Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ruby shrugged off the last of her bags, and looked around at the empty dorm room with a smile. The excitement to live on her own was bubbling inside her like boiling water. Sure, you’re never that far away from home when both of your homes are on the shore, and you can travel the biggest ocean in the world in an hour and a half (she was shooting for an hour flat by the end of the semester), but she was excited to have a space that was hers . 

Or well, half hers. It turns out being the world-renowned protector of the ocean nets you a lot of benefits, and one of them could have been a solo room. But she had turned it down. Her mother had gently asked her if she was sure, while her brother had much less gently asked her if she was out of her mind. But she was sure. Because she already knew who her roommate was going to be…

She was just stretching her limbs across the bed to put on the last corner of the sheets when the door opened again behind her. She spun around to see Chelsea van der Zee standing in the door, duffel bag over her shoulder and suitcase at her side. “Hello again, Your Highness.” She said with her same old smirk and casual confidence. 

“Chelsea!” Ruby smiled, bounding across the room in two big steps, but stopping herself short of hugging the mermaid girl. It had been three years since they’d last seen each other, and that was a pretty complicated night. She wasn’t sure how Chelsea would feel about-

“I can see you overthinking over there.” Chelsea interrupted her thoughts. “Come here.” She held out her arms, and Ruby gladly stepped forward into them. She returned the hug, and the pair stood there for a moment in the doorway of their room. 

Ruby opened her eyes in confusion, her brow knitting together. Pulling back slightly, she squeezed one of Chelsea’s biceps, surprised to find decent muscle under them. “Oh you noticed that huh?” Chelsea said with a smirk. 

Ruby leaned back and took her first, real look at Chelsea. She looked mostly the same. Slightly taller, more adult. Closer to her mother, not that Ruby would bring that up. But Ruby saw that on top of all that she had a fair bit of lithe muscle. She could even see that her signature crop top look showed off some abs on her stomach. “Have you been working out?” She blurted before she could stop herself, then slapped a hand over her mouth. Was that too forward?

But Chelsea only laughed. “Come on, sit down. Let’s catch up.” She and Ruby released each other, and the pair sat down on Ruby’s freshly-made bed. 

“I didn’t get that far after I left the lighthouse.” Chelsea began. “It turns out when a livestream of you and your mom trying to take over the world goes viral, the government takes notice. And when they come to collect your mom, and she rats you out out of spite, you don’t even get to the nearest airport.” 

Ruby winced. She hadn’t been considering all the ripples of the Prom Night Fight (as she had taken to calling it in her mind) at the time. “Sorry.” She said, though she wasn’t sure why. Sorry you got caught ? Sorry I wasn’t there to vouch for you ? Sorry you had such a shitty mom ? All that and more ? 

“Pffft. Not your problem to deal with.” Chelsea waved Ruby’s worries away. “Besides, I got a pretty good deal out of it. When they saw that I had helped in stopping Nerissa, and realized I had been manipulated into helping her, they let me off easy.” Chelsea sat up straight and put on a faux-authoritative voice “‘For your actions you shall preform 600 hours of community service.” Chelsea dropped the voice and snorted. “Think they just wanted someone to do their dirty work for them, but it was better than the inside of a tank. So I cleaned lakes. Pulled out invasive species and garbage, that kind of stuff.” 

“Really? Well, kudos for helping the environment.” Ruby knew Chelsea only did it because she was mandated to, but looked on the bright side. 

“Thanks, but that’s not the whole story. Funny enough, I’m also a member of an endangered species. So all the environmental groups got involved and that was a whole mess.” Chelsea shrugged “I didn’t follow that much of the legal drama as I probably should’ve, but it shook out that I would have to be provided for and that stuff. So they gave me a little apartment, a living stipend, and I got into a high school. After my community service was up, I kept at the cleaning, but now I could get paid for it. That, the stipend, and some scholarships landed me here.” Chelsea finished the story somewhat quickly, but it felt like there wasn’t really much else to talk about. 

Not much she wanted Ruby to know about anyway. 

“But enough about me!” Chelsea clapped her hands together and turned to Ruby. “What about you? What was Oceanside like for the Defender of the Seven Seas after I left?”

“Oh! Well, you know. Busy!” The forced cheer was evident in Ruby’s voice, but Chelsea decided to put that away for later. “I, uh, I missed a lot of class. Like a lot . If I weren’t already so ahead in math and science, and my absences weren’t already public knowledge,” she added the second part under her breath “then I probably would’ve been held back on attendance alone.” The cheer dropped out of Ruby’s voice for a moment, but it was back just as quickly. “But it was pretty great otherwise!”

“Uh-huh.” Chelsea said, unconvinced. “What about your friends? The Squad? And the skater boy, Oscar? Carl?”

“Connor?”

“Yeah, that’s him! How’re things going with him?” Chelsea lightly elbowed Ruby’s side, a conspiratorial look in her eyes. 

“Yeah, heh, well they’re uh. They’re not going at all actually. We broke up after a few months.”

“Oh.” Chelsea’s arm and expression dropped. “Shit Ruby, I’m sorry.”

“No don’t worry. You didn’t know.” Ruby gave Chelsea a small smile. “Besides, it was mutual. I was away too much for him, and he uh…we…we weren’t as compatible as I thought we would be.” For a moment Ruby looked out into the distance, lost in the memory. “Oh, but the Squad and I are still tight! We all went to different colleges, but we’ve got the group chat still.” Ruby slipped her phone out of her pocket and looked at it. “Actually I promised them I’d send a selfie when I got my room all set up.” 

“Oh, here let me-“ Chelsea started to stand up from Ruby’s bed, but a tentacled hand shot out and stopped her. 

“No it’s ok!” She interrupted, pulling Chelsea back down next to her. And right then, her mind caught up with how forward she was being. “I-I mean if you want to of course, no pressure or anything!” 

Chelsea smiled at the dorky panicked assurances. “Alright, sure thing.” She slid in closer to Ruby (who definitely pretended not to notice) and held up a peace sign. 

Ruby smiled too, before flipping her phone into selfie mode and extending her arm out. 

“Better than a selfie stick.” slipped out before Chelsea could stop it. Ruby snorted a little, and her smile became less staged and more genuine. “Also, take it looking down at the room.”

“What? Why?” Ruby asked. 

“Selfie 101. Everyone looks better from an upward angle. Here-“ Chelsea put her hand under Ruby’s arm and gently began pushing it up. “little more…little more…there.” She stopped and put her arm back at her side. “Now take it.” 

Ruby snapped the photo on autopilot, hoping her blush wouldn’t show up in the shot. 

“There, check that out!” Ruby refocused on the phone screen at Chelsea’s voice, and sure enough the photo angle did wonders to hide a lot of strange folds of skin on both of their faces. “Ok, I have to start unpacking my stuff now.” With that, Chelsea quickly stood up off the bed. “Definitely send me that too though.” Ruby nodded as Chelsea stood up from her bed and went back over to where she had left her bags on her half of the room. Ruby laid down on her bed and sent the selfie to the Squad, then Chelsea. The reaction was instant, and just what she expected. 

MarGOAT: WHAAAA??? Girl your roomie is CHELSEA? 

Tr3v1n: We can come bust you outta there, if you need us to

Bl-hisss!: I don’t think she needs us to babe. She can turn into a five story tall kraken. 

Tr3v1n: Oh yeah

Ruby began fielding all the questions and assuring them that yes, she was in sound mind and body. As she did, she glanced up from her phone to see how Chelsea was doing with her side of the room. It was sparse, but one thing that caught Ruby’s eye was a piece of driftwood with the words “Super Secret Sea Bestie” burned into it. 

Kra-KING: Don’t worry so much guys. I think this time things are going to be better.

Chapter Text

All conversation stopped as Chelsea stepped into her classroom. Heads turned and stared, and even the professor cast her an awkward glance. 

In the past she would have reveled in this attention, knowing that these humans would be falling all over themselves just to pull out her chair. But now it was a different kind of attention, and as she shifted her bag up her shoulder and made her way over to her seat, the eyes burned with dislike and distrust. 

It had been made very clear to the whole world what she and her mother had tried to do (thanks Captain Ahab), so people were almost always angry with her. But at the same time, her status as an endangered species was also made known. The laws got a little muddled as far as sentient endangered beings were concerned (she supposed she could be proud of being one of the first to hold that title), but she had to check in with the local wildlife preservation chapter once a week, and if she showed up with so much as a bruise there would be hell to pay. At first a few people had tried the mean girls tactic of “words do hurt actually,” but mermaids invented that shit and after she made them run crying from the room, everyone settled on cold isolation. 

Well, almost everyone. 

The door flew open twenty minutes into the class and Ruby flew in like an Olympic sprinter. “Sorry, sorry I’m late! I had to break up a fight between a giant squid and a killer whale.” The teacher nodded sympathetically, gesturing over to the seats. With zero hesitation, Ruby strolled over and dropped down right next to Chelsea. Chelsea slid her notebook over slightly so Ruby could copy what she had so far, and Ruby gave her a tired but grateful smile in return.

Leave it to Ruby to crush any and all expectations wherever she went. She was an international hero, a princess of the largest kingdom in the world, beloved by all. And here she was, sitting next to “persona non grata” Chelsea. It left the rest of the school (and world) in a mental bind they didn’t know how to solve. 

“Ugh, I’m so bad at history.” Ruby muttered, pulling Chelsea out of her thoughts. Chelsea smiled slightly at that. The pair were getting through all the general education requirements the first semester, so they had mostly similar classes, if not the same one like the one they were in now. Ruby was top of the class in math and science, that was already well known, but struggled with all the names and places and dates in history. Conversely, mermaids extended lifespan gave Chelsea a natural advantage at remembering faces and names and such, but any equation beyond y = mx + b she looked at might as well have been another language. So the pair tutored each other, and sometimes Chelsea found herself retroactively jealous of…Colin? He was lucky to spend this much time with Ruby. 

Chelsea unlocked the door to their shared student room and threw her bag onto her bed. “Ugh, I swear my Calc profes-“ her words died on her lips when she saw that Ruby wasn’t at her laptop like she usually was at this time, but instead a lump on her bed covered in blankets. “Oops. Sorry!” Chelsea whispered in case she was awake, but the kraken didn’t stir. Chelsea resolved herself to a quiet day in the room, so she grabbed a pair of headphones and got to work slogging through her assignments. 

A couple hours later, Chelsea caught movement from Ruby’s bed out of the corner of her eye. The blankets shifted and slid aside as the other girl sat up in bed. “Hey sleepyhead. How was-woah.” Chelsea’s good-natured ribbing died on her lips again as she got a good look at Ruby for the first time that day. 

She looked terrible. Her eyes were baggy and drooping, her skin was far too dry for a kraken. And it was also a strange purple color, but a different hue than when she was giant. “Hey, are you ok?” 

“I feel awful.” Her voice was heavy with congestion and tiredness. 

“You don’t look that great either tbh. Chelsea stood up and walked over. Putting the back of her hand on Ruby’s forehead, her eyes creased with worry before she took it away. “And you’re burning up. Who knew krakens could get fevers?” 

“I should go to the health center.” Ruby started to get out of bed. Chelsea backed off, wanting to help but also not wanting to catch whatever she had. 

“What are they gonna do? They don’t exact have experience with krakens.” Chelsea pointed out, turning around as Ruby changed out of her pajamas into a t-shirt and pants. “You need to go home.” 

“…yeah, I guess so.” Chelsea didn’t hear clothes ruffling anymore, and turned around to Ruby dangerously swaying in one spot. Oh fuck it. Stepping forward, she caught Ruby just before she fell face first onto the floor. 

“Well at the very least you have to get to the water before you dry out entirely.” Chelsea grabbed Ruby’s shoulder with one hand, and snagged her phone with the other. She then did a pretty good job of multitasking in her opinion, guiding Ruby out of the building and to the shore while also unlocking her phone with her FaceID and sending off a text to her mother. She didn’t mention that it was her texting and not Ruby, that could be a little white lie for the greater good right now. Locking the phone, she slipped it into Ruby’s pocket as they arrived at the pier. 

“Alright, in you go.” Chelsea let Ruby go, and the kraken stumbled forward and belly-flopped down into the water before slowly sinking beneath the surface. Chelsea winced, that looked pretty painful. 

She waited for Ruby’s giant kraken form to rise from the water, but it didn’t. Chelsea started to worry. I mean, she’s a giant kraken . She can’t drown, and she’s tougher than anything else in there. After a few more moments, Chelsea scoffed and dove in after her. 

It took a moment, but what she saw was almost adorable. Ruby had shifted to her giant kraken form, but had fallen asleep again, snoring out bubbles with her head against the sand. Chelsea snorted to herself. Ruby probably needed sleep, but doing it at the bottom of the ocean wasn’t going to be as comfortable as her nice soft bed, no matter how naturally aquatic you are. “Hey. Ruby. Come on, get up.” Chelsea swam down to her head and began lightly slapping the giant cheek with her tail. “I know you wanna sleep, but you gotta swim home first.”

“Mmmggghhh. Don’t wanna.” Ruby swung a giant hand through the water like she was pushing away an annoyance. It missed Chelsea by a mile, but the current from it still battered her around a bit. 

“Woah! Alright, that’s it. No more Ms. Nice ex-nemesis. Get up.” Chelsea swam under the kraken’s giant shoulder and began to push, attempting to force Ruby to sit up. Of course, this did not work, and the only thing it accomplished was five minutes of struggling, then five more minutes of attempting to get out from under the shoulder when it fell back down onto her. Chelsea now sat on top of that shoulder wondering how she was supposed to move a giant kraken. Where’s a mythic trident when you need one? “Ruubbbyyyy” Chelsea whined in frustration.

“...sea.” Ruby grumbled. Chelsea froze. Was Ruby actually awake?

“Ruby?” 

“Chhhelseea?” It was slurred with sleep, but definitely her name. Duh. Chelsea thought, berating herself mentally. How could I forget the strongest weapon a mermaid has? The siren song. This wasn’t an active sort of ability like Ruby’s laser eyes, but mermaids were naturally more persuasive than most. Ms. Nice ex-nemesis was back.

“Heeeyyy Ruby.” Chelsea crooned into Ruby’s ear. “We gotta get up now, ok?” Ruby grumbled something, but was looking more aware by the moment. “I know you want to sleep, but we just have to take a quick half hour swim first ok? Then you can sleep in your nice comfy bed.” Ruby sat up, which Chelsea considered a win. 

“-ll you come with me?” Chelsea’s eyes widened at Ruby’s request. Going back to the Oceanside sounded like a terrible idea for a bunch of reasons, but she didn’t want to say no and lose all this progress. 

A compromise then. And hopefully I don’t get impaled by a warlord kraken. “I’ll swim back with you, ok?” I won’t go on land with you, but you don’t have to know that. Chelsea felt bad for lying to Ruby again (a lot worse than she expected actually), but she was pretty sure things would be bad if Agatha saw her again. 

It turned out the swim was more than enough effort for her anyway. Ruby’s coordination was just as bad in the water as it was on land, and Chelsea spent the better part of the trip frantically pushing against a specific part of Ruby’s body to keep her from swimming headfirst into an underwater cliff. It was slow, nerve-wracking progress, but eventually they made it to the shore of Oceanside. 

Check heaved a sigh of relief. “Ok Ruby, time to go home.” 

“Yeah?” She asked, eyes still drooping low. Chelsea was worried for a moment about leaving her alone, but she was beloved by everyone in town. Even if she didn’t make it back to her house, someone would find her and help her the rest of the way. “Yeah, time to go.”

“I’ll see you again, right?” It was probably the clearest sentence Chelsea had heard Ruby say all day, and the kraken turned to her with visible concern in her eyes. Chelsea’s heart clenched at how sweet it was. 

“Yeah, I’ll see you again. When you get better you’ll come back to college and I’ll still be there.” Speaking of, she should really get back soon. Her general location was pretty heavily monitored, and she was already looking down the barrel of a long long talk explaining why she left campus grounds without notice. “So you go talk to your mom, tell her you’re not feeling well, and get better soon ok? I promise I won’t throw any crazy parties without you.” 

“Ok. See you later.” Ruby waved sluggishly at her, then pushed herself upward towards the surface. Right when Chelsea thought she was going to breach at full size and cause more property damage to the small down, she shrunk down and launched out of the water at normal human size. 

Ok, good. Chelsea thought, turning at and heading back for the campus. She’ll be fine.

She’ll be fine.

The door opened with a little squeak in it’s hinges, but to Chelsea it sounded like a gunshot. After all, there should only be one other person who knows the code and would bother to come in without knocking. She jumped out of her chair, spun around, and beamed a big smile when Ruby stepped through, smiling…somewhat sheepishly? Whatever. “You’re back!” Chelsea looked Ruby over. Healthy skin tone, open and alert eyes, no unsteady swaying. One perfectly healthy teenage-adult kraken. “That was fast.”

“Hah, yeah. My mom knew exactly what was up with me, and exactly what to do.” 

Chelsea let out a little sigh, glad she had made the right choice to bring Ruby back to her parents. But she didn’t know what to do, and the human at the campus health center definitely wouldn’t have known what to do. 

“And, uh.” Ruby’s continued sentence brought Chelsea back out of her thoughts. “Thank you. For helping me get back home. I was really out of it, but I remember that.” 

“Of course. That’s what Super Secret Sea Besties are for.” 

“Yeaaahhh…Hey did I…” Ruby stalled out on her sentence. “Did I say anything weird while you were helping me? Because I was, whew, you know! Really far gone!”

Chelsea mentally rolled back through their interactions. She stuck on a part at the end for a moment. “I’ll see you again right?”

“Nope, nothing I can think of. Just a lot of half-asleep mumbling. I don’t think most of it was even words.”

“Oh good. I MEAN O-K! Ok! Good to know!” Ruby practically shouted back. The girl almost literally slid(she tended to lose some of the rigidity in her limbs when she was flustered) over to her desk and plopped down, pointedly not looking at Chelsea. 

“O…k…” Chelsea was confused, but decided not to push it. She was halfway through turning back to her desk when she felt a noodle-ly pair of arms wrap around her shoulders. 

“Thank you.” 

Chelsea smiled and patted one of the hands. “Anytime Ruby.” 

Chapter Text

Chelsea shook out her hair as she resurfaced from the lake. Swimming to the dock, she grunted slightly as she hauled up another bunch of the invasive weeds. “And with that, my day’s over.” 

“Yep!” Cheryl said cheerily as she dragged the bundle over the scale, weighing it in and making a note on her iPad. Chelsea hauled herself out of the lake and removed her gloves as Cheryl dragged the bunch over to the nearby pickup truck. “Thanks again for your help Chelsea, it would be so much more of a hassle to clear these lakes without your help, practically and bureaucratically.” 

“Underwater is what I do, you know?” Chelsea deflected the compliment, but still appreciated it. She had recently developed a weird relationship with praise. Obviously mermaids were no strangers to it, but those songs and stories and myths were based on a) illusions and lies painted by the mermaids of days past, and b) mostly focused on their physical looks and beauty. So to have someone genuinely compliment something she did, not what she was or how she looked? It would take some getting used to. 

“Any thoughts on when I can next expect you?” Because Chelsea was so good at pulling underwater weeds, she got a lot of leeway from her “clients” (that’s technically what they were, but it still felt strange to call the U.S. Government her client), such as when she worked. 

“I should have a few hours Thursday afternoon. Around 2.” 

“Works for me. I’ll see you then!” Chelsea waved goodbye and turned towards the bus stop that would take her back to campus. 

Ruby’s watch buzzed on her wrist, and she went to grab her phone and check what it was. Chelsea wouldn’t have heard it if their room wasn’t totally quiet, both of them working on assignments for individual classes. 

Ruby put the phone to her ear and didn’t even get a word in before the other person started talking. She replied a few quick “yeah"s and “I think so”s, but Chelsea did her best to tune them out. She had hit a good stride on this history paper-

“Hey Chelsea?” Ruby saying her name jarred her out of her focus. She looked up to see Ruby grinning…excitedly(?) at her. “Do you have some time today?”

She looked back to her laptop screen. She had made enough progress on the essay where she was confident she could pick up the thread of her idea later. “Yeah, I think so. What’s up?” 

“Wanna help me out with this save?” 

“What, really?” Chelsea’s eyes went wide. “What would I even do?” She was one mermaid, Ruby was a towering kraken. 

“There are some people trapped in some underwater caves. You shuttle them air tanks, water, that stuff. I carve out space in the tunnel so they can send in a sub to get them out.” 

“I, uh.” The logic was pretty sound to Chelsea. “I don’t know if I can. Legally.” She was still in some pretty hot water for ‘going AWOL’ when she took Ruby back home, she probably wouldn’t be allowed anywhere besides campus and work for months. 

“Hhmm.” Ruby’s eyebrows knitted together in thought, before looking back up to Chelsea. “Could you call them? Whoever is in charge of that?” 

“Yeah, sure.” Chelsea grabbed her own phone. Scrolling through the contacts, she picked out her handler’s name and hit call before handing the phone into Ruby’s grabby hands. 

She barely had the phone up to her ear for a moment before she started speaking. “Hi! No, this is someone else. Yeah, yeah she’s fine. Oh, Ruby Gillman. Yeah, you might know me from international acts of heroism. Uh-huh. Hey, I’m gonna borrow Chelsea for a bit to help me out with something, ok? Uh-huh. Alright, you get all that paperwork started, and I’ll let you know when we’re back thanksbye!” Ruby quickly ended the call, then turned off Chelsea’s phone. “He said it’s ok.” 

“Yeah?” Chelsea replied with a smile and one raised eyebrow. “I didn’t expect the math geek from three years ago to break the, well not just rules but law.” 

“Three years ago Ruby wouldn’t have. But that’s plenty of time to change.”

“Amen sister.” 

Ruby went back to her phone and said “I’ll be there, and I’m bringing help.” After listening for a few moments, she hung up. 

“Alright, come on! Race you to the water!” Ruby shouted back as she dashed by Chelsea and out the door. 

“Oh it’s on! And no going giant, that’s cheating!”

“Alright, this is where we’re supposed to meet them.” Ruby said as her head breached the surface, and she lifted Chelsea out of the water with her. 

“I don’t see any supplies. Or caves actually.” 

“It’s not on the ocean, it’s part of a lake inland. So we’re-ah! There they are!” Following Ruby’s gaze, Chelsea spotted a sea plane bobbing gently in the waves. “We have to fly the rest of the way.” 

Chelsea nodded as Ruby wadded over to the waiting plane, careful not to rock it with the waves she was making. Shrinking back to normal size, the pair accepted the offered hand to be pulled up into the cabin. The man offered them a pair of headsets, and wasted no time gesturing to the pilot to take off. 

“Thank you for your help Ms. Gillman, and you Ms. van der Zee.” Being called ‘Ms. van der Zee’ rocked Chelsea a bit, but she knew she was going to be rolling with the punches today, so she set that feeling aside for later. The guy was explaining what the two of them would be doing, but Chelsea trusted Ruby when she gave her the elevator pitch earlier so she wasn’t really listening there. Find the people in the cave, keep them alive. The view out the windows was gorgeous, Ruby seemed to agree as the kraken was staring out her own window, fogging up the glass with how close she was to it. Actually, Ruby was really fogging up the glass. Chelsea looked closer, and saw that Ruby was stock still, and breathing like she had just run a marathon. 

“Ruby?” Chelsea narrowed her eyes in concern. “Ruby.” The guy finally stopped talking and looked over to Ruby with an eyebrow raised, having only just realized something was off with her. “Ruby, look at me.” Chelsea didn’t need to think too hard to assume Ruby was afraid of flying, and when Ruby turned to her with wide unfocused eyes, any doubt was excised from her mind. “I’m gonna put my hand on your shoulder, is that ok?” Receiving a slow, distant nod was enough for her. She squeezed Ruby’s shoulder and turned back to the guy. “Tell the pilot to fly faster.” 

“We’re already flying-“

Chelsea pressed the ‘Mute’ button on the side of Ruby’s headphones and leaned forward so Ruby couldn’t see her face. “She’s a giant kraken idiot, what do you think happens to us if she transforms thousands of feet above the ground?” She didn’t wait for a reply, instead turning back and unmuting Ruby’s headset. “Hey Ruby?” 

“Hmm?” Ruby hummed, barely audible over the sound of the plane. 

“Hey, tell me about that mathlete stuff. How does being a professional nerd work?” Her voice had an air of lighthearted teasing, hoping it would get Ruby out of her head to talk about something she loved doing. She wasn’t sure if this was a full on panic attack or just Ruby freezing, but on top of wanting to help her friend in a crisis, she also really didn’t want Ruby to lose control of her powers now.

And it seemed like it was working. A bit of the spark has returned to her eyes, and she replied “I’m not a professional nerd .’” She shot back, and Chelsea smiled. 

It was strange that the job they actually came to do felt very minor in comparison to the high strung plane ride to get to it. Either the people in the cave weren’t up to date on global events, or coming to save their lives overrode any animosity they felt towards her, but the people trapped in the cave practically kissed her hand when she arrived with the oxygen tanks and drinkable water. 

It also helped make her part of the job feel more important and less like being the waterboy of the team. Chelsea would heft a waterproof crate and swim by Ruby, who was laser-focused (ba dum tsss) on laser carving the underwater caves wider. Whenever she passed, molten rock would be dripping down before re-cooling into solid falling boulders. It increased the temperature of the surrounding water dramatically. Thankfully it was no underwater volcano, so Chelsea could handle it. But it still felt like she was doing the backup work a bit. But she shut that part of her up. Ruby was a kraken, a giant kraken princess known and loved by all. She was going to command the spotlight wherever she went, not maliciously. It was just who she was now. 

Talking to her helped a lot too.

“Hey.” Chelsea said, resting on Ruby’s giant shoulder. There was nothing more for her to do. All the supplies had been brought, the water pressure was too high to escort them out without a pressurized vessel, she just had to wait for the rescue sub like everyone else. “How you feelin?”

“Fine, why?” Ruby replied, not taking her eyes off her work (good, Chelsea didn’t want to be flame-broiled mermaid) but definitely paying attention.

“Well.” It occurred to Chelsea right then and there that maybe bringing this up now wasn’t a good time. But it was probably their only private time before the two of them would have to get back in the plane, so it was now or never. “On the plane back there…” 

“Oh yeah. Ha. Yeah.” Ruby’s voice betrayed her awkwardness, and Chelsea mentally kicked herself. “I guess I’m scared of flying. Who knew? You seemed pretty fine.” There was a note of bitterness in her voice, but Chelsea was pretty sure that it wasn’t directed at her, so she didn’t let it get to her. 

“Yeah, I had to fly a few times while they were shipping me from lake to lake doing cleanup.” It wasn’t an explanation of why she wasn’t afraid, but she didn’t have one. “You wanna…talk about it?” She choked a little on the words, they sounded patronizing and childish to her. 

But Ruby paused her task, flicking a grateful look to her before turning back to the rock. “It’s just…so high in the air.” 

Chelsea nodded. Maybe a fear of heights then she mused to herself. 

“You’d probably be fine if you-er, if something happened.” Chelsea tactfully stopped herself from saying “fell”. Ruby probably didn’t want to hear that right now. “You could just go big, right? Armor up?” 

“Yeah, probably.” The deferral was in Ruby’s voice, not in her words. Chelsea didn’t push it, she knew all too well from her own nightmares that fears weren’t always rational. 

“Will you be ok to go back to the plane after this is all said and done?” She asked instead. Ruby paused in her lasering, staring much further than the rock around them allowed. 

“Yeah, yeah I think so.” Ruby eventually came back to the present and turned back to Chelsea with a smile, only slightly strained. “I had never flown before, so I didn’t know. But I think I’m ready this time.” 

“Sweet.” Chelsea leaned back into the crook of Ruby’s shoulder. “And hey, once we’re done here there’s no pressure or anything. You could just walk us back to the shore if you had to.” 

“Hm. I guess I could.” Ruby sounded like she hadn’t thought of that. “But flying would be faster.” 

“It would.” Chelsea admitted. No need to mince words. Ruby nodded, and Chelsea decided to leave it there. She was just a guest on this mission/operation/rescue thing. Speaking of which… “So what happens now?” Chelsea asked, stretching her joints until they popped. “Is it usually this much waiting?”

“Sometimes. Depends on what’s happening. If there’s a fight, it’s pretty short.”

Chelsea put a hand over her heart and let out a faux-affronted gasp. “Ruby. You’ve been fighting other people?” Just as the words left her mouth, it occurred to her that there may not have been enough time to pass to turn that tragedy into a comedy. Her mind always seemed a few seconds behind her mouth around Ruby.

Thankfully, Ruby laughed her big, big laugh. “I swear baby, they didn’t mean anything to me.” And Chelsea felt a little flip in her stomach when Ruby called her ‘baby’.

Another natural mermaid talent was thriving under attention, so when the cameras clicked and people started shouting questions, Chelsea didn’t let them catch her bad side. She was also surprised and a little proud to see Ruby taking it in stride as well. The girl was an introvert to the core, but she wasn’t stuttering or curling into herself (literally) as the Ruby from their teenage years would have. Of course she knew that everyone was really looking at Ruby, and not her, but that was probably for the best. And she got some real, genuinely grateful hugs from those trapped people that made her feel warm and fuzzy inside. No wonder Ruby did all this.

Later, they would approach the plane again. Slowly, at Ruby’s pace. She would stop in front of the open door like it was a maw that threatened to swallow her whole. Summoning up as much of her courage as Chelsea could find, she slipped her hand into Ruby’s and gave it a comforting squeeze. And Ruby would look at her, smile, and squeeze back.

Chapter Text

Chelsea was used to whispers and stares while she was out, and paid them no mind as usual. She was famous after all, though not in the was her mother had hoped for them. But she didn’t want the fame her mother wanted, not anymore. Maybe she never really even did, just tricked herself into thinking it. 

Mental ramblings of someone waiting in line for their morning coffee. 

She scrolled through her feed, inundated by images of Ruby, and herself. This was probably why the whisperers around her were less subtle than usual. Whenever Ruby made a save, she would appear in the news, on any social media website (respectable or not), and into the minds of the people for days on end. It helped too that she was almost universally loved. Sure, there were some who hated krakens for being different, and they threw their bigotry towards the biggest kraken out there (figuratively and literally. Ruby had told her one day that her Giant form was now two feet taller than her mom and grandma, beaming with pride). And there were people in the government that bitched and moaned about the sudden appearance of another empire on the planet, one controlling over 70% of its surface and all of its depths. But, in the eyes of the public, Ruby was a star. 

There was a cruel sort of irony to it that made Chelsea almost laugh sometimes. Another aspect of mermaid culture and biology was the urge to be seen. Recorded, looked at, popular, whatever it may be. Krakens, in contrast, had spent centuries buried in the depths as half-remembered boogeymen, and (usually) liked it that way. Yet here they were, Ruby getting weekly requests to be interviewed by late-night talk show hosts (she turns them all down); and Chelsea is a supporting role, if she’s even in the show at all. Most of the time the public tries to ignore that she exists. And she was happy for Ruby, knew what she had done to bring this on herself, and refused to let her nature rule who she could be. But jealously would still twist in her chest sometimes. 

She sipped her coffee (apparently she could add ordering coffee fully on autopilot to her resume) as she came across a news-style post about her and Ruby’s “trip”. But the image caught her attention, and she scrolled back up to read the text. Her eyes widened slightly, and she said out loud to herself “Oh she is not going to be happy about this.”

“RESTRAINS?” Ruby shouted again, echoing across the beach. She was in her Giant form, pacing back and forth, water coming up her knees, or where her knees would be. 

Chelsea was sitting on the shore. She had met Ruby there after her Mathlete meeting, figuring the kraken might want some space when she had heard, and Chelsea was right. 

It seems that one of the less scrupulous photographers had stalked them back to the plane after “the cave save”, as Chelsea had been calling it in her head, and snapped a picture of the pair holding hands. 

“Mmmm.” Chelsea eyed the headline again, “ KRAKEN HERO RESTRAINS WICKED MERMAID ” 

“They’re treating you like some kind of villain!” The water crashed up onto shore as Ruby raged by, soaking Chelsea’s ankles and butt where she was sitting in the sand. 

“I was some kind of villain.” Chelsea replied neutrally, like she was talking about what she had for lunch. 

“But you’re not now!” Ruby turned to her, distress clear in her eyes. “Doesn’t this bother you??”

Having that asked to her by the media’s current darling stabbed something behind Chelsea’s heart, and an angry “What would you know?” was on the tip of her tongue. But she took a breath and swallowed it back. Ruby was mad for her. Someone she stabbed in the back not five years ago was now willing to go to bat against the entire media for her. She had forgiven and forgotten faster than Chelsea could have ever dreamed, it wasn’t fair to attack her for this. 

“Come sit down.” She said instead, patting the sand next to her. Ruby opened her mouth, on the verge of saying something else, but Chelsea held up her other hand to stop her and patted the sand a little harder. 

With a huff, Ruby shrunk down to human size, and dropped down onto the beach. She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs, looking away with an adorable pout on her face. “It’s not fair.” She mumbled into her arms, only age separating her from looking like a petulant child. 

Chelsea would have smiled at the sight on any other day, but the topic at hand had her feeling too serious and contemplative instead. 

“It does bother me.” Chelsea started. Ruby turned to her with surprise in her eyes, but Chelsea continued before Ruby could open her mouth to respond. “It bothers me, but I understand why. My mom and I basically announced to the world that we were the first ever real-life Saturday morning cartoon villains. And yeah, I did it because I was tricked. I don’t regret it, I thought I was doing the right thing. Everyone knows it, but that’s not the story that gets clicks.” Chelsea picked up a fistful of sand, feeling it trail away between her fingers. Her eyes didn’t leave the horizon. “Someday the news will move on. The next big, BIG story will come and I’ll fade into ‘Oh yeah, her. Started out bad but she’s doing better now.’” She stood up, and Ruby did the same. “But for now, I’ll just keep doing my thing and tuning out the haters.” She gave a mostly genuine, slightly rueful smile to Ruby. “Me against the world.” 

For a moment, Ruby only looked at her, face still flushed from her rage session. Then, she lunged forward and wrapped Chelsea in a crushing hug. Chelsea wheezed lightly, unprepared for the extra-strong embrace, but quickly recovered and returned the favor. 

“I’m on your side.” Ruby said into her collarbone, and even though she had already known it instinctively, hearing Ruby say it out loud was a balm on Chelsea’s heart. “And I’m proud of you.” Ruby continued, surprising Chelsea. 

“Huh?” She replied dumbly. Ruby pushed the pair apart, hands still on Chelsea’s shoulders so she could look the mermaid in the eye, and Chelsea felt sad at the loss of contact. “I’m proud of you. You probably didn’t hear it enough from your mother, or anyone else, but I want you to know that I’m proud of you for doing the right thing even when everyone else is still against you.” 

“Everyone but you, right?” She said it as a joke, a way to buy time to process her feelings. Because if Ruby saying she was on her side was a balm, hearing her say she’s proud of her was a warm cabin with a cozy fireplace and pre-made hot chocolate in the middle of a roaring blizzard. But her tone gave her away, and the question came out far more vulnerable than she intended. 

“Yeah. Everyone but me.” Ruby assured, folding back into Chelsea’s readily open embrace. 

Chapter Text

She hadn’t realized how much of a part of Ruby’s life this had become. Sure, she knew the kraken was world famous, but this is crazy. 

Ruby, using only one hand, easily lifted the man into the air by his collar. Chelsea was pretty sure she was technically shorter than him, but she was also pretty sure Ruby was stretching her body out a bit to appear taller. 

“Give me the camera.” She said flatly. 

“I, you can’t do this, I have the right to- eep!” He cut himself off when Chelsea swiped the camera out of his hands. “Hey!” He recovered quickly, but it was too late. Finding the insert for the memory card while the paparazzo whined to no one who was listening, she quickly popped it out and hung the camera none-too-gently back around his neck. Without a word, she held it up before his eyes and crushed it to dust. She wasn’t kraken-strong, but mermaids were definitely stronger than humans. 

Ruby dropped the man to the ground, who was looking dejected. Risking a glance up, his eyes met the gaze of two very unhappy women, and he decided now was not the time to pull out his backup camera, and quickly took his leave instead. 

“Thanks.” Ruby turned to Chelsea, looking appreciative if a bit tired. 

“Sometimes it pays to be the villain.” Chelsea smirked back at her, and the two continued on their way. 

“Oh dammit.” Ruby grumbled to herself, looking out their dorm room window. The blinds were still down, but the crowd of people and flashing cameras could still be seen anyway. 

“Jesus.” Chelsea agreed. “Where the hell is campus security when you need them?”

“They’re not gonna help, they made that pretty clear.” Ruby’s eyes were looking somewhere far off, back in time. Chelsea wondered what had happened, and resolved herself to go down to the security office and squeeze it out of them later. 

“You want me to go scare them off?” Chelsea held out her arms and waved them around a bit. “Give ‘em the big scary mermaid?” 

“No.” Ruby refocused and stood up. “Besides, you’re neither big nor scary.”

“Ouch.” Chelsea said with mock hurt, putting a hand over her chest. 

“They’re  not going to go away until they at least see me.” Ruby continued. 

“You could hide in here until they leave.” Chelsea suggested coyly. 

“Then I think all our neighbors would hate me. I have to go out there.” Ruby clenched her fists in determination. 

“Well I’m coming with you.” Chelsea stood up, and held up a hand before Ruby could open her mouth to reply. “And I’m not taking no for an answer. I’m not abandoning you to those leeches.” 

Ruby’s concerned face melted away into a smile. “Thank you.” 

The pair faced down the door outside with a mixture of determination and apprehension each. But, if they were going to do things this way there was no reason to delay. With one last gritting of their teeth, the pushed open the door. 

“Ruby, Ruby! What’s your stance on environmental damage?”

“What? It’s bad.”

“Chelsea, do you have any regrets about what you did three years ago?”

“Some.” 

“Ruby, your thoughts on the controversy with-“

And so it went on. Chelsea was surprised they had almost as many questions for her as they did for Ruby, but she supposed talking with a supervillain could be just as much of a story as talking with a superhero. Ruby was giving them genuine, if flustered answers. Chelsea had decided to go for a more brisk approach. They came to where she lived. Her and Ruby’s place. They’re not getting Jack out of her. 

“Ruby! Have you forgiven Chelsea for what she did?” That pulled her back to the present. Her eyes hardened, trying to pick the offending journalist out of the sea of them, but it was already too late. 

“Hey, that’s unca-“

“Yes.” Ruby surprised them all with her rock solid answer. “She was manipulated by her mother, and believed she was doing what was best for her kind.” Her eyes dared anyone in the crowd to challenge her answer. 

Of course, some of the braver members did. “She tried to hurt people. Hurt you . And your family.” 

“And now she’s not.” Ruby shot back. “Now she’s helping clean lakes where dangerous invasive plants were spread by other humans.” Chelsea was so caught up in staring at Ruby with awe, that the kraken’s hand slipping into hers caught her off guard. But her fingers threaded through hers tightly, and Chelsea felt a knot in her chest loosen. 

“So these are your thoughts on Miss van der Zee?” 

The hand holding hers clenched. “You want to know my thoughts on Chelsea?” Ruby turned to look at her, and Chelsea realized she had been staring at Ruby’s profile this whole time. Her eyes were set and determined, but she smiled that same dorky smile Chelsea swore she could see from space. “I’ll show you my thoughts on Chelsea.”

Chelsea felt the hand in hers slip away, and she had an eighth of a second to be sad about it until she felt another wrap around her waist, and then…

And then.

And then. 

She opened her eyes as Ruby disconnected their kiss. There was a storm raging around her, thunder roaring and lightning flashing. But her skin wasn’t wet. 

Her thoughts started to solidify again, accepting the things her senses were saying. It wasn’t thunder, it was her pulse pounding in her ears. And the lightning was…the flashing of cameras. 

“No further questions.” Ruby muttered, not breaking eye contact for a single second. The hand around her waist tightened, and Chelsea felt it becoming larger and larger. Soon Ruby was towering over the rest of them, Chelsea cupped in her palm. She didn’t spare the crowd a single look, instead turning and walking towards the sea. A few tried to keep up, but there was no way. 

The pair didn’t say anything as Ruby walked, both concerned with their own thoughts. Eventually Ruby stepped over the shore and into the water. Chelsea, now with her tail, swam out of Ruby’s hand and up to look her in the eyes. 

That seemed to be when Ruby needed to break out of her shock. Chelsea saw her pupils widen as realization of what she had just done set in. “Oh…I…” a strange choking noise was all that followed that attempt at a sentence. “Oh Poseidon!” She gripped the sides of her hair and began swimming in a tight circle, the underwater equivalent of pacing.

“I’m so sorry!” Chelsea’s heart, that she hadn’t even realized was soaring, sank. Ruby regretted it. It was a mistake. Of course, how coul- “I can’t believe I did that in front of all those assholes! I had a whole plan and I totally ruined it!” 

“You had a…plan?” Just as quickly as it had been extinguished, a little spark of hope reignited in Chelsea’s chest. 

“I found this gorgeous underwater cave with bioluminescent algae that was perfect! I was going to take you there and ask you-” Ruby stopped dead in the water, an impressive feat. “Oh no. Oh I didn’t even ask first!” She swam up to Chelsea’s face and reached out her hands, before hesitating. She looked like she wanted to grab Chelsea’s hands in her own, but her hands were currently twice the size of Chelsea’s entire body. “I’m so sorry! Just, they were all being such jerks, and I thought about what they had written in that one article, and I, I…” 

“Ruby. Breathe.” Chelsea put a (comparatively smaller) hand over one of Ruby’s. Helping her work through her own breakdown was somewhat helping her with her own. “I’m not mad at you. Let’s just talk.” Ruby nodded, sucking in and exhaling water with practiced patience. Eventually the pair sank down in the water until they were sitting on the underwater sand. 

“Are you ok?” Chelsea said. One thing at a time. “You just very dramatically announced to the world that you like girls.” 

“Oh, no worries about that. Anyone that has a problem can shove it.” Ruby waved a hand dismissively through the water. “But what about you?” Her face and tone dropped in concern. “I am really sorry. I just kissed you without asking in front of a dozen reporters!” 

“Calling them reporters is a strong word.” Chelsea muttered, mostly to herself to give her time to get her feelings in order. She felt like she was speeding something along that she would have reached in the end anyway. She thought about Ruby hugging her by the plane, their time on the lighthouse in Oceanside, all the little moments since they arrived at college. She smiled. Ruby had a habit of chewing her pencils, and due to her kraken strength and constitution she sometimes got all the way down to the graphite inside before she realized what she had done, eating several wood chips in the process. Chelsea had dragged her to the campus store and bought her a pack of mechanical pencils, then confiscated all her wooden ones. 

Chelsea thought of some of the longer nights. In the beginning, she had hidden them from Ruby well. She had come to terms with almost all of her past, the pain and betrayal, and she was damn proud of the life she had built. But there were some nights when the emotions hit her all over again. And one night, Ruby had walked in at just the wrong time to see Chelsea sitting curled up on her bed, pillow clutched in her arms, clearly crying. And she had comforted Chelsea. Chelsea had hiccuped out an apology, saying how awful of her it was to cry over a woman that had barely even cared about her, let alone almost enslaved the surface and killed Ruby and her whole family. But Ruby had just run a soothing hand over her back, saying she understood. Chelsea had every right to cry. She had wrapped an arm around Chelsea’s shoulders and just held her there, and Chelsea thought about the life she could’ve had, if she didn’t have the one she did. 

“You’re right.” Chelsea said out loud as her thoughts snapped into focus. “Kissing me in front of all those cameras and with no warning was very bold, but also crazy stupid and rude.” Ruby looked more and more ashamed as Chelsea spoke. She felt bad for making Ruy feel bad, but she had to drive the lesson home. At least a little. “But-” Ruby’s head snapped back up to her, mix of shock and hope in her eyes. “-if you’ve learned your lesson, why don’t you take me to that cave you mentioned?” 

“Why don’t, I, uh.” Ruby floundered. Come on Ruby, you’re smart, you can do this. “Uh, sure! Sure, follow me!” Ruby still looked confused, but seemingly decided not to look a gift seahorse in the mouth. Good. I can work with that. The pair swam in somewhat awkward silence for about 15 minutes, before slowing to a stop in front of a cave in the side of the rock. “Just give me one moment.” She looked back over her shoulder at Chelsea with a nervous smile. The cave entrance was maybe about the size of an elephant, so she shifted back into human size to be able to fit in. She might’ve been able to just slip through the tunnels due to her lack of bones, but this was just much easier. “Ok, let’s go!” Nerves were evident in the shake of Ruby’s voice, but Chelsea smiled. She must not have figured out what Chelsea was doing yet. The pair swam for another five minutes or so, and just when Chelsea was starting to feel an inkling of worry that Ruby was lost, they arrived. 

Chelsea’s jaw hung open. She could totally understand why Ruby would want to ask her here, this place was gorgeous. The cave was a vaguely-spherical dead end, and the curved walls were almost entirely covered in various bioluminescent plant species. Algae, coral, anemone and more were glowing in blues, oranges, purples and reds around them. 

“Ruby, this is amazing.” Her voice came out breathless in awe and she didn’t even care. It was true after all. 

“Yeah.” Ruby’s voice was dreamy. She turned to look at Ruby, but froze all over again. She could see all the lights of the cave reflected like stars in Ruby’s eyes, and she knew that Ruby could probably see the same thing in hers. 

“Did you bring me here to ask me something?” Chelsea whispered, suddenly feeling a weight between them. She obviously knew what it was already, but this place felt almost like a temple. Like saying things here had meaning, became universal truths. 

“What? I said bef-” Ruby cut herself off as her eyes blew wide. There it is. “Uh, yeah. Actually, there is a reason.” Ruby drifted a little closer. “Chelsea. I…I know we had a bit of a rocky start.” Ruby chuckled a little, and looked away with a blush. “Actually, I guess it was more of a rocky late-beginning. But even then, even when we fought, I felt that… I knew that…that you understood me.” Chelsea wasn’t sure if she was breathing. “You knew how I felt, better than my human friends, human crush, and even my kraken family. It made me easier to trick, but it wasn’t fake. Not that part. I know it wasn’t.” A little closer now, Chelsea could reach out and grab Ruby’s shoulder. “And when I found out that we were going to the same college, I was…I was nervous. But excited too. I hoped, really hoped, that we could try again. That that little seed of what was real could be the start of something new.” Ruby smiled that wide, genuine smile at her and Chelsea couldn’t help but match it. “And that’s exactly what happened! You changed, worked hard to be better, and no matter what else I think that’s so cool of you!” Ruby blushed again, even harder. “You’re so cool, I couldn’t help but fall for you. I guess I have a type.” Chelsea snorted, but didn’t say anything. “Chelsea, would you be my girlfriend?” At her last question, Ruby’s face dropped into a mix of hope and uncertainty. This was it. Her heart was in Chelsea’s hands. 

Chelsea looked at Ruby Gillman for a moment, thinking of everything she knew about the young-adult kraken. Then, she reached out a hand and cupped Ruby’s cheek with it. “I would love to, Ruby.” Ruby gave her that blinding grin again, and without waiting another beat Chelsea drew her in and pressed their lips together. 

It was a little awkward at first, but the pair quickly found their rhythm. They angled their heads to deepen their kiss, and wrapped their hands around each other’s backs to pull as close together as possible. The pair were so engrossed in each other, eyes closed, neither noticed Ruby’s skin beginning to glow brighter and brighter. After a few moments, another wave of energy pulsed off the kraken, similar to when she had first entered the ocean. It raced through the cave, causing the flora around them to glow even brighter as it passed through them. It passed through everything, stone and organisms and sunken ships as it raced across the ocean. 

Eventually, the pair separated. Before they could go too far though, Chelsea put one hand on the back of Ruby’s head, pulling her into the crook of her shoulder. She matched the pose, trying to bring the two as close together as possible. 

“Wow.” She felt Ruby say into her collarbone, and Chelsea couldn’t help but laugh. “Wow.” She agreed. 

“We should probably head back.” Ruby continued, making no movement to extract herself from Chelsea’s arms. 

“Are you sure we can’t just live in this cave forever?” Chelsea countered, mostly (but not entirely) joking. Everything she really loved was in here already anyway. 

“I don’t think so.” Ruby replied with a smile. “I mean, could you really?”

No, Chelsea supposed she couldn’t. She didn’t have much of a life on the surface, but she felt a purpose now for it. Sighing, she shook her head. 

“Come on.” Ruby pulled away slowly, but kept their hands entwined. “We can take the long way back.”

That sounded nice.

The pair climbed up onto the beach with ease. It was something they did somewhat frequently after all. Hands still connected, grinning at each other like kids in love. 

Ruby’s phone began to buzz in her pocket. Now that it was back from wherever it went when Ruby was in her kraken form, all of the messages she missed were coming in at once. “Oops. Sorry, one second.” She pulled her hand out of Chelsea’s to dig it out of her pocket and check the screen. When she did, her eyes widened in shock, and she looked back up to Chelsea with no small amount of panic.

“What? What is it?” Things had been going so well.

Ruby turned the phone screen around, and showed Chelsea the notification [36 Missed Calls from Mom] “Do you want to come over for dinner?” She asked shakily.

Chapter Text

The Gillman women were fighting. At least, that was what Chelsea assumed as she sat on the dock, nervously watching the swirling lights below the surface of the water. Not physically fighting (hopefully), but the shouting match was probably legendary. 

The pair had swum up to Oceanside to find Agatha already waiting for them in the water. Arms crossed, full kraken size, sternly watching. Ruby, without taking her eyes off her mother, had asked Chelsea to wait on land for them. She wanted to protest, because there was no use pretending this wasn’t about her, but she was also pretty sure that being in the middle of this would only make it worse. So she quietly nodded and breached onto the dock. About ten minutes into the “talk” the unmistakable massive yellow light of Grandmama arrived, and Chelsea became much more sure of her choice to listen to Ruby. If she were down there now, she'd probably be getting her head bitten off. Maybe literally. 

“So you’re a mermaid?” Chelsea looked to her left, a little surprised. Who didn’t know she was a mermaid at this point? At her side stood someone who was obviously one of the Gillmans, the youngest she’d seen, a boy. Ruby’s younger brother Chelsea guessed, mentioned in reference to how annoying he was when the two had met in high school, but she hadn’t bothered remembering his name back then. 

“I thought I made that pretty clear a few years ago, but yeah.” 

“Cool.” The youngest Gillman seems to have moved out of his hyperactive pre-teens to his apathetic early teens. 

“Cool huh? Mind telling your mom and grandma for me?” 

He looked out to the aggressively swirling lights in the water. “I don’t think so.”

“Yeah, can’t blame you.” 

“Sam!” A voice behind her called. She made sure to remember it this time. Both of them turned and saw another Gillman running down the dock toward them. Chelsea guessed father, but she remembered Ruby mentioning her uncle, so she wasn’t positive. 

When her gaze met his, the man skidded to a stop and his demeanor switched from worried to nervous in a heartbeat. Chelsea wasn’t sure if this was better than anger or not. “Sam, uh, come inside and help me prep dinner alright?”

“Dad, come on!” 

“You’d better go.” Chelsea interrupted before the dad could reply. “Don’t need two Gillman kids in trouble because of me.” Sam looked at her a moment longer, and Chelsea was surprised to see a look of solidarity in his eyes, before turning and walking back up the pier towards his dad. He was too far away for Chelsea to see the look on his face, but that was probably for the best. 

More time passed. Chelsea wasn’t keeping track of how long. When each minute felt like a calendar year slipping by, it felt pointless to count. But she knew she wasn’t going anywhere. The Gillman women could fight until daybreak, she would wait. She was Ruby’s girlfriend after all, she would support her as best she could. 

Finally, torturously finally, the water at the surface roiled and frothed, and Ruby’s giant-sized head breached the surface. Chelsea leapt to her feet as Agatha and her grandma followed suit. Ruby was smiling, but there was clearly some strain in it. Agatha was frowning, expression clouded with worry and confusion and intense thought, like she was presented with a complicated puzzle she had to solve. Ruby’s grandma (Chelsea was pretty sure if she called her Grandmama she would be vaporized) was glaring at her with open intensity. There was no direct anger in her eyes (which Chelsea considered a win), but certainly no love either. 

“So! Chelsea.” Agatha’s voice was shrill with tension. “Would you like to come over for dinner?”

Chelsea bit back the “Ruby just asked me the same thing.” That was about to come out. She was walking on eggshells with the Gillmans, now was not the time to start making jokes. “I’d love to.” She said instead. 

“Wonderful!” The cheer was as fake as Chelsea’s nails, but the attempt was better than anything else Chelsea could’ve hoped for. Ruby and Agatha stepped onto the pier and reverted to their smaller forms, the former immediately going to thread her fingers through Chelsea’s tightly. “Are you coming, mom ?” Agatha turned to her mother and gave her a harsh look. There were whole paragraphs of meaning in that last emphasized word, first and foremost being “We will be in MY home, which means you follow MY rules, no matter how old you are, how powerful you are, or whose mother you are.” 

If Chelsea weren’t humming like a wire pulled taught, it almost would’ve been funny to see the giant hulking kraken cow slightly before the 5’ 10” woman in a business power suit. “Fine” the elder kraken scoffed, before shrinking down herself to join them all on the pier. 

At which point, Chelsea’s face exploded red and she ripped her gaze to the side as Ruby shouted “Woah!” and Agatha followed with “Jesus mom! Clothes! Humans wear clothes!” 

As the two other krakens fussed over what Ruby’s grandma would wear, Ruby turned to face Chelsea, who had already been looking at her. 

“Did you look?” She asked flatly. 

“Ruby I hate to resurface a memory you just blocked, but we were all looking.” 

“What’d you think?” The question was posed with innocence, but Chelsea knew a trap when she heard one. 

But again, she didn’t want to lie to Ruby. “Your grandma keeps it tight.” Ruby’s mouth dropped open, and she lightly slapped Chelsea on the arm. “Hey! I don’t know why you’re mad, you’ve got a bright future looking hot at any age ahead of you!”

“Ahem.” The pair froze, eyes darting back to wear Ruby’s mother and grandmother were looking at them, thoroughly unimpressed. Her grandma had gone with a dress that screamed “I just murdered my husband for the life insurance money” which was not doing much for Chelsea’s nerves. 

“Soooo…dinner?” Ruby squeaked out. 

“Dinner.” Agatha said flatly. 

Dinner was some sort of fish dish. Chelsea wasn’t sure if it was some sort of not-so-subtle threat at her, but if it was it had backfired. Mermaids ate fish all the time, though not usually cooked like this. 

“This is amazing Mr. Gillman. What’s it called?” Chelsea asked, putting down her knife and fork after devouring her plate. 

“Uh, lemon dill salmon?” Arthur replied, still tense about the whole situation but also visibly happy someone was enjoying his food so much. “Would you like another serving?”

“If you have one, thank you!” Of course Chelsea was trying to make a good first impression, but Arthur really was a fantastic cook. “You know, living in the ocean isn’t too bad, but cooking isn’t nearly as delicious as it is on the surface.”

“Wait, you can cook underwater?” Agatha asked, surprise temporarily overtaking nerves. 

“Sure, though it’s more like boiling since you use the underwater volcanic jets.” Chelsea explained as she ground some salt and pepper onto her second serving. “And the spice options aren’t nearly as expansive. Can you pass me the butter uh-“ looking up to who was closest to the butter, the words died on her lips. Ruby’s grandma was sitting there, face unreadable, staring right into her soul. The small spark of warmth that had been nurturing was snuffed out, and the atmosphere went cold again. Everyone else at the table (except Sam, who had the teenage superpower of total apathy towards the awkwardness around him) felt their teeth on edge. “-uhm. Uuuhhh-“

“Scylla.” The elder Gillman said, slowly pushing the butter over to her. 

“O-oh?” Chelsea stammered, picking up the butter with slightly trembling hands. “That’s a really cool sounding name!” 

“It’s Greek.” 

“Right. From the myth? Theseus?”

Scylla actually cracked a smile, and while it wasn’t the warmest, Chelsea counted it as a win. “Yes, him. Clever man. His sailing ability was impressive, and he was remarkably…ruthless.” 

Chelsea glanced over at Ruby, who looked equally surprised and lost. She took over the conversation, starting a “Wait Grandmama, were you -” but was cut off when Chelsea yelped, jerking her knee up and banging it into the table. All eyes turned towards her, even Sam’s, in varying states of concern. 

“Sorry, sorry!” Chelsea put up a hand to hold off any comments, while the other went under the table to rub the top of her knee. “I’m fine, I was just surprised by-” as if deciding to answer the Gillman’s unspoken question himself, the sea dog under the table jumped up onto Chelsea’s lap and started licking her face with gusto. “Ack! Pffbbtt.” Chelsea put up her arms and turned away, trying to keep herself from getting slobbered too bad. 

“Ness!” Both Agatha and Ruby called simultaneously, both being summarily ignored. Ruby, who was closer, reached over and physically took Ness off of Chelsea’s lap. The sea dog continued to pant excitedly and wiggle around in Ruby’s hands, trying to get to her. Chelsea knew her leg was getting licked again the minute Ness was released. 

“Well, Ness likes her.” Sam said dryly as Agatha passed Chelsea several napkins. 

“I’m so sorry.” She said as Chelsea wiped as much of the sticky slobber off her face as she could. She could still feel a thin sheen of it, but she was pretty sure the majority was off. “He’s a little excitable around new people.” 

Chelsea looked over and saw that while Ness had realized resistance was futile and instead resolved himself to (very adorably) curl up in Ruby’s lap, his eyes were still laser-focused on her. “It’s no worry. I’m just not used to pets.”

“Are you allergic?” Arthur asked. 

It hadn’t even occurred to Chelsea that she might be, she just assumed her mother had been uninterested in owning one. But bringing up her mother would probably be worse than pulling the pin on a live grenade and dropping it in the middle of the table, so she just replied. “Well I guess we’ll see!” Picking up her plate, she hoped she wasn’t committing several blunders when she held it up and asked “Is it too early to ask for seconds?”

Chelsea carried her plate out into the kitchen, thoroughly full and satisfied with her meal. Doing her best to fit it into the dishwasher, she returned to the living room to see the whole family standing. Ruby was probably about to say they had to go, which Chelsea was on board with. The night had gone better than she had expected, Scylla had even spoken to her a few times. No need to push their luck. 

Ruby had just opened her mouth to speak when a mock sounded at the door. Everyone turned to look at it, Arthur and Agatha furrowing their brows. “Were we expecting anyone?” He looked over to Agatha, who shook her head. Living the life of publicly out krakens plus one internationally recognized superhero had made the Gillmans cautious. 

“Well, let’s see what they want.” Ruby stepped over to the door and opened it, a confident and defiant look on her face. A look that dropped almost immediately when she saw who was on the other side. 

“Hello Ms. Gillman. Are your parents here?” Wait, Chelsea recognized that voice. 

“Cheryl?” Chelsea blurted, too surprised to keep it in. What was she doing here? Was Chelsea in trouble at her work for something? Ruby turned to her with an eyebrow raised, but swung the door open slightly to reveal her boss on the other side. 

“Ah, Chelsea!” Cheryl said, equally surprised but also pleased. Looking past her, she continued “And your majesty, I presume. This is actually perfect, I had a topic I wished to broach to you involving Chelsea. May I come in?” Chelsea’s eyes widened, and she flicked a glance over to Scylla, who was regarding her impassively. 

“Of course!” Agatha spoke up, and Ruby stepped fully out of the door to let the shorter woman in. “I apologize, you just missed dinner.” 

“Oh it’s no worry. I know this is a late call anyway, but some of us have to drive at human speeds instead of swimming across the shoreline in a matter of hours!” Cheryl stepped inside. “Don’t worry, it’s a brief question I had for…” Cheryl turned to Scylla, searching for a name. 

“Her majesty.” Scylla replied instead, not aggressively but making it known the two weren’t on a ‘names’ basis. Chelsea wasn’t sure how to interpret the fact that she was. 

“Right. Well, as you know your majesty, ocean pollution has…caused some friction between the surface and your kingdom, plastic especially.” Scylla only nodded in reply. “Well, Chelsea has been assisting in the cleaning and maintenance of nearby lakes-“ all eyes turned to her, and Chelsea gave a sheepish smile and a shrug in response. “-but it’s coming to the point where it’s no longer practical to continue that. All the local lakes are clean, and flying her out to others is detrimental to her education. So, I was going to suggest that she begin ocean cleanup instead.”

Chelsea cringed internally. Cheryl’s logic was sound, but she had no idea how big of a leap she was making by asking Scylla this. Scylla, who for her part, nodded to acknowledge she had heard what had been said, but gave no other response. Chelsea felt the urge to try and sell her skills, prostrate herself before the queen, but held back. That felt like it would be too desperate right now, and definitely come off as the wrong move. The Gillman house was dead silent in anticipation, even Sam had looked up from his phone to wait for the reply. Chelsea had to respect that Scylla knew how to command a room. 

Scylla looked over to Chelsea, who couldn’t stop a nervous smile, and made up her mind. “Very well.” She said regally. A breath she hadn’t realized she was holding rushed out of Chelsea. “She will be monitored by a kraken guard at all times,” Scylla continued “and if I catch even an eddy of ill intentions…” it was directed at Chelsea, and she left the end to be implied. Ruby opened her mouth, but Chelsea put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. She was probably going to come to Chelsea’s defense, saying how she had been misled by her mother, but had done the right thing in the end and continued to do the right thing ever since. And while all of that was true, and how Scylla was treating her was still kind of bullshit, now wasn’t the time to start climbing that hill. 

So instead Chelsea said “Wouldn’t dream of it. I’ve learned that lesson, believe me.” Scylla nodded curtly in response. 

“Excellent. I’ll start the paperwork. Chelsea, you can take the next few weeks off while we make the switch. I’ll let you know when everything’s ready.” Cheryl turned to Agatha and Arthur. “Thanks again for having me.”

“Not a problem. Have a safe drive!” Arthur called, waving along with Agatha as Cheryl left. 

For a moment the house was silent. “I think we had better be going.” Ruby cut it. “We still have class tomorrow.” While technically true, both of their classes weren’t until after 11. But the emotional roller coaster of the night hit Chelsea all at once, and she was ready to go too. 

“That’s fair.” There was much less tension in Agatha’s face now. “But why don’t you stay a bit mom. I think we have more to talk about.” Scylla was also not looking at her with open hostility, so the night was a massive success overall. Scylla looked like she was going to protest, but Agatha had more than enough of her own regal blood to sharpen the pointed look in her eyes. 

“Ugh. Very well.” Scylla looked over to Ruby. Chelsea imagined this would be where the older kraken would wrap her granddaughter in a giant hug, but even though progress was made what was said under the water was still too fresh. “See you later, kid?”

“Yeah.” Ruby replied. “Yeah, I’ll be back.” Scylla nodded, before turning to Chelsea. She nodded once, and Chelsea gave her own nod back, before turning and going upstairs to Agatha and Arthur’s room. 

The rest of the goodbyes went by in a blur. The Gillmans hugged their daughter and told her to call more, which she agreed to, blushing bright purple in embarrassment. Chelsea received polite farewells, a handshake from Arthur, a fist bump from Sam, and another healthy coating of slobber from Ness. But soon, the pair were back in the water, swimming to their dorm. 

The swim was made in comfortable silence, no words needed to be exchanged. 

Back up on land near their building, the two stopped and looked at each other without saying a word. Ruby folded into Chelsea’s open arms, and the pair stood there hugging tightly on the beach. “That went well.” Chelsea muttered into Ruby’s hair. 

“It did? I felt like I was on a tightrope ever since I got through the door.” Ruby breathed out, tension rolling off her body in waves. 

“As well as it could’ve.” Chelsea amended. “I don’t think we’re going to win them over in a day.”

“Mmmm. I guess not.” Ruby leaned up and placed a kiss on Chelsea’s lips. It was light, and Chelsea returned it easily. She used it as a distraction to quickly bend down and scoop her arms under Ruby’s legs, picking her up in a bridal carry. Ruby yelped out a “Wha-hoa!” in shock, but Chelsea could hear the joy in it too. 

“You’re not the only one with super strength around here!” It was a joke, her strength was still within the realms of human possibility, but her active job meant she was stronger than most. “Let me carry you back to our room, Your Highness.” The pair had only become girlfriends a few hours ago, and had already cleared one of the biggest hurdles. Time to enjoy the honeymoon phase a bit. 

“Of course.” Ruby replied, shifting around and nuzzling up to the crook of Chelsea’s arm. “My hero.”

Chapter Text

Chelsea swiped the hair out of her face again as she waved the flare high in the air. Of all the days to forget her damn hair tie. 

Hearing the small bass fishing boat’s engine die, she jammed the flare into a crack in the concrete, grabbed a tow clip, and swam over to the hull. Clipping the line to the hull, she guided the boat into the impromptu dock made out of a particularly raised piece of sidewalk. 

“Go. Come on, out out out.” She called to them, not angrily but leaving no room for debate. “See the flashing lights over there? Go to them, they’ll tell you what to do next. Your boat will be fine, just go. Go!” Satisfied at seeing the men scamper off towards the lights, Chelsea dragged their boat over to the dock and tied it off. Looking back at the offloading area, she was greeted with only darkness. Shit. The flare burned out. Swimming back over to the bin full of them, she dunked her hand into it and yanked out another, sparking it and diving back into the waves, hunting for the next boat lost out in the storm. 

She was leaning up against the underwater half of light pole, catching her breath. She had just finished the last reported boat that was out in the water, and was taking a breather. But then a pulse rippled through her, and she dove back under the water immediately. 

Speeding out into the open ocean, she once again silently thanked her job for helping her stay fit, letting her push herself like this without collapsing. Eventually, her eyes caught on the familiar bioluminescent glow of Ruby’s kraken body, and she swerved to meet her. 

When she arrived, Ruby fell out of her giant form and into Chelsea’s arms. The kraken was panting from exhaustion, fully limp in Chelsea’s arms. “I…I can’t…It’s too strong…” she heaved out as Chelsea gently brought them down to rest on the ocean floor. 

Climate change really is a bitch of a problem. It was a slow burn, but things had progressed so far, that burn had become white-hot and there was no quick way to cool it back down. As Ruby had spent the years as the world’s protector of the oceans (and people, to some extent), she found that the problems she had to deal with had shifted away from big sea monsters and toward storms. And 70 miles off the coast of Florida was the mother of all storms. The world’s first ever category 6 hurricane, Persephone. Ruby had a playbook for hurricanes at this point, and it was generally to “unwind” them. Swim under or above water in the opposite spin direction of the winds, and slow the storm until it dissipates. And usually she had enough warning, and she was large and powerful enough that it would seriously weaken if not destroy the storm altogether. But Persephone was just too massive. 

“How’s…how’s the evacuation going?” 

“Still going.” Chelsea responded. “Do you want me to go find your mother? Or Scylla?” 

“No. We can’t. Mom’s helping with the evacuation, and Grandmama’s dealing with the monsoons in India.” It was truly an all-hands-on-deck kind of day for the Gillmans. Ruby’s eyes narrowed in thought. “I think there’s only one thing to do.” She had seemingly fully recovered from her earlier efforts.

“Uh, ok! What is it, how do I help?” Chelsea asked, gently letting her go and breathing a small sigh of relief as Ruby began to swim under her own power again.

“Go help with the evacuation.” With a poof , she was back in her giant kraken form, still at eye level with Chelsea. “I’ll be back soon.” 

Chelsea felt half a dozen questions roiling behind her lips, but she knew every second counted right now, so instead she just nodded and pressed a quick kiss to Ruby’s cheek. Ruby beamed down at her, and with one last nod, the twos sped off in opposite directions. 

When Chelsea arrived at the evacuation site, Agatha spotted her while carrying two trucks full of citizens. “What are you doing here?” She asked, and Chelsea was happy to not hear any mistrust in her voice. 

“Ruby told me to come help. Sir, can I pick you up?” Receiving a frantic nod from a man going by on crutches, Chelsea quickly lifted him in a bridal carry and began sprinting toward the next open truck.

“Did she tell you her plan?” Agatha called over her shoulder, getting further and further away. 

“No. But she has one, and that’s enough for me.”

She was halfway through carrying a gaggle of kids to the bus when she saw Ruby bounding over land towards them. Finishing up and actually throwing the last kid in (she made sure he connected with something soft, and he was giggling so she called it a win) she sprinted over to meet Ruby. 

“We’ve gotta weaken that hurricane.” Ruby wasted no time, sliding into a kneeling position and digging two long gouges in the dirt beneath her, even with the two feet of water lapping at their knees. 

“Yeah!” Chelsea agreed wholeheartedly. After a beat of silence and Ruby looking at her expectedly, her eyes widened. “Wait, you mean like you and me? Ruby, I don’t know how much help I’ll be!”

“You’ll be a lot of help-” Ruby was reaching her closed fist down toward Chelsea “-with this.” When she opened it, it felt like she had been punched in the gut. 

The Trident of Oceanus. 

It was sitting in Ruby’s giant palm like any other stick, toothpick sized compared to her massive hand, but to Chelsea it was a black hole, inescapably pulling her attention in. It felt like a mousetrap, waiting for her to stick her hand in and snap shut. 

“Wha…I, Ruby I can’t-” 

“You can.” Ruby’s tone managed to break her gaze from the Trident, and she lifted her head to lock her eyes instead. She saw nothing but compassion, belief, and maybe even a touch of excitement, and it managed to help calm her nerves. “You’re not a kid anymore, neither of us are. I trust you.” Chelsea looked back down to the Trident and tried to think over the roaring memories of her biggest mistake in her ears. It was true that she was different than she was three years ago. And the hydrokinesis she had while wielding the trident, a power not even the Krakens had, would be invaluable right now. 

She reached out and rested a hand over the Trident’s handle, half expecting a lightning bolt to arc from the sky and strike her down for her sins. But no divine retribution came. In fact, what disturbed her more was how well it fit in her palm, how easy it was to hold and balance and swing. It felt as if it was made to fit into her hands. She held the prongs up to her eyes, looking past to see Ruby looking back  at her through them. Ruby held up a giant thumb, both an affirmation and an invitation. Chelsea spun the Trident and held the prongs against her girlfriend’s digit, but hesitated. 

“Go ahead.” Ruby cut through the cloud of worry surrounding her thoughts. “I’m not a kid anymore, remember?” She gave Chelsea a confident grin, one that said she knew her powers and could handle whatever Chelsea drew from her. Chelsea nodded, and after a moment longer, drove it into Ruby’s thumb.

The effect was almost instant. Like a starving man offered food, the Trident began to siphon Ruby’s energy into her. The feeling of power overflowing, literally too big for her body that made her body compensate, filled Chelsea with a familiar euphoria. And that euphoria brought dread. In the past she was young, and blinded by her mother’s lies. But here and now, more mature, she could understand the drive for her mother to possess the Trident, the power it granted. If this is what being a Kraken felt like, Chelsea didn’t understand how Ruby could handle being small. 

She didn’t let her thoughts wander for long. Now was the time to focus. She drew just enough energy for the transformation to stabilize at an equivalent size to Ruby’s, then she withdrew the Trident. Ruby was smiling at her, and she focused on that. She could feel thousands of eyes on her back, remembering videos of this. She could swear she almost felt herself from three years ago, looking through time. She couldn’t tell if they were gazes of hope or fear, and she knew that if she turned to look, no matter what she saw it would break her focus. So she resisted the urge to look, keeping her eyes on Ruby instead. Thankfully, the kraken made it easy by being really cute.

“You’re gorgeous.” She couldn’t help but snort a bit, and wondered how her blush looked like this.

“Come on.” She lightly pushed Ruby’s shoulder, embarrassed but no longer full of dread. It was impressive how Ruby knew just what to do. “We’ve got work to do.”

“Right.” Ruby nodded at her with a smile of her own, full of confidence and excitement. “Let’s do this.” And with that the pair dove back into the deep.

In the end, they couldn’t stop Persephone entirely. But they did spin it down from a category 6 all the way to a category 2, and that was more than enough of a win for the day all things considered. 

The pair slogged up onto shore where the town’s residents had been evacuated to, human sized and tired down to their bones. A decent amount could be heard grumbling about why they had to be evacuated, but most were grateful to the pair for saving their homes. 

“Excuse me, excuse me Ms. Gillman!” Chelsea openly groaned as one particularly brave/nosy reporter ran up to the pair. These guys just would not give them a break! “Reports say that you returned the Trident to Ms. Vaan der Zee, is that true?”

The pair looked at the Trident still in Chelsea’s hand, then back to the reporter. “Nah, I found this one at the SeaWorld Gift Shop.” Chelsea deadpanned back. 

Ruby snorted into her palm, but recovered before the reporter could follow up and said “Yes, it was my choice to return it to her.” 

“Why?”

“I needed her help to fight the hurricane.”

“So the hurricane was too strong for you?” The reporter pushed her.

“I’m sorry, were you not paying attention to your own weather channel?” Chelsea cut in, pissed. “That was a historic hurricane, the strongest in recorded existence! Maybe we should start looking at why they’re getting so bad, huh?” She was more than happy to push back against this disrespectful reporting, even if it meant being seen as a bad guy again, to keep Ruby from having to deal with this nonsense. 

She was vindictively happy to see the reporter drop back a step. “S-so uh, will Chelsea be keeping the Trident?”

“No.” Chelsea spoke again, cutting off any answer Ruby could give. “The Trident of Oceanus is still the kraken’s to hold.” While Chelsea believed what she said, there was more to it that she wasn’t saying. Her public perception was starting to turn, but it was still far from squeaky clean. Her keeping the Trident would cause a bunch of problems, for the Gillmans, for Ruby, and for her. Maybe one day she would be trusted enough to keep the Trident full-time, though hopefully by that day she wouldn’t need it any longer. 

She handed the Trident over to Ruby, who took it silently, and felt both the physical and emotional weight of the day drop down onto her shoulders all at once. She decided that was enough for her for today. “No more questions.” She spun on her heel and walked straight back into the water, and was happy to hear the crunching sand of Ruby following after her. 

Off in the crowd, unseen by either young woman, Agatha smiled. 

The pair were drifting in a slow underwater current, letting it move them through the water while they relaxed. Neither knew for sure of course, but they thought it felt the same as floating through the air. 

“Chelsea?” Ruby broke the silence, nerves clearly audible in her voice.

“Yeah? What’s up?” Chelsea opened her eyes and spun to face Ruby, taking one of her kraken hands in her own. 

“I’m…I’m really sorry about springing the Trident on you.” Ruby covered Chelsea’s hand with her other one as the words rushed out of her before she could stop them. “I was, was going to bring it up to you someday soon, but then I got the call about the hurricane and it was so much stronger than I was able to handle-”

“Woah woah, Ruby! It’s ok.” Chelsea put the last free hand between them on Ruby’s cheek. “It’s ok. You made the right call. It wasn’t your fault, sometimes life throws things at us before we’re ready for them.” It was clear she was referring to both the hurricane and the Trident. “It was…honestly still a little scary to use.” Chelsea paused, choosing her words carefully while Ruby attentively waited. “How…easy it was. To use. And how powerful it made me feel.” For a moment her eyes were far away, remembering both earlier that day and several years ago simultaneously. “But you were right. I am better than I was back then.” Her eyes refocused on Ruby, and she grinned at her. She believed it now, not just because her girlfriend was telling her, but for herself. She didn’t care what anyone else said, even if Ruby changed her tune(not that she expected her to), Chelsea knew she had grown since Oceanside. “I can use it again if you ever need me to.” 

It was obviously difficult to tell given where they were, but Chelsesa was pretty sure Ruby had shed a few happy tears. Chelsea pulled her in as the two drifted along, and Ruby happily nestled into her shoulder, reveling in the chance to be small.

Chapter Text

Chelsea exhaled as she waited for the door in front of her to open. On either side, armed guards eyed her critically. It had taken no small amount of string pulling on both Ruby and her part (the fact that she even had strings to pull was still a shock to her), but she knew she had to do this. 

The lock on the door in front of her flashed green as the locks slid back with a thunk and the door slowly swung open. “We’re coming in with you.” The guard to her left said curtly. It wasn’t a question, so Chelsea didn’t bother with an answer. Steeling her nerve, she crossed the threshold.

It was a circular room about 25 meters with gray concrete walls devoid of any personality. Chelsea could almost feel them sucking her soul out. To her left and right were sheet metal stairs leading up to a catwalk, and the guards that entered with her took their set of stairs and rotated around the room, keeping her in view.

But the main attraction in the room was in the center. Only slightly smaller than the diameter of the room was a hole. Even when she approached the rim Chelsea couldn’t tell how deep it went. She supposed it being more than just a high-school swimming pool was something, even if the thick metal bars criss-crossing the top made that a cold comfort. At first she saw nothing, but that didn’t surprise her. She wasn’t really expecting a presidential greeting. “Hey mom.” She called into the water. 

Water lapping at the edge of the tank was the only noise that answered her. After a few more moments passed, a curious look slipped past the impassive mask of the guards. Probably wondering why she wasn’t trying again. Chelsea knew she didn’t need to. Mermaid hearing was nearly unparalleled underwater, and she knew her mom wouldn’t be able to resist coming up to her. Being seen, having an audience, it was an urge that never really went away.

A hand shot up out of the water and gripped onto one of the bars covering it’s surface. Chelsea didn’t flinch. Another followed, and soon her mother’s head surfaced, afforded just enough room between the bars and the surface.

“Chelsea! My daughter! Come, open these bars so that I can give you a hug!” Chelsea felt a churning in her gut at the saccharine voice her mother spoke to her with. Like three years hadn’t passed, and Chelsea was just coming home from another day masquerading as a human high-schooler. Zero acknowledgement about what she did, what they both did. She could see the guards put their hands on their holstered weapons in her peripheral vision. They didn’t need to bother, Chelsea was done pretending there was any love in that voice. 

“I’m not going to do that mom.” 

“Oh, but it’s such a hassle to hold onto the bars like this, my fins are so-”

“Stop! Just stop.” Chelsea interrupted her, one of the few times in her life she had ever done so. “I’m not here to let you out.” Chelsea sat down cross-legged on the floor, out of reach of her mother’s hands but close enough to see her face. 

The dazzling smile on her mother’s face dropped, revealing the cold scowl that was always underneath. “Well then why are you here?” she spat. “Come to gloat about the fame your new girlfriend is giving you?” She said the word ‘giving’ like a curse, an insult. She had always believed mermaids should take . But now, as 50% of the world’s mermaid population, Chelsea figured she had more of a vote on what mermaids should do. 

Chelsea couldn’t stop a sigh. It hurt to hear her mom be that sharp with her, but there was also a sense of relief to it too, that she was finally hearing something real. But the strongest emotion was melancholy. She was sad that this is what it had become between them. Her mother, so resistant to change, twisting ambition and drive into greed. Maybe in a distant time mermaids had been mistreated by the krakens and needed that ambition to push back, but that time has long since passed. 

“No mom. I’m not here to gloat, or to let you out. I’m just here to talk.”

“Talk?” Chelsea had barely finished her sentence before Nerissa scoffed her reply. “Why? What possible reason would you have to talk to me ?” Again, making it about her. This was going to be harder than Chelsea thought, but she was still going to try.

“We’re the last of the mermaids mom. The last . After we die, there won’t be any more. And you did that.” A bit of chill entered Chelsea’s voice there, but she moved on. “I know what I want to do. Record our history. Our culture, everything I can about us. That way, even when we’re gone, people might still remember us. Who we were, the fact that we existed at all.” 

Chelsea stood up from her spot. “I could try and do it myself, but things were already so different when I was born. But right now, you probably know the most about mermaids in the world.” The locks on the door behind Chelsea click ed open in sequence as the door was unlocked. “We can’t start today, I wasn’t able to get much time with you.” Chelsea paused, and was a bit shocked her mother didn’t immediately fill the silence with her own voice. She just held Chelsea’s gaze, unreadable look in her eyes. “You didn’t send me after that Trident.” Chelsea eventually continued. “You sent everyone else, even your own husband, but you never sent me. You could lie, make up everything and I would have no way to know. But I hope you don’t. I want to know it all, the good and the bad.” This isn’t important to you, but it’s important to me. And I really hope I’m at least important enough to you to try. “If I’m lucky, I’ll be back next week.” The guards were starting to give her an intense look, so it was best if she left now. “I’ll see you then.” She turned and walked back out. 

And thanks to her superior hearing, right before the door closed she heard “I love you, Chelsea.”

Ruby was waiting for her outside. When the door opened and Chelsea came through, Ruby was at her side in a heartbeat. “How was it, how’d it go?” She asked, offering her hand for Chelsea to hold. 

Chelsea smiled at her and took it. “Better than I expected.” The two turned and walked side by side towards the ocean.