I should be updating "Out of the Darkness" but instead all I can think about is Kai as a merman. Anyway this drabble takes place during "No Place Like Home," after the moment in the bathtub and before Suho goes downstairs in the morning and finds human-Kai eating doughnuts in the kitchen. I reread it and realized that things needed explaining.

Kaisoo : Touch

After they talk for a little while longer, Kai leans forward slightly and pokes Kyungsoo’s knees. “It’s hard for you to kneels like this, isn’t it? We should probably move this conversation out of the bathtub. If you take me out of here, I’ll grow legs.”

Kyungsoo nods. “Yeah, I read about that in your file. How does that work?”

Kai shrugs. “I really don’t know. But how was your friend Minseok born if he doesn’t have a father? After a while, there are things you just accept as a part of life.”

Kyungsoo grins. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. So, do you want me to take you out of the water? Because I don’t mind staying here.”

That makes Kai pause. “If I said yes, would you stay with me for a while?”

Kyungsoo nods. “Of course, if that’s what you want.”

“But what do you want?”

Kyungsoo grins at him. “I want to make you feel comfortable, whatever that means for you. And if I want to leave, I’ll let you know.”

Kai drums his fingers against the edge of the tub. “Will you stay with me all night? I don’t want to be alone.”

Kyungsoo nods again. “Yes, I will. But it would be more comfortable for me if I wasn’t sitting on the floor.”

“You can take me out,” Kai says. “If you just put me on the bed and give me a towel and some pants, I’ll be transformed in probably twenty minutes or so. And you can put some pajamas on, if you want…well, of course you would want to.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Kyungsoo agrees. It takes some maneuvering to get Kai out of the tub, but eventually it happens, and Kyungsoo leaves him next to the bed with a towel and some pajamas, and then he races to the shared bathroom, showers, changes to his own pajamas, and goes downstairs for some water bottles. Most of his housemates seem to have retired for the night, the TV is on in the living room but nobody calls out to Kyungsoo and he doesn’t bring attention to himself.

Kyungsoo runs back to Kai’s room. He stops short before entering and actually knocks.

“Kyungsoo?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

“You can come in.”

Kai is already huddled up under the blankets, and he flips the corner down and gestures for Kyungsoo to join him. As soon as Kyungsoo lays down, Kai moves closer.

“Is this okay?” Kai asks.

Kyungsoo nods and reaches out to brush Kai’s hair back. It brings him back to Kai’s actions earlier in the evening, and what they were talking about before.

“Hey, Kai?”

“Yes?”

“Why were you so curious about me, before? Like when you touched my hair, and…anyway, you said you grew up seeing your father a lot, so wasn’t all that familiar to you?”

“I did, and it was. But he was the only human I really got close to, physically. I’ve never actually met a human my own age before. Your skin is really different from his, it’s softer and smoother. So is your hair. I like it, it’s pretty.”

Kyungsoo can’t help but smile. “Thanks. You know, for living in the ocean your whole life, I would have expected your hair to be rougher.”

“It was,” Kai says, “And it was a lot longer, too. But when the Agency scooped me up, they cut it and put some stuff on it to make it softer. My dad used to cut my hair, sometimes. He did it himself.”

“Did you ever go anywhere with him, or just by the ocean?” Kai hesitates, and Kyungsoo adds, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, I was just curious.”

“It’s okay, I don’t mind talking about it. Sometimes he took me for food, we would go to little places that weren’t crowded. He would drive me, and I was always afraid of trucks passing us on the road.” Kai laughs a little. “He would hold my hand every time a truck passed us.” Then Kai flips the conversation. “What about you? How are your parents?”

Kyungsoo wondered when that would come up. “I don’t know, I never met them.”

Kai looks shocked. “Really? Why not?”

Kyungsoo shrugs. “I was found at a police station when I was almost a year old and taken to an orphanage.”

“Orphanage?”

“It’s where kids who don’t have parents go, until they find someone who wants to raise them, but some never get that. In my case, the Agency came for me.”

Kai looks shocked. “They never get parents?”

“Sometimes,” Kyungsoo says hesitantly, and Kai looks like he wants to cry. “What’s wrong?”

“That’s really sad,” Kai says tearfully. “For us we…we really can’t afford to not raise all the children in a family environment. If they lose one or both parents then everyone pitches in to raise them, and they grow up with dozens of parents. I…I can’t even imagine not having that. That’s so awful, how could anyone let that happen?”

Kyungsoo takes his hands. “It’s just a different world than what you’re used to. Even if I didn’t have a family, I was cared for and loved, and lots of places are like that.”

But there are places that aren’t, and Kyungsoo is really afraid that Kai will cry if he learns that. So he gathers Kai in his arms and hugs him, and it seems to take Kai’s mind off the idea of parentless children.

“This place scares me a little,” Kai says after a few minutes. “Everything seems so different.”

“But you have a chance to make it better,” Kyungsoo says. “And you have me, and everyone in the house. We’ll all help you adjust. We can be your family now.”

Kai relaxes in Kyungsoo’s arms, and he nods. “Yes, there is that. I think I would like to meet all of them tomorrow, if that’s okay.”

“They’ll love to meet you,” Kyungsoo assures him.