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thecandywrites · 3 years ago

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Micro- Mermaid Chenera Part. 2

Woo, teen years in micro-merfolks lives. Growing, blossoming, having those oh so unpredictable hormones start pumping, kicking in instincts and whatnot, in what practically feels like overnight and how clique-ey even they can be. Because even in the real world, most fish do best in schools of their own kinds and using my somewhat limited knowlege about how real fish tank dynamics can work, as in who is aggressive, who is nice, who gets along with who. Who is clique-ey *cough* neon tetras *cough* and who is chill. Enjoy.

Micro-Mermay

Chenera

Part 2

When you awoke, you found both you and Nona had grown, almost overnight and now you were almost cramped in the little crevice but tangled with Nona, you continued to be.

“Chenera! Where are you?! The feed just dropped in from the feeders, you need to hurry up and come out and eat or there won’t be any left!” Abaria called after you before you lifted your head off of Nona’s chest as Nona was still fast asleep, he fed you the day before, you figured it was only right that you return the favor as you squeezed past him and left your crevice and rocketed up to the top of the tank, taking all you could hold before you raced back again.

“Like a Danio that one, so fast.” Abaria noted to Thya as they sat on one of the rocks and ate their breakfast and watched on as you appeared then disappeared again as the others either tried to flutter around you or simply get out of your way so they wouldn’t get hit by your racing self.

“Shy one she is too. Her colors changed again. Maybe she’s part rainbow fish, where her colors evolve as she ages.” Thya noted.

“She does seem a lot more green today.” Abaria had to nod as she helped her youngest ones eat their first meal, the elders leaving “the baby bits” for the youngest ones who always seemed to be hatching almost every day from all the different clutches being delivered.

“Any sign of Ethel?” Abaria asked.

“No, she left early this morning, before the feeders turned on. Still crying when she came through too.” Thya answered.

“Well if Chenera stays in here for too much longer and actually bonds to everyone else, pulling her from this tank won’t be good for her.” Abaria noted.

“But she is making all the young men in the tank strive to grow up quicker than usual, look at them, the second she came out, they tried to swarm her, but she out maneuvered them before disappearing again.” Thya returned as she pointed to the other males who seemed to swim around the cave, taking turns, looking at the mouth of the crevice and trying to see if there was any other entrance to it but you had moved one of the bits of leaves to stop up the entrance so that you and Nona could dine in peace.

“You fed me, now I feed you.” You offered to Nona when you had come inside and dumped your armfulls of food on the long blade of grass between you.

“You’re greener today.” Nona noted between mouthfuls.

“I adapt to my environment, it’s greener in here now, so it makes sense that I’m greener.” You explained as the green leaf that was shoved at the entrance now cast the space in a green glow.

“That’s awesome, here in this tank, only the rainbow micros change color, but as adults, otherwise, our colors are our colors as we grow, they don’t change.” Nona explained.

“Well, my siblings and I, we change ours all the time, every time we play hide and seek. It takes us most of the day to play one game because we all camouflage ourselves so well, or we play this other games, minnows in a hole, it’s where one of us tries to find a good hiding spot and we try to see how many we can cram into the same spot, I think at least five of my siblings could make it into a space like this, but we pack each other in quite tightly, but it can get hard to breathe when you’re in the back.” You shrugged.

“I’d like to see that actually.” Nona offered, although, he was sure you were prettier today than you had been the day before as the smallest hints of breasts started to bud on your chest. It was amazing how younglings could change so drastically overnight when they were growing up, it wasn’t until they reached 50 cycles when they were considered adults and stayed somewhat the same until they began to age. But all of that seemed so far off now.

Once you both had eaten your fill, then you both ventured out of the little space before Nona rounded up the younglings for a game of hide and seek.

Of course the first round, you were the first to get caught, your long flowing gold hair still stuck out along with your flashy colors.

And when it was your turn to seek, it was like almost all of the older boys hardly tried to “hide” at all so that you caught them first, so they could seek you second. The dwarf gourami micro that had been smitten with you the day before seemed to swoon over you now. If Fonta had said you were pudgy yesterday, the dwarf gourami micro- Larto, dwarfed you, but he was all flab at this stage, hardly much muscle underneath, he was nearly the biggest boy in the tank besides the adults who were still caring for the other clutches of eggs. And he looked at you the way you’d expect a predator to look at prey and it made you uneasy.

So when it was Larto’s turn to find you, you did what you knew best, you went up into the tall grasses that raised up like tall trees from the gravel, and tied your long hair up into a bun, put a piece of water lettuce and wrapped it around your head to hide your golden head and camouflaged yourself along the long blades of grass and other roots and without the gold visible from below or the sides. It was like you were invisible as long as you stayed somewhat still and “flowed” with the stalks of long grasses.

Larto unfortunately found everyone else in the tank, except for you, even being an arms length away from you, he nor any of the others could see you among the foliage.

“Did you check the cave?” One of the girls asked.

“Yes I checked it three times, she’s not in there!” Larto exclaimed before the others tried calling out to you but you stayed put, it wasn’t until they all claimed that you had won, and thus immune from being “it" for the rest of the day before you finally moved from your spot and they all gasped and groaned to realize that they had all seemed to search that spot repeatedly and yet not have been able to spot you at all as you swam down to them, the camouflage you had once sported, being shed and draining away and the vibrance of your colors and sheens and shimmers returning to your body and your fins the closer you swam to the group as your billowy fins seemed to surround you even while you swam ever so gracefully down to them, your hair falling from it’s previous bun and flowing behind you like a curtain of gold once more.

“That’s no fair! You have hidden camouflage!” The other girls protested as the guys themselves were too impressed and temporarily stunned and dumbfounded to voice any kind of complaint.

“I do. In my home tank, it’s what we all do, except my parents, they can’t change like the young ones can, it’s to keep us from being bait to any other fish that might try to eat us.” You calmly supplied.

“Well it’s still not fair! You have a gold head and hair, you should have stuck out like a sick fin and you shouldn’t be allowed to change like that because we can’t change like that!” Melbeth argued angrily as the other girls echoed their agreement to that.

“I shouldn’t be allowed to be myself and do what I’ve been born and apparently bred to do? To naturally camouflage?” You repeated in confusion.

“Melbeth, don’t be a sore loser, just because she was able to hide better than us, doesn’t mean it’s her fault, isn't one of the lessons that are taught to us is that survival favors those who can adapt to change? Her subspecies just mastered it, that’s all. It’s not her fault she was born that way.” Nona defended you.

“And it’s not her fault that you’re red and blue and tried to hide among some green moss. You just stood out like a sick fin too.” Larto defended as well as he came over and tried to put his arm around your shoulders but you quickly dipped and swam just out of his reach and pulled your hair from his fingers so he wouldn’t grab at it either.

“Please don’t touch me.” You requested respectfully as you swam away from him to be with the other girls, although much good it did you, because they swam away from you, isolating you further before Nona came and simply stayed by you and took your hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“How come he can touch you though?” Larto demanded angrily.

“Because he doesn’t look at me like you do.” You answered.

“What does that mean?” Larto demanded, clearly offended by that.

“You look at me the way I look at food. The way you look at me, makes me feel like you’re going to eat me too and I don’t like it.” You maintained with your head held high and your chest puffed out as millions of years of fighting instinct suddenly unlocked in your brain and body as your eyes focused on Larto, already mapping out how to hurt him fastest and with the most accuracy and efficiency with minimal effort on your part. He may have been twice your size but you felt like you had the heart of a fish three times his size beating in your chest.

“Hey, I’m a dwarf gourami micro ok? The only fish bigger than me are the oscar micros, the angel micros and they’re all too big even for this tank. So I can look at whoever I want, however I want.” Larto insisted as he came over and scowled at you and towered over you as the others slowly backed away except for Nona who tried to pull you back behind him but you refused to back away from Larto, refusing to give him a millimeter as you glared just as angrily and hatefully back at him.

“And I like looking at you, cause you’re the prettiest girl in here, so get used to it.” He leveled with a smug smirk as the other girls scuffed and bristled at the comparison.

“I can fix that.” You offered with a smirk of your own as you got an idea.

“Yes you can, you can give me a smile for starters.” Larto demanded before you rolled your eyes and groaned in annoyance and let go of Nona and swam down to the gravel floor to pick up a piece of gravel and began tossing it up and catching it again before picking up other ones and casually juggling them, the muscles in your arms flexing with the exercise.

“I could, but I don’t want to, so what I could do instead is I could…” You began to swim deceivingly gracefully towards Larto, two of the three pieces of gravel falling to the floor of the tank behind you as you kept the last piece of gravel behind your back and covered by your long golden hair before you got just above eye level with Larto and gave him a predatory look of your own, which both thrilled and exhilarated him but also just gave him an ounce of fear because there was a dangerous curve to your grin and he didn’t fully trust the look in your eyes either, he had looked at you with lust, but you were looking at him with thinly veiled malice.

“Poke your eyes out so you can’t look at anything, how about that?!” You seethed as you closed the distance between you and him with surprisingly great speed, headbutting him and knocking him off balance and on his side and grabbed him by the throat with surprising strength and reared your other hand back with the piece of gravel in your hand as your colors changed yet again, from a beautiful black and greens, to blood red as you saw the very real fear start to fill his eyes as you bared your teeth to him in an impressive threat display as your fins unfurled completely until you appeared to be just as big as he was as the spines of your fins stayed black and began to poke towards him.

“If you do, you’ll go into the bully tank, there are fish bigger and meaner than me who would eat you for breakfast!” Larto sputtered desperately, shocked and scared by your actions since they were the opposite of what he was expecting as he tried to loosen your grip on his throat. For being as big as he was, he was surprisingly weaker than you were at this stage in his life.

“Chenera don’t, he’s right! If the others come and see you like this, they’ll think you’re the bully and put you in the bully tank.” Nona pleaded with you as he took the piece of gravel from your grasp and let it fall.

“Let him go, he’s not worth it. Even you- are too young and too small to survive that tank. Please Chenera, let him go.” Nona pleaded before he tried to take your hand from Larto’s throat before you let Larto go, but still scratching his neck with your clawed fingertips as you let your grip off of Larto's neck which made Larto hiss in pain and reach for his neck.

“Look at me like I’m food again, and see what happens, I dare you.” You threatened Larto before you slapped him two body lengths away with your powerful body and fins before you let Nona lead you away and back to the group as your colors changed back to what they were before, but by this point, all the other younglings had seemed to make their minds up about you. You did not belong and you were obviously aggressive when you weren’t a scaredy-fish as all the girls continued to school together and away at the other end of the tank to hang out on the soft moss and bask in the bright lights and glimmer like little jewels themselves while the other males retreated to the other end of the tank rethink things. If you could be just as aggressive as a dwarf gourami- attempting to mate with you, even though you were still a bit young for it, meant you could seriously hurt them and while you may have been the prettiest girl in the tank, you weren’t worth their lives.

So all that was left was for you to sit on top of the cave with Nona that was in the middle of the tank while the adults were still inside and helping the latest clutch of eggs hatch.

“How come when I defend myself from a bully, the others shun me?” You asked Nona as you sat and sulked and cast a look over to the other girls who were playing some other game amongst the moss.

“Because dwarf gourami micros can be known to be aggressive, usually only one or two are kept in a tank like this, or kept in tanks where there are nothing but dwarf gourami mircos. Usually everyone is used to backing down from them, but to see you match his aggression, even though it was in self defense, the attitudes in this tank are, you are either aggressive like a bully or nice like the rest of us. And you’re the first one that is in between so they don’t know what to make of you.” Nona shrugged, not knowing what else to say as he sat next to you and held your hand again.

“So why aren’t you with your other friends and brothers then?” You asked him as you nodded over to the other end of the tank where the other boys were casting curious looks your way and quietly talking among themselves.

“Because I like you better than any and all of them. I know you’re not a bully or usually aggressive, but you’re brave and you have courage and you don’t let others push you around which is awesome and a first for many in this tank. Plus I know you’re not a scaredy fish either, you’re just smart enough to hide when there is danger and camouflage yourself when you’re being hunted. You’re probably the smartest fish in the whole tank because your instincts have saved your life so far and you’re smart to listen to them. You’ve been through things that no one in this tank has been through. That I’m sure if they had gone through what you had gone through, they would show some more sympathy. But they’re just younglings and they don’t know any better yet and I’m sure if they were older and more mature, they’d understand.” He comforted you before he let go of your hand to put an arm around your shoulders and grinned lopsidedly when you rest your head on his shoulder as your soft, long flowing hair surrounded both of you as he gently ran his fingers through it, he couldn’t help it, it was still the softest thing he had ever felt.

“Well thank you for staying my friend then.” You offered.

“You’re welcome, you’re a good friend to have.” He returned.

When it came time to go to sleep though, even your “half brothers and sisters” refused to let a “bully” sleep with them since the parents were sleeping with the clutches of eggs, leaving the younglings to sleep in piles in the sandy pits.

So once again, you and Nona returned to your crevice, continuing to move the gravel around, expanding the space so that it was a proper cave-like space under the cave-like hide and lined it with fresh grasses and other plants and algae to make a space comfortable for both of you as once again, Ethel was too distraught to really look at her other tanks as she passed by and went to bed.

It wasn’t for a few more days until, Ethel’s assistant, Channel, came to check up on the tanks and refill the automatic feeders and do a cleaning since Ethel was still dealing with the police and the investigation that Channel moved the big rock hide to vacuum under it and it exposed you and Nona as your first instinct was to take Nona by the hand and quickly swim to the other foliage and back him up behind you and camouflage yourself so that both of you were hidden from view.

“What the hell?” Channel said as she saw the flash of gold.

“Goldies aren’t supposed to be in this tank.” Channel said before she called Ethel.

“Yes?” Ethel answered.

“You need to come home, I think one of your gold chameleons got dropped into the odds and ends tank by those fairies.” Channel informed her boss.

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” Ethel immediately answered as she stopped what she was doing and had her other employees pick up where she left off and immediately rushed home.

“Where? Where’s the gold chameleon?” Ethel asked as she came over to the tank before Channel pointed you out.

“Oh thank goodness, that’s Chenera! Oh look at how she’s grown! Even with the flakes instead of the special micro-betta food, oh look at those colors! Oh if it wasn’t for that gold head, she’d be almost impossible to see, let me get the net.” Ethel said as she got her net and tried to catch you before you kept darting all over the tank with Nano in tow.

“Ethel’s trying to bring you home! Quit trying to swim away from the net! Nona called to you as you swam with all your speed as he did his best to keep up.

“To hell with that, I ain’t leaving you behind.” You insisted as you tried to hide inside one of the other hides and glue yourself to the top so you couldn't be seen.

“But don’t you want to go to your home tank? And be with your family?” Nona asked.

“I’ve been in this tank too long, they’ll probably reject me because I won’t smell right. You’re the only family I need now.” You insisted as you peeked out to see where the net was and where else you could hide.

“Chenera listen to me! You don’t belong in here. You are some kind of special micro, I don’t know what kind but special enough that you probably need special food and to live in a special tank and be with your own kind. If you get aggressive when pushed by a dwarf gourami, I don’t want to think how aggressive your family will be towards me and I’m just a guppy micro. I’d be no match to them, hell I’m no match for the platys or the mollys or anything else. This needs to happen whether you like it or not Chenera. Just let me go, so you can go back home. I will always remember you and while I will miss you like crazy, this is for the best. She’s not going to stop until you’re caught and the net is already stressing everyone out.” Nona tried to reason with you as he held your face in the darkness as little blue tears came to his eyes while they flowed from yours too.

“But I don’t want to let you go. You’re all I have!” You cried as you clung to him.

“You’re all I have too, and while I’m grateful you landed in this tank and I'm so grateful that I got to meet you and know you and I’ll never forget you or our friendship for as long as I live. Please, I know this is hard and scary. But, it’s the way things will have to be.” Nona comforted you before you kissed him as you pressed your body to his, your own camouflage matching his pattern onto you as he kissed you back just as strongly before the hide was picked up and you reluctantly let go of Nona, your long hair slipping through his fingers for the last time as you reluctantly swam into the net, casting one last longing look at Nona before the net was pushed to envelop you completely as Nona watched on helplessly as you curled into another ball, your fins covering you and shielding you from view as you cried at being parted from Nona as you were picked up and Ethel held you and a little bit of water in the palm of her hand as she carried you over to your family’s tank around the corner and out of view from the odds and ends tank.

"Oh you poor thing, you made friends huh? I know it hurts to leave them, but you're about to be reunited with your family, you should be happy." Ethel tried to comfort you before she gently dropped you into your family's tank.

“Look who I found! The fairy that tried to take her must have dropped her into the odds and ends tank. I’m so sorry I didn’t go through the tanks more thoroughly, or I would have found her and returned her sooner.” Ethel apologized to your parents and siblings who had now, grown quite a bit and dwarfed you before you seemed to swarmed by them, all of them hugging and kissing you and holding you, trying to wipe away all the “foreign” water from you as you breathed in the once familiar water before Ethel left and returned with more pieces of special vitamin packed mackerel and anchovy and special betta micro food just for you so you could eat and catch up to the rest of your family. “She’s been in the odds and ends tank and they don’t get the same food as you guys, so she’s underweight and undersize now. You’ll help her catch up won’t you? The color tank morphing stage is only in a few days, so we found her just in time.” Ethel told your parents and siblings as she dropped in what she could before you were led to the soft sand pit again and given most of the hunks of mackerel and anchovy all to yourself as your family asked what had happened to you as you told them what happened, and how you were treated in the other tank, how the elders and the adults welcomed you with open arms but all the younglings around your own age shunned you because of how different you were to them, except for Nona. Whose pattern was still on your own tail. And how he was your only friend while in that tank.

Meanwhile back in the other tank Ethel was collecting the oldest adolescents who were about to be subadults as she noticed the scratches on the dwarf gourami and chuckled.

"Did you try to mate with my gold chamelon betta micro? And did she hand you your ass?" Ethel teased him as he scoweld and sulked.

"Well, it serves you right, she was too young for that, she's much younger than you and obviously of a different species." She insisted to him and the other males she had scooped up and put into the bag to transport them back to the shop for processing.

"I know, you don't want to leave either, but it's time for you to go too, thanks for being her friend sweetheart," She cooed to Nona as she scooped him up too and put him with the others.

"But I'm sorry to say, none of you will ever meet anything like her ever again. Chenera is a very special gold headed chameleon betta micro. From my best breeding stock I have and worth her weight in pearls and then some. And chances of any of you ever seeing anything like her again, are slim to none I'm sorry to say, what a beauty she was wasn't she? But as always, adults and elders, thank you so much for looking after her and doing the best you could for her, here is an anchovy for you guys and another clutch of molly eggs that were abandoned and surrendered at the store. So mollies, you're up." She said as she put the clutch down as the molly adults went over and happily took over the eggs with extra food for incentive.

"Ah, that explains, everything." Nona confessed as the bag was lifted and from this vantage point, just in the distance he could see a small tank full of gold dots and colorful fins and figured you were in that one and safely home.

"Goodbye Chenera, I loved you. I'm sorry I was too much of a scardey fish to say it until now." Nona admitted to himself, regretting not saying it when he had the chance. He should have swam after the net and told you, he should have been brave like you, he should have kissed you first, he should have admitted his own feelings for you so much sooner when you weren't being chased by that net. But he looked on with bittersweet relief. You were home, you were safe, you were surrounded by your kind and your family and if you would turn out to be anything like the other betta micros he could see from here, what a true beauty you'd end up being when you would fully grow up and mature. And that's the best that could have happened, and it did.

Meanwhile back in your home tank...

“What tank is this anyway?” You asked them as you ate after you had caught them up.

“Oh honey, we are the gold chameleon betta micro tank. You’re a gold chameleon betta micro. You’re the best of the best as far as the species goes. That’s why you have a gold head and hair but otherwise you change to suit your environment. So this pattern on your body, is this Nona’s pattern?” Your mother Miralia asked.

“Yes, he’s a guppy micro.” You answered as you looked down at your tail and traced the pattern over it, missing Nona like crazy. Wondering if your father or brothers would have actually attacked him if he had tried to follow you or if you had drug him along or if Ethel just would have grabbed him from the net and dropped him back in anyway.

“Ah that explains the shape and pattern. Well guppies are always friendly, I’m glad he at least was able to be your company and friend while you were in there and helped to keep you safe. Did the other males try to swarm you and always try to get you attention?” Your father Avarian asked worriedly.

“Yes, one was a dwarf gourami micro- named Larto- he was..he looked at me like I was food and tried to push me around and I threatened to smash his eyes out if he didn’t knock it off.” You answered and were surprised when your whole family cheered as your parents gave each other a meaningful and knowing look.

“Atta girl! Well we are bettas after all, we’re also known as “Siamese fighting micros” and we don’t back down from a fight or put up with any attitude from anyone else, and we never mix with gouramis, either dwarf or otherwise. Usually because they can grow to be twice our size as adults. But if he was still a youngling, you stood a good chance of making good on that threat and beating his tail into the gravel. So I take it that the reason you’re so dark is because you were hiding in some kind of cave? To get away from those awful dwarf gourami micros?” They asked and you nodded yes.

"Well that and he could have been looking at you like you were food or he could have been looking at you with mating on his brain." Your father gently broke to you.

"Eeewww!" You gagged and fought to keep your new food down as your siblings laughed as they shuddered.

"Yeah, eewww, no thank you." Your sisters repeated.

"That and you're still several cycles too young for that kind of thing anyway, and with the odds and ends tank, no one is rarely the same age, they get new clutches almost daily, how they keep everything straight is a miracle. But when you get to that stage, don't be surprised when every guy you meet looks at you that way but you won't have this reaction, you'll actually like it, expect it and want it, when it's from another betta micro." Your mother explained as you gave her a disbelieving look.

"Just trust me on this." Your mother placted.

“Anyways, never again will you ever have to put up with dwarf gouramis or any other micros of any other kind because usually us betta micros are kept all by ourselves in mated pairs and families to a tank, occasionally once you make it into the shop, if a buyer wants to put you into another tank, you might be with other micros, maybe even guppies or mollies or whatever, but never any dwarf gouramis or oscars or angels, because they’re all too big, and equally as aggressive as we can be, it’s either one mated pair of dwarf gouramis, oscars or bettas or angels, never two and definitely never all four at the same time.” Your mother explained.

It almost felt odd to sleep in a sleep pile again, this time in the absolute middle of it, your sisters had combed and braided your hair gorgeously so that it wouldn’t tangle. And after spending so long just sleeping in a small cave with Nona. You looked out into the room past the glass panes of the tank, with the various nightlights transfixed about the room and new motion sensors and cameras in the corners flashing red every once in a while that had been installed while you were in the odds tank.

You missed Nona, and the foliage, and the privacy of that little cave. Where it felt like you two were the only two micros in the world, and you were still shocked to learn that you were supposed to be so precious and amazing and better than anything or anyone else but to have what felt like half your life to be treated the opposite, you had a hard time accepting it, especially when Nona had treated you like an equal while also making you feel accepted and comforted and even a little special, because he was your only friend and you were his and you had felt odd to have a crush on him for the last couple of cycles and to take your one shot at kissing him, it was thrilling yet heartbreaking because it was your first, and probably your last and you felt sure that the way you felt about Nona, you didn’t want to feel that way about anyone else for as long as you lived.

But still, you had to admit, you had missed your family and your parents and the amazing food. Plus learning the true nature of yourself, made everything make a lot more sense.

But if you could get adopted by someone who would adopt other micros of other kinds, you had the small chance of seeing Nona again, you would just have to wait and be patient.

#Mermay #Mermay 2021 #Yes I know I'm late #as usual #I'm sorry #Micro mermaids #exo #exophillia #mermaids #mermaid romance #micro mermaid romance

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cutesuki--bakugou · 4 years ago

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Don’t Forget Me

Art in banner done by me.

College Life / Mermaid / Kimi no Na wa (Your Name) inspired AU

It’s all nothing but a dream. A series of dreams that are all too real. That’s all it is. Your soul - or whatever it was - couldn’t possibly be swapping places with a Merman. One, mermaids aren’t real. Two, that’s not even possible! Is it?

Mermaid!Bakugou Katsuki x Fem!Human Reader

Want to start from be beginning? Check the Don’t Forget Me tag.

Genre: Romance / Angst Story

Rating: Explicit | Adult Themes, Interspecies Sex (merman / human), Masturbation, Alcohol, Animal death / hunting (whales, fish, sharks, etc), Cursing, Descriptions of Injuries and Blood

A/N: This is my part for the @bnhabookclub weekly collab event Just Add Water for MerMay! I know there isn’t much going on in this, but it’s just the first chapter to a new multichapter fic. Per the rules of the collab, I used the prompt “That’s just an urban legend”. I’m excited, because I’ve wanted to do a Mer!Bakugou x reader for a LONG time and could never think of anything. But when this theme was announced, I was watching Kimi no Na wa and immediately had this idea. So, full disclosure, the theme of switching bodies in their sleep / forgetting each other is inspired by that movie, but that is all that I take away from it.

Prologue: Stone

Chapter Rating: Teen | Cursing

Words: 1,855

You were doing it again.

How many times had you caught yourself staring at the delicate necklace in your hands? More than you could probably count on all your fingers and toes, and you were sure that number had nearly doubled just in the last week. You really weren’t sure why you were drawn to it so intensely, nor why it gave you such a deep sense of loss and loneliness.

Where had you gotten it from?

You couldn’t remember. In truth, you couldn’t remember getting it at all. As far as you could recollect, it had been around your neck when you woke up one morning, about two months ago. Since then, you refused to go a day without it, even if it didn’t necessarily match your outfit or any particular occasion. You felt so lost without it around your neck, like a part of you was away, off in some distant land or deep within the sea.

Why did you think that?

Of all things, why would you assume that this missing part of you was in the ocean? Was it because of the necklace? Probably. The silver clam shaped pendant that rested in your palm was most likely the culprit to make you think of the sea. But that particular piece of the jewelry wasn’t what kept you so entranced. Set in the middle was a small, perfectly round stone, and its brilliance is what you couldn’t help but stare into. To anyone else, it would just appear to be a small marble, with brilliant deep indigo, swirling turquoise and hints of radiant purples. There were sparkles of twinkling white, like light reflecting off a water's surface, and if you gazed into it long enough, you could have sworn that the colors were mixing and twisting, as if there truly was water inside the stone.

It was so beautiful. Had someone given it to you? Whoever did must have cared about you so deeply to give you something so special. You had asked all your friends and family if they knew anything about how you got it, but no one knew anything. You received some weird looks and uncomfortable responses when you tried to ask them, but that didn’t bother you much, not when you had been dealing with people finding you strange for almost half a year now, anyway.

Why did they find you weird again? You couldn’t remember.

All you knew was that it had to do with this necklace. You had tried to find out what it was made of to try and get any hints on where it may have come from, but each jewelry store or stone expert you took it to, they all had the same response. They just didn’t know. Many offered to buy it from you at varying prices, their interest peaked and their hopes of being the first person to discover a new stone pushing them forward. But you resisted, as just even letting it out of your hands so they could look at it enough to make you nearly burst into tears. You couldn’t let it go and you wouldn’t, either. Not ever. Not for anything.

Because it was precious. It was the only thing that you had that could help to calm this nearly unending sense of longing.

But what was it you were longing for?

Or who?

Why did that always pop up in your mind? There were so many pieces of scattered thoughts that you just couldn’t put together. A person. The sea. Feeling like a piece of you was missing. You wanted these feelings to end, but you knew that they wouldn’t, not until you found what you were searching for.

With a frustrated sigh, you put the necklace back on around your neck, clasping it in place with skilled fingers. Standing from your bed, you shuffled your way towards your desk, lightly running your fingers down along the slender metal chain. Your mind was still in a hazy grip of sleep, barely registering that the electronic clock mostly hidden by books and other stationary read 5:49 AM, though that didn’t really matter. Your mind was racing with the overbearing thoughts, and as you sat down in your squeaky office chair, you were already near breaking out into tears.

The necklace wasn’t the only clue you had. Scattered among the desk were notebooks and papers, though you had refused to touch them for the last few weeks. At first, you had meticulously looked over every page and every written note, trying to do everything you could to learn about who this person was that you were missing. But now they sat on your desk, abandoned in defeat. There were many things in the notes that didn’t make sense to you now, though according to what you had written, you had understood it all at one point.

What you had written.

That was what was the most odd. There were two very distinct handwritings within the notebooks and scribbled on the scrap pieces of paper or sticky notes. Yours was so proper and easy to read, clean and steady. The other was rough with some of the characters almost completely illegible, requiring you to assume what the person writing must have been trying to say. Large and scratchy, it almost resembled the handwriting of a child or what you assume would be someone new to writing on paper. The phrases. The choice of words. All of it was completely different from yours.

It had been another person. Someone sat in your chair, in your room, and wrote these messages to you. At first, you thought that it just had to be a prank. One of your friends was fucking with you. That was the only realistic solution. But none of them talked this way, and if you were honest, they weren’t exactly clever enough to pull off such a big ordeal over months and months.

The way they talked… It was so strange. You just couldn’t wrap your head around it, and if you were honest, you thought that they must have been a little crazy. Yet, you weren’t all that rattled in most of your responses, like you knew what they had been saying to be the truth.

The conversations were so… natural. In fact, most of it was like a diary, with the scratchy handwriting cataloging what had happened that day, how they felt about it, and what they had done.

This school shit that you humans do is so stupid and pointless. Who the fuck needs to know about… what is it called? Calculus? You’re never going to use that shit, I’m not bothering with keeping up with it, fuck that. You always catch up on your own anyway. That bitch Midoriya or whatever gave you some fucking flowers today. I thought about stomping on them and telling him to fuck off, but I just took them and left. You need to tell that prick you’re not into him or this shit will never stop. Also, the way you humans handle courtship is fucked. I didn’t do shit today otherwise. Just stayed in the room. I did find your sketchbook though. You’re getting better, but you still can’t remember us for shit.

Pulling your eyes up from the paper, they immediately landed on the mentioned sketchbook, which was tucked up beneath some schoolbooks. Carefully, you pulled it out, setting it down on the pile of papers to thumb through it.

It had been so long since you had even opened this thing. The feeling of the coarse paper beneath your fingertips brought a small smile to your face, as did seeing all your old sketches and doodles. Though, the smile faded as you reached near the middle of the sketchbook, your eyes tearing up immediately at the contents of the page. The page was completely covered in drawings of what looked to be mermaids, or mermen, to be more accurate. They were mostly faceless and unidentifiable, the sketches geared more towards poses and anatomy. The only thing mostly consistent was the tail. It seemed to be the same over all the drawings, with matching fins and scribbled patterns.

“Mermaids… I’ve never cared to draw them before, why did I…?”

After another turn of the page, you were met with similar things, only this time they had heads and hair, jewelry, pieces of clothing, and even weapons. Only one of the sketches resembled the previous drawings, and his particular features called to you. The feeling of recognition and longing grew fiercer with another turn of the page, which was all nothing but sketches of that particular merman’s head with varying expressions and positions. He was particularly attractive, with slanted piercing eyes and a mass of fluffy spiked hair on his head. He had fin-like ears that were mostly drooped, but flared out on the drawings with a more intense expression, where his mouth was open in a yell or intense fanged snarl.

A small gasp left your lips as a drop of liquid suddenly landed onto the paper, pulling you out of your daze. Crying? Why were you crying? Why did your heart feel like it was about to be ripped from your chest? It wasn’t possible for this to be the man that you had been longing for. You had drawn him as a mermaid! They weren’t real, and there was no way that was possible. He couldn’t even get into your room, let alone sit in your chair and write you letters.

“I’m so ridiculous…” You whispered quietly to yourself, wiping the tears from your flushed cheeks. Had you been blushing? You didn’t even notice. “Mermaids… That’s just an urban legend. A myth. I must have just been in a phase… Maybe I saw a movie or an anime with them, and I got super invested? But then… they’re so…”

Page after page, more sketches followed, some making you giggle while others made your chest ache so badly you thought you would pass out. But then, there was something scribbled onto a page that made your entire body grow cold, stomach twisting into such a tight knot you were sure that you’d vomit.

Save me.

“Save… Save you?” You choked out into the silent room with a trembling voice, more tears cascading down your cheeks as you reached up to grip the pendant around your neck tightly. It was in the familiar scratchy handwriting, though it was more frantic and messy than you had ever seen. Hiccupping, you brought the pendant up to your lips, pressing the stone against them as you struggled to calm yourself.

Save you from what? What the hell happened? Did I save you? Why the hell can’t I remember!

It was then that you felt an odd pulsing against your lips, and as you pulled away in shock, your teary gaze was locked onto the pendant in your hands, which was pulsing slowly with a pale green glow. And with it came a thought, like a soft voice whispering in your ear that you couldn’t ignore.

He’s calling to me…

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