DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Rune Factory franchise. I do, however, have a copy of Rune Factory 3 somewhere in my bedroom.

This pairing was inspired when I saw Carlos and thought he was hot. And then I saw Pia and thought she was the ditziest and fishiest girl I'd ever seen. So there.

Now let's just get on with the show.

And enjoy.

~o~~o~~o~

The sea is something to be respected. It is something to be revered, yet treated with caution for its ever-changing moods. Its fish, however, is your food and, while they deserve your respect, they do not need your fear. But I must warn you, son. Even with the fish of the sea, there is still something to be careful about.

Remember, you must never, ever give one your heart.

~o~~o~~o~

It was the beginning of summer, a season of sun. And rain.

Carlos wasn't sure why he suddenly remembered his father's words again while standing at the counter in their fishing resort. The place was still closed, but he got up early anyway.

He sighed and raised a hand to push back his blue-green hair. It was the color of the sea, from what his father told him, and as wild as the waves. As such, it took a bandanna made of white cloth and a traditional fisherman's headband to keep his bangs from blowing into his eyes due to wind.

He wasn't wearing the headband right now, since there were no forces of nature to bother him. It lay close by on the counter, waiting for him to slip it on and officially start his day.

Thinking back to what made him wake up so early today, Carlos supposed it was because of an event that was going to happen soon and had been on his mind for the past week.

He was turning eighteen in two days.

In the eastern fisherman tribe, from which his father had migrated, there was a certain tradition where all men of eighteen years were required to have one important thing to truly declare their entrance into adulthood.

A wife.

Was that why his father's words were coming back to him now? No, probably not. Meditating deeply on things had never been his forte. The memory had resurfaced in his mind from old ones that drifted in every now and then, whether he willed them to or not. The resulting confusion, however, was usually the same.

He could never give a fish his heart? Was that even possible to do? The image of a lover snapper suddenly appeared in his mind's eye and he imagined himself hugging the large fish with its gaping mouth and blank bulging eyes.

Shaking his head vigorously, he tried to erase the picture from memory. That was not something he wanted to be doing with a fish. If anything, it should be done with a cute girl…

At that new thought, Carlos sank into the counter with a groan so that his elbow was propped on its surface and his head rested on his palm.

"Man, I wish I had a cute girlfriend."

"Hey!" The usual, boyish shout of his sister, Carmen, came from the other side of the room. "I heard that!"

"What do you care, sister, leaving your poor brother behind to live with some other man!" Carlos shouted back, easily picking up their usual playful banter.

"Well that doesn't mean you can go moping around about why you don't have a girlfriend! If you want one so bad, then go out and get one instead of complaining about it all day." Carmen stuck her tongue out at her brother, as if telling him she won this round.

"You're so cruel, dear sister." Carlos said in mock defeat. He was quiet for a few minutes, listening to his sister tidying up her part of the room.

Suddenly, he had an idea. It just popped right into his head out of nowhere, like an epiphany. Straightening up, he voiced it out loud to his sister. "Since you're so encouraging, how about we have a bet?"

He knew he had her interest piqued when she went quiet.

After a moment or two, she spoke up. "What do I get?" she asked, smiling evilly. She probably thought the money was already hers for the taking. After all, when was the last time he'd won a bet against her?

"The King Fish."

Her quietness, this time, was more out of surprise than mere interest. "Really? You're going to the islands in Privera Forest to catch him? That's a first."

"I decided that you're right." He enjoyed seeing the surprised look on his sister's face. "And I've done enough waiting around in my life."

"You're being very generous on this bet." Carmen said eventually. "What's it on?"

"Love." Carlos answered her shortly. Then, after seeing her raise an eyebrow at him, he continued. "If I can make at least one girl in our town fall in love with me, then I win this bet." He could get a wife out of this. Two birds with one stone!

His sister had a strange look on her face then and he wasn't sure what she was thinking. But after his next words she'd have plenty to say. "And if you lose, you have to dress up in Evelyn's best dress and wear it around town for two weeks."

Carmen's eyes immediately lit up at the challenge. "Fine. Get ready to cough up that King Fish!" Carmen grinned at him. "And since I'm so nice, you have one month to get this done."

"I'll have the King Fish ready before then." Carlos winked at his sister. "Get ready for a grand feast in my name!"

"You mean in your dreams." Carmen made a face at him and he laughed.

"If I want to catch the king fish I'm going to get started now." Carlos whistled as he began gathering up his fishing pole, nets, and bait. He was halfway to the door when his sister ran over to block his way.

"Wait, you aren't going to get some girl fall in love with you first?"

Carlos looked at her, then looked at the fishing pole in his hands, then back at her. "Nope. Fish before girls I'm afraid."

"You idiot!" She slapped him upside the head, though he saw it coming. "That's the kind of attitude that's going to make you lose the bet!" She pinched him on the arm and he made an indignant noise.

"What's your problem?" he demanded. "Making a girl fall in love with me is going to be easier than catching the king fish so fishing is going to be my top priority."

"I bet you don't even know what priority means! Making a girl fall in love with a guy is harder than you think. If you want to make any girl like you, you've got to understand this basic fact!" At these words, Carmen crossed her arms and looked away huffily. Even if she was already married and getting ready to move in her husband's house, she still knew how to throw a tantrum.

"Okay, okay, sis. Gotcha. But, I need time to catch the king fish."

He let her fume for a few minutes and she eventually cooled down with a sigh. "Fine. But your month starts now. I don't think you really get what I'm telling you yet so I'm giving you the chance to see which is harder to do." She didn't say anymore after that and Carlos spent the rest of the day preparing for his trip.

He didn't really get why his sister was arguing with him. So the question was: Which was harder to do, catching a girl or catching a fish?

Surely it was to catch a fish?

~o~~o~~o~

The next day Carlos set off for the islands where the king fish awaited him.

But first, he needed to stop by Micah's house and ask to borrow one of his magic seeds. In order to reach the island, he needed the lily pad Micah once used to explore the different seasonal dungeons surrounding the town. That was before he ended up falling for Carmen, who was then taken by Aquaticus as a test of Micah's love for her.

Love. Carlos tried saying it out loud, toying with the shape the word made on his mouth, and he said it easily. But could he express it? Especially to someone other than his sister.

And there were different forms of love. Micah wasn't related to Carmen by blood, but he loved her. Could he show another girl that same kind of devotion?

A single drop of rain suddenly fell on his forehead. Momentarily roused from the small whirlwind of questions in his mind, Carlos looked up at the sky. If he went fishing now, would the king fish appear? Perhaps the oversized fish enjoyed this kind of weather.

"Oh no!" He heard a cry come from his right and he whipped his head in its direction. It sounded like a girl.

He saw someone lying on the ground in the distance, but there was something strange about the way they looked, as if their figure was distorted somehow.

He had to go closer to see clearly, but the rain fell harder, obscuring his vision. Sometimes, the weather here was incredibly unpredictable.

"Hold on! I'm coming to help!" He called through the pouring rain.

The girl in the distance, he was pretty sure she was the one who had cried out by now, suddenly pushed herself up. But that wasn't what startled him.

It was her legs. She didn't have any.

Instead, there was a single long and graceful fish's tail where they should've been. Graceful? Carlos wasn't sure why he described it that way, but the word hardly did justice to what little he could see of her through the rain.

"Wait!" He called after her, but she suddenly started hopping away on her tail so quickly that she disappeared out of sight between two houses before he could catch up with her. It was like a fish hopping on land managed to get away from a human running at them with two feet, though she did have a good head start.

He never got a good look at her face, but the shock of pink hair left him with only one name.

"Pia…?" The realization almost rocked him off his feet, but that wasn't what came first. Instead, it was… hurt?

The usually energetic and proud Carlos was gone, only a soaking wet and sobered man was left standing there in the street, looking after the place where the girl had just been. Where had his excitement for the king fish gone so quickly?

As he continued looking at the spot, an old memory began to surface. It happened on the day he turned eight, the third day of Summer.

~o~~o~~o~

"Happy birthday, Carlos." Blaise gave him his usual gentle smile as he placed a steaming dish into the fisher boy's hands. "Your father will be happy to know that I used the shrimp he gave me to make seafood doria."

"Thanks, mister." the young Carlos replied, using the generic name he used for all men around Blaise's age, except for Wells, who was dubbed gramps instead. "This stuff's my favorite!"

Blaise laughed. "I'm glad you like it."

"Ooh, ooh, me next! Me next!" The five year-old Collette approached him with a tasty looking salmon rice ball in one hand. "Here you go! I made it an hour ago so it's fresh. All you have to do is bite into like…this!" And she ate the whole rice ball in one bite.

"Hey!" Carlos cried indignantly. "You ate my present!"

"Collette." Blaise scolded, looking sternly down at his daughter. "What have I told you about eating other people's birthday gifts?"

"But it looked so good!" She whined.

Rusk was quick to push past her and shove his present in Carlos's face. "Here! Mine's better than hers."

It was some ice cream. Thinking it wouldn't hurt to try, Carlos bit down into it. Immediately, he spit it back out. "Eugh! What did you put in there! It tastes like something gone bad!"

This time, Blaise turned to scold his other child. "Rusk! I told you not to touch the milk in the fridge!"

"Sorry." Rusk apologized sheepishly.

Gagging with little remedy for control, Carlos found himself being sick in front of Marian and her grandmother.

"Hmm, looks sick." The four-year old Marian observed. She paused to look at him. Then, much to his horror, she raised the syringe that was always at her side and squealed excitedly, "Buthday shot!"

Carlos fled from the scene. By the time he stopped running, he had run from Blaise's Diner all the way to the Miyako Inn.

It was there that he heard her laughter for the first time.

He looked up to see who it was. It didn't sound like anyone he knew from town, but the moment he saw her, it left him rooted on the spot.

Before him was a pink-haired girl walking toward him with bare feet, though something that shimmered with the sun's rays covered the skin, starting from her ankles and ending before her toes. Strange appendages protruding from the sides of her head and her wrists, reminding him of the fins on a fish.

Next to her was the little Sakuya, smiling politely at him. When she spoke, he saw a gap where she lost her first tooth. "Happy birthday, Carlos." She presented him a small box wrapped neatly in some brown packaging. "I found this."

Carlos tried not to hesitate before taking the present and murmuring, "Thanks." His eyes strayed from the new girl for a moment to look at the box.

"Open it." Sakuya sounded eager for him to do what he himself had already set his mind out to do.

Carlos could barely keep himself from ripping the box apart in his growing excitement at seeing this legitimate gift. He wasn't able to keep from making a noise of appreciation when he saw the present placed inside the box. "Wow… how did you know I wanted sparkle string?"

"You're a fisher boy. You need poles!" Sakuya smiled at his reaction.

Carlos was about to thank her again when the new girl spoke for the first time.

"You…fish?" Her voice was so soft. It reminded him of the gentle caress of the waves in Dragon Lake.

His eyes went back to look for her reaction as he nodded. What he did get from her, however, was not what he wanted at all.

Her eyes suddenly grew fearful! And she took a step back, putting Sakuya between them. When Carlos reached out as if to touch her to see what was going on, the look in her eyes became one of dislike and it confused him beyond understanding.

"What's wrong, Pia?" Sakuya looked surprised too for a moment. Then understanding entered her eyes and she looked back at him. "She wants you to leave."

Those words frustrated him. "Why!" He demanded. "I didn't do anything to her!"

"Please." Sakuya was starting to plead with him now. Her eyes were apologizing to him.

Carlos, however, refused to budge. He wanted to know what was going on and why this Pia was treating him like this! He took a step towards the pink-haired girl.

His movement gave her a start. Once more, her eyes looked at him fearfully. Everything went quiet for several seconds. And then the girl turned tail and ran, much to Carlos' surprise.

That left Sakuya and him staring at one another. More than a few seconds passed before Sakuya shook her head at him, as if she were disappointed. But in who? The gesture brought out a child's anger from within him.

"What is up with everyone today!" Carlos demanded loud enough to make sure the Pia girl could hear him from inside the Miyako Inn.

Sakuya stayed outside for a little while longer, simply gazing at him, pitying him through those five-year old eyes. Then she turned around and followed after Pia.

Carlos stood there in front of the inn for nearly ten minutes, staring at one of the stone lamps placed on either side of the modest bridge leading to the doorway of the building.

Was it because… he fished?

~o~~o~~o~

"Hey, Micah." Carlos walked up to his close friend and brother-in-law, who had been busy tending his fields until he heard footsteps and turned around.

"I almost didn't recognize you." Micah laughed good-naturedly. His eyes were alert, however. He must've noticed something was off. "Did something happen?" His friend eyed the equipment in his hands.

Carlos opened his mouth to tell him about the plan to head for Privera Forest and catch the king fish, but something else came out instead.

"It's raining hard today isn't it?"

The question sounded stupid and random, even to his ears, but he waited for Micah's response.

"Yes…" Micah was looking at him like he was trying to figure something out. "Are you alright, Carlos? Do you need anything?"

The last question finally made it through to him and he blinked several times to wake himself up from his own muddled mind. "Right…yeah…" His head cleared, Carlos grinned at his friend. "You think you could lend me your lily pad for a bit? I need it to get to the islands in Privera Forest."

"Sure." Micah replied and reached into his pocket to pull out a small seed. "Just remember to put her back into your pocket at the end of the day after you're done using her so she can rest."

"It's a her?" Carlos took the seed and placed it in his own pocket. "Dude, you never told me these magic seeds have genders."

"Yeah, isn't it something?" Micah laughed. "Once you summon her, you'll figure it out for yourself. So…" He placed his hoe butt-first on the ground and leaned into it slightly. "What are you planning to catch at the islands?"

Carlos chuckled. He supposed all the equipment he was carrying was a giveaway. "The King Fish."

Both Micah's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Even Carmen and I together could barely catch a fish a few feet smaller than the actual size of the King Fish. Maybe you should take a few more magic seeds with you. They'll help protect you and prevent you from being dragged into the water."

"Don't worry, man." Carlos assured his friend. "My sister and I have always been able to hold our breaths longer than most people so it won't hurt to get a little wet."

"Carlos…" His friend sighed. "Then at least promise me you won't jump in after the King Fish or anything like that. Only trust your fishing pole and net, not your hands. I think this might be the one fish you shouldn't wrestle with."

"Yeah, yeah." Carlos shifted from one leg to the other, beginning to feel impatient and eager to get out of Sharance and headed for Privera Forest. His excitement for catching the King Fish was returning.

"Go get 'em." Micah said unexpectedly and put a hand on his shoulder, though he had to reach up slightly to touch him. "And good luck."

"Thanks, bro." Carlos said, anticipation causing him to turn around and walk away faster than he intended. Before he left the Sharance Tree, however, he turned back to wave and Micah waved back. Then he left the tree and Sharance itself behind.

Before him, Privera Forest awaited.

A/N:

Chapter 1...is only... the beginning!

See you next time. Review and comment!