Submerged (Mermaid Harry Styles fanfic)

one

"Come on there's not any sharks out yet."

"How do you know that?"

"I just do come on."

"You're a horrible influence you know that."

"Yes now come on."

I looked out from the edge of the sunken ship wall. Just to make sure the coast was clear. I motioned for Arabella to follow me. She was always apprehensive to do stuff like this. I always wanted to check out all of the new boats that would come and go. She was a goody two fins.

It was risk. Numerous occasions I had close calls with the people on the ships spotting me. The way their legs were intrigued me. I didn't understand how they moved, how they could move so quickly, or how they just let them dangle off the edge of the ship. I wanted to get up close and touch them. But I knew I couldn't.

My father always told me humans were dangerous. He said to never go near them or let them see me. They were horrible creatures and would put us in cages to be shown to other disgusting human beings. His voice was always inside my head repeating, "Mermaids and humans should never ever interact." I could never understand why we couldn't all live in harmony together.

"Are we going Waverly?" Arabella's voice rang out through the ocean tides.

"Oh yeah coast is clear."

"If we're going to go see the new boat then we need to go now so we won't be past curfew."

"Come on live a little."

"The only reason I'm doing this is because you're my best friend."

I smiled back at her. I knew she didn't just come with me for fun. I know my father told her to look after me. I liked the company though.

The boat wasn't far from where we were so it wasn't a long swim. The boat wasn't one of those larger ships I usually saw that had tons of people on them. This one was smaller, but still rather large. I had seen a couple ships like this, but they had humans in fancy clothing and they would drink bubbly drinks while discussing business. I didn't know what business was, but it seemed important.

I motioned for Arabella to come up to surface with me. She looked like she was terrified, but she did it anyway. I inhaled the fresh clean air. It always felt good. Arabella was sputtering and coughing at the thick oxygen. I gestured for her to be quiet.

I was at a distance where I could see everything happening on the ship's deck. I was used to seeing older or middle aged humans, but this time I saw young men or even teenagers aboard the ship.

"Mother of pearl those human boys are good looking," Arabella said while gawking at the shirtless humans.

I splashed water on her giggling along. The merman in our village were all the same. They all had the same scales and would only talk about how fast they could swim.

The five humans on the ship were smiling and laughing. It made me bring a grin to my face. Looking at the men I studied each carefully.

There was a blond human laughing loudly in the corner. His blue eyes were full of life. Next to him was a beautiful boy with tanned skin and dark black beard and hair. I was captivated by how gorgeous he was. He looked like he wanted to be elsewhere.

Near the side of the ship were two humans playing around with squirt guns. There was a shorter one with shaggy hair yelling at the tall, stocky one with a beard and spiked up hair. I smiled at them. They seemed like they were having fun. The shorter one was screaming at the tall one that he had a spoon and he wasn't afraid to use it. What the heck was a spoon?

Across from them on the other side of the ship was a boy sitting alone, looking off into the ocean. He seemed deep in thought. His legs were long and skinny. I wondered how he even stood on them without breaking them. As my eyes traveled to his chest I noticed he had a lot of markings on his body. One of them that stood out in particular to me was the butterfly in the center.

I had once seen a butterfly when I was younger. I was fourteen at the time and I had just snuck off for the first time to see a new ship that was near. My father didn't want me to go. I did anyway. It was midafternoon. There was a large ship out filled with humans. Several screams would come from it. But they were the happy childish screams. I was mesmerized by it and it felt like hours before I finally took my eyes off the gigantic thing. I had looked to my right and saw a butterfly.

I had only heard myths about them. It was an orange and black one just flying above the ocean I called home. I stared at the creature. It looked happy and content to just be here.

I was so fixated on taking in the butterfly's beauty I hadn't noticed the ship move closer. And screams coming from the ship. This time they weren't happy ones. I looked over at the edge to see hands and faces poking out. They were pointing at me. I had to quickly duck under the ocean and swim as fast as I could.

Arabella nudged me shaking me out of my thoughts scaring me which lead to me to let out a small scream. The boy with the marking's head sharply turned to see where the scream came from. His green eyes met mine. His eyes widened. I couldn't help but stare. His jaw line was chiseled and sharp. I could cut a pearl open with it. His wild, brown, curly hair was a sight to see. It cascaded just above his shoulders. I couldn't take my eyes off of it.

I could've looked at him all day. Ending my longing for that Arabella had pulled me forcefully under. I was stunned for a second before her glare told me to swim fast.

When I finally remember what had just happen a small panic started inside of me. I had been seen by a human.