"Mom, where are you now?" 

Youngjae turned round and round in place, his eyes falling on nothing but the mist that didn't quite touch him. It swirled around at the edges of a makeshift circle, taunting him with collapsing and consuming his vision entirely. 

"Stop worrying about me." 

Her voice came like the fall of leaves against wet grass. Prominently soft and sweet. It anchored Youngjae to the past. He was nine again. 

He closed his eyes and ran towards her. With arms spread wide, he crashed into her and grabbed at the fabric bunched around her waist. 

"Mommy," Youngjae said in between  a broken sob. He never had the chance to cry in front of her that day so feeling the rush of tears now was a powerful source of alleviation. 

She ran her hand through his tufts of brown hair. "You might just have found happiness ___ _____. Hold onto-" 

"Mommy," Youngjae said again but when he looked up she was gone and the mist was closing in. Regret clawed at his heart. 

What had she said? 

His mind started to whir and the dream became little more then a haze. He woke with a tinge of sadness in the pit of his stomach that comes from all his worst dreams; made worse today by the feeling that he could not recall what his mother had said to him.

He had no time to feel upset with himself because the second he stepped into reality, something odd filled his vision. 

A set of thick, black eyelashes. Skin as smooth as a pearl. Soon enough an entire face. 

Jaebum. 

Pressed daringly close.

A flood of events from yesterday came crashing down on Youngjae. He pulled back and Jaebum stirred. Reaching for the cover, Youngjae had just enough time to peel it down over their torsos when Jaebum's eyelids fluttered open. Youngjae froze. 

A lopsided smile languidly spread over Jaebum's face, tugging one end up higher then the other. He reached out to push a strand of hair away from Youngjae's left eye but stopped short when he felt a breeze rock over his skin. Youngjae followed Jaebum's eyes. Together, their eyes traversed the length of Youngjae's arm to where he held the comforter bunched  in within his fist. Youngjae released a sigh of relief. No more embarrass- 

"I haven't used mine yet but I do think that's too tight of a grip."

A splurge of heat burst up Youngjae's neck. He stared back at Jaebum who had since thrown away his grogginess for a smirk that bared a bit of his teeth. Youngjae looked down again and realized then that his hand hovered over Jaebum's . He darted his eyes back and forth between his hand and Jaebum's face before his muscles reacted.

"It's not what you're thinking," Youngjae said, his voice cracking at the end, as he dropped the cover and fumbled out of bed.

He pressed himself against the wall  and watched with wary eyes as Jaebum pulled himself upright to lean back against the headboard. 

"I think it's cute." Jaebum looked down and after a few seconds of tracing his thumb along the comforter's sewn-in pattern, stopped. He jerked his head to the side. "Not my , of course. I mean you." 

Youngjae frowned. He still couldn't believe that of all the fish in the sea, he was stuck with the one most likely to flirt with him. 

"Why are you in my bed?"

Jaebum smiled. "Since we're a couple I thought it best if we practice sleeping in the same bed." He did something with his eye that Youngjae assumed was his way of trying to wink. 

"We're not a couple!" 

"But you saved me."

"I did."

Youngjae thought back to how fish do not have emotional connections with their mates in the second before Jaebum opened his mouth.

"It's just that we don't risk ourselves for anyone else. We're all a one-man team wonder. But you helped me so-"

"I saved you out of kindness and you'll be seeing a lot more of that as a human. There's nothing more to it." 

In order to distract from the hush that fell over the room, Youngjae said he would be right back. He kept his eyes trained on Jaebum as he took careful, steady steps towards his closet at the other end of his room. He slipped inside and slammed the door shut behind him.

Youngjae thought back on his words and recoiled at the thought of sounding too harsh. He might have been a tad bit insensitive although he hadn't meant to. Yet, the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to push away the thought that clamored over all the rest to the front of his attention: Hadn't he thought JB beautiful as a fish? 

Youngjae shoved his mellowed thoughts away and focused on the present. There was nothing to be embarassed about having a man sitting in his bed. Youngjae didn't know what kind of dreams a fish has as a human but he hoped that 95% of them didn't revolve around their desire to produce offspring. Otherwise, he would have to dodge both Jaebum and his raging until he could find a way to return him to the sea.

The air quickly grew hot within the closet's cramped space. Swallowing back his nervousness, Youngjae slammed the door open and shouted "Here, wear this!" as he an oversized t-shirt out. He was met with a pool of silence.

He cracked open an eye and for the second time that day, felt like a foreign planet had slammed into his Earth. Jaebum was standing proud and tall before him; bearing all that nature had given him from the onset of his transformation. If there was even a chance that Youngjae's words had hurt him, it did not show now as Jaebum ran his hands over his slim stomach with a certain inquisitiveness. 

Youngjae started to close the door but Jaebum shot his hand out and grabbed the handle. Youngjae jumped at the feel of his cool fingers. He expected them to be cold but then realized how dumb of an assumption that was. If he held the internal temperature needed for a fish to survive in the sea, he would have been dead as a human. 

Youngjae stepped back as Jaebum stepped forward. Youngjae knocked into the clothes hanging on the rack behind him and shut his eyes tight. Shaking, he lifted the shirt up before him and repeated what he had said earlier. It came as a hoarse whisper. The sound of his heartbeat flooded his ears. He felt his mouth go dry. It took him a moment to realize that Jaebum had asked "What?".

Evenso, Jaebum made no intention of stopping what he was doing. He reached out to grab Youngjae  around the waist. Youngjae repeated himself for the third time. When he heard no response, gave in and waited for the feel of Jaebum's body pressing itself against his. 

"Oh."

Youngjae opened his eyes the moment the fabric slid away from his fingertips. 

"I didn't hear you," Jaebum said as he rummaged with the shirt's four entryways. Deciding on one, he slid it over his head but the shirt would not budge. 

"Pictures I've seen show that the head pops out of the shirt," Jaebum said, his voice muffled by the fabric from which his face was hidden behind. 

Youngjae pursed his lips in what he thought was an adequate representation of a grimace and smile merged together. "You have the wrong hole." He slid the shirt off and redirected Jaebum to the hole off to the side of the one he had picked. "Your neck goes into the curved one so that your arms can pop out comfortably between the sleeves." Youngjae patted the two flaps of fabric that hung limp against Jaebum's arms for emphasis.

There was wonder in Jaebum's eyes as he ran his hands along the soft cotton. "This feels nice. I don't necessarily want to take it off, but it still feels strange," Jaebum mused. 

"Well, you'll have to get used to it. Humans can't run around with nothing to wear." 

Jaebum looked up and despite the sincerity laced throughout his smile and huge, questioning eyes, Youngjae still wanted to ductape his mouth for what he asked next.

"Is there a hole for my ?" 

"Okay, okay, that's enough. It's time for breakfast," Youngjae said as he squeezed by Jaebum. Even though Jaebum had nowhere to be outside of the house, Youngjae hoped that his was gone. 

Youngjae trudged down the stairs with an ecstatic Jaebum close behind. He felt irked by how close he was but couldn't very well scold him when he was being this jolly. 

"Sit down somewhere in the living room and wait there while I make omelets."

"Omelets?" Jaebum asked. 

"You'll see."

Jaebum did as he was told while Youngjae set off to work on preparing the delicious meal. Less then an hour later the smell of cooked eggs and a splatter of ketchup filled Jaebum's sense of smell as he guided his nose along the length of the oval plate. 

"This smells so good." He pinched his nose to conceal the smell but laughed when it didn't disappear. 

"This is magic." He lifted the plate up high. The omelet started to slide into his parted lips when Youngjae tugged the plate back. Surprised, Jaebum let go. 

"You don't eat like that," Youngjae said. He showed him how to grab a fork and cut into the cooked egg. "Here. Try it." Youngjae handed him the fork and watched as Jaebum fumbled with it. It clattered onto the omelet, table and floor before Youngjae stood and made his way over to Jaebum's side. 

He repeated the steps he had shown him earlier with an emphasis on the position of his fingers. This time Youngjae grabbed ahold of a piece of the omelet. He was ready to hand Jaebum the fork when he turned and was met with a wide open mouth. Darting his eyes away, Youngjae set the fork down and stood. 

"Did I do something wrong?" Jaebum started to open his mouth but forced it closed. His eyebrows drew up. He peeled back his shirt sleeve and raised his hand up to his mouth. He blew a gust of hot air onto his palm before sniffing it. "Does my breath smell bad?" Sil