Pearls and Seashells

Chapter 2

As Sora went back into the water, two pairs of dark blue eyes watched him swim away. The twins turned to each other, and shrugged. The oldest one, Ventus, looked back up at the surface from where their older brother had come back from.

"Sora is going to get in trouble with grandma and mom one day," he mumbled, and turned back, only to notice his brother was gone. "Roxas?"

Ventus looked around, annoyed at how Roxas did this everytime. He swam around for a bit, not moving too far away. He saw a dark blue tail behind a few rocks that were usually hidden by water, and quietly got near. With a mischievous grin, he pulled on his brother's tail, making the other let out a small scream. Roxas turned, and glared at him, throwing some shells he found at his twin.

"You need to stop doing that, Ven," Roxas told him, gathering the colorful shells again. "One day you're going to give me a heart attack."

Ventus shrugged. "You're going give me one if you keep disappearing like that."

"I'm still around, Ventus, I'm not a kid," Roxas told him, then looked behind Ven when he saw a shadow.

Ventus noticed, and swam to be in front of Roxas and waited until whatever was there to show up. When they saw them, they let out a big sigh of relief.

"Ventus, Roxas. You're both coming back with me," the adult blue haired mermaid told them sternly, "the Queen is also looking for your brother. Do you know where he is?"

"No," they both answered the short blunt response in unison.

She sighed, and ruffled their blond spiky hair, making the twins flinch and try to stop her.

"You three are so hard to take care of," she told them, letting them go. "I'm just a friend, I shouldn't be babysitting."

"We're not kids anymore. You don't have to be after us all the time," Roxas told her, fixing his hair, though it didn't need to be fixed because it was still going to be a spiky mess.

"And Sora always does what he wants, so there's no point in talking to him," Ventus picked up, crossing his arms as he gently and softly moved his tail back and forth in deep thought, then looked to where the water stopped and reached the surface. "He always comes here, trying to be as quiet as he can. I'll just say, it doesn't work. Makes him look even more suspicious."

"Aqua, I think you know by now," Roxas adressed her, tilting his head, "don't you?"

Aqua sighed sadly, and nodded. "Yeah. Your father, right? I never liked humans to begin with, but hearing that as a teen didn't help."

"You still dislike them?" Ventus asked, and swam up closer to the surface. "I don't. I am mad at them about what they did to our father, we didn't spent much time with him and I still miss him, but that was only one human?"

Ventus looked down, and Roxas looked away. Roxas didn't like humans at all. Ventus may tolerate them, but Roxas hated them. They had been only four, Sora had been six, and they took their dad away when they needed him the most. Roxas was the type to hold something against someone for a long time, and this grudge against the humans was not a short thing.

"Yes," was Aqua's only answer, not looking at the young prince either.

"What if I go up?" Ventus asked suddenly, lifting his arm until his hand broke the surface and let him feel the cool air above the sea water. "I mean, Sora always does."

"He's not allowed to," Aqua told him, her voice firm as she swam up to pull Ventus down, "and neither are you."

"Aww."