"Oh, look! It's that nice dolphin boy," greeted an older, wrinkly mermaid with a head of scraggly white hair. She waved as Sora swam past her.

"Good morning!" Sora returned as he rolled onto his back and wrapped his arms under his head. The sky wasn't visible from where he swam so it was impossible to know what the weather was like, but Sora could imagine the sun was bright and the sky was cloudless and the breeze was soft and warm. Like it was every day before he couldn't see it anymore. He floated casually across the ocean floor with his dorsal fin barely grazing the stone below him every now and then.

Stone... It still felt strange to be surrounded entirely by rocks and hardly any sand or coral these days. Sand was where his old home was, where his brother explored for his work, and where all the forbidden areas were. Coral was where the bright flowers bloomed and the glittering fish danced. It had been a while since Sora had been able to dig into sand and hunt for crabs or hide under the cool grains on a hot day. Even longer since he had grazed his tail on a branch or got to count the little holes where tinier fish homed. A long while. Certainly, one would come across sand at least in small piles every now and then but it was rare.

Sora had just turned seventy-two cycles. For at least forty of those the brunette had lived in the depths, far past the drop off cliffs he was once forbidden to pass. Here, there were no villages or tiny families, but instead a large kingdom that encompassed everyone far below the reef with a glorious castle in the middle of a giant cluster of homes that was always glowing. There were bioluminescent marks and signs and glowing rocks everywhere to light their way, and large armies of jellyfish with glittering tails that acted like floating lanterns whenever they passed through. It was never as bright or as pretty as sunlight, though.

Eventually, his view of open rock and foggy waters was obscured by tails, many tails. Merpeople swimming back and forth around and over each other like a large, unorganized school of fish. Normally the morning traffic wasn't so hectic but—

"Did you get the food for the buffet after?"

"Were the instruments set up?"

"When will the singers arrive?"

"Watch your tail there! This banner is for the stage!"

"Paints? Paints? You forgot the paints?!"

Everyone was in a panic that day. Hundreds of merpeople scrambling around and yelling at each other and knocking into things or breaking others... Sora breathed a long, slow sigh as he recalled the easy, do-nothing days of his childhood.

Sora flipped onto his stomach in case he ran into something or someone himself. Normally, it wouldn't be an issue... but with the crowd this high-strung Sora was liable to lose an eye should he so much as accidentally graze the wrong basket. He stayed near the bottom where there were a lot less bodies to collide with.

"Hey, Sora!" The brunette blinked and turned his gaze just a level upward to see a male with the spikiest red-hair approach.

"Oh, Axel... Hey."

"Well, that's certainly an enthusiastic greeting," Axel said sarcastically as he came to swim beside the dolphin. The red-head had scars under his eyes that looked almost purposeful they were so similar, a long torso that matched his long, black tail, and blood-red fins. His skin, despite his dark tail, was almost glowing it was so pale. And unlike many of the mers who scrambled around them when Axel smiled his teeth were mildly sharper.

"Sorry, I'm tired," Sora bumped into his friend playfully. "I guess I was more nervous about singing at today's presentation than I thought."

Axel yawned wide in return. "I know that feel... The tired one, I mean-not the nervous one. To me, this is just like every other performance we've done over the years. Who cares if it's for some prince?"

"Then why are you so tired? Was it Roxas?"

Axel cackled at that.

"I didn't mean it like that, you weirdo," Sora rolled his eyes. "I just mean Roxas is never not tired and you two spend a lot of time together..." Sora grinned mischievously and quirked a playful brow. "Speaking of which, when are you going to offer yourself to him? We're that age now!"

Axel huffed. "Oh yeah? And when are you going to do more than stutter around a mer you like?"

"I do not stutter!"

"Oh, h-hi, T-Tidus! You li-like to play, um... games?" Axel mocked, which earned him a smack of Sora's tail to his back and a yelp. "Good thing you got over that crush either way. Tidus is a loser."

"Don't be mean. He's not a loser, he's just often lost. But that's what he has Yuna for now."

"Well, to answer your other question," Axel shook his head, "I wasn't even with Roxas last night. He said I make it difficult for him to get up on time and you know what the lead said if we were late today."

It was Sora's turn to chuckle.

"I didn't mean it like that! Who's the weirdo now?"

"So I guess he'll be there when we are, then?"

"Unless he was held up by something."

The two traveled together underneath the harried crowd above in relative silence until they came closer to the palace. The castle itself was a humongous structure of pillars, gates, and towers that glowed as bright as a beacon and near the entrance where the myriad of mers finally thinned there was a large pile of rocks pressed tight together with flat tops. Beside that was what seemed to be a gigantic stage with various shells big enough to swallow Sora whole and colorful plants strategically placed between. Upon one of the rocks sat a blonde leaning back on his hands as he flipped the end of his green tail back and forth idly.

"Rooooooxas~!" Sora sang as they approached and grinned as the blond on the rock turned his head up and waved in greeting.

"How long have you been here?" Axel asked as he settled beside Roxas.

"Not long, I think. I took a nap when I arrived."

Sora chuckled. "Have you seen anyone else yet?" He asked as he sat on the other side of the blonde from Axel. "I'm surprised the leader isn't here yet. He's so crazy about perfection..."

"He's here," Roxas assured as he casually leaned into Axel and yawned so wide Sora wondered why he didn't break his jaw. "He went to go yell at someone."

"Of course."

They spent a few sleepy moments together just breathing the morning water. Other mers about their age and younger began to appear in droves until all three hundred seats in the rock stands were filled. Sora turned to look where the audience would be, which was a great dug out with plenty of space for the thousands of people that would come for the show. He then looked over to the other side of the great stage where a balcony of shells and a curtain made of purple seaweed sat high above everything else but well within sight.

When the leader finally arrived, they went straight into practice for that night's events. Sora wondered as he worked his voice, once used for humming his own songs, if his brother might come this time... though he doubted it.