A/N: Just a quick oneshot to get me back into the H2O Fandom. Whilst I love the Bella/Emma rivalry I like to explore what other ways the relationship could have gone. Hope you enjoy!
The Moon Pool wasn't the same.
A year abroad away from her friends felt like a lifetime to Emma, yet as she stood dry inside of the Moon Pool's cave it didn't seem as if it was really that long ago since she'd last been here, saying goodbye to these familiar walls she called home. In near disbelief, she stroked the wall only to knock a loose piece of rock from its place and it landed with a disheartening thud by her feet. Immediately Emma pulled her hand away as though letting herself linger would cause further damage.
Home was in tatters, and Emma felt more alienated than the events of the last year combined.
Wistful about what once was, she sunk to the floor and sat facing the water — not really minding that the dirt on the ground would surely stain her favourite white crop khakis. Even in a state of destruction, the Moon Pool kept is serene, tranquil energy and lead a distressed Emma to find some peace. Perhaps, she mused to herself, it'd have been wiser to go to Rikki and Cleo first so they could have braced her for what to expect — yet their diminishing and eventual lack of replies to her messages gave Emma a sort of anxiety about reuniting with them again, hence her choice to head to the Moon Pool as soon as she possibly could.
However all was interrupted when a figure appeared emerging from the underwater entrance into the Moon Pool. Emma shot up to her feet, not quite ready to re-unite with Rikki and Cleo just yet under such circumstances, but just as Emma was about to make a break for it, she noticed that the mermaid didn't appear to be either of them. So with curiosity and a puzzled look, she stayed.
Her founded suspicious hadn't failed her. The unwitting mermaid that surfaced her head and shoulders from the water was neither Rikki nor Cleo — though appearances didn't need to be compared to decide whether or not it was Rikki, she'd never have shown up somewhere willingly at 6:45am.
Cerulean blue eyes met with Emma's and the mysterious mermaid pushed away from the edge of the pool in what seemed to be an effort to flee, even as Emma posed no obvious threat standing there in surprise and staring at the other's face as opposed to her tail — which was the usual attention catcher of a mermaid. But before the stranger retreated underwater she glanced down and suddenly halted, to which Emma followed her gaze and realised that she was staring at the locket that hung around her neck.
A silence hung over the two of them, neither moving as they waited for each other to say something. Bella, in a lesser state of shock, eventually spoke up with a hint of hesitance in her voice.
"You're… Emma, right?" The mermaid questioned, and the confused frown she received spurred her to keep talking. "Rikki and Cleo — they talked about you."
Emma's expression hardened. "Who did you say you were again?"
"Oh — I'm Bella."
"Bella," Emma paused for a few seconds. "what's happened to the Moon Pool?" Emma's tone was accusatory, and Bella glanced away.
"It's a long, long story. Trust me."
Emma crossed her arms against her chest. Bella was digging herself into a deeper hole and they both knew it.
"Look," Bella continued speaking to a stone-faced Emma, wondering how a girl with such soft freckles across her features could look so cold. "I'd much rather you talk to Rikki and Cleo about it — they're your friends."
Emma opened her mouth to speak, but Bella interrupted her in an attempt to swerve her away from the interrogation.
"Why don't you come down here — into the water?" Bella offered her a small smile, which Emma didn't reciprocate. After all, she hardly knew this strange girl who'd appeared in her unfamiliar home — even as she linked herself to Cleo and Rikki and a tail on show Emma found it difficult to trust her. She did not move.
Bella knew she should have left it there, but she didn't. Her hand moved from the Moon Pool's edge and into the water, before splashing back out and flicking several water droplets at Emma's exposed shin.
That got her to move.
First, with a delayed jump away accompanied by a started gasp. After a somehow even icier stare, Emma had done as Bella expected and dove into the pool just before transforming into her mermaid self. Oddly, Bella felt a sense of relief when Emma's head and shoulders resurfaced from under the water — she'd not swam off like Bella had predicted. Instead, with a very audible huff to warn off any more potential smiles, she sidled up next to Bella and rested her arms on the side of the pool.
Despite their contrasting personalities and mermaid powers aside, the girls had a lot to talk about — they just didn't realise it immediately.
Conversation started off slowly and awkwardly, Bella putting more effort into holding up her side of the discussion than a weary Emma. Mediocre subjects got her mediocre results; school, graduation, family, all seemed to get nothing more than a disinterested one word reply from Emma — aside from the eye roll hearing Rikki's casual attitude towards the final exams. Bella persisted, speaking of Rikki's Café, her job there as a singer, biting back the temptation to complain about Sophie. Not that it'd matter — Emma was staring longingly at the walls in front of them. A wave of guilt washed over Bella, however she remained determined to befriend the final piece to the three Mako Mermaids.
"You traveled the world, right?"
That almost caught Emma's attention. "Yeah."
"Where did you go?"
Emma shot Bella a look, knowing that she'd trapped her with a question that could not be answered with a single syllable. With an intake of breath Emma re-adjusted her arms as to not let them go numb with the pressure of her weight, before she fluttered her eyes closed and replied.
"Italy, France, Ireland, and America -" Emma irked herself with the vagueness. "the United States of, that is."
Ireland. Bella found the spark to ignite.
"Republic of Ireland?"
"Yeah."
"I used to live there. My parents travelled a lot, too."
Emma's opened an eye and peered at her. "Oh yeah?"
"It's kind of where I got my tail."
"Oh," Emma's full attention had been caught, both eyes opening to look at the sun-kissed mermaid who was inches away from her. "On an island?"
"Sea caves, actually." Bella tried her best not to beam.
A halt threatened the blossoming conversation, but Emma saved it in time. "Have you ever gone back?"
Bella could no longer resist the urge to smile, and even laugh a little. "Yeah — once."
The chat rapidly picked up from there; Bella describing the sea caves in such wonderful detail that Emma developed a yearning to go there, and wishing she had found herself walking amongst those rocks in the very same way Bella's nine year old self did. Even though Bella had heard it from Cleo she listened as Emma spoke about when she'd first stumbled upon the Moon Pool with the others, and the untold story of how she'd gone out for a swim the next day — as a hopeful professional swimmer — and discovered her tail.
The girls soon began swapping stories that made them laugh, the sticky situations that they'd gotten themselves into trying to keep their tails a secret and ultimately gotten into trouble — the time when Bella was thirteen and lost control of her powers under a full moon causing everyone's drinks at her parent's party to turn into jelly and how Emma tried to dye her hair in an effort to act out and not only was it red, but the trouble was wasted as it only showed up in her mermaid form.
Not only that but they shared stories about Cleo and Rikki with minimal jealousy and a lovely lack of bitterness, commenting on Rikki's temper and Cleo's awkward antics (though Bella didn't quite understand the tales she laughed along anyway).
The day began to creep into the mid-morning time before either girls realised and Bella suggested a return to the city, proceeding to offer holding a surprise party to announce the return of Emma to Rikki and Cleo. Emma gave a noncommittal hum which almost seemed like an approval, but Bella couldn't be quite sure. She smiled, and as they both pushed away from the edge of the pool, Emma spoke four wonderful words before they disappeared under the water.
"I'll race you back."