The Grace of a Thousand Stars (PREQUEL)

Chapter 4- Stories of the Past

--Ines POV--

"This is delicious, I've never eaten a dish like this before!" I exclaimed, taking another bite of the meal as he sat on the opposite side of the table as me, his own dish in front of him.

"It's called Paella, it's from my home country." He explained with a light chuckle.

"I thought this was your home?" I asked, cocking my head to the side, confused.

"It is. I work here so it's easier to live here, but I'm from Spain, it's where my family and all my other relatives are. If I wasn't as busy as I am then I'd be back in Spain right now."

"Spain?" I echoed.

"Yeah, my home country. Alicante, to be specific." He stated as I hummed, going to take another bite of my food which he had so nicely ordered for us to eat.

When I was doing my studying of humans, I learnt as much of everything as I could, and Geography was amongst them. When I was a free mermaid, I only remember everything about the Ocean's and how far I should stay away from the shore to avoid getting caught by humans, but the name of the land was unknown until recently.

"Do you... miss your home?" I cautiously asked.

"Of course, my family is there, and my childhood home."

"Then, why are you here?" I couldn't understand, were all humans so complicated? If he had a home that he loved and cherished, then why was he here?

"Because of work. We humans need to make money to live, right? Why? What about you?" He raised a confused brow as he picked his head up to look at me.

"Me?" The sudden attention on me was unnerving, other than the people who already knew my secret, I've never properly conversed with others so I didn't know what I could or couldn't reveal about myself without accidentally letting him find out about me.

"Yeah, you. I'm here for work but I visit family when I can, what about you? Are you not close enough to your family to visit them?" He curiously asked, and I thought over my next words very carefully, but it wasn't a hard question to answer.

"...No, it's not like that. I'm closer to them more than anyone else in the world, they're my family after all. And I love, and miss them all, more than you could know." A sadness enveloped my heart at the thought of all of them as I played around with the half-eaten food on my plate.

"I know." He whispered, and looking up at him, I caught a knowing look on his face.

"You do?" He nodded.

"I got into acting because of my mother... I had my first role when I was 15, I played her teenage son in a dystopian movie that sacrificed himself in the end; And that was the beginning. I didn't expect to get as famous as I did, but my career took off and I was told to take advantage of it, so I did. Not long after I grew famous, my mother retired, and once I became an adult, she and my father moved back home to Spain where they've been ever since."

"And you don't get to see them as much?" I guessed correctly as he nodded once more.

"I love my family as much as the next person, but I love acting too. And if I were to go home to Spain then I wouldn't be able to act as much as I can now, living in LA gives me a different freedom than being home with my big family."

I'd been ignorant this whole time; My freedom wasn't the embodiment of freedom, it was my version of freedom, but I realise now, thanks to this man, that freedom comes in all different forms for everyone. My freedom could be a cage for someone else just as someone else's freedom could be a cage for me, it was so simple yet I had just realised it now. This man had his own version of freedom that he was living right now, and I didn't let it show, but it made me jealous as I couldn't help but wonder if my freedom will ever be able to find me again. And that scared me. So much.