Scavengers of the Sea
Part 2
Lovina was really starting to regret the promise she made to her sister, that she wouldn't drown any of these stupid humans. It was so tempting and she felt like she'd be totally justified. They were loud, after all, and their stupidity was annoying her. Also, the big one had the nerveto hand her a piece of garbage that smelled terrible, like he thought she was a brainless guppy or something.
Just because she didn't understand their ugly, human language didn't mean that she was stupid. She knew trash when she saw it.
At least she'd been able to make her displeasure clear, by throwing a ball of seaweed into his stupid face. Humans were annoyingly dense, but no one would be able to misinterpret that.
She yawned and floated on her back, watching the humans out of the corner of her eye as they talked amongst themselves. The loudest one—the one she'd thrown a rock at—kept turning to glare at her, but she just ignored him and continued to soak up the warmth from the sun, listening carefully for the approach of any other humans.
She was potentially going to be in so much trouble for this, since she'd broken one of the biggest rules of mermaid society by revealing herself to these humans. If anyone found out, then Grandfather would probably follow through with the long-existing threat to lock her inside the palace, which would be both annoying and inconvenient.
Not that she wouldn't be able to escape without too much difficulty; she just had more important things to think about right now than potential escape routes.
Namely, the human that was currently sitting above the water, smiling at her while completely ignoring his friends.
That human was the reason why she'd been hiding under the dock in the first place.
Not that he was the entire reason. She and her little sister, Feli, had always enjoyed exploring the shoreline, despite the potential human-danger present. It was easier to find beautiful shells in the shallow water, after all, and humans were always dropping interesting things into the ocean. They just had to be careful—they avoided areas where the humans were most plentiful and would only search when the sun was away, things like that.
She'd discovered this dock on one of those scavenging missions. It was a perfect place to search for items; it was located on a beach that the humans generally avoided, but was occasionally visited by young humans who seemed particularly stupid and often dropped things between the slats. She'd found plenty of little trinkets, which she then took back to her sister.
She also liked it because there were plenty of mussels, crabs, and fish living underneath, which served as convenient treasure-hunting snacks.
There were plenty of reasons to spend time underneath this particular dock; it just so happened that another reason revealed itself one early morning. She'd been searching among the stones underneath the pier for trinkets when she heard the unwelcome sound of a human approaching. Nothing to panic about—she'd just stay still until they left—but still an irritating interruption. She'd settled down, out of sight and annoyed, but resigned to a boring wait. But then, she heard something...
It took her a moment to identify it, mainly because she'd never heard human speech sound...pleasant.
He was talking to himself, but in a sort of lilting way that reminded her of whale-songs. He was making these sounds as he walked along the dock, his steps creating an accompanying tapping melody as he walked to the very end. There, he settled down with his legs dangling over the edge and stopped making the melodious sounds for a moment—until she heard another sound. A sort of twangy thing that she vaguely remembered hearing before.
Although, it definitely hadn't sounded nearly as nice on that previous occasion.
Lovi wasn't sure how long she remained there, listening to the human. She'd been amazed, almost hypnotized by the beautiful sounds that she never expecteda human to make. After a while, she was overcome by an intense urge to look at him. She knew it was risky, but if she was careful...
She remembered moving as slowly as possible, scooting herself along the rough, rocky sand as she kept her gaze focused on the dangling feet. She'd slowly inched her way out from underneath the dock and began to slowly float forward, trying to angle herself so she could see him.
All she could really tell was that he had dark hair, similar to hers, and his top half was covered by fabric that was the same color as her tail. She remembered feeling oddly-pleased by this fact. She'd also noticed that his arms were wrapped around something—she had no idea what it was, but it seemed to be the source of the noises—and he was swaying back and forth like seaweed on the ocean floor.
It hadn't been a particularly satisfying glimpse, but apparently it was enough to capture her attention, because she began making excuses to herself about why she should start spending more time underneath this dock: it was a quiet place to rest, there were plenty of mussels to eat, she could search for gifts for Feli...
He wasn't always there and when he was, he was often accompanied by his two annoying, loud friends. Just like this morning. She didn't even try catching a peek at him while they were around; instead, she'd just lie underneath the rotting wood and listen as the unfamiliar sounds of their weird language washed over her.
On a normal day, at least, but today had differed. She was half-asleep when she heard a soft plink in the water right beside her ear. She turned her head, curious, and then jolted in surprise when she heard screams from one of the humans above her.
It was an incredible overreaction. Also, she'd always known she disliked the white-haired one most.
She wasn't entirely sure why she decided to reveal herself to them. She hadn't really taken the time to think through her actions after grabbing the small, shiny thing that had fallen beside her. The thought had passed through her mind that this might be a chance to finally interact with the human that she'd already mentally started referring to as hers—only as a way to differentiate him from the others, though. Nobody better think it meant anything more than that.
She was just curious to see his face. Maybe she could try to communicate and see how intelligent he actually was.
Lovi really didn't give herself time to think. She just took a moment to grab the shiny object, then swam up to the surface. She popped out of the water right in front of her human, lifted her eyes upwards, and gazed into his dark-green, rather surprised eyes for the first time.
Her first thought was that he was absolutely beautiful.
Her second thought was a hurried addition. Well, he was beautiful for a human. You couldn't compare him to her own kind, of course. After all, humans had ugly-looking leg things. His weren't quite as hideous as most, but still...
He said something to her, his tone obviously surprised. She couldn't give less of a fuck about what he was trying to communicate—she was focused on other things—but then his white-haired she-assumed-friend had to interrupt her observation. He came over and yelled at her, motioning toward her hand. It didn't take her long to realize that he wanted his shiny thing back, but he kept shouting at her and then he started making aggressive, annoyed motions toward her human.
So, Lovi threw a rock at him.
She regretted nothing about that decision, even if it did seem to upset her human. He immediately jumped up with a startled exclamation and then hurried over to his friend, making worried noises over him. She glared at them; it wasn't like it was a big rock.
It maybe wasn't the best first impression, though. Maybe. Whatever, humans were apparently wimps.
It was at that moment that her rationality caught up with her. She'd just revealed herself to a bunch of humans, which was something she could get in big trouble for. She should leave right then, but... What if her human left and never came back? If she was going to get in trouble anyway, then she might as well get something out of this...
She wasn't entirely sure what she wanted to get out of this, but she'd figure it out.
Her human returned after a few moments. The white-haired one had apparently left, thankfully, and the other one had apparently decided to remain on the beach.
She perked up—not that she was excited; she was just bored—when he sat back down on the edge of the dock and then smiled at her in a way that made her stomach do nervous flip-flops. He leaned back slightly on his arms, stared up at the sky for a moment, and then started talking to her.
Somehow not realizing that she couldn't understand his language? He'd say things, then tilt his head and smile at her like he expected a response.
He didn't seem particularly disappointed when she didn't answer, at least. He continued speaking to her for a while, but then seemed to decide on a different tactic. He dug around in a little brown pouch that had been resting on the dock and pulled out something... It was a smaller pouch, but she could see the item inside. It was white and square, with little bits of green and red poking out from the sides.
He removed this item from the pouch, then tore it in half, and then—after making sure that she was watching—took a bite from one of the halves.
Ah, so it was food. Human food.
He leaned out toward her, waving the other half of whatever-it-was in the air while saying stupid human words. She eyed it suspiciously for a moment, but then swam slightly closer. She wasn't going to get close enough for him to touch her, but she could stretch her arm out and grab the offered food.
She immediately began to examine it after floating back to her previous spot. It was a strange thing. She lifted it to her nose and sniffed; it didn't smell like anything she'd ever smelled before and it squished slightly beneath her fingers. There was something green inside that sort of looked like seaweed and something else that was red and circular.
She looked back up at the human and received a huge, excited grin. He motioned toward the item and said a couple words that sounded encouraging. She glanced back down and then decided... Why the fuck not? She didn't think he'd be stupid enough to try to poison her. She took a bite.
It was the most delicious thing she'd ever tasted.
Not the squishy outside—that was more like the shell of a mussel, something boring and tasteless to bite through so you could get to the actual delicious thing inside. And by 'delicious thing', she meant that weird, circular red thing. She had no idea what it was, but it was sort of tangy and juicy and she immediately wanted more.
He seemed to understand that she enjoyed his offering, because he suddenly laughed and said some more words. She ignored him and focused on eating the rest of whatever he'd offered her. Apparently humans were good for something, because this was amazing and she needed more.
Unfortunately, however, that was the moment when the white-haired human returned. And with him came a new human. The one who, after talking with the others, decided to offer her actual trash.
She immediately disliked him.
He and the other two began talking with each other, but her human remained near her. He wasn't smiling as widely, though, and he kept glancing back toward the others and saying things to them. She wondered what they were talking about; she knew they wanted the shiny thing, but they were being stupid and she'd rather keep it to give to Feli...
He suddenly waved to her, distracting her from the other humans. He smiled again, then said a word, pointing to himself before motioning toward her.
...What?
He frowned, seemingly disappointed by her confusion. He pointed by himself, said the word again. It sounded something like, "Antonio." Then he pointed toward her again and tilted his head to the side, before pouting in a way that was annoyingly cute.
Was 'Antonio' his name? That seemed to be what he was trying to say by pointing to himself. And he must be asking for her name...
That sent a thrill of excitement through her. She knew her human's name now and he wanted to communicate with her. She hurriedly swam closer to the dock, although she managed to regain logical control of herself before she moved within grabbing-distance.
Stop being stupid. He was a human. Nothing to get overly excited about, even if he did give her delicious food and smile at her in a way that made her stomach flip.
She pointed toward herself and stated her name, feeling slightly annoyed when she realized her voice was shaking slightly. Stupid. Get a hold of yourself.
He sat there for a moment, shaping the sounds with his mouth before he said, "Lovina?"
His pronunciation was strange, but she supposed she could accept a mild mutilation of her name. She nodded and he immediately lit up. "Lovina!" He reached out toward her. "Beautiful Lovina."
She had no idea what the first word meant, but it sounded like a compliment. She decided to try his name out for herself.
"Antonio?"
Lovi was pretty sure that she'd never seen anyone overreact so incredibly to something as simple as her saying their name. The human burst into the brightest smile she'd seen yet and then jumped to his feet, turning toward the other three humans.
And then started shouting at them and waving his arms and she was legitimately worried that he'd just lost his mind.
The only word she could identify in his tirade was her own name, which he kept repeating. The other three stared at him with expressions ranging from amusement to bewilderment and then, irritatingly, all of them moved down to join him and stare at her.
She scowled up at them.
"Francis," Antonio suddenly said, very slowly so she could make out the individual sounds. He pointed to the human who had so far annoyed her the least, the blond one who now smiled and waved at her. He then pointed to the angry white-haired one. "Gilbert."
He rolled his eyes and said something back to Antonio that made him frown slightly. His smile quickly returned, however, when he pointed to the last human. "Ludwig!"
Great, now she knew the names of a group of obnoxious humans.
And now he pointed toward the shiny thing that she'd tied around her wrist while waiting for them to stop being stupid. "Cross. Gilbert."
Yeah, she was aware it was 'Gilbert's'. Hadn't known what it was called, but she also didn't really care.
He pointed toward Gilbert again, as if he thought she was still confused. "Gilbert."
Lovi rolled her eyes and flicked her tail, splashing water toward them. She didn't like people acting like she was stupid.
They all jumped back, which amused her.
It really was a matter of principle now; she didn't particularly want this 'cross', but she couldn't just give it back to them.
Lovi eyed the brown pouch that Antonio had removed the food from earlier. She may be willing to trade the cross for more of whatever food it was that he gave her.
She pointed toward the bag. 'That,' she said in her language.
He looked puzzled for a moment, but then seemed to realize what she wanted. "Sandwich?"
Sure, whatever. Stupid human words. She held out her wrist, shaking the cross. Then she pointed toward the pouch again, making it clear that she was only planning on giving the stupid thing back if they made a trade.
He nodded, then turned toward his friends, said something quickly, and ran off.
Which meant she now had to wait for him to return, which was obnoxious.
She sighed and returned to floating on her back, completely ignoring the other humans. She knew that she needed to head back home soon; someone may have noticed that she was missing already and if they had, then she'd have to come up with an explanation for where she'd been and she was too tired to do that right now.
She supposed that she could just say that she fell asleep somewhere. Maybe she actually would go fall asleep somewhere before returning. That sounded like a pretty fucking amazing idea...
And she actually may have started falling asleep right then and there. Not that she'd ever admit to doing something like that. She must have, though, since she didn't notice the humans' attention shift to a spot farther out to sea. At least, not until she heard something that she absolutely had not expected or wanted to hear...
"Ve~ There you are, Lovi!"
The shout came from right behind her and was accompanied by a heavy weight smashing into her and pushing her underwater. There was a moment of disorientation, but then she hurriedly righted herself and spun around, already knowing exactly who she'd see.
"Feli, what the fuck are you doing here?"
Her little sister, Feli, giggled and did a flip right in front of her. "Hi, Lovi! I found you!"
Why wasn't she more surprised by this? Her sister had just popped up, out of nowhere and she honestly wasn't shocked at all. She was just annoyed, because this put a stupid kink into her plans. Goodbye, delicious 'sandwich'...
She couldn't actually find it in her to be mad at her sister, unfortunately. Feli was smiling at her with complete adoration, obviously proud of herself for finding her. All Lovi could do was sigh and pat her on the head—and thank everything that her sister was observant as fuck. She apparently hadn't even noticed the humans' existence...
"Were you looking for treasures, Lovi? Did you find anything?" Feli did another flip, her tail breaking the surface of the water in the process.
"Watch it," Lovi grabbed her arm and pulled her into deeper water. "Nothing interesting, so you should go back home."
Feli pouted. "But, Lovi. You just left without asking if I wanted to come with you! I wanted to go treasure-hunting too." She pouted in a way that wasn't at all adorable.
"Yeah, well..." She'd gone off on her own for two reasons. First, she wanted to find something special for Feli, so obviously she couldn't come with her. Second... well, she hadn't wanted her sister to find out that she was watching a human. For a multitude of reasons. She might get the wrong idea, for one thing! This was...scientific observation.
They might need to someday come up with a plan for dealing with the stupid humans, after all; her research would be invaluable, then!
Lovi was interrupted from her thoughts at that moment, however, by a loud splash coming from the area next to the dock. Her sister—as unobservant as she might be—couldn't possibly ignore that.
"Ve~ What?"
She probably noticed the human swimming toward them at the exact moment Lovi did. It was the biggest one, Ludwig. The one who gave her the garbage. He was traveling through the water toward them with slow, but steady strokes.
Goddamnit.
Feli stared at the human in total bewilderment for a few moments, obviously shocked. She'd never seen a human close-up before; she'd probably never realized how ugly they could actually be. Lovi hurriedly grabbed at her sister's hand, ready to drag her away and swim back home...
But Feli was already gone, swimming toward the human. "Ve~ I'll save you!"
...Wait, what?
Lovi watched in complete bewilderment as her little sister swam straight toward the human, faster than her sister had ever seen her move, and grabbed onto his arm. "Don't worry, I've got—" but she was cut-off when he jerked backwards in surprise, yanking her with him. "Ve~ Wait!"
Oh God, her stupid, idiotic...
Lovi immediately began traversing the water between them, half-worried that her sister was going to accidentally drown the human. Not that she'd care all that much, but then Feli would cry and the other humans would probably be infuriated and Antonio would be upset.
How stupid could she be? Lovi lifted her head out of the water beside the two of them. Ludwig was obviously trying to escape her sister's grip, while Feli was trying to...save him, Lovi assumed. Mostly by clinging to his arm and trying to drag it upwards. It was not having the desired effect.
Lovi sighed and rolled her eyes before reaching to grab her sister's arm and drag her away from the bastard. "He's not drowning, stupid."
"Ve~?" Feli immediately turned to stare at her with wide, confused eyes.
She couldn't believe she had to explain this. Granted, Feli wasn't particularly good at remembering things that didn't directly affect her, but still. "Humans don't automatically drown when they're in the ocean. Some of them can swim—just not very well, obviously." She flicked her tail. Obviously not very well with their ugly leg-things. "You know this. You've seen them in the water before."
They'd always been standing in the shallow water, though, so she supposed she could sort of understand her sister's confusion.
Feli blinked, then glanced toward the human who had moved away, but was still floating closer to them than Lovi felt was appropriate. He was rather obviously not drowning.
"Oh," was all Feli said after taking note of this fact. "Oops."
Ludwig said something—and Lovi found it rather amazing how the human language could sound fine when Antonio spoke, but so ugly coming from anyone else. He said her name, a few other words, then she caught the word "cross."
Goddamnit, she didn't care about the stupid cross. She just wanted Antonio to come back with her snack and maybe teach her a few more human words. For research purposes, of course.
Unfortunately, this particular human apparently didn't want her to get her snack. It was like they were all crazy. The cross wasn't that exciting.
He even now turned to her little sister like a creepy bastard, saying at least a dozen words that meant nothing to her; the only one she could identify was "Gilbert."
Feli obviously had absolutely no idea what he was saying, but she did seem to figure something out, as she suddenly turned toward Lovina.
"Lovi, did you do something to the humans?"
That was the moment Lovi knew she was in trouble, because Feli was now staring at her with a frown tugging at her lips and her arms crossed across her chest and ugh... Lovi hated when Feli looked disapproving. It so rarely happened that it always made her feel unbearably guilty, even if she hadn't done anything wrong.
"No, of course not," she hurriedly denied. "Why would I do anything to the stupid humans? Just because they're idiots who drop things all the time doesn't mean I did anything."
"Ve~ Lovi..." Her frown deepened as she turned her head toward the dock, where Francis and Gilbert were standing and staring at them. Gilbert waved his arms and shouted something that was swallowed up by the distance between them.
"Okay, fine," Lovi crossed her own arms over her chest in a mimicking posture. "I may have...borrowed something they dropped off the dock and they may want it back. I am going to give it back, though. I'm just waiting."
"Lovi, you shouldn't steal!"
Lovi rolled her eyes at her sister's scandalized tone. "It's not stealing. I said I'm just waiting."
"For what?"
"Lovina!"
For that.
Lovi hurriedly shoved her sister's head underwater, earning a surprised squeak in response. "Stay down!"
There was no way she was letting Antonio see Feli. The idiot would probably start fussing over her, want to know her name, and then her little sister would end up getting a big head.
She hurriedly began swimming toward the dock where he was standing with a large basket of red ball-like things. He set it down and waved toward her—possibly also toward Ludwig, who was following her at a much slower pace, but she'd rather assume Antonio was only interested in waving at her.
He was leaning over the water, one of the red balls extended over the waves, when she reached him. "Hi, Lovina!"
The first word sounded like a greeting. She repeated the sound in her head and then responded, slowly, "Hi, Antonio."
He lit up like a sunbeam at that."Hi! Hi!" Then he waved the red ball toward her. "Tomato!"
"To-mato?"
It obviously was not whatever it was he'd given her earlier. This was a bright red ball. She took it from his hand and then poked it; it wasn't entirely hard, but not as squishy as the brown thing that she'd eaten earlier.
Antonio nodded and then took another of the tomatoes from his basket. He checked to make sure that she was watching, and then took a huge bite from the presumable food object. Streaks of juice ran down his chin, which he wiped away with the back of his hand before sending her another smile.
She eyed her own, then opened her mouth and tore out a chunk with her teeth.
And found herself in instant paradise.
It was the same thing she'd tasted inside the other food, but this time there wasn't the soft covering or other flavors to distract her. There was just this singular, delicious taste filling her mouth with its tangy, heavenly juice. She finished the tomato quickly and then immediately extended her hand for another.
Antonio giggled, but then shook his head and motioned toward her wrist. "Gilbert."
Ugh... Gilbert was obviously not even close to as important as her receiving more tomatoes, but Lovi supposed she could give it back. This was a trade after all, although she had no idea how she'd get the tomatoes back home. She supposed that she could just remain near the surface for a while; there was a cave relatively-nearby where she could hide them for at least a little while.
Ludwig had reached the pier by now and was hanging onto the edge with one arm. He watched as she untied the cross thing from around her wrist and then held out his hand. She ignored him and, instead, extended her arm toward Antonio.
But then she felt a heavy weight smash against her back. "Lovi!"
And it felt like the world slowed down. She watched, unable—or perhaps unwilling—to move, as the cross slipped from her fingers and plopped right into the water.
She could hear Gilbert start shouting again, but at this point...
Fuck it. She used her tail to propel herself upwards, grabbed the wooden slats of the pier, and lifted herself up so she could grab the basket of tomatoes. Then, she dropped back into the water, keeping her basket of treats cradled against her chest, and grabbed her sister's arm. "Come on," she muttered.
She did love her sister, she had to remind herself, even if she didn't always like her.
Ludwig had already dived under the water, which provided her with the perfect opportunity to escape. She yanked her sister away, but not before she saw Antonio lift his arm and wave it toward her frantically. "Lovina!"
She had to ignore him. She saw Ludwig rise from the water, a small shiny object held in his hand, then she dove underneath the waves and left them behind.
If she ever went back, she thought, she was going to make absolutely certain that she locked her sister up beforehand.
A/N: Ahh, Lovi. You little stalker. xD
Not much to say about this one... Just, Lovi... Admit you like the pretty human. It's okay.
Please review if you enjoyed! I'm probably going to do more mermaid related stories at some point. There's the Leon/Francis one and a USUK one... But, idk if anyone would have preferences about which one I'd do first. It probably wouldn't be immediate, since I want to get some other ones at least farther along before starting another multi-chap. But I technically already have the first chapter of the Leon/Francis one finished, so...
Haha. I hope you enjoyed!