D.Gray-Man 1. First Meeting

[Revised and Beta-ed by ElricSisters7 5/7/12]

Hello people of fanfiction! :) This is my first story ever on here so I hope you enjoy it…I know what you are thinking too "Uhggg another Mermaid/Merman Laven fanfiction." Well one I like those other two stories but I am not stealing their ideas, two this one is a little different, three how many vampire themed stories (not that I am complaining) for couples or even no couples are out there for any fandom? ): So be nice please

Rating- T (for bad language later)

Pairing- Lavi/!Mer!Allen (not immediately)

**Where the Land Meets Water**

**Chapter 1**

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_New Jersey -1992- November- Sandy Hook Beach-6:05am_

A short, old man with black makeup around his eyes and a small amount of hair up in a small, vertical, swirly ponytail walked down the shore with a young boy, both dressed for the chilly weather. The boy seemed to be about three years old with bright red hair and one green eye; the other was covered by an eye patch. The old man looked out at the ocean as if he was searching for something, while the boy, half asleep, only tried to keep up with the old man. Said old man stopped suddenly, and the young boy knocked into him and fell backwards to the cold, damp, sandy ground.

"Ouch, why did you stop you old panda?" the young boy asked the older man, sounding more tired than angry.

"Be quiet Deak. They are coming," the old man addressed the young boy.

"And who are "they" again?" Deak asked wiping the sand off his pants. He was cold and tired, and the only thing he wanted to do was to go back home to sleep in his warm bed, not stand with his grandfather, who wanted to meet _someone_ on the beach in _November_! Who the heck goes the beach in _November_?

The old man looked as if he was going to answer Deak, but didn't since he suddenly turned around to face the ocean, where a forming wave was coming towards them. Deak backed up, not wanting to get wet with seawater at the moment, but looked curiously at the old man, who had not moved an inch. He then looked at the forming wave, which only seemed to get larger as it approached the shore line instead of breaking like other waves. Then the mass of water stopped maybe three feet in front of the old man and time seemed to freeze around the water because it did not do anything after it stopped. There was silence for a few moments, in which Deak though that he must be still dreaming in bed because this couldn't be happening; even a three year old knew that. Then, like something out of one of those weird SiFi movies the old man said were rubbish and poisonous to the mind, the water slowly eased down, revealing a figure holding something in a nasty green coloredblanket-like thing. The figure was a thirty or something old man with black, saltwater logged hair, wearing an old, ragged grey shirt, which looked like it had seen better times. But that wasn't what attracted the attention the most of the three year old; no, it was the fact that the man had a shark-looking tail from the waist down. Clearly, the boy must be dreaming, so he pinched himself on the arm and winced at the small amount of pain, but the man was still there holding the blanket like thing in front of his grandfather.

*"Placet te videre Mana. Utinam quaerendum quae fuit quia subito?" Deak's grandfather seemed to ask the strange man-fish-thing. Deak had no idea what the heck his grandfather had just said. It seemed to be another language. He was already being trained to become the next bookman, but Deak's grandfather had only taught him English and a little Spanish and Italian so far. So he had no way of knowing what he said since it did not belong to any of those three languages. But hey, he was three, what did you want from him? Although what surprised Deak more was that the man-fish spoke back.

* " Doleo dicam breves primo intendere Linotype quidem fuit res urgeat. Populus hic usque expand satus ut longius industrias in oceans igitur ante. Questus est difficilius et magis ad loca inveniet bonum vitae. Non est admittendum eos considerare plures generis pro circum. Clan mihi plurimus iam in locis hideing sed altior et frigidior gnata superstes. Linotype paenitet me autem rogavi te adiuvet." The fish man seemed to speak with urgency, but Deak had no clue what he said. But apparently it wasn't good, because his grandfather sighed and placed a hand to his forehead, which he usually only did when Deak did a stupid thing, like spilling milk on one of his grandfathers "important" old yellow-y papers or something like that.

*" Quid cogitatis Mana possum non potero immutare aliqualiter history scis et ego ubique est iter memoriae traderetur. Etsi possum habeo nepotem FATUUS exercere Linotype esse iam," his grandfather spoke and pointed at him for a brief moment.

The fish-man looked down and then back up muttering, *" Scio multum postulat a vobis sed volo Linotype perditorum. Lorem manere linea til ora Filius meus aetatis sine duce. Novit a se defendere ab Oceano qui minantur, quippe instinctu quis sed neque a me neque clan eo manere potest. Tantum rogo te dare cibum quotidie. Rogat ut actu paulo ... Nonne," he finished, chuckling at the end… Or at least what Deak assumed to be chuckling because it sounded like a cross between a seal dying and a bird chirping… If that even made any more since then the strange thing he was experiencing, while his grandfather acted if this was something that happened daily! Like talking to the mailman briefly or something!

*" Manebo solus maritimam vsque Parturiunt nepos vertit ergo per octo curam possit ... nata sunt superflua de Linotype in regionibus circa orbem ora America deest, et ego maneat nisi ex ideo. Sed moneo si quid modo Mana alibi subit relinquemus nata ire soli recitare," his grandfather said looking at the fish-man.

Fishy-man sighed and nodded, then placed the small greenish bundle in the small pool of water near his shark tail and took the blanket thing away. Deak then saw what was wrapped so tightly within it. It was a small baby, maybe a month old, with a patch of white on its almost equally pale skinned head and a light silver tail coming from the waist down instead of legs. The baby-fish-thing had very large blue-grey eyes, which peered around its surroundings before looking up at the much larger fish-man making a mouse-like sound. Deak unconsciously took a step towards the fish-baby to observe it more. The action made it squeak and lean back, but then it started to wiggle towards him. The fish-man looked at him seriously, but, curious of what Deak and his offspring would do. Bookman, on the other hand,was observing what would happen, ready to pull Deak back if he did anything stupid or offensive like he usually did.

Instead, Deak kneeled down and reached for the baby creature, holding his little hand out for him. The little being wiggled forwards more and rested its head on Deak's palm, looking directly at him with grey-blue eyes. Bookman sighed at the sight, knowing he would have to keep them separated, or Deak may start to develop useless feelings. But that would also mean Bookman himself would have to take care of the little fish creature on his own while teaching Deak how to learn new languages and record history. No rest for the elderly is there?

*- spoken in Latin; explanation in later chapters

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Ok so review if you like or hate I don't care. Constructive criticism is nice though ;)


	2. Second Meeting

_North Carolina, June 12, 2011, Northeastern regional airport, 11:52 am. _

People flooded the parking area of the Northeastern Regional airport to meet friends, family members, business associates looking for other associates, people holding up signs for the newly arrived passengers, and people getting ready to board the next flight out to where ever they are going.

In all the chaos of everyone else walking around, an 18 year old with wild red hair, an emerald colored eye, with a suitcase and a red backpack is lazily scanning the parking lot looking for his panda looking grandfather with his one eye.

Fixing his backpack over his shoulder he walking in the direction towards a bench to wait a bit for his grandfather, after being on a flight from his high school in Rome to his grandfather's house in North Carolina.

Moving his backpack to his lap he pulls out his Droid phone and shifts the time back to American Eastern Standard time instead of Rome's. And just as he is about to put it away it starts to ring. Groaning he hits a button on the phone and hold it up to his ear.

"Hello this is Lavi, awesome, Bookman, who is the person calling my number?" Lavi asks going back to scanning the crowd of people.

The caller on the other end of the line giggles before saying, "It's me Lavi, Leenalee. I'm guessing your back in North Carolina?"

Leenalee was one of the many friends he had back in Black Order High School in Rome before he graduated. She was the one who kept another one of his friends from killing him on many occasions. She was one of his few female friends who he did not flirt with, and came to think of her as a younger sister.

"Hey Lena-lady! How are you doin? You back in the states or are you in China with your nutty-brother on the crazy robot expo-thingy-which-I-forget-the name of…." Lavi asked. He really didn't forget the name of the expo but he really didn't want to have to say its name again….there had to be a law that stated that a expo's name can't have more than ten words in it….

"No, I'm back in California with Kanda, Fou, Bak, and Miranda. Remember we left two days ahead of you since you had to clean your dorm and throw out all those girls' phone numbers that were **everywhere**. Did you even call back half of them?"

"Ummm, maybe….That is none of your business Leenalee! Sigh….Anyway you guys going to come visit me this summer or are you going to leave me to that old panda's claws this whole summer? Seriously, I have to go back here for more "Bookman training" as he says" Lavi muttered the last part spotting an old looking man with black markings around his eyes.

"Yes Lavi we will, I promise. And don't call Bookman an old panda you haven't seen or spoke with him in four years….you probably need that training anyway….Oh no... Lavi I need to go Miranda just dropped something expensive; I'll call you on Wednesday. Bye!" The line went dead before Lavi could say anything back. Another sigh and he pocketed his phone and got up to go meet up with the old panda.

When they had gotten maybe a foot away from each other before Bookman kicked Lavi in the face sending him backwards making him fall back on his butt on the pavement.

"Ow! Old panda what the heck was that for? I'm not here for more than half an hour and you kick me in the face!" Lavi shouted wiping his nose making sure it wasn't bleeding. He didn't do anything wrong!

" You good for nothing apprentice you left a garbage bag full of rotting food in your room when you left and you left all of your reeking clothes everywhere! And who did you think picked them up? Not you, you idiotic grandson, I had to!" Bookman angrily shouted at Lavi whacking him upside the head repeatedly. Most people would stop and stare at this scene but no, everyone else carried on their merry way like it wasn't happening at all.

After Bookman stopped abusing Lavi's poor head he went back to a stoic standing stance like nothing had happened. Lavi on the other head was rubbing his head trying to ignore the pain worse than Yu whacking him with Mugen. Bookman waited for Lavi to pick up his useless things (Lavi- HEY!) before walking back towards his Chevy to drive back home with his apprentice/grandson. Did you really think he would let Lavi drive?

Bookman lived on Surfside Drive* right near a dock for fisherman to go out to sea or pedestrians just wanting to go out on the water for a day (that lived around that area; mind you it doesn't get a ton of tourists who are going down by the beaches to relax). Lavi's grandfather mainly lived there in case some other bookmen came to give him information, learn information from him, and tell him of important events happening in the bookmen community, etcetera. The Bookman clan hasn't really updated their means of technology so it was still mail and people knocking on your front door with no notice.

It wasn't really something Lavi understood, he thought staying in the old ways were kind of idiotic, not that he would speak that out loud Bookman would give him another whack to the head with a very long speech he probably had heard about fifty times.

Bookman told him there was another reason but he wouldn't understand until he was older. But he was eighteen (going on nineteen*) now so he would understand what it was, it was the bookman clan everything made sense for one reason or another, well according to Bookman.

So as Bookman pulled into the driveway (after severely quiet drives mind you) Lavi brought up the question of "So…..you going to tell me the other reason why you live I this place yet panda?" Earning him another kick to the head, seriously he was going to be black and blue before he even got to his old room!

Bookman sighed and muttered something in German, which Lavi knew mind you, but to quiet for Lavi to hear accurately.

"Yes, you idiot I will after you get your junk you call possessions out of the car and into your temporary room."

"It's not ju- wait "temporary"? What do you mean temporary you said I needed more Bookman training and all that."

" I did, that does not mean you live in this house lounging around like a lazy bum. You are getting a job to support yourself on your own. One of the rules as a bookman is to not depend on anyone for anything since that could interfere with history. I thought I drilled that into your block of wood head of yours Junior."

"Yeah, yeah, so how long til you kick me to the curb old man?"

"July first at 3pm, unless you find someone who will hire a slacker like you."

"What? That's only ten days; some people don't find jobs for years!"

" Yes but you are not "some person" Lavi, you are a bookman's apprentice, bookman need to travel and situate themselves in only hours at certain places, be glad I'm giving you ten days." Bookman spoke before unlocking the door to his one story temporary house.

The inside of the house had five rooms; a kitchen, library, bathroom, and two bedrooms. It wasn't a house most people would buy since it lacked a dining room, den, and living room but it was cheap and it worked for Bookman. The whole place was clean except for a new book on the kitchen table. Lavi went over to check what it was but he got a punch to a head before he was three feet from it.

"Get your things into your room then you can read it." Bookman said sternly walking towards the wooden door of the library.

"I'm presuming that hold the answer to the second reason you live here gramps?" Lavi asked rubbing the back of his head, eyeing the book, and then bringing his stuff to the bedroom on the right of the library.

"Yes you idiot it does, also do not ask me any questions until you are finished with it." Bookman said sharply before closing the door to the library.

Lavi rolled his eyes before unzipping his suit case taking the haphazardly thrown clothes out of there and into a mahogany dresser drawer. The room was pretty simple one window on the left side of the room, which the dresser was on the left side of, a Spartan style bed pushed up against the wall farthest from the door, and a bookcase full of books on the right side of the room. The walls were painted a pale blue and the floor was wooden.

After Lavi was finished unpacking he went back out to the kitchen and grabbed the book looking at its cover. The book was a red with a blue binding. He flipped to the first page finding that the book only had a horizontal line in the middle of the page with the words "This Book Belongs To" above it. Lavi then flipped to the next page with the knowledge that people often didn't fill in their names. But the next page only had blank notebook like paper, the same with the next, and the one after that, and the one after that. Lavi, being annoyed and aggravated, hastily flipped the pages faster and faster before he got to the back cover of the book which had a tiny sticky-note on it.

Lavi picked it off and held it so he could see the tiny hand writing on it. _"Idiot apprentice, find a quiet place to think and figure out what the hidden meaning of this is. – Bookman #42 of 1923(*)" _Lavi quirked an eyebrow in confusion, find the hidden meaning in a blank book that was suppose to give him an answer to something? Did Bookman not have another reason for staying here and was pulling Lavi's leg all these years? No, Bookman wasn't the jokester…So that left that he was actually serious about it. With a sigh Lavi pictured quickly in his mind (thanks to his photographic memory thank you very much) what places in North Carolina he had seen that would be good thinking places.

The image of the hidden beach near the house was a good enough spot; there were no people, animals, or anything else that could distract him from figuring this puzzle out. So Lavi waltzed out the door and shut it behind him, knowing Bookman would unlock it for him, since the last time he had taken a key to one of the houses they stayed it he lost it at a subway. Let's just say he had a headache worse than a hangover after that.

Arriving at the beach Lavi sat on the dry sand about six feet away from where the waves were able to reach. He plopped the book open to the first page and stared at for a while thinking. _Did Bookman get this from someone and wanted to return it? No, Bookman wouldn't do that; it would hook him to an area and people. Did he buy it for someone? For whom though, not himself he had plenty of logs to categorize history in_. Lavi continued to think oblivious that the sun was setting and the waves where approaching closer to him. After a while he fell on his back asleep. He had been awake for over twenty hours and was exhausted. (Being awake in North Carolina, on the flight, and getting ready for the flight, would do that to someone)

Lavi was awakened by _something _jabbing his right cheek with something cold and wet. He swatted whatever it was away with his hand and tried to drift back to sleep. But then his senses told him he was in at least four inches of salt water on wet sand. He jolted up to see dark water all around him and although it felt shallow he could not see the main land behind him anymore since it was pitch black out. Startles Lavi looked around to see where civilization was but then came face to face with what was jabbing him in the face…..it was a piece of drift wood, a small piece at that it was as thin as a pencil but pretty pointy. Lavi unconsciously felt his cheek for blood, thankful that there was none.

He scooted back so that he could scout out where lights from the mainland could be seen but instantly his back met with something soft but cool and damp. Turning around slowly Lavi came face to face with twin blue grey shinning eyes on a pearl like face. He instantly jumped back away from the person who was in the back of him. He then realized that said person was holding a small glowing ball that gave off a white light. Why had he not seen the light before in the pitch black darkness was it just turned on or something?

He then had to take another look at the _person_ who he now realized had a silver fish tail coming out from the torso instead of legs. (A/N It was originally going to stop there but that would be mean :3) The _person _also had white hair, two equally white arms(**) that had side fins coming of them, two silvery fairy like fins on the upper back, with a tight fitting blue shirt with no sleeves (***) also; the _person_ appeared male but was pretty feminine looking.

The Bookman-in-training quickly did the math and came up with this was a mermaid, or more accurately a merman. Oh and they weren't suppose to **exist**! Lavi didn't how long he was sitting there with his mouth open like a fish ( No pun intended) but was brought back to "reality" when the white haired merman held out the red and blue book still dry. Lavi reached out and took it looking curiously at the merman. Said merman watched Lavi's hand take the book then back to Lavi's eye.

"Um….Thank you?" Lavi said awkwardly.

The merman nodded then pointed behind him. Lavi looked but there was nothing but pitch blackness, the little light the merman as holding only seemed to give off light in a two foot radius. Lavi was going to ask what the merman meant but the small light was placed on top of the book and pointed behind himself again.

Lavi nodded, not sure what he was nodding for, and got up and started to walk in that direction. The shallow water seemed to thin out even more as he walked farther and after what seemed to be a twenty minute he had reached dry sand, also he could not see the faint light of Bookman's front porch light on. He turned around to see the merman but he was gone and the light he had given Lavi had gone out revealing it to be a scale, a silver one about half an inch wide and an inch long ending in a point.

Lavi flipped the scale over inspecting it and saw tiny scribbles on what seemed to be the underside of the scale since it was softer than the opposite side. His decided that either he was dreaming, hallucinating, dead, crazy, or one hell of a lucky apprentice to see a merman.

Oh my fingers, I think they are broken! So yeah, this story will be updated monthly, thank you BrokenHeartedExorcist, paku700, and haku fan 1, for reviewing and all you awesome people for putting this story on their favorites/story alerts! It made me very happy

*- That is actually a street in North Carolina near the ocean that had a boating dock.

*- Lavi's birthday is in August

*- Keep that number in mind it is explained later

**- No I am not stupid I know Allen has a cursed arm/ his innocence that comes later!

***- Remember when Allen was at the Asian Branch? Yeah that shirt, that comes in later also :3


	3. Chapter 3

_North Carolina, June 13__th__, 2011,__ Surfside Drive, Bookman's house, 2:38am_

Lavi entered the door, wet, disoriented, and confused. He glanced at the table in the kitchen; the small chandelier like light over it was on, shining a low light over a plate of food. The plate had on it chicken with seasoning on it, mashed potatoes, and string beans. All of which were cold and hard since they had most likely been out for hours in the air conditioned house. But none of this was important to Lavi right now, what was, he had held in his right hand, the small silver scale from the mermaid. Man. Boy. Whatever that creature was! Lavi pinched his cheek with the hand that wasn't holding the scale but the book the merboy had returned to him. Nope he wasn't dreaming. Wait, returned?

Lavi quickly sprinted to the kitchen table in his salt water drenched clothing and flipped the book open to the first page of blank paper…It was still blank. He sighed and placed the book down on the table and gently placed the silver scale on top of it the soft part up, so the squiggles were visible. Lavi stared at it for a good thirty seconds before remembering that he was still wet dripping sea water onto the white tile floor.

With a sigh he grabbed the book (scale still on it) and walked to his room to change into some sleepwear. He flipped on the light switch, turning on his small lamp on his dresser, and placed the book on top of his dresser drawer (clutter free for now) and pulled out the top and bottom drawer grabbing some black boxers, grey sweat pants, and white T-shirt. Throwing the drenched clothing into a foldable hamper he had brought back from his high school dorm. He pulled on the dry clothing and grabbed the scale and plopped down onto his bed. The squiggles formed a sun with swirly rays coming from it. Lavi shifted it this and that way, turned it over, tapped it, flicked it, bended it (which it did like a thick piece of plastic and went back to its semi-curved state) and blew on it. Nothing really extraordinary happened. Lavi sighed and went to lean back on his bed when the side of the scale brushed against his index finger on his right hand. Instant pain. He dropped the scale with a yelp and gripped his hand with his left to inspect his finger. It was fine except for a cut that ran horizontally on the inside of his finger that dripped crimson blood. He groaned and got up to get a bandage from the bathroom when he looked at the floor where the scale had fallen. It was glowing a red light, which changed to blue, then faded back to its original silver coloring but now the symbol was a different shape. It was now a small tear drop like shape.

Lavi picked it up carefully and re-inspected it (not cutting any fingers again) and placed it back down on his dresser, before he headed for the bathroom_. Mermaids don't exist, mermen, don't exist, mythical creatures don't exist they are all stories told by old drunken men of ancient times. Then why the heck did I lay eyes on one and have a weird-glowing-symbol-changing-sharp scale from one? Am I going insane? Did one of the fight attendants slip something into my air line food? Did I drown in the ocean and now I'm dead and floating around as a ghost? _

_Sigh. Calm down Lavi, going drastically insane over this will get you nowhere. Think reasonably; it could be someone trying to play tricks on people late at night on the beach. They would just need to make a tail out of sequence and things. The scale could be a new advancement in technology or something. You go to sleep now and it will just go away, it was a onetime thing. You will never see that kid again. _Lavi thought as he wrapped the bandage around his finger, entered his room flipping off the light switch, and lay in his bed under the covers. Closing his eyes drifting into a dreamless abyss called sleep.

The next morning Lavi yawned, looked at his Droid phone which presented in white numbers 9:45am. He sighed and sat up rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, then getting out of bed to head to the kitchen for some breakfast. But before he could even get past his door way he was met face to face, well really face to foot with Bookman. Holding his nose he shot a look up at his grandfather who was standing still peering down at him.

"What was that for you old coot?" Lavi shouted at Bookman.

"That, idiot, was for trailing ocean water into my house at such an early hour in the morning."

"That's what I get for coming back after nearly being swept out to sea, which I probably would have been eaten by sharks or some other sea creature?"

"Yes, because how that would have happened in the first place, only due to your own stupidity."

"I fell asleep! Anyone would fall asleep on the beach after being awake for twenty hours!"

"Is that so?"

"Yes it is!"

That earned Lavi another kick to the head.

"I think not, grandson."

Lavi only grumbled angrily and got up and stomped over to the kitchen.

He pulled some waffles out of the fridge and put them in the toaster. Then getting maple syrup, milk, a glass cup, paper plate, fork and knife out and setting them all down on the table, save the plate.

While he was waiting for his waffles to pop up Bookman came into the room with a map, a bus card, and a business card and set them on the table diagonal to Lavi's items.

"What's all that for gramps? Going somewhere?" Lavi asked anger lacing his words after getting hit in the head twice within two minutes before breakfast.

"I am not, but you are." Bookman said going towards the coffee mug next to the toaster.

"What! Why am I? I just got back from school and need to start looking for a job before you kick me to the curb in nine days!"

"You are because I need to stay here and record history in this state. Also if you do this I will extend your job searching time another fifteen days."Bookman said drinking the dark brown steaming liquid.( Ew coffee)

Lavi's eye widened but then it slanted while his arms crossed.

"There is a catch, what is it I have to do?" Lavi asked slowly.

"A retired bookman who is my comrade has a bed and breakfast in Maryland right next to a dock. But it specializes in having international food on the menu, and is running out of fresh ingredients."

"So why don't they just go to the supermarket and get some more?" Lavi interrupted

"Well if you would let me finish I will explain." Bookman shot a glare at his grandson who sighed and muttered a "Go on."

"My comrade does not trust food packaged from out of state anymore and gets everything fresh from the sea, her garden, and a few trusted import companies. She needs more sea food ingredients and can obtain most through the import companies but she always uses crabs from the dock she is next to."

"So why can't she just get someone to get the crabs, or better yet save some money by doing it herself." Lavi asked pouring his milk into the glass cup and heading back to the fridge to put it away.

"Because she doesn't have the time to, she has back problems, and her granddaughter is away staying with her parents for a few days in Sweden."

"So then take crab dishes off the menu for a little while til her granddaughter comes back."

"She does not have the time to look for someone to do it in mid June, mainly because the majority of the population where she is are farmers and are too busy watering the crops and taking care of their animals. So she asked me if I could lend a pair of hands."

"Meaning me, great. Fine I'll do it will give me more time to look for a job after I come back. So when am I off gramps?" Lavi asked slumping into his chair.

"In three hours your first but will leave so, approximately two hours and forty minutes."

"Wonderful." Was the only word that escaped Lavi's mouth before banging his head on the table and resting it there.

The toaster thought then was a good time to pop up the waffles.

_Maryland, June 13__th__ 2011, The Mansion House: Bed and Breakfast, Lobby, 4:54pm_

"I am very thankful for your help Lavi." An old female Swedish accent said softly.

Bookman's comrade was an eighty year old woman named Alva. She had dirty blond hair pulled back into a bun with steaks of grey littering it, she was wearing a old Swedish dress which usually were seen on old dolls and pictures, minus the head garment. Her face was wrinkles but her blue eyes were bright as stars on a black canvas sky, devoted of clouds. She also wore rectangular glasses that sat near the end of her slightly hooked nose.

"No problem Alva, thanks for letting me stay here overnight." Lavi said smiling brightly. In he wore a blue T-Shirt and denim shorts. In his left hand was a worn out blue metal bucket that had a bit of rust and dents in it, a small pole with a green net at the end of it, as well as a string with a large hook at the end of it. In his right hand however there was a large Styrofoam cup with a white lid on it, and a pair of white latex gloves sat upon it.

"Now, you do know how to crab right?" Alva asked walking with Lavi towards the front door.

"Oh yeah, I use to do it when I was younger." Lavi replied.

"Well try to have fun with it then, and thank you again." The old Swedish woman said softly, waving her hand at Lavi's retreating back as he walked down the dock, then closing the door.

Lavi sighed and sat down on the edge of the dock untangling the string that extended about three meters, three meters of faded white twine like string. After which he put on one of the gloves on his left hand and with his right lifted the top of the Styrofoam container off.

(WARNING: If anyone reading this has never gone crabbing this may disgust you!)

Inside there being chicken livers about the size of silver dollar, a brownish color sitting in a almost as brown liquid. Lavi shuttered as he used his gloved hand to hook the liver onto the sharp hook. Then he snapped the hook into a tiny half circle like thing so the bait would not fall off. Then he slowly fed the string into the waves below. He continued until the string began to bend in the air signaling that the hook and bait had reached the bottom. He pulled up a little so the line was perfectly strait and held it there between his pointer finger and thumb of his right ungloved hand.

The other one occupying itself with putting the lid back on the bait so the sea gulls, which were scattered about, could not steal it. He had spent time in the supermarket getting those chicken livers getting a lot of odd stares from many people who were not aware of crabbing, not that he cared though. Those were peoples' opinions which were the same ones that biased history of all sorts. Only seeing from their point of view and not both sides of the coin, as he learned growing up. Lavi shook his head of these thoughts as he felt multiple small tugs on his line. There _was a crab on the end_, was what flashed through his mind as he slowly pulled the string up, not to scare the crab away as he grabbed the net and put it in the water near the line. Soon enough the crab came up munching away on the bait, then let go as Lavi scooped it into the net.

It was a small-ish crab about three inches long. But it was a crab, Lavi though before tossing it into the bucket. This cycle went on for about two hours before Lavi was getting tired and throwing the crabs, which he deemed too small, started to grow larger. Aggravated he plopped the line back into the water not going to pull it up until there was a large crab at the end of it, simply scaring the large ones away by shaking the line fiercely.

Ten minutes went by.

Then twenty.

Thirty was the amount of minutes he thought he should go back to the bed and breakfast. But was he began to get up, grabbing the bucket full of thirteen or so crabs a severely strong pull on the line, which had managed it's was around Lavi's left foot, pulled him and the bucket of crabs into the water.

_Oh are you serious? I'm going to die because a shark or something pulled me in and is going to eat me? _Were Lavi's thoughts as he was being pulled away from the docks underwater trying to get the string off his leg. But as time crept towards over a minute Lavi's head hit thick piece of floating drift wood he began to lose conscience. His vision turning black. But before he fully went under he saw a silver shimmering tail.

_Air. Alive. Breathing. Rock. Solid. Sandy. Cool. Head hurting. Damp. _

Were words that were words thrown around Lavi's head, struggling to wake from his unconscious state. He cracked his eye open to be met with the brown rock ceiling of a cave. He slowly sat up looking around to only be met with the interior cave walls of the same color stone. How was he getting air? He looking back at the ceiling, four points on the rounded roof rock were baseball sized holes.

Walking over to them Lavi saw the dim light shining out of it, he tries two others with the same result but then looked at the one farthest from where he woke up. Below it was a small gap of rock, only to be filled with dark ocean water. He could see from the light spilling in from the peep holes but that was only illuminating so much. He sat back down on the smooth rock floor, with was clean save for some sand. Then two pretty slim books, notepad, and a small suitcase caught his eye. Walking over to the books and examining their covers, which were both written in Latin. One labeled, "Trusted humans and dangerous ones", the other labeled "Mer-people hiding spots/ colonies/and ruler names. As of 1994"

Lavi merely raised an eyebrow at this and put the books back in their place. He was reaching for the suitcase when a splashing sound was heard. When he turned around he saw the same merboy who he had encountered in North Carolina. The same snowy white hair, blue grey eyes, pearly completion, and the same silvery tail sticking out of the small pool.

Lavi slowly got back up as the merboy's eyes followed his movements.

"Err, hello?" Lavi asked in English.

The white haired merboy raised his hand and waved.

"Oh good you speak English. Um, I'm presuming you brought me here?" Lavi asked not moving from his spot.

His response was only another nod. The young merboy reached his left hand back into the pool, only to come back up with the blue rusted bucket, filled to the rim with large crabs. At least two times as big as the ones he had caught.

The merboy used his unoccupied hand to beckon Lavi over. Hesitantly Lavi slowly ventured over to the merboy. Said merboy placed the bucket of crabs in front of Lavi's tennis shoes. Lavi took the bucket and muttered a quiet "thank you."

Then the white haired merboy pointed to the notepad, then back to him. Getting the idea, Lavi walked to the notepad but glanced behind him at the merboy every few steps though. As he picked the notepad was picked up the bucket was placed back down he noticed a couple sharpies. He picked those up also and went back to the merboy. When he was close enough the merboy reached out both of his arms. Lavi noticed that the merboy had slim fingers and silver grey webbing in-between every finger including his thumbs which seemed to have the most webbing.

He placed the items in the merboy's hands that then put the sharpies down at the stony edge of the pool and flipped to the first page of the notepad and took the black sharpie. Then after a little he picked up the blue sharpie, then red and orange. After he placed the Orange sharpie down he flipped the note book to Lavi who was sitting cross legged about three feet from the pool's edge.

The picture was that of two buckets scribbled in blue with two equal signs, one equal sign had a red slash through it not unlike a do not walk sign with a red circle with the line through it. Then there was a small crab and a large crab( or at least that was what he assumed they were) on the other side of the equal signs, the small one next to the one with the red slash through the equals sign.

_Big crabs go in bucket, small crabs don't I'm presuming._ Lavi though as he nodded at the merboy.

"I was not able to get any large crabs while crabbing. I'm sorry if it angered you?" Lavi said calmly, which was the opposite of how he was reacting on the inside.

_They are not supposed to exist. Then why is the one in front of me. Why did it take me here and give me that scale back at Gramp's place. Some stories say that mermaids dragged sailors to their death. Those were females though. Is he going to eat me? Am I going to be stuck here?_

Lavi looked at his shoes subconsciously while thinking but then felt a cool damp finger poke at his cheek. This caused him to jump back and look at the merboy.

He was frowning with his eye lids halfway dropping over his eyes, the definition of hurt, was what was next to come to Lavi's mind.

"Um, I need to get back to the dock." Lavi said. He didn't really want to get away from the merboy, but if he attacked him he wouldn't be able to run away too well since the cave had no real exits besides the pool. Which brings up the question; how did I get here without drowning? The last conscience that Lavi had was being dragged under water at least seven hundred thousand feet from any solid land, not counting the dock. The merboy looked down sadly and nodded, looked back up, then reached out his hand for Lavi to take.

Hesitantly to take it, Lavi took the merboy's hand, only to be forcefully pulled forward towards the pool. He only had the time to put his left hand (the other in the tight grip of the merboy) so water wouldn't rush into them. The water was freezing, dark, salty, and painful to Lavi's eye, but he still kept it open for any light from the surface. (Which he would swim to since that merboy might drown him like those old fish tails no pun intended of sailors being dragged to their watery graves.)

But all he saw was black, black, and on yeah black; water all around, even though they were obviously swimming in some direction for over thirty seconds. _How deep am I underwater? The water pressure doesn't feel that much but- oh no. Losing too much air, I'm going to go unconscious again._

Then Lavi felt a webbed hand go over his own on his face. It removed his own hand on his face and then something warm but wet was put to his lips as he was being pulled through the water. It forced oxygen into his mouth, making him force the used air out through his nose. But the oxygen was only forced through every fifteen seconds in a pattern. But soon a light appeared in front of Lavi's eye forcing him to close it from the brightness. But when he reopened it there was some visibility in the murky water, but not enough that it was like looking through glass. But he could make out the face so close to his giving him oxygen and the three slotted gills going sideways opening and closing quickly on the merboy's neck.

_CPR underwater, air is needed for two people meaning lungs are put through twice as much work than usual. His gills must be taking through twice as much water; also he is propelling us through the water._

It was about two more minutes before Lavi's head was above the water. As soon as his mouth was above it the merboy detached his mouth from Lavi's and back a little bit away. Only about five inches though since he was still holing Lavi's right hand in his left webbed one. Lavi watched as the merboy looked behind them and about three hundred feet away was the silhouette of the Bed and Breakfast and dock.

Lavi, who was still re-catching his breath, was relived to be out from being pulled under water. The merboy though took Lavi's left hand and put it in front of him then reached behind him for Lavi's right hand.

Lavi then realized that the merboy had his back facing him and both arms over his shoulders, hands resting on the merboy's collarbone.

_Grab your hands under my neck and get close to my back._

_What the-_

Before Lavi could even comprehend what was happening the merboy dock took off across the water skimming across it like a speedboat or Jet Ski. Lavi locked his hands on instinct and in about maybe fifteen seconds they were under the dock. The dock had a small slide leading off of it for people to slide into the water and play, but it also had a small staircase on the right side of it; which was where the merboy drifted towards.

_You can let go now. The bucket of crabs is on the first step. I apologize for dragging you through the water. I hope you can forgive me._

Was heard in Lavi's head before the merboy nodded his head and plunged his top half back into the water making a dolphin like move, showing his silver tail then swam away.

And the only thought that registered, after all that, in Lavi's mind at that moment was-

_I just got kissed by a merboy._

**OMG that is finally done! YAY! That took forever! No really it did. Sorry this is being updated so late in the month but I am on my second vacation in 5 weeks. Each lasting a week, so no writing time for OCC. D:**

**So yeah Gomenasi! ****I'll try to be better about this next chapter coming earlier!**

**Oh! And thank you all of you people who reviewed/faved/and alerted my story it makes me so happy! :'D **

**And remember this is updated MONTHLY!**

**Oh and the bed and breakfast IS an actual place 8D I just saw it though~ ^^;**


	4. Confusion

_North Carolina, June 23__rd__, 2011, Surfside Drive, 3:24pm._

Lavi sighed and slumped down onto his bed closing his eyes and mused over what had happened the last few days. It was Thursday; nine days after Lavi came back from Alva's bed and breakfast, since he had stayed the night. Four days after Lenalee had called him and told him that she and Fou were visiting him from California on Wednesday. One day after the old panda had left for a meeting with the Bookman clan, which he said he would be gone for ten days for. Ten days after he was taken underwater by a merboy.

Groaning Lavi glanced at his laptop. It was on one of eight tabs on mermaids. All at the end said that they were folklore, faked by someone, or were manatees. Google was not a very reliable search engine for this type of thing. As he rapidly hit the back arrow on his computer screen. He looked to the search URL to see the English letters "Mermaids"….the most he got from that were fan made websites and Wikipedia pages. Which he didn't trust since **anyone** could change, add, delete, etcetera to that page.

He also went to Google images to see if anyone had spotted his merboy. Wait. When the heck did it become his? He though with his head in his hands, sighing. The pictures, if not made by people, were fake shriveled up things which had no resemblance to hi- the merboy, in size or shape.

Rubbing his eye after staring at the computer screen for so long he thought of how many days he had left to find a job. It had been ten days. Bookman had originally given him eighteen days. He now had twenty three days, thank you Alva, to get a job. He groaned for what seemed to be the hundredth time that day after so many disappointing websites. He sat up on his bed and swung his legs over the side of it and started to pull on his boots. He wanted out of the house to clear his mind. When he reached the door he saw that it was raining. _Perfect_, he though, grabbing the small dark blue umbrella next to the coat rack and big red umbrella lazily. He walked out onto the sidewalk letting his leg take him wherever the heck they wanted.

His mind was busy musing over the memories forever seared into his brain because of his photographic memory. He pictured the faces of his friends, his grandfather, his old teachers, girls he use to flirt with, the merboy-…..he **really **did not need to think about the merboy right now. His legs stopped after a while and he looked at his surroundings. He was on the beach close to the angry looking crashing grey waves. He slapped himself in the head with his right hand.

"Why of all places the beach?" he muttered quietly. He couldn't help but look at the waves going on for what seemed to be forever across the horizon. To the left of him there were only large black rocks, smoothed over in some places by the waves over time, other places still pretty sharp. He looked behind him; no one else was on the beach, especially in such weather.

But he then heard a small noise that sounded like a cross between a yelp and whine. It stopped then though and the only noise was the rain pelting his umbrella and the crashing waves. He started to walk back to the house when the noise was heard again louder this time, it seemed to be coming from the rocks. Lavi, against better judgment walked over to the rocks inspecting them for anything that could make that noise, a bird maybe? He went around the rocks to the side that was being pounding by waves and stopped.

It was the merboy tangled in a green fishing net struggling every which way to get free, being wacked by the waves ever few seconds. It was obviously a losing battle for the merboy. Lavi watched for a moment before the merboy turned his head to get it out of the net and made eye contact with Lavi. The merboy stopped all movement and stared at Lavi for a few seconds, before being hit with another wave making him slip off the rocks into the waves.

Lavi watched the spot he had fallen in for a good thirty seconds before abandoning his umbrella and jumping in after the merboy.

_Wait what the heck am I doing? He can breathe under water!... but he was tangled in the fishing net, and some fish need to move to breath like a shark. But he didn't look shark-ish! Damn it._

Lavi thought as he was being pulled back into the deeper parts of the ocean by the strong waves and currents. He broke the surface for a few moments taking in large gasps of air before being pulled back under water. Despite the salinity of the water and how murky it was Lavi opened his eye a little bit and searched for the merboy. He spotted him two feet below him struggling on the sand, eyes wide open, franticly moving in the net. Lavi looked back up and could see the ripples of the rain hitting the surface maybe four feet above him; which he swam towards.

He broke the surface yet again, took a large gulp of air and dived back down to get to the merboy. Said merboy was still struggling in the net bubbles coming from it at a steady pace. Lavi grabbed some of the net and tried pulling it upwards with him towards the surface. But it was futile, the merboy struggling, and the weight of the water over him, not to mention his lack of air made it impossible. So he quickly abandoned that idea. His lungs began to burn without oxygen, he was about to start swimming to the surface yet again when a broken half of a large clam shell caught his eye.

It was white with pieces of black on it, but that's not was caught Lavi's attention, it was broken along the side making it very sharp. Quickly he grabbed it and took a piece of the net again but this time started to pull from under it so the sharp side was ripping at it. Thankfully it broke with ease. Lavi did this about eleven more times before he used the sea floor to launch himself up toward the surface; his left hand still clutching the shell tightly. For the last time his head broke the surface, Lavi gasped for breath yet again, wheezing to stop the burning of his lungs. His legs kicking franticly under him so he could keep his head above the water. But a large wave knocked him under water again anyway making his mouth and some of his lungs fill with salt water.

Then suddenly he felt a skinny pair of arms come under his armpit and lifted him upwards where his head soon broke the surface again where he coughed and gagged water coming out of his mouth as he breathed in air. He was held up like that for a moment before the right arm was removed from under his left arm and felt a warm and wet had on his face.

Lavi opened his left eye to see worried but thankful grey orbs looking straight at him under soaked white hair. Lavi then looked at the right hand under his eye. The merboy's hands could have passed off for normal human hands if they hadn't had the silver webbing in between the fingers. The hand then was then retracted from his face but stayed in between them about chest height. For some reason Lavi pulled his left hand out of the water and pressed it to the merboy's own hand. Lavi's hand was bigger by about half an inch from each of the merboy's finger tips. They stayed like that for a few minutes; both beings eyes and eye stared at the two hands. But that was interrupted by a wave launching them onto the sea shore, thankfully onto the wet sand and not the rocks. But that didn't mean it didn't hurt. Lavi groaned and wiped the sand, or at least tried to with his right hand off his face, but only succeeded in getting more sand smeared across his face. Lavi heard the merboy groan and saw him sitting up on the thicker part of his tail, near where his human like skin met silver scales. He was holding his head , his hair had a lot of sand in it. Meaning he had landed on his head most likely.

Because of his bookman training Lavi examined the merboy's visible body that was now beached o the sand. The scales looked like they were painted on they were so tightly packed next to each other but they looked very thin and the tail had gotten smaller the further down until it ended in what looked like a snake's tail. But attached to that was a translucent silver fin that had silver barbs that arched outward right and left. The barbs were thickest at the snake like tail where they seemed to start. But at the spot where the barbs and snake like tail met were some cuts oozing red blood onto the sand. Most likely caused by the fishing net and the merboy's struggling. Lavi didn't notice but he was leaning closer to the merboy every second, the merboy of course did and half flopped, half jumped backward onto the sand when Lavi's hand had scooted to close to his injured tail.

This surprised Lavi and took his hand back in shock. The merboy's chest was going up and down a bit quicker than he had seen. They it stuck him; the merboy was using the nose to breath instead of the slotted gills on the side of his neck, which were now almost closed. They were a tiny bit apart, about a playing card's width.

Then for some reason Lavi's hand went to the merboy's tail about six inches away from the cuts and placed it down on the merboy's scaly tail. These seemed to calm the merboy down for what it was worth and remained still looking at Lavi's hand and briefly to Lavi's face very couple of seconds. Lavi's hands went down to about a centimeter away from the wounds and inspected them. They were shallow but long and crossing one another. Around the tail Lavi counted five scratch like wounds.

_Nothing some disinfectant spray, water, and bandages won't fix…..or at least on a human._ Lavi thought to himself. Unfortunately for them the rain was starting to let up, meaning people, mainly kid and teens, would start to come out of their houses to play and hang with their friends. And Lavi had an injured merboy on the beach.

_Well then I'll just put him back in the water…but he is bleeding and that would attract sharks…do sharks eat mermaids?...they eat fist and accidentally(sometimes) take bites out of people, why not a mix of the two? Then what am I going to do? Carry him back to Gramp's house? …Well he isn't home…the neighbors are….they have jobs to work…_

After a little mini debate with himself Lavi ended up picking the merboy up with one arm under his arms another under the thicker part of his tail and scrambled back to the house taking the route he knew was pretty much abandoned because of all the foreclosed houses there. After about three minutes (to Lavi it felt like an eternity) they reached Bookman's house. Lavi had forgotten to lock the door thankfully and ran in. And after slamming the door shut ran to the bathroom the merboy clinging to his soaked shirt. He put the merboy on the toilet (lid closed) as he filled up the bathtub with water. After it was about three fourths full he picked up the merboy again and placed him into the tub. He looked confused and startled, his head whipped around looking at everything then his frightened gaze re-met Lavi's.

_Heh, must be like being abducted by an alien to him. But then again he is basically an alien to me._

Lavi mused in his head while he searched the medicine cabinet for the disinfectant spray and bandages. Once he found them he put the next to the tub. Then he kneeled next to the merboy. The rain seemed to have re-picked up since rain was pelting the house hard as if they were pebbles and thunder shook the whole house. The merboy was shaking badly out of fear and hesitantly reached his hand towards Lavi, the same one that was on Lavi's face for that brief moment.

Lavi smiled and laced his fingers with the merboy's own and was surprised to see the webbing receding so it wasn't between at least half of his fingers buy only by about half a centimeter now between them. The fins on the merboy's head though got longer, their own barbs running longer. He was also surprised to see a pair of smaller fins with only two small barbs grow longer and wider at the merboy's waist where they were attached.

" What the?" Lavi asked quietly watching the change in the merboy's fins.

The merboy slowly pushed himself closer to Lavi, his face showed slight pain and discomfort as he placed his head on Lavi's chest.

" Are you changing them?" Lavi asked watching the fins stop growing. His merboy nodded his head against Lavi's chest breathing a bit heavier through his nose.

_How could anything change it's body structure that quickly? Now even humans can accomplish that. Animals can change their appearance but none can that quickly!_

Lavi watched the merboy in awe the two fins on the merboy's back had gotten longer also as well as the ones on his arms, why would the fins on his back, hips, head, and arms get longer? But the webbing in between his fingers had gotten smaller and as Lavi looked more he saw that the gills on the merboy no longer seemed to be able to expand as much as they had before they were maybe half their original size length and width wise. Lavi mused in his head how the heck this was happening and part of him wished he never went to the beach that night so he would have never met this merboy.

Lavi closed his eye and shook his head trying to make some sense, anything out of this situation. But then he heard the clacking of the bottle of the disinfectant on the floor. He opened his eye to see the merboy's arm lazily hanging out reaching for the two things Lavi had put there on the opposite side of the tub.

Lavi picked the bottle of spray and bandages and looked at the merboy.

" Erm, this stuff stings so don't bite me or something, ok shorty?" Lavi asked nervously but he still threw the little nickname for the merboy. Said merboy seemed angry at the word "shorty" but nodded lifting his tail out of the water.

Lavi grabbed the tail and sprayed the bottle onto the cuts; making the merboy jerk and whine pretty loudly but did nothing to harm Lavi. The poor confused bookman's apprentice then wrapped the cloth bandages around the wounds.

"Can you keep this part of your tail out of the water for a while?" Lavi asked knowing he probably would get either a nod or shake of the head since the merboy obviously didn't speak…but what about the time in Maryland where there was that voice in his head? Was he imagining it? Then it struck him that the merboy might not be able to speak through vocal cord but through pictures and movements. But how did he know what Lavi was saying and the voice that one time… Lavi gripped his hair out of frustration and felt a large head ach beginning to form. He was too confused. This couldn't be happening. It can't happen; this is the stuff of science fiction not reality! He must be going crazy and be at a mental hospital or something!

But then Lavi felt a warm hand on his forehead and a soothing voice enter his mind just like the one in Maryland.

_Relax Lavi. Please? Your scaring me. You're not crazy. I'm sorry. Please Lavi. Open your eye? Please? You're not crazy. You're not at a men-tal-hos-pi-tul. Lavi, Lavi please. Lavi._

Lavi felt something on his chest shaking, the hand on his forehead still there but another joined it and they were now using their thumbs to rub circles on his temples.

" This can't be real it can't…history never recorded these things, these things aren't real, they are fiction…" Lavi mumbled he felt so confused, this didn't happen to normal people, so why him?

_Shhh Lavi please. I'm not fik-shon I'm real. Please Lavi. I don't want you to be confused. Lavi. Lavi._

"What are you? Why are you in my head?" Lavi asked as he began to lean forward as if he was sick. Why him, why him, why him? Lavi felt the rubbing on his head stop and felt someone hug him tightly.

_My name is Allen, Lavi. This is the only way I can communicate with you right now. I'm right in front of you. Please don't be scared Lavi._

Lavi hesitantly opened his eye and stared at the grey eyes staring into his own. They grey were filled with worry but the mouth under them smiled widely.

"…I don't understand…" Lavi confessed to the being in front of him. He hated not knowing something, but how could he know anything about **this**?

The merboy smiled apologetically and hugged Lavi tighter.

_I'll explain everything Lavi. When you wake up if you are still confused than I'll answer any questions you have._

Merboy hugged him a little tighter as Lavi became very sleepy suddenly.

" How…..can I …trust you?..." Lavi asked slurring his works with the sudden tiredness. He felt scared this,…Allen could do anything to him, he could kill him!

_Just try to Lavi…..Goodnight, Lavi. I-_

The rest of the voice in his head was cut off as his vision turned black as he fell into a deep slumber.

**ooo**

**And now may the spamming and flames begin XD Hello reader ^^; yes I know I am even later than I was last chapter and this one will probably only confuse you (like Lavi). So please let me explain.**

**Lavi has been acting on basically on his subconscious the whole time he has been helping our little mer-moyashi. So while they are in the bathroom Lavi gets really confused about what is going on and tries to deny everything. **

**So yeah, I'll explain why Allen's fins are doing that next chapter and no this is not becoming a lemon story because I bumped up the rating to M, there are just suggestions later in the story and cussing, among other things. Also I have a DeviantART account so if anyone wants me to draw the changes between Allen's fins and looks tell me and I'll draw it ASAP and give you the link.**

**I'm sorry this chapter is MEGA late but I did keep my promise that it is updated monthly at least. But I have school and its sucking up my computer time D8 plus the New York Comic Con is coming up and I have to finish my friends' cosplays as well as my own. I also have to finish my own cosplays; every one's Favorite merboy 8D…..no not mermaid Allen, just "casual" formal clothes Allen Walker XD So if you guys are enjoying the story or have any constructive criticism or just want to flame me the review button is below ^^**


	5. Informative Dream?

_It's dark…._

That was the first thought that ran through Lavi's mind after he felt himself lose consciences with the merboy, Allen.

_Why is it so dark? Is it nighttime or something? But I feel so warm…why is that?_

Lavi felt himself move against something soft and warm. It was cocooned all around him. It felt nice…

_I feel so tired…_

Lavi felt himself cuddle against what he presumed to be a pillow. It felt so peaceful at this moment…

But then again….

"Apprentice wake up!" Lavi heard the voice of his grandfather and felt something hard smack against the side of his head.

_What the hell? That old panda should be home for a few days! Wait…did he see Allen? Oh crap how am I going to explain that one! Damn what the hell did he hit me with?_

But to Lavi's surprise he felt his mouth move on its own and words force their way out of his mouth without his accord.

"Ow, Grandpa why did you throw a book at me?"

_What the?_

"I told you last night grandson I have a meeting with an old friend of mine this morning and you begged me not to leave you alone so get up!" Lavi heard Bookman's voice get closer and felt the warmness that was around him disappear.

Lavi then saw a small amount of light enter his eye illuminating his surroundings. He immediately recognized it as the house in New Jersey where he grew up the first six years of his life. He saw his short wooden desk, the little children's books he had on a low bookshelf, the single bed he was laying on with the pale blue sheets…

_The heck…?_

"Grandpa the sun isn't even all the way up yet!" Lavi heard himself say in a whiny voice.

"I don't want to hear it, go get dressed we are leaving in five minutes." And with that his _oh so loving grandpa_ walked out of his room and slammed the door behind him. Lavi felt himself stare at the pale white door with the fake golden knob and then proceeded to walk over to the white door that matched the entrance door to his room. He opened it with his hands and was welcomed to the sight of winter clothing lining the inside of the closet was lined on both sides hanging on plastic hangers.

_What the hell is going on? Am I dreaming or what?_

Lavi was very confused, the last thing he remembered was falling unconscious on the merboy, Allen.

_Did he do something to me?...he did say something about when I wake up. But that sure as heck doesn't explain why I'm having this kind of realistic dream! That old panda hitting me in the face with a book hurt! Pain doesn't happen in dreams, or at least physical pain!_

After Lavi finished off the mini conversation with himself he found himself staring at himself in a mirror.

Or at least his three year old self dressed in baggy winter clothing with his hair sticking up in every direction and dark bags under his eyes, despite one being cover with a black eye patch. His clothing consisted of a dark green puffy winter jacket and a small pair of sweat pants with white lines going down the sides. The jacket looked way too puffy on him; it made him look like a rotten marshmallow! And marshmallows don't even get rotten they get stale!

Thankfully Bookman chose this time to bang on his door, throw it open, and pull him by the collar of his coat to door to his car. Which was an old light blue Volkswagen van, popular know as a farfignugen from the advertisements… (*)

Lavi was thrown in the back as Bookman started driving off somewhere…

Lavi or at least Deak just sat in the backseat watching the scenery flash by with a drooping eye which didn't nothing but help his tired expression.

Lavi took this time to try to figure out _what the hell was going on! _Merboy, Allen said he would explain everything when he woke up, thus meaning he would fall asleep. He also said he would answer any questions afterwards, so he knew this would happen. Meaning this had some sort of meaning behind it and then after he found it he would wake up….everything was so less complicated in high school…

O0O

After a while Bookman stopped the van on black asphalt suddenly awaking Deak who had fallen asleep much to Lavi's annoyance of not being able to see. He fault his three year old self yawn and try to go back to sleep, which was stopped by an angry Bookman who, yet again, pulled at the collar of his jacket for a few feet before being let go. Deak fell to his knees which landed on damp sand and looked at his grandfather who was walking away from him towards the shoreline with waves crashing over the sand. He stayed like that for a minute before tiredly following his grandfather. Lavi saw his…err Deak's eye lid begin to droop again while walking behind Bookman. Who then suddenly stopped making Deak walk into him, causing him to land on his behind on the went sandy ground.

"Ouch, why did you stop you old panda?" Deak asked his grandfather more tiredly than angrily.

"Be quiet Deak. They are coming." His grandfather shot back at him in a stern tone.

" and who is "they" again?" Deak asked in annoyance wiping the sand off of his pants. It was cold, the sand was damp and now he was even colder, he just wanted to go back to bed!

The old panda moved to tell him but was suddenly stopped by movement in the corner of his eye. Deak and Lavi of course, due to his uncontrolled body, err or younger self looked also.

Out in the ocean it seemed like another any old wave was forming, but this one did not crest and break it simply got closer and closer its shape reminded Lavi of a rat scuttling under a rug. But rats didn't live in the ocean and effect water like that.

Even stranger was that after moving towards them it stopped three feet from them the water, dark and murky, seemed to have froze. Then it proceeded to almost melt over the object it was hiding in its dark, cold, watery grasp.

Then there stood a man with pale skin holding a bundle of green seaweed wrapped tightly around something. The man's face was cast in shadow making it impossible for Lavi to decipher the man's facial features. But he was able to see the shark tail connected to his waist instead of a pair of legs.

_He is just like Allen!_

Lavi thought memorizing the features of the man he could see. He was also, though, drawn to the bundle cradled so preciously in his arms. Lavi stared long enough to see it barely expanding and contracting slightly.

_Like it was breathing…._

His vision of them was then moved to his young self's arm which Deak pinched then emitted a small "ouch" before then looking back up at the grown merman.

Then, strange enough, his grandfather started to speak Latin to the merman.

"It is a pleasure to see you again Mana. Might I ask what the sudden call was for?"

_The heck? Old panda knows a merman?...Is Allen screwing with my head? _

The merman, Mana apparently answered Bookman back.

"I am sorry to call you on short notice and early Bookman but it was an urgent matter. The people up here are starting to expand their industries even farther into the oceans then before. It is getting harder and harder to find good places to live. We cannot allow them to find out there are more of my kind around. Most of my clan has already found hiding places but it is too deep and cold for my child to survive. Bookman I'm sorry but I must ask of you to help me."

_His child?_

"What is it you think I can do Mana I cannot alter history in any way you know that and I also travel everywhere there is history being recorded. Even if I could I have my idiotic grandson to train to be a bookman already."

Bookman pointed to Deak, who looked at him questionably.

_Damn old panda. I'll get you for that._

"I know this is asking a lot from you Bookman but I am desperate. Please stay by the coast line til my child is old enough to be without guidance. He knows how to fend from himself from the ocean and people who threaten it, being an instinct, but neither anyone from my clan nor myself can stay with him. I only ask of you to give him food daily. Actually that is asking a bit isn't it..."

Mana said dejectedly then chuckled darkly or at least what Lavi assumed to be chuckling. It sounded more like a cross between a bird chirping and a sea lion dying! Then cradling the bundle just a bit closer to him as if it were to be ripped away from him.

What happened next astounded Lavi. His grandfather sighed then looked back to Mana.

"I will stay by the coast only until my idiot of a grandson turns eighteen by then he can look after your child...there are a surplus of bookman in the countries around the world but the coast of North America is lacking, so I will stay here only because of that reason. But I warn you now Mana if something comes up somewhere else we will leave your child alone to go record it."

_No way….then the reason that old panda stay here is…._

Mana then leaned down and placed the seaweed bundle in a shallow pool of water next to his shark fin. He removed the seaweed away only to reveal a small baby, no more than a month old by Lavi's view. The baby had very fair skin and a patch of white hair on top of his head. The baby blinked his big eyes open to reveal them to be grey blue. The baby also had s silver fin attached to his waist instead of a pair of legs like Mana. The baby let out a curious squeak looking up at Mana in confusion.

_That baby mermaid….is that…..Allen? It fits what he looks like. But then how did I not recognize him if this is real? And why didn't Bookman tell me about him if I somehow forgot?_

While Lavi had thoughts run through his head his younger persona Deak took small steps forward in the damp sand until he was in front of the baby mermaid. The action caused the baby to lean backward from him using his small hands , which had developing side fins on them and large webbing in between the tiny fingers. Then the baby mermaid moved forwards wiggling his tiny body towards Deak.

Lavi watched from inside Deak's body as Deak kneeled down, and then reached out his right hand, which the baby mermaid rested his chin upon looking up at him with wide eyes. Lavi heard his grandfather sigh behind him but could not turn his head to look. He simply stared at the little mermaid's eyes which reflected his single emerald colored eye.

Lavi felt his young body's other hand reach out and carefully grasped tiny Allen's other finned hand. Allen simply mad another small squeaking noise and pouted his lips. Tiny fingers moved over the slightly larger hand around it carefully.

Lavi then felt himself (younger) pull back his hands and changed from kneeling to sitting on the damp sand. Baby Allen blinked in surprise and tried to copy Deak/Lavi's movements only to succeed in rolling onto his side. Which caused a disgruntled squeak to emerge from him and frantic wiggling to get back to his normal position.

Deak, Lavi felt and saw, went to move to help the poor baby but stopped when he heard the deep laughter above him. He inclined his head up to look at the shadowy face of Mana. He could make out his smile and the stubble on this chin but no other facial features.

Mana then reached down and grasped his child with both hands hoisting him up. This stopped Allen in his actions and looked up at his father. Mana smiled widened and then he placed baby Allen onto Deak's lap. Both children stared up at Mana but then looked at each other. Deak wrapped jacket clothed arms around Allen and hugged him as Allen rested his tiny head under Deak's own.

It was silent then the only sounds were the crashing waves on other parts of the beach. The sun had barely began to rise but it was bright enough to see most things.

But then a small amount of pain made itself known at the base of Deak's head it was small but persisted and got slowly larger every second causing his face to contort in pain. He groaned and removed his left hand from Allen whose face was equally scrunched up in pain as Deak's. Deak's eyelids closed blinding Lavi from the view.

The pain grew stronger and stronger with more time and soon Lavi felt tears gather at his younger self's eyelids. The pain was like that of an intense migraine with a boom box blasting next to his ear.

But then the pain receded suddenly and the darkness seemed to welcome Deak/Lavi. But before Lavi lost conciseness yet again he heard a small, gurgled, baby voice whisper to him

"_**Deak….number one…"**_

O0O

Lavi groaned as he felt himself wake up. He felt warm surround him yet again. This startled him and caused him to bolt upright and snap open his eye. He was in his room in North Carolina. He checked his body. It was the same one he had at present time. But then a thought stuck him. How did he end up in bed? He lost conciseness in the bathroom with-

"Allen! Where are you?" Lavi called out getting out of the bed. He then stumbled without reason.

" What the? Why do I feel so weak? How long have I been asleep?" Lavi asked himself propping himself on his dresser, then the wall as he searched for the merboy.

_How the hack did I get to my bed? Did Allen move me? But he was in the bathtub. Plus he doesn't have legs. And how would he know to move me to my bed and where it was?_

Lavi made his way slowly to the kitchen where he spotted Allen poking at his phone. Allen's fish half was propped up against one of the chairs, his head fins extremely short and close to his head, his fins along his arms also short, as were the pair on his back, but the base fin at the end of his tail was still long.

Lavi also noticed his phone was blinking green signaling that he had missed calls and text messages.

" Allen" Lavi called the merboy's name causing him to jump and fall onto his right side with a "thump" .

"_**Lavi. It won't stop making noises. Is it dying?"**_

Lavi heard Allen speak in his head.

"Erm no. Allen it's a cell phone. Um people use it to communicate with other people in different places." Lavi attempted to explain.

" _**Like whales and dolphins?" **_Allen voiced in his head once again as Lavi tried to lift him onto a chair.

" Uh, kinda."

Lavi sighed and picked up his phones. It showed that he had missed six calls from Lenalee and one from Fou. Lavi then checked the date.

_Wednesday, June 26, 2:48pm._

Which caused Lavi to bight back a scream. Today was the day Lenalee and Fou were coming to visit. They were coming to the house at 3pm, and it was sunny out, without a cloud in the sky. Meaning there was no way he could get Allen back to the ocean.

"Crap. Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!" Lavi repeated frantically looking around.

Allen looked up at him in confusion.

"_**Lavi? What's wrong?"**_

_What's wrong? What wrong! I have a merboy in my house, tow of my friends coming over in twelve minutes and I've been sleeping for three days! Had a freaky dream-memory thing that had eluded me apparently for most of my life. Your talking in my head also! What isn't wrong?_

Lavi thought to himself. He wouldn't scream at Allen, that wouldn't accomplish anything. Lavi then picked up Allen quickly, earning a startled yelp, and rushed to the bathroom. He then placed Allen back on top of the toilet and rapidly turned on the faucet to fill the bathtub with water.

Once full Lavi plopped Allen back in, then noticing he still had the bandage on his tail and quickly unwrapped it to see how the wound was doing.

Miraculously it was completely healed not a scratch or scar left, only perfectly formed scales. But Lavi didn't have time to wonder about that.

" Allen, I really hope you understand this. I have two friends coming over and they don't know anything you or anything associated with mermaids, men, boys. So I need you to keep quiet and stay here and not move from this room ok? Don't make any noises too. I'll come back as soon as they are gone ok?" Lavi spat out as quick as her could.

Allen looked back up at him his fins now longer again.

"_**Ok Lavi. Bye bye."**_ Allen said in his head and gave him a little wave.

And before Lavi could question that the doorbell rang. He shot a suspicious look at Allen before bolting out the door in haste, shutting it behind him.

Lavi then swung open the front door revealing his two of his female friends.

Lenalee was sixteen still in high school, aspiring to be a maternity nurse. She originally wanted to be a model but then changed her mind. Though that doesn't mean she doesn't model their friend Jonny's clothing he makes for her. Like she was now, she was wearing a black mini-skit with twin zippers on the sides, black high heels with red rings around her ankles, a pink t-shirt with a yellow star in the center surrounded by black tiny crescent moons. Her hair was up in its usual pigtails, and her bangs framing her amethyst eyes. She was a little bit taller than the average height for girls (with or without the heels).

Fou on the other hand was nineteen but you would never guess it. She had oranges-pinkish hair, along with dark pink eyes, (everyone suggested contacts) she had green lines running down her arms and legs, along with a symbol on her forehead. She wore a dark and light purple hat (sort of like Lenalee's brother's Komui) on her head that had an orange wire running behind it. She also wore a purple t-shits and skirt. She had more of an olive-y skin tone compared to Lenalee's fair one. She also wore two gold bangle like necklaces.

"Oi, Lavi why didn't you answer us when we called you idiot?" Fou asked annoyed as she pushed past him entering the kitchen and sitting down in a chair. She was the one with the shorter temper.

"I lost my phone for a while and just found it about a minute before you guys rang the bell." Lavi lied scratching his head.

"Oh, well at least you found it. You had us worried Lavi." Lenalee added in sitting next to Fou as Lavi closed the door.

"Yeah…" Lavi trailed off. "Do you guys want anything to drink or something?" Lavi asked going over to the fridge.

" No I'm good Lavi I ate on the plane." Lenalee answered.

"Eh, water." Fou answered.

Lavi grabbed two water bottles out of the fried and tossed one to Fou who caught it with ease. He glanced at the bathroom door though.

"So did Bookman beat some sense into you yet?" Fou asked taking a drink of her water.

"I've had sense; he's just killing my brain cells. Damn old panda." Lavi said through his clenched teeth.

"Come on Lavi give Bookman a break, it can be that bad." Lenalee inputted.

"No I won't he needs to stop whacking my twenty times a day!" Lavi complained gripping his hair with his hands. Which he noticed was pretty greasy. He had to shower once they left. But Allen was in the shower.

"I'm sure he has a good reason Lavi. Oh, where did Fou go?" Lenalee asked.

Lavi's head shot up in alarm. He glanced at Fou's seat to see her missing.

…_..Fuck…._

Lavi then noticed that the door to the bathroom was open.

_Shit!_

Lavi ran to the bathroom to see Fou standing opposite of the bathtub staring at Allen.

"Um…." Lavi ransacked his mind for something to say in this situation but nothing came up.

Fou then turned to him with a coy smile and said,

"Lavi, you didn't tell us you had a boyfriend."

He raised an eyebrow at her and then looked back at the tub. Next to it on the floor was a pair of his sweat pants and the shirt Allen was wearing. Allen was in the tub, in the water, gripping at the shower curtain with a red blush across his face leaning against the back of the tub. His fins on his head were missing, as were the ones on his arms were too, as were the ones between his fingers. He was unsure if the ones on his back were there or not though since his back was against the tub. But what surprised him most was that his bottom fin was split into two legs and feet, though they had scale markings on them they were skin colored and had no fins.

" Oh…."

O0O

*- I can totally see him driving one -w- if you don't know what one looks like go to Google images and type it in.

So yeah….how do you like them apples? Ha ha! This is your Halloween treat from me! How did you like it? :3

Yeah….school is torturous…

Plus I had writes block for a good amount of time…. So please review and see you guys next month!

P.S. if you guys draw merboy Allen PM me so I can see him! Or anything related to this story –w-

Oh! And the pics of the changes of Allen's are here- http:/ oceanic crown clown. deviantart .com/ (take out the spaces :3)

I love you all!

Ja ne~!


	6. Information and Teeth?

Fou then turned around and proceeded to walked towards the door.

"Me and Lenalee will leave you two alone; we are staying at my house, oh and meet us at the beach tomorrow. And bring yer boyfriend! Ha, wait til Bak hears….."

She then to close the door behind her as she leisurely walked out.

Lavi looked at the door in shock. He didn't attempt to go after Fou and explain that Allen **wasn't **his boyfriend and ask her why the heck she went into the bathroom when the door was closed!

He then heard Fou and Lena speak lowly before Lenalee squealed behind the door then shouted out a "Bye Lavi! Meet us at the large rock formation at the beach at one! Don't be late!" Which was then followed be the clack of her heels then the door slamming shut.

It was quiet for a few moments as Lavi stared at the shut door before turning back to look at Allen with a confused face.

Allen only looked at him attentively; then his blush renewed itself when he looked at his legs. Lavi simply raised an eyebrow before blood rushed to his cheeks also and he turned around quickly.

He heard the rustling of clothing and the splashing of the water still in the tub coming from behind him but did not turn around to look.

"_**Lavi? Are you ok?" **_Lavi heard Allen ask in his mind.

He turned around to see Allen sitting on the edge of the tub, legs back into a finned tail with barbs, with his shirt re-covering his top half. His fins on his arms, back, and head returned to their normal size. Or at least what Lavi guessed was normal.

" Eh, not really. I feel like I need to take a shower, eat at least a table of food, brush my teeth for at least half an hour, brush my hair, oh yeah, and have you explain what the heck is going on a bit better." Lavi ranted for about twenty second. Allen blinked his silver grey eyes at him before, in his mind, answering back

" _**Where do you want me to start? Or do you want to take a sha-were first?" **_He asked in frustration, trying to pronounce the word Lavi had used.

Lavi sighed before answering "Shower, how long can you stay out of water for?"

Allen pouted his lips and his eyes went to the ceiling in pondering. Then after a moment looked back at Lavi and said

" _**1800 of the ticking noises." **_He answered cheerfully.

Lavi resisted the urge to face palm. Ticking noises? What were- oh…The ticking the clock was making in the next room. Well sixty of them made a minute….so one thousand eight hundred of them made…a half hour. He could take a shower in half that time!

_Err, or a bit longer…._

Lavi thought to himself as he smelled the shirt he was wearing. Then a thought struck him.

"How did you get out of the bathroom when I passed out? And how did I get to my bed? You couldn't have carried me, could you?" He asked curiously.

Allen blushed after the first question then smacked his tailfin against the white tile floor, while averting eye contact. He took a couple of breaths through his nose, gills slotted closed mostly, before making eye contact again.

" _**Used twin-fins…." **_He voiced in a whisper in Lavi mind _**"Used like you move around on those" **_Allen pointed to Lavi's jean clad legs _**" Only really suppose to use in mating season too show off strength out of home to mates, but needed to move you… It's very embarrassing for others to see them…" **_Allen's blush deepened as his arms circled his torso bending forward slightly.

Twin-fins? Were those the legs he saw Allen had when he came back into the bathroom and found Fou there with him? So Allen stood up and moved him?

"_**Can't have them very long…one sun and moon movement only…then they go back to single fin...Meralises don't like Lavi's kind since they swim on flat rock with them. But think better of them when hiding skin of them. But Lavi's kind don't do that no more…. Enrages Meralises, keep away from them..." **_Allen trailed off in his mind looking off to the side, breaking the eye contact.

_So Allen can only have legs for a day….Meralises…. is that the name mermaids have for their race? The mermaids think we are offensive since we can't change out legs into fins like they do? Then again…from what Allen just said about them, they apparently aren't used for anything except one purpose then…_

"So why did you use yours to move me then?" Lavi asked.

Allen kept his eyes away from Lavi's for a while before glancing at him briefly, but then started to play with the end of his finned tail. He then heard a gurgling sound then a squeaking one. Then it occurred to Lavi that Allen may not be able to communicate with him verbally, maybe because he didn't have the vocal cords to make the right sounds.

"Allen can you speak using your mouth?" Lavi asked as Allen re-made eye contact. Lavi pointed to his closed mouth and Allen looked appalled.

"_**Bearing teeth is very high offensive statement! Equal to kissing one's life mate! Never want to offend Lavi!" **_Allen shouted in Lavi's mind making him wince and hold his head in slight pain.__

"Oh, ok, sorry Allen I didn't know. But then you can talk with your mouth?" Lavi asked.

Allen looked shocked then very troubled when Lavi finished then slid his tail fin back and forth in a sideways movement on the tiles.

" _**Don't know….Never tried too…..always speak in mind to Lavi, Mana, fish, dolphins, whales….."**_

Allen trailed off looking at Lavi.

"Oh, well here is another question, how _do _you speak in my mind? Humans can't do that or any animal for that matter." He informed Allen.

Allen looked at the ceiling again before answering,

"_**Very long time ago, Lavi's race did things to others of Lavi's race and water creatures. Made first Meralises, but after many sun and moon movements did things to them too. Kill many of us and we tried swimming away. Lavi's race always finds us… so we did things to ourselves. Started using out…erm.."**_ Allen stopped talking and pointed at his head with his right hand

"_**Altered us and made a certain section bigger…but others got smaller….we got mind speak but lost something important…can't remember what though…never told…elders forgot…Lavi's race still kill us though…more than before more sun and moon movements…couldn't change back…then big shaking and pain happened….lost many of race and cities….Lavi's race didn't want us any more…they wanted our bodies for things but not our…errm…" **_Allen stopped again and made a heart shape as best he could with his hands.

" _**Kill our mated and not-full-Meralises; threw us in big sand holes far from home and killed us…We wanted to be left alone….we don't do nothing to hurt Lavi's race!...but some began hating Lavi's race so much….in home near island they killed Lavi's race and hurt them bad. Turned them into things that are not Meralises….Always have…. "mouth" open and sharp teeth in front….screams fill home near island….tried to stop them…they kill us too….say we are weak… Meralises try hiding again….worked…but not many not-full-Meralises hatch…..they die and so do mated….Lavi's race go from rock home into water home….Mana, sire , he think Lavi's race got better. Meet Bookman….give him….."information" about us. Bookman not kill Mana….Allen hatch….meet Lavi…..Lavi not kill Allen?" **_

Allen ended his conversation in Lavi's mind with tears in his silver grey eyes. Lavi looked at Allen for a while before moving closer to him and sitting next to him. Allen did not flinch, move, or make any attempts to shield himself if Lavi attacked him. Lavi took both his hands and placed them on either side of Allen's head. The merboy shivered slightly but made no other move. Lavi then said quietly but very sternly and seriously.

"I will never hurt you. I will never kill you."

It was short but Allen apparently got the message. He smiled widely and closed his eyes and clear tears ran down his cheeks, and over Lavi's hands.

They stayed like that for a while before Lavi picked Allen up by one arm under the thickest part of his tail near his torso and one around is back. Allen made no noise or protest of being moved. Lavi opened the door with the hand around Allen's back before walking to his room.

There he put Allen on his bed before telling him,

"I'm going to go take a shower, I'll be back in a few…hundred tick noises ok?" Lavi asked grabbing some clean clothes from his dresser.

Allen nodded and curled up in Lavi's bed, closing his eyes.

And with that, Lavi went to take his shower.

oOo

Lavi drained the water that Allen had been sitting it out of the tub and then turned the faucets on to get his shower going. When he had gotten the water to a nice temperature he rid himself of his dirty clothing and stepped into the shower. He sighed, letting the warm water run over him.

_Humans obviously aren't all that popular in the "Meralises" race…_He thought with dark humor.

_So humans created the Meralises, but then became to hate them…so they started to kill them off….But from what Allen said, there must have been a whole lot of them to survive the massacres… Or they reproduce quickly… But mermaids have been legends for hundreds of years… how did they "experiment" on them? And the "big shaking and pain" what was that? _

Lavi sighed as he grabbed the shampoo bottle and squirted some into his hand before washing his greasy red hair.

_He also said "hatched" does that mean Meralises are hatched from eggs? He also said that they died along with the "mated", I'm guessing that means the ones that had the eggs?_

He let the water wash out the suds in his hair before he picked up the bar of soap.

_Meralises near the "island"…do they mean Japan? Mermaids are rumored to eat humans there…but it's also rumored that if you eat the flesh of a mermaid you gain immortality…Is that what Allen meant by humans wanting their bodies?_

Lavi let the water wash the soap off of him before turning off the water and grabbing a towel to dry himself.

_But how would Allen know all that if he didn't "hatch" until about fifteen years ago? And who are the "elders" the oldest Meralises? How much does Bookman know? What did Mana tell him?_

Lavi tossed on his clothing which consisted of a pair of white skinny jeans, a blue three quarter sleeve blue shirt, and a pair of socks, underwear, and his eye patch. His headband needed to get washed, so it went into the pile of his dirty clothing. He kept a white towel around his neck to keep his wet hair from soaking his shirt. He then filled the tub again with water for Allen. A quick look at the clock on the wall informed him that he had been in the shower for about twenty minutes.

So he tossed his dirty clothing into the hamper in the corner of the bathroom, along with a pair of his sweats that Allen had placed next to the bathtub, that smart merboy.

o0o

He went back to his room and opened the door to see Allen looking at his scale he had given Lavi when they met at the beach a few days ago. He looked upset as he turned it over before noticing Lavi.

"What's up bean sprout?" Lavi asked plopping next to the young merboy.

Allen shot Lavi an annoyed glance at the nickname before retuning his eyes to the scale.

"_**It has a tear symbol on it. Means it hurt Lavi. Get red life on it. Sorry…"**_

"Huh? Oh no, I accidentally cut myself on it when examining it. Not your fault Al."__Lavi smiled and took the little scale from Allen's hand and placed it back where it was.

"Come on let's get you back in the tub." Lavi then picked up Allen again and took him back to bathroom.

He stood up and stared to head to the bathroom, but that was interrupted by a loud grumbling sound coming from Allen.

It caused Lavi to stop and look at Allen curiously. Allen placed a hand on his stomach not making eye contact, looking annoyed and embarrassed, and Lavi got the message. He laughed and then re-directed their path to the kitchen.

He then placed Allen on one of the chairs at the table, before heading off to the fridge. When he opened the tall, white, prism he was welcomed by cold air seeping out of it and foods packed away.

_Wait….what would he eat? Fish? I don't have that right now…erm…_

"Hey Allen? Whadda ya eat?" Lavi asked turning around to face the merboy who was playing with the salt and pepper shakers on the table.

"_**Seaweed, fish, crabs, jellyfish, bread, squid, cheese, ham, olives, chips, stuff in shiny grey bags." **_He listed off in Lavi's mind.

_Stuff in shiny grey bags? Oh right people throw their left overs into the ocean._

Lavi thought to himself taking a cheese, ham, and a pitcher of ice tea from the refrigerator and snagging a loaf of bread from the counter. He also managed to grab two paper plates from one of the cabinets, his arms full of the food items.

When he finally managed to walk over to the table without dropping anything, he set them out and started to make the sandwiches while he started to ask Allen some more questions.

" You said you "hatched" earlier, does that mean from like an egg?"

"_**The eggs inside our mated yes. Not like sea turtles who bury theirs on Lavi's kinds' home. Only have little mated now though. Many die because not right places for new-lings and mated to be had."**_

"Right places? Like the right temperature water or something?" Lavi inquired

"_**Yes, but need to also be shallow and away from everyone. Meralises, water creatures, Lavi's kind, Lavi's kind's home creatures, above creatures also."**_

"So they have to be isolated?" Lavi asked pushing four sandwiches to Allen on the paper plate while picking up one of his own.

"_**Yes. Or else new-lings won't come out and mated will die with new-lings." **_Allen explained picking up one of his own sandwiches and stuffing it into his mouth quickly, making his cheeks puff out. Lavi stifled a laugh before finishing off his first of four sandwiches.

"Your suppose to _chew _Allen." Lavi said with some chortles sliding out with it.

"_**I do ch-ue Lavi. Not like you do." **_ Allen answered as he began chewing, keeping his mouth firmly shut.

Lavi merely shook his head slightly before asking his next question.

"Why would they die?" he asked getting up to get a pair of glasses, which he had conveniently forgotten for their ice tea. He did not get an answer in his mind right away. When he looked back at Allen he saw him wearing an expression he remembered seeing on Lenalee when she was told by her brother that their family friend Anita had died. When Allen did answer it was hushed and fragile.

"_**New-lings have a set sun and moon rise to come out; if they come out before or after they come out wrong. When they come out early they die soon, the mated die later, too much sadness for them to handle. If born too late they die because of lack of food. Mated die for same reason. New-lings stop getting food from mated after day passes, so after…." **_Allen trailed off popping another sandwich in his mouth before shutting it quickly.

Lavi merely nodded. He was taught not to have emotions towards anyone growing up, that included animals, even though he felt badly for the merboy, and didn't think he was an animal in any way.

To try to lighten the mood he asked a question on a different topic.

"Hey Allen what do your teeth look like? You pop the sandwiches in your mouth so quickly I didn't see your chompers!"

Allen in response put two hands over his mouth and shot an uneasy glare at Lavi.

"…_**.they look weird. Not like Lavi's."**_

"They what _do _they look like bean sprout?" Lavi asked adding the little nickname at the end.

"…_**weird….they look weird…" **_was Lavi's only reply.

Which only made Lavi sigh and rest his head on one of his hands, elbow propping it up while the other arm was on the table near him in a close together "v" like way.

"That's not very descriptive Allen; give me a little more detail. Do they look like a dolphin's?" He half-joked.

"_**No…visible they look like Lavi's but in back look like shark." **_Was the delayed reply from Allen, who _still _had his hands clasped over his mouth.

"A shark? So do they grow like a shark's also?" Lavi asked picturing a great white shark in his mind, those things had rows and rows of teeth.

"_**No, just look like. Can retract them a bit when not feeding, sharks always have theirs out. Front row always stay though."**_

"So they are in two sets? Like one in front of the other?" Lavi asked

Allen nodded.

"So then can I see them?"

"_**No, very offensive."**_

"You won't offend me Allen if ya open your mouth."

Allen seemed to think about it for a little, and then looked around him as if making sure they were the only ones there. 

"_**Promise Lavi won't be offended?"**_

"Yes Allen, I promise." Lavi replied.

Allen then inhaled deeply then exhaled just as deeply before slowly opening his mouth.

Allen's front row of teeth was clenched together as he opened his mouth. They looked exactly like human teeth, and were even more pearly white then his skin. But when he unclenched his teeth Lavi saw what he meant by shark teeth. They were not as wide as a great white sharks but from Lavi's point, he saw the tips of sharp teeth lining the back of the human ones. They were as equally as white but a bit thinner than the human ones.

What confused Lavi thought was why they were in the back. Shouldn't they be in front of the human ones? It made more since if Allen bit at something he deemed as food like a fish, to get a grip on it. Having the human ones in front wouldn't give Allen the same grip.

Allen then closed his mouth, concealing his teeth from Lavi's view.

Allen gave Lavi a slightly scared searching glance, which Lavi returned with a smile. Allen then smiled back at him. Then Allen grimaced as his fins began to get shorter. He grabbed at his neck, hands over his gills as his skin began to gain a pale grey compaction. Allen looked at Lavi and one word went through Lavi's head.

" _**Water."**_

Lavi bolted up and grabbed him, huddling him close to him as he carried him back to the bathroom, rushing to get him back into water.

Lavi plopped Allen into the bathtub full of water, water sloshing over the sides of the tub as Allen dropped into it. Allen submerged his whole body underwater as best he could, which made him curl slightly so his whole tail could stay submerged. Bubbles came up from Allen's gills at the bottom of the tub; his silver grey eye looked up at Lavi as he lay sideways on the bottom.

Lavi, who was kneeling over the tub looking at Allen, was trying to figure out what happened. Allen's fins had gotten suddenly shorter, was that a warning to Allen that he needed water? The merboy had said before that he could only stay out of water for a certain amount of time. Was this the effect of going over that time?

Allen's head surfaced after a couple more minutes of staying underwater. His fins had regained their normal length and his gills closed a little as his head poked out of the water, switching to inhaling air out of his nose.

"You ok now?" Lavi asked the merboy.

Allen nodded and a finned arm left came up and rested on the left side of his neck over his gills.

"_**It hurt. Never been out of home for so long…Scared me…..Lavi? I want to stay but I want to go home too. But I don't want to leave Lavi. I don't want you to forget me again..."**_

Allen trailed off; tears gathering at the pools of silver threaten to spill over.

Lavi placed his hand on Allen's shoulder in an attempt to comfort the merboy, throwing the bookman rules out the window. He then smiled at Allen, and Allen, wary at first then returned the smile.

oOo

**Oh hey guys! This is a filler for your end of the month. It was nothing but info *facepalm* I tried to make it fluffy, I really did but this was more of an info chapter than anything. The next chapter will move the plot along a little I hope! Yes, there IS a plot, it's just slow…I have it all written down I just need to write how to get from point A to point B. so yeah, Happy Thanksgiving to all my U.S. peeps, and where ever else they have that holiday. Someone should write the Black Order on thanksgiving, I haven't seen that plot bunny on FF yet… So yeah please review it make me write quicker and try to make these chapters longer! So yeah Ja ne!  
>-OCC<strong>


	7. Your a what?

After a few moments Allen's voice yet again went through Lavi's mind.  
><em><strong>"Lavi…ever go home with Allen?"<strong>_

Lavi's visible emerald eye widened in shock, but then his eyebrows pinched together in confusion after a second.

_Go home with Allen?_

"What do you mean by that Allen?" Lavi asked trying to understand.

"_**Allen in Lavi's home…..So Lavi go to Allen's home now?"**_

The merboy asked dipping back into the water in the tub. As soon as his whole upper body was engulfed by the clear liquid, his tail sticking out, his gills widened to take in air from it. But then he coughed a bit under the water making bubbles rise to the surface before bolting strait up out of the water gasping for air.

Startled Lavi patted Allen on his back, in between the two fairy wing like fins on the merboy's back.

"_**No life in this water no more."**_

Allen muttered looking at the bathtub water in distain.

"Allen."

The young Meralise (or at least that is what Lavi thought the proper name was for him) immediately turned his attention to Lavi

"What do you mean by going to your home? I thought I was there when you pulled me off the dock, the one off of Maryland." Lavi asked thinking back a few days ago to that cave.

"_**That is where Allen puts things and sleeps safely. Allen wants to show Lavi Allen's **__**home**__**."**_

He tried to explain. But it wasn't very good since Lavi still had no idea what Allen was talking about.

"What is your _home_?" Lavi then asked looking for a better explanation.

"_**Where good memories and things happen. Would like to show them to Lavi."**_

Allen spoke with broken English to him.

"Allen, I can't stay underwater like you can for a long time. My race isn't built for underwater like yours is. So I don't think I could see your "home"." Lavi tried to explain to the finned boy.

Allen exhaled slowly and made a little thinking face, or that's what Lavi deemed it to be, with his eyebrows pinched together and a slight frown on his face.

" _**But don't Lavi and Allen go to home tomorrow?" **_Allen asked his face changed into a confused expression while staring at Lavi for an answer.

"Huh? What do you mean bean sprout?" Lavi asked. They weren't going any- oh shit. Lenalee told them to meet them at the beach tomorrow. Crap! How was he going to get Allen to the beach when half of him was a fish! He could carry him there again but everyone would see Allen's fins! Oh this was not going to end well.

Well, he could always tell Lenalee and Fou that Allen was sick. But then Allen would have to stay in the house alone, and who know what would happen then. So that idea went out the window. He could say he was sick, but then Allen would still have to go and meet Fou and Lena. He could also say that Allen didn't want to meet them without him!

Lavi got up from where he was sitting, going to fetch his cell to put his plan into action when he heard a splash of water come from the bathtub. Turning around he saw Allen put a hand on the right side of his neck, over his gills again. Yet again he looked a bit grey in completion. From the experience before, Lavi knew that wasn't a good thing. He kneeled next to the tub in a sense of déjà vu, and placed a hand on Allen's shoulder.

Allen smiled at him, implying that he was fine but Lavi knew he wasn't. The last time Allen looked like that he needed to get back into water. But since this time he was already in water there was only one explanation really visible to Lavi.

Allen needed to get back in the ocean, as quick as possible.

Lavi sighed and got up, sprinting into the kitchen to fetch his cell phone. As he swiped it off the table he made a u-turn and spring then back into the bathroom. As he stepped back into the bathroom, Allen looking at him with a confused/surprised face, since he didn't know what was going on. Lavi checked the time on his phone. It read in white number 8:34pm. The streets would be mostly empty, plus it was Wednesday so there wouldn't be as many teenagers out in this portion of the neighborhood also. They would probably be at the beach or trying to get into a club. It was also pretty dark out so no one would probably see Allen's fins, if they did run into someone for that brief passage.

So Lavi pocketed his phone into his pocket and placed an arm under Allen's arms and one under his tail, and hoisted the merboy out of the tub. The young Meralise was quite use to this by now and only moved closer to Lavi, incase Lavi should drop him accidentally.

Lavi then proceeded to the door at the front of the house, it was then Allen asked where they were going.

"You need to get back into the ocean Al, it's probably not natural for you to be out of the ocean for long periods of time. So you need to get back into the ocean."

Allen was quiet looking ahead of them, or what he could see, as Lavi ran in the dark to the small dock outside the house. When they got to the edge of the old wooden dock, Lavi kneeled down, careful not to fall forwards and into the water with Allen. He then eased Allen into the dark water illuminated only slightly be the crescent moon.

Allen plopped into the water with a small splash, swallowed up by the black water as if he was sucked into a tar pit. Lavi watched for a few moments the spot that he placed Allen in before he saw damp white hair surface. Allen looked much better, or from what Lavi saw in the horrible lighting, the streetlights making not real difference.

"_**Lavi. Are you going to leave?" **_Allen asked.

Lavi smiled and patted Allen's white hair, earning a slight pout in the Meralise's annoyance.

"Well, I can't exactly live in the ocean like you do. But I'm not suppose to sleep our here either. I need to go back to my house, err, my Gramp's house." Lavi tried to explain, remembering the old man he had forgotten all about. He would be out for a few more days, Lavi though back briefly to what the old panda had told him.

A sloshing noise came from, below the dock as Allen swatted his tail beneath the waves in his disappointment.

Lavi sighed yet again before murmuring an,

"It doesn't mean I'm abandoning you Al, or nothing, I don't think I ever could do that now. I'll meet you at the beach tomorrow, ok?" Lavi asked at the end.

Allen on the other hand looked pretty unconvinced. He didn't meet Lavi's eye as he looked up from the water. Lavi ransacked his mind for something that would make the merboy in front of him believe him.

"Then maybe, I'll go see your "home" with you bean sprout, how does that sound?" He asked cheerily.

That got Allen's attention as he nodded at Lavi with a smile stretching across his face. He jumped out of the ocean a bit, just enough for him to give Lavi a small kiss on the cheek before diving back into the ocean with a flick of his silver tail.

"_**Don't forget, Lavi!" **_ Echoed faintly in Lavi's head, as if it were spoken into a cave, getting quieter and quieter until it disappeared. Lavi stared at the spot where Allen had been swimming seconds before, until his mind caught up with the time after the kiss.

Lavi then frantically shook his head telling himself it was probably just another weird custom that Allen's species had. He then got up from his keeling position. His knees protested, being stretched after being struck onto the wooden dock with such force, in Lavi's haste of getting to the dock. But he still walked back to his grandfather's house; he had left the door unlocked yet again in his rush. He chuckled a bit remembering he had left it unlocked when he went out to clear his head about the Meralise.

Although he had slept for three days before, Lavi still felt exhausted from his tiring day. He dragged his feet to the bathroom, brushing his teeth before switching into a pair of boxers and a T-shirt, instead of his day clothing, before flopping face first into the pillow on his bed.

He sniffed his pillow a bit, trying to get air into his lungs without having to move his position, and smelled the ocean spray freshly on it. He turned on his side to breathe better and a smile crossed his face. A type of smile he had not worn for years.

"Damn, that was the most, well, interesting week I have had since, well, ever I think." He mused.

But then his mind drifted to the dream he had had. He had met Allen before. He forgot about him obviously somehow. That old Panda knew about Allen and Mana, which was probably why that old man stayed in one place for so long. The proper names for mermaids are Meralises. They have been suffering at the will of man since the beginning of their species, presumably. They don't reproduce easy, and are dying out apparently. Allen has stayed alive off the coast for at least fifteen years.

_How is that possible?_ He thought to himself.

_All of the fishing that goes on, all the people at the beaches, the surfers, the pollution, how has he stayed alive?_

Lavi groaned and decided to ask Allen when he saw him the next day at the beach, where he was also suppose to meet with Lenalee and Fou.

He groaned again, knowing he was going to have to explain to Fou why his "boyfriend" wasn't there. Damn it Allen wasn't his boyfriend! How would that even work? Did anyone ever try to do that ever before?

And with thoughts swamped with questions, he slowly drifted off to sleep.

o0o

Only to be woken up by his cell phone going off on his dresser and sunlight was shining in his eye, through the cracks in the window's shade.

He slowly got up and picked up the phone with a slow "hello?"

Just to have Fou scream at him, wanting to know where the hell he was and why he wasn't at the beach with her and Lenalee.

Lavi wince but then asked her what time it was.

She merely replied that it was "1:43 you idiot."

Lavi bolted out of the bed at that statement quickly muttering an "I'm sorry I'll be there as quickly as I can Fou!" before hanging up on her.

No doubt that he was going to get an earful about that.

Lavi quickly grabbed a green shirt, blue shorts, a black bandanna, and rushed into the bathroom. He then hastily turned on the water and grabbed the soap. Though even in his rushing, his thoughts still turned back to Allen.

_I wonder how Allen changes the size of his fins so easily. Why do they change size in the first place? From the expression he wore when he changed them it must be a bit painful. So why would he change them if they caused him pain? How did he learn to change their sizes? Did Mana teach him? Speaking of which where is Mana? I've only seen him in that memory dream. Is he with the other Meralises?_

By the time he was finished thinking he was out of the shower, dressed, teeth brushed, hair combed, and running out the door, clad in sandals, after a pit stop in his room to grab his swim wear.

It took him a good ten minutes before he reached the beach area Lenalee had told him to meet them at. Fou was looking ticked off glaring at the waves crashing onto the shore, while Lenalee was talking on her cell phone.

Fou was wearing another purple top, like the one she had yesterday only it had a blue star in the center, and a pair of denim shorts. Lenalee was wearing a pair of black shorts and a green top on. Both were wearing sandals, but they had very different expressions when the saw Lavi.

Fou looked like she was about to kill him, Lenalee looked happy that he had finally arrived at first, but then confused.

Lavi walked towards Lenalee, not wanting to die by the hands of the other girl and waved hello awkwardly. Lenalee said she "had to go" to the person she was speaking to over the phone and shut it. She looked like she was going to ask something, but Fou beat her too it.

" What the hell Bookman Jr.? Your late. " Fou stated, obviously.

Lavi quickly ransacked his brain for an excuse before remembering one from last night.

"Allen got sick overnight and couldn't come, so he went back to his house to sleep it off. He said he was sorry he couldn't make it."

Well it was partly true, Allen was in the ocean, which **was **his home

Fou sighed while Lenalee looked worried.

"Will he be alright?" She asked in a tone that reminded Lavi of one a mother would speak to her child in.

"Yeah, it's just a little head cold, might be because off all the pollen floatin around!" Lavi joked a little.

_Because of all the pollen floatin around, really Lavi? You couldn't think of anything else?_

Lenalee seemed to buy it and dropped the topic.

Fou's cell began to ring and she snatched it out of her pocket before stomping off to take the call. She was disappearing behind the rocks when Lavi noticed a little white haired head bobbing out in the ocean about fifteen feet out. Lavi quickly snapped his head away from the ocean, he instead pretended to study the seagulls fighting over a lone french-fry someone had dropped on the beach.

_Oh hell. Are you serious? Crap._

Lavi kept a calm face while on the inside he was panicking.

_What if Fou or Lenalee see him? What happens if __**anyone **__sees him? Oh crap, this is- I don't even know how to describe this! What did I ever do to make Karma hate me so much!_

Lenalee at this point asked Lavi if he wanted to go swimming.

Lavi kept his mouth shut before he could blab out "Oh sure just avoid the mermaid over there in the ocean with the white hair."

Lavi looked back at the ocean and, to his surprise, Allen wasn't there.

_I really hope that was my imagination, I'll take hallucinations over reality right now._

Hesitantly Lavi said he would, but needed to run to the changing rooms at the lone outpost a distance away. Lenalee agreed to that before running off to see where Fou went.

Lavi then relaxed a bit as he began to walk to the outpost. The sand felt hot on his feet when he occasionally kicked some up and landed on his sandal clad feet.

_Damn, how did I get into this mess again? Well it probably stated all those year ago with me meeting Allen. Speaking of which, why did I only re-meet him now? Bookman also said he would stay in New Jersey, but we live in North Carolina now. Did Allen take time to get here from the coast up there? But he followed me to Maryland in a short amount of time, and back here again. Allen has some explaining to do, and so does the old man._

Lavi surveyed the outpost unconsciously. It had a men and women's changing rooms/bathrooms, pamphlets over by a bulletin board for tourists, a picture of all the fish found in the ocean, the seasons in which they could fish what, what to do when swept out to sea, etcetera.

Lavi pushed the door to the changing rooms/bathrooms open to see a sinks lining one side of the room, the other had several stalls with toilets in them.

The room was empty, which was uncommon since it was a little past mid-day in June, a very nice day at that and most people should be at the beach. But Lavi brushed the topic off and entered one of the empty stalls and changed into his swim trunks. They were just a plain red color with black lines on the side, nothing fancy, unlike a certain pair a friend of his made for a certain Japanese friend of his.

Lavi chuckled as he remembered Jonny, their group's upcoming fashion designer, had designed a pair of blue swim shorts for Kanda with pink and yellow Hawaiian flowers littering them, Lenalee had to save Jonny, while Lavi and their friend Noise Marie had held a murderous Kanda back from murdering Jonny for thinking he would wear such "disgusting" colors.

Lavi stepped out of the stall his shirt and shorts in hand, wearing his trunks and sandals. The floor of the room was full of sand and Lavi didn't exactly think it was totally clean. So he kept the sandals on until he made it back out to the beach.

Lavi exited the changing room/bathroom and looked around the outpost. It was as empty as a ghost town. Lavi half expected for a tumble weed to tumble on by. He looked at the beach and there were only about twelve people on the large beach, all around a bunch of blankets off in the distance, far away from where he and the girls were.

_That's really creepy, where is everyone?_

Lavi thought slipping off his sandals before walking back to the rocks where the girls had been last. The hot sand burned a little on the bottom of Lavi's feet but it dimmed to a pleasant warmth after a minute. By the time he had walked about twenty feet he could see Lenalee swimming in the ocean about fifty feet from where Fou was standing. Fou looked like she was looking for someone, near the rocks. She looked at him for a moment before going back to scanning the beach. Lavi raised an eyebrow at her behavior, but then waded into the crashing waves. He shivered, the water was freezing! But he swam over to where Lenalee was.

_Her brother must of packed her bathing suit or something. _Lavi thought to himself.

Lenalee was in a single piece blue and green swim suit. Back at school, when the weather was very hot and humid, their group would often go to the beach. Lenalee usually wore a bikini, unless she was spotted by her brother, the substitute science teacher they had occasionally. Who had a very large sister complex and harass the boys with giant robots.

Anyway, Lenalee was on her back, lying on the water like it was her bed or something. Her eyes were closed so she didn't notice Lavi floating near her. That, Lavi concluded, was a perfect set up to pull a little prank on her. So he sank lower into the water so only his eye was above the water and swam slowly closer. When he was close enough he poked her submerged back quickly and backed up.

Her reaction was to bolt up and shriek, probably thinking it was a shark or something like that. Lavi laughed, but was then punched in the side of the head by the poor girl.

"That's not funny Lavi!" She shouted, scolding him.

"Hey, at least it was me and not some hungry shark!" He joked holding his head, trying to ease the pain in his skull away.

She huffed at him before swimming away, she called out to Fou to come in.

Fou shouted back a decline and that she was "waiting for information from a co-worker of hers"

Lenalee turned back around, and from Lavi's view had an evil, knowing smirk. Which usually only meant one thing…

"Her and Bak are dating now?" Lavi asked as Lenalee swam back over to him.

"No, not yet, but I did call Bak to try to get them together." She stated gleefully.

Lavi simply sighed. Lenalee was the match maker of their group. Ever since she had gotten Miranda and Noise together successfully she had been pairing crazed. Lavi seriously though that Lenalee thought herself as Cupid or something.

"I'll be right back Lavi I need to see what happens over the phone call. I need to know if we are having more couples added to our group." Lenalee spoke deviously before slipping back to the shore.

Lavi saw her off before lying back on the rolling waves like she had done a few minutes before. He sighed heavily and relaxed so the water would support his weight. He closed his emerald eye and let his mind go blank.

No thoughts of the Meralise, Allen, Lenalee, Fou, Bookman, the fact that he still had to find a job. They simply vanished from his mind. He only let himself be aware of himself drifting on the waves, the sun's rays warming him from above.

He stayed like that for a few minutes before developing the feeling that _someone_ was watching him in his, almost meditational, state. His left eye snapped open. He looked at the beach, but only saw Lenalee and Fou chatting both sitting on a blue beach blanket over the golden sand.

His eye surveyed the ocean around him, no surfers or other swimmers. So he re-closed his eye and tried to go back into his relaxed state. But, alas he could not shake the feeling of being watched. So he finally got out of his laying position and looked around the area. Lenalee and Fou were _still _chatting and there were not any other people.

_Maybe I'm overreacting. All the stress of this past week must be taking a toll. _He tried to think of a good explanation in his mind. Strangely enough the next thing Lavi acknowledged was the fact that he was being pulled by_ something_. And that something had two hands around his right ankle.

_Maybe Lenalee is getting her revenge for me spooking her?" _He thought in a pathetic attempt to rationalize the situation_, _but he knew Lenalee was still talking to Fou, he had seen them not even thirty seconds before.

As his body was being pulled underwater he glimpsed two fins rushing by him, about a foot away from where he was laying. But then the murky water cut off his vision of the area above the water. He shut his single uncovered eye to prevent the saltwater from getting into it.

The grip on his ankle vanished, but was replaced with an arm around his torso and a hand on his right cheek. He could not hear anything under the waves, and since he had his eye closed he was blind to the world. He obviously couldn't smell, he would get water up his nose and into his lungs, and taste was just thrown out the window. So he could only rely on his feeling of touch. His right hand came up and glided over the one on his cheek, it was warm, and slightly smaller than his own. Then Lavi noticed that he was pressed to a large object. There was a frantic pulsing behind his back, which was pressed up against the object. Although Lavi was only pressed to it from his shoulders down to his waist, the object's lower half was making the water around it swish away from it.

_Allen? But then why wouldn't he talk to me in my mind? Is it another Meralise? Or is it just another swimmer? No, I didn't see any other swimmers in the water, but then again I didn't see whatever swam towards where I was either._

Lavi then felt himself pressed closer to the object before feeling the water around him rush past him. He slowly registered the fact that his lungs were beginning to burn for the air he needed. He gripped the arm around his torso with both hands hoping that it would relay the message.

It apparently did, though not in the way he had hoped it would. He felt a strangely familiar pair of lips press against his own and push air in between them. This passing of air happened two more times at five second intervals before Lavi felt himself ejected out of the water and onto hot sand.

He gasped for breath, a hand on his throat, before cracking his eye open. He was met with the sight of the blue sky, some clouds here and there. He heard sea gulls screeching a distance away and waves crashing against the shore, very close to him, in fact he felt the rush of the water flow past him as waves hit the shore.

Lavi then sat up, wincing as his back shouted in protest after being thrown onto the shore with such force. He then saw a silver tail, a human torso with a dark blue skin tight shirt, twin silver fairy like fins sticking out of the back, and a head of white hair. The apparent Meralise was shaking slightly and snapping his head left and right scanning the waters. But even though Lavi couldn't see his face, merely the back of his head visible to him, he knew who it was, but was still confused.

"Allen?" Lavi called out getting to his feet.

The Meralise froze then his hands went straight for his face and lurched forward.

In alarm Lavi ran forwards and placed a hand on the Meralise's shoulder in concern. This only made the situation worse apparently as Allen's shaking got worse and hid his face from Lavi more by lurching even farther forwards. He tried twisting out of Lavi's grip but turned too much and fell on his back, his arms reacted naturally by trying to support his weight from hitting the ground, but that revealed what they were covering on the young Meralise's face, his mouth, or more specifically his teeth.

Lavi was shocked to see that Allen's front row of teeth cover like a pair just like his back row of shark like teeth. But these looked far longer and looked far more menacing and terrifying than they were before. Allen's mouth was parted so both top and bottom rows were visible. His eyes were wide in shock and fear; he snapped his mouth shut and hastily placed his hands back over his mouth. Lavi then noticed that the barbs on Allen's fins were longer and looked to be sharper than before. He reached out to touch the closest one to him but Allen flopped back, only to be hit with a large wave and thrown back at Lavi from the force of it crashing down.

The water rushed over them both causing Lavi to close his single eye again. When the water had retreated back to the ocean he reopened it to see Allen's pair of eyes closed tightly. The Meralise was thrown onto Lavi, through the power of the wave. His arms were on either side of him while his tail was awkwardly in between Lavi's legs.

Allen's eyes opened slowly, but stared into Lavi's emerald. The silver pools looked as though they would swallow Lavi up in their mercury colored depths. It took a moment before realization had apparently hit the white haired youth. Fear then re-gathered at his eyes as he got off Lavi and scooted back and away from him.

Lavi, on the other hand simply placed both hands on the Meralise's shoulder's and smiled before uttering a "thank you". This merely put Allen in a dumbstruck, "wait-what-?" position.

Then the Meralise seemed to remember that he had pulled Lavi away from whatever had been swimming towards him and gave him a smile. But then reeled back yet again, placing a hand over his mouth.

Lavi then sighed and reached forward to ruffle the damp silvery white hair. He gave Allen another smile before saying,

"I already saw your teeth before Allen, why would I be afraid of them now? It didn't change my view of you."

On the inside though, Lavi was ripping his hair out wondering why the _hell _he was saying that, it was something out of a badly written romance novel or something!

A little inner voice spoke up and said "because it's true." And Lavi mentally cursed off his subconscious.

Allen took his hand away from his mouth then and gave Lavi a large smile.

Lavi, although it was a bit delayed, remembered they were on a beach, in the middle of the day, where **anyone **could see them, or more specifically Allen. Lavi rushed to get Allen back into the water, but only got as far as standing up before a hand landed on his shoulder.

_Oh you are serious? Really? Crap, I'm screwed. Shit, so is Allen. Oh damn it what if they send him off to Area-51 or something? They'll experiment on him and do all kinds of stuff to him!_

Lavi though in paranoia while turning around slowly, only to be met with a pair of dark pink eyes that almost copied the smirking mouth below them perfectly.

Lavi though he would fainted right there and there, as Fou then began to talk to _Allen!_

"Yo, Allen. What did I tell you about coming onto the beach in daylight? People can see you perfectly, ya idiot. Seriously. Get back in the water, Bak and Wong are going to be here soon, and you know I can't let them see you! So get yer ass in the water!" Fou scolded the Meralise smacking him upside the head once, making Allen groan and make a small chirping like sound.

Lavi just stood there in a _"what-the-hell-is-going-on-you-two-know-each-other-what-the-fuck-!"_ state.

"Oi! Lavi! Get yer boyfriends into the water damn it! Lenalee is occupied talking to that Kanda guy but she will come over here sooner or later! Help me get Allen back into the water! He can't move cause he's stupid enough to get beached!" She complained placing her arms under Allen's and trying to hoist him up.

"What the hell! Fou, how do you know Allen?" Lavi shouted, demanding an explanation.

"Allen is something called a Meralise, I know his dad. We both escaped from the hell hole we called home. And no, before you ask me, I am not a fish person! Look, I'll explain later, just help me get him into the water!" Fou explained quickly pulling Allen towards the waves.

Lavi shut his mouth for a moment before taking Allen from Fou and walking him back into the water.

"_**Lavi?" **_Allen said, stopping from being mute to Lavi.

"Yeah Allen?" Lavi whispered. He was unsure why he did, but he didn't want Fou to hear their conversation, or at least his side of it.

"_**Don't do that in the life water no more. Shark almost ate you."**_ Allen muttered softly in Lavi's mind as he was placed in the water.

Lavi's single eye widened slightly. The thing that swam past him was a _shark_?

"_**Lavi, than-k you, for not being, a-fwaid." **_Allen said trying to pronounce words in the land-dwellers language.

He then beckoned Lavi down with a movement of two of his fingers. Lavi leaned down and a kiss was placed on his lips before Allen turned and swam away. It was small and only lasted a few seconds but it still left Lavi dumbstruck.

Shocked for a moment before standing back up strait, Lavi watched the silver tail of Allen's dipped below the waves.

He then turned around with a slow gait walked back towards his red head friend. They met eyes and stared at each other for a while.

"You have a lot of explaining to do." He muttered.

"So do you Bookman Jr." She threw back at him.

She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and lit her keyboard up momentarily, sending someone a text, before snapping it shut.

o0o

Lenalee chose that time to get off the phone with the pony tailed samurai wannabe and jogged over to Fou and Lavi.

Lavi sighed and walked back towards the outpost lazily, kicking sand every once and a while with his feet.

_Fou knows Mana too? Great, just great, so now Gramps and Fou know Mana, but Fou said that she was from their city too? But she said she wasn't a Meralise. She didn't appear to be able to speak in people mind's either, wouldn't she do that to Allen instead of speaking out loud? Going back to the whole "from the city" thing, Fou said she wasn't a Meralise, but than what is she? Gah! This is something out of a science fiction novel or something! Damn it. Well Lavi at lest you can say you have an interesting life!_

Lavi stopped mid way walking to the outpost when he realized he had left all his clothing on the blanket. Groaning he turned around and walked started to walk back to the blanket near the rocks.

He was about half way there why Lenalee and Fou walked up to him from the spot carrying their things.

"Here Lavi." Lenalee said handing him his clothing and sandals.

He thanked her and offered to take the blanket to their car. She agreed after a small amount of arguing that, "I can carry it" and "I know you can I just would like to carry it."

So they walked to Fou's Ford and packed away the blanket. Lenalee then got in the passenger seat and shut the door. Fou on the other hand handed Lavi a folded slip of paper before getting in the driver's seat, turning on the ignition, waved, then drove off.

Lavi looked down at the innocent piece of paper for a moment before un-folding it. In a quick and sloppy handwriting, Fou had written a time and place for them to meet.

**8:45pm the same spot on the beach, Jr. Don't worry just us.**

Lavi sighed and pocketed the paper in the partly dry pocket of his trunks. He had plenty of time to walk home, eat, and take a long nap before coming back to the beach in time. Something told him he would need it.

He didn't know how right he would be.

o0o

At 8:40pm, Lavi was walking along the cooled sand of the beach, a flashlight in his left hand to make sure he didn't step on a crab or something. The moon was a sliver in the sky, but illuminated the crashing ocean beautifully. Lavi glanced at it for a few moments so it was full taken in by his photographic memory.

A small part of him wondered how it would look with Allen jumping out of the water under the moon, but quickly squashed that thought focusing his mind on his main objective. Or, at least trying to, that image was stuck in his head now! Lavi shook his head and walked with a slightly quicker pace to the rocks reaching up out of the sand and water. He heard a speed boat's loud motor in the distance. He groaned at the thought that it might be some drunken teenagers testing out their new ride. Lavi silently hoped the Marine police or Coast Guard would give them a ticket or something.

Their spot was overtaken by shallow water and the foam of the waves that had crashed, but he saw the silhouette of Fou standing near where the original spot was. She had her eyes focused on the moon before turning her attention to Lavi as he got closer.

"Your early, though for sure that you would sleep in." She jested.

Lavi didn't jest back. He wanted to know what was going on. Fou, apparently picked up and sighed before sliding down the wet rocks, pelted by the spray from the waves, to the damp sand.

"So, Lavi, where do you want me to start?"

"What are you?" He asked.

She laughed, she laughed so hard she had tears at the corners of her eyes and her hand on her sides. This went on for a good minute or two before she wiped the tears from her pink eyes with giggles.

"I was wrong. I was a hundred percent sure you were going to asked about Allen!" She giggled.

Lavi merely stared blankly at her.

As Fou saw this, her smile fell.

"I'm what you would probably call a guardian spirit, or something. But the proper name for my group of people would be Guardian Deities. We can morph our appearance to anything we like. We can also change our vocal cords to match a specific sound. We were an experiment after the Meralise were made. Though I am much older than Allen I'm far younger that Mana. My race was created to protect the other experiments, and keep them in their places. Does that explain that question clearly to you?" She ended.

Lavi took a moment to take everything in. He let his shock slip out momentarily but then went back to being stoic. He then asked his next question.

"You said made. Do you mean by humans?" He asked remembering what broken history Allen had told him.

Fou squinted her eyes at him in some sort of accusation before answering with a "yes."

They stayed in their positions for a moment before Fou asked him a question.

"How did you meet Allen?"

"I met him when I was young." He answered not giving her any more information than that.

He had been raised in the Bookman ways and knew not to give out information that was not asked, since it usually came back to get you. It was also smart to keep a trump card close to your vest. Fou didn't seem to know he could speak with Allen so that acted as the trump.

Fou frowned but dropped the question.

"How did you get onto land?" He asked

Fou was silent for a moment before answering.

"Bak's great grandfather met me outside one of the few hiding places we had left. He encouraged me to come to the surface with him, so me and my people could blend in with your own. So we wouldn't go extinct like many species had. I agreed. But my people did not. They all died the next year. There was a large oil spill that killed them all." Fou said grimly.

Lavi stayed emotionless to her story.

Lavi asked the next question.

"There is a city where you, Allen, and Mana came from?" He asked slowly.

She nodded. It looked as though she was going to tell him the name before the waves pushed a body ashore.

Lavi froze in shock, but then ran towards it in fear as he noticed the body had white hair and a silver tail.

Lavi reached down and placed a hand on Allen's back, between fins, but then withdrew it quickly. The illumination from the moon was bad and the smell of the beach interfered, but Lavi knew what stained his hands all too well.

Blood.

Allen had a few deep gashed along his front, back, and around his tail. Only about four from what Lavi could see but what scared Lavi (not that he would admit it) was that all oozed the life giving liquid out of them.

Tired silver eyes meet a panicked emerald one.

"_**Lavi." **_ Allen called out.

Lavi barley registered Fou on her knees next to Allen inspecting his wounds.

Allen reached his right hand out.

Lavi gripped it tightly, but not enough to hurt the wounded Meralise.

"Allen, what happened?" Lavi asked softly, starting to gather the merboy in his arms, starting to sprint to his house.

Allen's head shifted over closer to Lavi, his eyes half open.

"…_**..boats…pain…..got away"**_

Lavi heard him speak in his mind softly.

Lavi was filled with an unexplainable rage. He remembered the boat he heard earlier. Did they hurt Allen? Lavi clenched his hands into fists around the white haired Meralise. This made Allen wince, so Lavi released his clenched finger immediately and looked apologetically at Allen, who gave him a small smile.

Lavi then realized the change in scenery. He was no longer running through sand but standing next to his grandfather's bathroom tub full of water. He was half kneeling with Allen in his arms over the water. He then felt himself almost like he was on autopilot as he placed Allen into the tub gently.

He then saw Fou to his right placing her hands in the water with a towel covering one of them trying to gently rub the sand out of the wounds. Allen winced but made no movements of protest.

Lavi stood up and went over to the medicine cabinet and opened it searching for some rubbing alcohol. It would sting immensely, but it would get the wounds clean. He moved around the objects in the cabinet hastily before he heard Fou bit out a curse.

"A lot of these need stitches. You know how to sew Jr.?" Fou asked looking behind her.

Lavi froze for a quick second. His grandfather knew how to stitch people up, as well as acupuncture. He usually carried medical needles around for healing purposes for his arthritis in his joints and occasionally for Lavi when he was really up in knots.

Lavi had watched his grandfather stitch on several occasions, but was not fully trained, himself in the practice. But then they couldn't exactly take Allen to a hospital. And as he watched Fou take the towel out of the water, turned pink-ish with the deluded blood he knew he didn't really have a choice in the matter.

So as he grabbed the rubbing alcohol and a small prepackaged stitching kit his grandfather kept in the cabinet, he gulped unconsciously and brought forth all the memories he had of times he had seen his grandfather stitch him up. On many occasions he had needed them, falling off a skateboard or something related to that.

He took the tissue box on the counter on the sink and unscrewed the lid of the rubbing alcohol. He dabbed several tissues in the clear liquid before passing the bottle along with the tissue box to Fou.

"I'll need more than that." He muttered as he leaned Allen forwards in the pinkish water. He eased him out of his shirt before starting to dab at the long wound across his back.

Allen hissed and squirmed, but when Lavi gripped his left hand with his right he stopped squirming. Although he did hiss slightly every time Lavi dabbed the wound with the tissue.

When the wound was cleaned he took the stitching kit and opened it. He took the needle and surgical thread and threaded it through the needle. Lavi got as far as placing the needle in position, ready to stitch the wound when he felt a bony finger tap him on his shoulder.

Lavi looked behind him and saw his grandfather looking down at him. His hand signaled him to give him the needle. So Lavi did and moved away from his position, throwing his questions of "why are you back early" into a corner of him mind to ask later. Allen looked at him in worry but Lavi only gave him a smile. Allen gave a hesitant smile back before wincing slightly as Bookman started to stitch him up.

Fou handed him another ball of rubbing alcohol dipped tissues and went back to dabbing a wound across Allen's silver tail. This was sticking partly of the tub, making it easier for Fou to clean the wound, though it was an awkward position for Allen.

Lavi sighed slightly before starting to help Fou clean the wound on the silver tail.

He was grateful that his grandfather was there, for once, to help.

Mainly because now, Lavi knew for a fact, Allen would turn out ok.

Or so he hoped.

o0o

**Yes, it's done! 16 pages on word! Ok, this my readers was you gift for the holidays! You get a long chapter of Where the Land Meets Water! Ok, any question, comments, critiques, all go through that review button down there! Ok, so have some Happy Holidays everyone! Or at least enjoy the season! Ja ne!~**


	8. Pandas and a Chocolate Chip Cookie

It was another couple of tense minutes on Lavi's part before all of the deep wounds on Allen had been sewn closed. The few shallow ones were disinfected then had some ointment put over them before wrapped in gauze, much like the stitched ones. Lavi had taken Allen out of the water to put on the gauze; he was now lying on top of Lavi's bed. Bookman had given Allen some pain pills, which Lavi whispered to him how to properly take them while the others were putting the materials used in the bathroom away. Allen took them with relative ease and had fallen asleep a few minutes ago, exhausted.

Lavi was sitting on the edge of his bed near Allen's head watching him intently. He gave the sleeping Meralise a sad smile. A single hand over the other's webbed one. Cupping it gently, rubbing a thumb over the back of his hand.

_This wasn't what I meant by seeing you later. Now your back at my house, I'm starting to think you like it here better than the ocean._ Lavi's hand squeezed Allen's slightly at his thoughts.

Fou and Bookman then walked back in, obviously done cleaning up the bathroom.

Lavi quickly let go of Allen's hand, not hearing the soft groan of disappointment behind him.

Bookman glanced at Allen, who, to the other three in the room thought, was oblivious to the world around him.

He then looked at Lavi, who stared back.

Bookman moved his aged and wrinkled mouth.

"You have some explaining to do." He said in a monotone.

"So do you Gramps." Lavi deadpanned back to his grandfather and mentor.

Bookman sighed at this but nodded in agreement.

Fou smirked a bit before saying:

"Guess you're done with questioning me eh, Jr.?"

The look in Lavi's eye told her otherwise. He had plenty of other question, but,

"For now." He muttered curtly.

Fou made a small frown at this before her cell phone made a small ding like noise. She took it out of her pocket and flipped it open.

She lit up the keyboard briefly before shoving it back into her pocket with a grimace.

Lavi seriously wanted to know who was texting her repeatedly, here and at the beach.

"They will have to wait for another day then, later Jr., good bye Bookman." And with that she left. No explanations why, good old Fou for ya.

Lavi thought about going after her briefly to see where she was going, but decided against it immediately.

Bookman walked over to the bed and sat at the foot of the bed, away from Allen. Whose tail was curved towards him, while his hands were clenched slightly in front of his face.

_Wonderful, now I'm stuck with the old Panda_

Lavi grimaced slightly at the thought.

"_**What is a Pan-da, Lavi?"**_

_Allen? He's awake?_

"_**Yes"**_

Lavi tried to act calm, seeing how Bookman was rubbing his ancient joints in his fingers, not paying attention to Allen.

_His arthritis must be acting up again._ Lavi briefly thought.

"_**Lavi don't want Allen to be awake?"**_

Lavi mentally banging his head against a wall with exasperation. If he told Allen no then Bookman will know he would be awake, and if he knew he was awake he wound probably ask Allen questions. If he started asking questions, Allen may not be able to answer them since Lavi didn't know if Allen could speak with him like he could with Mana, himself, whale- then why wouldn't Allen be able to speak with Bookman? But then Allen hasn't been talking much, like at the beach and when he washed up on the shore, cover in wounds- which he still didn't know how the Meralise had gotten. A shark maybe, but he could have swum away like when he swam away at the beach. But what if he was surprised? No, Allen could still probably out swim it.

The motor boat came to mind. Some of the deep wounds could have been made by a boat propeller, but there were other ones, some shallower and even longer, but one or two crisscrossed over each other…

"How did you find him?" Bookman asked, breaking Lavi's frantic jumble of thoughts.

It took Lavi a moment to process what was said before replying with a simple;

"He found me actually."

Bookman made a "humph"-ing sound to this.

"And how did he find you?"

Lavi thought for a moment.

How did Allen find him?

Wait.

Find?

"You told Mana you would watch over him." Lavi stated.

Brief shock flickered across Bookman's face before he regained his unemotional look.

"It seems the hypnosis wore off. Then again it held up for a good while, plus I am getting up there in years." Bookman seemed to state to himself.

What the hell? Hypnosis? Why is my life turning into a Sci-Fi novel?

Lavi obviously didn't get an answer.

"Lavi." Bookman muttered while snapping his fingers.

Lavi turned to his grandfather.

"Pay attention when I am telling your answer to you since I will only say it once!"

Bookman glared at Lavi, his wrinkled face scrunching together in frustration.

"I was headed for North Carolina to record history before Mana came to me. Having his child to look after did not change my plans. So we traveled down here while he brought his child through the ocean. But he found a spot for his son to hide and grow in. But the important thing that there was enough food growing there to sustain the baby. There was no hiding place like that where Mana previously visited but the fact that he found a safe spot changed everything. But the higher ups ordered me to stay in North Carolina since they had a new plan to gather as much history all over the world. Too have a Bookman in every country, and every state, more if needed. So it was merely coincidence that I had to stay here."

As he finished the clock in the next room made ten gong like noises, signaling that it was ten pm.

Lavi absorbed the information silently and quickly before asking the next question that came to his mind.

"Then you hypnotized me to forget about A- a baby mermaid?" Lavi stopped himself from saying Allen's name.

Bookman had not referred to Allen as Allen, but as Mana's child. Did he not know Allen's name? Mana didn't tell him? Then again in that memory Mana had spoken Latin to his grandfather…

Lavi didn't ask him about it.

"No, I hypnotized you because you were far too obsessed with the brat. Not listening to the lessons I taught you about becoming a Bookman and somehow, it still eludes me, escaping your pre-school to go to him." Agitation slightly dripping into his bland tone with every word he uttered.

Lavi did not recall this but assumed that it would come to him like the other memory had. Sooner or later he supposed.

"How long did it go on for, me visiting the child?"

"Almost a year, have you found a job yet?" Bookman inquired.

"No."

Why was he so quick to change the topic?

"Wouldn't I have been about four or so? How would I get to the baby mermaid?"

Lavi saw Allen crack his eye at him briefly before re-closing it.

"You were a very sneaky child, telling anyone who you passed that you were playing tag with someone before running past whoever asked you."

"And how would you know that?"

"Because I had gotten a call from your pre-school that you were missing that morning and wondered if I had forgotten to call you out. I saw you go into the school that morning so I asked the shop keepers around the area and they said that they saw you run past their shops every day. The man who owned the bakery even said that you would come into his store with pockets full of change to buy pastries."

Lavi would bet his right arm he saw Allen smile briefly.

Bookman rubbed under his eyes which were now visibly blood-shot in the light coming from Lavi's lamp.

"I am going to bed. You do the same so you can get your sorry ass a job."

With that he left Lavi's room to go to his own.

_Must have taken the red-eye to get here or something_. Lavi thought briefly, thinking about his mentor's red eyes.

He saw light poor into the dark hallway briefly before it disappeared with the click of a door closing accompanying it.

Lavi closed his door before sitting next to Allen on his bed.

The Meralise lazily opened his silver pools scanning the room for any other occupants.

"_**Lavi don't remember visiting me?"**_

Lavi frowned and whispered back,

"No, apparently gramps hypnotized me to forget." _How I have no idea…with a pocket watch or something?_

Allen nodded and tried to turn from being on his side to get onto his back, but he stopped wincing when he had moved his tail the wrong way, aggravating the stitches.

Lavi assisted him by holding his tail up as he got situated. Then rested it don gently onto his sheets.

"_**Thank you."**_

Lavi nodded again before sighing (he seriously had to stop doing that) and laying down next to Allen.

"So, Fou knows you." He whispered.

"_**Fou is my friend, but can not speak to her like I do to you. Can not speak to a lot of friends like I do with Lavi. Don't know why. Maybe thick skulled?"**_

Lavi quickly covered his mouth at the comment about Fou being thick skulled. If that crusty old Panda heard him laughing he would probably get kicked in the head for waking him from his "beauty sleep". Though Lavi thought that the old man could sleep for a thousand years but would still look like the wrinkly old coot that he was.

Allen was confused why Lavi was holding in his laughter, and why he was laughing at all. Humans were such a strange race.

He touched the gills on his neck briefly.

Then again they can live on flat rock, and are thriving. Not like the Meralises.

Lavi settled down from his small laughing fit and glanced over at Allen.

The finned boy was staring off into space with a hand on his closed gills.

"Do you need to go back into the ocean or somethin' Al?"

The mist that had settled over Allen's eyes seemed to vanish with a couple blinks, head turning to meet Lavi single emerald.

His silvery white haired head shook in a "no".

"_**Can stay out of Meralise's home for….302400 ticking noises."**_

Lavi took a minute to do the calculations, which added up to three and a half days give or take an hour.

"_**Lavi, what's a Pan-da?"**_

Lavi thought about attempting to explain to Allen what a panda was but he lived in the ocean so it would seem too foreign to him if he tried to explain fur and everything….So he reached over next to his bed where his laptop was charging.

He quickly pressed the power button and waited it to boot up. Allen watched with curiousness next to him as Lavi rested the laptop on his stomach, upper back resting on the wall behind the head of his bed.

Allen reeled back a bit when the screen turned blue and had the words "Lavi Bookman's Laptop" appeared in the center of the screen, below a recent picture of Lavi smiling and making a peace sign at the camera when the photo was taken.

Lavi typed in his password before clicking "enter".

The computer spat out the words "Welcome" to him as his computer was signing on. His background was that of his group of friends back at high school. The group was made up of Lenalee, Kanda, Johnny, Kanda (who was dragged by Lenalee into the shot), Noise, Miranda, and Krory.

The red head moved his finger along the mouse pad of the electronic before tapping on the blue "e" with his white arrow.

Allen settled back down next to him, well not exactly next to. More like he was leaning on Lavi a bit looking at the flat, pretty colored, rectangle Lavi was somehow making glow different colors.

Levi went to his favorite search engine, Google, and typed in "pandas", before clicking the search bar. After half a second, links to websites appeared along with a few pictures of pandas. He clicked on the one which had the panda laying down on a rock, probably taken at a zoo or something…

"That," Lavi kept his voice low "is a panda."

Allen seemed to study the foreign creature before turning his attention back to Lavi, who he nodded to.

It didn't last though, as his face morphed into an expression of confusion.

"_**Old human isn't fuzzy. How he a panda?"**_

Lavi pointed to his green eye.

"He has the same marks around his eyes as that panda does. So I call him an Old Panda."

Allen made an "o" with his mouth.

"_**Then why call me "bean sprout"?"**_

Lavi thought for a moment wondering how he could explain. 

"Well, bean sprouts are small, thin, and, um…their tiny leaves kind of look likes a tail?"

Allen pouted slightly and looked off to the side at the small window. It's blinds were drawn but the moon's illumination shone through the thin material.

"_**I am not small…"**_

Lavi held back his laughter again.

"Well, if we measured from our torsos upwards, I would have more inches than you."

Lavi showed him this by placing his left hand where Allen's skin just began to tinge gray and his other on top of Allen's head. He then moved his hands to his own torso, while his other hand only went to about the middle of his neck.

Allen made a huffing noise and went back to looking at Lavi's laptop. Curiosity most likely got the better of him and he pressed one of the buttons Lavi had before to make the strange thing glow and show things that weren't there.

But nothing happened. So he pressed another one. Same outcome.

A few more buttons. Still nothing.

Allen clenched his jaw in agitation, but then Lavi's hand took Allen's and moved it to the mouse pad and gently ran Allen's index finger over it moving the mouse. Lavi continued this for a few more seconds before removing his hand.

Allen's finger moved around the mouse on his own, he seemed mesmerized by the little arrow moving around the screen. The Meralise's fun, though, was interrupted by a yawn coming from his own mouth. So the white haired male stopped moving the mouse around and made himself comfortable next to Lavi.

So Lavi shut his laptop and set it back on the floor. He got off his bed, much to Allen's dismay, and shifted the covers out from under him. Then walked over to the door and flipped the light switch off. He lied back down and pulled the warm thin sheets over them, careful of Allen's bandaged injuries.

Lavi heard through his door the air conditioner turning itself back on, getting rid of the smallest traces of the hot June air from the small house. He never did know why his grandfather liked the house so cold. He once thought that it didn't matter to the man since his heart was just as cold and unfeeling to the world around him. For Bookmen are not in need of hearts, only brains.

He was pulled out of that thought by Allen snuggling up next to him, tail hesitantly getting closer to his pair of legs. He could just make out the shine of the silver pools in the dark, the moon hidden by a passing cloud.

Unsure what he was suppose to do, Lavi stretched his right arm up in the air slightly, inviting Allen closer to him. Which the Meralise complied to, his top half cuddling against Lavi's top half, but his tail still straying away from his legs.

He didn't mind, in fact he liked the warmth Allen provided. Something seemed to flip about in his stomach and his heart gave a strangely quicker thump for some reason. But Lavi ignored it and wrapped his arms around Allen's back, bringing him even closer.

Lavi felt himself getting tired, his eyelids feeling like cinderblocks weighing them down. Allen moved his head from the pillow they were sharing to the nape of Lavi's neck, sighing contently.

So the red head, completely sated with his current position, gave into sleep's tempting darkness.

o0o

Lavi yawned as he cracked his eye open, rubbing his hands at his eye. He opened his eye fully, and groaned mentally.

His room was basically the same, but a few things were out of place.

His laptop was gone.

His dresser was downsized to half of its size.

He had a stuffed rabbit under his arm.

His bed was smaller.

Oh yeah, he was smaller too.

About age four.

_I'm reliving a memory again. Wonderful._

Lavi drawled in his mind as his younger self seemed to get a sudden sugar rush as he zipped around his room, throwing on a pair of denim overalls and a red shirt. He had a bit of trouble getting on his white socks though, hopping on one food trying to get them on. He then ran out of his room and into the kitchen.

The kitchen was basically the same also, minus the advanced technology of 2011. The old Panda was smoking over by the stove overseeing sunny side up eggs and bacon sizzle in the pan.

He was also wearing a pink frilly apron with the words "Kiss the Chef" on the front.

Lavi was stuck between gagging and laughing hysterically.

The mini Lavi went over to the, now out dated, fridge and grabbed a brown paper bag off the lowest shelf.

He then set it on the counter before hopping onto a chair at the table, which had a paper plate, baby fork and napkin set out on it.

His grandfather walked over, slid the breakfast out of the pan and onto the plate and went back to making his own breakfast. Taking two eggs out of the carton next to the stove, breaking them and watching them cook in the black metal pan.

Lavi's younger self hastily munched at his breakfast with vigor, before stopping since he almost chocked, then returned eating at a slower pace. Once finished the utensils were thrown into the since and the paper plate thrown into the trash, a little red head zoomed to the bathroom to finish getting ready.

Teeth were brushed, hair was combed, and the child ran back to his room. There he grabbed a small pouch from under his pillow. It was looked old, it had a tan color to it, rectangular, had a single zipper on the top, and had: Bookman Jr. embroiled on the side in red thread that was slightly fraying.

It was stuffed into the side pocket of Lavi's younger self's overalls, before the boy ran back to the kitchen.

By the time the boy had gotten back to the kitchen, Bookman was standing next to the door with keys in his hand.

He nodded once at the young Lavi before opening the door and walking out to his car. The small red head slipped on a pair of small back and red shoes with laces tied up into messy knots. Then tiny shoe clad feet hastily pushed off the ground as he walked to the car, barely getting his seatbelt fully on by the time the old man had gotten out of the driveway.

The ride to the pre-school was short, but mini Lavi annoyed Bookman enough in the five minute drive for him to whack the boy while driving since the boy was hopping in his seat as if he had ants in his pants. It was a wonder how they had not driven into the next lane and crashed.

Young Lavi zoomed out of the car as Bookman was just beginning to park the car, earning him another whack. The boy waved at Bookman as he drove away, and as soon as he was out of sight, little Lavi ran down the opposite street.

He ran quickly, avoiding large dogs, men with suitcases with coffee in their grasps, running under women's skirts and dresses, almost hitting the newspaper boy, hopping over a small dog that made him take another look to make sure it wasn't a rat on a leash.

Finally he came to a small one story building with pale blue paint covering cement outer walls, wedged between a small convince store, and a shoe store.. The shop had a large glass window displaying several treats on doilies and silver decorative pedestals.

The eye patch wearing child pushed open the glass door, a bell chiming softly over his head, Inside the floors were a nice wooden oak, the walls were covered in picture frames of relatives of the people who worked there, and newspaper clippings. A large glass bakery case, displaying even more cookies, cakes, puddings, really any sweet you could think of, from any country too! An old man stood behind the case, he had a monocle resting next to his rather large nose on the left side. The only hair he had, which was white, was pulled back into a ponytail he also had a small goatee. The only thing strange about the man was that he had a strange diamond shape tattoo on his forehead and three earrings pierced to the bottom of his ears. But the young Lavi approached the counter with a giddy look on his face.

The old man looked up, drawing his attention from counting the money in the cash register and gave the young one a smile.

"Ah, hello Novus, what can I get for you today?"

Lavi took a moment, as his younger self pondered what he wanted to get, wondering why he did not remember the persona which meant "inexperienced" in Latin.

He simply shrugged it off, deeming it was probably since Bookman had illegibly hypnotized him.

He was pulled from his thoughts was his smaller self started to count change, from the money pouch, in his tiny fingers, hoping he had enough for the small white box of treats sitting on top of the glass. He reached up his hands in a cupped manner, so that the change was gathered together, not falling from his small hands.

The old man took the change and handed the boy the medium sized box. Which he took gleefully before walking from the man, his pace quickening every few strides, before he remembered to call out over his shoulder a, "thank you Mr. Zu Mei Chan!"

The old man smiled and gave the boy a little wave. Then Lavi's smaller self who had the persona "Novus" happily ran down the sidewalk yet again, towards the beach.

Eventually he arrived at a very large outcropping of rocks, not unlike the rocks Lavi had rescued Allen from the net by, but it was indeed a different beach. Novus climbed the rocks with one hand, the other pressing the box to his chest, the rocks were slightly wet from the previous night's spray of sea water.

Eventually he came to a halt close to the top of the pile of sharp stones. He used his hand he had been using to climb to grasp a flat rock that was wedged in-between two particularly sharp ones. He snapped his head left and right, making sure no one was looking at him on the near deserted beach, save a few adults and fishermen. He then heaved the flat rock up, with a good amount of effort and strain, before an opening in the rocks was visibly. The whole was deep and seemed to go through the mound of rocks, to Lavi's amazement, it was about four feet in diameter.

Novus then positioned himself to sit on the edge of the whole, legs dangling into the darkness, taking one last look around him, making sure no one was observing him. Then he slid down, the flat rock slamming onto the other rocks, enveloping him in darkness as he slid down the smooth inside of the rocks.

He slid down for about a few seconds, turning here and there, even managing to flip over onto his back somehow, before tumbling out on his back onto a pile of damp sand.

The red head spat out some of the sand he had accidentally gotten in his mouth before looking around for something.

Novus had landed into some sort of cavern. There was a small pool of water on half of the cavern, bubbles coming up every now and then. The walls were made up of off colored grey granite like stone; the sand was a slightly lighter color. The only light source was from several different colored candles burning around the sides of the walls. Several different colored wax piles signifying candles had been burning for a long time.

Novus walked over to the edge of the pool, setting the white box a few inches away from the edge. He leaned over the side, laying on his belly, dipping his right hand into the cool water, swirling it in circles. After a few moments a smaller hand grasped Novus's.

With a wide grin that would put the Cheshire cat's to shame, the red head pulled his arm up, and with it a small white haired Meralise. The young Allen looked to be a few months older than when Lavi had previously seen in his dreams. His hair framed his whole face now and some of his baby fat was gone, the silver tail had gotten shinier and longer.

The grasp on Novus's hand was removed as the tiny Meralise gripped the side of the pool a large smile on his face.

"Hey Allen!" Novus spoke happily rubbing the younger boy's wet hair.

" _**Hello Novus! How were dreams?"**_

The small baby voice echoed in Lavi's mind and apparently Novus's also.

"I didn't have any this time, how 'bout you? Oh! Grandpa was watchin' the boring channel with the weird guys talking about the people in the big white house a lot, and they said they saw a shark off the beach or somethin!" The older boy exclaimed waving his small arms around for extra exaggerations.

The little Meralise nodded his head, silver pools staring at the single emerald of his human companions.

"_**I know, Mana told me."**_

Novus appeared to start upon another topic when a small gurgling noised echoed throughout the cavern. Which made the human child laugh while the developing Meralise sinking back into the water a bit, apparently embarrassed that his stomach made itself apparent that it was hungry.

Novus opened the white box and took out an oversized chocolate chip cookie, which was then broken in half; one piece went to Allen the other to the red head.

Both then started to nibble at the treat with small smiles.

The dream then unfortunately began to fade into darkness.

Out in the world of reality, Lavi smiled as Allen watched him sleep with a small smile across his mouth.

o0o

**I know I'm later than normal please don't kill me! This was a pretty hard chapter to right since I had mid terms and writers block to deal with! So yeah, nice little look into the past again! Little Lavi in overalls was too cute for me to pass up writing! So please review if you have any questions or just feel like reviewing! I will try to not be as late next time! D:**

**~Ja Ne OceanicCrownClown 3**


	9. Cheerios and Harpoons

Lavi awoke to something poking his cheek. The red head, not wanting to escape sleep's warm embrace and going out into the cold, unforgiving world, tried to move away from the thing poking at his face and snuggled his head deeper into the fluffy feather filled pillow under it. The poking stopped, but that was soon was replaced by the warmth that was next to him slowly wriggling away.

So Lavi cracked his eye open to see Allen on the side of the bed, before falling forwards and landing with a thump. A sound of annoyance was followed shortly by the sound of Allen's rumbling stomach. Lavi moved closer to the side to see Allen face down on his floor, the fingers on his right hand tapped at the floor in annoyance. The Meralise then propped himself up with his arms and adjusted himself, with a bit of difficulty, to lead on the side of the bed.

"Hungry?" Lavi asked, head held up by his hand.

Startled, Allen looked up at the red head peering down at him. It took him a moment to realize that the human had asked him a question. He gave a delayed nod.

Lavi sat up and stretched, hearing his back pop back into place, and swung his legs over the side of the bed, careful to not hit the young Meralise.

"Well let's get you something to eat then." The red head spoke as he picked Allen up off the floor.

As the pair walked to the kitchen Lavi looked at the stitches along Allen's tail. They were closing abnormally quickly, as if they had been healing for days.

_It would be best to keep the stitches in for a few more days though…_

Lavi thought as he sat Allen in a chair before going to the fridge.

He opened the frigid container and held back a groan as he saw the few possible things to make a breakfast out of it-

Allen's stomach growled like a lion that had missed dinner for a weak.

-and a big one if possible.

Lavi moved a few things around in the fridge and came across two egg cartons. He opened them up and they were full of eggs, a dozen each.

_Does Allen eat eggs?_

Lavi turned around and asked the Meralise.

Allen's only response was his eyebrows going up his forehead and a look of surprise on his face.

_What's with the face? I only asked if he ate eggs… Think Lavi, what do eggs mean to things that live underwater? Well they certainly don't have sea chickens down there so what else lays eggs down there…..Well he said Meralise had eggs so, he must think I mean-…Oh._

Lavi took a egg out of the carton and showed the silver finned boy.

"This is a chicken egg Allen. People up here eat them, there is nothing living inside these things, ok?" The red head tried to explain.

Allen tilted his head ever so slightly looking at the egg.

"_**How do you get them from these chic-kens?"**_

Lavi was silent for a moment, ransacking his brain for the answer.

_I think I heard how a while ago, what was it again?_

After a few moments it was like a light bulb went off in his head. But then went out again because he had to explain it to Allen, who was as naïve as a six year old. But most six year olds weren't ocean dwelling half human fish now were they?

"You know how babies are made in your species right Allen?" He asked. Allen explained how they were born but Lavi was unsure if Mana had given Allen the Meralise version of "The birds and the bees".

Allen shifted in his seat uncomfortably as crimson made its way across the bridge of his nose and cheeks.

"_**Yes…"**_

"Well it's when, _that_, doesn't work, the chicken still lays the egg and well, yeah."

_Well that just spoiled __**my **__appetite for these things…_

There was a long silence after that as Lavi practically threw the eggs back into the fridge and looked for something else that would fill Allen's monstrous appetite.

Slightly peeved that there was nothing in the fridge, and making a mental note to go grocery shopping, Lavi made his way the pantry. He searched around in there before his eyes settled on two large boxes of Cheerios. Grabbing the oversized yellow boxes h made his way back to the table, but not before nabbing two bowls, spoons and the gallon of milk.

Allen simply stared at the food being poured into the bowl before the white liquid was poured over the small circles. He took the spoon Lavi offered him and watched Lavi take the metal object, picked up some of the strange mix, and shove it in his mouth before chewing.

The white haired boy attempted to recreate the movements, spilling some of the milk and Cheerios back into the bowl, and chewed it slowly. It didn't really taste like much, the liquid was cold and the circles tasted like hardened bread, but he wasn't going to refuse eating it while his stomach was practically roaring for any type of food.

They ate in silence, Lavi re-filled Allen's bowl about six times, until they were both full.

Lavi broke the returning silence by stating,

"I remembered when I was little and I brought you pastries to your little cave last night."

He played with the few Cheerios in the pool of milk with his spoon.

Allen smiled slightly, his tail ever so slightly brushed against the floor.

"_**Memories coming back is a good thing, right?"**_

Lavi shrugged a little.

"Actually I didn't know that they were lost. It was just a part of my life I deemed too early for me to remember."

Allen made a small "o" with his mouth.

Trying to avoid hurting the Meralises feelings Lavi searched his mind for something to say to him.

"How did you get those wounds on your tail anyway Allen? They don't really look like anything a shark would make, they are too long."

The speed boat he had heard came to mind again, was Allen hit by it?

Allen sighed and leaned back gently in the chair so he would not aggravate the stitches on his back.

" _**After I left you and Fou at rocks, I went back to swimming around life water, then I saw a large black thing that was half in life water, half out. It was a boat, I do not like them because….bad things happen when they are around."**_

Lavi took into account the pause in Allen's voice, but did not inquire about it.

"_**So swam away, but then when Moon rise a smaller one found me. I tried to swim away from it but it stayed close to me, tried to get me by non-life water place, attacked with sharp barbs. Got away but got dizzy. Lucky I get found by Lavi, yes?"**_

Lavi nodded while his inner self was in turmoil with rational thought whether or not he should make some sort to comfort Allen.

Inner self won out.

Lavi moved from his seat across from Allen to bending forward slightly and wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

"I'm sorry."

Lavi didn't know why or what he was apologizing, but it seemed like the thing to say.

But of course their little moment had to end at the vengeful wrath of a whack job old panda man.

Bookman seemed to fly as he kicked Lavi in the head, making it meet the table in a rather, uncomfortable manner.

"You are not allowed to show raw emotions as a Bookman, idiot!" Bookman scolded Lavi as the old man landed on his feet.

The exact opposite of how Lavi landed.

The Bookman Jr. slammed the palms of his hands on the table and wiped around to face the makeup wearing old man with a bruised nose that was bleeding and an even worse wounded ego, and for the first few sentences cursed off the older man in several different languages that Allen did not understand.

"_**Why must non-ocean dwellers use such different languages?"**_

Allen simple watched the yelling between the other two males like a crowd would watch a ping-pong match. And as of right now the old man was obviously winning.

"But why did you have to kick me into the damn table!"

"Well you wouldn't have hit the damn table if you weren't bending over like a hunchback!"

"That doesn't explain the reason for you kickin-"

Bookman walked away from the fuming red head and inspected Allen's tail.

"Oi! The hell! I wasn't done with you!"

"But I am with that conversation, so get your ass over here and you might learn something."

Lavi grumbled and gritted his teeth slightly to stop another sting of insults towards his mentor. He walked over to where the old man was next to Allen.

"What do you think you made these wounds?" The elder of the three in the room inquired.

Lavi shrugged, unable to think of anything on a speedboat that would cause these wounds.

"A propeller?"

"Wrong."

Smack

"Ow! You old coot -!" Lavi started holding the back of his head.

"Propeller wounds would be in the same direction, these are at random angles, and they are not as gapping as an actual propeller wound is. By the protection this mermaid has on its tail it would have chopped good chucks out of it." Bookman explained gesturing to the still healing wounds.

Both Lavi and Allen turned slightly white at the idea that Allen would have been turned to sushi if he was hit by a propeller.

"These are harpoon wounds, ones with long spears but not very serrated. Which is why they are mainly clean cuts, now why do you think this mermaid has harpoon marks around it?"

_When did treating Allen turn into a lesson in aquatic fish wounds?_

"Someone wanted to catch h-it?" Lavi bit his lip at calling Allen an "it".

"Maybe but there are other explanations to be considered, but that is the most likely one. Now get this back to the ocean."

Lavi bit harder on his lip to not show his surprise.

"Why? It would take more time for the wounds to heal fully."

Bookman ever so slightly glared at his apprentice.

"Yes, but it does not need to take the time in doing so in _my _house. Plus you have no idea when it needs to go back into the water, for all you know in a couple seconds it could be gasping for breath. So go deposit of it and get back here. There is work you need to be doing."

And with that he left.

Lavi's fingernails of his right hand bit into his palm as he clenched his fist.

"_**I go now, right Lavi?"**_

Lavi looked down and met eye to eye with Allen, who wore a strained smile like a sumo wrestler wears pantyhose.

_Ew, bad mental picture. Very, very bad mental picture._

Lavi looked over to the digital clock of the microwave which read 7:12am. There would be next to no one out at this time in June. All the teenagers would be sleeping in, same for the younger children, the adults would be going to work and the dock was only a few feet from the front of the house.

Lavi picked up the Meralise carefully and walked to the door. He cracked it open slightly and peered outside. The street was empty; the shades of all the nearby houses' windows were all drawn.

He sprinted out the door to the dock and dipped Allen tail first slowly into the water. Allen made a small wince as his wounds hit the salty water but reassured Lavi with a smile and pushed him out of himself out of the red head's arms into the cold liquid.

He stayed under for a couple of seconds before his head broke the surface, ear fins sticking out of wet silver white hair.

His silver eyes looked into Lavi's single emerald, before speaking to Lavi.

"_**The symbol on the side of the boat were A-K-U-M-A-0576. It had two of Lavi's species on it. They had black marks on their heads. That's all I saw."**_

Lavi looked at Allen in surprise but nodded.

Allen looked at Lavi with some sort of longing in his eyes.

Lavi felt a small tug in his heart.

"_**Will you come see me when the Moon comes back and the Sun goes away?"**_

Lavi was quiet for a moment before nodding with a smile.

"Of course, just don't run into any more boats, I don't need to see more blood this week than I have to!" he joked a bit darkly.

Allen gave a small smile before diving back under, silver flashes visible for a moment before Allen jumped out of the water, not unlike a dolphin, and dived back under, not coming up again. But a small splash of water a ways away signaled that he was swimming towards the ocean.

Lavi watched the water flow for a little bit before standing up and heading to the nearby dock.

_AKUMA-0576 huh? Well let's just see if they are in port…_

It took Lavi a few minutes to walk to the dock; the dock itself wasn't anything special. It was made of wood, worn and losing color. Squeaking every now and then, small fish hooks scattered here and there, couple pieces of old fishing net too, just your average dock.

There were several boats roped to the post, most were white, but others were more vibrant colors. But near the end of the dock Lavi came across the one he was looking for.

_Akuma 0576, who the heck names their speedboat that, seriously they couldn't think up of a cooler name?_

Lavi looked into the windows of the cabin door, it was empty, save a table with papers scattered across it, a ugly green couch, the controls, and a phone on a small wooden table that seemed to match the one with the papers scattered across it. The door had a simple lock on it, easily pick-able.

Lavi fished around his pocket and pulled out a Swiss Army Knife, he always carried it around with him, but had accidentally left it in his pocket when he fell asleep last night.

He fiddled with the lock with one of the metal bobby pins attached to the knife contraption, why his had a bobby pin accessory, he didn't know, but he did know it got him out of a lot of sticky situations. With a click the door swung inwards with a creek, allowing Lavi in. Taking a hesitant step Lavi looked around his surrounding, almost waiting for someone to pop out and catch him, but no one appeared.

Wlaking in the cabin he closed and locked the door behind him so he wouldn't raise any suspension by a passing stranger.

He walked around a bit until he tripped over a rug that had been hidden by the couch facing door. But it wasn't the rug that caught his attention, it was the square crack in the floor that did. There was a small brass handle on the top of the square wooden floorboard. He pulled it and it came off with a "pop". Inside there were several sharp looking harpoons, a few hand guns, two or three knives, and two radios.

Lavi then placed the top back onto the hidden compartment and walked over to the tabled, the papers that were scattered had coordinates from over the past six months, maps of Italy, Florida, Africa, Japan, all had red "X"'s all over certain points in the ocean and on land. Each "X" had a red arrow pointing to and from it. But before Lavi could investigate further, two gruff sounding voices sounded from near the door. Slightly panicked Lavi ran over to being the couch and lifted up the skirt of the couch, the legs held the cushions about eight and a half inches off the floor, enough for Lavi to slide under and hide.

He got his feet under just as the door opened. Two pairs of boot clad footsteps echoed in the otherwise silent cabin. One pair seemed to go to the table while the other stopped next to where Lavi was hiding. Lavi could of sworn that the people in the room could hear his pulse as well as he could as it thumped in his ears.

"We have to find that damned Meralise before Lord Mikk gets here. Do you have any idea how well he and the rest of the Noah family will pay us if we catch one? We won't have to work a day for the rest of our lives!" A gruff but young voice echoed in the room.

And older and even gruffer voice then echoed.

"Yeah, but alive is a bit harder to get them as then dead with a couple of holes in them! Ha, ha! We could just sell it to some weirdo and get twice as much!"

"No, I don't think going up against the Noah family's wishes is good though, I heard the last person who tried to do that was tortured to insanity then their youngest, and the daughter of the Earl killed him!"

"No way, that would have never happened."

"How do you know?"

"Do you think the Noah family would have let something like that get out?"

Silence followed.

"Exactly. Now let's find this damn fish, it escaped us yesterday and Lord Mikk will be here in a week! We need to show him something other than more spots where people said they saw it! Or we will be out of a job!"

Lavi heard keys jingle and an engine roar to life.

Crap.

**o0o**

**I'm late, I'm late, I'm late for a very important date! Well here in the U.S. it is 10:34pm. So I technically DID make my deadline :'3 yeah…..short but the plot moved a bit more D: I'm sorry I really am guys, I have been so busy lately thought it's not even funny. D: Please review, make a comment, or yell at me on how this is a horrible excuse for a chapter, rip out my heart and stomp on it, whatever makes you happy.**

**Ja Ne~!**


	10. I'm a what!

The boat drove through every wave that came its way, the larger waves rocking the small boat like a toy in a wave pool. Lavi had already wacked his forehead a couple times against the wooden frame of the couch he was hiding under due to the force of the waves. Hi bit back a groan as the two other men on the boat began to speak again.

"Damn thing always getting' away from the others I hear, actually sunk a good number of smaller boats in the reefs." The older voice echoed though out the room.

"Yeah? What do you expect from fish people who have evade people for so long? Them to sunbath in public beaches, they are part human, you idiot."

"Don't smush their kind in with ours! They kill us by dragging us down to Davy Joan's locker. Not any better than them sharks that eat surfers n' such…"

"I think you had too much beer last night…"

"Really? I think you should shut the fuck up so we can get the damned fish so we can get a damned paycheck!"

There was a loud bang, as if someone had punched a wooden table, then hurried steps and papers rustled. A quick pause then the footsteps got closer. They stopped maybe a foot from where Lavi was hidden. The sound of the wooden top of the compartment that that hid their weapons echoed loudly in Lavi's ears, as if it were a firecracker going off next to him.

_They don't know I'm here….right?_

The sound of the harpoons and guns in the compartment was muffled by the boat slicing through the waves.

"What the hell?" The voice of the human no more than six inches away from Lavi shouted with anger.

"What is it?" The one driving the boat asked.

"Where the fuck is it! I brought that damned thing for four hundred dollars! Did you steal it you backstabbing thief!"

"Who are you calling a backstabbing thief? You hid it under the handgun ya idiot! Try looking for your shit sometime!" 

"I did I just forgot where I put it damn it, don't think I can push you off this damned boat and find the mermaid myself!"

"Like hell you could! You wouldn't be able to find a goldfish at a pet store!"

"Oh yeah w-"

The two screaming at each other was stopped by a rather annoying beeping noise echoing throughout the boat. Then the footsteps of the man who was so close to Lavi stomped heavily to the other hired poacher.

"We got him, he is right under us! quick go get the net!"

More footsteps and the sound of two harpoons and a handgun being taken from the compartment sounded in Lavi's ears. The gun clicked and the door on the side of the boat opened.

"Where is he!"

"Off the right of the bow!"

_Crap, please don't be Allen, be some big fish. Let them be mistaken!_

"I see it! Slow down the damned boat more!"

The engine slowed and the other man seemed to grab a net by the sound of it dragging along the wooden floor.

"Here, nab that overgrown fish and we'll be in the Bahamas by tomorrow!"

The boat slowed and the sound of the net whistling thought the air was deafening in Lavi ears, then the sounds of _someone _struggling in said net was just plain terrifying.

"I got it, I got the damn monstrous thing!"

To Lavi the largest harpoon, the steel point gleaming slightly in the light was like a oasis to a dehydrated man who was in the desert for a month.

He gripped the harpoon with his hand as he bolted out from his hiding spot.

The man at the wheel of the boat was to slow in turning around and as smacked in the back of the head by the hard plastic rod of the harpoon.

The man who had the net in his hands looked at Lavi in surprise before raising his right arm to block a blow from the harpoon that was being swung at him at an alarmingly fast speed.

Lavi wondered at first why the two men with black starred tattoos on their foreheads were moving so slowly. But then he realized that he was moving much quicker than them. Adrenaline was coursing through his veins making every sense heighten dramatically.

The man fell back, further onto the boat, dragging the net up higher with him. The catch struggled more as it was partially taken from its home element. The man looked to be in his mid-thirties, he was unshaven, had dark rings around his eyes and looked slightly beat up. Lavi caught the smallest hint of alcohol on his breath over the overwhelming scent of the sea.

The man kicked Lavi's left knee making him crumple to the ground before he could try to hit the man with the steel tipped weapon again. He landed on his side on top of the net, the thrashing stopped momentarily before picking up again becoming even more frantic if possible.

Lavi raised the harpoon to block another hit from the enraged man, but his grip on it slipped and it fell into the ocean. While stepping back to dodge more blows, the redhead took his Swiss Army knife from his pocket and tried to defend himself that way. He cut the other man's arms up a bit with the knife, but that too was then hit out of his hands as he fell to his knees. He watched it tumble into the crashing waves near the net. Lavi got up before the man was able to kick him overboard, but was not ready for a blow to the back of the head from the man he thought he had knocked out.

The adrenaline making his heart beat faster slowed down as it ringed in his ear as he fell sideways off the boat. He should be thinking that he was going to drown. That he would die now. That he was done for. But the only thing he was focuses on was the pair of mercury colored eyes wide with terror and a terrified sound coming from the mermaid tangled in the net as he was submerged into the waves. And the darkness flooding his vision like someone had flipped a light switch off.

"LAVI!"

O0O

He felt…strange.

Not the kind of strange when you're sick or on some sort of medication that clouds your head.

More like the kind of strange when you realize that you are helpless in a situation, but can't bring yourself to care…

Like you were at peace…but there was something nagging you in the back of your mind…but he couldn't remember what…

Then he felt a prickling sensation, which quickly turned into one of extreme pain.

Why did it hurt so badly?

_-…i….._

He felt fine a few seconds ago…

_-…vi….._

Was he being tormented by something? Wait, what was he doing before he was here?

_-…avi….._

Oh right, he was trying to save Allen, where was that Meralise anyway…

_-…Lavi….._

He fell….and Allen looked….scared…

_-…Lavi-!_

Why did he look scared…..couldn't he escape?

_-Lavi!_

Or was it….

_-Lavi!_

…That he was going to die?

_**-LAVI!**_

O0O

He slowly had his conciseness return to him. He was aware that it was warm, and there was something next to him. His legs felt like he had run a marathon in quicksand then went jumping off ten story buildings. He slowly opened his good eye. He was facing a grey stone wall, not like bricks but as if someone had carved the wall out of solid rock. He was lying on some sand. The place was dimly lit, the source of the light apparently coming from behind him.

He then felt something shift against him; he looked down and saw a blob of white and silver. Allen was against him, arms wrapped around him his tail was wrapped around….

Wait…

Lavi's eye traveled down to where his legs _should have been_.

In their place was a long sleek red scaled tail. The scales had slightly sharper points and were wider compared to Allen's and his lacked the side fins. But then again that wasn't important right now. What is thought…

Is why the FUCK he HAD a DAMN TAIL.

_Ok, back up a second. The last thing you remember is…falling off the boat into the sea. So…I'm dead? I passed out as I hit the water… So this is the afterlife or something?_

Allen shifted slightly again, tail tightening around his.

_Well…this isn't so bad…_

Lavi raised a hand to his face, compared to Allen's, Lavi's fingers only had a small amount of red webbing in between. His arms lacked the side fins that went down Allen's arms. He did have back fins but they were more curved downwards and looked almost feathery at the ends. The same went for his tail fin, which only had two side barbs, where Allen's had four. He reached a hand up to the side of his neck. There were two sets of gills on either side, pumping the salty water onto him.

Allen shifted again, but this time his eyes blinked open. They stared at each other for a moment before a grin stretched over Allen's face. The white haired Meralise tackled the redhead and they spun in the water until Lavi was on his back in the sand with Allen on top of him. The sediment around them was stirred up, floating in the water before settling back down.

"Lavi!"

Said red head stared up at the mermaid on top of him. He had never spoken, but his voice, though muffled slightly by the water, sounded just as it did in his head.

"You're ok! I was worried that it wouldn't work!"

"Eh? What wouldn't work? Allen what are you talking about? Aren't I dead?"

Allen looked at Lavi like he had grown six heads.

"Dead? No…woke up part of Lavi that was asleep."

?

"What? What do you mean wake up?"

"Lavi is part Meralise."

…

"I shall repeat myself again: what?"

"Your sire is half Meralise, mother is human, Lavi is one fourth Meralise."

The only sound for a good few minutes was the water in the cave circulating in their gills.

"….and you know this because?"

Allen made a small grimace and seemed reluctant to say anything. He seemed to find the small crab scuttling across the sand in the cave more interesting than the topic at hand.

"Your father is umm my Master."

…_What!_

"What? Like you're…his" Lavi started but couldn't finish his sentence, a red blush creped its way across his face.

Allen, somehow, caught onto what he was saying and frantically moved his arms in front of him shouting,

"No! Not like that! I am his apprentice!" Allen's face morphed from it's pale completion to one that looked like a tomato.

There was another pregnant pause between the two, Allen had turned around, his back facing Lavi, fiddling with his hands. Lavi watched the small crab from before fight with another crab.

Lavi was the one to break the silence.

"How did I change from my legs to a tail anyway sprout?"

Allen looked slightly annoyed about the "sprout" comment, but answered Lavi with,

"At first you didn't, but the thing that dropped into the water when you were fighting those other land walkers, I used it to get out of the net. So when you fell I went after you. But your land lungs were filled with water, so simply brining you back up was not an option."

Allen turned back around and placed his right hand on his left shoulder.

"For a full Meralise to gain legs we just will ourselves to do it, and then will ourselves to go back to a tail. Half Meralises usually have to think about their mates to will themselves to have legs or go back to a tail. One forth Meralises need…encouragement."

Lavi quirked an eyebrow.

"Encouragement? What kind of encouragement?"

Allen's cheeks turned pink.

"Do you remember how I said Meralises gain legs to impress mates?"

The eye patch wearing redhead nodded.

"Well it works both ways for not full Meralises." Allen gulped a bit of sea water through his gills. "I didn't know how to get you to change since I'm not your mate," another pause "so I let myself coil around you. It was just natural instinct but." Allen's hand slowly slipped from his shoulder revealing a red mark, a bite mark that shredded his shirt slightly.

"So your legs changed to a fin. It is a painful experience so you accidentally bit me I think. After you changed fully I brought us here. This is a safe haven from the Akuma boats."

Allen bowed his head slightly and stared at the sandy floor.

"I'm sorry for brining you into this Lavi. If you want to leave I can understand."

Lavi was quiet for a long time, processing what he had just been told

He was part mermaid, damn it, if Yuu and Lenalee ever found out he would never live it down.  
>His father was half mermaid. Holy crap did that mean Bookman was a mermaid! Or was it his grandmother…he never met her. Then again he never met his father either. His mother had died when he was two when she was on a business trip in the Hawaiian Islands. Did these Noah people who hired the fishermen have something to do with her death?<p>

Damn it all to hell why didn't he know about any of these things?

He balled his hands into fists, nails biting at his palms.

Allen slightly raised his head enough to look at Lavi, silver eyes filled with worry and a little confusion.

Lavi sighed. It wasn't Allen's fault, hell he was the only one explaining this to him. He eyed the mark on Allen's shoulder, he felt bad that he bit Allen.

_But now they know he is mine!_

Lavi blinked his emerald eye in confusion. A voice in the back of his head spoke up. It wasn't like when Allen spoke to him though his mind, it was like when his conscious spoke up every once in a while.

Lavi shook his head, as if to get rid of the voice then inquired Allen,

"Does your shoulder hurt?"

Allen blinked and shifted back to an upright position, his tail bent under him on the sand.

"No…does your tail hurt?"

Lavi looked down at the red tail that replaced his legs. It was slightly sore, especially down the middle for some reason. He asked Allen why.

"The bones in your legs merge when you switch to a tail, mine splits when I get legs. It's why it hurts so much, other than getting scales and growing back out the fin so quickly. It's why Meralises don't like going from one environment to another."

Lavi nodded in understanding.

"_Wonder how well I can more around with this thing…"_

Lavi leaned forwards and tried to move with his tail, he only succeeded in smacking his face into the floor with his tail in the air.

He groaned slightly, but opened his eye and looked at the other occupant of the cave as he heard small chuckling noises coming from him.

Allen realized that he was being stared at and apologized, then swam over to Lavi with ease, helping him back to a semi-sitting position.

"You make it look easy." The red head commented.

"It is to me because I am use to it, you make walking look easy, I fall every other second." Allen beamed.

"Mind teaching me how to use this thing then?" Lavi pointed to his fin. "I would like to see your "home" since I got a fish tail now." Lavi asked remembering how dejected Allen was when he said he could not see his "home" with him.

To say Allen was happy was an understatement; it was like someone had told him that he won the lottery.

Allen held up his hands to Lavi, palms up.

Lavi shot him a questioning glance.

"Need to get you off the floor. It's easier that way." Was his only answer from the full Meralise.

He held Allen hands and was pull forwards and up as Allen swam upwards.

"Let the water move your tail, when you get use to it moving you try to move with it."

Lavi nodded and focuses on the water moving alongside his tail and they circled around in the cave. The water was moving his tail sideways, back and forth, like a shark. Unlike Allen's way of swimming: up and down. So he tried to synchronize his tail into moving in the same back and forth pattern.

It was actually easier said than done but he began to get the hang of it. Then Allen let go of his hands and he almost crashed into the side of the cave. But he put his hands out in front of him at the last second and halted the movements of his tail.

"Lesson two: moving in the direction you want to go in. You have to move your top half in the direction you want to go in. The slower you are going the slower the turn, the faster you are swimming the faster you turn, but you need to do it quickly for quick turns."

Lavi nodded and tried to swim at Allen, who was darting from one place to another in the cave. It was like playing tag really.

After good ten or so minutes of doing that Allen swam out to the mouth out the cave, which was covered mostly by seaweed and rocks.

Lavi followed Allen's same path out and was blinded first at the light from the sun that illuminated the ocean. There was several fish swimming, large and small, in groups and swimming solo. There seemed to be an endless amount of off white colored sand on the sea floor, littered with rocks covered in sorts of sea plants, shells, and other living creatures.

He felt a tap on his shoulder and looked to see Allen smiling at him and pointed off into the distance. He saw a large dark unmoving mass. Allen swam around him once and started to swim towards it. Lavi took off after him, accustomed to his new half.

The dark mass turned out to be a sunken ship, there were several of them off North Carolina's coat. Lavi followed where Allen had gone, the top of the sip. The whole ship was covered in allege, coral, and rust. There were hundreds of fish swimming around or imply staying still in the water in large groups. Lavi actually saw a tiger shark begin to swim towards him, but then swam away.

Allen swam around the side of the boat watching Lavi try to keep up while avoiding hitting the side of the hull. He then looked around and spotted a large gapping hold in the side of the old sunken boat. He made sure Lavi was following him as he entered the ship through the hole. It was severely dark, the only light coming from outside the hole. The white haired Meralise then spotted what he was looking for.

Lavi peered into the hole searching for Allen, who he spotted by his silver scales glittering in the light that entered the dark room. He could just make out the outlines of things in the room. A table three chairs, what seemed to be a bookcase and a chest, which was what Allen was unlatching.

Once unlatched a golden sphere popped out of the chest and darted around the one who freed it from its prison. Allen swam back over to Lavi, who was still at the edge of the hole in the ship, the golden ball following him. When the little sphere came out of the dark it's features were more visible. It had a cross on it's front, a pair of wings and small horns. Four claw like feet he presumed and a long thin tail that ended in a large swirl.

"Lavi, this is Timcanpy, he's a golem, he is pretty friendly."

Timcanpy and Lavi stared at each other and deemed each other non-threatening before putting their attention back to Allen.

"Do all Meralises have golems?" Lavi asked.

Allen shook his head.

"No, actually this is my Master's golem. I was given him after I finished my training and came back to find you." Allen seemed to shiver at the word "training" and "Master" and Lavi began to question if he even wanted to meet his biological father.

"Oi, Allen, is ,my old man really that bad?"

Allen's right eye twitched as he seemed to go into a mini fit of depression, looking off into the distance.

"That man is a blue devil, he drinks and made so many debts wherever we went. He is insane we were off the coast of Africa once and he made me get a lion because he wanted to see one."

"A-Allen you ok?" Lavi asked as the depressed aura got larger.

Allen blinked then smiled.

"Yeah Lavi I'm fine."

Lavi just nodded.

"Hey Allen what time is it anyway? I mean I was out for a bit and it's still light out so…"

Allen pondered the question before shrugging.

He then began to swim up towards the surface.

Lavi and Timcanpy followed after him, Lavi looked around for any boats on the surface; there were none surprisingly.

As Lavi's head broke the surface he was met by wind and very dry hot air.

_Was this how Allen felt when he was up on land with me?_

He spotted the sun in the sky and calculated by it's position how late it was.

"It's five already?" Lavi asked out loud, startled slightly at how scratchy his voice sounded above water. It sounded like someone sliding a boulder across sandpaper. Allen shrugged and pulled him back underwater, which felt heavenly compared to the horrible feeling of being above the water.

"We need to get back before the Sun goes away and the Moon comes out." Allen stated swimming back to where the cave was.

"How come?" Lavi asked, priding himself in being able to keep up with Allen, the two of the swimming side by side.

Allen's face turned slightly grim.

"Even though we are made to live in the water we can't see as well at night. Or at least the kind of Meralises we are. Only the ones who are half of a species that is normally able to see at night is safe at night."

"Safe from what?"

"Sharks, the Millennium earl's Akuma boats, other fishermen, and corrupt Meralise mainly. We need to sleep sometime anyways right?"

"Who is the Millennium Earl?" Lavi asked, unfamiliar with the name.

They were near the mouth of the cave and Allen darted in, then Lavi.

It was pitch black in the cave and Lavi couldn't see the hand in front of his face.

"The Earl Millennium is in charge of the Akuma fleets and the fishermen who operate them. He is the founder of the "Noah Family" corporation and Allen's father's murderer." A deep voice echoed with power though out the cave.

A Light flicker on in the cave, it was some sort of small ball of light that illuminated the whole cave, not unlike the light Allen had given him when he first met him on the beach.

There stood a Meralise with long red hair which was darker than Lavi's. His visible eye, the other covered by half of a white mask, was a reddish brown. The man's tail was a deep blood red. He wore a dark coat with gold on the edges. He held the light like a cigarette in between two fingers. The man seemed board and annoyed at the fact that he was even there.

_Allen's Father's Murder?_

Lavi turned to Allen who was stiff and pale.

"Lavi, this is cross Marian. My Master…..your father."

O0O

Hello everyone~ How are all of you? *ducks flying random objects thrown at her* Hey! Not nice! Ok, how many of you saw _this _coming? You all thought the next character debuted would be a Noah didn't you? So yeah, school's exams are killing me. That and my hectic social life. It is 9:46pm here so it is the last day of the month here still in the USA. So "xp" to all the people who say I missed my deadline. I'm sorry I'm in a bad mood….Please review? Ja Ne~ see you guys next time!


	11. Seaweed is part of the food group?

Lavi stared at the other red head in front of him

This guy was his father.

The man he had never met, presumed dead like his mother.

Who left him to be under the care of Bookman, who had him train to be a bookman. To be an emotionless bystander with no attachments.

He raised his hand and gave a small wave.

"Hey…"

The oldest of the three squinted the eye that wasn't covered by the mask. He seemed to size up Lavi.

"So you're the offspring of _that _woman? She should of aborted; she might still be alive then." He asked in a bored tone, finding the stone making up the cave more interesting.

To say Lavi was pissed was an understatement. His mouth was pulled down into the most pissed off frown and his teeth were almost breaking from the force he was pushing them together from yelling at the man.

There were only a few topics that pushed Lavi into this state. His deceased mother was one of them. From what he remembered of her she was a very kind and caring woman who knew how defend herself when need be. She always looked upon Lavi with a fondness, despite the father not being in the picture. The very man in front of him, who was insulting her like she was dirt on a new shoe.

"Shut up! You probably don't know anything about her!" Lavi voiced his inner turmoil of hate.

The man smirked cruelly, "Your right but then again I don't care about some street whore."

The next thing Lavi knew was that he was trying to punch the fucking smirk of the man.

But he never landed a punch, as the man grabbed his wrist and threw him though the water to the opposite side of the stone wall of the cave.

It hurt like hell, and he was pretty sure he heard something crack but he swam towards the man again, trying, yet again to land a punch.

He failed again.

He tried again and again all ending with the same result.

But finally instead of hitting the cracked wall he hit something soft that cushioned his fall.

Allen was looking at him as he was held in pale finned arms with a look of sympathy on his face.

A wad of papers then seemed to fly in the water, with apparently no resistance as it conked the side of Allen's head with surprising force. Both of the young Meralise then looked at the oldest in the cave.

The glowing scale was gone, only to be replaced with a cigarette with a small white light at the tip of the cancer stick, burning it like a lighter flame but not producing any smoke.

"Those debts need to be paid off by the end of August so chop-chop, idiot apprentice." The man said curtly before swimming with a certain cocky air about him as he exited the cave.

Lavi snapped out of his shock as the long crimson haired Meralise was out of the cave's view. A burst of water hit Allen in the face as Lavi launched after him in re-kindled fury.

But as he swam to the mouth of the cave he was met only by the open water and a few scattered fish swimming here or there. Cross was nowhere to be found. Lavi picked a random direction and quickly swam through a passing school of sardines.

His tail rapidly went side to side as he shot through the water like a torpedo, turning here and there where he though he saw a flash of red.

Lavi was eventually stopped again by something grabbing his bottom fin and swimming in the opposite direction. He turned around so quickly that he could hear his back crack in the background, of the otherwise quiet underwater setting. Allen looked at him, arms circled tightly around Lavi's bright red fin. He shook his head with a frown on his face.

Lavi tugged his tail a few times, but the silver eyed Meralise's hold stayed firm. So after about the third try he gave up and, after a small inner debate, relaxed his muscles and stopped trying to catch his biological father. Allen released his grip on Lavi after a few minutes of them just floating there in the middle of the ocean.

Lavi took in a large gulp of sea water before letting it out in a sigh. He then let himself sink onto a large, black sea stone, stuck under pounds of sand. Allen followed his example, but instead of Lavi's position, which consisted of lying on his back, Allen rested on his belly, tail being pushed by a weak current.

Both Meralise stared up at the top of the waves, sunlight slicing through the blue water and fish shadows, faintly showing on the sand.

Lavi turned his attention to Allen who was looking at the debt bills with a look of annoyance.

_That man is just a flipping bastard. Talking about Mom and dumping these debts on Allen…Ok now Lavi try to just relax. Getting angry gets you nothing but more issues to deal with. Ok now, what the hell are you going to do now? You have a grandfather making you become the next bookman, a womanizing bastard father who throws debts on…Allen. _

Lavi's emerald eye took in the details of Allen's face and body structure in the water. He seemed perfectly suited for the salty water like the rest of his species. His build was slim, but he had muscle, his tail was not too long and not too short. Everything seemed to suit him from his silvery tail and eyes to peachy lip-

_Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold it. I am so not checking out Allen! Urg…_

Lavi took another glance at the younger one of them before turning his attention to a stray piece of kelp floating.

_I, can't deny that he is beautiful though…_

Lavi rolled his eyes and put his head in his hands.

_What now? I still have to many questions. Who are the Noah and Millennium Earl and why do they want to capture the Meralise? Money? Science? Some other option? Mana seems to be dead, how does the old Panda know Mana in the first place, where the hell is Fou in all this? And if the Meralise and Fou's species are out in nature, does that mean other species are too? Or are they dead? Did people kill them off? Or are they just myths?_

Lavi rested his fire colored head back against the cool rock, to see a pair of mercury eyes looking down at him in worry.

"Yes?" The red head asked.

"You're ok?" The other asked.

"Just need a bit to relax. That bastard got my blood boiling badly. He acts like the world is his property or something."

Allen sighed and a few bubbles came out of his mouth and floated to the surface.

"Yes, I understand, I was his apprentice even since Mana died…" Allen's eyes gained a soft forlorn look to them.

"How did Mana die, Allen?"Lavi asked, not really thinking.

Allen gulped a bit of water and his hands clenched into small fists, knuckles turning pure white.

"I….I was swimming…far from the cave…my safe haven from Lavi's land walker kind. A few, speed boats found me. They were Akuma ships….they, managed to get a net around me and I couldn't get out, so I started to plead for help. But no one heard me…then I was pulled from the net by my tail…" Allen took a shaky breath through his gills. Lavi placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Lavi seemed to whisper as he began rubbing Allen's finned arm.

Allen shook his head.

"I already started, might as well finish…." He took in another large gulp of sea water, then released it.

"Mana pushed me near a few small rocks and I hid there. But the rocks were too small for him to fit in and hide. So he…swam to find a better spot…..the Akuma ships found him before he could make it even three kilometers away from where I was." Allen shook slightly as he recalled the memory and Lavi hugged the smaller of the pair to him, keeping one hand rubbing the silver finned arm, the other arm around the small waist of the full Meralise.

"They…used harpoons to get him to stop thrashing in the net….I-I never heard Mana yell so loud…." Lavi halted the painful onslaught of memories by fully enveloping Allen into a hug and making small sh-ing sound to calm the younger.

They stayed like that for a few minutes before Lavi began to tell parts of his past in a whisper.

"My mother died when I was young, she was on a small routine business trip to the Caribbean. She gave me the same smile, hug and kiss goodbye before catching her plane. Telling me that she would bring me back a bunch of souvenirs and pictures of all the things she saw.

She was shot by an unnamed murder that had just killed two other people in a nearby store. She was walking back from here meeting at a conference center. She saw the man run out with the gun, and he knew she saw him apparently…the police never found the man but, from what has happened over the past weeks, I think it might be somehow connected to the Millennium Earl guys or the Noah's. Maybe because my mom gave birth to me, a part human part Meralise…..heh, I wonder if she knew I was part mermaid..."

Allen got very quiet and hugged Lavi back.

"Thank you, Lavi…"

Lavi made a sound of acknowledgement and looked down at the younger Meralise in his arms. His hair was tinted darker since it was floating slightly in the water and mercury eyes bored into his single green. Again, Lavi's eye wandered to the lips of the other. Unconsciously both of them drifted ever so closely together, like a pair of magnets. The moment their lips touched, both startled slightly, as if a spark had erupted as the two met, but then the pair moved back and their lips re-met, not backing away this time.

It was a simple kiss, nothing that anyone in a relationship would call passionate, but it gave the awareness that they were there for each other and gave each other, equally the small affection. They stayed like that for a while before breaking apart. They stared at each other for a moment as a small blush began to creep across their faces. Allen wrung his hands while Lavi scratch the back of his head.

"That was, a…nice." Lavi commented watching a jellyfish swim by.

Allen nodded.

Lavi cleared his throat, which sounder peculiar underwater since it made a weird bubbling sound. He watched a small jellyfish swim through the water.

"That was, um, my first time kissing a, um, boy you know."

Blushed became ever so slightly darker.

"That was third time…" Allen trailed off.

"Eh?" Lavi whipped his head away from the sight of the jellyfish to Allen, who found a small snail on the rock very interesting.

"W-who was the first and second?" Lavi asked mentally slapping himself for stuttering.

Allen turned his back to Lavi, but then turned his head back slightly so he could look at Lavi with one gray eye.

"Y-you."

Oh.

An awkward silence descended upon them as a turtle swam by. What an awkward little turtle.

"When did I, kiss you those other two times?" Lavi inquired.

Allen turned himself back around to face the red tailed red head.

"Once when I asked you what a kiss was, you put it here." Allen stated pointing to his cheek.

"The other time was when you said goodbye, you hugged me really hard and put it here."

He pointed to his lips.

Lavi blinked.

"I told you goodbye?"

The grey scaled Meralise nodded.

"It was after Mana had…passed. Bookman was to erase your memories of me that night because I had no information of the Meralise to give him. He deemed it unnecessary for you to have memories of me, saying it would disrupt you training to be a Bookman."

_Well, that explains the whole hypnosis thing…_

"Is there any way for me to regain my memories besides this whole, remembering parts in dreams, thing?" Lavi asked making a circle like gesture with his hands in the water.

Allen shrugged.

Lavi sighed, bubbles escaping his mouth.

"How did I react around you when I was a kid, beansprout?"

Allen looked minor annoyed at the name but ignored it.

"You were always friendly and told me about the buildings and people you saw. The parks and animals on land too. You always brought me food that I couldn't find in the ocean. We went swimming in places where the other land walkers went, but some of them you could not follow me to…You said on the night before you lost your memories, that you hated the job of a Bookman, and that no one should have to record history under those circumstances…then you went to another place where I could not follow…"

Lavi took in the information silently, he recalled that his grandfather had transferred him to a grade school in Milan, Italy, and then transferred to the Black Order in Rome for high school.

A thought then ran through Lavi's mind that made his blood turn cold in his veins. Bookman had seen Allen when he was wounded. Did he suspect that he was regaining his memories? Was he going to make him forget about Allen again? What if this time he forgot about him permanently?

He could almost feel his heart stop at those thoughts, but something else burned with anger.

**How could **_**Bookman**_** chose his life for **_**him**_**? **

The strangely possessive side of his conscience reared its head yet again, but Lavi didn't mind it. He was pulled out of his thinking as Allen shook his arm slightly to get his attention.

Gray met green.

"It is starting to get dark, we have to get out of here Lavi." Allen warned.

The red head looked above them to see that the sea had taken on a red-ish orange color at the top, signaling sunset.

"Alright." Lavi nodded and swam next to Allen as they swam back to the cave.

On their way back Allen's stomach growled loudly, amusing Lavi to no end and embarrassing Allen.

They slowed down to a slow glide through the water and Allen scanned the ocean floor. He slammed his tail against the white sanded floor, creating a large dust cloud. When the sediment settled he held a large flat fish. Then swam over to a large bushel of seaweed and began to take several strands of it into a large greenish colored ball of vegetation. After he had a sizable amount of the plant he went back on route to the cave, Lavi trailing behind him.

When they arrived back at the cave Allen placed the fish on a small rock in the cave and took a few strands of seaweed and stuffed them in his mouth rather quickly. Lavi half watched him as he made himself comfortable on a small bed of some sort of sponge like plant he had not noticed earlier. He had just closed his eyes when his own stomach growled. He groaned and opened his eyes to be met with Allen floating over him.

Slightly startled Lavi leaned back into the spongy bed. Allen offered a smaller ball of seaweed to him, but Lavi brought his hands up in a "no thank you" kind of way. Allen's eyelids went down half was as he stuffed a few more pieces of kelp in his mouth with a huff, which only led to bubbles coming out of his mouth. Lavi shook his head as he made himself comfy when he felt the other's tail slide against his own as a pair of hands smothered over his shoulders and onto the sponge bed, arms pinning his shoulders to the sea like furniture. Lavi's eye snapped open just as Allen placed his mouth over his own. The kiss was like the one from before, and as Lavi eased himself into it his eye re-shut as he relaxed.

Only to re-tense as Allen shoved the seaweed into his mouth. It didn't taste _bad, _just not what he was use to…. It tasted like over sated spaghetti, but it was indeed edible. He swallowed it and then ate the rest of the seaweed ball with Allen, _who had threatened to force feed it to him again_, until it was gone. Allen yawned and Lavi took notice that it was now pitch black outside, a few rays of moonlight and glowing sea life were the only illumination in the dark waters now. Allen curled up next to him, tail wrapping around his own, his own doing the same.

The smaller one of the duo's breath became more even and peaceful. It lulled Lavi to sleep as he rested his head on top of the silver haired Meralise's.

…_.I think I could get used to this…_

o0o

I haven't used a page break this whole chapter! That's new….yeah so sorry guys about the late update, I have been severely busy lately and was suppose to update yesterday; BUT we had a thunderstorm and threw my server out of commission. I was talking to people on my school's computers during business but couldn't upload the next chapter because I did not have the file :') So yeah, hope you enjoyed this little filler/fluff/thingy chapter! Reviews make me a happy writer and less stressed! Ja Ne~!


	12. Jaws and Pervs, oh joy

Lavi shifted along the sand slowly as he woke up. He yawned and stretched his arms, arching his back from the ground. He lay back down after he heard a satisfying crack from his back. He opened his eyes slowly and looked around. There was an quite obvious lack of a certain silver eyed Meralise, but off in a corner, the fish had been replaced with a few pieces cut fish wrapped in seaweed. Popping one in his mouth, Lavi wondered where Allen had swam off to this time.

_He should really tell me where he is going, or at least leave a note._ He thought back to the time when Allen had brought him to the cave in Maryland. Allen had a notepad and markers there to illustrate what he was trying to explain to him. However, that same day, he had spoken to him in his mind for the first time also. _And__ now he can speak to me verbally? Why is that? He had only spoken to me in my mind for longest__time__and now…_As his thought trailed off Lavi heard a shriek-like sound from outside the cave.

He swam over quickly to see what had made the noise, and was deeply frightened by what he saw. A great white shark was chasing Allen; who was currently speeding along just inches from the sandy sea floor, carrying another bundle of seaweed in his arms. The young Meralise made quick turns to lose the predator and made a beeline back to the cave. As he neared the mouth of the cave, the shark had seemed to spot him again and changed direction towards the cave also. Lavi grabbed Allen by his arms as soon as he was close enough, and pulled both of them to the back of the dark cave. Their sides pressed against the cold rock, both Meralises watched the shark near the mouth of the cave, but then veer off.

Silence then descended in the cave, save for their heavy breathing through their gills. Lavi looked down at Allen who was still watching the front of the cave, but instead of having a facial expression of fear; it was one of exhaustion and slight annoyance. The redhead then noticed he still had a hard grip on the other's wrists, so he released them, not wanting to bruise him. The moment he removed his grip, Allen slumped down to the floor, lying on his tail, head resting against the wall.

Lavi bent down to make sure he had no injuries. None were visible.

"Allen, are you alright?" He asked, right hand cupping the other's cheek.

Allen nodded and took in a gulp of seawater before answering the older properly.

"I'm fine. Believe it or not that's not the first time that's happened." He ran a webbed hand through his hair. "I usually see them before they see me; I guess I was just too distracted this time…"

"Distracted? By what?" Lavi inquired.

Allen didn't answer him, nor did he meet his gaze.

Lavi moved his free hand to cup the other side of Allen face, making him look directly at him.

"What were you distracted by?" Lavi noted that for some reason his voice sounded lower than it normally sounded.

Allen but his lower lip and tried to avoid Lavi's gaze but the red head's hold was firm. Sadness and a small bit of fear flashed in his eyes as Lavi's single emerald bore into his silver.

"I…I am afraid that you will leave again. Y…You have friends up there and I can't really offer you anything here…."

Lavi adjusted his hands so one rested on Allen's shoulder and the other ruffled the silver-tinted locks.

"You don't have to worry about things like that Allen. I like being down here with you. Besides, if I want to go see my friends I can just turn this fin," he waved the red tail in between them, "back into legs, can't I?"

Allen didn't seem entirely convinced, but he let the issue drop.

"Speaking of which, can you show me how to change back bean sprout?" Lavi asked.

"You don't know how to?" Allen seemed alarmed.

"…How am I supposed to know? I'm not the full Meralise who has been swimming in the ocean his whole life!"

Allen rubbed his temples while muttering "Oh no, oh no, oh no oh no.."

"What is it?" Lavi questioned.

"Well, it is supposed to be like an instinct. Mana only told me about how to help a quarter Meralise to regain their tail, not help them get back to twin fins…" That same awkward turtle swam past the cave.

"…So I'm stuck like this?"

"No…we just need to go… or maybe…" Allen seemed to weigh some unknown options, his back to Lavi.

"Or maybe what?"

The silver finned Meralise turned back around.

"We could ask Fou. She might know."

"And how would she know? She said she was a different species from you and Mana."

"But her kind can transform into things easily, it was put into their genetics when their kind was being experimented on," Allen tried to explain.

Lavi sighed and slid down the wall of the cave, head in his hands.

"Lavi?" Allen questioned, swimming over to the older boy.

"Hey Al…" He peaked at the full Meralise through his webbed fingers. "Can you explain your species a bit better to me? I got that you were made by humans, however many hundreds of years ago that was, but you didn't explain why or how they did it."

Allen sat down next to him, fiddling with a scale on his tail that was slightly crooked. "I don't know when it was, but Lavi's kind was at war with another part of Lavi's kind. It was a very long war that seemed to only get worse as the sun and moon rose and fell. Some of Lavi's kind decided to make Meralise to be killing machines. Since their kind could not breathe in Meralise's home, they decided to drown their enemies." He paused, trying to remember the history. "They took newly hatched Meralise and tried to force them into serving them as soldiers…" He trailed off for a moment. "They eventually succeeded and made lots of them soldiers. They gave us the name Meralise and used us to drown many of Lavi's kind. We did not know that we would kill them. We were told to take them to other side of ocean, to the part of Lavi's kind that created us, but we accidently killed them…" Small beads of a murky white liquid gathered at Allen's eyes. "We didn't know they couldn't breathe like us; no one told us! It wasn't our fault…." Allen took another large gulp of the salt water.

"But then when we went to take them to our "creators" again, Lavi's kind shouted at us and threw stones at us, saying that we killed their friends and family. We tried to explain that we only took them to the other side of the ocean, but they didn't listen and tried to kill us, so we went back to other side. By then, our creators had made plans for a very evil weapon. They did not need us anymore, so they started killing us too. We stayed away from Lavi's kind, and remade our own home in the ocean. We found other Meralise who were not under the control of Lavi's kind. Everything was fine for a while, but then Lavi's kind finished the weapon. They used it on my race's colonies and on the others of Lavi's race."

The milky white liquid fell from Allen's eyes and made small puddles on the ground.

_Mermaids cry pearls…_

Lavi pulled Allen to him, and wrapped his arms around his waist while letting Allen rest his head on his shoulder. They stayed like that for a moment or two before Allen wiped his eyes and apologized for crying. Lavi said he had nothing to apologize for.

"How do you know these things anyway?"

Allen shook his head, the last of the tears disappearing.

"There is actually a library that holds the reminder of our history. Mana took me there a few times before," the silver haired Meralise explained.

Lavi blinked. "A library?"

The other nodded, then seemed to ponder something.

"I think Fou will be at the meeting place when the sun is close to the water. We can go find her then…"

"Alright then. Well, I'm guessing it is morning now, so we have time to kill."

Allen picked up the forgotten ball of seaweed and unraveled about half of it before giving the downsized ball to the red head. While they ate their veggie breakfast, Lavi began to review the events that had happened so far.

"Hey bean sprout?"

"What?" The younger asked through a mouthful of seaweed.

"When I first met you, you didn't communicate with me at all, and then you used that drawing book and markers in the cave. Next thing I know you, speak to me through my mind, and now you are talking to me verbally. Care to explain?"

Allen finished chewing the dark green plant and swallowed before answering. "I had not spoken in your mind since before you had left, so I forgot how to. The notepad and markers were things Mana had left me when he was out so I would not be bored. And well," Allen scratched the back of his head with a small frown on his face, "When you fell, I was very terrified and it kind of came out. Usually Meralise do not gain the ability to talk until…" Allen trailed off a small blush creeping across his pale skin.

"Until?"

"They, um, mate for the first time."

If a pin dropping to the ocean floor could make a noise, it would echo in the silence of the cave.

"Oh."

Lavi felt a blush make its way across his own face and his eye traveled to the healing bite mark on Allen. _Why do these things always lead to awkward and perverted outcomes? Seriously, just why?_

"Um, so does the fact I bit you have any significance in the Meralise culture?" Lavi asked.

Allen did not answer him; he just looked away as his blush surpassed the color of a tomato.

Lavi decided he didn't want to know, as his subconscious made something akin to a predatory growl.

_Wonderful I just made this ten times worse._

_I think it's better.____He looks cute with that blush._

_Yeah he doe-… Who the hell are you and how did you get into my head? I already had Allen talking to me in my head,__and his voice doesn't sound like yours._

_Eh, just call me your inner Meralise. They all have them.____I just woke up now since you never turned into a half-fish before._

_Well could you stop thinking of Allen like that?_

_Why? You know he is cute. And FYI smart one,____there aren't any restrictions on a Meralise's mate. They can be male or female._

_How the hell do you know this?_

_You may have over heard someone say it when you were little…_

_But__You just said you just woke up!_

_I have____all of your memories smart ass.____I am you, just the fish part._

_I really do hate these unexpected plot twists._

_Ha! It will just get worse buddy! Now lean down and kiss him before he thinks that you have gone off the deep end. Pun intended._

_Wha?_

Lavi shook his head as if to get rid of the voice in his head, and looked at the other Meralise in front of him. Who was now closer to his face than he remembered him being.

"Lavi are you alright?"

"J-just a bit of culture shock. Too many things happening at one time, you know?"

Allen nodded in agreement.

"Do you want to try to sleep it off then?" The silver scaled one asked.

_Don't have anything else better to do I guess?_

_Well you could-_

"Yeah that's a good idea Allen, I'll do just that," Lavi said speedily as he made himself comfortable again on the cave floor.

_Chicken_

_Shut up._

Allen blinked at the red-scaled male who was facing the wall of the cave. He yawned also, the past few days were quite tiring…Lavi wouldn't mind if he slept too would he? The younger one swam over next to Lavi and snuggled up to his back tiredly. The red head tensed at the sudden contact but then seemed to relax.

Lavi peered over his shoulder to see sleepy orbs stare back.

"I'm guessing you're tired too?"

Allen shrugged, his eyes at half-mast.

"Must be close to a full moon," he mumbled, trying to get closer to Lavi.

"What does a full moon mean?" Lavi asked, but he got no reply, just a Meralise that somehow managed to fall asleep with his head on his chest.

_How cute._

_I hate you._

_Deal with it ginger, you're stuck with me._

_Fuck off._

_I'd rather fuck him._

_Don't even-_

_Think about it? That's all I can do. Well that,____and this._

_And what?_

Lavi asked angrily, pissed off at the voice in his head more and more every second.

But then he felt his tail get numb, like when you leg or arm falls asleep. Only this was worse, he could not move his tail on his own accord. It moved on its own.

_Being the Meralise part of yourself has it's up points._

Lavi could only watch in slight horror as his tail curled around Allen's in a suggestive manner.

_Stop!_

_Why?_

_Because!_

'_Cause why?_

Lavi racked his mind for an answer. It was wrong? He had just regained some of his memories of the Meralise recently? This all was happening way too fucking fast and there were too many things to take in at once?

His tail stopped curling tightly around the sleeping Allen's, but they still remained intertwined.

_Sorry, natural instinct._

_What?_

_Never mind. This is a lot to understand isn't it._

_No shit._

_Hey, language….Do yourself a favor, convince Allen to not go to see Fou yet._

_Why not?_

_Even more things will happen too____quickly and both of you will end up with major migraines and messed up heads._

_Huh?_

_Idiot. Things will happen so quickly that you won't be able to think straight,____and you probably____won't____make the best choices. Stay with Allen in the ocean for a few weeks. Explore or some shit. Stop rushing things. Damn,____it's why all this is____in____one big mess at the moment._

_I haven't rushed anything, things just happened!_

_You could____have____waited to____go____check out the Akuma boats._

_That was one thing…_

_Rushing through one thing could of cost you your life._

_They would have captured Allen and sent him off to that "Millennium Earl"__person!_

_He wouldn't have____been caught____if he didn't follow you to the port._

_What?_

_Whoops. Oh well, go to sleep red head._

_Allen didn't follow me to the docks._

_Or did he?_

_How would you know?_

_I don't._

_Then why did you-_

_Just go to sleep._

_Bastard._

_I know I am and so are you._

_O0O_

_Oi! Read this it's important this time!  
>Ok, recently ElricSisters7 asked me if I wanted her to beta my story.<em>

_Obviously I said yes so you guys don't have to deal with bad grammar D:_

_So over a certain period of time chapters of Where the Land Meets Water will be changed starting on Wednesday. So don't flip thinking it is a new chapter. Other than that there isn't really anything else to say here, so Ja Ne!_


	13. Lavi vs Lavi and departure

While the two Meralise continued to sleep on unaware of their surroundings, Lavi was dragged into another dream, except this one was different. It was pitch black; not the normal kind like turning off a light switch at night, but more like when the moon eclipses the sun. In his dream-like escape from the real world, Lavi was annoyed and slightly miffed.

_Why can I never go two days without having a strange dream? Seriously,__is it a curse or something?_He complained as surroundings seemed to fade in from the blackness. After a few moments, Lavi found himself standing on a sandy shore with waves lapping calmly at his bare feet.

_Wait feet?_

Lavi picked up his left foot from the sandy ground then flexed and twisted it in random directions.

"Do I have to remind you that you are our 'human' half?" Lavi raised his view from his foot to the sea, where the voice was coming from.

There, lying on his stomach, head propped up by one arm, was a nearly identical version of Lavi. The doppelganger seemed bored, like a child in a college level lecture. The other had the tail of the Meralise replacing his legs; his tail fin lazily swayed behind him. For some reason, the Meralise was also shirtless. Making Lavi look down at his attire. The only clothing he had was a pair of red shorts, which were ripped at the bottom, and his bandana around his neck.

"Are you just going to stand their looking at yourself for the reminder of your dream or am I going to explain to you the situation? Your choice, though I would prefer if Allen was here to keep me company if you chose the former…" Lavi did not like the smirk or the look in the other's eye one bit.

"Leave Allen out of this, or I'll make sure you get stuffed in a tin with the rest of the sardines." Lavi glared with his uncovered eye.

The other merely quirked an eyebrow at the threat. "That the best you could come up with?"

"I-"

"Save your breath two-legs; you'll need it when you're making out with Allen."

Lavi could feel his eye twitch, but instead of going ballistic on his Meralise half, he kept his mouth shut. _No use getting like Yu.__That will get me nowhere._"Just explain what is going on." Lavi sighed and dropped down to a sitting position on the beach.

"Well," The human-fish hybrid uttered as he played with a lone white seashell, "Right now your mind is projecting a setting in which I can talk to you without you freaking out and ignoring everything else in your surroundings. You're going to have to work on that too… But I'll save that for a later conversation. You still following?"

"Yeah."

"Right, so basically your situation is this: an organization called the Clan of Noah after you and Allen. If they capture you, you guys will never see the light of day ever again; you'll spend the rest of you lives in tubes filled with recycled water. Now I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound too damn appealing to me. So you guys can either, one, keep running from the Noah and their Akuma boats for the rest of your lives, or, two, you can overthrow the Clan of Noah. Your choice buddy," the "other" Lavi stated as he yawned, showing off the two rows of teeth Meralises possessed.

"Wait what? Can't we just stay on land for a while and let the Akuma boats lose our trail?"

The Meralise looked at him as if Lavi had asked why the water doesn't just fall off the planet at the South Pole.

"Uhh, genius? It would take months for them to leave. Allen can't stay out of the ocean for too long. Oh and fun fact, neither can you."

"Then we- wait, what do you mean 'neither can I'?" Lavi questioned.

"When you woke up the Meralise part of yourself, or actually Allen did, it also woke up all the consequences our bodies would go through if certain things did not happen within certain time frames. Being in the ocean for a few days every three or four months is a pretty big one."

Lavi sat down on the imaginary sandy ground, scratched his head and sighed. "Ok what are the 'rules' for being part fish?" Lavi asked, head in his hand.

The Meralise images held up four fingers.

"One, stay in a large body of water for two or three days every few months. Don't ask why; I think it has something to do with hydrating the brain with some sort of mineral in the ocean. Two, don't switch from your human legs to a tail too frequently. Don't switch every day because if you haven't noticed, it flipping hurts. That and it would screw up your ability to stay in one form. Three, don't go near the surface as a mermaid, everyone has video cameras and shit like that, so it is harder than it used to be if you got caught. Columbus almost ratted us out but people now a day say he saw manatees. Which, needless to say, comes to rule number four: don't tell anyone you have Meralise flowing through your veins. Your most trusted friends could turn their backs on you. It happened before to the Meralise and it sure as hell would happen again," the other Lavi finished, crossing his arms with a sour look on his face.

"My friends wouldn't do that. And how do you know about these rules?" The Lavi with legs asked the one with the fin.

"I, well you actually, were there when Mana explained the whole needing-to-be-in-the-water thing to Allen and we overheard. The rest I made up because if you don't follow them, only bad things can follow. Not that you will follow them. You will probably end up following them about as much as Bookman's rules," the partial-fish disregarded with a wave of his free hand.

"What are you talking about? I haven't broken any of the rules. I have slacked off, I'll give you that," Lavi admitted, "but none of them have been broken."

The other then laughed loudly. His hand rose to cover his own eyes while the other fell limply to his side. He laughed for a good while before the laughter died down to chuckles.

"That is the biggest lie I have ever heard. Either you enjoy pulling my leg or you really are an idiot." The non-Lavi stated the last few words rather darkly.

"You were never cut out to be a Bookman. Look how you acted in Italy with your friends: you were supposed to keep them from getting to you, changing you. You became more "Lavi" the more time you spent with them. As much as you would like to deny it, you can never remove Lavi's personality from yourself like other personas."

The surrounding dreamscape started to disappear rapidly as the mermaid version of Lavi ended his sentence.

"Well, it looks like you're waking up now. I'll leave you alone for a while now. Later." The Meralise smirked, showing off white teeth as he mock-waved at Lavi.

o0o

Lavi jolted awake from his dream, startling the white haired Meralise curled up next to him. The water outside the cave seemed much darker, the red head noted as the sediment that he had stirred up from moving so quickly settled.

"Is something wrong Lavi?" Allen asked from Lavi's side.

Lavi glanced at him, and the silver eyes that were soaked in worry.

"No, everything is fine. I'm just not use to waking up underwater I guess." Lavi chuckled, smiling widely for the silver finned Meralise.

Allen didn't seem to buy it, but he let it slide. "We should head to the dock to see Fou," he simply stated and began to swim toward the mouth of the cave.

"Wait." Lavi grabbed Allen's wrist before he swam too far out of reach.

Allen turned around quickly. "What is it?"

"Uh, I don't exactly feel like going back up on land right now. I would like to see what it is like living under the sea for a little while longer if you don't mind," Lavi explained. _Who knows maybe I can see where this Library is…_

Allen's eyes widened a fraction in surprise but then he closed them and smiled. "I don't mind. It is nice to have company for once."

Allen's stomach growled loudly.

Lavi tried to suppress the laughter that wanted to escape his mouth, ultimately failing. Allen looked embarrassed and annoyed at the fact that, yet again, his stomach made it known that it was empty.

"Hungry bean sprout?"

"Shut up."

Allen swam out of the cave with Lavi following behind him, trying to catch up as the silver-eyed Meralise headed toward a school of fish and a few seaweed plants.

"You sure get hungry pretty fast Allen," Lavi stated as he finally caught up.

"Meralise need a lot of energy to switch from a tail to twin fins or vice versa. I just get hungrier than most because I have a faster metabolism. Usually, Meralise with fast metabolisms adjust easier to different ocean temperatures when moving from area to area. Or at least that's what Mana told me."

Lavi nodded once to show that he understood. Once they reached the seaweed, Allen started to pluck a few from near the base of the plant and popped them into his mouth. His cheeks puffed out like a squirrel eating acorns as he chewed the green plant. Lavi chuckled as he did the same, but after a few minutes, Allen stopped mid-chew.

Lavi raised an eyebrow as he finished a piece of the green plant. He opened his mouth to ask Allen what was wrong, but Allen placed a webbed hand over his mouth before he could say anything.

"Sh, listen." Allen ordered in a hushed tone.

Lavi stayed quiet, and after a moment, he heard several faint buzzing-like noises. Before he could ask Allen what they were, the other gripped his wrist tightly and pulled him away from the direction of the cave, into deeper water.

"We need to get out of here!" Allen shouted as they sped through the water.

Swimming quickly so that he would not weight the other down, Lavi asked what was happening.

"_The akuma boats, they must__have__found us somehow. They were coming to quickly,__and too__close to the cave for us to hide there. It sounded like there were a few of them too.__I just hope they didn't spot us before I heard them. Or else…"_

Lavi didn't know why Allen was talking to him through his mind, but he understood that if the boats got to them, it wasn't likely that they could get out of the situation without being captured.

The speed tired Lavi, who was not as used to escaping the boats as Allen. His tail muscles burned at the strain but he said nothing. He noticed that they were slowing down and that the buzzing noise was getting closer, louder, and seemed to multiply.

Although they seemed to have some luck, as they quickly approached an outcropping of rocks in their path closer to the shore. Allen led them through a few rocks before leading them down a small passage. His grip on Lavi's wrist slipped as he made too quick of a turn in the labyrinth of rocks, and Lavi hit the rock with his blind side. The redhead winced at the pain that wracked his side.

Allen was back at his side. Worry, fear and panic showed clearly on his face. He peered through a crack between two large, overlapping rocks and bit his lip. There were two speedboats waiting in front of the rocks, accompanied by a slightly larger boat with a large net on either side of it. It was hard to see through the water, but there were the faint silhouettes of men standing close to the sides of the boats armed with some sort of weapons. Lavi suspected they were harpoon guns or something similar.

Allen drew his attention back to Lavi, who held his shoulder that had collided with the rocks. It was not cut deeply, only a bit scratched, but at the rate that they had been swimming as he collided with the rock it, was probably hurt internally. He thought he had broken a bone in his arm.

Allen peered at the boats once more before turning back to Lavi with a determined expression. "_There is a dock a little bit up the shore if you swim in the same direction we have been going.__Fou should still be there. Explain to her what has happened and she will help. As soon as I get them far__enough away,__you have to go."_

"Are you crazy? They will catch you and do some sort of weird experiments on you or dissect you!" Lavi stated angrily. However, much to his dismay, there was no other way for him to escape with his injury; adrenaline would only get him so far with his hurt shoulder. Even if they went two separate ways, they would be caught, or injured and then caught.

"Why don't I go and you get away, you have a better chance of escaping." Lavi reasoned. _Better me than him._

Allen simply stared at Lavi for a moment before kissing him. Lavi's single eye went wide, but before he could recover from his shock, Allen bolted through the rocks towards the boats.

"Allen!" Lavi shouted, gripping the rocks with his good arm as he watched the other swim under the boats, which immediately veered around to chase him. He cursed before swimming in the direction Allen told him to go.

_Damn it! Allen, I don't know how, but__lose__those guys._

He swam slowly, out of pain. He was angry and worried. He made it to the dock in a few minutes, and saw Fou sitting on the edge of the high planks of wood.

"Fou!" He whispered loudly, in case other people were on the dock.

The girl looked down in surprise to see Lavi in the water. "The hell! Lavi, where have you been? You have been missing for the past four days!" She glared at him.

"Yeah, well, something came up," Lavi muttered as he let the tip of his tail break the surface of the water.

Fou's pink eyes widened in shock as her mouth fell open slightly.

"That was my reaction too. It isn't important right now. Those Akuma boats found me and Allen, but he led them away because I was slowing the both of us down. I don't know if they captured him or not but we have to go help him!" Lavi exclaimed, wincing as a wave caused his shoulder to move slightly, making it flair with pain. _I might have__fractured something…_

Out of nowhere, he heard Allen speak to him through his mind again.

"_Lavi, I found a cave that was covered by a few large rocks.__The opening is__too small for them to get in. I can't see the boats.__They might go back after you, I'm not sure though. Just find some place to hide again if they-"_

Allen's voice caught off much to Lavi's distress. Then faintly he heard a large banging noise, as if an explosive had gone off in his mind.

_No, no no no no no no no. Allen!_

Lavi dived back under water and began to swim back to where he had seen Allen last; he had to find him from there. He was abruptly stopped by arms tightly circling his waist and bringing him back to the surface.

"You can't do anything but get captured yourself right now you idiot! Allen can handle himself until I get there! You, on the other hand, would just be a hindrance!"

Lavi thrashed in her grip, his vision going white in agony as the motion joggled his arm. He realized Fou was right.

_Allen..._

_o0o_

_Edited by (the epic) ElricSisters7_

Hello everyone, long time no see! I have been a bit busy as of late and have not had much time to write this in the time frame I wanted to. So I was late in sending it to my beta reader, who got it back to me corrected so quickly, so yeah. I think I will be able to have the next chapter for mid. or early September, not sure, but it should be a bit more interesting than this one. So yeah, reviews are always welcome and if you have any questions feel free to ask. The next chapter will reveal a bit more and there will be two point of views next chapter. I'll see you all next month! Ja ne~


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