rewatching h2o for at least the tenth time and i’m here to say that if lewis did not go off to america, i guarantee his blonde, dorky self would have kept zane in check
and that rich jerk turned fuck-up café owner would have stayed being the loyal, supportive and protective boyfriend he became in season 2
lewis gave no damns in what he said to zane or his buddies before the two were friends and afterwards they were such a duo. cleo’s other half is the key to zane behaving like a good friend and better significant other and no one can tell me otherwise
*This is my own person au involving the characters of h2o, rewriting the lore an adding an element of mysterious surrounding the mermaids and mako island. I tried to keep the girls the same but also add flaws which made sense to me. also big thanks to @vitaliciouscreations for helping me*
(also I know my grammar is horrible)
If there’s one thing almost everyone knows about Cleo Sertori is that she was good friends with Lewis McCartney to the point that the two were rarely seen apart. They had known each other since they were in diapers so that wasn’t much of a surprise. However it really was strange how much time they spent together especially after the Chadwick family movie away when Cleo was seven.
So it wasn’t out of the ordinary when Lewis called up saying something interesting happened and he had wanted to talk about it, so Cleo agreed and had sent Emma a message saying she couldn’t make it. Emma took it well and commented that she could get Elliot to time her.
Lewis rushed to the house much to Cleo’s surprise though thankfully it was empty, however Cleo immediately noticed her friend’s wet clothes and had to comment on it.
“What happened Lewis?” Cleo asked.
“What?” Lewis commented apparently the excitement of a scientific discovery was clouding his brain.
“Why are your clothes wet?” Cleo question as she went to hand him a towel, he quickly took it to whip off his face before continuing to speak.
“That’s actually what I was coming to talk about” Lewis said with a smile “I was wishing on the docks when Zane show up, I guess he was trying to prank me cause he pushed me in, but my foot got caught in the line so I couldn’t really hit the surface.” Lewis explained as Cleo’s expression slowly shifted to horror.
“So I was underwater for over 2 minutes and it was a struggle as I couldn’t get to the surface and then suddenly my lungs didn’t crave the air anymore, it was like I could breathe underwater” Lewis said with excitement “I got out but isn’t that interesting Cleo?! I could possibly breathe underwater, wouldn’t that be an exciting scientific discovery?!” Lewis asked.
“No Lewis! You could have died?!” Cleo yelled out, seemingly snapping Lewis out of his scientific brain before Cleo calmed down realizing that Lewis was still there.
“Oh yea, I guess if I didn’t breathe underwater things could have gone bad” Lewis thought out loud.
“Ya think?” Cleo said in a sarcastic, her mom mode in full activation “If, if this breathing underwater thing is true and not another weird human trait, you could have died, you could have drowned Lewis!” Cleo explained before grumbling about Zane and likely planning a murder.
“You’re right, I should probably do some experiments,” Lewis said to himself, getting Cleo’s attention.
“No, no experiments, you are to keep your head firmly above water” Cleo scolded as if she was talking to Kim rather than her best friend.
“But Cleo, I need to run experiments,” Lewis pleaded.
“But what if it was just an accident? Remember biology how the body does very weird stuff in order to survive, i don’t want you putting your life at risk cause it was that” Cleo pleaded with her friend. Both were obviously unhappy with the augment but neither were backing down.
“Alright, no water experiments,” Lewis said, earning a smile from Cleo “For now, I’m going to do some research and make sure I have someone with me if I try anything underwater.” Lewis offered.
“And I assume that someone is me?” Cleo asked as Lewis’ smile told her the answer. Cleo just smiled and hugged her friend, trying to calm down her heart rate, it really dawned on her that if Lewis breathing underwater is true then without it Lewis might not be right here. “Just please stay safe, I need to go check up on Emma” She said as she went out the door.
“And Remember no experiments!” Cleo reminded while leaving Lewis alone, knowing he would be heading home likely to try to do research.
-
Cleo didn’t like leaving Lewis alone especially after what he told her but she knew he could trust him, he wouldn’t do any dangerous experiments without her plus they had a biology study get together tomorrow though something told Cleo they wouldn’t be talking about their last biology lecture.
She had texted Emma Gilbert about meeting up to at least talk about why she suddenly had to cancel, they had decided to meet close to the juice bar, however any sense of duty that day immediately died as she saw Zane by the dock. Anger quickly filled her so she opted to go down to the dock, to confront Zane about his ‘prank’.
“Zane, I need to talk to you” Cleo said, not that Zane was paying attention. “Zane!”
“Not now Cleo” Zane said again, ignoring the girl’s existence.
“I need to talk to you” Cleo said with anger slightly coming through.
“Then help me, my boat won’t start up” Zane expressed as he gestured to the red boat that was completely still. Cleo’s kind nature made her want to help plus she helped dad with his boats so if this meant it would allow her to chew him out faster she was willing to help. Cleo jumped into the boat as she observed the engine not noticing that Zane was getting out of the boat.
Before Cleo knew if, the boat was floating away while Zane and his friend Nate were laughing on the dock.
“Zane!” Cleo yelled, her thoughts of planning a murder were slowly coming back to her.
“Sorry Cleo, no spark plug, no spark” Zane yelled out to the drifting Cleo “Better swim for it.”
Cleo so wanted to scream so many cuss words at Zane but before she could really go into a sailors rant another person jumped onto the boat causing her to scream. The blond in red clothes immediately got up and revealed who she was to Cleo.
“Rikki” Cleo said in shock “I haven’t seen you in so long, what are you doing h-” Her words stop when she realizes that Rikki was holding the missing spark plug, “You took that?”
“Haven’t seen you in so long Cleo” Rikki said as she went by to return the missing piece to the engine “And seeing Zane still a pig, you really think I would miss out on an opportunity to mess with him?” She asked as she fixed and started up the engine.
“Nice, it’s good to have you back Rikki” Cleo states as she sits next to the blond as she drives the boat around and makes a quick turn splashing Zane and Nate in saltwater much to the joy of both girls.
Both of the girls rode in the boat just enjoying the breeze as they took the boat around, thankfully Rikki naturally took the way Cleo needed her to go and eventually they both say a familiar blond haired girl wearing blue.
“Emma!” Cleo yelled out, getting the blonds attention.
“Wanna join us ice queen?” Rikki asked her old friend, using that one nickname that Emma hated as a child. However, hearing the nickname Emma smiled brightly, as it had been so many years since she had last heard it.
“Move over hot stuff” Emma said as she got closer to the water before taking a jump landing on the small boat.
The three girls started to drive the boat off, all laughing as they felt the nice ocean breeze. They laugh as they start to talk about their old days, as they had all been friends when they were younger since their families happened to be close. Emma family hosting sleepovers and the girls giving themselves makeovers, Rikki dying Lewis’s hair to the horror of his mother, Cleo learning how to sew to make little badly put together plushies as gifts to her friends. It felt nice until the boat sputtered before stopping dead in the water, with the only land seemingly close by was an island.
“Great job Rikki” Emma commented with annoyance in her voice as they all realized they were stuck. Rikki’s face twisted in anger ready to open her mouth to bite back at Emma.
“Guy’s don’t fight, it was my idea after all” Cleo said, stopping the fight before it started “let’s figure out what to do now.”
“Should we pattle over to that island?” Rikki offered pointing to the island.
“Mako island? Oh no, that place is surrounded by sharks” Cleo said in worry.
“Well it’s the only shot we got” Emma said as she got the pattles and the three girls all silently agreed as they made their way to shore. They beached the ship as they looked around the beach.
“What should we do?” Cleo worried to her friends, scared that no one would find them.
“Chill Cleo at the very least you know your dad probably passes by here a lot” Rikki said with an unnatural calmness to her.
“I can’t get a signal,” Emma stated as she held her phone up to the sky “Maybe if we get to higher ground we can get a signal and get out of here faster.” Emma offered to the girls.
The girls never really had any other options so they followed Emma through the overgrown vegetation that filled the island, despite this being very scary, the island was very beautiful when you thought about it, not filled with so much man made stuff.
“You know this reminds me of the time we went camping as children” Rikki commented as the three girls trudged through the woods.
“Oh you mean the time you sent an army of crabs into our campsite and I spent the night on Lewis’s shoulders screaming,” Cleo commented trying to hold back giggles.
“Hey I didn’t do anything” Rikki said to defended herself.
“Rikki, you yelled ‘CHARGE!’ holding a stick in your hand as the army crabs ran ashore” Emma added trying her best not to laugh.
“Ok to be fair, I commanded the crab army but I never took them out of the water, they just seemed to come out and I took the chance to cause chaos,” Rikki admitted with a shrug.
“Dad seemed to enjoy it, considering we had crab legs for about a month,” Cleo added before they got back to what looked like a freshwater spring and waterfall. Emma and Rikki immediately went to jump to the other rock, however Cleo was very scared to jump.
“Come on Cleo,” Rikki encouraged the browned haired girl.
“I’m not really sure…” Cleo said as she inched closer to the edge.
“It’s ok, we’re here for you Cleo” Emma said as she got closer holding out her hands, showing that she was there for her.
“Ok…ok. 1.2.3-AH!” Cleo screamed out as when she went to jump her foot slipped and she feel down a tunnel in the rocks.
“CLEO!” Emma and Rikki yelled down the tunnel, worried for their friend. “CLEO! Are you alright?!” Both yelled, fear filled them.
“I’m alright” Cleo yelled back to them causing the girls to breathe a sigh of relief.
“Can you climb back up Cleo?!” Emma asked to their lost friend.
“Noo” Cleo cried out to her friends “I hit my foot..it really hurts, I don’t think I can climb up.”
Cleo was about to ask the girls what they should do, only for Rikki and Emma to come sliding down the tunnel into the cave with her.
“Rikki” Emma cried out “You were supposed to stay to stay up and find something to throw down for us to grab.” ,she scolded.
“Woops” Rikki responded before she went over to Cleo, who let out a hiss when the blond touched her ankle.
“Well at least this place is pretty, if there is anywhere to die” Cleo admitted bitterly already accepted the fate of death.
“No we’re not,” Emma said as she stood up taking off her shoes “Look there are tide rings, that means this pool is connected to the ocean.”
“So?” Rikki asked.
“So that means there is likely an underwater entrance” Emma said as she jumped in leaving her shoes on the side, she eventually went under leaving Rikki and Cleo alone. Both of the girls were two tired to really talk about anything, though they had looked up to see that they were somewhat inside the volcano as they could see the night sky from the inside of this cave. Eventually Emma emerged from the water.
“There is an underwater entrance not far away,” Emma informed. “It’s only about 10 seconds, and we can all fit down there.”
At that information, Rikki handed Emma her shoes before jumping into the pool, however Cleo hadn’t moved.
“Swim…no..no I can’t swim” Cleo admitted looking down at her hurt ankle “Maybe you guys can go ahead, besides this place is kind of homey, I kind wait it out until you guys get back with help.”
“Come on Cleo, we aren’t going to leave without you” Emma stated “We won’t let you down.”
“And besides despite how ‘homey’ this place feels, I figure your bed will be better” Rikki commented as both she and Emma held out their hands. Cleo looked worried before she sighed and slowly got closer to the water, when she got in both of her friends grabbed her sides not letting her fall in.
Suddenly the full moon was over the pool, suddenly the water seemed to be bubbling and glowing, feeling the girls with a weird feeling.
“Does this feel strangely familiar to you guys?” Cleo commented to the group, she couldn’t put her finger on it but it just felt so familiar, like she had felt it before.
“Either way it’s super weird” Rikki stated.
“Alright, let’s go.” Emma said. “1,2,3” She counted before the three girls held their breath and went under water to the tunnel. They quickly went through it and appeared on the other side, however before they had time to gain their senses, a bright light shone on them.
“This is the coast guard! Are you all alright?!” a voice called from the boat, causing the group to smile.
Soon the girls were on their way home, ready to sleep their day away. Unknown to them that some magic deep down inside of them was unlocked.
-
The next morning Emma decided to use her free day to go down to the beach, even after all the craziness that happened nothing would really keep her from the water. It took a while to convince her parents that she will be alright so she opted to take her phone.
So Emma went to their secret spot, a place where no one really went but Emma and the girls knew about, it was the place they went when they just wanted to talk.
Before she knew it the ocean was right there in front of her, she immediately dropped her stuff behind a secret rock before she took a dive into the clear ocean water, getting a good couple feet away from shore so she actually floated, enjoying the water’s perfect temperature.
Suddenly Emma felt something happened to her, she could only describe it as a warmth spreading across her sink as bubbles seemed to form around her. She took down and to her horror her legs were replaced with a blue tail. Blue scales seemed to cover her chest and lower haft shining green when light hit them, however Emma paid no attention to them or the random scattering of scales. Right now she was currently freaking out in the water, wondering what the hell just happened and what she should do now.
Across the way in Cleo’s household she experiences something weird as well. Considering what had happened the night before Cleo had decided to treat herself to a nice hot bubble bath especially since her hurt ankle would make showering a pain. However the nice hot bath was just what she needed.
After about an hour or so Cleo started to enjoy the hot water, the bubbles and lavender helping Cleo destress from the rough day she had yesterday. As she lifted her arm to add more hot water she noticed what looked like a rash on her arm. Cleo went to scratch the rash, it was somewhat hard as she scratched, honestly it felt like scales, the color looked like a mix of white and lavender.
Cleo lifted up her leg and nearly choked as she saw her leg was covered with the scales, so in her shock she immediately tried to get out of the bath, however due to her rush she fell to the floor with a thud.
As she gather her senses she grabbed the towels to try to dry herself off as she heard a knock on the door.
“Are you alright Cleo?” Kim, her little sister, asked from the other side of the door “I heard a sound.”
“I’m fine Kim,” Cleo said as she dried off, noticing the scales seemingly were disappearing. “I just tripped but I’m fine now.”
As Cleo was left alone she noticed everything seemed normal now, scales gone as she was completely dry. She really needed to either talk to the girls or Lewis, cause this is weird.
By the docks around this time Rikki was sitting down for some alone time, while normally she would be spending time with her dad and helping him out; she just wanted to be alone. She always felt like it was her fault that her dad’s life fell apart after mom left, oh who was kidding, she knew deep down it was her fault, her mother stated so.
Her pitying thoughts were cut off as a man close to her fired up his boat and sped off, splashing Rikki with water. She hissed as she tried to shake the water off of her. However soon she felt a warm feeling over her and her legs felt heavier over the edge of the empty dock.
Rikki looked down to see a tail had replaced her legs, the scales being a golden color that shines red in the sun. She looked over at herself noticing the scales covering her chest and other small scatter of scales around.
Rikki just looked around, she was completely alone as no one really came around, she really needed to meet with her friends.
-
It didn’t take long for the group of girls through all the mass texts to finally meet up, they chose Cleo’s house since it was the only one that wouldn’t have people in it.
“It was a tail! A giant blue tail cover in scales” Emma explained as she talked about the beach.
“Yours was blue? Mine looked to be gold” Rikki said before turning to Cleo “What about you Cleo?”
“I only got a rash I think” Cleo admitted “I think they were scales, but I could have been mistaken.”
“Why do we have tails yet Cleo didn’t?” Emma asked.
“Maybe we cou-” Rikki started to say, however it was soon interrupted when the door opened. Lewis entered the room before he stopped as he realized that Cleo wasn’t alone.
“Sorry to interrupt Cleo our biology project” Lewis commented as he held up a binder full of work, Cleo knew it was likely a lie as they didn’t have any big project coming up; so it was likely Lewis’s personal project.
Cleo looked over at the girls as they gave her the silent eyes that just screamed ‘get rid of him’ as they gester to the door.
“Listen Lewis now isn’t the best time” Cleo said as she slowly got him to the door “Maybe you can do some more research and we’ll meet up soon?”
“But I’ve done all the research I can find, it’s time for experiments” Lewis argued to his friend.
“Have you tried researching mermaids?” Cleo asked, causing the girls to look at her in shock while Lewis’s expression shifted to curiosity.
“No, I haven’t yet,” Lewis said as he finally got outside the door.
“Bye Lewis” Cleo said as she shut the door and turned around to the girls looking pissed.
“Really? Have you tried researching mermaids? What if he finds out?” Rikki asked.
“Don’t worry this isn’t about us, it’s something personal” Cleo said as quickly made up a lie “I was trying to work on a story about mermaids, so I asked Lewis to help with research.”
“Well no need to do that now” Rikki hissed out.
“Hey we should probably do our own research, Cleo has some point” Emma stated “We should probably go back to the beach.
“Me, oh no no no, I’m not going to the beach,” Cleo said.
“Come on Cleo, you won’t know until you go” Emma said.
“Exactly” Cleo said, “I could be perfectly alright.” Rikki seemingly wanted to protest but Emma spoke up.
“Well Cleo can stay here in case something happens” Emma informs, yeah that seems like a good idea.
Cleo tried to stay calm as Emma and Rikki had left her alone with her thoughts, as she just tried to wash the dishes, every once in a while going to dry her hands. The weird rash/scales would always appear in the water however they would soon disappear once they were dried.
What has life become?
Emme and Rikki were at their secret spot at the beach as they both gathered the courage to see if what happened earlier was true or if it was their imagination?
Both girls walked into the water, Rikki counting for how long it takes while Emma kept muttering ‘no tail, no tail’ as if that would make a difference. Soon enough the warm feeling came back causing both girls to fall into the water, tails and scales in all. The girls look back before they decide to go deeper in the water to actually go swimming and see what else they could find.
Emma’s scale shined green in the water and Rikki’s shine red as both swam around each other, enjoying the water. Their lungs didn’t struggle for air and their body moved as if they had been in the water sense the day they were born.
It was amazing.
Cleo had decided to go and check on Lewis, seeing how she had rushed him out super face. After sending him a text and realizing he was at the juice cafe so she went that way. She met Lewis outside where he had two juices in his hands before he offered one of the cups to her. They decided to walk around and talk.
“That was an interesting theory Cleo” Lewis commented getting Cleo’s attention “The idea to research mermaids.”
“Oh” Cleo said as she took a drink.
“Yeah, I mean most lore comes from people trying to understand stuff they didn’t know, so it’s possible that mermaid lore could have been a way to explain why some people could be breath underwater,” Lewis explain with excitement in his voice “Though I still wish to do some experiments soon about the underwater breathing.”
“Does the research say anything about rashes or scales appearing?” Cleo asked, she should know better, the girls had gotten onto her about recommending Lewis research mermaids but she just had to know.
“Well actually-” Lewis started before the sound of a motorbike silenced the two friends causing them to break up as a person riding motorbike through their space. The motorbike stopped as the person took off their helmet revealing who they were.
“Zane” Cleo hissed out.
“Hey, ruin enough of my fun” Zane hissed out “you just had to get me in trouble with my dad.”
“You got in trouble?” Cleo yelled out as Lewis tried to hold her back “You and you’re stupid pranks could have gotten me or Lewis killed!! Do you understand that Zane? Will it take me drowning to get it through the thick skull that these pranks are dangerous!” Cleo yelled.
“You’re joking,” Zane comment “You could have jus-”
“I can’t swim you As-!” Cleo started.
“Cleo!” Lewis said turning his friend around before turning back to Zane “You should check yourself Zane, eventually one of these days Daddy wouldn’t be able to save you if you kill someone.” Lewis warned as he led the angry Cleo away.
Zane didn’t know what to say, he wanted to argue, waiting to tell them they were wrong; but yet he couldn’t find his words. Has he really gone too far?
Cleo ended up going to Emma’s house as Rikki and Emma were already there, Lewis giving her some of his research to look over before heading back to his house. The girls laid around Emma’s room.
“So as soon as we touch the water we grew tails, yet Cleo is still only getting scales” Emma informed the girls “We have to keep this a secret, who knows what will happen if people find out.”
“Yeah” Cleo muttered out, sad she couldn’t tell Lewis, “you’re right.”
“What if it’s the type of water?” Rikki threw out her theory “Cleo only been at the house while we were at the beach so what if-” Rikki states not noticing her arm movement and knocking over a glass Emma had.
“Rikki!” Emma yelled out before Cleo instinctively held out her hand, the water stopping and seemingly floating in the air. The girls watch in shock for a few seconds.
“Are you doing that?” Rikki asked the so-called ice queen.
“I’m not,” Emma said before they both turned to Cleo. Cleo looked at them before looking at her hand, and clenching it, the water immediately falling onto the floor, leaving silence between the girls.
“Cool” Was all Rikki said.
“I need to go home,” Cleo said as she got her stuff. “This is all so weird.”
“We’ll see you tomorrow?” Emma asked.
“Yeah, let’s meet up tomorrow,” Cleo said before she got ready to leave. Rikki left soon after Cleo headed to her own house.
That night as the stars glittered into the sky, something weird had happened to the group of three, and they were determined to find out what it was.
probably not related to any other current fandoms i’m into, but the kid i babysit will watch nothing else so my brain needs something to keep my sanity
