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The water beneath the sea was calm compared to the storm raging overhead.
Song Zichen’s momentum from being dumped off the ship pulled him down into the depths, his lungs burning from the weak gulp of air he took and his limbs straining against his bindings. He needed to get back to the surface, not to live but to see one last thing before the sea claimed him.
This was the punishment for loving differently, for finding it in the company of another man. Song Zichen had served the captain faithfully for months; he had never stolen, had never brawled, had never been drunk on duty, all he had done was love.
He thought back to the last moment he had with his beloved, before they had been discovered. It had been warm; Warm light from the lamp swinging over their heads, warm hands gripping his shoulders as the person between him and the wall steadied themselves against the rocking of the ship, warm skin beneath his lips. Song Zichen had pressed his lover closer to himself, his lips traveling a well known path as the wind and waves battered the ship. It was a rare moment of peace between them, one that Song Zichen had planned on drawing out as long as he could. He kissed his lover slowly, reverently, as if he was the most beautiful thing Zichen had ever embraced. His beloved sighed blissfully, lost in their gentle passion. It was the last beautiful sound Song Zichen would ever hear from him.
Then there were hands, roughly ripping them apart and dragging them into the storm and forcing them both to the deck. He could see his crewmates throwing insults at them both and calling for the captain, but all he could hear were the screams of his lover as they both fought against their captors. A sound that pierced his very soul.
It happened so fast. The captain went to his beloved first, more hands wretched his head to force him to watch as the captain took his knife and cut his love’s neck. Blood sprayed from the gash and the men dropped his lover into a pool of rainwater and blood. Those eyes that had been full of stars as they looked at Song Zichen were now glazed over. He desperately needed to look away. He needed to. He could not close his eyes.
“Xiao Xingchen!”
His broken cry made the captain turn on him.
“No last words for me then?”
There was nothing Song Zichen could say that would bring Xiao Xingchen back to him. He closed his eyes, finally, and waited for the rip of steel in his flesh. Instead a calloused hand pried his mouth open and a blade tasting of cold steel and warm iron entered it. His mouth filled with blood, then air, then seawater.
A streak of lightning overhead illuminated the depths and he could see a flurry of bubbles as something splashed into the water.
Another showed him Xiao Xingchen’s lifeless body sinking into the deep. White skin, black hair, red blood.
Once again all Song Zichen could do was watch. He wriggled uselessly as the love of his life sank out of his reach. If this was the last thing he would see, then so be it. He stopped struggling, and let the water into his lungs…
A jolt of pain suddenly raced down his body, and his eyes flew open. Something was wrong. He kicked out, thinking he had been stung by some unseen sea creature but he felt only the frigid water. The pain settled in his feet and grew to a tortuous roar… he arched his back and let out a strangled scream.
His tied ankles molded together as his feet flattened and stretched, bones dissolving and new flesh growing and joining between his toes. His trousers were torn apart as his legs joined together into one limb and his skin sprouted ebony scales. His bound hands flexed as his fingers grew webbing and his nails sharpened to claws. They shredded through the rope and he clamped his hands around his neck as cuts opened up along the sides. His eyes burned further and his vision sharpened. The stump of flesh in his mouth grew back and his gums bled as his teeth lengthened and sharpened all at once. The pain ceased, and he coughed up a mouthful of bubbles and blood.
Somehow he could breathe again, the ripped flesh on his neck fluttered under his hands and he ran his newly clawed fingers over them. They felt like… gills?
A flash of movement caught his eye and a burst of energy sent him swimming clumsily down to where Xiao Xingchen was. The strange transformation was beginning to claim him too, and Song Zichen witnessed what had happened to himself.
Xiao Xingchen’s legs melted together and his skin fractured into a layer of glimmering scales. His boots were ripped from his feet as they lengthened and widened into a fin. The cut across his throat knit itself back together, leaving no scar except for the gills that were beginning to form. His body convulsed as life was returned to it once more, choking on the water flowing through his new gills. He came to with a desperate cry.
“Zichen!”
Xiao Xingchen’s eyes darted wildly about, shrinking away from Song Zichen with a fearful expression that broke his heart. His hands hovered between them, wanting so badly to hold his beloved again, to prove that they were both truly alive. Xiao Xingchen’s hand felt at his own neck, right along where it had been sliced open before, then reached down to the seam between skin and scale. Song Zichen did the same, finally taking a good look at what he had become.
His entire body from the waist down was covered in scales, a fish tail shimmering black and tapering at the end where fins flared out. He had heard legends from the crew about mysterious maidens with tails instead of legs that would lure sailors to their deaths with their song, and brushed it off as a fantasy from lonely men. How strange it was to be proven wrong like this.
Xiao Xingchen cautiously flicked his tail, floating closer to meet Song Zichen at eye level. Their fins brushed. “… is it really you?” He whispered. Song Zichen nodded, breaking into a smile as his feelings finally caught up. His beloved, his Xingchen, the love of his life, was alive.
Any tears they may have had were washed away when they embraced; Xiao Xingchen kissed Song Song Zichen deeply, wrapping his arms around his shoulders and twining their tails.
There was nothing on earth that could explain how this came to be, but Song Zichen did not care. All that mattered to him was that they could love each other truly, passionately, openly. Nothing would ever separate them again.