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"You do realize this is never going to work out." Annie wasn’t asking, she was stating it. In a rather dry tone, Mikasa noted with humour.
"Since when are we even in a relationship?" the pirate asked.
Annie shrugged. “I mean, you’re Captain Mikasa Ackerman. You’re famous for hunting merfolk. Why haven’t you killed me yet?” When the mermaid was met with a silence that was long enough to be uncomfortable, she decided to speak again. “I guess I just assumed. When you first saw me, you pretended like you didn’t see me after we made eye contact, and you made your entire crew turn back. It’s been seven moon cycles and every day, you’ve rowed yourself out here and it’s just me and you. That means that we are a thing. Were a thing.”
Mikasa sighed. She was about to say something, but the blonde interrupted her.
"You drove off all my friends and family."
It was Mikasa’s turn to ask another question. “Then why are you still here?”
Annie frowned, bit her lip, and then went back underwater. She stayed under for a couple minutes, staring up at the silhouette of Mikasa’s canoe. When she figured that Mikasa wasn’t going to give up, Annie grumbled and resurfaced.
"And for that matter, why haven’t you attempted to drown me yet?"
"That one’s easy," the blonde replied. "I’m supposed to drown handsome men, and you’re neither of those things." Though she admitted to herself that Mikasa was rather attractive. For a human. We’re supposed to be mortal enemies, Annie reminded herself. But that didn’t help. It only strengthened her attraction to the pirate. She looked around and found a rock. She told Mikasa to follow her before she swam over to it. With a little bit of effort, Annie hoisted herself onto the rock and she rested on it.
Mikasa couldn’t help but stare at Annie’s breasts, a bad habit that she was constantly reminded of when Annie threatened to drown her. “Sorry,” she mumbled, looking away.
"Come closer," Annie commanded, and Mikasa found herself obeying someone else’s orders for once. When they were close together, Annie brought a wet hand to Mikasa’s chin and tilted her head up a little before leaning in for a kiss. After getting over her initial shock—she was kissing a mermaid, her lips were pressed against Annie’s, they were supposed to try to kill each other but oh god—she found herself kissing Annie back. The pirate attempted to slip in a little tongue but Annie pulled away abruptly. She wiped at her mouth.
"Goodbye," Mikasa said, and Annie simply nodded.
Mikasa wasn’t there at her usual time the next day, which Annie found odd. She was never late before, but maybe something came up. Annie waited anyway, and sure enough, someone came to see her, though it wasn’t her girlfriend.
The next day, Mikasa woke up when one of her crewmates, Jean, burst into her room. “Hey, Mi—er, Captain Ackerman, sorry.” He stood up straight and saluted her. “We got one.”
"What?"
"Yeah! We all thought that the merfolk were all dead but last night i went out a little by myself and I saw this one mermaid, she was gorgeous and really aggressive and tried to drown me but I won in the end, and I killed that bitch."
Mikasa took a couple of seconds to process the information before she bolted upright. “What?!” she yelled. “What did she look like?”
"Uh, I dunno. Blonde hair, blue eyes, big nose." He shrugged.
Mikasa felt her mouth go dry. “Get out,” she said.
"What?" Jean looked disappointed. "I killed one on my own, I thought you’d be proud of me!"
"I… need to change. I need… I need some fresh air, okay?"
Jean nodded and Mikasa made herself look somewhat presentable before rowing out to the spot where she and Annie usually met. Nothing. Then again, this wasn’t their usual meeting time, so she waited. And waited. Until it was way past the time that they usually met and Mikasa fell asleep. She woke up the next morning when the sun was bright enough to force her out of her sleep.
"Annie…" she mumbled. Annie was right, Mikasa thought. Their relationship never would have worked out and Mikasa was stupid for hoping that it would ever go anywhere. They weren’t meant to be together and now Annie was dead. Was it Mikasa’s fault somehow? Did she do something careless?
The pirate sighed and rowed herself back to shore, unaware that Annie had said something about Mikasa to Jean, not knowing that the fact that Mikasa was breaking so many rules by not only keeping a mermaid alive but also having a relationship with one, and that it could get her killed once the rest of her crew found out.
The rest of her crew did find out, and it did get her killed.