In the ocean deep blue on a cliff, lays a lone mermaid.
Her long rose gold curls framing her face that's pillowed on her arms, as a red, orange and pink striped tail sway lightly with the current.
This cliff is one of her best friends.
Whenever she's in turmoil, she goes there to find solace in the company of the corals and other life near it.
It's also the only place in the entire underwater town, where the sun is the most visible.
The cliff is on the outskirts of the city, of her home - the underwater empire of Blues.
It's a hate-love relationship that she has with it.
It's a large culture of merfolk of all shapes and sizes, people can have their own produce and families, and to her that's a beautiful concept.
However.. It's also a cage.
There's a saying, that those who dare leave the ocean behind shall be cursed with impurity and gain a different form - which is to say, they shall grow legs.
Rogue has always hated that saying.
The ocean blessed them all with beautiful fins and strong muscles, with intelligence and grace, so why confine it to such a small part of the ocean? Why not explore and see the world? Both worlds?
But her kind despises humans. Be it for ruining some of their home, or for their differences - she wouldn't know.
She herself has never met a human before, so she doesn't have any thoughts on them.
The current leader of the empire, Oshakasama Sengoku, declared it closed to other merfolk many years before her birth, claimed it was after the humans rained down upon their land and had a massacre - but there's no actual proof of it. Of course, Rogue only knows that last part because of her and her family's social standing.
The leader has always had a council of the utmost highest pristine, and her family was a part of it, thus it was expected of Rogue to mate and have younglings to keep the bloodlines going.
However, because of her status, she wasn't allowed to mate with whoever she wished. Instead, her mating has been arranged with the son of another council member, her childhood friend, Dragon.
The council had fostered their friendship from a young age, hoping it'd lead to a soulmate situation, but that hadn't been the case.
This was of course because of their genes. Dragon comes from a family of primarily shark merfolk, but his mother had been a foreign dragonfish mermaid, and thus her tail had been passed down to him. Which, for male-born merfolk was a big honour, especially for rare genes like so.
Rogue on the other hand comes from tropical fish and betta genes.
With merfolk, their tails either take after one or the other, unless the genes have a mutation of a kind, but as that is considered impure, the younglings were often exiled before even opening their eyes.
Thus, the council believed her and Dragon, no matter who's genes won out, would have the best possible genetic potential.
It saddened her.
She wasn't a romantic at heart, not really, but she couldn't lie and say she'd never wondered if she had any soulmates.
They say that the ocean gifted them soulmates as an apology to their confinement beneath the sea. You could have one soulmate, or you could have several. Platonic, familial, romantic. It didn't matter which one she might have - to her, she wondered, if she did have one, were they happy?
Were they a part of this empire, or were they exiled? She may never know.
There's no marks or obvious tellings on who your soulmate is, but some people just know. It just feels right.
"I figured I'd find you up here"
She turns from the edge, looking behind her as Dragon swims up towards where she's laying.
Looking back out over the horizon, she sighs.
"Did they send you out to look for me?"
She doesn't bother moving as he settles beside her, sitting up instead of laying down.
"No, but had they noticed your absence they probably would have. Something on your mind?"
She waits for a moment, gathering her thoughts.
It's not a rare occurrence, her hiding away up here and Dragon being sent to fetch her. They don't need her for anything, not really, but they're uneasy when she's out of sight. She could only contemplate the reason for that, but it doesn't really matter.
"Nothing other than the usual."
Dragon knows about her meanings of their land, and she knows her secret is safe with him. If his father or her mother heard it, they would do their utmost best to ''correct'' such behaviour. But to her, it was the only illusion of freedom she really had.
"I see."
Like many times when he goes to get her, they settle and watch over their home together in silence.
It's not a tense silence, not at all, it's relaxing. Being in each other's presence like this, it makes her happy to know she has a friend to count on.
"I'm glad we're not soulmates, Dragon."
He looks down at her, he's not saying anything, but she knows he's wondering why she decided to tell him.
"If we'd had, I doubt they'd allowed us to leave at all. In fact, they'd likely have forced our mating already."
He hums an agreement.
Their medical services are luckily advanced enough that they don't have to actually mate. She appreciates that idea.
As the sea darkens, they decide to head back.
The empire is large, at least she thinks it is, but she has nothing to compare it to so she'll never be sure. Swimming through the streets, she sees people are putting up storm protections and putting produce and fish farms away.
"It's going to storm?"
"Yes. We got the warning a while ago before I left. It's going to be a pretty bad one, too."
As they near the palace, where the emperor and the council families live, she and Dragon stop to observe the scene playing out in front of them.
Garp, a large striped Tiger-shark merman, known for his loyalty towards the empire, is hovering in front of the gate, arms crossed and a displeased look on his face. In front of him, is a young green haired mermaid and a blue haired child. The woman is in obvious distress, while the kid looks guilty.
As they get closer, they pick up their ''conversation''.
"Please! I'm begging you."
"I can't. There's a storm brewing on the horizon M'am. I can't leave the palace to search for him, and I can't send a search platoon with the warning in place. I'm sorry, but the best I can do is send out a search party in the morning."
"He's 11! He won't survive that!"
The woman keeps begging Garp for help, who keeps refusing her. It tugs on Rogue's heartstrings, and thus without thinking about it, approaches them.
"What's wrong?"
Garp startles at her appearance, but before he can say something she leads the lady and the kid away from him. Dragon stops him from following, which makes the former look more distressed than the lady's begging for help.
She leads them to a more secluded corner behind the palace, and takes in the red swollen eyes and stress lines on her face.
Rogue smiles patiently at her.
"I'm Rogue. What's your name?"
"I-I'm sorry you have to see me like this. I'm Kokoro. You.. I, I don't know what to do"
Kokoro breaks down in another fit of crying, and the kid with the blue hair and vibrantly coloured tail bites his lip at the sight.
"It's my fault," He says.
"Tell me more?"
"Me.. Me and my brother Iceburg were playing with some fish. I'd accidentally let his white pet fish out, and he chased it.. Beyond the border."
That explains Garp's reaction.
Going beyond the border is illegal, however for kids younger than 13 it's kind of expected to happen, so when it does someone from the military will go out looking for them.
"What does he look like?"
The kid blinks up at her confusingly, but he answers anyway.
"Uh. Purple hair, striped purple and yellow tail."
She reaches out and ruffles his hair.
"Thank you. Don't worry, I'll get him back."
Kokoro and the kid both startle at her exclaim, before she reaches out a hand to catch her wrist.
"Y-You can't! It's dangerous!"
"I'm aware. But if I don't go, Iceburg will die" She levels the woman with a determined stare. She's not going to back down, she needs her to understand that.
"..Why would you do that?"
"Because he's your family, and he's alone out there. There's nothing more painful in this world than being alone."
The lady breaks down in sobs again, the other kid patting her back consolingly.
"Where were you playing?"
The kid looks at her, before looking away.
"Blue east bay."
"Thank you"
Right after that, she pumps her tail in fecority, swimming behind the palace so as to go undetected before heading towards the bay. She has to hurry, there's no telling when the storm will hit, and if she's too late the kid may very well be washed away by the waves to who knows where.
If he were to survive the trip, that is.
The city lines blur beneath her as she swims, forcing her fins to overwork in her haste. As soon as she arrives, she wastes no time leaping through the border of coral rocks serving as a fence.
The water beyond the fence is completely barren of buildings or streets, it's dark, darker than she's used to, and there's barely any wildlife around her. It's an open wasteland.
She swims down to the sand, looking for any life that could help guide her. She finds nothing, and decides to rely on her nose.
Searching the water for the scent of the city, she picks up very faint whiffs of it straight forward, and waste no time following the barely there trail.
The waters get more and more restless the closer the scent gets, and suddenly barely there in the distance, she spies a bright purple tail peeking out from behind a few rocks.
"Hey!" She yells, putting as much force into it as she can, the tail twitch and out comes a kid matching the other one's description. He looks confused to see her there.
"You're Iceburg?" He nods as she predicted. Catching her breath, she huffs in exertion.
"Come with me, there's a storm warning."
He shrieks.
"What!? But- Wait, my, my fish! I haven't found him yet!"
"There's no time! If you want you can tell me what he looks like, but we need to go Now! I'll search for him!"
He doesn't say anything, but takes her outstretched hand.
They keep up a quick tempo, as quick as possible with a child, but Rogue's certain they'll make it. She has to believe that, as he's too young to meet his end like this.
The bright walls of their town comes into view, and she almost stops in relief.
She only allows herself to breathe when they're inside the walls, her fins screaming at her at being overworked, her muscles hurt.
But she'd gotten the kid, and she got to see a bit of the world outside her town.
"Will you really go and look for him?"
Iceburg asks her, his hands nervously toying with each other.
"Yeah" she huffs before continuing, " I keep my promises. What's your fish's name?"
"Tyrannosaurus"
A unique name, but it's cute. She's always liked kids.
"Alright, he's a white fish?"
"Yeah, a silver guppy"
"Got it. Hurry home, Kokoro and your brother's waiting for you"
"..Thank you"
"It's not a problem. I'll find you when I get back okay?"
She waits till he's out of sight before ducking back across the fence.
She doesn't know where to start, but figures the kid likely chased the guppy in the start till he lost sight of it. She follows the same route they came from, not as hasty as before, but still faster than a regular tempo.
She allows herself to take in the sights of the ocean, of the corals and seaweeds around her, of the new smells and scents everywhere. It's exhilarating.
She's distracted by the spotty sand, and dives down to touch it. It's coarse with small rocks here and there, so different from the fine sand in her home.
Running her webbed fingers through it, feeling the sharp edges on her skin. It's full of stones, new to her, and in all shapes and sizes.
She looked around her, slowing down and taking in the views. Beyond her were ripples of dark and darker ocean, speckled with blacks and greens. It promised the unknown.
It promised adventure.
Forgetting everything about the storm warning, she follows the sand, she follows the waves and her intuition, and steers off her path.
The floor she's on gives out to a wider ocean, getting darker and darker, all black with no lights beneath her, and it shows her lengthy seaweeds on the edge, and whales swimming deeper down. Above her, it turns lighter with green hues, it's beautiful.
She swims out into the open water, letting her fins glide her upwards, carrying her on the stream.
She unconsciously speeds up, going faster and faster and suddenly, she breaks the surface.
Water falls heavily around her, disrupting the ocean as it storms violently around her in the distance. It hasn't quite hit her yet, but it will, soon.
But she can't move.
The storm, it feels like it's begging her. The whips of winds are her pied piper, and she feels herself still, accepting her fade, like this is what she's supposed to be doing.
She closes her eyes with a smile, waiting for it, not minding the push and pull around her.
She blacks out as it hits her.
-
When Iceburg comes into view of the palace, he nearly cries in relief.
Kokoro does in fact cry in relief, swimming towards his adoptive brother and hugging him. The dragonfish merman swims up to them, followed by the rude shark merman.
"Where's Rogue?" He asks.
Iceburg looks away guiltily.
"She.. She stayed back to look for Tyrannosaurus"
Aaand Franky almost hits him at that.
The man controls his expression very carefully as he asks him the next question.
"Stayed back.. Where, exactly?"
"She.. She came to get me out in the ocean. She brought me back, but went out to look for my pet fish.." If Franky wasn't watching him so carefully, he might've missed it, but he catches it. The small worry that crept into his eyes before being schooled into a neutral expression.
"I.. I see. Thank you. You may return to your houses, The storm's right on the border, it's not safe to stay out"
"What about her?"
The man fakes a smile.
"She'll be fine."
Franky doesn't comment on it. He and his family swim back fast paced towards their house, the two mermen enter the palace, but he spies the younger one by the large window in the front.
He hopes Rogue is okay.
His worry and guilt doubles, and, if he spies correctly, Iceburg, too, when they get home and see Tyrannosaurus by their front door.
Neither of them sleep that night.