Seabound-SKZ

Chapter Thirteen

Chan woke up on the floor of the boat, wrapped in a blanket that he assumed the Mers had found in the boat, as he woke up more he realized the Mers were no longer with him, he panicked for a moment, what if someone from the palace had come and found them? He felt more tears pricking at his eyes before he found a small bound piece of paper, he opened it quickly and read the messy scrawl written on it;

Hello, Chan.

We had to leave early this morning for the fear that someone would come looking for us, and we did not wish that trouble upon you. We will be swimming by the east cliffs later, around noon, to search for trinkets that wash up near them if you would like to join us. Seungmin and Jeongin are worried that you will be upset that we did not wake you up when we left, but judging by how quickly you fell asleep last night, you needed the sleep. we do hope you will come swim with us later on, Felix wants me to tell you he said goodbye, I hope you have a good breakfast and a good beginning of the day. 

Signed, Changbin. 

Chan was very familiar with the east cliffs, he had swum there often as a child, the lowest parts of the cliffs were safe to jump off of and many children in the village did so on nice days, he didn't think he had anything scheduled for today, the planning for the ball mostly done and his lessons on hold for the time being. He threw the blanket from him and climbed out of the boat, jogging back up to the palace to get changed for breakfast. 

The Mers had left that morning, Changbin and Minho having to peel Jeongin and Jisung off of Chan and Felix and Hyunjin just got dumped into the water by Seungmin because they wouldn't let go, and then they were off, swimming as fast as they could towards the city so no one noticed they were missing, Jeongin complaining the whole way about how he had wanted to stay with Chan when he woke up, but the others did a decent job of hushing him, especially after Seungmin had called him 'baby' in his tired state he hadn't realized the word had slipped out until Hyunjin took it upon himself to tease him about it. they reached the city, heading towards Jeongin's house and eating quickly, Jisung clinging to Changbins back the entire time. The Mers passed the morning quickly, Felix braiding Hyunjins hair into a little ponytail in the back since his hair was getting pretty long was getting long. Seungmin, ever fascinated by human items, grabbed a small bag to collect stuff off the cliffs, and then, they were ready to go. 

The cliffs were farther than any of them remembered, taking much longer than they thought it would be to get there, but when they did they were rewarded with the sight of Chan sitting on a rock sticking out of the water, dripping and shirtless. He waved excitedly when he spotted Jeongin's red scales flashing in the water and the Mers sped up, Hyunjin reaching the rock first, Chan pulling him up and touching his tiny ponytail "This is adorable!" He said, squishing the Mers cheeks gently, "Thanks!" Felix said as he joined them on the rock "I did it!" He beamed, Chan looked much less sad then he did last night, although the prince was definitely better at hiding his emotions than any of his Mer friends were.  Chan ruffled Felix's hair "It's a really good braid," Felix glowed at the praise "maybe you could do mine one day?" Chan asked shyly and Felix nodded enthusiastically, excited at the thought of getting to play with Chan's hair "For sure!" he smiled up at the human as the other Mers finally caught up, "Hi Chan!" Jisung chirped, he had finally woken up properly and was now just as energetic as ever. 

They swam together for a while, Hyunjin soon found out how strong of a swimmer Chan was when he challenged the prince to a race and only beat him by a split second, his reward was being tackle hugged by Changbin, which he complained loudly about and said that should have been the punishment for losing. Chan patted Changbins head reassuringly when the smaller boy pouted at Hyunjin's words "I think it would be the greatest reward ever," The prince grinned at him and Bin hugged him too, briefly forgetting that humans couldn't breathe underwater and dragging Chan under with him, causing the prince to come up for air coughing and Changbin apologizing profusely and Changbin being the subject of the teasing for the next hour of swimming before Jisung and Felix were playing catch with a random stick and Jisung had swum straight into the cliff base. 

"So," Chan started, they were sitting on the rock again and the Mers all looked at him, "I wanted to thank you for listening to me last night, and I'm sorry that I cried..." immediately the Mers exploded into a chorus of 'no!'s and 'we want to help!'s and Chan shrank into himself awkwardly, Minho placed a hand on Chan's thigh "We're always here to listen to you now, we're friends, and that's not gonna change." He smiled at the prince, who blushed again, god why did he keep blushing around these Mers? the prince cursed himself inwardly and the Mers all glanced at each other, smiling at the prince's red face. they lay there for a while, Jeongin and Felix soaking in as much sun as they could. then, Seungmin's prankster self came out, and he launched himself at Chan who yelped in surprise, and then when they hit the water, Chan's automatic reflex to pull Seungmin in closer to keep him from getting hurt, their lips brushed briefly, Chan staring at the boy in shock, about to resurface and apologize before Seungmin kissed him again.