A/N: Hi everyone! Thanks for choosing to read this fic. I've been working on this lately. I've gotten into a Mermaid Melody mood, and decided to post my OC story. I'm not really sure if I'm going to continue this after a while, or what. But, anyway, enjoy!
Chapter One
"Onee-chan! Please take me out!" six year old Kaira whined to the older mermaid in front of her.
"Sorry, Kaira. I can't today. I have too much work to do around the palace." Kaira's older sister, Neko, said, smiling to the younger girl. "Maybe you could try taking the route on your own tonight."
"On my own?"
"Of course. You're six years old, after all. You do know the route, right?"
"Off by heart."
"Well, as long as you stick to the route, you should be fine. Okay?"
Kaira nodded her head and left the palace all by herself. This was going to be the first time swimming the vast Sea of Japan without her sister's company. It made her feel proud that her sister trusted her.
While swimming her usual route, Kaira was hit in the head with a pebble. "Ow... Where did that come from?" she wondered, rubbing the spot of her head where the pebble hit.
Kaira surfaced for the first time in her life. She saw the stars above her and was completely awestruck by the sight of the beautiful night sky. Suddenly, she heard a whimpering noise coming from the shore. She looked towards the whimpering and saw a young boy sitting at the edge of the inlet. He was crying and throwing small pebbles into the sea.
This was Kaira's first time seeing a human. She looked at him from a distance, remembering what her father always told her about surfacing and making contact with humans. "Humans are dangerous creatures, Kaira. Which is why I have made it forbidden for us to make contact with. Even surfacing to the human world is dangerous. I don't want you mingling with them until you absolutely must." That's what her father said to her about humans. He never told her why humans were dangerous, just simply that they were.
Kaira continued to watch the boy, who continued to cry over whatever misery he was feeling.Kaira felt sorry for the young boy and decided to go talk to him, despite what her father said. "What's wrong?" Kaira asked the boy. She folded her arms and rested them on the rock the boy was sitting on.
"My aunt and uncle left." the boy said, not looking at Kaira at first.
Kaira frowned. "What's wrong with that? They're coming back, right?" The boy shook his head and Kaira understood a little better. His aunt and uncle was gone for good, which is why he was crying. Kaira felt bad for the boy and holstered herself up to sit on the rock beside him. The boy looked at her and stopped crying, mostly out of shock.
"Y-you have a tail." the boy stated. Kaira waved her silvery tail around, to prove to the boy that it was real. "Wow. What are you?" The boy looked amazed.
"I'm a mermaid." Kaira said, but she didn't want to talk about herself. She wanted to make the boy feel better. "Were you close to your aunt and uncle?" Kaira asked.
"Yeah. They were both famous, but they always made time for me when they weren't travelling. They always took my cousin with them, but they told me that when I got old enough to be without Mom and Dad, I could go too." The boy sniffled heavily. "Not too long ago, Auntie and Uncle went on tour with my cousin. A storm started, and the boat they were on tipped over. They both drowned but my cousin didn't. He was saved somehow."
"Are you mad?" Kaira asked innocently.
"Kind of." the boy confessed. "It's not fair that Auntie and Uncle had to go and he didn't!" The boy started to sob again. Kaira felt bad for the boy. He was a little older than her, but he was still really young. Kaira wanted to make him feel better, but she didn't know how.
"Hey?" Kaira had an idea. She thought she would give it a try. The boy looked at her, looking sad and a little confused. "Do you wanna be friends?" Kaira asked, smiling softly.
"Really? Me and you?" The boy looked unsure. "But, you're a mermaid, I'm not. How can we be friends if we can't hang out?"
Kaira thought about it for a moment. "I know. We can meet here!" The boy seemed to be lighting up. "I can get away from my family to come see you, and we can stay here until it's time for you to go home. How does that sound?" Kaira asked, hoping the older boy would agree.
He nodded. "Okay." He smiled brightly. "I should go now. Mom and Dad's probably getting worried now. I'll see you tomorrow?" Kaira smiled at the boy, and she dove back into the water, smiling happily to herself. She had a friend, someone who wasn't a merperson.
A month went by and Kaira and the boy met every night to talk or play in the water. Kaira would go home every night, smiling brightly. Neko would ask her where she was, and Kaira would just say she was gone for a swim. One night, Kaira was in her room after her meeting with her friend. Her mother had came in to tuck her in bed, but discovered that Kaira wasn't getting ready for bed. She was sitting at her desk, making something.
"Kaira, sweetie? What are you doing?" her mother asked.
"Momma?" Kaira turned to see her mother's soft face looking down on her and her project. "Look, Momma. Look what I made." Kaira held her project up for her mother to see. Her mother looked and saw that Kaira was making a bracelet.
"Wow. It's really pretty." Her mother smiled and sat down beside her. "Who are you making it for, sweetie?" Kaira looked away and wouldn't answer her. "Kaira, sweetie, you call tell me. I won't tell Papa if you don't think he'll approve."
Kaira looked up at her, beaming. "It's for a boy I met the night Neko couldn't take me out for our swim."
"A boy?" Her mother smiled.
Kaira nodded. "He was really upset that night. His Auntie and Uncle drowned. I offered to be his friend to make him feel better."
"That was really kind of you, Kaira."
Kaira nodded again. "He was really happy. I wanted to give him a present, to show him that we'll be friends forever. So, I'm making this for him." Kaira smiled brightly.
Her mother beamed at her. Oh Kaira. You're more like myself than I realized. I just hope your father doesn't find out what's going on. "Do you need any help, sweetie?" she asked her six-year-old daughter. Kaira nodded, as she was struggling to get the beads on it right.
Kaira swam to met the boy the night after she told her mother about him. She surfaced and saw him waiting for her. She waved to him, and called out, "Hey! Over here!" The boy smiled and met Kaira at the rock where they first met.
"Hey. I was beginning to think you weren't coming." The boy smiled at her, causing her to smile too. "I'm glad you came, though."
"Sorry I was late." Kaira smiled. "I have something for you." The boy pointed to himself, looking a little confused. "Yup. You." Kaira nodded. She pulled the boys arm towards her and put the bracelet she made on his wrist. The boy looked at it, and gave Kaira a confused look. "I made it last night after I went home. My Momma helped me with it. I wanted to give it to you as proof of our friendship and that we'll always be friends." Kaira smiled at the boy, who continued to stare at the bracelet.
He smiled, and looked at the girl beside him. "Thank you. It means a lot." the boy said. "Say, why can't you tell me your name?"
"Well, it's hard to explain. I'm not really suppose to be here. If my Papa found out, I would be in a lot of trouble. Papa doesn't want us to get involved with the humans, so he forbids us from surfacing." Kaira explained the best she could. "Speaking of which, I should go. I had to convince Papa to let me go by myself tonight. I'll see you tomorrow." Kaira waved goodbye.
"Hey! Will you ever tell me your name?!" the boy asked. Kaira had already swam a little ways, but she turned back to face him.
"I will soon! You'll have to tell me your name, too! When I tell you mine!" Kaira dove in under the sea, leaving the boy smiling at his new bracelet.
Kaira returned home and saw her father and her sister waiting for her. "Kaira! Where were you?!" her father demanded.
"I was out for my swim. You know that, Papa." Kaira answered, smiling brightly. Her smile faded when she saw how serious he looked. "What's wrong, Papa?"
"You've been disobeying me, haven't you? You've been surfacing, haven't you?" her father pressed.
"No, Papa. Why would you ask that?" Kaira looked frightened. She saw Neko whisper something. "Onee-chan?" Kaira whispered.
"Kaira, I know that you're lying to me and I know you were surfacing to meet a human child." Kaira's eyes widened when her father made these actuations. "What were you thinking?! You know it's forbidden to surface and you know it's forbidden to speak with humans. For now on, you not leaving this palace without a supervisor. Do you understand me?" he father yelled.
"Yes, Papa..." Kaira answered quietly. She turned and left the throne room before her father to say another word to her. Quiet tears flowed down her cheeks as she entered her bedroom. She looked and saw her mother was waiting for her. "Momma?"
"Kaira, sweetie. Come here." Her mother held her arms out for the young child to swim in to. "This is so cruel." her mother said, after moments of allowing Kaira to sob in her arms. Kaira looked at her mother, wondering what she meant. "You're going to have to tell that boy that you can no longer meet him."
"But, Momma. I can't leave the palace without a supervisor."
"Then I'll go with you."
The next evening, Kaira and her mother went out. Together, they swam to the inlet where Kaira met the boy every night. The two surfaced, where they saw the boy waiting patiently by the water's edge. The boy saw the two and a smile came to his face. "Princess Silver! You're late." he said as Kaira and her mother swam closer to him. "What's going on?" he asked when he saw the tears in the girl's eyes.
"I can't keep coming here to meet you." Kaira told him quickly.
"What? How come?"
"Papa find out. He said I have to have a supervisor with me at all times. I only got to come here tonight because Momma came with me."
The boy looked at Kaira, tears started to swell in his eyes. "When well I see you again?"
"I don't know." Kaira confessed.
"Princess, hurry. Before we get caught." the older woman said in a hushed voice.
"Yes, Momma." Kaira turned to the boy on the rocky inlet. "I'll miss you, Princey." she said with a small sad smile. She turned away from the boy and raced towards her mother before the boy could see her crying.
"Wait! Princess!" the boy called after her, but it was too late.
Kaira swam as fast as she could away from the inlet. Her mother watched sadly as Kaira swam pass her, back towards the palace. "Kaira..." Her mother frowned. She surfaced for a moment, and saw that the young boy had curled into a ball and was crying. She felt pity, for both her child and the human boy. She approached the boy. "Are you my sweet's friend?"
The boy looked up at the voice that spoke to him. He saw an older woman smiling sweetly at him. "Yeah. But, now I'll never see her again."
"Don't say that. She'll come back when she's older. I want to thank you." The boy looked the woman. "You made my daughter happy." She raised her hand and rested it on the boy's chest. "Please, don't forget my daughter, and pray to your God. Miracles happen when you believe." The older woman smiled and left the young boy sitting there, looking completely stunned.
A/N: End of chapter one. Hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading this far!