Chapter 2: Dancing Sunlight

Wow, thank you so much everyone who reviewed, read, faved and followed my story last time, you guys are amazing. Sorry if the update took longer then expected, it's just that I'm on my last month of school and so things are pretty hectic. But never fear, I completely plan to continue this. In case you haven't figured out how this story might go, it's going to have some elements from the original movie, but they're altered because of the later time and the changed plot. This will be going along like the first movie, but with some very different parts.

I own nothing. The Little Mermaid and all its content belong to Disney. I don't own the cover image either.

Enjoy the chapter!


"Ariel! You must stay back at the castle! Going out and exploring is not part of your grounding," called a red crab as he half-scuttled and half-swam after Ariel. Swimming alongside her was a yellow and navy blue-striped tropical fish with sea-green eyes. His lighter blue striped crest cut through the water like a pair of scissors as he zipped through, ignoring the shouting crustacean behind him. Ariel also seemed to ignore him as she zoomed out of the castle and into the open ocean. There was no way her father's scolding and punishment was going to interrupt her schedule today.

Not even Sebastian, her father's right-hand crab and head conductor for the plays and musicals he created and organized.

Today was a very special day. It had been two days since she had last seen Eric and yesterday he had told her that he had a surprise planned when he came later tomorrow. If there was one thing human were good at, it was never ceasing to amaze and surprise her.

Aside from her best fish friend forever, Flounder, and Scuttle, the know-it-all seagull, no one else knew of her secret meetings with the human prince. She had made them swear to secrecy in order to keep their hidden relationship and forbidden friendship a secret. They had quickly and sincerely agreed, both wanting her to be happy.

Sebastian's yells grew dimmer in the distance as they grew farther away, until his voice grew silent under the rolling of the waves beneath the surface and the brushing of seaweed in the current. Gradually though, the amount of coral reefs and fish shrank as the number of seaweed growing by the shore grew. Taking note of the sand banks coming up, Ariel let her head surface.

Along the beach and the castle and towards an area where the grassy landscape directly broke off to the sea was a willow tree that had taken root just before the water. It's long, dangling branches provided a nice cool shady area on both the land and sea. They had discovered it many years ago and it had been since then their usual meeting place. And if Eric had a surprise planned out for today, she best not be late to getting there.

As they grew closer to the spot, Flounder stopped and stayed behind, keeping lookout for his friend incase a certain crab caught up to them or anyone else for that matter. Ariel kept swimming ahead, often popping her head out of the surface to see if she could find the certain prince from her position. By the looks of it, he was already under the tree, hidden away from those outside. She dipped her head under the water and swam all the way there. When she surfaced, she was instantly greeted by a tan, handsome face smiling at her.

"Hey, Ariel. Glad to see you made it." She giggled a bit and allowed him to help her get onto land and into the shade.

"Wouldn't had missed it for the world," she replied. Her eyes quickly focused on the nicely-made picnic lunch he had set out for them. She realized that she was sitting on a checkerboard red-and-white blanket with a basket on top. The lid was partially open, revealing the contents stuffing it. Eric came over and pulled out several plates and eating utensils, before pulling out the food. She gasped in happiness when she saw more red strawberries, along with some cream, bottles of milk, cloth-wrapped sandwiches, potato salad and even some small fruit tarts that, judging by the steam rising from them, had just been baked this morning.

"Eric, this... this is so amazing," she said. She had been on picnics with Eric before, yet they never ceased to amaze her. Eric's hand went to scratch the back of his head while his cheeks grew as red as her hair.

"Well, I-I... it's nothing really. Just some regular food as always that I thought we might enjoy together," he stuttered. Thankfully, she hadn't noticed his blushing cheeks. She extended her arm and plucked out two strawberries from the small bowl and eagerly handed one over to Eric's free hand. He accepted it gratefully, but held his head down to hide the rogue on his cheeks from her bright eyes.

Ariel took an big bite of the red fruit, chewing happily on the sweet morsel. "Mm, I still think you outdid yourself this time," she said after she swallowed.

"Thanks," he replied, before reaching out towards the container of potato salad and the plates he had brought along. If there was one thing about Carlotta is that she really knew how to prepare good food, picnics no exception.


Eventually the sun started to set across the waves. The both of them laid comfortably on the blanket beside each other while admiring the sky splitting into fiery hues, gradually growing duller as the sun dipped beneath the horizon. The leftover food and utensils had been organized carefully in the basket, ready to be taken care of when the owner came home and brought it with him.

"Hey Ariel, do you ever wonder why the sun sets red and all those other colors," he asked. Ariel turned her head towards him. Her body was pressed closely to his and his arm was comfortably under her head while his hand came to rest on her shoulder.

"I'm not sure, but that's a very good question. I do wonder why the sky turns red and oranges and yellows and golds and such instead of blue like the day or night. But what I do know is that ot really is a beautiful sight to watch," she replied, smiling at the vibrant colors.

His head turned to look at her and the sight took his breath away. The sun's last light shone gold over her form, illuminating the features of her face. Her hair appeared to be streaked with gold and her baby blue eyes sparkled. He felt his heartbeat accelerate and pump blood to his cheeks.

He visibly cringed when he discovered that she had caught him staring a her. In an instant, she had turned onto her side and was looking concernedly at him.

"Eric. Are you okay," she asked, appearing to be surveying his face. Before he could answer though, he felt a cool hand touch his forehead. He visibly relaxed at her cool touch. Mermaids and mermen, as Ariel had explained, had much cooler temperatures then humans, a trait from their half-fish forms. She commented that sometimes when he held her close he felt like an inferno against her skin.

"Eric, you're overheating. Do you have a fever or something," she asked hurriedly, snapping him out of his thoughts. Even though he had a much warmer temperature, Ariel had also explained that her kind was also very sensitive to changes in heat. His hand reached up and took her hand off his forehead and into his hand. He stroked it softly with his thumb.

"Yeah. I'm just fine," he said slowly. She squinted at him through the golden light.

"Are you sure?" He gave a simple nod.

"Positive," he answered, giving a small smile to reassure. She reciprocated the movement, revealing a row of pearly whites. All of a sudden though, her smile changed into a frown and her eyes grew wide.

"Ariel," he asked, clenching her hand tighter. She quickly yanked it out and started moving closer to the water's edge.

"Sorry Eric, but I just remembered that I have to get home now or my dad will kill me for being late," she called out as she slid her tail into the water first, but his hand caught onto her arm before she could go any further. Her head twisted over her shoulder and met with his sparkling blue eyes as well.

"Wait," he said, releasing his arm slowly. She stared deeply into his face, waiting on what he had to explain. "Thanks for coming today." She stared quizzically, but gave a genuine, gracious smile. The rest of her arm slid out from his hand and wrapped around his neck and squeezing it tightly.

"I had a great time too." A wide grin graced his face as he used both his arms to wrap around her shoulders. Ariel's eyelids fluttered close as she felt his body heat seeped into hers. He was so warm compared to her cooler, oceanic body. Her head came to rest over his shoulder and she gave a content sigh as she could feel the vibrations coming off from his strong heart beating inside his chest.

Another difference between them was that merpeople did not possess as such a strong vital organ as humans, partially because of their fish tails and another was the lack of their immortal hearts. Merpeople could live for longer periods then humans, but humans had souls that would remain even after they passed on. Merpeople either became the seafoam that was just sloshed across the waves or their forms just fell to the sea bottom and decayed, though funerals usually were the more common ritual to do.

How she longed to stay up here in the human world and be a part of it, soul, heart and legs too. Maybe even with Eric...

Her cheeks grew hot as she slowly pulled herself away from the embrace and bid farewell to Eric before heading into the water and swimming back towards home. As much as she loved spending time with Eric and knowing he enjoyed spending time with her too, having a relationship beyond more then just friends was out of the question. To be in, persay, a romantic relationship between him meant she would have to be human or him a merman, both impossible without the aid of strong power. Power found in her father's triton for example, but asking for his permission was a definite way to gain his appalling disgust and rage.

Known fact that humans were not well liked among her family, nor her kind in general. Judged only by outwardly appearances and negative qualities alone, such as the ones who went out to sea and hunted both fish and other sea creatures alike, humans were considered to be barbarians that knew no morality and would not hesitate to harm or kill a mermaid or merman if discovered and caught. Her father had a particular hatred of them, seeing how his wife and her mother, Queen Athena, had been the unfortunate victim of human destructiveness and had died because of it.

But she saw otherwise. No creature could be that bad if they made such wonderful things, like then many she had collected in her secret grotto over the years. Human relationships with each other, their culture, their philosophies, their beliefs, their lifestyles. Everything. She loved learning about ot all and it was her dream that one day she would get to be a part of their world above. And she knew Eric would be there to help her explore and take part of it every step of the way if she got the chance.

Flounder joined up beside her and they turned in the direction of her grotto. It was just a quick stop to probably just reorganize and maybe dust off the sand gathered on some of the objects. She smiled as she thought of everything she had collected over the years. Eric had been amazed by some of the things she had brought up or described to him. He said she might have more stuff then what he had in the castle. She took pride on having so much human culture already in her life, along now with her relationship with Eric, yet it never felt enough for her to be satisfied.

She soon came upon a niche in-between some large stone walls. She slipped through the crack and kept swimming with Flounder right behind her. A light came up ahead, coming from a hole in the ceiling. There the crack widened into an entire space that extended way upwards to the ceiling. Inside the cave were rows and shelves, filled to the brim with the widest collection of human objects that would make a human collector cry out to the heavens how he had been bested so by this.

And in the center of it all was a most glorious statue of none other than Eric himself. A gift received on his sixteenth birthday, it had sank when the ship had been destroyed and had been moved to her grotto. Chiseled out of fine grey marble, it bore quite a remarkable likeness to the person it had been dedicated to. She distinctly remembered several years ago, back when their relationship had just begun, she had told him about his present and had offered to bring it back to the surface, but he had politely declined, saying that the statue's princely demeanor did not quite captured who he really was. He allowed her to keep it down there, knowing it be much more appreciated with her then up above on the surface.

Her hand extended out and pressed against the statue's cheek. A smile graced her lips as her thumb stroked it. Even though it wasn't Eric himself, it made her feel better to have something to remind her of him on days they couldn't see each other. And although it was cool stone instead of warm flesh, it still held the same handsomeness as the original. She felt a bit embarrassed to be caressing a statue like that when it resembled her best friend, but as long as no one knew and told Eric about it, she felt safe to gaze lovingly at Eric's face, even though it was just a model and could not stare back.

So absorbed was she at looking at her friend's gorgeous face that she did not hear someone else enter her grotto, not until Flounder's fin tapped her shoulder and she turned around towards the entrance.

"Ariel!"

Her form bristled, she felt her heart drop to the pit of her stomach as she saw the figure glaring at her from halfway within the shadows. Her eyes slowly looked fearfully towards his furious blue ones, as upset and wild now as the ocean in a storm. She saw his grip on the triton he carried tighten, preparing to use it now if necessary. A gasp escaped her throat as he swam in closer to her, into the middle of the room.

"Daddy," she whispered.


"Cliff Hanger, hanging from a cliff. That's why they call him Cliff Hanger!"- song from "Between the Lions."

If any of you guys caught the reference in the dialogue to the original Little Mermaid story by Hans Christian Anderson then good for you. Again, sorry for the delayed chapter, but school's almost done for me which means more time for my story. I'm still figuring out how the next chapter should go, but I promise it will be out faster then this one. Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter please leave a review and I'll see you next time. Sincerely, v.t.7