“Hello? Is this where the Sea Wizard lives?”

Donghae floated in front of the entrance to a flowery grotto, debating whether or not to just push aside the dangling urchins and enter.

“Yes, come in,” a light voice called from inside.

Well. That was the end of that issue.

Inside was a young man (maybe; he thought the voice sounded boyish, but damn that hair and pretty face could be playing tricks on his eyes) with a humanoid torso and a the lower body of a seahorse. Donghae gave a quick bow.

“Hey, I’m Prince Donghae, the third prince of the Mermaid Kingdom. I heard that you have magical powers—which is super cool, by the way—so, do you think you could help me out?” He stared some more at the pretty-boy. “…Are you sure you’re the Sea Wizard?”

The boy looked indignant. “Of course I am!” he huffed. “Just because the last Sea Wizard only passed this down to me a year ago—anyway. What’s your request?”

“I want to become a human,” Donghae said, still eyeing the Sea Wizard suspiciously.

“Why?”

“Because—because, well—well, why do you want to know? Is it important?”

“Yeah, kind of, because the last person to ask for a transformation regretted it and tried to get his friends to blow up my home later. I think his name was Pinocchio or Amber or something.”

“I swear I’m not like Pinocchio. I, um, I need to become a human to be with my true love...”

At this, the Sea Wizard’s eyes softened and he seemed to melt into a fluffy ball of mush (not literally, or else Donghae would have freaked out into epic tears). “That’s… Just… Daww… Okay, okay, I’ll do it.” He pulled a sheet of paper out of a binder on the shelf behind him. “Here, sign this. If you can get him to share candy with you by three days, you can stay a human. If not, I’m afraid you’ll have to return to the sea.”

Donghae looked over the contract and started to pick up the pen.

“Oh, and you need to give me your voice,” the Sea Wizard added.

The merman frowned. He liked his voice and he liked to sing. “Why?”

“Because there needs to be some sort of exchange, or there’s no contract. So…I’ll be taking your voice.”

“Why my voice?”

“…Because.”

“Well…um, not that I’d rather you take away my eyesight or hearing or anything, but why? And why are you blushing? Also do you have a name? Sea Wizard is kind of a mouthful.”

“It’s Taemin,” the wizard mumbled, “and I just…I wanted to… … Look, just sign the contract. Do you want to become a human or not? You can get your voice back when three days are up, okay?”

“Fine, Taemin,” Donghae said, and scribbled his name onto the contract. He fell into a deep sleep immediately, and began to float toward the surface.

Taemin sighed as he helped Donghae along. He thought of the handsome commander of Prince Eunhyuk’s army, and how he had heard the man talking to the prince about how much he appreciated good singers.

“Maybe if I can sing Minho a pretty song, he’ll fall in love with me…”

***

“Alright, so you found your true love. Now what?” Kyuhyun squatted in front of his catatonic (lovesick) brother and spoke very, very slowly.

“Huh,” was the only reply.

“Dude.” Kyuhyun slapped his face. “Get a grip. What are you planning on doing now?”

Eunhyuk jerked at the sudden assault on his face. “What, what, WHY? WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?”

“You’re an idiot.”

“I’m older than you, you know!”

“I don’t care, now tell me what you’re thinking or I’ll dump you overboard again.”

“Yes, please,” Eunhyuk sighed, thinking of his savior and that beautiful singing.

Kyuhyun groaned. “I give up. You deal with it yourself. We’re a few hours away from shore now, so you can think of a way to find this true love of yours after we’ve landed.”

“Landed? Home?”

“Yeah, home. You better get your act together before Dad sees you.”

Eunhyuk shuddered at the thought of an angry King Kangin. “Okay. Okay, Prince-mode now.”

***

Queen Leeteuk flipped out and gushed over the princes the moment they stepped onto the dock, since Onew had apparently seen them coming.

“HOW ARE MY BABIES DOING?” Queen Leeteuk screeched in a motherly way that only Leeteuk can pull off (and perhaps Key). “YOU DIDN’T GET HURT ANYWHERE, DID YOU? WHO ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE, YOU’RE NOT MARRYING ALL OF THEM ARE YOU?! I’M NOT SURE IF I APPROVE OF POLYGAMY.”

“Mom—”

“TRUEEE LOVEEEEEE—”

“MOM!” Eunhyuk wriggled out of the queen’s grasp with only some success. “If you would let us talk…”

Meanwhile, Kyuhyun was bro-fistpumping King Kangin (because they’re bro’s, yeah). “Introduce me to your OTL,” King Kangin said.

Kyuhyun grinned and gently pulled Sungmin in front of him. “Father, this is Sungmin. I’m going to marry him.”

Kangin gave Sungmin a once over. “…Do you like pumpkins?”

Sungmin nodded vigorously.

“Awesome. Welcome to the family.”

Father and future son-in-law hugged awkwardly.

Queen Leeteuk sighed wistfully beside them. “Well, I guess Kyuhyun has always been the more charming one.”

Eunhyuk gaped, completely offended. “Oh, now you’re just making things up!”

Kyuhyun cackled.

“Ooh Sungminnie, you’re so pretty!” Leeteuk gushed over his son’s fiancé. “You’ll make a wonderful prince, Kyuhyunnie needs someone like you to pull him away from video games once in a while.”

“But I—”

“No buts, Kyuhyunnie, what I say goes. How is it going for you, Eunhyuk?”

The first prince immediately went gooey-eyed at the thought of his OTL, muttering incoherently, so Kyuhyun answered for his brother instead.

“He found them—Hyuk, are they a boy or a girl even?”

“—has the sweetest…manly voice—”

“Okay, so he found him when he fell overboard during the trip home—don’t freak out on us Mom, okay—but he hasn’t seen him since. I’m assuming Hyukkie’s love is a sea creature, and I hope he’s a merman or something and not a…a shark…or a barnacle…”

“—not a shark or barnacle, I promise…”

“Yeah, so, we know he’s out there. We’ll try to find him from home.”

Their mother gave them a warm smile. “My boys are all grown up! Kangin, just look at those lovebirds…”

Kangin guffawed with manliness. “Anyway, who are all these other people, if you’re not marrying them?”

The others all bowed at that. It was Henry who spoke. “These are the wonderful companions your sons have gotten to know during their journey, Your Highness.”

The royal couple hmm-ed as they introduced themselves.

And then Leeteuk noticed Kevin and glomped him on the spot.

“OH MY SIWON, LOOK AT YOU! YOU’RE SO ADORABLE, LET ME SHELTER YOU AND PINCH YOUR CHEEKS AND SHOWER YOU WITH GIFTS!”

Kevin didn’t look the slightest bit disturbed. “Thank you, Queen Leeteuk!”

“Oh, call me Umma!”

“Thank you, Umma!”

“I am irrationally jealous,” Eli whispered under his breath to Eunhyuk.

Eunhyuk gave him a sympathetic look. “Don’t be.”

Finally, everyone was herded into the castle. The sailors accepted the Queen’s offer of staying for a few days (but who wouldn’t; they’re in a palace), and everyone went on tours and such. Kyuhyun and Eunhyuk decided to go catch up with their bro’s. Not their actual brothers. Their bro’s.

The bro’s were namely Joon and Minho; Kyuhyun and Eunhyuk’s generals respectively. Both were widely known as the best fighters in the kingdom, but since this is the Kingdom of Idyllic Vacation Spots we’re talking about, all they did all day was train, spar, and show off their muscles.

Eunhyuk slapped Minho five when they came across them, bro-ing it up everywhere. They talked about everything that happened on their journey. And by everything, I mean just the fight sequences (because that’s all the bro’s are interested in). All two of them. And that’s if the faceoff with Hangeng the Dragon even counts.

“Anything happen while we were gone?” Kyuhyun asked after they finished recounting their epic tale.

“Well, Onew broke Minho’s table—”

“No Joon, I mean in regards to your posts. Any attacks? Uprisings?”

“Oh. Oh, no. None at all. Just like the last five hundred twenty-six years.”

Kyuhyun nodded in satisfaction. “Our generals are the best around.”

Joon suddenly saw a spider and screeched, flailing his arms and running behind a conveniently placed suit of armor.

Minho’s face shifted from deadpan to exasperated. “You’ve been spending too much time around Onew,” he said as he gently picked up the spider with a piece of cloth and set it on a window sill.

“Except Onew can deal with his own spiders,” Kyuhyun sniggered.

***

Later that day, Eunhyuk wandered out by the sea, alone. Well, Fishy was with him, but he didn’t count because he’s a horse.

He was a little worried. How was he going to find his OTL in the East Sea? It was the largest sea around, and he had no way of going down and searching.

Fishy whinnied at him.

“Yeah, I know,” Eunhyuk answered, sighing, “my true love will find me some day. It’s destiny.”

He walked down to the beach and moseyed along aimlessly. Suddenly, he caught sight of a skin-colored lump a few meters away.

“Oh my Siwon…is that a dead man?!”

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...I don't even know what genre I'm writing in anymore. I'm sorry this is so short. It's kind of embarrassing.

Now read this post that is extremely relevant to the fic:

http://kyuteminnie.tumblr.com/post/20203183810/notetoreaders

And then TALK TO ME ON TUMBLR! Please. Do it. Do it please. And I'll give you a big internet hug.

Anyway, thank you so much to everyone who's commented and subscribed! I appreciate every one of you. <3

Also, yes, Kangin is the king to Leeteuk's queen. I realized that I forgot to mention this. But I mean, that's a given, right.