PRESENT

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"Arielle, go get your daddy. It's very important he sees us immediately." Arielle huffed, flapping her tail angrily. She mimicked in a small whiny voice, almost too similar to a British accent. "Goodness Arielle, sushi and not scallop shells! I'm scaly allergy to shells, you mer-bitch!" She wrapped her arms around the golden pillar in the middle of the room, faking a dramatic fainting gesture; her webbed fingers on top of her head and her eyes closed shut.

Arielle cleared her throat and switched to an Italian accent (Merfolks have the ability to possess accents from the drylanders when strong emotions are involved. It's up to them to study the drylanders' ways or not). "Arielle, get your scaly ass off the king's throne this moment! You do not want to get the King mad now, do you? Goddess! Get down from that window at once, young lady! Don't think you can run off easily like you did last night!"

"Arielle, this is how you do this! Arielle, do not...I repeat...do not go this way!" Arielle's accent flickered to that of a Russian. "What's wrong with being a sea Princess, merfolks! What?!"

A sudden boyish laughter erupted in the room, jolting Arielle out of her angry daze. It seems like she wasn't alone as she had thought - and worse, it was her best friend. Oops to her then.

"D-don't!" Arielle warned, pointing a finger at him.

"You're so cute when you're angry, Arielle." He teased, smiling genuinely. "And my goodness - what a sharp tongue you've got there! You don't even need to sing to scare people off. All you've to do is get angry and speak 'heaven-knows-what' and the world would feel your anger."

He burst into another round of laughter again.

Arielle's cheeks reddened in embarrassment.

"Is...my singing that bad?" She changed the topic but nevertheless, she was curious.

"Bad is quite an understatement, Princess."

She gave him a blank expression.

When he saw that she wasn't joking around, he stopped laughing and swam to her front, a proud smile tugging at the corner of his canines. "I was just pulling your tail, Princess. C'mon, you know your voice is like, one of the most powerful weapons around here. Do I need to remind you the time you saved the kingdom from the sirens?"

Arielle folded her arms across her chest, her eyebrows raising up questioningly. "What do you mean? You mean when the sirens tried to get the - my voice literally scared all the fishes that were ten feet away from the scene! The sirens willingly left because it was just so horrible - face it, I scaly suck at things that are good!" Her accent had a hint of Latina and Italian underneath her tone. You can say she was just not in a very good mood today.

Her best friend rose an eyebrow in surprise. He certainly was surprised of two things; the fact that she can unconsciously pick up one or two languages and easily swap from one to another and that she's suddenly getting self conscious over little matters. Something was wrong. He could see it in her glistening blue eyes but couldn't point out what.

"What? Don't give me that look, Sebastian." Arielle rolled her eyes.

"Okay, Arielle isn't in a good mood today." Sebastian clicked his tongue and swam a bit further from her, perhaps to give her a little space. "And Sebastian happens to hit a very angry shark at a very wrong time."

She turned to him with a frown.

"The point is that...what made you this upset? You hardly get upset, from the times we've spent together...I think. You're more of the 'bubbly crazy princess' than the 'awfully sad princess'. Did something happen? Did someone upset you?" He creased his eyebrows. His red eyes squinting at the sulking lady by the corner of the room.

Arielle sighed. "No...I mean, yes...gah, who I'm I kidding? That Sea Urchin made dad ground me from leaving this room for a week! Can you believe that?! A week! My babies need a spin out there...in the freaking ocean! I'm a deep sea mermaid for goodness sake and not a room sea mermaid! I could hyperventilate or faint if I stay in an enclosed space for a very long time! Umm, what else I'm I missing out? Ah, yes! - and it's all Sea Urchin's fault! Help me, Sebastian, I can't be in an isolated room for a long time!"

"Sea Urchin? Grounded?"

Arielle kept quiet, her tail had stopped with the flapping thingy now, meaning that she had calmed down...a bit.

Sebastian forced back a smile, "King Newt's wife? The Queen? Really, Arielle? Since when did she become an urchin? Wait - now it makes all sense why the guards were stalking me."

Arielle opened her mouth to say something but she was cut off immediately by a low growl. She nervously looked away when his stunned eyes darted to her direction. He knew. He eventually knew what led to all these. From the angry look on his face, Arielle sure wasn't going to have a nice chitchat for the rest of the day.

"You didn't try to go there again, did you?" He frowned when she looked away in silence. "Did you or did you not, Arielle?"

"No bestie, you know I'd never do that, right? I could never open this door right here and whoosh my way high above the surface of the sea and explore the unexplored." Her voice came out very small and calm yet mockingly.

"Sarcasm, is it?"

"Yes, it is darling."

"Arielle! Do you know what the King would do if he happens to find out?" His face suddenly hardened and so did his voice. "You could get grounded for life, greatly punished in an unimaginable way, imprisoned for weeks, ripped off your royalty or I don't know, banished?"

"Puh-lease! Like the King of the Sea would banish his only daughter."

Sebastian gave her a hard glare.

"What?" She scoffed. "You think those things are his real daughters? Well, sorry to say - Arielle Waters is the true queen of the sea!"

"You're still a princess, a very crazy princess. Slow down there, would you?"

Arielle slumped her shoulders and spun around, her action causing little bubbles to form around them.

"I'm so angry, Sebastian. He actually listened to them, not me, not his own daughter. Of course no one does, I understand...and just like you said, I'm insane."

"Hey."

Silence.

"You're not insane, neither are you alone."

Silence.

"Do you know how many folks out there are dying to get in your stead? To get to your feet? Do you even know how lucky I am to get a chance to speak with you?"

Arielle stopped and turned to him, slowly.

"If they don't listen, I, Sebastian Fishlegs, promises to listen to you and hear you out at the point of need. I'd always be the friend you want me to be, just like you wanted, as long as you don't try to abuse your rights." He places his left hand against his chest and raised the other in the air, water.

A small blush crept to Arielle's cheeks. The thought of Sebastian always standing by her side never crossed her mind until now. God, he was a very 'good and loyal friend', she thought.

Sebastian sighed, his eyes dilating with compassion. "As much as I hate this...I'm going to help you out in this one."

"Sebastian..." Her eyes became teary with joy and sadness mixed as one.

"Uh - uh, before you say anything...promise to not get into trouble again? I can't be everywhere to save you, princess." He said.

"I promise." Her face beamed with smiles. But she knew deep down, she wouldn't stick to her silly promise at all.

He raised his head upwards, his eyes lit with happiness upon seeing her reaction.

"Now, about your tongue - you seriously got to teach me how you learnt so much languages in a day! This is insane!" He shook his head with a smile.

Arielle wore a secret smile and never took her eyes off him. Her eyes took in the messy curls of his blonde hair, his sharp subtle jaw, his rugged chest and shoulders, his pointed nose, his elfine ears, his pink, plump lips and finally, his beautiful crimson eyes.

"Thank you."

{Crystal's Note: Yup, I'm still alive! I'm gonna be updating when you least expect it ;). And yes - this is a rough sketch of the whole thing ; this chapter is gonna be updated soon so stay tuned!}.

All chapters are revised by @kelladaisy113.

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-What do you think about Sebastian?

-What do you think about the mermaids' ability to swap accents, lol.

-Do you think Arielle and the supposed 'Sea Urchin' (An insult, not fact, by Arielle lol) would get along?

-Whose POV do you wanna see? Arielle's or Newt's? ;)

-Any thoughts on what their plans are?

Thanks for reading!