Kurt Hummel was sitting in a rock in his cave, idly flicking his turquoise tail in the warm seawater. If the merpeople of the kingdom knew of his disdain for his undersea life, they would not be happy with him. You see, on one hand, Kurt was the son of the King of the sea, Burt Hummel. As a result of this, Kurt was a prince, and very rich. He lived in lavish accommodation, and his every need was doted upon by willing servants. Nevertheless, he was always curious about life on land. He had a strange fascination with humans: how they lived; how they walked, how their legs worked; how electricity worked; how they made boats and their other assorted inventions…dedicated to this wonder was a seperate cave from the one he slept in, full of human gadgets and ornaments, including bottles, boxes, picture frames, books, and the biggest thing in the collection: a statue of an unknown man, cast in bronze, every feature of his face and body perfectly chiseled. Kurt tried to get down to this cave every day, if only to hastily brush his fingertips over the pages of some of the books, or to fit his hand to the cheek of the man in the statue.
Not many people knew of this. Only a couple of servants who had to clean it, and Kurt's closest friends.
Kurt was disliked by many of the kingdom, even without them knowing of his fascination with humans. This was because he was gay, and he looked so unlike the other mermen in the kingdom; most of them were tanned and muscular, exuding strength even when just swimming past, while Kurt was pale and slim, his skin was often referred to in day-to-day life: 'wow, Beatrice, look at that shell! It's as white as Kurt Hummel's skin!'. Even so, Kurt was happy with his appearance. He spent rigorous hours every day moisturising his skin and brushing his hair, making sure he looked impeccable to face the day ahead.

Although he was widely known throughout the kingdom, there was not much known about Kurt's personal life. For example, who his friends were. People speculated who it might be, whether it was his father, a servant, a family friend…through all the rumours, his real closest alliance was with a small blue and yellow fish named Mercedes. The unlikely friendship had come about one day when Kurt had been hurrying into his 'human cave'…
Kurt was swimming speedily into his cave of human items. Reaching the entrance, his tail caught the edge of the door, consequently him upright. As this happened, there was a small swish of water as something small swam directly into Kurt's chest. He looked down. A small fish, yellow with blue stripes, was floating in the water, staring at Kurt's pale torso, looking thunderstruck. "Are you okay…?" Kurt asked, tentatively reaching out a hand.
"I'm so sorry sir, I didn't mean to, I was just swimming and I found myself here and I just got amazed by all this stuff, and I didn't think, then I heard someone coming and I just-"
"Calm down!" Kurt said, patting the fish gently on the head with his finger. "It's fine, I don't mind!" He laughed gently.
"Are you sure?" She asked, her flippers flapping wildly.
"Positive. Do you like humans as well?" He asked absentmindedly, lazily swimming over to the statue of the man, running his hand along the shining bronze arm.
"I guess, I've never had that much thought about it. All your things are pretty though." She sighed. "I'm Mercedes, by the way."
"I'm Kurt," He smiled, extending a hand.
"Oh, trust me, I know!" Mercedes laughed, shaking his hand with her fin. He smiled.
Ever since that day, he and Mercedes had been close friends. Mercedes had introduced Kurt to her friends, making them a relatively close group of friends. One day, Kurt, Mercedes and a few other friends were out at the surface of the water. Finn, a seagull, was perched on a rock above the head of Rachel, a red crab.
"Are you sure we should be here? I think it'd be a lot more comfortable if we went back underwater." Rachel said with an air of bossiness, jumping back into the water with a small plop. Her departure was not acknowledged other than the remaining friends staring at the water rippling where she had jumped. After a moment, she resurfaced, scuttling back onto the rock. "Fine, stay here. You'll regret it when we're eaten by seagulls!" She cried dramatically.
"Excuse me." Finn said, clearing his throat. "I'm a seagull here!"
"You don't count." Rachel said. Mercedes rolled her eyes at Rachel from next to Kurt's hip in the water, resulting in a chuckle from Finn. After another minute of the four of them sitting in companionable silence, all of them basking in the heat of the day, Kurt broke the quiet.
"Can you hear that music…?" The four of them strained their ears, only to be met with the sound of guitars, tambourines and singing, getting neared by the second. Finn turned around slightly.
"There's a ship coming, get underwater now!" He said, ruffling his wings anxiously. Mercedes, Rachel and Kurt all ducked under the water. Mercedes and Rachel swam steadily lower and lower, while Kurt stayed at the surface beside the rock. When they noticed this, Mercedes and Rachel exchanged a look. Kurt was known among them to take unnecessary risks to observe humans. They swum hurriedly up to where Kurt was stationed, his tail flicking with excitement. Mercedes poked her face out of the water.
"Kurt, get under, you'll get seen!" She half-whispered at him, nudging his flat tummy. Her comment apparently went unnoticed. When Rachel noticed that Kurt had ignored their reappearance, she hopped up onto the rock and scurried along to where the end of Kurt's tail was sticking out of the water. She extended an arm, snapping a pincer loudly to see if he'd take notice, before clamping it shut over the fin.
"Ow!" Kurt cried loudly. Finn looked down from the top of the rock with a cautioning glare. "If you want me to be quiet, don't pinch my tail!" Rachel rolled her eyes, and loosened her grip, pulling on the tail more gently. "Mercedes, look!"
"What?" She asked, ceasing in her nudging of Kurt's stomach.
"On the boat! He's the man from the statue!"