Party

Rude and Sebastian had been waiting at the palace for quite some time now. Having failed to find Elena they had little to do but sit and wait for their friends. Sit and worry that was. Rude had suggested that they went to look for them but Sebastian reassured him that it would be alright. Ariel was rebellious, but she wasn't stupid.

The Turk had made some comment about not being so sure about Reno and the two laughed. The sat for a few minutes further not saying very much to each other. In turn they'd occasionally look around to see if anyone was coming.

To their excitement there was someone, but not any of those that they were expecting. The lobster seemed to know who the young woman was. "Alana!" he greeted her cheerfully, waving his huge front claw.

"Sebastian," the girl smiled as she swam closer.

The young woman looked quite similar to Ariel except with short brown hair. Her tail fin was a lilac colour and her top was baby pink. "Where's Ariel?"

"She's out with a friend of ours, it's a long story." Explained Sebastian.

The mermaid looked slightly confused so Sebastian carried on talking. "This is Rude by the way," Rude with his usual formalities put his hand out to the young woman who accepted it with a smile.

"It's nice to meet you Rude," she said as she let go of his hand. "Sebastian, would you help us with a few things? We're setting up for the show tonight, you can explain about Ariel on the way." She continued sounding a little rushed.

Sebastian nodded and as soon as he did Alana shot off again as fast as she'd arrived. They swam through the merpeople's homes and into Triton's palace. Sebastian explained where Ariel and Reno most likely were. Rude let out that he thought Reno had taken quite an interest in the mermaid's young sister. This lead Alana to explain a little something about the reason they were putting on the show.

The swam into a huge hall, a theatre, shaped like a semicircle with a stage lower down at the front. Rude looked around himself, the roof of the hall was being supported by huge stone columns, just like the ones in Triton's throne room.

Five other mermaids were swimming about the area frantically. Triton's daughter's, Rude has discovered who were putting up banners, arranging underwater plants and setting up the stage.

As one seemed to notice Rude, the others turned to look at him in turn. Alana and Sebastian took the job of introducing him to the remaining five princesses that were still strangers.

"Hello Rude, I'm Adella," she put her hand out smiling and Rude swam over to accept it.

"Arista."

"Attina."

"Aquatta."

"Andrina," the fifth said finally.

Not even Tseng could manage to remember all of those names. To add to it, the girls somehow seemed to look exactly the same, yet completely different. They all wore different brightly coloured outfits and beautiful looking shells and things in their hair. The colours of the girls hair ranged from darkest black to the lightest sunshine blond but none like Ariel's. Another thing Rude had noticed was that they all had either blue or green eyes, but once again not like Ariel's.

The girls were obviously quite busy so Sebastian asked if they could help out. However they seemed to have everything covered except for one thing. Alana, who had taken the role of leadership, asked the two of them to find Ariel and make sure that she arrived at the show at the right time.

Rude had been told fully about everything that was going on in regards to the show that night. It was important that nothing spoiled the surprise for Ariel. Sebastian and Rude went off again in search for Reno and the mermaid.


It seemed to Reno that him and Ariel had searched everywhere they possibly could have to find Elena. It had been a few hours at least, even though Reno had no way of telling. They'd even gone into the darkest parts of the ocean, into caves that hadn't seen life in a few years Reno had guessed. But it was darkening now, so the two finally decided to head back.

So Reno and the mermaid made their way back to the palace, where Rude and Sebastian were ready waiting for them.

"Ariel!" shouted Sebastian, a little too loudly next to Rude's ear. The four all looked at each other as the redheaded party swam closer. They all knew what needed to be said, but the words seemed to take a while to come out.

"Anything?" Reno asked sighing, knowing full well what his answer was going to be. Rude shook his head. "Nah… same here…" The two Turks looked at each other and exchanged a sympathetic smile. Then there was silence for a few moments.

"It wont be long before it begins to get dark guys," Ariel said.

Just then Sebastian coughed and said, "that reminds me, Rude here was just telling me that he'd love to see around the palace itself, I've been telling him all about the history."

"You guys -were- looking for Elena weren't you?" Reno said very seriously. He didn't think for one minute that Rude wouldn't do the job properly or get distracted at all. So what the hell was he doing asking for the grand tour?

"Reno," Rude said in his sighing voice. Reno knew that what his partner really meant was: 'shut up kid, don't be stupid.' So he dropped it. Rude and himself had over the years developed a way of communicating that was far beyond the need for words.

"Maybe you could spend the night? Rest up before you move on." Reno smirked almost instantly when the mermaid uttered the words 'spend the night'. Then, in the general direction of Rude he inaudibly mouthed the words: 'she so wants me.' And pointed to himself looking and feeling very smug.

"Ok then, sounds like a good idea." Reno replied purposely and directly to Ariel. Rude merely nodded.

"Well then, why don't we take them around the palace and show them where they'll be staying?" Sebastian added in. Ariel nodded and started to swim away. Sebastian, Rude and Reno followed on behind her.

Their tour of the castle lasted probably about three quarters of an hour Reno guessed. The place was absolutely huge, there was no way they'd be able to get around all of it properly in a hurry. During the tour Reno had noticed something. Sebastian had kept asking everybody what time they thought it was and he'd often caught Rude had kept grinning at him.

Sebastian's constant questioning had made Reno slightly curious but it was Rude who made him more suspicious. He felt like he was being laughed at. But he shook it off quickly enough, his mind was too focused on the young mermaid. Reno couldn't help it, there was just something about her.

The group decided ,shortly after seeing where Reno and Rude would be staying that night, that they should head over to the dining room for dinner.

Reno was slightly downhearted by the fact that he would be sharing a room with Rude that evening. The young redheaded girl would have by far been his first choice. Oh well, at least he didn't have to share a bed with the Turk.

They arrived at the dining room only to discover that it was empty. Ariel looked extremely puzzled by this. "Where is everybody?" She asked, more aimed at Sebastian than the others.

"I uh… don't know Ariel" He said slowly. It was at this moment that Reno noticed the large door at the other end of the room open ever so slightly.

All of a sudden another young mermaid burst through the door. She had long raven black hair and was wearing a cerise coloured shell top, matching her tail fin. She looked older but was a lot shorter than Ariel was.

"Attina?" Ariel said questioningly.

Before anything else was said, the mermaid grabbed her sister by the wrist and pulled her out of the room. Reno rolled his eyes and sighed, for the last couple of minutes he'd been building up the courage to put a little proposal to Ariel. Now of course she'd just been stolen by her elder sister.

"Come on you two, we need to follow them." Sebastian waved his claw, gesturing the Turks to follow on behind him. He himself swam off moving his claws through the water at an extremely fast pace. Reno and Rude both managed to catch up with him pretty quickly though.

Reno followed Sebastian and Rude to the theatre hall. Strangely, Rude gave the impression of knowing where he was going as he was swimming almost in line with Sebastian. Reno wondered what the hell was going on.

When Reno swam around a pillar he saw that the whole hall was filled with merpeople and there were huge crimson curtains covering the stage. Ariel was sitting down by the front of the stage surrounded by empty seats. One of Ariel's sisters put her head through the curtains and told the waiting crowd that whatever was coming would begin in about 10 minutes time. Reno took this opportunity to use to his advantage.

"Right, now's my chance, I'm going over so wait here." Reno whispered to Sebastian and Rude with particular emphasis on the words 'so wait here'. They watched as he swam over to Ariel and sat down next to her.

"Where's he going?" Sebastian asked Rude.

"He's going to ask her… well, you know." Rude said trying not to smirk. Because of course Ariel's sisters had told him something that Reno didn't yet know.

"Oh dear," said replied Sebastian. "Is Reno used to being rejected?" He laughed.

"He's stubborn and proud, he doesn't like not getting what he wants." Rude added. All of a sudden Reno stood up and swam back over to them. "He'll probably be pretty embarrassed."

Reno's head was pretty low and didn't look the other two in the eye. Rude was right of course. Reno had been rejected and he felt like a right idiot after some of the things he'd just said to her. So he decided he wasn't going to mention it to the other two. "Suppose we should go sit down." He said glumly.

"Yeah, we'll go sit with Ariel," said Sebastian cheerfully much to Reno's dislike.


So it turned out that Ariel was leaving in a few days time to go and live on the surface. Apparently she was engaged to some guy called Eric and her family and friends wanted to put on a farewell show for her.

It was really good. Reno actually enjoyed listening to her sisters sing and watching them dance. He managed to calm himself down a little until after the show when they were having dinner with the family.

"Rude!," one of the mermaid's sisters came over to talk to Turk. "Thanks for your help earlier, did you like the show?" Reno waited until his partner was done talking to the girl and then went over to Rude.

"You knew!!" He whispered sternly. Rude nodded. "I made a complete idiot out of myself for nothing."

"So she did reject you?" Rude grinned. Finally something had put Reno in his place.

"Shut up Rude." Said Reno putting on his childish pouting face again.


Reno woke the next morning after the dinner to find that Rude was already up as usual.

"She's not that great anyway." He said. Rude turned his head to look the redhead in the eyes. "It wouldn't have worked out." Rude just rolled his eyes. "I mean, you can't have two redheads. I'm the only redhead allowed." Continued Reno, still trying to justify his rejection.

"Yes Reno…" Replied Rude. "We should probably get going soon you know."

And there it was again. The reminder of Elena. They were not really any nearer to finding her and once again this was all Reno's fault. Well, they'd narrowed it down by one world at least and Reno had had a really unique experience. He couldn't help himself messing around, it was in his nature. He didn't want to accept that they were probably in real trouble… but if they didn't find Elena they definitely would be. He was once again temporarily ready to take the situation seriously.

"Yeah…," he finally said. "Let's go."


A/N: Ok, Well I hope you liked that chapter. Once again it's taken me quite a while to update. I kept doing little bits at a time and coming back to it. Then I got the urge to finish it tonight so there it is. And for those if you who are interested and are a Johnny Depp fan, Jack Sparrow will most probably be in the next chapter!