"Come on, Ivan!" Yao grinned as he tried to hurry through the water. It was hard to go fast with such small fins.
"If you move your tail much faster, you're to have a stroke," Ivan laughed softly, just watching Yao aggressively flutter his fins and try to move quickly. He didn't even need to move to catch up, as he was so big, and Yao was so small. "Calm down, I will come at my own pace."
Yao was a seahorse. Well, to be more specific, a seahorse merman, one with a bright golden tail and small fins that fluttered beautifully when he swam. He was tiny, even small amongst the other seahorse mermen. But he was nothing next to Ivan. Ivan was almost a complete opposite of Yao; a whale merman with a gargantuan navy-white tail and a colossal body. He was the largest of his kind.
They had met each other less than a year ago, when Yao was only in his first year of life. As seahorses only lived up to five or so years, that was very mature for one of his kind. Ivan had been drifting along contently in the ocean; he didn't have a family to travel with, as he had been abandoned as a calf; and a tiny little creature got in his way. In fact, he had almost crashed into it, despite how slowly he was moving. This creature was so small and so delicate, he forced himself to stop moving, and to catch it in his hands. He and Yao had been friends since that day.
"Let's play! Let's play!" Yao smiled brightly, waving his arms about wildly to try and get Ivan as excited as he was. "Stop being so slow! Let's play!"
"What would you like to play?" Ivan asked, giving his tail a single heavy flick, which was enough to start him forward, now moving faster than Yao. Yao, in turn, fluttered his fins and tried pulling himself through the water with his arms.
"Mm.." Yao murmured, swimming closer to Ivan and holding onto one of his fins with his little hands. This way, he wouldn't get left behind. "What about hide and seek! And after that, I'll get some food 'cos I'm hungry!" Yao declared. Seahorses didn't exactly have stomachs, you see, and food would just go through their system and they would need a lot of it to keep themselves sustained.
"Must it be hide and seek?" asked Ivan rather cautiously. "I thought I'd lost you last time." He sighed, lifting one of his thick arms and running it through his curled blond hair as he swam. "Why don't I just give you a ride for a while?" he puffed, stopping the kicking motion of his fin. "Here, climb onto my back." Yao did so promptly, and Ivan chuckled at the light tickling that Yao's hands to his skin gave. He felt the little seahorse climb up along his massive back, and eventually he came to rest with his tiny hands on one of Ivan's shoulders.
"Go, go!" Yao demanded, and Ivan knew he had a smile as bright as the sun, although he couldn't quite see it.
"Hold on tight," Ivan reminded him. Then, he took off. He kicked his tail to get himself going, going through the water as quickly as he could. While that wasn't even that fast, it was still enough to get Yao's heart pumping wildly. He huffed and swam harder, eventually swimming up and breaching the surface. Water spattered out from his blowhole, creating a mid-ocean fountain before falling back down and hitting the water. Ivan didn't even notice. He dove back under again, smiling confidently as he went through the sea. It had always been one of his favourite things to do with Yao, to give him a ride upon his back; Yao was always exhilarated by the end of it, and he would laugh and smile and tell Ivan how much he loved him.
Ivan swam through the deeper water now, but knew that he'd have to go up to the surface once again to get some breath. He burst through the water once again, making an arc in his dive and barreling back down into the water like his movement was an art. He took this as his crescendo, and sighed as he slowed down back below the surface. "Was that fun, Yao?" he asked as per usual, turning his head a little to look upon his shoulder.
The dread he felt was immense. Yao no longer sat on his shoulder. Ivan laughed weakly and quickly turned his head, only confirming that Yao was not sitting on his other shoulder instead. Incredibly anxious, he swam in a circle, trying to stare at his back and tail and hope he'd catch a glimpse of his little seahorse. "Yao?" he said weakly, now hurriedly inspecting the ocean around him. "Now is not the time for hide and seek!" he whimpered.
"You're just eating somewhere, aren't you?" he called weakly, but received no reply. He still swam in manic, yet slow, circles. "You're hiding from me?" he said, his voice trembling with each call. "Yao, where are you!" he whimpered, growing quiet now. Like his heavy heart, Ivan's mind began to sink down into despondency. Where was Yao? Had he sunk to the ocean floor? What if he had gone to look for food and been devoured by a crustacean? What about when Ivan surfaced? Had he been caught within the beak of a gull? Ivan felt positively sick, and he found himself unable to do anything but wail.
His deep, sorrowful cries sounded into the ocean, and he could only pray that they reached Yao. They wouldn't of course; Yao was long-gone by now, but Ivan could pray nonetheless. He ended up crying out like this for a long time, days perhaps. Yao never found him, nor did he find Yao. Never had he ever felt so choked, so despaired and empty within the open waters. He knew, he knew that he'd never find his little seahorse; he knew that the tiny little man he loved would be forever lost to the ocean blue. And so, from then on, Ivan wailed into the ocean, reaching the ears of no-one and everyone all at once. He did so until he passed away countless years later, still a lonely and desolate man grieving someone so easily lost.
this whole idea was from my pal zi ahuuhu thanks love