Hi guys! Thanks for all your thoughts for my story. They help me figure out what to do with it and teach me how to be a better writer. Also your fun comments to my life just make my day-like letting me know I'm not a complete dweeb for geeking out over jellyfish (. or sea lions and crabs...I love watching crabs, they're so ugly). Please continue to let me know what you think through reviews, and I hope you enjoy this week's update!

P.s. Fairytailcedes, I hope this story is still up to your standards. It is you it's dedicated to, after all. Oh! And you didn't give me your email address so I could send you what I have of the other story you suggested.

Chapter Nine

"Shiloh Pepin, a girl who was born with fused legs, a rare condition often called "mermaid syndrome," and gained a wide following on the Internet and national television, has died. She was 10." –Huffington Post; March 18, 2010

Kazuya knew he hadn't had a hard life. He had everything a child could ever need to grow up happy and healthy: money, loving and attentive parents, intelligence, and a perfectly healthy body. He even had good looks to top it off. He had never had to worry about stupid things like being accepted by others (why would anyone be worried about that smut anyways?), or whether all his needs would be met. His parents also didn't spoil him, so he learned hard work at an early age.

He attributed his phenomenal success in his field to this fact. But because of this, he couldn't stand whiners. He believed to his core that anyone who had the time to complain about their circumstances also had the time to do something about it. Because, well, look at him! Look at what he'd achieve with his own power! Why didn't anyone else do the same? He couldn't understand it, nor would he stand for it.

Unfortunately, he wasn't completely blind to how others reacted to this attitude of his. People didn't like their strife to be talked down to. They wanted all the attention and cry whining they could possibly milk from it, and thus his friends often called him uncompassionate, unsympathetic, and unempathetic. Whether or not this bugged them depended on why they had decided to stay friends with him, whether it be for his power, brains, and influence, or it simply was because they honestly enjoyed being with him—for whatever reason.

However, it was also these reasons that, even though Kazuya had plenty of opportunities, he had never had a serious relationship. Romance and women had everything to do with emotions and whining to the extreme. Even if he ever did accept the feelings of a girl (and even, at some times, fancied himself attracted), it soon ended with a crash when said girl realized just how empty Kazuya's understanding of human suffering was.

Because his life had been easy.

And yet, sometimes, when he let his guard down and is forced to be aware of the gaping hole in his otherwise perfect life, he'd wish it hadn't been so easy. Suffering was part of the human experience, and Kazuya simply did not understand it, no matter how hard he tried.

It was with suffering in mind that he came to with a pounding headache, grumbling stomach, and aching muscles.

Groaning, he pried open his bleary eyes just to come face to face with a pale, messy haired mermaid. And she was awake.

Such big, shiny eyes. They made him think of warm, sweet things, like hot chocolate after a day of play in the snow.

"Good morning, sleeping asshole."

He sighed. "Not the most eloquent with manners, are you?"

"Hey, I just saved your life in more ways than one. If anyone should be getting a lecture on manners, it's you."

He groaned again and moved his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, as the conversation was doing nothing for his headache. When the movement sent streams of sand falling past his stomach, he immediately became fully aware of the situation and felt every inch of his skin flush in alarm. And her bikini bottom would have gone missing once she transformed—oh Lord…

Despite every cell in his brain screaming for him to keep it cool and get out of the weird sand tomb before he saw anything, his muscles went ram-rod. He could barely breathe.

On seeing his reaction, Mai also blushed and fidgeted.

"Look, you had hypothermia, it was the only thing I could do, okay? I didn't do anything!"

He wanted to snap back something witty, but too much of him was still freaking out at the details he could feel of her on his naked front. Thank heaven he still had his boxers, but that didn't help much at this time. Had he ever been this close to girl? Naked, never. Hugging? Sure, but was this anything like hugging?

She gave him an impatient glare. "Stop staring at me like that and just get out. I can't until you do."

"What are you wearing?" Idiot, why did he ask? Obviously nigh close to nothing!

She thought the same thing. "Dummy! Just move! You're not the only one creeped out by this!"

Somehow, that broke whatever hold shock had on his muscles, and he flew out in a poof of sand. Gal, he could taste the stuff! Then he zoomed in on his dark lump of clothes and scurried over with sand scrubbing parts of his body he didn't even know sand could get to, and barely maintaining any sort of dignity one could have while only in their trousers.

As he forced on his still wet slacks, the mermaid behind him snickered. "Not that I think you don't have any morals when it comes to relationships—because I think you just don't have any morals, but aren't you freaking out just a little too much? Someone like you has got to have had his fair share of girlfriends."

"And what about your behavior? How many naked men have you woken up to?"

"None. But it wasn't like you were naked or that I like you or anything. Stay turned around while I get out. Once I hit the water I'll give you a shout to know it's safe to turn around."

"Why bother? It's not like I can keep you around anymore."

This gave her pause. "I'm sorry?"

"Don't make me repeat myself, I'm irritated enough as it is."

"Alrighty then. Turn around and I scratch your eyes out."

"Like I'd be tempted."

"And that's the third grader response of the century."

He wrinkled his nose and snorted. Like he cared. Stupid headache. And why did wet clothes have to feel like sandpaper coming on? Wait. Aw, crap, he'd forgotten to rinse off the sand first. Now it was stuck in there and in the unimaginable places too, gawd, he hated the ocean. Hated the beach, hated the sand, hated the sun and the stinking fish smell of it all—

"Alright. You can turn around. I'm going to check the area for your friends, so get nice and warm before we head off."

He turned to face her with a frown, "Head off wh-"….

He'd turned around to what could have only been a picture painted by fantasy. The morning sun blazed gold off of the ocean, turning the sky about it pink and white with light. And laying on her stomach in the midst of it, with sunlit gold waves lapping about her, was Mai, her copper scales bright as new pennies and her silk-skirt fins held above her like a curtain canopy. It didn't matter that her short auburn hair was a wet, stringy mess about her face, or that sandy mud still painted her shoulders, he couldn't deny it.

She made up the most beautiful scene he had ever seen.

He shook himself. Hard. Wait a second. Mai herself wasn't all that beautiful, he had been around better. Models, even. And those chubby, short pink legs of hers hadn't been much to look at, even if they had added to the curve of her hips that went all the way down to her calves and…this was stupid. It was just the whole…mermaid charm.

"Where do you plan on taking me?" He raised a hand to block the sun from his face. It helped with the brilliancy of it all.

"To shore."

"Where on shore?"

"Do I look like a GPS? You should be grateful that I'm willing to take you at all after you kidnapped me."

"For the last time, I didn't kidnap you! You swam into my net!"

"Oh, but did you throw me back into the ocean with a nice apology? Exactly, now tah-tah!"

He shouted something back at her about there being no assigned etiquette to dealing with mermaids, but he nearly forgot all that in being caught up in the fan of sunlit fins and water she made up as she twisted back into the ocean.

Once he was sure she wasn't about to pop her head back up, he collapsed back onto the sand with a whoosh of breath and put a hand to his aching head. Pretty as it had been, the sun off the water had gone at his eyeballs like knives. He pressed his thumbs into his eyes with a quiet curse. Was this how all hypothermia victims felt after the incident? And why did all his muscles hurt so much? Mai had done all the work last night in getting them away.

Mai returned sooner than she expected to find him sprawled out in the sun with an arm over his eyes. The only reason he knew she was there was because of all the loud splashing she did to get back on shore.

"Hey! Dead guy!"

He inwardly winced. "Mind lowering your hellishly high pitched voice?"

"Oh, sorry, would you rather I left you here? 'Cause I'm cool with that. That big boat of yours is sure to come back this way eventually. They just turned to go the opposite direction when I spotted them, and I heard one of them talking about taking laps."

At this he jerked up, wide awake. "Just how close did you get to that boat?" It took him a few blinks to see her clearly, lounging on her belly in the sand a bit from him, her copper tail once more hanging her fins up high in the air and flicking it back and forth like a fan.

"Close enough, why?"

"Do you want to be caught by them?"

"No, but I was careful. And if they see me how they going to catch me, hmm?"

Her idiocy brought a twisted scowl to his face. "Harpoon."

She blanched. "Y-you guys had h-harpoons—"

"Just don't be stupid again. We were going to shore, right?"

"What the hell would you have harpoons—"

"If you shut up and take us now I'll buy you breakfast."

She sighed heavily and let the hand she had been using to hold up her head drop with a splash in the most recent wave. "Well, yippee, on with the mermaid express. Just turn around while I get back in."

"Why do I have to turn around?"

"Because I'll look stupid, okay? You try to get back into the ocean without legs sometime, tell me how cool you feel."

His migraine gave a nasty throb. He pressed his thumbs to his eyes again. "Whatever. Just hurry up."

He had purposely pushed the idea of getting back into the freezing ocean to the back of his mind since he woke up. Getting back in to reach where the mermaid waited for him in the shallows took all of his mental training, especially given the way his already pissed off muscles seized up at the touch. Once he had gotten in chest deep, however, his skin had adjusted, and at least it was painful.

Mai put her arms around his chest reluctantly. Despite her clearly platonic intentions, her touch made his stomach do a little squirm that pushed blood up to his cheeks.

Great. So she's somewhat attractive. Not like it's going to help that attitude much. After all, she had done more than her fair share of complaining, even if she may have a point with keeping her in a tank. But she had been going nowhere, had nothing, and even didn't understand the transformation that had come over her. He had made it clear he only wanted to know what she so desperately needed to know herself in order to survive: what was she? And where were all those like her? Hadn't she seen that?

Yes, his intentions may have been selfish, but it was for both of their benefits. He wasn't planning on sticking her in a freak show or anything ridiculous like that. And he had fed her. And given her a place to sleep. A warm place at that. Had she had better on the cold ocean floor? She didn't have to praise it as five star service, but she could have at least been a little less pissy.

Perhaps he hadn't made that clear.

As he debated on whether or not he cared what she thought of him or whether she had understood his intentions clearly enough, the breathless flight through the ocean left no room for talking. When he wasn't breathing madly for air he was holding it and clinging for dear life onto the slender body. Out of all the things he could discover about a mermaid, he had never anticipated their speed.

By the time she finally pulled him onto his feet in shallow waters, he wouldn't have been surprised if hypothermia was about to pull him under again. She seemed to think the same thing, for she tugged on his shirt sleeves and ignored his protests until he stumbled onto the tiny, shallow beach she had found away from public view. Lucky for her the high tide was just heading out, otherwise she never would have.

Sore, shivering, and headache worse than ever, he collapsed onto the sand.

"Keep moving! It'll keep you warm."

"W-why do you care?" he grumbled, nearly biting his tongue with his chattering teeth.

She glared at him. "Are you for real? Look, I'm not so much of a bitch to let someone get sick or die. Also, you did make me sandwiches and give me a place to sleep, even if it was crap."

This caught him so off guard, he almost forgot about how he couldn't feel his extremities anymore. Wait…so she had noticed?

"Don't just stare at me, move! I'd rather not cuddle naked in the sand with you again."

That got him moving, because neither did he. Though his body begged him to curl up in the warm sand and drift off, he pushed to his feet to jog in place. After a minute or so he started some jumping jacks as well as a few laps of their tiny shore.

While he did so, Mai somehow managed to pull herself onto the sand while he wasn't looking, where she got to work busily covering her hips and legs in sand. It took him a moment to remember that he had promised her breakfast. She couldn't very well transform back without anything to wear.

On that thought…

He stopped half-way through a lap, hesitant. "Um…what, uh, would you like me to bring back? For breakfast."

"Clothes would be nice, actually. I'd like to come with you." She looked up at him from her sand work with a slight frown. "By the way, are you feeling okay? You've been looking like you're in pain ever since I got back."

Again, he was caught off guard. Had he been that obvious? All he had done was rub his eyes, he hadn't winced or anything. Though he had snapped at her for yelling out at him from the waves. Perhaps he was thinking too much into this. Yes, he was. He really need to spend more time with people his age, he was getting too use to the mature, professional atmosphere of his older colleagues and employees.

"Headache. I'll be fine. And I'm only buying you clothes if you promise to let me run some tests on you first." At the repulsed look on her face, he pushed on. "Look, you can't live you're entire life by the shore on your foster dad's credit card, and if you'll just let me do the research I could help you find other merfolk. Isn't that what you set out to do anyways?"

She wrinkled her nose. "Well, yeah, I did think of that, but the way you say 'run tests' makes me think of probes and needles and the kind of stuff people do with rocks and dead stuff. And, I don't think you've noticed, but I'm sort of the kind of freak that has the popular stigma of being petrified and stuffed in a jar."

He groaned. As he had expected. "I said I would take you back once I was done, didn't I?"

"I hardly know you! You could've been lying!"

"I'm not, and even if I was, didn't you hear those men on the ship? Didn't you see them shoot…" he hesitated. No, he wasn't ready to deal with that now. "Look, we're in this situation together now, and the least we can do is cooperate like adults. I'll help you, and in return, I'll get some data for my research. You clearly couldn't have been luckier than to have me be the one at the end of that crab net."

For a second, he couldn't read her expression. It flitted too quickly between anger, something akin to desperation, and then several other feelings too quickly. Then, her face fell blank, she paled, and her shoulders drooped. Without another word she fell back into the sand, dark eyes half-closed and unseeing.

"Mai?"

When she didn't so much as twitch, he trotted over to her side to shake her a bit. The glazed way her eyes stared at the lower underside of her lids unnerved him, and when he lifted his wrist to her mouth, he felt no breath.

For one of the very rare times in his too-easy life, Kazuya panicked.

p.s.s. Can any of you see the pattern I'm using for the mermaid quotes at the beginning of each chapter? Whoever can guess what I'm using to connect each quote to each chapter will get a prize. Still thinking of what I could give as a prize, so with your guess send me a suggestion of what you'd like (besides a billion dollars and a lifetime supply of Skittles).