Reading the reviews for this story helps me get out of bed. I mean, I get out anyway, it's just usually a good 20 minute difference. Reviews are like orange juice for my brain.

Chapter 2

Phantom hunted his prey quietly and skillfully. He'd flattened his fins and streamlined his body, slipping through the water without as much as a ripple. By moving with the surf his waves blended in with others. And above all, he was silent, black eyes slitted in deep concentration as he edged closer, closer. Almost there. His quarry was within his reach. He had only precious seconds before they could move and ruin the whole thing, which had to be prevented. No one escaped him.

He crouched down low, and froze. Far behind him, his huge fluke quivered and waved a bit as he prepared himself. Then Phantom lunged upwards, finding purchase in the wood with his nails and holding on. He sank his teeth viciously into the black fabric of his helpless prey and bit down, shaking his head. For good measure, he growled viciously.

There was a yell from the pant's owner, and a flurry of furious, highly amusing curses.

"Daniel! Get this—get off of me you overgown guppy!"

Minnow's laughter reached Phantom's frills, and he looked up and over the dock planks to his human as he walked over. Mouth full of the fabric, Phantom still chirruped at Danny's approach. Danny was chewing on a piece of edible seaweed, and swallowed a mouthful before going,

"Phantom!" He tried to sound scolding. "Bad…merman…very bad. Don't you know you're not supposed to eat junk food?"

The merman cackled and relinquished Vlad's pant leg back to the blustering, red-faced man.

"It must be hard to speak when you're laughing so hard, Daniel." Vlad grumbled, stepping away and checking the state of his clothes. Soaked, or with a little hole in them.

"Another suit ruined."

The merman puffed his chest out proudly.

"You know, he wouldn't do it if you didn't react every time. You're only egging him on." Danny nodded sagely as he crouched down next to the merman that had leapt up on the docks. Danny tossed him the rest of the sea weed and Phantom snatched it, swallowing quickly. Delighted his human was down on his level now, Phantom shoved against him and crooned happily, rubbing their cheeks together and generally just being an affectionate little shit that everyone thought was cute and innocent. Danny and Vlad totally knew better, but Danny just thought it was hilarious. Besides, Phantom only did it to people who deserved it, and Vlad quite honestly, deserved a lot more. If you asked Danny at least.

"Hey, least he didn't drag you in." Danny grinned as he play wrestled with the merman briefly. Phantom cackled and tried to knaw on his shoulder, so Danny pulled one of those curled ear frills, watching it bounce back into a little curl. Phantom swatted his hands away.

"Yes. Another repeat of last Tuesday would be just what I wanted." Vlad muttered dryly, regarding them both with a critical look. Danny grinned impishly, while Phantom gave him the most revolting, big eyed, innocent look, as if he didn't understand at all what Vlad was commenting about. Surely it must have been someone else who dragged the stuffy man into the sea because Danny had said Vlad needed to 'cool off.' He was only helping his human with his suggestion after all.

When Vlad narrowed his eyes, Phantom cooed naively and blinked with cute pupils.

"There, see? He's sorry." Giving Phantom's silver hair a fond tousle, Danny straightened up. He really had to go now, and meet up with his human friends.

"You are both children." Vlad spat tiredly as he headed for the Fenton's boat.

"Damn straight." Danny grinned. "I'll see ya later, Phantom."

Though he had every knowledge of the English language to say goodbye, Phantom purred his own farewell and slipped back into the sea. Hunting Masters was all well and fine, but if Danny wasn't on the docks, Phantom wasn't really interested in hanging around. So back into the ocean he went.

oOo

"Look who finally decides to make an appearance."

Danny stopped so fast his sneakers squeaked on the NastyBuger's cheap linoleum. The boy wilted under the judging looks of his friends, and had the decency to look sheepish. Sam's look was enough to do it, her words just made him flinch. He brought his hands out of his pockets and held them briefly up in surrender.

"I, ah, got caught up?" He rubbed the back of his neck, giving an embarrassed grin.

"Dude, we know you were out on the ocean again."

Danny deflated at Tucker's remark, the latter didn't even look up from his PDA, he just jabbed toward Danny with the stylus. He stood before them at the booth they were sitting at, and massaged his sore shoulder where he'd smashed it on some rocks earlier.

"I'm sorry guys. I really am. It's just, uh, when we were heading back we…we found a…" At Danny's choppy, nervous words and earnest look of fear lacing his blue eyes, Sam and Tucker stopped pretending to be annoyed and cast him sympathetic looks.

"A what, man?"

"Uh…"

Danny didn't act like this for no good reason, and he'd seen so much out all there already, he knew the ocean better than even the fishermen. Whatever this was, it had scared their friend, and they didn't think that was possible anymore. Danny had seen it all.

Tucker shifted, giving him space to sit down so they could speak amongst themselves.

Danny did so, shooting them relieved looks as he leaned his elbows on the table. And in a hushed voice, began whispering the body and the other figure they'd encountered only this morning.

Even if his friends wouldn't have a solution, (which he was pretty sure they wouldn't,) it was still nice to tell someone else about it.

oOo

Aside from this morning, her day had been going just fine.

Valerie Gray had had better days, sure. She'd gotten a new mission only a few days ago, which was good. Because she'd gotten paid half, and this was a big one. Her boss was great about paying, and the half now half later when she completed her job was just fine with her. There was only one mission she hadn't been paid in full for, and to this day she still cursed that stupid merman that got in her way.

Coasting gently over the smooth waves, Valerie kept half an eye out for what she was looking for, and another she turned inward. She thought back to the past few months, mentally check listing the odd jobs she'd been given to do. Cataloguing scale drop rate? Observing merfolk activity on full moons? Let's not forget tailing sirens for a day. There was that job with the ancient sea crab. That one had required a few showers after. Among some others, most of them included in some part, the lifestyle and behavior of the merpeople that lived around the waters on her home island. Among other oceanic related things.

She didn't much like them, to be honest. Ever since her Dad lost his fishing job, times had been rough. It was a little hard to compete with the denizens of sea itself, after all. Because of the treaty the Mayor had signed 4 years ago, almost half the local fishermen had simply gone and left to look for work elsewhere. The treaty stated, among other things, that merfolk and humans would attempt to get along better. None of this dragging your eternal soul into depths nonsense. (Also one of her favorite, longstanding missions. She was to report if she saw any negative activity that she saw merfolk doing. Something she looked gleefully for.)

And the treaty also said a certain amount of fish would just be given to the humans in exchange for their protection and over all ocean awareness. Like some peace offering. The merfolk said this way they could tell what was leaving their waters, and no one would go hungry from over-fishing. Her Dad couldn't fish better than a merperson. So he'd been forced to sell his boat and get a job at some security company. It hadn't left them penniless, but it left them poor enough. Certainly not what she was used to. And all because of that Danny Fenton kid and his pet merman had killed a kraken and become heroes? Bullshit. They could have just called in the Navy or the Airforce or…or something.

Valerie really did try to not let her bitterness get in the way of her job. She really did. But sometimes she was weak, and it was just easy to give into temptation. Besides, they'd found her dead body. Well, not hers. But the one she was tracking. They clearly didn't know of the other two corpses that had washed up on the island either. They were too busy swimming around being idiots together.

Rolling her eyes skyward, Valerie pointed the nose of her Ski around a boulder, carefully navigating the rocks that littered this part of the shore.

She'd take this job for money. For some financial security for her and her Dad. She wasn't doing it for the merpeople, and she didn't want to be known for doing such research. (Which was good, because her boss insisted on her remaining as inconspicuous as possible, something he didn't need to tell her twice.) She was given weapons and tools, but only for defense. She knew what her boss would say. If it's leaving you alone, leave it alone. And most importantly, never ever provoke Daniel Fenton's merman.

That ticked her off, right from the start.

What made him so special? She'd wanted to ask. But Valerie could tell by the look in Mr. Master's eyes, that this one was simply not like the others. Maybe it had something to do with his size, or his supposed intelligence, she didn't know. Her boss made it clear from day one merfolk were animals, and somewhat tests subjects. None of them understood English, and lived a bit uneducated about anything besides from singing or hunting fish.

Valerie glared out over the ocean; staring out at the soft purples and oranges the setting sun was turning the sky. Great, another day and she wasn't any closer to finding the supposed killer. It could just be natural death. They weren't smart, only the males were strong. Fenton's merman certainly was strong.

She saw how the merman acted. So he'd gotten bigger over the years, who cared? He acted more like a puppy from what she'd seen. He was usually attached at Fenton's hip anyway. Valerie wondered what Fenton did to control the monster so well. There had to be some secret, dumb monsters didn't just listen to you like that without some sort of corrective training, right?

On her second lap by the rocks and caves, she still wasn't any closer to finding out who was killing merpeople and dumping their bodies. The sun was going to set, and she would have to head back to Amity.

Just as she thought the day was going to end on a sour note, something happened that cemented her gloomy thoughts in stone. Her scanner went off; alerting her to something moving up behind her, and it was coming up fast. Faster than anything she'd encountered before, this close to her Ski. What was-?

She got her answer when black and silver flashed in her peripheral. The tail crested the wave and came down, vanishing among the surface. Valerie swallowed, chewing her lip as she purposefully swam closer to the now smooth, sandy beach line. Fenton's Jet Ski was nowhere in sight. Was the stupid thing mistaking her Ski for his master's or something?

The blinking dot on the screen followed and sharply cut behind her. Valerie whipped her head to her right, just in time to see Fenton's merman come to a stop up on shore, water lapping its long black tail. They stared at one another a moment, Phantom frowning gently, and Valerie's face was hidden behind her outfit. But her expression wasn't happy either.

"How did you find me?" She demanded, annoyance lacing her tone. She wasn't in the mood. She wasn't engaging, see, Mr. Masters?

"It was hard to find you out on top of the water in direct sun?" Phantom snorted, dragging himself in a lose circle, watching her suspiciously.

"You were making enough noise to wake up a ghost ship anyway." He could just tell by her body language, he didn't need to see her face, to know the way she reeled back was indignation. She was not in the mood for dealing with this thing, even if it could talk. (Which was a surprise.)

Valerie leaned back onto the black and red ski, glaring through her tinted goggles at the interfering monster. Just because she was looking out for them didn't mean she liked doing it. But Masters paid well, and the gear was pretty cool. Heck, this merman wasn't so scary. And it wasn't even in the water, either. So she totally had the upper hand.

The merman was a total pushover whenever Fenton interacted with it. She saw no reason why it shouldn't listen to her too, since she had spent almost as much time on the ocean as Fenton did. Fenton probably used a certain tone that made the merman obey. Sure, she'd started later, but Mr. Masters himself said she was skilled for her age at handling the merfolk, so Valerie let the Ski coast closer to the merman lying in the shallows and jabbed her finger into her chest.

"I'm the one who's supposed to find out who's killing those merpeople. This is my job, got it? I don't need you or that Fenton jerk getting in my way."

The merman looked briefly surprised by this information.

"That's why you're here?"

She nodded. Then considered her options briefly.

"In fact, maybe you can be some use after all, fish boy. Take me to where I can find someone who can give me answers. Now!" She demanded.

Big mistake. At the commanding tone, Phantom flattened his frills and curled his lip gently.

"I obey only one human, and that is not you, you stupid little guppy." Phantom uttered his words, growls echoing his tone.

"Little-!?" Well, that did it. She shoved her ski around, leaning over to glare at him.

"I'll show you little—" She muttered reaching for something on her belt. Phantom saw it coming and swung his tail around. The fins smacked the little metal ball and sent it flying harmlessly away before it could explode its blinding smoke.

If she wasn't so focused on hating him, she might have been impressed with how fast he learned. Except, she didn't. And all she was focused on right now was making this rude monster feel some sort of pain or regret with talking back to her like that.

But he was still on land. Behind her protective mask, she sneered.

"Looks like your human shield isn't here to protect you, fish boy."

"Incorrect." Phantom seethed out between his sharp gritted fangs. His claws flexed into the sand.

"My human is not here to protect you."

The merman shot himself forward, propelled by his long tail. Valerie hadn't been expecting the lunge to be honest, at least not one that was coming directly at her. So he collided with her jet ski and her leg, slamming it hard and sending it bobbing out into the water. He ducked under the waves, vanishing briefly before appearing again, grinning wickedly up at her.

"Hey-!" Having no choice, she hit the gas and tried to move out of the way. The merman followed, getting another smack in with its tail as it passed. The fluke swung and smacked, hard. This time she did more than just sway, she almost fell off. Valerie cursed under breath and moved the ski faster, simply trying to put some distance between them. looking to the side she last the merman, it seemed to have worked. Nothing but the crest of her waves.

And when she looked to her left, all she saw was teeth, claws, scales and slitted, furious eyes. The monster full body tackled her, wrapping an arm round her waist and using his momentum to push her right into the ocean with a splash. They tumbled down; water surged around her, bubbles flying every which way. Her hand reached for something at her belt but her wrist was grabbed with lightning speed. The hold was tight but only aching, nothing broke under his grip. But his talons dug into her skin gently, warning.

She had her mask on at least. So she looked up through her goggles, staring up at the merman bearing down on her, silver hair fluttering and eyes glowing under the water.

He sneered when he saw her expression, and tugged her, hard.

Not down, surprisingly. But up. She was shoved upwards, gulped in air. Before she could react about anything other than breathing, the merman was tugging her down again, tail waving through the water as they swam.

What was he—?

She understood then, when she saw the jutting, rocky underwater landscape. It was littered with overhangs and caves, sharp rocky points and impossible looking cliff edges. And he was swimming right toward them, and picking up speed with every beat of his tail and those huge fins. Suddenly, he held, right there on the current. Huge hip fins caught the current and held them there for a heartbeat.

Then her stomach somersaulted, following their pattern as he purposefully tumbled down into the depths, swinging them around a rock. She screamed, a silent torrent of bubbles and scrabbled for anything on her belt that could help her. Claws raked through the fabric, yanking it off and away from her as he spun them around dizzily. They missed the rock wall, narrowly, but she felt it scrape her a little bit. Both of them corkscrewed wildly as she tried pounding on him to release her, and when she managed to grab hold of a head fan and yank it, he screeched (the noise was unholy) and swam upward quickly, flinging them above the water and into the air.

Valerie still isn't sure quite what happened that moment. It felt like they were flying. But then the sensation was replaced by falling, dropping, and they crashed back under the water with an almighty splash. He tossed her away and shook his head as if to clear some confusion, and swung for her once more. Out in the deep water, she had really nowhere to go but where he wanted. He caught hold of her waist once more and down they plunged into the dark blue depths. A few summersaults and he shoved her away, hard, roaring at her. The noise was deafening and she just wanted air at this point. She'd lost her grip on the obviously sensitive ear flap, and found herself on something semi-solid. Thick, but giving. Cold and wet. Sand?

There was growling all around her, deep and threatening. It rose to a cackle and she was pushed again, more up onto shore. Valerie rolled onto her knees, coughing up any sea water she'd managed to inhale by accident. Spots danced in her vision and she turned to look over her shoulder, panting harshly. She hugged one arm around her aching waist, wondering internally if any ribs were broken. Shit. It was like he knew exactly where to hit a human to stop them from fighting back. She could have been killed.

That stupid monster was there, half on the shore. He was braced up on his arms, tail slapping the water behind him. He was glaring at her quietly, and when he saw her turn to look at him he flared his many fins and shrieked, tossing his head.

"Get out of here. And don't come back, guppy." He spat the last word out like it would burn his tongue.

"Next time, I won't be so forgiving. I won't let you see the light of day again."

On the next outgoing wave, he let himself be pulled. With a slip of sea green and glimmering silver, the merman vanished from sight.

oOo

Danny walked out on the beach just as the sun slipped under the horizon. Over head the dark blue sky was melting to an inky blackness, stars twinkling here and there gently. So he walked while craning his head up, trying to spot some constellations he knew. His feet knew every grain of sand, ever rock and shell of the beach so he wasn't surprised when he found himself at the cove in only a few moments.

"You're going to trip and break your neck like that." A familiar voice drawled from somewhere to his left.

Danny looked down and over at Phantom. The merman was lounging on a rock in the shallows and Danny's face split into a playful grin the second he saw the unamused merman.

"You'd catch me." Strange, Phantom sounded tried. Ah, he was just hearing things.

"From all the way over here?" Phantom threw back wryly.

"Ahuh. Cause you love me so much." Danny's grin only widened at Phantom's eyeroll. As Danny walked over, Phantom's fluke swung out of the water it was dangling in and sent a spray of salt water at the human gently.

"You're late." He scolded.

"I had to make it up to Sam and Tuck, remember?" Danny reminded, wading out into the now dark water carefully. Phantom's gaze suddenly became watchful. He only relaxed when Danny made it safely out to the rock he was perched on, the water maybe up to Danny's knees or so.

"What did you decide on then?" Phantom asked, rolling on his back to stare up at the night sky. The rock was so wide and flat, Danny had no trouble matching his pose and lying next to him. Although Danny drew one leg up and dangled his other foot in the cool water.

"Oh, I promised I'd go with her to some circus that's gonna be in town." The human explained with a wave of his hand.

"Circus?" Phantom's tail was brushing against Danny's foot under the water. The gesture was familiar and tickled a little bit. Danny tried to stroke the tail fin back with his foot but he wasn't as graceful, and of course nowhere near as flexible when it came to that part of his body. Still, he knew Phantom got the message.

"Yeah. It's called Circus Aquatica, or something. She said it sounded right up my alley. A bunch of sea themed performances and stuff." Danny shrugged, and stared up at the stars.

"I figured, why not, yanno? Their supposed to arrive on a boat tomorrow."

"Sounds like one of our festivals." Phantom finally commented after too long a pause.

"…you okay buddy?" Phantom didn't seem….all with him tonight. Maybe he was tired.

Phantom sighed. "I'm fine, Minnow."

"Oh, yeah. No, no that was totally convincing. And the Emmy for best acting goes toooo….somebody else!"

As he was saying this, Danny rolled over, bracing his head on his hand. He reached his right hand up and rubbed his thumb against the nearest head fan. Phantom winced at the touch, causing Danny to pull back in surprise. The merman's eyes had slitted gently, but they flickered briefly to Danny's and flooded with guilt and a trace of apprehension.

"Phantom? Are you okay? What's…did I hurt you?" Hardly likely. Kittens couldn't hurt saber tooth tigers.

"It's ah, nothing, Minnow. I bumped it on some rocks is all. I was hunting and got careless."

"You?"

"It's a bit tender, that's all." Danny opened his mouth but Phantom swiftly changed the subject.

"I believe it's your turn for a story."

Danny shot him a look, but after a moment lied down on his back, dropping his foot back into the water and sighed. Every night since the start of the summer, he and Phantom had started this little tradition. First, it had just been little comparisons to each other's myths and legends. As the language barrier vanished, Danny learned that much more about Phantom's concept of legends and stories. Phantom certainly had some interesting ones. Even a few very similar to the own stories he heard as a kid. They each told each other a story knew, every night they could, lying side by side along with the sea and stars all around them. After so many months, they were far passed the stories Danny liked, and now he was discovering new ones in an attempt to keep up with the merman, who never seemed lacking for a tale to tell.

At this time of night, the black ocean and sky melted together, sealing the two in a private world of stars and stories. It was clandestine, comfortable, and safe.

"Okay, okay. Let's see…which one did you tell last night?" His face scrunched as he tried to recall.

"I told the story of The Lost Prince, who was constantly asked to be married by a mermaid, but in the end a human girl stole him away, leaving the poor mermaid heartbroken."

"But the two humans lives happily ever after." Danny recalled.

Phantom crackled in the back of his throat and snorted. Danny, still lying beside him, chuckled. Of course the point of that story was no good came from trying to love a human. A moral Danny and Phantom laughed about when Phantom had finished telling it. Danny thought a moment, until his eyes fell on the Leo constellation. He smiled.

"Okay, I've got one. Ready pal?"

Phantom gave a happy croon in affirmative, and fell silent. Danny knew he was listening closely.

"Okay, this ones a fable. It's called 'The Lion and the Mouse."

"Large…maned cats and small gray rodents?" Phantom cut in to clarify.

"Yeah, Phantom." Danny chuckled, used to having to stop and explain what the characters looked like to his sea-ridden best friend. Arms behind his head so he wouldn't fiddle with Phantom's sore ear frill, Danny started the story.

"So anyway, there lived this old Lion. He was the king of the Jungle, okay? Like Pariah is. Totally in charge, answered to no one. Well one day, he woke up to find a little mouse crawling over his face. The Lion woke up, and got angry. When he lifted his paw to kill him, the Mouse suddenly cries "If you would only spare my life, I would be sure to repay your kindness!" Or, something like that."

"What could that small creature do for him?" Phantom snorts. Beside him, Danny smiled patiently, tracing Orion's belt with his eyes. He went on,

"That's pretty much what the Lion said. In fact, it made the Lion laugh, and he let the Mouse go. Sometime later, the Lion got caught by some hunters, and was bound by thick ropes. He couldn't escape."

"Hm."

"Well, the Mouse recognizes his roar, right? And comes running. Mice are great chewers, actually, and this little guy got through those ropes in no time flat, freeing the Lion! When he did this, he turned to the Lion and said "You thought it was funny that I could ever help you, because I'm so small and you're so big. But now you've learned, that no act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted."

There was silence then, "The Lion and the Mouse?"

"Yep."

"…I like that." Phantom commented softly after a moment.

"That was a good story, Minnow."

Danny smiled up into the darkness. When Phantom's tail curled round his whole foot and ankle, Danny laughed gently and scooted closer to the merman's side. He rolled a bit onto the large spread hip fin and tucked against Phantom's side, slinging an arm over the tan stomach.

Phantom purred at the sudden closeness of their bodies and lifted his fin a bit, tucking Danny in against his side a little more. Danny's fingers found the merman's opposite hip, where his scales melted to skin and itched one spot gently. He didn't have to look up to know Phantom's eyes were lidding in pleasure, because the purring got louder all of a sudden.

They stayed like that well into the night, simply content with lying in each others presence.

Fun fact: 'The Lost Prince' is an actual story and can be found in The Book of Mermaids. However, Phantom told it from a merperson's point of view. In the real version, the mermaid is the antagonist, and the prince constantly refuses her advances. (Seriously, whenever he says no, she puts him to sleep and only wakes him up when she wants to.) In the end, he's saved by a poor farm girl who only wants his love.