Melissa couldn't stop Stefanie, said girl kissing Jillian.
But Jillian rapidly broke the kiss, bursting into laughter. She was literally rolling on the floor when, to everyone surprise, Stef' was slowly becoming human again. Dumbstruck, all Emily's sister could articulate was "W-what!?! H-how… How?!?"
Melissa, for her part, starred at Stef's reforming legs with envy.
When Jillian finally calmed down, she said "You probably weren't aware of it, but mermaid have a tendency to flick their tail from time to time, making it bend in ways no costumes could."
"B-but… B-but if you knew we were the real deal, why did you act like you didn't? Why didn't you just say you could break the curse?" Asked Stefanie.
At which Melissa asked "Speaking of the curse, could you lift it from me too, please?"
Jillian suddenly looked very sad. "I didn't remove the curse, I only put an on/off switch on it, sort of. It could work on Stefanie because her humanity was still there, even if it was silenced, but I don't fell any trace of being human in you, like your humanity was stolen." Then, looking at Stef' she asked "Does Emily know about your… problem?"
"She does, that's why she's tracking Serenity for us." Answered Stef'. "We even let her a note on the table, saying we were in the pool."
"Can we know how you know so much about the mermaid curse?" Wondered Melissa.
"Of course. But it's a long story, and I'm not comfortable staying here, where anyone could see us. We should go back to Emily's room."
- – — – -
When the three of them were back at Emily's flat, cramped in the tiny bathroom, Jillian asked "Does it upset you if I narrate it like it was a fairytale? Since it already sound so much like one…"
Melissa, back in the tube, and Stef' looked at each other, then shrugged.
Jillian took that as a yes, and started. "Once upon a time was a young man living near the sea. This man had the habit to go swimming every evening. During one of these daily bath in the sea, he encountered a mermaid.
At first, she was scared of humans, but her curiosity about this man swimming in the sea every-night prevented her from fleeing. She timidly started to speak with him, and they rapidly grew close.
After this first encounter, the mermaid went seeing her human friend as often as she could.
Alas, the kindness of the young man was matched only by his sister's wickedness. And as soon as the evil sister learned a true, live mermaid was around, she only wanted one thing: to capture it and experiment on it.
Thankfully for the mermaid, her human friend saw his dreadful sister capture his friend from the sea and quietly followed his wicked sibling, and as soon as the witch turned her back, he freed his friend. But he didn't stop there, and captured his sister, so the mermaid's people could judge her for her crimes.
When the mermaid asked why he handed his sister, a member of his family, over her peoples, he simply responded that he saw her as far more than simply a friend, that he loved her. At this the mermaid kissed her human boyfriend. They conceived their first child that night, but after this the young man stayed almost a month without seeing the love of his life.
When she finally reappeared, she was accompanied by a lot of others. That alone was surprising, but more unexpected was the fact that, this time, she wasn't nude like usual, or like the other mermaids. Instead, she wore some rich garment with a complicated pattern. She explained that her mother, the previous queen, died during her absence, preventing her from coming back sooner.
That greatly surprised the young man, who didn't knew his girlfriend was royalty, and feared that her new responsibility would drive them apart. But the new queen wasn't keen on breaking up with her earthly boyfriend, especially not now that a new life, mine, was growing inside her belly."
"You mean you're…?!?" Asked simultaneously Melissa and Stefanie.
"Yep!" Answered Jillian. "I'm an half-siren, and heir to the crown of Atlantis."