Work Text:
It was an accident.
Jimmy was swimming as fast as his tail could and his heart was beating out of his chest. He had not meant to steal the food from the man.
Well he did.
All Jimmy wishes is that he didn’t get caught.
“There you are!” A booming voice called from behind him. It was the man chasing after him.
Now Jimmy would have fought him off, if he wasn’t small and only 12 years old. His eyes went wide at the sight of the man and his body reacted without thinking and started swimming faster. His breathing was picking up and he held the kelp wrap close to his chest.
Everything seemed to be flying by him as he swam, his mud-colored tail behind him and his vision going blurry as he tried his best to calm down.
The sight of shops slowly disappeared and he was able to see the vast ocean ahead, a cliff being right there. His eyes widened with hope as he quickly dove down and went straight under the ledge. His head felt dizzy and he wanted to yell out in pain but he clasped a hand over his mouth instead.
Right above him was the merman he stole from, thankfully he seemed to be looking off into the ocean. “Damn it, the rat got away.”
The man turned back round and he could hear the angry shouts as he left back towards the shops. Jimmy let out a loud gasp and uncovered his mouth, swimming back up to finally stop swimming. He let his body go limp and he floated gently into the edge of the cliff.
He let his eyes roll back as he laid there panting from the interaction, a ringing slowly dying from out of his ears. He felt so tired. Then it kicked in, the thrill from running going by and a very nauseous feeling coming over him.
He immediately turned around towards the ground and held his stomach, curled up on himself. He felt so out of breath yet every time he took a breath out he felt as if he would puke at any moment. So he took a breath in and slowly took one out, letting the feeling of water run across his face, his body slowly rocking in it.
Eventually he felt better again and he just fell over on his side, looking hazily in front of him and spotting the kelp wrap he did this all for. He wasn’t going to eat it now but he definitely should when he doesn’t feel ready to puke everything up.
A sigh broke free from Jimmy’s lips and he hoisted himself up from the ground and shook himself off. His body looked to be only bones and he could feel each and every bruise he had on him from other events.
The only thing he had to himself was his satchel full of his trinkets and things he needed. He pulled out his lucky jem, the most beautiful piece of emerald he had ever laid his eyes on before. It was his most prized possession.
Looking at it he thought about what he would look like with a bright emerald tail, shining just as much as his jewel. Mermaids are brightly colored creatures, all unique and extraordinary. Jimmy wasn’t like normal merpeople, his colors were diluted and muddy. He guesses that’s why he was alone, never had a parent to love him like he had seen all the other kids. He was by himself and will be forever.
His tail was plain and almost boring looking, his scales a dark dirt color, his hair a dirty blond and even his eyes were an ugly green. He hated it. The emerald laid flat in Jimmy’s hand, he looked at it with an inward gaze.
He gave a fond smile towards the emerald before slowly putting it back in his bag and thinking about his plans now. Now what.
He moved back closer to the cliff, staring into the endless view of the ocean. There seemed to be nothing alive in there, just the color of blue slowly turning into black as he looked down. Why was this world so full of life yet he felt so alone.
A small figure caught his attention, his eyes darted towards the dark figure. Out into the ocean in what seemed to be swimming up from the darkness was a shadowy figure down below. A bright neon yellow was caught underneath the dark colored cape and Jimmy peered closer. The mermaid seemed to be pretty far away and was swimming away from the ledge.
Jimmy had nothing to do. To say he wasn’t curious was also a lie.
So being as smart as he was he decided to follow the stranger farther into the forbidden parts of the ocean. Turning around he grabbed the kelp wrap and swam quietly towards the leaving figure.
He had to have been swimming for hours, at this point Jimmy was getting tired all over again, he had already eaten his kelp wrap and the mermaid in front of him was still swimming.
“Wait!” he called out.
He noticed the stiff posture from the mermaid, them immediately stopping in their tracks.
They were quick to spin around, Jimmy stopped swimming about a few feets away from them. Jimmy was greeted with a wide and toothy smile from the mermaid who looked clearly nervous. They had wide eyes that seemed to have darker bags than Jimmy. Their eyes were wide yet only seemed to be a small dot of black looking straight at Jimmy.
Their hair was a colorful mixture of Orange and Yellow looking similar to their tail, “You’re only a young pup, why are you out here all alone? Are you alone?”
Jimmy was quick to realize it isn’t really polite to follow someone around, ‘I was just wondering and saw you around so I decided to stick around, I’m sorry.”
The mermaid's eye contact did not break from his and his smile did not fall.
‘That’s horrible! Did you come from all the way back there? Here, come small one, I can help you get back home.”
Jimmy smiled even if he didn’t have a home, this would be fine for the next few hours. He swam a bit closer to meet a kind and gentle hand lay on his shoulder. He looked up at the mermaid, only for his heart to stop in place.
They were staring at him with such an eager look it made him try to move back in the water but their hand grabbed tighter on his shoulder. A small laugh escaping the person in front of him.
“You have no idea how hungry I am.”
Then it dawned on him, Jimmy’s golden skin turning pale, he didn’t even notice but he started shaking in his spot.
One thing about mermaids is that they are strictly vegetarian, they are able to eat meat but there is a good reason they don’t. Once a mermaid tastes meat it makes them act differently, makes them hungry. There isn’t much on it but it makes them more aggressive towards others. Always talking about how hungry they are.
He was gonna die.
Jimmy saw the image flash in his mind, he wanted to run to move and at least try to move away from the mermaid’s grasp. He let out a soft cry, he couldn’t help the clicks he let out. He didn't have anyone, no family or anything yet it was a natural instinct for him to at least try to at least hope that magically he would have someone to protect him like that.
He closed his eyes.
A loud scream made him snap his eyes open, it was the mermaid who screamed in front of him. He looked at him confused before he caught sight of it. A large hand was wrapped around the mermaid’s tail.
It was almost shiny in a way, flashing between a light blue and light pink over white scales. He only stares, not able to move even as the hand left his shoulder and the hand gripped tighter on their tail. The creature was huge.
In a swift movement the mermaid let out a horrifying scream before ripping through the water and dragged down below. All Jimy could do was stare in fear, his heart was beating faster than he could process and his chest was moving rapidly.
It was silent.
Only the sound of his heartbeat rang through his ears as he stared down into the depths of the ocean. There was nothing around him and he was alone again. Maybe not alone.
“Hello?” One of the sweetest voices he’s ever heard called from below him. He didn’t sat a single thing.
“It’s terrible that happened to you. Are you ok?”
Jimmy moved up a bit, slowly seeing a long line of pink come near him, he flinched as a piece touched his tail. Hair.
“I’m- I’m fine.”
Slowly coming into view was a large but beautiful face of a siren, her hair a light and entrancing pink, her eyes an almost glowing baby blue. She was absolutely beautiful.
Sirens and mermaids are often confused with one another even though they are clearly different. Sirens are much bigger and larger than Mermaids, they are the ones that use their voice to lure humans to the sea for them to feast. Unlike mermaids they are completely carnivorous.
While mermaids live together in groups and communities, Sirens tend to go off when they’re old enough and move on with their lives. Sirens are pale and more soft on the eye colors. Sirens never worked well with each other.
Slowly swimming upwards came the huge siren, her tail the same blue as here eyes. He was absolutely massive.
“Are you lost?”
“I- no I’m not lost just. Can’t be lost without a destination.”
The siren smiled kindly at him, something Jimmy wasn’t used to, he let himself soak that up for a moment before he dropped back down into his defensive state. He clutched his hands to his stomach and stared carefully at the siren.
She still smiled at him kindly and seemed to be in thought.
“Do you have anywhere to go? Any family that you could head off too?”
Jimmy was getting a bit annoyed with the questions, ‘What’s it to you?! So what if I ain’t got no family? I am perfectly fine by myself, always have been!”
The siren was taken aback by the sudden burst of anger, seeming to think he did something wrong Jimmy curled in on himself a bit more.
“My names Elizebeth, though you can call me Lizzy.”
…
“Jimmy..”
“Well Jimmy, If you seem so sure you’re fine on your own I will head off now.” Jimmy watched as the siren turned her body around and headed to swim away.
He had nowhere to go from here and now being in the wide open sea he felt a sense of loneliness wash over him, even with Lizzy still in view. Just as Lizzy started swimming in a quick movement of his hand he reached and grabbed onto the long pink hair in front of him.
Once the siren started to actually swim he had to hold on tight so he didn’t fall off, burying himself into the hair and trying his best to stay hidden. He guesses he wasn’t all that sneaky.
“Changed your mind I’m guessing.”
He froze for a second before he realized she had slowed down a lot, slowly he creeped out from the hair and swam awkwardly in front of her, “Yeah, I guess I ain’t got nothing better to do.”
She smiled kindly at him, Jimmy wanted to keep that look forever if it was possible. Slowly Lizzy held out her hand, that hand was big enough to squish him like a sardine if she wanted. He reached out his hand and held onto the hand. She scooped him up, he let out a surprised yelp but soon realized what was going on.
Jimmy was now tucked close to Lizzy’s chest, her arms held tight to him but not tight enough to be squishing him. He wasn’t used to being held, he has never been held before. Jimmy didn’t really know what to do, he squirmed around for a moment before feeling completely comfortable.
He melted into the touch, not even realizing Lizzy had gone back to swimming. A soft humm was heard, it was sweet and soft. At any other moment he would have worried it was one of their hypnotic calls but now he felt so safe, so calm.
Before he knew it his eyes were shutting slowly, eventually falling asleep. For the first time ever Jimmy fell asleep with a smile on his face.
Slowly his eyes dozed open and he quickly rubbed them before looking around the room he was in. The place was absolutely huge, perfect to fit a large mermaid.
He swallowed something as he looked at the wall of huge axes and swords, no one should need that many.
Slowly he began to remember where he was, the siren. He quickly got out of the warm bed he was in earlier and swam up quickly. He swam until he hit the top of the cave.
A hurt yelp escaped him and with that he heard a loud clash from outside the circle shaped door. A few seconds later the door swung open making Jimmy flinch Lizzy herself had a very panicked look on her face.
He looked at her for a moment and she looked at him, slowly calming down as she swam closer. He moved back as she got close but she moved faster and she was right in front of him. He didn’t know what to do besides let her move her hand up to his face. Her hand was much bigger than his head but she was so careful.
“I thought something happened, are you hurt?”
Her voice seemed to be genuinely concerned and Jimmy was quick to melt, his head leaning into her hand and shaking his head. Even if his head stung a bit he knew it would pass.
She smiled again and slowly retracted her hand, he wanted to call for it back but he collected himself up again and stood stiff.
Her face brightened as if knowing he was okay made the entire world okay, and that made him beyond confused.
“There's food downstairs.”
That caught Jimmy interest as he began to follow Lizzy out the door but he stopped as he watched her disappear past a corner.
Food.
When he thinks of food he thinks of kelp and other things to keep him full enough, but that’s for a mermaid. This is no mermaid, sirens are known to eat humans and mermaids as well as any other unfortunate animal to cross them.
Mermaids are vegetarian and sirens are carnivores.
His stomach twisted at the thought of seeing a mermaid tail spread out across a table. Slowly he took a deep breath and continued towards the room Lizzy went to.
He prepared himself to see a Large table of meat and bones near him yet he was pleasantly surprised by the food sitting in front of him. There was no meat on site, in fact it seemed to be a mixture of human fruit and items Jimmy would find in mermaid markets.
She giggled as she realized his surprised look, “I wasn’t going to feed you a mountain of meat dude, you're a herbivore.”
Jimmy was quick to blush with embarrassment and turned his head down. That only made her laugh more and as she laughed he got a sight of her very sharp teeth that seemed to be very clean.
As he stared at the food he realized that there was no meat at all here.
“Um, what are you going to eat?” He questioned her.
Her laughter stopped quickly and soon turned pretty serious.
“Unlike most beliefs, sirens don’t eat mermaids or any other fish of sorts. We only eat humans.”
Now that caught Jimmy off guard.
“We are known to be quite beautiful to lure humans towards us, and because of the selective diet we only have to eat every so often. We only have to eat a minimum of one person per day instead of a common three meals a day.
Slowly Jimmy was starting to get it, he guessed he should have guessed the stories about these evil creatures were wrong. They were just used to scare mermaids.
Jimmy nodded to her before a question popped in his mind, “How long has it been since you ate?”
That made Elizabeth freeze in her spot. She didn’t respond for a while.
“About a week”
Now that seems to make him confused, she was pretty enough to lure humans if she wanted to yet she hasn’t eaten in a week? This made him a bit more than sad.
“How come you haven't eaten?”
“I don’t want to be the scary monster every mermaid and human warns their children about.”
Her voice was quiet and it didn’t take long to realize she was fighting back tears, slowly he made his way to her. He didn’t know what to do at first but he did what would make him feel better.
He hugged her. Squeezing as tight as his small body could. She was huge compared to him and he barely felt noticeable. Yet she let him hug her and she hugged back, holding him tightly but not too tight.
She slowly collected herself and smiled at him once more, “Go ahead and eat.”
She exited the room and Jimmy found himself alone again, something in him was pushing him to follow Lizzy again but he didn’t like the strange feeling and quickly turned around to the table.
The food was enough to make his mouth water, it was full of as much food as he wanted. Quickly he started to dig in, yet it didn’t take long for him to feel full. Finding after only a bit of the food he couldn’t handle another bite, that’s what happens when you live off of such little amounts of food.
Jimmy felt bad that all this food would be wasted, he didn’t want Lizzy to do all this for him. So he ate as much as he could and cleaned up everything after. He can eat more another time.
Another time?
Jimmy thought about the thought of staying here, he wasn’t going to stay here for long. Hell, even Lizzy won’t want him here for long. She probably will expect him out today. She offered her home to him but once she gets a chance to know him she won’t want him anymore, nobody wants Jimmy.
His chest felt tight and he brushed off the shiver that went through him, making his way to the new large room. Lizzy was sitting on what seemed to be a homemade chair humming a soft song
Her voice was enchanting to say the least. It allowed Jimmy to just sit there and listen to the song, slowly allowing himself to lean on her shoulder. It was peaceful here, he didn’t want to leave.
“Do you really want me to stay here?” He found himself asking.
He was prepared for a no or a long lecture as to why not, he prepared himself for failure.
“It is getting quite lonely here. And you are a very loveable merman” Lizzy seemed to hum to herself.
Jimmy perked his head up in surprise only to look at her warm and friendly smile, her sharp teeth out but not threatening in any ways. She brought Jimmy closer and rested him on her tail.
Her tails were smooth and comforting, the feeling of her claws combing his hair made him the most relaxed he had ever felt in such a long time. This was perfect.
“I would be honored for you to stay here.”
Eventually they sat there, for what seemed like hours they sat there, Lizzy combing his hair and singing her beautiful tunes.
Once the song was finished she moved on to the next. He knows it’s from being a siren but he wished to hear her sing every day.
Lizzy was sleeping on a chair and Jimmy was dancing and playing around in the living room. He was hyper and awake, yet he couldn’t be too loud to bother Lizzy.
Slowly he made his way to the front door, opening it to see what was outside. Least to say he was a bit surprised.
They seemed to be in a cave on a cliff, the cave must have been self dug, with how strong Lizzy looked he wouldn’t put it past her to do it by hand. Above seemed to be a small beach, trees going past that with nature everywhere.
Thai must be where she gets the human fruit. As he brought his head close he slowly managed to make his way up to the beach, his tail still in the water but the top half of him on the land.
He sat and played with the sand for a bit, trying to make a small sand castle to take up time.
“What the hell?”
The voice was soft and surprised, he jumped at it and quickly whipped his head over to the direction of the sound.
A human, grown, was standing there looking at Jimmy with surprise.
He looked at the human, caught by surprise, and once a thought appeared in his mind he quickly froze. It didn’t take long for him to calm down and with a forced smile he waved over the human.
With a bit of hesitance the human made his way over to Jimmy, sitting right in front of him. He had short messy hair and was fascinated by Jimmy.
“Are you real?”
His voice was quiet, trying not to scare him away and probably thought he was dreaming.
The human moved closer, seeming to be entranced by Jimmy. Jimmy laughed and splashed water on the human, the human following him in the water.
Jimmy swam around the human's legs for a moment. Stopping to stare at the bewildered creature.
He hugged the person's leg, holding extremely tight, as tight as he could.
In a quick movement Jimmy pushed the human into the water, dragging him down under and father into the ocean. Watching as the human tried screaming but it was no use as Jimmy kept dragging him down.
The human had struggled greatly but underwater Mermaids were much stronger than them, even younger ones.
He watched the creature grab his neck and seemed to be begging for something, he could tell he was crying even with the water around them. Jimmy felt terrible for it but it would be worth it, he didn’t want to kill the guy himself so he let the human die by the sea.
Eventually he made his way back to Lizzy’s home.
“Lizzy?” He spoke into the house, holding the human out of view.
Quickly Lizzy swam to the room and had a very relieved look on her face, “Thank god you're here! I was searching the whole cave for you.”
Jimmy has a sympathetic smile towards her, which she took kindly.
“Sorry I was gone, I do have something for you though.”
Lizzy looked up confused and her eyes widened as Jimmy swam towards her with the body lying limply with him.
“Is that…”
“Since you don’t want to kill them yourself I thought I could bring one here for you.”
Lizzy stared for a moment, looking at the human and at Jimmy, before completely running over to him and hugging him tightly. Jimmy took it gratefully and hung on as long as he could.
“Thank you Jim! I never had such a gift before, you’re the kindest person I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet!” Her voice was squealing with happiness and she took the human and swam towards the kitchen.
Jimmy sat, he didn’t want to watch the scene unfold so he sat down on the large chair and laid there to think. He could get used to being here with her.
Jimmy really could get used to having..
Huh?
Having…
..
Jimmy really could get used to having a family.
A family, a whole older sister for himself. One he could help out and have someone who can protect and love him as much as he sees others love their family.
Lizzy came around at the perfect time with a smile on her face, giving Jimmy a very soft look.
“Hey Lizzy,” Jimmy says quietly.
She hums as she sits down next to him, letting him lean on her shoulder.
His body relaxed more on her shoulder and she leaned towards him more too. Now all he could focus on was the feeling of her hands moving his hair in the water, the calmness of it all was nice and peaceful.
Lizzy felt at home.
Jimmy found home.