Thanks bunchest to xXlovinlavenXx, Andune Carnesir, VeridianSoul, OtakuShipping, Hanashi o suru, Will of the Abyss - AllenxRoad (have I ever mentioned how much I love your reviews? They make me laugh xD), Usagi-Twins, greenwings33, XxXFoxieXxX, and Eternal Happiness for reviewing! This story is slowly starting to progress and I love all your reviews! x3 Without further adieu, here's the next chapter! I do not own D. Gray-man! (P.S. if you'd like for me to reply to your reviews say so because I'm really unsure if I should or not since it takes up more words in the story Dx)

Tiedoll was astounded by Allen's reactions. Surely he didn't see the book as that bad right? It was really just warning them from the mermaids...then again, Allen was always in the water and he always swam around, so perhaps he was scared? The market-owner was clueless as what to do and looked over at his friend, Komui. He used to sail around the seas with this man until that war started. After it ended, Tiedoll left the sea but Komui still stayed on that ship, surely he'd know what to do. However, Komui was looking at Allen with a curious yet suspicious eye. He slowly looked over from the sobbing mermaid over to Tiedoll with a very serious expression. Tiedoll had never seen such a serious expression on the scientists face.

"General Tiedoll...have you ever seen this boy out of the water?" Komui asked seriously. Tiedoll gave Komui a puzzled look and looked over at Allen. It was then that realization hit him. No way...it couldn't be...Tiedoll slowly shook his head. Komui neared the water and Allen instantly swam away from him, afraid of what he might pull. Komui sat down and made no move to come near him. "I see. Say, boy...you're...a mermaid aren't you?" Komui asked. Allen swam away backwards. "I'm not going to hurt you." Komui reassured. "Why don't you come over here?" Allen shook his head at the question. Tiedoll meanwhile sighed and sat down on a chair Lenalee had taken from the ship. She grumbled at him quietly before leaving to the ship to unload some more.

"Well I'll be, you were a mermaid? I guess that does explain why you don't come out of the water." Tiedoll was conversing more with himself than with Allen; although, his mindless mutterings did bring comfort to the silver-tailed creature. Allen had expected them to bring out some kind of weapon and try to attack him with it. The book did say that he needed to be hunted down and stripped of his blood, tears, and scales. Tiedoll seemed to think differently though. "It's the first time I've seen one...and to think that I never would've known! Although I am a bit curious...why did you trust me so much?" Tiedoll asked. Allen's tears subsided for now and he simply avoided eye contact, shrugging. Komui looked between the two and sighed himself.

"You know, I'm a scientist. Honestly I must be a failure of one." He laughed to himself. Both Tiedoll and Allen looked at him with curiosity. "If I were a true scientist, I probably would have tried to capture you by now. I think what I'd want most for now...is to just be friends. I want to know more about you...but I don't want to dissect you to learn. So...what do you say?" Komui offered. Allen wiped at his tears and looked away, unsure about Komui's propositions. "You don't have to answer now. I have plenty of time, but if you do, come to the harbor and ask for me." Komui stood up and reached for something out of his pocket. He took out a small pendant with a purple K etched onto it and threw it to Allen. Allen caught it and stared at it, awestruck by the shining beauty of it.

"To be honest, Allen, I think you can trust him. I'm not sure if you trust me after reading something so gruesome...but you seem different than the mermaids in that book. Do you mind if we talk about your race?" Tiedoll flashed him a smile. "You're always welcome here." Allen couldn't help but give a small smile back. He swam closer and Tiedoll smiled wider. Komui sat down on another chair Lenalee sat down and she huffed this time as she passed by, carrying a box.

"Brother! You're supposed to be helping unpack!" She scolded. He waved her off for the first time in his life.

"Yeah, I know Lenalee, but this is important!" Komui insisted. She rolled her eyes and murmured something about fetching Kanda. Allen bravely swam as close as he could get and laid his arms on the wood of the harbor.

"So? Do you talk with many mermaids?" Tiedoll asked. "What's it like where you live? Is there a kingdom?" He added. Allen shook his head.

"I..." He started, giving Komui a wary stare. "I don't live with the other mermaids. Actually..." Allen trailed off a bit sadly. "I was banished from the kingdom." Both eyebrows of the men shot up with surprise.

"Banished?" Komui questioned. "What did you do?"

"I...didn't do anything. I was...hmm...well Master says I was framed." Allen informed.

"Framed? For what?" Tiedoll was the one to ask the questions this time.

"For murdering my father." Allen said quietly. "I didn't though." He sighed and laid his head down. "There were thieves in the palace and they tried to kill me too."

"Palace? You lived in a palace?" Komui asked intently. Allen nodded.

"My father was the king." Both of the adults gasped.

"So you were a prince?"

"I guess you could say that...I was adopted though so I guess they didn't trust me so much..." Allen said. "After I was kicked out, someone else who was also kicked out took me in. I don't live far from here-or well I don't think I do. I live around that palace over there." Allen pointed to the large castle from where he first laid eyes on that beautiful redhead.

"You live near Prince Lavi?" Tiedoll asked with mild curiosity. "Have you spoken to him yet?"

"Yep, he knew my name from you; or at least that's what he told me." Allen answered.

"What did you two talk about?" Komui intervened.

"Nothing much really...I think I scared him though." Allen said absentmindedly. "Or at least that's what he told me. He laughed about it afterwards." Allen furrowed his brows in confusion, starting to wonder again how that was funny. Tiedoll chuckled.

"Yeah, Lavi is actually a good guy. There are a lot of rich people around here that you might meet and they're complete snobs. They have no respect for anyone and look down on the people who don't own as much money as they do." Tiedoll informed. Allen frowned at the information. That seemed a bit dumb, but now that he thought about it, people looked down on him whenever he was on the streets before Mana adopted him.

"Well, all those matters aside, do you have any kind of, say, special powers?" Komui asked. Allen tilted his head and hummed in response.

"Well...I haven't really been taught magic yet. Hopefully master will teach me when he comes back...if he comes back..." Allen mumbled that last part so that none of them would hear. "Oh! But I can do this..." The two males looked at him curiously, not seeing anything happening. Allen emitted the substance from his fins and held it up to the surface for them to see.

"What is that?!" Komui asked loudly. Allen molded the slime trough his fingers to form a net.

"I'm not really sure myself, but I know that everyone but the mermen have it. We use it to make nets, bags, houses, and other things." Allen said and molded the ingredient into a pot.

"So it dries up?" Komui asked, inspecting the pot at eye-level. Allen shook his head and squished the pot into a ball.

"Mostly we use it as nets. In order to keep it's form, we have to add in whatever we need. Well, the fins do most of the work. Usually, I just need to think about it.

"Do you mind if I touch it?" Allen thought it was a stupid question but nodded his head anyways and gave it to the scientist. Komui seemed absolutely thrilled until it really started drying up in his hands. He freaked out and dropped it in the water. Luckily, Allen caught it and it wasn't dry anymore. "Interesting...it dries above water...but when it's in water, you can morph it into whatever you want...do you mind if I keep this?" Allen shook his head. "Lenalee darling~! Can you bring me a bowl of water~?" Komui asked with a whine to his voice.

"You should at least help out if you're going to ask for things, Brother!" Despite her scolding, Lenalee ran over and brought him a bowl of water anyways, splashing some out on her way over. Komui accepted the bowl and thanked her shortly before putting the orb in the bowl. He poked at it to make sure that it still maintained it's shape. He gasped when it was as hard as a rock.

"This is tap water!" He said accusingly. Lenalee rolled her eyes.

"Of course it is, what else were you expecting? If you wanted seawater you should have said so!" Komui frowned and dipped it into the seawater. It didn't morph back like it did before.

"How odd...can you make me another one?" Komui asked politely and Allen nodded, quickly making another one and giving it to him. He dumped the tap water out and scooped up some seawater, putting both spheres in the bowl. "Thank you so much! I can't wait to study it." Komui smiled and handed it to Lenalee. Lenalee growled and stormed off. "I should probably get to work before Lenalee gets mad at me." Komui pouted. "Well, I'll leave you two to yourselves then!" He said and whisked away to go find his sister and help her unpack.

"Well, now that he's finally gone...want to take a look at my shop again?" Tiedoll offered. Allen nodded his head.

"I will in a bit...I need to get my things first." Allen said with a smile and waved Tiedoll goodbye before swimming off. He hurried as fast as he could to the small island a few miles away from the port and gathered all that he needed, making a bigger bag than the last one. He planned on buying some paintings from Tiedoll and putting them up in his new house. Allen swam back and looked around for the small shop that Tiedoll owned. Once he arrived, he saw the same boy that was with Lavi the first time Allen surfaced. He ducked underwater to the point where only his eyes were showing and watched Daisya closely.

"Oh, so you're here Daisya?" Allen looked over to see Tiedoll approaching the stand. Daisya looked away from his book and up at Tiedoll.

"Hm? Oh yeah." He answered shortly and started reading the book again. Both Allen and Tiedoll frowned at the book he was reading. It was the same one Allen had read before. Tiedoll wondered where Daisya got the copy of it.

"I wouldn't be reading that book, most of it is full of lies." Tiedoll said, breaking the silence. "And besides, you're ignoring a customer!" Tiedoll scolded. Daisya blinked and looked up from his book and around at the water. He dropped the book in surprise when he saw Allen lingering in the water. Tiedoll chuckled and waved a greeting. "Hello, Allen! Have you gotten your things?" Allen nodded and swam over.

"Allen? You mean that one kid that always trades you pearls instead of actual coins?" Daisya asked. Tiedoll nodded and smiled at him. Allen swam up and surfaced a bit out of the water. "So what kind of pearls do you have anyways? I've never really seen any great big ones up close." Daisya added. He seemed like a nice person since he hung out with Lavi and Tiedoll. Allen took out a small bag and set it down to show him the different types of pearls he had. Daisya gaped and got on his knees to check them out. Tiedoll chuckled and Allen smiled at his reactions. "Wow! These are amazing. Hell, I don't think I'd actually exchange them!"

"Now, now, Daisya, don't use that language in front of him!" Tiedoll scorned. Daisya rolled his eyes at his father's words.

"Pfft, he looks like my age. I'm sure he says words like that all the time." He retorted. Tiedoll looked around his shop in the back and pulled out some more paintings and books to put out. He'd been getting a lot of customers ever since Allen arrived and befriended a lot of children in the town. He really didn't expect the mermaid to have such a big impact on his marketing though. "Wow, these are so cool!" Daisya said, rolling them around with his index finger. Allen smiled and watched him play with the pearls for a little bit before wandering over to Tiedoll's shop and pointing things out that he liked.

After an exchanging of pictures and pearls, Allen was on his way back to the little island he adored. The sun was high, indicating that it was now afternoon. He was too excited at the moment to be hungry. Humans knew what he was and they didn't want to kill him or strip him of his scales! Maybe Master Cross just met with some bad humans...Allen concluded as he hopped up on the little island, leaving the last of his tail still in the water, occasionally flapping it whenever he read something interesting.

He read books for awhile, finishing about 3 whole ones, until he saw that the sun was starting to set. Oh my...I haven't even had breakfast or lunch yet! Looks like I'll be eating a lot for dinner tonight...I wonder if Master is home yet. Allen wondered as he made a huge net and started dragging it around everywhere to catch fish and clams whenever he dragged it across the bottom. He did this for about ten minutes before deciding that he had enough and rushed to the cabin him and Cross stayed in. On the way, he nipped his fin on some barbed wire. Glaring at the offending material, he continued on his way home; hopefully he wouldn't attract any sharks to the house. He felt quite a bit of suspense gather up from within him when he saw the light corrals shining on. He tied the net and cautiously swam to the cabin.

Allen's heart pounded as he made his way through the dark house. The outside was lit up, but inside it was really dark and he could barely see anything. For once in his life, Allen was glad that he didn't have feet. He would've been tripping over everything. He couldn't really think of any reason why anyone would want to rob them. Maybe Master was here and then left when he saw I wasn't home yet? Was he going to be back later and just left the lights on by accident. The suspense was killing him. There could be a shark around the corner and he'd never even expect.

"Oh so now you're home." A gruff voice growled. Allen yelped in surprise and spun around. It was still dark so Allen couldn't see anything. He clicked on the closest light corrals to him. Once the small lights flashed on, he was just barely able to make out the person in the house. He couldn't even explain how much relief was washing through him at the moment.

It was just Master Cross.

"I didn't know you were home yet." Allen replied.

"Well no shit you were off doing god knows what. Damn, I just got here and you don't even have any god damn food? What the hell is wrong with you? Isn't your stomach a black hole or something? There should at least be some clams in the fridge!" Cross rambled on in an edgy voice.

"I was just out fishing dinner actually." Allen informed and started to swim away. He froze when he felt his wrist snatched. He looked over at his master and noticed that his nose was scrunched up.

"You smell disgusting." Cross glowered. Allen narrowed his eyes at his master's statement.

"Excuse me? I'll have you know that I wash regularly." Allen snapped and yanked his hand away. Cross shook his head.

"Apparently not recently. Care to tell me why you smell like humans?" Cross asked suspiciously. For a minute there, Allen really thought he was doomed. That was then when he had an idea. There was one thing left that he could do...

...lie.

"Humans? You mean up on the surface? Why would I smell like them? I've never seen one in my entire life. You always said that the humans were dangerous and it was forbidden to go to the surface, right? Unless you were-" Allen was cut off when Cross swam low to observe Allen's fin.

"So it was this..." Allen looked down to see Cross holding the injured fin on the bottom of his tail. That was when I scraped my tail on my way back home. That really saved my life just now...

"Oh, that? I kinda scraped myself when I was catching fish...there was some kind of spiky net that I cut myself on...it's not going to get infected is it?" Allen asked, feigning worry.

"Not that I know of. You'll be fine. Now where's this fish you were talking about?" Allen inwardly sighed, knowing better than to think Cross had actually been worried about him.

Allen swam outside of the cabin with his eyes closed tightly in thought. He was moreover thinking about where Cross could have possibly been this entire time. He froze when he smelled the scent of blood. Opening his eyes, Allen froze when he saw the pile of fish he had caught being gnawed by about five sharks. Allen swallowed nervously and started swimming backwards slowly. Unfortunately, the blood in his fin rushed out by the movement. One of the sharks rose it's head above the feast and stared at Allen before making it's way to him. He was frozen to the spot, too terrified to move. Just when the shark was meters away from him, Allen let out a shout and swam into the house. The shark was stuck and couldn't get through the door frame...yet.

"What the hell is going on over h-holy shit!" Cross yelled and grabbed Allen to get him away from the razor sharp teeth of the shark.

"Wh-what do we do, Master?!" Allen asked frantically.

"Well this is one hell of a welcome home." He grumbled. "We get the fuck out of here. We'll come back as soon as they're gone. Right now, we need to prevent you from bleeding so much." He scowled and pulled out a pack of a dark red substance.

Is that...blood?

Cross took Allen's fin in his hand and squished the substance on his fin. It immediately healed and Allen gawked. It had to be some type of really rare mermaid blood...the sharks had all been attracted by the smell and were trying to all fit through the door. Cross closed the bag and put it back in his long coat before dragging Allen out of the cabin and away from the area. Allen's mind couldn't help but wander back to the bag of healing substance as he swam after Cross. In just a matter of minutes, they made it safely away from the ravaging sharks. Silence loomed over them and Allen decided to break it with the only question remaining in his mind.

"Master...what was that stuff?" Cross' answer was completely unexpected. Allen didn't know whether to feel horrified or just flat out surprise. It was an answer that only led to more questions.

"Human blood."