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Blue. Blue was all he’d ever lived around, all that his mother would allow him to experience. Especially after his father’s untimely passing when he was just a child. Blue, blue and even more blue wherever he swam, with the odd speckles of green seaweed and the ever-so-present beige sand that coated the bottom of the blue. He liked to run his fingers through the grains of beige; it was soothing, and he liked to form balls out of the substance and throw them at his fellow merfolk. None of them thought it very funny though.
Well, none of them besides Tao. At least he had Tao in all of this blue, green and beige. At least he had someone to stop him from dying of boredom. And Tao was a great friend. When he wasn’t chasing Elle for her affection after their fifth breakup of the year, that was. Elle was alright too, he guessed. She was beautiful with her dark skin and long, luscious dark brown hair and huge, doe-like brown eyes but that never did anything for him. Not like what his mother’s merman servants did to him and his stomach. Or, better yet, the incredibly handsome prince from the kingdom above the blue, in the place that had fascinated him since childhood. The prince that sent the poor little merman blushing with just a glance, before he fell back under the blue more than ten times.
It was common knowledge among the young merfolk that the little merman adored the prince from above. Tao had once accidentally shouted about it when he found out. He’d apologised profusely afterwards but, collectively, the ones who knew about the crush kept it to the people who knew.
If the Queen were to find out, who knows what would happen to the little merman?
A blare of trumpets precede the Queen of the Seas as she floats in the expanse with her entourage of servants, smiling dutifully at the cheers and applause that her subjects meet her with. She looks around at the crowd, waving her hand to greet them before she sits on her throne. Her servants scurry to their assumed positions, and Queen Jane finds herself smiling even more at the second blare of trumpets that announce the arrival of her children. Victoria swims into view with Oliver clinging to her hand and they approach their mother. Victoria nods at her mother, bowing her top half, but Oliver manages to tear out of his sister’s grasp and barrels into Queen Jane, causing her to let out a rare laugh and kiss his head. Oliver beams at her before Victoria grabs him to guide him to his seat.
Along with the rest of her kingdom, Queen Jane waits a moment or two for her oldest son to appear. He’s always got his head somewhere else, so it’s not uncommon for him to be trailing behind his siblings in a slight daze, humming some kind of song his friend, Elle, had taught him. But, when a full minute passes and her son doesn’t turn up, rage fills her and she shoots up from her throne, looking around the crowd. It’s then that she sees Elle alone, her partner and the prince’s best friend, Tao, nowhere to be seen. The mermaid is rolling her eyes and sending the Queen an apologetic grimace. Youssef, the royal advisor, tries to approach her to calm her down but a shriek emits from the Queen of the Sea and the entire crowd winces.
“Charles Francis!”
“Come on, Tao!”
In a flash of light yellow scales and dark flowing hair, Charlie swims through the empty expanse of blue, an exuberant smile brightening his features. Tao, looking around nervously, follows his best friend as they approach a kind of dilapidated wooden structure that’s half-buried in the sand. Uncharacteristically, Charlie dives into the structure without hesitation and Tao grumbles.
“I knew I shouldn’t have introduced you to thingamabobs.”
Charlie rolls his eyes fondly as he swims around, looking in every nook and cranny of the structure. “You’ve been saying that since you first took me above the blue.”
“Yeah, because I didn’t realise what it’d lead to!” Tao exclaims, gesturing around them. “Your mother would have my head if she knew!”
“Which is why she’ll never find out,” Charlie replies, then gasps when he sees something glinting at him from below.
He smirks when he hears Tao swim after him and shoots to the lower level of the structure, his jaw dropping at the amount of human stuff before him.
Holy Neptune.
“Uh, Charlie? Maybe we sho--”
“Oh, Tao, look! It’s one of your favourites!” Charlie says brightly, ignoring him and pointing at a large bronze-looking square that holds a frozen life. “It’s another frozen life!”
Tao sighs and follows Charlie’s voice to the lower level, spying him as he sifts through the peculiar human tools and shiny objects, but looks around for the frozen life Charlie was talking about. Charlie smiles as he slyly watches Tao inspect the square in awe.
“What do you think it’s showing?” Tao asks.
Gathering several gizmos and thingamabobs he wants to add to his collection, Charlie swims back to Tao’s side and squints at the frozen life. It looks like a place above the blue, with giant rocks and a castle like his mother’s. Only, the castle isn’t made of coral and anemones. He shrugs.
“I dunno. But I bet Isaac’ll know!” he suggests. “Come on, let’s go show him!”
“Charlie--”
But Charlie’s already grabbing the frozen life by the bronze part, dropping everything else in the cotton net he’s got wrapped around his body, and he knows that Tao’ll just follow him as he swims up. His hair clings to his forehead as he breaks the calm blue and breathes in the wind. Tao calls after him but that only just catches Isaac’s attention as he stands on a nearby rock, tending to his feathers. He squawks and Charlie smiles widely, heaving the frozen life onto the rock. Isaac bounces down.
“Charlie! How are you? Haven’t seen you for a while!”
Charlie sighs. “I’m sorry, Isaac, my mother’s been keeping me busy. But, look! I have some really interesting things today!”
Tao exhales as he finally reaches Charlie’s side. “Hi, Isaac.”
As Tao and Isaac exchange pleasantries, Charlie tears the cotton net from his body and empties it beside the frozen life. Isaac looks on curiously.
“Okay, what do we have here? Hey, I recognise that place!” he announces as he peers at the frozen life. “Where’d you get this frozen life?”
“Another structure in the sand down below! What is it showing?”
“It’s Higgshire! The neighbouring kingdom to that one over there!” Isaac exclaims, pointing his wing out to the huge castle that Charlie recognises all too well.
“Wow!” he whispers in awe.
“What else have’cha got?”
Charlie looks from the shore to the thingamabobs he’d dumped out to show Isaac. Isaac hops over and hums as he scrutinises them. He bends over to take what looks like a small version of Charlie’s father’s old trident into his beak. Charlie looks at it curiously. Isaac drops it in front of him.
“This looks like a dinglehopper!”
“A dinglehopper…” Charlie repeats to himself as Tao picks it up to look closer at it.
“This looks like a small trident,” Tao says suspiciously.
“No, no, no. You see, a trident is a different colour to a dinglehopper,” Isaac explains. “Humans use these to make super funky hairstyles, the teeth are perfect for running through hair. Charlie, try it on Tao!”
Tao scowls as Charlie takes the dinglehopper from him and starts pushing it through Tao’s hair. He feels his face turn into a smile as he pulls it out and Tao’s hair does look different.
“Wow…” he whispers again.
Isaac squawks. “Exactly, little prince. Now, let me see…”
There’s a splash behind them that causes all three of them to jump and both Charlie and Tao turn around at once to spot Elle, who’s staring at them with raised eyebrows and crossed arms. Charlie smiles awkwardly, holding up the dinglehopper. Elle’s face doesn’t change.
“Prince Charles,” she starts and Charlie winces. “I thought you knew to pick better times to come up here. Like when your mother isn’t presenting before the entirety of Atlantica.”
At once, Charlie freezes as everything comes back to him. Oh, no! It’s his father’s memorial, how in the ocean could he have forgotten?!
“Oh, Mother’s going to kill me!” he cries and scoops all of the thingamabobs back into his net, thrusting it at Elle. “Tao, Elle, can you take the frozen life and thingamabobs back to my collection? I’ll meet you there soon!”
Elle gasps. “Charlie!”
But Charlie doesn’t reply, he just dives back under the blue and starts swimming as fast as he can back to his mother’s kingdom.
In the distance, hidden amongst the shadows, a dark, leering titter sounds.
“Hurry home, Prince Charles. Before Mummy banishes you to me.”
“Mother, I’m sorry! I just--”
“You have embarrassed me, Charles! In front of our entire kingdom where everyone gathered to pay respects to your father! What do you have to say for yourself?”
Charlie falls quiet as both his mother and Youssef stare at him with the utmost disappointment. His mother’s right, he truly messed up this time. What in the ocean made him choose now to go above the blue? He looks down, ashamed.
“I’m sorry, Mother.”
“Your father would be very disappointed in you.”
He flinches at the cutting words but nods, trying to rid his eyes of the stinging sensation as it starts to grow. It’s silent for a moment, before his mother dismisses him and he turns away after bowing his top half. As he turns, he spots Tori and Olly watching from the side. Tori looks concerned, Olly looks confused. He stares at his siblings for a moment before turning away and swimming off.
Queen Jane sighs, turning to her royal advisor. “What am I going to do with that boy, Youssef?”
Youssef purses his lips and says. “You give the boy too much freedom, Your Majesty. He is only sixteen, he shouldn’t be allowed to have free reign of the entire ocean.”
Victoria, upon hearing the advisor’s words, frowns and swims forward before saying. “Mother, you rea--”
“I think you’re right, Youssef,” Queen Jane nods and turns to him. “Which is why I’m adding to your duties.”
“My duties?”
“Yes. You are to keep an eye on my son, make sure he is not getting into any mischief.”
Youssef squawks. “You’re making me a glorified guppy sitter?”
“Is that a problem?”
“No! Of course not, Your Majesty. I would be honoured,” he says, bowing his head before muttering. “Maybe this is why he acts out…”
“What was that?”
“Nothing, Your Majesty!”
Then, without another word exchanged, Youssef swims off to see where the little merman went. He sees Charles almost five minutes later with his two partners in crime, Elle and Tao. He frowns as he watches them talk in seemingly hushed tones and ducks behind some coral when the three of them look around, looking more and more suspicious by the second. Charles looks back at Tao and Elle.
“Come on, let’s go!”
Then he darts off, leaving Tao and Elle to look at each other, sigh and follow their best friend. As discreetly as he can, Youssef follows the trio through the currents, making sure that he’s far enough away that he’s not seen but not too far away that he loses sight of Elle’s lilac tail. Ten minutes later, the three young merpeople stop again and look around nervously beside a cave. Youssef hides again and watches as Charles leads his friends into the cave.
“Where’d you put the frozen life?” Charlie asks, as he stares around at his collection, grabbing his cotton net that’s still full.
Tao points. “Next to the one of that old lady.”
Charlie frowns at Tao. “She’s not an old lady! Remember, Isaac said she was once Queen of Truham, she was the grandmother of the princes and princess.”
Tao rolls his eyes. “You know I find it hard to completely trust Isaac.”
“Tao!” Elle exclaims.
“Isaac knows more about humans than all three of us combined,” Charlie says calmly, as he starts to organise his newly acquired thingamabobs. “Why would he lie?”
“I don’t think he’s lying, I just think he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
Now, it’s Charlie’s turn to roll his eyes. He strokes his fingers across his various gizmos, gadgets, whosits and whatsit, marvelling not for the first time at how magical the humans seem to be. He feels a wistful smile crawl across his face as he thinks about a life out of the blue; a life where he could feel the warmth of the sun on his skin for more than just a few minutes, where he could have feet and walk and dance. A life where he can talk to humans and get answers for the many, many questions he has.
A life where he could be free.
“Charlie?” Elle asks gently.
But Charlie doesn’t acknowledge her. Instead, he’s staring up at the top of the blue where it’s turning dark, a look of longing in his eyes. Elle looks at Tao and Tao sighs, nodding. With a smile, Elle swims over to Charlie and rests her hand on his arm. Charlie looks at her, the shine in his eyes dimming as he’s brought back into the ocean.
“Come on.”
Confusion crawls onto his face but he obliges as Elle gently pulls him with her when she swims up to above the blue. Again, he breathes in the wind as they float and his eyes widen when he sees the display before him.
“Wow…”
“Isaac mentioned the humans were celebrating on the sea tonight. It’s the prince and princess’ birthday,” she explains.
He barely hears her, too enamoured by the sight in front of him. It’s like one of the structures where he has found stuff for his collection but… it’s like it’s alive. There’s music and laughter and screams. It’s luring Charlie in, he has no choice but to swim up to it and peer through the holes that look into the structure.
All he sees at first are feet. They’re doing what Isaac calls stomping, as laughter sounds above them and Charlie allows his eyes to flicker up, his cheeks pinking immediately.
It’s him, the human prince. The one Charlie’s always had funny feelings in his stomach about. He’s even more handsome up close. His big, dark eyes crinkle with his smile, and his golden hair bounces as he moves to the music, laughing with a girl he’s holding hands with. The girl looks just like him; big dark eyes, golden hair and a radiant smile, giggling as the prince dances them around the structure.
“Nick!” she laughs. “Nicky!”
The prince laughs more as he spins her around, her light blue dress widening as she goes, and she ends up in another person’s arms. Everyone cheers as they kiss, the prince looking so happy for the girl, and the two giggle when they pull away, the person pulling the girl back into the crowd. Charlie watches as the prince stares after the couple before stepping out of the view of the hole. Before Charlie can follow him, some creature of brown and white with hair crawls over to Charlie, pointing its black nose at him before swiping its pink tongue across his face. Charlie giggles, reaching out to touch the creature, and it swipes its tongue across his face again.
Youssef, watching from afar, smiles at the little merman, decides he’s not causing that much harm and dives back into the ocean.
“Nellie!” a deep voice calls. “Come here! What’re you investigating, huh?”
Charlie ducks down as the prince comes back, burying his hands in the creature’s hair, and he peers up carefully. The prince can’t see him but he can count each and every mark that dots the prince’s face, as he talks nonsense to the creature. The creature makes a noise - a loud, unfamiliar one - and it makes Charlie and his friends jump. The girl from before laughs.
“Nellie, girl! Come here before you fall off!”
The creature turns at the voice and bounces off, causing more laughter.
“She loves me more than you, Nick!”
“We’ve always known that, Emmy!” the prince calls back, happiness ringing through his voice.
Charlie waits for the prince’s feet to move but they never do. Bravely, he looks up and spots him watching the ocean as he leans against the side of the structure. His golden hair flutters in the night’s breeze and there’s something about him that captivates Charlie. There’s more than funny feelings in his stomach now, there’s something calling, pulling him towards the human prince. He edges closer, ignoring Tao’s voice telling him not to, and he goes to touch the prince’s foot when there’s a loud bang and terrified screams.
Elle drags both Tao and Charlie away as chaos ensues and Charlie watches, horrified, as the structure starts to glow orange like fire. Smaller structures are thrown onto the blue and people start climbing into them. The girl, trapped in her partner’s arms, looks around frantically.
“Nick!” she screams. “Nick!”
“Emma!” the prince shouts back from a nearby small structure and the girl looks around for him. “Emma, I’m here!”
Charlie sees her relax momentarily before she screams again. “Nellie!”
Then Charlie hears it. Amongst the chaos, screams and calls, the creature is making that loud noise and it’s coming from the large structure.
“Charlie!” Elle yells. “Charlie, we have to go!”
“Nick, no!”
Charlie watches in even more horror at the sight of the prince jumping back onto the burning structure, scooping the creature into his arms and throwing it to the girl.
“Nells, come here, you’re okay,” she tells it with a wobbling voice, smiling as the creature swipes its tongue on her face. “Nick, get off quick, it’s going to sink!”
“I’m coming!”
But, before the prince can jump, there’s another loud bang and everyone screams. Elle drags Charlie and Tao under the blue just as the girl starts scream-sobbing, fighting against her partner’s restraints. Elle manages to pull Charlie and Tao far enough away that the structure completely misses them but she doesn’t stop there, continuing to drag the mermen towards the safety of Atlantica. Charlie looks over his shoulder and freezes when he sees the human prince falling to the bottom of the ocean. His eyes are closed and he’s not swimming, just falling.
Charlie has to do something. So he tears himself out of Elle’s grasp and swims as fast as he can towards the prince.
“Charlie!”
He ignores Elle and stretches his arms out to wrap them around the prince’s waist. He’s heavy but Charlie persists, using all of his strength to pull the prince with him. After a few minutes, he approaches the shore of the kingdom and he lays the prince on the beige, panting. The dark sky and moonlight make him look ethereal, his skin more beautiful than before, the marks on his face looking like what Isaac once called the dots in the sky ‘consolations’.
With no-one around - no humans, no Elle or Tao, no Mother or Tori - Charlie’s able to take in the prince fully, reaching his hand out to touch his skin. He starts humming as he caresses the prince’s cheek, finding himself unable to tear himself away.
His skin’s soft. It’s nice.
He moves so he can brush the prince’s hair out of his eyes and his hums start to turn into words; the words of a nighttime lullaby his father used to sing to him and Tori. To this day, Charlie believes it holds a certain type of magic, one that ensures healing, and he always sings it to Olly whenever he needs it.
He keeps singing, resting his hand on the prince, until the sky goes from a dark blue to a beautiful mix of pink and orange. The waves calmly splash against both of them and Charlie refuses to entertain the thought of having to leave him. But he knows that his mother’s rage against humans isn’t completely unwarranted and that he should return home before he’s seen.
But not yet. Not yet…
He sings more, going back to caressing the prince’s cheek. After a few more minutes, when the orange and pink start to turn to a light blue and the sun starts shining, the prince’s face moves and his head shifts. His eyes start to squeeze shut before they flutter open and Charlie’s eyes are suddenly confronted with the dark brown ones of the prince. His heart thuds and thuds. He finishes the lullaby one last time and smiles a little at the prince’s lips curling before he hears a group shouting nearby. The prince rests his head back on the sand and Charlie knows he has to escape. So, with a final look at the prince, Charlie dives back into the blue and watches behind a rock as the group he heard shouting gathers around the prince. They help him back to his feet and talk about ‘getting him back to the castle’ before disappearing into the large rocks.
Charlie falls back into the blue.
Charlie’s acting weird.
Tori knows her brother was never a typical merman. She knows about his weird fascination with the human world; he’s had it since before Father’s death. In fact, Father was the one who taught him all about the human world and sparked his desire to know everything about it, even if Tao was the one who took him to the surface for the first time. She knows, and she dutifully hides it from Mother, because she’d have Charlie’s head if she knew this is what her son does with his spare time.
But this, this, is different.
He’s… effortless. Effortless in a way he’s never been before. He’s humming around the castle with a lazy smile on his face and an odd daze in his eyes. She and Michael watch him as he interacts with Olly with more gentleness than he has in a while, which is saying something. Michael seems to be deducing everything with a thoughtful look on his face. Tori looks at him.
“Oh, hi, Mother!” Charlie says cheerfully as Mother enters their space to retrieve Olly for something and kisses her cheek. “Wonderful day, isn’t it?”
Then he swims off, still humming, and Tori and their mother look at each other, utterly bewildered. Mother watches after her son.
“What is going on with that boy?” she asks.
It’s clear that the question wasn’t one that was begging for an answer but Michael, in true Michael fashion, speaks up with his thoughts.
“I think he’s in love.”
Mother freezes at those five words and Tori waits for the outburst. But it doesn’t come. Instead, she’s watching as Charlie’s fin disappears from sight in the distance and her face also turns thoughtful.
“My son, in love…”
Tao and Elle are already in his collection cave when Charlie gets there. They’re sitting beside the row of frozen life squares, talking, as Charlie goes around the many shelves to check on his gadgets and gizmos, his whosits and whatsits and thingamabobs, smiling as he remembers his adventures in getting them. He sees Elle watching him with a soft, sweet smile; it makes him happier than he can put in proper words that he has these types of people around him. The kind of people who don’t squash his interests or tell him to not be so obsessed with the frivolities, like his mother does. Elle has always been the more supportive one. Tao’s apprehensive - not because he wants Charlie to be this perfect prince, he’s just scared of his best friend getting hurt. Charlie can’t really be mad at that, even if it’s annoying.
He swims over to Elle and Tao, taking a seat between them next to the frozen life of the prince’s grandmother. He looks up at it and reaches out to stroke the Queen’s face, realising just how much the prince looks like her. They even have the same smile.
“Charlie?” Elle starts softly. “Where did you go with that human last night?”
He smiles instinctively. “Wasn’t he beautiful?”
“Charlie?” Elle repeats.
“I took him back to the kingdom. I couldn’t leave him there, it was so cold and he wasn’t waking up so I wanted to stay with him, at least until the morning. I sang to him. I think he liked it.”
Then he swims off to just float around the cave, his gaze set upon the spot where the blue turns into the surface. He knows his face must look ridiculous. He can’t find it in him to care.
“You know nothing can happen,” Tao says and squawks when Elle hits him. “It’s true! He’s a human, they hate mermaids!”
“I can dream,” Charlie replies.
And dream he does. He thinks about his song staying with the prince, running round and round his head like a whirlpool. He thinks about the prince memorising his face and stopping at nothing to reunite. Their hands clasped together, dancing with feet to upbeat music, that beautiful smile on his consolation dotted face.
Oh, how he’d do anything to have that be true.
Queen Jane sits on her throne, her chin resting on her palm, as she waits for Youssef. She needs to see if he knows anything about the boy Michael thinks her son is in love with. Surely, considering he’s tasked with following Charles around, he’ll know something.
A few moments later, Youssef comes swimming into view. There’s a look on his face that looks like conflict and Queen Jane takes that as confirmation that her son’s heart has indeed been taken by a fellow merman. She can’t help but smile.
“Your Majesty,” he greets, bowing his top half.
“Youssef,” she replies, nodding. “Is there something you wish to inform me about?”
The advisor freezes momentarily. The conflict on his face grows. He stammers.
“I-I don’t know what you mean, Your Majesty.”
“You mean, you haven’t noticed anything about my son during your new duties? Something that, maybe, is pulling his head out of the blue and into the clouds?”
She doesn’t think much of how panicked Youssef looks. He’s always been loyal, gaining the trust of all of the Royal Family members by keeping their secrets until they feel safe to reveal them in their own time. Youssef is good like that.
But then Youssef breaks.
“It started harmless, Your Majesty!” he cries. “He and his friends were at the surface, just watching a ship display! It was quite magnificent. So I left them to it. But then there was an explosion of sorts, the ship started to sink and the human prince fell into the sea, Charles saved him but was gone until morning! I tried to stop him!”
The surface. Ship. Human. The surface. Ship. Human. The surface. Ship. Human.
“CHARLES!”
Charlie is beaming as he shows Elle an aspect of his collection - his many, many direction-showers. He shows her how Isaac told her that the red part shows where to go and she looks fascinated by it all.
“Most things don’t work in the water but this does!” he explains excitedly.
“But how does it work?” she asks. “I don’t understand.”
Charlie shrugs. “Isaac says it’s one of the humans’ biggest mysteries.”
“Huh… Could I keep one?”
Charlie feels his happiness bubble up inside him and he nods, turning to his box of direction-showers. He picks one up, it’s bronze and circular with a detailed design of a flower on the back, and he decides it’s perfect for his best friend. She grins as he passes it to her.
“Oh, it’s beautiful! Thank you!”
Then she looks up and something behind Charlie causes her face to drop. Charlie looks and then he freezes. His mother’s here, glaring at him and his entire collection. Her chest is heaving in a way that he knows he’s in deep, deep trouble.
“What is all this?” she snarls.
Charlie stammers. “Mo-Mother, I--”
“I forbade you to go to the surface years ago! How dare you disobey me!”
“But, Mother, the world above the blue isn’t dangerous!” he tries to say with a steady voice. “It’s beautiful and interesting and-and-and wonderful! The humans, they--”
“The humans are savages!”
“They are not!” Charlie argues. “Mother, I even found one that I’m in love with, he’s amazing, you don’t underst--”
“You’re sixteen, you have no idea what love is! And this, all of this, must come to an end! Now!”
“No!” he cries. “Please, no, this is mine, I found them!”
But Mother doesn’t listen. It’s when the first beam hits a shelf of the frozen life squares and destroys them that he realises she has his father’s old trident. He cries out, begging her to stop, but she still doesn’t listen. Beam after beam, his collection turns into a black sand, tossed around the blue, until Charlie is left in the barren cave with stinging eyes. He stares up at Mother.
“No more,” she spits then leaves.
Charlie sinks to the beige, curling up. Tao and Elle go to join him but, when he flinches, Elle turns to Tao.
“Let’s give him some space.”
Tao nods and leaves the cave silently. Elle lingers for a moment, threading her fingers through his hair.
“We’ll be by the coral forest if you want to come find us.”
Charlie doesn’t reply and Elle nods, removing her hand from his hair and swimming off. A whimper leaves Charlie’s lips when he’s finally alone and he feels as if he’ll never understand why his mother hates humans so much. They’re really not as bad as she says.
He’s not sure how long he’s curled up on the beige but, soon, everything turns dark so he figures he should go seek out his best friends so he can apologise. However, when he looks up to see the moon, he realises it’s not yet dark out at all. No, whatever’s causing the darkness is circling the hole at the top of his cave and he pushes himself off the beige cautiously.
“Look at the poor little merman…” it drawls. “All sad and alone.”
“Misunderstood…” another voice says. “If only there was a solution…”
“Who are you?” Charlie calls out with a still-wobbling voice. “What do you want?”
“We want to help you…” the first voice tells him.
“We know a place where all of your dreams can come true,” the second voice follows.
He stops momentarily, taking in the words. There’s a way he can live above the surface?
“Who are you?” he asks again, as the shadows come closer.
Coming into the light are two sleek, iridescent eels, each with a glowing yellow eye. Their mouths move to form the best smirks they can and Charlie grows even more cautious. Why does he feel like he knows them?
“The name’s Harry,” the one on the left, the owner of the first voice, says.
“And I’m Kieran… we were told to come find you, that you needed help.”
“By who?”
The words get hissed out from Harry and Charlie feels his heart start to thud.
“The Siren.”
He’s heard of the Siren. Once a loved member of Atlantica, someone who was charming and considered beautiful and good by all, banished shortly before the king’s death for reasons no-one knows to this day. The banishment was for eternity - and Charlie’s father was a fair man - so whatever happened was clearly no small matter. Since then, the Siren has been used as a threat, as an example of a social pariah. Even asking about the Siren was frowned upon amongst the merpeople.
“No, I can’t,” he says, shaking his head.
Harry bares his teeth. “You ought not to believe the rumours. The Siren bears no ill will, only wishes to help the poor unfortunate souls of Atlantica.”
“Rarely seeks them out…” Kieran continues. “Usually, the merfolk go there for help… you’re something special, little prince.”
“The Siren’s been watching me?”
“Knows you’re stuck. Knows you’d rather live a different life.”
Harry’s yellow eye gleams briefly. “The Siren wants to help. Before it’s too late.”
Charlie’s head feels busy all of the sudden. He almost can’t make sense of his surroundings. But one thing shines out to him. He can be human. He can live above the blue, feel the sun on his body, find answers for everything he wants to know, find the prince.
And all it takes is a visit to the Siren.
“Take me to the Siren.”
The eels share a look before swimming away and Charlie wastes no opportunity to follow, making sure he doesn’t lose sight of them. They’re incredibly fast, though, so it’s taking all of his focus. He shoots past the coral forest and just as he’s about to lose their track, he notes that the beige seems to be descending more and more as he swims to follow Harry and Kieran. Before long, he’s faced with a different cave that has purple glowing lines of bioluminescent algae trailing across it. The eels stop and wait for him to go in. Caution takes over again but he pushes himself to swim further in.
This is the only way he’ll get what he truly wants.
As he starts swimming into the dark yet glowing cave, Harry and Kieran trail behind him in a way that blocks the entrance and the cave quickly becomes eerie. There’s a hum that echoes but it’s chilling, nothing like the merfolk song Charlie’s grown up around. As he scopes out the place, he sees jars everywhere, neatly dotted on shelves not unlike his own cave before Mother destroyed it. But in these jars… it’s peculiar, most of them seem to have eyes and if eyes could scream, Charlie feels like they would be. No, he needs to push these feelings away. The Siren wants to help.
“My minions…” a dark, depraved voice pipes up from the depths of the cave. “You’ve returned.”
“Yes, sir,” Harry hisses. “And we have a friend for you.”
The humming stops and Charlie watches as the Siren swims up to him, fighting the urge to let his fear show on his face. The threats about the Siren were not unwarranted. The creature is terrifying, all sharp features and fierce angles. The skin is nearly transparent from the years of banishment. Pointed teeth hidden behind thin lips and a permanent snarl make up the face. Charlie swallows as the Siren titters. It’s an awful noise.
“The little prince,” the Siren murmurs. “Well done, my minions. Go pick out a treat for your feast. Leave us.”
Somehow cackling, the eels dart off to the back of the cave and the Siren stays staring at Charlie, reaching a hand with claws instead of fingers up to stroke Charlie’s face. Charlie tries not to tense up.
“Come now, little prince, there’s no need to be afraid.”
“My name’s Charlie,” he barely gets out.
The Siren’s lips curl up into a horrible smile, showing off those pointed teeth, and he chuckles darkly. “First name basis, huh? Very well. You may call me Ben.”
Charlie nods. His eyes dart back to the way he swam, seeing if he can escape if he needs to, but he seems to be blocked in now. The only way he could possibly get out is through the top. He swallows again.
“I’ve been watching you,” Ben says.“You have a certain affection for the human world, correct? One that no-one else quite understands?”
“Yes,” Charlie says quietly.
“And it’s such a tragedy that no-one sees the beauty like you and I do.”
Charlie feels himself start to relax the more Ben speaks. He’s seen the human world. He understands why Charlie’s so taken by it.
“It’s so beautiful, isn’t it? Oh, what one would give to live up there for good,” Ben continues and smirks more as Charlie’s eyes widen. “I can make it happen.”
“You can really make me human?” he asks and Ben nods.
“Not for nothing, of course. A banished siren has to make do with what he can, doesn’t he?”
“I have gold,” Charlie starts but Ben shakes his head.
“I have no need for such material. No, we sirens live off our abilities and I am the last of my kind. My banishment has weakened me so greatly, that even my voice isn’t what it used to be.”
Charlie frowns, trying to puzzle through the words.
“So here’s what we’ll do,” Ben explains. “After I turn you human, you’ll have three sunsets. In that time, you must find your true love and earn that love back, seal it with a kiss. If you fail, you’ll turn back into a merman and you’ll be bound to me forever.”
Charlie nods. “What do you want in return?”
Ben smirks as he starts grabbing the jars that don’t have any eyes in them and sprinkles a bit of each into the bowl taking up most of the cave.
“As I said, my voice has greatly suffered due to the banishment. I want to recover it,” he says. “And to do that… I need your voice.”
Instinctively, Charlie reaches up to touch his throat and Ben nods.
“But… why?”
Ben waves him off. “Unimportant.”
“How am I supposed to find my true love if I lose my voice?”
The Siren scoffs. “Humans are easy creatures. You’re a good-looking boy, it won’t be hard for someone to fall for you. Just bat your bright eyes and show off those dimples and you’ll have people begging for your attention.”
As he speaks, Ben curls his hand around Charlie’s chin and Charlie stares at him with wide eyes, swallowing for a third time.
“Do we have a deal, little prince?”
“I…” he starts. “I’ll never see my family or best friends again?”
“No, you won’t. It’s a tough choice, isn’t it? But do you want to spend the rest of your days being belittled for every little thing you do? Or do you want to be free?”
He’s always wanted to be free, to see everything. This is his chance.
“Yes. Turn me into a human.”
Ben’s lips curl up into an even more horrible smile and he goes back to his concoction, slicing a yellow scale from Charlie’s tail as he goes. Charlie winces when he does but watches in awe as Ben does whatever he’s doing because it looks so complicated but he does it like it’s as easy as swimming, chanting something in the old siren language. The concoction gleams a light green and Ben reaches behind him to grab a gold clam on a chain.
“One final step,” he says. “Sing.”
After one beat of hesitation, Charlie opens his mouth and starts vocalising the lullaby from before. It’s a weird sensation, losing his voice. It’s like an invisible hand is clawing its way into Charlie’s throat to grab it and pull it out. It’s still harmonising when it leaves his mouth and it glows in the dark cave before Ben captures it in the gold clam. Laughing, Ben chants one last word in the siren language and everything goes black.
The sun’s bright in his eyes when Charlie wakes up. It’s warm and he feels weird. He tries to flick his tail but it’s not there. He looks around once he gets adjusted to the brightness and the first thing he notices is his movement is more free, less heavy. He reaches up to rub his eyes and then looks down as he pushes himself up to sit, freezing when he sees why his tail’s gone. Because it’s been replaced with legs. Legs and feet with ten toes. Where his tail would start is a white cloth tied around him and he looks at it oddly.
“Humans hide their private parts with clothes,” he hears Youssef’s voice say and he jumps, looking around.
He’s on the shore of Truham, near where he’d saved the prince. The waves lap at his feet and, just beyond there, Tao, Elle and Youssef are all staring at him. Youssef is the least impressed-looking but Elle’s not far behind.
“You went to the Siren?!” Youssef hisses.
Charlie smiles sheepishly and goes to speak and defend himself but remembers when no sounds come out, touching his throat.
“He took your voice? No, no, no, this is bad. You are coming with me right now, young man!”
Charlie crosses his arms petulantly and doesn’t move. Youssef scowls at him.
“Your mother will have my head if she finds out!”
“Which is why she won’t be finding out!” Elle, surprisingly, shoots at him before turning to Charlie. “Charlie, why did you do this? There are better ways to achieve your dreams.”
Charlie frowns, gesturing to the sea. Tao shrugs.
“He’s not wrong.”
“Never mind that, we have to fix this!” Youssef continues snappishly. “We are getting you turned ba--”
“Hey!” Isaac interrupts, swooping down and standing on Charlie’s bent legs. “Back already, Charlie?”
Charlie smiles in relief. Finally, someone who isn’t annoyed at him right now.
“Hm, there’s something different about you…” he continues. “Have you been using the dinglehopper? Your hair looks different!”
Charlie grins. Oh, how Isaac never fails to make him smile.
Youssef mutters to himself before bursting out. “He has legs, birdbrain!”
“Oh, come on, the boy can speak for himself!” Isaac exclaims.
“Um, actually, he can’t,” Tao says.
“He was talking fine yesterday!”
“Yes, that was before he made a deal with the Siren,” Youssef spits.
Isaac looks at Charlie curiously. “You traded your voice to be human?”
Charlie nods.
“Could’ve been worse,” he says and looks at Youssef when he makes an affronted noise. “What? It’s true!”
“Well, we have to fix it!”
Before anyone else can interject, there’s a familiar loud noise and Charlie perks up when he recognises it. Youssef, Tao and Elle disappear below the blue as the creature from the previous night, the brown and white one, bounces into view and the prince, the human prince Charlie saved, walks behind, smiling. Isaac squawks and flies off and Charlie tries to stand for the first time. It’s a weird experience and he feels himself collide with the ground, pain shooting through him briefly. The creature makes the noise again and, suddenly, swipes its tongue so furiously that it ends up pinning him to the ground.
“Oh, Nellie! Off!” the prince says sharply, pulling the creature away from Charlie. “I am so sorry, she just loves people. Are you okay?”
Charlie looks up at him and his heart speeds up. Staring down at him with a frown and an air of concern is the prince. His dark eyes are gazing at him, glittering a kind of gold in the sunlight, and Charlie can’t look away from him. He holds out a hand and Charlie tentatively reaches out to touch him, gasping at how warm he is. He swallows and allows the prince to wrap his fingers around his own and pull him up back onto his feet.
“Whoa, careful,” he says as Charlie almost hits the ground again. “You okay?”
He reaches for Charlie’s other hand and holds them tight enough that Charlie no longer feels wobbly. He can’t tear his gaze away from the prince as those brown eyes flicker all over his face and body. His new body.
“Sea legs, huh?” the prince says, a lilt of amusement in his voice. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you upright. Do you know where you are?”
Charlie opens his mouth to try and speak but quickly remembers that he has no voice. The prince frowns and looks around.
“Were you in a shipwreck?” he asks and Charlie also looks around for anything that makes the prince think that. “I’ll ask Mrs. Singh if she knows anything. Come on, let me take you back to the castle, you must be freezing.”
Wanting to take every opportunity to spend time with the prince, Charlie nods and the prince smiles.
“Okay. I won’t let you go either so don’t worry about falling over. Nellie, come!”
As they start walking, Charlie looks back at the blue and catches the gazes of Youssef, Elle and Tao. Youssef is still frowning at him with his arms folded over his chest. Elle and Tao just look anxious with every step Charlie takes away from them.
“How is he?”
A sigh. “Prince Nicholas, as much as I appreciate the concern you have for the lad, I’ve had him in my care for two minutes and you’ve been here for the entirety of that. He’ll be fine, I promise you.”
“But--”
“Do I need to call for your sister, sire?”
Charlie watches from the bowl of water he’s been put in as the prince and a man he called Nathan talk by the door. The prince, Nicholas apparently, looks nervous as he looks over at Charlie. He has had that face on him since he realised that Charlie truly has an inability to speak.
“But what if he’s hurt and he can’t--”
“Sire,” Nathan cuts him off with a very patient voice, holding his hands up. “I’m sure he’s just in shock. His voice will come back soon. And, in the meantime, I will be careful with him. Ah, Princess Emméline. I was just going to call for you.”
The girl from last night steps into view, looking more regal than she did on the structure, and she bows her head to Nathan.
“Is my brother being a pain again?” she says. “You know how dramatic he gets when he’s recovering.”
“I’m just--” Nicholas starts then sighs. “I found him on the beach. Looks like he was washed ashore.”
“Shipwreck?”
“I think so. But there was no debris around him. It was just him.”
“But I thought we were the only ship out on the water last night. And how come he was only found this afternoon if there was another shipwreck?”
There’s a weird feeling on his back out of nowhere, like something rough like coral is being dragged up and down it, and the water splashes around him as he jumps at the sensation. The feeling immediately stops.
“I’m so sorry, I should’ve warned you,” says another girl, her big blue eyes screaming an apology, as she holds a stick with some hair on it.
“Imogen, why don’t you go with Nicholas and find our new guest some clothes? Let Chef know that we have an extra mouth too. Poor boy must be starving.”
Imogen looks at Nathan and nods, placing the stick down before walking towards Nicholas and Emméline. Emméline smiles at Imogen and stares pointedly at Nicholas before he sighs again. He looks at Charlie.
“Nathan’ll look after you. I promise.”
Charlie smiles and nods, which makes Nicholas smile too, and he watches him walk away with the two girls. Nathan shuts the door and looks at Charlie before walking over to him.
“Right, sir, let’s get you clean and dried and see if we can’t do something with your hair. Looks like you’ve been under the sea your whole life.”
Charlie freezes. Does Nathan know that Charlie’s a merman? He can’t, Charlie’s never seen this man in his life. When he flickers his gaze over to look at Nathan, the man looks nonchalant as he strokes a slippery block of something delicious-smelling down his arm and Charlie wonders if it’s just something humans say. Considering he can’t exactly ask any questions, he looks around the room, curiosity filling him. There’s so much out here and he wants to inspect it all, feel the edges of the shiny walls, gaze upon the frozen life squares that hang in the corridors, feel the weird shape on the floor that looks like it’s made of the same stuff as the creature Nicholas called Nellie. He wants to see everything there is to see because he can now. There’s nothing stopping him.
Well, there is the man that’s cleaning him. But he seems harmless. Charlie likes his smile. He trusts him.
“Must’ve been some adventure for you, huh?” Nathan starts as he splashes water against Charlie’s skin to wash away the small bubbles, causing Charlie to look at him. “To end up on our shore with nobody else. I wonder how far you are from home.”
Charlie stares at how gentle Nathan’s hands are and a small smile ends up on his lips. Yeah, he likes Nathan.
It’s not long before Imogen comes back with a small pile of clothes and her smile is radiant, infectious. Nathan smiles too.
“You managed to keep Prince Nicholas occupied?”
Imogen scoffs, putting the clothes down and picking up a big, soft-looking light blue rectangle. “That’ll be Princess Emméline and Noble Darcy’s doing. They’re off playing with Nellie.”
Nathan nods and offers his hands out for Charlie to take.
“Did you use the same thing on his curls as I do for mine?” Imogen asks as Charlie takes Nathan’s hands and Nathan pulls him onto his feet. “They’re so much better already.”
“Took a few applications but yes. Worked like a dream,” Nathan replies, reaching for one edge of the rectangle from Imogen. “Thank you for letting me use it. Show me where you buy it?”
“Of course.”
After the rectangle is wrapped and tied around his waist like the cloth was earlier, Nathan helps Charlie out of the bowl and sits him on a squishy-feeling chair in front of a hole in the wall that’s glowing orange and blowing warmth at him. He stares at it with wide eyes. Though the urge to touch it is niggling inside him, something tells him to keep his hands to himself so he feels the rectangle he’s wrapped in instead. He was right, it’s soft. He smiles again. He likes it here. Mother was completely wrong.
That isn’t really a surprise though.
“Imogen, love, get Hannah to help you empty the tub.”
“Yes, Nathan.”
Then Nathan sits on the floor beside Charlie’s legs with a smaller soft rectangle and starts rubbing it against him, getting rid of the water. Charlie watches him. Nathan peers up at him.
“You’re safe here, sir,” he says.
Charlie believes him.
Charlie holds onto the doorknob when he enters the room he presumes is the one Nathan told him about, watching Nicholas, Emméline and a third person, who must be Emméline’s partner by the way Emméline’s holding their hand, as they sit around a long table. He smiles at the laughter and tentatively steps into the room. He’s still getting used to walking but the concept is planting itself in his head and he’s not as wobbly as he was before. As he watches his feet that have shoes on, he hears the chatter stop and he looks up, freezing when he sees all of them, including Nellie, who he didn’t realise was also in the room, watching him. Nicholas smiles widely.
“Hey!” he says brightly. “You getting around okay?”
Smiling too, Charlie nods and bends down to run his fingers through Nellie’s hair when she walks over to greet him. There’s the distinct sound of a throat being cleared and he looks back up. Nicholas’ cheeks are pink and he stammers.
“Right, um…” he starts and looks at his companions. “This is my sister, Emma, and her partner, Darcy.”
Charlie stands and bows his top half at them. Emma giggles.
“You don’t need to do that here. We’re all friends here, right?” she proclaims and Darcy looks at her, offended.
“Us, just friends, Emmypoo? You wound me!”
Emma rolls her eyes, which tells Charlie that Darcy’s offence wasn’t real. Darcy’s just dramatic. Much like Tao.
“Don’t mind Darcy,” Emma tells him. “They just like to mess with me.”
“Because it’s just so fun! You turn all cute and flustered!”
Charlie’s shoulders shake with his silent laughter and, somehow, Nicholas’ smile grows even wider.
“Come sit!” he beckons.
“Nick says you can’t talk,” Darcy points out abruptly as Charlie sits opposite them. “Can you ever talk or…?”
“Darcy!” Emma admonishes.
“I told you, Nathan says it’s likely shock. He can talk otherwise… right?” Nick asks, looking at Charlie.
Charlie nods and holds up three fingers with one hand while pointing at the setting sun. All three of them gaze at where he’s pointing before looking back at him.
“Three sunsets?” Nick says and Charlie nods. “Before you can talk again?”
He nods again.
“That’s oddly specific,” Darcy muses.
Charlie shrugs. Nick opens his mouth again to speak but is cut off when a new set of footsteps echo into the room and all four of them look to greet the new person. A woman of a short stature and an air of importance in a clean, fancy outfit stands in the doorway with her hands folded behind her back. Charlie straightens his posture instinctively.
“Mrs. Singh!” Darcy exclaims.
Mrs. Singh sighs exasperatedly. “Noble Darcy. Prince Nicholas, Princess Emméline. Your mother is requesting your presences for dinner. Will our guest be joining us?”
All eyes fall onto Charlie and he stares back with wide eyes, feeling for the first time a bit anxious.. What do humans even eat?
“If Mother’s okay with it, Mrs. Singh,” Nick says.
“She was the one inquiring.”
“Imogen already informed Chef that we have a guest,” Emma explains and Mrs. Singh nods. “She says that Chef has it under control.”
“Very well. Your mother will not be attending dinner tonight but expect her at breakfast tomorrow.”
The three nod in acknowledgement so Charlie does too. That’s what he’s supposed to do, right?
“Thank you, Mrs. Singh,” Nick says.
Mrs. Singh nods too and bows her head to leave when Emma pipes up.
“My apologies, Mrs. Singh. Is there any chance you could organise a carriage for Darcy and myself? We want to go visit the markets in the village tomorrow.”
“Of course, Princess. I’ll be sure to get one set up for you after breakfast.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Singh.”
Mrs. Singh bows her head again and leaves just as a group of humans dressed weirdly like penguins enter with trays. The others reach for the white squares that lay on the table in front of them and Charlie watches as they do something to make the squares bigger and sets them over their legs. He copies.
“Nick, you should come with and bring your new friend!” Darcy suggests. “Show him around the kingdom.”
“Oh, that’d be wonderful!” Emma gasps as the trays are set in front of each of them.
Nick says something but Charlie doesn’t hear it because, next to two other peculiar human tools, there’s a dinglehopper. He can show off his human knowledge! Excitedly, he picks up the dinglehopper and pushes it into his hair, twisting it a little to try and turn his hair into something different. But then he realises the conversation has gone away and he looks around to see Nick, Emma and Darcy all staring at him, bewildered. He freezes and slowly pulls the dinglehopper out of his hair, placing it back on the tray. Darcy’s gaze turns away from him and onto their own dinglehopper with a thoughtful gleam and they shrug, picking it up.
“I like your thinking,” they say as they run it through their own hair and Charlie smiles widely.
Emma chuckles. “Please don’t tell me you’re going to eat with that now.”
“Why not? It’s only been in my hair!”
Charlie watches the couple’s playful squabble with a smile on his face. They remind him of Elle and Tao. He thinks they’d get along with Emma and Darcy if they could be here too. But they can’t. They’re out in the blue.
Charlie misses them.
A tap on his pinky brings Charlie back into the room and Emma and Darcy are still squabbling but Nick’s smiling at him. Charlie can’t help but smile too.
“So… what do you say to a trip around the kingdom tomorrow?”
Charlie decides that he loves the sun. Although Nathan slathered something on his body when he helped him dress this morning because ‘the sun here is brutal’, it’s magically seeped into his skin and there’s almost no residue. All he feels is a comforting warmth that he’s never known before and he wants to stay in it for the rest of his life.
After having breakfast with Nick, Emma, Darcy and the queen, who’s taken an immediate liking to Charlie upon meeting, Charlie follows Nick through the corridors of the castle and looks around at the decor in utter awe as Nick talks.
“I should like to see your home one day. See if we’re neighbours.”
Despite his heart dropping because he knows the truth, Charlie smiles brightly and nods. He’d love to introduce Nick to his home, to Atlantica, but Nick would never be welcome. He’s a human. Charlie might not know much but he does know that his lifelong curiosity with the humans is very much a rarity below the blue. Though, the more time he spends with humans, he fails to see why. They’re not much different to mermaids and they’re much more fascinating.
“I wish you could tell me about your home,” Nick says. “Someone as beautiful as you must come from a place that’s just as beautiful.”
Charlie ducks his head to hide his blush, which makes Nick chuckle, and he continues to follow Nick as they start to descend the concrete steps that lead out of the castle and into an area of intriguing smells and loud chatter. There are two elegant-looking boxes on spinny doo-da’ds sat in the middle of the area. Attached to them are creatures that he’s seen in a frozen life or two in the castle. Nathan showed him, horses he thinks they’re called. They’re as white as pearls and gorgeous, as regal-looking as Emma looks right now in her long light purple dress and hair pulled back in a bun. She and Darcy are sat in the box on the left, Darcy holding Emma’s hand in their lap, and they both smile widely at the arrival of the boys.
“What took you so long?” Darcy whines, watching Nick climb into the empty box before he reaches out for Charlie’s hand.
“I thought I’d take him through the castle slowly. Nathan said he was quite taken by the art pieces we have.”
Emma smiles as Charlie is gently pulled into the box by Nick. “They are beautiful, aren’t they? Most of them were painted by a talented young woman in the village called Naomi.”
Charlie’s eyes gleam. So a frozen life is like music, made by skilled hands and talent. It’s incredible.
It’s a weird feeling, being in a moving elegant-looking box. He’s watching the world go by, scenery changing from large stone walls to a beautiful vision of the sun sparkling on the sea, but he’s not moving at all. Wind blows through his hair as they venture through the streets of the land kingdom and his smile stays on his face. He catches Nick staring at him every so often and he blushes again. Charlie thinks Nick might just be the best part of being above the blue.
If only he can just get a kiss from him.
Below the blue can be colourful. When schools of fish swim around Atlantica and their scales reflect, it can display a wonderful show of pinks and oranges and silver. Charlie knows colour. But the ocean doesn’t have colour like the humans do.
The kingdom is bathed in colour, song and chatter. Nick keeps his hand in Charlie’s, after muttering something about ‘don’t wanna lose you in the crowds’, and he smiles widely at everyone who greets him. He bends down to talk to little kids, always entrapped in the conversation, and he nods along to every word anyone says to him so that they know he’s truly listening. Charlie watches each and every interaction with a thudding heart, finding himself adoring the prince more and more with every passing second.
And then they dance in the orange light of the setting sun. There’s a group plucking strings and blowing into weird shapes with holes in them to make music and Darcy doesn’t hesitate to pull a giggling Emma near the group to dance, spinning her around and kissing her deeply. Nick watches with a smile. So does Charlie. Then Nick holds his hand out to Charlie and Charlie takes it, smiling wider when Nick pulls him into the quickly-growing crowd. The melody rings in Charlie’s ears gloriously as Nick leads him in a dance, prancing across the paved ground, and he knows he’s not going to forget this in a hurry.
Charlie wobbles as he feels one of his shoes catching on something and he falls forwards. Nick’s quick to make sure he doesn’t hit the ground, holding him in a way that has him colliding with Nick’s chest instead, and Charlie looks up at him. He smiles. Nick smiles back. But there’s something in his eyes. He’s looking at Charlie in the same way Tao looks at Elle sometimes and that makes his heart speed up even more. Nick starts to lean down. Charlie leans up and closes his eyes.
Then cheers erupt. Nick and Charlie jump apart, cheeks pink. Nick reaches up to scratch the back of his neck and joins the applause for the music-playing group. Charlie follows, trying to squash the disappointment in him.
Emma and Darcy go back to the castle but Nick and Charlie hover with uncertainty, not wanting the day to end once the sky turns black.. Nick tells Charlie about a hidden lagoon and asks if he wants to go on a boat ride. Now knowing that a boat is the smaller version of a ship, which are the structures that he found most of his collection in, Charlie nods enthusiastically and follows Nick down a long expanse of steps and streets.
It doesn’t take long for them to reach the lagoon. It’s hidden by a curtain of green that Nick carefully brushes aside and Charlie feels his breath get caught in his throat when he’s faced with the view. The moon is glittering against the dark surface and birdsong mixes with the wind. Charlie stares at it in awe.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Nick says. “Emmy discovered it after our father’s death. We come here a lot but no-one else knows it exists. Well, except Darcy. And now… you.”
Charlie looks at him, touched that Nick wanted to show him a place that’s so special to him. He rests his hand on Nick’s arm and squeezes. Nick smiles again.
“Now, I seem to remember promising you a boat ride. Let me push the boat into the water.”
Nodding, Charlie drops his hand and lets Nick step away from him. He bends down to inspect a green circle with a sweet white flower on it that floats on the surface of the water and jolts when he sees three sets of eyes looking at him through the water.
“Charlie!” Tao exclaims as he, Elle and Youssef pop out from below the blue and Charlie glares at them. “Have you kissed him yet?”
Charlie sighs and shakes his head.
Youssef looks at him exasperatedly. “Well, hurry up! You’ve already passed the second sunset!”
Charlie glares again.
“Don’t look at me like that, young man,” Youssef says, pointing at him. “You’re not the one placating your mother!”
Charlie’s face drops and he looks at Elle and Tao.
“She doesn’t know you’re here. All anyone thinks is that you swam off after she destroyed your collection. She’s…” Elle explains. “She’s not handling it well.”
Stubbornly, Charlie crosses his arms.
“Yes, yes, it’s her own fault,” Youssef drawls. “Don’t worry, your sister has made that abundantly clear to her.”
“Everything okay?” Nick asks and Charlie quickly shoos the trio away before standing up, turning to face Nick. “You looked quite intense there for a second.”
Charlie nods and gestures to the view. Nick nods too, smiling again, before he steps towards Charlie.
“Ready?”
Charlie nods again and grabs Nick’s hand so Nick can lead him into the boat. It’s slightly wobbly, and Charlie needs to hold the edges to keep himself up right when he sits, but Nick doesn’t seem to mind. He smiles gently as he sits opposite him and pushes the boat further onto the surface of water, using long sticks to propel them. Charlie looks around at the beauty of his surroundings, finding new things to be excited about. There’s little dots of lights floating around them. Charlie lets his eyes follow one of them.
“There are always loads of fireflies around here. One of my favourite things about this place.”
Charlie loves hearing about Nick and what he loves and what he hates. It’s quite possibly the most fascinating part of the days Charlie’s spent up here.
His hand slips off of the edge of the boat and hits something that doesn’t feel like the seat he’s sat on. Puzzled, he picks it up to look at it but frowns at the silvery symbols on the front. Nick looks at him.
“Oh, Oliver Twist. Emmy must’ve accidentally left it there, she loves Charles Dickens. We’ll take it back when we go back.”
Oliver Twist? Charles Dickens? What is this and why does it have such familiar names? He inspects it further and realises it opens up to reveal even more of those symbols. Oh, this must be a book! He’s never seen one in person before! He carefully closes it and sets it aside, patting it twice to keep it safe for Emma.
When they reach a part of the lagoon where there’s nothing around them but beautiful green and the black sky, Nick puts the sticks down and just stares at Charlie. Charlie stares back, confused.
“I just wish I knew your name.”
Charlie smiles slightly. He wishes he could tell him.
“Maybe I could guess it,” Nick suggests and Charlie shrugs, gesturing for him to continue. “Hmm… Connor.”
Charlie grins and shakes his head. Nick hums.
“Joe?”
Charlie shakes his head again, smiling wider as he puts one leg over the other.
“Eric?”
His shoulders shaking with silent laughter, Charlie shakes his head for the third time and Nick groans playfully. He looks back at Nick with a soft smile, his hand curling around the book, and then realises he can tell Nick his name! He holds up the book and taps his finger against it. Nick looks confused for a moment before he, too, realises and he straightens up.
“Oh! Oliver?” he asks but Charlie keeps tapping the book. “I… why don’t I know any of the characters’ names?! Wait! Is it Char…”
Charlie grins and nods excitedly, making his mouth move as if he’s going to speak.
“Ch-Charles…?” Nick tries, watching Charlie’s lips intently. “Char… Lee… Char-Lee, Charlie! It’s Charlie!”
Charlie nods excitedly again and puts the book aside.
“Charlie…” he whispers. “That’s perfect.”
He’s still got his gaze on Charlie’s lips and Charlie feels his cheeks grow warm. Is he going to try and kiss him again? This is perfect, there’s nothing to stop them this time!
Charlie tries to nonchalantly lean forward and Nick smiles, also leaning forwards. Charlie closes his eyes again. He can feel Nick’s breath on his lips. He waits.
Then something crashes into the boat from underneath and causes them both to fall into the water. Charlie gasps as he swims up to the surface, a cough tearing through his throat as he does. Nick’s hand reaches for him.
“You okay?”
Charlie nods but lets Nick help him out of the water, his heart pounding at what just happened.
Isaac’s squawking is what wakes Charlie up the next morning.
After the incident at the lagoon, Nick took Charlie back to the castle and called for Nathan to draw him another bath, having felt awful about letting him fall into the water. Charlie went mostly easily, he found it hard to leave Nick but the promise of nice warm water and a night in that squishy rectangle tempted him more and he squeezed Nick’s hand in farewell before Nathan guided him back to his room.
He’d fallen asleep almost immediately after his bath. And now Isaac is squawking in his ear.
“Charlie!” he yells. “Hey, Charlie! Are you awake?! Wake up!”
Frustrated, Charlie sits up and glares at Isaac, who just laughs at him.
“It’s important! I have news! I overheard something. Well, I didn’t but my cousin did and that’s basically the same thing, right? Oh, don’t worry, it’s not the cousin who makes stuff up, we don’t talk to him anymo-- Oof!”
Charlie scowls as he throws the pillow at the bird and flops back down, covering himself with the blanket. Isaac pecks at him.
“Just listen to me! It’s about your boy! He’s about to announce that he’s getting married! No-one knows who it is but I bet it’s you! Let’s g-- Oof! Can you stop that?!”
Charlie bounces out of bed and rushes over to the partition where Nathan set out today’s clothes, trying not to get tangled in them. He slips his shoes on and makes his way out of the room and down the many, many, many steps to the ground floor of the castle. He waits for a moment to listen out for voices and, upon hearing Queen Sarah, he walks quickly towards the dining room.
“Well, this is just delightful!” Queen Sarah says happily. “I suppose I have you to thank for saving my only son.”
Charlie starts to walk in but stops when he sees Emma and Darcy’s faces. They… don’t look excited, or even happy. It makes Charlie confused. What’s going on?
Then an unfamiliar voice pipes up, deep and alluring. “Ah, well, Your Majesty, I saw him fall into the sea that night and I couldn’t just sit by and let him drown.”
Charlie freezes at those words. Someone else is taking credit for what Charlie did to save Nick? Who would even do that?
“So…” Emma starts. “You saved my brother out of nowhere in the middle of the night? That feels quite impossible. There were no other ships on our sea that night.”
“I was on your ship.”
“Funny, because I knew everyone on that ship and… I don’t remember you being there.”
“Hush, now, Emméline,” the queen soothes and Emma crosses her arms. “That’s no way to talk to the man who saved your brother. My deepest apologies, Sebastian.”
Sebastian chuckles. “No apologies needed. I’m just glad dear Nicholas is safe.”
Something cracks in Charlie’s chest and he finds himself stepping backwards a few paces before he leaves the castle entirely in a hurry. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. What was he thinking? This whole thing was a huge mistake.
He collapses onto his knees when he reaches the beach, where beige meets the blue. His eyes sting and something wet falls from them, dripping onto his hand, but he doesn’t try and stop it. He just sits there, staring at his home. He should just let Ben have him now. Waiting until sunset will just be torture now.
Nothing happens though.
Nothing happens for a while. Charlie doesn’t move, not once. He stares at the waves as they splash against his knees. The sun beats down on him. He doesn’t have any of that stuff Nathan put on him yesterday; he’s not sure how bad that is. Most of him doesn’t care.
“Charlie?”
He blinks and, suddenly, Elle, Tao and Youssef are there, looking at him sadly as they float amongst the waves. He just looks down.
“Charlie, I… Isaac told us,” Tao says gently. “It doesn’t make sense. You saved the human, not this… random person. Why is he saying he did?”
Charlie just stays staring at the beige, unmoving. He doesn’t have any answers and, even if he did, he can’t say them because he gave up his voice for this stupid dream that was always going to end up like this. Of course Nick was never his true love. Humans hate mermaids. It’ll only be a matter of time before he’d start to resent Charlie.
“Come on, I think we need to tell the queen the truth. Maybe she can stop the Siren,” Youssef states forlornly.
The mermaids start to let themselves be taken by the waves when there’s another loud squawk and they all look up. Isaac swoops down and stands besides Charlie.
“It’s him!” he yells. “Th-That Sebastian guy!”
“Isaac, what do you mean?” Elle asks.
“Sebastian isn’t a real man! He didn’t save the prince! Of course, we knew that already. B-But Sebastian, he’s n--”
“I swear to Neptune, you bird, get it out!” Youssef snaps.
“Stop interrupting me! Sebastian, he’s the Siren! And he’s got Charlie’s voice! It’s in a gold clam thingy!”
Charlie’s head shoots up. Elle, Tao and Youssef all stare at Isaac in shock.
“Well, what are you waiting for?!” Isaac continues urgently. “The sun’s setting! We gotta go!”
Charlie quickly looks to the sky, seeing it turn pink and orange, and scrambles to his feet, trying not to wobble as he does. Then he runs towards the steps that lead back to the castle. His heart thuds quickly and loudly as he rushes back, his head screaming that there’s still a chance. There’s still a chance.
He finds them at dinner, a big seafood feast with Queen Sarah at the head of the table. A concerned Emma sits on her left and a dazed Nick sits on her right. The Siren is stunning in his human form, with light brown skin, dark hair, and piercing green eyes. Charlie hates it and the way he’s clutching Nick’s hand in a death grip. Why is he using Nick like this? He has no part in any of the scheme.
“Ah, Charlie!” Queen Sarah smiles when he enters the room, everyone else looking at him. “Nathan found you! Perfect timing too. Have you met Sebastian?”
The Siren sends him a sly smile, one that shows off his now-perfectly straight teeth, but Charlie doesn’t stop in his tracks. Stepping over to him as fast as he can, Charlie reaches his hand out to grab the clam from the Siren’s neck. The Siren seems to realise what’s about to happen because, with wide eyes, he jumps out of his seat and shoves Charlie away. Queen Sarah and Emma scream. Charlie stumbles but lunges for him again. The Siren pushes him to the floor.
“I warned you, little prince,” he snarls. “You were never going to get this life for nothing. You’re mine.”
Charlie sneers at him and gets up. His eyes stay fixated on the clam that hangs around The Siren’s neck, he needs to get it, he needs his voice back. He lunges for him a third time and, this time, he’s able to pin him against the table. Some white sauce splatters onto both of them and there’s sounds of chairs being scraped back as everyone stands up but Charlie’s only focused on the Siren. How the fuck is he going to get the clam off him?
“You’re mine!” the Siren yells.
Charlie does the one thing he can think to do and smacks his forehead against the Siren’s as hard as he can. Then, while he’s distracted by the pain, Charlie reaches up, rips the clam necklace off and runs to the other side of the room.
“NO!”
The Siren tries to reach him but it’s too late. Charlie throws the clam to the floor and it shatters against the stone. A glowing ball emitting Charlie’s harmonising voice rises from the floor and disappears into Charlie’s throat, the final note leaving his lips. He stays there for a moment in shock and relief.
He has his voice back.
“Charlie?” Nick says as he steps towards Charlie, no longer looking dazed, no longer under the Siren’s spell.
“Nick,” he replies with a trembling voice, sighing when Nick cups his face. “Kiss me! I’ll explain everything, I promise, just kiss me quick.”
It feels like Nick doesn’t need telling twice. Without hesitating, he leans down and captures Charlie’s lips with his own. Charlie immediately kisses back and the Siren yells out, quickly transforming back into the horrifying creature he was below the blue.
“NO! You will pay! You all will pay!”
His cries fade away as he slowly melts into sea foam on the stone floor of the dining room. Still in Nick’s arms, Charlie looks around the room and he sees Queen Sarah, Emma, Darcy, Mrs. Singh and even Nathan and Imogen staring at him with the most confusion he’s ever seen on people. He exhales.
He better explain everything.
It’s been a month since the downfall of the Siren, since Charlie became human. And he didn’t even know it was possible but he’s learnt so much more about this world. Nick says that’s typical and it excites Charlie. He’s never going to stop learning about his new home.
He stands on the edge of the beach, where the sand and the water meet, and stares out at the shining sun. He still loves the sun and he loves it today especially because it’ll make Emma and Darcy’s day perfect. It makes the sea look sparkly and Charlie knows that Emma loves the sea when it sparkles.
He does too.
A splash brings him out of his trance and he smiles as he looks down, expecting Elle and Tao. They visit a lot. Except it’s not either of them. It’s not even Youssef, who takes it upon himself to check on Charlie once a week. No, it’s his mother, who he’s not seen since she destroyed his collection. She’s staring at him with an unreadable expression on her face and it’s probably against his better judgement to walk over to her but he does anyway.
“Son,” she says.
“Mother,” he replies.
“I…” she starts, swallowing. “I’m sorry. For how I’ve treated you since your father passed.”
He doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t have to.
“I was scared of losing you to them too. Your father’s death destroyed me so much that I thought I was protecting you. Only… only, it just made me lose you quicker. And I couldn’t be more sorry for being the cause.”
He exhales and kneels down so they’re at eye-level with each other. Then he smiles slightly.
“You haven’t lost me. I’m still here. I may be human now but I’m still here. You can visit me whenever you want.”
He ignores the way she flinches at the word ‘human’.
“You’d want that?”
“Yeah,” he admits with a wider smile. “I would.”
She nods. “Okay. I will. And I’ll bring Victoria and Oliver next time.”
He smiles properly at the mention of his siblings. “I’d like that.”
She smiles too. Then, because she’s still a bit emotionally stunted, she dives back into the sea without another word and Charlie stands up, going back to staring at the sun and its reflection on the sea.
As much as he misses his first home, he’s right where he wants to be. And he’ll live happily ever after here.