Disclaimer: I don't own Crescent Moon. Welcome to the wonderful world of Fan Fiction.
Author's Note: Ha I'm starting a new ficcy sorry but this is a two-shot (2 chappies long) and I won't start another new one until I finish up a couple of my others. Promise! So this fic is Post book six and it's in my frustration that Mahiru is dating Mitsuru or in other words the Fish is dating the Bird. So this is my effort to make Mitsuru a duck! Happy Reading!
Na
The Bird Can be a Fish
It had been a week since Mitsuru shared his song and Mahiru had decided that she would stay at the Moonshine. Really all her friends were here and Himura, Keiko came by often with her after school waitress job as well as to see Akira, with her engagement to her big brother Koudokui, Hokuto (A/N: as said in Crescent Moon vol. 6 pg 47(not numbered) the big brother part at least) still dissolved, she had a choice and it seemed she chose Akira. And everything else seemed to just fall into place.
Mahiru walked slowly through the restaurant part of the Moonshine on her way out the door and to school. She glanced around the space filled with empty tables with their chairs resting on the table surface. The lights were off but the gray of morning lit up the space just fine. She had hoped that Mitsuru would be there she wanted to talk to him but it looked like she would be walking to school that day, let alone by herself.
Stepping outside Mahiru began to walk up the steps to the street where she ran into a certain green haired tengu that she could call her own. A smile graced her lips as she threw her arms around her love, kissing him briefly on the lips and not letting him go. His arms encircled her waist and he held her tightly as the wind encircled the two and they were carried swiftly to their normal alleyway in which walking the rest of the way seemed the best.
Mahiru's feet touched the ground and she excitedly grabbed Mitsuru's hand and dragged him off towards her school. For it was now tradition that he would walk her to school and she would embarrass him by initiating a lengthy good-bye. They turned the corner and the school was in sight, Mitsuru was already turning red, but strangely he would never tell her not to kiss him good-bye like that.
"I have a surprise for you, meet me at the pool an hour after school gets out okay?" asked Mahiru as she lent up on her tiptoes and gave him and unusual peck on the lips.
Mitsuru looked at her a bit worried that she was mad at him and could only nod. Mahiru turned to walk into her school but the tengu caught her arm and spun her around crushing his lips to hers in a sweet kiss. He lightly nibbled on her bottom lip and she moaned before they split apart.
"Why didn't you do that in the first place?" he asked while hugging his love tightly to himself.
"It usually embarrasses you so I didn't today," whispered Mahiru, she pulled away from the warmth and turned to go into her school, "So I'll see you at the pool?"
"Yeah," was all Mitsuru could manage as he watched the princess disappeared into the school building and than for a moment he continued to watch the building as the students disappeared into classrooms.
One would think that the world that Mahiru always saw would have dissipated when the Princess of the Minister of the Left no longer needed to call out to her blood. But it did not and as Mahiru dove into the chlorine smelling blue the water came alive with all sorts of underwater creatures and reality seemed to just slip away without a care.
This is how Mitsuru found the Princess underneath the vast blue he dare not touch. Mahiru swam with sure strokes underneath the surface, she didn't even disturbed the surface just as a fish that swam so close to the floor. She seemed to curl and turn in the water and if Mitsuru didn't know better he'd say that she controlled the waters current just as he commanded the wind.
A quiet ripple disrupted the still as Mahiru broke the surface, her back was arched and her head fell back to the ceiling, as she took in her first breath of air. Surely she wasn't mortal thought Mitsuru, she was neither human nor princess, she was a goddess of the waters it was the only possible answer.
"I'm so glad you came Mitsuru," came a voice that 'roused Mitsuru from his musings, "Well I thought that I would teach you to swim…"
Mitsuru's eyes went wide as he stared at his love he took a step back from the pools edge as Mahiru proceeded to pull herself from the pool, "No."
"Well Love, you have a few choices. One: you go change into the bathing suit I bought you that's in my bag and come back so I can teach you. Two: I dress you in that suit myself and drag you into the pool. Or three: you run and I tackle you into the pool clothes and all, and we'll hope you can figure out how to swim on your own. So what will it be?" asked Mahiru as she blocked the escape root of the tengu and grabbing her well placed swim bag pulling out a pair of aqua colored swim trunks and holding them out towards her boyfriend.
Said tengu snatched away the swim trunks and turned towards the male locker room grumbling the whole way. He was still grumbling when he returned wearing the swimsuit. Mahiru's eyes traveled his figure appreciating the way the trunks hung from his slender hips. As if reading her mind, Mitsuru blushed a cute shade of pink, placing his belonging with Mahiru's on the bleachers.
Mahiru smiled and offered her hand; the tengu hesitantly took it and looked at her with scared and nervous eyes of a child. Mahiru led him to the stairs at the side of the pool and slowly the two walked into the shallow end.
They walked out slowly so that the water came about waist high on Mitsuru and quite a bit deeper on Mahiru. She slowly let go of his hand and smiled at him, "Now first of all you have to get used to the water. So I want you to do bobs. All you have to do is put on these goggles, hold your breath and dunk your head under water." Mahiru offered him her spare pair of goggles and demonstrated by taking a large and obvious breath, while fixing her goggles into place, and dunking her head under the water. She resurfaced and let out her breath, and looked expectantly at Mitsuru.
Mitsuru hesitantly put on his goggles looking at his girlfriend to see if he did it correctly. At her nod, he took a deep breath and sunk down to the bottom of the pool a second later he resurfaced, and looked at her uncertainly.
"That was great, now do that for the next ten minutes, while I do laps I'll probably get twenty done I'm in no hurry," said Mahiru absent mindedly. Mitsuru looked at the far deep end and than back at Mahiru, she was going to get all the way down there and back in thirty seconds? He couldn't believe it. But he nodded anyways and took a dceep preparing to do his ten minutes of bobs. Mahiru swam over to the edge where she would have room to do her laps.
As the minutes ticked by Mitsuru lost count of how many times he broke the surface and reentered the world below. He became transfixed he swore in the water he could see all manor of creatures that belonged there. They swam around him and yet seem to not truly be there. Then he'd break the surface and look through the water to see nothing, but as soon as his head was under all the fish returned. Was this what Mahiru saw in the water? Was that why she was such a fish herself?
Mitsuru was about to go back under when he felt a hand on his arm. Mitsuru was surprised in the least and stood up turning towards Mahiru.
"You did great! Now I want you to float, hold your breath and lay face down on the water, like this," said Mahiru as she readily showed her boyfriend what to do.
Mitsuru looked at her skeptically, but took a deep breath and lay slowly down on the water. To his surprise he floated although if he relaxed he found that his legs would sink, only his legs. He stood back up and smiled a shy smile at Mahiru.
Mahiru smiled and began to walk back towards where she was doing laps. She commanded over her shoulder, "I'll do fifteen laps of butterfly, while you float, when you run out of air stand up and take another breath then float again."
Mitsuru did as he was told happily watching the magickal world beneath the surface of the water, until Mahiru instructed him further. First he glided, and then the glide with kick. She taught him how to just turn his head to the side and breath, and after he learned the crawl. And after that Mahiru made him jump in the deep end and learn how to tread water.
He readily refused this command and crossed his arms, just because he could swim a little bit didn't mean he actually could jump in and swim when he knew he could touch the ground.
Mahiru pushed him in the deep end.
Mitsuru came up sputtering a bit from not being able to get a good mouthful of air before his head went under. He immediately began to rant at his "inconsiderate" girlfriend.
"Mitsuru…" commented Mahiru but she didn't get to finish.
"I can't believe you! I learned to swim today!"
"Mitsuru…"
"No, I won't listen to you never again!"
"Mitsuru…"
"I knew this was a bad idea!"
"Mitsuru…"
"What?" Mitsuru yelled glaring at her!
Mahiru smiled, "You're treading water, and have been since you resurfaced the water."
Mitsuru's eyes went wide and he looked down at the water he was in. She was right he was treading water, and he still was! He smiled a genuine smile only Mahiru ever saw and he turned and swam towards the ladder on the side of the pool. He got out in a rush and swiftly scooped up Mahiru spinning her around and kissing her deeply, "I can swim!"
"Yes I know, but I believe that we should be getting home its already dark," replied Mahiru.
Mitsuru nodded as the put their clothes on over their suits, "You're right. Hey maybe I'll teach you how to not be afraid to fly when I don't hold you so tight."
"That sound s great!" answered Mahiru. With that they walked out into the night hand in hand.
The bird may love the fish, but where would they dwell?
Deep beneath the surface of life sustaining water
A bird can waddle and paddle all quite well.
