"Understanding is not a necessity for living." In the past, Trixie would have scoffed at those words, deeming them an unremarkable attempt to convey an idea so obvious that its mere expression would be offensive, a suggestion that she was being looked down upon. And yet, her mind circles back to them, as if she had forgotten who she should be. As if she had become someone weaker. The mattress creaks as Trixie turns around to reach for the pillow on the floor. She squeezes it in her arms with her face buried in the soap-scented cloth.
"You just have to live. You owe me that."
Despite being unsure about what they meant, Trixie had tried to hold onto those last words, revisiting them throughout the next day. That was the only time in their conversation that the siren had dropped her verbal games. Maybe... maybe she had been trying to help.
But Adagio is dangerous. She has to be, with strength like that, with claws like those. And her voice... it is the most dangerous thing about her. And yet, it doesn't make sense. She was the one to save her. It had to be her. If she wanted to harm Trixie, she could have done it when she was at her most vulnerable. What were her intentions, then?
Trixie sits up, organizing her thoughts. She manages enough stability on her legs to go towards the window and set the curtains aside; the sky is turning a soft peach tone. Nodding to herself, she pulls the curtains together and hurries to replace her sleeping gown with her street clothes. With haste, she leaves behind the guest room, passes by the small dining table, and opens the door. An old man looks up to her with a surprised gaze behind round spectacles, his extended hand suspended almost where the doorknob should be.
"Uh, hi Father Luke!" Trixie squeaks, startled to see him. Shouldn't he still be at church?
"Trixie? I thought you were indisposed," he adjusts his glasses, pressing them against the bridge of his nose. "Have you recovered already?"
"Well, I…" their eyes meet; Trixie rapidly looks away. She clears her throat. "Trixie was thinking that she'd like to go outside for a while, as she needs to take in some fresh air."
"I see. In that case, make sure to come back before night arrives. Only our Lord knows what kind of creatures lurk in the dark when the sun goes down."
A humorous smile folds wrinkles around Father Luke's mouth, and Trixie can only stare at him with wide eyes.
"Could you move aside a bit?" he asks with a chortle.
"O-oh, right!" Trixie replies, realizing she's blocking the way.
Orange sunlight leaks between the buildings and over the almost empty streets as Trixie makes her way out of town. Following the light, she walks towards the clean coast, her heart beating faster with each step. The father's words come to her mind. He was probably just trying to scare her, she tells herself. There's no way he knows about Adagio. She speeds up, recognizing the form of rocks emerging from the water some meters far ahead. Even if she wanted to, she just can't back down now.
She gets to the spot where she met Adagio; only the rummage of waves greets her. She stands there, searching with her gaze her surroundings. Her legs hurt, and her chest goes up and down rapidly as she breaths in. The quiet around her is far away from the daily bustling of the small city. The water shines like a net of pearls and a low breeze brushes over the shore.
"Hellooo? Is anybody here?" Trixie shouts and proceeds to kneel in front of the water, leaning over the small waves. "Hey, are you there? Adagio?"
She sits down with her gaze fixed on the sea. The siren's face emerges from the water; she swims towards the shore, moving with expertise and grace. Trixie leans back as the siren gets closer.
"I heard a little bird chirping out my name," Adagio says as she crawls over the sand, letting her tail play with the water. "So, what do we have today? More questions? I might start to get tired of them."
"Trixie has come here expecting some clarification respecting our conversation from last time."
She keeps her voice as firm as she can. She won't show any hesitance this time.
Adagio smiles. Is that supposed to be reassuring?
"I would have thought I was clear enough. What part of our conversation has left you uncertain, Trixie?"
"Trixie recalls that you said, in your own words, that she owed you. Trixie wonders why you think that is the case."
Trixie can't help but look at her eagerly, waiting for the answer. Big mistake. Adagio's smile widens, and Trixie finds a glint of excitement in her eyes.
"Come here," Adagio instructs, extending her hand. Trixie's eyes go back and forth between her hand and her face. "Are you scared? I don't bite."
The derision in her voice acts as a trigger in Trixie. She leans over and puts her hand over hers. As soon as she does, Adagio pulls her in. She holds Trixie's chin with her free hand and kisses her, drowning the gasp trying to escape from Trixie's lips. Adagio looks into her eyes as she forces her lips open with her tongue. It's a hungry kiss, and her grip around her wrist is strong. Trixie can only wait for it to end, frozen in her place. Adagio licks Trixie's inferior lip, sending a shudder down her spine, followed by a sharp pain.
As Adagio lets her go, Trixie throws herself back, letting out a whimper and covering her mouth with a trembling hand.
"You said you didn't bite!" Trixie accuses indignantly, but the effect is lost in her shaky breath. "H-how… how dare you... why did you do such a thing to Trixie?!"
"Why wouldn't I? I did it because I wanted to", Adagio says, licking her lips. "After all, you are mine."
"Yours?!" Trixie's voice comes out in a high pitch, "Trixie isn't owned by anybody!"
"Hm?" Adagio tilts her head, narrowing her eyes, but the smile doesn't leave her face. "Aren't you forgetting something? Who was the person that took you out of the ocean and brought you here?"
"I wouldn't forget! Trixie is by no means an ungrateful person. B-but that doesn't have anything to do with... this."
She touches her sensitive lips, and her fingers get painted a slight red. She feels her cheeks hot.
"I'm surprised that someone as clever as you wouldn't get it. No, you just don't want to accept it yet, don't you?"
"What are you-"
"You know, I'd like to spend our time together in better ways, instead of circling around the same topic without avail. I mean, just look, it's almost night."
Adagio gestures to the view behind her; the sun has set down.
"But… wait, you want to spend time with Trixie?" her surprise is apparent in her voice.
"Precisely. Why else would I come so close to the coast otherwise? We sirens are more comfortable in the deep sea."
"But why?", Trixie frowns. "What do you want from Trixie?"
"You are such an interesting human, Trixie. You seem to hold yourself to a high degree, yet you are perpetually confused and unsure. Does my interest in you come as that much of a surprise?"
Adagio uses her hands to propel herself closer and throws her arms around Trixie's neck. Trixie lets out a small yelp; she can feel Adagio's hot, wet skin even through her clothes, as she presses her body against hers. Her heart is beating furiously, and she'd swear her cheeks are even hotter than before. The siren is looking into her eyes with such an intensity that Trixie wants to look away, but she can't bring herself to do it. She feels like there is something important slipping away from her, but she doesn't know what it might be.
"It is you who I want," Adagio proclaims in a husky whisper, and Trixie can feel her breath against her lips, inviting her to close the distance between them. It takes some seconds for her mind to assimilate the words just said. She gives Adagio a blank stare.
"M-me!?" Adagio rolls her eyes.
"Of course it's you. There's nobody else here, silly."
Adagio seems to forgive the obvious question, as her eyes descend to Trixie's lips, and she licks her own. Trixie finds herself painfully staring at adagio's lips too.
"But I..." she tries to say something half-mindedly, but her voice falters.
"You what?" Adagio gets her face closer, brushing her lips against Trixie's as she talks. "What is it that you want, Trixie?"
"I..." Trixie hesitates, trying to focus on the question. It's tricky to think about a good reply when she is being stimulated like this.
"I don't know..."
"Wrong answer." Adagio pulls Trixie's hair, punishing her with a quick rush of pain. "Try again."
Trixie thinks that it's almost like she's being made to choose something, but she doesn't know what her options are. How can she know the answer to Adagio's question?
All of her goals came to a halt and lost meaning after the shipwreck. She's stuck in a foreign place, dependent on the care of someone she doesn't know. Still, she has to choose an answer. She can't stay like this forever, stagnating under a half touch.
The same tragedy that left Trixie aimless brought Adagio here. They are both strangers to these shores, connected to each other by the sea. Even though nothing has stayed the same in Trixie's life, at this moment, Adagio is with her. Her eyes stay fixed on hers, not with the pitiful look she receives from other people, or the courteous, distant gaze of Father Luke, but with passion imbued into them. Trixie doesn't recall ever being looked at like that, and she doesn't recall caring about it until now. Adagio is warm and solid like the sand under them; she's overwhelming her senses with her presence, weighing down on her like an anchor.
"I don't want you to disappear. I feel like I should run away, but...", she breaths in, trying to find the words to express what she is feeling.
"I... I'm really afraid that you won't be here anymore if I leave. I want you to stay."
She says the last sentence in a whisper.
With a slight movement of her head, Adagio pushes her lips against Trixie's. While her kiss is passionate, it is gentler than the first one, and this time Trixie responds to it, trying to adapt to Adagio's rhythm, letting herself follow her persistent movements. There's a piercing pain cutting deep into her chest. Tears sprout from her eyes, leaving a sticky trail on her cheeks. She feels Adagio chuckle against her lips.
"What you want, Trixie, is to be someone's," she whispers. "And I don't leave what's mine alone."
Trixie lets out a small cry, but Adagio doesn't give her any time to think. She pushes her tongue between Trixie's parted lips. Taken by surprise, Trixie grasps her nude back with both hands. Adagio's tongue wiggles inside her mouth, teasing and inviting her to kiss her back. Adagio starts to push her tongue deeper and deeper with almost frenzied urgency, throwing Trixie's mind into chaos. All Trixie can focus on is in adagio's avid mouth, any other sensation or idea is lost in a whirlwind of incoherent thoughts. It's only when she's short of breath that she pulls her head back, gasping for air.
The faint shape of a satisfied smile adorns Adagio's face.
"Already tired?" Adagio muses as she starts playing with Trixie's hair. "Humans are so soft, it seems."
Trixie's weakened arms let her fall back with Adagio over her, emptying her lungs as she hits the ground. She breathes in, closing her eyes, feeling her head dizzy. A chilly breeze brushes over them, but Adagio's body keeps Trixie warm. She waits until the pain in her head and back lessens, until her heart goes back to a regular beating pattern. She feels suddenly exhausted, her mind seems numbed. It is as if she had lost her strength fighting against a current of water.
When she opens her eyes, she realizes the sky has lost its warmth, and each moment it adopts darker shades of blue. Even then, the siren's beautiful features are evident, setting her apart under the glow of a half-visible moon. Her eyes seem like a pair of comets falling down on Trixie. She's not just beautiful, she's dazzling.
Adagio starts humming a melody, and it soon becomes a song. Like the tides, her voice is aggressively soft, swaying Trixie's heart back and forth in a tender pain. She can't understand what Adagio is singing, and she's probably not meant to, but her voice seems to bring out a cathartic sensation; her lullaby feels like an invitation to come home. This is like meeting Adagio all over again, but it feels completely different. Adagio herself seems different.
"Is that true? What you said before," even Trixie herself can notice the worry in her voice. It's humiliating to think how easily she crumbled down, but she can't put on any kind of pretense anymore. Not under Adagio's disarming gaze, and surely not at the point they are now.
"I don't have any reason to lie. I have been truthful with you since the start, haven't I, darling?"
Trixie nods. She isn't sure about that, but she wants to believe her. The word "darling" seems to bring about a ticklish sensation inside her chest, and she doesn't know if that is a good sign or not.
Adagio places her head on Trixie's chest and starts singing again. Trixie can vaguely feel her breath against her neck and her hair tickling her cheek. She closes her eyes. It's nice to be like this. Who would have thought that Adagio's proximity could feel so calming? As her voice fills Trixie's mind, she slowly falls asleep, without even noticing, under a blanket of titillating stars.
The reason I wanted to write this story, apart from creating some content for my rare pair, was to explore the idea of what is a siren and the bond between such a dangerous creature and a human that has just gone through a horrible tragedy. Their relationship isn't healthy, but it is fascinating to me. Trixie and Adagio are a fun pair to write even in such a dark circumstance, so I'm satisfied with this.
If you reached this point, thank you for reading! I deeply appreciate that you gave my story a chance.
