“What I meant… what I meant was that I offered to sacrifice myself just to save her, I’m doomed anyway so why should she be bitten if she can survive and swim away…” Brendan quickly explained with his hands up in front of him as a  sign of surrender.

“The human seems to be smarter than you. Nia, you could have died here, do you have any idea how I would’ve felt if I knew you died trying to protect me? The human will forget about us, hopefully, your life is worth more than protecting us!”

“What if I misjudged him? What if he is actually a dangerous human? What if the spell doesn’t work and he can remember us? I much rather him think I’m the only mermaid around here,” she explained, voicing out her worries for the first time. She then looked at the human with sorry eyes. It probably sounded so bad because he dropped his shoulders and looked down at this lap. 

“It’s all my fault, I shouldn’t have entered the sea today. I should’ve waited for my arm to heal completely,” Brendan sounded very guilty, and once again Nemalion must have found him cute because she rolled her eyes.

“Yeah… indeed! But look at you poor creature, your lips are purple.” Nemalion pulled herself out of the water and sat on the rock next to the man, for the first time revealing her whole body to him, her silver tail shining faintly under the feeble rays of sun that entered the cave. She was big, next to that human, she looked very tall, now Nia could easily see it, and Brendan could too as he shyly looked up at her.

His eyes were sparkling while he slowly inspected her hair and face and chest, going down to her tail.

“You look so beautiful,” he whispered almost blushing again.

“You are confused right?” Nemalion asked chuckling “I look very different from my sister,” she added. She was implying that the human probably had misgendered her, but Brendan surprised them both.

“I had no idea mermaids came in so many different sizes. You look very tall compared to her, and the hair is different too,” he said. Nemalion was taken aback and tilted her head, she couldn’t believe he didn’t mention her lack of breasts at all.

Nia smiled, she was right about him. He had a nice soul. Nemalion looked at her with confusion and Nia just shrugged. Why fix it if it wasn’t broken?

“Are you hurt anywhere human? Only these scratches?” Nemalion asked, she even pulled up his hurt arm, looking at the white rock with a frown.

“I’m fine, they bite me, but Nia stopped the bleeding,” he said, but he looked like he was in pain. Nemalion sighed and using both her hands she just crushed the white cast, earning an audible gasp from both Nia and the human.

Brendan was frozen in place, looking down at his arm. The skin looked bruised, and some algae and other debris had entered the cast scratching his arm. “What…what are you doing?” the man asked, shaking slightly. Nemalion inspected his arm further, scratches had reached underneath what had seemed to be used to protect him, so they could have gotten worse resulting in a very bad infection.

“This is going to hurt,” she then said before pressing her hands on the boy’s arm, strong enough to make him grunt in pain, curling up his toes and clenching his jaw.

Nia got out of the water “What are you doing? You’re hurting him!” she said grabbing her sister’s hands but Nemalion didn't let go. Brendan cried in pain once more before being released and breathing heavily, while he brought his arm to his chest.

“His arm was broken, and all this struggle and movement made the pieces move around, he was going to never be able to recover fully if that thing was still on,” Nem casually said while putting her hair behind her ear, all satisfied by her deed.  Nia sighed in relief. Her sister had to be always so dramatic, why couldn’t she simply explain to them what she was doing instead?

“You… you healed my arm?” Brendan said looking completely baffled, and Nia was too when she went from looking at him to looking at her sister’s face. She didn’t simply align his bones, she really used her powers to heal him. It was…forbidden, well not really but it wasn’t even allowed.

“Just because this way you won’t do this stupid thing again!” her sister didn’t even turn around to look at him bus he was surely so proud of herself. 

“Thank you. I promise I won’t be this stupid again,” he said looking down at his arm, still he couldn’t believe in his own eyes.

“I’ll go retrieve the garbage you let float away for sure. Nia, say bye and bring him back to land. The boy needs water and he needs to warm up,” Nemalion said sounding so maternal before jumping back into the water and disappearing under the surface.

“I am a ma…n “Brendan tried to say but she already swam away. “Thank you…” he added.

Nia chuckled and caressed his head, his hair was already almost completely dry, but it was true, his lips were getting darker, he was cold, and he needed to drink water. He looked at her and reached up to cup her hand gently, looking so tenderly into her eyes.

She didn’t even think, she simply moved and hugged him tightly. She felt the man tense in her arms before he reciprocated the hug, sighing. They sat like that for a long minute, refusing to let go. She knew she wasn’t going to see him and talk to him ever again. Maybe she was going to still spy on him from afar, but meeting him wasn’t going to happen.

Brendan moved to rest his face on her shoulder, making her shiver, it was almost like a kiss, but he didn’t dare. She looked to her side and saw him looking back, their faces so close she thought her heart was going to explode.

She had no time to think if that was a good or a bad idea because the human closed the distance and gently pecked her lips “I’m sorry,” he then whispered moving away, finally freeing her from the hug. Nia touched both her cheeks, she never felt them getting that hot, but the feeling in her stomach wasn’t bad at all. Oh my, I think I’m going to faint.

“I think it’s time, will you bring me back to the surface? I will swim back and finally, you can go back to your sister,” he said. He looked disappointed in a way, but they really couldn’t have spent more time together. 

Nia got back to reality and nodded, she pouted slightly and jumped back into the water, waiting for the man to do the same. Once they were one facing the other, same eye level again, she reached out to grab his hand. “Are you ready?” she asked, he had to be very brave and strong to hold his breath all the way out of there.

“I’ll do my best not to drown,” he said giving her a gorgeous smile. She sighed and shook her head pulling slightly on his hand.

“Be serious, I know you can hold your breath quite a lot, make sure to resist breathing through your nose and just endure it a bit. You will not die even if it feels like it ok?” she was very serious and this time, despite his smile, Brendan nodded. She instructed him to take a deep breath and finally, she pulled him down, first outside the cave and then as fast as she could directly towards the surface. When they finally breathed the fresh air of the late evening Brenden had a red face and probably a pain in his lungs, but he was alive, and breathing. “I didn’t even pass out this time,” he said hoarsely.

Nia pouted and caressed his face, then she moved closer and surprised him. She was the one kissing him this time. The man was taken aback at first but soon surrounded her with his strong arms, making her feel once again that weird ticklish feeling in her belly. “I will help you get closer to the reef but then you’ll swim the rest of the way ok?” she said that and decided not to mention anything else, not the kiss, nor the goodbye that was obviously in their eyes when they stared at each other.

~

After parting with him she watched as he swam all the way back to the shore, he never looked back just like she asked him. Her head was barely visible outside of the water while she stared at him. She saw him stand up in shallow waters and slowly walk, he stopped for a second when he was almost there and Nia could only hold her breath. Don’t turn around. Her eyes filled with tears, but she was happy, she had experienced such a thing. She was never going to forget that boy.

He took his final step out of the water and his demeanour changed completely. He looked down confused at his arms and then he looked around. He wasn’t looking for her though. No, he was just trying to understand what had just happened to him probably. The moment he touched land his memories of the mermaids were naturally deleted from his memories, and now he was left there, with so many questions and no one to answer them.

“Goodbye Brendan, stay safe,” she whispered before swimming away. A huge hole in her chest had formed, because in a couple of hours, she had experienced so much, with so many strong emotions.

She only wanted to curl up in Nemalion’s arms and cry till she could have fallen asleep.

Her sister was going to be there for her. 

And now, she was all she needed.

the end?