So there are two ways that I can make this story go: sad or very sad. I'm serious. I don't know which one to do. Review to tell me what you think.

…..

The couch was surprisingly soft.

Under no circumstances was Eric going to sleep in the same bed as Ariel, and of course he couldn't relegate her to the couch, so he stole a pillow from the laundry room and made himself comfortable.

A knock sounded softly on the door. Eric glanced over quickly at Ariel to make sure she hadn't woken up, and softly padded to the door after throwing on a proper shirt.

"Eric," Grimsby said.

"Sshh!" Eric whispered furiously, indicating the sleeping form on his bed.

"Is that—did you—" Grimsby stammered.

"Grim, I would never take advantage of someone, especially not her. And if this visit is about my love life again—"

"Why especially not her?"

Now it was Eric's turn to stammer.

"Uh…well, she…I….she's very, ah, nice," Eric trailed off.

"Nice," Grimsby gave him a skeptical look.

"She looks a lot like the girl who saved me, okay? And yes, Grim, someone did save me that night."

"How do you know she isn't the one?" Grimsby didn't sound like he was mocking him.

"She can't speak."

"Do you like her?"

Eric was so taken aback that he answered honestly.

"Yes. I like her a lot. But I know that there's someone better out there."

"Eric," the advisor's voice was gentle, "I know almost nothing about the girl who is sleeping in your bed right now. But I know that she is beautiful, and that she loves you, and that she might make a good queen if you could stop living in your dreams."

Grim turned around and left just as Ariel rolled over with wide eyes.

What are you doing? her eyes asked.

"Just some business to take care of. Hey, let's go for a walk on the beach in a few hours. We can talk."

She raised an eyebrow.

"I mean, I can talk and you can make your faces and slap me whenever I say something stupid." She giggled.

At that Eric left to do some research, with no idea what he was going to tell her.

…..

She heard the whole thing.

He didn't love her.

The spell wasn't broken.

After Eric left, Ariel lay facedown on her pillow and tried to keep from crying. It wasn't over, and he had to fall in love with her and kiss her again by sundown tonight! To try and distract herself, she crossed over to his bookshelf and pulled out a book at random.

Humans and merpeople both spoke the same language, but Ariel had discovered that the human version of the written language was very different from the loopy script she was used to. Some of the individual letters looked a bit similar, but for the life of her Ariel had no idea what the little round circle with a tail meant, nor some other letters. She promised herself that she would learn to read the human language if she and Eric ever got out of this mess.

She had tried writing a few times, but the words disappeared as soon as she tried to show it to anyone. Somewhere in the contract Ursula must have written that Ariel couldn't write anything down. Not that it mattered, because Eric probably couldn't read her version of γλώσσα either.

Ariel made a list of all the different letters in Eric's alphabet and wrote them down. Below that she made a list of all of her letters. There were twice as many of the human letters as hers. Some of them must have been capital letters. Ariel crossed out all the letters that she found at the beginning of a word or after a period.

After almost an hour, Ariel was able to match every letter to one of her own. Exhausted of the activity, she tucked the book away under Eric's pillow and headed downstairs to find him.

She found one of the maids in the kitchen and was able to communicate to her that she wanted to know where the prince was. The maid shrugged and told her that Eric had locked himself in the library with orders, "not to disturb him unless the palace was on fire".

It was then that Ariel felt a strange aching sensation on her legs, at the place where they joined together. She understood that this was where humans excreted from, but why was it happening now? She excused herself hurriedly and ran to the medical wing, hoping the nurse could tell her what was going on.

…..

Everyone who saw her exiting the infirmary probably wondered why the mute girl was blushing so fiercely, including Grimsby. He made a note to ask the nurse what had happened later, after he got it through to Eric's head not to waste any more time on a hallucination that the prince interpreted as the future love of his life.

To be honest, Grimsby thought the girl was a bit strange. She looked at the sun like it was her first time seeing it, for goodness' sakes. And what foreign place didn't have flowers or movies? Still, Eric seemed to understand her, and the girl had potential to become a proper queen with a few lessons in etiquette and such.

He hoped that the boy knew what he was doing.