Random Oneshots Pt. 2 | [Requests Open!]

Charles x Edwin: {Let Me Hear You Say} [M-ish]

.𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟.

  Edwin has never belonged.

  He had never felt like he'd belonged. Within his colony of those who were like him, but yet, not quite. He had never belonged on land, either, where humans hunted those who were seemingly alike to him for their tears. His colony doesn't like him, nor did they like the humans, who would also shun him away. So he never felt like he belonged.

  It doesn't matter because he liked his solitude. It doesn't matter that the most important part about a siren like him, his vocal cords, don't work - well, they do, but he hasn't spoken in years, and he'd rather not. He doesn't want to hurt the humans, he doesn't want to interact with them either. He's fine with other fish, he doesn't need the plentiful flesh that call to him when he was hungry and wanted to rise above water and drag a poor fisherman in.

  He'd never even surfaced. Unlike his peers, who seemed to like the surface and the humans above it - for their meat and nothing else - who liked their voices and wanted to show it off. The beauty of their tails, their appearance, reeling in the fishermen. And even as Edwin had one of a kind - a transparent tail that glowed in rainbow when seen through the light and looked as if he was transparent like a ghost - he didn't ever bother surfacing, never seen the sun in its full brightness. Only from under the moving waters, and even then it was bright.

  Edwin can't and won't sing - he was never confident in his voice - so his peers never liked him. They made fun of him when he was little for not being able to even say a word. No one bothered teaching someone like him how to use his hands to communicate. No one bothered to look at him at all.

  His parents don't look at him, and so he won't return home. He's unloveable, anyway. Creatures like them don't love, they don't feel their heart beat for someone else like the books that Edwin found from sunken ships - it's a wonder why anyone would bring such a thing on board - their purpose is to mate, and to kill.

  During his years of education, he shrunk himself as much as possible to make himself invisible. And now that he's able to leave, he left his colony to live in solitude. It's not like anyone wanted his company, anyway. A small cavern deep within the water that surfaced into a cave with pretty glowing crystals.

  Bookshelves he'd found filled to the brim with books he took from sunken ships, learning about those above without needing to see them. Unlike those who he had been with before finding his way out, books had never turned him away. Their characters were so vast and there are so many adventures that he had wished to see. Edwin found himself relating to the characters at least one way or another. He had found his refuge within books, and he was content.

  It was fine by him that no one looked his way, long ago.

  And so he lived like that for a century. He goes out when he needs to, he finds new books on his adventures and return a few days later. He stacks up on food, and he doesn't surface. Not once. Not ever.

  Life for him was well.

.𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟.

  Edwin panics.

  His sharp nails claw at the ropes that got him, webbed fingers grasping at the net, and he wonders how he'd been so careless, swimming in the waters where fishermen would be. He had only wanted to collect a few things that were littered and left behind by careless humans whose brains were too stupid to mind the sea creatures that lived from below. One man's litter is another man's treasure, he'd read once, and it came true when he came looking for utilities.