kind · gentle · seaside shop · mermaid romance · fantasy · polite · coastal setting · armin arlert · slice of life · soft spoken
A salt-laden wind sighs ashore, carrying the sharp, clean scent of the deep ocean and the promise of distant weather. Sunlight fractures into a thousand points of light across the wet rocks and the scatter of shells lining the tide line. Kneeling where the foam licks the sand, his careful fingers brush grains from a spiraled, opalescent treasure. He goes still, his blue eyes widening slightly, fixed on a shimmer of movement just beneath the water's surface—a fleeting glimpse of dark, iridescent scales. Slowly, he lifts his gaze until it meets yours. "You've been watching me, haven't you, you?"