Heyyy, actually updating this somewhat timely. I've been excited to get to these chapters, as stuff starts to build up (or well, that's the plan). And we've got the inclusion of some more characters!
Warnings- censored swearing, and that's it I'm pretty sure
"Yesterday you told me that we were going to meet other sirens today," Sophie whispered as her and Keefe sat at the dining room table. While it was just the two of them in the room, she didn't want to risk anyone overhearing. "I thought you told me that sirens are solitary."
"I don't like following the rules," Keefe replied, and well, that made a lot of sense actually. "And I'm not always around them. The two of them are the ones who constantly stick together, I just join them occasionally."
"If it's possible, why don't sirens stay in groups?"
The look on their face was uncharacteristically serious. "I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I haven't made any physical contact with you while we were both sirens."
She thought about that day. They did for the most part keep their distance, and even when they came closer, they didn't make any contact. It didn't seem to matter before, but she did notice that they were physically affectionate. Brushing hands with her, or something as simple as leaning an arm on Fitz's shoulder.
It could have been excused as the fact that they'd barely known each other at the time, except that they still barely knew each other, and were even more unfamiliar with Fitz.
"It's impossible for a siren to touch another siren," they continued. "You can try, but seafoam will emerge, stopping you from making contact. Besides, broken hearts are already rare enough, but to find multiple is nearly impossible. In the end, you want to become human, even if it'd mean leaving your "friend" behind. It's easier to stay alone."
"The other two don't care about that, do they?"
"They're both fiercely loyal," Keefe replied, looking fond. "I have a feeling that if one of them became human, they'd find a way to stay with the other."
"If sirens are meant to leave their siren life behind, why are we going to meet them?"
"I like being with them, and since I'm still half-siren, I can still find them again. But also, Linh and ver brother have been sirens longer than Marella and I, they know more. I'm hoping that ve would know something as to why we're half-siren."
Linh, ver brother, and Marella. Wait... "Didn't you say that we were meeting two sirens? You just mentioned three."
The smile on their face fell. "I've never actually met Linh's brother, he... went missing before I met ver."
Sophie may not have been the best at reading a situation, but she was able to tell that they were approaching a topic that was probably off-limits. She tried to think of something else to talk about, but failed to come up with something.
Fortunately, Fitz and Biana entered the room, which ended the conversation.
"Wait, you don't work here," Keefe remarked, gesturing to Biana. "I know you hang around, but do you come here every day ?"
"Do you have a problem with me being here?" she asked. "But if you really wanna know, I'm job searching. I just don't like being by myself."
"Oh, that makes sense. Why don't you just work here?" they asked.
"Unlike the two of them," she gestured to Sophie and Fitz. "Being a florist isn't a job I'm interested in. I'm planning to be a volleyball instructor, to teach kids, and all that."
"That's cool. Good luck with that."
After Sophie and Keefe finished breakfast, the four of them went to the front of the store.
"Oh, Foster, that reminds me," Keefe said. They turned around, then turned back to look at her, a bouquet of yellow carnations in hand. "This is for you."
Sophie blinked, not knowing how to feel about that. She glanced at Fitz, who looked shocked, and maybe a little upset? Keefe must have followed her gaze, because they continued talking.
"Oh, Fitzy, did you want a bouquet too? Sorry, I didn't have enough money."
"Is this why you were so insistent on taking the spare change when we were shopping yesterday?" Biana asked, unimpressed.
Keefe, Sophie and Fitz ignored her. Fitz's gaze was still fixated on the bouquet.
"You know..." he began. "You know what those flowers mean, right?"
Keefe's eyes widened.
Before they could say anything, Sophie spoke. "They probably didn't realize what it had meant."
"What did they mean?" Keefe asked, their voice a little soft, and there was something about it that Sophie couldn't recognize. "I saw you use carnations yesterday, I thought that-"
"We used pink carnations yesterday," Fitz interrupted. Sophie didn't realize how tense he was until he began to relax. "Colours matter too. Yellow carnations usually mean dislike, rejection or disappointment."
"Wait, seriously? I chose yellow because the colour suits Fos- dislike?" Keefe sputtered. "Why the f*ck are there flowers that mean that? And why are they being sold in a shop?"
Sophie shrugged. "Not everyone cares about flower language."
"Well," Keefe huffed. "Guess I've gotta pay more attention." They turned to Fitz, then grinned. "Guess it's good that I didn't buy any for you, Fitzy."
"I... guess, yeah." Fitz scratched the back of his neck. "At least you know now."
"Oh, Sophie," Biana said. "Wanna have game night today? Keefe can join us if they want."
"Sorry, Keefe and I are going out." She left it with that, not knowing what else to say.
"Alright, that's fine."
They then got to work opening the shop. While Fitz and Keefe dealt with the customers, Sophie waited for the order to come. Instead of sitting down like she normally would, Biana came and stood next to her.
"I wanted to ask you this earlier," Biana whispered. "But everything is going alright with you, right?"
Internally, Sophie laughed. I'm half siren, does that count as being alright? Externally, she just smiled lightly and replied, "Yeah, why?"
Biana turned around and glanced at Keefe, who had just put an arm around Fitz's shoulder. "It's just... I like Keefe, I think they're cool, but your explanation as to how you met them doesn't seem like the truth. I just want to make sure everything is okay with you."
Sophie shrugged, hoping that it seemed casual. "Don't worry, I'm fine. I'll tell you if something's wrong."
She nodded. "As your best friend, you better tell me. Anyways, where are you and Keefe going?"
"Meeting two of Keefe's other friends, their names are Linh and Marella." Knowing the names of their two friends made explaining a lot easier, since once again, it wasn't a lie.
"Oh, that's cool. Have fun with that!"
~•~•~•~•~•
"So, just to confirm," Sophie began. "But unlike pants, shirts don't magically transform under water?"
"Nope. Unfortunately, Foster, you don't get to take your hoodie underwater."
"Well, damn. I'm gonna have to actually search for something to wear."
"Do you not go swimming Foster?" Keefe asked.
"No, not often." She tumbled through her drawers. "I think I might have something Biana bought for me- can you leave so I can change?"
"I'll wait for you downstairs."
After a few minutes, she found what she needed- a red top (that was actually similarly coloured to her tail) designed for swimming- and put it on, underneath her normal clothes. She debated whether she'd need a towel, before deciding to pack two in a small bag.
The two of them walked towards the water, and Sophie absently noted that this was the path that she'd taken in the first place (or well, it seemed vaguely familiar). She entered the water, and despite knowing that she had a tail, she was still thrown off by its existence.
"Swimming is weird with a tail."
"I missed mine, I still think that walking is overrated," Keefe said.
"I keep feeling like I'm about to fall over," Sophie grumbled, swimming in circles. After a bit, she managed to get herself to move properly in the water again. "Alright, lead the way."
"Oh, Foster, try not to make your heart glow, okay? I don't want to attract any unwanted attention."
She looked at them blankly. "How about you tell me how to do that? Or tell me more about this whole glowing hearts thing."
They shrugged. "I don't even know why your heart glows in the first place. But when you aren't feeling a particular emotion, your heart doesn't really glow, it's a very faint grey."
"Is this something you instinctively knew after becoming a siren? Or did you have to learn everything?"
Keefe hummed. "I can't really remember exactly, but I just knew ."
"Huh, weird."
"I guess it is. Oh, we're here!"
Sophie looked around, examining her surroundings. It was mostly empty (though, she wasn't exactly sure what she was expecting in the water, in the middle of nowhere). There were some coral and other plants, and she reached out to touch it.
"Ooh, that's satisfying."
"That gets old after a while," Keefe said.
"How... how long have you been a siren?"
"I don't know, it's kinda hard to keep track of time. At least a year." Despite the words, their tone was light.
Sophie blinked. They'd been a siren for a year? They had to live without their memories, live all alone, deep within these waters, for at least a year? All this, because they were caught in a vulnerable state, and happened to be within the range of a siren? What about other sirens? How long would they have been cursed to live like this?
"Woah Foster, it's not that serious, your heart's really blue right now."
Maybe it wasn't serious to them, but shouldn't this be a bigger deal? How many sirens were out there, in this situation? She'd almost ended up in that situation, lucky that the curse messed up, leaving her with her memories.
"Is that a broken heart? All the way out here?" A soft voice asked.
"It's the wrong blue, too bright to be broken. This person's just sad," a second voice replied, slightly higher in pitch.
"You should start singing then," the first voice said.
"Don't tell me what to- that's not a human. "
"Oh, hey, you're here!" Keefe called out. "And nope, that's not a human, that's Foster!"
Sophie frowned at the mention of her not being human.
"Why is Foster's heart glowing?" The one with a higher pitched voice asked, and now Sophie could see how they looked. This siren had blond hair and blue eyes- similar to Keefe- but instead of a blue tail, their tail was coloured like a fire.
"I brought her here to see if any of you could figure it out."
"Uh, hi, I'm Sophie Foster," Sophie greeted with a wave, then winced at how lame she sounded.
"Wait, you have a last name?" The blond one asked.
"If you don't mind answering, how long have you been a siren, Sophie?" The other one- a siren with a silvery-blue tail asked.
"Uh, this is day two? I, uh, have all my memories. I also turn human out of the water, and so does Keefe."
The blue-tailed siren tilted their head. "Oh, that's strange. I'm Linh, by the way. And she's Marella."
"Not Mare. Not Ella. No nicknames," Marella said.
Keefe grinned. "I've heard Linh call you fi-"
Marella flicked a hand towards them, and they were launched backwards by the water. "Shut up."
"Ow!" Keefe whined.
Sophie ignored the two of them, and moved closer towards Linh. "Keefe told me that you know a lot about sirens."
"I wouldn't say a lot, because I'm not sure as to how much of it is true. I'm a fan of stories, and my brother was good at finding information. Is there something specific you need to know?"
"Do you have any idea as to why the curse would mess up? Keefe was the one who was supposed to turn me, but when we woke up, we were both humans. When we went in the water afterwards, we both transformed into sirens."
"Are there any other things that are odd?"
"Well, there's the fact that my heart apparently glows. I can't see the hearts, but Keefe can."
Ve hummed, before going to Keefe. "Keefe, did you notice anything odd when you kissed her?"
"My memory's kinda fuzzy, so I'm not really sure."
Ve frowned. "I don't really have that much to work with, but it does seem like Keefe's more siren-like than you are. How often are your withdrawals?"
"Mine come quicker than Foster's," Keefe replied. "Are you saying that it's not broken, but more like... the curse got stuck midway through?"
"It's probably better that way. At least Sophie here gets to keep her memories," Marella said.
"Maybe," Linh said, ver voice quiet. One of ver hands rubbed against ver wrist. Sophie realized that ve'd been holding ver wrist the entire time.
The world went quiet after that, and Sophie couldn't stand the silence. "What exactly are sirens? I mean, I know they're beings who travel in search of broken hearts so they can become human again, but, like..." she tried to think of how to phrase what she wanted to say.
"You mean the origin?" Linh asked. Sophie nodded. "One of the theories is that sirens have just existed like any other animal would. Other sirens believe that a human, at their lowest point, was given a second chance at life by a higher being. Though, I don't really believe in a higher being. My personal favourite is that a long time ago, a human broke the heart of someone else, and they were cursed for it."
"Oh, that's interesting." It didn't provide much information that would help her, especially since the origin of sirens wasn't actually known . But it was better to have a vague idea than to have no idea.
"Marella and I can go look for other sirens to see if we can find out any more information," Linh said.
"Yeah, we can do that," Marella agreed. "You two better not slack off and make us do all the work though."
"It was nice meeting you both," Sophie said. "I'll make sure we figure this out as soon as possible."
"See you soon, Sophie. Always great to have new company, especially someone who can deal with them." Marella pointed to Keefe.
"Hey!"
"They've been behaving pretty well, I think," Sophie told her.
"Hey!" Keefe's protest was even louder, but Sophie and Marella ignored them.
"That's a pretty good accomplishment. Next time we meet, you gotta tell me how you do it."
"I'm not sure what it is, but if I figure it out, I'll let you know."
"Linh, they're bullying me!"
Linh said nothing, ve only covered ver mouth with ver hand. "Tell me all about how it feels to be a human next time you see us."
"You're not even defending me!?"
Sophie smiled. Maybe this situation was more complex than she'd thought, but she was happy that she wasn't alone in this.