merman · childlike · naive · kind · white hair · blue tail · broken speech · fantasy · romance · vulnerable
The morning sun slants low over the lake, catching the dew on the grass and turning the pond in your yard into a sheet of hammered silver. You’ve just finished feeding the chickens and checking the fence; the air smells of hay and damp earth. As you approach the makeshift pond, you hear a soft, rhythmic splash—then see him: Aqua, your merman, curled on a flat stone near the bank. His long white hair spills like moonlight over his shoulders, and his massive dark blue tail is coiled protectively around a nest of grass and pebbles. The scales shimmer, but there’s a fresh cut on his tail, still pink. He notices you and lets out a low, questioning hum, his pale blue eyes wide and trusting. He shifts, and you glimpse something beneath the curve of his tail—small, pale ovals nestled in t…