A/N: I am truly sorry about the slow update, I've been low on inspiration lately, and I'm not sure what I think of this chapter. Would love for you to review, and tell me whether this is as bad as I think it is.

Thanks for reading!

Loving him seemed like all she could ever do, even if it was in her own, desperate way of doing so. No matter what happened she was always clinging on to him, never wanting to let go. The human part of her, the one recently discovered, was telling her it would end sometime, that these things never lasted, but somehow she knew it did. She had been through all of this. Their love had lasted for 300 years, through not knowing whether the other one was alive. Though things seemed perfect on the outside now, though they had gotten what they had always wanted, Ariel was torn. Perhaps not torn as to how she felt about him, she was sure of that, but torn as to what was meant to be. The way she had always needed the ocean, which she loathed because of just that, had changed, yet it was still there. She wasn't drying out, she wasn't suffocating, yet she wasn't herself without it. Perhaps he had always been right, the man Killian referred to as his Crocodile, saying that all magic came with a prize. Perhaps she was meant for the ocean, meant to be a monster. The monster he had loved, the creature Killian Jones had learned to love so effortlessly.

Running away at night again, if you could call it that, she felt like she was always running from him, to the ocean, and not the other way around. She had done so before, on the ship, and the way he reacted when he came back made her feel like it hadn't been worth it. Yet she did it again, when it wasn't even necessary. She walked through the dark town, which she had been told was timeless just weeks ago, feeling like she didn't belong, like they didn't belong. She found herself longing again, wanting something more, wanting both. Wanting to be human, wanting to be the mermaid she had hated being for 300 years. When the scent of salt finally reached her, she felt at home, even though she was far from it. She could almost feel the drought in her lungs, the one which had been so familiar a week ago. As she got closer she heard the waves breaking against the boats, that peaceful sound, which could be so violent at times. She could almost see her sisters causing it, far away, in another land. And it made her feel like nothing could ever keep her away from it.

Breaking the surface the vivid redhead threw herself into the water, fighting to keep herself beneath it, as her body kept floating upwards. It was a rare feeling for her, like the discomfort that reached her as she tried to breathe the water in, fill herself up with it again. It was suffocating her. It was burning, not much unlike the drought. She was drowning, and it was devastating. It was supposed to be satisfying, empowering, but it was weakening her, killing her even. Pulling herself up, as she wasn't having a problem with keeping herself down anymore, the young girl coughed up water which was mixed with the salty tears coming from her ocean-blue eyes. Realizing she would never be pleased with anything, she begun shaking, tears filling the ocean, devastation filling her.

Realization had never been so painful, and having wanted something her entire life, she didn't want it anymore. She wanted him, sure, but the ocean was.. more, in a way. It was her only home. It was her past, and she wanted it back. Ariel had always been a dreamer, and mermaids weren't supposed to dream like that, not supposed to feel the way humans did. They didn't have desires or dreams, they weren't as vivid as the humans, yet they were strong, powerful, and they only one purpose in their world. They were to stay down there, in the deep, hide the monsters they were. She had gone against that, but the desires had to have come from somewhere. Since she was a little girl she had always wanted things, deeper than any other mermaid, dreamed of seeing the rest of the world. The kingdoms on land, she had wanted to feel like they did. The humans, and as she got what she wished for, she wanted something else. It was all an evil circle.

He was vivid, as always, when she came back, soaking wet, eyes red from crying. He was angry, like he had been the last time she went into the ocean, but then he melted, just like that, realization striking him too. He wrapped his arms around the girl, who wasn't strong anymore, not magnificent for one bit, but simply weak, small - human. She felt like falling to the ground, showing herself weak in front of him like that. It wasn't her. In the same way it had bothered him days ago, it was bothering her now. It wasn't the same, she wasn't herself. She wasn't strong, mysterious, deep nor cold anymore. She wasn't salty, she wasn't magical. She was dull, grey, like this world, and she couldn't recognize herself anymore. It made her think of her father, the way he had always worried about her, told her to stay away from the humans, and their world.

"Humans destroy whatever comes in their way, they are violent and dangerous," he had said, and it had been such a long time ago, she was surprised she even remembered his words. Thinking about it, it seemed to her as if he had been speaking about their kind. About her. Perhaps he had been trying to warn her what would happen to her if she tried being like them. Maybe he had seen it all coming. He had always known those things, and he had been more deceptive than her, causing tidewater and giant waves destroying everything. When she asked him about it, he always said it was necessary, that humans thought themselves invincible and they had to be reminded they were not. Of course, he had always been like that. Considering himself better than everybody else.

He probably was, he probably saw her now, mumbling 'I told you so', to himself. He was somewhat of a god, after all, and had always wanted her to be like him, like the rest of them. And she had, partially, faced the inevitable deception which had been a part of her. It wasn't until now that she realized that she was just like them, needing the power, the magic floating inside her. Without it, she was useless, incomplete. But she would be the same without him, useless and incomplete. Had she ever been complete? Had she ever been happy? She couldn't see it now, the way they had loved each other like there was nothing else of importance in this world, or the other. She couldn't feel it here, in the place he had fought to get her to, to fulfill her dreams.

Falling asleep in his arms, still soaked in salty water from her past, she felt selfish, holding on to things she had always wanted gone. Hurting him in the process wasn't something she wanted, but it was yet another inevitable part of it all. She would simply have to pull herself together, decide where she wanted to be, choose for herself another time. Choose for him. No matter what she chose, she was miserable, and she wondered if there could possibly be a solution to it all, which led to the both of them being happy with the situation.