The Little Mermaid

Chapter 4: Being Human

"No eating raw fish, unless it's in sushi you have to eat it cooked."

"Mmm hmm," She says, deep in concentration.

"And remember, when we go shop for clothes we have to give them money, they don't just give away dresses for free, or anything for that matter."

"Humans and your money, from what I hear your lives would be much simpler without it," she scoffs as she makes her way back and forth across the room.

"Tell me about it," he agrees, "I sometimes feel like everyone is one bad fishing month away from setting their houses on fire."

"They wouldn't actually do that would they?" She asks worriedly.

"No," he says smiling and shaking his head. "We're a tough group."

She continues to walk back and forth across the room. She's been at it for three hours and she seems to have gotten the hang of it, and all along he's been going over the rules with her, no referring to people as humans, no looking at ordinary objects with starry eyed wonder, no nudity in public, etc. He hates that she has to hide a lot of the things he loves about her in order to stay inconspicuous, but it's a sacrifice she has to make to stay safe. She already knows a lot thanks to her reading, but certain things still elude her and he has to make sure she gets it right.

She's still a little wobbly in her gait, but not so much that anyone would take notice if they weren't closely looking for something out of the ordinary, they're good legs that she's been given. She has a stack of books on her head now and she's trying to balance them, and he tries not to laugh but it's hard because she's just beyond adorable and it dawns on him again that she's in his room and she's human, with human parts that he badly wants to be inside of, but he won't think about that. She doesn't even fully understand what human sex is, and he doesn't want to freak her out.

She groans as the books tumble to the ground. "I'm never going to be able to do this."

"Well, luckily most humans don't walk around with books on their heads," Finn jokes. "You walk great without them."

She smiles a little. "Well, that's good to know."

Finn glances at his watch, it's 10:30, he lets out a soft sigh. In his frenzy this morning he forget all about work, he has to be at the diner at twelve to start the lunch shift and he can't very well leave her alone. It's time to take her out, he didn't expect it to come so fast and he hopes she's ready.

"Stay here, I'm going to go raid my mom's room, you're going to need shoes."

"Why?" Rachel said.

"Well, I'm working today and I thought that maybe you could come hang out with me, if we leave now we can get you something to wear."

"Ooh, what the humans call shopping, I'm so excited!" She says, clapping a little.

"And remember what we talked about, that kind of things only okay around me," he says sternly.

"I'm aware," she says.

"Okay, I'll be right back," he says, leaving her with a kiss. He enters his mom and Burt's room and goes for a pair of flip flops, his mom's feet are bigger than Rachel's but the shoes should do fine in a pinch. He also grabs a scarf from her coat rack before heading back to his room. He's surprised that he doesn't hear any signs of Kurt, but he decides to count it as pure luck.

"Okay, give me your foot," Finn says, crouching in front of her. She must have never heard the expression before because there is a look of mild confusion on her face.

"No, not like that," he says, waving his hands frantically. "I just want to put your shoes on."

"Oh, that's what your people call 'just an expression'" she says bashfully.