Chapter Text
They walked to Zac's house in silence. Not a word was said out loud, but in their heads, a lot was going on. How would his parents react to everything they were about to find out? Would they reject their son? Be afraid of him? They had no idea, just like Zac's mom had no idea of how Mimmi managed to make things fly in her brother's room.
The twins stopped as they got to the garden. If they stepped into the house, there was no going back.
"Hey, it's going to be okay. I know how much they love you, and they may be surprised at first, but nothing will ever change that." Mimmi wasn't as confident as she sounded, but she knew she had to. In part because it was her fault they were in this situation, but mostly because she knew just how scared Zac was.
Zac only gave Mimmi a small nod, leading the way to the place he once considered his safe place.
He opened the door and looked around, looking for his mother’s figure. And there she was, sitting on the couch, her elbows on her knees, her head down. She seemed already overwhelmed. As they entered the living room, she looked up.
“Zac, why aren’t you at school? Did something happen?” She asked, with a tired tone, but truly worried. He wasn’t sure if she had noticed Mimmi, who was behind him.
“No, nothing happened, I’m totally fine. I am the one who’s worried about you. Mimmi told me what happened earlier.” He said, getting out of the way, so he was sure she could see his sister. As her expression changed, he concluded that, in fact, she hadn’t seen Mimmi.
“So, do you know about… Oh my god, I can’t even name it. Well, whatever is wrong with her.” She was standing now, trying to keep a safe distance from the twins.
“Yes, I do know about it, and there’s no reason to freak out, or to be scared. There’s nothing wrong with her. Mimmi won’t hurt you.” He said, trying to calm his mom down.
“Zac, what’s going on?” Her voice was much calmer now, but it was obvious that she was still not comfortable with the situation.
“Don’t worry, we will tell you everything. But, is dad home? He should be here before we start.” Zac asked, looking around.
“He’s not, but I called him a while ago, he said he would be home at 3:30.” She answered.
“Great! Then, we just have to wait for a little bit.” He said, a little nervous.
Zac crossed the room and sat on a one sit couch, Mimmi followed him, sitting on the armrest. Lauren was sitting on the other side of the small room, on a two sit couch, which second seat would probably be occupied by Zac’s dad.
Mimmi was still learning how to read clocks, but as she looked at the one on the wall, she was almost sure it was 3:15 in the afternoon, which meant they still had to wait for at least another 15 minutes before Rob’s arrival. As when she and Zac were on their way there, not a word was said, and the room was filled with an awkward silence.
But then, finally, after what seemed like 3 hours of waiting, they heard the front door open. Now it was time to start a very difficult conversation, even more difficult than the one they had had, in this same room, 2 months ago, when Zac and Mimmi revealed that they are twins.
Rob was already very worried when he left work. His wife had called him when he was about to leave, sounding really scared. But when he entered his house’s living room, and found not just Lauren, but his two kids sitting there, with very serious expressions, he got really scared of what horrible thing might have happened. So he put all his stuff away, and sat by his wife’s side, desperate to know what was going on.
“Now that you are both here, we can start. Has mom told you what happened earlier, dad?” Zac asked.
“No, she just told me to come home as soon as possible. She sounded pretty scared. I was worried.” He answered, and looked at his wife, who seemed tired and stressed.
“Right, what happened was that Mimmi thought mom would be at work when she came here. But she wasn’t, and mom caught Mimmi using magic. That’s what it was.” He explained, already expecting his parents to deny it.
“Magic? Come on, Zac. You’re a big boy already. There’s not such a thing.” His dad replied.
“I saw it, Rob. And believe me, I spent the whole day trying to figure out how Mimmi could have possibly made things fly, but I couldn’t...There’s no rational explanation to what I saw. So whatever you two are hiding, tell us.” She said, looking at the twins, suddenly feeling determined rather than scared to know what was going on.
“Do you guys remember when we told you that we’re twins?” Zac asked, and both his parents nodded, so he continued. “There’s more to the story. Things we didn’t tell you. And I’ll need you guys to trust us and try to be as open minded as possible. Do you think you can do that?” He asked.
“Sure.” They answered, at the same time. But Zac knew it wouldn’t be as simple as that. He turned to his sister and asked her to start. She knew how to explain things way better than him anyways.
“Most of what we have told you guys is true, we just left some parts out. Parts that would reveal our secret, expose not only us, but our world. But now the time has come, and you have the right to know. So here it goes.” She stretched her hand out, making the water from the glass of water that was, thankfully, already on the coffee table, fly through the air until it touched both her’s and her brother’s skin. Ten seconds later, their legs were switched to a strong and agile tale.
Rob and Lauren had both their mouths opened now, too shocked with what they had just seen. They couldn't understand why or how their kids had turned into… fishes? It all happened in less than ten seconds. Now they had scales where their legs once were.
"This falls never get easier." Zac said, after using his arms to try to ease the fall.
"I'm sorry, I just didn't think they would believe us if we said, hey, we're merpeople, and we happen to have powers as well." She explained, and he could see that she did have a point.
"Merpeople? What does that even mean? What is going on here? What happened to you guys?" Lauren asked, her mind going crazy.
“Just give us a second to dry off, and we promise we'll explain everything to you.” Mimmi said, already using her powers to dry her tail. Zac was doing the same thing.
In a matter of seconds, both of them had their legs back and were once again sitting on the couch, Zac on the seat, Mimmi on the armrest.
Rob and Lauren were visibly shocked, and trying really hard to reason what they had just seen. But, for some weird reason, they weren’t feeling scared at all. When you think about the possibility of seeing your kids being transformed into some kind of mystical creature you know nothing about, you probably assume you’d be frightened. But no, that was not the case there. It was almost like some part of them always knew. Not that their son was a merman especifically, but some part of them always knew that there was something special there.
“What the hell is going on with you two?” Rob asked, breaking the silence.
“It’s actually quite a long story, but I think that’s the last thing you guys are worried about at this moment, so let’s start at the beginning.” Zac said, giving Mimmi a signal to start.
“It all started even before we were born. Our mother, she was the most powerful mermaid to ever exist.” She started, but was interrupted by Lauren.
“Wait, you guys know your mother? Birth mother, I mean.” She asked, shocked.
“Well, yes. I do.” Mimmi answered, a little bit down, talking about her mother had always been tough on her.
“You’re not buying this whole mermaid thing, are you?” Rob asked his wife. He was starting to believe it himself. It was difficult to deny it after having seen the living proof in front of him, in his living room. But still, there was a part of him that just couldn’t accept it.
“Let her continue Rob, they have already given us enough reasons to believe them.” She said, a tone of irritation in her voice.
“There’s only one way our mother could’ve had twins, and that means she broke a big law in the mermaid’s world. A long time ago, even before our mother was born, there was a war between mermaids and mermen. It was pretty bad. Mermaids won, and mermen were banned from the sea. That means that the only way mermaids could reproduce from then on was by using the moon to conceive their offspring. But, this way, it is only possible to give birth to girls, mermaids. So if Zac and I exist, it could only mean that our mother matched with a merman. Are you guys following until now?” She asked, worried it was already too much information. The possibility concerned her, as she hadn’t even gotten to the half of it.
“It’s a lot of new things, but; yes, I think so. I only have one question. How do you guys use the moon to conceive kids? How’s that possible?” She wondered, looking really confused.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Said Rob, his scientific mind going crazy with the idea.
“It is true. But if you’re looking for details, then I’m afraid I can’t help much. The only thing I know is that the moon is very powerful. It is the resource of power of the Moon Pool, our moon rings, and it can make you do crazy things when you’re not properly trained.” She watched them making confused faces as she said all that names of things they didn’t understand.
“Relax, well get to it later, now let Mimmi go on.” Zac really liked to hear his sister telling their story, as it had been a mystery to him for so long, it was nice to hear every detail Mimmi knew about it.
“This next part is pretty much a prediction. We think this is the most reasonable explanation to why she left us, but it could be anything, really. Well, after Zac and I were born, in the Northern pod, Canada, our mother couldn’t risk being seen with a baby boy. Nobody knows what would have happened to her for breaking such an important rule. We think that’s why she had to leave Zac on land.” She explained, looking sad.
“But if you guys were born in Canada, why did she leave you here in Australia?” Lauren asked.
“There were rumors of trouble in the north at that time. We think she brought us here so we could be safe.” She answered.
“All of this does make sense, but if you guys were born… like this, then how come Zac never had a tail when he was younger?” Rob asked, and, this time, Lauren recognized it was, indeed, a good question.
“As I said before, our mother was very powerful. She casted a spell on Zac when he was younger that allowed him to have a normal landboy life. She is the only one who would be able to cast such a powerful spell.” Mimmi said, proudly.
“How did you get your tail back?” Lauren asked her son, genuinely curious.
“One night I went out to camp on Mako with Cam, and as I browsed around I found a kind of chamber. When I touched the trident symbol that was glowing in the stone, the floor vanished and I fell into the moon pool. After that night every time I touched water, a tail would grow.” He answered remembering how many things had already happened since that day. For some reason it felt both distant, and close.
“Moon Pool? What’s that?” Lauren asked.
“The Moon Pool is a very special place for mermaids. It’s located on Mako Island, and is the resource of all merpeople’s powers. It’s a natural pool located inside a volcano. When the full moon is up in the sky, right above the pool, the place gains the power to transform anyone who is in the water into a merperson. In Zac’s case, it only washed our mother’s spell away.” She explained.
“I see. Has the same happened to you, Mimmi?” Lauren asked, once again genuinely curious.
“Oh, no. I grew up with the pod, not on land. As I am a mermaid I was not seen as a threat, so our mother left me with the Mako pod. No spell was needed.” Mimmi told her.
“You grew up on the sea! That’s… wow, how was it?” She asked, amazed.
“Well, it is pretty amazing. But you guys have pretty incredible things up here as well. I mean, have you ever tasted fruits? I wish we had them underwater.” Mimmi answered, dreamy.
“Wait, if you grew up underwater, how did you and Zac meet?”
"Well, I came to land to try to take Zac's powers away, as after he got his tail back he was seen as a threat to the pod, but then we ended up becoming friends, and eventually finding out that we are twins." She explained, remembering the very first day she had come to land, and how things had changed ever since.
"Rita, Ms Santos, was the one who found out. And yes, she is a mermaid. She took Mimmi in when she first came to land, and she still lives with her. She knew our mother, and had heard rumors that Nerissa had had twins, so when we told her that we were having visions of each other, she connected the points. Only the kids of Nerissa would be able to do such a thing." Zac added.
"Visions?" Asked Rob, feeling confused once again.
"Mimmi and I share visions when one of us is in danger, or when we have really strong feelings. This way we can help each other. They started the day we met, and are gradually becoming stronger. It is pretty nice most of the time, but there are days that it is just annoying. We are still learning how to have more control over it." Zac answered. He knew Mimmi wouldn't say she felt the same way about the visions because, for her, that was the one thing that showed how strong their connection was, but he knew that sometimes the visions bothered her as well. They are twins, and love each other, but that doesn't mean they have to share everything.
"Uh… I mean… Wow" Lauren exclaimed.
"We know that's a lot of new information to process, and we understand if you need some time to think about it all before making any decisions…" Zac started, but his father interrupted him.
"What decisions?" He asked.
"I don't know, I mean, are you guys okay with all of this? Do you accept me even though I'm not a human being? That kind of decision." He answered, looking down, and Mimmi placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Zac. It doesn't matter for us, well… what you are. Who you are is what is really important, and as far as I'm concerned you are my son. The kind, brave, amazing boy I have raised. We love you. We may need some time to adjust to all these new things, but that doesn't change what we feel. Do you understand?" The only answer she got was a big hug from her son. The only answer she needed. They finished hugging, and his father placed a protective hand on his back. A gesture that although simple, meant a lot.
"Wow, thank you guys, that means a lot." Zac said, and his parents nod. He turned to Mimmi. "Thank you for coming with me, I know how big of a deal it is for you to expose your secret to land people." He meant it, he couldn't have done it without her.
"You don't have to thank me, I was the one who put you in this situation in the first place. Besides, you're stuck with me now. Whatever we do, we do together." Mimmi said, smiling.
"Maybe it isn't so bad after all." He said, smiling back.