“Come on, Taeminnie! Come to Daddy!” Kibum urged his two year old son.

The little mermaid sat in Jonghyun’s arms peacefully making no move to try to swim to Kibum. In fact, he showed no interest at all in trying to learn how to swim on his own. Usually by this age the other baby mermaids were learning to swim and here’s their son, perfectly content being carried around everywhere.

“Jongie, what are we going to do?” Kibum moaned in frustration.

“Give him time, Bum. I’m sure he’ll eventually show interest in swimming.” Jonghyun reassured his mate.

“Alright,” Kibum sighed, sinking to the floor. “But if he’s not swimming within the next month I’m going to take drastic measures.”

“‘Drastic measures’?” Jonghyun laughed.

“Yes,” Kibum pouted, plucking Taemin out of Jonghyun’s lap, laughing when the boy giggled and squirmed.

“What are you going to do?”

“Candy.” Kibum said, leaving the room to make Taemin his dinner.

“Candy?” Jonghyun laughed at his mate’s tactics before becoming serious. “Wait...He’s already hyper enough as is! Kibum don’t you dare!”

************************************

“Minho,” Taemin laughed. “What in all things good and holy are you doing?!”

Minho looked up at the boy, frowning as he slipped into the water. “Learning how to use this freaking tail. What else would I be doing?”

“I don’t know,” Taemin shrugged, looking back at his two sleeping parents. Mermaids were considered nocturnal creatures, though underwater their sense of human time was much different. “I thought you hated the water.”

“I do.”

“So why are you learning to use your tail if you hate the water so much?”

“I don’t know.” Minho sighed, running his hand through his hair in frustration. “I guess I just want to be able to use the extra appendage that I have?”

“Well technically, your legs would be an extra appendage.” Taemin pointed out.

“Whatever.” Minho said grumpily.

“You want help?” Taemin offered watching Minho struggle to learn how to use his tail.

“Maybe?” Minho said, embarrassed that he needed help from the younger mermaid.

“Alright.” Taemin said swimming up to Minho and taking his hand. “First you need to use your entire tail, not just the fins.”
“Like this?” Minho attempted to copy Taemin’s demonstration but only made Taemin laugh. “Don’t laugh at me!”

“Sorry, you just looked like a worm.” Taemin said as he fought to hold in his laughter.

“Well, I’m glad that I amuse you so much.” Minho pouted despite snickering a little himself.

“Don’t worry about it.” Taemin assured him. “You’ve never used it before.”

“This better?” Minho asked finally using his tail the way Taemin had showed him.

“Much.” Taemin encouraged him.

They spent a few more hours like that, Minho slowly but surely learning the basics of his new tail. Sometimes he failed miserably which only served to make Taemin laugh. Though Minho knew he should be mad that Taemin was laughing at him but he found that he loved the sweet sound of Taemin’s laugh. He’d do almost anything if it meant he could hear that sound again.

“Hey, Taemin?” Minho asked suddenly.

“Mhmm?” Taemin hummed in response.

“How normal is it for two men to be in love in your society?”

“Pretty normal. There’s more men than women in our society so it’s not all uncommon for some men to be in love with each other. Why?” Taemin answered a little confused as to where the question came from.

“Well, in Korea, it’s not widely accepted so I was wondering since your kingdom is ruled by two men.” Minho partially lied. It was true that in Korea homouality wasn’t well received by the general public but his motives were more personal than he let on.

“Ah, I see.” Taemin hummed. “Why isn’t it accepted?”

“I don’t know honestly. I never thought about it until now. I don’t really have any gay friends that I know of to be honest.” Minho admitted.

“I’m sure you have more than you think.” Taemin said, looking into Minho’s eyes.

“Probably. But they don’t really talk about it. It’s kinda of a no-no thing.”

“Well, that’s stupid.” Taemin scoffed.
“Yeah.” Minho agreed. “Hey, are you...you know…”

“Gay?” Taemin finished for him.

“Yeah.” Minho blushed.
“I don’t really know. I’ve never really thought about it like you have. Like I said: in my society, being ‘gay’ is not looked down on. It just is. So I’ve never really thought about my uality.”

“I see.” Minho hummed in understanding.

“Are you?” Taemin said blatantly.

“Well, I don’t know.” Minho said honestly. He really didn’t know how he felt about Taemin exactly. He liked him  a lot and thought about him all the time but at the same time, he was terrified of what would happen if he fell in love with another man. It may be an okay thing for Taemin but certainly not okay for him and that was terrifying. What would his parent’s say?

“You don’t know?” Taemin questioned bringing Minho out of his thoughts. “You’ve had much more experience than I have, I’m sure. You’re older than I am and your race matures quicker.”
“We’re the same race, Tae.” Minho said, letting the nickname slip without realizing what he’d said until he saw the fins on Taemin’s tail turn bright pink and his face flush. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to say that!”

“No, it’s okay!” Taemin quickly said. “I don’t mind you calling me that.”

“Okay.” Minho said, noticing his tail fins were also pink. Stupid fins, giving away his emotions.

“You never answered my question though.” Taemin pointed out.

“I didn’t? I thought I did.” Minho tried to cover up.

“Stop trying to change the subject.” Taemin said, picking up on what Minho was so desperately trying to do.

“Okay, well up until now I’ve always liked girls. I’ve gone on a few dates with some girls and all the normal stuff but that’s about it really. I’ve never been interested in a guy before.” Minho confessed.

“What is ‘normal stuff’?” Taemin prompted after Minho finished talking.

“Dates, kissing….” Minho trailed off, his tail turning pink again.

“Have you mated with any girl?” Taemin asked bluntly making Minho choke on his own spit.

“Well, um, yeah. Yeah, I have.” He finally admitted.

“Oh.” Taemin said, looking down. His tailfins turned a light shade of blue due to a feeling that Taemin had never fully experienced before. He had been sad before, sure, but he had never felt a sadness quite like this. He wasn’t sure why he felt like that when he heard that Minho had mated. Minho wasn’t Taemin’s lover, they were barely even friends. So why had he suddenly felt so sad?

“Taemin?” Minho asked, concerned that the mermaid had suddenly turned away. “Are you okay?”

“I...uh...I’m not feeling good.” Taemin tried to cover up his emotions. “I think I’m going to go sleep.”

“Oh, okay.” Minho said, sounding disappointed almost. But maybe that was just Taemin’s imagination. Why would Minho ever be disappointed that Taemin couldn’t talk. “Do you want help or something?”
“No, I’m okay.” Taemin quickly brushed off Minho. “I’ll see you later. I’m sure you’re busy.”

“No, I’m fine. Let me help you.” Minho insisted, placing a warm hand on Taemin’s shoulder.

“I said no, Minho!” The boy nearly yelled, shrugging off Minho’s hand harshly before diving to the deepest part of the pool, leaving Minho at the edge of the pool, utterly confused.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************

A/N:

Longer chapter is longer! Yay for 2min! Sorry it took so long for us to update, Bre is being lazy and took forever to update (E/N: I HAVE BEEN SICK! I have strep, a viral infection, and two ear infections). But I've been bugging her constantly so hopefully she will get some fire under her . So this note is gonna be short so we can update faster. We love you all (And your comments)!

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