Thanks to Disney, for giving me the idea, to elyxer for doing all the beta work, and to Nicki for kicking me in my lazy ass. ___________________________________________________ Chapter 1 He was watching her again. She was rounder than the last time he'd seen her. He knew he wasn't allowed to watch the human kind, his father didn't trust them. They were evil, or so his father always told him. Nevertheless he was mesmerized by the beauty of the blonde woman. Even if he would never feel sand under feet, he could always dream about it. He'd watched the woman for months now, and he didn't understand why she grew so big. Once he'd seen his friend Daphne growing this way, but before he'd had the chance to talk to her, people of his father's guard had taken her away, and he'd never seen her again. Gently, the woman was rubbing over her huge belly and even from afar he could hear her talking to her belly. Everytime she came here she talked to her belly, and even if Justin didn't understand why she did, he liked it. It looked liked whatever was growing inside of her was being loved already. Something he'd never felt. As she looked up from her spot in the sand, he grew stiff. He couldn't be looked at. His father would freak. Since the encounter with Ariel a few centuries ago, they were watched like prisoners. What he didn't know was that he had his back to the sun so that the woman only saw a shadow sitting on a rock, but before she had the chance to make the connection with a famous fairy tale which was told for ages, the figure disappeared into the deep blue ocean. He was so frightened that the woman could have seen him that he didn't go back for months. Too afraid that his secret would be revealed or realized. He spent his days thinking about running around in the sand, climbing the stairs, but as always, he came to the conclusion that it was a waste of time to think about these things. In the human world, days became weeks, weeks became months, seasons changed, but she couldn't forget the figure she saw sitting on the rock a few meters in front of her. She felt as if she saw something like that once in a fairy tale book. Just with another person. She was so mesmerized by what she saw that she searched through all the books in the old castle she lived in during her stay in the summer, and that's when she found them. Old diaries of a princess who lived their ages ago. She nearly fainted when she realized who had written them. The obsession of the sea and the mentioning of her prince. Everything fit. She was in the old castle of the little mermaid. She grinned when she realized what she'd seen on the rock in front of her. "So what are you? A sibling of the little mermaid?" she mumbled to herself and ran out of the library. She ran as fast as her feet would carry her, back to the beach were she saw him for the first time, but he wasn't there. He was never there anymore since she'd seen him a few months ago. She sighed and turned around, soon her vacation would be over. Soon, her best friend would have to decide if he wanted to have the old castle. °*°*°*°*°*° Months had turned into years, and 7 years had gone by without her visiting the beautiful castle. Her friend had decided to keep the castle, but the greatest surprise came when her friend accepted. In his last will, her friends grandfather had a clause that he had to find a mate before he turned 30, and for her friend it was only half a year until his birthday. She had to laugh about her friend's behavior. He'd fallen in love with the castle, but he had no clue how to keep it. He was a slut to say the least. Fuck 'em and leave 'em. No apologize, no regrets. That was his rule. So how could he find a mate when he was living his life like that? He told her about his situation when she remembered the young boy she'd seen on the rock a couple of years ago. She never told a soul about this event, but she always read the story of the little mermaid to her little boy. She wanted him to understand as early as possible that there was more in the universe then what most people seem to see. She'd witnessed it herself. When she came back to the beach again, she looked over the surface of the deep blue sea. Two weeks had gone by with her visiting every day, but he just wouldn't turn up. She nearly felt all her hope vanishing when one day her son began to shout. "Mom! Look! There's a merman!", mesmerized he couldn't take his eyes off the man in front of him. Lindsay saw the young man's hesitation and ran forward. "Don't be afraid. We won't hurt you.", she knelt down in the warm sand and waited for the blond merman to come closer. She just hoped that Gus hadn't frightened him already. From her studies in Ariel's Diaries, she knew that most merman were shy of the human kind, but also very interested in something new. Especially with everything that had to do with the human world. Hesitating he swam closer to her, and with a curious expression on his face leaned closer, to watch her face. Lindsay was mesmerized by the color of the merman's eyes. Deep ocean blue. Like the water he came out of. "What's your name?", she whispered so that she wouldn't frighten the young man. He answered something in a different language, before he realised on the helpless expression on Lindsay's face that he'd spoken in his natives language. "Justin. Prince of Neptun.", he mumbled shyly, and as he had read in many books of the human world, he held out his hand to greet the now flat tummy female. Lindsay smiled and took the offered hand. She didn’t know that this young merman would know about human etiquette. “It’s nice to meet you, Justin, Prince of Neptun. I’m Lindsay.”, she said and pulled him closer to hug him. She didn’t know why, but she thought that this boy looked so frightened that he needed a hug. She was in full mother hen mode. Justin only smiled. He didn’t know what to do. He only knew that it felt kind of new to him to feel another existence presence. “Mommy, can I come in, too?”, Gus shouted from somewhere behind her, and she turned around to see her boy leaning lazily forward with his hands in his pockets. She had to smile when she saw, that again, her son had snatched his father’s shell-bracelet from his fathers night-table. Justin was also watching the young boy and frowned when he saw the shell-bracelet. He’d seen it before, in books, old books, of the old king Triton. It was a wedding gift Triton had given Prince Eric, when he’d married his youngest daughter Arielle. His grandfather told him one day that it was his destiny was foretold, and that the destiny would belong around the owner of the old family bracelet. Was it possible, that after all the years, he’d finally found the one to fulfill his destiny? “Gus, I told you not to wear your dads bracelet.”, Lindsay said and stood up, only to bend down again in front of her son. “I know mom, but Daddy never let’s me wear it.”, Gus mumbled ashamed and pulled on the bracelet. Justin’s frown grew deeper. So, the bracelet belonged to the son’s dad, and the woman’s man. He sighed. How could someone who wasn’t interested in men fulfill his destiny? He made a grimace, and a decision. As much as it would hurt him, but he had to turn his back on them, even it would mean that his destiny would never be fulfilled. “I’m sorry.”, he mumbled and without a glance backward he dived into the deep blue water. °*°*°*°*°*°*°