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rumalumasuns · 2 years ago

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"You are the finest, loveliest, tenderest, and most beautiful person I have ever known - and even that is an understatement" (F. Scott Fitzgerald) - With Uki Violeta

Based (loosely) on The Little Mermaid by Disney (no angst and seafoam here lol)

Part of my Living in a Fairy Tale series

!- Reader is Gender neutral (if I made a mistake somewhere I apologize and I'll fix it as soon as possible!)

!- Mentions of potion-making, spearing, blood, magic, witches, bones/skulls, stalking, light cursing

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠, Uki Speaking

Original work by rumalumasuns, 12,565 words (I think this is my longest one lol-), unedited but I will do so when I have time later :)

Once upon a time,...

In the beautiful Mujigae Ocean, there was a kingdom of merpeople. Young, old, in between, and in all shapes and colors - the merpeople lived happily and sustainably. Although there was some more trouble now with the increasing surface-dweller population, the merpeople handled it by taking the trash that was thrown into their domains and creating items to use and trade with, or channeling the oily parts of their waters into powerhouses for some of their newer inventions.

Like any other kingdom, the Mujigae Kingdom had a royal family: Rikusan, the king, and his many children. There was no formal queen of the kingdom, and Rikusan let his children take on the surnames of their own mothers, so a lot of them had different last names.

Rikusan's children were as unique as they were powerful: one was an octomer who could write novels as beautifully as he looked, two others (twins) were fairy-mermaid hybrids who liked to cast spells to prank others, while another was a kind tigerfish mer who used her claws only when her family was being threatened.

The majority of the citizens of Mujigae loved and appreciated the children of Rikusan: not only were they pleasing to the eye, but they also protected the kingdom using their various powers. Despite this great love for the royal family, however, not all of the individual royals of Mujigae were loved.

In particular, there was one merman prince whom the people were wary of - Uki Violeta.

Uki was a soft soul who had a hardened exterior, making him hard to approach. Additionally, he was one of the most powerful out of all of Rikusan's children, as the night he was born the gem of a star had come down from the sky, plunged into the water, and came to Uki, blessing him. A sign of this blessing was a small flower mark under his right eye, as well as heterochromia from the effects of the star's power.

Uki's blessing made him a psychic: a telekinetic combined with a mind reader. This made him admired by some. Uki's abilities were known for foiling many assassinations on the royal family and for causing multiple attacks on the kingdom to fail. For this, both his family and his people were grateful. However, his actions also made the Mujigae Kingdom's enemies bitter and waiting for revenge.

Although Uki was loved by some, in particular by three brothers in his family who always tried to protect him, others were skeptical of him. Some people in the corners of the ocean whisper doubts about Uki's intentions. What if he were to turn someday and tried to take the throne for his own? Uki certainly could have a motive: he wasn't the oldest of the Mujigae royals and was near the end of the line to become crown royal, meaning if he wanted to have the throne he would have to fight for it. These wary merpeople decided to avoid him whenever possible and only pay their respects when they absolutely needed to.

Others hated Uki - particularly the enemies of the kingdom whom he was able to defeat easily with his powers. Infiltrations into the palace were always attempted but failed because Uki would be able to detect the traitor or the spy in an instant. He also had no problem defeating their soldiers with just a flick of his hand.

This made him a target of speculation and anger, even within the palace walls. Despite what his loved ones, such as his brothers Sonny, Alban, and Yugo, tried to do for him, Uki decided to keep to himself and not cause a stir whenever possible. He didn't mind that his other siblings were more loved than him, or that he chose to stay in his room for their sakes. Uki quite liked the solace sometimes. However, it didn't stop his heart from stinging whenever the crowds became quieter as he approached, or when he saw the fear in the eyes of the children as they gazed at the flower under his right eye.

To fill this void he felt within himself, Uki chose to read - from the royal palace's cookbooks to the fantasy novels in the palace library. Uki quite liked to read the novels - imagining two souls falling in love and accepting each other for who they were after going through hardships together made his heart swell. He longed for that connection, for love that he has never had before.

He wanted it so badly, that one night Uki decided to venture out of his room, and swim to the surface. One of the tales he had read was about how one of his kind, a merperson, chased after royalty from the surface world. Despite all the hardships they went through, the two ended up falling in love and the story concluded with a happy ending. Uki figured that if one of his own kind wouldn't accept him, perhaps someone else - some other being could.

While thinking about this, Uki swam even faster to the surface, until his eyes were able to peek out from the ocean. He had tried to go to a location that was near what humans like to call a shore. To his luck, there was a being on the sand - Uki believed that his textbooks called the creature "a human male". The man had grey hair and a red lightning scar on his left eye. His ears were different from Uki's ears - unlike the purple scales Uki had at the tips, the man had ears were entirely made of flesh! The man's hands were also different from Uki's webbed ones: while one was also flesh, the other looked red and made out of some of the metal trash that the merpeople collected. In that metal hand was a notepad.

Uki's tail began swishing excitedly in the water.

'A human!' he thought, and with care, he swam towards the shore. First, he let the man know of his presence by splashing the surface of the water from underneath. Uki saw the man become alert. Slowly, Uki popped his head out of the water, his hair soppy and covering his ears. He shyly stuck out his fingertips from the water and waved.

The man looked straight at him, before laughing.

"You scared me, man! Why are you fooling around like that? Jeez, I almost got a heart attack."

"S-sorry," Uki managed to stutter out, as his face grew warm from having to talk to someone new.

"All good. Want to come out from the water? Isn't it cold?"

Uki shook his head, little droplets scattering across the water's surface.

"I'm fine, thanks."

The man nodded, before waving at Uki with the notepad.

"I'm Fulgur, by the way. Fulgur Ovid. I'm a marine biologist. You are?"

"Uh, I'm Uki. Uki Violeta."

"Oh, I've never heard about you before. Are you new to town?"

"...Yep," said Uki. He hoped that Fulgur would take his bluff.

After the initial awkward reaction, Fulgur and Uki led a normal conversation about the moonlight - Uki asked Fulgur about the town because he didn't know much about it as he "just moved in". Fulgur was happy to oblige and offered to show Uki around the town if Uki came out of the water. Uki politely refused but asked Fulgur to meet him again around this time the next day, to which Fulgur agreed.

Many months passed, and Uki spent time talking to Fulgur at night as he told Uki about his work and how he recorded the marine wildlife that became more active at night, as well as stories of his life and his sibling, and stories of the town. Through their conversations, Uki found that he could trust Fulgur, who revealed to him that one of his ancestors, one of the town's founders, was a mermaid.

"Speaking of, how come you're always in the water whenever we meet, Uki?"

"Oh, uh... I like swimming?"

Fulgur looked at Uki with a raised eyebrow. Uki knew that Fulgur already had suspicions that he was a merperson, but he hoped that Fulgur would take his bluff just one more time. Fulgur just nodded in understanding and laughed.

"Sure, we'll go with that. Just tell me when you're ready."

And Uki did, a couple days later. One night he nervously waited for Fulgur to come out onto the shore, his hair tucked behind his scaly ear. Soon, he heard a rustle from the tall bushes on the shore. Out came Fulgur, notebook in hand as always. He then saw Uki and waved as usual, before his eyes widened upon seeing Uki's ears.

"Oh my- you really are one of them!" he exclaimed excitedly. Uki, who braced himself for the worst, was surprised, then elated. Fulgur wasn't afraid of him.

The largest smile spread over his face.

"Yep!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A couple of years passed since Uki had ventured out from his castle at night.

Not many people at the palace noticed Uki's absence, except for three of his brothers, because Uki tended to keep to himself anyways. However, his brothers Sonny, Yugo, and Alban noticed his subtle changes. For instance, Uki's room in the palace was now filled with many things from the surface, from books (which Fulgur waterproofed for Uki) to what humans call a "fork". Once, Alban questioned it.

"Ya know, I tend to hoard lots of sparkly human things, but not so many of the unshiny ones. Where'd you get all this stuff anyways?"

Uki just smiled, saying he found things while wandering around at night. Although Yugo expressed his worries about his brother going around alone at night, he didn't question it much. Sonny just inspected the items to make sure they weren't threatening to Uki, as he was well-versed in things that come from the surface that is threatening. They let him be, though, seeing that the objects and just talking about the surface made Uki much happier, which they loved to see.

Just like they think, Uki is happier than he was a couple years ago, especially when humans or the surface world are mentioned. Although the merpeople around him were still wary of him, he didn't mind as much. He not only had the support of his brothers but now he also had Fulgur and time on the surface away from the ocean. Thanks to this, Uki became much more content about himself.

During these years, Uki and Fulgur became like brothers. While Uki helped Fulgur learn more about the creatures of the ocean and merpeople, Fulgur taught him how to write in various human languages and introduced Uki to the internet. Additionally, with Uki's permission, Fulgur also tested out various elixirs both on himself and on Uki - one to help with water breathing and another to help turn Uki's fin into legs.

It only took a year until Fulgur finally developed the right formula to make water breathing and Uki’s fin-into-legs elixirs. Although these only provided temporary changes, it was a milestone for Fulgur who wanted to explore more of the ocean and Uki who longed to go on the surface rather than stay in the water.

The first time Uki was able to have full legs (not just conjoined legs with fins for feet), he cried after being able to take his first step. The potion lasted for a couple minutes before Uki's legs turned into tail once more.

Now, Uki had a couple months of walking experience, while Fulgur's underwater breathing elixir allowed the user to create a bubble of air around the face and breathe underwater for 20 minutes.

For the sake of keeping things a secret, Fulgur kept the formulas for the elixirs in a safe that he only knew of. He didn’t want to sell the formula or reveal it to the public because he didn’t want the ocean to become something that humankind conquered, and he didn’t want Uki’s secret to be discovered.

Uki didn’t know about what Fulgur did with the formulas, just happy about the fact that they worked. Now, he could stay on the surface for much longer and actually go into the places that Fulgur talked about in his stories.

Their lives were pretty normal, and no one really threatened Uki's existence.

...Yet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once, while Uki was chilling in his mermaid form in a large tank in Fulgur's lab that was overlooking the shore, someone burst through the front door. Like a deer in headlights, Uki froze, staring wide-eyed at the person who came in.

"𝐅𝐔𝐔-𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍~! 𝐈𝐓'𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐒𝐎 𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆, 𝐁𝐑𝐎! 𝐈 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐅𝐎𝐎𝐃~!" shouted the person excitedly. They then noticed Uki, just as Fulgur came into the room with a tired face.

"Y/N, how many times have I told you not to slam open the door like that-"

"𝐎𝐡! 𝐀 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞! 𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮! 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐲𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝- 𝐖𝐀𝐈𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐀 𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐃 𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐋-"

"Y/N! Enough!" said Fulgur before slapping his hand lightly over Y/N's mouth, to which Y/N responded by licking the hand.

Fulgur's face scrunched up in disgust before wiping his hand and going over to Uki, who looked at Fulgur.

"Uki, meet my sibling, Y/N Ovid. Y/N, this is Uki. He's the friend I was talking about. Yes, he's a merperson, get over it."

Y/N gasped, but not in horror like Uki expected, but in delight. Their eyes were sparkling.

Uki's breath hitched when looking at their excited expression.

'How can someone look so gorgeous?'

As a royal mermaid prince, Uki had to go to several balls in order to fulfill his royal duties. Merpeople attended these balls decked out to the nines in fine pearls, sea glass, and surface metals, not only trying to show off their wealth but also appealing to the royals of the kingdom. However beautiful they may have been, none of them could hold a candle to the person standing in front of him.

Y/N held their hand out to Uki, smiling brightly. Uki slowly took it, although unsure of what he was supposed to do. Y/N shook it up and down.

"𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐔𝐤𝐢!"

Uki smiled shyly, while Fulgur eyed his face with suspicion before pulling the two apart.

"Alright, break it up you two. We have work to do. Give me that food," he said as he took the wrapped-up lunch boxes that Y/N cooked for him.

"𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐔𝐤𝐢 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞, 𝐬𝐨 𝐈 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞…," said Y/N sheepishly, but Fulgur paid no mind to it.

"He can just have some of mine," he said, unwrapping the boxes on a table meant for eating.

"𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐨!" said Y/N, offering a rice ball up to Uki. Uki reached down and took it, examining the curious food item.

Although Fulgur showed Uki a lot about the surface, the cuisine was not one of them. Fulgur barely ate himself unless he got a call from his sibling to eat. So, Uki was excited to eat something new. He took one big chomp, then froze.

"...𝐈𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝?" asked Y/N, who watched Uki's reaction, hoping it wasn't terrible. Y/N took a liking to Uki and hoped that he would enjoy their food. The way to a man's heart is through his stomach, after all.

Uki then looked at Y/N with shining eyes.

"It's- It's AMAZING! More please!" he said, making grabby hands. He didn't care if he seemed like an infant, Uki wanted more.

Y/N laughed before handing over more rice balls to him.

Fulgur watched the whole interaction while sipping on tea that Y/N put in a thermos bottle for him. He had a feeling about what was going to happen but decided not to comment on it. If it happened, it happened.

And it did.

From that day onwards, Y/N came daily to the lab, always bringing delicious smelling and tasting food for the three of them to eat. Y/N got to know more about Uki, as well as tried out Fulgur's underwater breathing elixir, even swimming with Uki in his tank.

Uki was thrilled to meet someone new from the surface. From Y/N, Uki learned about the concept of "university" and found out that Y/N wanted to specialize in genetic research. He also got to know more about their family (including Fulgur, or Fuu-chan, as Y/N calls him) and why Y/N liked cooking. Y/N got to learn about Uki's past, including how he was often left alone by his peers because of his powers (though he forgot to tell Y/N about the fact that he was a prince). As the two got to know more about each other, Y/N eventually felt more than just initial attractiveness towards Uki. They found out that he was not only humorous and cute but also that he was stronger than he knows, as well as humble and kind.

Because they held Uki in such high regard, Y/N felt like helping Fulgur improve the formula for turning Uki's fin into legs. Because of their help, Fulgur and Y/N were able to improve the elixir enough to extend the time that Uki could walk on land from 30 minutes to three hours.

These changes led Y/N to beg Fulgur to allow them to take Uki out to the rest of the town. They promised wholeheartedly that they would keep Uki safe and make sure that he would never be found out by having a timer to warn them before he would have his fin turn back into legs.

Fulgur was extremely reluctant: he never brought Uki too far from his lab, and he was always there to make sure nothing was to happen to Uki. Sure, the elixir they used for turning Uki's fin into legs was much more improved, and Uki was able to walk very well. Fulgur was able to teach Uki enough human customs to not stand out too much, but still, Fulgur couldn't help but worry. And if Uki was ever found out, then what would ever happen to Y/N? Fulgur made a promise to their late parents that he would protect them no matter what.

Despite these many questions, one look into Y/N's eyes showed that Y/N would not give up on bringing Uki more into the human world, with or without Fulgur's approval. Fulgur sighed, knowing he'd much prefer it if Y/N could do it with his approval than without. So, he begrudgingly let them go.

Before Y/N could run off, Fulgur hurriedly set a timer watch and placed it around Y/N's wrist, while Y/N just rolled their eyes and nodded.

"Watch out for numbness in the legs, it's a sign that he's turning back."

They gave him a thumbs up in understanding, saying they'll be careful, before squealing in delight and turning around to drag Uki away to their car (after giving him an elixir for five hours).

"Be careful!" shouted Fulgur after the car. Luckily, the lab was far from other parts of the town, so no one would hear him.

Fulgur hefted another long sigh, hoping that no incident would happen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲?" asked Y/N tentatively, looking over at Uki. They were standing in the lobby area of a club. While Y/N wore a white crop top (note: anyone can wear a crop top!) with deep purple wide-leg suit trousers, Uki was decked out with black wide-leg suit trousers, a white belt with a silver buckle, a deep purple shirt, and a black leather jacket. Around his neck were a matching black leather choker and silver chains. Though his hair was unstyled, Uki was, to Y/N at least, making the room seem much hotter than it already was.

Uki nodded, his heart thumping wildly. He was nervous but excited. He was about to be surrounded by a bunch of humans when the most he had been around was two at once.

Despite all these new things, Uki knew he would be alright. After all, Y/N would be with him the entire night, something he absolutely loved, and he was going to learn more about human culture.

Y/N nodded before they beckoned him to follow them to a door. As they got closer, Uki heard the sounds of booming, music, and laughter getting louder. Once Y/N pulled back the door, the full blast of music hit Uki's ears, and his eyes were occupied by the neon lights blaring in the darkness and the crowds of humans dancing in the strobe lights.

Uki was still, taking it all in. He was really here, like a real human. Y/N laughed at his dumbstruck expression, before taking his arm and pulling him into the dark area.

Through Y/N, Uki experienced club dancing, socializing, and, most importantly, alcohol.

Y/N actually knew the club's two bartenders: Luca and Nina. After drinking something Y/N thought Uki would like, Uki got a little tipsy and called Nina's hair "old hair" because it was the color grey.

Panicked, Y/N tried to explain to Nina that "old hair" was just what his culture called grey hair. Before Nina could get offended, however, Uki commented on how pretty Nina was, too pretty for "old hair", which flattered her and made her anger disappear in a moment. Instead, she gave Uki more to drink, which made him giggle and thank her while offering her his glass with two hands.

Y/N smacked their forehead in exhaustion before ordering a drink from Luca, who laughed at Y/N's reaction and pogged his way into making Y/N a drink while making them laugh.

Uki and Y/N had so much fun, and they were so tipsy, that they forgot something very important. The time.

At some point, Uki started tapping Y/N on the shoulder.

"Hey Y/N, my legs feel weird, haha," slurred out Uki. Y/N laughed with him before Fulgur's words vaguely came into their mind.

"Watch out for numbness in the legs, it's a sign that he's turning back."

Y/N's eyes widened, and they looked down at Uki's legs. Sure enough, the pants were starting to stretch out to accommodate for the fusing of legs. In a panic, Y/N hoisted Uki to his feet while he still had them, and excused themselves from Luca and Nina, who waved their goodbyes.

Although Y/N had some trouble dealing with Uki's floppy legs when they felt just as drunk, their adrenaline enabled them to keep going.

Luckily, Y/N and Uki made it to the club's mixed restroom in time before Uki's legs were completely molded together. Once inside the mixed restroom, which was blessedly empty, Y/N opened one of the big stalls and placed Uki in there before taking out a water bottle of seawater from their bag.

Uki's legs were now completely gone, and all that was left was the shredded remains of the pants he wore and his purple tail, dull from the lack of seawater. Y/N opened the bottle and poured its contents all over Uki's tail, which immediately soaked the water up and became shimmery.

Before Y/N could sigh in relief, however, a gasp and a small scream came from behind them, and Y/N whipped around in a panic only to make eye contact with two people standing at the entrance of the mixed restroom. One was trying to frantically pull their phone out from their purse and another was on the verge of screaming even louder.

Y/N swiftly ran up to them and knocked them out, before taking the phone that came out from the purse and checking it to make sure no footage of Uki was taken. Luckily, there wasn't, and Y/N hoped that by the time the people woke up, they would think that they had a crazy dream. Just in case, Y/N phoned Luca and Nina to "take care of them" by giving them a drink at the bar strong enough to give them short-term memory loss. They explained it was because one of them was hitting on Uki, and Y/N wanted them to forget Uki's face. Nina chuckled knowingly before agreeing, while Luca just laughed at Y/N in the background.

After getting their confirmation, Y/N, now having a blushy face, gave Uki a spare elixir they had in their bag and called a taxi to take them home. They also took out a pair of pants for Uki to wear on the way out. The elixir was one of Fulgur's earlier creations, so they would only maintain Uki's legs for 30 minutes. So, Y/N decided to go back to their penthouse, which was much closer to the club than Fulgur's lab.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Y/N sighed in relief as they put down Uki's body into the large bathtub of their penthouse (Y/N's got muscles!). They then turned on the faucet and poured a chloride-sodium mix into the water to make an environment similar to the ocean for Uki's tail to be healthy.

Neither of them spoke, the room silent save for the sound of running water as the volume in the tub increased.

"𝐔𝐤𝐢… 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐠𝐨 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐚𝐧," said Y/N tentatively.

Uki's attention snapped to Y/N, a face of disbelief.

"What are you saying? I want to be here with you...," he said in a tone of disappointment and hurt.

But Uki and Y/N both knew that Y/N was right. If Uki were to be discovered, not only would people forcibly want to take him away, but they would also go after the rest of Uki's home.

Still, Uki was stubborn: he had just been able to live the life that he wanted to, where he was accepted and had someone who looked past his powers. Heck, looked past the fact that he was an entirely different species!

"But- But Y/N? What if I wanted to stay?"

"𝐔𝐤𝐢-"

"WHAT IF I WANTED TO STAY! I- THEY- THEY CAN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING TO ME! I- I WANT TO BE WITH YOU! I- I JUST!- I just-... Y/N. Please," said Uki desperately, as he reached out to them from his place in Y/N's large bathtub.

"𝐔𝐤𝐢…," said Y/N, walking over to where Uki was before taking his hand with a sad smile. "If you stay here, you might die. Today was a really close call."

Uki was about to protest before Y/N placed a finger over his mouth.

"𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠, 𝐔𝐤𝐢. 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞. 𝐇𝐞𝐜𝐤, 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞. 𝐔𝐤𝐢…"

They trailed off before taking a deep breath and both of Uki's hands in their hands and looking into his eyes.

"𝐔𝐤𝐢, 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭, 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬𝐭, 𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐧 - 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭. 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐞. 𝐁𝐮𝐭, 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞, 𝐈 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞."

Uki's heart thumped loudly and blood rushed to his ears. Y/N... loves him?? But still wants him to be away, for his safety?...

He peered at Y/N through his lashes, trying to pout and show them how much he hated their suggestion, while also trying to hide his blush. But, he also knew that they were very close to being exposed, and they could've both been in danger. There was no way the surface dwellers would accept him. A miracle would have to happen if he wanted to stay. If only he was human...

A lightbulb went off in Uki's head, but he wanted to surprise Y/N. He acted reluctantly as he let go of Y/N's hands and crossed his arms.

"...Fine, I'll go back. But you absolutely have to wait for me on shore tomorrow night."

"𝐈 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐝𝐨," said Y/N with a sigh of relief. Uki then shyly took one of the hands of Y/N's to his lips and gave it a cautious and light kiss. Y/N flushed before laughing and giving his hand a kiss back as if to seal the promise.

Uki and Y/N then spent the rest of the evening together in the bathroom, just talking about things, with the occasional forehead and hand kisses. Eventually, Y/N brought their waterproof tablet to the bathroom so that they could watch KDramas together while holding hands.

All the while, Uki's plan was forming in his head.

When Fulgur came to the penthouse later on, he drove Uki back to the ocean, making sure that Uki was doing okay after finding out what happened in the club. Uki then waved to Fulgur as he swam into the sea, then dived down, swimming towards the capital to get to his room in the palace.

Once in his room, he gathered some valuables he owned, including several golden doubloons and rare commodities made from the surface's trash. These items were stashed away in a bag and hidden in his closet.

With this bag, Uki resolved to go to the place he was forbidden from going to - the Sea Witch's cave.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Welcome," said a voice echoing through the cave as Uki entered it.

Uki was at the witch's cave, hoping to gain a way to become a human. If the change had to be permanent, Uki didn't think it was so bad. After all, the majority of the Mujigae kingdom didn't care about him, so his becoming a human shouldn't be that much of a deal.

Uki clutched his bag of trading items close to his chest as he was surrounded by skeletons - likely the army for the witch, and also the damned souls that weren't able to fulfill their deals with her. He gulped - as powerful as he was, Uki was not able to get out of deals that were written the way that the witch wrote them, as the witch used magic for her contracts.

Finally, Uki got to the innermost part of the cave, where he saw whom he presumed was the witch, hunched over a black pot filled with various ingredients. Noticing his presence, the witch turned around, arms spread in welcome.

"Hello! I've been expecting you," said the Sea Witch, with a sharp grin. Uki heard rumors of the Sea Witch, though seeing the real being was quite different from legend. He never saw anything like her.

The witch was not quite an octomer, though she had tentacles, not quite a lanternfish mer, though a large light source protuded from her forehead, and not quite a shark mer, although she was the color and had the teeth of one.

Though her smile was welcoming, her eyes were cold, black voids. Uki got chills from the sight of her, but steeled himself when remembering Y/N's face, and thinking about the surprised and happy face that they'll have once they see Uki.

"*Ahem* How can I become human?"

"Oh," said the witch in surprise. "I haven't heard that request in a while. Well, you need to give up your most prized possession."

"I see- well, here's my signed copy of a book I have cherished since childhood-"

"I'll stop you right there, honey," said the witch, her face growing into a twisted grin as she seemed to grow in size in front of Uki.

"I require nonmaterial things, such as your voice, among other things."

"...What other things?"

"Hmm, memories of that person you like in their head," said the witch, as she brought out a looking crystal made of sea glass, and an image of Y/N buying groceries showed up.

Uki's eyes widened in panic.

"How do you have that?" he asked as he reached for the orb in a panic.

The witch put her hand in front of him, stopping him from getting the crystal.

"You can give me your voice or your powers, and I will also be taking the memories of you from this person. There is a hefty price to pay for wanting to become human. It's a hard spell to perform, you know."

With her words, the witch conjured a contract out of thin air, and a pen to sign it with, dipped in gold ink. The contract stated that if Uki wanted to have what he lost come back to him, he had to make his special person remember him and love him back within a week. If he failed, then Uki would become a servant to the Sea Witch for eternity.

Uki hesitated as he held the pen. Y/N, forgetting about him? He would have to befriend them again, make them love him again... And what if he failed?

But, if he were to surpass all the odds, it meant being able to be with them for the rest of his life. Uki made a decision: he would do it. He knew he could. So, his grip on the pen became tighter.

"I'll give you my voice. Please, make me a human," he said, his hand decisively signing the contract.

The witch's smile turned wicked and her eyes twinkled maliciously for a moment before she composed herself and waved her hand, making the contract disappear. She then beckoned Uki toward the center of the cave. He set down his things, before swimming to the center. He eyed the witch warily but remembered that what he was doing was all for Y/N's sake, and began to prepare for the worst.

"No funny business," he warned, his eyes glowing with psychic energy. The witch flinched before nodding hastily, then began to chant around Uki. Golden and green swirls of energy surrounded Uki, particularly his legs, and he began to change.

While she was chanting, the Sea Witch reflected on the deal she just made. She knew of Uki's power and was one of the few who coveted it. She wouldn't dare harm the vessel that held it before she could use it as her own. The Sea Witch was sure that Uki would fail, so she wasn't too worried that she wouldn't get her power. She would just wait until the time was up. And of course, she wouldn't let Uki alone either - she'd do her best to make the spell so strong that she was sure his precious person would never remember him ever again.

Though she thought that Uki would never notice her thoughts through her chanting, Uki heard them loud and clear. He began to make a plan on his own - he had to get back to Y/N safely and had to help them remember who he was.

And he wouldn't be alone in getting help. Luckily, Uki had an advantage that the Sea With did not think of.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fulgur was on the beach, getting ready to go underwater to record more observations on the wildlife in the coral forests near the shore, before hearing a series of splashes coming from the ocean. He turned around, only to witness Uki coming out from the water, half-naked and with a happy smile, waving to Fulgur. Uki had a bag slung over his shoulder, and a skirt made of seaweed was clumsily around his waist.

Fulgur laughed at Uki's appearance and was about to wave back with glee before his eyes widened in realization.

"Wait, Uki- how do you have legs?? I didn't give you an elixir... WAIT YOU NEED PANTS-"

Uki opened his mouth, trying to speak to explain before remembering that he had given his voice away. He then had an idea, grabbing a notebook from his bag (kept dry using magic) and scribbling hurriedly on it with charcoal.

He came close to Fulgur, holding out the notebook to him so he could read it out loud.

"I may have traded my tail and possibly sold my souldtothedevilIneed yourhelptohaveY/Nrememberme- WAIT WHAT-"

Fulgur grabbed Uki's shoulders, panic in his eyes.

"YOU MADE A DEAL WITH A WITCH?? AND Y/N NEEDS TO REMEMBER YOU TO BREAK THE SPELL?? UKI- WHY??"

Uki explained through writing that he wanted to be on land with Y/N like other humans, without the help of potions and such. Fulgur groaned at Uki's stupidity, head in his hands.

"Wait, why can't we just tell Y/N about you?"

Uki shook his head, explaining that Y/N had to remember him on their own, and also love him back. Fulgur sighed again, before grabbing his phone to call Y/N over. Uki was about to smack Fulgur's phone out of his hands, before he was calmed down.

"Chill - I'm only inviting them over. Then, I'll check to verify that they really forgot you. If they did, then I'll re-introduce you as a friend who's helping me with my research. Got it?"

Excitedly, Uki nodded, his eyes shining and his hands making lots of hearts and thank you signs to Fulgur, who just sighed at his antics and gripped his forehead.

"It's going to be a long week. You think you can really do it? Beat the witch's conditions, I mean," asked Fulgur. Uki nodded.

"Alright then. Well, first order of business, you need some pants," said Fulgur pointedly as he gestured to the flimsy seaweed skirt that was slipping apart. He took off his jacket and wrapped it around Uki's waist. While tying it, he continued speaking.

"Let's try to get my sibling to remember you by recreating similar moments. For instance, why don't we try making some rice balls to give them when they get here? They told me they'll be here in an hour, so let's go."

Uki nodded, fists balling up in determination. Rice balls were the first thing he tasted on the surface, and they were from the hands of Y/N. This time, he would make some for them, hopefully just as good.

Though he was saddened by the fact that Y/N wasn't waiting for him on the shore, just like they promised the night before, he was ready to try and gain their love back again. He will get through this, and hopefully, get Y/N to remember him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After lots of struggling with forming proper rice balls, putting in the correct ratio of black sesame seeds, nori, and rice, as well as other seasonings and fillings, and plating them, Uki finally finished making rice balls that looked similar to the ones he ate when he first met Y/N.

He stood anxiously in the lab's kitchen, waiting for Y/N's arrival, when someone burst through the door.

"𝐅𝐔𝐔-𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍! 𝐈'𝐌 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄! 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝?" said the musical voice that Uki had been waiting for for hours. His heart clenched and he longed to go out right away and just embrace Y/N, but that would just be weird. Y/N doesn't remember him. Just in case they did happen to remember, though, Uki cautiously peeked around the corner. His breath hitched in his throat again. They looked even more gorgeous than last night, and even the first time they met.

Their hair was tousled, likely because they drove here with the windows down. On their face was a large smile as they glomped Fulgur, who just patted them awkwardly on the back, as he thought about how Uki must be hiding somewhere and watching this with a sad face. After they parted, Fulgur rubbed his hands on his neck.

"Hey Y/N, I wanted to ask you if you remember Uki? You know, my friend I met in uni?" asked Fulgur, lying about Uki being a university friend. Unfortunately for Uki, Y/N looked confused.

"𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐢? 𝐍𝐨, 𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐔𝐤𝐢. 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧, 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐝𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐫."

Uki's eyes widened at their words. That means that Y/N didn't completely forget about him.

'Maybe...' he thought, and he cautiously stepped out, rice balls on a tray in his hand. It only took Y/N a couple seconds until they noticed them.

"𝐎𝐡, 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨! 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐔𝐤𝐢? 𝐈'𝐦 𝐘/𝐍, 𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮! 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐧!" they exclaimed with excitement, eyes sparkling just as brightly as when they first met. Uki smiled and nodded. Y/N tilted their head, confused as to why Uki wasn't speaking.

"Ah, right. I forgot to mention that he lost his voicebox in an accident recently," said Fulgur, trying to come up with a semi-reasonable explanation as to what happened.

"𝐎𝐡 𝐧𝐨! 𝐈'𝐦 𝐬𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭, 𝐔𝐤𝐢!" said Y/N. "𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞, 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧. 𝐈 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐦 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐣𝐚 𝐯𝐮 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐈 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮. 𝐂𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐩𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐡𝐲, 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡…," they pondered.

Fulgur gave Uki a look. They were at least able to confirm something: Y/N hadn't completely forgotten about Uki. At least he seemed somewhat familiar to them. It means that they would be more comfortable when hanging around Uki.

Putting that revelation aside, Uki went up to Y/N and offered them some rice balls.

"𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐞? 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮!" they said with a large grin, swiping one of the rice balls before chomping down on it.

"𝐌𝐦𝐦!! 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝! 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫! 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐟 𝐈 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞?" Uki beamed, and shook his head, holding the tray out to Y/N, who took another two balls.

Witnessing the entire exchange, Fulgur sighed in relief.

'They'll be fine,' he thought. "Alright, Y/N. I'll leave him to you," said Fulgur, before going back to his research. Y/N looked at Uki before blushing a little and taking out a notepad from their bag.

"𝐔-𝐮𝐡𝐦, 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞?" they said tentatively as they held out the notepad to Uki. Uki set down the rice ball tray on a nearby table (FAR AWAY from all the lab equipment, by the way) before delicately taking Y/N's notepad and taking out a pen from his pocket.

"Thank you," wrote Uki in cursive. Y/N nodded, as they looked away and began to fan themselves.

'𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐚𝐦 𝐈 𝐬𝐨 𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝?? 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐞?? 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐞, 𝐡𝐞'𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐭, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐭'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲- 𝐀𝐆𝐇 𝐏𝐀𝐘 𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐇𝐈𝐌 𝐇𝐄'𝐒 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔, 𝐈𝐃𝐈𝐎𝐓!'

Chaotic thoughts ran through Y/N's head, and Uki couldn't help but listen to them. Normally, he would never invade Y/N's privacy, but he did have to check on his progress to see how they were feeling about him. He was pleased after listening for a little while and was even proud of himself for being able to make them flustered again, even though they lost their memory.

'Good, I just need to keep this up,' he thought, as he looked out the window behind Y/N's head. The sun was setting, and a day had gone by.

Only six days remained.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest continued much like the first time Y/N and Uki met, except Uki didn't tell much about his powers or his mermaid self to Y/N, just about how he grew up pretty alone. Uki got to learn the same things that Y/N told him before, including something they didn't tell him before: two creeps.

Two creeps showed up at Y/N's university a couple months ago, and they were constantly following Y/N around and trying to isolate and talk with them about random things for no reason. Y/N confessed to Uki that they were getting really sick of their nonsense, and considered calling the police on them many times.

"Why didn't you?" wrote Uki, frowning at Y/N out of concern. Y/N shrugged and shook their head.

"𝐈'𝐦 𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐨𝐧 𝐈 𝐰𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧. 𝐏𝐥𝐮𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧."

They then started to flex their arm muscles jokingly, to which Uki silently chuckled at.

"𝐏𝐥𝐮𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲'𝐥𝐥 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞."

Uki and Y/N were able to grow closer throughout the week, easily because Y/N felt comfortable with Uki. They really liked him - his manners, how he always tried to take care of them, and how he was always concerned for them, but still kept his boundaries. Y/N appreciated that a lot, especially when they didn't meet many people like Uki.

So, on the last day that Uki had to get Y/N to remember him, Y/N miraculously decided to invite Uki over to their place. Uki, surprised but excited, agreed after confirming that it was alright for him to go.

They drove from Fulgur's lab to Y/N's penthouse. As Uki stepped into the place, he remembered the last time he was there. It was the last time Y/N knew of his true self as a merman. It was the last time he felt their embrace and kisses and listened to their words of love. It was the last time he saw them before he gained permanent legs. Y/N was fidgeting as they saw Uki scan their home.

"𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥, 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐭?"

Uki turned to them before smiling brightly and giving two thumbs-ups. Y/N smiled in relief at his response, before offering Uki something to eat. Eagerly, he nodded and sat in the dining room while Y/N went to the kitchen to whip up something - they called it spaghetti alla carbonara. As they cooked, they heard Uki sniff the air which was now filling with the smell of garlic and fried eggs.

When Y/N finally finished up with the dish and placed it on the table, Uki looked at Y/N with wide eyes. The dish looked so delicious and smelled amazing, that Uki could not wait to dig in. Y/N chuckled and handed Uki a fork. He stared at the utensil. Long ago, during some of his first weeks here, he thought that the silverware was meant for hair care. Fulgur was quick to teach him otherwise, but Uki still had embarrassing memories of that time. Uki sucked in a deep breath before positioning the fork like Fulgur instructed him to. He then took a large portion of the spaghetti and shoved it in his mouth before any noodle or egg piece could fall off. His face became one of awe at the taste, and he smiled widely at Y/N. The spaghetti was delicious. Y/N grinned fondly at Uki's content face before eating some spaghetti too.

Before Uki could revel in the flavors of the food any longer, he was startled by loud banging noises on Y/N's door. He turned to Y/N questioningly, motioning at the door, before noticing that Y/N's eyes were widened in shock.

"𝐈… 𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐮-𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞. 𝐍𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞…"

Uki's eyes widened, before turning to the door. The door got pounded on again before the lock on the door started jingling. Wariness heightening, Uki stood up and positioned himself in front of Y/N protectively. They heard muffled talking on the other side.

"...open!...damn door..."

"..hurry... stupid-"

Uki and Y/N then heard the door make a *click* before swinging wide open, revealing two tall figures.

"Y/N!~ WE'RE HERE!~ IT'S ME, FLORA!" said the tall female, who tried to swoop and hug Y/N, not even registering Uki's presence until she bumped into him.

"AND JETT!" yelled the tall male, likely Flora's sibling, who tried to tackle Y/N and shove Uki aside, but Uki refused to budge, only holding onto Y/N's hand, which was now balled into a fist.

"𝐖-𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐂𝐊! 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐰𝐨?? 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞? 𝐍𝐨, 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞?!"

"Well, sweetie, we found out that you don't dorm in the uni, and so we wanted to hang out, but couldn't!" whined Jett with a pout.

"So, we took some time to look through some security cameras and also we looked after you as you went on your way home! Now, we can hang out whenever!" said Flora ecstatically, her face showing a smile that was off-putting to Uki.

Uki glared at the two silently. Not only did they ruin the atmosphere, but they dare to stalk Y/N?! He was pissed. Clearly, his negative energy was apparent, because Jett then turned to Uki with a glare.

"And who are ya, huh?" he asked pointedly, going up close to Uki and poking at his face. Uki wanted to badly slap his hand away, but thought about Y/N's safety and instead decided to wait it out and see what happens. He gave no reaction.

"Huh... huh.... huh...," repeated Jett as he continued to poke Uki. Flora was snickering in the background.

Just as Y/N, who was really ticked off by the entire situation, was about to tell them to get out, Jett froze, and silence filled the room. He then raised his hand threateningly.

"𝐖𝐚𝐢𝐭, 𝐉𝐞𝐭𝐭-!"

"Why won't you talk?!" exclaimed Jett, harshly smacking Uki's face and knocking him off balance. Uki fell to the floor, and the wind knocked out of his lungs by how strongly he was struck.

"Seriously, brother. His face pisses me off!" screeched Flora, her face wrinkled in disgust.

The siblings then turned to Y/N, sickeningly sweet smiles on their faces. Y/N just turned away from them, instead going to Uki's side and helping him up from the floor.

"Y/N, babe - why would you want to stick to that mute son of a gun?" asked Jett, annoyed at Y/N for ignoring them.

"Yeah, aren't we more charming to you? I thought you liked us," whined Flora.

Y/N rolled their eyes.

"𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐲? 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞 - 𝐰𝐞'𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬!! 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧, 𝐭𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐢 - 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐭 𝐔𝐤𝐢 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧! 𝐈'𝐦 𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭, 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐲. 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭, 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞. 𝐁𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮. 𝐁𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐬," Y/N said as they held up their phone, "911" brightly lit on the screen.

Jett huffed before kicking one of Y/N's potted plants near the front door. Flora glared at Uki on the way out, sticking up a birdie with her hands before leaving.

When it was clear that the two were gone, Y/N sighed in relief before turning around and touching Uki's cheek tenderly, bruised by Jett's punch.

"𝐎𝐡, 𝐧𝐨, 𝐔𝐤𝐢. 𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐭 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐭?"

Uki shook his head, but Y/N didn't care.

"𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥, 𝐥𝐞𝐭'𝐬 𝐠𝐨 𝐭𝐨 𝐅𝐮𝐮-𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧'𝐬 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭. 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐉𝐞𝐭𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐮𝐩 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧. 𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐟𝐟."

They sat Uki down in the living room before heading to their medicine cabinet in the kitchen to grab some ointment, band-aids, and ice. The spaghetti was long forgotten on the dining table.

Y/N swiftly came back and gingerly put the ice pack on Uki's face, instructing him to hold onto it while getting into the car and driving to Fulgur's laboratory.

While in the car, Uki took out his mini notebook from his jacket pocket before scribbling something down quickly as Y/N pulled into Fulgur's lab's garage. Just as they finished parking and started to take out the band-aids and ointment for Uki's bruise, Uki finished with his inquiry and held it up to their face.

"Why did you help me? Those people looked dangerous... Are you sure you won't regret it later?" said the note, as Uki looked down and took Y/N's hand that was free from holding anything. His eyes were trained on the floor of the car in worry.

"𝐔𝐤𝐢 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮… 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐈 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞?" asked Y/N, making a face showing how in disbelief they were at Uki. Uki just nodded slightly, his eyes boring into the ground while fiddling with the zipper on Y/N's jacket with one hand and keeping an iron grip on Y/N's free hand with his other one. Y/N laughed.

"𝐍𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐲, 𝐔𝐤𝐢. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐬! 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮… 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭. 𝐔𝐤𝐢, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭, 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬𝐭, 𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐧 - 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭. 𝐈 𝐰𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝." said Y/N.

Uki's heart fluttered, and his face flushed as he looked up from the ground to stare at Y/N. Tears started to form in his eyes. Y/N said this to him before - he couldn't believe that Y/N would say those words to him again. It showed how much Y/N really loved him.

He smiled, causing the tears to roll down his cheeks, and let out a laugh. Only, this laugh wasn't silent - it was audible, and a musical, low-pitched laugh came out heartily.

Y/N smiled before their eyes widened in realization along with Uki's.

"𝐔𝐤𝐢?… 𝐃𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡? 𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐲??" said Y/N with wonder as they reached out to touch Uki's face and wiped away a tear. Uki grasped at his throat.

"Ah, ah, oh my- oh my gosh. I- I HAVE MY VOICE BACK! Y/N, THIS IS WHAT I SOUND LIKE! IT'S ME, UKI!" exclaimed Uki with elation. He then quickly got out of the car, Y/N following after him. Once facing Y/N, Uki eagerly took their hands and started dancing around with them. They laughed with him as they spun around.

The joy was cut short when Y/N suddenly screamed from pain. They clutched their head, as memories of Uki and Y/N together came into their mind. Tears began to roll down Y/N's face, as they looked up at him.

"𝐖𝐞- 𝐔𝐬- 𝐈- 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞, 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐈 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐨𝐭- 𝐔𝐤𝐢, 𝐈'𝐦 𝐬𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐲-"

Uki immediately pulled Y/N into a hug.

"Don't be, because you remembered me in the end anyways."

Y/N clutched onto Uki's shirt, sobbing into it as they remembered everything - their first meeting, their club experience, and everything Y/N said to Uki the night before they lost their memory, including their confession. They settled into a quiet embrace, and then Y/N looked at the ocean, where Uki was from.

Behind him, the sun set on the horizon. Uki gripped Y/N as the sun dipped below the water. Y/N broke the curse that the Sea Witch put on Uki just in time, and they were now standing together.

"NOOOOOOO!" bellowed a noise from the ocean.

Y/N and Uki looked at the ocean tensely as a giant whirlpool formed. From it, a gigantic tentacle emerged from the water. Sensing danger, Uki's eyes glowed as he began to gather psychic energy in his hands to fight whatever threat was coming at them. He also created a barrier near the beach's shore, isolating the sight and sound of the beach, ensuring that innocent and nosy passersby wouldn't come and become nuisances in the likely battle.

Y/N took out the small laser pistol from their car's glovebox that Fulgur made for them for their birthday. Behind them, Fulgur came out from his lab with a large gun that had red energy charged at the tip, ready to fire.

"YOU- YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO FAIL! YOUR POWERS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE MINE! HOW DARE YOU!" bellowed the Sea Witch, as she emerged from the whirlpool. Her enormous form towered over them.

The witch was pissed off, to say the least. She was planning on taking Uki's powers and taking over the Mujigae kingdom with it, taking her time because she thought that the power extraction would be a breeze with her contract, but now that Uki was no longer bound by it, all the waiting she did was for naught. The powers were not hers.

The Sea Witch looked in Uki's direction, before making eye contact with Y/N. The black orbs of her eyes seethed with rage, and she unleashed human skeleton soldiers onto the beach.

"GIVE HIM TO ME!" she screeched.

Fulgur immediately started to fire at the skeleton soldiers, while tossing a water-breathing elixir to Y/N. Y/N, who knew what this meant, caught it and chugged it down before running in the direction of the Sea Witch. Uki ran with them, suspending Y/N in midair while they ran as his legs turned into a tail the moment his feet touched the water. On the way to the Sea Witch, Y/N and Uki fought off skeleton soldiers - Y/N in the air and Uki in the water - that surrounded them, trying to prevent them from reaching the Sea Witch.

No matter how close they got to the witch, however, they still tried to maintain their distance. There was a whirlpool surrounding her, and Y/N, as a human, could definitely not handle the strong currents that would pull them into the whirlpool and to the ocean floor.

"UUUUUKIIIII!!!!" shouted a slightly high-pitched male voice. Uki turned to see below him, only to find that his three brothers, Sonny, Alban, and Yugo were swimming up to him. His eyes shined in happiness, and he waved at them.

"WHAT'S GOING ON, BROTHER?? WHO THE HELL IS THIS WITCH??" asked Sonny as he crushed a skeleton soldier's head with his fists. Y/N gaped at him from behind Uki.

'𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞!' they thought excitedly, looking between them all. Alban noticed them first.

"Ehhh?? Who's this? Is this the person you left us for??" asked Alban, raising his eyebrows while scanning Y/N. Uki, seeing that his eyes were wandering, went quickly into the water and covered Alban's eyes, slightly irritated.

"Everyone, meet Y/N. Y/N, these are three of my brothers. Sonny, Alban, and Yugo."

"Yo, how you doin?" asked Yugo, a cheeky smirk on his face as he winked at Y/N. Y/N laughed.

"𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐰𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫. 𝐖𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐚 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐡, 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐥𝐥," said Y/N more seriously, turning to the Sea Witch. Sonny's eyes darkened.

"Alright, we're ready to fight. Our kingdom is in danger, after all," said Yugo, getting out black pearls from his crossbody bag and charging them with blue sparks. Y/N's eyes widened.

"𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐝𝐨𝐦?...," they said in shock.

"Uh.. we'll talk about that later," said Uki. "For now, let's get them!"

Sonny crushed multiple skeletons with his bare hands surrounded by yellow energy, while Alban had daggers charged with orange energy in his hands, causing skeletons to disintegrate upon contact.

Meanwhile, Y/N was above the water, shooting at floating skeletons and the Sea Witch whenever they got the chance. Uki used his psychic powers to compress the skeletons into balls before volleying them at the Sea Witch. Yugo shot charged black pearls using a slingshot, which went out of the water and gave strong electric shocks to the Sea Witch's large form upon contact. She cried out in rage, before using one of her tentacles to swipe at all of them. Coming off from her tentacle were shards of bone, likely her skeleton soldiers that she crushed up in order to make missiles to aim at the group.

Some of them were heading straight toward Uki and Yugo, but before they could get any closer to them, Y/N was in front of them with their jacket in their hands like a shield. While most shards of bone got stuck in the jacket's thick material, some smaller shards skid over the tops of Y/N's arms, making small and long scrapes on them. Eventually, a skeleton soldier's skull made its way to Y/N, knocking into them hard enough to break Uki's concentration in levitating them.

Y/N fell into the water, knocked unconscious by the force of the waves as they began to get closer to the whirlpool, which would drown them eventually and bring them to the bottom of the ocean.

"Y/N!" yelled Uki, as he reached out for Y/N's hand. But Y/N was too far from him.

Luckily, Yugo was nearby and he grabbed Y/N before they could get sucked into the whirlpool.

"I'll bring them to the shore!" shouted Yugo as he started speed-skimming the water to the beach. The Sea Witch, thinking that Uki was now preoccupied with Y/N, shrank to go after the now-defenseless kingdom. She left the whirlpool behind, hoping that Uki and the others would get caught in it.

Uki nodded, before glaring at the whirlpool.

"You're going to pay for that, binch."

He headed straight in, Sonny and Alban following suit. Unlike what the Sea Witch thought, the whirlpool was almost a shortcut to the Mujigae kingdom. Uki, using his foresight, knew this, and he took it in order to get to the palace before the Sea Witch could.

On his way to the palace, Uki, Sonny, and Alban dealt with the Sea Witch's various skeleton soldiers.

Some time later, Yugo swam up to them, joining them as they fought bones and bones.

"Is Y/N okay?" asked Uki worriedly while crushing a skull with purple energy. Yugo nodded, telling Uki about how Fulgur was waiting on the surface and that Y/N was getting treated now by "these two people - one blonde and one with old hair".

Uki sighed in relief. Y/N would be safe with Luca and Nina.

"Alright then," he said, as he turned to the direction of the palace. His brothers looked at the same direction, their faces grim and serious. "Let's go."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a couple minutes of speed-swimming, Uki's face became one of shock as he saw the state the capital of the Mujigae Kingdom was in.

His home, the palace, was now scattered as debris around town, tearing into other merpeople's homes. Around him, people were wailing, trying to find their loved ones in the debris. The throne room, with the shining pearl throne, was exposed, with the king sitting on top.

"Yugo, Alban, you guys get to father first. Sonny and I are going to help these people."

Yugo and Alban took off in the direction of the king, as Uki's eyes glowed and Sonny's hands were enveloped in yellow energy. As Uki moved the debris around, Sonny helped to pull out anyone who was stuck under it and provided healing using the yellow energy from his hands.

When they were done with the large chunks and most of the civilians were fine, the two swam in the direction of the palace.

Uki quickly swam in front of the throne, where his father was sitting, awaiting the witch.

"Father, what are you doing?? You need to get out of here-"

The king held up his hand, silencing Uki.

"I am staying, son. This is my throne, my home, and I intend to defend it. I intend to protect us."

Uki sighed in exasperation. He knew that the old man had lost most of his power a long time ago - the king was practically defenseless and harmless. Wordlessly, Uki looked at Yugo and Sonny above him, who nodded, then they and Alban grabbed hold of the king.

"You- you rascals! Let me go-"

"No, father. We're getting you to safety," said Sonny, his arm pulling from under the king's right arm. Yugo nodded as he took the king's left arm, and Alban took away the king's trident to hold onto as Sonny and Yugo took the king out of the vicinity. Uki waved to them gratefully, before turning to the entrance to the throne room.

From the Sea Witch's destruction earlier, the throne room, like the rest of the palace and city, was filled with debris and wrecked. Uki got a slight headache thinking about all the damage that he would probably have to help fix using his psychic powers, but then he turned to the task at hand.

Soon, the Sea Witch would be coming to the throne room, but Uki won't let her win. Especially not after what she did to Y/N. His hands balled into fists thinking about how much harm Y/N must be in.

'I need to get back to them quickly,' he thought.

Just as Uki thought that, he heard the sounds of water splashing and the clattering of bones approaching him. He looked up, only to make eye contact with his current object of hate: the Sea Witch.

"OUT OF THE WAY, MEASLY CHILD. DO NOT STAND IN THE WAY OF GREATNESS!"

Uki's eyes glowed bright purple at her words, his rage at her empowering him as his hands got surrounded by purple energy.

"GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE, BINCH!" shouted Uki.

The witch pointed towards him and ordered her army to charge. Uki didn't care. He started to move his glowing hands around, and the water started to swirl around him and the Sea Witch, who started to grow apprehensive.

Her skeleton soldiers couldn't hold against the current that Uki generated, and their bone structure started coming apart as they clattered around them. Uki then started shooting waves upon waves of purple energy blades from his arms, fully disintegrating the skeletons. Though Uki knew that these skeletons were the remains of the merpeople who made contracts with the Sea Witch, he also knew that the latest merperson besides himself who made a contract with her would've been dead by now. Thus, he was just returning the souls back to where they belonged: not in the Sea Witch's possession.

The purple blades of energy were also leaving long gashes on the Sea Witch's body, dark blue blood oozing out of the wounds. The witch cried in rage and pain and began to throw more shards of bone at Uki, which he easily deflected.

In truth, the Sea Witch, without her enhanced size, skeleton army, and potions, was just an outcasted weird lady. She had no real power, unlike Uki. That's why she coveted his power so much: it would make people fear her, possibly respect her.

Uki knew these feelings of wanting to be seen and empowered, but he also knew that this way was definitely not the right way to gain these things. Additionally, the Sea Witch, with her shenanigans, lead a lot of merpeople to their doom, while she took from them what she could. Extortion and murder. Uki could not forgive that.

So, not much mercy was shown when Uki reduced the Sea Witch's skeleton army to sand and brought her to her knees. She was weeping, as her dark blue blood stained the floor of the wrecked throne room.

He used his powers to summon a chain and tie it firmly around the Sea Witch. Sonny returned from taking the king away to a safe place, only to find this scene of Uki in front of the throne, and the Sea Witch bowing before him on the floor, in chains. Sonny swam up to Uki.

"What should we do with her, brother?"

"You're our Moon Guard captain. What do you think?"

"Definitely permanent imprisonment and exile in our volcanic prisons."

"You're the boss."

"I'll get some of my soldiers to escort the witch."

"Thanks, bro."

"Of course."

Sonny then summoned some of his Moon Guard soldiers, who had been going around the kingdom with the Sun Battalion, led by Uki's brother Luca, making sure the citizens were safe. Together with Sonny, they escorted the powerless Sea Witch to the volcanic prison, where she would be placed in a Hell-fire cell, facing the heat of her sins for the rest of her eternity.

When Sonny got back to the throne room, he found his father, the king, sitting on the throne again, talking to Uki. Unlike other times when he saw Uki and the king together, Uki was smiling slightly as the king clapped him on the back for a job well done. Sonny smiled at the sight. It seemed like his brother would finally be okay. He then swam up to them, bowing to the king before turning to Uki.

"So, brother. What will you do now?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"𝐎𝐰- 𝐔𝐤𝐢! 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐬!"

"Serves you right, what were you thinking back there trying to block me from those shards of bone. I could've handled myself," said Uki as he tightened the bandage on Y/N's arm. The cuts on them, though not bleeding much anymore, were surrounded by pink welts from the seawater combined with the open wounds.

Y/N winced before laughing through the pain.

"𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥, 𝐈 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰?" they said jokingly as they placed a hand over Uki's that had rested on their shoulder. Uki pouted.

"You- you're so stupid sometimes," he said, his face getting red from the little skin contact that Y/N initiated.

At the moment, Uki and Y/N were in Fulgur's lab that was overlooking the shore of the beach. Uki was able to be on land in his human form because the magic from his father's trident allowed him legs. Y/N and Uki shared a quiet moment, laughing at each other as they treated each other's wounds.

When they were finished, they made eye contact before resting their foreheads against each other. Uki relished this moment when he could be connected with the person he loved after such a hectic battle. He was relieved that Y/N was okay and grateful that they were both alive in order to experience this moment.

Suddenly, they heard a shout come from outside.

"uuuuUUUUUKIIIIIIIIIII!"

Uki backed up from Y/N and looked out the nearby window, only for his eyes to widen as he saw his brothers Sonny, Alban, and Yugo pop their heads out from the ocean, waving at him. Uki laughed and waved back, but his eyes opened in surprise as more heads popped out from the ocean - the rest of his siblings, some of the townspeople, and even his father, who beckoned him to the ocean. Uki and Y/N shared a look before they got up and rushed outside to the shore.

They were lucky that Fulgur had a private part of the beach, otherwise, paparazzi would be all over the fact that a lot of merpeople were appearing all of a sudden.

Y/N got in front of the king and bowed, while the king just raised his hand.

"You don't need to do that, you're practically family," the king said, teasingly winking at Uki, who flushed.

"𝐓-𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐣𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐲."

The king smiled, before turning to Uki. Behind the king, the merpeople who popped to the surface bowed to Uki, some thanking him, others praising him. Uki smiled at the sight, slightly flustered as he never though such a thing would happen to him. After saying their greetings, the merpeople disappeared, save for the king, Yugo, Alban, and Sonny. The king opened his mouth.

"Uki, do you like living on land?"

Uki pondered, before nodding.

"But, I also love our home, father."

The king nodded, his smile growing even bigger, prouder, even.

"Alright, then I will give you this," he said, taking a necklace with a small silver charm from his neck.

"But that's your necklace, isn't it?"

"It's fine, it's better for you to have it anyways. This will let you gain legs whenever you are out of the water."

Uki gasped, before gratefully taking the necklace and turning to Y/N excitedly. They hugged, while the others looked on with smiles (except Yugo, who gagged), and slowly started to retreat back into the ocean.

"See you later, brother," said Sonny as he waved at Uki, who smiled at him and waved back.

Once they were under the water, Uki handed the necklace to Y/N, who helped him put on the necklace.

They made eye contact, before clasping each other's hands. The sun was setting, and Uki could not tear his eyes off of Y/N's lips. Having the same thoughts, Y/N leaned closer to Uki, who followed along.

They shared a gentle kiss in the sunset's glow, and they lived happily ever after~

The End.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Epilogue:

"𝐔𝐤𝐢! 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞!" shouted Y/N with glee as they swam through the ocean in front of their lover.

They were testing out the new and improved elixir that Fulgur came up with in order to breathe underwater like a merperson for a certain amount of time. Instead of allowing the user to create a bubble of air around the face (much more unstable and dangerous), the elixir temporarily gave the user scaly gills around the neck area that allowed the user to gather oxygen particles from the water around them, like most marine wildlife. On Y/N's wrist was a timer that would give a 5-minute warning that the elixir's effects were going to run out.

Although Uki disliked the fact that the gills made it more difficult for him and Y/N to snuggle, he was happy to have the opportunity to show them around the place he grew up in.

Many things changed since Uki and Y/N defeated the Sea Witch and her army. One thing was the fact that the townspeople didn't doubt Uki anymore. They saw how he was kind to help the people when the town was in shambles and how he had no hesitation in facing off against the Sea Witch as she approached the king's throne. They knew that he was a protector, not a threat respected him for it. Some even apologized to him and thanked him for what he did.

Uki, slightly uncomfortable with the people's new attitude but also happy that he could now go around the town with an easier heart and mind, led Y/N through the streets of the capital. He showed them his favorite bookstores, cafes, and places to buy inventions using the trash from the surface.

Y/N marveled at everything - they had never gotten this deep into the ocean, nor did they ever imagine that there was a whole community under the sea to explore. They pointed at all the bits of coral that surrounded them, exclaiming about how beautiful the construction of all the homes was underwater, and thought that the inventions of the merpeople were amazing. They also picked up some trash that was lingering on the ocean floor, angrily muttering about how humans are so careless sometimes with their trash.

Seeing how genuinely concerned they were for his home made Uki's heart clench. Whenever they found bits of sea glass or a shiny shell, Y/N would show it to Uki proudly, and Uki never hesitated to take what they brought to him into his shoulder bag. They would be looking at these spoils later at the surface in Fulgur's lab.

As Y/N continued to go around, greeting some merpeople who curiously looked on at the pair, Uki thought about his life thus far.

A couple years ago, Uki never would've thought that he'd journey to the surface, find a partner from there, or have to fight a Sea Witch to keep them. A couple years ago, he would've been stuck in his room, poring over books that depicted love that he thought he would never have. Yet, there he was, in the ocean with his lover, and he now had the ability to be with them on both land and sea.

He thought of his desk in his room in the palace, which was now bigger because it was remodeled after the Sea Witch destroyed a lot of it. On his desk was a half-completed bracelet made of the highest quality white shells, purple sea glass, and gold wire he could find. The middle of the bracelet had a smooth, shining, light pink Akoya pearl.

Uki wanted to propose to Y/N with it once he was ready.

But for now, he was content to collect the rest of their things before returning to the surface and enjoying some riceballs in their new shared apartment.

He couldn't wait.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you for reading!! I had lots of midterms these past weeks so unfortunately this was delayed a lot sorry - I meant to post for the noctyx anniversary ahhhhhh :( hope yall liked it tho!

sonny and yugo may come out later this week after my midterms :))

#nijisanji en #nijisanji en x reader #nijisanji en boys #nijisanji en boys x reader #uki violeta #uki violeta x reader #uki x reader #noctyx #noctyx x reader #noctyx x gender neutral reader

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junosswans · 2 years ago

Text

The many times of Midoriya Izuku rejecting Bakug*u Kat*uki & what it means to them

Again, not exactly anti-bakug*u but I'll tag it like so and hide his name so that people who potentially don't want to read it don't have to

(contains: mha comic spoiler, antibkdk but it's really complicated, in general critical of a certain blonde character but I don't think there's anything mean spirited here and my point isn't to shit on him, but to theorize where he's heading towards)

Thinking about how over and over izu chose the other option as opposition to bak*gou and feeling a moment of hope for a liberating ending between the osananajimi but then also grim cause hori probably won't do that (or the jump editors won't let him do that)

It's a thought that only came to me after the comic apology scene, which so many 💥🥦 shippers screamed over, and it led to me contemplating the progression of their relationship & how they were positioned in the story as archetypes.

I kept on thinking about how in the apology scene, Izuku never directly replied to bkg's apology. Bkg said I'm sorry for everything I've done, and Izuku's immediate action after the shock was to apologize to everyone for being inconsiderate in his previous words.

I'll have to say this first, I don't ship them at all and could never see myself doing so (for apparent reasons), and as someone who endured bullying and abuse I hate bkg a lot, but thinking about their character development is really interesting and as far as angst goes, they probably have the most dramatic mutual-but-also-not-mutual pining relationship ever and its honestly kind of fun to think and read about, lol.

And after they have returned to UA, and bkg accidentally called him deku as usual instead of Izuku, his reply was a smile and "you don't have to force yourself", which...

Like, can we stop a moment and think about how Izuku never directly addressed bkg's apology? The way he said "you don't have to force yourself" as if he's given up on hoping? If I am the author and I wanted the apology moment to be the salvation the two needed, I'd definitely let Izuku accept the apology then move on. There's no point in dragging things out unless I'm preparing for a greater moment of enlightenment. Unless the reply Izuku had in his mind was not what we are expecting (acceptance).

From my pov, I think he was hesitating. He was having second thoughts and he was unsure. If it was set before the final arc, Izuku would probably immediately accept the apology, or say "I've never blamed you/been mad at you"-- no matter how we view their relationship, we can agree on that, right? But why the hesitation now??

I think we're close to the reveal of the reason for the change of mind for Izuku, judging from how the story has been building up. And I have a theory which is an unlikely one but I also really want to see if anyone else feels the same.

One of the main theme of this story, or of most stories, is the discovery of self-identity. To establish your name and develop your personality & world view and find where you belong. It's a very common theme, yeah?

MHA is a story that's defined by choices instead of predetermined fate-- todoroki chooses to use his power to neutralise but not harm (unlike what he's been taught), midoriya chooses to save eri despite nighteye telling him he couldn't do it, the LoV thinking bkg would be good villain material and him rejecting them, and the dichotomy between the heroes and the villains? It's "I choose to become what I want to be not what others (eg my father, society, etc) want me to be" versus "society called me a villain so I will be one as my revenge".

For Izuku, I’d argue that his journey of becoming himself relies on the rejection of his childhood, in which he was repeatedly told that he had no right to choose (quirkless people can't be a hero, you should kys instead, you need to become the next symbol of peace, so and so), and he needed to defy those voices and choose his own path. And as someone who played a big part in those negative voices, bkg was someone who Izuku needed to reject. (By reject, I don’t necessarily mean cut off. What I mean is that they both need to reevaluate their view towards each other and stop seeing the other as someone more/lesser, which had been a constant in their dynamic until very recently; Izuku needs to reject what bkg used to say to him and the labels that he had given him. Only with this could they achieve a healthy & balanced relationship.)

It started with him reclaiming the name deku by choosing ochako’s interpretation over bkg’s; and then cheering for todoroki when td and bk faced off in the sports festival;

And Izuku did, repeatedly. It was small but it was there, how he was trying to push the influence & shadow of bkg (his abuser) out of his personal narrative, in a passive way. It was unintentional statements and outbursts at first, and it was kind of a one step forward two steps back situation (which is common for abuse survivors who are trying to make amends), but I think he was coming to the realisation that it’s what he needed to be the hero he wanted to be.

Tbh, I really really didn’t expect this line. Like I was so so so bracing myself for midoriya to cheer for bkg but then he DIDNT and it was insane and I screamed. Anyways--

Then it escalated into deku vs bkg 2 and well, that was definitely a lot of emotional baggage to unpack. It was an incredibly painful read for me because well… the level of mental gymnastics you’d need to do in order to view the world like bkg…. bro needed the psych ward not a hero school. There were definitely a lot of moments that shippers would swoon over, but if you’d allow me to go blue curtain a bit I’d say the most important line is this one:

There was also the “it has to be you kirishima who goes to save bkg because if I was the one who’s holding out a hand he would rather die than catch it” in which, yea it was accurate assessment. But like. Anyway I don’t feel like getting into that today...

Wtf bkg? You thought of me like that?

Judging from how it’s been emphasised over and over by bkg and AM lately, Izuku changing from someone who has no regard for his own well-being will be a major plot point in this last arc, and this will likely include his relationship with people. In order to grow from being overly self-sacrificial, he will need to distance himself from people who hurt him or at least, acknowledge that people who would hurt him doesn’t care for him and move on from there. And this leads us to this line:

Prior to this, I don’t think Izuku gave too much thought to their relationship. He likely attributed all the bullying and namecalling to his quirklessness and “it’s bkg being bkg” and this was the moment when he was like, ah, so you hate me on a personal level, you pick on me not because you look down on quirkless ppl (Izuku probably internalised a lot of the shame & discrimination regarding that) but because you really hate me, midoriya izuku, specifically. You THINK I look down on you, and you THINK I get beaten up by you because it’s fun for me or something. All the while I've idolised you and looked up to you and believed so earnestly that you will be a great hero. It’s through this fight that they finally get a glimpse of what the other thinks of them and it’s when Izuku started to contemplate the definition of friendship, affection, and relationships in general. I feel like after this was when the distance between the two really showed, even though the air between them became less tense. Bkg had learned the truth of OfA, but in terms of plot progression it didn’t seem to do much for the two. The “helping deku to train” acted as a plot device to explain how he got stronger, but aside from that, how did this part contribute to Izuku’s character development?

And really, I think we are seeing bits and bits of how Izuku is mentally distancing himself from bkg (he still cares but not as much and as extreme as before), although it could just be my wishful thinking. one of the notable instances is this frame from the apology scene:

When I read this, I was like...??? So you actually know that friends aren't supposed to beat you up??? On one hand, the IRONY but on the other hand, there's a part of me that's holding out for the possibility that this is hinting at something bigger in the future. Could this statement mean that he will learn to draw a better boundary between himself and people who don't treat him fairly (which is very often)? I definitely hope so.

To be fair, I didn't remember either, so I went back and had a look:

He didn't remember. oh. my. god. You would have thought that he definitely would, but he didn't remember at all. (I ugly laughed, for a moment) Whether it was because he had too much on his mind or that he didn't exactly care is left for you to determine.

The other reason for this theory of mine was Todoroki's development after the license exam. We got to see how Izuku told Shouto it's ok to not forgive his father, but because he's "a caring person," he was waiting for an opportunity. In which, kinda a wack argument but it was indeed very much in character for him to say so.

...ok.

It was said before by many others, but the two really have a lot of parallels as well as opposites, like childhood trauma, refusing to use his quirk to the point where it hurts himself vs forced to cope with a quirk that hurts himself, and of course most importantly, learning to come to terms with your trauma and making peace with your abuser.

What Midoriya said above irked me a little, because no, you are 100% allowed to not forgive him forever and that doesn't make you a bad person, but then in the next chapter we got this:

And then we get to know exactly what Shouto was waiting for:

He was waiting for endeavour to change before deciding whether he should forgive him. In which on this aspect I really think Todoroki was coping a lot better than...... anyone else in this series even though he's often depicted as a dense & slow person. So with the parallels in mind, could this be what bkg and deku are heading towards as well? Would Izuku's mind change after witnessing the conversation between Natsuo and Enji? Could we expect more of the dirty laundry between the two will be revealed to the other characters and they will be forced to face it? Will Izuku need to do the same thing, to hold off his judgement and possibly decline the apology until bkg really has proved himself?

On bkg's side, we have been seeing a lot of references to him being the one who knows Izuku the best, even bkg himself said so. There seem to be this shift of power balance where it used to be izk chasing after bkg, and now bkg might have to chase after izk who's less interested in him now. (If this is the case, imagine the angst. The role reversal. The pining. Oh my god hori would be insane to pull this but it would be so delicious--)

In the latest chapter, we saw shigaraki declaring that he was not interested in bkg at all, aside from his relationship to Izuku. Shigaraki demonstrated his unrivalled power which gave bkg a great shock. By the presupposed logic of “the characters of mha need to learn to be something other than who they’re told to be,” for bkg who’s always been told that he would be the greatest, the most powerful, the protagonist in life, it’s probably his moment to learn how to step aside and support others (which he evidently hasn’t mastered yet, since he burnt hadou’s hair again). If I am to maximise the dramatics in this plot, I might even force him to renounce his status as a hero because I crave the poetics and the internal struggles, but that’s unlikely. However, since right now we are having two people facing off, one of which rejected Izuku’s help in their childhood, and for the other one Izuku wanted to save his childhood (The visual parallels were so blatant that there’s no way it’s not intentional) so I’m really, sincerely looking for a role reversal between Shigaraki and bkg, between a “false hero” and a villain (label wise).

Anyway, I think this is it for me today, I read the lastest chapter yesterday and there were so many thoughts on my mind and needed to vent a little (a lot)...

But then, these are all just theories and most of the time, manga theories remain to be just that. If this really happened hori will probably go to god tier author for me, but I really don't think that's gonna be the case, haha

#anti bakugo #anti bakudeku #anti bkdk #anti bakugou katsuki #lia speaks #bnha #mha #mha theory #my hero academia #mha spoilers #midoriya izuku #midoriya izuku centric #mha deku

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