Hetalia mermaid AU, updated in small installments (~5 pages each). Basically a gift for tumblr user rniq, who sometimes draws really cute pics of hetalia merfolk. Main pairing is prumano, with gerita sidepairing. (Not sure why I haven't uploaded this before now.)

Comments or suggestions are appreciated! Enjoy!

Every year the ocean got just a little bit colder, but mermaids were around since before the age of snow when great chunks of the ocean were encased in ice, so their muscular tails and thick skin were enough to insulate lean bodies. Still, as Lovino battled the current, he felt the flow of his blood grow more sluggish while the beating of his heart faded from erratic to feeble, like an animal grown too exhausted to fight its way out of a thicket.

"The hell is happening," he wondered.

He'd been swimming for days, off to find where the schools of fish had disappeared so he could ease the gnawing in his stomach. It'd also been days since he'd seen another of his kind. They too, had grown scarce, whether to find warmer waters or to seek out food, Lovino wasn't sure—the only thing he did know was that he'd been left behind.

Which was why he was swimming aimlessly along in what he felt like were circles. He wasn't sure where he was going-just that he hoped there would be food and clear streams like he remembered once from his childhood. He loved the lace of dancing light that rippled along creek bottoms and the heat that soaked the shallows.

"The edge of the ocean," Lovino said. "That's where the rivers start." His brow creased. "Or end?" It'd be easier to breathe, most definitely; Lovino's gills were fluttering out of control on the sides of his neck, and the frigid water seeped deep into his core. He was practically gasping for oxygen that couldn't feed his brain fast enough.

Powerful tail undulating, he headed upwards, hoping that a few solid lungfuls of air above the surface would be enough to stem the dizziness clouding his mind and help him regain a sense of direction. If he was lucky he'd be able to find the North star and look around for the haze of an island somewhere.

He broke the surface after a solid minute of desperate swimming- he'd been further down than he'd realized—and started gulping down air, chest heaving with the sudden activity as his body adjusted. He tread water like that for a few minutes, long enough to claw his bangs from his face and wipe the salt from his eyes as he blinked upward. It wasn't quite twilight yet, but the moon was already a vague orb off to the distance. The bottom of the sun had just begun to dip down below the horizon. Dusty light seeped into the ocean and the daytime blue mellowed out to soft pinks and oranges that would gradually fade to black as night descended.

The stars would be out soon.

"Sun sets…in…the west?" Lovino said. His voice grated in the pure air, almost incoherent. Mermaids were designed to communicate underwater, so much talking above the surface strained his throat and fragile lungs. But Lovino needed to think out loud. Needed the reassurance of a voice, even though his own was the only he could provide. He found that the more he spoke, the easier it became, as his lungs slowly adjusted and took over for his gills. His voice became smoother and he became calmer. "At least there is a sun…better than wandering around in the dark."

Water slapped him in the face midbreath. He spent the next few minutes coughing to dispel the offending liquid before finally dipping back under to readjust. He re-emerged, unamused. "I should…oh shit. I don't know which way to go." Squinting eyes could make out nothing on the horizon in any direction except…what was that?

Blotted out in the sunset, just a silhouette, it looked like a large…pole stacked with three square tiers that decreased in size toward the top. Even from that distance, he could see it bobbing up and down as an onslaught of wind churned up the water. The air crackled restlessly while the underbellies of clouds bulged ever darker. Every so often electricity shot through the dry air.

"Whatever the hell that is, it's fucked up."

He was forced to duck back beneath the water with a flash of scales when another slew of wind nearly shoved him face-first into the waves. He drove deeper but found himself twisting his body around and rushing toward the strange object, as if drawn to it.

Lovino had swum barely one hundred meters when he found his vision overpowered by a massive wooden hull cutting through the water. He wandered along the side a bit and under, tracing the surface with his fingertips, listening, tapping. It was coated with grime, weathered by water; hundreds of barnacles that Lovino could not pry loose crusted the underbelly.

The object started rocking back and forth more violently than before, like the swinging of a pendulum-so far that he feared it would overturn completely and yet so slowly that it seemed like a nightmare. Through the thick wall of water he could vaguely make out shouting. Something creaked. Something else hurled downward and slapped through the surface of the water, followed by a second object slicing through choppy waves in a torrent of bubbles. It latched onto the first object, now motionless, righted itself, and began kicking and flailing against the drag of the water until both heads broke the surface.

Another splash. Some kind of red tube had thunked down near both creatures where the conscious one could push toward it and wrap the rope around the other. Slowly the tube trailed toward the boat in spurts, following after a heavy rope.

But the water was churning more and more aggressively until the waves rose up in fury, far above the head of the second creature, crashing down into him with such power that he found himself slipping downward with a force that no amount of thrashing could overcome. The water around him boiled with the intensity of his struggling. A fresh tube slapped nearby, but he was already sinking.

His hand grasped for it. Feet away. Bubbles exploded from a mouth that had been desperately clamped shut.

Then…he just lay there in the embrace of water as if suspended; his head fell back with the slow descent of one sinking, limbs spreading out, that same hand going limp, fingers curling inward as eyes slid shut. Blue light swathed him. The ocean settled into calmness that belied the storm raging above.

Several seconds raced by at a speed that Lovino's brain couldn't process, and he was moving toward the unconscious creature before he realized, hovering near without touching him, eyes blinking wide.

It looked like Lovino. Face, jaw, shock of hair—though white—sinewy arms, muscular chest. But where there should have been a tail two long limbs forked out, muscular, bulging with the graceful curves of muscles. At the ends Lovino was startled to find what looked like two demented hands with elongated palms and stubby fingers.

"The fucking hell is that ugly thing."

But something wasn't right. For all its struggling earlier, it lay deathly still. Lovino knew that when fish died, they floated belly up near the surface. This…this thing was just sinking. Any further and it would dip down below the temperature gradient where dark creatures lurked in the void.

"Fuck," the merman said. He grasped at its shirt and pulled, shaking him like a rag doll. "Wake the fuck up!" When it did not move he pinched at its cheeks and tugged at its hair, moving to twist at its fingers, which had turned a deathly cold. Already its lips took on a purple tint. Warmth receded from its body. "Shit, you aren't made for water, are you," he realized upon closer examination. His neck was smooth—no gills. But when he pressed his head against his chest, he thought he heard the faint beating of a heart. Lungs then? A land mammal?

With a grunt, Lovino bowled into him and wrapped his arms around his chest so that his shoulder could take the brunt of his weight. Tail pumping, teeth gritted, he pushed upwards with such desperation that his entire hips undulated with the power that he needed, tail whipping back a torrent of water to propel them.

They broke the surface.

The water had calmed.

The creature sputtered and coughed a solid five minutes without ever fully regaining consciousness. He went still again.

Careful to hold its head above the water, Lovino turned this way and that. There was no sign of the boat in the cold of night, and the moon only illuminated the patch of water that reflected it. He had to take a moment to readjust the creature in his arms to account for awkward limbs, but then he was moving again, keeping it close to his chest and swimming sideways, half his fin flitting in and out of the water.

"Where is land, dammit." Neck in the water and face out of it, he felt awkward relying on both lungs and gills for oxygen, but found that it gave him the power he needed when his muscles started to ache. He swam well into the night like this, only stopping to rest a couple of times. "Fucking useless creature. The hell you go into the water if you can't fucking breathe in it. Damn you. You better fucking wake up and tell me where land is this fucking instance, got it?"

No answer.

But the blue had receded in its lips, and somehow against all odds its chest was barely heaving.

A few more hours and Lovino was flagging badly. A worn out tail barely moved anymore, and bit by bit the creature slipped from his grip. But then his dorsal fin scraped sand and all at once Lovino was grappling at the unfamiliar substance until he and the creature were high up on shore where the water barely lapped at them.

"Fucking….shit…"

He could not move. Could not get back to the ocean. Writhing only dug him deeper into the coarse sand, so he latched onto the human and awkwardly rolled himself up onto his chest and rested there, surprised to find an odd sort of warmth centered around a fluttering heart.

Warm-blooded, Lovino realized. No wonder its skin was so thin and almost translucent—as Lovino was fascinated to see veins running along his inner elbow. He didn't need the kind of insulation that Lovino did. Though, with a jerky movement, he realized that it had downsides. The spines along his tail had sliced shallow cuts through baggy pants and pale skin. Blood oozed out into the sand.

"Shit…" But he was already losing consciousness before he could do anything about it.