Part of Eric couldn’t believe his eyes. After all that had happened, after he had killed the sea witch and almost gotten married, after he had witnessed Ariel turn into a mermaid and fall back into the ocean-- the last thing he had expected was to see her again, here, on the beach. He couldn’t believe he’d been enchanted-- hypnotised?-- into nearly marrying Vanessa-- no. Ursula. Her name was Ursula, as he now knew, not Vanessa, and she was a sea witch. She was certainly not his saviour from the shipwreck, who, it turned out, had been Ariel all along.
So there he stood, before Ariel, hands still at her waist, just staring, drinking her in, making sure that she was real.
“You’re back--”