So, this is an Avergers AU set in a verse where mermaids or merpeople live in the seas and hunt humans as food for their pet wales and sharks. Humanity has been halted in progress as their magical predators tear down any structures which befoul the sea or otherwise are harmful to their precious nature, so technology has never come very far, especially in the smaller villages where most people live. No scooba-diving equipment has been invented; exploring the seas is a far less tempting concept when there's mermaid predators luking down there.
Merpeoplehave more sofisticated technology, run by tidal-harvesting tecnology (it is a kind of water-powered electricity, on a mere experimental stage in our world. Think of it as the aquatic version of wind-power) but greatly live by their magic and what nature gives.
I mean no copyright infringement, and I am not claiming to own the Avengers films - I haven't even seen them!
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Steve could never quite recall just how it had all begun. As someone who had grown up hearing of the dangers of the rivers or open waters, brought up to fear mere-people, he really wasn't sure how he had fallen in love with one. Nor, he suspected, could Loki have cleared it up an awful lot. It just happened that way. Sunny days down by the estuary, his feet dipped recklessly into the water and Loki's clever fingers entwined with his as they just kissed for hours. Those memories, they both cherished.
They both remembered startlingly vividly though, the night they came for him. When the villages found out and decided to hunt Steve, his mother and his eleven years old little sister. They had fled down to the riverside upstream from the lake, in the cold and the dark, but different from any sunny afternoon, Loki hadn't been there.
The mere-guards had not been far though, sensing the disturbance keenly with their sharp senses and their well-honed magic. Steve's little sister had screamed in a way that could have made any heart ace, thinking they would drown her, like in all of the stories, as they pulled her under. Her fear was not unwarranted, on the whole.
Steve could still remember the feeling of the fear; the cold, pressing water and the growing dark, as they dragged them deeper and deeper. He had started to feel himself slipping away; losing consciousness, a firm hand covering his mouth and nose, when there was suddenly air to breathe again.
A small magical light was all that lit the tiny bubble-like structure, halfway down into the sea. Loki had told him about those, outposts that allowed them to bring humans down into their depths, allowing for pauses in the swims, during which captives - or guests - could breathe.
Loki had often spoken of his home in the depths, but they had never discussed the future. Sometimes, he wondered if it was because Loki guessed how it would end, but wanted to allow him the sun, for as long as possible. Perhaps he knew what Steve would fear, and that there was no reason to fear it. Or even what there was reason to be afraid of.
Steve had reached out a hand to touch the cool, hard surface of the magically built structure, feeling the smoothness of it; like glass, only stronger. Merpeople, referred to often as mermaids, lived most of their lives under the surface, deep into the water, where they frankly liked it best, but they used the magical bubbles, often overgrown with corrals over the years and thus referred to as corral-trees, to store things which kept better in air than they did in water.
Steve had no time to ponder about this though, he had barely time enough to catch his breath, before he was yanked back out into the freezing water and dragged further under.
It was mere minutes until he stood in a larger hall, still made to keep out the water - an unusual phenomena reserved for larger settlements where there was a need for more than small spaces containing air - dripping wet and holding his little sister close, the young girl clutching her brother close for all she was worth. And then, Loki was there, coming to take Steve into his arms, crashing their lips together desperately.
For a moment, Steve was afraid, afraid of what that desperation meant; but then Loki pulled away and whispered quick words of how scared he had been to hear of their danger, any reason to fear clearly past in his mind, and Steve found himself calming just a little bit.
This was when the merpeople's king arrived at the scene, expression stern but not unkind, immediately making the decission to send Steve's mother and sister down to the quarters reserved for human servants, as the older woman was a skillful seamstress and thus could be useful. There was no talk at all about sending them away, or even of hurting them.
After they had left, both looking worriedly after Steve, Odin, ruler of the seas, looked Steve over very carefully, spoke some to his son in their own language, and waved them away with a small gesture of his left hand.
Loki, without hesitation, took Steve by the hand and led him over to one of the magical doorways leading back out into the sea. "Hold your breath" he whispered, and then they were back in the water.
