Count On Me (Don't Tear Me Down)

For the next several hours, they practiced letter forms and what each and every one of them meant and sounded like. Weiss picked it up quite quickly with Sienna not far behind. Yang was the farthest behind, but it seemed like her confidence had an impact on that. Weiss tried to cheer her on quietly, but Yang just shied away. Weiss frowned. Apparently being forward like that wasn’t good… Mermaids could definitely be subtle, but for this… She had tried to cheer Yang on so that way she could hopefully gain some confidence. Yang really deserved better… She seemed to be pretty smart despite what she said. She was picking up the writing pretty fast from what Weiss could tell, at least… Once done, Weiss stretched. “Man, that’s tedious…and you have to do this forhow longto learn it?” “Until you can do it without thinking, like anything else,” Sun said, his tail curling. Weiss sighed. “What a mess. And I have to be up here forhow long?”She still didn’t really get it. She had agreed to this charade, but it was still hard to be like this. Though… “Sun, we should probably be, y’know, morecoupley.At least around the servants.” He cringed a bit and his tail curled in on itself tightly. “Yeah, you’re probably right about that one… With everything with Yang, I just haven’t thought about it.” He sighed. She did feel bad about it, but they did have a charade to keep up with. The reason she was here in the first place was because of the fact that he wanted his parents to call off the engagement with Yang. She still couldn’t believe they sprang that on him without his consent… It was madness. ShelikedYang. She was very sweet. But putting an arranged marriage on someone without their knowledge was incredibly messed up and she hated that all of them were in this situation. She was really trying, but it was hard. They were best friends, but yeah, they did need to act more…intimate around people. “Sage is never gonna let me live this one down.” Sun sighed again. “Live it down…?” Yang asked. “What does that mean?” “It means that he’s gonna tease me relentlessly about this for the rest of our lives. Weiss and me are friends, but not a couple. But to see if we can throw my parents off you and me being engaged. I mean, you’re a really nice girl, Yang, but I don’t want to get married to somebody I don’t know,” Sun explained. “I…always knew I’d be married off to somebody I didn’t know.” Yang looked down. “I’m so sorry.” “Although I don’t know what would happen if I were sent back to Efrana… Especially now that I’m learning to read and write.” Sun cringed again. “That… I hadn’t thought about it. Well, it wasn’t like I evenknewin the first place.” He sighed. “This is all so complicated.” Weiss nodded. “It really is.” She felt bad for both Yang and Sun. She was in the middle of this without much of a thought. Though she did need clothes… And she wascold.Or at least, that seemed like what she felt. She wasn’t used to being any temperature. She was comfortable at all times thanks to the jewels that mermaids wore. “Sun, do you think we could go down to the jeweler and see if he has all my jewels done?” She didn’t like feeling like this. It felt bad. So bad. It was cold and she wasn’t used to it. She was so used to being comfortable all the time that this wasn’t something that she had ever predicted would happen. She really just wanted to underwater and snug with her community, rather than up here on land… It sucked so badly. “Honestly, probably not a bad idea, all things considered. You’re so dependent on those jewels and you aren’t used to feeling much of anything at all…” He shook his head, tail waving a bit. “Hopefully the clothes will be done soon as well as the shoes.”He looked her up and down. “You really don’t look like a noble lady at all.” He chuckled as he looked at Yang. Yang flushed a bit. “You are more what I’m used to but it’s not a big deal.” “To showanyskin in Efrana is considered a slight against the gods…” she said. “And the sign of a loose woman.” She looked down. She even had something covering her hands, leaving the only skin showing being her face. Her dress even went up to her neck. That lookedincrediblysuffocating to Weiss who was used to having pure freedom. The only reason mermaids even wore anything across their chest in the first place was because it offended land dwellers. Breasts were offensive for some reason beyond her kenning. Even male mermaids wore the tube tops because it was just easier for everyone to be on the same scale. Granted, she’d heard open-sea dwelling mermaids didn’t wear any clothing due to the lack of ability to trade for cloth and such. She felt so bad for Yang in general… “I can only imagine how I look to you,” Weiss said, looking down. Yang rubbed the back of her neck. “It…is a lot to handle for certain. You would be a walking scandal in Efrana.” Weiss sighed. “That’s about what I expected from the sound of it.” There was no real way around it. “But keep in mind I’m a mermaid… Having too much cloth would be dangerous if not outright deadly for us.” She had explained this to Yang before. Mermaids couldn’t afford to have a bunch of cloth weighing them down. Even the covering tops they wore were just for the sake of land dwellers. There was absolutely no reason for them to wear them while they were underwater. They didn’t need to dress for warmth the same way that land dwellers did. “Anyway, Sun, let’s go!” She bounced up and down, wanting to check on her jewels. He chuckled. “All right, all right.” The pair stood up and he looked at Yang and Sienna. “You two can come if you want to. Or do you want to stay here and keep practicing letter forms?” His tail twitched a bit. Weiss had been up on land so long at this point she almost forgot what having a tail was like… It was very strange to not be swimming all the time. She had come up onto land occasionally, but never further than the beach… She almost forgot what swimming as the main means of locomotion was like. Sienna and Yang looked at each other. Sienna shrugged. “I don’t see why not.” Yang frowned. “I really wasn’t allowed to leave my room much in Efrana…” Sun’s tail wavered from tip to base a few times. “Well, we’re notinEfrana anymore, Yang. You can do what you want to. If you wanna come with us, you can. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to. But it would help familiarise you with the castle grounds some more. So that way, when you want to wander around, you can.” He grinned a bit. “Maybe I can even show you around the city sometime.” Yang looked startled by the offer. Poor Yang… Her life had been so restricted. Weiss could wander around Astana as much as she wanted to. Even land wasn’t off limits to her, though she had never wandered much beyond the beach until this point. Just not much reason to in the first place, especially with how Sun’s parents acted toward her and mermaids in general. “Honestly that could be fun,” Weiss said with a smile as she clapped her hands together. “I’ve not seen what a city above the water looks like. I wonder how it’s different!” She was honestly excited now that Sun mentioned it. She really wondered how things were different. She really wanted to see what things looked like. Though she frowned. “As long as we don’t have to ride horses…” She shivered. The thought of having to ride a horse still sent shivers through her spine. She knew it would be faster to get to the water on a horse, but those hooves… The fact they couldkillsomebody so easily still made her wary. All she wanted to was avoid horses as much as she possibly could. Sun shook his head. “Nah, we wouldn’t be riding them ourselves, not with this many people. We’d take a carriage.” “What’s that?” Weiss asked. She wanted to head down and see about her jewels and bounced up and down, anxious to get them back. She didn’t like feeling cold…or at least what sheassumedwas cold. She was justsoused to not feeling anything at all when it came to temperature. Sun put a hand on her shoulder, no doubt to try to calm her, but she didn’t stop bouncing. “All right, let’s head down then.” Considering everything, it was clear what she was thinking about. She nodded and looked at him. They all left the room and started heading down to the jeweler’s. “As for a carriage… Hm. I’m not really sure what to compare it to. I don’t think you even know what wheels are.” He sighed. “What’s a wheel?” “Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought was the case.” He shook his head. “Basically you can tie horses to a carriage and have it move you a lot faster than if you were even riding normally. It can hold more people than just one horse can.” The description was so vague that Weiss couldn’t even begin to picture what one of these carriage things looked like. What was a wheel? How could one tie multiple horses to it? Was it something like a flat bed? She just… This was all so beyond her to try to picture. “Basically they’re the best way to travel a long distance comfortably and can cover more ground than a single horse.” “Ah.” Without any sort of frame of reference, Weiss really couldn’t say much about it. “Anywho, let’s go.” Weiss nodded and stood up along with Sun. Sienna and Yang looked at each other before also standing. “So you two wanna come too?” They nodded and he grinned, tail waving a bit. “Well, glad to hear it. You two really should get used to the grounds. as well.” He shot a sympathetic glance at Sienna. Weiss could only imagine what was going through his mind… Seeing another Faunus enslaved like this… She would be treated relatively well as long as she was in Sun’s company, but even so… Weiss couldn’t imagine what it was like to be in Sienna’s position. If anything, being out of the water was a bit of a blessing from The One as it got her away from her step-siblings…even if she missed Winter and her mother desperately. They started walking down the castle corridors with Sun explaining where things led and how they all worked. Yang looked completely overwhelmed while Sienna seemed to be taking careful mental maps of where they went. Sun spoke to Sienna. “Due to your…predicament, you should probably avoid the main passageways to mainly avoid my parents. I know the castle pretty well as I’ve spent a long time exploring it when I wasn’t in my lessons especially when I was a kid. It was fun to wander around and see where I could get to and from by different routes. I can spend some time showing you where and how things operate later on if you’d like.” Sienna nodded, her ears twitching. “That…would be helpful. I would rather avoid the duke and dutchess as well.” Weiss didn’t blame her one bit. She was trying to avoid them as much as was possible as well… Considering they absolutelywouldkill her should they find her on her own… She didn’t like being so restrained to Sun even if this was a bit of a blessing in ways. But she did understand why he was so worried about her… Sun wrapped an arm around Weiss’ shoulders, making her start just a little bit. “Wha—?” She looked at him. “Well, you said we should act more couple-y, so that’s what I’m doing,” he said. “Did you change your mind?” Weiss shook her head. “No, not at all… I just wasn’t expecting this was all.” “Sorry, guess I shoulda said something first. But I will have to do this unexpectedly when we’re out and about like this… And you’re welcome to do the same with me. Fair’s fair.” She nodded. “All right.” It would take a bit of getting used to, but she knew it was important that they act like this. She leaned over and kissed his cheek which made his cheeks turn red. She giggled a little bit, covering her mouth with her hand. She wasn’t used to seeing him so bashful. It was funny. He retaliated with a kiss to her cheek as well but she just continued to giggle. Cheek kisses were something that were normal in Astana among even loose acquaintances. It wasn’t the move he thought it was. “What, are cheek kisses not common up here or something?” He shook his head. “Not unless you’re romantic with someone,” he admitted. “Oh.” Well, at least she hadn’t committed something that was awkward and uncomfortable for everyone else. She looked at Weiss and Sienna. “What about you guys?” Sienna shook her head. “Honestly…you guys are invading my personal bubble right now. In my tribe, we don’t get too close to people…but I understand my predicament right now. I can’t do anything about it…” Her ears went down. “So something like a cheek kiss to a random person woulddefinitelybe seen as amajorbreach of etiquette and manners.” Yang was silent for a few moments before shaking her head. “Same for me… Touching somebody without permission is averybad thing to do…” She looked at the pair of them. “Though…public displays like you’re doing are very,veryfrowned upon.” “Sorry if it makes you uncomfortable, Yang…but we kinda have to do it in order to show my parents we’re engaged,” Sun said, his tail waving a little bit. “We’re obviously not trying to break anybody’s taboos; this is just how things are in Noci.” Yang nodded and Sienna sighed. “There’s a lot to learn about the different cultures,” Sienna said. Yang nodded again. “Yeah…” Her gaze went down, lower than it normally was. Weiss really felt bad for both of them. They’d been forced to come into a culture they didn’t understand much about… Granted, not like Weiss was a lot better in some regards. She didn’t really understand how things worked up here on land. She had no idea what a wheel was or anything like that and horsesterrifiedher. She could understand the utility, but did they need to be sodangerous? She frowned as a thought hit her. “Sun…I left my tarakiri behind.” “Your tar— Oh, that weird silvery thing you have with you sometimes?” he asked. She nodded. “Yeah. Myrilune has probably been waiting up on shore with me, wondering where I am…” She frowned. All of this had just been sosuddenthat she hadn’t thought about it. She had other companion animals under the water, but Myrilune would be the only one that could accompany her. He was the only one that would be able to breathe on land. Plus, the others were used to open ocean… Even if she put them in tubs, it would make them depressed due to not having enough open swimming space. She would miss all of them dearly, but there wasn’t a lot she could do about it. “Well, after we get your jewels, we can go get him if you want, all right?” He smiled at her, then looked at Yang and Sienna. “Ever seen the ocean before?” Yang shook her head. “From a distance,” Sienna said. “I’ve heard about it…but I don’t really know what it is,” Yang said. Weiss’ eyes widened. How could she not know what the ocean was? “It’s big water. Really big. Like endless. There’s a bottom, of course, but it can be pretty deep in certain places… After a certain point, there’s no light. You need special stones to illuminate your way. There are deep-water mermaids and open-ocean mermaids, though we often don’t associate with them…” A lot of her people considered them strange and even barbaric due to how they lived, often without shelter and they wandered rather than stay in one place. She was pretty certain that they thought similarly about her people… They were strange for staying in one spot rather than roaming the open ocean. They all had their own unique cultures…but the thing that unified them was The One, even if they worshiped The One in different capacities. Yang’s eyes widened. “That…sounds impossible. The most water I can imagine is a bath…” “Well, you need big water to support populations… There needs to be room for structures, seaweed, and animals of all sorts. Think about how much room you need for settlements up here, then think about how we’d also need the space down there.” Yang nodded a bit, but it was clear she was struggling with how big the ocean was. Sad. The ocean could be a beautiful though terrifying place. Weiss rarely ventured outside of Astana due to how dangerous it could be… Granted, the danger from things like sharks was overblown. They only attacked if they needed food and would swim peacefully through Astana on their migration paths. “Well, we might as all well go together to get Myrilune so you can see the ocean,” Sun said with a grin. Weiss nodded. “That sounds great!” She clapped her hands together. “So I guess I’ll get to see this ‘carriage’ thing you were talking about then?” He nodded. “Yeah, guess you will. Maybe we can even have an outing to the city while we have it.” They made their way down to the jeweler’s and Weiss got her jewels back. Instead of the seaweed rope used, it was a pretty metal that shone in the light. “What is this?” she asked. “It’s called gold,” the jeweler said, though he didn’t look happy to be dealing with her. It was hard to ignore, but it wasn’t like Weiss could do much against him… “If you’re gonna be goin’ underwater with ‘em, you’ll need them to be resistant to rust.” “Rust?” Weiss tilted her head. The jeweler explained to her about how metals like steel and such could rust and corrode over time due to exposure to water. Yeah, that would definitely be good to avoid, Weiss agreed. She wasn’t sure how long she’d be up here on land, but for the times she went underwater, she definitely needed the chains to be resistant to corrosion. She’d seen how metal went bad underwater in shipwrecks. Though it seemed certain ones corroded much more than others. “I woulda given you silver, but it can still tarnish and wouldn’t look pretty anymore. It takes care. Gold generally doesn’t corrode like that.” Weiss nodded. “Okay. Thank you.” Despite him seeming to be none too pleased in doing dealings with her, he had at least thought about her and the environment she would be in. If she ever did go back down to the ocean permanently, she would probably replace the gold chains and bracelets with the seaweed rope again… She didn’t want to be seen as self-absorbed by having something land dwellers made for her and being above even her mother and sister. But, for right now, she needed these chains. The man shrugged and went back to what he’d been doing. Sun had them leave the workshop and motioned for them to follow. Weiss looped her arms around one of his and he led them to an enclosed building, though it was smaller than the castle. A number of oddly shaped…contraptions that sat off the ground on round things were in the building.“Theseare carriages, Weiss,” he said. He showed her what the wheels were and how to get in and out of the carriage. “Wait here while I have a driver go hitch some of the horses up.” The three women nodded and Sun hurried off at a faster pace. They all sat down while they waited. A little while passed and Sun came back. He motioned for them to follow again and they did so. One of the smaller carriages sat outside with four pretty much identical horses attached to it. He opened the door and held his hand out for each of them. He helped them all up, including Sienna, and then swung himself into one of the seats. “All right, it’ll take about an hour to get there,” he said. “Until then, we can talk or just sit in silence.” Weiss shrugged and looked at Yang and Sienna. They’d done a fair amount of talking, so she felt fine with the silence. They seemed to all agree and didn’t make any attempts to talk. The ride there was quite bumpy and it jostled Weiss around uncomfortably. “You rode in this forhowlong?” she asked Yang. Yang looked down, squirming a bit. “About half a year.” Sun sighed and put his face in his hand. “Yeesh… My parentsreallyhave been plotting this behind my back.” “Sorry.” Yang’s shoulders came up. Sun waved his hands. “No, no, it’s notyourfault, Yang.Youdidn’t do anything wrong. I just can’t believe my parents did this without consulting mewhatsoever.It’s frustrating beyond words. You’re just a victim in all of this. You didn’t have any choice, right?” She shook her head. “There you go. I’m not mad atyou;I’m mad atthem.”He sighed heavily. Weiss really did feel bad for him but there wasn’t a lot she could do about it other than play along with his game. Thankfully, that was near the end of the ride and they got out near the beach. He helped all three of them down first. Weiss could feel the awe on Yang’s soul. “Wow… When you said big water, youmeantit…” Weiss nodded. “Yeah. It’s huge. It goes on basically forever.” She smiled. “If you wanted to learn to swim one day, I might be able to teach you!” She beamed, then frowned. “Wait… I don’t know how to swim with legs.” She used her tail rather than legs. Legs were horrible underwater. She’d tried that once and it had only resulted in her being completely unable to swim whatsoever. It was awful and annoying. No wonder mermaids only used their legs when they went up on land to have dealings with land dwellers. Yang frowned. “But you were the one that said that cloth and hair were heavy…” “They are. There’s a reason we wear so little underwater,” Weiss said. Yang’s face exploded with color. Weiss tilted her head. “What’s wrong?” “I’d…have to t-take my c-clothes o-off then…” Yang muttered, stumbling over her words. “Yeah… I don’t see why it’s a big deal.” Land dwellers really were strange. She didn’t understand why wearing little to no clothing was seen as awful in their eyes. Sun’s clothes varied by the season, sometimes having shorter clothes on, but he still was never attired as little as Weiss was. She justcould notgrasp why it was such a big deal to not have clothes on above land. Sienna gave a wry smile. “I don’t think you can really understand concepts of modesty unfortunately, Weiss. Not with how you were brought up. My tribe wasn’t super huge on modesty especially in the summer months…but even so, exposing the breasts or what’s between the legs is seen asveryimmodest amongst most cultures above the waves.” “Oh” was all Weiss said. “Anyway, I’ll be back in a bit.” She took off at a run and went into the waves, diving in once the water was to her waist. With a single thought, her legs turned into her tail. She swam and swam around, glad to be back underwater. She wouldn’t leave them waiting too long, at least, but for right now…it just feltgoodto be in what was home for her. She really wished that she could be back under here all the time, but Sun needed her help in getting his parents off her back. She really was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Unsurprisingly, she found Myrilune waiting for her near the shelf that led off into the deeper ocean and toward Astana. He swam up to her, webbed, clawed legs cutting through the water powerfully. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close. Alathis, she had missed him so badly. He had been her stalwart companion for years and she hoped he would come up to the surface with him. She explained the situation and his mouth turned downward, but he nodded. She smiled and they swam for a while, twisting and darting through the water as they always did. Once Weiss was satisfied, she went up to the surface and turned her tail back into legs. Myrilune followed her. The trio were talking again about something, but they stopped when she came up with Myrilune. “Everyone, this is Myrilune. He’s been my companion for years now. I do have some others underwater, but they can’t come up to the surface.” “He’s…very strange looking,” Sienna said, bending down and looking at him. He was a sleek animal with four legs and a strong tail that ended in a caudal fin. Said legs were very strong and had clawed feet that were also webbed. He was a silvery color, his eyes a very pale blue. “I’ve never seen anything like him before.” “We call them tarakiri and his specific variant is a tarakiri nyxis. Though I think it would roughly translate to moonlit waveclaw.” Weiss scrunched her face up. It was hard to know how to translate things very easily. There was a reason all Astana mermaids learned to speak the Nocite language. It was just easier to communicate with Nocite people rather than try to translate things. She was pretty sure she had an accent compared to Sun, but Sienna and Yangalsohad their own accents. “Those jaws are intimidating…” Yang said, voice wavering. She backed up a few steps. “Oh, don’t worry too much,” Weiss assured. “He is a predator, but tarakiri in general are relatively peaceful creatures. They’re fierce protectors for certain. But they won’t attack unless their bonded owner tells them to or their bonded owner is in danger.” She smiled down at him. Compared to the land animals, he definitely did look odd. But underwater animals were justinherently differentdue to living underwater. “They can stay on land for up to six weeks. But I need to come to the ocean at least once a week so I won’t die, so he’ll probably come with me.” She would be good for another week which was definitely good news. “Can I pet him?” Sienna asked. Weiss shook her head. “We don’t really pet underwater animals like you would with land ones… They have something called a slime coat that helps keep them safe underwater. I didn’t even know petting was athinguntil I came up here.” “So you don’t show your companions any affection?” Sienna’s ears twitched. “We do, but just not like that. Anyway, we should head back.” She had mostly just wanted to come and get him. She would answer any questions later. Right now, though, she didn’t want to get into discussing him too much. She desperately missed swimming already, though… All she wanted was to stay beneath the ocean and swim until her heart was content. But that wouldn’t happen for who knew how long… It was just a part of her verycore,to swim like that. It was part of mermaids on the whole and any animal that lived underwater. Sun helped all three of the girls back up into the carriage, though Myrilune narrowed his eyes when Sun tried to help him up as well. “Just take it, Lune,” she said. The tarakiri gave her a withering look, but he allowed Sun to help him up into the carriage. He was decently heavy bodied and was having trouble getting up into the carriage. Sun lifted his back legs and he scrabbled onto the carriage’s floor. He scurried over to Weiss’ feet, laying down instantly. Sienna smiled. “He does seem to like you.” Weiss nodded and smiled as well. “Tarakiri are very loyal to their bonded owner. He’ll probably be suspicious of you guys for a bit… He’s okay with Sun since I’ve known him so long, but you guys are another thing entirely.” Weiss stretched a bit and laid down on the seat with her head in Sun’s lap. Honestly…she was tired. This was all so emotionally draining for her. She knew the ride back would be bumpy, but she just…needed some rest. She closed her eyes and Sun ran his fingers over her scalp. Her body relaxed and she leaned into it, her mind drifting off into a meditative trance.