Midnight Storm

Ariel flopped down on her bed with a sigh. Today had been another busy day of discoveries.

Eric had taken her into the town to do a little shopping. Going into the town was and probably would always be exciting to her. The former mermaid loved being surrounded by all of the human objects she had yet to learn about and all of the delicious food she had yet to taste from the many bakeries and stores, but what she also thoroughly loved was getting to see what had sparked her curiosity to begin with: humans. Just getting to watch them go about their daily routine was enough for her. Plus, it was also amazing for her to think that she would one day be the humans' queen. She felt that she had to get to know her subjects.

Their visit to the town was shorter than usual as they were both eagerly excited to then proceed on a trip to their favorite flowered hill where they had a simple picnic. The first time Eric had taken Ariel there she had discovered the dandelion for the first time. This time she had discovered a new bug, the caterpillar, which was apparently a young butterfly. As soon as they reached home Eric had aided her at her search to learn more about the new creature in the palace library.

All in all, she had a very busy day and could not wait to get some shut eye. After all, she couldn't have more adventures with her prince tomorrow if she was lacking sleep.

Ariel had just been escorted up to her room by no one other than her prince. They lingered outside her door for a bit so Eric could stay with her for just a few more minutes. While it might have been improper for him to go into her room with her, he was completely allowed to stand in the hall with her to kiss her goodnight―a couple times.

After he left her, Carlotta had made her way to Ariel's room to help her get ready for bed, and that was how she found herself barely even managing to climb under the covers.

She was more than ready to close her eyes for the night when she heard a noise―a very, very loud noise.

Ariel though that it sounded like someone dropped a whole bunch of somethings that would create a crashing noise, but followed by the first noise was a slow and low rumble.

She sat out of bed, puzzled. What was that? It had sounded to her that it came from outside. The former mermaid looked out the window, only seeing blackness staring back at her.

Just as she was about to lay back down, Ariel then began to hear what sounded like rain. She left out an irritable sigh and got out of bed. She simply wanted to sleep. The challenge of keep her eyes open was not something she wanted to try, but there was a small part of her that needed to know what was happening.

Pulling back the curtains further, Ariel peaked out the window. Squinting her eyes she managed to learn that it was in fact raining. It was a storm.

No sooner had she processed that fact did her eyes meet a giant flash of light accompanied by another loud crash. Closing her eyes she left out a small scream, but it was followed by an excited laugh.

It was a thunderstorm.

Now, she could stay up for that. She intended on watching her first thunderstorm, but there was one more thing she had to do before she could enjoy it.

She raced out of her room and down the hall. This was her first thunderstorm as a human, so there was someone she wanted to share it with.

Without thinking about how she shouldn't go in or even how she should knock, Ariel barged into Eric's bedroom and ran up to his bed, climbing on it.

"Eric! Eric!" she began to shake the prince awake. He had stayed up late the night before to finish some work and followed by his busy day with Ariel, he was able to fall asleep in no time.

He groggily opened his eyes. Why was Ariel in his room? "Ariel? What's wrong?"

"What? Nothing?" Ariel responded.

"Oh," Eric sighed. At least he knew Ariel was safe. Eric subconsciously placed his hand on hers then let his tiredness take over again. "Then go back to bed. I know it's not morning and you need you sleep. Whatever you discovered we can look at in the morning."

"But this won't last until then, Eric," she said and right on cue there was another rumble of thunder. "Hear that?"

"Oh, it's a thunderstorm," Eric said as he sat up and began to groggily explain them to her. "It's like a normal rainstorm, but a little…worse. The um…air changes to a different," he yawned, "temperature… or, uh, something and-"

"Eric, I know what a thunderstorm is, silly. I just want to watch it with you," Ariel said, smiling at how cute her half asleep financé was and she placed a kiss on his cheek.

Eric woke up a bit more at that moment. Her kiss made him feel like he was hit by a small jolt of lightning that electrified his body, but in a good way, and he was thrilled to hear that she wanted to watch her first human thunderstorm with him. How on earth did he deserve a girl like Ariel. His Ariel.

"Well, I can certainly stay up a bit longer just to spend this time with you. It would be my honor," Eric told her.

"Thank you!" Ariel exclaimed, giving him another kiss. "I love you."

He kissed her back. "I love you, too. Hey. Grab that blanket and follow me."

Ariel looked at Eric puzzled, but did what he suggested. She grabbed a blanket and saw him get out of bed and pull back the curtains covering the clear doors to the balcony. He gestured for her to come over towards him.

She gave Eric the blanket and he sat down followed by Ariel. He took the blanket and wrapped it around the both of them. "We can't go outside, but we have a nice view from here," he told her, pulling her close.

Ariel observed how she could hear the winds howl like a fierce creature and how the rain fell from the sky and landed with such force. Sometime, the wind would even blow the rain onto the window. "I'm glad we're not out there."

"Yeah, thunderstorms are very dangerous. You never want to get caught in one," Eric told her.

There was a flash of lightning making Ariel ask, "Is lightning dangerous, too?"

"Very. If it strikes you it could kill you, but that's only if you are out in the open outside. We're very safe in here," Eric added. He didn't want to scare her.

"I always feel safe with you," Ariel told him and rested her head on his shoulder.

Eric smiled. He knew that there was never a moment he felt like he loved someone so much until he met her. No matter how tired he could possibly get, he would always at least try to spend time with her.

After a while of them silently watching the storm it started to quickly die off, traveling further into the distance to disturb someone else's sleep. Eric looked down at his fiancée to find her happily asleep, finally completely tired out.

He looked down to see her smile in her sleep. Eric smile as well. There was nothing he wouldn't do to see her smile.

Gently, Eric picked her up. He wished her could place her in his bed and hold her in his arms as he fell asleep, but they had yet to be married, so he couldn't be that improper. Instead, he began to head to her room to place her into her own bed.

Once in, he gently placed her back down in her bed and covered her back up. Never once did she wake because she was so exhausted from such a long day, but he still placed a kiss on her forehead.

"Goodnight, my little mermaid. I hope no more storms disturb your dreams," he said before leaving her to her dreams.