Chapter Two: Powers

"Hoooooly fucking shit what actual the hell?!"

Tino cursed at the top of his voice as he slipped into the bath. Thankfully, he always brought his iPod dock into the bathroom with him when bathing, so the loud song he was listening to drowned him out. His mouth hung open, the colour drained from his face as he observed a new… addition to his body.

Upon stepping into the warm bath water, a sudden rush surged through Tino's body, causing his skin to prickle over. He felt as light as a feather for a few moments as his body momentarily took the form of water before his legs and lower body were replaced with a long, golden scaly tail. It extended at twice the length that his legs normally were and hung over the rim of the bath, almost brushing the ground. Tino cautiously reached out a trembling hand to touch it, flinching at the way it felt. At his touch, the feeling in his lower half felt normal, as if his normal legs were being touched, but his fingertips felt something foreign; something smooth and scaly. He tried to move and found it surprisingly easy. It was just like moving his legs, except the muscles in his new tail contracted instead, causing the fanned tip to curl up.

He leaned forward and leant reached out his hand to grab the tip as he curled it in. It felt a little different than the rest of it did. It was a lot rougher and stronger. It was shaped almost like the end of a goldfish tail, but was much stronger and it fanned out, getting thinner towards the tips.

Tino's mouth still hung agape, his lips and tongue going dry. He lay back and stared at the ceiling in stunned silence.

Suddenly he heard a knock on the door.

"Tino? Are you still in here? You're going to be late for your first day at school. Are you decent?"

Shit, it was his mother.

"No! I'm not decent! Uhh, just give me a minute! I'll be out soon!"

"Okay.. I want you downstairs on 20 minutes if you want a lift."

And with that, she left him and returned back downstairs.

"Fuck." Tino sighed and laid his head back on the bath rim and stared helplessly up at the ceiling.

"Do you think he'll be at our school?"

Emil rubbed his sleepy eyes as he padded out of his and Lukas' shared room. Their families' house was large and quite spacious, but with only two bedrooms since the third one was being used as a study. The two brothers didn't really mind sharing that much, but there were times when one of them ended up sleeping downstairs on the couch after a disagreement.

It was a nice house, very cabin-like and nautical; the outside built from white planks of white washed wood that were slowly starting to peel from the wind and sea air coming in from the ocean over the years. It wasn't hard to tell that it was a house that belonged to a fisherman and his small family. Emil and Lukas headed into the bathroom to get ready for school.

"Do I think who will be at our school?"

Lukas asked, still half asleep, as he stepped over to the basin first and began to drag a brush through his hair.

"Uhh... Tino? The guy who nearly got us killed yesterday?"

Lukas narrowed his eyes at Emil in the mirror and pulled a face as he tied his hair back loosely with a hairband. It only just pulled back into a small ponytail that sat high on his head and looked a little silly, but it was great for keeping his hair off his face when he splashed his face clean with the soapy water.

"I know who that is, no need to be sassy."

Emil simply rolled his eyes and joined Lukas by the sink. He reached across the basin to grab his toothbrush just as Lukas was about to wet his face with water.

"Emil, could you not just wait for two seconds while I wash my face? Then I'll be out of your way."

Muttering in annoyance, Emil put the lid down on the toilet and sat down in a huff, chin in hand and stared out of the window. "I might as well go take a dip in the sea instead; it would be a lot quicker."

"Oi, I heard th- .. shit!"

Emil's head snapped away from the window when he heard a slapping sound, as if Lukas had slipped and gone crashing to the ground. (Served him right for taking forever.) As soon as he laid eyes on Lukas, who was indeed on the floor though he wasn't quite his usual self, he jumped up onto the toilet seat and stood there observing the scene before him.

Where Lukas's legs should be, there was a long, scaly tail! It was a very light blue, almost silver and the tips faded out to black. Emil felt his mouth go dry as he watched Lukas struggle to sit himself up. He'd fallen face first, so it was actually rather comical, if not a little disturbing seeing him try to turn himself over onto his back, without use of his lower body, so that he could at least sit up.

Hesitantly, Emil stepped down from the toilet and slowly made his way over to Lukas, reaching out a shaking hand toward him.

"Lukas… Is this some kind of joke?"

Lukas felt a wave of guilt wash over him as he heard the slight hesitation and fear in Emil's voice. He felt bad for causing Emil to be afraid, that was something he never wanted his little brother to feel especially if he was the one causing it, although he was utterly terrified himself. In a matter of seconds his entire lower body had been replaced of that of a fish!

"No. This isn't a joke Emil, I don't know what the hell just happened. Don't… Don't touch me for a minute okay?"

Just then, water came cascading from the sink and began to pool around Lukas and Emil. Quickly, Emil scrambled to turn the tap off that was left running in the sink, but he struggled to reach it as Lukas was lay in his path. Lukas tried to move out of Emil's way but accidentally sent him crashing to the ground also with a sudden jerk of his new tail. He'd completely lost control of his lower body. Emil hissed in pain as he collided with the slippery tile floor. He sat still for a few seconds, trying to process exactly what was happening when he felt a tingling sensation in his feet and legs. At first he told himself it was just his body reacting to his heavy fall, but he soon found out that was not the case when his whole body suddenly turned weightless for no more than a split second. Once he had returned back to what he thought would be normal, he looked down his body in horror at a deep blue tail of his very own. He stared for a moment in shock, before he suddenly started bawling like a baby.

"Lukas, what's happening to me!?" He sniffled out between sobs.

Lukas hushed him frantically, sliding as close as he could to his brother and took hold of his hand.

"Emil, shhh! Please try to calm down, we don't want mom or dad to come up here to see what's going on. I'm scared too."

Emil nodded and he muffled his sobs with his free hand until they had stopped completely. There was silence for a few moments while the two boys caught up with what was happening before Lukas spoke again.

"It happened as soon as we got wet. I splashed water on my face and you got wet from slipping on the floor. Plus, I've read about Mermaids being able to walk on land once they're completely dry. I say we try to dry ourselves and see what happens from there." Lukas said like it was a matter of fact and gave Emil's hand another squeeze before reaching up and dragging two towels down from the towel rack on the wall. He handed one to Emil and they began to dry both themselves and the floor as quickly as they could.

A small smile appeared on Emil's lips as he shook his head at his brother.

"You and your folklore."

Lukas had just sat down at his desk and was searching through the contents of his backpack when the room suddenly grew quieter. He looked up to see Tino stood awkwardly in the doorway, fiddling with the bottom of his tie. The two made eye contact and Lukas jerked his head in a motion that told Tino to come and sit in the empty seat behind him. Tino weaved in and out of the desks until he reached Lukas's desk and sat down with a content sigh.

"I'm so glad that you're in my class. I thought I would have to sit alone all day like the new kid that I am!"

Glancing around, he saw that a few other kids in the class were staring, so quickly he tore a strip of paper from Lukas's notebook, receiving an outraged look from the owner, and scribbling a note on it. Lukas snatched it from him and read it.

'got something I need to tell you later :s'

Lukas studied Tino's face for a moment before adding to the note.

'Me too.'

"Hey, Lukas! Who's your friend?" Andrei, Lukas' classmate from art class, tapped on his shoulder from the desk behind.

"He's sat right there. Why don't you ask him yourself?"

Turning around in his seat, Tino smiled at Andrei and introduced himself.

"I'm Tino. I just moved here a couple of weeks ago. And you are..?"

"Andrei. Nice to meetcha." Andrei replied with a large grin as he sat back in his chair.

"So how do you know Fishboy over there?" Andrei nodded over at Lukas.

"What? F-Fishboy?" Tino's eyes darted over to Lukas whose head snapped up from doodling in his notebook and stared straight at the wall ahead, eyes wide, not daring to turn around.

Andrei laughed and nodded toward Lukas. "Yeah! The fisherman's son, Lukas!"

The pair breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

"Oh! Umm… We met a while back. Uh, our parents know each other. Isn't that right, Lukas?"

Still not turning around, Lukas nodded his head. Thankfully Andrei bought it and the conversation dropped when he pulled out his phone to respond to a text message. Tino turned back to face forward and slumped a little in his chair as their teacher walked into the classroom.

"Alright class. I hope you all had a nice break, but we have a test in two weeks-" The room filled with moans and 'ughh's "-and we need to go over the materials. Come on, textbooks out!"

After what felt like the longest 50 minutes possible, the students began to file out of the classroom and to their lockers to prepare for the next class. Lukas and Tino were amongst the first to leave the classroom, Lukas taking Tino by the wrist and leading him over to his locker quickly.

"You'll never believe what happened to me this morning!" Tino said; his voice low. Lukas looked over his shoulder to see if anyone was listening.

"I don't want to believe you, but I do. The same thing happened to me and Emil."

Tino's eyes widened. "Both of you!?"

Lukas hushed him. "Yes! Both of us. A couple of seconds after our skin came into contact with water-"

"We grew these…"

"Tails."

The two were silent for a moment before Tino began to laugh. He leaned back against the lockers and stared at the ceiling. Lukas opened his locker and began to gather the books he would need for his next class and put them in his bag.

"We shouldn't mention this to anyone. Not even our parents." Lukas and slammed his locker closed.

"What are we not mentioning?"

Lukas jumped and placed a hand over his heart as a tall blonde approached him from behind and placed his hands on his shoulders. Then he closed his eyes for a moment and sighed.

"Mathias… you're so annoying."

Mathias was considerably taller than both Lukas and Tino, and he seemed to personalise everything that he could about his school uniform. The sleeves on his shirt and blazer were rolled up to the elbows, the top two buttons of his shirt were undone, his tie completely missing and a pair of sunglasses rested on his head amongst his mass of wild hair. Still with his hands on Lukas's shoulders, Mathias moved Lukas aside and approached Tino.

"Who's this then?"

He placed his palm against the lockers and casually leaned against them. Lukas answered his question before Tino could get a word in.

"His name's Tino. He's new so I thought I'd show him around."

Mathias spun around quickly on his heel and acted at being shocked, placing a hand over his open mouth comically.

"What? Our Lukas, actually being friendly towards a stranger? I can't believe this!"

The two continued to bicker, Mathias winding Lukas up playfully and in return Lukas fired out sarcastic replies. Tino watched the two in amusement and didn't notice someone stop beside him until Lukas peered over Mathias's shoulder and acknowledged them.

"Oh, Berwald."

Tino turned and looked up at the face of the person standing next to him and nearly had a heart attack.

"Woah!" He jumped back against the lockers at the sight of the harsh glare coming from behind thin wire framed glasses. "Uhhh… Hi?"

"Hello." Berwald nodded at him.

Tino looked back and forth between Berwald and Mathias and Lukas while they carried on their conversation. Tino decided he should say something to Berwald to break the silence while he waited for Lukas to show him to his next class.

Like Mathias, Berwald was a lot taller than Lukas and Tino, but unlike Mathias he looked more down to earth and serious. He wore his tie at the correct length, top button on his shirt done up and the shirt tucked in neatly. His long arms hung loosely by his side and to be honest, he looked really nerdy. It was kind of cute.

"So…" Tino swung his arms by his sides and rocked back and forth on his heels a little, feeling awkward and at a loss for words.

"You're new." Berwald said bluntly. "Name?"

"My name? Oh, It's Tino."

"Tino…" Berwald tried out the name, the pronunciation of it sounding odd in his heavy accent.

"I'm Berwald."

"I know."

Tino giggled a little, finding Berwalds' stoic behaviour amusing.

It turned out that Mathias and Berwald were in the next class together with Tino and Lukas. Slowly, Tino began to learn more about them. It wasn't hard to tell that Mathias had an obvious crush on Lukas, and that Lukas wasn't at all interested. Despite this though, they appeared to be good friends underneath all of the teasing and sarcastic comebacks. They sat together at the desk in front of Tino, neither of them not really paying attention to the lesson and instead they were doodling on each other's hands with their biro pens like little kids.

Trying not to let them distract him, Tino focused on taking notes and listening to the lecture that their chemistry teacher was giving them about how to form a covalent bond. Although he felt like he was doing a good job at keeping focused and setting a good first impression of himself to his teachers, he couldn't help but feel a prickling on his back, as if someone was watching him. Turning around slightly and looking over his shoulder he noticed Berwald staring at him from his seat at the back of the room. He jumped at the sight and yelped a little under his breath before snapping his head back to stare down at his notes. What was his problem? Why did he keep staring like that? Sure, he seemed nice enough, but he was a bit weird. Okay, maybe more than a bit, but Tino wasn't one to judge! He just wished he would quit staring at him!

Berwald noticed that he had made Tino uncomfortable, so instead he averted his gaze, placed his chin in his palm and looked out of the window. I guess you could say that Berwald was a bit of an introvert and enjoyed people watching. He found his classmates' conversations interesting and liked listening to them to keep himself entertained when he was away from his friends and a little out of his comfort zone.

Usually he wasn't separated from Mathias and Lukas like this, and he only had three classes per week where he was away from them; two where he was sat on the other side of the classroom like right now, and one where he was all by himself. But Berwald didn't mind that class too much, or the fact that he was separated from all of his friends, as it was Marine Biology. His absolute favourite class, which was right after this class too! He was so fascinated with Marine life, and one day hoped to pursue a career in that field become a Marine Biologist. This was his reason for leaving his home country of Sweden with his dad to come and live here on the gold coast of Australia.

Soon enough, the bell rang out and class was over. Only one more class to go until lunch. Berwald was wondering if Tino would sit with them at lunch, and to be honest he was secretly hoping that he would. Although Berwald was a little shy about admitting it to anyone other than his friends, he played for the same team and had a thing for boys; and Tino was eye candy.

Much to his delight, after the bell rang for the end of 3rd period and he was heading to the cafeteria, he spotted Lukas coming down the hall towards him with Tino close behind.

"Hey, Berwald. How was class?" Lukas asked as he approached him.

Lukas knew how much Berwald enjoyed his Marine Biology class, and liked asking him about it, although he wasn't at all interested, to make him happy. Berwald smiled a little, and told Lukas all about what he was currently studying. Tino watched as Berwald came out of his shell when he was talking about something he liked with his friends. Now, he didn't seem at all scary! Lukas just nodded and 'hmm'ed in response to Berwald, glad to see his shy, stoic friend smiling. At first, Lukas was considering telling Berwald about their situation as he knew he could trust him and he knew an awful lot about life in the ocean. He decided against it though, coming to the conclusion that Berwald's studies and knowledge of sea creatures probably didn't stretch as far as mythical Merfolk.

The day continued as normal, and not a word was said about Tino, Lukas and Emil's secret. Not even amongst them.

"Hi boys, how was your first day back?"

Lukas and Emil's mother greeted them as they walked in through the door and kicked off their shoes.

"Fine." They both said simultaneously.

Although Emil claimed to be nothing like his brother, it was surprising how much they acted like one another. Around strangers, and sometimes even their own family, they could be very quiet and secretive and most of the times they enjoyed each other's company the most.

When upstairs and safely in their room, the two boys changed out of their uniforms and into more comfortable clothes. Lukas pulled up a chair, sat at his desk and opened up his laptop while Emil climbed up onto his bed on the top bunk. The top bunk acted as Emil's private space. Their bunk beds were built into the corner of the room, so along one wall was his bed, and along the other wall at the end of his mattress was a flat surface area where he kept his more personal belongings. He grabbed his DS and started to play.

Usually Lukas would chatter away to either himself or Emil, but today he was oddly quiet and the only sound that could be heard was the sound of Lukas typing away on his laptop. Emil took his attention away from his Pokémon game and looked down at Lukas to see him with his reading glasses on, focused on a large amount of text on a webpage.

"What are you looking at?"

He snapped his DS closed and sat up cross legged on the bed, trying to peer around Lukas' head to see what he was reading.

"I'm researching."

"Oh. Researching what?"

"Us."

Emil huffed in annoyance, blowing strands of hair up off his forehead. Lukas could be so puzzling sometimes. Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, Emil climbed down the ladders and went over to where Lukas was sitting and leaned on the back of his chair. He peered at the screen and sighed, reading aloud the title of the webpage.

"Myths and Legends: Merfolk."

"Yeah. I want to find out more about what's going on, don't you?"

Lukas swivelled round in his chair to face Emil and removed his reading glasses from his face.

"What I already knew about Merfolk from folklore was right, like our legs coming back when we were dry, so maybe we can find out more from some of these legends." He gestured to the screen behind him.

"What about how to get rid of it? Do you think you can find that out?" Emil snapped.

Lukas shook his head. "No. That's the first thing I looked for. There's nothing on 'suddenly becoming a Mermaid'."

"Merman." Emil crossed his arms tightly across his chest as his face turned red. "Not like that makes this any better, but if you're going to address us as mythical creatures, do it right."

Laughing affectionately at his brother, Lukas was glad that they were in this together. He was glad there were three of them and that one of them didn't have to go through these… changes alone. Speaking of all three of them:

"And if you want to research and test things out, shouldn't we get Tino round here too?" Emil suggested.

Lukas raised an eyebrow. "How?"

"Here, move over." Emil motioned for Lukas to get out of the chair. When he moved, Emil sat down and opened another tab in the browser and logged into Facebook. "Social networking. Duh."

Lukas watched as Emil began typing his name into the search bar, but he paused when he got to his last name.

"What's his last name?"

"How should I know?"

Emil whipped his head around, eyes narrowed at Lukas.

"You were with him all day! How do you not know?"

Sometimes Lukas could walk around all day in a little world of his own, not really paying attention to what was going on around him. Sure, he had conversed with Tino throughout the day, but it was mostly about school and classes. Lukas racked his brains, trying to think if he had seen Tino write down his full name. He had, on one occasion when Tino was signing up for a locker after lunch.

"It starts with W, I think… or it might be V."

The pair scrolled through all of the results for 'Tino W' without any success. Slamming down on the backspace key in frustration, Emil erased the W and exchanged it for a V. They had scrolled through nearly 10 pages of results when Lukas finally spotted him.

"There! I see him." He leant forward and pressed a finger on Tino's profile photo next to his name.

"Tino… Va.. Vine.."

Emil clicked on his name while struggling to read it aloud.

"Väinämöinen." Lukas corrected him without much difficulty as the page loaded. When it did, the two brothers were able to see Tino's profile picture in more detail. It was clearly Tino, and he was in a group photo with three other people, a female and two males. They looked much older than him, with black hair, heavy eyeliner and braided beards. They looked like your average metal band. Tino was grinning so much his eyes had creased up completely and his cheeks were red.

"Who are they?" Emil clicked the picture and read the caption, hoping to find an answer. 'Hengailua kavereideni kanssa. (ARVAA KUKA TAPASIN!?) :D'

Oh.

"Where did he say he was from again?" Emil asked, scrolling through the masses of excited comments in a language that he didn't understand.

"I don't think he actually ever told us. Huh. But from looking at that, it looks like Finnish to me. So my guess is Finland. Or maybe Estonia." Lukas shrugged.

"But that doesn't matter now. Just friend request him or whatever."

Friend Requests (1) Messages (0) Notifications (2)

Emil Thomassen sent you a friend request.

Accept Decline

Tino Väinämöinen and Emil Thomassen are now friends.

Friend Requests (0) Messages (1) Notifications (0)

Inbox (1)

Received 15:47

Emil: Hey Tino

Tino: Hi! :D

Emil: Lukas and me are gonna do some research and tests about what happened to us and we didnt wanna start without you because your in this with us too. Wanna come over?

Tino: Yea ok that sounds good. I was thinking about studying some stuff anyway so it would be good to do it with u guys. No idea where u live tho lol :P

Emil: Lukas says he will come oick you up. Whats your address?

Emil: *pick

Tino: Hang on let me go ask mom

15:52

Tino: She said ok! I live at 16 Farnell Ave. Do u know where that is? :)

Emil: Yeah :) Okay, Lukas is gonna come round now to get you.

Tino: great! :D

No more than 20 minutes later, there was a knock at the door of the Väinämöinen household.

"I'll get it!" Tino called as he ran down the stairs and swung the door open before his mother could. He smiled as he opened the door to find Lukas stood there.

"Hi. Is your mum here?"

Tino bit his lip and looked over his shoulder.

"Yeah, she is, but she can talk FOREVER, so it's best that we just left quickly." He laughed a little. "Why? Did you need something?"

Lukas shrugged. "My parents just wanted to know if you wanted to stay for dinner, seeing as though you're coming over at this time of the day."

Tino's face lit up. When he first moved here, he was really worried about fitting in and finding friends. He really missed his friends back home, but having someone like Lukas around made things seem so much better. At first, Lukas seemed quite harsh and a little too blunt for Tino's liking, but now seeing him stood on his doorstep inviting him round for dinner was just great.

"Only if that's okay.." Tino leant on the door and swung back and forth with it slightly.

"Should be fine."

Tino took in a large breath and turned to look back inside his house, receiving a questioning look from Lukas before he suddenly cried out,

"Mooooooom! Lukas's parents invited me round for dinner! I'm gonna get going now, I'll call you later! Loveyoubye!"

Then he scurried quickly out of the house and slammed the door closed without waiting for a reply. Lukas just stared dumbfoundedly for a few moments before the pair of them burst into laughter. Tino flapped his arms by his side, grinning a little sheepishly.

"She would have kept you talking for waaaay too long. Trust me, I just did you a favour."

The walk to Lukas's house wasn't too bad. The pair talked a little on the way there. Tino asked Lukas about his friends, and if he minded if he hung out with them again tomorrow.

"No, I don't think they mind. Neither do I." He paused for a moment and glanced at Tino before returning his gaze to the path in front of him.

"Mathias can be annoying, Berwald is very awkward, and I'm not the best company, but I hope you can look past that. We're not that bad once you get to know us, I promise. They're great friends."

Tino nudged Lukas lightly in his side.

"Hey, you guys are cool. Plus, after what's happened to me, you and your brother, I'm afraid you're stuck with me!"

Lukas fell silent after that, and Tino felt bad for joking about the fact that they had become half fish. True, it was very strange, but Tino had already pretty much gotten used to the whole thing. At first it really freaked him out, but now he could think of more advantages than disadvantages. That probably wasn't the case for Lukas and Emil though, judging by his reaction.

"Lukas, are you okay? Sorry… I tend to joke about things when I'm nervous."

They turned a corner and Lukas's house came into view. It was the last one on the row of houses.

"Woah! You live right by the sea, huh?" Tino gasped when he saw the jetty leading into the water from the side of Lukas's home. Technically, it went out into the river that lead to the sea, but Lukas didn't bother to correct him.

"Yeah. Dad's a fisherman, so it helps to be close by. It's nice." Lukas said as they began to make their way up the stone steps of his house to the front door.

"Oh, and take your shoes off by the door please. Mum doesn't like dirt from them trailing through the house."

Lukas opened the door and he and Tino slipped his shoes off. Mrs Thomassen heard them come in and called to them from the kitchen.

"Lukas? Is that you? Bring your friend in here, I'd like to meet him."

Tino followed through and into the kitchen where he was met by Lukas and Emil's mother who was sat at the island sipping a hot cup of what smelt like coffee. She was very slim and appeared to be quite tall. Her hair was dark brown and scraped into a neat, tight bun. She had a striking face, and looked very much like Lukas. Tino liked that, as usually boys are said to resemble their father. But Lukas and his mother were very similar, with their sharp jawline and petite nose.

"Ahh. So you're Tino. It's nice to meet you." She smiled softly. "I'm Victoria, Lukas and Emil's mother, of course."

"Nice to meet you, too! Thank you so much for having me over." Tino said with a big smile.

Victoria talked her son and his friend through their options for dinner and checked that Tino wasn't allergic to anything. In the end, it was decided that they could come downstairs and cook themselves a pizza when they got hungry. Then, the two boys escaped upstairs to Lukas and Emil's room, where Emil was waiting for them.

"Hey Emil." Tino greeted him with a little wave when he entered the room. The two found him back on his bunk, his attention returned to his Pokémon game.

"Hey." Once again, he snapped his DS closed and clambered down the ladders.

"Right!" Tino rubbed his hands together in excitement. "Where do we start?"

Emil shrugged and Lukas went over to his bag and retrieved three bottles of water. He handed one tossed two over to Tino and Emil and kept one in his hand.

"I say we try to figure out how long it takes exactly for the tails to appear." He suggested.

"Okay then, so who's going first?"

"Lukas!" Emil exclaimed as he quickly unscrewed the lid on his water bottle and sprayed water all over his brother, enjoying the satisfaction of completely soaking him. In a weak attempt to shield himself from the unexpected spray of water, Lukas held out his hands over his face and screwed his eyes closed. Then, he heard a gasp as something went clattering to the floor and not a single drop of water fell on him. Slowly he peered out from beneath his shield and was shocked at what he found on the floor.

Lots of little crystals of ice were scattered across the floor, and in Emil's hand was a bottle half full of frozen ice.

"Woah!" Tino looked at Lukas, eyes wide and mouth hung open comically.

"Did… Did I do that?" Lukas asked hesitantly, his gaze darting between the two boys and the mess on the floor. Emil nodded slowly.

"All I did was-"

He thrust his arm forward, palm flat out towards the water bottle in Tino's hand. The contents of it froze over in a matter of seconds, causing the plastic to explode with the pressure from the expanding ice.

"Shit, Lukas!" Tino jumped back and threw the remaining contents of the bottle to the floor.

For a few moments, the trio stood in shock, staring between Lukas and the ice. Tino broke the silence with a loud outburst.

"Oh my god, that was so cool!" he bent down to pick up a shard of the ice so he could inspect, but before he could take it between his fingers it slid away from him across the floor. He inhaled sharply, looking up at Lukas for a second before trying again to grab hold of another piece. It did the same thing and moved away from his hand.

"Are you moving that?" Emil asked a little breathlessly, clearly overwhelmed by what was happening.

"I don't know!" Tino stood up.

Lukas unscrewed the lid on his water bottle and held it out to Tino.

"Here. Try with the water."

The Finn hesitated for a moment before he extended a hand towards the bottle. He kept his fingers curled slightly, as if he was going to grab something like he did with the ice. To his amazement, the water in the bottle began to slosh around. Moving his hand up a little, the water in the bottle followed and began to rise up out of the bottle. Tino's face cracked into a smile and he became a little more adventurous. With some concentration he managed to lift all of the contents of the water bottle out and was holding it in a sphere of water in the air in front of him.

"I can't believe this! Is this actually happening? Emil, do something to it!" Tino was getting a little over excited, and when he got over excited he got louder. Lukas hushed him, telling him to keep the noise down in case his mother heard.

"Okay, okay sorry. But come on, Emil!"

Emil was a little lost for words, but he decided to give it a go anyway. Unsure of what to do, he copied Lukas extended an arm out, palms flat. Nothing happened. He tried again, this time curling his fingers a little like Tino was doing. Again, nothing happened. He sighed in frustration, looking helplessly at Lukas, who shrugged.

Trying one more time, Emil thrust his arm forward even further and waved it around angrily.

"That's not fair, how come I don't get to do the cool stuff?" Emil huffed, dropping his arm abruptly back by his side.

"I wouldn't call it cool, Emil. This is too much…"

"Lukas, are you kidding me? This is awesome!" Tino waved his arm around enthusiastically as he spoke, forgetting about the water he was currently holding and sent it splashing into the wall by Lukas's desk.

"Tino! Watch what you're doing!"

Lukas leapt forward to snatch his laptop out of the way before the water came splashing down onto the desk, wetting all of his papers and books. Tino winced.

"Fuck, Sorry! Here, let me get it! Have you got any paper towels? Shit, I'm really sorry-"

"Tino! Calm down… it's alright. It wasn't my computer. The papers will dry out."

Lukas placed the laptop down on his bed, along with a couple of books that the water missed.

A silence filled the room as all three boys tried to process what had just happened. Tino sat himself down in Lukas's desk chair, while the two brothers sat down on Lukas bed.

"… We can't tell anyone about this." Emil said after a while.

"Of course we can't! We'll be locked up or something. We can't even tell our parents." Lukas added, and the other two nodded.

"This is our secret." Tino said, though this time he had a more serious look on his face.

"We're in this together. We can handle this, right?"

"Right!"

"Right."

After a moment, Lukas stood up again, his hands on his hips.

"Who's for pizza?"

The two remaining boys raised their hands enthusiastically.

"We are!"

A/N: I couldn't make this story any more cheesy even if I tried. Sorry for taking so long to publish this chapter, but I made it quite lengthy as an apology. And yes, as so many of you guessed it, this story is based off of the TV show H20: Just add water. I just love it okay, and I am a sucker for Nordic mermen so here we are.

Thank you all for reading, and thank you to those who reviewed the first chapter! I love reading your feedback, and I'm so glad that so many of you liked how my story flows. Sometimes I feel like I have too much dialogue, and that I repeat myself too much, so it's great to hear that I'm not doing too badly. :) Reviews for this chapter will be greatly appreciated!

Take care, and I'll see you next chapter.