Ritsu really should've thought of a step two.

After he had spoken his unconfident greeting and gained the siren's attention, he froze. The siren appeared equally stunned to see Ritsu, staring back at him from his rock.

"Hello." Ritsu repeated, a little firmer this time.

It felt like Ritsu blinked and then the siren was on the sand in front of him. Ritsu instinctively stepped backwards, tripping over a branch and landing on his backside, staring up as the siren loomed over him. This boy didn't look much older than himself, maybe fourteen or fifteen? But at the same time, Ritsu didn't know how siren aging worked. Perhaps he was a thousand years old! He almost looked like an angel with his wings and the sun behind him, but Ritsu knew better.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Oh, the siren did not sound happy.

Even with the scowl and disapproving tone, both his voice and facial features took devastating blows to Ritsu's heart. Ritsu felt as though the words went straight through his soul, compelling him to answer truthfully. Ritsu couldn't even imagine how singing would affect him, if this is what spoken word did. And his face! Ritsu had expected the siren's eyes to be as blue as a stormy sea, but they were a beautiful, deep brown. His hair was just as dark as his wings and tousled gently by the ocean breeze. And his lips...were moving again.

"Answer me!"

Ritsu resisted the strains of magic flowing through his voice. Sirens did not play by the same rules as fae, as far as he knew, but it still probably wasn't a good idea to give this boy his real name. "My name is Oda. I-I found this place yesterday and I saw you help that bird." Ritsu spat out. God I sound like an idiot!

The siren frowned. "You were here yesterday? And you saw that?" He asked before shaking his head. It didn't matter. "Why did you come back here? Do you have a death wish, human?"

"No! No, I just-I-I-um-I wanted to-"

"Who have you told about me?" The siren's voice surged with power, demanding nothing but honesty.

"No one! I haven't told anyone!" Ritsu's words seemed to put the siren a bit at ease, but it was a very, very slight difference.

"Good. Never speak of me to anyone and leave this place. Do not return unless you wish to meet an early grave." The siren warned. Ritsu could sense the magic in his words, but being it was not a song the prince was able to resist. Ritsu had made it this far, he would not be driven away now!

"What are you?" Ritsu blurted out clumsily. Oh God, he was screwing this up really badly.

The stranger raised an eyebrow at the question. "Ignorant or rude?"

"Huh?"

"Which is it? Are you ignorant or rude?"

Ritsu flushed at the question. "I-I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean-I'm not usually like this-"

The stranger simply cocked his head and waited.

"I-Ignorant?" Ritsu squeaked out.

"Ignorance can be forgiven. Accept my forgiveness and run now before I regret allowing you to live."

"You're a siren, aren't you?" Ritsu said quickly. He needed answers!

The stranger crossed his arms. "Not so ignorant after all."

Ritsu forced a tense and nervous smile. "I-I had my suspicions, but I wasn't sure."

"And now that your curiosity is satisfied?"

"It's not."

The confirmed siren scowled again. "Too bad. Go away." The siren turned to walk off and Ritsu quickly scrambled to his feet.

"Wait! What's your name?" Ritsu said.

The siren looked over his shoulder with a frown. "And who are you to demand such knowledge? Names are powerful things, after all."

"I...I just...I told you my name. It's only fair." The young prince pouted.

The siren rolled his eyes. What a childish response, he thought, pretending he himself was not also a child.

"Nothing is fair. You probably shouldn't have told me your name anyway. Besides, I've already given you more than I should by allowing you to live."

"You keep saying stuff like that! If letting me live is so generous then why?" Ritsu said. "Why are you letting me live?"

"Maybe I don't feel like wasting my energy on you. You're all skin and bones anyway, you wouldn't make for a good meal. It'd take more effort to eat you than it's worth." The siren said before turning away from him again, sitting down on the sand by the crashing waves. Ritsu dipped into his very limited supply of bravery and sat down beside him. "What are you doing?" The siren frowned, leaning away from him.

"If you wanted to kill me you would've already done so and you just admitted you're not going to." Ritsu said. "So...if you don't mind, I'd like to stay a little while."

"I can always change my mind." He warned. "Besides, I think I've made it pretty clear that I do mind, but you don't really seem to care either way." The siren sighed.

Ritsu smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. It's just not every day you meet a siren. Surely you're a little curious about humans too?" Maybe Ritsu could offer some sort of exchange of information, but that would only work if the siren was interested.

The siren just shrugged, appearing indifferent now that he wasn't trying to drive Ritsu away.

"Well, anyways, it's nice to meet you, uh...Siren Senpai?"

"Do not call me that."

"Then what should I call you?" Ritsu asked and was promptly ignored. "Do you come here everyday?" He continued.

"Will you return if I say yes?" The siren asked. That was a fate he wanted to avoid.

"Maybe. But I don't live here, I'm only visiting, so I wouldn't impose on you for long." Ritsu said.

"And you wouldn't send other humans this way to deal with me either, right?" The siren asked sarcastically.

Ritsu frowned at the implication. "Of course not." The earnest quality in his voice took the siren a bit by surprise. "If I wanted to hurt you, or get others to do so, I wouldn't have come back alone." He said.

The siren narrowed his eyes in suspicion. He supposed this was true, but it still didn't make sense to him. "Why did you come back at all?" Was this kid stupid or something? Most people did not survive a close encounter with a siren once, let alone twice. Surely this kid knew at least that much.

Ritsu looked away shyly. "I...I just wanted to see you again. I wanted to know what you sounded like and to learn your name."

"That's it?"

"Well, of course I have a few questions, but yeah, those were the main reasons as silly as they sound." Ritsu said, a hint of pink appearing on his cheeks.

The siren wondered if he had somehow accidentally charmed this individual with his magic without meaning to. That was the only explanation he could think of, though it shouldn't have been possible.

"I release you." The siren said as a last ditch effort.

Ritsu furrowed his eyebrows and frowned. "What?"

"I release you from my spell. So go now." He repeated.

"Spell? I'm not under-did you put me under a spell?" Ritsu asked.

The human still wasn't moving, wasn't gazing upon the siren with even a hint of fear.

Well, that was a bust.

"I thought maybe I somehow accidentally put a spell on you yesterday or something and that's why you came back, but I guess not. That isn't really possible anyway. I guess you're just an idiot."

"Hey!" Ritsu frowned, flushing dark with embarrassment at the rude name. Never had anyone spoken to him like that! Though it wasn't like he could command respect from the siren since he clearly didn't care about causing offense and probably wouldn't care about Ritsu's status as a prince either. Plus, it probably wasn't the best idea to reveal he was a prince, just in case the siren ended up caring a little too much about that.

"You said you wanted to hear me, as in hear me sing?" The siren asked, ignoring Ritsu's exclamation of protest at his insult.

"I...maybe." Ritsu said, hesitation making him refrain from answering with an honest 'yes'.

"You know no one can resist a siren's song, right? Most don't even survive it. How do you know I won't make you go into the ocean and drown yourself the second I start singing?"

"Because you haven't already." Ritsu said. The siren was making it fairly obvious he'd prefer to be alone and he could easily accomplish that by hypnotizing Ritsu with his voice. The fact that he hadn't done so yet meant something was going on and Ritsu wanted to know what.

Annoying, the siren thought, but his face remained neutral. He very much did in fact want to sing and send this kid on his way, but couldn't. This kid didn't need to know that though. If he knew the siren wasn't at his full power, he could very easily take advantage of that.

"Well, too bad." The siren said. "I'm not going to sing for you."

"Why not?" Ritsu asked, doing his best not to sound petulant. He was merely curious of the siren's reason.

"Because you want it. Where's the fun in that?" The siren asked. "Plus, who are you to make any sort of demand of me?"

"I-No one. I'm no one. It wasn't a demand, I'm sorry if it came across that way." Ritsu said quickly. He did not wish to offend nor did he wish to come off as the spoiled brat people often assumed he was.

"If not a demand then what would you call it?" The siren asked, unconvinced and unamused. Humans, from what he had learned, were always demanding. They were greedy, selfish, entitled and never satisfied.

"I don't know, maybe a wish? Something no one is obligated to fulfill, something that you'll likely never get, yet you still keep hoping that somehow it happens."

"That seems like a set up for disappointment." The siren scoffed.

"You can't be disappointed if you keep on hoping."

The siren narrowed his eyes at the irritatingly positive outlook of life. I don't like him, he thought. He almost expressed it out loud, but managed to refrain.

"What sort of things do you hope for?" Ritsu asked.

"Bigger fish to catch." The siren deadpanned. "And I assure you, I am disappointed every time I grab something small."

"That's not hoping. That's expecting. You expect to catch a big fish, so you're disappointed when you don't. When you hope, you just try and try and try again because you believe you'll eventually succeed."

"You're like ten, shut up." The siren really wasn't in the mood to be preached at.

"I'm twelve." Ritsu corrected with a frown. Was he really that small? He had only turned twelve in the very early Spring and now they were in the middle of Summer.

"You don't talk like any twelve year old I've met."

"How many twelve year olds have you met?"

Touche, the siren thought, but wouldn't say it out loud as to not give the human the satisfaction.

Ritsu began to worry he was behaving a little too well-read. His pattern of speech was very proper and polite, but that wasn't really how most children spoke to each other, was it? Then again, he couldn't allow himself to slip out of such a habit, lest he face his parents' wrath.

"How old are you?" Ritsu asked.

"Old enough."

"Old enough for what?" Ritsu couldn't help but to laugh a little at the answer, finding it strange.

"Old enough that you should listen to me when I tell you what to do." The siren said. In reality he was fourteen and would be turning fifteen in the upcoming Winter.

Ritsu shrugged. "You can always make me." He reminded him. Ritsu's response was not acknowledged.

It was here that the conversation came to a pause, the two of them watching the horizon together.

I don't get him at all, the siren thought. He's weird. He talks weird and he dresses weird and the fact that he's here at all is weird. Does he not have anyone else to bother? Is there anyone looking for him? Surely someone's noticed that he's gone by now. If he accidentally leads someone this way I'm screwed. There's no way I'll get lucky twice and meet two humans who don't want to kill me. He sighed and laid on his back, definitely getting sand in his hair and feathers, but oh well.

Ritsu glanced over at the siren as he flopped back on to the sand. Was the siren letting his guard down a little? Or perhaps he was just exhausted and exasperated with Ritsu's stubbornness. That second option seemed a lot more likely.

I don't understand him, Ritsu thought, unaware that his thoughts were echoing the siren's. If he really doesn't want me here then why doesn't he do something about it? Is what I've read about sirens wrong? But he said so himself no one can resist a sirens song. Ritsu let out his own sigh, but didn't dare to lay on the beach beside him.

"Is this what you normally do?" Ritsu asked, breaking the brief silence.

"Yeah." The siren said. He didn't come to this beach for anything exciting, he came to relax. He liked the peacefulness of this place. His home, the rough and rocky seaside cliffs that were occupied by many sirens, was not an easy place to relax in. There was a constant hum, often growing into song as ships sailed by and then crashed themselves into the cliffs. "Sorry if you're bored, but I don't come here to amuse humans."

"No-I-that isn't what I meant. I'm sorry." Ritsu apologized instinctively. "This is nice." The young prince said, genuinely meaning it. The sounds of waves hitting the sand was like a rhythmic lullaby and the ocean breeze caressed him gently, chasing away any unpleasant heat. The sky was a perfect blue above them, a few seagulls cawing as they flew. "I guess I just expected something different."

"Are you disappointed?"

"No."

The siren tried not to frown. He had wanted the answer to be yes. Maybe then the human would leave him alone. The siren sat up a bit on his elbows, looking at the human who was tilting his head back and looking at the bright white clouds above.

"You're really not going to leave, are you?" The siren asked.

Ritsu felt a little shame begin to tug at him when he heard the question. "Am I really that much of a bother?" He asked quietly. He wasn't trying to be annoying. He could very well be much, much more annoying if he wanted to! He had many questions for the siren about his people, his culture, his powers, but he was not pressing. He knew this siren would not appreciate being interrogated, after all.

The siren remained silent and so Ritsu could only take that as a yes. The young prince stood and shook off as much sand as he could. "Well...thank you for not killing me, I guess." Ritsu said and immediately regretted it. What sort of goodbye is that? "I hope you'll be able to catch bigger fish tomorrow."

The siren watched as Ritsu turned and began to walk away. He could tell the kid was trying to be polite, but he really just looked like a kicked puppy. The siren sighed, laying fully back down and looking up at the sky.

"You can call me Saga."