-1 week later-

"Huh? A festival? I've heard of those!" Y/N exclaimed in her semi-low tone, looking at Makoto with a bright smile as they sat on the roof to eat their lunch. Rei and Nagisa were currently helping cleaning up their classroom, as it was their day to help, Gou was hanging out with her other friend that Y/N was too shy to meet just yet, and Haru was swimming to get rid of the negative feelings he had been keeping to himself since regionals. "They're supposed to have great food and lots of games, right? I remember when I was younger I was able to see the lights from the ocean. It looked like lots of fun!" She stated.

"Yeah, they are lots of fun." Makoto nodded his head with his own soft smile as he looked at the excitement on her face. "Nagisa thought it would be a good idea to help ease Haru's nerves." He stated afterwards.

Y/N tapped her chin with her index finger, before she nodded her head finalizing. "Yeah, that could work." She agreed.

"I'm glad that you think so." Makoto chuckled, more than happy that this plan might work.

None of the swim team members wanted to see the others get hurt, and so they always looked out for each other. This made Y/N feel like the group were a part of a large family.

"I don't think that I'll be able to go, though." The (H/C) female sighed, puckering her lips into a childish pout and slightly startling Makoto.

"Why do you say that?" He asked. For him, and he was sure for the others as well, that it was weird to hear the secretly mermaid speak, since she was not able to at all when they first met. He secretly hoped that that meant they were actually getting closer. Which was both a good and bad thing.

"I don't have a kimono." Y/N stated, in which caused Makoto to grin wryly.

"You don't have to wear a kimono to a festival, it's optional." He explained to her, in which caused the female's lips to make an 'o' expression.

"But Mako, it's my first festival, and it'll probably be my last. I want to be able to enjoy the full experience." She told him.

Makoto sighed at how stubborn the female was, not that she wasn't stubborn before, but at least it was easier to talk her out of things when she could only write her responses. "Alright then." He agreed, a pink hue dusting his cheeks as Y/N beamed at him. "How about you come home with me on Friday? You can pick out one of my mom's kimono's." He offered to her.

"Really? Thank you, Mako!" Y/N bowed, which caused Makoto to blush more. "You don't have to be so formal, Y/N!"

-Friday-

When the day finally came for Y/N to come over to Makoto's home to look for a kimono to wear at the festival, the female tried her best to act normal, though it was obvious that she was ecstatic. Especially when school ended.

"Are you sure that you don't want to come over, Haru? I'm sure that Okasan made enough dinner for all of us." Makoto told his childhood friend as the trio walked in the direction of their homes. He felt a bit guilty for lying to his friend, even if it was to surprise him in the end.

Earlier that day, while Haru was still in the bath, Makoto and Y/N had come up with the plan to tell Haru that his mother had made a lot of food and had invited Haru to eat dinner with them. As planned, when Makoto told the blue eyed swimmer this, Haru had declined and said that he wanted to get more swimming practice in. So, Y/N humbly asked if she could come over.

Of course, neither Makoto nor Y/N noticed the way that Haru stared at the two afterwards.

"I'm fine. Take good care of Y/N." Was Haru's simple reply.

"I don't need to be taken care of. I'm not a guppy!" Y/N pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Of course, don't worry about it, Haru." Makoto chuckled, causing Y/N to pout even more as a pink dusted her cheeks out of embarrassment of being ignored by the two males.

Haru nodded his head, and then the group split up with a final farewell, and Makoto promising to bring Y/N over the next morning.

"Hey, Mako, you never talk about your family. What are they like?" Y/N suddenly questioned, walking on the curb of the sidewalk, her arms spread out to keep her balance.

Makoto stared at the female, surprised by the sudden question, before he glanced up at the setting sun with a thoughtful expression. "Well, I honestly couldn't ask for better parents. They both really care for my siblings and I, and they love each other. I aspire to be happy and married for as long as they have." He told her, his cheeks heating up to a bright red as he noticed how Y/N's (E/C) eyes stared at him. "And my siblings...Well, you'll get to see for yourself." He awkwardly chuckled as they walked up to the front door of his home.

"I'm home!" Makoto announced after he and Y/N walked inside and took their shoes off. Instantly, he was answered with thumps that only seemed to grow louder.

"Big brother!" A young boy and girl exclaimed, launching themselves into Makoto's arms. "Who's the girl, Big brother?" The little girl questioned, staring at Y/N, as the boy clung onto Makoto with a cautious stare.

"This is Y/N. I told you guys that she was coming over to look at Okasan's kimonos for the festival." Makoto told the two, smiling at the (H/C) who was staring at the twins with a calming smile.

She bowed, before digging through her backpack and pulling out her notebook. 'It's nice to meet you both'.

"Big brother, why doesn't she talk? Did you bring a defective girl home?" The little girl interrogated.

"Ran!" Makoto exclaimed, a look of shock, or horror, crossing his features.

'It's ok.' Y/N wrote, seeming unaffected as she shrugged her shoulders. 'I'm what you call a mute.'

"Big brother, what's a mute?" The boy, Ren, curiously questioned, both his sister and himself staring at the two older kids with wide eyes full of curiosity.

"It means she can't speak." Makoto, seeming to have calmed down from his slight heart attack, explained.

"Either way, you're really pretty, Y/N-nee! You look like you can be a mermaid!" Ran beamed, causing both Makoto and Y/N to instantly tense up.

"That's a bit specific, don't you think?" Makoto awkwardly laughed.

"Oh, there you all are. Ren, Ran, let your brother and our guest at least out of the entryway before you begin to ask questions." A calming voice spoke up, causing the confused twins to immediately run up to the sides of a woman who looked like a feminine version of Makoto. "Welcome, Y/N-chan. I hope that the twins weren't too forward." The woman smiled at Y/N, who shyly smiled back.

'No, they were fine. Thank you for everything, Mrs. Tachibana.' Y/N quickly scribbled and showed to Makoto's mother.

In reply, the green eyed woman giggled. "I haven't even done anything for you to thank me for." She stated, before turning her gaze to Makoto. "I pulled out some of my kimonos and put them on my bed. Why don't you take Y/N-chan to your room to try them on?" She questioned her son.

"Alright. Come on, Y/N." Makoto nodded his head in agreement, before he led Y/N towards his room. "I'll be right back, so go ahead and get comfortable, alright?" Shyly smiling at the female, Makoto left Y/N in his room so that he could grab the clothing for her to try on.

Y/N placed her notebook onto the desk that was in the bedroom, before glancing around the room curiously. Everything seemed to fit Makoto perfectly, or so she assumed, as she was unsure what some of the objects were, like a stack of CDs that had different game logos on them.

She paused as she noticed a stack of magazines and books that were horribly hidden as they poked out from under his bed. Pulling one out, she noticed that it was a book about mermaids and other mythical creatures.

Has he been studying? Y/N wondered, also pulling out a few magazines with mermaid siting articles in them.

Her eyes then narrowed when seeing one book and she picked it up, before sitting on the male's bed and flipping through the pages.

"I'm back. By the way, Okasan is making shrimp pasta. I hope that you don't mind-Oh." As Makoto walked back in, a pile of cotton cloths in his arms, he paused after closing the door and saw that his stash of study materials had been found. "I guess I should find somewhere else to put those." He awkwardly laughed, before blinking as a hard cover was suddenly pushed into his face by the female.

"Where did you find this?" Y/N asked.

"Huh?" Makoto looked confused, before gently removing the book from her hand and looking over the cover she had grabbed. It had a picture of a group of keys printed on it. "I found it in the library. One of the keys looks a lot like the one that you're wearing, so I just grabbed it." He explained to her, motioning to the one key that looked like an exact replica of the one that was lying at the female's throat, before looking at her questionably. "Why?"

"This is a book about the Heavens Keys. According to Awa, someone is looking for them." Y/N explained, once more sitting on the bed, the book lying in her lap.

"Awa...She's that woman that was in your dream, right? The one who told you that you will be turning into a mermaid again soon?" Makoto asked, placing the kimonos on his desk near Y/N's notebook, before he sat beside her.

"Yes." Y/N nodded her head to answer his question. "She was my teacher, before I turned. She told me that she is trapped in the key to act as my guardian." She told him, gently smiling as she placed her hand over the charm.

"If you want, you can take it. I mean, you'll have to give it back to the library before I have to return it, but if it'll help you in any way, please use it." Makoto told her with his usual gentle expression.

Y/N beamed and tackled the male into a hug. "Thank you, Mako!" she exclaimed, before pulling back and rushing to his desk to put the book next to her notebook. "Now...How do I put these on?" She asked, holding up a white kimono.

Makoto's cheeks once more turned a bright red. "O-Okasan!" He shouted.

___Quick Time Skip___

"I hope you enjoyed the food. Makoto told me you never had pasta before." Mrs. Tachibana said, washing the dishes, while Y/N assisted by drying the dishes, which she was only able to do after much persuasion. The young mermaid had instantly learned where Makoto had gotten his stubborn, good nature from.

Y/N sheepishly smiled and scribbled on a white board that Ren had offered the female to use so that she didn't get the pasta sauce onto her notebook paper by accident. Honestly, she wondered if being so sweet was in the Tachibana bloodline. 'My family preferred sea food mostly.' She showed to Mrs. Tachibana.

"Well that must be quite tiring after a while, huh?" Mrs. Tachibana giggled. "And Makoto said that you're staying with Haru while your parents are abroad, right? It's quite odd, since I don't remember any L/N. That might just be my old age talking, though." The woman stated.

'You don't look that old at all!' Y/N wrote, causing the older woman to smile bashfully.

"That's sweet of you, Y/N-chan. But, I'm certainly old enough to have a son who's almost ready to start college, so I'm old enough." Mrs. Tachibana stated, oblivious to the look of confusion on Y/N's face at the mention of college. "On the bright side, though, I think that the kimono you chose is really nice on you! The boys will surely not be able to keep their eyes off of you." She giggled.

'What do you mean?' Makoto's mother blinked as she read the written words, before she chuckled and smiled in slight amusement.

"You're a very beautiful young lady, Y/N-chan. I don't mean to sound like the sort of mother who is always trying to meddle in her son's love life, but I see the way that Makoto looks at you. And I'm sure that the other boys feel the same way." She explained.

'No way! We're all just good friends!' Y/N immediately scribbled down, a hot pink rising onto her cheeks. 'We're like a family.'

Mrs. Tachibana giggled and shook her head. "Well, is that how it is? So you don't have feelings for any of them?" She teased the younger female slightly, only causing Y/N's cheeks to darken even more. "Aha! Don't worry, sweetie, you don't have to say anything in order for me to know how you feel. But I must say that I'm quite curious who the lucky guy is~"She stated and winked at Y/N, before they both went back to finishing the dishes.

___Quick Time Skip___

"I like your mom." Y/N commented casually as she watched Makoto making a small bed on the floor for himself, since he was such a gentleman and had given up his bed to her. "Your dad, too. I can see where you got a lot of your personality." She stated.

"They're great, aren't they?" Makoto smiled at the female, glad that she had gotten along with both his parents, as well as his siblings who had been put to bed about an hour ago.

"Mm...They're a lot better than my own." She sighed and munched on one of the cookies that Mrs. Tachibana had made for the two.

Makoto paused what he was doing and glanced up at the female. "What is your family like?" He asked her, curious since he never remembered her mentioning having parents before. "Not that you have to answer!" He then added afterwards, a bit embarrassed at how forward he must have sounded.

"No, it's fine." Y/N assured, before sighing. "Let's see...Well, both of my parents really cared for each other, like yours do, as well as my siblings and me. My father is really uptight a lot of the time, and he has serious anger issues. My mother is a lot calmer, I guess you can say she's the exact opposite of him." She chuckled, before she frowned. "Or, she was. She died five years ago." She told him.

"I'm sorry." Makoto apologized.

Y/N shook her head and smiled. "No, it's alright. I still had my father, and Awa, I also have four older siblings and two younger ones. I was never alone, which I was thankful for, but I always felt like something was missing." She explained, before smiling at him with closed eyes. "I don't feel that way anymore."

Makoto stared at her, before he sighed and stood up. Sitting beside her on his bed, he placed his hand on the top of her head, causing her to open her eyes. "I wish you could stay." He muttered. "So that you never feel that way again." He stated as his eyebrows furrowed together.

She stared at him in shock, before a smile graced her lips, and she smacked the gentle giant with a nearby pillow. "Don't make that type of expression!" Y/N giggled. "I'll be alright, I promise. I got to meet you guys, and I got to learn more about humans, that's all I could've asked for." She told him.

Makoto blinked, before he nodded his head in hesitant agreement. He knew she was lying, she was just upset as he was. Or, he hoped she was.

"Speaking of which, what are these?!" Y/N suddenly jumped up and off of the bed, before grabbing one of his game CDs.

"They're video games." He answered, standing up and taking the CD from her. "Here, I'll show you how it works." Putting the CD into the game console and turning on the TV, he handed her one of his controllers, and they both sat down in front of his TV.

Half-way through their eighth round of Mario Kart, the green eyed male tensed up as he felt a sudden weight on his shoulder, and he turned his gaze to look down at the female as she looked up at him.

"Thank you for being so kind, Makoto." Y/N smiled at him, before covering a yawn, and beginning to drift off.

Watching her fall asleep, Makoto smiled gently. "Thank you...for being with us." He whispered softly, before picking her up bridal style and placing her in his bed.

He kissed her forehead, but before he could move to turn off the game, he felt a grip on his wrist, and he yelped in surprise as he was harshly tugged onto the bed with amazing strength from the much smaller female.

Staring into tired (E/C) eyes, Makoto's cheeks and ears turned a bright red.

"Please don't go." Y/N whispered. "Please."

"I'm not going anywhere." Makoto assured, running his fingers through her amazingly soft hair.

Y/N smiled sleepily, before cuddling up to him and falling back asleep to the rhythm of the human's beating heart.