It had been days since they had destroyed Ursula, but Eric had not yet proposed to Ariel. And even though he wanted to, desperately, he just couldn't find the words to say. Just like Ariel must have felt when they first met. But Eric could talk; he had always been able to talk. But now, as he looked at her undying beauty, his words were stolen from him. Over and over he tried to call out to her, to ask her to marry him, to rush to her and pull her into his arms and to never let her go. But he didn't move.

Eric was sitting on his boulder with a new flute in his hand, seen as he had thrown his old one out in the ocean. When he placed it to his lips he began to play a song that would always be in his head.

What would I give to live where you are?

What would I pay to stay here beside you?

What would I do to see you smiling at me?

Where would we walk?

Where would we run?

If we could stay all day in the sun?

Just you and me

And I could be

Part of your world

The words sounded in his head as he repeatedly played the melody. He remembered the day that Ariel had saved him from drowning and had swept him back to the beach and had sung this very song to him. Not that he had actually known it was Ariel, for when she had arrived on this very beach, she had not been able to talk or sing for that matter. Eric dropped his hand and stared out at the sea, desperately trying to come up with a way to ask her. But what he didn't know was that Ariel had been watching him from her own boulder, the very boulder he had found her on after he believed she had been shipwrecked. Ariel smiled at the memory, of her attempting charades as Eric got it completely wrong. She giggled slightly, but it echoed in the small cove and Eric looked up at the sound. Ariel smiled over at him as he looked at her. Eric blushed slightly as he waved and jumped down from his boulder.

Ariel believed he would come to her, but she was surprised when he looked down at the ground guiltily and kept walking. Ariel didn't know what to come of it and she was slightly hurt by the way he had left. Ariel looked over at the ocean, wishing she could swim in its deep waves, but since she had become human, she had not taken well to swimming. Eric had had to save her several times, as her arms and legs gave out while she tried to swim as she once could. Ariel jumped down from her rock and stripped her dainty blue gown off and wadded into the shallow water in her white undergarments. She kept to the edge of the water, only going so far, stopping once the water tugged at her waist. Ariel still enjoyed the water and tried to cautiously swim in it every morning, hoping her arms and legs would once again grow accustomed to the water. But Ariel took a step to far and slipped on a rock that had been polished by the water and lost her footing. And before she knew it, her head was under the water, and she was seeing what she had seen every day for sixteen years of her life. She watched as little fishes flittered past her, as the remembered her as the princess that had played with them countless times. But Ariel forgot that human had to breathe to survive and she forgot that she wasn't breathing, and as Ariel opened her mouth to utter a polite hello to the friendly fish, her mouth filled with water and soon choked her of any air she had left.

Eric stared over the cliff as he watched his beautiful Ariel sitting atop the rock like he had seen he just days before. He couldn't believe that he had just walked away from her, leaving her possibly feeling hurt and betrayed. But it was so much more than that.