A/N My updates are a bit slow ATM because I'm quite busy with school and haven't had the time to write, sorry about that.

Philip POV

"Heyyy, Dad, Pops," I started awkwardly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Susan back out of the room slowly, knowing that this would be a family discussion.

"Philip, would you care to tell us where you were planning to 'sneak out' to?" Pops asked sternly.

"S-sneaking out? Did we say sneaking out? We meant, uh, talking to each other on our shell phones, there is no way we'd go out cause you guys forbid me from going out of the castle," I rambled.

"Pip," Dad interrupted. "You're a terrible liar,"

"And you will be in terrible trouble if you don't tell us where you were going to sneak out too," Pops said, his voice getting louder. I gulped. I was going to be in even more trouble if I didn't tell them where we were going to go, and they'd probably punish Susan as well.

"We were, uh, maybe going to go to the surface?" I said, although it came out (hehe) as more of a question. Dad bit his lip and turned away, while Pops' face was growing redder by the second.

"You mean to tell me," he started "That you and your friend were going to go to the surface, the one place everybody is forbidden to go to? Do you know how DANGEROUS THAT IS?! THE SURFACE IS FULL OF LAND MONSTERS THAT ARE HERE TO DO MURDER!"

"Pops, I-"

"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT!" he shouted.

"They aren't all bad!" I protested. "The human I saved-" I cut myself off, internally cursing at my stupidness.

"YOU MADE CONTACT WITH ONE OF THEM!?" He was screaming now.

"She was going to drown!" I reasoned. "I couldn't leave her to die!"

"I DON'T CARE! YOU ARE NEVER TO LEAVE YOUR ROOM AGAIN, AND YOU AREN'T ALLOWED TO TALK WITH THE LEWIS GIRL EVER!" he roared. I felt tears prickling in my eyes. A life of confinement because I was trying to be a good person?

"Honey, that might be taking it a bit too far," Dad said, putting his hand on Pops' shoulder, but he just shook him off and stormed out of the room. Dad gave me a look of pity, and mouthed 'I'll have a talk with him', before leaving my room.

I sat on my bed, my ongoing flood of tears being washed away by the salty water. This was it. My life was over. I couldn't believe Pops would do something so cruel.

I sat alone for a lengthy amount of time, when I heard the door creak open. A mermaid, who looked about my age entered the room, making sure the door shut quietly behind her. She had blonde platinum hair and a light green tail, and when she turned towards me, I saw she had two-toned eyes, one a dark blue and the other white.

"Uh, hello?" I asked as she swam around my room, obviously looking for something. She ignored me, picking up my seaweed-woven bag and bringing it to me.

"Pack only essential items, we have to travel light," she said.

"Travel? Travel where?" I said, still confused.

"The surface, duh," she rolled her eyes. "Do you really want to be stuck here forever? This is your only chance to escape!"

My eyes widened. "You know about what happens at the surface?"

"Yeah," she said. "I live there half of the time,"

"That's so cool!" I said, placing my bag on my shoulder and following the girl to my window. She opened it fully, and swam out, and I followed right behind her.

As we swam across the city, I spotted a familiar red and yellow tail glimmering in the sunlight.

"Can you wait a sec?" I asked the girl. "My friend is down there, and I'm sure she'd love to come with us,"

"Fine," she said. "But hurry, before someone spots us or the guards realise we're gone,"

I quickly swam downwards, and explained the situation to Susan.

"Are you sure we can trust this girl?" she asked suspiciously. "You don't even know her name,"

"I didn't really have a choice, it was to trust her or spend my life stuck in my room," I said. "We can ask her what her name is as soon as we get back to her,"

"Okay," she said, but she still sounded cautious. When we got back to the girl, she started swimming straight away.

"Wait up!" I called.

"We have to get going right now or we're going to get caught!" she shouted. Susan and I kicked our fins faster as we ascended towards the surface.

***

3rd Person POV

King Alexander slammed the door to his room and sat on his bed with his face in his hands. King John, his husband, opened the door and came and sat down quietly beside him.

"Honey, you were too harsh on him," John said.

"I know, I know," Alex sighed. "It's just because, you know, he reminds me so much of Lafayette," he said, his voice cracking at the end.

John went silent. Lafayette was a sensitive topic for his husband since that fateful day all those years ago.

Alex's adopted father, George, also adopted another boy called Lafayette, 2 years Alex's senior. He was first in line to the throne, and loved Alex unconditionally. But just before Lafayette's coronation, he started disappearing for long periods of time. No-one could figure out where he was going. It was like he had vanished out of the ocean.

Which, they later discovered, he did.

On the morning of his coronation, Lafayette was nowhere to be found. On his bed lay a note, addressed to his family. It said:

Ma Famille,

I am deeply sorry for leaving you. I love you, and the ocean, but on land I found the one thing I could never seem to find in the entire ocean.

Love.

I've fallen in love with a land-dweller, and he is the most amazing person in the world. I couldn't bare to be parted with him, so I've decided to stay with him at his home in a human village. I will probably never return, because if I did, either you would kidnap me and force me to stay, or I wouldn't be able to leave.

Mama, Papa, I will continue to love you for the rest of my life.

Alex, petit frère, you will be a better king than I ever would have been.

Sincerely, Lafayette

Alex was crowned that morning. The first law he put in place was the law forbidding the merpeople from coming in contact with humans or going up to the surface.

"Philip isn't Lafayette," John said. "He won't abandon us,"

At that precise moment, the door to their room swung open.

"Your majesties! Your son is missing!"

A/N this is beginning to sound a lot like Luca lmao