Ryoma smiled, watching Sakuno sleep. It was already late in the morning, but he didn't mind. Staying in bed, enjoying laziness was okay sometimes. It seemed like the whole word was new on that morning. Everything was right and well.

After the kiss they shared, Ryoma realized he was only wearing the fudonshi and it was not a very good garment for holding her so close. His face was entirely red and he quickly went to his clothes, putting them back on. They returned to his home, holding hands while the sunset colors were fading away.

After she put some clothes on ,Ryoma cooked dinner and gladly watch Sakuno eating the food he had made. He silently listened to her talking about the things she had seen on that new part of the sea and his heart was happy. Ryoma felt completely smitten.

Sakuno was holding his chest. It was like she had never left his side. His body remembered her warmth and the ocean smell of her skin and hair.

He caressed her face and the scarlet eyes opened slowly to him.

"Good morning." He said, gently.

"Good morning, Ryoma." She replied with a kind smile.

"Did you sleep well?"

"Yes."

"Good." Ryoma kissed her forehead. "Do you want to get up already?"

"Not yet. Here is nice." She snuggled on his neck.

"You were so beautiful on the water." He said, looking at the scarlet eyes. "Your tail, it is so beautiful."

"Really? More than the legs?"

"Everything about you is beautiful, Sakuno." His fingers caressed her face and she smiled at him, before placing her face on his chest.

They stayed in silence for a while, when Ryoma looked at her again.

"Ah! There is a place I want to take you to."

"Where?"

"It is a surprise. You will see when we get there."

"Okay." She grinned.

#########

"Come." Ryoma said, gently pushing Sakuno by her hand. They were inside the forest and it was night. They had been walking for a while now. On his other hand he had a small latern to illuminate the path. "We are almost there."

Sakuno could hear the sound of water when they came close to a pound with a small waterfall. There was steam covering all of it.

"What is this?" the mermaid asked, extremely surprised and curious. She kneeled down near the water and touched it. "It is warm!"

"Isn't it nice? It is a hot spring. You can swim in it if you want."

She smiled and got undress quickly, jumping inside the water. It took her a while to return to the surface.

"Ryoma! My legs, they didn't change!"

"Maybe because it is not the sea. It is sweet water."

"It feels so good." She rolled on her back and closed her eyes, floating. "Thank you, Ryoma."

He sat down near, his legs inside the pound. After a while, sakuno appeared in front of him.

"Why are you not in?"

"Ah…" he blushed a little, when seeing her naked chest and averted his eyes. "Well, you know…"

"Come here." Sakuno touched his hand. "Please."

She was so cute! How could he deny anything to her?

Sakuno waited with a small satisfied smile on her face while Ryoma took his clothes off and entered the water.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." The light of the full moon was over them and Ryoma leaned on the edge while Sakuno enjoyed the water.

After a while, Sakuno noticed Ryoma was taking his distance. She dived and disappeared for a moment, emerging in front of him. His golden eyes were so beautiful under the moonlight and she touched his face, examining his handsome expression.

"What is wrong?" the young human asked with a small smile and Sakuno caressed his face.

"Ryoma, can our mouths touch again?"

"It is called kissing. Do you like when I kiss you?"

"I do."

His lips covered hers and her arms were around his neck, bringing him closer. Everything was so new between, his heart was racing already. That kiss was deep and slow. His hands rested on her hips and Sakuno's fingers entered his dark soft hair.

A gentle breeze touched their naked skins and Ryoma felt goosebumps on his wet back at the same time Sakuno's entire body was glued to his in a possessive embrace. She was devouring him and the response of his body didn't take long to appear.

"Sa…Sakuno, wait." He said, moving his face, but she just continued to kiss his jaw line and his neck.

"Yes?" she whispered on the tight tendon of his neck and the human swallowed hard.

The mermaid was shorter than him, her head reached his shoulders perfectly and she started to kiss his collarbones, making his mind cloudy and not because of the water's steam.

She stopped and looked at him with a curious expression, before looking down.

"Ryoma, it is different. It is hard." She said, looking at a particular piece of his anatomy that was very much alert and rubbing against her smooth belly. She remembered seeing him naked before on the night he got poisoned by the mushrooms. "And so big."

Ryoma pushed her from her shoulders and was unable to look at her.

"I am sorry!"

"What happened?" she asked, concerned.

She didn't know! Of course she didn't know about such reaction of a young and healthy human next to a naked and wet beauty! Ryoma blushed profusely. How would he explain to her?! He could feel the cold sweat coming down his back, even inside the warm water.

But, he needed to talk to her about it! They were lovers now, right? It was only natural things would progress from kissing to something else. Even if he tried to avoid it, they were living in the same house, sleeping together and Sakuno had the habit of not caring about clothes so much. And she really, really liked to touch him.

"It changed because of you." It was the first sentence that came to his mind. "Because we were kissing like that."

"Is it a bad thing?" she came closer again. "Are you in pain?"

"No!" he blurted out, trying to undo her worries. "It is not a bad thing at all. It feels really good when we kiss. Actually…"

"Yes?"

"Do you remember when I talked to you about sex?"

"I do."

"Well, this happens because I…" he blushed profusely.

"Do you want to have sex with me, Ryoma?!" she asked, happily and it totally surprised him. "Really?!"

"You…you are not mad?" She cupped his face and he thought it was the most beautiful smile she had ever showed him.

"You said people who love each other have sex."

His heart turned around inside his chest with her words.

"That is right." He was able to show her a small smile.

"Can we do it now? You are ready, right?" her hand grabbed his manhood and he screamed, before jumping away from her.

"Of…of course not!" he said, placing his hands over the space between his legs, trying to cope with his pain.

"Why not?"

"It is not that simple. I don't know how it would work. Even if you are on a human body now and you seem to have all the female human parts, I… I don't know if we could even do it."

She looked so disappointed and lowered her face. Ryoma's chest hurt with her expression.

"Sakuno…" he came close and touched her chin, making her look at him. The scarlet eyes were filled with sadness. "Do not look like this, please."

"But!" she raised her face to argue and he kissed her, very gently, making her words stop.

"We will figure something out. My feelings for you do not change because of it."

"Really?"

"I promise." The golden eyes were gentle. "We have plenty of time to find out things between us."

Sakuno felt happy again and hugged him tightly. Ryoma hugged her back and kissed his forehead tenderly. He was glad she had accepted his explanation. He was still painful from her grasp and was completely useless if something happened.

There were many things he still needed to teach her about, but, for his own good and for the sake of actually being able to make love to her someday, he needed to explain to Sakuno how fragile that part of his body really was.