“Do you believe in destiny?”

It was an odd question, but as the weeks went by, Kris and Tao had talked a lot, more than Tao had ever spoken down below. Kris brought that out in him. Kris brought a lot of things out in him.

After Lay’s miniature break down, Tao made sure to pay much more attention to the other’s feelings. He’d always been the strength for the two of them, but Tao realised he wasn’t indestructible; after all, they were all human once.

He began to talk more with the other, finally able to get to know him like he’d always wanted to.  Lay talked about before he became a mer- how he was a stowaway, and the crew found out while he was stealing food. It was a ship transporting people rather than a working cargo ship, so rather than keeping him and making him work for what he stole, they had him walk the plank  blindfolded in a sick way to pass the time rather than just killing him. Such were Lay’s final moments.

While he had days where he didn’t particularly feel like talking, and spent time to himself, he knew he was improving, and the others duly gave him space.

There had been a lot to think about. Many a time, the words of the siren came to haunt him, and he wondered if his words were true. After discovering the death of Chen, he realised that if he had gone with Sehun, he would have spent the rest of his days seeking a retribution he would never have been able to achieve. Not to mention, it also plagued him as to why Sehun had called him Princey- it was far too specific to not be related, but how could Sehun have known? What didn’t the other tell him at the time- did he know Tao more intimately than he let on? Did he know Sehun or any of the others of his crew? But Chen died above water, and Tao had never seen Sehun before. At least, he didn’t recognise him…

Other times he wondered what had become of the siren- if what the others said was true, he didn’t have long left. The blackness of his veins was the corruption in his very core that stained his blood and rotted him from the inside out. The others saw it as pure evil- but for Tao, it was a reminder that the other was hurting. He knew this, because in Sehun’s own words in his mind, I was just like you once.

He wondered if there was any other way for sirens, even if the others didn’t think so.

“...No,” Tao finally answered. An ending as dark as his couldn’t possibly be written in the stars which burned so brightly in the night.

The two were alone, inside what Tao imagined as what it would be like to be trapped in a huge vase, with the opening at the top, silhouettes of seaweed lightly swaying in the current at the rim. They lay on their backs in the sand, Kris resting his head in his linked hands while Tao lay his over his bare stomach.

Kris had spent the first two weeks of his merly existence upon Tao’s back; despite the first night of arrival, Kris had quickly reattached himself to Tao’s side. There were very few things he would leave Tao for, although after he saw what Lay was to Tao when they arrived, he accepted Tao already had a life here and left the man space when he needed it. That didn’t stop him from attaching himself to the other whenever he could.

Laying there, sometimes Tao felt hyper aware of the water, feeling it move, feeling as if he should be breathing a different way, as if experiencing some kind of phantom drowning. He’d felt it less and less recently, but at times where he lay as still as this, his being harkened back to the fields inland, feeling the earth move as he drew shapes in the clouds in the sky. My nose feels weird, he was tempted to say, but when he turned to Kris he found the other already looking at him, studying him.

“Why?” He asked, shifting so he lay on his side next to Tao.

Tao wasn’t really expecting to have to give a reason. He’d never really believed in it; he liked to believe he exercised a full free will over his life, what with the stupid mistakes and the hard work he put into it. He believed people’s actions created inevitabilities; perhaps destiny was the chain reaction one started at the beginning of one’s life, which later had unavoidable consequences. He’d pondered this many a time- it entailed whether there was something he’d done in his past which could contribute to why Chen betrayed him; the answer to such a burning question being taken to the grave with the pirate. That was just something Tao would never know.

Such long-pondered beliefs were hard to articulate in the moment Kris asked him.

“If destiny were real, it makes me feel like my death was meaningless- as if it was just my time to die, and it were just Chen to kill me. There is no destiny in motivation…”

Kris nodded thoughtfully, the expression lines on his forehead creasing. It was something Tao had come to notice often.

“Tao… about that. You always seem to talk as if you’re dead. But that day by the shipwreck, you told me I’m alive. You’re alive too- sometimes I think you’ve forgotten that.”

That seemed to really hit home. Tao had always felt like that.

“How do you do that?”

Kris scoffed at the question. “Again? You’re not going to tell me what, are you?”

“No.” The same quirk of his lips appeared. Kris just seemed to know. As if he’d known him through and through the moment they met eyes.

Kris rolled onto his back again, huffing playfully and looking away. Despite not looking at him, it didn’t stop him from creeping his hand across to grab one of Tao’s, surprising the mer. “Well, I believe.” His voice dropped pitch, giving his voice a warm, slightly gravelly vibe Tao hadn’t heard from the other before.

He snuck a look, but all he got was the golden top of his head. He really wanted to read the other’s face, but no such luck. He settled to give his hand a light squeeze.

Their fingers linked gently.

-----

Tao and Lay had set out from the ‘camp’ together, as they sometimes seemed to do, and returned to the clutch of rocks where they had sat not too long ago, where Tao had picked at stones aimlessly and Lay had sat daydreaming the time away with a thoughtful twitch in his tail. Before Tao departed before, they would come here relatively often, in the period where Tao had felt so perpetually unsettled.

This time they were sat opposite each other, tails hanging down in the gap between them as they perched on two sides of a split rock.

They’d come to talk a lot about Chen, on several occasions, Lay getting to know the man better through Tao’s memories, although he commented little on the whole affair. He mainly wanted to coax Tao into telling him all about this ghost which occupied him, in order to release its hold and let it be gone from its lingering within the mer, where it had burrowed so deeply.

Lay knew he had yet to uncover the real daemon which had latched itself so firmly onto Tao’s heart. The picture which Tao painted for the man was one of great friendship and comradery, Chen the energy and life of the ship, without whom Tao would not be the same, nor the boat which he sailed, nor the sunsets which glowed so peacefully on the horizon. Chen was the man to whom Tao would go with all his woes and worries, all his triumphs and happiness.

Lay knew this was a frame in time taken before things changed between the two men. What changed their relationship? Was it a ship? Was it a fight? Was it a lover?

While they sat across from each other, staring up into the ever moving waves, Lay discovered it was all three, but not in a way he could expect.

Tao and Chen both knew they weren’t at the honeymoon height of their friendship, like in their teenage years, where they could spend every moment at each other’s side whether they bickered or laughed together. It wasn’t a secret between them; and it didn’t hold back their opinion of each other, quite the contrary. While their teenage years were past and gone, the friendship it had left was strong, and the two could read each other like books.

Chen could admit that he was the more strong-headed of the two. Once he had an idea in his head, it was hard to convince him otherwise, and while this side of him gave him great loyalty it also had the power to frustrate the more flexible and less convicted Tao. In Chen’s shadow, Tao’s actions and opinions were easily swayed, even if internally he didn’t accede. Some said that was him being agreeable- others, a doormat. And to the agreeable Tao, conceding to Chen’s ideas and wishes was often tiring. He had ideas of his own.

This time, the clash was going to be head on, and both didn’t like it. No, not at all.

“Chen, we’re here to relax, not fret about some tea leaves.”

They were sat in a tavern, table for two, noise and excitement bustling around them. It was night outside, with a crescent moon and stars a plenty, lamps and a tall fireplace warming the tavern with an off-yellow glow inside away from the elements. The opposite side to them a fiddler was fiddling, and some tables and chairs had been stacked away where men and women danced whether friends or strangers.

Chen was a superstitious fellow. Luckily, while at sea, Tao was relatively free of the ‘omen’ chatter the other would concoct- most of the threats such as black cats and pavement cracks were left on land. They also didn’t have the resources to brew tea on board, a luxury left to land; however, to Tao, it was hardly a luxury at all.

Chen was bent over a dainty cup clearly not intended for the likes of his work-scoured hands, tilting it this way and that carefully so as not to disturb the oolong inside. He briefly glanced out the window beside them, then back in the cup. “It looks like the moon. What does that mean? I forgot…”

“Maybe it looks like the crescent because you’re tilting it so much,” Tao made an effort to grab the china cup from his friend, but was only met with jealous protection. Tao leaned back into his chair again with a non-apologetic expression.

“He’s been right so far, you know.” Chen muttered into the cup which he was frowning so hard at.

Tao grimaced. “You aren’t still seeing him, are you?”

Chen looked up with that fiery glint in his eyes. Oh, here we go. “Of course. I saw the signs- they led me to him.” He said it as if a matter of fact, exasperating Tao. The last three or four times they’d been on the mainland, as far as Tao could tell, Chen had started to see a fortune teller, or ‘oracle’, or whatever they called the quacks these days. Of course, Tao believed there wasn’t an honest bone in that man’s body, but Chen wouldn’t have it. He’d seen good omens, he said. It was destiny, he said.

“Yeah, and he saw your money,” Tao curtly replied. He didn’t want to argue, but all that the fortune teller took from him was what little riches he had, including the rings off his fingers when that gold coin just wasn’t enough. Chen’s hard resolve only made matters ten times worse- he believed, and there was no way he could be wrong.

Chen growled in frustration, slamming the tea cup down harder than it appreciated. It was an odd sight; a seasoned sailor, with gold in his ears and cured leather boots with a thud in their step dropping a teacup as if he were a Lady whose honour had been offended. “People give you money for their services, and you’ve never had a problem with that before,” Came the snide remark.

“You can actually get things from me- real things- unlike that fraud, who tells you a few lines about your future that could easily apply to anybody. And why him? Not an astrologer, or a shaman, or any other of the numerous people who claim to be oracles?”

“Why him, why him- you always tell me to stay away. I thought you knew me better.” He didn’t look at Tao, tapping his rough fingers impatiently on the wooden table.

Chen had been in by the ‘All-seeing Luhan’ many ways. Tao disapproved from the start- the rat was clearly up to something, and gold glittered behind his eyes every time he thought of it. Tao began to suspect something three landings ago, and didn’t learn of the other until the landing before. It had proven surprisingly difficult to weedle the knowledge of the oracle’s existence from Chen, despite him never having held a secret from Tao before. He suspected that was Luhan’s doing. He was up to something, that was for sure.

Tao got up and without a word went outside, leaving half a tankard of ale behind with a souring Chen. The only light was of the night sky and outdoor lamp lighting the tavern sign, ‘The Drunken Sailor’ scrawled neatly above a silver ship.

Chen appeared next to him in the chilly road later than Tao expected, slightly putting him off. He wondered how deeply Luhan had gotten under his best friend’s skin.

“It’s because I know you so well that I tell you to stay away, Chen. People like him- they prey on people who believe in destiny, telling them they can reveal all. But Chen- if destiny is real, it will happen whether you know it or not, good or bad, you know that. Why do you still go to him?” Tao wanted a final answer out of Chen, never having managed to extract it before.

Chen didn’t answer. Instead he kicked the dirt below their feet, sending pebbles scattering.

They stood, not quite facing each other, not quite turned away.

Lay had become intrigued the moment Tao had revealed to him a third party. He’d never mentioned Luhan before, and while Lay saw the potential of him being an important component, Tao seemed none the wiser. He was convinced that it was his own doing, that he somehow brought upon himself these sailor’s transgressions.

“Did Chen ever talk about what Luhan was right about?”

Tao thought about it for a while, brow creased in thought.

“Apparently he said I would be captain, Chen would not. He said I’d be rich and famous for something. He seemed to talk more about me than his client, honestly,” He mused, puzzling over it.

After a long pause, something came to mind. “There would be times over the last few voyages where something would happen or I would do something that made Chen stare very hard at me. Even at the time I wondered what the hell he was doing. I thought I’d grown two heads.”

Lay began to sense some outside interference with their relationship- a worm in Chen’s ear.

-----

Tao hadn’t seen Kris for a while. He knew he’d spent the afternoon with Lay, but now he’d returned he couldn’t seem to find the other anywhere.

After not all too long of curiously searching, he stopped in his tracks. He suddenly realised how Kris had turned the tables on him. He never had to search for him before- he was always there, finding Tao rather than the other way around. It made a bright smile cross his lips, revealing glints of his teeth.

If any of the other mers saw him just then, they’d think he truly had lost his mind; for it would be a novel sight.

Tao knew that he should be happy that perhaps Kris is getting to know some of the others. They were all social beings, in the end, and although Tao failed to befriend them, Kris should have that chance. But in that moment Tao couldn’t help but feel a twang of jealousy.

He knew exactly what that little niggling feeling was. He hadn’t experienced it often, but it was there and he knew it well. He’d experienced it that night he and Chen fought, and the angry sailor had stormed off down the road and Tao knew exactly where he was going to spend the night. He didn’t see the other for several days. Neither apologised. He regretted it.

“Oh… Tao.” He turned to find Baekhyun floating unsurely behind him in the wide rock tunnel they were in. “Hi.”

Tao smiled and nodded, greeting him back. He was rewarded with a beaming smile from the other, a touch of the mer’s happiness rubbing of on Tao, lifting his mood. While being loud and frank, Baekhyun was also a cheery fellow.

Tao was pleasantly surprised with Baekhyun approaching and giving a little small talk. He didn’t really talk much with him before, never knowing his name until the day he and Kyungsoo introduced themselves. Usually those two were a pair- apparently they both came from a ship which went down in a storm- but Kyungsoo wasn’t there either.

“Kris talks about you more than he does his life above sea,” Baekhyun mentioned. Tao felt an abash heat in his chest, momentarily prohibiting his speech. “He really thinks highly of you.”

“And I of him,” He replied. Having come to a natural pause in the conversation, Baekhyun bid him farewell and went on his way.

“By the way, Kris is with Kyungsoo. You looked a little lost, so I hope that helps,” He left with a sly wink. Was it that obvious? Tao wondered.