Sea Shanty

Shipwrecked!Suigetsu/Mermaid!Sakura

summary: A storm leaves Suigetsu shipwrecked and alone. Well, not completely alone. What's it like to owe a life debt to a mermaid?

a late get well gift for @kyoties ​!

mermaid sakura is such a weakness of mine lol

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The storm came abruptly and without warning, bearing down on the ship and its crew with merciless glee as they were thrown and tossed about. The winds, just as much as the waves, seemed insistent on never letting any of the crew members regain their footing for even a moment and Suigetsu was fairly certain he saw a man fall overboard and into the violent water below. He didn't know for sure and he didn't want to think about it as the waves would certainly smash the body back up against the side of the ship before dragging it under.

At this moment, as his world becomes water and wind and rain, he can't remember a time in his life when he'd been dry. His clothes are soaked through and he can feel the chill right down to his bone, the rain falling hard enough to hurt against his bare skin. He can barely hear the orders being shouted above deck, the roar of the wind and the crash of the sea deafening and silencing everything besides the occasional boom of thunder, but he fulfills his duties to the best of his abilities. He ties down what he can and helps other men with the rigging and is suddenly sent stumbling when a stray elbow strikes his face.

He is knocked against the deck railing and has a clear view of the angry waves smashing against the side of the ship, feeling everything rock to one side and get terribly close to pushing him off-balance. Suigetsu gets a face full of salt water for his troubles, but, before he can pull himself away, he spots something under the water.

There, further out where the waves aren't so violent, he swears he sees a face beneath the layer of seafoam. An icy chill, colder than the storm, fills him briefly as he thinks its the face of a crew member who'd been swept out to sea, but then the eyes blink and he realizes that it's watching the ship be tossed about from a safe distance. Just as it seems to meet Suigetsu's bewildered gaze, the ship rocks back the other way and the momentum pulls him away from the railing.

The next few moments are a blur and, before he can tell what's happening, Suigetsu suddenly realizes he doesn't know what's up and what's down and his lungs are both freezing and burning as his eyes sting and his fingers grow numb. The taste of salt on his tongue is stronger than it should be from mere ocean spray and he comes to the horrific realization that he's under water. The ocean both surrounds and fills him, in his mouth and in his stomach and in his lungs, and he desperately starts kicking, hoping he's facing the surface. Just moments after he breaks through and feels air on his face, coughing up seawater and trying to catch a breath, a wave comes crashing down on top of him.

It submerges him once more and drags him down with the force, what little breath he'd managed to obtain quickly knocked out of him. Disoriented, he desperately tries to swim for the surface again but feels his limbs going numb from the cold and his head light from the lack of air. Suigetsu forces his eyes open as a last-ditch effort to try to find the surface and thinks he can see the moon. It appears from behind the storm clouds briefly, distorted by the movement of the ocean water and so far away - too far and too late. He reaches towards it and the surface, the last of his breath bubbling out around his mouth in an unheard cry, and the light of the moon disappears once more.

There's only darkness around him. Darkness and an icy chill that's seeping into his bones, clutching at his heart, until, suddenly, there's warmth.