Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Pearl looked out of her car window “This is it, this is my new house” Pearl thought with a smile on her face. She had done it, she had moved out of her own house and was now finally on her own. She had bought a house far away from her old house and was now staring at her own house.

It was scary to be on her own so far away from everyone she knows, but it was also exciting. Pearl stepped out of her car and walked up to the door with her key in hand. She had been here a few times before when she had checked it out.

But now it was actually hers, she owed it. Pearl put the key in the keyhole and turned the key, opening the door.

A smile appeared on her face as she walked into the empty house. She of course had been there before but the last time she had been busy just looking for some place to live, she had looked around and seen a house that was for sell. But now she owned it, everywhere she looked, it was all hers.

Boxes were all over the ground, words messily written on them. Pearl maneuvered between them and walked into the living room. She looked around, there was a lot of work to be done before this place would feel like a home.

Luckily Pearl had plenty of ideas.

The first time that she had walked into the house ideas had started popping up. All her furniture already had a space, all her decorations did too. Unfortunately all the decoration and all the furniture was still in boxes right now. It was going to take a while before before Pearl's vision would come to life.

Pearl quickly got to work, the sooner she started, the she sooner she would be done. Pearl worked the rest of the day on unpacking and building the important things. By the time the day was over she had a bed, closet and a functioning kitchen. The closet was still empty but that would be a job for tomorrow, at the moment Pearl was just exhausted.

She ate some dinner, sitting on the floor imagining all the things that she could turn this place into. After dinner she immediately went to bed, tomorrow would be another busy day. It didn't take long before she fell asleep, tired from everything she had done that day.

The next day Pearl woke up early thanks to the light coming from the windows. Pearl turned to lay on her other side away from the light “Should have made putting the curtains up a bigger priority” Pearl thought as the light in the room was still too bright.

A few minutes later Pearl got out of bed, deciding that she wouldn't be able to fall asleep anymore. She quickly ate some breakfast and got to work. Looking around the room Pearl realized that there were plenty of things that still needed to be done.

Pearl took a deep breath and eventually decided on assembling the couch, she didn’t want to make too much noise this early in the morning so she would have to be careful. Assembling the couch luckily wasn't too hard, it was just like one big puzzle. It would have gone easier with another person to help her but that didn't matter, she made it work.

When the couch was done she let herself fall down on top of it. All the boxes in the room was looking at her, almost shouting at her to get back up and work. And so she started working on getting the coffee table to the place she wanted it and she started working on one of the cabinets where the tv would stand on.

She was still working a few hours later but stopped when she heard a knock on the door.

Pearl walked to her door and opened it, she wasn't expecting anyone. In fact she didn't know anyone in the town yet, so who could be in front of her door. Well Pearl was about to find out, in front of her door were two guys. “Uhm hello” Pearl said, she put a smile on her face trying to look friendly.

“Hello, I’m Tango and this is Skizz. We live in the house next to yours. We saw that you moved in and thought that it would be nice to introduce ourself” One of the guys said with a big smile on his face. “It’s nice to meet you two, I’m Pearl” Pearl said, trying to sound friendly herself.

It was always smart to befriend your neighbours, you never knew when you could use an extra hand with something. “Welcome to the neighbourhood Pearl. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask. We have been living here our whole lives so we know everything there is to know” Skizz said confident

Pearl looked at the two of them, they looked friendly enough.

“Thank you, I do have one question already. Do you know where I can get something to eat?” Pearl asked, she had been distracted before but now that she wasn’t busy she realized how hungry she was. When she ad packed stuff for her trip she had packed enough for the trip and for one day here, but now she was out of food.

“Of course we do, there is a little cafe where they have the best food. We can take you there if you want, you know, show you around a little” Tango said. That sounded great, Pearl really didn't feel like getting lost in a town where she knew nobody.

“That would be great, let me get my jacket and then we can go” Pearl said, she walked back inside and grabbed her jacket from where she had thrown it the day before. She walked back outside and closed the door behind her “Let’s go”

The three of them started walking, Pearl letting Tango and Skizz lead the way. She was mostly looking around, looking at her soundings. “So Pearl, why’d you move here?” Skizz asked, starting a conversation while they were walking.

“Oh, I guess that I was just looking for a place to start my life. I wanted to get out of the busy city and saw this place on a website, I instantly fell in love” Pearl said, she had seen the house and decided that she had to have it.

Surprisingly it hadn’t been hard, apparently the house had been empty for a while.

“I understand why, this is a beautiful place. But we don’t usually get new people here, most people who live here have lived here their whole lives” Tango said. “Oh, is there a reason you don’t get new people here?” Pearl asked, she had done a quick google of the town.

The last thing she wanted was to accidentally end up living somewhere that was like on top of a graveyard or something. Pearl had seen enough horror movies to know not to take any changes. But when she had googled the place she hadn't found anything.

When she had told her parents that she wanted to move here they had looked at her like she was crazy. They had been supportive but they didn’t understand why Pearl wanted to move there. Was there a reason she shouldn’t have?

“No reason that I know of” Skizz said “I think people just like busy city’s more, we don’t have a lot here. But that is the beauty of this place, we don’t have much but we have enough” Tango said, sounding like he was advertising the place even though Pearl had already made her decision.

It was too late to leave now, even if Pearl wanted to.

“Hmm you two sound like you love this town” Pearl said, if she had to describe the place where she had lived before she had moved she would have described it as a dirty place with rude people.
“We do, it’s really a great place to live” Skizz said with a smile on his face. “Oh Pearl, this is our grocery store. It has everything you need, the owner's name is Xisuma. He runs the store with his sons Grian and Mumbo” Tango explained as they walked past a small store.

“Really the three of them run this place by them self?” Pearl asked, shocked. It was a small place but it didn’t look like it could be ran by three people.

“Yeah, it’s a family business. A little tip, buy all your fish here. One of the sons fishes and takes the fish back home to sell, they are always incredibly fresh” Tango said. Skizz took Pearl by her hand “Come, you wanna meet them?”

Pearl didn’t really have a choice as she was pulled inside the store before she could answer. Skizz brought Pearl over to the counter, behind the counter was a man with a smile on his face. “Hello, what can I help you with?” He asked.

“Hey X, we have a new neighbor. Pearl meet Xisuma, Xisuma meet Pearl” Skizz said, motioning to the people as he spoke. Pearl gave a small wave to Xisuma.

“Nice to meet you Pearl, welcome to the neighborhood” Xisuma said “Uhm hello, thank you” Pearl said, she had never introduced herself to a cashier. In the city it would have been impossible to run a store with three people, every day there was a different cashier.

“Where are Mumbo and Grian?” Tango asked, he had disappeared for a second but was back now. He was looking around the room, trying to look past Xisuma.

“They're out, as you can see it’s not very busy in here at the moment” Xisuma said motioning to the very empty store. He didn’t look sad about it though, he still had a smile on his face. As if an empty store just meant that he could have a break and not that he wasn't making any money “Are you two introducing Pearl to everyone?”

“Yeah! Or well we were actually just showing her where the cafe was. But then we passed this place and I kinda decided to just introduce Pearl to you” Skizz replied.

“Oh you’re on your way to the cafe, could you do me a favor and bring some fish with you. Impulse ordered it but I haven’t had the time to bring it over yet” Xisuma said, pointing at a few boxes behind him.

“Of course” Skizz said, Xisuma stood up and Skizz followed him, Pearl assumed that they were going to get those boxes. Tango turned to Pearl when they were out of earshot. “I’m sorry if Skizz is a bit too over excited, he means well”

Pearl laughed “What no, I love it. People in the city just look at you in disgust, I love how close everyone is here” Tango looked at her and smiled “I think that you will fit in here” Tango said.

Skizz and Xisuma returned not much later, Skizz holding two big boxes in his arms. The three of them said their goodbyes to Xisuma and continued their walk to the cafe. It didn’t take too long before they arrived, a good thing about living in a small town that Pearl was going to be happy getting used to.

The cafe was small but cozy, it had some tables outside and inside but that was about it. Tango and Skizz walked up to the counter and Skizz started ringing the bell. “Impy? You hiding in the back again?” Skizz said while he kept ringing the bell over and over again.

A man wearing a big chef hat appeared behind the counter “You’re going to break that bell one day Skizz” the man said, taking the bell away from the counter. “Oh who do we have here?” He asked as he noticed Pearl. “I’m Pearl, I’m new in town” “She bought the house next to us” Tango said.

“Ah, I was wondering when that house would finally be sold. It’s nice to meet you pearl, I’m Impulse. I wish you good luck with those two as your neighbours” Impulse started with a smile on his face. “Hey! We are delightful neighbours” Tango said, interrupting Impulse.

Impulse glared at him as if he didn't believe him before he turned back to Pearl “I own this little place over here, do you want something? On the house of course, since you’re new here” Impulse said, ignoring Tango.

“Oh uhm sure, what do you recommend?” Pearl asked, she had no idea what she wanted. She didn’t even know what they had and she wasn’t about to stare at the menu while Impulse was waiting for her answer. That would be rude and a terrible first impression.

“A sliced steak sandwich it is, grilled marinated steak tips, topped with grilled onions and melted mozzarella cheese on a hard roll, served with french fries” Impulse said, like he was trying to sell it to her.

“Sounds great” Pearl just answered, she had no idea what it was that Impulse was trying to sell her on but his sell pitch had worked.

“Tango, Skizz anything for the two of you?” Impulse asked “The usual” Tango, Skizz and Impulse said at the same time. “So predictable” Impulse said laughing as he walked into the kitchen.

“Wait dipple dop, I have fish” Skizz said, he had put the boxes of fish down, he picked it back up and ran after Impulse. “Dipple dop?” Pearl asked, who or what was a dipple dop?

“Haha, yeah Skizz likes giving people nicknames. He calls Impulse dipple dop, I forgot how confusing that must be for someone who has never heard it before. Everyone else here is pretty just to it by now” Tango replied. “Oh-kay, doe she have a nickname for you too?” Pearl asked.

"He sometimes calls me top, but it's mostly just Tango" Tango replied. After a while Impulse returned with some food, he put it down in front of them and turned to Tango. “Hey, do you think you’re able to work tonight? Bdubs called in sick”

“Sure, what time do you need me?” Tango asked as he started eating. “Like five, Joel should be here too so it will be the three of us” Impulse answered “Okay, I’ll be there”

“Do you work here?” Pearl asked obviously having heard the conversation. In the city nobody ever ate at the place that they worked at. Nobody wanted to run into their boss or other coworkers, that was awkward. Most people also didn't want their boss to just ask them to take over a shift but Tango didn't seem to mind.

“Yup, Skizz does too” Tango said “Yup, gotta earn a living somehow and this is a pretty nice job. Even if our boss is annoying at times" Skizz said as he glared at Impulse with a teasing smile "What do you do Pearl?” Skizz asked.

“Uh nothing yet, I used to deliver mail at my old place. But I’m gonna have to find a new job here” Pearl said, getting a job here was one of the things that Pearl was stressing about.

“If you want you can work here, we are always looking for more employees” Impulse said. “Wait, seriously?” Pearl asked, it couldn’t be that easy right? “Sure, we could always use more help over here” Impulse said, he didn’t look like he was joking.

“Wouldn’t you need to interview me first?” Pearl asked.

“Not really, there isn’t much that I need to know. Unless you’re a serial killer or something the job’s yours. Wait, you're not a serial killer, right?” Impulse asked. Pearl laughed “No, I’m not a serial killer”

“Good, in that case if you want the job then it’s yours” Impulse said “B-but I don’t know anything about working in a cafe” Pearl replied “These two didn’t either until they started working here, we’ll teach you” Impulse assured her as he pointed at Skizz and Tango.

Pearl looked over at Tango and Skizz who were nodding, she turned back to Impulse with a bright smile on her face “Then I will take the job” Pearl said, she still wasn’t one hundred percent sure if Impulse was kidding or not. “Great, then the job is yours” Impulse said.

The two of them gave their phone numbers and Pearl officially had a job. Pearl, Skizz and Tango ate for a while before they walked back home. Pearl looked around again, taking in the town that she now lived at too.

At one moment she saw something, there was a small cabin on the land close to the water. She hadn't noticed the cabin before but it stood out between all the other buildings and houses. “Does someone live there?” Pearl asked, she pointed at the cabin.

Skizz and Tango looked at the cabin “Oh uhm yeah kinda” Skizz said, Pearl looked at him “What do you mean kinda?”

“There is a girl that appears there every once in a while, we don’t know who she is. I wouldn’t go near it if I were you, people say that it’s haunted” Tango explained. Pearl laughed, thinking that Skizz and Tango were joking.

But when she looked at their faces she noticed them looking dead serious “We’re serious, don’t go near there” Skizz said. The two started walking again, Pearl forced herself to look away from the cabin and walked after them.

She got back home and started working on her furniture again, finally hanging her curtains. But as she worked she could only think about the cabin, what was in there? And who was the girl that Tango and Skizz were talking about?

Chapter Text

The next day Pearl went to the grocery store for some food, it was crazy how quickly she could run out of food. She walked through the isles looking for what she needed. She was distracted as she scanned the shelves when there suddenly were two men, one was placing stuff on the shelves while the other was throwing the stuff to him.

The man who was throwing stuff noticed her and accidentally threw something against the other guy's face “Ow, that was a terrible throw Mumbo” the guy complained, throwing the stuff back at the other man rather harshly. “Wasn’t my fault, I think we have met the new neighbour that dad told us about” the man, who's name apparently was Mumbo, said.

“Uhm hi” Pearl said with a small wave, the man that was stocking the shelves looked over at her “Hello” He said, he turned back to the other man “Not a good enough excuse to throw something in my face”

“Ignore him, I’m Mumbo. The guy being rude is Grian” Mumbo said with a smile, taking his own advise and ignoring him.

“I’m Pearl, are you two the sons of Xisuma?” Pearl asked, unsure. The two didn’t look like each other in the slightest bit. One of them had sandy blonde hair and was pretty short while the other guy had dark black hair and was tall.

They also didn't really look like Xisuma. Xisuma wasn't short like Grian but he wasn't incredible tall like Mumbo either. His eyes were light while the two men in front of Pearl had very dark eyes. Xisuma's hair was brown but not sandy brown, he also had freckles, neither Mumbo nor Grian had freckles.

“Adopted” Grian said “Oh uh I-” Pearl began “That’s what you were thinking wasn’t it? That me and Mumbo don’t look like each other. We’re both adopted” Grian said, he didn’t look angry about having to explain it. It sounded like he had to explain it a lot.

“Okay, well it’s nice to meet you two” Pearl said, this conversation was getting more and more awkward by the second. “Yeah it’s nice to meet you too, you live in the house next to Tango and Skizz right?” Mumbo asked, pointing in the general direction of Pearl's house.

“Yup” Pearl confirmed “Wow that old house finally got sold, that house has been empty for years” Grian said. “Uhm I’m glad that someone finally bought it, it's a lovely house” He quickly added.

“I heard that you sometimes go fishing Grian, what’s that like?” Pearl asked, trying to change the subject. “Yeah, it’s pretty great. It’s very calming too” Grian replied, Mumbo rolled his eyes next to Grian. It looked like Mumbo shared the same opinion about fishing as Pearl “Sounds pretty boring to me” Pearl responded, sitting around just waiting for the fish to bite. It all just sounded really boring to her.

“Well it can be calming, but it can also be exciting” Grian said, Pearl knew that he was just trying to get her to ask further. And it worked “How can fishing be exciting?”

“Well most people say that I’m crazy, but every once in a while I can see a big creature in the water. The creature is as big as a human, but it has a tail. Most people tell me that it's just a seal or something, but I think it’s something much better. I think that it's a mer” Grian said, acting like he was telling a scary story.

“Oh wow” Pearl said “You don’t think I’m crazy?” Grian asked. “No, not at all” Pearl said, shaking her head “I think you’re completely insane” Pearl continued, not changing her facial expression as she said it. But a second later she couldn't hold her laughter anymore and burst out laughing.

Mumbo started laughing too “He tells that story to everyone”

“Because it’s true, if you don’t believe me, come with me on my boat. I’ll show you, there is a mer out there” Grian defended himself, he crossed his arms over each other and looked away from Pearl “Okay, sure Grian. If you’re right and there is a mer out there then I’ll give you twenty bucks” Pearl said.

“Okay, I’m going fishing again on Sunday. Come join me, unless you’re scared of course” Grian said, an evil looking smile on his face. Pearl knew that it was a bad idea, she didn’t know this person.

But something in her told her to say yes, to go with him.

“Okay, I will come with you” Pearl said. Grian’s smile disappeared and he got a face of shock instead “Wait really?" he asked, Pearl nodded with a smile "okay” Grian said, the smile returning to his face. “Be here at 5am on Sunday, try not to chicken out”

“5am?” Pearl whined, she didn’t want to go fishing at five am. She didn’t even want to be awake at five am.

Grian shrugged “Early bird gets the worm”

“Fine, but only to prove you wrong” Pearl said, already regretting her decision. After her conversation with the two she continued shopping, getting everything she needed. When she was done she went back home, she walked past that strange little cabin again.

She wanted nothing more than to take a look inside, just a little peek to see what was in there. But Tango and Skizz had warned her not to. That, of course, only made her want to look inside more, she had to know what was in there. Pearl looked around, there was nobody who would know if she went to have a look.

Pearl walked closer to the cabin, she didn’t know why she wanted to look inside but she had too. She looked around again, still nobody, she then reached out for the door handle. She was about to open the door when “Hello, are you new here?”

A voice behind her said, Pearl turned around quickly, almost dropping her groceries. A man was looking at her, he didn’t look as friendly as everyone else in the town. “Uh yeah, I’m Pearl. I moved in two days ago” Pearl managed to get out.

“Hi, I’m Joel. Is there a reason you’re about to open my cabin?” Joel asked, that would be why he didn’t have a smile on his face. Pearl quickly stepped further away from the cabin “The cabin is yours? I’m so sorry. Skizz and Tango told me that it was haunted or something and it made me curious” Pearl tried explaining.

“Uhg those two, it’s not technically mine. But it is on my property, look there is nothing inside of it. Or well I don’t think so at least, but it most certainly isn’t haunted” Joel said, Pearl was just happy that he knew who Skizz and Tango were and that he knew of their shenanigans.

“Skizz and Tango said something about a girl showing up here every once in a while” Pearl said, she didn’t actually think that it was haunted like Skizz and Tango had said. but she wanted answers, if she wasn’t a ghost then who was she?

“Probably my wife, she travels a lot for her job so not many people know her. Believe me, there is nothing magical about this place” Joel said, Pearl just smiled “I’m sorry for disturbing you, it was nice meeting you. I’ll get out of your hair now”

She walked away quickly before he could say anything else, she should have listened to the voice in her head telling her to not look in the house. But even though she now knew what was going on, she still wanted to go check it out for herself.

But she ignored that thought and went home. Joel probably wouldn't be as forgiving if he found her snooping around for a second time.

When she got home she put the food in the fridge and searched for something else to do. She needed something to take her mind off of Grian’s story and the mysterious cabin. Eventually Pearl decided on just building the desk in her room. She didn't like the actual building part but when she was done she could at least empty some of the other boxes in her house.

After a while she was done, she started decorating her desk but stopped when there was a knock at the door. Pearl wiped some sweat away and quickly walked downstairs to open the door, only to see Skizz, before she could get out a greeting he said “Grian invited you on a boat trip”

“Uh yeah” Pearl said, confused at Skizzes statement. She knew that Grian had invited her on a boat trip, she was fully aware of that.

“Did he tell you about the mer?” Skizz asked, ah so that was what this was about “You believe his story about the mer?” Pearl asked, she didn’t think that anyone actually believed that story. She was convinced that Grian just wasn’t wearing his glasses when he saw the ‘mer’.

“Uh yeah, there are creatures that can breathe on land and air. Why would it be so weird for mers to be real?” Skizz asked "Plus we have weirder animals on this earth, I mean have you seen giraffes?"

“Mer's can't be real because humans can’t breath under water” Pearl responded, using her good friend logic.

“They could if they had gills, like mers do” Skizz argued. Pearl rolled her eyes “Is there an actual reason that you’re here or are you just trying to convince me that mers are real?”

“Yes, Impulse wants to show you around the cafe. But I’m mostly here to tell you that they are real, you have to get a picture of the mer when you see it” Skizz said, sounding sure that Pearl would see a mer. Pearl grabbed her jacket and key and closed the door behind her.

She had Skizz started walking to the cafe “Did Grian send you?”

“What no” Skizz said, Pearl looked him in his eyes “So you actually believe that mer’s are real?” Pearl asked, not believing that an adult would still believe in something as childish as a mer. Skizz nodded “Then why don’t you go mer searching with Grian? He invited me and he doesn’t even know me, he must have invited you too at some point”

“I can’t, I get sea sick. Can’t stay on a boat for longer than ten minutes without throwing up” Skizz explained “But if you can, then you can go for me and take a picture” Skizz said.

“Can’t you ask Impulse or Tango?” Pearl asked, “I did, they don’t want to wake up at five am to go searching for something that 'isn’t even real'. But you are willing to do that, please take a picture for me” Skizz almost begged.

Pearl rolled her eyes “Fine, if I see a mer I’ll take a picture for you” Pearl answered, she wouldn’t see a mer anyway since they weren’t real. Skizz seemed pleased with her answer.

The two of them walked to the cafe and Skizz let Pearl in through a side entrance. Impulse was already waiting for them “Hey! Did you convince her Skizz?” Impulse asked while laughing. “I did, she said she’ll do it”

“Seriously? you believe that mer’s are real?” Impulse asked Pearl, Pearl shook her head “Of course not, I just want to prove Grian, and now Skizz I guess, wrong”

“Those two really have a big imagination" Impulse said as he slowly shook his head "but that’s not why you’re here. Let me show you around the place now that we’re not busy” Impulse said, just like he said he showed Pearl around the place and showed her how certain things worked.

At one point they came to the counter in the front and Pearl could see people in the cafe. There weren’t many people but Pearl didn’t know any of them. “Do they all live in this town?” Pearl asked Impulse.

“Oh yeah they do, outsiders usually don’t really come into our town. Sometimes we get some people who are passing through the town, but that doesn’t happen a lot” Impulse said.

“So you know everyone in here?” Pearl asked, she didn't even know everyone at her high school let alone knowing a whole town of people.

“Yup, for example that over there is Etho and sitting at the same table as him is Bdubs. At the other table there is Scar, I think that he’s waiting for Grian. Little thing you need to know about Grian, he’s always late” Impulse said as he pointed at the tables were the people were sitting.

“Are you talking about me Impulse?” The person who Impulse had called Scar asked. “Yeah, we have a new neighbour. I was just explaining to her that you were probably waiting on Grian since he’s always late” Impulse explained.

The man came over to them, a friendly smile on his face.

“I’m afraid that you’re right, but I’m used to him being late by now. I’m Scar” Scar said, introducing himself to Pearl. “Pearl” Pearl simply said.

“Pearl is going to be working here too, I’m showing her how everything works” Impulse said. “Good luck Pearl, you’re gonna love it here” Scar said. Pearl smiled back at him “Thank you”

Scar went back to his table and Impulse continued explaining how everything worked. When he was done it had gotten dark outside and everyone had left the cafe, leaving only the employees.

Inside were Pearl, Impulse and Skizz. “Okay, I'm done, everything up front is clean" Skizz said as he walked into the kitchen area, taking his clove off he asked "How did everything go here?” eyeing Pearl specifically as he asked the question.

Pearl looked over at Impulse for an answer “Great, I think Pearl is almost ready for her first work day” Impulse answered, a smile on his face. Pearl didn’t know why but the smile made her feel proud of herself.

“I’ll be the judge of that, did Impulse explain the milkshake machine to you?” Skizz asked, a smile on his face. Pearl started smiling too and nodded “We’ll have to test that, don’t we? Could you make me a uhm I’m just saying something, a chocolate milkshake?” Skizz asked.

Pearl walked over to the machine and made the chocolate milkshake with a smile on her face, catching onto what Skizz was doing “Hmm it’s good, but you’ll have to know more then just one flavour. Try making a banana milkshake” Skizz said, Impulse didn’t stop her, so Pearl made a banana milkshake.

She handed it to Skizz “Well my taste was ruined thanks to the chocolate milkshake, Impulse you’ll have to taste this one” Skizz said as he handed the milkshake to Impulse, Impulse rolled his eyes but took it.

“It’s good” Impulse said “Buuuut you’re gonna have to make another one, I don’t know which flavor though. Pearl you chose one now” Skizz said as he interrupted Impulse. Pearl again did as she was told and made another milkshake, strawberry this time.

“I can’t taste it thanks to my chocolate milkshake and Impulse also can’t taste it thanks to his banana milkshake. Hmm guess you’re gonna have to taste it Pearl” Skizz said with a smile on his face. Pearl tasted it “It’s great” She said.

“I guess that proves it, but now we’re stuck with three milkshakes. It would be a shame to throw them away” Skizz said, Impulse rolled his eyes again “Come on, let’s sit down while we drink these” Impulse said.

He started walking to the employee only room and Pearl and Skizz followed with smiles on their faces. The three of them sat down in the employee only room and drank their milkshakes while they chatted.

“So Pearl, what do you think about our little town?” Impulse asked.

“It’s great, I love how close everyone is. I think that I could really start seeing this place as my home” Pearl said, it was the truth she loved this place.

“That’s good to hear, how’s your house? Nothing broken after it’s been empty for so long?” Impulse asked. “No, everything seems great, but I’ve been busy getting all my furniture up. And don’t even get me started on unpacking, I didn’t even know that I had so much stuff” Pearl said.

“All part of moving” Skizz said, Pearl nodded in agreement "And it will all be worth it in the end" She added. The three of them finished their milkshakes and Skizz walked Pearl home. Pearl went straight to bed, too tired to do anything else.

Chapter Text

Pearl woke up to the loud beeping of her alarm at four am, she opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling for a little bit. She really shouldn’t be awake at this time. But she had told Grian that she would go mer searching/fishing with him so that was what she would do.

As she got ready she tried to remember why she had agreed to this. A few days ago when she had agreed to it had seemed like a good idea, but right now she hated past her for saying yes. Of course the only reason she had said yes was to prove to Grian that there was no mer.

She knew that, she knew why past her had agreed to this. But it still didn't exactly please her.

The past few days she had worked on her home and met even more new people. She met Etho and Cub and Cleo. And even more people but she couldn’t remember their names anymore. There were quite a lot of people in this little town.

All of them seemed really nice and they made Pearl feel welcome.

Pearl walked outside, it was completely dark. She hadn’t expected much else but it still wasn’t nice. Pearl started her walk to the grocery store, Grian had told her to meet him there. Apparently he lived on top of the store.

She walked through the empty streets for a bit, until she passed the cabin and paused. She tried not to look at it too much as she passed it, but she could have sworn that she heard voices coming from inside. Pearl blamed it on her sleep deprived mind and quickly continued walking.

It didn’t take too long before she arrived at the store, Grian was already there loading his truck. “Oh you’re actually here, I really thought that you would have chickened out” Grian said as he noticed her.

“Nope I’m here and I’m ready to go” Pearl said, a determined smile on her tired face.

“Good, but if you want to change your mind this is your last chance” Grian said, his mischief smile reappearing, making Pearl question her choices once more but she was determined “I’m not changing my mind, can I help you load the truck?” Pearl asked, trying to make herself useful.

“Sure, just place the things here inside. I’ll make sure that it ends up in the right spot” Grian said, Pearl started doing as he said and soon everything was in the truck. Grian jumped out and closed the back. The two of them got in and Grian started driving.

It didn’t take long before they arrived at a dock, a boat was waiting for them and Grian started loading the stuff onto it. Pearl looked around the dock, she hadn't been there before. There wasn't much to see in the dark but Pearl could see the way the moonlight lit up the water.

Pearl saw Grian jump on and off of the boat as he brought his stuff on board. The boat at least looked save, as Pearl inspected the boat she noticed something written on the side of the boat, mending it was called. “Why is your ship called mending?”

“It’s an inside joke, just get on” Grian said without looking at her as he was getting the boat ready to leave the safe dock.

Pearl got on the boat and watched as Grian got ready to leave. It didn't take long before they left, Pearl looked at the water as they got further and further away from the coast.

“No going back now” Grian whispered in Pearl ear making her jump which in return made Grian laugh. “Don’t sneak up on me like that” Pearl said, a hand on her heart. Grian just laughed louder. Time passed and Grian eventually stopped the boat, he got his fishing rod out and started fishing. Pearl had been right about fishing being boring, she was incredibly bored. Grian on the other hand seemed fine.

Pearl sat down on a bench on the boat and closed her eyes, she had gone to bed early the day before. But she was still exhausted, she had no idea how Grian wasn’t falling asleep. She tried to stay awake but lost the battle and let her eyes close.

“Pearl! Pearl! Wake up, look over there” Grian shouted waking Pearl up from her slumber.

“For god sake wake up, this is the whole reason you’re here” Grian shouted. Pearl slowly opened her eyes, trying to remember what had happened, where she was and why Grian was shouting at her like a lunatic.

“What is over there?” Pearl asked, still half asleep.

“A mer! Come over quick, they're stuck in my net” Grian said, Pearl looked over at him. Grian was standing at the side of the boat with his arms down over the railing. When Pearl got closer to him she saw that he was holding a net.

She took a closer look and saw a tail… Pearl blinked with her eyes, it couldn’t be. She saw hands, human hands. Or well human, their fingers were connected and they had claws. But they also had five fingers, just like a human.

But it couldn’t be a mer, mer’s didn’t exist.

The mer changed positions, they were now facing Pearl. Pearl gasped, the sea creature looked human. It was just a human face but the creature had gills on their neck.

It looked scared.

Without thinking Pearl reached out an arm, trying to somehow help it. Grian was still holding the next, making it impossible for the creature- the mer to escape back into the water. The mer slowly reached out to take Pearl's hand, but then they grabbed it and dragged Pearl into the water.

Pearl felt the fingers around her hand and wrist, the next thing she felt was water all around her.

The movement surprised Grian so much that he dropped the net, releasing the mer into the water. Into the same water that Pearl was now in.

Their hands still intertwined as they sank slowly to the bottom. Pearl was too shocked to feel anything else, she smiled at the mer. The mer hissed and showed her teeth, snapping Pearl out of whatever trance she had been in.

Pearl let go of the mer but started sinking down more, she tried to reach out for the mer again. Instead of grabbing the mers arm she missed and grabbed something that the mer was wearing as some kind of bracelet.

She sank down, having nothing to hold her up.

Pearl could swim, she knew how to swim. But her body wasn’t responding to her anymore, her body didn’t move as she hit the bottom. She stared up at the sky through the water as she lay there, trying to remember how to move.

Her vision started to blur even more and after a few more seconds under water went black. The last thing Pearl saw was the mer staring into her eyes.

The next time Pearl opened her eyes she wasn’t staring at the mer anymore, she was looking at Grian. Grian was ducked over her, looking at her with a face of concern. Pearl tried to say something but she started coughing instead.

“Let it out, let it out” Grian said as he started hitting her back.

Water started coming out of Pearl's mouth until she could breath again. Gasps left her as she tried to get oxygen back into her lungs.

After a while Pearl felt like she could breathe again, her throat burning. “What happened?” She asked, her voice rough. Grian handed her some water “We saw a mer, it pulled you into the water. You almost drowned but I dived in after you and got you, luckily you were still pretty high up in the water” Grian explained, guilt all over his face.

Pearl started remembering what had happened, she had met a mer. But that wasn’t possible, she must have dreamt it or something. Yeah that made sense, it was all a dream. “Mers don’t exist” Pearl said.

Grian’s story only made her believe that it had been a dream more. He said that she was still pretty high in the water, but in Pearl’s dream she had been laying on the bottom.

“You can not possibly believe that, you just got pulled into the water by one” Grian said “Did you actually see that it was a mer?” Pearl asked, she remembered seeing the hands and the face of a human, but with a tail.

But she must have imagined that, she was still half asleep when she had gone to join Grian on the side of the boat.

“Well no, but it had to be a mer, what else could it have been?” Grian asked, frustrated. Pearl started shivering violently, the cold water finally taking effect as her adrenaline worked out “A- a s- seal” Pearl said as her teeth chattered.

“But- no it had to have been a mer” Grian said “Can we just forget about this whole thing, I can’t believe that I fell into the water” Pearl said, how could she have been so stupid. She wrapped her arms around her cold body, trying to warm herself up.

Grian let out a sigh “Fine, come on let’s get you warmed up. But we are continuing this conversation later” Grian said, he brought Pearl to the inside area on the boat. Grian threw his coat over Pearl's shoulders and started the boat again.

Pearl didn’t pay much attention to the trip back, she just kept thinking about how she shouldn’t have come.

When they got back to land Grian helped Pearl off the boat and into the truck. He quickly turned the radiator from the car on and drove her home. He walked her to her door, but before Pearl could get inside her house Skizz walked outside his.

“You’re back early! Did you get- oh are you okay, what happened?” Skizz asked, his face changing from excitement to concern as he noticed the state Pearl was in. “I fell into the water, Grian said that there was a mer and when I came to look I fell” Pearl explained, her teeth still chattering as she spoke.

“I caught a mer, I did” Grian said.

“No, you just think that you had a mer. But you didn’t see the actual thing, it was just a seal” Pearl said, she walked into her house and Grian and Skizz followed her. “Are you hurt?” Skizz asked, his words filled with worry.

“No, I’m fine, just cold and tired” Pearl said.

She started getting ready to shower, a warm shower would warm her right back up. She dumped all of her wet clothes in a corner and stepped beneath the warm water.

When she was done she got out and put some warm clothes on. She walked back downstairs and saw that Grian and Skizz were still there. “What are you two still doing here?” Pearl asked, confused, she had expected them to leave once she went upstairs.

“I got you tea, as an apology for letting you fall into the water” Grian said as he held up a mug of tea “Thank you” Pearl said as she accepted the tea “But it wasn’t your fault, I guess waking up at four am makes me clumsy” She didn't blame Grian, it had been her own fault.

Pearl took a seat on her couch and started drinking her tea, covering herself with a blanket that was on the back of the couch “I’m sorry for cutting your fishing trip short” She said. “It’s alright, I had what I needed anyway” Grian said as he sat down next to Pearl.

Skizz joined them on the couch too “Will you ever join Grian on a trip again?”

“I- sure. but not anytime soon, maybe in the summer next time” Pearl said, taking a swim in the summer would be lovely. “Good idea, this adventure is not over yet” Grian said.

“But it is for today” Pearl said as she laid down on the couch. Almost drowning seemed like a pretty good excuse to not do anything else that day. “Yeah, you’re not going anywhere else today young lady” Skizz said while laughing.

“Do you want us to leave, Pearl?” Grian asked.

Pearl knew that she had only known these people for two days, but for some reason she trusted them. “Nah, but if you want to leave you can” Pearl said with her eyes already closed.

It didn’t take too long before Pearl fell asleep, she woke up hours later to Tango entering her house and Grian leaving her house. But she wasn’t paying attention to that, she just opened her eyes for a couple of seconds and then closed them again.

The next time she woke up she was in her living room with Skizz and Tango quietly chatting around her. Pearl was done sleeping and decided to just play a game with Tango and Skizz. She opened a box that she hadn't unpacked yet and showed the guys all the board games.

That is what she ended up doing for the rest of the day, playing board games.

It was a great way to keep her mind off of the things that had happened that day. Pearl had never almost drowned and she wasn’t a big fan of the experience. Tango and Skizz stayed with her the rest of the day, they were a nice distraction.

But they left in the evening, leaving Pearl all alone.

Pearl cleaned up and got ready for bed, it was weird how she was tired yet again. When she walked into the bathroom to brush her teeth she saw the pile of clothes that she had been wearing that day.

She decided to clean that before she went to bed. She picked up the clothes, they were still wet since Pearl had left them in a pile. Pearl hung them up, making sure that they would be dry by the next day.

When she got her shirt out something fell to the ground. Pearl ducked to pick it up, it was some kind of plant. When Pearl looked at it closer she realized that it had been the thing that the mer in her dream was using as a bracelet.

The thing Pearl had pulled off of her when she had tried not to sink.

But if she was holding that, that meant. It hadn’t been a dream, Pearl had really met a mer. Pearl dropped the plant at the realisation, the mer had been real. There was no other explanation, no other way she would have gotten the bracelet.

Pearl walked to her bedroom and laid down in her bed, maybe she was still asleep. Maybe when she would wake up all of this would be fine. Nothing will have happened, the whole day had just been a dream.

That was all that was on Pearl’s mind as she tried to fall asleep.

She laid there for hours, staring at her ceiling. Every time that she closed her eyes she saw the face of the mer. The scared, nice face of the mer that couldn't be real but somehow was.

Chapter Text

Gem was swimming through the water, searching for a delicious snack. It was early in the morning so she had the whole lake to herself. Well herself and some other fishes, but those fishes didn't count as they couldn't speak.

Everything was great, Gem swam close to the surface. She was looking at the sky through the water, it was beautiful. It was morning so the moon and stars were still visible, lighting up the sky and the water.

Gem liked being out this early in the morning, she liked seeing the moon and the stars. She liked the fact that not a lot of other mers were awake yet, the silence was great. There was nobody who could tell her not to do something, no one to tell her that she shouldn't swim so close to the surface.

This early in the morning there was nobody to tell her what to do. There was nobody stopping her from doing anything, she could do whatever she wanted and nobody would even know. Gem wasn't supposed to swim this close to the surface, and she knew that.

She knew that it could be dangerous but there was barely anyone there this early in the morning.

Everyone would always tell her that she would be seen by humans if she kept swimming so close to the surface. But Gem just ignored them, she was much stronger than any human. Plus they wouldn't even believe their eyes if they did see her.

Countless mers had been seen by humans, none of those humans had believed that mers really existed. A few humans did, but they never did anything about it. Gem knew what humans would do to her if they did see her, but she would just make sure that no human would see her.

Gem was swimming carelessly when she stuck her hand straight through a net. She looked up, the net was connected to a boat. Gem laughed and tried to pull herself free, but the net wouldn't let her go. She moved around a little, trying to untangle her hand.

But nothing that Gem did actually worked, she only managed to get her hand more stuck.

She started moving around like crazy, just trying to get her hand loose. The calm collected option had failed now it was time to try the move around like crazy and hope that it works. She was so busy trying to get her hand free that she didn't notice the human on top of the ship moving towards the net.

"Pearl! Pearl wake up, look over here" Gem heard someone say, she looked up and saw a human looking down at her. She kept moving but felt the net that she was now trapped in being pulled up. Panic rised in Gem, she was stuck.

She had let herself be captured, how could she get away now?

"For god sake wake up, this is the whole reason you're here" The man on the boat shouted. Gem realized that there must be another human on the boat. Another human that could help carry Gem out of the water.

Gem could maybe take one human, but two? How was she supposed to win against two, especially if she wasn't in the water?

"What is over there?" Gem heard another human ask, this human sounded female. "A mer! Come over quick, they're stuck in my net" The human said, He was right Gem was stuck in his net. He hadn't even captured her, she had swam right into his net.

Another human appeared, the human was looking at Gem. Shock appeared over the human's face as she looked at Gem, Gem had now truly been seen by a human. The female came closer, and reached out her hand?

Gem didn't know why the human had done it but Gem took the opportunity and took the hand. She then pulled the human into the water with her, using all her strength. The human fell down into the water. She at least would be able to fight the human in the water.

Once she had pulled the human into the water Gem was dropped back into the water too, her right hand untangling from the net. But her left hand was still holding the human's hand.

The human fell into the water with Gem, Gem let herself fall to the bottom of the lake. She wanted to be as far away from the human as she could, but she was still holding hands with the other human. The human looked at Gem as they were descending and smiled?

There had to be something wrong with this human, it was probably trying to trick Gem.

Gem showed her teeth at the human, trying to scare it. It seemed to work, the face of the human went from smiling to looking shocked to looking panicked. Mission accomplished. Now the human could just leave and go back to the boat. The human let go of Gem and started sinking further away.

Wait, no, she shouldn't go further into the water. She needed to get out of the water. The human tried to grab Gem again as it started sinking, but instead of grabbing gem's arm, they grabbed her bracelet. It took it down with them as it fell.

Gem watched as the human fell to the bottom, air bubbles coming up. She knew that humans couldn't breath underwater, that meant that this human would die. Gem started feeling guilty, no what no, she shouldn't feel guilty.

It was a human, it wouldn't matter if a human died. They had done countless horrible things to mers. One human death for all the deaths that they had caused sounded good. Gem should have been fine with it, but for some reason she wasn't.

For some reason she couldn't just watch the human sink to the bottom and die. Her body started moving towards the human, her head not thinking.

She stopped when she was right in front of the human, checking if it was still awake. The human had their eyes closed and wasn't moving so Gem moved even closer. She picked the human up and started swimming to the surface again.

Gem looked up as she was swimming and saw the other human dive into the water. Gem dropped the human and swam away again, hoping that the other human hadn't seen her. But the other human wasn't paying attention to her, it went straight to the female human.

The male human swam back up with the female human in his arms. He climbed back on the boat and pulled the female human with him.

Gem released a sigh of relief.

Both humans were alive and she was too. Gem watched the boat for a while, it started moving again a little bit later. Gem watched as it got further and further away from her. Once the boat was fully out of her view she left.

She went back to her house and quickly swam in, ignoring everyone around her. She had just been seen by two humans and then she had saved one of those humans from drowning. Why couldn't she have just let the human drown? That would have at least solved fifty percent of her problem.

Now the humans would go home and tell everyone about her, they would come back and take all the mers. They would be sold or killed or worse, Gem didn't want to think about it but her mind wouldn't shut up about it.

She had been told stories about humans her whole life, she knew what they would do if they discovered that mers were real. She had been told that she should be careful, she had been told that she shouldn't swim too close to the surface, but she had ignored those warnings.

And now she had endangered every mer.

There was a knock at her door, Gem swam towards her door and opened it. "Hey Gem, you okay?" Sausage, her oldest brother, asked with concern on his face. She couldn't tell him about what had happened, he would never let her go out alone again.

Gem loved her brother but he could be a bit overprotective. "I'm fine, just woke up really early to go swimming and now I'm tired" Gem replied, she knew that she wasn't going to leave her house anymore today.

Telling Sausage that she would go to sleep would be a good excuse. It was also believable, Gem often woke up early to go swim on her own to then later go back home for a nap.

"You're living life wrong, you're supposed to sleep and then wake up to do things. You don't wake up, go do stuff and then go to sleep again because you woke up too early" Sausage said, a smile replacing his concerned face. It looked like Gem had managed to convince him that she was fine.

"Hey, I live my life in my way and you live yours in your way" Gem said, she preferred going out early but she still needed sleep. Was it really that weird to go back to bed after she had already left her bed? "Your way is wrong" Sausage said.

"Fwhip, Sausage is bullying me" Gem said as she saw her twin swim by. He looked in her direction and smiled before swimming over to her and Sausage "what's going on now? Sausage why are you bullying Gem?" He asked.

"I'm not, I'm just telling her that she's weird for waking up, going for a swim and then going back to sleep because she didn't get enough sleep in the first place" Sausage explained "Sorry Gem, he's right. That is weird" Fwhip said.

"You're siding with him? Traitor!" Gem said, she slammed her door closed.

She could still hear her brothers laughing through her closed door, she opened the door again and shouted "You two are weirder than me anyway" She then closed her door again before sausage or Fwhip could respond.

Great response Gem, great response.

Gem swam to her bed and let herself slowly fall onto it, she closed her eyes. But snapped them back open when she saw the female human. She was laying on the bottom of the lake, eyes closed. It was the moment that she was dying.

Gem closed her eyes a few more times, but every time she did she could only see the human. She wondered if the human was okay, no! She shouldn't wonder about the human. She shouldn't care about the human at all.

And yet whenever she closed her eyes, her thoughts went back to the female human that had almost drowned in front of her. Maybe she had died despite Gem's action. Maybe she had already inhaled too much water, maybe she was in some kind of hospital.

Did human's even have hospitals? Gem didn't know. She didn't know a lot of things about humans, but she wanted to know more. She didn't know why but she had always been curious about humans. Whenever one was close she would watch it, it didn't happen often but when it did Gem would be excited.

The humans would never do that much whenever Gem was spying on them. They would usually just fish, they would sit on a chair on their boat and stare at the lake. Sometimes Gem would overhear some kind of conversation but she barely ever understood what it was.

Her brothers would tell her to stay away from the humans, but she just wanted to know more about them.

Gem gave up on trying to sleep and swam outside, she swam outside her safe town where there were no humans. She went back to the place where she had seen the human, the place where she had saved the human. There was nothing there, not a single sign that something had happened.

But Gem knew that something had happened, and she couldn't stop thinking about it. She swam to the docks, it was a place she wasn't allowed to go. But she couldn't help herself, she stayed low to the ground as she scanned the boats.

Now that it was getting later in the day there were more ships around, which meant that there would be more humans. Gem had been seen by two humans, it would probably be best if she wasn't seen by any more humans.

Maybe she could find the one that the human had been on, maybe she could find the human again. That was Gem's plan, to just see that the human was still alive. Hopefully that would help her thoughts, hopefully seeing that the human was alive would help Gem's mind shut up.

The human had to be alive, Gem decided. If she had been dead there would have been those humans in the blue outfits that always showed up when someone drowned. Besides that Gem had saved her, and the other human had taken her back to a place that she could breath.

The human would probably be fine, Gem was just overthinking stuff.

She searched for a while, but didn't see the human anywhere. She did find the boat that the human had been on, but the humans weren't on it anymore. Gem stayed around for some more time, trying to find the human on the dock, but she didn't see the woman or the male human again.

And so Gem gave up, not knowing what else to do. She couldn't just go up to a human and be like 'Hey, have you seen this female human that almost drowned a few hours ago?' That would be weird. And it would make more humans see her. And so Gem went back to her house, she went in and laid down in her bed again.

The human must be alive, so why could Gem still not sleep?

She didn't even care for this human, why was she worried about it all of a sudden? Humans were evil and Gem didn't know this human. And yet she still couldn't stop thinking about the human. Gem laid in bed staring up at her ceiling for hours trying to get some sleep. But whenever she closed her eyes the face of the human still showed up.

But now not just when she had almost drowned, now it was different moments. Gem saw her when she had reached her hand out to Gem, Gem saw her when she had smiled at Gem after she had fallen into the water.

And Gem saw her when she had fallen after grabbing Gem's bracelet. Falling further and further away from her.

It was driving her crazy, the human was driving her crazy.

Chapter Text

The next day Pearl woke up early, finally feeling a bit rested after she had woken up at five am. But the second she opened her eyes the thoughts were back. The mer had been real, or had she? No, no, mers didn't exist. It just wasn't possible that she had seen one.

She had been panicked and hallucinated, that was the only explanation. The events from the day before started playing through her head again, the mer still clear in her mind. Pearl left her bed, got dressed and walked outside. She got into her car and drove to the place where she had been with Grian the day before.

Pearl had only been at the place one time but she somehow remembered the way. Once she saw the docks she parked her car and got out, the cold morning air waking her up. “This is stupid” She thought but went closer to the water anyway.

She had to figure out what had happened, she had to see the mer again.

There was a big chance that this was all a big waste of time, but the plant had proved that the mer had been real. Or at least that there had been something with a tail and normal arms, and Pearl wanted to find out what it was. There was no denying that there was something, no matter how much Pearl wanted to deny it.

She looked at the water, nothing.

“Uhm hello, mer? Are you here?” Pearl asked, she didn’t really know what else to do. Pearl was happy that she was the only one there, thank god for living in a small town. The last thing she wanted was someone to see her standing there, calling for a magical creature to come to her. She had no idea what she was even doing, but she had to find the mer again.

Pearl sat down on the dock, if the mer wanted to drown her she would have done so the day before. Pearl looked at the water again, she saw her own reflection. She looked stupid, sitting on a dock waiting for a mer to come to her.

This whole situation was stupid.

She stood back up, the plant had probably come from somewhere else. Or maybe she had just completely lost it, that sounded very likely.

Pearl was about to leave, hoping that she could forget about this whole situation now that she had proved to her brain how stupid it was. But Pearl stopped her movements and froze when she heard something behind her. She quickly turned around and saw someone quickly dive under the water.

Freezing in place Pearl stared at the spot, there had been something there. She was sure of it this sime. When Pearl got herself to move again she kneeled down on the docks and looked at the water, coming close to the water without falling in.

“Hey? Uhm mer, I’m not here to hurt you. I wanna thank you” Pearl started, hoping that there was a mer listening and that she wasn’t just talking to nothing. “You saved my life yesterday” Pearl said. Sure, the mer had been the one to endanger her in the first place but she didn’t have to help Pearl.

And yet the mer did help her.

“And I also wanna apologize for my friend, he didn’t mean any harm. He just wanted to prove that mers exist” Pearl said, she could still see Grian with the net in his hands preventing the mer from swimming away. Pearl looked down at the water, not knowing what she was expecting to happen.

When suddenly “Humans can’t know that we exist, if you know what’s good for you you’ll just forget everything. Forget that we exist, return to the humans and don’t come back” A voice came, Pearl looked around desperate to find out where it had come from.

The voice seemed to be coming from under the dock, Pearl did the stupidest thing she could do and laid down on the doc. Her head hung over the edge as she looked down beneath it. She saw someone with orange hair right as disappeared under the water and out of Pearls sight.

“Wait! So you are real” Pearl exclaimed, she could barely believe it. For some reason now that she knew that the mer was really real, she didn’t want the mer to leave. She wanted to learn more about it, she didn’t even know that they could speak. “Please come back, I wanna know more” she pleaded.

“We aren’t supposed to interact with humans” The voice said, now coming from yet another direction. Pearl got up and looked around, but she didn’t see anyone. It didn’t matter, she now knew that the mer was at least listening to her.

“I won’t tell anyone” Pearl said, hoping that that would be enough to make the mer show itself again. “Come on, you have to be curious about humans too” Pearl said after she didn’t get a response.

“Maybe” The voice came again.

“Show yourself please, I wanna know more about you and you wanna know more about me I'm assuming" If mers knew as much about humans as humans did about mers than this mer had to be curious too, right?. "We can ask each other questions, nobody has to know” Pearl said, her curiosity in overdrive.

“How do I know that you won’t hurt me? Don’t think that I don’t know what humans like you do to creatures like me” The mer said. Pearl thought about that for a few seconds, she didn’t want to hurt the mer. But the mer had no reason to believe her. The day before a human had tried to catch the mer, of course she wasn't to trust Pearl now.

“We uhm- we can just keep our distance, I will stay on the land and you stay in the water. We won’t be able to hurt each other that way” Pearl said, her brain had been so busy with all the questions she had for the mer that she had forgotten to think about the possibility of the mer hurting her.

“F-fine” The mer said, her head appeared above the water.

“Let’s go to a quieter place, we don’t want another human to run into you” Pearl said, she also kind of didn’t want someone to see her talk to what looked like the water. Pearl looked around, and spotted a little beach area that was partly hidden by bushes.

“Can you come over there?” Pearl said, pointing at the little beach area.

The mer nodded and disappeared under water again, Pearl walked to the little beach area. It was a little hard getting there but she got there with a limited amount of cuts. She overlooked the water, would the mer even come?

The place where Pearl was standing still had grass but if she would take a few steps closer there would just be sand. The sand eventually ended with a little dip that ended with the water of the lake. From where Pearl was standing the mer couldn't hurt her but the mer would be able to get away if Pearl would try anything.

It felt like the perfect place to talk.

A few moments passed and the mer still wasn't there. Which was weird because she should have already been there, swimming would be much faster than walking. Maybe the mer didn’t trust Pearl after all? The beach area was less deep than the rest of the lake. Maybe the mer changed her mind.

Pearl was about to give up when she saw two eyes looking at her from the water “You promise not to hurt me?” A voice asked. Pearl smiled and sat down on the sand to show that she really wasn't planning anything “I won’t even get close to you”

“Okay” The mer swam closer to the beach. Her body became more and more visible the closer she got. Pearl could now see her full face and part of her tail. The mer was beautiful, she had sea green eyes and long orange hair decorated by the colourful flowers in it.

The mer left Pearl speechless, her tail was multiple colours. It was blue and green with some white at the ends. Her fins even had some pink, purple and blue lines on it. Now that Pearl got a better look at her she realised how not-human she looked. She had webbed fingers, pointed ears, sharp teeth and gills.

Besides that and the tail she could pass as human, but right now it was clear that she was anything but human. “You’re beautiful” Pearl said, she didn’t mean to say it out loud and covered her mouth with her hand.

What a stupid thing to say, Pear didn’t even know her.

The mer’s face turned red “T-thank you” She said softly. “I- sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I just- I’ve never seen a mer before” Pearl said trying to make the conversation less awkward. Pearl cleared her throat “I’m Pearl” She said, changing the subject.

“Pearl like a pearl from the sea, I’m Gem” The mer, Gem, responded. “I- I have a lot of questions, how about we ask a question at a time. You ask one and then I ask one” Pearl suggested, she needed to give the mer a reason to keep talking to her.

“Sounds great, what do you wanna know?” Gem asked, she kept her distance but Pearl could see the curiosity in her eyes. “Can you only breathe underwater?” Pearl asked, the mer had her head above water but seemed fine. Pearl wanted to know how long she had to talk to the mer.

“I can stay above the water for some time, but after a while I would need to return to the water” Gem said, her answer quite vague. “My turn, what are those called?” Gem asked, she pointed at Pearl’s legs.

“My legs?” Pearl asked confused, the mer nodded “yes legsss, how do they work?”

“Uhm well, they have bones inside of them and muscle which allow me to stand up” Pearl said, she stood up to demonstrate it. She really didn’t know how to explain the concept of legs “The muscles allow me to move which allows me to do things like walk, I don’t think it’s much different from your tail”

“Interesting, but you can stand. Sorry, it’s your turn to ask a question” Gem said.

“I can stand because of my feet” Pearl answered, answering her question anyway while she pointed at her feet before asking her next question “Are you the only mer here?”

Gem stayed silent for a few seconds, hesitating “No, but I can’t tell you anything about anyone else. Are you the only one living here? Well you and the other humans that I always see on their boats?” Gem asked. Pearl almost laughed at the question but managed not to, she didn't wanna be rude.

It was weird to her that the mer thought that the only humans here were the ones that actually went onto the water when there were so many more.

“No, there is a little town here with a lot of other humans. But there are even more all over the world, billions even” Pearl said, she didn’t really see the reason in not telling Gem about all the other humans.

“B- billions?” Gem asked, Pearl saw a look of fear on Gem’s face and quickly added “Yeah but they won’t come here. This is just a little town, according to the people who live here we barely get visitors anyway”

“O-okay, uhm what’s your next question?” Gem asked, moving on.

Pearl thought for a few seconds before asking “Do all mers speak English?” When Pearl was young and still believed in mer’s she always assumed that they would have their own language, like normal fish. Even this morning when she went to find the mer she still didn't think that she would be able to communicate with them.

“I don’t think so, but everyone here does” Gem answered. “Can all humans change their legs?” Her question confused Pearl “What do you mean, change our legs?”

“Well the colour, the other human that comes here comes here with different coloured legs each time. Can all humans do that?” Gem asked.

The explanation didn’t explain much as Pearl was still confused. She looked at her legs, was she asking about pants? “Do you mean these?” Pearl asked as she put her hand on her leg. The mer nodded and Pearl laughed.

She pulled her pants up a little, showing her ankle to Gem. “This is my leg” She said pointing at her ankle “This” She pointed at the now curled up pants “Are my pants, they go over my leg for warmth. It’s clothing just like my shirt”

“Clothing? So it’s not stuck to you?” Gem asked, now she was the one that sounded confused.

Pearl couldn’t help but laugh “No, it’s not stuck to me. It’s just like my shirt, I- I could bring you some pants to show you” Pearl said, she wished that it was summer. If it was summer she could wear shorts or a dress to show the difference between normal skin and clothing. But for now bringing a piece of clothing with her to show Gem would have to do.

“Yes, please” Gem answered.

“Do all mers have the same colour tail?” Pearl asked her next question, since they were on the topic of clothes anyway. “No, everyone has a different tail. They are all unique. But we can’t change the colour like humans with pants”

“Interesting” Pearl commented

The two of them asked each other questions for a while, Pearl learning more and more about mers. After an hour or two Pearl went back home, she didn’t want to leave but the place was starting to get a bit crowded.

She said goodbye to Gem and they decided to meet up again the next day. It was clear to Pearl that Gem didn’t trust her but Gem was as curious about human clothing as Pearl was about mers in general. They would meet up at the same time and place, Pearl couldn’t wait.

When she got home she walked into Tango “Oh hey Pearl, you were out early”

“Hello, yeah I just needed to clear my head after what had happened yesterday” Pearl answered with a smile. The interaction with Gem had made her weirdly happy.

“Well you seem like you're in a good mood so I assume that it worked. I’m glad that what happened yesterday didn’t scare you away or anything” Tango said.

“Believe me, I’m not gonna leave anytime soon” Pearl said, not only were the people here amazing. She also had a beautiful house and a job, But she now also had a secret.

Mers existed and Pearl knew one.

“I’m glad, if you need help with anything let me know. But I need to get to work now, don’t want Impulse angry at me, again” Tango said before leaving.

Pearl walked around town for a little after that, what other secrets could this place be hiding?

Chapter Text

Gem still couldn't sleep, it was now a day after she had saved the human. But she still couldn't stop thinking about the human. Every time Gem closed her eyes she saw the human in front of her, smiling at her. Maybe the human would be at the docks again, Gem's mind was screaming at her to go check.

But she had to refuse, it was stupid. She shouldn't care about the human, she shouldn't want to go towards it. The human was dangerous, it would capture her the second it got the change. It had been trying to capture her the first time they'd met. But whenever Gem thought about that the only thing her mind could think of was that smile.

The friendly smile the human had given her even though Gem had pulled her into the water. The human could have drowned all thanks to Gem, and yet she had smiled.

Gem gave up on sleeping and started swimming, her body subconsciously taking her to the docks even though she didn't want to be there. Gem looked around once she got there, nobody. Of course there would be nobody, had she wanted there to be someone? She didn't want to be seen by the humans.

She shouldn't be wanting to stay at the docks, it was too dangerous.

But her brain wasn't listening to reason and she stayed where she was. Watching the docks from underwater, waiting for the human to arrive. Not knowing why she even wanted the humon to come there.

She didn't know why she stayed, but she did. She waited and waited and waited, until she saw someone walk towards the docks. She hid beneath the docks, low in the water, hoping that the human wouldn't see her. Gem couldn't see the human anymore so she assumed that it was above her.

Gem swam up a little, checking if it was the human that she had seen the say before. To Gem's surprise it was, she hadn't actually expected the human to return. Now that it was light outside Gem could see her more clearly than she had been able to the day before.

The human was tall, although it might just look like that because she was above the water. She had long brown hair and Gem could see that she had sea blue eyes. The human was quite pretty, even if it was a human.

The human looked like she was alone, no others to try and capture Gem or all the other mer. That was a good thing at least. The human also looked empty handed, no nets, no knives, no nothing. Gem also counted that as a good thing. The human walked onto the docks and looked at the water, just staring at it. Gem wanted to come closer, to take a closer look but she was too scared to actually do so.

“Uhm hello, mer? Are you here?” the human asked, it looked like she was talking to the water. Gem could see that there was nobody at the place where Pearl was looking. Gem didn't answer, she was just watching the human.

The human sat down on the dock, a risky move if you asked Gem. Not that she wanted to drown the human, that obviously wasn't going to happen after what had happened the day before. But still, there were more mers in the water that wouldn't think twice about drowning a human.

Gem had heard other mers bragging about having pulled a human into the water. They would usually get scolded for interacting with the humans but they were proud nonetheless. If one of those mers saw Pearl sitting all alone on the docks, they'd pull her down into the water. Gem was sure of it.

But she wouldn't, she couldn't.

Gem instead swam up a bit, her head was now above the water. She could fully see the human now, but the human had her back turned towards Gem so she couldn't see her. The human suddenly stood up, Gem dived back under the water.

She watched the human from under the water, hoping that the human hadn't seen her.

But the human's eyes came towards the place where Gem had just been, she stared at the water. The human kneeled down, coming even closer to the water, and said “Hey? Uhm mer, I’m not here to hurt you. I wanna thank you" Gem didn't answer, it all felt like a trap.

A human thanking a mer, something like that didn't happen.

“You saved my life yesterday” The human continued, Gem didn't say anything. She had saved the human's life, but she had endangered her too. She had been the reason that the human had been in danger in the first place. She had been the one to pull the human into the water.

“And I also wanna apologize for my friend, he didn’t mean any harm. He just wanted to prove that mers exist” The human said. The human's friend, who had prevented Gem from getting away. The person who had dropped the net into the water in the first place.

He didn't mean any harm? Proving that mers exist would cause more harm than he could ever think of. The mers would be hunted, captured and killed if humans ever found out that they were real.

Gem swam up a little, making sure that she was still hiding from the human. “Humans can’t know that we exist, if you know what’s good for you you’ll just forget everything. Forget that we exist, return to the humans and don’t come back” she said trying to sound threatening, hoping that it would scare the human away.

The human laid down on the dock and looked beneath it, Gem noticed just in time and swam further under the water. “Wait! So you are real” The human exclaimed before saying “Please come back, I wanna know more”

Wait, she already knew that Gem was real right? She had seen Gem the day before, she had just been talking to her. Why was she surprised?

And she wants to know more? Gem couldn't tell her anything, she wasn't even supposed to talk to a human. She wasn't even supposed to be seen by a human, and now she had shown herself again. “We aren’t supposed to interact with humans” Gem said, hoping that the human would accept the answer and continue on with her life.

But that thought was proven wrong when the human said “I won’t tell anyone. “Come on, you have to be curious about humans too”

The human was right, Gem did want to know more about humans. They had always fascinated her, and now there was a chance of getting answers. But Gem wasn't allowed to talk to a human, it was dangerous.

Gem looked at the human, she didn't look dangerous. But that didn't mean anything, but on the other side Gem had saved this human's life. “Maybe" Gem ended up responding. She didn't really know what else to say, she didn't want to admit that she was interested in humans to this human.

The more she told the human, the more information that the human had to use against her.

“Show yourself please, I wanna know more about you and you wanna know more about me. We can ask each other questions, nobody has to know” The human said, she did have a point. No one had to know. But it could still very well be a trap.

“How do I know that you won’t hurt me? Don’t think that I don’t know what humans like you do to creatures like me” Gem asked, if the human could prove that she wouldn't hurt Gem then everything would be fine. “We can keep our distance, I will stay on the land and you stay in the water. We won’t be able to hurt each other that way” The human responded.

Gem thought about that for a few seconds, that couldn't hurt right? They would just talk for a little while, that would be fine. Nobody would know and nobody would get hurt, but Gem would still get the answers that she wanted.

"F-fine" She said, still not fully sure about this plan.

“Let’s go to a quieter place, we don’t want another human to run into you” The human said, at least she understood that Gem didn't want to be seen by other humans. “Can you come over there?” the human asked as she pointed at a little beach area.

Gem saw that the water was less high over there, but she would still be at a distance where the human wouldn't be able to hurt her. She would be able to swim away before the human could reach her. Gem nodded to the human and started swimming to the little beach area.

Gem swam to the place but stayed under the water, keeping her eyes on the little beach. The human appeared and looked down at the water, Gem swam up a little so that her head was visible “You promise not to hurt me?” she asked.

The human smiled and sat down on the sand "I won’t even get close to you” she said.

"Okay" Gem said as she swam closer to the human, her heart pounding in her chest as she got closer and closer. She stopped a little distance away from the human, but the human could now see her fully. “You’re beautiful” the human said suddenly.

It was the last thing Gem had expected to say and Gem felt her cheeks heat up from the compliment, the human covered her mouth with her hand. “T-thank you” Gem said softly. “I- sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I just- I’ve never seen a mer before” the human replied.

"I'm Pearl" The human said, introducing herself. “Pearl like a pearl from the sea, I’m Gem” Gem said, saying her thoughts out loud and introducing herself too. She liked the name Pearl.

“I- I have a lot of questions, how about we ask a question at a time. You ask one and then I ask one” The human said, Gem thought that it was a good idea. That way that would both get information. “Sounds great, what do you wanna know?” Gem asked.

The two of them talked for a little bit, learning more about each other. At one point Pearl asked Gem if there were other mers, but Gem didn't want to tell her anything about the rest. She didn't fully trust this human, they were only asking each other questions.

Luckily the human accepted Gem's answer and continued on with the question. The human had no problem telling Gem about the other humans, apparently there were a lot of other humans. It kinda scared Gem, but Pearl assured her that those humans wouldn't come to visit them.

They talked for a while but soon other humans started appearing and Gem had to start hiding again before any of them saw her. Gem and Pearl agreed to meet up again the next day, Gem didn't want to admit it but she was looking forward to it.

She liked learning about humans and Pearl had promised to bring Gem a human thing called a shirt.

Gem knew that it could still be a trap, but she didn't care. She wanted to learn more, she wanted to get to know Pearl better. Gem swam back to her house "Hey Gem, you were out early" one of Gem's friends, Scott, said as she passed him.

"Hello Scott, what are you talking about? I'm always up early. This is nothing new" Gem replied. She was always up and about early in the morning, this really wasn't something weird. The fact that she had always been an early riser really helped her today "Yeah but never this early, and you're never gone for this long" Scott said.

"Oh, I was just out exploring because I couldn't sleep. I wasn't paying attention to the time" Gem said, it wasn't really a lie. She was out and while she wasn't exactly exploring, she was asking questions about something that interested her.

"Sounds fun, was there a reason you couldn't sleep. Everything okay?" Scott asked, he was always a good friend. Always concerned about other people. "I'm fine, just having a bit too much to think about I guess. But I think that I will be able to sleep fine tonight"

She hoped that she would be able to sleep fine tonight at least, now that she knew that the human was fine.

"That's good" Scott said. Gem and Scott talked for a while, just chatting about random things. "You seem to be in a good mood" Scott said after a while. "I guess I am" Gem replied with a smile on her face.

It was exciting learning more over humans. She couldn't wait to learn more.

Gem and Scott parted ways after a while and Gem went swimming. She had a lot of energy all of a sudden, she swam through the lake in record speed. She didn't want to slow down so she didn't, she kept swimming until she was too tired.

She went back home and immediately went to bed. She was exhausted and couldn't wait for the next day, the sooner she would fall asleep, the sooner it would be the next day. Luckily for Gem it didn't take long before she fell asleep.

Chapter Text

The next day Pearl woke up early again, but for the first time ever she didn't mind. She basically jumped out of bed, quickly grabbed some different kinds of clothes for Gem and left to go back to the little beach. She drove there and looked around, luckily there was nobody around again.

Pearl hurried over to the little beach and looked around, it looked like she was there earlier then Gem. Pearl sat down on the sand, her eyes never leaving the water. As she waited there a thought came to her head, what if Gem didn't return?

Sitting there, thinking that made a huge wave of disappointment come over Pearl. But she didn't leave yet, Gem could just be running late. Every single sound that Pearl heard made her think that Gem had arrived, but when she would look towards where the sound had come from there was nothing there.

Until Gem did show up “Hi, did you bring them?” she immediately asked.

“Hello, I did” Pearl said, a big smile appeared on her face as she saw Gem. She quickly took the clothes that she had brought with her out of her backpack and showed them to Gem. “That’s so weird, do all humans have them?” Gem asked, looking at the few clothing items in awe.

Pearl nodded in response “And all humans wear them?” Pearl nodded again. It was weird to her that Gem found pants and shirts weird. To her they were completely normal, nothing to be amazed about.

“I also brought a shirt” She said as she grabbed the shirt out of her bag. “Do you wanna try it on?” She asked, realizing that unlike with the pants Gem would be able to put on a shirt. Gem nodded and Pearl threw the shirt over to her.

It landed in the water a small distance away from Gem, Gem swam towards, taking it in her hands and holding in front of her inspecting it closely. “How do I try it on?” Gem asked, Pearl laughed and started explaining how you put a shirt on. Gem succeeded and looked at the shirt she was now wearing.

She swam a little, a smile on her face. She swam to the deeper area where Pearl couldn’t see her tail anymore. With the shirt on Gem looked almost human, the only thing that reminded Pearl that she wasn’t a human was the sharp teeth and pointed ears.

Gem swam back towards Pearl “I wish I could give you something from under the sea… wait” Gem said, she went under water again and disappeared. Pearl did as she was told and waited, curious about what Gem was planning.

A few minutes later Gem returned with a flower in her hand, it looked like the flower that was in her hair. “It’s a water lily” Gem said as she swam even closer to the little beach and put it down on the sand. She went back to the water immediately after she had put the flower down.

Pearl calmly waited until Gem was at a safe distance again before she took the flower “It’s beautiful, thank you” Pearl said, inspecting it. The flower was almost completely white but had some pink lines along the bottom. It was the most beautiful flower Pearl had ever seen.

“You can put it in your hair or you can make a bracelet out of it, or even a crown. I have a friend who loves making flower crowns, she uses all kinds of flowers for them” Gem said, showing off her own flower jewelry as she spoke.

Pearl decided to put the flower behind her ear, she couldn’t help but smile.

“What’s living on land like?” Gem asked suddenly.

“Oh, uhm boring I guess. When you’re young you go to school and play outside but as you get older you start to get responsibilities. You have to get a job so you can pay for a house and so that you can pay for food” Pearl said, thinking about all the things that she was worried about.

“Pay for food? Can’t you just hunt for your food?” Gem asked, Pearl chuckled in response “No, no it’s not that easy for us. We go to a store and buy food there” Pearl explained, she doubted giving Gem a long history lesson about how humans used to haunt but decided against it.

“Humans are weird, hunting sounds way easier” Gem said, Pearl just nodded. She didn't want to hunt but the part about humans being weird, that part she agreed with “Yeah, that we are. What do you do in your free time? Are you just hunting the whole day?” Pearl asked, getting curious again.

She had asked like a million questions the day before but she still had hundreds more.

“No, I just hunt when I’m hungry” Gem answered “In my free time I usually go exploring or I hang out with my friends. What do you do in your free time?”

“Well I just moved so there are a lot of things I need to take care of in my new house, building stuff, getting to know the new town and the people living in there” Pearl said, trailing off. There were so many things that she still needed to take care of “You don’t sound happy about it” Gem noted.

“Oh, no I am happy. It’s just very stressful you know? Being all on my own for the first time and in a place that I don’t know. It’s a lot” Pearl responded with a sigh that turned into a smile. She liked the town, she really did. But the move brought a lot of stress with it.

“Mers don’t really live on their own, we all live really close to each other” Gem said. “That sounds nice” Pearl replied, her smile disappearing slightly. She started to wish that she was a mer too. Not having to work and living close to everyone she loved, it all sounded great.

“It is, but it can get kinda annoying too. It’s nice to get away from there every little once in a while” Gem said “I like this, I like talking with you. It’s nice”

Pearl got a smile on her face “I like this too, do you think we could keep hanging out? Not just to learn more about humans or mers, but to get to know each other” Pearl asked, she really wanted to become friends with Gem.

She hadn’t even minded getting out of bed early to visit Gem. She had only known Gem for twenty four hours, but she was already sure that they could become great friends. She wanted to become great friends with Gem.

“Yeah, as long as you don’t tell anyone about me” Gem said, she said it with a smile on her face but Pearl knew that she was being serious. She didn't exactly know what humans would do if they found out about Gem but she had her ideas.

She had seen enough movies to know what humans did to unknown creatures.

“Of course not, I promise” Pearl said, she reached out a hand to shake Gem’s. Gem swam closer to her and took her hand, for a second Pearl feared getting pulled into the water. But Gem just shook her hand and then let go again.

Gem swam back into the water, getting away from Pearl. Pearl knew that Gem didn’t trust her, but that was okay. She didn’t fully trust Gem either, she just knew that Gem wouldn’t let her drown.

Pearl smiled, “Is there anything else that you want me to bring from land?” She asked, Pearl could tell that Gem was curious about humans, Pearl wanted to teach her about everything she wanted to know.

“I don’t know, tell me more about humans” Gem said, Pearl thought for a little bit. She started telling Gem about her first few days in this town. She told Gem about the people, about the cafe and about the mysterious cabin.

Gem listened and every once in a while asked questions, it was nice.

When they were in conversation Pearl came up with a new subject. She was about to keep talking but quickly shut up when she noticed people arriving at the docks. Gem noticed too, hiding beneath the water just a bit more. Pearlquickly said goodbye to Gem again, and watched as Gem disappeared into the water completely.

Pearl stayed there for a little bit, watching the spot that Gem had disappeared in. It was hard to believe that this was real, that Pearl had just really talked with a mer. She kinda wished that she could have talked to Gem for longer, that there was a place to talk to Gem where they wouldn’t be seen.

Pearl returned home and decided to get some breakfast at Impulses cafe. She was hungry and not in the mood to make anything. She arrived and went to order “Hello Pearl, what can I get you?” Impulse asked, a big friendly smile on his face.

“Pancakes” Pearl decided as she looked at the menu, she deserved something delicious after the busy week that she had had. “Pancakes coming right up, anything else?” Impulse asked with as he wrote down Pearl's order.

“Nope, just pancakes” Pearl said, Impulse went into the kitchen and Pearl sat down at a table. It didn’t take too long before Impulse returned with her pancakes “How would you like to have your first shift tonight?” Impulse asked as he placed the food down in front of Pearl.

“That would be amazing” Pearl answered, the sooner she started making money the better. “Could you be here around five?” Impulse asked, Pearl didn't have any plans so she nodded and said “Yeah, I’ll be here”

When she was done eating she went back home and unpacked a few more boxes. She was almost fully unpacked now, most of her things already put away. She was done with most things and most of her furniture stood. Pearl was proud of herself for all the progress that she'd made.

The things that weren’t done by now, weren’t too important.

Before Pearl knew it, it was time to leave. She put her coat on and walked outside to the cafe. She used the side entrance to get in and Impulse immediately put her to work. “We’re gonna get the dinner rush in a little bit so everything needs to be ready for that” Impulse said.

Today Pearl was working with Impulse, Skizz and Joel. Impulse and Skizz were in the kitchen while Pearl and Joel would be in the front. Pearl would take orders and bring orders to the customers.

It looked like way too much work for four people, but Impulse assured Pearl that everything would be alright. He was right, everything would be alright. Pearl could do this, she didn't have a single idea what she was doing but she could do it. The first few customers started arriving and Pearl introduced herself and took their order.

Everything was going fine, until it wasn’t.

Pearl was running around the cafe, taking orders and giving customers their food. But she didn’t remember anything they said, she kept messing up orders. After a while she even started stumbling over her words.

It was eight when she was done, she walked into the kitchen defeated. She wanted to crawl into a hole and hide away forever. “Everyone's first day is a bit rough, you’ll you way better next time” Skizz encouraged her, patting her on the shoulder.

She thanked him and Impulse and then left. She needed some peace and quiet for a little while. Before Pearl realised what she was doing she had stepped into her car and driven to the docks.

Now she was sitting in her car overlooking the water from a distance. What was she even doing there? Pearl looked around her car and noticed a book that she had never gotten out of her car.

She took the book and walked to the little beach area, Gem most likely wouldn’t be there but it was a nice place to sit. She sat down on the cold sand and started reading in the dim light of the sun as it went down.

The book was quite interesting and before Pearl knew it she had forgotten all about her awful work experience. Pearl was so distracted by the book that she didn’t notice a certain mer appearing from the water.

“What are you reading?” Gem asked suddenly.

Pearl almost threw her book as she jumped up. “Oh Gem, Hi. Just a random book that I found in the back of my car” Pearl answered, she doubted that Gem would know any human books.

“I didn’t except to see you here” Pearl admitted, she hadn’t expected to see anyone here. “I like to come here when I want to be alone, I don't know why. It's just nice here” Gem answered, staring at the sun as it went down with a smile. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, taking in the warmth that the sun gave off.

“Oh, I can go if you want” Pearl said, already standing up “No” Gem said very fast, opening her eyes and turning back towards Pearl “You can stay. I- I uhm mean that it’s a public place, don’t walk away because I told you to. And besides that, you were here first”

“O-kay” Pearl said sitting back down, she was glad that Gem wasn’t sending her away. “Why did you want to be alone?” Pearl asked “Huh?” Gem responded. “You said that you like to come here to be alone, is there a reason that you want to be alone?” Pearl asked, she had wanted to be alone and there was definitely a good reason for that.

“Oh yeah, just my brothers being annoying I guess. They’re always so worried about me because I’m their little sister. But I can take care of myself, they need to understand that” Gem said, sounding frustrated. It sounded like siblings were the same underwater as they were on the land.

“That does sound annoying” Pearl replied, she didn't have any siblings herself but she could imagine how annoying it would be to have someone constantly being worried about them “Are your brothers much older then you?” She asked.

“Sausage is five years older than me, Fwhip and I are twins. But they always act like I’m still five” Gem said.

The two of them chatted for a bit, just talking about the things that annoyed them. It turned out that they could relate to each other a lot, at least about the things that annoyed them. They talked for a few hours and Pearl ended up venting about her work day.

Gem had laughed and told her that it would all be fine. Pearl should have been upset that Gem had laughed at her, but she wasn’t. Gem’s laugh even seemed to cheer Pearl up a bit.

When it got darker Pearl had to go back home, but Gem and Pearl had planned to meet up again soon. Pearl went home and changed into her pajamas, she had to take the flower out of her hair before she went to bed.

She put it on her nightstand and quickly fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Gem woke up and immediately got up from her bed, excitement filling her. She started swimming towards her door, ready to leave. But paused right in front of the door, noticing how dark it still was outside. It was still a bit early, would Pearl already be there? It wasn't likely

But Gem also didn't really think that she could go back to bed now. She could just go to the little beach and wait there for Pearl. Yeah, and then when Pearl would arrive Gem would be there waiting for her and they could start a conversation. Gem decided that she didn't care if she would have to wait and she left.

When Gem left her house she almost swam into someone else, Sausage. "Oh sorry… Gem? What are you doing up so early" Sausage asked, Gem got her bearings and looked back at him "I uhm- I could ask you the same question" She responded instead of answering.

"I asked you first" Sausage said, Gem got up in his face "Which is why you also get to answer first" she said, a grin on her face. "Fine, I couldn't sleep. Now, what's your excuse?" Sausage asked, Gem back off a little as she realized that it was now her time to answer.

She had hoped that she could come up with an excuse while Sausage explained what he was doing out so early, but his answer hadn't exactly been long. "I just uhm- hungry! I woke up really hungry so I decided to get a little snack, couldn't fall back asleep while my stomach kept making noises" Gem replied, coming up with an excuse right in time.

"Oh, well we could get some food together. Like the good old days" Sausage said, a smile on his face. "You mean the good old days where you and Fwhip wouldn't let me go out hunting alone?" Gem asked, for years she hadn't been allowed to go out on her own.

Maybe that was why she was so focused on exploring now.

"Exactly, come on what do you say?" Sausage asked, Gem nodded "Let's go" she said, she had never liked having to hunt with her brothers when she was younger. But now, she kinda missed it. Don't get her wrong she didn't want things to go back to the way they were back then, but she missed being with her brothers the whole day.

During their hunt Sausage told Gem more about the reason that he was awake. Apparently he had another nightmare that woke him up. Gem asked if Sausage wanted to talk about it, but he didn't want to. And so the two just hunted, when they had their food they ate together.

After that Gem told Sausage that she was going to try and go back to sleep. They said goodbye and Gem acted like she was swimming back to her house, but switched directions when she was out of Sausage's sight. It didn't take long before she arrived back at the little beach.

From the water Gem could already see Pearl waiting for her.

Gem swam higher so that Pearl could see her too "Hi, did you bring them?" Gem asked, not being able to wait any longer. Sausage had already slowed her down enough in her honest opinion. “Hello, I did” Pearl answered as she took something out of her backpack. The pants, Gem realised, they looked a bit weird when they weren't on a human's body.

“That’s so weird, all humans have them?” Gem asked curiously. Pearl nodded in response “And all humans wear them?” Pearl nodded again.

"I also brought you a shirt" Pearl said as she reached into her backpack again. She took something out of her bag and held it up for Gem “Do you wanna try it on?” Pearl asked, Gem could see that Pearl was also wearing a shirt and nodded.

Pearl threw the shirt into the water, it landed not too far away from Gem.

Gem swam a little closer to the shirt, ignoring the voice in her head telling her to not get too close, she just swam closer to the human. Pearl wouldn't hurt her, right? She picked up the shirt and inspected it. It was a plain white shirt but Gem couldn't be more excited.

She wanted it on like she was a human, but how did it work. The shirt had some holes, Gem could see that but “How do I try it on?” Gem asked, Pearl laughed but started explaining how you put a shirt on. Gem succeeded and looked at the shirt she was now wearing.

It was so human, it was so cool. Gem swam underwater a little, testing the shirt against the water pressure. The shirt was a bit big on her and floated around her as she swam, making Gem laugh. It was weird, but she liked it.

She came back to the surface and swam closer to Pearl again. She loved the shirt that Pearl had gifted her. Wait Pearl had given her something, she should give something back. But what, Gem started thinking about all the things that weren't on land as far as Gem had seen.

“I wish I could give you something from under the sea…" Maybe some coral or seashells "Wait” Gem said, coming up with the perfect thing to give to Pearl. Gem swam under water and swam as quickly as she could to the perfect place. She arrived at the little part of the lake covered in water lilies.

It was from under the sea but it was something that mers wore so it would be kinda like the human shirt that Pearl had given her.

She inspected all the lillies and chose the most beautiful one for Pearl.

Gem swam back, trying to hurry up. She made it back and swam even closer to the little beach, making sure that she could get away quickly if Pearl did decide to attack after all. “It’s a water lily” Gem said, she put it on the sand and swam to the deeper waters again.

Pearl took the flower and put it behind her ear, she smiled after she did so. It gave Gem a nice feeling, knowing that she liked it. The two of them talked about what it was like living under water and on land again. After a while Pearl noticed people arriving and she left, the two of them agreeing to meet up again soon.

Gem swam underwater, wishing that she didn't have to leave. She swam around for a little bit, bored out of her mind. But after a while she went back home, seeing if there was anything to do there.

She saw some of her friends around and went to them "Hey Jimmy, Scott" Gem said, the two of them turned to face her, a smile appearing on their faces "Hi Gem" Jimmy greeted her. "Hello Gem" Scott said at the same time.

Jimmy and Scott were two of Gem's best friends. Jimmy was a tall blonde man with a blue tail with some white at the bottom. Scott on the other hand had a very colorful tail, blue, gold, brown and white decorated his tail. He was tall too, but far from as tall as Jimmy.

"Do you two have any plans today? I'm bored" Gem said, hoping that she could hang out with Jimmy and Scott the whole day. Time usually went faster when she was around the two of them, the sooner time went the sooner Gem could see Pearl again.

"Yeah, we are going seahorse riding. It's going to be so much fun, you're free to join" Jimmy said, the smile on his face only growing. "You sure? I wouldn't want to be third wheeling on one of your dates" Gem said, teasing them.

Everyone could see that Jimmy liked Scott and by now it was pretty well-known that Scott also liked Jimmy. The only people who don't realise that the two of them like each other are the two of them. Gem liked to tease them about it, hoping that the two of them would just admit their feelings already.

It was obvious that they were made for each other, Gem wished that there was someone for her like that.

"We are not dating" Jimmy said "Then stop acting like you are" Gem said, she didn't want them to stop acting like they were in love. But if they weren't going to actually do anything about their feelings then they should stop acting like they had feelings for each other.

"Hey Gem, what are you wearing?" Scott suddenly asked

Gem looked Scott in the eyes, she knew that he was just trying to change the subject but it did work. She had completely forgotten that she was still wearing the shirt. "Oh it's called a shirt, it's a human thing. I uhm found it, it looks pretty cool right?" Gem asked, hoping that she sounded believable.

It wouldn't be that weird for her to have found the shirt. Humans often lost stuff and mer often found that stuff on the bottom of the sea. Usually the stuff was useless, but sometimes there were some valuable things among them.

She couldn't tell Jimmy or Scott about Pearl, they wouldn't understand. The two of them didn't care about humans, they just feared them. Gem did too, but she was also fascinated by them. It was a dangerous combination but Gem couldn't help it.

"Yeah, sure" Scott said with a fake smile, Gem looked over at Jimmy who was trying not to laugh. "Sorry Gem, it looks good" Jimmy said.

Gem took the shirt off "Let's just go seahorse riding" She said as she swam away, Jimmy and Scott followed her soon "Wait, sorry. We didn't mean to offend you, it just looks weird" Scott said, not trying to offend her? Jimmy was literally laughing at her.

"sure, sure" Gem said, she started swimming a bit faster.

It wasn't to get away from Jimmy or Scott, she knew that they were just joking around. She could take a joke, but she wanted to race the two of them. Gem looked behind her, smiling at the two of them.

The two of them saw her expressions and looked at each other before copying her expression and smiling. Scott began to swim even faster, the show-off. But Gem wasn't beaten that easily, she swam even faster, sticking out her tongue when she passed Scott.

Scott rolled his eyes as he tried to keep up with her, he was right behind her.

Gem could see the top of Scott's head from the corner of her eyes as he came closer and closer to her. But then out of nowhere he was pulled back, Jimmy shooting towards her. Gem realised what had happened, Jimmy had grabbed Scott's tail and used it to launch himself forward.

Jimmy smiled but Gem quickly passed him again, she swam faster and faster before she reached their imaginary finish line. She only looked back once she had fully crossed it, Scott was already back to being pretty close to her.

While Jimmy was far behind him, trying to keep up.

Scott reached the finish line "that's not fair, Jimmy pulled me back" He said as he tried to catch his breath. "There are no rules in racing, you know that" Gem said, the two of them waited for Jimmy. When Jimmy was about to reach the finish line Scott launched towards him.

Scott tackled Jimmy, pushing him to the bottom of the lake. He held him against the bottom "You made me lose, how dare you" Scott said, he tried to sound angry as he said it but through his laughter and the smile on his face it was clear that he wasn't actually angry.

"Oh please you can't stay mad at me and you know it" Jimmy replied, a smirk on his face. Gem swam towards the two "Now kiss" She said, she couldn't help it.

Scott and Jimmy blushed and Scott let Jimmy go and swam up a little, Gem just laughed "Now can we go seahorse riding?" She asked, giving Jimmy and Scott a change to make things less awkward. Jimmy smiled and swam off "Last one there is death seaweed"

Gem and Scott looked at each other for a second before swimming after Jimmy. They easily swam past him, smiling at him as they did. The three of them arrived at the place with the seahorses and led them towards them.

The seahorses came towards them and Gem, Jimmy and Scott put their arms around their necks and got dragged through the ocean by the seahorses. They rode there for a while until it was time to go, the three swam back home and said their goodbyes.

Gem went back home but was stopped by her brothers.

They were waiting for her by her front door, arms over each other and serious looks on her faces. "Gemini Tay, and where did you come from?" Fwhip asked, using her full name. Gem just rolled her eyes at him, she was about to answer when Sausage said.

"Did you go seahorse riding? You know that you're not allowed to do that" Sausage said, it was true seahorse riding wasn't exactly safe and that Gem's brothers had forbidden her from doing it. But she was her own person who could make her own decisions.

She didn't have to listen to her brothers if she didn't want to, and she definitely didn't want to listen to them about this. Besides that nothing had gone wrong, nothing ever went wrong.

"Why are you asking me if you already know the answer?" Gem asked.

"Why would you go seahorse riding? It's dangerous and you know it. We have told you not to do it" Sausage said, ignoring Gem's question. "It's fun, and Scott and Jimmy did it too. I don't see you two bothering them about it"

"It's dangerous, we can't say anything about Jimmy or Scott, those two aren't our sister. Come on Gem, we're just trying to look out for you" Fwhip answered. Gem knew that they just cared about her, but seahorse riding was not that dangerous.

There was no way that she would tell them that she was meeting up with a human. They would go absolutely crazy.

"Just let me do what I wanna do, what's the worst that can happen?" Gem asked, she was done with Fwhip and Sausage but they were blocking the way into her house.

"You could fall" Sausage replied. "fall into the water? I can swim better than the both of you, I'll be fine" Gem argued. "But-" Fwhip began saying but Gem was done with him. She swam away, swimming as fast as she could.

She didn't really know where to go, until she remembered a place where Sausage and Fwhip would never go. The docks, the place had humans so Sausage and Fwhip wouldn't come there. Gem could just go there, there would be peace and quiet there.

When she got there she saw a human on the little beach, she swam closer making sure to stay hidden. To her surprise the human was Pearl, Pearl had returned. “What are you reading?” Gem asked, making Pearl look up from her book and look at her instead. The two of them soon started a conversation.

It looked like they both had been looking for a place to get away from other people.

They talked for a while, it looked like they could relate on more fronts then Gem had originally thought. Eventually Pearl left, but Gem and her had had a good conversation while she was there. Gem also couldn't help but notice how Pearl was still wearing the flower Gem had given her in her hair.

Gem swam back to her house, Sausage and Fwhip seemed to be gone, she went inside. Fwhip and Sausage hadn't left, they had gone inside instead. Gem couldn't help but smile as she saw them asleep on her couch, they must have fallen asleep while waiting for her.

She knew that Sausage had been exhausted since she saw him that morning so she let them sleep and went to bed herself. It luckily didn't take long before she fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Two weeks had passed since the first time Pearl had met Gem and Pearl could confidently say that they had become friends. Pearl had visited Gem every day, never staying away for long. Every time they had to say goodbye they promised to meet up again the next day.

Whenever she talked to Gem it felt like life was easy, like all her problems just vanished.

Waking up early in the morning to speak with Gem, it was easy. Even though Pearl had never been a morning person. During the two weeks Pearl had gone back to work and was finally starting to understand the cafe a little. Every time she came she got out a little smarter than the last time. Skizz, Tango and Impulse helped her a lot.

Mistakes were still made but it was getting easier. Whenever something went wrong Skizz, Tango and Impulse would reassure her that she would get it eventually and that it wasn't a problem to mess something up every once in a while.

These pep talks that Pearl got from them were usually followed by some embarrassing story of when they themselves messed up. Those stories never failed to bring a smile to Pearl's face.

Joel tried to help too, even though he mostly just advised Pearl about stuff. Besides that he never started a conversation with her. When Pearl told Tango about this he told her that he just needed some time to warm up to her. But Pearl doubted it, she felt like Joel didn’t want anything to do with her.

And she couldn't really blame him for that.

Pearl wouldn’t like someone either if they had almost broken into their cabin the first time they had met. Pearl still didn’t like the cabin, she still wanted to take a look inside. But every time she walked by she just forced herself not to look at the cabin.

Out of sight out of mind.

Or well that is what Pearl hoped and what she kept telling herself. Even though the cabin was now out of her sight, it definitely wasn't out of her mind. It was weird, it looked like a normal cabin and it probably was a normal cabin. The only thing that made Pearl curious about it was Tango's story.

Pearl had grown closer to the other people in the town, she had befriended Mumbo, Grian and Scar. Grian had felt a bit guilty about being the reason that Pearl almost drowned, but Pearl had reassured him that it hadn’t been his fault and that she wasn’t angry at him.

How could she be angry at him? He was the reason she had met Gem.

At the moment Pearl was with Gem again, they were talking about flowers since Gem had a new flower crown on her head. Pearl had asked about it, apparently she had gotten it from one of her friends who was leaving for a little while.

Pearl didn’t understand where they were leaving too, the lake was big but not that big. But she didn’t say anything about it. She had no idea what things were like down there, for all she knew there was a secret tunnel that led to the other side of the world.

Even though Gem and Pearl had grown closer, Gem still wouldn't tell her about the other mers. She sometimes told stories about what they did under water, like sea horse riding. Pearl wished that she could do that once. But Gem didn't trust Pearl enough to tell her about secrets or about too many facts about the underwater world.

Pearl didn't mind, she liked talking with Gem no matter what they talked about.

But she on the other hand told Gem all about the human world. She told her about what things looked like, what the people were like, she told their names to her and she told Gem about all the drama that was going on on land. Even if it was just about Mumbo and Grian getting into another fight at their work, Gem seemed to like those human stories.

“Do you still have the flower that I gave you a few weeks ago?” Gem asked, Pearl did still have the flower. It had already died by now, but she had worn it for multiple days after Gem had given it to her.

“Yeah, but it died days ago” Pearl said, she had been sad about the fact that she couldn’t wear it anymore. But she wasn't about to wear a dead flower, even for her that would be weird.

“Oh just bring it back to me, I’ll fix it” Gem said, she looked genuine. Pearl didn’t know what she meant with that she could fix it but she said “Okay, sure, I’ll bring it next time”

They kept talking for a little while, Pearl was telling Gem another story about how Grian had dropped a whole box full of fish in the cafe during a delivery because he was too busy bickering with Mumbo. But eventually Pearl had to go home again.

The rest of the day Pearl spent working, she was proud to say that nothing went wrong this time.

She went back home and went to bed. The annoying thing about working in a cafe was that they closed really late. Pearl had wanted to visit Gem one more time but she was too tired. And so she just let herself fall asleep.

The next day she woke up and left to go to Gem again, it had become a little routine. She would wake up, visit Gem. And then when people started appearing on the docks she would leave and continue with her day like she wasn't friends with a magical creature.

Pearl remembered to bring the flower and left, she hadn’t had the heart to throw it away yet so it had just been laying on her nightstand. Pearl drove to the docks, her body knowing the way without her mind having to pay attention.

She arrived and walked to the beach area, knowing exactly where to stand to not be caught in a bush of thorns. She sat down and already saw Gem swimming towards her, a smile appeared on her face as she waved, Gem exactly waved back.

The two of them started talking until Gem eventually asked. “Hey, so how did work go yesterday?”

“Great, I didn’t mess up a single order. I really think that I’m starting to get the hang of things” Pearl answered, she was proud of herself. At first she thought that she would never understand the cafe, never understand how people could remember so many orders at once but now she was starting to understand. Gem smiled “Told you so, did you bring the flower by the way?”

“I did, but I don’t really understand why you wanted me to bring it with me. It's dead” Pearl said, holding the flower out in the palm of her hands. Gem swam closer to the beach and took it out of Pearl's outstretched hand. “It’s my ability” Gem said, she took the flower and covered it with her hands.

A light came from Gem's hands "What are-" Pearl started but then something happened and Pearl couldn’t believe her eyes. When Gem opened her hands again the flower looked like it had just come out of the ground. Gem handed it back to Pearl with a smile.

Pearl took it, speechless.

The flower was back to the way it was when Pearl had first gotten it. No longer was it a brown crumpled up flower.“I- You, how did you just do that?” Pearl asked, shocked. “It’s my ability” Gem said, like that explained anything. “What do you mean ability?” Pear asked, looking back at Gem.

“Do humans not have abilities?” Gem asked, confused. Pearl just shook her head as she looked back at the flower in her hand. “Oh mer’s get an ability when they grow up, you never know when it’s gonna show up. One day you just wake up and you’re able to do something magical”

“All mer’s can do that?” Pearl asked, still shocked.

“No, we all have different abilities. Or well most of us do, I can make plants grow and bring them back to live when they die. But I also have a friend who can freeze things and I have a friend who can speak with sea creatures” Gem explained.

“That sounds amazing” Pearl exclaimed, she wished that she had some kind of magical ability.

“It’s pretty cool, I just wish that I had a cooler power. Like talking to other sea creatures sounds so much cooler than just being able to make decorations” Gem said, her hand going up to one of the flowers in Gem's hair. Now it made sense how she always had those same flowers in her hair.

They would never die.

“It’s better than what I can do, which is nothing” Pearl said, she only wanted to be a mer more now. She wanted to have a cool ability, she wanted to swim around with Gem all day under water and explore the sea world. “I wish I was a mer”

“Well I wish that I was a human, I wish that I could explore the lands of the humans. It looks so much cooler than under water” Gem replied.

The two of them talked for a little bit, trying to convince the other why their worlds were more boring. "Your world has better food" "You don't have to work in your world" "You don't have to stay hidden" "You have magic" Unfortunately they had to stop when people started appearing again, the mornings with Gem were always short. Pearl wished she could stay longer, but she couldn’t risk Gem getting seen.

Another reason that Pearl wanted to be a mer, so that she could talk with Gem the whole day. So that they weren't limited to the times that the beach was empty. The two of them said goodbye and left, both going back to their own worlds.

She drove back home and watched some tv while eating breakfast. Today was Pearl’s day off and she was going to use it to relax. But of course it didn’t take long before Pearl’s quiet morning was disturbed by a knock on the door.

Pearl stood up and opened the door, Skizz and Tango were in front of her door. “Hey Pearliepop! It’s dippledops birthday so we’re celebrating tonight at six in the cafe, Wanna come?” Skizz asked, boxes with all kinds of decorations in his arms.

So that’s a no for a relaxing day “Of course I wanna come, but I don’t know what I could get him” Pearl said, she had only known Impulse for three weeks she didn’t know what he wanted for his birthday.

“You don’t have to bring anything, Impulse doesn’t want any gifts. We asked him what he wanted and he said that he just wanted to be with his friends” Tango replied, acting like it was the craziest thing ever to not want gifts (he was right) “That is such a dad answer” Pearl responded with a chuckle.

“Yeah, but it’s an easy gift to get. Just make sure that you show up, okay?” Tango asked. Pearl smiled “I’ll be there” she assured the men.

“Good, we’ll see you there. You better not be late, that’s Grian’s thing” Skizz said with a smirk on his face "And we really don't need another Grian" he added. “Oh I remember” Pearl said, she thought back to the time she had planned to meet with him. He had arrived twenty minutes late.

Pearl hadn't minded it too much, she didn't have anything else to do that day. But a warning would have been late. When Grian had eventually arrived he had told her that everyone always tells him to show up at least half an hour before they actually wanted to meet up. Pearl decided that she would be doing that as well from now on.

Skizz and Tango left and Pearl went back to her soft couch.

She had been waking up early and going to bed late the past few weeks and it was catching up to her. With the sound of her tv in the background Pearl fell asleep.

Pearl woke up hours later, she took a shower to wake herself up and got ready for the party. It was still early but she didn’t really have anything else to do, it was weird.

The past two weeks there had always been something for her to do, but right now she didn’t have anything that needed to be done. Everything that needed to be done, was done.

Pearl just ended up watching tv until it was time to go. Time passed quickly and soon it was time to leave. Pearl left her house and walked towards the cafe. She walked inside and saw a lot of people that she didn't know inside.

The cafe was beautifully decorated with balloons, flags and a banner that said "Happy birthday Impulse". Tango and Skizz had done a great job decorating.

Pearl noticed none other than the birthday boy himself, Impulse, walking towards her “Pearl! I’m so glad that you could make it” He said as he wrapped his arms around her. Pearl hugged him back “Hello! Happy birthday” she said with a smile on her face.

“Thank you” Impulse said, they chatted for a little bit until Impulse walked away to greet some other guests. Leaving Pearl alone to wander around, she walked around the room, searching for someone she knew. In a corner Pearl saw Skizz and Tango talking to Joel and a pink haired lady.

Pearl walked up to them, she knew three of them so it would be fine.

“Pearl, are you enjoying yourself?” Tango asked as he saw her approach. “Yeah it’s a great party” She said, she wasn’t really enjoying herself. She had spent most of the time that she was there searching for people she knew.

Not that she was going to tell him that of course.

“You’ve met Joel already, this is his wife Lizzie” Tango said, so the pink haired lady was Joel’s wife that Pearl had heard so much about. “Hello, I’m Pearl” Pearl said as she extended her hand for Lizzie to shake. Lizzie smiled and shook her hand.

“I heard that you work here now, I hope that Joel isn’t giving you too much trouble” Lizzie said, nuching her husband a bit “No, he’s being really helpful” Pearl answered, it wasn’t a lie. Joel had helped her a few times while they were working.

Lizzie looked at Joel “What I am being helpful, she said it herself” Joel protested. “Sure sure, I didn’t say anything” Lizzie responded with a smile. “Well I will have you know, I’m a delight” Joel said, making Pearl laugh.

She didn’t mean to laugh, it just slipped out.

Tango, Skizz, Lizzie and Joel were all looking at her before they burst out in laughter. All of them except Joel “When was I not a delight?” He asked, his arms crossed over each other.

“When I bumped into that one table and spilled all the food over myself and you just laughed” Pearl answered. Right now she could laugh about it too, but that day had been awful and she had not appreciated the laughter. “You have to admit that it was funny” Joel answered with laugh as if he was imagining the incident.

“You dropped a plate of food over yourself?” Lizzie asked, still laughing.

“Maybe, it was my first week okay” Pearl defended herself. She still couldn’t believe that she had done it herself, it had been such a stupid action. But that wasn’t the worst part about it, the guests around her had tried to help her.

While Joel had just stood there and laughed at her.

Impulse had scolded him afterwards, after he was done laughing at her too at least. Joel had to do all the cleaning alone that night while Pearl could go home and change clothes. Impulse luckily hadn’t been angry at her.

Pearl kept talking with Skizz, Tango, Joel and Lizzie for the rest of the night. She actually ended up having a pretty great night. When the party was over she walked back home with Skizz, Tango, Lizzie and Joel.

Lizzie and Joel’s house was the closest to the cafe, this meant that Pearl walked home with Skizz and Tango for the most part. They chatted until they got home, they said their goodbyes and walked inside.

Pearl changed out of her normal clothes and put her pajamas on before going to bed. She had been asleep for most of the day, but she was somehow tired again. Her head hit the pillow and she fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Gem woke up and swam into her living room, she saw her two brothers still there from when they visited her the day before. The three of them had had a little game night, they used to have them all the time when they were little and they never stopped.

Sometimes there was no game night for a little while because her brothers were busy people. But every once in a while they would see each other around and the topic would come up again. That conversation usually led up to pricking a date to have that game night.

Every time when Fwhip and Sausage would go home they would say "We should do this again soon" and then they would wait another few months before doing it again. But every single time that they did have time for it it would feel like they were little kids again.

After the games Fwhip and Sausage had decided to stay over, Gem had been fine with it. When Gem walked out of her bedroom she saw that the two of them were making breakfast, or well Fwhip was making breakfast. Sausage was sitting on a counter in the kitchen talking about something to Fhwip.

In the past few weeks they had been getting more and more suspicious of Gem's behaviour. Gem had left her house every morning to go visit Pearl, it didn't go unnoticed by her brothers. But Gem and Pearl had grown a lot closer and Gem couldn't tell her brothers about her.

In the last few weeks they had even become friends, it was weird and it was never something Gem thought would happen. A mer and a human, friends. She had never heard of that happening and yet, here she was being friends with one.

Her brothers had been asking about her disappearances a lot, Gem had just made up excuses every time they asked. She soon ran out of excuses though, forced to keep repeating some. This also didn't go unnoticed by Fwhip and Sausage, it only worried them more. But there was no way that Gem could tell them about Pearl.

The two of them were overreacting anyway. They kept treating her as if she were child, Gem knew that they were just worried but it was still annoying.

"I'm sorry if we're being annoying, but we just want you to be safe. I hope you know that" Sausage said as if he had been reading her mind. Gem let out a sigh, he could be sweet from time to time but that didn;t mean that he and Fwhip weren't overdoing the overprotective brother act.

"I know, but you can dim it down a little. I'm not a child and you can't treat me as if I am" Gem said, hoping that her brothers would finally listen to her and see reason. "We know that you're not a child, but that doesn't mean that you don't need protection" Sausage said.

That stupid excuse again, she didn't need protection from anything. She could look out for herself. And besides that there wasn't anything in the lake that could really harm Gem. What was the worst that could happen? She was stronger than almost every sea creature that lived there.

The most dangerous thing for mers were the humans and Gem wasn't doing a very good job at avoiding those. She was avoiding the dangerous ones at least. But Fwhip and Sausage couldn't know about that anyway.

"Yeah but I don't need protection from things like sea horse riding" Gem said, she knew that Sausage and Fwhip wouldn't stop worrying about her, it was their job to worry, they liked to say. But Gem needed them to let her live a little. She really needed her freedom.

"Fine, we'll try to dim it down a little. But just know that we'll always be there if you need us" Fwhip said from the kitchen. Gem looked at Sausage "Fine, fine, we'll try to dim it down a little"

The three of them started talking about something else until breakfast was served, fish,as always. "Gem, are you going to Lizzie's today?" Fwhip asked while they were eating. "Yeah, I will" Gem answered, cleaning some of the bones from the fishes away.

"Tell her that I wish her a good trip" Fwhip said, Gem nodded "I will" she replied. "Where is she going?" Sausage asked, he didn't know Lizzie that well so he didn't know that much about her. "She's going exploring again, but she won't tell us any details. She doesn't even know how long she'll be gone this time" Gem explained.

Lizzie was one of Gem's friends, Lizzie liked exploring things. She would often go away exploring, she would often stay away for a pretty long time. Everytime she came back she had the most insane stories, and sometimes she brought some amazing gifts.

But she never told anyone where she was going, or well nobody except for her family. They knew, Gem had asked them about where Lizzie was going but they had never answered Gem. Gem had also asked Lizzie if she could with her, but her brothers had shut that thought off before Lizzie had even been able to answer.

"Sounds exciting, tell her that I wish her a good trip too" Sausage replied, he always told Gem that they had everything they needed where they were. There was no reason to go into the dangerous unknown, he'd say. But they just didn't understand it.

Gem didn't understand how they didn't want to go out exploring.

"You could always come with me to say goodbye to her, Jimmy, Scott, Katherine and some others will also be there too" Gem said, Sausage didn't know Lizzie that well but he still kinda knew her. Maybe if he got to know her better she could reassure him that everything was fine while she went exploring and that there were no dangers.

"Nah, I have some stuff to do" Sausage said, he finished his fish and left, apparently not having realized how long it had been. "See you soon" Sausage said before closing the door behind him. "Fwhip?" Gem asked, hoping that he would come with her. "Sorry, I'm busy too" Fwhip said.

Gem and Fwhip talked for a little bit until Gem had to leave to go to Lizzie's. When she arrived at Lizzie's she was giving a flower crown that Lizzie had made. Lizzie loved making flower crowns, it was how Lizzie and Gem had met.

Lizzie had been making a flower crown, she told Gem about how all the flowers on her last flower crown had died. Gem had asked to see the flower crown, Lizzie had shown it to her and Gem had brought the flowers back to live.

She had made new flowers grow for Lizzie in their next few years as friends. They made a pretty good team. Lizzie had never gotten her mer ability, she had always been a bit jealous of Gem's powers. But Gem was always happy to help Lizzie make a flower crown.

It was weird for a mer to not have a mer ability, but apparently it was possible. Gem had never met another mer that didn't have an ability, nor had she ever heard about someone without one. It was weird, and Gem felt some pity for her but it wasn't much that she could do about it.

Gem had stayed with Lizzie for a little bit and waved as she swam away, going on another adventure. Gem was jealous of her because of that, she would love to go on adventures every few days. Gem swam to the docks after that, hoping to see Pearl there.

Pearl was there, sitting on the little beach. Gem smiled and swam closer to her, revealing herself. "Hello Pearl" Gem said, greeting Pearl. She saw a smile appear on Pearl's face too "Gem! Hi, how are you today?" Pearl asked.

"Good, my brothers stayed over at my place last night. They're gonna try to not be so worried about me the whole time" Gem said before asking "How are you?"

"I'm fine. Nice that your brothers are seeing that they are being annoying" Pearl said, the two of them talked a bit about the stupid things that Gem's brothers had done. But after a while Pearl said "I like your flower crown, did you make it yourself?"

"Thank you, one of my friends made it. She is going away for a little while, she made one for all of her friends. She loved making flower crowns, if she gives you a flower crown it means that you're her friend" Gem explained, showing the flower crown off.

"Do mers make a lot of flower crowns?" Pearl asked.

The two of them had asked all the questions that they could think of already, but every once in a while they got a new question. They learned something new about the species of the other every single day.

"We do, some more than others though. Do humans not make flower crowns?" Gem asked, a world without flower crowns sounded very sad to her. "We do, or well most humans do when they are children. But we stop once we become older" Pearl explained, a sad look on her face.

“Do you still have the flower that I gave you a few weeks ago?” Gem asked, she noticed that Pearl wasn't wearing it anymore. Pearl had worn it for a week straight after Gem had given it to her. Maybe Pearl lost it, maybe a new flower would cheer her up.

“Yeah, but it died days ago” Pearl said. Gem could fix that “Oh just bring it back to me, I’ll fix it” Gem said with a smile on her face. Pearl looked at her with a look of confusion but said “Okay, I’ll bring it next time”

The two of them talked for a little while afterwards but eventually Pearl had to leave. Gem went back home and hung out with Scott for the rest of the day, the two were making up theories about where Lizzie would go when she went on her adventures.

When it turned evening Gem swam to the little beach, she sat there for a while hoping that Pearl would show up. She had gone to the little beach pretty often the last few weeks, most times she would just hope that Pearl would come.

Pearl rarely came to visit Gem in the evenings, but the waiting was worth it when she did show up.

This evening Pearl didn't show up, Gem went back home and went to bed. The next morning she went back to the little beach, she saw Pearl walking towards her and started swimming faster. Pearl waved so Gem waved back as she swam.

They talked for a little while until the subject of the flower came up, Pearl handed the flower that Gem had given her back to Gem. Gem made it come to live again using her powers, Pearl looked stunned. Apparently humans didn't have abilities like mers did.

Gem explained to Pearl that every mer had an ability and that her own ability was growing flowers and bringing flowers back to live. Pearl seemed to think that it was really cool, Gem didn't really see it that way.

Sure her power was cool, but Scott could literally freeze water and Jimmy could talk to sea creatures. Their powers were way cooler than Gem's power. Gem's power was useless, mostly while they were underwater.

Pearl left after a while, people started showing up once again. Gem hated it when Pearl had to leave, she hated it when other people would show up to the docks. She knew that she couldn't stop them from coming and she knew that it wasn't safe to show herself to them.

But sometimes she just wished that it was safe for her, that she could talk with Pearl during the day. Gem swam back home and started looking for something to do, Pearl had told Gem that she had a job. Pearl had to do work to make money with which she would buy stuff like food.

It sounded ridiculous to Gem, but she was just bored most days.

She ended up hanging out with Jimmy for a while, he was making sure that the sea turtles were taking care of. Gem started helping him, Jimmy had always been good with animals. When his ability appeared he only got closer to the animals.

He loved taking care of them and Gem loved cuddling with them. Sometimes Jimmy let Gem name a sea creature, Gem had named one of the turtles after Pearl. She didn't know why she did it, but when no one was around she would refer to the sea turtle as underwater Pearl.

Gem had an above water Pearl and an underwater Pearl, she absolutely loved both.

Gem mostly stayed with Jimmy the rest of the day, she also hung out with underwater Pearl for a little bit. "Hey, why did you call her Pearl?" Jimmy asked after a while, Gem froze for a few seconds.

"I- uhm- It was just a name that came up in me" Gem answered, it was a lie but she wasn't about to tell Jimmy that she had named the sea turtle after a human friend of hers. "Why did you name one of your sea turtle snowflake?" Gem asked him in return, knowing that the answer was because of Scott.

"Look at him, he looks like a snowflake" Jimmy said, pointing at the sea turtle. Gem looked at it "It looks like a sea turtle, it's green and brown. It doesn't look like a snowflake in any way" Gem said, looking at Jimmy with a smirk on her face.

"Yeah well, the name just fits okay? Your turtle doesn't look like a Pearl either does it now? It's not round or shiny" Jimmy asked, his response made Gem laugh a little. It was so obvious that he was in love with Scott that it was becoming painful.

"Pearl is still a better name for a turtle than snowflake is" Gem argued.

"That is your opinion" Jimmy said as he crossed his arms and looked away from Gem. The action only made Gem laugh louder. Later the two of them went hunting for their dinner together, when they had eaten they had gone back home since it was already getting dark.

The lake wasn't a good place to be when it was completely dark. In the place where Gem lived there at least were some sea lanterns that would light up the place. But outside of that, it would be next to impossible to see anything, especially if you were as deep underwater as they were.

If you would swim up a little the moon would light up the place. It was a light source that Gem had been using a lot ever since she was meeting up with Pearl.

Gem had asked every mer that they came across if Pearl was a better name for a sea turtle then Snowflake. Most people agreed with her, Pearl was the better name. Gem celebrated while Jimmy tried to come up with an excuse for why he had named the sea turtle snowflake.

"It's just a cute name, okay?" he asked, Gem smiled "Yeah, it is" It is a very cute pet name for Scott. Gem would love to see Scott's reaction to hearing the name for the first time. She and Jimmy said goodbye after a while and Gem went home and to bed.

She stayed awake a little while, thinking about Pearl.

Human Pearl, not sea turtle Pearl. Why had she named the turtle Pearl, it had probably just been because she had that name in mind. She was thinking about Pearl a lot lately, she actually could barely stop thinking about Pearl most of the time.

It was weird, but not bad.

Chapter Text

The next day Pearl woke up early again, just like she did every day. It was like her brain was telling her body "This is a perfect time to wake up so that we can go see Gem" and that her body actually listened to her brain. It seemed like Pearl woke up at the perfect time every single day.

After getting ready she got into her car and drove to the little beach where Gem would hopefully be waiting for her. Arriving Pearl looked around the beach and soon Gem appeared from out of the water. The two of them talked for about an hour about sea turtles until people started arriving again. They said goodbye and Pearl went back home. She had to hurry a little as she had to work in the morning.

She got home, made breakfast and ate it while she walked to the cafe.

When she got there she got to work immediately, by now she knew what to do. No mistakes were made and for a few seconds Pear actually believed that she was getting better. After a little while Joel and Lizzie came in with Grian and Tango. The four of them took a seat and called Pearl over “Waiter, we would like to order” Joel said with a smirk on his face.

“What would you like?” Pearl asked, doing her job and ignoring Joel’s smirk. “What do you have?” Joel asked. “Joel you know what we have, you work here” Pearl responded, she knew for a fact that Joel knew every single dish on the menu. The man had bragged about only about a thousand times.

Joel put a hand over his heart and gasped, acting dramatic “I am a customer, when a customer asks you what is on the menu, you tell them what’s on the menu. Don’t make me ask for the manager” Joel said, Lizzie, Grian and Tango started giggling.

“We would just like some burgers with fries, please” Lizzie said, luckily getting Pearl out of her misery. Pearl smiled at her “It will be right up” she said, she walked to the kitchen and told Impulse the order. After that she walked to the front again and continued working.

Luckily it was a calm day, only a few tables were filled. Impulse had somehow predicted this, it seemed like the man always knew how many people they were going to need that day. Pearl was getting orders that day and bringing the orders around.

After a while the food for Joel, Lizzie, Tango and Grian was done and Pearl served it to them. “You took your sweet time” Tango fake complained, a look of annoyance on his face but a smile shining through. “Keep complaining and I’ll actually take my time” Pearl replied, a smirk on her face.

She placed the food on the table and asked “Anything else gentle- men and women?”

“Yes, our water is up. Could we get some fresh, new, cold water?” Grian asked. “I will make sure that it is the freshest, newest, coldest water there is” Pearl replied, taking the watercan from the table "And add some ice cubes so that the water stays cold" Grian said, sounding as if he would die without the ice cubes.

“Good and hurry up a little” Tango said, clapping in his hands "Chop, chop"

Pearl laughed and walked back into the kitchen with their empty watering can. She filled it with water and some ice cubes as requested. It now definitely was the freshed, newest, coldest water that the restaurant had to offer at least. She returned to the front and brought the water to their table.

As she walked up to their table she heard that Grian was telling them a story. Or well that is what Pearl thought what was happening, Grian was moving his arms around like crazy. Pearl couldn’t really hear what Grian was talking about but it looked interesting.

Pearl walked closer, catching a few words from his story "And I swear that I saw a human head AND tale" he said, it sounded like he was telling the mer story again. He had been telling that story to a lot of people, it had worried Pearl a little at the beginning. But once it was clear that nobody believed him she relaxed a little.

Pearl kneeled a little and was about to place the water can down but Grian made a sudden movement towards her with his arms, hitting her in the process. Pearl lost her grip on the water can and it fell, splashing water all over Lizzie who had been sitting next to Grian.

She had hoped that nothing bad would happen today, that she wouldn't mess up. But she did, of course she did. But this time instead of spilling food all over herself, she had spilled water all over a customer. That was so much worse.

“Oh my god, I am so sorry” Pearl said, noticing what had happened. She felt awful, she had already made a bad first impression on Joel by trying to break into his cabin. And now she had spilled water all over his wife.

And Lizzie, Pearl had only met her the day before. She had wanted to make a good first impression on Lizzie after what had happened with Joel, she thought that she did a good job. But now this happened, probably ruining all her chances of befriending either one of them.

Lizzie looked over at Joel and quickly stood up, she then ran to the restroom. Joel started to follow her, making Grian, Tango and Pearl also follow her. Joel stopped following her, the rest stopping behind him as they had been following him “She uhm isn’t wearing water proof make up I guess” Joel said, turning back around.

“We can just go ahead and eat while we wait for her to come out” Joel said as he sat back down at their table. “Are you sure that she’s okay? She looked genuinely panicked” Grian asked, sending glances towards the bathroom.

“Yeah, yeah it was just water after all. Speaking about water, Pearl out water can is empty again” Joel continued, eyeing the watercan that was on the floor. Pearl rolled her eyes and picked the water can up from the floor, she was glad that it hadn’t broken.

“I’ll get you some new water” Pearl said, she walked away and filled the can again. Bringing some towels with her to clean the wet floor. She walked back to their table and set the can down, carefully this time. Then she got on her knees and started drying the floor.

To her surprise Tango kneeled down next to her and started helping her. “Tango, you don’t have to help, you’re a customer,” Pearl said. She didn’t want him to clean up after her mistake, not even if he had been working.

“I’m not letting you clean this place alone, it wasn’t your fault that the can fell” Tango said, a smile on his face. When they were done and the floor and chair and table was clean again Pearl got back up and brought the now wet towels away. She walked past the restroom on her way to the trashcan.

As she passed she looked at the door before she looked back at the table. Lizzie should have returned by now right? But when Pearl looked back at the table she just saw the three men there, meaning that Lizzie was still in there. Guilt hit Pearl again, she threw the towels away and decided to check up on Lizzie.

Pearl walked to the restroom and tried to open it, but the door wouldn’t budge.

“Lizzie, are you okay?” Pearl asked through the closed door.

“Uh yeah, I’m fine. Just give me a minute” Lizzie responded, sounding stressed. Had Pearl ruined something? She really hoped not “Are you sure? Do I need to get you something?” Pearl asked, trying to find a way, any way to help. “N-no I’m good” Lizzie answered, but it didn’t sound like she was good.

“Are you coming out soon Lizzie?” Grian, who was now standing next to Pearl, asked. Pearl didn’t know when he had appeared at her side, but he was there now. “Yup, just give me a minute”

“What’s wrong?” Grian asked.

“Nothing, just my makeup got ruined a bit. I’m just trying to fix it” Lizzie replied. “Just come out, it doesn’t matter that your makeup is ruined. Just come eat your burger before it gets cold” Grian said, getting a bit impatient. Pearl didn't really know what to think about it, she wanted to help Lizzie but she didn't want to annoy her.

“Nope, I really need to fix this” Lizzie said.

“Come on” Grian said, he was about to turn the handle to the restroom but Pearl stopped him “I’ll check on her” Pearl said, she expected Grian to walk back to the table but he didn’t. “Okay, go in there then” he said, crossing his arms over each other.

“fine” Pearl said, she turned the handle and opened the door. In all honesty she had expected the door to not open just like it had done before. But the door opened without a problem, allowing Pearl to walk in. she had to cover her mouth to keep herself from gasping at what she saw inside. Lizzie was laying on the floor, but her legs were gone instead there was a long mer tail.

Her tail was some different shades of blue with some white mixed into it. It was beautiful and it made Pearl pause for a second as she took in the sight. Lizzie had pointed ears, sharp teeth and webbed hands.

Lizzie was a mer.

“You- uhm- She’s fine Grian, but she’s definitely gonna need some new mascara. Could you get some from my purse in the employees only room?” Pearl asked, trying to get Grian away. “Uhm sure” Grian answered, a few seconds later when Pearl was sure that he was gone she started talking again.

“What? How are you human but you’re not human” Pearl asked, not really knowing what to say. Lizzie had had legs, she had been a human. But looking at her now Pearl knew that Lizzie was in fact not a human. “I turn into a mer when I get wet, just help me, please. I’ll explain later”

Pearl got some towels and helped Lizzie get dry “Is this your mer ability?” Pearl asked, Gem had told her about how mers had abilities. Gem was able to make flowers grow and she was able to bring them back from the dead. Could turning into a human be a mer ability too?

Gem hadn't told her much about mer abilities, Pearl had no idea what the limits were for those powers. Someone could freeze things, someone could talk to sea creatures. Were there any limits to the abilities?

“How do you know about that?” Lizzie asked, stopping what she was doing to look over at Pearl.

“I- I have a friend who’s a mer, she told me about it. I won’t tell anyone, I promise” Pearl said, she couldn't believe this. “Who knows about you being a mer?” Pearl asked, it didn’t look like Grian knew since Lizzie wanted him gone.

Joel probably knew, he had made everyone sit back down when they had wanted to follow Lizzie. Did Tango know? Or Skizz? Pearl didn’t know who else Lizzie really hung out with. Were there other mers that could turn into humans? Were there others in this town?

“Only Joel knows, hurry Grian will be back soon” Lizzie said, she was clearly panicked. Pearl understood why she was panicked but she had had a plan “No he won’t, I didn’t bring a purse. He’s gonna be looking for that thing for a while” Pearl replied, she was trying to think about everything else she knew about mers.

Pearl eyes fell onto Lizzie’s gills, and a horrifying thought came to her. Could Lizzie even breathe here? Pearl remembered asking Gem if she could breathe out of the water. Gem had told her that mer’s could breath out of the water for a bit, but they would have to return to the water eventually.

But she had never said how long a little bit actually was. Could i t be minutes? Could Lizzie be running out of time? There was no place here that Lizzie would be able to breathe in, there were no big containers of water.

“Can you breathe on land, Lizzie?” Pearl asked, starting to panic. How long could Lizzie stay on the land in her mer form before she ran out of oxygen?

“I don’t know, a little while. But we’re good as long as I can turn back into a human” Lizzie said. After a while of aggressively rubbing the towel over her she dried up and her tail turned back into legs, her ears turning round and her hands turned back into human hands.

Lizzie stood up and looked into the mirror before turning to Pearl “Please don’t tell anyone about this, I’ll explain later. But if you are friends with a mer like you say you are, you have to know how dangerous it is for a mer to be discovered by a human” Lizzie said.

“Of course, I promise you I won’t tell anyone” Pearl said, Lizzie looked into her eyes for a couple of seconds before nodding and leaving. Pearl went out too and continued working, trying to not think about what had just happened. Trying to not look at Lizzie the whole time.

“Lizzie you’re back, sorry I couldn’t find Pearl’s bag” Pearl heard Grian say as he sat back down at the table. “That’s okay, as you can see I managed to fix my makeup” Lizzie responded, a smile on her face as she spoke. Acting like nothing had happened.

“Girls and their makeup” Joel said while rolling his eyes.

“And yet you spend more time than me getting ready in the morning” Lizzie responded, taking a bite from her burger. Pearl walked around the cafe, away from their table, so she didn’t hear any more of their conversation.

The group left when they were done eating, they left. Lizzie looked at Pearl one more time before walking through the door, Pearl gave her a reassuring smile. She wouldn’t tell anyone Lizzie’s secret.

The next of the day seemed to move slower than ever. Pearl only had to work for a few more hours but those hours felt like forever. Every minute she would look at the clock until she was finally done, she left almost immediately and walked to Joel and Lizzie’s house. Lizzie told her that she would explain, Pearl couldn’t wait for an explanation.

Pearl knew thanks to Gem that it was rare for a mer to interact with a human. Gem didn’t know anything about humans, meanwhile Lizzie was here as a mer living among the humans and even being married to a human.

She knocked on the door, hoping that Lizzie would be the one to answer the door. Pearl was lucky, Lizzie did answer the door, she smiled at Pearl but Pearl could see that she was nervous. Lizzie didn’t say anything and just motioned for Pearl to follow her.

Pearl followed Lizzie, Lizzie walked outside, towards the cabin.

Pearl had been wanting to take a look inside the cabin ever since she had seen it. Was today finally the day that Pearl would get to see the inside of it? What would even be inside of it? Lizzie stayed silent as they walked, giving Pearl enough time to think about what could possibly be inside the cabin.

Maybe Lizzie didn’t trust Pearl to keep her secret, maybe she was about to murder her. Pearl didn’t know Lizzie, but Lizzie didn’t really look like someone who would murder her.

It might have been a stupid thought, but it was a possibility. Pearl didn’t really know Lizzie after all. What else could be in the cabin? Maybe it just had all of Lizzie’s mer stuff, maybe Lizzie just needed her stuff to explain things.

Maybe there was another mer inside, maybe that mer would explain everything to Pearl instead.

All those thoughts and more went through her head as she Lizzie reached for the handle of the door.

Chapter Text

Gem woke up early and immediately went to the little beach, like she did almost every single day. When she arrived Pearl wasn't there yet, Gem dove into the water a little and kept her eyes on the surface. waiting for Pearl.

Pearl showed up after a little while and Gem quickly swam up, showing herself. "Hi, good morning" Gem said happily. A yawn left Pearl before she answered "Good morning Gem"

"You tired?" Gem asked, she knew that it was still early but Pearl had never really looked tired. They had been meeting up almost every single day since they had met, maybe she slept bad "Yeah, my friend, the one that owns the cafe, Impulse. It was his birthday yesterday so we had a party, I got home pretty late" Pearl said.

"What are human party's like?" Gem asked curiously.

They had parties underwater but humans and mers had so many differences it wouldn't surprise Gem if their party's were different too. She tried to imagine what human parties were like, what they would do during them.

"Oh well we just meet up in some place and there's music and some food and drinks. I don't really know how to explain it, what are mer parties like?" Pearl asked in return. "Well we usually have our parties outside of our houses and we just chat, dance or play games" Gem explained.

"Sounds a lot like a human party" Pearl said.

Well that was a bit disappointing, Gem had imaged human parties to be different, for them to be cooler. "Was it a fun party?" Gem asked, Pearl had told her a lot about her new friends. Gem was curious about everything human, could you really blame her though?

"I did, I didn't think I would have fun but I saw Skizz and Tango talking with Joel and his wife. Joel introduced me to his wife by the way, she's very nice. I just talked with them for the rest of the night, we then walked home together" Pearl said, a smile on her face.

Seeing Pearl smile made Gem smile too "I'm glad, so is Joel finally warming up to you?" Gem asked, Pearl had told her about her coworker Joel. Joel wasn't the nicest to Pearl, Gem wanted to drag him into the ocean for a little bit.

She didn't want to drown him or anything, she just wanted to make him panic a little.

Could you blame her? She didn't like that the man was being mean to her friend. Of course there was no way to actually reach him, but if the man would ever come close to the water she would make sure to throw a pufferfish his way.

"Not really, but he's alright. I can handle him" Pearl said, a reassuring smile on her face. "Hmm, if he's ever getting too annoying just drag him over here. I'll take care of him for you" Gem said, a smile on her face as she imagined all the things that she could do. Harmless things, of course. Pearl laughed at her response "Thank you, but I can handle him for now"

The two of them talked for a little bit after that, mostly making fun of Joel. But just like every single day Pearl had to leave a little bit later. This time it wasn't because of other people arriving though, it was because she had to get to work.

Gem swam back down and swam into her house. She started cleaning a bit, deciding to be productive today. She had been cleaning for a while until she got hungry and hunted for some fish. She quickly found one and ate it, swimming on her back while looking up at the sky.

She was laying on the bottom of the lake, looking up. She saw clouds above her and imagined them as things, it was hard to actually see them since the water made them look blurry. But that only made the game more fun.

Gem had played games like that since she was young, nobody really understood it. They would look at her as she lay there with confused looks. Whenever she tried to explain what she was doing their expressions only became more confused.

They would nod with fake smiles and swim away, but that never bothered Gem. There weren't that many things to do underwater for Gem, cloud watching was just fun for her. Others would call it a waste of time or weird, but it was entertaining and calming.

It was also one of the only things that Gem had been allowed to do when she was younger. While her friends would do fun things like sea horse riding or chase other fish, she would be stuck with her brothers. Laying on the bottom of the lake looking up apparently was one of the only things that wasn't dangerous.

As the years went by Gem was allowed to do more and more. As she got older she also just stopped listening to her brothers, she started making her own decisions.

Even now that Gem did more dangerous things it was nice to go cloud watching every once in a while. It was peaceful to just lay there and ignore everything around her. It was nice to not think about anything but the shapes of the clouds.

It didn't take long before Gem's eyes started closing, she had been tired the past few days. Going early to Pearl was really taking a toll on her sleeping schedule. That in combination with going to bed late, it made Gem really tired.

Which is why Gem let herself fall asleep.

The next time she woke up she was still staring up at the sky. The clouds were gone now though, instead there were a million little stars in the sky. Gem lay there staring at the stars for a little bit while fully waking up wondering how long she had been asleep for.

When she was ready to move again she swam back to her house, but she didn't get in. Instead she turned around and went to the little beach, checking if Pearl might be there. Gem swam there and looked around, making sure that there was nobody else around before swimming closer to the little beach.

Pearl unfortunately wasn't there, Gem was all alone.

She sat on the sand for a little while, most of her body was still under water but her top wasn't. The cold evening air moved through her hair, it was nice. Gem just sat there, lost in her thoughts until she felt a tug at her hand. She was pulled fully back into the water. She started struggling against the hands pulling her down, but it was no use. She was pulled fully underwater, away from the little beach.

Struggling hard and while fighting Gem was dragged down. She stopped though when she looked at the two who had taken her.

"What is wrong with you two?" She asked, angrily. She was now face to face with her two brothers Sausage and Fwhip. Her two brothers who had basically just kidnapped Gem from the land "What is wrong with us? What is wrong with you you mean, what were you doing up there? Do you want to get seen by a human?" Fwhip asked furiously.

"There was nobody there, I checked" Gem said, defending herself.

"Somebody could have shown up, they could have seen you. Gem, what were you thinking?" Sausage asked, sounding just as angry as Fwhip. But Gem was even angrier as a realization hit her "How did you two even know that I was here? You wouldn't come here if it's as dangerous as you say it is. Did you two follow me?"

"We did, you have been disappearing a lot and we needed to know where you were going. We knew that it was an invasion of your privacy but I'm now glad that we did it. We thought that you were doing something stupid and we were right" Sausage said, clearly not caring about the fact that they had invaded her privacy.

He just said himself that he knew that it was an invasion of privacy, but he didn't care.

"You could have asked me" Gem said, frustrated. They had followed her to the one place where she could be alone. The one place where she could talk with Pearl.

"We did, you said that you were just exploring. You didn't say that you were going this close to the humans, it's dangerous Gem. How do you not see that?" Fwhip demanded.

"It's only dangerous if I get seen, I'm fine as long as I stay underwater. And besides that, nobody was there. There was no one who could have seen me. You can check for yourself if you don't believe me" Gem argued, pointing up at the surface.

Of course she wasn't stupid, of course she realized how dangerous she was being. But there really hadn't been any humans around, she was fine. And she was hidden from view from anyone who wasn't standing on the little beach. She would be able to see anyone coming towards her but they wouldn't be able to see her.

If anyone would come to her she would just go underwater, there was no human that could swim faster than a mer. She could easily stay away from them as long as she stayed in the water. She had thought this through, why didn't her brothers realize that.

"Someone could show up, that's the thing about humans they can move" Sausage said "I know, but I can swim away faster then they can see me" Gem argued. "What if you don't get away fast enough?" Fwhip asked, anger still clear in his voice as he tried to reason with Gem.

"It's late at night, it's dark, nobody is going to believe that they saw a mer. I would be gone before they could even blink. But if they did see me I could just swim away, there is no human that would be able to keep up with me" Gem said.

"Yeah but they would know that mers excited, they could come back during the day. They could bring multiple people back, those people could go searching for other mers. They could catch some of the younger ones or they could go after us when we're asleep" Sausage said, Gem had also thought about that.

She had thought about the scenario that Pearl would come back with an army. That Pearl would use all the information that Gem had told her to her own advantage. That she would kill or capture everyone and that it would all be Gem's fault.

But she didn't want to think like that, Pearl was her friend. Pearl would never do anything to hurt her, she wouldn't. Other humans could see her, but mers could kill a human faster than a human could attack a mer, mostly underwater.

"I-" Gem started, she couldn't tell them about that. She couldn't tell them that she had a human friend who she trusted. They were already freaking out about all of this, they didn't even know that Gem had came even closer to a human.

They didn't know that she had befriended one.

"Come, let's just go back home. Where we are save" Fwhip said, he put a hand on Gem's back. Gem looked him in his eyes. "We are just doing this because we care about you Gem" He said as he started stirring her back home.

Gem could see Sausage look around, looking at the surface before following them. He swam on Gem's other side taking her hand in his "You're our little sister, we don't want anything to happen to you" he said, a sweet smile on his face.

"I'll be fine" Gem reassured them. Her brothers hugged her for a few seconds, they let her go again and together they swam back home. Gem entered her house, she knew that Fwhip and Sausage hoped that she wouldn't go back to the docks.

But she would return the next morning again, she was going to see Pearl again.

She wasn't leaving Pearl now, it was too late for that. They had truly become friends, Gem wasn't just leaving Pearl. She could trust Pearl, she didn't know how she was so sure about it, but she was sure. Pearl would never hurt her.

Gem looked at the shirt that Pearl had given her the second time that they had seen each other. Gem had kept it even after Scott and Jimmy had made fun of her for wearing it. She had brought it home with her and put it in her room.

She picked the shirt up and put it on, she still thought that she looked great in it. She went to bed after that, somehow feeling tired again. She knew that her brothers were still in her house but she didn't care. She trusted them as much as she trusted Pearl.

Fwhip opened the door to Gem's room and saw her asleep on her bed. He quietly closed the door again and swam back to Fwhip. "She's asleep" he said.

"We have to tell her" Sausage said, Fwhip knew that they should tell her but he didn't want to. "No, Sausage" He started but Sausage interrupted him. "We need to tell her, she has to know. It might just stop her from doing these reckless things"

"It will break her heart" Fwhip argued.

"But it might save her life. If we continue with the way we are acting right now, she'll end up hating us. You saw how angry she already was" Sausage said, he was whispering so that Gem wouldn't hear him. Gem could never know, Fwhip had decided that the second he had heard the news.

"I don't care if she hates us, we are not telling her this" Fwhip said, Sausage was older then him but Fwhip was not letting him win this argument.

"She deserves to know" Sausage answered.

"I know, I know. But I just don't want her to know, come on we both decided years ago to not tell her" Fwhip said. "Because she was too young, but she can handle it now" Sausage said, both of them knew that that wasn't the real reason that they hadn't told her.

They hadn't told her because they didn't have the heart to tell her.

"We both know that that wasn't the reason, we were the same age and yet I knew" Fwhip said "Because you were there when I first heard the news" Sausage responded, all the anger melted away from his voice as the topic was brought up once again.

"Are you telling me that you wouldn't have told me either if I didn't already know?" Fwhip asked, Sausage looked him in the eyes. "You're my little brother, just like Gem is my little sister. I would have protected you both against this news if I had had the chance"

Fwhip got tears in his eyes again, he always did when they talked about this. Sausage pulled Fwhip into a hug and the two of them stayed like that for a little while. When Fwhip pulled away he looked at Gem's closed bedroom door.

"We should leave" he decided.

Sausage didn't protest so they left, they swam out of Gem's house and went to their own.

Chapter Text

Lizzie opened the door to the cabin, it felt like time slowed as it was finally revealed what was inside. Lizzie walked in like it was nothing, for her it probably was nothing. For her this probably was normal. But for Pearl, Pearl had been waiting to see what was inside since her first day in the town.

Pearl looked around ro make sure that nobody could see her, there was nobody around. Nobody to notice her, nobody to save her if this did go wrong. She stepped inside, ignoring those thoughts. The second she was inside she started looking around.

The inside at least didn’t look like a place where you would murder someone, it was just a wooden cabin. Pearl wasn't sure what else she was expecting.

Inside was a small wooden bench and a closet. Walking further into the room Pearl suddenly noticed the hole in the ground when she almost fell in. Luckily Pearl kept her balance, she leaned over the hole to look inside of it, it looked like the hole led to water.

“When I turn back into a mer, or when I turn into a human I do it here. Nobody’s here to see me, it’s safer" Lizzie started explaining, she sat down on the little bench and stared at the hole. Pearl tried to read her expression but she didn't know what Lizzie was feeling.

“I- how?” Pearl started, she still had no idea what to say or ask.

“You can ask me anything you want but just please don’t tell anyone that I’m a mer” Lizzie said before Pearl got a chance to ask anything else. “I won’t tell anyone, I promise. I don't know much about mers but I do know the dangers of humans finding out about you" Pearl said, she sat down next to Lizzie and gave her what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Thank you" Lizzie said, returning the smile. "You must have some questions" she added, Pearl nodded. She didn't want to overwhelm Gem in any way but she was incredibly curious "How are you a human and a mer? How are you living on land?” Pearl asked.

“When I was younger I discovered that I could turn into a human, that that was my ability. My parents told me to keep my ability hidden, they said that humans were dangerous. That I should never, ever, go close to them. They told me that my ability was useless and that I was never allowed to use it” Lizzie started.

“But you did” Pearl thought out loud.

“Yeah, I got curious. One day I changed into a human and I went on land. It took some time to figure the whole walking thing out” Lizzie chuckled, lifting her leg a little before placing it back on the ground and continuing “At first I just stayed on the land close to the water, I made sure that I could get away whenever I wanted to"

"But eventually I went further and further away, eventually I walked to this town and met other humans that lived here. I kept going back into the water and then coming back here as a human. I- I knew that it was dangerous but I liked hanging out with the humans. I liked being on land and I didn't want to stop”

“I liked it on land and then I met Joel, I completely fell in love with him. I didn’t want to be with him while I was keeping such a big part of my life secret, but I couldn’t tell him. I was always told that humans would kill mers if they saw one. But then one day Joel found out, instead of killing me… he helped me”

A small smile hit Lizzie's lips as she started fidgeting with the ring around her finger, her eyes fixed on it.

“I told him my story, I told him about my life. I told him the risk and why I kept everything a secret from him. He- he was mad and confused at first but he promised me to keep my secret. After that we didn't see each other for a little bit, Joel needed time to think about everything he had learned about me"

The smile disappeared from Lizzie's face as she spoke but it returned when the next words left her mouth.

"We couldn't stay away from each other for long, so we started hanging out again. After that we started dating, it turned out that he liked me as much as I liked him. We eventually got married and now I live here with him and in the lake with the other mers. We knew that it would be hard and we knew that there would be problems."

"But we also knew that it was worth it, so we made a plan. We told everyone in this town that I go on a lot of business trips, but the truth is that me and Joel see each other almost every night. I just come here” Lizzie said, finishing her explanation with a sigh.

"I- I'm telling you this so that you'll know that I understand what this secret can do to someone." Lizzie said ,looking back at Pearl. Pearl stayed quiet for a little bit. She had no idea what to say, questions were still going through her brain but after everything Lizzie had just told her she wasn't sure if this was the right moment for any more of those questions.

Pearl decided to at least ask one question “Do the other mers know that you can change into a human, do they know that you are living this life?” or what Pearl actually wanted to ask "Does Gem know that you, does she know that you can change into a human?"

“Not really, only my family knows. But the others wouldn’t understand, all of them think that humans are heartless monsters. Some of them even think that humans would eat them if they saw them” Lizzie answered.

“I’m sure some humans are weird enough to want to. I understand why you want to keep this a secret, I promise you that I won’t tell anyone. Really” Pearl tried to reassure Lizzie. Pearl completely understood Lizzie’s fears, Pearl felt those same fears whenever a human appeared on the docks while she was talking to Gem. The fear that a human would see her and capture her, that they would experiment on her. Or that they would use her for their own entertainment.

The thought sent a shiver over Pearl’s back.

“Thank you, I appreciate it” Lizzie said, she didn’t look too sure about trusting Pearl though.

Pearl understood why, they had literally only known each other for twenty four hours. And now Lizzie was asking Pearl to keep a secret like this. Lizzie had basically been forced to tell all of this to Pearl, guilt hit Pearl when she realized. Maybe she shouldn't have opened the door to the bathroom, even if she hadn't known what would be behind it.

“But can’t you trust any of your friends with your secret? N- not that I’m telling you to tell them, I’m just curious. They’re your friends they wouldn’t hurt you” Pearl said, she had met most of the people in town. They didn't seem like the kind of people who would do anything to hurt or endanger their friends.

“I know they wouldn’t hurt me, I just… The less people that know, the better” Lizzie answered simply. “You said that you have a mer friend, tell me about that" Lizzie said, changing the subject. Pearl suspected that Lizzie did want to tell the rest, but that she was just scared. "As you probably know it is very rare for a human and mer to interact” Lizzie said, brining Pearl back to their conversation.

“I- yeah. A little while ago I went with Grian on one of his fishing trips. A mer got caught in his net and when I walked closer to her she pulled me into the water. She saved me from drowning, but I didn’t think that it was real. When I got home I found some plants that I had ripped from her, proving that it had really happened” Pearl started.

After all the information that Lizzie had just told Pearl, that she just trusted Pearl with. It just didn't feel right to not tell her.

“The next day I went back to the docks and called out for them. I still don’t know why, but I just needed answers. The mer appeared and she was just as curious about humans as I was about Mers. We talked for a bit and well we're friends. We meet up at the docks almost every single day ” Pearl explained.

“You played a dangerous game, that could have gone very wrong” Lizzie commented, Pearl knew that she was right but she still thought that it was a little hypocrite “As wrong as you transforming into a mer in a cafe?” Pearl asked in return.

“Point takes, but wait if all of that happened on Grian's boat.. Does that mean that Grian saw the mer too? Does he know that mer exists?” Lizzie asked in a panicked tone. Pearl quickly shook her head “No, no, don't worry. He only saw part of the tail, I convinced him that it was just a seal” Pearl answered. Grian was going to be a problem with his beliefs.

“Oh uhm good, don’t get me wrong I trust him to not hurt me or other mers. But I do absolutely not trust him enough to keep a secret” Lizzie said, laughing although Pearl could see some disappointment in her face. It quickly disappeared though when Lizzie said “It does feel nice to finally tell someone about this”

“It really isn’t an easy secret to tell someone is it?” Pearl asked.

It was less of a shock to her since she had only known Lizzie for a day. But if the others found out, they had known Lizzie for years, and she had lied to them for all those years.

Pearl understood why she had lied, if Lizzie told the secret to the wrong person she would have a lot of problems. The things that could go wrong if she told the secret to the wrong person.
Or not even the wrong person, the things that could happen if someone heard about the secret. If someone overheard them talking about it. Pearl didn’t want to think about all that.

“No, it is not. Yet it is still easier than telling your parents that you are dating a human when humans have been made out to be humans” Lizzie replied.

“I can imagine, do they accept him now at least?” Pearl asked, she tried to imagine how her parents would react if she would be dating a mer. There was a big chance that they would laugh in her face and call her crazy, they would never believe in mers. Not even if a mer was right in front of them.

“No, but they can’t get on the land so there is nothing they can do about it” Lizzie said with a smile. “That works I guess” Pearl responded. Lizzie’s parents literally couldn’t stop Lizzie and Joel from being together, they couldn’t reach Joel.

“I guess you got the perfect mer ability for you” Pearl said, Gem had mentioned all different kinds of abilities but Lizzie’s ability seemed like the best one. Lizzie could be both a human and a mer.

“Yeah, I did” Lizzie responded.

“I’m sure that my mer friend would love that ability” Pearl said, Gem had mentioned that she would love to be a human. That would be nice, Pearl would love to show Gem around. She would love to show Gem all the places that she had been talking about.

“Really? Most mers would find the power useless. They would never want to interact with humans, either because they’re too scared or because they don't care for humans. Most mers don't even want to get close to the surface, some have never even seen a human” Lizzie said.

“I understand why, living underwater seems way cooler than on land” Pearl responded, not really wanting to talk about why the mers would be scared of the humans. Keeping the positivity up would be great in this situation.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, living underwater is cool but you don’t know how cool the land is since you’ve been living here your whole live” Lizzie said “I don’t see underwater as cool either but you seem to like it”

“It’s weird” Pearl responded.

Lizzie and Pearl walked for a bit, mostly trying to not talk about the things that could happen if Lizzie’s secret came out. Later Joel joined them too, he acted nicer then he usually did, even though it seemed a bit forced Pearl appreciated it. After a while It was getting late so Pearl went home, Joel offered to walk her home.

Pearl wanted to say no but it seemed rude, especially after how hard Joel had tried to be nice to her. So Pearl accepted and they left. The walk home was quiet, neither Joel nor Pearl knew what to say. When they came close to Pearl’s house Joel stopped, making Pearl stop too. “Something wrong?” she asked.

Joel spoke without looking at Pearl “If you tell anyone Lizzie’s secret, I will hurt you. I know that Lizzie is confident that you won’t tell anyone. Me on the other hand, I’m not convinced, I hope that this threat will make clear to you how serious this is”

“You can trust me, I won’t tell anyone. I understand how dangerous Lizzie’s situation is, I understand what can happen if her secret came out” Pearl said, she understood why Joel was telling her this but she wasn’t a child.

She could understand the dangers of this situation.

“You better” Joel said in a serious voice. Pearl could tell that he was trying to sound scary, he was trying to scare her into not telling anyone Lizzie’s secret. They continued walking in silence until they reached Pearl's house. "Joel, you can trust me with this. I know that we didn't get off on the right foot, but I do understand what could happen. I don't want Lizzie to get hurt either"

After that Pearl got into her house, closing the door behind her and a sigh leaving her. This certainly was a day, a day that Pearl had not expected. She had embarrassed herself at work again, discovered that Lizzie was a mer and she had finally seen the inside of the cabin.

Without thinking Pearl changed into her pajamas and went to bed. She couldn’t fall asleep though, her mind was racing with thoughts. After an hour of laying there Pearl gave up on trying to fall asleep, she put comfortable clothes on and went outside.

She started walking in a random direction, she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going. Her mind was too busy thinking about everything that she had discovered in the past day. No matter what she did she could not stop thinking about it.

About that and about what would happen if this secret came out.

Before Pearl knew it she had walked to the docks, usually she would drive but apparently she could walk there too. Pearl just went to the little beach and sat down in the sand, she started at the water.

There was a whole world in that water.

A whole world with people living there, people that nobody could know about. But Pearl did know about it, discovering Lizzie’s secret had only made it more clear to Pearl how dangerous this situation was.

Pearl laid down on the sand, using the cap of her hoody not to get any sand in her hair. She stared up at the stars, as she lay there her eyes started closing. Pearl tried to stop it, to stay awake, but eventually she fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Pearl woke up to someone shaking her, she groaned and turned onto her side trying to get away from whoever was trying to wake her up. She didn't want to wake up yet, she was tired. “Thank Poseidon, you’re alive” A voice said, relief in the voice.

While the person sounded relieved, Pearl began to panic. Her eyes shot open, there was someone in her room. Quickly turning onto her back she opened her eyes, when she did she realized that she wasn't in her bedroom at all. Calm morning wind was breezing past her, sand beneath her and the rising sun was shining a bright light into her eyes.

She was at the dock, laying on the little beach.

But if she was laying on the beach then who was the person who woke her up? Pearl turned her head towards where the voice had come from, squinting her eyes against the sun. It took a few seconds before Pearl was able to put together who was the figure next to her. Pearl realized that she was looking into the eyes of Gem.

Pearl sat up fully, she took in the situation. Gem was laying next to her, fully out of the water. Pearl had never seen Gem fully out of the water. “Sorry, I saw you here and got worried. You weren’t responding, I thought that there might be something wrong” Gem said, but Pearl wasn’t really paying attention.

The only thing Pearl could think of was how close they were to each other. Gem had always kept her distance from Pearl, but now they could practically touch each other. It took a few seconds before the words that Gem had spoken to make sense to Pearl.

Once they did Pearl realized that she hadn't replied yet “I- sorry, I’m fine. I was looking for a place to clear my thoughts yesterday evening, I ended up here and I uhm apparently fell asleep” Pearl admitted, it had been dangerous to just fall asleep like that.

She could have been kidnapped or killed or something worse could have happened.

But that hadn’t happened, instead Pearl was now waking up next to Gem. That certainly wasn't something bad. “What time is it?” Pearl asked, would people be appearing soon or did she have more time alone with Gem? Pearl really hoped it would be the second, she had a lot to tell Gem.

“Like 7am” Gem answered “Is there a reason you needed to clear your mind?”

Pearl laid down on the sand again, covering her face with her hands and sighing. “Yes, so much has happened yesterday. I don’t even know where to start”

Gem laid down next to her, her face turned towards Pearl “Why don’t you start at the beginning?”

And so Pearl started telling Gem everything, she told her about how Joel had a wife named Lizzie. She told her about meeting Lizzie and about the next day in the cafe, about how she had accidentally spilled water all over Lizzie. Gem had laughed until Pearl continued and told her about how she had found Lizzie in the restroom as a mer.

“But you said that she was a human” Gem interrupted as she sat up a bit so that she could see Pearl’s face. “She was! That’s the weirdest thing about this, she was a human. But when I entered the restroom she was laying on the ground with a tail, webbed hands, fangs and gills. You know the whole mer get up”

“How is that possible? I’ve never heard of something like that happening” Gem replied. “I’m not sure, but she told me that it was her mer ability” Pearl answered. “I- abilities can be strong but I’ve never heard of someone being able to shift between a human and a mer” Gem said, staring at Pearl with shock on her face.

“She lives in this lake, don’t you know her? She had a blue tale with some white if that helps” Pearl asked, she didn’t know how many people lived underwater but there was a chance that Gem knew mer Lizzie.

“I know a Lizzie, but she can’t be a human. There- there is no way” Gem said as she sat up “It can’t be her, I think” she tried to move around so that she could get back into the water, but she didn't get very far “Uhm I’ve actually never gotten out of the water before, could you maybe help me get back into the water?”

“Oh of course” Pearl said she took in the scene before her, trying to figure out how to help.

She ended up helping Gem further away from the water so that she could turn around by herself. Then Gem fell back into the water with a splash, Pearl’s clothes got soaked in the process but that didn’t matter to her. She watched Gem swim underwater a little before she turned and appeared above the surface again.

“Thank you, I’m gonna see if I can find my Lizzie. I think I need to have a conversation with her, uhm see you later today?” Gem asked, Pearl smiled and nodded. She would definitely be back tonight, she had to know more about Lizzie.

Pearl walked to the parking place at the docks, but her car wasn’t there. It confused her for a few seconds before she realized what happened and where her car was. Her car was at home, she had walked there, and now she had to walk back.

When Pearl finally got home she was about to open her door, she wanted nothing more than to take a shower. She wanted all the sand off of her. But she was hugged from behind before she could turn her key “There you are, we were getting worried” Tango's voice came from behind her. “What? Why?” Pearl asked, confused.

“We heard you get home late last night and then we heard your door close and saw you leave through the window. We never heard you return, this morning we came to check up on you but you weren’t there” Tango replied, he let go off Pearl so that she could turn around.

“Oh, yeah I just needed to clear my mind” Pearl answered.

“You have been doing that a lot lately, everything okay?” Tango asked, worry all over his face. Pearl wanted to say no I have befriended a mer but my friendship with her might be endangering her and I have just found out that there is a human who isn’t a human at all. And now I’m keeping both of their secrets and if I tell anyone both of them would be in great danger.

But she couldn’t tell him that, that was the whole problem.

“Yeah, just a little stressed thanks to the move” Pearl said instead.

“If you need help with anything we’re all here. Or if you just need a listening ear or if you need a friend” Tango assured her, Pearl got a smile on her face.

“Thank you” She almost whispered as she wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her back and it just made Pearl realise how hard she needed the hug. The two of them stayed like that for a few seconds before Pearl pulled away.

“Thank you really” She said one more time.

“It’s okay, wanna talk?” Tango asked, a sweet smile on his face. Pearl wanted to say yes but there was no way she could talk with him without revealing anything. So Pearl shook her head “No, but I could use some help distracting myself from the things on my mind” She said hoping that Tango had time.

“Okay we can totally do that, but let’s first let Skizz and Impulse know that you’re okay. They’re worried sick” Tango said as he pulled out his phone. “You told Impulse that I was gone?” She asked, she really hadn’t meant to worry anyone.

“We just asked Impulse if he knew where you were, he said he didn’t and asked why we wanted to know. We told him the truth, that you had left in the middle of the night and hadn’t returned yet. You can’t blame the guy for being worried” Tango said, typing on his phone as he spoke.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to worry anyone” Pearl said, feeling guilty.

“It’s alright, next time just answer your phone” Tango responded. Pearl had totally forgotten about her phone, it was still inside her house “I don’t have it with me, let me get it” She finally unlocked her door and walked inside. Inside she quickly spotted her phone and grabbed it.

23 new messages and 12 missed phone calls.

“Oh yeah you really tried to reach me” Pearl said once she was outside again. “Yeah, we gave up when we heard your ringtone coming from inside your house. Impulse and Skizz are in the town, wanna go there? We can show you the best way to distract yourself”

“Yeah, let’s go” Pearl answered, placing her phone into her pocket and closing her door behind her.

The two of them walked to the town and quickly saw Impulse and Skizz who ran up to hug Pearl. Pearl apologized to them too. Skizz turned to Tango after Pearl assured him and Impulse that she was fine asked “So how’s mister 'the person who waits at home never finds the missing person' doing?” he asked.

“Name me one movie in which the missing person just returns home?” Tango asked in return. “I can name plenty” Skizz answered “Movies in which the missing person wasn’t replaced by some kind of demon or possessed?” Tango said.

“This is real life, that wouldn’t happen” Skizz argued “Don’t you believe in mers?” Impulse asked “Mers and demons and ghosts are very different” Skizz argued back, crossing his arms over each other.

“Guys, we don't have time for this. We have a mission, Pearl needs a distraction. We need to show her the best places in hermittown” Tango said in a serious voice, interrupting the argument.

“Oh we could take her to the movie theater and then we can go to the arcade next to it” Impulse suggested “Good idea, we could also drive out of town and go to the empire, there is a circus over there at the moment” Skizz suggested.

“We need to be back tonight, I have work” Impulse said. “We can see what we have time for, we can start with the movie and figure stuff out from there. How does that sound Pearl?” Tango asked, turning towards her.

Pearl scanned the faces of her friends, all of them smiling. There wasno way that she could say no now, a smile came onto her own face. A distracting might be all that she needs and going to the movies sounded like a great distraction. “That sounds amazing”

“Yes, let’s go!” Tango said, he was already moving into the direction of the movie theatre. Pearl was pulled along since she had no idea where they were going. The four of them entered the movie theater and Pearl let Impulse, Tango and Skizz choose a movie.

Impulse, Tango and Skizz spent at least fifteen minutes arguing before they finally decided on a movie. The three of them brought enough popcorn for the entire town and some drinks before they actually went into the movieroom. The movie was a horror movie and it definitely took Pearl's mind off of her problems.

Skizz had his hand in front of his eyes for most of the movie

Impulse was screaming like a girl every jumpscare there was, and then claimed that it wasn’t him. Every time it happened Pearl tried to hold her laughter in.

Tango was trying to get Skizz to remove his hands off his face. He once succeeded but it was right at the moment a jumpscare happened. Skizz brought his hands back to his face and called Tango a traitor. He didn't remove his hands again until the end credits.

When the movie was over they left, in the hallway the three men said that they hadn’t been scared at all.

They walked to the arcade and played games for the rest of the afternoon. Together they got more than a thousand tickets, just enough for four keychains. They walked out, gringed as the sun hit their eyes and walked to the cafe together.

Impulse, Tango and Skizz were complaining about how expensive everything in the arcade was. Pearl wasn’t paying attention to them, she was admiring her keychain. Pearl got a little moon, fitting for her name Pearl moon.

Impulse had gotten a i out of the box with letter keychains, Tango had gotten a little flames and Skizz got a little tie.

The four of them came to the cafe “I still think that we should go to that circus one day” Skizz said. “We could do that in a few days, I can close the cafe for a day” Impulse suggested.

“That sounds fun, two days from now good? The circus won’t be there for long” Tango said. “Yeah, sounds great” Impulse said “Yup, what time should we leave?” Skizz asked. “I don’t know, we could go around like three. We’ll have enough time to drive there and back home before it gets dark” Impulse suggested.

“Sounds great, meet at our house at like 2?” Skiz asked.

“Yeah, what do you think Pearl?” Tango asked, getting Pearl’s attention. “Oh yeah, totally” She responded.
Impulse and Skizz went to work in their cafe while Tango and Pearl went home. “So, did I distract you enough?” Tango asked. “Yeah, thank you. Today was awesome” Pearl responded.

“Good, we are a little town but we can have fun” Tango responded. “I never doubted that” Pearl replied. They arrived home and Pearl went into her own house. She quickly took a shower, ate dinner and then left to go to the docks again.

This time she brought her phone with her.

She made sure to close her door silently, hoping that Tango wouldn’t hear. She couldn’t keep using the same excuse over and over again.

Pearl went to the little beach and sat down waiting for Gem to appear. Gem appeared not soon after pearl had arrived “So mer Lizzie is human Lizzie” She said. Pearl had thought about how betrayed Lizzie’s human friends would feel if they found out that she had lied to them.

But she hadn’t thought about Gem, Gem had also been lied to.

“Sorry, I- is everything okay between you two?” Pearl asked. “You don’t have to apologize, it wasn’t your fault. We’re okay, I’m just kinda surprised that Lizzie has a whole life outside of the water”

“I’ve only known Lizzie for three days and I was already shocked. I can’t imagine how you must be feeling” Pearl said, she didn’t really know what to do in this situation. “Yeah, but let’s not get too negative, there is a good thing about this. Lizzie told me that we can meet in her cabin, so that you won’t have to come here each time”

“Seriously?” Pearl asked

She didn’t mind coming here for Gem, but the cabin would be much closer. And there were no people around the cabin, she could visit Gem throughout the whole day, not just in the early morning or evening.

Pearl stayed with Gem for a few hours before going back home. She was exhausted, apparently sleeping on the sand wasn’t great for you.

Who knew?

Chapter Text

The next morning Gem woke up bright and early. She was about to leave her room when she looked into the mirror and noticed that she was still wearing the shirt she had put on. A smile came to her face as she realized this, but she knew that she had to take it off. So she took it off before leaving her room, but not before looking at herself in the mirror for a few more seconds.

She looked so… human.

When Gem walked out of her bedroom she was expecting her brothers to be waiting in her living room for her.

She prepared for a hard conversation but when she walked into her living room it was empty. It surprised her, her brothers stayed over at her house a lot and after the conversation that they had had the day before. It didn't happen often that they had an argument but Gem's family had always been a big fan of talking things out.

Whenever she and her brothers had had a fight, no matter what age they were, they would have to talk it out. Gem had been fully prepared to have to talk to them about her feelings and all, but they weren't there. Not really knowing how to feel about it Gem went outside.

She looked around, checking if they were anywhere there. But they weren't, had she done something that really crossed a line this time? They hadn't seemed angry anymore when they had arrived at Gem's house the day before.

Gem shrugged it off and swam up to the docks again, she could use a distraction. while she swam she kept looking behind her making sure that she wasn't being followed this time. She didn't see anyone following her, so she assumed that nobody was following her.

It was crazy that she had been followed the day before.

She hoped that Sausage and fwhip realized how creepy it had been to follow her. She was their sister but they were no her bosses. She was her own person. Now swimming all alone her mind kept repeating the conversation that they had had the night before. Gem really hoped that they were just giving her some space and not that they were angry at her.

Gem arrived at the little beach and looked around, checking if there were humans around. But her eyes landed on Pearl instead, Pearl was already there. But she wasn't sitting or standing up on the little beach like she usually was.

Pearl was laying on the little beach in the sand, not moving.

A tremel of fear went through Gem as she swam closer to the little beach "Pearl!" Gem called out, Pearl didn't move. Gem got worried, this was weird. Or was this some kind of human thing? Or was she dead? Gem couldn't hear her breathing from where she was in the water, she tried to get even closer but still couldn't hear anything.

"Pearl!" Gem screamed, hoping that she would hear her this time. But Pearl didn't move one bit, Gem felt helpless. Pearl needed help, something was wrong. But Gem was stuck in the water, or was she? Maybe she could find a way out of the water.

It would be risky, it could be dangerous. But at the moment Gem didn't care, all her thoughts about how she would be safe as long as she stayed in the water left her. The only thing that mattered right now was that Pearl was alright.

Gem swam back into the water before her brain could reason with her, she then shot forwards as fast as she could. She hoped that it would give her the boost that she needed to get on the little beach. Surprisingly, it worked. Gem ended up on the little beach, her tail still hanging half in the water.

She pulled herself up more, she could feel the raw sand under her as she moved over it. The sand was getting all over her but she didn't care. The feeling was weird and Gem wanted to inspect it more, but she had to check on Pearl first. It took some struggle but she eventually ended up getting fully out of the water, she was now fully on the land.

"Pearl" Gem asked again now that she was closer to Pearl but Pearl still didn't wake up. Gem managed to kinda sit up, she checked if Pearl was breathing. Dead silence around her, the only sound that Gem coud hear was her own heartbeat. Until suddenly, breathing. Pearl was breathing. A wave of relief hit Gem and she let out a sigh, Pearl was alive.

Gem shook Pearl's shoulders trying to wake her up.

Why was Pearl asleep here? Was she just asleep? Had something happened? Was she hurt? She didn't look hurt. Gem tried to be gentle but she couldn't help but shake Pearl a little bit wilder as these thoughts screamed at her in her head.

Pearl moved to lay on her side with a groan. “Oh good you’re alive” Gem said, she had heard Pearl's breathing but it was still different to actually see that Pearl was at least alive. Finally Pearl's eyes shot open and she moved so that she was face to face with Gem. Gem smiled shyly, she had never been this close to Pearl before.

“Sorry, I uhm saw you here and got worried. You weren’t responding, I thought that there might be something wrong” Gem explained, Pearl stayed silent for a couple of seconds before responding “I- sorry, I’m fine. I was looking for a place to clear my thoughts yesterday evening, I ended up here and I apparently fell asleep”

Gem and Pearl talked for a bit, Pearl had apparently had quite the day. Pearl had discovered that Joel's wife was a mer. A mer that could turn into a human,that surprised Gem enough but her mind was blown when Pearl told her the name of the mer.

Lizzie.

Gem's friend Lizzie, but it couldn't be Lizzie right? Lizzie wasn't married, Lizzie didn't even have a mer ability, Lizzie could not be a human. She just couldn't, she wouldn't have lied to Gem for all of those years, right? No, she wouldn't do that.

She needed to find out, she needed to be sure. But first she had to listen to more of what Pearl had to say, she talked about how she had discovered that this 'Lizzie' was a mer and about the mysterious cabin that she had told Gem about. After a while Pearl had to leave again.

Gem didn't have time to be disappointed about that though, she needed to find out the truth. Gem Swam back into the lake but stopped when she realized that Lizzie wouldn't be there. Lizzie was still away. She wouldn't be able to find Lizzie anywhere anyway.

An idea came to Gem, she left to go to Jimmy's, Jimmy had to know where Lizzie was. Gem swam there, her body moving about as fast as her thoughts were. She kept thinking back to every single time that Lizzie had left the lake, could she have actually turned into a human?

The second Gem arrived she started knocking on Jimmy's door, not caring about how early it still was, not caring that she might seem crazy.

Jimmy opened the door a few seconds later, he looked tired and a bit annoyed. His mouth opened to say something "Where is Lizzie?" Gem asked before Jimmy could get a word out. Jimmy's mouth closed again and he stayed silent for a couple of seconds before he eventually asked "W-what?" Before adding "she's exploring. You know this, we said goodbye to her a few day ago"

Gem shook her head "I want the truth Jimmy, does Lizzie really not have a mer ability?" Gem asked, Jimmy's confused face turned into a panicked one. He took Gem by her arm and pulled her into his house, closing the door behind him.

"What do you know?" Jimmy asked, his actions only confirming Gem's suspicions. Lizzie was a mer who could change into a human. "I know that her mer ability is to change into a human, I know that she is married to a human and I know that she has been hiding it from all of us" Gem said, she needed answers now that she knew that she was right.

"H-how do you know that, who else knows?" Jimmy asked in a panicked voice, he looked around the room as if there was someone there who could overhear them. At his panic Gem forced herself to calm down a little, Jimmy didn't have much to do with this. She shouldn't be angry at him.

"It doesn't matter how I know but no one else knows." Gem said, sure Pearl knew but Jimmy didn't need to know that. "But why didn't you tell me? You know that you could have trusted me" Gem said, feeling hurt. Two of her best friends had lied to her for years, Gem realized that she barely knew anything about Lizzie.

The woman was married, she had a whole second life that Gem didn't know a thing about.

"I- we didn't tell anyone. It's not exactly a good thing to be able to turn into a human, it's dangerous. Lizzie asked me to not tell anyone" Jimmy explained, he looked more serious than Gem had ever seen him "And I'm still not telling you anything. If you want to know anything you're going to have to ask Lizzie, not me"

"How do I contact Lizzie if she's on land?" Gem asked, she would have gone straight to Lizzie if she knew where Lizzie was. That was the whole problem.

"Come with me, we have a way of contacting her" Jimmy said he swam back to his front door but turned back to Gem before he opened the door "You can't tell anyone about this"

"I won't" Gem responded, if anyone knew the dangers about interacting with humans, it would be her. There were countless things that could happen to Lizzie if anyone found out. All things that appeared in Gem's worst nightmares, all things that she really did not want to think about.

"Good" Jimmy said, he opened the door and started swimming, Gem followed him. They swam all the way until the other side of the lake, into a cave. Inside the cave lay a little device, a phone Gem realised. She had seen Pearl use hers a few times but she had never used one before.

"Lizzie left this device here in case we would ever need to contact her, she taught me how to use it" Jimmy said proudly as he picked the phone up and started pressing some buttons on it. "I have no idea how it works but Lizzie can read whatever I write on this thing"

"Cool" Gem said as she took a closer look at the device. The phone looked different from the one that Pearl used, the screen was smaller and it had numbered buttons on it. Pearl's phone had only been a screen but it did have one button on the bottom of the screen.

"She's coming back here" Jimmy said, he put the phone back where he had found it and swam out of the cave. He stayed underwater but kept his eyes focussed on the land, Gem just followed him and did the same.

It didn't take long before someone came towards them, it was a human. It was a human with pink hair, with no gills, no webbed fingers, no fangs and no tail. Instead they had legs. It was definitely Lizzie, but she was fully human. "Hi Gem" Lizzie said nervously.

Gem was too stunned to respond, Lizzie looked around making sure that there were no other humans before jumping into the water. It only took a few seconds before mer Lizzie appeared in front of Gem. All traced of human Lizzie gone. "I- I really am sorry for not telling you Gem, but you have to understand why I didn't"

"I- I do understand but- how?" Gem asked, still shocked.

"When I turned sixteen my mer ability was revealed to me when I felt the urge to leave the water. I did and I just sat on the grass waiting for something to happen, I didn't even know what. But when I dried up my tail disappeared and I turned into a human" Lizzie started explaining.

"I was so excited and scared, but when I got back into the water I turned back into a mer. I swam back home and told the great news to Jimmy and my parents. But they told me to not tell anyone, they said that it wasn't a good ability and that I was never allowed to use it" Lizzie continued.

"Well you clearly used it anyway" Gem observed, she hadn't meant to say it out loud.

Lizzie chuckled "Yeah I did, I got curious and decided to explore the human lands. Long story short I fell in love and not just with my husband but also with the human lands. I didn't want to say goodbye to all of you but I wanted to keep going to the human lands, so I told people that I would go out exploring when I went to the human lands"

"How have you been able to lie about this for so many years?" Gem asked, Lizzie had this ability for years now. She had managed to marry a human during that time, how could she have kept it all a secret.

"Well with some help, my husband would tell people that I would be gone for business trips. We have this little cabin on our land, it has a hole in it that leads here, to the lake. I can leave and come whenever I like without anyone seeing me" Lizzie said.

"That- that actually sounds great" Gem said, she wished she had something like that. It was genius, actually.

She wished that she could turn into a human, she wished that she was able to live on both lands. She would even just want to be a human once, she wanted to explore a little. But she knew that she couldn't no matter how much she wanted it.

"Pearl told me that the two of you can only meet in the early morning or late at night at the docks. You're free to use the cabin whenever you want to talk to her. You are her secret mer friend, are you not?" Lizzie asked, a smile on her face.

"Y-yeah" Gem admitted, Lizzie was a human sometimes so she must see that humans could be kind and amazing. "WHAT? Who is Pearl?" Jimmy asked, Gem had totally forgotten that he was there. "She's a human Jimmy, she is the one who told Gem that I'm a human" Lizzie said, not seeing bothered by Jimmy knowing about Pearl.

"A friend huh?" Jimmy asked looking at Gem before turning back to Lizzie "Do I need to take care of her? Will she keep your secret?" Jimmy asked, he looked ready to kill someone. "Yeah, she won't tell anyone anything" Lizzie said.

"Good, now Gem let's have a little conversation about this Pearl huh" Jimmy said as he turned back to Gem with a smile on his face. "You can't tell anyone that I befriended a human" Gem said, but she knew that that wouldn't be what they would be talking about.

"Oh I won't tell anyone about that" Jimmy said.

"what is he talking about?" Lizzie asked confused "Gem named one of her sea turtles Pearl, and then she made fun of me because I named a sea turtle snowflake" Jimmy said making Lizzie laugh. "You have to admit that Pearl is still a better name for a sea turtle then snowflake" Pearl said.

"That is not what this is about" Jimmy said, but Lizzie said "She has a point"

Jimmy punched Lizzie on her shoulder, she looked at him and was about to punch hit back. But Jimmy swam away quickly, Lizzie followed him. Gem watched the two with a smile on her face, her smile only grew when Lizzie caught up to Jimmy and punched him.

"So where were we?" Lizzie asked as she swam back to Gem. Jimmy came back too, rubbing at his shoulder. "We were talking about how Gem obviously has a crush on Pearl"

"What no I don't" Gem said, but did she? She definitely like Pearl, but did she like Pearl like that? "Yes you do, you named a sea turtle after her, you don't name animals after friends. Or well unless they die, but she's alive so that must mean…" Jimmy said, a teasing smile on his face. "So you like Scott?" Gem asked.

"What no" Jimmy said way too quickly, the smile disappearing. "Then why did you name a sea turtle after him?" Gem asked, Lizzie laughed at that. "I- I didn't, I don't have any sea turtles names Scott"

"Oh please, snowflake is so Scott" Gem said.

The three of them talked, most of the conversation excited out of Jimmy denying his feelings and trying to change the subject. Eventually Lizzie had to get going again, she had to return to the human lands. Gem wished that she could come with her, she watched Lizzie get out of the water and change back into a human, she couldn't hide the jealousy that she was feeling.

Either Jimmy didn't notice or he didn't mention it, either way Gem appreciated it. She and Jimmy swam back to their home, chatting happily about something else. When they got home Gem went to the docks, she was sure that Pearl would be there tonight.

And just like Gem had predicted, Pearl was there waiting for her.

Gem told Pearl about what had happened and she told her about the cabin that they could now meet up at. Pearl had seemed happy about that. Pearl had also seemed tired, and so she left after a few hours. Gem was pretty tired too after the day that she had just had.

She went home and went to bed.

Chapter Text

A day passed and Pearl went to visit Gem in Lizzie’s cabin. For the very first time they spent the whole day chatting, for the very first day she they didn't have to keep looking around in case a human would arrive. Pearl had never been that happy, waves of worry left her thank to the new arrangement.

Gem met Joel, the two of them hitting it off better then Pearl and Joel had done.

Lizzie and Joel had joined Pearl and Lizzie in the evening, the four of them had chatted for a while. But eventually it got late and Gem had to leave, Pearl had looked at the time and realized how late it had actually been. Time seemed to fly by whenever Pearl was with Gem, even all those hours had felt like a few minutes.

She had gone home too, almost immediately going to bed.

Now it was the next day and Pearl was walking over to the cabin again. She made sure that no one was around before she entered again. She sat down on the bench and waited for Gem to show up once again. It was nice sitting in the cabin instead of on the beach.

It was often cold in the early morning and the sand wasn't too comfortable. Pearl didn't want to complain since there wasn't any better option at the time. But now, she was warm inside, she didn't have to worry about the temperature, weather or about other humans walking by and seeing Gem. A smile made it's way to Pearl's face, Lizzie really had helped her and Gem.

It didn’t take long before Gem showed up, Pearl smiled as she noticed the orange hair coming to the surface. “Hey, long time no see” Pearl said, subconsciously leaning forward to take a closer look at Gem. “Yeah, we really should meet up more often” Gem replied. The two of them started talking about the most random stuff until Gem said “I would love to see your house one day”

The two of them had talked about what it would be like to see each other's worlds often. They told each other about their worlds whenever they could. But of course seeing was different than just hearing someone talk about it. Unfortunately both Pearl and Gem knew that they wouldn't be able to ever see each other's worlds.

Humans would hurt mers and mers feared humans.

Pearl didn't really understand why Gem wanted to see the human world, she understood less why Gem wanted to see her boring house. “Really, Why? It's a normal house” Pearl asked, her house wasn’t anything special.

“Well I’m curious, you’ve told me so much about it while you were building the furniture and decorating. I would love to actually see it” Gem answered. “Would there be any way for me to somehow visit?”

“I- I don’t think so, there wouldn’t be a way to get you over there without anyone seeing you” Pearl said, she would love to show Gem around and to introduce her to everyone, but the risk was too big.

“Could we do it with Lizzie’s and Joel’s help?” Gem asked, her arms on the floor of the cabin as she looked at Pearl with hope. Pearl hated to break that hope, but you should see? Maybe Gem was right, maybe Lizzie and Joel could help them, maybe they did know a way. There would be no harm in asking.

“That could maybe work, maybe we could get you over there somehow." Pearl started, but she felt hesitant about the situation "But can we risk it, what if someone sees you?” Pearl asked, she didn’t want to do anything to possibly endanger Gem.

“It will be fine, we can figure out a way to do this save between the four of us” Gem said, the two of them kept talking about ways to show Gem around. The plane changed from just Pearl’s base to showing Gem the whole town.

Later that day Joel and Lizzie came into the cabin and Gem and Pearl told their idea to them. The plan was to get some sort of wheelchair for Gem, they could hide her tail inside of it and with a blanket. She could wear mittens to cover her webbed fingers and she just had to not talk to not show her sharp teeth.

“Is it really worth it?” Joel asked, Pearl was wondering the same thing.

Don’t get her wrong, she wanted to show Gem around. But she didn’t want anyone to find out about her being a mer. She didn’t want to risk Gem’s safety.

“We could first try to just bring her to my house, see how that goes?” Pearl suggested. The distance between Pearl and Lizzie and Joel’s house was small, if anything went wrong they could easily go back. That sounded better, not a lot of people would see Gem that way.

It would only be for a little while but Gem still would get to see a part of the human world. Yeah, Pearl could live with that.

There also wasn’t much space in between their houses, it would be one straight line. But Gem would still get to see some human territory. “That sounds smart” Lizzie commented, Pearl nodded in thanks. She knew that Lizzie would understand the want to see the human world.

But Lizzie also understood the dangers like no other, if she agreed it must mean something good. Yeah, this could be a good plan. This could actually work. Hopefully.

“Gem, what do you think about it?” Pearl asked, secretly hoping that she would say no. That she would decide to stay in the water where she was safe.

“I would be happy with anything, I just wanna see something above the water” Gem said, her tail moving behind her like she was a dog wagging its tail. The movement made small waves of water touch the floor of the cabin, Lizzie took a step back to avoid touching it. It seemed like Gem actually wanted to do this.

Why was that even a surprise to Pearl, she knew how badly Gem wanted to see the human lands.

“Let’s do it then,” Pearl said, trying to act happy for Gem even though she was terrified. Her heart beat a little faster at the thought of taking Gem out of the water, at the thought of taking her out of the place where she was safe.

Pearl looked over at Lizzie and Joel, hoping that they would protest. Joel didn't look too happy with this plan, but he kept his mouth shut. Lizzie on the other hand seemed to be just as excited as Gem was. THe two of them started grabbing some things that they could use to smuggle Gem to Pearl's house, Lizzie dragging Joel along with her.

First a plan was made, the three of them would take an old wheelchair and use it to transport Gem. It took a few hours but eventually they were done. The wheelchair now had a hidden compartment where they could hide Gem’s tail.

Pearl and Joel kneeled down in front of the hole in the floor where Gem was waiting. It seemed like there was no convincing Gem that this was a bad idea. And Pearl kind of didn't want to wipe the smile on Gem's face away, so she helped her instead. Everything would probably go right.

The two of them lifted Gem out of the water and into the chair. During this Lizzie stood in the corner of the room, a towel in front of her against the water coming from Gem. The last thing they wanted at the moment was two mers to fish out of the water.

It seemed like Joel had done this before though, he got Gem out carefully and placed her into the chair without a problem. Once she was seated her tail was hidden into the compartment, a blanket placed over the space where her legs were supposed to be.

Joel had given Gem his mintens and she put them on to hide her webbed fingers.

Once Gem's hair had dried her gills and pointed ears weren't a problem anymore. Her hair covered her mer traits pretty well. Lizzie gave Gem a shirt and jacket so that she wouldn’t stand out any more than she already did. Pearl took a step back, Gem looked… Human.

They had actually done it, confidence hit Pearl as she saw this. The plan may actually work.

“Are you comfortable? That doesn’t look comfortable” Joel asked, eyeing Gem from besides Pearl. Pearl had to agree with Joel but Hem just said. “Uhm not really, but I will be fine for a little bit” “Are you sure?” Pearl asked, she didn’t want Gem to be uncomfortable. “Yeah, yeah I’ll be fine. Let’s just go” Gem replied.

Pearl looked at Lizzie and Joel, both of them didn’t look too sure about this plan anymore. But they were excited to show Gem around. Lizzie remembered how exciting everything had been the first time she had gone to the human lands, she had told the group about it while they worked.

She wanted that for Gem.

They went outside and Gem started to look around, a smile appearing on her face as she took everything in. Pearl, Lizzie and Joel explained everything that Gem had questions about. Luckily they didn’t walk into any other people.

It was a small walk to Pearl house so it didn’t take long before they arrived.

Pearl opened the door and let Gem in. Lizzie and Joel left, not wanting to take up more space since maneuvering the wheelchair was already hard enough outside. Pearl showed Gem around the first floor as well as she could.

Gem was amazed by a lot of human inventions, the tv, the microwave, even the sink. "And you can get water from there, whenever?" Gem had asked, Pearl had nodded with a smile. Now that she thought about it, humans had a lot of technology. Pearl wanted to show Gem more but she couldn’t get Gem upstairs in the chair, Gem said that it didn’t matter and that she had seen a lot already.

But Pearl could see some disappointment hidden behind Gem's smile.

She wasn't sure if they would ever do this again, she didn't know if she would ever have the confidence to do this again. So she wanted to show Gem everything she was able to show, even the second floor. She did the only thing she could do and picked Gem up out of the chair, Gem yelped out of surprise and wrapped her arms around Pearl’s neck. Then she started laughing “Pearl”

Pearl started laughing too as she walked up the stairs with Gem in her arms. She started to show Gem the rest of her house, just as she had promised. When they got to Pearl's bedroom she put Gem down on her bed. Needing the rest before bringing Gem back down.

Gem lay against some pillows as she said “Your house is beautiful, I wish I could show you where I live” Pearl wished that too, but she doubted that she could hide her legs in some kind of wheelchair and go to the bottom of the sea. Pearl sat down on her desk chair, not wanting to make Gem uncomfortable. “I think we would need more than a wheelchair for that” Pearl replied, facing Gem.

The two of them stayed upstairs for a bit and just chatted.

They mostly talked about other human inventions, Pearl could see that Gem was amazed by everything. Now that they were far away from the water Pearl even dared to take her phone out. She showed Gem the device, handing it over to her.

"This doesn't look like Lizzie's phone though" Gem had commented, Pearl had never seen Lizzie's phone. "What does Lizzie's phone look like?" she asked curiously. "well it has buttons with numbers on them, and a smaller reflective screen" Gem explained, Pearl tried to imagine what she was talking about. "Like a mobile phone?" she asked.

Gem shrugged "I don't know, I'm just telling you what I saw" she responded, Pearl nodded "Probably an older model, I understand why these new phones break even if you drop them on a pillow. While those old phones could survive a hurricane" Pearl said, Gem was about to respond when the doorbell went off.

"What- what was that?" Gem whispered, Pearl looked towards her bedroom door as if she could see who was in front of her front door by looking at her bedroom door. "The doorbell, someone is in front of my door" she informed Gem. Pearl walked to her bathroom and looked out of her window, she could see Tango, Skizz and Impulse standing in front of her house.

They couldn’t see Gem, they couldn’t know.

Pearl walked back to her bedroom, poking her head into the door and she said “Stay here, my friends are here but I’ll send them away” Gem nodded and asked “Where am I supposed to go like this” with a smile on her face. It seemed like the tension had lessened a bit now that she knew that it was just Pearl's friends.

Pearl laughed, closed the door and walked downstairs.

She opened the door “Hey, Pearl are you ready to go?” Impulse asked, he looked excited. The man was holding a bag in his hand, the other two man seemed to be in the same mood.

“Go?” Pearl asked, where would she go? “Yeah the circus, remember?” No, she didn’t. she had totally forgotten that she said yes to that. She couldn’t leave now, she couldn’t leave Gem. Mostly now since Gem couldn’t go anywhere alone.

“I-” Pearl started “You didn’t forget, did you?” Tango asked.

“O- of course not, it’s just that” think Pearl, think! “I’m not feeling too well, I don’t think that I can come with you” Pearl said, she couldn’t go to the circus if she was feeling sick. Yeah, that was a great excuse.

“Oh, what’s wrong?” Skizz asked, his smile faded as his face turned into one of concern.

“I’m just a little under the weather” Pearl started “I think that it’s got something to do with how tired I’ve been feeling lately. You guys should go to the circus without me, have a good time, bye!” Pearl said, she was about to close her door but Tango blocked the door with his foot.

“We wouldn’t go without you, we can just go another time” Tango said, a sweet smile on his face.

Pearl smiled “Thank you, but Impulse already closed the cafe and everything. I really don’t mind you going, I don’t wanna be the reason that you guys have to miss out on the circus. You must be looking forward to it”

“Don’t worry about that Pearl, we can stay here and keep you company. You shouldn’t be alone while you’re sick” Tango said, why did they have to be such great friends?

“N-no I don’t wanna get you sick too. And it would be boring anyway, I’m just gonna go to sleep” Pearl said, they had to leave. She was risking too much already, they couldn’t know about Gem.

“Don’t worry about us, if you really don’t want us here we’ll leave. But if you’re just worrying about ruining our day or making us sick you don’t have to worry. We want to spend time with you, it doesn’t matter to us that you’re sick” Impulse said with a sweet smile.

Pearl almost wanted to invite them in, spending some time with the three of them sounded great actually. But now with Gem, Gem was more important. Pearl had to get Impulse, Tango and Skizz to leave, now. “I appreciate it, but I really prefer being alone while I’m sick” Pearl responded, really hoping that she didn’t sound rude.

Her Skizz, Impulse and Tango were, offering to skip the circus just so that Pearl wouldn't have to stay alone. And here was Pearl, trying to send them away. She felt awful.

“Okay, we’ll leave you be then. Get better soon” Skizz said.

The others wished her well too and left. Pearl let out a sigh of relief before closing her door. She walked back upstairs and opened the door to her bedroom, Gem was still there. She was staring up at Pearl’s ceiling.

“They’re gone, sorry that it took so long” Pearl said, but Gem didn’t respond. "I totally forgot that we were supposed to go to the circus today. Do- do you know what a circus is? Do they circulate underwater?" Pearl asked, but she didn't get an answer, Gem didn't even look into Pearl's direction.

“Gem?” Pearl asked, she walked closer to Gem. Something was definitely wrong “Are you okay?” it almost looked like… Gem couldn’t breathe. Pearl began to panic, she didn’t remember how long Gem could go without oxygen.

Pearl ran to her bathroom and started filling her bathtub with water, the tub filled painfully slowly. She ran back to her bedroom and picked Gem up, bringing her over to the bathroom and placing her in the bathtub.

She then waited for the water to at least reach Gem’s mouth. Gem barely fit in the bathtub, her tail hanging out. It took a few minutes but eventually bubbles started appearing in the water, she was breathing again.

Pearl let out a sigh of relief, a few minutes later Gem smiled up at Pearl.

“This was such a stupid idea, I’m so sorry” Pearl said once she could look into Gem's eyes again. She shouldn’t have stayed away from Gem for so long. She shouldn’t have taken her out of the water in the first place. Gem shook her head and pulled her hand out of the water, grabbing Pearl’s hand.

The mittens seemed to have disappeared, where to Pearl didn't know, she also didn't care. Pearl was scared to look into Gem's eyes. The few minutes that she had to wait for Gem to wake up were the worst few minutes in her life.

During all of it she had seen Gem in front of her, laying on the bed, unable to go anywhere, unable to breath. She was laying there, trying to move, screaming Pearl's name while Pearl was just downstairs talking to her friends. "Hey" Gem said, Pearl forced herself to look at Gem.

She was smiling.

“Don’t apologize, it wasn’t your fault” Gem said, but Pearl had a hard time believing her. Without Pearl Gem had never left the water, without Pearl Gem wouldn't have come as close to dying as she did.

“I’m the one who left you alone so long, you could have-” Pearl started, but she didn’t want to finish that sentence. “Once you're better I’m bringing you back to the water” Pearl said, leaving no room for arguments. She was expecting Gem to argue but Gem just smiled “Okay”

A few minutes later Gem said that she was well enough again to leave the bathtub. Pearl helped her out and brought her downstairs, placing her back into the chair. She gave Gem a dry shirt and the mittens that had been laying on the bed and they went outside again.

They walked back to Lizzie’s and Joel’s cabin and Pearl helped Gem back into the water. Once Gem was in the water Pearl let out another sigh of relief, she was never doing this again. “I guess next time you’ll just have to come into the water” Gem said, not seeming faced at all by the fact that she had just almost died.

“I guess so, but I can’t hold my breath underwater as long as you can above the water” Pearl said, swimming with Gem actually sounded great. She wished that the two of them could just hang out with each other without having to worry about one of them dying or getting hurt.

“I’ll keep that in mind, meet me back here tomorrow?” Gem asked.

Pearl nodded and they said goodbye. Pearl stared at the water for a few seconds, before getting up and walking home. She walked past Tango and Skizzes house and stopped when she saw them and Impulse through their window.

She did want company now, she didn’t want to be left alone with her thoughts.

Pearl knocked on their door and it didn’t take long before the door opened “Pearl?” Tango asked as he opened the door. “Hey, sorry I know that I said that I didn’t want company earlier but I- I kinda want it now”

Tango opened his mouth but Pearl started speaking again “It’s okay if you guys don’t want to but I thought that we could just watch a movie or something”

“Pearl” Tango said before Pearl could say anything else, Pearl looked up at him.

“Come inside before you get even sicker” Tango said with a smile on his face, he stepped to the side to let Pearl in. Pearl walked inside and was cheerfully greeted by Impulse and Skizz. The three of them watched a movie, Pearl fell asleep halfway through the movie.

Chapter Text

Gem woke up early in the morning, she was really happy today. She would be able to talk with Pearl for as long as she could today. She got out of bed and swam out of her house, being sure to keep quiet. It looked like nothing could go wrong today.

Jimmy was waiting for Gem outside his house, he would be showing her where the cabin was. He greeted her with a yawn "Next time we're doing something like this, let's do it after lunch. Or at the very least after breakfast" Gem smiled "Come on, I've been waiting for this for so long" Gem replied.

"So long? You mean like twenty four hours? Probably less" He asked, starting to swim into the direction that Gem assumed the cabin was. "Yes, you know how long twenty four hours are?" Gem asked, Jimmy looked her straight in her face and replied "Twenty four hours?"

"Well yes, but it's also 1440 minutes, and 86400 seconds, or" Gem said, but Jimmy placed his hand over her mouth before she could continue "I get it, I get it" he said, Gem smiled behind his hand.

The two of them swam for a little bit, Gem had to remind herself to swim a bit slower. She would always swim faster whenever she was excited. It was something that she had done since she had been a little guppy, her brothers and parents had always hated it.

After a little while they arrived at the cabin, it did indeed have a hole in it. Gem thanked Jimmy and looked through the hole "Good luck with your lover" Jimmy said with a wink as he swam away. Gem wanted to say something back but by the time she was underwater again Jimmy was far gone.

Gem looked around the inside of the cabin, it was quite small. The cabin only had a bench and a closet in it, Gem placed her hands on the floor and floated there for a little while. She waited and waited until she noticed the door open.

She hid a little under the water until she recognized the person that walked in, it was Pearl.

Gem immediately shot back up, making herself visible again. "Hi" Pearl said, a little gasp of surprice leaving her but she had a big smile on her face. "Hello, what do you think of this little place?" Gem asked, smiling back at Pearl. "It's great, I mean I had a better view at the beach but this is amazing. We can finally talk to each other without having to worry about getting seen by other humans"

And talk they did, the two of them talked for a long while and for once Gem was truly at ease. She didn't have to worry about being seen by other humans or by other mers. Her brothers knew nothing about this place and no human was allowed to just enter the cabin.

Or at least now human that didn't already know about the existence of mers. Pearl and Gem talked the whole day, not caring about what time it was, not caring about what was happening outside the little cabin that they were in.

Pearl was in her world and Gem was in hers, and yet they were able to freely talk to each other. This was already a big step forward, but Gem still wished that there was more. She still wished that she would be able to enter land, to walk around like an actual human and to see everything.

At one point the door opened, Pearl shot up and blocked Gem from the person's view while Gem dove under the water again. "Oh Joel it's you" Gem heard Pearl say from beneath the water, she peaked over the edge a little and saw a human man. The man had brown hair with a green streak in the middle. He had brown eyes, Gem knew Joel. Or well she didn't know him but she knew by name. It was one of Pearl's coworkers and Lizzie's husband.

It would be normal for Joel to be walking into his own cabin, that seemed logical. Gem swam up a bit more, she could see Joel's eyes focus on her as she came into his field of vision. He looked over her in the same way Gem had just look him over. "Hi" He said, waving his hand a little.

Gem tried not to seem scared, but Joel was only the second real human that she had ever met. "H-hi" Gem responded, giving a small wave back. Pearl seemed to noticed Gem's behaviour, she sat down next to the hole and took one of Gem's hands in hers.

It was a bit weird holding a human hand as a mer. Pearl's fingers weren't webbed, it felt very weird. But it was Pearl's hand which was comforting, it meant that Pearl would protect her if this Joel would do anything. Gem knew that he wouldn't, he was Lizzie's husband after all.

But he was still a human.

"I'm Joel, I don't know what Lizzie or Pearl have told you about me but they were all lies. I am amazing" Joel said, sounding confident but also making Pearl laugh. Joel looked at her "what?" he demanded. Pearl looked at him and put her free hand up in surrender "Nothing, nothing" She said.

Lizzie hadn't told Gem anything yet about Joel, she had only told Gem that she had a husband named Joel. Pearl had told Gem a bit about Joel, she had said that she worked with Joel. She had told her that Joel had laughed at her when she had spilled food over a customer.

But she tried not to be annoyed by that. This was his cabin after all, she shouldn't anger the man that owned the place that allowed Gem to speak freely with Pearl. "I'm Gem" Gem said, introducing herself with a forced smile.

Joel smiled back at her "I- I know what mers think about humans and I understand why they think about us like that. But I won't hurt you and I won't tell anyone about you, I promise. You are also welcome to use the cabin whenever you want" Joel said, a sweet smile on his face.

It felt like he had been able to read Gem's thoughts and that he was trying to reassure her. Before Gem could respond, someone else entered the cabin."Yeah, you just have to tolerate Joel's bad jokes" Lizzie said as she walked into the cabin too.

Gem stared at her, it was still a bit weird seeing Lizzie with legs. But there was no denying it, this was Lizzie. Lizzie walked up to Joel and leaned against the man.

"Hey, I'm just trying to reassure her. And my jokes are not bad" Joel protested, the sweet smile disappearing from his face as he faced Lizzie. "Sure, sure" Lizzie said, as she said it she nodded her head. "Exactly, my jokes are great" Joel said.

Lizzie started shaking her head "Hey! don't shake your head at that" Joel said.

Gem hung out with Lizzie, Joel and Pearl for the rest of the day. Joel actually turned out to be quite nice and Gem and him joked around a big part of the time that they were together. Lizzie ended up joining Gem in the water.

She changed into a mer and they talked further. Eventually it was very late and Gem had gotten tired, as had the rest of them. She decided that it was time to leave. She didn't want to, scared that this amazing place would disappear.

This day, today, it had been nice. It had been nice to talk with Pearl all day, it had been nice to not worry and it had been nice to talk with more people around. Joel picked Lizzie up out of the water in her mer form, he did it like he had done it a million times before.

He must have actually done it a lot of times before, Gem realized. It didn't look like you were able to get out of the water without help. Gem remembered when she had gotten out of the water at the little beach, that alone had almost been impossible. Joel placed Lizzie down on the bench and walked to the closet, he took out some towels and threw one of them towards Lizzie.

Gem had been wondering about what was in the closet.

Lizzie transformed back into a human the second she was dry, they all said their goodbyes before leaving. Gem swam home and went to bed, she laid in bed and thought about the human world. She had seen the inside of a human building.

But she still wanted to see more, the urge hadn't disappeared one bit.

She wanted to go out exploring like Lizzie had done. She wanted to look inside buildings and she wanted to see Pearl's house. Pearl had told her so much about her house, Gem was extremely curious. Gem could not stop thinking about exploring the human world.

Eventually Gem fell asleep, but even in her sleep she couldn't stop thinking about the human lands. She dreamt that she could turn into a human just like Lizzie. In her dream she turned into a human, Pearl had grabbed her non-webbed hand and had shown her around what Gem thought the human lands looked like.

Unfortunately it had all been a dream, Gem had woken up looking like the mer that she was.

Don't get her wrong, she loved being a mer. But she wanted more, she wanted to explore the human lands. She wanted to see more than just water.

Gem got out of bed and swam back to the little cabin, Pearl was already there. They greeted each other and started talking, while they were talking Gem decided to bring up how much she wanted to go to the human world.

Pearl seemed excited for it too, together they made a plan that might actually work. Pearl was a bit unsure about it, but Gem just wanted to see the human lands. She didn't even care anymore about the danger, besides what could even go wrong when she had Pearl by her side.

Later Lizzie and Joel also walked in and the four of them started working on the idea. They had an old wheelchair, they made a hidden compartment in it to hide Gem's tail. They used mittens to hide her webbed fingers, Gem would need to keep her mouth shut for her fangs and she had her hair covering most of her neck and her ears.

Lizzie gave Gem some of her clothes so that Gem wouldn't stand out.

She probably looked ridiculous but she didn't care about that in that moment. Now Gem was ready to go exploring, she was more excited then she had ever been before. Pearl said that it would be smarter to just go to her house for the first time. Just to see how that would go. Gem agreed, she just wanted to look outside.

Off they went, into the human world. The wheelchair wasn't very comfortable but Gem wasn't about to complain. She looked at everything outside, everything was so green and beautiful and clear. It was amazing.

Eventually they arrived at Pearl's house and Pearl showed Gem around. It was great seeing everything that Pearl had been talking about for the past four weeks. But the wheelchair couldn't go up, Gem tried to hide her disappointment, she wanted to see as much as possible.

She knew that she would have to go back to the water once the tour was over. Pearl must have seen Gem's disappointment because she picked Gem up from the wheelchair and started carrying her upstairs instead.

Gem couldn't help but laugh as she looked around, Pearl carried her around the second floor of her house showing her everything. Gem was amazed by all the human inventions, it was all so cool.

There was something, if you turned some kind of gear water would stream out of something that Pearl called a sink. There was something else, a rectangle black box, but when Pearl pressed some kind of button the box radiated some lights and suddenly other humans were visible on the box. There was also a thing that somehow heated things up.

Pearl had placed some kind of food in the device, they waited and when a beeping sound came Pearl took the food out. The food had been solid before, but now it was liquid. Pearl did this a few more time on Gem's request. It looked more like magic than actual magic. Even though Pearl told Gem that it wasn't actually magic.

Gem had forgotten the names of the devises but she decided to call them, the watergiver, the humanbox and the warthmgiver. Very original names.

After a little while Pearl got tired so they took a break, Gem couldn't blame Pearl. Pearl gently laid Gem down on her bed, and they talked for a little bit until this thing that was called a doorbell went. Pearl told Gem to stay were she was, Gem thought that it was an unnecessary comment, she couldn't go anywhere anyway.

Pearl walked downstairs, Gem tried to listen to her conversation. She sat up in the bed but suddenly got very dizzy, she let herself fall on the bed. She was starting to feel really weird, she felt bad. She just lay there, not really knowing what to do.

She couldn't go anywhere, she couldn't call out for Pearl. She was stuck.

Time passed, how much time, Gem had no idea. But after a while Pearl returned, she said something but Gem didn't understand what she was saying. Gem wanted to say something, to ask for help but she couldn't get her body to work with her.

Pearl walked out of the room, leaving Gem confused. But then Pearl returned and picked Gem up, she took Gem to another room and laid her down somewhere. Gem was still confused until she felt water around her.

Water came to her ears, it came higher and higher until Gem was able to breathe again. She laid there for a little bit, just breathing. Her vision turned back to normal and Gem was able to move around again, she smiled in relief.

Pearl started apologizing, Gem didn't understand why. It hadn't been Pearl's fault, Gem hadn't even realised that something had been wrong. She tried to reassure Pearl that she was fine, but Pearl didn't seem to accept that fact.

And so when Pearl told Gem that she would be taking Gem back to the cabin, Gem didn't protest.Pearl brought Gem back to the cabin and helped her back into the water. She tried to act like nothing was wrong and to act like nothing had happened, not wanting to make Pearl feel even more guilty. “I guess next time you’ll just have to come in the water” Gem said once she was back into the water.

“I guess so, but I can’t hold my breath underwater as long as you can above the water” Pearl responded. Gem was sure that she could find a way for her and Pearl to do stuff together. “I’ll keep that in mind, meet me back here tomorrow?” Gem asked, scared that Pearl would say no.

But luckily Pearl nodded and they said their goodbyes, Pearl left and Gem stared at the door of the cabin for a little while. She had gone outside today, she had left the water, she had visited the human lands.

But she had also almost died but she had almost died while she was on the human lands.

Gem smiled and swam back to her house, trying to focus on all the great things that had happened that day. She arrived in record time thanks to how excited she was thinking about all that she had seen. "Hey Gem" Scott said as he spotted her. Gem swam a few circles around Scott, Scott laughed "You look happy" He said.

"Yeah, I am" Gem said, she was about to tell Scott all about her adventure when she realized that she couldn't. She couldn't tell him about Pearl or Lizzie, she couldn't tell him a thing. "But I'm looking for Jimmy now. Do you know where he is?" Gem asked

She could tell Jimmy about her adventure, he already knew that she had a human friend. "He's taking care of the sea turtles again" Scott said "Okay, see you later Scott" Gem said, she giggled and swam to Jimmy, sea turtle Pearl and Snowflake.

When she arrived she immediately told Jimmy about her adventure (skipping over the part where she had almost died). Jimmy didn't really share her excitement over the human lands but that didn't matter. Nothing could ruin Gem's mood anymore.

She went back home later after having cuddled with sea turtle Pearl for a while.

She ate some food and went to bed, as she closed her eyes her brain did a little recap of the day. Gem's eyes shot open when she came to the almost dying part. She took a few deep breaths but nothing seemed to be enough, it felt like she was back on the bed without water.

Gem shot up, swimming outside of her house. She swam for a little while, swimming slowly and stopping every once in a while to take some deep breaths. Eventually she got to a little open place and lay down, staring up at the moon above the water.

She could see and feel the water around her. She was safe, she could breath, she was surrounded by the oxygen inside the water. Yeah, this was fine. Gem's eyes closed and she fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Pearl woke up, got dressed and walked over to the little cabin where Gem would soon appear. It had become a little routine, Pearl couldn't be happier with it. After what had happened the day before she had been worried about Gem.

She knew that Gem was fine, she had seen Gem be fine after the incident. But it still worried her, when she had gone to sleep the night before the only thing she could see when she closed her eyes had been Gem. Gem laying on her bed, not moving, not breathing.

She had gotten a good nap at Skizz and Tango's place. But the second she was alone again, her brain took over. She kept rethinking about what happened, about what could have happened and about how it had all been her fault.

Why had she agreed to let Gem go? Why? She knew that it hadn't been a good idea, she had been having doubts about it the whole time. And yet, the bright smile that Gem had had on her face, it had convinced her to let her go. She had been so happy to see all the humans things in real life.

As Pearl walked she thought back at all of Gem's comments about human inventions. Pearl had to stiffen a laugh when she thought about how Gem had called the microwave a warmthgiver, or when she thought about how Gem had called the sink a watergiver.

She had never thought about the inventions as weird, they were normal to her. But Gem had looked like she was the one that had entered a magic world. When Pearl had been showing Gem around she had been thinking about more places that she could show Gem, but now… She never wanted to bring Gem into the amount of danger she had brought her in that day.

And just like that Pearl's thoughts came back to Gem slowly dying in her bedroom while she had just been chatting with Impulse, Skizz and Tango.

She felt horrible, she should have never left Gem alone when she knew that Gem couldn't go anywhere alone. She would have never forgiven herself if Gem had died. But Gem hadn't died, Gem was fine. Pearl just needed to see the proof that Gem was fine. So there she was, waiting for Gem in the little cabin.

Staring at the water like it was hypnotizing her, time passed slowly around her. Gem showed up a little while later, a smile on her face. It immediately made Pear feel better to see her, it always did.

"Good morning Pearl" Gem said, no sign that she was mad at Pearl for almost letting her die. "Morning Gem, how are you feeling after what happened yesterday?" Pearl asked, she couldn't wait any longer, she had to know that Gem was fully okay.

"Pearl" Gem started, she reached out her hands, trying to take Pearl's hands in hers. Pearl walked to Gem, kneeled in front of the hole of water and took her hands, looking her in the eyes. "Look at me, I'm fine" Gem said, a reassuring smile on her face.

"I- I know, it's just. You almost died yesterday, I- I almost let you die yesterday, I'm so sorry" Pearl said, not being able to keep the tears out of her eyes. She had no idea what she would do if she lost Gem "Yeah, but I didn't die, and this isn't your fault. I wanted to go out of the water, I knew the risks"

"Yeah but I should have-" Pearl started but Gem interrupted her "Nope, there was nothing you should have done differently. I don't blame you for what happened and you shouldn't blame yourself either. I'm fine, nothing happened and if anything did happen, it would have been my own fault"

"Thank you Gem" Pearl said, wiping the tears out of her eyes. "let's just make sure that something like that never happens again" Pearl said, she didn't want to say the actual words out loud. She didn't want to say that they would make sure that Gem would never almost die again.

Saying it out loud would make it feel too real.

Pearl didn't want it to be real, she wanted it to all be a nightmare. She wanted to wake up in her bed and realize that nothing had happened. She wanted to wake up on the day that they would take Gem to Pearl's house and stop herself.

"I don't regret it Pearl, I loved being on the human lands" Gem said, snapping Pearl out of her thoughts. "Yeah, you liked it? I don't see what's so special about the human lands. The ocean had to be more exciting" Pearl replied, they were falling into their normal patrons again.

Envying the other.

"It is far from as exciting as the human lands, we don't have bushes or trees. We don't even have as many flowers as I saw on the short trip that we took yesterday. Oh and the sky, the sky Gem, walking beneath the beautiful blue sky. You know it really looks awful from down here" Gem said.

"You really think so?" Pearl asked in disbelief, Gem nodded. "I think that the ocean is way cooler, I mean being able to swim. It looks like you're floating, it looks so cool. And the fish, you are literally surrounded by them, we humans are only surrounded by stupid mosquitoes" Pearl said.

"What are mosquitoes?" Gem asked.

"They are creatures made in hell, they are really small and can fly making them really hard to catch. Oh and they made the most awful noises, the whole night long. And as if that isn't good enough they also will drink your blood" Pearl explained, she really hated mosquitoes.

"They drink your blood" Gem asked, she swam back a bit and sounded horrified.

"Only a little bit of it, but it leaves you with a red itchy bump on your skin. It's just really annoying" Pearl said. "Does it hurt?" Gem asked, Pearl shook her head "Nah, as I just said, they're just annoying" she hadn't meant to scare Gem, but mosquitoes were actual creatures from hell.

Pearl couldn't wait for the summer, but she was definitely not looking forward to standing in her room in the middle of the night with a shoe in her hand trying to find the creatures that were keeping her away from her well earned sleep.

"That sounds awful, but don't think that living under water is paradise. Ever been stung by a jellyfish?" Gem asked. She started telling a story about when she had been young and had gotten stung by a jellyfish.

By the end of it Pearl looked as horrified as Gem had when she had explained mosquitoes to her.

They talked about the differences between humans and mers for a while, a topic that came up a lot. Gem was in the middle of a sentence when she was pulled away, literally. She got pulled down into the water, completely disappearing.

Pearl shot up, she kneeled down next to the hole that led to the water and looked down into it. She didn't see Gem anymore and started to panic "Gem? Gem?" Pearl screamed. She didn't care anymore if anyone outside would hear her. What had just happened.

She stepped back and took off her jacket, she was about to jump after Gem when someone appeared in the water. Pearl paused, looking at the person with wide eyes. The person was a mer, that much was clear, but they weren't Gem.

"What did you do to Gem?" Pearl demanded when she was able to say something again. She got really close to the mer to seen intimidating, mers were supposed to be scared of humans so she should be able to scare this mer. This mer that had just taken Gem from her, she didn't mind scaring him.

Pearl knew that it was stupid and dangerous to be this close to a mer. But she had to show this mer that she wasn't scared, she had to show them that she was willing to do anything to get Gem back. Because she was, she would do anything to get Gem back.

"Shut up human, we ask the questions here. What are you planning to do with Gem?" The mer asked, showing his fangs as he spoke. Pearl should be scared, she knew that she should be scared. But at that moment she didn't care about how dangerous the mer was.

She didn't care about the sharp teeth, she didn't care about the sharp nails, she didn't even care about the fact that this mer could have powers that could hurt her. All she cared about was getting Gem back.

"What do you mean what am I planning on doing with her? We were just talking. You kidnapped her! Give her back" Pearl said, trying to look scary. It was hard to look scary when she had nothing with her to defend herself. The cabin wasn't helping either, the only thing inside was a towel.

Pearl tried to imagine the cabin in front of her without looking away from the mer. She thought about everything inside the cabin, hoping that there was something to help her in case she needed to fight. She guessed that she could use the bench and throw it at the mer, but she could only do that once and the mer could easily avoid it.

And besides that, he wasn't alone.

There was someone else down there, the person that had taken Gem. Even if Pearl managed to take this mer, the other could still come after her. When the other one was brought up Pearl thought about what it could be doing to Gem in the water. Gem hadn't told her anything about mean mers that kidnapped others.

Pearl must have looked at least a little bit scary to the mer because he backed away slightly. The mer showed its teeth again "We didn't kidnap her, we saved her" he hissed.

"Saved her from what?" Pearl asked, she had literally just been talking with Gem. They weren't even close to each other. "Saved her from you of course, filthy human. What did you want to do with her huh?" The mer demanded angrily. He kept sending glances towards the water, but manly focused on Pearl.

Pearl stayed silent, what was this mer talking about? She was friends with Gem, the mer was the person who had taken Gem. "Are you selling her to a circus or to some kind of scientist? Or wait, are you the scientist, are you planning on experimenting on her" the mer asked.

"What no, of cou-" Pearl started but she was interrupted by the mer "Then why? Are you just planning on selling her off to the highest bidder? Or or-" The mer took a deep breath and looked at Pearl with a face of disgust "Are you planning on eating her?"

"What no!" Just the thought of eating Gem amde Pearl nauseous "We're friends" Pearl said, the mer was about to say something but Gem resurfaced "Gem, thank god" Pearl said, relief washing over her. Another mer appeared next to Gem. Pearl studied that mer, it looked like it was a male, just like the first one.

He had orange hair just like Gem, Pearl looked the other mer over. He had the same blue eyes as the other mer but somehow also looked like Gem. "Pearl" Gem said, making Pearl look at her again "Meet my brothers"

Pearl stayed silent for a few seconds, taking in this new information. "These are your brothers?" Pearl asked, she kept looking them over one by one. They definitely looked like they could be family but "Why would your brothers kidnap you like that?" Pearl asked.

"These idiots think that you're a danger to me, even though I told them that you would never hurt me" Gem said, giving side eyes to her brothers. "She's a human!" One of Gem's brothers said, pointing at Pearl as if she was the one with fangs and claws.

"So?" Gem asked, looking him in the eyes with an angry look on her face. "So? Humans are dangerous" Gem's other brother answered. "Pearl isn't" Gem simply replied. A weird kind of warmth spread over Gem when she heard Gem defend her.

"How do you know that? She could be tricking you" One of Gem's brothers said, acting like Pearl wasn't even there. "She wouldn't, would you two just trust me on this one? We can trust Pearl, plus if she would have wanted to hurt me she would have done it already" Gem replied.

Gem's brothers looked at each other and swam in front of Gem, acting like some sort of shield for her. Gem rolled her eyes and swam past them "I don't need a shield, mostly not one made out of you two idiots" Gem said.

"Gem, you know that we trust you. It's this human over here that we don't trust" One of the mers said, acting as if Pearl wasn't there. "It doesn't matter that you don't trust her, I trust her" Gem said, she swam under the water, disappearing out of Pearl's view. It confused Pearl for a second.

But then Gem swam back up, launching herself onto the floor of the cabin. Pearl noticed what she was trying to do and helped her up fully. dragging her into she was fully out of the water "Gem! Gemini Tay, you get back in the water!" One of the mer demanded, Pearl really had to learn their names. This didn't really look like a good moment to ask though.

"So Pearl where were we?" Gem asked, moving onto her back and pushing herself up. She sat up, leaning against the bench with her back. Pearl smiled and took a seat next to her, she smiled at the way Gem was ignoring her brothers.

Pearl didn't have any brothers, she didn't understand much about having siblings. But since these two had just tried to kidnap Gem, it seemed fair that she was ignoring them now.

Pearl laughed and continued talking, starting their conversation up again. Gem's brothers kept shouting things at them but Pearl and Gem ignored them. Every once in a while Pearl would look over at one of the two, but she didn't say anything in response. She was not getting into this family drama.

At one point the door to the cabin slightly opened, Joel looked through it.

"Everything okay in here?" He asked, he seemed to notice the two extra mers in the water and paused.

"Yeah, everything is fine. Joel, meet my brothers. They don't really like humans" Gem said, a smile on her face as the anger on her brothers faces grew. "Ah, just like my in-laws, good luck with them Pearl" Joel said before leaving again. Pearl could hear Joel mutter a "Thank god that Lizzie only has one brother" before he disappeared out of earshot.

Gem and Pearl continued their conversation as if nothing had happened. When Pearl shot another look into the direction of the brothers she noticed that they had taken a few steps back. The next time Pearl looked over at them she noticed that one of Gem's brothers had completely disappeared beneath the water. She hoped that he had given up, but then he appeared a second later trying to also get out of the water.

Now that he was partly out of the water Pearl could see his tail. Gem had told her that every single tail was unique and his was very different from Gem's tail despite them being siblings. His tail was black with brown and a bit of red.

"Sausage, quit that!" Gem said as she pulled her tail closer to herself so that he couldn't grab it. "This is for your own good Gem, that human is going to hurt you somehow" The mer, apparently named Sausage said. "She's not, but I might just hurt you if you keep doing that" Gem said, sounding like she was actually getting angry.

"Gem come on, you know that humans are dangerous. Why are you making such a big deal over this one?" The other mer asked. Gem looked at Pearl and smiled "She isn't just a human, she's my friend. And I trust her not to hurt me as much as I trust any of my other friends"

"But- she's" The mer that had just spoken said. "She's my friend" Gem said, interrupting him, her arms crossed over each other. "And neither of you get to choose who my friends are. So just leave me and Pearl alone" Gem said, moving even closer to Pearl.

Pearl could see the panic in the eyes of Gem's brothers grow. But Pearl didn't move one bit, she obviously wouldn't hurt Gem. "Fine, we'll leave you alone. For now, but don't say we didn't warn you" Sausage said. He and the orange haired mer left.

Gem looked at the water and dived back in, she stayed underwater for a little bit before coming back up. "Sorry about hem, they can be really overprotective" Gem said, glaring back into the water sa if they were still there.

"Don't worry about it, they have every right to be worried. Humans have done awful things to mers haven't they?" Pearl asked, she had heard about what could happen if someone found out about Gem. But she never really thought that those things had also happened.

"Yeah, but you wouldn't do that. I know you wouldn't" Gem said, a smile on her face.

"Good, because you're right. I would never hurt you" Pearl said, an alarm on her phone went off. "Oh, I have to go to work" Pearl said, she knew how distracted she could get around Gem. That's why she had set an alarm for the time that she had to leave.

She hadn't even realised that she had been there for so long.

"Bye Pearl, see you tomorrow? I'm gonna have a long talk with my brothers" Gem said, an evil smile on her face. Pearl laughed "Goodbye Gem, try not to murder them to badly"

Pearl heard an "I'll try" When she left the building, it brought another smile to her face. She went home, got ready and quickly left. She somehow was on time and started working the second she arrived.

After work she went home, ate and went to bed exhausted. It would take her a while to get used to the night shifts. The combination of working late and waking up early wasn't great either. But her life couldn't be better, so why should she stop?

Chapter Text

Gem woke up and got up from bed, she swam outside. She was ready for another day with Pearl, she quickly got out of her house. But she stopped when she spotted someone with bright orange hair, the orange that she could pick out of thousands, the orange of her brother Fwip. Who was doing a terrible job at hiding.

"Fhwip, what are you doing here?" Gem asked as she swam towards him. It seemed like he was shocked that Gem had been able to see him, which was weird since he really stood out. She swam right in front of him as she said it, Fhwip looked up. He smiled, knowing that he was caught "Hey Gem, what are you doing here?" Fwhip asked as he stood up fully, acting as if it was just a coincidence that they were both there.

"Hey Fwhip, I live here. What are you doing here?" Gem responded, her arms crossed. She couldn't believe that he had been spying on her. She thought that her brothers were finally letting her live a little, but of course she was wrong.

Fwhip was lucky that he hadn't seen anything that Gem didn't want him to see. She knew that if he knew about Pearl that he would immediately confront her about it, probably with Sausage as backup. They would act like Gem was a child, like she didn't know what she was doing.

Ever since Gem had met Pearl she had been thinking about her brothers reaction if they ever found out about Pearl. They would be mad, furious even. Maybe they'd be disappointed in Gem, Gem would rather have them angry than disappointed.

Not that they would have any reason to be angry. Gem was her own mer and she was allowed to make her own decisions.

"Oh you know just chilling" Fwhip answered "But uhm I should go now, nice talking to you. byeeee" Fwhip tried to swim away but Gem took his wrist, effectively stopping him. "What are you doing here? I thought that you were going to try and dim it down a little"

"I am dimming it down a little" Fwhip answered.

"Spying on me is not dimming it down a little" Gem argued, it had gone right for a couple of days. But it looked like Fhwip was done with dimming it down. At least Sausage wasn't there, at least one of her brothers had respected her wishes. "I'm gonna go now and I better not notice you following me"

"Fine, fine" Fwhip responded, holding his hands up in surrender. "I would never follow you" he added before he turned around and started swimming away. Gem watched him swim away, making sure he was really leaving.

Once Gem was sure that he was really gone she let out a breath of relief and started swimming to the little cabin. She reached the surface and saw Pearl already there waiting for her. Gem and Pearl started talking, Pearl seemed to still feel pretty guilty about what had happened the day before.

Gem tried to reassure her that she was okay and that it hadn't been Pearl's fault. Eventually the conversation switched and Pearl started explaining these creatures called mosquitoes. Gem was horrified by them.

They were talking when Gem suddenly felt a tug at her tail and she was pulled down into the water. Gem trashed in the grip of whatever had pulled her down, screaming for someone to help her. For a terrifying second she thought that some kind of sea monster had gotten her, that it would only be a matter of seconds before she would be eaten and killed.

But that feeling stopped once she saw who had pulled her down. She stopped screaming but kept trying to get out of their grip. Her brothers were looking at her with concern. They let go of her but Gem was only free for a second before Sausage pulled her into a hug, keeping her in place in the progress.

Gem looked over at Sausage, the man swam up towards the surface. His face turned furious as he swam up, that couldn't be good. Gem was about to follow him but was stopped by Fwhip "Are you okay Gem? Did that human hurt you?" Fwhip asked as he looked her over. "I- I'm fine, what are you two doing here?"

"Protecting you from that human of course" Fwhip said, his face turning angry as he looked up before he turned his attention back to Gem "But you don't have to worry about them anymore, we will take care of them" Sausage said, he was about to follow Fwhip and swim up but Gem stopped him.

"I do not need your protection, mostly not from Pearl. She is my friend, she would never hurt me" Gem said, it was too late for lies now anyway. They had seen Pearl, they knew about her, now all Pearl could do was make sure that they wouldn't do anything stupid. "I thought that I had told you not to follow me" Gem asked furiously.

"Technically you told me that you better not notice me following you, you didn't notice me" Fwhip said "Plus it's a good thing we did follow you, you were hanging out with a human. Do you know how dangerous humans are?"

"I know, I know. But Pearl isn't like that, Pearl is different" Gem protested, she knew how dangerous humans were, of course she knew. But Pearl was different. Pearl would never hurt her.

"Did she put a spell on you or something, come on Gem you're talking about a human" Fwhip said, Gem rolled her eyes and swam back up. She hoped that Sausage hadn't done anything to stupid yet, she reached the surface and saw Fwhip next to her a second later.

Pearl and Sausage were looking at each other, Gem felt guilty. Poor Pearl didn't even know who these idiots were and now they were probably telling her off for something she hadn't done. "Pearl" Gem said, hoping that Pearl would look at her.

"Meet my brothers" Gem said when Pearl looked at her. Gem could see Pearl's face as she took in the information that Gem had just told her. Pearl looked at Fwhip then at Gem, then back at Fwhip and eventually at Sausage.

Eventually Pearl asked "These are your brothers? Why would your brothers kidnap you like that?" Pearl asked, shocked, still looking all of them over. Gem started explaining but her brothers kept interrupting her, saying that Pearl was dangerous.

They kept arguing until Gem had had enough, she swam underwater and launched herself up. She landed on the floor of the cabin with most of her body, Pearl helped her up the rest of the way. Gem sat up on the floor and looked back at her brothers who were still in the water.

They didn't seem too happy about her little escape.

"Gem! Gemini Tay, you get back in the water!" Sausage said, Gem ignored him and turned to Pearl "So Pearl where were we?" She asked with a smile on her face. Pearl laughed and the two of them continued the conversation that they were having.

She could hear her brothers still yelling at her, but she ignored them completely. At one point Joel opened the door to the cabin, it seemed like her brothers were making a lot of noise. He asked them if they were okay, but after Gem explained he seemed fine with it all. He left but Fwhip and Sausage kept yelling at her.

At one point Sausage went underwater and tried to climb up onto the land just like Gem had done. Gem knew that there was no way he would succeed alone but it still annoyed her. Why couldn't they see that she was fine, that Pearl wasn't hurting her?

After a while and a whole lot more yelling they left, saying that they had warned Gem. Gem was happy that they had left, even though she hadn't expected it. Gem checked the water, it really looked like they had left. She got back in and took a few deep breaths underwater before going back up to Pearl.

She apologized for her brothers behaviour and the two of them continued their conversation. After a while an alarm went off, Gem was confused until Pearl took her phone and turned the alarm off. She said that she had to go to work and left.

Gem swam back to her house, she was going to have a long conversation with her brothers.

She spotted her brothers pretty quickly, she swam up to them and started talking, not giving them a chance to even get a word in. "What is wrong with the two of you, you spy on me and follow me. Then you scream at me for hours that I'm in danger after I told you that I wasn't. I sat down next to Pearl which was my own choice and she didn't hurt me. But that still wasn't enough proof for you" Gem started.

"I get that you worry about me, I get that you two are my older brothers. But this is not normal, mostly not after I already told you that you need to stop. And you told me that you would dim it down a little, this is not dimming it down at all. I love both of you, but you have to quit with this immediately. You can't keep invading my privacy like this" Gem yelled, she stopped talking after that, finally giving her brothers a chance to speak.

"Gem" Fwhip started, he had tears in his eyes. He looked at Sausage "Fine, we'll tell her" He said, confusing Gem "Tell me what?" She asked, having calmed down a bit after she saw the tears in her brothers eyes. She barely ever saw them cry, it felt weird.

"Why we don't want you to be around humans so badly, why we did what we did. And why we don't want you to hang around humans. Just know that everything we did, it came from love" Sausage said, it was clear that he was trying to blink the tears away but more and more kept appearing.

Whatever it was he was talking about, this was serious. Gem looked over at Fwhip, hoping that he could give her some answers but his face revealed nothing.

"What is this about?" Gem asked.

"Let's go inside" Fwhip said, the three of them swam inside Gem's house and Fwhip closed the door behind him. "We haven't told you something, we thought that it was better to not tell you. But you deserve to know" Sausage said in a serious tone.

"What haven't you told me?" Gem asked, her thoughts went into overdrive as it came up with possibilities. "Remember a few years ago, when we heard that mom and dad were gone?" Fwhip asked, Gem nodded. She had been gone for the day and when she had returned she had found Fwhip and Sausage crying in their parents house.

They had told her that their parents had died, but they never told her any more details. Sausage and Fwhip had gotten more overprotective about Gem since that day. But that wouldn't excuse their behaviour today.

"We told you that we didn't know what had happened, that was a lie. Y-you-" Sausage said, tears streaming down his face "You were so young, we didn't want to share it with you. We thought that it would be better if you didn't know what happened"

"Wha- what did happen?" Gem asked, almost scared of the answer.

"Well we always tell you about how you're so much like our parents with your curiosity. Mom and dad did research about humans, they went close to the humans a lot. They were very passionate about it and they believed that not all humans were dangerous" Fwhip said.

"They went out one day and… they showed themselves to a human. They befriended the human but one day they were betrayed by the human. They met up and the human had brought other humans with him, he tried to capture mom and dad. They of course tried to protect each other, not wanting the other to get taken" Sausage took a deep breath before saying the rest.

"They died fighting, the human killed them"

Gem had tears streaming over her cheeks, she stayed silent not knowing what to say.

Her brothers had lied to her all of these years. They told her that they didn't know what had happened, but they did. Their parents had been killed by humans, the same humans that would still live close by. "We're sorry that we didn't tell you sooner Gem, but that is the reason we're so overprotective of you" Fwhip said.

"We don't like it when you go to far from here, we just keep worrying about what would happen if a human found you. And then we found out that you were actually going to the human lands, i-it only made us worry more. And we tried to stop ourselves but we just couldn't" Sausage said.

"When we found out that you befriended a human this morning… Gem, are you sure that she won't hurt you?" Fwhip asked. Gem couldn't imagine what that must have felt like to them, seeing her with the creature that had killed their parents. "Humans, they can't be trusted"

But Pearl wasn't like that, Pearl was nice. Pearl would never hurt her, right?

"Yes, I'm sure" Gem said, if Pearl had wanted to hurt her she would have already done it. If she had wanted to kill Gem she could have easily done it the day before. There was no way that Pearl had been faking their friendship for so long.

"Ho- how do you know what happened to mom and dad?" Gem asked, they hadn't been there when it had happened and mom and dad couldn't have told them. "Pix told us, he was with them that day. Mom and dad sent him away when they noticed that there were more humans there but he stayed and saw everything happen" Sausage explained.

Pix was their cousin, or well they saw him as a cousin. He was the son of the friends of their parents, he was seven years older then Sausage and had always been like a big cousin for the three of them. He had seen their parents as his family, Gem couldn't imagine what it had to have been like for him.

"Why did Fwhip know, but not me?" Gem asked, they were the same age after all.

"The day that it happened Pix came to us crying, Fwhip refused to leave him. We asked him what had happened and he told us. I couldn't control the amount of information that Fwhip was told, but I could control what we were going to tell you" Sausage said.

"Don't blame him too much, he wanted to tell you a few years ago but I didn't want to. But I agree with Sausage now, you deserve the truth" Fwhip said as he dried his tears, more and more kept falling anyway.

"I- I don't know what to say" Gem responded because she didn't. A lot of information was just told to her and she didn't know how to comprehend it all.

"That's okay, take your time. Do you want us to stay here or do you want us to leave?" Fwhip asked, Gem didn't have to think about that for long "stay" she answered as she wrapped her arms around the two of them.

They stayed like that for a while, just holding each other.

Knowing this, it still didn't make everything that her brothers had done okay. But Gem did now understand where they were coming from, she understood their hate for humans more. Of course they were cautious, humans had betrayed their parents all those years ago.

Her parents had thought that they could trust the humans, just like Gem could trust Pearl. But they had still been murdered, it still hadn't ended well for them. Pearl wasn't like that, Pearl would never hurt Gem. Gem knew that, she was sure of it.

Gem's parents had been trying to prove that not all humans were evil, they were right. They had just found the wrong humans to test that theory on. Gem on the other hand, she had found a human that could be trusted.

Chapter Text

Pearl woke up late in the morning, for once the sun was already up. Pearl laid down on her back, staring at her ceiling for a little bit. She had slept for a while but she was still exhausted. Usually when she woke up she would immediately get out of bed and start getting ready for the day.

Before she had moved here she would sometimes spend some time scrolling through her phone, but she hadn't done that in a while. Nothing on her phone compared to getting to talk to Gem, that was way more exciting. But today, Pearl felt like she could use a lazy morning.

She took her phone from the charger and started scrolling through it, trying to shut her thoughts up so that she could just relax. Soon she had to quit though, of course her bladder wouldn't agree with her lazy morning plan.

It was fine anyway, she and Gem had planned to meet up again. Luckily they had planned to meet up a bit later today, since that was now actually possible. Pearl got ready, took some breakfast to go and walked to the little cabin, she looked around in case there was anyone there and walked in. She had expected Gem to already be there since she was a little late.

But she wasn't.

Pearl sat down on the bench and waited while she ate her breakfast. She waited and waited but Gem didn't show up, it made Pearl worry. Had something happened? Had Gem's brothers done something to her? Had they locked her up?They wouldn't do anything like that, right?

An hour passed and Gem still wasn't there. Pearl hated every second that Gem wasn't there, every time she heard a noise come from in the water she hoped that it was Gem. But it never was. The thoughts of worry made Pearl go crazy.

The worst part was that Pearl couldn't do anything but wait. She couldn't go into the water and check in on Gem, she was useless. She couldn't even call or text Gem to see if she was okay, there was really nothing Pearl could do besides wait.

And wait she did, she waited the whole morning.

She just kept staring at the water, waiting for Gem to appear. She kept replaying the conversation that Pearl had had with Gem the day before. Gem had told her that they would meet up today, right? And she had meant here in the cabin right?

Pearl wanted to go to the docks instead, but she had to get to work. She considered calling in sick, but she knew that there was nothing she could do even if she went to the docks. She would just be doing the same thing there that she was doing here, wait. Maybe a distraction would be good. Pearl looked at the water one more time before leaving the cabin and walking to work.

She got there and put on her apron trying to not show her thoughts on her face. She fumbled with the strings of the apron, but the stupid thing wasn't working with her. Impulse took one look at her and started to approach her. He helped her tie the apron and asked "Everything alright?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine" Pearl responded, she was about to go to the front but Impulse stopped her by standing in front of her "Pearl, I'm standing here as your friend not your boss" Impulse took his chef hat off "Are you really okay?"

"I-I am fine, just a bit worried about one of my friends" Pearl admitted, she knew that she had to be careful with how much she told Impulse. It was easy to spill everything that she had been anxious about when Impulse was standing in front of her like he was right now.

"What's going on with your friend?" Impulse asked.

Pearl should have been working, but Impulse didn't look like he cared about that. He was also supposed to be working too, and yet he was standing in front of her ready to talk to her about her problems. "She, my friend. She just hasn't been responding to my messages. It's nothing for her" Pearl explained.

It sounded like a good excuse and it was close to what was actually happening. Maybe the excuse sounded a bit stupid but Pearl didn't care.

"Oh, does your friend live in the place where you used to live?" Impulse asked.

"No, she doesn't. But she still lives pretty far away, in a place where I can't go so I can't go check up on her" Pearl answered. "That does sound pretty frustrating, do you know anyone who does lives close to her? Someone who could check up on her?" Impulse asked, offering advise.

"No- wait yes" Pearl said, Lizzie! Pearl could call Lizzie and Lizzie could go check up on Gem for her. "Impulse can I-" Pearl started but Impulse interrupted her and said "Go, but be quick. It's almost lunch time, we're about to get busy"

Pearl smiled and ran back into the employee's only room where she had her phone. She took it out and quickly called Lizzie, hoping that Lizzie would pick up. Lizzie luckily picked up a few seconds after Pearl had hit the call button. Those few seconds had felt like an eternity.

"Hello?" Lizzie said as she answered the phone. "Lizzie!" Pearl almost shouted, she forced herself to be a little bit quieter and calmed herself down a little Everything would be okay, Lizzie would check up on Gem, she was sure that Lizzie would be willing to help. "Gem didn't show up this morning when we had planned to meet up. I'm kinda worried about her"

"And you want me to go check up on her?" Lizzie predicted.

Pearl nodded before realising that Lizzie couldn't see her. "Yes please, if you have the time" Pearl said, she didn't want to force Lizzie to do anything. But she just had to know if Gem was okay. She needed to be sure that nothing bad had happened to her.

It could be nothing and it was probably nothing, but… What if something was wrong? What if something had happened.

"Sure, I'll go see what she's up to in a little bit. But Pearl, Gem can be the person who gets caught up on a project or something, you shouldn't worry too much. I'm sure that she's fine" Lizzie tried to reassure Pearl, Pearl took a deep breath.

She knew how quickly Gem could get distracted. She had had countless conversations with her where they drifted away from the topic really quickly because Gem kept saying random new things that she was thinking about. But she had never missed meeting Pearl.

"Thank you Lizzie" Pearl answered. She hung up but kept her phone with her as she walked back to the front to actually start working. She started taking some orders and noticed that Joel was also working, great she was working with Joel again.

Pearl could not stop thinking about Gem while she was working, she kept taking out her phone to see if Lizzie had texted her something. But she hadn't so Pearl was just left worrying. Her phone sound was on, she would be able to hear it if someone texted or called her.

But she still had to turn her phone on fully to check. What if the message didn't make a sound, what if Pearl didn't hear it? What if Gem needed help? Pearl kept messing up orders just like she had done her fist day. It was hard to remember things when her mind could only think about if Gem was okay.

She had only been working for an hour but had said 'I'm sorry' At least ten times already.

Joel must have noticed her behaviour because he walked up to her while she was getting food and asked "What is going on with you today?" Pearl wasn't sure if he was angry at her or not. He should be, this was behaviour for a beginner. Pearl should know better by now.

She should be able to concentrate on her work instead of her private problems. But she couldn't help it.

"Sorry, I'm just a bit distracted. I'll try to get things right now" Pearl said as she started walking away. Joel followed her "Distracted by what? And don't think that I don't notice you checking your phone every five seconds. That really is not professional"

"Just distracted, don't you have tables to serve?" Pearl asked, he was starting to annoy her. He was right though, she was distracted, but he didn't have to point it out. And even if he felt the need to point it out, he could at the very least be a little friendlier about it.

"Nope, I ,unlike you, am done until my next table needs something new" Joel looked around the cafe "Which isn't happening yet. Which means that I can question you about your behaviour, now what's going on?" Joel asked, his voice lowering a little so that nobody else would at least hear him.

Pearl gave the food to the table that had ordered it, making sure not to spill anything. She walked back to the kitchen for the next plates of food, Joel just kept following her. "Come on, tell me" Joel said as Pearl started picking up plates.

She looked at the sixth plate that was still on the counter, there was no way she could carry that one too. Joel noticed, picked it up and motioned for her to keep walking. Pearl rolled her eyes and walked to the table that had ordered the food and gave them the food.

Joel gave them the plate that he had picked up, smiled at the guest and then went back to following (annoying) Pearl.

Pearl had had enough, she turned to him and said "I'm worried about Gem okay? Happy now?" She said, she started walking away again, not wanting to look Joel in the eyes. "Why are you worried about her? Did something happen?" Joel asked, his teasing tone gone, he actually sounded concerned.

"No, or well yes but no. We had planned to meet up today but she wasn't at the cabin, I just- I can't go to her to see if she's alright. Her brothers told me about some things that humans could do to mers and I- I'm just worried that a human did something to her" Pearl admitted.

"Or that something else happened, I don't even know what could happen underwater. I just keep thinking about all of these things that could have happened to her" Pearl added softly, looking away from Joel. Joel was the only human that she didn't have to lie to. He was the only person who knew that mers excited, he was the only person that she could be honest too.

"I understand, I get worried about Lizzie too whenever she goes underwater again. It's hard not being able to communicate with her, not knowing if she's safe. But she always is, I know that she always is. But it still worries me" Joel admitted.

Pearl was surprised at his words. She wasn't surprised that he loved Lizzie, Pearl knew that. But she was surprised that he had shared it with her. They weren't exactly friends, but if anyone would understand Pearl right now, it was Joel.

"So you understand, what would you do in my situation?" Pearl asked, she could really use some good advice right now.

"I would just worry the whole time until I saw Lizzie again. But you don't have to do that, you could just ask Lizzie if she could check up on Gem. I'm sure she would be fine with it" Joel suggested, actually giving helpful advice for once instead of just laughing in her face.

"I did, I'm waiting for an answer from Lizzie. It's why I keep checking my phone" Pearl replied. Now that she was reminded of her phone she just had to check it again, unfortunately there were no new messages and no missed calls.

"I guess there really is nothing to do but wait" Joel said, Pearl nodded. "Let's get back to work, tell me if you hear if Gem's okay" Joel said, he walked away and went back to work like nothing had happened. Like him and Pearl hadn't just been talking about Pearl's mer friend and Joel's mer wife.

Pearl checked her phone again before going back to work. She tried to focus, she really did. A while later Pearl's phone went, right when she was taking someone's order. Pearl took her phone out, it was Lizzie. But she couldn't just walk away now.

"I'll take over, answer the call" Joel said, he was suddenly standing next to Pearl. Pearl smiled "Thank you" she said before answering the call while she walked away. "Pearl?" Lizzie asked as Pearl put her phone to her ear.

"Lizzie! Is she okay?" Pearl asked, not wasting any time on chitter chatter.

"Calm down, she's fine. She- her brothers told her about something that had happened, something that they had been keeping secret from her. She apologises for not showing up this morning, her thoughts were somewhere else" Lizzie said, finally giving Pearl some answers.

Pearl let out a sigh of relief, Gem was fine. "Okay, thank you Lizzie, really" Pearl answered. She would talk with Gem later and ask her about what was going on. At the moment all she cared about was that she was okay.

"No problem" Lizzie said, Pearl couldn't see her but she imagined that Lizzie had a smile on her face. "I have to go back to work, but really thank you" Pearl said. "It really was no problem, bye" Lizzie said "Bye" Pearl answered before hanging up.

She put her phone away and walked back to the front of the cafe. Joel was giving orders to Impulse "She's fine" Pearl whispered to Joel. She saw a smile appear on his face for a second before it disappeared again.

"Good, since I took one of your tables you can take one of mine. Congrats table fourteen is all yours, they're ready to order so you better hurry" Joel said.

Pearl smiled and walked to the table. She worked for a few more hours before it was time for her to go again. "Is your friend okay?" Impulse asked before Pearl left. "Yeah, she's fine" Pearl said before saying "I'm sorry if I was a bit distracted today"

"It's fine Pearl, you have a life outside work. This was more important" Impulse replied. "Now go home and go to bed, you look exhausted"

"Yes dad" Pearl said, the joke just slipped out but Impulse just smiled at it.

Pearl did as he said, she went home, ate some dinner and then went to bed. He had been right, she was exhausted. She had exhausted herself worrying today and the hours of work hadn't helped. Pearl fell asleep and hoped that Gem would show up again the next day.

She really needed to see with her own eyes that she was okay.

Chapter Text

Gem woke up on her couch, she lifted her head slightly and saw that her brothers were still there. Fwhip was laying asleep next to her, leaning against Sausage. Sausage was sitting on the couch, the man was awake. He had one of his arms around Fwhip but was looking over at Gem. "Morning" She whispered, not wanting to wake Fwhip.

"Morning" Sausage replied, Gem laid down on her back. The conversation she had had yesterday had exhausted her, she couldn't stop thinking about it. If it weren't for her brothers being with her she doubted that she would have been able to go to sleep. She was a bit angry at her brothers for not telling her sooner, but she understood why they didn't tell her.

She wouldn't have wanted to tell them that kind of information either.

She hadn't forgiven them for their overprotective behaviour yet, it was crazy to follow someone around. Even if it came out of love. But she now understood why they were acting that way. They were scared to lose her just like they had lost their parents. Gem couldn't imagine how they must have felt all those years whenever she told them that she wanted to explore the world.

Explore the world, just like their parents.

Gem stood up and started walking to her door. "I'm gonna get us some breakfast" Gem said, Sausage just nodded so she left. She swam, ignoring everything around her, she wanted to just forget what she had been told the day before. Gem swam and soon found a school of fish.

They started to swim away but she caught a few, she swam back home with breakfast just like she had promised. Swimming usually helped her clear her mind but not this time, it only made Gem's thoughts worse. Her parents had swam at the very place she was swimming right now.

And they had been murdered.

They had been murdered by the same species that Gem had now befriended. Gem didn't blame her human friends, she knew that Pearl and Joel would never hurt her or any other mer. But she also knew that they were up there, up on the human lands with the people who had murdered her parents.

Gem got back home, she noticed that Fwhip was awake now. He was having a conversation with Sausage as she walked in but both of them stopped talking when she walked in. Gem walked over to them and handed them each a fish.

She sat down next to them and started eating her own fish in silence. She didn't want to ask about what they had been talking about, after yesterday she didn't know if she wanted to know. Were there other secrets that her brothers could be keeping from her because they didn't think that she could handle them?

"Gem, when you're done eating we would like to show you something" Fwhip eventually said from beside her. "okay" she answered, curious about what this could be about. Maybe more secrets would be revealed to her. They ate in silence, none of them really knowing what to say.

When they were done Sausage got up and fwhip followed. They looked over at Gem, motening for her to follow them. So Gem too stood up, Sausage and fwhip started swimming somewhere and Gem followed. She didn't pay attention to anything apart from her brothers. Sausage was swimming in front of her leading the way while Fwhip was swimming next to her.

While they were swimming Gem started recognizing the way that they were going "Are we going home?" Gem asked, she looked over at Fwhip for confirmation, he nodded.

They were going to the house where Gem, Fwhip and Sausage had grown up. The house that they had been living in her whole childhood. Gem hadn't been there since she moved out when her parents had died. She was living in the house when her parents had been murdered, afterwards she and Fwhip had lived with Sausage.

It had been a big change for everyone, a horrifying change. Every single day Gem had woken up and wished that it had all been a nightmare. But every day she had woken up at Sausage's house proved to her that it hadn't been a nightmare.

Later Gem had moved into her own little house and she had never looked back. Their old house brought back too many memories, memories of what they had lost. Memories of everything what had been and that still could have been if it hadn't been for humans. The three of them stopped in front of the house when they arrived. "Y-you don't have to go in if you don't want to" Sausage assured her.

"I wanna go in, I think that's it's time" Gem said, she swam into the house. She still didn't understand what they were doing here, Fwhip and Sausage had told her that they had wanted to show her something. But what?

The door opened in front of Gem, she saw the hallway, still filled with the stuff that they had left there. Small shoes and coats that her parents never wanted to throw away trashed the hallway. As Gem swam further into the house she saw the furniture, memories flooded through her.

She remembered the time that she, Fwhip and Sausage had been sick, they had taken over the living room. On the floor had been tissues, wrappers from foods and random blankets and pillows. everyone had been miserable that week, but at least none of them had been alone.

Another memory came over Gem as she remembered the place filled with blankets. Gem remembered a time when she and Fwhip had been building a pillowfort, Sausage had come home while they were in the middle of building. He had laughed at them before he helped them.

The three of them had refused to leave the fort for at least a day. They ate and slept in there, even though it was a tight squeeze in there. When Gem looked out of the window she saw the backyard, the place where she had first discovered her mermaid ability.

"as we said, mom and dad were researching humans" Sausage began, snapping Gem out of her thoughts. "They documented a lot of their research, after they died I found it. We- we didn't have any use of it but it didn't feel right to throw it away. We know that you are fascinated by humans so if you want we can show you their research" Sausage said.

"They actually believed that humans could be good, so I don't think that their research is negative" Fwhip assured her. Gem actually did want to see it, she wanted to see the work that had caused her parents' death. She wanted to know what they had figured about during all of their research.

"Where is it?" She asked.

Sausage started swimming somewhere, Gem just followed him. He swam to their parents' office and opened the door. He then swam to the mirror and opened it? Behind the mirror was a secret compartment filled with books and pieces of paper.

Gem swam closer to it, Sausage swam out of the way. "Everything I found is still here" He said. Gem started going through the books and stacks of paper, all of the papers, all of the pages were filled with information. She realized something and turned to Fwhip and Sausage who were staring at her.

"You're not just giving me this so that I will stop going to Pearl, right?" She asked, if that was what they were doing it wouldn't work. Her friendship with Pearl had started out as a way for her to learn more about humans, but it was way more than that right now. She wouldn't stop seeing Pearl just because she now had more information about humans.

"No, no, we're not. We are showing you this because you deserve to see it" Sausage answered. "To be honest, we should have shown it to you way earlier" Fwhip added. "So you won't stop me from meeting with Pearl?" Gem asked hopefully. It would be great if her brothers would accept that her and pearl were friends.

"No we won't stop you from meeting with the human, if you say that she won't hurt you we will believe you. But it won't stop us from worrying" Fwhip answered, a small smile on his face. "We do understand that following you around was creepy" Sausage said.

"Yeah, that was bad. But we just- we knew that you were leaving to go somewhere every day. When we asked you about it, you lied to us" Fwhip agreed, Gem nodded. She went over to the two of them and hugged them again "thank you" She said, Fwhip and Sausage hugged her back "Just be careful, please" Sausage said. "I'll try" Gem answered.

Sausage and Fwhip left her alone after a while and Gem started searching through all the information that her parents had discovered. She read through a lot of it, some of it was painfully wrong but some of it surprised Gem.

They worked really hard on this, but it had caused their death.

Gem was so busy looking through the books and papers that she didn't notice anything else around her, including when someone else entered the room. "Gem?" A voice suddenly came from behind Gem.

She turned around and saw Lizzie walking towards her, concern on her face. "Lizzie? What are you doing here?" Gem asked confused, how had Lizzie found her here?

"You had plans to meet up with Pearl but you didn't show up. Pearl got concerned and asked me to go check up on you. I went to your house but you weren't there, I went to Sausage and he said that you were here. I asked if something was wrong but they said to ask you" Lizzie explained, looking over all the papers in front of Gem.

"Oh Pearl, I totally forgot. I- I found out some things yesterday" Gem said, Lizzie swam closer to her and sat down next to her "Wanna talk about it?" she asked. "My parents were doing research on humans" Gem said, holding up the paper that she was reading.

"Until humans killed them"

Gem could see the shock on Lizzie's face, Lizzie wrapped an arm around Gem, pulling her closer to her. "That's awful, I'm so sorry Gem" Gem let go of the paper and hugged Lizzie back. "I befriended someone who is the same species as the people who killed my parents" she whispered.

"Oh Gem, not all humans are like that I promise you" Lizzie responded. "I know, but I can't stop thinking about it. I can't stop thinking about how my friends, you, you're all walking around the human lands with the same people who killed my parents" Gem admitted.

Lizzie stayed with Gem for a while, comforting her. But eventually she had to leave, Gem told her to tell Pearl that she was sorry for not showing up. Lizzie left, leaving Gem all alone in her parents house. Gem kept going through her parents' papers.

She wanted to read all of them.

She stayed there for the rest of the night, just reading through stuff. At one point she found a paper that was called 'becoming human?' The paper confused Gem, what did they mean with becoming human. In the paper it said something about how useful it would be if they could become a human.

In the paper was written how her parents could get more information about humans if they could become human. The paper described the differences between a human and a mer, not just the things she could on the outside. But also the inside.

It had information about all the bones in human legs, it had information about human lungs and how they worked. It talked about what humans ate and how it was different from mers. It was all very detailed but the thing that really caught Gem's attention was what was written on the bottom.

On the bottom on the back of the paper was written sea witch? Human for 24 hours, see paper 152.

Gem started searching for paper 152, she looked through all the papers but eventually found it. The paper was in a plastic cover just like all the other papers were. But it was broken so half the paper was damaged by water.

But the beginning was still partly readable, it read:

transformation started, it was a painless process. legs appeared, gills disappeared, it was a weird feeling. The sea witch had spoken the truth, the potion did transform me into a Homo sapiens. The sea witch only required an artifact for the trade. I learned to walk as a Homo sapiens quickly and found things that Homosapiens call clothes. walking around for a while, discoveries will be noted. Twenty four hours was all I had and I discovered a lot. Homosapiens can be friendly.

Gem couldn't read the rest, but this would mean… This would mean that a mer could turn into a human, all that she needed was to find the sea witch. Gem didn't know who the sea witch was, but she needed to find out.

She kept going to the papers but didn't find anything else. The reading gave her a headache but she didn't stop reading, she had to find more information. Eventually Gem fell asleep, too tired to even keep her eyes open.

A few hours later she woke up again, she opened her eyes to see Fwhip in front of her. "Hey, go back to sleep. We're just moving you" Fwhip whispered. Gem realized that she was in his arms, she put her arms around his neck and closed her eyes again.

Fwhip moved and Gem was about to fall asleep again when she remembered the paper. She opened her eyes "Wait, I need one of the papers" Gem said, Fwhip and Sausage looked at her confused. "Okay which one?" Sausage asked.

"Paper 152, it should be over there" Gem said as she pointed to a pile of papers on the floor. Sausage sat down next to it and started looking through it "The one with water damage?" Sausage asked. Gem nodded, her eyes closing again.

"Yeah, the one with water damage" Fwhip answered for her.

"Okay, lets go" Sausage said as he swam back to Fwhip, the two of them swam out of the house. The movement calming to Gem, making her fall into a deep sleep. Fwhip brought Gem home and laid her down on her bed.

He moved to the living room where Sausage was waiting for him "Do you think we did the right thing?" Fwhip asked, he had his doubts. "Yeah, as you said she deserved to know" Sausage said. He laid the paper that he was still holding on a random dresser.

Fwhip and Sausage left after that, going home themselves.

The two of them had had a lot of doubts about telling Gem the truth. But she deserved to know, that was the thought that kept going through Fwhip's mind. The information wasn't the best but she did deserve to know.

Fwhip wasn't happy with the fact that Gem had befriended a human but he had to let Gem do things her way. Fwhip knew that he could trust Gem, he knew that if Gem said that she trusted someone she could actually trust that someone.

But it still worried him.

Chapter Text

Pearl woke up early again, no sleeping in today. She got out of bed, got dressed and left to go to the cabin. She didn't want to waste any time and she just felt useless at home anyway. It was still a bit dark outside but that didn't matter to Pearl, she knew the way.

She walked to the cabin and walked in. She sat down on the little bench and waited.

Pearl took out her phone, expecting to be waiting for a while. But she was wrong, she heard some noise coming from the water, looked up from her phone and saw that Gem was already swimming towards the surface, getting closer and closer to Pearl.

It wasn't weird exactly that Gem was there early, she was often at the cabin before Pearl. But Pearl didn't expect Gem to be there this early, was she this early every single day? Was Pearl making her wait this long? When Gem arrived she looked at Pearl with a surprised face "Oh you're already here" she said, a small gasp leaving her.

"Yeah, I woke up early" she said, scanning Gem over. One of the reasons that she had woken up early was because her mind was still active. The second she woke up it was busy trying to come up with reasons why Gem hadn't been there the day before. "Are you okay?" Pearl asked. She had been worried about Gem since Lizzie had told her that Gem's brothers had told her about a secret. "I- yeah, or well I will be at least" Gem answered.

"What happened?" Pearl asked, and she saw Gem's smile disappear from her face.

"Well uhm" Gem started, she stared down at the water as the next few words left her mouth "my parents died a few years ago" she said the words in a soft tone. "Oh" Pearl said, not knowing what to say "That's awful" she ended up with. Gem was in her twenties, she was still quite young. Gem nodded in agreement before continuing.

"For the longest time I didn't know what happened to them. They- they went away for a little while and never returned. I came home one day and m-my brothers told me that they'd died. They never told me what actually happened, they always said that they too didn't know. But two days ago they told me that that had been a lie" Gem stayed silent for a second before continuing without looking at Pearl.

Pearl stayed silent, she wanted to know what had happened but she didn't want to pressure Gem into telling her. Pearl looked at Gem, noticing the tears in her eyes. She wished that she could give her a hug, but she knew that that was a possibility right now.

Gem took a deep breath before saying "My parents were doing research on humans, apparently. They were murdered by a human who they thought was their friend. They were murdered while trying to prove that not all humans were bad. And then they were betrayed by a human" Gem said in a defeated tone.

"My brothers didn't tell me because they thought I was too young. But they decided to tell me a few days ago, they were hoping that it would help me understand why they did what they did. Of course it doesn't fully make up for it but… I understand why they don't trust humans now at least" Gem continued.

There was a brief silence between the two of them, neither of them knowing what to say. The happy mood that Pearl was in had disappeared, all the relief that she had felt from seeing Gem alive and fine was gone. All she could now think of was the human that did what they did.

She wondered if that human was still living in the town.

Living there, not caring that they killed two mers. Not caring that they took parents from Gem and her brothers, not caring that they left three people orphans. She got angry, angry and disappointed in the human race. Of course it wasn't really surprising, humans had been doing awful things since forever.

Hell, the whole reason that Gem and Pearl had to be so sneaky with seeing each other was because of humans. Gem and Lizzie had told her about all the things that could happen if someone found out about them. But hearing that it actually happened, it was different. It felt different.

"That's awful, I'm so sorry that that happened Gem. I- " Pearl said, she didn't really know what to say. There was nothing that she could say that would make this situation better. She couldn't even imagine how Gem must be feeling.

"it's not your fault" Gem said, she was still avoiding looking at Pearl. "Yeah, but humans killed your parents and I am a human. Gem, I'm so sorry that that happened to them" Pearl said, she somehow felt responsible for what her kind had done so many years ago.

She looked at Gem and saw tears fall out of her eyes, she wanted to hug her but Gem was in the water. Gem tried to rub the tears away, the action broke Pearl's heart. "Screw it" she thought, she took off her shoes and jacket before letting herself slowly fall into the water. The water was cold but at the moment she couldn't care less.

She moved closer to Gem and wrapped her arms around her. Gem hugged her back immediately, she rested her head on Pearl's shoulder. A few sobs left her, Pearl rubbed her back slowly "It's okay, you're allowed to be sad because all of this" Pearl reassured Gem when she noticed that Gem was trying to stop herself from crying.

That seemed to do it, Gem let out heartbreaking sobs. She had her arms wrapped around Pearl tightly, her nails digging into Pearl a little. But Pearl didn't care, she just wanted to be there for her friend, the two of them stayed like that for a little while, just holding each other.

After a while Gem calmed down, she pulled away, wiped her tears away and looked Pearl in her eyes "Thank you" she said, her arms still around Pearl. A small smile breaking through her tears soaked face. "Anytime" Pearl answered with a smile of her own. "I will always be there for you Gem, no matter what"

Tears started falling out of Gem's eyes again but the smile didn't disappear. "Thank you Pearl, thank you for being my friend" Pearl wiped the tears off of Gem's face with her finger, returning her smile. She was completely lost in Gem's eyes but was pulled out of the trance when Gem suddenly said "You're in the water"

Pearl let out a chuckle "Yeah, I am. I hope that that's okay"

Gem pulled Pearl into another hug "It's amazing, we should really go swimming some time" Gem said "That sounds like fun, but I can't swim as fast as you can" Pearl answered, she had seen how fast Gem could swim and she was pretty sure that no human could swim that fast.

"Nobody can swim as fast as I can, but that's fine. We can go slow" Gem said "Oh I can show you so many places around the lake" Gem said before she started talking about all kinds of places that she would show Pearl.

Pearl just listened to her talk, she realized that she had missed Gem a lot the day that they hadn't seen each other. Even if it had only been one day. The two of them had met up every day for the past four weeks, Pearl didn't realize how happy those meet ups had made her.

She hadn't realized how much she would miss them if they were gone.

"Are you okay? You're shaking" Gem said after a while, her brow knitted together. Pearl had been resting her hands on Gem's shoulders to keep floating. She removed one of her hands and noticed that she was indeed shaking. Once she realized that she realized how cold she actually was.

"It's a bit cold in the water" Pearl said as she tried to keep her teeth from chattering. "Aren't you cold?" Pearl asked, Gem was barely covered at all but she looked fine. She had never looked like she was cold. "No, the water is fine to me. Do you need to get out of the water?" Gem asked.

Pearl didn't want to get out of the water, she wanted to stay close to Gem. But she knew that that wouldn't be very healthy so she nodded her head. She looked at the floor of the cabin and tried to figure out how to get out.

Gem could launch herself out of the water because of her tail but Pearl didn't have a tail.

Pearl swam to the floor and put her hands on it, trying to somehow pull herself out of the water. She failed and fell deeper into the water. Gem swam after her and helped her back to the surface before she could sink any further "T-thank y–you" Pearl said, giving up on trying to not make her teeth chatter.

Now that her whole body had been underwater it was even colder. "No problem, but how are you going to get out of here?" Gem asked, it looked like Gem was trying to find an answer to that question herself. "I- I'm not sure" Pearl admitted defeated.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Gem asked, Pearl looked around the cabin for anything that could help her get out of the water. The cabin was fully empty besides the bench and closet but Pearl couldn't reach the closet from where she was in the water.

Pearl shook her head "Not unless you can magically make a ladder appear" she hugged her arms around herself, trying to keep herself warm. It was hard to keep herself above the water without using her arms and she started sinking.

Gem swam underwater and helped her back to the surface, Gem was warm. Pearl subconsciously leaned into the warmth. Gem wrapped her arms around Pearl, probably noticing that Pearl was moving closer to her.

"Do you have any ideas?" Pearl asked, now realizing how stupid it had been to jump into the water without a plan of how to get back up. Gem looked around the cabin again "Do you think that you could keep yourself above the water for a little bit?"

"Y-yeah why?" Pearl answered, trying to figure out what Gem's plan was.

"I might be able to get out a little, I can try to get your phone. You can contact people on it, right?" Gem asked, concern all over her face as she took in Pearl's state. Pearl tried to smile, tried to make it look like she was doing better than she actually was. But the smile was quickly taken by the chattering of her teeth.

"Yeah, but that would mean that someone would need to come in here. Joel and Lizzie aren't at home" Pearl said, they had gone out Pearl didn't know when they would be back. Gem looked at Pearl "We'll figure something out"

She had a smile on her face but Pearl could see how worried she was. Gem let go of Pearl, Pearl had to focus all her energy on staying afloat. Gem looked at her one more time before going underwater, she launched herself up and grabbed the floor.

Half her tail was still in the water but that didn't matter, she could reach the phone. She looked at it, trying to figure out how exactly to use it. "How does this thing work?" Gem asked.

"P-press the h-home b-b-button to t-turn it o-on" Pearl answered, shivering. "What is the home button?" Gem asked desperately, Pearl realized that this was probably the first time that Gem had even held a phone. "The round button on the bottom of the screen"

"Okay, there's numbers on the screen. What do I do now?" Gem said.

"Yeah type in 1306, it's my password" Pearl answered, trying to make herself sound clearly. "Okay, and now?" Gem asked. "Click on the phone icon" Pearl answered.

"Which one is that?" Gem asked panicked, "I'm sorry, I've never-" Gem started but Pearl interrupted her "Don't worry, it's not your fault. A phone icon kinda looks like a-" Pearl said, she thought trying to remember what the phone icon looked like again.

"It's kinda a moon, maybe. A crescent moon. It's white with a green background" Pearl said, her brain couldn't think of a better way to describe it. "I think that I found it, there is a list with names here" Gem said.

"Yeah, yeah that is it" Pearl exclaimed, feeling a moment of hope. "But who can we call? Nobody can know about you being here" Pearl realized, saying her thoughts out loud without meaning too. she couldn't just ask one of her friends to come there and help her out of a hole in the ground that for some reason let to a lake.

"Pearl I don't care if anyone sees me here, you're freezing, you need help. I'm sure that Lizzie and Joel will understand too. Just tell me who the closest is to this place" Gem said, she was sounding desperate.

"Tango or Skizz, but Skizz already thinks that mers exist you can't-" Pearl started but she stopped talking when she heard a dial tone. Gem was already calling someone "I pressed the name that said Skizz" Gem said.

"Put the phone on speaker, it- it's the but-ton that looks like a-a little mic-crophone" Pearl said, then the sound of the phone got louder. "Hey, Pearl. What's up?" Skizzes voice came, the man sounded totally relaxed. The opposite of how Pearl was feeling.

"S-skizzz are you a-at home?" Pearl asked, trying to sound as normal as she could and failing miserable.

"Yeah, why? Are you okay?" Skizz asked. "Yeah I'm great, I'm in Joel's cabin and I kinda need help" Pearl said, being as vague as possible. She didn't know who could hear the conversation that they were having.

"Why are you in there?" Skizz asked. "No time for q-questions, please just come. And hurry" Pearl said, she needed help soon. "O-okay, I'll come" Skizz said, Pearl could hear him move on the other side of the line. "This better not be some kind of joke" Skizz mumbled before hanging up.

"G-Gem, come b-back into t-the water a-and hide" Pearl said, knowing that Skizz could show up at any moment.

Gem let herself fall back into the water but instead of hiding she came closer to Pearl and hugged her again. Pearl melted into the warmth, leaning all her weight on Gem again. But Gem had to leave, she had to "Gem, g-get u-underwater" Pearl said, she needed to be gone before Skizz could see her.

"You're freezing Pearl, I'm not leaving you" Gem said, basically holding Pearl up at this point. "Gem h-he can't see y-you, i-it's too d-dangerous" Pearl protested, trying to get Gem to hide underwater by weakly pushing her. "I'll leave when he comes inside, but not before that" Gem said, she sounded determined.

Pearl wanted to protest but she knew that it was useless.

They stayed together until Pearl heard footsteps approaching. "Bye" Gem said before she disappeared into the water. Pearl watched her as she left. The door opened, her eyes quickly shot to the person that was now entering the cabin, Skizz. He had a smile on his face but the smile disappeared the second that he laid eyes on Pearl.

"what- what is this? Why is there water here?" Skizz asked, looking around the cabin.

"P-please j-just help me out o-of here" Pearl said Skizz moved towards her and helped her out, pulling her against him. "You're freezing" Skizz said, making the observation of the year.

"N-no shit sherlock" Pearl answered. Skizz took out his phone and started typing on it "W-what a-are you d-doing?" Pearl asked, as she couldn't see what he was doing on his phone. Nobody else could know about this.

"texting Tango, we need to get you warmed up soon. It doesn't look like there is anything here to get you warmed up" Skizz answered. "Why didn't you tell me that I would be walking into this? I could have brought blankets or something at the very least" Skizz asked, his words weren't filled with anger instead he just sounded incredible worried. Pearl didn't answer his question. She kept her mouth shut, both because she didn't know how to answer that question without sounding suspicious and because she simply didn't have the energy for it.

Skizz wrapped his arms around Pearl, trying to keep her warm. After a while another person entered the cabin, Pearl only noticed who it was when he was standing in front of Pearl. Tango had arrived "Hey, Pearl. Let's get you warmed up" Tango said softly.

He picked Pearl up and brought her outside, he placed her down in his car. "The radiator is on" Tango said, he moved around and covered Pearl in blankets. Skizz sat down next to Pearl, pulling her into his side. It took a few more seconds before the car started and they drove away.

It was only a short distance to their houses, Pearl had walked it countless of times. But right now, she really didn't think she could make it that far. Pearl barely noticed anything around her until she was picked up again. Only then did she notice that the car had stopped, she hadn't even noticed Tango getting out of the car.

Pearl was brought inside somewhere "Pearl I have some clothes for you, do you think you can change by yourself?" Tango asked. Pearl nodded and sat up as much as she could.

Tango and Skizz turned around while Pearl put on the dry clothes.

The clothes were way too big for her, but she didn't care since they were at least dry. "I'm done" She said, Tango and Skizz turned back around. Skizz started covering her in blankets again "we are definitely having a conversation about all of this when you're warm again" he said.

Pearl was slowly starting to warm up, her exhaustion hit her now that the adrenaline was leaving her.

"It's okay, you can go to sleep now" Tango reassured her.

That was the only thing Pearl needed to hear before her eyes slipped closed and she fell into a deep sleep.

Chapter Text

Gem woke up, opening her eyes she noticed that she was laying on her bed. It confused her for a second. She was pretty sure that she hadn't fallen asleep in her bedroom. The last thing that she remembered was being in her parents house, but then she remembered that Fwhip and Sausage had taken her home, A smile came to her face, that was until she remembered the paper.

She swam out of her room quickly, had Sausage taken the paper with him?

He must have, she was pretty sure that she had told him too. But then where had he put it? Gem needed that paper, she was going to find the sea witch. She knew that it was probably stupid but she wanted to turn into a human, even if it was only for twenty four hours.

Gem was determined that it would work, her parents had done it before her after all. They had reported about it, they wouldn't lie about something like that. And even if they would, why would they keep that research inside their office?

If it had been a prank she would have expected them to give it to one of their friends or something. But they hadn't, the paper had been left in their official office. That couldn't have been a prank aimed at anyone. It had to be real.

She knew that the paper could be wrong, she knew that there was a chance that the water damage could be hiding things about it. The paper could say that it all ended up being a dream, or that it all ended being wrong. Or- or that there was no way for anyone to recreate it.

There was also the chance of the sea witch just not existing or having left the lake. Gem didn't even know where she could start searching for the sea witch, she didn't think that she had ever seen one. Gem was sure that she would have remembered it if she had met a true witch. She knew everyone in the lake, the chances of her finding this seawitch were low.

But if there was any chance at all that she was real and that she was there then Gem was going to find her.

On the paper it had said that her parents had made a trade with the sea witch. Gem didn't know what the sea witch would want but she was willing to give almost anything to be human. She was willing to give almost anything to spend just a single day as a human.

It would be risky and it might be stupid, but she just wanted, no needed, to see the human world. She wanted to explore it, she wanted to befriend more humans and she wanted to spend more time with Pearl. According to the paper all of that could become reality, if she just found the sea witch and made a trade with her.

Gem looked around her living room and spotted the paper on one of her dressers. She let out a sigh of relief and swam towards it, she started reading it again to make sure that she hadn't dreamt what was on it.

The paper said the exact same thing as it had said the day before.

Gem smiled, she put the paper away again and left to go to Pearl. She was excited to see her again, they hadn't seen each other the day before and it felt weird. The past few weeks they had seen each other every day, but yesterday they hadn't.

Gem quickly swam over to the cabin, she didn't expect Pearl to already be there but she was. In the past few weeks it hadn't happened often that Pearl was there before Gem. But when Gem looked through the hole she saw Pearl waiting on her. Pearl and Gem started talking, Gem told Pearl about what her brothers had told her.

Tears had quickly came to her eyes as she told everything that she had been told. Her vision became clouded with tears that she was trying to blink away. The blinking didn't work though, no matter how hard she tried to stop it, a few tears fell down. Gem looked away from Pearl, not wanting her to see.

That is why she hadn't noticed that Pearl had entered the water until she felt her arms around her. Gem leaned into the touch immediately, leaning her head against Pearl's shoulder. It was all too much, Gem broke down. Loud ugly sobs started leaving and no matter how hard she tried to stop them, she couldn't.

Pearl stayed with her until the tears slowed and eventually stopped, she stayed there, holding Gem the entire time. It felt nice being able to hug Pearl, being able to be this close to Pearl. Eventually the two started a conversation again, after a while of talking Gem noticed that Pearl was shivering. She asked Pearl about it and Pearl had told her that she was cold.

It was weird, the two of them were in the same water and yet Pearl was cold while Gem was feeling perfectly fine. Gem asked if Pearl needed to go out of the water, but when Pearl tried to climb onto the floor she fell right back into the water.

Pearl went completely underwater now, quickly sinking more. Gem swam after her, she put her hands under Pearl's armpits and helped her back up. After that Pearl and Gem realized something, Pearl was stuck in the cold water. Gem asked if there was anything that she could do, but there wasn't.

There was no way for Pearl to leave the water, not alone anyway.

The realization hit Gem like a brick wall. Pearl was stuck in the cabin with no one to help her out of the water that was freezing her.

Pearl hugged her arms around herself and sank back into the water. Gem immediately dived back after her again and helped her back to the surface. Pearl moved closer to Gem after that and Gem just wrapped her arms around Pearl.

At that moment Gem was the only thing keeping Pearl from sinking.

It was weird and if Pearl hadn't been freezing it would have also been nice. It felt right having Pearl in her arms. Gem didn't know why but she kinda wanted to stay like that forever. That was, of course, if Pearl hadn't been freezing.

Maybe the two of them could do something like that again in the summer. Gem had seen countless humans swim in the summer when the sun was shining. Summers were always more dangerous than winters, more humans would be around the docks, more humans would be in the water.

Summer also meant that the sun would come up earlier and that it would go down later, making the humans stay even longer then they usually would. When Gem had been a young mer she hadn't been allowed to go to the surface at all, but during the summer nobody else would be allowed to go either.

She looked around the room, searching for anything that could help Pearl. Her eyes fell on Pearl's phone that was still on the dry land. Gem asked Pearl if she could keep herself up for a few minutes, Pearl said yes.

Gem launched herself onto the floor, she reached out for the phone and grabbed it.

Pearl explained to Gem how it worked and Gem turned the phone on. She clicked on something and a list of names appeared. Pearl told her to call Skizz or Tango, she started talking about who would be best to call but Gem didn't care.

She just pressed the first name she saw and called him. Pearl talked with him while Gem stayed silent. He was now on his way, Gem let herself fall back into the water and went back to Pearl. Pearl told Gem that she should leave, but there was no way that Gem would leave Pearl now.

Pearl was pale and she was shivering like crazy. Gem would not leave her alone, she didn't care if she would get seen by humans. She was not leaving Pearl alone.

And so she stayed and tried to keep Pearl warm until they heard footsteps. Gem dove under the water, making sure that Pearl would stay above the water. Skizz, at least that is who Gem thought he was, walked into the cabin.

He helped Pearl up out of the water and held her, Gem couldn't hear what he was saying but he needed to take her something to warm her up. Why didn't he understand that? It was taking too long, this human needed to move. Gem was about to swim back to the surface and yell at him when another person entered the cabin.

The other person walked over to them and carried Pearl away, hopefully to safety.

Gem couldn't see Pearl anymore now, it only worried her more. She didn't know if Pearl was okay, she didn't even know if Pearl was still alive. Gem started panicking and swam away, she swam as fast as she could to the little cave where Jimmy had taken her a while ago.

When they had been there last time, Jimmy had contacted Lizzie using a phone. Maybe Gem could do the same thing now. She swam into the cafe and quickly spotted the phone, she picked it up and looked at it. She had no idea how it worked.

Gem swam back to the place where she lived and started searching for Jimmy. She ended up finding him with Scott. "Hey Scott, hey Jimmy. I need to borrow Jimmy for something really quickly, don't mind me" She said.

As she said it she took Jimmy's arm and pulled him with her. Jimmy started struggling as she pulled him with her "Hey! hey what's going on. Let me go" Jimmy said, trying to pull himself free from Gem's grip. Gem let him go and looked around making sure there was nobody there before saying.

"Listen there is something wrong with Pearl and I need to know if she's okay but I can't go on the land. I need Lizzie or Joel but I can't contact them from underwater. There is that thing, the phone in the cave that you used to contact Lizzie last time. You need to use it again to ask them if Pearl is okay" Gem said quickly.

Jimmy stared at her for a couple of seconds, just blinking like an idiot. Before he finally said "Okay, what are we waiting for? We need to see if your lover is okay" he held out his arm as he said it. Gem ignored the comment about Pearl being her lover and took Jimmy's arm.

She started pulling him with her again all the way to the cave.

"Woah, I have never swam that fast" Jimmy said once she stopped, he held his hand to his head "How do you not get dizzy when you do that?" He asked, but Gem didn't answer his question. She was busy taking deep breaths, trying to catch her breath after swimming that fast "Check" inhale "phone" exhale.

That was the only thing that mattered, knowing if Pearl was okay or not.

Gem wished that she could just already find the sea witch. If there was a time where she wanted to be human, it was now. With legs she could just walk onto the land and barge over to Pearl's house. There she could ask Pearl if she was okay herself, she could ever stay with her after that.

But Gem didn't know the sea witch, she wasn't human and she didn't have legs. She was trapped underwater while Pearl was trapped on land.

"On it" Jimmy said, he took the phone and pressed some buttons. "And? Is she okay?" Gem asked a few seconds later. "I don't know, Lizzie hasn't answered yet" Jimmy responded. Gem had to remind herself that none of this was Jimm's fault but Gem was starting to get frustrated.

"Can that thing contact Joel too?" Gem asked, she was desperate. She didn't care who told her anything about Pearl as long as someone could tell her something.

"Of course it can, Lizzie uses this thing whenever she needs to contact Joel when she's down here" Jimmy said "It's actually Joel's old phone, he gave it to her when they just knew each other when he learned that Lizzie didn't have a phone" Jimmy said, but Gem didn't have time for a love story.

"Jimmy, no time. Text Joel too, please"

"Of course, yeah. I will" Jimmy said as he pressed some other buttons. "Oh he responded quickly, he's asking where Pearl is" Jimmy said, reading the screen. "I- I don't know where she is. Skizz, I think his name is, took her" Gem answered, recalling the name of the person on Pearl's phone.

Jimmy started pressing buttons again "Joel is going to check up on her, but he't not at home right now so it could take some time. He says that he will let us know how she is doing when he gets there" Jimmy informed her, Gem was happy that someone was finally going to check up on Pearl.

But she still had to wait for an answer which only made her more anxious.

"So now that that is taken care of and we can do nothing but wait, we have time for an explanation. What happened? Is your human friend okay?" Jimmy asked, Gem guessed that he did deserve an explanation. "We were at the cabin and Pearl got into the water with me to comfort me, but she couldn't get out once she had gotten in" Gem started explaining.

"Apparently the water is colder for humans than it is for mers. She started shivering really badly. I got out of the water far enough to reach her phone and I called one of her friends. They got her and took her out of the water but also out of the cabin" Gem explained "And now I don't know if she's okay"

"Are you okay?" Jimmy asked.

Was she okay? What kind of question was that, Pearl was the one that had almost frozen to death. "I'm fine, yeah" Gem answered. "Gem, really. Are you okay? You said that Pearl got into the water to comfort you" Gem hadn't even realized that she had told him about that.

"I- I'm fine, I've just discovered something about my parents dead and it's not making me the happiest. But that's fine, I'm fine" Gem said, they didn't need to worry about her now. There was no time to worry about her now.

They needed to focus on Pearl.

"Oh Gem" Jimmy said, he hugged her. Gem was about to pull away, there was no time for hugging now. But she didn't want to pull away, she hugged Jimmy back and before she knew it tears were streaming down her face again.

Stupid tears, stupid emotions.

A sound came from the phone "Joel must have responded" Jimmy said, not pulling away. But that was the only thing that Gem needed to hear for her to pull away. "She's fine, she's asleep in Skizzes house" Jimmy said as he looked down at the phone.

Gem felt a ton of worry leave her, Pearl was alive, Pearl was going to be fine.

"Thank you Jimmy, and thank Joel for me too" Gem said, she wiped her tears away. "It was no problem Gem, I would panic too if anything happened to one of my friends" Jimmy answered, he typed on the phone again.

"Joel says that there is no need to thank him. He also said that he's going to send Pearl to the cabin once she is better, but not until she is fully better" Jimmy said. "Good, thank him for that too" Gem said, Jimmy typed on the phone one more time before he put it away again.

"Can I go back to Scott now? I'm sure he's really confused" Jimmy asked, Gem chuckled "Yeah, yeah I'm sorry for pulling you away from him like that" Gem said, realizing what she had done. "It's okay, you should come with me"

"With you? I wouldn't want to impose" Gem responded.

"It's fine, Scott and I both love you. Come on, it looks like you need the distraction and it's been awhile since we've hung out" Jimmy said, Gem did need the distraction "Okay, but I'm not carrying you all the way there"

"Ahhh, so normal speed then?" Jimmy asked, fake being sad. "Yup, normal speed" Gem confirmed.

Gem and Jimmy talked while they swam back to the place where they had left Scott. Gem was glad that Jimmy didn't ask any more questions, she was happy that he didn't talk about all the things that were worrying Gem.

They arrived back and Scott swam towards them "Gem, you can't just steal my Jim- Are you okay?" Scott asked, his voice going from fake anger to concern. "Yeah? I'm fine" Gem answered, confused.

"You have tear streaks over your face" Jimmy informed her.

"Oh, why didn't you tell me that sooner?" Gem asked, she rubbed at her face hoping that the water around them would make the marks fade a little. "I'm sorry Scott, I just quickly needed to talk with Jimmy" Gem said.

"Okay, are you sure that you-" Scott said but Jimmy interrupted him "She's fine, let's talk about anything else" "That sounds like a good idea" Gem said, hoping that Scott would leave her alone for now. Scott looked at Jimmy and then at her "Okay, let's talk about something else" Scott said.

The three of them hung out for a little bit until Gem got tired and she went home. She went to bed and fell asleep thinking about Pearl.

Chapter Text

Joel walked up to Skizz and Tango their house, his phone in his hand. He had been having a completely normal day, one of his only days off while Lizzie was in town. The two of them had gotten out of town for the first time in a while. But in the middle of all of it Joel had gotten a message. 

He had gotten a text from Jimmy, which did not happen often, the message said that Gem was concerned about Pearl and that he needed to go check up on her. Joel had been a bit frustrated at first, bothering him on his day off was a great way to get on his bad side.

But Jimmy said that Gem looked seriously worried, so there must be something going on. Joel decided to just go back to town to check on her, but if it turned out to be a prank he would never help Jimmy again. Joel came to Pearl's house and rang the doorbell, no answer.

He knocked on the door, no answer, he knocked louder, no answer. A grunt of annoyance left him, his suspicions that this had all been a prank became bigger. Joel looked through the window, nobody. He took out his phone "Where is Pearl exactly?" he asked, it took only a few seconds for Jimmy to answer.

"Gem says that she went with this human, Scizz she thinks his name is"  Jimmy responded, misspelling Skizzes name. Typical. Why would Joel have to check up on her if she was already with Skizz? Joel put his phone back in his pocket and moved over to Skizz and Tango's house.

'She better be here' he thought as he walked up the stairs to the door. He didn't know Skizz or Tango that well, he didn't think he had ever been to Skizz and Tango's house. But now he was here anyway "Why am I even here?" he thought before he knocked on their door. It would be weird, probably awkward, no scratch that, it would definitely awkward. 

He didn't even know what he was going to say once the door opened. He couldn't say that his brother in law who was a mer asked him to check up on the human friend of a mer friend of his. He didn't have any more time to think about what he was going to say because the door opened. 

Skizz opened the door "heyyyy Joel, what are you doing here?" Skizz asked, a smile on his face. Joel stood there awkwardly, maybe he should have dragged Lizzie back with him. "Uhm is Pearl here?" he asked. "Don't be mad at her, I'm sure that there was a perfectly good reason for her to be in your cabin" Skizz said.

"Mad at her?" Joel asked, confused, that was until he realized that Skizz didn't know that Pearl was allowed in his cabin. Wait, why did Skizz know that Pearl was in his cabin? 

"Yeah, we know that you don't want anyone entering the cabin. But Pearl already got her karma, by the way, why is there a little pool of water in your cabin?" Skizz asked, curiosity in his eyes. So he had been inside of Joel's cabin? 

"I- that doesn't matter right now. Just let me talk to Pearl for a second" Joel demanded, he just needed to know that she was okay. If he knew that he could just text Jimmy that Pearl was okay and leave. "That might be a bit hard" Skizz said, glancing behind him for a second before looking back at Joel.

Joel gave him a confused look "What do you mean?" He asked. 

Skizz motioned for him to follow him inside, Joel did. Skizz started explaining while they walked "Well about an hour ago she called me and told me to go to your cabin because she needed my help. I did, you know because I'm a great friend and only because of that. Not because I was curious about what your cabin looked like on the inside or anything" 

He shook his head "Anyway when I got there I found her in that pool of water, she was freezing. I brought her here with the help of Tango and she fell asleep on the couch" Skizz said, he motioned to the couch as they walked into the living room.

In the living room was Pearl, laying on the couch. She was buried under a lot of blankets but Joel could still see her face. She was incredibly pale and despite the fact that she was beneath so many blankets she was shivering. 

"What! What happened? Is she okay?" Joel asked, now panicking. 

He now understood why Gem asked Jimmy to text him to check up on Pearl. Jimmy hadn't told him about what had happened but why would she be in the water? That was just stupid. And why didn't Jimmy and Gem tell him about this before? He would have hurried a whole lot more. 

"She's gonna be fine" Tango said, Joel hadn't even noticed Tango was also in the room. "We don't know what happened, Pearl didn't say a lot before she fell asleep. The only thing we can really do right now is wait" he said, sitting down next to Pearl and giving her a worried look.

"Okay, then let's wait" Joel said as he sat down on a couch. Skizz and Tango looked at him confused, then at each other before shrugging. Skizz also sat down, his eyes fixated on Pearl for a few seconds before he turned his attention to the tv that was on. 

Joel looked at Pearl too before taking out his phone and replying to Jimmy. He just replied that Pearl was doing okay, Tango had told him that Pearl was going to be fine. The only thing Joel could do was believe him and wait. 

He didn't want to worry Gem any more than she must have already been worrying. 

After he sent the message he put his phone away and started focusing on the tv for a little bit. But every once in a while he would look over at Pearl. 

Pearl woke up to voices around her. She opened her eyes and looked around the room that she was in, it wasn't her bedroom. She was in the living room of Tango and Skizz once she realized that she noticed that Tango and SKizz were also there and that they were staring at her. 

They weren't the only ones though, Joel was also there. The three of them sat on a couch close to Pearl and they were looking at Pearl with concern. "Morning, how are you feeling?" Tango asked, breaking the silence. Pearl thought for a second, running a hand through her hair to get it out of her face "cold and tired" she answered honestly. 

"That was to be expected, do you remember what happened?" Skizz asked 

What happened, what happened? Pearl thought about it for a little bit, she was… she was… she was hanging out with Gem at the cabin. Gem had told her about how humans had killed her parents and Pearl had.. Pearl had gotten into the water with Gem to give her a hug.

But Pearl hadn't thought about a way to get out and she had gotten stuck in the freezing cold water. Gem had called Skizz and he had gotten her out of the water, he must have brought her here. Not that Pearl could tell Skizz and Tango about that. 

"I- kinda" She ended up responding, not really knowing what else to say. 

"You called Skizz and asked him for help, you told him to go to Joel's cabin. He did and found you there in a pool of water, freezing. He got you out and called me to bring my car over, I did and we brought you here" Tango informed her. That sounded a lot like what Pearl remembered, just without the mer. 

"Y-yeah, that sounds like what I remember" Pearl said, she was trying to make an excuse for the cabin. For the hole in the floor that led to a lake. For the reason that she was in the water in the first place. But her tired brain wasn't helping her in any way, shape or form. 

All it could come up with is "I was just hanging around and slipped". What other reason could she have to enter a pool of water, in a cabin where she wasn't supposed to be, in the middle of winter. 

"Why were you in the cabin?" Tango asked, Pearl made eye contact with Joel. He had given her permission to enter the cabin whenever she wanted. But Tango and Skizz didn't know that and Pearl couldn't tell them. If she told them she would also have to tell them why she got permission to enter whenever she wanted. 

What good reason would Joel have for giving Pearl permission to his cabin? The only things in the cabin were a bench, a closet and the pool of water. Why would Pearl want to go there? And why would Joel let Pearl in? The two of the weren't exactly friends. 

"I- I got curious, I'm sorry Joel. I got curious and walked in, I didn't really expect there to be a pool of freezing water. I slipped and fell in, pretty stupid right?" Pearl said as an excuse, a chuckle leaving her. It was pretty believable, right? Hopefully. 

She had been pretty curious about the cabin before she entered it for the first time. 

"Please don't be mad" Pearl said to Joel, hoping that that too sounded believable. "It's okay Pearl, it looks like you've gotten enough punishment already" Joel answered, motention to the mountain of blankets that was still covering her. Pearl smiled in return "Thank you, and yes I did learn my lesson. I'll think twice now before entering a building where I'm not supposed to be" 

"Now that we know that, there is something else I really wanna know" Tango said in a very serious voice "Why do you have a little pool of water in your cabin?" he continued in his normal voice while laughing a little. It did sound kinda ridiculous. 

All eyes fell on Joel, waiting for an answer. Joel looked around as if an excuse would just fall out of the sky. "Uh, oh" he began "I- fishing! It's for fishing, I fish in there" Joel answered, looking proud of himself for the excuse. Skizz and Tango however did not look convinced. 

"Fishing?" Skizz asked surprised.

"Yup fishing, totally normal. It's a totally normal reason to have a hole in your floor that leads to water" Joel said in a confident tone. Skizz and Tango laughed "I didn't know that you fished? Why do you do it inside?" Skizz asked. 

"I- uhm, it's cold outside. And of course I fish, it's uhm fun" Joel said without any excitement. It seemed that he shared the same opinion about fishing as Pearl. "Oooo-kay sure" Tango answered, trying to stiffen his laugh. "let's just focus back on Pearl, do you need anything Pearl?" Joel asked, clearly trying to change the subject. 

'I- uhm some tea would be nice" Pearl answered, it sounded like a pretty normal thing to request. "Of course" Tango said before leaving the room. "I'll go help him" Skizz said, somehow realizing that Pearl wanted to be alone with Joel. 

Once Skizz left Pearl asked "What are you doing here?" 

She had asked Skizz to come get her, Tango had been invited by Skizz and he lived in the house that they were currently in. That all made sense. But Joel, it was weird for him to be there. He wasn't even supposed to be in town today.

And yet here he was, sitting in Tango and Skizzes house answering questions about his mysterious cabin. 

"Jimmy texted me, Gem is worried about you and asked if I could check up on you. I didn't imagine that this is the thing that would have happened. Actually, what did happen? You didn't really slip and fall into the water, right?" Joel asked with a raised eyebrow.  

Pearl let out a chuckle "No, of course I didn't just fall in" No that would have been stupid. "I jumped in to comfort Gem after she… told me about something personal. I didn't realize that there wouldn't be a way until I was already in the water" Pearl admitted. she wasn't going to tell Joel Gem's secrets. Not without her permission at least.

"That was stupid" Joel answered. Pearl would have hit him if she would have had the energy. "Not as stupid as slipping and falling in" she responded. "Is it though?" Joel replied, a grin on his face. And yeah, maybe he was right, but Gem had just been trying to be there for her friend. 

If that was stupid, well then maybe she was stupid. 

A few minutes later Tango and Skizz walked back in, cups of tea in their hands. Skizz handed one to Pearl, Tango handed one to Joel who nodded in thanks. The boys said down on the couch again, being careful to not spill their own tea. "What are we watching?" Pearl asked as she finally noticed that the tv was on.

Skizz, Joel and Tango looked at each other, none of them actually knowing since none of them had been paying attention. "Doesn't matter, let's watch something else. Any suggestions?" Tango asked as he grabbed the remote. 

"Shrek" Joel immediately said, Pearl, Tango and Skizz looked at him "what? It's a good movie. It will definitely cheer Pearl up, who doesn't get happy from watching shrek?" Joel asked, sounding like he was ready to defend the movie with his life. 

Tango shrugged "Okay, okay. I guess the songs are pretty good" He started searching for the movie "Pretty good?" Joel asked, looking ready to fight, Skizz placed a hand on his shoulder "Just let it go, he also said that  turned on the first movie and the four of them started watching. It was way more interesting then whatever was on before. 

There was a moment where Pearl fell asleep but she was woken up a second later by Joel throwing a pillow at her. "Don't you dare fall asleep during shrek" Joel said in a serious tone. "Joel she just almost froze to death" Skizz defended Pearl.

"And who's fault is that?" Joel asked, crossing his arms over each other.

"The person who has a random hole in the floor in their cabin" Pearl answered, blaming Joel.  In reality it had been her fault, but Skizz and Tango didn't know that so her argument stood. "No! It's the fault of the idiot who fell into that hole" Joel said. 

"Shh you two, I'm trying to watch the movie" Tango said, actively making Pearl and Joel shut up. 

Later the doorbell went and Tango stood up to open the door. Joel insisted on pausing the movie so that Tango wouldn't miss a second of 'the best movie ever'. Tango rolled his eyes but didn't comment on it, he returned a few seconds later with Lizzie by his side.  Lizzie immediately made eye contact with Pearl asking a nonverbal question. 

Pearl just smiled to let Lizzie know that she was okay. Lizzie smiled back and turned her attention to the tv, she laughed once she noticed what movie was on "Joel's choice I'm assuming" 

"Yup" Joel answered as she invited Lizzie to sit next to him. Lizzie did "I have seen this movie like a thousand times. It's the first movie that Joel made me watch and it's the movie that he watches whenever he's sick. I'm pretty sure that I can quote the whole movie by now" 

"And you still love it" Joel said, a bright smile on his face. "Sure, sure, yeah" Lizzie answered, patting his shoulder playfully. 

Joel was about to say something but he was shut up when Tango started the movie again. The six of them started watching the movie further, but later they were interrupted when the doorbell went again. Tango stood up to open the door, apparently the augment "I just got it" didn't beat Skizzes argument of "But I'm comfortable" 

This time he returned with Impulse who joined them too. 

He walked into the room, his eyes falling on Pearl "Are you okay?" He asked noticing the state that she was in. "I'm fine, there was just this little incident" she responded, Joel chuckled "Sure, little incident" he said, looking away from Pearl but knowing that Pearl was glaring at him nonetheless. 

"What happened?" Impulse asked, sitting down next to Pearl on the couch. "I don't want to talk about it" Pearl said, hiding her face with one of her blankets. "She slipped and fell at that cabin of Joel, apparently there is a hole in the floor that leads to a little pool of water. She fell in" Skizz explained "Cold water" Pearl added. 

"And it wasn't my fault, who expects there to be water in a random cabin?" She asked, Impulse seemed to agree with her. "Why is there water in that cabin?" He asked, turning his attention to Joel and Lizzie. Joel gave his for fishing excuse which Impulse luckily seemed to accept.

It was a great day and soon Pearl felt normal again. She went home later that day to take a shower now that she was warmed up and it was safe to do so again. But before she could open the door to go outside she was stopped by Skizz.

"Pearl, I have your phone here" Skizz said as he handed it to her. Pearl smiled "Thank you" she said as she turned back to the door to open it. "You weren't alone in that cabin, were you?" Skizz suddenly asked.

Pearl turned around to face him again "Wh- what are you talking about? Of course I was alone, I wouldn't have to ask you for help if I were there with someone else" Pearl said, what was Skizz talking about? 

"Your phone wasn't anywhere near you when I arrived at the cabin. It also wasn't soaked so I doubt that you had it on you when you fell in or afterwards. You could of course have thrown it across the room of course, but why would you do that?" He asked, Pearl didn't have a good excuse for that so Skizz kept talking. 

"When you called you didn't sound like you were next to your phone either, it actually sounded like you were far away from it. I didn't think a lot about it when I actually called you, but when I started thinking more about it. It doesn't make sense, does it?" Skizz asked.

Pearl stared at him, trying to come up with an answer to his questions. She knew that something bad was going to come from this, but she didn't have another choice at the time. So close, she had been so close with leaving. So close with getting away without a problem.

"Your silence is only confirming what I thought. But I'm not here to figure out your secrets, don't worry" Skizz said, his normal smile returning to his face. "Goodbye Pearl" Skizz said as he opened the door for her. 

Pearl walked out "Goodbye Skizz" 

Chapter Text

Gem was back in the lake with Pearl, in the little cabin all alone. Gem looked down at the shivering Pearl in her arms. "It's going to be okay, it's all going to be okay" Gem said, she was trying to convince herself more than she was convincing Pearl of it. But Pearl had to be okay, she just had to be.

Gem looked around the room one more time, but she didn't see anything that could possibly help Pearl get out. She could feel Pearl's cold breath against her with every shallow breath Pearl took. She was starting to struggle to breath Gem could tell. It only worried Gem more but there was nothing that she could do.

She couldn't help Pearl out of the water in any way. They were trapped.

Maybe she could take Pearl to the little beach, she would be able to get out of the water from there. But Gem didn't know how long Pearl could hold her breath, she had told her that it wasn't long. But how long was not long? Was drowning worse than freezing to death?

Would Pearl survive that? Maybe Pearl could stay here for a little while, maybe Gem could get help. One of the sea creatures would have to be able to help her, right? But could Gem really leave Pearl alone right now. Pearl was completely still against Gem, Gem doubted that Pearl could keep herself up at the moment.

Why had she jumped in? Gem, of course, knew the answer to that question. It was to comfort her, to make Gem feel better, and it had worked. But at what cost? Pearl had wanted to help Gem, and now it was gonna be her death.

Gem's thoughts went wild but they shut up when Gem felt Pearl rested her head on Gem's shoulder. She rubbed Pearl's back to somehow warm her up a little. "It's gonna be okay, I promise. We'll find a way for you to get out" Gem said softly. Pearl didn't respond, she hadn't responded in a while.

Out of nowhere Pearl's head fell backwards, her full weight was dropped onto Gem. It confused Gem, she pulled away slightly so that she could see Pearl's face. Pearl had her eyes closed, it seemed like she had lost consciousness. Gem shook her trying to wake her, she didn't know a lot about first aid, but losing consciousness was never a good sign.

But nothing happened, Pearl didn't wake up, she didn't even acknowledge that she had been moved. Gem shook Pearl again, harder this time. But still, no response.

Gem started to panic "Pearl? Pearl? Come on you gotta wake up. You can't go to sleep here silly" Gem said, trying not to sound like she was panicking too much. If Pearl would notice that Gem was panicking it would only make her panic more.

She looked at Pearl's face, her lips had gone blue and she was as white as a ghost. They swam there in complete silence, the only thing that Gem could hear was her own heart beating loudly in her chest.

She realized that something was missing, something that she had been hearing this whole time. Pearl's breathing, Pearl wasn't breathing. Gem shook Pearl violently "Pearl! Pearl! No, don't do this to me, I can't lose you" she pleaded, but no response came from Pearl.

She couldn't die now, she couldn't.

Gem felt tears fall onto her cheeks, but she ignored them. "Pearl?" She whispered, she held her fingers to Pearl's pulsepoint. Seconds passed, but nothing ever came, she didn't have a pulse, she wasn't alive. More and more tears ran over Gem's cheek, falling into the water beneath them.

The cold freezing water that had just killed one of Gem's best friends.

"Pearl?" Gem asked, her voice almost inaudible. She looked at her friend, her friend that had just died simply because she had wanted to help Gem. "I love you, please don't leave me" She said, but no answer ever came. Pearl was gone, truly gone.

She stayed there, staring at the body in her arms. But suddenly she blinked and Pearl was gone, everything was gone. Gem wasn't in the cabin anymore, instead she was in the mer town that she lived in. Gem shook her head, trying to clear it. She was swimming towards the cabin. She could see the outline of Pearl as she swam closer to the surface. But Pearl wasn't in the water anymore, she was back on land.

A smile appeared on her face as she reached the surface where she saw a very much alive Pearl.

it had just been a nightmare, Pearl was fine.

"Good mor-" Gem started but she stopped talking as she noticed that Pearl wasn't alone. There were four other humans standing next to Pearl, all holding some kind of stick and wearing diving suits. Gem looked at Pearl, confused.

But Pearl didn't seem like she shared her confusion, she had a smile on her face. But it wasn't her normal friendly smile, it was a smile that didn't mean a lot of good. A mischief smile. A smile that Gem had never seen on Pearl's lips before. "What's going on?" Gem asked, backing away a little. "I'm sorry Gem, oh wait no I'm not" Pearl said before laughing.

"What do you mean?" Gem asked, fearing the answer.

"What do I have to spell it out for you? I'm not your friend Gem, never have been, never will be. It was all a ruse and you fell for it with open arms. I do have to thank you, your naivety has made this assignment way easier" Pearl explained.

Pearl moved closer to Gem, kneeling down in front of the water and looking her in the eyes as she said "But you can thank yourself, you have saved the human race from monsters like you mers. You should be proud of yourself"

Gem had heard enough, she needed to leave. She felt tears in her corner of her eyes, but she couldn't let them fall. Pearl cupped Gem's face with her hand, grabbing her chin before she could leave. "Ahh, are you about to cry? Will it be this easy with all mers?" Pearl asked, the man around her laughed.

"Gentlemen, get her" Pearl said, smiling down at Gem.

Gem moved, freeing herself out of Pearl's grib. She swam away, back underwater where she was safe. She swam down as fast as she could but she didn't actually move anywhere. She was stuck in one place. The man in diver suits came towards her, Gem started to move her tail faster, trying to get away.

But nothing worked, she was stuck in place.

The man in divers suits came towards her and started hitting her with their sticks. Gem tried to protect herself, but nothing that she did actually worked. Wherever she moved, another man in a diver suit would show up in front of her again to block her way.

She blinked once and was gone.

Now she was back in her bedroom, laying in her bed.

She sat up in bed, hands gripping the sheets, breathing heavily. She had been thrown into nightmare after nightmare the whole night. It was still early now but Gem didn't dare to go back to sleep. Fearing that she would have another nightmare.

Gem looked around her room, she was alone, completely alone. She got out of bed and swam into her living room, she let herself fall onto her couch and stared at her ceiling. She had had nightmares before, but never like this.

The nightmares had felt way too real, bringing real life problems into her dreams.

Gem needed to make sure that Pearl was okay, her first nightmare was making her worried again. But she knew that Pearl was okay, right? Joel had told her, or well he had texted her. But he could have been lying, but why would he lie?

Did he lie to spare Gem's feelings? Had Pearl actually died? Was she dead and was it all Gem's fault. Gem couldn't handle the thoughts anymore, she needed to see Pearl. Gem had to remember that Joel was human too, he could be just as bad as the rest of them.

But no, the humans weren't bad. At least not all of them. Pearl would never hurt her, and neither would Joel, Gem had been so sure of that.

The only thing stopping her from believing that was her second nightmare. What if Pearl had been lying all this time? What if her dream had been right, what if her dream had been warning? What if Pearl was only using her to get information, to get close to other mers?

No, Gem couldn't think like that, Pearl was her friend.

Pearl had proved that she was Gem's friend over and over again. She had never hurt Gem, she would never hurt Gem, she would never let Gem get hurt. If she really had been planning on hurting Gem she would have done it already.

Gem sat up on her couch, she needed to check up on Pearl. She got off of her couch and went outside, but when she got outside things changed. It was dark outside, darker than it had been inside. Of course it was dark, it was still early.

But it was never this dark.

There were always sea lanterns lighting up the place, it was something that Gem loved about the place that she lived. But now, there was nothing, not a single sprinkle of light.

Gem swam out of her house, she just needed to get to Pearl. She swam for a bit but was stopped by Jimmy, he was standing in front of her with his back turned towards her. "Jimmy?" Gem asked, Jimmy didn't look okay, he looked… wrong somehow.

Jimmy turned around, he was pale and was covered in blood. "Wha- what happened?" Gem asked, horrified. "What happened? What happened?" Jimmy asked, sounding angry, he swam closer to Gem who swam back a bit.

"What's going on Jim?" Gem asked, concerned for her friend.

"Don't act all innocent, you did this. You caused this, you doomed us all" Jimmy said, he kept getting closer to her and Gem kept swimming backwards to swim away from him. "W-what are you talking about? I didn't do anything"

Gem swam back further but was stopped by something behind her. She turned around, checking what it had been that she walked into. To her shock it was Scott, Scott was behind her. But he like Jimmy, was pale and covered in blood.

"You didn't do anything? You caused all of this, you caused this" Scott said, he showed his tail to Gem. Gem didn't understand what was wrong until she saw a price tag pierced into his tail. "Do you know who will buy me? Maybe I'll work in a circus, maybe I'll be sold to scientists or maybe I'll just be sold as food" Scott scowled.

He started swimming closer to Gem just like Jimmy had done, she started swimming backwards and hit something behind her. She assumed that it was just Jimmy but when she turned around again she didn't just see Jimmy.

Every mer was standing behind her, all bloodied up with price tags around their tails. Her friends were in the first row of mers. Joey, Katherine, Pix, False and Oli but they didn't just have blood covering them.

Joey had a stick through him, the same stick that Gem had seen in her dreams. The stick that the people around Pearl had had. He had been impaled by one. Katherine had knives in her, blood dripping out of all the cuts. The red was covering her beautiful white and light blue tail.

Pix had a big cut between his tail and his stomach. False was covered in needles, she must have been experimented on. Oli looked broken and bruised, blue, green and purple bruises covering him, his eyes unfocused but filled with anger.

Gem had to look away to keep herself from throwing up.

But when she looked away she looked right at her brothers. "We told you, Gem. We warned you" Fwhip said. "Why did you have to do it? Why did you have to doom us all?" Sausage said. There was blood around their mouths and when they spoke more started dripping out of their mouths.

"Mom and dad would be so disappointed. Maybe it's a good thing that they're not alive to see what you have done, to see what you have caused. To die just like we all did, murdered because of your mistakes" Fwhip said, pointing a bloodied finger at her.

Gem swam away, tears in the corners of her eyes, she swam to the docks. The place where all of this had begun.

She swam to the little beach and saw Pearl standing there. Pearl took one look at her and said "Thank you for giving me this opportunity, you really are stupid aren't you?" Pearl then took out a knife "You wanna see what you gave me the opportunity to do?"

Gem really didn't.

"No, why are you doing this Pearl? I thought that we were friends" Gem asked, trying to understand. Why had Pearl acted so nice, why had she never tried to do anything to Gem and why would she want to hurt the other mers.

Pearl only laughed in response, her laugh had always been something that could cheer Gem up immediately. But right now, the laugh sent shivers down Gem's spine.

"Why? Because you mers are worth a whole lot of money. All over the world there are people ready to buy mers, dead or alive. And here you were, ready to tell me everything about the other mers, where they lived, how they lived and of course about their mer abilities"

"Oh yeah, that was a hard one. It delayed our plan by quite some time, and ugh during all that time I had to play your friend. But eventually we were done, we were ready and we were prepared. Nothing could stop us anymore, not even those stupid powers of you. So we could finally start"

"And I do have to thank you Gem, thanks to you all of this was possible. Thanks to you I am now rich" Pearl said, she was about to say more but was interrupted by a loud scream. "Wh- what was that?" Gem asked, afraid of what the answer would be.

A bright smile appeared on Pearl's lips. "Bring her out" Pearl shouted, Gem watched in horror as a cage was brought out. Inside the cage was Lizzie, she was laying down in her mer form struggling to breath. Gem tried to jump onto the little beach but she was being held back by something.

Lizzie was pushed out of the cage onto the hard floor. Pearl stood in front of her, smiled at Gem and stabbed Lizzie with the knife that was still in her hands. Lizzie's head turned towards Gem as blood started spilling out of the wound that Pearl had just given her "Why? Why did you tell her about us?"

Gem screamed, her eyes opening.

When she opened her eyes again she realized that she was back in her bedroom. She was sitting on her bed, perfectly fine. Gem quickly made her way outside, mers were swimming around. Not dead, they weren't dead.

Gem let out a breath of relief and closed her door again. She looked out of her window, just to make sure everyone was really okay. They were, no one was covered in blood. Nobody was telling her that everything was her fault.

Everyone was fine, nobody was dying because she befriended a human.

Gem let herself fall onto her couch, just like she had done in her dream. When she realized that it had been a thing that she had done in her dream she jumped up. She started panicking, walking away from her couch.

She hit the wall behind her, it reminded her about bumping into Scott in her dream. She didn't dare turn around, the image of Scott bloodied with a price tag in his tail in her mind. Gem tried not to think about it but she couldn't.

Tears streamed down Gem's cheeks, she tried to blink them away. Every time she blinked another horrific image from her dream showed up in her vision. Joey, Katherine, Oli, False, Jimmy, Scott, Pix all of them, all of them looking like they had looked in her dream.

Gem sat there on the floor, hugging her tail to her chest as she cried.

After a while she started hearing voices, they sounded real. She started feeling hands on her, she heard footsteps around her. But she didn't react to any of them, she couldn't react to anything going on around her.

At this point she didn't even know if it was real.

She didn't know if any of it was real, she might even still be in a nightmare.

Chapter Text

Pearl woke up in her own bed, she had finally stopped feeling cold. The last day she had gone home and showered, during the shower she kept turning the heat on a little more and more just to feel warm. But it didn't work. Afterwards she had gone to bed, taking all the blankets in the house with her, putting on her warmest pyjamas and turning the radiator on.

She hadn't slept much, her brain had been too busy thinking about other things. Eventually she had managed to fall asleep, but now she was awake again and the thoughts flooded back to her. "You weren't alone in that cabin, were you?" The sentence that Skizz had told her before she left kept going through her head.

What did he know? Had he seen Gem?

He had told her that he wasn't after her secrets and he told her not to worry about it. But she was definitely worrying. It had been stupid to call him, Pearl had said so herself right before Gem had called him. But she hadn't expected him to have seen anything.

Gem had left on time, right? There was no way he could know.

Pearl stared at her ceiling, wondering if she should tell Gem about Skizz. She didn't want to worry Gem any more, but if this was about Gem then she deserved to know. Pearl didn't know what Skizz thought had happened, from his perspective this situation was incredibly weird.

He had gotten a call from one of his friends saying that she needed help and that he had to come to a cabin where neither of them were supposed to be. He had gone there, being a good friend and all, and there he had found his friends all alone in a pool of water, freezing.

Skizz being Skizz immediately helped her, taking her to his house. The events were probably also replaying in his head. The realization must have eventually hit him, the realization that something wasn't right. That there was no way that Pearl could have reached her phone from where she was in the pool and that her voice had sounded far away from the phone during the phone call.

Maybe he had been holding her phone in his hand while thinking about all of this, while trying to figure out how this all made sense. The conclusion was that Pearl hadn't been alone, but Pearl was sure that that conclusion had only brought more questions to the poor man.

Because why would there be someone else in the cabin, why wouldn't they have helped Pearl out of the water themselves and why would they have just left her alone there? Nothing about that seemed logical, unless you knew the truth.

Unless you knew that Pearl hadn't been left alone at all, that the person who had been with her had been trying to help her but hadn't been able to. And that the person would have left because they were a mer, a mer that absolutely could not be seen by a human.

Eventually Pearl left her bed, her thoughts were driving her crazy. She walked downstairs and ate breakfast. While eating her thoughts started again, she was curious if Skizz was trying to figure out a way to make sense of the situation. He had told her that he wasn't there to figure out her secrets.

Pearl hoped that that had been the truth.

She wanted to visit Gem before she went off to work so she had to hurry a little. Pearl quickly ate before leaving her house and walking to the cabin. She made sure that Tango and Skizz weren't looking out of their window as she left her house, making sure that none of them would see her walk back to the cabin.

They couldn't see her return to the cabin now, there would be no good reason for her to return.

Luckily it didn't look like the two of them were awake yet, so Pearl was in the clear. She walked inside the cabin and looked around, a shiver went over her back when she saw the water again. She immediately felt cold again.

Her brain told her to leave, to go back to her safe warm house, but she couldn't, this was the only place where Pearl could safely visit Gem. She wouldn't give that up just because she almost died there. Gem had been risking her life whenever Pearl and Gem met up.

The least thing Pearl could do was go to the one locating Gem would be safe.

But she wouldn't be getting into the water for a little while, no no no she would stay at the safe dry land. Pearl sat on the bench for a while, waiting for Gem to arrive. They hadn't agreed to meet but Pearl just hoped that Gem would show up anyway. She usually would.

Gem didn't show up though, Pearl was all alone in the cabin. After a while it was time for Pearl to leave, she stood up, looked at the water one more time and then left the cabin. Secretly she felt some relief being out of the place, being away from the water.

She had lived in this town for a few months now and she had almost drowned twice already. The first time she had convinced herself that she had been hallucinating until she knew the truth about the situation. After she learned the truth she had been too busy meeting Gem to really be scared.

But now, now she had time to think about the situation. It was actually crazy that she had almost died by water twice in a few months. She tried not to think about it though, the thoughts really weren't great to think about. Luckily there was no water around the way to her work.

Pearl walked to the cafe and walked in, Impulse saw her and walked towards her. "Pearl, what are you doing in?" Impulse asked, Pearl looked at him confused "I work here, remember?" she asked, she was sure that she had to work today, she had checked that morning.

"Not today you don't, do you remember about how you almost died yesterday? I'd say that that counts as a good reason to not show up to work" Impulse replied.

"I feel fine, I can work again" Pearl said as she put an apron on. "Pearl" Impulse said, he put a hand on her arm, stopping her from tying the apron "You can take a break, you should get some more rest. Let your body and mind recover from what happened. I won't be mad, nobody would be mad"

Pearl looked Impulse in the eyes "I promise you Impulse, I'll be fine" She actually just needed something to do that would take her mind off of what had happened. She would just like to forget everything that had happened the day before.

"Fine, but if you need a break please tell me immediately. And just take it easy" Impulse said, he let her arm go. Pearl tied her apron and "Thank you, and I will" she said, it was weird. If she would come into work a day after she had almost died in the city her boss would have set her straight to work.

He wouldn't have cared that she had almost died, he wouldn't have told her to take a break. He would probably have given her more work. Town people were weird, or maybe it was because Impulse was her friend.

Pearl started working, it actually helped to take her mind off of her problems for a while. That was until Lizzie walked in, she looked like she was panicking. She scanned the room until her eyes fell on Pearl. She started walking up to Pearl and pulled her away from the front of the cafe without saying a word.

She took the plate that Pearl still had in her hands and placed it down on a random table before pulling her into the restroom. Lizzie checked underneath the stalls to make sure that they were completely alone. "What's going on?" Pearl asked, almost scared to hear the answer.

Her thoughts went crazy with possibilities, what reason would Lizzie have to storm into Pearl's work and pull her aside. What kind of information was Lizzie about to tell her that nobody else could know.

"It's Gem, she needs you" Lizzie answered, her answer was very vague and Pearl didn't like that one bit. "What do you mean? Please Lizzie just tell me what's going on" Pearl pleaded, she just wanted answers. She needed to know what was going on and more importantly, she needed to know if Gem was okay.

"I don't know, Sausage and Fwhip Gem's brothers just came to the cabin. They told Joel that Gem needs you, they wouldn't tell him anything else. They don't trust him since he's a human, he's with them right now trying to get more information" Lizzie explained.

"Come on" Pearl said, she walked out of the restroom already taking off her apron. She walked into the kitchen "Impulse, I'm really sorry but I think that I do actually need a break. I need to go home, right now" she said as she walked right past him.

She walked into the employee only room, placed her apron on the table, grabbed her stuff and left the room again. "Sorry again" She yelled as she walked out of the cafe. She started running towards the cabin, desperate to get to Gem.

When she got there she threw open the door, she could see Fhwip in the water. Joel was still there, he turned to Pearl "I really hope that you can get them to talk"

"Me too" Pearl thought, Fhwip, Lizzie had told Pearl the name of the mer that Pearl didn't know yet, he came up to the surface. "Pearl, right?" He asked, he didn't look angry like he had been last time. He just looked worried.

This only made Pearl worry more, what was going on? Pearl wanted to demand to know what was going on but she doubted if Fwhip would tell her if she demanded an answer.

"Yeah, I'm Pearl. Is Gem okay?" Pearl asked, she didn't have time for introductions.

"We- we don't know. Me and Sausage went to her house yesterday and we found her basically unresponsive. She keeps saying nonsense, the only thing that we can understand from what she's saying is the word Pearl. We think that she wants you" Fwhip explained, not looking happy about it.

"I thought that you thought that I would only harm her, why would you trust me now?" Pearl asked, she hadn't seen Gem yet, this could be a trap. Maybe they were trying to get Pearl out of Gem's life, it would be far fetched but Pearl didn't know these people. She didn't know what they could or would do to protect their sister.

"We don't, we really don't. But we don't really have another choice, we have tried everything to help her but nothing is working. Gem seems to trust you, for some reason" Fwhip answered.

"Where is she?" Pearl asked, she just needed to see Gem.

"Still underwater, we're still not sure if we can trust you with her" Fwhip replied "How can I help her if I can't even talk to her?" Pearl asked. "Listen we don't know, we want to help Gem but we also don't want to hand her just off to you" Fwhip said sounding angry.

But Pearl wasn't having that "Don't get angry at me, this is your plan. Just bring Gem here so that I can try to help her. If it helps you I promise not to hurt her" Pearl said, hoping that it would work.

"Fine, fine" Fwhip said, he went underwater and got back up. Sausage was now next to him with Gem in his arms. Gem had her eyes wide open, tears streaming out of her eye and she was staring up at the ceiling not even acknowledging Pearl.

"What happened?" Pearl asked, seeing Gem like that was not something she ever thought she would see. She took a few steps forward towards Gem but stopped once her eyes fell on the water. The cold, freezing water.

"We really don't know" Sausage said, taking Pearl out of her thoughts. "Gem?" Pearl tried, but Gem didn't respond. "Get her up" Pearl said, wanting to take a closer look.

"No" Sausage and Fwhip immediately responded "How am I supposed to help her from up here?" Pearl asked, Sausage and Fwhip really did not think this plan through. "We can't just hand her off to you" Fwhip argued.

"You can trust me, she won't even leave your sight" Pearl said. Fwhip and Sausage looked at Gem, then at each other. Sausage swam closer to the floor and Joel and Pearl helped Gem get on land. Gem didn't react to any of this happening.

Pearl started shaking Gem's shoulders "Gem? Gemie? Can you hear me, it's Pearl" Pearl said, trying to get Gem's attention. Gem looked over at Pearl, looking her in the eyes. A flash of recognition flashed in her eyes, but besides that nothing happened.

"What's going on Gem, what happened?" Pearl asked.

She wasn't expecting an answer, she was just talking to Gem to let her know that she was there. But to her surprise Gem did answer "you're alive" Gem said softly. Fhwip and Sausage looked over at Pearl in shock but they stayed silent.

"Yeah, yeah of course I'm alive" Pearl answered confused. "And you're not betraying me, you're actually my friend?" Gem asked, tears streaming down her face again. Pearl wiped some of her tears away "Of course I'm your friend. You know that I would never do anything to hurt you"

Pearl looked over at Fwhip and Sausage "I would never do anything to hurt you or any other mers" Pearl said, she turned her attention back to Gem. "Promise?" Gem asked softly., the words mixed with a sob. "Of course, yeah I promise. I promise to never ever do anything that would hurt you or any other mer"

Gem smiled "I knew that I could trust you"

"Of course you can trust me, you can trust me with anything and everything" Pearl said, she had a smile on her face that she hoped would reassure Gem. "Is everything okay? What happened?" Pearl asked, she had to know what had caused Gem to get into the state that she was in.

"I- I had a nightmare, or well multiple nightmares. In the first one, y- you died. You froze to death" Gem started sobbing, Pearl hugged Gem close to her as she sobbed "I don't wanna lose you" Gem whispered "You won't, you won't ever lose me" Pearl said as she rubbed circles into Gem's back. "I will never leave you" Pearl said.

She knew that she wouldn't be able to keep that promise, but she sure as hell wasn't planning on leaving Gem any time soon.

"what were the other nightmares about?" Pearl asked, she needed to know how she could best help Gem. She didn't want to say anything wrong that would only make Gem panic more. "Doesn't matter" Gem answered.

Pearl pulled away and looked Gem in her eyes "Of course it matters, you can tell me anything Gem" Pearl said. Gem looked back at her "I- I really don't wanna talk about it" Gem said in a soft tone. "That's alright" Pearl said as she spread her arms, inviting Gem in for a hug.

Gem didn't waste a second and hugged Pearl, Pearl wrapped her arms around Gem in return. They stayed like that for a while before Gem pulled away. She looked at her brothers "Thank you for taking me here, thank you for trusting me"

"Of course Gem" Sausage said "Anything to make sure you're okay" Fwhip said.

They stayed together for a while, Pearl started telling fwhip and Sausage some things about the human world. She even disproved some of the things that Fwhip and Sausage had told her, mers apparently thought that humans were way stronger than that they really were.

After a while it was getting late and Gem had to leave, she went underwater with Fwhip. Sausage turned to Pearl "Thank you" he said, he didn't give her any time to respond as he went underwater again, following his siblings. Pearl let out a sigh, a small smile on her face as she stared down at the water.

"Yeah, that sums up today pretty well" Joel said, Pearl had forgotten that he was there for a while but he had been there the whole time. He had stayed and helped with Pearl whenever he could. Pearl left after she and Joel informed Lizzie about what had happened.

Lizzie really wished that she could have been there, but she couldn't show Fwhip and Sausage that she was human. She felt guilty about not being able to help.

Eventually Pearl also went home, she got ready for bed and laid there for a while staring at her ceiling again. Her thoughts started going wild again so Pearl picked up her phone, she had gotten a message from Impulse.

Impulse: Hey Pearl, don't worry about leaving. I told you to take a break if you needed one, I'm not mad that you actually listened to me. Let me know when you're ready to work again.

Pearl: I will be ready to work after today. Thank you for understanding, I really did need this extra day

Impulse: Okay, good to hear. But really if you need another day or week or even longer, just let me know. We'll figure something out :)

Pearl smiled and put her phone away, she closed her eyes and tried to go to sleep.

Chapter Text

Sausage and Fwhip went over to visit Gem again. The last time they had seen her was after they had told her about their parents' death. They wanted to give her some space, but they were also worried. So they decided to just visit her.

If she minded they would leave, they understood that she was an adult and that she could take care of herself. But that didn't mean that she didn't need her brothers anymore, and it certainly didn't mean that they would stop worrying about her.

The new… It had shocked her to say the least. Getting the words out of their mouths, telling her, it had almost broken Sausage and Fwhip all over again. When they had first heard about their parents death, they had tried to stay tough for Gem.

Especially Sausage, he took over the parental role very quickly. He was always there for Fwhip and Gem when they needed him, it didn't leave a lot of time for him to grieve himself. Telling Gem had brought all their emotions back, and while Gem was an adult now. Sausage still felt that need to be there for his sister.

And so he and Fwhip decided to check up on her again. They had brought her over from their parents home to her own just the day before, but if she didn't want them to leave they could just spend a nice day with the three of them.

Fwhip knocked on Gem's door, looking over at Sausage as he waited for a response. Seconds passed, but no answer came. "Maybe she didn't hear" Sausage suggested, he knocked on the door a bit louder. "Gem" Fwhip said, dragging out her name as he said it. They waited for a little while, but nothing happened again.

Fwhip knocked again, using his full fist. At the moment he was more hitting the door than knocking on it, but Sausage understood his emotions. He grabbed Fwhip's hand and looked at him, giving him a stern look.

Sausage let go of Fwhip's hand and swam closer to the door, he knocked, even louder than Fwhip had done. "Gem" He yelled as he kept knocking. When nothing happened yet again Sausage backed away from the door "Maybe she's just not home"

"Then we wait" Fwhip said as he sat down on the ground in front of Gem's door, his arms crossed over each other. It looked like the man was ready to wait however long it took, but Sausage had a better idea, he let out a sigh "Or" he started, taking out his key chain. He took the key to Gem's house and opened the door. Fwhip fell backwards when the door was opened since he had been leaning against the door.

Sausage could not hold his laughter "Could have just told me that you brought the key" Fwhip complained, he quickly stood up and swam into the house, ignoring Sausage's laughter. They got in and quickly spotted Gem, both of them instantly noticed that something was wrong.

She was sitting on the floor hugging her tail to her chest, tears rolling down her cheeks. Her eyes seemed to be frozen to a spot on the wall, no reaction came from her when the two came in.

Sausage's laughter died down, replaced with pure concern for his little sister. Fwhip and him swam over to her quickly "Gem? Are you okay?" Fwhip asked, kneeling down next to her. Sausage kneeled down on her other side, his hand hovering above her shoulder. He looked down at Gem with concern. Gem didn't answer his question, only making the brothers worry more.

"What's going on Gem?" Sausage asked, Gem again didn't respond. She didn't even acknowledge that they were there. Fwhip and Sausage looked at each other before they turned back to Gem. "Gem?" Fwhip whispered as he put a hand on her shoulder.

Gem still didn't react at all. Sausage lifted her chin with his hand, making her look into his eyes. But her eyes were unfocused, Sausage was right in front of her and yet she still wasn't seeing her. "Gem, hey, hello, are you okay?" Fwhip asked.

He started waving his hand in front of her face but when she still didn't react he started snapping his fingers instead. But still no reaction came from Gem, not a single thing indicated that she even knew that they were there. Fwhip went over to petting Gem's cheek, but still nothing happened.

"What do we do?" Sausage asked, turning to face Fwhip and hoping that his brother had a better idea than him. He had never seen his sister like this, actually he'd never seen anyone like that. "Do you think that she can hear us?" Fwhip asked. "I don't know, it doesn't look like anything is getting to her. "W-" Fwhip was about to say something but Gem made a sound.

Fwhip and Sausage looked at her, but she was quiet again. The two of them shared a look, both questing if they had actually heard her. "What did you say Gem?" Sausage asked her, but she didn't reply. Sausage turned back to Fwhip, he began to doubt if she had ever made a sound in the first place. "Did you hear what I heard?" He asked. Fwhip slowly nodded "She definitely said something, but what?"

"I have no idea" Sausage admitted, the two of them were staring at Gem while she was still crying. It was weird seeing their sister like that, they had never seen her act like that before. Sausage felt useless just sitting there. "Should we ask someone for help?" Fwhip asked.

"Yeah, do you know anyone who could know what is going on?" Sausage asked, Fwhip thought for a few seconds. "Katherine can read people's minds, maybe she can help" Fwhip suggested.

"She doesn't like using her powers without someone's permission" Sausage replied, Katherine was always pretty clear in that. She would not use her powers against someone. "Gem can't give consent like this" Fwhip looked at over at Gem, he seemed about as hopeless as Sausage felt.

"Maybe she would do it, she would be helping Gem" Fwhip said, Katherine and Gem were friends, Katherine would want to help her, that was sure.

"Maybe, asking can't hurt. You go get her. I'll stay here with Gem" Sausage said, resting his hand on Gem's back. The action brought no response, all hopes of this all being a prank left Fwhip. If Gem was willing to let Katherine come over she wasn't fully there. She wouldn't waste her time with a stupid prank, this was serious and real.

Fwhip stood up fully but didn't move away, he just kept his eyes on Gem. Sausage knew that he wanted to stay with Gem too but he also knew that there was no way that he would be leaving Gem now. Fwhip seemed to realize that too, he chose to not argue with Sausage right now which Sausage was grateful for. He watched as Fwhip swam away.

Fwhip swam to Katherine's house as fast as he could and knocked on her door with his fist. Katherine opened the door, not looking too happy. But her anger washed away when she saw Fwhip's panicked expression. "what's going on?" she asked.

"It's Gem, she's.. well I don't know what's wrong that's the problem. She's crying and not responding to anything me or Sausage are saying or doing. She didn't even acknowledge us when we walked into the room, it looked like she was looking straight through us" Fwhip quickly explained.

"How can I help?" Katherine asked "We thought that you could use your ability to see what's wrong" Fwhip answered. "Fwhip, I really don't like using my ability on people who don't consent to it" Katherine responded, just like Sausage had predicted.

"I know, I know but you'd be helping her. We really need your help, we don't know what else to do" Fwhip said, defeated "Believe me, if we had another idea we'd be doing that" he added, "Please" he was willing to beg if that was what it took. "Okay, I'll see what you can do" Katherine said, she closed the door behind her and followed Fwhip to Gem's house.

The two of them swam to Gem's house quickly, Fwhip opened the door and they went in. Katherine looked at Gem and froze, concern appearing on her face. It seemed like she too was realizing the seriousness of the situation. "What happened?" she asked, swimming closer to Gem.

"We don't know, we just came over and found her like this" Fwhip answered. Katherine looked Gem over, cupped her face and took in the woman's unfocused eyes "Gem? Are you okay?" she asked gently, but just like with fwhip and Sausage she didn't respond.

"Has she said anything while I was gone?" Fwhip asked Sausage as he sat down next to Gem again. "She mumbled a bit, and she said something that sounded like the word Pearl. But I don't know what she means with that" Sausage responded with a shrug.

Sausage turned his attention to Katherine "Katherine, can you help her?" he asked her. "I- I can try" Katherine said, she tried to take Gem's hands but Gem held her arms tightly around her tail. "Okay" Katherine said, she looked at Gem and her eyes turned green.

Katherine's eyes always turned the eyes colour of the person whose mind she was reading. She shot backwards a few seconds later, her eyes turning back to brown. "Katherine? What happened?" Fwhip asked as he swam towards her, he helped her back up.

"I- I don't think I can help here. Her- her thoughts, I'm sorry I can't tell you what I saw. That is a conversation you're gonna have to have with Gem" Katherine said, she started swimming towards Gem again.

"Is there anything that you saw that can help us?" Sausage asked, not taking his eyes off of Katherine. "I don't think so, unless you know someone called Pearl. That's the name that Gem's mind kept repeating. I- I'm gonna go now, if you guys don't mind" Katherine answered.

"We don't mind, thank you for your help Katherine" Fwhip said, Katherine took one more long look at Gem, pity in her eyes, before she started swimming away leaving Fwhip and Sausage all alone again. "No need to thank me. Tell Gem to come to me once she is back to normal" Katherine mumbled before completely disappearing.

"What do we do now?" Sausage asked, still not taking his eyes off of Gem. "Pearl, Katherine was talking about someone named Pearl. Wasn't that the name of Gem's human friend?" fwhip asked. Sausage looked at him, finally taking his eyes off of Gem.

"Fwhip no" Sausage immediately said, sensing where this conversation was going. "Do you have a better idea?" Fwhip asked, he also didn't want this but if it helped Gem. "No, but we can't go to the human" Sausage argued. "Why not? Gem told us that she trusts the human. If the human can help then why don't we let her help?"

"I-" Sausage said, he looked back at Gem. He carefully thought about this plan, neither of them had a better idea. He didn't see how this human would be able to help Gem if they couldn't. But it seemed like Gem did want to see her, maybe she could somehow help. A sigh left Sausage "fine, we can go to the human. But we ask what she can do before we let her do anything" Sausage answered.

He picked up Gem, she was still not responding to anything. Even while she was picked up she remained unresponsive.

The two of them swam to the little cabin, Fwhip went in first to see if the human was there. But he returned only a few seconds later "She's not here, what do we do now?" Fwhip asked. "I don't know, just call out for her. She might be close by and hear you" Sausage suggested, cursing this human friend of Gem for living on land.

From all the friends that Gem could make, she chose the one that couldn't easily be reached.

"Smart" Fwhip responded, he swam back up to the surface. Sausage could hear a muffled "HUMAN!" coming from Fwhip.

He kept calling out until he suddenly stopped. From underwater Sausage couldn't see onto the land, but he did see Fwhip move back into the water. He held out his hand and bared his teeth while he watched the door. Sausage swam up a little bit, just enough to see the person.

It wasn't the human friend of Gem, instead it was man. He walked in and seemed to shush Fwhip.

"You're one of Gem's brothers, are you trying to get mers discovered by humans?" The man asked, seemingly annoyed by Fwhip. "Y-yeah, bring me the human friend of Gem" fwhip demanded, trying to sound dangerous.

"Which human friend of Gem, she's got a few" the man asked, at least he knew who Gem was. "Pearl" Fwhip responded, the name sounding like a deadtreat. The human rolled his eyes "I'll go look for her, why are you here?" the human asked.

"I- I'm not telling you" Fwhip responded, Sausage smiled, he was glad that Fwhip wasn't telling this random human all their secrets. He didn't need to know anything, he just needed to get Gem.

"Just go get the other human" Fwhip said.

Footsteps could be heard from outside "Don't come in here, one of Gem's brothers is here" The human called out to whoever was outside. "He wants to talk to Pearl because of Gem. But he won't tell me what he wants to talk to her" the human continued.

"Are you going to find her?" The human asked "okay" he said before turning back to Fwhip. "My wife is going to find Pearl, she would hurry up if you told me why you need Gem" the human informed Fwhip. "Yeah, no, just tell her to hurry up. It's important"

The two of them waited for a while until the human, Pearl, walked in. She talked to Fwhip and asked to see Gem, Fwhip didn't want that, Sausage didn't want that, Gem… Gem might want it. But they couldn't ask her. The human pointed out that it would be hard for the human to help Gem if she couldn't talk to Gem. Fwhip told Sausage to get to the surface with Gem.

Sausage did, but he held onto Gem tightly as if the human could just take her from him. Eventually the human did ask if they could bring Gem to her. Sausage and fwhip didn't want to do that at all, but the human couldn't really help Gem from afar.

Eventually they gave in, the human talked to Gem. Fwhip wanted to roll his eyes, like they hadn't tried that before. But to his surprise Gem responded, she became more and more aware as she talked to the human.

Gem came back, Fwhip wanted to swim to her, hug her and never let go. But he couldn't since she was still on the land. Neither he or Sausage could get to her now, she was with the two humans. Gem apparently had gotten into an unresponsive state because of a nightmare.

The nightmare had been about the human dying, that was what had put Gem into that state. Gem really did care about the human, didn't she?

They talked with the humans for a little bit, Fwhip was trying to understand what Gem liked about them so much. He just didn't see it, whenever he looked at a human he just saw a monster who had caused the death of his parents.

He saw humans who would betray a mer without a second thought.

But when he looked at how Gem acted with the humans. Pearl had hugged Gem, she had held her while she cried. She had wiped away Gem's tears. It just didn't seem like something a human would do. And yet they were humans.

After a while it became late, Fwhip could see that Gem was getting tired.

Fwhip and Sausage brought Gem home, they stayed with her. The three of them slept together in Gem's living room. Fwhip and Sausage promised that they would help Gem fight off the nightmares. The three of them stayed awake, Fwhip suggested only talking about positive things.

They did, they ended up sharing their favorite childhood memories. After that they each admitted something that they had done that their parents hadn't found out about.

The three of them spent most of the night laughing at each other. Fwhip and Sausage were making fools out of themselves, but they didn't care. It was all fine as long as Gem had a smile on her face.

Chapter Text

Pearl slept badly that night, she managed to sleep for a few hours but at five am she was fully awake again. She lay in her bed, twisting and turning the whole night just trying to fall asleep. But no matter what she tried, she didn't get back to sleep.

And she really tried to get back to sleep too. She went on a little walk, she drank some warm milk, she even tried to lay completely still like they do in the army. But nothing worked, Pearl's eyes stayed open and Pearl stayed wide awake.  

At seven am Pearl quit trying and got up out of bed. She went downstairs, made herself some breakfast and some tea and watched tv for a while. It was dead silent outside, Pearl had been awake at seven am often lately. The difference was that she would usually wake up at seven, after she had already slept, now she hadn't gotten a second of sleep.

Every time that she was awake at seven am it had been to visit Gem at the docks. Back when she could still only visit Gem when there was nobody else at the docks. The time that that was an issue felt so long ago now. But right now it was seven and she wasn't at the docks, she was at home, all alone. The only sounds that were there were coming from her tv. Pearl tried to focus on whatever was on but her thoughts still wouldn't let her alone. 

She kept thinking about everything that had happened, everything that could happen. She kept thinking about Gem, about the state that Gem was in yesterday. Pearl had been glad that Gem's brothers had brought Gem to her. But if they hadn't, Pearl wouldn't have any way to get to Gem.

If anything ever happened to Gem, Pearl wouldn't be able to reach her.

It was a terrifying thought to Pearl, that something would happen to Gem. But something already happened to Gem, the news about her parents, the state that she had been in the day before. Pearl hadn't been able to help her in both of those cases.

Pearl knew that there was nothing she could do about this, but that only made her feel more useless. If anything happened she wouldn't know about it, she would be left clueless on land. 

After a while of watching tv, or well trying to watch tv, Pearl got up and got ready for the day. She was still tired, but the world wouldn't pause for her. Plus, her body had decided that she wouldn't be sleeping tonight, it was it's own fault that she was now tired. When she was ready to go she left her house and went over to the cabin, hoping that Gem would be there.

Pearl walked in and took a seat on the bench, she took out her phone and started scrolling on it while she waited. She didn't even know if Gem would show up, they hadn't planned on meeting up. But Pearl really needed to see Gem today.

She needed to see if Gem was okay after yesterday. 

The day before Gem had been taken back with her brothers, to a place impossible for Pearl to reach. She and Gem hadn't gotten the chance to talk alone. Pearl hadn't expected anything else, she hadn't expected Gem's brothers to leave Gem alone with her. But with them there, she wasn't sure what she could say. 

She didn't know what Gem had told them about the human lands. She didn't know if she would be revealing anything to Gem's brothers if she talked about it. One things was sure though, the brothers did not know about Lizzie, and Lizzie wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.

Pearl had seen Lizzie standing just outside the corner, her concern for her friend making her reckless. Every once in a while Joel had sneaked a look at her, trying to assure her that Gem was fine without notifying the brothers that there was another person out there.

In the evening Joel and Pearl had explained everything to her, Pearl had been able to see the guilt on Lizzie's face. She knew that Lizzie wanted to help, but that she couldn't. No other mers could know that she was a human, if Sausage or Fwhip had seen her they would have known. 

Pearl wasn't sure what would happen if Lizzie's secret came out in the mer world. Would she be punished? For lying? For Being around humans? Or would they allow her since it was her mer power after all. Maybe the rest would see her as weird or they'd fear her since she was human. Pearl really didn't know.

But Lizzie seemed sure about not wanting to tell them, Pearl respected that. 

Pearl waited and waited, getting lost in her thoughts. Every once in a while she would look at the water hoping that Gem would show up. After about an hour of waiting, Gem did show up, snapping Pearl out of her thoughts. Pearl shot up from the bench "Gem, hey! How are you?" Pearl asked once she could see Gem's face.

"Good, or well not good yet. But better than I was doing yesterday" Gem replied, she looked as tired as Pearl felt. "Did you sleep well?" Pearl asked concerned, she wasn't surprised that Gem looked tired. Going back to sleep after a nightmare was hard. She wished that there was something that she could do to help.

"Not really, Fwhip and Sausage stayed with me last night but I couldn't really get to sleep" Gem admitted. "Anything I can do to help?" Pearl asked, she didn't know what she could do to help but she just wanted to do something. 

"I don't think so, but thank you for the offer. Can we- can we just talk about something else? Something fun" Gem asked, Pearl understood that Gem didn't want to talk about what was worrying her. "Of course we can, what do you wanna talk about?" Pearl asked, sitting back down and acting like she was calm. She forced her body to relax a little, her arms at her side and a small smile on her face.

"I- I don't know, tell me a story?" Gem suggested, Pearl chuckled "Sure, what kind of story?" She asked. "Doesn't matter, just a fun one. It can be real or fake, doesn't matter. Knowing you it will be fun anyway" Gem replied, a sweet smile on her face.

Pearl returned the smile "Okay, once upon a time there uhm" Pearl started but she had no idea what to actually tell her. She didn't have any exciting stories of her own like the amazing movies on tv. But wait, Gem didn't have a human tv, she didn't know about human shows of movies.

A decision was made in Pearl's brain, she started telling a story "Once upon a time there was a mermaid named Ariel, she wanted nothing more than to discover the human lands" The story of the little mermaid, a movie that Pearl had always loved when she had been a child. It had been a while since she had seen the movie but she remembered most of it. 

Gem seemed fascinated by Pearl's story, paying attention to every word that Pearl was saying. 

At some point Gem swam even closer to the edge of the hole, resting her arms on the floor as she listened. When Pearl finished the story Gem asked "Can a mer really turn into a human?" Pearl shook her head "I- I don't think so, the story that I told you was made up. But it would be cool right?" 

"Yeah" Gem said, looking dreamy. "Thank you for the story, but I need to go now" 

"Oh okay, bye! Can we meet again tomorrow?" Pearl asked, she needed the confirmation that she would see Gem again the next day. She didn't want to just keep hoping that Gem would be at the cabin whenever she walked in. 

"Sure, tomorrow morning?" Gem asked, Pearl smiled "Tomorrow morning sounds great" she replied. "See you tomorrow, bye Pearl" Gem said "Bye Gem" Pearl replied as Gem disappeared out of the water. Pearl stared at the water for a few seconds before she too left.

She opened the door to go outside and closed it behind her, when she started walking away she saw Skizz. She froze in place, Skizz was looking at her from a distance, when he noticed that she'd seen him he waved at her. 

Skizz had walked out of his house and seen Pearl walk somewhere in the distance. He started following her, trying to catch up to her. Maybe she was heading to the town too, they could walk together. Skizz walked fast, calling out her name. But it didn't look like she heard him since she just kep walking.

She was too fast for Skizz, but suddenly she stopped, right in front of the cabin. Skizz kept walking, looking closely at what shew as doing there. Pearl simply opened the door and walked in, without any hesitation. Skizz stood there frozen, waiting for her to come back out, but she didn't.

It confused Skizz, he hadn't expected Pearl to ever enter the cabin again after what had happened to her in there. She had told Joel that she wouldn't go in again, so why would she do it anyways? Skizz had seen the inside of the cabin, there was nothing in there that was particularly interesting. 

Just a bench, a closet and some weird pool of water. 

That too had confused Skizz when he had walked into the cabin. The pool of water was small, it was nowhere near a real pool. Joel had told him that it had been for fishing, that made sense. A hole with a bench by it, yeah that sounded like a fishing spot.

Skizz had never known that Joel liked fishing, he had never even seen the man fishing. But he guessed that it was possible. But then what was Pearl doing inside?

She didn't like fishing, she thought that it was boring. Grian, Mumbo, Tango and him had talked about Pearl a few days after she had moved in. Grian had told the rest that he didn't like Pearl because she didn't like fishing. It had been said in a jokily manner but he hadn't been joking about the fact that Pearl didn't like fishing. 

Skizz thought that he would know about it if she like fishing. He would at least have seen her go fishing more often. And if she did like fishing, then why would she do it in the cabin. It was Joel's cabin, the two of them knew each other but Skizz couldn't see Joel giving Pearl permission to fish at his private fishing spot.

It also didn't look like Pearl had been carrying any fishing equipment. Maybe she was getting it from there, but wouldn't Joel notice that? The whole situation was fishy, Skizz thought, chuckling at his own joke. 

So what was she really doing inside the cabin? Skizz decided to wait and find out. He stood there watching the cabin, thinking that Pearl would be right out. But an hour later she was still inside, Skizz sat down on the floor. He took out him phone and started texting random people to pass the time. 

Every once in a while he would look up from his phone to check if nobody was entering or leaving the cabin. But nothing changed. 

He wanted to give up on waiting, getting bored. But after an hour he didn't want to give up. So he waited a bit longer, and even longer, and after that he kept waiting. After what felt like forever he saw the door open. He shot up, placing his phone back in his pocket. Pearl walked out of the cabin, it looked like she spotted him instantly. 

She turned towards him, Skizz could see the exact moment that Pearl saw him. He could see the moment where the calmness on her face was replaced by shock. Skizz waved at her, hoping to ease the tension between them a bit. Pearl waved back at him and walked towards him, shock still on her face. Pearl was keeping secrets, Skizz knew it. 

He had known it since he had gone to help her when he had gotten the phone call from the cabin.

When he had walked inside he had seen her freezing in the water. He had helped her out and held her close to him trying to warm her up while he texted Tango for help. While they had waited for Tango to show up, Skizz had been scanning his surroundings.

He had seen the bench and closet, but there was nothing more. He had seen the phone on the floor, it had been weird since it was far away from the little pool of water. It had been out of Pearl's reach and yet she had called him from it.

It didn't make any sense to Skizz, he had figured that the only explanation was that Pearl hadn't been alone in the cabin. He kept thinking about it while Pearl had been asleep in his apartment, but he came to the conclusion that he didn't care.

He liked Pearl, she was his friend. If she was keeping secrets she must have had a good excuse for that. He went to confront her before she left, he needed to know if he was right. He knew that he could have just been overthinking everything.

But when he had seen Pearl's reaction to his question he had known that he had been right.

Pearl hadn't been alone in the cabin, there had been someone else. Someone else who hadn't helped her when she had fallen into the water. But that person must have also been holding Pearl's phone when Pearl had called him.

Skizz had noticed that Pearl sounded far away when she had called him. At that moment he hadn't noticed but later while Pearl was asleep he had thought about it. Nothing made sense anymore.

And Skizz knew that it was none of his business, if Pearl didn't want to explain things to him then that was fine. But Skizz was curious. He was also scared that someone had actually pushed Pearl into the water, if that was the case that Skizz needed to have a conversation with that person.

Pearl waved back and walked up to him. "Hey Skizz, how are you doing?" she asked, curious about why he was there. He had been watching the cabin, she was sure about it. She just didn't know why, he had told her that he didn't care about her secrets. 

"Hey Pearl, I'm doing well thank you for asking. How are you?" Skizz asked, he sounded innocent enough. "I'm great, what are you doing here?" she asked. "I could ask you the same thing" Skizz replied, crossing his arms over each other. 

"Yeah, but I asked you first" Pearl argued as she realized that she also didn't have a good reason to be there. "I was just visiting my mer friend" sounded like a pretty bad excuse. Even though Skizz did believe in mers. "Fine, I was just passing by and saw the door of the cabin open. I got curious, you know me. So I watched and then, to my surprise, you walked out. What was your reason for being in there?" 

"I- I uhm I was looking for Lizzie. The two of us have become friends" Pearl replied, that sounded like a good reason to be on Joel and Lizzie's land. "Ah, but she wasn't there?" Skizz asked, looking over at the cabin as if searching for Lizzie. 

"Nope, so I guess I'll head back home" Pearl said, she moved to go back home. Skizz said that he was passing by, he must be going to the town. So that was where Pearl wouldn't be going, she didn't want to answer any of his questions. Maybe he would just forget about this whole incident later. 

"Okay, see you later" Skizz said, Pearl started walking away. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Skizz stare at the cabin, before he started walking towards the town. Pearl went home and cleaned her house a little out of stress. 

What had he seen? He already knew too much after the almost freezing to death incident that Pearl had had.

When she was done cleaning she wanted to make some lunch but she discovered that her fridge was almost completely empty. She sighed, it was like food disappeared out of her fridge the second she put it in there. Living on her own was really hard. 

And so Pearl got ready to leave her house and went to the store, luckily she didn't walk into Skizz another time. She did see Grian and Mumbo at the store though, she hung out with them for a little while. It had been a while since she had hung out with the two of them, she missed them.

She had a great time and eventually went back home. 

By the time that she got home she was exhausted, she put on her pajamas and laid down on her bed. The second she closed her eyes she was fully awake again. It was annoying, she was exhausted but she still couldn't fall asleep.

She forced her eyes to close, waiting for her body to fall asleep. 

Chapter Text

Gem laid on her couch, it had turned morning but she was still awake. She sat up on her couch, rubbing her eyes to wake herself up a little bit more. She was tired, but sleep wasn't something that was going to happen. Fwhip and Sausage were laying next to her, asleep. Gem was jealous, she wanted to be able to sleep too. Don't get her wrong she was glad that her brothers could go to sleep, they deserved it.

She just wished that she could also fall asleep. She was exhausted, and yet she couldn't fall asleep. Her nightmares still took over her thoughts, she couldn't think about anything other than her nightmares. The whole night she had spend trying to distract herself.

Her plan was to just think about happy things, her friends, Pearl the turtle, Pearl the human, the day that she had seen part of the human world. But every single time her brain managed to turn those happy thoughts into nightmares. Every time at least someone would die or betray her.

It was never her though, she was never the one to die. Seeing her brothers, friends and parents dead, bloodied or for sell, she had gotten pretty used to those imaged. But it would never be her, she would always be the cause, but never the victim.

Other times it would be Pearl, the freezing to death nightmare came back to her quite often. It was mostly the same as the first time, but there had been a few differences. One time Joel and Lizzie had walked into the cabin, they had seen Gem with Pearl in her arms.

That time Gem had tried to explain what had happened, but neither wanted to listen. Joel would take Pearl out of her hands, they would walk out of the cabin never to return. Lizzie had decided to live with the humans after that, she even send Jimmy message about it.

Jimmy had been heartbroken, Gem could still faintly hear his sobs as dream Jimmy yelled at her. In another version the two humans that had originally helped Pearl returned, but they didn't help her like they had done in real life. In one of Gem's dreams they sat down at laughed as the life faded from Pearl. In another version they ignored Pearl and focused on Gem instead.

They tried to get to her, to do what Gem didn't know. In the dream she had been trapped. Pearl had been in her arms, she couldn't have gone underwater. But going on land also wasn't an option. She had screamed for help, but her cries for help had gone unanswered.

Every one of those dreams ended the same, with Pearl dying.

The day before Gem had told Pearl about the dream of her dying, the original one at least.

Pearl had helped her and listened to her, but Gem didn't want to tell her about her other nightmares. Her other nightmares about Pearl betraying her, her other nightmare about everyone around her dying just because Gem had befriended Pearl.

It wasn't Pearl's fault and Gem knew that she would never betray her. But her dream made it sound like Gem thought she would. Gem didn't want Pearl to think that, she didn't want Pearl to blame herself. Gem got up from her couch, making sure to not wake her brothers. She needed to clear her mind.

She swam outside, to the cabin. She wanted to see Pearl again, she missed her.

Gem swam to the cabin and saw Pearl through the water, a smile appeared on her face. Gem and Pearl hadn't planned to meet up so the fact that pearl was there anyway was a miracle. The two of them talked for a little bit, Pearl told Gem a story.

The story was about a mermaid who wanted to discover the human lands, just like Gem. The mermaid in the story came across a sea witch who promised her legs, but she wanted the mermaid's voice in return. The sea witch gave the mermaid three days to make the prince fall in love with her, if she didn't succeed she would turn back into a mermaid and the sea witch would keep her voice forever.

The mermaid in the story had taken the deal and had actually become a human.

Gem got reminded about her own sea witch, the sea witch that had turned her parents into a human for twenty four hours. Gem had forgotten about the sea witch after everything that had happened, but now she remembered.

She wanted nothing more than to search for the sea witch so that she could turn into a human. She wanted to tell Pearl, she wanted to share her excitement with Pearl. But she didn't want to give Pearl false hope.

What if the sea witch wasn't real after all? What if she had left the lake? What if she didn't want to help Gem? Or what if the sea witch would want something in return that Gem couldn't give?

In the story that Gem was told the mer had to give up her voice, Gem wasn't sure if she was ready to do that. In the past whenever she had thought about the sea witch she had never thought about the witch being evil. She'd helped her parents, that must mean that she's good right?

Gem just had to hope, that was all she really could do.

Gem said her goodbyes to Pearl and went back into the water. She was going to search for the sea witch and she would turn human. Gem went home and grabbed the papers from her parents, she had read through them countless times now.

But maybe there was something that she had missed every time? What if there was something that she could read now that she wasn't able to read before? And so Gem took the paper and read through it again.

She read it again and again.

"Hey Gem, we need to go but if you want us to stay we can" Fwhip said, as he swam towards her. Her brothers had been awake when she arrived home, they didn't need to ask about where she had been, they already knew.

They had stayed with her but now they needed to leave, they would leave her all alone. All alone with her thoughts. No, no, she would be fine. She was a grown mer. She could be alone. Gem took a deep breath, forcing a smile on her face.

"No, no you can go. I'll be fine, promise" Gem replied, she didn't want her brothers to leave. The night would be horrible without them, the night would be terrifying if she was all alone. But Fwhip and Sausage had their own lives, Gem understood that.

She didn't want Fwhip or Sausage to give up their own lives just so that they could stay with Gem. "Okay, but just know, we'll be there if you need us. Just ask, we won't mind" Fwhip answered as if he was reading her mind.

"Thank you, but really I'll be fine" Gem said, she hoped that the smile on her face would reassure Fwhip. "Okay, take care of yourself Gem" Fwhip said, turning around and swimming towards Sausage who was waiting at the front door.

He paused before leaving though, he looked over his shoulder as he said "oh by the way Katherine wanted to speak with you"

"Katherine? Why would she want to speak with me?" Gem asked, confused, they were friends but they hadn't talked in a while. "We kinda asked her for help when we found you unresponsive. She read your mind but she didn't tell us anything that she saw, but she did say to make you come speak with her once you were back to normal"

"Oh, okay I'll go see her then I guess" Gem answered, trying to sound calm. In reality she was freaking out, what had Katherine found out? What had she seen?

"Great, see you" Fwhip said, he and Sausage left. Gem was now fully alone. It was just her and her thoughts, she wanted to keep looking for the sea witch but she had to go to Katherine first. She had to know what Katherine wanted to talk about.

Gem left her house and swam over to Katherines house quickly, anxiety coursing through her veins.

She arrived at the little house and knocked on her door, waiting for Katherine to answer the door. Her hand instinctively went to the flower around her wrist, playing with the leaves. Katherine opened the door only a few seconds later "Hey Gem, how are you doing?" Katherine asked softly. Concern in her eyes when she noticed that it was Gem who was in front of her door.

"Hello Katherine, I'm doing good. Or well better than I was doing yesterday. Uhm Fwhip told me that he asked you to read my mind and that you wanted to talk to me. I- I don't know what you saw bu-" Gem started, but she was interrupted by Katherine.

Katherine dragged Gem inside her house "I'm sorry Gem, I don't like to read people's minds without their permission but I was just trying to help you" Katherine said, Gem didn't mind that she was just worried that Katherine had learned about Pearl.

"It's okay, I'm not mad at you" Gem replied, forcing herself to calm down a little. She didn't know what Katherine knew, but panicking wouldn't help anyone. She couldn't just ask Katherine if she knew about Pearl, she had to find a clever way to figure it out.

"You wanna know what I saw, right?" Katherine asked, or Katherine could just offer the answers to her. Gem nodded. "I- I saw your friend, the friend that you're not supposed to have. I saw your memory about hearing that your parents had been murdered by humans, and some more things" Katherine admitted.

Gem could hear her heart beating in her chest as the words reached her ears. She knew. "Please don't tell anyone about her" Gem said quickly, she was really starting to panic now. "Don't worry Gem, I won't tell anyone. I saw your interactions with her, it looks like she really cares about you" Katherine said, smiling. Gem let out a breath of relief.

"I also saw you learning about the sea witch" Katherine said, surprising Gem.

"The sea witch is real? You know about the sea witch?" Gem immediately asked. "You can't tell anyone, you keep my secret I keep yours" Katherine said, a serious look on her face. "Of course, I won't tell anyone. I promise" Gem replied, curious to learn more.

"Good, yes the sea witch is real and yes I know about her. She lives on the other side of the lake, far away from us. I- we- she's kinda my girlfriend" Katherine admitted, hand in her neck and eyes avoicing Gem. Gem smiled "Of course she is, how do you know her?" Gem asked.

Of course the sea witch was Katherine's girlfriend, that made perfect sense. Gem couldn't really say anything about it, she had befriended a human after all. Both witches and humans were seen as monsters. The difference was, mers knew about humans living close to them, as far as Gem knew nobody knew about a witch living on the other side of the lake.

"We met a while ago, she helped me with something and we became friends. She helped me learn how to control my mind reading ability, helped me accept it." Kathering admitted, she chuckled "Remember when I first got my ability and I just kept reading everyone's minds without wanting to?" Katherine asked.

Gem nodded, she did remember that. She remembered Katerine calling her ability a curse because she kept hearing everybody's thoughts. But then it started getting better and Katherine had stopped complaining about it. Whenever someone asked Katherine claimed that she had just needed some time to get used to the ability.

Apparently that had been a lie, apparently she had gotten some help controlling her ability.

"The sea witch helped me, she even let me practice on her. After a while I realized that I had fallen in love with her, I didn't think that she loved me back. I- I tried to ignore my feelings for her, but one day everything changed. Shelby, that is the sea witch her name, she planned to ask me out" Katherine said, a smile on her face.

"She used some spells to decorate a room, but her spells went wrong. I arrived at her place and saw the destroyed room. That day Shelby told me that she liked me too, I told her that I like her back. We started dating" Katherine explained quickly, looking completely in love.

"That's so sweet, I'm so happy for you" Gem said, she was happy that her friend was happy. She wished she had someone to love like that too.

"I'm not sure if she can help you, but if anyone can help you it will be her. I'll ask her for you" Katherine said, Gem's smile grew even bigger and she hugged Katherine. "Thank you, thank you, thank you" Gem said in an excited tone.

Katherine started laughing "No problem Gem, but I don't know if she is able to help you. She is strong but I'm not sure if she's that strong. This is not a guarantee that you will actually be able to turn into a human"

"Well are there any other sea witches? My parents got turned into a human by a sea witch, they must have the power" Gem said excitedly. "I don't know, Shelby lives alone" Katherine answered.

"Okay, well we can find out. We can find out and then maybe I can turn into a human" Gem said, she hit her head on Katherines ceiling. She had been swimming up without even realising it, but could you blame her? Her dream might be coming true! There is a chance that she can turn into a human.

Katherine laughed as Gem hit her head.

"I'm glad that you're happy, but nothing is sure yet. I'll talk to her tomorrow" Katherine said, Gem swam back down to her "Can I come with you?" Gem asked, she knew that the chance that she could come was small. But she had to ask, there was a chance that the answer would be yes.

"No, I'm sorry, I-I can't just bring another mer to her. Most mers don't like sea witches, she won't like me bringing you along without a warning" Katherine answered. "I understand, I just had to ask" Gem replied, trying not to show her disappointment.

Katherine told Gem about everything she had learned from reading her mind. Apparently she knew everything Gem had been stressing about at the time, which had been a lot. Pearl, her parents, the sea witch, her brothers, the almost freezing to death thing, humans betraying her. All of it had been on her mind.

The two of them stayed together for a while, talking about more Shelby and Pearl. Katherine really understood Gem's problems. It was nice being able to talk to someone who knew what it was like to date someone who you're not supposed to date. The only difference was that Katherine could still go to Shelby whenever she wanted too.

Gem was stuck underwater while Pearl was stuck on land.

They couldn't go to each other whenever they wanted to. They couldn't even show each other where they lived without the other person almost dying. Gem couldn't breath long on the land and Pearl couldn't breath long underwater.

After a few hours Gem left again, she went back home. She read the papers of her parents one more time and hugged them to her chest. Her parents had given her so much hope, she might be able to turn into a human.

Later Gem went to bed, she lay there staring at her ceiling. She was trying to think about what it would be like to be human. It would be weird having legs, she thought as she looked at her tail. Everything would be so weird if she was a human.

But Gem wanted to know what it was like, she was scared and yet she was excited too.

It was dangerous for her to turn into a human, but she was willing to take that risk. Nothing would probably go wrong, Pearl wouldn't let anything happen to her. And besides that Lizzie had also been on the land for years, she was fine.

Yeah, yeah, everything would be fine. Gem shouldn't get her hopes up to high anyway, Shelby might not even be able to turn her into a human.

Gem lay in bed, thinking about all these things. She didn't know what was going to happen, but she knew that she wouldn't be getting a lot of sleep that night.

Chapter Text

Pearl woke up way too early again, she knew this even before she checked the time. She turned to herself, turning her phone on to check the time. It was five am again,because of course it was. Pearl turned to lay back on her back, trying to get back to sleep. She closed her eyes, but it was no use. She knew that she wasn't going to fall back asleep any time soon.

But there wasn't much else that she really wanted to do at five am. Pearl got out of bed, taking her comforter and blanket with her. She threw them onto the couch in her living room before laying down. She ended up watching some kind of show on the tv with her eyes closed.

She hoped that the background noise would be enough to help her go back to sleep but it didn't help. She ended up actually getting invested in the show, she opened her eyes at a particularly existing scene. After that she sat up and watched the full show. Before she knew it hours had passed.

While watching the room was lit up more and more by the sun rising. Once Pearl noticed this it was seven am and she was halfway through the show. Pearl got up and made herself some breakfast, happy that her fridge was full again. She sat down back on the couch and continued watching the show. When she was done eating she turned her tv off and went outside.

The cold morning air hit her face, it usually woke her up but today it did nothing. She walked to the little cabin where she had planned to meet up with Gem. She went in and… She was planning on waiting again but Gem was already there. She looked tired. "Hey Gem, how are you?" She asked.

"Great, fantastic, amazing" Gem responded, her words sounded like they should be sarcastic but Ge actually sounded genuine. "That's good, are you sure?" Pearl asked, she didn't want to insult Gem but Gem did not look good. Or well she did, Gem was beautiful.

But she had puffy eyes, dark under eye circles and was paler than usual.

"Yeah, yeah I'm doing great. Me and a friend of mine are working on something really exciting and I'm just waiting on some news about our project. I would tell you more about it but I'm not allowed to just yet. But I promise you that's it's going to be amazing" Gem said sounding really excited.

Pearl smiled, she liked seeing Gem so passionate about something.

"That's good, as long as you remember to take care of yourself. Did you sleep at all last night?" Pearl asked concerned, sitting down on the bench in the cabin. Gem's smile disappeared a little "I- I well no, but I tried I really did. I just couldn't fall asleep" Gem said, staring at the water.

Pearl knew what that was like "thoughts keeping you awake too?" she asked, Gem looked her in her eyes "Yeah? Are your thoughts keeping you awake too?" She asked, moving closer to the edge of the pool.

"Yup, every day the whole day. But I do actually fall asleep, I just wake up pretty early every morning, today and yesterday I woke up at five am. And I tried to fall back asleep, but nothing I did worked" Pearl complained.

"exactly, It's so frustrating. I keep closing my eyes to fall asleep but I never actually fall asleep" Gem said. She and Pearl apparently had the same problems. "And- and I am so tired. I'm exhausted but nothing I do helps" Gem said, tears of frustration appearing in her eyes.

"Come here, I understand how you're feeling. It's really annoying isn't it?" She asked, getting up from the bench and kneeling in front of the little pool of water. Gem came even closer, it reminded Pearl of when they first met. Back when they agreed to stay far away from each other. Pearl was glad that that time was over, despite everything she was happy with the way things had gone.

She reached out her hand and Gem took it in hers, she gave a reassuring squeeze. Gem was in the water, Pearl was on land but they were still together.

"I wish we could be closer" Gem said, Pearl secretly wished that too. But she couldn't go back into the water, she wished that it was summer for the millionth time. She wanted to swim with Gem, but the water was too cold for her, even getting this close scared her.

"Wait, help me onto the land" Gem said, Pearl hesitated, but one look at Gem told her that Gem was sure. Both of them knew the risks, but this time Gem seemed to be sure. She started pulling Gem up onto the floor, water started coming on her from Gem's hair but Pearl was able to ignore it. It seemed like she was able to ignore all of her problems when she was around Gem.

She pulled Gem higher until she was fully on the floor. Gem fell on top of Pearl as she was fully pulled onto the floor. Pearl fell backwards thanks to the weight. Gem looked up at her and smiled "Well I did wish that we could be closer" she said with a chuckle, pushing herself up a little.

Pearl laughed, "Yeah, I don't think that we could get any closer than this" she said. Gem was laying fully on top of her, water was falling on Pearl. It made her cold but Gem's warmth made the cold almost nonexistent.

"I should probably get off of you" Gem said, but she made no move to actually do so. Pearl didn't want her to move, she was comfortable where she was. "Y- you don't have to, at least if that's okay with you" Pearl said. She didn't want to make Gem uncomfortable.

"I'm fine with this, as long as you are too" Gem said, Pearl nodded "Yeah, yeah this is fine" she said as she looked straight into Gem's eyes. She could see that Gem was blushing and she felt her own cheeks warm up too.

"So wanna talk about what's keeping you up?" Pearl asked, her arms came to hug Gem's back, if anyone asked she was doing it for the heat. Gem yawned and shook her head "Wanna talk about the things that are keeping you up?" She asked in return "Not really, no" Pearl answered.

"Exactly" Gem replied, laying her head down on Pearl's shoulder, another yawn escaping her.

Pearl didn't want to make Gem worry more, she didn't want to burden her with that. Gem had enough to worry about as it was, she didn't need the thoughts that were keeping Pearl awake too. She also didn't want Gem to feel guilty, most of Pearl's thoughts and worries were about mers.

She was scared about their secret getting out. She was scared about what would happen if people found out about Gem. She was scared about what would happen with Lizzie, or to the other mers if this secret came out. She knew that the humans wouldn't settle with one mer if they knew that there were more.

She kept thinking about all the things that she was worried about, but instead of the thoughts keeping her from sleeping like they usually did, they made her more tired. Before she knew it she had already fallen asleep. Once she realized that her eyes kept closing, she wanted to tell Gem to move so that she could wake herself up a little.

But when she looked at Gem's face she realized that she wasn't the only person who had gotten sleepy in the past few minutes. Gem had her eyes closed and was sleeping peacefully. Pearl wrapped her arms around Gem more tightly, if Gem was here then nothing bad could happen to her.

Pearl could protect her.

And besides that a little nap wouldn't help. That was the last thing Pearl thought about before she let her eyes close and she fully fell asleep.

She was woken up later by laughter, her eyes slowly opened. She had forgotten where she was but was soon reminded when she saw Gem's orange hair over her. Pearl smiled as she saw Gem who was still asleep.

But she was snapped out of that cloud of happiness when she remembered the laughter around her. Pearl looked around the cabin and saw Joel and Lizzie laughing at the door. Joel had his phone in his hand and was obviously taking pictures of the two. Lizzie was holding her hand to her mouth, trying her best to be quiet.

"Shh" Pearl shushed the two, she tried not to move to not wake Gem while still getting a better look at the two. The last thing she wanted was to wake Gem up, she didn't know how long they had been asleep but Gem needed all the sleep that she could get.

"Yeah, yeah" Joel whispered, way too loud in Pearl's opinion, as he took another picture. Lizzie hit him on his shoulder "We'll leave you two love birds alone" she said with a big grin on her face as she dragged Joel out of the cabin. Pearl rolled her eyes and looked at Gem again.

Luckily she was still asleep.

Pearl didn't have anything planned that day anyway, and it wasn't like she couldn't use the sleep. So she closed her eyes again and fell back asleep. The floor wasn't very comfortable and yet Pearl couldn't get herself to move. With Gem using her as a pillow and her own arms around Gem, she felt safe.

A while later Pearl was woken up when Gem started moving. Pearl opened her eyes and saw Gem looking right into her eyes. "Hi" she said, her voice full of sleep, she didn't really know what else to say. "Hello" Gem replied, still sounding sleepy, at least that meant that she hadn't been asleep for too long.

"How did you sleep?" Pearl asked, unwrapping her arms from Gem. "Great, I don't think I have ever slept that well. You make a great pillow" Gem answered, heat rushed to Pearl's cheeks again at the comment. She forced herself to look away from Gem, suddenly the ceiling was really interesting.

"Th-thank you" she answered. Gem crawled off of her, Pearl immediately missed the warmth that Gem had brought with her. Gem let herself fall back into the water with a splash, she stayed underwater for a few seconds, getting air again.

While she was underwater Pearl got up, she rubbed her eyes to try and wake herself up. With a yawn she took out her phone, checking the time. It was around twelve pm now. This meant that the two of them had been asleep for at least four hours. It was a longer nap than Pearl wanted it to be, but she did feel like she needed it.

Pearl placed the phone back in her pocket and sat down on the ground in front of the pool of water. She watched as Gem resurfaced "Thank you. I really needed the sleep" Gem said, a smile on her face. Gem still looked tired but she looked better then she had looked before. "No need to thank me. I'm glad that you got the sleep that you needed" Pearl replied.

"How did you sleep? I'm so sorry for making you lay on the floor for so long. That can not have been comfortable" Gem said, her face full of guilt. "It was fine, don't worry. And I also really needed some extra sleep" Pearl replied, ignoring the faint pain in her back.

Gem and Pearl kept talking for a while, slowly but surely they woke up.

But after a while Pearl had to go to work, she left the cabin making sure that Skizz wasn't there watching her leave. Luckily it seemed like she was truly alone today, maybe the day before had indeed been a coincidence. Pearl walked home quickly, ate something and walked to work. She walked in and got to work, Impulse approached her again as she walked towards the front of the cafe. "Pearl" he started but Pearl interrupted him.

"Listen, I'm still really sorry about just leaving last time" Pearl said, hoping that she wouldn't get fired. "Pearl, I don't care that you left. I told you that you could leave if you changed your mind about taking a break. I came to talk to you today to make sure that you were okay" Impulse replied calmly, a sweet smile on his face.

A sigh of relief left Pearl, she had been feeling guilty about just leaving Impulse all alone. He had told her twice that it had been okay, but it didn't keep Pearl from feeling bad. Plus, she still left, it gave Impulse a "So I'm not fired?" Pearl asked, surprised.

"Of course you're not fired. Just are you okay? Really this time" Impulse asked with a sweet smile on his face. "Thank you, thank you. Yes, I'm fine. I can work again" Pearl replied, glad that she wasn't fired.

"Good, let me know if you need a break. You're allowed to take breaks if you need them, you won't be fired because of them. I promise" Impulse said, Pearl smiled "I will, thank you" she said before she walked to the front of the cafe and started working.

She worked for a couple of hours, it was mostly the same as always. She would take an order, give the order to the kitchen, get food, serve it to a table and then hand a table their check before the whole cycle restarted.

Every once in a while there would be nothing to do and the second she realized that something new to do appeared. It was tiring, but it kept Pearl's mind off of what she was worried about. It kept her thoughts off of Gem.

When her shift was over she went home and watched some more of the tv show she had started that morning. She grabbed her phone and turned it on, checking to see if she had missed anything. She had gotten a message from Joel.

Joel: Don't open this if you're around other people
==picture==
look at you two love birds <3

Pearl opened it, the picture was one of the pictures that Joel had taken of Gem and Pearl while they had been asleep. The two of them were cuddled up together while they were peacefully asleep. Pearl couldn't stop the smile that appeared on her face.

Pearl: Taking pictures of girls is creepy you know

After that Pearl put her phone away and continued watching her show. When she got so tired that she couldn't keep her eyes open anymore she went to bed. She laid in bed, but it felt like something was missing.

Someone was missing.

Pearl realized that she missed Gem, she missed the feeling of having Gem in her arms. It was weird, she wanted to have Gem there with her. She thought back to the text that Joel had sent her, he had called Gem and Pearl love birds.

Pearl had heard some of her friends talk about love before, they always talked about how they couldn't stop thinking about the person that they were in love with. Her friends had always been talking about how they didn't want to be away from the person.

Was she actually in love with Gem?

Chapter Text

Gem laid on her bed, eyes still open. She had been right the night before, she really didn't get much sleep. The whole night Gem had been awake, thinking about being a human. Today was the day that Katherine would talk to the sea witch, Shelby.

She would talk with Shelby and see if she would be able to turn Gem into a human.

Gem could barely wait, she could actually get legs. She would be able to walk on land with other humans. She would be able to walk around with Pearl. They could be together without any worries, without having to worry that Pearl would freeze or that Gem would suffocate.

Of course there was a big chance that Shelby would say no. There were a lot of ifs that needed to work out for this to really happen.

All of this would only work out if Shelby was willing to meet with Gem, and if she was actually able to turn Gem into a human, and if she was able to do it that would be great. But Shelby also needed to be willing to turn her into a human. Who said that Shelby wanted to do this for Gem?

But there was no way for Gem to know the answer to these questions.

At the moment the only thing that Gem could do now was wait, wait for Katherine to talk with Shelby. And after that she would still need to wait for Katherine to come back and tell her the news. The news could also be that Shelby wasn't able to turn Gem into a human, and Gem needed to remind herself of that.

She had to not get her hopes up too much, but that was hard. This was the closest to her dream coming true that she had ever been. It was hard not to be excited. It was also hard to wait for, Gem didn't have a lot of patience, but waiting to hear if her dream would come true, let's just say that it felt like the seconds were moving slower than they usually were.

But Gem didn't want to think about that, she didn't want to think about the bad new at all. She just wanted to be hopeful. Shelby would be able to turn Gem into a human, even if it was only for twenty four hours. Another sea witch had done it for one of Gem's parents, she didn't know why another sea witch wouldn't be able to do it too.

Gem got up out of her bed and swam around a little, she swam outside. Outside she got some breakfast and immediately swam to the little cabin. Pearl wouldn't be there yet since it was still early, but she would be there eventually.

Gem was willing to wait, she didn't mind. She arrived at the cabin and watched the door, waiting for it to open. Waiting for Pearl to walk through the door.

Minutes passed before Pearl walked in, Gem hid away a little as the door opened but once she noticed that it was just Pearl she revealed herself. The two of them talked for a little bit, Pearl seemed concerned about Gem for some reason.

Gem didn't understand why Pearl was concerned about her, Gem was feeling great. She might be a bit tired but besides that she was fine. She was amazing actually, she might be able to turn into a human pretty soon.

But Gem decided to keep the reason a secret for now. She didn't want to disappoint Pearl in case all of this wasn't going to happen. At the moment Gem could not stop thinking about when she would be meeting up with the sea witch, she didn't want to do that to Pearl too.

It turned out that Pearl was also quite tired, she was also being kept awake by her thoughts. Gem started talking about what was keeping her awake, she was getting frustrated as she talked about it. Unwanted tears started appearing in her eyes.

Pearl moved closer to Gem and reached her hand out, Gem took it. But she wanted more, she wanted to hug Pearl, she wanted to embrace Pearl. But she couldn't, Pearl couldn't get back into the water. A shiver ran over Gem's back as she remembered what had happened the last time Pearl had gotten into the water. Gem would make sure that something like that wouldn't happen again.

An idea came to Gem, if Pearl couldn't get into the water, then Gem would just need to get out of the water. Gem would be fine for a little bit, and if she needed to get back into the water it would be right next to her. Yeah, she wasn't planning on staying out of the water for long after what had happened the last time she'd tried that.

It was like the universe had given Pearl and Gem a reality check, it had gone very wrong for both of them when they had tried to get to each other's worlds. But that wouldn't stop Gem, it would just mean that she would have to be a bit more careful.

She wouldn't risk doing anything stupid now, not when there might be a chance for her to enter the human world safely. But that didn't mean that she couldn't leave the water at all, all she had to do was stay close to the water. Last time she hadn't been able to get back to the water by herself, looking back at it it had been a stupid idea.

Not that Gem regretted it though.

This time Gem wouldn't be leaving the cabin, she would be able to get back into the water by herself within seconds if anything went wrong. Gem would make sure of that this time.

Gem asked Pearl if Pearl could help her onto the land. Pearl did, she pulled Gem up. Once Gem was fully up she fell, right on top of Pearl. Gem said that she should probably get off of Pearl, but she didn't want to. It also didn't seem like Pearl really minded.

It was comfortable using Pearl as a pillow. Gem felt herself get tired, she knew that she had to get off of Pearl before she would fall asleep. But she really didn't want to. A comfortable silence came over the tow of them. During this Gem could feel her eyes slowly close before they would open again.

But after a few times, Gem couldn't resist the sleep anymore.

She woke up a while later, confused about where she was. She looked around and saw Pearl, Pearl had also fallen asleep. But that wasn't the only thing that Gem noticed, she also noticed that Pearl had her arms wrapped around her.

Gem didn't know why but it made her feel safe. She didn't know how long she had been asleep, but she was sure that this had been the best sleep she had had in months. BUt she also knew that Pearl and her couldn't stay like this for long.

She knew that her oxygen was running low, she knew that she would have to get out of the comfortable place that she was in now. She knew that she would have to get back into the water.

Gem looked at Pearl and saw her eyes slowly open, the two talked before Gem dived back into the water. She breathed for a bit, getting oxygen again before she went back to Pearl. The two of them continued talking for a while.

Unfortunately Pearl had to leave to go to work after a while. The two of them said goodbye and Pearl left, leaving Gem alone with her thoughts again. Gem went back into the water and went home, what was she going to do while she waited for Katherine.

She wanted to talk to someone, but she knew that she would just talk about maybe turning into a human in the future. And she couldn't tell anyone about that, nobody was supposed to know. But wait there was one person who did know.

Gem smiled and swam into another direction, she was going to Jimmy.

It didn't take very long before she found him, he was with the sea turtles again. He was feeding them "Jimmy" Gem said, scaring the man. He fell off of the rock that he had been sitting on and watched Gem with a death stare.

"Sorry" Gem said trying to hide her laughter as she helped Jimmy back up. "It's okay, just don't ever scare me like that again. Lizzie scared me enough when I was a child, my heart is weak enough. What's up?" Jimmy replied.

He looked at the sea turtle that he had been feeding, the food that Jimmy had had in his hands had fallen to the ground when he fell. The sea turtle had found the food and was now eating it, when Jimmy realised that he started trying to get the food back.

He walked closer to the sea turtle "Hey buddy, you know that you can't have that much. Come give it back to me" Jimmy said as he held out his hand. The sea turtle made a sound, looked at Jimmy and then turned his head away again.

Jimmy gasped "You don't really mean that! Come give it back to me" He stood in front of the turtle again, but the sea turtle just turned his head away from Jimmy again. "Bubbles greeny Solidarity, don't you turn your head away from me" Jimmy said.

But the turtle just ignored him again. "Yeah so, you know how I really wanna become a human. You know not forever but just for a while, just like Lizzie?" Gem started, knowing that Jimmy's fight with the sea turtle had only just begun.

"Uh Huh yeah sure. Give me the- ugh don't look away from me" Jimmy responded as the sea turtle turned his head away from Jimmy another time. Jimmy stood behind the turtle and tried to grab the food out of the sea turtle's mouth.

"So I know this uhm person who might be able to turn me into a human. Isn't that great" Gem said excitedly. "Yeah th- Ow wait what" Jimmy said. He had tried to grab the food out of the sea turtle's mouth but he had instead gotten bitten.

"You're planning to somehow get yourself turned into a human?" Jimmy asked, with shock on his face. Gem nodded with a big smile on her face. "Yeah, wouldn't that be amazing?" Gem said.

"No, what if a human would find out that you're not a mer. I have had this exact conversation with Lizzie years ago 'Oh Jimmy I just wanna go once, just to see what it's like. Oh Jimmy there is this guy there he's so cool' 'Oh Jimmy I'm in love' Yeah I know the story" Jimmy said, he tried to sound like Lizzie when he quoted her.

"It won't be like that, I really just wanna see how they live" Gem argued. "Yeah sure, and then you either fall in love with it and stay there forever. Or you get found out and sold or killed and we will all never see you again" Jimmy said.

Gem knew that it was a big risk but she just needed to see what the human lands were like. She wouldn't end up dead or sold, she wouldn't end up like her parents. She had Pearl, Pearl would protect her if anyone tried to hurt her.

She stayed silent, not really knowing how to respond. She knew that what Jimmy said wasn't completely crazy. If someone did find out about her being a mer, she could very well be sold or killed. Her parents were proof of what humans could do.

Gem felt tears in her eyes appear as she thought about her parents again. Was this all a big mistake, was she going down the same as her parents. They had been fascinated about humans too, but for them it had meant their death.

Jimmy noticed her silence and looked at her, he noticed the tears. "Oh no I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I'm very happy for you, you get to be with Pearl! That's great" Jimmy said, trying to cheer Gem back up.

"I'm sorry, you came here to tell me about something that you're very excited about and I ruined it. Come sit, tell me everything that you wanna do and see when you are in the human lands. And you better believe that we will have a conversation like this when you're back. Lizzie doesn't tell me enough about the human lands" Jimmy said.

Gem smiled and sat down next to Jimmy just like he had told her too. She wiped her tears away "No, no you're right. I could get killed or kidnapped or sold if I go to the human lands" Gem replied. "Yeah but you won't. Nobody will find out" Jimmy said.

"So what is it you wanna see about the human lands?" Jimmy asked, his friendly smile was back on his face. He had apparently given up on bubbles the sea turtle, bubbles was in the corner enjoying his meal.

"Well I would love to see human flowers, oh and I really wanna smell them. I also wondered where Lizzie got the beautiful flowers that she brought home for out flower crowns. But they must have come from the human lands" Gem started.

She talked about everything that she wanted to see with Jimmy. Jimmy listened to everything she had to say and even asked questions. Gem was happy to finally have someone who she could talk with about human things.

Jimmy might not be as excited about those things as Gem was, but he did understand. And he wouldn't call her crazy for liking humans.

After a while Gem went back home, she heard Jimmy say "Are you happy now Bubbles?" as she left. She chuckled, Jimmy was great at taking care of the turtles really. But he might need to learn about who really is the boss between him and the turtles.

To Gem it looked like Bubbles had been the boss, she really needed to visit Jimmy more often.

Gem arrived home, ate something and read the paper from her parents again. She kept rereading it hoping to find new information. She hugged the paper close to herself, she might also be able to turn into a human very soon.

Gem was tired again, or well she never really stopped being tired. So she went to bed, she laid there and stared at her ceiling. Katherine hadn't come to her so Gem didn't know anything new yet. Gem had debated going over to Katherine's house, but she doubted that Katherine would appreciate that.

She just had to wait a little longer.

But she could wait, yeah she could definitely wait. She could wait for something like this, if Shelby wouldn't be able to turn Gem into a human then these extra days were just hopeful days. But Gem was almost sure that Shelby would be able to turn her into a human.

Everything would be great and everything would go right.

Chapter Text

It was early in the morning again when Pearl woke up. She couldn't stop thinking about Gem, she couldn't stop thinking about the fact that she might have a crush on Gem. It wouldn't be possible, right? Gem was a mer while Pearl was a human.

A mer and A human couldn't fall in love right?

But it had already happened, with Lizzie and Joel. Lizzie was a mer who fell in love with Joel who is a human. But Lizzie can turn into a human so does that really count? Lizzie can be with Joel whenever she wants, Gem and Pearl can only meet up in the little cabin.

Pearl got up out of bed, she pulled a jacket on and walked outside. She didn't know where she was going but she didn't care either. For some reason she didn't want to go to the docks like she had done before. For some reason it didn't sound appetizing anymore now that Gem wouldn't be there.

And so Pearl walked towards the town, she didn't have a plan on where to go. She would just walk for a bit to clear her thoughts. This time she brought her phone, she had made sure of it. She didn't want to be missing again.

Pearl walked and walked until she saw someone outside, it was weird. It was fully empty in the town, except for the one person who was still outside. When Pearl took a closer look she saw that it was Xisume, the man who owned the grocery store.

He noticed her and waved, Pearl waved back nervously.

She didn't know him, she had really only had a few short conversations with him. She had talked with him when she had first moved in and another few times when she had gone to the store. He seemed like a nice man.

And so Pearl walked towards him, he had a friendly smile on his face as Pearl walked towards him. "Hello Pearl, what are you doing up this early?" He asked, now that Pearl was closer to him she noticed that he was carrying boxes with him.

"I- my thoughts were just keeping me up. I thought that a walk might help clear my mind" Pearl said. "Hmm, that sounds frustrating. But you have chosen the perfect place to go, it's always very light here. If you want a break you can come inside, Mumbo and Grian are awake too" Xisuma suggested.

"That sounds great" Pearl replied, a talk with her friends will help her keep her thoughts away.

Xisuma ducked down to grab him boxes, Pearl took one of them. "Oh you don't have to do that" Xisuma said when he noticed what she was doing. "It's fine, you have your hands full already. I wanna help" Pearl said, a smile on her face.

"Fine, thank you" Xisuma said, he started walking and Pearl followed. "What is your excuse for being awake at a time like this?" She asked.

"We have to get the freshest products, you gotta get them early in the morning. Way before the early birds are planning to do their grocery shopping" Xisuma answered. "Do you have to do this often?" Pearl asked.

"About once a week, but usually I do it together with Impulse. He helps me take my stuff and then he takes his own stuff. But he couldn't help today" Xisuma responded. Pearl and Xisuma talked until they arrived at the store.

Mumbo and Grian were there just like Xisuma had told her. Mumbo was sitting on a chair behind the cash register while Grian was sitting on the little table that the cash register was on. He quickly jumped off as he noticed Xisuma walk in.

"Hey guys, I'm back and I've brought some company" Xisuma said, he put the box down on the floor so Pearl did the same. "Hello Pearl" Grian said, somehow sounding fully awake despite the time. "Oh hi Pearl, you're up early" Mumbo said.

"Hey guys" Pearl responded.

Grian and Mumbo started unpacking the boxes and putting the stuff inside them onto the shelves. "Can I help?" she asked, she needed to do something to distract herself. "I- uhm sure, but I can't pay you" Xisuma responded.

"I don't need to get paid, I just wanna do something" she said.

"You want to do this, voluntarily?" Mumbo asked, Grian hit him "Don't question it, if she wants to help it's less work for us. Welcome to the group Pearl"

"Thank you" Pearl said, she started helping them. Grian and Mumbo looked at her in shock before continuing with their work. They did it in silence for a while before Grian asked "Why are you awake Pearl? I remember from when we went fishing that you were not a morning person"

"Just some thoughts keeping me awake" Pearl answered.

"What kind of thoughts?" Mumbo asked, Pearl thought about it for a few seconds. They didn't now Gem, she could tell them. Talking about it could help her. "Just- I think I might have fallen in love with one of my friends"

"Ah, that's a hard one" Grian said "Does this person like you back?" he asked.

Pearl shrugged "I don't think so, I think that she just sees me as a friend" Pearl responded. "Oh, but you do like her?" Grian said.

"yup, or well I think so" Pearl responded. "What do you mean you think so?" Mumbo asked, the three of them continued working as they talked. They weren't even looking at each other "Well I've never really been in love with someone. I'm not sure what it feel like, but I think- I think that I might be in love with this girl"

"Well why do you think that you're in love with her?" Mumbo asked.

"Well, I basically think about her all the time. And I wanna be with her, the whole time. It feels right being around her, I'm happy whenever I'm around her. I- I feel like my problems don't matter when I'm with her like everything is right and nothing can go wrong" Pearl said.

Mumbo and Grian looked at each other before looking at Pearl "Yeah you're in love" they said at the same time. Pearl hit her face in her hands "Yeah, I know" She said, not wanting to believe it herself.

"But maybe she loves you back, you never know right" Mumbo said. "I don't think so" Pearl answered, there was no way right? There was no way that Gem would love Pearl back. No, no, they were just friends. Nothing more, nothing less.

"Do we know this person that you're talking about?" Grian asked, curiously. "No- no you don't. She doesn't live close to here" Pearl answered, the only reason that Pearl was telling Mumbo and Grian about this was that they didn't know Gem.

"Why don't you just tell her how you feel?" Xisuma, who apparently was still in the room asked. Pearl turned towards him "If she doesn't like me back, it will just make things awkward between us"

"But if she does like you, you two could actually become a thing or whatever you want. But you'll never know if you don't take the shot" Xisuma said, Pearl turned back to Mumbo and Grian "Is he always like that" She asked as she motioned to Xisuma.

"Oh yeah, he sure is" Mumbo answered. "It can be really annoying but he is right" Grian answered, Xisuma gasped "You actually agree with me? Well then I must be right" Xisuma said, acting like he was actually shocked.

Pearl looked at Mumbo a "Are they for real?" Mumbo nodded "He's right, Grian and Xisuma barely ever agree on something. It must mean that they are right, I also agree with them so it must be double right. Go tell this girl how you feel about her"

"No all three of us agree with each other we would be triple right" Grian argued, "See we never agree with each other on anything" Mumbo said.

"Just go tell this girl about how you feel. What's the worst that could happen?" Xisuma asked, he walked closer to the three of them and sat down close to them. "She could not feel the same way about me and did not want to be friends with me. I'll never see her again and our friendship will be over because staying friends would be too awkward"

"And how big is the ch-" Xisuma started but he was interrupted by Mumbo "That's not the worst thing that could happen. The worst thing that could happen is that she starts laughing at you or that she's disgusted. And then she tells all of your friends, and all of your friends laugh at you and you lose them too. And then you're all alone, all because you thought that your friend could love you back" Pearl looked at him with wide eyes.

That was the worst thing that could happen, wasn't it? Gem, of course, couldn't tell anyone above land but she could still tell Lizzie. Lizzie could tell everyone the story, she could humiliate Pearl. For a few seconds that felt like a real possibility even though Pearl knew that Lizzie would never do something like that. On the other hand she also knew that Gem would never hurt her and here she was fearing just that.

Grian hit Mumbo on the arm and gave him an angry look "But that won't happen, of course that wouldn't happen. I'm sure that the girl that you're in love with loves you back. And then the two of you will end up together and live a long and happy life, end of story" Mumbo corrected himself.

"Yeah sure" Pearl said, she wasn't going to tell Gem a thing. She hadn't even thought about the fact that Gem would be disgusted or that she would just laugh in Pearl's face. Pearl stood up, "I'm gonna see if I can get some sleep"

She started walking to the door, but Xisuma walked back to her. He stopped her before she could leave, blocking her way. "Pearl, I'm sorry about those two. Don't listen to them. If you really love this girl, tell her. If she's your friend then she won't be disgusted and she won't laugh. If she does laugh or get disgusted she isn't a real friend anyway."

"Thank you Xisuma" Pearl said, a small smile on her face.

"Really Pearl, love is one of the most beautiful things in the world. It is complicated, but that shouldn't stop you. Saying nothing is not going to help you either. You'll wonder the rest of your life if something could have happened, you don't want that" Xisuma continued, returning her smile.

She left the grocery store and went home, she got back into bed but she realized that she wouldn't get more sleep. No matter in what position she laid, no matter how silent it was in her room, no matter how dark it was in her room and no matter how tired she was. Sleep stayed far away from her that night. She got back up and started doing some laundry and watched some tv while she waited for the laundry machine to end.

That is what Pearl ended up doing the rest of the day, there was enough laundry to do anyway. There always seemed to be enough laundry to do, at the end of the day there were still things that needed to be done. But Pearl decided that that was a problem for future her.

Pearl got some food ready and ate it in front of her tv, finally relaxing a little. She watched tv, but in everything she watched there was love. In every movie, series, music clip, love was in everything. And it only reminded Pearl more about how she had fallen in love with Gem.

Eventually Pearl turned her tv off and put her jacket back on.

She walked outside, she was going to the little cabin. Pearl and Gem had decided to meet up somewhere in the evening, apparently Gem had had something to do in the morning. Pearl walked inside but Gem wasn't there yet.

Pearl sat down and waited, looking at the water.

After a while Gem showed up, a smile on her face. "Pearl, Pearl, I found a way! I found a way to temporarily turn myself into a human!"

Chapter Text

Gem woke up early, surprised but happy that she had actually been able to fall asleep. The night before had been hard, to say the least. She had been staring up at her ceiling for what felt like hours, at the tine she had accepted that she wouldn't be sleeping that night. But apparently she had fallen asleep after all, Gem couldn't help but be happy with that.

She sat up on her bed and quickly got out, today was the day. Sleeping really helped pass the time, tomorrow was already today, today was today. Today Katherine would tell her about what Shelby had told her, today Katherine would let Gem know if she could be turned into a human.

She swam outside, completely ignoring the fact that she had no idea what time it was. It was still a bit dark, Gem hoped that it just meant that it was early in the morning. six am sounded reasonable, she just hoped that it wasn't five or anything. Katherine had told her today, today was today no matter the time. And so Gem swam to Katherine's house and knocked on her door, trying to stay a bit quiet.

Katherine opened the door a few seconds later, she looked pretty tired. Ah so that probably meant that it was still early. Gem hoped that she hadn't woken Katherine up, maybe Katerhine was always awake at like six am. Luckily a smile appeared on Katherines face when she noticed Gem's excitement. "Hi Gem, what can I do for you?" Katherine asked, playing dumb. But Gem didn't have time for playing dumb.

"Hi, hello, you uhm know what I'm doing here, what did she say? Can she do it? Is she willing to do it?" Gem asked, she was swimming up again from excitement and stopped herself. If she let herself keep going she would have reached the surface. That wouldn't be a good idea.

Katherine laughed "I didn't tell Shelby the full story, you're gonna have to decide how much you wanna tell her. I just told her that I had a friend who could use her help with something. She agreed to meet with you, I can bring you to her now if you want" Gem was already nodding before Kathrine finished her sentence. "Haha, you're lucky that she's an early riser" Katherine said with a laugh.

"Are you ready to go now or do you need to bring something? It's going to be a long trip" Katherine said. Gem shook her head "Let's go, let's go, let's go" she said, not able to wait any longer. She had waited five days.

Five days ago she had learned that it was possible for her to be turned into a human.

It didn't sound like much, but it definitely felt long. And today the wait would finally be over, that was if Shelby would actually be able to turn her into a human. Gem still didn't know one hundred percent that Shelby was able to do it. But she was fine with meeting up with Gem, that was something.

But there was nothing Gem could do during those five days but wait and hope. And hope she did, she was very very hopeful. Katherine started to lead the way to wherever Shelby lived. The swim there took too long for Gem, if she had known the way herself she would have been able to swim much faster.

Unfortunately Katherine wasn't in a hurry, she was swimming at a slow pace. She wasn't actually going very slow, it was a normal speed. But it felt like she was crawling to Gem. If she had known the way she would have sped off already.

After a very long while Katherine started going down into the lake more and more. It became dark around them, even though the sun was coming up. Luckily Gem was still able to follow Katherine. She followed her all the way to the bottom of the lake, deeper than she had ever been.

The bottom of the lake was boring, there was literally nothing to do there. Some people would come over there to see the fish there, but Gem thought that that was useless. The fish were boring, you could barely see them and you had to find them before you could even see them.

It was more of a search than an exploration.

In the human lands there was so much to see and explore, you didn't even have to search for it. Everywhere you looked there would be something weird and humany. Cars, which humans used to drive around, lanterns, and not sea lanterns, no lanterns that were powered by something that Pearl called electricity.

Down here there was nothing for miles and miles. Or well that was what Gem thought at least, which is why she was so surprised when she saw some light coming from somewhere. As they came closer Gem noticed that it was someone's house. lanterns were around the whole place, lighting up the house and the area around it.

It was a house carved inside some rocks, a little door and window inside the rocks acted like an entrance. Gem wondered if anyone else knew about this place, if anyone else ever came there. It sounded like a lonely life, living here, so far away from everyone and everything.

The little house should have looked scary but it actually looked very cozy.

Gem started swimming slower the closer that they got, she was starting to get scared. This was a sea witch that she was meeting. But it was also Katherine's girlfriend so Gem didn't have anything to really worry about, right?

Katherine kept swimming further, she looked over at where Gem was supposed to be and noticed that Gem was gone. She looked behind her and saw Gem, she had stopped following her and was hovering behind them. "Are you coming?" Katherine asked "Or are you scared?" she added just to tease Gem a little.

"I'm not scared, I- I'm just a bit nervous. Just give me a second please" Gem replied, she wasn't scared. She wasn't, she wanted this. She wanted to turn into a human, she wanted to meet Shelby and ask her. But she was a bit nervous, that was reasonable right?

"Sure" Katherine said, Gem took a deep breath and swam closer to Katherine. Katherine smiled and knocked on the door, keeping an eye on Gem as they waited for the door to open. "No going back now" Gem thought. A few seconds later the door opened and the sea witch Shelby was revealed.

Shelby did not look like how Gem would describe a witch. Shelby didn't have a tail like mers did, she instead had something more similar to legs. But both of her legs ended in fins, her legs were dark brown but the colour went into the purple on her fins.

Her tail had some places of green, Gem would not have thought that the colours went well together but they actually did. Shelby was also wearing some kind of shirt, her shirt was purple with some pink flowers on it.

Shelby's hair was long brown, two strands in the front were braided, framing her face nicely. She had yellow eyes so bright that they looked like they were glowing.

"Hello Shelby, this is the mer that I was telling you about" Katherine said, she put a hand on Gem's back. "uhm H-hi, I'm Gem" Gem introduced herself. The sea witch started smiling "Hello! I'm Shelby. Come in, come in" She responded, she sounded nice.

Gem followed Katherine as the two walked inside. Katherine walked into the living room and sat down on a couch. Shelby also took a seat and so Gem did too. She wasn't afraid of Shebly but she still kept her distance, just in case.

"So Gem, Katherine told me that you needed my help with something. What can I help you with?" Shelby asked, Gem looked over at Katherine. Katherine nodded, indicating that Gem could trust Shelby. Gem smiled "I- Well I have this human friend. And I wanna spend more time with her, I wanna be closer to her. But it's hard"

Gem took a breath, she had been talking so fast that she had forgotten to breathe. "She can't breathe beneath the water and currently the water is too cold for her. I can't breathe on land for long and even if I can get out of the water I can't be seen by other humans. If- if other humans saw me-"

Gem moved on from that, not wanting to talk about it, not wanting to think about it. "Besides that, I wanna see the human lands. I explore it, not forever you know. I just wanna be able to be on the land with my human friend for a little bit"

"And you want me to do what?" Shelby asked.

"I- if you can and if you're willing to, I wanna be a human just for a little bit. Would you be able to help me with that?" Gem asked.

"Do you love this human?" Shelby asked, Gem felt her cheeks heat up "No- not love love. But she's my best friend" Gem said tripping over her words. Shelby looked at Katherine, smiled and then turned back to Gem.

"I think I might be able to help you" Shelby said, Gem couldn't help but smile "Really!?"

"Yeah, yeah I do. Wait let me look, it won't be able to keep you human for very long. Buuuuuuttt it will be able to turn you into a human for a little while" Shelby said, she stood up and started walking around her room.

She took some potions out of chest and started mixing them. Gem watched her closely, following her every move. Shelby did some magic stuff, Gem had no idea what she was doing she didn't understand anything.

Shelby mixed potions, started a fire, did a spell and eventually threw everything into one flask. She handed it to Gem "That should do it" she said.

Gem looked at the potion "It's that easy?" she asked, you just mixed some potions together and boom you can turn into a human. "Well yeah, if you know what to do and what to use. Although the ingredients are kinda hard to get. This is the only one I can make for now" Shelby responded.

She didn't look mad about using all of her supplies of Gem "And I can just have this?" she asked, surprised. "I don't really need the stuff for anything else and I have the ingredients anyway. I am also a bit curious about what will happen" Shelby said.

"Wait, you don't know what's going to happen?" Gem asked.

"Well no, I've never used it before. I learned how to make it and then never really got an opportunity to actually make it" Shelby answered. "Oh well, I guess I'm happy to be your guinea pig" Gem answered. Nothing would go wrong, probably.

Gem stayed with Shelby for a while, just talking. Gem kept shooting glances at the flask with the potion in it. Katherine really understood what it was like to have a forbidden relationship. But eventually it became late and Gem and Katherine left.

They swam home, Gem kept a tight grip on the potion in her hand.

She said goodbye to Katherine, Katherine wished her good luck and went home. Gem instead went to the little cabin, she swam up and saw that Pearl was already there. Gem smiled, she wanted to tell Pearl the good news.

"Pearl, Pearl, I found a way! I found a way to temporarily turn myself into a human!" Gem started saying the second she got out of the water. Pearl's smile turned into a look of confusion "What are you talking about Gem? How would that be possible?"

"Well my parents did research about humans and they wrote a paper about being turned into a human. They wrote that the sea witch turned them into humans, I went to search for her. And I actually found her, she gave me this" Gem said as she held up the flask.

Pearl looked at it and then back at Gem, she started smiling but her smile disappeared for a second "Is it safe? Can we trust the sea witch?" she asked, concerned.

"Yes! or well I think so. I found the sea witch because of one of my friends, apparently they are dating. I trust my friend and she trusts the sea witch, therefore I trust the sea witch" Gem responded, too excited to see any reason to not trust the sea witch anymore.

"Is it safe?" Pearl asked again, in a serious voice this time.

"I- I think so. The sea witch told me that she's never used it before but thinks that it will work" Gem said, she knew that it sounded bad but she didn't really have another choice. She wanted to turn into a human and this was the only way that she could see it happen.

"Gem, are you sure you want to take it if we don't know if it's safe? Shouldn't we do some research or something, I really don't want to endanger you" Pearl responded.

"But Pearl, I can be human. I could be on the land with you, I could see the human lands and I can meet all of your friends. Oh and I will have legs just like you, I don't wanna wait any longer. I trust the sea witch and I really wanna turn into a human" Gem argued.

She saw the risk, she did but the potion in her hand could turn her dreams true. She didn't know what would happen if she took the potion, Pearl was right it could go wrong. But to Gem it was worth it.

"I wanna try, will you help me once I'm human?" Gem asked.

"Of course I'm gonna help you but maybe we should do this with more people around, you know make sure that we have help if something does go wrong. What if something goes wrong and you sink to the bottom of the lake. If I dive after you you'll freeze, if I do, we'll both freeze" Pearl said, saying the smart thing.

But at the moment she didn't care about what the smart thing was. She just wanted to drink the potion. And so that is what she did. She had waited for so long, she had been wanting to see the human lands for such a long time. Now that the opportunity was there, she was going to take it too.

She moved closer to the floor, staying in the water, she brought the flask to her mouth. She drank the potion in one go, she had expected it to taste gross but it actually tasted quite sweet. She looked around once she finished it.

"I don't think that did anything" she said, but right as she said it things started to change.

Chapter Text

Pearl watched in horror as Gem took the flask and drank it all in one go. Gem put the flask down and looked around confused. Pearl shot forward, stopping herself right in front of the little pool of water. She looked at Gem, having no idea what to say, having no idea what to do. Gem still looked normal "I don't think that did anything" Gem said, a hint of disappointment on her face.

It might be mean but Pearl felt relieved, nothing had happened. Right after she said that, things started changing. Gem ducked in on herself, hugging her arms around her as she screamed. Pearl shot forward and fell to her knees in front of the water, she reached out for Gem.

Gem looked back up at Pearl, her gills were gone she opened her mouth to speak and Pearl noticed that her fangs were now gone too. "What is happening? Is it working?" Gem asked, Pearl looked at the transformation with her mouth open in shock, sitting there not being able to do anything but watch.

"You're actually turning into a human" Pearl managed to say, she had not expected the potion to work. A potion that Gem had gotten from a random sea witch, yeah that didn't sound like something that would actually work. Gem got a smile on her face despite the pain that she was obviously in.

She got her hands out of the water, watching them with big eyes. She moved her fingers around, her webbed fingers were no longer webbed now. Pearl was staring at Gem, the woman suddenly sank deeper into the water. Pearl quickly reached out for her and grabbed her at her hands, she pulled Gem up.

Gem looked down "Legs?" A smile appeared on her face "I h-have l-legs" Gem exclaimed.

Pearl realized that the cold water was now also affecting her, so Pearl pulled Gem out of the water. Gem lay on the ground, fully human. She was wearing a shirt that looked like what she had been wearing before, but now it didn't look like part of a bathing suit anymore, it was an actual green shirt.

Her beautiful tail was gone, instead she had human legs, luckily the potion had somehow given her pants too. The pants were a light blue and she was even wearing white shoes. The clothes weren't doing much for warmth since they were completely soaked thanks to the water, but they were still human clothes.

Gem pushed herself up, her eyes glued to where her tail had been only seconds before. It was weird, seeing Gem as a human, Pearl hadn't thought that mers and humans looked that different.

But now that she saw Gem as a human instead of a mer like she was used to. It looked completely different, Gem looked completely different. It was still Gem, the same Gem that Pearl had been talking to for months now. But Pearl doubted that anyone who wasn't befriended with her would recognize her now.

Pearl and Gem sat there in silence, both taking in Gem's new appearance. Their attention shifted though when the door to the cabin suddenly opened. A face came around the corner, Joel. He opened his mouth to say something "Is everyone okay we heard a scre- What in the world hap- Gem?" Joel asked as he walked in, staring at Gem with shock.

Lizzie walked in behind him "What's going oh my god, Gem!" Lizzie began, quickly closing the door behind her. She stood there, apparently coming to the conclusion that this was indeed Gem. Pearl had no idea what to say, she barely understood this citation herself.

It looked like everyone in the cabin was too stunned to speak, they all stayed in silence for a little while. All taking in the changes that had occurred. Eventually the silence was broken, Pearl guessed that Lizzie's curiosity took over "Gem? You- How?" she asked, looking Gem in her eyes.

"She got some kind of potion from a sea witch" Pearl answered for her when Gem didn't say anything "What? You did what? That sounds like a very stupid thing to do" Joel said, it was quite rare for Pearl and Joel to agree on something but on this they agreed.

It had been a stupid action from Gem to just drink the potion without knowing for sure what it was going to do.

There were so many things that could have gone wrong, and Gem just took the potion like it was a goddamn shot. "Y-yeah b-b-but it w-worked" Gem replied, still shivering on the floor. Pearl walked closer to her and took her in her arms, trying to warm her up at least a little bit.

She was right, the potion had worked, Gem was now human.

Gem was now sitting on Pearl's lap, facing away from Pearl. She was still staring at her new legs. Pearl started rubbing her arms over Gem's arms, trying to warm her up faster. "T-this is so weird" Gem said, everyone in the little cabin agreed with her, but everyone had different emotions at the words.

Pearl was anxious and scared for what would happen next. She hoped that the potion truly only changed Gem in a human and that it wouldn't do anything else. There was also the thought about how temporary this potion would be, and if it would even be temporary at all.

Gem looked happy and glad, she looked at her new legs with excitement in her eyes. Everyone could see that this was something that she wanted, everyone in the cabin knew that Gem had wanted to be human for a while now.

But that did not stop Lizzie and Joel from being as anxious as Pearl.

Pearl could see that they too had their doubts about this situation. It was obvious that Lizzie was trying to hide her doubts, she wanted to be happy for her friend. But that was hard when that friend had just taken a potion from some sea witch. The feeling between being happy for Gem and fearing for consequences of what had just happened was something that all of them were feeling.

"She's gonna need some dry clothes" Pearl said, Gem's actions had been stupid but they didn't have time to scold her for that now. They would talk with Gem about how stupid her action had been when she wasn't freezing. "I'll get her some," Joel said, he disappeared out of the cabin. Pearl and Lizzie were now alone with a shivering Gem.

Lizzie kneeled down in front of Gem "Hey Gem, can you feel your legs?" She asked, Gem nodded "That's good, can you try to move them? It might feel a bit weird but you'll get used to it" Lizzie said, Gem's leg moved slightly.

The smile on her face only grew, Lizzie smiled as she saw how happy it made Gem. "I- I ha-ve actual l-legs" Gem said, it sounded like she still couldn't believe that all of this was real. Pearl smiled too despite her worry, she was glad that her friend's dream was coming true "Yeah, you do" she said, Gem looked up at Pearl. The smile on Gem's face, the sparkle in her eyes made Pearl forget about the problems that they had.

Joel returned with some dry clothes "I just took some random stuff, let's hope that it fits" he said. Pearl took the clothes from him "Doesn't matter, everything is fine as long as it warms her up" Pearl replied. Joel walked out of the little cabin again. "Call me when she's done changing" Joel said as he walked out. He closed the door and stood in front of it like a bodyguard.

It would look weird if someone walked by, but that was not Pearl's problem. Pearl handed Lizzie the pants that Joel had given her, she started getting Gem's shirt off and pulled the new one on.

Lizzie did the same with the pants, the two of them working together. Gem was in warm clothes in no time. "Gem, are you still with us?" Pearl asked, she had been quiet during all of it. "Yeah, yeah, I'm just shocked. Everything feels so weird" she replied in a soft voice.

Lizzie walked out of the cabin, telling Joel to come back in before asking "How long are you a human? This isn't a permanent thing, right?" Lizzie asked, concern all over her face. "No, no I'm not sure how long it will work but not for long" Gem replied, she didn't sound very sure about herself.

"The potion that she took has never been tested before" Pearl informed Lizzie, Gem shot her an angry look "It's true isn't it, it was a very stupid thing. Do you know about everything that could have gone wrong?" Pearl replied, now that Gem was warm they could talk about this.

Now Pearl didn't feel too bad for scolding Gem.

"I know, I know, but nothing went wrong. I'm a human, like the three of you. I can get onto the land, I could walk" Gem said, once she said it she immediately tried to stand up. She fell before she could fully stand up.

Lizzie and Joel shot forward but were too far away, Pearl was able to catch Gem before she hit the floor. "Be careful" Pearl said, she helped Gem stand up fully supporting her. Joel and Lizzie stood in front of Gem, ready to catch her in case she would fall again.

Pearl let go of Gem a little, letting her stand on her own. Gem almost fell again but caught herself, she stood with her arms fully spread for balance. She had a big smile on her face as she stood on her own. She tried to move one of her legs to take a step and fell.

She fell fast but Joel caught her, he helped her back up "Lizzie, can't you teach her how to walk?" Joel asked, looking over at his wife "You can walk, why wouldn't you be able to teach her how to walk?" Lizzie asked in return. "I don't remember learning how to walk. Do you remember Pearl?" Joel responded like Lizzie was crazy.

"No, I was like one. Gem, just try to put one foot in front of the other" Pearl said, how could she explain walking to someone? Joel helped Gem stand up fully again and let go of her. She stood still for a second before she tried to take a small step.

She almost fell again but caught herself, Pearl couldn't help but feel proud.

Gem tried to take another step, and then another one and another one. "Okay, now, try to take a step without holding your arms out like that" Joel said, motioning to the weird t-posing that Gem was doing. Gem forced her arms down, took a deep breath and took another step.

She took a few steps around the room, holding her arms at her side. She had a smile on her face as she walked around. Her steps were getting better and better, walking like an actual human adult instead of a baby deer just learning how to walk.

Pearl watched as Gem learned how to walk, at one point Gem turned around and walked towards Pearl. She jumped into Pearl's arms and hugged her tightly, Pearl returned her hug. "Thank you, Pearl," she said.

"What for? I didn't do anything" Pearl asked, confused.

"The only reason I learned so much about humans is because of you. You taught me about them, you gave me the courage to actually turn myself into a human. I would have never dared to do this if I didn't have you. Thank you" Gem said, the thank you she said in a soft voice.

Pearl blushed "N-no need to thank me" she answered.

Pearl looked at Gem, human Gem. She was able to fully hug Gem, not in the water but actually on the land. She could stay like this with Gem for however long they wanted, Pearl didn't need to be scared about Gem running out of oxygen.

Gem was fully human, Pearl could even take her outside without having to worry about someone seeing her. Pearl's smile got even bigger, she picked up Gem and spun her around. Gem giggled as she did so.

Pearl was as happy as she could ever be, but she was snapped out of her perfect world when someone cleared his throat. She looked over at where the sound had come from, Joel and Lizzie were still there staring at the two of them.

Pearl put Gem back down, she felt her cheeks heat up once again but this time in embarrassment. "oookaay, why don't we show Gem the town?" Lizzie asked, trying to break the awkwardness that had come to the room. "I know that that was what I was most excited about when I first became a human," She added.

"Yes, yes" Gem said, looking at Pearl for permission. "Yeah, that sounds amazing. But it is late at night so you won't be able to actually see much" She said, Gem's smile disappeared so Pearl quickly added "We can show you around tomorrow and I'll show that movie that I told you about a few days ago"

"Okay, let's go," Gem said, she and Pearl moved to the door. Lizzie and Joel followed them "We're going with them right?" Joel asked, Lizzie nodded "Of course we are" she said.

Pearl turned to look at Lizzie and Joel "What, you don't really think that we're letting you alone right now? We wanna see Gem's reaction to the outside world" Lizzie said. Pearl shrugged and the four of them stepped outside.

They walked the short distance towards Pearl's house, Gem had been there before but she was still looking around, trying to see everything and anything. It didn't take long before they arrived at Pearl's house.

Pearl led Joel, Lizzie and Gem to the couch in her living room but went upstairs herself before joining them. She got a few blankets and pillows before she walked back downstairs.

She handed Lizzie and Joel a blanket and gave one to Gem. She threw the pillows onto the couch and went into her kitchen "Does everyone here like popcorn?" She called out from in the kitchen "Yup" Joel replied "Yeah" Lizzie said.

"Just say yes, trust me it's good" Pearl heard Lizzie whisper to Gem.

"Yes," Gem answered, though she didn't sound very sure. Pearl made popcorn for the four of them and put it into two separate bowls. She walked back into her living room and placed the bowls down on her coffee table before taking a seat on the couch next to Gem.

She reached for the remote "Lizzie, Joel I'm assuming you two have already seen the little mermaid" She said as she started looking for the movie. "No? What's it about?" Lizzie asked, grabbing a handful of popcorn and throwing it into her mouth.

"Wait, you've never seen the little mermaid?" Pearl asked, shocked. It was a classic, Pearl didn't think she'd ever met someone who hadn't seen the film. "No?" Lizzie replied. "Joel, you've shown Lizzie all the Shrek movies multiple times but you've never shown her the little mermaid?" Pearl asked.

"Shrek is just better," Joel answered. "Have you shown her any Disney movies?" Pearl asked, there was no way that Joel had never shown Lizzie Disney movies, right? "Not really, I just showed her the important stuff" Joel said like it was no big deal.

"This is the important stuff. Okay that's it, we are having a Disney movie marathon" Pearl declared, not caring what anyone else thought. Watching Disney movies was an important part of being human. Lizzie and Gem didn't argue and Pearl didn't care about what Joel thought, so she turned the movie on. They watched the little mermaid and then moved over to Moana.

After Moana Joel fell asleep, Pearl had gotten tired too and she could see that Lizzie and Gem were tired too. The two of them were fighting to keep their eyes open. Pearl turned the tv off "Let's all get some sleep" she said softly.

Gem looked like she was about to protest but a yawn distributed her.

She laid down fully and closed her eyes, giving in to the sleep. Lizzie seemed to accept her fate too, laying down with a muttered "Good night" Pearl looked at the scene around her, she wished that they could stay in the moment forever.

Surrounded by her friends, the biggest problem being not being able to stay awake for an extra movie.

Chapter Text

Gem woke up on Pearl's couch, it took her a second before she realized what was going on and what had happened. It immediately felt weird, she was so used to waking up underwater, with you know water surrounding her. Now she was on actual land, once that thought came to Gem she threw her blanket off of her.

There, where her tail had once been, were her very own legs. It hadn't been a dream, it was all real, she had done it, she was a human. She was a human with legs and lungs and non webbed fingers without fangs. It had been weird in the beginning but it was also exciting.

The hours that Gem had been a human she had gotten a bit more used to all these things. Breathing was what felt the weirdest, now she wasn't breathing in water, taking the oxygen out of it and breathing the water back out. No, she was just breathing air and she actually had to do something to breathe out.

Gem was starting to find that kind of annoying, when she was a mer she didn't have to breathe in that often. She could easily go hours without taking a breath. But now as a human, she apparently had two minutes top to take another breath before she'd pass out.

Not that Gem minded it a lot, all the positives weight out the negatives by a lot. She would take the breathing thing every day if it meant that she could walk on land. The whole walking thing had taken her some time to figure out, but once she did there was no stopping her. When Gem had been a mer she had thought that toes were weird, but they apparently helped with balancing when walking.

As a mer Gem could not have even imagined the whole balancing thing, the water around her made sure that she wouldn't just fall forward. But here, that apparently was what toes were for. Gem looked around the room at her other human friends, and Lizzie. They still seemed to be asleep, Gem wanted to go exploring though. The night before she had seen the road from the cabin to Pearl's house again, this time during the night. She had also seen two human movies.

But she wanted more, she wanted to do and see and learn more. She didn't know what time it was, but that didn't matter to her.

She wanted to see everything there was to see, she wanted to learn everything there was to learn. But if she wanted to do that she had to hurry up. At the moment Gem was lying cuddled up against Pearl, Gem had no idea how it had happened but she wasn't mad about it.

It was actually pretty comfortable and if Gem didn't have other things to do she would have stayed in the position for a bit longer. So she got up, she tried to be quiet and not wake Pearl but she was still a bit clumsy as a human and so she woke up Pearl by bumping into the side of the couch.

Pearl's eyes opened slowly, a smile appeared on her face as she laid eyes on Gem. "Good Morning" She said, exhaustion clear in her voice. "Good morning" Gem replied, it seemed like the few seconds that she had been thinking had been enough to fully wake herself up, hre voice came out louder than she had wanted it to. "You look excited" Pearl observed as she sat up.

Her hair was a mess and her eyes were still partially closed but Gem couldn't help but think that this was perfect.

Pearl stood up and walked towards the kitchen, motioning for Gem to follow her. Gem looked at Lizzie and Joel who were still fast asleep, cuddled up together on Pearl's other couch. Gem smiled at the sight before she followed Pearl into the kitchen.

"Ever made an egg?" Pearl asked as she held up some white thing. It kind of looked like the egg of a turtle, but bigger somehow.

Gem looked at it "Uhm no" she said, Pearl just smiled. She moved over to another thing and placed the egg down. She put something in a pan and then hit the egg against the side of the pan. It broke and a weird kind of liquid came out followed by an orange thing.

It looked very weird to Gem, she watched as Pearl broke a few more eggs and put it into the pan. She then turned a button and fire came from beneath the pan. Gem stepped back a little, the warmth from the flame hitting her and telling her to stay away from it. Fire was bad.

Pearl seemed to notice her reaction, she chuckled at it. "It's safe, don't worry" Pearl reassured Gem. Gem stepped a bit closer to it all and looked as the egg got baked. After a while the human breakfast was done, Pearl handed Gem a plate and walked to the living room holding two other plates.

She put the plates on the coffee table and walked back into the kitchen to grab her own plate. When she returned she looked at the still sleeping Joel and Lizzie "So how are we waking those two up? I'd say throw a bucket of water over them but that might not be the best idea with Lizzie"

"I don't know, underwater we would probably tie their tail to a pole. Then we would scream and when the person would try to follow they would be stuck" Gem said with a chuckle, thinking back to all the times that she had done that to one of her brothers.

"Hmm that does sound funny but we can't really do that here. But we could scream at the top of our lungs and watch their reactions to that" Pearl said, Gem smiled. Pearl walked closer to Lizzie and Joel, she put up three fingers, then two, then one, Pearl and Gem both screamed at the top of their lungs just as planned.

Joel and Lizzie jumped up, searching around for any danger. Lizzie put her fist up in front of her, ready to hit whatever had interrupted her peaceful slumber. Joel put one of his arms in front of Lizzie, the other one he placed in front of himself as some kind of way to shield himself. The two of them looked around in a panic before their eyes reached a now laughing Pearl and Gem.

"What is wrong with the two of you?" Joel yelled, his arms dropping to his side as a sigh of relief left him despite his anger. Lizzie just turned back around and hid her face. "A lot, but we did make breakfast as an apology" Pearl said, holding a plate out for boh of them. Lizzie came out of her hiding place, saw the food and reached for it with a smile on her face.

"Is it really that easy?" Joel asked Lizzie, Lizzie looked at him while she was eating and said "Food is always the solution, you know that"

Joel took his own food and angrily started eating it, sending daggers into the direction of Pearl and Gem. Every time one of them noticed they pointed it out and burst out in laughter all over again.

When they were done eating Gem was ready to go and explore the human world, the food had been great but Gem wanted to see more than that. She was standing up waiting for Pearl, Lizzie and Joel to get up too but it looked like they had all the time in the world.

Which they probably did, none of them had a ticking time clock which would result in turning back into a mer if the time ran out.

Eventually they got up and walked outside "Oh we can show her the arcade and the cafe, she needs to meet Impulse" Pearl said as they walked outside, Lizzie, Joel and Pearl were talking about all the things they would show to Gem.

Gem wasn't really paying attention, she had no idea what most of the words they said meant anyway. No, she was busy looking at everything around her. The four of them walked into the town, Gem saw people, human people, and stared at them. Could you blame her, she had never seen that many humans together.

Lizzie, Joel and Pearl walked inside somewhere and Gem just followed them. There were even more people inside the place, Gem just followed Pearl around. As long as she was with Pearl, everything would be fine. Pearl would keep Gem safe, she was sure of it.

"Hey guys, who's the new person?" A man behind the counter asked with a friendly smile. "Hey Impulse, this is Gem. She uh is one of my friends from before I moved here. She's visiting and we're showing her around" Pearl answered with a nod, motioning to Gem.

"Well a friend of Pearl is my friend" Impulse said, he reached his hand out and Gem shook his hand. She still had to get used to not having webbed fingers "Uh hi, nice to meet you" Gem said, she was nervous meeting another stranger, mostly since he was human, but Impulse looked nice.

Gem didn't think that most humans were evil like most other mers did. But that didn't mean that she hadn't been told stories about all the horrible things that humans have done her whole life. Something inside her, she just couldn't turn that little voice in the back of her brain off that told her that humans were as dangerous as she was always told.

With Pearl she had taken very small steps before she finally trusted her, and even then it had taken a while before she completely trusted her. With Joel she had known that he was to be trusted because of Lizzie, she trusted him when he knew her secret. But this man, he probably didn't know about mers, Gem didn't know what he would do if he found out about her.

That thought scared her.

"Nice to meet you too, wait let me get you a cinnamon roll on the house" Impulse said, Gem didn't know what he was talking about so she just smiled. "Any one of you want something?" Impulse said as he turned back to the others.

"Yes please, a strawberry donut for me please" Lizzie said, Joel ordered an eclair and Pearl ordered a croissant. The four of them walked to a table and sat down, they sat at a table next to the window. Gem kept staring out of the window, observing the humans, as they waited for their food.

When the food arrived Gem stared at what she had just been given. She had never had a cinnamon roll, her friends were eating their food with no problem. "You don't have to try it if you don't want to. But you totally should, the food here is amazing" Pearl said.

"Isn't that a bit hypocritical to say since you work here?" Lizzie asked. "We would never advertise this place. But it does just have the best food and drinks, besides that the service is also amazing. The cafe, open monday to friday from 10am until 9pm" Joel said as if he was an advertisement

Lizzie and Pearl rolled their eyes at him.

Joel laughed at his own joke "But if you don't want the cinnamon roll, I could eat it for you" Joel offered, he reached out for Gem's cinnamon roll, but Gem quickly took it "No, no I want it" she said, holding it in her hands and slowly bringing it to her mouth.

She took a bite from it, it tasted, it tasted amazing. It didn't take long before Gem finished the whole cinnamon roll. It didn't take much longer before the rest also finished their food and the four of them left again.

They started walking around again, Gem kept seeing more and more humans. Eventually she saw a human that she somehow recognized, she kept looking at him, trying to figure out why she knew him. Then the realization hit her, it was the human that Pearl had been with on the boat. It was the human who had captured Gem in a net.

Gem froze in place.

"Gem?" Pearl asked as she noticed that Gem had stopped laughing. "What's wrong?" Lizzie asked, she looked at where Gem was looking "Grian and Mumbo?" Lizzie asked, confused.

Pearl looked at the two of them too, it looked like she realized what was wrong. "Grian captured Gem in a net the first time that we met. He wanted to prove to me that mers were real" Pearl explained quickly, standing in front of Gem to block her view of the two "We can walk away from them, but they won't hurt you Gem"

"I'm sorry, he did what?" Joel asked, angrily glaring at Grian from where he was standing.

"He didn't technically capture me, I swam into his net and got stuck. But then he started trying to pull me up, trying to get me on the boat and out of the water" Gem explained, she didn't really want to be around Grian at the moment. "He tried to pull you up? Yeah we're leaving" Joel decided, he placed a hand on Gem's back.

But right as the group turned to walk away Grian said "Hey guys"

Grian was walking towards them, Gem subconsciously took Pearl's hand. "Hey Grian, Mumbo, sorry we were just about to leave" Joel said, the group was about to start moving again but then Mumbo said "Aren't you going to introduce us to your new friend?"

"Oh yeah sure, this is Gem" Lizzie said, she stood a bit in front of Gem. Shielding her from Grian a bit without it looking too suspicious "She's one of Pearl's old friends, she is visiting from where Pearl used to live" Lizzie explained. "Nice to meet you" Mumbo said, Grian didn't say anything, he just stood there and looked at Gem. "Yeah nice to meet you" Gem replied, avoiding eye contact as much as possible.

"Have we met before?" Grian asked, making Gem nervous. Did he recognise her? Did he know who she was? Did he know that she was a mer?

"No, no I don't think so. I live pretty far away" Gem replied, hoping that Grian would believe her. "Okay, maybe you just have one of those faces. I'm Grian" Grian introduced himself. He reached out his hand, Gem hesitated for a second before she shook his hand.

Now that Gem could see him up close and now that they were at the same height, he didn't look as scary. Gem was just scared that he knew, that he knew what she was and that she would tell people.

"We are showing Gem around the town while she is visiting" Joel said "We were about to show her our house. We'll see you later, bye" he added before the group started walking away. "Okay, bye!" Mumbo said, waving goodbye.

Gem looked over her shoulder at the two as they walked away. Grian was still looking at her, staring at her as she walked away. Gem looked in front of her, looking away from Grian. As the four of them walked towards Lizzie and Joel's house they ran into some other friends of Pearl.

But Gem recognised these two, Skizz and Tango. The two humans who had saved Pearl when she had been stuck in the freezing water. Skizz and Tango were walking towards the town, but they stopped once they noticed the four of them.

Greetings were said before Skizz and Tango saw Gem "Hello! Pearl, is this your girlfriend?" Skizz asked, motioning to Gem "N-no, she's just my friend. Why would you think that she's my girlfriend?" Pearl asked, her cheeks turning red.

"You two are holding hands" Tango said, a big grin on his face. Gem looked down at her hand, Tango was right, she and Pearl were still holding hands. They let go and Gem felt her own cheeks heat up too. "We-we are just friends" Gem said.

"Yeah, Gem is a friend from where Pearl used to live. She's visiting so we're showing her around" Lizzie said. The six of them hung out for the rest of the day, Gem had a great time. They showed Gem all kinds of human things.

But way too soon, the sun went down and the day was almost over. Lizzie, Joel, Skizz and Tango went to their houses. Pearl took Gem back to her own house, she went inside and told Gem to wait downstairs for her. When Pearl came back she had a bag with her.

"Come" Pearl said, the two of them went back outside. Pearl told Gem to get inside her car, Gem listened. She sat in the car, she had no idea where they were going or what Pearl was planning. But she trusted Pearl so she went along with everything.

"Put your seat belt on" Pearl said, Gem looked around. What was a seat belt? Pearl seemed to notice her confusion, she reached over and pulled the seatbelt in front of Gem and buckled her in. Gem smiled, but she panicked when the car started moving.

"Don't worry, It's supposed to do that" Pearl reassured Gem, Gem calmed down and the car started moving. Gem looked out of the window as they drove, seeing much more of the human lands.

Eventually Pearl stopped, Gem and her stepped out. They were at the docks "You've never seen this place from here, have you?" Pearl asked as they looked at the sea. Gem shook her head "Well then I think it's time for you to see the little beach from my perspective" Pearl said.

The two of them walked to the little beach, Pearl started unpacking her bag. She took a sleeping bag and a tent out. Gem had no idea how she had been hiding the tent inside the bag but she didn't question it. "If you turn back into a mer you'll be safe by the water" Pearl said.

Gem smiled, Pearl had thought about everything.

The two laid down and talked as they watched how the moonlight lit up the lake.