Natant

A/N: I could have posted this chapter a long, long time ago if I wanted to! I already had it written out along with the first chapter of this story! But I wanted to try and do a voice acting project with this story. However, due to the lack of participation in auditions, I've finally decided to cancel it indefinitely for the time being. Maybe in the future, I can try again. And hopefully, more people will be more eager to try and audition.

Anyway, now that that is out of the way, let's get on with Chapter 2! Roll it!

Chapter 2

Learning to Love the Tails

Part One

It was already only one full day after Ash Ketchum, Adrien Agreste, Branch Hawthorne and Hiccup Haddock all learned that they become mermen whenever they would touch water. At the moment, half of the quartet of friends could only see the downsides of this new development. Right after the fact that all four of them quickly realized that water is pretty much everywhere. Wherever they go, there's a potential risk of popping a tail.

Right now, over at Adrien's mansion, the blond teen model was looking down at a bathtub full of water. He hadn't used said tub since he was younger and had first learned how to use the shower. But now, unless he wanted to keep falling onto his back or front and getting bruised every time he would use the shower, then he had to use the tub. He really didn't want to explain to his father about how he keeps getting bruises.

After getting in the water-filled tub, seconds later, he was staring at a long, shimmering silver tail, the top of the black bumpy ridge that was on the back of the tail touching the bottom of the tub. He then sighed in annoyance. As if this would make it any easier.

******************

Over at Branch's house, he was trying to finish up some homework when he accidentally knocked over his water bottle, spilling it onto his lap. His eyes immediately widened in fright, and he quickly backed away from his desk.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no." He whispered, grabbing a nearby towel and quickly started to dry himself off. But it was too late.

"Branch!" His sister Harper called out to him from outside of his bedroom, knocking loudly on the door, which had thankfully locked just in case he did get wet.

Her older brother in question quietly groaned in annoyance as he fell back onto his bed, a sleek emerald green tail with a dark blue ridge in place of his legs.

"Branch!" Harper called out again. "Mom says you have to hurry up if you want to drop off me and Keith at school." She said.

"It's okay, Harper!" Branch answered back, staring at his tail. "I'm running a little behind right now. Mom will just have to take you guys."

"Fine." Harper replied before leaving.

Branch let out a sigh of relief and then reached over to grab his phone. He needed to talk to the others about their little predicament. Maybe they could meet up at his house so that they could walk together and talk about it.

******************

Adrien couldn't answer it because he was still stuck in the tub. But Ash and Hiccup didn't answer either. However, neither of them weren't in their houses. Instead, they were out in the ocean.

They were the only ones who thought that their new forms were amazing. Sure, it will be kind of annoying having to be super cautious around water all the time now, but it makes it all worth it whenever they would swim in the ocean. They could explore the reef, swim with dolphins, and swim at amazingly fast speeds, like they were living torpedoes.

Ash felt like he was flying underwater with his new dazzling sapphire blue tail with a pale red ridge along the back of it. And Hiccup had never felt more free, just swimming along the reef with his glittering ruby red tail, the left fin being silver, matching the small ridge along the back of his tail.

He never thought that he could feel like this underwater again because he was an amputee, but now, he felt like he could do anything when he had his tail. And he wasn't much of a swimmer in the first place, anyway.

A dolphin came over to the two mermen and chattered happily at them. Ash waved to it with a big smile on his face. It just chittered back to him in response before swimming away. Hiccup smiled widely at his younger friend, who returned it just as bright, and then they both decided to return to dry land.

*******************

Soon, everyone got Branch's message, and then met up at his house under the impression that they were going to walk to school together. Currently, all four guys were in Branch's room, discussing their latest predicament. Well, for Branch and Adrien at least.

"This is a total disaster!" Branch exclaimed as he plopped down in his desk chair. "I can't even drink from a glass like a normal person without running the risk of popping a tail! We have to use straws to drink all the time now."

But Ash was lying down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling with a smile on his face, the memories of his recent swim with Hiccup still playing over and over in his mind.

"If dolphins can swim for hundreds of miles, we can too." He said.

"What about when I need to do photoshoots?" Adrien asked, taking Branch's side. "Lotion and moisturizer are mostly water. If they touch my skin, I'm going to end up on the front cover on every single magazine, and not just the fashion and gossip ones!"

Hiccup then sat down next to Ash on the bed as the latter sat back up. "We could swim all the way to the other side of the ocean if we could." He said, making Ash smile widely at the thought of it. "Can you imagine it?"

"Guys!" Branch exclaimed exasperatedly.

Ash rolled his eyes with a huff, the fantasy crashing down. "Come on, you two!" He exclaimed. "Panicking over simple things like this isn't going to make this whole thing any easier."

"Plus, we all agreed that we can't tell anyone about this." Hiccup added. "Not our parents, not our siblings if we have any, no one."

Ash lightly bit his lip in nervousness. "But.... I tell Ritchie and Evie everything." He said reluctantly. "We are triplets."

Adrien placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, trying to give him some sense of comfort. "Well, not this time." He said to him. "It's better this way. Other people just won't understand. They only see what they want to see."

"He's right." Branch added. "If people ever find out about us, then all they're going to see is the tail. Not the person that has it."

Ash thought about it for a few seconds before slowly nodding his head. They were right. Even though he highly doubted that his family would turn him in as a potential science experiment, who's to say that the others' families would do the same for them?

He already knew that Adrien's father would most likely send him and the others to a science lab to be dissected if he ever found out about them, but he wasn't really sure about Hiccup or Branch's families. The latter seems to have a close relationship with his folks, so he might be safe. But it seems that the former has a strained relationship with his father while being close with his traveling mother, so that might be a little up in the air.

"Good point." The younger, raven-haired teen said.

Then, he turned to look at Branch. "But what about Poppy?" He asked.

Branch lightly bit his lip. He and Poppy had known each other since they were young, and even if he was not the social butterfly she was, he never could lie to her. But.... it seemed he had to now.

He slowly shook his head. "It's too risky." He said after a few moments. "Plus, she couldn't keep a secret even if her life depended on it." That somewhat got the mood to lighten up as the boys began to chuckle.

******************

Hours later, it was already the end of the day at school, and everyone was packing to go home. The seniors had their own lockers at one part of the building, while the freshmen were at another area. Ash and Adrien were by their lockers, packing up their things when they saw three girls their age arguing with each other.

One of them was a blonde girl with cornflower blue eyes highlighted in pale blue eyeshadow, another was an auburn-haired girl with gray eyes and glasses, and the third was a girl with dark hair pulled into twin pigtails, bluebell eyes and pale skin with faint freckles on her cheeks. All of them were holding papers, each for a different campaign on who will become their grade's representative for the student council.

Chloé Bourgeois is Adrien's childhood friend; and pretty much his only friend until he met Ash. Adrien had claimed that she wasn't really that bad, but almost every person in their grade was convinced that she was rotten to the core, including Ash; and Adrien was finally starting to agree with all of them.

She is cold, cruel, selfish and vain, not like the nice little girl he used to know as children. She was considered the queen bee of their grade, and she was handing out papers for her campaign.

The other two girls were Alya Cesairé, the redheaded girl, and Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the dark-haired girl. Alya was a junior reporter for the school paper, while Marinette had quite an eye for fashion and was in the arts and design club. Both of them were holding and trying to hand out papers for Marinette's student representative campaign against Chloé.

"As if Dupain-Cheng will ever become student representative!" Chloé exclaimed haughtily with a smirk on her face. "She's totally not special enough for the job. Plus, I will be hosting a pool party tomorrow afternoon at the hotel for those who vote for me."

"That's just dumb!" Alya exclaimed, getting into the blonde's face. "You can't bribe people to vote for you like that!"

Just then, Chloé saw Adrien and Ash, and her makeup painted face immediately formed into a hurtful fake pout as she zipped over, pushed Ash away from the blond model and wrapped her arms around Adrien's neck.

"Adrikins, can't you see that these two are being so cruel to me?" She whined.

Adrien resisted the urge to gag because of the smell of her strong perfume. It was no secret that his old childhood friend had become very oddly clingy to him in recent years. It was one of the reasons why a lot of people used to hate Adrien just because he's friends with her.

Ash was the only one that was willing to give him a chance after he had saved him, and he was grateful for it, quickly learning what a true friend really is. Slowly, more people began to follow Ash's example and give Adrien a chance to show the real him, but there were still some who were still wary.

Then, he locked eyes with Marinette. Something inside him jolted when he looked right into her pretty bluebell eyes. She looked both suspicious and a little curious about what he might do next.

Then, he slowly turned to the side to face Ash, who had regained his balance from the blonde girl's shove. He silently gestured to him with his head, telling him to hurry up and figure out what to do. Then, when he looked back at Marinette, he made his decision.

With a firm glare, he pried Chloé's arms off him. "Chloé, bag it!" He shouted, making the blonde girl gape at him with shock.

"I think that Marinette has every chance to become our grade's student representative. So I wonder why you even bother trying when you know you have no chance whatsoever in a fair fight. And you know what? I've had it! I'm not going to be friends with a bully and a spoiled brat!"

He then walked away, followed by Ash, ignoring Chloé's indignant sputtering, her face caked with makeup almost turning puce with rage and betrayal. Adrien could feel Alya and Marinette's surprised eyes following him as he and his best friend left the hallway. He then felt a proud pat on his right shoulder.

"Nice job." Ash said to him with a proud smile, even though he knew that it took a lot of guts to stand up against his old friend.

Adrien just shrugged in response. "To be honest, she had it coming a long time ago." He replied.

"I just should've said something about it way earlier. But since now I have three best friends that are much bolder than I'll ever be, I figured that I need to start taking control of my life. Starting with the things that I don't want in it."

"Does that include.... having a tail?" Ash cautiously asked after making sure that no one was around to hear them.

Adrien lightly bit his lip. "I'm still not sure about that." He said. "On one hand, it's gonna be hard to keep it under wraps since water is pretty much everywhere. But on the other one, it's kind of worth it to see the ocean in a whole new way."

Ash just smiled as they continued to walk towards the front entrance. There, they saw that Branch and Hiccup were already waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs.

"Adrien! Wait up!" A voice suddenly called out. The blond model and his raven-haired friend both quickly turned around and saw that Marinette was running over towards them.

"Did you really mean that?" She asked Adrien when she caught up with them. "That I can become our student representative?"

Adrien was silent for a few seconds, and then nodded. "Of course." He answered. "I think that you're well equipped for the job."

Marinette blinked at him, and then smiled a bright and kind grin. "Thank you." She said. "And.... I'm sorry if I made it seem that I don't like you."

Adrien was surprised to hear that, coming from the girl he thought hated him ever since the incident. But then, he smiled at her.

"It's okay." He answered. "I probably would've done the same thing if I had been in your position."

Marinette smiled brightly at him, which made his heart thump irregularly for a brief moment, and then she held out a hand to him. "Friends?" She asked.

Adrien briefly stared down at the offered hand, and then shook it. "Friends." He said, grinning. He then watched as Marinette headed back inside the school building, the smile not leaving his face.

"We saw that." A familiar voice suddenly said, snapping Adrien out of him staring out into nothing.

He turned around and saw that Branch and Hiccup were looking at him with teasing smirks. Ash though, was looking a little confused.

"Saw what?" He asked the two older boys.

"You like her, don't you?" Hiccup asked.

"What?!" Adrien exclaimed, his face flushing a light red. "No! She's just a friend! Plus, I could've sworn that she hated me when we first met."

Branch raised a curious brow and then turned over to Ash, wanting to know the story behind that. "It was a bit of a misunderstanding." The younger raven-haired boy explained to him. "Chloé had put some gum on her seat during the first day of school, and Adrien tried to take it off. But when she came into the classroom, she accused him of placing it there in the first place."

Hiccup just snickered. "Well, that's one way to make a first impression on a lady." He joked, making Adrien only roll his eyes in annoyance.

"But I told her later that day that this was my first time attending public school, and that I was only trying to take the gum off her seat." The blond model came in. "She seemed to have accepted my apology and explanation, but we haven't really talked until now."

"Come on, guys." Branch said, ending the conversation. "We better get going."

*****************

Minutes later, all of them were walking home, side by side while talking about their day. Just then, Adrien's phone beeped out with a new text message. He took it out and looked at it, his brow shooting up in confusion.

"It looks like Chloé had changed her campaign pool party into an apology pool party for me." He said with a small huff. "Obviously, she's just doing this to get back on my good side."

"Well, it's too late for that." Ash added. "Maybe the two of you were close when you were younger, but it's clear that she had changed for the worse."

Suddenly, Ash's phone rang out. He pulled it out and then his jaw dropped.

"What?!" He exclaimed. "Apparently, I got an invitation to come to that same party."

"Inviting my best friend to come to a party she's hosting when she clearly hates you almost just as much as she hates Marinette?" Adrien asked him. "I think she's putting in way too much effort on this apology thing."

"Are you guys gonna go?" Hiccup asked.

"No way!" Ash exclaimed. "I want nothing to do with that stuck-up little brat."

"I think maybe we should." Adrien said, making the others look at him with agape jaws. "Just so that I can make clear to Chloé that a simple party won't be enough to change my mind. She needs to show that she really wants to change, and until that happens, we're not friends anymore."

The other three smiled at him in agreement. But then, Branch noticed something about the invitation.

"Uh, one minor problem, though." He said. "It's a pool party over at her family's hotel. You two thought about the possibility that you could get splashed on and grow tails in front of everyone?"

"Well, maybe if we can figure out more about what's happened to us, maybe we can learn to control it so that they could go if they wanted." Hiccup suggested. "Just to hang out at the party long enough for Adrien to make his intentions clear to Chloé, then they can leave."

"What more is there to know about it?" Ash asked him. "We touch water, and then ten seconds later, we sprout out tails."

"Maybe it's about exercising control." Branch offered.

"It's worth a shot." Adrien said with a small shrug. But Hiccup just looked over at the older black-haired teenager.

"You do know that you would need to get in the water to test out your theory." He reminded him.

Branch's eyes widened. "Not a chance." He said, walking ahead of the others.

***********************

But minutes later, they were all at the beach, ready to test out his theory. "Come on, Branch." Ash goaded him as he, Adrien and Hiccup took off their shoes and socks. "You're not afraid of the water, are you?"

"No!" Branch denied. "I just don't want to pop out a tail right now."

"But there's no one else here." Hiccup said.

"I'm not getting in the water." Branch said firmly. "No way, no how."

"Fine." Adrien groaned. "Come on, guys."

He then headed over towards the nearby waves, with Ash and Hiccup following him, leaving Branch to sit on the rocks.

"Okay, so let's just try to concentrate on not getting a tail." Hiccup said.

Together, they started chanting, their eyes squeezed shut. "No tail, no tail, no tail, no tail."

But ten seconds later, swarms of bubbles formed around them, and the three of them fell onto the wet sand and in the waves, their tails in full display. Branch winced at their fall, but then glowered when his theory was proven to be wrong.

"Just great." He muttered.

"Hey, Branch!" A familiar cheerful voice called out.

Branch whirled around and saw Poppy coming towards him. The three mermen over in the waves quickly scooted themselves as best as they could to hide behind the rocks.

"Hey! Uh, what's up, Poppy?" Branch asked the strawberry-blonde girl, feeling greatly relieved that his friends were out of sight for the time being.

"I just got a text about a pool party tomorrow." She said, showing them the message on her phone.

Branch raised a brow. "From Chloé Bourgeois?" He asked. "Why is she inviting seniors to a party meant for the freshmen class?"

"Not sure." Poppy replied, looking at her phone.

"Wait a minute, now I get it." Branch realized. "She's throwing the party to try and get back in good graces with Adrien. Maybe she learned that Hiccup and I are also friends with him, and she's now inviting the seniors to join."

"Does she know Adrien?" Poppy asked.

"Apparently, according to him, since they were little." Branch answered. "But since that girl is like a younger, more bratty version of Astrid, Adrien decided he finally had enough of her attitude and told her that they're not friends anymore."

"Yeesh. She's that bad?" Poppy asked. "Well, I guess I'm not going if one, she's as bad as you say, and two, if she's also inviting the senior class, then there's a pretty good chance that Astrid Hofferson herself might be coming, too."

"Just great." Branch muttered dryly. As if one blonde witch was bad enough; there was no way anyone can deal with two.

"So what are you doing out here?" Poppy asked, putting away her phone.

"I'm uh.... just enjoying some fresh sea air." Branch quickly came up with a response. "Look, I'll meet you later for that studying session, I promise."

"Okay." Poppy smiled at him. "I'll see you back at your place." Then, she walked away.

Branch let out a sigh of relief as the other three guys peeked out from behind the rocks. Then, they began to climb out of the water so that they could dry off with some emergency towels that Branch brought with him.

******************

About twenty-five long minutes later, soon after Hiccup, Adrien and Ash had finally dried off, they were back over at Adrien's house as they brought some drinks to Adrien's room. Ash had a glass of water, Branch had a small jug of fruit punch, and Adrien had a glass of orange juice. Hiccup was carrying a bowl with a popsicle stick and a spoon inside.

"That was way too close." Hiccup muttered as he carefully placed the stuff onto the nearby coffee table, taking out the spoon and popsicle stick.

Branch groaned as he poured some fruit punch into the bowl. "I really hate lying to Poppy." He said, placing the jug further away from him on the table.

"But I have just one question: Why me? I didn't ask for any of this to happen."

He then extended his hand out to the bowl, his wrist twisted to the side and his fingers splayed out. His eyes flashed green as the red liquid suddenly turned gooey and bouncy. He then took the spoon and started to eat his homemade Jell-O.

"I'm already dreading the photoshoots for next year's summer collection." Adrien said, grabbing the popsicle stick and then sticking one end of it into his glass of orange juice.

"If my father wants me to model new swimsuits or summer attire near the beach, there is a high chance that I'm gonna get sprayed and then turn into a fish on camera. Next, the tabloids will explode, and my father will have me put in a science lab."

He then held out his palm to the glass, and his eyes flashed silver as the juice instantly froze. He then pulled out his instant juice pop and started to suck on it.

"You guys are unbelievable!" Ash exclaimed with annoyance. "Can you stop whining for a minute and see what you've done! Branch, you just made homemade Jell-O without having to use the powdered stuff! And Adrien, you just made yourself an instant juice pop! And look!"

He then started twisting his fingers over the top of his glass, and his eyes started glowing blue as a small droplet of water started floating upward towards his mouth. He then caught it with his mouth, not getting wet in the slightest.

"I can drink water out of mid-air! Anyone else would love to be able to do stuff like this!" He continued with exasperation.

"He's right!" Hiccup came in. "You guys have these amazing powers, and all you're doing is complaining! I don't even have a power, and yet, I'm loving this! I never thought that I would be able to feel like this again!"

"Like what?" Branch asked.

Hiccup narrowed his eyes at him. "Like I could do anything." He answered simply, his tone curt. "Almost like the way it was before my accident."

"Accident?" Adrien asked.

"When I was fifteen, I was in a bus accident." Hiccup began to explain. "I was riding the public bus home from school to avoid taking the school bus so that I can have one day of not getting spit balls in my hair. But little did I know that the bus would get smashed into the side by a drunk person driving an eighteen-wheeler truck. The result was that the impact just about totaled my leg from where I was sitting, and I was knocked unconscious and into a coma.

"When I woke up a couple of days later, I saw that because of the damage I received, the doctors had to amputate my leg so that I wouldn't get an infection. Since then, I've been an amputee, and sometimes, it's hard to even just walk properly because of the phantom pains and cramps I would get."

Everyone became silent because of Hiccup's story. "And now I get a strong, complete tail when I'm in the water, it's like I was never hurt in the first place. In fact, I never felt as strong as I did before." He continued, and then stood up.

"Well, I've had it. If you two are going to keep complaining about this, then I'm done." With that, Hiccup left the room and then slammed the door behind him.

"Me, too." Ash said, standing up from his spot. "I've always loved the sea, ever since I can remember. It was the one place where me and my family would go to and not have a care in the world. It was the one place I loved the most because I would spend that time with my family. Especially my dad, because we both loved the ocean so much. I haven't gone back out there since the accident.

"Now that I have this tail, I have this whole new perspective of the sea, which makes me feel closer to my dad. This whole tail situation actually helps me move on from his loss, but I can't enjoy it if two of my best friends, who are in the same boat as me, think that it's a curse!"

He then scoffed. "I'm out of here." He said as he too left the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

Adrien and Branch looked over at each other, and then at their Jell-O and juice pop, feeling guilty about their negative points of view concerning their new tails. But they were right. Whether or not they liked having tails, the four of them are in this thing together. They need each other.

A/N: Part Two coming up soon!