is it casual now? [fic]

[isabrella]

is it casual now? (1213 words) by isabrella
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: H2O: Just Add Water
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Rikki Chadwick/Emma Gilbert
Characters: Emma Gilbert, Rikki Chadwick
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Sexual Experimentation, Candy Hearts Exchange 2025, Canon Universe, Mako Island (H2O: Just Add Water)

Summary:

Emma and Rikki have something going on.

It's casual.

“Shh,” Emma says, and it’s not casual, but it’s not not casual. So Rikki presses her hand over her mouth and lets Emma touch her like a secret.

Notes:

Originally written for falsenine on AO3.

title from my favorite song ever that i have loved since february 2023 btw <3 did you know <3

Thanks to resurrecho for beta-ing.

On SqWA / Tumblr / download on filen.io.
 

 

---

“It’s casual,” Emma tells Rikki as she pulls her down on the bed and pushes her knee between Rikki’s legs.

“It’s just casual,” Emma tells Rikki as she parks her car up in the secluded spot around the bluff from Mako Bay and cranks down the seat so she can fit between Rikki’s legs.

“Casual,” Emma whispers against Rikki’s lips as she kisses her in the moon pool, the crescent moon glittering overhead.

And Rikki can’t help it.

These stolen moments with Emma feel like the prelude to the rest of her life, once Rikki can finally get out of this stupid town.

She thinks about it constantly. If she could convince Emma to be part of those plans, take her somewhere else, Emma might actually see that she didn’t have to stick to all those carefully laid out plans, the ones that she’s never deviated from even once.

Except for the whole mermaid thing.

And now, Rikki.

 

 

Rikki knew, the first time it happened, that it was a one time thing. Emma, a little tipsy from a house party, patting the bed next to her. Rikki watched her eager, bright, eyes; she thought Emma was going to tell her a silly secret, the way girls at sleepovers always do, or so she’d been told.

And in a way, Emma did tell her a secret. She leaned in close, blue eyes flickering over Rikki’s face, Rikki’s breath half-caught in her throat, just the barest inkling of what was going to happen sparking in her brain.

Emma smiled all small, a dimple in the smooth roundness of her cheek, the pink of her lips a shock against her skin.

Then Emma kissed her, slowly, like she was tasting something new.

Rikki felt it from her fingertips to her toes, a blossoming awareness that Emma had seen the same thing in her that she’d seen in Emma.

Emma’s bedroom door was ajar. Rikki remembers that, the way her own eyes stayed open the whole time, watching the door.

Then Emma pulled away, cheeks flushed pink, her hair just a little bit falling out of the pinned-back twists Rikki had put in for her just two hours ago, and Rikki leaned forward and kissed her again, eyes closed this time, and Emma kissed her back.

She doesn’t think about Zane. Well, she does, but only for a brief second to realise that she was really just treading water with him and this is like swimming in the open ocean, except a million times better.

Emma’s family goes on vacation to Ayer’s Rock, and Emma’s mum invites Rikki. Rikki’s pretty sure she’s decided Rikki needs a close eye kept on her, now that they all know she’s poor and her mum’s gone and she lives at the campground.

Rikki almost doesn’t care about being a charity case when Emma slides her hand under Rikki’s sleeping bag, then her pyjama pants, then finally her underwear, Rikki gasping softly with each new movement, the first night they’re camped out under the stars.

“Shh,” Emma says, and it’s not casual, but it’s not not casual. So Rikki presses her hand over her mouth and lets Emma touch her like a secret.

Rikki knows without Emma saying that Cleo can’t know. She’s almost surprised Emma doesn’t say it out loud, make Rikki promise, but then again, saying that would be like admitting that something’s going on between them, and nothing is going on between them.

Emma whispers it’s casual as she pushes Rikki’s tank top up over her boobs and kisses them. She whispers it as Rikki tangles her fingers in Emma’s hair as she eats her out.

It doesn’t take long to discover that the type of wet that Emma makes Rikki doesn’t turn them into mermaids. Rikki doesn’t think too hard about it, in the moment. Later on, she wonders what Lewis would think about it, then has to shove that thought into its own disturbing box, never to be opened again.

Emma’s so completely convinced that this is casual that Rikki almost believes it.

And she’ll take what she get, because what else is she going to do?

It’s casual now.

---

It’s casual, until one day it’s not.

They’re swimming out and around Mako, Cleo off somewhere with Lewis, and Rikki catches herself in some coral.

It’s not a big deal, it just kind of scrapes up over her scales, and whatever passes for blood leaks out of her tail, and she’s annoyed at herself for doing something so stupid, and then there’s the sharks.

Normally, the undersea flora and fauna don’t bother any of them; obviously, they consider mermaids part and parcel of the ocean. Normally, Rikki’s not bleeding into the water like a fucking red flag.

One of them is already making a move for her, and Rikki’s too dazed and confused to really make any kind of countermove, and then Emma’s there, in between them, a sheet of ice in between them, and pulling Rikki away.

“How could you be so stupid?” Emma says stiffly, back in the moon pool.

Rikki glares at her. “It wasn’t on purpose,” she says.

“You know there’s sharks around here.”

“Again,” Rikki says, wincing as she twitches her tail and watches the water go cloudy, “it wasn’t on purpose.”

“I can’t lose you,” Emma says, and Rikki’s breath catches in her throat. “I mean,” Emma continues hastily, “how would I explain that? If you went missing.”

“I’m sure you’d think of something,” Rikki mutters.

Emma just sighs. “You need to be more careful,” she says, hand running down Rikki’s side to the scratched up part of her tail. Rikki shivers at the touch, tries to pass it off as a flinch. “Does it hurt?” she asks, and Rikki nods.

Emma’s mouth is slightly open, brow furrowed in concern, and it’s all too real.

Would she look at Cleo like that?

Rikki doesn’t think so.

She weaves away from Emma’s hands and pulls herself onto the sand. She waves a hand to dry herself off, partly because she’s curious about how a tail injury translates to her human body, partly to get away from Emma’s big, wet, concerned eyes.

Her legs are fine. Emma looks up at her.

“All better,” Rikki says, ironically. “No need to worry about me.”

“I always worry about you,” Emma says softly.

Is it casual now?

---

They don’t talk about it more.

When they get back to Emma’s room, Emma shuts the door and presses Rikki up against it, hands sliding under both layers of her t-shirts. It feels different this time, more desperate, like Emma’s trying to prove a point to herself.

Emma presses her lips to Rikki’s pulse point, and Rikki thinks about ‘I always worry about you’. Emma pulls Rikki to the bed and starts undressing her, carefully, methodically, in her Emma way, and Rikki thinks about ‘Does it hurt?’

She thinks about stopping it, this time, about saying the words out loud, forcing Emma to actually talk about this thing between them.

She thinks about Emma’s perfect life, her parents downstairs, her straight As, the way she smooths her hair back into its low pony after every time she touches Rikki.

She can let Emma have this much.

It’s just casual.