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Taeyong tries not to be the type to drink unless he’s out with friends, celebrating something, or... just overall in a happy place. He’s seen it go south--drinking alone, drinking when sad--and he’s promised himself not to be the type. So he figures, as he strolls past loving couples (sigh) and hooky-playing school kids (heh) across the warm sand, that he’s not really alone and therefore can drink himself silly to forget about this week. Three bottles of soju clink against each other in his bag, all settled now atop an old bath towel he brought along with him under a rare bit of shade from a nearby tree.
Taeyong’s always loved the beach. He used to come often with his grandmother; young and abandoned in the wake of his parents marital problems. She granted him asylum in her small home, safely tucked between old trinkets and crocheted blankets. And when the weather was nice she’d pull his antisocial butt out into the sun and sand. Taeyong learned to swim with her. He learned to explore the wave pools, climb into caves, and not to poke every single brightly colored sea creature whose path he crossed. It’s cheesy, but he learned how to love with her too. When he wasn’t surrounded by yelling his young mind found renewed ways to find things beautiful. He owes it all to her. And to the beach she indulged him in.
He should have considered visiting her, but he came so last minute and he didn’t want to bother her. She’s growing older by the day and though they have shared an open line of communication since the day Taeyong was dropped off as a child he just can’t find it in him now to taint what’s left of her good natured soul with the mistakes of his young adulthood. Maybe next time. Cracking open his first bottle of strawberry flavored soju, he tilts his head back and apologizes to the clouds hanging lazily above him.
It’s been a long week. Taeyong takes a swig of his soju for every hit he’s taken these past few days:
Denied his scholarship.
No chance of starting culinary school.
Broke up with his boyfriend-- Okay actually that one was pretty alright all things considered. His ribs are still sore from their final night together and the bruises near his collar haven’t yet healed.
He’s grateful to still have his job, at least. Though it’s just working long nights in a loud bar and he still can’t convince the owners to let him back in the kitchen.
“One day,” he shouts to no one around him and takes another drink. “We’ll make it one day!”
“Whose ‘we’?” A voice calls a ways away and nearly startles the green glass bottle out of Taeyong’s hand.
“The fuck,” Taeyong scrambles to his feet and looks around. He raises a hand to shield his eyes from the sun but he can’t quite make anyone out in the sands around him.
“Down here!” A second voice, slightly deeper than the first, shouts. Taeyong blinks to see two boys seemingly around his age wading in the waters a little below where he’s made his seat.
“Oh,” his cheeks have flushed to a pink brighter than the strawberries on his bottle and while he could just blame it on the alcohol he’s too caught up in trying to fan the color away to manage the excuse.
“What’re you doing there all alone?” The first boy asks. Taeyong notes how his chocolate brown hair glistens in the afternoon light and his tanned skin shines as if Sun herself knows she’s blessed him. It brings his blush right back. He and his friend, Taeyong assumes since they’re both making effort to talk to him at the same time, have their arms resting against the rocky edge that cuts off sharply into the deeper pools of the water. There aren’t a lot of swimmers around this part, Taeyong thinks, doing a quick check around just to confirm the thought. These two must be very good at it.
Taeyong lets out a shrug and starts to sit back down again but the second boy is waving him over. He contemplates it for a moment but eventually figures that even if he chooses to ignore them it won’t mean they’ll go away. So he relents and takes careful steps down the sandy slope until it starts to give way to more solid (more damaging on his uncovered feet) ground. Now that he’s closer he can see just how beautiful the first boy is and how drastically he’d initially overlooked the second’s appearance. Dark hair forms a single point just over the other’s right eye and he had a smile on his lips that’s captivating and a little nerve wracking--like he’s hiding the whole world’s knowledge in his brain. Meanwhile, the first boy has dimples. Oh no. Between the two of them Taeyong’s doomed.
“You didn’t answer,” the first pouts as Taeyong takes a seat and draws his knees up close to his chest.
“I didn’t,” Taeyong confirms and takes another sip.
“That’s no fun.”
“I’m no fun.”
They both raise their arms to splash him. The black haired one grins, “We can show you some fun,” but Taeyong’s already holding his hands up in surrender.
“Please don’t, I hate wet clothes on my skin.”
“Why’d you come to a beach then?” The brown haired one asks with a quirk of his brow and a tilt of his head. He sounds genuinely curious. Taeyong has a feeling that if his friend asked the same question it’d come off as smug and condescending. But when he looks over he’s blinking, interested too.
“I don’t know I like beaches. I just wanted some quiet. That’s why I’m alone. Or I was alone until the two of you came by.”
“You sound unhappy we’re here. We can go.”
Taeyong shakes his head. “It’s okay. You’re here already and…” He looks down to his almost finished bottle of soju. He just said he’s alone but he shouldn’t be drinking if he’s alone. He can’t violate his number one personal rule so easily. He smiles dryly. “Now I can drink more.”
“You were drinking already?” The black haired one asks but Taeyong merely offers him a shrug and finishes off the bottle.
He doesn’t have the best alcohol tolerance. He had set a pace for himself so he could enjoy the warmth of the afternoon and all the bottles he brought but moving has made him feel a little more lightheaded than he intended. Full lungs take in the salt from air and he feels lightheaded and...giggly. Even the smallest joke sets him off. But the two strangers don’t seem put off. Rather, they’re living up Taeyong’s excitability to its fullest.
“Don’t laugh at me,” Taeyong slurs, lips formed into a full pout. “I don’t even know your names. You don’t get to make fun of me.”
“I’m Youngho,” The black haired one replies then thrusts his thumb to the other, “He’s Jaehyun.”
“Hi Youngho, hi Jaehyun,” Taeyong repeats, giggles, and has already forgotten all about why he was pouting in the first place. “You can call me Taeyong.” A pause. The sky had melted from its previous bright blue into hues of orange, purple, and pink. And Taeyong had to draw his knees into himself as a crisp evening air began to blow around them. “You’ve been in the water for some time now. Aren’t you cold?”
Something splashes behind Jaehyun when both boys shake their heads. “Nah. We like it. We were...basically born in the water so it’s where we like to be.”
“Impressive. I can only swim for maybe an hour max.”
“Maybe if you hang around us more we can change that,” Jaehyun’s dimples poke into his cheeks when he smiles, which contrasts the smirk spread across Youngho’s lips. Yet somehow in the course of their conversation Taeyong has picked up that Youngho actually seems to be the softer of the two and something gleams behinds Jaehyun’s eyes that doesn’t make Taeyong wary but certainly makes his drunken brain question what he’s hiding deep in those dimples. These two are as complimentary as they are compatible. Their closeness almost makes Taeyong envious. He’d like something like that one day.
They’re interrupted when his phone erupts in the melody of his childhood favorite anime series and he scrambles to find it before Youngho and Jaehyun’s laughter can drown it out, shooting them the darkest glare he can when he answers “Hello?”
“Taeyonggie, it’s Taeil, want to meet for dinner tonight?”
“Oh-...uh...I…” Taeyong clears his throat and tries to make himself seem as sober as possible. “I actually came down to the beach today so...you know I won’t be back until pretty late if that’s okay or, uh, maybe tomorrow?”
“You went to the beach?” Taeil’s blatant speculation at Taeyong’s actions rings loud and true over the phone but he tries to mask it with a joking, “and you didn’t invite me?” Then presses on. “I don’t mind waiting til late. How long will you be?”
But Taeyong’s already shoving his towel into the drawstring bag, “Just an hour if I catch the train in…” he pulls his phone away from his ear to check the train schedule he’d screenshot earlier in the day (sober Taeyong was always good and taking care of drunk Taeyong). “In fifteen minutes. I’ll letcha know.” He hangs up and swings the bag over his shoulder with force enough to knock his water bottle against the untouched soju; the clash causes him to jump.
His new friends are laughing at him again and--oh. He has to say goodbye to them. Right! He turns and crouches so he’s closer to their level though still far enough back from the waterline that his shoes don’t sink into the sand. “It was nice meeting you. Maybe we can meet again later.” He’s reaching for his phone but Youngho stops him. “Don’t risk it. Jaehyun here is clumsier than you are.”
“Hey! Am not!”
Youngho grins, “don’t worry about numbers. Lets just meet again. We’re always around here.”
Taeyong blinks. It’s not often he meets people who aren’t glued to his phone. But then again, he, too, wouldn’t mind being more disconnected. “Okay. I...this was nice. I’ll try to come back here again. I think my next day off is in about a week so maybe we can see each other then.” He looks back up towards the street, the setting sun casting a nice pinkish glow across the pavement. There are a few trees to his left shadowing a playground; this is how he’ll remember where to come. “Okay,” he repeats, turning back to shoot his new friends a smile. “I’ll see you both soon!”
If Taeyong could his pick one most notable, most admirable trait it would be his dedication to his promises. So he returns a week later, on his next off day, and finds the spot on the shore that looked over a shaded playground where he can set up camp until Youngho and Jaehyun pop their heads out of the water. They really do love swimming, huh? Taeyong bounds forward and squats at the edge, wrapping his knees close to his chest. “Hi,” he smiles.
“Hey,” the other two return. Youngho then adds, “We didn’t think you’d return.”
“I’m a man of my promises,” Taeyong gives a firm nod.
“How have you been?”
Taeyong laments about work, realizes he hasn’t told them much about himself other than a drunken tirade of “why does life have to suck sometimes” and lets his sober self deal with the embarrassment of apologizing for the soju-drunk Taeyong they met. “I’m a bartender,” he explains, “but I want to go to cooking school.” He details the string of missteps and defeats that lead him back to the beach of his childhood in the first place, but when he touches on his ex Youngho’s gaze starts to soften in this saddish way that makes Taeyong reel back and say “It’s okay I mean…life does shit to you right? But we get better by getting over it or something, I don’t know. My grandma used to say something like that when I was growing up. I’m sure you’ve had hardships too.”
“Well, sure but…”
“Nothing like that,” Jaehyun finishes, having shifted a little closer to Mr. Sensitive’s side to pat his shoulder. His hand starts at Youngho’s bare shoulder, trails gently over his bicep and then settles at the point where their fingers can link together. Taeyong didn’t notice this last time but the two swimmers seem to be quite close. When they’re not touching, Youngho bumps into Jaehyun’s shoulder every so often as if to get his fix of skinship. It’s cute. And it makes Taeyong blush when he also thinks about their dedication to swimming and what that means for their swimmer bodies (aka they’re probably hot, toned, and Taeyong would guess there are abs hidden under the water line). Has he always been such a weirdo, checking out new friends and questioning their relationships to one another? The answer is an unfortunate yes.
There’s a lot Taeyong doesn’t know and doesn’t come to learn about Youngho and Jaehyun. The two boys inseparable, yes, with bond deeper than Taeyong could likely imagine. When he bids farewell again, and waves until he’s out of sight, they dive deep into the water to also return home. They’re not exactly lovers, but “brothers” does not do well to describe them either. Youngho and Jaehyun have known each other for as long as they’ve known what it’s like to exist in the world. Two boys, princes by birth, whose rank in their family line gives them their title loosely and without the fear of future responsibilities. On the other end, they might as well not exist and had they not found each other they might have both gone unknown forever. They tend not to speak of these things but they root one another with lingering touches and the press of lips to scaly skin. When Jaehyun’s having a bad day it’s up to Youngho to pull him towards their favorite current and whisk them away amidst the paint splotches of fish until they’re just a bit too far and have the rest of the evening to make their way back. On the reverse, when Youngho’s holed up in his favorite cave, Jaehyun will join him wordlessly, a hand on the upper part of his shark’s tail, his head on his shoulder, until the older between them regains his strength. It’s been like this and will continue to be.
But now they have a newcomer, a common interest in the form of an ash blond human who somehow hasn’t noticed (or maybe hasn’t cared?) that they are only as human as their upper halves show. They like him. They like him a lot actually. When Taeyong departs again in hopes of making the last train they find themselves unable to talk about anything else. Jaehyun likes his eyes, bright and reflective, holding all the sea and all the stars. Youngho likes his wit; he respects the way that Taeyong will turn his hardship into humor. More than all of that, Taeyong introduces a breath of new life into their otherwise silent world. They’ve always had each other, they would never not, but their status discludes them from a lot of mer society. They’re too low to be with the rest of their families, but too high to be caught mingling with ‘commoners.’
It doesn’t make a lot of sense to linger near the surface, and it is dangerous for them to perch near the shore, but if it means a chance at talking to their new favorite human they’ve decided silently to take it.
There’s just one thing...one birthright on their horizons that neither wants to address.
Their hearts are too soft, and right now too full with thoughts of a fumbling, but lovable, human who doesn’t seem it strange that they never leave the water and don’t care for technology.
x
Taeyong eventually does the responsible thing and asks for proper time off to take a proper visit down to visit his grandmother. He’s made it to the beach three times over the last two months, squeezing train trips between his late night shifts and single days off. Early autumn air is starting to creep into the night and linger on the cusp of morning, leaving the shore more or less empty save for a few university students chasing the fringes of summer. His guilt for coming down here and not visiting home finally had taken root too strongly in his heart and he called ahead while packing for the week.
“It’ll be wonderful to see you,” His grandmother hummed pleasantly. “It sure has been some time.” The smile that carried from her voice through the phone suppressed his negative feelings a bit. She truly was the sweetest person in the world.
“I’ll be there soon halmoni. Just wait a bit, okay?”
He even took an earlier than projected train just to see her faster.
But when Taeyong arrives at her small condominium he’s not alone. Flashes of red and white light blind him when he approaches, hand raising to block the brightness but still allow him chance to peer beneath his palm. Someone’s being pulled out on a stretcher. Taeyong steps closer. Someone whose face he almost can’t make out between the paramedics surrounding her and the breaking mask over her lips. Someone that, even in the darkest of night skies, Taeyong would still be able to recognize. Someone...his grandmother.
He rushes to her side and takes her wrinkled hands between his own. “I’m here. I’m here.” And he is sure she seems him because she smiles weakly. They connect in that moment, all the love, all the salt licked memories shared between them, locked in their eyes. Then her grip goes slack and she’s rolled away from him.
Taeyong stands shell shocked, left in the middle of the street. There are no longer lights and sirens. All the bystanders have slowly made their way back inside, a few offering Taeyong condolences he didn’t really hear. He just thinks about her. Her cold hands and warm eyes and the place she’d always given to him as shelter. He’s supposed to stay here now but he’s not sure he can make it. He’s also not sure he can go back--not with the funeral preparations he’s assuming will be needed in the next few days. Neither of his parents live in Korea anymore and there’s this heavy question of whether or not he should contact them. He doesn’t want to. Actually he doesn’t want to think about any of this. This...These months of misery that have left him rooted in the concrete before a building he can’t call his home anymore.
He does the only thing he can think to do.
Bags ditched just in the entryway of the apartment, Taeyong makes his way to the nearest convenience store and stocks up on as many bottles of soju he can carry between his arms. He’s without everything but his keys, a few extra bills that he didn’t spend on alcohol, and his drinks. What’s the point of taking anything else? No one’s going to call him. No one’s going to worry about his well-being. That phone only links him to the responsibilities he’d rather not have. Maybe this is why Jaehyun and Youngho don’t choose to be tied down by technology. Taeyong thinks he’s really starting to get it now.
Speaking of them, he’s two bottles into his haul and he still hasn’t seen them. To be fair they weren’t supposed to meet tonight. He’d blocked it off for his grandma. Fuck. Taeyong drinks another shot. Fuck. What he would give to have his two new friends here. He can’t really form all the right thoughts to convey all the right words as to why he’s sitting, drunk and sobbing, on the shore. But he wants them here. He wants to laugh in the way only Jaehyun and Youngho have prompted from him despite his misery.
He thinks, they’re swimmers right? And an idea pops into his head. Maybe, if they won’t come here, he can find them. Brillant. He wipes his lips of lingering, strawberry-flavored droplets and stands. His legs shake beneath him as he stands, fingers fidgeting with the ends of his shirt. It comes off eventually and he shuddered against the dusk air. He shivered even harder when he jumps, jeans and keys and all the rest of him, into the chilled water. Doesn’t matter, he repeats to himself as he swims and swims towards nothing at all. Make this worth it.
Taeyong’s body gives up on him before his drunk mind can catch up. Suddenly he’s falling deep beneath the surface and though he gasps for help only water fills his lungs. Ripples form around his flailing arms and he’s trying so hard to make it back to the top but the lack of oxygen gets to him first and the dark ocean soon shifts to black nothingness; leaving him suspended, head tossed back, at the mercy of the current.
Be it by blessing or curse for them both, Jaehyun is the one who catches sight of Taeyong’s body. Rumors float fast around them and when his ears perked at the mention of a thin human boy smelling of strawberry liquor and set to drown (and eventually, the gossip teller shares with him while licking her lips, to be eaten) he immediately sets out to his side. Pockets of air still bubble weakly from Taeyong’s lips so Jaehyun gives thanks Mother Moon above. He wishes he had Youngho here but his best friend is in Coming of Age Day training which leaves Jaehyun to fend for his own. Bringing him to the surface is no problem, but the night sky is dark and the air cold. Jaehyun presses on his chest and breaths into his mouth, forcing water out however he can, but Taeyong’s skin is already this concerning sort of blue. Jaehyun’s fear bubbles up until he can almost taste it on his tongue. He can’t just leave Taeyong like this but he can’t bring him anywhere else in his current state. It leaves him one choice.
Of all the outdated human lore about mermaids, one horrifying fact rings true. It resonates well with his people, bloodthirsty and vile with a distaste for the humankind they deem inferior but Jaehyun has always been disgusted. Drink the magic in their blood, their scripture dictates, and walk among to feast.
Those days of terror are long over. Human technology is too advance that even one mer consuming one human on land could tip off authorities and overturn their worlds. But for the royals to earn their status in full a “Coming of Age” ceremony, complete with human baiting and bloodletting to earn their legs, is required. Jaehyun has dreaded the day since he learned of it and the more Youngho trains for his upcoming birthright the more squeamish Jaehyun becomes. Yet, as he looks down to Taeyong, curled up in his arms, pressing to his wet chest in search of anything to warm him, Jaehyun cannot think of anything else.
“I’m sorry…” He whispered against the shell of his unconscious human’s ear. “Forgive me, it’s to keep you safe.” A teal tongue wipes over pink lips, teeth a touch too sharp to be human elongating slightly as he leans in and pierces Taeyong’s skin just at his shoulder. Whether it’s the taste of blood itself or the fact that he finds himself begrudgingly enjoying it that frustrates and flusters him Jaehyun isn’t sure, but it’s working. His brightly multi-colored, mandarin fishtail is slowly splitting into less colorful human legs. He drinks just enough to finish the spell.
Jaehyun braces himself for his first steps, holding Taeyong even tighter because walking is not something he’s ever learned and he doesn’t feel like now is the time to fail trying. The sole of his new right foot plants firmly into the wet ground and he hoists himself up. It’s not graceful. His first few steps on land are disastrously shaky and as sand sinks and shifts beneath him he nearly topples them both to the ground. Take it slower, he hears Youngho encourage as he has done time and time again, for matters much more frivolous than this. Never for something like this...and actually Heavens and Mother above help him if Youngho finds out because he will surely kill him if the humans do not. Jaehyun takes a more careful step now, then another one, foot in front of foot until he’s off the sand and emerged onto the sidewalk, bare naked and clinging to the unconscious human against his chest.
Where can he go? He keeps walking from the water thinking there must be some sign of where Taeyong is meant to go. His panic hadn’t thought this part through.
Color catches his dark eyes, despite the heavy shadows of the night sky, and Jaehyun stumbles them both into the safety of a children’s playground. His knees shake beneath him, his legs collapse under his weight and his winces as wood chips press their way into his skin. This can’t be right, even if he doesn’t know humans he knows this isn’t it. But his legs won’t unfold from underneath him, and his eyes are feeling heavy from magic drain. He clutches Taeyong tighter, folding his body around him gently as if he can provide the heat the human boy so desperately needs right now.
When his eyes shut, he just hopes he hasn’t killed them both.
Eventually Taeyong stirs from the rays of early dawn’s sun stretching across his face. Gaze unfocused and chest aching he rolls over, pressing himself against something slightly slimy and just as wet as he feels from his damp hair to his drenched pants. All he wants to do is sleep. But when what he’s cuddled up to breaths frantic and heavy he realizes just how many things are off. He bolts upright, head slamming against the plastic stairs leading up to the kids’ jungle gym. “Aish…” He rubs at the new wound, free hand trying to shake away the wood chips that have pushed into his side. And then there’s the matter of Jaehyun and-- oh God it’s Jaehyun? W-where are his legs?
A lot swirls through his head: Where am I? What are you? Where can we go like this? Jaehyun’s top is bare but his bottom stretches out in long colors and rows of smooth scales puff out into a single fin at the end, two more accenting his hips. Taeyong dares to reach out and touch it, prompting weak thrashing from an otherwise drained Jaehyun. “S-sorry!” Taeyong shouts, slamming his palms over his mouth a second later. The last thing he wants to do is draw attention to either of them. There’s one more thought, lurking and dangerous that has Taeyong wondering are you going to eat me? But there’s no time. Jaehyun’s gasping now, a literal fish out of water. Taeyong throws everything else weighing on his shoulders away and replaces it with Jaehyun’s heavy form.
He doesn’t remember a lot about the last day other than losing his grandma and spending his pocket change on alcohol and then...ah...the wet clothes, the unconscious merman with him… Tapping his pocket he’s relieved to find that fortune favors him enough to keep his keys on him, and under the not-so-disguise of the early morning he runs them both from the park a half mile opposite the beach, where he used to spend his winters with the water too cold, back to his grandmother’s freshly abandoned apartment.
Taeyong is not strong and were it not for adrenaline coursing through his veins there’s no way he would’ve managed lugging Jaehyun’s heaviness anywhere. Hell, even the boy’s tail weighs probably as much as he does! But he makes it, stalling only when he fumbled with his keys in his grandmother’s door, and trails in his sandy shoes (sorry halmoni…) all the way to the bathroom. Jaehyun drops into the tub and Taeyong to his knees. Hands resting on his thighs he starts gasping for air. “Fuck..Fuck…” He pants, still fully unable to comprehend anything that’s happening. Ahhh but he’s not done yet--Jaehyun’s still gaping, choking, and soft whimpers escape his lips until Taeyong can scramble for the faucet and grab the showerhead.
It feels like an eternity to fill the bathtub. Taeyong himself is on the smaller side, his grandmother even tinier, and Jaehyun’s tail alone could probably fill the whole tub but somehow it works. The other soon settles into the lukewarm water, arms crossed over his chest and hugging his body tight. Settling on the floor Taeyong just...stares… at the half fish boy now overtaking his grandmother’s tiny bath. Maybe he’s still drunk. He drags his hands over his face to make sure. But he’s never hallucinated and the weight of Jaehyun’s body being hoisted by his own is too real. The lingering shine from shed scales that dusts over the crooks of his elbows and palms is too real. The pain he feels in his shoulder (and the deep red scabs when he tugs at his t-shirt to look) is too real. When he reaches up to poke Jaehyun’s arm, it’s too real. Taeyong had never thought of himself as non-observant and yet he’d met Jaehyun and Youngho so many times without realizing this? How stupid was he.
Oh. Well. He was stupid enough to get trapped in an abusive relationship for two years instead of pursuing higher education. Huh. He shakes his head out. Now isn’t the time for self depreciation or lingering heavily on the dark past. Now is just...the waiting game… Processing this merman in his bathtub. Besides, Jaehyun needs to wake up and fill Taeyong in on the gaps in his memory-- that is, if he wants to know. He’s not quite sure yet.
Taeyong leaves Jaehyun to rest. Reality washes over him the second he takes his shoes into his hands and steps out into the main room. It’s all here, untouched like she’s coming back in an hour from her early morning walk. His head starts to throb between the memories, the alcohol, and the near death experience. Taeyong should start going through her things, contacting his family, prepping for what’s next. Instead he runs back into the bathroom and throws up. A nap will do him better, he decides after cleaning up, he’ll just take one of those.
x
Youngho shoots smoothly through the water after training. Distance is no issue with how quickly the force of his large shark’s tail can propel him, until soon enough he’s back at the grotto that houses most of his memories with Jaehyun. “You won’t believe today’s session, Jaehyun. Good luck for when your training starts…” His voice trails, body floating in the middle of the empty space. By this point there are usually arms around his waist in greeting. “Jaehyun?” He calls again, drifting forward until he’s searched through all the different nooks and crannies and comes up with nothing. He racks his brain for a moment, certain he isn’t just forgetting some important schedule on Jaehyun’s agenda for the day. Some sort of training, perhaps? But they typically alternated sessions. A family meeting? Youngho starts back towards their home when two thoughts strike:
First, if he happens to not be there, is it worth worrying the Royals about his sudden departure?
Second, Taeyong is set to be in town starting this evening.
This gives him hope as he pivots course and sets off straight for the sandy shore. He treads out of the water slowly and finishes the last stretch via breaststroke until he’s hit the bank. The anticipatory smile on his lips falters. Silence is all he’s met with-- well, silence and a display of empty bottles, alongside a wallet. Youngho picks it up gingerly and leafs through its relatively sparse contents; save for an ID belonging to their new friend. Something happened, that much is obvious, but Youngho cannot for the life of him figure it out. Whatever it was Jaehyun’s now vanished and Taeyong...well he could only think the same with these clues. But as he hoists himself up further to look around the litter he catches onto something else: footprints. Multiple footprints. Though the waves have washed away much of whatever would be closest to the water he still notes smaller ones trailing unevenly towards the ocean and a larger pair, also uneven but wider spread and implanted deeper, moving away.
Suspended in disbelief, frozen despite warm air around tempered water, Youngho just cannot...think. Jaehyun--his Jaehyun--on legs?! Magic that he’s never learned. Magic that he wasn’t due to call his own for another two years. And now he’s somewhere...somewhere Youngho couldn’t even envision because his grasp of the world ended at this very shore. Would that he could drag himself across land indefinitely he would do so for Jaehyun but that’s impractical. Youngho is sentimental but he’s not stupid. Reckless, however, that was up for debate.
He takes his only option.
Too many processes and protocols go into a Coming of Age ceremony; more than even Youngho, despite his half a year of study and training, can even recall properly. To begin requires not only the blessings of the elders but the good graces of Mother Moon, shining in full brightness to guide the ceremony. Youngho has neither, but as he looked upon the waxing gibbous, he just prays it’ll come together. (And knows that even if it doesn’t, a life without Jaehyun is no life worth living.)
“I’m sorry,” he whispers towards the swimmer who had chosen the wrong night for a late dive. “I’m sorry.” He trained often for this day, swearing off all the reconciling ahead of him until it was time. Bloodletting...feasting...both thoughts repulsed him. Without the reasoning that it meant life or death without Jaehyun, Youngho wondered if even on his ceremony day he’d be able to complete the final task; the true test of magic. Adrenaline spurred him on this evening and left no room for second guessing. The more human blood consumed the longer the magic, and Youngho knew not how much time he’d need. Could he kill the swimmer whose flesh he sunk his teeth into? No chance. But he would drink until he felt strong enough to stand. Adding insult to injury, after placing the unconscious form upon the shore, he also stole his clothes.
x
Taeyong awakes only because of the splashing (thrashing? both?) sounds coming from the bathroom. His headache has only gotten worse but he pushes past it to get to Jaehyun’s side. “Hey! Hey, hey, hey,” he calls far too frantically to calm either of them down. “Wait!”
When his hands fall onto Jaehyun’s shoulder he’s met with bright, fearful dark brown eyes. But seconds after Jaehyun’s gaze melts into warm recognition and he tucks his tail back as though he hasn’t just made a mess of the whole bathroom. “It’s you,” he says almost as though he doesn’t believe it. “You made it.”
“I, uh… To be honest I don’t know what you’re talking about but yeah. I did. And I’m pretty sure it’s thanks to you.” He tries to smile to match the bright and dimpled one etched onto Jaehyun’s face, the one in response and realization that Taeyong is safe and, all things considered, alright.
“I’m happy.”
“Same. So what-- actually… I don’t want to know yet.” He takes a seat on the lip of the bathtub and grabs the shower head again. “Shall I top you off?”
Jaehyun practically melts into the water dripping steadily over him. He runs his long fingers through his chocolate hair just to revel in the feeling, then forgets himself as he shakes his head out and soaks Taeyong in the process.
“H-hey!”
“Sorry,” But the smile on his lips doesn’t say sorry. It’s lively and playful, just like when they meet at the beach.
“Is this...really okay?” Taeyong asks slowly, turning the knob on the faucet and placing the shower head back into its holder. “Are you sure you’re not cramped?”
“I mean it’s no ocean,” Jaehyun chuckles, “but...it’s okay. It’s kind of nice to get away from home. I’ve never seen the surface world before.”
“Never would’ve guessed,” because Taeyong hadn’t known they were mermen. “Well, uh, you can stay here as long as you want. Or as long as you want within the next few weeks. That’s all the time I have unless-- ah, fuck.” He places his head into his hands and scrubs at his face. Taeyong hates wet clothes but as Jaehyun sloshes around to reorient, to place his elbows in the space next to Taeyong’s perch, he can’t quite find it in him to mind how his jeans are once again soaked through.
“What is it?” Jaehyun asks delicately, mindful of Teayong’s currently fragile state.
Taeyong shakes his head. “I’ve already burdened you enough with my sad as fuck life.” He laughs bitterly at his own expense and starts sinking further into himself. Jaehyun notices and just hunches down more until he can catch Taeyong on this level.
“Hey…” He says gently, nudging his elbow into the other’s thigh. “We never really told you but we liked listening to you. Even your drunken rambles.”
Taeyong blinks over. Despite every hardship he has felt he’s battled his way through he never was one for crying. It was beat out of him at a young age; then again with his ex. He isn’t able to help it now, though. The back of his hand presses up against his eyes and comes away watery with remnants of smudged eyeliner and he thinks, maybe, he should’ve cleaned himself up after whatever mystery took place the previous night. Then, with a sigh, he removes himself from the tub and sits on the floor, mimicking Jaehyun’s position with his elbows on the bath’s edge. His head turns to the side, eye to eye with the other male. He’s given up on hiding his tears now. In fact, he just...cries for a few long minutes. And Jaehyun indulges him quietly, pressing the lines of their arms together. Taeyong feels immensely grateful for that.
“I came down to see you but also to spend some time with my grandmother. She is-- was growing sick. But when I got here I was too late.” He shifts, laying his head against the cool porcelain of her old tub. “It’s stupid. I was stupid. I should’ve come to see her sooner and now...now I just don’t know what to do. Everyone will be here soon and I don’t want to see them but I don’t want to arrange her funeral either. It sucks. It sucks so much.”
“Is that why…” Jaehyun starts, then pauses, then pushes on because while it’s not the most sensitive Taeyong probably deserves to know. “Is that why you got drunk and jumped into the water last night?”
Ah, so that’s what happened? Taeyong shakes his head out slightly, letting the memories drift back into place one by one until he had the puzzle complete again. “Why I got drunk? Yes. But the water thing...I think I just...I wanted to see you and Youngho-- ah…” He sits up, glancing to Jaehyun. “Should we get you back to Youngho?”
“Oh. Yeah...probably…” Jaehyun doesn’t seem to sure and he doesn’t seem to want to hide it well.
“...Probably? Do you not want to go back to him?”
“Oh no! It’s not that!” Jaehyun’s flings his hands up to his shoulders to profess his innocence and douses Taeyong in water in the process. He can’t hold back his giggles when he apologizes. “It’s not Youngho. In fact…” He misses him,when he really thinks about it, though it’s hardly been 24 hours. This is probably the longest they’ve been apart in all their years of existing. “I just...It’s nice being out of the ocean for a little bit. Even if I can’t move much. If I had a choice I don’t think I’m ready to leave.” And though he doesn’t say it, another huge part of him doesn’t feel comfortable leaving Taeyong alone like this. Not now. Now after everything he’s just learned.
Taeyong doesn’t question. He gets it, wanting to leave a space familiar and seemingly safe. He knows nothing about Jaehyun or Youngho but doesn’t feel fit to pry right now. Jaehyun has just given him safely and understanding leagues deeper than his ocean home. He can provide the same back. “What if I tell him?” He offers instead. “I can let him know you’re safe and...I think I left some things on the beach anyway. I should retrieve them if they’re still there.”
Jaehyun nods and then lets Taeyong fuss around him for an extra ten minutes; ensuring the water is plentiful and the right temperature, teaching Jaehyun how to fill the tub himself should he want to, adjusting the showerhead to arm’s reach, asking about food though he isn’t sure what his grandmother has or what Jaehyun could and should eat. His fingers itch to latch onto Taeyong’s sleeve and pull him back. Of course he wants to see Youngho. He doesn’t want his best friend to worry. But Youngho is much more by the books than Jaehyun, and the likelihood of the other demanding him back is so high. Jaehyun really doesn’t want that. Still, with a chuckle he yells, “Just go!” before Taeyong’s taking his time convinces Jaehyun to hold him here. Rather, he pretends he’s hardly seconds away from shooing Taeyong out of the bathroom himself with the showerhead he’s just learned how to use.
“Okay, okay!” Taeyong’s cheeks flush pink from exertion and embarrassment. “I’ll be back in a little bit. Stay out of trouble.”
“There’s nowhere I can go anyway,” Jaehyun grins and winks and it shoots a plethora of arrows into Taeyong’s heart that he rightfully chooses to ignore. He repeats “Okay, be back!” instead and is out both doors an instant after.
Maybe it’s fortunate he’s a creature of habit and only goes to the same places. It saves him from having to run up and down the length of the beach--or so he thinks, arriving upon an array of footstep (three sets?) and his wallet nowhere to be found. That second realization is actually less surprising. If the water didn’t swipe it he’s sure some other passerby must have. And while the ID will be a bitch to replace he’s not too hard pressed about the rest of it. Still, something tugs him towards the Lost and Found at the main entrance so he takes him time trekking over in hopes of, well, not having his hopes up for nothing.
“Hello?” He calls, trying to peer into the window. The door to the small building is closed and Taeyong is a little too anxious to see if it’s locked. “Is anyone--”
“Taeyong?”
He jumps. No one knows him here except his grandma, his childhood best friend (is Ten even around anymore?), Jaehyun, and…
He turns, wide eyes meeting a very tall, very handsome scary looking “Y-Youngho?” He’s only blinked but Youngho has him by the collar, grip tight, and brings their faces barely an inch apart.
“Where is he?!” he demands. “Where’s Jaehyun?”
“I-...uh..I’m…” Taeyong’s hands fly to Johnny’s wrist on instinct. He’s...not not used to this. But that’s the thing isn’t it? That’s how trauma works? Because Youngho is angry and Taeyong has answers but he cannot for the life of him get the words out because his mind is too stuck there; back in the apartment of his ex under threat of being thrown down the stairs. His lips part again but only a gasp escapes him. “W-wait…” He’s shaking. Youngho is shaking him. Taeyong’s about ready to cry. But you can’t. He’ll hate that.
“Wait…” He tries to root himself into the feeling of sand beneath his shoes, the smell of salt in the air and the light spray of waves that the crisp air carries over to them. He tries to remember where he is not where his mind is taking him.
It takes Youngho a moment to set aside his anger and recognize Taeyong’s panic but when he does, he’s quick to school his face into sympathy and loosen his hold, opting to grip Taeyong’s shoulder. It helps with the whole rooting thing. Taeyong’s weirdly grateful.
“Sorry...sorry…” Taeyong exhales with a few slow, deep breaths. He presses his palm to each eye as if pushing back the tears and looks up to tall Youngho as calmly as he can. He wants to address the whole leg situation in front of him. How? Is he not...no but he has to be. From the way Jaehyun talked and considering what Jaehyun is. For now he files this away in the ‘things I don’t want to know about’ pile along with the details of last night, the footprints from a moment ago, and how they ended up in the park. Though he’s starting to piece it together on his own. “I have him,” he says instead. “He’s safe. He’s at...home.”
Youngho’s brow raises. “Don’t you live an hour by train?”
“Not my home. My...My grandmother’s.” He looked away and a hand slips between them to link fingers with Youngho; half in guidance, half in ‘maybe if I hold your hand you won’t hurt me again.’ “I can take you to him, don’t worry.”
Youngho follows maybe a little too easily. He’s never doubted Taeyong but humans are a risky group and with Jaehyun being missing he can’t be too sure. Dark eyes glance down to their held hands. Taeyong’s squeezing more tightly the further, or he guesses closer, they get to his home and his nervousness is almost palpable between them. Youngho hadn’t meant to start whatever path he’d sent Taeyong down. He forms apologies on his tongue but they weren’t seeming to come out well. He’d get to it… but maybe later. So instead he squeezes Taeyong’s hand reassuringly and hopes his cowardly “I’m sorry” comes through.
“He’s in the bathroom- er...the room furthest on the right. You can go.” He let’s Youngho go and tries not to cringe when his wet, sandy feet trail across his grandmother’s floor. He really needed to clean when all was said and done. He considers assessing the damage after he’s toed his shoes off at the front but a loud splash beckons him quickly back to the others.
“Youngho!” Jaehyun’s flustered voice reaches Taeyong before he gets to the bathroom. “Oh my Goddesses get off of me!”
Taeyong thought the room couldn’t get any wetter than it had been with Jaehyun’s lazy tail swiping about but Youngho proves him quite wrong. The other had actually climbed into the bathtub, too tight clothes and all, arms locked tightly around Jaehyun’s neck and his head buried somewhere in the mess of limbs. He’s balanced peculiarly, fitting two large bodies into a space meant for one small one. “You’re okay, you’re okay,” Taeyong can barely make out the grateful, deep voice cooing at Jaehyun over and over again.
“I’m okay,” Jaehyun agrees, trailing his hand down Youngho’s spine gently, intimately, then pauses. “Youngho… Did you…”
The older stills, swallows, and for a second seems about to pull away but just buries himself deeper into Jaehyun. “Please don’t… I don’t want to talk about this now.”
“Youngho,” Jaehyun says again, adjusting himself until his hands are on Youngho’s shoulders and he can pry him away. “Youngho please, don’t tell me you…”
“I had to.” Youngho’s defensiveness has even Taeyong jumping and he steps out of the bathroom to give them privacy; but not far enough to stay out of eavesdropping distance. “I didn’t know where you were and I found Taeyong’s wallet when I went to the shore. What else was I supposed to do? Let you go missing?”
“But legs like this? Bloodletting in full...I…”
“Not in full,” He corrects. “Just...enough to get here. Enough to stay like this now,” he pauses. “And didn’t you as well? How else did this happen?”
Jaehyun is taken aback and he looks frantically around the tiny antique bathroom. Taeyong isn’t anywhere in sight and he doesn’t think about how close his proximity could be. “Just a sip. Just enough to get him away from the water. You know I don’t...I don’t know how to do it. Not really.”
“So you get mad at me for using a spell I’ve trained in when you risked both of your lives? Jaehyun I--”
“W-what do you mean?” Taeyong interjects, stepping slowly back into view. His arms raise to hold around himself, weight held up against the doorframe. His emotions have melted from warmth into panic, and after Youngho’s show of strength he can no longer feel too sure he’s safe. Or that he was ever safe to begin with. “Bloodletting? What are you talking about?” He looks to Jaehyun. “What did you do to me?”
“Nothing!” Jaehyun says quickly. There are a lot of things to be said about the nature of their strange relationship. They’ve only known each other for no time at all and in those moment kept the biggest secret from Taeyong. Here, sitting in his grandmother’s house, is the closest they’ve been besides the human’s drunken rants. And yet… Jaehyun finds himself hating the pained look in Taeyong’s eyes; as if this moment, this betrayal, would send his fragile self shattering. Where bad breakups, failed scholarships, and family death had yet to bring him down, this moment with Jaehyun and Youngho was primed to ruin him. The last straw, maybe? Jaehyun couldn’t do that to him.
“It’s not like… it’s just... “ He shot Youngho a look that was equal parts “good going” and “help me” before pressing on. “Our magic allows us to...assume human features by consuming human blood. In most cases we get legs.” He nods to Youngho who extends his leg out of the bathtub almost comically. Taeyong doesn’t laugh. “So I… Your shoulder...It was just a bite so I could get you away from the water and somewhere warm. I didn’t know where to go and I’m not sure how far we got but...but you made it. And that’s what I wanted.”
“A-and you?” Taeyong stammers after a drawn out silence, turning his attention to Youngho. “How did you do this?” A hint of venom codes his voice, residual anger from the treatment he received earlier. Youngho knows the trust he’d built had vanished. What he’s unsure of is how to bring it back. Jaehyun’s better at these things that he is. Jaehyun doesn’t have the same level of royal attitude ingrained into him.
“I didn’t kill anyone, I swear to you. But I took more that Jaehyun had. They’ll be okay.”
“Okay,” Taeyong scoffs, “Are you so sure with the way you came at me?” Jaehyun looks to Youngho in slight horror. What had he missed? “The two of you..You lied to me this whole time. Why am I supposed to believe you now?”
“Because we didn’t do it to be cruel,” Youngho replies, removing himself slowly out of the tub and taking a shaky step towards Taeyong. Taeyong moves back. Youngho freezes. “We just wanted to be friends with you. We didn’t think... we just didn’t think it’d matter. We never thought it’d be like this. We were going to tell you.”
“When?”
“...I don’t know. But we were. We love you Taeyong. You’re our friend. We never wanted to hurt you.”
Taeyong’s mouth goes dry. Love you. As a friend, of course. And Taeyong isn’t so sure why, out of everything that’s been said between them, he finds himself fixated on those words the most. (It’s the crush he’s been harboring since he met them. It’s the way they breathed new life into Taeyong’s mundane and rather sad existence. It’s the way they were always here for Taeyong to escape to. He’s become intoxicated on the reality they have him, on the kindness in their eyes. And heaven help him if he doesn’t think they’re the most attractive people he’s ever met. These are the reasons he becomes so fixed, so sad, on love and friends paired in the same sentence. He wanted to be something more.)
“I’m...I can’t. I’m going to bed. Don’t bother me for a few hours.”
He doesn’t feel like he’s part of his own body as he steps away and to the bedroom adjacent to where he’s left Jaehyun and Youngho. Too much. All of this. He hopes, as he strips himself of his sullied clothes and falls face first into the comforter, surrounded by the sugary floral scent that made up his best childhood memories, he can wake up and find it’s all a dream. All of it. Hard reset on the last three days.
But he can’t throw them out either… He started to muse as he settles against the pillows. They’re strange, they’re beasts, but they’re people just as anyone else. Just as he and Taeil are. And despite their only half human bodies Taeyong can’t simply shake away the comfort they’ve given him (or the infatuation they’ve spurred in him). He’s terrified and hurt but only because he doesn’t know what to do with any of it. Does this mean they can’t see each other as often? No, they’ve made due just fine even without the ease of cellphones and, he guesses now, legs. Does this mean they’re out to hurt him? He still feels shaky after Youngho’s mindless attack but Jaehyun nearly suffocated to bring him home. It all counts for something, doesn’t it? Taeyong wants to go back in time, yet if that means living in lies between the three of them is it really worth it?
x
Reality hits him with the smell of burning and some choice expletives coming from the kitchen. He cringes and rolls over, as if sleeping another five minutes will turn back the time, but the threat of the smoke alarm eventually pulls him out of bed.
“What’s happening here?” He asks with a yawn, plucking the batteries from the alarm with his right hand, wiping his sleepy eyes with the left. “What are you doing?”
Youngho pouts over a bowl of...something...Taeyong really can’t make it out. “I wanted to make you something. As an...apology, for be behavior on the beach and for keeping all these secrets from you and for all the stuff you’ve had to go through.” He pauses, sighs, then looks to Taeyong with a hint of a smile. “And I wanted to thank you for taking care of Jaehyun.”
“I mean...of course,” Taeyong mutters back feeling weirdly shy in the face of Youngho’s kindness. “You’re my friends too...I’d never just leave one of you underneath a jungle gym in a park.”
Youngho laughs then, rather caught off by the specifics of what happened.
“So what were you trying to make?”
“You like sweets so I was hoping to make some sticky rice cakes but clearly it didn’t work.”
“Do you even know how to make anything from the surface world?”
Youngho’s face shifts into mock offense. “Who do you take me for?!” But Taeyong’s brief investigation has already shown him that Youngho’s recipe was rice flour, water, and sugar. He starts to laugh. “This is…Thank you, Youngho. I appreciate it. But let me take care of the cooking for now, okay?”
The elder steps aside to watch Taeyong make a quick batch of omelettes. “Will you bring this to Jaehyun?” He asks, handing over two plates and two pairs of chopsticks. “These are for the both of you.” Youngho accepts them both gratefully and curiously before shuffling into the bathroom. He’s surprisingly good on his feet, Taeyong notes. Though he doesn’t really remember what it’s like to learn to walk so maybe it didn’t take Youngho long because he’s a grown man instead of an infant.
Taeyong takes the moment to eat his meal in quick silence. He’s so hungry, he’s realized. He probably hasn’t eaten a real thing since before he left his apartment in Seoul. The meal is gone in a matter of minutes before he moves to rejoin Jaehyun and Youngho. The scene before him, when he peeks into the bathroom, it, well, ‘touching’ feels like the right word. Youngho’s plate remains abandoned and cooling on the sink. Jaehyun’s head sits in his lap and he keeps feeding little bites to him. And in response, Jaehyun looks up to Youngho with the sweetest smile, dimples poked into his cheeks, and light swishes of his tail. Sometimes he outright giggles and says “You don’t have to do this you know. Aren’t you worried your food is cold?” But Youngho shushes him with the press of chopsticks to his bottom lip then gathers some more of the meal until it’s completely gone.
They’re very soft with each other, Taeyong notes, softer than they look like they would be. Eventually he steps in and thanks them for allowing him the time to break and sleep. He’s thought things through and while it’s still relatively terrifying to be on the lowest end of the food chain between them, and while his shoulder still hurts a bit, this is by far one of the better positions he’s ever been in. He’s grateful for it, grateful for them. And if it weren’t for Jaehyun he might not have even made it out alive. These are the things he’s learned not to take for granted.
Taeyong watches a few seconds longer before coming in to take the dishes away while Youngho and Jaehyun opt to shower. Youngho is obsessed with the array of bath salts and sweet soaps Taeyong’s grandmother has amassed over the years. He leans over every small jaw and wafts the scent towards himself, Jaehyun sits behind him and adjusts the water to their liking. Taeyong hasn’t showered himself, he’s realizing, and after a quick wash of the dishes pokes his head in to ask if he can join. Shyness and decency all aside, now that he’s become aware of it Taeyong doesn’t think he can go another second this unclean.
Soon Youngho settles on a nice rose smelled gel and Taeyong takes a seat at the foot of the bathtub, back against its side and Jaehyun peering over him curiously. “Here,” the brown haired mer hums, holding the shower head just above Taeyong, and then Youngho too when he sits down as well. Youngho hands the bottle to Taeyong and watches him; the way he squeezes a generous amount onto his palm, the way he lathers it between his hands, how he scrubs at his body. They’ve never done that before so he mimics as best he can. Taeyong catches Youngho’s pauses from the corner of his eye and chuckles under his breath. “I can help you,” and that’s how he ends up on his feet with an old bottle of shampoo tucked under his arm and his fingers working through Youngho’s dark hair.
“Wow…” He exhales.
“Feel good?” Taeyong laughs. Youngho mutters something incoherent but pleasantly appeased.
“Hey! I want to try too.”
Taeyong glances over to Jaehyun and smiles so sweetly that it pulls a blush to the mer’s cheeks. “Sure, just give me a second.”
He feels like a new person when the three of them are clean and Youngho and Jaehyun are flinging water back and forth at one another. He’d have stayed near the tub if cold wasn’t nipping at his skin, hot water no longer concentrated on his body, so instead he wraps up in a towel and hangs back just to watch the two play. This is nice… and if things could stay like this Taeyong thinks he’d like it a lot. But then his eyes linger on Youngho’s legs and he scrunches his nose a little bit. “How long...do you have?” He, collecting all his bravery, asks after moment. “Just...since Jaehyun didn’t really...you know…last long.”
Youngho pauses and looks down. “When a full Coming of Age ceremony happens we are able to exist on land for up to two weeks. Considering I didn’t go through the official protocol and didn’t, uh, finish the job so to speak, maybe another few days?”
“Huh…” While Taeyong thinks on their timeline Jaehyun tilts his head and asks, “Are we overstaying our welcome?” He sounds a little sad and that prompts Taeyong to hurriedly correct whatever path Jaehyun’s thoughts are going.
“It’s not that! I just don’t know if I can carry both of you back to the beach,” he laughs, “That and… I may have family here soon so, while I’d rather you stay, I don’t want to risk anything you know?”
Youngho nods. “You’re very kind Taeyong.”
“What makes you say that?”
“We hear very many horror stories of human selfishness, those seeking our kind for sport or for wealth.”
The two don’t hold the hardened terror in their eyes of their kin. Extended family members who played it too stupid in the shadows of lingering boats, who were too bloodthirsty and lost their life during bloody battled trapped in nets, are nothing but stories to them to keep them down deep. But the days of poaching mers ended decades before Youngho and Jaehyun’s birth, as the growth of buildings and the advent of technology turned tales of their kind into folklore and the need for human blood became ceremony rather than common indulgence. No one comes looking for mers anymore and the mers have their ways when it comes to humans.
So they, feeling trapped despite the breadth of underwater land their kingdoms conquered, have never felt too deterred from the surface. Only once, when Youngho was caught putting on a show for a young child who had strayed too far from her parents and sent her cries out to the sea, had they felt damage from the show. And it was from their own kind. Jaehyun doesn’t like to think about it but the scars from the King are still there, white and raised on the skin of Youngho’s back.
Jaehyun continues, “But even in your hardest times you’re still just thinking about us. And about how to care for us.” Kindness unlike what they’d ever felt at home. Taeyong was a little bumbling, and kind of a Sad Boy, but he was fun and funny and indulged the two in their playful behavior. He let them exist without question, without the weight of an unattainable crown on their shoulders or rituals to fulfil. He let them be Jaehyun and Youngho, nothing more. And it made them feel like nothing less.
“Well...of course?” Taeyong questions. He racks his brain for the memories of fairy tales shared with his grandmother. Things of sirens luring wary fishermen to the rocks in order to feast. Things he could never imagine his two new friends doing. He’d never thought about what humans had done in return, but knowing others of his type (thinking of his ex) he just imagines how gruesome it’d be. “I could-- I would never not.”
“We know,” Jaehyun chimes in, “and we appreciate. That’s why we’re here to help you too. And if that help is Youngho’s use of legs to bring me back then...we’ll do it.”
By no means does Taeyong want them to go. In fact he actually asks for another full night and half a day together--of sharing meals and baths and stories, mostly about Taeyong’s grandmother--before relenting to bringing them back to the beach. Their company is...everything. He’s even become fond of spending all his downtime in the bathroom, watching Johnny taunt Jaehyun with his legs and how they allow him to stretch and kick and jump and do all these little things neither found valuable before but seem to have fun with now. But when he gets up to follow Taeyong out to different rooms then Jaehyun actually gets jealous, yelling loudly for them to return and disturbing any peace they could have one on one. He does, however, squeeze in time for one more soft and sincere apology about his previous behavior. Taeyong accepts in kind and they close that quick and unfortunate chapter for good.
Somehow fortune smiles on them because Youngho’s magic wears off just as they settle Jaehyun back into the moonlight reflecting water. He slips in quickly to spare Taeyong the gritty details of a transformation then they both greet him, elbows propped onto the shore as if nothing had changed at all.
“Thank you,” Taeyong says gently, linking one hand with Jaehyun and the other with Youngho. “For a lot of reasons I’ve made it because of you two. I won’t forget that. And if I can’t see you any time during this week then I’ll do my best to be back soon.”
“Please do,” Jaehyun beams. “We already miss you.”
“And your cooking. And your grandmother’s bath soaps. Invite us back again soon okay?”
x
After weeks of funeral preparation and months of getting back into the swing of city life Taeyong returns to his grandmother’s home. He laments how he can’t visit her anymore. He could stop at her grave marker, the tree planted in her childhood stomping grounds, but has that factored into the latter half of his weekend long trip. Right now he’s on a mission back to where it all began: this new chapter of his new life.
They spring up from the water, tops of their shining tails and all, to plant a kiss on each of Taeyong’s cheeks. The human goes beet red. “W-what is this!” He stammers, looking between Jaehyun on his right and Youngho on his left.
“We told you we love you,” Youngho chuckled. “Weren’t you listening back then?”
“You said I was a friend!”
“Yeah? Youngho’s my friend,” Jaehyun teases, swimming away from Taeyong in order to slip his arms around around Youngho’s waist and press a kiss to his cheek as well. “I love him too.”
“That’s different!”
“How?” Youngho asks genuinely, cocking a brow.
“How?” Taeyong parrots. “What do you mean how look at the two of you. We’re not like that.”
“Oh,” they both let out a hum in unison before Jaehyun asks “Is that all? Seems like an easy fix.”
“What?”
Two pairs of hands fall upon Taeyong’s body and before he knows it he’s pulled deep underwater. With a gasp he surges upward, throws his wet hair back and struggles for air. Now he’s pulled against their chests, sandwiched between the two prettiest boys in the entire sea. Mmm...actually in the entire world. Taeyong is sure of that.
“There,” Jaehyun drags his lips over Taeyong’s skin again. “All fixed.”
“Mhm,” Youngho taps Taeyong’s jaw with a finger and brings his attention over. “Feel loved now?”
And he does. Maybe more than ever before, in the sweet embrace of the most magical men he has ever had the pleasure to meet.