angsty because of course

okay, so what if, instead of it culminating in Demyx and his frog researcher gf living happily ever after in a mixed-species relationship full of sweet pond scummy kisses and tail-grinding (like it does when @flurryofwritingflames and I yell about it in private), it instead ends in something of a happy ending with great loss, a weird fusion of the Gift of the Magi and The Little Mermaid?

Like, he still gives her the necklace that denotes them being lovers officially, but then, as time passes, he wants More, he realizes/thinks that someday she’ll get tired of having to trek out to the pond to see him. So he finds someone who can do what he wants done, which is make him land-livable. He hands over not his voice, but his means of self-expression (so like, his sitar, physically, but y’know symbolism) and when he finally gets on land and finds his gf, he’s missing what feels like a limb and it hurts him.

and, she’s been trying desperately to become more aquatic so she can be with him full-time, but she gave up the necklace in trade (even though it broke her heart)

BUT, light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel, he makes her another one out of his shed scales which is both more personal (anyone could have picked up that shell; those scales are his alone) and actually, to merfolk, means he’s waaaaaaay more serious about the relationship. like a necklace means “we’re dating,” but a necklace of the merperson’s own scales means “we’re married at this point, and if reincarnation is a thing, I’m going to be with them next time, too”