THE WATERS :: ZAYN

morals

—

Habibah closed the door of the bathroom, drying her hands off on her skirt and staring at Solána. "What? He's breathing."

"He's breathing--" she muttered excitedly, reaching for the knob but getting a slap on the wrist in return, "ow."

"Leave him alone," she muttered, walking downstairs. Solána pouted.

It had been three days since Zayn Malik died, and even though Solána had one of the most powerful mythical forces in this universe by her side to bring him back, she still grieved. She just missed him a lot, even though his body was here and breathing, he wasn't awake yet and it made her upset.

"Solána, dear," Habibah grabbed the young girl's wrist and pulled her downstairs, "you need to calm down, alright?"

"I can't..."

"Okay, how 'bout I show you some powers you have? I'm sure you never got around to using telepathy?"

"No," she mumbled, not making eye contact, "stop trying to distract me."

"Listen, you pouting and crying isn't going to make this process faster," Habibah held her shoulders and stared her down, "okay? Put your chin up."

"Why?"

"Up," she nudged her chin so it would go upright, "that's more like it. Your freckles are an adorable asset to your face."

"Uh, thanks?"

"Moving on," Habibah went in the fridge and grabbed another Coke, "I take it back, these are kinda good. What's for dinner?"

"I don't know, you can't cook?"

"I don't want to and this isn't my house."

"It's not my house neither--"

"The person whose house this is is unfortunately dead, my fellow mermaid."

"Ha! He's not dead, he's just unconscious."

"That's the spirit," Habibah cheered, clapping her hands and grinning, "no, but seriously, I'm starving, come on."

"What are you hungry for?"

"Hmm. I love beef. So, how about a burger?"

"Okay. Fries?"

"Oh, I love fries?" Habibah grinned widely, "can you sprinkle some Old Bay on it--"

"You do that, too? Oh my goodness--"

"It's to die for, Solána," she replied with a grin, "just a pop of flavor, you know?"

"Yes! And Zayn never did it before, so I had to cook it. It's better with homemade potato wedges."

"Can you make that for me? I haven't had it that way yet."

"Really? I got you then," she turned around and grabbed ingredients to make dinner.

"So..." Habibah started, sitting on the stool while Solána cut up onions and celery, "what was slavery like, Solána?"

"Uh," she stopped cutting and thought about it, "it's not an experience you can explain. I mean, of course it was terrible, but my experience was different."

"You mean that master who had a kinda gross infatuation with you?"

"I was nine and he liked me. He had a wife and everything. Went on for ten years or something."

"You know, King Tut was ten years old when he got the throne. It was never said but I," she fluttered her long lashes while Solána rolled her eyes, "was his girlfriend. At twenty five years old. A lot of these morals and laws humans have now, weren't anything when civilization first started. If a ten year old wanted to be with a twenty five year old then so be it. It's those special cases you hear about that automatically make things nasty. Not saying it isn't, but you know how morals go."

"There weren't laws until people started being weird." Solána summarized, nodding her head in understanding.

"Exactly."

"Makes sense."

"Anyway, so, how many brothers and sisters did you have?"

"Just one other sister. She was sold at a young age, yeah. And...I never saw her again. Wait, you already knew me when you got here--"

"I needed a few cool things to say when I met you," Habibah interrupted with a laugh, "I don't actually know your whole life. Plus, I'd rather hear it straight from the horses mouth."

"Don't call me a horse."

—

"My baby," Solána giggled, hugging Rhino tightly and kissing his soft forehead. He was fine now, just an eyeball missing and a fully healed leg that still gave him a little limp, but he was a very happy dog.

"Solána, focus," Habibah instructed, her mouth full of her third burger tonight, "now, what do you think of when you try to move stuff with your mind?"

"Moving it," she answered simply, causing the other mermaid to huff, "hey, stop, that's mean," she tapped Rhino on the head and frowned when he gnawed on her thumb.

"You're a pure soul, you know that?"

"What?" Solána looked at her and frowned, "why do you say that?"

"Because," Habibah wiped ketchup off her mouth before speaking again, "you barely curse, you don't know a thing about oral sex--"

"I tell you one thing and you run with it--"

"You care so much for a human you managed to give him all the love in your body. And lastly, you're selfless. I've never met someone so genuine in my life. I'm old as shit. The only bad thing you've done was lie to your boyfriend, but that was for the best, am I right?"

"I guess."

"And you're so humble. You deserve to wear the whitest of whites at your wedding."

"At my wedding? Okay," Solána scoffed.

"You're getting married, it's in your future," Habibah sang lightly.

"No it's not," the other girl mocked her, secretly thinking about it and blushing.

"You don't know that because you don't look at it. Again, never thinking about yourself."

"I do think of myself sometimes..."

"No you don't," Habibah argued, which irritated Solána, "tell me, how do you feel about Zayn dying?"

"I feel terrible, you know that."

"Heard that before. You didn't dig deep enough to realize I'm here to save your boyfriend, and you're still grieving to protect him. It's his fault anyway."

"No it's--"

"He forgot to hang the phone up," Habibah made a face and Solána huffed, "are you upset at the truth? He knows what happened."

"The important thing is, he's okay now," she breathed out a sigh and clasped her hands.

"Goodness gracious!" Habibah stood and threw her long arms up in excitement, "a breakthrough! You're finally not a sad dog."

"I'm not a dog and your attitude is terrible."

"This is the cuteness I'm talking about." Habibah gushed and twirled in her seat.

Solána grunted in annoyance.

—

hey guys :)

"what we out here doing?"
"smoking DICK!"👅