"I see you are drying out, we can always just leave. We owe them nothing," Leo convinced me when his first question was met by silence.

I glanced at him and blinked. "Are you done yet?"

"Done? Oh, um, yes, sorry." Leo blithering, his nerves were showing.

I nervously wrung my hands together before I nodded, "Good." I stalled to get the courage to close the space between us. When we were a foot apart, I looked up at him before hugging him tightly. "I've missed you too," I exhaled.

Leo went rigid then gave in. He wrapped his arms around my middle tight enough to make it difficult to breathe. His nails dug into my lightly exposed shoulder as he held on my dear life. "I thought you were dead," he mumbled as he rested his head on top of mine.

I never thought after everything which happened that I would be the one conforming him. The only reason I wasn't shaking was because he held me tightly I didn't have room to. "I know, but I'm here now." I shushed him, running my hand up and down his back. It was almost good that he was the one breaking down, it gave me something else to focus on, made me feel almost normal again.

A drop of water burned my scalp telling me that he was crying. "Mom and dad-"

"I know, it's okay." I attempted to calm him as he started to shake.

"I took your throne," he started as I eased him down to the dirt after his knees trembled, threatening to give. I was still gaining my strength back, even at my fullest potential, I wouldn't have been able to catch him. "I took what was - is yours. I should have looked for you, not just assume and continue my life without you."

Leo's head rested into my lap, his large body curling around mine as much as possible. "None of this is your fault," I told him gently as I ran my fingers through his hair, his tears scared his face, but thankfully fell onto my dress.

"I wanted the throne, but not like this, I am so sorry!" He sobbed. The truth was Leo and I were never close, he even tried to kill me when he was very young. We were always siblings by blood and nothing else. It seemed after 86 years of being alone, an orphan, our way of thinking was different. I had spent two and a half years looking for a home, I could only imagine what he went through for 86 years.

After that long, things change. When everything one has ever known and loved it taken, it's the little things which matter. I was still at the early stage of accepting all of this, he had nearly a century. I only knew a fraction of the pain he did from what it was like to have the world ripped away. Leo went through the same life-altering event I did. Maybe he didn't go to a different world and come back to one he didn't recognize, but this world was still different than the one we grew up in.

There was something, a void, which replaced my heart after everything I knew was taken from me and having to accept this new way of life. He was going through it all over again. For decades he accepted that he was alone, an orphan, I wish I could feel what he did for having my blood alive. Instead, I felt cold and distant. This wasn't my brother, sure, he looked and sounded just like Leo, but too much time had passed, too much had happened.

"There's nothing you could have done," I told him and I meant it. I couldn't blame him for moving on.

"I could have waited for the throne to grow cold, to mourn my family, my species before taking control."

I shook my head and brushed his hair off his face. "After what happened, our people needed a leader. Chaos would have quickly grown and more lives would have been lost if you didn't act. You're strong, always were and if I come home I won't challenge you for the throne. You have proven yourself as the strongest, handled the situation the best you could and moved on."

My words made his tears stop and he glanced up at me with painfilled eyes. "Really?"

"Of course Leo. Mom and dad would have been proud of you and the man you are today." My words were hollow, but they made him feel better. I couldn't honestly say if he was a strong or a good leader, not without knowing what happened over the last 86 years. All I knew was that many people thought we were extinct, yet here we were, laying in my lap on a dirt floor inside a mountain.

Leo gave me a weak smile which quickly faded. "What do you mean if you come home?"

I hadn't even realized what I said. "I'll come home eventually, but you have to understand I thought everyone was dead in our sea. I spent a month looking and the ocean was empty. I have a life here, on the land. There are people I care about and need to look after, things I need to wrap up before I come back to the water." Leo stared at me horrified, sitting up slightly. "I know it's hard to accept, but just like you, I'm learning people I care about, a world I thought was lost, wasn't. I'll need time."

Leo sat up completely and he looked sickened. "You are picking them over your own kind, over the sea? Is that why you speak like them now?"

I let out a sharp exhale and set my jaw. "I'll let that slide since you're upset, but you aren't the only one who's in pain." I let that fact hang for a second before sighing, shaking my head as I ran my fingers through my own hair. "If I plan to leave the land to never return, there are people I'm saying goodbye to first. End of story."