Requests are still open if anyone wants, just drop by a review asking nicely.

Requested by Cataquack Warrior; just a gentle reminder that I did indeed skip the latter half of Pure for the manga, so my details are fuzzy and based solely on what I found online. I hope that it doesn't bother you if there are any inaccuracies! On that note, though, I did use your suggestions for the chapter, which made the chapter much easier to brainstorm for. Thanks so much for that!

Enjoy the story.

Couple: Lucia/Mimi

"Lucia!"

"Eh?" The dark blonde looked up from the laces of her red knee-high boots to glance around the beach in front of Pearl Piari, looking for the source of the sound now that she had picked out her name from the white noise of the crowd that surrounded her. "The voice was familiar, that much she could distinguish from the sound of the crowd, but Lucia wasn't in the mood to pinpoint her memory of that particular voice from amidst thousands of other voices and names floating around in her mind — alright, maybe she was exaggerating a little bit — but not after they'd had the absolute gall to do that in front of everyone at school and—

"Lucia!" Two hands lightly clamped down on either of the pink mermaid's shoulders from behind, accompanied by light laughter as the princess jumped in surprise, twisting right around to face her unknown assailant. "Serves you right for ignoring me like that!" Mari teased, the bespectacled human girl beaming as she tugged her black beanie further down over her greyish-blue hair. Mari's black glasses were slightly askew, but her brown eyes were gleaming enthusiastically from behind the thin frames nonetheless.

The blonde sighed in mild relief at the revelation that it was just her friend and not someone else. The tension in her from that the less-than-stellar situation that had happened that morning at school. Almost habitually, Lucia put on a smile to quickly mask the dejection she was feeling at the moment, in particular, to avoid worrying Mari more than she might have already had. "Mari! You scared me," she accused gently with a friendly and playful huff, though a faint smile was pulling at the corners of her lips nonetheless — it was obvious that she didn't really blame the human girl at all. Nevertheless, her false smile, even as it was replaced by a small, genuine one, didn't reach her eyes.

Lucia hoped that Mari didn't catch sight of how false her smile was at the moment. The girl didn't need to be worried about her problems.

"Aw, I'm sorry, Lucia," Mari apologised playfully, clasping her hands behind her back as she glanced at the blonde. Her eyes were curiously scrutinizing that day as she looked at the mermaid, her brow creasing together faintly. "Hey... Lucia, you were looking kind of sad earlier, you know?" she asked as she walked closer to Lucia, seemingly oblivious at how the mermaid was turning red from how close the girl was moving up into her personal space. "You want to tell me why?" she asked curiously, giving Lucia that earnest look that was hard to deny. "I mean, we're friends, right?"

Lucia hesitated. She didn't really want to involve Mari in her love life — her current nonexistent love life — but the human girl was already pleasing, and the pink mermaid wasn't sure she would be able to turn down puppy dog eyes and a quivering lower lip... She chewed her lower lip hesitantly as she argued with herself about telling the human or not. Even so... not somewhere so public...

"Let's go somewhere a little less crowded," Mari suggested immediately, almost as if she had read Lucia's mind. The blue-haired girl took her hand — mindless of how Lucia's face burned — and pulled her through the crowd of people and towards the city. "You want some ice cream?" she asked innocently, oblivious to all of Lucia's other worries — Kaito, Mikeru, Seira — and yet also managing to calm and distract her entirely. It was a positively gleeful respite from all of that worry, strangely.

Lucia smiled at Mari and followed along, giving the girl's hand a light squeeze. "Sure."

"...so my boyfriend ended up asking her out in front of everyone," Lucia concluded her story for Mimi in between mouthfuls of the ice cream cone she had bought in the park. The blonde paused, as if about to correct herself, her brow furrowing tightly together. "...no, ex-boyfriend now, I guess," she amended with a frown, the pretty blonde's face contorting into an expression of pure frustration.

The water demon in human guise frowned as she glanced over at Lucia on the bench they were sitting on, her own partially-eaten ice cream cone forgotten for the moment. She didn't understand why the human girl was so unfortunate as to have these sorts of things befall her — she wasn't a bad person. Lucia was honestly kind and as sincere and goodhearted as one could get. It simply wasn't fair to her.

If the blonde hadn't said that her ex had somehow developed a nasty case of amnesia, Mimi was sure that she would have found that self-serving jerk and given him a good hit. She wasn't sure that she wouldn't do that even knowing that that was the case, truth be told. Still, she had a feeling that her friend wouldn't like that, so she let it slide for the moment and leaned back where she sat with a heavy sigh.

"It's just not fair to you," Mimi lamented, eyeing the girl through the lenses of her spectacles — which she really didn't need, all things considered. But it wasn't fair that things like that happened. It wasn't fair that she had finally made friends but she'd be unable to spend time with them much either, but that paled in comparison to this kind of injustice.

Lucia had painted such a heartwarming picture of how she and her ex had gotten together it seemed like a joke for something so small to rip them apart like that, but she suppose it was a joke, in a way. A joke to whatever gods out there that found it funny, maybe.

Well, maybe it wasn't that much of an injustice... Mimi felt her face growing warm as she looked over at Lucia, who was looking out at something at the park, still contemplating over the plain vanilla ice cream in her hand. She was really pretty when she was like this, after all...

"Mari? Are you okay, Mari?" Lucia's warm hand rested on her brow, the back of her palm pressing to Mimi's forehead as if she was checking for a fever. "You're red all of a sudden."

Mimi felt her blush spring out full force at the tender action. Steeling herself for rejection, the water demon blurted out, "Let me be your girlfriend, Lucia! I'll make up for what he did to you, I swear!" What was she thinking?! It was too late to stop her big mouth now, but maybe she could salvage the situation — a joke, in bad taste, but a joke nonetheless?

Lucia was a human — there was no way, absolutely no way that they'd work out. She'd have to leave the area with Sister Sheshe at some point and even on the off-chance that Lucia was interested in her like she was in Lucia, it'd have to end with a breakup that could be in no way amicable. It'd break Lucia's heart all over again and there was no way—

"S-sure..."

"Wha-what?" Mimi stammered, snapped back into reality at the sound of Lucia's voice. "What did you say?"

"Sure, Mari," Lucia repeated, her face equally as red as Mimi's was at the moment. "It, um, might be a bit soon," she confessed, lowering her head a little, "but I do like you... You're really nice and you always make me smile." She offered Mimi a shy little smile as she looked up from her ice cream, but her honey brown eyes were only slightly guarded, still pained.

Mimi wouldn't pry. She'd let this play out on its own and maybe Lucia would tell her about it some day. But for now, since Lucia had already said yes... she'd just have to make sure Lucia didn't feel hurt anymore.

The rest of their day was spent together, the new couple hand-in-hand, and when the day drew to an end, they finally parted at evening, where Mimi daringly kissed Lucia on the cheek before slinking away into the crowd, fleeng back to the oceans where her sister was waiting, trying her best to hide her red face.

"Oh, Sister Mimi, you're here at last," Sheshe observed with a small smile. The taller demon wrapped an arm around the smaller, a grin on her face. "And my, Sister Mimi, your face is red. You're not sick, are you?"

Mimi just sighed, slumping against Sheshe in relief. "Oh, Sister Sheshe," she breathed, a dreamy look entering her red eyes, "I think I'm in love."

Read, review, and provide constructive criticism.