mizuxfem!oc
The Ningyo (人魚, "human fish") is a creature with both human and fish-like features.
Many fishermen who find these creatures caught in their nets throw them back into the ocean.
For if a ningyo is caught, she will bring misfortune and cal...
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CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: YUE _______
"I requested Chia-Wei."
Commander Tobias van Ruyven could recognize her footsteps far before Chia-Wei slid open the shoji doors. The paper-like, semi-transparent doors gave a silhouette of her body from the outside. Chia-Wei was the most graceful, beautiful woman in the house. Her soft footsteps were a butterfly that only he could catch in his net. So, when he heard the clingy, slightly awkward steps of someone else, he spoke the moment the door slid open. His back was turned from the entrance. He stared out at the moon, sitting by the cushioned bench.
The duck-footed woman said nothing. He heard the partition slide close and her same footsteps came nearer.
"I said, I requested Chia-Wei. Off with you," he grumbled in poor Mandarin. He looked over, and his cerulean eyes fell on a fresh new face, one not weighed down by the inescapable burden this line of work bestowed. The deep, rich blues of her kimono reminded him of the sea. He was briefly caught off-guard by it and bit his tongue.
Sogo gave a bow, the golden jewelry in her hair softly jingled like wind chimes. Truthfully, she didn't understand a single thing he said. Mandarin was not her native language, so his strong Dutch accent and nuanced errors made it harder to understand...
"You're new," van Ruyven said, shifting his attention from the moon to the young woman. "Good evening. What's your name? Come, sit by me."
She couldn't follow, he spoke quite fast. But he laid his large hand with thin ginger hairs above his knuckle on the window seat beside him. Once he saw her up close, he was captivated.
Sogo took a deep breath before she reached his side. He kept staring right at her like he knew her, like he recognized her, or like he was pasting the face of someone else on hers. He saw what he wanted to see.
Ena was accurate when she said his eyes were like Mizu's, although Mizu's were far more beautiful. He had deep-set, down-turned eyes like he was about to sleep at any moment. His lashes were as bright as his hair, a fiery blonde bleached white underneath the moon. The beast Mizu had caged on the ship, Fowler, had hair like a devasting fire, but the commander's hair was golden straw. She'd never seen someone with hair like gold, like sunlight encapsulated, sunlight you could touch.
It made her nervous, understandably, staring so close to a white face, especially with such a rigid language barrier. He said something else, something her ears couldn't pick apart. His rugged voice had the scent of sweet sake, an alcoholic beverage mixed with honey and papaya she vaguely recognized.
His hair was so long and up in braids that curved around his head and fell forward from his chest. It was longer than her own. He leaned closer, the ends of his yellow hair slugging forward to her kimono.
