Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Isn't this great?" Keith smiles into the wind, gazing onto the open ocean. "The salty air. The wind in your face."

"Food on deck," the little blonde girl cheerfully quips, stealing a piece of chocolate truffle from the laid out buffet and plopping it into her mouth.

"Veronica, honey," a blonde woman shakes her head. "You know what happens when you eat too much chocolate."

"Happy. Happy. Happiness," Veronica beams, freely trotting around the boat.

"A fine strong wind and a following sea. King Triton must be in a friendly-type mood," Sacks says, navigating through the ocean.

"King Triton?" Veronica stares quizzing at the man.

Keith shakes his head, huffing out a laugh. Lianne smiles good-naturedly.

"Why, ruler of the merfolk, lassie. Though every good sailor knew about him."

"Merfolk," Lamb snorts with clear disbelief. "Veronica, pay no attention to this nautical nonsense."

Ignoring Lamb's protests, Veronica excitedly continues to quiz Sacks about the prospects of Merfolk.

The brunette merboy swirls and swishes past the coral leaves, up towards the surface of the ocean with his two friends following behind him.

“Logan!” The blond haired merboy yells for his best friend. He swims pass a flock of mermaids and is instantly drawn to them.

Logan laughs when he glances back and calls, "See ya, Dick."

The smaller merboy attempts to keep up with him, passing by the smaller fish and manoeuvring to avoid them as he asks, “Logan, where are you going?”

"To see the sky, of course, Cas," he swerves pass the seaweed, heading straight ahead with unbridled determination.

Cassidy's eyes widens, flapping his tail wildly to keep up his pace. "But we're not allowed to go up there!"

"Cas, don't be such a guppy," he laughingly brushes away his friend's concern, twirling and dodging bubbles from somewhere between the sea rocks.

"Logan!" The merboy objects but continues to swim up with him.

"Will you relax? Nothing is going to happen," Logan assures with a carefree smile as he swirls toward the surface. He’s been up many a times before to see the sky, the land, anything and everything that belonged in the world up above.

Swishing past the duo, Dick calls out, "Merman, you're slow."

Logan laughs, twirling his way to the top. The trio splash to the surface, easily floating on the water and Logan props himself onto the big rocky surface in the middle of the ocean.

The air fanning his face, the sun's warm touch, and the clear blue sky; Logan loves it all.

There's a big brown boat a few miles away from him but he knows this one, it's one that he observes every time he spots it afloat.

Because the one thing he loves most is the girl on the boat. The girl that wields a sword as though it were a mighty trident. The girl that's laughter echoes through his mind at night. The girl with the dancing blonde hair and eyes as blue as his sea.

"She's beautiful," he breathes out in awe the moment she comes into his view.

“I don't know what's so great about her,” Dick comments, wary about getting near to the boat as Logan gravitates closer toward it. “Her thingamabobs aren't even thingamabobs.”

“Shut up," he grunts. "She's got thingamabobs.”

Dick arches a brow, his eyes land on his brother and prompts, “Cas, you think she's got thingamabobs?”

“The momma human's got thingamabobs," Cassidy chuckles, throwing his palm against his brother's in a high five.

Dick laughs and remarks, “Maybe it's just her.”

Logan ignores his friends and softly sighs, "She's perfect."

"Logan," Cassidy calls for his attention, anxiously eyeing the boat. "We should go, they're getting close."

"In a bit," he says; he doesn't admit that he wants to get closer but they know.

"You're never gonna get anywhere with her, merman," Dick places his hand on Logan's shoulder. "She's human, your father will never allow it."

He pushes away the truth of his friend's words, tells them to go back in without him and that he wants a few more minutes to enjoy the feel of the yellow sun.

He doesn't mean to swim closer - except he kind of does - he drifts forward, allowing the current to take him to her.

He's seen her, heard her but the possibility of meeting her always seemed so far out of reach to him and now she seemed so close - so touchable.

He blinks in wonderment as he stares at her; she's twirling around in her bright blue and white flower patterned dress with her head thrown back and laughter spilling out of her mouth. Her laugh feels like the purest form of light he knows and he adores it more than anything he’s ever heard before.

He's closer to the boat than he’s ever been and takes a quick dive towards it. When he reaches, he propels himself up and tightly grasps at the wooden bars, holding himself up to see a glimpse of the world that she’s a part of.

His heart thumps wildly in his chest, there's music and people walking about but he sees her and he's simply taken away.

The thing is, he doesn't understand how he can be so charmed by a person he's yet to speak to.

He glances around, fascinated by this new world before him. Humans and their whatchamacallits, he doesn't understand his pull towards wanting to know more about it all and well, her.

They have this unfiltered happiness that he remembers having himself in a distant blurred memory once upon a time when his mother was alive. All he has now is a father that doesn't let them dare break from the traditional silent, reserved and routined family time he'd cultivated for them.

His focus breaks the moment he hears a sharp woof from the furry mini beast running towards him. Reflexively, he releases his hold on the bars and splashes back into the water.

The mini beast is brown with bright happy eyes and a tail wagging wildly in the air that reminds Logan of his seahorse back home.

Softening at the sight of the happy, carefree creature, he lets out a light chuckle, moves forward and effortlessly propels himself back up. He takes the risk, placing his hand on the four legged animal's head and pets him in short gentle strokes. Not a second later, he feels the wet slobber on his hand and it makes him chuckle even more so.

He scratches the little guy's ear and enjoys the way the land animal relaxes against his palm. He smiles; the experience is comforting, exciting and he feels the urge to snuggle with this mini beast.

"Backup!" He hears her voice and stills. He knows he's supposed to let go and take cover but he can't. His mouth goes slack and his eyes grow wide; anticipation builds from deep within his gut and his ability to breathe is stuck somewhere between his lungs and his throat.

She comes into view; beautiful and sweet, lovingly calling for Backup, who immediately retreats to her side. The world seems to still the moment his brown eyes meet her blue ones.

She edges closer and his hands tighten on the bars; he knows he should let go, drift away into the deep and not look back but he can’t. His eyes stay on her as she leans in closer to look at him; his heart thumps against his chest and his mouth is dry. He doesn’t know what to do or say - all he can do is stare at the way her hair flutters behind her and the way her eyes shine in the prettiest shade of blue he’s ever seen.

"Hi," she whispers, soft and cautious. “What's your name?” She looks him over curiously and he knows that she knows he's not like her and yet she continues to smile warmly at him.

“Logan," he lets out, unable to tear his eyes away from hers. His hands feel clammy, his throat is dry and she's settled herself in front of him with her legs tucked behind her knees.

He doesn’t remember the last time he introduced himself to someone. Everyone has always known his name; Prince Logan. Son of King Aaron. The heir to the throne of Neptune. If they didn’t, the royal guard would always announce it for him. He finds that it’s nice to say his name to someone who doesn’t know it; it’s nice to be just Logan.

“I'm Veronica,” she tilts her head, one hand petting her dog and he’s sure the other is on his heart.

He’s never had trouble in the conversation department before; he’s always known what to say, how to say it, and when to say it. It feels like everything he’s known has disintegrated into nothingness before her.

He swallows, eyes flicker to the happy little chipper beside them. "And this little beast is Backup?"

"Beast?" She laughs and there’s this sensation deep within him; warm and encouraging him to get closer.

"Backup's not a beast," she says, light chuckles breaking out between her words. "He's a little puppy," she coos, scratching the puppy behind his ear, he leans against her palms happily and Logan feels a goofy grin tug at his cheeks.

"Do you have any pets?" She prompts a response from him.

He bobs his head. "My sister is fond of finding stray animals and making them our own," he muses. "But there's one that was given to me by my father, Stormy, he's a lot like Backup here."

"You have sea puppies?" She gasps, wheels spinning behind her bright blue eyes and the images of happy little water puppies filling her mind.

He grins; mentally capturing her smile and filing them under favourite things. "We call him a seahorse."

Her eyes widen dramatically and she squeaks, "You have a seahorse? That is so cool!"

Logan chuckles with giddiness swirling within him in ways he hasn’t felt before.

Somewhere between him telling her about his recent game of spongeball with Stormy and her telling him about Backup's love for the game fetch, she'd looked at him funnily like she'd just realized something strange.

He wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing so his breath hitches as his nerves flare inside him.

"Many people don't believe you exist," she admits, her eyes embedding the image of him into her brain like she’s not sure if he’s real or a figment of her imagination.

He blows out a breath, this is something he has knowledge of, it's something he can answer. Under the sea tales consisted of how evil humans were but he has never wanted to believe it - he remembers how happy his mother was up in the land above. Still, the tales struck fear within the hearts of the underwater residents of Neptune. They'd hidden away from humans and recoiled at the idea of the land up above.

She stares at him, pure and honest and he doesn't know how anyone could possibly recoil at something so beautiful. He swallows and confesses, "The Mers' like it that way. They don't like people."

"Oh," she sighs; right hand covering her left and head falling with disappointment.

"I like you though," he hurries in assurance, brown eyes smouldering into hers, wanting her to believe him.

"Really?" her breath hitches, hopefulness spilling out with her single word.

"Yeah," he whispers, eyes focusing on her and she beams brighter than the sun. His lips stretch into a smile so wide he thinks his skin might tear apart. He's not sure how long he's floating around talking to her but he's definitely certain it's the best time he's ever had in a long time.

The moon shines bright when Logan comes back to sea, swishing and swooning. He’s grinning his way home, thoughts of Veronica fresh on his mind. He doesn’t think he’s ever going to stop thinking about her; he doesn’t want to stop thinking about her.

Dick groans after hearing about Logan’s time on the surface and tells him, “Dude, the human world, it's a mess.”

“A beautiful mess,” he corrects with a dopey grin on his lips.

"C'mon, Cas, tell him," Dick urges, desperate to get his best friend to see what a bad idea he's gotten stuck in his head.

"I can't believe I'm saying it," Cassidy sighs, tail swishing back and forth. "But Dick's right. Life under the sea is better than anything that they've got up there.”

Logan shakes his head. "That's because you don't know about chocolate," he sighs longingly, the sweet taste of the brown treat still in his mouth. "Or snickerdoodles," he adds, the memory of her bright face as she proudly presented him with the treat that she made herself. "Or lasagna," he recalls, he wasn't able to try that one but Veronica claimed it as her favourite and her bright eyes as she described it was tempting enough.

"What are you blubbering about?" Dick's brows furrow, lost between the words of his best friend.

"Veronica's favourite food," Logan sighs; missing the petite blonde girl and her chipper little puppy.

Dick shakes his head, swimming circles around Logan. "Veronica, Veronica, Veronica, she's gonna get you in trouble, dude."

Logan's lips slip into a dreamy smile. "She's worth it."

Veronica hums happily, her hand trends across Backup's head and the dog lazily rests against her lap.

"Sweetheart," her mother glides across the boat to her.

"Yes, momma?" Her eyes flutter up and she blinks with a soft smile on her face.

"Why are you sitting here all by yourself? Are you not having fun?"

She shakes her head. "It's the best day ever,” she promises. “I've never had this much fun before."

Lianne smiles warmly, pleased with the answer. "Until your birthday of course," she teases lightly.

"Can we please come out here again?" She pleas, her baby blues begging her mother to agree.

Lianne tilts her head. "Are you sure? Your father had booked an evening at the palace and the ponies were yours for the day."

It’s always been Veronica’s wish to ride the ponies, she’d asked for it so much that it’d become an inner joke with her family.

"I'm sure," she vehemently nods her head. "The ocean is where I want to be."

"As you wish, sweetheart," she easily smiles and takes her little girl's hand to lead her back to the crowd.

Veronica glances back to the still, dark water and smiles with the memory of the evening fresh and warm in her mind. I can’t wait to see him again.

Chapter Text

Veronica.

The simple thought of her caused him to grin like a fool. He sits against the arched threshold of his wall overseeing the Kingdom with thoughts of the blonde human filling his mind. He needs to see her again. He has to see her again.

Swimming from across, Trina spots her brother daydreaming and a gleeful smirk slips onto her lips. She pulls out a pink flower on her way to him and plucks the petals one by one, reciting, “She loves me, she loves me not.”

“Shut up,” Logan groans, his head falls back onto the wall and he closes his eyes, hoping to make his sister disappear.

She giggles, delighted that she can finally tease her brother. "So-o who's the lucky mermaid?" She waggles her brows, tail swishing back and forth as she props the half petal covered bud onto his ear.

He lets out a long breath, sighing. He wasn't embarrassed about Veronica but he doesn't know how to explain her. She's a beautiful person with a beautiful soul and he knows everyone else would think so too - if she were a mermaid.

Trina laughs; she'd never seen her brother look coy before and it was much too amusing to not say something about it.

"Trina, Logan," their brother calls. "Father is awaiting our arrival."

Meg flies around in her little green dress with absolute delight, she giggles and relentlessly asks for details about Veronica's new boyfriend.

Veronica blushes, her hands flailing about as she denies, "He's not my boyfriend."

Meg easily dismisses the attempt of denial and eagerly continues, "Are you going to see him again?” She flutters about from side to side in her miniature form. “Oh! You have to see him again."

Veronica wishes she'd asked. She wonders if he would want to see her again and the memories of him admitting that he'd liked her and thought she was beautiful flashes through her mind. She blushes and turns her head so Meg doesn’t notice.

"I hope so,” she lets out wistfully. “My birthday, I asked for it to be on the ship."

"Oh!” Meg sighs dreamily, she was a hopeless romantic and she especially loved love when it came to the people she loved. “That's so romantic but that's months from now."

Veronica sighs, more defeated than she’d care to admit. "I don't know how else to get that far out."

Meg's eyes grow radically wide, she flutters up and down wildly and exclaims, "I can help you!"

Veronica mirrors the fairy’s expression. "You can?!"

She bobs her head. "All you need is a little faith, trust and pixie dust," she winks.

"Pixie dust?" Veronica tilts her head, curiously staring over her bouncing friend. "I thought that came in limited supply."

"It does," she begrudgingly admits. "But in the name of love, I'm sure Hamilton can help us," she nods her head, fully determined.

"Hamilton, huh?" Veronica cocks her brow, happy to return the shameless teasing.

"Oh, you!" Meg huffs, fluttering above Veronica before beaconing her friend to follow.

Every morning starts the same as always in the castle; a morning swim with the King that's labelled as special family time. There's no conversation. There's simply basic structure and routine.

The King's chief of staff, Van Clemmons, reprimands them on their late arrival. The boys stand tall with Trina between them as they ready themselves to leave.

They follow behind their father, silent with their head held high like always. The merfolk bow their heads as the King and his children pass through, clearing the way for them to float undisturbed.

Logan doesn't understand the point of it; they exist in the same space at the same time but there's no bonding between them. They're close in proximity but the distance between him and his father makes him feel like they're oceans apart.

His fingers graze through the dancing weeds, breaking a single green strand in half and eyes the way it curves and swishes in his hand. He spots Trina giggling, giving a sly wave to a brown haired merboy across them and he grins. The opportunity for revenge is irresistible; he edges close to his sister and uses the leafy stem as a surprise tickling device on her bare skin.

She yelps at the contact, bumping into their brother who immediately calms his urge to laugh into silent chuckles. Unable to let her Logan's sin go unpunished, she growls and lunges after him. The young prince laughs, dashing away but unwilling to lose, the princess gives chase.

Swirling through the courtyard and darting through the holes, the duo fight with seaweed in their hands.

Coming full circle, they fall back in line behind their father who has not turned around once at the chaos behind him.

It's not long before the King dismisses everyone with his usual "have a good day." Except this time, he calls for Logan to stay behind.

The young prince closes his eyes, internally grimacing as he knows he's been caught and punishment awaits.

His father stares at him with deep concentration, trident loyally in his hand as he says, "A prince does not tickle a princess with seaweed."

Logan looks up at his father as he tries to explain, "I was just trying to have some fun."

"You disrupted your sister," comes his father's stern, unaccepting voice.

"Well," he tries to be reasonable. "She laughed." He doesn't think his actions should need justification; there was no harm done and Trina had been happy to return the teasing. Isn't that what bonding is? Isn't that what families should be doing? Messing around with each other and having fun? Veronica's family had been so happy up above on their boat. She told him many tales about her adventures with her father. He can't say the same about his own.

"Well, I didn't," his voice raises, arching forward and hand coming undone from it's fold on his side. "Is it too much to ask that you simply walk with your family?"

"That's all we ever do," Logan argues; after his mother died, this was all they'd ever done as a family. No talking, no coral blossom festival, not even a little detour from this provincial life. Nothing except swim in a straight line behind Neptune's King as though he were their personal warden.

"Logan," comes the King's strict warning.

"Can't we do something different?" he pleads, eyes desperately hopeful despite years of refusal.

"Enough," the king silences him in a loud and concise command. "You have to learn to respect the way I run this kingdom." In the next instant he pulls out a single scrapper and says, "Barnacles."

Snapping out of his daze, Logan shakes his head and blurts, "What? That'll take all day."

Handing him the tool, he simply tells him, "Then you better get started young man."

King Aaron swims away, righteous and tall while Logan mutters to himself and leaves in the opposite direction, frustration and disappointment taking over him.

Stormy, his ever loyal seahorse, faithfully follows and stays by his side as he executes his punishment. The blue seahorse blows on the hollow coral tubes, making light noise and bubbles flow out.

Logan chuckles, petting Stormy's head and sighs. "Wouldn't it be nice to be a bubble? Drifting freely without a care in the world."

Stormy nudges his owner, blowing into the tubes to create more bubbles.

"Thanks, buddy," Logan softly smiles, appreciative of how much his seahorse cares for him.

As Stormy blows on the tubes, creating light noise and more bubbles, Logan hears a different sound resonating from up above. Stormy clicks happily, and Logan decidingly taps on the hollowed tube, adding to the music. Stormy wobbles in an awkward dance, Logan laughs and encouragingly sways back and forth.

"Shake, shake, shake, Senora," his words tinge with the slightest sound of melody drowned by his chuckles. "Shake it all the time."

Stormy is enthralled with the beat, he swirls and swishes around in his dance, swimming headfirst to the surface. Grinning, Logan follows, racing his seahorse to the top.

Logan never thought he'd be grateful for barnacles. If it wasn't for his punishment, he wouldn't have been so close to the shallow waters and he wouldn't have gotten to see the beautiful sight before him.

Stormy makes happy clicking noises and Logan's lips curve into the brightest smile he's ever dawned. Her name slips out of his mouth, awestruck and blessed. Veronica, it comes out as though all of his prayers have been answered.

He doesn't mean for it to sound that way but it does and she blushes with a equally bright smile - after that he can't seem to regret letting his emotions get the best of him.

"Hey," she lets out, flustered as she stares at him perched on the rocky pasture.

"Hey," he says back, staring into her like she's the only thing he sees.

Their eyes sink into each other and then Stormy comes up beside him, spastically moves side to side; railed up and needing to burn some energy.

Amazed at the creature before her, Veronica stares with her wide bright blue eyes. Logan chuckles at his pet's antics and introduces, "This is my seahorse, Stormy." The seahorse in question, nudges forward and Veronica happily lays her hand on his head.

Logan smiles at their interaction. "Stormy, this pretty girl is Veronica."

She feels the heat rise to her cheeks and she coyfully smiles, silently pleased with his words.

"I think he likes you," he chuckles, Veronica beams and coos at the sea creature. In the midst of it all, Logan feels a strange buzzing sensation around him. His hand automatically comes up to swat away the noise maker and that's when he sees this little bright light fluttering in the air.

He struggles to identify the light source until it stills. His eyes grow wide as he comes face to face with a two inch blonde girl in a mini green dress. She bops him on the nose and seemingly lectures him but he's too stunned to really concentrate on what she's saying to him.

Stormy leaps up trying to catch her in his mouth but she's quick to dodge him with her tiny hand to her heart, stunned and stays steady beside Veronica before the light spreads and in it's place is a now fully sized human perched on the rocky pasture.

"Fairies are friends, not food," the once mini-sized girl lectures with a pointed finger at the culprit that tried to eat her. Stormy whimpers his apologies and Meg softens, laying a hand to it's head in acceptance.

"Fairy?" Logan lets out the foreign word on his tongue.

"Basically a human," Veronica tells him. "But with wings and pixie dust."

"You must be Logan," the girl says. "I'm Meg, the tinker fairy. You're all Veronica talks about."

He wants to question more about this elusive fairy race and the concept of pixie dust but he feels himself melt inside at the idea of Veronica talking about him, thinking about him.

He grins, cocking his head to the side while Veronica chimes Meg's name with wide eyes. Meg giggles, her wings flutter and she hovers in the air.

The next moment, Stormy splashes beneath her and she challenges him to a quick race of swimming vs flying; water vs air. They dart away, Stormy diving in and Meg flying above the water levels but Logan's eyes stay on Veronica. She sucks in a breath, meeting his gaze and the moment feels like it could last forever.