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When you're accustomed to waking up to soft honey lips, green eyes that sparkled and blonde hair that matched the colour of the sun, you surely would be pissed to wake up to the face of a man you tried to kill.

I rolled my eyes before closing them tightly, hoping that his face would disappear and I would still be in a dream, waiting for my Beverly to arrive and take me out of this nightmare

"I... How are you feeling?" he mumbled

"Leave, thank you so much" I groaned and turned on my side, using my back to face him

I'm not sure how I ended up in my room, safely tucked away in bed but I wasn't going to question it. My entire body ached in pain, my muscles were all sore and my head was spinning me.

Not to mention I felt this stinging pain in my chest, a combination of missing Beverly and physically strain on the veins of my heart.

"You... You seem like you're in pain" The man said

"Surprised you care" I mumbled and closed my eyes, remaining in my same position

"I... Okay I deserve that" he said

"What are you doing in here" I groaned

"I wanted to check on you" he said, there was such a low volume to his voice, he actually seemed genuine

"Why?"

"Because you're my daughter-"

"Oh now I'm you're daughter!?" I hissed and turned my face towards him

The anger that was starting to push through my veins seemed to disappear when my eyes landed on his body.

His jaw was still swollen along with his cheek, there were bags under his eyes and scratches all along his face. His shoulder was slumped over and there were open wounds still on his body, some still fresh of blood while his chest heaved heavily, almost as if it pained to breathe. I could feel my heart slow it's pace just thinking about the amount of pain he might be in, then again I caused that pain.

"I'll get out of your hair, I'll be in the main room if you need me" He mumbled before rising and heading towards the door

I remained silent and held my head low, my eyes running over my body that had a few bruises on it but nothing compared to his.

The man stopped at the doorway and glanced back at me

"I really do love you Aqua, I'm not the best father.. Frantically I haven't been acting like a father at all. But I want to make this work, I just... Don't want to lose you" He mumbled before leaving

And just like that, my heart skipped a beat. I could physically feel all of the blood drained from my face and an unknown emotion washed over me by his words.

Oh for fuck sakes, now he decides to act right? What the heck was I supposed to say now?

I honestly have no idea how to react, how often does your toxic father say he wants to change?

I groaned and peeled myself off my bed, well it wasn't much of a bed. It was more of bedding filled with seaweed and soft animals that humans didn't know existed.

"Hey, you're not supposed to be moving around" A voice came from the door

I glanced in the direction to see the woman standing there with her arms crossed but soft eyes

"I'm fine" I said sternly

"No. You're not" Megan said

"I'm pretty sure I am" I said as I adjusted myself, hovering from the ground

It didn't pain that much to be upright but it still stung the open wounds around my back

Pushing past Megan, I found myself wondering down the hallways of the castle I grew up in. A wave of emotions seemed to wash through me the second my eyes landed on my surroundings.

The castle walls were the strongest thing for miles around, yet when I looked carefully, I noticed the stones. It was built of stones of varying sizes and shapes, each one unique. From a distance it is uniform grey, from up close it was a mosaic of humble rocks, each of them nobody would think anything of were they loose by the roadside.

But together they were a castle, the crown of the landscape and protector of ancient mermaids

Every bump in the wall from construction, the golden ceiling that held a hand engraved picture of my so called parents before I was born. Everything just seemed to bring back that sense of nostalgia

The castle was more ancient than any bone left to the bottom of the ocean bed. The once smooth rock was pitted and scarred.

It was amazing how soon the present became the past and the important became the irrelevant. The castle surely was unkept, it's been a mess since I left. Almost as if no one cared enough to keep it right.

I remember swimming through these hallways with the smaller children that belonged to the guards. I smiled as if I could hear the laughter of the children as they returned with new memories of childhood games we played, we were always competitively during our free throw games. We'd take whatever scraps we'd find on sunken ships and threw them on corals, hoping to secure it around the corals like a horseshoe game.

With The time my mind was wondering, I hadn't realized I stumbled into the main room where my father sat on his throne, his head was hung low while a few of his maids tried to bandage his cuts

I sighed to myself knowing that he couldn't heal himself over time, it was something passed down to me from my mother

"Aqua" He whispered when his eyes met mine

Aight Ima head out

"No!... Come.. Sit with me" he mumbled when I turned on my tail, heading away

I groaned to myself before turning to face him again, there's going to be some point where we'll have a confrontation, guess it's now

So I headed over towards him, he quickly told his maids to give us some privacy and they did as they were told

I gave them a shy smile as they waved at me, happy to see my face again

"Is there something you needed?" I asked

The man also held a shy smile before shaking his head, his eyes met mine and his smile grew a little bit more

"No, not it all" He said

"Oh... Well... " I mumbled, the awkwardness level started to rise

"Yeah.. Um" he mumbled, scratching the name of his neck

I chewed the bottom of my lip as my eyes searched for anything else in the room, besides his own

"I Uh... Do you remember when you were seven? We had a party right in this room and you were crying one night because I told you to stay in your room for the rest of the night?" he asked, a small smile stretched across my face

"I started crying in my room because you said it was a party for adults but I was spoiled as shit and refused to listen" I chuckled

"So I stopped the party, went to get you and brought you out here and sat you down on my lap. I didn't talk to anyone, I just sat here with you in my arms until to you fell asleep" She smiled

"Then I woke up and started eating shrimp" I laughed

"Then you threw up all over my General" He chuckled

"Hey, he had it coming. He tried to take my shrimps away" I pouted, causing the man the chuckle

"He should have know never to mess with your food"

"Exactly! Don't mess with my appetite! Everyone knows this!" I laughed

"I remember when we went hunting and you caught that squid with your teeth?" he asked

"That's exactly when I knew I was a lesbian" I laughed

"You were four!"

"Exactly!" I squealed

"Those were some good times" he chuckled

"Yeah... They sure were" I smiled

"Come on, take a seat" He motioned for me to take a seat on the second throne

Years ago he had one installed for my mother but unfortunately, that was the day she passed away

"Are you sure?" I asked

"Yes, yes. I wouldn't wish for anything more than my daughter on my side" he smiled sweetly

Well damn. I wonder how this will play out