Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The gentle landscapes of the small but quiet town of Rivermore. Everyone in that town seemed to know each other very well, except for one person that while often in town, she barely spoke to others outside of needing to make exchanges. Most of the town didn’t even know she existed as she lived in the outskirts of town and was kept to herself.

As the girl walked through the grassy plains, carrying a small basket of herbs that she had collected for various uses, squinting in the distance she saw a strange figure on the shores of Rivermore’s beaches. As her vision managed to see an alarming sight of what appeared to be a washed up young woman with a shade of blonde unusual to her town. Not knowing what else to do and going off of pure instinct she climbed down the grassy plain cliffs down to the rocky shores. As the young woman approached the unconscious woman that rested against a few of the sharp rocks, her eyes darted to the alarming sight of blood on the side of her waist.

She thought about what she should do, she obviously didn’t want to leave this obvious stranger out to deal with the elements despite Rivermore being a mostly lukewarm place but at the same time what if other people were looking for her? If she snatched this woman up and then someone she knew came for her to only see her disappear then they’d assume that she has been kidnapped. The adrenaline rushed in her body out of not knowing what to do before finally making a split decision. As she rushed to pick up the unconscious woman and take her to safety even though she needed a way to leave without having to climb back up even though she had the strength for it as she didn’t want to accidentally drop her or the basket. Even though it looked suspicious it wouldn’t have felt right if she had left her there to either fend for herself or even die as compared to her psyche she was much smaller than her.

After scouring the area she managed to find the stairway the most people use to access the rocky shores whether for working purposes or leisure purposes, she quickly grabbed the unconscious girl and carried her to safety. After a few miles of walking she had finally arrived at her quaint cottage deep into the woods that she had inherited from her father thanks to being an only child, she headed inside and placed the unconscious girl on a chair, she took her hand and two of her fingers to check for a pulse on neck, thankfully the girl was conscious and very much alive. She needed to check before she started to quickly rummaging through her storage to find anything to help her.

“Damn it, do I have anything in this place? My fault for not organizing things properly…” As she murmured to herself, the unconscious girl started to become conscious and woke herself up slowly, rubbing her eyes to wake herself up even more. As the other woman grabbed a small medicine bottle that she believed would help the now conscious person, she turned around thinking she was still unconscious, “Alright this may actually help-” but once she noticed out of surprise she dropped the mason jar, causing it to shatter all across the dark oak flooring and letting out a small yelp. The blonde girl looked very confused from the reaction.

“Alright, so that girl you grabbed from the shore finally decided to wake up. Just think of something” Before regaining her composure, the blonde girl’s eyes darted around the very unfamiliar area she’s now currently in, “Where am I? Are you going to torture me? You’re not gonna violate my body are you?” Fearing that terrible things were going to happen to her like how others her species had faced before by humans, “Hang on now, no I’m not going to do… that, but this may seem a bit very questionable by I saw you by some of my town’s shores stranded and didn’t know what to do so I kinda just impulsively decided to take you back to my place to help you get better,” but the tense air didn’t ease up as the blonde girl went from complete fear to a mixture of fear and skepticism thinking she was lying.

“Are you sure?” She asked, “I promise I do not have any hidden ulterior motives, once you’re better than you can practically do whatever you want to do,” a sigh of relief left her mouth knowing she wasn’t going to be hurt in any sort of way despite the odd circumstances. “So, even if you do decide to leave, I still need to ask, what’s your name exactly?” Strangely the aura that emanated from the tall brunette woman with emerald green eyes was a strangely trustworthy type, after staring into her eyes for a while before answering, she felt comfortable in saying her name.

“It’s Nell,” A peculiar name she heard, but at least it was a name nothingless, “My name’s Emily,” she said in exchange, “What are you doing here all by yourself in Rivermore? Nobody ever really comes here outside of business related issues,” Emily asked out of curiosity as she wanted to know more information from this stranger, hesitant to answer but not wanting to lie Nell answered truthfully, “No… I’m actually a mermaid,” surprised by the straightforward answer because not only did Emily up until now only thought they were a myth, but were cruel creatures from what she had been taught so to not only have one in her residence but for that one to be a completely kind person, she needed to process such information.

Nell slowly got herself out of the chair to leave the cottage, “I mean, sorry this news came out of nowhere I’ll just, you know, leave and never bother you again-” but when she tried walking she felt an intense pain in her legs causing her to collapse onto the ground. They hurt like hell when Nell did that as due to being a mermaid for all of her entire lifetime up until this point to finally have legs so walking was something she wasn’t used to. When Emily saw this she panicked from the scene, she barely even knew this person but felt this urge to help her.

As she rushed over to her aid, Emily’s eyes darted down to see Nell’s legs and her expression turned into absolute terror. “What's wrong with them?” Nell asked in panic, “What do you mean what's wrong with them? They're BLEEDING.” Emily exclaimed with absolute panic in her voice as she couldn’t stand the sight of blood, trying to hold back her vomit she got up and paced around the room, “Alright, alright you now have a stranger in your house whose bleeding from her legs,” before she realized that she had some leftover gauze bandages, a needle and threat and as well as a mild antiseptic hydrogen peroxide in a bottle for treating injuries like these.

But getting those things would require her going up stairs. She looked back at Nell clearly in pain before sighing and rushing upstairs to grab the supplies. Once Emily came back down stairs with the needed supplies she walked over to Nell, “Let me see your legs,” she urged with Nell hesitatingly complying as she outstretched her now heavily coated in blood left leg first. Trying her hardest not to gag at the scene nor stench of blood she grabbed the bottle of antiseptic first and opened its top. ‘What are you about to do?” Nell panicked as the bottle seemed unfamiliar to her.

“I'm going to be completely honest it's going to hurt like hell when I pour this on so try not to scream.” Emily warned, Nell held her breath as Emily poured the liquid causing a burning sensation as it fizzed as the blood started to break down, Nell bit down on her lip to prevent any screams. As Emily finished pouring on the first leg she quickly wrapped it up in gauze bandages before sewing them up to secure them tightly. “Alright, one leg down, let me see the other,” Emily stated before working on Nell’s right leg and repeating the same process. Once she finished Nell’s legs were covered in gauze and the scent of chemicals.

“Alright, that should do it,” Emily got up and said proudly, it wasn’t the best, it actually looked a bit shoddy but it was better than nothing aside from the blood that was left on the floor, “Now I don’t think you’re going to be completely healed in a day or two, it may take awhile but for right now though since you’re more than likely going to stick with me we need to figure out a few things,” “Like what?” “Obviously the clothes situation,” Emily pointed out directly as Nell was wearing nothing but a fashioned dress made out of torn white fabric and ropes barely holding together and also barefooted, “Oh, these old things? I mean I had to use my surroundings a bit, I don’t think being completely nude in the cold would be a good thing?” “Besides I barely have any other clothes with me though.”

“You know since I usually go to the town plaza to shop or for other business related things, why don't you go with me tomorrow and get you a few things alright? Especially some shoes,” Emily told Nell as a promise that she’ll fulfill. “Anyways we should head to bed, it’s getting late,” Emily noticed the time, she reached out her hand to help Nell up the stairs with Nell without second thought accepting the help and started walking with obvious pain. “Man, it must be extremely uncomfortable to walk barefoot all day.” Emily stated.

“It's extremely uncomfortable to walk in general, it's like stepping on the sharpest parts of knives on already tender feet.” Nell rebutted with clear signs of struggling to walk, “No wonder you stumbled around a lot today,” as the two walked upstairs and down the hall to an empty bedroom which only contained a bed, desk with a chair and a chest filled with miscellaneous junk. The room was quite old and dusty, clearly meant for a child but was better than nothing.

“Sorry it hasn’t been cleaned in awhile, I had no other use for the room up until now,” Emily apologized for but Nell didn’t really care as she tried stumbling towards the best, “Nah it’s fine, really, at least I can just lie down,” before she fell onto the ground which Emily responded accordingly by picking her up and putting her in bed herself. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning alright?” Emily told her before closing the door behind her to go to sleep. Nell lied down staring at the dark oak ceiling, she couldn’t help but think that as a mermaid whose amulet is giving her this human form that what if someday the guards from the underwater kingdom would eventually come searching for her and take her away.

She only just met Emily and already thought to herself if she could see a future with her living together, she didn’t know what their relationship was yet, could they just be roommates, friends or something much more? As Nell slowly drifted to sleep her mind filled with these thoughts couldn’t cease as she knew the inevitable would soon happen.

Chapter Text

The crack of dawn arrived as the rooster coos rang throughout the cottage, Nell rubbed her eyes to rid the tiredness from her. “You’re finally awake,” the voice caught Nell off by surprise, causing her to fall out of bed and onto her ass, “Ow… can you not scare me like that again?” She stated as she saw Emily standing the doorway of her room, “Sorry, sorry, just wanted to make sure you’re awake since I promised you that I would take you into town to get some things since you’re now living with me,” Emily told Nell the plan, “But if you’re gonna go in then I need to sort out the shoe problem…” Nell stared at her bare soft feet, looking all confused “What’s wrong with my feet?”.

“Nothing it’s just that, well I don’t think it’s a good idea to head to Rivermore barefooted… especially since you could step in something and get a cut or even worse some sort of disease if not treated properly. Hold on one second,” As Emily went to scavenge for some shoes Nell tried again to walk on her own which unsurprisingly made her bandaged legs and feet hurt badly, gripping onto the bed frame to hold herself up as she continued to stumble, as she tried again Nell heard footsteps coming towards her room as it was Emily coming to her room

“Here, these will do for a while,” As Emily proceeded to put the old shoes onto Nell’s feet “Can’t I just keep these on?” Nell asked, “Trust me, you do not wanna wear these things, they’re old as shit,” as Emily finished putting on the shoes onto Nell’s feet, Nell tried standing while she did struggle a bit she was actively getting better and more used to standing upwards but unfortunately she was right about one thing, Nell’s feet felt like they were being suffocated by shoes that could be considered a death trap for an adult woman’s feet because they were meant for an older child but a child nonetheless. “Alright when we head out if you’re struggling to walk then just hold onto me alright?” Emily stated before the two headed downstairs, as the two finally got out of the house and started walking on the path towards town, a question popped inside Nell’s head and wanted to say it. “How far is Rivermore exactly?” Nell asked, “Oh it’s just a good two, maybe three miles,” Emily replied, causing Nell’s eyes to widen a bit to just process how far Emily lived away from others.

“You live like this?” Nell stated in surprise, Emily gave out a swift chuckle before changing her demeanor back to her usual serious self, “Yeah, the positives is that no strange, probably drunken man could ever hit on me unlike if I lived inside the walls of town,” as the two continued walking for a good few minutes Nell noticed how she was stumbling less and less and kept her balance, she was learning to walk normal quite quickly. After a few more minutes have passed by the two have finally arrived at the town of Rivermore, Nell stared in awe as she never saw a normal human town at all until now, and not one so busy and bustling with all types of businesses and people.

“No way, you live like this?” Nell told her, “I already told you that I live in the outskirts of town, I really only go here for business related purposes.” As the two continued walking into town the girls headed towards the first shop to get some clothes. The two entered inside the store to be greeted by a small but fashionable lady, “Welcome to the Greene House Boutique, how may I help you?” “We just came in here to look for a dress for this girl,” Emily said as she was referring to Nell. The woman took one good look at her with her smaller frame and short height. She already had something in mind for the girl, “Don’t worry, I have something for you!” As the woman quickly walked into the back to find a dress that perfectly suited her.

Before long, the woman came out the back with a white dress paired with pale yellow corset in a small size, “I thought this would suit your appearance, go try it on” As the woman led Nell to the dressing rooms Emily just waited patiently for her to get done with, after a few minutes went by Nell finally came out fully dressed up in the outfit gifted to her. Emily couldn’t get over how beautiful Nell looked, she already looked beautiful when they first met but how she looked in the chemise Emily couldn’t get over herself but didn’t want to say anything that could imply that she may possibly be into her.

“How do I look?” Nell asked, wanting Emily’s response, taking a second before saying it, “You look… nice,” her eyes brightened up a bit from the compliment. She didn’t know why but she felt butterflies in her stomach from the answer. “Well I’m glad you enjoy the dress, that’ll cost ten coins for the dress,” the woman asked for, Emily quickly took out her wallet to pay for the dress. “Thank you, come again!” After leaving the two quickly headed towards the shoe store to get Nell a pair of her own shoes.

As the two finally headed inside the shoe store the process was the same as the dress with the difference of being shoes instead of dress shopping, once Nell finished up choosing and trying on a pair of light brown Mary jane shoes the two left the store after paying, as an attempt to start conversation Emily asked, “You like the clothes right? I didn’t want to feel like I’m forcing you to wear something you’re not particularly fond of,” Nell let out a small laugh before looking at Emily, “Anything's better than being barefooted and wearing nothing but sails and ropes in a town like this,” surprised from the casual reaction that Nell made Emily was a bit stunned from someone who she barely just met a day prior already is so comfortable near her but brushed it off, “Well that’s good, anyways I’ve actually been meaning to get some things for dinner tonight.” After an hour had passed with the two finished up shopping for dinner with various things, the two finally started to walk back towards the cottage in the woods.

“You know, why did you decide to take me with you back when you saw me?” Nell asked out of the blue in curiosity, as the two continued walking, Emily’s pupils glanced at her out of the corner of her eyes. “I saw you stranded on the shores of Rivermore which is why I took you in. I honestly didn't know if you were dead or alive but just passed out I still would’ve helped you out you know,” they continued walking before Nell asked another question out of the blue out of sheer curiosity.

“Have any men tried dating you?” Emily stopped walking as she froze from the sudden question about her love life, “Surprisingly yes, but they probably only want me for the amount of land I own as a woman,” she tried her best to answer without giving anything away that she may not be like the majority when it came to love. Confused from the answer Nell decided to pry for more information as her curiosity got the better of her. “Why do you say that?” Emily sighed and answered Nell’s admittedly invasive question but came from sheer curiosity while she started to walk again until they arrived home, “It's rare here for someone like me to own a huge portion of land all by myself, so many men first assume I'm living with my late father.” Emily continued talking when they finally arrived at the cottage and she opened the door for the two to get in. “When I tell them I live here all by myself and then all of a sudden they're so interested in me.”

“I'm even more surprised they're bold enough to tell me how they wanna continue their "family legacy" when most of them are just either farmers like me or some random guy who is probably only interested in what I offer.” Emily’s voice made an inflection to signal about the bullshit men tell her, when she started putting up the food she bought, “Doesn’t help most of them are at least a decade older than me,” As the two started the process of putting their groceries away the bought from the Rivermore markets, Emily mentioned a time she isn’t particularly fond of, “You know, one time some drunken guy was hitting on me and like every guy learned about my living situation, they got particularly pissed at me so much he pulled granted a shitty little blade but a blade nonetheless to my throat,” Nell gave an obviously very concerned look from the story. She was confused as to how some man could threaten her when she’s a six foot tall woman who could honestly fight someone and win competently.

As she finished putting away the food, Emily grabbed a few baskets and headed towards the back door towards her farm area which consisted of a decently sized garden filled with vegetables, fruits and wheat and a small chicken and cow area. Nell obviously followed behind and watched as Emily started collecting fully grown fruits which were a lot, mainly just blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and apricots but still fruits nonetheless. As she started to collect the fruits and put them into baskets Nell couldn’t help but just stare at her. Just observing her every move, already sensing her presence as Nell practically follows her everywhere around she goes, Emily decided to lay a suggestion towards her.

“Since you’re gonna be living with me for a while I feel like you should help out a bit whenever you can,” Emily told Nell while she picked up three heavy baskets without any struggle, walking past her to put the collected food away. Nell just stared at that sheer act of strength in something she exactly couldn’t figure out, it may have just been her but she couldn’t get over the fact that anything she did was just so… enticing to her eye. Was it her looks or her personality? Or just her overall demeanor? It was something Nell just couldn’t figure out as to why even the simplest of things, maybe, just maybe she may actually be even attracted to her.

But why? They’re both women, women are only supposed to get with men right? A romantic relationship between two people of the same gender couldn’t possibly work out in the slightest right? Those thoughts swarmed Nell’s head as she’s processing over the fact that not only a mermaid could fall in love with a human, but a woman can love another woman. The thoughts didn’t help that ever since that day she met Emily practically saved her life.

But before she could continue thinking about her, she was suddenly snapped out of her thought process by none other than Emily herself as she saw her while walking back to the garden, “Hey, hey, you’re not zoning out right? I saw you standing there blankly and wondered if you were okay or not.” She waved her hand in Nell’s face to make her snap out which she succeeded in, “Huh, what? Oh, yeah I’m fine.” Letting out a sigh of relief knowing the girl was okay but also disappointed, “Come on Nell, I thought you were paying attention. What I said was that I feel like that you should help me out a bit since we’re now living together.” Nell was stuck on that until she finally remembered what Emily said to her earlier, “Oh that? Sure Em I can totally help around!”

“Perfect, can you do me a favor and head over to where the chickens are?” Emily directed Nell towards the gate where the chicken coop was, she handed her a basket with some dried corn and other grains, “Just feed them and if you see any eggs then just put them in the basket alright?” “Yeah I got it, don’t worry!” Nell said cheerfully as she walked over to the area. As Emily walked back into her cottage she couldn’t help but wonder something to herself, what made her like Nell a lot even if she didn’t really show it all that much and in fact just like Nell, was she deeply in love with her? All the stories she heard as a small child growing up on how mermaids were these ruthless, man-eating creatures that lured people to their deaths and how any human-mermaid relationships always end up with the human dead or in tragedy.

But even though it was one person, Nell slowly started to prove those stereotypes and beliefs wrong, over these past few days Emily’s beliefs started slowly changing to a more open-minded person which also led to her deconstruction when near Nell. As she sat the vegetable basket down to start washing them to prepare dinner, those thoughts kept consuming her as she mindlessly washed and peeled the vegetables. That was until the door was slammed opened causing her to break out of her thoughts and to see Nell with a basket full of eggs, “I finished collecting them all, well most of them,” Emily noticed some egg yolk stains on the skirt portion of Nell’s chemise, “Some ended up breaking? You didn’t try putting them all into that basket didn’t you,” Emily crossed her arms making Nell dart eyes to the side, “No…?”

“It’s fine, at least you have 90% of them still so just put them on the counter,” as Emily started preparing dinner, “By the way, you’re fine with salted pork right?” Emily asked, pulling out a knife to start cutting the pork up into chunks to cook. “Yeah, why?” Nell answered confusingly, “Good, I didn’t want to make you eat something your body couldn’t handle.” As the preparations of dinner continued and Nell not knowing what to do with herself she managed to approach Emily behind her back without making too much noise.

As Emily started frying the pork before turning around to see Nell standing behind, she jumped a bit from the sudden sneaking, “Don’t scare me like that alright, you nearly gave me a heart attack and I’m in the middle of cooking,” Emily scolded Nell with her quickly apologizing, “Sorry, sorry!” continuing to cook Emily was focused on the meat making sure she didn’t burn the food, “You know, Nell can you do me a favor and cut those vegetables I’ve bought?” Emily asked for her, “There’s a knife in the top middle drawer,” Nell complied and found the knife and grabbed the celery, carrots and onions out. She stared at the first bell pepper and then picked up the knife. Nell learned how to cook before, much less cut vegetables.

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and just chopped down, hoping she was doing it correctly. Slowly chopping down on the vegetable Nell was doing sloppy work but it was her first time ever cooking as she continued chopping, Nell opened her eyes to see the progression she made and the celery could’ve been cut way better as they were all uneven and amateur looking, Emily saw her cutting skills and couldn’t help but to snicker a little bit, “Geez, I guess I have to teach you cutting vegetables someday, but if you could cut those into smaller chunks then that be great.” Emily said as she finished cooking the meat and transferred the cooked food to a large dish before putting in more lard to cook the vegetables. Nell listened and started to cut all the vegetables into small chunks until she was left with a mirepoix.

“Alright, just transfer them in the pan,” she held out with Nell transferring the chopped vegetables into the pan so Emily could cook them on a low heat the best she could. As Emily cooked and Nell decided to grab two plates for both herself and Emily, setting up the table, Emily started to open up about herself. “You know, you made me realize something about myself…” As Nell set the table up, Nell turned her head to listen. “I sometimes wonder why I’m so cold towards others but not you.”

“Rivermore isn’t all kind as it seems, especially if you’re a bit different than everyone else in society… I have no interest in men but you couldn’t tell by how I dress.” As the silence grew and Emily finished the vegetables before transferring the food to the same large dish, she grabbed a special seasoned sauce to drizzle all over the food and started mixing them together thoroughly. “I wish to not be some man’s wife but in this town, If you’re a ‘lesbian’ in this little town then you’re basically treated like some contaminated person instead of being forced to marry someone you’d despise being around.”

“Is that the reason why you live in the outskirts of Rivermore?” Nell broke up the silence, as Emily walked to the table and started to distribute the food in half as the portions were plentiful, “The good thing is that if I were in a ‘lesbian’ relationship then at least 90% of the people wouldn't snitch on me or treat me like filth unless people were actively searching for me.” Confused by the way she speaks, Nell asked “Why did you use the word ‘lesbian’ in quotation marks?”

“It’s a dirty word, that’s what people have said to me and grown to believe. There’s a reason why I don’t say I’m one,” Emily opened up as she started to eat in between speaking, “But after meeting you I’ve been wondering something…”

“Why am I like this and I wonder if I had to keep hiding myself then what’s the point of even living then?” Emily confessed out of self reflection while continuing to eat alongside Nell. Once the two finished eating dinner and Emily was about to clean up the table, Nell offered to do them herself, “Really? I mean if you want to then alright,” yawning and getting up from the table she realized how late it was.

“I’m going to bed alright? Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day for me so I need to head to bed early” Emily suggested as she started walking upstairs before reminding Nell about the bandaged legs. “Also, did you take those bandages off? If not then you should,” As Emily went to bed, Nell stayed downstairs as she couldn’t help to ask herself, was she ruining Emily’s life by making her realize that she was into women? She may have said she wanted to stop hiding her true self but it would end up badly if someone intervened. Contemplating about what she was thinking but couldn’t cognitively do it straight as she was tired even though she was in the middle of washing up the dishes, she decided to hold off and headed upstairs to bed and into her room. Stripping out of her clothes and sliding into the semi-uncomfortable bed, Nell tried to get some sleep as she knew tomorrow was gonna be busy once she reached the room to try to sleep.