drowning

The girl couldn’t help but feel slightly nervous around him, she clumsily caught the towel, drying her hair off and bit her lip anxiously. “I-I just mean, never mind” she said timidly, shaking her head. The girl played with the towel, not really sure what to say, “Oh” she finally said, finding it incredibly strange that there was an entire world she didn’t even know about. She paused for a moment, trying to read the male, clearly he looked agitated. “You know, I um, can come back or something. This clearly isn’t want you needed today” she said softly, shivering from the cold.

He frowned. Benedict didn’t mean to make her uncomfortable— in fact, he wanted the opposite. It was just so hard for him to comprehend all of this. “No, it’s fine. I want to learn about this. If I seem cold it’s because I’m a little confused.” He sat down on the couch now and gestured for her to do the same. “You see... I come from a kingdom underwater. That may sound ridiculous to you, and if you don’t believe me I’m not going to blame you for it. But my whole life I thought merpeople existed solely underwater. I didn’t think whatever you are was a possibility.”

Indra stepped inside of his house. She looked around briefly, getting lost in the walls before turning back to him. The girl shook her head, “No, thank you” she said quietly, her hair dripping down into her dress. Indra couldn’t help but feel as if he didn’t completely trust her, which was understandable, but this was all new to her, and she really hoped he wasn’t going to completely leave her. After a few moments of standing awkwardly she cleared her throat softly, “So um, are there um, more people like us?” she asked curiously.

He tossed her a dish towel and walked over to where she stood, sipping from his glass of water. “Like us?” He held his tongue to not say that they were not the same thing. Benedict came from a long line of pureblood mermaids. She came from... he didn’t even know what. Hell, she didn’t even know. He tapped his finger against the glass and looked at her as if that would give him some answers. “I’m not sure if there are more mermaids here. But where I come from there are many. I didn’t see a human until I was thirteen.”

Indra nodded and shyly followed him to his house. This was definitely something she was not expecting, especially finding someone exactly like her, did this mean there was more of her kind? She sighed softly, walking up to his door and standing before him.

He opened the door and held it for Indra to enter, keeping his eye on her. He still didn’t know if he should trust the girl— after all he’d never heard of a mermaid grow up on land. But there were a lot of things his family seemed to keep from him. Once she was inside he closed the door and walked into the kitchen to fetch a glass of water. “Do you want anything to drink?”

Indra sighed and swam after him, she was a lot more clumsy than he was, still not getting used to transitioning between having a tail and legs. She slipped on her sundress and shivered slightly, wrapping her arms around herself before looking up at him, her wet hair framing her face. “Where are we doing?” she asked quietly.

He sighed, running his fingers through his now soaked hair. This wasn’t something he was planning on dealing with today. “To my house. It’s just over there and shouldn’t take long to get to.” He started walking towards the building, wondering what all of this meant for the two of them. Indra— he’d just met her but if what all she was saying was true, this was a big moment in her life. And he was here for it.

Indra shrugged, “I don’t know, I can’t explain this, if I would I could” she said, running her hands through her now wet hair.

Benedict paused, trying to think of how he was to continue all of this. Now that she knew his secret he couldn’t just leave her here, swimming out in the open with a tail. “...Come on. Let’s get you dried up and inside,” he suggested, swimming to the shore and getting out. The sensation of his tail becoming two again was uncomfortable to say the least. At first it became motionless, and then slowly faded into something more human. More pale. More basic. Once that was done he pulled on his clothing again.