I got the idea for this when reading another Hey Arnold! story converted into the Little Mermaid, but I prefer the classic version of fairy tales to the Disney version. So, this is my take on the two, complete with happy or unhappy ending, depending on your view.

AU, obviously, and they are older teens/young adult in the story with Lila as the mermaid and Arnold as the prince.

This is the traditional story, and as such is a Tragedy, and not a Love story.

Pairings: Lila & Arnold, Helga & Arnold

Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid is public domain

Wishing I owned Hey Arnold! but I don't and Craig Bartlett/Nickelodeon do

Far out in the ocean- where the water is deep and blue, well below the depths any man dare try to reach, there lay a vast kingdom. This kingdom was much like any you may see up on dry land. But, this kingdom was not like any other kingdom in that it was entirely underwater. The kingdom had grand buildings, built of shells and pearls, and great gardens for all who lived there. As a bird may fly from one tree to another, here a fish would do the same.

Outside of the city, there were farms as far as you could swim in any direction. One of these farms was in an area known as Pleasantville, known as such because all who lived there were gentle and kind and all around pleasant. This farm was occupied by a loving father who worked their kelp farm alone, for his wife had passed, and his doting daughter.

Her name was Lila.

Lila was a lovely girl; her skin was fair and perfect, with dainty freckles under her bright eyes. She had red hair, which she wove into two plaits on either side of her face to keep out of her way when she helped her father. Where her legs should be was instead a long and graceful tail, like a fish, it shimmered a bright emerald color as she swam through the fields.

She would go out with her friends and explore shipwrecks, and occasionally bring home a trinket to decorate the house or garden with. They had pretended, when they were younger, what it would be like to have lived above the water and use the ships. One by one, her friends became old enough to become adults, and on your first day as an adult, you are allowed to go up to the surface. She would listen to her friends speak of the birds, the boats, the beaches. She waited for the day it would be her turn; and until then, she listened. She heard tales of the sunrise. Of children, without tails, swimming in the water. Of cities along the water and the plants that grew. One friend had even swam up the mouth of a river and seen a great forest and mountain, and another sat on an iceberg. She heard tales of fearful storms, the kind that would send more ships to the land below where more children would explore and play.

The day came, finally, when it was Lila's turn. "This will be ever so lovely," she thought to herself. She swam to the surface and made it to the top in time to see a large ship being boarded by more people than she had hoped to see on her trip. She heard a noise and saw a large chain pulling up along the ship and she grabbed on, then pulled herself over to the side until she found an opening where she could watch the people up close. They were having a party, and she could hear the music and smell their food. "I wish I could taste their food and dance with them, just once. It would be ever so nice," she sighed. She turned her back on the party for a minute and stared off into the sunset. It was purple and red and yellow, "Ever so perfect." She turned back when everyone started singing, and saw that they were celebrating for a young man. The ship now had colored lanterns decorating the ship, lighting it up like fish in a reef.

BOOM!

She fell from her ledge in surprise. With her head up again, she could see the surface of the water was lit up red. Then green. Then yellow. She looked up. She did not know what she was looking at, but they appeared to be great anemone in the sky - a bright flash of light, then gone again. She sat there, bobbing up and down with the water, watching the sky and listening to the people enjoying the lights. They were the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. None of her friends had told a story with something like this. She felt a cold breeze, followed by a warm stillness, then she heard it. A great rumbling. There was shouting on the ship and it started turning back to shore.

But they were too late, the storm was nearly on them, and the sea was bucking. The moon was gone and the only light game in bright flashes that crashed down around them. Water was pouring down from the sky and the light was crashing down closer and the clouds were growling. She could feel their anger inside her body, but as she was about to go under and swim away the ship was hit by one of the great flashes of light. There were screams and bright orange light appeared from the deck. She thought she saw something fall, so she got a little closer to the ship to see what it was. Maybe it was something she could put in her garden to remind her of her time above. Something had fallen, but she could not keep it. It was the boy.

"He will surely die if I leave him, for they cannot breathe underwater," she said to herself. "That would just be ever so tragic." But she could not get him back on the ship. The people could not hear her over the storm, and even if they could, she was not supposed to just let them see her. She pulled him up and swam back to shore, but away from the ship and the storm. She got him to shore, but could not tell if this was near where he had come from or not. He was still asleep. She could not get further up shore, and stayed with him the night to make sure he was not pulled back into the water.

She saw the sun rise up above the mountains and trees and fine buildings in the beautiful city, and she could not decide if this was more or less beautiful than the sunset from the night before. Up close, she was able to look at the boy now that the sun was out. "Your hair is the color of the sand," she said, brushing it out of his face, "but the shape of your head is ever so odd." She stayed on the beach, curious about his clothing, and his legs. She removed his shoe and saw that his leg had quite a strange looking hand on it. "I wonder what they use those hands for?" She went back up to his face and held open on of his eyes. "I do hope that he wakes up, it would be ever so sad if I sat here all night and wasted my trip waiting for him." She started to sing to herself while playing with his hair and taking in some sun. The water lapping up over her tail was cold, and the sun on her back was warm. It felt like happiness and she wished she could stay on the beach longer than her day would allow.

She heard him moan and his eyes began to flutter. She let go and allowed the water to pull her back in. She swam behind a rocky area of tide pools and watched him. She heard more people and was glad to have left when she did, "That was ever so close," she said quietly. A group of girls in long plain robes were walking along the beach and singing quietly. One girl stopped and screamed, then ran to the boy. The girls surrounded him and sat him up and he started coughing. She said a silent goodbye, as not many merfolk get to ever be so close to a person like she was, and she swam home.