Work Text:
Companion fic to this one.
The cave had been her hiding place for many years now: since she was a child, she used to spend there her spare time, reading a book and admiring the sea, while dreaming about leaving the island. She arrived there many years ago, with her father; but now her father was dead, and Molly was tired to ignore the commiseration and the pity from the village. She was not married, so what? She didn’t need a man by her side, to validate her existence.
She didn’t know why she had returned there, to that cave near the sea; or maybe, she was just lying to herself. She hoped to catch another glimpse of a body, swimming effortlessly just under the surface of the water, even though the rational part of her mind scolded her. Mermen were not real; they were just the figments of the imagination of a foolish girl, who grew up to become a romantic woman.
The next day, when she was strolling over the ship’s deck, Molly had the most strange impression: she felt like someone was following the ship. She watched below, but she saw only water.
Later, when the storm’s fury made her fall from the deck, her last rational thought was that maybe she was not imagining things… or at least, she hoped so.
And then… She felt strong arms around her body, and she remembered the tale a sailor had told her once. He got tangled in the rigging, and fell in the water; it took five minutes to his crew to pull him out, and he nearly drowned. When they ask him what he was feeling in those dreadful moments, he answered that it felt like going home.
It was exactly what those arms felt like: they made her feel protected, and safe. When she finally opened her eyes, she was on the shore. “Breathe…don’t worry, you’re safe now…”, she heard a man say; she threw up the salty water, before she found herself in his arms once again. He carried her to a shack, and finally they fell asleep together.
When she woke up, she found him staring at her. “Are you a…”. She couldn’t finish her question, because his full lips were on hers, warm and soft. When the kiss ended, he gave her the answer she longed for. “Yes… I was a merman. And from now on, I will be the man who will live just to love you.”