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"Sorry I'm late!" Annette exclaimed, gasping for breath.
"Do not be sorry," Felix replied. "I was not waiting for long."
"Still…" she said, sighing guiltily.
"You came. That is all that is important," Felix said.
Annette managed a small smile. Felix's Fódlani, while a bit stiff and stilted in delivery, was remarkable considering he'd only been learning the language for a few months. It seemed like only yesterday that they had been communicating with exaggerated gestures and the simplest of words and phrases. Sometimes it was hard to believe Felix was even real—merfolk were supposed to have died out after their war with humanity in the distant past—but those amber eyes and deep blue scales were as tangible as the sand beneath her feet.
"You're too good to me," she said.
Felix snorted at her. "You are good, for a human. Now stop the talk. You brought your… 'book', right?"
Annette nodded and revealed the book in her arms. It still felt a little strange to bring her childhood picture books to the beach to teach a merman Fódlani. Felix often grumbled about how stupid it was that books were easily damaged by water, but he still hung onto every word and did his best to replicate it.
As always, helping Felix out of the water was not easy. He was heavier than he looked, and his tail dragged him down. Luckily, she did not have to take him very far, since he would need to return to the ocean before long.
Their lesson went as usual, with Annette sounding out the words and Felix doing his best to mimic her. She’d never say it aloud, but it was adorable watching him enunciate each syllable. His face always scrunched up in concentration, and every so often he would accidentally slip back into the dolphin-like squeaks and clicks of the mer language.
Time flew by whenever she was with Felix. Before she knew it, the sun was sinking low in the sky. She wished she could stay longer, but she would get in trouble if she was late coming home, and from what little she understood of Felix's situation, the same was true of him. As she closed her book, Felix gave her an earnest look.
"Sing?" he asked, as he always did.
No matter how many times she heard that, her cheeks never ceased to flush with embarrassment. This beautiful, majestic merman somehow liked her silly songs. It was how they met in the first place, and it was a big reason why Felix was determined to learn Fódlani. She could not understand why he would be drawn to her voice out of all the people in the world, but if it made him happy, then who was she to deny him?
"If you insist," she relented, as always.
She sang "Steaks and Cakes", which was one of Felix's favorites. It was the first song of hers he had heard, and he grew to like it even more after he learned what steaks and cakes were. He was endlessly curious about human food, and his reactions to whatever samples she could bring him were always endearing. She would never forget his revulsion the first time she shared her candy with him.
She finished her song and helped Felix get back into the water. Parting was always hard, but it couldn't be helped. The two of them came from different worlds, and however they tried, the barrier between them could never truly be removed.
"See you soon?" Annette asked.
"Soon," Felix replied with a nod. He swam away from shore, gave her one last glance, and disappeared beneath the surface. He couldn't have known that in doing so, he took a piece of her heart with him.