Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Littler Mermaid and Tyler is a friend of mine.

Friends

The ride back to Atlantica was a bust. Tyler and Adella kept fighting the whole way. After King Triton told them to stop for the 800th time, Adella was looking out the window towards the sea and Tyler happened to be looking in the same direction. She saw him in her peripheral vision, thought he was looking at her and screamed, "Stop looking at me!"

"I wasn't looking at you! What the hell?!" King Triton stood up in the carriage. "That's it! Both of you separate! Adella you sit over here next to me. Tyler you stay there!" Adella got up and sat over near Triton. Tyler kept eyeing her while she wasn't looking and shook his head and muttered very lowly to himself. Even Adella's other sisters were shaking their heads too.

When everyone got back to the palace, Triton stopped in front of Tyler and Adella and waved his finger, motioning for them to come with him. He led them to the guest room in the palace. "You two get in there together." They both looked at him as if he were crazy. "I've been thinking…you two have been arguing for quite a while now and I've come up with a solution. You tow are to stay in this room for the whole night and come face each other."

"What about dinner?" Tyler asked.

"I will deliver your dinner later this evening." He started for the door but turned back and looked at both of them. "I'm sure hoping this plan will work." And then he closed and door and swam away. Tyler lay down on the bed. "You do know this is your fault?!"

"Don't even start with me Adella," Tyler said with a stern look. "It's been a long day. And you were the one who yelled at me that I was looking at you."

"Because you were!"

"Noooo, I just happened to be looking out the same window as you."

"I saw in my peripheral vision!"

"Wow, your using big words like peripheral? Shocker!"

"I don't need this!" Adella started for the door and tried to open it but Triton made sure that it was locked. "Why won't this open?!" Adella screamed. "Oh I don't know, maybe it's locked." Adella shot him a death look. "Shut up! We wouldn't be in here if you didn't look at me!"

"I thought we already established this. I was looking out the same window."

"Oh my god I can't believe I am stuck in here with you! You know what I also can't believe? I can't believe that Ariel, Arista and Andrina actually like you." Tyler's face lit up. "Really?"

"Yes, they told me that they like you." Tyler felt good at that moment. "I've also seen my other sisters talking to you too so they probably like you also." Tyler had this smile on his face. "What?!"

"Nothing."

"No, you are smiling. Why?"

"No it's nothing."

"Tell me!" Tyler made eye contact now and still had that same smile. "I think I know why you're always mad."

"Yeah, why?"

"You're jealous. You can't help the fact that your sisters like me and you like me also. You can't stand that they can get guys and you can't. That they've had boyfriends in the past and you haven't. Andrina told me that you're boy crazy. So basically, you're jealous." Adella was at a loss of words. She just stood there with her eyes wide and her mouth open all the way. "I-I-That's not true! I have had a boyfriend before!"

"Really?"

"Yeah!"

"What was his name?"

"That's none of your business!"

"So you haven't had a boyfriend before." Adella was getting furious. "Yes I have!"

"So his name is all I'm asking."

"Why do you always have to be so nosy?"

"Who says I'm being nosy?"

"Because you are asking me his name!"

"Yeah, that's not being nosy. That's just me asking what his name is. If I was being nosy I'd be asking more than one question. But no I'm just asking his name." Adella jumped on the extra bed in front of the one Tyler was sitting on. "All you need to know is I have had one."

"So you mean to tell me that all six of your sisters, who like me, are lying to me? Even Attina, the one who's the leader, is lying to me? Lying straight to my face?"

"…..Yes."

"You seemed a little hesitant there. Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Even if I asked your father would he tell me you've had a man."

"…Uhhh…Yes." Tyler gave her a look. She knew damn well that she's never had a date. She never even kissed a guy except some boy named Stevie. Tyler caught her. She was about to say something when Triton unlocked the door and came in the room with both Tyler and Adella's dinners. "Here you guys go. If you need anything else, I'll be in the next room." He walked back out. "I thought you were going to ask him if I had a boyfriend or not."

"Nah, I'll ask him later."

"Why didn't you while he was in here."

"Alright. Hey Trit…"

"No, No!"

"What?"

"Wait till later."

"Why? You just told me to ask him now."

"Just wait till later!" Tyler put his hands up as if he were being arrested. "Okay, okay." They started eating their dinner.

When they were finished with their dinner, they put their plates on a table next to the door for Triton to come pick up later. "What else did Andrina tell you?"

"What?" Tyler asked, picking food out of his teeth with a toothpick.

"What else did Andrina tell you about boy craziness?"

"She said that you said you've never had a boyfriend and the only boy that you've kissed is a boy named Stevie. Trust me; that's what Andrina told me." Adella was quiet after that. She began to look up at the ceiling, at the wall, then at the bed. She looked everywhere, except at Tyler. "Why aren't you looking at me?" She didn't hear him. She was lost in her own world. "Adella!" His loud voice broke her out of her trance. "What?"

"Why aren't you looking at me?"

"Oh…I don't know."

"Come on Del. Just admit it. You don't have a boyfriend and you've never had one." Adella started getting mad again. "Yes I admit it! Don't rub it in!"

"I'm not rubbing anything in."

"Yes you were, I could hear it in your tone of voice."

"No, no."

"Don't say no when you really were!"

"Listen stop, okay! Let's just stop fighting. It gets us nowhere." That much was true. Another reason they didn't want to argue anymore was because it was 1:31 in the morning and they didn't want to wake up anybody. "Tyler?" Adella said softly. "Yeah?"

"Do you think I'm ugly?"

"Del, stop."

"I knew it! I knew I was ugly!" Tyler got up off the bed and punched the wall as hard as he could, making a slight echo. "Del, stop it okay!" Adella was shocked. She never saw Tyler this mad before. "Jesus Christ I can't take it anymore!" She was speechless not to mention scared.

"You know what Adella, there lies your problem. Right there. You have no confidence in yourself. You're always walking around with that attitude and I've seen you like that before. You always walk around with this 'oh no boy would ever want me, oh I'm so ugly, oh woe is me' bullshit and I don't want to hear that anymore! Del, you're a beautiful girl and you will find somebody someday. I'm saying that with all seriousness. It's hard to find true love. I'll admit that I only had one girlfriend and that was back when I was a junior in High School. I was sixteen. I'm now 21 and still don't have another girlfriend. You think you're the only one out there who's having a hard time trying to find love? There's many more people out there. So stop with the negative attitude because it's getting really annoying." Tyler sat back down on the bed and looked down at the ground, his hands folded together. There was a moments silence between the two of them until Adella swam over and sat beside him. "Tyler." She put her hand on his back.

"What?"

"You think I'm beautiful?"

"Yeah, I always thought you were."

"Thank you. No one has ever said that to me before." Tyler smiled at her. "Ask yourself this too. Do you really think your father and sisters want to hear you say that about yourself? Do you think your mother would want to hear you say that if she were still around?" Adella frowned at the mention of her mother. "No, they wouldn't."

"Exactly. Don't put yourself down like that ever again. Nobody wants to hear negativity." Both Tyler and Adella, for the first time, hugged each other. It lasted pretty long too. Adella also gave Tyler a little kiss on the neck. "Well, we should probably get to bed now," Tyler suggested.

On the other side of the door, Triton had been listening in on their conversation. He smiled, nodded his head and swam away back to his room.

The next morning, Triton came in and picked up the dinner plates that Tyler and Adella left on the table near the door. He saw Tyler and Adella sleeping and smiled. "I think it's finally over. I think their feud is finally over." He walked out and closed the door to let the two of them resume sleeping.