A/N: Here we go, with Part Two! Roll it!

Natant

Chapter 2

Learning to Love the Tails

Part Two

Early the next morning, Branch was standing by the beach, feeling the cool sea air around him. Both Hiccup and Ash's words from the day before were ringing in his head on repeat. He never thought about how much this tail thing meant to them. He knew that Hiccup had trouble being an amputee, and with being different, but he never really knew how much.

And Ash. He had lost his father, but by being in the sea, which was the thing that both of them loved indefinitely, and swimming out there, it was like he felt even closer to him, even though he was gone. And from what Adrien told him, Ash had only lost his father a couple of months earlier. Yet he was trying to move past it by using the ocean as a way to cope with it. 

If only he could find that same strength to try and do the same. But it had been almost eight years since his own hard loss for him happened, and he still can't find the courage to take that next step on the road to recovery.

"Branch?" The black-haired teenager turned around to see Poppy coming over to him to stand next to him. "You're almost never up this early on a school day. What's up?"

Branch sighed through his nose and went over to the rocks nearby to sit. Poppy followed him and sat next to him. 

"I got into a.... falling out with Ash and Hiccup." He admitted.

"What happened?" Poppy asked.

Branch lightly bit his lip, not sure how to explain it to her without giving out any revealing details. Well, he could try to be as vague as he possibly could. "Something happened to us.... three days ago, and Adrien and I.... we aren't exactly coping really well with the changes." He explained. 

"But Hiccup and Ash, they seem to embrace them wholeheartedly. It wasn't until yesterday that Adrien and I realized how much these changes meant to them. But instead, we have only been seeing how bad this whole thing seems rather than seeing what good it can bring us."

"Well, not to be offensive, Branch," Poppy came in, "but you are one of the most negative people I've ever met."

Branch narrowed his eyes at her. "Very funny." He muttered sarcastically.

"Sorry, but you know it's true." Poppy continued, holding her hands up in surrender for a brief moment. "But once in a while, maybe you need to try and at least take one small step out of your comfort zone; what you do know and just embrace what is unknown to you. It can help you gain a new point of view for whatever it is that's troubling you."

She then patted his shoulder. "When you do, you'll know what to say to Hiccup and Ash."

Branch just smiled softly at her and then looked back out towards the sea. She was right, as usual. Maybe it's time to see things from a new perspective. But for right now, he needed to try and make up with his friends.

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

Later that day, at school, Adrien was sitting by himself at lunch. He usually would sit with Ash at their table over in the corner of the cafeteria where no one ever looks, but he knew that his friend was still upset with him, so he was eating by himself while Ash had decided to sit over at a different table, not talking to anyone, even though Ritchie and Solene were at the same table with their own friends. He would see them try and ask their brother if he was okay a couple of times, but he didn't say anything, so they let him be.

"Adrien?" 

The sound of his name made the blond boy quickly turn around to see Marinette standing there behind him with concerned eyes, holding a lunch tray in her hands. Alya was a couple of feet away from her, confused as to why her best friend was talking to him. 

"You okay?"

"Yeah." He answered instantly, but the concerned look on Marinette's face made him drop the act and sigh. "No, not really."

Marinette blinked, and then started to walk over to him. But Alya stopped her. 

"What are you doing?" She asked her.

"You go on ahead." Marinette assured her. "I'll be fine. He doesn't bite." 

Then, she continued coming over to the table, ignoring Alya's dropped jaw as she came over and sat down next to Adrien. The blond model was also a little surprised that she was sitting with him, even if they were now officially friends. Alya closed her mouth and then went off to find a different place to sit while her best friend talked with the model.

"You mind telling me what happened?" Marinette asked him gently.

Adrien lightly bit the corner of his mouth before deciding to play it vague. "My friends and I had a bit of a fall-out yesterday." He started to explain to her. "Branch and I were acting pretty negative, which got on Ash and Hiccup's nerves. They saw the good side of the situation, while Branch and I were just freaking our wits out about it."

Marinette paused, looking deep in thought. "Is there a good side in this situation?" She asked him carefully.

Adrien opened his mouth, and then closed it again. He then slowly shut his eyes and imagined himself in the ocean again, swimming with his silver tail. Being down there, in a way that everyone thought was pretty much impossible, it felt.... liberating. 

In the water, he wasn't Adrien Agreste, the super famous and super hot model in Crescent City, and even the world. He was just an ordinary guy who loves the sea and has been given an amazing way to see it. And what made it even more special was that he wasn't the only one who can see the ocean in the same way he does. He has three very good friends who share that secret with him; it was the four of them against the world.

A soft smile came on his face as he opened his eyes again. "There is." He admitted. "Something that is really.... extraordinary. But I guess Branch and I kept worrying about.... the price the four of us have to pay for something like that."

"What price?" Marinette asked.

"That, I can't explain." Adrien said. "Nothing personal, Marinette; it's just that.... I'm not sure how to say it without you thinking that.... I sound crazy."

The dark-haired girl could see in his eyes that he was really struggling with wanting to tell her about what was so costly of a price to pay, but she didn't pry further. Right now, it seemed that Adrien needed more help on how to make up with Ash and Hiccup than to explain more details.

Just then, an idea came into her head. "Maybe you should come to Chloé's pool party this afternoon." She suggested, which made Adrien raise a confused brow. "I'll make sure that Ash comes too, and then the two of you can talk it out."

"I was really only planning on going to make it clear to Chloé that a party is not enough for me to forgive her for her attitude." Adrien explained.

"Well then, that could be an added bonus." Marinette continued explaining. "If you show that you would want her to respect your friends as part of her path to redemption, if Ash saw that, then maybe he will be more willing to forgive you."

"How come you're going?" Adrien asked. "I thought you and Chloé hate each other."

"We do." Marinette admitted. "But I'll be there to support you. Plus, I actually kind of want to see you chew her out again. Last time was priceless."

Adrien bit back a snicker. "Fair enough." He chuckled.

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

A few hours later, Poppy was in the juice bar, looking for someone in particular. After a couple of seconds, she found who she was looking for. 

Hiccup was sitting in a booth by himself, fingering the end of his straw that was in his glass of soda absentmindedly. The strawberry blonde headed over to him and placed a hand on his table.

"Hey, Hiccup." She said to him with a smile, which the auburn-haired boy just looked up at her blankly. "Can I sit here?"

Hiccup just shrugged with a roll of his eyes. "As long as you don't talk to me, that's fine." He muttered.

Poppy shrugged and then sat down across from him. But after a few seconds of awkward silence, she spoke up. 

"So, Branch told me that you guys had a falling out." She said.

Hiccup sighed as he let go of the straw. "What's there to know about?" He asked her. "It's nothing really important."

Poppy scoffed. "Come on." She said. "You two had been best friends since middle school. You and Fishlegs were the only ones besides me that Branch would even talk to back then. And when Fishlegs moved away, Branch was there for you."

Hiccup lightly bit his lip when he recalled the memories. At first, after Astrid ditched him in fourth grade, it was just him and Fisher Ingermen, or who everyone called Fishlegs. Then when they were in sixth grade, they met Branch. It took a couple of weeks because of Branch's pessimism, but he and Branch realized that they actually do have a lot in common. 

The trio were pretty much inseparable after that, until Fishlegs sadly announced to them that he was moving to a different part of the city, which also meant that he had to go to a different school instead of Sunny Bay High. But Branch was there for Hiccup during their freshman year, and their first year without Fishlegs, which only brought the two even closer as friends, especially after the accident.

"Speaking of Branch," Poppy came back in, bringing Hiccup out of his thoughts. "I noticed that he seems a little bit.... off, recently."

A twang of suspicion hit Hiccup's chest. "What do you mean?" He asked her.

"Well, I know that most of the time, he's not very chatty." Poppy clarified. "But don't you think that.... he's hiding something?"

Hiccup resisted the urge to freeze up. "Um, this is Branch we're talking about?" He reminded her, as if it should be obvious. "There's still a lot of things that neither of us don't know about him."

"That's true, but still." Poppy continued. "It's not really like him."

"Okay, Poppy. You are starting to sound just a teeny bit nosy." Hiccup said. "I came here to be alone, so please just.... keep your distance for the time being?"

As he was talking to her, his hand that was on the table slowly clenched into a fist. Suddenly, his eyes started to glow a bright red as his soda began to bubble up with steam coming out of the top. It was lucky that Poppy didn't notice his eyes changing color, for both of them were more concerned about the now steamy, piping hot drink.

"What the-?!" Poppy exclaimed, reaching out to touch the glass, but immediately retracted her hand. "Ow! It's hot!"

Hiccup quickly unclenched his fist as his eyes immediately turned back to green and he looked down at his hand. "Is this someone's idea of a joke?" Poppy asked out loud. 

But Hiccup didn't answer her as he slowly curled his fingers back and forth, a little bit of a smile starting to form on his face. Did he just... do that? Well, there was only one way to find out.

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

Minutes later, Hiccup was walking along the beach, looking for something small and inconspicuous to test his theory. Soon, he found a tiny isolated pool of water in the sand, between two large rocks. Hiccup lowered himself down into a crouching position, and then outstretched his hand to it, concentrating as hard as he can.

Immediately, his eyes started to glow red as bubbles and steam began to form in and up out of the water. The auburn-haired merman smiled widely as he slowly clenched his hand into a fist, further boiling up the water in the pool. He had finally found his power.

Once all of the water in the pool had evaporated, Hiccup unclenched his fist and his eyes turned back to their usual green. He got out his phone and started to text Branch, asking him to meet up with him, their previous argument gone from his mind. 

Poppy was right. The two of them were best friends; they can find a way to work it out. Plus, with Ash and Adrien, they needed to learn to rely on and trust each other if they were to keep their tails a secret.

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

Within a few minutes, Branch arrived at the beach where Hiccup was waiting for him. "I got your message." He said. 

"Look, I'm.... I'm sorry about all that negative stuff I spouted yesterday. I had no idea how much this whole.... tail thing meant to you and Ash."

Hiccup smiled and placed a hand on Branch's shoulder. "Well, if I were in yours or Adrien's shoes, I probably would've been freaking out myself." He said. 

"There are going to be challenges with these new.... developments, but the four of us are in it together. We're going to need each other if we are going to make it through this new change. Even if it takes the rest of our lives."

Branch lightly chuckled. "Well, it doesn't sound too terrible when you put it like that." He said, making Hiccup chuckle himself briefly. "So, what is it that you want to show me?"

"Well, I actually wanted to show it to all of you." Hiccup said, looking around the beach. "Where are Ash and Adrien?"

Branch seemed to have noticed their absence, and looked around the beach himself. "I don't know." He answered, starting to get a bad feeling going down his spine, making him shiver.

Just then, Poppy came up to them, her phone out. "Guess who's been posting all over SnapChat?" She asked. 

She then showed them a photo of Chloé out on the roof with Adrien standing in the background. But the blond boy seemed to be heading off screen to check on Marinette, who was lying on the ground. Ash had made his way over to her already, his arm around hers. But in the corner of the photo, there was a pool.

"Are they insane?!" Branch shouted. "What are they thinking?!"

"We got to get them out of there!" Hiccup exclaimed.

They started to run off the beach, but Poppy stopped them. "Okay, what is going on here?" She asked. "You guys have been acting weird for the past couple of days, and I want to know why!"

"Not now, Poppy!" Branch shouted back. "Right now, we need to get Ash and Adrien out of that party before they get thrown in the pool or get drinks spilled on them!"

"Why?" Poppy asked as she started to chase Branch and Hiccup towards the Le Paris Hotel. "Branch!"

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

Over at the Le Paris Hotel, Adrien and Ash had helped Marinette get back on her feet. The blond model narrowed his green gaze at the prissy diva. 

"Chloé, that was uncalled for!" He shouted at her.

"Oh, please Adrikins." Chloé scoffed as she leaned in close to him. "You seriously think that Dupain-Cheng is something special? I only invited her and your friend here because it is part of my plan to apologize to you."

She was about to wrap an arm around him, but Adrien pushed it away. "Chloé, this party of yours is not going to make me change my mind!" He shouted at her. "I only came here to tell you that. You're going to have to make a better effort than this and also show that you really want to change yourself if we're ever going to be friends again."

Chloé's face turned ashen despite her colorful makeup at Adrien's harsh words. However, when she saw Adrien help Ash pick up Marinette off the ground, she felt her temper and jealousy flare up. She stomped over and pushed both Ash and Marinette away from Adrien towards the pool.

Thinking quickly, Ash spun Marinette around and then lightly pushed her away from the edge of the pool, towards the refreshment table. But his actions only got him even closer to the pool, where he could fall in with one misstep! Adrien immediately went over and grabbed Ash's arm, preventing him from falling into the pool.

"Chloé, are you crazy?!" Adrien shouted at her, struggling to hold his grip on his best friend's arm. 

But Ash was balancing so precariously on the edge of the pool, it was to the point where one wrong shift of his weight could send both him and Adrien crashing into the water.

"What's the big deal?" Chloé asked, her icy blue eyes narrowed in envy. "Can't he swim? Or is he afraid of the water?" She taunted.

"Neither!" Ash retorted back as he tried to carefully push himself up and away from the edge. "But still, what you did was completely uncalled for! Too bad that you're just jealous because Adrien has better friends than you. Or rather, at least he has friends, and you don't!"

Chloé's pale pink painted lips pulled back into a snarl, lightly growling in anger and envy, and then came over to push both Adrien and Ash into the pool, since it was obvious Adrien wasn't going to accept her apology. 

But then, just in the nick of time, Branch and Hiccup arrived on the roof of the hotel, followed closely behind by Poppy. They saw what Chloé was about to do, and Branch quickly headed over and then pulled the two younger boys away from the pool.

However, Chloé was already in position, but instead of Ash and Adrien, she instead had pushed Branch into the pool with a splash. 

"BRANCH!" The other three secret mermen exclaimed, along with Poppy.

Acting impulsively, Marinette grabbed a nearby glass of punch and then tossed it onto the prissy blonde's revealing yellow bikini and white towel wrap around her waist. Chloé screeched loudly at the red splash of fruity liquid on her skin and swim outfit.

"You little brat!" She screamed at her, to which Marinette didn't even flinch or bat an eye at. 

The prissy blonde then started sobbing as she went back inside the hotel, followed by everyone else little by little, who decided that they've seen enough drama for a while.

Everyone started to guide the other guests in an orderly fashion towards the exits so that no one sees what is about to happen. Except for Poppy, who went over to the edge of the pool to check on her best friend, who had just resurfaced and was looking terrified.

"Poppy, there is something you should know." Branch started to say to her, looking towards the exit and then glancing towards his waterproof watch.

"Hey, it's okay." Poppy tried to assure him. "You don't have to say anything. Sorry if I was kind of pressuring you earlier."

"It's fine." Branch answered. "But you're right." 

The water around him started to bubble up, and Poppy was starting to look confused and wary. "You've been saying that I've been acting.... strange? Don't freak out, but...."

He trailed off as he let the transformation do the rest of the talking for him. He felt his clothes vanish and then his legs magically morph into his emerald green tail as the bubbles faded away. Poppy's jaw dropped and her eyes widened when she saw the scaly appendage that had replaced her best friend's legs.

Branch lightly bit his lip at her reaction. "Poppy, you have to help me get out of here before someone sees me." He said.

Poppy felt like she couldn't speak as she fearfully took one step backward away from him, amber eyes widened in shock. "Please, Poppy." Branch pleaded, reaching out his arm. "Don't do this. Not when I really need you."

The strawberry-blonde girl took a deep breath to calm herself and instead focused on Branch's pleading face. Despite him having this.... new development, he was still her friend. And he really needed her help. Slowly, Poppy took his hand, making him smile gratefully up at her.

The others then came over to check on their friend, and they were shocked when they saw that Poppy had discovered Branch's secret. But she wasn't the only one. 

"What the-?!" Marinette exclaimed loudly, making everyone jump up. 

They had forgotten that the blunette was still with them, not having gone with the rest of the guests. But there was no time to worry about that.

"We'll make sure that no one gets up here anytime soon!" Hiccup started giving out commands, and then followed Ash and Adrien over to the emergency exit, grabbing a stunned Marinette by the arm to follow them. 

"Poppy, get Branch out of the water!" He called out to the strawberry-blonde girl.

"He had a-, was that a-" Marinette sputtered.

"Not now." Adrien said, quickly grabbing her shoulders. "We'll explain everything later, I promise. But right now, we need to buy us time to get Branch out of here before someone sees him like that."

When they got over to the emergency exit door, Adrien stepped forward. "I've got an idea." He said, and then held out his palm. 

His peridot green eyes briefly flashed silver as ice suddenly formed around the handle and inside the locking mechanism. He then removed his palm, eyes going back to their usual summer green shade.

"How did you do that?!" Marinette exclaimed.

"I said later!" Adrien reminded her firmly as they went back over to the pool, where Poppy was struggling to pull Branch out of the water.

"Can any of you guys give me a hand here?" She asked. "He weighs a ton!"

The four guys shared a brief nervous look with each other. Finally, Ash sighed. 

"The three of us can't." He said to her, as he, Adrien and Hiccup all backed away from the pool.

Poppy and Marinette looked at them with confusion. "If we get wet, we'll grow tails, too." Hiccup explained bluntly. "Is that what you want?"

The girls both blinked at them with surprise. "The three of you?" Poppy asked, which they only responded with a nervous shrug. 

"All of you?" She questioned again, turning over to Branch, who just nodded in confirmation. "Seriously?"

"No way." Marinette said, before going over to Poppy and grabbing Branch's other arm. 

Together, they managed to finally pull the green-tailed merman out of the pool after a few minutes, both of them sitting down while Branch's tail flopped onto the cement.

"Maybe I should join the gym." Poppy said with a pant.

"You and me both." Marinette agreed.

Adrien and Ash spared a quick glance over at the emergency door. They could hear that someone was struggling to open it from the other side. 

"That ice isn't gonna hold forever." The latter said.

Branch groaned. "And it's gonna take forever for me to dry off, even with a towel." He added.

Hiccup then came over to him. "I've got something that might help." He said. "Girls, stand back."

Poppy and Marinette obeyed, and they gave Hiccup some room as he carefully knelt down next to Branch. He then slowly stretched out his hand towards Branch's tail, not touching it. His eyes slowly started to glow fiery red as the water on Branch's scales started to sizzle, creating steam.

"Ow! That stings!" Branch exclaimed, but Hiccup just continued the process, slowly clenching his hand into a fist as he moved his hand down towards the fluked end of the scaly green tail. Everyone else just watched in amazement.

Finally, in a final cloud of steam, Branch felt his legs come back to him. Hiccup removed his hand, his eyes back to their normal shade of forest green. 

"There you go." He said. "Steam-dried and certified."

Branch smiled at the auburn-haired teen. "You found your power!" He exclaimed, making Hiccup grin cheekily at him.

"Guys, what is going on?" Poppy asked.

"I would like to know, too." Marinette added.

"We'll explain later!" Ash and Adrien said at the same time as Hiccup quickly helped Branch back up onto his feet.

"Yeah, let's find somewhere a little more private." Branch said.

But right before they would take one of the elevators back down to the main floor, Hiccup looked back over at the pool. He glanced down at his hand before a mischievous smirk appeared on his face as Ash immediately pressed the button to go down.

He reached out with his hand towards the pool, and it immediately started to boil up as his eyes started glowing red again as he slowly clenched his hand into a tight fist. One he was sure that it was hot enough to continue boiling without his powers, he released his fist, his eyes back to green.

"Never liked pool parties anyway." He said with a smirk as the elevator opened up, and everyone quickly got inside. Adrien pressed the button for the main level, and the doors closed just as the other elevator opened up.

As they were heading down, they could hear Chloé screaming in confusion and frustration when she and her guests saw the now empty pool. They all just laughed at the thought of it as the elevator doors opened up, and they ran out of the hotel.

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

Minutes later, they were all at the beach again, sitting near the rocks by the cliffs, and the guys started to explain to the girls everything that had happened to them over the past couple of days. Starting from the night that they got stranded on Half-Point Island, to the mysterious pool of water they found in the volcano and what it did when the full moon passed over it, to the strange transformations and powers they discovered the following day. 

When they were finally done, they let it sink in for a few seconds so that Poppy and Marinette could process it. After about fifteen seconds of silence, Hiccup spoke up. 

"This most likely goes without saying," he said to them, "but if either of you tell, you know what we're capable of."

"I'm not that stupid." Poppy answered.

"No duh." Marinette added. "If anyone ever found out about you guys, you'd end up as science experiments."

Adrien glanced over at Ash, and then took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I was so pessimistic yesterday." He said to the younger raven-haired teen. "I guess I was having a bit of a 'Branch' freak-out as well."

"Ha-ha." Branch muttered sarcastically, but there was a little smile on his face, showing that there was no real bite. However, it still made everyone chuckle.

"So we're all cool?" Hiccup asked his friends.

Ash smiled, answering for everyone. "Yeah." He said. "Plus, it's like we've said. We're going to need each other if we're going to get through this."

Branch nodded in agreement. "This whole thing is just.... way beyond what we ever thought possible." He said. "It's just.... too weird."

"So, let me get this straight." Poppy said before starting with Adrien, then Ash, then Branch and finally ended with Hiccup. "You freeze things, you explode things, you turn things into Jell-O, and you boil things."

"And you all grow tails ten seconds after you touch water." Marinette added. "This is just... too bizarre."

"That's one way to put it." Adrien replied. "But it is kind of cool when you look at it through a different perspective."

"It is definitely going to have its ups and downs." Hiccup added.

"I can't even think of a word to describe all of this." Branch said.

"I do." Ash said. "Three of them. So totally awesome!"

Everyone started laughing at his words, feeling the air around them lighten up as they looked over towards the ocean behind them. However, when Poppy glanced over at Branch, she saw that the joy didn't quite reach his face, and his smile seemed a little bit strained. 

She got the sneaking suspicion that even though the other three guys had accepted what they had become, it was still going to be a little harder for Branch to do the same. She should know, she had known him and his stubborn attitude when it comes to change since they were in kindergarten.

But the guys were very glad that they now have someone that know the truth about them. Well, two people, actually. It makes the secret that they're hiding a little easier to bear. Plus, it never hurts to have someone else watch out for them; those who don't get fish tails when they get wet. Maybe the guys can actually work it out with the whole tail thing, one way or another.

A/N: Now the next chapter is still a work in progress. It won't be done for a really long while. But at least I can tell you this: Branch won't stay out of the water forever. He will eventually learn to embrace his new merman half.

Well, that's all for now! Please leave a comment about what you think. They are highly appreciated. And remember to stay healthy!

Got to fly! ;)