Okay, let me start off by saying how incredibly sorry I am for keeping you lovelies waiting so long! The end of the school year was rough and I was extremely busy with projects and softball. However, it is now summer and I'm back to having all the free time in the world! So, I hope you guys all enjoy this new, overdue update and don't forget to drop some reviews! The story is almost wrapping up so brace yourself for the climax of the ride :)

Dangerously Alluring- Chapter 14

This was just great.

And Beca wasn't just saying this in her usual charming, sarcastic, asshole way she's notorious for, but completely in the sense of how truly fantastic this news was once connecting the complicated dots scattered throughout her brain.

However, the news about possibly defeating Demeter and curing the mermaids of their curse that has shadowed them for majority of their lives was not only thrilling to her, but also left her anxious to get a head start on conquering this mission, the simple reminder of how Chloe and Stacie have been cut off of all communication with their father for years now and finding his whereabouts would leave challenging as an understatement.

The possibilities of where he could be were endless; he could be living hopelessly, "kingdomless" underwater after being dethroned, and if that's the case, only Stacie and Chloe would be the ones capable of staying underwater for longer than a minute, at most, and with the Lurkers hot on the group's tail, it was more than a little unsettling to think about for Beca. She already had to let go of Chloe's hand once to receive the potion from the sea witch and though she believes Chloe is hands down the strongest predator alive in the ocean, the slight tinge in thought of the mermaid possibly getting hurt with the target on her back made her feel sick to her stomach.

And if she had the choice of avoiding that route in finding their father to something more settling, such as staying on land where she could be with Chloe at all times, she'd choose that option in a heartbeat because with that option, no one gets hurt, no one gets separated with the possibility of someone getting hurt.

The other possible option of where the king could be living was something she'd rather not think about, but the slight possibility of that same thought being true rang like a constant, poisonous bell. The king could be dead, for all she knows, and she thinks that Chloe and Stacie agree with their similar puzzled glances shared between each other when Jesse and Luke bombard them with questions as to where the best part of this island would be to start looking. Not saying it's true, as of now; their father could be alive and well, healthy living somewhere on this deserted island.

Or somewhere like Greece, which is a whole other problem Beca can't help but think about and was on her knees praying that that wasn't true because if so, well they're all utterly fucked.

Chloe seemed to be thinking about the same type of concerns Beca had with regarding her father and dropped the big bomb as to where the group should possibly start looking if they wanted to destroy this curse for good. It wasn't like they had a cell phone and could page the mermaids' father like some AT&T commercial and even if they did, chances were that finding service would be even more of a struggle, if not impossible.

The plus of this situation came when Stacie brought up the connection her and Chloe have with their father, kind of like a twin telepathy gift all mermaids have when coming in contact with one another and that if in range, the connection will only get stronger and stronger. A metal detector came to mind when hearing this for Beca and since there has been no buzz, or notification from the mermaids that they were even close to the King, the amount of progress that is being made to find him is sitting at zero percent.

However, when Chloe suggested that they should somehow find a way and backtrack to the ocean to look for her father; the same goddamn place where they have just been attacked by an army of lurkers and even lost someone's life in the process took Beca by a whole three sixty spin. At first, she thought that Chloe was just busting everyone's buttons because Chloe was Chloe; she didn't come up with the brightest ideas to pitch in for the group and though she only meant well, some of the things she said were just plain out delirious.

And Beca thought that everyone agreed with this statement, but when everyone besides herself nodded their heads, agreeing to Chloe's idea, including emotionally damaged and messed up in the head, Stacie, also the smartest one out of the bunch, Beca was sure everyone has been snorting way too much salt water because what they're planning to do is straight up insane.

"I know it seems crazy," Chloe muttered with a lower to her eyes when the petrified look washed over Beca's face at the simple idea of going back to the ocean; the ring of fire where everything basically went to shit. "But knowing our father-though he never truly showed it- cared about all three of us." It's sweet, but does it explain fully why Chloe wants to go back? No, it doesn't. And it definitely doesn't have enough to back up the idea of going back to somewhere so dangerous. "If it's true that he loved us more than he showed, he would already be one step ahead, trying his best to locate us and make sure we are safe."

Out of the blue, Beca chuckled to herself, drawing a lot of attention from around the circle. There was nothing funny about this conversation, but she didn't know what else to do to prove a point here. "That plan doesn't sound just crazy, Chloe. Going back to the beach is fucking maniacal." Despite her previous chuckles that were quickly vanished and replaced by a tight clench to her jaw and grit to her teeth, Beca's voice emitted as a bark, taking back everyone in the group, including Chloe who looked as if Beca just got done kicking her puppy.

"What else are we supposed to-"

"Something else! Literally, anything else but...that," Chloe was taken back even farther when her sentence was cut off by Beca before she even got the chance to finish it. "Unless we all signed up for a death wish recently, I'm not going!" She finished with a cross to her arms, turning the opposite way of the group.

Beca knew she was being unapproachable about the whole situation, practically throwing a temper tantrum in front of everybody; her friends, her girlfriend, and she knew that her voice was raising in a way that she really couldn't lower no matter how hard she tried. That's what she did whenever something didn't go her way, or when she'd rather opt for anger instead of showing everyone the real emotion she was feeling.

And that emotion was fear.

Fear of losing someone she cares about.

Fear of losing Chloe.

She hated this defense mechanism about herself, especially seeing everyone's expressions on their faces as they blinked with caution, even breathed hesitantly, like she was a time bomb about ready to explode. What she hated even more was that Chloe, the brightest bit of light she had in her black tunnel of a life for the first time ever seemed almost too terrified to speak, too scared to even touch her.

And she hated to even admit it to herself, which is why she covered it with rage and sarcasm, but what she really needed was some comfort.

Someone to hold her, tell her everything was going to be okay, even if it might not be true, but leave it to her to push away anyone before they have the chance to even try to comfort her like Chloe wanted to do, but looks too scared to even look at Beca, which physically kills her to see.

Unspotted animal noises around the rainforest flooded the groups' silence once Beca's little outrage was finished, leaving an awkward pause around the circle as they thought to themselves other routes to go about this scenario since Beca was all against going back to the beach. It didn't leave them with a lot of options, but hopefully it would bring out something less suicidal and something that would avoid bringing back the memories of when Aubrey ended her life to save them all.

The wound was still fresh, and going back would just be rubbing salt in the cut.

Surprisingly, Chloe took her chance and bravely reached out an arm to snake underneath one of Beca's, hooking their arms at the elbows and leaned her head over the closest shoulder she could find.

Instantly, Beca crumbled under the touch, under the salty smell of Chloe's damped hair and under the faint brush of fingertips she felt on the inside of her bicep. She leaned her cheek over the top of Chloe's head, but not without placing a soft kiss to the red, unable to project the words that explained how relieved she was to soak into Chloe's embrace and how embarrassed she was that she allowed her anger to get the best of her.

And also to apologize for raising her voice when Chloe did absolutely nothing wrong except voice her ideas to the group, as she and everyone else was expected to do.

"Did we just have our first fight?" Chloe mumbled after a while of them just sitting there in silence, continuing to draw invisible patterns on the inside of Beca's arm.

Releasing a wet chuckle and moving her arms to circle around Chloe's upper frame, Beca shook her head, the anger fading away as she held onto the one person who could make her feel like a brand new person; a better, less angry type of person. "No." She placed another kiss that lasted longer over Chloe's hair, her next set of words coming out muffled from where she kept her lips on the side of the mermaid's head. "Just me being stupid."

Chloe backed away from Beca's grip, her expression almost offended when they locked eyes as she explained with all seriousness that Beca was everything but stupid. Hormonal and more on the moody side, yes, but definitely not stupid.

Beca was already making her way to apologize; the words barely leaving her mouth before Chloe was shushing her, shaking her head to decline the apology and Beca honestly didn't understand how someone as prickly as her ended up with someone as understanding and sweet as Chloe.

Half the time she believed she didn't deserve someone as special as Chloe.

It was a no brainer that she was an asshole and showed this quality more times than she would like, so why have Chloe deal with all of that?

"I know I shouldn't be saying this, or even be encouraging it since I lost someone close to me back there, but Chloe is one hundred percent right," Stacie chipped in, her voice heavy as it sounded like there was a knot caught in her throat. Beca already knew that mentioning the topic of Aubrey was high on Stacie's list of things to avoid and she hated herself for bringing it up, knowing just how hard it was for Stacie to talk about the blonde.

Not exactly since she was not walking around in Stacie's shoes, but she knew enough to assume that bringing up someone who gave up their life to save someone else, that someone also being a person she loved was an excruciating pain to feel as the memories washed back in.

Beca gave Stacie apologetic eyes that were only returned with a curt nod and the absence of eye contact, guilt hitting her like a ton of bricks.

Deciding to go about her words differently this time, "going back is dangerous, Chlo," she warned with easy eyes, not wanting to scare Chloe or anything, or make her feel bad about her suggestion. The beach has trouble written all over it and she knows it's too soon to bring it up-which is why she doesn't, verbally, but the last time they were set on that beach, they lost family, someone close to them. Having to go through that again is an experience Beca never wants to face for the rest of her life. Chancing to lose another life was just too risky in her book. "What we need to do is find a way to get off this...fucking place."

Chloe heard Beca mutter the profanity under her breath and moved her hand to give a comforting squeeze at one of Beca's when their hands intertwine. The touch eased Beca, a lot like everything Chloe does, even if it's just a simple touch, or the smallest of glances. She just wished that she could be just as brave and courageous as Chloe was during times like these instead of dwelling on the negatives and not coward her way through any obstacle present in her life. It's not the proudest thing to admit, but for one she has mastered the quality expertly.

"I can't lose you," Beca's words were barely above a whisper, but she can tell Chloe was able to pick them up when the grip around her hand tightens.

She's thankful that Chloe was able to hear her, though her volume in voice showed otherwise. She wanted to scream it from the rooftops, if she's being honest, but a bubble, or knot in her throat formed every time when she thought about the possibility of this being true. Fear would be a perfect excuse as to why she can't bring herself to admit it louder than a whisper; she feared the possibility of losing someone she loves.

And she was here to admit, even with the amount of time she has been on this beach that she is absolutely in love with Chloe, so in love with the girl that the thought of her getting hurt is unbearable to handle:

"I won't lose you," she declared louder this time, vision becoming glassy from the stinging tears as she found the only strength she had to stare down at hers and Chloe's connected hands.

Sympathetic eyes from all around the circle were felt and were usually accompanied by an uncomfortable feeling brought along with it that Beca hated, but she couldn't find it her to care, not with everything going on and the powerful stare Chloe had targeting her, making her feel like the most important thing in Chloe's life. Weak would be a good word for how she felt at the moment, feeling the welding tears building up in her eyes and the constant wishing she repeated numerous amounts of times in her head just to be back home in Santa Cruz, with Chloe wrapped up safely in her arms as she taught the girl all the good things this world has to give.

It may not be a lot, but what the world has brought to her-even though it involved more injuries than she would like and a broken boat- was Chloe; the greatest gift she has ever received.

That's her one wish.

To be safe.

Problem and threat free.

Enjoying the rest of her life with the one person she wants to explore her future with.

Explore all the old and new things.

And do them all with Chloe.

She wants to be home.

Now that was something that never happened.

A week ago she would scream at the top of her lungs to be anywhere but home. Funny how so much things have changed since then.

"Weren't you the one who told me that the second we are going to make it off this island, you're going to take me out on a date and cook me the best plate of breakfast right after?" Chloe's voice tore Beca's focus away from their conjoined hands sitting over her lap and centered it to the twitched smile appearing at the corners of her lips. Not a second goes by that Beca doesn't conclude to herself that Chloe is the most beautiful, living thing this world has to offer, but now, as big blue eyes stared lovingly into her's, making it feel as if they're the only two left on this planet, Chloe's pure, raw beauty was almost painful to look at.

Despite her current emotions hitting her like a hurricane, she mustered up the strength to curve a smaller smile, unable to resist Chloe's curve at the corner of her mouth. "I can make a pretty mean stack of pancakes," she mumbled with a shrug and saying the words out loud reeled out a bigger smile from her lips; a type of smile that Chloe mirrored instantly, but her's by far more adorable with the way her eyes crinkled with utter happiness and a sense of relief.

"I have to back her up on this one. Bec's pancakes are a mouthful of fluffy heaven," Jesse-who Beca momentarily forgot was even present- spoke up, adding to the conversation. Luke even gave his two cents and nodded his head when Jesse spoke, mouth practically watering at the mental image of freshly made pancakes from back home.

"You know I don't know what those are, but I can only assume they're amazing." The shimmer in Chloe's eyes never once faded and her smile seemed to only be doubling by the second, causing Beca to forget about what they were even talking about before the topic of pancakes and Chloe's megawatt smile that could cure cancer. "I'm not going anywhere," Chloe declared sincerely, her voice shifting back into a more serious tone. "And neither are you, okay?"

There was a "but" floating somewhere in the back of Beca's head to respond with, in the back of her throat, but it seemed like all her doubts, worries and fears about going back to shore were all washed away by the power of one simple, loving smile only Chloe could produce.

And the fact that that smile was produced only for her makes her feel more than all gooey inside.

"Better make enough for me, too," Stacie quipped in last minute. Though her features screamed like she was still having a hard time without her girlfriend- her family here, she was still able to muster up a smaller sized smile, joining the moment as a group.

Beca cocked out her jaw in protest. "I don't know, Stace. You almost killed me not too long ago..." she dangled with her signature smirk remaking an appearance, already feeling ten times better about the situation than before.

"Yeah and I'll do it again if I'm not promised some of these 'pancakes' when we get off this island." The threat was clear to be taken as a joke, but at Stacie's deadly abilities and short temper to most things, Beca realized that her best option here wasn't to test out her luck.

Gulping quietly to herself without Stacie noticing, "noted." This time, she curved a faker smile in effort to hide her own personal fear when it came to Stacie and her freakish mermaid powers.

Chloe, who seemed to be keenly drawn to everything about Beca and hasn't took her eyes off her yet swooped in, stealing the brunette's attention from Stacie by placing a few, soft pecks to Beca's lips. Falling fast under Chloe's ability to make her forget about anything else in this world by the simple touch of her lips, she kissed the mermaid back, equally as soft until their lips mirrored over each other, turing upward into the cheesiest smiles known to man with their teeth clanking together.

After, it wasn't long until like and Jesse were teasingly joking about them getting a room and telling them to keep their hormones in their swim trunk before the kissing stopped-much to Beca's dismay since kissing Chloe has always made her feel safe and protected, with nothing bad to think about and blocking out all the negatives. Perhaps things weren't okay for the group now and Beca knew that until they get off this island, all their lives are in danger.

But what she also knew was that having Chloe by her side made her feel indestructible-invincible, like nothing could ever get in her way.

And she'd like to keep it that way and if she has any control over the outcome, she'll make sure it happens.

As much as she wanted to avoid backtracking back to the beach, Chloe had a valid point, which was if her father actually cared about his daughters like she believed he did, the first place he would look would be their home. There would be some time, a lot of traveling the distance, but if they were all smart, they'd stay put instead of finding themselves deeper in the forest where the King's ability to roam land would be impossible. So with that, the group packed up their things and started following their footsteps in the previous direction they already came from and were currently on the hunt for some food and water for a much needed pit stop.

Other than the extreme humidity, the monster size bugs to fly into every hole on your body and the constant, annoying chirping sounds of birds echoing through the area, the rainforest was a piece of nature that really was breathtaking. All the leaves were incredibly green to the point of them looking fake and they also had a freshly watered scent to them and all the exotic flowers brought a unique, colorful look to the scene. The sounds of the waterfall could still faintly be heard, and definitely the smell of the water and chill it brought with it was still shadowing them from miles away.

Beca was so use to adventuring the ocean when she surfed, never really enjoying the land part compared to what she thought about the ocean where everything was anonymous. And though that realization should be scary, the thought of never really knowing for sure what's really underneath you while you swim above waters was thrilling to her. She guessed it was the same with the forest in a way; the trees were gigantic and covered most of the sky. Looking up, she couldn't really tell what it was above her, similar to the ocean when she was on her board and looked down into the cerulean blue and saw nothing.

She separated briefly from the group to take a look around the forest to find some food for them to munch on during their break. Luke and Jesse took charge at a nearby river streaming somewhere unknown, hoping to spot out some fish they could cook while Stacie searched one area of the forest for fresh water and Chloe searched the other half of the forest for some fruit to eat, hopefully all safe and not poisonous.

Eating has now became a must on their list of things to do due to how much they've been hiking around for miles now. Exhaustion, sleep deprived, lethargic and hungry were all mutual feelings the group was experiencing. Keeping their energy levels up would be the smartest thing to do, not really knowing what and when they'll run into trouble and would need all the strength they can get when fighting off the lurkers. Plus, Beca, Jesse and Luke don't have the same abilities and genes as the mermaids do and were more mortal, to say the least.

You know, with being human and all.

Beca was in the process of searching some branches on the ground to find some fruit when she heard this piercing, high pitched screech come from the opposite side of the forest; a sound that was definitely new to hear and it was her name being screamed out by a certain voice she recognized in a heartbeat.

Initially, her heart sunk to the pit of her stomach when she sprinted over to the other end of the forest where Chloe's voice came from. She tried to push away the images of her making it there too late while trying to save Chloe from whatever it was hurting her and that by the time she got there, Chloe would be gone, injured, or at the worst possible scenario, dead. It makes her want to vomit thinking about it, but the uncomfortable, nauseating twist in her stomach didn't keep her from stopping as she ran as fast as she could until a head of red hair was seen half way up a tree, eyes milky white with a full mouth of fangs out in the open as a defense mechanism to something unknown.

She was refreshed to see Chloe still in one piece, without any injury in sight and definitely far from being dead, but she can't help but be confused as to what has deserved the dangerous alter ego of the mermaid when for the most part throughout their journey, they have been alone. Whatever it was, however, seemed to be pretty small in size, almost close to non existent when Beca tried her hardest to pin point exactly what Chloe was freaking out about.

"Chloe?" Beca called out to the mermaid who's full attention was glued to the top of the tree and making not effort to pay Beca's appearance any attention. "Chlo!" So, she tried again, hoping to get Chloe's attention away from whatever it was that she was looking at somehow. "What are you doing?!"

"That!" Chloe hissed, but without breaking her focus in the tree as she tried climbing her way up the bark, but ended up failing miserably when her nails dragged all her weight down the trunk.

From where Beca was standing, she couldn't exactly see what Chloe was talking about, so she moved closer to the mermaid, carefully placed a comforting hand on Chloe's back to ease off some of the sudden rage and took a look up the tree for herself. It was only a matter of time before the mermaid used her special abilities to burn the tree down, or use some crazy hurricane type wind to blow it over, so she needed to act fast before any of that happened.

Not seeing anything at first and only briefly thinking her girlfriend had a few bolts loose in her head due to the lack of nutritional goods her body had been declined, something incredibly small sitting in on one specific tree branch moved abruptly, and without having enough reaction time to dodge what was falling, down fell an object from the height to hit Beca square in the forehead with a hollow "clunk."

"Fuck!" she groaned in pain and was pretty certain that it was only the matter of seconds before she sported a gnarly sized goose egg on her head. Cupping the throbbing area, she scanned her hand for any signs of blood and luckily it didn't fall from a high enough height, or hit soft skin like her eyebrow to cut the flesh.

It still hurt like Hell and when she scanned the ground where her feet were and saw a medium sized, banana looking fruit that wasn't there before, she understood why the pain was increasing by the second, same with the extra head she felt protruding from her skull.

Chloe emitted a monstrous growl, her alpha, protective nature making an appearance besides her like a well trained dog and if her skull wasn't throbbing at the pain of whatever it was that fell from a pretty impressive height, she'd laugh it off at how ridiculously adorable her girlfriend was being. She returned one of her hands to rubbed soft circles on Chloe's lower back, desperately needing Chloe to relax before she sets the forest on fire with her powers.

Being so use to Chloe's radiant, upbeat and beaming personality, it was safe to admit that her protective side was another one of her favorites.

And also it was damn right sexy as Hell, for lack of better words.

Taking her chances again and praying to God that nothing else falls from the tree unless she wanted to be concussed, she looked back up with squinted eyes and was able to catch a small animal sitting in the tree unlike before when she saw nothing. Once her blurry vision cleared up and she was able to create a clearer image on the animal, she kneeled down to examine the object that previously just broke her face, which happened to be a inga fruit and she realized that sitting up in the tree was a squirrel monkey, an animal whose favorite thing to eat happened to be this specific type of fruit.

Realizing that the both them were far from being endangered and it was just a harmless, fourteen inch, two pound little monkey that almost popped several blood vessels in Chloe's neck as her anger brimmed from overflowing, Beca brushed the tips of her fingers together, gesturing for the monkey to come down the tree to a (mostly) friendly environment where it was safe.

"Hey little guy," she cooed sweetly and lifted up the half eaten fruit to the monkey above her, hoping to get him to come down. "Think you dropped something."

"More like stole something," Chloe barked and aggressively snatched the fruit out from Beca's hands before chucking it up to where the monkey was squeaking quietly, completely amused by the whole thing. The animal might be the cutest thing Beca has ever seen but damn was it a little asshole. "What is that thing, Beca?!"

Beca was unable to keep in a laugh seeing Chloe so riled up by such an innocent and highly adorable creature-that even if wanted to-meant no harm. If she hadn't already known, she'd assume Chloe just encountered a fairly large spider, or something equally as terrifying as those eight legged freaks. Now those things deserved a flamethrower, or atomic bomb dropped on them at first sight, and definitely a mouth full of razor sharp, siren fangs.

She was always quite the fan of the monkey group; gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees. Those tiny, monkeys that wrap around your finger like a ring, pygmy marmoset, or the howlers, which may or may not make the most terrifying noises known to man. Her all time favorite, however, was the squirrel monkey as she always wished to meet one close up.

Of course, she never thought that meeting one of these little guys would actually come true, but never did she imagine meeting a mermaid who she'd eventually catch the hots for and would sometime later become her girlfriend either. Now that was a three sixty spin that took her completely off guard. This though, was a close runner up.

Continuing her motions to get the monkey to crawl down the tree, "Squirrel monkey, babe," Beca finally answered through a smile as she watched Chloe glare up at the innocent monkey squeaking softly to itself. Her body also shivered at the usage of the uncharacteristic pet name she referred to Chloe as and already enjoyed the feeling that came with it. "Aren't they cute?"

Just as she said this, another fruit was knocked down from somewhere inside the branch the monkey was sitting on, this time knocking Chloe directly on the head with the same, unopened fruit and Beca barely had enough time to grab ahold of Chloe's ankle to yank her back down to ground level as she tried to climb up the trunk of the tree with her fangs exposed and invisible white foam oozing from the corners of her mouth.

Thank God mermaids were only dangerous in the water and on land, they were awful climbers.

"Whoaaa, easy tiger," Beca chuckled in between trying to calm the mermaid down, the short temper definitely a trait she picked up from her sister, Stacie. "I'm going to need you to not devour that adorable thing up in the tree and reel back in those razor blades," she teased, easing a soft kiss over Chloe's fuming skin above her cheek.

Eventually, Chloe's eyes flashed back to those glowing blues that Beca loved so much and her fangs retracted back into her mouth, but the anger directed towards the tiny animal was still visible between the grit in her now normal set of teeth. "That thing is not adorable, Beca! It stole the food I was gathering for all of us! If anything that little thing is inconsiderate!"

"Technically, you were stealing fruit from him," Beca spoke carefully when the anger directed towards the animal was now shifted to her. "Don't give me that look." she warned, trying her best to be stern about it, but ended up cracking a smile when the corner of Chloe's lips twitched upwards. Looked like someone who praised and held herself up on being so high and mighty had a weakness for an irresistible grin.

Beca didn't blame her, though. She had a smile worth millions, no bragging intended.

"Inga feuillei, also known as the pacay, or the ice-cream bean tree," Beca explained as she searched for the half open fruit that Chloe had previously thrown in attempt to hit the monkey and ripped open the seal before pulling out a small cube of the white seed hidden on the inside. Thankfully, the monkey has already done the tough part with cracking open the thick shell and made it more accessible for her to slit open the rest, revealing a cotton ball cover over the seeds that lay underneath.

"The fuzzy white part is suppose to taste like vanilla ice-cream and like you're eating a cherry, you would spit out the seed that is in the middle since that part is non-edible."

Chloe keenly watched Beca peeled down the middle of the fruit and pull out a piece for her to try. Ify on whether or not she should consume something that has fur on it and was apparently extremely sticky, Chloe gave her a hesitant glance, but Beca quickly assured her that eating it was harmless as it had been proven to be quite delicious and also she was willing to try it with her.

"Think of it like the coconut," Beca added with a smile, dropping the cube size piece into the palm of Chloe's hand and pulled out a piece for herself.

If she remembered correctly, Chloe almost passed out in pure bliss at how insanely delicious the coconut was when she first tried it and she expected the same reaction with this exotic and rare type of fruit that tasted identical to vanilla ice cream.

Maybe if Chloe was familiar with the dessert, she'd be more open to trying the fruit, even with its strange appearance, which was another thing to add to the list of things to try once they made it back to the real world.

It's not everyday she runs into a ice-cream bean tree and because of that, she needed to take advantage of her opportunities to try something new since who knew when the next time will be.

On the count of three, her and Chloe both stuck the white fruit into their mouth and chewed around to detach the pulp from the seed to work around and get all the experience from the flavor. Instantly once the fruit connected with her tastebuds, the vanilla flavor exploded inside Beca's mouth and she couldn't help but think she was taking a spoonful of her favorite Ben and Jerry's ice cream. People really weren't messing around when they gave this fruit it's well known nickname.

Chloe's eyes doubled in size as she finished eating the skin and spat out the black seed that was stuck in the middle. "Oh wow! That's really good!" she gushed with equal amount of surprise and Beca was already working her way to pull out another piece for her girlfriend that seemed to transform into a little kid trying every flavor at a candy store.

She handed over the piece she plucked out, muttering something under her breath that went like, "don't underestimate my well known knowledge about fruits," when it's remembered how hesitant Chloe was about trying the seed.

"How do you know so much about all this stuff?!"

Beca chuckled at how Chloe tried to say this through a pretty large mouthful of the fruit and it barely came out as actual words and not just muffled noises. By now, it shouldn't surprise her that Chloe still manages to get cuter and cuter every second, even when she thought it was impossible. "I don't...really have an answer for that."

Which was valid. It's not like she purposely landed herself on the Discovery channel every chance she got during her free time after school and her days out surfing, or working on her music. Half the time she didn't even realized how much nature and what it had to bring fascinated her so much until she snapped herself out of the little trance she always found herself getting trapped in while being so engrossed in Animal Planet and the deadly creatures of the sea.

Now though, she has many conspiracy theories as to what's true about mother nature and what they don't show on television, nor really have enough information to back it up as she is a prime example of someone who has encounter something mythical when everyone believed they were just urban legends. She also can't help but wonder if the Loch Ness monster, or giant killer squids were true as well, since mermaids, ancient Gods from Greek Mythology and sea witches like Ursula are in fact real.

It was like her whole life has been a lie and she doesn't know what and what not to believe anymore.

Being too distracted on Chloe as she soaked in all the flavor the fruit could give her and thinking it was the cutest thing she has ever seen, Beca missed the extra audience to the scene she had drawn in and didn't realize that right above her head was the same monkey crawling down the trunk cautiously, making sure that her and Chloe wouldn't attack it. She reassured the monkey with some more gentle calls while also double checking that Chloe wasn't seconds away from pouncing.

When the monkey felt fully comfortable with Beca and quickly took a piece of fruit she held out in her fingers inches away from the monkey's face, reeling the monkey in closer to feed, it ate around the seed, squeaking contently and discarded the seed before climbing on top of Beca's closest shoulder.

"Don't," Beca warned once again when Chloe flinched as if she was about to attack the animal for climbing on top of her. The last thing she needed was Chloe to swallow down an innocent animal for only being friendly and sweet.

"It's kind of creepy looking, Becs," Chloe muttered incredulously, studying the monkey who was crawling all over Beca's head, picking out strands of hair. The sideways look she was sporting also was extremely adorable. Kind of like a confused puppy dog that Beca just couldn't get enough of.

At first glance, Beca had to agree with this; the monkey with its big, pitch black eyes and the dark patch over its mouth with creepy little teeth poking out underneath and the insanely realistic human fingers the monkey had. For Christ sakes, they were given the nickname of "death's head monkey" with their appearance for a damn reason. They aren't the most appealing mammals with first impressions, but once you get use to all these qualities and realize they're as harmless as a fly, you can't help but not fall in love with them.

"You're kinda creepy but I still think you're the cutest thing alive," Beca joked, plucking away the monkey to set it in her arms instead of allowing the thing permission to mess up her already tangled hair. She was surprised how light the animal was, and also how soft its fur happened to be. At first, she expected the fur to be more thick and tougher in a way, rough as how it looked in pictures and T.V. Definitely not as soft as it was when she trailed her nails through the coat and played with the long length of its tail.

"Because I am cute," was what Chloe battled back with, holding her chin up high and smug; a comment Beca couldn't nor really wanted to disagree with due to the fact that it was the God honest truth. She also caught Chloe contemplating whether or not to pet the animal, so she urged her on with a gentle smile to push her actions, bringing the monkey up closer for her to be able to reach and praying to God she doesn't hurt it.

"Don't eat him please," Beca was mostly joking about this, (kinda) but Chloe was a box full of mysteries and has already been introduced to what she was capable of. She was a walking timebomb with a temper, like Stacie, and had a mouthful of fangs sharper than a shark's. It wouldn't put it pass the mermaid to disobey everything she just said and take the head right off of the animal in a snap of a finger.

Chloe rolled her eyes at Beca's comment and closed the remaining distance away from touching the monkey. Initially, the monkey flinched away, causing Chloe to yank her hand back and give Beca a worried glance, as if she just got caught stealing cookies out of the cookie jar and might have possibly hurt the little fella. Assuring Chloe that the monkey was just timid and scared, (because the last time the animal encountered Chloe she was about ready to dig her teeth into its neck) Beca quirked up a small smile when she watched the redhead reach her hand back in.

This time, the monkey allowed all contact without flinching away. She used her nails to scratch at the top of his head and her lips curved up into a face splitting grin when the monkey licked her fingers to get rid of the remaining stickiness still present. Beca savored the image that was almost cute enough to melt her into a puddle of goo seeing Chloe bonding with the new friend they just made. She honestly didn't know how much more she could handle before she died from a cuteness overload, especially when Chloe started giggling from all the licking the monkey was doing.

"When you charged at it, it gave off a warning call to the rest of the group, which is what I heard before I came hauling ass over here. They mostly travel in large groups, which is why it's strange to see this little one all by itself," Beca explained some more useful knowledge she had about the species and continued to watch Chloe interact with the monkey.

"I think you're the smartest person I've ever met, and that's even including my grandmother who was a genius and knew everything there was to know about the seaworld," Chloe complemented without tearing her focus away from the monkey.

Beca hid her blush fairly well and appreciated the monkey for keeping Chloe's main attention to avoid the embarrassment if she were to be caught. She also didn't know who she was more focused on; Chloe or the monkey. Either way, the sight of her girlfriend experiencing yet another creation that nature has brought to them was a moment she can live in forever and made her even more excited to show Chloe the many other beauties the world has to bring to the table that she hasn't been introduced with because she's been swimming in water her whole life.

Suddenly, the monkey jumped an incredible height to latch back onto the tree before climbing its way back up the trunk and joining the other monkeys who have snuck their way into the leaves and made their appearance from her and Chloe go unnoticed.

Chloe watched all the monkeys climb and swing themselves away in awe, mesmerized by the species and Beca was so entranced by the look that she nearly almost fainted.

"Seriously, Becs. You know so much stuff-like the coconuts, this...strange fuzzy fruit, the monkey and-oh! Even the flower!" The example sparked up on Chloe's list when she realized the hibiscus flower still happened to be caught between her ear on the side of her head, sitting diligently and nevertheless any perfect as it mixed in with the light auburn color of her hair.

Beca admired the glow that washed over Chloe's skin and the extra sense of peace that came with her signature beaming grin; the way her eyes sparkled in the most captivating ways. Perhaps, maybe introducing Chloe to new things was now her most favorite thing to do if she was rewarded with a type of smile like that every time she did it; a kind of smile that was brighter than the sun and even at times was too bright to look at.

"You made me face my fear of sharks, saved me multiple times and are basically considered my redheaded nurse," Beca listed with a small chuckle while her index finger moved to hook at the front of Chloe's sarong and pulled the mermaid closer. She squeaked at the sudden tug, but didn't dare to pull away. "I think the correct thing here to say is that you, my dear, are the bravest, most beautiful creation to exist in this world."

Beca wished she could've captured the shade of pink blooming it's way to cover both sides of Chloe's cheeks, for her own personal enjoyment if wanting to see the closest thing to perfect a person could get, but also to know that she was the one to cause the blushing.

Add that accomplishment to her vision board.

"Goodness, you always make me feel like I just swallowed a bucket of seaweed." Chloe shook her head timid and directed her attention to her feet, away from Beca's stare that happened to be glued to that same, enticing smile that hasn't disappeared for quite some time now, and she hoped it never did.

"Oh do I?" Was Beca's smug reply as her hands brushed along Chloe's back and roamed over all the warm, smooth skin she could drag her fingernails against that wasn't being covered by a bikini top. Chloe nodded her head, biting her lip shyly, as though she was embarrassed by her confession. Given all the confirmation she needed, "well, better get use to the feeling because it's now become a daily goal to accomplish from here on out."

Chloe didn't say anything, instead she just amplified her already face splitting grin into one that practically touched each ear on either side.

The feeling was mutual, by the way. The hurricane of emotions and a whole lot of queasy sensations she got in her stomach in the best way possible way, of course, whenever she was greeted by the redhead. It was like she was permanently stuck on a rollercoaster; a never ending ride full of flutters and spins that made her too dizzy to even focus properly.

Love was never a big thing in her book; she didn't like talking about it, didn't like how the word rolled off her tongue and definitely never pictured herself ever falling in love. All the romantic endings in movies were just repeated let downs of something she was positive that was never going to happen in real life.

That was until she met Chloe, and all that seemed to flip itself around in the scariest way possible.

But she enjoyed it, the longer she experienced the feelings it brought along every time she looked at Chloe, held hands with Chloe, and even kissed Chloe, setting off hundreds of fireworks all at one each behind each eyelid.

It was a feeling that can't be beat.

Beca took one more piece of the fruit for herself and offered Chloe some more as they began to walk. Chloe took the offered half of the fruit in a heartbeat, causing her to laugh as she watched the redhead scarf it down whole, perhaps even forgetting to spit out the seeds, which may or may not be concerning.

The last time they ate was back at shore last night and since then, they haven't really been able to sit down, hunt and enjoy some food. With all the fighting off lurkers, losing Aubrey, and mapping their way out of this maze of a forest, eating has been the last thing on their minds.

And since Chloe's diet recently changed from humans to fruit, which she seemed to absolutely love, it made sense why she didn't give herself the time of day to breathe as she practically inhaled the last bit of the fruit in a single swallow.

"Wait until you try pineapple. That shit is literally the best," Beca gushed, her mouth pooling up with salvia by the delicious thought of her favorite fruit and all its sweet juice she had come to miss so much.

Chloe's face lit up at the name, excitement dripping from every pore on her body like she knew the pop quiz answer to a teacher's question in class. "Oh! The yellow, spiky fruit?" she asked enthusiastically, clapping her hands as she waited for confirmation on whether she was right or wrong:

Beca froze on the spot, along with the trail her footsteps were following and she had a gape to her mouth that was no doubt catching the monster bugs flying around them in this rainforest. "You know what a pineapple is, but not a coconut?" Appalled. There was really no other word for it.

"Sorry my resources are a little short in the ocean, Becs!" Chloe giggled at the way Beca was pacing the forest, pinching the bridge of her nose, as if she just got told the most devastating news. She grabbed Beca's nearest wrist when she was close enough, halting her from pacing any longer. "Love me." She wrapped her arms above Beca's shoulders while firm hands found her waist, knotting her fingers together from behind.

Beca's heart melted at the whine in Chloe's tone, especially that puppy dog pout that came along with it. She loved the girl; it was plain and simple. She loved everything about Chloe, whether it came to her luscious red mane, her piercing blue eyes that could hypnotize her by just one glance, her cute little giggle that could cure world hunger. Chloe was a real life walking treasure and it was extremely hard-almost impossible for Beca to wrap her head around the fact that this girl; a stranger not too long ago was her's.

For the first time ever and through these brutal days on the beach it was safe to say that she finally found someone worth her love.

And boy did she really, really love this girl.

The smile Chloe was sporting covered majority of her face, but then her eyes fell to Beca's lips, and Beca took the briefest second to wet her own, and that was all she really needed to see until she was closing the distance between them, capturing Chloe's lips in a slow and tender kiss, leaving them both breathless when they broke away.

And Chloe tasted like the vanilla ice-cream fruit she just ate, which only spiked Beca's temptation to grab her by the neck, pull her back in and kiss her until she forgot her own damn name.

"God, I think I love you," Beca whispered breathless above Chloe's lips, her heart racing a mile a minute to the point where she thought it'd come flying out her mouth. Between the violent thudding of her heartbeat pounding inside her ears and how she was a smile away from becoming maniacal, there was no way she was leaving this part of the forest without fainting.

There wasn't a lot of thought process going on as she spilled this confession; she didn't think about the consequences of Chloe realizing what an awkward idiot she was and could no way in Hell be in love with her, nor did she think about how serious their relationship just spiked by with only the usage of a simple, yet not that simple four lettered word.

But all she really knew was how relieved and incredibly light she felt after saying it, not a single ounce of regret going through her head when Chloe pulled her face away, eyes misty, smile as big as ever and all around just looking absolutely stunning. By then and catching this one in a million sight, she knew she did the right thing and could only thank her uncontrollably word vomit for once.

Just this once.

"You do?" And Beca nodded her head so fast, her neck was basically on the verge of snapping off her body by how sure she was in the response. There was really no denying the feeling; something was there that wasn't there before, and it appeared the very second she landed her eyes on Chloe. Since then, the feeling only got stronger and she knew she needed to do, or say something about it before she combusted.

A response to this little outburst didn't come as fast as Beca felt comfortable waiting for; she barely even got a blink from the redhead at the words she just allowed her mouth to spill and was basically the future fate of their entire relationship, but by the way Chloe was staring at her with that same sparkle in her eyes and growing glow to her skin, it eased Beca's worries and any hint of regret she felt creeping up.

"My grandmother once told me that real love is knowing when someone's weaknesses and not taking advantage of them, knowing their flaws and accepting who they are," Finally, Chloe responded and Beca has never been so zeroed in on someone while they spoke in her entire life, but the way Chloe seemed so passionate and how her words flowed so perfectly together, she was positive she could listen to this girl talk for the rest of her life.

"Amore a prima vista," Chloe spoke so clear, her voice hitting a whole new level of low and sexy that Beca has never heard before as she reached up one of her hands to graze the same scar on Beca's head she was acquainted with back at the cave.

Shocked, moonstruck, captivated, overpowered by the language that rolled so easily off Chloe's tongue would all be valid emotions Beca was experiencing, wishing she could hear that saying over, and over, and over again. Chloe's normal, English speaking voice was hard to handle majority of the time, but add a little Italian to the mix and the low timbre Chloe had hidden in her tone while saying this and Beca was so sure she'd never been so close to crumbling under something sounding so mesmerizing a day in her life.

Even though she didn't know what it was exactly that Chloe had just said.

What she did know was that Chloe speaking another language made her body go numb and her mouth go dry.

"I don't know what that means," Beca snorted; the sentence was a challenge to get out with how her tongue all of a sudden felt three sizes too big for her mouth.

Chloe laughed sweetly.

"Remember how I told you my sisters and I lived in Italy before we moved here, to some hidden, deserted island?" The nodding in response to Chloe's question didn't even register to Beca as she was still enamored by the sudden exposed to another one of the mermaid's hidden talents to speak another language. "Well I may know quite the amount of Italian to get by, along with some German, Greek and even some French."

Beca can't stop the whimper from slipping out after hearing all these confessions and she was more than positive that she would be unable to even function correctly if Chloe started rambling in French, knowing just how weak she was towards the language. Luckily, Chloe didn't, but she made a mental note to flip back to this conversation later to be able to witness hearing all these languages when she had a more sturdy base.

She needed all the strength she could get if Chloe was going to go all French and seduce her with the language of love.

"It means 'love at first sight,' as my grandmother would tell me, and preached to act upon it if I ever experience such a powerful feeling," Chloe continued, her finger still ghosting over the scar under Beca's hair, right next to her temple bone. Beca sighed contented into the touch, leaning farther in like a kitten getting pet.

"And at the time, I didn't really know what it was exactly I was feeling when I first saw you crash in the ocean that day, but when I saw you again, my grandmother's word repeating in my head like a broken record, I knew for sure that you were going to be the person I loved forever."

Beca knew the point where Chloe was headed and even enjoyed all the extra build up to it, but what she really wanted to hear were those three words she has been dying to hear since the confession first slipped from her mouth earlier.

"I love you," And there they were, bringing the exact euphoria and buzzing emotions Beca expected to come along with them, almost swooning her over into the ground. "I love you so much, Beca, that it's kind of hard to breathe when I'm around you," Chloe admitted with a chuckle, her intense look in her eyes and how smooth the words fell from her mouth saying it all, only amplifying Beca's inner giddiness to the confirmation that she loved Chloe and Chloe loved her back. "But it's not scary because I know it's a good type of feeling, one that only people would dream of experiencing."

It was surreal, to be loved by someone else and there to be mutual feelings present. It was even more surreal to be able to come out and admit that she loved Chloe when she has never felt this way about another person like….ever. And it was a terrifying feeling; love was a terrifying fucking word, if she was being completely honest, but nothing about it seemed scary when it was Chloe who she was admitting her love to.

If anything, saying it out loud instead of keeping the words pent up inside made her feel ten times more protected and safe than she did before, knowing just how much Chloe reciprocated the feelings and how she could trust Chloe to keep her heart safe, now that it has been given to someone else to hold.

And she knew for a fact Chloe would never take advantage of it, but instead she'd cherish it for as long as she could.

"I-I.." Beca fumbled over her words, and even scrambled to locate Chloe's hand until Chloe gave mercy on her and linked their fingers together for her, just like she was desperately trying to do. It should've been embarrassing and it would've if it were literally anyone else, but it was Chloe, and Chloe made her feel like she could be awkward, and apparently unsmooth with her moves and it still be perfectly fine, which only backed up how much love she held for the mermaid. "Cool," Was her only response, her words bouncing inside her head like a spontaneous reaction in a Chemistry lab room.

"Totes cool," Chloe repeated, cheeking so wide it might become permanent, not that Beca cared since Chloe's smile was something she never got tired of seeing and was positive that it will never happen. Figuring that Beca's way with words had become nonexistent, Chloe did the only thing that could make up for lost words and leaned in to kiss Beca so softly, so full of passion and love and electricity and all that other cheesy bullshit that it almost knocked Beca back on her ass.

And Chloe giggled into the slowly intensifying kiss before they got too carried away, causing Beca to giggle with her and it was so nauseating, but still fucking perfect at the same time.

Only after they split apart; Chloe finding the fastest route to connect their hands and get back on track to retrace their steps back to the others Beca mentally face palmed herself at her previous response. Cool? Like she was describing someone's new car, or pair of headphones. Really Mitchell. You're lucky you still have a girlfriend.

As they're walking hand in hand back to base where the rest of the group was set up, ruffling from under a pile of twigs was heard beside them. Beca paused as a reflex when seeing the movement out of the corner of her eye and pulled Chloe back to pause her footsteps from gravitating any closer to whatever it was hidden underneath. She brushed off the puzzled glance the redhead gave her and detached their combined hands to find a nearby rock to throw in the general area.

Tossing the rock over to the area where the ruffling noises was coming from and once it came in contact when the debris that was on top, a fairly large in size, blackish grey snake came slithering out and it only took about half a second for Bece to squeal like a little girl and basically jump into the arms of her girlfriend's with the only intention to use Chloe as a shield; her badass rep shattered.

"What is that?" Chloe seemed unfazed by the snake, unlike Beca who was borderline tears and still hiding behind her girlfriend for protection. Maybe she forgot to mention that similar to sharks, she also had a major fear of snakes, especially poisonous snakes that are gigantic and scary looking. She also had a fear of clowns, heights and confined spaces, but those didn't matter as of now. What did matter was the creepy, reptile thing that was right flipping in front of them, hissing and spitting all the deathly venom directed right at her as targeted from the distance.

"Is that an eel?"

Oh God, how badly Beca wished it was an eel instead of a goddamn snake.

At least with an eel she'd be able to act all macho and not resemble the biggest wuss in the history of wusses right in front of her girlfriend. Jesus, how embarrassing is that? She'll be surprised if she had any brownie points left over once they (Chloe) figured out what to do to avoid experiencing the wrath of the snake and got rid of it as soon as possible.

"And what is an eel doing an land because I for one know with experience that sea creatures can barely last more than a couple minutes on land-well, not as of now because I'm human...humanish?" Chloe rambled with a snicker as she continued playing along her eel theory when it definitely wasn't what she thought it was and in fact, way worse.

"Chlo, that's definitely not an eel," Beca clarified from over Chloe's shoulder where she still happened to be using the girl as a shield, her body trembling in fear the longer she stared into those nasty yellow eyes and impressively sized fangs with her name written over each one. "It's a Gaboon viper, which happen to be extremely poisonous and extremely fast."

Only adding to the vicious profile the snake already had created for itself, the reptile threw a nasty hiss full of venom their way, about ready to charge them with its sharp fangs exposed. Beca's hands tighten at the sight from where she was gripping at Chloe's hip, desperately trying to brainstorm an escape route before one of them gets bitten. For once, she wished her National Geographic knowledge was wrong and they were perfectly safe and not in danger at all.

But by the look of it and those continuous, nasty hissing sounds, they were running out of time and running out of time fast.

"Chloe, we need to get out of here," she whispered for no apparent reason into Chloe's ear thanks to the position she was in. Did she think the snake could possibly hear her if she spoke too loud? She didn't honestly know. Maybe he had powers, too and could've heard and foiled their plans to sneak away. Who knows. "I think our best option is to run that-"

Mid way through her explanation, the same snake who was feet away from them suddenly disintegrated into a big ball of fire that soon revealed nothing underneath, especially in the area where a deadly snake just was and now was nowhere in sight. Beca assumed she hallucinated the entire thing, her high levels of fear becoming too hard for her body to cope. However, as she blinked repeatedly to test her assumption, the snake never reappeared.

With nothing to be scared of anymore and making sure that the snake was actually gone, Beca peeled herself off of Chloe with an impressed grin on her face at the sight she just witnessed with no one else here to point fingers at except for the redhead.

"Look at you getting mean and using your powers to protect us, Ms. -I'm-Always-Happy," she teased with a light laugh and nudged the back of Chloe's shoulder before walking around to be face to face with her little fire bender. What she expected from Chloe was a victorious glint to her eyes after doing something on her very own to protect them from something so dangerous.

What she wasn't expecting were the tears.

And my God there were so many tears streaming from the redhead's face for a reason she wasn't too sure of, but the sight alone, the quiver in Chloe's lip, the tears streaming down her flushed cheeks was incredibly hard to watch.

"Babe, why are you crying?" Beca made no hesitation to confront Chloe in her arms, still greatly confused as to why she was crying over something so refreshing. Unless, however, she was crying tears of joy, which didn't really add up to be a Chloe thing to do. But then again, Chloe is Chloe, who has a heart made of puppies, cotton candy and everything else in the world that was ridiculously sweet.

"He didn't deserve that," Chloe admitted through the waterworks she was producing, latching onto Beca like her life depended on it. Beca, for her part, tucked her lips that were daring to curve up into a smile beneath her contorting mouth, trying to hide the laughing she desperately wanted to explode with. What on earth has she done to be gifted with the most caring, cutest living thing that has ever walked the planet?

Once someone figured it out, could you let her know, because it was still a mystery as to how she ended up with such a treasure like Chloe. Sure, the mermaid could almost rip a innocent, tiny little monkey's head off its body, but God forbid it be a goddamn snake.

Chloe was something extraordinary.

Too exceptional.

Too pure for this world.

"Chlo, you did the right thing-that snake was extremely dangerous. Did you see it's fangs? I mean, it's nothing compared to yours but still," Beca gloated as she rubbed comforting circles over Chloe's back, fighting back another smile when she was earned a watery sequence of just incomprehensible noises that Chloe couldn't form into real words due to the amount of crying. "Without you killing that thing, it could've killed us, no doubt about it, so please don't cry."

Beca smacked a palm over her face when Chloe cried harder at the image of her possibly getting killed by the snake, hitting yet another soft spot in her girlfriend that erupted a whole new wave of fresh tears. She bit back the smiles and broke away from the tight hold Chloe had around her shoulders, "aweing" at Chloe when the tears rolled down her cheeks. She tried to act sympathetic about the situation, but she knew the harm the snake could've done to either of them and the thought of it injuring Chloe only lit a fire inside her stomach and made her elated about its presence being disintegrated through thin air.

All its creepy yellow eyes and tiny little rhino horn it had on its nose, yuck. Just the visual image of the snake brought back an unpleasant shiver.

Wiping away the wetness from the stream of tears rolling down her cheeks with the pads of her thumbs, Beca reconnected their hands and made a step forward in the same direction they were headed in before they got distracted, retracing their steps back to base."Come on you dork. Let's get you back before you make me cry."

Chloe agreed to this with a few sniffles, clinging to Beca's body as they walked for dear life, but stopped a few steps in, mentioning to Beca how she thought she had to pee.

"Seriously?" Beca asked, deadpanned face joined by several, heavy blinks and at Chloe's rapid nodding and even cup to her private area, she busted out with a loud laugh, ushering Chloe over to a space in the forest for some privacy to relive herself.

And really, there was no limit to the amount of love Beca had in her body for this girl because simply, the limit did not exist.

After quite the hike around the forest, the group managed to make their way out to shore, but not exactly where the mermaids' home was. Somehow, Stacie was able to find a shortcut out to the beach while she roamed alone and everyone was glad she was able to find an opening leading back to shore because it was getting harder and harder to breathe from the thick layer of humidity covering their senses.

Thankful for the fresh air and pleasant familiarity of the salt water aroma the wind blew around in every direction, they all took turns washing off in the ocean's water. Majority of their bodies were covered in dirt, sweat, blood and other disgusting things to be living in, so rinsing off all the junk was more than much needed. At least by then once they scrubbed down to the bones they'd be more comfortable.

At shore, Beca was sitting in the sand closer to the water, allowing the chill to wash over her feet when the waves rolled along as she watched sun descend in the distance, lighting the entire beach with a peachy glow. The view didn't even come close to the view back at the mermaids' home, but it was a nice alternative and definitely something worth the time to sit down and admire the beauty of it all.

For the most part she was sitting alone, everyone else was busy in the water getting cleaned; Jesse and Luke used the time to hunt for fish and Stacie took some time to herself and swam out a good distance away from shore, enjoying some time by herself and her tail. Eventually, she was joined by a newly rinsed off Chloe, who immediately eliminated any distance caught between the two of them as she plopped down on the sand and molded her body to Beca's, making a nice, comfortable spot for her head on the space over Beca's shoulder.

Beca smiled warmly at the unannounced company-though she enjoyed her space and alone time away from everyone else, she enjoyed hanging out with Chloe, holding the girl in her arms even more. She hummed contently, taking turns to soak in the sunset, but also the girl wrapped beneath her arms, as well.

She absentmindedly combed her fingers through Chloe's wet hair and rolled her eyes to the sky when she stopped due to her hand getting tired, but Chloe not being satisfied, blindly searched the sand for her missing hand with a few childlike huffs, finding it after minimal struggle and placed it back on her hair for Beca to resume her motions.

After some countable silence, "I brought you a starfish," Chloe spoke all of a sudden, her voice almost childlike as she lifted up the gift she brought from who knows where. "I know it's not as 'cute' as the monkey..." She used air quotes, still as stubborn as ever when declining the truth about how stinking cute that monkey was back in the forest and it made Beca laugh. "But this one is pretty cool."

Beca couldn't argue with this as she took the starfish from Chloe's hand and examined its nine arms circling around the thick disk of its body instead of the usual five she was most familiar with. Rotating the starfish, she took a look at every spot, used her fingers to graze over the tough, spiky skin on top. Cool would be an understatement as she has never seen anything like this one before.

"It's a millipede starfish. Nicest of the bunch, in my opinion," Chloe giggled, using her fingers to pinch at one of the arms on the starfish. "There's roughly two thousand of them all around the world, but this type is my favorite, probably because they're so different from all the other types of starfishes."

"They're unique," Beca added, studying the starfish even deeper and couldn't help but relate it to the mermaid. They both were so different from the rest of their species; Chloe was a mixture between fish and a gorgeous human being, but yet she was the most exceptional out of everything Beca has ever been greeted with. "Did you give me this because you want me to eat it?"

Chloe's mouth dropped open with a loud gasp, yanking the starfish out of Beca's hand. "Absolutely not!" Beca howled a laugh as she watched Chloe return the starfish back out to the water before the tides pulled it in deeper.

At Chloe's pout, Beca ushered her back over with her hands, admitting to Chloe that she was simply joking around. The rumors about eating starfish haven't been the most appealing, and even if they were, she didn't plan on breaking a tooth while she munched on coral basically.

"You're absolutely incorrigible," Chloe tried hard to be stern with her words, but hiding a smile was never something she was really good at, and it showed when her lips squeezed together, battling off an upcoming smile.

"And you're absolutely beautiful," Beca retorted, arms still raised up and missing the last bit of filling they need.

Chloe gave in with the same smile she had been trying to keep in, walking her way back up into Beca's arms that were being held out for her, until Beca's body visibly tensed like a statue. However, before Beca could even process what happened, her insides froze, literally, as she sunk into the sand motionless, unable to move and barely even able to blink properly.

It took about half a second for Chloe to come sprinting up to her rescue, screaming if she was okay, but no matter how hard she tried to speak, nothing would come out. It felt like her lungs were frozen solid and she just swallow half a gallon of the arctic slushes she'd get at the gas station after a day of surfing. The pain was unbearable, like a permanent chest freeze that she couldn't get rid of, no matter how hard she tried and it was excruciating.

The longer it lasted of experiencing this pain, she noticed her skin turning pale, almost a veiny purple color she'd get in her legs when her skin was too cold. All the hair was sticking up on her body, from her ankles up to her head while goosebumps covered all the exposed skin present. She felt her lips going numb and wouldn't be surprised if they matched the same color as a bruise.

Chloe was already transformed into her defensive side, fangs exposed and eyes milky, scanning the ocean and whoever it may be causing Beca's insides to turn into a breathing popsicle. Not finding anybody in sight, Chloe used her powers to heat up the shallow end of the ocean before carrying Beca out bridal style until she was fully submerged in the water.

Slowly, after the painful, needle like shocks she felt throughout her entire body, Beca finally regained some sensation in her toes, then in her legs, and finally she was able to breathe properly without feeling the harsh grinding from the ice blocks her lungs transformed into as they scrapped aggressively her ribcage. Lips chattering and her whole body shivering as Chloe tried her best to warm up every inch of skin on Beca's body, Jesse and Luke run up to the scene, winded, spears pointed in every direction, ready to attack the lurkers who happened to find their base.

But what they all didn't know was that there was no lurkers in sight, far from them, actually.

Instead, Luke spotted a lone head peeking out from the water in the distance, causing Chloe to retract her fangs and stand up to her feet to get a better look at the girl. Beca, as she tried to catch her breath back, watched how the redhead examined the random girl from the edge of where the water ended, not wanting her tail to grow just yet by fully submerging her legs.

"Emily?" Chloe called out suspiciously, her voice layered with a gentle tone. "Emily, is that you?"

Beca, Luke and Jesse all watched Chloe call out to the girl, confusion hitting an all time high. Who was this mysterious girl floating deathly still out in the ocean and why did it seem like her and Chloe had some sort of bond, like they knew each other on a personal level? Beca attempted to call Chloe back, not wanting to chance her girlfriend getting injured by whatever it was floating out there, but her lungs were tired as they were still in the process of defrosting themselves and couldn't speak loud enough from her to hear.

Cautiously, the brown haired girl floated her way into where Chloe was calling for her; Jesse and Luke tensed seeing the girl come closer, unsure if this girl was to be trusted or if she wasn't dangerous. "Chloe?" The girl croaked, innocent and sweet as she gravitated closer and Beca caught a twitch in Chloe's lip before it twisted into a large forming grin and she was already waist deep in the water to meet the girl half way.

Once the girl realized it was Chloe who was calling her name, her grin quickly stretched to match the redhead's and she was swimming in fast, enveloping the redhead in a tight hug, leaving the rest of the group to question what exactly was going on.

"What are you doing here?!" Chloe exclaimed into the neck of the brunette girl, tail now fully grown when her swim bottoms float up to the top of the water as she twirled the both of them around in the ocean. The cute moment didn't last for long until Chloe switched back into her stern, authoritative alter ego, breaking away from the hug with a pointed finger. "You shouldn't be here, Em! It's dangerous and you could get hurt!"

Emily, Beca took it as the name of the mystery girl, lowered her head as she is scowled by Chloe, their chemistry reminding her of a mother daughter bond, or an older sister lecturing her younger, which was just an all around strange image to see and would really appreciate it if someone could tell her what was going on.

"I know….I-I just.. I heard about the curse being broken, and the lurkers and how all of you were being hunted," Emily's rambles trailed off as she continued to keep her gaze towards the water, low and away from Chloe's strict stare. "I don't know what I would do if you three ended up getting hurt, so I had to come and at least try to help."

Chloe's eyes flashed to a much softer stare, and Beca, for her part, had enough of being out of the loop and decided to stand up from the water once she had most feeling back in her legs and feet. As she stumbled to stand, her balance still kind of rocky, Chloe swam back up to shore to help, crawling her way up the sand to expose her glimmering tail out in the open as she offered a hand to Beca for balancing purposes.

"Em, come over here!" Chloe hollered out to where Emily was floating much closer to the group, but still quite a bit aways. Obeying the orders, Emily swam up to join the group, but not without narrow eyes from Beca as she caught something else in the water following right behind.

Similar to Chloe's, Stacie's and even Aubrey's, this new girl had a tail connected to her torso; a dark, bronze, golden color to match the hazel in the girl's eyes and Jesus, she was just as perfect as the rest of the mermaids.

"Another one!?" Jesse screeched, stealing the words right out from Beca's thought process. Really, how many more mythical creatures were they going to run into during this journey?

"This is Emily! She's our youngest sister of our bunch," Chloe clarified with a beaming grin towards all visible parties; Emily continued to hide her head timidly, and Beca couldn't help but admit that this mermaid was the prime definition of baby cute adorable. Seriously, all she wanted to do was protect Emily from all the evil in the world and yet she hasn't even been properly introduced to her.

Beca sent a brief wave to the brunette when they locked eyes, afraid by saying anything else will scare the girl away as it looks like she's the type to be scared of her own shadow.

"Emily this is Beca, my girlfriend!" Chloe introduced the two of them, pride dripping at the label when she referred to Beca as her girlfriend. The feeling is mutual when Beca says she'll never get sick of the name. More often than not, she wondered when the label would become natural to her, and not make it feel like a mini heart attack every time they referred to each other as girlfriends.

"I'm sorry." Instead of the usual greeting, Emily started apologizing, profusely as it looked like she was seconds away from crying. "I'm so, so sorry! I-I didn't mean to hurt you-are you hurt now? Oh my stars, you're hurt aren't you?!"

Beca blinked dumbly at the frantic behavior and near panic attack given off by the mermaid. Good God, Emily was an exact replica of Chloe and all her cuteness that came with her times like...a million. Oh my stars? Really? Who even says that? That's right. Adorable freaking people, that's who.

Beca gave Chloe a nervous chuckle and a glance that screamed she had no idea how to handle the situation, nor did she know what Emily was exactly apologizing for. Yeah, she just experienced the second worst pain she has ever felt inside her body, but they were just introduced seconds ago, so that gave Emily zero time to be the culprit behind the pain.

And it was more than a little hard to believe that someone as cute and smol as Emily would be behind injuring someone.

Girl looked as if she couldn't harm a fly.

"Since Emily is our younger sister and she was able to pick up some of our abilities when we lived in the kingdom, she was lucky enough to absorb some of Stacie's genes," Chloe explained some more, slowly filling in the blanks to the puzzle. "Unfortunately, that pain you felt earlier, the one where you felt your insides freezing, sadly, that was Emily."

Oh.

Well that made sense since experiencing Stacie's wrath and powers was hands down the worst pain she has ever experienced, and feeling it again moments ago only made sense for it to come from Emily, who supposedly was a miniature Stacie.

"She has the ability to any form of liquid, whether it's present or hidden within something into ice, and she's most powerful for turning the insides of someone living, using their blood and other internal liquids into ice, as well." Beca nodded her head listening to more information told about Emily from Chloe. It was crazy stuff to hear, just like the first time she discovered Chloe's powers, but it was also fascinating how the mermaids are able to adapt certain qualities from each other, and somehow bond together in the littlest ways.

Technically, Emily was blood related to Stacie, which made them the most connected as sisters compared to Chloe and Aubrey.

How interesting is that?

With confirmation it was Emily delivering the icy pain to Beca's organs, the quiver in her lip and tears pooling over her already glossy eyes became more and more apparent. No doubt was her powers she picked up from Stacie nothing to be messed around with, but Emily so totally picked up the sweet as sugar qualities Chloe was filled with. She practically shined with friendliest, which made it impossibly hard to believe that she's the one who caused the earlier pain Beca felt and hoped to not endure ever again.

"It's all good," Beca said nervously, rubbing a hand at the back of her neck once seeing that Emily was brimming a waterworks show. She didn't know if she would be able to handle a crying Emily if a crying Chloe was a sight she wanted to avoid at all costs. "You didn't know...or like, whatever."

Taking this as forgiveness, Emily cheeked a wide, toothy grin, reaching out a hand to shake Beca's eagerly. Grabbing a hold of the surprisingly soft and wrinkle free hand with only minimal wetness from the water, "it's so nice to meet you! A human, an actual human, " Emily gushed, exploding with disbelief and studying every little thing there was about Beca's appearance.

It seemed like she was kept in a pretty tight cage back in the kingdom, unlike Chloe and her sisters who have been interacting (killing) humans for quite some time now, which only made Emily more delightful, like an overly friendly puppy dog who might pee itself from excitement.

"As you can tell by the large, sparkling floating thing connected to my body, I'm a mermaid," Emily announced nonchalantly with a shrug, as if nobody picked up this not-so-little observation already.

"Only a mermaid, who never was created to kill, but as for her voice, she has a killer one," Chloe chipped in, beaming a smile at Emily who nodded her head with pride at the compliment.

"Is she still able to lure people in like you three, since she has a voice but isn't really considered a siren?" Luke asked curiously, setting down his spear to soon get comfortable in the sand now that any threat from before was long gone.

"Not to the ability that Stacie, Aubrey and I can, but she can definitely reel in some listeners."

"Yeah I'm like...no where near as good as my sisters are. They have voices to die for," It was Emily's turn to give her compliments and all Beca could think to herself was, 'ain't that the truth.'

"Literally," Beca muttered under her voice and surprisingly only Chloe was able to catch it, which earned her an eye roll and shove to one of her shoulders. Chloe's voice was luring, for sure, but there was so much more about its raw, melodic beauty that she couldn't fully comprehend a sound so rare actually existing.

"So no mouthful of fangs? Scary white eyes?" Emily shook her head 'no' to Luke's answer as him and Jesse both simultaneously wiped their foreheads with relief.

"Okay, we need to adopt her into the gang," Jesse quipped, his dorky, lopsided smile back in action. Beca rolled her eyes as Luke quickly agreed to this, calling them exact clones like the Avengers, or the Power Rangers. Never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever will she be grouped in and referred to as a clan of superheroes.

That's screamed dorky and totally not badass.

"Wait, you said girlfriend, right?" Emily spoke up in memory, directing the clarification to Chloe who nodded erratically, exposing her lovestruck, inner school girl. "Like the type of girlfriend you love and kiss and stuff?" Again, Chloe nodded until her head almost flew off, hooking an arm behind Beca's lower back and leaned her head against her shoulder for support and extra clarification.

With this, Emily squealed one of the girliest noisiest in the history book of girly, obnoxious noises and her eyes stretch as wide as saucers as she encouraged Chloe to fill her in on all the juicy details about how dating came about, interest reaching an all time high. For the most part while Chloe started from the beginning as to how they met and "happily fell in love," Beca hid her face in attempt to hide her embarrassment, which brought along a profuse amount of blushing-way more than she felt comfortable showing to everyone and even sitting in her own skin.

She ignored the teasing coming from Jesse and Luke; all the kissy faces and sounds they were throwing at her when Chloe finished telling Emily their short, yet surprisingly long and very detailed story. In all honesty, she couldn't help but feel warm at the story and how theoretical Chloe made it seem with all the dramatic hand motions when she explained the cave, the fire where they had their first kiss, her first tears ever shed, the swimming with a shark, Bruce, (who was a close friend to Emily and earned a massive 'awe' at the story) and even the delicious brown balls they discovered that Beca really wished Chloe stopped referring to them as and prayed she'd find another name for them.

And even though Beca wasn't visibly showing how happy she truly was to be able to call Chloe the love of her life, she sure as Hell felt the happiness erupting in her like Mt. Rushmore.

Ecstatic would be a better feeling to use, but she had a rep to uphold and couldn't turn soft. But the longer she fought in the smile, the harder it was to contain these hurricane of emotions she felt towards the redhead.

She hated to admit it out loud, but Chloe has changed her for the best.

"When did you know?" Emily said in all curiousness, hooked to every detail about how they fell in love. "How did you know?"

"I felt extremely nauseous," Chloe admitted with a light hearted chuckle, causing everyone around the group to join in laughing, as well. Beca only admired intently, not daring to break her stare away from Chloe as the girl spoke so lovingly about her. It might be the dorkier thing she has ever said, but dear lord, she felt like she was falling in love all over again. "Like I ate some bad oysters."

Beca absentmindedly grabbed Chloe's nearest hand, lacing their fingers together as the two sisters caught up on everything that has happened to far, totally reenacting a high school scene at a coffee shop where all they did was gossip like a bunch of teenagers.

"Em, are you okay down there?"

A sudden voice appeared from behind the group, startling them half to death with yet another presence added to the mix. For a hidden island in the middle of nowhere, there seemed to be quite the population of people and things living here.

Or so they all thought before turning around, unprepared to be greeted with a pair of familiar, emerald green eyes, long, lighter blonde hair and realized that this new guest to the scene was also someone who wasn't all that new to them.

Beca felt Chloe's breathing hitch and her whole body tense up as they all watched the blonde limp across the sand, holding a collection of logs and twigs before dropping every single one into the sand, mouth falling down with them. She didn't know if it was because of this ghost they were all staring at it or because that the same ghost was missing the rest of her left leg from the knee down, and the only thing keeping her upright was a long, thick looking branch of some sort that took place as a cane.

"Aubrey?" Chloe was the first to say something, shaky and disbelievingly, and it sounded absolutely nuts.

They all witnessed Aubrey ending her life back at the other side of the beach as she locked herself under water and created a sheet of ice to hold in the lurkers until she was physically incapable of holding them off any longer. They all endured the the heavy pain in their hearts and all the crying right after once they realized Aubrey was gone and gone forever.

Of course, they didn't know for sure and kept a positive, optimistic thought that Aubrey could possibly still be alive, but it was hard to keep thinking that way when the inevitable was right in front of them when they visually watched her descend into the ocean and never came back out.

And maybe every single one of them was hallucinating right now as their eyes were fixated on the blonde from afar, focused hard on the bottom side of her knee that was wrapped in a cloth, already showing a dark maroon color of blood that shadowed from beneath the white, and dripped off into the sand where the other half of a leg once was because Aubrey died back at the beach.

She died and everyone hated to keep trying to convince themselves that she was coming back because it hurt to much.

But this?

This was visible proof that Aubrey was here-not perfectly okay like the last time they saw her, physically she looked a little rough, but other than that major chunk missing, she was alive and right in front of them, a good couple feet away.

"Hey, are you guys ok...Emily? What are you doing-" Stacie's presence came up next as she swam up to shore, confusion laced in her tone once landing her eyes on a familiar, added guest to the group, but her words fell short once her eyes focused on another person in specific; the one person who has suddenly attracted everyone's attention and that same person who she thought she'd never be able to see again.

"Aubrey?"

Ooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh snap (Raven's Voice)

Review what you think happens next!

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