#i need to get the cat ears and wolf tail asap

[okaykois]

he is a raccoon guy!! 

[evilsnowswan]

Summary: [Rumbelle Mermaid!AU] based on this prompt by repeatinglitanies: “In a world where people are aware of the existence of mermaids, Belle is a mermaid who lives in the world’s largest aquarium along with other sea creatures. She enjoys looking at the little humans who come to visit, especially a floofy haired boy who comes every week with his father….” An injured Belle is captured and brought to Gold and Milah’s aquarium. Gold is a marine biologist dedicated to protecting the creatures there, Milah wants to turn a profit, and their son has his own ideas about how to befriend a mermaid.

Rating: G/Teen Link to full story: [Read on AO3] Previous Chapters: [Coverart][Chapter 1][Chapter 2][Chapter 3][Chapter 4][Chapter 5][Chapter 6][Chapter 7][Chapter 8][Chapter 9][Chapter 10][Chapter 11][Chapter 12][Chapter 13][Chapter 14][Chapter 15][Chapter 16][Chapter 17]

Current Chapter: 18/? Chapter Summary: This one's of overprotective mermaids and blind airlings.

Chapter 18

“Just one more go.”

“No. That’s enough for today, Baelfire.” The boss lady was lounging on a towel near the usually empty lifeguard station, where Killian Jones was sitting in a tall chair that gave him a perfect view of more than just the action in the old show tank. As if to prove the point, Jones lowered his camera and glanced down at Mrs. Montgomery in her sleek black Speedo.

“Fine!” Bae hollered and dove for one last summersault.

From the deep end of the pool Ruby watched him get out of the water, dripping in his shark-print trunks as he headed for the showers. He rinsed quickly and then pulled off his swim cap, pulling and twisting it in his hands, and letting it snap loudly as he dragged his feet.

His mother was watching him like a hawk.

“Baelfire!” Her voice cut through the air like fins. The expensive kind on a custom-made board. “Leave it. You’ll wear it out. Come here!” She beckoned him over to the benches, indicating a folded towel beside her. “Quickly.”

She turned her head to look at Ruby. “Miss Lucas?!”

“My turn,” Ruby grinned at Indigo, who had just surfaced beside her, clutching one of the bright yellow toys. She beamed and handed it over. “You’re next. Today’s the day.”

Laughing at Indigo’s puzzled frown, Ruby gave back the toy, obediently kicked off, and crossed the pool in quick strokes to get within earshot of her boss, who, apparently, deemed it inappropriate to yell instructions at anyone but her son. 

“Yes?”

“Please, Ruby dear, would you be so kind as to wrap this up?” She asked, making a sweeping gesture that encompassed the tank and most of the sitting area. “We’re running a little late for Baelfire’s lesson and our visitors will be here soon.” She glanced at Bae, who sat with his legs stretched out in front of him, looking down at the wet flip flops dangling from his feet. He swung his legs listlessly, partially losing one flip flop. It slid forward and hung from a couple of toes.

“Not my fault,” he mumbled into his towel, letting the dangling flip flop fall to the ground. Then he let the other one go.

Mrs. Montgomery cleared her throat. 

“Sure thing,” Ruby said quickly. “No problem.” The boss lady had never called her ‘dear’ before and she wasn’t sure what to make of it. “Indigo’s staying?”

“Yes,” Mrs. Montgomery said slowly. “Yes, yes, I think that would be best. Would you–”

She didn’t get to finish her request. The sudden sound of heels on concrete had them both turn their heads. Mrs. Montgomery gasped. “Oh no.”

People were approaching, a woman and a man, David Nolan leading them straight to the benches. The woman was tall, even taller on her noisy heels, easily towering over the quickly-parting sea of white shirts and her black-clad companion. She was slim, but had a swimmer's back. Her kelly green dress and red hair stuck out like a sore thumb. Ruby smirked.

“Miss Lucas, keep the mermaid calm, will you?” With a hurried glance at her watch and a frazzled hand brushing her curls out of the way, Mrs. Montgomery stood, shrugging on a summer dress over her suit and slipping into black pumps that left her a few inches shorter than usual. She turned to Bae.

“Baelfire, please find your father and tell him he’s needed here asap.”

Bae looked at her, at the approaching newcomers, and back again. He cocked his head. “Why? Who’s–”

“Baelfire!”

“Oookay.” Bae rolled his eyes, but got up all the same. “Whatever you say, woman.”

Muttering, he kicked his flip flops ahead of him as he went. Ruby distinctly heard some of the Sailor-ese Bae’s father reserved for special occasions or very, very special people, and had to fight back a laugh.

Mrs. Montgomery must have heard it too, but chose to pretend she hadn’t.

“They are almost two hours early,” she hissed, tugging on her dress. “Now, seriously.” She bit her lip, then pulled her dress over her head and stepped back out of her shoes.

Ruby watched, bemused. The woman was wigging.

“You okay?” Jones made to leave his seat. “That them?”

Her face flushed, Mrs. Montgomery looked up at Jones, blinking against the sun. She shook her head, not gracing him with an answer to the obvious. She rummaged in her purse, withdrew a pocket mirror and lipstick, and carefully painted her lips her signature red.

“You meeting ‘em like that?” Back on the ground, Jones looked her over, his eyes lingering where they had no business being.

Mrs. Montgomery spun around to face him, turning her back on Ruby. Ruby didn’t have to see her face to know she was glaring. “Like what?”

Perhaps, it was natural, Ruby thought. Perfectly normal. Mrs. Montgomery was in good shape and the streamlined Speedo fit her like a glove, hugging her curves in all the right places. Eyes on the older woman’s butt for, maybe, half a beat too long, Ruby bit her tongue, her ears growing hot. Yep, perfectly fine.

Choosing to tune out the adults bickering, she took a deep breath and let herself sink to the bottom of the pool. She stayed there until her face no longer felt like it was melting off her bones, watching Indigo swim through Bae’s new underwater hoops, merrily entertaining herself.

When she came back up to draw a much-needed breath, Jones was gone and Mrs. Montgomery had moved away from the pool and the benches to greet the visitors. Ruby could see her talk animatedly and heard her laugh her professional laugh. Their early arrival may have forced the boss lady onto her back foot, but she wouldn’t go down without a fight. No matter how tall or flashy the opponent, Milah Montgomery would defend her home range – even if that meant entering the arena barefoot, in nothing but swimming gear and lipstick.

The man, all dressed in dark and gloomy colors, hung back, his eyes darting back and forth, taking in his surroundings. He didn’t seem remotely interested in the women’s conversation and didn’t join, not even to exchange fake pleasantries. He reminded Ruby of a lone wolf, a scout, sent to see if the new area was safe for the pack, or to explore new hunting grounds and carry word back to his alpha.

When their eyes met, Ruby felt a jolt go right through her and her skin pebbled, despite the warm pool water. The man held her gaze until Ruby looked away. When she looked back up, he had momentarily vanished, only to reappear somewhere to her left, so close to the pool, it made her start.

“Hello,” he said, his husky voice low. It sounded more like a growl than a word. “And you are?” He asked, his head tilted to one side. He didn’t seem to have to blink a normal amount, fixing Ruby with unblinking eyes and pinning her to the spot. His left eye was bright blue, like ice, the right brown, almost amber.

“R-Ruby,” she stammered. “Ruby Lucas.”

“Ruby,” he repeated, rolling the ‘R’ on his tongue like a smooth pebble. “Hello, Ruby.”

He gave her the creeps. “Hi,” she breathed, her heart rate quickening; her heart drumming up a fast beat that rose within her and threatened to block her ears. Internally laughing at herself, she took a shaky breath and attempted a smile to dispel the sinking feeling in her stomach.

She had just opened her mouth to ask the stranger for his name, when, unexpectedly, Indigo popped up between them like a jack-in-the-box. She shoved Ruby behind her, hissing at the man showing her teeth, and raised her fin out of the water menacingly.

Whoa. What–?

Ruby wanted to reach for her, put a calming hand on her shoulder, but Indigo quickly pushed her a little further back with her tail, before raising her fin high again, swinging it from side to side like a cat.

The stranger withdrew, apprehensive, his piercing eyes solely trained on Indigo. Ruby half expected him to snarl back, to bark maybe, but he merely smiled as he retreated slowly, showing off very white, slightly pointy teeth.

Indigo let her fin hit the water with a deafening splash.

Hadn’t he jumped back, the water would have hit him. With a grimace, he tugged his shabby leather jacket tighter around him and took another step back. With one hand, he reached into his pocket – Ruby held her breath – and pulled out a packet of Pixy Stix. He fished for a grape flavored one, ripped it open, and, throwing his head back, tipped the contents into his mouth.

Ruby stared at him over Indigo’s shoulder. What the–?

“Humbert! What are you doing?! Come here.” The woman’s voice was sharp and, to Ruby’s bewildered astonishment, the man’s head snapped up and around at once, before he trotted back to his original spot, right behind the tall red-head. Like a trained lapdog, she had brought him to heel, just like that.

Ruby couldn’t stop staring.

She wanted to move closer, get out of the water and join the adults and their conversation, or listen in from a safe-enough distance, and find out what exactly was going on, but before she could put the thought into action, Indigo had taken her by the hand and dragged her halfway across the pool, to the little island made from rocks in the middle.

Undeterred by Ruby’s spluttered protests, Indigo gently nudged her, and pushed and shoved, until Ruby had climbed on the closest rock. There she sat, panting and confused, her feet dangling in the water.

What had gotten into Indigo?

Before she could do or say anything else, Indigo had begun examining her feet, her legs, then moved on to her hands and arms until her own hands came to rest on Ruby’s shoulders, causing Ruby to bend double and almost topple back into the water under the weight of the frantic mermaid. Indigo studied her face closely, touched her forehead to Ruby’s.

Ruby kept very still, letting Indigo do as she liked, hoping to calm her down that way.

Indigo let go and hit the water with a small splash. She went under, but resurfaced almost at once, her cheeks puffed out.

Before Ruby could wonder or ask, Indigo spit water in her face.

“Hey!” Ruby threw her arms up. “Okay, stop. Stop!”

The mermaid was bonkers.

“What has gotten into you, hmm?!” Ruby asked, running a hand over her face. “What was that for?” She put her hands on her hips. “And, are you done?”

Indigo looked up at her, her face still clouded with whatever was going on in her pretty head.

“You got a few… starfish… loose in the top… reef,” Ruby snorted, giggles bubbling up deep in her throat and spilling from her mouth. “You know that? My, my.” She kept laughing, watching Indigo’s frown slowly morph into a smile and finally end in silent laughter. “He wasn’t that much of a creep, honestly. Just spooky eyes, that’s all.”

***

Jumper Girl was alright. Belle blew out a breath, her heart gradually slowing to a more relaxed pace. The… thing hadn’t gotten her.

Belle threw a quick glance over her shoulder, her eyes zooming in on the dark being that stood with the airling women. It looked like an airling, but didn’t smell like one, and, whatever it was, it was dangerous, and Belle didn’t like it. She didn’t like it one bit.

Thankfully, her little airling friend had already fled and was nowhere to be seen. That only left the airling women in danger. One of them, Belle didn’t know, and the other – yes, she had learnt by now – was her little friend’s mother; and she tolerated her presence for that very reason, but Belle hadn’t forgotten it had been she, who had held her down while the other male had attacked. Belle was living proof that children could grow up without their mothers and be just fine. He would still have his father and that was more than enough.

The predator did not attack. Perhaps, Belle mused, he could not swim, or simply wasn’t hungry. She kept him in sight at all times though, just to be safe. Keeping an eye on the predator also meant she no longer had time for their diving game, but since the little airling did not return and Jumper Girl seemed done playing as well, that wasn’t a problem.

She would watch the predator all day and all night, if she had to. He would grow tired, or bored, or return to where he had come from, eventually. Until then, he could not be left unsupervised.

He mostly kept to the strange airling woman with fiery hair like an odd pilot fish. As far as Belle could see, he did not, however, eat nasty parasites on his host, or small leftovers of her food. His food source seemed to come from somewhere inside his… skin.

He was a weird creature – not merling, not airling – some form of ‘other’ Belle hadn’t yet encountered, and she wondered, why he didn’t make the airling women nowhere as uneasy as he did her. Hadn’t her father once told her that airling senses were dulled from living above water for so long? That had to be it. They simply could not sense the danger. Belle almost pitied them. Almost. But the pilot predator didn’t seem interested in hurting them – not at the moment, anyway. He just followed them around, occasionally strayed to explore his surroundings, then returned to his host.

Belle, on her part, stuck to Jumper Girl like a merling-shaped sucker cluster. While in the water, she became her shadow, drifting right along, and, if on land, she always kept a close eye on her, hissing a low warning whenever the predator crept too close for her liking.

She preferred Jumper Girl safely in the water with her, where, if push came to splash, she could protect her; which was why she didn’t mind the silly game her friend wanted to play next.

Jumper Girl had brought odd yellow seaweed string in some sort of shell into the water with her. She pulled it out next to Belle’s arms and tail, along her fin, and wrapped it once around her middle and her tail – as if to measure her – then let the seaweed roll back into its shell like a mussel’s feeler. It tickled her skin, and Belle bit her lip not to laugh.

Perhaps, the objective of the game was indeed measuring her, since Jumper Girl kept shouting short bits at the mother airling, who jotted something, most likely the shouted information, down with a color on a small rectangle. Belle didn’t mind. She couldn’t see how her measurements could do any harm in the hands of the airling mother.

She was far more concerned about their unbidden guests – the fire-haired airling and her companion who kept watching their game with great interest – and had already put the measuring game from her mind, when the little airling and his father reappeared and the unknown airling and her predator finally left a short while later.