of the disappearing whale.
This is the life, he thinks, and he is so close to the surface that he might get caught in a human's net but that is the last thing on his mind. Not with the water carrying him away like this.
Nothing else matters but the feel of being swept away by the love of his life.
A darkness veils over his closed eyes and he opens them to find himself in the shadow of a magnificent ship.
Humans.
Haruka flees to a safer distance, his mind suddenly filled with the warnings of his brothers, cautioning him about harpoons and nets and flares of explosive light that are said to rip even the sturdiest boat apart. He is just as wary as the next merman, but that does not stop him from being curious.
The only things he's experienced first-hand of land-dwellers are from the baffling objects they leave behind their wake, and on rare occassion, the remnants of a sunken ship (of which he has been warned time and time again to never venture into alone, but he knows that the average land-dweller could never survive underwater for as long as he). Sometimes, when there is a flock of seagull hovering above, they would also throw scraps of food into the ocean for the birds to feed on. At least, that is what Nagisa tells him.
Haruka knows little about human men, except for what he hears, and what little he has seen. The sirens speak of their gullibility, the fish speak of their savage ways, and the water – the water does not tell him anything; it only opens up waves of opportunity, something Haruka has never hesitated diving head first into.
When he judges it safe, he breaks the surface for the first time in about three months, and he can almost hear the exasperated cries of his brothers in the far distance.
The wind against his skin is cooling, and it makes him want to sink back down into the comforting warmth and familiarity of the water, but the sight before him is too magnificent, too rare for him to have any thoughts of missing it out.
Humans are amazing as they are terrifying, he muses. They are unafraid of crossing over territory unknown to them, places in which they are never safe, what with those feeble limbs they call legs. But in the stead of land, they build massive structures on which they can navigate the seas properly, without having to swim. The ocean spans further across the globe than the land, and thus the human man, with his imperious nature, asserts his dominance over it, like everything else he chooses to conquer. Even now, the whispers of the sea warn Haruka of the dangers of being this close to the domineering land creature.
After all, once out of the water, he is as defenseless as a hatchling and can do nothing against whatever they subject him to.
Haruka hides between the shifting of currents, and watches the men run up and down the deck, toying with their ropes and sails and fancy maneuvering equipments. Out on the rear, he sees a lone man looking out at the ocean with a sort of melancholy; he towers above the rest with his impressive height, but moreso due to a quiet charisma that surrounds him, and Haruka can already guess what role he plays.
The master of the ship.
Each boat that carries men over the water has one, at least. This one is young and able-looking, but like his brothers would say, land-dwellers are all the same, when plunged into the waters – weak because they cannot breathe down here, because they sink and drown and die, all the same.
The water does not like them.
Haruka smells the storm that is coming, and continues to watch in apprehensive silence.
The man moves to the quarterdeck, and shouts his orders over the sound of the waves. His crew move accordingly. For a moment, Haruka is reminded of his father, and he dips himself down a bit to cool his head. When he comes back up, the man is facing the sea again, and Haruka freezes, nearly imagines that they are looking right at each other, but the human stares far beyond that.
It is more thrilling than it is daunting, he thinks, to be discovered by such eyes. They are kind and pensive and brilliant and Haruka just wants to know the story behind them.
He might be human, but there is nothing he finds terrifying about this man at all.
Haruka doesn't have time to ponder more on the situation, because the first tides of storm rush up to immerse him back underwater – a signal for him to stay away from the surface.
~ooo~
It is worse than expected. The waves are ruthless, the rain is stinging, and the winds uproot the sails and the very last shred of security they've been holding on to.
Is this the end? Makoto cannot help but wonder, amidst the cries of his men, over the sound of gushing waters and howling winds. And to think, the one and only High Speed that was meant to be the sturdiest ship of its time, is now being rendered useless in the grasp of a decidedly cruel mother nature.
A particularly mighty wave crashes onto them from the right, and the entire ship angles upward. The men who have not been holding on to anything prior slide down the now tilted deck, screaming and clawing at whatever they can clinch their nails on. Makoto barely manages to catch one of his crew members by the arm, when lightning strikes the topsail mast and it catches fire immediately. He doesn't have time to think for himself, when it comes crashing down on them, and he lets go, or risk critically injuring the both of them.
The sailor is saved, but Makoto plummets down the slippery deck and into the cold, watery depths, and the last thing he hears before the ocean muffles out everything else, are the desperate cries of his crew and the roar of thunder across the entirety of the pitch black sky.
He is powerless here, and it is so very dark.
Makoto struggles against the current sucking him downward, but every jerk of his strong arms and legs seem futile. Out of despair, he shouts but it comes out in bloated bubbles and gurgles, and only serves to steal him of his precious breaths. The darkness engulfs, the very core of his nightmares claiming him completely, and Makoto promptly forgets everything he knows about swimming.
~ooo~
Haruka has never witnessed a human drowning before; the very idea is incomprehensible to him, one who has lived within the cradle of the sea for all his life. He can imagine drying up at least – is the feeling similar to death by drowning?
The human men, with their weak legs and clothed bodies that hinder, fall into the water, and flail around in a panicked attempt to rise back to the surface.
Haruka is sixteen years young, and has never learnt of death or peril before this. It frightens him so much he can barely move. At this distance, he sees the scared faces of the humans clearly, too caught up in their anxiety that they do not notice him right below them. Another man crashes down into the brine, and he gasps in shock, barely misses getting nicked by the sailor's boots. Out of fear, he swims away from the scene.
He doesn't understand, how the ocean – his beautiful, calming ocean that bathes him in so much freedom – takes it away so easily as well. It is unheard of. There must be something he can do; he is a child of the sea, after all, and will not let such tragedy pass the threshold of his home, even if it means going against all he believes in.
He stops, just as a firey pole slams onto the surface of the sea, briefly illuminating the area beneath the strong tides. It creates just enough light for Haruka to spot the silhouette of a man no longer struggling like the rest and quickly descending.
It's him. The ashen brown hair, the large build – there is no mistaking it.
Haruka dives further into the darkness, and just as he puts his arms around the man, he is taken over by an unknown fear. The man is covered in appendages humans call clothes that flow around him like seaweed. The sleeves are as smooth as the back of a sting ray, as pearly as deepwater white coral. How does something so alien remind him of fragments of home? Up close, the human is handsome, but pale, and his lips are deathly blue, and Haruka wonders if he is already gone.
"Wake up!" he shouts, shaking the man by the shoulders. The brunette's head just lulls lifelessly to the side.
He is so scared, so unsure, but Haruka links his arms around the man's larger torso and does the only thing he can think of.
Humans cannot breathe underwater.
This man needs the air above ground.
Even for a merman the waves are ruthless, and Haruka strives with all his might to lift the captain up and above the surface. It takes intense effort to keep both their heads above the water. Never before in his perfectly stagnant life, has he ever felt so helpless and weak, and carrying the life of a stranger in his arms.
What am I doing?
Haruka wonders if he should send a plea for help to his brothers, but he's already been abandoned by all.
A foreboding silence consumes them, and they are enveloped in the shadow of a looming tidal wave, when Haruka suddenly remembers an old tale his grandma used to tell him. It is somewhat of a myth, something unproven for centuries but continues to be a part of stories of love and lost he's been told as a child. He's heard that even sailors believe in it too, and the very thought strengthens his resolve. He cradles the captain close to him, and anticipates the force of the tide.
"Live," he says to the man, and kisses him on the lips without an ounce of hesitance.
The wave strikes down harder than he imagines it would, and swallows them up wholly.
'A merman's kiss will save a sailor from drowning.'
Haruka can only embrace the captain closer, and skim their bodies through the slight opening left by the current and lead them into safer waters.
~ooo~
As quickly as it started, the storm subsides into a faint drizzle and the ocean rests, sated.
It has been close to ten years since he's set foot on actual earth soil, but Haruka doesn't think anything of it, as he drags the limp human man onto shore. The tide might rise again, and Haruka wants him safe on dry land, somewhere he may be easily spotted by others. With an arm, he pulls the both of them onto the sand. His whole body trembles and his tail aches, but all Haruka can think of is this strange land-dweller and how he must save him. He doesn't know why, but he knows that he wants to – has to – see this man as he was before, standing tall and proud and looking out at the waves wistfully, as though waiting for a revelation.
He hauls himself onto the beach first, and waits, as the shivering takes over. His tail flails about, before compressing, and shrinks into a mere web of blue glistening scales, to finally fall off smooth naked legs like a wet cocoon. It is like having the skin melt off his very bones. Just like the first time, he feels incredibly vulnerable, but he steels himself for the task ahead.
He tries standing, to test his new limbs; the land-dwellers make it look so easy. Haruka just quakes and falls back to the ground like a newborn fawn. His feet still feel like fins, and the sudden stiffness there is something he will never want to accustom to. Instead, he drags them both away from the licking waves with his arms, and collapses onto the man's chest with the sheer effort.
"Wake up," he whispers again, into the soaked garments of the captain.
Thump. His heartbeat is weak, but it is more than enough.
Haruka checks the man over again for any injuries he might have sustained. He brings the man's mouth close to his face and feels the faint but warm breath tickle the shell of his ear. Turning away, blushing, Haruka realizes he's never come so close to an actual human before, much less kiss anyone in his entire life before that perilous moment. It doesn't help that the human is so easy on the eyes.
The man's lips are cold under his fingertips, and Haruka leans down to remedy that.
Perhaps he can blame it on impulse or curiosity, but whatever it is, the mere taste of another's lips on his own is enough to bring the blood rushing to his face. And Haruka has never had that experience before. It feels as though the ocean that he's left behind still resides in his very core, pulsing waves throughout his entire frame, sending ripples of warmth spreading out from his chest to the rest of his wet, shivering body.
He hastily parts away with a gasp, just as he hears a weak moan from the other.
Despite the gnawing fear, he stays rooted to the spot. He wants to see it. He wants to see it so badly.
The color of your eyes.
Under the steady beating of rain, Haruka lies on his side, and waits for a miracle.
-End of Chapter 1-
A/N: Just a note: Makoto is almost ten years older than Haru here. I didn't want Haru to be too old, and having Makoto be a captain at 17 is a bit odd, to say the least, thus the age gap.
The next chapter will definitely include Nagisa and/or Rei (with possible Rin), and geared more towards Makoto's point of view about what happens next. Hopefully. That is to say, if I haven't lost faith in myself and stop writing, ahaa~ But I do hope to finish something concrete, in the end (*hands shaking*) Please tell me what you thought about this first chapter! (: And I'm open to suggestions as well, so please do not hesitate to review! Thank you!