2016 Secret Santa: Nanenna

Little Mermaid AU

x

For the 2016 Secret Santa, I also ended up doing oneshot for Nanenna in 2016, who couldn't participate that year due to commitments with her own Christmas Special (which I highly recommend), but I remembered her asking about a Little Mermaid AU earlier that year and decided to surprise her with this. It's a fair bit shorter than the Snow White AU, but generally about normal length for my Tumblr oneshots. It's just designed to give an idea of the AU really.

Cat.

ooOoo

"I'm just sayin', this is a bad idea."

Ignoring the voice of doom following at her tail, Haru continued to swim down the canyon, a lantern of fluorescent algae lighting her way. "Oh, shush, Muta. It'll be fine. Anyway, Hiromi said that she saw the ship sink down here – so let's go!"

"'It'll be fine'" Muta echoed mutinously. "Right. Do you have any idea what's down in the deep sea?"

"More fish, I suspect."

"Monsters! That's why no sane fish goes down here!"

"There's no such thing as monsters," Haru scoffed. "Just fish that have adapted to deep sea."

"Right. And those adaptions include things like big pointy teeth and bigger appetites."

Haru swam to a halt and glanced back at the round, white catfish behind her. Illuminated in the blue glow of the algae, his scales took on an azure gleam. "You know, if you want to go back to the city, that's fine–"

"Without a light? No thanks. Anyway, someone's gotta make sure you don't do anything stupid, kid."

"You? You're worse than I am," Haru muttered. She pushed forward, leaving Muta behind in a trail of bubbles, and at last something loomed out of the deep darkness. "It's here! Hiromi was right!"

"That's nice; can we go back now? The water's freezing down here."

"Oh, don't be such a guppy. Come on – it'll be fun!"

"Ya said the same thing about the coral reef and, if I remember correctly, you weren't the one who got attacked by a stupid turtle and shoved got into stinging anemones – and… she's off," Muta groaned. He pushed into fast-paced tail-flapping to keep with Haru as she swam through into the ship's interior.

As he could have guessed, the ship was as creepy and spooky as an abandoned shipwreck as it could be expected. Of course, the blue glow of the lantern didn't help to dispel that. He quickly joined Haru, who was rummaging her way through the scattered contents of the room. There had once been a tidy arrangement of wooden drawers and desks, but the upheaval in the ship's demise had removed any semblance of order.

"Jackpot!" Haru pulled out a little decorative box from the wreckage, along with an assortment of silver utensils. She dropped the latter into a pouch, and set to inspecting the box.

"Hey, kid…"

With a little bit of coaxing, Haru eased free the latch, opening the box up to reveal two figurines folding up from the bottom. They were in mid-pose, a couple caught in each other's arms in some kind of elegant movement. "They're so beautiful," she whispered. She traced a finger loosely along the soft pink clothing that was carved onto the woman's figure.

"Hey!"

"What?"

Muta jabbed a small fin out the ship's window, where a light could be seen bobbing about in the otherwise absolute darkness. "Take a look."

Haru bobbed up to the opening, squinting at the unexpected glow. "Is there someone else down here?"

"Whoever they are, they're probably not friendly, so let's go – no, not that way – geez, this kid is gonna be the death of me…" He gracelessly swam after Haru, following her through the open window out towards the light. He bumped into Haru's back as the mermaid came to an abrupt halt. "Hey, are you finally gonna listen to me–?"

Haru had other things on her mind. Namely, the familiar merman that she had just swum into. "You? What are you doing here?" She blushed and hurriedly remembered exactly who she was talking to. She executed a clumsy bow. "I mean, Your Highness–"

Prince Lune, crown prince to the merfolk kingdom, looked – if anything – furtive at being discovered, hastily stuffing something into his bag at Haru's arrival. "Thank goodness you have a light. I'm afraid I dropped mine and it seems to have gone out in the process."

"Oh. Sure. Why are you here though?"

"More to the point, if you don't have a light, then what's that?" Muta interrupted. He pointed to the light that had drawn both merfolk there. Floating through the water was a round, glowing sphere that bobbed absent-mindedly behind them.

"It's not my light," Lune said.

Haru swam up to the… thing, and dubiously prodded at it.

"Hey, Chicky; that's got to be a really bad idea…"

"It's attached to something," Haru said. "At the top – here." She jabbed at a cord sticking out the light, thin enough that it was easy to miss at first. At her probing, the light began to sway erratically and something loomed out of the darkness.

Haru had a momentary glimpse of a monstrous jaw and the jagged teeth that surged forward before instinct kicked in. She grabbed Lune and Muta – the former by the arm, the latter by the tail – and jolted back.

The gigantic mouth snapped shut only inches from Haru's tail. She felt the bubbles tickle at her scales.

"What is that thing?" she screamed, still dragging her companions back towards the ship.

"Ya want to stop and ask it?"

Haru pushed Lune forward, shoving him through the ship's window, and had to barrel roll to one side to avoid the jaws that slammed into the ship's keel.

"No, I'm fine!"

The monster's light bobbed ahead of them; its golden glow both a blessing in lighting their way, and an ominous reminder of the creature on their tails. As Haru rounded up the side of the ship, she seized upon an idea. A crazy idea, but perhaps – perhaps – it would be just about crazy enough to work.

She aimed for the sails that were now tattered and torn. She slipped through a hole in the fabric, and was rewarded by the fumph of the monster hitting the sails behind her. Now with a few more seconds to spare, she took a closer look at the surroundings available to her.

Eventually her gaze rested on the wheel at the far end of the ship. She zipped towards it, and already the creature's glowing lure was bobbing above her head.

"We're gonna die! We're so gonna die!"

Haru threw Muta to one side and grabbed the monster's light. She shoved it between the spikes of the ship's wheel, and then spun it for good measure. She swam out of range just as the creature slammed into the wheel, drawn in by its own trapped lure.

It wouldn't be long before the creature escaped, but they didn't need much time. They just needed to escape before it did.

She grabbed her dropped lantern, the algae inside still glowing bravely despite the trauma of the chase, and found Lune pulling himself out of the ship's interior.

"Where's the monster?"

Haru jabbed a thumb in the direction of the fish trapped at the ship's wheel. "Caught, but not for long. Come on – let's go before it breaks free."

Lune's eyes bugged at the huge beast, and then at Haru. "It appears you've saved my life. For that, I'm extremely grateful."

"Yeah, you can thank me when we're back at the city."