a/n:

welcome to the mermaid AU no one wanted, heh.

Homebound

Whoever thought that going on a cruise in the middle of July and in the middle of a heat wave must have been one hell of a genius. Loki had long run out of curses to spew and since then resorted to throwing himself under the nearest umbrella. The shade did little difference, since there was no sun anyway, and Loki was this close to whining - but of course, he didn't, because he was a Laufeyson and therefore expected to be most mannerable.

"Pray tell, brother, what are you doing?" came a sardonic voice from above, and Loki let his head thunk back to the floor.

"What do you want, Helblindi?" he asked the wood.

"Balder is looking for you," replied his older brother. The almost sing-songy nature of his tone did not go unnoticed. "And why are you on the floor? There's a perfectly good chair next to you."

Good point. The floorboards were burning hot from the heat. With a muffled groan, Loki pulled himself up on the chair. He curled up on his side, so as to keep his whole body under the umbrella's shade. "Tell him I have jumped into the ocean and swum back home."

"He'll never buy it. You can barely swim to save your life."

"I'd rather drown among the fish and seaweed than spend another day on this wretched ship."

"Oh, but you're going to break his heart!"

Scowling, Loki kicked his brother's shin - in good affection, of course. "Leave me alone. Wouldn't you rather go and suck up to Father?"

"Unnecessary," Helblindi chided. "You should probably join us all in the dining room within the next ten minutes. We are toasting in honor of your arranged marriage."

Loki finally raised his head to glare at his brother. "You," he accused, "have a twisted sense of humor," which only sent Helblindi walking away, laughing that frustrating laugh of his. "Pompous ass," Loki grumbled, and hauled himself back on his feet.

The sun was obscured by clouds, but that hardly made a difference: it was still sweltering hot. Loki sighed, making his way over to the railing. The endless blue of the sea was a terrifying reminder that: a) they were in the middle of the largest ocean of the world, and b) if perchance they got into a shipwreck, they would probably never be found.

As a part of one of the most wealthiest and influential families back in their city, Loki was privy to many trips that took him all over the world. His father would usually deal with the business while Loki and his brothers were free to do whatever they pleased. But for this one, they couldn't really do that, could they? Plus, their father was so hell bent on making a good impression on this family that he always seemed to want his sons by his sides, sitting with him during various meet ups.

"Hey, there you are."

Loki's fingers tightened instinctively around the railings. He turned, feeling a small sense of dread when he saw Balder standing there. "Hi," he said, for a lack of a better greeting.

Balder smiled. He was a whole year younger than Loki, but he still towered above him a solid three inches. "They're looking for you down below."

"Where, in hell?" Loki almost said, but didn't because that would be socially unacceptable to. Besides, Balder had been nothing but nice to him thus far and didn't deserve to put up with his supposedly insufferable humor. So Loki said instead: "Mm, what's happening?"

"I was actually hoping that you would know."

"It would seem that we're both in the dark, then."

"It appears so." For a moment, there was silence - then Balder said, "Walk down with me?" and seemed to offer his arm.

Casting one more glance at the sea, Loki gave a trying smile and accepted the invitation.

. . .

"A drink?" one of the servants asked him, offering a tray.

"No thank you," Loki sighed, waving the blond man away. His father was getting ready to speak.

The announcement was this: a new company building was to be built in the same city their landing port was in. The construction was already going for some weeks, and when they docked, Laufey would show them the progress so far.

What Loki was told, afterwards: His father wanted him to move to the city in order to keep an eye on things.

"But," Loki had said slowly, not quite grasping what he was being told, "what about school?"

"I'm already almost finished with the paperwork - both you and I agree that you're more than ready to leave that place, right?" His father cast worried eyes down at him, and Loki's cheeks had flushed in embarrassment. He remembered all those times when he loudly announced school to be the hellhole that it was, and how he was constantly surrounded by- what was it, oh right, brainless little idiots who-

"But my friends," he tried.

"Can still visit you," his father finished with a smile. It faltered when Loki didn't start looking as excited as him. "What's the matter, Loki? I thought you wanted this?"

He thought of his friends, the few people whose eyes he didn't want to gouge out. He had met most of them at the end of his freshman year, and they made sophomore and junior years better. A lot. "Why me?" he asked, suspicious. "Why not Helblindi? Býleister?"

Laufey had quirked an eyebrow; evidently he wasn't expecting this type of reaction. "I know you've always felt inferior to your brothers," he'd said. "But let's face it, Loki, even though you complain about not being as tall as them-" Loki scowled, because he was not short, his brothers were just giants, "-those are trivial things. What matters is that you have the sharpest mind and the least likely to catalyze a disaster."

"Thanks," Loki said.

His father's smile returned. A little bit. "So how about it?"

This let to a bout of silence. Loki held onto the table, feeling the boat shift. Silverware clanked. Loki heard several worried murmurs, which were dispelled by one of the servers explaining, "Just a bit of rough weather. Nothing to worry about." Wasn't it just some hours ago that it was burning hot?

"I- You-" Loki fumbled for the right words. He ratiocinated that he should be feeling accomplished - he had always wanted to show that he was superior from his brothers - but this was all so sudden. How did you let someone down without letting them down? "I need time to think, I think." He smiled as best as he could, and that was when he swiftly exited the conversation.

Halfway out the room, Balder tried to stop him, but Loki pushed his hand away politely and fibbed, "I think I'm seasick and I really don't want to throw up on your shoes. Which, by the way, look nice. Excuse me."

That was how he ended up in his room, stuck with three options: listen to his grumbling stomach and contemplate why he had left without hoarding food, scream all of his troubles into a pillow like his therapist had suggested, or stare out the porthole and bask in the pleasant-but-also-nauseous view of the ocean.

The boat swayed again. Loki tried very hard not to feel to saturnine, but under the circumstances, it was challenging.

"Loki? Are you in there?" There came a tap on the door and a voice, and whether it sounded more like his father or Helblindi, he wasn't sure, nor was he particularly excited to talk to either of them. He was inclined to think it was the former, since his brother seldom actually knocked.

"Mmm," he hummed. "I'm in here."

He watched the slow rise and fall of the waves, thinking, thinking of school, of his father, then the moon, how it affected the waves on earth, and-

Something hurtled down past Loki's window and fell into the water with a splash. Loki had jolted backwards, eyes flying wide at what had just occurred. Did someone-

Had someone just- fallen? Jumped?

He pressed himself as close to the window as possible, trying to squint past the fat droplets of water on the glass, and among the waves, yes, there was something bobbing, something yellow. A head? he thought, and for a terrible moment he remembered the man who had been serving him earlier. But that wouldn't make sense, because he should still be helping at the dinner, then!

It was all a trick of his eye, Loki told himself.

-But what if it wasn't? What if, by dismissing it as nothing more than his imagination, he was indirectly causing someone's death?

Before he could do anything else, the door opened. It was his father - surprise, surprise.

"Loki," Laufey began, "I know that the announcement was so sudden, but you can't-"

"Was there anyone on deck?" Loki interrupted, an anomaly from his usual politeness.

Laufey's brow creased in a frown. "No, why do you ask?"

"I think I saw someone jump," was all Loki said before he was hurrying past his father and out into the hall.

"Wait, Loki!" Laufey called after him, and as Loki climbed the ladder, he heard, "You can't go out there, there's a-"

He pushed his way up to the deck, barely remembering to grab one of the life jackets stacked by the ladder, and was immediately hit in the face by raindrops and something wet. Loki slapped the offending piece of seaweed away.

"Loki!" his father was shouting after him now.

Determined, Loki lurched forward and grabbed for one of the tables, thanking the gods that they had bothered to attach it to the floorboards. The rain was relentless and the wind howled in his ears and he was terrified, but he also knew that there was possibly a man in the ocean.

Thunder rumbled, and the ship swayed, the hardest it had all night, and with the rain it was hard to keep holding onto the table. Loki's fingers slipped and he was thrown to the side, landing against the railings and a pile of something. Looking down and squinting into the darkness, he realized that they were clothes. Had a man jumped, after all?

"Loki Laufeyson!" His father's voice carried through the wind. "Get back down here, now!"

"Someone's jumped!" Loki shouted, desperate. He was soaked to the bone and regretting every single decision he made that led him to this outcome. Keeping a vice-like grip on the rail, Loki pulled himself to his feet. He glimpsed the ocean below, the churning waves, that thing still bobbing there, that head. Vertigo welled up in him, and Loki leaned heavily on the railings.

"Get help!" The words left his mouth of their own accord, even though every other instinct told him to scream for his own help instead.

There was the sensation of being lifted into the air and for a moment, everything was tilted and still. Two things proceeded to happen: a wave rose above the side of the ship, hitting Loki square in the face and blinding him, and momentum carried the boat through.

The last thing he felt was the cool metal of the rail leaving his hands, and then Loki was plummeting.

. . .

Actually, no: he also felt the jarring coldness of the ocean and the way numbness already began to settle in his skin. He didn't know where the life jacket went or when it escaped from his death grip, but it sure wasn't with him now.

He kicked, gods did he kick, but every movement he made seemed to only push him down. Ironically, he used to be told: He could barely swim to save his life.

What a way to die, Loki thought as he exhaled the last bit of air he had. Then he sank for a little while and, as he watched the last bubbles float up and waited to black out, something slithered by his legs.

Two arms were wrapped around him, and something was pressed against his mouth. Loki's eyes, which were screwed shut, snapped open when he realized that it was someone else's lips on his. Striking blue eyes stared right back at him.

Naturally, Loki opened his mouth to protest, only to be gifted with wonderful, wonderful oxygen.

Petty humans, he thought he heard, but that was probably his own voice of self-loathing.

He was kissed again, and that- that was the last thing he felt.

. . .

When he came to, he was out of the water and lying on the floor, presumably back on the ship. People were crouched all around him, and through the ringing in his ears, he heard his father spewing curses.

Loki hazily wondered which part of what happened was his imagination and which part was reality. (He just remembered blue eyes - or maybe he'd imagined that, too.)

"Loki," someone said. (Oh, but here was a perfectly reasonable candidate.)

He grabbed for the nearest person. Balder was soaked too - had he come after Loki?

Loki said quite seriously, "Did you kiss me?" and his words slurred together a little, but he could hardly find any time to care when he was passing out within the next five seconds.