Chen arrives home in the dead of night after traveling as fast as possible for hours. Not a single ray of sunshine reaches the ocean floor where the palace lies, built into an underwater canyon; a deep, deep crevice in the darkest depths of the sea where no human could possibly ever find them.

He’s surprised and upset to find that some of the lights are still on, glowing softly but starkly against the rich blackness. That means his parents are still awake, and likely looking for him too. He’s going to be in so much trouble when he gets in.

Is there even any point trying to sneak in? No one who works around the entrance would help him get in undetected, and he’d need to go see them anyway to stop them from worrying. Facing them head on is probably the best way to go, he decides after a moment of deliberation.

He sidles up to the main door, nearly four times his length when his hands are pointing towards the surface, and considers for a moment. What is he going to say to them? How does he explain himself out of this mess?

He doesn’t really have any excuses; he doesn’t normally need to bother. Usually everyone just lets him do whatever he wants, except for formal occasions where he’s barricaded into his chambers and adorned with even more pearls than on his tiara. It’s such a hassle, since they insist on rearranging the pearls each time they use them, in different coloured patterns.

He trembles, and feels himself sinking lightly, since he’s not physically moving. His hair rises up and makes him look like an anemone. He shakes his head, flails his tail once then slowly and sullenly makes his way over to the door, trying to be as unnoticeable as possible.

“Chen?” a voice echoes in the darkness, making him flinch and freeze.

“Yixing!” he chuckles nervously, eyes darting everywhere. Yixing is the person who guards the door. There isn’t a word for his position in English, so butler will have to suffice, although that doesn’t sum up his role exactly.

“Chen! Everyone had been looking for you! Where have you been?” Yixing glides closer, the polished marble blades hanging from his belt glistening in the dim light from the window. Oops. He’d hoped no one would see him.

Yixing, despite being one of the best trained fighters the Palace League has ever seen besides Jongin, is also one of the most compassionate and caring people Chen knows. He’s possibly the only person to give a damn if he hurts himself, even if they’re not particularly close. It’s a little uncomfortable talking to someone who could gut you at a moment’s notice.

“I was, uh, out,” Chen readjusts his tiara, a habit he’s developed ever since the thing was placed on his head all those years ago. Yixing tilts his head disbelievingly, but disregards him, beckoning him closer with one finger. Chen floats closer, almost hypnotised, and Yixing snares his wrist in his unbreakable grip.

“Come with me, Tywysog Ifanc,” ‘young prince’ Chen grumbles soundlessly. That is all he will be known for, if at all. The youngest prince. The useless one. The one that doesn’t do anything worth recalling. He can’t fight, he can’t speak to people, or do anything his older brothers can do. All he can do is sing, and nobody here cares for that.

The lights change subtly as Yixing pulls open the door enough for them both to fit through, then hands him off to Xiumin who drags the sullen prince further towards the throne room. No doubt they have already been informed somehow of his arrival and will be waiting for him there with cold, black eyes, like the deepest darkest cavern.

The inner door to the throne room doesn’t have a door like the outside, which he believes is similar to the design of human castles, but instead luminous kelp curtains. They sway gently in the cool currents, and beckon him in invitingly.

He should know better than to be fooled by its tricks by now, after all he was there when the spell was cast on them, but he can’t help it. He doesn’t spend as much time down this end of the palace, so he hasn’t built up immunity to it.

Xiumin gives him a look that says ‘you-deserve-what-you-get’ then pushes him inside. Chen drifts uncontrollably for a moment, ensnared in the kelp branches, but manages to right himself fairly quickly. His gaze doesn’t leave the carved stone floor as he draws nearer to his parents, sat regally atop their thrones.

He’s scared. This is completely out of the ordinary.  Why are they waiting up for him? They never wait up for him!

“Where have you been?” Chen hunches inwards at her words, but doesn’t look up. He doesn’t want to see her expression, which must surely be furious. He caught a glimpse of her ceremonial wear on the way in, and wonders if he missed something, because his father is dressed up too.

“I-I was just…swimming,” he manages to stutter out a response.

“Where?” his mother is a monotone immovable force, an undeniable presence in these halls. He can’t stand up to her.

“Just…nowhere. I was just out,”

There’s a pregnant pause. He can feel himself slowly drifting out of position, but is loath to rectify himself as that would require a flick of his tail and he doesn’t want to draw attention to himself.

“The where and why are irrelevant,” His father’s voice is equally powerful, the depth of his voice reverberating through him and setting is scales a-tingle. He doesn’t dare look up.

“The point is we didn’t know where you were, and we certainly did not give you permission to go cavorting around the ocean by yourself. In future you are to stay put. In fact, you are not allowed to leave this palace until I say otherwise, understood?”

Chen bristles,

“Yes father,” he submits to his parents, knowing that he’ll just get a worse punishment if he tries to explain what he was doing. It will just sound like excuses to them, and he should be more responsible because of who he is. It doesn’t make him any less angry, though. His cold blood is boiling under his scales, racing around his body like the torrid water that comes up from the centre of the earth.

He bears the weight of their stares for a few moments longer, before they send him to his chambers.

“You are not allowed to leave until I send a servant to come and get you, understand?” Chen stays silent, scowling furiously at the floor and wondering morbidly how much force it would take to smash through it. Or how much force it would take to smash through them.

“Is that understood?”

“Yes father.” He hisses. 

"Good. You are dismissed," His father watches him stonily as he leaves the throne room, leaving a flurry of displaced water in his wake. He ignores Xiumn completely as sprints to his own chambers on the other side of the palace, and resisting the urge to throw aside the works of art that decorate the hallways; spiteful behaviour will get him nowhere. He reaches his chambers with burning lungs and realises his whole body is sore from the long journey he made today. His tail aches, and his arms too. 

He deflates, and sinks down onto his bed, made with the highest quality sea sponges, and fumes silently. He tears angry holes in his bedding, knowing that it will grow back with time, and curses his parents for even noticing his absence. It was fine before, why couldn't they just keep pretending he didn't exist? All his brothers and sisters were doing a perfectly good job of running the kingdom without him, they don't even need him.

He imagines the water around him turning black, and all the doors and windows closing, thus making it a solid reality that he's completely and totally trapped. The walls morph and change shape, shrinking in on him as he tries in vain to flee to find his human, but to no avail. Just as he's about to be crushed, between his bed and the farthest wall, he wakes up flailing. He hadn't even realised he'd fallen asleep.

Chen lies still as stone until the palpitations of his heart dissipate and he can no longer hear the rushing of his blood around his body. He's still feeling the aftershocks of fear though, so he heads over to the window- too small for him to fit through, unfortunately- and looks over the royal garden. There's not much to see at this time, becasue they don't turn on the lights until most everyone is awake, and so little sunlight reaches these depths of the ocean, especially not in a ravine like the one in which the palace is situated. 

On the other hand, some of the plants they cultivate here, Chen can't remember the names, emit a soft glow that gently illuminates some of the surrounding shrubbery. He leans against the windowsill, and daydreams. When he's finally freed the first thing he will do is go right back to his human and watch him. He wonders what would happen if he somehow managed to introduce himself to him, whether the stories they tell about them are true. Would his human's first reaction be to try and kill him? He hopes not, but honsestly he doesn't know enough about humans to be sure.

He almost drifts off there, waiting for the day to begin, watching through bleary eyes as they light the lamps. The coral-most of them white except for a few which lean towards more brows and grays, because there is so little sunlight down here- are the only things which do not move. The rest of the gardens are alive with movement: the kelp and other mobile plants sway seemingly in rhythm, and the shrooms gleam subtly.

What Chen marvels at the most however, as he has always, is how the coral is grown. Because corals aren't true plants, but something closer to skeletons, some merfolk have the skill- more akin to magic, and ability Chen does not have- to persuade the corals to spread in different ways, and the results are always stunning. Usually until they are fully grown, they are kept elsewhere, so all that is out in the gardens are statues. Some made to resemble other plants, and some are collossal creations, made in the likeness of members of the royal family. These go back generations. 

From where he's sat, Chen can't see much detail, but he knows all of the names of his ancestors who the corals were told to grow in the likeness of. To pass the time, he recites each one, and is about twelve generations back in history when a noise behind him alerts him to someone's presence. He stiffens but makes no more reaction than that. If anyone wants to talk to him, they're going to have to put in more effort than that. 

"Um, Chen?" It's Xiumin. His parents have probably signed him up for nanny duty. His calm mood is suddenly dashed and he feels petulant rage gushing forth. 

"What." He snaps, and Xiumin takes that as an invitation to come further into the room, Chen can hear the swish of the water as he draws nearer. He lays a hand on Chen's shoulder, and squeezes pityingly. 

"Your parents have decided that one turn of the moon is long enough for you to learn your lesson. You are not to leave palace waters during this time, Tywysog Ifanc," he says quietly, as if he regrets it. Chen shrugs, and a moment later Xiumin's presence is gone.

Chen smirks to himself. If they really wanted to punish him, they should know him better. Chen is nothing if not resourceful. He has decided: he will use this time to comb through the palace libraries, and find out everything he possibly can about the humans. He knows the librarian won't help him; she won't be allowed to since he's being punished, but that's not too big a problem, he'll be fine on his own. 

He waits a little while longer, just to be absolutely sure that Xiumin isn't standing outside waiting for him to leave so he can follow him, and like an eel keeping to the shadows, slithers down the corridor. He remains largely unseen, except for a few servants who roll their eyes at his passing and continue on with their work as if nothing happened.

He reaches the library, and very few people are around so he heads to the section about humans. This part of the library is not particularly extensive, only a few small, stone-hewn shelves contain all the knowlege they have relating to air-dwellers. Not very much, Chen thinks. At least there won't be too much to filter through.

The water in here is stagnant, and the taste is less saline than outdoors. It feels strange on his tongue and in his lungs, it will probably take some getting used to. He wonders how some people can come here day after day. The lighting in here is low, only a few lamps illuminate the dank, darkness in here. Chen wonders if maybe that's to give it a mysterious atmosphere. It's not working that well.

Starting from the top, he picks out one entitled, 'the science of air-walkers' with jade bindings at each end, and unrolls the scroll untill it almost reaches the floor. It hangs lifelessly in the dead water. Chen sinks to the floor to begin reading what seems to be a very boring and very biased account of how humans are unnatural because they don't need water to survive. Which Chen is sure is untrue anyway, what creature doesn't need water to survive? He tosses it aside and reaches for the next one. 

This one appears to be more useful. It explains that humans are creatures which populate the land, and a lot of the land. He keeps reading and reading until he's finished just under half of the first bookcase, a used pile of unwound books lying beside him. Most of the information in them is repeated, but something somewhere said that humans have a lot of different ways to speak.

That looks like yet another blockage on the way to befriending his human. Even if he learns human language, chances are it won't even be the right one. He wonders how many there truly are, and that thought ends up depressing him even more. He shakes his head, water rushing past his pointed ears and pushed on reading. 

He returns here every day, and learns more and more about humans. Why hadn't he come here before? Humans are such fascinating creatures, both their acheivements and failures are what makes them. They are a much more dynamic race than merfolk, who haven't changed their ways in a very long time, but they are also a lot less tolerant. They don't like things that don't fit in.

That means they wouldn't like Chen, and because of their cruel and violent base natures, they would try to kill him. This makes Chen sad, but it doesn't make his resolve to at least go see his human once again diminish. There are a lot of humans, after all, they can't all be hatched from the same batch of eggs. 

He reads until his eyes feel like they're as dry as the air and discovers that a daring young mermaid who lived in the southern part of the kingdom travelled all the way to a human trading centre, with human machines which towered over her and were as big as houses but still floated on top of the water. Chen wishes he could see this, but the most important thing she picked up on was some words she heard. 

Chen stares at them, memorising them. They look strange, and feel even stranger when he tries to say them out loud. They feel like they're all stuck together, and Chen doesn't have enough breath to finish the sentence. That's all that written on that particular book, so Chen moves on to the next one. This one isnt nearly so interesting, regurgitating the same 'beware' nonsense that most of the rest of them have.

He skims it anyway, in hope that there will be something new, but alas, no. Suddenly something cool touches his back, making him shreik, and he blows up, floating to the ceiling before getting himself under control. The hysterical laughter of one of his older brothers instantly puts him in a sour mood as he slowly falls until they're both at the same level again.

He glowers at his older brother Zhou Mi who is still having difficulty breathing, his gills flapping uselessly on his sides, and smacks him with a book. Zhou Mi fends him off, still chuckling,

"I'm sorry, brawd lleiaf, I just couldn't resist," he apologises. 'Littlest brother' he called him. Chen rolls his shoulders back, and stares at his brother until he stops laughing. Then with a more serious face he says,

"I came to find out what you were doing. Usually by now you would be trying to sneak off but you're just holed up in here. If I know you at all, I would have said this is the last place my brawd lleiaf would want to be." Chen feels slightly guilty. Maybe his family don't ignore him as much as he thinks they do. He looks to Zhou Mi's tail instead of his eyes. It's dark red and mottled with black, a strong fast swimming tail. Such a harsh contrast to Chen's floaty tail, which seems like it was made just for looking at.

"I''m researching," he admits grudgingly, gesturing to the mountain of read books slowly growing behind him. He's a bit surprised the librarian hasn't either told him off, or at least put them back. Zhou Mi nods, like he expected that answer but didn't want it to be true. 

"Look, I know you're obsessed with those air-dwellers, but it's dangerous. Mum and dad don't say it, but they do worry about you. You know the stories, there's a reason we stay away from them. They're dangerous!" He explains earnestly. Chen rolls his eyes.

"Of course I know the stories, brawd hŷn, I just don't believe everything I hear so easily!" He shouts, attracting attention from the few other merfolk in there, "I've seen one," he whispers more to himself than to his brother. Zhou Mi halts in his next accusation, whater he was about to say rendered null by Chen's words.

"You've seen one? A real life air-dweller?" He asks, sunlight pooling in his dark eyes. Chen is taken aback by his sudden interest, 

"Yes? The day I was punished," he replies. 

"That's why you were away so long?" His brother asks, genuinely curious. Chen debates over whether it's a good idea to tell his brother about this, but deciding that there coouldn't really be much harm in divulging such information, he nods.

"Did you speak to it?" Zhou Mu asks, trying but failing to keep his surprising level of interest under wraps, "was it really like the stories?" 

"No," he shakes his head imploringly, "it looked really sad, actually. It was all alone, not at all like the stories. And he did this noise, like- like a whale but smaller and musical. It was lovely," he drifts off for a moment, replaying that moment in his mind's eye. He needs to hear that sound again. Snapping back to reality, he looks his brother directly in the eye, "I don't know if I'll be able to talk to him, his voice is a lot different to ours."

"Can humans read?" Zhou Mi wonders, clearly contemplating something. Chen nods, although he's not entirely sure if it's true. Because if they speak differently than mefok, chances are they have different writing systems than them too. Chen wants to learn all about it, soak it up like a dry sponge until he knows everything about humans.

"Well if they can, then I can teach you some magic to help you communicate. It's a trick I've never had the oppurtunity to use but I think you have a good chance." 

Chen's heart sinks; magic has never been one of his strong points. It's another one of the reasons he's usually forgotten. Magic is used for nearly everything down here. If, suddenly, magic ceased to exist, their way of life would cease to exist also. The book Chen is holding right this very second was made using magic.

"I can't use magic, brawd hŷn, I'm no good at it," 

"You don't need to be. It's more of a trick than actualy magic. Here, let me show you," Zhou Mi links their arms, and pushes off of the floor with his tail, his athletic fins make him a faster and a cleaner swimmer than him so he has difficulty keeping up. Zhou Mi isn't even the fastest, Chen is just really slow. Chen realises quickly that they're heading in the direction of his brother's chambers. 

When they get there, Chen's brother gestures for him to wait where he is while he divests himself of his blade, which he is obligated to carry around as a Kingdom Warrior, then seats himself languidly over one of the two seats he has in here. Chen doesn't have seats in his room. He grouchily seats himself next to him, his tail trailing all over the floor and drifting in the gentle current.

"So are you ready to learn this trick?" Chen nods, hesitantly, "ok. You know seafoam?" Chen nods again, "well this trick gives you the ability to write words with the bubbles, so as long as your human can read, you'll be fine!" Zhou Mi announces. Chen agrees, it'd be a great idea if only he were actually able to manipulate magic well enough to do it.

Zhou Mi spends the next few hours showing Chen how to work the little magic he has to form shapes in bubbles. They start simple, with just a single, average sized one, then they gradually get more and more complex until Chen is making foam with his bare hands. He feels so accomplished with this mess of white that it disperses almost instantly. But he doesn't let it get him down! 

He just used magic! So used to not being able to even move a pebble with his magic, he's proud of himself for managing this feat.

They spend an indeterminate amount of time together, alone practicing. Zhou Mi is no doubt avoiding his duties, and Chen worriedly brings this up but Zhou Mi waves him away. When Chen is able to produce something that vaguely resembles a letter, Zhou Mi tells him to go practice in his own room, and to let him know how he gets on with his human.

He still has two weeks left of his confinement in which to perfect this, and also learn as much as he can about the human world. Maybe he'll write the words he learned from that book, the one about the mermaid who visited the port. He vows to one day speak to his human and persuade him to tell him everything.

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a/n

uwaaaa sorry this took so long omg

biology lesson! in this au mermaids are like fish- they have a bladder of air which they can increase the volume of which keeps them aloft.

please comment T^T