Summary: It's hard enough being a witch. It's even harder working with a familiar that doesn't respect you. At least Lisa is trying, in her own way...
Pairing: Lisa X Fem!Reader
Genre: Fluff Drabble
Word Count: 836
Warning: N/A
Masterlist
“Get inside. NOW!” You shout, your voice thundering through the usually peaceful forest. You are hardly ever this furious, however she knows this time is different.
Slinking inside, the sleek black cat makes her way into your cottage and jumps onto your desk chair. In a flash of light, Lisa transforms into her human form. She rests her chin on her hand and pouts, one of her purple fingernails tracing the wood of the table. She acts like she doesn't know why she's in trouble. But she does know why she's in trouble. And she thinks you're being terribly unfair.
You point to the mess on your workbench. It is full of glass shards from broken jars and potions spilling onto the floor. At least the flames of your candles are out and your grimoire is safe on your bookshelf. All of the important stuff is safe, which keeps your anger somewhat cooler. So Lisa pretends to not know why you are this mad at her. So she made a little mess! No big deal!
“What. Did. You. Do?” You snap, your pointing finger shaking in fury.
Lisa simply shrugs, acting like it wasn't that big of a problem, although she isn't making eye contact with you. “It was just an accident, that’s all. I was chasing a bat.”
“You were chasing a bat.” Your glare wasn't making her relent and apologize. However, she is fidgeting in her seat, unhappy with the lecture you're about to throw her way. “YOU WERE CHASING A BAT ON MY WORKBENCH AND SET ME BACK SIX MONTHS IN POTION WORK! TELL ME, WAS THAT BAT WORTH THE MESS YOU MADE?!”
“W-well, I didn’t want it to get anything that was important-”
“THOSE POTIONS WERE IMPORTANT!” You let out a scream of frustration before sinking down into a chair near the hearth, your head in your hands.
In all fairness, Lisa doesn't like to make you so upset. True, she knows she shouldn’t have been near your workbench with all your important projects out. Really, she knows she should've been smarter about the whole thing. Now she knows she needs to fix his mistake, somehow.
An idea dawns on her and before she can contemplate the effectiveness of it, she gets to work.
First things first, Lisa grabs a log near the hearth and stokes the fire more. This allows her more light to work with. Taking a slender stick from the fire, she starts to light the candles near the workbench and begins to clean up. She takes her time and care when handling the glass shards and mopping up the potions. She doesn't want to cross-contaminate anything or accidentally get something on her. The last time she messed with your potions, she had spiky neon fur for a month that would change colors every time she sneezed (which was frequently, due to another potion she was doused with). You wouldn’t stop laughing at her, which positively vexed her. But now she finds herself smiling at the memory. It was nice hearing you laugh rather than you yelling at her like you did earlier.
As she finishes cleaning up, you appear by her side. You don't say anything at first, just stare at the now clean table. She doesn't say anything to you. She just keeps her eyes on you, wondering what you'll say or how exactly you'll react to her attempts to remedy the situation.
Your voice is quiet when you reply, “thank you, Lisa.”
“I’m sorry, for making such a mess and putting you behind in your work. I didn’t mean to be so careless. I'm truly sorry.”
“I forgive you.” You assure her before adding, “But now you have to help me remake all of the potions you destroyed.”
She winces before nodding. “I completely understand. I’ll help with whatever you need help with.”
You smile at her, but it isn't your usual tender smile you give her. It holds mischief and a slight bit of malice in it. “You have to go out into the forest and replenish all of my ingredients you ruined. And when I run out, you have to go out again and repeat every time I run out until all the potions are done for the year.”
Lisa opens her mouth to protest, but swallows her objections. She could be getting it a whole lot worse. Sure, she hates foraging alone, but you need the time and concentration to redo all of those potions she destroyed. It was the least she can do for all the trouble she caused you.
“Alright, I’ll do it.”
You scratch the top of his head, right between where her ears would be if she were in her cat form. The action makes her scowl, as she finds it demeaning. “Thank you, Lisa. Now go fetch!”
Grabbing the little basket she uses when she forages with you, she leaves the cottage. Grumbling under her breath, she mutters, “Be a familiar, they said. It’ll be fun, they said.”
BEST FRIEND BLACKPINK A⇴Z HEADCANON ⇴ Lalisa Manoban
A ⇴ ATTENTION
A lot of the time Lisa will subtly pay attention to you. She lets you do your own thing, but at the same time, if you’re around then she’ll be glancing, just to make sure that you’re doing alright and smiling.
B ⇴ BICKER
Both of you like to think that you’re above bickering, but if you’re honest, you know you’re not. You try and hold yourselves back, but once one of you passes the first comment, the second comment soon follows from the other person as they refuse to back down when it comes to bickering together.
C ⇴ COMFORT
There’s very little that Lisa hates more than the sight of you upset, if you’re hurting, it usually makes her hurt too. She can’t help but be upset for you quite a lot of the time, finding it pretty easy to put herself in your shoes as she tries to figure out the right thing to do in order to be able to cheer you up again.
D ⇴ DISAGREEMENTS
Neither of you really disagree with the other that much, you’re both pretty carefree and tend to just go with the flow a lot of the time without so much as raising your voice at one another. Most of the time, stress was a factor in your disagreements as it would usually be when one of you was a little bit agitated and unable to switch off and decided that you wanted to snap at the other person instead.
E ⇴ EARLY YEARS
It took a little bit of time for the two of you to really get to know one another as you were both pretty guarded around the other. It was a case of taking things slowly for you both when you first met, keeping your cards close to your chest and then slowly playing them one by one. It was something that you laughed about now wondering why you ever so guarded around one another when you met.
F ⇴ FAMILY
Lisa’s family asked after you a lot, as they very rarely got to see you in person, like they did Lisa, they’d often ask her how you were getting on. You would be wrapped up for ages in conversations as everyone caught up with you, and once you were done, you’d have everyone still sat around you too as they got to catch up with you and Lisa too and hear about all of the fun things that you had done together.
G ⇴ GETTING TOGETHER
There isn’t much of a care for you both as to what you do when you meet up, all you really ever worry about is being careful. If you want to head out, then you don’t let anything stop you, but you both still are wary of what could be around you, and who might want to get a little too in your faces as well.
H ⇴ HABITS
The two of you had a habit of staying up late into the night and talking to each other, forgetting about sleep. Once you got started, you struggled to stop as you had so much to talk about with one another, it would only be when one of you fell asleep when replying that you’d eventually both go to sleep.
I ⇴ INSIDE JOKES
It surprised a lot of people as to just how many inside jokes the two of you had, as you were quieter when you were with others. You kept your jokes pretty private between yourselves, they were things that you only talked about when you were alone so that no one else could know about any of them.
J ⇴ JEALOUSY
There was definitely a sensitive side to Lisa when other people were around you, she hated when your other friends tried to be too much or push her aside. She didn’t want to be the loud one or the one that craved the attention, but she struggled not to whenever someone tried to be your best friend. All Lisa wanted was for people to know their place, and with you, that was stood right behind her.
K ⇴ KICKS
Lisa got a kick out of laughing around you, most of the time with you, but sometimes she couldn’t help but laugh at you. She would try her best to hold in her snigger when you did something that made Lisa chuckle, but eventually her snigger would escape, leaving you a little flustered that she’d spotted you.
L ⇴ LOVE
She loved how well the two of you worked as a team, together or apart. You knew and appreciated when Lisa wanted space and independence, but at the same time you knew when she wanted you around and when she needed you to help distract her for a bit. It was handy for you both as when you gave each other space, it meant that you had plenty to catch up on whenever you finally reunited again.
M ⇴ MEETING
The two of you first met when you were working at an event and bumped into Lisa whilst walking around. It was you who struck up a bit of conversation first as you both felt a little awkward around such a loud crowd, finding comfort in the fact that neither of you really wanted to be there that night.
N ⇴ NONSENSE
If there was one thing that was a guarantee for Lisa with you, it was how relaxed she felt, and therefore her nonsense side came out quite a lot when she was able to be silly and relax for a little while.
O ⇴ OBSESSION
Lisa was obsessed with how caring you were and how well you got the things that she did. You knew her inside out and always knew how to look after her or how to help her out when she needed that too.
P ⇴ PRECIOUS MOMENTS
The moments that meant the most to Lisa were the first ones when you reunited after spending some time apart. That feeling of showing up at your door after being on tour or meeting up with you after a holiday never got old for Lisa, whenever she wasn’t around you, things just didn’t quite feel right.
Q ⇴ QUESTIONS
It takes a lot for Lisa to ask for help, and so when she does, you know just how desperate she is. If she asks you for help, you make sure to be there for her and let her know that it doesn’t matter if she needs to rely on you.
R ⇴ RANDOM FACTS
Kept in her phone is an album of photos specifically labelled for photos of the two of you. There were thousands of photos hidden away, some that Lisa had taken without even telling you that she had done too, so that you had plenty of memories captured to hopefully look back over one day together as well.
S ⇴ SUPPORT
Your support was a huge deal for Lisa, whenever she was doubting herself or feeling uncertain, a pep talk from you went a long way. You knew exactly the sort of things that Lisa wanted to hear when she was having a rough time with her confidence or worrying that she wasn’t doing the job well enough.
T ⇴ TRIPS
More than anywhere else in the world, when Lisa had the chance, the one place that she wanted to take you was home. She could hardly wait to show you where she grew up and introduce you to her family too.
U ⇴ ULTIMATE
There was no one who got Lisa better than you, and that understanding of her that you had was something that meant a lot to her.
V ⇴ VISITS
Out of the two of you, you were the one that visited Lisa more to spend time with her. She liked to be independent and refuse that she needed visiting, but you knew differently and how much it really meant to her.
W ⇴ WISDOM
It often left you surprised how good Lisa was with advice, she just seemed to know what to say and understand just about any situation.
X ⇴ XXXX
Usually when the two of you were affectionate with each other it was when you were winding each other up. Pranks, or other mischievous tasks would lead to affection as you tried to get at the other person.
Y ⇴ YOU
You were her everything, you’d been by Lisa’s side through all the ups and the downs.
Z ⇴ ZZZ
Most of the time, you’ll stay at Lisa’s whenever the two of you hang out. She quite likes to be in her own space as sleep is so important to her, and so you’ll be left to decide whether to take the couch or not.
You screamed in laughter as Lisa threw another roll of cash at you. “You are absolutely crazy!” You giggled as she did a spin, letting the green bills fall around her. “You bet your fine ass I am!” She grinned, strutting up and grabbing you by the waste. “And you love every bit of my crazy.” She pulled your face to hers, pressing your lips together. After a moment, she pulled away and dragged her thumb across your lip. “Damn, you look hot in my lipstick.”
could I request 14 with lisa from blackpink? super fluffy and gay! thanks!!
For sure! Thanks for requesting!
(If you want to request a scenario, drabble, or reaction, here’s my masterlist! :))
Things You’ve Said After You Kissed Me
Characters: Lisa // Reader
Genre/warnings: so, I know the rest of these drabbles have been inclusive to every reader, but this one is gonna be specifically for my ladies. this is just gonna be super fluffy and gay. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Word count: 455
After what felt like the longest day at work you’ve ever had, you finally got to leave. While you were walking home you felt your phone start vibrating. When you pulled it out, you saw the caller ID reading Lisa. You felt a smile pull at your lips as you answered.
“Hi baby.” you breathed into the phone. “Hello my love! How’s the prettiest girl in the world doing today?” You heard the smile in her sentence and you smiled to yourself.
“Been better, but I’m on my way home now. Do you wanna hang out later? After I change and stuff of course..”
You heard Lisa stifle a giggle, before she answered. “I’m uh. I’m actually already in your apartment.”
You rolled your eyes before smiling wider. You forgot you had given her a key, and suddenly you were very aware of how dirty your living room and kitchen were. As if she could hear your thoughts, she let out a loud laugh. “Honey, don’t worry. My living room is way messier than yours.”
As you continued your conversation, you walked quickly up the pathway to the stairs of your apartment. Entering quickly, but quietly, you snuck up behind Lisa as she sat on one of the chairs in your kitchen. You covered her eyes with your hands gently, and she let out a small shriek.
As you laughed, she turned around smiling. “Y/N! You could’ve given me a heart attack! If I wanted to be tormented like this I would’ve stayed at the dorm.” As she attempted to pout at you, you wrapped your arms around her, bringing her closer to you.
“Yeah, but if you would’ve stayed at the dorms I wouldn’t have gotten to see this beautiful smile.” You leaned forward to press a soft kiss to her lips before pulling back to smile at her.
Lisa had a faint blush painted across her cheeks, and as she opened her eyes to look at you, the smile she had plastered on her face doubled in size.
“Theres a reason I’m here you know.” You quirked an eyebrow at her statement, urging her to continue. “Well, I figured that we could go eat tonight. Out somewhere, either with the other girls, or you know. Just us. But, it’s completely up to you!” The blush that was resting on her cheeks moved to her ears, and you felt your heart beat faster.
You grabbed her hands gently, before replying. “I think we should go alone. That would be incredible.”
She smiled even wider, if that was even possible, before pressing her lips against yours again, but with more force. “I can’t wait to be able to show you off all the time.”
Drabble Prompt: 1 (”It’s a secret”) & 26 (“Can friends fall in love?”)
Word Count: 690
“Why won’t you show me?” you asked the skinny girl in front of you. “Isn’t it supposed to be for me?”
Without saying a word her sight went straight to the floor. “It is” she answered, but her voice was clearly nervous, anybody could notice that.
This was supposed to be a fun night with your best friend, Lisa, who just turned 20, but instead, there you were, standing in front of each other. All of this just because of that little envelope that accidentally felt from under her mattress.
You were not the curious or sneaky type of person, why would you touch other people personal stuff? That made no sense. But, once you took it between your fingers to put it back where it belong, you saw it. The envelope was addressed to you.
“Lisa, if there is anything you want to tell me, please do. I won’t get offended, just please, tell me what is in this envelope.” You have never seen her so silent, but she didn’t say any word for the rest 5 minutes, making you wonder.
Did she hate you? What could you’ve done wrong? Was something wrong with you? Is she no longer interested in being your friend? Was she moving to another country?
Suddenly all your thoughts were interrupted by her voice.
“It’s a secret” And with that, she stole the little white envelope from your hands.
“A secret? Why would I be involved in your secret? I don’t get it.” You were hurt, not because she didn’t tell you her secret, but because she did write it down for you to read it. The problem was supposed to be said to you, but for some reason she kept it under her mattress. “Lisa, you’re my best friend, please, I’ve known you for almost all my life, why is this so important?”
“Stop it, y/n” She looked at you for the first time since you found the little envelope. “I don’t think you will call me that once you find out what is written here” She pointed to the white piece of paper.
“Call you what? My best friend? Are you kidding?” You chuckled, grabbing her free hand. “As long as you still want me to call you that, i will” She turned around.
“Then I have a question, y/n. Can friends fall in love?” She said, and without even giving you time to process what she said, she stormed out of the room, but before closing the door she threw the white envelope to the floor.
Without making a sound, you took the envelope between your fingers.
“Dear Y/n,
This is stupid, but I need to get this out of my chest before I explode.
I love you, and I know I have said that a thousand times, but this one is different. It’s not an “I love you” a friend tells another friend, not even the one a mother tells to her daughter. This “I love you” is the one that you hear at a wedding, those really cheesy ones, those meaning “I want to kiss you and know what your lips taste like”, because I do.
During all this years I have asked myself if it was sane and normal for me to have this weird dreams about you, those in which you were kissing me, and i was touching you, meanwhile a shitty show was playing in the background. Let me tell you I haven’t come to an answer yet, and I don’t think I want to.
Is this what people call “Love”? Is this strange feeling in my stomach every time you grab my hand normal?
But, I think that after writing this letter, and getting my thoughts straight, I can only say: one thing is certain, I love you, and I would give anything away, as long as I can call you mine and you can call me your girlfriend.
Gosh this was cheesy,
Lalisa.”
You left the paper fall from your hands. A slight grin could be seen on your face, as you realised something: you have always loved her as well.
lisa manoban | your parents always told you to steer clear of the too blue waters, for they might hold more than meets the eye. | 2.7k words. | fluff, supernatural.
a/n: my non-kpop friend requested “mermaid lesbians” and I needed something short to write. what i was listening to as i wrote.
You, unlike most kids in your class, didn’t know how to swim.
And apparently, that was something pretty embarrassing. Having lived by the ocean all your life, you were very accustomed to the tumultuous and temperamental waves that often left you clinging to your bed posts at night, hoping the waves didn’t reach too high in the midst of a storm and sweep your family’s home off its foundation right into Atlantis below.
Your parents were scientists, marine biologists at that, having moved to the beautiful beach house for a more “up close and personal” view of what they worked on day in and day out. You’d think a marine biologist’s kid would at least be able to doggy paddle without floaties, but your parents had always had one strange rule in your three-person family (not counting the eight fish in your fish tank your parents lovingly called by their scientific names).
“Steer clear of the ocean, or face imminent death!”
Right about now, you wanted to roar back that of course you’d face imminent death, you didn’t know how to fucking swim, but your lungs were too full with salt water for your sarcasm at the moment. You didn’t mean to lean so far over the rocks of the cave you called your playground, a nice walk away from the beach you spent most of your time on (which was even better, because not only were you gonna drown, no one was gonna hear you!), but the water had been particularly enchanting that day and… had you ever seen an ocean so blue?
Your small hands had slipped leaning a little too far into the water, the moment you swore you saw a flash of a teal fin that looked too large to belong to any of the fish you’d seen underwater before. You fell face first and ended up swallowing a lot of water in the process, leaving you grasping on to anything to get you on land and this water out of your lungs, but no such luck was being found.
You were nowhere near the surface because, even more to your chagrin, your beloved cave was actually not that close to the sea floor.
Your small limbs fought hard and tirelessly against the tough, bending currents that threatened to push you out to sea, but even the sheer will to live wasn’t enough to stop you from floating further and further away from the cave entrance and out to the dark, terrifying sea. It made you fight harder, but it only left you exhausted. With eyes burning from the salt water and hope dwindling by the second, you had one very loud and very panicked thought before you were struck hard by something you couldn’t see: Is this how I die?
That something slams forward into your back, like another human or the nose of a shark (or so you think in your fear-induced hysteria). The latter is thankfully proven impossible when something akin to arms links around your waist and you feel yourself shooting up, wet hair blinding your vision just moments before you break the surface of the water and blessed sunshine paints your skin.
You furiously spit out all the water you swallowed and cough and heave like there’s no tomorrow, the arms around your waist tightening every time you choke, coaxing every bit of water out of you. You continue to move, from where the cave was located against the nearby cliffs to the sandy beaches where the homes resided and the current was less angry. Your small hands close around arms that are about as small as your own, and when you lean back a little, you feel a nose pressed against your shoulder. Whom you had originally assumed was your mother or your father had turned out to be neither. This person felt like another child.
Suddenly, you were thrown onto the sand front first and you coughed out a little more water, feeling weak and very, very nauseous. You barely had time to flip onto your back before small hands were tugging lightly at your ankles.
You looked back, and froze.
It was a child for sure, with chubby cheeks and sun-kissed skin that attested to hours of time in the sun, but what really got you was the bright blue hair that you found yourself feeling very jealous about not having. Matching blue bangs fell into the child’s wide, almost golden looking eyes as she blinked at you, the concern on her features evident. Then she spoke in a melodious, warm voice that you would never forget, “You humans sure are funny-lookin’.”
Your legs couldn’t move fast enough, your heart couldn’t beat hard enough, your mind couldn’t think clear enough, but you knew where you were headed.
It’s been nearly ten years since you first saw Lisa, the beautiful mermaid that had saved your life at age nine, and who you hadn’t seen since you left for your first year at college. You had promised her you’d be back for the summer, and she had made you pinky promise that you would, or she would send all corners of the ocean after you for revenge for the rest of your life. Though you knew she was only joking, you were also still helplessly bad at swimming still and didn’t want to take any chances.
Your parents had never found out about your peculiar friend, and had always found it odd how excited you were to go and look out at the ocean every day after school, or how you seldom went anywhere but to the sand on the weekends, but you and Lisa were incredibly careful and had found that your little cave hideout was a lot more for you than just a place to run to when your parents made you mad. It was now your own meeting place, far away from the prying eyes of those who might hurt Lisa if they found out what she was.
You made sure to be careful as you walked the rocky path along the cliff’s side, shoes grasping for firm hold on the glistening black rocks.
You don’t even realize you’re there, far too caught up in imagining seeing Lisa once more, until you feel water splash your bare leg and denim shorts. Turning to find the culprit, you see only the top of a head of blue hair and shining gold eyes floating above the water’s surface, looking cutely mischievous at you. The mermaid rises from the water in a ghostly manner, chest bound in a pink top made of rough, stray material she’d gathered over the years. It stayed fit, but it had started to tighten a little as she had gotten older, despite the fact she didn’t care. She had only made it when you had told her that she might get questioned if anyone saw a naked teenage girl swimming so close to the beach, after all. “Who dares disturb a mermaid’s cave when she’s away? I ought to drag you down to the depths for your crime.” “You love me too much to do that.” You grin, dropping your eye down in a wink at her. Lisa dips back underwater until her eyes only show once more in an attempt to shield her pink cheeks from your sight.
“Maybe.” She says, but all you hear is bubbles rising to the surface and the sound reminds you of a fart.
Finding a spot in the middle of the cave, close enough to the edge to speak to Lisa but far enough away that you don’t induce a repeat of ten years ago, you sit and tug off your flip-flops, dipping your feet into the water with a small, relieved sigh. You didn’t know how much you missed being a jog away from the ocean until you were cooped up in dorms in the middle of the city and working on thesis papers you didn’t care a lick about.
Lisa’s hands carefully came to rest at your calves, her body rising a little until her head bobbed up and she could look at you, “I missed you a lot.” She whispered, running her soft fingers up and down the backs of your legs as she said so. Shivers erupted down your spine when you made eye contact with her. You would be lying if you said that look of hers didn’t do things for you.
Time and time again, you had wondered what she was doing to you that had you acting like a lovestruck schoolgirl. You had found it hard to focus on anyone at school, your eyes flitting from possible lovers and one night mistakes, but none had ever captured your attention like Lisa had done. At first, you had chalked it up to the fact that Lisa was a mermaid, and that was reason enough that you’d be so enchanted by her, but then the fact of her being had become nothing more than a physical trait. She was a mermaid, so what? The sky was blue, grass was green, mermaids existed.
After that, you had started to wonder if maybe she was a siren in disguise, who would charm you with her appealing human form only to turn into a demonic sea lizard at the last second and swallow you whole. But that wouldn’t make much sense, would it? What kind of evil creature would save you from drowning at a young age, befriend you over the course of a decade, and continue to treat you like the most interesting thing in her world? That was an awful lot of playing around with her food, if that was the case.
So what was the case? You might have been too stubborn to admit it, or maybe it just felt embarrassingly cliche, but what had once been just a friendly attraction had turned into something more. Your months away from her at college said just that for you. You had feelings for the mermaid who saved you, and you were pretty sure that was going to be your demise.
“I missed you too. What have you been up to since I left?” You ask, softly moving your legs back and forth in her hold.
Her hands close around your legs a little and she breaks eye contact with you to look at them, much to your confusion. Slowly, her hands came to rest at the sides of your thighs, wet fingers brushing against yours and making you breathe a little faster.
Slowly, she started to push herself up out of the water, and almost immediately your hands flew to her waist to push her back down. But where you had expected to feel the ring of beautiful scales along her hips like you normally would, you were met with velvety skin and… thighs.
Your hands freeze when she pulls herself up just enough to hook knees on either side of your sitting form, both very much separate from each other and very much human looking as they press against your own skin. Her behind comes to sit on the tops of your bended knees, and her hands float to your collarbones with a small smile, enjoying your speechless reaction.
If she hadn’t gone the extra mile to find a wrap for her lower half, you might’ve fainted right then and there.
“L-L-Lisa-” “It’s not… permanent, but it can be. If I want. For now, my tail completely disappears when I leave the salt water. Do you know what this means?” She asks, tone taking a turn for the giddy as your hands stay glued to her skin. You’re rapidly scanning her from head to toe, mouth filling with questions but every time you think you’re ready to ask one, another one seems far more important.
She seems to tire waiting for you to answer her, so instead she hooks her fingers around the nape of your neck, toying with the hair there, and you almost whimper, “You don’t have to hide us anymore. I can go to that boardwalk you talk about all the time, try that cotton candy you’re crazy about, play those carnival games you say you suck at. I can… I can walk with you along the beach, and I can hold your hand. I can meet your parents and we can talk in your bedroom until the sun comes up. Nobody will have to know.”
“Did you do this… for me?” You ask softly, almost afraid she might laugh in your face and tell you that no, she had done this for the feeling of humanity and that you were simply the doorway to show her there. But your fears are washing away with her loving glances. Were you seeing things or was that twinkle in her eye a little more than friendly?
“Who else would I do this for? Do you see any other humans around that I risk my tail to see everyday?” Lisa giggles teasingly, leaning impossibly further into your space and nearly taking up all the air between you. In a scramble to get some space, your hands fumble to lean you back, but you royally miscalculate, and your skin slips on the wet rock, sending you onto your back and sliding into the water with Lisa clinging to your hips. You’re smart this time, however, because you shut your mouth and take in a breath before the cool water envelops your burning skin.
On instinct, you hook your arms tight around Lisa’s waist in a vice grip, fearing drowning once more. All that’s audible to you is the rushing of water in your ears and all that’s visible to you is Lisa’s blue hair fanning around her face, cheeks chubby as she laughs at you. It’s not a surprise that the noises she makes carry to your ears clear as day, as was the perks of being a mermaid.
“Couldn’t wait to get me all alone? Was the cave too public for your liking?” She teases, arms wrapping delicately around your shoulders as her legs leave your hips. Seconds later, her tail is back and brushing against your legs, moving back and forth to keep you both afloat, though still very much encompassed in water.
You frantically shake your head “no” in mortification, knowing Lisa was only enjoying your awkwardness more and more. You also had a feeling she wouldn’t help you up yet either, at least not until she was done teasing.
“You’ve been practicing breathing techniques, haven’t you? That must mean you’re good at a handful of other things…” Her hand at your back pushes you impossibly closer to her, mouth hovering just inches over yours. Suddenly, you’ve got all the air in the world.
She looks you in the eyes, golden irises shining at you with a flash of uncertainty, “In that case,” she says, eyes flitting to your lips, “…can I try something?”
She waits until you’ve nodded your head, pulled her closer, given her the absolute a-okay, before she melded her lips to yours in a long awaited kiss. Your heart would not cease its fluttering as she held you, warmth flooding from your lips to your head to your fingers and toes despite the coolness of the blue that hid you away from curious eyes.
She kissed you in the way that no one else had ever been able to kiss you. This was her magic, the reason why you were so attracted to her. This was her spell that she casted, locking you in her gaze for all eternity. It was not a horror story of a human falling too deep into the clutches of a monster in hiding, and it was not a tragedy of two beings who could never be together. It was embarrassingly cliche, as you had so eloquently put it earlier, but you found you liked it that way.
Her kiss was so beguiling that you didn’t realize you were breathing air again until she pulled away, having floated the two of you back to the surface of the water, her arms locked around you so tightly that you pondered if she’d ever let you go. You certainly wouldn’t complain if she didn’t.
Wrapping your legs around her middle and positioning yourself against the alluring mermaid, you watch her childish smile turn into a sudden frown, “You don’t… think you could drop out of school to stay here and kiss me all day, do you?”
Her answer is a laugh from the mouth she soon kissed again to shut up.
Lisa isn’t sure what she’d hoped for, but this certainly isn’t it. The cold, surprised looks of her parents; the bugging eyes and open-mouthed gape of her sister; the silence that slides over them like darkness.
Her mother’s face falters, finally, panic cascading over her delicate features. “Are—are you absolutely sure?”
The sentence hangs in the air, just barely suspended by a meager strand of hope—the same hope that threads her mother’s eyes like veins and holds no grace on her father’s face. He knows. He knows.
“Yes.” She’s numb now—all panicky, chest-tightening adrenaline gone. It’s like she drank a batch of Novocain, took a bath in it, is still drowning in it with only the vaguest recollection of what her heartbeat feels like.
Nikki bites her lip worriedly, throwing a quick glance at their father before meeting Lisa’s eyes. The anxiety is clear in hers—screaming out like thunder God, Lisa! You’re dead! Worse than dead, you’re…
Her father doesn’t give her time to finish deciphering, deep baritone heavy like she’s never heard it. “Nicole, go to your room.”
“Daddy—”
“Nicole.”
She watches as the younger girl scampers to her feet so fast that she nearly topples over, long teenage legs twisting together in her rush. She inhales sharply and is gone without so much as a look back at Lisa.
Lisa, who is the only child in her parents’ living room, and feels so much less than she should. Not even fear holds a candle to the emptiness as she lets her eyes drift back to her father. Even as he settles back farther in his chair, eyes hard as stone, hands folded in his lap. Even as she notices the fear in his posture. For her. “What will you do?”
“I haven’t decided.” Her voice is flat, carrying farther than her mother’s, meaning almost as much.
He sighs. It’s only then that she notices, with a brief and mild surprise, that his hair is greying at the temples. She hadn’t realized he was so old.
“You can’t possibly keep it.”
There is no question in his voice, no doubt. He’s informing her.
But he’s wrong.
“I can.” She isn’t sure she will, but she’s suddenly opposed to her child being called an it, even if she isn’t far enough along to know the gender.
Her mother gasps—the whistle of breath down her throat dramatic in the moment. “Lisa.”
It’s in that moment that she’s fairly sure she will have the child, not to be a rebellious child, but because her mother is looking at her with such concern and so much love and there’s no way in hell she’s going to kill a baby. Maybe she’ll go for adoption. She’s not sure.
What she is sure of then, though, is that the conversation was going nowhere. “With all due respect,” he knows what she’s going to say before she does, makes that quite clear with his expression, “I came here to tell you, not ask for your help. If you’d like to offer it, I’d appreciate it, but I’m also an adult now.” She doesn’t feel much like one, yet at the same time feels altogether too much grown up. “I can handle it.”
He doesn’t move to stop her or comfort his wife as she begins to sob, just watches as Lisa grabs her coat and moves swiftly out the door.
***
She falters only once—three weeks later at three-o-six on a Thursday morning as she’s gripping his hand in the hospital room.
“I—I’m so sorry, Daddy.” She manages, free hand scrubbing furiously at the tears falling down her cheeks. “I’ll—I can—”
He can barely move, but he shifts his head. No words—his voice has been gone since the stroke. He shakes his head slowly, hesitantly, lips forming around the words he can’t speak, lungs straining as his heart slows, but she knows.
Lisa feels it as his pulse stutters, slows, stops; can hear it in her sleep as she cradles the slightest outline of the baby growing in her.
