Claris felt the uncomfortable heat in his chest the whole time he was around Evan. Once he’d walked out of the meeting room with Yuki and Hikaru, the heat resided. The need to kiss Evan was still there, but it was ignorable now.

“You seemed a little stressed in there, your pupils are slightly dilated too.” Hikaru mentioned, Yuki only looked at her weirded out. “You wouldn’t be about to… go into heat?”

“It looks like it will come ahead of time. I wasn’t supposed to have it for another few months.” The Prince explained politely. Heat was usual banter amongst Sea Landers, he felt awkward mentioning it to his crush’s best friend.

“That explains why Evan would have liked it if we solved this matter before the weekend.” Hikaru voiced out loud with a matter-o-fact tone. “What do you usually do during this period? Doctor curiosity.”

“I… go on hunting…” Claris laughed nervously. “I haven’t gotten attracted to anyone the last three years so my aide helps me be at a den of bag guys when I inevitably lose against my hunger.”

“If you don’t mate you get terrible hunger instead?” They were coming up on the med bay, Yuki keeping quiet as he listened to their conversation.

“Yes, we get real violent too…”

“This time, you feel attracted to Evan. That means you can mate with him to cool off, right?” Hikaru’s question drove Claris to blush all the way to the tip of his ears.

“I-well, in theory… the truth is…” Claris stuttered. Now, normally he wouldn’t lose his cool like this in front of others. In his current state, merely thinking of the shirtless Evan he’d seen that morning turned him to mush. “I like your captain, I don’t want to mess things up with him… if I… mate with him… “

“Goddess, you two are like mirror images of each other. Worried about being too fast?” Hikaru shook her head, holding in her need to laugh. “Would you rather spend time apart from our captain?”

The three of them remained outside the med bay door, Hikaru giving the prince an understanding look.

“No.” Claris’ answer came out naturally, in a low tone.

“Neither does he. Whatever crazy magic has bound you two together, it’s given him a reason to be something other than what he was before coming here.”

“What…?” Claris wanted to ask, but he knew it was something meant to be asked to the man himself.

“You just told me you hadn’t been attracted to anyone in the last three years, and now our boss appears in your life and your heat comes ahead of time. I think the signs are pretty clear.” Hikaru shrugged and opened the door to the med bay. All three of them went inside, Hikaru happy about confirming Claris’ feelings and Yuki very much amused by the whole exchange.

“Hello.” Claris noticed Byul was awake, sitting in bed doing small spells to pass time. He had a fish made out of water floating around his personal space. He made it float over to Claris when the prince greeted him. The pretty fish was detailed, it had scales with flowing swirls and blinking eyes. “That’s amazing, Byul!”

“Thank you…” The young man smiled, his different colored eyes glistening with tears. “I liked doing those for my little sister…”

“Byul…” Claris sat on his bed. “Do you want to go back home? We could take you there.”

“My home is no longer. They burned our village down when they came to take us… my little sister was trapped in our burning house. I saw it come down on her as they dragged me away.” The young man had tears running down his cheeks. He brushed some off his face with his fingers and stared at the water on them. “I don’t have anywhere to go back to.”

Claris had heard this story more than once. It always tugged on his heartstrings, always made him want to go murder something.

“Don’t worry, we’re here to help now. You can stay with us.” He said hugging the young man. The enchanted fish swam around them for a couple more seconds before dispersing into the air. “It’s alright, we’ll punish the people who did this to you…”

Claris separated from Byul and held his shoulders.

“May I ask you, do you remember anything from your time captured?”

“Not much… I remember this sweet smell… when I couldn’t smell it I tried to fight. Other times I felt grossed out or didn’t want to use magic so they’d make it stronger. They’d beat me, cut me up… there were some people that didn’t speak the Common Tongue and it didn’t sound Ancient… they were the ones who…” Byul’s eyes went dark, they lost their gleam. Claris understood without having to hear the rest.

They’d done everything to break Byul. Claris was surprised he’d bounced back this quickly.

“No one will ever do those things to you again.” Claris assured him. The life in Byul’s eyes returned if only a small amount.

“Thank you.”

Hikaru came over to them and waved hello at Byul.

“Hi there Byul! Would you like to go outside? Get some sun on your skin?” Hikaru asked, the crystallum translating for her. “Claris and I will take you. We can all eat breakfast on deck.”

“I would like that, yeah.” Byul answered.

“Alright, let me get you proper clothes.” Hikaru went off to the back of the med bay and came back with a bag. “Here you go, these should fit you.”

Byul thanked them and did not wait to pull off his covers, Hikaru had gotten him a pair of pants which meant he hadn’t slept totally naked the night before. The young man had lost his sense of shame, certainly didn’t mind being seen naked. He changed into a white t-shirt, a pair of dark blue plants and black slippers.

“Alright. Cool, let’s go kiddo.” Claris chuckled and stood up from Byul’s bed.

“Yuki, Nemo, we’re going to leave now.” Hikaru announced.

The blond boy, who had plopped on Nemo’s bed to have his hair played with, rose his head and nodded. Nemo looked their way, pretty silver eyes shining as he smiled in their direction.

“Won’t they need the translator? I still wanted to ask him what kind of were he was…” Claris asked as they went out of the med bay, Byul happy and merry to be on his feet. “Yuki was going to ask him about Ryuusei, correct?”

“They don’t need words to understand each other. You think you and Evan are going fast? You guys don’t know the meaning of fast.” Hikaru laughed. “Yuki said he’s got this, I trust him. They needed the room so, what better time to have breakfast?”

“You really think the language barrier won’t be a problem?” Claris asked.

“Not at all.” Hikaru affirmed. “I’ll send someone to tell Her Highness and our Captain we should postpone our pirate discussion for later this evening, once the kids have finished up.”

“Finished up as in…?”

“Oh yeah, big time.”

***

Yuki was a little nervous, as always, about being alone with Nemo. The mer only smiled at him, looking like the luckiest were in the entire ocean. They’d spend time talking via the crystallum, learning some words in their own languages. Now they didn’t have the magic item to help them, but Yuki thought that perhaps they didn’t need it.

“Hey, I need to ask you a question.” Yuki sat up, Nemo read his lips carefully and nodded. “Do you know the name of the people who you ran away from?”

Nemo blinked twice, the mer had trouble getting the full grasp of Yuki’s question. The blond tried again, this time making some signs to go with his words. That helped a lot as Nemo nodded once Yuki had re-asked his question.

“Ryuusei.” Nemo said firmly. He took Yuki’s hand and traced a serpent on it. The blond understood he was tracing a dragon. “I did not want to belong to him.”

“Someone in the pirates?  Uh,  he hurt you?”

Nemo shook his head. He started speaking in the Common Tongue and signing much like Yuki had done. By the end of it, the young quartermaster understood.

“They hurt your family so that you would belong to him.” Yuki repeated, using the same signs. Nemo nodded.

“I escaped.” Nemo continued. “My family risked everything to get me off the ship. They taught me how to protect myself from the net…”

“Do you remember the man’s name? The one that wanted you to belong to him?”

“Shiryou.” Nemo mumbled, he lowered his face as he held himself.

Yuki’s heart was aching from seeing Nemo like that. The blond quickly pulled the mer into his arms and hugged him tight.

“I won’t let anyone hurt you again. I promise.” Yuki’s words were sincere, he’d die before letting anything happen to his precious friend. “I’ll slaughter anyone who dares even think of it.”

Nemo had leaned into the hug, embracing Yuki after he finished his declarations. The mer rubbed his nose against the blond’s neck and placed a small kiss there. The quartermaster edged back, a little shocked from the mer’s action. He stared into Nemo’s eyes, noticing how the mer was looking at him longly. It sent shivers down his spine as wild, lewd thoughts invaded his mind.

“I want to belong to you.” The mer said, the side of his face agains Yuki’s neck. “I want to do it.”

Yuki had a small heart attack, or he swore he did, when he understood what Nemo meant by “belong”. The meaning would have infuriated him beyond measures if Nemo hadn’t asked him to mate with him the way he did just now. He had no space for anger for dead-men-walking when all he could feel was lust and joy.

“And I wish to belong to you too.” The blond said, taking in a deep breath to continue with his reply. “But let’s take it slow…you’re still hurt. I—“

Yuki found himself kissing Nemo, the mer had gone ahead and planted his lips on the blond’s before using his tongue to part the latter’s lips. Thinking straight became impossible after that, and soon he realized his precious mer was healthier than he thought. Walking might’ve been hard, but pushing Yuki down and trapping him between the bed and his body? Nemo most definitely had no issue pulling that off, much less issues gathering the will and strength to grind his body against Yuki’s.

“Nemo…” Yuki mumbled, a shred of his rational self trying to delay what was already inevitable.

“It’s okay. Just let me be yours, and you’ll be mine.” Nemo spoke in the Common Tongue, but Yuki understood him as if the mer were speaking Akakawan. “My Yuki.”

“My Nemo.” Yuki replied completely accepting his situation, giving in to his needs.

The mer started kissing him again. With each minute that passed, their tempo increased and changed to be driven from simple lust to pure, primal desire to become one in more ways than one.

The med bay was off limits all morning. Hikaru had foreseen the end result, regardless of what it’d take to get there, and had sealed off the door from visitors until Yuki opened it from the inside.