Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Eric is just walking through the blue doors to the outdoor dining room where the party had been held when his mother immediately starts in on him.

“I don’t know why we had to come all the way back out to the dining room when your room of knickknacks was more than acceptable to discuss your awful behavior tonight, Eric.”

“Ariel didn’t want us to argue there because she knows how important my library is to me. She had an awful argument with her father in a space that was very important to her and it didn’t end well. She was very traumatized from that experience and didn’t want that for me. And I respect her too much to ignore that so here we are.”

Selina rolls her eyes. “And who is her father, the sea king?”

“Yes, actually he is. He rules over the Seven Seas.”

“Eric, do you not hear yourself right now? Did you hit your head during that battle and forget that she’s a mermaid? Her father is a sea god! She’s a sea creature—whatever magic is keeping her here now is only temporary, she’ll take what she wants from you and leave you again!”

“She isn’t leaving again, her father gave her legs with no strings attached! She is here to stay with me—I don’t care if she is a mermaid or a human or anything else! Ariel is who she is because of her heart and her mind and her spirit. The body she’s in doesn’t make her who she is!” Eric says fervently, his temper flaring up.

“Eric, what will people think? You can’t possibly think other royal families or the court will approve of you marrying a mermaid-former mermaid. What about the future of our island? Can she even have human children?”

“Mother, she just returned to land! I’m not going to bombard her with questions about her future here or our future or her reproductive status! Everyone can wait and actually get to know her. She deserves time to explore and adjust and enjoy her time up here as herself before any pressure is put on her or on our relationship. And any questions about possible children will stay between her and I, if and when she ever wants to have that conversation with me. You didn’t have me yourself, she and I could always do that for another deserving child if we wanted to. Families aren’t always blood, that’s what you’ve taught me.”

“That’s a sweet notion, but the odds of another child being saved from a shipwreck and brought to our island are slim to none—and you can’t possibly be saying you want what happened to you to happen to another child!”

“No, I meant that there could be children on this island that need loving parents but that’s a discussion Ariel and I will have between us… and what do you mean I was saved and brought here? You’ve always told me you found me.”

Eric notices his mother start to smooth out the skirt of her cream colored ballgown, even thought it’s as pristine as ever.

“Oh you know what I mean Eric, the shipwreck happened after that awful hurricane and you somehow made it through the night and came to us.”

Selina approaches him from where she was across the room, reaching up to touch his cheek. But Eric ducks out of reach, puts some distance between them. He can sense something is off with her; his mother is unusually rattled over this subject so he keeps pushing for answers.

“No, you specifically always said that you found me on the beach, that I washed up after a shipwreck one day. But just now you said I was brought here. What are you not telling me? Did someone leave me here?”

She hesitates just enough for him to take it as confirmation.

He feels like his whole world has turned upside down; he can’t believe his mother kept this from him his whole life.

“Why did you never tell me you knew who brought me here, that you know where I came from?! Why didn’t my family want me, why did they leave me here?! What’s wrong with me that they didn’t want to keep me?!” Eric exclaims, hurt.

“It’s not that your birth family didn’t want you, Eric. And they didn’t leave you here, I promise you that. All we know is that you were in a shipwreck but we don’t know where the ship was coming from or where it was going…you survived the night of the storm and came to us the next day. I found you on the beach, that’s the truth.”

“How on earth could a baby just a few months old survive out on the ocean, much less in the midst of a hurricane, without any help?” He scoffs, feeling furious tears stinging his eyes but he holds them back. He doesn’t want to appear weak in front of his mother.

“We don’t know how, but it’s a miracle you did survive—that’s what matters!” Selina says firmly as she tries to approach him again. But again he takes a step back, away from her.

“That still doesn’t explain how I got here though. Someone must’ve brought me in and left me here. Why didn’t they want to keep me for themselves?” Eric asks.

Selina heaves a deep sigh. I guess I have no choice but to tell him the truth. He’s like a dog with a bone when he’s trying to figure out something anyway. It should come from me.

“She did want you. But she knew you would be better off here with us so she asked us to raise you.”

“She? It was a woman? You saw her? Was she my mother?”

Selina vividly remembers how attached Eric and Athena were. From the moment the mermaid brought him ashore, Selina could see they had a deep bond—one that she wouldn’t have believed was just forged mere hours before. If Selina hadn’t known better, she would’ve assumed Athena birthed Eric herself with how they interacted.

Selina still grapples with how inferior she’d always felt in Athena’s shadow. Anytime she said Athena’s name before heading to the beach with the baby, Eric would immediately start looking around the nursery for her. Nothing could distract him until he saw the mermaid.

And when they reached the beach to see his mermaid savior, baby Eric was immediately reaching out for her with his pudgy little hands. He would whine and fuss until Selina handed him over to Athena and he would immediately calm down, snuggling up to her.

When he could crawl, he would huff and whimper until Selina relented and put him down so he could rush across the sand over to the shoreline where Athena waited for them.

By the time Eric learned to walk, and later to run, Selina was constantly left in the dust. Eric even took his first steps down on the beach because he decided crawling wasn’t getting him to Athena fast enough.

Eric was fussing and wriggling as he always did in her arms when they went down to the beach to see Athena—or Teena, as Eric calls her right now.

He’s about a year old they think, give it take a few months. He crawls like a fiend and can say a few words clearly, but most of his speech is still that adorable baby gibberish and other random sounds.

“Eric, calm down—we’re almost there, Athena isn’t going anywhere.” Selina tried to tell him so he’d relax a bit, but it was futile. Anytime Eric saw or heard that Athena was nearby, he could think of nothing else until he got to her.

They reach the beach and Eric was practically bouncing in her arms in his joy. Athena was sitting on the shoreline, right where the waves lap at the sand. The water moves over her tail fin and sways her delicate fins. She waves to them both excitedly, but her eyes are focused on the happy baby boy in Selina’s arms.

“Okay, Eric. You can go on now,” Selina tells him with fond exasperation in her voice before placing him on the sand. She loves her son more than anything and is so grateful to have him—he just has so much energy, it’s getting harder and harder to keep up with him.

“Teena!” Selina hears Eric repeatedly mumble to himself around his favorite pacifier as he starts crawling on the sand to get to Athena.

Selina walks beside him at a leisurely pace, used to this routine. She starts greeting Athena, not even paying attention to Eric on the sand because she knows he’ll be passing by her soon enough in his eagerness.

But Athena’s attention is stuck on the dark haired boy, so Selina turns to see what has her so captivated.

And she promptly gasps.

Because there’s Eric, who diverted from his usual path across the sand, to a group of rocks on the shore a few feet from where Athena is. He has his hands grasping the rough surface as he pulls his body up on two unsteady legs. He holds himself there, standing in place for a bit as he gets used to the feeling of being upright.

He looks over at his mother’s gasp and falls on his butt. He immediately grabs at the boulder again and pulls himself up to stand, determination shining in his blue eyes and scrunching his face.

“Has he been standing a lot lately, Selina?” Athena asks in awe. Merbabies don’t hit big age milestones like this; they’re born breathing underwater and swimming after all. To see the little baby boy she found months ago now standing upright makes her emotional over how fast he’s growing up.

“No, this is the first time he’s made any effort. The palace doctors were even concerned because he hasn’t been attempting to stand at all. They said he’s too happy being held and crawling about. But we still don’t know exactly how old he is, so we just figured maybe he’s still a bit young…”

“Look at you, little guppy! Standing all on your own, you’re such a big boy now!” Athena says to Eric, who is still attached to the rock. When he hears her voice, he starts bouncing in place and they can hear his excited baby babble over the waves.

“Maybe he wanted to wait until he was on something soft like sand in case he fell. He’s so smart,” Athena tells Selina while grinning and waving Eric over to them.

Selina is about to answer when Eric slowly moves away from the rock and stands unsteadily on his own. Then he’s slowly moving his little bare feet and stepping through the sand. He takes a couple of steps and falls forward on his hands, but pushes himself right back up to continue his slow journey to Athena and Selina.

The two women watching as he gradually treks across the sand to them hold their breaths, not daring to make a sound and risk breaking Eric’s intense concentration.

Eric eventually stops and stands on wobbly legs within arms length of them, grinning with his pacifier still in his mouth as he reaches his arms out to Athena.

“Come here Eric—walk to me! You can do it, guppy!” Athena encourages him, holding her arms out for him.

Eric giggles and runs the last five steps forward to get to her, falling into her embrace as she showers him with kisses and tickles and tells him how proud she is.

“Oh guppy, you’re getting so big! You’re walking! I’m so proud of you Eric, I love you so much, my sweet boy!” Athena gushes over him, grinning widely as he tosses his pacifier onto the sand and laughs in her arms under her rain of praises and affections.

The two are so wrapped up in each other that neither notice the stormy expression that falls over Selina for a moment as she observes them together.

Why wouldn’t Eric walk for us when we tried to encourage him back at the castle? He wouldn’t try at all, even for his favorite toy. He just kept crawling over to Lashana and tugging on her skirts to be picked up. Maybe Athena’s right that he just wanted to be on the sand, where it’s softer for him… Selina thinks.

But the longer she watches her son hug and cuddle into Athena’s arms, the more unsettled Selina feels.

Eric is speaking to Athena in his baby babble mixed with a few proper words and the smiling mermaid listens intently as she pets his messy dark brown curls.

And Selina realizes that Eric wasn’t waiting to learn to walk on sand.

He was waiting to learn to walk for Athena.

“Mother?” Eric’s voice brings Selina out of of her memories.

“No, the woman wasn’t your mother, but I think she wanted to be. She found you and couldn’t raise you herself and brought you ashore to me and asked me to raise you. That’s all you need to know about it, Eric. Nothing else matters, except that you came to us just when we needed you. You know your father and I struggled to have an heir for years and then one day this little bundle shows up… fate brought you here.”

“Do you know her name, or where she is now? Maybe that woman lives here on the island and I can go thank her! I can introduce her to Ariel—“

Since hearing Eric say the girls’ name a few times, Selina suddenly remembers Athena a mermaid wanting to name her unborn child Ariel if the seventh baby was a girl. The same name as this mermaid her son claims to love…

She feels a pit form in her stomach, hoping that the gods wouldn’t be so cruel as to have the mermaid daughter of the one Selina was friends with be the same mermaid that Eric is now in love with. It can’t be.

“No, the woman who brought you to us doesn’t live here. She disappeared after she left you with us.”

“It can’t be that simple. There’s more, there must be. What else are you not telling me?”

Selina sits down in one of the chairs at the dining table, already emotionally exhausted. Knowing that if she tells Eric the full truth, there’s no coming back from it. Their relationship will never be the same once he knows.

“Eric, sit down please.”

“No mother, I don’t want to sit down, I want the truth!”

“You want your truth? Fine. Yes, you were brought here by a woman—a mermaid. She found you out at sea and knew you needed to be with humans so she brought you to the beach near the castle where I happened to be. She asked me to take you in and raise you and I said yes. That’s the story.”

“A mermaid brought me here? Who was she? Maybe Ariel knows her, did you get her name? Did merfolk used to swim to the surface often? Did they get along with humans? That was over 20 years ago, when did everything become so awful and volatile then? And why would you tell me my entire life that they’ve been the enemy, that they were out to kill us all? Clearly they were nice and friendly, or at the very least respectful of humans! Why would you lie about them all these years?”

“We did it to protect you and our people! You probably don’t remember since you were still so young, but about fifteen years ago there was an incident with a mermaid constantly badgering and bothering some sailors, making them crash their ships and stealing fish from their nets… one day it got to be too much and the mermaid was killed. The sea king—Ariel’s father I realize—has unleashed terrible storms and hurricanes since then in retaliation.”

“Who was the mermaid that was killed? If everyone had been living peacefully I don’t understand what could’ve changed. Why would a mermaid suddenly start harassing humans if everything had been fine?”

“I don’t know who she was, just that the mermaid was killed for her crimes, but it doesn’t really matter now, Eric. Humans and sea creatures are not meant to be together! We are just too different, it worked for a little while but then they turned on us. They’ve done it once, they’ll do it again. The people of this island will not be welcoming to a mermaid on land who seduced their Prince into marrying her! She’s only human now so she can take you back into the sea as my punishment for keeping you away!”

Eric has been pacing around, but freezes at his mother’s words.

“What do you mean by her taking me back to the sea as your punishment for keeping me away? And Ariel isn’t here to seduce me into marrying her; we love each other!”

“Yes, that girl being here on land with you is payback for not letting that mermaid come to see you anymore.”

“What do you mean? You said she brought me here and asked you to take me in…”

Selina can do nothing but sit and wait for Eric to connect the dots.

“You said you think the woman—the mermaid—who brought me here wanted to be my mother… was I close to her? Did I know her beyond just being rescued by her?”

“Yes. When she first brought you here, you had already bonded with her and I felt so bad for her having to give you away that I told her she could come visit you. You and I would go down to the beach when you first woke up or before you went to bed every night so you could see her. But as you got older, pressures from the court and people questioning the stability of our island got to be too much. She stopped coming around to see you when you were about three years old.”

“Why did she stop coming to see me? Did I do something wrong? What happened?”

“No no, it was nothing you did… we only did what was best for you and she understood that.”

“Did what’s best for me? Did you tell her to stop coming to see me?”

“Not explicitly. But I had confided in her about all the pressure that was on me, on your father, on you. All the things the members of court were saying about you as the future ruler were just very worrisome so we didn’t want any distractions or problems for you. She knew that you belonged here with us and that she was meant to be in the sea. Being around her longer would’ve only hurt you.”

“No it would’ve only hurt you! You’ve always hated mermaids, I remember how much you hated when I would mention my imaginary friend…wait. Teena. The mermaid imaginary friend I had. The one I drew pictures of and talked about, convinced she was real only for you to tell me it was all in my head. I was teased relentlessly over her for years! She was the mermaid that saved me, wasn’t she? That’s why I was so sure Teena was real. Because she was. And you kept her away from me!” Eric says fiercely, feeling so angry and hurt he wishes he could scream.

“I’m sorry Eric! But you couldn’t afford any distractions, the people didn’t trust our rule so we had to make sure the future of the kingdom was secure! It was better for her not to be around you as you grew up. You had to forget her.”

“I didn’t even get to say goodbye to her! And now I’ll never find her. It’s like I have to lose her all over again.”

“Eric, please just sit down so we can talk about this!” Selina begs, standing up from her seat to try and get him to look at her.

“No, I don’t want to talk to you anymore. About anything. I can’t even look at you.” Eric says furiously before he storms away from her back into the castle.

And Selina sinks into her chair and sobs.

——————————————————————

“Lashana, I can see why Eric and Max ate the entire coconut cake! This is so yummy!” Ariel says after swallowing her forkful of leftover cake from the party.

“It’s Prince Eric’s favorite—he requests it for every celebration we have,” Lashana tells her smiling.

The two women, along with Max and Grimsby, are relaxing in Ariel’s bedroom waiting for Eric to come back from his talk with his mother.

Lashana and Grimsby have been entertaining her with so many stories about Eric before she met him. It’s been amazing to hear what he was like when they didn’t know each other.

“Eric was found here as a baby right? I know he told me he wasn’t born into royalty… where is he from?” Ariel asks, finishing her last bite of cake before putting her plate aside for Max to lick the crumbs off.

“No one knows. There had been a hurricane about twenty one years ago and the next day the Queen had been down on the beach when she stumbled upon Eric as a baby. We think he was only a few months old at the time, but we’re not completely sure. We don’t even know his official birthday. But the King and Queen had trouble having a baby of their own for some time, so Eric washing up was a blessing.” Grimsby explains.

“Oh, and what a precious baby he was! Miss Ariel, you know he’s handsome now but he was the most beautiful little baby boy. Those blue eyes, those dark curls, that smile! He still has the same dimples and smile—now he just has teeth in his mouth. He’s always been so sweet and curious, ever since he was a baby. He rarely made a fuss and always wanted to be held and snuggled. Whoever had him before he came to us must’ve given him so much love and affection that he wanted to share it with us.” Lashana sighs fondly, reminiscing over how Eric had been as a baby.

“I wish I could’ve seen him back then.” Ariel sighs, trying to picture the Eric she knows now as a tiny little baby.

“Hold on, Miss. I may have a way to help you.” Grimsby smiles mischievously before he leaves the room.

“Lashana, what other things can you tell me about baby Eric?” Ariel questions eagerly, scratching Max’s exposed belly wheres he’s laying next to her on her bed.

“He hasn’t changed much really. He’s always been curious and observant. Once he could move around on his own and learned to crawl and then walk, then that restless, adventurous spirit of his really came out. He was constantly disappearing, finding hiding places and new things to grab and investigate. You would think all of these rules and expectations would make him as grumpy and boring as those other stuffy royals you saw tonight, but not Eric. He’s always known who is he in his heart, I think. He’s never liked pretending or doing things just because he’s told to.” Lashana smiles at her.

“Here, Miss Ariel. I found these and think they’ll be of great interest to you.” Grimsby states, grinning as he comes back into the room.

He hands her a large stack of papers and Ariel takes them confusedly, until she sees the one on top and gasps loudly.

“Is this Eric?! What is this? Look at how cute he is!” Ariel fawns and gushes over the page in her hands.

“It’s a portrait. The Queen has one painted every year of Prince Eric, usually around the anniversary of when he arrived here to commemorate how much he’s grown.” Grimsby tells her. “I put them in order of the year they were done.”

“Lashana, come sit! You can look with me!” Ariel tells the maid, scooting over on her bed to make room.

“This is a few weeks after he was found here. He had just come back with the Queen from their daily walk on the beach and he just wouldn’t stop smiling. He was so giggly that day—usually the court hates when the royals smile in portraits, but he just wanted everyone to know how happy he was.” Lashana states laughing, running her finger over baby Eric’s dimpled smile.

“Eric could never be boring, he’s the most interesting person I know.” Ariel states, moving on to the next painting.

They keep flipping through the paintings and Ariel gets to see Eric literally grow up on paper, right in front on her eyes. She sees him go from the infant who was laid out on a blanket to a baby who could sit up on his own. That brown haired baby grew up to stand on his two feet, all in the span of a couple years.

Human babies and children change so much as they grow! Ariel realizes. Merbabies just get teeth and grow in size, but they’re born with their tails and scales.

She sees Eric go from being a baby to a little boy. She sees him go through his teenage years, where he shoots up in height somewhere between his twelfth and thirteenth years. He must have grown a lot in between those portraits because suddenly he’s much taller at thirteen years old than he was in the portrait before.

She sees him continue to grow taller, and then around sixteen is when he starts to look stronger and broader too, similar to how she knows him now. She also sees that faint hint of the stubble she loves beginning to cover his jaw in the more recent portraits.

The saddest thing she notices in the portraits as they go is the change in Eric’s eyes and face. She’s moved through years of portraits, two decades worth since Eric hasn’t had his twenty first year painting done yet. But as he grows up, she notices that his eyes get a little dimmer, his jaw clenches a little tighter, his shoulders sit a little stiffer.

There have been no portraits where he’s smiling or has his dimples showing after his fourth year, but he hasn’t even smiled with his blue eyes since the seventh year portrait. Such a somber, sad face on such a little boy.

The person she sees depicted in most of these portraits is nothing like the Eric she knows. Her Eric is so alive and warm, his eyes are always sparkling and a smile is almost always on his face; she would almost think the paintings are of a completely different person if she didn’t know better.

Grimsby and Lashana must be able to read the confusion on her face because they sigh sadly.

“The older Eric got, the more pressure fell on his shoulders as the heir to the throne. He would’ve had the same responsibilities if he was their natural heir, but him being adopted into the royal family made it harder on him. He’s judged more harshly, he’s criticized more, and you’ve heard what kinds of rumors go around about him. The people of the island love Eric, and he gets along well with his crew on ships. The men respect him because he never shirks the work everyone else does on voyages just because he’s royal. He’s the first one up on deck and the last one to go down to sleep. He’d be a sailor full time if he could,” Grimsby explains.

“Don’t forget those awful men in court—picking on a small child and then on a teenager as he grew up. They’re all lucky I get kept so busy with all my work in the castle or else I would’ve let them have it! They would complain about him and ridicule everything he did, Ariel. For the longest time, Eric could do nothing right in their eyes. They’d say he was too soft and sensitive, or that his head was too far up in the clouds, or that he had strange hobbies for a boy. It was nonsense.” Lashana complains.

“Luckily, since his voyages to other countries has increased our trade revenue and brought more activity into our ports the court has seen the changes Eric wants to make for our island and they’ve been kept quiet in the face of his successes.” Grimsby tries to reassure Ariel, but she looks even more troubled than before.

“But then I came along and turned back into a mermaid in front of everyone and probably ruined all of Eric’s hard work at making the court finally accept him.” Ariel responds sadly.

Even though she desperately wants to be here with Eric and this family she’s found on land, she doesn’t want to be to be a burden to him and make his life harder by being here…

“Now you listen to me child—Prince Eric would have had princely duties and standards to uphold anyway. He’s still the Prince, so he has a better life than most. He’s grateful for his luck and doesn’t act like he’s above anyone else just because he happened to be adopted into the royal family, but he is still royalty. Even with all of the trials he finds himself facing trying to live up to what people expect of him, I have never seen him as happy as when he’s with you. You being here with him has brought back that joyful, excited little boy he used to be.” Lashana tells Ariel fiercely before wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

“And I know for a fact that Prince Eric would rather have you here with him and listen to any nonsense people spew about him than not have you but be accepted by those old stuffy men. It wouldn’t even be a choice to him. As long as he has you, Miss Ariel, he’s happy.” Grimsby says.

“I’m happy with him too. The happiest I’ve ever been,” Ariel tells them softly, before she yawns into her hand.

“You’ve had a very long day, Miss. Why don’t you try and rest? I’m sure when Eric is done, he’ll sneak in here to say goodnight you.” Grimsby pats her head.

“Goodnight, Grimsby. And thank you for showing me the portraits!” Ariel smiles as him as he leaves.

“Alright my girl, you get some good sleep. You sure you’re alright in here?” Lashana asks.

Ariel hugs Lashana before she climbs into her bed, Max curling up beside her before he falls asleep again. “I’m good Lashana, thank you so much for everything. And thank you for the great stories about Eric! You’ll have to tell me more sometime!”

“I definitely will. Especially more about our Prince Eric as a baby. What a sweetheart he was. Sleep tight, child.” Lashana answers before shutting the door.

Ariel tries to keep her eyes open as she waits for Eric, but the events of the day quickly catch up to her as soon as her head hits her pillow.

As she drifts off to sleep, her last conscious thought is of that tiny, ocean eyed baby boy with the brown hair and gummy smile from the first portrait.

——————————————————————

Eric is grateful that it’s so late at night and he doesn’t want to disturb anyone sleeping so he keeps his quiet fury inside as he blazes back into the castle.

He doesn’t think he’s ever been so angry, so hurt. He feels betrayed.

He’s not a physical, violent, angry man by nature. He prefers to talk about things rather than fight them out. He can hold his own in an argument, but would rather walk away and cool off before it gets too heated.

But tonight he stayed and argued. And look where it got him.

He’s too angry to talk to anyone, so he’s glad no one else is awake right now. And he knows he told Ariel he would say goodnight to her when he was finished talking with his mother, but he absolutely does not want his love to think ill of him or be afraid of him while he’s in this furious state.

I need to go cool off first. I need fresh air.Eric thinks.

He knows exactly where he needs to go.

So he heads for the door down the hall from his library, towards the kitchens where he knows the side door leads to outside the castle walls and down to a path that will bring him to the beach.

——————————————————————

When he reaches the familiar shoreline, the only sounds he hears are the waves gently lapping at the sand and hitting the rocks. The moon reflects on the water and the stars are bright little spots dotting across the night sky.

He takes a deep inhale of the salt air, holds it in for a moment before releasing the breath. He walks over to a small cove hidden in the cliffs and sits with his back against the cool stone, gazing out over the vast ocean.

The sea calms him down and clears his head as it always does. Within seconds of being on the beach, Eric feels better.

He thought as a child that he loved the sea so much because he loved swimming, loved finding shells in the waves, loved digging his feet in the sand as the sun shined down on him.

When he was older and could finally sail, he thought he loved it because of the potential it held. The ocean opened up a whole new world for him to grasp in his fingertips; he just had to get on a boat and could go meet new people, learn about other cultures… the ocean expanded his horizons to distances he couldn’t have fathomed as a child.

And now as a man, he knows he loves the sea for all of those same reasons. That hasn’t changed. But he is most grateful for the fact that the ocean brought him and Ariel together.

He was born to love the sea, born to appreciate its wonder and mystery, its beauty and danger all at once because he was born to find and love Ariel.

Ariel. My love. My little mermaid. Eric thinks, smiling at the mere thought of her.

The smile falls from his face at the reminder of mermaids and the argument with his mother that brought him down here in the first place.

I can’t believe she lied to me my whole life. Not just about how I got here and how she found me, but about mermaids. We coexisted peacefully at one point, and then all of sudden it all fell apart. She let me believe I was crazy for believing Teena had been real, I should’ve trusted my own mind. Maybe then I could’ve seen her again…

“Teena… I’m so sorry.” Eric speaks softly into the sea breeze as he starts to cry.

His cries quickly turn to heaving sobs as he releases all of the feelings he’s kept bottled up inside since his mother told him the truth: anger, frustration, loss, confusion, betrayal, heartbreak.

Maybe he’s had them locked away since he was a child just wanting Teena to come back and see him.

Eric doesn’t know how long he weeps out there on the beach. He doesn’t know how long it takes him to fall asleep laying in the sandy cove, emotionally and physically exhausted from everything.

Eric doesn’t even know who he is anymore.

——————————————————————

Ariel had been dreaming of her mother’s siren song melody when she’s startled from her slumber to the sound of someone frantically knocking on her bedroom door, quick little raps against the wood.

She hadn’t dreamt of that song in so long, she had feared she may have forgotten it.

She blinks the sleep out of her eyes before sitting up in her bed, confused. The sun is high in the sky, so she thinks it must be late morning maybe.

The knocking continues, waking up Max who was sleeping at the foot of her bed. Ariel gently scratches his ears, telling him good morning before she heads over to the door. The fluffy dog yawns and stretches his body, barking as he follows her.

When Ariel opens the door, she’s greeted with the worried faces of Sir Grimsby and Eric’s mother.

“I’m so sorry to wake you up, Miss Ariel but—“ Grimsby starts.

“Is Eric in there with you?” The Queen cuts him off.

Ariel is stunned, both at the Queen talking to her and at the question itself. She quickly shakes her head.

“No, it’s just Max and I. The last time I saw Eric was when he was on his way to the dining room to talk to you last night. Why?”

“No one has seen Prince Eric all morning. After speaking with the Queen, he came back inside the castle and that’s the last time anyone saw him. We thought maybe he’d locked himself in his room but it looks like he was never in there. His bed is untouched. And he’s not in his library.”

“What?! Hold on, let me just get dressed and I’ll help look.” Ariel says before running back inside.

She heads to the small wardrobe that Lashana stocked full of some dresses for her and picks out the light purple one she got in the market while shopping the day before.

She runs behind her changing screen and hastily throws the dress on, tries to tie the ribbon on the back but she can’t seem to reach it.

“Here, I’ll help you.” The Queen says softly.

Ariel jumps, not even realizing the Queen stayed as she was rushing around to get dressed.

“Thank you,” Ariel says as moves her long hair over one shoulder and presents the back of her dress to the Queen, who ties the ribbon quickly.

Before she can stop herself, Ariel takes the Queen’s hands in her and squeezes them tightly.

“Don’t worry, you’re Majesty. I’ll help find Eric.” Ariel says resolutely. Max barks in agreement.

Selina takes in this petite young woman’s determined face, the reassuring grip of her hands, her soothing voice.

She wraps the girl in a tight hug, crying into her shoulder.

“It’s my fault. It’s all my fault,” the Queen sobs.

“Your Majesty, I’m sure Eric just went off on some adventure early this morning. Maybe he went down to the market in the village, he loves it there. Plus it’s Sunday, which means Miss Bailey has her lemon pies at her stall. She only has the lemon pies on Sundays. Those are one of Eric’s favorite treats. He probably went into town early so he could buy them all from her to stock up,” Ariel tells her as she rubs her back.

The Queen sniffles, pulling back from Ariel who just gazes back at her innocently.

“How do you know all of that? I didn’t even know he liked the town market so much.”

Ariel leads the Queen over to the window seat, thinking some fresh air will help.

“Eric told me when he took me there the first time I was here, when I still had no voice. We were walking by all the stalls and vendors and he was pointing out all of the amazing things humans sell there. Miss Bailey sells her desserts there, Thomas sells fresh coconuts, there’s a man that sells hats and a woman who sells fresh fruits. And there’s also this old farmer, Mr. Ricardo—Eric says he and his wife Luce raise their own goats and chickens! They’re very funny together.” Ariel continues to ramble on about the many wonders of the human market, hoping it will help the Queen not worry too much about Eric.

“You remember all of that? After just being there a few hours?” Selina is stunned by the former mermaid’s knowledge and enthusiasm over the village market.

“Of course! Eric is always teaching me,” Ariel answers simply with a smile. “I love hearing him talk and learning from him—he gets this bright sparkle in his eyes when he’s explaining something that reminds me of when the sun hits the waves! He’s so smart and he knows so much about so many things. But he loves to learn too—he lets me teach him things and asks questions. And he’s been to so many places and collected so many treasures in his library from all of his adventures! He’s just wonderful.”

“…You really do love him, don’t you?”

“With all of my heart. I’ve never loved anyone the way I love Eric. I never felt like I fit in as a mermaid, I always felt like I was different or wrong or out of place somehow. Until I met him. I feel like me with Eric. He hears me—he heard me even when I had no voice. No one under the sea, especially not my father or my older sisters, ever wanted to listen to me talk about my fascination with humans. I was always either ignored, or laughed at, or reprimanded when I tried to express myself and my interest in the above world.” Ariel explains sadly.

“What about your mother? Did she accept your interests?” Selina asks, engrossed in Ariel’s story.

“I don’t know. I don’t really remember anything about her. She was killed when I was very little, about three years old. But my father always said I was just like her. She and I were both ‘taken with the human world,’ he’d say. I know at one point merpeople and humans coexisted peacefully and merfolk could swim to the surface, but I don’t remember anything other than always being banned from the surface. But then I saw Eric’s ship and saw the fire in the sky and knew I had to go see. I heard him talking and knew he and I were the same. We both wanted to explore outside of the world we’d always known, we both felt the pressure of having to be something we weren’t, we felt like we didn’t fit into the roles we were put into… and then the boat crashed and Eric stayed on the boat to save Max, risking his life. That’s when the boat tipped and Eric fell in the water so I dove under and grabbed him and brought him ashore.” Ariel tells his mother.

“And then you sang that song to him, the one he was searching for.”

“I swear I only used my siren song to get all of the water out of his lungs—and to heal that bad cut on his forehead. I didn’t realize how my siren song would affect him afterwards, honestly. I just wanted to make sure he was alive.”

Selina searches Ariel’s big brown eyes for any sign she’s lying, but she doesn’t find any. So far, the former mermaid is not at all like she imagined she would be.

Ariel is not manipulative, deceitful, or seductive like lore describes. She may be the most sincere, caring soul Selina’s ever encountered.

“Thank you for saving him. I was so afraid we lost him that night when the entire crew came back without him.”

“I understand, your Majesty. I remember the panic and worry I felt during the battle with Ursula. He was so brave following her to save me. Even when I told him that she would kill him out there, he refused to leave me. But then he and I lost track of each other in the chaos and I was so scared that I lost him for good until I saw him swimming after everything was over.”

“How did that sea witch come to want you anyway? She seemed like she was out for revenge.” Selina asks.

“She was—she was my aunt, my father’s sister. She had been banished fifteen years ago after causing too many problems between humans and merpeople. I don’t know the exact details, but I’ve overheard my sisters say it had something to do with harassing some sailors… she can disguise herself too, so who knows what trouble she was causing. But she was angry at my father for banishing her and she wanted his power to rule over the Seven Seas for her own evil plans. She had been watching me and saw how fascinated I was with humans. My father and I had a terrible fight where he destroyed my collection of human treasures I found in shipwrecks and along the ocean floor. I was devastated, and she took advantage of me by telling me that she could give me legs so I could come live on land and I could be with Eric.” Ariel explains.

She takes a deep breath before continuing.

“She told me Eric and I were meant for each other, that if he and I shared true love’s kiss before the sun set on my third day here, I would stay human with him permanently. But I had to give her my voice, my siren song. She made me forget I needed to kiss Eric though. But then she saw us on the second night where we almost kissed and intervened. I was going to kiss him just because I wanted to, not to break the spell. I wanted to kiss him because I’m in love with him. But when she saw how close we were to unknowingly breaking her spell, how close she was to losing, she came disguised as that human woman with my voice to trick Eric. And you know the rest from there.”

“That is quite an ordeal you’ve had to live through. She had everyone fooled. Why did your father give you legs now though? I’m sure after everything and almost losing you, he was happy to have you safe at home.”

“I was technically home, in the sense that the sea is where I lived. But I never felt like I belonged there. I was miserable being under the sea, I always had been. After I met Eric and got a taste of what living here with him would be like, I realized why the ocean never felt like a home. It’s because Eric is my home,” Ariel tells the Queen softly but confidently.

The Queen observes the former mermaid, realizing how wrong she’s been about so many things. One question stands out in her mind.

“Ariel, I don’t want to make you upset by asking more about your mother but I am curious. You said she was killed fifteen years ago? By sailors?”

“Yes, she was up by the surface and one of the men harpooned her.”

“And that’s around same time that your aunt was banished? Did she… was she the one causing those problems between humans and merpeople? There was a mermaid killed by a sailor one day—about fifteen years ago now—that they said used to be friendly and polite and help them catch fish. Then suddenly she changed; she was singing and distracting the sailors making them crash their ships, she was tipping their rowboats and cutting their fishing nets… they caught her in a net and another mermaid had come to free her. They said the two looked alike, so one of them was killed. Harpooned.” Selina says, feeling immense dread coil in her stomach.

Ariel is on the same page as her because Selina can see the horror start dawning on her face.

“I… I know she was harpooned by a human, fifteen years ago. I know Ursula was banished by my father for causing trouble between humans and merfolk. I know Ursula can change forms and disguise herself with magic—you’ve seen her do it.” Ariel gasps at the realization. “I would have to ask my father or older sisters to be sure, but it all points back
to Ursula, doesn’t it? The timing is just too strange. Fifteen years ago my mother is killed, Ursula is banished and all merpeople are banned from ever going to the surface.”

“And that’s about when the awful storms and hurricanes started, when the fear of mermaids and the sea gods really started. We’ve had more shipwrecks and hurricanes in the last fifteen years than we ever did before. Storms are a normal part of nature, but there have been six shipwrecks this year so far.” Selina says flatly.

“All of the problems between our people are because of Ursula. She’s turned us all against each other.” Ariel states.

“Ariel, I need you to come with me. There’s something I have to show you.” Selina stands, holding her hand out to Ariel who takes it before they leave her room.

——————————————————————

The Queen leads Ariel downstairs to the room across from Eric’s library, Max trailing behind them. It’s an old storage room; the harp from the party is kept in here along with a table and some chairs.

Grimsby finds them there, with the Queen looking through drawers until she pulls out book she was searching for. She’s flipping through it when he comes into the room.

He tells the women that the guards are out searching for Eric, but haven’t had any luck finding him yet.

“Ariel, look at this.” Selina says, not even acknowledging Grimsby’s words.

She hands the girl an old piece of paper, and Ariel gasps in shock.

“Miss Ariel, are you alright?” Grimsby asks worriedly.

“What is this?” Ariel asks the Queen

“That is a drawing Eric did of his imaginary friend. Teena was what he called her—she was a mermaid.” The Queen tells her.

“Oh, he loved Teena. Always talked about her and asked for her. You would’ve thought she was real with how vividly young Prince Eric described her and her baby. He was always talking about the baby in her belly,” Grimsby cuts in, walking over to look at the picture Eric drew of the mermaid when he was nearly three years old.

It’s a child’s drawing for sure, but it’s definitely a mermaid. The woman in the picture has a long finned-tail, a round belly, and long hair as she smiles in the middle of a giant blue blob that Grimsby supposes is the ocean.

“Only she wasn’t his imaginary friend—she was very much real. She’s the one who brought Eric to us after the shipwreck that left him stranded out at sea as a baby twenty one years ago. That’s why Eric has disappeared now; he found out everything and is furious with me.”

“You never told me that, your Majesty...” Grimsby says, stunned.

“We didn’t want anyone to know. There was already so much pressure on us for not having a natural born heir, people were questioning the stability of our family on the throne…He came to us at just the right time. When she brought Eric here, she wanted to keep him but obviously couldn’t raise a human baby out at sea. So she asked me to take him in and raise him. But she was sad to leave him so I allowed her to come visit with him, until he was about three. The court thought even then that he wasn’t going to be a strong leader, that he was too idealistic and he was too emotional and he wasn’t interested in proper hobbies for princes. They had such high expectations of him and the King and I couldn’t ignore them. So he couldn’t keep seeing the mermaid anymore. It would only distract him from growing into the kind of leader he was supposed to be, so she stopped coming around. She was pregnant the last time he ever saw her,” Selina says tearfully, remembering how angry and hurt Eric was when he found all of this out last night.

“That’s why Eric’s run off to who knows where. He was so upset and hurt and angry after I told him last night. He loved her so much, they were so connected and I let my jealousy over the two of them win out. The court’s opinions and comments only made things worse. Now Eric’s gone and it’s all my fault! I was just trying to do what I thought was best for him!” Selina says, crying again.

“Your Majesty, how do you know this mermaid is dead? Maybe we can find her for Prince Eric!” Grimsby says, trying to be optimistic.

He’s not used to seeing the monarch break down like this, he’s not really sure what to do.

“No, she is dead. I know because this is my mother—“ Ariel says, still in shock.

“Athena.” Selina and Ariel say in unison.

The realization shakes the women to their cores. They had both assumed before with everything they had told each other, but to have the confirmation right in front of them… their families have been tied together from the very beginning.

Ariel puts the picture down, turning to Selina and smiles sadly.

“Your Majesty, I know you were doing what you thought was best but you shouldn’t have withheld the truth from Eric. He’s kind and compassionate—he has so much love to give. I know that if he knew about the truth about Athena, it wouldn’t have made him love you any less. You’re doing his beautiful heart a disservice by making it seem like he had to choose between you two. So you chose for him. My father forced me to choose by keeping me away from the above land which only made me want it more, made me want Eric so much more. I will always love the sea and my family, but Eric is where my heart is. I made my choice and I’m happier than I’ve ever been. But I wish I could’ve kept a relationship with my family too. Please don’t make Eric feel like he has to choose either land or sea. Let him have both.” Ariel begs.

“You’re right, Ariel. About everything. I’m so sorry I misjudged you, and other merpeople. I’m so sorry about your mother, she was wonderful. I see so much of her in you. And thank you for loving Eric so much. He’s lucky to have you,” Selina tells her before bringing her in for a hug that Ariel happily returns.

“Thank you, Your Majesty. But I’m just as lucky to have him! Max and I will go find Eric and bring him home, won’t we Max?” Ariel says excitedly, turning to her four legged friend.

Max barks in agreement, his fluffy body bounding right through the doorway as Ariel runs out after him.

Grimsby and Queen Selina stand in the storage room for a moment in complete silence, before Grimsby breaks it.

“She’s wonderful, isn’t she?” He says fondly, smiling after Ariel and Max.

“She is certainly something special.” The Queen agrees.

“I shouldn’t be surprised she stuck up for Eric against you—you should’ve seen her tell off a couple of rude princesses that were badmouthing Eric at the party. She really let them have it. Although after seeing how hard she tore at that sea witch disguised as a human woman… I imagine she’d go to war for Eric, Your Highness.” Grimsby says with a chuckle.

“Oh, you should’ve heard Eric talking about her and defending her to me last night—I’ve never seen him so impassioned over something, even his voyages! They’re quite the pair, aren’t they, Grimsby?”

“You have no idea, Your Majesty.” He leads the Queen out of the room and out to the balcony for some fresh air while they wait for Ariel to bring Eric home.

——————————————————————

Eric’s walking along the beach when he spots her swimming in the water. He sees the long hair peeking out in the surf before she dives down, her tail flashing like gemstones in the setting sun.

Eric’s drawn to her like he’s always been, so he runs down the beach to follow her. It feels like he’s running in place, even as she continues to swim further and further away.

He eventually starts to close the distance between them, but when he reaches the edge of the beach near the castle he calls home he looks out at the sea for her.

But he’s lost sight of her. Or she’s gone under the water and he can’t find her.

He feels the same rising panic, the choking fear he felt that night when he heard Ariel’s siren song that night on the beach and went running around like a maniac searching for her only to stumble upon Vanessa and fall under her spell.

He’s looking around frantically, turning this way and that trying to spot her again. His heart beat is pounding in his ears, feeling like it’ll fly out of his chest. He can almost feel a scream build in his throat when he hears humming.

The song isn’t the same one he knows to be Ariel’s, it doesn’t call to him the same way hers does.

Ariel’s melody resonates in his mind, in his heart, in his very soul. It plays in his ears, vibrates beneath his skin, flows through his veins like it’s in his blood. Ever fiber of his being was built to learn and echo her siren song.

This other song makes him feel warm, like he’s been wrapped in a hug and being cared for. It makes him feel like a little boy again, calls upon memories long forgotten and buried, bringing tears to his eyes.

He follows the sound a little further down the beach and that’s when he sees the mermaid sitting on the sand watching the sunset.

It’s not his little mermaid like he originally thought.

But she’s not a stranger. His heart knows her, his mind remembers her.

“Teena.” He whispers.

Her name from his lips carries on the wind and reaches her, or maybe she felt him nearby, because she turns to him and looks at him in awe.

“Hello, little guppy. Look at how tall you’ve gotten.” She beams at him as she speaks.

Hearing the words in her voice immediately makes him cry, tears springing free completely out of his control. Eric jogs over to where the mermaid is sitting in the sand before he falls to his knees beside her.

He’s unsure whether his collapse is intentional so he can see her easier or accidental because his knees literally give out underneath him in his emotional state.

All Eric can do for a moment is stare at her; she looks the same as he remembers her, the same as his childhood drawings portrayed her. There is a strange dark patch on her abdomen, almost like a bruise, but he’s too happy to see her again to question it right then.

Athena must feel the same because her eyes rove over him slowly, starting at his familiar dark curls and moving down his whole body until she goes back up to meet his eyes. He imagines he must look completely different since the last she saw him was when he was only three years old.

After what feels like an eternity of them taking each other in, she holds her arms open for him.

He collapses into her, sobbing as his arms wrap around her and his head falls into the crook of her neck—right where it always used to find its home whenever she held him as a baby and then as a little boy.

He apologizes for countless things: for whatever he did to make her stop coming to see him, for ever thinking she wasn’t real, for not being born a merman so they wouldn’t have been separated, for not standing up for her and demanding she be allowed to see him, for letting his mother and the court’s princely expectations for him keep them apart.

She had started humming while he was crying, the same melody he heard earlier, and he realizes the tune must be her own siren song. Now that he’s hearing it again, he has very fuzzy memories of her humming it to him when he was little.

He can’t believe he almost forgot it completely.

He doesn’t know how long he stays cuddled in her arms weeping, but he eventually pulls away.

“I missed hearing that song,” he whispers to her.

She smiles softly at him and touches his wet cheek to direct those beautiful ocean eyes of his to meet hers.

“That’s my siren song. I sang it to all my babies, including you on the rare occasions you were fussy when I saw you or you didn’t want to go back home with your mother. It always calmed you down so fast.” Athena replies before continuing.

“And Eric, you have to know that I don’t blame you for any of it. Saving you was one of the best choices I ever made. Even if I had to go through the pain of having to give you up, I would still make sure I saved you. There’s nothing you need to apologize to me for. Plus I should be thanking you.”

“Thanking me? For what?”

“For keeping your promise to me. You’ve grown into an amazing young man, you haven’t let yourself be changed by anyone. You’ve always been so special—so kind and compassionate and smart. You have so many amazing ideas to make your kingdom better. You should be so proud of yourself, Eric.”

He blushes and looks down, not used to such such effusive praise like this from most people.

“I thought about you everyday. I asked about you all the time and looked for you for years. My mother kept telling me you were an imaginary friend I created, and I guess eventually I started to believe it. I still have all of the pictures I drew of you and remember trying to talk to you all the time in my head, wondering about the baby… that reminds me! Whatever happened with your baby?”

Athena gives him an affectionate look, runs a gentle hand through his dark curls like she used to. “I had a little girl just like I thought I would. You might’ve been too young to remember now, but you used to touch my belly and talk to her every time I saw you once I got pregnant with her. You’d lay your little head on my tail and chat with her. I could never hear or understand what you were saying, but I remember she used to move around so much whenever I was with you. The first time she ever moved I was here with you, you know. From then on, anytime I was coming to see you or we were together, she was at her most wiggly and excited. She wanted to meet you so badly, always wriggling around to let you know she was in there. I gave birth to her that last night I saw you… she was so active that night and then once I left to go back home, she made her grand entrance in an empty grotto before I even got there.”

Athena pauses, letting Eric digest her words. He’s been silently crying listening to her bring forth these long forgotten memories that he thought for the longest time were just vivid dreams.

“I think she came right then knowing I couldn’t come to see you anymore and she knew I would need some joy because I would be missing you my whole life.”

“I remember being so excited about your baby. I missed you so much. And I didn’t even get to say goodbye—you were there one day and just never came back. It’s not your fault my mother kept you away. I should’ve looked for you, I should’ve trusted my heart that you were real all this time instead of letting my mother make me think I was crazy.” Eric tells her heatedly as he gets up from his spot next to her to pace on the sand.

“You’re allowed to be angry, Eric. You are allowed to feel whatever you’re feeling. But don’t blame your mother too harshly, okay?“ Athena replies patiently.

“How can you possibly defend her in this? She sent you away so we could never see each other again, and then made me believe that I created you in my head as a figment of my imagination! She made us miss so much of each other…”

“Because I can’t totally blame her. She never outright banned me, Eric. I was just aware of the pressure she had on her as a young Queen, especially one with an adopted son. The court members were worried about the royal family, the security of the island’s future, and wanted to make sure you grew up to be a strong man with a good head on his shoulders. They wanted you to grow up and fit into the traditional princely mold they all wanted for you, so she went along with their demands thinking it would make things easier for you as you grew up. It was a lot of pressure on your mother especially to make sure you lived up to their standards. I can’t blame her or resent her for wanting what’s best for you. I wanted what’s best for you too—that’s why I brought you here when I found you as a baby. Parents sometimes have to make hard decisions for their children. You’ll understand what I mean when you have a family of your own one day.”

She grins teasingly at him when she’s done, pokes his blushing cheek once he’s sitting back down beside her and he lays his head on her tail like he used to.

“I don’t know about all that. A family, I mean. I only just got Ariel back, I don’t want to overwhelm her. I want her to adjust to her life here on land at her own pace. Maybe one day we’ll have that conversation, but for now I’m just so happy to have her here with me.” Eric tells her quietly.

“I know you are. I’ve seen you together when I watch over you both. You two had to wait a long time and go through a lot of obstacles to finally be together, but I’m so happy it worked out. Soulmates like you two are a magical sight to behold.”

“Grimsby has said he thinks we’re soulmates too but I thought he just meant we were a great match. I mean I definitely feel like Ariel is my soulmate, and I’m pretty sure she feels the same… but you genuinely think she and I are really soulmates?” Eric asks, vulnerable hope shining in his blue eyes.

Those ocean eyes of his that Athena’s always adored.

“Oh I know you are for sure. Soulmates don’t come along all that often in general, and it’s even rarer that they are lucky enough to find each other in the same lifetime. But I think you and Ariel will always find each other no matter where your souls go.”

“How can you be so certain though?”

“Because I know you two have been connected since before she even physically existed. Mothers are born with all of the eggs they’ll ever have as their babies one day—that’s true for humans and mermaids. So even as a tiny little egg, she was your soulmate. That’s partly why she’s been so curious her whole life about humans and the above world: she knew you were up on land too. Just like how you’ve been drawn to the sea. It has nothing to do with the shipwreck that stranded you as a baby, and everything to do with Ariel being a mermaid. You’ve been drawn to each other’s homes because you’ve been searching for one another your whole lives, guppy. But I think you already knew that somewhere inside your heart, didn’t you?” Athena explains, poking her fingers into his dimples.

“I had hoped that was the case, but to have you confirm it… it’s an amazing feeling, Teena,” he grins up at her, deepening his dimples.

“You still call me that, huh? I always liked the nickname but only because it came from you, little guppy.”

“That’s not your name?! I’ve been calling you the wrong name all this time? I’m sorry! You should’ve corrected me!”

Athena laughs and smooths the furrow in his brow from his pouting.

“It’s Athena, but I liked the nickname because you came up with it. When you were a baby and couldn’t talk, your mother would bring you down to the beach so I could see you. As soon as you touched the sand, you were crawling across it to get to me. I’d scoop you up and you always would coo and giggle in my ear and lay your head in my neck. Then when you started talking, you couldn’t say my proper name so you called me Teena. Then as you got a little older and could speak better, I think you just assumed it was my name and I thought it was cute so I didn’t bother to correct you. It was your special nickname just for me. Like how you’re the only one I call my little guppy.”

Eric smiles softly at his mermaid savior—well, first mermaid savior. He apparently makes it a habit of needing mermaids to rescue him.

“I wish you and Ariel could meet. I know you would adore her—she’s wonderful. She’s bright and curious and adventurous and so loving. She’s the most open, kindhearted person I’ve ever met. And she’s so brave and strong! She defeated the sea witch and saved everyone, you know. Even if we weren’t soulmates I know I would’ve fallen in love with her. It’s impossible not to love her once you meet her.” Eric gushes.

“Our girl really is something, isn’t she?” Athena smiles knowingly at him.

Before Eric can grasp her words, Athena is petting his dark hair.

“Speaking of Ariel, I think she may be looking for you, little guppy. You’ve been out here all night and I can bet that she’s worried sick about you.”

“All night?” Eric exclaims as he sits up, shocked that so much time could’ve passed by and he didn’t notice. But when he looks around, he realizes the sun in the sky hasn’t moved an inch even though he felt like he spent hours following the mermaid as she swam along the shore until he found her on the sand.

“This has been a dream then.” He says forlornly, about to cry. “I figured it must’ve been but I had hoped…”

“I know, guppy. Seeing you again has been so fun. Even though you’re so grown up now, it’s like no time has passed at all. You’re still the same sweet, bright boy I found all those years ago. I’m so proud of you. You’ve grown into the most wonderful man and I know you and Ariel will be so happy together. This kingdom will prosper because of you two. It may take a bit of time for some ignorant people to accept you two and some days will be hard but…just take care of my girl, okay Eric? And let her take care of you too. Always support and love each other like you do now and everything will be okay. Promise me?”

Athena smiles sadly at him, wraps her around his broad shoulders as he cries into his favorite spot in the crook of her neck.

“I promise. Thank you for coming to see me. Will I… Will I ever see you again after this?” Eric asks her as he pulls away to wipe away his tears, but they just keep falling.

“I hope so, guppy. I’m not sure how all this dream stuff works, but hopefully I can pop in from time to time so we can catch up like this. I’ll always be watching out for the both of you though, even if you can’t see me. I’ll love you—“ Athena tells him.

“—For as long as the tides change the shoreline.” She and Eric say in unison.

“You remembered. I said that to you every time I left you, including that very last night.”

“And I swear I’ll never forget it.” He vows.

They embrace once more—a mermaid and a man, a mother and her found son—savoring the rest of their time together.

“Thank you again for saving me, Teena. I owe you everything.” Eric says softly, smiling sadly as her watches the mermaid head back into the sea.

“Thank you for calling out to me that day. Make sure you live a long, happy life with our girl. I’ll be around,” Athena says with a grin over her shoulder before she swims out to sea.

She takes one more look at Eric standing ankle deep in the water after following her. He waves to her and flashes her that adorable dimpled grin, even as he wipes at the tears still flowing freely down his cheeks.

Athena blinks, and all of sudden he’s that small little baby with a gummy smile reaching out for her. The next moment he’s a little boy, standing up tall in the sand and waving sadly to her—like he had the last night she saw him in person. She blinks again and he’s a man, this grown up version of Eric she’s just met now and loves just as much as his younger stages.

She waves, dives under the water and the last thing Eric sees of Athena for now is her tail sparkling in the light of the setting sun.

He can hear the echo of her siren song as she swims away.

He stares out at the sea, her song ringing in his head until he’s certain he can’t see her anymore. He vaguely remembers how sad he was the night that ended up being the last time he ever saw her in real life. Even as a little boy, he knew something that night had shifted, or ended maybe.

But this time, he doesn’t feel that same sense of finality. If anything, he feels healed and hopeful.

This won’t be like last time. I won’t let this be the end. This will be a beginning, Eric vows to himself.

The sun grows impossibly brighter as he gazes out at sea, until all he sees is white and all he hears is Ariel’s familiar siren song begin to wash over him.

——————————————————————

Eric slowly blinks open his eyes, feeling a comforting weight laying across his chest. There’s tingling vibrations running through his torso into the rest of his body. There’s a gentle hand playing with his curls.

He’s never felt so at peace before.

“I see that morning problem you mentioned yesterday really does happen when I’m close by.” He hears Ariel’s innocent voice tell him.

He fully opens his eyes to see her laid out on top of him with her smiling face hovering over his, her red hair pouring over one delicate shoulder, the sun beams shining brightly around her as if she was the sun itself.

It reminds him of the morning after the shipwreck when he first saw her, a blurry beautiful shape silhouetted by the sunrise as she sang him back to life with her wondrous voice.

The vibrations he felt must’ve been her humming to him as she eased him awake.

“Ariel,” he breathes out happily, his blue eyes wide with joy and his mouth grinning around her name as he gazes up at her, lovestruck. “I must still be dreaming.”

“Good morning, sleepyhead.” She kisses him on the nose and pokes her left pointer finger into his right dimple. “And no, you are very awake. I can’t believe you slept out here all night, Eric. Everyone’s been so worried about you when we realized you never slept at home, especially your mother. The castle guards have been out looking for you.”

She sees Eric’s brow furrow when she mentions his mother, so she smoothes it over with her right thumb as she moves her hand out of his dark hair.

“I’m so furious with her, Ariel. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt so angry before in my whole life.”

“Do you want to tell me about whatever you were dreaming of instead? Are you okay? When Max and I found you, you had tears running down your cheeks but you were smiling...”

His hands fly up to touch his cheeks and he feels the wetness she’s referring to.

“I was very upset after everything last night, so it may be from that. I came out here to calm down and think and must’ve fallen asleep. But I did have a very nice dream…” he trails off, not sure if he wants to continue.

He sits up and leans against the rock wall behind him, keeps Ariel pressed against him in his lap as she snuggles into him and lay her head in the crook of his neck.

He loves Ariel with his whole heart and soul, trusts her implicitly. But for some reason he’s nervous to tell his beloved about his imaginary friend, who was actually very real after all.

“It was about someone I loved and missed a lot. I hadn’t seen Teena in ages...my dream last night was the first time that I saw her in eighteen years. She was the one who saved me and brought me here to my parents as a baby. I found out last night, amongst other things, that she was a mermaid too. My mother told me all my life that Teena was just an imaginary friend I created, that she wasn’t real even though I was so sure she was. But eventually I started to believe it. Then last night everything came out and I learned the truth. Teena was real, she was a mermaid who brought me to my family here, I loved her so much but my mother decided to make her stay away from me. She thought it would be the best thing for me. I didn’t even get to say goodbye—Teena was there one day and just never came back. I didn’t get to say goodbye or anything,” Eric vents out, feeling the lump form in his throat as he fights back more tears.

“Oh, Eric. Shhh it’s okay to cry, my love.” Ariel tells him as she wraps her small but strong arms around his shoulders, petting his hair and patting his heaving back as he cries into her shoulder.

“I thought for the longest time I did something wrong, that I did something to make Teena hate me. Then I lived most of my life thinking she hadn’t been real at all only to find out last night that every vague memory I have of her was real, that she was real the whole time. And I just never got to see her again.”

“I’m sorry Eric, I’m so sorry you went through all that. You were just a little boy, you didn’t do anything wrong. I’m sure she never blamed you or hated you—I’m sure she loved you just as much as you loved her. But it must’ve been nice to dream about her last night—do you want to tell me what it was about? Or you can tell me your favorite thing about her if you want to,” Ariel says softly.

She pulls back a bit so she can dry his cheeks and wipe his fresh tears away.

“I found her again last night on the beach, where you saved me after the shipwreck. It was where she brought me to my mother too, I think. But we just talked and talked, it was so nice being around her again. I told her I missed her and thought about her everyday. I told her about you and how much I love you. I always felt so safe and loved with her. You know how I feel with all of the expectations and responsibilities I have as the crown prince. I wasn’t born into this, I feel like I always have to try to prove myself so much more and it’s still never good enough. I’ve always felt out of place here. But with Teena, I was never the adopted son of the King and Queen. I was Eric, her little guppy. That’s what she always called me.” He smiles bashfully.

“I think that’s the most adorable nickname I’ve ever heard. And I think it’s cute you call her Teena. Is it because you couldn’t say Athena properly as a little boy?”

“Yes, I think the sound of Athena’s name was too difficult—wait, how did you know her name was Athena? I didn’t even know until she told me in the dream!” Eric says in shocked confusion.

Ariel pauses, takes both of his hands in hers.

“I know her name because she was my mother. And your mother confirmed it with me. We didn’t know until she and I realized it this morning when she showed me your drawing of Teena. She and Grimsby came to my bedroom this morning, thinking you stayed the night with me. I told them you weren’t with me and that I hadn’t seen you since before you went to talk to your mother last night. Your mother was so upset and worried about you that we got to talking. She and I spoke about a lot of things—about you, about me being a mermaid who wanted to live on land, about Ursula… I told her my whole story.”

“What did she say? What happened? If she was rude to you at all, Ari—“ Eric says heatedly, before Ariel puts a finger to his lips. When she’s made him pause long enough, she runs her finger down his mouth like she had on their rowboat.

“—el. Is that how you’re always going to stop me from talking?” He finishes, chuckling.

“I don’t know, it depends. I’m sure I can find other ways to keep you quiet,” she flirts, making him groan into her hair at her teasing.

“And to answer your question, your mother and I are fine. We even hugged a couple of times today! After hearing my story, she apologized for judging me and admitted she’s been wrong about me and about merpeople. And she said my mother Athena was wonderful, that she loved you so much. Our mothers were friends because they bonded over sharing and loving you. But she was afraid you loved Athena more and it hurt her. She feels really bad about everything, Eric. When or if you’re ever ready, I think you should talk to her again.” Ariel murmurs to him, kissing his cheek.

Eric sits there, looking pensive as he stares out at the ocean and considers her words.

I should talk to my mother again… especially since Teena—Athena—said to not blame her too much for everything. She was just trying to give me a good life however she thought was best. Eric thinks.

“You’re right, Ariel. I’ll talk to her when we get home… but can we stay out here a little longer? It’s nice to able to relax with you. And look at how much fun Max is having!”

They turn to look at their favorite dog who is currently running towards the water as the waves recede only to promptly sprint up the beach to dry land when new waves roll in.

They laugh at Max’s silly antics, leaving him to his game. Ariel and Eric sit cuddled up together, content to watch Max play on the beach.

Everything is so serene that Eric thinks he could drift off back to sleep. He even thinks Ariel fell asleep on him because she’s so still and quiet, until he hears her humming faintly.

But it isn’t her signature melody—it’s her mother’s, the lullaby Eric now knows to be Athena’s siren song.

When the song ends, Ariel taps on his chest lightly to get his attention.

“Eric?”

“Yes, my love?”

“My mother found you around twenty one years ago right? You were just a baby, and then she stopped coming around when you were three?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Your mother showed me a drawing of Teena that you did, around that time. My mother was very pregnant.”

“Last night in my dream she wasn’t, she did have a strange dark patch on her abdomen…But in most of my clearest memories of her she has her baby in her belly. She told me last night I used to talk to the baby all time. I remember calling her ‘my baby’ for the longest time when I was little.” Eric laughs.

His laughing stops when he feels wetness on his neck and hears Ariel sniffle.

“Oh Ariel, what’s wrong? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you,” he frets as he rubs her back soothingly.

“No no, I’m not sad. I’m so happy. I’m eighteen, Eric. Don’t you see? The baby she was carrying, the baby that you loved and were so connected to was me.” Ariel cries, smiling at him from her place still in his lap. “We really were meant to be, we loved each other even before we met.”

Eric just gapes at her, stunned that he didn’t realize it before. He lets out a wet chuckle and feels tears welling in his eyes, the tears spilling over as he hugs her tightly to him.

“Athena even said in my dream that you and I were soulmates. I already thought we were, but she was so certain of it. When I asked why, she said it’s because mermaids and human females are born with all the eggs they’ll ever have to make children. That’s partly why I was so connected to her—because I was so connected to you. It’s why I’ve always loved the sea, why I never felt like I fit in on land. I’ve been waiting and looking for you my whole life, Ariel.” Eric tells her devotedly.

“I don’t remember much about my mother, and my father never talked about her after she was killed. But my older sisters always made sure to tell me that they all thought I hated them as a baby because when my mother was pregnant with me, I rarely moved around when they’d talk to me in her belly. They even said I would shift away if they patted too close to me through her skin. But anytime she mentioned she was going up to the surface or said something about guppies, all of a sudden I was moving around and wiggling and so active. They all assumed it was because I was happy to be away from them and their yelling and fighting. But now I know it was because of you; I was excited to come see you—you were her guppy! You were always meant to be mine,” Ariel exclaims happily.

Eric lets out a loud laugh, one that distracts Max from his game with the water. He comes running over to them across the sand and snuggles up to his two favorite humans.

“We really are meant for each other then,” Eric whispers as her presses his forehead to hers. “I always knew I was looking for something, and now I know for sure that it’s been you all this time. My little mermaid.”

“Only ever yours,” Ariel confirms, laying against his chest with her head buried in his neck, content to stay like this with him for just a little longer before they head back home.

——————————————————————

As Ariel, Eric, and Max walk back into the palace, the fluffy sheepdog lingers in the kitchens hoping someone will sneak him some food.

His two humans leave him to his meal and go to find his mother and Grimsby. As they walk hand in hand, they see Lashana bustling down the halls towards the washroom with a basket of laundry. She promptly drops it in favor of rushing over to the young couple.

Eric assumes she’s coming over to see him after he ran away after yesterday, but she rips Ariel away from him and pulls her into a tight hug instead.

“Child, you can’t just go leaving without telling me or Rosa! We thought you may have left again after we heard what happened with the Queen last night… We feared she may have scared you off.” Lashana frets, petting Ariel’s red hair.

“Hello to you too, Lashana. I’m so happy to see you,” Eric pouts at the older woman who is essentially another mother to him.

Lashana gives him an unimpressed glance. She’s still hugging Ariel, who is trying and failing to hide her laughter at how upset Eric is trying to seem at her getting Lashana’s affection first.

“No you’re right, I was worried about my boy too. But we know you’ve had fights with your mother before and sometimes need time to cool off, so I wasn’t worrying too much about you just yet.” Lashana reassures him as she squeezes her arms around him after releasing Ariel. “But I’ve known and loved you your whole life, Prince Eric. I need to catch Ariel up! She’s so new here.”

“That’s true, we haven’t had someone new staying in the castle since I came here as a baby.” Eric agrees.

“And what a cute little baby you were, Eric! Grimsby showed me your yearly portraits! I can’t believe humans change so much from being babies to being all grown—who knew someone so big was so small at one point!” Ariel tells him as she goes back over to hug him.

“Child, it’s like I told you, he was the sweetest, most adorable little one. He used to tug on my skirts until I picked him up. He would to help me in the kitchens too, or he’d come in looking for hugs and treats.”

“I wish I could’ve seen all that. Eric is great with kids though, I’ve seen him in the market with babies and little kids. I can’t wait until we have some—I hope they all look just like you, Eric!” Ariel tells him, grinning up at him.

Eric is speechless—of course he wants children with Ariel, but he was assuming that was far from her mind since she just got her legs back. He wants her to enjoy her freedom on land for as long as she wants before they start a family.

Ariel sees his shock and pats his arm soothingly.

“No babies right now, Eric—someday though. But first, we have uncharted waters to discover together! I want it to be just you and I for a while, if that’s okay. We can’t raise our babies out on a ship their whole lives anyway. They need to be here with our family and see all of the amazing things on the island! And when they’re older, we can go on voyages together as a family and show them the world!”

The promise of “someday” gives Eric goosebumps in the best way. He can envision their future together so clearly that his heart aches in anticipation for how amazing their lives together will be.

Eric pulls her into a passionate kiss in the middle of the corridor, unable to hold himself back from loving her so openly.

Ariel and I are soulmates, we’ll be together forever. Everyone will need to get used to our love eventually, Eric thinks.

Ariel happily kisses him back, fisting his shirt in her small hands. She’ll never get tired of loving and kissing Eric.

Lashana, it seems, is already tired of them because she coughs very loudly to remind them of her presence.

“Alright you two rascals, you’re in the middle of the hallway! You two are going to be so much trouble, I can already tell. I may miss having little ones running around, but let’s get you up to see the Queen before you decide you want those babies sooner than you thought!” Lashana lovingly scolds the blushing couple before she pushes Eric away from Ariel.

The older woman directs the couple to the dining room where the Queen and Grimsby are waiting for them. Eric takes one of Ariel’s hand and interlaces their fingers. The lovebirds beam at each other, lost in their old world as Lashana shakes her head at them as they walk away from her, swinging their hands between them happily.

I’m going to tell Rosa and the other maids to keep a lookout for those two. There’s no way they’re going to wait until marriage. But it would be some easy extra money for me if we start placing bets… Lashana chuckles to herself.

——————————————————————

Queen Selina and Grimsby are waiting in the outdoor dining room when they hear laughter approaching the door.

“Eric, put me down! I have legs now, I can walk perfectly fine!” They hear Ariel say between giggles.

“Sorry Ariel, I distinctly remember you tripping on the stairs. You’re not steady enough yet. You’ll be lucky if I ever put you back down again. I want to keep you close all the time now that you’re here.” Eric teases her.

There’s silence after that, long enough that Grimsby starts to head to the door to see what happened. But when he’s nearly there, the pair is strolling into the room hand in hand and smiling widely at each other.

Grimsby takes in their matching blushes and Eric’s messy hair, rolling his eyes at the two as he understands why there was such a long pause out in the hallway.

“Good morning, Sire. So kind of you to grace us with your presence.” He says to Eric with a raised eyebrow.

Eric winces and rubs the back of his neck in embarrassment, knowing Grimsby can read them like books and knows exactly what they were up to. Ariel just bites her lip to keep from laughing at Eric getting scolded. She hides her grinning face in Eric’s arm, clutching his hand that she’s holding.

Selina quietly observes the young couple in front of Grimsby. Sees the ease in which they revolve around each other, the comfort they find just being near one another, the intimacy she can clearly see between them as she watches them—the kind she didn’t want to acknowledge before.

There’s a lightness in Eric that she’s never seen in him before now. He’s always been bright, smart, polite… but he always seems a bit reserved or closed off. Stiff maybe. Selina always assumed that any tension he carried was just from the stress of being the crown prince. Being the heir to the throne is one thing, but acknowledging and accepting that fact is another battle entirely. Having an entire nation, even one like their small island, depend on you to lead them and make the right decisions for them is a big undertaking.

Her husband the King grew up in the very castle they’re all standing in and Selina was born to grow into her role as Queen, raised as royalty on a neighboring island. Eric has been raised in this environment, but even she can acknowledge that he’s always been different from other royals.

He’s always been a fish out of water, Selina thinks, the irony of that fact not lost on her.

But seeing him with Ariel… her son looks so free, as though any of the stressors or issues that weighed him down have disappeared. She’s watching the young couple carefully as they tell Grimsby about some game Max created on the beach.

Selina pays close attention to her son’s face as he watches Ariel speak, smiling widely and gesturing with her other hand that’s not held in Eric’s.

He hangs on her words, looks as if he’s never seen anything quite as spectacular as the young woman next to him. It’s as if she’s every beautiful piece of nature, every stunning work of art, every known marvel of the world and yet something brand new and undiscovered all at the same time.

Her son is in love and here she was, trying to force Eric to marry some stranger and encouraging him to forget Ariel completely.

After seeing them together and hearing Ariel’s story for herself, she realizes how wrong she’s been.

When Selina sees a lull in the conversation, she tries to get the couple’s attention.

“Are you two hungry? It’s been an eventful morning…”

The trio standing near the door all turn at the sound of her voice.

Grimsby nods and walks to head over to the table, while Ariel walks towards Queen Selina with Eric in tow. The young couple stops in front of the Queen; Ariel is smiling brightly as she greets her, but Eric is more reserved and subdued, only giving her a quirk of his lips.

“I owe you both an apology. Massive apologies. I misjudged you and other merpeople unfairly, Ariel. I shouldn’t have let human prejudices get to me as much as they have. And I shouldn’t have perpetuated them either. I hope you can forgive me and give me the chance to get to know you properly.” Selina says holding her hands out to Ariel, who ignores her outstretched hands only so she can wrap her arms around the Queen in a tight hug instead.

“I would love that, your Majesty.”

It shocks Selina for a second, but she lets out a stunned laugh before she wraps the young woman too.

When they separate, Ariel steps back to Eric’s side and Selina turns to her son.

After seeing him look so at peace beside Ariel, she can clearly see the tension in his shoulders and in his clenched jaw as he waits for his mother to address him. Selina realizes now that he’s always carried so much weight on his shoulders, even as a child and then as a teenager.

And she realizes now exactly how much of that is her fault.

She’s let so many other people get in her ears about Eric—how he should express himself, how he should feel and act, what interests he should have, who he should interact with, who he should marry.

She’s always been listening to too many stuffy people tell her how to raise her son that she didn’t listen to Eric himself.

She’s going to start making an effort to right the wrongs she’s committed though.

“And Eric, I owe you the biggest apology. I should’ve told you about Athena. She was a major part of your life—she has had a major influence on who you are even though you were so young when you knew her. I’ll never stop being grateful to her for bringing you to us. Her sacrificing her happiness by giving you to me changed my life and I shouldn’t have hidden how important she was from you. And I shouldn’t have let the court’s opinions weigh so heavily on me, it wasn’t fair to you, especially when you were so little. It only got worse as you grew up and you weren’t fitting the mold we all tried to put you in. I thought it was what would benefit you in the long run. But I was wrong, we all were. We all should’ve listened to you and let you be you. Ariel showed me that. I can’t promise the changes will happen overnight, but I can promise to try to do better. I hope you can maybe forgive me one day.” Selina tells Eric emotionally.

Eric stares at his mother with tears in his eyes, finally feeling seen by her for the first time in his life. He leans down to wrap her in his arms in what is the first hug they’ve shared in years, maybe since he was small. His mother was never very emotional, always keeping calm and cool on the surface. Anytime Eric needed a hug or snuggle, he usually went to Lashana.

To be hugging his mother now feels like it’s helping to heal something in him too, just like seeing Athena again did.

He pulls back to look his mother in her teary brown eyes.

“I’m still a little bit mad at you, you know. But I dreamt about Athena last night and she told me not to blame you too much. She said you had a lot of pressure on your shoulders too and that you were doing what you thought would be best for me and our island. And I loved both you and Athena the same, it was never a competition to me. I still love you both. She saved my life but you gave me a home. And if she hadn’t brought me here to you, I never would’ve met my Ariel. Thank you for listening to me now though. I know we’ll be fine, Mother,” Eric says.

Ariel hugs him around his waist and squeezes tightly, so happy that he and his mother can start mending what’s been broken between them. She’s excited that his mother is willing to hear him now.

The sound of Eric’s stomach growling breaks the silence, causing everyone to laugh even as he blushes.

The four of them sit down to eat, his mother sitting at the head of the table with Grimsby to her right. Eric pulls out Ariel’s chair next to him before taking his seat to the left of his mother. He points out various fruits and foods on the table to her before serving her and then himself.

“Oh Eric, I meant to tell you! While your mother and I were talking, we realized that Ursula has been the root problem the whole time—I have to ask my sisters or my Father about it to be sure, but the timing of Ursula’s banishment fifteen years ago lines up too well with my mother’s death and the death of the mermaid that apparently caused problems with sailors. We think my mother died because Ursula disguised herself as my mother to harass those sailors, and my mother tried to rescue her when she was captured. But my mother was the one killed by mistake.” Ariel explains.

Grimsby and Selina look at her sympathetically, having been there when she first learned of everything, but Eric looks both heartbroken for her and furious on her behalf.

“Ariel, I’m so sorry. Are you alright? What do you need from me? That’s such a heavy thing to realize…” Eric worries as he hugs her.

“Just keep loving me? I’m okay now, but it’s definitely an awful thing to learn,” Ariel tells him.

“I’ll never stop loving you. I swear it. We’re soulmates after all—I’m afraid you’re stuck with me,” Eric jokes.

“Being stuck with you sounds like the best thing ever,” Ariel tells him sweetly, kissing his left hand. Eric leans in to kiss her forehead in return, smiling against her skin.

“Oh no, not again—we are going to have to sit you two at opposite ends of the table at this rate! You’re obsessed with each other!” They hear Lashana exclaim from the door as she walks in with more food.

The Queen and Grimsby laugh, Eric blushes madly and Ariel just blinks her big brown eyes in confusion.

“I love sitting next to Eric though. If I sat far away, I couldn’t touch him! Eric, you’re all red again, are you alright? You turned red like this before when Lashana mentioned babies!”

“Babies?!” Grimsby exclaims.

“You should’ve seen these two downstairs, Grimsby—little lovebirds, they are! I had to warn them to not get carried away! We don’t need any little ones scampering around just yet!” Lashana explains.

“I don’t know of any other human-mermaid couples, so I’m not sure yet about the whole baby thing. I have all the human parts though—Eric and I would need to practice and try to see if everything works properly to see if we can have a baby one day I guess!” Ariel says brightly, as if she didn’t just tell his mother, Lashana and Grimsby that they need to practice having sex and making a baby.

Eric buries his blushing face in his hands in his embarrassment.

Of course I want to be intimate and build our family with her one day, but I don’t want everyone else in on the conversation too! Eric thinks.

“You both are still very young so there’s no need to rush, but I do love the idea of having little ones running through our halls again. Your babies will be so cute,” his mother states with a grin, patting her son’s shoulder.

“I’m so glad you all can band together and enjoy torturing me like this,” Eric tells them all trying to be stern, but seeing his family get along and laugh together like this makes him too happy to be mad about the teasing.

Eric can’t help but grin at Ariel when she’s not looking. She feels his eyes on her and looks back him beaming. They gaze adoringly at each other, reaching to hold hands on the table, feeling the same excitement for both their present and future together.

This is the beginning of something extraordinary. They know it as surely as the tides change the shoreline.