A Merman And A Human

Ata sighed in relief once he had arrived at his destination. That one spot that was far away enough from his merfolk city that he wouldn't be bothered by anyone, but also not so far that it could be dangerous.

Having to deal with customers as he helped his friend Maasa at his sweet shop could be quite stressful sometimes. Specially if they had to deal with someone who just didn't seem to be satisfied with anything. On some nights, such as this one, Ata just needed to be away from everything for a while in order to relax.

He leaned on a big rock and closed his eyes. Simply enjoying the faint sounds of the ocean.

Until he heard something odd. A splashing noise. Something had fallen into the ocean.

Ata opened his eyes and looked up in the direction of the sound. And what he saw was a human, struggling to get back to the surface.

He was confused. What was a human doing there in the middle of the night? The closest human area was a bit too far for it to make sense.

Ata just observed from afar for a few minutes, hidden behind a rock. Waiting to see if the human would go away. But the human had at one point stopped moving.

Ata started moving without thinking. He rushed towards the unconscious human, dragging them towards the surface. There was a small boat there, with a lit lamp, which Ata assumed had belonged to that human. So he managed to get them into the boat.

Ata swam still for a while, thinking what to do next. He didn't feel like he could just leave the human there. They were defenseless in the middle of the ocean. Who knows if a storm could start in the middle of the night and drag them even further away from home?

Ata knew the way towards the closest human region, which was likely where this person came from. And even if it wasn't, they'd likely still manage to get help from other humans to get back.

Ata sighed. So much for wanting time to relax. But either way, he held onto the bottom of the small boat, pushing it all the way towards the closest beach.

It took about 20 minutes for them to arrive at the beach. Ata pushed the boat until it was far enough into the sand that he was sure it wouldn't be taken back into the ocean by the waves, but also close enough he could quickly go back into the water himself.

At first he did think of going straight back home. But then he realized that the human hadn't woken up yet or even moved at all.

His heart sank. Were they dead?

He looked into the boat. The human with light lilac hair was still in the same position as when Ata had thrown them back into the boat. He pressed his fingers against his neck, feeling a heartbeat and miraculously also breathing. Ata sighed in relief.

The human started coughing. Startled, Ata rushed back into the water. He waited for a while. Underwater, any sounds from the surface were muffled. So he couldn't tell when the human had stopped coughing.

What did indicate that the human had come back to consciousness, was when he saw the light of the lamp moving. It moved back and forth, as if the human was confused about where they were.

The light started coming closer to him. So Ata swam away. The human was alive, that's all he needed to know. He didn't have any other reason to stay around.

Ata found himself coming back to that beach the next day.

He couldn't get it out of his head. Was that human actually okay? Were they safe? So he came back. In case he was lucky enough to find out what happened and finally be able to stop thinking about it.

Sneaking behind a rock, he looked at the beach. He noticed that same human sitting on the sand, just looking at the ocean. Good. They seemed to be okay, at least.

After looking around the beach a while, the human turned around and walked away, to somewhere Ata couldn't see.

Ata remained in place for a while, just thinking. The human didn't seem to see him. Were they looking for Ata? He wondered what they'd do if they had found him.

"Hey." Ata suddenly heard a voice behind him.

He shouted and jumped, his heart almost beating out of his chest. It was the human.

Ata's first instinct was to try and swim away. But before he could go too far, the human called him again. "Wait! Don't leave!"

Ata stopped and turned around, finding the human with water up to their chest. But they didn't seem to be able to go much deeper. So Ata didn't swim away, but remained at a bit of a distance from the human.

"You were the one who helped me last night, weren't you? I thought I saw a shadow somewhere when I woke up." The human smiled. "I just wanted to thank you."

"T-that was me, yes." Ata stuttered. "What were you even doing in that boat, so far away from shore?"

"I was fishing not too far from the beach. But then... I fell asleep. I guess the ocean took me away during that."

'Are they stupid?' Ata thought . But he didn't say it out loud. He'd rather not be rude and possibly bring trouble from a human. "Are you alright now?" He asked instead.

"I am. Thanks to you." The human smiled. And for some reason, that smile made Ata's cheeks burn.

After a moment of just being smiled at, Ata spoke again. "Um... Bye!" He quickly submerged into the water.

He heard the human yell "Wait!", followed by them falling into the water.

Ata quickly grabbed them and brought them to the surface. "Are you stupid!?" He asked out loud.

"Sorry." The human said, squinting their eyes due to the salty water as they held onto Ata's arms. "But I... I don't know your name."

"... My name is Ata."

"That's a nice name!"

(Ata blushed, both at the human's words and their soft smile.)

"I'm Kyotaro." Kyotaro tightened his grip on Ata. "Please don't leave yet. I'd like to know you more."

Ata was silent for a moment, wondering how he should respond. Had humans become so accepting of merfolk and he was just not aware of it?

Kyotaro glanced down at the water, and his jaw hung open. "Oh."

Ata didn't want to spend much time wondering how long it had taken them to realize he was a merman. tried to swim away, but Kyotaro pulled him back.

"Wait! I won't tell anyone about you if you don't want me to!"

Ata raised an eyebrow. "So you... Don't care?"

" I don't."

Oh, of course it wouldn't be all humans who thought like that. That would be too convenient.

He was silent for a moment as he thought about it. Kyotaro seemed like a nice human, at least so far... Despite how foolish he seemed to be. But maybe that just proved Kyotaro was harmless?

Ata sighed. "Fine. If you want to just chat I'll stick around for a while."

Kyotaro smiled widely, guiding Ata to a mostly out of sight rocky part of the beach. Ata couldn't help but blush from that smile.

It made him question if agreeing to this was as good an idea as he had thought just a few seconds ago.