Ugh five more minutes and it'll all be over I reminded myself as I rested my head on my hands, while I played the Little Mermaid for the kids. I thought I would've gotten a kick out of re watching this film now that I remembered who I was, but nope it just annoyed me to no end. I even plugged my ears during the musical numbers. Honestly could they have embellished the film anymore. I mean where was the scene where Ariel gets her heart ripped out or the scene where she becomes a bad ass and learns how to sword fight and steal things. I mean I knew it was a cartoon and all but it was my life and this movie was making it seem way to happy than it actually was. Once the credit's started rolling I was quick to jump and turn the dvd player off and ready to start ushering kids out to the parking lot to get picked up until-
"So is Eric handsome in real life?" this little girl Ellie asked me.
"Can we meet him?" her best friend Carl joined in. He was supported by a chorus of yeahs from the other kids.
"Are you two going to get married someday?"
"Can I be your flower girl?"
"No you stupid face I'm going to be her flower girl. Ariel tell her I'm going to be your flower girl"
"Do you still have a tail when you go in the water? If you do, what do you do when you have to use the bathroom?"
The kids were just shooting all of these random questions at me and I had no clue how to answer them. Suddenly the final school bell rang and all the kids forgot about their questions and ran for the door. I thought everyone had left until I spotted a little long haired blonde head walking towards me. I looked down and saw the girl who always sat at the back of the class,hardly ever talked, and seemed to have no friends. The little girl made a gesture for me to get down to her height and I quickly obeyed.
"So the other day these kids stole my shoes, tied them together, and then threw them in a tree" she told me in this voice that sounded like she was dreaming. I had no clue what she was trying to tell me. Did she want me to write some detention slips?
"But then, your little brother Henry helped me out and got them down for me. And then he let me read his story book, so I read your story" she smiled at me.
"I think prince Eric is silly. I like Killian much better people should know more about him, can I meet him instead of Eric someday?" she asked. I smiled at her and then she handed me a necklace. It was a strange little necklace it was a cork covered in sparkles and threaded through it was a silky piece of string that I could tie around my neck.
"It's a charm to keep away the knargals I made it for you" she explained. I put the necklace on for her.
"My mum always said that the things we lose always have a way of coming back to us in the end. Even if not in the way we expect them to" she advised.
"I really hope you find him, you two deserve to be happy together" she told me. I grabbed my notebook.
Thank you Luna I wrote for her.
"Your welcome. Sorry but I have to go now daddy says we're going to have dinner early tonight but instead of eating dinner first we're going to have desert I hope there's pudding!" she smiled at me before skipping off. I watched her leave and then twirled the little charm between my fingers.
The things we lose always have a way of coming back to us in the end I repeated internally
Killian Jones if you don't find me first then I guess it's my job to go and find you I thought
Merida waited at the bus stop as she saw the large yellow bus roll to a stop in front of her. She watched as all the kids filed out one at a time rushing to their parents. As Grace got off the bus, she ecstatically waved at Merida and ran to her enveloping her in a hug. Ever since the curse had broken Grace had been staying with Merida at her apartment while they both searched for Jefferson. Of course she had asked her foster parents, Jack and Jill, before making the arrangement and they had been completely ok with the ordeal, perishing at the thought of keeping Grace away from her Papa. While Grace had been staying with Merida it hadn't taken Grace long to get the red head to confess her feelings for her father. Grace loved the idea of the two of them being together and thought they were perfect for each other. Merida had taken such good care of her these past few weeks, she had even taught her archery.
"Alright so how was school?" Merida asked sounding very motherly as she wrapped her arm around Grace's shoulder, while they walked down the sidewalk togther.
"Oh it was the usual" Grace sighed.
"So I hope you don't mind but we're going to my mum's house tonight for dinner, she's making haggis" Merida tried to say enthusiastically. Maybe someone would appreciate her mum's cooking.
"Anything else?" Grace tried to ask politely as a way of saying that she didn't want to eat haggis. Merida caught on to what she was saying and repeated the phrase her mum had said to her thousands of times.
"Oh come on how do you know you won't like it if you've never tried it" she smiled at Grace.
"Because you told me yourself that it's disgusting"
Curse that little girl for her elephants memory Merida thought.
"Alright how about this we pretend to eat my mum's food and then go through the drive thru afterwards?"
"I like that" Grace nodded.
"Grace" Merida and Grace heard an all to familiar voice behind them. They both turned around simultaneously and saw Jefferson. There he was standing there looking as good as ever.
"Papa" Grace smiled as she ran into Jefferson's arms and he picked her up off the ground and held her there for a moment, just sucking it all in that she remembered him and she was with him again. Merida watched the scene from afar not wanting to ruin the very sweet reunion scene before her. Over Grace's shoulder Jefferson's eyes met Merida's and he slowly set his daughter down and held onto her hand just making sure she was still there.
"Hi" Merida smiled at him as she walked up to him a bit shyly.
"Hi" he answered.
"So...it's been awhile hasn't it?" Merida smiled at him as she rocked back and forth on her heels.
"Quite awhile" he answered back in a joking tone.
"I mean last time I saw you, you were walking into a castle and you said you'd be back in a minute. You've were gone quite longer than a minute" Merida reminded him.
"I tried to get back to the both of you an-"
"Just shut up and kiss me already I've been waiting long enough for it but you just keep talking. So shut your gob" Merida snapped at him as she grabbed him and kissed him.
"Shut my gob?" he asked making fun of her saying after they split a part.
"Don't make fun of me I'm not the one who wears silly top hats" Merida joked.
"So does this mean we don't have to go and eat haggis tonight because I think we should all go out for ice cream instead" Grace interrupted them. Merida and Jefferson both smiled at her.
"I could go for ice cream" Merida agreed. Jefferson just smiled at his two lovely ladies.
I slid a hot cocoa with cinnamon in it, in front of Henry as I sat down next to him at the bar at Grannies. It'd felt like forever since I'd seen him. I felt like I had been such a bad sister for not being there for him after Mary Margaret and Emma disappeared. I should've been there when Regina tried to keep him with her and stood up for him, but I didn't because all I was focused on was myself. How selfish could I be? On the bright side though I at least knew he was living with Charming now, which meant he was in good hands.
"Hi Ariel" he said as he spun towards me on the stool.
Hey bud I wrote for him. He gave me a small smile.
You miss them don't you? I asked. He nodded.
"Have you found your family yet?" he asked me as I got a water. I shook my head. Honestly I was a bit afraid of finding them. Would they even still love me?
"Don't you remember though Tristan's your dad, the owner of the aquarium" he tried to remind me. I remembered him trying to tell me that before the curse had broken and I had sort of believed him, but ever since then I hadn't really thought about it.
I don't think they'd want to see me
"Of course your family wants to see you" Henry said to me. I smiled at his optimism. He took a sip of his cocoa and hopped down from the stool as he grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the diner.
"Come on the aquarium is only a block away" he told me. I wish I could've spoken to protest against his wishes and I know that I could've overpowered him easily but part of me wanted to do this. Henry threw open the door to the aquarium and walked in. The place actually wasn't that big there were lots of tiny tanks holding varieties of fish and in the back there were stairs leading to an upper apartment.
"Welcome to the Rey Aquarium" this cheery voice said to us. I paused as I saw my eldest sister Aquata standing at a cash register flipping through a magazine. Henry walked off to go look at some fish as I slowly took some quiet steps towards her. When I got the front desk she looked up at me and quickly ran from behind the desk and threw her arms around me as she kissed my forehead.
"Oh my god Ariel" she whispered as she held me close to her.
"We thought you were dead, we- It doesn't matter" she said. She broke off from me for a moment.
"Guys come down quick, please" She shouted up the stairs frantically. I heard pounding footsteps and saw five of my other sisters run down the stairs looking nervous.
"ARE WE BEING ROBBED? I HAVE MY HARPOON!" my sister Alana shouted as she ran down the stairs with the others. However everything went eerily silent as they saw me and then I was nearly pummeled to the ground with hugs and squeals.
"So daddy found you then? Is he with you? Why did you two have to go out to sea during that storm?" Andrina asked me. I gave her a confused look.
"Hang on why can't you talk?" Adella asked. I looked to Henry for help and he quickly explained everything.
"HAha I told you there was a man" Aquata bragged.
Hang on what do you mean is daddy with me? I wrote for them.
"Before the curse broke I saw this man talk to daddy about, finding you pretty much and taking you out on the sea during the storm, he said that the storm would you lead you to someone. Oh that man your in love with. Anyways he left after the curse broke to go search for you and we haven't seen him since then, we thought he'd been searching for you this whole time?" Andrina explained.
I shook my head I haven't seen daddy at all I wrote.
"Maybe he thought you were still a mermaid and went searching for you on the sea that night" Henry said as we walked together. I let out a sigh. So now my father was missing because of me. I should have listened to Jefferson when he gave me those specific instructions at the hospital. If I hadn't been angry with Regina I would have been back with Killian and my father again. But now I was as close to getting to Killian as I was to getting to the moon. If my father went out on the sea that night that meant he was probably back in our world.
"Maybe you can find him" he said.
How do I do that? I asked.
"Wait for a storm again. Didn't Jefferson say that a whirlpool portal can only appear on stormy waters like that and lead you back to our world?" Henry asked.
I don't have a ship though I told him.
"Then we'll get you one. Ariel if you do this, that means you might have a way to bring back Emma, Mary Margaret, your dad, and Hook" Henry explained. I just crossed my arms and thought about it for a moment.
"I believe you can do it" he told me. I hugged him close to me.
"You don't understand though it was right here" this kid Freddy said to me as I helped him look for something after class.
Do you think anyone might've taken it? I asked.
"I don't know. But we have to find it, it's my uncles and I can't lose it" I kneeled beside my desk and saw something glitter. I slid my hand under the desk and brought out a small ring.
Is this it? I asked. The kids face lit up as he grabbed the ring out of my hand.
"Thank you!" he said.
No problem Freddie
"It's Frodo ma'am" he corrected me as he left the classroom. I saw Flounder standing in the doorway a second later and smiled at him. In his hand he held a paper.
What's that I signed to him.
"Oh well this piece of paper, is a document saying that we now own the Red Headed Lass"
What?
"It's a ship I bought from Gold, well our ship actually, I named it if that's alright?"
How'd you get the money? I asked.
"The reasons for how I acquired the ship will remain unknown. All that matters is, that you have a ship to captain now" He said as he handed me the piece of paper.
How did you know I needed one?
"Henry told me" he shrugged.
Are you sure you want to do this?
"Together or not at all Ariel" he held his hand out to me and I shook it. I smiled at the thought that possible sometime soon I would actually be happy again and everything would be normal and most importantly I'd get to see Killian.
The rain was pouring down on us getting us practically soaked to the bone as we prepared the ship at the docks. For days we had been watching the weather like a hawk and tonight was the night. We just knew it!
"Are you ready for this?" Flounder shouted to me over the rain. I nodded and hopped on the ship as it set sail. I remembered what to do from Killian teaching me all those years ago. The winds were hard to sail against in the tiny boat but we made it out to what felt like the middle of the ocean eventually. The water was freezing and it seemed like every wave out there wanted to crash into us. The rain soon started to feel like shards of glass impaling into my skin.
"I see it" Flounder shouted pointing to this dark hole forming in the water. I sailed towards it.
"So are you sure we are going to make it out of this alive?" he asked. I shook my head at him. I gave him a salute as we went over edge. We fell from the boat and were soon surrounded by darkness. The next thing I knew I was opening my eyes finding myself on a hot sandy beach. I coughed up whatever water was in my lungs. I looked around my surroundings and saw the wreckage of the ship. Due to the quick change in temperature I immediatly stripped my rain coat off and stood up as I searched the perimeter for Flounder.
"Flounder" I mouthed even though I knew that wouldn't help. Hang on wait I didn't just mouth that, that was legit words, coming out of my mouth what the-
"Flounder?" I tried again in a slightly louder voice and then quickly covered my mouth in shock. I had a voice again. Ahhhh my voice is back.
"How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood" I said just for the heck of it and jumped up and down with excitement. I saw Flounder's figure walking towards me.
"FLOUNDER I CAN TALK!" I screamed at him as I jumped up and down.
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