Second-prince Miki escorted the beautiful fish-child into the castle and to the special room given to the royal tailors, three sisters who instantly jumped Husky as soon as Miki pulled him into the room.

"Such a beautiful child! Just look at this face!" exclaimed the eldest, Nani, leaning over and staring deep into the startled child's incredible blue eyes. Husky backed up and bumped right into the second sister.

"Forget the face – have you seen the child's form? Such an elegant tail, such beautiful fins!" squealed the middle sister, Mia, standing behind Husky and running her hands over his back and the fins at his sides. Husky yelped and tried to back up, but a far too strong arm for such a pretty fish-girl wrapped around his waist. Her free hand continued to stroke his pectoral fins at his sides.

"Ooh! Such a pretty silver-blue!" cheered the youngest sister, Kiko, running forward and grabbing Husky by the tail. She was still rather small, so Husky didn't dare kick out, for fear of knocking her over and hurting her.

The three sisters, all with black hair and blue tail and fins, turned to look pleadingly at Miki. (So did Husky, but he did so for an entirely different reason.) The only difference between the three was their substantial difference in height, with Nani being as tall as Miki, Mia about an average teenage girl's height, and Kiko only coming up to Husky's elbow.

"He's ours, right?" asked Nani, eyes wide and hopeful.

"That was the point of bringing him to the royal tailors, yes," said Miki cheerfully. "He needs something for the party tonight."

"Yay!" cheered Kiko, suddenly letting go of Husky and running off to a giant rack filled with fabric. It was quite amazing to see the little girl hefting the spools of fabric around, tossing some aside quickly, grabbing others and examining them with a critical eye. At the same time, Mia dropped Husky and ran to the other side of the giant room, grabbing a sketchpad and some type of pen and setting to work, apparently designing the perfect outfit, as she kept looking up to appraise Husky's body in a way that made him uncomfortable.

Nani smiled happily and took Husky's elbow, directing him up onto a platform, already set up with three-way mirrors and a table to the side with all sorts of sewing implements. She took a measuring tape from the table and got to work.

"What's your name, child?" she asked, as she began taking measurements. "Forty-three!" she called out to the sister doing the sketching.

"Husky. And you?"

"Nani. Twenty-six! My sisters are Mia and Kiko." She gestured to each as she said their name. Neither looked up from their work.

"Twelve! Are you moving to Lee's kingdom? Sixty-nine!"

"No, I'm just visiting for a couple days. I've never been to a fish-man kingdom."

"A hundred-eight!" called out Nani, before responding. "That's nice, Husky, but I'm sure you're more than welcome to stay. Five!"

"Oh, I have friends back in the village. They're waiting for me."

"Thirty-two! With landwalkers? Extraordinary! And they accept you?"

"Well, yes. They're +anima too."

"+Anima? Twenty-one! Oh, you mean they're animal-men. What types are they? Fifty!"

Miki watched with a smirk as Nani made the beautiful child feel perfectly comfortable as she took all his measurements in the strange units only she and her sisters understood. Perhaps they had designed their code on purpose to keep their customers from being self-conscious, not that the child had anything at all to be insecure about. In fact, the more he eyed the child, the surer he was that this was a brilliant idea. The child very well might be the solution to their problem.

Nani finished taking measurements and went over to help Mia with the design. They were soon debating different styles and cuts, using terminology neither Miki nor Husky knew at all. On the other side of the room, Kiko had a small pile of acceptable fabrics next to her, and was mumbling about what sounded like color contrasts and lighting conditions.

Miki approached the platform Husky, not sure if he was allowed to move or not, was still standing on.

"I didn't think you'd have an outfit made for me," commented the fish-child, frowning.

"Why not?"

"Isn't that expensive?"

"Not particularly. And the royal tailors consider it an honor to design exclusively for the royal household and our guests. They would be insulted if we ever purchased pre-made clothing for any reason."

He expected the child to be wowed, but Husky merely nodded, accepting the explanation quite easily.

Miki examined the child again and frowned, voicing a thought he'd actually had earlier. He reached out a hand and grabbed the stretchy sleeve of Husky's black undershirt.

"You'll have to take this off. It won't do at all."

Husky frowned. "I don't think that's…"

The blond second-prince gestured casually over to Kiko and the pile of acceptable fabrics. Almost everything the girl was considering was some shade of white or very light blue. Black really would be glaringly obvious beneath it, even if it was just his short sleeves.

Husky sighed and folded his arms over his chest. "Fine, I get it. But how am I supposed to change back underwater?"

"Our restrooms are, as you should understand, filled with air rather than water. As in underwater caverns, you simply enter from below rather than from the side."

Husky wrinkled his nose. "The restrooms? Doesn't that mean there's no… um, ventilation?"

Miki frowned, slightly insulted, but pushing it aside as Lee had already said the child was completely ignorant to fish-man ways. "I assure you, there is no problem. We have a sophisticated air purifying system in the castle, as well as the most advanced form of waste treatment. Understandably, we don't dare risk soiling our own waters. Allow me to lead you."

Husky followed Miki to a short hall with some sort of door in the rock ceiling above. Sure enough, when Husky pushed on the door, it opened up into a large cavern filled with air.

"The door locks," explained Miki. "And if you need to use the restroom while you're here, please use one of the small cubicles at the far end of the cavern."

Husky turned and saw what looked like a closet. "Okay, thanks," he said, then he closed the door and turned the lock, a small metal bar that twisted to keep the door from being opened from below. He took a minute to shift his fish-form away and examine the room before he took off his top. Then he shifted back to his +anima form, opened the door, and slipped back into the water.

Miki was waiting for him, and nodded approvingly at seeing Husky's bare shoulders.

"Much better," he said, taking Husky's arm and pulling him back towards the tailors' room. Husky yanked his arm free and followed on his own, ignoring Miki's surprised look. But Husky wasn't about to explain, again, that he wasn't a girl and did not want to be treated like one. It was bad enough having an escort without them leading him by the arm.

Back in the room, the three sisters were working feverishly on what, to Husky's horror, looked like a dress.

Oh, wait, no one has feet, Husky corrected himself. All outfits must look like that, right?

"They do know I'm a boy, right?" he asked Miki warily.

"I'm sure they couldn't care less. It has nothing to do with what you'll be wearing," replied Miki easily.

"What does that mean?" asked the beautiful fish-child, frowning up at him.

"I simply mean there is no difference between formal outfits for males, females, and crosses," explained Miki quickly, not wanting the child to get suspicious.

The explanation made sense to Husky. After all, Prince Lee had already explained how fish-men included vast amounts of jewelry in their formal-wear. He wasn't comfortable with it, but he could accept it. It wasn't like he was cross-dressing again, and from what Miki had just said, wearing anything else would make him stick out, and far too many people paid undue amounts of attention to him already.

Mia, the middle sister, snipped a last thread and ran over to Husky and Miki, grabbing the beautiful fish-child's hand and pulling him back to the platform. Without any explanation, Nani and Mia pulled the outfit over his head and began straightening it out. After they got the many layers to lie as they wanted, they stepped back to appraise their work, nodding approvingly to themselves.

Kiko had run off to an enormous locked box near the racks of fabrics. The small fish-girl had flipped it open and begun sorting through and selecting jewelry from the vast assortment within the case. Mia rushed over to help her, while Nani got some pins and a threaded needle from the small table with the tailoring tools. The eldest sister knelt beside Husky and began making tiny adjustments here and there.

Husky turned to glance at himself in the mirrors, not noticing the approving look the second-prince was giving him.

The fish +anima decided then and there that he didn't care for fish-man fashion.

It looks like one of my mother's gowns, he thought to himself, frowning at the very idea of wearing his mother's clothes. The outfit was of snow-white silk, attached behind his neck and with elegant half-attached sleeves with slits above and below his arms, from wrist to elbow, then from elbow to shoulder. Pearls and blue sapphires were sewn into the embroidery and twinkled from the folds. Long slits started above his waist to the end of the dress almost at the end of his tail, parting smoothly around his dorsal and pectoral fins. The outfit was clearly designed not to impede in swimming or get snagged on his fins, and it truly was beautiful.

Nani looked up and saw the look on Husky's face. She frowned, worried. "You don't like it?" she asked, a trace of sadness slipping into her voice. Usually, anyone who got one of their outfits was ecstatic. Besides, it suited the pretty fish-child perfectly.

"Oh, no, it's… fine," said Husky. "I just was thinking it looked like something my mother would wear."

Nani smiled slightly. "Then your mother must have incredible taste. Does she look like you?"

"Yeah. She was one of…" Husky caught himself before he said too much. "Never mind."

Kiko and Mia rushed over with armfuls of jewelry, including tiaras, circlets, necklaces, bracelets, rings, arm bands, earrings, hairpins, and various strands and loops of gemstones. They were filled with diamonds, pearls, and blue sapphires, and of the highest quality and luster. The two younger sisters laid the jewelry on the platform floor and began discussing the pros and cons of which jewelry pieces should be used.

Without thinking, unable to resist the allure of such beautiful gems, Husky reached out and stroked an enormous pale blue diamond set in a necklace.

"You like that one?" asked Kiko, noticing.

Husky flinched back and blushed.

"I picked that one!" continued Kiko, coming forward and lifting the necklace, raising it up and waiting for Husky to lower his head. His blush increased.

"They're all for you," explained Mia. "You can choose whichever you want."

"Come on," laughed Nani, grinning at the fish-boy's hesitance. "And while we're at it…" She began picking out other jewelry that would go well with the necklace and dress.

Husky slowly nodded and lowered his head. Kiko set the necklace around his neck, then began clapping in delight.

"It's beautiful!" cheered the little fish-girl. "So pretty!"

"Not nearly enough, though," commented the middle sister, Mia, and the oldest sister, Nani, handed her half the jewelry she was carrying. The two began putting it on Husky.

"I'm not taking off my earrings," said Husky quickly, pushing away Mia's hands with a giant pair of sapphire and diamond earrings.

Mia shrugged. "Well, they match well enough," she said casually as she set the earrings aside.

When they finished, Husky again turned to look at himself.

I really, really hate fish-man formal wear, he concluded, trying hard not to let his dislike show on his face, since the three sisters were all staring at him with eyes glittering with admiration and pride. A silver circlet encrusted with diamonds sat on his head, with a single large sapphire hanging onto his forehead, in the style his mom usually wore. Apparently unsatisfied with his small sapphire studs, they had hung strings of small pearls and sapphires from his hair so they hung behind his ears. There were three other necklaces around his neck, though all much thinner and slightly less gaudy than the one with the giant diamond, on top of matching bracelets on both his wrists, two rings on each hand, a thin diamond belt around his waist, and loops of sapphires and pearls around his tail.

"This is normal?" he asked, glancing towards Nani.

She nodded, understanding that the child did not want to be an odd one out. "Yes," was her simple response.

"Pretty!" squealed Kiko, who suddenly launched herself towards Husky and grabbed him around the waist. "Husky is beautiful!" she continued excitedly.

Near the doorway, being completely ignored, second-prince Miki wholeheartedly agreed with the little fish-girl. The fish-child was incredibly, majestically beautiful. He would do splendidly.

"Now you can take it off," said Mia, leaning over to help the fish-child with the outfit and jewelry. "Come back here before the party and we'll help you get dressed again."

"We'll also have some day-to-day clothing for you," added Nani.

"I'm only here for two days," said Husky, knowing he was repeating himself, but it honestly seemed like they were deaf to that comment whenever he made it.

"Then you'll need two fresh outfits," replied Nani knowledgably.

"Absolutely," agreed Miki, who Husky had actually pretty much forgotten about. "Especially if he is to be staying in the castle as our guest. At the very least, something for dinner tomorrow night."

Husky didn't comment that he usually wore basically the same outfit every day, and had been doing so for several months now. It kind of went with living your life on the road. Of course, back when he'd still been a prince of Sailand, it had been normal to change outfits every day, sometimes two or three times a day, so it wasn't like the concept was completely new to him.

After Husky managed to get out of the outfit and the jewels, though for some reason the sisters insisted that he keep the necklace with the giant diamond on, he said bye to the royal tailors and the blond prince escorted him to the dining hall for luncheon.

Author's Note: As always, please please review if you enjoyed! And please please review if you didn't - let me know why not so I can make future chapters better!