... Okay so I'm sorry I haven't been posting here, I'm mostly working on AO3 these days, which is much easier than posting here. Let me know if you'd still like me to post here if it's too much trouble to go over to Archive!

...

Lena hadn't stopped grinning as they proceeded through the rest of the warehouse, in their search for whatever the mermaid was looking for. To her left, in the corner of her eye she could see the scowling profile of her newfound… friend? Lena wasn't sure she'd go as far as calling her a 'friend' but it was a start, she supposed. At least the woman walked by her side now instead of behind her, she was hopeful there was a small sliver of trust in that.

She gave Amélie a sidewards glance with a slight smirk. "Knew you wanted my name, really."

Amélie warily eyed the smug look on the human's face. She'd never seen someone smile so much, let alone because of her. It was odd. Unsettling. Since she'd given her name, so many emotions had passed over the other's face. It was strange to see someone so expressive.

The obnoxious little brat was taking it all out of proportion. She hardly even wanted the human's name. All she had wanted was to silence the annoying little pest.

"Mon dieu, must you always be this aggravating?" she shot back.

"Nah, you're a special case."

Amélie scoffed but otherwise said nothing, deciding to keep quiet as they continued walking.

As they got further down the hallway, Lena spoke up. "Hey... Amélie?"

"Quelle?"

Lena fumbled with her hands nervously as they came to a stop, before sticking one out in front of her. "I'm..."

Leo? Lena? Which one was she now? Which one did she want to be?

"Lena." She answered, finally settling on the truthful answer. It would be one less person to tell eventually, Lena couldn't afford to lose even a tiny speck of the mermaid's trust.

Lena. A woman, Amèlie assumed. Not that she was an expert on human names, but that would explain why her song hadn't worked on this one in particular.

The mermaid just looked down at her hand warily, as if she was unsure of what to do in this situation. She frowned, looking back up at the human's face in question. Lena faltered, looking from her stuck out hand to the taller woman's questioning expression. "Oh, you um... it's a handshake. You shake your hand with mine, it's what people do when greeting each other. A nice friendly gesture!" Lena explained. She waited with her hand still outstretched, unsure if Amélie would appreciate Lena grabbing her hand to show her. She just had to wait and hope.

What surprised her was that the other woman actually reached forward hesitatingly and gripped the tips of Lena's fingers in her own cool blue ones, wiggling both of their hands from side to side. Lena looked up to Amélie's face, seeing confusion marring her usually unreadable expression.

Lena tried not to laugh. Honestly, she'd never seen someone so confused before. This was the first time she'd seen the other woman's demeanour change into something that wasn't cold or sarcastic.

She decided to take pity on the woman; gently prying her blue fingers apart before sliding her own palm against Amélie's slightly larger, cool one. Lena was surprised how soft and cool the mermaid's skin was to the touch, and not scaly or moist like she'd imagined.

"Here," Lena gripped her hand firmly, giving it a vigorous shake. "just like this, see?"

Amèlie just gave a curt nod as she pulled her hand from Lena's grasp. "How… quaint."

"Don't you lot have handshakes?"

The mermaid snorted as she continued forward, "Why would we partake in something so frivolous?" she threw over her shoulder.

To that, Lena had no retort. Scoffing at the woman's rude response as she hurried to follow, continuing their trek.

They walked a little further until Amélie abruptly came to a stop, throwing out an arm in front of Lena to halt her next step. Lena frowned, glancing down at the pale blue arm in front of her then up to the face of its owner. "What is it?"

"Wait."

Amélie's fanned ears flicked as they strained in the silence. She was sure she'd heard something through the quiet hall. She peered through the large shelving units until she heard it again, this time a little louder than before.

This time, Lena also heard something quietly ring out close by. Her eyes scanned the area until they came across an open door up ahead. It sounded like an old, scratchy record playing music.

"Psst!"

The mermaid glanced down at her human companion, an eyebrow raised in question. Without uttering a sound, Lena pointed in the direction of a slightly ajar, heavy metal door on the far side of the hall. The taller woman nodded as they both crouched, silently treading their way closer across the concrete flooring.

Once outside of the door, Lena creeped a little closer and pushed against the heavy metal surface. Thankfully, it didn't make much noise as she peeked behind it, confirming her earlier assumption that music was playing as she saw an old, bronze phonograph resting on top of a large stack of books in the corner. On the far side of the room sat an old, balding man with his back to the door; hunched over a desk. Lena could just about see the corner of a journal laying across its surface in front of him.

Backing back out of room, Lena leant against the wall, turning her attention to the woman next to her. "Looks like we've got company." she whispered.

"This could complicate things."

"Can't you use your singing to knock him out?"

Amélie frowned. "It should have already. This… noise" she wrinkled her nose, clearly not enjoying the sounds emitting from behind the door, "must have blocked it."

Lena sighed. "So we're buggered then?"

What she didn't expect was for the taller woman to give her a slight smirk as she straightened up.

"I never said that."

What was that supposed to mean? Lena blinked confusedly at Amélie as the mermaid quietly slipped through the small crack of the doorway, leaving Lena by herself.

What on earth-

A few seconds later, she cringed from the abrupt rip of the music stopping, as well as hearing a muffled yelp and a scuffle. Before Lena could so much as touch the door, it sprung open, revealing the tall mermaid; leaning against the doorframe, checking her sharp black nails, as if bored. "Now, where were we?"

Lena, fearing the worst, pushed her way past Amélie and into the room, only to find the balding man from earlier, now unconsciously slumped over his desk.

"You didn't-"

"Kill him? Non."

She hadn't heard the mermaid sidle up to her. And as if she already knew what Lena was about to ask, she'd had her answer at the ready.

Lena frowned. "Then... how'd you manage that?"

"Simple." she replied, pulling her drawstring pouch from her hip to show the human the green, powdery substance within, "I used pufferfish skin." Amèlie took a pinch full, rubbing the dust between her fingers. Lens watched as it fell from between her blue digits. "In large doses it can be lethal, however, inhaling small amounts can render even a behemoth of a man unconscious."

The engineer's eyes widened as she looked from the man, to the pouch tied back to the mermaid's hip.

"How long will he be out for?"

Amélie shrugged as her eyes darted towards the man, then back to Lena. "Depending on his size… I would say a couple of hours, give or take. Plenty of time to continue our search."

Lena nodded and took in the room around her. Most of what she saw were stacks books, all piled up together, on every surface . Even the large cabinets in the far corner were bursting full of books and parchment. The unknown man wasn't one for decorating it seemed, the plain grey, painting-less walls gave the room an overall dull look. Apart from the lone wooden desk, phonograph, book stacks and cabinets, there was nothing else to look at.

"Hey, try not to-"

SMASH

She jumped at the sudden noise, whipping around to catch sight of Amélie… and the now shattered remains of the phonograph at the woman's feet.

Lena winced, "-break anything this time."

Honestly, she really thought there wouldn't be any opportunity to break much in this room, clearly, she was wrong. She looked up to find the woman trying to feigning innocence.

"Oops."

She rolled her eyes. "We both know you did that on purpose!"

"Complete accident. My hand slipped." her lips curled slightly as she toed the smashed pieces. "Such a pity he won't be able to hear from this piece of junk again."

Lena sighed, closing her eyes and rubbing the bridge of her nose between her forefinger and thumb. "Don't break anything else."

"I'll try my absolute hardest, cheriè." was the reply she got, dripping with sarcasm.

Ignoring the other woman, Lena made her way over to the filing cabinets. She began thumbing through the contents of the open top drawer. "Y'know, you still haven't told me what you're looking for."

Not even sparing Lena a glance, Amélie made quick work of shoving the man off of the desk for a better look of his journal. "You will know it when you see it."

Did she actually expect an answer? Lena wasn't sure what she was expecting, really. Let's just say a part of her wasn't surprised over what she got.

Thwump

Lena tensed, instantly stopping what she was doing to slowly turn around. Thinking she'd broken something else, she called out, "Please don't tell me you've broken-"

No, Amélie hadn't broken anything. What she did find was the poor bloke she'd been trying to shift, in a heap on the floor as the other woman took his place at the desk.

"Amélie!"

That got her an annoyed look, one of the famous glares that she'd become so accustomed to before she turned back to the large, leather book in front of her. "He was in my way." She flipped through a few pages before coming to a stop, stroking over the written words with her finger.

She glanced over at Lena while tapping her fingernail against the journal page. "Look here."

Lena trudged across the room to peer over the woman's shoulder, seeing detailed drawings of various sea life, with small notes written in the margins. She looked to where Amélie had been pointing to; her finger skimming over a particular drawing, which was easily recognised as a mermaid.

Her eyes roved over the drawing, taking in what was shown before her. The sketch revealed a woman of different skin to Amélie; more of a salmon pink in colour. She realised quickly it'd be silly to assume they would all be the same, before going back to her study of the journal entry. Deep blue eyes stared back at her through long curtains of wild, inky black hair. She sported long gashes across her ribs like Amèlie's, which, Lena still assumed were gills. Perhaps she would ask the taller woman sometime. Further down the page was her long, twisted tail; a pale gold in colour and decorated with filmy fins near her hips, which trailed down as long as her tail.

What interested Lena more was the little notes scribbled around the sketch:

Mermaids have no hair to speak of. Even what appears to be eyebrows are markings merely mimicking human features.

Their "hair" is actually external gill filaments used to extract oxygen from the water.

Merfolk are at their most helpless out of water. Even though their dual-function lungs can breath air, their sensitive skin can dry out with overexposure to the sun and heat.

They differ widely in colouration, sharing the distinctive characteristics of fish of their region.

Like certain species of tropical fish, mermaids may be capable of a physical transformation called protogyny, where a female mermaid may change herself physically into a male. This process allows the species to thrive and would explain the rarity of male sightings.

She barely had time to read more before Amélie took hold of the pages with one hand, using the other for leverage as she ripped them roughly out of the book. She scrumpled them together before struggling to force them into her already full pouch.

The taller woman was breathing heavily, her nostrils flaring angrily and her hands clenched into fists. Amélie's eyes narrowed dangerously, looking down at her pouch. "I will not allow this parasite to gather more information about my kind."