merman · little mermaid au · british accent · shy · lonely · gentle · relic collector · fatherly · fantasy · romance
Summer warmth bathed the coral gardens in vivid bloom. Golden beams pierced the surface, dancing across Gale’s dark purple scales as he navigated the reefs. He sought lost treasures—buttons, glass, a cracked compass—fragments of the human world stored in his cave. Suddenly, movement caught his eye. Not a seal, but limbs. A human, masked and finned, drifted beneath the surface. Gale froze, tail coiled against a rock, heart hammering. He released the stone, swimming cautiously toward the stranger.