》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • 。* 。° 。* 。 • ˚《

》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • 。* 。° 。* 。 • ˚《

Jessie sat on the couch, his hands rubbing his knuckles as Rella paced the room back and forth. She'd been pacing for almost five minutes and frankly it was making him get kinda dizzy. "Rells, can you stop? You're making me dizzy." Jessie rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"Oh. Sorry." Rella sat down on the bed, leaning her elbows on her knees.

Shuri entered the room, making both sirens look up. "So, what'd she say?" Jessie asked, before Aquarella could get a word in.

Shuri sighed, running a hand down her face, she sat at the arm of the couch. "She didn't say much. She just said to go to a place you long forgotten." Shuri shrugged. After arguing with Amphitrite for almost half an hour, she finally agreed to not tell Aquarella about Soulina being alive and well. Amphitrite wanted Aquarella to see for herself. Shuri felt it was unnecessary but apparently those were Soulina's wishes so she had to agree to them.

"Wait, that place we found when we were kids? You haven't been there in years, it's abandoned. Trust me, I've checked." Jessie said, knowing what Shuri was talking about. It was place they stayed to escape from their parents. They made it their own little home. "I don't even know why this is a subject. She's dead. I got her killed, she died in my arms years ago. We were bleeding out, we must've just hallucinate her." Aquarella said.

"Yeah problem is, Rells, we don't hallucinate. Your mom has been hiding shit from you for years. You said it yourself, her body looked like a fake at the funeral. How do we know she didn't lie about your sister's death?" Jessie pointed out.

"Because she would've come to me!" Rella snapped, standing up and walking towards the balcony. "If she was alive, and she isn't, she would've came to me. She would've found some kind of way to communicate with me. And I know my mom may be an evil bitch at times, but there's no way she'd keep my sister from me." Jessie glanced at Shuri, not seeing an form of emotion on her face which confused him. He knew she had to know something. There must've been something she wasn't telling them.

"You could be right. But, if you really think about it, it wouldn't be very surprising if she did." Shuri imput her opinion on the situation, ignoring the suspicion from Jessie.

"I agree. If she isn't even acknowledging the fact that you came out, and she did cover up James's death, would it really be a shocker if she covered up Soul's?" Jessie tilted his head at Rella who sat on the couch across him. Her leg anxiously bounced up and down, deeply considering their suspicions. "I need to talk to her, just to be sure. Jessie, I want you to stay here until I get back. I don't trust her right now." Aquarella decided, standing up and turning her bracelet back on.

"Just be safe, Rells. Please." Jessie stood up and pulled Rella into a hug. "If she's really out there, find her." Jessie whispered into her ear and she nodded gently.

"I will, I promise."

》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • 。* 。° 。* 。 • ˚《

"Tell me something, mother dearest." Amphitrite looked up as Aquarella descended down the stairs of Shuri's lab. "Did my father tell you everything we talked about? Or more like, argued about." Rella crossed her arms over her chest, looking up at Amphitrite who held the usual emotionless look on her face. "If you're talking about all of the stuff I've kept from you over the years, then yes, he told me. Not that he had much of choice. We both know he can't keep much from me." Amphitrite shrugged.

"But he did, surprisingly he kept one little secret from you." Rella leaned against the desk, glaring daggers into her mother. "You're glaring at me like I did something wrong." Amphitrite said, feigning confusion.

Aquarella scoffed loudly, "God, you are so full of yourself. Of course you would make this about you." Rella shook her head, tired of how selfish and narcissistic Amphitrite was. "I literally confessed one of my biggest secrets to you and you just pretend like it never happened. You think you're so innocent, that you do no wrong. That shit may not have an impact on you but it sure as hell has had an impact on me!"

"Aquarella, there's nothing to talk about baby. I accept you for whoever you are. You think I care that you like women?" Amphitrite questioned.

"That's the thing, you should care! You should care about my interests." Rella argued, growing frustrated. "Okay, what do you want me to do? We didn't have time to have some kind of heart to heart conversation. You can't expect me to give you every second of my time." Amphitrite furrowed her brows, not sure what the huge deal was. She herself had her fair share of girlfriends in the past. She didn't think it was a big deal.

Aquarella's eyes widened, genuinely surprised at her mother's response. "That's literally the bare fucking minimum considering how you never give me any of your time unless it benefits you!" Rella scoffed, running a hand through her locs she shook her head, tired of the conversation when she knew it wasn't gonna change anything. Amphitrite was always gonna dismiss her, it was nothing new.

"You know what, I ain't got time for this. You're a fucking narcissist. And if I find out you did anything horrible to my baby sister, I will fucking kill you." Aquarella shoved her shoulder into Amphitrite's, heading into the elevator. Amphitrite looked down at the floor, shocked by what was just said by her daughter.

》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • 。* 。° 。* 。 • ˚《

Aquarella sat on the rock, looking around in the place she once used to love. It held a lot of amazing memories. But most of them were with Soulina, which is why she stopped going back there. Her eyes flickered over the many objects on the rock shelfs, most of them were just things that humans were drop into the ocean, purposely or not. She remembered when she, Jessie and Soul collected a ton of them since they weren't allowed on the surface world.

Soulina always had a fascination over humans and the surface world. Aquarella never understood it until she went to the surface world herself. Soul reminded her a lot of herself, but more happy and bubbly. She always was the nicer and happier sister. Soulina wasn't even a violent person either. It was more Aquarella's thing. Anyone who even looked at Soulina funny would've gotten a broken nose courtesy of Aquarella.

"Soul, maybe this isn't the best idea. You should go see her." Aquarella furrowed her brows hearing the voice she could describe as Flounder, Soulina's best friend and pet fish. Courtesy of their abilities, they could hear the sea animals talk and such. Soulina treated the fish as her friends, meanwhile Aquarella never really made efforts to speak to them unless she needed to or got bored.

"I can't see her, she needs time. She wouldn't even let me near her." Soulina responded, holding a ton of objects in her arms.

Aquarella let out a breath of shock, never did she expect to hear Soulina's voice again. Quickly gathering herself, holding back her tears she spotted her mermaid sister enter the place through the tunnel. "You should listen to the fish, Soulina." Aquarella stated.

Soulina looked up, her face falling in surprise and the items in her arms fell to the ground. Aquarella's hands covered her mouth, still in disbelief of being in front of her little sister who she thought had been dead for years. "Is it really you?"

Soulina swam closer towards her sister and nodded softly. "It's me, Rells."

Aquarella wrapped her arms around Soulina, finally bursting into tears, even though they were underwater, she still sobbed like any other. Soulina smiled, hugging the taller girl. Flounder used his fin to give Soul a little fist bump of approval. Even if Rella made fun of him a lot, he still loved her and he had no doubts that she secretly loved him too.

Aquarella pulled away and cupped Soulina's face, immediately seeing if she had a mole on her face above her eyebrow just to be sure it was really her. "How- how is this- how- how are you alive? You- you died in my arms." Aquarella stammered, stuttering her speech, still in complete shock.

"I know, I know. Technically I did die, but when I was dead, I was sent to the Ancestral Plane. James was there and we talked and he sent me back. He said it wasn't my time. When I woke up, momma said that nobody could know I was alive, not even you." Soul explained, a sad smile on her face. Rella's face dropped, a small scoff escaping her mouth. "Of course, of course she did."

"I missed you, Rells." Soul rested her head on Rella's shoulder. "I missed you too, Shelly." Soul smiled at the old nickname Rella gave her as kids. Soul got it courtesy of her obsession with seashells.

"You remember that song we used to sing?" Soulina questioned, swimming over to pick up all the stuff she gathered. "I'm not singing it, Shelly." Rella shook her head, sitting down on the rock. "I don't get why you hate it so much, it's a good song." Soul said, setting the items on the shelfs.

"Not when it's sung a million times, Soul." Rella pointed out. "Come on, please. Sing it for me? Please Relly?" Soul begged, giving her best puppy eyes and Flounder joined in. Aquarella groaned, "Okay fine. Flounder, stop before I cook you." Rella glared slightly at the yellow and blue fish.

"Missed you too, Rella." Flounder and Soul fin bumped and Rella chuckled.

"What would I give. To live where you are?" Rella began to sing, and Soul smiled excitedly.

"What would I pay. To stay here beside you?" Soul joined in.

》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • 。* 。° 。* 。 • ˚《

"When do you think she's comin' back? It's been hours." Riri asked toward Jessie who was making adjustments to his bracelet. Shuri had asked if he could connect the Kimoyo Beads to the bracelet so they could be able to communicate rather than making new bracelets and beads. "If her sister is really alive, they're gonna have a lot to catch up on. Let's just hope she is, she went way too young." Jessie replied.

The elevator rung, signaling someone and they both assumed it was Shuri as she had went to grab a small tool for Jessie downstairs. "Jessie," Rella called. Jessie immediately turned out hearing his best friends voice. Soulina stepped out of the elevator with a soft smile and Jessie's mouth fell open in shock. "Holy shit, you're not a hallucination."

Soul nodded and ran into Jessie's open arms, giggling as he spun her around. Rella walked towards the table Riri sat at and set the fish bowl with Flounder down. "Uh, is that a fish?" Riri leaned down to inspect the fish. "It's dinner," Aquarella grinned.

Soul frowned, walking over to Aquarella with Jessie trailing behind her. "You can't cook, Flounder, he's my best friend, Relly." Soul leaned down and smiled at Flouder. "He's still alive?" Jessie tilted his head, Flounder gave him a look of offense.

"I am so beyond confused right now," Riri mumbled. Soulina blinked, finally noticing Riri's presence. She stood up straight slowly, Riri copying her movements. "She's American," Soul whispered to Rella.

"She's also right here," Riri added in. Soul raised a brow, "Easy Soul. She's just a human," Flounder added in. Soul shrugged, "True. One punch would break her jaw," Soul chuckled.

"Is she talkin' to the fish?" Riri furrowed her brows in question.

"Yeah. Anyways, where's Shuri?" Aquarella asked, blocking out Soul and Jessie's conversation with Flounder. "She's downstairs." Riri said. "Thanks. Could you keep an eye on them 'til I'm back?" Aquarella walked over to the elevator. "Sure thing." Riri smiled, watching as the elevator doors shut.

Shuri ran a hand down her face, looking through drawers for the tool Jessie needed. "You lookin' for this?" Rella held up a pair of thin tweezers that only worked for certain things. Shuri sighed in relief hearing her voice, immediately did she run over and wrap her arms around the slightly taller girl. Rella stumbled back, caught off guard by the hug but she slowly returned it.

"Tea said you turned off your bracelet and you were upset with her so I got a little worried." Shuri said, pulling away and taking the tool from Rella's hand. "You were worried about me?" Rella smirked to herself.

Shuri rolled her eyes but quickly got down to the real reason she was worried. "Is she alive?"

Aquarella licked her lips, avoiding eye contact with the princess and Shuri grew confused. "I went to that place and...I found her. She's alive," Rella smiled with a slight laugh and Shuri playfully shoved her for making her think Soul wasn't alive.

"Come on, I want you to meet her," Aquarella took Shuri's hand, pulling her to the elevator but Shuri stopped her, pulling her back with her own strength, matching Rella's. "Wait. We need to talk." Shuri said.

"About what?"

"Us." Shuri answered. Aquarella sighed, letting go of Shuri's hand to run her hand over her purple locs. "There's nothing to talk about, Shuri. I told you, it's just a partnership." Rella shrugged.

"You can't honestly look me in the eyes and tell me there isn't something going on between us," Shuri pointed out, making a pretty decent point but Rella didn't wanna admit that out loud or to herself. "Like what, Shuri? We slept together once and it was good but that doesn't mean there's anything more than that." Rella countered and as much as good of a liar she was, Shuri could see right through her.

"You're lying to me and you're lying to yourself. Look, I understand why you hate me, and if I could go back and change what I said, trust me, I would. But I don't have to be in the wrong head space to know that I really like you, more than just a friend or business partner. It's far more than just like. I'm tired of pretending like I hate you, Rella." Shuri's voice didn't once falter as she spoke the truth.

Aquarella avoided eye contact and instead diverted her eyes to the floor, not wanting to believe anything Shuri was saying. But that was the thing, she did believe every word Shuri was saying to her. And she loved it. She loved everything she was saying. But she couldn't have it. She didn't feel worthy of Shuri's love or appreciation. She didn't feel like she deserved love. Maybe it was her broken relationship with her parents. Or the trauma of losing people close to her. But it didn't change the fact that she felt unworthy of any form of love from another.

She also believed Shuri deserved someone better than her. Someone who could give Shuri the same love even stronger love that she lacked. She believed Shuri deserved the world. And that was something she wasn't so sure she could give her.

"Shuri, we won't ever work. We're too different. We don't make sense. You need to let me go, let all these fantasies go, cause they won't happen. We don't work, no matter how hard you wanna try, it will never work. It's forbidden." Aquarella hesitantly reached forward to take Shuri's hand in her own, "I'm sorry. I really hope we can grow to be friends though." Rella said.

Shuri blinked away her tears and forced a small smile, nodding in agreement with Aquarella. But in her head, she knew she wasn't gonna drop this. She was falling for the siren and that never happened for her, especially in under such short time. "I understand. I'm okay with being friends." Shuri agreed.

Aquarella smiled and let out a breath, happy to get it all cleared up. "You still wanna come meet my sis?" Rella asked, letting Shuri's hand go.

Soulina spun around, dancing along to the music Riri had put on. Jessie chuckled as Soul mumbled the lyrics under her breath as she slowly danced. "Who sings this?" Soul asked, continuing to hum along.

"Mariah Carey. It's called Always Be My Baby." Riri answered, smiling to herself as she watched Soul. The elevator opened but she couldn't take her eyes off of Soul. She couldn't help but be so obsessed with how elegant Soul danced yet she still had a fun vibe to it. "I have no clue who that is but her voice is so pretty," Soul mumbled.

"Shelly," Aquarella called her sister who stopped dancing and turned around hearing Rella. "Who's she?" Soul asked, referring to Shuri with a raised brow.

"This is Princess Shuri. You remember her?" Aquarella walked over to her sister who held a slight glare on her face. "Be nice," Rella nudged her and Soul huffed.

Soul stuck out her hand to Shuri with a forced smile, "Hi. I'm Soulina. You're the bitch that made my sister cry." Rella's eyes widened and she placed her hand over Soulina's mouth. "Sorry about her. She swallowed some salt water." Rella pushed Soul over to Jessie who was attempting to hold his laughter at the interaction. "Don't apologize for me, I am not sorry." Soul's voice was muffled against Aquarella's hand.

"It's okay. She has point." Shuri said, leaning against the table Riri was sat at, staring at Soul who was now talking to Flounder who had been moved to Jessie's table.

"Yeah but she needs to learn to let things go, it was years ago." Aquarella said. She furrowed her brows slightly seeing Riri stare at her sister. Shuri and Aquarella shared a look, connecting the dots. Aquarella snapped her fingers in front of Riri who finally snapped out of it. "Are you starin' at my sister?" Shuri chuckled to herself, deciding to make her way over to Jessie to give him the tool he needed.

"No?" Riri said but it came out more like a question. "I'm sorry. She's just like so cute and I don't know, somethin' about her is like drawin' me to her. I think she got me under a spell or some shit," Riri rambled, looking at Soul who was currently glaring at Shuri as she listened to Flounder's rambling. "She's not a siren so she can't compell you. I think you just like her. Which is perfectly okay, just don't get your hopes up." Aquarella said, giving Riri a small smile.

Rella and Jessie shared a nod, telling him he could meet them when he was done fixing up the bracelet with Shuri. "Shelly, come on. We gotta go. Bring the fish." Rella called. Soul picked up the fish bowl with Flounder and walked over to Aquarella. "Where are we going?" Soul asked, following Rella to the elevator, missing the longing stare of Riri.

"To see Selya and Namora," Aquarella said, stepping inside.

"Can we go see Attuma too? I miss him," Soul smiled, leaning her head on Rella's shoulder.

"We can do whatever you want, Shells."

》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • 。* 。° 。* 。 • ˚《

a.n: i was missing the soulri hours so yk i had to add some 🤭

soul being such a cute lil bean >>

FLOUNDER WAS MY CHILDHOOD OFC I HAD TO SNEAK HIM IN HERE. SOUL IS BASICALLY ARIEL WITH A DIFFERENT NAME ATP

soul not liking shuri is sending me ngl, she's so adorable

》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • 。* 。° 。* 。 • ˚《