Chapter One

A young man stood at the pier with his eyesight gazing upon the horizon. The sun had set, the yellow light gradually changed to an orange hue as the blue horizon darkened to a royal purple shade. Another day was spent staring at the vast, blue ocean without receiving any fruit of productivity. With a soft sigh, the blond man felt defeated and turned his back to the sea of disappointment before walking back to his home. At, least that was the plan.

"How pretty...The beach looks so beautiful when paired with a lovely sunset. Maybe a stroll along the shore will help me with lyrics."

Without a second thought, he changed his direction to walk parallel to the sea. The sound of the ocean waves crashing against the sand and the cool sea air was refreshing and soothing, however both did little to help his creativity. His relaxation slowly turned to worry as he realized his situation. His job required genius lyrics to be written in order to accompany and equally brilliant musical composition. If he couldn't manage to accomplish this his career would be over. This truly was his passion, but he had fallen into writer's block the past few days. In the beginning he would be able to write amazing lyrics within a few days, but as time progressed, it would take a day or two longer than usual until eventually it took nearly weeks. As of now, he was turning in work just minutes before the deadline. He needed inspiration quickly or else he would lose everything.

Thoughts of doubt clouded his mind, he nearly fell into a bout of tears had it not been for a soft, masculine singing voice that pushed the dark clouds in his mind away. The young man found himself following the voice which lead him to small cove with with a rock formation that seemed to form a small semi-circle pool. Within the structure was a dark haired man singing softly and beautifully to audience consisting only of the vocalist himself. Carefully, the blonde man approached the stranger as he quietly climbed the rocks to take a seat, but he yelped as he slipped which alerted the other.

"Wait! Wait! I can explain! I'm Natsuki, and I really love the sound of your voice. It was so relaxing. It cleared me of all my stress." The blond man explained. The stranger merely looked at him with frightened eyes, he would glance at Natsuki then back the sea. He was unsure of whether or not to remain here or swim away. They were within such a close distance that should he attempt to escape, he would be grabbed by the arm. Seeing as to it would be safer to respond, he took a deep breath to calm his nerves.

"I'm T...Tokiya. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"So polite. Now I feel a little bad about sneaking up on you like that." Natsuki regained his footing and sat himself on top of the rocks. Tokiya moved away slightly to keep a distance, though the other clearly noticed. "Oh, I'm sorry. I suppose I get too friendly too quickly. I'll stay here." he flashed a reassuring smile to show he meant no harm to Tokiya. It wasn't much, but it did help the dark haired male feel safer. Perhaps he truly had nothing to fear from Natsuki.

"Forgive me. I tend to be wary of everyone and everything. Anyways...back to my voice. You said it calmed you?" Natsuki nodded.

"I was overcome with stress and thoughts of doubt, but it was as if your voice pulled me away from a chasm despair. Oh, that sounded great. It was dark, but that would make a lovely lyric with some polishing!" Tokiya tilted his head in confusion as he was unaware of Natsuki's profession. "Oh, I work with composers and singers to write lyrics to a song. Lately, writing lyrics has been difficult. It used to be second nature to me, but that's changed."

"I see. I've fallen into some trouble as well. Before, my voice was...Nothing. I just didn't expect to see someone find me here. It's been quite some time since my voice managed to attract anyone." He sighed and looked back at the sea with a sad gaze. Natsuki could see something was bothering Tokiya. He wanted to comfort his new friend, but it wasn't his place to tell him everything would be okay. "Look at me. We've only just met and yet I'm telling you something personal. You truly do have some aura of friendliness. It's nearly magical for a human."

"I guess? I mean your voice is enchanting too. All humans have some magic in their hearts. Hmm, what strange way to phrase that." he was confused by Tokiya's choice of the word human, but he figured it must be a quirk. "Oh, the sun is nearly gone. As much as the moonlight is pretty, it won't be helpful lighting the way back home. I should get going before it all fades away. Do you mind if we meet again tomorrow? This chat helped to spark some ideas in my head, and maybe we might be able to help each other. I didn't quite understand you earlier, but it sounds as if I helped you a bit too."

Tokiya bit his lip in hesitation at the proposal. There was truth in Natsuki's words, but it was too dangerous to get close. Though, if it worked out, he could have his problem solved for good. The positives outweighed the consequences. The choice was clear.

" Yes, that would be great. If you don't mind, since these conversations might be long, could we meet here again? Possibly earlier so you can find your way back home with sunlight."

"In that case, wouldn't it be easier to meet somewhere in between? Maybe at the pier?"

"No. Here." Tokiya insisted. There wasn't anything that would change his mind, and Natsuki was aware of this.

"I'll be here somewhere around the afternoon. It was great to meet you and I can't wait to see you again." With a chuckle and smile he left the cove to race the light back home. Once he was out of sight, Tokiya sighed in relief as he pulled himself up onto the rocks. Rather than legs, his lower body was a dark blue tail with two long fins at each side and another on the back. Though, once his tail was completely out of the sea, it had undergone some transformation to form a pair of legs. The process seemed to cause some pain and discomfort as it left Tokiya gasping.

"It's too painful to stay like this...Its better we meet like this and I keep my lower half hidden. Still, I hope I didn't make a mistake by getting to close." With a pained grunt, he returned back to the water where another painful transformation began. Once he managed to compose himself, he swam away back into the depths of the sea.

(Heavy writer's block on the story Love of Land and Sea. This one was inspired by a plot my friend and I had though it revolved around Syo and Ai. We took the old story and modernized it. Since I didn't want to write a second story with the same exact mermaid theme, I changed it a bit to fit the Natsuki Tokiya paring.)