Morg: Heyo! Happy birthday to me~

Ikuto: Yes, yes. Whatever.

Amu: Not nice, Ikuto.

Morg: For my birthday I would like to own you!

Ikuto: Too bad.

Amu: Not happening.

~At the Water's Edge~

Something strange was going on. Usually everyone stared at Amu with either a look of curiosity or a look of disgust, but at the moment everyone was staring as if they were expecting something to happen. That fact made Amu extremely uncomfortable.

With a small twitch from her fingers, Amu signaled for her four fish to scram. This was something she made sure they knew since she could be attacked at any time and didn't want for them to get hurt. Although Su, her octopus, had proven herself rather helpful in a fight.

Amu was right to send her fish away though, not twenty feet further in her swim eight mermen surrounded the pinkette.

"Well what do we have here? Care to play with us?"

"No thank you."

Several of the boys chuckled before one started approaching her. "Don't misunderstand. You've got a great body as far as being a mermaid goes but your appeal stops there, you freak. We just wanted to use you as a punching bag."

The others began laughing again as their circle tightened. Sensing the danger, Amu prepared herself to flee. Sure, she had power over the elements and could easily get herself out of this situation. If she did that, however, rumors would spread that she'd been looking for someone to hurt and this group of guys had been the innocents that had crossed her path at the wrong time. It was better to run or get beat up.

Her tail pushed hard against the water to shoot her straight up into the open sea above them so that she would no longer be cornered, but two of the mermen had been expecting this and shot up with her, grabbing onto her arms and pulling her back to the bottom.

The others were laughing as the leader pulled his arm back and used a strength that only merpeople had while moving under water. His fist landed on her cheek, causing the pale skin to instantly begin to change colors. Amu bit back her groan, not wanting to give these idiots the pleasure of knowing that she truly was suffering.

Several punches later, a voice rang out over the bullying. "What do you think you are doing?"

The men stopped hitting Amu and turned to see the prince. They instantly bowed and waited for Tadase to say something further before moving.

Amu took the opportunity to get away from them. With a bleeding lip and a bruise on her cheek, she glided through the water until not one other creature could touch her.

Tadase hid his grin as he looked down at the men he'd ordered to pick on Amu so he could rescue her. "Amu may be different but that doesn't make her any less of a mermaid. I expect you to respect her from now on. If I see or hear any more about this then you'll be punished, understand?"

The eight mermen bowed their heads and waited to be dismissed. Tadase waved them off with his hand before approaching the hurt mermaid. "Are you alright?"

Amu looked taken aback at being approached by the prince. "Y-yes."

"Does this happen often?"

"Usually I get away."

Before Tadase could respond to that, a rainbow fish appeared and nuzzled against Amu's cheek. The pinkette giggled before sliding a finger along the side of the fish. "I'm fine, Miki. Don't worry. Did everyone else make it home?"

Once a fish bonds with a merperson, it can communicate with that merperson. Most had one or two fish. Amu had four, and one was an octopus. Something that was not common at all. Amu didn't mind though, she loved her friends the most. She was already considered different and an outcast anyways.

The little fish sent its reply and Amu nodded back at it before turning back to the prince. "Thank you for helping me. I need to go now."

Tadase nodded and dismissed the girl from his sight. His own fish Kiseki, and king fish, appeared at his side. The little fish sent its happy vibes to his master and Tadase returned them. Their plan had worked perfectly and now the pink haired mermaid saw him as a good person and not as another bully.

Out of everyone that Amu knew of, the prince was the worst. He was spoiled. There was no doubt in Amu's mind that something about what had just happened to her was unusual. There was also the fact that if she had been any other merperson, the prince would have punished the mermen for beating her.

Choosing to go with her instincts, Amu decided to stay away from the prince for the time being. He may have seemed like her knight, but something was still off and that bothered Amu. She shrugged the whole incident off and decided that for the rest of the day, she and her friends would go to a shallow pool and play near the shore. Maybe they'd find more empty shells to make into jewelry or something.

XXX

Ikuto stared out over the water in complete boredom. Sure he loved the ocean and sure he liked sailing, but the meeting he'd just gotten out of had sucked most of the life out of him. The only thoughts swirling through his mind at the moment were about a certain mermaid and what she could possibly be doing.

Only being able to imagine what it was like to actually live in the ocean, Ikuto stared at the waves. If he had the option, he'd take it in a heartbeat. Not only would he forever be in the place he loved most, but he'd get away from his father too. If only water wasn't so wet. Something he'd never quite gotten over, but decided to ignore. Kukai teased him about being too catlike. Ikuto chose to ignore his friend.

Land was spotted and Ikuto waited patiently for the ship to dock. Sure, there were better, fancier boats in use. The company ran by his step father had and entire fleet of the metal giants, but Ikuto preferred the wooden ones. Apparently they were going somewhere to impress someone since it was unusual for his step father to agree to use one of the wooden ships. They were hard to maintain.

Several hours later, Ikuto understood why they did indeed take the wooden ship. Waiting on the dock for them to unload was a man and what looked to be his daughter. The girl was Ikuto's age and looked extremely excited about seeing the ship. Rolling his eyes, the young man gathered his things and moved to get off the ship.

"Hello, you must be Ikuto. I'm Yuu and this is my daughter Saaya."

The girl gave Ikuto what he decided was a rather slutty smile. He didn't bother to return it. "Right, where will I be staying?"

"Our house is large enough to have a guest room and your father agreed to you staying there with us so that your trip will be comfortable."

The girl was full out trying to flirt with her eyes and Ikuto just ignored her. "Fine. Show me the way; I'm rather tired from the trip."

"Saaya will help you, I must meet with some people first."

Ikuto hid the fact that he rolled his eyes. Another case of 'please get my daughter pregnant so we can marry into money' situation. Why did they always turn out the same? Ugly, slutty girls that held no interest to Ikuto. He'd have fun turning her away though.

Ikuto's suspicions were proven correct the moment the girl showed him his room. It was right across the hall from her own and she entered the room rather than just showing him where the door was. "I think I can manage from here."

Saaya sighed before sitting on his bed. "You don't want to have sex."

It wasn't a question so Ikuto didn't bother to answer.

The girl just sighed again and moved to sit on his bed in a way that was neither sexy nor not. She just sat. "I suppose this happens to you a lot. I mean, why wouldn't it? You are extremely good looking and you're extremely wealthy. So why wouldn't people try to use you? How about, while you are here, you can just be you and I'll just be me. I promise not to hit on you or try to jump you and we can just hang out."

Ikuto didn't believe her words for a moment. "Whatever, but you'll have to prove what you just said to me. I don't easily trust people. No touching."

Saaya just nodded her head happily and scooted out the door so Ikuto could unpack. He'd be staying a week in their house. Plenty of time for Saaya to make him fall in love with her.

XXX

"Come on, Ikuto. This is my favorite place to go!"

Ikuto followed rather reluctantly. So far three days had passed and Saaya had kept her word about just being themselves. Well, sort of, considering that Ikuto refused to let his guard down. At the moment, he was following her down a path in her garden. The house and the land that she and her father lived in and on were huge. Nothing compared to what Ikuto was used to, but still rather large. Her family was already well off.

Rounding a corner of the path, Ikuto froze. Among the bushes and short trees were birds. Lots and lots of birds. They squawked and called to one another while flapping their wings and clicking their beaks. They truly were amazing and though Ikuto preferred fish, birds weren't so bad either. "What is this place?"

"This is my aviary. Daddy built it for me to have my birds. I love them so much."

For the rest of the day, Saaya made Ikuto hold each and every bird while explaining about them. Ikuto didn't mind so much. They were interesting to learn about and Saaya was rather knowledgeable. One bird in particular continued to hop back onto Ikuto's shoulder despite the amount of times they put the darn thing back on the tree. He didn't mind so much but Saaya kept scolding it.

"I'm sorry, Ikuto; I don't know what has gotten into this one. He's a new bird and I guess he likes you more than me."

Ikuto smiled at the bird as it just jumped back from Saaya's hand to Ikuto's shoulder. "What kind of bird is it?"

"This one is a bird of paradise. I haven't named him yet because I haven't had much time to spend getting to know him. My other birds can get rather jealous. What do you say to taking him with you?"

Ikuto let one of his eyebrows rise up on his forehead. "What would I do with a bird?"

Saaya giggled before taking the bird back again just so it could return to Ikuto. "I don't think you have a choice considering he won't leave you alone. You can have him."

Ikuto spent the rest of the week with the bird on his shoulder. He refused to name it since he didn't want to get too attached to it. What would he do with a bird when he wanted to be in the water?

The night before he was supposed to leave, Ikuto happened upon Saaya and Yuu while they were having a private conversation.

"Why haven't you gotten him to sleep with you yet? Do you want to let him get away?"

Saaya remained silent for a moment longer before she shook her head. "I don't know what else to do. I tried acting like I wasn't a slut and I even gave him a freaking bird. Why can't he just get over himself already?"

So that's what she was really like. Ikuto wasn't surprised. Plenty of girls had tried other routes to get into his pants. A bird though? That was sort of strange. Whatever, he'd had enough. Ikuto returned to his room and locked the door. Later on when Saaya came to knock and asked if she could come in, he pretended to already be asleep.

The following morning, Ikuto refused to spend any time with Saaya claiming that he had things to do and had to prepare for his and his bird's return home. Once he was safely on the ship and on his way, Ikuto let out a sigh of relief. What was he going to do with the bird though?

XXX

Music blasted and Kukai cleaned up the yacht he shared with his best friend. Ikuto was due to return since the month was almost over and Kukai had promised that the ship and suit would be completely ready for when Ikuto returned. Now he was doing just that. The majority of the month had gone by with him playing video games and playing with some of his other friends at the park.

Silence filled the boat and Kukai knew that Ikuto had returned. Damn man never wanted to let him listen to his music. "Is that you, Ikuto?"

A squawk was the reply that Kukai received. Intrigued, the brown haired boy moved towards the sound to see a rather pissed Ikuto with a bird on his shoulder. "Cool bird, dude."

"Shut the hell up! I hate this stupid thing!"

The bird took one look at Kukai before stretching its wings and flying over to the boy. Kukai chuckled as he rubbed his finger along the bird's head. "What's so bad about him? Seems cool to me."

Ikuto stared at the pair for only a second before deciding. "You can keep him. Freaking thing wouldn't leave me alone for the entire trip back. You freaking take a shower with a bird watching you. Creepy thing. He's a bird of paradise. Enjoy it."

Kukai chuckled again before running his finger along the glossy feathers. "Well Daichi, I guess we're buds now."

The bird just squawked his reply and cuddled closer to Kukai's cheek.

.

Morg: So since it is my birthday, you should all review.

Ikuto: You are so bad.

Amu: Why?

Morg: He thinks I'm low for using the day I was born as an excuse to get more reviews.

Ikuto: You could actually earn them.

Amu: I think she is.

Morg: Thanks! And review!