As always, please R&R (read and review).

…..

Why did I do that? Eric wondered.

If it weren't for the One, he would already be in love with Ariel. She was fantastic, and she was going to make some man very happy. Just…not him.

Yet he still kissed her.

He just went to help her off of her horse, and suddenly they were face to face, and if Eric didn't know better he could have sworn she was the One. He couldn't help it.

But what was he going to do now?

After his epic screw-up, he had just muttered, "Good night," and had practically sprinted to his room. And now he was lying on his bed, trying to figure out how to build a time machine and stop himself.

Tomorrow he would let her down, Eric decided. He wouldn't even have to explain, he could just say, "You can have Thunderbolt, seeing as you're the only one who can ride him, and I'll pack up some food and things for you and you can be on your way back home."

Easy.

But then again, she hadn't even responded to his kiss. She had just stood there and stared at him. Maybe she was married. Maybe she had no feelings towards him whatsoever, in which case sending her away would be horribly awkward.

It was going to be a long night.

…..

It was that easy. He had kissed her! He had actually kissed her! It was over. Ariel had won.

So why did she still feel like she had something that she hadn't done?

Suddenly Ariel sat straight upright and shook off the sleep that had been slowly overcoming her. She hadn't said goodbye to anyone, and she owed some of her family that. That was what felt wrong.

Ariel slipped out onto the balcony and climbed down onto the sand, wearing a thin sweater over her nightgown. She padded along the beach and stopped where she had come ashore after being changed.

She scouted around for the heaviest rock that she could carry, and with much effort lobbed it as far as she could into the ocean. Merfolk rarely needed sleep, and Flounder would have spent as much time as he could around this spot to make sure that she was safe.

The sound of the splash hadn't even finished echoing when his head popped up.

"What's wrong? Is it Eric? What did he do? Or was it Ursula? Did-"

Ariel stopped him by holding up her hand and touching her lips.

"Oh my god," Flounder breathed. "He kissed you."

The expression on his face was completely unreadable, but Ariel detected a hint of sadness in his words. She slipped fully into the water and spontaneously hugged him, trying to say goodbye without any words to do so.

Flounder hugged her back hard, and they stayed still for a few moments.

He broke the silence. "I thought she might have given you your voice back if you did it. Should have known better. That slippery b—Anyway, do you want to say goodbye to any of your sisters, or Triton?"

Ariel nodded her head excitedly and made a writing motion.

"No problem." Flounder understood immediately. "Be back in a minute."

Ariel climbed back onto the rock and waited contentedly for Flounder. She spied a shadow coming up towards her after only a few seconds and smiled.

As the shadow got closer to the surface, it split into two, and Ariel realized that it was not Flounder. She sprang to her feet and ran towards the safety of the sand, but a slimy grip around her ankle sent her into the sand with a thud. She was being pulled back toward the sea. Ariel made a last ditch effort and caught the rock with her fingertips, fighting a battle that she knew she was going to lose.

She slipped and went crashing underwater.

Then a pair of strong hands wrapped around her legs and loosened the grip of whatever was pulling her down. Ariel twisted underwater and saw Flounder fighting a pair of eels with yellow eyes. One of them reared back and sank its teeth into Flounder's arm, eliciting a yell of pain. The merman struck out with his tail and knocked them both backwards into the wall, and the eels' yellow eyes faded as they went unconscious.

Flounder glanced towards Ariel and gave what was meant to be a smile but came out as a grimace of pain. He grasped her hand and they shot towards the surface, but at this point Ariel couldn't tell who was pulling who.

They erupted from the sea, Ariel gasping for air, both of them tangled together in a knot of arms and legs and tails on the sand. Ariel was the first to recover and rolled over to inspect Flounder's arm. It was a small but deep cut that made her wince just looking at it. And was it her imagination or was the wound smoking?

"I'll be fine. We mermen are made of much tougher stuff than humans," Flounder joked. "Aaahh…I dropped the paper though. Sorry."

Ariel shook her head with a smile on her face. Idiot, your life is much more important than a goodbye or some paper.

Flounder opened his mouth to comment, but then

"Ariel?"

The voice belonged to Eric. Ariel whirled around and tried to obscure Flounder's head and shoulders, which was the only part that was not covered by the rock. She nudged him with the back of her heel, and Flounder whispered, "I'll see you around," and slid back into the ocean.

Meanwhile, Eric was standing still, taking in her bizarre appearance. He seemed almost frozen in place, and Ariel seized the opportunity to walk casually past him.

"Woah, Ariel! What the hell? I saw you just walk down to the ocean, and you got pulled underwater or something! But then you resurface like two freaking minutes later, with some shirtless guy who I guess I must have imagined, because he goes and disappears. Why-wha-how-" Eric trailed off when he realized how shocked and tired Ariel was.

"Okay, never mind. You can tell me tomorrow. Stay in my room tonight though. I don't want you drowning." When Ariel nodded her consent, they walked together in silence back to his room.