Author's Note: Welcome to another chapther! Just here to say that if you were looking for smut this is your chapther! XD I mean I just got horny by the end of the chapther I guess, nothing explicit, just some hits UwU

Still, if you want to skip that part, feel free to do so! Also this chapther was inspired in the song " Heard you crying" by Michael Schulte, so I recommend you hearing the song as you read this fanfic

Enjoy!

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Lucas and the others left in the morning. Norman was still holding on to Emma's hand in the bathroom. His eyes were closed until a ray of sunlight came down from the tiny window on the lovely tub where Emma rested. When Norman opened his eyes showly Emma had her green eyes already open, and she was looking into the window. 

Norman widen his eyes as if in a dream

" Emma! Emma! Can you hear me? Are you all right?" - Norman said as he let go of the hand that held hers - " Are you feeling better now!" 

Emma slowly turned her eyes into Norman, as if flavoring the moment of encountering him again. She looked at him with a painful expression

" Emma is so sorry, Norman...I didn't want to worry you..."

" It's ok! Please, tell me that's going on! Do you know why you feel sick? How do you feel? Do you want to go back to the ocean? The ocean it's right here, a few steps away from this place!" 

" Where are we? - Emma asked as she picked up Norman's hand from his sides. She loved how human skin felt against her green shinny scales - " The hideout ?" 

" We had to get out of there...the government came after us again...I'm sorry" - Norman looked down as he felt ashamed of himself. Just like Lucas said, if he "loved" her he would have to let her go...still, he suggested it as if he truly meant to let her go 

But he didn't. Inside him echoed a very loud voice 

Please...please don't leave me alone  

Still, Emma's answer to the foolish question he asked her, about that love was, lighted up on his sad memory 

Love is the prohibition of being alone, Norman

" Thank you...for protecting Emma, Norman! I feel bad...Ray must be in danger..." - Emma busted a sad smile as Norman took her hand 

" Ray? Who is Ray?" 

" Emma's brother...Emma thinks he was also captured like me..." - Emma looked at Norman and gesticulated towards her lungs - " Mermaids...flowers appear on our chest...when our family is suffering..." 

" Really? That's why you were coughing flowers? That's a relief...I tough it was some serious illness!  Still, if your brother is in trouble we need to help him, right? I'll see that I can do!" 

" Thank you, Norman!" - Emma smiled at him. Even pale, her smile cheered him up and Norman put his sleeves up as he walked of the bathroom leaving Emma behind and turning back to face her. 

" I go get you some ocean water to keep you hydrated, all right Emma? It that ok? I promise I won't take long since you are alone...I'll be back soon!" 

"Sure! See you Norman!" 

As Norman walked towards the beach he felt ashamed of himself as the tough of Emma not returning to the ocean due to the capture of her brother, Ray. Emma's love was pure, she had literal flowers in her lungs...her soul was clean and fresh and his hands were dirty.

He wanted her for himself, he wanted to keep her in that house, protect her and deprive the world from seeing her. His lust scared him and his hands wouldn't stop trembling as he picked up the salty water bucket, using all his strength to carry it into Emma's location...the little bathtub in the abandoned beach house  

* What Am I doing? I promised Emma I would let her go...Lucas told me that if I loved her...I would need to let her go...can I even love her? My childless saved her but also doomed my promise...*  

For some reason, Norman remembered Yuugo's words as tears fell down his cheeks, a waterfall of sorrow and sadness, a longing wish for a love as pure as hers. To feel the suffering of others, suffer for them instead...lift the weight and bare it in your organs...in the deepest of your heart 

If he wanted Emma's brother capture as a excuse to keep her close to him...he didn't deserved her...his dirtiness was making him feel sick and he had to stop by the closest rock by the sea to trow up all his shame. 

"I would want someone who could love me...because I don't love myself and I can't deal with the emptiness of this body and life. Someone to fill with cristal water a cup that was a hole and can never be full" 

His own words hurted him... if Emma was the one who could close the hole he always had since he came to life, he didn't want those feelings to be based on the disgrace of others. He grasped his own chest...

He had to fill the hole she had, like two hurting hearts bleeding and closing each other's bruises, his task was to help her living in this merciless world...

That was the task of loving someone...make the world an easier place for their especial existence  

Norman rose up and handed to where Emma was. It felt good to feel the height of the water in his arms, weak frail arms what trembled constantly. Lucas and the others still haven't return...sure it took long to ask for asylum under the government's nose and they would probably be gone for 3 or 4 more days

What...what they all did for him...as love. Love could take as many forms as a ever changing wind. Love could be everything...sorrow, pain, shame, pride, lust, greed. Love was scary because it is everything and...it's nothing. 

Norman smiled because, right now, not even in his wild imagination as a kid, when Yuugo read him histories and Lucas kissed him goodnight, not even in the countless days he submitted himself to the hardships of university and work did he tough that his love would... 

Take the shape of a green frail Mermaid with ginger hair in the lovely and empty bathroom of a abandoned house by the sea. It almost made him laugh, Norman tough as he went upstairs to check out on Emma and hydrate her as well: 

" Sorry it took me so long! Hope you are still feeling ok? Do you need anything else" - Norman said as he placed the salty ocean water on the tub, which made her relax and sent out a gasp of pleasure for Norman's content. Still, she gave him a concerned smile 

" I'm ok...the ocean water is good for my scales...it gives me oxygen as well...but Norman...Why are you sick? Can Emma help you?" 

Norman widen his eyes: Did she see him trow up by the beach? The first reflex he had was to look over in the window and verify that, yes...Emma could see him looking by the window. He wanted to dig himself in a hole 

How much he hated to be vulnerable like this...he was supposed to protect her and now she is the one who needs to be worried about him? Norman let out a sight and managed to give her the best fake smile he could handle 

" It's ok...don't worry I felt a bit dizzy by the sea but now I'm fine, Emma no need - His words stopped abruptly on his throat as she placed her wet hand on each side of his face, making him move closer to her...just inches away 

" It's ok to hurt, Norman - Emma's voice was relaxing and sad...still she smiled - we are both liars aren't we? I'm scared because my bother was captured and...you risked everything for me, and you are sacred. Still, we smile at each other and silent is not break, right?" 

" Yeah...- Norman was at a loss of words. He din't know she had so much empathy...when did she learned how to understand the emotions he didn't even recognized?  - I'm sorry for not being strong and help you like I promised, Emma " 

" No, don't say that...Norman - Emma placed her hands and caress his white, silver hair, illuminated by the little frail ray of sunlight that hit the lovely window - " You saved me, you showed me the world and teach me all kinds of things. Before you I tough all humans were bad people"

That happen next Norman couldn't tell. She raised herself form the tub and she gave him a genuine smile as she placed her soft lips in his forehead. When she rose up, all the light came in and illuminated her pale face and wild heart:

" How beautiful is to struggle Norman? Struggle with yourself, for others, to better yourself every days and uncover the mysteries of others... I want to struggle with you...even if I give my last breath and all this was in vain...I want to struggle as much as I can with you...so our fortunate meeting with have a meaning" 

" Emma I...- Norman felt strange. Emma said such beautiful things to him and yet...all he wanted has to cry... his voice broke the moment it got out of his heart - " don't deserve you... I'm selfish and I-" 

" What about it? - She hugged him and he could feel the salty freezing water in her skin wetting his shirt - "I hurted you many times...and I made you do this...if it wasn't for me, you"- 

" Just like you said, I loved all this time I struggled with you Emma. Yes, I'm scared to death and I took a leap of faith but I found myself in the middle of this mess. There is a certain beauty of the mess we are now, right?" - Norman moved his eyebrows in a tender smile 

" Yes... - She replied as she moved her body away from him - this silent is somehow comfortable...I never tough I could feel like this in such a situation..."

When Emma's esmeral eyes meet Norman's she could see the ocean on them. When she grasped outside, she knew she had to return to the ocean what she could hear near if she closed her eyes. It hurted to know that the ocean that Norman had in his eyes, hasn't able to keep her. The separation was inevitable.

" Still, I don't deserve you Emma...you know why? I promised I would set you free but...I don't want to let go of you and that is selfish. The ocean is where you belong and who Am I to have this feelings? I should be happy if you are happy..." - Norman's tears mixed with the calm water on the tub 

" Because it's hard when we are not part of that happiness, right? - Norman gasped at the slight of Emma crying, her tears shining like precious jewels that left her soul - " And yet the ocean I want to be in is the one in your eyes...how did you become this precious to me...Norman?" 

Norman glimpsed at Emma and wiped away her tears. It was not about being worthy of her or not...they were just two lost souls, in the mess of the universe trying to make it trough another day. How did they developed this feelings for each other? They were so beautiful and broken, which one in their own way 

They closed the hole in the empty space of their bodies and nothing felt wrong. Why try to understand? The things felt unsaid placed more meaning in the silence they shared. 

If this feelings was "love" and love was actually everything and nothing at all, they were free to wait and see there the randomness of the universe would take them. Whatever that was, as long as they had each other you would be fine...right? 

Bleeding the same blood ans sharing the same tears and happiness, craving, being greedy and selfish. Because, Norman reflected...love was a mutual and consent selfishness of two needy hearts 

" Maybe... - Norman dared to say - "maybe we have been a little selfish with each other, right?" 

" Yeah... - Emma whispered by his ear - I never imagined selfishness could lead me to make you the most precious person in the hole world...you have your own shine that I placed on you, because I wanted you to love me..." 

Norman closed his eyes...she wanted to live in this moment forever as if his memory could record the exact same worlds as she spoke. Nothing was right, or wrong...that was in front of him was not worthy of judgment. 

As he lead down and placed his pale hands by Emma's pink cheeks, lowering his eyes in the most tenderness way, he whispered Yuugo's words to himself, so softy, fitting perfectly on Emma's melody, cry of sorrow and happiness. For loving him so...for having to let him go: 

" Become my person, belong to me but exist as yourself, like a part of myself I lost from the start. Don't give names to things that don't make sence and listen to the reasons of your heart. Is in the absolute randomness of  living that habitats the absolute truth of that you lack...the absolute truth of who you love"  

Norman's lips brushed slyly against Emma's. Was he doing this the right way? their nosed crossed each other and Emma placed her hand on his shoulders as she deepened the kiss. Norman relaxed his body as he ran a hand on Emma's wet scales, so hard and shiny in their own way.

 She ran her own hand in his silver hair pushing and tucking it softy. For a moment she wished she had legs, so she could warp them around his lovely waist and close the existent gap between them. Still, she waited for Norman to enter the tub, lay beside her body and hug her from behind, his back pressing the bottom of the tub. 

In the lovely abandoned bathroom, with the smell of salty water, his lips continued to brush her softly, as their lips curled up into the purest smile because they would have to part...but their love took place and form in their present embrace. 

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Art credits go to: @diana6220 on Twitter! 

Thank you so much for reading this chapter! All the credits for the art , cape and AU ideia and comics of this fanfic are to @stray_tori on Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram! Please go check her fantastic art!

Note: Mika-hime changed her name so please search her art by the new name of her account!

Thank you so much and see you soon!