The Ocean's Gift

I got a battered merman at a massive discount. The seller told me he was stubborn. He refused to sing. He refused to cry.

I stared at the crybaby merman who hummed tunes every chance he got. He didn't seem stubborn to me. Later, he kept pulling out his scales and handing them to me.

He looked highly anxious. I figured he just didn't want to be with me. Once his wounds healed, I released him back into the ocean. The merman broke down crying.

Giving scales is a merman's way of courting! Courting! Damn it, this isn't a release. You are abandoning me! Chapter 1 I bought a dying merman for the price of a cheap meal.

The shipping crate was way too small for his frame. He curled up tight, looking small and pathetic. Heavy straps bound his hands behind his back.

A cheap muzzle covered his lower face. A yellow tag pierced his ear, stamping him with his inventory number. 531. His beautiful silver tail looked dull and lifeless.

I checked the delivery slip and signed my name. From today on, he was my merman. I reached out to lift him. His eyes snapped open. A low, warning growl ripped through his throat.

Those iceblue eyes were full of pride and heavy guard. I froze for a second. That eye color. It looked exactly like the merman I saw when I was a kid.

That was why I bought him the second my bestie Peyton sent me the link. No hesitation. I cleaned his wounds as best as I could.

The moment I unbuckled the straps, he dove straight into the pool. I had filled it with saltwater, matching the salinity of the ocean.

I grabbed the prepped salmon from the fridge and walked to the edge. "Eat." He approached slowly. He reached a hand out toward me.

If I had known anything about mermen, I would have recognized the hunting stance. Too bad I only realized it when a sharp pain flared in my arm.

My bracelet snapped and sank to the bottom. I jerked back fast enough to avoid serious damage. Just a shallow cut. A drop of blood hit the water and bloomed into a red cloud.

His nose twitched. He went still. I watched his reaction. Did he do that by accident? Maybe human skin was just too fragile for a merman's claws. I sighed and bandaged my arm.

To avoid getting sliced open again, I pulled up the digital manual the seller provided. [Mermen do not share a language with humans.

Communication requires patience.] [Mermen can move on land but require regular hydration. They need extra freshwater intake.] [This species is highly alert.

Domestication varies by individual. For owner safety, keep them in a glass tank initially. Do not initiate direct contact.] [Some mermen can shift their tails into legs.

We hold no liability if your merman escapes.] [If taking a merman as a partner, note there is no reproductive barrier between humans and mermen.] [Warning: A merman's physical strength and stamina far exceed human limits.] That was it?

I opened the store chat and messaged customer support. I sent them my order number. They replied instantly. Them: [Hi babe! Like the product page says, this is a clearance item.

He refuses to sing, talk, or produce pearls. He has antisocial tendencies.

We only recommend him as a lowbudget bed partner.] Them: [We do not accept returns if you are upset about the lack of singing or pearls.] Me: [My merman scratched me.] Chapter 2 Me: [Do I need to worry about some flesheating marine bacteria from the scratch?] Them: [Don't worry, babe!

All our mermen are fully processed and safe.] I thought about it and typed another message. Me: [I tried feeding him salmon, but he won't eat.

Does he have a preference?] Them: [Babe, theoretically, they can eat anything a human can. He might just be stressed from the new environment.

Or maybe things just aren't done yet.] Not done? Mermen eat cooked food? What do wild mermen do? Hire cavemen to grill it for them? It didn't make sense, but I rolled with it.

Me: [So how done should it be?] A minute later, a reply popped up. Them: [Babe, Zoey thinks medium rare should be perfect!] Jesus.

Wild men out there perfecting the mediumrare sear. Me: [Who's Zoey?

Some marine expert?] Them: [Babe, Zoey is me! <3] I couldn't find a decent tutorial for a mediumrare sear online, so I just tossed it in a pan. Let's call it Pidoneness.

A completely irrational mess. I walked back to the pool, picked up a piece with my fork, and ate it right in front of him. "It's edible," I said.

He drifted over and stopped in front of me. The water level rested just above his collarbones. His eyes were downcast. Water droplets clung to his lashes.

Slowly, he raised his hands from the surface. That was when I saw it. He was holding my broken bracelet. He had gathered every single bead from the bottom of the pool.

He placed the pile into my palm and gave me a sweet, obedient smile. The vicious creature from ten minutes ago was gone. I thought about it. Clearly, Zoey was right.

He really loved mediumrare salmon. "Thank you," I said with a smile. His tail swished under the water. He actually looked a little happy.

I set the beads aside and picked up the fork again. I held a piece of salmon up to him. He looked at me.

Instead of reaching for it, he obediently parted his lips, waiting for me to feed him. I brought the fork closer. He bit down. A second later, his eyes went wide.

He flinched backward. The rims of his eyes flushed a harsh, watery red. He clamped the back of his hand over his mouth. His Adam's apple bobbed.

It looked like he desperately wanted to spit the fish out but didn't dare. Tears welled in his eyes, spinning for a second before finally spilling over his lashes.

A round pearl dropped into the pool.

The peace treaty between land and sea was officially shattered. "What's wrong?" I grabbed his jaw. "Open." He looked at me pitifully and did exactly as he was told.

He opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue. The inside of a merman's mouth wasn't quite human. It had a strange, alien beauty to it.

The tip of his tongue was flushed red from the heat. Seriously? That was it? The seller swore he never cried. He looked pretty damn delicate to me.

The sensation of heat was probably just completely foreign to him. Hence the massive overreaction. I waited for the rest of the fish to cool down before feeding him again.

He seemed to love it. After he finished, my eyes landed on the yellow tag pierced through his ear. 531.

I was already planning to release him back into the ocean once his wounds healed. Giving him a name felt entirely unnecessary.

But I absolutely refused to call him by a barcode number. "Finnick," I said. "I'm going to call you Finnick." He tilted his head. The meaning probably went right over his head.

Drifting to the edge, he rested his chin on the tiles and looked up at me. "Finnick?" So he could talk. Then it hit me.

The digital manual mentioned mermen needed extra freshwater intake. Chapter 3 I poured a glass of water and handed it to him. He twisted his face away, stubbornly refusing to drink.

I had no choice but to contact customer support again. They told me mermen naturally absorbed freshwater through their food. Meaning, live fish.

If the fish wasn't fresh enough, their freshwater intake dropped. But to a merman, water meant seawater.

Until they physically realized standing water could be fresh, they would never drink it voluntarily. That made sense. I went to the fridge and grabbed a handful of ice.

I placed the cubes in my palm and reached out to him. He drifted closer. His hands broke the surface of the water.

Instead of taking the ice, he gently wrapped his fingers around my hand. Holding me in place, he lowered his head and carefully plucked a cube from my palm with his mouth.

His lips brushed my skin. A faint, electric tickle. Crunch. Crunch. The sound of shattering ice was crisp. He seemed to love it. The freezing temperature clearly soothed him.

One last cube sat in my hand. Warmed by my body heat, a drop of melted water slipped down the creases of my palm, trailing toward my wrist. He noticed it immediately.

As if terrified of wasting a single drop, he lowered his head again. The tip of his tongue darted out, rolling the moisture into his mouth.

He chased the wet trail all the way down, pressing a soft kiss to my forearm. His mouth was freezing from the ice. The tip of his tongue. The curve of his lips.

My fingers curled inward on instinct. He finally plucked the last cube from my palm, his eyes curving into content little crescents. I handed him the empty glass.

He had eaten every single piece of ice. "Finnick, do you like it?" I asked. He tilted his head, thinking hard. Suddenly, realization sparked in his eyes.

He flipped backward and dove to the bottom of the pool. A minute later, he surfaced.

He opened his hands and dropped a fistful of pearls into the glass, one by one. "Like?" He pointed to his iceblue eyes, staring at me with heavy anticipation. "Like?" His tail swished gently under the water.

I picked up the glass and swirled it. The pearls clinked against the sides. Did he think the word 'like' meant something beautiful and shiny? Like ice cubes, pearls, and his eyes?

Clearly, he had no concept of what the word actually meant. Under his expectant gaze, I shook my head. "That's not what it means." He looked devastated.

His tail went limp, drooping uselessly in the water. Over the next few days, I started teaching him basic words. "Audrey." He sounded out my name, syllable by syllable.

I nodded. "Right. I am Audrey. And you are Finnick. Finnick." He didn't repeat his own name.

He just said mine again. "Audrey." His tail flicked up, like he just remembered something wonderful. "Audrey. Audrey." I sighed.

His communication skills were worse than a grown Border Collie. Since mermen could survive on land, he constantly tried to sleep in my bed. I finally gave up and bought him his own.

It was a hydrogel mattress specifically designed for mermen. The surface felt cool and incredibly soft.

If you pressed a finger into it, the gel caved into a deep pocket before slowly springing back.

I called him over and demonstrated it myself, lying down on the gel surface. "This is your bed." I stood up and gestured for him to try it. He reached out and poked it.

The second his fingertip sank into the gel, his eyes lit up. Chapter 4 Finnick sprawled his entire body across the new bed. He pressed his face against the cool surface.

His tail trembled slightly in sheer delight. He lifted his head and looked at me.

Then, he shifted over, carving out a space next to him and curling his tail around it to form a neat circle.

He patted the center of the circle, urging me over. "No," I refused. "I have my own bed." Mermen might love this kind of mattress, but it was way too soft for me. Zero support.

It made me feel entirely insecure. I thought I was finally going to get a good night's sleep.

But when night fell, he stood frozen by the side of my bed, staring down at me with quiet obedience. I tried to reason with him. "You have a bed now.

You should sleep in your own bed." He tilted his head. He looked like he didn't understand a single word. His tail swished silently over the floorboards.

Mermen really had an extreme sense of entitlement. Anything flat in this house was automatically his bed. I sighed. "Fine. Come up." He didn't hesitate for a second.

He vaulted onto the mattress and pulled me straight into his arms. He nuzzled his chin into the top of my hair. His long tail coiled over, trapping me in the center.

Then, he let out a deep, satisfied sigh. Did he really not understand? It felt like he only understood exactly what he wanted to hear.

And when he didn't want to listen, he just played the 'I'm just a fish, I don't speak human' card. But his scales were smooth and cool. The temperature felt perfect against my skin.

He was basically a giant, natural cooling pad. So I let him stay. I didn't know how long I had been asleep before a scorching heat woke me up. I opened my eyes.

The perfectly cool merman had turned into a literal furnace. His cheeks were flushed deep red. His lips were slightly parted, the color far richer and darker than usual.

Seeing me awake, he pressed his entire body closer. His tail tangled heavily around my legs. "Let go.

You're too hot," I said, feeling zero guilt about using him for AC and then kicking him away. Finnick didn't let go. He reached up and cupped my face in both hands.

He lowered his head and brushed his lips softly against my cheek. After the kiss, he caught my hand and pressed it flat against his bare chest.

Right beneath his burning skin, a heart pounded violently against his ribs. He looked up at me, pitiful. His eyelashes fluttered.

He looked like he was a second away from bursting into tears. "Audrey…" His voice came out ragged and hoarse. I finally understood.

I hooked one arm around his waist, scooped the other under his heavy tail, and lifted him completely off the bed. Finnick