The Ocean's Enigma ♡ Frerard

IX; Prince of Waves

This chapter goes out to a good friend of mine who has always been so supportive of me when it comes to my writing, he's very sweet and he helped me figure out which fic I should update next, haha, SoloDarkAngel
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Gerard took a moment to collect himself before seating himself beside Frank again in preparation to gain answers to the millions of questions voicing themselves in his mind all at once. He was expectant of them, but still partly weary, and unsure of how to process the existence of a mythical creature sitting in his house. Frank appeared to have calmed himself down, the sparkle in his eyes turned into an almost wistful spark as he gathered his words on his tongue, and it gave Gerard the opportunity to tuck his trembling, sweating hands underneath his thighs so they wouldn't give away the remains of shock residing in him. He waited on the brink of impatience as Frank turned towards him, folding his legs and gazing down at his knees. He always looked like he hadn't expected them to be there at first glance, which made sense to Gerard know, the observation was private and curious for a matter of time. Frank gained volume at long last and his hesitation vanished as he strode into the story at full force.

"I was born royal." Frank brought his thumb to the dip beneath his lower lip, flushing as he spoke the words. "My parents tried to have a child for years until they finally had me, their one and only son. Which, I suppose, would be one of the reasons why they treated me so delicately, like anything could take me from them."

"Royal?" Gerard nearly choked out. In the human world, royalty existed in the smallest amounts of countries existing beyond the United States, it wasn't often heard that a person shared royal blood unless it was from ancestors long ago, reigning in a time where the government had yet to come together.

"It's not the same for our kind." Frank reminded Gerard softly, his eyes bashful. "But we have a royalty system that isn't different from the one you're used to on land. You have many men and women who keep tabs on your actions, don't you?"

"Yes." Gerard nodded.

"Then it isn't so alien, if you put thought into it. We have a king and queen in our kingdom, my mother and father, and they rule all of the ocean that they can reach. Another kingdom used to rule the Atlantic and the east region of the Pacific, but their kingdom fell not many years ago." Frank explained, his eyes never falling away from Gerard's to assure he absorbed this information to its full extent.

"Why did it fall?" Gerard asked, true curiosity peeking through while he learned.

"There was betrayal." Frank whispered, even leaning forward a bit, as if it was a secret he'd been sworn to keep. "The queen had a child with a human after her husband passed. She abandoned her kingdom and her people, the whereabouts of her child are unknown. Her people migrated to our kingdom, and so we merged into one community."

"What part was the betrayal, her having a child with a human, or her leaving everything behind?"

"Both." Frank pulled himself away into his normal position after he realized how close they'd been tilting towards each other while the story continued. "Royal merfolk aren't allowed to be with humans. We are only allowed to marry royalty from other kingdoms or bloodlines. But because of that, royals are dying off. There's not much of us left."

Gerard found this familiar. "So . . . it's like, when we still had kings and queen . . . the bloodline was supposed to stay royal and pure."

"Is that how it worked here, too?" Frank's eyes widened, his lips parting.

"Yeah, many years ago." Gerard confirmed. "Arranged marriages happened all the time, it was rare for royalty to marry common people. Even if they fell in love, it was doomed from the start."