AHS One Shots {Tumblr Version}

Clair De Lune

Sailor!JPM and Syren!Reader

------------------------------

She had spotted the lone sailor as his eyes twinkled in the moonlight.

Clair De Lune... he thought to himself. I wish I could be a part of the moon.

The syren stared and stared while thinking of her song. While she thought, what seemed like forever, she had been following the ship and keeping an eye on the sailor. In her thoughts, she felt like Ariel, spying on a sailor she found incredibly handsome. But while watching from a corner, a realisation hit her mind, bringing her imagination back to reality. I won't be able to have him after! I'll have to eat him! It crushed the syren's heart, and she let herself go, sinking back to the bottom of the sea.

But the sailor was distracted, in the moonlight only, he did not see the siren looking at him lovingly. Another sailor approached the distracted man, sighing heavily to himself. James was always a distracted sailor, constantly looking at the moon when it was the evening, and zoning out when it was cleaning time. This evening was no different. At first, though, it seemed like James was zoning out as usual, but his face told a different story. There were cringes, sighs, and furrows of his eyebrows. All so many emotions for such a man who couldn't even do his job properly.

That's how the accident was caused.

James was daydreaming as usual, what about, no one knows. It was a windy day at sea, and there had been no boats for miles. Good thing the ship had heavy reinforcements, ready in case something came up in the caverns of the deep blue.

Yet the wind crashed and hurled coral, rocks, and grainy sand at the unmissable ship. James was taken in a big gush of ocean water, being hit in the eye of the storm with the rocks. Cuts, gashes and grazes all over the man's body. His clothes were now practically rags, torn. Buttons came off, buckles lost, and the small velvet he owned, was now gone forever. Lost at sea, James swam and swam, not wanting to lose his crew.

His crew? Dismissive of the captain's right-hand man, and let only the captain play James' song. They called him a yellow-belly, and a girl if he was not able to quickly find his ship in the nick of time. Simply, they let him die in their minds. How odd it was though, when they were ashore for goods, James found them. He seemed to do so while walking onto the glowing, hot sand. Almost naked, however. The rags that stuck themselves to James' body were now stained a deep red. His legs, arms, torso, everywhere. There was a scratch here, a gash there, a salty wound around about here. He was red all over, and his usual skin colour disappeared.

Screams emerged from watchers. Two did not scream. The captain, and the hiding syren. The dear Syren looking at the interactions from afar was intrigued by the man and how red he was. But she simply could not just swim up to him and look after him. Guns would be fired her way, and her life would be taken by the hateful sailors. The screams were for James. He looked odd, and like he did not belong on land. People started to run away, they did not want to witness a crazy person die. His crew watched on, shocked that the daydreaming man found his way to land. "James?" The captain asked as he slowly walked towards James. He snapped his head over. "James is that you?" No response, he was unaware of what the captain had said to him.

A snap brought James back to reality.

A fine and clean reality of the ship at sea. "Guys! We got a Syren!" A member of the crew shouted as he brought a syren onto the sea. Her eyes were dull and lifeless, her mouth sewn shut. Presumably by the member of the crew who brought her wriggling body on board. The chatter and mutters were hoarded around the creature. Everyone was intrigued, James too. He looked at her. "What should we do with it?"

Ideas were spurted out.

"Kill her."

"Let her drown"

"she can breath underwater dumbass."

"tape her gills shut!"

"torture her and then throw her out."

"I want her."

That last comment stuck out to everyone, and they turned around to see James looking quiet, and more meek than he usually was. "I want to name her, and take care of her."

"..." His captain gave him a look of disappointment as the crew threw the Syren back out to the sea. "want to join it? In the cold, vast, sea? Reliving every single memory you had when the horrible, dark water, almost killed you?"

"Yes."

Everyone stared daggers into James. Some of them walked into the shared room downstairs and grabbed his things. James didn't have much. Clothes, knives, shillings. The knives and shillings were rusty, he hadn't used them for ages. The two small bags were tatty, and they were thrown James' way. He picked them up with hesitation, walking backwards. He felt he had made a mistake, but the Syren was too pretty to say no to. He didn't care if the Syren ate him anymore.

"pick him up, and throw him like you threw the syren."

So they did.

He held onto his bags tight and swam up once he hit the water, his now ex-crew members, leering at him. They turned away once James felt a tap on his shoulder. It was the Syren. She looked sad, innocent and gentle. But she quickly pointed her mouth, so James nodded and swam towards a rock he could sit on. The Syren followed, hoping someone would be nice to her. James took out his tatty and rusty knife, bringing it to the Syren's lips. She was scared, shaking, and looked up at James, worried. "Shh, shh. It's okay." He gently held the Syren's chin, slicing the thin thread that was keeping her mouth shut. Both of them let out a breath, knowing she was okay. "Are you okay?" James asked, not even knowing if she could speak English or not. But in the meantime, he took out the threads, blood peeking out of the holes.

The Syren nodded. "Y/N."

"Y/N? That's pretty." James was slightly aghast that Syren would just say her name like that. Even then, he would have expected an ancient Greek name, one that the mythology would use for the sea creatures. (Sorry if your name is Greek or something-)

"Clair De Lune..." She breathed, taking deep breaths and moving herself onto the rock.

"...you know that song?"

"It's my song. I heard you humming it a while ago." Y/N smiled at the man, entranced by his eyes, his unkempt hair and his moustache. She had never seen a man like him before. It excited the dear Syren. "It's what I sing to bring people in for my sisters."

James gave a smile back, but stopped immediately, thinking to himself. "Will you use it on me?" The thought worried him, he didn't want to die right after being thrown off. But Y/N shook her head, leaning her hands on James' legs. "I don't have anywhere to go though."

Y/N leaned on James, looking up at him. "I want to keep you, please. I won't kill you, or hurt you. I want to sing for you." The sun was rising behind the rock, so there were shines of light facing their way. It made the sun orange and pink, a beautiful array of colours that captivated both Y/N and James. They watched the sky turn from pink to blue, the stars slowly fading from their vision.