The prompt said 'water,' my brain said 'mermaid AU.' So here we are.
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Water
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Danny's parents, Jack and Maddie Fenton, were brilliant multidisciplinary scientists, engineers, and inventors. They owned dozens of patents, their names were on hundreds of papers, and they were quite wealthy. They also had the nasty habit of dragging their children around the country, looking for cryptids. Their latest obsession? Mermaids. Jazz, Danny's sister, was convinced they had some kind of mental disorder.
As a result of this, Danny had exactly one (1) friend, a singular Tucker Foley, whose internet wizardry had kept them in close contact even when the Fentons were away from their main home in Amity Park. As they usually were. Danny and Jazz had been homeschooled ever since Dash Baxter had broken Danny's arm in the third grade, freeing the Fentons up to travel even more.
At least it seemed like they'd stay here, in Blue Cove, for a while. Jack and Maddie had bought a house on the beach, and even a small boat. Blue Cove had a reputation for mermaid sightings. Hunting down all the rumors and hoaxes would keep Jack and Maddie occupied for some time, as would making 'weapons' to combat the 'threat.'
Danny had long ago stopped asking why his parents saw every cryptid, from ghosts to bigfoot, as a threat. It was better for his sanity.
Being subject to such an... unusual lifestyle, Jazz and Danny had developed a number of special interests. Yes, school work took up a good portion of their time, but Jazz was taking college correspondence courses, Danny was working through pre-calc, and the government didn't really care so long as they kept passing their state tests. Jazz was almost as obsessed with psychology as her parents were with cryptids, and had some interest in being a brain surgeon. Danny was a bit more varied. He wanted to be an astronaut, went stargazing every chance he got, and was fluent in two (almost three) languages.
He could also sing. In fact, according to Tucker, Jazz and the few others who had heard him, he was quite good. Even so, he was also very self-conscious about it. He didn't really like singing in front of other people.
So, whenever the Fentons came to a new place, Danny would try to find simewhere to stargaze and sing in peace. Here, in Blue Cove, the end of their private dock was shaping up to be that place. It was dark, far enough from the house no one could hear him, cooler than the house, and the water rocked it in a sort of soothing way.
The acoustics of the water were odd. The songs he was practicing echoed right back to him.
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A week later, and Danny was half convinced that someone- or several someones- was singing back to him. Only half, because he couldn't see anyone who could be doing it, and the mermaid myths would make a lot more sense if there was some kind of natural echo phenomenon in the cove. (Jazz had told him once that a lot of myths and legends started out that way: stories told to explain natural phenomenon.)
Tonight, Danny had brought a new song with him. A duet. He hoped that, if there was someone singing back to him, they would take the invitation to join in.
They did. Danny was thrilled. He didn't have many chances to make friends. The other singer's voice was just slightly higher than his, which admittedly hadn't dropped yet, just a little more girlish.
"My name is Danny," he said once the song was finished.
The water lapped at the dock and the shore.
"I'm Sam."
Ah. A boy after all, then. He was probably a little younger than Danny.
"It's nice to meet you."
Another pause.
"I have to go, now," said Sam. "Will- Will you be here tomorrow?"
"Yep," said Danny, cheerfully, quite forgiving of his new friend's shyness, even if he was intensely curious about where he was hiding. "Wanna sing together again?"
"That would be nice."
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Danny met Sam several more times, each without actually seeing him. Danny got the impression that he had weirdly strict relatives, or something like that. He didn't really question it. His idea of weird had been massively skewed by his own parents, and he was glad to have a friend who shared his interests.
Meeting up with Sam on the dock to sing and stargaze became routine very quickly. Sam didn't know much about astronomy, and knew way more about music, so they took turns teaching each other. Sam never initiated the conversations. That was fine. Danny was usually the shy one, so he knew how that felt.
Tonight, though, tonight something was different. He knew as soon as he set foot on the dock, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was, exactly, that was giving him that feeling. So, he just walked out to the end of the dock, as per usual. The sky was very clear tonight, and the International Space Station was supposed to do a flyover. He got to the end of the dock and laid down, so he could stare up at the sky.
That's when he heard it. A voice- No. Several voices, singing a lullaby. He tried to get up, see where it was coming from, but the song got... bigger. Not louder. Not closer. Bigger. Bigger than the thought of getting up. He laid there, listening, as the song got bigger and bigger, until it filled him utterly, and he closed his eyes.
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Sam struggled against her captors. She had switched from tail to legs some time ago, and was kicking hard, but Valerie and Kitty were not dissuaded.
"God, Sam. Stop being such a baby," said Paulina as she floated in the water in front of, and slightly above Sam. "You know the rules. As soon as you find one you think you'll like, you take it right away, and figure out if it's worth it later. Seriously, you don't flirt with them beforehand. What would your mom think?"
Sam glared furiously. She really care what her mom thought. As far as she was concerned, this wasn't any of her business. Nor was it Paulina's, Valerie's, Kitty's, Star's, or Ember's. In fact, it wasn't anyone's business except for Sam's and maybe Danny's.
Paulina tossed her head, and her hair swirled in the water. "Look," she said, "we've already done the hard part, you don't have to do any singing with your awful, scratchy voice, you just have to go up, get him, then kiss him or drown him. Even you should be able to do that."
The only response Paulina got was an even more furious glare. However, that might have been because Kitty had a hand pressed firmly over Sam's mouth.
"Hey," said Valerie, "I think I've got an idea." She indicated the large red bag she always carried with her, both on land and beneath the waves. "You'll need to take my place holding the weirdo, though."
Paulina wrinkled her nose. "Star," she said, "you do it. Ember, make sure he stays asleep."
"'Kay," chirped Star, flicking her orange-red tail and dropping down to Sam's level. "Go for it girl."
Valerie darted off grinning, reached into her bag, and... pulled out an anchor. An anchor. That's what she was carrying around all the time? Really? An anchor? Why? For what possible reason could she need to carry around an anchor? No wonder she was so strong. Valerie pulled it away from the bag, and a length of chain came with it, along with a freaking manacle. Crap. Sam thrashed. This wasn't fair. Danny hadn't even ever seen her.
Paulina smiled. "Ooh! Fun!"
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The very small part of Danny's mind not occupied by the lullaby noticed a tug on his ankle. He pried his eyes open, and flopped his head over. What was going on? Why was he asleep here? He hadn't ever fallen asleep on the docks before.
There was someone there, propped up with one arm on the dock, pulling her half out of the water, most of her body below it, out of sight.
He blinked rapidly, trying to focus his eyes, and banished the illusion. There couldn't be anyone here. But there was. A girl, with dark, wet, hair that fell in ringlets around her face. Her eyes were sea green and reflective, the quirk of her mouth cruel. She held up something in the hand that wasn't supporting her weight.
An anchor and chain? What?
She dropped it.
Something pulled tight and hard against his ankle, dragging him sideways across the dock and down. As he was pulled off the dock, he scrabbled for purchase, for something to hold onto, but he was in the wrong position to grab onto the edge, and the dock's poles were too far away to grab. All he succeeded at was painfully banging his elbows, shoulders, and head.
He was underwater.
Panic drove away the last of his muzziness. He was getting pulled down, his leg painfully taught. The anchor was small, and Danny was an okay swimmer, he'd had lessons as a child, but he had never swum with any more weight on him than a swimming suit. He wasn't strong enough to swim against it, to pull it up.
He had to get it off.
The water made his movements slow. He couldn't see very well, either, between the dark and the water. There were shadowy shapes in the water around him. His mind, unhelpfully, supplied 'sharks!'
He felt for the thing around his ankle, trying to pry it off. It was cold, and hard, and his lungs were burning.
He had to breathe. He couldn't breathe. He had to breathe. He couldn't breathe.
He had to breathe.
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"Ouch!" shrieked Kitty, finally letting go of Sam. "She bit me! Gross!"
Sam kicked free of Kitty and Star, her legs rippling back into her tail (black scales edged with purple and green) and made a beeline for the struggling, sinking form of Danny Fenton.
Ember grabbed her arm, dragging her back. "Hey girl, I thought you didn't like the dipstick like that?"
"Haha! He's a real dipstick now, isn't he?" said Star. "Seeing as he's in the water and all."
"Wow, it's been forever since we've seen a good drowning. It's way more fun when they fight, though. This guy's too much of a wimp to do much of that, though, huh?" Paulina laughed.
Sam slashed at Ember with her claws. The other girl let her go easily. The goal had been to delay her. Danny wasn't moving anymore. The anchor had hit the bottom. The water wasn't deep here, just deep enough.
She tried the manacle first, but it was locked. She swallowed. Crap.
She went up, cupped his face in her hands. Crap. She really liked Danny, she didn't want him to die, but she really, really wished there was some other way to do this.
She kissed him.
For a moment, she worried she was too late. She worried she had hesitated for too long. But then, he tensed under her touch.
His eyes snapped open, bright and glowing green.