I turned so that I was facing my father, and I gulped.
"Uh.. hello, father."
He narrowed his eyes at me, "Athena."
"Y-yes."
"I thought we made an agreement! You were to marry Prince Jin today!"
I looked down at my tail, and my wedding dress, "I know, father, but..."
"We went through this countless times, and when you finally agree, you try to sneak off to the human world on the day of the wedding?!"
"But father.."
"YOU WILL GO BACK TO THE WEDDING AND APOLOGIZE!"
Finally standing up for myself, I tried to speak as loudly as I could.
"I WILL NOT!"
I never disagreed with my father, and he looked surprised.
"Athena, what is the meaning of-"
"I will not.. marry someone I don't love! I will find a husband in the human world!"
He looked even more angry, "A human! I won't allow my family to be carried on with such a thing!"
"There's nothing wrong with humans!" I screamed at him.
"They will try and kill you!"
"Not if I live among them and keep the secret!"
My father's eyes widened, "What are you saying?"
"I will become a human and live in their world! And find someone who loves me for me! And I will not use any kind of love spell."
"He will lie to you! He will abandon you when he finds out what you truly are, Athena! Why won't you spare yourself the pain and marry your own kind?!"
"Father, why can't I at least try?! We've never met a human! How are we going to know how they're really like?"
My father was quiet for a while,and the both of us were staring each other down.
"Very well. You will come back in a year. And I shall watch over you until then. Be careful. And if anyone tries to hurt you, I'm taking you back home."
"Thank you father!" I swam over to him and hugged him tightly.
I was about to turn around when my father called for me again.
"Come back with his child!"
I beamed, "Alright!"
"Goodbye father!"
"Be safe, daughter."
And we swam our separate ways.
Later...
I had stopped to rest for a few minutes, but I had finally reached shore.
I quickly swam up to the surface and looked around.
There was a quiet beach a head of me, and behind it was a road, and a large neighborhood of houses, and looking around a little more, I realized it was Tokyo, the only place that spoke the same language as me and the other merpeople.
I couldn't see any humans, however.
How was I going to turn into a human if I couldn't kiss one?
I quietly swam to a large rock next to me and leaned against it.
It was a while before I saw humans, and I immediately pulled myself on the rock.
They were too far away to notice me, however, and I waited even longer, until I heard someone's voice, but it came from behind me.
"What are you doing out here?"
I turned to the voice, and saw the most gorgeous human I had ever seen.
He had long, pale blonde hair that reached all the way down to his shoulders, and beautiful, shiny blue eyes that added on to the rest of his beautiful features, and found that I had never thought this way about any merman before.
He was balancing on an odd, black, board like object, and wore a pair of black shorts that matched it, and a red tee shirt that covered his upper body.
But other than that, he was definitely gorgeous.
His eyes looked my body up and down with wide eyes, and I found myself a little embarrassed.
I wasn't embarrassed whenever merman looked at me, this must mean something.
My heart did something it never did before – it began to pound in my chest, and I was surprised this prince-like human couldn't hear it.
"God, you're beautiful..." he stared at me all over with wide eyes, but kept his eyes mostly on my chest.
My heart leaped, so this human thought I was beautiful!?
"And you really look like a mermaid, you did a good job with your cosplay, but what are you doing out here? And in a wedding dress?"
I blinked, "Cos...play?"
"Where did you buy the tail? That looks realistic! Wow, you grow your hair so long!"
"But it is real.." I said, confused, "And... what's cosplay?"
Now the human looked confused, "Uh... are you lost or something?"
"I'm not lost, I swam here."
"Are you role playing?" he frowned.
I cocked my head to the side, "What is role playing?"
"Wha...?"
Ah! I have to do the spell now!
I pulled myself off of the rock and tried to meet the human boy's height, but I fell on my backside into the water with a loud splash.
"Are you alright?" he laughed and bent down to try and help me up.
I looked into his blue eyes before bringing my hands up to cup his cheeks, and as he stared into my eyes, I watched his cheeks flush a pretty scarlet.
"He..hey, what are you doi-"
I leaned in, and closing my eyes, our lips met.
My body felt strange, as I kissed him, like it was drying from being in the water so long, and I felt my tail split in two before disappearing, then I felt my wedding dress disappear along with the seashells.
Now I felt cold, completely nude, and when I opened my eyes and pulled away, I looked down at my body.
I had legs!
I had become a human!
I reached down to touch them, and noticed the new spot in between my legs.
Ah, that's the spot human females have.
Aside from that, my large bust was showing, but I didn't cover up, I didn't know if that was something to be embarrassed about.
I looked down at my feet a wiggled my toes, letting a giggle slip out of my mouth.
"What the...! Why are you...?!"
I looked up at the human to see that his entire face had grown red, and he was backing away from me, still looking my naked form up and down.
"What is it?"
His blue eyes were wide.
"Kazune! Dude, where are you?!" I heard a male voice call, and the human stopped blushing and muttered something as he took off his shirt, revealing his beautiful upper body muscles, and threw the shirt over my head, pulled my arms through, and stretched it far down my body so that it covered everything down to my waist.
"I.. I'm leaving early! Take my board home will you?" he called over his shoulder as he swung me up in his arms and carried me to the beach, running.
"Come on, Kazune! We're not done surfing yet!"
"Bye, Yuki!"
The human quickly grabbed a bag on the beach and set me down on the sand as he quickly put on his shoes and gathered his things, then lifted me in his arms again as he carried me across the street, and it was awhile before we arrived at a small shelter, which I learned was called a house, and opened the door, setting me down on the carpet.
He bent down so that he was level with my face and stared seriously into my eyes.
"What in the world was that?"
I blinked again, "I was transforming into a human."
He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair before asking, "And what are you exactly? If this is a joke, could you stop now, you're freaking me out."
I shook my head, "This isn't a joke. I'm actually a mermaid."
His eyes widened, "A.. me- mermaid?!"
I nodded, smiling, "I came here to find a husband and have a baby."
"S- so, This isn't a prank.. and mermaids are real?" he gave me a funny look, and I nodded.
He covered his face with his hand and whispered to himself, while I pulled my shirt over my chest to look at my new form again.
He took his hands off of his face, flushing again, and pulled the shirt back down.
"This can't be real, I must be dreaming..!"
"But you're not asleep."
"I wish I was! This is crazy! You're a mermaid!"
"Yeah!" I smiled, and felt so free, happy that I could finally live among humans.
And I think I was already coming close to finding a husband...
I hope you liked the chapter! :)
I wanted Athena and Kazune's meeting to be a bit more romantic, but I still looooove this chapter!
