Sorry this chapter took forever, I was travelling a lot these past few weeks! Hopefully it's worth the wait!

Ariel made her way down to the breakfast table the next morning, wishing she could yell and profess all the joy she was feeling, but it was more important that she kept steady and quiet. Her family didn't even know she went to the surface, much less went to the surface to see a boy! A human boy! Ariel couldn't even imagine how mad her father would be. So, this secret was precious to her. She couldn't tell anyone, even in confidence.

"Morning everyone!" she said.

"Mornin' Ariel" Aquata said cheerfully.

"Actually joining us this morning?" Attina jabbed, giving her a crooked smile.

"I was sooooo tired yesterday." Ariel said, slumping forward for emphasis.

She wanted to shout it out – especially given the development last night! Eric had asked to see her again, and he had even mentioned how much he had missed her during the week. She confirmed that she felt the same way. Even though he didn't tell her that he loved her, or anything as monumental as that, it was still so heartening to hear, and she felt loved around him, even if neither of them were at the point where they felt the need to vocalize such things.

As soon as she had dove beneath the sea, she was ready to see him again. He was so wonderful; the most wonderful human there was, she was sure. She had barely been at breakfast for five minutes, and already she was drifting away to her dream world; the one where Eric was with her always.

"Marcus will be joining us for lunch today." Triton announced.

"What?" Ariel snapped her head up at this, looking at her father in confusion. She felt her heart compact, and anxiety spread over her.

"Ariel…" Triton tested, picking up on her negative tone.

"Oh, Daddy, please!" Ariel pressed. "He's a lovely boy, I know, but-"

"And he's a perfect fit for you, Ariel."

"How?" Ariel snapped, exasperated, putting her hands on her hips. "Please, explain!"

Triton looked at her, confused as to why she was so suddenly angry.

"I like him, Ariel!" Triton said, as if she should be able to infer to rest of his reasoning from that. Ariel still looked confused, so he continued, softening his gaze. "I want a good partner for you – for all of you!" he gestured around the table to all of his daughters. "Someone who will love you, and never hurt you. Someone well-intentioned and gentlemanly. I know what boys are like, and at that age especially. If I had sons, I would've raised them to be like Marcus."

"We know you Ariel, we've know you just as long as you've known you." Attina continued. "And, well, we know what you need in a husband! Someone patient, kind, and endeared to you. We didn't all grow so fond of Marcus for no reason – yes we like him just because he's a good person, but we like him even more because of how good he is for you!"

"Yes, he has his faults – we'd be more concerned if he was too perfect. He can be a little goofy, and sometimes intense. But regardless, these things compliment you, and we think you'd regret it for the rest of your life if you didn't at least give him a chance."

"We didn't all immediately like him either, it wasn't like he walked into the room and we all universally agreed he was the greatest merman who ever swam the sea! But once we all spent time talking to him and getting to know who he truly was, we liked him! All of us!" Aquata added.

"We're not gonna gag you and marry you off in the dead of night." Andrina rolled her eyes. "And you keep acting like we're the villains of this story."

"Why can't you just accept that I don't like him?" Ariel demanded. "I've said it outright, I don't act like I want to be around him. There's no reason for you all to keep bringing him up!"

"Because you always do this!" Adella said, a little annoyed, a little exasperated. "If we all agree on something, you find the one little fault. If we all like something, you want to find something all your own. You have six sisters but spend all your time with other friends – you spent so much time with Flounder when you were little, you used to always called Andrina 'Flounder' – and as if they look anything alike! You're determined to be independent, and of this family especially."

"She's just saying, that we think you don't quite get the difference between being independent and being removed. We've all taken the time to get to know Marcus – even Daddy! – and none of us have seen anything really wrong with him, or anything that would make him a less than excellent husband for you. Maybe we're wrong; maybe there's something we all have failed to pick up on. But until you either give us a good enough reason as to why he isn't worth getting to know, or actually properly get to know him and then deciding whether or not you can return his affections, we're going to keep trying to keep you from making the mistake that is rejecting him."

The room was silent.

"I just…don't like him." Ariel said simply. "I think that is a good enough reason. He hasn't done anything to hurt me, I know he's perfectly nice, but I don't like him. That's my reason."

"Because you don't know him." Alana insisted, smacking her hands on the table in quick succession. "That's what we're trying to say!"

"We had to strongarm you into just going on a swim with him – and you had no complaints afterwards! 'Oh, he talked a little much' – because I doubt you were talking a lot. 'Oh, the swim lasted too long' – because you didn't want to go at all. 'Oh, he kept talking about us' – boo hoo! So he's into you?" Andrina ranted. "It's getting frustrating for all of us, watching you make this mistake."

"Girls, settle down a bit." Triton scolded. "You're getting a bit aggressive."

"We don't mean to be." Artista said gently. "We've been trying for ever to try and get you to see Marcus in a different light. We're frustrated with you just like you're frustrated with us. I mean, come on. Daddy even likes him, and Daddy hasn't liked any of our crushes or boyfriends, ever. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"I'm glad Daddy likes Marcus, and I'm sure they can make perfectly good use of this amicability at all sorts of royal functions. Daddy can be kind to him, you girls can be friends with him – you can even date him if you want to!" Ariel huffed.

"But Ariel he loves you! And that sort of thing has a shelf life! At some point, he's going to get so discouraged from you playing hard to get like this, and he'll just go away! And then you'll never have the chance to get to know him, or even see if he is truly the man for you!"

Ariel wanted to scream.

Aquata looked over at her. "Just give him a chance, that's all we're saying. This whole conversation, you haven't listed a single thing wrong with him, or a single point against him. If he was truly so awful, you would've listed 100 reasons by now as to why you couldn't possibly speak to him ever again."

"I did give you a point – I said I don't like him! Why isn't that enough?"

"It just isn't, Ariel!"

"Listen, he's handsome and well-to-do – a prince from a different kingdom who's also clearly fine with living in Atlantica. If you chose to stay close to home for the rest of your life, you could. If you wanted to go somewhere new and see new things, you could go back to his kingdom. He's clearly smitten with you, and shows incredible patience with his pursuit of you. He's never pushy, and always seems sincere."

"He's smart and very kind – to you, to all of us, to everyone we've ever seen! I've never seen him behave badly at a party or event, and no one I've spoken to about him has ever said a negative word."

"He's cute!"

"He would make an excellent husband."

"I can't do this anymore!" Ariel snapped, loudly. She pushed up from the table and swam off.

"She's just being so dramatic." Andrina huffed.

The rest of the family hummed their agreement. Why couldn't she just give Marcus a chance?

…

Ariel swam off in a tizzy, absolutely furious. She was tired of being pushed towards Marcus – by her sisters, her father, not to mention by Marcus himself! And she wouldn't take it anymore. She exactly what – and who – she wanted, and now was as good of a time as any to go get it! This wasn't the time to sit back and think, because she wasn't willing to talk herself out of this. She needed to strike now, or else risk pushing her dreams off forever.

She knew where he father's potion room was; it was the largest legal collection of potions in the underseas world. It contained all sorts of potions and elixirs that were made by Triton, one of his trusted potion-makers, or collected from the homes of people making them for more nefarious purposes. Some were used as medicine or aid, some were kept for cataloging and study, and Ariel was sure at least one of them could someone turn her human.

Of course it was forbidden for her or her sisters to go in, but Ariel had spent enough of her childhood exploring the castle to know where the room was – and where the key was. It didn't take long for her to pluck the key from the same hidden compartment she had found it in when she was 12 (why would Triton ever move it if he was so sure no one else knew where it was), and the room had of course not moved a bit.

Once she had unlocked it, Ariel began to rummage through all the bottles, scanning labels and flipping through notes that had been left around. There, sadly, was no 'turn a mermaid into a human perfectly and forever' potion, but Ariel figured she could cobble together enough potions to create the total effect.

One potion split a tail into two. Another removed scales. Another gave a merperson the ability to breathe air without having to go back to the sea. Another made merpeople less sensitive to the sun. Another made a tail stronger. Ariel figured with all of these mixed together, she'd have two strong legs and the ability to breathe and dance and live and be human.

Now, did she mix them all together? Or was it fine – or even preferred? – to take them really quickly one right after another. Ariel placed them down on a separate table and went searching for a basin to mix them in. Finding none, Ariel figured that was just a sign to drink them in succession.

She took a deep breath and uncorked the first bottle.

"Ariel!" a voice boomed.

She spun around. "Daddy!"

"What on earth are you doing in here? I told you never to come in here, I strictly forbade it! You know that!"

"Daddy!-"

"And what is this?" Triton snatched the bottle from her hand. "Ariel, this potion removes your scales!"

"I know." She said, folding her arms and scowling at him.

"You know?" Triton boomed. "Ariel, this has to be the least levelheaded thing you've ever done! You shouldn't be in here at all, much less drinking these potions yourself!"

Ariel shrunk back at the yelling, but refused to yell back. She was still so livid with him.

Triton glanced down to the bottles that were on the nearby table. "Splitting your tail? Breathing air? Ariel, what are you doing?"

Ariel didn't respond.

"You know nothing of potions! If you mixed these together, there'd be terrible effects! You can't just mix potions willy-nilly! You'd be killed if you drank all of these! You'd dissolve into foam!"

Ariel's heart stopped at this. "R-really?"

"Ariel, yes! I wouldn't joke about this sort of thing!" with a roar, Triton smashed the bottle to the ground. Ariel watched the red liquid emit a puff of smoke and then pool on the tile. "Don't you know anything of side effects? How potions work? They're dangerous – especially in the hands of someone who doesn't know what they're doing! If I hadn't found you, or had started looking for you even five minutes later-" Triton choked and stopped speaking.

Ariel stumbled backwards. She could've just died. A handful of potions – each so seemingly harmless in and of itself, each looking like they were just another step closer to her dream, would've killed her before she fully realized what was happening.

"What possessed you to do this?" Triton threw out his hand to the potions. "What could you have possibly hoped to accomplish?"

Ariel bit her lip, still shaken by what happened, rather, what almost happened. She still hadn't processed it, and the futile brink of death still seemed to loom just as close as it unknowingly had a second ago.

"Tell me!" Triton said firmly, loudly, but at least he wasn't yelling anymore.

"I want to be a human!" Ariel cried out, resisting the urge to clamp her hand over her own mouth.

"You…what?" Triton said, appalled. "Ariel…you've mentioned the human world, you made jokes as a child, but don't you know better than to-?"

"It's not like that!" Ariel said. "I swear I know what I'm doing-"

"I think this," Triton gestured to the pulled potions again. "is proof enough that that isn't true!"

"Because I wasn't thinking right now!"

"You certainly weren't!"

"But I've spent years thinking about the human world! I know it's where I supposed to be, and I've always known!"

"How do you possibly know that?" Tritons sneered.

Ariel paused for a second, debating whether or not to say the next sentence. But she figured she had already revealed so much, and may as well continue. "Because I've been there!"

"What?" Triton barked, his face turning red.

"Not often, but just to see!" Ariel pleaded. "It's beautiful, Daddy! I know you don't like it, but if you'd just give me a chance, if you'd just listen-"

"You listen, Ariel!" Triton retorted. "You ignore my rules, your family's opinions, and I lived in fear of the day it would end up like this!"

"I do listen to you, you just aren't always right!" Ariel yelled back. "Just because I don't agree with your opinions doesn't mean I don't hear them – about the human world, about Marcus, about anything!"

"We can't keep doing this, Ariel." Triton said, rubbing his temple. "I can't keep trying to drag you down different paths just to have you defy me, and at a great cost to you. I want to be furious with you – I'm certainly not happy – but I'm just exhausted. We've had this fight before, it feels like we've had every fight."

"I want to be in the human world." Ariel said firmly. "I'll do anything to get there." She sighed. "I didn't want to hurt myself, and I don't want to hurt you, or my sisters. But this is something I have to experience for myself."

There was silence for a minute, until Triton spoke. "I will make you a deal."

Ariel felt her breath hitch. She assumed he would yell, forbid her, refuse to even consider allowing her what would make her happiest. But he wasn't! He was thinking, and she just may be making progress. "Yes?" she said softly, hoping he would speak before he changed his mind.

"I don't want you to get hurt Ariel, and it's clear this means a lot to you."

She nodded, remaining silent in order to encourage him to keep speaking.

"And I don't think our argument will progress if we keep yelling our opinions at each other. So…I will turn you into a human, and I'll do so for three days. I'll give you a spell that will gently float the surface so I know you're safe, but I won't come with you. I don't want to-to see this." He stopped speaking and cleared his throat. "I'm not ready to see this. But, at sunset in three days, I will come to the shore. If you can find a suitable reason to stay – one that seems suitable to me as well – they you could stay human, if you wanted to."

A tear ran down Ariel's cheek. "Daddy…I love you."

"I love you too, Ariel. That's why I'm doing this."

Review, please!