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Chapter 25

After two days of intensive exercising, Dani decided to try swimming with Finn. When Dani was busy putting on sunscreen ('What? Only because I'm a selkie, that doesn't mean I'm immune to getting sunburnt', Dani once explained, laughing), he decided to test the waters concerning Starchild. "Sooo…you and Elliott…do you like him?", he asked carefully. Dani smiled. "Of course I do. He is like a brother to me" Finn cocked his eyebrows. That was not working. He needed to be less subtle. "Just the two of us talking…you like him more than that, don't you?", he asked her, grinning goofily. Dani flinched slightly, something, that wasn't unnoticed by Finn. She laughed nervously. "For the hundredth time: I prefer women. Even if I liked him like that, who says that he would requite these feelings? He is still not over Kurt and I am still not over Santana…", she mumbled. Finn looked up, surprised. "Elliott was crushing on Kurt? What a small world…", he mumbled, shaking his head. Dani nodded. "But Kurt only had eyes for Blaine, and they were engaged as well", she explained. Finn looked Dani straight in the eyes. "So you admit that you like him?", he wanted to know. Dani closed the bottle of sunscreen and quickly waddled farther into the water. "We should get started now, okay?", she suggested, her voice was wavering a bit. Finn frowned. He had a lot of work to do to set up those two.

Later that day, him and Elliott were roasting the fish the selkie had caught over the bonfire while Dani went for a swim. "Dude, what do you think about Dani?", Finn queried. "Dani…she is amazing. She is my best friend, no, she is like the sister I never had…", Elliott smiled. Finn facepalmed inwardly. Freaking friend zone! It was hard to escape the friend zone, especially the bff-zone. Kurt could attest that; he needed a whole year with Blaine. This set up thing was harder than expected. "But is there…more between you?", Finn asked. Elliott frowned. "What do you mean?", he wanted to know. "Do you crush on her?", Finn blurted out. Elliott stared at him. "Of course not! I told you, I don't like her like that. We are just friends and I don't want to ruin that friendship", the selkie sighed. "So, you like her, and you are too scared she wouldn't requite those feelings?", Finn asked. Elliott sighed deeply. "Under different circumstances, I would dare to ask her out. But I have so much to lose right now. You see, people like us are already outsiders in our society because of what we are. My life had been even harder because of my sexuality. My parents didn't approve of me being bisexual. They think that I shouldn't give the humans another reason to hate me. After I graduated from high school, I left my home and never returned. Dani is like family to me. I told her everything about me, I cried, and she just held me in her arms, soothing me. She was there when I was at my worst. She was there when I was heartbroken. She means the world to me, she is all I have at the moment", Elliott admitted. Finn patted the other guy's shoulder. "I'm sorry, dude. I didn't know that", he mumbled bashfully. The male selkie smiled faintly. "It's okay, man. I am flattered that you wanted to set us up, but I am happy right now. Why do we even have to change things if they are okay like that?", he said. Finn nodded. Maybe he was right.

Rachel awoke after her alarm went off. She yawned and got up. Now, that Finn had left the place where he was trapped, where was he? She had stopped dreaming about him after that incident. Did he die? Or was he still alive? Rachel sighed deeply. She needed to keep on believing in Finn. He was not dead; she could feel it. No matter what all the others said, she would keep on waiting for him.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity to Finn, Dani and Elliott decided that he was ready to travel. Finn was beyond excited. "I can't wait to see Rachel again!", he said, again and again. Dani rolled her eyes. "Stop talking about Rachel! I'm so glad you can't breathe underwater so that we don't have to hear your talking", she groaned while she put her belongings into her waterproof bag. "Sorry…", Finn mumbled. Elliott laughed. "Leave him alone, Dan. You were just as excited when I gave you the guitar signed by Miley Cyrus on your last birthday", he teased her. Dani grimaced and boxed him in the shoulder. "That's not the same, you know that!", she protested, laughing. Elliott winced. "Oh crap, Dani, you have super-strength, remember?", he reminded her and rubbed his shoulder, chuckling. The three Mers went into the water and Dani and Elliott changed into their seal forms. After they had changed, the three of them submerged and started swimming.
Soon, the trio met a fishing boat. Finn carefully swam over to the boat without being seen and eavesdropped the fishermen's conversation. "As her birthday present, my youngest daughter wants to go to a concert in Sydney to see Beyoncé. I really don't know how I can get last minute tickets, man. Those concerts are sold out for months", a bald, older man grumbled with a thick Australian accent. Another man in his mid-twenties laughed. "What do you expect? Beyoncé is a pop-icon, everyone wants to listen to her music: tweens, teens, young adults, my grandma…Sometimes, I even use her music to masturb…" The elder man loudly cleared his throat. "Not appropriate, Stu!", he said, disgusted. Finn bit back his laughter. The younger fisherman bowed his head. "But there is this opening musician in her tour who is awesome. That black girl is really talented, the media is swooning over her. From the wallflower of Ohio to a true pop star, they wrote", he remembered. "And what's her name? Maybe I could get my daughter some tickets of her concert instead…", the elder fisherman thought out loud. Stu frowned. "I don't know. Her name has something to do with cars. I think it was Mercedes?", he thought out loud. Finn gasped. Black girl? Ohio? Mercedes? It was highly probable that they were talking about Mercedes Jones. Finn smiled. He knew how hard Mercedes fought to make it big in the music industry. She really deserved it. "And Mercedes is also friends with that woman, Rachel Cherry or something, who starred in "That's so Rachel". Her TV-series was a flop, do you remember?", Stu laughed. The other man snorted. "Of course! The entire US was talking about that miserable TV-series. Those people weren't even trying. But dude, I think her name's Berry." Finn's eyes went wide. Rachel had an own TV-series? And it had been a flop? She must have been devastated. Crap, a lot of things happened during his coma. The men looked down their fishing nets. "We won't catch much more than we have now. Let's head back to Darwin", the elder man suggested. Finn frowned. Darwin. He knew that city from somewhere. So that's where the next coast was. After the men had left, Dani and Elliott surfaced and changed to their human forms. "What did you find out?", Dani wanted to know. "Apparently, Mercedes is a big pop star now, but Rachel's show flopped", he recounted what he had heard. Elliott frowned. "Yes, Kurt was telling me that Rachel moved to California for the production of her series. But after that, Dani and I went to the ocean and since then, we didn't have any devices to check the news or any human contact" Finn nodded. "And the guys also said that they wanted to head back to Darwin", he told the selkies. Dani cocked her eyebrows. "Darwin? That's in the north of Australia as far as I know. At least we know where we are now. It's a good sign that we met a fishing boat, that means we are not so far away anymore", she reasoned. The male selkie whistled. "Australia? Awesome! Maybe we are going to meet some kangaroos", he joked. Finn's eyes widened. "Really?", he gasped, not getting the joke. Dani laughed. "Guys! We should get moving now! Maybe we are going to be in Australia by tomorrow", she told her friends. Elliott grinned. "Of course, Ma'am." The two selkies changed back into their seal forms, Finn held on to them and together, they continued their journey.


A/N: Only some chapters left until the end of the story...