It had been a couple of hours after Luca got home from school. He was in his room trying to do his homework. Trying to concentrate to the best of his ability, but after today, after what he witnessed in the darkroom, it was hard to focus on anything, let alone his history homework.

The last thing he expected to happen was being pulled into a darkroom, against his will, by Alberto Scorfano, someone he was trying to ignore. And he was doing a pretty good job of doing that until Alberto went completely mental, man-handling him to get him to talk to him again. Then next thing he knows he's in front of a sea creature. Alberto Scorfano was a sea creature. That was insane!

Luca put down his unused pencil and ran his fingers through his hair. He was feeling so many different emotions just thinking about it. He wasn't the only kid at the school who was a sea creature. That made him happy and excited but the sea creature was Alberto. Aside from both of them being sea creatures, did they have anything else in common with each other? They were so different. Did the Scorpions know about him? Or wait! Were the rest of the gang sea creatures too? Luca then shook his head at that thought. If they all were sea creatures they wouldn't risk going near water just to prank one kid. So, Alberto was probably the only sea creature in the gang. It sounded like Alberto led a dangerous lifestyle.

He knew that it was unlikely that he was the only one at school. After all, sea creatures were allowed to live on land. The thing was that there were probably at least four or five sea creature kids at school but it was likely that he wouldn't see any reveal themselves to him any time soon.

*RING* *RING*

Luca jumped, hearing the phone ringing in the hall outside his room. Luca quickly got up and answered it. He needed the distraction. He picked up the phone.

"Hello?" Luca started.

"Hey, is this Luca?" asked the voice.

"Yes."

The voice perked up. "Hey, it's Luna from school."

"Oh, hey, Luna."

"Hey…"

There was a short silence on the phone. Like Luna was thinking of what to say next.

"Luna?"

"I'm here! Um… Can we meet up on the beach later tonight? Just us two? I need to talk with you" She asked feeling like a weirdo. She hoped he wouldn't get the wrong idea. "It's important."

"Well…, I mean as long as it's not too late." Luca said, a bit confused about Luna's sudden request. He noticed her tone sounded very nervous.

"It won't be. Can you be there in the next hour?"

"Yeah…"

"Okay, then. See you at the beach entrance." and with that, Luna quickly hung up without letting Luca say another word.

Luca looked at the phone, hearing the dial tone. That was probably the shortest phone call he's ever had. What was up with Luna? He'd only known her for a couple of weeks. He doubted this was the case but, if he didn't know any better he'd think Luna was wanting to confess to him or something. But he didn't think that was the case. She had never given him any hints she was interested in him that way. But then again, he was no expert on girls.

He was a bit nervous about where they were going to meet. The beach, which was surrounded by water. The only time he hung out there was when no one was around or it was just him and Giulia or one of his other family members. He was going to have to be careful and probably not tell his mother exactly where he was headed. She would most definitely try to stop him from leaving if he told her.

Luna had said it was important and he considered her a friend he should hear out.

After Luna had hung up, she exhaled. That was an incredibly awkward phone call. She had planned for it to sound more casual but it all happened so fast.

She fell back onto her bed and stared at the ceiling. Luna looked at the phone again. Ever since receiving Giulia's number she had thought about instantly calling her as soon as she got home. But whenever she would go to punch in her number she'd freeze up. Would Giulia even want to be called that soon? Would she think she was weird if she did? In the end, she decided to wait and call her tomorrow.

Later, Luca was almost at the beach. He had told Daniela he was going for a walk and would make it back before curfew. Luca wasn't sure how she would react if he told her he was meeting up with a girl, that wasn't Giulia. He assumed she'd make a big deal out of it or probably get all overprotective over him being at the beach in general. Luckily his outfit covered almost every part of his body. So water wouldn't be able to touch his skin as long as he kept a safe distance.

Finally, Luca had made it to the beach's entrance. He looked around for Luna. Thankfully, there was no one around the area. He then turned the next corner and found Luna sitting on a large rock overlooking the ocean, a rock that was a bit of a distance away from the water. She spotted Luca coming toward her and jumped off the rock.

She had on the same outfit she had on earlier today but she also wore an unbuttoned vine-green jacket with faux sheep fur on the collar and she wore dark green tights underneath her brown shorts.

"Luca, thanks for coming. I honestly wasn't sure you'd come. That phone call was...really weird sounding, no?" Luna prayed Luca wouldn't agree.

Luca decided to be polite as possible. "It was...different than what I'm used to. So, what's so important? Everything okay?"

'This is it .' Luna thought to herself. "Well, I just wanted to tell you that...I saw what happened in the darkroom at school today…"

Luca's eyes widened and his body stiffened. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"Luca, don't play dumb. It was hard enough getting to this conversion. I saw you with that other sea creature. I saw you change at will!"

Luca started to internally panic. "Y-you mean...you mean you know I'm a…"

"Sea creature? ...Yes." Luna finished for him.

Luca then registered the phrasing Luna used to describe what she saw him do. "Wait. ...Hang on. Humans don't know about the phrase ' change at will ' with sea creatures. Humans don't know sea creatures can do that."

Luna froze in her spot. "I- Well I, uh, a lot of sea creatures don't know about that either." she crossed her arms, almost defensively.

Luca's eyebrows furrowed in suspicion at that. "Okay, humans definitely don't know about that."

Luna opened her mouth but she was worried that the next thing that would come out of it would make things worse. She closed her mouth shut and looked away from him.

Luca slowly walked closer to her. "Luna, ...how do you know about that?"

Luna's hands formed into fists at her sides. She sighed, closing her eyes. "...It's so unfair" she uttered.

"What's unfair?"

She ignored Luca's question and instead looked at the ocean water. Its waves making a comforting sound. "I mean...what's the point of living up here if we can't actually... liveup here?" She finally looked back at him. "You know?"

Luca's suspicions had to be right. "Luna...are you a...?" he asked her.

"Well, Giulia was right. You are smart. Either that or I just suck at subtlety with words." She let out a weak chuckle.

Luca's was at a loss for words at first. Then he thought about her knowing the phrase ' change at will. '

"Can you change at will? Can you show me?!" he asked excitedly.

Luna then shook her head. "Oh, no! ...No, I...I don't do that anymore…"

"'Anymore?'"

She grasped her ponytail, stroking it... "I used to. I mean, I still can. It's just...I'm not allowed to.

"Why not? You've got to show me, at least just for a second." Luca pressed with pleading eyes.

Staring at his eyes, she groaned. She knew what it was like being so interested in being able to change at will. "Okay, fine!" she looked at their surroundings for other people. To be sure, she pulled Luca, by his wrist, behind the large rock she was sitting on before, hiding the two. "But I'm not going to do it all the way." She insisted.

She took off her jacket and handed it to Luca to hold. Luna then took a deep breath and exhaled. She rose her left arm in front of Luca then closed her eyes, concentrating. After a few seconds, her fair skin vanished, replaced by brink pink-coloured scales and her soft five human fingertips turned into four pointy claws. The fin on her arm was periwinkle blue and had spines in them but it looked soft to touch.

"Whoa…" Luca stared at her arm in awe, leaning in for a closer look.

He couldn't believe that in one single day he discovered that there were not just one, but two sea creatures in his school. And one of them was Luna, who was a friend to him.

She gave him another few seconds to stare before saying, "Alright, that's enough."

And just like that, her human flesh returned. Luca wished he could have seen more of her but he didn't want to push her. Luna took her jacket back from Luca and put it back on. Neither of them said much for a few seconds. Both teens recovering from what Luna had shown him.

Luca finally spoke. "How long have you been able to do that and why aren't you allowed to?"

"I've been able to do it for about three years now. When I first got the hang of it I showed...all of my friends, who were all humans by the way. I showed them because I was so proud that I was able to do it. I just didn't think they'd be so..., let's just say, shocked when they saw me..." Luna paused for a few seconds and looked down. She continued. "They soon told their parents about it, freaking out, and then my parents found out. I thought they'd be proud of me for doing it but instead, they lost it and we had to move to a whole new place."

Luna moved out from behind the rock and climbed on top of it again. Once at the top she looked down at Luca expectantly.

"Come up here. There's enough room." she said.

Luca looked up, unsure. He wasn't the athletic type like Luna was. The rock was tall but not too tall. Just tall enough that he had to climb it using a bit of strength. He started by grabbing on a good starting surface but the rock was slippery which surprised Luca, making him let go and seeing his green scales on his palm.

Luca looked back up at her. "I'm not sure I can do this. It's kinda slippery."

Luna rolled her eyes with a smile and stuck her hand toward him for him to take it. "I'll help you up. Come on."

Luca took her hand and pulled himself up. They both let out a grunt as Luna pulled him up beside her. Once he was up top with her, they both sat and looked at the view. The sun was setting.

They sat in comfortable silence for a bit until Luca spoke up. "So...you moved?"

"Yep, they both hauled my ass out of town and moved to the next one over. I didn't understand why at the time which is why I eventually did it again in front of new friends and some reacted the same way and I got in huge trouble. That's when they decided to tell me why I wasn't allowed to show my sea creature form to others. I didn't understand why but I got the message. So, once again, we moved. We moved here...and that's why...I don't do it anymore. I don't want to move again, especially now that I've gotten to know you and Giulia."

Luca gave her a sad look. He didn't know what to say to that and decided to lighten the mood by changing the subject for the time being.

"Why did you want to talk here?" He asked "At the beach of all places? Isn't that a bit risky for you?"

"Oh it's totally risky but...I love the ocean. It's soothing...never been in it though." she said in a quiet voice.

Luca's eyebrows rose at that. She'd never been in it? Luca had at least been in it once or twice, with the supervision of someone, usually a family member of Giulia, looking out for humans in the area. Then he remembered something.

"Agostino?" Luca simply questioned.

Luna looked back at him. "Ah, right. Not a sea surname. Well, not all sea creatures have sea surnames but that's pretty rare. It's a good thing humans don't pick up on that. It'd be a dead giveaway if they knew the significance of sea creature surnames...There's a reason my name isn't like that…"

Luca looked at her with interest, his expression egging her on to continue. So she did.

"Long ago a-"

Luca raised an eyebrow. "'Long ago'?"

"Don't interrupt me, please," she said in a monotone, blunt voice. Then she proceeded in her normal voice. "Long ago… a sea creature woman fell in love with a human man. It was around the time when sea creatures were just starting to live among the humans. So, a decade or so ago." she added, shrugging. "Her surname was Corallo and his surname was Agostino. The woman was very beautiful and could change at will. She had lived all her life in the sea. But, she was so in love with the human man that she decided to live on land with him, completely out of her comfort zone. I mean, it was totally safe to do so. Sea creatures were able to live on land just like everyone else, so, what was the harm, right?" she said, that last part with a touch of sarcasm in her tone. She sighed. "Anyway, later, they had a baby boy who came out human. He didn't turn whenever he got wet but, he still had both sea creature and human blood in him though. Nevertheless, they loved their child with all their hearts. They were so happy...until..." Luna's voice started to crack and her eyes started to water.

Luca quickly grew concerned for her. It was as if she was afraid to tell the next part of her story.

Luna struggled to push through the next part. "Until one night.., the woman got killed by some... sea creature hunter bigot!" Tears started to stream down Luna's face, leaving wet trails of pink scales on her cheeks. "Spear went straight through her…"

Luca put his hand to his mouth in horror.

She went on, "I can only imagine how that horrible that must've looked like. The hunter did get thrown in prison for life but it didn't matter because the human man was shunned and called 'disgusting' for being in love and procreating with a ' monster '." Luna wiped her tears away with her sleeve, making her scales disappear. "The man ran away with his child and never loved again. Many years later, his child grew up, got married and had a baby boy of his own. As soon as they cleaned the seemingly human baby, scales appeared on his tiny body. The child came out sea creature. And that child is now my nonno."

Luca was completely speechless. Unable to comment on her story. He continued to just listen.

"My dad came out human. As you probably tell by now, the sea creature thing...skips generations. So...that's why I came out sea creature…" Luna looked over to Luca. "Quite the story, huh? All true."

Luca nodded in reply.

"My nonno's father told that story about the couple to him and my Nonno told it to me. A thing about my great-great-grandmother that caught my interest was that she could change at will. I asked how that was possible and my nonno told me. He himself can't do it. At least he's proud I'm able to do it." Luna shook her head. "My mom is human. My dad never told her about that part of his family. Thought he could get away with it since he didn't come out sea monster. But when I was born he got busted and had to tell my mom everything." she gave another pause. The atmosphere was tense but she listened to the waves on the ocean and that calmed her down. "Because of that story, my parents want me to hide. To stop changing at will because it's dangerous. I'm proud of what I am but I don't wanna move again. So, I don't change at will anymore…" She then smiled in embarrassment. "Sorry, I talked your ear off."

"It's okay. That must've been hard to tell me." He said with empathic eyes.

Luna hugged her knees to her chest and rested her chin on her knees. "Yeah...Thanks for listening. It's just...it sucks that there are still people out there that hate what we are. It's as if it's pointless to live up here. Even though it's now illegal to kill sea creatures, nothing really changed. Our people still live in fear. Humans say they're 'progressive' but...they're not."

"That's not true." Luca protested. "Luna, Giulia knows about me."

She suddenly turned to him in surprise. "What!"

Luca found it laughable that he had to explain this twice in one day. "She knows that I'm a sea creature. And she doesn't care. She still treats me the same despite her having sea hunter ancestry."

Luna stood up on the rock, looking down at Luca. "She has what now?!" She looked terrified and...disappointed.

Luca then stood up as well. "No, listen, that's the thing, it doesn't matter to her. Her finding out was an accident but she hasn't told anyone ever since she found out, which was years ago! And I know she wouldn't judge you either. She'd accept you in an instant."

"I don't know, Luca…" she said backing away.

But as she backed away she almost fell off the rock. Luca grabbed her hand and pulled her back onto the rock before she fell, the force of the pull making her body lean on him. They looked at each other awkwardly, both slightly flushing. Luna instantly pushed off of him but not too hard as to not make Luca fall off the rock.

Luna brushed off the awkward moment that had just happened and jumped down off the rock. "Look, I like Giulia. I do… a lot... But, I don't know if I can trust her yet, especially now that I know she has...that kind of background. I mean, if you didn't accidentally expose yourself to her would you have told her by now?"

He wasn't sure. He had wondered that at times. Luca jumped down a bit more carefully than her and then wiped off any dirt that was on his pants. "...I don't know. But she's kept my secret for this long."

Luna couldn't tell if the boy was naive or not. His voice almost made her believe him but she was still unsure and...afraid? No! Never.

"I'll think about it...who was that other sea creature you were with?" she asked with curiosity.

"That's...not for me to tell."

Luna nodded in understanding and crossed her arms. "Alright, but if he's giving you any trouble, let me know."

Luca let out a chuckle. "Alright, I will." Luca then realized that it was starting to get dark. "I should be getting home now."

"Yeah, me too. Thanks for coming." Luna said with a smile.

"No problem. Anything for a friend." Luca then ran off, waving goodbye.

Hearing that made Luna smile. But she had a lot to think about now. She put her hands in her jacket pockets, the air starting to get cold with the wind coming off the waves. She headed home.

(A/N) Do not worry! I repeat, do not worry! This is still a luberto fanfic. Chill, guys if your concerned.

Man, this chapter took a lot of thought into Luna's background. My brain hurts. XD

Hope you like Luna's story and that it wasn't too confusing for you to follow. Do let me know what you thought.

If you're wondering what colour "brink pink" it's like a salmon colour but more pink. And the way her fins look resembles the fins of a damselfish.