Heheh, when did I update this again? x3 I know it was around the beginning of the month...sorry, I've been quite busy with graduation coming up and all! So excited for that *A* no more school for me~ *giggles uncontrollably* that'll give me more time to update and get a hold of what the heck I want to do with my life x3 Anyways, I'd like to thank VeridianSoul, Gratsu-Dragon, Will of the Abyss - AllenxRoad, TOOLAZYTOLOGIN, and the Usagi-Twins (nice nickname x3) for reviewing! If anything in the last chapter confused you, I apologize. If it's about the orbs than that will be explained later, but if it's not...then I suppose leave it in a review and I'll explain? Thanks again for reading! ^w^
It had been a few days since Allen and Cross had been chased out of their home. They both went to go check it out that morning and it was still surrounded by sharks. It was odd, really...sharks didn't have the best intelligence so why would they stay at a place that they knew was empty? They were too dumb to know that Allen and his master would come back; however, they were still there. That being said, Cross had managed to make a new home out of the huge rock they had found a few days ago. Right now, Allen was running an errand for Cross. He felt so much more free now that Cross was letting him do whatever he wanted. He was actually the one sending Allen to the market above the surface today. The silver-tailed mermaid couldn't really explain it...but he felt more free than he'd ever felt before. He nearly jumped out of the water from excitement when he hit the surface, but he knew better than that.
"You look like you're enjoying yourself." Allen's heart skipped a beat and he spun around so quickly in the water it was inhuman. He felt his heart explode with something he didn't really know as he saw Lavi sitting there on his surfboard. Allen smiled at him. Lavi was taken by surprise at the smile on Allen's face...it was odd to say, but it really looked...well, beautiful.
"Good morning." Allen greeted, his smile widening. He could talk to Lavi however much he wanted now. Said prince almost fell off his board at the sight of the mermaid's beautiful smile.
"Mornin'." Lavi laughed when Allen had tried to balance the board out to keep him from falling off. "Where are you off to so early in the morning?" The redhead asked.
"The harbor." Allen replied, pointing over where the huge ship from earlier was docked. "I'm going to the market."
"The market?" Lavi questioned. Allen nodded to confirm Lavi's confused expression. He hummed and tapped on his chin.
"Perhaps...you could come with me? Oh! You don't have to since...you're...um..." Allen nearly forgot that Lavi was the prince of the kingdom here. He knew that back when he was a prince in his own kingdom that people would always surround him.
"Ah, so you've finally caught wind of that? Took ya long enough!" Lavi grinned. "Anyways, I would come with you, but I'm kinda..." Lavi gestured to what he was wearing and Allen stared at him for a long time, literally not getting it. He was always 'topless' to these humans, so why would it matter if Lavi did it? Did it make a difference because he was the prince? But when Allen was the prince, he went around topless...then again, not many male mermaids wore shirts anyways... "Half naked?" He guessed.
"...naked?" Allen repeated, his expression completely blank. Lavi couldn't help but burst out into laughter.
"Oh my god, that was so funny! Yeah, half naked. Maybe I'll come with you after I get dressed?" He suggested. Allen looked back to the rock where he came from. Cross did tell him to hurry up...
"Well, you don't have to come if you don't want to." Allen said. "I'm just running a quick errand for someone..." Lavi hummed in thought.
"Well, I haven't been out for awhile anyways." Lavi said with a smile. He started paddling his way back over toward the castle and Allen followed him until the water got a little too shallow that you could almost see his tail. "I'll be back out in a minute...you coming out of the water?" He asked with a chuckle. Allen shook his nervously. "If you say so. I'm gonna fetch a boat and paddle out to ya, okay?" Allen nodded and swam back out into less shallow water. It'd be bad if Lavi saw his tail...who knows, the redhead could have read the book as well. It took Lavi about ten minutes until he was paddling out on a boat. He paused and gave Allen a curious glance.
"So, how are you paying? Do you have a waterproof belt on you or something?" Lavi asked, laughing at the idea of Allen swimming shirtless with just pants and a belt on.
"I guess you could say something like that." Allen answered and Lavi deadpanned. "I was just wondering...is there a market where you exchange pearls?" Allen asked curiously, leaning his elbow on the boat, tilting it just a little.
"Pearls?" Lavi questioned. His face brightened. "That's right! General Tiedoll said that you gave him pearls instead of actual coins. Sounds like a lot of work gathering them, ya know?" Lavi sighed and leaned against the boat. Allen tilted his head and then reached for his bag of pearls. He pulled out the rather large rainbow pearl that he found before. He looked down at the pearl and then up at Lavi.
"Lavi..." Allen mumbled, catching the redhead's attention.
"Hm?" Lavi looked over and offered Allen a smile, which the younger mermaid returned. Allen offered out his hands and Lavi blinked in confusion. "What is it?"
"Open your hands." Allen instructed.
"What for?" He asked. Allen rolled his eyes.
"Just open them." The snowy-haired boy smiled. Lavi grinned at the boy.
"You know, Allen, if you wanted to hold my hand, you could have just asked." Lavi joked, causing the mermaid to light up in a cherry-red blush.
"B-but I wasn't..." He trailed off and Lavi started to laugh.
"I was just kidding." Lavi said with a grin and opened his hand. Allen stubbornly dropped the pearl in his hand and looked away. Lavi's eyes widened and he held the pearl close to his eye. He looked from the beautiful pearl to it's equally beautiful owner. "Is this...?"
"You can have it." Allen muttered, blushing deeper.
"Oh, Allen, you don't have to give this to me..." Allen shook his head at Lavi's words.
"I want you to have it." The mermaid confirmed and closed Lavi's hands around it. He then realized that he was basically holding Lavi's hands and blushed so deep his scar nearly disappeared.
"I knew you just wanted to hold my hand." Lavi said jokingly and Allen retreated his hands away.
"I was just...but...ah, um...we should probably get going now..." Allen said quietly and started swimming away. Lavi smiled.
"Thank you, Allen." He swore he saw the boy's ears reddening, but maybe it was just his imagination.
"Mhmm..." He hummed back. Lavi laughed and grabbed the oars to his boat and started to row.
"You don't want to ride with me? Even after all that effort to get me to go on a date with you?" Lavi questioned, his voice laced with humor.
"I d-didn't ask you on a date!" Allen defended. "I was just wondering if you wanted to come with me to the market..."
"Same thing." Lavi chirped.
"Is not!" Allen denied. Lavi rolled his eyes and grinned.
"Oh c'mon, what's so bad about going on a date with me? I'm the prince! Everyone wants to go on a date with me!" Lavi cheered, rocking his boat quite dangerously. Allen had to hold it steady to keep it from falling over. It'd be bad if he fell in the water and opened his eyes, only to see that the person in front of him was truly an extremely dangerous monster. Allen tried not to stare at the lopsided grin on his face and his sparkling left eye. Maybe it was just Allen's imagination, but Lavi seemed to be even more beautiful than when he first saw him...or perhaps it was his charming smile...Allen hadn't even noticed he spaced out until Lavi asked him a question. "So, you must be able to swim fast, right? I mean, when I've seen you, you're always swimming." Allen smirked.
"You have no idea." He replied and let a grin spread across his face when they had approached the harbor.
Lavi couldn't imagine anyone else who could get so excited just by seeing the harbor. Truthfully, Lavi found litter here and there occasionally and really, it was kind of a dump compared to the neighborhood he lived in. He supposed that maybe Allen lived on an island far out somewhere where everything was...well...different. Thinking that thought made Lavi a bit gloomy. It might sound ridiculous now, but could you imagine what would happen if they fell in love? They wouldn't ever be able to stay together because Allen wasn't royalty. Lavi shook his head; he had his entire life ahead of him, so what if he misses out on one person? There's a ton of fish out there in the sea as Tiedoll would say. Lavi had all the time in the world.
"Um, hello? You coming, Lavi?" Allen asked. Lavi blinked a few times and looked ahead to see Allen a few yards ahead of him.
...when did he?
"Uh, yeah! Hold on a minute, holy crap, you're fast!" Lavi exclaimed when Allen started swimming off. It was difficult to even stay within a few feet of Allen given the fact that he really wasn't bluffing when he said he could swim. Lavi had never seen anyone swim so fast. It made him think about how long Allen had actually been swimming. Did he swim here everyday? Once they were finally at the market, Lavi was out of breath and his arms hurt. He could only faintly hear Allen and Tiedoll greet each other.
"Good morning!" Allen greeted with a smile. Tiedoll returned the young boy's smile, which, mind you, brought many stares over to him from the passerby.
"Good morning to you, Allen! You seem to be in a good mood today-oh! I didn't even see you there, your majesty! Good morning to you as well!" Tiedoll smiled, dusting off his apron full of paint. Lavi waved the man off.
"Oh stop it with the your majesty stuff, just call me Lavi!" Lavi said with a smile.
"Nonsense! It's only right to greet you that way. So, what brings you to these parts?" Tiedoll asked with a warming smile.
"Oh, you know, the usual..." Lavi shrugged and then glanced over in Allen's direction. Tiedoll's eyebrows shot up and he looked over at Allen as well, who was cheerfully talking to Daisya about some new pearls he had found.
"Are you on a date, perhaps?" Tiedoll asked with a sly smile. Lavi snorted, there was no way Allen would say it was.
"Whatever floats your boat, old man." He chuckled and smiled at Allen when he gave the redhead an odd look. Allen seemed to think something over before dismissing it and shaking his head, returning to Daisya's excitement.
"Have you come to buy something?" Tiedoll asked, a shopper's gleam in his eyes. Lavi shrugged and carefully hopped off the boat and onto the ground where the small market stood.
"Depends...have any recommendations?" Lavi asked with a smile. Tiedoll glanced over at Allen to see the mermaid busy exchanging coins with Daisya. The boy seemed enthralled at the golden pieces, going so far as to hold it up to the light.
"I do have one. Here, come with me." Tiedoll instructed and headed to the back of his shop. Lavi curiously followed after him. "You know, Lavi..." Tiedoll mumbled once they were out of earshot from the mermaid. "...things are not always as they appear. I suggest you remember that." He said wisely.
"Jeez, now you sound like the old panda. Just come on and show me what you've got." Lavi hurried him, afraid that Allen would finish his errand and leave without him. It was fun to be around him, Lavi would admit that. He really couldn't explain why he liked the boy so much. He had a feeling that him and Allen could be great friends.
Great friends indeed.
"Here you are. I think it's time that you take a new look on something else." Tiedoll said and pushed a book into Lavi's hands. The teen's eyebrows raised and he looked at Tiedoll mysteriously.
"What's this? True Love Can Be Found in a Mermaid's Tail?" Lavi read the title aloud. Tiedoll nodded his head and looked anywhere but Allen so he wouldn't give Lavi any hints.
"It's the same person who wrote The True Dangers of a Mermaid's Tail." She seems to like the pun about mermaids and their tails. Tiedoll chuckled quietly. "It seemed that after further research, she published this book shortly after her last one. You've read her last one, right?" Tiedoll asked. Lavi nodded his head with quite a serious expression on his face.
"It's really a shame. Mermaids are so beautiful, as well as their voice...it's too bad that they're dangerous." Lavi whispered the last part as he fingered the spine of the book thoughtfully. "Anita was so lucky to have met a mermaid in person. Wish I could do that." He added. "Well, anyways, thanks for the book!" Lavi smiled and placed the right change in Tiedoll's firm hand. He knew better than to try and give him more. He tried that once and the man went nuts on him and created a huge scene. "See ya around, General!" Lavi called and hopped onto his boat, nearly tipping it over. He was glad that Allen was there to steady it. "Thanks, beansprout."
"B-beansprout!?" Allen questioned. Daisya snickered and ruffled Allen's hair.
"He's basically calling you short." The brunette replied. "Don't worry, he gives a nickname to us all. You just better hope that the more embarrassing ones don't stick." He warned. Lavi stored the book away in the boat and sat down.
"So where are we off to next?" He asked.
"Oh, we're done here." Allen informed and Lavi raised his eyebrows.
"Eh? But we just got here!" He whined.
"Well while you were with Mr. Tiedoll, I swam by another place and got what I needed." Allen said and held up his full bag.
"...oh. Well, you wanna go somewhere else?" Lavi asked. Allen would've loved to say yes and go on a nice swim with Lavi, but he needed to get home to Cross before he was late for lunch (which he also had to catch, mind you). Allen shook his head and gave Lavi an apologetic smile.
"Sorry, I need to get home." Allen apologized. Lavi waved him off.
"It's okay, perhaps we can go out another time?" He suggested. Allen averted his gaze into the sea at his shining silver tail. He knew he shouldn't get too close to Lavi...but wasn't he soon going to be able to walk on land anyways? Would it really matter to Lavi that he used to be a monster? Either way, Lavi was royalty...and when Allen would start his life on land, he'd be considered a peasant to Lavi and a prince would surely not want to be seen with a peasant.
"Maybe..." He muttered quietly and started swimming off.
"Hey, wait up!" Lavi called and started paddling quickly over to catch up. "See ya around, Daisya!" He shouted back to his childhood friend before hurrying after Allen, who didn't seem willing to stop even if only for a second. "Can you please wait up?" Lavi asked and Allen stopped swimming, looking back at Lavi with a confused expression. "Wow, you really are fast." The prince complimented. Allen didn't seem to accept the compliment and just shrugged. Lavi frowned at him. "What's wrong? You seemed cheerful just a few minutes ago!" Lavi mentioned, his voice laced with concern.
"It's nothing..." Allen mumbled and tried giving him a smile. Lavi smiled back and ruffled his hair.
"There's no need to be like that, sprout."
"The name is Allen." Allen mumbled, puffing out his cheeks. Lavi laughed and poked one of them.
"I know that, I'm just kiddin' around." He said with a grin. "Come on, chin up, Allen." Lavi said and reached down to move his fingers at Allen's sides, causing Allen to giggle and push Lavi away.
"C-cut it out, that tickles!" He laughed.
"That's the point!" Lavi continued with his tickle fight and Allen tried pushing him away. It was clear that Lavi's boat was about to knock over.
"H-hold on, Lavi, s-stop! I'm s-serious!" Allen warned, still laughing a bit from the tingling sensations shooting through his sides.
"Then why are you laughing?" Lavi asked, grinning as he stared down at the lovely smile on Allen's face.
"B-because you won't stop!" Allen shouted childishly and pushed against Lavi's chest. "Y-you're gonna t-tip your boat over!" Lavi stopped tickling and quickly tried retreating back into the boat. He didn't want to get his new boat soaked. Lavi managed to get the boat upright again, but in the process he fell into the water and clung onto Allen for dear life. "I t-told you!" Allen snapped and tried to get his tail away from Lavi's legs.
"Oh, Allen a little water won't hurt any...one..." Lavi trailed off and froze when he felt scales gliding across his skin as he roamed his hands up from Allen's waist. "...Allen...this is..." He mumbled and looked up, only to see Allen's face full of guilt. Allen darted his eyes over to Lavi in a cautious way, afraid of the prince's reaction. It was then that he saw fear in the redhead's eye that he pushed him away and started backing away from him.
"Lavi, I...I...I'm sorry..." He mumbled and dove into the water; his silver fin was the last thing that Lavi saw.
"Allen, wait!" Lavi called, but it was too late.
Allen was long gone.
So the next chapter will be in Lavi's POV (not first person, I can't write those well). Just a heads up, I guess. Well, I hope you enjoyed the fifth chapter and I hope you all will continue to stay with me! ^-^