Learning to Walk

Humans made it look easy. Just one leg in front of the other. 

But no. 

It was not easy. It was ing hard. Tao winced as he took another tumble, which was accompanied by his best friend’s laughter. 

"You're not helping." He said, turning onto his back and lying there, sulking, the cool sand against his aching back as he closed his eyes. 

He knew this beach like the back of his hand. It was a small thing, a hidden cove one might call it, hidden away from the rest of world by the rocky cliffs that surrounded it. The sand was soft under the bare skin of his legs, the sensation a pleasant but alien one. He wriggled his toes in the sand, giggling quietly as he felt it in between them. 

It had been two weeks since he had been turned into a human, and still having feet was a source of amazement for him. He could practically feel Baekhyun rolling his eyes as he crouched down next to him, not wanting to get sand on his new jeans. 

"You'll get the hang of it." 

"But when....?" Whinged Tao, opening his eyes and scowling at the light blue sky, he had always been impatient and this time he saw Baek rolling his eyes, but ignored him. 

"How long is this going to take?" He turned to his side, and his scowled deepened when he took in Baekhyun. 

Why was it so easy for him to walk? 

Of course, Baekhyun had always had legs. He'd been born with legs. 

But still. 

Baekhyun shook the sand out of the simple white t-shirt and pushing himself up, he brushed off his jeans, and lightly kicked Tao with his bare foot. Tao stared at it and Baekhyun rolled his eyes again. 

"It wouldn't be taking so long if you actually practiced." Said Baekhyun, motioning for Tao to get up, the latter grudgingly complying, similarly shaking the sand out of his own shirt, which was light blue, and dusting off his light colored jeans. 

He straightened, facing the beautifully crisp sea breeze and couldn't help but pause to gaze at the ocean. He smiled; not matter how cool the human world was, it could never beat his own. The turquoise blue of the shore gave way to the dark mysterious blue of the deep sea and little white horses flitted across the crests of each wave. 

As soon as his eye settled on the white sea foam that topped the waves, Tao felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach and he immediately shook it off. That wasn't going to happen to him. He flicked his eyes elsewhere, a smile slowly returning to his face as he took in the place he'd been coming to practice walking for the past two weeks. It wasn't a large beach, so there was rarely anyone else here, in fact since he'd become one, Tao hadn't seen an actual human up close. 

He looked down at his legs, this is what made him human. He wasn't sure he liked having legs; sure he had wished to be a human, but he hadn't thought it would be this hard to walk on two limbs; they made it look so easy, but then again humans were pretty crap at swimming. 

But he didn't want to be a crap walker, he wanted to a be a good walker, he wanted to be able to walk, run, jump...He laughed at himself; he'd only been a human for two weeks, what was with these weird thoughts? 

He wobbled around on the sand, making sure to stay up on the shore of the beach, no wanting to risk going down to the shore, just in case a particularly strong wave washed up. He'd just got turned into a human, and even though he was already missing swimming underwater, he was going to learn how to walk and go to a human school. 

"Tao. Incoming." Said Baekhyun quietly, who'd been a keeping an eye out in case humans came and asked questions as to why Tao was having so much trouble walking, and Tao stopped hopping around and swung around, his eyes wide and excited. 

He'd only ever seen humans from the safety of the ocean, and they hadn't hunted mermaids for centuries, but Tao had heard stories from his grandfather, and they hadn't been pretty. Supposedly humans were different now; he even knew that some merfolk had made friend with humans. He looked around the beach, squinting but saw nothing. 

"Where? I don't see anything! Have they gone? Where did they go?" In his excited shouts, he didn't notice that he was jumping up and down, without falling. 

"Tao! You're doing it!" Said Baekhyun, now it was his turn to get distracted as he let out a cheer. 

Tao's eyes went even wider and he let out a high pitched squeal. 

"I can walk! I can walk!" He shouted and tackled Baekhyun with a hug. 

He'd been practicing waking for almost two weeks, without getting anywhere, which had been one of the most frustrating experiences of his life, especially when Baekhyun would tease and run circles around him. 

"I can walk, I can walk..!" Tao sang happily pulling out the hug and grabbing Baekhyun and twirling round in a circle. 

Baekhyun laughed at him as the mermaid turned human let go of his arms and jumped around. 

"Don't overdo it." He said and sure enough, two seconds later Tao was lying face first in the sand. 

"Having fun?" A cheerful voice interrupted and Baekhyun noticeably jumped, he'd forgotten about the human odor he'd smelt, warning him, which caused the stranger to chuckle. 

Baekhyun slowly turned around, trying to turn his nervous smile into something more natural, his eyes landing on a unusually tall human, with windswept brown curls and relaxed smile, Baekhyun narrowed his eyes as he took in his outfit; a black casual t-shirt, with a black leather jacket on top, and dark blue jeans, and he could see the glint of a silver chain on his neck; whoever this guy was, he wasn't cheap. 

"Yes. We're - " 

"Ohgydayumanebseensfore." Tao lifted his head off from the sand, his eyes shining as he attempted to speak while spitting out sand. 

"Thanks Tao." Said Baekhyun sarcastically as Tao tried to stand up again, finally succeeding after four trials of falling down and face planting. 

"Need some help?" Asked the stranger, obviously trying not to laugh. 

"I've got it." Said Tao leaning against Baekhyun's shoulder who resisted the temptation to push him off so he'd fall again, but this wasn't really the time for practical jokes; from what Baekhyun knew of humans, very rarely did they do things not benefit from. 

"Who're you?" Said Tao curiously, human and mermaids had very different ideas of how to treat strangers, and Baekhyun stepped on his foot. 

“Ow!” Tao winced loudly. “Why - ?” 

“Shut up.” He hissed and Tao clammed up. 

Baekhyun smiled at the stranger, who still smiling, seemingly having missed the exchange, or just ignoring the fact that it had happened. To Baekhyun’s surprise, the stranger proceeded to introduce himself, from what Baekhyun had seen of humans they were very wary of strangers, and didn’t like being spoken to overly familiarly. 

“I’m Chanyeol. You?” Tao looked at Baekhyun inquisintorily but Baekhyun was too surprised to say anything but his name. His real name nonetheless. 

“Baekhyun.” 

Tao took this as meaning he could introduce himself, and did so, with a smile almost as wide as the human he’d just met. 

“I’m Tao.” 

“What are you guys doing out here so early in the morning?” Chanyeol asked, eyes glinting with curiosity, and Baekhyun suddenly felt alarm bells ringing in the back of his head. 

“I’m learning how to - ” 

“Build sandcastles.” Interrupted Baekhyun, glaring at Tao who’s eyes widened slightly and his face took on a guilty expression as he remembered he was talking to a human. 

“You need to get taught?” Laughed Chanyeol and Tao cocked his head to the side. 

“Yes.” He answered and Baekhyun thanked the gods Tao had never actually built a sandcastle. 

Chanyeol seemed to realize he was being serious and then suddenly grinned. 

“Can I help?” 

Baekhyun didn’t like it. He didn’t trust this human. 

Well, he didn’t trust humans in general, but this one in particular made his hair stand on end, his teeth tingle and he felt tense. 

“We’re heading home now.” He said bluntly, before Tao, as Baekhyun was sure he would, could accept his offer. 

“Oh.” Chanyeol actually looked disappointed; which was almost enough to make Baekhyun rethink his feelings towards the human. Almost. 

They stood there awkwardly for what seemed like hours, until Chanyeol suddenly smiled again. 

“You guys are new around here right?” Baekhyun nodded cautiously as Tao blinked confusedly. 

Chanyeol reached into the pocket of his jean and pulled out a pen, and then grabbed Baekhyun’s hand, before scribbling down various digits. 

“You have any questions about this place; call me!” He said, dropping Baekhyun’s hand and winking at Tao. 

“Later.” He ran up the beach, waving, before disappearing over the dunes. 

Baekhyun was frozen. A human had just touched him. And it hadn't felt revolting. He'd even say it felt natural. What was he thinking? He looked at his hand, and frowned. There was no burns. Nothing. But that was impossible...unless, no, that was even more impossible. 

Tao looked Baekhyun’s shoulder and frowned looking at the numbers that had been scribbled across his friend’s palm. 

“What is that?” Baekhyun coughed quickly; having being dragged back to reality, and realizing his cheeks were unusually warm, he quickly answered. 

“It’s a phone number.” 

“What’s that?” Tao asked his eyes wide and Baekhyun laughed; as annoying and dense Tao could be, Baekhyun would always see him as a baby bird. Or a panda. 

(A/N: I know it's very confusing but it'll make sense eventually. Hopefully. ( ^_^ )