Chapter Text
The rain poured down around you as you ran from your car to your house. The trickle of water down your skin, along with the dripping sounds of rain against pavement, would normally soothe you. But after your day? You were fighting the urge to scream and rip your ears off.
You made it to the door, finally. Fumbling to open your bag to get your house keys out. When you did, you ran in, frantically kicking the door shut behind you and immediately stripping out of your overwhelmingly wet clothes.
Your day has been filled with rude, yelling customers and the background sound of talking of what seemed like a decibel of a football stadium your entire shift, bright lights, and not to mention you forgot your lotion at home, making you want to bite your hands off for the rest of the day.
You started shaking your hands just thinking about your horrible day, plus the feeling of needing lotion grew stronger with the drying water on your skin. You rushed to the bathroom and quickly started a hot shower, wanting to finally relax after the kind of day you had, trying not to have a panic attack. You took your glasses off and stared at the ceiling.
‘I’m so tired.’ You thought, closing your eyes, sighing, and starting to wash your weary body. ‘Stars, I need a break.’ At that thought, you paused, ‘yeah..a break,’ you grinned at the thought of not going to work for a few weeks. The thought wasn’t impossible; you had been working at your job for a couple of years now, never taking any of your vacation days, saving them up for just the right moment.
And as you stood under the warm water, you could feel your body relaxing, with the finality of it, you were going on vacation.
You finished your shower rather quickly, excited at the thought of taking a vacation after so long. You had slipped back on your glasses and exited your bathroom feeling refreshed, bringing all of your after-shower things and shuffling to your bedroom. You laid your towel out on your bed and immediately grabbed the lotion on your bedside table, sitting down and starting to apply it to your body. The noise you let out was nothing but pure joy at the feeling of not having dry skin anymore.
You had started to hum a tune as you continued lotioning yourself, your hands gliding along your skin as the thunderstorm boomed outside of your house, the warm light from the lamp on your bedside table. Your Alexa started playing soft music from your ‘oldies’ playlist, which you had set it to turn on every night at a certain time, as it helped you sleep.
The sudden feeling of Déjà vu hit you, and you found yourself slowing your movements as you thought about what could be familiar about this.
.
..
…
Ah, that’s it…you remembered.
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It was a night much like this one, you were at your mother's old beachfront cottage. Her house was further away from the other houses, fenced off from the other people on private property. Your mother was braiding your hair as you watched the rain drop down the roof. You two were sitting on the porch, and the porch light had been on. Warm light bathes across you and your mother.
You were as relaxed as can be, almost falling asleep as you rested your head back against her knees. You were about to doze off, but something had your ears perking; a splash in the distance had you opening your eyes a sliver, before blowing wide open and bolting up. Not that it worked in your favor, as your mother still had your hair in her hands, causing you to be tugged back with a yelp
“Mommy, let go! Look, look! There’s a dolphin!” You had screeched, basically demanding that your mother release you. She had lifted her head from looking down at your hair and paused, a grin growing on her face.
“That’s no dolphin, dear,” she had calmly explained. Dropping your hair, she leaned down to rest her head on your shoulder, pointing out into the water where you saw the ‘dolphin’, “it’s merfolk, see?” She had pointed to the figures out in the water. One younger mer, playing catch with the rain, and three bigger looking mers, one kept an eye on the mer darting around and jumping out of the water, while the other two stared at you.
You were astonished, you had never seen merfolk in person before, only being taught about them in school, and how they were apparently rare to catch a glimpse of, preferring to stick with their own.
You had gasped and darted off the porch, your mother yelling at you to come back and that it was dangerous, you didn’t listen, of course, running down the sandy path as fast as your little legs could take you. The bigger merfolk noticed this and began to dunk under the water, presumably swimming away, but as you came upon the shoreline, you saw the younger mer staring at you with curiosity.
You stared back, waving with a big grin on your face. This close, you could see that the mer pup had brown and red stripes, mesmerizing blue eyes were glued to yours, and as you examined the pup further, you saw how they had seven fins surrounding their face, reminding you of a sunflower. The pup tilted its head, its fins pinned back against its head, seemingly confused and a little weary, but copied the gesture anyway, beginning to smile and swim closer when they were suddenly yanked under the water. You had stopped waving just as your mother caught up to you, grabbing at you and examining your soaked body and face, asking, “What possessed you to do something so stupid?!”
You weren’t paying attention very much, still staring out at the water longingly. It was only a second later that your mother sighed and started to drag you back to the house. You looked back and broke out in a grin as you saw the smaller mer waving at you with both hands as they swam away with their parents. That was all you could remember as your mom dragged you into the house and gave you a scolding.
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You didn’t know whether to be happy or sad about the memory. Your mother had been so worried about you. Her grip had been so tight, and she yelled at you for at least 20 minutes. Yet that had been the first and last time you saw merfolk. You finished clipping your toenails. Briefly, you wondered if the house was still there, and by extension, the mers. Your mother had moved away from it years back when you still lived with her. You pursed your lips and crossed your legs as you pulled your computer up from under the bed, typing in the address. You had smiled as you saw that it was still there, and for rent! Looks like someone fixed up the old thing and was renting it out to whoever wanted it.
You hummed to the music happily as you decided then and there that it would be nice to see the place again. And it was the perfect spot to vacation! It seemed like your shitty day just got better, all you had to do was orchestrate your little vacay, take a few weeks off (maybe longer, who knows), and then you’ll be right as rain!
You grabbed your phone from your bedside table and pulled up your work app, looking at how many vacation days you had available. You grinned as you saw just enough for your little vacation plan. Perfect. You emailed your boss with haste, practically buzzing on your bed as you sent the email asking for time off. If all went well, and she said yes, then the rest of the planning could begin.
In the meantime, you closed your laptop and set it next to you, standing up and walking to your dresser, you grabbed a pair of socks, underwear, and one of your comfy oversized shirts. You had carefully slipped the clothing items on and then headed to your kitchen. With all of your anxiety, you had forgotten to eat when you got home! You’ll rectify that now. Your stomach growled in agreement at the thought of eating.
Your Alexa continued to play in the background, and you turned on the fairy lights in your house, making a very calming atmosphere. The only thing that could make it better is lighting a candle. “Ooh, I should do that,” *you nodded to yourself, pausing what you were doing to go grab your lighter and candle.
You approached the cabinet in your bathroom and pondered over what candle to light before being promptly reminded of your hunger as your stomach growled again. You gave the shelf a once-over before settling on a peach and white lily-scented candle. You hummed happily along to the tunes in the background as you strolled back into the kitchen, lighting the candle and setting it on the kitchen counter. After a moment of appreciating the calm after your hectic day, you then brought your attention to your fridge, opening it and looking inside to see what goodies awaited you.
Turns out not much. All that was in the fridge currently was a half-empty jug of apple juice and some broccoli. You needed to go shopping, that was apparent. Your stomach growled impatiently as it waited to be served, and you pondered just ordering takeout before looking in the freezer to find you still had Dino nuggets left. You grinned and grabbed them, reading the back of the package before preheating the oven.
Now, what to eat with it? You walked over to your pantry and opened it, finding it in a similar predicament to your fridge. Mostly empty besides a few little things, one of those things being a single box of craft mac and cheese. You giggled at the basic dinner. It reminds you of some TikToks you saw associating autism with these kinds of foods. To break off from the mostly unhealthy dinner, you decided to steam some of the broccoli in the fridge. Happy with your dinner decision, you got to work.
Grabbing a pot and a baking sheet, you filled the pot with water and put aluminum foil on the sheet. Swaying to a particularly good song, you started to boil the water just as the oven finished preheating. You put a few dinosaur nuggets on the tray and put them in the oven, setting the timer. You then went to your freezer and grabbed the small bag of broccoli to be steamed. Now all you had to do was wait.
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With your food finished, you slink to the couch after triple-checking that the oven was off. You slouched into the plush surface and put on your comfort show, starting to munch on your food with a thoughtful hum. You hadn’t thought about the mer guppy in a while, having almost completely forgotten about it. The memory was fuzzy, but you could still remember the smaller mers' brown and white stripes around their arms, and the orange fins fanning out around their head. You closed your eyes as you tried to remember any other distinguishing features.
You frowned as your brain worked against you, getting slightly frustrated at how the mermaid's face eluded you, as if the image in your head was blurred by time. Before you knew it, your episode was over, and you had finished everything on your plate, you pursed your lips, deciding to put your train of thought on pause for the time being.
You stood up and turned off the TV, bringing your dirty plate and utensils to the kitchen and pausing at the sink, debating if you wanted to get the dishes over with now or tomorrow…meh..
You chucked the dishes in the sink and decided that they were gonna be tomorrow’s problem. With that, you came upon your bedroom and slumped into your bed, slipping off your socks and snuggling up into your covers. Turning off your bedside lamp and turning on your galaxy projector, you stared at the ceiling as you pulled your stuffed elephant close to your side.
Was it childish to have a stuffed animal as an adult? Probably to most people, but who cares? Your great grandma gave you him, damnit! You snuggled extra close to your stuffed toy (promptly named Mr. Peanut by 14-year-old you)
Your eyes drooped as the storm outside still raged on, the sounds starting to soothe you into a doze. You stayed in that state for a while, just…thinking, thinking about your life, about today's events, about your possible incoming vacay, about…about the merfolk. You wondered vaguely if you would see them again, or if they still lived in the area.
No. Probably not, it was over a decade ago anyway. With that thought, your mind slowed to a stop as you drifted into a dream-filled sleep.
The next morning, you were awoken by your alarm bright and early, listening to Alexa's soothing voice drone on about the weather (burning hot), the day (Wednesday the 13), random facts (only male turkeys say “gobble gobble”), and the time (7:00), courtesy of forgetting your Alexa had it scheduled to wake you at a certain time daily for work. Frowning, you yawned and stretched, dismissing your Alexa with a grumble. You sat up, rubbing the sleep from your eyes and grabbing your phone from your bedside table, turning it on, your frown turned upside down seeing a reply email from your boss approving your time off.
You beamed, basically floating out of bed as you went to the bathroom to do your morning business. When you had finished, you instantly went back to bed, not forgetting to take your medication, of course, and pulled out your computer from under your bed, plopping it down in your lap.
You switched to the website you were on last night, looking and double-checking that the house was in a good condition as much as they said it was. Though you suppose you wouldn’t truly know until you see it in person. You contacted the renter and started chatting, asking if you would have the whole property to yourself, how much it would cost to stay a few weeks(your bank account hurt as you read the price), and if there were any known merfolk on the property.
The renter had denied seeing anything about seeing merfolk on the property. Claiming that they had been owning it for, and I quote, “quite some time”
You were a little disappointed at that revelation; you were hoping to maybe see some mers, and if you were lucky, maybe even swim with them! But of course, that wouldn’t happen; it was just wishful thinking. A bittersweet smile fell upon your face, the feeling of…something started to build in your gut, you didn’t know why you were so upset about this, you hadn’t even known the mer for ten minutes, and you're acting like they were your long-lost lover at war or something.
You shook your head, dismissing the feeling with a pout. You instead distracted yourself by booking your stay for four weeks starting Friday, you giggled giddily and got up to do some laps around your room, getting your excitement out. It was done; now all you had to do was pack for the long drive ahead.
You settled back down, slightly regretting running around because now your already tired body was even more tired. You yawned and walked to the kitchen, making a small breakfast that consisted of eggs, jelly on toast, and some peach juice.
You ate your breakfast on your couch while continuing your comfort show from yesterday. Finishing up, you decided to get on with packing since you only had two days— technically one since you needed to be there by Friday— to pack.
You asked your Alexa to start playing music from your playlist as you started packing. Getting your suitcase and opening the drawers to your dresser to pick out clothes for a month…maybe you should get out two suitcases.
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Phew— you huffed out as you finished packing all of your clothes, “Jeez, that took longer than I thought it would,” you murmured to yourself as you looked down at your two full suitcases and one full duffel bag, plus your convertible backpack/purse. Shifting on your feet, you looked around your now messy room. You wondered if you had to clean now before thinking better of leaving it off, so you started to move around the room, picking up clothes that failed to meet your expectations and taking the time to fold them neatly before setting them back in their place.
With a satisfied hum, you gave the room a final once-over. Seeing that everything was done, you sat down on your bed and turned on your TV, wasting the hours finishing up your show.
You didn’t know when you fell asleep, but waking up from the alarm on your Alexa told you that you did. You sat up groggily, staring at the ‘Are you still watching?’ Screen on your TV for a moment before getting up and taking your meds with the water you kept on your bedside table. You stood up and stretched, the satisfaction of feeling your back pop a good start to your day.
You asked Alexa the time as you made your way to the bathroom to do your business and practice basic hygiene. After you had finished, you left the bathroom with your towel wrapped around your waist. Opening your closet and picking out a basic (but cute), comfortable outfit for the long drive ahead.
Once you had gotten dressed, you started moving your things from the apartment to your car. It hadn’t taken too long. Your apartment is on the first floor, so it was an easy 15 minutes of getting the car stocked with your bags and snacks plus water, while also double-checking you had enough gas, and that your chargers were accounted for. Oh! You couldn’t forget Mr.Peanut, too. You safely sat him in the passenger seat, having the plan to have him keep you company for the long drive.
With everything checked and accounted for, you got into your van, buckled up, and started the drive.