1. Life of the Sea
The relationship to be borne upon this earth could not have been more clandestine, more unforgiving in its nature and heart-wrenching to the two princes involved. The prince of the land stood proudly on the deck of his boat, allowing the saline wind to whip at his thick blonde hair as he directed orders, looking high and proud into the dimming sky. Seas tended to be at their most calm and predictable during that season, not autumn yet but the time between it and summer, a warm time when the air was sugary and comforting.
"Ah the air is perfect for sailing, your Majesty." A sailor said, grinning at the prince. The prince returned the expression, fulfilling his promise to be the most amiable prince that ever ruled his sea-side kingdom.
"It certainly is, but I wouldn't bet on it to remain this way when the full moon comes up. She goes mad when the moist star comes up over head. The capricious sea as she is; another reason my mother adored her, matching her personality so… So listen well to my orders and watch the ship closely at night." Prince Matthias announced, closing his eyes at the gush of air.
"As you say, your Majesty…"
Several fathoms below, dwelling in his own kingdom of blues and light greens, was the other prince. He called himself Lukas, though many another could recognize him by an alternate title. His father had so generously given him several other names, to prolong his princely appearance. He needed it, too. Lukas's attitude was fitful and unpredictable, much like the sea.
So Lukas lounged on a long rock, watching the fish of all colors flit past him and glimmered in the sunshine. His honey colored hair waved around his face, like tendrils of smoke. His bare torso went down and connected to the scaly blue of a fish tale, large and heavy, flicking around. The translucent fins at the end and along the sides flapped occasionally, to adjust his balance. Azure eyes gazed towards the upper world, a world he longed often to belong in.
"Father would never accept it," he told himself, "Father would throw the worst fit in anyone's imagination if I was to live out of this world and on dry land. This wet palace has little interest to me and the longing pangs my heart, desiring greatly to rise up above the chains of his power and be free, under the sun and on the beautifully soft sand."
Lukas often thought of himself as a poet.
His bony chest rose and fell, accompanying the fleshy scales along his neck, sucking in water and deriving the precious oxygen from it and feeding it into his dormant lungs, much like a frog only different in certain areas.
Lukas pushed himself off the smooth rock and swam towards his hidden cove. When he was young and angered greatly by his father, he swam away from home and came across a vacant cave, littered with human debris. This miraculous find soon became his sanctuary.
The "road" there winded around large rocks and wrecked ships. Seaweed whipped in the currents, curling around Lukas's fingers, which trailed along the sand along the bottom. Several particles dug into his nails. The feeling brought him pleasure as well as discomfort.
He flipped around so his belly faced upwards and flipped his fins in that direction, enjoying the water rolling along his back. Swimming was great, he knew, but walking must feel liberating and even better.
Eventually Lukas came across the entrance of his cove and he entered, watching the blood light waves flicker along the bottom rocks. Rows upon rows made of rocks and coral lead upwards, nearer and nearer to the surface which he longed so much to touch.
"What's the point of having all this if I can't use it?" Lukas muttered again to himself, picking up bent and rusted spoons, hair pins, and cracked tea cups. They felt exotic and delicious on his smooth skin. "Why must I torture myself this way?" He sighed, closing his eyes. His dark eyelashes caught air bubbles like they may have captured snowflakes.
"Your majesty," another man said, approaching Matthias, his hands stiffly behind his back. "I have calculated your motives for this sudden trip."
"Have you, now?" Matthias turned around, annoyed and already forgetting his vow to be admired. However the crooked nose and dark eyes ignited a childish temper within him.
"You wish to escape your father's pleas for your marriage, is that so?"
"I don't want to marry some girl I don't even know." Matthias explained, rolling up his sleeves.
"But there are many beautiful women I know you would come to admire soon enough. Your father will soon go and the responsibility will be passed to you, no matter how childish you are. I've heard the princess in the arctic lands is also seeking a man to take her hand."
Matthias had, in all honesty, found women of disinterest. Whenever the sight of an attractive male, however, greeted his eyes he at once fell into a sort of trance. His legs became lead while his mind screamed at him that it was not quite right. He was a prince who sought a princess and not another prince. Even with this reprimand he continued to do so until he had no choice but to accept his fate and seek a prince who had the same preferences.
As was, the prince below the sea shared these exact tastes. By some strange occurrence the mer-people were much more accepting of such an oddity and often found it amusing. Lukas never mentioned it, even in that case, and his father continued to push and shove for a lovely princess to take his hand so they could take over the kingdom together.
Lukas rested in his area, falling into a light doze.
Dark clouds like bruises on the fair sky accumulated in the distance. Sailors brought it to Matthias's attention, but the man had little to offer. The thought of a bride plagued his mind and he had no way out of such a mindset and chose to ignore the warnings and urges to turn away.
"We'll continue further," he said, staring at the approaching storm poisoning the once clear day. "I don't want to return home just yet."
Night fell heavily, eating up all remaining daylight with the help of thick clouds in its wake. Lukas woke around this time and, suddenly filled with unreasonable hatred at his world, swam furiously upwards. His head broke the surface. Cold air rushed to his wet face. He scanned the area and found a large ship. Merfolk like he could only remain above the water for so long, their lungs taking over once their gills failed to find water around them to suck in and create that lovely oxygen. Lukas found a loophole in the system and kept his neck below the water.
He approached the ship, huge and lurking in the great vast ocean. Lukas swam up to the edge and pulled himself up with a rope, peering into a square opening. From this point he could look in and see a stubborn young man, already forgetting the trouble on his mind and enjoying the sea, trying to forget the approaching storm.
Lukas's tail flapped against the side, sending water droplets soaring off it, while also disturbing a cluster of barnacles. He curled his spine to look on, breathing with his pink lips parted.
He was invested in the man, the way he walked, the way he grinned strong teeth, and especially the way he spoke to the men around him. For years Lukas built a wall, brick by brick, around himself, hardly allowing anyone in. Claiming that no one understood him he continued to build another layer, and so his interest in other people was limited and scarce.
At that moment he decided that he wouldn't mind this man. The major, beaming reason being that he was a human.
His gills started to irritate him and he had no choice but to fall back into the ocean, diving in with his hands outstretched. He pierced the water easily and slid back in. His dim splash alerted one person on the ship who quickly dismissed it as a rowdy group of fish and went back to drinking and playing card games with the other sailors.
As the omnipotent clouds predicted, a huge storm crashed in. Lukas at this point had spoken to his father calmly and was at the brink of the kingdom, looking up at the moving shadow of the ship. He could see huge waves crashing down on it, shaking it, creating splinters that would eventually impale some unsuspecting creature.
Merfolk did not hate humans. They only hated the idiot ones who sailed during storms. Corpses littered their seas along with general clutter and the periodical fatality amongst their people from one reason or another. But even then there was a general dislike for humans fueled by jealousy or fear. This was another reason most people looked down upon Lukas's infatuation with the two legged beings.
Then the ship began to sink, breaking in two and hurtling down into the sea. Lukas sucked in water in a form of a gasp and shot towards it, his tail slicing through the water madly, propelling him towards it.
He wanted to save each human but he knew he would never be able to. He rushed to the first person he wanted to save, the princely Matthias, who had his eyes shut in defeat, and pulled him up to the shore. The man's clothing dragged him down, along with his body mass, and so the act took much longer than Lukas would have liked.
The rocky surf greeted Lukas and he dragged Matthias on to shore, flopping there. Sand stuck to him and into his scales. Matthias coughed up sea water, spilling it out of his nose and mouth. Lukas placed his cold hand on the strong, soggy back, singing softly.
Lukas had an excellent singing voice, for that matter, and he cherished it very well.
Matthias thought he was dying and an angel was signing to him. He blinked water out of his eyes and turned towards the moonlit Lukas, surprise on his face.
Lukas's mouth moved in the song. When Matthias started to realize he was not dead and Lukas spotted another man rushing to shore, he slid off the land, splashing water behind him.
Matthias rubbed his head, wondering if that angelic figure, beautiful and entrancing, was a hallucination.
"Are you alright, my Majesty? What happened? Are the other men alive?" The man who greeted Matthias said, grabbing the prince and hauling him up further to dry land.
Beneath a thin layer of water, Lukas watched the events unfold and decided that he would become human.
I do not own Hetalia or the Little Mermaid. This is a hybrid of the Disney and original fairy tale, with some of my own twists added in as well.