Last Time On AU Oneshots: Kai and Skylor murder Chen (again)
Request: My request is a Plasma story that involves Kai as a siren and Jay as a sailor. You can take it from there, thanks!
Requested by: FloofyBunny788
Warnings: n/a
Pairings: Plasma! (Kai/Jay)
AU: Siren AU!
The Merman In Pearl Harbor Part One
Jay missed home.
Working on the USS Arizona as a mechanic was really, really, really boring. Jay wanted to go home and fix cars with his dad, not sit out here in Hawaii waiting for something to happen. Any news that they got from the War overseas was given on a crackly, broken radio in the mechanics quarters, making Jay even more nervous.
Germany could bomb his parent's home, Italy could invade, anything could happen and he wouldn't be able to help his parents. He hated sitting still and not being able to help with anything. It wasn't like he was eager to fight, but he wished that at least he'd be able to protect those he cared about. This war was the second time the entire world had fought one another, and it hurt Jay to think about what could happen.
Grabbing his toolbox, he headed down to the side of the ship, towards an access panel. He might as well check the exterior of the ship while he was nervous. Fiddling with things helped to get his mind off of his nerves.
Passing by a group of laughing, jeering soldiers, Jay swallowed. He wished that he could be that close to comrades… instead of being the weird nerdy kid, fresh from Ohio, with no knowledge of the way the world truly worked.
Heading down the board docks, Jay stopped at the portside access panel, using his specialized mechanic's key to open it up, and suddenly stopped, hearing the sounds of pounding feet against the dock. He glanced across the pier, spotting two people racing each other down towards the bay, shouting. Jay sighed.
"Probably just some disobedient cadets," He grumbled, digging into the wires and checking for wear and tear as the racers got closer. One whizzed passed, unnatuardly fast for a human, and Jay looked up, startled. "Hey! Stop running!"
"SORRRRRRY!" the second person, a young man around Jay's age shouted, sprinting past him and towards the other person, a girl with dark hair, probably his sister by the resemblance. He was slightly taller than Jay, with dark eyes, skin, and spiked hair. He wasn't wearing a shirt or shoes, but he was wearing a pair of flame-patterned swim trunks.
Well. They definitely weren't cadets then.
The second the girl reached the pier she flung herself into the water without a thought. Jay froze, horrified for a second, before dropping his toolbox and running after the boy. "HEY! STOP! DON'T GET IN, IT'S DANGEROUS!"
The spiky-haired boy whirled around at the last second and grinned at Jay, smiling and saluting, before falling backwards off the pier. Jay shrieked, racing towards the mysterious boy who would dare leap into a ship-filled harbor.
The second he reached the pier, however, Jay realized that…. The boy was gone? Where'd he go?! No one can swim that FAST!? HOW?!
Jay strained his eyes, squinting against the October sun and trying to spot a head bobbing through the harbor, but he couldn't make out anything. What the….? How? Why? People don't just disappear, even handsome Hawaiians. Jay shook his head, swallowing, then checked his watch. He'd have to come back, it was almost time to report to his quarters for evening headcount. However… he'd have to find out what happened to that boy… it just didn't make sense.
Sighing, Jay walked back to his toolbox, and headed back inside the ship, taking a couple of deep breaths. "They… um, they probably knew what they were doing, heh. They'll be fine… it'll be okay." No matter what he told himself, Jay couldn't lose the lump in his throat. Hie couldn't stop thinking about the huge propellers beneath the ships. How heavy a battleship truly was and…
"Arrrg!" Jay shouted, grabbing his head. "Stupid, stupid, stupid! SHUT UP!"
Tonight.
Tonight he'd go out and check for two bodies floating in the ocean.
No, tonight he'd go find the people who leapt off the pier. They were not dead. He wouldn't let them be dead. He had to stop being ridiculous and focus!
Sighing, he left the halls and turned into the crowded mechanic's quarters. Tonight he'd find them.
Hot, humid Hawaii air rode the wind straight into Jay's face as he slipped out of the USS Arizona and stepped onto the docks. Looking around, he nervously searched the water for blood or bodies or body… parts.
The surf broke gently a few meters from a nearby coast guard ship, washing up on jetties and docks, several feet higher than it was back in the afternoon. The tide had come in at Pearl Harbor.
Jay walked to the end of the dock and sat down, nearly forgetting about his original mission to find the teenagers and relaxing, inhaling the warm, humid night air. Stars sparkled above, not nearly as many as he'd been able to see in his small town in Ohio, but since there was a city behind him, that did make sense.
Something splashed in the water ahead of him, and Jay looked up lazily, expecting to see a fish leaping or a turtle, but instead, he saw what looked like a sea lion head… something dark above water.
He squinted, unable to make out what it was in the moonlight, but when the creature pulled out of the water a second time, Jay gasped. "It's you!"
The boy from the docks was swimming through the harbor, this time without his sister, and with the grace of a shark or sea lion. How… was he doing that?
"Um…" Suddenly shy, Jay found a nearby stack of barrels and life vests, and ducked behind them, peeking out over the tops to watch the swimming boy.
Jay squinted for a second before the young man burst from the water with impossible force, water sloshing all over the pier, a few drops even landed on Jay's head. Jay suddenly tried to gasp, but covered it and choked.
The boy he'd seen earlier had a tail! Not just a tail, but a lionfish tail!
The second he landed, the young Hawaiian's tail turned into a pair of swim-shorts clad legs. Jay's heart pounded in his chest as he watched the merman fluff up his hair and check his complexion in a shiny pothole cover on the ship.
Pausing for a moment to observe the merman's er… swim shorts… Jay remembered the storybook he'd read as a little boy, about the sirens and selkies of the sea. He remembered mermaids, but never considered mermen. He realized that it made sense, a species had to have a male and female to reproduce. His scientist brain was already working it out.
The merman glanced around, looking almost confused. As his amber eyes flicked over the life preservers Jay dove down behind them, his heart pounding. That merman had almost seen him! He was a siren! Sirens ate people!
Jay began to breathe faster, and he grabbed his knees and pulled them up to his chest, gasping for breath. I shouldn't have gone out, he's seen me and now he's gonna eat me, how would I fight back against a siren? Why aren't I braver?
"Is someone there?" The merman asked. Jay could hear the slight echo his voice had and closed his eyes, trembling. There were footsteps to his right, and someone nudged Jay's thigh with their foot. "Hey, are you alright?"
Jay peeked out from between his fingers to see the merman staring at him, looking royally confused. He shuddered, but took a deep breath, removing his hands and looking up at the merman, ready to face his death with dignity, at least. "Why do you care?"
"Um, because I'm a nice human being?" the merman boasted, puffing his chest slightly. "Seriously, are you okay, because you look like you've seen a-"
"Merman?" Jay asked, staring up as the spiky-haired merman paled slightly. "That's because I did."
"Ha ha," The Merman laughed nervously, and somehow that made Jay feel a little bit better, and he relaxed slightly. "Um, don't tell anybody about that. If my pod found out that you knew, they'd kill me."
"Heh," Jay couldn't help but chuckle. "Literally or figuratively?"
"Yes," The merman grinned. "I'm Kai, by the way. Who are you?"
"Junior Mechanic Jay Walker," Jay introduced himself with a nod. "But you can call me Jay."
Kai nodded, glancing at the USS Arizona another time. "You work on that?"
"Well, yeah," Jay answered. "We have to keep it running in case the US gets attacked by Germany or Japan."
"Oh, I know," Kai shrugged. "We have to deal with it too, y'know. The submarines are getting really annoying."
"You've seen submarines?" Jay asked, fascinated.
Kai shrugged again. "We don't go near them, but they kick up the soil and kill fish."
"You're not going to… um… eat me or anything, are you?" Jay asked, stepping back from Kai, his fight or flight kicking in all of a sudden.
Kai stared at him for a long moment. "Of course not. We're too closely related. Would you eat a chimp?"
"Well, no…"
"Exactly," Kai answered, motioning for Jay to follow him to sit down at the end of the pier. "There are sirens in Europe that'll kill you, but Pacific Ocean Merfolk don't eat humans."
Jay sighed so hard his entire body slumped over slightly and he caught Kai giving him a bemused look, making the young mechanic's heart jump.
He leaned closer to Kai, and when the merman didn't pull away, he stayed like that, just a bit closer than before. "What do you do all day in the ocean?"
"My sister Nya and I hunt a lot," Kai answered. "That's who was with me this afternoon. We also explore land in our human forms all the time. My parents asked us to get some stuff from the pharmacy on your military base. What do you do all day on that thing?"
"The ship? heh," Jay asked. "Well, um, I fix things, y'know. That's what we mechanics do."
"Are you nervous about something?" Kai asked.
"No, why?"
"No reason," The merman shrugged. "You're acting kind of like one of the members of my pod when she gets nervous. You're doing the same things with your eyes."
Jay bit his lip, unsure of how to feel about Kai having a mermaid to worry about. Well, he hardly knew the merman, and besides, Kai had a life and friends outside of the military, unlike Jay, so he should stop- "I'm worried about my family," Jay offered suddenly, surprising himself and cutting off his own thought process. "My mom and dad. If Germany attacks my home, they'd die."
Kai nodded, listening intently, it seemed. "You must be terrified."
"I… I am," Jay sighed. It felt good to admit it. He did feel terrified. He was scared. He wasn't just overreacting. It was okay to be scared. For the first time since deployment, Jay smiled.
Kai grinned at him. "There's something I want to show you real quick."
"Wha-"
Kai slid off the dock, into the inky water, and looked up at Jay. "Come on, it'll be quick."
"Well, I don't know…"
"I'm not gonna eat you if you're still worried about that."
"No, I-"
"Well, what's stopping you?"
Jay glanced around, making sure that no supervising officers were nearby before he gingerly slipped into the warm, inky water, clinging to a rope nearby. "I… I'm not super good at swimming, Kai…"
"That's fine," Kai answered, shaking his head, the lionfish quills around his ears rattling together like some sort of merman maraca. "Here, hold onto my shoulders."
Jay nervously let go of the rope, reaching forwards and grabbing Kai's thick, muscular shoulders. He shuddered slightly, but as soon as his grip was tight enough, Kai pushed off with his tail and shot through the water at least 50 miles an hour.
Jay shrieked slightly, gripping harder, and shutting his eyes. Yup. He was gonna die. He was gonna die and this was gonna kill him and-
"Jay?" Kai asked, slowing to a stop. "Hey, we're here."
Jay peaked his eyes open and gasped. Ahead of him was the widest, highest sky he'd ever seen. So. Many. Stars. Everywhere. The sky was practically sliver! Did mermaids see this every day? Why did Kai take him here? Glancing behind himself, Jay spotted the island far off to the north, just a jumble of dark shapes in the darkness.
"Woah…" Jay breathed, searching for the big bear and north star. Waves lapped at him, and Kai twisted around, placing Jay gingerly on his tail so the mechanic wouldn't have to tread water. Jay smiled slightly in the darkness, feeling a lionfish spine gently brushing his legs, and he leaned back, gazing upwards.
"Well, what do you think?" Kai asked, looking around at Jay. "You act like you've never seen stars before."
"Not like this," Jay shook his head. 'Is it like this every night?"
"When there aren't clouds, yes."
Jay smiled again, leaning back a bit more, watching the stars again. "It's almost like… there can't be anything bad in the world with a sky like this."
"Mhmm," Kai blinked lazily, looping an arm around Jay and swimming back a bit more. "Hey, I'm gonna take you home. Do you want to meet up again?"
Jay smiled breathlessly. "Yes."
Kai swirled around, waiting until Jay had gotten a grip before he took off into the night towards Pearl Harbor.
Jay looked ahead, and his heart filled with exhilaration. Nothing would happen to his parents. For a moment, it seemed that his worries had vanished completely.
And for the first time in weeks, riding a merman piggyback towards a military base, Jay relaxed.
This is a part one of two, there will be more!
Anyway, this was fun, I'm glad to be back from my trip. I also hope nobody minded me racebending Kai and Nya to be Hawaiian (if it bothers people, I'll remove it). Also, I know that some people who've reviewed the original chapter (the note) won't be able to review. Use a guest review, or send me a PM!
Next time on AU Oneshots: A Greenflame based on Joey Graceffa's 'Don't Wait' music video. (basically more medieval-themed Greenflame because I am LIVING for medieval Greenflame lol)