Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

This story begins a very long, long time ago. Before your great-great-great grandparents were even born, and before you and I were ever even thought about. This story begins in the island of New Zealand, but much longer before it was ever even known as that. In this tale, it was simply the Land. And in this Land two very, very different groups of people lived and prospered there. The first of these peoples where very much like you and I. They were called Lanosians, and they were very human, and lived in the very middle of the Land. They were very proud, and very prosperous in their time. The stranger of the two, the ones that were very unfamiliar to us and the Lanosians themselves, were the Palomosi.

Palomosi lived on the coasts of the land, and practically lived in it's waters. They looked human-like, but they had very unique characteristics. Their eyes tended to always be green or blue, and various shades inbetween. Their hands were webbed in between their long fingers, and small gills on their necks. Many Palomosi claimed that as soon as a child was born, they were thrown in the ocean and swam as well any adult Palomosi. The Palomosi had a spiritual connection with the waters, and couldn't bear to ever leave the coasts of the Land to move closer inland where the Lanosians lived.

Because of this, many Lanosians rarely saw Palomosi, and the few who did catch a glimpse of these strange peoples constantly told stories of them. Because the stories were oft told by word of mouth, many stories were changed drastically from their original tellings. Many Lanosians told of a people who were more monster than human. Adults whispered to each other about how the Palomosi were a crass, barbaric race who mated with fish. Parents told children stories of how the Palomosi could turn themselves into hideous sea creatures who could crawl out of wells and devour naughty children who didn't mind their parents. But one thing that the Lanosians were jealous of were the singing voices of the Palomosi. They could carry the sweetest tunes in all of the Land, and many say that the Landosians only said these foul things from the jealousy that they contained within them for the Palomosi singing voice.

But the Palomosi were indeed a magical race, more connected to the land and sea than the Lanosians ever were. That's when they knew something terrible was soon going to fall upon them. The Palomosi could often sense when a storm approached, but none before had felt so unsettled about an incoming storm than they had in those times. It was so unsettling that many indeed started running inland, trying to find shelter with the Lanosians or warning the ones that lived closer to the coasts to go inland because of something that was going to happen.

But the Lanosians ignored them, or did not allow them shelter. Many chased the Palomosi back to the coasts where they belonged. And soon, the day fell upon them, where the ground shook horribly, and a huge tidal wave much higher than anything they had seen before surged above them, and crashed onto the coasts and further in. Palomosi and many Lanosians alike were swept away in the dangerous waves of water. Many, if not all the Lanosians who were swept away in the waters died, but the Palomosi all took in their magical roots, and many turned into fish and swam away to the deepest parts of the oceans to continue there lives. But some seemed to only transform halfway, and have the tail of a fish but were still half human.

Some Palomosi, those who escaped to the inland and stayed hidden, did all they could to blend in with the Lanosians. They knew that if the Lanosians found out what they were, they would kill them or throw them out into the treacherous sea to join their (presumed dead) brothers and sisters. They would take sharp rocks and cut off the webbing from their fingers and used clays and other materials to plug up their gills. Many said that when they had children who looked too Palomosi, they'd end up doing all they could to get rid of the child, or do what they could to cover them up to make them look as Landosian as they could.

The Land was much smaller than it had been before, with the lands of the Palomosi now underwater. After many years, no one thought of the Palomosi or what happened to them, and the Lanosians moved closer to the coasts of the Land. They soon saw the benefits of the ocean, not spiritually, but for profit. They'd catch and sell fish, and anything they could find that could be worth money. They all prospered and created huge castles and villages, and the name Lanosians soon became a thing past. They were simply humans. But soon tales of what could only be Palomosi started popping up again, from the mouths of sailors who often ventured out into sea.

They told of these beautiful creatures with bright blue or green eyes, and the tails of fish who would come up above land and lure unsuspecting sailors with the sounds of their voice. The sailors who were lured were never seen again, and they could only presume that these strange people (who they called merpeople, or more often, mermaids) dragged the poor sailors underneath the water until they died. Many children believed that they were fair beautiful creatures who simply wanted to befriend the humans, but did not realize they could not breathe underwater. And even more people on the newly named New Zealand simply scoffed at the idea of merpeople existing. But there were very, very few, who said that a human who had a draw to the sea unlike any other feeling had the old Palomosi blood in their veins from the hidden Palomosi who had survived in the land.

But beneath the waters, there was an entire civilization. Huge spiraling underwater castles with the Palomosi that had been long forgotten swimming in and out of homes, bustling along their business just like the people in the land above them. This sprawling underwater city was simply known as Palmonia. They were as aware about the humans as the humans were of them. The original Palomosi who first arrived in the waters were long gone, much like the Lanosians were now a thing of the past.

Now the true story, begins in the huge castle of Palmonia. Of a particular blond merboy who many claimed had the sweetest voice of all the merpeople, but had a habit of breaking his eldest brother's very strict rules that were placed on the younger brothers. This blond merboy was currently sneaking out of the castle into the open sea where merpeople rarely ventured. His older brother had recently told him that he was no longer allowed to go out of the city, because of the dangers that there were.

But Anders, the sly merboy that he was, completely ignored his brothers wishes for no other reason than wanting to defy him. He found excitement in never listening to Mike, who was often to busy with ruling the kingdom to actually punish Anders properly for breaking the rules. He smirked as he reached the very edge of Palmonia, where the beautiful lights ended and dark blue abyss set in. He knew exactly where he was going, and he swam on.

Chapter Text

Anders looked around. No one was around, which was lucky. Many of them had to be up at the castle or nearby in preparation for the festival that was going to be happening soon. That meant that no one had been keeping a close eye on Anders as they usually did per Mike's command. Anders couldn't help but scoff at that. Mike had the nerve to make sure that everyone kept an eye out for him so he wouldn't escape the city again like he was some little tadpole who still needed watching. Ever since both their parents died, Mike had been hellbent on making sure no one approached the surface or left the city unless they had good reason to. Anders of course, never was one to follow the rules, so as soon as they had been in place, Anders had snuck out of the city.

That's all it had been at first, just doing things to bother Mike and make him angry. But soon enough after finding strange objects that seemed to have just fallen into the waters that Anders called home, he couldn't help but develop a strange fascination with the world above them. Anders had been swimming on autopilot, and already he was groping along large rocks, until he slipped through a small entrance that he knew Mike would never be able to find. After squeezing through the crack between the rocks, Anders fell into a large cavern, well-lit from the surface above him. In it were various things that he had managed to find on his secret little outings away from Palmonia.

He couldn't help but swim around in excitement, looking at all the things that he had collected. He just wished they knew what they actually were. As he was looking through assorted bits of his treasures he couldn't help but let out a few random notes from a song he had learned a few days ago. It had been awhile since he had actually gone to the surface in search of things, and so he quickly decided to do it, and he grabbed a bag and swam up through the large hole in the cavern's roof and speed up towards the surface.

He gasped when his head broke the surface, the cold air attacking his face. The sky was dark and murky, and he could hear rumbles of thunder in the distance. “A storm...” He breathed.

Storms were the best time to find things, because stuff always fell off of ships during storms. Anders almost immediately spotted a ship a ways away. He was going to swim out towards it until he felt a certain unease. He shivered, and felt the waves grow rougher. He ducked down underwater again, and started swimming to where the ship was. He swam up and broke through the surface again, only to be pushed back a couple feet from a strong wave.

“Fuck!” He couldn't help but curse after being submerged again underwater. “That storm is definitely a lot worse than your usual storm.

He started lowering himself after the shadow of the ship loomed above him, and he could already see objects falling down into the water. Despite obvious reasons why he should go near the ship, he swam up closer and managed to catch a few of the things falling. A few more little metal things, twirly bits, and pieces of wood mostly. Anders was just putting a rather interesting looking instrument thing into his bag, and without realizing, he had started floating nearer to the surface without realizing. It wasn't until he heard an even louder splash that he realized how close he was.

His eyes widened in panic when he saw what caused the noise. A man, who seemed to be unconscious was slowly floating down into the depths of the sea. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” He whispered in a frenzy as he shot after the man and grabbed him by his arms. He tried to swim up, but that was proving to be very difficult with the weight of the man, and without the help from his webbed hands to propel him upwards. He quickly shifted the weight of the man and put him on his back, and he was able to swim somewhat better. His arms ached when he broke the surface of the water again, and the waves threw him closer and closer to shore.

“Shit...Where's the ship?” He looked around.

Had the waves thrown him that far off? Well, he couldn't dwell on the fact that much. He had to get this guy onto the shore before he died. Anders ignored the pain in his arms and swam to the shore, collapsing under the weight of the man. He pushed the man up and sat up on the shore. Despite being tired and having just saved a man, he couldn't help but giggle a bit and play with the sand. It felt weird, probably because it was so...dry. But he quickly dropped it and dragged himself closer to look at the man.

“Huh...So you're...human.” He muttered, picking up the mans hand and staring at fingers and noting that his hands weren't webbed.

He put his own hand next to it for reference, pouting a bit noticing how much smaller his hand seemed to be in comparison. The man seemed quite a bit older than Anders himself, as he had silver hair. Anders couldn't help but wonder what color his eyes were. He felt excited. Maybe if he stayed until the man woke up, and somehow managed to not scare him, he could ask him all the questions that he had about humans. He hummed to himself lightly, before breaking out into the same song he had been singing in his secret cavern. He couldn't help it, everyone told him he had one of the best singing voices. He got so into it that he didn't even notice the man stirring. In fact, the first thing that startled him was a pain in his tail, and he gasped in horror when he realized it seemed to be splitting in two.

“Damn!” He started pushing himself into the water again, and he only looked up to see the man open his eyes widely before he disappeared into the water. He panicked and checked his tail again in time to witness it slowly mend itself. “Whoa...What the fuck?” Anders muttered to himself, looking over his tail again wondering if this was all his imagination.

“Anders, there you are! What the hell are you doing so close the the shore, you know Mike doesn't want us here!” Anders turned to see a very concerned looking Ty, with his grey-blue tail flashing in the light from the surface.

All of Anders previous worries melted away, and a smirk replaced his scared-looking features. “Well, I don't really give a damn what Mike says.”

Ty rolled his eyes. “And anyways you're supposed to be practicing for the festi—Shit! Anders your arm is bleeding!”

Anders paused and looked at his own arm, and sure enough there were clouds of blood coming from his arm. He let out a rather unmanly shriek as Ty quickly grabbed a random piece of cloth that Anders had salvaged from his bag and quickly tied it around the wound. Ty sighed again as Anders quickly swam away from the bloody area of water with a look of disgust.

“I hate blood...” He muttered.

Ty rolled his eyes. “We have to go back, so Mike doesn't end up sending out half of Palmonia to look for you. I still wonder how you even manage to escape when you always look so flashy.” Ty eyed Anders' own red tail and yellow tale. “You're like some exotic type fish, I wonder if you're adopted.” Ty laughed as Anders punched him on the arm.

“I'm not adopted. Mum's tail was yellow, and grandpa's is red!” Anders pouted.

“Anyways,” Ty said ignoring Anders obvious pouting, “Why were you up here anyways? It seems like it's still storming pretty bad up there.” He poked a lone piece of falling wood. “Did a ship crash?”

Anders shrugged. “I wanted to see if I could collect more stuff from the ships. Storms are a good time for it because the waves knock things off the ships.”

Ty shook his head. “I know I should be stopping you from this for Mike's sake, but I know you won't. But why do you have such an utter fascination with the world up there? It can't be all that great.” He said, pulling the bag away from Anders as they started on their way back to Palmonia.

“Come on Ty, you used to come with me all the time! You're just as interested as I am about the surface.” Anders said trying to tug back his bag. “But Mike crushed your dreams of seeing the human world, didn't he?”

Ty paused, and let go of the bag. He turned to Anders with a serious expression. “Honestly Anders, you know he's just trying to protect us from being killed. You remember what happened to mum and dad. You're just adding so much stress and worry to Mike's already busy life. He didn't want to be king at all!”

Anders was silent, staring straight ahead of him to the dots of light that he knew was their home. He finally spoke up after a few minutes of silence. “I know he worries, but that doesn't mean he should be so strict about shit. I just can't see how he thinks a world that can makes such weird but wonderful things could be so bad...” He sighed.

“I wonder the same thing too, sometimes. I can't help but admit it.” As they neared the city, Ty took a look at Anders' bag. “You might want to hide that. I'll go tell Mike you're on your way. I think he wanted to tell you something besides reiterating the fact that you're not meant to be going outside the city.”

Anders nodded and quickly swam off to go hide the things he had found back in the cavern with the rest of the stuff he had. After organizing them fairly quickly, he couldn't help but sink to the bottom of the cavern and land with a soft thump on the sand. He looked up as he buried his fingers in the cold sand as he tried to remember the feel of it warm and dry. And that man...Anders hoped that he was alright, and that someone had found him. Anders also took the time to remove the cloth that was wrapping his wound and replaced it with a seaweed wrap. Anders knew that Mike would only get more angry if he saw something so blatantly from the surface.

He stared at his tail as well. He hadn't told Ty about what he had thought he'd seen when he had been sitting with that man on the beach. Ty read a lot more than he did, so perhaps he actually knew something about what had happened to Anders. Anders quickly returned home after that, knowing that if Mike were forced to wait any longer he'd end up trying to lock Anders up in his room...again. When he arrived in the throne room Mike immediately swam up to him with a look of mixed worry and anger.

“Anders, where have you been? You were meant to be here to practice your song for the festival!”

Anders wanted to point out that he had at least been singing the song while he wasn't at the rehearsal, but that wouldn't have helped in the slightest with the way that Mike looked. So he settled for looking somewhat guilty despite not feeling very guilty at all.

Mike just sighed at Anders' silence before pulling him to a more secluded area where other merpeople weren't swimming around putting up decorations. Anders took note that the crown perched on his hair was lopsided, and that he looked much older than he usually did. That was saying something, because when he abruptly was forced to take the throne after their parents died, he seemed to have aged many years in the time span of a few months. Mike turned around and paused when Anders suddenly reached up and fixed Mike's crown. Anders noticed a faint ghost of a shadow on Mike's lips before he took a deep breath.

“Ty told you that I wanted to talk to you about something, right?” Mike asked quietly.

Anders nodded, remembering the slightly offhand line that Ty had said to him earlier before swimming off to hide his things.

“Well, you know how now that I am king, and you're second in line...” He started, before pausing trying to find his words. “Um...We just had word from a messenger today. From the other kingdom a ways away from here.”

“I don't see where you're going with this...” Anders said quietly, despite the fact that he had a very bad feeling that he did know where this was going.

“We've gotten an offer for a marriage. And as I'm king and wouldn't be able to leave the kingdom, the task falls to you. Y'know, being first in line.” Mike ended awkwardly, crown going lopsided again.

Anders was silent, and without a word he turned abruptly and swam away, ignoring Mike's calls. He practically flew into Ty's room and Ty only just barely got out of the way, causing Anders to crash abruptly into the wall. Ty helped Anders upright again, with a look of concern on his face.

“What did Mike want to tell you anyways? He wouldn't tell me.” Ty asked.

Axl chose that moment to swim in. He had a look of confusion set on his face. “Anders? I saw you swim past me really fast, what happened?”

Anders groaned and allowed himself to sink onto the ground into a sitting position. “Mike told me that some other kingdom wants me to marry their son or daughter or whatever.” Anders realizing that he hadn't even bothered figuring out whether or not it was a mermaid or a merman.

His brothers' eyes widened simultaneously. “But you of all people wouldn't get married!” Axl exclaimed. “I thought you'd be the type who'd end up getting caught in some human's fishnet!” Ty immediately hit Axl on the head at that comment. “Hey! I was only telling the truth! Anders goes up to the surface so often I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet!”

Ty shook his head. “That doesn't mean you should say it out loud. Now go tell Mike that Anders is fine,” Ty ignored the glare sent his way by Anders. “And that he shouldn't bother him for awhile.”

Axl was still frowning, but swam off to do as he was told.

Ty turned to Anders again. “You never fully told me why you were so close to the shore, Anders. I mean even if you were following a ship, you'd never be that close. Even you aren't that stupid. Axl is right.”

“I had to save that man.” He said simply, turning away from Ty.

“Man? What man?”

“When I was by the ship, watching things fall from it and trying to collect things, I hadn't noticed how close I got to the surface. I know, a fucking stupid move on my part. That's probably when I got cut. But I heard a loud splash, and saw a man unconscious, sinking in the water.” Anders explained, playing with one of the long flowy fins on his tail. “I couldn't let him die, so I sort of swam him back to shore and stayed with him for a bit.”

Ty groaned and fell down next to Anders. “Seriously? Someone could have seen you! He could have seen you! I agree that it was a good idea to save that man, but to stay there?”

“Shut up, I know it was stupid. I guess I was hoping that he wouldn't freak out and answer some of my questions. But it didn't turn out like that...”

Ty's eyes widened. “Don't tell me he did see you?”

“That, I'm not sure. I sat with him for a bit, singing. I guess even if I wasn't at rehearsal I was still singing that damn song. But I felt sort of funny. I looked at my tail and it looked like it was splitting! And it hurt a bit too. I panicked and swam back into the water. I saw the guy's eyes open right before I disappeared.”

“Your tail splitting?” Ty raised an eyebrow. “Is that even possible?”

Anders threw his hands in the air. “Fuck if I know! I just know that that's what it looked like to me at least! I was hoping you'd know.”

Ty shrugged. “I'm about as clueless as you, sorry bro.”

Anders was silent before nodding to himself. “Well, there's only one thing that I can do now.” He quickly got up from his spot on the ground and looked determined.

“Wait...Anders what are you doing?” Ty asked worriedly. “No, don't tell me--”

“I'm going back to the surface and that beach to see what the hell was happening to me! Maybe I'll even find that man again...Because like hell am I staying here and being married off to some fucker I don't even know!”

“So instead you're going to go to the surface to find some human you don't even know? Solid planning there Anders.”

“Thanks.” Anders grinned at him before swimming out.

Ty yelled after him. “Don't take that as a compliment dammit! You know Mike is going to get fucking pissed at you!”

But it was too late, Anders was already off, determined to figure out what had happened to him when he was sitting on the beach.

Chapter Text

Colin dug his nails into the wood of the railing as the ship lurched to the side again. He grumbled as he looked at the waves splashing against the side of the ship, and up at the sky where huge grey storm clouds were rolling in quickly. When his company told Colin that he'd be picked up by a ship, he was expecting something more...stable. Not an old rickety wooden ship that looked like a good shove with a wave would tear it apart. The crew was amiable enough, even if they did enjoy making jokes about Colin being a 'city boy'.

“Honestly, who even thought sailing wooden ships in this century was a good idea?” He groaned, as the ship lurched once more.

“It's for our own protection, city boy.” A gruff voice responded from behind Colin. “It's bad luck 'round these parts to be in anything besides a wooden ship. And ol' Hovding here has endured the hardest of storms. Resilient against whats in the ocean.” Colin turned to see a gruff, portly man. Derrick, he thinks his name was.

“Bad luck? From what?” Colin rolled his eyes. “The Kraken?”

Derrick narrowed his eyes at Colin. “Merfolk. They've been roaming the waters since before you were even thought about. Dangerous creatures they are, with the voice of angels. Men get so entranced by their voices that they go right over the ledge of their boats to their deaths. Some people say that the merfolk eat humans. Either way, they don't seem to take kindly to new types of ships. The first non-wooden ships we got were completely destroyed as soon as we got away from the land.”

Colin stared blankly at him for a moment, before dissolving into a fit of laughter. “Really? Mermaids? Of all things you wouldn't believe something as stupid as that type of bullshit would be real?” He ignored the growl that Derrick sent his way.

Derrick got his turn at laughter though, when the ship lurched again causing Colin to lose his balance and tumble to the ground in an ungraceful heap. “Keep speaking like that city boy, and you're gonna find yourself underwater with no help soon enough.” With that, the man walked away again, shouting to the crew to prepare for the oncoming storm.

Colin muttered curses under his breath as he struggled back to his feet. He was glad this trip was almost over at least. He looked briefly over the edge to see the waves growing stronger as the clouds finally rolled in over head. If he didn't die from the ship being torn apart at least. This is why he preferred cruise ships. At least with those types of ships you could easily pretend that you're still safely on land instead of in a huge body of water that could kill you at any moment.

Although dying probably wouldn't be that bad, if it meant not having to deal with his angry ex-wife and slightly deranged daughter. He loved his daughter (although he hated to admit it), but something had happened to her that caused her to go slightly off her rocker and Colin couldn't deal with it. It didn't help that he had broken up with his wife as well. All he had left to his name was a successful law firm, and in his opinion that was all he really needed to be happy.

He looked up at the darkened sky just as raindrops started to fall, splashing his face and eyes. The crew was shouting behind him, getting the ship prepared to endure the storm. Colin knew that he probably should return to the inside of the ship where it was at least warmer than it currently was outside, yet he couldn't bring himself to break away from the railing, as if he were frozen. He stared into the large waves rocking the boat, and his eyes widened when he thought he saw something. He leaned forward trying to make out what he had seen. It had been a body, he had been sure of it. Had someone fallen off the ship? That made Colin tense up at the thought of being thrown overboard. He leaned forward again, this time ill-timed because the ship lurched to the side once again, and Colin felt his feet leave the floor of the ship and suddenly he was falling through the air towards the water. He knew he should be feeling scared, terrified even.

But his mind went blissfully blank when he collided into the water with a loud splash. His face and skin stung with the collision, and he couldn't keep his eyes open because of the salt water. He was sinking, and fast. He wasn't even going to make it a few mere feet with the size of the waves he had seen on the surface. He stayed limp, hoping that at least it would make his own death less painful. He felt himself losing consciousness just as he felt thin arms wrapping themselves around his waist and tugging on him, and his mind went black.

What seemed like only a few moments later, he twitched. He didn't open his eyes, and instead he dug his fingers into the dry sand of the beach. He wasn't dead? Clearly not, unless this sand was the entrance to hell, which is presumably where he was going to end up anyways. But he heard a voice, a male voice singing softly not too far away from where he was lying. Hell probably wouldn't have nice singers greeting you at the entrance, would it? Colin was expecting more hellfire and pain, personally. But the voice was nice to listen to, and he was content to just relax without opening his eyes for a few precious moments.

The singing cut off suddenly, and Colin heard the same voice curse suddenly and he felt movement beside him. That's when Colin's eyes snapped open just in time to see the head of a blond man disappear beneath a wave. He sat up quickly, causing his vision to go blurry. He stared at the waves, hoping that he'd catch a glimpse again, if what he saw was all true or if his muddled mind had hallucinated the entire thing. But he saw faint markings in the sand, hand prints near his own in the dry sand, and a strange trail leading back to the water.

“Oi! City boy!” Colin scrambled to his feet at the sound of a familiar voice.

Derrick walked down the beach towards him, just as drenched in water as Colin was. He actually seemed relieved at the sight of Colin, and slapped him on the back amiably (and painfully) with a grin on his face. “We thought you had died! One of the crew members just saw you get thrown off the ship like a ragdoll.”

Colin shook his head. “I thought I had died...But I turned up here on shore...” He kept staring into the waters.

“Something wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost.”

“Not a ghost...Before I fully woke up I heard singing. Someone was singing next to me but as soon as I opened my eyes they disappeared into the water again.” He said rather numbly.

“Hmm...” Derrick followed Colin's gaze into the water. “Never heard of some merfolk helping out a human. Maybe today is your lucky day Colin, because without that merman who saved you, you'd be dead.” He slapped Colin on the back again before giving him a short goodbye, leaving him on the shore.

A merman? Colin had just been laughing about their existence what felt like a short while ago, yet he couldn't think of any proper explanation of how the hell he managed to get to shore when he clearly remembered going unconscious while he was still underwater. And he had seen that man before. The blond hair just before he fell off the ship and into the sea. The same man he saw disappear into the water. He turned away from the shore, pushing the thoughts out of his mind, instead wanting a hot shower and dry clothes. But in the back of his mind he still wondered about that merman with the nice voice who had actually stayed with him while he was on shore.

Chapter Text

Anders broke the surface of the water much closer to the shore than he had previously. It was dark out, and so he almost missed the area where he had been sitting previously with the man he had saved. But sure enough he managed to drag himself onto shore in nearly the exact area where he had been. He made sure to stay well away from the water, because he knew that as soon as he had hit the water, the pain in his fin immediately went away. He got himself into a comfortable position, and looked up at the sky with fascination. He rarely went up during the night, because it was much more dangerous. But now he could freely stare up into the sky at the stars and the moon.

During those moments when Mike was reminiscent about anything above the water, he'd tell Anders and his brothers about how their parents would take them up to see the sky. He said that they used to be much brighter than they were now, because the humans didn't have as big of cities. Now, they were much fainter, because of all the light and buildings that the city by the shore had. It made Anders sad, because he didn't really remember the bright stars very well from when he was a child. He dug his fingers into the sand suddenly when he began feeling the same pain growing from the bottom of his fin. He looked down and stared as he saw it doing the same thing as it had before. It looked like it was splitting.

Anders nearly let out a holler, because the pain suddenly became sharp, very sharp. He let out a gasp of pain and lost his grip on the sand, falling backwards and his head collided with the ground. He writhed on the ground as the pain increased more and more. He couldn't even think, and he could barely move from the spot he was in save for the twitching and writhing from the pain. He could feel it though. His tail was splitting completely in two and it terrified him. Was the surface killing him? He wished he was back home with his brothers, laughing and joking, practicing their singing. Axl was right, and Ty was right too. He let out a scream of pain before he passed out completely.

He came to when he felt a man shaking him. He let out a rather embarrassing screech, and sat up quickly. A rather stout looking man with dark skin was glaring at him. Anders shrank beneath his gaze.

“What do you think you're doing? Transforming on the beach like that when anyone could have seen you! People come around here often, even at night, you're lucky that no one was around!” He snapped at Anders.

“W-what? Transforming?” Anders sounded extremely confused. What the hell was this man on about?

As soon as the man noted the sound of confusion in Anders' voice, his anger seemed to calm down considerably. He looked almost concerned. “This is your first time?” He asked.

Anders gave him another confused look. “First time for what?”

The man gestured to him, and Anders noticed that the bottom half of his body was covered up by fabric. He threw it off, and his eyes widened like saucers. He was silent for a moment, until he let out a whoop of joy as he attempted to stand up. Legs. He actually had legs just like a human! When he got up, he stumbled and nearly fell over. The man caught him, and threw the fabric over his head and put it on properly. Anders was still leaning against the man while he curiously swished the fabric that now covered him up with interest.

“This is the best we have until we can have you hidden in a hotel room to get proper clothes. People may look at you strangely for wearing a dress, but other than that no one should suspect anything.” The man said, as he slowly helped Anders take a few steps. “My name is Tigilau. I'm a merman like you, although I much more freely walk amongst humans and merpeople. I discovered I could transform on land when I was young.”

Anders was taking steps on his own. “So, does that mean any merperson can transform? Then why haven't we done it before?”

Tigilau started to lead him away from the beach towards the city. “No, not all of them can. But this is not the place to discuss it. I'll find you a place to stay, and find you some clothing. After that you can ask all the questions you'd like, and I'll give you the best answers that I can. Keep in mind that even I don't know everything, much of this is still shrouded in mystery.”

Anders barely heard what he said as they entered the city. He was too busy staring at everything in wonder. Even at night, everything was bustling and busy. Stores were lit up with ever color imaginable, and crowds of girls and boys walked down streets, going into stores and talking and laughing. It was true, some people's gazes did linger on Anders for longer than they would with other people, but they quickly lost interest and continued what they had been doing before. Tigilau had to keep a strong grip on Anders just to make sure he didn't wander off into the streets.

When they arrived to the hotel room, Anders was just like a child when he leaped onto the bed and just bounced on it. Tigilau couldn't help but smile a bit. It had been quite awhile since he had found another merperson who got onto land and could transform. When he was in his younger days he was always so happy to teach them the ways of humans and just seeing all the curiosity and joy in their eyes as they experienced new things. But when he traveled to the kingdoms in the sea, he was seeing more and more people fearing the surface than ever before.

It was fresh to see another person so full of excitement. “Okay Tadpole, you have to stay here in the room. We don't want anyone getting suspicious about you. Many humans aren't very trusting of other people.”

Anders glared at Tigilau from under the pillow he was playing with. “My name is Anders, not Tadpole.”

Tigilau just laughed at that. “Whatever you say, Tadpole. I'll be back as soon as possible.” When he arrived at the door, he turned around. “Oh, and you can play with the water in the bathroom all you want, as long as you make sure to get none of it on your legs. Get water on your legs, and it's bad news for you.” He gave him a nod as a goodbye before closing the door.

Anders stayed on the bed for a while, playing with the hem of the dress that he was wearing. It was actually pretty comfortable, even he could admit that. He flung the pillow onto the bed, and after bouncing for a bit, he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up to walk towards the window. He could see the ocean from the hotel room, and it was hard to believe that someone in that vast amount of water was his brothers. The entire kingdom, along with others. But he was here on land now, and he actually had legs! He looked down and wiggled one of his feet.

It was strange feeling, having legs and feet. As Anders wandered around the room, he often tripped and stumbled over air because he wouldn't balance himself correctly. He was utterly fascinated by the bathroom, and he let out a gasp of joy when he turned the faucet on the sink and saw water begin to pour on it. The same thing happened with the bathtub and shower, and although he knew next to nothing about what they were for, or what they were even called, he wanted desperately to jump into the tub to lay in the water for awhile.

But Tigilau said not to get his legs wet. Anders wasn't exactly sure about his reasoning behind it, but he assumed that he'd explain everything when he returned with clothes. So he contented himself by playing with the water in the tub with his hands, being careful not to splash it over the edge. It made him think of home again. The sky had been getting lighter when he looked out the window, and by now Mike had to be worried sick about Anders. At least, he hoped he was. Sometimes to Anders it felt like Mike only cared when it was convenient for him to care about Anders. He knew Ty had to be worried about it, even if he had yelled at Anders before he left. Axl...He wasn't sure about Axl. They loved each other, sure. But because Axl knew next to nothing about the surface, and didn't seem to want to know anything, he always thought Anders was crazy. There was that unconditional brotherly love, but they butted heads so often that Anders thought that Axl must not care if he's gone or not.

He heard the door open and close, and he quickly stood up and dried his hands on the top part of the dress. He praised himself mentally when he walked over to Tigilau without tripping once. Tigilau handed him a bag filled with clothes, and gave Anders some quick instructions on how to get dressed. Anders went into the bathroom and managed to get dressed without much incident, although when he exited the bathroom Tigilau pointed out that his shirt was on backwards.

Anders blushed with embarrassment and quickly corrected the mistake. “Okay, I'm clothed, and you're here. Does that mean you'll answer my questions now?”

Tigilau nodded. “Anything you want to know, Tadpole, I'll try and answer.”

Anders nodded, ignoring the nickname that Tigilau used. “Okay. You said that I couldn't get my legs wet. Why?”

“Ah, I was expecting that one. You see, when you get your legs wet, they begin to turn back into your tail. I'm not exactly sure why this happens. But when your fin is dry it begins to turn into legs, and vice versa. This means that traveling when it's raining is a bad idea. And as you need to bathe with soap and water up on the surface, that means you need to endure the transformation at least every other day.”

Anders cringed at that. “Every other day at least? Does the pain go away at least?” He asked unconsciously rubbing his leg.

“It does calm down considerably, but it will never be an easy process. I believe our ancestors mainly dwelt on land as well, despite staying near the sea. Just remember Tadpole, touch the water with your legs around humans and it could very well mean the end of your life.”

Anders' eyes widened. “End of my life?”

“Yes. Merpeople are only tails told to children, or believed by sailors. Humans seeing you for what you are could create a panic. People would take you and put you into tanks, never letting you free to go back home, and constantly prodding you and testing you. Pretty soon in the end they'll kill you to study the inside of your body.”

Anders was silent. Suddenly he desperately wanted to go home, back where at least he knew people were kind to him even if some of them didn't like him. “That's fucking horrible...Why would they do that?”

Tigilau shrugged. “It's what they do to things that are unknown to them. But let me ask you a question, why did you come to the surface?”

Anders sat down on the bed and grabbed the pillow he had played with earlier. “Well...My brother is sort of a king, and he wanted me to be sent off to marry someone. I didn't really want to at all. Because I wanna live my own life! And earlier that day I had saved a human who had been thrown off a ship, and I guess I wanted to find him.” He sighed. “I didn't really plan it through that well...But I don't really want to go back, because that means that I'll only be sent away again somewhere else.”

Tigilau was silent. “You saved a human?” He asked finally. “Who knows if he's even still in the city by now. A sailor rarely falls of his ship, so he can't have been one.”

Anders excitement about this adventure of his was quickly deflating. It was replaced with fear and worry, and it must have shown on his face because Tigilau wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “What am I supposed to do then?”

“Tadpole, don't let your hopes get crushed just yet. There's still a chance that he's here. I can help you find him, but I can't stay long. I need to return home for the time-being. After that you'll be left on your own, but by then we can hope that you'll be comfortable enough with the human world that you can travel alone.”

Anders nodded, and walked back to look out the window. The sun was fully up now, and he could see even more people bustling in the streets than he had when it was still night. Any on of those heads that he could see could be the man he had saved. He felt his determination slowly bubbling back, and he grinned. Even if he couldn't find the elusive silver-haired man, then maybe he could just enjoy living life as a human...Of course as long is no one found out what he really was. Which could be more difficult than it sounds.

“Well, maybe we can find the ship first.” Anders said suddenly, eyes brightening. “I think I remember what it looked like! Maybe they know who the man was! I mean they should...If he was on their ship...” He grinned at Tigilau.

Tigilau merely laughed. Anders truly was a tadpole, still rather young and naïve about the human world. But he could tell that Anders must have had some sort of fascination, because he adapted quickly with everything. When they left the hotel he was walking perfectly, as if he had been doing it for years just like any other man. You could only tell something was different about him by the way his head whipped every possible way to get a good look at everything. Although most people would probably believe him to be an overexcited tourist trying to look at everything there is to see.

When they arrived at the docks Anders' mouth was hanging open. “Wow...That's a lot of fucking ships!” He said in an almost worried tone. “How are we going to find it?”

“That depends on you, Tadpole. You're the one who remembers what the ship looks like.”

Anders nodded, as he started to make his way down the docks, inspecting every little detail he could. He'd pass by them thinking small comments, such as 'too small, not the right color' among other things. There was a determined look in his eye. Tigilau could only hope to accomplish what he wanted, or else he had no idea what the merman would do if he couldn't find anymore leads in the mystery man he had saved.

Chapter Text

Ty had been worried ever since Anders had swam off, claiming that he was going to go find that man that he had saved from drowning. While he agreed that saving that man had been the right thing to do (despite the fact that he had been breaking so many rules already), he wasn’t sure if it was the best idea to go off on a wild chase in attempt to find a man that Anders had known for all of a few minutes. And the man hadn’t even been conscious at all when Anders was with him! Maybe it was just a weak excuse for Anders to escape the fact that he didn’t want to get married to some random merman or mermaid from one of the other kingdoms.

As he swam along the halls in the castle, he half hoped that Anders would swim up behind him and surprise him. He always did that when they were younger, and took great pleasure in hearing Ty’s shrieks of terror whenever he did it. Yet Anders didn’t appear as Ty moved on through the hallways. He knew that the right thing to do right now was to go to Mike immediately so people could go out to look for Anders before something bad happened, yet something in his heart wasn’t letting him do that. Anders would be angry at him if he was returned back to the castle, and Ty sincerely doubted Mike would ever let him out of the castle again until he got married.

When Ty turned the corner, he made a head-on collision with Axl. He heard his younger brother swear loudly, and the tell-tale giggle of his friend Zeb. He rubbed his head and smiled apologetically at Axl, who gave him a weak grin in return.

“Sorry Axl, didn’t see you there. I’ve had things on my mind. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.” Ty said.

“Were you thinking about Anders and the whole fact that he’s getting married?” Zeb asked Ty earnestly. “Only Axl always said that Anders was gonna be caught by humans in a net!”

Ty gave a glowering look at Axl who put up his hands in defense. “Well, I’ve only told Zeb! He won’t tell anyone!”

Ty just sighed at that response. “Well who knows if the marriage is going to happen or not if Anders will actually return or not.”

Axl’s eyes widened. “He’s gone? Why?”

Ty saw the actual worry in Axl’s eyes, which was rare when speaking about Anders. “I’ll tell you, but Zeb can’t know anything. I barely trust you enough to tell you, let alone Zeb.”

After some back and forth bickering, Axl finally relented and shooed his friend away before swimming after Ty down the hall and back into Anders’ empty room. Despite Anders’ large personality, his room was nearly completely bare. It just had his bed and a large window looking out into the city. His room had one of the best views in the castle, but the reason it was nearly empty was probably because most of his treasured belongings were in his little secret cove, because Mike would never allow him to return with bags full of human objects.

Axl immediately turned to him again when they entered the room. “Okay, why is Anders gone? Has he gone on another one of his hissy fits and disappeared to that place he always goes when he’s mad?”

Ty shook his head. “I’m not actually sure this time Axl. Something happened to him, and I don’t know what. he kept talking about his tail starting to split, and then he’d keep mentioning that man that he saved earlier today. After he learned that he was going to be married he said that he wanted to go to the surface to find out what had happened, and if he could, he was going to find that man he saved.”

Axl’s eyes widened again. “But...He….He wouldn’t be so stupid would he? I mean Mike has told us that the surface is dangerous! I told him that he’d be caught in a fishnet one day but I didn’t actually want that to happen!” He sounded panicked. “So he’s out there? We have to tell Mike!”

Axl tried to swim past Ty to go find their eldest brother to immediately alert him of the news, but Ty grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him back. “We can’t do that Axl! At least not yet!” He continued after Axl looked confused. “Anders would hate us if we called Mike on him, and he’d probably never even be let out of the castle until he got married. You stay here and make sure Mike doesn’t notice that he’s gone. I’m going to go look for him.”

Axl let out a small whimper, which looked rather strange coming from such a tall, lanky, merman. “But if you go you could get hurt! You...You could turn into seafoam! What am I supposed to do with two brothers gone!”

“You’ll continue life. Don’t let Anders and me disappearing ruin that. You’ll be next in line for king and we can’t have a blubbering mess, can we?” Ty cracked a smile at that, making Axl grin weakly. “You just have to promise that you’ll be brave, and make sure Mike doesn’t find out!”

Not wanting to wait another minute, instead of taking the proper exit, Ty shot straight out of the window and swam out of the city as quickly as he could. The first place he decided to check was Anders’ secret little cove where he kept all his things about the human world. Anders had no idea that Ty knew exactly where it was, but Ty would never do anything to sabotage it anyways. When he just barely managed to squeeze through the crack that was the entrance of the cove, he was immediately disappointed to see that Anders was nowhere in sight.

That meant he was either lost somewhere alone in the ocean, or he actually managed to get to the surface. He remembered Anders mentioning his tail splitting, but...No, that was too absurd to even think about. His stomach clenched as he imagined a terrible scene. Anders swimming along by himself, looking almost worried as he looked around trying to find where he was. But he was so concerned at looking what was in front of him, that he didn’t even notice the net that was slowly being lowered behind him until it was too late.
He winced as he imagined Anders flailing pitifully, as he remembered that Anders was never the strongest at all. Anders trying to escape as the net was brought up to the surface. Anders being poked and prodded by burly, uncivilized sailors. Anders being--No. He didn’t want to think about Anders being killed. His stomach churned at the thought of red blood spilling from his brother as his skin began to bubble until he was no more than foam sitting on the wooden floor of a ship.

He hoped that that wasn’t the case, and he noticed the waters becoming clearer as he got closer and closer to the surface. When he broke through the surface, he looked around himself. He was hoping that maybe he’d see Anders around him. He was fairly close to where he had found him previously with that gash on his arm. Even though the sun had finally poked out into a clear sky, there weren’t that many people on the sandy beach. Anyone who saw him would probably think that he was just someone who swam out fairly far into the water. He only hoped that that was believable enough.

But before he submerged himself again, he took notice of a lone woman standing at the end of the pier. He could barely make out her face, but she seemed antsy, bouncing along the sides like she was trying to find someone. But it was then he realized that she was looking straight at him, and he quickly submerged himself into the water again. She had seen him...She had seen him! Now what was he going to do? He was sure that she was probably going to call someone, anyone to come and find him. Maybe she thought he was a lost swimmer…Which was actually somewhat touching that she would care that much.

That just made him want to cautiously get closer. He had never actually been this close to the land before. That was all Anders. The blond merman was way too curious for his own good when it came to the human world. Ty had often gone along with him to scavenge things from ships, but soon enough he gave up on that while Anders continued to get even closer to the land. So he swam closer and closer, until his hand met with the wood of the pier. He ran his fingers along the wood, letting out a small curse when his skin suddenly caught against a piece. He swam up above the water, only sticking enough of his head above the water so he could see above the surface.

No one was near him, but he saw the same woman from before running along the beach, dropping her belongings as she ran closer and closer to the water. He hid behind the wooden pillar as she waded into the water, looking around. She looked like she was tentatively calling out for someone, and Ty realized that it must be him. He could see how someone would be concerned if they had just seen someone much too far out into the water suddenly disappear. He wanted to go over and calm her down. And without really thinking he swam over to her, keeping himself submerged underwater. Not really thinking about the consequences, he grabs her ankle.

She immediately tumbles into the water, and he pushes her up before she can injure herself. She seemed to be at a loss for words, but Ty was completely speechless. He had never been this close to a human, let alone touched one. But she was…Well, he had no other way to describe it, but she was beautiful. He couldn’t stop gazing at her in a sort of awe. He could see why Anders had an obsession with humans...Just by looking at one he was already so fascinated and interested in them, and he wanted to ask so many questions. But he knew that right now the most important thing on his agenda was to find Anders, and being smitten by a human woman wasn’t going to help that matters at all.

“Um...Hello?” She asked quietly, nervously.

He tilted his head to the side. “Hello?” She sounded so beautiful in comparison to his own boring voice.

“Are you...Okay? I think I saw you out there…” She asked, looking concerned.

She had been worried about him. She was kind, he could tell. Maybe...Maybe she could help him find Anders. He was falling for the same thing Anders was. Falling for a person he had only just met and suddenly he was about to entrust her with something that he couldn’t even entrust with his oldest brother. He could only hope he was making the right choice with all of this.

Chapter Text

Dawn had been shocked when Colin simply burst into the office completely soaking wet with sand sticking to his now ruined suit. But the shock still quickly wore off as she quickly got up and bustled around quickly, producing a cup of coffee that she handed to Colin who seemed to be unaware of the state he was currently in. But he still accepted the cup of coffee gratefully as he went about his business.

Dawn was never really quite sure what to think of this man, but she was interning at his law firm and essentially had become his secretary for the matters. Even then she had to admit, she learned a lot merely by watching, even if most of what she did was file papers and get him cups of coffee. But she didn’t know what the protocol for her boss suddenly entering the office completely wet would be. She just nervously hovered around for a few moments before finally deciding to ask something.

“Um...Colin? Mr. Gundersen? Why are you...Wet?” She asked tentatively.

Colin seemed to ignore her for a few moments, but she saw that he looked down to take note of his appearance before looking up at Dawn. “Dawn, do you believe in merpeople?”

Dawn was dumbfounded. From what she had gathered from Colin in her few months of working as an intern for him, she was sure that he wasn’t the type of person who would believe in mermaids, or really anything mythical at all. She herself never really pondered the existence of mermaids, fairies, or anything really. Although she knew when she was little she was positively enamoured with the idea of becoming a mermaid and living in the ocean. But by the time she had turned 8, the idea went away from her mind and she never actually thought of it.

So she just shrugged. “Oh...I don’t know. It’s usually something little girls like talking about. Mermaids, fairies…” She put a finger on her chin. “Or I suppose sailors and fishermen are always telling tales about mermaids. Why do you ask?” She took the empty coffee cup from him and set it on the table.

“Well, I was coming back on those bloody awful piece lumber that sailors call a ship. And I fell off of it into the water.” Colin said bluntly.

Dawn let out a small sound of terror. “Is that why you’re all wet? But how did they get you back onto the ship?”

Colin shook his head. “I didn’t get back onto the ship. I had honestly been fully expecting to drown. Yet here I am. And all I can take from it is that I woke up on shore with a voice singing next to me before they cursed and disappeared. I only managed to see them disappear into the water before one of the sailors found me.”

“Well, you could have been delirious! I mean you had probably been unconscious, you know...lack of oxygen and such and--”

“--That does not clearly explain how I had managed to arrive at the shore when the ship wasn’t near enough to shore for me to swim. The waves were too strong for any human to have been able to swim properly.” Colin finished Dawn’s frantic speech.

She fell silent, and looked down twiddling her thumbs. Colin merely rifled through a few papers on his desk before looking up at Dawn again. “You may take the rest of the day off.” He said finally after a few moments of simply staring.

She stuttered. “W-what? But Mr. Gunderson--”

“No buts. I feel like I’m possibly going to take some time off today to gather my own thoughts. It makes no sense to keep you here as well. Now go!” He shooed her away.

Dawn collected her things before walking out into the bustling streets of Palmwood Bay. She had no idea what to do, because she had been planning to spend most of the day catching up with work in the office now that Mr. Gundersen had returned from the business trip he had been on. She made her way down the street, mostly staring at the ground save for a few glances upward to make sure she wasn’t going to crash into anyone. During one of those upward glances, she noticed a bright neon sign for a bar across the way featuring a busty bright-eyed mermaid holding a pint of beer.

That reminded her of what Mr. Gundersen had been talking about earlier, about the mermaid (well she wasn’t entirely sure it was a mermaid, Mr. Gundersen never specified.) that had supposedly saved him. After a moment of staring at the sign, she thought to herself that she hadn’t actually been to the beach in a while despite living in a coastal city. Well, perhaps it wasn’t entirely her fault. She had been positively swamped working ever since she began interning, and she never really enjoyed going to the beach in Palmwood Bay. It was a huge tourist city, and so during the summers the city would be full to the brim with tourist crowding the streets and beaches that she could barely even find a place for her and her small group of friends to find a place to lay down a towel.

But it was the off-season now, which meant that the beaches would be quite a bit more empty than it is during the beach season. That meant she could have a fun and comfortable time to herself at the beach. She usually went with friends, and although she loved them dearly, these days they had nothing to talk about besides their loving husbands and beautiful children.

That was it, she decided. She was going to go back home and put on some comfortable clothing, and go to the beach for the rest of the day. She knew that days like these didn’t come by very often, so she was going to take full advantage of the fact. When she arrived home she quickly put on an old t-shirt and shorts. After a few moments of debating, she put on her bikini underneath in case she was hit with the urge to go and swim. She also grabbed some books and shoved them into her bag, figuring that some casual reading on the beach would be nice as well.

When she arrived at the beach, true to her thoughts, there wasn’t a lot of people milling around. Before going to the beach, she decided that she’d walk around the boardwalk for awhile, looking at the shop windows and pondering to herself if she’d have enough money to buy a trinket here or there. She rarely bought things from the more touristy side of town just because of how high the prices were. She was also quick to note just the amount of mermaid merchandise there seemed to be.

It felt like she was suddenly made aware of mermaids everywhere she looked. She’d see trinkets, bookmarks, decorations, posters, everything. She rubbed her temples as she walked down one of the empty piers, staring down into the water. She tried to imagine seeing a mermaid swimming along beside her, but she found that she really couldn’t imagine the idea. All her notions of mermaids came from gaudy toys that you could buy in stores. She stopped abruptly as her waist collided painfully with the railing at the end of the pier. She coughed and clutched her waist, wincing slightly.

“All this mermaid business is going to end up getting me killed…” She mumbled to herself, still holding onto her waist as she looked out into the water.

It was calming to just stand out on the empty pier with the ocean wind blowing against her face. The fact that there weren’t any noisy tourists around her snapping pictures and talking entirely too loudly was just the icing on the cake. As she looked out into the sea, she once again attempted to imagine a mermaid paddling along in the water near the horizon. Once again she couldn’t seem to think of anything, but that’s when she saw it. A head suddenly popped up out of the water, staring around wildly. It was a man, from what she could barely make out. And he looked like he was shouting loudly, looking for someone. She panicked, looking around hoping that there would be someone nearby to actually figure out what to do.

How had someone gotten that far out to sea? She bounced on the balls of her feet before moving from side to side on the pier trying to figure out what to do. It wasn’t until the man dove back into the water that she let out a sound. He had a tail. Suddenly all those attempts at trying to imagine a mermaid were thrown out and replaced with this man she had just seen. She quickly ran off the pier and onto the beach, throwing her back onto the ground and kicking off her shoes as she went. She didn’t even bother removing her t-shirt in shorts so they wouldn’t get wet, she just began wading into the waters. She stared around, hoping that she’d catch a glimpse of him. She turned quickly to see that no one else happened to be in that particular stretch of beach before she started calling out frantically.

“Hello?! Um...Mr. Merman? Hello??” She shouted into the water as she waded in further.

She felt like an idiot calling out like that. Yet she was desperately curious as to what was going on that she had to try. She screamed when she felt something grab her leg and she fell completely into the water with a huge splash. But almost immediately she was righted again by whatever had grabbed her. She lifted her hands up to push her wet hair out of the way and scrub her eyes. When she opened them she was face to face with a rather handsome man with pale skin and icy blue eyes. His own hair was standing in an odd direction but he didn’t seem to particularly care. He was staring very intensely at Dawn.

“Um...Hello?” She asked uncertainly.

He tilts his head to the side slightly. “Hello?” He responded back.

“Are you...Okay? I think I saw you out there…” Dawn trailed off, looking down to see the man’s tailfin. That confirmed her suspicions rather well.

He followed her gaze down to his tail, before looking up. “Are...Are you scared?” He asked quietly.

Dawn wasn’t actually sure. She was standing right in front of a merman in a ratty old t-shirt and shorts. It was surreal. Maybe Colin wasn’t as crazy as she previously thought on the matter. Maybe they had seen the same merman? This man wasn’t exactly what she first thought a merperson would look like, now that she thought about it. His eyes were creepily bright, and his skin was pale, but had a bit of a green tinge to it. She could also see slits on his neck, and his hands that were hovering just below the water’s surface were webbed.
“I don’t think I’m scared...No. Just confused. Shocked, really.” She answered.

He nodded. “I’ve never been this close to a human before.”

She smiled at that. “I’ve never been this close to a merman!” It was then she realized she didn’t even know his name, or introduced herself. “Oh! My name is Dawn!” She stuck out her hand for a handshake, her polite impulses shining through.

He stared at her hand curiously, before sticking his own hand out next to hers uncertainly. “My name is Ty.”

She moved her own hand to meet Ty’s, and shook his hand. Ty seemed genuinely confused at the action, but did nothing when Dawn was brave enough to actually hold up his hand to look at it properly. It really was webbed, like a duck. She poked curiously at the webbing, causing Ty to let out a giggle. She let go of it quickly after the sudden sound, and when she realized he had laughed, she did as well.

“Did that tickle? I’m sorry!” She laughed.

They laughed together for a few seconds, before she noticed how his gaze was wandering to the beach behind her. She realized that she hadn’t even asked why he had seemed to be searching the waters so closely earlier when she had seen him on the pier.

“Were you looking for someone earlier?” She asked.

His gaze snapped back onto her, and he nodded. “My brother. He got some crazy idea into his head that he was going to come to the surface because he didn’t want to marry someone. Now I don’t know if he even went through the plan or he’s lost in the ocean somewhere. I wouldn’t know if he’s on land because...You know.” He gestured to his tail.

She nodded. “That’s true...I mean, I could help! If you want me to of course. I know the city fairly well! I might be able to find your brother!”

Ty smiled at her. “Thank you...I really appreciate it. I should probably head back home now before my family starts worrying though.” He thought for a moment. “Can we meet back here tomorrow? Around sunset, so I can tell you properly about my brother.”

“Yeah, that sounds good.” She said, thinking about her schedule quickly. “I’ll see you then Ty.”

He grinned, before turning around and diving into the water. He disappeared in the blink of an eye, and Dawn was left standing chest deep in the waters alone. She stayed there for awhile, watching the spot where the merman had disappeared not that long ago. She was still in disbelief that all of that just happened to her. She had spoken to a merman! An actual proper merman! And they looked nothing like the silly little novelty toys that you could buy in the store. She wished she had some sort of artistic ability, because she would have drawn a merperson properly! She finally turned around and started wading back to the beach to pick up her forgotten belongs, but the icy gaze of that merman never left her thoughts.

Chapter Text

Anders looked up, and his eyes sparked with recognition as he laid eyes on one of the last ships on the docks. It was exactly as he had remembered when he had gone up to collect objects that fell off the ships. He stood near it for a moment, twiddling his thumbs. Tigilau was able to catch up with him easily and looked at him reassuringly. Anders slowly made his way closer to the ship as he watched sailors yelling at each other and tossing things in carefully timed rhythm. Anders could tell they had all been doing this for a very long time, and even the younger members seemed to know exactly what they were meant to be doing. He wanted to ask them if they’d seen the man, but he didn’t want to interrupt the work they were doing.

But he didn’t even have to, as soon as a man noticed him standing there, he moved right out of the line, but was quickly replaced by another to continue the train of men working. The man was short, and portly, with greying hair and a beard. He actually seemed pretty scary, but he gave Anders a grin as he approached.

“Ey, interested in becoming a sailor or somethin’? We’re always looking for new recruits, although you seem a bit on the small side. Nothin’ a few days of work and food can fix of course! The name’s Derrick!” He said in a gruff, but friendly voice.

Anders shook his head, ignoring the small jab at his size. “I’m Anders...and I’m actually looking for someone.”

“Ey? Who are you looking for?”

Anders shifted slightly before speaking. “Well...He has silvery hair…and he was wearing a suit…” Anders finished awkwardly.

It hadn’t been until just then that he realized he knew very little about the man that he had saved. That would make finding who he was a lot more difficult. He glanced at the crew again. There were a lot of them...Would it be possible for one to go unnoticed? No, the man he saved can’t have been apart of the crew. He was dressed a lot more nicely than the crew members were. They were wearing rather worn and torn clothing and covered in a sheen of sweat as they continued their work.

But the gruff man simply let out a chortle, and slapped Anders on the back, which caused him to stumble forward and nearly fall over from the force. “Oh! That’ll be Colin! He was on our ship yesterday, gave us all a scare when he was flung of the ship! But I found him later, all washed up on the beach babblin’ about mermaids!”

Anders nodded excitedly. Colin. The man had a name now. “Yes, Colin. So you haven’t seen him since yesterday?”

“Nope, I’d assume he went back to see his nice fancy law firm again to get working again. Although the man will probably never be the same since his encounter with mermaids.” Derrick said with a wave of his hand. “He was a lucky man. Mermaids usually wouldn’t do such a thing like save a human from death.

Anders opened his mouth to argue, but then he remembered what Tigilau said about humans knowing he was a merman, so he held his tongue and just nodded along with Derrick. At least now he had a vague idea on where Colin could be. He was at his law firm...Whatever the hell that was. He could probably ask Tigilau, who knew much more about the human world than he did. Anders quickly thanked Derrick, and gave him a grin after he said that there was always room for him to join the crew whenever he wanted.

Tigilau was waiting for him at the end of the dock. “Any luck Tadpole?”

Anders nodded. “His name is Colin. Derrick hasn’t seen him since yesterday, but he said that Colin worked at a law firm. I have no idea what the fuck that is, so I’d assume that you know because you’ve been around here longer than I have.”

“Colin? As in Colin Gundersen? Anders, you aim high. He’s the owner of the law firm. One of the best lawyers in town. He’s very well-off. Everyone is saying that he’s probably going to be running for mayor soon!” Tigilau laughed at the look of confusion that quickly spread across his face.

Nearly everything that Tigilau had told him had gone completely over his head. All he could clearly get was that Colin was a very, very rich man. Well, that was okay for Anders. He was a prince after all. That was sort of like being rich! He never really thought about it before. It wasn’t something merpeople really focused on much. All everyone ever really talked about was singing and other entertaining things.

“Okay, so we’re just gonna find his law firm thing and then...I don’t know I haven’t planned that far ahead.” Anders said finally. “Do you know where it is? I’d assume you do.”

Tigilau rolled his eyes. “Yes, I do know where it is. I’ve never exactly been into it, but I’ve been wandering this town enough to know where it is. But unfortunately for you, our time together is running short.”

Anders’ eyes widened. “What? Why? We’ve only been together for a night and part of a day! Don’t tell me you’re going to leave me here all on my own?”

Tigilau sighed. “I have a family of my own to think of still in the ocean. I only come up to the surface for a week at the most, and I’m already pushing 2. You’ll be fine, Tadpole. I know a proper place where you can stay. And you know all tadpoles have to grow up, some sooner than others.”

Anders gulped. He didn’t expect to be left alone quite so quickly, especially when they had been making so much progress already. They knew who Anders saved, and where he worked. They were making there way back to the hotel room, briefly pausing to grab something to eat, and Tigilau was chuckling at Anders’ complete amazement in something as simple as a hamburger and fries. He had eaten all his food in a matter of minutes, and was looking earnestly around hoping that there was something more coming.

“For a Tadpole, you sure eat like a shark!” Tigilau laughed.

“Well...It was good!” Anders defended himself.

“I know it is, just don’t have too much of it or you’ll become a rather pudgy tadpole.”

Anders pouted at that, staring down at his stomach as if the offending food had already started making him gain a considerable amount of weight. Tigilau just laughed and lead him back out of the small restaurant and they wandered around the city for the rest of the day. It was utterly fascinating to Anders, and he got extremely excited when they located the library. Tigilau was actually rather shocked at the amount of books Anders could carry at once, but he got tons. They were on just about any subject he could find, from fantasy to biographies. Tigilau actually had to help him carry them back to the hotel room or else Anders would have hurt himself.

“This...This is good.” Tigilau said, watching Anders sort through the books he had gotten, trying to pick which one to read first. “When I leave, this is what I recommend you do Anders. Read. Humans write down every bit of knowledge they can, and with the right books you can learn just about anything, and you’ll be able to blend in seamlessly with them. Learn from them. Memorize them. Just do everything you can to not get caught.”

Anders nodded. “I understand...Blend in. But what about the man? What about Colin? Am I just supposed to fucking act like I’m not a merman around him? What if it gets further than just...Just finding him. How will I keep it hidden then?”

Tigilau knew this was coming. “If he is truly worthy enough for your time, then he will love you no matter what. If you sense that he won’t, that’s when you take your leave. Whether it’s returning to the ocean or simply just pushing him out of your new human life, you only keep the people you know who are trustworthy to know near you. There are bad people in this world, and you don’t want to be caught up in their net.”

“Do I still turn to foam, if I’m human and I die?” Anders wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

Tigilau just shook his head. “I’m not sure, Tadpole. I’ve never witnessed a merperson die on land, and I earnestly hope that I never will.” He looked seriously at Anders. “Now, about where you’re going to live. I have a small apartment here, that I’ve got paid for for awhile. That should give you enough time to find somewhere to work and live there.”

Anders nodded. “Thank you, Tigilau.” He said as he watched the dark-skinned man write down the address of the apartment, with some instructions for getting there.

“It’s not a problem, Tadpole. I live to help curious new merpeople find their way onto land. I can only hope that one day we will be able to freely communicate with the humans without fear of being killed or experimented on.”

Anders hugged the pillow in his arms tightly. He was looking at the address that Tigilau had given him. There was so much that he didn’t understand yet, and he hoped that the books he has picked out could provide at least some sort of insight on the human world before he finally went to go find Colin. He let himself fall backwards with a quiet ‘thump’ on the bed. He was tired. So much had happened that day he was ready to just pass out and stay asleep for awhile.

“Tadpole?” He heard Tigilau ask.

“Yeah?” He asked, closing his eyes.

“I may not be here at sunrise, so I can only wish you luck on your journey now. I will return again, but I’m not sure when. I just hope that when I return I see a grown up merman in place of the small tadpole that I found stranded on the beach just yesterday.”

Anders smiled at that. It had felt much longer than 2 days that he had been with Tigilau. If he ever returned back to Palmonia, he’d have to find a way for his brothers to know about the kind man. His mind was drifting away, with thoughts of his brothers and the ideas of new adventures he was about to go on. So when he fell asleep, deeply asleep, there was a smile on his face.

Chapter Text

Colin sighed as he rifled through a stack of papers after Dawn had left him a few minutes before. His mind was still on what had happened earlier, but some voice in the back of his mind was reminding him that he should probably put on some proper clothing so he wouldn’t be wandering around the office all day in a wet suit covered in sand. So Colin took his leave from his office in the law firm, ignoring the stares that he received from fellow workers who had looked at him in curiosity when he had entered previously. He ignored them for the most part, acting like how he was dressed was completely normal in every way.

Out in the streets, while people’s glances may have lingered slightly longer when they passed over him, for the most part he was ignored as he walked down the street with his sand-caked suit. But he was glad when he finally saw his rather large spacious house and entered gratefully. He loved being in the limelight alright, but he’d prefer to look a bit more classy than he had. He changed quickly into something more comfortable and slumped onto his couch. All he wanted right now was to fall asleep for a few days so he’d have at least some amount of time to comprehend what had happened to him that day. First he nearly died, and then he was saved by a creature that only little kids and sailors believed in. He turned his face away from the couch, and the first thing that he laid eyes on was his laptop sitting on the desk.

He propped himself up on his elbows as he continued to stare at his laptop. Maybe there was something he could look up about merpeople. He needed something to occupy his mind or else he might go insane just trying to think about what happened. So he stood up and went over to turn on his laptop. And as soon as he was able, he quickly went to a search engine and prepared to type something. It was then that his hands froze, hovering over the keys on his keyboard as he realized how difficult actually finding information might be. Mermaids were a popular subject as a fantasy genre. He’d probably have to wade through dozen of search results about mermaid toys and fictional stories before he found any proper sort of information.

He sighed as he thought for a moment, before he finally decided on searching ‘mermaid sightings in Palmwood Bay, New Zealand’. Surprisingly enough, he was met with a few proper search results right at the top. It was a forum for supposed mythical creatures that people claimed to have spotted. Probably not the best source of information, but at the moment it was all he had to go on. So he clicked on the link and was met with a rather hideous color scheme of nearly every color of the rainbow, like a unicorn vomited all over the forum. But he relented his overall distaste for the website’s scheme so he could actually read the information.

The first post was from a 15 year old girl who said she had visited Palmwood last year and had been spending time on the beach when she swore that she saw someone much too far away in the water to be safe. After that she said that she watched the person dive in again, and she swore she saw a tail instead of legs. Colin snorted at this post, because at the end of it she awkwardly finished saying that it could have just been a dolphin because the sun was very bright that day. A great fucking help that post was. He continued onto the next one, and his eyes widened at the large wall of text that he was greeted with. A quick look at the man’s account didn’t really say much. He had no icon, and the barest minimal information.

But his story started out by saying that he was a former sailor who was simply looking for a place to tell his story about his meeting with the merfolk. He was an older gentleman, from what Colin could tell. The man immediately launched into a story of when he was a younger lad, saying that he had always had a very strong connection with the ocean ever since he was born. There was not a day where he wouldn’t go to the ocean and spend time just standing knee-deep in the sea letting the waves push and pull on him. It was when he was around 12 that he had been exploring some tide pools in an area that rarely had people. He was collecting shells at the time, picking the prettiest ones to give to his mother for her birthday, because she loved the sea as much as he did, but rarely had the time to go anymore.

Just as he was reaching for a particularly beautiful light pink shell, his hand met with another one and he let out a loud shriek. He fell backwards just as a head popped straight out of the water. It was then that he saw that instead of legs, the little boy had a bright blue dolphin-like tail. The little merboy tilted his head to the side, and picked up the seashell that the man had been trying to get before. The merboy handed it to him before diving away through the rocks and through a crack that must have been somewhere in the tidepool for his escape.

He had never told anyone the story before, for fear that no one would believe him. He became a sailor in hopes that he might be able to see another merperson again, but hadn’t had any luck since then. Though he did hear many tales of merpeople being beautiful singers, and that occasionally when he had been out at sea, he’d hear just the quietest of whispers of song when he was lying down to sleep. When Colin reached the end of the post, he saw that many people responded very well to it, and he himself had to admit it sounded a touch more believable than the 15 year old girl’s story.

And he had mentioned merpeople being good singers. That was (albeit slightly weak) proof enough for Colin. He skimmed through the rest of the stories on the forum thread, but none of them proved to be insightful enough as the old man’s had been. He went back to the original search engine page and looked through a few more links, and he found himself on the local library’s website. It was a mythology book about New Zealand, and apparently it made mention of mermaids in the books. Luckily it was checked in, so Colin shrugged to himself and decided he was going to go get it.

He felt rather silly, checking out a book about mythical creatures, but the cover had a rather intricate drawing of a bust blonde haired mermaid, and he definitely couldn’t fault the illustrator for that. As he exited the library, he flipped through the book looking for anything that caught his eye, and landed on a page called ‘The Two Peoples of the Land’. He raised an eyebrow at that, and carefully folded the corner of the page inward to mark the page. He smirked to himself, he could practically already hear the wails of book readers everywhere who would condemn him for folding the corner of the page in. It was little things like that that kept him happy.

As he fiddled with the book walking down the streets, he wondered that that merman was doing right now. Is there even that much to do in the ocean? As far as Colin was aware, it was just a bunch of water and fish. He grew up closer inland, so he had never actually seen the ocean until he moved to Palmwood Bay a few years ago to start up his own law firm. You’d think a tourist trap like Palmwood would already have some sort of law firm, but it didn’t. So business had quickly began to boom as soon as he arrived. A lot of his clients seemed to be whiny tourists who wanted defense in something or other, but he was being paid, so he didn’t really care what their cases were. But even after he arrived in Palmwood Bay, he rarely ventured towards the sea unless it was completely necessary for him. The only reason he had gone on that ship before was because he had to go speak with the people on a small island nearby to discuss plans for a lawyer.

Taking another glance at the book, he wondered if he’d ever even see that merman again. The ocean was a fairly large thing, and he doubted that any living creature would want to stay near the beach when there was probably a ton of people just milling around throwing trash and other shit like that all day. Or maybe the merman was into that kind of stuff, if he was hanging close enough around a ship for him to be able to quickly find Colin and catch him. Either way, it was a rather nice thought of seeing that merman again. He had barely even gotten a chance to see if he was even good looking or not, because that would just make this entire fiasco completely worth it.

Although did lead into Colin wondering how merpeople had sex, which just caused him to make a face for even considering the idea of having sex with a merman. But hey, he wasn’t exactly the most picky when it came to choosing sexual partners. If you were good-looking and could play the part then you were welcome anytime into Colin’s bed. Maybe if the merman had a way to get legs then he would totally be okay with the merman joining him in bed a few times. He smirked at the idea. He hadn’t been with a man for awhile, because he preferred the softness of women above all things. He wasn’t against men at all, but he definitely had a preference.

Without even realizing, he had already made it to his home. He quickly kicked off his shoes and threw the library book he had gotten onto the table with his laptop. All these thoughts about sex just made him all riled up, which means that he certainly wasn’t going to be spending his night alone with a book. No, he was going to put on something classy and make his way to a bar to pick up some pretty man or woman to help warm his bed tonight. And finally for the first time that day, merpeople were pushed out of his mind.

Chapter Text

When Ty returned to the beach the following day, he had no idea what he was going to do or say in front of Dawn. He had already nearly been a complete idiot around her once before because he had been put off with how beautiful she was, but today he had to focus on finding Anders, and she was one of the only keys that he had to find him. The sky looked threatening again, as it looked cloudy and grey. There was a cold wind blowing as he pulled himself onto shore in a more secluded area so he could sit and wait for Dawn to arrive.

It felt strange sitting on land after so many years of not even going near it. Ever since his parents died he rarely went up to the surface. He had memories of playing above water with his brothers, sitting on rocks singing to music with his mother and father. It was a wonderful time, but it all changed after Mike had been put on the throne suddenly after the deaths. It’s not that Ty hated Mike for forbidding them to going to the surface, he understood completely why Mike would decide that. But he couldn’t help but miss all the fun they used to have as a family when they would break the surface of the water and enjoy the fresh air.

But no one enjoyed it as much as Anders. He’d always swim ahead of their parents and brothers, and he’d giggle all the way up. He’d swim around and try to climb rocks before he’d fall back into the water with a splash. He loved being carted around by their father on his shoulders, and he adored collecting pretty pebbles that appeared on the shores. So he was hit the hardest when Mike made the decision that people shouldn’t approach the surface. He defied Mike whenever he could, constantly returning to the surface and collecting objects he knew would anger Mike.

But Ty watched it slowly become an obsession. Instead of Anders talking about some cute mermaid or merman that he saw in the marketplace, he’d talk about some object he found on his latest surface-raid, or wondering how things worked on the surface. He was completely in awe of the whole thing. Ty was interested too, but he knew that before anything his duty was to the kingdom and not chasing silly dreams.

And now he was chasing after his brother before it was too late.

He hadn’t even noticed that he wasn’t even touching the water anymore until he felt a sudden twinge of pain in his tail. He looked down at it suddenly in a panic, remembering what Anders had told him. His eyes were wide with shock when he noticed that his fins were more split apart than normal, and how there was a faint line now running down his tail, cutting it in half. He was frozen. He knew he had to go back in the water to stop the growing pain coming deep from his tail, but he couldn’t move at all! His breath was more labored and his elbows shook trying to keep his weight up. He ended up falling backwards into the sand hitting his head. He heard a familiar female voice shouting in panic as he writhed on the ground, and felt sweat covering his body as he convulsed in pain. What was happening to him? Was he dying? Perhaps this was exactly what happened to Anders. He stayed on the surface to long and he died a similar death that Ty was dying right now.

But suddenly he was lying on one of the softest things he had ever felt. Without really thinking, he stretched on the softness, stretching his legs...He stopped. Legs? He sat up quickly, feeling dizzy for a few moments. He was in a small bedroom, and sure enough when he threw off the fabric covering him, he saw legs. Real legs that you’d see on a human. And the first thing that came to his mind to do or say was to scream extremely loudly and try to crawl off the bed only to fall on the ground.

This of course alerted Dawn who had been making tea in the other room, and the blonde-haired woman quickly burst in to see a very panicked Ty tangled in her bedsheets trying to get himself free. Ty muttered a thank you after Dawn helped him out of the sheets and helped him sit on the bed. He was still staring at the legs he now possessed, running his fingers over the skin. He’d felt each one of the toes, and then immediately noticed that he no longer had webbing between his fingers, and a quick check of his neck proved that there were no gills there either. Dawn just watched him explore the new bits of his body (and her face went red as his hands reached his crotch area, although she giggled at Ty’s mild look of disgust and horror at those particular parts.)

“How did that happen?” She asked, watching Ty take tentative steps around the room. “I mean you were a merman...And now you’re not!”

Ty shrugged, and looked at her. “I have no clue. I remember my brother mentioned, that after he saved that mystery man from the ship and stayed with him for awhile on the beach, that he felt the pain and thought his tail was splitting as well. I thought he was insane, but I guess this is what was happening to him.” He snapped his fingers. “That means if he came to the surface and tested it out, then he must be in the city somewhere!” He grinned.

Dawn smiled back at him. “That’s good! It’ll make it easier for us to find him!”

Ty nodded as he continued his pacing, quickly improving his stride as he continued. “I thought that I was going to turn into sea foam for a while there. It was painful...But I remember that Anders said he felt the pain, but as soon as he hit the water it was gone. Which probably means that’s what effects it.”

“Water?” Dawn asked. “You mean like...If your legs touch the water or get wet or something they’ll turn back into your tail?”

Ty nodded. “Yes. I think that might be how it works. Which means I’ll have to be careful.”

He sat down next to Dawn and pulled his legs up onto the bed, still feeling slightly strange about the whole ordeal in general. “I just hope that I find him soon, because the longer I’m gone the more worried I know my brothers will get.” He sighed.

“Oh, you have more brothers?” Dawn asked with interest. “I know next to nothing about merpeople...Obviously enough. They tend to be stories that only little kids and sailors talk about you see, so I guess that would make it a bit obvious wouldn’t it?” She laughed. “But…Tell me about your family.”

Ty thought for a moment. “Well, Anders, the brother I’m looking for, he’s older than me. And then there’s Mike. He’s the eldest. Axl is the youngest of the brothers. Our parents died when Axl was around 5, and Mike ended up having to take the throne and be king which sort of pulled us all apart.”

“King? You’re a prince??” Dawn squawked, before quickly covering her mouth and blushing at her sudden outburst. “I mean...That’s so interesting! And I’m so sorry about your parents though, I can’t imagine how hard that’d be.”

Ty shrugged. “It’s been a long time. They turned to sea foam, there’s nothing we can really do to get them back.”

“Sea foam?” Dawn looked confused.

“When a merperson dies, they become sea foam. Like they’re becoming a part of the sea again.”

Dawn nodded slowly. “So there were no bodies after your parents died?”

Ty shook his head. “It’s also why I was so worried about Anders. If he had died, we wouldn’t have had any real way of knowing if he was missing or dead.”

“Well...My story sounds downright boring compared to that.” Dawn gave a weak smile. “I have a mum and dad, and a pet cat. Mum and dad live in the next city over, around a mile away. There’s nothing much to it. I just came out here to intern with a company so I could get a job.”

Ty nodded. “I don’t think it really matters what kind of a story you have. I think you’re interesting all the same.” He grinned.

He was glad that he was able to find someone as kind as Dawn to be able to take him in like this, or else he had no idea how he was going to find Anders. Being alone on land was one thing, but at least he had a companion who knew how things worked. He was incredibly lucky. Now he could just hope that he’d be able to find Anders soon.

“Do you have any ideas as to where you’d be able to find a merman?” Ty asked.

Dawn was quiet, before her eyes widened. “Mr. Gundersen! He said he was saved by a merman! Just yesterday, he was asking me all these weird questions about mermaids! That’s the reason I went to the beach yesterday!” Her face broke into a grin. “If your brother is looking for the guy he saved...Well, we know the guy!”

Ty’s eyes were shining. Maybe they were going to get this all over and done with quickly!”

“Yes...If Anders finds this Mr. Gundersen, then we can easily spot him!”

He was going to do it. He was going to get his brother back.

Chapter Text

Ty hasn’t returned. Anders hasn’t returned. Axl didn’t know what to do, or what to say. He knew every time he passed by Mike, his older brother’s eyes were trailing after him because he knew Mike was going to spring the question on him soon if Ty and Anders didn’t come back. Axl knew that Mike could write off a day or two as Ty and Anders being moody and not wanting to be seen by anyone. All the brothers knew that Anders had his own little secret cove, but both Axl and Mike didn’t know where it actually was.

So as long as Ty and Anders came home soon then everything should be okay. But as soon as it became longer than maybe three days, he knew that he was absolutely screwed. Axl wasn’t exactly trustworthy enough to keep secrets, especially from Mike. He was actually pretty proud of himself that he hadn’t even told Zeb about where Ty and Anders were, because usually the first thing that happened when someone told Axl a secret was that he’d immediately go to Zeb and spill every single little detail about it.

That might become a tad difficult though, because right now Axl was waiting in the plaza for Zeb to arrive so they could go wander around the city. He desperately had the need to tell someone, and for obvious reasons he couldn’t tell Mike, or just any other merperson. It had to be Zeb because at least the smaller merman was better at keeping secrets than Axl is. So when he arrived, Axl immediately swam over and dragged Zeb to a more secluded area of the plaza where he was sure no one could hear them speak.

“Is something wrong Axl?” Zeb tilted his head to the side.

“Anders and Ty have gone to the surface and I have no idea if they’re dead or alive. Anders went away first because I don’t know...Something about his tail splitting and some guy he saved from drowning, but Ty’s gone after him and now he hasn’t been back. They told me I couldn’t tell Mike, but I need to tell someone and well you can keep secrets and Idon’tknowwhattodo!” Axl said all in one breath.

Luckily Zeb was used to this, and so he nodded understandingly. “Try not to worry about it Axl, the more you do that, the more easily Mike will be able to get the answers out of you. Try and play dumb or something! If Mike says that Ty and Anders must have told you something, say that they probably wised up and learned not to tell you secrets, because bro, you’re horrible at keeping them.” He cracked a smile at that.

“But I don’t get part of what Ty told me...He mentioned tail-splitting. That sounds painful…”

Zeb’s eyes widened. “Ohh...I think I’ve heard about that, actually. I know I’ve heard about it…” He put a hand on his chin. “But where?” He snapped his fingers. “Let’s go ask your cousin Olaf! He knows a bunch of weird shit about merpeople! Maybe he’ll know what Anders meant!”

Axl didn’t seem to convinced. “Well...Mike says that most of what Olaf says is complete bullshit, so I don’t exactly know how much of what he says would be accurate. But I guess that’s the only lead we have right now, so it’s worth a shot.” And Axl hadn’t visited his cousin in a while, and despite his thoughts on how much of his cousin’s stories were true, he did have to admit that he loved his cousin dearly.

Olaf, despite being family, didn’t actually live in the castle with them. Instead he lived somewhat close by in a small home living with his girlfriend Stacey, and a good friend of theirs, Ingrid. Both Ingrid and Stacey had apparently gone off to the marketplace, leaving Olaf alone. So when he answered the door, he had a broad grin on his face when he saw who it was. He immediately scooped Axl up into a tight hug, spinning him around.

“Axl, and young Zebadeb, what brings you two around to my piece of the ocean?”

Axl twiddled his fingers nervously before speaking. “Well, Ty told us something that we didn’t really understand and we were sort of hoping that you might know something about it?”

Zeb nodded. “Apparently Ty mentioned Anders saying something about his tail splitting in half when he was on land.”

Almost immediately the serene look on Olaf’s face was replaced with shock. Not the sort of shock where you suddenly receive new information, no the type of shock you get when someone mentions something you knew, but didn’t know they knew.

“Did Anders’ tail split? Do you know what that does?” He asked in a rapid, worried voice.

“No...That’s why we wanted to ask you. What does that mean?”

Olaf sighed. “First of all, I need to tell you a story, about two races of people who lived on the surface.” He beckoned for the two mermen to follow him into his home. “This is a tale about the Palomosi and the Lanosians…” He started.

The story was long, but Zeb and Axl paid close attention. For awhile they wondered why it was important, until he made mention of the Palomosi turning into fish, and some not making the transformation correctly and becoming half fish, half person.

“So...They became merpeople?” Axl asked after Olaf finished his story.

“Yes, we are their descendents. But of course the magic that courses through their veins also courses through ours, but it’s changed as time went on. They could transform at will, but after awhile the magic stopped working like that.”

“And that ties into the splitting tail….how?” Zeb asked.

“The magic is much weaker than before, and we have less control over it. Some may not even have this particular brand of magic anymore. But when a merperson goes onto the surface, and their tail is no longer wet, their tail begins to split and they become legs. They temporarily become human. If Anders discovered this, well it’d be pretty obvious that he’d take full advantage of it. Ty probably had to become human as well to go looking for him.”

“So not everyone can do it?” Zeb asked.

Olaf shook his head. “No, but I have a feeling that Anders and Ty would be able to. Axl and Mike as well.” He said nodding at Axl.

“But if some of us can become human, why have we mostly lived in fear of humans?” Axl asked. He knew part of the reason was because of what happened to his parents, but there had to be more.

“Well, you know that most humans are descendents of the Lanosians, which means that their hatred of the Palomosi may have still be rooted into them, even if they don’t rightly know about it. Humans fear what they don’t understand. And even the ones who still have the small amount of Palomosi blood, the ones who are still drawn to the ocean, could still have fear when they see a merperson.”

“And so we’ve probably lived in fear of being killed by humans who don’t understand what we are.” Zeb finished. “But if they find out Anders and Ty are actually merpeople, what will happen?” He sounded worried.

“That is something even I can’t tell, Zebulon.” They knew Olaf was serious, when he was using Zeb’s actual name rather than a silly nickname. “We can only hope that they’ve at least made it safely to the surface, and that they found friends and not foes. Because for every human that fears the descendents of the Palomosi, there is a kind human who would be willing to help them.”

Axl’s hands balled up into fists. “But now I just feel useless! What am I supposed to be doing if Anders and Ty might be getting hurt and I’m just down here playing stupid like I have no idea what’s going on!”

“Axl, we don’t want to lose another family member. You need to be here, with Mike. Now don’t be scared, but if something really does happen to Ty and Anders, you will be next in line for the throne. Just know this is all you can do, and Ty and Anders would have wanted it.”

Axl sighed, and nodded. “Thanks Olaf…”

Zeb nodded at Olaf in thanks, and both boys swam off again. Axl had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach from worry. But Olaf was right. Axl need to do all he could here, so if they really didn’t come back, he’d be ready to take on what would have been their duties. And he had to make sure that Mike didn’t find out where they had gone, not like this. He didn’t want Mike to worry any more than he already does. Zeb linked his arms with his in a comforting manner, and
Axl gave him a small smile.

“Don’t worry, they’ll be alright. I know they will.” Zeb whispers.

Axl could only hope this was true.

Chapter Text

Dawn sighed as she dried the last of the dishes and began putting them away. A low rumble of thunder responded back to her, and was also the reason for her gloomy state. She and Ty had been incredibly excited to be able to be able to find Colin to alert him about Anders, but in the morning of the next day they realized that it wouldn’t be possible. A light drizzle of rain had started early in the morning which meant Ty wasn’t going to be able to step outside at all without being rendered to a useless floppy mess trying to drag himself around with his arms. So instead Dawn called into work sick, easily being able to fake a cold. Oddly enough Colin had allowed her to stay home without any questions. Usually he’d ask her a series of questions that would end up making her feel uncomfortable.

Either way, it left Ty and Dawn time to find something to do while it continued to rain. Ty had wandered off into her bedroom awhile back while Dawn was left to wash the dishes on her own. As much as Ty wanted to help, Dawn knew that instructing the man on how to properly wash dishes, dry them, and put them all into their spots without breaking them might be a bit of a hassle. He still wasn’t completely used to letting go of things and watching them plummet so quickly to the ground, because he said in the water they’d just sort of slowly float down and you’d be able to grab whatever it is you let go of again easily.

When she finally put the last dish away, she walked back into her bedroom only to see it empty. She looked around in confusion. “Ty? Ty where are you?”

It was then that she heard the water from her bathroom running, and she opened the door slowly to see Ty comfortably settled in her tub, part of his grey-blue tail sticking out and waving lazily up and down as he read a magazine that he probably picked up from her bedside table. He didn’t even notice her enter the bathroom, and only looked up when she let out a small giggle. He grinned at her and waved his tail a little bit more, splashing some of the water onto the ground.

“Having fun Ty? Although won’t you regret that, because you have to transform back into a human at some point.” Dawn scolded lightly.

Ty shrugged. “I know, but I missed my tail. I know it’s not the same as being in the ocean, but it’s a start.”

It was then that Dawn felt a bit sad for Ty. It hadn’t even been a day but he was already clearly missing his home. It must be scary though, moving to a new country is one thing, but this must be a completely new world for Ty.

“Don’t worry Ty, you’ll be home before you know it.” She gave him a small smile, but a voice in the back of her mind told her that she didn’t want the merman to leave just yet.

He nodded, before sinking into the water and closing his eyes. She stepped out of the bathroom again, closing the door quietly behind her. Her face went completely red as she thought about Ty’s bare chest, and then promptly shook her head. It was insane. This wasn’t some fairy tale where you could fall in love in the timespan of a day, yet there was something about Ty that drew her close to him. Almost like an urgency that she needed to fulfill. Not sexually or anything, but just the need to help him and be near him.

She heard the sound of a body flopping out onto the tiles and she mentally noted to herself that she should probably mop up as soon as possible. After a few moments of silence, she began hearing grunts of pain, and more thumping on the tiles. She wanted to run in and help him, but she wasn’t sure if she even wanted to see what was happening. When she had found him on the beach, his legs had been very discolored and blue looking. She had managed to arrive right near the end of the whole process, and she really didn’t want to see what it looked like during.

The door then opened, and Ty walked out in a pair of shorts and a white cotton t-shirt that Dawn had gone out and bought for him. The shirt was slightly too big for him, and the shorts maybe a tad too long, but the clothing fit him fine either way. His hair was still plastered onto his skin, but he didn’t seem to mind. He grinned at Dawn.

“You okay? It sounded a bit painful in there.” Dawn asked.

“Well, I can’t lie to you. It hurt like a bitch. But I think feeling my tail again for a few minutes made it all worth it.” He shrugged. “Can we eat those cupcakes I helped back now?”

Dawn giggled at that. Because they had had nothing to do on this rainy day, she decided to recruit Ty into helping her make cupcakes. He had caught on very quickly, and had been very excited to eat them until Dawn had stopped him before he burned his hands trying to eat them while they were still hot. So during the time that Ty had been in the tub, Dawn quickly iced them and finished all the dishes. Both of them went into the kitchen, and Ty quickly devoured three of the cupcakes handed to him with gusto.

He had icing covering his lips, but he didn’t seem to care as he reached towards another one. That was a funny thing for Dawn to watch. When she had first fed him, it was like watching a child try all sorts of new and delicious foods. His eyes lit up and he quickly made work to completely clean off his plate of every crumb of food he could get. She was actually fairly shocked that he managed to eat it all so quickly without choking.

“What do merpeople at anyways?” Dawn asked as Ty tucked into a fifth cupcake.

He chewed, and then swallowed before answering. “Uh, stuff like seaweed, fish, crabs...shark sometimes, or whale if it’s for a feast. Shellfish a lot too...Whatever we can get our hands on. I remember my mother telling me when she was young, she’d sneak up onto the surface and steal fruit from trees. Back before there was a city I guess, because she said they’d be very close to the banks that she’d be able to pick some fallen fruit and eat it.”

Dawn nodded. “So you eat all that stuff raw then?”
Ty gave her a look. “Well...yes. You can’t make fire underwater you see.”

Dawn immediately felt like an idiot, but couldn’t help but smile when Ty did. He looked absolutely silly with all the frosting covering his lips. She reached over and grabbed a napkin. She wiped his face clean from all the cupcakes. “Really, you should probably slow down a bit before you choke.”

“Tell that to my brother Axl. He eats so quickly you don’t even realize he had started eating in the first place! Mike eats a lot slower though. But I think it’s because he’s king, and he has to show some form of manners.”

“And Anders?” Dawn inquired.

Ty shook his head. “Anders never ate as much as us, and he was the slowest. It’s no wonder he’s a lot smaller than us.” She noticed that his face looked a bit more sad at the mention of his lost brother.

She leaned over and gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry Ty. I’m sure tomorrow will be a clear sunny day, and we can go out and talk to Colin. Then we’ll have 3 people looking for your brother. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but it’s something. And we know that Anders will be looking for Colin.”

Ty nodded. “I know, and that’s comforting to know. But I still worry. I’ve always had Anders around no matter what, so when he disappears like this I always get worried.”

“He does this often?”

“Not like this. He has this little cove that he hides in whenever he gets mad. No one knows about it except him. Well, I do obviously, but he doesn’t know that. He has all the human things he’s collected over the years in there, and he always stayed there if he was getting pissy or sad. This is the first time he’s ever run away.”

“Why did he run anyways? I mean I know it was because he wanted to find Colin, but there has to be more about it.” Dawn asked, picking at her own cupcake.

“Well...Because we’re princes, there are certain duties that we have to do. And in Anders’ case because he’s next in line after Mike...He’d have to be involved in a political marriage. Which I guess really makes ME next in line for king. Right before Anders ran, Mike told him that he was going to be in an arranged marriage to a prince in a different kingdom. He...He didn’t really like that. And I think that’s why he ran away. Away from his duties as a prince.”

Dawn’s eyes widened. “That’s horrible! I couldn’t imagine getting forced into a marriage like that! I mean he doesn’t even know who that person is...And…” Dawn shook her head.
Ty didn’t say anything for a few moments, before speaking quietly. “But at the same time he risks his own life by coming to the surface to find a man he doesn’t even really know. Anders has known since he was a child that this was more likely than not going to be his destiny. That’s how it is as a prince. For the good of our people. He would have been well taken care of, hell, he might have had more freedom than he does at home…”

“But he would have had no love.” Dawn looked at Ty sadly. “Without love, all of that may not be even worth it.”

They stared in each other’s eyes for a few moments, before Ty turned away from her. He stood up and walked towards the window, looking out at the rain that was finally starting to calm down. “We really do come from different worlds...It’s fascinating...But at the same time terrifying.”

Dawn stayed silent, watching him look out the window.

“But I still think you’re a wonderful person Dawn.” He turned to look at her. “I’m very grateful for what you’re doing.”

There was something in his eyes that Dawn didn’t know how to react to, but she nodded, and smiled. “I’m glad to help. I really am.” There really was something in his eyes, but she didn’t want to admit to herself what she thought it was.