Trapped and Sold

Don't Tap on The Glass

Nathalie awoke to the hustle and bustle of maids, and she peeked out from behind the brightly colored coral. "Why does he have so many people in his house.." She remarked to herself. "And such drab clothing.." Nathalie slowly swam towards the glass, feeling her tail's soreness after yesterday's previous activities. Looking around the crowd of people, she spotted the young blonde getting his hair brushed by an older woman. Very old, actually; she must be in her eighties. "Probably his nanny or babysitter..." She remarked to herself before seeing Adrien run over to the glass when he saw her.

"Nathalie!" The young blonde smiled, putting his hands on the glass. She smiled, swishing her tail a little watching his eyes widen; despite her hatred of humans and being in this enclosure, she thought he was charming and adorable. The fuzzy feeling in her chest came back as she watched him show her his plush toy. "It's very cute, Adrien. Does your new kitty have a name?" She poked the glass, pointing to his toy cat. "His name is - Oh Père!" Nathalie realized that the infamous candy cane pant millionaire had walked over to where they were talking. He stood tall and held a black coffee mug; his hair was damp, and a few short strands of silvery blond hair fell loose over his eyebrows. He certainly looked different than when she was in the much smaller tank. "She won't understand what your saying, Adrien, but she's quite exquisite, isn't she?" Nathalie rolled her eyes at his comments, "I can speak French and English, Grandpa." Nathalie was a bit miffed that she didn't curse, but she felt guilty speaking with such a harsh tongue in front of Adrien. She watched the silver-haired man's face change slightly before he took a sip of whatever that black sludge was in his mug. "Maybe this wasn't such a frivolous investment; she's more valuable than I thought." He picked up Adrien in his arms, walking away, leaving her to resign to hiding behind the coral quietly. She looked up at the top of her tank, seeing a couple of nervous people dropping a few dead fish into her tank and a few live fish. Groaning, she went up to the surface, popping her head out. "Can I put in a new breakfast order?" She threw the dead fish onto the tile, watching the staff's eyes go wide in horror that she was talking to them. "Something a bit fresher, maybe some salmon or trout." She swam back down to the bottom of the tank and huffed her gills, puffing out.

- - - - - - - - -

She had messed around with the trinkets and toys provided to her. They were childish and nothing to her liking, but she enjoyed disassembling them—tap, tap, tap. Looking through the coral, she saw an assembly of people standing outside her tank—tap, tap, tap. It made her feel like a goldfish again, "how pathetic, but perhaps they can get me out..."  Swimming up to the front, she squinted when the flashes of personal cameras lit up her tank. Kicking up sand with her fins, she blinked, trying to get the white spots out of her vision. "one of them must be able to hear my song... I know this tank isn't soundproof." Lying down on the bottom of the tank, she sang, and soon when the sand cleared, the photos continued, and no one seemed afflicted. "What is wrong with you? Can't you hear me?!" She demanded, but more photos responded to her.

The people gawked at her stature, how she extended her tail, the glimmer of her scales, and large fins. It aggravated her to no end; how come they don't try and save her from this tiny sardine can! In reality, this was a huge tank compared to what other mermaids were stuck in, not to mention it was better than being chopped up into soup. Going back into the coral of her tank, the incessant tap, tap, tap, was back. Ignoring it for as long as possible, she groaned before swimming out fastly, slamming her tail into the glass, and the people startled, stumbling away. "What do you want?!" Her voice rumbled. A nervous photographer stepped up; her hair was a mousy brown coiled like a spring, her eyes were hazel, and freckles littered her face. "W-we just want to se-see you-" The girl's hands tensed a little on her camera. "Y-your so beautiful- and- well- this is a camera you see it makes photos-" She took one out and waved it a little until the color developed on the film. "See..?" Nathalie moved a little closer and inspected the image.

"And what does that have to do with me?"

"W-We want a good photo of you like um you could uh - um.. p-pose! Pose that's the word-"

"So if I pose, all of you will leave me alone and stop tapping on the glass?"

The photographers nodded, and she groaned, "fine then." She listened and made a loop in the water, the flashes of light in the corner of her vision annoyed her, but she continued. One last swim around the tank, and then she retreated to the back, and luckily just like the girl had promised, the tapping had stopped.