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by the time his duties have been cleared, it's significantly later in the day than tsukasa had expected. it’s now evening, when the sun is making way for the moon, that he manages to take a breather to put his pen down.
“maybe a walk to the beach will make you feel better!” his sister had suggested hours ago. hours ago when the sun was still hanging high up in the air, where it had been much more crowded and warmer for visitors there. he had been considering not going at all, going out alone as the next heir to the throne was a risk in itself, so why woukd he bother when it’s already so late? staring out at the shoreline from the window of the castle, he still finds himself with a strong urge that led him to walk towards its inviting waves anyway, like he simply felt like he must.
a future king had no exact reason to be here, tsukasa silently realised as he walked onto the sand, his boots leaving stark footprints behind him. he had, inexplicably, purely been compelled to walk down here.
when he finally gets there with feet he knows will be sore from walking, he half expects that there would be no one at all, given the time, nobody would be visiting the beach, proving his weird gut instinct to be wrong the whole time. as he walks onto the sand, not before readjusting his crown, he looks out to the ocean, staring at the rise and fall of growing waves.
seafoam bubbles up at the edge of the waves crashing onto sand, just before receding back into itself just as quickly as it came. by this hour, any visitor knew that the moon would begin to show and the once blue hues of the sky would be swallowed by the darkness of night, a pleasant coolness now starting to settle onto the beach.
it was as if he just had the strongest gut feeling that he had to be here, of all days. a certain mystery about the air there, right beneath the bubbling water. like if he didn’t come down to the shore, he’d be missing a significant event in his life.
or, maybe, he was just tired from his duties and going crazy. after a long day of trying to memorise all the laws and regulations, his mind was scattered in all kinds of places.
deep in thought, he almost trips over a huge seashell buried under the sand. tsukasa huffs to himself at the mundaneness of it all. a future king shouldn’t even be here!
but, when the sky shone so beautifully over the sea, walking alongside the quiet and peaceful shore, he found it hard to stay angry. perhaps this gut feeling was just simply trying to tell him to take a break, much to his reluctance. a crab scuttling across the sand catches his eye.
the allure of the crab is abruptly cut short when he hears a splash from the ocean, his attention immediately turning towards the sound. to meet however, nothing but the same, shimmering ocean from earlier. he must really be going mad, with all these responsibilities.
he puts the interruption aside, continuing his purposeless walk along the beach. aimlessly walking on an area he hadn’t visited often since his childhood, it certainly was not fit for a king.
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rui could be considered to be one naturally drawn to the temptation of all things delicate and beautiful. he’d find himself exploring far from the waters he frequented just to collect any sunken treasures that caught his fancy. from discarded necklaces to old coins, he created a collection of shiny treasures, much to nene’s disdain for risking his identity.
so, when she happened to catch sight of a being so alluring, especially one with a strange, shiny headpiece, one couldn’t scold him from obviously getting interested. this would be the excuse he planned to tell nene once she would scold him for swimming off again.
he peeked up from where the water was calmer, trying to get a better glimpse of the figure, since water muddled a lot of his view. the being continued strolling along the shore, getting closer and closer to the waves of the ocean, just before bending down to dip a hand into the water. his flowing cape soon followed, resting lightly on his shoulders.
he seemed to be a person of importance, rui marvelled, moving elegantly and smoothly across the shoreline. it was much unlike the usual visitor that came by to play or swim, so to say rui was simply intrigued by his beauty would be an understatement. he was purely enamored by his every move, by every flowy movement he made, every glint of his strange headpiece under the setting sun.
in his trance, he’d almost forget to breathe. just maybe, this would be what humans described as ‘taking one’s breath away’, he muses to himself.
perhaps, his musings were a little too loud, because the figure stops in his tracks to glance at the ocean again, cape flowing in the evening breeze. the being hesitates, then, finally, walks closer. he reaches just to the edge of the seawater, crouching down to stare at the origin of the noise.
until his bowl headpiece falls into the water.
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“—crap!”
a future king’s crown falling into the water was definitely not the gut instinct he was thinking of when he specially took a trip here, tsukasa blinks at the ocean in despair.
he contemplates yelling, screaming, kicking, or perhaps reaching in, but all of them would be unfit for a king to do in public, in front of any citizen who might walk by. neither was swimming an option, since his silk robes couldn’t get soaked with seawater.
and tsukasa was positively screwed! he had that crown for approximately three days after being assigned the next king in line, custom and handmade, to match with a crown for his sister too, with its one precious model that was now probably sinking six feet into the ocean, never to be seen again.
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meanwhile, it isn’t everyday that rui gets to see a shiny crown fall into the ocean. if anything, the most he sees is the usual garbage visitors threw in at random for easy disposal.
a bowl, shinier than any other he’d ever lay his eyes on, was sinking right past him. and rapidly, he immediately gaped, as it continued to go past his tail. this was the exact same bowl he’d seen the boy wear earlier, most likely having dropped it into the ocean on accident. he immediately dives for it with a flick of his tail, grabbing the gold with ease.
feeling proud of himself, rui swims over to the area where its owner crouched. in one hand he clutches the object, the other waving him down. “i have your bowl!”
crouching closer, the boy’s face was instantly struck with relief, marveling at the his diving abilities. “thank you, kind sir!” he gleams as rui reached shallower water, reaching out a hand for his crown. unbeknownst to rui, it was a crown custom made for a king like him, its model the one and only in the entire kingdom.
“a crown?” he hands it to him with a puzzled expression. “it appeared to be a shiny bowl.”
“..how dare you! this is the one and only of this crown in the whole world!” the boy pauses, suddenly feeling rather rude for a king.“my apologies, i don’t usually drop my belongings into the water. i didn’t seem to have noticed you on my walk. it’s getting too late to swim, maybe you should head home before the sun sets?”
rui takes a moment to smile. with just his torso showing, his tail was well-hidden from the eye of an unsuspecting visitor. he has to bite back the urge to say “this indeed is my home!” while gesturing to the water, for fear of scaring someone so interesting away so quickly. throw in a good show of his glittery tail and he just might scream too.
the strange boy scrunches up for a second, before he asks rui yet another question, “hey, you realise you have seaweed on your hair, right?”
staring at the piece of seaweed that indeed was stuck on his head, rui freezes. swimmers don’t usually swim deep enough to have seaweed remains on their heads.
at the remark, rui instinctively moves a bit farther back, though still smiling, while desperately trying to rip the seaweed off of his head. “quite the greeting you’ve got, haven’t you?”
the other flushes at his response, embarrassed to have left such an impression on a stranger. “my name is tsukasa tenma, and i am a king!” he gives him a toothy grin. “future king in the making!”
then, his awkward smile drops, “i thought i was alone on my walk! you ought to make yourself more apparent, for you scared such an important person like me!”
rui is about to tease, saying something like “many complaints for a king, huh?”, but stops in his tracks when tsukasa’s expression softens.
“hello, then. i’m rui.”
“rui, i see! ah, wait,” tsukasa suddenly frowns. “i would’ve heard you come up for air, surely. where are your belongings, anyway?” he knits his eyebrows together in a furrow, trying to think of an explanation. rui can’t help but find it a bit charming.
he smiles. sure, rui could definitely get away with his suspicions by giving a flimsy excuse, but he finds himself inclined to tell him, almost like a force was pulling the king to him. nene would be so mad.
“alright, king tenma. tell you what, come a little closer. i have a surprise for you.”
“king tenma..? i’m no king yet, so call me tsukasa!” the offer had seemingly eradicated his apprehension to get near the water, curiosity getting the best of him. for the first time that evening, tsukasa’s boots enter the water. he leans in, eyes sparkling with anticipation, and waits for the mysterious boy to reply.
rui smiles mischievously, then whispers to tsukasa, “watch.”
a pause, and he dives into the water head first. next, a flash of shimmery purple to cyan that tsukasa immediately recognised as a tail. on a human.
except, this wasn’t a human he had encountered. tsukasa sputters for a second, looking at the ripples of water from the movement, eyes darting up and down the sight before him. “..a mermaid? you can’t be serious!”
“how else would i have retrieved your bowl so quickly?” rui throws in a nice kick of his tail, slightly soaking tsukasa with water for proof. he stares back at the fin, completely dumbfounded. his eyes glisten with awe, “i didn’t think a heat stroke would make me hallucinate.”
“hilarious indeed! i guess your wet hair is also a fragment of your hallucinations, dear king.”
tsukasa’s eyes widened comically at the last part of the statement. “..’dear king’? and my hair is wet—?!”
rui was never one to believe in fate. having heard of it in storybooks, he’d laugh in the face of it, telling anyone who asked “well, fate is nothing but an unattainable, hopeful dream,” but perhaps it wasn’t so unattainable after all. this strange draw to a king with a stranger bowl on his head he called a crown that made him warm up to the idea of fate just a little.
in the silence, tsukasa had began to desperately check for other areas splashed by seawater, but as he pat himself down, he belatedly realised how drenched he truly was. “rui, look at that! i’m soaked!” he sighs. “i really must head back now, before saki worries even more for me.” upon muttering his sentence to himself, he slowly begins to get up.
“please wait a while longer,’ even rui is surprised at his sudden show of desperation. “it gets so horrifically boring in the water sometimes, provide me some company for just a little bit more time.”
“..you’re a very demanding person.. or rather, merman. we’ve only just met. why not harass another visitor of the beach?” tsukasa eyes him warily, still annoyed at the squelch his boots made.
“well, if you must know,” rui smiles. “other visitors simply are not quite as enchanting as you.”
“w-what..?” tsukasa splutters for the second time that night, a slight blush forming on the king’s face, “ha! well, of course! a future king like me has to be interesting for all his people!”
“and interesting you are,” rui’s teasing him by now, “you make a wonderful king.”
not immune to praise, tsukasa gives in with a brash smile. “well, merman! i shall stay for a while more to tell you about the story of a future king!”
“oh my,” rui’s eyes light up. “please, do be my guest.”
“very well! behold, future king tsukasa shall grace you with his tale!” he strikes a king-ly pose.
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by now, the sun had let out its final ray, and the moon came up to shield its beauty. and as rui looked at the king in front of him, whether it was the gentle moon’s light or the smile he wore while telling stories, he looked charming nonetheless. so, maybe he did believe in fate.
tsukasa smiles, bittersweet, “i suppose i should return to the castle now. but i trust it will not be the last time we see each other.”
“not the last, i am sure,” rui waves as tsukasa gives him a final glance.
when tsukasa eventually turns to leave, it takes a full minute for him to tear his eyes away and mutter a soft ‘goodbye’ for no one in particular to hear. he watches in silence as his figure gets smaller and smaller, until it is no longer visible to him and tsukasa is well on his way to his castle.
before he swims back down, he turns his gaze and looks at the round moon beyond the ocean. it seemed to glow especially bright tonight, just at the edge of the vast ocean, pulling its tides in.
he’d definitely see tsukasa again.
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“—are you kidding me? it’s 10 at night!”
to be truthful, rui hadn’t come back extra late. as soon as he watched tsukasa’s silhouette grow so small he couldn’t see him, he swam back as soon as he could, albeit four hours late.
as soon as nene caught sight of a head of purple hair approaching closer, she was already ready to fire.
“you’re late! what did you even spend four hours doing?”
“ah, nene. i was simply exploring,” rui attempts to lie, putting on his best act to seem nonchalant.
an effort that was fruitless as soon as he opened his mouth. her eyes instantly narrowed at the excuse, watching rui’s shameless smile falter.
“..you went out to shore again, didn’t you?” the questions came out more of a statement than an answer.
rui dips his head in a silent confession, “i encountered a very interesting boy with a.. crown.”
“what the hell.. please don’t tell me he knows what..” she gestures at her tail. “we are.”
he doesn’t respond. nene looks him up and down for a moment. “please tell me you’re joking.”
“how very perceptive of you. indeed, he does know.”
now, nene’s tone is panicked, “hold on, crown..? did you talk to the king—?!”