Axle instinctively leapt from the rock and landed into the ocean. When he saw who or what had scared him, he pulled down his defensive wall and retaliated by splashing water on it's face. 

"Eris you are becoming more naughty as the days go by." Said Axle in an almost scolding tone, then the next second he smirked and said, "You are becoming a better prankster than I am."

Eris giggled and his tentacles clapped against each other, showing just how happy he was at Axle's comment.

Yeah, you guessed right. Eris was a Cecaelia. It turned out that not all the Cecaelias were swept from the face of the earth. Axle was nine years of age when he met Eris.

….

Axle was swimming towards the surface as usual. It was no doubt that it had become a habit of his, but... he had another reason for always going there.

He had not forgotten the human version of himself that he had rescued from the ocean the previous year, and the strange woman that called him by his name.

He tried denying it to himself time and again, but a part of him still wished to see them again. It was on one of his visits to the surface that he met Eris.

He was having a swimming competition with Fiona when he suddenly heard a loud cry. He and Fiona stopped whatever they were doing and went to check it out.

On getting to where the sound came from, they saw a shark hovering over Eris. The look in the shark's eyes were that of curiosity, and that was also the case with Axle and Fiona when they saw Eris' full body parts.

They had never seen his kind before. Half human, half octopus? Axle didn't know such a creature existed. He was wary of Eris at first, but when he saw how scared the little creature was, his heart melted and he immediately felt the need to protect him, even though he knew the shark wasn't planning to attack.

Axle enforced his authority and commanded the shark to leave.

Axle then turned around to face the strange looking creature. He had spooky red hair, a pair of enchanting blue coloured eyes, and his tentacles were the same colour as his hair. He looked so small, and if Axle was to guess, he would say Eris was 6 years of age.

They got to know each other. Well it was more like Eris got to know Axle, because Eris was discreet about his life. He only spoke about his mother once in a while, but Axle didn't have a problem with it. 

Since then Axle, Eris and Fiona became a squad, but Fiona and Eris never seemed to get along.

….

Back to the present. Eris joined Axle and Fiona as they swam across the ocean, trying out different stunts and sometimes taking a break to watch the humans as they went about their daily activities.

It was at that time that Eris suddenly remembered something. "When is your coronation coming up?" He asked Axle.

Axle's face darkened a bit when he heard that question. "Are you planning to come?"

Eris scratched his head before replying, "Well… you already know."

"No, I don't know. I don't know why you are curious about the happenings in Atlantica, but you can't tell me things about yourself and where you come from." Axle's sudden outburst took Eris and Fiona off guard.

Eris faced down dejectedly and said, "I'm sorry. I promise I will no longer stick my nose in matters of your kingdom, your highness." After saying so, he turned around to leave, but he stopped when Axle held his arm.

Eris was only two years younger than he was, but Axle saw him as an emotional big baby. "I'm sorry, okay? It's just that I'm not happy about the coronation. It's messing up my head. I don't want to be king, I don't want to get married to my best friend and I most definitely don't want to be stuck in the kingdom. I want to be free."

"You poor thing." Said Fiona.

Eris who was sulking earlier suddenly turned serious. "I know how you feel. The feeling of helplessness when you are not in charge of the direction in which your life should go. But the question is, are you going to just stay idle and watch it all happen, or are you going to take a stand and decide your own destiny?"

Axle was rendered speechless by Eris' words. He sounded like he had experienced first hand what life was like. At that moment, there was no trace of the Eris he used to know. His curiosity about Eris skyrocketed, but he held his questions back.

Eris saw how his words affected Axle and then said with an innocent smile, "That's what I think you would have told me if I were to be in your situation."

Axle smiled amusingly at him before shaking his head. "Yes, you are right. I should do something about it… but what? Wouldn't it be nice if I could just magically turn human and…"

"That could be possible. Don't underestimate the powers of the pearls your kind possess." Eris did it once again. Saying things which showed he knew more than he was letting on.

Axle was about to say something when Eris suddenly leaned closer to him and whispered something into his ear.

Whatever Eris had whispered into Axle's ear made him freeze in shock, and by the time he recovered from the shock, Eris was gone.

….

On the streets on social media, there was a commotion, and that commotion was caused by just one picture.

It was a picture of a half naked man in an ocean, half of his body was exposed, while the other half was hidden by the waters. He had shoulder length blue hair and captivating silver eyes. He looked so ethereal and otherworldly and that did crazy things to the hearts of people. Especially the ladies.

Axle was the one in the picture, but everyone thought it was Luca. It was an unaware picture taken by a photographer who had gone to take pictures at the Atlantis beach.

Luca was well known across the globe, but of course there would still be many people who didn't know him and the photographer was one of those people.

The photographer had then posted the picture on his social media handle and wrote "He looks like he could be a god". And just like that, the comment section started flowing with millions of comments and reactions that his posts had never received before.

'He looks so smoking hot! Whoever did his makeover did a marvelous job.'

'Is this a shoot for a new movie? I thought he was working on the set of 'Nine lives'.

'The hair, eyelashes and even his eyes. Everything looks so real. If I didn't know better I would have said this wasn't my Luca. Kudos to the makeup artists or editors.'

'Marry me, Luca!!! We could make beautiful babies together.'

'Hey, you there, Luca is mine. You hear me? Mine and mine alone!'

'Why fight unnecessarily? We can all share.'

Many of such comments and more were what the photographer saw in the comment section, that he even got tired of reading them at some point.

….

Rose was one of the millions of people that had come across the picture. She was already settled in at an hotel and decided to browse through the internet when she saw the picture.

She happened to be sipping on a cup of coffee and almost choked when she saw it. Her heart had skipped a beat at the sight of the beautiful creature. His wet blue hair, his blue lashes and eyebrows, his sparkly silver eyes and lusciously pink lips, the combination of all these features made him look like a fantasy creature. Then her eyes traveled downwards…

Goodness gracious! What was she thinking? It was Luca that was in the picture for goodness sake. He must have added an extension to his hair and dyed it blue, and also put on silver eye contacts, but it didn't change the fact that he was still Luca. How could her heart flutter at the sight of him, when it never once reacted like that before?

She had once written a fantasy story about two best friends that ended up as lovers. Would that be the same fate she and Luca would have?

She was internally beating herself up for her body's involuntary actions. She quickly swiped away from the picture, but that didn't take away the image from her memory. She had to spend the rest of the day trying to convince herself that she had not developed feelings for her childhood friend just because of a stupid picture.

....

Meanwhile, in a very powerful mansion in the outskirts of city Z, a woman happened to be watching an entertainment news program on tv while relaxing on her comfy couch.

Amongst the juicy topics that were discussed, it was only one that she reacted to.

The newscaster had said, "Last but not the least on the news of today, there has been a commotion online which was caused by a picture of our one and only Luca which has circulated on the internet."

The woman sat upright as she heard what the newscaster had said, focusing all her attention on the screen.

The newscaster then continued, "Here is the picture of Luca to bless your eyes with for the day." The picture was then displayed on the screen.

At the sight of the picture, conflicting emotions could be seen in the eyes of the woman, and then she exclaimed in a broken voice, "Axle?!"