Disclaimer: do not own digimon sobs and breaks computer (what? i have to take out my sadness on something)

chapter 1! you had better be grateful glares and review for me. i've already got four reviews, so i guess i'll let you read this one a little earlier than planned (i was going to post this tomorrow)

i hope everyone enjoys this chapter as much as they did the prologue

Chapter 1

Mimi couldn't take it anymore! It had been a week since she had been to the surface. Ever since Prince Michael showed up, there had been no spare time to see the sailors at the docks. The first two days she had been spending her time escorting him on tours of the kingdom. The next two her father had ordered her to help with the preparations for a welcoming ball for him. And in the last three days, Prince Michael never left her side. It was as though she was wearing a leash and he was holding it.

"I can't stand it, Jyou. I need to get back to the surface. I need to be there right now." Mimi told the king's advisor one day as they swam towards the garden.

"But Prince Michael is such a nice young man, and he's stopping you from heading out into danger. In my opinion, that's a good thing for the rest of us underwater dwellers." Jyou answered with a snicker.

Mimi would have continued but at that moment Prince Michael spotted them and swam over to them. He greeted both of them, but his eyes never left Mimi. As always, Mimi behaved her best when she was around him, but she kept what she really wanted to say in her head.

"His Majesty has some important news he wants to say to everyone." Michael said eagerly as he pulled the two towards the throne room.

"What's so important that he has to tell us right now." Mimi mumbled to Jyou, who just smiled.

The king's advisor knew the news wasn't to be any good. He had been present the night before when King Tachikawa decided it. But Jyou hadn't told Mimi. It was going to be a good thing for her, even if she wouldn't like it. She'd grow to like it. Besides, she was turning sixteen anyway, and it had to happen soon.

The two followed Michael into the throne room. Mimi stopped when they reached it, but stared around curiously when she saw no one in it. Michael grabbed her hand and led her towards a balcony. When the princess saw which balcony it was, she nearly fainted. The balcony was only used for public announcements and her father seldom used it. The news must be very important. Michael pushed her onto the balcony and followed, while Jyou stood farther away.

Once out on the balcony, Mimi was terrified to see all the mermen and mermaids that inhabited Tachikawa Lagoon stood below the balcony, waiting anxiously to hear the news.

King Tachikawa waved his arms for silence and brought Mimi forward. He yelled out to the public, "Citizens of Tachikawa Lagoon, my daughter, Mimi Tachikawa, has chosen a husband!"

He ushered Michael forward and Mimi's jaw almost dropped n horror. The people cheered with enthusiasm and she put on a small smile for them. But on the inside, she felt like running away. Her father had arranged the marriage without any say from her! And worse yet, he had only made the arrangement for his gain! He just wanted the land of Rapid Falls, but Mimi wanted nothing to do with it. He had fooled his own daughter into staying by the Prince so it would seem they were to be married.

The cheers from the onlookers were getting too much for her, and when Michael grabbed her hand and waved to the people, she shook her head and ran.

> > >

Taichi was disappointed as he came to the cliff for the seventh time in a row and had not seen the girl. It was as though she disappeared from the face of the earth.

He walked to the docks with a gloomy air about him. He was going to say a quick 'hello' to Sora and then head back to the palace. Ever since Yamato and Takeru arrived, he had been going back home earlier, just to spend time with them.

Sora wasn't home, but her mother told Taichi he could find her in the village. He said goodbye and headed to the village. There, he found Sora talking with Hikari and Miyako, the servant girl at the palace who was good friends with Hikari. Not wanting to bother their conversation, he walked over to the baker's store and house, where he found Iori. The boy was too busy with helping customers and baking bread to chat, but he said a quick 'hello' before turning back to the oven.

"Who else can I talk to?" Taichi wondered as he counted his friends mentally. Miyako, Hikari, Sora, Iori, Yamato, Takeru, Koushiro…There were just two more friends he hadn't visited yet.

He strode towards the black smith's forge, where he found Ichijoji Ken. He sat on a stool and asked, "Ken, do you know where Daisuke is today?"

The blue-haired boy looked up when he heard Taichi's voice. He smiled at the mention of Daisuke and answered, "First, he was ogling your sister when she entered the village. Then he went out back to the privy. He's been in there for a couple of minutes now."

As though on cue, Daisuke entered the forge with a wide grin. He greeted Taichi with a clap on the shoulder. The three sat there for a couple of minutes and talked.

"There you are, Taichi!" Takeru entered the forge after a hesitation and smiled at the three. Daisuke automatically grimaced when he saw Takeru and Ken gave him a friendly greeting. "Yamato is looking for you."

Taichi said goodbye to Ken and Daisuke. When he exited the forge, he could hear Daisuke throwing an insult at Takeru. He chuckled at the thought of his weird friends and headed towards the palace.

> > >

Sora Takenouchi watched Taichi stride back towards the palace sadly as she bought fresh apples for the pie she promised she would bake for her mother. She wished she could ask to go back to the palace with him. She desperately wanted to see Yamato again, but her pride stopped her. She didn't know how Taichi might act if he heard she wanted to see Yamato badly.

Takeru had stopped by and said hello when he stopped to talk with Hikari minutes before. Sora had told him to tell Yamato to come and greet all of his friends in the village. Takeru had laughed and said he would.

But Sora wasn't so sure that Yamato would come. It had been a week since he had come to the kingdom, but there was no sign of him in the village.

She was about to turn to walk home because she had finished all of her shopping when a voice called out to her. She whipped around in time to see Yamato himself racing down the street right for her. Sora would have run to him, but her arms were full of food for that week. And she didn't want to make a scene. At least, not in front of all the other villagers.

"Sora!" Yamato said when he caught up to her. He pulled her into an embrace and held on tight. "When Takeru said you wanted to see me, I immediately ran here."

Sora looked up at him and figured that any second now he would let go of her. But when he didn't, she greeted, "Yamato, it's been a long time. You've gotten taller."

"Yes," he replied, lowering his voice. "It has been a long time. Too long if you ask me."

She nodded and laid her forehead on his. She smiled and he asked after a comforting silence, "Aren't you going to invite me home for supper?"

The girl laughed and pulled him by the hand to her cottage. He helped her by holding all of her purchases. Yamato questioned her about what she had done after he had left from his last visit. She told him that nothing had happened to her that much and asked him how he had been while he was away. They shared their stories and by the time they were done catching up, they had made it to her house.

"What about Taichi? I thought you were to have supper with his family tonight." Sora said, opening the door to the small cottage.

"Taichi and the others will understand. Besides," he closed the door and embraced her again. "I'd rather be with you."

> > >

Yamato wasn't in the palace when Taichi returned. He asked a passing servant and she said she had seen Yamato leave several minutes before

"Figures. He wants to see me and then leaves." Taichi mumbled as he sat at the table for supper. Supper that night was boring for Taichi. He had no one to talk to. Hikari and Takeru were in a heated conversation and wouldn't let him join. Taichi had no intention of talking with his parents. If he talked with them, they'd surely start to ask if he had chosen a girl to wed yet. Talking about his marriage with his parents was an uncomfortable matter for him. They'd start to pressure him and he'd get upset and then do something stupid, like flinging something across the room and end up hitting Lord Ishida in the head.

He'd done it before. He could do it again.

His thoughts wandered to and fro and he didn't even notice what he was eating, because he was so lost in his thoughts. Taichi didn't even hear his mother when she asked him something. The queen had to yell at him, but he still wouldn't snap out of his thoughts. Finally, Hikari slapped him with a spoon and he sat up straight as though he had been caught doing something wrong.

"Taichi, I asked you if you had any plans as future king?" his mother said with a sigh. "Lord Ishida would like to know."

The prince grinned sheepishly, and replied as he turned to Lord Ishida, "I don't have any plans yet, but I'll tell you once I think of something."

"What sort of an answer is that, Taichi?" King Yagami asked with a laugh. "You are to be king soon. Surely you have some sort of plan made up already."

Taichi shook his head. "I'm not going to be king in a long time, father. And, no, I don't have any plans. Maybe in another couple of years, when I do become king."

The three adults at the table looked worried as Taichi excused himself and left the room.

> > >

When Mimi had run away from the commotion outside the throne room, she swam right towards her room, locking the door behind her. She threw her arms on her bed and cried herself to sleep. Hours later, she awoke with a start, forgetting how she had got to her room. Then, she remembered the declaration of her marriage and she started to cry again.

She saw her trunk in the corner and swam over to it. After she got it open, she pulled out her favorite dress. It was a beautiful light green gown with sleeves that reached to her elbows. At the end of the sleeves were long trails of white lace that floated in the water current. The skirt of the dress was heavy with petticoats but it was still beautiful, nonetheless.

When Mimi was younger, she used to put the dresses on all the time and pretend she was human. She hadn't pretended to be human in years and she got the sudden urge to do so now. After pulling on clean white robe over her to serve her as an undergarment, she put on the dress and admired herself in a thing that the humans called a mirror (she had also gotten the mirror from a sunken ship). When she was younger, the dress hardly fitted her, but since she was almost sixteen, it fit her perfectly and she looked very much human, except for the tail peeking out from the bottom of the skirts.

Next, she took out the small wooden box and put on pearl earrings and a small pearl ring on her ring finger. Finding that the pearl didn't match the green of the dress, she put on emerald earrings and an emerald ring. After putting on the jewelry, she smiled at herself in the mirror. If only the other citizens could see her, all dressed up like a human!

But her neck looked so bare! She fished around in the jewelry box but found no emerald necklaces. Pouting, she looked around in the trunk for a necklace but found none.

A knock on the door made her stop her searching. She closed the trunk, unlocked the door, and peeked out the door. If it were Michael or her father, she'd shut it immediately. She was grateful when she saw Jyou's dark blue hair. She let him in and closed the door, locking it quickly. When she looked back at Jyou, she found him gaping at her. Mimi looked down and noticed that she still wore the dress.

Flushing, she hurried to try and take it off, but then had second thoughts and left it on.

"What are you doing in here?" Jyou asked, looking at the trunk with the other dresses hanging from it.

Mimi smiled sheepishly and answered, "Just fooling around, I guess."

Then a thought struck her. The amulet! It would be a beautiful necklace. And its emerald color would go perfect with the dress and her other jewelry. She hurried over to the trunk, opened it again and got the amulet from the secret compartment it was held in.

But before she put it on, she remembered that it held magic and something would happen if she put it on. Mimi turned to Jyou and asked with pleading in her voice, "Jyou, would you do something for me?"

"What is it this time?" Jyou said, eyeing her with caution.

"Don't tell anyone about what I'm going to do." She answered.

Jyou groaned. "If it has anything to do with humans, then I can't promise that."

"Maybe it does have something to do with humans, but you have to swear to me you won't tell a soul." Mimi held out her hand. Jyou hesitated but then shook it. Then, the princess nodded to the trunk filled with her human things. "And you have to help me get this out of here."

Jyou sighed in worry. What if the king found out he was helping his daughter escape? Then Jyou would surely be killed.

Nevertheless, he helped her carry the trunk out of the palace by exiting the balcony in the princess's room. They swam to the surface, Mimi swimming slower than usual because of the extra weight the dresses caused. But they made it to the surface and when they did, Mimi and Jyou hauled the trunk over to the sand on the beach and there they sat, worried about what would happen next.

"Jyou, you've been a good friend to me. I only hope I might be able to see you again." Mimi said, hugging her father's advisor.

Jyou patted her head. "You will be back, trust me. Once you see how horrible human life is, you'll be back."

He waved goodbye to her and she watched him go sadly. Suddenly, her eyes drooped with sleep and she laid down on the sand of the beach. But before she fell asleep completely, she remembered to put the amulet on. Then, as she drifted into slumber, she had a feeling that when she woke up, something magical would have already taken place.

yep, that's the end of that...but don't expect to get chapter 2 early...i'm still working on that one. i'll probably finish it once i get home. yes, i am not on my home computer right now, but at my work computer! yes, i work! everyone might call me lazy but i work!

but i hate my work...having to watch some whiney six-year-old all day...sigh, and i thought summer vacation was going to be fun...school's starting though, so i won't be able to update that much (not that i'd update anyway cause, like i said, i'm lazy)