Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Staying in a tourist-filled seaside town wasn't how Three expected to spend their summer - They'd rather spend their time sleeping all day and scrolling social media until 4 am, and they could definitely still do that, if they didn't have 2 very annoying cousins that forced them to leave the house. 

Currently, the trio had been in the car for 3 hours. Callie driving, Marie in the passenger seat, and Three in the back, half asleep. The motive for this trip? Callie's mom retired and bought a beach house with the impressive salary her popstar daughter makes, and Callie insisted they all pay a visit to her mother/their aunt.

Three already missed the city, but it wasn't like this town was in the middle of nowhere and had a population of 20 - no, Inkopolis bay was a relatively large tourist destination, proven by the insane amount of gift shops and people strutting around in Hawaiian shirts they saw as the car drove down the main street. They wish they hadn't agreed to this trip (although they knew Callie would've dragged them with her and Marie anyway), and their regret only gets worse as the car's GPS chimes, in a feminine yet electronic voice, that "your destination is on your right."

Callie parks the car, then almost launches herself out of it; running up to her mom, screaming in excitement.

"Moooommmm! I missed you so muchhhhh!" She cries, hugging her mother as Three and Marie take their luggage out of the trunk.

"Hi, Auntie." Three and Marie say, in synchronised, sing-song voices.

Callie's mom walks towards them, enveloping the pair in a tight hug. "Look at you two!" She says, ruffling Marie's bleached hair. "Oh, Three! You've gotten so tall! Come on in, I'll show you your rooms."

She leads them through the house, Callie bounces with excitement, and her cousins trail behind. It's clear to Three that their aunt has taken decorating very seriously, just about the entire house is themed after the beach. Sea shells decorate every surface, each picture that isn't of a family member is of the beach, and every single candle is giving off a strange, salty scent, which Three guesses is supposed to imitate saltwater.

After a lengthy tour, the trio is led upstairs to their bedrooms. Callie and Marie share a room, as they have for basically every day of their lives, while Three gets their own.

As they enter their room and set their bags down, it finally dawns on Three that this is where they'll be spending the next 3 months. In a small bedroom filled with shells and dead starfish, the stench of which they can still smell over the candles.

They collapse onto the bed and almost instantly fall asleep. The car drive exhausted them, and they're grateful that, even if staying in this bay for the whole summer will most certainly suck, the bed is at least more comfortable than the one back home.

It's been a week since Three was dragged to Inkopolis bay. Every single day has been spent trailing behind their cousins as they shop and talk for hours, and if they're not doing that, they're applying 50 pounds of sunscreen on the beach, idly standing by while Callie and Marie take hundreds of photos with fans and sign countless autographs.

Today is no different. Callie and Marie have wandered off somewhere in pursuit of ice cream, leaving Three staring out into the sea. The water that gently crashes against their legs is a teal colour and almost fully clear, but the expansive ocean they gaze at is a deep, dark blue, endlessly deep with giant, thrashing waves that could ruthlessly trap anyone who swims out far enough underneath them, not caring if they drown or not.

Suddenly, they spot something pink weaving between the waves. It's still far away, but the bright colour makes the thing stand out against the deep blue water. Three takes a few steps forward and narrows their eyes, trying to make out the pink thing. It's not some sort of floaty, it doesn't move the way a pool tube or anything of the sorts would, and it can't be a person - anyone out there would surely be drowning and flailing around for help. Whatever it is, it moves at a speed and with agility Three had never seen before. 

They watch as the pink blob speeds through the water, unaffected by the crashing waves or the strong current. Frequently, the pink thing submerges itself underwater, for much longer than any land dweller could. Before they know it, Three begins to walk along the shore, following the path of the pink swimming thing, although much farther behind it.

Eventually, they end up in a rocky outcrop, almost entirely isolated from any living person. They look around, and realise they've been walking for at least half an hour. The buildings of Inkopolis bay are appear no bigger than the rocks they're surrounded by from this distance, and the only sound they hear is the waves crashing against the rocks. Three decides that being out here isn't actually that bad. They know how to get back to the populated part of the beach - They've essentially been walking in a straight line for the past 30 minutes - and it surely wouldn't hurt if they spent a little longer out here. They're still looking out for the pink thing, but the white, foamy waves obstruct their view of just about anything in the water.

They explore for a while, finding a variety of starfish around the algae covered rocks, wade through seaweed-filled water, and watch as large seabirds fly overhead. The sun beats down on them, and they decide they should probably find some shade if they intend to stay out here any longer. Soon enough, they find a relatively small cove, look around for a moment, then walk in. Inside, it's somewhat dark, but the large opening to the sea provides enough light to see. They make their way to the shore, but then spot what seems to be hair in a very familiar shade of pink.

Suddenly, a face turns around to face them - It's a girl, who seems to be around the same age as Three. Her eyes widen and her pupils shrink in shock as she looks at Three. Both of them yelp and Three jumps back, while the girl dives back under the water.

Three goes silent in shock, before a voice pipes up.

"Please leave."

At this point, Three has no idea if they're even awake and wonders if they're dreaming. They look at the girl, her face half submerged in the water with her eyes locked directly at Three. Magenta hair, curly and impossibly long, is splayed in the saltwater around her.

"Uhm, Hi. I saw you swimming earlier." Three takes a few small steps towards the water, and the girl instantly swims back away from them. 

"Leave." She repeats. "No place for humans here." Three tilts their head in confusion, and the girl gasps and goes back under the water.

"What- uh, what do you mean by that?" They ask awkwardly. "The "no place for humans" thing?"

The girl increases the distance between her and Three. 

"I just want clarification!"

"Stay away!" She yells.

"This is a public beach, y'know?" Three retorted, they turn around to leave, but hear a large splash and instinctively whip their head around, only to see...

A tail?

A tail???

"H-hold on!" They scream. "What- what the hell are you!?"

The girl/fish/mermaid/thing pokes her head up, but goes back down as she sees Three run as fast as they can through the shallow water, to the deeper, rockier part she floats in. She swims further back until she's far away enough that Three wouldn't be able to get to her without smashing against the rocks.

"I said already! Stay away!"

"I'm... I'm not gonna hurt you, or anything!" They yell as loud as they can to make sure she hears them over the waves, while they cling to a rock. "I'm just really, really confused right now!"

"If I give you an explanation, will you leave?!"

"Yes!"

The girl swims up to a rock opposite the one Three's on, and pulls herself up onto it.

Three's immediate first thought is, she's not wearing a shirt.

Luckily, her hair covers anything private. Three's next thought is, Mermaids are real and one of them is sitting right in front of me.

"So," She starts. "I am a mermaid, or siren, or whatever you may call it."

"I can see that." Three instantly wishes they could take that back - They just disrespected a mythical being. Three wouldn't be surprised if she used some siren song or waterbending on them right now just for that.

"Well- If you are satisfied with my explanation, you will be leaving now." She says, lowering herself into the water.

"W-wait! Don't leave! I have more questions!" Three exclaims, and the girl pauses. "What's your name? Where are you from? Why are you... here?"

She swims up to Three's rock, props herself up, and stares straight into their eyes. Their faces are mere inches apart. With her this close, Three can see every detail of her face. Her sclera is a light teal, she has scales the same colour as her hair on her shoulders and the bridge of her nose, and slits on her neck Three assumes are gills. An aquamarine tail flaps around in the water below.

"Before I tell you mine- What's your name?" She asks, in a nicer tone than before, but she's clearly still suspicious.

"Uh- I'm Three." The girl tilts her head. "My cousins and I- we used to play this game. My name in it was Three, so everyone kinda just calls me that now."

"We have something in common, it seems. My name is Eight." She responds, and to Three, she seems slightly more comfortable than before. They ask her why they also have a name for a number, and she points to her pupils, which are a distinctive 8 shape. 

Realisation suddenly hits Three. "Holy shit! I'm going crazy!" They scream, scrambling backwards. "I'm talking to a mermaid! A fucking mermaid!" They wade through the water and back to the shore, almost tripping as their feet meet the sand.

As they run, they look back for a moment, and see Eight shrug before diving back underwater.

Knock, knock, knock

"Callie, go away."

Knock, knock, knock

"Go awayyy!" Three yells, just as Callie opens the door.

"Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey!" She chimes, walking towards Three's bed. "Breakfast time, cuz! You've slept in long enough!" Callie puts her arms under their shoulders, and drags them out of bed. (They'd forgotten how strong she was.)

Once again, they're dragged all across town, to ice cream stores, shopping outlets, photo spots, and the beach.

But they can't stop thinking about Eight. Well, of course they can't. She's a bloody mermaid. They're semi-convinced she's not actually real and they had some strange hallucination, probably caused by heatstroke, on the beach. At some point, Callie and Marie get dragged away by fans begging for photos and autographs, and Three decides this is the perfect opportunity to find the cove that they came across yesterday, and, if Eight is somehow real, apologise to her. God, they feel crazy just thinking about going to find a mermaid. Maybe she's more like a siren, and is luring them in. There can't be any other reason, right?

They walk along the beach, ignoring the sand accumulating in their sandals, and eventually spot the cove again. They walk in and sit at the shore, watching the waves smash against the rocks, and wait.

They don't know how long they've been staring into the ocean for, but they suddenly see a burst of magenta emerge from the water. Three practically shoots up and runs into the sea, avoiding the rocks as best as they can.

"Eight!"

She turns her head around and sees them. She smiles and swims up to the shore, meeting Three there.

"Hello! I did not expect you to show up again." Eight says, sitting up on the sand, her tail still halfway in the water.

"I'm here to say sorry- For, uhm, screaming about being crazy and running off. And also invading your personal space, sort of." Three states, taking a seat next to Eight and crossing their legs.

"I don't blame you for the whole crazy thing- I know how humans feel about anything abnormal. I listen to them a lot." She turns to face Three, and smiles. "But, staying when I told you to leave was odd. At least it means you're persistent?" 

Three laughs. "You're quick to trust. Yeah, that was weird of me. Again, sorry."

"There is not much reason to not trust anyone where I'm from. But with humans, I have to be suspicious. They do not tend to like things that are out of the ordinary." She explains. "But you're too awkward to do any harm. I trust you." Three awkwardly glances away, then realises that what they're doing is, in fact, awkward, facepalms, and turns to face Eight again.

"I'm glad to have your trust, at least. So you're not gonna use any mermaid powers on me?"

"Depends." She giggles.

The two continue to talk, and Three occasionally remembers they're talking to a mermaid, who they met a day ago, and are already (sort of?) friends with her. Soon enough, the sun begins to set. Eight's hair is semi-dry now, and it's a lot curlier than they previously thought, but still unbelievably long.

"I should probably get going- My cousins must be looking for me by now." Three says, standing up. 

Eight waves and pushes herself into the sea. "Tell me more about the city tomorrow!" She yells over the waves, just before she dives under, and Three watches her distinct pink hair get further and further away.

Three's been walking along the beach for 30 minutes now, and they finally reach the tourist-filled part. But now, with the sun almost fully set, the beach is virtually empty, except for two familiar faces running around in the darkness.

"Three!" Callie screams, running towards them! "We were looking for you everywhere, all day!"

"Sorry. I got kinda lost." They sheepishly respond.

"You have a lot of summer left, Three. You could've gone missing any other day!" Marie remarks slyly.

"How inconsiderate of me. Sorry, your highness." 

"Come on!" Callie says, motioning for Three and Marie to speed up. "I promised Gramps I would call him tonight!"

The cousins make their way to the main street. Just as they're about to leave the beach, Three looks back, and in the last rays of evening sun, they see a pink figure waving.

Chapter Text

The sun's rays shine down in streaks, piercing through the dark navy ocean.

But where Eight is, she sees none of it. She knows vaguely of the warmth of the sun, from stories told by elders, or exploring turned dangerous by swimming too far up, to where the water is lighter and warmer, and waves crash above. A forbidden zone. A world unaccepting of and not made for her kind. She knows about the danger, so why does she want to see the world above so badly?

She's naturally curious - Just about everything she does is fuelled by a need to explore. But she's explored every sunken human wreck, identified every species of local fish, collected hundreds of pearls and all varieties of shells, and even taught herself to read in the human's language when her father refused to teach her, despite her name being her language's translation of a human character, and her father's knowledge of human speech. But no matter what she does, her thirst to discover is never clenched.

Tonight, the depths of the ocean are still and dark. She weaves her way through rocky formations used as dwellings by her people. She can see others, their bioluminescence giving off colourful glows into the surrounding darkness. Her own pinkish glow lights up the path to her home, a relatively large arrangement of rocks and discarded human materials, refined into smooth slabs and planks. She opens a decaying wooden door with an slippery algae-covered handle, and swims inside, carefully shutting the door behind her.

She looks around suspiciously for her father for a moment, before remembering she hasn't lived with him for almost a year. She sighs in relief and a stream of bubbles is formed by her lips, gently drifting upwards. She sets a woven satchel onto a slab of rock and carefully empties the contents, making sure nothing floats away.

The majority of items in the satchel, she's seen before. Utensils, jewellery, and glass bottles, amongst other things. She inspects the admittedly pretty jewellery, and sets her eye on a particularly beautiful ring with a strange gemstone set in it. The stone looks somewhat like a pearl, but it's been cut into an oval shape and, upon further inspection, using a variety of bioluminescent flora to view the stone in better lighting, she discovers it reflects light in a way that displays every colour she's ever seen. She's disappointed when she realises the ring won't fit because of the webbing between her clawed fingers.

She stuffs her findings into a wooden cabinet and carefully takes out a final object from her satchel. She carefully unfolds the paper and gazes at the image in her hands. Humans, she thinks. The image depicts a family of humans, all with serious expressions on their faces, and she knows it must be an older photo. Newer ones are coloured and humans tend to smile in them. Humans are funny to Eight. They find so many ways to preserve, taking photos, drawing, writing, and yet every story of humans she has heard depicts them as destructive, careless creatures. She supposes they can be both - Her people are no stranger to destruction, whether caused by an outside force or by themselves. Her ancestors, the women that bought her to this point, lured human ships into rocky shores and feasted on the drowned sailors.

Now? Contact with humans, at least in her community, is strictly forbidden, even if you intend to kill them. Eight knows why. The newer sunken human vessels are much more advanced than the ones her kind scavenges, made of metal, with tight seals, large weapons and wings as if they were meant to soar above the ocean, not slowly decay on the seabed.

She gazes at the photo, slightly sad she'll never be pictured like that. She accidently rips the wet paper, and decides she's stared at some rando's family for long enough. She opens a small box and places the image carefully above many others like it. Then, she curls up in her bed, made of anything soft she could find. The human beds she's seen have wooden frames in rectangular shapes, but whatever they use as mattresses must decay very easily, because she's seen only the frames, and she can't see why humans would sleep on just hard materials, nothing else.

Ugh. She can't sleep. She needs to clear her head.

She opens her door and swims. Passing translucent fish, squid that glow red, and a pod of whales, clicking and whistling in a way not too different from the way merfolk communicate.

Soon enough, she leaves the coldness of the depths and the water around her becomes warmer and lighter.

She looks up, and sees golden rays shining through the sea. She stays under it, the warmth an unfamiliar but welcome sensation on her skin. She basks in it until she's completely forgotten where she is, until the light fades. 

Confused, she slowly approaches the barrier between her world and the surface, listening as waves crash above her. She could look up, just for a second, to see what's happening. Nobody would know.

Eight cautiously pokes her head out, and sees a sky just as black as the deep ocean. Small white dots twinkle above, and a large, white crescent hangs in the darkness. It's beautiful, She thinks. None of the human books she's managed to salvage and read describe it as magnificent as it truly is. Of course, humans must see it all the time. They must just be accustomed to the sight. If Eight lived up here, she'd never get bored of it. In that moment, Eight decides she must know more. About the bright spots in the night sky, the colours that reflect on the sea as the sun sets and rises in a never-ending cycle, and the lives of humans who see it happen every day.

"You said you're from "the city." Which one?" Eight asks. "I've heard of many."

"I'm from Inkopolis- It's about... 3 hours from here?"

Eight lays halfway in the shallow water, resting her chin on her hands. She tilts her head in a way that tells Three to continue.

"It's really big. I think the biggest in the country, maybe. It's super crowded and there's always traffic. But I like living there. There are tons of luxury stores, cafes, restaurants you could find and buy anything you wanted there. Basically everyone lives in these really tall apartment complexes, but I live in an apartment above a dry cleaner because the rent is cheaper."

Three's only talked about mundane city life, but Eight looks incredibly intrigued. Since they actually started trusting each other (aka one day ago,) Eight has done nothing but absorb information. 

"Dry cleaners?" She asks.

"It's a store where you pay other people to clean your clothes." Three explains, quickly changing the topic. Even if Eight seems to be interested in everything they have to say, there's no way she'll find dry cleaning that interesting. "Have I told you about my cousins?" Eight shakes her head. "They're idols in Inkopolis. They do a bunch of stuff- host the news, model, dance, sing... sing! You're a mermaid, right? Do you sing or anything?" They ask.

"Not as much as you'd think. We do not lure sailors anymore, but singing is still important, culturally. Plus, we do not speak like you humans, so our singing may sound a bit strange to you."

"That reminds me!" Three suddenly exclaims. "There's no way speaking English underwater is that effective-" 

Eight cuts them off. "Yes- Very ineffective. We click and whistle, like whales, or dolphins. I learnt this human language by listening to people on the beach."

"Huh," Is all Three can say. "I know this is kinda weird, but could you sing? I just wanna hear it and you don't need todoitonlyifyou'recomfortable-"

"Three! Calm down!" Eight giggles. "Uhm, sure. I do not do it frequently, just so you know." She sits up and clears her throat before singing a simple scale.

She's a siren, for sure, because there's no other reason why Three's heart is beating this fast and their cheeks suddenly feel so hot.

Eight stops, and Three almost has to physically stop themselves from asking her to do it again.

"What did you think?" She smiles.

Three is frozen solid for a moment, before giving her an awkward smile and a thumbs up. Eight looks at them, confused.

"O-oh! Thumbs up..." They gesture to their hand, "Means something's good. Uh, Thumbs down means bad."

Eight laughs and replicates the hand gesture, moving her hands up, down and around. 

She suddenly looks up, straight at Three. "Are you okay?" She asks, bringing her face right up to theirs and gently touching their cheek. "Your cheeks are very red. Are you ill?"

"Yep! Completely fine!" They reply, not wanting to pull away, even if they're probably experiencing fatal levels of awkwardness right now. "I- I must of, uh, forgotten sunscreen, this morning..."

"Alright!" Eight pulls away. Three is internally devastated. "Tell me more about your cousins?"

"Y-yea. I have 2- Callie and Marie. You might've seen them, from a distance. Callie has black hair and Marie's is bleached white." 

"Oh yes! I saw you walking with them."

"Yea, they thought I went missing yesterday 'cuz I was here for, like, 5 hours." They chuckle. "They're really annoying. Callie is very positive- I think you'd like her. She also drags me out of bed every morning. Marie's whole personality is being sly, basically. She also tells everyone I smell. I don't!" Eight laughs before telling them to continue talking. "Alright. Anyways, they dragged me out here from the city because Callie's mom- my aunt- lives here now. I'm staying here for the summer."

"Ah! Do you like the bay so far?" Eight asks.

"It's fine. I still like the city better, but it's easier to get around here."

"I'm glad! I think the bay is great. Everything here is so... so..." She flops onto her back. "Ugh."

"Can't find the words?" Three asks, laying down next to her. 

Eight nods. "Yeah. It's all just- so much different. I'm technically not supposed to be up here, but I think I would've died of longing if I never poked my head out of the water one night."

Three turns to face her. "You're not allowed to be up here?" They ask.

"Mhm. We don't really have laws where I'm from, other than be nice. But there is a strict social code, and going to the surface will get you immediately outcast if anyone finds out." She explains.

"Damn."

"Yes, damn. You humans are so lucky to live up here." Eight gestures to the setting sun- Three didn't even realise it was that late. "You get to see all of this every evening."

They shrug. "It gets old."

"Really?" Eight asks, a wide grin on her face. "If I lived up here... it wouldn't get old for me."

The conversation dies down. The pair lie in the rays of the sun, watching it slowly dip under the horizon. Soon enough, a single star appears in the sky.

"Hey, Eight. Y'know you can wish on the first star you see at night?"

Eight turns to face them, slightly surprised. Then she turns back, closes her eyes, and clasps her hands together.

"Done." She says. "Hm, won't your cousins think you're missing by now?"

"I think Callie's going to some nightclub tonight, and is dragging Marie with her. They won't notice I'm gone." Three says.

"Alright." Eight responds, sleepiness lacing her voice. She yawns, and before Three knows it, she's asleep, her head tilted slightly towards them. Once again, Three's cheeks are bright red. Oh, if Callie and Marie saw them now... they'd never hear the end of it.

They see the twinkling lights of Inkopolis bay, shining in the darkness. Three can't sleep- In fact, they're practically frozen solid. Eight is asleep right next to them and now they just can't do anything. They don't want to think that they're falling for a girl, who's also a mermaid, and who they've known for a total of 3 days, but their cheeks are burning, their stomach churning and their brain is going at about 2 million thoughts per hour. They just can't stop thinking about her- Her long, curly hair, the softness of her touch, her singing, her appreciation for such simple things...

Ugh. Jesus Christ. They have fallen for her.

Chapter Text

Three awoke to a wave smashing into their face.

They instantly get up, coughing up the salt water and itching their nose in a futile attempt to stop the pain, the same kind as when you laugh so hard water comes out of your nose. Then, they quickly shook the sand out of their hair. 

They look up at the sky, and judging by the position of the sun, it was early in the morning. Fuck, I should really get going, they thought. Marie would probably be looking for them, while Callie would most likely be nursing a massive hangover.

They went to stand up, before hearing soft murmuring coming from beside them.

Oh right, Eight.

...

EIGHT?!

They'd completely forgotten they'd fallen asleep next to each other, and Three jumps back in surprise. They desperately hope Eight hadn't noticed their shock, but to their dismay, the girl next to them yawns and sits up.

"Hey," She says, rubbing her eyes. Three is confused as to how she's not getting any sand in her eyes doing that.

"Hi." They reply, feeling their face heat up and go red all over again.

Eight stretches her arms, then shakes the sand out of her hair and begins to comb through it with her fingers. Everything she does is done with a natural grace, from the way she looks out into the horizon while mindlessly running her fingers through her thick, loose ringlets, even down to the things that could never be intentionally done with grace, like the way her aforementioned locks of hair fall down after she's done combing through them.

"You're staring." She bluntly states, turning to face Three.

"Sorry- Your hair is really nice. Ugh. Sorry. That sounds weird. It's just- you're really lucky to have hair naturally coloured like that."

Eight tilts her head in confusion. "Hm?"

Three gestures towards their own hair. "I dye my hair to get it this colour-"

"WHAT?!" Eight screams, her mouth agape.

"You-" They start, trying to stifle a laugh. "You don't think this is my natural hair colour, do you?"

"Well- I just- You're the only human I've ever talked to! What do you expect me to think?" She retorts, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Oh, jeez- I'm sorry, I..." Three can no longer contain their laughter, much to Eight's dismay.

"No, no." They say, regaining their composure. "Humans only have, like, 4 natural hair colours, not counting all the shades of those colours. If you wanna change it, you gotta dye it." Three explains while mindlessly tugging at their own hair.

"That's strange. Where I'm from, there is not much of a limit to hair colours. I used to know a girl who had black hair that faded into teal. She was nice. I haven't seen her in a while, though." 

It suddenly hits Three that Eight has a life, friends, and probably (hopefully) family, down in whatever mermaid society she's come from, and that she's now risking all of that just to hang out with them. At the very least, they're grateful to have a friend that isn't related to them here in the bay.

"You tug at your hair a lot." Eight observes, staring straight at them.

"Hah, yeah. that's probably why it's so thin," They respond, not noticing that they're tugging at their hair as they say that, and they wonder why Eight is looking at them weird. "That, and the dye. If humans dye, or bleach, their hair too much, it can get really damaged and thin. Me and my cousin, Marie, who bleaches her hair, both have pretty thin hair. But my other cousin Callie has decently thick hair. She hasn't dyed it in a while."

"Noted. Humans have weak and boring hair." Eight giggles. "Wanna go swim?"

Three nods, and the pair head towards the water. Three manages to stand for a while, but the sea quickly gets deeper and deeper, leaving them treading water while Eight slices through the ocean with ease. 

She dives into the warm, coastal water, until she reaches a rocky part of the shallow seabed. She picks up a sharp rock, and chips away at the seabed until she manages to dislodge her prize from the rocks. Eight submerges, and presents her treasure to Three.

"Oyster." She stays, holding it out for them to see. "Do you want it?"

"Ehh- Not particularly..."

"Sucks for you." She cracks open the oyster with ease, much to Three's horror. She takes a small, shiny ball, out of the oyster. The sun's ray reflect brightly off the tiny sphere, limiting their vision of the object. Eight dismisses it, and slurps down the oyster.

"Breakfast." She grins. She holds the small ball out to Three, which they can now tell is a decently large pearl. "Now, do you want this?"

They take the pearl and roll it around in their palm. It doesn't look like the pearls that people wear around their necks, and they know this is because those pearls are usually fake. This one, a real pearl, is greyer than the pure white ones, and not a perfect sphere. It's slightly conical on one side, and probably the largest pearl they've ever seen.

They didn't realise, but while they started at the pearl, Eight dove back down, and suddenly, she splashes back up in front of them, almost causing them to drop the pearl.

"I'm gonna put this on the shore," They say. "Just so I don't lose it." 

They begin to swim back, but Eight interrupts them.

"Oh! I can help you get there!" She chirps, quickly wrapping her arm around their torso. Three barely has time to think about the action before she takes off, and the two are at the shore before Three could even blink.

They're fully silent for a second out of shock. They shake their head, and process what just happened.

"Jeez, girl, are you a huma- mermaid teleporter or something?"

"I can't believe it," Eight says, mimicking Three. "The fish woman can swim!" She laughs, and Three sets the pearl down in the bag they bought to the cove yesterday.

"What I can't believe is how you stomached that oyster!" They exclaim, throwing their arms into the air. "I hate those slimy, gross, disgusting things..."

"We eat a lot of them, and harvest them for pearls. We try not to overharvest, though. There are a lot of animals in the ocean, and they all need something to eat." Eight explains, resting her head in her palms.

Suddenly, a look of realisation flashes across Three's face.

"Fuckkk, my cousins are probably looking for me by now!" They say, quickly stumbling to their feet and picking up their belongings. "See ya, Eight!"

They briefly wave, then run off, out of the cove.

Eight, now alone, sits on the beach, unmoving. She should head back down to her community, they're probably worried about her too. But it wouldn't hurt if she stayed up here a little longer, in her isolated corner of the beach. 

It's noon now, and Eight remains on the shore. Everything Three has told her about life above the waves is so incredible- The city, the sky, even the "dry cleaners" Three mentioned yesterday. It's nothing like the small underwater village she's lived in her whole life. 

But that's where she gets confused- It's nothing like her home.

There's still so much she doesn't know about the surface, and even the humans she's been observing from afar since her curiosity got the best of her. She's been dreaming about the human world for her whole life- the solid, dense ground, the elaborate dwellings the richest ones lived in, the goods that were lost in the vast ocean after their colossal vessels sunk.

Now, she's here, talking to a human. It's all she ever wanted. But she can't help but wonder- If she came to live on the surface, would she miss her community?

She's been dwelling on that single question for years now. And she thinks the answer is yes. She would. Even if the surface is the subject of all her dreams, she would miss the ocean. The early mornings spent cracking open clams and stripping fish of their shimmering scales, the vibrant coral reefs housing schools of fish that swam by her like she wasn't even there, her rocky home, her soft seagrass bed, her friends, her family, her former life.

She would never be able to alternate between the two. If her village found out, she'd be socially outcast for the rest of her life. That thought absolutely destroys her. The people she grew up with all turning their backs to her is the stuff of nightmares. She's had such a deep sense of community her whole life, and if that connection to her people was severed...

She doesn't have to make that choice now. She can still go back to her community, and come to the surface and talk to Three, safe from the prying eyes of her father, and his endless tales of destruction caused by humans, the stories behind his scars.

She leans back, allowing herself to float in the warm shallows. Her magenta curls gently spread out around her. If she did end up choosing the surface, at least Three would be there.

Three sprints down the main street, their bag rattling and their wet hair stuck to their face. They don't look too out of place amongst the beach-goers, at least.

They finally make it back to their aunt's house and swing open the (thankfully) unlocked door. Marie sits on the couch, and glares daggers at them as soon as they step inside.

"Three! Where were you? I spent an hour walking all over town looking for you!" She says, just below a yell, presumably to not disturb Callie, who most certainly has a headache from her night out.

"I was just looking around. I've only seen the places you two have dragged me too. No big deal." Three replies, walking upstairs towards their room. Just as they reach their bedroom door, the door to their cousins' room suddenly swings open, and a dishevelled looking Callie stares right at them.

"What about the girl?"

Holy. Shit.

Chapter Text

"What girl?" Three lies and hopes that Callie is too hungover to tell.

From the living room, Marie groans. "Callie ran around the beach for like, 2 hours last night. I thought she'd drowned at the 1 hour mark. But now she's convinced you have a girlfriend, somehow."

"W-what? I don't... I don't have a girlfriend!" Shit! She could've ended up seeing them and Eight on the beach.

"Stop yelling! I have a headache!" Callie dramatically throws her hands up, shoves Three while walking past them, and then nearly trips down the stairs. She finally reaches the kitchen, and leans under the kitchen sink, turning on the tap and letting the water run into her open mouth. Both Marie and Three stare at her, bewildered. She turns the tap off and swallows.

"Better. Anyway, interrogation time!" She says, slinging an arm over Marie's shoulder. Marie just looks at Three, seeming to somewhat pity them. Both cousins turn to face each other, in a huddle that's more like a hug since it's just two people.

"Okay," Callie whispers. "Here's the game plan. I'm bad cop, you're good cop." Marie raises an eyebrow. "Use any methods necessary!"

The three of them sit at the dining table, Three on one side, Callie and Marie on the other. The idols whisper while Three absentmindedly taps on the wooden table. Then, they both suddenly turn to face Three, their arms crossed.

"Where have you been going for the last 3- 4 days!?" Callie exclaims, making her voice dramatically deeper and angrier.

"The beach?" Three responds. "I've literally just been on the beach, just in a less tourist-filled part."

"What were you doing on the beach?!" 

"Swimming, sitting down, collecting stuff..."

"Ugh!" Callie seems to have realized she's getting nowhere. "Marie, you're in."

Marie leans towards Three. "Do you actually have a girlfriend?" She asks, staring directly at them.

"No." They feel their cheeks heat up at the mere concept of Eight being their girlfriend, and hope their cousins don't notice, Callie probably doesn't, since she's wearing dark, tinted sunglasses as part of her bad cop persona. Still, they're technically not lying, Eight is not their girlfriend.

"Do you want someone to be your girlfriend? Like, do you have a crush or anything?" Marie says.

"This is stupid- Why do you guys even wanna know this? It's just dumb! You're clearly getting nowhere!"

"Answer!"

"No! This is dumb!"

"Ugh. Okay. Have you made any friends over the summer?" Marie asks, and Callie looks at her with a confused expression on her face.

"Yeah." Three leans back in their chair and crosses their arms over their chest, trying to appear nonchalant.

"Who?" Both Callie and Marie say simultaneously, staring them down.

"Just a girl." Their eyes dart back and forth in nervousness.

"JUST A GIRL?!" Callie screams. "You DO have a girlfriend, don't you?!"

"No! She's just my friend! A-and she's here just for the summer, too, so I'll probably never see her again after we go back to the city!" Three defends themselves. They can't help but feel anxious about the fact that they'll almost definitely never see Eight again once the summer's over. They haven't known her for long, but...

"Fine, she's a friend! So can we meet her then?" Callie says.

"Uh- no, she's, uh..." It's hopeless at this point.

"So she's crazy introverted like you, then. It's a match made in heaven. I'm starting to believe in soulmates." Marie remarks.

Callie throws her hands into the air, obviously frustrated. "No! It means she's not real, Marie!"

"Could you just stop?! Ugh! If I did have a girlfriend, I'd never tell any of you! You'd just make fun of me every. single. day!" Their expression becomes sour.

"Yeah. We would." Marie says and Callie nods in agreement.

Three storms upstairs, sick of their cousins' teasing.

"They've got it bad." Callie comments.

"Yep." Marie nods.

Three slams the door behind them, and flops down onto their bed. Ugh. Those two will never stop poking fun at me, they think. At least it's harmless, most of the time.

The last time Three had a crush, a random girl that Three doesn't really remember what they saw in her, since she turned out to be the nastiest person they'd ever met, Callie and Marie had teased them about their pining for at least half a year. But, in the end, They both comforted Three when they were rejected. As much as they say they hate their cousins, they really don't know where they'd be without them. 

They roll onto their back and stare up at the ceiling, the fan in their room whirrs and spins just outside of view. Their thoughts drift back to Eight. Her hair, her face, the strangely pretty accent she speaks with, her endless curiosity, the fact she's a fucking mermaid, and the fact that she's also way out of their league. Their crush is most certainly hopeless. There are probably a million other merpeople all pining over Eight (how could they not) and they're probably all better choices than Three, too. Or maybe, Eight's already found someone, and they just haven't been brought up yet. Both thoughts make a pit form in Three's stomach.

Whatever happens, they only have this one summer with Eight. Even if, by some miracle, she feels the same as they do, they've got limited time together. Summer won't last forever, and soon enough Three will return to Inkopolis, but they're sure they won't forget about Eight. They just couldn't.

As Three mopes, the sun begins to set and the light shining through the small gap in their curtains becomes dimmer and dimmer. They hear their aunt call them for dinner, but they don't want to get up. Eventually, they here someone stomping up the stairs and yell out a quick "Coming!"

They walk downstairs and sit at the same table they had just been interrogated at, and look at the plate of spaghetti bolognaise in front of them. Callie is currently dumping almost a full bag of parmesan onto hers, while Marie looks on, concerned. After Callie is done building her mountain of cheese, she passes the bag to Three, who begins pouring the cheese onto their pasta.

So far, the only thing they've seen Eight eat is one singular oyster. They assume that Eight would eat a lot of seafood, considering her entire species lives underwater. Would Eight like land food? Would she also put cheese on her spaghetti? Does she even know how to use utensils?

They don't realise it, but they've already dumped the entire bag of parmesan onto their spaghetti while distracted by thinking about Eight. There's a huge pile that completely covers their plate. Their entire family stares at them in horror, particularly Callie's mom, who seems to have also wanted cheese. They sheepishly smile and begin to scrape some of the cheese that didn't touch the pasta sauce (which is most of it), back into the bag until what remains is a reasonable amount of cheese.

"So, Callie told me you've made a friend?" Their aunt asks, after being handed the recently refilled bag of parmesan. Three nods, as their mouth is full of spaghetti. "That's nice. Bring her over sometime."

The rest of the dinner is quiet, Marie, Callie and her mom chatter quietly about topics that Three doesn't particularly care about, and it gives them some time to think. They should bring some land food for Eight to try sometime.

Eight tends to the communal gardens, placing the seaweed she harvests into a woven basket, above mussels and clams that she intends to eat as her dinner. She swims back to her small home, greeting those she passes by with a series of whistles and clicks. She arrives at her house, and realises the door is open. She briefly panics, before remembering she left it open when she left. Still, she checks to make sure nothing has been taken, and that her human paraphernalia kept in her cabinets is untouched. Luckily, everything is where she left it. Just as her lips begin to form a relieved smile, she hears something, or rather someone behind her.

"Marina?!" She clicks with her tongue, staring at the woman in her doorway. She slams the cabinet door, hoping that Marina couldn't identify any items inside. "Uh- how have you been? It's been a while since I've seen you."

"I've been good," Marina whistles, inviting herself inside Eight's home. Her scales and tail fill the room with a teal glow. "No need to hide." She opens the cabinet.

"I- I swear, Marina, it isn't-" Eight begins to panic, desperately trying to defend herself.

"No, Eight- We're on the same side! Calm down!"

Eight knows that Marina is curious, like her. But she's incredibly loyal and devoted to her community- she never expected that she wouldn't report her for her collection of human items. Even some scavenged items could be enough to get Eight exiled.

"What do you mean..?" Eight asks, slightly suspicious.

Marina shuts the door behind her. "I've seen the surface, Eight. It's incredible, and I think you know that too." Eight begins to fumble her words, trying to come up with an explanation, but Marina keeps speaking. "I figured it out- How we could go to the surface. We would appear human, we wouldn't have our tails, gills, scales-"

"Marina- you want to become human?"

"Yes! And I think you do too- And we can!" Marina looks excited, but Eight is horrified.

"And- your becoming human thing, is it permanent?" 

"Well- theoretically, it could be reversed. But why would you want to go back?" Marina looks at Eight, confused.

"Well- uhm... Marina, I don't... know about this. I- I like the surface too, but... I just don't know." Eight whistles. "It's just-"

"Don't you see, Eight? This changes everything! I understand this is a big change, but think! You've been curious about the surface your whole life, and what better way to explore the surface than being human yourself?" Marina excitedly explains. Eight doesn't respond, instead she fidgets with her hands.

"I understand, Eight. If you ever change your mind, just let me know. Please don't tell anyone about this conversation." Marina opens the door, swims out, and gives Eight one last, slightly sad look before closing it.

If Marina was telling the truth, then she could achieve everything she's ever dreamed of. But she has friends down here, her whole life has been spent down in the ocean. Would she regret leaving the deep ocean? Would she regret not going to the surface?

Her friends down here say she's odd. She doesn't think the same way as they do. She doesn't understand why. Why they don't have the same curiosity as her, why they would rather fear the surface than learn about it. The only person who she could even slightly relate to with her thoughts is Marina, but even then they still think so differently- Marina is so technical, logical, and while Eight does think more logically than many of her peers, she's largely fuelled by her emotions and curiosity. But Three seems to be equally curious about her as she is about them and the surface- it's not a situation where only they understand each other, actually, maybe it is... She thinks. If she took Marina up on her offer, she could explore so much of the surface and see it with her own eyes, instead of just hearing stories, most of which are heavily biased.

She swings open the door and calls out "Marina!"

Chapter Text

Eight swims out her door, calling Marina's name, but her efforts are futile. Marina is gone, the only directions she could've swam in are fully submerged in the darkness of the depths of the ocean, and even the distinct teal glow of Marina's scales isn't visible. 

Eight freezes. The water around her becomes unusually still, as if it's trying to mirror her actions. The one chance she had to fulfil her dreams is crushed right in front of her by the immense pressure of the deep ocean. Marina, being the prodigy that she is, could be kilometres away by now. She could even already be on the surface, having already performed whatever ritual she had developed.

This is my fault, Eight realises. I couldn't make up my mind, and now I don't have a choice at all.

For all her life, she's so desperately wanted to experience life on the surface, even if it was for a brief moment. She thought she could fulfil that need when she started coming to the beach- but with everything Three's told her, the surface is so, so much more than her village's stories of sailors, sirens and all sorts of threats and damage humans can do. She tried to supress her feelings, after all, her community's leaders have the scars to prove the harm humans can inflict. But Three, as well as the other humans who frequent the beach, are no more dangerous than the small, colourful fish that swim in the shallows. If anything, the only threat humans pose is ignorance. The humans treat their land like they own it, and that its only purpose is to provide for them, while Eight's fellow merpeople treat the ocean like themselves - like the entire deep blue expanse is its own living organism that must be respected, lest you feel her wrath. Both the ocean and land provide, and both punish those who take more than they can give. 

She supposes humans must have learnt their lesson, though. The earth, with her violent shaking, thick clouds of dust, and dry, cracked land, and the sea, with her unforgiving waves, angry storms and miles and miles of desolate, bleached white landscapes, a warning to those who, merfolk or not, to only take what they need, not what they want. She should ask Three what humans do now, instead of relying off of the almost centuries-old records of humans killing whatever they find just to keep their kills as trophies.

She plans on asking Three about that the next time she sees them. Both their societies could possibly benefit from learning about each other - or at least she thinks they could.

Maybe, just maybe, if her village actually tried to go to the surface and interact with modern humans, instead of basing their opinions off of centuries-old folktales.

Eight does not think the surface is a paradise.

She knows about the strife, current and ancient, whether it be some sort of famine, conflict, disaster, anything. But nothing will stop her curiosity. 

And it's not like her community is perfect either. Obviously, nobody is allowed to go to the surface, unless they're willing to risk social exile, or even legal repercussions, but only in the most extreme scenarios. Then there's the part of her people's history where their entire food source was unsuspecting sailors. But this was because prey was scarce in the ocean depths where her species has lived for millennia - and the shallow waters are already inhabited by countless predators that her ancestors didn't bother competing with, instead finding a whole new niche to fill.

But the scarcity of food led to conflict. Stealing, starving, and nearing extinction. All of it happened long before Eight was born, but the effects of the harsh moments of merfolk history still ripple through her village.

If her community connected with the surface, and everything went well, and she wouldn't have to choose between ocean and land, her whole life would be easier - she wouldn't have to make an incredibly life-changing decision.

But Marina's already made hers.

Marina stumbles onto the beach, not quite used to legs yet.

She doesn't immediately recognise where she is, but the rocky outcrops and hills lead her to believe she may be on some sort of peninsula. 

Trying to stand up straight, Marina reaches for anything to grab onto, but unfortunately, the beach is barren, and she falls back into the sand.

A sound, unlike the whistles and clicks she's communicated in all her life, comes out of her mouth. Clutching at her throat, she quickly realises the sound she just made sounds very, very similar to human vocalisations. 

Of course. Human speech is practically impractical underwater. 

But there's one problem - one tiny issue Marina overlooked. Just a small mistake on her part.

She never actually learnt how to speak like a human.

Suddenly, the sand begins to shift, and Marina watches as a short woman runs down the hill, straight towards her.

"This is private property!" The woman yells as she continues to sprint straight towards Marina. Luckily, Marina could actually understand human - just not speak it.

Marina shuffles back. Shit. 

The woman - or maybe girl - she's so short that Marina genuinely can't tell if she's an adult or not from this distance, barrels towards Marina, and suddenly stops right in front of her.

"This is pri- GAH!" She seems to have noticed that Marina isn't wearing anything. 

Ah. She knew she was forgetting one other thing.

The woman jumps back. "You- Get off my property, hobo!"

Marina frantically waves her hands in front of her, trying to signal that she's no threat without speaking. The human seems to understand, as her expression goes from very angry and confused, to just confused.

"Just- just wait here." She runs back up to the hill, into a large home that Marina somehow never noticed.

Some 10 minutes later, the human woman comes running back, this time with a bundle of fabric in her arms.

"Just- just put this on. Then, I'm calling the police."

Marina examines the fluffy bundle the human has just passed to her. Soon enough, she realises it's supposed to be unfolded and wrapped around the wearer. She slips her arms through the sleeves and ties an attached strip of fabric around her waist. It's a bit short on her, but it covers her up, at least enough to meet human standards.

The woman, who has been turned around the whole time Marina got dressed, faces her. "Way better. Now, to call 911."

Marina tries her hardest to run - she really does - but as soon as she stands up, she faceplants straight back into the sand. The human stands behind her, with an expression that says "That's sad."

"You're not on drugs, are you?"

Marina looks back at her, saddened. "Well- I guess you're not a threat, at least. Y'know what? I reckon we can sort this out without the police. C'mon." She extends a hand to Marina, and helps her up, seeming to have already figured out that human legs aren't exactly Marina's strong suit.

It takes a while, but they make it up the hill and to the human woman's house. They enter through the back door, an almost translucent, sliding thing that Marina's never seen before. The woman sits her down on a couch, made of something softer than anything back home, and begins to explain her plan.

"First things first- I'm Pearl." Finally, a name to a face. "I can give you some money, if you need, and call someone for you or anything- but you can't stay here. You got somewhere to go?"

Marina shakes her head.

"Damn. I can get you a hotel room or something? Actually, hold on, what's your name?"

Using everything she knows about human pronunciation, she sounds out the human translation of her own name.

"Ma-ree-na?"

Eight's head splashes above the water, and she perches on a somewhat flat rock, waiting to see if Three will visit today.

She only waits for a minute or two before Three appears, carrying a decently-sized box with something red inside. Eight dives back into the sea and swims to the shore, pulling herself up onto it.

"Ooh. Whatcha got?" She says as they sit down cross-legged.

"Land food. I mean- you offered me seafood- the oyster, which, I guess people eat on the surface, but I don't think you would've had anything other than seafood." They explain, opening the plastic box and handing Eight a strangely shaped metal stick.

"It's spaghetti bol- No! Don't do that!" Eight twirls her hair with the fork, much to Three's shock. "That's for eating! This is just like that movie..." They mumble.

"...Oh?" Eight says, taking the fork out of her hair. "It didn't feel like a brush, anyways." She sticks the fork into the box, and pulls some of the spaghetti out. She puts the fork up to her lips, and takes a careful bite. Her eyes instantly light up, and she begins to shovel spaghetti into her mouth.

"I'm guessing that you like it?" Three says. Eight nods, still stuffing her face with pasta. "Uh- You might wanna slow down..."

She disregards Three's suggestion, and completely devours the entire box of spaghetti. 

"Do you have any more?" She asks after she finishes licking the box clean.

"Maybe. There are probably more leftovers at my aunt's, so-"

Three is cut off by Eight keeling over, groaning, onto the sand.

"I don't think my stomach is built for human food..." She groans.

"Nope. I think that you just didn't listen to me, ate too quickly, and now, you're suffering the consequences." They reply in a mocking yet friendly voice. They reach into their bag and pull out a plastic water bottle, unscrewing the cap. "Here."

Immediately, Eight chugs the water and the relief is instant. She'd never had food that rich, so Three should understand why she basically vacuumed up the spaghetti. There's a small part of her that feels warm thinking about the care Three has for her.

Great. Her decision just got a lot harder. Firstly, surface food is really good. She could easily eat it for the rest of her life, as long as she doesn't eat it so fast she gets sick. Secondly, Three.

Three's been nothing but kind to her since they met- which, admittedly, was only really a week ago, but whatever! Even when they freaked out over the fact they were talking to a mermaid, they didn't directly insult her, they just called themselves crazy and ran off.

Maybe it's just because Three's the only friend she really has right now, but she wants to know Three much, much more. 

Oh.

Oh. She's got a crush on Three. The enemy of her entire species who she's known for a little over a week.

But- how? How is she supposed to choose now? If she stays in the ocean, she'd regret it, wouldn't she? And Three would be crushed. They have only one friend who isn't related to them who is potentially going to spend the rest of her life at the bottom of the ocean. And if she somehow finds Marina, and does the whole mermaid-to-human thing (which she doesn't entirely understand), is she just supposed to go up to Three and say "Hey, I gained legs through some weird mermaid sorcery, can I live at your aunt's, who I have never met, vacation home?"

Whatever. They're going back to the city at the end of the summer, and Eight was certainly not accustomed to city life.

She can mope later. Now, she decides to try and make the most of her time with Three. She rests her head in their lap, and out of the corner of her eye, she sees Three's face flush red. Her eyelids become heavy, and eventually, she drifts off, listening to the crash of the waves.

Chapter Text

"Marina?" She nods, and the woman extends a hand towards her. "I'm Pearl."

Marina stares at Pearl's outstretched arm, confused. Yeah, she definitely should've tried to find out more about humans before doing all this.

After a second, Pearl becomes just as confused. "Uhm.. you know what a handshake is, right? C'mon!"

Carefully, Marina accepts Pearl's gesture, and gets a slight shock when she begins rigorously shaking her hand.

"So- you've got nowhere to go, huh?" She asks, and the woman sitting across from her nods, beady eyed and pouting.

"Well, you're, like, the most harmless person I've ever met, and this house has hella security... so, I guess..."

Marina's pupils triple in size in anticipation, and her face inches ever closer to Pearl's.

"...You can stay here for a little. What's the worse that could happen?"

Marina smiles, her teeth and gums in clear view. It might be the widest she's ever smiled. She's made it to land, and she's already (sort of) made a human friend!

"Tank-" She says, trying to figure out the pronunciation of words she's only ever seen written. "Thank... uh, you." She points to pearl, who looks amused.

"No problem. I can take you to a guest room, if you want?" 

To Marina, it's amazing how trusting Pearl is. It's like she's never met anyone bad in her life, or is simply too good to believe people could take advantage of her kindness. But even from first impressions, she can tell Pearl isn't actually like that. She doesn't particularly believe in the undying pureness  of humanity, rather, she believes in Marina.

She nods, stumbling to her feet, but quickly getting the hang of human legs. Pearl jumps up straight after her, and begins to lead her down a long hallway. Each wall is decorated with detailed portraits of sophisticated looking humans who resemble the short woman leading her through the house. Either that, or framed photos of the beach and ocean.

"Like the paintings?" Pearl comments, noticing Marina's interest in the decor. "That," She says, pointing to a framed image of a small man who age has clearly chipped away at. He looks like Pearl, but his hair is jet black with grey streaks shining through. "Is my great-great-great grandfather, Hiroshi Houzuki. Moved over here on some big ocean liner forever ago. He was already rich when that ol' ship first docked."

Pearl's knowledge of her family's history surprises Marina. The merfolk don't forget their past, of course, but the way their stories and history is passed down is quite different than the paintings and artefacts dotted around Pearl's home. Her people tell stories, singing and speaking their history into life. Nothing was recorded, not like humans. The songs of history, bordering the line of reality and myth, were passed down in a never-ending cycle, unlike the method most humans seemed to prefer - writing detailed and extensive records of the most important people during the most important times. For humans, there is barely any place for mundane, daily activities in their history books. 

Pearl continues to lead her down the hallway, pointing out anything with any historical relevancy, since she's quickly noticed Marina's affinity for them. But it's not because Marina has a specific interest in history - it's because everything here is perfectly preserved and human. The colours of the paintings aren't blurred by the water, no rust, algae or barnacles cover the various miscellaneous items scattered along shelves and tables and the books are all perfectly legible, with none of the pages rotted away and falling to bits at the slightest touch.

It's all so different, and she wants to take everything in. Preferably, as quickly as possible, in case Pearl's mind changes and she's sent back into the ocean.

Pearl suddenly stops walking and Marina barely stops herself before crashing into the shorter woman. 

"Here it is," She says, opening the door to the guest room and gesturing for Marina to come inside.

The main feature of the room is a large, elegant, silky bed in the middle, pressed against the far wall. It's covered in more pillows than Marina could've ever imagined- and this is only for guests! She can't imagine what Pearl herself's bedroom looks like.

"Well?" Pearl says, and Marina takes this as a sign to run towards the bed and dive into the silks.

If she thought the couch was amazing, then this bed was INCREDIBLE. She pulls the luxurious blankets over herself and nestles her head into the pillows. Pearl chuckles, and closes the door, leaving Marina alone.

She doesn't know how long she spends, just lying down in the most extraordinary bed she'd even been in, but eventually the light gently shining through the windows starts to fade and dim- something that wasn't experienced in the deep ocean. Even the small things that humans must experience everyday are brilliant to Marina. 

Her eyes blink closed, and soon enough, she's lightly snoring and deep asleep.

It has been a week since Eight last saw Marina.

Obviously, Eight is worried. Did her human-transformation thingy work? Did she drown trying to reach the surface? All her questions boil down to is Marina okay and where is she?

It's weird to be separated with someone you've known your whole life, even if it's only been a week. Eight suspects that this feeling is only heightened by her anxiety regarding the fact she has no clue if Marina is even alive or not.

Marina and Eight have been a constant in eachother's lives for as long as they both can remember. Eight can still recall the day when she, a quaking little mermaid hiding behind her father, poked her head out to take a look at the prodigy in front of her. Marina looked different back then- her dark, curly hair was much shorter than it is now. She was a little smaller, but even then, she towered over many of her peers. It took the pair a while to become friends after that, but eventually they bonded over shared interests.

Now, Eight has no idea if her closest friend is even alive.

She has Three now, but for so long when she was younger, Marina was her only friend. Eight wasn't good at making friends when she was little. The merpeople around her age never understood her, and she couldn't either. But Marina, in a way, was like her. She could make friends- it was easy for her, like she was born so people could love her. But she spent all her time being too smart for her own good. Marina's intelligence was what led to this situation, after all.

She sighs- or however someone can sigh underwater. She's spent the past week just looking for a clue as to where Marina's gone, but her search is fruitless. 

She decides to try and take her mind off of her anxiety. She swims towards the surface, feeling the sun warm her skin as the water gets shallower and shallower. She doesn't need directions, she knows exactly where she is going.

Eight emerges from the water not too far from the cove, and she spots a green-haired human sitting on the sandy beach.

Swimming towards them, she pulls herself up onto the beach. They seem to notice the sad expression on her face.

"Still haven't found your friend?" They ask.

Eight nods. Three has a look of pity on their face as she does.

"It's been a whole week, I- I just don't even know where she could've gone. Or if she's okay."

"She can't've gone far... the ocean isn't... that... big? Nevermind. It totally is. At least you won't have to search on land"

On land.

Eight sighs. "About that... She kinda... could be... human now?"

Three's jaw drops. Eight is genuinely concerned that they've dislodged it or something.

"She's WHAT?" 

"I-I mean, there's a chance she's not! I don't know if her magic-science thing worked or not!" 

"Oh. My. God." They look like their about to faint.

"Sorry! Sorry- I shouldn't've gotten you invol-" She starts, but is quickly cut off by Three.

"It's not your fault! I- I don't even know why you would think that! I'm just really confused right now." They respond.

"Yeah... I can see why." Eight says sheepishly.

"Well- uh, I'll keep an eye out for her, I guess. Her name's, uh... Marina, right?"

"Yup! She also has black and teal hair, dark skin, and she's probably super tall."

"Alright. I'd probably be able to spot her if she's on land. She probably wouldn't know any ways to leave town, right?"

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" Eight says, launching herself at Three, tightly hugging them and causing them to tumble over.

She almost immediately regrets the decision, as her heart is now going so fast it could explode any second. At least hugging Three is nice, and they can't see her flushed face hovering mere inches from the sand.

(She can't see their blush either.)

"Hah... n-no problem..." They say, returning the hug quite awkwardly, arms stiffly wrapping around Eight, carefully making sure they don't put their hands anywhere they're not supposed to.

Eight quickly sits back up. "Okaythanksbye!!" Before Three can even respond, she's already vanished into the water, not wanting them to see her bright red cheeks.

Three sits back up, too. "Cool." They say, processing the whole scenario- the prettiest girl they know just did that? To them? And even if she did run- no, swim away quite quickly, her face did look pretty pink. Maybe it was her scales.

But the mere thought that she was blushing makes them, in turn, blush even more. They'd spend a little longer sitting on the sand, being bewildered due to pretty girls, but Callie and Marie have made plans for the day and have insisted that they come along. 

They meet up with their cousins in front of the Inkopolis Bay Aquarium, a big blue building painted with ocean scenes all across. There are even boat sails providing shade over the entrance, for the extra oceany-ness. 

"Finally!" Callie says as they approach. "I thought I was gonna die of heat stroke. Marie made me reapply sunscreen like, 50 times." 

"You complain about being sunburnt every day!" Marie retaliates.

"I'm trying to get a tan! Not my fault you're pale as a ghost!"

"Can we just go inside? No need to argue about tanning right now." Three says, successfully stopping their cousins' petty argument. 

By the time all three of them have bought their tickets and started exploring the aquarium, Callie and Marie have practically forgotten all about their former fight- a common trend with them. Last week they bickered for 15 minutes because Callie (truthfully) said that Marie's hair was very, very damaged from bleaching it so often, and she was quite offended by her cousin's statement. But nearly 2 minutes after, it was all water under the bridge.

At least the fights are over practically nothing and never really have an affect, Three thinks, staring into a dark tank in which a brightly-lit firefly squid swims around. There was something so strange about the sea creature, not just that specific squid, but all cephalopods; the amount of intelligence they had was unnerving, and whenever Three looked at the things, they felt like the experience was weirdly familiar. They furrowed their brows in frustration. It's a squid! They think. It's really not that deep!

Callie suddenly appears right next to them, giving Three a thorough scare. 

"C'mon, Three! There's a keeper talk about sea turtles!" She exclaims, dragging them to a huge tank filled with fish and big manta rays, and the main attraction Callie was talking about, a leatherback sea turtle missing one of its back flippers.

They're zoned out of almost the entire talk, while Callie enthusiastically films the turtle every time it shows up, and Marie attentively listens to the keeper talk about how the aquarium rescued the turtle. They find themselves realising they enjoyed this a lot more when they were a kid.

As they stare into the tank of dimly-lit water, they can't help but think about Eight, and her missing friend. They quickly whip their head around to look for her- a building dedicated to replicating the ocean would definitely be a place a (former) mermaid would hang out, right? Unfortunately, nobody in the area matches the description Eight gave them. They turn their attention back to the tank in defeat.

They spend a little longer at the aquarium, traversing a dark section filled with tanks full of glowing jellyfish and even an area for penguins entirely, with a group of people gathered around an unusually large baby penguin.

Soon enough, they're all wandering the gift shop. Callie spends forever choosing between getting a plushie, magnet or piece of jewellery. She eventually decides on a plushie, but then she has to decide what type of plushie she wants, which is about 50x harder. Marie sighs and facepalms.

Maybe Three should buy a gift for Eight; she gave them that pearl, after all, along with a bunch of shells; the big, oddly shaped ones that you'd never be able to find on the shore. Sure, they've given her human food, but she'd probably appreciate a more permanent gift more.

A plushie? No. it would get all weird and soggy underwater. Maybe a magnet? But there are no fridges underwater... keychains... do mermaids have bags? They end up staring at the jewellery rack. Eight doesn't have pierced ears, so no earrings, and no legs, so no anklets. They end up settling on a cowry-shell bracelet. They feel slightly worried that she already has something like this, considering she literally lives among those shells, but she'd appreciate the thought, right? Plus, it's the only thing she'd probably like (and be able to use).

They walk up to the register, where Callie and Marie are waiting, setting down the bracelet in front of the cashier.

Marie glances at the bracelet. "You don't wear jewellery though?" She says.

They shrug. "I do now, I guess?"

The depths of the ocean are as dark and cold as ever.

As Eight approaches her village, her eyes scan the dim water for even a flash of teal, bioluminescent scales.

But all her effort is for nothing- there is still no sign of Marina. 

"Hey!" A fast-approaching mermaid whistles at her. "Have you seen Marina? She was supposed to be at the counsel meeting today, but she never showed."

Eight looks at her and shakes her head. "I haven't seen her, either."

"Weird." The mermaid replies. "She's never even late for these things. Your dad was fuming." She shrugs, then swims off.

Eight realises as the mermaid leaves that she recognises the girl- the daughter of a close friend, and advisor of her father, which would explain why she was at the council meeting. They typically meet once a week- a group of the wisest and most influential individuals in the community- to ensure everything runs smoothly. Since she came up with her ecological farming ideas and prosthetic fin prototypes, Marina has been invited to every meeting. 

The meetings are not for Eight. She is allowed to go, for the reason of being Octavio, the leader's daughter, but it's been a long time since she's showed up. Her presence isn't mandatory, after all. But when you're invited, you have to go or it's very disrespectful to those who invited you in the first place. Marina believed there was a great honour in being invited, and would show up no matter what.

Oh, Eight! You're losing it! You're already thinking about her in past tense! She thinks, trying to ignore the gnawing thought of Marina being dead. It just wouldn't happen. It couldn't happen. Marina was too smart to be killed- right?

Her mind continues to come up with worst-case scenarios as to what could've happened to Marina as she swims towards her home. She just wants her best friend to be okay.

At least Three has offered to help.

Three...

Three.

They're so generous- not once have they met Marina, but they immediately offered their help when they realised she could be on the surface. How unbelievably kind of them to do that for a girl they'd never even met!

She spends her swim home basically just fawning over Three; but she is stopped in her tracks once she passes Marina's vacant house.

She realises this is the one place she hasn't checked. Her species doesn't spend much time inside- they only use their homes for storage and staying safe while sleeping. 

"Marina?" She clicks, slowly opening the door. Eight knows it's very unlikely she's home, but she'll try anyways.

Just as she expected- the house is empty. A bed of seagrass sits in the corner, and it's obvious it hasn't been used recently at all.

Eight cautiously enters, scanning the room, when her eyes suddenly land on an array of carvings and drawings on the wall farthest from her.

She approaches and realises it's written in the human language. Of course it is- mermaids have no writing system.

The deep carvings and drawings made of white chalk cover almost the entirety of the far wall. It's a little hard to make out in the darkness of the deep ocean, but Eight's eyes aren't adjusted to low-light environments for nothing. After investigating the writings for a bit, Eight realises they're equations.

She barely understands what's written before her, and she wonders how in the world Marina managed to learn all this. 

Eight eyes suddenly widen when she detects a small bit of the equations that she actually manages to understand, and from there on, everything begins to click. 

Eight is not as smart as Marina- but she is smart in her own right. And she attributes her understanding of the calculations to that intelligence. She realises that everything written down are calculations that would, somehow, turn one human. Admittedly, Eight has no idea how it actually works. 

But she has to at least try, right? If Marina is gone for good (which she desperately hopes is not the case), then she may never get this opportunity again. She takes in all the factors- how human bodies react to the deep ocean's pressure as opposed to mermaids', the various side effects that come with the transformation, and a bunch of other things Eight had barely considered before. Living underwater her whole life, she'd never realised that the pressure of her home would practically crush any human that even tried to come close.

There's a part of her that's a little sad that she'd never be able to show Three her home because of this- but hey, if a mermaid can turn human, why can't a human turn mermaid?

Eight laughs off the thought as she continues to read over the equations, again and again until she fully understands- at least how to preform the transformation.

Eventually, finally, she's ready. 

Chapter Text

Eight doesn't know when, but she's sure at some point she blacked out.

Her vision is hazy and her eyes sting as she opens them. A strange sensation- water has never hurt her eyes. 

She blinks, and as soon as she is able to properly see, she realises that laid out in front of her are two human legs attached to her hips.

She opens her mouth in a surprised smile, but suddenly water rushes in and she realises that she has to get out of the sea- it's practically a miracle she hasn't drowned yet.

Frantically, Eight begins to kick her brand-new legs around in an attempt to swim. As soon as she figures it out, she pushes open the door and swims upwards as fast as she can.

With no pinkish light surrounding her, Eight realises she no longer has scales nor bioluminescence. But she's glad- at least none of her fellow merpeople will see her in her new human form.

The water is colder than she ever thought, and she realises that during her human transformation her somewhat leathery skin that kept her warm in the depths is gone- replaced by smooth and slightly hairy skin.

Eight has made barely any progress, and her body has already begun screaming for oxygen. Her frantic and frankly mediocre swimming (she's never had legs- who can blame her for being bad at using them?) doesn't aid her in the slightest.

Soon, though, she sees rays of sun and feels the warmth on her skin- and she realises she's made it.

Her head splashes up through the water, and she immediately takes a deep breath. Oh, sweet relief.

Wet pink hair clouds Eight's vision, and she parts the curls carefully. But she realises something strange; the tips of her fingers are oddly wrinkly. Is this a human thing or has she just never thought about it? If it is human, what in the world could its purpose be?

She's immediately distracted from her questions, though, by the fact she is now human. She has legs now, and she begins to float on her back to see her new limbs in the light of the sun.

The smooth skin glistens in the light, with slightly curly magenta hair covering it. She wiggles her toes and giggles giddily as she does so.

While Eight admires her human form, the waves gently push her towards the shore, and soon enough she spots a familiar figure on the beach, in the same cove they always meet in.

"Three!" She calls out, and it feels infinitely easier to speak now.

She can see their expression even from this far away- initially excited, but now they look very confused. Maybe they've noticed she's not swimming as smoothly as she typically does.

Eventually, she makes it to the shore, much to the relief of her new human body. They don't seem to be well equipped for lots of swimming. 

She begins to pull herself up onto the sand and before she even takes a step onto dry land Three screams.

They cover their face with one hand and swiftly throw a towel at her with another. She stares in confusion for a brief moment, before she remembers that she is, in fact, naked.

"Jesus!" Three yelps as Eight wraps the towel around herself. It's a little hard, considering she can't really stand up yet and trying to wrap something around yourself while sitting isn't the most convenient method. 

"What the- Okay, we can talk about this-" They gesture to her legs. "later. I'm going to find you some proper clothes. Just- Just stay here, alright?"

Eight nods. She can't really go anywhere either way. Three instantly sprints off to who knows where. Waiting is boring, but Three makes it back to the cove in record time, clothes in hand.

They chuck the bundles of fabric- a thin white shirt, grey shorts that seem to be made of the same material as the former. "These are my cousin's old clothes, I don't think she'll notice that they're gone, though." Straight after, Three looks away to allow Eight time to change.

Eight wonders which cousin Three got the clothes from as she changes. It would probably be easier to guess if she had met either of them.

The shirt is a little baggy and falls off her shoulders, but what can be expected? It's second-hand and Three probably plucked out the first shirt they saw. The shorts fit well, though. It makes Eight a little giddy to finally be wearing leg clothes. 

"Okay, I'm done."

Three turns around, and Eight doesn't know why she expects them to have some insane reaction like they've just had the privilege of gazing upon one of the most beautiful things they've ever seen. She's not surprised when they respond with a simple "looks nice" though, she assumes she looks painfully average.

(On the contrary, Three thinks she looks absolutely gorgeous, but has no idea how to express that without being extremely weird and/or awkward.)

"Okay, uhm-" Three begins, staring down at Eight, who is still confined to sitting down on the sand. "How did, uh, this happen?"

"Oh! Uh- I just copied the thingy Marina made. I guess it worked?" She shrugged, before her expression shifted. "...So I guess that means Marina is up here, too..."

Three rubbed their temple, clearly confused. "I can't believe this," They muttered.

"Three, up until, like, a week ago, your species thought my species was nothing but a myth. I wouldn't think anything would be unbelievable to you now."

"This is just like that movie!" Three suddenly exclaims.

"Move-y?"

Walking- and even standing, is not as easy as humans make it seem.

Eight has already tried and failed at least a dozen times, mainly because she insists that she doesn't need help from Three.

Currently, the closest she's gotten is helplessly holding herself up against the cove's cold stone wall, her legs shaking underneath her.

"And you're sure you don't need help?" Three asks, a sly grin on their face.

"You're just mocking me at this point," Eight replies, right before her new legs give out and she topples over right back to where she started- into the sand.

Three laughs, and Eight gives them the dirtiest look she can muster. Unfortunately for her, no matter how tough she thinks she looks, Three just thinks it's cute.

"Okay, c'mon." They say, hooking their arm around her waist and almost effortlessly pulling her up. "It's like you've never heard of leg day or somethin'."

"Hey! I just got these!" Eight retaliates.

"I'll just support you while you learn to walk, I guess. This'll probably be a lot less weird than you just stumbling around everywhere."

Eight hums in agreement. 

"Trust me, this'll be a lot less suspicious to the people in town. This is something that, like, couples do, right?"

"Oh! We're going into tow-" Then it hits Eight like a bullet train.

Couple?

They're a couple?

Nononono- That wasn't even what Three said! They said that this is what couples do- not that they are a couple! But that implies they ARE a couple!

Ugh! Stop it, brain! Eight thinks, mentally hitting herself. You haven't even known Three for that long, and have they ever shown interest in you?

Plus, they're gonna have to leave the bay at the end of the summer.

Right before she can moping about Three's inevitable departure, Three's voice snaps her out of it.

"Eight? You good?"

"Yeah! Yeah- I'm uh, fine. Just-" She says, avoiding eye contact with Three in an attempt to shield her flushing face. "Excited to go into town!" Sounds real convincing, Eight. 

"Cool. We'll go to my Aunt's place, and we can watch that movie I mentioned earlier- actually, wait, would that be offensive to you?"

"What is a move-ey?!"

"You'll find out," They shrugged. "But we should probably get you some shoes first."

"Oh! Yes, of course- shoes!" Eight replied, looking down at her bare feet.

Three's hand slightly tightens around Eight waist, making her blush even more than she already is (Unbeknownst to her, Three's face is equally flushed).

Three guides Eight through the beach, their arm still wrapped around her.

It's only so you don't fall over, Eight thinks. Nothing more.

It's only so she doesn't fall over, Three thinks. Nothing more.

The walk is decently awkward- They both avoid eye contact with each other like their lives depend on it. Eight stumbles a couple of times, but with Three's support, it's much better than her previous walk attempts.

"I'm tired." Eight eventually comments. The two of them have only been walking for ten minutes, but it's a long time for her.

"We're barely even halfway across the beach," Three replies. "C'mon, you'll survive."

In response to Three, Eight slips out of their grip and falls face forward into the sand, splaying her limbs out across the shore.

"Good lord." Three sighs.

Once Eight's legs recover and she comes up from the sand (with great assistance from Three), the pair make their way towards Inkopolis Bay's main street.

"This is hard.' Eight says, her feet slowly dragging along the beach.

"You'll get the hang of it."

"So, uhm, is there anything else to do on the surface other than buy shoes and watch movers?"

"Movies. And yeah, there's a ton of crap up here."

"Like what?" Eight asks, her eyes wide with curiosity.

"Uhm- You can watch... other stuff?"

"Doesn't sound like a whole lot of things to do."

"Trust me! There's tons of stuff. I'll google things to do when we get to my place."

"Goo-gull?"

Three facepalms using their free hand. "I'll explain it later. Anyway, we're almost at the store!"

Eight looks up and sees something unbelievable.

Huge, colourful buildings line sunlit streets, more humans than she can count walking along them. Every window of every shop is filled with vibrant product displays, and small (juvenile, Eight assumes) humans press their hands and faces against the glass to catch a glimpse of the varied items inside.

Further back, giant, glimmering buildings stood tall and proud, piercing the bright blue sky. Eight can barely believe what she's seeing.

Speechless, she just stares.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Three says.

"Yeah," Eight replies, breathlessly.

"Alright, you can take it all in later. Let's get you some shoes!"

Eight takes one step forward onto the concrete pavement, still supported by Three.

"Ah! Hot! Hot!" 

"This is why you need shoes! C'mon, let's get moving! The quicker you run, the less it burns!" Three replies, picking up the pace. 

Eight is practically being carried by them at this point- with one arm, mind you. Three is so quick she can barely keep her feet on the ground.

Soon enough, they land at a park bench outside a teal-ish store with shoes displayed in the window. Eight slips out of Three's grasp and sits down. Three promptly slumps down next to her, panting.

"Jesus," They mutter, breathless. "Give me a minute, then we'll go in."

Eight uses this time to briefly scan the streets- The store directly across from them has a long line coming out the front of it, and every so often a couple of humans leave the shop, happily eating brightly coloured scoops out of cones. Ice cream, if she remembers what Three told her.

She examines the people in the line, hoping to catch a glimpse of a certain black-and-teal-haired friend of hers. Unfortunately, she can't seem to find Marina; the closest she gets is a tall, black haired woman towards the front of the line, but Eight's view is partially obscured by a short, pale lady standing next to her.

"Right." Three says, taking a deep breath and standing up. "Shoe time!" 

They offer a hand to Eight, but she waves them off. "I think I've gotten the hang of it."

She clearly hasn't, because almost instantly after she let go of the bench's metal armrest, turned and faced the store, and took one, single step forward, she fell backwards.

But just inches away from hitting the sidewalk and cracking her skull in half, Eight is caught.

By Three.

She looks up at them, immediately identifying that their face is as equally red as hers.

A couple of bystanders surrounding them clap- which does not help at all.

"Thanks." Eight breathes.

"No- uh, no problem." Three responds, helping Eight regain her balance. "Let's, just, quickly pick out some shoes, 'kay?"

"Yeah."

The store is almost even more unbelievable than the whole town itself.

"And these are all just for your feet?" Eight questions, inspecting every pair of shoes she comes across. 

"Mhm." Three leans up against a pure white pillar in the centre of the store. "Choose quick, It's getting late."

Eight is reminded that the two of them have spent over an hour in this store, just looking at shoes. 

She picks up a pair of plain sandals. "Good enough."

Three takes the sandals up to the counter and Eight watches intently as they take out a small card and swipes it against a rectangular device that the cashier presents to them.

As the two of them leave the store, Eight, still supported by Three (she really doesn't have the hang of it), asks; "Did you pay?"

"Huh? Of course."

"But you just swiped that card?"

"Yeah, that's how we pay up here."

"Really? I thought you used coins." She questions, reminded of her collection of human memorabilia back home- a lot of it is made up of old coins.

"I mean, we still have coins, but most people just use credit cards."

"Interesting."

During their walk to Three's aunt's house, Eight drastically improves in walking. She's practically able to do it on her own now- for less than five minutes.

"This is so hard," She complains, staring down at the sidewalk. "You all do this every day?"

"Well, yes." Is Three's straight-to-the-point response. "But we have cars too, y'know."

"You have what now?"

Three points to a speeding blur of colour going down the street. "We have trains, buses and other stuff too."

"We could've been using one of those THE WHOLE TIME?!"

Three's aunt's house is really nice. 

Well- it's the first human house Eight's ever been in, so there's not much to compare it to. But she's certain it's pretty good.

She settles onto the couch- which is easily the comfiest thing she's ever sat on. Eight is completely sure that she would've easily fallen asleep amongst the pillows if the door didn't screech open just as her eyes began to shut.

"THREE! Wait- who's this?" A peppy voice says. 

"Um, hello?" A more monotone voice this time.

Eight sits up and sees that Three has a look of pure horror on their face- and they're practically frozen in place.

"Oh my god, Three! Is this your girlfriend?!" The peppy one asks, bouncing with excitement.

"No way! She's too pretty for them." The monotone voice- a white haired girl who looks to be about Three's age, comments.

Eight determines that the peppy voice comes from the other girl, a black haired woman who seems to only own/wear pink things.

"What?! No! We're just friends!" Both Three and Eight blurt out at the exact same time.

"Mhm. Definitely." Peppy girl says.

"You guys are home early." Three says, clearly annoyed. 

Monotone girl smiles slyly.

"So, uhm..." Three says, turning to face Eight. "These are my cousins, Callie and Marie."

Marie barely looks phased. Callie is so excited  that Eight is seriously concerned that she might explode.

"AHHH! My baby cousin has a girlfriend!" She screeches, pouncing towards Eight.

"For the last time-" Three starts.

"Ohmygod! Your hair is so nice! Do you use box dye or do you get it done at a salon? Are those my clothes? What's your name?"

"Uh, Eight."

Callie squeals. "Oh em gee! You two are practically made for each other!"

Both Three and Eight sigh. It's going to be a long night.

Chapter Text

“Your hair is just so, so pretty!” Callie exclaims, taking a handful of Eight’s magenta curls. Eight notes that Callie’s jet-black hair is tipped with a bright pink, not unlike her own. “And it doesn’t look damaged at all!”

Damaged- yes. Eight remembers Three talking about how dying human hair extensively results in damage. Callie can’t seem to get over her hair- so it must be a major issue for most humans.

While Callie gushes over her cousin’s new friend- Marie stands to the side, glaring at Eight with squinted eyes, almost like she plans to interrogate her.

“Your eyes are weird.” Callie says bluntly. Eight has no clue what she means. “And your skin is so… glitterly! How’d you get it like that?”

“Uh-“

“Callie!” A new voice calls out from the other room. “It’s rude to ask things like that!”

“I’m not a kid anymore!” Callie yells back.

The owner of the unfamiliar voice walks in from the kitchen- she’s a woman of average height, with the same features as Callie, but more rounded. Her hair is the same black, too, though it’s significantly shorter. Eight guesses this new woman is Callie’s mother- meaning she’s Three and Marie’s aunt, too.

The woman Eight assumes to be Callie’s mom walks up to her, pinching her cheeks and doing other generally motherly things.

"Don’t mind her.” She says, shoving Callie to the side. Callie huffs and walks over to Marie, who she starts whispering with almost instantly.

Callie and her mother seem to be very similar, not just in looks, but in personality, too. Quickly, Callie’s mother sees what her daughter was commenting on- instead of expressing her curiosity/confusion, though, she tightly purses her lips and backs off awkwardly.

“Well! Nice to meet you- Eight, was it?”

Eight nods.

Callie’s mom gives a strained smile, clearly concerned about the weird, sparkly girl with eye greens rather than whites sitting in her living room. “I’ll go prep some lunch for you girls,” She says, walking off. “And Three.”

Callie goes after her, and Marie trails behind. Finally, Eight is free from their prying eyes.

Eight pushes herself off of the couch cushions, stumbling for a bit as she balances herself on the hardwood floors.

“Sorry about my cousins.” Three says. “They… uh. I don’t usually have people over, so they get really excited whenever I do.”

“They’re… interesting.”

“Should we go up to my room?” Three asks.

“Yeah,” Eight replies, staring at the wooden staircase which she assumes leads up to their bedroom. It can’t be that hard to get up those, right? “Sure.”

Eight was dead wrong about the stairs.

She barely makes it up 5 steps before she’s completely exhausted and slumped down on the cold floors.

“How do you people do this every single day?!” She cries.

Three looks down at her from the top of the staircase, unfazed. “C’mon, it’s really not that hard. I’ve been carrying you around all day, too!”

“For you, it isn’t! Are you gonna help me or not?!”

Callie and Marie peek their heads around the corner, both scowling at Three. It intimidates them enough to get them to go help Eight to her feet and lead her up the stairs.

Three’s room is plain. That’s just about all Eight can say about it.

There’s a bed, although Eight didn’t realise what it was at first- human beds are raised off the floor with layers of blankets and padding, rather than the floor beds back home.

To the left of that, a large wooden dresser sits alone. It’s the only other thing in the room, other than the window, which is framed with sheer curtains. The dresser looks old, like one of the ones Eight would find when she swam through old shipwrecks from centuries lost.

“My aunt loves thrifting,” Three says, gesturing to the dresser as they sit down on their bed. “She’ll buy literally anything if it’s from an op shop, says they’re all bargains. Even if they’re really, really not.”

“Thrifting?” Eight questions.

“It’s, like, buying things second-hand.” They explain. “People donate stuff they don’t want, and other people buy  ‘em.”

“Oh! I used to do that!” She says excitedly. Being from such different worlds, it’s not very often Three and Eight can relate to each other like this. “Actually… it was more like stealing… those dead people didn’t donate that stuff…”

“It’s fine. Probably. People donate their dead relative’s stuff all the time. That dresser probably belonged to someone’s dead granny.”

“Oh. I, uh, I never thought of that, really.” Suddenly, Eight is rethinking her entire human memorabilia collection.

“I mean, you’re probably not gonna be haunted.”

 Eight plops down on the soft carpeted floor, crossing her legs.

“This is so weird.” She says.

“What is?”

“Being human.”

“Man, in any other context, that would be some, like, crazy philosophical poetry thingy. Would’ve gone triple-platinum on tumblr.”

“… Tumbler? But- no. I mean, having legs. Being up here.” Eight says, and Three nods. “Walking is hard. Also, why in the world would you make stairs? Do humans enjoy making their lives harder?”

“You got the hang of walking way fast, though. Human babies take, I dunno, a year to learn to walk.”

“I’m not a baby.” She huffs.

“You had me carry you around for, like, an hour.”  Three snickers in response.

Eight pouts and turns her head away from Three, who decides it’s now time to change the subject.

“Hey,” They say, pulling out their laptop. “Should we watch that movie I was talking about earlier?”

“Ah! Yes.” Eight replies, stumbling to her feet and climbing onto Three’s bed. “The mover- let’s watch that.”

“Movie.” Three corrects.

“Just play it.”

Eight’s eyes widen with curiosity as Three switches their laptop on and pulls up the movie. While the movie actually plays, Three comments at various points that they’ve seen this tons of times before. But Eight is barely watching- instead, she’s completely enamoured by the technology presented in front of her.

Suddenly, she launches forward and snatches the laptop, bringing the bright screen right up to her face.

“How does this work?!” She demands to know.

Three looks at her, confused by her sudden outburst. “Huh?”

“How- How is the… the movie?!”

“You’re not making… any sense…”

“How is your thing-“ Eight points to the laptop. “playing this movie?!”

“I don’t know?! Pixels?”

Now Eight looks just as confused as them. God, they should’ve known she’d had no idea what a pixel was.

“…You know what?” Eight sets the computer back down, crosses her arms, and goes back to watching.

Marina’s first week on the surface has been incredibly incredible.

First, a kind human woman gave her a place to stay, with the most comfortable furniture ever created. Then, the same human- Pearl- helped her learn to speak in the human way. She’s not got the hang of it entirely yet, but she’s made a lot of progress. And the cherry on top? Yesterday, Pearl took her out to try a human delicacy by the name of “Ice cream.” If she’d known about this before, she would’ve come up here way earlier. But if she came up earlier, she might’ve not met Pearl…

Agh! She needs to stop thinking of Pearl like this! You’ve known each other for a week! Marina tells herself.

“Yo! “Rina!” Pearl calls out, the sudden loud noise making Marina jump, but also making her heart skip a beat. “You ready to go yet?”

Of course Marina’s ready to go. She’s been waiting for this since yesterday- which isn’t a long time, now that she’s thinking about it. When they were at the ice cream “parlour” (whatever that means- Marina will have to ask), Pearl mentioned she preferred cake to ice cream. Naturally, Marina had no idea what that was, and Pearl offered to take her to a “bakery” to try some.

So, obviously, Marina has been ready to go since 2 AM.

She probably would’ve spent longer picking out her outfit if she didn’t own the bare minimum of clothing, provided to her by Pearl, of course. But she’s grateful, and sometime next week the two of them will do some proper clothes shopping.

Marina runs out of the guest room to meet Pearl at the large front doors, then, the pair walk down to Pearl’s car.

In all honesty, Marina is surprised Pearl can even drive at all. She’s so short that her legs barely even reach the brakes, but she’s glad her human friend can- driving is so much more convenient than walking (or swimming, for that matter). Once Pearl stops fumbling with her seatbelt, the engine starts up and the two speed off to the main road.

Once they arrive, the pair walk down the busy streets, packed with tourists. Pearl spends the whole walk to the bakery regaling Marina with tales of when she and her family would come down here from the city and stay in their beach house every summer. Marina equates it with the migrating whales and other sea-life from back home.

Suddenly, Marina spots a magenta blob in the crowd that’s too familiar to her to go unnoticed. She tries to shrug it off, but as she gets closer…

“Eight?!”

The pink-haired figure spins around, almost at lightning speed, and directly meets Marina’s gaze. It’s her.

“MARINA?!”

Chapter Text

There’s a long, uncomfortable silence after Eight’s exclamation.

Passerby’s stop dead in their tracks and stare for a moment, but quickly return to whatever they were doing before- much to Eight’s relief- they didn’t need to be involved in this.

“Uhm, hi, Eight!” Marina sheepishly says. “W-what are you doing here…?”

Even more silence.

Eight’s lips begin to tremble- there are so many things she wants to say, but nothing is coming out. Suddenly, her head starts to feel fuzzy.

“Uh, Eight? Who is this?” Three asks, but all Eight can hear is an increasingly loud ringing in her ears.

She feels dizzy, and the faces in front of her blur in and out of focus. Her knees wobble, threatening to give out and drop her to the ground. It’s just all too much.

“Are you okay?” Three again asks, reaching out to Eight’s shoulder. She doesn’t respond.

Eight feels like she’s going to be sick, and the ground beneath her feet feels uneasy, like it could crack apart and swallow her whole at any moment. At this point, she wouldn’t mind if it really did.

Marina disappeared for a whole week (now that Eight’s really thinking about it, it isn’t actually that long, but still!) and it turns out she’s been prancing around on the surface while Eight was worried sick, thinking she’d drowned or been crushed by the deep ocean’s immense pressure! And now? Marina stands in front of her with a painfully awkward smile on her face, like she’s feigning happiness and would rather Eight not be in her presence.

“Eight, I- I can explain! I-”

Before Marina can finish speaking and right before Eight finally collapses onto the concrete, Three reaches out and grabs the former’s wrist.

“C’mon, let’s go.” They say, lightly pulling Eight away.

Eight stumbles as she walks away with Three, and her face quickly becomes wet with streaming tears. Behind the pair, Marina tries to follow after them, but her new friend stops her.

They walk until Eight’s legs hurt, which admittedly isn’t that far, and the two stop to sit down at what Three calls a “bus stop.” They also say that they forgot to bring their bus pass with them, but it doesn’t matter, as long as the “inspectors” aren’t on the bus with them.

Eight has no clue what a bus, or a bus pass, is. And she also has no idea why the bus needs inspectors. But the strange new vocabulary isn’t enough to distract her from the day’s earlier events.

They’ve been sitting at the bus stop for half an hour or so. Three mentions that the bus is running late, but other than that, the pair sit in silence.

Finally, after what feels like an eternity, Three pipes up.

“So… uh, if you don’t mind me asking… Who was that? ” They ask.

Eight is still crying, and she chokes out her response. “M-Marina.”

Three’s face drops. “Oh. Sorry.”

Eight mutters that it’s fine , and they go back to silence.

Eventually, what Eight can only assume is the bus Three talked about drives towards them, making an awful rumbling sound even worse than the cars they’d walked past on their way here. The vehicle comes to a stop, making an ear-piercing metallic sound like that of nails on a chalkboard (not like Eight had ever heard that sound). 

“This is us,” Three says, taking Eight’s hand and helping her up the stairs. 

They both sit down on cushioned seats with bright, strange patterns on the fabric. The ride is short and bumpy. Not a great first vehicle experience. 

Again, Eight feels like she might puke. Three seems to notice.

“Ah, you’ve got motion sickness.” They comment.

Eight doesn’t respond, and instead, absentmindedly rests her head on Three’s shoulder for the short duration of their trip, in a strange bid to keep what little she had to eat at Three’s house down. She doesn’t notice Three’s sudden increase in body heat nor their loudly thumping heart.

Soon, the bus stops in what Eight recognizes to be the street that Three’s aunt’s house is in. The pair dismount the bus without issue- seems the aforementioned “inspectors” weren’t a big issue- and take a brief walk back to the house. 

When they reach the house, Three unlocks the door and Callie and Marie come into view. They’re lounging on the couch, watching something on the- what was it- television? Eight can’t exactly remember, all of this is so new to her.

Mere seconds after the door clicks open, Callie jumps up and runs towards Three and Eight.

“Sooooo, how was your date? ” Callie grins, making sure to put extra emphasis on the last word. But after a quick glance at Eight’s face, her smug expression drops.

“...Not good?” She questions.

“Callie- just stop, please.” Three says, lightly pushing past their cousin and bringing Eight with them.

Both Callie and Marie watch in confusion as the two of them head upstairs. From the couch, Marie gives Callie a look that asks “What happened?” Callie just shrugs.

As soon as Eight enters Three’s room, she drops down onto the carpeted floor, wrapping her arms around her legs and resting her forehead against her knees. Three sits down next to her, wrapping their arm around her shoulder. They aren’t the best at consoling people, but they can recognise when someone needs a hug. Almost immediately, Eight shifts to rest her head on Three’s chest, causing their face to turn bright red for the second time that day.

After a couple minutes of silence, Three realises that they really should talk to Eight about where she’ll be staying on the surface. They’d offer to let her stay with them, there’s even a spare guest room she could use- but they know Callie and Marie would never shut up about it if they spent even more than a day with a girl.

Soon enough, they realise that Eight’s fallen asleep. They heave her up onto the bed, and decide they’ll wake her up later for dinner- she’s already had an eventful day.

“Marina? Who was that?” Pearl asks, visibly confused. 

“I- uh-”

“Marina, seriously! She was so mad! C’mon, we’re friends, you can tell me!”

“It’s- She was just an old friend, Pearl!” 

Pearl crosses her arms, obviously annoyed. Marina has already realised that Pearl is the type of person who wants to know everything about even the pettiest drama.

“Let’s just leave, Pearl.” Marina says.

“Fine,” The other girl huffs, taking out her car keys. There’s a clicking sound in the distance, signalling the car is unlocked.

The car ride back to Pearl’s house is painfully quite- For Pearl, it’s awkward, but for Marina, it’s miserable. She doesn’t want Pearl to be mad at her! It’s just about the last thing she ever wants to happen.

Now that she really thinks about it, she’s come to care about Pearl’s opinion on everything and anything more than anyone else’s. And in the span of a week, no less. But Pearl has been nothing but kind to her! It’s no wonder that Marina is more fond of her than others- In a completely platonic and ordinary way.

The pair almost immediately get stuck in traffic, causing Pearl to unleash a string of swears, many of which Marina had never heard, considering she learnt english a week ago (which is surprisingly quick, even for her). 

“Fucking tourists!” Pearl yells, confusing Marina.

“Pearl- aren’t you a tourist?” She asks.

“Well- uh- It’s different!” The shorter girl replies.

“How so?”

“It just is, ‘Rina!” Pearl is practically fuming at this point, honking furiously at the other cars.

By the time the duo arrives at Pearl’s holiday house, she virtually has steam coming from her ears, and her face is red from all the yelling. 

The house is silent, which, even in a place with only two people living in it, is a rarity. Pearl is trying to calm down in the living room, so she’s not blasting any music, while Marina further explores the house, because somehow there’s a new room every time she checks.

The rest of the day is uneventful, and the subsequent night is too. Marina stares out of her bedroom window, her gaze set on the deep blue ocean as it laps against the rocky shore. She thinks about her childhood spent there, completely in the dark. She’s been nothing but happy since coming to the surface- but there’s still something, someone that draws her down there. She can’t go back though. She already knows it's the worst choice she could possibly make. She’s happier than ever on the surface, and going back down there after consorting with the sworn enemy is not a good idea.

She wonders if Eight feels the same, too. They both have obligations they’ve avoided by coming up here. But for now, she drifts off to sleep.

Chapter Text

hi readers,

author here. im posting this to let you all know that im discontinuing this fic. it was a pretty tough decision to make as i dont like disappointing people, but i have zero motivation to write this anymore  and in all honestly i have no idea where this story is going anyways. my splatoon hyperfixation is going away rn, too

to everyone whos read, gave kudos, bookmarked this, or left a comment, your support has meant the world to me. I really do love writing, and the love you guys have given to this work has been more than encouraging, but i really can't bring myself to write this anymore.

i will likely still be posting other works (probably mainly oneshots) but its a little unlikely that theyll be splatoon related. i also wont delete this work, just in case anyone wants to reread or something like that.

again, thank you so much for all the continuous love and support youve given to this work. i really hope you all understand why ive made this decision. and honestly who knows?? maybe ill get a burst of motivation and end up updating this one day. but for now, im not gonna be touching this lol. this was my first multi-chapter fic, and its made me realise i prefer writing oneshots a whole lot more.

thanks for coming along for the ride. until next time, everyone!

tl;dr : this fic is discontinued. see ya!