Calm waves washed up against the beach, a small breeze swirling around in the air, preventing the rays from the direct sun from feeling too hot. In the distance sea birds would sing their random songs, at one point a group of dolphins also joined in with their own melody.
Wooyoung laid flat on the sand, his hands tracing random patterns in the grains. His eyes remained closed, chest rising and falling in an even pattern. Sleep was the last thing on his mind though, this was simply him feeling an unfamiliar sense of calm. Relaxing was a foreign concept to him, even back on the ship, in his old life, while he'd have moments of not doing anything, there would always be something on his mind preventing him from being like those he'd surround himself with.
It's been a few days since Wooyoung became immune to the siren's spell, yet this was only his second time being on this beach. San, while he promised to bring Wooyoung back up here, couldn't fulfill his end of the deal due to almost nonstop storms. Now, it was just calm, like there weren't winds and rains that frightened Wooyoung, the only evidence remaining were some washed up shells on the shore, and some sticks and leaves that came from up on the hill.
Numerous clinks and clanks filled Wooyoung's ear, causing him to jump a little. He opened his right eye, the side the noise came from, lifting an arm to block out the sunlight so he could see better.
Wooyoung snorted, seeing that San had quite the pile of shells and rocks that he'd just stacked beside him. All this time, which was a while since Wooyoung's clothes and hair were completely dry, San had left him alone. He wandered the beach, obviously collecting pretty treasures.
"You proud of yourself?" Wooyoung chuckled, rather playful with his words.
"Yup." San smiled cheekily, sitting beside Wooyoung, ensuring he wasn't casting a shadow on him.
"Did you have to make so much noise?" Wooyoung muttered, keeping the same tone to his voice, only it lowered slightly.
"I was making sure you weren't dead." San returned playfully, yet those words were meaningful as well.
Wooyoung hummed, dropping his arm back to his side, closing his eye again.
Things were...complicated between the human and the siren. But they were making the best of it. Genuinely. They both were putting in the effort to understand the other as best as they could. Sure, there were still plenty of rough patches, they learned to separate though when things got heated. Or...separate as best as they could in the confinement of the cave.
To say the least, Wooyoung really appreciated being able to think for himself. He could sort out his emotions, and while they confused him, he knew his current to follow. They worked out some compromises so they would both feel more comfortable as well. There of course was still plenty to learn, but in that retrospect, they'll work it out one day at a time.
"Do you think Yunho is avoiding you?" Wooyoung posed his current thought aloud, realizing he hasn't seen the merman since the whole sea witch situation.
"Probably." San chuckled as he started sorting through all of his shells and shiny rocks, even if they'd all go back in his kelp bag when they return to the cave. "I doubt he wants to explain the whole human companion thing."
Wooyoung squinted his eyes open, craning his neck so he could look to the siren, silently watching him move hastily but with great care.
"Look at this..." San said in excitement, keeping his voice level as to not startle his human. He turned to the side, surprised to see Wooyoung already looking at him. Still, he presented a beautiful shell in perfect condition, the outside dusted white, while the shiny interior seemed to be some shade of purple. "I don't find many like this around here. But they're my favorite."
Wooyoung sat up with a humph, reaching out, leaving his palm up. San dropped the seashell into his hand, allowing him to hold and observe it closer. Indeed, Wooyoung could understand how this could be one of the siren's favorites, the shimmer and color of the inner shell certainly seemed unique.
"It's pretty." Wooyoung muttered, returning the shell to San's hand, looking up to his eyes, finding that he was already being stared at. "What?"
"Nothing." San lowered his eyes, smiling down at the shell, but Wooyoung could just tell by the manner of it that he was smiling at his thoughts instead.
Wooyoung sighed, shaking his head. His eyes found the horizon, looking out ahead at the subtle waves, watching the water shimmer under the sun.
"Can we stay out until dark?" Wooyoung asked, not expecting an answer to work in his favor, but he hoped.
"So you can look at the stars?" San said in return, understanding and quite frankly he sounded content. His smile evident in his words. "I was already assuming that was what was happening."
Wooyoung looked down, unable to hide the smile that formed on his chapped lips. On the way his eyes caught sight of his wrapped leg. The configment was annoying by this point, very, very itchy both from what was used to cover his wounds, and the healing wounds themselves. That was a good sign though, that he was healing. Pain didn't shoot up his entire leg anymore when he moved it, which was even better. He walked with a limp, but that wasn't much of a bother to him.
"There's a reason I brought so much of your food." San taunted, smirking when Wooyoung looked over his shoulder, their eyes holding contact. "You should eat by the way."
Wooyoung hummed, shaking his head with his own smirk on his features. He started moving, awkwardly getting himself to stand on his two feet.
"I'd rather go explore." Wooyoung raised his brows momentarily, looking away from the siren to the main hill on the island. He was sure there wasn't much to explore, the island seemed small just from the side of the beach and the clifface in the direction the underwater cave would be in.
San's eyes widened, scrambling to his feet to follow after Wooyoung who simply started walking away. He abandoned all of his gathered treasures, assuming he'll go back for them later. And if not, then that was fine. He'd lose all of his other treasures if it meant following the most precious of them all.
The ground beneath Wooyoung's feet shifted from sand to grass, combining in some areas but for the most part remaining separate. It felt nice to have solid, dirt ground underneath him, the sensation different from sand, and most certainly different to the rocks in the cave.
Tall grasses brushed around the two sets of legs, small unnoticeable bugs jumping from some of the blades, trying to escape death. The climb definitely wasn't as bad as Wooyoung thought it would be on his leg, which made him happy, especially when he could see the view from the top.
A small grotto of trees created patches of much appreciated shade. Some of them contained fruit hanging from the branches, as of now going unnoticed, just like the rotten fruit that splattered on the ground.
Wooyoung was focused on the ocean from this vantage point. He spun around a few times, trying to fill in the blanks from where the trees blocked his vision. He couldn't help but feel so alone, distressed when no matter where he looked, he couldn't spot any kind of ships. In the far distance there seemed to be some land, but he wasn't sure if that was his eyes playing tricks on him or not, especially since what he spotted was so close to the horizon.
The distress and sense of panic was clear on Wooyoung's face as he continued to look around. San frowned, having watched his human the entire time.
"When your leg heals, I can bring you to the human settlement."
"Are you being serious?" Wooyoung snapped his head in San's direction, eyes wide as he stared at the siren.
San hummed, nodding his head. While his words were said in complete seriousness, his body language said otherwise. He was clearly hesitant of the idea, nervous, fidgety, though his eyes showed great sincerity.
"I know it's important for you to...interact with other humans. It's just...well we'd need some ground rules I guess." San laughed nervously, trying to alleviate the tension he was creating. "I'm...we agreed to be honest with one another...so yeah, that idea scares me."
Wooyoung's brows furrowed. "Why does that scare you?"
"I don't want to lose you." San smiled sadly when he said that, eyes sparkling in the sunlight that poked through the trees. "I fear returning you to such place will...yeah, mean I can't be with you...or something."
Wooyoung swallowed heavily. Slowly, a small smile emerged on his features. He lifted his arm, showcasing the diamond embedded in it, a part of his skin.
"You aren't going to lose me." Those words came out in a meek whisper, but Wooyoung was sure he meant them. "I may have this, but...that doesn't stop me from wanting to be with you."
Hearing those words, San's smile became genuinely happy, reaching up to his eyes, forming enchanting crescents.
"Really?" San asked, while happy there was clearly still some skepticism.
Wooyoung hummed, nodding his head once. "I've grown...strangely fond of you. I still don't forgive you, but I mean I've said it already, I'm willing to move on with you."
There were a few moments of silence, the two looking to one another in that time. the wind picked up, rustling the trees and messing up their hair.
"Well I'm not really sure how we would get you to the human settlement." San mused, looking around a few times as if he were trying to orientate himself. "My directions are all weird up here...but I know for a fact it's a long journey for me in the ocean. I could hold you of course, but after a while that's going to get tiring for me. Especially since I can't use my tail in full motion because of your legs. It's not like having you on my back would be any different either."
Wooyoung suddenly groaned, stepping backwards to press into a nearby tree. He pressed his head against the bark, closing his eyes tight as a huge realization dawned on him.
"I don't even know if it would be safe to go there." Wooyoung said with a lowered voice, clearly upset.
"Why not?" San questioned tilting his head to the side, approaching his human to stand before him. "Yunho and I have been there plenty of times, and it's fine."
"I'm a pirate." Wooyoung opened his eyes, staring straight into the siren's. "There's a big chance this place will in some way know of the bounty on my head, especially if it's a port town."
"Well we would just be careful then." San shrugged his shoulders, clearly not understanding the severity of what Wooyoung was trying to get across. It was human customs after all, why would he know or understand them? "There's hundreds, if not thousands of pirates, there's no way you could be recognized, especially if you've never been there before."
Wooyoung sighed, reaching a hand up to rub his eye, then run down the side of his face. He readjusted slightly, tilting his head upward with the original intent to just space out, but that quickly changed with a sharp gasp.
Confused, San looked upward to see what Wooyoung was looking at, only to see the normal looking surface trees with strange red orbs hanging from it. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary.
"What?" San asked lightly, brows furrowed again as he watched Wooyoung reach upward, pulling one of the imperfect red orbs from the tree.
Wooyoung reached up to grab another, inspecting them both closely, before handing one to San.
"I didn't realize these were apple trees." Wooyoung explained, a hint of excitement in his tired voice.
"Apple trees?" San repeated, the first word sounding foreign to his voice.
"Ah, yeah. This is an apple." Wooyoung motioned to what he and San were both holding, smiling at the clear confusion on the siren's features. "It's surface fruit, you eat it."
San held up the apple, inspecting it closely. He titled his head to the side, eyes shifting from the apple to his human, who was still watching him with an endearing smile.
"Do I just...bite into it?" San questioned softly, eyes trailing back down to the fruit, finding it strange to call it that since it looked nothing like the fruit he was used to. It was so tiny, and the fact that it was only one color was throwing him off.
Wooyoung hummed approvingly, taking that moment to bite into his own apple to prove how it was done.
Hesitantly, San raised the apple to his lips, biting into it in the same manner that Wooyoung did. Almost immediately his features contorted, initially he seemed highly taken aback, almost as if it were sour, but after chewing and swallowing he seemed quite pleased.
Wooyoung chuckled at the way San seemed to observe the fruit even further after taking a bite out of it. With his other hand the siren peeled away at some of the skin, eyes widening as it came off.
Wooyoung hummed. "Yeah, some people like it better without the skin. I personally don't care, but if you only want the inside, I can probably peel it with a sharp rock or something. Usually I'd use a knife, but it's not like I have one of those right now. And using your fingernail like that will just take forever."
"It's very different, but I think I like it." San said softly, looking up to meet Wooyoung's gaze again. Then his gaze continued lifting upward, looking around at all the different apples in the tree. "To think there was food for you here all along...I just didn't know it."
Wooyoung snorted, shaking his head. "It's fine, eating too many apples would probably kill my stomach anyway."
San's features formed into a great sense of worry upon hearing that, wide eyes lingering on Wooyoung, awaiting an explanation. So with a sigh, Wooyoung explained what he meant, how eating too many at once just wasn't a pleasant experience. He further explained that there were different types of apples, each with their own colors to go along with it. San seemed very fascinated by the information, nodding along in appropriate places.
After the whole apple talk, the two decided to sit down in the shade of the trees. Wooyoung continued to explain some random things here and there, only because San was asking about those topics. When it got to be later in the afternoon, Wooyoung accidentally fell asleep.
San watched Wooyoung closely from his spot, ensuring he was still breathing properly and such. So when Wooyoung's head started lolling to the side, he quickly scrambled to his feet, reaching out to gently press his human's head back into the position it was originally in. Except Wooyoung's head didn't seem to stay in place anymore, his features furrowed in a familiar way, telling San he was having a bad dream.
Carefully, San sat beside his precious human, very gently maneuvering his head so it rested on his shoulder. It was a little awkward, since San couldn't press his back against the tree stump and still provide comfort for Wooyoung, but it was worth it in his eyes. Especially when Wooyoung's features relaxed, hardly pressing a bit further into San's shoulder.
Wooyoung awoke to near complete darkness. It startled him, to the point he raised his hands to rub at his eyes, finding that he was okay, and his eyes were open with nothing covering them.
"Are you awake?" The siren's gentle voice filled Wooyoung's ears, a second later a hand enclosed one side of his face.
"Yeah." Wooyoung answered, sounding kind of raspy, forcing him to clear his throat after he spoke.
After having a moment to wake up, Wooyoung's heart sped up, realizing what time it was. He looked up, seeing the dark sky through the tree's, faint speckled dots filling the darkness.
Wooyoung got up onto his feet, the siren following after him with great urgency. Still being consciously careful, Wooyoung made his way out from under the coverage of the trees, looking up into the night sky, a smile already growing on his lips.
All of the stars he loved filled his vision, absolutely no light getting in the way of their beauty. Not even the moon, being nowhere in the sky in any direction. Wooyoung didn't even realize his feet were still moving until he slipped, thinking he was going to crash hard into the ground. Only he was caught under his arm, looking to San in an apologetic panic.
"Silly human." San chuckled, shaking his head. Slowly he helped lower Wooyoung to the ground, where they both laid down, staring up at the stars.
Hearing the subtle waves crashing against the beach below, Wooyoung felt at peace, staring at the same sky he's always loved. His mind worked on and on though, finding and naming all of the constellations he's learned over the years.
At some point he couldn't keep the information to himself anymore. Without being prompted, Wooyoung began pointing out all of the stars and the patterns they made. He explained some of their significance, how some of them helped with finding certain directions at night, and any other facts he could think of in the moment.
San would hum and make other sounds of acknowledgment whenever it would be expected, but he wasn't looking at the stars, he was looking at someone much more beautiful. He could never have the stars, but he did have Wooyoung.
"I'm so glad it's such a clear night." Wooyoung breathed out, the smile evident in his voice. He felt inclined to look to his right, just barely seeing San's head face upward, so fast he wasn't sure if he saw that right.
"Me too." San said in a similar manner, now allowing his vision to dance across each of the shiny dots in the sky. "I've never looked at the stars like this before."
"Really?" Wooyoung questioned, surprised to hear that. His eyes didn't look away from San, not even when the siren looked to him. If anything, it made him feel even more inclined to not look away. He wasn't under a spell, yet he still found himself captivated by San's beauty.
"Yeah, I don't ever really look up." San chuckled to himself, moving an arm behind his head, using it as a pillow. "It's pretty, but I have other prettier things to look at."
The way San's eyes slightly narrowed into crescents as he said that last sentence did something to Wooyoung. His ears began burning, making him thankful that it was too dark to be able to tell such a difference.
Clearing his throat, Wooyoung looked back up at the stars. Oddly enough this didn't make him miss being on the ship. He couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing, so he tried to not think about it too deeply.
Hours went by, listening to the calming waves, the gusts of wind forcing its way through the trees, the inhale and exhale coming from each other, confirming that they weren't alone. Wooyoung's stomach made a noise, begging for food, gaining the siren's concern.
With a heavy sigh, Wooyoung agreed to go back to the cave, even if San brought some jars of food up here. The siren was clearly tired, and just as clearly didn't like sleeping out of the confinement of the cave. Wooyoung was told that San was like this even in the deep ocean, unable to sleep if he wasn't in his small, cramped home.
The first thing the siren did upon returning to the cave, well technically second thing since he had to drag Wooyoung out of the water, was scratch around at all of the walls, making the darkness disappear with the bioluminescent light. He didn't do too much, since they would be sleeping soon.
Wooyoung knew he was being watched as he ate a random assortment of foods from the jars, rolling his eyes to himself. The second he was done, San got into his personal space, resting his head on Wooyoung's shoulder.
"What?" Wooyoung's sassy voice bounced around the walls of the cave.
"Can I hold you?" San's lowered voice did something else to Wooyoung, proving in that exact moment he didn't need to be under San's spell to find him alluring. He couldn't stop his ears from burning, even with the innocent request. San seemed to take note of this, chuckling. "What just ran through your head, my precious?"
"Nothing ran through my head." Wooyoung snapped a bit too fast, turning his head to the side so he could look at San, who kept his head remaining on Wooyoung's shoulder, glancing up with just his eyes.
"Are you sure?" San chuckled again, reaching up to poke the opposite side of Wooyoung's cheek. "Your face is red and you stiffened up."
"Do you want to hug or not? Cause you're quickly losing that privilege." Wooyoung retorted, shaking the siren off of him, hoping to crawl away but his waist was caught, seconds later he fell backwards from how hard he was pulled. "San!"
"What?" The siren acted all innocent, giving Wooyoung an inescapable back hug. "It's time to sleep."
"I hate you." Wooyoung muttered under his breath, squeaking when he was again pulled and manipulated flat onto the ground, still in the arms of the siren.
"I doubt that my little human." San whispered directly into Wooyoung's ear before nuzzling his face into the back of his neck.
Wooyoung hated how San was right. He really hated how he didn't despise the siren. He hated how San made him feel. He really hated how safe he felt in the siren's arms. He hated that he couldn't entirely forgive San. But he hated even more how he could forgive the siren.