Prompt—Kyungsoo finds himself attached to a beautiful being that isn’t human.

Note (s)—how i wrote this in my sleepy state is still a mystery to me.

read on ao3.

“They said a storm is coming, come to my place?” Kyungsoo asks as soon as he reaches their fixed spot. “I am worried, you will get hurt.”

Jongin pouts at him, his tail is still playing hide and seek with Kyungsoo, not that he’s really interested in Jongin’s tail. Jongin’s face is beautiful enough to not focus on anywhere else. “I don’t like that girl; she looks so cruel to me.”

“I know she is,” Kyungsoo agrees, crouching down to Jongin’s level before brushing aside the fringes falling over his pretty blue eyes. He is so beautiful, Kyungsoo wonders if he’s even real or this all is just a dream, maybe a hallucination of something beautiful that he had always wanted in his monochromatic life. “I am afraid you’ll get hurt if you didn’t come with me,” He stretches a hand toward Jongin. “Take my hand and come with me, I will keep you safe.”

“Do you even know what you sound like?” Jongin asks with a sweet giggle but nevertheless takes the human’s hand.

“Like how, would you explain to me?” Kyungsoo asks with a smile that he knows Jongin likes.

Jongin nods, a blush sits prettily over his soft cheeks. Kyungsoo wishes he could kiss them. “Like a charming gentleman. Like that actor that we watched on TV.”

“Oh, that,” Kyungsoo says with a hum. Upon steadying Jongin on his wobbly legs with one strong arm around the merman’s willowy waist, he picks up his oversized shirt from the sand and quickly helps Jongin in it. “Thanks, I didn’t know that I could make a good gentleman.”

“Oh, believe me, you can,” Jongin says, and presses a dainty hand just above Kyungsoo’s heart. “I wish I were a human. Not that I don’t like a merman’s life.”

“If you were a human, you wouldn’t have liked this life. Human life can be difficult you know?” He passes a sigh to Jongin, trying (and failing) to bring his eyes away from Jongin’s thick thighs. His skin looks smooth; Kyungsoo wonders how it would feel to kiss them. The shirt is short on Jongin, only reaches the merman’s mid thighs, it somehow makes Jongin look lovelier, maybe more frail than he actually is. “Let’s go?”

“Kyungsoo,” Jongin stops him with a hold around his wrist, “I don’t think if I would be able to walk this time even with your help. I am hurt.”

“Where?” Kyungsoo asks in a heartbeat, eyes flitting everywhere on Jongin’s lithe frame. “Jongin—” A pained gasp escapes his lips at the sight of Jongin’s bruised feet; it’s almost purple, Kyungsoo wonders how he didn’t notice that. “Jongin, how did this happen?”

“I tried to walk on my own this morning to your house,” Jongin says, a little guilty now that Kyungsoo looks and sounds so worried. “I tried; I did. You know I can’t walk on my own, don’t you? I lost my balance and hurt myself with a rock. That’s it, don’t worry.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Then frantically looking around and coming up with nothing, Kyungsoo looks back into his warm blue eyes, “I will have to pick you up; in my arms. I could only treat you at my home.”

“Uh,” Jongin says with a blush. “You could pick me up? I am heavy—Kyungsoo!” A gasp leaves the merman’s plush lips when Kyungsoo picks him up in his arms. There’s no change in his handsome features, if anything, he looks more comfortable (almost like he could keep Jongin in his arms for the rest of his life without feeling a bit of pain).

“Heavy,” Kyungsoo says with a dramatic scoff. “You’re anything but heavy, Jongin; almost as light as a feather.”

“Ah,” Jongin nods, “that must be because I spend so much time in the sea. My figure is fine, I keep myself in check,” he adds, more to make sure that Kyungsoo doesn’t notice the blush sitting on his cheeks.

“I can’t deny that,” Kyungsoo agrees with a cheeky smile. He starts walking toward his own too big apartment for a single occupant, before looking down into Jongin’s eyes. “I also bought a lot of plushies that you’d asked for. You can always sleep with them when I am not at home.”

“I always sleep with them,” Jongin says, “not with you or anyone else.”

Kyungsoo decides to a little: “I still remember the day when it was raining heavily and you came running into my bedroom just because the raindrops falling on the windows were making horrible noises.”

“Shut up,” Jongin says, then passes him an angry look (he looks like a puppy, Kyungsoo wonders how. Isn’t he a merman, he should look like a merman and not like a cute puppy), but nevertheless buries his face in Kyungsoo’s sturdy chest when the man asks him to. “That was a one-time thing, don’t be so cocky.”

Kyungsoo laughs and opens his mouth to answer something back only Jongin doesn’t let him. The merman’s small hand stays on his mouth for a few seconds before he drops them between their chests with a tired sigh. “I am feeling hungry.”

“I have something at home.”

Jongin passes him one of his many adorable smiles; Kyungsoo’s heart lights up.

After reaching home and making sure that Jongin’s wound is properly treated, Kyungsoo brings him to his dining room and helps him on one of the many chairs. Jongin still hasn’t changed the shirt Kyungsoo had given him earlier, saying how he’s too lazy to change into something else. Kyungsoo has some idea about why Jongin is doing so; the merman just likes to be covered up in his scent. It makes Kyungsoo feel possessive: seeing Jongin in his cloth.

“You know what I’ve heard?” Kyungsoo asks, watching as Jongin frowns at the vegetables on his plate. He ignores it, knowing well enough that Jongin would end up acting a small baby in the end anyway. “That mermaids and mermen are actually ugly creatures.”

Jongin raises his head from where he was burying it in his plate before passing Kyungsoo stink eyes. “Are you calling me ugly?” Jongin does not, under any circumstance, like to be called ugly; because he knows he isn’t.

“Of course, not,” Kyungsoo says with a frantic shake of his head. “Jongin, you’re anything but ugly.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” Jongin nods, Kyungsoo heaves a relieved sigh. The situation is under control. “You’re right though, that’s something I can’t deny. Mermen and mermaids can be both beautiful and ugly just like you humans can be beautiful and what you like to call some ugly. Just because they are not pale enough, just because they are not thin enough, just because they are not tall enough, just because of this, and just because of that.” Jongin passes Kyungsoo a disappointed look as if Kyungsoo is the one who goes around laughing at what society deems as ‘ugly’.

“Uh, I don’t do something as lowly as that.”

Jongin ignores him. “I mean just because you think that something is beautiful doesn’t mean that other things aren’t. What you call ugly can be beautiful for someone else. If you think that this is ugly for you, it can be beautiful for some of your close friends. What are you going to do about that? Laugh at your close friend for choosing something ugly?” Then as if remembering something, “do you remember that episode where that woman was laughing at that main woman just because she wasn’t skinny enough and just because she wasn’t a tower enough? Ugly woman, has she ever thought how ugly she was looking?”

Kyungsoo nods, clutching the spoon in his hand tighter. “You’re right, so very right.” He nods. “She was ugly, very ugly, such a bad woman.”

Jongin hums, rocking back and forth on his chair, Kyungsoo’s afraid that he would fall if he didn’t stop. A sour expression still sits on Jongin’s expression though, even after whole five minutes (Kyungsoo’s eyes are trained on the wall clock behind Jongin). “I am glad that I am not a human. I mean, look, I should not say this but I’ve met a mermaid before and she was... a little ugly. From other’s perception, not mine. I find everything beautiful. After all, we are created by the same being, are we not?”

“Yes,” Kyungsoo answers with a nod.

“So she was not pretty, she was a little fat. No one made friends with her; that was years ago. I did because one day she had helped me by saving me from a group of fishermen who had caught me.”

Kyungsoo clenches his jaw then, “I should thank her, where is she?”

“She is no more,” Jongin answers with sadness swirling in his blue eyes. “She was such a kind mermaid, but anyway, back to the story. I made friends with her and whenever I found her looking at us with sadness in her eyes, I used to accompany her. Many of my friends left me just because I was giving ‘such a hideous creature’ company; how sad. Even then I didn’t leave her side; she and I became good friends. Then months later something happened and I lost everyone. Her too, I couldn’t find her anywhere, she was nowhere. I lost everyone, I lost my friends. I was alone; I am alone for years already.”

“I enjoyed those years a lot,” Jongin admits with a sad smile. “What I am saying is that we should enjoy every moment with our whole heart, who knows what would happen next.”

“You speak so well,” Kyungsoo says, amazed. “You could be a good philosopher.”

Jongin smiles a bright smile. “I know right.” Then confusion appears on his pretty face. “What is a philosopher though?”

Kyungsoo shakes his head. “We will talk about that sometime else.” Then he points to the merman’s plate. “Eat first, it will get cold otherwise.”

Jongin nods at him with a smile before looking down at his plate. “God, I hate vegetables so much.” His smile disappears as soon as it came. He looks very much like a five-year-old struggling with eating vegetables and the fact that he should eat them because they are healthy (“vegetables taste so horrible!” Jongin had said the first-day Kyungsoo had served him vegetables).

Kyungsoo laughs. “Don’t act like a baby, Jongin, eat already.” Then he tells Jongin to watch him eat vegetables because they taste good and are good for health. Jongin, surprisingly, does, but the merman still struggles when it comes to eating his own. “They will taste better once you learn to love them.”

“I cannot love something as horrible as vegetables though,” Jongin argues, denying Kyungsoo’s hopeful words.

After making sure that Jongin finishes his plate (with a lot of coaxing from his side), Kyungsoo brings him to his guest bedroom, before placing Jongin on the bed. “Sleep well now, it’s late.” He ruffles the merman’s hair, presses a kiss to his temple when Jongin asks him to, and then tucks him under the blankets. With a sweet “good night, Kyungsoo”, he goes back into his own room, heart feeling a little heavy that he will need to sleep alone despite his bundle of affection being so close to him.

He wakes up at late night at the first sound of his door creaking open. It’s eerily silent in his apartment; all the lights are switched off and despite Kyungsoo considering himself strong and claiming that he isn’t afraid of anything supernatural, he feels fear creeping his heart when he sees a grotesque crawling figure entering his bedroom. It’s the small “ouch” in the dark and a very familiar balled up figure that takes Kyungsoo to realize that it’s ing Jongin.

“Jongin—what the hell?”

“Uh, Kyungsoo, I hurt myself again.”

All the anger dissipates from his body at the pained voice of Jongin and he quickly gets up from the bed, switches on the light and runs to Jongin still sitting balled up on the bedroom floor. “Oh, Jongin, how clumsy are you even?” He asks with a sigh before picking up Jongin in his arms. He walks toward the bed, places Jongin on the bed and unsurprisingly Jongin quickly tucks himself under Kyungsoo’s blankets. “I am fine, it’s not bleeding but Kyungsoo, and it’s scary!” Kyungsoo, realizing what the merman means, quickly pulls the curtain on the windows.

“I still don’t know how you survived so many years without anyone beside you.”

“Even I don’t know,” Jongin says and hurriedly pats the space next to him for Kyungsoo. “I still wonder how I survived, you know because it is scary outside.”

Kyungsoo nods, willing the flush away because , he is actually going to sleep beside the merman. He clears his throat and acts nonchalant. “I get that—Jongin, at least let me settle a bit.” He presses a firm hand to a side of Jongin’s face before passing him a stern look. “Let me settle down a little, and then we can cuddle, yeah?”

“Okay, okay,” Jongin says with a nod, but Kyungsoo can understand the urgency in his tone. So he makes it quick, switches the lights off, crawls back on the bed and hugs Jongin back when the merman tucks his own small head under the human’s chin. “Kyungsoo, it’s so scary outside. I used to get so scared when I used to live on my own; I used to cry but no one would come to help me and then I had to painfully remind myself that I was alone. Then you came,” Jongin stops. Kyungsoo’s heart flutters. “You came suddenly and made everything better, so much better. Every time I get scared, I think about you and you come for me as if you hear my calls. That makes me feel so good. I feel so good.”

Happy tears sting his eyes, but he wills them away, pulling Jongin closer to him. “Every time I come, it’s only because your call for me is louder than anything else in this world.” He wraps his arms firmly around Jongin’s frame as if afraid that Jongin would disappear. “I will always come for you. I will always be there for you.” Then with a nervous smile, whispers a quite “I love you, Jongin.”

Jongin doesn’t reply and it’s not until he feels warm breath ghosting his neck that he realizes that Jongin has already slept. “Did you even hear what I just said? Just confessed?” When Jongin doesn’t reply, he realizes that the merman is, in fact, sleeping.

“What the hell is this even—this takes effort, okay? It takes effort and a lot of freaking courage that not everyone has! God, I never in my life confessed something like to someone else, and here I am. What a sick joke!” Then shakes Jongin’s lithe frame in his arms, though only a little. “Jongin, are you actually sleeping—God, I can’t even.”

(He doesn’t notice the shy smile that graces Jongin’s lips later that night or the merman’s own small, shy whisper of love confession for him. The only thing he notices or rather feels is Jongin tucking himself into his arms more, and that alone brings a smile to his face.

He will confess more properly some time else.)