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Yoongi's father had warned him about the sea. He had warned him about the land full of hideous creatures, evil monsters, and a world in which Yoongi would be brutally killed without a second thought. Skewered alive and slammed to a grill or boiled in a steaming vat of water.
The land up above wasn't made for Yoongi to live in, to be happy in.
So they why did the breeze on land call Yoongi's name? Why did the clear blue sky have his name written clear in the clouds?
Why did the affliction of his tail not matter?
Yoongi's tail was beautiful, magnificent. The translucent hue of turquoise blues and emerald greens had the glimmer of his tail a different color almost everyway you looked at it. The sons of Triton were known for such gorgeous trivialities such as good looks, and gorgeous hair.
But Yoongi was so much more than that.
Against his father's wishes, Yoongi had been swimming to the abandoned ship, the one of ghost stories told to merboys and mermaidens. Alongside him, his voice of reason Namjoon, his father's royal advisor and, Jungkook, a merboy with a guppy of a tail and a love for reckless behavior.
"Prince Min, this is not a good idea."
Yoongi groans with the roll of his eyes. "Joon-ah, I thought I told you to stop calling me that. It's just Yoongi, hyung rather."
Namjoon adjusts the wired skepticals on his face, the curve of his red tail coiling in as he pushes against the current of the water, pulling Yoongi back by the wrist of his hand.
"Yoongi-hyung, your father told me to keep you out of trouble and I intend to fulfill my royal duties."
This makes Jungkook giggle, his own tail of gold glistening in the sunlight. Namjoon tries to swat at him with his fin.
Yoongi smiles at their childish antics. "Well, try as you might but, I'm not going back until I find what I'm looking for."
"And what exactly is that Prince M- I mean, hyung." Namjoon corrects himself with flushed cheeks. Jungkook downright cackles.
"Hyung just come on, it's not like Joon-hyung is gonna tell on you or anything." He chuckles. Namjoon turns on Jungkook with a furious glare.
"You underestimate me guppy."
"I'm not a guppy!"
"Shut up!" Yoongi yells before his breath hitches in his throat, his eyes falling to the very instrument he had been looking for.
A piano.
His piano.
Yoongi swims forward, his hands splaying across the black and white keys in a daze. Keys are missing here and there but, Yoongi makes due with what he has. Even beneath the water, the piano's song is undeniably bewitching.
Yoongi's hands fall to rest, the chords still reverberating beyond just the ship.
Someone clears their throat.
"That... Prince Min, that was beautiful." Namjoon gapes. Jungkook nods with urgency.
"You've gotta teach me how to play that so I can impress the mermaids."
Yoongi scoffs before sliding the lid shut on the ancient instrument.
"You can't tell anyone about this place Jungkook. It is for us, and us alone, okay?" Yoongi instills, his brows furrowed and his own mint blue hair flowing with the sea.
Namjoon sighs. "We must get back now hyung. The king is waiting."
"Yeah the king is waiting." Jungkook repeats mindlessly as he plays with an odd looking garment that he found, one that is feathered and long enough to wrap around his tail twice over.
"Okay, fine, let's..." The words dwindle form Yoongi's lips as his eyes catch a faint, distant light, one that seems to come from above.
Yoongi begins to swim.
"Prince Min, Prince Min! Yoongi get back here!"
"Ooh, what do you see hyung?!" Jungkook calls out as he follows suit.
Yoongi nearly flies towards the light, his arms outstretched toward the beam of sun before finally, his head breaks the surface, the crashing of water echoing in his ears and infiltrating his senses.
He sees a boy, sitting atop a jagged looking rock, a white tunic adorning his body, a pair of deep blue trousers flowing in the breeze as his toes find home in the warm, grainy sand.
Yoongi's chest gives light to a warm feeling, the pit of his stomach now fuzzy and fizzling with a sensation he had only ever felt one time before.
When he had met the same boy on that faithful night.
Namjoon dramatically gasps for air as his head breaks passed the barrier of water, his face bare and his eyes squinted.
"My glasses, where are my glasses?!"
"Hyung who is that. You know him?"
"Who, who?! Prince Min don't you go over there!"
Yoongi ignores the two idiots to which he calls his friends, the tug of his heartstrings like a magnet, bringing him nearer, closer to the sand and further from the sea. He blocks out the incessant splashing of the water behind him, the calls of protest.
Only one thing is on Yoongi's heart.
The boy is even more beautiful than before, his skin no longer a deathly shade of grey, his eyes full of life and his hair thick and healthy.
The boy has sharp, tan features, a jaw that can cut stone, lips that are soft and plush and pink. His lashes are long, fanning against the apples of his honed cheekbones. His eyes are shaped like almonds, a golden brown sparkling beneath the sun. His eyes are gems.
He is a gem.
The boy looks up, Yoongi's breath hitching as he immediately ducks his head beneath the water with a hasty plop.
"Hello? Who is there?" The boy calls out, his voice garbled beneath the bubbling water but, Yoongi can still hear how deep and velvety his voice is, how cavernous his tone is.
It's the same voice that has been haunting his dreams ever since the day they met.
"Come out I won't... I won't hurt you... I promise..."
He promises. Yoongi can't stop shaking, his tail twitching nervously beneath him, his stomach queasy with the jitters of anxiety.
But he promised.
Yoongi allows his body to float above the sea, first his mop of minty colored hair, then his eyes, then his nose and lips and chin.
And the boy immediately sees him, standing on two legs and traveling as close to the water as he can without submerging his whole body.
His head tilts, his chestnut colored hair giving way to the gusts of wind. In his eyes flashes a glint of recognition, a sign of remembrance that has Yoongi's pale cheeks aflame.
"You, I... I know you it's... it's you."
The boy runs into the water without a second thought, a yelp escaping his throat when his entire body plunges beneath the sea.
Yoongi gasps, diving back down into the water and grabbing ahold of the boy with all he has. Yoongi wraps his arms around his waist, his tail pulsing downward and giving them a boost of speed upward, the two rupturing the waves around them and crashing their bodies into the sand below. The boy begins to cough, his lungs on fire from the inhalation of the salt infested water.
Yoongi backs further into the water, his tail now hidden from view. But it's too late.
Because he saw it.
The boy laughs in disbelief, his tone uplifted in hysterics as he giggles.
"Saving me again are you..." He murmurs more to himself but loud enough for the merman to hear.
The water crackles as Yoongi starts to swim away. The boy holds out a hand.
"No! No don't. Don't go I... I won't tell anyone." He cries out, a hand falling to his side as his other hand trails to his long locks, combing through the few knotted fringes.
Yoongi remains still as the boy makes to sit deep in the sand, a few mere inches away from the merman in question.
"You... you're real." He says. And Yoongi can't help but to smile.
Of course, he's real. He's a merman.
The boy licks at his chapped lips, his eyes searching and desperate for something that he doesn't have the words for.
He extends a hand. "My name is Kim Taehyung." He says, his voice layered with kind-heartedness, a fondness.
But Yoongi is unaccustomed to human affairs and greetings. He tilts his head, eyeing the hand cautiously before taking a look at his own. He holds it up, the human before him raising a brow before giggling immensely, his eyes crinkling in hilarity.
Yoongi laughs too.
The human, Taehyung, takes ahold of Yoongi's hand, the merman gasping at the touch. The human's hands are so warm, the blood coursing within him vivid and pulsing with life.
Taehyung interlocks their hands, their fingers weaving like a thread. Yoongi's lips are parted, his eyes wide and his cheeks a delicate shade of rose.
"You saved my life that night."
Yoongi has never felt like this before. The words in his throat have died, his voice long gone as he focuses on the feeling the human's hand within his own.
"I've been coming here, every day to see if... to see if you would ever come back here." Taehyung murmurs deeply, his tone gruff and imbedded with something fascinating. Taehyung crawls closer, the merman flinching and snatching his hand away. Taehyung holds his hands up in surrender, a sign of retreat.
A sign of relinquish.
"I won't hurt you. I swear it just... can I have your name? Your... anything about you."
Yoongi swims closer, making up for the lack of distance in which the human has granted him. His father would punish him for this, for even thinking of relenting such information but, there is something about the way Taehyung looks at him, something about the way he speaks so softly, so kindly.
Yoongi has never been one to trust easily but he trusts Taehyung.
"Yoongi..." He mumbles, the merman's lips pouted and his eyes cast downward.
Taehyung comes closer.
"I'm sorry I didn't... I didn't catch that..."
Yoongi looks up, his breath hitching once he realizes how close him and Taehyung are now. Their noses nearly bump at the close proximity, the human's gaze so near that Yoongi can count every star within his chocolate orbs.
"Yoongi, Min Yoongi."
Yoongi did remember the boy.
A wicked storm was afoot, the lightning clawing through the sky as the thunger eurpts through the night. Yoongi had been swimming in a rush to get home, his time at the shipwreck having gone on for far too long.
But the tide was strong, the water, villanoius in its iniquitous clutches. Yoongi is thrown to the side, his back coming into contact with a sharp rock. The merman cries out in anguish, snapping his tail back into motion and surging his body through the venomous ocean. The light from above shatters, a dark cloud shielding Yoongi from above and stealing away his attention.
Up ahead is a dark figure, one that is thrashing and shuddering in the dark.
A figure without a tail.
Yoongi doesn't think before blasting through the water, the ocean making room for him as he swims with no remorse. Yoongi doesn't know exactly what he has in his arms but, he holds it tight, the fight within it dissipating as water fills its lungs.
Yoongi swims up, conjuring up all the strength that he has to get to dry land. The push and pull of the water makes the journey feel like forever but, soon the breaking of the surface jolts Yoongi from his thoughts, the pelting of rain hails down like needles. Yoongi breathes through the pain, the weight in his arms now ten times heaver than before with the addition of oxygen.
The current fights against Yoongi as land finally comes into view. The sight of sand gives Yoongi the extra push that he needs, hauling him and the dead weight in his arms to shore.
Yoongi heaves, the constant rhythm of the tide pushing the merman forward onto the sand. His breaths are rugged, pained, the air sharp and grating his throat.
Yoongi pushes himself from the ground, his arms shaking tremendously as he tries to make out what he has brought from the depths of the sea.
It's a human.
A boy.
Yoongi darts forward, his hands pushing back the wet stands of hair from the boy's face. Yoongi slaps his cheeks lightly, the skin there devoid of color.
Devoid of life.
"Hey, boy. Wake up." Yoongi begs, his hands shaking the boy's body by his spiritless arms.
"Wake up."
Yoongi's hands cup the boy's cheek, the silence suffocating and breath.
The boy's eyes fly open.
He inhales deeply, sharply before he sits up, coughing violently, water shooting up from his throat and pouring from his lips, into the damp sand below.
Yoongi gasps, falling back as his hands bury themselves deep into the sand. The boy continues to sputter and cough, his skin returning to its original color.
A beautiful shade of olive.
Once his coughs have tapered off into something more manageable, less painless, the boy guzzles in as much air as he can without sending his body into another coughing fit.
His eyes drift slowly up, locking with Yoongi's.
The merman is speechless.
Humans are so beautiful.
But Yoongi shouldn't be here. His father would kill him if he ever found out he had come into contact with this monster.
But this boy doesn't look like a monster.
Even so, the panic has already set in, flooding Yoongi's system and forcing his body to retreat back into the dark sea.
"Wait! Come back!" He hears the distant, deep voice say but, he doesn't listen.
Yoongi will never forget such a face.
Yoongi never forgot the face of a boy so beautiful. Every time the merman closed his eyes, he saw the ones of another.
Of Taehyung.
"I have heard about... people like you uhm, mermaids?" Taehyung asks sheepishly, his shoulders slumped and his tone dreary, not meaning to offend.
Yoongi pouts.
"Merman. I'm a man. Mermaids are women."
Taehyung chuckles, his eyes bright as his smile only widens.
"Yes, merman. My apologies." The human says between his laughs. The sound is melodic, enchanting. It makes Yoongi want to laugh too.
So he does.
But Yoongi feels a harsh tug at his tail, his two friends clearly sending him a sign of retreat.
But Yoongi's heart tinges with sadness. He doesn't want to go.
He doesn't want to leave Taehyung.
"I must go... I shouldn't be here―"
"Wait please I... I've been waiting for so long to see you again. Don't leave yet, please."
Yoongi swallows back his hesitance. He should leave. He should go back down to the sea.
Back home, where he is a prisoner in his own kingdom.
Yoongi presses his hands against a smooth surface of the rock, his face a mere inch from Taehyung's.
Their lips even closer.
"Meet me here tomorrow when the sun rises. I'll be here." He whispers. Taehyung smells sweet, sugary and coated in a thin film of the tantalizing ocean.
Taehyung leans forward, their noses touching, their lips a breath apart. He cups Yoongi's cheek wet cheek. The merman giggles.
"I'll be waiting."
He seals the deal with a sweet, sensual kiss, one that tastes like the sea.