A/N: Here's a story I've spent a few days on. Not a particularly creative idea, but I'm actually pretty fond of the execution this time. But that's not what it's all about, I want you guys to enjoy it most of all. That'd be pretty cool. So yeah, enjoy!

Here We Go

Ariel's eyes fluttered open. She yawned and sat up, stretching her slender arms above her head, but it was only a very brief moment before she forgot to feel even slightly tired: today was the first real day of her life with Eric! She had both her legs and her voice, Ursula was gone, her father was over his hatred of humans. This was the day. The day it all truly began. She rapidly lept out of bed and ran over to the window, yanking the curtains open. Yes, the sun was starting to shine, people were relaxing about on the beach and bustling around the palace grounds; it was certainly morning. No need to wait anymore.

Ariel darted over to her door, halting momentarily to examine herself in the mirror - there was no time to use her dinglehopper, her hair looked fine as it was - she carried on out of her room and over to Eric's door. She looked around in the hall; she could hear people at work around the palace. Good, now she definitely knew that she should be awake. She knocked quickly on Eric's door and waited for a response, running her hands through her hair, just in case. Eric didn't call her in, nor did he answer the door. Perhaps he was still asleep? Or maybe he was downstairs at the breakfast table already, and she was late to wake up?

Not wanting to startle him should he still be asleep, Ariel managed to suppress her energy and excitement at seeing him enough to only ease open the door and peer inside. There he was, still asleep. Ariel quietly made her way over to him, fiddling with her fingers. She was almost content in just watching him sleep. He looked so handsome, so peaceful, and she already felt like some of her eagerness to see him had been met just by seeing him like this. But on the other hand, she just couldn't wait to begin her day, her life, with him. This was technically their first full day after all. The first day where they could do whatever they wanted with no restrictions; she could speak, he knew who she was, she wasn't running out of time or anything. The only thing stopping them was his sleeping.

Ariel made her mind up; she would simply kiss Eric, and if he didn't wake, then she'd let him sleep a little bit longer, and if he did wake, then... good. He'd be awake.

She leaned down to him and planted a small kiss on his lips. He stirred slightly, but didn't wake. It was then that Ariel discarded her previous decision to allow him to carry on sleeping, and instead she decided to kiss him until he woke up. It only took one more kiss anyway.

Eric awoke in time to feel a soft pair of lips pull away from his own. He immediately grinned as he saw his beautiful little mermaid right in front of him.

"Goood morning," smiled Ariel, gazing at him.

"Good morning to you too." Eric sat up and cradled Ariel's face in his hands before pulling her into a kiss that he could be fully awake for.

"Well," said Ariel after they broke apart, "I was going to say sorry for waking you up, but you don't seem to mind too much."

"Not at all," replied Eric, "In fact I can't think of another way I'd rather be woken."

"I'll keep that in mind," giggled Ariel.

"So what would you like to do today?" asked Eric.

"Oh! Anything we can!" Ariel answered, now excited, "There's so much to see and do, and I just want to explore and see it all."

Eric grinned. He loved seeing Ariel so excited, and was determined to make sure she enjoyed her day just as much as she was hoping to. "Well, let's get changed, and then we'll go to town after breakfast."

Ariel nodded eagerly and ran back to her room to get changed. Still smiling, Eric made to get out of his own bed, before Ariel suddenly reappeared, gave him a quick kiss, then turned and dashed back to her room again.

Eric was completely unable to lose his smile as he got dressed. He hadn't felt so happy in his entire life. He had never imagined he'd find someone so wonderful as Ariel. He'd only known her for a few days, but he'd loved her from the minute he'd seen her, and he loved even more every second. She was so passionate about everything, so willing to make the most of her life, everyday. She made something as simple as going to town seem like an adventure. One that he was truly thrilled to join her on.

"Well," he said to himself, grinning as he stood up, having finished getting dressed, "Here we go."

As Eric had said, they arrived in town shortly after breakfast. Holding Eric's hand in her own, Ariel looked all around them, unable to decide where to go first. Finally, she spied a stall with some different coloured round things on them. How ever did she miss these the other day? She immediately pulled Eric closer to the stall and realised that they were actually of all different shapes and sizes. All rounded in some way yes, but some were the size of a fist, some the size of a head, some barely bigger than a thumb. Then some were very shiny and some were very dull.

"What are these?" she asked Eric, resisting the urge to pick a few up to examine them.

"Well, you definitely started with the basic ones, Ariel," chuckled Eric, "These are fruits and vegetables. They're just different kinds of foods."

"Are they nice? Do you have to cook them? Do you eat them with anything else?" Ariel asked all at once.

Eric laughed some more. "Some of them," he replied shortly, "In terms of all of the above," he added, "Some are nice, you cook some, you eat some with other things. Here, we'll get some and you can try them."

"Really?" gasped Ariel, turning to him and taking his other hand, "You'll get me some?"

Eric tilted his head slightly, surprised at her surprise. "Of course I will, Ariel. I'll get you anything you want."

Ariel let go of one of Eric's hands and brought hers up to his cheek. He was so willing to buy her whatever she wanted, and seemed so non-chalant and selfless about it. "Oh, Eric. But I have nothing to buy anything with, so I can't get you anything."

"That's fine, Ariel. I have you, I don't need anything else."

"Well, I have you, so you getting me more stuff would make us uneven," answered Ariel, very casually, considering his words had in fact almost made her heart melt and caused the urge to kiss him become very difficult to not act upon.

"Well, what if we share the food?" suggested Eric, "Then we'd be more even."

Ariel shrugged, "I guess that'll have to do."

Still hand in hand, they approached the stall and Eric bought four different kinds of fruits, telling Ariel that the vegetables were generally the ones that were better off cooked or eaten with other foods, and that she'd get a chance to try them sooner or later because Louis probably had some in the kitchen. The fruits consisted of what he called an apple, a plum, a pear, and a strawberry. And, staying true to his word, he bought one of each for himself as well as Ariel, except for the strawberries, which he bought multiple of.

"They all taste so nice!" exclaimed Ariel, "All this human food, it tastes so different from what we ate under the sea."

"We have more up in the palace," said Eric, "Sometimes we have them for breakfast, other times they're just a snack."

"Oh, that's good!" replied Ariel cheerfully, "So we can have them whenever we're hungry?"

"Sure," nodded Eric, "Providing there's enough of course. Now, where would you like to go next?"

Ariel looked around again until she saw another place that caught her eye. It wasn't a stall this time, but rather a building, that some people were sitting outside of, and others inside.

"What's that, Eric?" Ariel asked, pointing to the building.

Eric looked to where she was pointing. "Oh, that's a resturant. It's where people go to eat if they're looking for some nicer food, or just want to eat out."

"A resturant? There were resturants in Atlantica!"

"Really?" asked Eric, a bit surprised. Ariel had already told him that merfolk and other undersea creatures mainly ate seaweed and the like, and he had assumed they just found and ate it whenever they were hungry.

"Yes!" replied Ariel, "Some fishes knew how to make seaweed seem a bit more interesting."

Eric chuckled, "What, appearance-wise or taste-wise?"

"Appearance-wise," giggled Ariel, "But that applies to the resturant. The seaweed barely even looked different. I guess it was just somewhere nice to go."

"Well," said Eric, "you've gotta give us humans credit, at least we make the actual food a bit more worth it at a resturant."

Ariel laughed some more. "Can we go there, Eric? So we can try the food?"

"Ariel, we've already eaten," Eric reminded her, "Twice. And I told Grimsby that we'd be back for dinner, so we don't want to eat too much."

"Oh, okay," agreed Ariel. She wasn't disappointed, she knew Eric was right, but she did want to go there with him.

"We can go there tomorrow if you'd like," suggested Eric, hoping he hadn't upset her by turning her request down. He was glad to see Ariel perk up and look at him immediately. "In fact, we can go whatever other time you want. Remember," he said as he leant down and brought his forehead to hers, "We've got all the time we need to do it now."

Ariel grinned and gave him a little kiss. "I love you," she said softly.

"I love you too," smiled Eric. They stood there, looking deep into each other's eyes for a few moments before deciding to continue looking around, but Ariel kept her head leaned against Eric's shoulder as they did.

Then Ariel saw the two funny little human-like figures in a bright, curtained box, recognising the figures very well; she had grabbed one the other day to discover a real human hand underneath. She had promptly given to little person back to the hand and it ducked behind the front of the box before emerging again without the hand.

"Eric," she said, pointing towards the box, "What exactly is happening there?"

Eric couldn't help but laugh a little as he remembered what Ariel had done the other day. He felt quite relieved that the outcome hadn't been worse. "That's a Punch and Judy show, Ariel. The little people are puppets on a real person's hands. The real people put on little performances with them and they just hit each other and do funny things to entertain whoever's watching."

Ariel watched the "puppets" whacking each other. It was kind of funny and even rather interesting. She'd never seen any real human with that much energy. Or able to tolerate that much hitting. But suddenly she took in one specific word that Eric had said.

"Performances?" she repeated, "We had performances in Atlantica. Are there other kinds of performances up here? Like musical performances?"

"Oh yeah," nodded Eric, "Concerts."

"Concerts, yeah!" exclaimed Ariel, "That's what we called them."

"There's lots of different performances up here. Like dancing and drama."

Ariel nearly bubbled over with excitement. "Dancing performances? So watching people dance?"

Eric laughed, loving seeing her so joyful, "Yes. Watching a person or groups of people performing out their dance routines."

"Oh, wow!" gasped Ariel, "They've made routines? So they've planned them?"

"Yeah," answered Eric. "And there's lots of different kinds of dancing that people do," he added, wanting very much to make her as joyous as possible.

"Oh my gosh!" Ariel was almost speechless in her excitement. This was all so fascinating and impressive! Sure, under the sea they performed concerts, but here, people did that and danced too! She remembered how much she had always wanted to dance as a mermaid, and in her own way, she had kind of managed to, but humans were so good at it, they were capable of actually planning out several different kinds of routines and showing them off to audiences of people. After taking all that in, Ariel struggled to compose herself for her next question.

"What's drama?" she asked, trying to keep herself calm, but with the information that she had just gained, and the knowledge that the answer to her new question would excite her just as much, that was very difficult.

Eric thought for a moment, "It's kinda like Punch and Judy, but with real people performing it out. That's called acting. And it's longer and there's more of a story and again, there are lots of different kinds."

"So... like a book, but watching it happening instead of reading it?"

"Yeah, that's a good way of putting it."

Ariel was mesmerized. She had never even heard of drama or acting before, and then there was dancing and music, and loads of different kinds of each to see. "Oh, Eric! That all sounds so amazing! Can we go and see them sometime?"

Eric raised his eyebrows. "I think you already know the answer to this," he smiled.

Ariel immediately wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down for another kiss, a much deeper and more passionate one this time, holding him as close to her as possible. Eric in turn buried his hands in her long, beautiful crimson hair. When it came to that point that neither of them particularly liked, the breaking apart to be able to breathe, they remained holding each other and looking deep into each other's eyes for a good few minutes, much like they had earlier, but for even longer. Those three words were on the tips of both of their tongues, but they could tell that there was no real need to say the words out loud this time; they could already tell by looking at each other what they had to say.

When they eventually resumed their looking around, Ariel saw the area which she recognised as the spot where she and Eric had danced when he had first taken her into town. Speaking of dancing...

"Eric," she said sweetly, "You know you said you'd give me anything I want."

"Yeah," said Eric, "And I will."

Ariel held out her hand and gestured towards the dancing ground.

"Dance with me?"

As the sun began to set, Ariel felt truly elevated by her first proper day as a full human. Eric had shown her other stalls and buildings and explained what they were for, but they hadn't managed to get around to everything. And Eric had even told her that there were often different stalls each day. And she knew there was even further to explore beyond this little town. But as Eric had said, they had all the time they needed to do it in now.

With that thought, Ariel relaxed back against Eric's chest as they lay on the beach, looking out into the horizon. After dancing and exploring the town a bit more, Eric had suggested that they took a walk along the coast, to which Ariel had enthusiastically agreed. After strolling for a little while, they had decided to spend a moment lying on the warm sand together before heading off for home. Ariel fidgeted her feet about as she lay there. Even the feeling of sand beneath her feet was one that just felt so good. Perhaps because it had been the first ever thing that she had set her feet upon. And then the sunset. Goodness, the sunset! It was just breathtaking. She had seen this time of day before, yet had not really taken the look of it in, or been able to, until now. But it was stunning! The sky was orange, which was reflecting against the sea so beautifully. But there was still a hint of blue in the sky. Even purple was up there amongst the clouds. It was certainly the most gorgeous time of the day, she decided.

Ariel absent-mindedly brushed her fingers along the sand, drawing little circular patterns as she did so. The more she did it, the more she began to take it in, and the more fun she found it; she could draw or write whatever she wanted in the sand, and it was so simple, yet so enjoyable!

Eric contently watched his love draw in the sand. He loved and admired so much how she was able to find every little thing, right down to mere sand, so enjoyable and so special. After watching her for a while, he closed his eyes for a brief moment, only to be woken up again by Ariel tapping him and taking him by the chin, turning his head to the sand next to them. Eric smiled, for written in the sand were the words "I Love You", followed by a drawing of a heart. He promptly leaned over and and wrote his own message, of course consisting of "I Love You Too", followed by three hearts. Ariel smiled, before adding two more hearts next to her message.

"We still have to be even, remember?" she noted.

Eric chuckled a bit, "Yeah, true."

Still smiling, Ariel gave Eric a quick kiss and sighed as she looked down to him; it had been the perfect first day, and this was the best possible way to end it. She had never been happier in her life than she was right now. As ecstatic as she was knowing that she still had every day of her life left to go out and explore and do anything she wanted with Eric, she couldn't think of any way to top this. Just laying on the soft beach during the beautiful sunset listening to the gently roling waves with the most caring, thoughtful, almost unknowingly selfless person she had ever met.

"You know," said Eric, examining the area around them before looking up at Ariel again, "This scenario reminds me of a time a certain little mermaid saved my life."

Smile widening, Ariel looked around them too. Aside from just lying together on the beach, this did actually rather look like the part of the coast where Ariel had taken Eric after saving him from the storm a few days ago, although now it looked nicer. It was unlikely that they actually were in the same place because, as far as Ariel remembered, they were closer to the castle now than they had been then, but it certainly made her feel like they were in a similar scenario, only a better one. There was only one imperative thing missing from this moment, Ariel realised, and as she looked down at her beloved Prince Eric, she knew he would agree with her.

"Now we can walk"

"Now we can run"

"Now we can stay all day in the sun"

"Just you and me"

"Now I can be"

"Part of your world"

A/N: So, what did you think? I think this was actually more along the lines of what I was hoping to achieve with Just You and Me in terms of the emotional description, but the stories are pretty different, and I guess that there's more going on in this one works to its advantage. Also I've discovered that I like slice of life stories a lot. I guess they're my forte. I have a few more stories in progress currently, including one in particular that isn't focused on Ariel and Eric that's actually very nearly finished, but I can't quite manage to get it finished right now because it's about one in the morning when I'm typing this. And I have school tomorrow. I should probably have gone to sleep and waited to finish this one tomorrow, shouldn't I? Oh well.

Also yeah, I'm actually going back to school tomorrow (or today really), so there might not be very many stories over the coming weeks, but the good news is because of how this school year works, I'm going to be free again for a few weeks, in a few weeks. So that's nice. This is actually going to be a pretty outdated message isn't it. Huh.

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this story, any and all comments are very much appreciated. Thanks for reading. Bye!

Update: Nothing too major, I just changed a little bit in the last paragraph because I realised it didn't really work the way it was.