The sound of waves crashing on the shore was the first thing Shiro heard as he slowly regained consciousness. That is, if you don't count the awful ringing in his ears. Groaning from the headache and trying to take some deep breaths, the young man tried to recollect his thoughts and figure out what had gotten him here.

It wasn't normal for a prince of a seaside kingdom to go wondering around on his own, and definitely not normal for him to accompany a local fisherman out to sea. But Shiro tended to get annoyed after...literally every conversation with his father and just wanted to get out of the palace. Lance, as much as he was a friend of Shiro's, wasn't exactly able to refuse his request for a ride, and that's how they'd found themselves out in the middle of the ocean.

Shiro didn't remember much after that. All had been going smoothly until they had suddenly both found themselves in the water. He remembered Lance desperately calling out for him, but he was unable to answer as something pulled him down, down, down...

A fit of coughs suddenly attacked the young prince as his eyes shot open. Shiro quickly sat up in a panic, only to trigger his headache further and have to stop moving to wait it out.

...he was on the beach. The last thing he remembered was being pulled down to a watery grave, but yet here he was. Soaking wet and in pain, but alive. Had he been rescued?

"Where am I...?" Shiro asked aloud, his voice hoarse. As he slowly looked around he spotted the outline of the large royal palace not too far off. A few miles away was the port where he had originally met Lance earlier that day. He knew this beach. He actually liked to come here often when he was in the need for a walk.

Now Shiro was just more confused. Slowly so as not to reawaken any more aches, he stood up and tried to figure out how he could have gotten here.

It was then that he noticed some movement from the corner of his eye, and he froze. It seemed that he wasn't alone on this beach. Shiro slowly turned toward the movement, and for the first time noticed the person who was lying down, half hidden atop a nearby rock, peering down at him warily. The stranger tensed up when he noticed Shiro looking, but otherwise didn't move.

Shiro blinked, studying the stranger silently for a moment. He was a young man, probably only a few years younger than Shiro. His face was delicate, a little feminine, with fierce-looking violet eyes and jet black hair that clung to his chin and neck due to being wet. He didn't appear to be wearing a shirt, and he was still staring down at Shiro almost defiantly.

Maybe he was still a little delirious from almost drowning, but Shiro swore he felt his heart skip a beat from looking at this boy's pretty face. It took him a second to remember how to speak again, for no other reason than his mouth had gone dry, and when he did, his voice came out embarrassingly hoarse once more.

"Uh..." he stammered out. "Do you...know how I got here?"

The other man stared at him a second longer, then slowly nodded.

Shiro tried again. "Did...did you bring me here? Did you save me?"

The other man nodded again.

A relieved smile found its way to Shiro's face, and he pushed back the white fringe of his otherwise dark hair from his face. "Th-thank you," he said. "Thank you so much, I...you'll be greatly rewarded for this, I promise."

Shiro stepped closer to the younger man, trying to get a better look at him, while the other didn't move from his spot. Shiro continued to ramble.

"What happened out there? Last thing I remember I was on a boat with my friend, I was pulled underwater and I almost...drowned..."

Shiro had circled around to the other side of the rock, and what he saw made him stop speaking and almost made him want to pass out again. For a second he swore that maybe he'd died after all and gone to heaven.

The boy didn't have legs. Where legs should have been, there was instead a long, red fish tail that stretched almost down to the water. The tail appeared to blend in with the skin of his top, human-looking half, and in the sun, it seemed to Shiro that it sparkled like rubies.

A merman. Shiro had been rescued by a merman. And a beautiful one at that.

He must have looked like a gaping fish right about then as he struggled to find words once again. "You...you're...not human."

The merman, now turned to a reclining position on his back, frowned at Shiro and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah?" he said, allowing Shiro to hear his voice for the first time. "And you're not merfolk. But you don't see me gawking at your lower appendages, do you?"

Hearing the merman's voice startled him, and the sharpness of his words caused Shiro to stumble back.

Shiro felt his face go red as he tried to recover from the shock. "Sorry, it's just...ah, up until now I thought merfolk were just a legend."

The merman looked offended. "Really? Is that so? Are you going to call all your human friends to come take a look at me now?"

"What? No."

A smirk. "Good. I'm awful with crowds anyway."

At this the young merman seemed to relax a bit. Shiro's initial shock quickly turned into curiosity, as he slowly approached the rock once more, gingerly placing a hand down near that shining red tail. "So...what's your name?" He asked.

"What's yours?"

"Shir-er," He quickly stood up straight, as he'd done his whole life whenever he introduced himself. A little pathetic given his current condition, but a force of habit still. "Prince Takashi Shirogane. Of Arus. " He straightened his shirt as much as he could as he spoke, and looked over at the newcomer once more. "And you are?"

The merman blinked. "You're a prince?"

"That's right. I know I might not look it now, but you can trust me on this."

A sort of scoff escaped from the other. "The humans need to take better care of their nobles. But wouldn't you know it, I'm actually a prince too."

"Really?" Shiro asked skeptically.

"Believe it. I'm Prince Keith of Altea. But I guess since we're kind of equals here, you can just call me Keith."

Shiro wasn't quite sure he believed the man, but he couldn't help the smile that slowly grew on his face at that. "Keith," he repeated, rolling the name around on his tongue. "Well, in that case, you can call me Shiro. It's what all my friends call me."

Keith mirrored his smile, and for a moment Shiro felt like the luckiest man in the world just to be able to see it.

"Shiro?" Keith said. "Not bad."

Shiro gulped, opened his mouth to ask one of the many questions currently rushing through his mind, when he suddenly heard several familiar voices getting closer and closer to the beach.

Keith immediately flinched at the sound, and in a flash, he'd disappeared into the water with a small splash and was quickly swimming away.

"Wait, no!" Shiro called out desperately, stumbling after him. "Come back! Keith!"

"There he is! I think I see him!" A young female voice cried out.

"What? How?" A male companion answered.

"Prince Shiro!"

Shiro, still dazed about everything that had just happened, slowly turned at the sound of his own name. He immediately recognized Katie and Matt, children of one of his most loyal servants, running his way along with their friend chef Hunk, and Lance.

"You're alive!" Katie cried happily, jumping up to hug him around the waist.

"We thought you were dead!" Hunk cried, joining in the hug and crushing them both in the process. "Lance told us he'd lost you in the water!"

"I-I thought you'd drowned!" Lance was stammering, looking paler than he usually was. "How did you get here?"

"I..." Shiro looked briefly back at the water, in the direction that Keith had gone. "I think I was rescued. By a...merman?"

His four friends seemed surprised by the statement, then Matt laughed nervously. "Uh...with all due respect, your highness, I think you might still be delirious." He briskly walked over and slung Shiro's arm around his shoulder to support him, and Hunk did the same on his other side. "Come on, let's get you back to the palace. You probably need some rest after everything."

"Uh...right." Shiro was too tired to argue with them right now, and to be honest he could use some rest. So he let himself be dragged along with them. Katie was continually expressing her relief that he was safe, while Lance was apologizing over and over again for what had happened. Shiro simply nodded at them both in acknowledgement, but more than once he found himself looking longingly back at the sea.