Chapter One
In the middle of nowhere in some place of some time a long time ago, there was a castle. The castle was isolated by an approximate three mile radius to any other castles. The specified castle was beside the beach. On the beach, lay the oblivious owner of the castle. The owner was reading. Licking the owner's heels was the sea. In the sea was a blond-haired merman named Demyx.
Demyx wasn't used to the sun. When he had first come to the shore, he had to crawl right back into the water, the UV rays had stung worse than box jellyfish in heat. So now, here he was, at dusk, a time he learned caused less painful burns, staring at the man reading.
Now, properly, he should've gone right up to the owner with an appropriate "how do you do" and "what're you reading" and all that. But he couldn't. He would have really liked to, but he couldn't. For you see, Demyx was no ordinary guy. Well, he was ordinary, by standards, but not human standards, but rather, merpeople standards.
He had a tail. He was fond of his tail, with its gold and cerulean hues with the occasional black scale or two. And he had gills. And for some reason lungs, which he thought was kind of odd for whoever created merpeople, because duo breathing mechanisms sometimes complicated things. Usually, one doesn't forget how to breathe, but in a state of panic, you forget to think water, and instead oxygen comes to mind, and it gets a bit messy.
But that's beside the point.
The point is, Demyx was wallowing in self-inflicted misery as he watched the book reader, his tail flopping helplessly. He wanted to be there. He wanted to be on the sand, exchanging those proper "how do you do's" and he wanted to do...whatever that person was doing. (He was illiterate and had never seen a book before.) He wanted to be part of landfolk instead of seafolk.
The man on the beach however, wasn't the reason why he was lounging on a warm rock that showed signs of seagull usage. No, the man that was the reason why he had snuck out of his parent's cave and waited for hours for, was -hold on- a hundred feet away: the short figure with steely hair and the look of someone that stepped in dog poo, ambling towards the male on the beach.
He enjoyed the usual sensations, his breath catching, heart pounding, dizziness, dry palms, the kind of stuff that makes you want to look like a girly sap. Which is what he was doing, while watching the object of his affection, or rather, obsession, walk closer. The better he could define the features on the beautiful face, the easier it was for him to slip off into his daydream, snuggling against the rock with a moony smile on his face. Oh he could just see it, him with beautiful legs, running down the hill with him, holding hands and laughing and...doing things.
"DEMY HE'S OVER THERE!" An over-eager voice shouted, startling him from the rock.
"Sora, shut up, they'll hear you!" Demyx fretted, ducking behind the rock and taking the brunet with him as both men on the beach paused to stare in their direction.
He waited for a few minutes to pass before peeking over the rock. Thankfully, they were now arguing.
"Sora, you need to stop that," Demyx pouted, putting a hand over his heart.
"I know...but still! That's the guy! The one that I would play with!"
Demyx watched the pair. "I think our guys are related."
Sora frowned, swiping some seagull droppings away so he could also lean against the warm rock. "Yeah...I guess so. But mine's cuter."
"Nah-uh!"
"Uh-huh! Look, he's taller!"
"That doesn't account for anything!"
"Yes it does!"
"So does this mean I'm better looking?"
"Huh, wait...no!" Sora growled in frustration, his own logic used against him.
"I think you're both ugly," drawled another voice.
There was gasps from both parties and then "Roxas!"
"I knew I'd find you here." It was a none too happy Roxas.
"We were just-"
"Oogling the landmen." he peered around the rock. "Ugly landmen."
"He is not!" both shouted hotly.
"Is so. They don't even have fins. Disgusting." He gave a flippant wave of his own black and white tail as if to prove his point.
"But-"
"How could you say-"
"That! They're so-"
"Do you even know their names?" He interrupted.
"Um..." Demyx frowned.
It was Sora who beat him. "His name is Riku. Ri. Ku. See? Ha! I beat you. I totally knew."
An annoyed sound emitted from the blond's throat. "Right. Whatever. Still... Superior Mansex is going to fry you. And don't expect help from me."
"But Roxas," Demyx pouted. "Come on it's not like we're interacting...just...watching from a distance."
A wave of repulsion graced the blond's face. "Watching from a distance while masturbating."
"I...Roxas! How could you say that!?" It was easy to pick up the blush on pale skin.
"Admit it, older bro, you've been watching him to get off."
Demyx was embarrassed beyond words, staring at the water shamefaced. Sora looked between the two, hands on his hips. "That's not fair Roxas."
"Is it?"
"Nope. You've just never seen landman that you've liked."
"I don't plan on jacking off to a landperson," he snarled.
"Aw, just you wait, you'll be-"
"That's it, I'm gone." Roxas dived, disappearing into a cloud of sand.
"I don't masturbate," Demyx said weakly.
"Of course."
"BASTARD!" a voice from the shore swore.
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Rewinding to the beginning, Riku was on the shore, spread out comfortably on the sand with his book. It was amazing how good the sun felt at dusk. Well, there really was no sun to feel, which is what he liked, for he had gotten the habit from his brother to hate anything bright and warm. That, and this time had a special sentiment for him, which was the reason why he was on the beach.
The sentiments stemmed from his childhood.
He had been seven, building a lonely sandcastle. His elder brother, Zexion was in the castle, angry at him. Not that it was his fault or anything. Their father was ill, and had signed a will. It stated for the twelve-year-old to take care of his seven year old brother. To make things worse, it also declared that when Riku grew up he was to be the heir, and mommy Zexy inherited nothing. But the older brother was bound by the will to take care of Riku until he was married and well off, able to carry their father's legacy, or face penalties.
So thus, Riku-the-seven-year-old was depressed, confused as to why his brother hated him, knew something was wrong with his father, and he had no friends. Therefore, he built his sandcastle, wallowing in misery, thinking up on this new castle where there would be lots of happy people with rainbows and unicorns would be in the stables and his brother wouldn't be such a meanie-face and his father would be able to get his own eggs in the morning.
He was just starting to add a coop for dragons when he heard furious splashing. Alarmed, he had stood up only to fall back down on his chubby bottom, gaping at the boy that was his age or maybe a year younger floundering on the sand, close to tears.
"Are you a mermaid?" he had asked in wonder.
"No, a merman!" the boy had said, still flailing helplessly.
Riku had hesitantly stood, wading over to the brunet. "You look more like a merboy."
"Nah uh! I'm six! I'm a man!"
"Right..."
"Grr! I'll show you! If you'll...help me," the finned boy stared at the sand sheepishly.
"What do you want me to do?"
"I want to play!" The merboy answered brightly. "Just help me balance on my tail! I've always wanted to build a sandcastle. Demyx said it was too dangerous, but he says everything is too dangerous, and Roxas is being a pain in the gill, he's so moody, so I ran away you see and broke surface and I saw you and it looked like so much fun, oh my name is Sora by the way, let's play!"
"Okay...my name is Riku," he said, completely confused by the avalanche of a sentence. From then on, he and the strangely optimistic merboy had played at dusk in the shallows where Riku wouldn't drown and there was enough water for Sora to stay wet.
Then one day, he never came.
Riku had continued to come to shore every day for the next two years, hoping that he would see his friend. Then it became every other day. Then once a week. Then once a month. Then every few months. Now, he came when he had time, still hoping.
It also didn't help that his still rather pissy brother Zexion didn't believe that there was such things as merpeople and that he had played with one or any of that sort of "nonsense." Therefore, he wanted to prove his perfect brother wrong.
Well, okay. His brother wasn't perfect.
Zexion was a morbid fellow with a piercing gaze, soft voice, sharp tongue and cool demeanor. It seemed to Riku that nothing would phase his elder brother, not even when Axel let loose a hundred chocobos in their dining hall a year ago. He had calmly had the stable hands bring take them out, then to turn it around he sold the prized birds and made oodles of money. He remembered the redhead being quite angry, for some absurd reason he had believed he would get his lovely birds back.
Hm...there was also another thing to Zexion that didn't make him perfect besides his lack of emotions and party skills.
But it was something Riku also secretly shared, so he didn't blame his brother. In fact, it might be a family trait, but he knew his father had been quite into women. However, his uncle on the other hand, he remembered being told how much that guy had many amorous male lovers.
He sighed.
Perhaps he had fallen in love with his merman. It had been six and a half years since he had last seen him, which was when he was ten and a half (he remember proudly stating so.) He knew as a child he knew nothing about love. But now, at the age of seventeen, he felt a strange sort of longing for that childhood. He could remember the lovely merboy with the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. And it gave him...interesting dreams sometimes when he thought long and hard about it, imaging what the boy would look like now, shifting into an image that made him gasp and moan.
Anyway, his brother was coming down the grassy hill that merged into sand, his face expressionless as usual. In a way, he knew it was his fault. He and his brother got along, for the most part. They fought and stuff like that the way brothers do, but he just knew, somewhere, deep inside the elder one, there was a hatred. A hatred of having to take care of him against his will. And that stung him in the darkest of nights, when his thoughts were allowed to roam.
"What's going on?" he asked once Zexion was within range. He could tell the difference between the emotionless emotions. There was something troubling, yet firm in this one.
"I'm sure you remember father's will," the man began slowly, his voice drawling out the syllables one by one.
"Of course."
"It states you have to get married."
"What are you getting at?"
Zexion commenced to examine his finger nails, picking some dirt out from his pinky. "You're going to get married."
"I'm not eighteen yet, there's still time..."
"No, there isn't," he said in that infuriatingly calm voice of his. "That poppycock about that fishboy-"
"I'm NOT lying!" Riku said angrily. "He's going to-"
"It's been six and a half years, and you've turned up nothing, Riku. You're getting married to that girl, Kairi." A sudden look of disgust crossed his usually impassive face. "Even if we're going to have that... that fiend as a brother-in-law."
"Kairi!? That giggling redhead next door? The one that does the 'Riiiiiiiku!' voice?! The one that claims she's from another planet and is all whacko and likes to run down the beach laughing??"
"The same."
They both paused. The water had made a funny noise. That, and both were contemplating whether they should laugh or not.
"Why you...you... I won't!" Riku said, choosing to be serious.
"You have to."
"No!"
"I will force you if necessary."
Riku couldn't take it anymore, the next words tumbling from his lips in an angry burst, "You...BASTARD!"
"Perhaps," he said without feeling. The way he said it made Riku calm down. In a way, it was fair. Zexion had been forced to take care of him. His brother wasn't allowed to do anything he wanted, for what Riku said goes. Even the servants went that way, and Zexion often ended up in frustrating positions.
"When's the wedding?"
"Two weeks."
"I turn eighteen in a month."
"Yes."
"Give me until then."
They stared at each other, sea-green meeting chipped glacier.
"Till your eighteenth birthday," Zexion reluctantly agreed. Riku could tell in his tone he wasn't angry, which was a relief. "But it's technically three weeks and six days."
"You're such a prick," Riku groaned, heading for the castle. He had less than a month to fish for his long-lost merman, he was going to need a very elaborate plan of action.
Zexion on the other hand, stared towards the beach. He knew he had heard something in the silence. It had sounded oddly...like a voice he had heard long ago. One that told him it would be okay when he had found himself on this very spot on this very shore, crying his eyes out, begging to take the horrid responsibility from him but a scant six and a half years ago.
He half-hoped Riku would find something. He really didn't want Axel as a brother-in-law.
-------------
"He's staring this way," Demyx said dreamily.
"What if he catches you?"
"So?"
"What if Roxas really told?"
"He wouldn't, he'd be in just as much trouble as us for being on the surface. Besides, we're his brothers."
"I'm going to go check."
"I'll be down in a bit."
When Sora vanished, a strange, bold sensation plagued Demyx to go up to the merman. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to swim to shore, although his mind was quite nudging in that direction. He sighed. Well...there was only one thing he could do. That's right. Sing.
" Look at that guy...
Isn't he neat?
Wouldn't you think that we'd be complete?
Looking at us you'd think (sure)
They've got everything!"
-------------
Zexion froze.
Either he was having a hallucination (which could be possible from all that tinkering around with the chemicals) or he could hear singing. And it was beautiful singing. And male.
He never exactly told Riku, but he quite was partial to males.
"Hello?" he called.
The voice continued to sing, as if it couldn't hear him.
"Hello?" he called louder, stepping towards the ocean.
Nothing.
He frowned. It appeared to be coming from the rock covered in seagull droppings offshore.
Well... it has been quite some time since he had been in the ocean. He stripped off his stockings and shoes so that he was only in tan breaches, then threw off his fancy over clothes until he had nothing but a white cotton shirt, wading into the water. God above it was cold.
He stopped once he was chest deep, shivering and staring at the rock where the disembodied voice sung. It still remained oblivious to his efforts, which in a sense was a good thing, yet it made him nervous. Was something there at all? Or was it all some sort of fay trick the ocean was playing?
He could hear the lyrics now..
"If I had legs
Then maybe we'll see
If he'd just liiiiiiiiike me"
Okay, now he had to know.
He kicked up gently, instinctively remembering how to swim. Believe it or not when he was younger he would swim nearly every day. But he wasn't as good as then, so he paddled awkwardly.
For some reason, his heart was in his throat. It was nerve wracking. Was it a merperson? Riku had told him time and time again, and he had wanted to believe, but his cool, logical (the evil side) of his brain told him that they were nonexistent.
Well, logic lied.
He clutched the rock for support then made his way around it, disgusted by the amount of literal crap there was on the brown surface.
He didn't notice that the singing had stopped.
When he rounded the corner, a blond face was waiting for him.
It was so angelic in a weird, hacked up way, he almost gasped. But he was Zexion, therefore he didnt.
"You're him..." the angel said in wonder, its eyes the color of the sea.
That's when he realized that if this boy, well, actually teenage adult, was an angel, he would have wings. Instead, it had fins jutting from its hips and a tail to boot. "You're a merman..." he said. Now, normally he hated people who stated the obvious. This was a special case.
"You're beautiful," the blond said dreamily to him.
Then kissed him.
Zexion fainted.
-------------
Demyx couldn't believe it. The one he loved had just swam up to him. He couldn't contain his excitement, even though the slate-haired man seemed quite stunned. He wanted him now. Therefore, he kissed him. And his lover unfortunately blanked out. He did get to finish his verse though.
"I want my turn
We'd be in love, love beeeeyond all of
Legs and fins
Wish you could...
Looooove me"
-------------
"I can't believe you..." Sora said in horrific awe, his eyes on his brother.
"You can't be doing that kind of stuff, Sora!" Roxas said in automatic defense mode.
"I wasn't doing any harm!"
"You remember the agreement," Superior Xenmas said, his voice in that area between calm and angry. "Never."
"But..."
"This is your second warning!"
"That was six years ago!"
A snarl came from the man beside the superior, his fins as blue as his hair. "Shut up! You know the law."
There was a silence, with Sora glaring at the Superior and his "pet" and Roxas busily looking anywhere else.
"How late is it?" Roxas asked suddenly, realizing that cavern was lit by moss instead of the sun.
"The big pearl in the sky is up...early night I suppose," Sora answered without thinking.
Then realization dawned.
"Uh...Where's Demyx?"
Author: that is my tribute to Demy seme day. Demy initiates the first kiss! Mwa ha ha ha! I don't want anyone to be asking about my other stories when reviewing this, okay? I AM gonna update them, but on my own time due to revisions in design. Alright?
Yeah I had to make Demyx sing.
I don't hate Kairi.