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shyminmin · 26 days

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༄𝐁𝐓𝐒 𝐗 𝐟.𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 | Fantasy, Mermaid AU | ༄𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 : 7.2k ༄𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: Panic/trauma and minor angst

Tiny pin-points of light dotted my vision as I ever so slowly came to. They stood out against the dark, roughened backdrop above, shrouding the surrounding area in hues of brilliant blues and greens.

Marveling at the delicate cosmos that seemed to bathe me in its welcoming glow, I was brought to the attention of my other awakening senses.

A soft surface below me, supporting my laid out form as well as an equally comforting sensation covering me from the top, perhaps a blanket? Was I in some sort of bed? It certainly didn’t feel like a regular mattress but at the same time I dare say was incredibly comfortable. If I were to close my eyes again I was sure it wouldn’t be too hard to fall back to sleep.

How did I end up here? Where even is here?

My eyes blinked, clearing the last remnants of my sleep induced vision.

Was it night time? Those lights above resembled stars but also didn’t. The atmosphere was also eerily quiet and strangely had an odd sense of weightlessness to it, like the effects of gravity were significantly reduced. Huh.. weird.

I subconsciously let out a breath not thinking much of it, however to my astonishment I watched as a trail of bubbles appeared from my exhale and steadily floated upwards before eventually dissolving some few feet above me. What th-

Bubbles? I blinked.

Since when do I breathe bubbles? It was safe to say that I was becoming all the more confused by the minute….and a little cautious.

I racked my brain for an explanation. The only instance where creating such an anomaly was possible was if one was…

Realization came barreling into me and my eyes grew to the size of saucers.

If one was… “Underwater..” I weakly verbalized that last word.

Like a switch being flipped my heart skyrocketed as I abruptly shot up into a seated position. Blood rushed to my head in the sudden change of position as I shivered, clutching my throat in concern. I disregarded the current environment I was placed in as my fingers grazed over three distinct grooves on each side of my neck. I felt them open and close causing me to yelp out in surprise, retracting my hand instantly.

“What, what is this!?”

I gasped, my logical brain causing me to think that I was suffocating due to the fact that I was submerged in water.

That’s when flashes of images invaded my mind. Brief memories of scenery, of phantom sensations.

I remember being carried and tossed into water and then… I was in incredible pain.

I continued to squirm and let in hesitant inhales, still weary of not being able to effectively extract oxygen from the water. I tasted the faint acidity of salt as it entered my mouth along with the water. Where I thought it would overwhelm my sinuses it did the exact opposite, rather it somehow sparked little zaps of energy to circulate through me from the top of my head to the very tips of my toe-

Oh god, I can’t feel my toes!

I immediately tried to move my legs but my brain couldn’t identify or locate the certain limbs or muscles associated with them. It was like they didn’t exist anymore. Or more so, like they had merged..

Gulping down another lot of sea water, that somehow felt ridiculously right, I directed my gaze down to my current dilemma. I had been right as my eyes took in the blanket-like material present as it covered me from the hips down. Dark greenish thatching conveniently hiding the mystery that was my questionable limbs…or lack thereof?

My heart thumped and my breath wavered as I froze, at a loss as to what to do next.

Should I lift it up and see the damage or play it safe and remain blissfully ignorant? Oh the choices.

After a few moments I willed myself to snap out of it, furrowing my brows in determination. No Y/n, be strong, you’ve gotten this far – wherever this is – you can do this. You can’t just sit here and be clueless forever!

My inner banter resolved, I shakily gripped the edge of the soft blanket, scrunching it up slightly like one would do a stress ball, because as sure as hell I needed the outlet. The faint aching that had sprouted from deep within the beds of my nails from this very action all the while going completely unnoticed amidst the mental chaos.

Come on, come on, I continued to pester myself. It’s not that hard! Just chuck the darn thing off!

But really, who could blame me for acting hesitant?

Waking up in an unknown place with no indication on whether you’re safe or in danger, on top of not knowing whether you still had functioning limbs was bound to make anyone feel uneasy. Not to mention the fact that my body had seemingly mutated to breathe underwater of all things. Life’s too boring for stuff like this to normally happen. Books or movies yes but not in regular, non-fictional reality. Dreams were another possibility but this felt way too real for that to be the case. I even did the classic pinch on the arm and low and behold an unpleasant prick of pain made itself known.

Dreams..

Up until this point, my mind had been encompassed in a – lack of better words – bubble of amnesia. That was until the subject of dreams irreverently sidled in to pop that pocket of forgetfulness, causing all my previous memories to flood in like the water around me. Past experiences fell into place now creating a clear and concise path on how I found myself in my current predicament.

Dreaming of agonizing nights on the beach…them practically persuading me to come travel to that lonely seaside town. To go there and find the truth…truth of my past, of myself…

Truth of who I really am.

“Ai child, ye be one of 'em... A mermaid."

Mermaid.

Before I knew it, the strange blanket that was previously covering me was flying upwards away from my trembling form. Its unusual trajectory produced a slight undercurrent that gently flowed up and around my face, lifting small tresses of my hair along with it where they flowed and fanned out behind me like strands in a breeze.

But these things were all good and forgotten as something far greater in uniqueness had come and none too kindly knocked them into oblivion to claim that all important first place.

This can’t be real..

No, no..

This can’t be real!?

My body sat stock still, frozen in place; in time... My blood ran cold as it filled my ears, making them ring.

For there, taking up the bottom half where my legs used to be, was a long and sleek tail.

Stemming from my hip bones and just below my navel area, rows and rows of tough yet delicate looking scales made themselves known. They overlapped one another like a finely woven tapestry where they eventually branched away to make way for a wide and sweeping fluke. When I looked a little closer at the-… my fins, I noticed that they were slightly iridescent, as reflected from the strange lighting above me.

What…h-how?..

All I seemed to be capable of doing was to gape and stare intensely and then gape some more. No, maybe that was just my inner gold-fish finally surfacing, I certainly had the physical attributes to pass for one.

My mind, which was a toss between what I can only pinpoint as a nervous wreck and a cautious trance, didn’t process one of my hands slowly reaching forward to graze over a section of my new fishy limb. To my surprise the tiny, plated bits of armor were incredibly smooth, like flat tiles of polished gemstones. But what was even more awe inspiring was their distinctive shade.

Not blue yet not quite a purple colour either, I sat there and contemplated this conundrum. No.. it was moreso somewhere in between those two prominent hues and a perfect combo of them at the same time.

I felt my eyes gloss over then with a strange form of nostalgia, a significant weight creeping up in my chest.

That colour…

It reminded me of lonely days just before or after my countless shifts at work, of staring out of my tiny bedroom window just after the sun had slumbered behind the horizon. The colour the sky would transition into, like a celestial body of water that purely existed between the cusp of day and night.

The somber yet deceptively beautiful energy I would get enveloped with every time I found myself immersed in that strangely intimate setting. Knowing that there were still sights like this, although rare and fleeting, that were worth living for regardless of the outweighing negativity, dullness and tiring aspects the grim world would constantly dominate me with…

That colour..

Within such a view, I would witness how the first remnants of stars would appear and how on certain days of the month, a delicate crescent would hang near where its sibling would have just descended; chasing him, longing for his company.

Those evenings in particular were always my favourite… In a way, they were like looking at a reflection of myself; a tiny sliver of light quietly drifting through a sea of uncertainty, purely existing but vying for something more.

Though on the flip side, it also in a way served as a desirable state of existence, a dream to strive towards. Instead that moon, rather than wandering aimlessly through a nullifying sea, would be rather at home in her element. The equilibrium of purples and blues would instead be a place where she would wholeheartedly belong basking in the utter contentment her deprived soul no longer craved.

Oh, that colour…

A droplet of warmth trailed down my cheek, almost instantly getting absorbed by the liquid around me like it had never been there to begin with. My lips trembled yet still turned upward to form a minute but genuine smile of admiration.

Of gratitude.

That was when I knew. That was when that lightbulb of revelation shined above me, as it finally granted me a name.

Indigo.

I blinked back more of that warmth that sheened my orbs.

A colour of rarity, of loneliness, but also of the purest serenity in the toughest and silent of times. A pigment of reflection, a beacon of reverence… a lighthouse of hope.

Indigo… that’s what it was called..

The one aspect that got me through the day by day repetitiveness of life where everything and anything seemed utterly worthless; futile in its entirety.

Yes, Indigo..

It was my colour… is my colour…

For if there was one thing that I could claim in this life, this universe, that was and would be solely mine and mine alone.. it would definitely have to be the etheric colour of indigo..

Now physically displayed in the form of shining scales for not just myself but for the world to see, that in itself only further solidified that notion.

For it was that distinct yet fleeting ocean between light and darkness that was and is my very essence…

I allowed one more minuscule droplet of warmth free before I reluctantly guided my gaze back upwards to finally get a full view of where I was.

From what I could gather, I was smack-dab in the center of a circular room of sorts. Its walls were formed of tough rock while its floors were made up of what I could only assume was a type of sandstone by their colour and texture. There were the strange starry lights above of course and the ‘bed’ that I was placed within that was slightly elevated off the ground by a platform of more yellowish sandstone.

My eyes caught on to places on the walls where small sections were carved out to form in-built shelves where nick-nacks of various sizes were securely set upon. Glass jars of different trinkets and coloured liquids, boxes and chests of no-doubt invaluable possessions as well as a few crystals spread amongst all the chaotic order. These tiny details made the place seem more personal and lived in.

Lived in by who?, my mind uttered to me.

Waves of ink shadowing pearly skin glided through my mind. The lingering feeling of strong, pale hands directing me towards billowing salty depths. Those brooding cerulean orbs that constantly put me in a trance.

Yoongi..

This place must be his..

My head snapped to the one remaining feature of this organically structured room that I missed. Directly in front of me was a large archway donned with a piece of curtained fabric, blocking me from seeing where it led. An entryway. The doorway to his bedroom if the thing I was lying on was anything to go by.

It would have had to have been a good solid five or so minutes that whizzed by where I just aimlessly locked eyes on that one lone doorway, not knowing if I should entertain the notion of venturing out of it to see what other anomalies await. How could a room feature be so imposing in that sense, like it was some sort of inanimate dictator of my fate.

To go through or not to go through?

I looked down at my tail then back up towards the doorway, the drapery that hung from it appearing black against the stone walls. But when I proceeded to look closer, I realized it was actually an extreme shade of dark blue; the kind of shadowy depths that a certain someone’s eyes would shift to when faced with various forms of tribulation.

Or a certain level of caution if I were to judge the current orbs staring back at me now after I went to blink once.

Gasping in surprise, I jumped in my seat, not expecting the sudden intrusion. Misjudging the strength of my jolt and forgetting about the lack of gravity that comes with being submerged in water, my body shot up about 3ft, the salty liquid only aiding my ascent.

“Eek!!”

Oh god, oh god, oh god!

Help!

I was like a cartoon character, spastically waving my arms around, trying to grab ahold of something to stop the upwards momentum of my body. Any attempt to maneuver myself in an orderly manner went right out the window. My tail, a dead weight, didn't help in the slightest. My brain was unable to translate the new body part and as a result ran up blank on potential movement altogether.

“Well if this isn’t a sight to behold. Awake and already making a fuss I see.” A calm, mocking voice rang out in contrast to my otherwise chaotic kerfuffle. A slight shiver raked through me at the words.

I craned my neck to the direction of their source but the sudden change in rotation caused me to tumble down in spirals and awkward somersaults, my tail, due to its length and mass causing the majority of my spontaneous water aerobics.

Gosh, I’m gonna be sick, the constant spinning and view change encouraging my stomach to turn sour. Blue and green swirls blurring my vision.

A huff met my ears after several more seconds, the sounds much closer than before, almost like they were right beside me.

That was soon justified when my body collided with warmth, my hands smoothing over something broad and sinewy. A different and much larger pair quickly snagged onto my forearms, evidently stopping my next body roll in its tracks. One powerful tug downwards later and I was back to where I had initially started, the familiar bedding in the center of the room supporting my seated form as my indigo tail flopped limply over its side, swaying in tune to the moving water.

Not knowing I was holding my breath all that while, I let out a much needed sigh of relief, my gills opening to release some tension in the form of excess water and bubbles.

“Not a minute has passed and you’ve already managed to find a way into my arms. He rasped. “What’s your next move, woman? Falling from the sky?”

Frowning at the comment that was dripping with sarcasm, I looked to my right, my snarky savior meeting my gaze, mouth turned up in a slight smirk.

“Yoongi..” his name left my lips before I knew it. I blinked a couple of times to get ahold of my bearings, the last of my queasiness thankfully subsiding. He just stared down at me from where he was sitting next to me, an arm’s length or so between us which I would have appreciated more if not for his ever present haughtiness.

“Hmm, you remember my name, there may be some hope for you yet.”

Before I could come up with a reply to his quip, I was drawn to a particular formation of scales much like my own swaying lazily from side to side. They were so dark that I was sure they were capable of sucking the light out of the very space around them. I noted the slither of skin they faded out from, marking their starting point at the occupant’s waist, and from there roughly connected the dots.

Another tail… His tail…

This was Yoongi’s tail..

I stared agape.

It complimented his inky locks perfectly; a solid amalgamation of corded muscle plated over by jewels of pure night. A powerful looking fluke spanned almost double the width of my own, the innermost membrane of it radiating an all too familiar deep cerulean.

Beautiful…

I immediately diverted my gaze, having just realized what I was doing. Ashamed at my thoughts. Oh gosh, was it rude to stare at a mermaid’s…erm.. mer-man’s tail? Did I just break some unspoken rule in their culture, ogling like a freak?

Gaze now focused back on my own tail, I physically blanched. In comparison, it looked so puny and almost fragile, the superiority of his own weighing me down bit by bit. He could no doubt get up to ridiculous speeds from one measly flick of that huge and sturdy fin, or even knock someone out cold if subjected to the sheer mass of his tail’s scaled base.

I drew my sights upwards, praying that I didn’t weird out the merman that had remained silent all the while.

My worried thoughts were knocked out of the way however by another devastating sight. Well, that’s to say if being at the risk of bumping your nose into someone’s extremely bare chest is reason enough to warrant such a telling.

Heat rose as my throat locked up for a moment where I almost proceeded to choke on the water trying to pass through at the time.

“Y-you have no– w-where’s your shirt?!” I nearly fell over on my side from the speed at which I turned away, the resulting whiplash from all the sudden movements I was doing catching up to me, scrambling my brain. My cheeks were all but aflame and possibly boiling the water around them.

Mortified, the image of an expansive chest was forever burned into the back of my retinas; for better or for worse, I was still very much on the fence about. Wide plains and hardened ridges of moon-bathed skin swam in front of my vision tantalizingly where they joined to flow down into a tapered waist and taut stomach. He was more toned than I had initially thought, his loose fitting clothing having done an exceptional job of deceiving onlookers on just how well rounded his physique actually was; shoulders wider than anticipated and arms gifted with a visible strength that I could vouch for from firsthand experience.

Having never been in the same vicinity of a man for more than a few minutes at a time as my jobs allowed it and from my blatant lack of socializing, a shirtless man for that matter was on a whole nother level of insanity.

“Uh yeah.. We are underwater. Clothing isn’t really a thing – or needed for our kind. Well… for males at least.”

I remained silent and rigid, not daring to look back at the ungodly scene that loomed behind me.

An appalled grunt resounded from the man, a resultant of my body language that screamed discomfort. “Flustered over a little skin of all things?” He probed on. At that, I felt him scoot closer to me, making me in turn shrink in on myself like some petrified turtle.

“I am n-not!” My entire face by this stage felt like the inside of a volcano. I swear I could make out the bubbling of steam floating around my head.

“You’re just a little.. I-I’m just not used to being up so close.. a-and personal like t-this that I’m forced to not look at anything else!”

An amused scoff rang out, he was an inch or so from my back; I could tell by the wave of intensity that errantly washed over me, lifting the hairs on my neck.

“Oh really, I would never have guessed.”

“C-can you put your chest away or s-something?” I shot out, only then noting how weird that sentence actually sounded and cringed. I never thought claustrophobia from the presence of one’s…uh…lack of clothing was a thing.

“No can do, I'm afraid. You’ve just gotta start getting accustomed to the new dress code we’ve got going for us down here.”

You mean a lack of one. I let a low grumble slip past at that inevitability.

“Or perhaps,” his head craned beside my ear, making me flinch, “You’re just afraid you might secretly enjoy that fact?”

If my head was presumably a volcano, then that last remark just caused its long awaited eruption. A mix of flustered irritation all but burst and overflowed out of me as I gritted my teeth, trying to stave off the influx of emotions. From there, I proceeded to clench my hands into fists.

Big mistake.

In the next moment, an uncanny bout of pain rippled from below the beds of my fingers as my palms almost got sliced open.

My nails had all but extended into two inch claws!

As any normal person would do in this situation I let out an ear splitting shriek. Who knew this would spook me out more than finding out that I had a whole ass fish tail instead of legs, or be on par to the more mundane approach of simply viewing a man’s chest. Y/n, you really need to get your priorities straight in terms of the fright department. Pointy nails, really?

Holding my hands out away from the rest of my body, I went to shake them out, hoping that the action would somehow get rid of these needle-like atrocities.

Get ‘em off, these things! Get them away from me!

I could feel the eye roll from behind and not too long after a ripple of water washed over me. Those same large hands that had righted me before were now swallowing my own up in their tight grasp. He had swiftly maneuvered himself in front of me as I jolted at the contact, trying to yank them out of his hold but he was stubborn and held them strong.

“Always so jumpy.” He mumbled. “Relax, they’re just your–”

“Wha- What’s going on? What’s wrong with them!?

“First–” he cut in almost straight after with slight irritation, “You really need to calm down, something you seem to find particularly difficult!”

You try handling something like this for the first time and see if you fare any better. I really wanted to give him a piece of my mind in retaliation to his callousness. Jerk.

If the merman noticed my inner spite, he didn’t let on. Instead, he resorted to holding my hands still and in place, constantly squeezing them to stop their shaking. If I wasn’t already worked up enough with dealing with daggers in place of nails then the sudden hand holding would most certainly reign supreme in turning me into complete hysterics. No actually, let’s be real here, they were definitely working in tandem to get me over the edge.

“Do I really need to tell you to breathe again?” Yoongi uttered a little softer but still maintained that level of firmness. He was referring back to all the times he implored me to do so during that harrowing transformation of human to mermaid, however long ago that was now. “Work with me here, woman,” another squeeze of my hands followed as he waited for me to act on his request.

I shakily huffed as I closed my eyes, ridding my view of my monstrous nails. Working with the slits along my neck, I started a steady pace of one deep breath in and out. Such a process seemed to work, my breathing growing more calm and steady as the minutes ticked by. The awe factor that came about when utilizing my gills worked wonders in transforming my nerves into more bearable spouts of intrigue instead.

As my panic continued to fizzle out, I was soon guided out of my reverie by another firm squeeze from a set of pale hands. My eyes opened in an automatic reply and the bewitching blue of his own was the final nail that sealed my anxieties away – for now, at least.

He blinked, garnering my change in temperament and cleared his throat.

Guiding my gaze back down to the dilemma at hand (quite literally) he stroked the side of one of my ‘dagger nails’ with his thumb, my heart unknowingly skipping a beat. “These claws you’ve got here are what we call piercers. All merfolk have them, they’re really nothing special.”

I watched on as he allowed his right hand to part from the cocoon he had formed around my own and held it up before us, fingers splayed out in a backwards high five. The veins on the top of his palm pulsed while I barely made out the slightest twitch of his fingertips. Half a second later, five lengthy nails shot up like pointed spears. They were identical to my own, although maybe a little longer if I wanted to be really particular. He turned his hand so I could view them from multiple angles.

“They’re able to extend as you see here and…” A sound similar to a sword getting sheathed met my ears as they all too swiftly shrunk back down like they were never there to begin with, points now blunted at the ends; deceptively human. “…retract.”

I blinked, mind stark with disbelief.

“They’re used in both offensive and defensive measures, like most land predators you’ve no doubt seen somewhere in your time up there. They’re foremost a means of survival. The ocean isn’t like the surface; it can be tough and grueling to even the best of us. In the worst of cases, a mer’s piercers can be the only thing hovering between you and your end.” He stared between my eyes, weighing my reaction and continued when I appeared fine. “Anything from gripping onto surfaces if a current is too strong, tearing through netting to escape or ripping or even piercing into things for sustenance. All these things and more are applicable for an easier time down here in the deep.”

I dumbly nodded along to his explanation, trying to take in as much information as possible because I had a feeling that he wasn’t one who had the patience to repeat himself. Tuning into this ‘Mermaids 101’ lesson was imperative for my hopeful assimilation into this new lifestyle.

“They fully form when a mer reaches maturity. There’s a short transitional period beforehand where you can partially extend them, a sort of time of adjustment to get a grasp on how to work them fully.” He let out a tired sigh then, “That would’ve been a helpful time for you but I guess we can’t have everything come easy to us now can we.”

“T-that’s all fine and well but…uh…h-how do I make them shrink back to normal?” I spoke up, still eyeing my so-called piercers with discomfort. I certainly didn’t want to run the risk of taking somebody's eye out with these literal knives poking out. They looked like something straight out of a horror movie and were ever a safety hazard in my book.

Another strained sigh broke out from Yoongi's lips.

“Adrenaline can set them off; with your total lack of experience, I’d gather that even just tensing your hands can lead to the same conclusion, whether you’re in active danger or not.”

Great. My shoulders slumped at the realization. So even just exercising a joint or muscle wrong could lead to a good old ‘stabby’ surprise. How was I ever going to get a handle on these without accidentally impaling myself in the process?

I looked at Yoongi's one hand still wrapped around both of mine, my piercers poking out of the top like a bunch of upright harpoons. He made it look so easy. So mindless when performing the action of retracting his own.

“Look, for starters, your best bet is to completely relax your hands, detense everything that warrants any level of strain or effort. Think you can do that?”

Clearing my throat, I looked his way but was unable to meet his eyes once more, “I–I’ll try..”

Finally granting my hands freedom from his hold, he allowed them to float in between us as I willed them to go completely limp. Even in this state of forced calmness, I was still very much afraid of putting them any closer to my body where my vital organs were.

“Picture them – or rather – try to feel them getting shorter, like they’re getting sucked back into your fingers, merging with them, if you will.”

Taking his explanation into account and trying to work with what he said, I stared my piercers down like they were some unbecoming menace that needed to be put back in their place.

I stared.

And stared.

And stared..

My eyes scrunched up in concentration to the point where they were starting to strain and cause an oncoming headache. No doubt the scene I was putting up looked rather unflattering to the man who remained in front of me observing my amateur efforts.

At one stage I may have seen one or two of the spear-like nails slip down a few rungs but that may have just been my out-of-whack imagination playing tricks on me.

He must think I’m so pathetic. I mentally versed, after a good millennia of time had passed and my piercers were still very much present, standing upright and tauntingly proud.

My chest tightened. This was ridiculous. I couldn’t even control my own body properly. It was like I was a newborn baby all over again.

I gave them another long, hard stare, trying and failing to bend the menacing blades to my will. Their imaginary tongues would most definitely be sticking out at me right about now, making fun of my loss.

Urk! Nothing’s happening!

“Stop.” Yoongi’s voice cut through the tension as if he could hear my mental battle. “You’re trying too hard.”

“It’s hopeless.” I let out a struggling sigh. “They won’t…I-I can’t–”

“Yes you can.”

I went to deny his claim with another despondent retort but he spoke up again.

“Even I don’t expect you to be a natural at this right at the get go. I may be forward in how I deal with the majority of my shit but even I have to admit, I’m not that much of a hard ass.”

Hmm, that remains to be seen. I wanted to say, but decided to give him the benefit of the doubt; just this once.

“Now tell those defeating thoughts I see gnawing away at you to get a life, relax, and start again. And try to really feel them this time. If you at least do that then your instincts should kick in and the rest more or less should come smoothly.”

A trail of bubbles left my mouth in discouragement as I tried to focus on the piercers themselves; as Yoongi emphasized, on how they felt.

I felt how surprisingly lightweight they were as opposed to their almost stone-like hardness, how they sprouted seamlessly from the very base of my nail beds, them being the solid unbreakable roots that supported the promise and outcome of flowering thorns. The blood that pulsed evenly up through my fingers and underneath each bed, the life giving water that sustained those uncanny roots.

I loosened my shoulders and breathed, welcoming in the water swaddled oxygen and followed the way it sent tingles right down to my bones. My joints and limbs swarmed with a sense of relief and utter vitality, thanking me for rewarding them with the sunlight-like sustenance they needed in order to thrive. I sailed along those feelings and sensations of rightness down to the start of those same roots.

They vibrated.

Relax.

They aren’t bad, they’re not to be feared or anything to be repulsed at; no, they’re an extension of yourself. They are you and you are them. You are innately connected.

More vibrations rippled along my neighboring fingers; a harmony conjoining to form one synchronized note.

You are at their mercy and in turn, they are also equally under your command. You each hold a mutual bond that at its core is unanimous in principle.

Breathe, relax, feel..

They are you and you are them..

My eyes suddenly shot open at a strange feeling of finality. I didn’t dare look down to see if my mental tinkering had worked in my favor or had made things abundantly worse to the point where I would be in desperate need of a manicure.

“Are they..?” I couldn’t get the rest of my question past my lips. Dread and hope fought a deathly battle in my throat, clogging it in the process. Yoongi, still able to grasp the rest of what I was going to ask, voiced his reply.

“See for yourself.”

Not giving me much of a choice, I resigned to my fate and glimpsed down at my piercers. All the while I cursed the merman for not telling me outright if they were back to normal or still in their monstrous state of existence.

No, not monstrous, I quickly corrected myself. No, they were just… different. I won’t lie and say that I was completely in acceptance of them, even after that weird symbiotic experience I just felt and envisioned. Like any new development in someone’s life, they were going to take some extensive warming up to.

So it was at that expense then that I couldn’t help but curl my lips up into a triumphant smile, shaking with joy and relief. Because before me once more was my all too normal and familiar ‘human’ nails, in all their blunt and ordinary simplicity.

My gaze rounded up to Yoongi’s at this, shyness temporarily pushed to the back by a dominant spout of victory.

“I-I did it!” I was practically bouncing in my seat like a little kid.

The faintest telling of satisfaction was delicately painted on the merman’s usually hardened face. He calmly looked at me and grunted a sound of approval. His annoyance seemingly put to the back burner while he allowed me this moment of glory; tolerating it silently. If that was all the complimenting and congratulations I was going to get from him then I’d gladly accept it.

From what I had gathered, this momentary display of positivity he portrayed was something of a rarity for Yoongi. His expressions always seemed to range from one of three visible states: stark emotionlessness, emotionless stoicism, or, if you wanted to get really fancy, a brooding anger or annoyance that was often riddled with blunt sarcasm every necessary chance it got.

Yes, a splendid selection indeed.

Not to say my range of emotions were any better. Far from it. Who would want to be around someone who couldn’t meet you in the eye more than half the time and when they could miraculously get a glimpse of your face was then subjected to an uncomfortable front of nervous awkwardness.

Yeah, I’d take casual stoicness over extreme shyness any day.

I willed my nails out of their bedded sheathes once more, inexperience still getting the best of me as they stiffly shot out, a dull thrum of pain ever present. Getting them back down though was definitely the more taxing part. More often than not they kept shooting back outwards when they had just managed to blunt back down.

“Are they always meant to..erm.. h-hurt.. w-when they extend?” I asked, taking note of yet another wavelet of burning coursing through my nail beds.

“The first few times, yes. They’re like any other muscle really. The more you use them the less effort your body has to expend over time.”

Still scared and awed all at the same time, I was slowly getting lost among the process of my piercers, trying to get as much of a feel as I could to not warrant a later accident. Though I knew that worrying fact was inevitable.

Sheath, unsheathe. In, out.

Just when I was about to release them again for another glimpse that would leave me gobsmacked, I was abruptly stopped.

“Ok, ok, cut it out, you’ll give yourself a cramp if you keep playing with them like that.”

I flinched and guiltily lowered my hands to rest in my scaled lap, a ‘sorry’ taking up residence on the tip of my tongue out of instinct but I managed to swallow it down.

He sighed then, clearly seeing my state of submissiveness like I had just been slapped.

A moment of tense silence floated around us. The merman ever so slightly looming closer to my bent form when I failed to move, his night-clad scales only adding to the growing shadow he cast upon me; a blanket of darkness.

“You can look at me, you know. You don’t have to be so shy and defensive all the time.”

I unconsciously shivered.

I would if I could…

My life beforehand hadn’t exactly been a safe haven for allowing my trust and confidence to run free.

If anything, it has only influenced me to close myself up to the point where my worries and insecurities became my only safeguard against potential disappointment and pain in the long run.

Heh, what good that did when I decided to take a risk for once and hop onto that bus that day, catalyzing all this mess.

Gills opening and closing, I craned my neck upwards, once more catching the speckled display of lighting that decorated the rocky ceiling above us, just like starlight.

“T-Those lights up there…w-what are they?”

My obvious deflection of his accusation surprisingly didn’t seem to anger him, as he let go of inquiring further. He shifted to my side and joined me in gazing up at the glittering amassment, not nearly as enamored as I was at the sight and replied after a few beats.

“Stellaris algae.”

My intrigue appeared to prompt him further in an explanation, however reluctant he was from his almost monotonous words. “It grows in dotted clumps and glows – well as the name suggests – like stars…. What was it that humans like to call it? You know, for how it lights up?” He paused, searching for the term. “Bioluminescent?”

I hummed my understanding and couldn’t help but voice my own simple thoughts. “It’s beautiful…”

I felt his gaze at my side then but remained viewing the speckles of green and blue, pushing down my self-consciousness.

“I suppose it is.” He let out in barely a whisper and I went to tuck a floating strand of hair that breached my line of sight behind my ear.

A steady wave of tingling energy reverberated between us as I hung onto my composure, the bioluminescence of the star-like algae helping me slightly as it gently lulled me into a state of reverence as I basked under its glow.

How can anyone get sick of such a sight? Yoongi must be blind…

Said merman dropped beside me, severing my musings and I ever so slightly inched away.

“While I hate to cut your stargazing short, the real stars will be gracing us not before too long. I think we’ve stalled with things long enough.”

Really, it’s almost night? I blinked.

“Though I can’t really fault you for not knowing I guess. You can’t really tell it, what with being as deep down in my den as we are.”

Talk of time curiously drew me back to the subject of my impromptu nap.

“H-How long was I out?”

He raked his hand through his locks and I tried to not focus on how the motion made my insides…feel things.

“Long enough for Helios to pass over twice.” He answered, taking note of my not so subtle increase of space I made between us and raised a brow.

Stumped, I gave him a look of confusion.

He snarked. “Right, I forgot I have to dumb my words down for you.” Frowning, I just managed to reign in my nails that had accidentally shot out halfway in response.

“Easy,” he griped, when he saw my claws, almost amused. “You’ve been asleep for two days, give or take.”

I actually did cough on the water this time.

“Two… two d-days!?”

He huffed nonchalantly at my shock.

“Relax, you weren’t dying or anything if that’s what you’re so worried about. It’s normal to take that long for your first time. Or I guess in your case, your first time after so many years? Either way, I’ve seen others take longer, so you're fine.”

I remained silent at his rather rocky attempt at reassurance, questioning its validity.

“Now, before you feel tempted to go on another one of your panic sprees, how about we see if you can stomach some food. After such an ordeal, I’m surprised you can still remain upright.”

Now that he mentioned it, I was feeling a bit heavy with fatigue, like I hadn’t bothered to move in centuries.

“That would be good…t-thanks.”

“Good cause, while your piercers are one less thing to worry about, you still have one other important thing to deal with. Seeing as it’s you we’re talking about, you’re gonna need all the strength you can get.”

I gave him yet another look of confusion and he groused at my lack of awareness.

“You still have that to contend with,” he stated, pointing down at my lap where my tail rested.

The tail which remained to feel like an immovable log of petrified wood.

I let out a gulp and ruminated as I often did in times of uncertainty and caution, which was more often than I would’ve liked in my life before and up to this.

Right. How hard can that be? I blanched, trying to let the indigo of my scales soothe me.

Knowing me, not easy enough..

| 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 | 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 | 𝐍𝐞𝐱𝐭 | ༄⋆

#bts fanfic #bts fic #crescent tides chapter 12 #bts ff #bts min yoongi #bts hoseok #bts #bts yoongi #bts seokjin #bts park jimin #bts taehyung #bts jimin #bts jungkook #bts x reader #bts mermaid au #mermaid bts #bts namjoon #bts fantasy au

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