A//N: Wow, it's finally here. Joy! Enjoy the chapter! Review for me, and tell me how horrible it is. ((hopefully it's not really horrible...))

This chapter is a Fai chapter while, next chapter will be a Sakura chapter.

I'm not sure how long this strange little story will be yet, hopefully not too long.

Deep beneath the waves, deep down in the ocean blue there is life. Not just things like the fish and the seahorses, but intelligent life. Humans occasionally come across this life and dubbed them mermaids.

Even so, no matter what the humans called them these creatures all had a few things in common. One of these things is the most obvious, the human-like upper body and the fish-like lower body. Another one of these similarities is their beauty. All mermaids are as beautiful as the most beautiful human female in face and in their long thin figures. This is why even if a human came across a male of the species they believed it to be a woman, thus mermaids.

There was something else about mermaids that was known to be true for all of them; their belts. At birth every mermaid was given a belt made of the sea's finery's. This belt was far more than a classy accessory. This belt held the mermaid's very soul. It held its talents, its age, its sexuality, its power, its strength, its weakness, and most importantly its life force. The belt was also an indicator of social status among the mermaids, the longer the belt, the more power you held within your body, and along with it the higher your social status.

This being the indicator it made things much more fair among the mermaids. It didn't matter what family you came from, it only mattered how long your belt was.

Even so, even the shortest of belts had the power to grant at least one wish to humans. All mermaids know that humans are greedy little creatures and as such beings if they ever got a hold of a mermaids belt they would rather deny the mermaid their belt and the right to live and sell the belt for gold than to give the belt back and feel good about it for the rest of their days. So, the mermaid would often give the human a choice: Take the belt and let them die, or wish for something in exchange for the belt. The mermaids did this in hope that the greedy human would wish for lots of gold and then give back the belt, but more often than not this was not how it worked.

To a human, wishing for a beautiful human bride who does not need a belt to live is worth more than gold or the belt alone...

Keep this in mind as our story goes forward.

"Are you sure you have something that will help?" The two children with butterfly wings looked up at the blond mermaid who smiled down at them.

The two butterfly children looked similar, but not in the way twins did. One had short pink hair and the other long blue hair. At one time they had been simple butterfly fish, but the Queen of the mermaids had taken them and given them a new form that would enable them to better serve her. She had even given them names. Maru and Moro.

They were her eyes and her hands when she herself could or would not go out, such was the case at a time like this.

The blond was quite different. Sunshine colored hair with blue eyes that matched his tail. Like all mermaid's his face was beautiful and he had a long body. Over his torso he wore a light blue shirt that would have been illegal if he was of a lower rank. Only high mermaid's with a lot of power such as himself were allowed to wear movement restricting clothes. Over one shoulder he carried a messenger bag that was filled with something that seemed to almost bulge out with items, yet was apparently light enough to threaten to float away from him if he didn't hold onto it. Around his waist was a long set of pearls and shells. The strings wrapped around him at least three times and the ends were still long enough that his webbed fingers played with them as he watched.

This was the Sea Wizard, Fai. Even though he'd only inherited the title a few years ago, it was fabled that his magic was so strong that he could even get out of a human's wish, if his belt were ever stolen. It was also fabled that his belt was longer than the Queen's and that he should be the ruler instead. Both of these were untrue, and even if they hadn't...Fai had no desire to rule. The Queen gave him free reign of his magic and life and in return he did favors with his magic when the Queen wouldn't experiment with her own magic. Just like right now.

"Of course. I've developed this just for the Queen." Fai laughed as he reached into his bag and pulled out a bubble which he offered it to the butterflies. "I know that when she gets like this that it storms on the surface and that's not good...I hope her hangover dies down quickly after she pops the bubble...I haven't perfected the charm yet so it may have a couple side-effects. Be sure to tell her that?"

"Of course." Their voices rung out in unison as they carefully took the bubble away from Fai's outstretched hands. "The Queen owes you a favor."

Fai grinned. "The Queen owes me a lot of favors." His tone was joking, but he wasn't in reality. The Queen did owe him a lot of favors. Fai figured that since he currently had nothing he wanted that if he kept saving up he'd be able to ask for a huge favor later. "Swim well. Moro. Maru."

"Yes, Wizard Fai."

The blond waved them off with his grin and pulled his bag of bubble charms back to his shoulder. He looked to his wrist as if he had a watch to look at, but shook his head and instead looked up to the surface of the ocean. With one look Fai knew it was time to go home for the day. The sky was dark, and whether that meant it was night or whether it meant that the Queen was really hungover it was time to go home and sleep unless the darkness went away.

"Sakura!" Fai called out into the town square. "It's time to go home!" A faint voice answered him in a shy, but agreeing tone, and the grinning wizard turned around and left the middle of the small town that many of the civilized mermaids lived in.

He did not live here. He usually came here during the day to sell his bubbles, or to help people, or to talk, or to help his 'daughter' Sakura, or to do any of the many many things that a person such as himself had the liberty to do. Fai lived out by the coral reef and by swimming it took about ten minutes to get there from where he was. Unfortunately for him he only got halfway there.

Fai's head sharply turned when he saw something sinking down out of the corner of his eye. What was it? He squinted and gasped. "A human?!" He dropped his charm bag and swam quickly up and up to where the human was and grabbed onto him. It was hard to pull. Not only was the man heavy and Fai light, but swimming upward that quickly didn't give him the Benz but it did make his head very light from the lack of pressure. "Come on...don't drown..."

Fai struggled and struggled until he finally was able to get the man to the surface. It was really storming...the Queen hadn't popped his charm yet... "Please...be breathing..." Fai very clumsily looked the man over to make sure he was breathing before a wave overtook him for a moment. "Ack! Oh that's cold..." Fai shivered and looked around. "Where's your watercraft?! You didn't just fall from the sky! Even I know that!"

A whimper escaped Fai's lips as he realized that if he wanted this person to live he was either going to have to search for an unknown watercraft, or drag this heavy man around until he found even the smallest rock. Fai wanted the man to live.

Like most mermaids are Fai had a kind heart and wanted good things for people the last thing any mermaid wanted for a man to drown...although some drowned men when they forgot that they couldn't breathe underwater, but that was becoming much less and less.

The Queen herself had saved a young man from a storm! She'd even given him the ability to breathe under the water...although the Queen kept the poor boy there because he could speak to fish and even starfish...something not even Fai or the Queen could do...

Fai whimpered even more and hugged the man tightly as if he were a mother protecting her child from a barking dog. "I'm sorry..." Fai whispered. "I don't think there's much hope for you...not unless some miracle happens." Just then Fai eeped when he felt the water make a great lurch and an equally great wave came up. Fai gasped and held onto the man even tighter. "I never realized how much Queen Yuuko hates her hangovers!"

The wave swept them way off course from where they'd been and then... "Ouch!" Fai's back scratched against something hard. Sand? But he knew he was above water...land! Fai struggled to breathe, not because of the fact he wasn't touching water, but because the man was on top of him and as Fai had noticed before...he was heavy! After much effort Fai managed to get him off at last and sprawled out against the sand his chest heaving from the strain.

After a minute Fai got his breathing to a normal rate again and he sat up looking to the human. They weren't far enough up on land that the human wouldn't be out of the sea's reach. This meant more pulling... The wizard groaned and reached out to start the tedious job.

"There you are!" Fai reached out and took the floating charm bag. "I'm so glad I charmed you to not float too far away!" He hugged the bag to him and sighed contentedly as he began to swim home at last. He was exhausted. If he hadn't been tired before this thing with the human he was practically falling asleep now.

As he reached the colorful coral reef he resided in he sat the bag down in its proper place. He swam as quietly as he could to a small cave and looked inside, there was Sakura, fast asleep. She was a good child, always doing what he told her to.

The wizard yawned and sorta zigzagged off to the area where he slept. He settled down on his stomach and closed his eyes...he shifted. He shifted again before his eyes opened again. Something was wrong.

The blond sat up and patted himself down from the top of his head all the way down to his waist...everything was there...no it wasn't. Panic arose in Fai when he realized what was missing. "My belt! I-it could be anywhere!" Fai put his hands tightly against his mouth to stop some form of a scream or a yelp from leaving it. He'd never lost his belt before! His life could be slipping away at any moment depending on how long he'd been missing it!

The wizard got up and swam at top speed no matter how long it bad been missing...

"Come now Fai...this is your only other option. It has to be up there, you've scoured the ocean until it's sparkled with cleanliness...so it can't be in the sea right? It has to be with that human..." Fai paced back and forth just under the waters surface. After a minute the mermaid took in a deep, deep breath and stuck his head up above the surface and stared at the island for a minute before going back down.

"He has it!" This was supposed to be good news, and yet the tone was unhappy and the blond beat at his head with his hands. "And he's awake! This is bad!" Fai said the word bad about 1000 times over before he forced himself to stop. The more time he waisted here the less time he had alive.

"Okay, you can do this! Just...swim up to him and demand the belt! Don't even mention the wish!" Fai nodded. "After all, he's a deserted island! He has no reason to not give it to me! He has no use for gold! Or a bride!" These were of course just pipe dreams and Fai knew they were just pipe dreams, but it was all the wizard could tell himself to make him swim up to the shallow waters of the island and rest near the shore and call out.

"E-excuse me? Mr..." Fai squinted his eyes at the human. "Mr. Black? Mr. Red?" Mermaids were given their last name by the color of their tail, for example Fai's full name was Fai Blue. However the human did not have a tail and thus Fai had to guess by eye or hair color...

The human jumped and turned around to Fai to look at him as if he'd never seen anything quite like him. "What the hell are you?!"

"Um..." Fai frowned. "Mr.Black-Red? That belt you're holding...it's mine. I need it back." Fai's webbed hands reached out for the belt as if expecting it to be placed in his hands immediately.

"It's Kurogane!"

"So Mr. Black then? Kuro...Black..." Fai waved his hand in circles dramatically.

This just seemed to piss the human off more. "It's Kurogane Flourite!"

"So...Mr...Flourite?" Fai tilted his head and frowned.

"Yes."

Fai smiled slightly. "Such a strange last name...Flourite isn't a color." He chuckled darkly remembering what he was here for. "At any rate, I really need that belt now."

Kurogane looked at the belt, then at Fai and smirked. "This is a mermaid's belt...so if it's yours then you must be a mermaid. So tell me...what are you going to grant me?"

Fai wrinkled his nose, hoping that this human, unlike most humans, was an idiot. "Yes, I'm a mermaid, but why should I grant you something?"

"Isn't it true that a mermaid's belt holds their power and sexuality?"

"That and a whole bunch more..." Fai sighed. "So you know about the wish deal, most sailors that find these things do...what do you want?"

Kurogane reached out and lifted Fai's face up slightly so that he could see it. "The legends are true. Your folk are truly very beautiful...if you know your own tales...you should know exactly what I wish for."

"Are you sure? Right now I can guarantee with utmost certainty that you will regret it." Fai wanted to growl, this had not gone at all like his pipe dream. He had truly at least hoped to get his belt back without having to be bound to the land first!

"With a beauty like you? I doubt it."

Fai grumbled and pulled away. Then smiled, wait, wait, if he granted this wish and then the human found out he was male, then he might give him the belt back just to get rid of the fact that he was bound to a man. This too was a pipe dream, but Fai had to keep thinking positive or this was going to kill him quite quickly. What with the learning to walk and the learning of human customs and the doing of this and that...Fai knew that if he didn't get his belt back quickly, this sailor was going unintentionally send him to an early grave.

As Far retreated back into the water to grant the human his wish Fai started to think of other ways to get Kurogane sick enough of him to give him back his belt. The humans were clever, and if he wanted to return here, Fai had to be more clever.