Author's Note: Well, this is my second TLM fanfiction. It's basically Ariel considering whether or not she made the right choice one year after the wedding, alone at night. Then tragedy hits her and her family, and she realizes that what she has on land she never could have had below the sea.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, the palace, blah blah blah...

Never Let Me Go

The moon shone through the glass doors leading out to the balcony, giving the white sheer curtains an unearthly glow. In the palace of King Eric and his queen, it was silent. The only noise was the gentle lapping of the ocean waves against the sandy beach below. Everyone slept.

Everyone, that is, except for the queen.

Ariel crawled out of bed and walked on silent feet to the doors. She glanced back once at Eric and then gently opened them and slipped outside, the white marble cool against the soles of her feet. Her pale blue nightgown stirred around her legs in the breeze.

Her legs. She looked down and pulled up the hem of her nightgown, looking at the pale skin glowing in the moonlight. Oh, how she had loved her legs, those first few months! She could never get enough of them. She loved the way they looked, the way they felt, and how well and seamlessly they worked. Often she compared them to her old tail. The only down side to them was that her whole tail was muscle and moved so smoothly, but now that she was used to legs, her dancing was the envy of the kingdom.

She sighed and let the hem drop. Now, legs were just part of her body. She didn't care what they looked like anymore.

She leaned against the marble rail, watching the white foam that capped the waves. She missed the sea. She hadn't realized it before, but it was a part of her. Now that she had been removed from it, her heart ached as though a piece had been torn from it. She needed to fill that empty space. She reached out her arms longingly to the sea, in a plea to take her back into its loving arms. It did nothing but continue its age-old rhythm: splash, withdraw, splash, withdraw. Ariel wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly shivering despite the warmth of the night.

She saw movement a ways down the beach. She turned her head and smiled when she recognised one of the ladies-in-waiting from the palace, walking hand in hand with a young man. The girl leaned in as he whispered something in her ear and then laughed, the sound ringing through the night like the toll of a bell. Ariel sighed, dipping her head forward and letting her red hair tumble about her shoulders. That girl was older than the queen herself.

Queen. The title was still unfamiliar on Ariel's tongue. Only a year had passed since that fateful morning after Ursula's defeat. She knew that the court whispered about her. She was an enigma to them. A seventeen year old queen? she heard them murmur behind their gilded fans. How does she manage it?

If they ever worked up the courage to actually ask her, her answer would be short and rueful: barely. Yes, she had been a princess under the sea, but on land it was completely different. On land you were judged every time you walked into a room. If you didn't keep you head up, if you didn't dance your best, if a hair was out of place, they mocked you behind your back. So Ariel put up the appearance that she was indeed perfect and happy, but when she returned to the rooms she shared with Eric her face would fall like someone had dropped the marionette strings. Eric would hold her and kiss her and tell her that everything was alright, but inside she ached for her father's arms, for her sisters' words.

Her blue eyes returned to the couple on the beach. They were almost directly beneath her.

Suddenly the girl looked up, and her eyes connected with Ariel's. Even from this distance she saw the girl's cheeks flush as she whispered something to her lover, and he too looked up. He bowed respectfully, the girl curtseyed, and they hurried back into the palace, disappearing into the marble doorway. Ariel sighed and straightened, ready to return to bed.

Then, a painfully familiar sound filled her ears, and she stopped.

The rich, melodious tones of her sisters' voices filled the sea air in a mourning song. She raised her trembling fingers to put them over her lips, her eyes closing as the song seemed to surround her. Without realizing it, she softly began to sing with them, her voice barely above a whisper.

She turned around. She could see all six of them, their heads, shoulders and arms above the water as they sang. All of them had their hair down, and their faces were full of pain and sadness.

Suddenly a terrible feeling of dread filled her heart. With a gasp she ran back through her room, not noticing as Eric woke, and followed the staircase down to the beach, running out onto the cool sand and stopping when the waves licked her feet.

"Aquata!" she cried. "Arista!"

Slowly the song stopped, and they all looked at her. The grief she saw on every face wrenched at her heart.

"What's happened?" Her voice dropped to a broken plea. She waded further into the water until she stood waist-deep, and stretched out her white arms to them.

Allana swam up to her and slid her arms around her younger sister. "Father has passed," she whispered in Ariel's ear.

A rushing sound filled her ears, and she stared at them as they came closer.

"No," she croaked, her voice suddenly gone.

"Yes," Aquata said sadly. "Not an hour ago." She closed her eyes in pain. "We wanted to come and tell you, but we did not know how to wake you," she said.

"I was awake." Ariel struggled to keep her voice calm as the rushing in her ears threatened to grow in volume.. "I was--I was awake. I couldn't sleep." She bit her bottom lip. "Maybe this is why."

"He told us to come and offer you your life back as a mermaid," Andrina said. "Just one last time."

Ariel seemed dazed. The emotions running through her were too strong; they frightened her. "How?" she whispered.

Sadly, Aquata held up the triton. "I am queen of the seas now," she said quietly. "He has made it so."

Ariel could see the utmost pain on their faces, and for the first time was relieved that she was now a human: her sisters could not shed tears to help ease the pain.

"So, sister?" Adella said. "Will you join us again?"

Ariel's heart ached for her to say yes. But she looked back over her shoulder and saw Eric standing on the beach, his face worried, as though waiting for her. And then she realized what had forced the idea of becoming human into her mind, and why she had lived with it so far.

"No," she whispered. "I can't." She could feel the sobs trying to force their way up her chest. Gently, she disentangled herself from Allana, backing up. "I have here what I never found in Atlantica."

Arista's face twisted in pain, and she ducked below the waves, disappearing.

"Very well," Aquata said heavily. "It is your choice."

Frantically, Allana turned to her elder sister. "No!" she cried. "Aquata, you can't let her!"

"I must," Aquata said firmly, quietly. She bowed at the waist to Ariel, who did a sort of half-curtsey in the water. "From one sovereign to another."

"I love you all," Ariel whispered, and then turned and waded back to shore. Eric hurried towards her, his arms stretched out, and she collapsed into them, letting the sobs rip out of her chest.

"Shh," he whispered, gently stroking her hair. She clung to him like he had to her that night in the turbulent waters, her wet nightgown dripping onto his feet, her tears wetting his nightshirt.

"Father's gone," she whispered. She felt him stiffen in shock, and then gently he said, "Come back upstairs."

She followed him obediently, but to her surprise he led her out onto the balcony. Aquata looked sadly up at them, and he bowed deeply to her. She dipped her chin graciously, and then closed her eyes and raised her voice in her mourning song. The other sisters joined in, and Ariel sang shakily with them, holding tightly to Eric.

"I thought you were going to leave me," he murmured into her hair.

"So did I," she whispered. "I couldn't."

"I could have done without you, if you wish to return to Atlantica." His voice was tightly controlled, and she looked up and saw it in his eyes: the pleading that she stay with him.

"I couldn't go back now," she said softly, her tears shining in the moonlight. "Eric, you've got me, and I hope that you'll never let me go."