The Merman and the Prince

Chapter 14

Kuroko's Pov

The weeks passed by peacefully and I found myself loving being on the ship and sailing over the waves. Part of me still feared the ocean and its depths. It had always amazed Kagami. A merman who was afraid of water. It was supposed to be a home for me but all I could see was my mothers' hands slipping out of mine and her voice as she screamed my name as the water pulled us under.

True to my prediction, it was hard for Akashi and I to cool our heads. Our nights were spent cuddling up to each other, the nights were getting cold with the arrival of winter just around the corner. It kept us warm but it also put us in dangerous territory. He had spoken to me one night after that morning with the coffee and said that he didn't want our first time, my first time to be on the ship. Part of me was disappointed but I had to agree. Already I had the others teasing me for the marks on my neck that Akashi seemed to add to every night. If they heard us, they would tease me for weeks. So we decided to wait but it got harder to stay true to our word. Just the touch of his hand sent lighting shooting through my body. I always felt his eyes on me which didn't help. There was one night, three weeks into our journey when we had both had too much rum after dinner and things got hot and heavy in our cabin. We were both stripped down to our underwear when a knocking on the door brought us back to our senses as Akashi took over for Midorima and I poured a bucket of cold water over my head. So we passed the remaining couple of days trying to avoid being alone with each other and I had taken up my bed in the galley to help.

I walked up onto deck and was surprised to see we were sailing through foggy waters. I walked over to the helm where Akashi and Midorima were both staring into the distance, calling up to Takao in the crow's nest who was obviously guiding them as at his shout Akashi changed our direction slightly.

"When did we encounter fog? Isn't it mid-morning?"

I asked, framing my eyes and looking up for the blot of brightness in the fog that was the sun. Aomine walked over and put his arms around my shoulder, a huge smile on his face.

"We are near Teiko. If we can beat the tide in, we will be there by this afternoon."

"We are almost home."

I turned to see Kise leaning over the railing, facing the front of the boat and content smile on his face. This was a big difference I had noted over the past week as we drew closer to Teiko is that Kise seemed to calm down and act his age. He no longer fought with Aomine over little things and he didn't hang off me like he had done for the first half of our travels. When I had asked Aomine about it he had simply smiled knowingly and said it was because we were going home. That had been the only explanations I had gotten so I decided I would find out when we got there. Now he was peering through the fog, anxiously waiting the time when we would see his home island. Seeing him Akashi muttered a small curse.

"I completely forgot. Ryota, the Kaijo isn't there."

He turned around to face us and gave us a sad smile.

"I know. I saw it in the dock at skull isle. They will probably be only a few days behind us, I can wait."

He turned back to looking at the sea and I raised an eye brow, turning to the captain and his first mate in surprise. This was a different Kise I had gotten to know. They were also shaking their heads.

"It amazes me how much he changes around Yuki."

"Who's Yuki?"

"You will find out soon enough. Kise is a bit of an odd one. A huge flirt and likes to play around a little too much however Yuki is the only one who is able to bring out this calm and responsible side to him. I remember when we were younger Kise was out doing his normal tomfoolery and knocked over a stall of beads. Yuki simply hit him over the head and told him to pick them all up or they would never talk again and Kise did. Took him all day and into the night but he picked up every bead that was scattered around."