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watatsumiis · 1 year

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A Friend in the Shallows - a Mermaid!Kaveh x reader drabble

Pretty much exactly what it says on the tin! An extraordinarily late Mermay drabble!!

Content: Mermaid!Kaveh and gender neutral reader. Not inherently shippy or romantic, just a little drabble! A very light helping of angst towards the end.

It’s a relief, finally making it out to the forest again after nearly a week of constant storms. It feels like a brand new place, with a fresh coat of lush green paint to match. Branches and debris are scattered about everywhere, and you almost get lost a few times before finally recognising the two crossed trees that signal the clearing your safe haven rests in.

The water seems to be calm and still as you approach, barely a ripple on the surface. The azure pool is much deeper than it looks from the surface most days, but today you can clearly see just how far the depths go, even around the leaves and sticks scattered about.

A soft breeze blows through, disturbing the water and pulling you out of your thoughts. You look around for a few moments before spotting your preferred place to sit - a broad, flat rock nestled amongst the roots of a large, twisted birch tree. You clear some leaf mulch from it before sitting down and opening up your book, settling in to read.

The creatures of the forest make for nice companionship, despite the chill in the air. It’s not long before you recognise the cacophony of the duck family that has come to recognise your presence here, and smile in relief upon realising that they seemed to have made it through the recent storms just fine.

A while passes, and the wind begins to pick up a little more, and eventually you mark your place and set your book down beside you to regard the ducks, floating around in the pond. They seem to be focused on one area in particular, underneath a large clump of branches and bushes that seems to have grown since you were last here. They’re floating by it, pecking at the low-hanging branches and occasionally fluttering their wings.

You can’t help but frown at the sight, wondering if there might be something wrong. It takes you a while to muster up the courage to approach. You can just make out a figure in the shadows underneath the heavy layer of leaves, and redouble your pace.

Your heart drops as you wonder if it might be a body, some unfortunate hiker caught out in the storm, and you quickly begin to pull off the layers of branches from the other side, while the ducks nip and fuss about from the water.

“Hey, hey, hey!” A voice comes from within the bushes, startling you out of your stupor. “You hooligans!” They complain. “That is enough!” You hear a splash and freeze as the ducks scatter, quickly beginning to question if this is when you should be starting to run. “I was asleep!” You take a few steps back as the makeshift shelter shudders, and something large slides out from under the leaves and into the pond with a shimmer.

“That’s what I thought!” The person in the water shakes their fist at the retreating ducks. “You are not very nice neighbours you know! This happens again and I’ll be cooking one of you up for dinner!” Though, even as he speaks, you see him adjust the direction of his waving to help spook one of the ducklings off in the direction of its family before it can get lost in the reeds.

“Uhm.” You begin awkwardly, unsure of how to confront this situation. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were in there.” You take another few steps away from his shelter.

“Oh!” The person whirls around quickly, seemingly just as shocked as you are to see someone else here. “I-uh. Hello there.” His brown eyes meet yours, and his perfect eyebrows arch upwards. “You’re a human.” He observes, before you can say anything else.

“And…you’re not?” You respond dryly, setting your hands on your hips.

“Yes. Well, no - actually, kind of - I mean - I’m not human. Technically.” He stumbles over his words as he gestures vaguely. “Does being partially human count for anything?”

“What do you mean?” You frown at him as he flounders, twirling his long blond hair around his fingers, showing off the brown tips as he tilts his head to the side.

“I’m a mermaid.” He announces, with no preamble or beating around the bush. “Well, merman, I guess, if you want to be pedantic. I have yet to meet any mer who uses that title.” His chattering increases in speed, giving you no chance to butt in. “Humans made it up, actually, which is like - that’s fine, I suppose, but our biology is much more complicated than that, and-”

“A mermaid?” You manage to echo after a few moments, and the man in the pond stops in his tracks, looking up at you in a way that could either be mildly offended or somewhat amused. Now he’s still, you can see white, gold and orange scales beneath the surface of the water, shimmering softly in the light. Sprawling fins swish back and forth absently, though the mermaid is sitting in the shallows, his weight resting on the rocks and plants.

“It’s rude to stare, you know.” He narrows his eyes, a hint of a smile pulling at his lips.

You quickly avert your gaze. “Sorry.” You mumble sheepishly, cheeks warming.

He shakes his head good-naturedly and flicks his hair back. “Anyways,” he says, perking up. You brace yourself for another rant. “What’s your name?”

You introduce yourself, and the mermaid practically beams. “That’s a lovely name.” He comments, then falls silent for a few awkward moments before he remembers his manners. “I’m Kaveh, by the way. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Kaveh.” You offer a small smile, and the surface of the water ripples as Kaveh’s tail flicks about, stirring the small plants growing in the shallows.

“What brings you all the way out here?” He adjusts his position, turning his back to you as he moves towards the deeper part of the pool. “The nearest human village is…” He gestures somewhat vaguely in a direction that you most certainly did not come from. “A while away.”

You walk around the outskirts of the pool to stay in his line of sight as you answer. “Well, I come here a lot.” You inform him. “To read, do papers, write, those kinds of things. It’s…quiet.” You shuffle your feet and look down to watch the crisp green grass spring up where you’d been standing just a moment ago. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I…ah, I’ve been hanging around a while since that big storm, y’know. Taking in the scenery, helping out, waiting for inspiration… That kind of thing.” Kaveh smiles airily and waves one dainty hand about.

It doesn’t take long for you to see through his charade. “You’re stuck, aren’t you?” You raise an eyebrow.

Kaveh seems to wither in on himself a little, crinkling his nose up in distaste. “Perhaps just a little.” He admits after a few moments.

You can’t help but laugh, and his tail flicks back and forth, shimmering in the dappled sunlight coming through the leaves as his pointed ears take on a distinct downward tilt. “Well, where did you come from? Can’t you go back?”

Kaveh lets out a long-suffering sigh. “Theoretically, yes.” He waves a hand about. “I’m drawing up a schematic for a device that will be able to carry me through the forest and back home.” He taps a pouch on his hip. “There are just a few bits and pieces I need that I can’t find here. Wheels, elastics, those kinds of things.”

“Oh.” You mull over the problem for a few moments, scratching your chin in thought. “Well…Maybe I might be able to help you with some of it.” You run over your budget in your head, and vaguely wonder where you’d be able to source the cheapest wheels from.

“Really?” The way his face lights up is akin to watching the sun come out from behind a cloud, and his fins flare out in excitement while his tail all but wags, sending a few small fish darting back towards the outskirts of the pond.

“I mean, I don’t see why not.” You manage to smile, though you’re a little preoccupied with trying to figure out the exact way you’d go about all this, when you’d come down to help. “I couldn’t just leave you stuck here.”

“You know, I think my housemate would like you.” Kaveh informs you with a cheeky smile that suggests that perhaps his housemate is a touch more judgemental than he’s letting on.

“Mermaids have houses?” You ask, before you can stop yourself. “And housemates?” You try to picture it in your head, but all you can come up with is an image of a mermaid palace from a book you read as a child.

“What, did you think we just flop upside-down and float down the river like dead fish when we get tired?” He scoffs, rolling onto his back in the shallows with a dramatic flourish, sending a spray of water showering over you as he flicks his fins, his piebald-patterned scales glimmering in the dappled light of the clearing.

You yelp in surprise and shield your face from the cold droplets. “Hey!” You scold him lightheartedly. He gives you a grin that’s somewhere between apologetic and mischievous.

“Come on, let me show you the schematic.” Kaveh tells you suddenly, pulling a rolled up scroll of something that looks akin to paper, but a little more sturdy. “Come on, get over here, I’m not drying myself out sitting in the dirt with you.” He waves you over.

You both spend the next few hours poring over his schematics - he shows you a few other projects he was working on before the storm, while you both exchange details about your own respective lives. You share a bit of the lunch you packed, and he offers you some interesting little edible plant wraps from one of his satchels in return.

Before you know it, the sun is beginning to set, and the clearing is getting darker faster than you’re comfortable with. You sigh regretfully and make to pull yourself into a standing position. “I’m sorry, Kaveh, I should go.” You look up at the sky, splotched with light grey clouds.

“Wait.” Before you can straighten out, you feel Kaveh’s cold hand around your wrist, and his brown eyes fix you with a doleful look.

“What is it?” You ask, a little worried that he was under the impression that you were going to stay here overnight, or come back with his supplies today.

“You…” His voice seems to die in his throat, which comes as a bit of a shock to you - even though you’ve only known him for a couple of hours, it seems like he’s always got something to say, and no measure of impulse control to stop him from saying it. “You’ll come back, right?” He tries for a smile, but it comes out a little wobbly and nervous.

“Of course. I said I would, didn’t I?” You return his smile, though the intensity in his gaze feels almost intimidating.

“I- well, yeah, yeah, you did.” Kaveh lets you go, shrugging his shoulders as if he’s shedding a heavy backpack. “Just, be safe, won’t you?” He tilts his head to the side. “I mean, you’re my ticket out of here.” He runs his fingers through his hair and lets out a little laugh that turns into an awkward cough as you don’t laugh along.

There’s something in his gaze, some sad sort of longing that makes you realise for the first time that he’s carrying a heavy loneliness within him, one that stems from something more than the few days he’s spent isolated in this little clearing. It makes your heart ache. “I’ll be back.” You assure him. “I promise.”

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