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From the Depths

by: Cedarleaf

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Chapter 4

After thinking about it all night, Roxas came to the conclusion that the only way to return the necklace to its rightful owner was to go back to the Isle and wait for them. He had no idea how long it would take, but Roxas was determined to spend every available minute there until the necklace was back with the mermaid it belonged to. It was the only way.

So after retrieving the chain from Will this morning, here he was, sitting quietly under the shade of a palm tree, reading the rest of his books from Maechan to pass the time. Judging from the position of the sun, it was just before noon Roxas estimated he'd been waiting for a good three hours already, and the day was really starting to get hot. Time for a dip to cool down.

Taking off his shirt (more like peeled off; even in the shade he covered in sweat), Roxas was careful not to catch the mermaid's necklace on any of the buttons. He didn't think the owner would appreciate a total stranger wearing such a deeply personal possession, but it was the only way he could think of to keep it on his person while still displaying it for the mermaid to see. He waded into the water until it was waist deep. Then kneeling down so he was covered up to his neck, Roxas reveled in the exquisite coolness of the sea.

The moment the small silver shell around his neck touched the water, a pulse sounded from it into the Sea, a beacon calling for its master. But Roxas was not that someone, and thus he did not hear it. Instead, he stood up again, took a deep breath, and dove head first into the waves.

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:Sora, are you sure this is where you lost it?: Kairi asked for the umpteenth time, frowning as she looked over the many nooks and crannies in the coral reef that her friend's necklace could have slipped into.

:I told you,: Sora sent, pretending to search among the clam beds, :I don't know where I lost it.:

:Just keep looking,: Riku sent from somewhere over by the drop-off.

When he'd first arrive home three days ago, Sora had been in such a state of panic, he could barely swim straight. His parents of course had picked up on this immediately. Aerith had cuddled and rocked him gently in an effort to calm Sora down while Cloud demanded to know what had happened to him – and where his conspicuously missing Pearl was.

Sora couldn't tell them the truth, so he'd made up a story that he'd lost it while hunting for brine shrimp out on the Mariera sand dunes. To avoid any barracuda in the area, which are known to be attracted to shiny things, he'd removed his necklace and placed it in his collection sack. His sack had been almost full when he was caught unawares by a striped shark. While having only just begun his formal training in magic, Sora did know a few defensive spells. But sharks in general were highly resistant to magic, and the stripped ones were notoriously foul tempered. So he'd fled in a hurry and in the mad dash to get back to safety, losing his bag somewhere with his Pearl still inside.

His family and friends had understandably been horrified. His mother had immediately checked Sora over to make sure he still had all his fingers and fins (one could never be too careful when it came to sharks), then clutched him to her and refused to let him out of her sight while his father had immediately called for a search party to look for the missing necklace. Still others were sent to hunt down the shark to make sure it wouldn't threaten the village. They'd been looking for both for three day straight now.

Sora felt beyond guilty for lying to his family and causing them and everyone else so much worry, but there was no way he could tell them what really happened to his necklace, that it was now in the hands of a human. That horror would be beyond anything they were experiencing now.

But, regardless of the reason why, his necklace was gone and he had no idea how to get it back. In mad desperation, he'd considered trying to find the human boy and pleading for his Pearl back, but Sora knew no more how to find the human than he did his Pearl. Besides, with his Pearl missing there was no way his family would let him out long enough to find the human.

So here he was, out looking for it with Kairi and Riku, even though the Sora alone knew they had little hope of finding his pearl.

Then, pretending to look underneath an anemone, Sora paused as the current around him rippled strangely.

Something had just called to him.

Sora glanced over his shoulder. His friends were still involved with their fruitless (unbeknownst to them) searching, seemingly unaware of anything else. So they hadn't noticed. Was the call just for him alone, then?

Ducking down behind a small outcropping, Sora sat on the ocean floor and closed his eyes, concentrating. It was different from normal sending, more a feeling than a thought. It was strong, whatever it was, but it was only a feeling, with no words to accompany it. Strange…

Was it… was it the Sea that called to him now?

But, after a moment's contemplation, he knew it was not so. The Sea's awesome presence had surrounded Sora since the moment of his birth, as familiar to him as the beat of his own heart, but it had never outright spoken to him, not like this. To receive a true sending from the Sea itself was a rare thing. Rather, whatever was calling to him now was only using it as a medium to reach him.

As he thought about all this, Sora found his eyes had opened again, staring off into the distance. No, he realized, he was staring off towards the islet he'd discovered and lost his Pearl on. Something there was calling him. Was it his Pearl? Had the human boy returned to the island with it?

If this was so, he had to get over there and get his Pearl back as quickly as possible, before the human left again. Sensing for Riku and Kairi, Sora found them slowly drifting farther and farther away from him, their backs turned. If he wanted to leave unnoticed, Sora had to do it now.

Dampening his own presence in the Sea, the little merman slipped away.

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Properly cooled down now, Roxas pulled himself up onto the largest of the rocks that made up the southern point of the Isle. He flopped bonelessly onto it, tired from the swim but refreshed nonetheless. A quick nap sounded wonderful right about now.

He had just started drifting off when there was a shiver, almost like a shock, tingling down his spine. Roxas bolted upright, all senses suddenly on high alert.

Someone else was here. He didn't know how he knew it, but he did.

"Hello?" he called, standing up to get a better view. The Isle wasn't that big, he could see practically every inch of it from his perch here on the rocks. The wind blew through palm trees too thin to conceal and the waves rolled against the empty beach. There was no one, and yet Roxas had the overwhelming feeling that he wasn't alone.

As he examined the landscape around him, his gaze slipped from the sandy beach to the waves and then deeper, into the sea itself, and his heart leapt up into his throat. Could it be…?

Standing as far out onto the boulders as he could, Roxas shielded his eyes from the glare of the sun, trying to peer into the blue-green depths that surrounded him. He had to force himself not to get excited. It could be nothing after all, just his imagination tormenting him yet again. And after several moments of searching, just when he was beginning to lose hope-

Just beyond the rocks, to the south, there was a thick kelp bed nestled between the coral. Though usually decorated with the many fish that called it home, at the moment it was deserted. Odd. Momentarily distracted, Roxas peered at it, trying to figure out why when he saw a dark shape hidden within. He might have dismissed the shape for a rock, but he'd never seen one in the kelp bed before…

The "rock" moved.

Roxas did a double-take, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him.

They weren't. Looking closer, he was able to distinguish first a head, then a human torso and an arm, then a very inhuman, fluke-like tail.

Roxas let out a shout of sheer exhilaration. The mermaid!

They were so well camouflaged among the seaweed, Roxas never would have spotted them if he hadn't been looking in just the right place.

The moment he shouted, the figure in the kelp flinched and recoiled. Roxas mentally slapped himself, realizing he'd probably scared them and he ruthlessly suppressed his overwhelming excitement. After all these years of being ridiculed for his beliefs in mermaids and striving to prove their existence, Roxas was mere yards from once again meeting one face to face and he would NOT ruin it by scaring them away. "Wait!" he said, not sure if the mermaid could hear him or not but trying anyway, "Don't go. I won't hurt you."

It seemed the mermaid could hear him. Their tense posture relaxed slightly but remained on guard, and when Roxas didn't react again, they crept forward a little. When he still didn't react, they crept forward a little more. And as they slipped out of the kelp bed, revealing themselves completely, Roxas saw that the mermaid was… a boy?

Hmm. Hadn't seen that one coming.

But .

Forcing himself to be absolutely calm, Roxas smiled down at him. "Hi."

The young merman smiled tentatively back at him, but it was clear that the poor thing was more than a little nervous. Not wanting him to bolt, Roxas spoke to him in as gentle a voice as he could manage. "It's okay. I just want to say hello is all."

"Erm, I'm Roxas. Nice to meet you," he said, kneeling down and extending a hand below the water. In hindsight, he really hadn't prepared well for the actual meeting the mermaid part, but maybe he could still wing it. He felt a little foolish right then (did mermaids even shake hands?), but the gesture did seem to calm the merboy down a little. He (a brunette, Roxas noticed) swam forward again, still cautious but also seemingly a bit curious. Roxas grinned to himself. Almost all his books had harked on about how curious mermaid were, especially the young ones. It seemed they were right.

Swimming up until he was just beyond the reach of Roxas' arm, the merboy examined it carefully, his sharp eyes flicking between the appendage and the human who offered it. Finally, after much consideration, the little brunette offered his own small smile and grasped the other's hand in a solid shake.

If Roxas was excited before, it was nothing to how he felt now. Pure elation flooded into him, stronger than anything Roxas had ever felt before in his life. He was smiling so hard, his face was threatening to split in two and his heart was doing somersaults in his chest.

Gingerly, carefully, Roxas pulled the merboy up, until the other's head broke the surface and there was nothing between them but air.

"Hi. I'm Roxas," he said again, still grinning. Now that the waves weren't distorting his view, Roxas could make out the young merman's features clearly. The brunette had a round face perfect for big smiles and his impossibly blue eyes were large and expressive. Even his hair was upbeat, the thick brown mass clinging to itself into spikes that seemed to defy gravity even as water tried to weigh them down. He looked to be about the same age as Roxas himself, but the most telltale sign of all was his conspicuously bare neck.

:I'm Sora,: the merboy said, looking over Roxas as well, his expression a little shy but again curious.

"Sora, huh?" Roxas rolled the name over his tongue, deciding he like it. "Well then, Sora, this is yours, isn't it?"

He let go of the other's hand to unclasp the necklace still hanging around his neck.

Sora's too blue eyes widened. :Hey, that's my-!:

But Roxas had already held it out to the merman and Sora snatched it back from him, securing it around his own neck as fast as his fingers would allow. Once the trinket was safely back on his person, Sora practically collapsed with relief. He must've been so scared these past few days, Roxas thought. To have been missing such an important part of himself for so long, the human couldn't imagine what Sora must've been through.

Indeed, the moment he thought that, Sora said, "I thought I'd lost it forever."

Reaching up, he grabbed Roxas by the shoulder and pulled him down so Sora could hug him around the neck. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

A bit taken aback, Roxas nonetheless returned the gesture, wrapping his arms around the brunette, some part of him noting that he could now see the small dorsal fin just below the small of Sora's back and his long blue tail. "You're welcome," he said earnestly. "I'm just glad I was able to get it back to you."

Sora's hold on him tightened a little in appreciation, but then he abruptly released, twisting around in Roxas' arms to look behind him into the sea. His expression fell a little.

"What is it?" Roxas asked, wondering if he'd missed something.

"My friends have noticed I'm not there with them anymore," Sora explained, frowning a little. "They're calling for me."

Roxas didn't hear anything, but then, he wasn't a merman. Maybe they had extremely sensitive hearing or something. "So, you have to go, then?"

Sora nodded, and Roxas go of him. They merboy was probably in a lot of trouble already for losing his necklace, Roxas didn't want to get him into any more by delaying him. But as Sora slipped back into the water, he couldn't help but ask, "So, may I see you again?"

Roxas would be lying through his teeth if he said Sora being a merman wasn't part of it, but fins or no, the brunette did seem to be very nice, and Roxas couldn't help but want to be friends with him.

Sora paused, looking down into the water before turning to face the human. "I would like that," he said. "But, since I lost my Pearl, my parents have been keeping a tight watch on me. It will be a little while before things go back to normal for me."

The merboy took a moment to consider how much time he would need before it was safe to go out on solo excursions again without arousing suspicion from his family and friends. "Can you meet back here the day after the full moon?"

"The full moon? That's in five days, right?"

"Yes."

Six days from now, Roxas had to work at Cid's in the morning but would be free the rest of the day. "Yes, I can come," he informed his new friend (he hoped), "but only after noon or so."

"It's settled, then. I'll see you here in six days at noon. Goodbye, Roxas, and thank you again!" Sora smiled at him as he turned to go, and Roxas half gasped as the memory of that exact same smile on a much younger face superimposed itself over his mind's eye.

"Wait!" he called, but Sora had already sunk below the waves and disappeared off into the blue oblivion, leaving Roxas still kneeling on the rocks, dumbstruck at his sudden revelation.

Sora was the one who rescued him from drowning when he was little, Roxas was certain of it! Of all the odds! It had been almost a decade since that day, and yet, that it would be the same merboy who's Pearl Roxas would find here on the Isle and then return so that they might meet again...

In spite of himself, Roxas began laughing. Whether from his earlier elation or sheer incredulousness or because he was finally losing it, Roxas was soon laughing so hard he was in tears. He had always believed that mermaids existed, that universe had a plan, and had always had the sneaking suspicion that he was the butt of some cosmic prank. And after searching for answers for nine years, he'd gotten conformation of all three in a single afternoon.

The world was a truly amazing place sometimes.

But, still laughing as he untied his boat and began pushing back into the water to head for home, Roxas realized something else as well. During their entire conversation, Sora's lips hadn't moved.

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A.N. Once again, I'm not entirely happy with my writing in this chapter. It feels too stiff and choppy to me. The end especially was a pain to write and pretty much the sole reason why I didn't have this thing posted a month ago, stupid dialogue.

Also, a lot of you are probably wondering about Sora and MerCo's usual methods of communicating. It's called sending and it's a lot like telepathy but still a little different. Sending, its purpose, uses, drawbacks, etc., will be explained in upcoming chapters as Roxas himself becomes aware of it as well as why he can hear sending when usually only mermaids can (ooh, dun dun duuun).

Anyway, hope you liked it. See ya next time. :)