“I saved him, Luhan, I saved him,” Chen shouts repeatedly.

Luhan’s brows come together in a frown. “What are you talking about?” he asks anxiously. “What did you do when you went to the surface?”

Chen grabs his hand and pulls him along. “There was a storm,” he rattles off, “and a ship sunk. I took one of the humans back to the shore and saved him, and he knows it was me.”

Luhan’s face becomes stricken with horror. “He knows it was you?” he echoes. “How much does he know about us? Chen, you said you wouldn’t– ”

Chen pats him on the arm. “I didn’t talk to him,” he reassures the blond merboy. “He was unconscious the whole time. But he knows it was me.”

“You’re not even making sense. I hope you won’t go again, like you promised.”

Chen doesn’t say anything, and Luhan sighs out bubbles.

“You’re going to go back, aren’t you?” he says, and Chen’s silence is all the answers he needs.

“I want to see more of their world,” Chen finally says. He takes Luhan in a hug. “I’m sorry, Luhan. Are you angry at me?”

Yes, Luhan wants to shout. Yes, I am.

Instead he says, “I could never be angry at you” because if anything at all, it’s the truth. “But why did you save him? You could have just left him to drown.”

“He was a handsome prince,” Chen murmurs somewhat guiltily into Luhan’s shoulder. “I think I would have tried to court him, had he been one of our people.”

Luhan’s voice catches in his throat. “…Handsome?”

“Pale as pearl, a smile brighter than the gold of your scales.”

The amber-scaled merboy prises him off, hiding his concern behind laughter. “Are you telling me you fell in love with a human overnight?”

“N-no! Luhan!”

“Who does Chenchen like?” a streak of green suddenly darting around them asks.

Luhan grabs a hyper Sehun around the waist and reels him in. “About time you got back, you! Stop harassing the palace’s sea life.”

“I’m not!” the little merboy protests. “The clownfish like me.”

“That’s because they think it’s funny when you get stung by anemone,” Chen chortles, mussing up Sehun’s mop of brown hair. “Don’t the two of you have somewhere to be today?”

Luhan nods. “Grandmother requested that we get some oysters for her. Sehun just wanted to drop by on the way.”
“Oh. You’d better get going, then.” Chen waves fondly at Sehun as the pair swim off.

Luhan’s heart starts to weigh heavy.

Chen returns to the surface at the next dawn in the hopes of seeing the human prince again, nearly getting the shock of his life when Suho also turns up on a horse later at midday.

He walks up and down the beach and trails footprints in the sand, gazing pensively out at the sea. He looks considerably less paler than he did when Chen had first seen him.

Chen watches him sit on the shore and feed his animal with little nibbles and the nearby seagulls with pieces of bread.

Is he looking for me?

He bobs up and down in the water, watching as Suho takes out parchment, quills and ink from one of the bags strapped to the horse’s back. He draws his bottom lip between his teeth and scribbles something down, stopping here and there, and then writes some more.

It’s almost as if he is composing, Chen thinks, his bow lips curving upwards.

Finally Suho holds up the parchment with a satisfied air, takes a breath and sings.

Chen stares for a long, long time, slack-jawed and eyes wide in wonder.

Suho’s voice is beautifully soft for a human, serene and compassionate. It brings Chen memories of the sweet lullabies his mother used to sing before she returned to the sea. Such a voice that belongs to the people of the sky world, surely.

“Prince Suho! My lord, why are you down here?”

It’s Lay, one of the accompanying males Chen recognizes from the previous day. The other one is absent this time.

Lay’s white mare gallops across the sand until he reaches the lone figure sitting on the shore.

Suho laughs and scratches the back of his head. “I’m fine,” he says cheerfully. Chen doesn’t miss his dazzling smile. His fins feel warm and if his scales could melt off, they would have done so by now. “I just felt a bit too cooped up in the hospital wing.”

Lay lets out a breath he’d been holding in and smiles back, a little dimple forming in his cheek. “I see,” he grins. “Did you come to look for your mysterious saviour too?”

Suho goes pink. “Absolutely not!” he lies, flushing even more. “I like it here. It’s relaxing.”

“If you say so, my lord. If you have time Jaejoong would like to see you about Captain Yunho.”

“Oh dear. We’d better get going, then.”

It’s almost a voice that rivals his own, Chen marvels as he listens to the prince sing again on the following noon. Suho keeps glancing around and Chen knows he’s looking for the one who brought him ashore in the vain hopes they will maybe come. It makes him ache inside because he knows he must keep his distance. Suho is always on the beach at noon and stays for about an hour until either Lay or Xiumin come to take him back.

By day Chen is entranced by everything that is Suho. By night he channels his admiration into his own songs. Sometimes at performances he sings of his entrapment in the sea, his yearning for another world, and the crowd all think he’s simply weaving wild tales for their entertainment. He never approaches Suho, instead hiding safely behind the smattering of rocks that poke out of the waves.

Luhan's heart continues to weigh heavier as the days pass.

The air is bright and warm, the sun overhead drying Chen’s hair as he peeks at the human prince from afar.

Suho wanders through the water of the shoreline, breeches rolled up to the knees and boots sitting out of the reach of the tide. The piece he’d been composing was finished days ago and today he sings it again, the cool wind carrying the dulcet notes easily over the water.

Part of Chen wants to throw his arms around Suho, tell him that he can stop coming back each day because the one who brought him to shore is the one embracing him, and another part of him screams no. He longs to be near, to see Suho’s human beauty up close, inhale his scent, touch his skin.

Chen’s heard him sing enough times to know the next verse, and follows Suho’s lead into the chorus. The beautiful harmony drifts through the air, sweet and comforting to the soul.

On the shore Suho halts mid-step. His voice trails off and his eyes rake his surroundings. Where was that voice coming from?

“Who are you?” he calls out uncertainly. “I... I think I know you’re there. Won’t you show yourself to me?”

Chen dives back into the water, his heart warm and free because Suho knows he exists.

“Prince Chen!” A voice calls his name just as he enters the palace. “Wait!”

“Hm?” Chen turns around to see one of his father’s younger advisors, Kyungsoo, catch up to him in a flicker of light peach scales.

The two of them had interacted once or twice when they were young, but had grown apart over the summers. While Kyungsoo’s intentions were in the right place and Chen found him good company from time to time, Kyungsoo's loyalty to the Sea King stood strong.

“Oh. Hello,” Chen smiles.

“Ah, Prince Chen– ”

“Please don’t call me that,” Chen groans.

Kyungsoo blinks his big eyes and bows hastily. “My apologies, Prince Chen. I’m sorry to disturb you but your father requests your presence immediately.”

A/N: eep. next chapter will be longer, i promise. thanks to -wings and teukdeulmyun for upvoting! (: