“It’s sunny and it’s raining.”

Delighted, the nymph coos happily as raindrops fall into his open, waiting palms, as the sun beats down on him despite the leaking of its surrounding clouds. “I love sunshowers,” he giggles, the sound light and airy and tinkling as Yifan watches him through squinted eyes, the nymph’s pale hair rustling in the breeze. 

“What does it mean when there is a sunshower?” Yifan asks him. “If, when it rains, it means that a nixie is sad, and if, when it is sunny, it means that a nixie is happy.”

“Well,” the boy says as he pokes at the puddle that has pooled in the cavity of his palm. “Usually, we say that it means a nymph has become self-aware - that is to say, the two most common explanations of that being that perhaps they have used up each of their biological five chances to mate and are now beginning the cycle toward cell deconstruction, or perhaps they have finally crossed the threshold between platonicity and love. Sunshowers mean a nymph has had an emotional epiphany of sorts.”

Beside him, the human lets out a short hum, as though a confirmative noise, and before the boy even knows it, there are warm arms winding around his waist from the back, and his pulse jitters as the human buries his face in the boy’s hair, planting a soft kiss on his head and squeezing him gently. “Does that mean that you’ve fallen in love with me?” Yifan mumbles suggestively next to his ear.

“It might,” the nymph giggles, and Yifan’s arms loosen just slightly as the boy turns his head to meet his gaze. “Would that be okay with you if I did?”

Warmly, Yifan chuckles. “You know I could never complain about that kind of thing. Besides, who else is going to go on long walks on the beach with you? Collecting seashells with you, sleeping in bed with you, leaving footprints in the sand with you.” 

Looking down, the student smiles to himself at the differentiating shapes of their footprints in the soft press of the damp sand, trailing behind them as they go, and Yifan doesn’t think he will ever truly grow tired of how precious he finds the difference in size between their prints - the nymph’s small and childlike, and Yifan’s large and long. With each step, Yifan likes to think of it as another threshold that they have crossed and another obstacle they have overcome - or even, perhaps, another day to be together, and if that were the case, Yifan would walk miles in each direction until his legs could no longer work.

“Yifan,” the boy says, and Yifan grins and his head, simply -eating and gaudy at best. “I will be waiting for you the same way that you will be waiting for me, for I am holding you to your promise to stay until you fall in love with me. Remember - you promised. You can’t back out now, human.”

Sequel to The Nixie's Song because you asked for it :^)

additional sequels: Pink Blossoms by xiaojiajia

Pairing: Tao & Kris

Prompt: n/a

Length: oneshot

Warnings: (slight) human-reptilian anatomy, gross fluff, water nymph!au

(poster may be added later if i feel like it lmao)