A/N: Itty bitty chapter. Probably not enough to stand on its own, but at the time I wasn't writing with the intention of publishing. Yet here we are~
The sun was low in the sky, but not quite sunset, when Minnie had arrived at one of her favorite spots. As always she was happy to break free of the other mermaids who were still lounging in the lagoon. They were sweet enough, but bless them, they cared nothing for anything outside of their bubble. Minnie had constantly tried to share with them her findings around the island outside of merfolk territory - of plants and animals, objects and customs observed from some of the more reclusive cultures. But she never received much of a response, and had learned from an early age to keep her curiosity to herself. It was why she never bothered to tell anyone where she was going anymore.
Minnie liked to explore. And in those explorations she had discovered many smaller, nicer places to do her investigating of land life both up the rivers and along the beaches in rocky alcoves and watery caves and the like. The world was so taken with her beauty, but Minnie was so taken with the beauty of the world. Being a mermaid she of course loved the ocean, loved her swimming and her sea flower garden, loved mermaid music and lore, but what she didn't particularly care for was the isolation. And though she'd been asked out by several boys, none had ever asked her to even go to a bacchanal or party even though they were frequent. None of them offered to take her exploring in the woods or fields even though Minnie was willing to go where no other mermaid dared. Well, Mortimer offered to take her to his stomping grounds constantly, but she had no desire for that at all.
No, what Minnie wanted was the world without strings attached. And if she were to ever fall in love with a boy, it'd be with one who could respect that. And Minnie wasn't in love. Or...not exactly.
She just liked to watch him, that was all.
Maybe by now it was turning into a fixation, but Minnie could say that at least the first couple of times, she hadn't meant to stumble across the angel. Now though she did not have that excuse, knowing exactly where she needed to lurk in order to spot him, which was a little ways around the island, and it did require a little climbing, but not so far up that the waves couldn't reach. They could spill over into the great rocky bowl that she would bathe in, and sometimes the waves would reach so high that they would overcome the circular wall of rocks that bordered the land and trickle right down onto the sand and green grass.
It was the most perfect spot a spying mermaid could ask for. Because while she only had to climb a little, beyond the bowl of rock the land dramatically sloped down, past sea level, revealing rolling fields of grass and tall trees and even the foot of a great mountain. This patch of land was bordered by a wall of boulders and cliffs that kept the ocean out, cliffs that seemed tall when looking at them from the land side, but were not so fierce when observing them from the waves. Magical geography was an extraordinary, limitless thing.
Minnie was there now, nestled amongst the rocks, peeking out between them and looking down, and there he was. It was to the point now that whenever her eyes found him, she smiled without considering it first. He simply made her happy.
The angel was almost always accompanied by friends. There was a kindly, gangly fawn named Goofy, a grumpy but enthusiastic water elemental named Donald, a stubborn but mellow satyr named Horace, a great hound called Pluto who seemed rather close to the angel in particular even though he was more animal than any of them, and even a beautiful flower nymph named Daisy that Minnie personally knew and considered to be one of her best friends. But Minnie had never told Daisy of her little...fascination, fearing that the nymph would expose her secret to the very object of her admiration, and so even when Minnie had learned that Daisy was a part of the angel's circle, she never mentioned her exploits. Even when Daisy had introduced Minnie to another member of the group that Minnie recognized, a gossipy but well-meaning fae named Clarabelle, Minnie had kept her mouth shut.
Minnie was wonderful and social when she was in the company of people she knew, giggling and animated and spunky. She was adventurous and daring, independently exploring the island all on her own. But she was shy when it came to meeting new faces, and the idea of anyone mentioning her to the angel in particular was mortifying, and not because mermaids weren't supposed to care for angels, but because Minnie felt woefully unprepared whenever she saw him.
It didn't help that he was constantly surrounded by people. In addition to the regulars there were the other forest spirits, suave Jose and excitable Panchito, the rough and tough stone golem Butch, the wise and bearded but nonetheless spritely sage spirit Nathaniel who the angel would usually chat with one on one. And there were countless others, and that wasn't even mentioning when he'd pal around with other angels his age.
But oh, she could ever see why he was so popular. Minnie had been impressed when she'd first laid eyes on him. And it had been an irrevocable mistake when she overheard his name the way she had overheard all of their names, because then she couldn't forget his name in particular. Mickey.
Mickey was down there now to her delight, just with a small group of his guy friends, none of whom were angels. He seemed more comfortable outside their company, and Minnie liked him when he was relaxed. He was shorter than his friends, but taller than her, she was sure, if only by about a millimeter. He had dazzling blue eyes that were kind and almost always full of laughter. He had a crooked, dimpled smile that could make frost melt, a round, friendly face that was slightly tanned, but with the sort of strong jaw that one imagined could be never shattered in a fist fight. His nose looked like it might have been broken a couple times, but for some reason that appealed to Minnie even more. It was proof that he was just as adventurous and mischievous as he seemed.
His ears were perfectly round, the rest of his skin dark and often peppered with scrapes, and from what she could tell beneath the various things he wore around his arms, he had some muscles lurking under those deceptively slender arms. She'd even seen him without a shirt a few times, and she could definitely testify that under that leather armor was a toned, strong, sturdy looking chest and stomach, and the kind of shoulders that could support anything.
Equally fascinating, perhaps even more so, were the features on him that she couldn't find among her own kind. He didn't have a fish tail or goat legs or anything like that, but instead he had the kind of human-shaped legs that the gods and certain nymphs and spirits had. Minnie liked them, the way they could run so fast, the way his toes twiddled in their sandals when he was thoughtful or bored, the way they bent just before he kicked off and shot into the air...to fly on the most gorgeous wings of all.
They were nothing like a bird's wings, she'd observed those. Similar yes, but these were thicker, stronger, protruding from his delightfully hard and straight back just around where his shoulder blades were. When he stretched them, they extended so wide that Minnie was always shocked and amazed to see it. Each feather was white flecked with gold, champagne, ivory, even a little bit of silver. One time one of those feathers had landed in Minnie's pond after he'd gone for a particularly incredible flight full of tricks and spins, and she had seen up close and with her own fingers that the feather was stiff and straight in the center, yet softer and softer the more you touched it as it glinted happily in the light. Sometimes when he flew and cracked his wings open a certain way or spun, the sun would catch the threads of metallic colors woven in the white and throw them off in majestic light. They were swift and agile too, not just strong. When he flew, Minnie watched and pretended she was up there with him. When he folded them completely around himself in embarrassment, she wondered involuntarily what it must be like to hide in there with him, to see what he looked like when he didn't want anybody to see him at all.
Mickey the angel. He was playing with his friends now, running and gliding and play-fighting. Oh, that was another thing, his athleticism. He was playful but talented and skilled, nobody could fire a bow or command a sword like he could. And he was kind and funny and clever and a bit of a -
Minnie's heart leaped as she thought for an instant he had looked her way, and she was diving behind her rocks for protection, her back pressed against them and turned to the scene. She looked out at the sky, heart still beating fast, and she found herself smiling even as her cheeks turned hot and pinker than they already always were. Of course he hadn't seen her, he never did. It was fortunate, because it wasn't as though she could just pretend that this was a normal place for mermaids to be. To climb up here today Minnie had removed the pearl strings that the other mermaids had draped around her top and cinched them around her hips or else they would have gotten in the way, not that her long hair didn't try, and those starfish weren't helping matters. They pulled at her now, but the ache in her heart was so much worse.
Okay, maybe she was a little in love.
" - Okay, so maybe I DID see sumpthin', what of it? Sheesh, lay off..."
Mickey. Mickey's voice! Minnie peered around the stone she was pressed against, peeking behind it to see why she could suddenly hear what he was saying, and she almost immediately shot back to her hiding place. He was headed up the slope, climbing the rocks with his friends while they talked. Sometimes they ventured this close, but it never ceased to make Minnie panic just a little.
She realized as she sat there, waist-deep in sea water in her pool, that just because she had no problem with Mickey being an angel, that didn't mean he didn't have any qualms with her being a mermaid. If Minnie was honest with herself, that was her deepest fear in the possibility of ever actually meeting Mickey. It would be awful enough if he didn't like how she looked or what she was like as a person, but it would have been downright heartbreaking if those eyes ever found her and immediately turned to disgust because of what she was. Just because he was kind didn't mean he didn't hold the same grudge against her race that the other angels did. Minnie looked at her own tail then, and it flicked back, looking guilty for being itself.
"Ha, I knew it! I knew you were lookin' like a big dope over somethin'..." she heard Donald laugh. "I'd know that look anywhere..."
"Yeah, you would know, ya wolf," Mickey glumly retorted.
"Hey, shaddup," Donald shot back. Like all of their conversations, Minnie could tell that there wasn't any malice in them, just that Mickey and Donald liked to have a go at one another once in awhile. They were so different, and yet they were such good friends that breaking them up was unthinkable. Donald continued, "Anyway, we're talkin' about YOU. How you're moonin' over some girl."
All at once Minnie felt her heart stop and every other function within her, mental capacities included, halt as a result. Girl? Mickey liked somebody already? No, calm down, just listen...
"H-h-hey, I n-never said anything about - about a-any girl - !" Mickey protested, and Minnie nodded in agreement because no he had not. Even though she had not heard the rest of the conversation.
"Lookit 'im, he's gone redder'n fire!" Horace laughed. Minnie wished she could have seen it to assess the truth in this situation.
"Gawrsh, was she a...purty girl, Mick...?" she heard Goofy inquire bashfully. She could almost picture him swaying, turning those deer hooves of his in the dirt.
"Yeah. I mean no. I mean - I - I never said - there ain't no - " Mickey was stammering and Minnie felt her stomach twist. She didn't have to see him to know that his friends were right. In some fashion, Mickey was thinking about someone.
"Aha! It IS a girl! Alright, fess up, who is she?" Donald sounded positively gleeful in having the best way to torment his best friend.
"Issit Angela? Ruby?" Horace suggested. He seemed to be taking pleasure in throwing out these names. "Raven? Robin? Rrrrrowena, perhaps...?"
"No, no, none of - no!" Mickey was sounding more and more agitated, but also more and more like he knew there was no escaping their accusations. Next he mumbled, so softly that Minnie couldn't quite hear it, and she felt a stab of desperation when she didn't. Thankfully, his friends were there to unknowingly help her plight.
"Gawrsh, well if she weren't an angel like you, then what is she...?" Goofy asked. Minnie repeated it to herself, almost mouthed the words 'not an angel.' Her heart started beating again, was racing now to get to the finish.
But Mickey was better at keeping secrets than she'd hoped. After a pause, he told them firmly, "M'not tellin'. If I tell ya, I'll never hear the end of it. An' - an' so what if I saw somebody I liked?" Minnie felt a twinge of something painful when she heard a smile creep into his quiet voice. "...If only ya did know, though. Ya wouldn't be able t' blame me. She...she was sumpthin' else...gosh, if only I coulda...I dunno..." He snapped out of whatever spell he was falling under, and with a playful spring in his voice, he announced again. "But I ain't tellin'! Now, last one down th' slope is a rotten egg!"
Minnie heard him take off, she could recognize the sound of those wings snapping open, and she heard his laughter grow more and more distant. There were shouts of surprise and panic as his friends realized what was happening, and their voices too faded as they ran, stumbled after their friend, calling him a cheating, winged so-and-so.
Minnie stayed precisely where she was. Precisely where she'd always been. Out of sight, invisible to the only boy who she'd ever really wanted. She hadn't known how badly she'd fallen for him until now, when it was too late. She was almost in shock, thinking about all the time she had wasted and - and why? Her fin slowly lifted out of the water, dripping apologetically. Minnie couldn't be angry at it though. Could only be angry at herself.
And anyway, what did she even know about Mickey? So much of what she did know was simple observation, a lot of it without hearing him clearly or even at all. But...
Minnie finally peered around her rock, stealing a glance at him. Who knew what he was saying now, so animatedly while he hovered over his friends, out of reach and obviously taunting them. But his laughter was so kind, it was so clear that they were all having fun. For however long she'd been spying on them, Minnie had forgotten that she wasn't their friend at all, just an onlooker. They didn't even know she existed.
She turned back to look down at her reflection in the water. "Well...i-it wasn't meant to be. Never anything serious, just a little crush, that's all," she reminded her mirror image which looked uncertain. "And...and anyway...who's to say it isn't actually you?" She tried to sound optimistic, but as soon as she said it she knew it was an idiotic notion. Her reflection returned her a somber, realistic approach, sadly reminding her, "Angels don't go to Mermaid Lagoon. That's the only place anyone would have ever seen you." Oh.
Minnie and her reflection tried not to tear up, but it happened anyway. She cried to herself quietly for awhile as the sun sank into the sea, wondering to herself if she was ever destined to meet someone like Mickey, instead of being chased by people like Mortimer.