He stared at her from the rock he sat on. The sun was shining down on the ocean water, reflecting like diamonds. But in his opinion, nothing shined brighter than her smile. She was so close, but so far away all at once. He was bound to the water and she was bound to the land. The world he couldn't be a part of. Sure he didn't know anything about her. He had never even spoken to her. How could? He couldn't exactly walk up to her and introduce himself. No, he couldn't. Not with his tail. He could only swim up to her. Even then, what would he say to her? Hi, I've been watching you from a distance and I think you're the most beautiful being I've ever seen? No! She could run away from him. She could laugh. She could even send out people to catch him. He's heard others around the kingdom warn him not to go near humans. But how could he resist not observing them and wondering what their world was like. He longed to just meet one human. Talk to them. Get to know them. He believed that humans weren't evil. And then there was her. She proved his theory. Every day he saw her, there was a smile on her face and she'd always be helping people around her. She proved it his theory. But here he was, unable to find the courage to even talk to her. A coward to even do what he's longed to do and talk to a human.

He sighed as he continued to stare at her as she walked along the beach's shore. Her hair blonde hair was pulled back into a messy bun, keeping it from getting in her face as the wind blew around her. Her boots were in her hands, allowing her bare feet to walk in the water and sand. In her other hand she had her dress bunched up, keeping it from getting wet. She was beautiful. And yet here he was, only watching, not knowing more about her.

"Knew it."

Bucky turned around to see his best friend, Steve, swimming up to the rock he was sitting on. The dark haired merman sighed, rolling his eyes. "What do you want, Steve?"

"I was just wondering where you were and to see if I was right," the blonde merman said, a small smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Right about what?" Bucky asked, raising a brow.

"That you were up here watching her again," Steve said, nodding to the blonde woman on the shore.

"Whatever you have to say I don't care," Bucky huffed, turning his attention back to the woman.

"I wasn't going to say anything. I just wanted to see who the girl was," the other merman said, casting his gaze to the woman on the beach. "She's pretty."

Beautiful is more like it is what Bucky wanted to say. But instead he remained silent.

"You like her right?" Steve rolled his eyes when his best friend didn't respond. "For Poseidon's sake, Buck! Just go up and talk to her! And I would do it now, she's leaving."

Bucky looked back to the woman and sure enough she was rushing along the shore, staring up at a man standing on a dock. A pang of jealousy went through the dark haired merman as he watched the man look down at her. Who was he? He hadn't seen him before. "It's too late," Bucky mumbled as the woman reached the man. He watched as they walked along the dock, talking amongst themselves.

"Buck, seriously. Just take a chance and talk to her. You clearly like her and you're constantly talking about how you believe humans aren't all evil. If you believe that, take a chance," Steve said, shaking his head.

Bucky sighed once more. "Maybe tomorrow," he said, before jumping off the rock and diving into the water. He definitely wasn't up for it now, not after seeing her with that man.

ooOOoo

He looked everywhere. He had checked the docks. He had checked the beach. No matter where he looked, he couldn't find her. He was growing worried. Was she okay? Was she sick? Was she hurt? Where was she?

He was swimming back under water, hoping to get Steve's help with finding her. He groaned. He sounded like a love sick fish. He still didn't know her and yet he wanted to make sure she was okay.

He was nearly to the place where Steve and Sharon lived when he saw a shadow cast over him. Looking up he saw a ship slowly making its way across the surface of the water. Narrowing his eyes he spotted figures by the rails. A group of men and what looked like a woman. The sun casted some rays of light on them as the clouds moved across the sky giving the merman a better look at them. He smiled when he caught sight of blonde hair in the sunlight. However, his heart skipped a beat when he saw the group of men cornering her. He watched as one man grabbed her, wrapping rope around her hands and threatening to put a cloth around her mouth. Bucky's eyes widened in fury. How could someone do something like this to someone like her?

He quickly swam to the surface and stayed along the bottom of the ship. He strained his ears, trying to make out what the men were saying.

"Miss Madison," one man out of the entire group spoke out. He must be the captain, judging by how the rest of the men stood behind him.

"It's Tracey," the woman spat.

Tracey? So that was her name. He tried to lift himself up a bit using the wooden planks of the ship's body and listen further, but the waves that were hitting the side of the boat were making it impossible to hear everything. He was able to make out a few words. "Brother", "information", and "trade route". What were they talking about?

His eyes widened when he saw them pushing across a piece of wood. His brow furrowed. He wished he could do more than just swim around the bottom of the ship and do nothing. But he was too late. He watched as the woman, Tracey, was pushed off the side of the ship and fall into the water, with no possible way to swim back to the surface. He dove down, swimming as fast as he could. He could see her. She was only a few feet away. He pushed himself and reached a hand out and grabbed her. Quickly surfacing back, he took a look at the ship and was relieved to see it keeping up its course and heading in the opposite direction of the shore.

Reaching the shore, he pulled Tracey onto shore, laying her down. He stared at the ropes for a moment before he began to tug at them. Eventually he was able to get them off, but Tracey was still not moving. He stared at her. He didn't know what to do. How to help. The questions kept flowing into his head until he saw her twitch. A smile of relief grew on the merman's face as he watched her slowly wake up.

Oh no… She was waking up. What was he supposed to do? Stay? Flee?

Her eyes opened up to reveal a pair of the most beautiful brown eyes he had ever seen. Well…it was too late to flee.

"Who are you? Where am I?" Tracey asked as she slowly sat up and looked around. "What happened to the pirates? I was just pushed into the water…" She paused as she stared at the man next to her. No, he wasn't a man. "You're a mermaid?"

Bucky frowned, his brow twitching at the term she chose. "Merman," he corrected.

"Oh, uh sorry," the blonde woman said, giving the merman a sheepish smile. She paused again. Silence falling between the two. "So…you rescued me then?"

"Yes," Bucky answered. "I couldn't let them kill you."

A smile grew on the woman's face, along with a hint of a blush. "Thank you, um…"

"Uh Bucky," the merman said, a small smile on his face. "You can call me Bucky."

"Bucky? Alright. Thank you again."

"Of course."

The two looked up when they heard someone shouting Tracey's name. Down the beach they saw the man who Tracey was with the other day.

Bucky frowned. He knew fully well what that meant. Tracey would be leaving with him again. He looked to her, the frown on his face lessening just a bit. "I guess you have to go?"

"Yeah, that's my brother," she said. She looked at the merman and smiled. "Can I see you again tomorrow?"

A smile broke out on the merman's face. "Yes," he said, a bit too enthusiastically.

Tracey giggled, music to Bucky's ears. "I'll see you tomorrow then. Bye, Bucky," she said, waving as she walked towards her brother down the beach.

Bucky watched as she left, the smile remaining on his face. He couldn't believe that he had actually talked to a human. Especially with Tracey. He shook his head. He was never going to hear the end of Steve saying he was right in telling him to take a chance. He dove back down, excited for the meeting tomorrow with Tracey.

Thank you to ladyjthewriter (tumblr) for the prompt! I honestly love writing mermaid/merman prompts, considering that The Little Mermaid is my favorite Disney movie. I hope this was good.

If you'd like to ask the Avengers, Madison twins, and anyone else in the tower any questions, feel free to leave a message on my tumblr. If you have any prompts you'd like me to write, AU or non-AU, feel free to message me on tumblr, PM me here, or leave it in a review.

My tumblr is winter-is-ending

Thank you for the support everyone!