Larry Stylinson one-shots

Seas.

The sea is lovely. The sea is lovely, and wonderful, and beautiful. And blue. Blue is Harry's favourite colour, he decided so yesterday. It was a tough decision, so many pretty colours to choose from; purple like his tail, green like the seaweed, orange like the starfishes. He has a starfish in his hair, its name is Petra, and he thinks she likes it there. She hasn't moved at any rate, and Harry has given her plenty of opportunity to. He wouldn't want to keep her against her will, that'd be terrible. He makes sure to feed her too, though he isn't quite sure what starfishes eat. He puts out all his favourites for her, and hopes she might like some of it. So far she seems content.

He kind of wishes he could speak to her, the sea gets so lonely sometimes. The fish, and starfish, and all the crabs and mussels speak languages Harry doesn't understand, if they even speak any languages at all. He isn't too sure. Gemma always tells him he's silly when he tells her that he'd love to talk with the other species of the sea. She wouldn't understand anyway. Gemma is the born mermaid, the perfect mermaid. All pretty flowing locks and already with a mate. Content with the sea and filled with little curiosity. Harry shouldn't be jealous, but somehow he is.

He speaks mermish, and luckily there are plenty of exciting merpeople living around him. He shudders to think about how he might have spent his entire life as one of the loners, forever swimming alone far away from the established mermaid colonies. That's no life for him. He speaks English too, having had Zayn teach him in exchange for teaching him mermish. Zayn is special, as he was - unlike Harry - born without a tail. A rarity. Originally a human. Harry is so hopelessly intrigued by the human world. Has always been curious, much too curious for his own good according to his mum, and the unobtainable world of humans is taunting him with seemingly endless amounts of knowledge and experiences he will never get to have.

Zayn can't tell him much, he was only a young boy when he became a mermaid, so he remembers little of the human world and most of it has long since faded to distant memories. Now it's all talk about houses that float on water - ships, Harry believes are their names - and legs and feet and toes.

It's not that Harry doesn't like being a merman, it's not that he doesn't like living in the sea, because he does. Loves it here, in fact. Loves the freedom and how pretty it is all the time. Loves the feel of the water against his skin, loves weaving seaweed into his hair and adorning it with pretty mussels. Loves spending his entire day swimming with no purpose, just exploring. Loves soaking up the sun on a rock, even if his body never colours like Zayn's, until it's dry and screaming for water, and his hair has dried to crispy, salty curls. Loves watching his tail shimmer in the sunlight, casting millions of nuances of purple light around him.

It's not that he doesn't like being a merman, it's just that he's so, so endlessly curious. It's not that he wants to be human, legs don't seem much fun when they can't swim as fast as a tail, lungs seem vastly inferior to gills when he can no longer breathe under water. So no, it's not that he wants to be human, but he wouldn't really mind knowing more about what it's like being one.

And then there's the feeling. That feeling like he's missing something, and he just can't throw it away. He knows he's a special case, he knows he's old for not having a mate. He's caught his mother looking at him with worry in her eyes many, many times. It's not without reason either, he knows. He's always known it, that the odds were stacked against him when it came to finding a mate. At least a true mate. It wouldn't be such a big deal either, if there wasn't that whole 'soul mate' thing. It's just... the thing is, it sounds really nice, having a soul mate. Sounds really, fucking brilliant if he's honest. Someone who just understands you, someone to connect with the very second you meet them, someone who feels like you've known them for years when you've only known them for minutes or hours, someone who loves you unconditionally for exactly who you are, and in the romantic sense, because he honestly doesn't think his mum and his friends count.