Chapter Text
Minho thrusts his tail faster, trying to keep up with his little brother who races ahead of him. The sea water is warm today, a reflection of the hot summer it has become. He weaves under a reef, laughing as he watches Felix grab a turtle’s shell so that he can rest his fins. Minho uses this opportunity to catch up with him and shove his shoulder.
“Jesus, Yongbok, we still have time to make it back.”
“I know. I just like beating you!” Felix sticks his tongue out at Minho, who returns it with a hard flick to his forehead.
In retaliation, Felix smacks him with his tail, and Minho groans at what probably damaged his internal organs. Felix then lifts himself onto the giant sea turtle, letting the beast chauffeur him through the crystal clear waters of Crysalis. Aquatic wildlife of all kinds lived among them, as pets and helpers. To Minho, it is the most beautiful thing about their kingdom. There is harmony.
Minho accidentally lets his pride leak out through his face, and Felix catches it. “Someone’s happy today.”
“I’m happy everyday.”
Felix laughs. “Yeah, right, you’re like a swimming edgelord half the time.”
Felix repositions himself on the shell of the Turtle to face the fin Minho is grabbing onto. He bats his eyelashes at his brother, crossing his wrists and putting on his girlish, high pitched voice. “Mooooom, Minho won’t tell me what the fuck is up with hiiiim!”
“Shut up!”
Minho laughs and shoves his brother, causing Felix to lose his balance and tumble off the turtle. He dramatically does two flips in the water, going stiff and letting himself sink to the sand. Minho rolls his eyes and dives at his brother, interlocking their tails and wrestling around in the water. Minho manages to get his brother in a headlock and smirks.
“You might be faster, but I’m sure as hell stronger.”
Felix groans and thrashes against his brother’s grip, but it’s no use- Minho’s been training with the King’s guard since he was 10. He takes immense pleasure in using his skills against his brother and quelling his ego, at least for a little while.
“What the hell are you two doing?”
Jeongin approaches them, his tail becoming stagnant as he stares indignantly at the two. Minho is startled enough by the boy that he mercifully lets go of Felix, who shouts in triumph and zips behind Jeongin.
“Protect me, Innie!”
Jeongin grimaces, and then shoves Felix off of him. “You two are ridiculous. Are these really the fins Crysalis’s fate is going to be in?”
Minho barks out a nasty laugh while looking into the youngest’s eyes. “Yup! God help us all.”
Jeongin ignores Minho’s sinister tone, and Minho’s starting to think he should use a new tactic since it doesn’t scare the little one anymore. Minho guesses he’s not so little now, but that doesn’t mean he’ll stop treating him like it.
“Anyways, have you two seen Hyunjin?”
Felix gives him a puzzled look. “No, why?”
“I can’t find him anywhere.”
Minho scoffs. “Why do you hang out with that asshole anyway?”
Jeogin makes a frustrated face, but continues. “He’s not an asshole. I just want to know if he’s alright.”
Felix makes a complicated face. “Do you know where you last saw him? Maybe we could help.”
Jeongin looks at Minho with puppy eyes and he crosses his arms. Minho’s not apologetic. Everyone knows that Hyunjin is trouble. He doesn’t like the idea of Jeongin hanging out with him, the first and foremost being because of the rumors. Something about that guy rubs Minho in all the wrong ways, and his intuition has never been wrong before. Though clearly, Jeongin cares about him, so on some level Minho should care too.
“Fine. But we have to be back before dinner.”
Felix exhales. “I mean we could stay out. It’s not like they’d notice, cause we never even have dinner together.”
Minho narrows his eyes in a show of finality. “Yeah, but I’m not risking getting in trouble for some guy I don’t know.”
Felix seems to understand Minho’s tone. Even if he doesn’t know why he’s supposed to care about Hyunjin, he follows Jeongin and Felix on their little search. After a few locations, Jeongin mentioned something about a seaflower field, which he knew Hyunjin liked to frequent. Minho had just wished he mentioned it sooner.
As they neared the field, he could hear shouting, and something akin to a cry. Closer, he saw a few figures that looked like they were crowding around something. A scream pierced the water, Minho’s eyebrows raising at the same time Jeongin screams “Hyunjin!” , and the three rush over to the scene.
There were three mermaids, all crowding Hyunjin, shoving him and shouting terrible things like ‘Siren’. Damn . He had only heard what he’d done in rumors, and definitely didn’t like him, but no mermaid in the world should ever be called as disgusting of a name as that. The casual use of the slur infuriates Minho. For a second, he even feels pity because Hyunjin is clearly outmatched.
“Stop it!” Jeongin reaches Hyunjin first, slithering himself between the mermen, wrapping his tail around Hyunjin and using his body as a shield. “Stop!”
“Why are you defending that stupid Siren?” One of the mermen says in the nastiest way Minho has ever heard.
“Because it’s decency, something that jackasses like you wouldn’t know.” Minho couldn’t keep the irritation out of his voice. The three mermaids turned with fear, and Minho couldn’t help but smile with satisfaction at the immediate regret in their eyes. Suddenly full of respect, they bow deeply.
“Prince Lee Know! Wh- what are you doing here, your royal highness?”
Minho didn’t entertain them for a second. “Get out of here, and leave him alone.”
The three mermen scurry away, fleeing past Minho and hightailing it back towards the main kingdom.
Minho turns his eyes back on the scene. Jeongin is panicking and fretting over Hyunjin in a way that obviously makes Hyunjin uncomfortable and pissed. Felix is hovering, unsure what to do. He shifts his eyes to the seaflower field around them, and spots a canvas, easel and various art supplies littered around Hyunjin’s general area. The canvas is turned over and the supplies are scattered. Minho carefully swims over to retrieve it. If anything, he could at least help Hyunjin clean up.
He carefully picks up the canvas, and is awestruck to find a beautiful painting of the sea flowers around them. Hues of purple, pink, and yellow are vibrant and pristine against the clear blue of the water, creating a gorgeously realistic landscape piece. Unfortunately, the artwork is ruined by thick red slashes and some rips in the fabric.
Minho looks up to find Hyunjin storming over to him, snatching the canvas out of his hands.
"Don't touch that."
Fine, Hyunjin is fuming and flustered, rightfully so. Minho grimaces anyway, maybe out of spite. It still isn't a good first impression.
“That’s a weird way to say thank you, but you’re welcome.” Comes Minho’s sarcastic reply, and Jeongin shoots him a look. Minho sends him one right back.
“I don’t owe anything to you. I didn’t ask you to come help me.” Hyunjin looks at Jeongin. “Especially you. Shouldn’t you be at our apprenticeship?”
Jeongin scoffs in disbelief. “I got worried when you didn’t come today. I wanted to make sure you were alright! Can’t I do that?”
Hyunjin scowls in a way that definitely means no, and Minho’s starting to dislike this guy even more. As they watch his figure aggressively swim away, Minho slides up to Jeongin, putting a shoulder around him.
“I don’t know why you like him so much. There’s a reason people stay away from him, Jeongin.”
Jeongin doesn’t say anything.
They start following behind Hyunjin, starting the long swim back into the main kingdom. Minho didn’t realize how far out the seaflower fields are.
Minho pops his head up. His ear fin rustles again, and he freezes. Hyunjin must’ve heard it too, because he stops where he is ahead of them.
“Did you hear that?” Felix asks, looking up. Jeongin hums, and they all tilt their heads back to watch as tiny pieces of metal and wood float down in front of them. Minho swears.
“Shit. It’s a shipwreck. Which likely means there’s a storm at the surface.” More debris falls in front of him, and Minho starts moving faster. “We need to get back to Crysalis! Now!”
Minho pulls ahead of the two, grabbing their wrists to drag them along. He’s propelling them as fast as he can towards the kingdom and then a hard tug jerks him around.
“Wait!” Jeongin had been the one to stop him, a look of genuine distress on his face. “Where’s Hyunjin?”
Minho looks around for the rogue who seemingly disappeared from in front of them. He glances upwards, and to his dismay, he sees a turquoise tail and silver hairs aggressively swimming his way towards the surface.
“Fuck! Okay- alright.” Minho breathes and looks at Jeongin. “Take Yongbok, make sure he gets back to the palace. I’ll get Hyunjin.”
Minho might not like the guy, but he’d be damned if he let one of his citizens die without doing anything about it. He races after Hyunjin, propelling his tail. He avoids the debris rapidly falling into the ocean around him, sharp pieces of wood and heavy waves knocking him over the closer he gets to the surface. He barely catches up just before Hyunjin breaks through, Minho grips his tail and pulls, making the merman hiss. He’ll apologize later, but right now they need to get the hell out.
“What the hell is wrong with you? Get down here!”
Hyunjin thrashes against him, but he’s no match for Minho who’s considerably bigger than him despite his tail length being shorter. Hyunjin digs his nails into Minho who yelps, and an aggressive wave assists in Hyunjin’s escape from his grasp. Minho flails around for a second, before regaining his control and swiveling his head within the murky water. The storm is getting worse, and the miscellaneous parts from the ship are getting harder and harder to avoid. Thunder rang loud in his ears and a thought crossed him of all the trouble he would be in if it is discovered how close he is to the surface.
But there are more important things at stake- like Hyunjin, who he finally spots breaking the surface.
That damn idiot!
Minho moves without thinking, dodging bolts and rope and he’s starting to think Hyunjin’s more trouble than he’s worth. He pops out of the water, the crisp air hitting his scales. He hisses, the rain feeling familiar but still making it hard to see as what’s left of the ship tips precariously on the mighty waves. He spots that silver hair and flaps his tail, reaching his arm out. He’s almost there, and then-
A beam of wood falls on Hyunjin’s head. Minho shouts in shock as the merman’s head sinks and his limbs stop thrashing, bobbing between surface and ocean. He forces himself to move faster, unable to think of anything than get him back safe. Finally, he scoops Hyunjin up in his arms, a breath of relief escaping him. The relief doesn’t last as he looks at Hyunjin’s head, his silver staining with an unforgiving color of red.
A distressed shout somehow reaches his ears in the deadly chaos. Minho looks up on instinct, and spots a man grasping onto a small piece of wood, struggling to keep his head above water.
A sailor.
Minho blinks, then dives under the surface to get Hyunjin and himself to safety. He doesn’t feel bad in the slightest. If the humans are stupid enough to come into their territory, then they deserve to die.
—--------
It is ridiculously easy to sneak away from Jeongin.
All it took was a detour trick, telling the boy they should rest their fins by grabbing onto a sea turtle. The second Jeongin touched the shell and turned his back, Felix hightailed it away from him. He’s the fastest swimmer in Crysalis for a reason, and the poor boy didn’t even have a chance of catching up.
Felix feels a little bad, but there is no way he’s going to leave Minho to rescue Hyunjin alone.
He powers his way towards the surface, avoiding various parts of the ship to head towards the main body, expecting to see his brother and the outcast. Turbulent waves knocked him off his course as he got closer to breach.
“Minho! Minho!”
He yells, finally breaking the surface and squinting around in the cool air. The rain is like pellets on his face, his eyes trying their best to look through the mist. An unexpected wave hits his back and he’s thrown back under the water. Maybe his brother isn’t here, maybe they’ve escaped already…
Felix looks around again, and then sees him .
It’s a sailor, most definitely. The frilled white shirt and the multiple colored sashes from head to toe gave it away, along with the amount of gold and silver that adorns his body. Most of it looks functional, but Felix doubts he isn’t well off. He looks much dandier than some of the other men that had drowned in these waters.
Felix watches him. He doesn’t know why, but he can’t take his eyes off the sailor’s thrashing body, desperately trying to claw his way to the surface amidst the harsh ocean and failing. At this rate, he is going to drown.
He wouldn’t be the first to drown in these seas. Hell, he’s not even the first that Felix has watched die. As a pre-teen, he’d come close to the surface with his friends during a dangerous storm just to watch sailors fight for life. Even though it was forbidden, it was a popular pastime for adolescent merfolk. They deserved it, after all. As Minho and his parents have told him many times before, if a sailor comes into their territory, they deserve to die. Humans have caused harm to mermaids for centuries. It’s karma at its finest.
And yet… it never sits right with Felix.
Even when he was a pre-teen, he always felt wrong watching life being snuffed out for entertainment. Had to fight the urge multiple times to save the poor bastards while his friends laughed. It couldn't be helped.
He should just swim away and ignore the sailor. That’s his duty, as a protector of his people, to only think about his people. This human doesn’t matter. He deserves it.
The sailor stops thrashing, his body finally giving up, his lungs running out of air as he sinks deeper into the ocean.
Something inside Felix snaps.
He dashes towards the man, wrapping a firm arm around his waist and breaking the surface, desperately looking around for wood to lay the man on.
“Fuck,” Felix gasps. The man is heavier than he looks, and it’s a struggle to keep his head above the surface in the still vigorous storm. Eventually, he finds a big enough piece of wood, which he all but throws man on. He holds onto the edges of the wood to keep him steady. He has no idea how human lungs work, only that they take in air and what not, so he tries slapping the shit out of the sailor. It miraculously works, the man snapping his eyes open and coughing up water. He tries to sit up but Felix grabs his wrist.
“You should try to lay flat on the wood, mate. You’re gonna topple over if you don’t.”
Eyes snap to Felix, and then disbelief is riddled in them, which makes Felix realize he isn’t supposed to be seen at all. He quickly plunges back under the water, escaping the tempest just as quickly as he had come.
—--------
“Where in the everloving fuck were you?”
Minho’s tail couldn’t get over fast enough to Felix, who is unimpressed at the sight of his furious brother. Minho growls and grabs his brother’s wrist to inspect every inch of him until Felix can wrestle out of his grasp.
“Relax, I’m fine, aren’t I?”
“I could choke you right now, you know. What if mom found out? She’d execute me if you got hurt!”
Felix rolls his eyes. “That’s why I snuck in through my own damn window in my own damn room which you are all currently invading. Also, as if you could ever kill me.”
Minho clenches his fists for emphasis. “You test me everyday.”
Felix breezes by his brother to comfort Jeongin, who’s sitting on the ottoman at the foot of his bed and looking mildly traumatized. The younger looks up at Felix, eyes comically wide.
“You would have thought that I murdered you, the way he was scolding me.”
Felix shoots a look at Minho at the same time Hyunjin does, who’s watching the scene unfold in the chair of Felix’s vanity. Felix turns back to Jeongin. “Sorry I got you in trouble for me. I’ll get you a Clam Cake.”
Jeongin scoffs. “I’ll need twenty.”
“It’s yours!” Felix laughs, and pats the youngest’s head. He then turns towards the vanity chair. “What about you? Why’d you go awol out there? It was pretty stupid, not to mention illegal, to go surface swimming in a storm.”
Hyunjin grunts at the question directed towards him as Minho dutifully interrupts.
“You did the exact same thing, dickwad.”
Felix shoots him another look, this time a little more playful. “So did you, buttface.”
Minho clicks his tongue with distaste at his own hypocrisy being used against him, and stiffens his tail so that he sinks down onto Felix’s bed. “You won’t get a word out of him. I already tried.”
Hyunjin turns his head to the wall in a way that displays his bandage, and Felix looks at him gently. “Fine. We don’t need to know. Just don’t do it again.”
Jeongin aggressively nods. “Same goes for all of us. Including you, Felix.”
Felix smiles, and then zips over to Jeongin, scooping him in his arms and holding him by the waist. Jeongin weakly squirms but soon gives up, used to Felix’s undying need for physical affection at random times.
A knock at the door breaks up the atmosphere, and all four heads snap towards it.
“Yes?” Felix answers, and swallows.
“The King and Queen are requesting both Royal Highnesses at tonight’s supper.”
Felix clamps his mouth shut, and lets go of Jeongin. He then shifts his eyes to Minho, who looks like he’s silently saying a prayer. Felix wonders if he should join him.