Hi, this is Dearmoviegoers and this was a prompt from FallingNarwhals. It's kind of a silly idea, but also super cute, so I hope you like it. AU and only tangentially related to the actual show.

It was the sort of the store you wouldn't notice if you weren't looking, and possibly not if you were looking. If you did notice it, in any case, you would probably avoid it, because it reeked of dead fish and salt water. No one had any idea how it managed to have such an authentic seaside smell, as it was in Amity Park, in some forgettable inland state or another.

Sam Manson loved the place. She didn't even mind the stink, because it usually stuck to her for a while after she got home and drove her parents insane. Any amount of suffering was worth that sort of reaction from them.

The other reason she liked the store was because they sold the best aquascaping supplies in Amity. They still weren't top-notch, but they were good enough. Sam was currently on her way down there to buy some more plants.

The basis of aquascaping was like the Japanese arts of bonsai or Japanese gardening, where plants and landscapes were painstakingly shaped. The twist was that, as tended to be obvious from the name, aquascaping was done underwater, and the aforementioned landscapes were populated by fish. The fish, unusually, were the least important part of the whole thing. The important part was the plants, the rocks, how it looked all together. That was the base and the fish were added decorations, sprinkling life into the whole thing.

Sam had a passion for it. It combined her love of plants and animals with her interest in more obscure hobbies and gave her the ability to annoy her parents at the same time. Win-win-win.

The bell above the door tingled as Sam stepped inside. As usual, there were only about two other people in there, both browsing the fish. Sam walked straight past them to the plants. She was glancing over tropical banana plants when she saw a flash of silver, similar to sunlight on fish scales.

"What was that?" she wondered aloud as she took a better look at the tank holding the aquatic plants. Did a fish get in with the plants?

She got a better look at the origin of the mysterious flash as it struck again. It looked like a tiny long-leaved brownish-green plant with a bizarre silvery sheen. I've never seen a plant like that before. It's beautiful.

She grabbed a passing salesman by the arm. "Hey, Juan, do you know what this plant here is?"

He looked it over. "Can't say I do, Miss Manson. I didn't even know we had it."

"Well, do you know what the price is?"

He shrugged. "I'd guess it snuck in there by accident. Honestly, you'd probably be doing us a favor if you just took it- might be some sort of weed."

Sam's eyes lit up, very uncharacteristically. "Really? You'll just give it to me?"

"Sure. You're a great customer, and since it's not in the computer we can't actually sell it."

"That's great! You're awesome, Juan!" Sam gave him a rare smile as he put the little plant in a plastic box for transport and filled it with water.

"I can tell you it likes freshwater, cause that's what this tank is, but everything else is up to you. You can't blame me if it kills everything else in your aquarium."

"I don't think that'll happen, Juan. Thanks again!" Sam called over her shoulder as she left, eying her new prize. She already knew exactly where to plant it. The front right corner of her tank had been looking pretty bare lately.

The silvery plant seemed to wave enthusiastically at her as she stepped back and admired the aquarium. She loved her aquarium. She tried not to get attached to the trappings of her parents' wealth, but she allowed it in this case, considering the amount of personal effort that had gone into it.

Tiny flocks of neon tetras danced around the miniature jungle she had created for them, briefly pausing in bewilderment at the new addition before continuing onward. They accepted it. That was good.

Sam collapsed back into her bed (which was black and purple, not pink, thank God) and allowed another smile to grace her face. It was okay when no one was looking. She did have a reputation to uphold, after all. It wasn't exactly a positive one, but still. She liked her image, even if it was just an image.

She fell asleep thinking about how sometimes, things are more than they appear.

When she woke up, she glanced blearily over at her aquarium. It looked very pretty, framed by the morning sun like that. The new plant glittered silver and gold from its spot in the front left corner-

Sam blinked hazily. Front left corner? Didn't she plant it on the right?

She tumbled out of bed reluctantly and walked over to the aquarium. The long green-brown leaves twitched happily, like they was greeting her.

"What have you been up to?" she wondered, inspecting the conspicuously empty spot where it had been yesterday. She was right- it definitely looked bare.

"Samantha! Breakfast, honey!" Her mother's voice echoed up the stairs, sickeningly sugary sweet.

"It's SAM!" Sam howled back, stalking downstairs regardless. The moment her light clicked off behind her, the silver plant pulled itself free of the pebbles and soil and did a few laps around the tank, bubbling with barely restrained glee. The other fish shied away nervously, uncertain what to make of this strange new addition to what until now had been a stable and unchanging world.

The first thing Sam did on arriving home was dash upstairs and check if the silver plant had moved at all. It was now dead-center, where Sam couldn't help but think it looked horribly out of place. Of course, that was only her second thought. The first had been along the lines of how the hell is it doing that?

"MOM?" she called downstairs.

"Yes, Sammiekins? What is it?" her mom's obnoxious you-are-my-daughter-and-I-can-call-you-stupid-cutesy-names voice answered her.

Sam swallowed her dignity and didn't object to the name. Savor this moment, mom. Savor it, because it won't happen again.

"I need a camera. I need to record something overnight for a school project."

"Sure, darling. I'll just call Daisy. It'll probably be about half an hour."

"That's great, mom." Sam paused for a minute, mouth twisting painfully, before adding, "Thank you."

"You're welcome, sweetie! You know, Sammiekins, anything you ever need, especially for school, you can just ask your father or I... do you need new clothes? We really should go clothes shopping together some time..."

Sam groaned, not loud enough for her mom to hear her, and turned her music up as loud as it would go to drown the incessantly helpful but never really understanding voice.

Sam usually had to be dragged out of bed, which tended to be a dangerous job for anyone. The next morning, which was a Saturday, sacred for sleeping in, she practically bounced out of bed and over to her computer- if she had set it up right, the film taken last night should be saved to her hard drive. She found it quickly and hit PLAY.

After Sam's bedside lamp flicked off, the leaves wiggled. Not the regular gentle waving in the current, but a very purposeful moment. A few more twitches and the plant popped free from the earth entirely.

Sam shot a disbelieving glance at her aquarium, where the probably-not-a-plant sat innocently, unaware of its escapades being uncovered.

The plant uncurled, revealing a tiny torso, arms, a head... a face. A human face.

Sam's jaw about hit the floor. She stared over at her aquarium for another minute before turning her attention back to the camera, idly wondering if her mom had done something funny to the camera, or maybe she had assembled it wrong.

The little mer whipped happily around the tank, the usually drab leaves... no, fins. They were fins. The usually drab fins pulsed with rainbow colors as the... something... did a flying leap out of the aquarium and re-entered with no splash at all.

Sam opened up another tab and googled mer.

The rest of the video was largely the same, the little mer swimming around frantically, doing tricks, and generally scaring the hell out of her regular fish.

Sam closed down the video on seeing there were still seven hours of film left (she suspected they would be very repetitive, and as fascinating as this was it would get boring realll fast), but saved it just in case and walked over to the tank.

"Hey. Hey, can you hear me, or are you sleeping?"

No response.

"I just want to tell you that I won't hurt you... or anything... I'd kind of like to be your friend..." Sam trailed off, suddenly fully aware of how ridiculous she sounded.

"I'm talking to a tiny plant that may or may not be a mer, telling it I want to be friends," she muttered as she stomped out of her room, her words masked by the noise her combat boots made. "I am losing it."

Sam didn't pay much attention in school the next day. She was scribbling notes into her notebook, but they had absolutely nothing to do with the class.

Swimming in circles

Joyful rainbow silver scales

Chasing your own tail

Sam sighed. She hadn't been able to take her mind off the impossibility now inhabiting her carefully pruned underwater world. She moved down a few lines in her notebook and started writing down the little she did know.

-changes colors

-hides during the day (or when I am there?)

-tiny

-has fish tail

-looks like a plant

-lives underwater

-can't see camera?

Sam leaned back in her chair, tapping an irregular beat against her chin with her pencil. She had painted a picture of the animal, whatever it was, but that didn't exactly help her understand what it was. She sighed.

Of course she knew what it looked like. It looked like a mer. A surprisingly small mer. She would be a horrible goth supernaturalist if she didn't know that much, not to mention that she lived in a town many believed to be haunted. She held more than her fair share of supernatural lore. One of the many reasons she didn't really have friends.

But the almost insect-like size of the mer puzzled her. She always figured if they did exist, they'd be more human-sized.

Maybe it's a baby. The thought hit her like a bucket of cold sea water. Maybe it was an egg on one of those plants. Maybe it has a family.

She tuned into the teacher's voice again just in time to hear the class being dismissed.

"Okay, kids, that's all for today. Does anybody have any questions?"

Yes, Sam thought. I have a million questions.

When Sam got home, she tossed her homework haphazardly by her bedroom door and made a beeline for the computer. She pulled up the feed from the camera and hit play.

She was scribbling some answers down into her math notebook when a flash of motion on the computer screen caught her eye. She slapped the pause button and tried to comprehend what she was seeing.

Was the little mer... chasing her fish? Why would he do that? Thus far, it had seemed like the fish were afraid of the creature, but it didn't return any cautious or hostile feelings. She hit play again and immediately noticed a watery glint of sun on metal.

Does he have a knife?

She blinked in shock, watching as the mer chased her fish in endless circles and wincing as he almost (almost) caught one, when a realization slammed into her with all the shock and force of a pillowcase full of bricks.

He must be starving.

She mentally punched herself, realizing that the little mer probably hadn't eaten since he had arrived at her house. Maybe since he arrived at the pet shop. She glanced over at the fishbowl.

"I'll be right back," she promised empty air before the insanity of the statement made her bite her lip. She pulled the door shut behind her and went in search of food.

Sam was very thankful her parents were generally off ignoring her during the day. Being smothered by their attention and affection in the evenings and mornings was enough, thanks much. She was also thankful her parents usually had ample supplies of about every possible food (plus a few things Sam was positive weren't food) in their massive and rarely used kitchen. It was a rather pointless room, seeing as they had staff do most if not all of their cooking.

It only took a moment for Sam to fish around in the double-sized freezer and locate a bag of frozen shrimp. Well, I guess he must eat seafood...

Sam dropped the chilled bag onto the table holding her aquarium with a harsh thunk, making the water tremble,and wheeled her computer chair over.

"Hey, you awake in there?"

No response.

"I know you've gotta be hungry. I brought you some food."

No response.

"It's frozen shrimp... I don't know if you can eat it or not."

No response; the plant stubbornly persisted in being a plant.

Sam sighed. Clearly she wasn't going to be able to talk it out of its disguised state. She dropped a bit of shrimp into the tank, next to the little hidden mer, and waited. After a few minutes, her patience was rewarded by the brief appearance of a tiny hand, reaching out from the pebbly soil just long enough to grab the bit of shrimp and pull in underground.

Sam leaned forward in her chair, waiting for a reaction. Part of her thought there just wouldn't be one- another part feared the leafy fins might suddenly wither and die from being fed the wrong thing. The air in the room was frozen with tension, and just when Sam thought she couldn't stand it any more, the fins started to glow with psychedelic colors.

The little mer cautiously pulled himself out of the soil, shying away from her nervously but glancing hopefully at the shrimp in her hand. She grinned widely, part of her in helpless disbelief and the rest feeling triumphant at finally coaxing the mer out of hiding. She dropped a few more fishy bits into the tank and smiled watching him dive to grab them.

Sam studied the mystery mer as he ate. His hair was long and dark, and his eyes were sea blue. His skin was very pale and dotted with scales until it disappeared completely and was replaced by his feathery fins, still pulsing steadily with color. Sam figured that meant he was happy.

"You know," she said aloud, drawing the attention of the cautious creature, "I can't just keep thinking of you as the mer. You need a name. A real human name, because that's what you are, right? You're a person."

She fell silent for a while, thinking.

"I think I'll call you Danny."

Please review! That might not be the best way to end this little oneshot, but (if you liked it) please don't be mad at the sudden ending. I may end up writing a sequel/next chapter/whatever. If you didn't like it, or it was too weird for you, or whatever, I'm sorry. You chose to read it- I can't help you there.

Please review and tell me what you thought either way, and I'd be flattered if you'd check out my other story, which is a collection of Avengers drabbles. #shamelessplugThanks again to FallingNarwhals for this idea. :)