He clutched the crystalline knife in his hand, taking one more breath before he rose from his bed. Shrouded in darkness, he slowly walked and entered into another room, where his beloved slept. He continued to walk until he reached her bed, with the words of his brothers replaying in his mind. All he had to do was to end it, to end her life with one swift strike, with one action that will save him from an inevitable fate. As if in a trance, he raised the knife high, only to hesitate at the sight that lay before him.

Intertwined with another, his beloved continued to sleep, unaware of the presence above her. A gentle smile adorned her face, her slender hands around another's waist. The one who held her laid their head on top of hers, arms wrapped around her in a sense of assurance, the instinct to make sure their loved one was with them. 

Memories of their time together flashed through his mind. When he found her gazing upon the sea in wonder on her ship. When she found and gave him a name. When she defended him from spiteful words he couldn't fully comprehend. When she made his heart flutter with a small touch as she held his hand. 

She told him about her savior, the one she had fallen for on the day she was saved from the wrath of the sea. She showered her savior with praise, oblivious to the fact that her savior was the silent boy she called her friend. No matter how many times he wanted to tell her it was he, she wouldn't be able to hear him. It was the price he had to pay in order to live in her world. Although he was disheartened, he was patient, he was willing to wait for her to notice him one day. He believed that she would. Or so he thought.

Instead, she fell for another, the one that saw her unconscious by the shore. The one that carried her back to her home to rest. One may think that he would be angry, angry at her, angry at him for appearing. But he wasn't, he never was. The sight of them only made his heart ache. He knew why she fell for them. Unlike he, they can make her heart race. Unlike he, they can show her wonders. Unlike he, they can be honest. Unlike he, they can protect her. Unlike he, they can make her happy.

With his resolve, he bent down to kiss her small forehead, then quietly ran outside, throwing the knife back into the sea. Looking up, he looked towards the moon, as its light pierced through the starless sky. He smiled in content.

At the first ribbon of sunlight, he looked towards the sea from whence he came. With a last glance at his reflection, he closed his eyes and fell forward, welcoming the abyss that awaits him. The sun rose high, its beams gliding upon the sea, and the merman didn't feel the touch of death. He felt himself being raised towards the sky. When he reached where the clouds drifted by, he saw many unearthly, beautiful beings. They were almost transparent, for he could look through them and see the colors in the sky. Their voices were melodic and soothing, that one if could hear it, they would mistake it for a siren's. They danced as they floated in the air, with no wings to support them. Soon, he felt the foam sliding off of him, realizing that he now looked similar to them. With that, he asked;

"For whom do I rise for?"

“We are the children of the air,” they answered. “We are the children of Caera. It is known that a merman does not have a soul, and can never have one unless he has won the love of a human. We children of the air do not have a soul either, but can earn one by bringing kindness to the world of man. When five hundred years pass, we are given a soul that is ours and ours alone, so we can join the humans when they pass to Heaven. We can be reborn.”

With tears blurring his view, the merman tried to wipe them away, but they continued to overflow. As he continued to shed tears, a hand gently caressed his face to wipe them away. It was Caera. 

“Do not cry, my child. In time, you will see them again. You've met them in this life, and you can meet them again.” Raising a finger, she pointed it behind him, prompting the merman to turn around.

It was his beloved and her groom, gazing upon the foam on the shore with their own tears, as if they knew that he threw himself into the water. With a nod, he flew towards them, undetected, kissing the groom’s forehead and blessed the two with a smile. Holding Caera’s hand in his, he flew to the sky once more with her other children, flying high as far as the eye can see, until he disappeared beneath the sun’s light.

Author's Note

This is my first oneshot. The prompt that inspired this was to recreate a scene from "The Little Mermaid," and I was inspired by the original version created by Hans Christian Andersen. I created this with the intention of not only with the goal of writing something short and concise, but with the idea that the mermaid will be male instead of female, like it originally is. So I thought that Taekwoon (Leo of VIXX), would work for that role. But since his name isn't mentioned, he can be interpreted as anyone, really. 

As for who "Caera" is, she is a fictional entity that I had created, inspired by the goddess Iris and the Latin words "caelum" and "aer." In Greek mythology, Iris is the goddess of the rainbow and acts as a messenger to the gods, linking the gods with humanity. She is also considered as a goddess of the sea and sky. Caelum is Latin for sky/heaven, while aer is Latin for air, thus leading me to create the name "Caera."