#happy belated birthday minorin!!

[merryfortune]

dispelling seafoam

Written for the 100ships Challenge on Dreamwidth

Prompt #91 Seafoam

Ship: Minori/Laura

Fandom: Tropical Rouge Pretty Cure

Word Count: 2,013

Rating: T

Warnings: No Warnings Apply 

Tags: Alternate Character Interpretation, Mortality, Cannibalism Play, Blood, Hand and Finger Kink, Ambiguous Ending

   The library was serene. 

   Late in the afternoon, likely mere minutes away from the final bell tolling, it was doused in dappled colours of the sunset. Orange, red, pink, mostly but sometimes, when the weather was poor, it was more grey and violet. Today it had been raining and so, the window panes fogged with condensation and the courtyards and gardens the windows looked out on glistened with puddles. It might yet rain again. The skies were certainly threatening another murky, wintry downpour, perhaps even hail this time.

   The library had become a place, as of late, where Laura and Minori could both escape the Tropical Club for a moment of peace and quiet. It was not because they did not love their fellow club members, but sometimes it was nice to get away and recharge. Minori appreciated it and Laura… Laura wasn’t quite an introvert but she liked the library as well. 

   She had a fascination recently for perspectives not quite her own. And to her, a mermaid, there was none a perspective more alien than that of a human's and she could always probe Minori for opinions even more eclectic than most as she was knowledgeable in ways Laura would consider arcane. To her, at least. And possibly to her peers as well as she was just that little bit strange. Even for a human.

   And so, they read together. Minori was seated at the table, shoes together underneath it as she kept her elbows to herself like she was dining but no, she was only eating the pages of a book ravenously. Reverse engineering them for what made them good for the sake of her own craft.

   Laura, meanwhile, was perched on top of the table and in constant motion. She was swinging her legs to and fro, humming to herself as she reread The Little Mermaid. She was going to give Minori a good run for her money in numbers of rereads of that particular fairy tale. 

   But it made Minori curious. She couldn’t get Laura out of her head. She had become a dear companion, one who was so treasured she could bypass Minori’s precious solitude. Even and especially in her inner sanctum but this afternoon, which was so heavy and cold, Minori felt particularly curious. She wasn’t sure why. Maybe she was having a bad day, maybe she was having an extraordinarily good one: either way she felt that curiosity on a trail from the bottom of her spine upwards.

   So, she asked.

   “Laura, does the ending of that book ever scare you?” Minori asked. She looked up from her book and her glasses shone as her curiosity had reached its fever pitch.

   “What do you mean?” Laura asked idly. She hummed casually, as though she didn’t really get Minori’s point or what she was implying towards.

   “It's just…” Minori mumbled and she shuffled herself. She wasn’t getting cold feet, it was just an uncomfortable topic to broach. 

   “It's just what?” Laura prompted her.

   “The protagonist turns into seafoam at the end, wouldn’t the same fate befall you as well when you pass?” Minori asked. Her words were tumbling out. She felt flushed, like she wasn’t making sense.

   Laura turned her head and her expression was irate but puzzled, “Huh?” she snarled. “This is fiction, not fact. Mermaids do not turn into seafoam under any circumstance.”

   “Oh.” Minori mumbled, disappointed.

   Laura shrugged, “You can’t believe everything you read about mermaids, especially from humans who don’t know better.”

   “I suppose you're right.” Minori replied in a tiny voice.

   Laura bent dramatically over the table, so she was practically flat to it. She sighed and huffed, enjoying her little moment of attention where she got to refute the great and powerful mind of Ichinose Minori. It was absolutely going to her already big head and she was savouring it. She was literally rolling around in it, mildly annoying Minori but it was best not to disrupt Laura when she was having a moment or else she got worse.

   Fortunately, Laura finished up her theatrics soon enough. She pulled herself back upright onto the table. She flicked her hair about, almost hitting Minori in the face and when she felt all ruffled out in a good way, she smacked her lips together. Satisfied. And now it was Laura’s turn to take curiosity in Minori. She peered closer to Minori and the book she was reading. Laura blinked, she looked perplexed. That could not be right but this book was undeniably in Minori’s hands.

   “You don’t normally read books with quite so many pictures.” Laura commented.

   “It's good to get out of your comfort zone occasionally.” Minori replied.

   “Yes, that’s true, I suppose.” Laura agreed, she began kicking her feet again.

   “And I want to read anything with mermaids in it.” Minori added.

   Laura’s eyes went wide and bright, “Mermaids? Of course a mermaid nerd like you would want to know more but why go to those silly books when I’m right here?” she asked.

   “I’m too embarrassed, I guess.” Minori admitted.

   Laura nodded her head. That sounded like Minori as well.

   “So what’s that book about? More myths of seafoam for me to dispel?” Laura asked.

   “Not quite but it does deal with mortality again. This manga is inspired by an old myth that eating the flesh of a mermaid will grant you immortality and longevity.” Minori said and her eyes flicked up to Laura from behind her glasses, “Is that true?” She asked most pertinently.

   Laura hummed, “I’m not sure actually.” she confessed.

   “Truly?” Minori was taken aback.

   “Well, mermaids are very good at evading capture, we never leave the depths of the Grand Ocean so reports of missing mermaids are uncommon. It's weirdos like the Witch and her servants we ought to be wary of when it comes to population displaced by the kingdom which is very, very rare. So if a mermaid, or any magical creature of the sea, goes missing and is captured… Who knows? It could very well be true.” Laura explained.

   “Interesting.” Minori mumbled.

   “Funnily enough,” Laura added, “there’s a myth that we have about humans. That eating them will grant us eternity but why do we need it? We already live for hundreds of years, anything more would be greedy, without a legacy.”

   Minori’s nose wrinkled with laughter. Her manga posited the same thing of mermaids, that eating human flesh could be beneficial to them. She didn’t say it aloud, though. Laura turned her head, her eyes were manic and dazzling. Inhuman. Minori was suddenly very aware that though she looked human, Laura was not human.

   There was a way her eyes glistened that looked like it could cut through the dark. Her skin and her hair was supernaturally beautiful. There was a flare to her ears, ever so slightly, which hinted back to the fins that she would don in her true form. Laura stared and Minori stared back, enraptured.

   “Would you be interested in that? Because truth be told, I would, in a heartbeat.” Laura asked and she sounded nigh bloodthirsty. “Immortality? Longevity?” She sounded as though she were really, truly offering her body for the experiment and for human greed. She liked that. The mystique that she now had over Minori.

   “No.” Minori answered though she did take her time.

   “I think I would.” Laura mused. “Being Queen for all eternity… That sounds like a dream in a dream.”

   “It sounds like tyranny to me. Misery, as well.” Minori said. “Watching all your friends grow old and pass away without you.”

   “All the new and exciting developments that could take place beyond your natural lifespan.” Laura countered.

   Minori shook her head, “There’s already too much to experience from what came before me.”

   “Yet more time to catch up then.” Laura giggled.

   “I would want to know what comes after the end. I believe that I already have enough time to accomplish what I want in life, you may be greedy but I know my limits.” Minori explained.

   “The big mystery, huh…?” Laura mused. She was curious too, actually. She shrugged. “Fair enough.”

   Minori was quietly pleased with herself that she had managed to match and even overturn Laura in this debate. Usually, the exercise was most like trying to debate with a brick wall but lately, Laura had been expanding herself. Minori had noted it most obviously from when she had cancelled her bid for School President.

   Laura chuckled cheekily to herself and her gaze slid back to her side, down to Minori, “But there’s only one true way to discover the nature of these myths, don’t you think?” Laura taunted her.

   Minori blinked. She wasn’t sure if she knew what Laura was talking about and so she stayed quiet.

   “Don’t you remember?” Laura sounded as though she were boasting because she had gotten yet another one-up on the wide and interesting mind of Ichinose Minori. “Weren’t you taught in science class the correct way of hypothesising and testing, you literature geek? I was.”

   “Oh, I was.” Minori murmured.

   “Then why not try?” Laura asked. She held out her hand to Minori. “Why not just a taste?”

   “And doom myself to an eternity wandering the earth until everything I love is-” Minori almost found herself finishing that sentence with dust but her eyes glimmered, there was a more poetic word choice, she realised, “-is seafoam.”

   “Perhaps, only one way to find out.” Laura teased her, waggling her fingers in a wave pattern. She had de-transformed and now, it was her tail that she kicked, the pink, translucent fins of it glittering in the late afternoon sun.

   “Fine.” Minori replied. “But you are aware that the average human can bite through your bone like it is a carrot, right?”

   “Oh, please, I have swam with sharks and much scarier, toothier threats than you lot.” Laura casually retorted. She bared her teeth and Minori had never noticed just how unusual looking they were. They were fearsome and sharp.

   “If you say so.” Minori said.

   She felt awkward but she leaned in. Laura’s hands were truly her charm point. Her nails were immaculate, her cuticles were all pushed back. They looked nothing like Minori’s picked and chewed nails. Not to mention her hands themselves were gorgeous and delicate. There was a smattering of scales of her arms and her fins dangled, catching light which had begun to darken with either twilight or a storm.

   Minori kissed the back of Laura’s hand. She smelt of sea salt and kelp. It was a cold, organic smell that intrigued Minori. She drew back, licked her lips and tried to convince herself that she was hungry for fish sticks - as what else were the fingers of a mermaid if not those?

   She sucked Laura’s fingers. Just her index, as an entree, a main, and even a dessert, and she tasted fishy. Minori closed her eyes and she suckled. Laura laughed. Minori’s tongue was velvet soft on her finger and when Minori bit down, ever so slightly, just enough to prick her and taste her blood. Minori forced herself to swallow. 

   She pulled back and hid her mouth. The taste could not be described as coppery or like iron, like how she had read. It tasted like something else. It tasted savoury and like umami. In the simplest terms, she liked it.

   “Did you like it?” Laura asked, she tilted her head to the left slightly. “How do I taste?” 

   She held her hand out and let droplet after droplet of blood drip from her finger, she cared not for her injury and Minori was mesmerised by the effect of it. It then began to rain, they could both hear the sound of hitting the roof and the windowpane. Laura’s finger still dripped as well and now her blood pooled on the table unclean.

   “Delicious.” Minori stated in reply and the final school bell tolled. She wondered if her own bells would one day chime to commemorate her passing after consuming even just a morsel of mermaid flesh.