Chapter 24

The next night, May swam back into the village to see Mallow and Lana again. Mallow had successfully reorganized all of her seaweed, and May had brought her a piece of coral fruit from the palace garden to make up for the previous night's mishap. Mallow shared it with Lana, and they both were amazed at the rich flavor in the fruit.

May spent the next several nights in a similar manner, meeting the two Alolan mermaids and spending time with them. After a week of spending time with them, she already considered them her friends, something which they felt both flattered and honored by. After all, it wasn't everyday that one got the chance to be friends with a princess.

"What a lovely night!" Mallow smiled as she sat on a large stone cliff overlooking the village. "The moon's nearly full!"

"Yeah, it is," May nodded.

"You can't really see it clearly from down here," Lana mused.

"Eh, it's all right," May shrugged. "I love watching the light wave in the water anyways."

"It's certainly a pretty sight," Mallow agreed, "but when the moon's as bright as it is right now, I much prefer to go up and admire it at the surface."

"So why don't you?" May asked.

"Because I'd rather spend time with my friends," Mallow replied with a smile.

"That right? What about you, Lana? You wanna go to the surface to see the moon?"

"Oh, no!" Lana shook her head. "Anywhere but the surface, please!"

May blinked in surprise. "Sorry," she said. "I didn't think it'd be that sensitive."

"It's fine," Lana sighed, looking down. "I wouldn't expect you to understand."

"Understand what?"

Mallow sighed and turned to May. "I guess you might as well know." She turned to Lana. "Is it all right if we tell her?"

"Sure," Lana said.

Mallow nodded and turned to May. "Lana can't breathe when she's at the surface."

"What?" May blinked, eyes wide.

"I know it sounds strange," Lana said, floating up and over to May, "but it's true. The first time I went up there, I tried breathing the air, but I couldn't. I felt like I was suffocating!" She held her hands up to her neck, shuddering as she remembered. "So yeah, I stay away from there. Trying to breathe up there, it feels like...like…"

"Like a Sharpedo's skin is scraping your lungs?"

Lana blinked in surprise. "Y-Yeah," she whispered. "How did you know that?"

"Because I'm the same way."

"What?!" Lana and Mallow exclaimed.

"I've never been able to breathe the air up there," May explained. "I thought maybe I just overreacted the first time I went up there, but I tried again not too long ago, and nothing had changed." She sighed. "My youngest sister always thought I was overreacting, but she never had trouble breathing up there. The way my other sisters described, it seemed as if there was no difference between water and air as far as she was concerned." She smiled softly at Lana. "So yeah, I completely understand."

Hearing this, Mallow smiled and turned to her friend. "See? I told you you couldn't be the only one!"

"Yeah," Lana smiled. "I guess you were right, Mallow." She sighed and folded her hands in front of her. "I always thought I was a strange mermaid because I couldn't breathe air, but now I don't really feel that way anymore."

"Probably because I'm a strange mermaid, too," May chuckled. "No one understands why I don't wanna be human, so they think I'm strange. You're in good company, Lana; we can both be strange together!" The two of them giggled at this.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Mallow protested. "I wanna be strange, too!"

"Too bad!" May grinned, prompting the three of them to burst out laughing. They spent a little more time up there before their stomachs started to growl. Seeing how they hadn't brought any food with them, they swam down back to the village and came to Mallow's place. There, she teamed up with her father and brother to prepare a meal for them. When she brought it out for them, May tasted it, and her eyes went wide.

"This is...amazing!" she exclaimed after swallowing. "Where on earth did you learn how to make food like this?!"

"Alola, of course!" Mallow grinned. "Cooking has been a part of my family for generations!"

"They had quite the shop running before that storm arrived," Lana said.

"Oh yeah?" May said, turning to Mallow. "Must've been pretty hard to rebuild everything from the ground up out here, huh?"

"Actually, it was super easy!" Mallow grinned. "Barely an inconvenience!"

"A very kind merman decided to loan them his place to set up shop," Lana explained. "Business has been quite good."

"Yeah," Mallow nodded. "Although I do miss our old customers. They were a good crowd."

"I bet they were," May nodded sympathetically. "Sorry we can't live up to that standard."

"It's all right," Mallow smiled. "Your merpeople are pleasant enough for us." She floated away from their table. "I'll be right back. I have a surprise for you two." She swam off into the backroom.

"A surprise?" May blinked.

"I think I know what she's preparing," Lana smirked.

A few seconds later, Mallow swam back out, carrying a stack of seaweed woven into what appeared to be wreaths. "Here you go!" she grinned. "One crown for Lana, one for me, and one for our princess of honor!" She handed them each one of the crowns.

"Whoa," May breathed, staring down at it. "Did you...make this?"

"Sure did!" Mallow replied. "Woven from the finest seaweed of Alola! I wanted to give you something to commemorate the beginning of our new friendship."

"And our new lives out here," Lana added.

"Wow," May smiled, holding it up. "Thanks! That's really thoughtful of you." She raised it up and put it on her head. Almost immediately, she winced as she felt something poking the side of her head.

"Hm?" Mallow blinked. "Something wrong?"

"Ah," May muttered, gently lifting the crown off her head. "Something's poking me."

"Huh?" Mallow said, floating over and inspecting the crown. "Oh no!" she moaned, smacking her forehead. "I used the wrong seaweed on yours! I'm sorry, May!"

"That's all right," May smiled reassuringly. "Like I said: this was really thoughtful of you."

"Would you like me to take it back?" Mallow asked. "I can replace it if you want."

May looked down at the crown with a small smile. "No, that's all right," she said. "I think I know just what to do with it."

It was late in the night now. Mallow and Lana were at their homes with their families for special occasions. May was swimming to the edge of the village with the crown Mallow made for her in hand. She swam over to a familiar rock formation. After feeling around for the place she was looking for (finding it never got any easier), she pulled the rock back and swam into the passage, holding the crown close to her chest so it didn't get lost. She came to the end of the passage and into the small pool of water inside the cave where she parted ways with a good friend.

She slowly floated to the center of the pool and gently brought the crown down, setting it on the seafloor. She smiled as she patted it, smoothing it out and making sure it would be rooted in place. She looked up to the surface and smiled as bittersweet memories flooded her mind. She silently bade her friend good will, then turned to swim out the passage.

"May?"

May whipped around on hearing the sudden voice from behind her. At first, she didn't see anyone, but she knew someone was there; she hadn't imagined that voice.

"What are you doing here?"

The voice's owner slowly floated forward, revealing himself. While his gravelly voice was distinct enough that she would know it without having to even think about it, his blue tail, messy dark hair, and familiar face erased any doubt on who had found her.

"Ash?" she blinked in surprise. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't realize anyone else was here."

Ash floated forward and inspected the small crown she left on the seafloor. "Wow," he smiled. "This looks neat. Did you make this?"

"No," May shook her head. "Someone else did, but it didn't fit my head right. So I decided to bring it here as a way of remembering a friend who left a while ago."

"I see," Ash said, floating up and facing her with a smile. She returned it, but it quickly faltered as she remembered what she had said the last time she and Ash spoke to each other. Ash seemed to think similarly, as his smile disappeared too. "Anyway, I should probably be going," he said, and he started to swim for the exit. As he passed by the young princess, he felt something grab hold of his wrist.

"Ash, wait," she said. He turned and looked back at her. "I...I need to talk to you." He floated upright, an uneasy look on his face. Seeing this, May suddenly had a thought. "Unless you need to go home right now...do you?"

"N-No," Ash shook his head. "I'm in no rush. W-What did you want to talk about?"

May sighed and floated forward so that she was right in front of him. "It's about what I said to you the last time we talked."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," she said. She took a deep breath and began. "Listen, what I said to you that night about you being no better than other merfolk...it wasn't true. I didn't mean it."

"I figured you didn't," Ash shrugged, "but you were kinda right."

May blinked, confused. "What?"

"I shouldn't have asked you if you were going to the surface with your sisters," he went on. "I should've known you better than that by then. Instead, I went the easy route and just put more pressure on you." He sighed. "I wasn't a very good friend that night, and for that, I'm sorry."

May couldn't believe her ears. "You're sorry?!" she repeated incredulously.

"Yeah," he said, unfazed by her reaction. "I mean, you love the ocean, don't you? You'd rather live down here as a mermaid, right? You always spoke highly of the sea, so I should've known better than to –"

"Ash!" May exclaimed, cutting him off. "That wasn't your fault! You were just trying to figure out what was going on, and I'm the one who lashed out at you. I was in an awful place emotionally; I wasn't thinking straight. I was hurt and scared; everything that happened that night happened so fast, I could barely process it all. So when you asked if I was going with my sisters, I didn't take a minute to consider what you meant by that. I just assumed the worst and treated you like the rest of them." She floated closer and put her hand on his shoulder. "But you're not like the rest of them. You said it yourself just now: I love the ocean; it's my home. You were the only merperson other than my mother who understood and accepted that."

Ash looked surprised by her confession. Seeing this, May just felt even more guilty and looked down in shame, her arm falling off his shoulder. "I'm really sorry, Ash," she said. "You're a good friend, and you didn't deserve any of that." She sighed and closed her eyes, wishing she could blot the memory of her words out of her mind. Then she felt something grasp her hand. Her eyes shot open, and she looked up to gaze into his eyes.

"May...can I confess something to you?"

"O-Of course," she whispered, blushing slightly.

"I know it sounds kinda selfish, but...I didn't want you to leave."

"Huh?"

"I knew you loved the sea and preferred it to the surface, so hearing you mention getting the potion and the possibility of going to the surface to become human made me worried. I thought you were getting dragged along against your will." He sighed. "I thought you were gonna be miserable up there."

"I probably would've been," she agreed.

"What I wanted to know that night was if that was what you really wanted," he went on. "You made it pretty clear that it wasn't, but then you got angry with me and swam off." He sighed sadly. "I thought I'd lost one of my last friends in the ocean that night, and I didn't even mean for it to happen."

"Ash…" May whispered, her eyes glimmering.

"Like I said, maybe part of it was kinda selfish, but I really didn't want you to go. I really enjoy spending time with you, May, and I thought that I was gonna lose that if you left. I don't know what I –"

May had heard enough. She lunged forward and threw her arms around him, cutting him off. He gasped in surprise at first, but quickly relaxed as he smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist. The two said nothing for a few minutes and just floated there, enjoying the feeling of being so close to someone they cared deeply about. May hummed softly as she rested her head on his shoulder and felt his warm, strong arms around her, holding her securely and safely.

He's too kind for his own good she thought with a small smile. He did nothing wrong, yet he still felt the need to apologize. What a wonderful merman. As she continued to rest in his embrace, she found familiar feelings from that night resurfacing in her heart. This didn't go unnoticed, and she rolled her eyes with a playful smile. Maybe I do like him she thought. I wonder if he feels the same way. Her smile faltered and she closed her eyes. We can think about that later. Right now, we should just focus on enjoying this.

And so they floated there, oblivious to their surroundings as they enjoyed the feeling of being together again.