Jiyong ran his hand through his newly shorn hair, a smirk playing about his mouth as he tugged his fingers through it. He was thoroughly pleased with the new look, shaved on one side and long on the other, and the reactions from the Court had been well worth the effort. When his mother had raised an eyebrow and asked for the occasion (the rest of the court had been shocked into silence), Jiyong had rather cheerfully explained that he had been influenced by seaweed. The answer caused a good number of the people in the room to sigh in exasperation, but the only thing his lovely mother had done was nod and send him on his way.

He didn’t care what the court thought as they really had no say in his life, but teasing them like this never failed to amuse him. He takes a deep breath and looks around the cove. It was early morning and he felt energized and ready for the day. He was sprawled out on the dock, dressed as simply as possible, leaning back on his hands with his head tilted toward the still rising sun. He had remembered to bring some extra clothes for Youngbae just in case he came out of the water again, and had left them in a neatly folded pile in the boat along with his bag.

Seungri had insisted that Jiyong bring food and a blanket, even though Jiyong had continually insisted that it most certainly was not a date and that besides, he had no idea what Youngbae might like to eat. Seungri had just rolled his eyes and shoved the bag into Jiyong’s chest with a rather sarcastic “I’m sorry, how could I possibly have thought that you were going on a date? You’ve only been fixing your hair and playing dress-up for the last two and a half hours for fun.” before bowing politely and walking out the door.

Jiyong smiles slightly, knowing that he is sometimes harder on his young servant than he really needs to be as the man somehow manages to put up with him. He sighs lightly, dropping his head back and letting the sun warm his neck and face. This was a relaxing reprieve from the Princely duties he had been forced to deal with the day before. He only wished that Youngbae were already there, next to him. They didn’t need to talk, hell, who was Jiyong kidding? He would have been fine if Youngbae were just near him. That’s all that he wanted; Youngbae close to him. He wanted to be breathing the same air, and feeling the same heat from the sun.

He lets his ears tune into the sound of the water around him. Softly lapping against the wood of the dock and rocking the boat in a lazy rhythm, Jiyong drank up the sounds of the ocean, hoping to catch a sound that would alert him to Youngbae’s arrival. This would prove ineffective when just ten minutes later he opens his eyes so that he can reposition himself in the sunlight, only to discover Youngbae squatting in front of him, a small smile on his face.

“You’re awake.” Youngbae says softly, seemingly unfazed by the rather unmanly squeak of surprise that had passed through Jiyong’s lips.

“Yes, I am. How did you get here without me hearing you?” Jiyong asks, sitting up and frowning.

Youngbae shrugs, allowing a brighter smile to cross his features. “Maybe you were sleeping?” He says, leaning forward and tilting his head to the side. “You changed your hair.” he says, reaching out a hand to grasp the hair that was left.

“I told you I would.” Jiyong says, suddenly nervous that Youngbae doesn’t like it and fervently wishing that he hadn’t changed it.

Youngbae runs his hand over the shaved side, causing Jiyong to close his eyes and sigh. “It suits you...somehow.” He says, moving his hand to run over the hair dangling off to the right side of Jiyong’s head.

Jiyong smiles and opens his eyes, noting that Youngbae was wearing the pants that he had brought, but not the shirt. “Did the shirt not fit?” He asks, gesturing toward Youngbae’s bare torso when the man only looks at him in confusion.

Youngbae’s face goes a little pink and he ducks his head down so that Jiyong can’t see his eyes. “I didn’t know how to put it on.” He says quietly, and Jiyong lets out a soft chuckle.

“Ah, it’s alright, you don’t need it.” he says, barely managing to hide the once-over that he gives Youngbae’s bare torso. Youngbae smiles brightly and moves to sit down next to him, facing the ocean.

“Um, is it OK if...” Youngbae starts, before stopping and looking down at his fingers.

Jiyong turns his head to look at him. “Is it OK what?” He asks, smiling lightly.

Youngbae clears his throat and starts again. “My friends want to meet you...is that OK?” He asks.

Jiyong is silent for a second, panicking over the thought that the new mermen were going to meet him while he was dressed far less than his best, and directly after he had been ogling their friend. He shakes his head quickly and brushes his hair away from his face. “Of course it’s OK. If I’d have known I would have dressed more appropriately for a first meeting.”

Youngbae laughs and rolls his eyes. “You look fine, trust me.” he says, before he gets up and leans over the edge of the dock. He drops his hand into the water, making a small splash, and not 10 seconds later, two heads slowly broke the surface.

The two mermen, one with short teal-colored hair and the other with longer brown hair that looked like it normally covered at least one of his eyes, slowly moved forward and pulled themselves up so that their elbows were resting on the dock. Youngbae smiles, and leans back as they get closer and taps Jiyong on the arm.

“This is Jiyong.” He says, and both men nod. The one with the brown hair smiles brightly and sticks out his hand.

“I’m Daesung! It’s a pleasure to meet you!” He says, grasping Jiyong’s hand in his still slightly damp one. Jiyong can’t help but find Daesung to be comforting, and he understands immediately why Youngbae would enjoy talking with him.

All eyes turn to the man with teal hair, and his eyes go wide in slight fright. Youngbae nudges his shoulder and Daesung touches his arm, in the hopes that it will calm him down. “I’m Seunghyun.” He mutters out, and Jiyong smiles.

“It’s nice to meet you as well. Youngbae talks about you both.” He says, before stopping as he realizes that he doesn’t really know what else to say.

“Oh yes, well we’ve been dying to meet you!” Daesung says, adjusting his arms so that he can be more comfortable. Jiyong turns to look at Youngbae, an amused smirk on his face and is pleased to note that the Youngbae was flushing red.

“Oh? He’s talked about me?” Jiyong asks, scooting closer. Daesung smiles even more brightly, which Jiyong had never imagined could be possible, and nods enthusiastically.

“Yes, he talks about you all of the time! It’s rather sweet really.” He says, and Youngbae claps a hand over his face to hide how red he was.

“By the Gods, Daesung, why don’t you just tell Jiyong about Youngbae’s past relationships and what food he had for breakfast yesterday.” Seunghyun says, realizing how embarrassed Youngbae was becoming.

“He hasn’t had any past relationships; and you and I both know that he skipped breakfast yesterday.” Daesung says, before his eyes widen and he realizes what Seunghyun was trying to infer. “Oh, oh sorry!” He says, reaching out to touch Youngbae’s knee. He turns back to look at Jiyong. “I’m sorry! I don’t really spend a lot of time with large numbers of people so... I just..sorry.” Daesung’s face flushes red with guilt and embarrassment, and Jiyong frowns.

“No, don’t feel bad! I enjoyed listening to what you had to say.” Jiyong says, a smile lighting up his face at the end. Youngbae snorts lightly and Jiyong is certain he muttered something along the lines of ‘of course you did.’

“Ah, it was rude of me, and now you will think poorly of us and Youngbae.” Daesung rambles, and Jiyong shakes his head.

“Highly unlikely. I already enjoy you all far too much and there is literally nothing that could make me dislike Youngbae.” He says it to calm Daesung down, but the bright look that appeared in both Daesung’s and Seunghyun’s eyes was unexpected.

“Really?” Seunghyun asks, and Jiyong is taken aback by how deep and rather threatening the man’s voice is.

Jiyong nervously flicks his hair out of his face and looks directly at Seunghyun. “Of course.” he says, looking far more confident and comfortable than he felt. “Now, let’s talk about other things.” He says, looking around at them.

Youngbae nods enthusiastically. “Yes, that sounds like an excellent idea.” He says, his enthusiasm causing everyone to laugh.

They spent the next two hours lounging around the dock as neither Seunghyun nor Daesung were willing to leave the water. Daesung spent some time marveling over Youngbae’s legs and their general lack of scales above water, which Jiyong was amused to note caused Seunghyun to get huffy and unhappy. The two left after Daesung, in a fit of excitedness, reached forward to touch Youngbae’s bare leg; Seunghyun barely contained a snarl of possessive anger before grabbing Daesung’s arm and saying as politely as he seemed to be able to manage that they “should leave the two lovers alone”. Youngbae had blushed scarlet, though Jiyong had merely raised an eyebrow and nodded at them in acknowledgement.

“I’m sorry about that.” Youngbae says. He was sitting with his legs crossed and was fiddling with his fingers in his lap.

“What, about your rather endearing friends?” Jiyong asks, smiling softly in an attempt to cheer Youngbae up. Youngbae just scoffs lightly and Jiyong rolls his eyes, leaning forward to lift up Youngbae’s chin. “Shh, I’m glad I met them. Now I know who you’re talking about, and what they’re like.” Jiyong smiles, and Youngbae notes that this is his favorite of Jiyong’s smiles; all gums and teeth and real happiness. “I like them!”

Youngbae laughs lightly before taking a deep breath and moving his head out of Jiyong’s grasp. The loss of contact allows Youngbae to breathe again, Jiyong’s touch always caused him to lose that basic ability. A smile lights across his face as he redirects his gaze back to Jiyong. “I’m glad...Sometimes they are all that keeps me sane.”

Jiyong nods, allowing them to fall into silence for a short moment while he stares at the hand that he had used to touch Youngbae’s face. After a couple of moments of thought, Jiyong tilts his head to the side and looks up at Youngbae.

“How long have Seunghyun and Daesung been dating? Seunghyun is a little too jealous for them to be a long-standing couple.” Jiyong watches the expressions crossing over Youngbae’s face, feeling amused when it lands on a frown.

“They’re not dating...Seunghyun makes Daesung uncomfortable; Seunghyun has the tendency to always say or do the wrong thing when around Daesung.” Youngbae says, tilting his head to the side as well, exchanging his frown for a look of open curiosity. “What made you think that they were dating?” Jiyong laughs and pats Youngbae lightly on the cheek before leaning back and looking out over the ocean.

“You’re so cute sometimes.” He says, and Youngbae pouts slightly, moving so that he’s directly in front of Jiyong’s line of vision.

“Tell me!” He whines, and Jiyong can’t help but to smile again, an amused chuckle escaping his lips before he sits up and pats Youngbae’s shoulder.

“If they aren’t dating now, then they will be soon.” He says, using Youngbae’s shoulder to help him stand up. “Come on, let’s go for a walk.” He reaches out his hand for Youngbae to take and helps the man up before starting toward the beach.

“I don’t...Why did you think that they were dating?” Youngbae asks, unable to move past that fact. He had never really thought of it as a possibility before, and he wanted to know why Jiyong had come to that conclusion.

“Didn’t you see how possessive Seunghyun was? Everytime Daesung mentioned your body he practically snarled.” Jiyong stops in his tracks and turns to look at Youngbae, who had stopped with him and was looking at him uncertainly. “Not that I blame him. If the person I was dating was fawning over you, I would feel threatened.”

Youngbae furrows his eyebrows and frowns for a couple of moments before tilting his head to the side. “Seunghyun was jealous of the attention that Daesung was paying me?” He asks, though it’s more of a statement and Jiyong knows that Youngbae hadn’t really meant to say it out loud. Youngbae’s eyes light up after a couple of seconds and he smiles. “I should have known! Ahh, that explains why Seunghyun is always so uncomfortable and stuttering around Daesung.” He takes a deep breath. “Sometimes I’m so slow at these things.” Jiyong smiles and squeezes Youngbae’s hand.

“It’s alright,” he says, finding it rather amusing. “Sometimes you don’t notice the things that are right under your nose.” Youngbae nods and moves closer, causing Jiyong to take in a sharp breath.

Youngbae moves even closer still, their bodies mere short inches apart, before stopping. Jiyong immediately flushes, wondering if Youngbae had finally noticed or understood what Jiyong’s extra-long stares and overly-careful compliments had meant. He hitches his gaze away from Youngbae’s face, staring instead at the shorter man’s hair in an attempt to hide his blush just in case Youngbae hadn’t finally understood, and was just completely unaware of personal space. Jiyong was so busy staring at Youngbae’s forehead so that he didn’t get caught blushing, that he didn’t notice where Youngbae was looking.

“Who’s that.” Youngbae asks softly, his free hand coming up to grip Jiyong’s upper arm possessively. He felt the sudden need to protect Jiyong, as he watched the unknown person slowly sneak along the ridge, trying to stay out of sight.

Jiyong had let his eyes drift closed while waiting for Youngbae to do something, but they snapped open at the softly spoken words and sudden tight grip on his upper arm. After blinking away his alarm, he allows himself to grin as he realizes that Youngbae’s whisper had been more of a hiss and the hand on his arm was more of a protective grasp. Youngbae tightens his hold on Jiyong’s hand when it becomes clear that Jiyong was ignoring the question.

“There’s someone up on the ridge.” He says, his voice is soft but Jiyong can hear the hiss of urgency in it.

Jiyong allows himself a deep breath, enjoying the tight hold Youngbae had on him, before he steps back a bit and shrugs his shoulders. “It’s probably a servant. Most likely Seungri as he has been practically dying to meet you.” He smiles and watches as Youngbae’s face relaxes slightly, though it stays guarded.

“Why doesn’t he just show himself?” He asks, his voice louder but still sounding wary.

“Because I told him that I was to be left alone today.” Jiyong pulls on their linked hands and Youngbae loosens his grip on Jiyong’s shoulder. Jiyong flashes him a smile and without turning around calls out: “Seungri? Could you grab my bag from the boat? I seem to have left it there.”

Youngbae notes the slight change in Jiyong’s voice; he’s still in a good mood, he’s still playing, but there was a strong chord of authority there that couldn’t be ignored. He keeps his eyes trained on Jiyong’s face, noting the small but smug smile that crosses it when the sound of hurried steps could be heard.

“Yes, Sire!” A voice that Youngbae recognizes from the first time he saw Jiyong, shouts. Youngbae lifts his gaze from Jiyong’s face in time to see a young man with extremely short black hair come jogging past them toward the dock. Youngbae watched the man as he hurried onto the dock and to the boat, letting go of Jiyong’s arm as he turned to keep track of the man.

Jiyong scowls lightly, unhappy with Seungri’s appearance, but also secretly glad that he had come; Youngbae’s reaction to Seungri’s lurking was well worth the interruption. “Hurry up! I’m hungry.” Jiyong says loudly, crossing one arm over his chest as the other was still linked with Youngbae’s.

Seungr rolls his eyes and moves a little quicker. He knew that he probably shouldn’t have snuck down to see, but he couldn’t help his curiosity. He had been fairly disappointed to find that all the Prince and the attractive man had done aside from talk was hold hands. Seungri was secretly rooting for the Prince to have found somebody he liked and wanted to be with from outside of the court, as the girls presented to him were normally silly...and, well...they were girls.

Seungri shakes his head to clear it of these thoughts as he comes to a stop in front of Jiyong and his friend. He notes, with both alarm and amusement, the way that the man shifts subtly so that he was kind of in front of Jiyong. It was a protective stance that Seungri catches Jiyong noticing as well, and he couldn’t help but find it cute.

“Here you are, Sire.” Seungri says, holding the bag out to show that he had, indeed, brought it from the boat.

“Very good. Next time you pack me a bag, make sure it’s not so heavy.” Jiyong says, looking down his nose at Seungri, even though he was slightly shorter. “What did you pack it with, rocks?” He asks, turning around and tugging on Youngbae’s hand. “Come, let’s sit over there.”

Jiyong tugs on Youngbae’s hand again, and Youngbae rather reluctantly turns to follow him, looking back at Seungri every couple of steps.

“What’s his name?” Youngbae asks, stumbling slightly as he looks back and Jiyong tugs his arm to keep him moving.

“Seungri.” Jiyong replies. Annoying brat, Jiyong adds in his head. He smiles to himself and refocuses on walking toward the cliff and a shaded area next to the wall of rocks where he wanted to sit down.

Jiyong stops suddenly causing Youngbae to run into his back because he had been paying more attention to what Seungri was doing than to where he was walking. Jiyong stifles a laugh as Youngbae stutters out an apology after righting himself. Seungri brings the bag forward and takes out a blanket, which he lays on the ground at their feet. Seungri turns to move away from the blanket as Jiyong and Youngbae sit down, but Youngbae reaches out and grabs his arm.

“Where are you going?” He asks, and Seungri is startled by the contact so he just shrugs. “Sit! Are you Jiyong’s best friend?” Youngbae’s voice was practically bubbling with excitement, and Seungri was unsure what to do. He looks quickly to Jiyong who just nods and gestures over to where Youngbae was patting the ground.

Seungri takes the seat with a small smile. “Ahh, I’ve known him for a very long time.” He says, hesitating to use the term ‘friend’.

“You were there that morning...in the boat!” Youngbae says, and Jiyong scowls at the excited note in Youngbae’s voice. Seungri nods, looking quickly over at Jiyong and noting the nasty scowl on his face. Youngbae turns then and directs his attention on Jiyong. Seungri watches in amusement as Jiyong immediately schools his features into a more acceptable neutral expression. “What was the animal in the water?” He asks, and Seungri tilts his head to the side.

“It was Gaho, my dog.” Jiyong says sweetly, and Seungri holds back a laugh. Youngbae nods and turns back to Seungri.

“I’m Youngbae. It’s nice to meet you.” Youngbae says, smiling brightly. Seungri can’t help but to smile back, especially when he sees the deep glare that Jiyong was sending his way.

“It’s nice to meet you too, I’m Seungri.” He says. “Where are you from? I’ve never seen you in the village.” Youngbae opens his mouth to respond, but is cut off by Jiyong.

“He’s from out there.” Jiyong says vaguely, gesturing out toward the ocean. “What did you pack for lunch?” he asks, trying to distract Seungri, and hopefully get him to leave.

“Oh! You packed food?” Youngbae asks, back to being interested in Seungri again. Jiyong sighs angrily and leans back.

It was shaping up to be a long afternoon, Jiyong decides, as he watches Youngbae fawn over Seungri. He was certain that the excitement that Youngbae was now exhibiting was partly to do with Seungri being the only other human that the merman had ever met, but Jiyong didn’t like to think about the fact that that could also apply to him. Did Youngbae only like him because he was a novelty, and if he met more humans would he like them more? He had met more mermen, and though it had only been that morning, he knew that he was attracted to Youngbae for Youngbae....what he wanted to know was if the terribly innocent and blind-to-attraction Youngbae was attracted to him.

Jiyong had gathered from his short time with Youngbae’s friends that Youngbae was just as innocent as he seemed, and Jiyong had been worried that that could mean that Youngbae didn’t feel anything more than just plain friendship for him. However, his possessive actions and the fact that his friends had basically come up to make sure that Jiyong was a good guy, made Jiyong believe that Youngbae definitely felt something for him. Something strong enough that his friends felt the need to check up on him.

Jiyong throws a useless glare in Seungri and Youngbae’s direction, feeling a pang of jealousy as Seungri answers questions about the food and the area that Youngbae was directing at him. He wanted to be the one answering questions, he wanted to seem smart and like he was worth something. Jiyong sighs and sizes up his options: he could move so that he could be a part of the conversation, or he could move so that he could nap. He chose the napping option as he felt that moving to be a part of the conversation would seem desperate, and he didn’t want Seungri to have that to lord over him.

Youngbae was sitting at the perfect angle, his back technically to Jiyong but not completely, so that Jiyong could turn around and lay back, placing his head on Youngbae’s right leg; Youngbae’s bare waist directly next to his head. He heard the pause in conversation as Youngbae tensed slightly and stopped talking before relaxing and going back to whatever he was talking about, only he had moved his arm so that his hand was on the ground on the other side of Jiyong’s neck, loosely trapping his head in place. Jiyong smiled and let out a sigh. Yes, the nap had been the best idea.