Due to it being MerMay for the month of May I got the urge to draw our boys as merman, and then got the urge to do a fic. How long this will be, who knows. What's the plot? Who knows that either. Unlike most of my fics this will NOT be Yaoi. They're just friends here with no real romantic subplot or anything like that, with much less of an actual plot.

If you're interested in knowing what they look like you can check out my Tumblr luxahheart and see the drawings there either under the tags Beyblade, MerMay, Kai Hiwatari, Ray Kon, Mermaid AU.

Anywho, here we go. I guess. I'm no marine biologist, and have never really done something like this before so we'll see what happens.


Ch 1. Strangers in Stranger Waters.

What could have been, should have been, a normal day was anything but. Of course it hadn't been, couldn't have been. Life was never that easy, not when you were a prince and about to be crowned King within a months' time. When the waters got warmer, when the boats returned high above and threatened the life that lived below them completely unaware.

Even with these things looming over Kai's head, that wasn't what had made this supposed normal day anything but normal.

There, on one of the few beds of soft sponge writhed an unknown face. A face that was contorted in immense pain while two other mermen, and one mermaid tried to stitch the long cut in the unknown's side that was still bleeding out with a fishhook they had fashioned into a needle.

What was the most odd, now that Kai had the chance to really get a look at the unknown face, was that in the yellow colored eyes the pupils were thin lines; he had never seen that before on any other creature within his kingdom. There were two rows sharp teeth, almost like those of a barracuda and his own mixed together, inside the gaping mouth that sometimes embedded into the lips to stop the next scream from breaking free while trying to twist free.

The long red tail of the unknown thrashed enough it about knocked everything down that was in its way, the seven spikes that stuck through the lighter red fin like bones flailing wildly, until the tail itself was held down roughly near the middle and far enough away the green haired mermaid could avoid the spikes on the end.

With another small scream the wound was finally closed, the blood that hung in the water around them would soon get lost with the rest of it once movement started though nobody moved in fear of those spikes.

The brown haired merman that had done the stitching swam back, leaving the other two keeping the unknown held down by the arms and tail with all their body weight. Kai stayed back, unsure what to do or say as the unknown breathed in heavily.

Once the initial pain was gone, no longer receiving a crooked needle to the lower rib and side, the unknown took a minute to actually look around his surroundings. This wasn't where he remembered to be, where he had been dying, until he clocked the only familiar face hovering just a few feet away and staring back.

Now that there was some light, no longer hindered by the dizzying hazy in them, he too got a better look at the one he assumed had saved his life.

Dark crimson eyes stared back, the other males pale skin covered in blue markings on his face, shoulders, and forearms in the shape of two triangles in sets of two. His upper left arm was wrapped tightly with light-green seaweed, more than likely hiding the wound he had received only an hour ago. The tail wasn't anything like his, it was slick all the way down in a darker blue than the markings on his skin with transparent fins that were rounded and smooth; not useful for fighting.

What was most odd was the different colored hair, a light gray in the front and a darker black at the back that floated around his face and just over his shoulders with the slight shift of the water around them.

Thinking back on it, he couldn't remember what had happened. How he ended up above The Ridge or what had even caused the wound in his side and despite the thrashing earlier, he was thankful for being saved.

"We're going to let you go now…" Came the green haired mermaids nervous voice, trying to look him in the eyes as hers reflected the fear felt.

The unknown nodded, his heart racing in his chest as his yellow eyes shifted around to look for the best way out once they let go. There was a hole, large enough in the rocky wall to his right, that he could slip through and find his way back to The Ridge.

Kai held his breath, inhaling the water around them as the other two nervously let go and backed away from the unknown. Before any of them could blink there was a wall of bubbles that shot up around them from the spiked tail being kicked up, the unknown's body twisting around as it shot off the bed and towards the window.

"Wait!" Kai called for him to stop just as the unknown made it through the window, beating back his own tail to go after him with another wall of bubbles being kicked up behind him.

"Your majesty!" The others called for him but he was already out of the window.

The unknown only made it a few feet from the hole he had shot out through, stopping short due to the searing pain in his side and the sight that had hit him when he made his escape.

It was bright, the surface of the water that much closer than he had ever seen it before. It almost hurt with how bright it was, and there around him were oddly shaped rock formations and more merpeople that looked nothing like him or the ones he knew. Everyone was brighter, most if not all with transparent fins that were smooth and rounded like the one that had saved his life and the ones who held him down and stitched his side. Everyone's skin was marked in more different colors, some the same as their tails or a different variety with more different, vibrant, hair colors.

Some looked his way curiously as they swam by, never seeing one of their kind that looked quite like that. His tail was a dull color with dark red scales, and those spikes on the end kept anyone from coming closer. Unlike them he had extra fins on his elbows and on the sides of his tail near the top, also adorned with spikes with a thicker webbing like the end of it. His hair was long and almost black with a purple hue to it, floating around behind him and ending just near the rump of his tail. If the spikes weren't enough to keep the others at bay, the slit pupils and fangs did the trick.

It was possible he wasn't even one of them but something else completely, but nobody dared get close enough to ask; except one.

"Hey, where are you going?" Kai's voice brought the unknown's attention back to him, spinning around where he had stopped and kicked back just enough to keep up a distance.

"I'm not going to hurt you." Kai said quickly, though stayed where he was so he didn't alarm him. "I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

The unknown pressed a hand to his freshly stitched side, flinching slightly at the pain he had caused himself and pulled his hand back. He wasn't bleeding anymore and that was something.

"What happened?" He asked, his yellow eyes shifting away from his wound back up to the one who had saved his life.

Kai's lips twitched; he wasn't sure if the other would have understood a word he was saying at all until now.

"I'm not sure, I found you like that. Over there." Kai said, pointing off past the walls that sat behind the unknown and visible from where they were hovering in the water.

Yellow eyes moved down to the seaweed wrapped around the other's arm, "And you?"

Kai nodded down at the spiked tail waving through the water, keeping the unknown steady and upright in front of him as his own gently beat back against the water.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, you were in pain." Kai said quickly and caught on to others looking their way, staring intently with a hidden fear in their eyes.

"Why don't you come with me?" He asked, hoping to get the unknown away from the prying eyes.

"I should be getting back…" The unknown backed away again, this time being slow in fear of doing more damage to himself.

Twisting himself like he had to get out of there earlier almost ripped the stitching, he didn't need to bleed out in the open where it could draw more unwanted attention.

"You sure that's a good idea?" Kai asked, raising a brow at him.

"I'll be fine, thanks… Um?" The unknown lifted a hand as if in a wave, only to falter slightly.

"Kai."

"Ray." The unknown smiled, his fangs showing again.

Kai wasn't sure what it was that drew him closer, as if he needed to inspect this other merman. In a weird way Ray was fascinating, something new in his overly tight and boring, same-old-same-old day to day life. Ray backed away again as Kai invaded his space, keeping his tail away from him so he didn't get cut again because of him.

"Are there others like you?" Kai asked as he swam around him, Ray constantly flicking the end of his tail away from him.

"Yeah, why wouldn't there be?" Ray asked as his eyes followed Kai as he swam around him again for the third time, getting slightly agitated since he couldn't leave like he had wanted to.

"I mean, there's others like you…" Ray added since Kai had gone quiet, finally coming back in front of him.

"Where do you live?" Kai asked, ignoring Ray's comment.

Ray pointed behind him, in the same direction Kai had pointed out before. "In The Ridge."

"The Ridge?" Kai cocked another brow, his people only ever referred to that as The Drop Off.

They weren't allowed to go that far outside the walls, but then that hadn't really stopped him earlier; or all the other times he went over it. At least he hadn't been caught, or stopped, and it was a good thing otherwise Ray would have either wound up dead or the blood would have drawn in the sharks; putting Ray at more risk and his people and kingdom.

"How many of your kind are there?" Kai asked.

Ray shrugged his shoulders, "Depends where we go, at most there's up to twenty of us at a time to as little of just five." Ray answered, mentally hitting himself since he was still staying there instead of leaving.

"Do you always stay down that far?"

"Yeah, I guess?" Ray shrugged, "Look, I should be getting back…"

Kai looked at him, a little disappointed and a little apprehensive. Ray was still hurt; he could see it in his face every time he moved and if Ray normally traveled in a pod the others weren't there. He had found Ray alone, dying alone, and he couldn't travel that far down with him to make sure Ray got back to his pod safely.

"Why don't you wait, till you heal?" Kai suggested.

Ray hesitated for a minute, thinking it over and glanced upwards towards the surface. It was so close, dangerous even. Only knowing tales of the dangers that lurked above him, never so close before until now. Then there were the others around him that weren't like him, strangers in stranger waters. Though he'd be lying to himself if he said he wasn't a bit curious as Kai had been, he had never met others that were so much like him and not at the same time.

"I guess it can't hurt…" He settled on in a nervous tone and glanced at his tail swishing below him, frowning at it. Maybe this wasn't a good idea…

"It'll be alright, just watch where you swim." Kai said, glancing back down at it with him. "Just um… Follow me? We can get you something to eat."

Getting a slight nod from Ray he twisted himself around, kicking back gently and angling down towards the rock formations that made up the homes of his people. Ray followed after him quietly, resting his arms at his sides as he glided down through the water. Taking in his surroundings again, very aware of the eyes on him and kicked back harder to swim beside Kai.

"What are these?" He asked, nodding to the carved out rocks that stood around them.

"Homes?" Kai answered, glancing at him questioningly. "Do you not have homes?"

"I mean normally we just hide out in caves or caverns; we don't really build anything like this since we're constantly moving." Ray answered.

"That must be nice." Kai muttered, "Do you know what happened?" He asked as he glanced at the stitches in Ray's side.

Ray shook his head, "Not really… It's kind of a blur, I just know that something with these really sharp teeth came after one of the babies. We tried fighting it back, whatever it was, but it had this thing on its head like a horn. Think that's what got me, last I knew the others got away but I was losing blood and hit my head during the fight."

"I found you hiding in a cave, above The Ridge, and I didn't see or hear anyone else nearby… Or whatever that thing was." Kai explained, trying to think of what type of animal he knew that had a horn on it's head.

There wasn't much that came to mind, he knew of the swordfish but those swam a little farther up than where he lived and never really saw them unless he went up in the higher waters.

Ray went quiet as did Kai, finally reaching the bottom between the homes that were on either side and towering over them now. In a way it reminded Ray of The Ridge, it was bit darker now and the water was slightly colder between the rocks as they made their way around them. Every now and then they would pass a clearing, where there weren't any homes or even smaller rocks nearby. Leaving the open spaces occupied with more merpeople who stopped what ever it was they were doing and looking their way, Ray's ears twitching as they passed and hearing the whispers behind them.

"So, what is this place?" Ray decided to ask, just to block out what he could hear from the ones they passed by.

Kai shrugged; the question really hadn't caught him off guard but it was more of how to tell Ray where he would understand him. He had been expecting the question, and yet hadn't thought of anything to tell him.

"It's just… Here?" He settled on with another shrug, "I mean, it's where I live."

"You don't ever leave, find a new place to live?" Ray asked, raising a brow at him.

Kai shook his head, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. "I wish. You saw the wall, right?"

"Is that what that is?" Ray questioned.

Kai stopped, they were getting closer and he hadn't really thought of how he was going to get Ray inside the palace without gaining his grandfather's attention or questions, and no doubt his lectures.

"It keeps us in here, we can leave but only to a certain distance. I actually went farther out than what I was supposed to, because of you. Then there's the issue of going towards the surface, we really don't go that far up because of the humans.

"I guess the best way to explain this to you would be that this is just here, where my kind live and have lived for as long as I can remember. We really don't leave because we don't have to leave, if that makes sense."

Ray had stopped beside him, taking everything Kai was saying in. He couldn't imagine having to live behind a 'wall' and around so many others. It felt cramped, despite the size of it all he had seen when hovering above it earlier.

"Then why have a… A w-a-l-l?" Ray asked, sounding out the word as if it was the first time he had ever said it.

Kai shrugged again, "Guess it's just a reminder, that this is home and where we stay."

"Then why were you outside of it?" Ray asked after making a face at Kai's comment, once more disliking the idea of having to stay behind something that barred one from exploring all the ocean had to offer.

Kai smirked a little at him, "Because I hate it." He answered simply, looking slightly smug. "Like I said, we can go past it. We just really shouldn't, and definitely not as far as I went today."

Ray nodded like he understood, everything he had ever thought before getting turned upside down on it's head. He had always thought his kind were the only ones, living freely and going where they pleased and staying wherever they pleased for however long they wished. In a way he couldn't blame Kai for going past the wall or going as far as he did, and if he hadn't then more than likely he would have been dead.

"I'm glad you did." Ray laughed a little, "Even if you got hurt because of me." Once more his eyes went to the seaweed wrapped around Kai's upper arm, the guilt settling in his stomach.

"Don't worry about it, wasn't that bad." Kai shrugged it off, "C'mon we're almost there."

"Where's 'there'?" Ray asked, swimming after him again as Kai twisted back around to continue their journey.

"My home." Kai answered, though the small smile he wore finally vanished from his face.

Ray went quiet, swimming beside him but at a safe enough distance where their tails wouldn't touch and he'd have the chance to hurt him again. Through the winding passages that were created by more rocks and homes they came to a large opening, the bottom of the seafloor scooping down before them where at the bottom stood something similar to a bigger rock formation; almost like a mountain at the bottom of the ocean.

There were holes placed throughout the rocky surface, the seafloors vegetation in brighter colors than Ray had ever seen before. There was a sandy path that led up to the mountain of rock, following the hill they had stopped on, as the merpeople who lived there were either coming away or going towards it.

"What is that?" Ray asked, once more hovering upright with his tail gently beating against the water to keep himself steady.

"That's the palace, it's like a home but just bigger… Obviously." Kai answered as he nodded at it, "That's where I live."

"It's like a giant cave." Ray said almost mindlessly, staring at it and the merpeople swimming around it and then noticing that there were two mermen hovering upright at the very end of the path.

"What're they for?" He asked, feeling wary of approaching now because of the spears that were being held in their hands.

"They're centuries, they guard the palace on the outside. There's more inside too, but they won't hurt you." Kai answered, seeing Ray getting nervous now beside him.

"Okay…" Ray nodded, looking back at Kai so he could follow again.

"Just stay close… Well, not too close…" Kai instructed, out of habit glancing at Ray's tail and the spiked end again.

"Okay." Ray repeated, letting Kai go in front of him this time and staying behind him as they swam down the sandy path that went down the slope they had stopped on.

As they got closer the harder Ray's heart beat against his chest, the mountain getting larger and larger as they approached. It reminded him of The Ridge again, tall and imposing with a sense of relief and comfort. There was a familiarity to it, in a way, with how it stood over him and cast him in a slight shadow amongst the light that came from being so close to the surface.

The water was much colder than it had been before, there was a draft from the mountain that he welcomed. He had never known warm waters before; he wasn't used to it and the cold made him that much more relaxed the closer they got.

"Your majesty." The century with dark purple hair on the right bowed to Kai as they stopped once more, just in front of the two guarding the mouth of the mountain.

"Robert." Kai regarded the merman back, not missing the alarmed look in Roberts red eyes at Ray behind him.

"Who is this?" Robert asked, looking away from Kai and meeting Ray's wandering eyes.

"This is Ray, he's with me for right now."

"What is he?" The century with red hair on Kai's left asked, his grip getting tighter on his spear handle as he kept his eyes on the spikes of Ray's tail.

"He's a merman, like we are." Kai answered dully, "He's just from different… Waters." He settled on, knowing if he told them where Ray had actually come from they would inform his grandfather and that wasn't something he wanted or needed.

Ray gave the two a nervous wave, finally realizing he was the topic of conversation now and being pulled away from looking at the mountain that was Kai's home.

"Do you happen to know where my grandfather is?" Kai asked, dragging Robert's attention back to him and away from Ray.

"In the throne room, as always." Robert answered, "Speaking of, he's been looking for you. Again."

"When isn't he?" Kai sighed, shaking his head as he waved Ray along to follow him again.

Ray waved back at the two as they passed by them, entering the inside of the mountain. Ray was taken aback, thinking it would be dark in there but there was light inside. Almost brighter than the light that was outside and having to squeeze his eyes shut for a minute and stop, blinking slowly to try and adjust to it. He wasn't used to that much light all at once, as his eyes got used to it he noticed the source of the light was coming from the anemones that covered almost every inch of the rocky walls around and above him.

They were similar to the ones he knew back down in The Ridge, though he had never seen any in this great a number before, nor the amount of light they gave off. What was normally a soft, subtle glow, these were bright and blinding with a blend of colors from blues to greens and some pinks and whites.

"Hey, you okay?" Kai's voice brought him back, blinking faster as his eyes seemed to sting for a minute through their last adjustment.

"Just… Kind of bright…" Ray answered.

Kai scoffed, "If you think so. I can take you somewhere it's not as bad."

"Lead the way." Ray grinned, though it seemed more forced at that point.

Kai twisted around to an opening on Ray's right, following behind him like he had been and then twisting himself upwards through the hole in the roof. The light behind him finally dying away enough it took the sting out of his eyes, the hole they had gone through getting slightly darker as only a few anemones lined the rocky surface around them like he knew in The Ridge.

Going a ways up more Kai turned to the left through another opening, the space in the holes wide enough there could be at least five more of them in there but so far they hadn't crossed paths with anyone yet.

Just as he liked the softer lighting, Ray also relished in not having to cross paths with more people who would no doubt give him more odd looks and whispered words behind his back. He hadn't counted on becoming a spectacle, then again he hadn't counted on actually staying there at all. He was hungry, and tired though and more than likely the others of his pod had left and moved on without him anyways.

How long he was going to stay was a question he had been running through his head constantly since he had accepted Kai's invitation to stay, the sooner he left the better, as long as his wound didn't cause him any problems.

With another upward glide they made it through another tunnel, this one darker than the last two and finally coming up through the end of it to a large cut out in the mountainside.

To Kai it was his room, to Ray it was odd. There were larger holes along the rock wall where Ray could see outside where they had come from, the path they had followed to the front of the mountain seemed so far below now, but even still, the surface of the ocean was still high above them. Off in the distance Ray could see the wall that surrounded the entire place, not realizing before just how big Kai's home was until now.

There wasn't much to the room or in it, there was a coral table sprouting in the center of the room and a bed of sponges off in the far corner near the largest window. There was a spear, like the two centuries had, hanging on the wall beside the bed. Being held up by thin twine like seaweed, hooked up on a ledge of rock that stuck out like a built in shelf. There were some clams and sea shells on top, the same kind of fluorescent anemone lining the roof but not enough it caused Ray to flinch from the light.

"So, what is this place exactly?" Ray asked as he swam back from the openings in the mountainside he had come to hover in front of.

"It's home." Kai shrugged, digging through a small hidden hole in the wall by the opening they had entered the room from.

"Well, I get that. But like, why is your home bigger than all the others down there?" Ray asked, tilting his head slightly at Kai's back.

"This is the palace; my grandfather is the King, so this is where we live."

"What's a… A K-i-n-g?" Ray sounded out again, he had never heard of such a thing.

Kai almost hit his head on the rocks above him, pulling back and sitting on the end of his blue tail and the light-blue transparent frills that lined down the entire back of it.

"You don't know what a King is?"

Ray shook his head, "No."

"He's the leader of the people, looks after them. Keeps them safe, dictates their lives, makes rules for people to follow and punishes those who don't want to follow them." Kai explained with a slight scowl, ducking back into the hole he had been in before.

"Oh… I know what a leader is, could have just said that." Ray chuckled a little, raising a brow. "What're you doing?"

"I'm looking for something…" Kai answered in a huff, his tail hitting the floor as if he was getting impatient and causing a slight shift in the water behind him with a small build up of bubbles in the current he created.

Ray stayed there quietly for a few more minutes until Kai finally emerged fully out of the hole, pushing back the heavy boulder that had sat in front of the opening before. In his hands he held a circlet of colorful seashells held together with a thin twine, giving it a slight look of disgust before fitting it over his head and pressing his bangs down, keeping them from swaying in the water.

"What's that?"

"It's my crown…" Kai grumbled, "Just stay here, I won't be gone long."

"Okay…" Ray cocked his head to the side again, where was he supposed to go anyways?

Kai gave him a slight nod before he dived back down the tunnel that had led them to his room, the last thing Ray saw was the ends of his transparent blue fins and the bubbles that were caused in his wake.

Ray sighed out a breath, going back over to the openings in the wall that overlooked the kingdom. Above them, over the surface of the water, he could see the light of day dying out slowly. During the time Kai was gone he had swam the length of the room at least three times, picked up and inspected the shells he found lying on the rocky ledges on the other side opposite of the cutouts. Making sure to put everything back where he had found it, the last thing that he had busied himself with was the spear.

It was light weight, made of wood though Ray didn't know what type of material it was aside from the shark teeth that lined the top of it in two rows. A shiver ran down his spine, the thing that attacked him had teeth like this but not as broad. Thinking about it, it made sense that Kai's people had things like this when they weren't equipped naturally to defend themselves from predators. Then again, he was and that hadn't helped him any.

He shifted the spear in his hand, it was almost as long as he was, being mindful of the jagged teeth on the end of it as he held it up and chucked it at the wall. Surprisingly it flew through the water and hit the rocks, floating to the floor once it clacked against the surface of the wall.

"Having fun?" Kai asked in a humored tone, hovering above the tunnel with a large half clam shell he had to hold with both hands, filled with an array of food.

"What is it supposed to be?" Ray asked as he picked it back up, hanging it back where he got it from as Kai came in and sat the shell of food down on the coral table.

"It's a spear, we make them to protect ourselves from threats." Kai answered, already pulling off his crown and going back to the hidden hole by the tunnel.

"Did you make it?" Ray asked, picking through the food Kai had brought up and frowned a little. It was all vegetation, there wasn't any type of meat.

"I did." Kai answered after putting away his crown and rolling the boulder back in front of the hole and joining Ray on the other side of the table and frowned a little.

"What's wrong?"

"I um… I can't eat this." Ray answered.

"What's wrong with it?" Kai asked, plucking out a string of kelp from the bounty he had brought up.

"I eat meat, like fish or crabs… I'd even go for a slug at this point." He chuckled slightly.

Kai's eyes moved; luck would have it there was a crab crawling up the side of the mountain just outside his window. "There's a crab." He pointed it out.

Ray swam over to it in a flash, kicking back the water so hard it knocked Kai back a little from the current he created. Plucking the crab off the side of the wall, avoiding it's pinchers as it tried to get him angrily.

Kai watched quietly, wondering just how he was going to eat it. Those things were mean, his people often avoided them because of their claws and they had no real way of cracking them open without getting pinched in the process. His eyes almost bugged out of his head as Ray slammed the creature against the rocky wall of the window, hearing the shell cracking under the pressure.

The crab's frantic movement paused for a minute, only dazed, as Ray held it up in his left hand and placed it under his right elbow. The spiked fins that covered him flared out with the thick webbing, almost reminiscent to the spines on a lion fish, as he shoved the crab's belly up into them and pierced straight through the softer shell with another sickening crack.

The crabs legs went limp after a few short, quick, spasms as Ray pressed it into the spikes on his elbow harder until it stopped moving completely and pulled it off. Without wasting time he went to pulling the legs off, cracking them open and getting the meat to pop out.

"Want some?" He asked, holding out the broken leg towards Kai.

Kai felt bile rise in his throat, he had never seen such a weird display before and kind of felt bad for the poor thing. He shook his head almost violently; he was good with his seaweed and kelp.

Ray shrugged his shoulders, meant more for him, and went to downing the meat inside. Tearing it apart with his sharper teeth, filling his empty stomach with what little there was inside it. That would have to tide him over for the night, there was no way he was going to try and eat whatever it was Kai was eating. It had a weird smell to it, and it looked gross and slimy like most seaweed did. How Kai could stomach it he wasn't sure, nor was he going to ask.

Kai ate what he could through his stomach churning still, leaving the rest on the table as he swam over to his bed. The light from the surface now completely gone, the entire kingdom going almost black with the anemone barely keeping the room lit up enough he could see. For Ray it was like he was really home now, just how he knew it to be and reveled in it.

"You coming?" Kai called as he was laid down.

Ray looked down at himself then at Kai, the sponge bed was big enough that he could sleep far enough away without fear of impaling him while they slept. He could get up before morning and leave without Kai knowing, staying up all night would be easier but he needed the rest after the day he had.

He nodded, swimming over to him and laying down with his back to Kai and his tail bent towards the front of him. The thick webbing on his tail folded in itself, pulling the spikes in with it to more of a point just to be on the safe side; creating his own type of spear with the way it looked now, the spikes on his elbows doing the same.

"Night." He yawned, his eyes closing as he settled down more into the bed.

"Night." Kai yawned back and rolled over, putting their backs together.