Archive of Our Own

”How many times do I have to tell you Ritsu?! Stop wandering off all the time, it’s too dangerous!” Ritsu’s mother, arms crossed over her chest, was giving him a lecture for what felt like the millionth time.

All he wanted was to go out and explore beyond their territory. It wasn’t like any of the ships that passed through this part of the ocean ever posed much of a threat. For the most part they were all fishermen who knew better than to upset the locals and only take what they needed and nothing more.

But one incident years ago had ended up ruining any chances he had at exploring. There was something about the kingdom at shore that just drew him in so much that he couldn’t help it. There was a whole different world up there, with all sorts of people Ritsu could only dream of meeting! A culture he didn’t know at all beyond shipwrecks that he’d been able to sneak off and look at.

It wasn’t as if his life was all bad, he had his family, his pod-mates, he always had food to eat, the temperature was always fairly moderate throughout the seasons…he just desperately wanted to learn more about the world around him.

So the next time when his parents weren’t paying any attention, he swam up to shore, finding an isolated beach. There wasn’t a human in sight, only a few seagulls here and there. He would just sit there and stare up at the large structure in the distance—if he had heard correctly from the pod before, the humans referred to it as a castle, and their royalty lived there.

He always wondered who exactly lived up there—what their life was like, if they were as restricted as Ritsu was as a prince. But he sincerely doubted it. They had legs to walk and boats to travel across water. They could go anywhere…that was how he saw things at least.

When things became too much at home or he felt like his responsibilities were becoming too much, Ritsu would come up to this beach. He’d never seen a human here, and that was something that remained the same for a long time, until the day that it changed.

Usually Ritsu would prop himself up on the shore on one the beach rocks, top half on land with his tail remaining in the water. In the middle of working his way up into his usual position though, he saw someone—no older than a teenager by his estimation—making their way down onto the beach. He flipped around in a panic, swimming a good distance away before turning around to peek again.

Whoever it was hadn’t seemed to notice him—or at the very least if they had, they weren’t outwardly showing it. He silently watched the boy, who pulled out something from his cloak and began to stare at it, turning its contents every minute or so.

Ritsu had seen things resembling the item before in shipwrecks, but they’d always been incomprehensible. He didn’t know why so many humans would have an interest in something so empty. Whatever it was, it seemed to have entertained the boy though, and Ritsu found himself a bit jealous. He wanted to understand what this boy was doing, and he wanted to be a part of it.

But he dared not approach, knowing there could be consequences for both sides. He was a mermaid—mermaid royalty at that. As far as he’d been told his whole life despite never having interacted with humans, he’d been told that they didn’t get along, and never would.

But he was just so curious. Curious about humans, curious about whatever this boy was holding, curious about this boy.

He could only think of one way to proceed:

Come to the beach any time he could slip away, always hoping to catch a glimpse of this dark-haired boy, who never seemed to give up on wearing a cloak no matter what the temperature was.

It was something that Masamune had noticed years ago.

It started with peculiar splashing noises he hadn’t heard on any other trip he’d taken near the kingdom’s shores. Then it turned into catching glimpses of bright orange unlike he’d ever seen outside of books or the dyes commoners he’d pass whenever he’d slip away from the castle used on their clothes in an attempt to imitate the red robes royalty wore.

At first he thought that maybe there’d been some cloth floating around in the water or that there was some sort of wildlife he’d never seen before, but on one particularly sunny day when he’d snuck out to go read a book on a small cliff overseeing a view of the ocean he’d become quite attached to, he saw it.

Perhaps ‘it’ wasn’t the right term. Their top half was definitely human-like, but past their waist, that bright orange that he’d only caught glimpses of in the past reflected in his eyes. It was a tail—a fish tail.

Masamune had been skeptical about the existence of mermaids and sirens (he wasn’t sure which this creature was as of yet) that he’d read about in books. It wasn’t as if he’d gotten to spend much time outside of this kingdom, and especially not much time at sea to discover anything for himself. From what he’d read, they were quite elusive and evasive to human civilization.

It had been a couple of weeks since the last time he’d been able to sneak out, so perhaps they hadn’t known Masamune frequented this spot. But the familiarity he was feeling told him otherwise. He’d seen that same orange color far too many times when he visited this coast for it to be a coincidence.

Had they been waiting for him? Should he wake them up? Or would that just be endangering himself needlessly? If this was a siren and what he’d read about them had been true, he was as good as dead.

He decided he should just turn back and find somewhere else quiet to read for today, taking slow and quiet steps away from the creature. But he mis-stepped and the sound of his boot cracking a shell made their ears twitch.

The creature's head rose quickly, as if realizing they were in a place they shouldn’t be. But then they saw Masamune just a few steps away and their jaw dropped, revealing small fangs.

“Sss-sor-ry!” They exclaimed hoarsely, their throat seemingly not accustomed to speaking on the surface. They pushed back, readying to swim away.

But was this really it? After all that time hanging around they were just going to run off? After Masamune’s first proper look at them?

“Wait.” Masamune’s words came out a bit more cautiously than he had intended, but thankfully he was still able to make the creature come to a stop before their head fully submerged, making eye contact. “You’ve been coming here for a long time, haven’t you?”

The creature nodded in response. That at least answered one question.

“Why do you come here so much?” Masamune continued down that same line of questioning.

“W-we’re-” They stopped and coughed in some strange attempt to clear their throat, properly surfacing again, now only chest deep in the water. “Not supposed to go by you—by humans. The pod says it’s dangerous, but…all you do is look at those…what are they called?”

“This?” Masamune gestured to the novel in his hand. “Books?”

“Yes, those things. I find them in shipwrecks sometimes, but they almost never have anything inside…so I guess I just don’t see how you can spend as much time as you do staring at them all day.”

Masamune’s face faulted at this. So this creature, whatever they were, wasn't a fan of books apparently. He flipped today’s novel of choice to a random page, turning it around to show it off.

“Just because you don’t like to read-”

“Wait, that one looks…different?” They swam closer to shore now, green eyes wide. “All the ones I’ve found have been all blotchy and in tatters…”

Masamune blinked a few times, realization washing over him. Whatever this creature had been finding had likely been damaged beyond recognition by the water, its ink washing out and making it impossible to read. If this thing even knew how to read, that is.

“C-can I see it?” They got a bit closer now, propping themselves up on a beachrock, clawed and webbed hands reaching out shakily.

“Your hands are all wet.” Masamune looked at him sourly, not willing to damage one of his books for this strange creature. “At least dry them off first.”

“Oh, um…” They looked about, and after some thought, settled on wiping off their palms on the beach sand, only making it stick to their skin. “Carp…”

Ignoring what he was certain was the sea-version of an expletive (according to his attendant, Masamune didn’t find ‘crap’ all that vulgar) he was quite familiar with, Masamune clicked his tongue, reaching into his back pocket for a handkerchief. He took one of the creature’s hands and began wiping it down, earning a quiet gasp that he chose to ignore in favor of not upsetting whatever this creature was.

The more he wiped their hands down, the more he found himself interested in how this thing’s skin worked. How was it not all pruny with the amount of time they spent in the water? He held their hand closer to inspect it, only stopping when he realized they were shaking.

“Sorry,” He pulled back. “I just…I’ve never seen a…”

“...Mermaid.” They completed the sentence for him.

Masamune just stared at him for a moment before offering his hand again. “I’m Masamune, you?”

The mermaid stared at Masamune’s outstretched hand, uncertain, before mirroring him, holding out his hand. “Ritsu.”

Masamune’s outing to escape his less than enjoyable homelife for a few hours had turned into something he never could have seen coming.

Masamune’s visits to the coast became more frequent, as well as his raids of the royal library. He couldn’t exactly leave Ritsu without new reading material when he never knew when the next time he’d be able to swing by the beach would be.

Surprisingly, Ritsu had known how to read, informing Masamune that they shared a written language, just that he wasn’t accustomed to seeing it on paper in ink. It made sense, since a normal book would never survive in Ritsu’s usual living conditions.

The main issue was, Ritsu was sneaking away from his family the same way that Masamune had been from his own, and he couldn’t exactly take the books home—that’d ruin them! So Masamune had snuck a chest down to the beach and given Ritsu a copy of the key to keep so that he could use it as his own personal mini-library.

When he’d finish a book, he’d leave it in the chest for Ritsu, and the next time they’d happen to be on the beach at the same time they’d have something to talk about outside of general curiosities about their respective civilizations.

It was nice to be able to talk to someone without having to worry about his status—even if he had told Ritsu he was a prince he doubted the same societal rules would have applied anyways. He didn’t really hold any power here since Ritsu wasn’t even human, nor did he really care to do so most of the time. He just wanted to read books. And Ritsu liked reading too, so what should stop them from being friends?

There were, however, other passing moments during the time that they spent together, like the first time that they happened to meet up after Masamune had stopped at a food stall in the main town, that made him think otherwise.

Masamune frequented the stall often since he began slipping out of the castle and had come to know the owner as Yoriko, a kind woman who would often give him extra food for free, although he insisted against it. She would constantly talk of her son who worked in the castle as a painter and how he never ate enough and was far too scrawny. She wanted to get at least one boy to grow properly with her cooking, and if it couldn’t be her own son, it’d be Masamune. Of course, he hadn’t given her his real name, instead using the name Kyo as an alias.

This day in particular, Ritsu had been able to smell the food on him. Masamune couldn’t blame him, it was seafood after all, and that was Ritsu’s entire diet.

Masamune took out cooked, skewered chunks of fish and meat, which Ritsu was hesitant to accept at first. After one bite though, it was as if it disappeared in seconds. Seeing someone eat with absolutely zero table manners was honestly just the thing Masamune had needed—it was the hardest he’d laughed in awhile.

It was hard to keep it together when Ritsu looked up at him like he was the crazy one for eating his own portion so slowly and carefully.

“Why do you eat like that?” Ritsu settled down next to him, staring up at him with big green eyes.

“Why do you eat like that?” Masamune parroted, gesturing to the broken skewer in front of Ritsu.

“I guess it’s just another thing that makes us different…” Ritsu’s stare fell down to the book resting on the sand beside them. “That last book you brought down mentioned things like…’forks’ and ‘spoons’ and ‘knives’, do you usually eat with those?”

“Yes, we don’t always eat with our hands, sometimes that’s considered rude amongst humans.”

“Oh, um, sorry if I’ve made you uncomfortable before, then.” Ritsu thought back to the few times that he’d been tearing apart a fish while waiting for Masamune to show up.

“You’re not a human, you’re fine.” Masamune waved him off, talking as he chewed. “I’ve never really cared for table manners anyways. It’s all a bunch of formal crap that’s supposed to make you come off as more important than you actually are.”

Ritsu hummed, taking that information in. Every day he got to meet with Masamune, he learned something new.

“Hey, I’m getting kind of full, do you want this last piece?” Masamune picked his last piece of fish off his skewer, offering his hand to Ritsu.

Ritsu leaned forward, taking the piece in his mouth, his tongue briefly brushing up against Masamune’s fingers. The shock that went through Masamune’s system had him thinking very hard for the rest of the week leading up to when he’d next be able to meet with Ritsu.

Perhaps Masamune wanted to be more than just friends.

As Masamune approached the beach in his usual cloak with a new book to drop off in hand, he saw the last thing he was expecting.

A different mermaid, seated in Ritsu’s usual spot.

At least that’s what this seemed to be, they shared a lot of characteristics with Ritsu, so he felt pretty confident in his guess. The only difference was that this one had breasts, long, flowing brown hair, and their tail was bright blue instead of orange. Were they related to Ritsu in some way?

“...Hey.” He greeted, pulling down his hood, hoping it made him seem less threatening. The way that Ritsu described relations between their species, other mermaids didn’t usually take well to humans.

“You!” They pointed at him with one of their claws, getting straight to business. “You’re the one that Ricchan keeps visiting up here, aren’t you?!”

“...By ‘Ricchan’ do you mean Ritsu?” Masamune asked.

“Duh!” She crossed her arms over her chest, tail tapping the rock she was atop impatiently. “I’m here to tell you to back off! I don’t need Ricchan getting involved with any humans, especially when you look like that!”

“That?” Masamune repeated, cringing. He didn’t exactly think he was unattractive, if that’s what she meant.

“Yeah, you look just like that horrible king!” She gestured at him again, baring her teeth. “You should stay away from Ricchan if you know what’s good for you! He’s royalty after all, you could get in big trouble!”

“...Royalty?” Masamune repeated hesitantly.

“Yeah, so if anyone finds out about this both of you are gonna get in huge trouble! I don’t want that for him, so I’m just coming to tell you first.” An crossed her arms again, glaring. “Stop coming to this beach so that Ricchan won’t have a reason to come here anymore.”

“Well how does Ritsu feel about it? Have you talked to him?” Masamune mirrored her, crossing his own arms. “What if he likes coming here and spending time with me?”

“Well of course he does! I’ve never seen him talk with someone so much before! But it’s a matter of safety, and I don’t want to see his mother yell at him anymore, so…”

“An-chan, what are you doing here?!” Ritsu had arrived, and was plenty shocked to see another mermaid on shore. “Aren’t you supposed to be-”

“Out hunting for food, just like you’re supposed to be out hunting!” She tapped her tail impatiently again. “I wondered where you kept swimming off to, but I never thought you’d be off becoming all buddy buddy with a human!”

“Please don’t tell mother!” Ritsu pleaded, already imagining the longest lecture of his life awaiting him. “We’re not doing anything wrong here, really!”

“Wrong or not, he’s a human! We don’t know when he could decide to hurt you!”

“If he’d wanted to hurt me he would’ve done so a long time ago, An-chan! Have some trust in my judgment!” Now Ritsu was crossing his arms. Masamune felt a swell of affection and pride in his chest. “I trust him, so you should, too.”

She became quiet, face forming into a pout. “...I still don’t like that you’re coming up here alone all the time.”

“Well then maybe you can come with me sometimes.” Ritsu offered, and Masamune tried not to show his disappointment at the lack of privacy. “Masamune-san, would that be okay with you?”

“...Yeah, I guess that’d be fine, so long as she’s alright with it.”

An had begun accompanying Ritsu to the beach when she could, insisting it was to protect him. But there was still just as much for her to learn about human culture as there was for Ritsu.

“So this is that…‘skewer’ thing you were talking about?” An held it in her hand, looking at it suspiciously.

“Yeah, it’s delicious!” Ritsu took a bite out of his own and hummed happily. “You should try it, An-chan!”

“What if he poisoned it or something?” An glared at Masamune, who just shrugged at her. He didn’t care if she ate it one way or another, if anything, he’d prefer Ritsu eat it because he’d honestly only bought it for him.

“I’ve eaten plenty of them without any issue, see?” He took another bite and smiled at her encouragingly.

“Well, if you say so, Ricchan…” She took a cautious bite, before her eyes grew big. “Oh.”

“Is that a good ‘oh’ or a bad ‘oh’?” Ritsu looked at her with concern.

“I-um…” An turned tail and hid behind some taller rocks. Masamune could hear her devouring it in the same way that Ritsu often did. He snickered quietly.

She came back over slowly and dropped the skewer on the sand between the three of them.

“So?” Masamune spoke up now. “Was it up to your standards?”

“It was okay. I guess.” She shrugged him off, crumbs still on her face.

Masamune and Ritsu just laughed quietly, to which An started sputtering in embarrassment.

“This is where you’ve been running off to all the time?” A fourth voice joined them now, and a tall, dark-haired man stepped foot onto the beach, only able to see the back of Masamune’s head at the moment. “Do you know how much trouble I could get into if your parents found…”

“Shhhhhh!” Masamune jumped to his feet to cover his attendant Takafumi’s mouth, knowing how prone he was to raising his voice. One yell of ‘mermaids!’ and this whole thing they had going on would end up getting shut down. That was the last thing he wanted. “Don’t yell, please.”

“Why are you sitting on the beach with a couple of mermaids?!” Takafumi hissed out, reaching for the sword at his hip.

“Put that thing away!” Masamune hissed back, pushing Takafumi’s hand down, forcing the blade back into its scabbard. “They’re not dangerous!”

“All it takes is you letting your guard down for a second and they could drag you into the water and drown you! You’re a prince! You can’t just throw your life into danger so recklessly!” Takafumi shoved Masamune away from him, properly drawing his blade now, pointing it in An and Ritsu’s direction. “Go back to where you came from and I’ll forget about this!”

Masamune turned and looked at the two of them with a horrible sinking feeling in his stomach. An was attempting to drag Ritsu back to the ocean by the arm, but Ritsu was just staring at Masamune with wide green eyes, fearful.

It wasn’t an expression that fit his face at all. He hated it.

“Ritsu, just get out of here for now, it’s too dangerous.” Masamune continued holding Takafumi off, standing between them all as a form of defense. “I’ll come back for you later, I promise.”

“The hell you will.” Takafumi said. “Now that I know the hiding spot you run off to all the time, whatever is happening here is over.”

“Ritsu, I…” Masamune was struggling to find the right words, feeling his world crumbling before his eyes.

“It’s okay, I understand, really.” Ritsu backed away alongside An into the water, forcing a small smile. “I’m sure we’ll see each other again.”

“Ritsu!” Masamune cried out, chest growing tight as Ritsu and An turned tail and swam off.

Weeks had passed since Masamune’s last venture outside of the castle grounds. He was starting to get a bit stir crazy, between the lack of ability to just go out on a simple walk and the very much more distressing lack of Ritsu.

That distressing lack of Ritsu in his life had to be fixed, and it had to be fixed soon.

Masamune had a plan thankfully—a shitton of time to himself to “reflect on his actions” in his room would give a person a time to concoct such a thing.

Takafumi would be going down into the town to visit his mother, but only for a few hours. He specifically didn’t leave the castle grounds all that much because of how much of a full time job it was to keep an eye on Masamune—he didn’t exactly make things easy for him.

In Takafumi’s stead, another staff member, Yoshiyuki from the royal guard, would be keeping an eye on him. Or rather, he’d be standing guard at his bedroom door, assuring he wouldn’t be able to slip away.

All Masamune would have to do to get him out of the picture would be-

“Tori! This is where you’ve been? I was looking everywhere for you!” A voice that Masamune recognized as one of the court painters was directly outside of his door suddenly, breaking him out of his thoughts. “Why are you on this side of the castle? I wanted to eat lunch with you today!”

“I can’t go anywhere right now, I have to guard Prince Masamune until his attendant gets back from his trip into town.”

“Ehh? He’s probably too busy in there to even notice, you could leave for even just a few minutes, right? Besides, I think I saw someone eating chocolate, we need to find out where they got it from!”

“You’re always thinking with your stomach…fine, give me a minute.”

Masamune heard Yoshiyuki begin to unhinge the lock from the outside of his room and dove into his bed, giving his best performance of pretending to be asleep. 

He heard Yoshiyuki walk into the room and approach the bed quietly, and began to feel nervous he had been seen through when he felt himself being stared at. But it all ended quite quickly, and he left the room again.

“...Okay, he’s resting, so I can slip away for a bit. Just to be safe though, let’s go find someone else to guard the room for a bit, okay? Hey, hold on! Woah!” Before Yoshiyuki could lock the door again, it sounded as if he was being dragged away excitedly.

Masamune took that as his cue to get moving before anyone else might show up, quickly gathering up his cloak and a lantern so that he’d be able to see after sunset.

Getting out of his room had been the hard part, now he could do as he always did, sneaking out of the usual abandoned passageway and through some topiaries off of the castle grounds. He sped-walk down to the beach, doing his best to contain himself so as not to draw attention to himself.

When he arrived, it was just as quiet as the last time he’d been here, and a wave of calm came over him. But there was still the issue of the distinct lack of…

“Ritsu?” Masamune called out cautiously, walking towards the edge of the beach. “Are you here?”

A loud splash rang out, and Ritsu showed himself, diving out from behind a rock.

“You’re here!” Ritsu met him halfway, their hands intertwining the moment they got close enough. “I-I didn’t know if you were ever going to be able to come back—where you’d be if you did, if you were okay-I-!”

“I’m sorry, my attendant means well, but he’s a stubborn asshole, he’s kind of stuck in his ways trying to protect me.” Masamune moved in closer now, holding Ritsu in his arms. “I don’t even know how long I can get away with being here now, but I just wanted to see you so badly, I-”

The distinct sound of men running nearby caught their attention, and Ritsu pulled away quickly, jumping into the water.

“Shit, that might be…Ritsu, you’re going to need to help me, the tide is harsh right now!” Masamune whispered, just loud enough for Ritsu’s sensitive ears.

He hurriedly put out the flame in his lantern and dove into the water beside Ritsu, who quickly pulled him out of sight and into a small sea cave below. Ritsu held onto him tightly, making sure that he’d stay afloat amidst the harsher evening tide. Neither of them dared to speak, not wanting to alert Takafumi or anyone else that he may have brought along in his search.

“I could’ve sworn that I heard him…” Takafumi grumbled, stomping off to a different part of the beach. “I can’t believe I left for only three hours and…”

They each let out a sigh of relief, relaxing in each others’ arms just the slightest bit.

Ritsu turned to look at Masamune, his vision as a mermaid being far more accustomed to these sorts of conditions, fully able to take in his features. Since the two of them had begun to spend time around each other, he hadn’t had a good chance to just stare at him anymore. It felt a bit unfair in their current conditions, like he was just taking advantage of things, but he just couldn’t help himself.

As Masamune’s vision adjusted to the small amount of remaining sunlight and incoming moonlight filtering into the cave and reflecting up from the water’s surface, he took notice of the look he was on the receiving end of.

“Hey, Ritsu…” He started cautiously.

“Y-yes?” The grip around his arms faltered slightly, he had seemingly snapped Ritsu out of whatever train of thought he had been lost in. “Is everything alright?”

“Close your eyes for a second.”

Ritsu blinked at him, confused, but he complied anyway, figuring he could just rely on his ears in case anyone started approaching again. The last thing that he’d been expecting was the soft feeling of Masamune’s lips brushing against his own.

Green eyes snapped back open quickly in shock, catching a hint of red on Masamune’s face, throwing his stomach and heart into a fit of sorts. He braced against Masamune’s arms even harder, pushing them apart.

“What are you doing?” Ritsu hissed out.

“What am I…fuck, don’t tell me that mermaids don’t kiss or something like that.” It was the first time that Masamune had sounded so…nervous in front of Ritsu that it made his words catch in his throat.

“N-no, um, we do, I just…I’ve just never…” Ritsu trailed off, embarrassed to admit to his inexperience. He could definitely see Masamune having been the type to have already done so with someone else before.

“Good, keep it that way.” Masamune bumped their foreheads together. “I want to be the only one kissing you.”

“Wh-wha-huh?” Ritsu just stared at him as if he’d grown a second head. “What do you-”

“I want to be with you.” Masamune had already been clinging to him to stay afloat, but his arms became tighter around him, bringing the two of them closer together. “I don’t want to not be able to see you anymore.”

Ritsu grew quiet, not sure what to say. He felt the same way. He didn’t want to stop visiting the shore and reading human books and learning more about their culture. But he especially didn’t want to have to stop seeing Masamune.

Having allowed silence to take over, the two simply floated in the water listening to the ocean waves and for any other royal guard members. When it’d been long enough that they figured they were likely safe, Ritsu swam the two of them out a bit and peeked out his head from the cave, peering onto the beach.

“The coast is clear.” Ritsu grabbed Masamune by the shoulders and pushed him, putting some distance between them. “You should get back on land.”

“I don’t want to.” Masamune protested, clinging onto Ritsu even tighter.

“But you have to.” Ritsu began swimming them back to shore, but Masamune just kept getting in the way, restricting his movements. “You aren’t safe here, especially at night. The tide is too strong. And if anyone from my pod sees you, you might get hurt.”

“But if any of those royal guards see you, you might get hurt. I’d never forgive myself.”

“Well I can’t exactly blame them, you’re a prince. Princes shouldn’t really be out late at night away from home and avoiding the guards meant to protect them.”

“I could say the same thing about you.” Masamune jabbed him square in the chest.

“An-chan told you?!” Ritsu hissed, biting down on his lower lip. “That just means you should understand the gravity of our situation even more than before, my pod can’t see you. An-chan hasn’t told anyone else because she knows it’d be more trouble than it’s worth, but if you just come waltzing into the pods’ territory, it’s asking for issues, especially when you’re royalty.”

“What’s my status have anything to do with it?” Masamune’s brow furrowed as he tried to think of why that made things even worse.

“I’m guessing you were likely too young to have heard about it, but the king—your father—passed through our territory on a ship once and it ended in an altercation that hurt a lot of An-chan’s family. My parents have always been close to hers and had been there at the time attempting to get everyone out of there safely. Her mom hasn’t been able to get around the same since the whole thing. I can’t blame An-chan for acting the way around you that she does.”

“But that was-” Masamune began to protest, but his words caught in his throat as Ritsu continued.

“Your father, I know. You’re not old enough to have been involved in the decisions that led to any of the hurt, and I understand that. I’m sure An-chan does too, but…” Ritsu sighed, unable to meet Masamune’s gaze. “All the adults who were around at the time can’t just let go of their hurt so easily. We’ve been raised to avoid even coming to shore. The only reason I even came out here to begin with was because there were times where I just wanted to just be alone for a bit. But then I couldn’t even be alone on an isolated beach I never saw any humans at, because you were suddenly coming here a few years ago.”

“Well my bad.” Masamune scoffed. “I just happened to want to get away from things, too.”

“And I’m so glad that you did, because coming to this beach and seeing you all the time and reading all those books you bring me is one of the few things that keeps me sane anymore.” Ritsu’s voice began to wobble as he tried his best to hold his emotions together. “B-but if us being around each other is going to get one of us hurt, then-”

“No.” Masamune covered his mouth before he could finish that thought. “Don’t say it.”

“I don’t want to be apart either, but as things are now, neither of us has the freedom to be around each other as we please. I’m not saying that we have to be apart forever, just…for now.”

“I don’t want to have to be apart at all though.” Masamune buried his nose into the crook of Ritsu’s neck. “Even when we can’t meet up for a few days, all I’m ever thinking about is how I’ll sneak out next time because I want to see you so badly.”

Ritsu exhaled through his nose, trying to find some sort of amusement in all of this. They weren’t all that different from each other.

“At some point, I stopped coming here to be alone, and instead just so I might be able to see you.” Ritsu explained. “Whenever I come here I have to say I’m going off to hunt for something to eat or that I’m going to go look out for ships so I can warn the pod if any humans are nearby.”

“Well, you found a human.” Masamune pulled back slightly, looking at him with a sad smile. “What’s the protocol?”

“Either go back and report to the adults, or…I don’t think you’d like the second choice, really.” Ritsu’s features darkened at the thought.

“Well in all honesty, I’d rather be drowned than be apart from you, if that’s the second option.” Masamune said far too seriously for Ritsu’s liking.

“Drown the kingdom’s crown prince and have that be interpreted as a declaration of war on your people? No thank you.” Ritsu finally got them onto shore, placing Masamune on the sand. “I understand being at home isn’t the greatest thing for you as things are right now, but if anything happens to you now, it’s going to be an issue for both of us. So please, just for now…”

“Ritsu.” Masamune cut him off, placing a finger on Ritsu’s lips. “I understand. I just have one last thing to ask of you.”

“...What is it?” Ritsu asked hesitantly, worried it would just be another plea to stay together. He didn’t think he could handle such a thing right now.

“Would you close your eyes one more time for me?” Masamune tilted his head, leaning in close.

Ritsu took a deep breath and obliged, closing the distance between them, sealing their lips together. They stayed like that for a good while, Masamune’s hands running down Ritsu’s chest and settling at his hips where skin became scales.

“You taste salty.” Was the first thing that Masamune said when they pulled apart, chuckling as his hands lingered on Ritsu’s body.

“Well I live in the ocean, what exactly did you expect…” Ritsu grumbled, looking down at where they still remained in contact.

“That’s true…” Masamune trailed off, his hands feeling along the bumps of Ritsu’s scales, attempting to burn the sensation into his mind.

“...Masamune-san, I have to go. The adults are probably already looking for me by now, so…” Ritsu said, gently running a hand over Masamune’s, heart squeezing painfully.

Meeting Masamune’s eyes one last time, Ritsu pushed off of the sand and dove into the water, his tail flopping one more time above the surface before disappearing into the dark of the night.

Masamune lingered on the beach watching the horizon for as long as he could until the tide became too much for him to safely remain where he was. He pulled his now wet cloak over himself and began the trek to Takafumi’s group so that they’d stop their search and hopefully prevent any potential altercations with Ritsu’s pod.

“Bunch of fucking idiots…” Masamune grumbled, slipping out of the castle from his usual spot. To say he’d been pissed about this entire situation had been an understatement. Takafumi’s solution to this problem was to schedule even more lessons for him in an attempt to keep him busy. He didn’t seem to understand that there was another option: blow those lessons off and do literally anything else.

Takafumi had even made an attempt to get Masamune’s parents involved, hoping that a lecture from one, or maybe even both of them would talk some sense into him, but apparently they were too busy to spare even a second for their only child as per usual these days. Even if they had gotten involved, Masamune doubted anything they could say would sway him. Nothing would change his love for Ritsu.

And even if he couldn’t go to the beach any more for Ritsu’s and his safety, he at least wanted to keep going out to read. That was a tradition he’d upheld for longer than he’d known Ritsu existed.

What truly hurt was that the activity was a constant reminder now that he wouldn’t be getting to talk to Ritsu about any of these books anymore. And what made things even worse was that finding another quiet spot away from the bustle of the main town other than the isolated beach was a hard task. There were plenty of places in the castle that would work if Masamune had just wanted quiet, but he just didn’t want to be in there at all. It was suffocating.

And when it came to the main town, a lot of the quiet places were only quiet because royal guards were posted—places like those were too risky for him to be at because he had a higher chance of being recognized. He’d attempted to read in a few different places over the past couple of weeks, but nothing was clicking like that beach had. 

Though as he began to notice every little couple-like interaction around him as he made his way around town, he started to have a feeling it had more to do with the lack of mermaid-kind-of-boyfriend by his side rather than the noise level.

Deciding to give up on reading for today, choosing instead to spend his time sulking at his usual seafood spot instead, Masamune fastened his cloak into place and headed down the usual cobbled path.

When the usual food stall came into view, there seemed to be a commotion of sorts surrounding it, and he pushed to the front of the crowd, curious to see just what was going on. The last thing he’d been expecting was a group of men holding up the kind woman who he’d come to befriend over the past few years.

He’d avoided anything that looked sketchy out of fear of attracting attention and being recognized on other outings, but now he’d gone and made eye contact with Yoriko, and one of the thugs followed her line of sight and began to stare at him openly.

“Kyo-kun, get out of here, I don’t want you getting mixed up in this!” Yoriko called out to him, hands remaining in the air as a weapon was pointed at her. “Go hide somewhere safe!”

Masamune didn’t know what to do. He wanted to help Yoriko get out of this mess, but these men had guns, while he only had a small blade that he concealed on his person. His hesitation to make a choice in that moment led to another one of the men grabbing onto him, yanking off his hood.

“You look familiar.” He said, barrel of his firearm pushed against Masamune’s back. “I just can’t place my finger on why.”

“...Grab that kid, he’s worth way more than whatever’s in here.” Yoriko forgotten about, the leader of the group approached Masamune, staring intensely. “Your name isn’t Kyo, is it?”

Masamune gulped, knowing immediately that he’d been found out.

He was tugged along to a small dock and thrown onto a dinghy haphazardly tied to shore, where he was left with his arms and legs restrained while the group seemed to be figuring out how they could get ransom money out of all this. Masamune honestly found the thought that either of his parents would even have the time to hear the news their only child had been abducted humorous.

Even if they were to care, they’d probably follow it up with a lecture on not wasting their time. If they hadn’t heard Takafumi out when he’d desperately been trying to tell them about the whole mermaid situation, he doubted this would be any different.

Ritsu awoke to a commotion unlike he’d ever heard—it was one thing when a fishing vessel or trader’s ship was passing though the area, but apparently someone had seen a royal vessel approaching for the first time in over a decade.

His stomach churned horribly, both out of worry for the pod, but also for Masamune, hoping that he wasn’t on that ship if worse came to worst.

The youngest of the pod were being urged to hide, some adults going along with them for protection—while the majority of the adults were going to approach the ship, keeping just out of sight to keep an eye on things.

In all the panic, nobody was really keeping an eye on Ritsu, as he used his coloration to his advantage to blend into the surrounding reef. He wanted to be near the ship if anything happened—he wouldn’t let Masamune be drowned. 

He kept a low profile amongst the adults who had already arrived at the scene, watching everything closely. It seemed that there were two ships, but everyone seemed far more concerned with the larger one.

Ritsu peeked his head out above the water ever so slightly, and he felt a pit form in his stomach. While Masamune wasn’t on the huge royal vessel that the pod was far more likely to attack, he was on the smaller ship, weapon pressed against his head, three other men surrounding him.

Ritsu had been confident in his ability to protect Masamune from drowning, but if he got shot, that was a completely different story.

“Prince Ritsu!” He turned his head sharply, finding An’s father staring at him. “What are you doing here?! Go hide with the others!”

“But sir! Up there, they took the human kingdom’s prince hostage, that’s the only reason the royal vessel is here, they’re trying to save him, they don’t mean any harm to us!”

“How do you even know what the human prince looks like?” He asked, looking at Ritsu like he was crazy.

“Just-please believe me! We need to get him off of that small ship and back with the royal guard, that’ll make them head back home!”

An’s father peeked his head above water now, getting a good look at Masamune, eyes narrowing. He resembled his father quite a bit, and it left little room for doubt in his mind that what Ritsu was saying was true.

“...We’re going to need to have a long talk with your parents later about why exactly you’re familiar with the human prince, but for now I suppose you’re probably right.”

Ritsu grimaced, the thought of talking about him going off and befriending a human of all things being the last thing he wanted to do. But he forced those thoughts aside, as getting Masamune to safety was more important right now.

One by one, the other adults approached the dinghy, and dragging down the two who weren’t restraining Masamune was easy enough of a task—they weren’t the ones holding any firearms after all.

When they wanted to, mermaids were easily capable of dragging humans underwater without so much as a noise. First, they’d cover their enemies’ mouths so they couldn’t call out, and then they’d restrain their limbs so the submersion would be quick and without struggle.

But of course, their leader wasn’t blind. And neither was Masamune. They each took notice that their ship had two people less onboard suddenly, neither having quite seen who had done it

“Oi, what the hell did you royal pains do now?!” Gun pressing more harshly against Masamune’s temple now, the criminal began to break out in a sweat. “Give me my crew back!”

“We didn’t do anything, you’ve been watching us the entire time!” Takafumi yelled back from the bow of the royal vessel’s deck. “What I said before still stands, you’re outnumbered! Return Prince Masamune peacefully, and your punishment won’t be as harsh!”

“No, you know what?” He sneered. “If I’m going down, I’m taking him with me.”

Masamune braced himself, eyes screwing shut as he anticipated the impact of a bullet, what he heard instead was the beginnings of a struggle as he was dropped onto the floor. When he opened his eyes, Ritsu—fucking Ritsu—- was attempting to wrestle the gun out of his captor’s hand.

“Ritsu, what are you-?!” Masamune flinched as the gun went off, bullet just barely grazing his cheek.

And just like that, it was as if Ritsu was seeing red. He was able to grab the firearm completely now, chucking it far away from the boat and suplexed the man off of the boat and into the water, tail crushing him so intensely that Ritsu could feel the bones in his arms and legs cracking under the intense pressure.

This man wouldn’t be causing anyone trouble again anytime soon.

Allowing some of the empty-handed adults to take over from there, restraining the criminals but allowing their heads to remain above water, Ritsu returned to the surface, diving onto the dinghy to Masamune’s side.

“You-you’re okay, aren’t you?” Ritsu had grabbed Masamune by the shoulders, examining his wound. “You’re bleeding, we need to stop the bleeding-”

“Ritsu, it’s nothing, really, just get me out of these ropes and then we can worry about it.” He shrugged a bit, gesturing to his arms.

“It’s not nothing! You’re bleeding!” Ritsu was able to tear the rope to shreds between his teeth and claws. He got right back to worrying, unsure of how to proceed when he heard more firearms being readied nearby.

“Oi!” Masamune had whipped his head towards the royal vessel, where multiple guards were standing with weapons pointed towards Ritsu. “He just saved my life and you’re going to point weapons at him?! Stand down!”

“He and his group just drowned three men and you think you’re safe?!” Takafumi bellowed. “We’ll stand down when you’re back aboard our ship.”

“They’re not dead, they’re just…” Ritsu shrunk in on himself, ready to separate again far too soon, but then Masamune began speaking again, moving in front of him to act as a shield from any attacks.

“No, screw you! I’ve spent months talking with him—there’s nothing dangerous about him! The only reason his pod stepped in was because I was getting hurt—and we’re the ones invading their space! You should consider yourself lucky that the only heir to the kingdom didn’t get shot and killed under your watch by some petty criminal! It’s all because they stepped in! They saved my life, and I think we’re all indebted to them because of that.”

Slowly, the group lowered their weapons, Takafumi included.

“...Fine, we’ll leave him be. Just get back on board so that we can get you back home. We never need to speak of this again.”

“Not so fast, I’m not getting on that ship until you promise me that I get to start seeing Ritsu again.” Masamune crossed his arms over his chest, scowling. Ritsu just stared, jaw on the floor.

“You should consider yourself lucky I’m letting him off this easily! You know that I cannot allow you two to fraternize amongst yourselves! I'm sure that his…‘pod’ feels the same way.”

“...I’ll tell mother and father that I’ve been sneaking out for the past four years and not a single one of your hand-picked guards were able to catch me the entire time.”

“You-”

“And, that I’ve been fraternizing with people I’m not supposed to, eating food that hasn’t been checked for poison, all under their noses—under your supervision.”

“You…!” Takafumi quickly settled down, fearing Masamune actually following through on his words. “You know that they don’t have the time to-”

“Yeah, I know, I can tell because neither of them bothered to show up to their only son’s abduction.” Masamune spat the words out with disgust. “But do you want to risk this being the time they do? You’d be out of a job in seconds.” 

Takafumi scowled. That didn’t sound very fun.

Masamune just kept staring expectantly, until finally…

“...Fine. You can continue seeing this…whoever he is. But only if you have guards present at all times. And don’t think that you get to leave the castle just for that, you’re only going out if it’s to further your education! And no more street food! Consider yourself lucky that you’ve made it this far without anything bad happening!”

Now able to be far less careful about his beach visits, under the guise of a midday lunch with his guards, Masamune settled in at their usual beach atop a blanket. And they did actually end up eating for a bit, until Masamune got down to business dealings.

“Kisa, Hatori, once Ritsu gets here, could you back off? I’d like to have some privacy with him.”

“No can do, Prince.” Shouta popped another small piece of meat into his mouth. “We’re here to protect you, if we take our eyes off you and things go to shit again, then we’re the first ones to get in trouble.”

“Kisa’s right.” Yoshiyuki nodded his head in agreement. “We have to be here to protect you if worse comes to worst.”

“What if I sweeten the deal?” Masamune dug out something from the very bottom of their basket, revealing confectioneries to the two of them. “You aren’t normally given any of these, right? I know that the kitchen is really stingy about giving out sweets to you guys.”

Shouta’s eyes had widened marginally at the sight of chocolate to the point of almost drooling, but Yoshiyuki still didn’t seem to budge. 

“And Hatori,” Masamune turned his attention now. “I know that friend of yours is always whining about how much he’d love to try some chocolate.”

Yoshiyuki gulped, seeming to consider the deal far more than before.

Masamune had his answer when Ritsu splashed to the water’s surface and the two of them swiped the chocolate and ran off to the edge of the beach.

“What was up with those two?” Ritsu asked, staring at Masamune’s guards as he settled next to the blanket. “They’re not still scared of me, are they?”

“No, I just convinced them to allow us some privacy.” Masamune reached back into the basket of food, revealing some skewered chunks of fish. “Here, it’s a bit different than the street food I used to bring you, but I’m sure you’ll still like it.”

Ritsu ended up devouring the whole thing in just a few bites, earning the attention of his own guards, who didn’t seem to take all that kindly to Ritsu eating food from a human. But Masamune had been prepared for this as well, pulling at a few more skewers.

“Bring these over to your guards, I’m sure they’ll like them too. Also…” Masamune’s voice fell low and he leaned in to whisper something else to Ritsu, who nodded and approached his guards, skewers in hand.

After thoroughly inspecting the food and some hesitant bites, they all cleared off their skewers as well, leaving no scraps behind.

“Masamune said that if you give us some privacy for a bit, he would bring more of those for you next time.” Ritsu clapped his hands together pleadingly. “So, please…”

All their guards taken care of for now, Ritsu returned to the surface, dropping the skewers back into the basket.

“I take it they agreed?” Masamune was laying down on the blanket with a book now, looking all too smug with himself.

“Yes, but are you sure you’ll be able to bring that much food all the time to satisfy everyone?” Ritsu settled next to him now, trying to get a look at today’s book. “And what if your attendant finds out about this?”

“We’ll figure something out. After all, what would all those stupid princely studies they make me do be for if I couldn’t negotiate something as simple as some alone time with my lover?”

Ritsu exhaled through his nose in amusement and brushed the back of his hand against Masamune’s cheek, pushing back his hair and revealing a scar—the one physical reminder of the incident. Giving a quick glance to each set of guards to assure none were paying them too much attention, he gave the scarred area a quick peck.

“Oi.” Masamune was glaring at him now, a small blush on his cheeks. “Not when they’re all around, I can’t kiss you easily when everyone else is here.”

Ritsu let out a full laugh now, laying down and resting his head on Masamune’s shoulder to settle in for today’s reading.