once more to see you {rafayel x reader}

Oneshot

Rafayel was always loved.

Perhaps it was destiny, a predetermined fate that was already written by the stars. The universe had decided that Rafayel is to be loved, and it was never anyone's choice or intention. They simply loved, without control and without respite. Such was the merfolk's fate, to love until the day of their death.

Rafayel was always loved. But what is "love" without love? What is love when it is control?

His happiness would bring about peace. His sadness, or worse, his anger brought distress. Rafayel was an idol to the merfolk, to the ocean. It was always meant to be.

Why, then, did it feel so awfully violent?

"Young sir, I don't understand why you must do this," said Ethan with an exasperated breath. He's a servant to the merfolk's royals, but right now acts as the personal caretaker of a twelve-year-old Rafayel.

Currently, he was going after Rafayel as the young prince swam in vain towards the edges of Lemuria.

"Leave me alone, why doesn't anyone ever let me be alone-"

The servant finally managed to catch up to the speedy little prince, catching him by the tail and lifting him up with a gentle grip. Rafayel dangles, fighting and bashing his tail around uselessly. After a few seconds of futility, Rafayel huffs.

"I'm a prince, you can't treat me like this!" little Rafayel barked and yapped.

"Do you promise to not fight me anymore?"

Rafayel huffed again.

"Young sir-" Ethan tried.

"Just put me down," Rafayel sighed, an embarrassed flush on his face both from the futile effort and from being treated like a petulant child. Which, no matter how you approached the situation, he was definitely being one.

The servant let him down, grabbing at Rafayel's wrist and pulling him back towards the castle's gates. "Why must you insist on defying the court? They have nothing but love for you."

"Love?" Rafayel almost growled in his angst. "They don't know anything about love."

"And a twelve-year-old does?" the servant laughs.

"I know enough to know it's not love," Rafayel counters back. "They love me," he does air-quotes on the word, "But no one even likes me."

Ethan thinks to himself that this phase will subside and Rafayel will come to appreciate the affection he is shown by the royal court. "You are loved, Rafayel. The court loves you. The people love you. The ocean absolutely loves you."

Rafayel rolls his eyes and says nothing, pulls on his wrist but gives up on trying to escape his caretaker's grip.

"The ocean would give everything for you," the servant continues to lecture. "You are loved by our holy god, the ocean. Does the devotion of a god not suffice to you?"

"You don't understand," Rafayel mumbles. "No one does. No one likes me."

"But they all love you," the servant tries.

"But they don't like me." Rafayel repeats. "They don't even know me."

The gates finally come up, and the servant signals to a guard to open the entryway so they may come in. Once they're inside, Ethan lets Rafayel go and stares at him pointedly.

"The ocean likes you," the servant says, like a mantra, like it's part of a prayer that Rafayel has forgotten. "The ocean knows you."

Rafayel ignores him. His eyes prickle with heat as he swims, the feeling of tears forming only increasing his frustration. Why can't he just be understood?