Oceanspray

Chapter Seven

A/N: Wah~! This chapter was just so cute at the end. I can't even. Guys. Don't let me write during my time of the month. This is the kind of sappy crap you will get.

Chapter song: Can't Control Myself (Candyland Remix) by Krewella.

Chapter Seven

Adrian

I stared at Neros in confusion.

“What does that mean?”

He blinked at me. “What does what mean?”

“Say es… Something or other.” I rubbed my thumb over the back of his now wet hand. “You just said it.”

His face started to flush again. “S’ es aphero.” He averted his eyes in embarrassment. “I didn’t mean to say it. I swear, I thought it only.”

“No, I definitely heard it,” I argued. I smiled gently. “You can tell me. Besides, it sounds beautiful.”

It was too. The language he spoke it made his strange accent even heavier. The r’s rolling off in sensual purrs, and the s’s sounded like carefully places hisses. I knew that the goosebumps I had on my skin weren’t from the cool evening breeze.

He laid his head down on his arms while still holding my hand, emerald eyes holding me captive. “Can we not talk about it?”

“Nope. If you’re going to speak in a different language, you should at least explain it so I can understand too. It’s not fair. It’s like if I spoke in Chinese to you.”

“What is Chinese?”

I stifled a smile. “It’s another language. From what I’ve heard of it, it’s very complicated.”

He frowned at me, lower lip jutting out ever so slightly, and I nearly lost it. Neros was pouting at me. This seemingly stoic man who followed my every step throughout the day and took nothing from nobody, not even Melissa's ridiculous behaviour, was pouting.

“Is it embarrassing?”

He nodded. “For me, yes, very much.”

I sighed; knowing that I wasn’t going to get anything out of him right now, I changed the topic. The water lapped at my toes and washed over the lower parts of Neros’ tail.

“I guess we can’t really avoid the topic of what you are forever, can we?” I bit my lip, chewing one corner of it.

“I suppose not,” he agreed. “What would you like to know? I’m sure you’re filled with curiosity.”

“What exactly are you? I mean, merman seems a bit out there.”

He let out a short mirthless laugh. “In layman’s terms, that’s exactly what I am. I’m a creature of the sea, born half-man, half-fish. We even have special songs to enchant people. We don’t use them often though. Usually, we use them in times of dire need, like if someone is attacking us.”

“How do you stay hidden from people so well?”

He smirked at that. “We camouflage very well, don’t we? If you were to see our tails accidentally flip out of the water, you would mostly likely think that it was a stray wave. Besides, we tend to avoid humans when in our natural form. Something I never really understood. We are derived from humans.”

I furrowed my brows at that. He was absentmindedly rubbing my hands, trailing his fingers to my wrist and back down to the tips of my fingers, shivers coursing up my back from his gentle touches. “Derived from humans? What do you mean?”