The night was calm and peaceful, the stars were out and wind was soothing, unlike the night before where the force of the wind could drag you along with it. As agreed, Lenalee snuck out her room and down the palm tree that was outside her window, last summer, they nailed small chunks of wood to the tree for steps. Lenalee had packed bandages, scissors, a medical needle and thread. If what she saw really was in a bad state, the least she could do was help it and get it back to the ocean, but was secretly hoping it wasn't a shark after what Chomesuke said and recently watching the film Jaws wasn't helping either.

Chomesuke was waiting for Lenalee just outside her house and they silently crept over to the now fenced off pool after Lenalee's fall. They both climbed over the low fence and landed with a thud on the wooden floor just a few feet away from the pool, suddenly a light came on from one of the beach houses and the girls dived onto the floor and stayed as low as possible. But that particular house belonged to Leverrier, Lenalee felt like her heart stopped when he looked through the window, praying he wouldn't see them in dull light. Luck was on their side, the light went out and Leverrier was gone. The girls sighed in relief and carefully made their way to the pool, still swimming with debris. It was ever so quiet; maybe Lenalee was imagining things when she fell in?

"Hey Chomesuke? Maybe I was just imagining things when I fell, it could've just been some seaweed I saw." Chomesuke shook her head as she took a jar from her bag full of small fish. Lenalee looked confused.

"You're not gunna catch it, are you?" She shook her again, "No, I wanna feed it and we'll never see it in all this water otherwise." She dropped the small fish into the water and it sunk to the bottom. Nothing happened, the water didn't stir at all and the ripple from dropping the little fish in soon died away.

Chomesuke reached into her bag again and pulled out a bag of gummy worms, being the sweet tooth she was, she always carried some sort of sweet with her. She even dropped one of them into the pool hoping that would coax the creature out of hiding.

"You can't give it that, they'll make it sick." Lenalee protested and pulled the bag away from her but Chomesuke didn't give up her 'treasures' so easily. She pulled them back but some of them fell into the water, they continued to squabble but finding it extremely funny at the same time, but a swish of water drew their attention back to the pool. It went still again.

"Awwh we scared it away." Chomesuke pouted.

"You didn't scare me."

The girls let out a yelp of surprise and turned their heads to the other end of the pool where it was darker, but someone was there, sitting in the water with the sweets that Chomesuke had dropped. The girls didn't dare move; 'it' was a boy, possibly in his teens, but what was he doing in the pool this late at night? He looked right at them then looked away as he took a bite out of the gummy worms he picked up.

"For two human girls, you're awfully noisy." He began to swim towards them, slowly, just keeping his eyes above the water, Chomesuke and Lenalee backed away from the edge in fear before he disappeared under the water again, out of site. They began to scan to the water surface; it was as if he vanished from sight. Suddenly he resurfaced scaring the girls half to death but that feeling of fear suddenly left them, that fear was replaced with confusion and disbelief, he didn't have legs, instead, he had a long, scaled green tail fin sticking out of the water slightly. He also had a scallop shell covering his right eye, possibly from an injury. Eye's wide, neither of the girls could spit out any words, they knew what he was but how could he be? They were a myth.

"You're a..." Chomesuke tried to speak and the boy gave her a funny look as he lent on the steps in the shallow water.

"A..." Not even Lenalee could say what he was and he was getting annoyed at how simple they were being.

"I see we're gunna have to take this slowly." He lifted his tail up slightly so they could see.

"Mer-Man." Lenalee tilted her head, this was actually happening, she was talking to a mythical creature and he was talking back. This is who she saw when she fell in; the first thing that triggered that memory was his hair, red and vibrant. Chomesuke however, was still awestruck and completely frozen where she sat.

"Y'know, fabled marine creature, half man half fish, mermaids more commonly spoken of for luring sailors to their dooms due to sitting on rocks and singing to them bla bla bla." His voice gurgled as he sunk beneath the water again. Chomesuke and Lenalee leaned back over the edge wondering where he went.

"Where'd he go!?" Chomesuke asked as she scanned the water. He splashed the water with his tail making the girls scream. He surfaced again at the sound of their screams which were starting to get on his nerves.

"Stop screaming! You sound like a couple of seagulls fighting over food." Anger and frustration sounded in his voice as he lay on the second step. Chomesuke carefully watched and only just realised that they could understand one another.

"You speak English?" He nodded, "Yep, we can speak every language know to man, fish, stuff like that. What can you speak?"

Languages weren't Chomesukes specialty, "I got a C in Spanish." Lenalee turned her attention to his tail; something was sticking out of it.

"Hey, what's that?" Lenalee asked him, he looked at where she was looking and sighed, "Damn thing got caught on me during that storm last night, can't get it out." Lenalee felt some sympathy for him, from the looks of it, it looked like part of a fishing net with hooks in embedded in his tail, fishermen had been using those kinds of nets a lot lately, many protesters had tried to get rid of the nets but not succeeding as much as they wanted to. It was deffinatly restricting his movement.

"I can get it out for you." She took the scissors out of her bag but he immediately tensed at the sight of them.

"I won't hurt you, lemme get this out." She gently began to cut away the hooked threads, he winced and every fibre in his body told him to get away but he pushed that instinct aside and waited for her to finish.

"There." She put the scissors away and threw the netting in a bin, the boy moved his tail, it felt less painful now and he was grateful for it.

"Thanks." He smiled at them. Maybe without the tail, that smile was almost, human. He suddenly started rubbing his left eye, "What the hell is in this? It stings."

"That must be the chlorine, it stings our eyes aswell." Chomesuke chirped but the boy didn't look too pleased. The light suddenly turned on again but Leverrier actually came out this time with a torch.

"Who's there?!"

"Shit, its Leverrier, he's a complete psycho, you have to hide." the girls quickly pack up their things and were about to leave but the boy grabbed Lenalee's arm.

"Wait! Where are you going?!" Lenalee pulled back slightly, "We'll come back tomorrow morning." He didn't sound convinced, "We promise." He studied her face and let go, Chomesuke had already jumped over the fence.

"Lenalee c'mon!" Chomesuke whispered to her.

"Don't get seen." Lenalee warned him before they left, Leverrier getting closer. The boy nodded and quickly hid in the murky water just as the girls left. Leverrier stood at the edge of pool looking over it for any sign of people there; luckily, he didn't see the girls or the boy and went back to his beach house.

..:~~:..

The next morning was bright and warm; the ocean was calm and the waves where gently rushing across the beach as the tide went out. Lenalee began to wake from her slumber, turning away from the sunlight, she saw the jar that Chomesuke had brought with them the night before, then it hit her. Had that actually happened last night? Was there really a merman in the pool? She gently shook her sleeping friend awake and showed her the jar, they both laughed but an unfamiliar sound drew their attention to outside, it sounded like a big vacuum. They both ran onto the balcony and to their horror, the swimming pool had been completely drained!

"This is bad! This is very bad!" Chomesuke said as they dashed back into the room. They quickly got changed into their bikinis, shorts (that actually belonged to Chomesukes brother before he moved out) and t-shirts before they dashed down to the pool. Sand and seaweed was all that was left in the drained pool.

"He's not there." Lenalee said, and she was right, he wasn't in the pool. Chomesuke was confused and quite scared; what if he got caught by someone?

"He can't have just got out!" Chomesuke cried out, "I know I know but..." Lenalee was cut short by a crashing sound coming from the Snack Shack; they both ran over and Chomesuke was about to open it but Lenalee stopped her. "Wait." They both looked over and saw the men with 'vacuum' leave before they opened it.

Suddenly, the boy from last night sprang up with his hand over his right eye and a tennis racket in his left, all 3 of them screamed but stopped when they realised what had happened.

"Oh it's you 2." The girls started laughing as he dropped the tennis racket but still kept his right covered. "Thought you were those men with that.. sucky.. thing..." The girls looked at each other,

"Yeah... why are you covering your eye? You had a shell covering it last night weren't you?" Lenalee asked him and he nodded. "I know but I lost it when I got out, that thing was freakin me out!"

"How did you get in here?" Chomesuke asked the one question they were both wondering. "I used these!" He grabbed one of his legs and pulled it up as far as it would go so they could see.

"Whoa." Chomesuke and Lenalee both stared wide eyed; he had legs, actual human legs. But like a normal human, he couldn't keep his balance at the position he was and he fell with a loud thud.

"Ow."

Lenalee giggled but then they both realised he was in his birthday suit. "Uhmm... Chomesuke, just pop back to your house and get some shorts for him." She didn't argue and quickly dashed back to her house and came back with some swimming shorts and a shirt for him.

"There you go." She threw them at him. He came out a few seconds later with them on, he didn't look half bad but he still had his hand over his right eye. Lenalee wanted to know why he was covering it up but she didn't want ask, it wasn't her place.

"Hey, if we find you an eye-patch or something would that help?" She asked him, he didn't answer at first but accepted her proposal, the three of them went back to Chomesukes, if Lenalee went to her own room with a boy, her brother would immediately get the wrong idea and all hell would break loose. Luckily, Chomesukes mother had gone to work so they were left alone, Lenalee took him to Chomesukes room while they dug through her belongings for an eye-patch they used for Halloween last year.

"Lenalee I found it!" Chomesuke cried out holding the black eye-patch above her head, she stood up and handed him it, it was nothing fancy, just a plain black one. He took it from and turned his back to them as he put it on.

"Is it okay?" Lenalee asked him, he turned back to them, the eye-patch fit perfectly and it actually suited him. He took a step back but tripped on a teddy and fell on Chomesukes bed but as soon as he fell on it, he jumped straight off.

"What the hell was that!?" The girls looked at each other in confusion, "That's a bed. It won't hurt you." Chomesuke stood on her bed and began to jump up and down on it, intrigued by this, he began to jump up and down aswell, immediately enjoying it.

"How the hell can you sleep on these? I'm gunna do this all day." Lenalee giggled, he was like a child in a way, things that were normal to them was different and amusing to him. After 10 minutes of bouncing he finally settled down.

"So, do you get to keep them?" Chomesuke asked, he shrugged, "Apparently, we can only keep them when the sun's out and we have to keep them dry... well that's what I've heard, wasn't my intention to actually do this, I've got no faith or trust in humans... except you 2, you're not as bad as the other ones."

"Other ones?"

"Yeah, they stay in these boats and they leave those nets with hooks in them everywhere trying to catch us or something else... every now then someone gets killed, they get caught, they struggle and bam, meal time for the sharks."

Lenalee's eyes softened, she had no idea how much damage those nets were actually causing. "Im sorry..." She finally spoke up, "Yeah.." Chomesuke said aswell, but he gave a half hearted smile.

"Its okay, to be honest, its better we get eaten, if those humans found the remains, they would come looking for us...well... those who don't already will do."

Chomesukes eyes widened slightly, "They actually try and hunt you down?" He nodded, "Tried and failed, no one's been caught, got close but escaped in the nick of time." He rested his hand on his right eye, then the girls realised why he covered it up, he must've got caught in one those nets before but managed to escape before it was too late. They didn't ask though, it might've been something else or a completely different reason for covering his eye.

"Anywaaaaaaaay, you 2 are called, Lenalee and Chomesuke right?" They nodded "Yep, what's you're name?" Lenalee asked him.

"Name's Lavi."

..:~~:..

They spent the rest of the day showing Lavi around, although, he was very cautious of everyone around him not giving them a second look. His eye patch seemed to be drawing attention to him and he wasn't too happy about it, luckily he just ignored them and stayed by the girls.

"So this is pretty much the town." Chomesuke said as they began to head back to the beach. They suddenly heard a loud car zooming towards them, Lenalee and Chomesuke knew who it was and they groaned knowing what to expect. A red sports car skidded to a stop beside them, 3 teenage boys, no older than 18 sat in back and the 'leader' of them driving.

Cayne Spencer

The most 'popular' guy on the street and well known since his father owned the aquarium. He was the typical spoiled rich kid that always got his way and always had the 'bitchy' girls do his every command, this time however, he was interested in Lenalee.

"Well well well, what do we have here?" He slid his sunglasses down slightly to get a better look at Lenalee but his attention quickly shifted to Lavi. "Who's Mr. eye-patch?" His friends laughed at his remark.

"This is Lavi," Chomesuke pointed out, "He's my... cousin." Cayne wasn't interested in who he was, what bothered him that he was with 'his girl'. "Well.. Lavi? Since you're new, I'll let you off for being with my girl, but next time I might just have to beat the shit outta you." They laughed again but Lavi kept the same expression he had when they first pulled up.

"You can try but I know 103 pressure points on your body, 43 of which can kill you in second... depending on how hard I push them." They stopped laughing and began to look at each other, then looked at Cayne for a response. He just smirked, "You'd better watch yourself new boy." Lavi was about to answer but he suddenly realised that the sun was setting, he needed to get back into the water or his tail would come back in front of them.

"Lenalee? Need to go somewhere... now." Lenalee realised the sun was setting aswell. "Chomesuke we need to go!" She grabbed Lavi's hand and began to run away from the boys, Chomesuke close behind.

"Where are we taking him!?" She cried, "Back to the ocean!" Lavi stopped, "No! I can't go back now, those boats are still there and they'll see me!" Lenalee stopped, they had to think about this, where could they take him that's isolated and where no one would even think about going to? Then it hit her.

"I know somewhere."

Lenalee had taken them to huge water tower that had been abandoned years ago, it was only ever used when they suffered a terrible drought but it's been out of use ever since. Chomesuke stared up at the tower, heights weren't her favourite thing and there was no way she was going up there, Lenalee and Lavi would have to go up by themselves. Lenalee and Lavi began to carefully make their way up the ladder.

"What's wrong with Chomesuke?" Lavi asked, "She's not good with heights, long story." Lavi looked over his shoulder, the sun was a lot lower now and streams of pink and amber were streaking across the sky. Lenalee came to the part of ladder that was connected to another half of it but it suddenly came loose almost making her fall but Lavi pushed her back towards it so she could her grip back. The stopped for a few seconds, making sure it wasn't come away completely. It was stable.

"Thanks." Lenalee said as they carried on up the ladder. They finally got to the top and she unlocked the iron door, it was full of water and was big enough for Lavi to swim around in.

"Is this going to be okay?" She asked him. He nodded and smiled, "Yeah."

Lavi took his shirt off and left it on the side before he dived in. There was blue glow shining from the water and his tail had reappeared. Lenalee couldn't help but smile. He had a little swim around before drifting back towards her.

"Wow... I almost forgot." Lavi looked back at his tail, "Yeah, me too. This is nice, better than that pool I was in before." Lenalee laughed, "I'll come back tomorrow morning." She shut the door slightly, enough so he could outside.

"I'll see you tomorrow... fish butt!" She laughed and quickly headed back to the ladder. "I heard that!" Lavi cried back to her.