She was sitting there on that rock, once again, even if the mornings were getting warmer and warmer. It was summer, and staying out of the sea for longer than a couple of minutes per time was getting more dangerous every day. She still sat there, not caring about anything else.

Staring at the horizon, trying to catch him among those that humans called houses. Weird-looking boxes they were, but they protected them from the wind and the rain.

A wind that was now starting to make her skin feel like dry seaweed. She looked down at her shoulder, it was getting flaky. She sighed.

As her eyes filled up with tears she sadly realized she was going to be soon back into the water, and yet it had been days since the last time she saw him there, and she was starting to get worried. His house was always closed, with not much light even during the night… Those few nights she gathered up her courage to go out there. He simply was nowhere to be found.

She looked down at her hands on the rock, they were getting very wrinkly even if water was still touching them. She had to go. This time it was mandatory that she submerged her whole body.

One last look… just one second more…she thought.

And there he was, standing, smiling at the shore staring at the sea. The man had a weird-looking arm, or better it wasn't his arm, it looked like a white rock or something. Nia had never seen something like that before, but the human looked fine... he was fine.

“Thank the gods,” she whispered and as a tear rolled down her cheek she sank back into the sea, where she belonged… and sadly, he didn’t.

~

She was swimming fast, hoping to absorb as much water as possible before being seen by any of her family. They scolded her so much every time she spent even just one minute out of the water. It was ok only for short moments, and never near the shore or in summer. So basically that day, and the previous five, she had been doing all the wrong and forbidden things.

"Nemalion is going to scold me this time," she said, thinking about her sister made her shiver. She shook that thought away when she tried to swim even faster, down towards an opening in the rocks. She smiled, no one was around so she was going to be fine.

As soon as she reached the cave opening she immediately stopped, almost crashing into the long menacing figure that appeared in front of her.

Arms crossed, a very judgy pair of dark eyes, long black locks floating around almost like octopus legs "Nem…" she tried to say smiling awkwardly as she waved at her sister.

"Cut the whaleshit, where are you coming from? Nia... not the,'' but her voice was cut off when she promptly covered her mouth with her hands. Her sister was consistently larger than her and always had been, but luckily she was her favourite so she could have pulled off such stunts without risking further damage. She still looked scary though, so when she pulled her by her arm towards a more private and narrower tunnel to the side, Nia could simply swim with her.

"Are you crazy? It's dangerous!" Nemalion whispered between gritted teeth when they were sure no one could have listened to them.

She sighed and looked up "I know... I was just", she tried to explain but her sister shook her whole body by her arm.

"Get back to your senses, if humans find you it will be incredibly dangerous, also in this heat? I can't even swim five meters under the surface that my lovely curls become all fizzy and you dare to go out? Look at this...your lips are still a weird colour and your shoulders? Ugh!" her sister was waving her hands around being extra dramatic for no reason.

"You know that even if humans see me they can be bewildered to forget they saw a mermaid, and I make sure to never get caught," Nia explained, grabbing her sister's hands to make her calm down.

"Sure, but if they capture you, and you get hurt you can still dry out on land...it isn't worth it. Why do you even go up there? Uh? What's so interesting?" Nemalion asked her hands on the hips, her tail moving to one side and the other in a very annoyed way.

She looked down and sighed "I've just been curious about the humans that live on the beach... I realized one had been missing and I was just checking..."

"YOU WERE SPYING ON A...a boy? A human boy? Are you out of your mind?" her sister quickly went from almost screaming to merely a whisper. That was very bad and definitely forbidden. "You know how these things go, humans are not it", she then said getting closer to her face. She looked genuinely worried.

Nia shook her head before she could have started crying "I was just worried, I thought he disappeared..." she said feeling very much ashamed of herself.

"You shouldn't worry at all... Nia, you know I am very hard on you but I also support you, just like you always were on my side despite everyone chasing me away, but this..." Nemalion rarely mentioned that thing, so for her to bring it up she must have been very worried. She was right, Nia had always been there for her, she had been there when she was a he, and then kept supporting every decision until she realized she was a she, and felt like a she. Her gorgeous sister was indeed one of a kind, at least in their community. She was born a merboy, a beautiful little very opinionated boy. She then grew to feel uncomfortable in that cage that her body was. The more she grew taller, with sharp features, the more she felt like a monster.

One day Nemalion had realized she wasn't a merman at all, she realized her long hair hadn't been just a quirk or a fashion choice, it was her blanket and her pride. She hid it at first, but soon she just wanted to express herself more, be it with accessories or her sole behaviour. All her friends ditched her, they even threatened her and bullied her.

Nia was younger than her sister, but they soon realized how dangerous a very protective little sister could have been. She was the one protecting her, and the one helping her braid her hair and put pretty algae in them, or even helping her put on some colour on her lips. She didn't care what happened when mother nature created her sister's body, she was a gorgeous and powerful mermaid, and she didn't lack anything but the respect of their community; and that part wasn't her fault.

It took them a few years to finally get her accepted because they refused to leave their family, they decided that staying was more important, and they finally started with female friends getting brave enough to approach them. It had been decades since that period of their lives, so Nia was very surprised her sister had mentioned it.

"Nem... this is different", she tried to say.

"Yes, very different, because you can avoid it, you can avoid putting yourself and others in danger!" Nemailon turned around and started to swim towards the other end of the tunnel, making her follow behind. They reached some sort of small opening, a window in the cave "Look at that. That's our community, are you willing to put them all in danger for a human?" she asked, pointing at the small village on the ocean's floor.

Nia sighed and shook her head "Obviously not, I would never do it, and I'm not approaching the human...s", she was trying not to make it about the boy, but she was lying. It started as a genuine curiosity because it was obviously forbidden to spy on humans but all mermaids always did it; and in the past some species of them even ate humans or compelled them to rob them, even scaring them away from the mermaids' territory. But they were different, their community didn't eat humans, they were not carnivorous, or better they were only to a certain extent, they ate some type of shells and rarely crustaceans, but definitely no fish or humans.

"Why are you this interested in this man?" her sister asked, sighing, she was trying to understand "Does he look that pretty to you?" she asked further.

"It's not just that" Nia admitted, falling down to sit on the tunnel floor, resting her back on the wall as her tail curled up "he is... kind, and respectful" she whispered.

"What do you mean?" the other asked.

"I've been spying on him for a year...ehm Nem don't scold me, it happened by accident, I simply noticed him once and then the following time he was helping a sea turtle caught up in a fishnet. He looked so selfless and kind” Nia explained. 

“So, is he pretty?” her sister insisted, raising an eyebrow.

She sighed and looked down “ he is… very. But that’s beside the point.” He was indeed very handsome. Tall, long light coloured hair, they were probably red or blonde, she could never tell. He was tall with broad shoulders but a fairly thin waist. Not too big but he looked strong and very fast. Also when he was on that board he looked so fast with his moves and was always so happy.   

“Muscular?” the other asked further.

“Very athletic… but, really, Nem, he looks like such a kind soul, so when I didn’t see him anymore I got very scared. He is one of those that go around on the large boards that they use to play with waves, and a few days ago it was very windy and I feared he got severely hurt…” it had been such a scary thought. She knew nothing about that human, but she loved watching him from afar, and she would have really missed him if he vanished.

“We would have found the corpse…” her sister said nonchalantly as if it was something obvious and expected to say.

Nia scratched her nape and sighed “I wasn’t necessarily talking about death you know…”

“But he is fine right? These past few days you looked so disheartened but today you were swimming fast and all…” Nemalion asked if she was getting impatient.

“Yes, yes he is fine. I only wanted to see him…I promise I'll be a good girl and avoid the surface. Ok? Don’t scold me, come on, and don’t tell Mom and Dad about it,” Nia asked and finally her sister grunted but still nodded.

“Just promise me you won’t meet him.”

“Oh my gods, obviously not! I would never meet him. I like to watch him from afar. I promise”, Nia said, moving her arms around and creating lots of bubbles.

“Fine” the dark-haired one replied, reaching down to grab her pinky and sealing their agreement.

~