If Anyone is Magic, he has to Be
Pairing: Lee Felix x Reader
Genre: urban fantasy, mermaid au, vignettes, pure fluff,
Summary:
Word count: 5566
Warnings: mentions of kidnapping, singular mention of sexual activities, mention of mer hunting,
Another collab fic baybee! This is my (incredibly late per the usual) contribution to the Wilting Wisteria collab hosted by @/decembermoonskz. Collab masterlist is here, so check it all out!
Mermaids are real, that’s the start and end of it. Mermen are as well, though mermaids is generally the ‘catch-all’ term used to refer to them. No one knows why, not even the most elderly mers that Felix knows, that is just how it has always been.
Felix would like to ask a human if they know why that is, but there has been so much in his life that warned him to stay away from humans. Those elder mers for one, as well as his own past experience.
The elders told him about past days of humans who tried to hunt mers. For what reason is unknown, since anyone who became close to a human left their pod, or was asked to leave for safety. It took more than a few children, or parents, or cousins disappearing to get to that. It was somewhat frighteningly recent, as one of the elders had their mother taken. Only 4 generations back from where Felix is now, so Felix doubts the fear will be swimming away soon.
His own experience nearly scared him out of his tail.
Suddenly, some loud, fast piece of metal came into view, and he paused for a moment before turning and diving straight down. The corals was a good spot to hide for Felix while the thing blasted past, disturbing the water as it went.
Later, he went to ask what it was and was immediately scolded for being so close to the surface, so close to where humans might have seen them. A few days later, Felix would see why they were supposed to be so afraid. Another one of the large pieces of metal went by but he followed far behind it this time.
They stopped a few minutes later and dropped a giant net from their boat. Nets were uncommon, but Felix remembered his aunt had one and his younger cousin had played with it, only to almost get caught in the holes. Felix watched as it scooped up a large group of fish with no remorse, and thought about his cousin getting caught in that and carried away. Even the brief though of watching his cousin get caught in it gave Felix a chill, one that lingered. Some of the small fish made it to the outside and swam away, but Felix knew that mers were too big to be able to do that.
He didn’t go that close to a boat ever again. Especially after his mother explained the main goal of humans in boats, hunting.
Despite those moments, and many more after that, Felix still holds a strong curiosity for humans. He wants to know how they live on land, how they walk, and how they breathe out of water. Still, he usually stays quite far out from the beach since he doesn’t want to be caught off guard if someone suddenly decided to come down.
He is quite glad for that choice, because he sees someone come around the bend and stop before heading down the hill to the beach. Being so far away, he can’t see much more than a vague outline, but humans intrigue him so much no matter what. He observes them walk across the beach, stopping sometimes but moving along the entire length of it.
It was not just a one day occurrence, either. It takes a few days and Felix mourns the loss of a perfect observation opportunity, but they come back. The same routine as last time, stop and start and stop and start.
Not to get his hopes up, but Felix starts to suspect this will become a regular situation. It ends up being so; just two days later, the human is back. Felix flips his tail in excitement, scaring the fish around him.
He quickly apologizes to them, but brings his eyes back up, not wanting to miss a thing. It’s somewhat cold now, but getting warmer. The weather provides the perfect chance and, sure enough, the human comes back more and more often. After some time, Felix decides to get a little closer. It doesn’t help him see any better, since he went barely a tail length. Every couple of sun rounds, he moves a tail length closer, until he gets a clear picture. Felix’s clear picture of the human would mean that they can get a clear picture of him, so he dives under. .
It makes the human a little harder to see, but he doesn’t mind. They never get that close to the water, so they will never see him. Sometimes he can hear them sing, though it’s not very clear under the water. Every time they come down, he sees them look at all the shells that have moved up onto the beach. They don’t take one every time, but he gets a small glimpse at the shells they do take, and silently approves.
It is well into the warm months when Felix considers making himself known to the human, even in a small way. He’s only considering it though, because he hasn’t seen this human bring someone else to the beach.
Lots of things will change, but that never does.
You come by yourself to the beach often. It’s small and hardly anyone ever goes to it, so you have it to yourself to pick across. There isn’t always a new shell to find, but the days you can find multiple are enough to make you come back. Not only that, but the consistent sound and look of the waves across the water are soothing. No matter what happened before you got there, the waves are unchanging and almost rhythmic in nature.
You finish your search for shells and head off the small dock. It’s rather old but not falling apart enough that you’re concerned about its stability. When you look straight out, you can’t see any land, only the blue water as far as you can see.
A splash to your left catches your attention and you glance down, only to scramble backwards. Someone appeared next to you, nearly silently. The person draws back a bit at your reaction and you hastily sit back up to wave.
“Hey, sorry, you scared me. I didn’t hear you at all.”
“Oh, I, ahhhhhhhh…” They stutter, running one hand through their hair before speaking again “Hello, I hope you don’t mind me approaching! I have been watching you for a long time, and I think you’re safe.”
That throws you off majorly, watching you? Suddenly you’re not sure that you should be here anymore. But you haven’t seen many people come to this beach, so either you’re oblivious or they’re good. There is also a fairly strong accent that you can’t place at all.
“Um… what do you mean watching me? You think I’m… safe?”
The person shakes their head, and smiles brightly at you. You note distantly that is a very pretty smile, but you can think about that more later. Now that you’re observing, you can see that this person is hesitant as well, concerned even, with their tapping fingers and eyes constantly flicking on and off of you.
“You have to promise not to tell anyone this, okay? I’m not even supposed to be talking to you.”
This is really getting concerning, but now you really need to know what’s going on here, so you hesitantly agree. In the worst case scenario, you will run and alert someone that you have a weird stalker.
“Okay, I’m a merman. And I think you’re safe because you never come here with anyone else, so I think it’ll be okay to tell you. I mean, in all this time it also just seems… right.”
You stare blankly back, surely this is a joke. Someone is messing with you, that has to be it.
“I’m not falling for your tricks. Go home, we both have better things to do than this.”
The person just stares back at you, face falling more with every second that goes by.
“No, really! Look, look, look, I’ll show you my tail.”
Suddenly, they heave up with surprising strength for a small-looking body and, sure enough, the edge of a brightly coloured tail comes up to your view. Still, tails can be faked better and better these days, you’ve seen pictures of them. Easier than believing in some sort of magic, which is likely what this would force you to confront. Honesty, it is beautiful as it shines brightly in the sun and water drips off of each scale. You realize suddenly that you should know better than this and you stop your reaching hand.
“Can I touch it?”
The mer in front of you nods, seemingly happy to let you do whatever you need to do prove this to yourself.
It’s not any sort of fabric and there is no clear division between skin and scale, only the scales slowly fading away. The top edge of the scale is sharp and the front is hard when you poke at them. Either someone went through a lot of work to fake this then tried to trick some random person, or this is real.
When you look back, there is no one there. There is no camera crew waiting to pop out and say that they got you. It’s just you and this mer, so you’re inclined to believe it for now, at least.
“Okay, I believe you, for now.” The mer drops back into the water, splashing you a little, and cheers. “But that doesn’t tell me why you’re talking to me.”
They nod, “very simple, really. I want to know more about humans. The only experiences I’ve had before have been your loud boats and nets, but I’ve always wanted to know more than that.”
Watching Finding Nemo as a kid showed you how terrifying nets must be to fish, so you’re sure that part can only be worse for anyone human-sized.
“Sure. Let’s start with the basics. Name, pronouns, age.”
“I only know about one of those things! My name is Felix.”
“Okay, nice to meet you, Felix. Pronouns are… what someone uses to refer to you instead of your name. He, she, they, and lots of other ones.”
“Oh, yes, yes. Humans have words for so many things, we don’t need a word for that. He, for me. Now you tell me yours!”
It’s incredibly endearing how excited Felix looks to know even the most basic information about you. To be fair, you’re sure you’d be more excited over meeting a literal merman if you weren’t still in shock about it.
Part of it is the literal reality of seeing a shiny, scaly tail and some of it is puzzling over how mers can exist. Do other mythical creatures exist? You don’t believe in magic, but honestly how else does one explain the creation of half human half fish creatures? Nothing makes sense, but you suppose some of that can be left for later, when you have time to have a whole crisis about this later tonight.
“What are those pieces on your body? They’re so bright, it almost hurts.”
“They’re called clothes. This is a shirt, my sweater is over there, these are pants, and I guess my sandals are clothes? The things covering my feet.”
“And… you keep these on all the time? Well, you can’t, because you have different ones on all the time.”
“I keep them on most of the day, yes. It’s considered very indecent and intimate to go around without them on. I take them off to change into different clothes, or when I shower. I have to change and wash them, otherwise they start to smell bad.”
“I- huh?” Felix’s face slowly morphs into deeper confusion before he shakes his head rapidly. “Humans consider it… intimate to be without clothes around others?”
“Yes, one reason people take clothes off is for… sexual activities. So it’s considered very vulnerable to not have clothes on.”
“Oh… were you embarrassed the first day we met then?” He looks so innocent that you just want to say whatever he wants to hear, but you have a feeling he’d still want you to be honest.
“I mean, yes, a bit. It doesn’t help that you’re, ah, very attractive.” You cough out the last part, feeling like your ears are on fire. Felix perks up when he hears you say that, so it’s worth it, mostly.
“Oh, really? Well,” he simpers, “I think you’re very attractive as well.”
You put your elbows on your knees and rest your head in your hands, tilting your head at him.
“I would imagine that mer attractiveness has a lot to do with tail, right? It’s hard to compare, but not everyone’s is that bright, is it?”
Felix looks down at his tail,comparing himself to other mers he knows in silence. It really is hard to create comparisons because you’ve learned that quite a few assumptions are incorrect in human literature, so you don’t want to use that as a basis.
“The deep mers have much darker tails, usually. Anything with a light makes them easier to find in the dark, so they don’t need that. Mine is about the usual, maybe a bit more shiny than others. It’s hard to tell, because we have all sorts of tactics to make our tails seem brighter for a time. Pearls were really common, but now humans take most of those.”
“Woah, wait. Pearls were common, like real pearls? People usually just force the clams to create pearls now, though they’re not as valuable.”
Felix nods, biting on his lip with a distant look.
“We have seen them from far away, the humans with strange feet, then when we look after there is something in the clam.”
“Yeah, it’s probably not good for the clams, but most people don’t think about it. But what would you guys use the pearls for, before we took all of them?”
Felix makes a little excited clicking noise with his tongue, making you wonder if it’s simply a sound or if that is a way to communicate underwater.
“Only shallow mermaids use them, since there isn’t enough light for it to matter for the deep mers. We’d crush them with rocks and then brush the dust on someone’s tail. Sometimes the light would be just right and it would be blinding. It was a sign of gathering prowess, since you would only look for pearls after you had gathered enough food. A common courting gift as well, since everyone would look at those shining tails, but you would know that they were shining because of you.”
You give a brief little coo, just imagining these young mers swimming around with shining tails, and shyly handing each other little pearls. It strikes you just how similar the human and mer worlds can be, even if you live separately in wildly different environments.
Several days later, you leave the house with lunch in hand. You haven’t really talked about it, but given how interested Felix is in humans you assume he’ll want to try the food. It’s a rather basic set of dishes honestly, but you just hope Felix will be willing to try these strange human ingredients.
When you plop down and pull some food out, Felix isn’t here yet so you take the time to try and arrange it nicely. Why, you’re not sure because even if Felix doesn’t eat it you certainly will be.
A few minutes later, a small splash tells you he’s here. As usual, you assume Felix meant to approach silently and scare you, since he seems to find your reactions amusing. Instead he swam too close to the surface and flicked his tail above the water. If anyone else was around it would have looked enough like a fish that they wouldn’t have questioned it, but you’re as grateful as always that this place is rarely occupied. You have the brief thought to prank him back a little, but before you have a good idea you see his form appear beside you.
When Felix comes up his eyes are on you, but you grab one little sandwich and wave it in front of his face. His eyes widen and his mouth drops open, creating three perfect little circles on his face. At first it looks like he’s going to lunge for the food, but he just keeps his arms there and looks like a little t-rex. Without saying a word he looks up at you and pouts, like you’re denying him the food.
“What?” You say, “eat it, I brought it for you. Hopefully you’re not allergic to any of this or we’ll have a real problem.”
The last part is mostly said to yourself. As soon as you give permission, he’s grabbing at it. Temporarily, you forget that he doesn’t exactly know how this food works and turn behind you to look at a notification on your phone. . Mistakenly, he grabs a banana and holds it before taking a solid bite out of it. You don’t notice until he starts making garbled half-words and you look back at him.
You bust out laughing, and lean forward to take it from him. You have to pick up a napkin for him to get rid of the piece in his mouth, and you keep laughing at the way he runs his tongue over his teeth, still confused about the texture he just experienced. Once you finally calm down, you show him that you have to peel it, and he’s suddenly excited again when he sees the good part underneath.
Obviously, that part is much better and he reaches for a piece of cheese with the same enthusiasm he had before. The face that he pulls is nearly identical but you just raise an eyebrow and keep eating what you have, waiting for him to explain.
“It’s just so soft. Everything we eat underwater is so hard to chew, but this just… goes.”
Determined to confuse him one last time, you reach in to your lunch basket and pull out a little sucker. Learning from past mistakes, you take the plastic off and hold it out to him.
“This one, you just suck on.” Felix looks at you with zero comprehension on his face. “Like… swallow with it in your mouth, but don’t let it go down your throat.”
It makes you realize how strange some human things are, because how are you meant to explain how to suck on something? You watch closely just to make sure he isn’t going to choke on it or anything. The instructions you gave weren’t the best and Felix is almost too eager to get his hands on human items.
He doesn’t choke, and is pleasantly surprised by the high sugar and the fake fruit flavour. For a second you worry about giving him so much sugar, since nothing underwater would be like that, but you’re sure he’ll be fine.
Just a bit of human food sometimes, you know, as a treat.
“Hey, can you get over there somehow? If you can, come in 2 sun rounds from now.”
Felix points at a spot down the land and hidden from most of the land where you are. From where you are, there’s a small opening in the foliage and you can see some sort of structure, a place that he could easily stay hidden.
You nod yes, and then open your mouth to ask why, but Felix turns and disappears as soon as you nod. You shout after him once and then click your mouth shut to not get caught just yelling at the ocean. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Felix is a secret to anyone but you.He’s so open with you that you just want to tell everyone. But then you remember his earnest looks and the way he hangs on to every word, and you just can’t.
Two days later you trample over more than a few bushes, getting over to the secluded half cave that Felix had pointed out. It’s farther into the afternoon than you normally come down, but if Felix makes a request, you’re more than likely to agree at this point.
He’s so sweet that you just can’t resist; it’s not your fault! It might be your fault that when he pouts you want to kiss him… if he just wasn’t so cute, though! These days you spend a lot of time thinking about the next time you and Felix agree to meet up.
Sure, you might think about the freckles dotting his face and how you want to trace them but nothing beats turning and seeing them yourself. Or his blinding smile and how it seems to be your own personal sun, especially when you’ve caused it. It hasn’t been long since you met Felix, but something about him keeps you coming back.
Maybe it is the way he seems to be a fierce hunter, no matter how much he denies it, which contrasts sharply with his soft, fairy-like appearance. Or how soothing his voice is when he tells a story, but still the way it rises and falls with purpose during certain moments.
You can think about these things all night long, though you haven’t actually reached that point yet, but nothing can compare to having him in person. Maybe, you think before realizing how cheesy it is, nobody you’ve met really compares to him at all.
Getting to the wall of the cave, you have to make a near full circle around it before you find an entrance that you can fit through. Most of the ceiling is open but what draws your eye is Felix laying on the sand. His scales glitter from the sun and as much as you want to look, the reflection is blinding. Instead, you’re more than happy to focus on his face.
Obviously, he hasn’t noticed you come in and is still humming to himself eyes closed. The freckles on his face seem darker and you wonder how long he’s been here before you came. Every few seconds he does a little wiggle along with the song and it takes everything you have not to giggle in adoration.
“Lixie~ is this today’s activity?” You call to him softly, watching as he sits up and whips his head towards your voice.
“You made it! I’ve been waiting for you for so long.”
You kick your sandals to the back of the cave and take a place next to him. From this angle his scales aren’t reflecting so aggressively and you stare again at the vibrancy.
“You didn’t give me a time, obviously, so I just had to guess when you’d want me to show up. I’m here now so it’s fine, right?”
Felix simply hums and rolls closer to you, pressing his upper body against your leg. You let him for a few minutes, watching the water at the other entrance of the cave. Eventually, Felix moves his head up to rest in your lap. He smushes his face down into it and mumbles something you don’t understand, making you look down at him.
“What did you say? I can’t hear with your mouth all smushed like that.”
Turning his head up at you, Felix’s cheeks have reddened and he’s pouting like it’s your fault you couldn’t hear him properly.
“I said that everything is fine when you’re here.”
You freeze at the mumbled words, feeling the heat crawl up your neck and face. After saying that, Felix turns his face away but you can still see the redness on his face. It knocks you out of your stupor to coo over him, the urge is honestly just unstoppable.
“I swear you get cuter every time I see you, how do you do it!”
With both hands you grab his face, turning it back towards you. His eyes reflect the sun coming through the roof and suddenly you can see all sorts of stars. It makes you think a little, but only later on when you’re done fawning over everything about Felix, in your head and out loud. You’re the only human he’s ever met, so is that the only reason why he’s still sticking with you?
‘It doesn’t matter,’ you decide, shaking your head to try and clear the thoughts away. Felix has expressed no interest in meeting other humans, so he’s with you regardless.
You’re sitting in that cave again, staring down at Felix’s peaceful face when you decide to ask.
“Hey, Felix?” He just hums so that you know he’s awake and listening. “How do you have freckles? At least from what I know, a lot of light doesn’t really make it under the water.”
Felix hums again, and you can tell he is beginning to fall asleep from the way it takes him a few minutes to answer. You feel a bit bad for keeping him awake with a simple question, but the way he looks up at you makes you think he might not mind.
“I don’t spend most of my time this close to land. My pod and I spend most of the year far out in the ocean since it’s the best place to hunt. When I was young, I had hardly any responsibilities, and I was very curious so I went up to the surface often. Early on, I discovered how much I enjoy laying on top of the water or just under it and feeling the sun. Sometimes, I spent so long up there that my family worried about where I was, but I usually kept it down to a few hours. It was hard to keep it a secret when it led to developing the freckles, they all had a field day with that.”
You imagine a young Felix, stealing away to lay on the water and just float there. At this point, you know Felix has just as much of a heart and soul as you do but it is these moments that strike you as being more similar than anything else. Everything about his activities is something that you have seen in yourself or others; a carefree spirit who doesn’t understand the possible consequences of their actions yet. All they care about is having fun, and they will do that in any way they can.
One more incident from that cave area sticks in your mind, appearing periodically. It was about a week ago, though some incidents blend together since staring at his freckles has become a regular occurrence.
You were coming up on the cave area, and Felix is laid out as he usually is.That time you must have been louder than usual, since Felix opened his eyes and turned his head to you. A smirk spread on his face before he spoke.
“Hey there, pretty human. Do you want to sunbathe with me? The sand is nice and warm already.”
To this day, you genuinely have no idea what came over you to make you say what you did.
“If it gives me freckles and company as pretty as you, then I’ll gladly stay all day.”
Whatever reason it was to make you say that, Felix’s reaction was absolutely worth it, and you wish you had the boldness to make it happen again.
“Are the gills on your neck the only ones you have? They look pretty big, but I don’t know if that would be enough, since you’re bigger than actual fish.”
Felix hoists himself closer up to you, revealing the edge of his tail. He grabs your hand and brings it to where you can feel a set of gills pulsing above the water.
“I have two parts down by my tail for when I have my head above water. How do you breathe above the water?”
Gently lowering himself into the water, Felix looks up at you, obviously searching for something on the outside of your body that makes you breathe. You return the gesture, grabbing his hand and splaying his fingers across your chest.
“I breathe in through my nose or mouth, and have these two lungs in my chest. It goes through a whole system in my body and then I breathe it back out as something else. Don’t ask me what anything is called, I left that behind me! Mostly.”
Contrary to what you may have thought, Felix’s hand is actually fairly warm where it sits on your chest. Even after you’re done explaining, he keeps his hand there, feeling the gentle rise and fall of your breath. Unfortunately, it does the pesky thing of reminding you that you have to breathe.
Earlier, Felix had pulled your hand, causing you to move closer and dipping your toes in the water. Now, you keep moving forward until it’s halfway up your calves. Felix can’t really get up onto the dock to be closer to you, but he doesn’t move away after you both seem to realize what’s going on.
“Felix, can I kiss you?”
Felix wrinkles his nose and you almost spring to your feet but you let him speak.
“What… kiss? I don’t… I don’t know what that means.” He looks embarrassed and you almost face palm.
“It is, hm, a way for people to show affection for each other. You might kiss someone’s forehead, nose, or cheek. They all mean different things. On the lips is the most… intimate form of it. Do you have anything like that?”
There is no sign of rejection on his face as you explain, so you let yourself stay close as he considers.
“Gifts are the most common sign of affection. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to tell you, but the day you brought food was seen as a very big gift to me. Something like that would have been a courting invitation in my area, and if I had given something back it would have been acceptance. I didn’t want to do that to you, even if you didn’t know what it would mean.”
You lean forward even more and put your hands on his cheeks, feeling them heat under your touch.
“I would be honoured to be courted by you. But… how would this work? You can’t come up here, and I can’t go down, unless I get a special suit.”
You almost regret your words within seconds when Felix’s face falls, but you decide that bringing this up would be better sooner than later. The thing is, you are very willing to be here and do this, but you’re not sure if Felix is. There are so many things that could go haywire, especially on his end, so you don’t want to just fling yourself in blind.
“I don’t know.” He says slowly, “but, I am willing to try. If any problems occur, then we can work them out. I mean, assuming you are willing to try as well.”
You smile gently and Felix mirrors it hesitantly.
“I am very willing to try, I just don’t want to hurt you.” You tilt your head down and kiss both of his cheeks.
The red spreads further back to his ears and you giggle at his shocked face.
“Was that a kiss? It felt nice, and soft like bubbles popping. And you can do that on my lips, as well?”
Your eyes widen at his boldness, yet at the same time he’s failing to meet your eyes and looking down at something.
“I can, but you have to look up at me first, sunshine. There you go, there’s that pretty face.”
For a moment you let him recover from his shyness, smoothing your fingers over his cheeks. Closer and closer you get before you gently bump noses, staring at each other.
“Usually people close their eyes as well.” You mumble, feeling your lips brush. Felix dutifully closes his eyes, and you take just a second to study his face.
His lips are salty, of course, and a little rough. You stay for just a second before leaning back only millimetres, staying with chaste little pecks. Only when Felix chases your lips and whines do you let yourself linger for longer. Slowly, gently guiding him on how to move his lips against yours.
Eventually, he starts to understand and catches up to your pace. Both of you are reluctant to pull away, but you can’t focus on breathing like that. When you open your eyes, Feix is already looking at you with big eyes, seemingly in shock.
“Wow, I see why you would want to do that now. Next time, I will bring you a gift and start the courting process?”
You nod eagerly, still out of words from your brain being taken over by incoherent thoughts about Felix’s lips.
Just a few months ago, you firmly believed that no kind of magic exists. It might be debatable if Felix is really magic, or how mers work at all, but if anything was going to be the slightest bit magical it would be him. And it would have nothing to do with being a merman.
