Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/6359956.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      F/F
  Fandom:
      Free!
  Relationship:
      Matsuoka_Rin/Nanase_Haruka
  Character:
      Matsuoka_Rin, Nanase_Haruka
  Additional Tags:
      Mythical_Beings_&_Creatures, Mermaids, Alternate_Universe, Rin_is_a_diver
      (ama), haru_is_a_mermaid, takes_place_in_some_quasi-historical_fantasy
      version_of_Japan
  Collections:
      Doing_it_like_Olympians.
  Stats:
      Published: 2016-03-26 Words: 4538
****** you wake me up ******
by adamantine
Summary
     Haru is always staring at her, watching her, never wanting to look
     away. It's driving Rin crazy.
     Written for Day 4 of Harurintercourse (Rule 63).
Notes
     In case you skipped over the tags and rating please note this
     features Human!Rin and Mermaid!Haru having sex sooooooo if you're not
     interested in that I would skip over this :P
See the end of the work for more notes
The start of spring meant only one thing to Rin. The diving season had begun.
It was time to work.
Hours and hours of her day, from April to the end of September, were spent in
the water. During the diving season being on land felt unnatural and strange,
the ground beneath her alarmingly solid, the air around her unbearably dry,
leaving her craving to be back in the ocean where she belonged. During the
diving season Rin would make as much money as a fisherman did the entire year.
She was lucky. She was easily the best diver in her generation, maybe the best
diver in her village. She could hold her breath like a veteran diver. She had
an eye for finding the best catch—she was especially good at finding pearls.
Her skill, her luck made her the subject of envy. It was to be expected. Diving
was collaborative—until it wasn’t. There was a hut by the sea all the divers
shared. It was where they changed, chatted, checked their equipment, and
showered when the day was through. In the hut they were all friends,
sisters—but in the ocean they were competitors. Diving was a trade passed down
from mother to daughter—or Rin’s case from grandmother to granddaughter—and
where to dive was as important a secret to pass on as how to dive. There were
spots along the coast every diver knew about. The youngest and oldest divers,
those unskilled or no longer up to the dangers of diving so far away from land,
dived in those spots. Rin had started out diving in those spots—at the tender
age of ten—under the tutelage of her grandmother.
It was grueling work. She struggled to hold her breath, to dive down without
panicking. She was afraid she would dive down one day and forget which way was
up. She was too slow, too clumsy. Her grandmother could fill ten baskets in the
time it took Rin to fill one. Rin was embarrassed and frustrated with her lack
of her progress. She wanted to quit. She hated being a diver. But she needed
the money. In an isolated fishing village like hers there weren't many
prospects for young girls.
One day during the beginning of her third season as a diver, Rin swam out to
the little cove her father loved. Back when he was still alive he would take
Rin, her mother, and Gou to it using his fishing boat, making an entire day
trip out of it. Rin’s mother would pack lunch and Rin and Gou would swim in the
clear blue water of the cove. It had seemed like such an adventure to get to
the cove. To Rin’s childish mind it was an exotic location. But now she could
swim there on her own without getting tired at all.
She had gone to the cove to cry in peace. She couldn’t cry in front of Gou. Gou
needed her to be strong. Their mother was sick. It wasn’t the type of illness
you could see. It was in her mind. She left their tiny cottage less and less
each passing month. There were days when she didn’t even leave her bedroom. She
was kind a woman, a loving mother, but after her husband’s death something
inside her had dimmed. She lost her liveliness. It was understandable—until it
wasn’t. Her melancholy had deepened with time. She stopped working. She began
to rely on Rin and Gou’s incomes. Rin’s grandmother prepared their meals.
Despite the terror and helplessness Rin felt as her mother drew away from
society, Rin knew she was lucky. She still had a home, food, income—it should
have been enough to satisfy her. But it wasn’t. She cried because Gou was
struggling to dive, much more than Rin ever did. She wouldn’t be able to become
a diver. She need to find an apprenticeship somewhere else. She cried because
she was sure her mother would never leave the house again, and that filled her
with despair and fear. She cried because the weight of her responsibilities
were crushing her. If she didn’t do well this season their family would
struggle to survive the winter. She was still a child. She didn’t want such a
heavy burden.
It would have been one of the worst days of Rin’s life—if not for the fact it
was the day she met Haru.
“Why are you leaking water?” The strange wording and unexpectedness of the
question startled her from where she sat huddled in the sand, crying her heart
out.
A girl her age was in the water, watching her curiously. She was topless which
didn’t faze Rin in the least—none of the divers bothered with shirts, skin
dried faster than cloth—but it should have. The girl wasn't a diver or Rin
would have recognized her.
“Leaking water?” Rin puzzled over her meaning. “Do you mean crying?”
“Crying?” The word sounded strange when she said it, like she had never used it
before. “What’s that?”
“It’s when you shed tears.” The girl’s face twitched ever so slightly in
confusion. “It’s what I’m doing now. You cry when you’re sad.”
“Are you sad then? Is that why you’re”—her faced twitched again as she tried to
remember the right word—“crying?”
The question made Rin start crying again. She couldn’t remember the last time
someone had asked her about her feelings, even in a perfunctory way.
“I don’t know,” she sniffled, “I guess I am sad.”
“Why?” The blunt question was softened by the girl’s innocent manner. There was
no judgement in her voice. It made Rin want to tell her everything.
So she did.
The girl never interrupted her. She never said a word at all. She simply
listened. Rin started with her father’s death until she made it all the way to
why she had swam out to the cove to cry where no one could see her.
“I can only hold my breath for half a minute or so. I’ll never be able to find
something good like that.” Rin’s lips trembled as she fought back tears of
frustration.
“I can help you.” There was no pity in her voice. It was a simple offer.
“How?” It seemed too good to be true.
“I know a lot about finding things in the ocean.” She ducked into the water,
disappearing from Rin’s view. Her actions were so sudden Rin stood up and
searched for her, worried something had pulled her down to drown her.
But it was fine. A moment later the girl was at the shore, dragging herself out
of the water. Rin wondered why she didn’t stand. Then she realized she
couldn’t. Her bottom half was that of a fish. She was a mermaid. Rin had been
talking to a mermaid. All the worries swirling in her head seemed to still.
What did they matter anymore? She ran to the girl’s side, splashing water
everywhere in her excitement.
“You’re a mermaid!?” She crouched down to speak face to face to the girl. Water
lapped at her heels.
“Yes, obviously,” she said, flicking her light blue tail impatiently. The color
blended in with the water of the cove.
“I’m Rin. What’s your name?” Rin stared at her in awe.
“Haru.”
“Haru,” she said, trying out how the name felt against her tongue. “Can you
really help me? Is there some secret spell that will let me breathe underwater?
Or maybe sense pearls? What about making me into a faster swimmer?” There was a
fisherman in Rin’s village that claimed a mermaid had blessed him with the
ability to find the best tasting mackerel.
But Haru didn’t offer something so magical. Instead she taught Rin how to swim
faster and smarter than all the other humans. They swam together almost every
day Rin had off. She couldn’t teach Rin how to hold her breath—but she didn’t
need to. It came to Rin with time. She wanted desperately to keep up with Haru.
It drove her to practice and practice like she never had before. By the time
Rin was seventeen there was not a single diver in the village that could stay
underwater as long as she could.
Every day during the diving season Rin would row out to the secluded spot Haru
had found for her and wait until something tapped the bottom of her boat—Haru
letting her know she was there. That was Rin’s signal to dive. She wasn’t the
only diver that did this but she was the only one that rowed out alone. The
other woman always took someone with them—someone to pull them back up to the
surface. They didn’t dive freely this far from shore. They secured themselves
to a pulley. Rin didn’t bother with any of that. She had Haru.
Haru kept her company as she dived. She didn’t talk much (Rin had never figured
out how Haru was able to speak underwater without it sounding like gibberish
but she did somehow) but Rin found her mere presence comforting. She was safe
with Haru. Safer than she would have been tied to her boat. Haru could bring
her to the surface faster than any human device could. She trusted Haru with
her life.
But lately things had started to change. That feeling of comfort, the warmth
that came from being around Haru, it was still there—but there was something
else, an uneasiness. Rin was too aware of the way Haru watched her. She could
feel Haru’s eyes on her when her back was turned. She would turn around to find
that Haru was staring at her unabashedly until realizing, delayed, that Rin had
caught her in the act. She would blush then, as much as Haru ever blushed, and
turn her head away. But her embarrassment did not stop her from doing it again.
Rin was at her wit’s end. She couldn’t concentrate on what she was doing. In
one terrifying moment she flipped over her tub, spilling the contents of
several hours of work right back into the ocean. Haru had to scramble to
collect it from the ocean floor. Things were getting out of hand. Finally, on
her day off, she confronted Haru about it, determined to get to the bottom of
things.
It was a warm sunny day. Summer had arrived. She rowed out to the cove they had
met at all those years ago. The cove was easy to reach by water but impossible
to get to by land. In all the years Rin had been meeting with Haru at it, not a
single soul had passed by.
“Why do you keep staring at me all the time?” she asked. Haru’s bluntness had
rubbed off on her over the years.
“What do you mean?” Haru flicked her tail lazily where she floated. Haru often
reminded Rin of the stray cats in her village. Like Haru they had mastered the
art of elegant indifference.
“You’re always staring at me lately. Even now earlier when I was swimming you
wouldn’t stop staring at me. Did I do something to offend you?”
Haru sank into the water until only her head was showing. She did that
sometimes. It was disquieting when only her eyes showed. Rin had never quite
figured out how Haru was able to breathe underwater. She didn’t have any gills.
“You haven’t done anything wrong. I just like looking at you, that’s all.”
Rin’s heart fluttered. Haru liked looking at her? What did that mean exactly?
Was it a bad thing? She had used the word “like”—that meant it was a good
thing, right? You generally didn’t “like” looking at things that made you
unhappy, right?
“You like looking at me? Should I feel flattered? I’m not, of course.” That was
a lie. The biggest lie she’d ever told. “Is it a good thing? Why do you like
looking at me? Is there something wrong with my face?” She was struck with the
sudden worry that in the time since she’d last looked in a mirror some hideous
scar or mole had appeared on her face. Maybe she was simply ugly by mermaid
standards. Haru was after all, more beautiful than any human Rin knew.
“There’s nothing wrong with your face, I think.” That sounded very much like
there was something wrong with her face. “I just like looking at it, that’s
all. Among other things.”
“Among other things? What does that mean?” Rin’s face was on fire. It wasn’t
fair. Haru was the one saying embarrassing things, it should have been her
turning bright red.
“Everything else. Your legs. Other areas.”
Rin wanted to hide her head underwater and swim away from Haru, but it was
pointless since Haru was much faster than her—or any other human—and would have
been able to see the blush on her face even in the darkest parts of the ocean.
“That’s—that’s—you—that’s embarrassing. I don’t stare at you.” That was a lie
too. She stared at Haru often, when Haru wasn’t looking.
“You can if you want.” Rin’s heart stopped for a moment before speeding up, as
though it was trying to escape her chest. Haru couldn’t be serious. There was
no way she could just stare at Haru. What was Haru thinking?
“Okay,” Rin heard herself say.
Haru swam to the shore and waited for her on the sand, her face unperturbed.
Rin’s legs wobbled as she made her way out of the water.
“So I’ll just stare at you then,” Rin said, flopping ungracefully onto the
sand, splashing Haru as she landed.
“Yes, that’s fine.” Rin sensed there was something else Haru wanted.
“You can stare at me too, if you like,” she offered helpfully.
Haru nodded, pleased she’d understood her unsaid question.
Rin shifted nervously in the sand. This was the strangest situation she’d ever
been in. She had free reign to stare at Haru and while that was terribly
exciting it made her anxious to let Haru stare at her in return. She did her
best to ignore Haru's watchful gaze. It was easier than she'd expected. Haru’s
beauty was soon the only thing in her thoughts.  The scales on her tail
glistened. They were a wonderful iridescent color. There were small patches of
scales elsewhere on her body—her arms, her shoulders, her chest, her back, even
her face—but her tail was what fascinated Rin the most. Rin’s legs had brushed
against it before but she'd never properly touched it. Her hand hovered over
it. She checked to see if it was okay with Haru. Haru nodded at her. Rin gently
lowered her hand.
Her tail was smooth. There was almost no resistance as Rin slid her hand down
the length of Haru’s tail, feeling the strength and muscle underneath. No
wonder Haru was so fast in the water. The power in Rin’s thighs couldn’t even
begin to compare to the power Haru had. The fins at the end of Haru’s tail had
always looked fragile to Rin—they were not. Even with all her strength she
doubted she could injure them in any way. That relieved her. She never wanted
to see Haru hurt.
“Tickles.” Haru’s fins twitched when Rin experimentally tried running her nails
down them.
“You can feel that?” Rin had expected it be like touching hair—where only
tugging it brought any sensation.
“I can feeling everything,” said Haru.
Rin gulped. She wondered if perhaps she should stop. The atmosphere between
them was thick with something she was afraid to name. Alarm bells rang in her
head. She ignored them and brushed the scales on Haru’s sides. Her scales were
softer the higher up she touched, softest of all where they met her skin. It
made her skin seem rough in comparison. She brushed the smooth scales of Haru’s
middle, carefully tracing scale after scale. Haru didn’t move, didn’t breathe,
as Rin’s thumb circled a certain spot. There was something there, Rin realized.
She pressed down. Haru’s scales began to give way. It was warm, shockingly
warm, and—
“That’s enough.” Haru caught her hand. Her eyes had gone strange. Rin could
barely see the blue of her irises.
“I’m sorry. I was—“ The words caught in her throat. She was what, exactly?
Satisfying her curiosity? But why? She was afraid to know the answer.
“You shouldn’t touch me there,” she said, frustrated.
Rin nodded. Haru released her.
“Can I touch you elsewhere?” Rin didn’t understand where her boldness was
coming from. If Haru rejected her she was sure she would fall to pieces. No one
would be able to make her whole again.
Haru hesitated. She would not say yes. She was going to push Rin away. Rin had
ruined everything. She had a crossed a line.
“You can touch me too,” Rin blurted out, hoping to appeal to Haru’s curiosity.
“Okay.”
The relief Rin felt didn’t last long. The thought of Haru touching her was
terrifying. Almost as terrifying as how much she wanted her to.
She tensed up as Haru lifted her leg. She became fascinated with the back of
Rin’s knee, sticking her arm between it. When she tried to pull it away, Rin
bent her knee and trapped it there.
Rin laughed at Haru’s shocked expression and wriggled her toes against Haru’s
tail. That seemed to shock Haru even more.
“Legs aren’t that different from arms, silly.”
“Hmph,” Haru scoffed, clearly not believing her.
Haru grabbed her foot. She tickled the bottom of it and Rin kicked her
reflexively, apologizing for it a moment later. Haru didn’t seem to mind. She
was fascinated by the way Rin could move her legs. Her eyes flashed each time
she seemed to discover something new about the way they worked. It was cute.
Haru was cute. Rin wanted to hug her. The tension from earlier was gone,
replaced with something innocent. Until Haru reached her thighs.
Rin was wore only one article clothing—a simple pair of shorts held up with
drawstring. It was how she dressed to dive. She thought nothing of it, not when
Haru didn’t own any clothing at all. But it was different now that it seemed
Haru want to explore every inch of her exposed flesh. Heat pooled between her
legs as Haru stroked the inside of her thighs. She wanted to snap her legs shut
but if she did Haru would question why. She didn't want to explain why. She
didn't want to acknowledge the way her body melted under Haru's touch. It
terrified her. To have feelings for Haru was bad enough but to be attracted to
her, truly attracted to her when they weren't even the same species had to be
wrong. She needed something to distract herself with. She reached out blindly,
finding the scales on Haru’s shoulders, but Haru’s hand moved higher and higher
and she panicked and did the last thing she should have—she cupped one of
Haru’s exposed breasts.
Haru immediately seized up. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“You said I could touch you elsewhere.” That was not what Haru meant and they
both knew it.
Haru sighed softly against her. “Don’t touch me where you wouldn’t touch a
stranger,” she said.
“You’re not a stranger. I want to touch you.” She was still touching Haru’s
breast in fact. It was probably clouding her judgement.
“You’re human. I’m not. This can’t happen.” Haru eyes pleaded with her to
understand. Rin did understand—she just found herself not caring. Her body was
reacting to Haru’s and that was all that seemed to matter at the moment.
“Is that your only objection?” Did Haru want to be touched? Did she feel the
same desire coursing through her veins? She still hadn't pushed Rin’s hand
away.
“I can’t take care of you when you’re on land. I can’t be by your side.”
“Then I’ll build a houseboat. I won’t return to the shore again.”
“You’re a fool,” she said it with affection.
“Do mermaids kiss?” Rin hoped they did.
“We do. But I’ve never—” Rin didn’t let her finish her sentence. She wrapped
her arms around Haru—finally letting go of her chest—and brought her in for a
kiss.
“I’ve never kissed anyone either. Until just now.” Rin giggled. She was
nervous. Perhaps she shouldn’t have done that.
Haru’s mouth made a little circle. Slowly, but surely, a blush spread across
her face. “You stole my first kiss,” she accused, “I don’t mind though. I’m
glad.”
Haru rolled on top of her, kissing her. Their bodies seemed to melted together.
Rin wrapped her legs around Haru’s smooth tale, the weight of it between her
core made her hips sway with desire. Haru’s soft breasts pressed against her.
“Can I—can I touch you there again?” Rin was breathless from kissing.
Haru froze. “Do you understand what you’re asking?”
“Of course.” Rin frowned. “Do you not realize we’re the same? At least, I think
we are.” They were both capable of feeling pleasure at least.
Haru rolled off of her. She stared at her quizzically. “Do you have a slit too?
Is that what you’re hiding under that cloth?”
Rin bit her lip in amusement. “Sort of. I wouldn’t say it’s a slit.”
“It’s exposed?” The absolute horror in her voice made Rin laugh out loud.
“It’s like that for some humans, but not me. Here, I—I’ll show you.” She bit
her lip and untied the drawstring around her shorts. She slipped them off
slowly, avoiding Haru’s eyes as she did. She took her time to fold them and
place them out of reach from the waves, not wanting them to get washed away by
the tide. She was utterly exposed. It was terrifying. It was exhilarating. Haru
watched her every action—surely she had seen everything already—but Rin kept
her legs crossed when she sat back down, suddenly feeling shy.
If Haru noticed her shyness, she chose not to comment on it. Instead she went
back to kissing Rin. Rin slowly calmed down. Her heart had been racing from
adrenaline.
“You can touch me now,” Haru said. It sounded less like permission and more
like a demand.
Rin pressed her scales once more until she found the place where they gave way.
A wet warmth enveloped her finger. She didn’t know where to touch, she didn’t
understand how Haru’s body worked. She added a second finger and spread them
apart inside of Haru. Haru buckled against her. She pushed down with her palm.
Haru whimpered.
“Can I try something?” Rin asked.
Haru nodded. Get on with it, her eyes seemed to say.
Rin had no idea if it would do anything for Haru. But she was curious,
desperately curious, to know what Haru tasted like. She spread Haru’s slit
apart and licked the exposed pink flesh that appeared. Haru cried out at the
contact.
She tasted like the ocean. Salt and fish and something Rin couldn’t put a name
on. She sucked on the small bud at the top of her slit. Haru’s eyes were wild
and dark, like before. She kept sucking on her, adding her fingers back in to
press down inside of Haru.
“Rin, don’t stop. It feels good.”
Rin kept licking her, sucking her, not stopping until Haru climaxed.
It was the first time she’d seen Haru’s breathing labored. Nothing until now
had ever tired her, ever made her gasp for air. Still she caught her breath
much faster than a human would have. She kissed Rin, their tongues swirling
together. Rin was sure Haru could taste herself on Rin.
An idea had been forming in Rin’s head since she first felt Haru’s tail. The
smoothness of it would make it easy to slide on, not painful in the slightest.
“Can I—“
“—try something? Go ahead. I’ve liked all your ideas so far,” Haru purred, once
again reminding Rin more of a cat than the half-fish she really was.
Rin seated herself on Haru’s tail. The cool, slippery texture of it pressed
against the warmth between her legs. She grinded against it, putting all her
weight into it, knowing Haru could take it. She was already breathing as hard
as Haru had at the end of her release. She clenched herself around Haru’s tail,
gasping at the sensation. Haru watched her, curious at first, until she
understood what Rin was doing. When she did, she moved her tail, swayed her
hips, anything to add to Rin’s pleasure. One of her hands played with Rin’s
erect nipples, pinching them, flicking them, rubbing them between her fingers,
while her other hand touched Rin anywhere, everywhere else.
“Does it feel good, Rin? To rub against me?” Her voice was filled with
curiosity.
“It does. Your so smooth, Haru. It’s so easy.” She couldn’t imagine anything
easier, anything better, than Haru’s tail pressing against her clit.
"I like watching you, Rin. I’m always looking at you because you’re so
beautiful. You have so many expressions. I think this one is already one of my
favorites."
Rin cried out. Haru’s confession had pushed her over the edge. She heard
herself call out Haru’s name as the first waves of pleasure rolled through her.
When it was over, she collapsed against Haru’s chest. It would take her a while
to collect herself, to stop struggling for air. Haru brushed a hand through her
hair. She shivered. She wanted to stay like this. She sensitive to where their
bodies connected.
”Haru, I like you. I want to be with you. I don’t think it matters if I’m human
and you’re not.” They would find a way. Rin really would move into a houseboat
if she had to. She didn’t care. Maybe she would build a small cottage here at
the cove. The possibilities were endless. She had never felt happier to be a
diver. To have a reason to spend her days in the sea.
Haru held her tightly. “I don’t want you to give up your life for me.”
Rin lifted her head and met Haru’s eyes. “I’m never more alive than when I’m
with you. I wouldn’t be giving up anything.”
Haru eyes lit up. She was beautiful. Rin wanted to kiss her, to hold her, to
never leave her side. “We’ll find a way then,” she said, as if reading Rin’s
mind.
The lay on the shore together until it was time for Rin to leave. With Haru’s
help she was sure she could raise enough this season to build a new home,
whatever type of home they decided on. The thought made her happy. Her mother
was doing better these days. She took care of their vegetable garden, selling
the leftovers for extra income. Gou had become a weaver. They would be fine
even if Rin left them to live on her own. If not, they could all move with her.
She laughed to herself imaging Haru eating dinner with them. The thought of
food made her stomach growl and she picked up the pace, skipping the rest of
the way home.
End Notes
     I used the word "diver" to describe Rin’s profession and not “ama”
     though that’s really what she is and not like, a random diver,
     because 1) I didn’t want to have it there untranslated 2) these types
     of divers in Japan haven't always been called ama (they've existed
     for at least 2,000 years) and I didn’t set this with a specific time
     period in mind. One more thing to note, ama are not pearl divers
     necessarily. That’s a misnomer. They dive for tons of stuff (seaweed,
     shellfish, octopus, sea urchins, etc). Until recently finding pearls
     was rare (now there’s a technique to induce pearls to grow in clams).
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