#(embarrassed voice) i saw the mermaid au picture of them sitting on rocks again and i thought of how cute it would be to see a one armed mer

[dirt-str1der]

I think its cute that vash has one arm (says this all the time) hes like a prawn in that way they love to have a missing arm

[aroseandapen]

{An encounter}

Just watched Carole and Tuesday yesterday, so of course I had to write a mermaid AU with these girls.

No spoilers.

Warning for almost drowning

AO3

The dock dampened the seat of her pants when she sat on it, but Carole didn’t mind when she could sit out in the fresh ocean breeze. She dangled her feet over the edge, peering down into the water. It’d be so easy to slip over the edge, splash down into the crashing waves. They’d toss her body like it weighed nothing.

She shivered at the thought, and leaned away from the edge, bracing her hands against the wood behind her. A deep inhale drew the salty tang of air into her lungs. The wind teased at her hair, though thankfully her bun held fast. It drew clouds over the sun like a curtain falling over the stage.

Just as her held breath began to burn, Carole tipped her head back, closed her eyes against the wind, and exhaled in a musical hum.

Her thoughts swirled around a vague melody in her head. It had nagged and picked at the edges of her brain the last few days, robbing her of sleep and distracting her in moments where she had to focus. So she came out to the pier and, once the nearby fishermen had moved on a reasonable distance, she sang out her wordless feelings to the wind and waves.

The wind shifted abruptly, it whipped around to a sharp left, tugging on her braid to let her know. She only raised her voice, a high clear sound that wouldn’t be muffled by the ocean. A message of longing for something, although she didn’t know what, couldn’t be lost even against mother nature.

Then, suddenly, another voice echoed her own. Shadows fell away, and the sun reemerged from behind its cover.

“Huh?”

Carole fell silent abruptly, blinking her eyes wide open in the dazzling sunlight. She sat up straight, head twisting this way and that in an attempt to find the location of the echo.

Even though she’d stopped singing, her accompaniment continued. They had picked up on her melody and fell into it--the desire, the need, all that Carole felt reflected back to her in a pure, dizzying moment of amazement. And by chance, or maybe fate, with her eyes she followed the voice down.

A girl floated in the water, holding one of the thick wooden beams of the pier as an anchor. Her blond hair suspended around her, caught and combed by the waves as they rolled past. And oh! Her song. Carole’s heart caught in her throat, unable to look away for a long moment stretching out into eternity.

The girl’s eyes opened then, a dazzling blue that put all descriptions of the ocean to shame. They met Carole’s eyes, and her voice faltered with a flicker of fear that darted across them.

Quickly, Carole resumed her singing. She joined her voice to this stranger’s, this odd girl swimming in the ocean on a cold day like today. They hummed in harmony, slotting together like two pieces of a puzzle meant to be joined. And what a wondrous picture they made. Tears pricked the corners of Carole’s eyes, exhilarated in how their voice clicked. How naturally the music came to them both. She closed them, and let the music carry her off like the tide.

An earsplitting shriek cut through their duet. Shadows fell over the pier again.

Carole’s eyes flew open. She twisted her body, as the girl screamed again. A net had been cast down, the fishermen who’d been further down the pier having moved closer as the girls both sang with closed eyes. The girl had been hauled from the water, the shine of natural light glittering against coral-colored scales--

--fins. A tail. Carole blinked, everything she knew thrown into the air above her head, leaving her scrambling to snatch it back.

“H-hey!” She didn’t have time to think about any of that right now, as the men hauled the net up onto the pier. Carole hauled herself back from the edge and lurched onto her feet.

The net fell away from the girl as she hit the wood. They didn’t give her a chance to fling herself away, grabbing her upper arm as she twisted and struggled in an attempt to get away.

“No!” the girl gasped out, grabbing at the hand to try and pry it away. “Please, let go!”

Carole’s shoes slapped hard against the deck as she surged forward. She didn’t think, just let her body move and her anger propel her on. The man holding the girl turned toward her, a little too late, before she threw her head forward, slamming his nose with her forehead.

He shouted in pain, and the girl’s arm slipped from his grasp. Carole reached down and took her hand in his place.

No thought went into her next actions. They needed to escape. Without legs, the girl couldn’t run. The other fisherman was beginning to react to her surprise attack. They needed to move!

“Jump!” she exclaimed, and yanked on the girl’s arm as she leaped from the pier, soaring past the edge and dragging the girl down with her.

Just as the shock of freezing water hit her, and her world became a tumultuous cauldron of bubbles and swirling water and darkness, Carole remembered that she couldn’t swim.

They sank--or rather, she sank. The force of hitting the ocean’s surface forced her grip away. Carole swung her arms, but it did nothing but sap away her energy, as the cold made her muscles sluggish and numb. Her struggle lasted a matter of seconds, her breath a constant stream of bubbles draining away from her.

What a stupid move. Good going, Carole.

At least the girl might thank her later, for giving her life to save her...

Something touched her wrist. She no longer knew whether she was falling or rising. Probably the former, but she couldn’t see. Squinting into the blur of water, she saw the pale face appear in front of her like a ghost. The girl... or a hallucination of her as her chest seared with the desire for a new breath.

The girl-slash-hallucination closed in, and oddly hot lips locked onto hers. It electrified her, tingles running down to her fingertips, down to her toes. Her heart jumped into her throat, and her blood roared to life throughout her body.

Then all too soon, she drew away.

“Are you ok?”

For the first time, the girl spoke to her. Carole was so surprised to hear the question that she drew in a sharp, quick breath. Water poured into her lungs, but somehow didn’t harm her. She exhaled, then inhaled again a little slower, experimenting with the fluid movement of water through her throat. For one reason or another, Carole could breath underwater.

Was it because the girl--no, now that she had the time to acknowledge it, the mermaid--kissed her? The thought embarrassed her somewhat, heat rising to her cheeks. And yet she found that she wanted more.

Delicate fingers threaded themselves with hers. The mermaid leaned in, worry etched into her expression as her eyes restlessly darted across Carole’s face. She realized that she should speak quickly, before she worried the other even more.

She squeezed the mermaid’s hand. “Yes, I’m ok. Are you ok?”

A relieved smile spread across her features. “Mm-hm! Yes! Now I am.” Her eyes shone, and Carole had the impression that they’d fill with tears if they weren’t already underwater. “Thank you so much, I thought I was a goner.”

Carole opened her mouth, found that she had nothing to say, and closed it again. She nodded, still baffled by the strange situation she found herself in.

“Oh, and thank you even more, for the song. It meant so much to me, that terrible longing for something more. The need to make a meaningful impact on lives for hundreds of miles around!” A dreamy look had come to the mermaid’s face. Then, as if realizing that she looked silly, she demurred. “Of course, that probably sounds weird. I’m Tuesday, by the way--mermaid, if you didn’t guess.”

Carole laughed loudly at the shy way she’d spoken, and the obvious thing she’d pointed out. “No, no, I should be thanking you! I felt the same way about that song, and it meant the world to hear you sing along with me. And I’m Carole--human, of course.” Carol 

Tuesday returned with giggles, the hand in hers squeezing as she did. Carole decided that she quite liked that sound, just as much as she liked the voice that added itself to hers.

“Oh, here, I’ll return you to land, ok? I’ll guide you somewhere further away from those fisher people.” Something, a shadow, flickered across her face. There and gone in a flash.

“It’s just, uh... I can’t actually swim,” she admitted, although that might’ve been apparent from how she’d sunk like a rock when she jumped overboard.

“Yes, I noticed. That must’ve been so brave of you, to jump in for me like that when you couldn’t swim,” Tuesday said, with such earnest admiration that Carole absolutely didn’t deserve.

“Uh, yeah, I guess...” More like she’d jumped in without thinking, and almost got killed for it.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be with you the entire way.” Tuesday kicked her tail, and pulled Carole along after her by their linked hands. “Just don’t let go of my hand.”

Never, she thought to herself, knowing her vehemence came from more than a desire to be out of the water.