When the Sun and Stars Unite (Jegulus Oneshots)

Pull Me In (Like The Tide)

"Don't you feel it Regulus? The call from the land?" Sirius spoke in a hushed tone one night, like he was admitting to a crime far more nefarious than his ache to swim with the foam.

Regulus mulled the question over in his mind, the stars shining brightly above them through the stillness of the surface, "no, I don't." Regulus replied.

"Liar." Sirius scoffed and Regulus had fought the urge to bite back, to reveal that he was lying not only to Sirius but to himself. It was safer that way. To not let the ache consume him, to not let the curiosity get the better of him.

[a jegulus mermaid au inspired by caspervii's art]

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REGULUS POV

The first thing he remembered was the feeling of not being able to breathe, of his lungs collapsing in on themselves as they slowly drowned, the world gradually fading to black around him as the pressure in his head grew. In a desperate, futile moment of panic, Regulus drew in a breath of air, inhaling water and filling his throat, his mouth, his lungs, with even more water. Exhale, inhale, choke. The world growing fuzzy around the edges of his vision. Exhale, inhale, breathe. He was breathing. He no longer felt like he was drowning, the water around him had stopped constricting him, stopped its violence, its terrifying onslaught and had stilled.

He blinked the haziness out of his vision and let his eyes adjust, let the feeling of being alive envelope him. He was alive. Flexing his fingers he went to kick his legs only to find the appearance of a tail, he was suddenly hyper aware of the gills firmly tucked beneath his collarbones that were aiding him in the process of breathing again. He was aware of the way his eyes no longer stung and the way in which the water no longer felt like a foreign enemy. The water had not claimed him as one of her victims, instead she had taken him as one of her own. He was a child of the sea now.

Travelling away from the cliff's rocky edge, the place where he'd been born again, Regulus spent the years learning how to survive in this new climate, how to live in this world he was yet to fully understand. Time passed and he met many creatures, all with their own tales of life as they understood it. In doing so he left his past behind, the memories of drowning in the world he now referred to as home were like faint scars that had faded to the point they were almost gone. Aside from the phantom ache of a life forgotten, Regulus lived like the creatures of the ocean taught him, avoiding the surface and living in the murky depths that called to him with the offer of safety. It was living like this that he came across a shoal of those similar to him, those chosen by the ocean. It was there that he learnt words like 'family' and 'love'. It was there that he was taught about the creatures of the land, creatures to be avoided at all costs. Them and their weapons, their inane curiosity and constant invasion further and further into Regulus' home, them and their wicked grins and confusing devices that they used to breathe beneath the surface, their metal contraptions they used to delve deeper and deeper.

He was taught they were the enemy and who was he to assume otherwise? Who was Regulus to question those that had taken him in and offered him something more than drifting. Who was he to wish to travel to where the seafoam met the land? Regulus finally understood the ocean so why would he welcome more questions into his mind? He understood the ways in which the ocean shifted and pushed and pulled, tugging at him to keep him safe from passing boats, pushing him into alcoves when divers got too close, pulling him towards the shoal when the feeling of being alone had become too heavy a weight for him to handle.

This was why Regulus couldn't fully grasp and understand one of his shoal siblings' urges to visit the land. What could be awaiting Sirius there but the same feeling of hopelessness that Regulus' life had begun with? What could be waiting there but men ready to pick them apart and examine them under eyes of practised scrutiny. The leaders of their shoal had forbidden talk of land, of the secret of the seafoam and yet Sirius had remained curious. It was like he'd never built the wall Regulus had, and had never felt the need to settle with the first home they'd been offered.