Morg: Heyo! I'm excited to be starting this fic. I hope you all find it as awesome as I do!

Ikuto: Not interested.

Amu: Just because it is a T doesn't mean that you need to get all upset.

Morg: No, he does have a reason.

Ikuto: This is ridiculous. Everyone knows that it should be an M.

Amu: But-

Morg: Just let it go, Amu. Let him sulk.

Ikuto: This is why I'm glad you never received ownership!

Amu: Wow, you're really put out about this.

~At the Water's Edge~

The view in front of his eyes was amazing. No other living being could say that they had seen what the fishes see. Ikuto was literally walking beneath the waves in his new dive suit. The first of its kind and as far as he knew, he was the only person alive to use it. His father had the right connections.

"Dude." The radio crackled in his ear. "You don't have much line left. Make sure you don't go much farther."

Though the words were a bit static-y, he could understand them. Ikuto couldn't believe that he was able to communicate with the people on his boat at all. The best part was that he could talk back. "Don't worry so much, Kukai. I'm fine and it isn't like I have to go anywhere much further. I can see a lot from here."

Though the suit was new and the top of the line equipment, Ikuto couldn't actually go far from the boat above him that held his air tank. The hose connecting him to it was only so long. The water was clear though and he could see a ways ahead of him. The coral was beautiful. The colors were so different when in their natural habitat compared to how Ikuto saw them in the lab he ran for his personal uses. Fish swam here and there but none dared to come much closer to the object that was so foreign in their midst.

"This meter thing says you have thirty minutes left until you have to come up. Is it really amazing down there, man?"

Ikuto rolled his eyes as he turned his body in a slow motion to look in a new direction. An object stuck out in the distance. Doing the math quickly, Ikuto figured he could get closer to it with enough air to make it back. "Of course it is. My father really out did himself this time." A crackled chuckling noise came in over his ear piece, causing Ikuto to shudder a little due to the grating noise in his ear. "Kukai, knock that off! I can see something up ahead. I'm going to get closer to it."

The laughter stopped only to be replaced by a voice. "Alight man, just be careful and all that jazz. I don't want your old man coming after me because his precious son can't take over the family business due to him dying and all."

"I'm glad that I have you to watch my back while I'm down here."

Ikuto's words came out dryly though he smirked. Kukai truly was his best friend and there wasn't anything the boy could say to make Ikuto actually mad at him. His father, on the other hand, only needed to be breathing the same precious air for Ikuto to hate him. Kazuomi only wanted Ikuto to take over his shipping empire. Ikuto wanted to study the ocean. His father indulged him and bought him things to make Ikuto agree to his wishes. Everything Ikuto did and had was funded by his father.

"What are best friends for?"

With his smirk firmly in place, Ikuto continued his walk along the ocean floor towards the object standing out in the distant gloom. His goal was only to get close enough to it to see what it was. They could come back at a later time and dive practically on top of it if Ikuto thought that it was worth the trip and effort.

"Hey Kukai, I think I might have found a sunken ship. We'll have to come back some time to check it out."

"That's awesome, dude!" The radio cackled in his ear. "You should get a second suit from your old man so we can both dive at the same time!"

Ikuto would have agreed if he had been listening to what Kukai was saying to him. Unfortunately for the boy running the oxygen on the ship, Ikuto caught a glimpse of something moving up ahead and it was way too big to be just a normal fish. With his curiosity piqued, Ikuto moved closer to the sunken ship in the distance. Upon closer inspection he realized that it wasn't a complete ship, only part of one. The best part of his discovery was watching the tail of a large fish go into.

Then everything started happening too quickly for Ikuto to truly understand. The radio in his ear cut out right after Kukai started spewing curse words. Ikuto felt a tug on the back of his suit where his oxygen line hooked to him before he felt pressure and the coldness of the water swirling in. During his short walk, he'd come unattached to his line and now the water was rushing into his suit. In a matter of moments, Ikuto would be dead.

Thinking quick, he turned from the wreck and tried to judge the distance between him and the line. He could feel the water filling the suit and weighing down his movements. Even if he'd wanted to simply swim to the surface, he couldn't due to the weight keeping him at the ocean floor. The young blue haired scientist had two options. Let the water enter his suit until all the oxygen was gone from it leaving him to drown or he could do his best to shed the suit and try and figure out a way to retrieve it later. Ikuto chose the second option.

While staying calm, he moved with swift movements until he was just about to take off the helmet. Sucking in one last breath of air, he hoped that he wasn't too deep to make it to the surface. Shedding his helmet made Ikuto blind as he shook free of the rest of his suit. Part of it was caught on his leg and he had to use his hands to free himself without the guidance of his eyes. Now that he was blind and without any oxygen, panic was slowly starting to sink in. His mistake was when he had opened his mouth to breathe out in slight frustrations. His foot just wasn't coming out of whatever it was that was tethering him down. Ikuto felt his consciousness beginning to edge away as he struggled longer.

From her spot in the wreckage, Amu watched it happen. She watched as the hose unhooked from his strange suit and the way he started thrashing in his rush to get out of it. Then she saw how his foot got stuck in the heavy looking boot. But she couldn't do anything. To expose herself would be the worst thing possible. Humans weren't supposed to know about her kind; though some did it was kept a secret.

When his body stopped moving beneath the waves, Amu couldn't stand it. She left her hiding spot and swam to the still floating body, freed his foot and pulled the beautiful human to the surface of the water.

"Breathe! Please breathe!"

Though his head was above the waves, the man in her arms remained limp. Amu knew in that moment that he was dead. Knowing that she had the power to change that even though the others shunned her for it, Amu lugged the body of the dead man behind her as her powerful tail allowed her to glide along the water's surface. She'd seen the boat and purposely swam in a different direction. The chances of the dead man seeing her if she could revive him were already too great. Letting other humans that she knew were on the boat catch sight of her as well made Amu realize how careful she needed to be. Humans did not need to know about her kind and Amu wanted nothing to do with them.

A nearby private beach would work perfectly so she pulled him up onto the sand. Laying her head against his unmoving chest, Amu checked once more to see if he was alive. The heartbeat that she had hoped to hear was nonexistent. Sitting back up, Amu concentrated her focus on the human man's still chest. She could sense the water sitting in his lungs, making him unable to breathe the air he so desperately needed.

Pulling two of her fingers together over his chest, Amu released her thoughts and focused on calling the water from his chest. His head tipped back as she concentrated. A thin stream of water slipped from between his lips and pooled into a ball above his face. Amu didn't stop there; however, once the water was gone she focused again and pushed air into the still unmoving lungs. Once, twice, three times she pushed air in and pulled it back out. Finally, the sound she was waiting for came to her ears. The faint beating of his heart.

Amu was so excited that she simply cradled the head of the man that had been dead only moments before. The others of her kind looked at her powers as something to be ashamed of. In her furry, Amu could cause a storm. Power over the elements of the earth made her strange, which made her an outcast. They did not trust her, yet here she sat with the life she'd just saved in her lap. Amu wished they could see how she only wanted to use the powers she possessed for good and not to harm others.

For the first time she really looked at the man she just saved. His hair the darkest blue she'd ever seen. He was handsome; she had to admit, even for being just a human. The young girl couldn't help but wonder who she had just saved. Was he a brother or a father? He looked quite young, barely older than she was.

While she was examining his face, he began to move. Amu tried to drop his head lightly to the sand and make her way back towards the waves that were only feet away as the brushed up against the shore.

A groan filled the air and she heard him sit up behind her. Without stopping, Amu tried to ignore the voice behind her as it rasped out its question. "Wait. Did you save me?"

The water was touching her fins, wetting them again and filling her with gratitude for making it as far as she had. Turning back, Amu saw that the man was trying to crawl towards her. "Please stop," she whispered to him, halting his meager attempt to get closer to her. "I saved your life but this is where I must leave you. Speak of this to no one."

Ikuto stared at the beautiful creature before him. She was one of something he hadn't believed existed before. How could she possibly be real? "But I don't even know your name."

Amu sat there with the water gently lapping around her half fish body. She studied the face of the human that she had just saved with powers she wasn't supposed to possess. "Amu. My name is Amu."

"Amu." Testing her name on his tongue made Ikuto realize that he was meant to say it. She was beautiful and pure. Everything that the ocean promised and more when it whispered sweet nothings to him. "You saved me, Amu?"

Nodding her head of pink hair, Amu decided that telling the man what had happened couldn't hurt. "You were no longer breathing so I brought you here and pulled the water from you lungs and pushed air into them."

"Like mouth to mouth?" Ikuto smirked at the thought of those lips pressed against his but the look on her face told him that she didn't understand. "It means that you used your mouth to push air into my lungs through my mouth. Like kissing but not kissing."

A sour look crossed her face as Amu backed deeper into the water. "No, not like that. I used other means. I must go. This is where I leave you."

Ikuto scrambled to his feet and immediately regretted it. "Wait! You are just going to leave me here?"

Amu smiled as she continued her path backwards into the waves. "Yes, you will live. I really must go. Please, don't tell anyone about me."

With that she was gone and there was nothing else that Ikuto could do. He stood on the beach with the sun slowly starting to dry his clothes. For as long as he stared at the ocean, she did not reappear above the waves. The mermaid that had saved him from drowning was gone. Ikuto smirked knowing that not only was he going to have one hell of a time getting back home, but he'd have to explain the loss of his new suit on the first day of using it. His father would not be happy, but that didn't stop the young man from keeping his smirk in place. At least now he had something to really search for in the depths of the ocean. Someone he wouldn't stop looking for until he found her again.

.

Morg: So what do you think?

Ikuto: I knew Amu loved me!

Amu: I didn't save you because I love you!

Morg: So you do love him?

Ikuto: Yes! I already told you that she does!

Amu: That's not what I meant!

Morg: Too late!

Ikuto: Review for Amuto love!

Amu: I give up.