Note: Sorry for the delay, school practically crammed in 4 tests before giving us a sembreak. Either way, at least I got it done, right? I've also been busy drawing the main point of Chapter 12, so I hope I made it up with that.

Arashi's POV:

The advice... Legami's advice... Am I really bold enough to do it?

I scowled. I remembered having that same issue with Kip, how he told me that I must tell her sooner or later.

Sure, it sounded easy. But when I felt serious about confessing, it gave a similar feeling a death wish gave you.

Remember, it is better to act now before it's too late to, Legami's voice echoed in my head.

I shuddered. I took out the Sapphire I had stolen. It originally belonged to Mom, her engagement gift to Dad. But Dad gave it up for me to use as an engagement gift to Ikari. But I thought otherwise. All my time spent carving it in the last month finally showed fruit.

The originally huge raw piece of the Sapphire was now carved intricately into the shape of a rose, with delicate smooth petals on the edges. The fragments of Sapphire were used as beads, making it the perfect present for her.

I looked down on my tail, which had grown weary from being slammed again and again to the hard gem. Numerous scars were scattered around my scaly blue tail. It was worth it though; these scars symbolized all my effort into making the perfect necklace for her.

My heart felt a tinge of guilt. I knew that stealing the only remembrance my father had of my deceased mother would scar him badly, but sacrifices had to be made.

I shook myself out of guilt.

I shouldn't be worrying about the past, I encouraged myself, I should be worrying about tonight.

Legami had said that I would never know if I ever had a chance unless I chose to tell her.

This got me pretty riled up. If Umi said "yes", I'd probably have been the happiest soul alive; but if she said "no", I would probably not only have the saddest possible future, but lose the only friend I have travelling with me.

I disregarded my negative thoughts and continued to swim around the place. The colony was apparently huge, a little like a labyrinth. It was mainly located in some sort of naturally formed cave under a coral bed- probably why there were so many holes.

After taking a short tour of the place, I suddenly became aware that I hadn't slept the whole night. I was too busy planning for my special night to even notice my eyes drooping constantly or the sunlight streaming in through the holes.

I decided to swim back in to the room Unagi and Legami had provided us with. Everyone was up and about swimming around here and there. It was obviously morning as the numerous Gorebyss, Huntail, and Clamperl have already woken up.

I yawned. I was certainly very tired. I used up the last of my energy into heaving aside the boulder which served as a "door" for our room.

Umi was already awake. I don't know if it was just my imagination, but I caught a glance of her stuffing something into my bag.

"Good morning g, Umi," I greeted her, trying to suppress a smile.

"Good morning, Arashi," she sweetly greeted back.

I shyly grinned at the thought of tonight and collapsed on the soft bed, exhausted, sleepiness getting the better of me.

"Arashi, why are you so tired? What did you do the whole night?" she immediately asked, concerned over me.

Planning a special night for us, my sleepy mind said. I would have said the same if I had not quickly regained my senses.

"W-what?" I replied uneasily, "W-well, nothing really..."

She had a look of doubt in her beautiful eyes. At times I could feel giddy and happy by looking into her eyes, but now I only felt uneasiness. As if her eyes could read what was going on in my mind, or I daresay my heart.

"Okay then," she replied, concerned, "At least take some time to rest, Arashi!"

I calmed down upon hearing that, but I began to remember what Legami had told me.

"H-hey, Umi," I shyly called her, sure that I was about to make the worst mistake of my life.

"Yes?" she innocently replied.

"W-well," I started, feeling my face turn red, "there's... something, I want to show you tonight. Can you come with me?"

She nodded, giggling; which made me blush even harder. I honestly wonder if she's doing this on purpose just to make me feel uneasy.

After Umi went outside the room to take in some of the sights, I collapsed onto the bed and shortly fell asleep. It was a good sleep too; it rejuvenated all the energy I had lost during the past day.

When I woke up, Umi was not in the room. The sunlight that streamed in from my window now glowed bright orange., signifying that it was about sunset.

SUNSET? the thought immediately woke me up from all my sleepiness, I have to get ready for my date with Umi.

After realizing what I had just thought, I mentally scolded myself for thinking that way, it definitely wasn't helping me.

My tail immediately scooped up a rock fashioned in a comb-like shape and used it to curl up my whiskers. After making my face look as tidy as possible, I grabbed some gel made from herbal sea plants from my bag and gently smeared it all over my body, giving my scales a shiny glow.

I finally lay down on the floor, contented with all the tidying up that I did.

Right at that moment, Umi entered the room, to which my heart reacted to by bursting up into flames... Figuratively, of course.

"G-good evening, Umi," I greeted, nervous about what I wanted to tell her.

She glanced at me and giggled, smiling at how I looked. I hope I didn't look funny or anything. I blushed feeling very embarrassed, I felt as if I wasn't protected or anything. Even so, I pushed on anyway.

"You were saying, Arashi?" she teased, grinning playfully.

"Well... Umm... Yeah, there's something I want to show you," I shyly said, "but, it's not here, so I want you to come with me."

She seemed to be excited and immediately agreed.

We both exited the colony and Umi playfully swam ahead of me, as if to say, 'catch me if you can!'

I participated in her jovial game and soon found my nervousness decreasing. We were just there, giggling and laughing while swimming after each other like young children.

Eventually, we came to the clearing Legami had told me about. She told me there was a beautiful cave somewhere here that would be perfect, for a date- I mean, a confession.

"We're here," I softly told Umi.

Right in front of us, looming ahead of us, looming ahead of us was a huge vortex of swirling water. The velocity at which it spun made it seem that anything caught in it would have an increasingly low chance of making it out in one piece.

Umi looked back at me with a puzzled look on her face, and I knew that I would need her trust on this.

"I know this may sound crazy, but follow me into the whirlpool," I softly told her.

I immediately charged forward into the whirlpool, the last thing I heard before I drifted into unconsciousness was Umi's horrified scream.

Splash!

I opened my eyes, true enough to what Legami said, I found myself in a beautiful underground cave.

A few seconds after I had awoken, Umi was pushed in the same secret cave by the strong current of water. She was out cold.

"Umi... Are you okay?" I immediately asked, worried if she might've gotten hurt.

She slowly opened up her eyes and took in the beautiful view of the crystal-lit cave. She gasped in awe after looking after looking around the cave.

"It's... It's beautiful!" she exclaimed in an awed tone.

I smiled shyly, sitting beside her when I should start to speak. I slowly opened my mouth, which seemed to suddenly turn glued together.

"W-well, Umi" I managed to say.

"Yes?" she replied back, and I began to feel convinced that I was definitely not going to tell her.

"There's... something I want to give you," I choked on my own words, looking at the floor to avoid her eyes. I was very sure that my face had already lit up to the deepest shade of red possible, perhaps red enough to rival the famous "Red Gyarados".

"Go on," she replied.

I pushed the Sapphire that I had spent so much time carving to her tail. She held it up to the light to see what I had given her.

"It took me forever to carve that," I added, hiding a shy smile.

"It's BEAUTIFUL!" she exclaimed, putting the jewelled necklace on.

"Thank you so much!" she thanked me as she hugged me. I secretly enjoyed her warm embrace, wishing it would never end.

This is it, I nervously thought as I bit my lip, I have to tell her how I feel.

"Umi," I nervously opened my mouth, "t-there's b-been something... I-I've b-been meaning t-to tell y-you for s-some time now."

"Please do tell me!" she said excitedly.

I tried to open my mouth to speak, but fear froze me in place. After some struggling, I managed to encourage myself to say the next four words. The very four words that changed my life.

"Umi," I slowly said, "I-I love you!"

I immediately shut my eyes, afraid of the response Umi would give me. Five seconds seemed like five hours to me that time.

Silence.

The silent pause unnerved me more and more. I'm sure she was shocked, shocked with what I told her. I now began to regret opening my big mouth.

"I love you too!" she softly replied.

I opened my eyes, this seemed so very surreal. She was blushing and smiling but I didn't mind, for I was sure that my face had a goofy smile plastered on it.

"Really?" I asked her again, uncontrollably smiling.

"Yes!" she eagerly answered with a smile.

We stood there, smiling and staring deep into each other's eyes. I felt like I had just removed a heavy burden from my heart. Instead, it was replaced with a warm feeling.

Umi began to close her eyes, and I did the same. You could say that when our lips met, I was blushing the deepest shade of red possible. I guess it was enough to REALLY put the "Red Gyarados" to shame. But, I was very happy. I was happy that I finally showed my feelings to her, but most of all, I was happier that she returned my feelings. She loved me, and that was something that I would give up anything for.

I opened my eyes to see her smiling back at me, as if to say 'I love you'.

I merely smiled back.

"I love you, Umi," I told her once again.

"I know," she lovingly replied back looking up at me.

While she was beside me, I knew that my life was perfect. Nothing would be able to trouble me like this, for I knew that she cared for and loved me. She was someone... I was made for!

I silently closed my eyes, drifting off into a sleep with pleasant dreams, free of the troubles that I was previously subject through.

I love you Umi, I will never let go of you, and that's a promise. A promise I will never forget.

Note: Yep! That's it for now... But the next chapter won't be oh-so-happy, mind you all. Anyway, about the sketch I did on Umi and Arashi's confession, well... I uploaded it on deviantart. So if you guys wanna check it out or anything, go on to my fanfiction profile to see the link or type in the deviantart search box "Umi and Arashi Confession Milotic" and that will be the only result. I'm also giving one clue about my next fic, it will be entitled "What a Thief Can't Steal". All right, now that that's off my chest, goodbye now! Don't forget to review, every opinion counts!