The year is 1748, and Ludwig Beilshmidt along with about a dozen other people are all on board Gilbert's - Ludwig's older brother, whom is a pirate - ship to celebrate and have a party for Ludwig. It's around midnight and there's beer involved, but not everyone is drunk. Nor is everyone currently ecstatic.
"So, how's the wife?" Antonio laughed as he drank yet another beer.
"I told you! We're engaged, not married!" Ludwig protested, his brows furrowing together to form a frown.
"Then what should we call this party?" Arthur laughed, he too was drinking.
"Call it whatever you like, but just get it through your head that we are /not/ married!" Ludwig sipped his beer.
Mathias put his arm around Ludwig and pointed to him with his other hand that was holding a beer. "I don't think this guy loves her!"
Ludwig shoved Mathias off of him. "Not /that/ way! We're just friends. If even. No, you know what? Not even friends."
Just then Gilbert approached the foursome and put his arm around his younger brother. "Aw, come on guys! Quit giving Luddy a hard time! It's an arranged marriage, and it's just horrible."
Ludwig stared at his brother. "Then why're you throwing a party to celebrate it?"
Gilbert threw his arms in the air. "Hey! Any excuse to party, am I right? Or am I right?" He laughed. "See ya, fellas. I'll be right back."
"Ha ha, okay! See ya, Gilbert!" Antonio called to his albino friend.
"So, this chick," Arthur started, "is she hot?"
Ludwig did a face palm, and right as he sighed, Gilbert ran back out from below deck and was screaming, "FIRE! FIRE!"
Immediately everyone stood from where they were and dropped everything. A few people started to walk towards where Gilbert ran from, skeptical of what he had seen. But as they were creeping towards it, a mini explosion went off, sending flames to every part of the deck and catching a few unlucky people on fire. The fact that there was beer everywhere didn't exactly help any.
"I got it! I got it!" Someone yelled, running towards the fire and pouring their drink over it in an attempt to put it out. This man was obviously drunk. The flames didn't decrease, they only increased.
"You dumbass!" Gilbert yelled. "What the hell are you doing?!" The man gave no response, so Gilbert shook his head and yelled, "Everyone! To the lifeboats!" People started crowding and pushing and shoving each other. "Hey! One at a time! One at a time!" Of course, they all ignored Gilbert. Even with his little chick Gilbird chirping directions here and there, it was still useless.
Ludwig, trapped within the chaos, tried to get to a lifeboat as well. At first, he just wanted to break free from all these people, but the flames were slowly creeping around the ship and swallowing everything in sight, turning the night sky orange and setting it ablaze with fiery fury. So Ludwig pushed and shoved past everyone to try and get to a lifeboat as well, but someone shoved him back. And another person. And another. Pretty soon, his legs were being pressed against the railing and his body leaning back. Someone shoved past another, and that caused a chain reaction that ultimately resulted in a humungous push on Ludwig. This knocked him overboard.
Ludwig, being the businessman that he was, had never bothered to learn to swim. It's ironic, because he's lived by the sea his entire life. He never really thought that he'd need too. But he was wrong. Right now, he needed to swim, but he couldn't.
The last thing that Ludwig remembered hearing was Gilbert's voice calling out his name, wanting him...needing him...silently praying for him to be alright as Ludwig fell into the churning, freezing abyss below. It swallowed him whole, and before he had known it his whole world had gone mute. All that he could hear was the silence.
Ludwig's first instinct was to struggle, to try and break the surface and gasp and fill his lungs with much needed oxygen. He waved his arms and legs around frantically, unsure exactly of how this whole swimming thing and staying afloat worked. Ludwig continued to kick and punch the water in an attempt to break from its grasp, but it made no difference.
His eyes widened and his body jerked in one final movement to try and reach the surface. Ludwig saw the squiggly form of his pirate brother's ship. People were running around frantically, some trying to save him and others were just trying to get to safety. But it didn't matter to Ludwig what anyone did, because his vision suddenly faded to black as his eyelids closed and his movements became still. His heart rate slowed in a feeble attempt to keep the rest of his vital organs alive for as long as they could hold out.
Ludwig sank deeper and deeper into the lion's den, patiently awaiting and accepting his death.
Suddenly, he felt a gentle touch on each one of his shoulders. Ludwig used the last bit of strength that he had to peek open his eyes ever so slightly.
He wasn't sure if what he saw was just his weary mind or if it was reality. What he saw was a mermaid. And a very beautiful one, at that. She had an aquamarine tail that gently shifted through the water behind her, and her breasts had what looked like natural scales on them that were the same beautiful color as her amazing tail. Her long, curly brown hair complemented her stunning amber eyes, which seemed to be staring directly into his icy blue orbs. Her caring and loving face watched his blank, emotionless one.
At first, Ludwig thought that he was dreaming, because she seemed so.../perfect/ that she just couldn't be real. But when she brushed the back of her hand over his cheek to caress it, Ludwig knew that it had to be real. The way her supernatural and angelic touch felt against his mortal, human skin was a jolt like no other. It sent his nerves crazy, and he could've sworn he felt a small smile creep onto his face.
He must've smiled, because the mermaid's face lit up. It turned from caring and loving to happy and youthful. She giggled - well, as much as one can giggle when one is under the water - and smiled back at him with a huge and beautiful smile, her teeth glittering like her tail was in the midnight moonlight that shone down through the water.
That's right! Water! Ludwig began to panic again, remembering that he was drowning and once again feeling his lungs screaming and burning, yearning for air.
The panic he felt must've crossed his face, because the mermaid's face also held panic and worry. But perhaps she was afraid for another reason, because she snatched her hand from his face and shoulder, and immediately turned tail and quickly swam away into the depths of the ocean, slowly fading out of Ludwig's sight.
He began to panic even more as a dark shadow crossed over him and a large, rough hand grasped his left shoulder tightly. Another hand grabbed his right. They pulled and heaved, eventually dragging Ludwig to the surface and into the small life boat. Ludwig laid there, unable to react or move anymore. His eyelids had closed on him, for they had felt heavy. Neither was he breathing. His chest felt as though he had a three hundred pound man sitting on it. His heart had just about slowed to a stop, but then Ludwig felt a fist being forcibly jabbed into him. His body jerked and he gasped, his eyes shooting open. He rolled onto his stomach and started coughing up water and taking in quick, huge gasps of air.
"Brüder!" Ludwig heard Gilbert yell at him, even though they were in the same lifeboat. "A-are you okay?!"
Ludwig continued to cough up water, and when he finally finished, he turned to his older brother and nodded, an unreadable expression on his face. "Yes, n-now."
"Don't be so rude to the boy!" Francis scolded. He took off his frock coat and placed it on Ludwig's shoulders. "He's soaking wet!"
He grabbed the edges and pulled it closer to him. The gesture was greatly appreciated. "Thank you, Francis." Ludwig looked to see whom else was in the lifeboat with him, Francis, and Gilbert. It was only Antonio. Ludwig looked out onto the ocean and saw a few other boats, and saw the remaining survivors: Berwald, Tino, Sadiq, and Ivan in one, Feliks, Toris, Eduard, and Raivis in another, and Mathias, Lukas, Emil, and Vash in the last. Quite the grouping, to say the least.
"Let's get you home, Luddy," Gilbert placed his arm around Ludwig to keep his brother warm as Francis and Antonio graciously rowed them to shore.
"Gil..." Ludwig started, unsure how exactly to tell this to his brother.
"Yeah?" Gilbert responded, awaiting to hear what his younger brother had to say.
"Um...w-when I was in the water, I saw...I-I saw a mermaid."
At this, Gilbert threw his head back and laughed. So did Francis and Antonio. "A...a mermaid?" Gilbert asked, still laughing.
"Eso es una locura!" Antonio laughed.
"Oui, fou!" Francis laughed.
"B-brüder, what makes you think that you saw a mermaid?" Gilbert asked, his laughter dying down but the huge smile from ear to ear remaining. "I mean, come on! Eine meerjungfrau?"
"But it's true!" Ludwig protested. "I did see eine meerjungfrau! She had a tail and everything!"
"Was she topless~?" Francis asked.
Ludwig thought for a moment. "Well...not exactly. She had pretty scales over her breasts." He paused. "Which were huge, by the way!"
Gilbert rested a hand on his younger brother's back, the smile still on his face. "Brüder, I think that the cold water is getting to you."
Antonio nodded. "Sí, we should get you home as soon as possible."
Once they had arrived on shore, like the others, Gilbert, Francis, and Antonio walked Ludwig to his and his fiancé's house. Ludwig's parents and his fiancé's were quite wealthy, and this arranged marriage was supposed to combine the two households, thus adding to the funds and becoming more powerful. But there was one problem Ludwig had. He didn't love her. Not even as a friend. She was that terrible! She always complains, is extremely clingy, throws a tantrum when she doesn't get her way, expects Ludwig to do everything for her, is very obsessive, is always yelling at him...the list goes on and on. But Ludwig had to be nice to her and pretended he loved her, because his parents would disinherit him if he didn't marry her. At least she's a really stupid, because then she can think that Ludwig's fake love is real.
Gilbert knocked on their front door, and it immediately opened, revealing a pissed off woman with long brown hair that's in a ponytail. Her big brown eyes, the same color as her hair, stared at him in first anger, then shock.
"Where have you been?! And why are you soaking wet? What happened?" She yelled in her Italian accented voice.
"Hallo liebling," Ludwig sighed.
"You know that I don't like it when you speak German! I can't understand you!" She shut her eyes sighed angrily, like she was frustrated at the entire world. "Here, come inside." Ludwig, Gilbert, Francis, and Antonio walked inside, but Ludwig's fiancé shooed the trio out, saying that she needed some private time with her husband. They left, but not before Ludwig handed Francis his frock coat.
"But liebling, we're not even married," Ludwig told her once she shut the front door.
"Luddy! You're doing it again!" She said as she angrily walked past him.
"Still! Why do you go around calling me your husband?" Ludwig followed her with long strides.
"Because we're getting married in a only a few short months!"
"But Daisy-"
"Enough of this!" She interrupted him. "I want you to tell me exactly what you were doing and how you got so wet!"
Ludwig and Daisy entered their bedroom and she threw him a new pair of clothes. Ludwig got dressed in them as he explained.
"Gilbert was throwing a party for me on his ship, and-"
"Why were you on his ship?! Why didn't you tell me?! What was this party for?! Were there women?!"
Ludwig used all the self control he had to not yell at her as he continued. "And then it caught fire. A few people died, but everyone that I knew got out safely."
"Well then why're you-"
Ludwig gritted his teeth. "I'm soaking wet because I fell overboard." He didn't want to say 'pushed' because Lord knows what she's do to whoever pushed him. "Because I don't know how to swim, I almost drowned. But Gilbert, Francis, and Antonio saved me just in time." He decided not to tell her about the mermaid either, because if he told her about that other woman, who was practically naked and was touching him, she would hire every fisherman in town to find and destroy her. She would go that far.
Daisy pointed her finger at Ludwig. "It's a good thing that they saved you! You should be more careful!"
"Ja, ja." He rolled his eyes and started to walk out of the room.
She followed him close behind. "I mean, what if you had /drowned/?! Then what would I have done?!"
"Ja, ja..."
"So that's why you're going to learn go to swim."
Ludwig stopped dead in his tracks and Daisy bumped into him. He spun around to face her. "What?!"
"You are going to learn to swim," she said slowly. "Tomorrow you'll go down to the beach and teach yourself."
"Myself?!"
"Of course! I have no time to find someone and I'm certainly not going to teach you, because I'm way to busy with planning my wedding!"
Ludwig shut his eyes in frustration. "Don't you mean /our/ wedding?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah. That." She paused. "Anyways, I'm going out with the girls to get my wedding dress." As she was in the bedroom with Ludwig, she had put on her coat. Her purse was there by the door, and she grabbed it and walked out. "See ya, Luddy~!"
Once the door was safely shut, Ludwig sighed loudly and exclaimed, "Oh mein Gott!"