Treasures of the Sea

Chapter Three

A/N: Woah, getting more and more reviews! Thanks everyone! This was actually quite hard to write. Plus its exactly 12am where I am, so I guess I just barely made my dateline... Anyways, please review and enjoy!

Disclaimer: Hetalia and all the wonderful characters belong to Hidekaz Himaruya

"Is it alive?" Francis asked curiously, stepping forward and crouching beside the motionless merman and examining Lovino's features.

"Why of course, Francis!" Antonio answered excitedly, crouching next to the older man. He too stared at the merman with curiosity. The final of the bad friends trio, Gilbert the albino, joined them as well.

"He doesn't look alive…" Gilbert added, noting how his skin looked like it was going to dry.

"Ah, Gilbert, could you get everyone to get the ship moving? Lovi can't stay in the Mediterranean for awhile." Antonio told his quartermaster, remembering how this was all happening because the merman was escaping his own kingdom. Gilbert gave a puzzled expression to his captain but left anyways; shouts of orders to raise the anchor and rig the masts following. Numerous men appeared to the albino's orders, tending to the ship. Antonio stood up and observed his men moving, glad that his crew were so hardworking. Especially since it's been almost over a week since the ship stopped.

"So, why is this 'Lovi' of yours on board the ship?" A male voice asked from Antonio's looked up at the owner of the voice, the ship's sailing master, Roderich. He wasn't too tall; in fact, he was shorter than the entire bad friends trio. The Austrian man was rather high class compared to the rest of the crew - sporting small yet smart reading glasses and a purple coat, worn over his clean, long-sleeved, white shirt and followed by his black trousers. Although Gilbert wore similar clothing, his coat, now tied around his waist due to the heat, was navy blue and seemed rather faded from age. Francis had a different coat, it was much longer than the other's (whose coats reached their knees) and it landed almost to the lower part of his calf. It was a light baby blue, which was what he considered fashionable. While Francis and Antonio had to tie their long hair with a ribbon, Gilbert and Roderich had kept their hair short enough to not disrupt any activity they may need to do.

Antonio looked back at Roderich and Francis's curious looks with the usual excitement on his own.

"Well, Lovi here just ran away from home!" He stated, as if there was totally nothing wrong with that.

Francis felt his jaw drop, though Roderich remained skeptical. "Sure, because he's not some prince who's being forced into whatever hell life he's living because everyone's being biased or anything." The Austrian remarked.

"How should I know? Though it would be cool if Lovi was a prince!" Antonio said gleefully, not catching the other's sarcasm. Well, of course Lovino hadn't mentioned that he indeed was a prince, but it's not like Antonio needed to know everything. Antonioused the back of his palm to run over Lovino's cheek, which suddenly felt rather dry… though of course the pirate captain didn't paytoo much attention to it. All his brain could register was how adorable the little merman in front of him looked. And how surprisingly calm he was when knocked out.

"Aw, look at him," Francis started cooing, "I think the Captain's fallen in love!" He said, gesturing at Antonio as Gilbert came jogging back. He laughed maniacally as a response and held both Francis and Roderich around their necks with both his arms in a sort of hug.

"This calls for a celebration!" Gilbert bellowed, eager to get any reason to bring out the high quality beer Antonio was keeping for any "just-in-case" moments. The pirate captain looked over his shoulder back at the three behind him and shrugged.

"I doubt I could fall in love with someone so fast, but – "

"Oh hey, look! His hair is messed up!" Francis quickly chirped, interrupting his captain and ignoring the disapproving pout he got. The older pirate gotbackdown on his knees in front of the merman and examined the curl. "Let the big brother Francis, here, help get your hair back together!" Francis said childishly, placing a hand over the curl and pulling it in an attempt to smoothen it out.

And instantaneously, the merman's eyes jerked open, his back shot up in an alert mode, and immediately his mouth was at full work screeching all the vulgarities he knew.

"What the fuck? Don't fucking touch my curl, you bloody dumbass! Don't just fucking randomly touch another goddamned person you bastard! Who the fuck wo-"

"Lovi! You're awake!" Antonio interrupted him, pushing away the very shocked Francis and jumping onto Lovino in a bear hug, causing them to fall backwards. A muffled protest could have been heard behind the mess of different shades of brown hair being messed together as Antonio dug his face into the crook of Lovino's neck. He recoiled quickly, however, because of the sudden scream of pain from the merman in front of him.

"Ahh! Damn it, it hurts! My skin's too dry, fucker!" Came the screams, followed by another long line of profanities. It should have come with its own censorship, too, considering that none of it was even going to be registered into Antonio anyways. It just made the crew's ears sore. Though, of course most were curious as to why the merman was screaming, having not paid attention to what was happening prior to the screaming.

"Get that damned mermaid to shut the hell up." Gilbert said with a frown on his face, not liking how the view of the bright blue sea, the shady puffy clouds on the clean blue sky covering the bright afternoon sun, was being ruined by the choice of such colorful words. Hearing the albino pirate's protests, Lovino's face reddened with a mix of embarrassment and rage.

"Excuse me? I'm a merman, asshole! Nowhere near a fucking female, you bastard!" The merman shouted louder than ever. To this, the pirate scoffed, retorting something about there being no difference. Lovino muttered something under his breath in return, though those weren't very important.

"Oi! Get me some water!" Lovino started whining, his face having some sort of pitiful scowl. "My skin's gonna start peeling soon." He continued, a little fear visible in his eyes. How could everyone be so calm, joking around and such, when he was in such agony just by having contact with the fucking piece of wood below him? His skin felt like it was melting into the wood but it was definitely peeling - first starting to dry up, then becoming totally stiff and then finally peeling itself off. "It hurts, kay?" He whimpered sadly, suddenly feeling very miserable at how useless he was at keeping his own body in good shape.

A sudden splash of water all over him suddenly made Lovino brighten up. "Eh?" He looked up questioningly to see a young man before him holding a couple of buckets in each of his hands, proving that it was him that helped Lovino out of his horrible de-skinning process. The man before him wasn't rather tall, had long, tan brown hair that reached his waist and had it tied up in a simple tail behind him. The merman sure needed a lot of saving, now that he thought about it, and Lovino felt a sudden in-dept towards his rescuer. He managed a shy thanks and offered the man a smile, who in turn smiled warmly back at the merman and left, most likely to return the buckets to where they belonged. This guy was definitely different from the other pirates, very different.

At the thought of the others, Lovino turned around to look at Antonio, who had magically been transported to the middle of the deck (Lovino was placed somewhere along the sides) chatting wildly with the three other pirates he saw earlier.

"So how did you get a merman?" The albino asked, making sure to emphasize the word 'man' incase a particular merman decided to listen in their conversation.

"We were friends from childhood!" Antonio replied honestly, cheerful and unaffected by all the screaming of curses earlier.

Lovino sighed; maybe he shouldn't have run away with Antonio. How could he have expected a human to care for him, when his own kind didn't feel the need to? No, it was not only his own kind, his own family?

It was just at that moment when he noticed that a figure was walking up to him. Lovino looked; it was the same man who poured the water on him. Looking back at his own skin, Lovino could see that it was still really hard and some had already started peeling along his arms, but at least there were still some water droplets dripping.

"Thank you." Lovino said again when the man arrived at him.

"No problem. And don't mind those idiots," He gestured towards Antonio and gang, who seemed to be having some sort of argument suddenly, and continued, "They're the most dumbest of people you'd ever find." He explained, a slight smirk on his face.

"Do you need to go back in the sea, merman?" The man asked, looking back at Lovino. The merman nodded his head. "I hope you don't mind a dive, then." The man said, and Lovino felt himself surprisingly being carried. With a short three-second countdown (which barely even registered in his mind) Lovino plunged into the sea below him, feeling the cooling seawater engulf him. Everything didn't feel as bad, anymore, now that he was back in the water.

"Thanks again!" He shouted back. For a second, his mind flashed an idea of escaping, but then Lovino remembered that he had nowhere to run to. What would be the point then? The man, from up at the deck, leaned on the side of the ship and looked down to Lovino and smiled.

"So… what's your name?" Lovino asked suddenly, thinking that maybe he'd be able to make friends with this guy at least.

"Everyone calls me Eric, so feel free to do so as well." He said with a smile. Even though he was further away than he was earlier, Lovino had a gut feeling that this 'Eric' person was hiding something. The merman shrugged it off, and decided that it was only polite to introduce him as well.

"I'm Lovino." He said simply, though its not like he needed to explain much. It was pretty obvious he had a tail instead of feet, plus how he needed to stay in water to avoid burning up and having his skinned peeled again.

"So I overheard that you'll be following us?" Eric asked, though it was more of a statement in need of confirmation.

"Yeah. I hate it back at my place." Lovino answered, not eager to talk about anything he should consider his past. "Can I have a tomato, Eric?" Lovino asked kindly, a small smile on his face. At that, the pirate grinned and left to get a tomato.

"Catch!"

The days went by quickly, and everything turned into a routine after almost a week. Around evening of the day he ran away from home, Lovino had been introduced to most of the crew. Everyone was open to him, thankfully, and didn't mind having him around. Though of course it didn't change much for everyone's lives. Everyday, Lovino would stay in the sea; relaxing in the sea, while the crew went around doing whatever it was they needed done everyday. The merman had constant visits, usually either Antonio or (joyfully for him) Eric, who started treating him like a friend. Over just one week, Lovino had learnt, felt, and experienced so much more than he had from just the handful of visits he had from Antonio when they were younger.

Everyday, he noted, the Captain of the ship made his way out for breakfast, briefly nodding a greeting to Lovino before skipping off. When he was done, Antonio would then come and talk with the merman, their chats ranging from five minutes to almost two hours. After that, Antonio would have had to leave to attend to some work. But that was okay, because once the coast was clear, Eric would step in, filling in Antonio's empty space up on the deck. For them, conversation was light and simple, taking miraculously an average of three hours straight - depending on the time they started.

By the time it was lunch, Eric would throw a tomato for Lovino and leave to get his own food. The merman would eat the tomato quickly, before leaving to go find some seaweed and such for him to munch on. By the time he came back, Antonio would usually already be waiting for him. The pirate captain would stand where he always did, at the middle of the deck, and stare into the horizons. The first time Lovino saw him like that, he seemed rather dreamy and calm… how out of character for such a bouncy, happy-go-lucky person. The merman at firstwould just knock off the feeling and scream at the pirate, awakening the latter from his thoughts. Somehow or the other, he suddenly found himself staring at him everydayjust slightly longer than the previous. Maybe it was how calm he was, and Lovino felt guilt for disrupting someone he never knew could be so serene. If Lovino's first impression of Antonio were he being capable of such peace, maybe he wouldn't have had such a whiny tone on him all the time. Or it could be that look in his eyes, gazing deep into the bright, clear skies that captured him. Lovino found it almost impossible for him to have been able to look so thoughtful, so knowing… so ready. For what, the brunette merman had no idea, but the feeling was definitely there. It was possible that Lovino could have been imagining it all, fitting the mood with the given picture (he had had a history of doing such things before too), but he had a hunch that this wasn't one of those times. Hopefully.

As soon as Lovino noticed that he was staring at Antonio, the merman (could it be to cool his embarrassment or just some sort of reflex?) would automatically dunk himself downwards into the water, as if to hide his face. Face burning red, the merman just hated how he could even stare off at someone for so long… and catch himself do it almost everyday. Maybe it was just because Antonio was rather coollooking,somehow creating a kind of mysterious feature to him.

Only after a solid fifteen minutes would Lovino actually call out to Antonio and start talking. It was just another bunch of random chatter - what Antonio had for lunch, the types of fish Lovino saw, what different things humans had and did that merman didn't… the weather even. After that, both Lovino and Antonio would take an afternoon nap. It was a routine time for Lovino to do so ever since he was young, so he figured he might as well continue since he had nothing much else to do. Antonio, too, had had afternoon naps since childhood, and even though he had some stuff to do every now and then, the captain tried to maximize his siesta time.

By the time Lovino wakes up, he'd see either Eric or Gilbert (usually both) on deck. If the two were together, chances that they had been arguing for some time were extremely high. Both of them didn't really get along - Gilbert being the all high-and-mighty, proud and loud troublemaker he was while Eric was an aggressive young man who believed in modesty and simplicity, always going out of his way to prove his points to the ship's quartermaster. Well, they did have their moments, where working together to get little jobs done, but it never really lasted long. Nowhere near the amount of time they spent trying to screw each other's brains out at least. By dinnertime, Francis would be calling for the two to eat their food before it was cold. Gilbert would rush to wherever it was they ate dinner, Eric tailing behind holding the intention to run after and ambush his senior in his interrupted rage. If Lovino had called out to them before Francis did, whether it was to get them to stop fighting out of annoyance of the ruckus or just because he was getting lonely, Eric would get another tomato or two for Lovino.

Soon after, Antonio would join Lovino for a little tomato snack before his dinner. He said he liked eating dinner later than the others, so he insisted on giving Lovino some company. After finishing the tomato, the pirate would leave for dinner. At about an hour later, Eric (who had to clean the deck with some others) joined the merman again. Sometimes Francis came and checked the rigs, and had small chatter with Lovino as well. Though, Lovino found he cursed most when he was talking to the French pervert. The ship's sailing master Roderich would show his face from time to time as well, as he needed to take down their location. He had explained how it was done, but Lovino could barely understand half of what the man said. He learnt that Roderich was a very money-conscious and stingy person despite his high-quality looking clothes. The man was actually from a high-class noble family but had been forced to join the crew a few years ago when the ship they were travelling on was captured. Even though he was still a young boy then, his parents and family had willingly given him up for their lives. Antonio was disgusted by their actions and offered Roderich to be their sailing master, considering he was one of the only people on their ship to actually have an education. Besides that, Antonio also ordered to leave the family's ship on fire as they left. At first the young Roderich cried, but soon he understood the situation and gave in. His parents were willing to abandon him, might as well do as what the pirates wanted. Soon, he found that the pirates who captured him were still friendly people in heart, and Roderich had been on rather good terms since. It was because of his "heroic" and "story-like" past as well as his "conservative" and "cool minded" personality that Eric admitted that he indeed had admired the sailing master for some time.

Back on track, just before going to bed, Antonio would hop onto that little boat (the same one he used to help Lovino escape) and would have a decent talk with the merman. It usually ended with a sweet goodnight before he got back up on the ship and left to sleep. And that was when Lovino slept as well. He would take a nice deep breath, fill his lungs with as much oxygen as he could and then go not too deep underwater to doze off to dreamland. It was always a joy for him to be able to wake up to clear blue skies.

On one such day, where the morning skies were unusually blue, the clouds were fluffy and the breeze was light and cooling, Lovino woke up with a sort of worried feeling. He had a dream, though very vague, and it dampened his mood. Not very nice to wake up because of some dream where your younger brother was screaming for you to help him as he was being captured by some notorious humans. It gave him a bad feeling of what was going to happen that day but, just as he did whenever he got that feeling, Lovino ignored it and went on with his new daily routine.

The ship hadn't actually been sailing much. It was quite a decent sized beauty, and only half of all the masts were actually being used. There was a problem, the captain found, about having Lovino around (not that he ever regretted offering the merman to join him) - How could the ship actually continue on its journey? Antonio knew that sooner or later he needed to get the ship going at its fullest, he just needed to know what Lovino would do. Surely the only way for him to keep up was to swim alongside the ship. But what if he got tired? He'd need a place to rest, but Antonio couldn't just bring him onboard. Maybe he'd discuss this with Gilbert and Francis during breakfast. Roderich could have some suggestions too, considering he was a real smart guy. Eric could also be of some help; he proved to be quite the creative one at times. Antonio got out of his bed to the beautiful skies outside his captain's cabin's window.

The pirate captain grabbed his coat and, still in his thin white shirt and trousers he wore to sleep, left his bedroom. On usual occasions he would have stayed inside for a while more, maybe just lay in the bed or even staring out to the blue sea through his window. He did no such thing today, and just made his way to the deck. Lovino was already awake, as usual, and was lazing around on the water's surface staring up towards the morning sky.

"Morning Lovi!" Antonio shouted downwards, a goofy lopsided grin plastered on his face.

"Morning." Lovino grumbled back, in an oddly grouchy mood considering it was so early in the morning.

"Aw, don't be so grumpy in the morning! It'll ruin your whole day!" Antonio shouted back and started heading back inwards, "Anyways, I'm going to go get some breakfast." He finished, smiling triumphantly. Lovino was always hungry for tomatoes, and whenever the pirate brought up anything food-related, the merman would call for one. However, when Lovino didn't respond, Antonio started to grow worried. Did he do something wrong already?

"Lovi?" He asked gently after making his way back to the deck, looking over to see the merman, who acted as if nothing had happened. Lying there, staring at the clouds as they slowly moved across the sky, feeling the breeze gently move across the ocean, absorbing the soft heat from the Sun – basically anything but answering Antonio. It was like the merman hadn't even heard him. "Lovi!" Antonio tried again, sounding a bit more desperate than he would have wanted.

Lovino's head moved slightly as he turned to face the pirate, as if acknowledging his presence. Still, without saying anything, he just continued to stare, only this time at Antonio. Frowning, Antonio was getting more and more worried (as well as nervous) about what happened to Lovino. There didn't seem to be anything wrong the night before when he left to bed. So what happened?

"Don't you want a tomato Lovi?" Antonio asked, rather timidly, as he looked over worriedly at his merman friend.

"Go away…" Came the reply – short, straight to the point and very, very cold. Lovino himself couldn't really think of a very good reason why he was being cold to Antonio, cause he was very sure the pirate had only done good things for him. It was his grandfather, it always was, that had brought along the problems. Sometimes it was things he prevented, maybe words he said, could be actions he had done… Though in this case, it was more like something he hadn't done. Lovino could slap himself for just the thought of being saddened by such an idea.

Okay, so he was feeling underappreciated that no one at all had come to look for him. Yes, the ship had moved, but it wasn't that far away from home. Well, it could take a good day or two of non-stop swimming. Considering it was their prince, heir to the throne nonetheless, that had gone, shouldn't anyone be alarmed?

"There's something wrong, isn't there?" The sudden voice that could have came from nobody else but Antonio disrupted Lovino's thoughts. For some odd reason, the tone he was using made the lump in his chest grow. Why does the only person who actually cared about him, besides his idiotic brother, was this human?

"Yeah. Just give me some time, 'kay?" The merman responded, trying his best to sound as rude and proud as he usually did. It didn't have that ring to it, but Antonio figured that if he needed time alone, then it should be important. So with a short goodbye, he left.

Making his way indoors, to what they used as a dining room, Antonio heaved a sigh. Today sure seemed like it was going downwards. There was still hope though - maybe someone had a solution to his problem. Antonio really needed to get the ship going. He needed it to in order for it to reach the northern seas in time. He needed to cross paths with a particular group of pirates who hung around there. How could he just wait around after that Chinese merchant had passed on a message from them? Especially when the message said that they had information. That, he really needed. Antonio's life depended on it. Literally.

A/N: Right, hope this wasn't too much of a drag! ):
And just a note. For those who may have missed the edit from the earlier chapter, I've promoted dear Gil from a first mate to the quartermaster.
Thanks everyone for the support, please leave me any comment at all in a review!