Nyx || ATEEZ OT8

3| Two fishes' fall for a fine man

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 1,400 words

𝐉𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐡𝐨

San never shut up about every little thing that went through his head, in fact, was his ranting actually starting to get to the point where he probably couldn't shut up again. And it was embarrassing to say it at least. Especially because it had been the reason why their conveyance had thrown them out of the carriage, leaving them both to walk for kilometers along a straight path, all alone. And that was a thing far out of their nature, now that they both had spent most of their lives underwater as fishes do. Suddenly having to walk on land, with two legs and no water around them was pure torture. This was like a humorless joke to him.

And Jongho gave San all the blame.

Jongho's had his eyes turned away from the other, not sparing him a single sight as his legs, still wobbly, led him along the trail. At least it had shut San up.

"Jongho-ya, I told you I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you angry or to have us walk the way to the castle or anything!" San whined, his hands grabbing around the siren's coat as he pleaded for forgiveness that Jongho didn't foresee him getting for a long time.

Jongho swatted his clamped hands away from his clothes as he told him the next words, "You better pray to the gods of weather for not letting it start raining in just a bit because my help will not be there."

And the other prince slowly lifted his head to stare up into the sky there had turned heavy and grey in a matter of no time. Jongho didn't react when San suddenly screeched in terror and stumbled forward in a jumbled run.

"It's your own fault if you suddenly turn all fishy here! You cannot blame me," yelled the siren prince after him as he watched how San continued his pace in front of him.

He sighed annoyed, but still more satisfied than before, "What an imp."

Jongho had known San for all the time he had lived, and they called themselves something like 'cousins' even though they were no close family. They came from two different kingdoms, one more tattered than the other - but that didn't change the close relations their parents held for business. San was the heir to the greatest kingdom in the ocean that the merpeople kept a special pride in, where else he only was the descendant of a royal bloodline with no realm. Generally preferred sirens to stay for themselves compared to how the merpeople were social folk which was why Jongho would never earn a throne from his parents. However, that didn't stop his family from using their titles as royal-blooded sirens to make deals with the merpeople to their advantage.

Sirens were cunning creatures after all.

It wasn't long before San had disappeared from his sight. Normally, wouldn't he care about where San was or what he undertook, but Jongho also knew that they both were out of their true element on land, which meant that if someone wanted to hurt them, they easily could do so. And San just... had the habit of not thinking an extra time before doing it. He wasn't always being careful.

When suddenly a drop of water landed in his hair, he had to suppress the need he felt to shift. Jongho pursed his lips as he reminded himself of who to blame in this situation.

"I will tear that fucking fish to pieces when I get my hands on him..." he growled as he pushed forward into a run where the path turned.

_____

Jongho had to keep himself from bursting into unstoppable laughter when he finally caught sight of the merman laying flat on his stomach in the middle of the trail as the water rinsed down his body and onto the ground. His lungs were burning in the most uncomfortable way as he breathed the air as he had never done before, but the only thing that mattered at that moment was seeing San suffering under the heavy drops of his best element as he practically drowned. The prince's clothes were ripped and instead of his rather famous two human legs was now a scaly tail there was not made for trail walks. The merman was letting out sobs in defeat of his wrongdoings and Jongho saw the regret in his eyes. He freaking relished this.

Jongho crouched down beside the other, placing his hand on San's shoulder as he sang, "What did I say~"

The merman twisted his upper body around as he hissed out loudly at him, showing off sharp teeth and piercing blue-grey eyes as the rainwater washed down over his face in huge quantities.

"Stay away from me you bloody betrayer, this wasn't only my fault!"

And so, Jongho removed his hand and wrung his mouth down as he angled his head, "Alright, here I actually thought of helping you for a hot moment, but I guess you better figure that out yourself."

There didn't pass more than a quarter of a second before San realized what he just had said, but Jongho was already leaving him again. And the prince whose shoulders soon would carry the weight of a whole kingdom pushed himself forward with the use of his arms, tail writhing uselessly around in the mud.

"No, wait Jongho! I- I- you must help me! How else am I supposed to arrive at the castle?! It could possibly rain for days!" San yelled at the other water-creature, "Fuck.. please, I know that this is all my fault!! I fucked up, okay?"

Jongho squeezed his eyes shut as his legs suddenly stopped moving. Despite how much he wanted to, he also was aware that he just couldn't leave San out here alone. The boy was barely capable of taking care of himself in the water, so how could he ever do that on land?

Jongho turned on his feet and looked down at the outcome of San, who was trying so hard to lift himself up and move forward. San was a lost cause without him for sure.

The siren prince didn't look the other in the eyes when he came over and placed an arm around his back and under his tail before lifting him up from the ground and into his arms.

"I don't want to hear a word more," he told him strictly and this time, San listened to that advice.

Until he didn't.

"I should kiss you now, shouldn't I?"

His words had Jongho let go of all his body weight and San's arms flung around the siren's neck to keep himself from falling down, again.

"No, no Jongho! I'm sorry, I won't say anything more."

And the rest of their walk was silent. Jongho's arms were starting to hurt from carrying San, and he couldn't help the loud sigh from escaping his lips when he finally saw the castle from behind the trees in the distance. The idea of soon being free from San was what drove him the last way to the grand building.

A black car passed them when they arrived so close to the stairs that led up to the door. Jongho's shoes splashed through the number of puddles there laid on the paved ground. When the car stopped in front of the stairs, Jongho glanced through the heavy rain over at the man stepping out, and that made him lose his breath. He was young, clothed neatly, a different beautiful crown resting in his brown-red wild locks of hair, and so ridiculously attractive from the way he simply just moved around to look at him and San.

"Gosh, he's hot," San exclaimed, and yes, he was so exceedingly very much hot.

Making such a big impression on Jongho that he slipped, his own tail soon leaving both him and San to fall with the rain down onto the ground as more water splashed around them, like two damned fish on land.

"Auch, Jongho! What the hell?"

The siren was still staring at the prince who had dropped all his items, now running in their direction. His breath was caught in his throat as this good-looking man came down to help them. Jongho was staring, and staring harder for every second that passed, suddenly his mind was running around with only one thought that shouted at him he was the perfect prey.

"Hey, are you okay? That fall looked pretty bad."

Jongho followed the prince's eyes and how they slid over them both until they finally reached his eyes. And Jongho lost himself in the depths.

"My name's Yunho, and yours?"

♛