Author's Note!
Ok, yay! Another chapter (Barely 2k words but...:( sorry)! Sorry (again) about the sort of awkward, ambiguous, 3rd person-ish view. You can definitely comment or P.M. me if you find anything hard to understand or just plain incorrect.
Things in Italics are thoughts (usually the character who was 'narrating' just before the thought). "
Things in Italics and quotes are Ariel moving her lips 'talking' without sound".
Bold is for Erica.
Sorry if I missed anything (like didn't follow that little key I made. This is all un-beta-ed...how do you spell that?...).
This scene I made up myself, watching the movie there is actually a pretty big time gap from the time she arrives on the beach to dinner. I just kinda filled it in with, fluff. Dancing fluff. Sorry if Erica is sort of OOC. She's kind of an OC yet also not. In my mind she's genderbent Eric yes, but she has her own personality sort of also. She's shyer and quieter than Eric and I guess Ariel is also sort of OOC too. Can she put a shirt on? I don't know. She's in a bra for like, her entire mermaid life sooo, if I can get lost in one she can too...
Anyways, sorry for the long note! Thanks for reading!
Carlotta finally managed to coerce a hesitant Ariel out of the tub after a LOT of coaxing and in the end she only agreed to it because most of the bubbles had popped. After lots of one-sided arguing Carlotta even had to have s small bite brought up for the girl to eat in the tub because she had already missed lunch. The strange girl loved the water, swimming back and forth the length of the tub or sometimes just sinking down below the water and holding her breath for minutes at a time (that really got Carlotta's heart rate up the first time). When she finally did step out on wobbly legs, she was at first horrified at the sight of the prune lines on her hands and feet and it took quite a bit of effort on both sides to get that little misunderstanding sorted out.
Then there was the topic of getting dressed.
By gods. The child doesn't even know how to dress herself. It's like she's never seen underclothes before.
A few minutes spent trying to help the girl into her pants, she kept rubbing her legs with an amazed expression on her face. Carlotta tried with the shirt. It was good until Ariel stuck her head under, which means it was bad from the very start.
Ariel had somehow managed to pull one of the sleeves of the shirt in on itself and turned the thing around half sideways so she was trying to put her head out the other sleeve. It was getting to be quiet the mess, little bits of red hair sticking out the head hole along with an elbow, when of course, the mistress walked in.
The door creaked as it opened and Carlotta looked over to see the princess's very confused blue eyes. "Is everything alright in here?"
"Erica!"
If they could've seen Ariel's face under the shirt it would've been redder than her hair as her struggling suddenly stopped at hearing Erica's name.
A wide grin broke out on her face, "Need some help there Carlotta?" she walked chucking, "Grimsby and I had thought you had drowned or something, you didn't make it up to lunch."
She gently pulled the sleeve that was inside, back out again and Ariel remained still as a statue.
Now Carlotta was blushing, and gave a small laugh, "No no, the girl just enjoyed the bath. She did scare me a few times though, holding her breath."
"Ah I see. Well I'm glad to see you're both fine." She gently pulled the shirt around so it was lined up correctly and then worked it down over the poof of red hair.
Oh gods oh gods oh gods.
Ariel slowly pushed her head up when she felt Erica continue to gently tug the shirt and shinning blue eyes peered up into icy ones.
Ice.
"I've heard stories about it up and the merpeople up North. They wear seal skins to keep warm and they hunt with the whales…"
Cold and sparkling clear, while Ariel's were a darker blue than the depths of the ocean, Erica felt the same feeling of déjà vu as before. The girl's lips moved, familiar with speech yet sound still refused to come out.
I wish I could hear what you're trying to say to me…
Erica blinked and Ariel smiled at the light blush that spread across her cheeks even as she felt her own burning on her face. She ran a hand through her long black hair,
"Now just, stick your arms out the holes there on the side, see?"
Ariel looked down to focus on the task at hand finding it easier now that her head was freed, and complied easily.
"Now that you're dressed, would you care for a tour of the castle before dinner?"
Ariel nodded enthusiastically and Erica held out a hand to lead the way, "Carlotta, could you please tell Grimsby we'll be down later for dinner?"
"Of course dearie, you just go and enjoy yourself and we'll see you then. I'll have Louis cook up something special for our guest tonight."
A parting "Thank you Carlotta" and a calloused, yet somehow still soft and strong hand pulled lightly on the pale soft smooth one and they were out the door.
They followed the path back to the castle, waving to the maids who were just hanging up the last of the day's laundry. They walked up the stairs and through a large glass door. The one side of the hallway was all windows while the other side was spotted with countless doorways and pictures.
"That way leads down to the kitchen. Down that way leads to more spare bedrooms and closets."
The tiled marble floor was cool again Ariel's bare feet as her neck craned this way and that to see all the beauty the castle had to offer.
"We'll be in the dining hall later this evening." Erica nodded to yet another branch off doorway, "And this is the back entrance, out those door you get to the courtyard with the gates and the stables."
The hall opened up to an arching ceiling and a large staircase with oak banisters. Erica led the way up the stairs, her hand never leaving Ariel's, a grin on both of the princess's faces.
"This is the main hall. We have another ball room downstairs if we wanted to have a party but that hasn't happened for a long time…"
Erica felt a tug on her hand to see Ariel's face staring up at her in a sad pout.
"Why are you sad?"
Though she couldn't hear it, she saw the question in the other girl's eyes and released her hand pacing towards one of the arched windows. "My parents used to throw parties and dances all the time when I was younger, but they died in a sailing accident a while back. I could never give up the ocean but we haven't had a ball in a while."
"My mother died in a...sailing accident too…"
Erica saw the girl walk over to look out the window with her. She saw her lips move and when she turned to face her she saw the same sadness reflected in her eyes.
Then her face broke into a silly grin and Erica looked on confused.
"Dance with me! Dance, come on!"
She nodded her head excitedly and Erica followed as she pulled her out into the middle of the floor.
I have a painting back home, oh how do they do it…
She frowned and bit her lip, putting her right hand on Erica's waist while staring at the other trying to remember where it went.
"Oh! You want to dance?"
Erica laughed at the girl when she nodded causing her bangs to flop down into her face.
"Here alright, put your left hand on my shoulder, and I hold your right." Her own arm snaked comfortably around the shorter girl's waist and their hands were once again gently joined.
Ariel looked down at her bare feet next to Erica's polished boots on the cold tiled floor and frowned.
"Ah, you don't know how to dance?"
She shook her head and Erica smiled. "Just follow my lead alright?" she began to count off a slow one two three.
One two three. One two three.
Ariel blushed as she stumbled backwards missing a beat but Erica just nodded encouragingly. "It's ok, I've got you. Back, left, together. Forwards right together. Yeah! You've got it."
One two three. One two three.
"I-I'm doing it. I'm dancing!"
"Yes, good job, there you go!"
One two three. One two three.
"Ok, are you ready? Spin!"
The change in pattern barely caused a hiccup as Ariel spun out gracefully and back in again to the safety of Erica's arms.
One two three. One two three.
Ariel's eyes closed as she threw her head back in silent laughter into another spin. The rhythm sped up as they waltzed together around the floor.
One two three. One two three.
Ariel grinned mischievously and Erica raised an eyebrow before laughing as the smaller girl threw herself into another spin. Pulling herself in, heart racing, dancing into her arms, Erica caught her with a grunt.
"You're a natural…"
The music slowed and the two remained, no longer waltzing, just dancing slowly together. Ariel's head fit perfectly on her shoulder as Erica rest her chin on her head.
"What would I give to be where you are? What would I pay, to lay here beside you? What would I do to see you, smiling at me?"
Erica hummed softly, the song that had played in her dreams these past few days, now with this girl in her arms, it wasn't so eerie and lost. At that moment, everything was at peace.
Ok, um. I talked a lot in the beginning authors note so what now...hmmm... Erica is taller than Ariel and is leading in a really simple waltz. Sorry if I made any pro-ballroom dancers mad. The design of the castle is also mostly made up by me and guided kind of by wikipedia. There is very little information on how big the castle actually is and the rooms and such and I'm so terrible with directions (the wiki page used lots of 'this is East of this. This is West but facing South. No wiki. Just. No).
Anyways...oh yeah! Shout outs!
vampire13eb
GardevoirLover4ever (yay pokemon!)
Thanks Guest Morgan for the review.
Francis456 for being there to comment and help with all my stuffs so far.
Thanks to all those others I have yet to shout out because I haven't updated the Frozen Fugitive in forever (because I'm checking my email and seeing all those notifications and I really need to update and I'm rambling in my note...again).
Thanks as always for reading! ~piepie