[ #sakuatsu PONYO/LITTLE MERMAID AU]

Mer!Atsumu + Prince!Kiyoomi

bby prince Sakusa picking bby Atsumu up from the sea.

IN A BUCKET.

Baby Atsumu as a lil sea shapeshifter. he may have tentacles. dumbo octopus baby. shrimp baby. SEA URCHIN BABY.

He accidentally pokes Sakusa's finger and makes him bleed and cry,, he's not so good at talking yet but he's very good at turning into different lil sea creatures!!

Sakusa drop the bucket in shock and Atsumu wiggles off to get him a seaweed bandaid,,

Sakusa bringing him back home in the bucket and almost getting him killed cos his parents majorly freak out and try to throw him out and Sakusa has to plonk him in fresh water and Atsumu nearly asphyxiates,,

BUT ALL IS WELL EVENTUALLY Sakusa gets Atsumu back into the sea

And so he continues his friendship with this weird little thing from the sea,, they play together at the beach and Atsumu makes Sakusa laugh all the time by turning into different animals,, and one day when Atsumu finally learns how to speak his first word is "OMI!"

Imagine like 6 year old Sakusa wandering down to the caves by the sea and going too far in and getting stuck as the sun sets and the tide rises and just bawling his eyes out in the pitch dark .. .

annd then he hears a lil singing and splashing ..

and lil lights start to glow in the water .. and they make the whole cave look like magic and sakusa starts laughing through his sobs

It is bioluminescent mer-squid Atsumu and friends

and atsumu is like hey dont cry i'll teach u a song!!

and he sits in the cave singing to sakusa til he falls asleep and watches over him until the sun rises and the tide goes down and the palace people find their precious prince unharmed

but the king and queen absolutely FORBID their precious baby prince from ever going near the sea again...

So Sakusa grows up, on land, and forgets all about the imaginary sea creatures he used to play with as a child

Meanwhile Atsumu never gets over it all his life and haunts the shore looking for his dark human prince,,

It's been many years and even though time passes differently for the seafolk he thinks it can't have been so long that Sakusa's forgotten all about him, right?

The first time Sakusa even thinks about seafolk is two weeks from his 21st birthday. It's tradition for the celebration to be held at sea, on board the royal ship..

Sakusa has never been out at sea and his parents (for some reason) are very reluctant to let this party happen

but tradition is tradition! so the party happens, and Sakusa isn't as seasick as he thought he would be, but the noise of the party gets to him so he finds somewhere quiet away from everyone else...

and there's only the sea and the faraway lights of the shore where he's hiding from his own birthday party .. and he starts singing this little sea-melody he learnt as a kid, when he was afraid of the dark and someone taught him how to stop crying

. . .and Atsumu is just clinging on to the edge of the boat so In Love . . . and starts singing along with him. . .

but before Sakusa can see who's singing with him a sudden storm rises, Sakusa falls overboard and can't swim, is useless, Atsumu saves him,,

Sakusa is returned to the palace and practically locked up bc his parents are taking No More Chances with the Terrible Sea.. .

And Atsumu is doing circles under the sea bc Sakusa REMEMBERS HIM,, remembers his little song and surely, surely Sakusa would recognise him if he could only reach him,,

Atsumu doesn't think twice before making a deal with the seawitch..

gives up his VOICE TO GO ON LAND and has seven days to win his prince's heart ..

he wastes no time,, gets used to the stinging pain in his feet, scouts out the castle and finds out where Sakusa stays,,

climbs all the way up to Sakusa's balcony excited to meet him

Only when he tries to open his mouth and say "Omi-" no sound comes out, and Sakusa?

Sakusa doesn't recognise him.

((I'm done with this thread but throwing this here to lighten the pain)) https://twitter.com/min_mintobe/status/1308695375306350592?s=20