As they moved further away from the ship, the more Alex began to relax, the shaking had stopped and Namur's piggyback was surprisingly calming. She had her head resting on his shoulder, listening to her friends bicker, which to be honest seemed like their normal conversation mode.

"Hey... Namur. Thanks for this." Alexandra whispered in his ear, the Fishman snorted gently shaking his head, she couldn't see his expression but he didn't seem annoyed.

"Don't mention it, look I really do get it... believe me, it's all overwhelming and damn fucking scary. Hell when I was first brought on board I was terrified-"

Namur paused for a moment as if thinking about it before continuing a little quieter. Clearly not wanting Haruta to hear, though at this point it sounded like they were too busy running around the street, annoying the locals with loud questions and the occasional laugh as they were chased away. Obviously this was the norm, because the Shark teen didn't seem all that surprised or alarmed by their attitude.

"- I mean my 'father' lost me in a gambling match against Pops... Then I was taken, kicking and screaming from the only place I'd ever known by this huge fucking human, a human pirate no less. I genuinely thought I was gonna get sold into slavery. I spent my first week on the ship locked in a room with Haruta, who had also just been, let's be honest, kidnapped. We were both fucking terrified... especially when Pops or one of the crew would come along to visit us. They'd sit on one side of the room and us on the other, try to talk to us, tell us we were gonna be okay. That we were safe, but how the hell were we supposed to know that?"

"That's horrible..." Alex hissed out in horror, she could only see the back of Namur's black shaggy hair. However, his tone didn't have any fear in it, it was more a matter of fact, as if it was just something that happened and wasn't some shocking information he was telling her.

"Yeah... yeah it was. But you know, that room we were kept in wasn't some kind of jail cell, it had beds, furniture, books and even some board games... it was just a normal cabin. Never once did they try to make us feel like prisoners, granted they went about it all wrong."

"You were taken against your will!" The girl said with a sharp murmur, she couldn't believe he was actually trying to defend what they had done to him and Haru! It was such a scary thing to go through! Yet Namur sounded almost amused by it.

"True, but at the same time Alex, did you hear the part about me being literally gambled away to a pirate by my own 'father', right? Us Fishman are highly valuable in the slave trade, everyone and their mother knows that down here. Why do you think we're getting so many looks?" The Fishman asked patiently, the blonde slowly raised her head from his shoulder, finally taking in the place that they were currently in walking.

Sure enough, they were indeed getting some very dirty stares, in fact as the three of them passed by, a mermaid hurried a small child away, she watched the teenagers with fear.

These people were scared, even by a bunch of kids? Even with Namur with them too? Alex was hit with a strong wave of disgust and anger, how could his dad do that to him!

"Your dad is a dirt bag! For all he knew you could be-" Alex spat, finding it very hard not shout, but Namur interrupted with a soft, tired sigh. "He sure is, I could think of way worse things to call that man... but he's not worth being angry over anymore. It was actually the best thing that ever happened to me..."

"How could that possibly be a good thing?" Alex questioned utterly lost, she couldn't see how he could even say that. His evil, stupid butt of a dad gambled his own son away! How? HOW!

"Cause I don't live with a drunken fuck with a gambling addiction anymore. Why else? I mean now, I get three meals a day, I live in a cabin filled with my own stuff, I'm learning navigation, learning how to defend myself and I have a big stupid family full of morons that give a damn about me. You tell me which is better?" The shark chuckled quietly as he looked over his shoulder at the stunned expression Alex was making. She had no idea how to react or think or feel, the girl didn't know how to even internalise any of what Namur had told her. So she said nothing at all.

On one hand Alex understood exactly what he was trying to get at, he wasn't with that nasty dirt bag anymore, a person who'd caused him suffer a great deal. On the other hand Namur was taken away from everything he knew, by a pirate who had won him in a gambling match and forced him to live on a pirate ship without a choice... it was such a weird, two sided coin, both things were equally horrible and wrong?

"I know what you're thinking: ' you were pawned off by your dad and won by a pirate like some kind of object!' That sounds dodgy and wrong. And yeah... it is. Those things are just as fucked up as each other. I get it. I'm not condoning it by any means, what happened to me is really messed up..." The boy admitted, he had his eyes turned to ground as he spoke, while Alex was silent, unsure and confused by the whole thing.

"Saying all that, one of them is a terrible, greedy, shitty asshole with a drinking problem and the other doesn't give a shit... Believe it or not I'd take the asshole any day over the guy that didn't care-"

Namur laughed but it was filled with bitterness, his voice was flat and monotone, no real emotion in his words just quiet, hard facts.

"-Alex you know, while me and Haruta were sat in that room, we had nothing but bad intentions between us, when they eventually let us out, I thought of just straight up swimming away, but I couldn't leave Haruta all alone... So instead we decided it was a good idea to straight up murder Pops or try to at least-"

Alex swallowed, she thought back to the first time she saw the old geezer on the ship. What had passed her mind as he was slumped over in his chair asleep. Yet, she couldn't even bring herself to even try and hurt him... let alone kill him. Not that she thought she had a chance anyway...

"-Course either of us stood a chance in hell, he knew that and deep down we knew that too... That's the thing, we'd still throw everything we had at him, try to hit him, I'd bite him, we try and stab him, we even tried pushing him overboard a couple of times. None of that ever worked obviously... But you know what? He never once retaliated, I mean sure, he'd throw us off himself or break a weapon if we tried to hit him with one. But he never hurt us, he never tried to hit us back, even when we were really pissing him off. He just put up with it."

"Seriously? I mean didn't that make the crew mad?" Alex asked wide-eyed, she couldn't believe that both of them got away with it. Wouldn't that have made the crew angry, these two kids were trying to kill their captain!

"Nope. They all thought it was hilarious, didn't have anything to worry over, it's not like we actually could hurt him. At some point we stopped trying to kill Pops, cos we genuinely started to like him and I guess we started to enjoy life on the ship too. The crew were pretty nice, we got three meals a day, we started living in the apprentice cabin and we were allowed to do whatever we wanted in there... And attacking Pops became more of game, something we did because we knew he wouldn't do anything back. Like it was fun to attack this giant scary Yonko, he'd get all pissed off, chase us around and swear his head off. Then eventually he'd just give up, lie down on the floor and let us attack him until we wore ourselves out. Safe to say we were never any threat, in fact I don't think our attacks even hurt him."

"I- I don't get it..." Alex was really lost now, it made no sense at all. None of it did. The crew nor their captain... she was frowning hard, gears turning as she tried to understand the strange- well the whole weird freaking situation!

"Pffffft, you think I do? Nah, I don't think I'll ever get what goes on in Pop's head, I don't think anyone really understands him... Okay, maybe Marco. Guess It's better just to accept that he's a weird old man, than trying to figure him out." Namur mused, he sounded more upbeat again, tossing a grin over at the girl, which she returned as a small smile, before letting her face drop back down onto his shoulder.

Alexandra mulled over what had been said, staying silent for quite a while, however she did feel a little better. She, of course, still hated the situation, the girl didn't trust the crew one bit... but she did trust that Namur wasn't lying. The way he spoke about it was so genuine, what would be the point of lying to her?

The shark didn't seem all that bothered about carrying her, but she was starting to feel guilty about it.

"Namur? Can you put me down? I can walk now..."

The boy stopped letting Alex drop to her feet, she rubs her arm kind of embarrassed, about to open her mouth to apologise profusely when Haruta's loud bored groan drowned it out. "NAmmmmm! We there yet!? I'm getting bored of walking!"

"The café is at the end of this street, we haven't even been walking that long, when I lived in the Fishman district it took almost an hour of swimming and walking to get there, then I had to work 6 hours, then I had to spend another hour getting back home... So Haruta shut up, all you do is complain!"

"I don't! You complain way more than me!" The red-head shot back angrily, Namur rolled his eyes and shouted back.

Alex watched with a slight frown, her eye bouncing back and forth between them as they both complained about complaining. She didn't know whether to break it up or not, quickly deciding against it, she didn't want to get caught in the middle and make them mad at her.

The girl finally took in the view properly, something she hadn't really done yet, all that stuff earlier had been far more distressing than this place. Which was pretty silly now she thought about it, Alex was literally on the sea floor, on a island with only a bubble between it and the crushing pressure and lack of oxygen outside...

The street the teens were walking had clean pearl white cobblestone pavements, that flashed different colours as the 'sun' hit them. The gleaming buildings were made from sandstone, the roofs varied in size and shape, ranging from shades of red, to blue to green or even to simple white.

I'm really here, I'm really on an island under the sea, with Mermaids and Fishmen all around. There's literal sea kings just swimming along outside minding their own business. And its light down here, it's like they have their own sun or something!?

Alex halted when a tall fancy looking café came into view, outside sat some pretty tables and chairs. The sign above the door had 'Mermaid café' printed in pink cursive, two mermaid tails formed a heart next to it.

Should I point it out? They don't seem to be paying attention...

"U-h uh... guys..." The girls voice was drowned out by the argument, they continued on, passing by the café, having taken no notice of where they were, seemly too focused on shouting at one another.

"Guys... uh. Is this-" Alex tried again, this time a little louder, Haruta and Namur were getting further and further down the street. Could they stop? They were drawing so much attention with all their racket, people were starting to look nervous and some Fishmen guards were staring, if her friends weren't careful they'd get themselves in trouble. She didn't want that.

Come on Alex! Don't be such a wimp, you want them to be okay, right? Then tell them to stop!

Swallowing her nerves, she sucked in a gasp of air, face hardening into a determined straight line of focus, the girl yelled "GUYS! WE'RE HERE!"

Her shout echoed, bouncing off buildings and making people jump, she hadn't meant it to be that loud.

Oops...

She'd been heard, both teens turned around to gape at her along with the rest of the street.

"Oh... so we are..." Namur laughed nervously, realising all eyes were on the three of them. "Haha ha aha- sorry folks, me and my siblings are just gonna go..."

The shark whipped around quickly, being scorched with burning eyes he grabbed a stunned Haruta, jogging back to where the café stood, hustling Alex inside as well.

They entered into a dimly lit blue hall, the walls were painted with waves swirling every which way, some glittery turquoise curtains hung at the end, blocking out the next room.

"Damn Al you got some lungs, huh?" Haruta's stunned expression gone, replaced with a grin and chuckle in their tone.

"Geez, we had the whole street staring... think we may have gotten some guards attention too" Namur grumbled, staring at the entrance with a frown, before sighing seemingly a bit embarrassed "Sorry about that Alex, uh, me and Haruta get a bit carried away... but hey, they're right, you can half shout when you want..."

"I suppose so? I didn't wanna be that loud though..." Alexandra mumbled, looking down at her feet awkwardly.

"Well good thing you did, we would've kept going. That'd be way worse... anyway doesn't matter now, we're here." The red-head reassured, patting Alex on the head, which received scowl from her making Haruta snigger.

"Let's head in" Namur led the way, drawing back the curtains to reveal a café, however unlike your average café this place was a master piece!

It was decorated with many types of coral, the walls were painted with beautiful landscapes, pearls studded certain areas, making the colourful beams of light bounce off them to the little stones shimmer. What appeared to be rock pools, were scattered throughout. Then there was the huge round aquarium right smack bang in the centre, tables and chairs followed it around.

But honestly Alex hadn't actually noticed any of this because she was staring, staring at the mermaids. Her brain shut off, they were...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-

That was all that was going on in her head, just screaming and the ultimate gay panic, her inner voice just scrambling, throwing words, words. What were words? Mermaids!

Beautiful! PRETTY! LADIES! OH GOD WHAT DO I SAY? The big boat is cool but Mermaids are better! Help!

The Mermaids that were swimming around in front of her, varied greatly, but they were all beautiful to Alex.

The first was a delicate pale younger woman, with purple hair pulled into a low bun, a seashell adorned bow held her fringe out of her hot pink eyes. The maid outfit she wore was simplistic but pretty, showing off all the things that mattered, black and white, all frills, puffy sleeves and ribbons. The bottom skirt only covered the back of her pink manta ray lower half, but it made it pop more for that very reason.

The second lady was an eel Mermaid, her tail was long, striped white and blue, shining brilliantly as she swam. Her skin was the colour of milky chocolate, she was more mature, with a lovely cheeky smile. Her hair was short, blue on top, while her undercut was black. She wore the same maid outfit as the first, the mute dark colours making everything else about her glow.

Then the last woman could only be described as gentle and gorgeous, long flowing red hair bellowing behind her. Eyes a catching mint green, filled with kindness, lashes lustrous as she would blink. Her tail was that of a fighter fish, it was many different colours, her scales glittering on the light. Making her look like a starry constellation...

Oh and there was a blue, emo looking butler, with the lower half of a dragon fish...

Alex was in such wonderment she hadn't even registered Namur talking, she was too fixated on being gay, the merfolk who had gotten out of the aquarium and were making their way over to the three teenagers.

The ladies lent in close, they were so close! Alex was slowly getting redder, sweat was running down her face, as her vision was filled with- well filled with something. In fact she was suddenly grateful that she was so short. At some point her lion ears popped out, as well as losing complete control of her hair, which exploded into golden bush of curls.

"Who's your little friends Namur? They're so cute!" Eel lady asked, she was so close to the girls face, that Alex could feel her breath tickling her.

Her brain was screaming again, flushed cheeks so red that her resemblance to a tomato was uncanny.

"I'm Haruta and this is-"

"-AL-dra-dAX-DDDDddddrrrr!"

Hahaha I hate myself!