A/N: another chapter for your reading pleasure. I totally didn't bring the funny with this chapter. oh well. at least there's a good-ish transition. I want to give a HUGE and overdue shout out to my wonderful reviewers: Demise Angel, themusicalmuffin, captara, and high off music. You guys rock my socks, and I really appreciate you taking your time to give me feedback. It helps me stay motivated on stories, it really does.

DISCLAIMED!

And now, with out further a due, the latest chapter.

Chapter 4: Gifts and Norms

"He was scared of me! He wasn't scared of you and you're scary looking!" Axel complained, frustrated.

One wasn't going to get information from Axel when he was upset. "Just because I have dark hair…" Sora muttered. Axel and Sora's other brother, Demyx, were always complimented on how beautiful they were. When people looked at Sora, however, it was always something along the lines of "oh, Sora has such a nice personality," or "he's so unique looking." Yes, Sora had hair the strange color of old seaweed, or fresh driftwood. He didn't look normal like his brother Axel with lighter, but brilliant red hair or like his brother Demyx, who had blonde hair. His hair was just so dark and brown, extremely unnatural.

Sora sighed and shook his head. "Did you hurt him? You know humans are more fragile than us." Each merperson had a gift: Sora could heal people with incantations, Demyx could soothe people with song, Axel had a dual ability of being able to read people extremely well, and also having a heating defense, causing intense heat to be inducted into another entity touching his skin. When the blond human panicked, Sora could only assume Axel had inducted some of his heat into the blond and it shocked him.

"I don't know—maybe? You should've seen the way he looked at me! He was so afraid! It was like I was going to kill him or do something equally terrible to him." Axel explained, almost for his own benefit as he tried to figure out the puzzling blond human.

"Well, you did pull him underwater, and hold him under. Human's can breathe like we do, Axel," Sora explained a little annoyed that Axel had hurt the little human.

"I know that!" Axel snapped.

"Who knows how that burn will heal, or how long it will take to heal," Sora admonished.

"I didn't mean to hurt him…I just wanted to see what kind of person he really was…but he looked at me like I was some sort of monster…" heat glowed again in Axel's hands.

"Axel," Sora said sadly, pointing out to his brother that his hands were glowing red with heat again. Axel grunted with frustration, swam into his room, and slammed the door shut.

WHAM! The door to the prince's quarters were forcibly shut lieutenant commander, who had the most medical knowledge of the crew, entered the room. He inspected the ankle of the ship's youngest crewmember. Roxas was distracted by the finery of the sheets he was laying on. They were as soft as a cloud.

"Roxas, this is a rather odd burn, what gave it to you?" the lieutenant asked, picking up Roxas's heel and looking closer at the angry purple ban, now slightly blistering.

"Um…jellyfish," Roxas said and adverted his eyes.

The lieutenant looked over to the prince, who had his back turned to him. Anyone could see that the boy was lying, but why he would lie about the source of an injury when in the presence of a good friend was baffling.

"Alright, the salve may irritate it some, but should help it heal, and relieve you of the heat of it," the man spread a greenish black paste on the purple wound. "We'll manage without you for a day, but 2 days from now you should be able to wear shoes again and work up on deck."

"Yes, Leutentant commander," Roxas said, as if he were receiving punishment.

The lieutenant ruffled the boy's hair, "Enjoy your day and a half off! We'll have fresh fish for the next few days, thanks to you two distracting those damned dolphins. And captain says he sees a wind coming, should be here by the morrow. Well, get some rest, Roxas. Riku," the man curtly nodded his head as he left the room. Riku watched him leave with narrowed eyes, slightly put out that he ruffled his young friend's hair so carelessly.

The door clicked shut. Riku turned to see Roxas scooting towards the end of the bed. Riku winced as he saw the red peaking through blackish green.

"You could stay here with me, if you like. The bed's big enough for two," Riku offered, feeling sorry for the blond on two accounts: for starters, he didn't at first believe Roxas's story about merpeople, despite Riku himself remembering another entity that had healed him that night in the water. Also, Roxas was now injured. If Riku had believed him in the first place, he would not have led his friend on, back into strange waters.

"No, I think it'll be easier to spare my foot off the edge of my hammock in the galley. But thanks, your sheets are really nice." Roxas ran small fingers over the pillowy white. He was thinking of many things at once: being in Prince Riku's room for the first time and seeing the trappings of wealth, meeting the new red-headed merperson who was gentle at first, but really hurt him. Sora seemed like he was nothing if not gentle and caring. Had this second merman really meant to hurt him? Did Roxas kick him or something—and the merman acted out of defense?

"Roxas?" Riku watched as a lost expression shadowed the blond's face. "Was that the same mer—merperson that helped me?"

"Um, what? Oh, no, it wasn't Sora," Roxas seemed a little more lucid, but not much.

Riku sat down next to him. "What happened?" He asked. His voice was a mere whisper.

"I don't know," Roxas responded quickly, too quickly. "He…I felt something grab my ankle, and pull me under water. And then I saw him. He looked…wild. Bright red hair and the purest green eyes I've ever seen. And he had markings on his cheeks. He—" Roxas paused himself. Telling Riku that the merman had caressed his leg and thigh, was probably not the best idea. Roxas blushed, now realizing that that was what had happened, that triggered the memory of the time he was in the alley and that drunk almost raped him. Luckily Roxas landed a firm kick to the balls, and ran out of there, never to see the drunk again.

"Roxas?" Riku looked at his friend concerned, especially noting the nervous blush on the younger's cheeks.

"Oh, it's nothing. Anyway, I panicked and started kicking and I guess I must have hit him and made him angry, and he burned me, on accident, and let me go," Roxas was lost in thought, remembering the event. Axel, you're hurting him. Was that Sora's voice? It sounded like it. The red head looked truly apologetic when he heard Sora's declaration. Roxas shook himself from the reverie. "I do think Sora might have been there, though, off to the side somewhere. Anyway, I'm going to go get some sleep. That was a lot of excitement for one day. Thanks for taking me to go swim with the dolphins. They were a lot of fun." Roxas smiled at the Prince who momentarily looked happily back at him.

"Have a good night, Roxas. Sleep well," he said as Roxas sprang up from the bed and walked to the door.

"Thanks again, Prince Riku. Sleep well too!" Roxas beamed as he left the room. As he settled into his hammock, a little later, exhaustion quickly made his eyes heavy. With this foot dangling off the side of the hammock, carefully not allowing the burn to touch anything, Roxas fell asleep, and dreamt of piercing green eyes under brilliant red hair.

A/N: so what'cha think? shoot me a review. I already have the next chapter planned. Should be out soon.