The Boy With The Dark Hair

(Fern's POV)

It happened so fast. One moment Fern was swimming in place, zoning out to the thoughts that were filling her head and the next a huge splash abruptly pulled her from her space. The water was disturbed right in front of Fern, only a few feet away. At first, it seemed like someone had thrown something heavy into the ocean as Fern couldn't make out what was in the water. Then she saw it.

The bubbles cleared away, and she watched as a human boy began to slowly sink into the deep ocean. Fern blinked slightly, almost convinced it was her imagination playing tricks on her. She was finally crazy. Her dreams controlled so much of her mindset that she had even imagined a boy sinking into the water around her age from loneliness.

Then his eyes opened, and she snapped further back into reality. Normally, she would've been surrounded by other mermaids who would even refuse to look at a human. They would pull her back, say it was too dangerous, that if she saved one the others would come to hunt them.

Years of conditioning to be afraid of the very thing she was swimming towards, yet she wasn't scared or frightened at all. She swam towards the boy with her arms open, hoping that humans weren't too fragile when it came to water. He had already passed out by the time she reached him, but that didn't stop her from wrapping her arms around his waist and pushing upward.

All she had to do was make it to the shore. She wouldn't tell anyone what she had done, she would just save him. He wouldn't remember her, so it would be fine. After a moment of rushing to the top, her head finally broke the surface with his limp body in her arms and she pushed forward towards where the sand lied.

Once the boy was safely in the sand, Fern sighed with a breath of relief, watching for him to begin to move again. That's when she noticed something was wrong. The boy was completely out of the water, the sand was meshing in between his hair and clothing. Yet, despite this, he wasn't moving. His chest wasn't rising, and his eyes were remaining in a closed position. There was something else that was off, and it took a moment for Fern to realize it.

Slowly, Fern looked down at her own body, expecting to see her white tail swaying back and forth like it usually does.

It was gone.

(Aster's POV)

It was a dream. The quiet humming was pushing against him, a song he recognized despite never hearing it before. Aster was floating in the deep sea, yet despite being surrounded by water he wasn't afraid anymore. He allowed his body to float, the sunlight and moonlight being out of sight.

That's how Aster knew he was dreaming. He was in the ocean, so far down he couldn't see any light. He couldn't see anything, no fish, plants, or even trash from boats. He was alone, and underwater for far too long to be alive. Just as he was about to close his eyes and relax, a sudden heavyweight like the pressure was being pushed against his chest, and his eyes widened quickly.

"WAKE THE HELL UP!"

Aster's body flew up, smacking right into Colin's left leg that was currently attached to his chest. He choked up water, spitting it straight into the sand as he tried to gain his breath back. Aster still couldn't breathe for a few seconds, coughing up water for what felt like forever before his eyes focused on the three people standing in front of him. His friends.

His friends were all hovered over his body, worried expressions written on all of their faces except Colin, who only looked relieved that Aster had woken up. Colin stepped off the other's chest, holding a hand out for Aster to take. He paused for a moment, debating if he had the strength to take it before he linked his fingers in between Colin's and stood up slowly.

"Jesus. You scared the crap out of us. Why the heck weren't you paying attention to where you were stepping?" Silas asked, going into his own dad mode. Whenever any of them messed up even slightly Silas instantly was the one to correct them and make sure they knew what they had done was stupid. Aster shook his head, not responding as a desperate pang in his head began to pound repeatedly.

After a few seconds of silence, Aster finally decided to speak up.

"How am I alive? I can't swim, and I swear I remember passing out in the ocean." He asked, looking up at his friends expectantly. He expected them to say that they had jumped in after him since he was the only one in the friend group who couldn't swim. It would've been easy for them to jump in and try to find where he was, the only problem was that he had sunk deep. Too deep, even for them.

Suddenly, when hit with that question, all of his friends turned deep red in the face. Aster's eyebrows rose in suspicion, not expecting that reaction at all. "What the heck is that face for? What happened?"

Percy coughed slightly, raising his hand before he was gesturing towards the back of where Aster was, making the other turn around to look behind him. Behind Aster there was a small girl, around their age, sitting in the sand. Her hair passed her waist, flowing over her legs into the sand as she watched them. Then he noticed her clothes, she was wearing Percy's hoodie and gym shorts.

Confused, Aster turned back to Percy, only now realizing Percy was only in his long boxers now. "Ok, that literally explains nothing. Why is she-"

Percy cut him off, waving his hand in front of his face as if he was overheating. "So...We all split up earlier to try to find you in the water. So I took my clothes off anyway, to swim. I couldn't find you after half an hour...so I came back out and when I reached the beach again she was there...with you...naked."

Aster blinked, staring at Percy for a moment before he was laughing out loud. He playfully hit the other's shoulders, brushing off the entire situation. "That's what you were blushing about? A skinny dipper saving me?" Aster was relieved after all. He thought something weird had happened, but they were on a private beach. The girl was probably skinny dipping when Aster fell in the water near her.

Aster turned back around, heading slowly over to the girl despite his friends calling out behind him. He reached his hand out, offering to help her up. The girl stopped staring at her hands, finally raising her face. He almost stopped, for some reason frozen from the way she was looking at him. She was beautiful, her eyes were round and light, staring into his own dark ones.

"U-Um...Thanks for saving me earlier. I can't swim you see so..." He awkwardly was about to pull his hand back before she reached out and took it into her own, lifting herself up afterward onto her own feet. She wobbled slightly, before standing upright again, but she didn't say a word.

Aster glanced back at his friends, who were all watching closely. Percy shrugged his shoulders, an indication that he didn't understand what was going on either. Aster turned back to the girl due to this, finding her still staring directly at him.

"Um, anyways. What's your name?" He almost expected her to not talk, to be deaf or unable to speak. That would explain why she didn't move at all even though earlier they were talking directly about her. She surprised him again though because when she spoke he recognized her voice. It was a soft whisper, but he was hit with a nostalgic feeling. Like he knew her.

"I'm Fern."