Lys stared at the human’s pale face before him. The human was lying on a big rock where Lys propped himself up with both arms right next to the human’s face while he was still half submerged on the water.

They were lucky to find the rocky coast with this kind of uneven ground so there’s plenty of water for Lys and the soldier to move around and they managed to lift the human on a flat rock closest to the water. They are on a pretty secluded spot on the coast with a lot of big rocks that provided him with a decent covers from sighting but open enough to let other humans that might walk past the short hill on the other side to see the human. At least he hope so.

Staring at the human’s face, his mind wandered off to the time when he first find him some time ago. The storm has wrecked the ship and drowns everyone in it to the depth of the sea, and he thought that it might be a pity to let all of the humans die and decided to save at least one of them.

And he choose this human since he’s the closest to him. There’s no other reasons except pity and distance.

No other reason at all.

The soldier though, have a very rational reason for thinking it was a bad idea. But then a smack on his face and a threat to let him off his position when they’re back home did make him shut up and followed Lys meekly toward the human.

He was a bit worried that he was too late and the human already died of suffocation when he finally reached him. But when his hands touched the human’s body that were hotter than anything he ever felt, something click within him.

Mers wasn’t the warmest creature in the sea and not much things underwater can produce heat at all, so the heat from the human’s skin shocked him.

The warmth of this human just felt... right.

He looked at the human. Really looked at him. His eyes were closed and his hair flowing freely in the water. His jaw was slack and his mouth are opened, and his complexion doesn’t seem right. It was an one second observation and he absolutely have no idea what the right humans complexion is but he was sure that the colors on his human face simply wasn’t right.

His human. That’s a food for thought. He have no idea where it came from, but he can think more about it later.

Currently, it doesn’t seems like the human are breathing and there’s blood pouring out from his head that he didn’t realize before since the current were diluting it quickly, but if his weakly beating heart he felt as he hold him closer to his own body is a sign of life, he’ll take the chance to save this human whatever the cost.

Heart beating fast, he barked at the soldier on his back, “What are you waiting for?! Help me take him to the surface!”

The soldier that was in the middle of praying to Mother Sea were stunned for a second before moving quickly to help Lys that has already started to swam to the surface while holding the human close and helped Lys pulling him up to the surface.

Once they breached the water surface, the soldier found a broken piece of wood from the ship and use it to elevate the human to stay on the surface while Lys checked the human’s condition.

It was still raining heavily from the storm, and they have a hard time trying to make the human stay over the water surface. It took Lys a few seconds to figured out that the water the human swallowed were part of the problem why he wasn’t breathing. After several times forcing him to threw out some water off his body, the human coughed heavily and wheezed some air to his lungs in short gasp. His eyelids flutter for a second and Lys’s heart skipped a beat from panic before he was back on unconscious.

Lys drew a breath of relief and felt a little bit of regret for not able to see the pretty eyes again. It was dark and the color were filtered by the water, but he’s very sure that it was most likely light brown. There was enough light to see the slight russet color from the distance, and he thought that it looks perfect for him. He really want to see that color of his eyes again, but he’s too hesitant to peel the humans eyelid open in case he really woke up and saw him.

Lys know he’s one reckless mer, but he’s not a complete idiot.

Shaking his head from the silly thought, he holds the human’s head to look for his head wound while the soldier keep him afloat by holding his feet underwater, which is not easy at all on this brutal waves. It wasn’t particularly a big wound and he didn’t know how to treat human’s injury, but seeing that it wasn’t likely to cause much trouble–or he hope it wouldn’t, he sighed with relief and bumped his forehead with the human’s for a few seconds to calm his own heart.

He’s still alive. That’s what important.

He glanced at his surrounding as lightings shone the rugged surface of the water from time to time. Except for some pieces of woods and other things thats still afloat among the rolling waves, he couldn’t find any hints of life on the surface. It is possible that no one else survived the shipwreck. He didn’t know what the human on his arms will feel when he found out that he’s the only one alive from the unfortunate disaster, but he hope he wouldn’t feel too sad about his lost companion or family members. The thought leave a bitter taste on his mouth.

He still liked the storm, but thinking of how this beautiful phenomenon hurts his human and obliterated everything on its way is rather jarring.

He hugged the human close to his body as much as the driftwood they tucked under his arms allowed, feeling his warmth where their skin touched and his slow breath on his shoulder amidst the waves. The human’s temperature has dropped slightly and he has started shivering, so he decided that it was time to go.

Lys have to half hugging the human together with the soldier while they swam fast to a calmer side of the ocean. Mers have the ability to navigate their way on the sea without any external help, and for Lys it was like some current were different in how they flow and swimming in a certain current leads to home or some other places. No one really know how it works but they attributed that as one of the Mother Sea’s blessings.

Lys and the soldier knew some magic all mers need to learn since they were little like the magic of speed to make them swam a lot faster. It was a good magic but using it constantly would make their tail sore and depleted their stamina faster, so they have to rest their tail for some hours for them to feel better again. It wasn’t particularly a popular magic to use if one were not in a real hurry, but him and the soldier used it for the sake of the human safety and they soon were out of the storm area and found a rather secluded seashore on an island where they’re sure were lived in by other humans.

They rested after hauling the human on the rock and they ate some fishes and kelps the soldier founds around the seashore. Lys’s tail still felt sore, but he’s feeling a lot more better after eating. He ordered the soldier to patrolled around the parameter in case any human were getting too close to their hiding place, and obviously, the soldier objected his decision to stay and suggested that they go as far as possible from here since the human were safe now.

But Lys was indisputable, and feeling too tired trying to argue with his stubborn master, the soldier gave up and let Lys do whatever he wants and prayed silently to Mother Sea and hoping for a miracle to happen so they can finished this coming of age routine safely as he swam around the seashore.

Time passed as the sky turned into a beautiful mix of orange and lilac, and the sun started to creep over to the horizon while the hint of a very bright star were peeking from the clouds, but all those beauty were lost on Lys that still stayed on the same spot as he studied the human’s feature carefully.

The human’s pale skin looks as if it was glowing under the soft sunset light. His complexion was a lot better than when they’re still on the water, though his color still doesn’t looks right for Lys. The human is still pretty wet and he shivers from time to time. His eyes are still closed with no sign of awakening, but the wound on his head appear to have stopped bleeding–thankfully, so he can only hope that he’s really alright.

He’s actually a bit worried since the human probably have seen him when he first swam close to the human on the water as his eyes does opened a tad bit bigger while he’s looking straight at him, but then he choked on the water one more time and passed out, so it shouldn’t be a problem, right?

He grimaced at the possibility and choose to stare at the human’s face again.

His eyebrows were a bit thick and have the same auburn color as his hair that half dried from the soft breeze on the rocky coast. Some stray strands were falling haphazardly on his forehead, and he has been very tempted to brush the hair away from his skin so he can look at his face without any obstruction.

He have been contemplating for a while if he should touch the human or not, but after weighting the pro and contra for a long time, he gave up to temptation and left one arm propped on the rock for balance and using the other arm to brush the silky strands of hair away from his forehead and played with it for a while.

He swished his tail back and forth slowly on the water in hesitation, but after some time, his touch shifted to his eyebrows, then down to the side and his jaw, tracing a patch of short hairs back and forth to memorize its tickling feeling on his finger.

Eyebrows and beards are somewhat nonexistent on a mer, mostly those who have it only have a very very faint hair like the one on the human’s jawline and it wouldn’t grew longer even when they reached the end of their life. They do able to grew hairs but the only place it’ll grow well is their scalp and nothing from the neck down. Depending on the mer, their hair can grew fairly quickly or very slowly, so hair is one of the important aspect on merfolks life as it is one of the thing that is hard to maintain when there’s a lot of way you can ruin your hair when you’re living underwater.

Feeling satisfied from rubbing the human’s barely there stubble, he moves his finger to trace the human’s prominent cheekbone. His skin were a little dry from the seawater, but overall it’s still smooth to the touch. He then moves his finger to his straight and refined nose. He gave it a light tug. The human doesn’t stir a muscle.

He chuckled in amusement and tried again. Still no movement. With a slight smile, his eyes then wandered to the human’s lips. It was opened a little as the human drew a slow, even breath from the gap. His pale pink lips were a little more fuller on the bottom, and he rubbed his finger softly on the chapped lips, and a thought spark on his mind.

I wonder what would it feels like to kiss the human’s lips…

As he thought about it, he was subconsciously leaning his face closer and closer to the human’s face and... he moves back and clasped his mouth with both of his hands, falling back to the water with a big splash.

He sputtered in his mind for some second, “W, w, what the hell am I thinking? He’s a human! He’s a male human! Not that it matter if he’s male or female but he’s a human! Why, what?! Why did I thought about kissing him? This is too weird. What’s wrong with me? I-“

“Your Highness! Is there something wrong? Did he woke up? Are you hurt?” The concerned soldier swam close to him under the water and asked him in panic.

“What? No! No, I’m alright. He’s still asleep. Go back to your post.”

“But, Your Highness–“

“I’m really alright, my hands just slipped. Go back and look out for the humans. I’ll call you if I need help.”

The soldier still not convinced, but he obeyed and swam back to scout the area.

After the soldier were gone, Lys huffed a very long breath and created a lot of water bubbles, trying to calm his mind. After a minute or two, he calmed down a bit and emerge from the water and perched on the rock again, continued his observation of the human face while thinking hard on his mind.

After fifteen minutes of pondering and his mind still wasn’t able to make sense of his previous thought towards the human, he leaned his head back and breath in the salty ocean air and exhale it in a loud sigh.

“Oh whatever,” he said as he lowered his head and pressing their lips together.

He’s not new to kissing and he expected it to be salty tasting like any other kisses he had because, sea water kiss? He did felt the saltiness but it was a lot more subtle than what he had ever felt and the unexpected softness on the human’s lips despite its chapped appearance is something he did not expect too even thought he’d touched it in great fondness before, and it just felt... nice.

Better than any kiss I’ve ever had.

He kissed the human softly for a few seconds before moving back reluctantly. He stayed there for a long time, tracing the shape of the human’s lips, played with his hair and poking his cheeks at times, thinking of nothing in particular while swaying his tail in slow motion on the water.

He like to be on this human’s side. His human‘s side. Watching him breathing rhythmically fells oddly calming, and he really like the feeling.

The peaceful bubble were broken when he heard the soldier panicked voice while he swam toward Lys in record time, “Your Highness! We need to go. There’s a human coming to this direction!”

He jumped from that warning, but his arms still haven’t letting go of he rock yet. He really doesn’t want to go and left this human, but then again, it was impossible to stay on is side forever. He was stuck on indecision and only able to stay frozen on his spot until the soldier reach his side and yank him into the water.

He wanted to break free from the soldier’s grip, but even he know that it was a stupid thing to do when they might be found out if he made a ruckus in a close proximity near the incoming human, so he let the soldier drag him away.

Once they’re on a safe distance and mostly out of the sight according to the soldier, he wanted to have a last look before they really go and do his assignment of learning about the human and the Land on his limited one week time before he have to go home, so he slowly emerge from the water and looked at the direction where he had been seconds ago.

He saw the new human seems to have spotted the unconscious human and running to his side. He’s not sure about their gender, but based on the voice that carried to his ear, it seems to be a female, probably. She yells for help to some other humans he didn’t realize were some steps behind her. The other leaves to where they were coming so it’s safe to assume they were looking for extra help.

The soldier were getting agitated from the number of humans that’s kept increasing the longer they’re here, but Lys holds on until the last moment when the soldier finally dragged him again completely under the water, but not before he finally heard the female human called the name he was sure belonged by his human.

“–Prince Kevin!”

And having that little knowledge brings a smile on his lips.