Every Day
Ariel sat patiently at the breakfast table, waiting for Eric to join her. In her first two weeks of nearly three living in the palace, she would wake him up when she awoke, but over the past few days, she had come to realise that given all the work he held responsibility for as prince, as well as the fact that he simply didn't quite match the level of energy that she held (there were few who did), she would have to wait until he woke up of his own accord. Nonetheless, she was glad to have Grimsby and Carlotta for company at breakfast. She enjoyed getting to know them more.
This morning however, both were busy: Carlotta had duties out in town, which she had already left for, while Grimsby had a meeting to attend with the monarchy of Glowerhaven, which Ariel understood was a joint-duty, taken on sometimes by either Grimsby, Eric or both. Grimsby was just finishing his breakfast; normally, he would wait and eat with Eric and Ariel, but he didn't really have time today due to his meeting.
"Sorry I can't keep you company any longer, Ariel," he said after his last mouthful of bread, "But I musn't keep the royalties of Glowerhaven waiting."
"That's alright, Grimsby," replied Ariel cheerfully, "Eric should be getting up soon."
"Indeed." Grimsby checked his pocket watch, "He's probably awake by now actually. I suspect he's just getting dressed."
Upon hearing "dressed", Ariel suddenly remembered something that had come to mind the other day. "Grimsby," she asked, "Why does Eric always wear the same clothes?"
Grimsby's kindly smile slipped from his face. "Oh, my dear. Hasn't he told you about his... his..." he trailed off.
Ariel tilted her head curiously, "About what?"
Grimsby scratched his chin slowly. "I don't think I'm the one who should be telling you. Ask him yourself later, and be sure to be... gentle when you do, my dear; it's... rather a sad subject."
Ariel was taken aback. Sad? What could be so sad about clothes?
Grimsby caught onto her surprise, but felt it would be wrong to say any more; this was something that Eric should explain to Ariel, and even if Grimsby thought Eric might prefer someone else to tell her, now might not be the time he wanted her to know.
"Now then, I best be off. Have a nice day, Ariel, and remember," he paused and took a little breath, looking away momentarily before resuming, "Be ready for the answer."
Ariel nodded, too confused to say anything, and feeling it too inappropriate to even give Grimsby a smile goodbye. He turned and left without another word, leaving Ariel alone to think.
What could possibly be so sad about this? She simply wanted to know why Eric constantly wore the same clothes. Well, he didn't always wear them to be fair; he had a few times worn something else, but most of the time it was his white shirt, blue pants, and black boots. Not that she minded at all; it was defintely her favourite outfit out of the few she'd seen him wear. Not to mention the one that he wore when she first saw him, when he found her on the beach, when they first kissed; during all the most important and wonderful times between them so far, he was wearing that outfit. Even disregarding that, it was what he wanted to wear. Ariel had no problem with him wearing it, she merely wanted to know why he did.
But now she was feeling quite wary about it. A sad subject? She certainly didn't want to see Eric sad, even less be the one to make him feel that way. But Grimsby was implying that she should talk to Eric about it, so it seemed that she may have to make him sad.
As Ariel was pondering this situation, Eric entered the dining hall, his bright smile adorning his already handsome face as he strided towards her. As Ariel gazed back at him, she felt even worse that she would be the one to cause him to lose that smile today.
"Morning, beautiful," Eric said as he took her face in his hands and gave her one of his sensational kisses.
"Good morning, completely wonderful in every way." Ariel had said this to give him that much more assurance how much she loved him, to help him subconsciously get ready for what she was going to ask him soon and the apparent emotional state that would be caused by it. It had come out a little awkwardly, she felt, but Eric didn't seem to think so: he gave her his unwittingly boyish grin that informed her just how loved she made him feel.
"Oh, Ariel," he whispered, leaning his forehead against hers, "I love you."
This brought a genuine smile to Ariel's face. "I love you too, Eric. Very much."
Eric beamed at his beautiful little mermaid, giving her another kiss before sitting down, brushing his hand down her arm as he did so.
"How did you sleep?" asked Eric as he shuffled his seat closer to the table.
"Well, you weren't there with me, so I guess as well as I could given that constant drawback."
Eric smiled a little and placed his hand over hers. "You know if it was up to me, I'd stay with you all night, every night, but Grimsby..."
"Yeah," nodded Ariel, "I know." Although to tell the truth, she didn't know. Well, she knew Grimsby disallowed them to sleep together as it was "improper" for the time being, but she didn't actually know why. After all, they would just be sleeping together, whatever was so improper about that? Even under the sea, merpeople couples were allowed to stay together at night if they wished.
She mentally shrugged it off as she and Eric continued their breakfast. She had another issue to think about.
Presently, they finished eating, and Eric looked at Ariel as they stood up, "What would you like to do today?"
Ariel swallowed; now was the moment. Whatever was going to happen would happen now. "I... I actually wanted to ask you something."
"Go for it."
"Only, Grimsby told me that the answer relates to a sad subject." She paused to take in his reaction; his smile slowly faded, but not quite in a way that suggested he knew what she was going to ask.
"Okay," he said, slowly and a bit nervously, "Ask anyway, and... I guess we'll see what happens." He chuckled a little, but Ariel knew he felt quite uneasy, as did she.
Ariel took a deep breath, "I just wondered: why do you usually wear that outfit?" She hadn't really been sure how to ask. "Gently", Grismby had told her, so she had been - she hoped she had come across as that anyway - but should she smile or keep a straight face? Should she have held his hand while asking him? Or would that have been innapropriate considering what the question apparently entailed?
Eric's smile faded even further, and his eyes widened ever so slightly. He didn't quite seem fearful, but he clearly understood now what Ariel didn't.
"Can we go somewhere quieter?" he asked, taking her hand.
Ariel nodded, giving what she hoped was an encouraging sort of smile "Yeah, of course."
Eric gratefully smiled back a little. "Thank you," he said, and he led her out of the dining hall, and towards one of the many rooms that didn't really have much purpose. It was just there, in the corner of the castle, unsupervised, which was convinient for Eric and Ariel right now as he wanted to talk to her with no one interferring in any way.
He took her into the room and sat her down, ensured the door was locked, and sat himself down next to her.
"Um..., well..." Eric fidgeted with his hands nervously, not looking at Ariel, who promptly took one of his in her own.
"It's okay," she said softly, "You don't have to tell me, I don't want you to be upset."
Eric shook his head, "I-no, I want to tell you." He looked up at her, "I need to tell you."
Ariel squeezed his hand and moved a little closer to him. She said nothing, not wanting to inadvertedly pressure him into telling her anything he didn't want to.
"Okay." Eric took a deep breath. "Well, you know my... my parents, aren't... a-around."
Ariel immediately realised why this was a sad subject. She had never asked why Eric's parents weren't around, as she had assumed that whatever the reason, it wasn't a happy one, and she felt it would be insensitive to just ask someone why they weren't here. Feeling guilty already, she almost wanted to stop Eric and apologise, but he had said he needed to tell her this, so she decided she needed to listen. She nodded, indicating for him to continue.
"Okay. So you see, nine years ago, four days before my my ninth birthday, my parents told me that they couldn't be here to celebrate with me on the day because they had a meeting in another country that they couldn't put back to another date, even though they had really tried to. So they gave me my presents then, the last of which was this exact outfit, and they told me that one day, when I was big enough, I would wear it and look very smart."
Eric stopped speaking and took another deep breath, before then taking several shorter ones, closing his eyes and bringing his hand up to his mouth. Ariel watched on quite helplessly, desperately wanting to calm her prince. She knew he hadn't even got to the brunt of the story yet, and already, she was angry at herself for not being able to comfort him.
"Eric," she whispered, and he opened his eyes to look up at her. To her dismay, she could see tears forming. "Do you want to stop?" she asked, gently, now having difficulty in keeping herself collected.
Eric shook his his head again, but took a few more deep breaths before continuing. "My mother told me that she couldn't wait until I was all grown up and ready to wear it, and my father told me how proud he would be when I was able to wear it. They really loved it. I don't know why, but I knew they did, and so I felt very proud that they had given it to me."
Eric sniffled and rubbed his eyes, tears now falling quicker and quicker. Ariel quickly shuffled even closer and took his hands. She urgently tried to think of something to say, but much to her self-disgust, she really couldn't. Fighting back her own tears, she squeezed his hands and brushed her thumbs back and forth over them, only wishing she could do more.
"The n-next evening, it was getting quite st-stormy, but they set off for the meeting by ship anyway. But then... then the next morning, the s-sailors returned in the lifeboats, but my p-parents weren't with them."
Ariel gasped. Not in shock, she had put together that it would come to something like this, but in sorrow for the fact that it had come to it.
"They talked to Grimsby and C-C-Carlotta for a while, and then they b-both told me that my parents couldn't be with me anymore. A f-f-few years later, they told me that... that..." Shuddering as he sobbed, Eric buried his face in his hands, already missing the contact between his hands and Ariel's, but not wanting her to see his face as he cried, "My father was... was thrown from the sh-ship and h-h-hit h-his head as he f-fell, and my mother d-drowned trying to s-save him."
Eric lowered his hands and looked to Ariel, who's own eyes were flowing with tears now, one hand was covering her mouth, while the other remained resting on his leg.
"I... I wear this outfit because I-I think would make them proud. I think it's the right thing to do, and... and I don't know if I am doing anything else right."
Ariel's reddened eyes widened. She couldn't take it anymore. She grabbed Eric and pulled him to her, holding his head to her chest and running her fingers through his hair as she felt his arms reach around her back. She wanted to bawl now. She felt so much terrible energy in her anguish. She wanted to squeeze Eric to her as tightly as she could, kiss him until she had no more breath, tell him repeatedly how much she loved him. She knew she was doing an awful job at holding herself together and comforting him, and she had never loathed herself as much as she did right now. She kissed the top of his head as she stroked his back, trying to calm both herself and him down.
"It's okay," she whispered, "It's okay. I'm here. I love you. It's okay." As sure as Ariel wanted to be, she could only hope that what she was saying was the right thing. Thankfully, her hope was realised, as Eric's sobs slowly started to fade, and dissolved into stuttering breaths, which he waited to let die out before speaking again.
"I wish... I just wish I could have one more day with them. Just so I could know if I'm doing the right thing whenever I do something. Just so I could know that I'd be making them happy by doing things the way I do. But I can't. All I can do is wear this outfit, because that's the only thing I know they'd want me to do. Maybe I sound stupid, I don't know, but it's all I can do."
Hearing her prince speak like this nearly broke Ariel's heart. He didn't deserve to feel this way. And she was determined to reassure him just that. Taking a deep breath, she pulled herself back so she could look into his eyes.
"You don't sound stupid," she promised him, "You don't sound stupid at all. But I can assure you, that wearing that outfit is not the only thing you're doing right. I may not have known your parents, Eric, and I may not know exactly where they are now, but wherever they are, I know you're making them proud. I know that with everything you do, you make them happy."
Eric swallowed, "How? What do I do that you know is the right thing?" There was no contemptuous disbelief or disagreement in his tone; Ariel knew that he really wanted to know what he did right.
"You're still able to sail even after what happened to your parents. You run a kingdom despite how young you are and despite what's happened to you. You saved Max's life from that fire. You saved my life from that sea witch. You saved the entire ocean, probably even the land too by destroying her."
Ariel paused and cupped Eric's cheek, "The people of this land don't respect you simply because you're their ruler, they respect you because you're you. I wasn't exaggerating earlier, Eric: you really are completely wonderful in every way. You're brave, you're thoughtful, you put others before yourself, that's why you make people happy. And that's why you make your parents happy."
Eric thought about this for a moment. He averted his eyes away from Ariel briefly before looking back up at her again.
"Ariel," he started asking, but paused. He was sure he already knew the answer to his question, but he needed some reassurance for reasons he wasn't even sure of. Perhaps just to hear it coming from her, "Do I make you happy?"
Ariel smiled and cupped his other cheek, looking deep into his eyes, "You make me the happiest person in the world, Eric."
And the little mermaid's heart mended at seeing her prince smile back at her. There was no hyperbole in her words. Ariel was completely sincere and honest; as far as she was concerned, there could not be a single person in the world who was as happy as she was when she was with her Eric. He had saved her, he had shown her how to live, shown her what love was, and so much more. Gazing at the man who had truly made her life happy, and now feeling assured that she had very much had the same effect on him, Ariel leaned her forehead against Eric's, and sighed.
"Every day."
A/N: So here's a fun fact: I originally thought of this idea as a comedic story. When the basic idea of Ariel asking Eric why he always wears the same clothes came to mind, I envisioned it as a funny little drabble, no more than a few hundred words. The punch line probably would have been "I don't really know."
So what did you think? Did you like it, did you think some things could have been done better? If so, what? Speaking of which, I would like to thank all those who have reviewed and favourited my stories so far; you guys have really made me feel welcome, and I really appreciate your taking time to review my stories. I would also highly recommend to my other readers that you check my reviewers out and read their stories; if you like mine then you'll certainly like theirs as I took a lot of inspiration from them.
Thank you for reading, all comments are appreciated, and I'll see you later. Bye!