I really love AUs so this will be my first one on here :3 This story is most definitely going to be Laven so I hope you like that pairing otherwise LEAVE MY PRESENCE YOU SICK MON-I mean, please leave quietly :) I do not own D. Gray-man and never will. Now, onto the story~

"Master...what does it look like on the surface?"

Allen Walker was a mermaid. Unlike in fairytales, mermaids were different from mermen. Mermen actually lived underwater with webbed feet and fingers; however, mermaids had fish tails and their fingers weren't webbed at all. He was only around the age of ten at the moment, just now recovering from his father's death. He had snow white hair, mercury eyes, and a pale composure. His tail was the most silver as a mermaid's could get, which made him extremely unique; it was so silver it looked white. The only thing that stood out among his grayscale appearance was the crimson red scar that ran down the left side of his face. Had there not been an arm band on his left arm, it would have been colored black with an extremely unique design on his shoulder.

Allen Walker was a pretty special mermaid-the prince, in fact. However, he was framed for a terrible crime he had not committed and was banished from the kingdom to live with Marian Cross-a mermaid who was also banished from the kingdom. Unlike Allen, Cross' tail was a golden color and he had tanned skin. His flowing red hair stopped around his shoulders and he had red eyes. Or at least one red eye, Allen had never seen the right half of his master's face due to the fact it was covered by some mysterious white mask. Allen didn't dare ask about it though. He learned not to ask about a lot of private things...

"It's a horrible place." His master finally answered his question after being quiet for awhile. Due to his silence, Allen inwardly questioned whether he was lying or not. He had heard it was forbidden to go to the surface due to the dangerous beasts called humans; but when Allen had read in a book somewhere, he found that humans were like merpeople, except they cooked the fish they ate and their feet and hands were not webbed unlike mermen's.

Allen's curiosity would get the better of him sooner or later.

It had been six years later that Allen had happened to stumble upon an old book while he was cleaning out his master's room. The man had been gone for a few days and supposedly he wouldn't be back for a few more. Allen looked around just in case and opened the book. Inside the book he found out all types of things on the surface. He read about forests, cities, humans, animals, and even types of social statuses the humans had. Allen was so intrigued with the idea...he just had to know what was up there. After a few hours of reading, Allen made up his mind and closed the book before gently putting it back where he found it. He turned all the light corals off and proceeded to swim as high up as he could. It was a bit weird, but it almost seemed like the higher he swam, the more weight was released from within him. His swimming pace increased and he felt so free as he neared the surface. He paused for a moment before surfacing his head above water and drinking in the oxygen found above him. It was delicious...

Allen looked around and spotted a castle sitting near the shore. Everything around him was so beautiful-even the book made everything seem dull. The castle was huge and built out of stone. In the book, Allen had read that usually kings, queens, princes, and princesses sometimes lived there...that or they were abandoned. The sun was so bright, but Allen didn't mind. To him, it just made everything shine. The sand underneath the water connected with the shore of the land. Didn't that mean that merpeople and humans were meant to see each other? They had a similar environment to the merpeople except they just had more...in fact, Allen used to live in a kingdom too like these people did...that was until he was banished...

"Woo!" Allen heard a shout and nearly swam back underwater from fright. He decided to stay calm and search for the sound where the shout came from. That's when he saw it...

...the most beautiful being he'd ever laid eyes on.

Gathering the details from the book, Allen could only conclude that it was a human. Just like his master's, the human had uncontrollable red hair, shorter, but still enough to be considered a handful to deal with. He had a single green eye that shone emerald in Allen's eyes. His right eye was covered by a black patch, which led Allen to think all red haired people covered their right eye. His red hair was held out of his face by a bandana and he seemed to have golden rings hanging from his ears. He was topless, only wearing shorts on his bottom. As Allen learned, most humans wore tops and bottoms and then things on their feet called 'shoes.' Allen was completely mesmerized by the human, who looked as if he was having a lot of fun riding the waves on a chunk of wood. That didn't even look possible. Maybe it was because he was a mermaid...

"Yo, Lavi! We've gotta go!" Allen looked over to the new voice. This man was shirtless as well, wearing the same kind of clothes as...Lavi, was it? Such a perfect name...Allen thought longingly. He then shook his head and quickly bolted underwater.

What was I thinking? I can't be up here with this human! Master Cross said that they'd kill me if they knew what I was...but wait...what if they didn't know what I was? What if they thought I was human? A plan started foiling in Allen's mind and he figured that maybe, just maybe, he'd be able to befriend this Lavi and this other man. Allen slowly rose back up to the surface. Said other man wasn't as attractive as Lavi. He had short brown hair and purple streaks down below his eyes. I wonder if he has merman in him...Allen wondered. Some mermen had odd qualities and unique birthmarks. Allen gasped when the man started looking over and ducked underwater. He could still hear their conversation from below with his sensitive hearing. Okay, so maybe Allen wasn't as sure about going through with his plan...maybe he should just stay out of sight for now...

"Whats up, Daisya?" Lavi asked.

"...nothing...I swore I just saw...oh never mind let's go before you're late!" Allen slowly surfaced to see Lavi riding the waves back to the shore with 'Daisya.' He sighed and ducked underwater again, swimming over to the pier where a red, black, and white lighthouse could be seen. He rested his arms on the pier and stared at the large building with awe.

"Yes, Friday Lavi is busy so we'll have to reschedule his appointment." Allen once again had to duck underwater quickly when he saw an old human with dark circles around his eyes walking towards him.

"Is something wrong, sir?" A man in dark clothes and some sort of necklace thing asked. Shoot, did he see me?

"No, it's nothing." The old man replied simply and walked to the edge of the pier, staring into the water. Allen stared back and was a bit unsure if the man could see him. Allen gave the old man one last look and swam off somewhere else. He still wanted to explore this place. He didn't want to go back underwater yet...it was too dark down there compared to the human world.

Allen didn't know how long he had swam until he came to some kind of port. The port had all sorts of shops around it, some were even close to the water; most likely for ships that were just passing through. Allen didn't know what kind of money the humans used though so he couldn't really buy anything anyways. He was a bit nervous coming here since everyone that seemed to catch a glimpse at him would stare at him for a long time with wonder. Do they already know what I am? Do humans have that type of power? Allen wondered suspiciously.

"Mama, look at that boy, he's so pretty!" Allen heard a child and brought himself to look over. The child was actually pointing at him. Why would someone think he was pretty? Didn't he look different compared to these humans? The more he looked around, he saw that the humans had quite plain hair colors like brown, black, light yellow, and orange. He didn't see any colors like pink or red or purple. He did notice that only old humans would have white hair...I wonder what that means...Allen needed to find some type of book store...but then...how was he supposed to read human books? The paper would just get all soggy and rip...

"Hey, you there!" Allen flinched at the loud voice and looked around. He spotted an old man running over to him and prepared to swim away. "Wait, don't go! Have you been scuba diving?" The man asked desperately. Allen tilted his head to the side curiously. "You know, going underwater to fetch pearls?" He asked. "They're worth quite a lot in this town..." He informed. Pearls are worth a lot here? They don't cost very much underwater unless they're big...Allen thought.

"A little bit..." Allen lied. He did fancy pearls-all sorts and sizes. He didn't mind how big they were or what color, he just thought they were beautiful. He even crafted his own necklaces sometimes...he usually didn't know what to do with them though. Allen approached the shore with much caution and propped his hands up on the deck, laying his head on his arms in curiosity. "Why?" He asked.

"Oh...well...I figured you don't live around here since you seemed so amazed with the town and everything...so that means you live on a small island out there, right?" Allen nodded his head. "So you dive a lot then? Well, if you don't mind parting with some of your pearls, I can show you my shop. Really, it's nothing but books, but I figured someone like you, living in an isolated place, would be interested, no?" The man asked.

"Books?" Allen's face brightened. He'd give anything to read more about these humans and the different lands here.

"Yeah! It's on the port too, did you want to see it?" The man asked nicely. "I also sell paintings here as well if you want to take a look at those. It's nothing too special, but some of them are waterproof too." The man walked along the port and Allen followed him. "My name is Froi. Froi Tiedoll, but most people just call me Master Tiedoll." This Tiedoll man chuckled. "In fact, I used to serve in a great war many years ago so some of them even call me General. Anyways, what's your name?" Tiedoll asked.

"Allen...Allen Walker." Allen said.

"Walker, huh? Sounds familiar but I can't say I know your family. That's okay though, since you live in an isolated place." This man is nice to talk to...are all humans this nice? Maybe not...maybe Master just ran into bad ones...Allen thought. He stopped swimming when Tiedoll stopped walking. "Here we are." Allen looked from the old man to where they stopped at and his eyes lit up with amazement. There were piles of books everywhere.

"Oh...wow..." Allen said with awe and stared at them longingly. He looked to Tiedoll gratefully. "I'm sorry, I don't have any right now, but I'll definitely come back later!" Allen chirped. Tiedoll chuckled at him.

"How can I guarantee you'll come back?" Tiedoll asked. Allen hummed in thought.

"How...oh! I've got it!" Allen smiled and took the necklace around his neck. It was one he had made of his own. The shark tooth on the necklace was the one of the first shark Mana had taught him how to slay. It also had two pearls on either side of it. "It's really important to me so I'll definitely come back for it." Allen smiled warmly. Tiedoll raised his eyes in surprise.

"You're trusting me with it?" Tiedoll asked. Allen nodded.

"To make sure I come back. You can't break it though..." Allen warned.

"Such a trusting and kind person...there needs to be more people like you in the world." Tiedoll complimented. Allen blushed lightly...having a human tell him this...it was nice. All merpeople knew who he was and they hated him for nothing. It was a nice change to have someone say nice things about him. If only I could live here...Allen thought somberly.

"Thank you...I must be going now! See you later!" Allen waved goodbye and swam along the port to see many more shops. There were all kinds of shops...Allen had even been offered to try food for free, which he complimented the chef greatly. Some of them seemed happy to give him food. He even had a couple of children come over and try to play small games with him like where the pebble was in three different cups.

Maybe the human world isn't so bad after all. Allen thought on his way home from the shop. He made sure to catch some fish and clams along the way. No matter what setting they were in, mermaids could always catch fish. The nets they used were embedded into their skin. The only difficult part was making the holes as small as possible and the color. Allen wished that he was born with a blue tail so that the net color wasn't so obvious-but he supposed it was better than Cross' net, who's tail was golden. This was probably the reason why Cross made him catch fish most of the time. He also couldn't wait to open up all the clams. He knew 75% of the clams would be empty, but he wanted some nice pearls to give to that kind old man.

Allen clicked on the light corrals, which were infused with his Master's magic; he was still too 'young' to use magic in Cross' eyes though so the guardian never taught him how. He'd probably learn by himself one of these days...back at the kingdom he heard of child prodigies that taught themselves how to use magic when they were only five...Allen wasn't really anything special though. He may have been the prince once in his lifetime, but that didn't mean he was special. Mana knew a lot of magic, and only taught him how to use his left arm to hunt sharks. Truthfully, Mana had adopted him since he had a feeling that he was going to die soon...and even after he died three years later, Allen was banished out of his own home and Cross took him in.

The silver-finned teen sat down on a soft sponge cushion and laid his back of fish next to him. The fish were all squirming around and Allen felt quite spineless when he would have to rip their skeletons out of their mouth to kill them instantly...at least they didn't suffer for long. Still, it was quite a messy and tedious deed, which was why he liked it when Cross cooked the fish using his magic. That way, Allen didn't have to deal with the scent of blood floating around his house. The blood would sometimes attract sharks which was why Allen barely ate in his own house. Today was different though, he was quite tired from all that swimming and figured that he needed a rest as he ate.

Allen was quite stuffed after he finished up all the fish. Now it was time for a little snack. He stared at the clams greedily and snapped them open one by one, eating the meat that was inside of them. He found quite a few beautiful pearls. Some of them were just a plain white, but that didn't mean they weren't beautiful. All in all, he found ten white pearls, seven pinkish pale ones, a blue one, and quite an extraordinary rainbow one. It was quite large and looked really expensive if he sold it in the kingdom. Usually he could find someone to sell it for him since he wasn't allowed and paid them extra, but he had a feeling that the humans needed it more. Allen smiled and laid on the couch, satisfied with all he had found.

He couldn't keep still that night, choosing to swim back and forth endlessly until he exhausted himself. He couldn't find any other way to fall asleep. He was too excited to go to town tomorrow again and see Tiedoll...and maybe even Lavi. After he was quite tired from swimming around, Allen laid comfortably on his bed. It was made of sponge, which made him wonder what humans' beds were made of. He also started thinking about what would happen if anyone found out that he went to the surface...he'd definitely be punished...but would he really? He was already banished from the kingdom, so did it even matter? The only merpeople he saw were usually from a different kingdom or town and were just passing through Allen's little cabin. Allen sighed and thought about all the wonders of the humans above. He thought about the old man at the bookstore and the children that played with him.

He would definitely be going back tomorrow.