"Eric, this is a marvelous day for you. Wedding jitters are normal. You aren't feeling anything you shouldn't."

"No, Grim, I guess I'm just not saying it right." Eric spun around, rubbing a gloved hand along the back of his neck, sighing. "It's not jitters, it's not nerves, this just doesn't feel right."

"What on earth do you mean?"

"I mean, I'm not excited. I feel like everyone but me is." Eric paused, but received no reaction. "Is that normal?"

"Eric, do you remember the first time you met the Princess?"

Eric chuckled a little at this. "How could I forget?"

"Did she initially excite you?"

"Well…"

"Did you return home full of sparks and fire, screaming 'she's the one! The one!' at the top of your lungs?"

"No, but-"

"And did you still propose?"

"Because she's a lovely woman; kind and –"

"Indeed, you did." Grimsby rested a hand paternally on Eric's shoulder, smiling up at him confidently. "Eric, my boy, you have the Princess of Glauerhaven, you have Cora, walking to you from the other end of this aisle. Whatever anxieties you have, no matter how they've manifested themselves, will be gone in due time."

Eric gave a curt nod. "You're right, Grim."

Was he? It had been three years since Eric's wedding to Princess Cora of Glauerhaven, a small coastal country just east of Greece. She was a fine woman, a loving wife, and a kind ruler. But her presence did not spark him in the way he had always figured a wife, his wife, would. He was attached to her, in every way expected, but he felt no draw. His companions had warned him that excitement and passion fades from a marriage. But did it truly count as fading if it was never there to begin with?

They held a small anniversary celebration; a tea time meal with close friends. The third anniversary was important in the sense that all anniversaries were important, but it was not a milestone and was thus rendered unextraordinary.

After company left, Eric kissed his wife and excused himself for a walk on the beach. He did this frequently, so she simply nodded and wished him well. Thinking time. Eric called for Max, and the dog bounded out to be at his side. The sun was lowering in the sky when Eric found himself struck, as he still sometimes was, by a familiar melody he couldn't seem to shake.

"I looked everywhere, Max." he assured the dog. "She was nowhere to be found. Not at the beach. Not in the kingdom. Nowhere."

Max snorted, reminding Eric that he was, in fact, a dog, and had very little advice to offer.

"Am I horrible for still thinking about her?" Eric asked, knowing he, like always, would receive no answer. "It's been over three years, God, it has to be nearing four, and I can't shake her voice, I can't shake the small glimpse I got of her. She comes about all the time, I'll be out to sea and starting humming the melody, I'll try to sleep and I'll see her face. I have only the vaguest parts of her, and still not even the assurance that she's real."

Max stopped in his tracks, raising an ear.

"But Max, she just has to be."

Max started barking furiously, and took off galloping down the beach. Eric stalled in surprise, but the familiar melody that had struck his pet eventually hit him too. With just as much purpose and intensity, Eric took off running in the same direction. He stopped when he saw her, and fell to his knees; out of breath, chest heaving. The two of them, they were on the same beach he had been dragged ashore at, she was perched out on a nearby rock.

She was soaked, absolutely soaked, just like how she must've looked after dragging him ashore. Her lilac dress clung to her legs, bare feet and ankles poking out beneath them. She stopped her song as soon as he came about, clamping a hand over her mouth, but Eric was very positive she was the one singing. As if he could forget that voice. As if he could forget that song. As if he could forget that vibrant red hair. As if he could forget her.

He ran out to meet her, and she slid down from her perch on the rock.

"It's you!" Eric exclaimed, both as a fact and a point of excitement. Reaching out to her, he beamed. "It's truly you!"

She grinned, staring up at him. "I never thought I'd see you again."

Anniversaries always left an odd taste in her mouth, they left a strange presence behind in celebration rooms, they crept up so quickly and seemed to explode as a burden, and Cora didn't know why. She tried, she always did, truly did. Even when they weren't important anniversaries she tried, and she did it for Eric.

She had tried from the moment she met him, because she was affected by him so. He had come to visit a few years back, pulling in on an unimpressive ship that he did not stop talking about for the first few days of his visit. The two were a prime match in terms of both wealth and politics, and went out on proper courting walks, and dined together at dinner. Eric was always polite, always kind, and very interesting to speak to. She quickly found herself smitten.

And she put in the work to prove it. She would inquire as to his favorite foods, and make sure the cook had them made. She sought him out constantly – appearing in the library when he was reading, standing on the porch when he played with his dog on the beach, asking about his sailing excursions, even if she wasn't of the disposition to go.

That's why, she supposed, she was so devastated that he left so easily. Because this time, she had really tried. Other suitors were fine, upstanding men, and she was never rude to them, not a one! But she had never put in the effort to get to know them in the ways she had tried to know Eric, in the ways she had tried to make him happy.

But alas, her excitement when he wrote to her again! He asked her out to his palace, and after a two week stay, he did propose. He took her out on a walk along the beach, which was initially very unpleasant with the way the sand got into her socks and how her hem dragged in the water, but any inconveniences were rendered unimportant and soon as he kneeled before her.

The two had been married for three years, today, and Cora's only wish was that it felt like she imagined it would've.

"Ha, you're telling me!" Eric laughed with disbelief, with ecstasy, with absolute elation because finally, after years of searching, she was here!

The girl grabbed his arms and pulled him back and down, until they were both sitting chest-high in the water. "I got cold." She confessed, giggling.

"How did you? Where did you? Why did you?" Eric stammered out questions, unable to form sentences as quickly as he could form thoughts.

She laughed again. "Try just one question at a time."

Eric threaded his fingers through hers. "What is your name?"

"Ariel." She smiled. "And I know you."

"You saved me."

"I've been coming back! Eric, I really wanted to see you again."

"Oh, and how I wanted to see you! I looked all over! My kingdom, the beaches, everywhere!"

Ariel smiled, a bit mysteriously. "If you had looked everywhere, you would've found me."

"Did you always come here? Was I always just a hundred yards short?"

"Not every day, I never knew when you'd be here. I'd always come here on the anniversary of the day I rescued you, I've done so for three years now. I hoped you would remember this place, and I figured that if you were going to come back any day, this would be it."

"I seldom go this far, but am I glad I did! Ariel, it's so nice to meet you! Please, can you come inside? You're soaked, and -"

Ariel beamed at him again (has his heart ever jumped like that before?) but any joy drained from her face as she looked over his shoulder.

"The sun is setting!" she exclaimed, panicking. "I must've lost track of time!"

"So it is.." Eric conceded. "So? We have plenty of extra rooms, would your family mind if you'd stay the night?"

"You really have to go!"

"Not a chance, Ariel, I've been looking for you for years! I can't just leave you!"

Ariel stood up, wobbling, and tugged at Eric's arm to make him stand too. "I mean it!" she exclaimed, checking back at the sun. "Please!"

"When can I see you again, then?" Eric stopped, and grabbed her upper arms.

"Three days!" Ariel burst out. "When the sun rises! Meet me here, three days, go!"

"Is something wrong? Really? Please tell me, I'll help-"

"Nothing is wrong, I promise, you just need to go!"

Eric nodded curtly, withdrawing his hands. "Three days. I wouldn't miss it for the world."

Ariel waved goodbye to him, watching to make sure he got far around the bend.

Eric held onto the mixing senses of disbelief and excitement as he strolled back home to his castle. She was alive, she was wonderful, and, most importantly, she was real. He had to see her again, no matter the consequences. This would not be their last anniversary.

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