Part of Your World (Sano Manjiro x Mermaid!Reader)

Act 14 - Familiarity

You were not expecting to be in this predicament. Not only did you made a fool out of yourself in front of the being you had started to avoid since coming here, you had also unintentionally caused harm to him when you pulled him down with you on your fall earlier. Of course you apologized because you felt bad despite him saying that it's okay, and insisted to patch up the grazes on his forearm, the body part that he used to cushion both your fall.

So here you were, carefully pouring a bottle of water on his stretched out forearm to clean the surrounding areas of the wound as he patiently sat at the floor of the van. An awkward silence enveloped you two despite the lively music coming from the other side of the house. Being this quiet made your sense of hearing much sharper for some reason: the soft sounds of the waves crashing on the shore from afar, the gentle chimes dancing along the soft ocean breeze at the distance, the erratic beating of your heart against your ribcage — it seems that the final one was the loudest at the moment.

How could it not? The fear of him recognizing you as the person who saved him was building up inside from the pit of your stomach, not to mention the panicked conversation that you have to yourself that bombarded your mind ever since he came.

Kuro was the one who suggested that you go out as he tried to fix the situation — assuming that he will use the elixir on him as a precaution — so what was he doing here? Did Kuro already use the elixir on him? Or did this man before you manage to slip pass Kuro before he could even use it on him?

You internally gasped while maintaining an unbothered expression on the outside. Wait, what if he actually saw me that day and noticed me?! That's must be why he suddenly came here, right? I mean, Kuro's a smart guy, he wouldn't let him off his sight like this. Or was he distracted that's why this boy slipped pass him? No, no, no, this is not good! I have to get out of here before he brings it up! You continued on with your internal struggle while trying your best not to show it in your face to the point that you didn't even notice the gaze that the young blond teen has on you.

It confused Mikey why Kuro told him to 'get his new special drink' from the van; not that he mind the effort of going, it's just that it felt like there was a hidden meaning to it — at least to him it was. He wasn't expecting much when he made his way to the van until he saw you with your back on him. His first thought was why was there a girl was out here alone but his thoughts quickly went blank when his black eyes landed on your braided (H/C) hair.

(H/C). The same hair color as his savior that he had been looking for. With his breath hitched and heartbeat quickened, he slowly made his way behind you. Once he got a good distance, he didn't think twice on catching your attention with a gentle tap on your shoulder. Well, one thing led to another and he found himself hovering above you. Then that's when we saw your eyes, your wide (E/C) eyes that made his world stop.

(H/C) and (E/C), two colors that had been lingering in his mind for years all because it belonged to her. He recalled the times where he would find himself longing to search for head of (H/C) in a sea of people, or possibly locking eyes with a pair of (E/C) orbs across the street. He couldn't even count how many times he met other women with one, or in rare cases have both, of those colored traits only to be dissapointed afterwards. No matter how hard he looked, he couldn't achieve that certain statisfaction that he has been yearning for — that was, until he saw you.

He couldn't remember the short moments that came after he met your eyes; it's like his mind had automatically shutted down, but was then turned back on when he felt the slight stinging pain on his forearm. When he looked at you tending his wound — he didn't even realize he had it — he was contemplating if he should say something because the silence around them was ironically too loud for him.