written for a friend on tumblr

(also if you're cockjawea: please send me a message if you have concerns about my story instead of leaving rude reviews that I can't respond to since you're not logged in. until then, i'll continue to delete said reviews.)

There's a legend that has persisted through the years that originated somewhere among the coastal towns of England. No one could pin down exactly where or who the original people mentioned in the legend were but the stories were still told over campfires and pints, as bedtime stories for adventurous young tykes and romantic souls alike, and as a cautionary tale for those who thought they understood the mysteries of the sea.

The legend holds that there are mermaids in the water, that one time, one of those mermaids fell in love with a human bloke and he fell in love back so she stole him away to live in her underwater lair. It was a love story and it was a good one because someone once tried to steal him back and the mermaid rose out of the water to get her lover back, despite the fact that it meant she couldn't return to her beloved ocean, her home, for fifty years time.

It is said that she lived happily with her love on the land, that they traveled and laughed and lived a very full and happy life. It is said she died a year before she would have been able to return home and it is said he followed her into the eternal darkness within a week.

It is said that the ocean raged for three days in mourning of the lovers' passing.

That was the legend. These are the facts.

Doctor John Smith moved to the coast after breaking off his engagement with a girl in town. He kept to himself mostly, just popping into the village to help with various repairs and if anyone needed medical attention.

The locals thought he was odd but his handsome face and ready smile bought him goodwill that his willingness to help made permanent.

John spent many a day walking along the beach near his little cottage and on one cold February morning, he stumbled across someone else. There was a blonde girl watching him curiously from a cluster of rocks, brown eyes sparkling like sunshine through good whiskey.

He called out a hello, concerned that she was in the water when it was so frigid but her eyes just widened and she disappeared with a splash, leaving him with questions he couldn't even begin to answer.

He saw her again a few days later, even closer to shore this time. She still didn't say a word, but she smiled at him brightly and she stayed.

John made a habit of walking down there every day and when he saw her, he'd sit on the beach and talk to her, watching her stare at him like he was a curiousity, noting the furrow between her eyebrows that told him she might have no idea what he was saying.

It was two weeks before he saw her tail and had his whole world turned on its head. Up until that moment, when the blue scales on her tail were glistening in the winter sun and her eyes were pleading with him to not panic, he hadn't believed in things such as mermaids. As he sat down in his normal spot and started talking, the mermaid grinned at him and he wondered if there were other things he might start believing in again.

(Maybe love, his tattered heart whispered as it beat faster every time she smiled.)

Eventually, she talked to him. It was slow and accented, her English, but she had listened to him long enough to have picked up a few words. She told him her name was Rose and this time it was him who had a grin on his face.

They conversed daily after that, her English improving while he slowly learned bits of her language from her.

Spring was in the air when he finally realized that yes, this feeling in his heart really was love. He'd fallen in love with the lovely, enigmatic mermaid.

He was eager to tell her, or at least figure out if she might possibly feel something too, and he practically ran to their spot.

She laughed when he appeared and his soul soared when she told him that of course she loved him, that's why she came back day after day. She'd just been waiting on him to know his own heart.

Rose extended her hand and he followed her into the ocean without hesitation.

They lived happily in her little underwater home, some magic she'd obtained from a respected and trusted witch allowing him to breath and to swim without trouble.

The trouble came when someone from the land of air and sand launched a rescue party for John, having seen him enter the water and thinking him entranced. They stole him away from her on one of their visits to their beach, ignoring his protests and attempts to get back to her, ignoring her screams.

It was without a second thought that Rose invoked the old magic of her people and walked out of the water on unsteady legs, knowing as she did so that half a century would pass before she could return.

It is true that she and her beloved, her Doctor, lived a happy life together. He took her travelling, showing her the wonders that humans had created on land, the towering and beautiful shapes that nature made on its own.

They lived and they loved and when they both had grey hair and wrinkles and still so much love in their hearts, they followed the call of the sea they both missed and went back to his little cottage on the beach.

It is true that they left the earth within a week of each other but it was not to the realm of eternal darkness that they went. No, death had no claim on them. Rose walked into the water on the day her exile ended and was returned to her youthful self, her true self.

She kissed John and left him with a promise.

She returned in two days and he once again took her hand and followed her into the water where she was able to give him the forever that she had promised him long, long ago.

This is true: Rose and John's names were lost until they were simply the stuff of legend but they are still out there, exploring the sea like they explored the land, hearts as full as love as the ocean is full of water.