Zhang Yixing chewed on his bottom lip, that familiar feeling of dread bubbling deep in the pit of his stomach. He shouldn't have agreed to let Kris come along to his little adventure. Heck, he wasn't even supposed to ask. Now there was one more merman who knew his secret and if Kris was right about their father killing them if he ever knew, then Yixing would make sure to cap the number of people who knew his secret to two. He couldn't risk any more of them knowing, especially his younger green tailed brother, Chanyeol.

He placed his arm over his eyes, impatiently waiting for everyone to fall asleep. Suho's breathing next to him hasn't completely even out yet, and he could still hear Kai and Kyungsoo bickering in the far corner of the room. He turned to his side, counting down the moment to midnight quietly. He had agreed to meet Kris outside once everyone was asleep but at this rate, it seemed as if Kyungsoo was too worked up from his argument with Kai to let sleep take him over.

"Kai and Kyungsoo! Will you guys zip it and go to sleep?!" Chen shouted crossly from the other end of the room. "I have to get up early tomorrow and I am so close to throwing my books at the both of you!"

"Yes hyung. Sorry hyung!" Kai and Kyungsoo mumbled. Yixing heard them shuffling on their beds before silence completely engulfed them. Yixing waited for a while, making sure everyone was completely asleep before removing his arm from his eyes. He raised his head to scan the room, and once he was certain everyone was slumbering peacefully, he gently removed Suho's arm from his torso, and gingerly swam out.

When he finally made it to the front door, he could see the end of an electric blue tail right behind his favorite hiding spot, and quickly made his way over. Just as he was about to reach, another tail caught his attention and his eyes narrowed, knowing full well who the green tail belonged to.

"Chanyeol!" Yixing hissed under his breath when he came to a stop in front of them. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Chill Yixing. I invited him." Kris said coolly.

"But why?!" Yixing whined. "He's the biggest blabber mouth among all of us! He might tell father about my secret!"

"What secret?" Chanyeol said, his ears twitching at the mention of 'secrets'. "Is there something you're hiding from us?"

"Shut up Chanyeol. There is no secret." Kris said as he swatted Chanyeol's arm. It was sharp and painful, and Chanyeol winced. "I swear to God, if you ever tell anyone about tonight, especially Baekhyun, I will clip your tail. You know I will."

Chanyeol cowered slightly at the threatening tone detected in Kris's voice, and lowered his head. "Yes hyung. I won't tell anyone. I promise."

Then Kris turned to Yixing. "We won't speak of anything. Chanyeol's just here because you know he can't sleep without me. And besides, I'm just going to tell a story, nothing else."

Yixing eyed Chanyeol and slowly nodded, though he looked far from convinced. But Kris was right though, they weren't going to speak of his adventure. There was only a story to tell.

"Okay. Go on then." Yixing said as he leaned his body against the large rock, Kris and Chanyeol following suit.

"This happened when Suho and I were quite young, so some details might be a little fuzzy." Kris started, his voice crisp and clear in the stillnes of the water. "Our Aunt Ariel, father's little sister, used to be quite a prominent figure in our family."

Aunt Ariel? They had an Aunt Ariel? Father has a little sister? How was it that Yixing knew nothing of her?

"She used to play with Suho and I quite a lot. We loved having her around. She always had presents for us, but what Suho and I looked forward to the most were her stories, her adventures that she would always tell us before bed. She was quite a curious mermaid, much like you Yixing, so she would often wander off and come back with exciting stories for me and Suho. One day she told us of a mystical creature who had no tail and lived above water. She did her research, she asked the elders, and she found out that these creatures were called humans."

Humans. That was what Suho said too.

"Humans have legs instead of tails-"

"Legs?" Yixing muttered out loud.

"Uh-huh." Kris nodded his head. "Two stick looking things that extended from their hip all the way down. They help humans move around, much like our beautiful tails. Anyways, sometimes she would be gone for weeks, only coming back to show us that she was physically fine and then she was off again."

"And then what happened?" Chanyeol asked in a hushed tone. Yixing too, could sense that Kris was about to reach the of the story, and he leaned closer to his older brother.

"And then she fell in love with a human." Kris continued, his eyes glassy as he recalled his beloved aunt. "She had been studying them so much, one male in particular, that she just fell in love with him. When she came back that one day, she went to father and asked if she could exchange her tail with legs-"

"She did what?" Chanyeol gasped in horror. Yixing's reaction was quite similar. How could one give up on their one and only tail? Their tails were their pride and joy. Their tails were their souls. Without their tails, they were as good as dead. They used their tails for many things. Movement, protection, pleasure; the list was endless. Yixing had seen mermen and mermaids with dysfunctional tails before and had pitied them, but he had secretly thought how lucky he was that his golden one was bright and shiny. Maybe not as beautiful as Suho's, but still grand nonetheless.

"Yeah." Kris said, absentmindedly his tail, his train of thought similar to that of his brothers. "Of course. Father was furious with her. He practically disowned her. So she went to The Sorceress," a collective gasps were heard at this point, "and she granted Aunt Ariel with the legs she so badly wanted in exchange for her tail and her hair."

"What happened to Aunt Ariel?" Yixing asked with a creased brow.

"She nearly died trying to swim to the surface. Humans can't breathe under water." Kris replied.

"I understand why she wanted the tail, but why did The Sorceress wanted the hair too?" Yixing frowned.

Kris shrugged. "Beats me. We never heard from Aunt Ariel after that. Some said she lived happily ever after with the male human. Some said sometimes they can hear her voice in the water, begging to come back to us. But a deal with The Sorceress is one you can never take back, so she had to live with the consequences."

"Why are you telling us all this?" Chanyeol asked with a yawn. It was clear that he had no interest on the matter whatsoever. "None of us is ever going to meet a human and no one has heard of The Sorceress since forever. She might be dead for all we know."

"Maybe." Kris said, glancing knowingly at Yixing. "We'll never know I guess. This is the reason why we never spoke of humans. Father burned everything we collected about them."

Yixing's head was spinning. This was a lot to take in in the middle of the night. Yixing wished he could ask more, but having Chanyeol around proved to be a little inconvenient. Not only that, he had no idea what to ask and where to start either.

"This is all so nice hyung, but can we go to sleep now?" Chanyeol whined as he rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"Let's go." Kris said when Yixing remained silent. He waited until Chanyeol swam past him and into the house before he turned to Yixing again. "I know you still want to go tomorrow. And I'm still coming."

"Why did you tell me the story hyung?" Yixing muttered.

"Just because... I don't want you to have some crazy idea of exchanging your tail with legs."

***

Tasha was by the balcony again. The moon was obscured by thick clouds tonight, a sign of an impending heavy rain. She couldn't get a wink of sleep. She was too restless. So there she was, leaning against the railing of the balcony again. The water was dark, but she could've sworn she saw a pair of shiny pearls, almost like eyes, staring back at her.

She was starting to imagine things a lot lately.

***

"Maybe you shouldn't come hyung." Yixing said as he looked around. They were alone, but he knew anyone could round the corner and bump into them, something that he did not wish to happen.

Kris rolled his eyes. "Are you kidding me? I've already asked Luhan and Xiumin to cover for us. Don't worry Yixing. Nothing's gonna happen."

A reasurrance from the biggest troublemaker of them all didn't sound quite convincing, but it will have to do. Another moment spent arguing with Kris here was another moment less from watching the female human, and Yixing didn't like that one bit. So he swam away, Kris following closely behind.

When they reached the big pillar, Yixing was thrilled to find that she was already at the balcony, as if she had been waiting for him all along.

Kris whistled. "Oh-ho! No wonder you rejected all those mermaids down there. This human is something else isn't she? But why does she look so sad?"

"I don't know hyung. She has been looking sad since the first time I saw her. Her name is Tasha."

"You know her name?"

"I heard it from her little sister." Yixing mumbled under his breath, feeling suddenly embarrassed.

"So this is what you do all day? Hiding behind this pillar and watching her like a creepy stalker?"

***

"Tasha, are you sure you don't want to explore this place? We only have two days left here you know."

Tasha smiled at her little sister, though the smile was far from reaching her eyes. "I'm fine. You go ahead."

Her little sister rubbed her back soothingly for a couple more seconds before she walked out and left Tasha alone. Tasha disappeared into the room for a while before she reemerged onto the balcony, her arms full of her fiancé's belongings. She knew she shouldn't throw anything into the water, but she couldn't bear looking at them anymore. She flung them all over the railing and watched as some sunk to the bottom, before realising too late that she had also thrown away the box containing the engagement ring, something that she wanted to throw to her fiancé's face.

Panic settled in and without thinking any further, she jumped into the water to retrieve the box. Except, she was wearing a bathrobe and it was weighing her down, preventing her from properly swimming towards the shore. She thrashed, trying her hardest to stay afloat, knowing full well that she was about to lose consciousness. The last thing she remembered before she succumbed to darkness was a pair of pearly eyes staring back at her, the most beautiful man she had ever seen.

***

"Hyung, she'll be ok right?" Yixing asked as he her cheek.

"Yixing, we shouldn't be here." Kris said, glancing around nervously. They were no longer hiding in the water. Instead, they were sprawled out on the sand and Kris knew they had approximately five minutes before they completely run out of air to breathe. Not only that, they were out in the open, and Kris wasn't about to risk being discovered. That was not his intention of coming along at all. He just wanted something to do instead of playing around with Chen and Sehun all day.

"Yixing, let's go." Kris hissed urgently.

"In a minute hyung." Yixing said, still not tearing his eyes away from the beatiful human creature in his arm. She was breathtaking up close. Her lashes were thick and long, and her skin was flawless. He had also taken a good look at her legs and while not as impressive as his golden tail, were still memerizing to look at. He wanted to stay there by her until she woke up, but his chest was starting to constrict painfully and he cringed. It was about time for him to return into the water, and he was painstakingly aware that he was never going to get another chance of being close to her like this ever again.

"I hear voices. Yixing c'mon!" Kris urged as he pulled at Yixing's hand.

Quickly, Yixing leaned down and planted a kiss on her cheek, before allowing himself to be dragged away and into the water by Kris. Before he completely disappeared however, he saw her sitting up on the sand, dazed and confused. Her eyes were searching for something, and as much as Yixing wanted to show himself to her, he knew he shouldn't. He couldn't.

***

Tasha's eyes fluttered open, her palms making contact with the hot dry sand. She wondered how she managed to get to the shore. Did she swim there? And did she imagine it or did someone plant a kiss on her cheek? Her eyes scanned the ocean laid out in front of her, and this time, she caught sight of a massive golden tail disappearing under water. She frowned. Was that a fish?

***

"You're to never go again, do you hear me?" Kris said as they swam home. He was rarely stern with any of his brothers, but Yixing was like a lost seahorse and he needed that kick. "Do you hear me Yixing or do you want me to repeat again?"

"I hear you hyung." Yixing said quietly.

"Good. We could have been seen! Or worse yet, we could have died! I could hardly breathe!" Kris continued to ramble on and on until he realised that Yixing was quiet, too quiet. He turned around and saw Yixing pearched on a jagged rock and Kris sighed. Why was this particular brother so deep and complicated?

"Yixing-"

"Hyung, I'm sorry. Just give me a minute." Yixing said as his shoulders hunched.

Kris rubbed his face, almost in agony. He didn't want to say it, but it had to be said. "You're smitten by her."

It was a while before Yixing spoke again, and it was something that Kris feared the most.

"Hyung, legs. I want them."

Chapter posted on: Aug 26 2015