"Washed up from a shipwreck?" Carlotta sadly said as Arius popped a bubble in the air, then blew more with the soap from the washtub. "Oh, the poor thing." She dumped a bucket of water on him. "We'll have you cleaned in no time."

Sebastian peeked his head through a pocket of Arius' sail, hiding when Carlotta picked it up. "I'll just, eh..." She grimaced at it, then smiled politely. "I'll just get this washed for you."

She took it into the washing area, where other maids were gossiping.

"Well, you must have at least heard about the boy."

"Well, Gretchen says..."

A woman took the sail from Carlotta and scrubbed it down the washboard, Sebastian getting stuck in the bumps and soapy.

"Since when has Gretchen got anything right? I mean, really. This boy shows up on rags and doesn't speak..."

She wrung out the sail, crushing Sebastian in it.

"Not my idea of a prince. If the princesses are looking for a boy, I know a couple of available ones right here."

Sebastian crawled away and into a pocket of a shirt that was slid away. He fell on his head. The first thing he saw was fish on a chopping block, seafood being boiled, and, once he saw the stuffed crabs, he fainted.

-

"Oh, Erica, be reasonable," Grimsby sighed, Erica still looking out at the ocean. Y/n sat quietly at her chair, trying to balance her fork on the table with one finger. "Nice young men don't just...swim around rescuing people and then...flutter into oblivion like some -"

"I'm tellin' you, Grim, he was real!" she insisted. "I'm gonna find him!" She looked back out just in time to see a wave crash on a rock and leave its foam. "And I'm gonna marry him."

"Come on, honey. Don't be shy."

Arius walked out, looking around the room, before looking at the three, smiling at them in a pink top and pants with long coattails behind him.

"Oh, Erica. Isn't he a vision?" Grimsby rather strongly hinted.

Y/n looked up, then away, suddenly feeling warm. "He's...something, alright." She still said nothing about knowing him for obvious reasons and because it would not matter - Arius had completely forgotten about her.

"Uh, you look wonderful," Erica responded, smiling down at him.

He smiled back, looking away sheepishly.

Grimsby got up, guiding him to a chair and pulling it out for him. "Come, come, come, you must be famished. Let me help you, my boy."

He sat across from Y/n, looking around some more until his eyes landed on her, suddenly frowning. He looked intently into her eyes. Awkwardly, she went back to her fork.

"Are you quite alright?" Grimsby asked, concerned, noticing his demeanor shift. Shaking his head, he nodded at him, trying to force a smile. Grimsby returned it before sitting.

"It's - it's not often we get such a lovely dinner guest, eh, girls?"

Arius noticed the fork that Y/n had, his eyes lighting up. He reached across and grabbed it, brushing his hair with it. He looked at each one of them, Erica looking confused with an eyebrow raised and Grimsby bewildered. Lovely, indeed.

With them looking at Arius, Y/n caught his gaze and pretended to stab with her hand, then bring it to her mouth and chew.

Embarrassed, he was about to give it back, but, remembering it was in his hair, slammed the fork down and awkwardly passed the one he was given to her.

"Thank you," she said with a smile, placing it on the table.

Grimsby pulled out a pipe and began to light it, Arius deciding to try again. He brightened at it, Grimsby noticing. "Uh, do you like it?" He handed it over for him to look at. "It is rather fine..."

He blew into it, smoke coming out and blasting Grimsby in the face.

Erica and Y/n laughed, Y/n covering her mouth. "I'm sorry, Grim," she giggled as Erica coughed too compose herself.

Carlotta came over from the kitchen, having seen the commotion. "Why, Erica, that's the first time I've seen you smile in weeks. Not like Y/n." Are nodded in her direction like a kind old aunt. "She's been cheerful for awhile now. Why, if I didn't know why better, I'd say she's fallen in love."

Arius pouted at the fuss he had caused as Grimsby wiped his face with a handkerchief, finishing at the tip of his nose. "Now, wouldn't that be lovely?" He sniffed, then asked, "Carlotta, my dear, what's for dinner?"

"Oh, you're gonna love it. Chef's been fixing up his specialty: stuffed crab."

-

[

I'm not sorry for this. This may be my new favorite John Stamos role. Sorry, Jesse, you've been replaced.]

The chef hummed to himself as he rummaged in a cabinet, his butt swinging in the air. He pulled out a bowl filled with dead fish and put it on the counter, adjusting his red bowtie. Below his big nose was a thin mustache and above, even bigger eyebags.

Chef Louis:
Les
Poi
Sson, les poisson
How I LOVE les poisson
Love to CHOP and to serve little fish

He pulled out a cleaver and began to hack the fish. Sebastian watched on the counter, cowering away.

Chef Louis:
First I CUT off zeir heads and I PULL OUT ZE BONES
Ah, mais oui
Ca c'est toujours délice

Sebastian gagged, turning green, then tried to sneak away, a fish head landing in front of him. He forced down a scream.

Chef Louis:
Les poisson, les poisson
He he he, HON HON HON
Wiz 'ze cleaver, I HACK 'zem in two
I PULL OUT WHAT'S INSIDE and I serve it up fried

He pulled out the inside of the fish and flung it into the pan, rushing over to stir and fry it.

Chef Louis:
God, I love little fishes, don't you?

Sebastian hid under a lettuce leaf, trying to directly crawl away.

Chef Louis:
Here's some'zing for tempting 'ze palette
Prepared in 'ze classic technique
First you POUND ZE FISH FLAT wiz' 'ze mallet

He slammed it with the mallet, Sebastian and the lettuce flying up. He cringed back in horror, hiding into the leaf as he watched Louis prepare the fish.

Chef Louis:
'Zen you slash through 'ze skin
Give 'ze belly a slice
'Zen you RUB some salt in
'Cause that makes it taste nice

He rubbed the salt in, holding it up in dance.

Reaching over, he picked up the lettuce, Sebastian playing dead. "Zut alors, I have missed one." He grabbed it.

Chef Louis:
Sacre bleu, what is 'zis?
How on Earth could I miss
Such a sweet little succulent crab
Quel dommage, what a loss
Here we go, in 'ze sauce

He threw him into a red sauce, then grabbed a handful of flour.

Chef Louis:
And some flower, I 'sink, just a dab

He threw it into Sebastian's face, Sebastian sneezing. Grabbing filling, he tried to shove it into the shell.

Chef Louis:
Now I STUFF YOU 'WIZ BREAD
It don't hurt 'cause you're dead
And you're certainly lucky, you are

Sebastian gasped, throwing the bread out with his head, but Louis had not noticed.

Chef Louis:
'Cause it's gonna be hot in my big copper pot
Toodle-loo, moi poisson au revoir!

He tossed him towards the pot, boiling with water. Sebastian used his hardened claw to grab onto the edge without hurting himself. A bubble popped, wiping off the flour and sauce. He got flung up back onto the counter, Louis turning at the noise. He used a poker with two prongs to pick him up and raise him to his face suspiciously. "What is 'zis?"

With one motion, Sebastian pinched his nose, making a honking sound. Louis cried in pain, dropping Sebastian to grab his nose. Taking the opportunity, Sebastian ran away.

Louis' elbow had reeled back and knocked a pan off the stove, falling on his foot. He grabbed it, hopping around.

Seeing Sebastian, he grabbed a bunch of knives from the block and threw them at him, Sebastian dodging in a hole in the cabinet.

When Louis had lost track of him, Sebastian dropped a bowl of food on his head, then ran back for the cabinet, only to have it chopped in half a moment later. Once he saw the knife, he ran for cover again between Louis legs for the dishes. Louis pounced on him, letting out a warcry, with a giant hammer.

-

Hearing something crash, Carlotta laughed nervously. "I'd better go see what Louis is up to," she said, rushing away for the kitchen.

When she looked inside, she found Louis throwing dishes around a messed up kitchen, digging around. "Come out here, you little pipsqueak, and fight like a man!"

"Louis!" she cried, snapping him out of it.

He looked at her guiltily, banging his head, realizing how crazy he must have looked.

She put her hands on her hips. "What are you doing?!"

"Well, I - I was just - er, er...I'm sorry, madame." He smiled sheepishly, putting out a small flame on his now-crooked mustache.

Scoffing, she took out the dinner plates.

-

"You know, girls, perhaps our young guest would enjoy seeing some of the sights of the kingdom. Something in the way of a tour?" Grimsby suggested as three plates of crab and another of a different dish and a salad for Y/n set down.

Y/n was gazing at Arius, not realizing how lovesick she looked with her head in her hand. Snapping out of it, she said, "I'm sorry, did you catch that, Erica?"

"No." She had been looking at her plate, then back up. "What was the, Grim?"

He leaned closer to Erica. "You can't spend all your time moping about. You need to do something. Have a life."

"HA!" Y/n added, lifting the dome to her tray as Grimsby did, as well.

"Get your mind off -"

Sebastian came just out of his shell a little. When he saw Arius, he motioned for him to keep quiet. Quickly, he lifted his own lid, using his hand to tell him to run over to him.

"It's not a bad idea. If he's interested."

Arius slammed the lid back over as Erica looked back at him, staining a smile, leaning on it. "So, whaddya say? Would you like to join me and Y/n on a tour of our kingdom tomorrow?"

He nodded vigorously, finding it a good chance to try to get Erica to fall in love with him and figure out what was so strange about Y/n.

"Wonderful. Now, let's eat before this crab wanders off my plate." Grimsby looked down, surprised to see only a player of lettuce, wondering if Y/n had gotten his plate instead.

-

Arius watched Erica and Y/n in the yard with Max, who seemed more excited than usual due to the new guest.

"Come here, boy!" Erica called and he ran from Y/n to her. Now without Max, she looked up, noticed Arius, and waved. Shyly, he waved back before backing into his room for a brush on his table; Y/n had showed him what it was and what it was for.

Sebastian tried to inform him who she was, but he could not seem to remember. He thought that may explain the feeling, but, deep down, he knew it only did part of it. The best they could think of was trauma from his transformation.

" 'Dis has got to be, wit'out a doubt, 'de most humiliating day of my life." Sebastian took a piece of lettuce off his head, Arius patting it as he walked by. "I hope you appreciate what I go t'rough for you, young man!"

Arius sat on the bed, the mattress sinking under him. He jumped back onto it, snuggling into the blankets.

"Now, we got to make a plan for 'dat girl to kiss you. Tomorrow, when she takes you for 'dat ride, you got to look your very best. You gotta make her...bat her eyes, like 'dis. " He batted his eyes, showing off his eyelashes. "You gotta make her...pucker her lips." He pursed his lips, his voice coming out babyish. "Wike 'dis."

He opened his eyes and saw that Arius had already fallen asleep. Chuckling, he pulled the blankets up for him. "You're hopeless, child. You know 'dat." He curled up next to him, closing his eyes for sleep. "Completely hopeless."

-

A small seahorse swam to Triton, who stopped pacing with his hands behind his back hopefully. "Any sign of them?" he asked.

"No, Your Majesty. We've searched everywhere. We've found no trace of your son. Or Sebastian. We tried to find Y/n to ask her, but she's gone, too."

"Well, keep looking!" he demanded, turning away. "Leave no shell unturned, no coral unexplored! Let no one in this kingdom sleep until he's safe at home!" [But wouldn't that prevent them from looking? If I've learned anything from Minecraft, it's that you get too loopy to do anything overtired.]

"Yes, Sire." He swam away, leaving Triton to mope in his chair with his head in his hand.

"Oh, what have I done? What have I done?"