Under The Sea

Chapter Nineteen - What Is This?

Samuel grew up in a pragmatic household all his life. To the King and Queen of Meridian, magic was nonsense created to fool the minds of the gullible by the deceitful. They had taught Samuel to see through the farce, identify when someone was attempting to trick him and put an end to the scheme. It was simple once he had accepted that magic didn't exist.

The past few weeks, however, have thrown a wrench in everything he has ever believed as he came face-to-face with a whole species of merpeople and even became one himself. Yet, despite everything that has occurred, his mind has continued to refuse the idea that magic exists. But as he lay on the smooth slab in the middle of the reef Axel's mother had cultivated, with Axel's body push against him as their lips danced in a flurry of heat, his defenses failed. In Samuel's mind, a single conclusion was drawn: magic is real... and this is what it's like.

Samuel knew that in that moment a void that had haunted him for so long had filled and, as they were forced to separate upon their return into the palace, he felt inexplicably empty.

"Don't go," Samuel whispered as the large doors closed behind them, reaching out to pull Axel back to him and connecting their foreheads.

"You make it sound as if I want to," Axel returned, their eyes locked.

"Don't you?"

"No," Axel breathed, his hands warm against Samuel's chest before he pushes off, "but we have to, or else they'll come looking for us."

"So let them," Samuel calls after him, "I don't want to be away from you."

"Stop being dramatic," Axel calls back, smirking at Samuel's insistence, but refusing to allow him the satisfaction of knowing that.

After that evening, Samuel believed all the stories and fantasies of love that he had heard his whole life. He longed for every moment to be with Axel, yet found himself occupied and unable to do so. When he had first arrived, Axel's lie had seemed the perfect explanation for his presence, yet neither of them could have anticipated how seriously Clara would take his staying with them.

Samuel understood her desire to build relationships with other kingdoms. He himself would do the same if he were in her position. Clara has been nothing but kind and welcoming since his arrival, and in turn, he has done nothing but deceive her. So he caved and met with her whenever she invited him to lunch or offered to show him around as they debated politics. Somehow, with the knowledge he had been gaining during his time in Latistan, Samuel passed for a convincing merman.

Yet, at every moment of each day, he found his thoughts drifting back to Axel. HIs desire to be with him, to hold him, caress his skin, feel his body against his, taste his lips. So they made a plan. Every night, after the castle had turned in for the day, they would pretend to go to bed and use the vents to sneak into the sitting room. There they would spend hours together, content to be in the other's company.

The sitting room, plain and average compared to the other rooms Samuel had seen or visited in the palace and around Latistan, became his favorite place in the Kingdom. For no other reason than that it was where he could spend time with Axel, just the two of them, without fear of being caught or interrupted. It was, as Samuel concluded, the most magical place he had ever known.

As the days passed, Samuel seemed to fall into a rhythm as he grew accustomed to living in Latistan. He would wake up in the morning to be pampered by the servants, spend most of his afternoons with Axel - or Clara when she insisted, and then sneak into the sitting room and spend as much time holding Axel as the sun would permit. Everything seemed as close to perfect as Samuel could imagine it being, and slowly he learned more about Axel as they spent the late nights together.