Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Oh my darling, I've been missing you for quite some time.
So I'm gonna lift the ocean just to see your eyes."
- Warrior by Chloe x Halle
*
The ocean is as dangerous as she is mysterious, and no one knows this better than a pirate. Stiles, however, is still learning this. He's a rookie, and though he's always had a vague idea of the ocean and all her glory, he's only just beginning to get a perfect picture of just what she is capable of – of just what she holds. The morning of the rescue, though, he learns.
He wakes up to unfamiliar walls. Except they're not at all unfamiliar, because they're hers. Her walls, her bed, her quarters. Stiles feels around the bed only to find it empty, and sits up to find the room is too. She's not there. The moment he registers that she's gone is the exact same moment he hears her voice ordering the crew around out on the deck. Stiles, still fully clothed from the day before, gets off the bed.
He's cautious as he steps out. It doesn't take a genius to guess how this must look, what people might think. Though no official conversation has been had, Stiles fears the possible whispers and looks. But there are none. They barely notice he's there all together. The crew is running around like headless chickens, following Mal's orders as fast as they can. Stiles has to step back just to keep one from running straight into him.
"About fuck time!" He looks up to find Zac running towards him, arms full of rope. He's face is flushed and he's sweating so much his curls are sticking to his forehead.
Stiles doesn't bother with a greeting. "What's going on? Why are you so sweaty?"
He expects some kind of a ramble, some long Zac-explanation for all the chaos. But there is only wonder on Zac's face. Wide-eyed, disbelief, gobsmacked wonder, with a voice that matches the expression as he leans in and whispers in fascinated awe, "mermaids."
Stiles almost thinks he doesn't hear Zac correctly. Almost. "Mermaids?"
Zac nods. "Jennifer Blake fucked us up good, mate."
And at that, his heart drop. Thoughts of Jennifer Blake backing out and keeping Peter hostage sift through his mind. He pictures the man in the painting, tied up in a chair in some damp corner of a ship, and then sees Mal's face when she learns that today will not be the day she gets her father back.
Zac notices the look on Stiles' face and shakes his head. "Not like that. When she said meet in London, we all thought - you know what? Just come see for yourself." Zac leads Stiles to the edge of the ship, and sure enough there in the ocean swimming alongside the Talia is a group of mermaids. (A school of mermaids? A flock of mermaids? Stiles doesn't goddamn know, but the sight is still a shock to his system.) "It's an island," Zac continues. "Off the coast of God knows where. Only the mermaids know how to get there."
