The next morning, Ludwig was awoken by Gilbert throwing himself onto his bed. "Bruder," he screeched. "Get off, now!"
His 'awesome' brother laughed obnoxiously and ran out of the room, saying something about getting up.

What Ludwig wanted to do all day was get some sleep, read his book, maybe work a bit in the yard, just generally enjoy the day and take it easy on his ankle. It was still throbbing and was a somewhat red color, despite the ice that they had put on top of it to stop the swelling. He had no experience with a twisted ankle and all he knew was that if you walk around it probably gets worse. Other than that, he didn't know what he was suppose to do. Wrap it up? But what he wanted to do was relax anyway, so it wouldn't matter. Besides, he had Gilbert to get him beer, ice, food, the remote, any damn thing he wanted.

What Ludwig actually did, however, was completely the opposite. His brother literally dragged him out of bed when he wouldn't wake up, then he had to walk to the cabinet to get pain meds-which wasn't pleasant, put on flip-flops, get to the car himself, then wait for Gilbert. And that was only the beginning of the day.

All the way to the beach, Gilbert was obviously nervous. His grip was so hard on the wheel his knuckles were whiter then his hair. His entire body seemed to be locked in place and only moved when he was turning the wheel or stepping on or off the pedals. Ludwig didn't know why he was so nervous. He was just fine yesterday. When he had asked about it, Gilbert just shrugged and claimed it was nothing.

Ludwig obviously didn't believe him, but let the subject drop for the sake of not dying from Gilbert's distracted driving. He was already a horrid driver and was even worse when he was distracted. Ludwig rubbed his head- the exact spot where a huge bump had been there recently. He had agreed to ride in the bed of the truck for the sake of room while Antonio and Francis sat in the spare seats.

Never was he going to repeat that mistake.

After a short drive, they arrived to the beach. The water was a nice blue-green and the waves were calm today. The air was, of course, salty, but you could smell the ocean on top of that. Birds squawked over head and all the kids would usually squawk back or call 'mine! mine! mine!' over and over again. There weren't any kids out yet though, despite it being summer. It was too early for them to be out. The surfers were at it though, but not on their beach. On the way to theirs they counted about seven. Gilbert loved to watch them wipeout so he always leaned on the horn to spook them.

When the two German brothers got out of the car, a gently breeze kissed them on the cheeks and followed them all the way to the water. Ludwig had to lean on Gil to the water then sat down next to him. It was a super nice day outside and he always cherished the quiet moments like these.

"So...Where the hell is he?"

But, of course, with Gilbert around it never lasted long.

"He will be here. He knows that we are coming."

The waves had started to tickle their feet softly. The clear water on the sand dragged the sand and shells around, making it a big foggy when it returned, but never failed to leave a design on the sand.

"But I thought he would've been here already. He's awesome enough to know when were coming, right?"

Ludwig sighed and turned to him, his face somewhat serious. "Gilbert, he's a merman. I doubt they have actual schedules or appointments. He will be here."

They waited a bit more in silence until Gilbert stood up and stretched out his back. "Well, this is fun and all, but fuck waiting. Can't you call him or something?"

Another sigh. "Gilbert, he wil be here. Can you sit down now?"

Gilbert rolled his eyes and groaned. He crouched down, but didn't actually sit down. His white hair had danced a bit in the wind and looked combed for once. His shirt was clean, free of any beer or chip stains and even more so, his shorts weren't torn up at all. The entire outfit was actually acceptable. Did he dress for the occasion?

"Gilbert," Ludwig started gently. "You aren't trying to um...flirt with him, right?" He managed to get that out just awkward enough for Gilbert to pick up what he was talking about.

"Keseseseseses! No, don't you worry, you can date the fish." When he turned to look at Ludwig next and saw how badly he was blushing he fell over laughing. "Whoa, calm down!" The albino choked out. "You virgin, you're so worked up over nothing!"

"Stop it!" Ludwig snapped at his older brother. He hid his face in his hands and groaned loudly. "Shut up, I beg you."

"Hey guys!" A familiar voice filled the air around them and they looked up to see Feli riding a wave into shore. "How're you guys doing?"

"FELI!" Gilbert rushed over and met him in the water. Feli was unexpecting this and was all but tackled into the water.

"Gilbert, hey!" Feliciano actually smiled. "I'm so happy to see you again." He turned to Ludwig. "Is your uh...walk thing better?"

The blonde let a smirk slip by and shrugged. "It will heal in a few days."

Gilbert started to rumble on and on about the past years and how excited he was to see Feli again. Ludwig listened to some degree, mainly when the elder started to tell what happened after he swam to the beach that night. Feli nodded with great interest and mentioned how thrilled he was that the two were okay.

After about an hour and a half of just talking, Gil gets up and stretches. "Well, sitting here has been awesome and stuff but I want to do something. Any suggestions?"

Ludwig and Feliciano shared a look before turning to Gilbert. "Well," Ludwig began. "Feliciano can't go anywhere on land and I have a twisted ankle. This is pretty much all we can do."

"Maybe when Luddy's healed up we can swim around!" Feliciano pipped up with a smile.

Gilbert groaned and sunk back to the ground. "But this is so booooring," he complained. "Can you at least show us your tail or something? That'd be interesting."

Feli immediately looked unsure and glanced around nervously. "I-I don't know."

Ludwig somewhat glared at Gilbert for being enough of himself to ask a personal question like that. It had taken weeks upon weeks for Ludwig to be able to see Feli's tail and that was with contact everyday. "He doesn't have to show us if he doesn't want to, Gilbert."

"N..No, it's okay," Feliciano stammered out. He scanned the waves and the beach for any bystanders. When he deemed it clear enough, he lifted his tail out of the water and placed it closer to the two on the sand "Just, be careful. Please."

Ludwig scooted closer to the water and gently reached out with his hand to touch the scales. He ran his fingers over them, as if it were an ice sculpture he was feeling instead of his very close friend's tail. In all honesty, he didn't really know what to think of the tail. It was very smooth. He expected the seperates scales to make it feel lumpier or rough at the least. Instead he felt like he was stroking the side of a regular trout.

The tail fin itself was what confused him. In some drawings people portrayed the tail to be almost like hair in the way that it could almost be curled around. In others the tail was flat as a board and couldn't be used other than to swim with. It was somewhat in the middle. Where the fin split and went the seperate ways, the tail was a bit stiffer and less flexible. But the further away from the tail, the more flexible it was.

Ludwig glanced up the body that was being examined and locked eyes with Feliciano. "Do you trust me?" He asked carefully.

Feli didn't even have to think about it. He nodded confidently and tried to think about why Ludwig had asked.

The answer was that Ludwig wanted to feel his gills. Feli had gills on his neck, but most merpeople had gills on their side closer to their lungs. With gills closer to the neck like Feli had, you could go faster. It had something to do with oxygen being obsorbed faster or something. He didn't really bother to listen when it was explained to him numerous times.

The German's rough hands genty went over the gills. It was unbelievable. The gaps kept opening and closing, searching for water. Feli grabbed the hand and brought it down to the water. "Get it wet, that way I can at least get water in." The hand went back up and the merman tried to relax his tense muscles.

Gilbert was in awe just as much as Ludwig. He had to watch all of this and wanted to ask questions. "Do you eat fish? What about seaweed? How do you fish have sex? Is it like you guys lay eggs and then jack o-"

"GILBERT!" Ludwig snapped, not wanting him to go farther. "Enough."

They glared at each other then turned to Feli slowly. "Feliciano?"

He looked extremely uncomfortable and awkward with the asked questions and was blushing red. "Well, I'm, uh. We eat variety of food, I guess. And uh...some-something like that. We have a breeding season I guess. But I'm not allowed to go to any yet."

"Why not?" Gilbert questioned. Feli looked old enough, Gilbert had his "mating season" numerous times.

"The mermaids get really aggressive during that time because they want their eggs to be uh...fertilized, I guess, first."

A silence took place and tension was in the air. For a few seconds it seemed as though the silence between them would last forever. That is, until Feli splashed his tailed around in the water, which effectively got all of them soaked.

The humans groaned slightly at getting wet, but Feli just laughed. "Sorry! I have to keep my tail and fins all wet. Otherwise I'll dry up."

As Feliciano laughed at his friends getting completely drenched, Lovino watched from the distance. He was worried what his brother was doing at the beach all the time and followed him today to see. And there his brother was, showing off himself like a prostitue. Humans could be very deceiving and could trick him easily.

Enough was enough. His parents were killed by humans and he refused to have his brother slaughtered too. Lovino ducked under the water and started to swim home. It was time to get help from their grandfather.

Back with the others, Feli was talking to them about how he hunts fish. They had already told him about fishing poles, which he thought was pitiful.

"All you have to do is swim faster then the fish and be able to follow after it. They dart all around, you see. Then you catch it with your hands," he held up his webbed fingers, "And boom! You caught a meal."

"But what if you wanted like a crab?" Gilbert asked curiously. They were all sitting in the water, the waves crashing into their bellies. All of them were either too muscular for it to bother them or used to the water.

"What do you mean? You just eat them."

"You don't take off their shells?"

"Of course not!" He smiled at them, showing off his teeth. "My teeth are so strong that the shells are nothing! It takes too much time and effort to try and get them off, anyway."

Gilbert nodded and Ludwig contined to watch far out into the water. He was listening, but something didn't feel right. It felt like something bad was coming. Maybe this was the calm before the storm.

Suddenly, something came out of the water. It looked human, so it might've been merpeople. "Feli, do you know who those people are?" Ludwig inquired. "I think I've seen them before."

Feli looked to where Ludwig was pointed and almost fainted. His grandfather and brother were watching them from a distance. They could see him with his human friends. Andreniline coursed through his veins. He was going to be in so much trouble. He felt like a kid caught smoking or drinking when he was way underage.

His grandpa seemed to be in shock. A mixture of disappointment, regret, fear, and sadness washed over the older male's face and he turned back into the water. His brother, on the other hand continued to scowl at Feliciano and stuck his nose up in the air at him. Feliciano could almost hear him cussing in his head.

He turned back to his human friends and swallowed tears. "I need to go home now." He gave them a small smile and tried to act like nothing was wrong when he got under water.

He had fucked up, badly. It was too late to fix any of that, but he had to get home before they hated him completely. Luckily, he had been swimming so fast that he actually met them on the way. "Guys! Stop! Please," he swam in front of his only two family members. "Please, I'm sorry!"

"If you were really sorry you wouldn't have gone back to them." Lovino shoved him back and kept swimming.

"Please, Lovino, forgive me." Feliciano pleaded. He was already starting to cry at the entire situation.

Lovino turned around and glared at his younger brother. "I tried to save you from the same human before and you attacked me. So no, I won't." He saw Feli open his mouth and snapped. "No! Don't talk to me. Talk to him."

He turned to his grandpa, who hadn't moved since they stopped. "Grandpa?"

"Why would you, Feliciano?" The elder asked. "I was so scared when Lovino had told me what you were doing. I wanted it to be another lie to get you in trouble."

Feli sobbed and tried to think of something that might help him out of this. "I always go to the surface though."

That struck a cord with Roma. "You do, don't you?"

"Si, si, I do!" Feliciano allowed himself hope. Maybe his grandfather would allow him to continue going up and he could continue to see Luddy."

"Then that changes now."

What.

"I forbid you from ever going back to the surface again. You will stay home or go out with one of us with you."

The world seemed to crash around the young merman. He wasn't allowed to go out at all. No more shells, no more jumping waves with dolphins, nothing. He couldn't even...he couldn't see his Luddy anymore. No more happy calms hitting his stomach when he thought of him. No more bubbles in him when Luddy smiled at Feli. Never again will he be able to be held in the muscular arms of his love. He always wanted to kiss him, but that means that Luddy would be his mate forever. Humans kissed each other all the time and it didn't really say anything sometimes.

Grandpa Roma continued on, regardless of the face Feli was wearing. "No, you'll have to be watched at all times now. No exceptions."

"No..." Feli started to sob and buried his face in his hands.

"Feliciano, I don't want you to end up like your mother. She was killed by humans, along with your father."

"But she felt trapped here! She went off on her own and she met dad!"

"But she died later because she left! Home is safe, home is human free, home is-"

"A prison! This place might not have walls, but you're going to start treating me like it does!"

"Because you need walls, Feli! You don't know what you're doing anymore! You act like everything in the world is good and peaceful, but guess what! It isn't! Everything kills so that they can survive and if you aren't careful you're going to end up like your mother!"

"I am not my mother!" Feli began shouting. "I am me! Nobody else! I know what happened to mom, and I don't care! You tell us everyday that we need to be careful but I don't care anymore! I want to be free!"

Grandpa Roma glared at his grandson. "You don't care? You don't care that my daughter died?"

Feli realized what he had said and guilt flooded him. "I didn't mean that, grandpa I just-"

"You take after your mother! How dare you speak like that! How dare you!"

"If I take after mom, let me go! I'll come back every once and awhile, I won't stay away-"

"If I let you go, I wouldn't be takin very good care of you, huh? I would be breaking my promise your parents made me make. I won't let you get hurt-"

"They didn't make that promise! You made it yourself after mom died because you feel like you couldn't save mom-"

SLAP.

Feliciano reeled back and held a hand to his now red cheek. His grandpa looked angry for a second, but realized then what he had done. "Feli? Feli, I'm sorry-" he reached out with a hand to make sure he was okay.

The hand was pushed back and Feli took off swimming. It was faster than before, faster then he thought he could go. He didn't want to be there anymore, couldn't be there anymore. He was done with it.

After a full minute of swimming, he realized e wasn't breathing. He turned around. Nobody was following him. He let himself cry. He needed to, it felt like his heart was being squeezed tightly.

Had he really said that to his grandpa? The guy who took them in after he heard of his parents' death? It felt like so long ago, he couldn't even remember fully what happened. He had blocked it out a long time ago.

He continued on swimming. It was to the direction of the beach. Something shiny caught his attention before he could get there.

He swam down to where a poor little fish was struggling in a net. The net had ropes leading up to the surface where a boat was putting by. Pity immediately filled Feli as he tried to get it out. The net was moving pretty quickly though, so it was hard to get out. Eventually, feliciano moved to the hole where the net was and reached in to get it.

Before he could though, the net pulled up sharply, catching his tail in the net. Panic filled his veins like ice and he started to thrash aroun to try to get it off. The fish got out of the net and sunk to the floor. It was a fake fish to try and get bigger fish, mainly sharks to come get it.

The hooks began to dig in his scales and he screamed loudly. He tried anyway to get away. Eventually, the ropes snapped and the net was full on in the water and around his tail. Feli tried to swim closer to the sand, anywhere closer to the beach he could get.

Soon enough, he found that he wasn't able to swim. He could barely even move in the water. He struggle to even get to the sandy bay near the bottom. He was going to wait until the boat left then he'd have to crawl to shore. Maybe Ludwig and Gilbert would be there soon.

As he crawled up onto the shore, he glanced back at the damaged tail. He could barely see his blue tail through all the netting. The hooks shimmered with the red of his blood and were only half visible. The other halves of the hooks were wedged into his tail. He sobbed back from the pain and realized with a sharp jolt when he moved the tail that he could die. Unless he was able to get help, very soon, he would die.

He couldn't swim, therefore, he could hunt. He couldn't oxygenate his water correctly. A lot of the time, they were like sharks. They had to keep moving. Of course, not constantly, but they needed to move eventually.

Before he could finish making a list of the terrible predicament he was in, a pair of human hands picked up his shoulders and heaved him out of the water. Where was the boat? If the humans in the boat had followed him to the shore, he wouldn't have to wait for his demise any longer.

The last thing that went through his mind as he was picked up was his grandfather's words. "If you aren't careful, you'll end up like your mother."