When Ludwig woke up, he thought he had died. Immediately he wanted to cry. Why did he have to die when he was so young? He still wanted to do many things. He wanted to say goodbye to Gilbert, spend (a LOT) more time with Feliciano, actually learn to swim, maybe even get married if he ever found the right person. But now because he had died, he wouldn't be able to do any of that.

But something didn't seem right. There was something extremely heavy on him that was making it hard to breathe. Did the dead have to breathe as well? He always thought that when you died you would just ascend into wherever dead people ascended to.

When Ludwig opened his eyes and looked around at the silky white clouds in the sky, felt the sand and waves playing with his feet, and heard the birds screeching, he realized he was still alive. The relief of being alive numbed his senses and he gave a small chuckle. Everything would be okay now, he thought as he closed his eyes, Feli probably saved me. He went back into the water with the tide and he went home. He was safe, and so was Feli.

"Ludwig?"

His eyes shot open and he leaped forward, practially shoving his friend off of him. Feli had been lying on his chest until he woke up to make sure he was okay, but it seemed like something was off. "Feli," Ludwig grunted as he pushed him off fully. "Feli, what're you doing out of the water?" Panic laced his voice even as he tried to block it out.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay," Feli croaked. It was hard for him to breathe, let alone talk or move. "You were asleep for a while." The sound of his voice alone made Ludwig's heart break, the words just crushed him farther.

With an idea blooming, Ludwig shot towards the water while practically ripping his shirt off. He put his shirt into the water while Feli watched his muscular chest move. Let's not mix words here, Ludwig was hot. The way the sun and water hit his muscles made Feli's cheeks blush with admiration. The way that they moved was dazzling, he never really thought of humans like this. His blush darkened when he realize what he was doing. Thinking of something like this, and for a human.

He didn't even realize what Ludwig was doing until he placed the soaking wet shirt on his dried tail. Feli flinched at the sudden feeling of Ludwig gently running the shirt over his tail. "It's okay, I can do it."

"Nein!" Ludwig snapped and shoved his hands away. He looked up at the shocked face Feli was wearing and sighed uncomfortably. "Feliciano, please, let me, you almost could've..." he couldn't finish, horrified at the word. He was the reason why Feli had come up to save him from whatever drowned him. If he had just said no when Feli begged for him to swim, none of this would've happened.

Feli figured out what Ludwig was thinking and smiled gratefully. His hands found Ludwig's and gently pried the shirt from his fingers. "You're doing it wrong." He grabbed the shirt and put it on his gills. The cool water on them once more refreshed him and he looked back at Ludwig. "My gills are more important if I ever get too dry, then my tail, and after that my fins."

Ludwig sat there and watched the merman tend to his watery needs. "How would you know this?"

Feli placed the shirt on what water did reach him to get more and wrung it over his head. "I'm, uh, used to it I guess. This isn't the first time it's happened. I come up to the surface a lot, you see."

Ludwig sighed. He reached down to the water to splashed him a little bit. "Why would you purposely dry yourself up?"

"I don't! I just like to come up and collect shells and well," he paused uncertainly. "Well I like watching humans."

Ludwig turned to him in mild surprise. Feli was something different from what he could tell of other merpeople. Definitely different from the ones Feli spoke about. But as Ludwig thought about how different Feli was from his kind, he realized that he was the same. He didn't have many friends, he only ha a brother as a true companion, he was a wallflower, the list could and does go on.

Feli tossed the shirt back to Ludwig and gave a friendly, yet cautioned, smile. "Could you help me back into the water? I have to deal with my fratello, plus I already have been gone longer than I should."

Ludwig blinked and processed what he was asking before nodding his head. "Ja, alright. Sorry for all this."

Feli smiled at him and waved his worries off. "Ve, it's not a problem!"

The two grabbed hands and began to go deeper into the water. As soon as Feli felt the water surround his tail, he have a relieved sigh. The water seemed to heal his drying tail and made all the difference to his mood. Ludwig seemed to be doing okay, that's a plus too.

They were only about a quarter of the way there when Ludwig saw his brother walking down the shoreline. He hissed a curse under his breath and quickened his pace. "Hey, West!" Ludwig dropped Feli in frustration and cursed louder. "What're you doing here?" Gilbert waved his hand and jogged over to them.

Feli's face quickly turned to fear and looked at Ludwig. "Luddy? What do we do?"

The German could only glance down helplessly at his friend. "I don't know, I'm sorry." He looked up at his brother, now closing in on them. "I don't know."

Feli watched the new human with fear and adrenaline in his veins. He knew that Ludwig was a nice human, but it took weeks to build the trust. And even then, some of the things Ludwig did scared him. He had never seen this human before and now his life was in their mercy.

Gilbert jogged up to his brother and his friend (he assumed it was, after all Ludwig didn't hang out with people he wasn't close with) who were in the water. "Hey, you went into the water! Are you getting better of getting over your unawesome fear of-" he stopped short when he saw Feliciano.

Ludwig stepped closer to his brother and was getting ready to fight in case his brother got too close. "Bruder, this is my friend. He uh...he's different from you and me, um..." Ludwig struggled to think of what to say. "He's um..."

Gilbert blinked at Feli, the two never broke eye contact, and shook his head. "I'll be damned."

"Gilbert?" Ludwig looked at him bewildered. "What did you say?"

He shook his head and turned to Ludwig. "Can he get back into the water?"

Ludwig was stunned at how serious Gilbert was being, especially since he just found out about Feli. "Um, I, no, I mean, he can't, swim out?"

Gilbert rolled his eyes and started out towards him. When Ludwig remained where he was, he turned to him with a glare on his face. "Are you going to help or not?"

Ludwig narrowed his eyes and followed his brother to Feli. The two picked him and carried him into deeper water. Ludwig carefully held his tail while absentmindedly petting his scales. Feli smiled gently at this and twitched his fin at 'Luddy.'

Gilbert held his human half and was quite strong, almost as strong as Ludwig, if not stronger. He watched his brother and Feli carefully and sighed. "Are you okay?"

Feli turned to the new person and pursed his lips. He nodded and blushed shyly. "Y-yeah, I'm fine. Thanks."

Gilbert simply shrugged and continued deeper into the water. When he deemed it fit for him to be able to swim in, he wiggled out of their gasp. With a longing glance at Ludwig, Feli turned and went into the sparkling blue ocean water.

Ludwig sighed and watched the spot where Feli disappeared under, hoping that he would come back. When he didn't after a moment, he turned to his brother who was watching him. "What?"

"I need you to tell me everything you know about Feli."