So I was watching The Little Mermaid the other day and that reminded me of Haru. Which then reminded me of all the Mer!Haru stories that had him paired with Rin. So I broke the norm, as I do. So this little story is a Mer!Haru paired with our Sousuke. Enjoy.

"And we're doing this again why?"

"To get you away from your studies. You're so stressed."

"I am not."

"You are and a trip away with the boys is exactly what we need."

"But fishing?"

"It's relaxing. Plus I feel close to my dad, you know?"

Sousuke let out a huge sigh of exasperation, Rin knew he'd cave whenever he mentioned his dad and watched in annoyance at the wide toothy grin spread over the red heads face.

"You won't regret this. We're going to a secluded area. No one ever goes there."

"Great..." Sousuke drooled out following the hyped teen to their next class, knowing he'd have a whole night studying to do since he'd be deprived of his books the very next day.

Haruka flexed his hands beneath the sand lifting them to let the grains drain between his fingers. He breathed in the refreshing air and sighed in contempt closing his eyes as the sun coated his skin. He felt movement beside him and peeked to see Nagisa nudging at the sand.

"What are you doing?"

"Making a sand castle," Nagisa announced. Haruka hummed in reply turning to the sky once again. The small beach Haru visited on a regular basis was secluded and beautiful, a peaceful escape from his underwater home. As much as he enjoyed swimming the beach was a chance to be away from his duties. The duties he'd rather not have. The constant dinner balls, courtroom meetings and continuous royal lessons had Haruka frowning in misery just thinking of it. The ravenette opened his eyes as he felt a draft of cold air hit his skin and huffed as the sun dipped behind the cliff. He glanced over to Nagisa who was finishing off his sculpture.

"Are you done?"

"Yeah in a second... what'd you think? Impressive right?"

"I am just in complete awe," Haru spoke rather bored brushing the sand from his scaled bottom half whilst flicking his tail up to let the sand stream off like a waterfall. "We'd better get back."

"Aww but Haru-chan."

"Come on, destroy it and let's go."

Nagisa pouted at him only to be shrugged off and he squealed a little in frustration at the merman before dismantling his masterpiece. The two ocean dwellers then dived and disappeared into the depths of the ocean leaving the secluded beach behind knowing tomorrow they'd be back and Nagisa would be able to build yet another castle.

"Oh come on! Rin, it's in my socks!"

"Take them off Sou. Come on it's a beach!" Rin rolled his eyes and laughed.

"Why are fishing in the ocean? There's a perfectly good lake not five minutes away from the Uni."

"Because of this."

The boys rounded the cliff and before them could only be described as breathtaking. Sousuke with his palm spread out on the rocks surface let his eyes memorise the scene he was exposed to. The vast clear ocean sparkled against the sun and the sand was soft against his soles. He let out a low whistle in awe and gave Rin a win.

"Okay, you got me there. But-"

"-No buts! Come on let's have fun."

Haruka was stunned, not only was his beach being used by five humans but they seemed to be setting up some form of a camp, which meant they planned to stay. For how long he didn't know and that bugged him. Haru furrowed his brow and let his hands tighten on the rock he was using as leverage to spy on the invaders.

"Why are they here?" Nagisa pouted. "Oh look, they're stomping on my sandcastle."

"What was left of it, you mean?" Haru smirked at Nagisa's quick infuriated glance.

"I'm going to give them a piece of my mind."

Haru quickly dove at his friend clamping his hand over Nagisa's beak and dragged him back over to the rock, hiding themselves.

"You know the rule. We can't approach humans let alone talk to one."

"I'm not talking, I'm yelling."

"Nagisa."

"Fine." Nagisa moped crossing his arms, "Well, what are going to do now?"

Haruka ignored him as he caught sight of two boys walking to the edge of the water. They held strange like poles in their hands and the merman watched as the red head flung it back and forth releasing a thin string into the water. Haruka heard a splash and turned in a panic knowing Nagisa had disappeared to investigate. Haru dove under the waves racing towards the small speedster.

"Nagisa!"

The small ocean mammal lightly touched the hook that was attached to the almost invisible line and gasped as it quickly moved back. Nagisa moved after it brainwashed, too entranced with the bait to stop himself. Haruka barely managed to stop his friend by swiping him away, pushing himself forwards causing the hook to dig into his arm and the merman gasped in pain as the hook was swiftly yanked backwards slicing at his skin. Blood began to seep out and float before them causing Haru to clasp the deep cut on his arm and give Nagisa a scolding stare.

"Haru-chan!" Nagisa cried guilt raking his being, "I'm so sorry Haru-chan, I don't know what came over me."

"Ah" Haru grunted in pain as the deep slash began to throb. "It's okay."

The two friends watched as the hook and string disappeared, poking their heads out of the waves to see the red head loudly complaining. Haruka took his hand away and winced at his wound, it was still freely oozing blood and it was beginning to sting.

"There's no way you can hide that from your parents Haru-chan."

"I know." Haru bit his lip in concern. "Let's go home."

Sousuke let out a gruff chuckle as Rin snapped at the ocean annoyed that the fish got away. The teal eyed male cast his own line and waited patiently for hours eventually snoozing in the afternoon sun.

"Okay, this is officially ridiculous." Rin cracked causing Sousuke to snort himself awake in surprise at the sudden outburst "Ai has caught at least a dozen fish. I haven't even caught one!"

"I haven't caught any either." Sousuke pointed out, "Maybe we should call it a day, it's getting dark."

"Fine. But I'm not cooking."

Sousuke rolled his eyes, reeling his cast in before gathering the fish Nitori had successfully caught and with the scarce help of Momo and the informative knowledge of Rei a fishy dinner was served.

The next morning Sousuke woke to yet another bright day, with Rin already casting his line in hopes he'd finally get the catch of the day. Sousuke approached the redhead and coughed announcing his presence.

"Morning Sou,"

"Where's Momo?"

"He set up some fishing nets around the corner, apparently he's hoping to catch some sort of crab thing to study." Rin gestured.

Sousuke nodded groggily, throwing his arms up, stretching his back as he yawned. He gently rubbed his eyes, hoping the sleep would disappear and slumped down beside the red head.

"Caught anything yet?" Sousuke smirked having noticed the snapped lines and bucket of nibbled bait.

"Shut up."

"Why are they still here?" Nagisa grumbled annoyed with the humans. Haru was watching in awe at the two boys by the shoreline. They were handsome, devilishly so. The red head had sharp pointed teeth like a shark and had Haruka feeling slightly at peace. The boy beside him, however, was something else entirely. Despite seeing very little glimpses of humans this one was like no other. His silky dark hair shadowed his features, thick brows shaded the beautiful teal eyes that had Haruka tilting his head in admiration, a small smile gracing his features. He stayed like that just gazing lovingly at the human for what seemed liked hours, watching his every gesture. Suddenly hearing a loud squawk snapped Haru back to his senses turning to find Nagisa gone and the merman hurriedly dove under twisting left and right unable to see the sea mammal.

"Nagisa?!"

"Haru-chan! Help!"

Haru swam to the distant voice and found Nagisa flailing around helplessly among a fishing net. Haru sighed floating over and attempted to help the critter escape the constricting net.

"Have you ever thought about not touching everything you see?" Haruka smirked in cheek as Nagisa furrowed his brow at him. He managed to find an opening and Nagisa bolted out, singing out thanks to the ravenette and nuzzled him lightly. The two turned to leave when Haru let out a stiff huff as he came to a halt. Haruka glanced behind and groaned in frustration as he noticed his tail had been entangled in the net. Haru and Nagisa began to disentangle the web when Haru accidently drew the wrong cord and it suddenly tightened to an incredible tautness. He let out a small whimper and attempted to loosen it by pushing Nagisa aside and pulled frantically at the ropes which only made things worse. The net began to constrict further, his blood circulation ceased to reach his tail and Haru gasped.

"Nagisa!"

"I'll get help!" Nagisa yelped, bolting away leaving Haruka to desperately yank at the net.

When Sousuke saw the small mammal he wasn't quite sure how to react. It was squawking piercingly at him and motioning for him to follow. The creature continued to screech in impatience before making his way over. Sousuke would have turned and run away but he had frozen in astoundment as he let the creature take his hand and led blindly into the water before finally coming to his senses. Knee deep in water Sousuke yanked his hand from the sea creature.

"What do you want?"

It shrieked pointing into the sea.

"The ocean?"

It squealed and dove in popping his head up amongst the waves and once again motioned the boy to him. Sousuke knew this could certainly lead to his death but the creature seemed utterly distressed. He let out a breath before he built up his confidence and dove in after the anguished sea mammal.

Nagisa sped away gleeful that he had achieved the seemingly impossible, swimming back to Haru who had his arms crossed in irritation, staring daggers at the net. Haruka had somehow managed to tangle more net around him and had decided to give up before he strangled himself. The net was constantly constricting, digging and cutting into his scaled tail. Haru heard the flippers before he saw him but when Nagisa came into view Haru let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding.

"Nagisa."

"Helps coming."

"There's no one in miles, who did-" Haruka's voice died as his eyes found not only something forbidden but hypothetically dangerous.

Sousuke was at a lost. There was no way that before him was a merman. But it had to be. The boy had a tail. A fucking tail. If he wasn't holding his breath he would have dropped his jaw to the ocean floor. Instead, he gasped and accidently let water into his lungs, gasping Sousuke broke the water and coughed up the salty liquid, gulping in heavy gasps of air. Nagisa came up beside him and glanced at him in worry. His eyes almost asking him if it was okay, Sousuke simply nodded and dove back down. Ocean blue connected with teal and both eyes widening in shock, one in fear the other in complete awe. Sousuke watched as the merman gazed at him in absolute terror before beginning to frantically tug at the net. Sousuke swam closer and the ravenette suddenly froze at his approach. Sousuke raised his hands up in surrender hoping the merman knew some common gestures and lightened slightly as the creature seemed to slow his hands to a stop. The teal eyed male was at the merman's side and hoped he wasn't actually dreaming. Sousuke pulled out his fishing knife and watched the flash of uncertainty cross the ravenette's features. Disregarding him Sousuke immediately began to cut away at the net, noticing it making deep gashes in the man's tail. Sousuke having trained constantly in water could hold his breath for longer and was able to completely cut the net away in one attempt. He cut the last connecting twine and watched as the merman slowly began to sink, flailing in the water, unable to move his tail. The small creature raced to the boy's side and attempted to stop him from sinking. Sousuke dove deeper swimming after him and grabbed the merman and pulling him to the surface letting the mysterious being cling to him. Sousuke spluttered and his chest heaved as he swallowed in huge amounts of air, his whole body almost shaking from the strain. The butterfly swimmer brought the merman back to the beach and flopped down beside him, almost ready to pass out. Sousuke tilted his head to see the ravenette running a hand down his tail, a deep depression reflecting in the man's eyes. His fingers dipped with the curves the net made and the small creature that had brought him to the merman's suffering was lightly yapping, hugging his friends tail.

"Are you okay?" Sousuke questioned, flinching slightly as the ravenette snapped his head to him and watched him with the uttermost curiosity. Sousuke was so entranced with the merman's features that he almost missed the words flowing from his mouth.

"Thank you."

"Oh." Sousuke hadn't expected him to speak. He assumed the boy didn't speak English. But then again he didn't know anything about merpeople, they were supposed to be myths and legends. But there was one right in front of him and he had just saved his life. "You're, umm, you're welcome."

The smile he received had Sousuke questioning his humanity and hitched a breath. The smile was breathtaking absolutely stunning, which made his eyes sparkle, beautifully entrancing. A sudden realisation hit Sousuke and he realised he didn't even know the boy's name.

"Do you have a name?" Sousuke pointed to himself. "I'm Sousuke."

"Haruka."

"Haruka, that's kind of pretty," Sousuke spoke without thinking and froze watching as the merman flushed with embarrassment. The butterfly swimmer unconsciously inched closer to Haru and lightly placed a hand over the merman's letting the sand intertwine between their fingers.

Haruka had never in his dreams had expected to be this close to a human let alone have one rescue him. But this feeling he had was something he didn't want to lose. The man's warm palm seeped into him and Haru couldn't help but let Sousuke lean into him. Haruka knew it was forbidden but he couldn't tear away from the intense gaze, those narrowed thick brows making his features increasingly more handsome. The two different species were inches apart when Nagisa nudged his friend as close voices were heard causing Haru to snap from his daze realising what he was doing.

"I have to go. I shouldn't be here." Haruka spoke, scrambling to the ocean.

"Wait." Sousuke reached out, sighing in relief when Haruka stopped to glance back, the water lapping up his body. "When can I see you again?"

Haru bit his lip in conflict with himself, it was clearly against the rules but he wanted to see this human, Sousuke, again and again, and again. He wanted to know everything about him, how he tasted, how he would feel under his fingertips. His heart won and Haruka spoke one word that had both his and Sousuke's heart racing before he disappeared diving under the water.

"Tomorrow."