Sireena woke up from the hot rays of sunlight that escaped through the window and onto her skin. Her room isn’t so close to the water surface though, she thought. She surveyed the room and found it filled with withered weeds, cheap coral plates, bed sheets that smelled of dead fish bones, and a pile of dust scales that resulted from shedding of one’s fin. 

And the fact that she’s closer to the surface and to the sun meant that she’s in the upper trenches of the sea. In the Backwaters.

This isn’t Sireena's room at all.

Sireena's body aches as she tries to move, but jolts when her tail lightly touches warm, rough scales underneath the blanket of seaweed that covers her body. 

Sireena’s wide awake now, and took a peek on the left side of the bed where she found a barebacked mersir sleeping, and a wave of memories from last night begins to crash over her.

Kissing, loads and loads of kissing.

“Triton,” Sireena cursed sharply under her breath. She slowly slithered her body away from the bed, trying as much as possible to create minimal water currents and bubbles for the mersir to stay asleep. 

Sireena went near the window, and her scales glimmered, her chromatic orange tail shifts to different shades of  blue and green, but when the sunlight hits, her tail looks like glistening gold. On the floor, she picked up her tube top made with braided seaweeds dyed in turquoise, with seams beaded with crushed clamshells. 

The combination of gold and turquoise always looked beautiful on her pale skin. 

“You look great in that.”

Sireena turned around swiftly, her heart pounding as she found the mersir seated up and leaned back in the headboard with a sly grin on his face, and his arms up and flexed, resting behind his head. 

Sireena surely thought he looked ravishing last night, with his light beard making him look more earthly and charming.

But now, just a tiny bit above average.

“Oh,” Sireena awkwardly said. She was caught off guard while fumbling the ties of her seaweed top

Sireena felt the water current move towards her, and instantly knew that the mersir got up from the bed and swam behind her. His breath, warm, as it touches Sireena’s bare shoulder.

“I’ll help you with that,” the mersir said as he pulled the two dangling strips from Sireena’s top, tightening it, and finally creating a small bow. 

“Um, thank you,” Sireena said shyly without looking up at him.

The mersir’s hand is still on Sireena’s waist. When she said nothing, the mersir took it as a sign and looped his arms around her waist, hugging her from behind. “Don’t mention it. Enjoyed that as much as I enjoyed taking it off,” he said.

Sireena now remembers why she found him attractive–she likes the ones who are good with their words the most.

“Had a good night’s sleep, Alexa?” he whispered. Is that the name I told him? 

Sireena nodded. “Yes, and thank you for letting me stay. The bed is actually quite more comfortable than I thought.”

Stop being friendly and leave, Sireena told herself.

The mersir turned Sireena around so that she was facing him, but they remained close to each other. He reached out and cupped his hand gently on Sireena’s face, his thumb gently circling her chin, just below the bottom of her lip. “Can get some fresh boiled eels from Drakos down the corner, and stay till late?“

For a moment, Sireena wanted the warmth of his hand to linger. Leaning in to his touch, she’s considering it, but she already had too much fun. And she never stayed that long…yet.

“That won’t be necessary, thank you.” Sireena smiled sheepishly, and he dropped his hand. Had it not been morning, and it was midnight, and they're alone in some dark alleyway, she would’ve flirted back as she always did. Which was why she never oversleeps in someone else’s chamber. When the sluggishness of a seafoam brew wears off, so does her playfulness.

Sireena blamed the mornings. There was something about the night that made it all more intimate, mysterious, and quiet. The urge burns more when it’s dark. The more you had  to rely on touch and closeness, the rhythm of each other's breaths and bubbles. And the moon, its dim light that knows your secrets.

Sireena loves everything about the night. 

The morning light reveals and ruins everything.

But at least this mersir is a bit…sweet. Sweeter than most she encountered.

“Too formal aren’t you, Alexa? Starting to sound like the princess herself,” The mersir chuckled, and Sireena’s face felt hot.

Triton, I do sound like I’m from the Mainstream. 

The thing about the Backwaters is that they’re direct merfolks. Straight to the point and no dillydallying, extra-words-nonsense. But for a higher merfolk like Sireena, she’s disciplined, scolded harshly to speak in fuller sentences—to be polite. A clear distinction between those from the Mainstream and those from the Backwaters. 

But a bottle, or maybe two bottles of seafoam beer, and the politeness drops. Sireena becomes more laid back, and less stiff. 

It’s why she comes to the Backwaters often. 

“Must be the tons of higher folk I meet everyday in the pub. Accent’s contagious. Makes you wanna be like them sometimes, ya know?” Good save.

“In the pub? You from the Mainstream then? Thought you said you’re from around here?” his eyebrows furrowed.

Not good save.

The mersir’s eyes travelled from her eyes down to her tail, looking like he’s trying to pinpoint something he knows already. “Come to think of it. Ya do look like the pri—“

“Thank you so much for your time, sir,” Sireena cut him off, swam past him, and hovered in front of the door.

“Sir?”

“I must get going,” Sireena said, flashing her signature sweet smile one last time before leaving. And before the mersir could utter any more words, she found herself out of his chambers, gliding away towards the city. 

That was close. Too close.

Sireena is met with the bright and bustling metropolis that is the Backwaters. All of the buildings are vibrant, painted by the moving reflections of the water and the sun itself. The same exact vibrancy echoed to the merfolks. They were all loud, chaotic. The child merfolks are scattered, playing and swimming around to catch small fishes. The old ones are obnoxiously loud and annoying while eating their first meal outside near the sea road. 

That’s what she loved about the merfolks in the Backwaters. No one thought of what others think about them. They have no image to uphold, nor etiquette to follow. 

A life that Sireena longed for ever since her mother—

Sireena shook off the thought. She kept her head down, and tried to comb her long, dark hair with her fingers, trying to look like she didn’t just come from a stranger’s house. But the water always seemed to favor her. With the way of the water, the soft waves of her hair slowly took place, the ends nestled just above her lower back, where her scales started to fuse with her skin.

Sireena tried to blend in with the crowd, breaking her perfect posture, curling her back, and hiding her soft, delicate features that every merfolk in the Kingdom of Thalaria knows all too well. 

Not too long, a fever of stingrays breezed past Sireena. She whistled them to halt, and one of the stingrays that didn't have any passengers stopped. She swam to the hovering stingray, lowering his flap for her to climb. 

“To the Thalarian Palace, and quickly, please,” Sireena whispered, handing out a pile of gold coins that’s more than the actual fare. “And no other passengers.” The stingray nodded. 

As the stingray moves above the sea bed, Sireena starts to feel dreary, as she always does on her way back, because she knows the further she is from the Backwaters, the closer she is to reality.