↳ trail

　　　↳ ᴇɴᴅ ꜱᴇᴀꜱᴏɴ ᴏɴᴇ. ↰

@☬　Fang Geming ↳ ᴀᴜɢᴜsᴛ 11, 2051
↳ ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ: empty crown - yas

Amine's laugh was bitter, not directed at Fang but at whatever power had decided it was best to take his sister away from him. He didn't want to say aloud that he was sure someone knew, that even in death Beau wouldn't have just disappeared from him—didn't want to say it because it would just make him look insane. Unhinged. Crazy with grief. And—perhaps he was those things, but the last thing he needed was for someone to make a remark about it—look at what he had lost, how his well-laid plan had come to fruition and then—

And then this.

Amine's shoulders shook, a silent sob forced out of his throat. "Do you think I don't know that? Fang, please, I'm not an idiot, I'm not as /stupid/ as everyone thought I was." He dug his fingers into his arms, nails a dull sensation through the sleeves of the shirt he was wearing. "I know—I know she's not coming back—, I know that better than anyone else does, she would have found a way to tell me if she was still alive—I wouldn't have this goddamn hole in my chest if she was alive—I just want to know /where she is/." An empty casket would give neither of them closure—Amine, himself, would never have closure, not truly—not until the day they put him in the ground in his own casket. "I want to know who killed my sister, but most of all, I just want to know where she ing is. I don't want her to be some rotting ing corpse eaten by carrion birds—I don't care, I don't care if Mortem stops looking but I never will because she's my sister—even if all I can find is just a skeleton, I need to find Beau. I need to find /Beau/."

The young leader of Mortem swayed, unsteady and worn down, and shook his head. "I'm not asking you to come back to Mortem. Everyone else from the squad is gone. There's no point in me asking you to come back, you'll probably die there anyway and—for what it's worth—I wouldn't ask you to come back knowing full well someone might stick a knife in your back for having a boyfriend that isn't human, or for being from Squad 719. I don't know if I can even control Mortem—Beau was trained for it, not me." There was too much raw honesty in his words—the vulnerability made Amine's stomach hurt. Was it guilt? Amine had never felt guilt, it probably wasn't guilt. "I'm not asking anyone to come back. What you and Ailell did was smart. Duck out in the middle of the chaos and almost no one will notice that you left." Beau and Amine would have never been able to do something like that. Their lives had been tied to Mortem from birth. "But, please—if you do hear anything—please let me know."

@☠　Amine Reivana The grip on the knife loosened, and his fingers slipped away. He didn’t think Amine was going to hurt him. The poor kid just wanted to know where his sister was. Fang wanted to help - but he didn’t have that information. Hell, he didn’t even have the information on where Lilith was, and between Lilith and Beau, he knew the vampire specialist better. Both of them were probably dead, along with so many of the squad. Maybe that was why he questioned if it was a family anymore - everyone was dead. If only they had all of the bodies, they could say they were entirely dead and buried. He’d hoped, at the very least that they’d found bodies, then they could have some kind of proper send off. Maybe at some point they’d be found.

Fang winced, drawing back a little when the shorter man raised his voice. He couldn’t imagine what it was Amine was going through. He couldn’t even begin to. Having never had a real family, someone within that family he was so very close to, he couldn’t understand the feeling of losing someone that close. “I’m sorry Amine, really. I haven’t heard anything about anyone seeing her,” Fang murmured. His voice softened some, as though he was trying to soothe a child that had lost it’s parent. Amine did seem quite lost, he thought.

The fae man shook his head, drawing a strong breath in. He wished he’d heard something. Found some kind of rumour, that he could at least give the grieving twin some kind of hope. “I’m sorry Amine - I really am. I wish I could do something to help. He scratched the back of his neck, ruffling the hair on his nape as he shifted between two feet uncomfortably. Fang was not great at comforting people. Amine wasn’t going to want a hug or a chocolate bar or something right now, he could tell. “I didn’t see her myself while we were all fighting. I didn’t see her afterwards, didn’t hear anyone talking about where she might’ve gone. So I’m sorry but - I definitely think she’s gone.”

He wanted to give hope, but it was wrong to give false hope, right? Maybe the first step to recovery was starting the stages of grief- Fang had gone through them himself, and was just getting to the final one. He could accept that they were gone. They wouldn’t be coming back - Lian did, thank the gods, but someone would be saying something if there were hundreds of vengeful ghosts starting to pop up all over the city. And.. they wouldn’t stay away. They wouldn’t stay out of contact for so long.

“I’m not going back to Mortem, Amine, but if I find anything, or hear anything, you’ll be the first guy I get in contact with, okay?”

@☬　Fang Geming ↳ ᴀᴜɢᴜsᴛ 11, 2051
↳ ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ: exhale - graves

/I don't know./

Amine wanted to scream. How could Fang not know? Was he supposed to believe that no one, no one in all of Mortem, knew what had happened to his sister? No one knew where she had gone? How could it be possible that his sister had vanished, seemingly into thin air? Beau Reivana, of all members of Mortem—how could she be gone without a trace? His eyes burned, but Amine blinked furiously, unwilling to cry again, to show more emotion—/real/ emotion, not that which he had become so skilled at faking for the benefit of other members of Mortem, whether in Paris or here on the island.

"How can you not know," he whispered, and hated how fragile it came out. How fractured and brittle his words were, like delicate shards of glass. That's what he felt like—glass shards that were scattered on the floor and had yet to be swept up and thrown out. "How can no one know?!" The outburst was loud, cutting through the quiet of the forest. Amine's voice cracked in the middle, cracked like his stability. "Not you, not Ailell, /no one/! They can tell me that Colette died in the fire but they can't tell me where my /sister/ is!" His chest was heaving, fists clenched tight enough that he could feel nails digging into flesh, eyes blazing with exhausted fury.

He was—he was so tired—

He couldn't rest until he knew what had happened to her.

"Please," Amine breathed, reaching up to numbly wipe tears from his cheeks. "Please don't tell me you don't know, I—I have no one else to turn to." He'd set himself up that way. It was always supposed to be just the two of them—Amine and Beau against the world. Beau as the head of Mortem, Amine as her most trusted. She was the only person he trusted, the only person he had shown his true self to. People didn't get close to him when he moved from Paris because he was Colette Reivana's son and plastered to Beau's side and yet—she was gone. She was gone, and all Amine had to live for now was vengeance.

All he could do was destroy whatever had—

He couldn't say it, couldn't think it—

Amine knew she was gone, deep inside—she'd have found a way back to him—it had always been the two of them, even if she was planning to hide from Mortem she would have found a way to let him know she was alive—she wouldn't let him suffer like this, unsure of how to go on now that she was gone—gone without a trace, like a ghost in the darkness.

Amine drew in a shuddering breath, wrapping his arms around himself. "Do you—do you at least have any ideas as to what might have—" he couldn't say it, couldn't get the words out. He was a mess, a mess like he had never been before—loss didn't affect Amine. He had always known there were a few wires that didn't quite connect. He didn't cry, he didn't really /care/. Even when their father had abandoned them with Colette and the teachings of Mortem, Amine had cared about nothing except—

Except what had been taken from him now.

Something he could never get back.

@☠　Amine Reivana >fang:
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ba/63/4e/ba634eb53af542c2512883438e7c9041.jpg

Fang’s life had been flipped around dramatically since the fighting. In the days since, he’d anxiously waited for contact from people he hoped weren’t dead. Lilith, Beau. By the time the Mortem HQ had burnt down, a sinking feeling in his chest made him believe that it was for the best that he didn’t keep waiting. Either of them would’ve come back, made some kind of contact. So, Fang had deemed to himself that unfortunately, the battle had claimed many more members of his family. Were they even his family? For a long time, the young man had experienced a deep hatred for Mortem. He loathed them, and sometimes, felt like he loathed the people he knew he didn’t. He needed an escape, and a strange walk in the woods had given it.

It wouldn’t be safe for him anymore. Not now that his body was thrown into overdrive. As he’d described it - it felt as though he’d been napping, for a very long time. Caught in a state where all of his senses had been dulled, like the blades of his knives when he’d spent too long putting holes in his wall. That wall didn’t exist anymore. All of his random that he liked in his quarters was long gone. But oh well, apparently material possessions didn’t matter that much. Apart from the fact that he kind of needed clothes, and he’d quite like a shower, and he’d also enjoy the table to eat at.

With some difficulty, Fang had finally convinced Ailell to leave too. Their family was broken, torn to pieces by the group they’d worked in. It was time to move on. So, the changeling sat in the forest, phone out, legs crossed and his back pressed up against a tree. The forest had been calling him for days. He wasn’t used to enjoying being outside so much, but it just felt like where he needed to be to think. He was going through lists of contacts, finding a place where he could go. That Yeol guy that Sterling had mentioned was his best bet.

In his concentration, the man only realised he was being approached when he heard the crackles of leaves nearby. He paused, phone screen darkening as he clicked the power button, his eyes falling upon the pale face of the other Reivana twin. Amine looked dreadful. But anyone would, given that he’d just lost his mother and sister. Fang paused, struggling to think of how to respond. He should make to run and leave. He was free of Mortem now, or at least he hoped. Fang Geming was not a human, and he had to leave the disgusting group he’d been apart of while they were at their weakest.

“I don’t know, Amine.”

It wasn’t a lie. Fang had only ever known Amine in the time since he’d returned from Paris, and then, the boy had never struck him as particularly deadly. His fingers reached to his side, where there was a sheathed knife. Just in case. He couldn’t trust anyone not to hand him in. Not even the harmless seeming boy.

“I’m sorry for your loss, and that nobody found a body, Amine. But I think that, probably, ‘cause she hasn’t contacted at all, she’s probably gone,” He began once again, his head dipping into a nod, as though offering his condolences. Fang rose from his position under the tree, slipping his phone back into his pocket. His hand didn’t leave the blade for even a moment. “I’m sure they can still give her some kinda service, even if there’s no body.”

@☬　Fang Geming ↳ ᴀᴜɢᴜsᴛ 11, 2051
↳ ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ: delightful - dounia
↳ ᴀᴍɪɴᴇ: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/65/f6/54/65f654e9f9328c27a604956305b17cc0.jpg

Amine didn't know how long it had been since he'd slept. The day of the attacks had left the Mortem headquarters in rubble and his mother's broken corpse charred to a crisp had filled him with a sick sort of glee—but seconds and minutes ticked into hours that turned into days and Beau hadn't come home, nor had she been identified among the dead. Leadership of Mortem fell onto his shoulders—him, the one who everyone believed was useless after he'd kept up the act for years. It wasn't supposed to be like this. He was supposed to be Beau's right-hand man, a secret weapon that no one would ever see coming. He wasn't supposed to be the one assuming the throne and ruling over Mortem.

"Where is my sister?!" he had screamed, tears running down his face as he held onto Ailell's shirt. But the half-elf had just held him close and whispered that he was sorry and Amine had felt something in himself shatter—funny, how he had always believed there was nothing left to break of him and now there was a void, something missing that he knew could never be replaced. It had been too long. He knew she wasn't coming home. She wasn't coming back. But Amine wanted to know what had happened to her.

Fang and Ailell had vanished in the chaos and Ailell was too good at covering his tracks. He had taught Amine how to track a person—of course he'd know better than anyone how to vanish into nothingness and never be seen again. And so he tucked a set of knives about his person and set out to find Fang, freshly-darkened hair falling in his eyes. He didn't look like Amine anymore, not with dark hair and dark circles under his eyes, skin pallid and lips chapped. He looked like a corpse.

Hissisterwasacorpsetheyshouldbothbecorpseshewasacorpsetoohewasthewalkingdead—

It was easier to find Fang than it should have been. Amine found him in the forest—perhaps he'd decided to take a stroll, maybe he was relocating. Amine didn't know. Mortem wasn't even looking for him or Ailell. It was a ing mess and Amine didn't know how long it would take him to get his affairs somewhat in order. The fire had done as intended—it had thrown Mortem into utter chaos, but now Amine couldn't put his initial plan in action. Beau was gone. And even when he got things sorted—he had better people to track down. Whoever had made his sister disappear, for one.

Anyway, Mortem wasn't looking for them.

Amine stepped out onto the trail, his footfalls quiet but still audible—why sneak now? He had Fang where he wanted, far from other people and creatures. And, of course, unknowing of what Amine was /actually/ capable of. Amine had been the harmless idiot in Squad 719 for years. Unlike Lian, he didn't even hack or run communications. He'd been considered useless.

And it had served him well, until now.

"Where is she, Fang?"

@SORIN NOIR ↳ ᴍᴀʀᴄʜ 28, 2051
↳ ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ: more - sisters of mercy

Gisela's eyes were still sharp and narrowed when he took a step back, the knife deftly returned to one of the many sheathes the assassin carried. "You have a way with words, Sorin, but you're not off the hook. I will be watching." He had eyes and ears behind every tree, in every building... perhaps not literally, but the assassin had his ways of learning things that people tried to keep from him. If Sorin hurt his child, he would know. "Oh, and... I never make threats." The glimmer in his eye was cold and calculative, his gaze boring through to Sorin's very soul. "I make promises." Gisela pulled away, putting space between them as he moved back a few steps. "I mean it. I will end your existence if you hurt my baby."

@GISELA YAVETZ the mother cared, of course, he did. the man sorin was seeing was gisela's youngest. the one he favored most an babied most. sorin--sorin would act the same. yet... call sorin crazy. slender and delicate fingers wrapped around the blade of the assassin's knife to press deeper against sorin's chest. the nick of the blade just barely digging into sorin's chest before the elf spoke. "the last thing i want is to hurt castor." the normally quiet elf had spoke up, swallowing down the nerves as he gathered his nerves in an effort to speak. "gisela... castor is the most beautiful fae I've dared to lay my eyes on. all i want- all i want is to be by castor's side. castor is the sun that lights up my life, and all if want to do is to always be with them." sorin drew in a low breath. "your threat is very threatening... but if i were to hurt castor, i'll tear out my own heart personally/"

@KEAHI IONA "Pain in the is another one that makes sense," Jinhai laughed. "But that's okay. You can be my pain in the ." Jinhai d his fingers through Keahi's hair, then tangled them into the locks. "Sleep, baobei. This ship won't be sailing for at least a couple of weeks, so no one will come aboard and disturb us. Though even if someone did, I'm not worried." He smiled at the dragon, then shut his eyes. "Goodnight."

@KEAHI IONA "Of course you would think having a weapon pointed at you is fun," Jinhai laughed as he wrapped his muscled arms around Keahi, pulling him into his chest. "I have a gun, but it is not loaded. I got it from Akaedi but I keep telling him the sword is a superior weapon. I would be able to defend myself against even a gun as long as I had my sword." Jinhai kissed the top of Keahi's head. "Do I get to call you...hm. Boyfriend sounds alien to me, and a touch childish. I suppose I would like to call you..." Jinhai thought for a moment. "Wo de baobei," he finished in Chinese. "It means 'my treasure'. We have a similar saying in Mer."

@KEAHI IONA Jinhai sat down on the bed next to Keahi, wrapping an arm around the smaller male's waist to draw him in closer. "What will I do when? If you want me forever, or if I decide to do more than ravage you? The first answer is, I will happily torture you for eternity. The second one, I will pull you down to the murky depths with me where you shall never return." It was a joke, but Jinhai's expression was serious. Two beats later, and he flashed his usual bright grin. "Just kidding. I'd you with a gun pointed at your head. And I don't even like guns. Maybe a sword instead." He hummed thoughtfully, then shrugged off his leather vest, letting it fall onto the floor. Jinhai tugged on a white undershirt, then laid back in bed. As a Mer, he had nothing against . But centuries of being among the early dynasties of China meant that he had grown used to a certain degree of modesty, and that included his sleeping clothes.

@KEAHI IONA "Only if you want me forever," Jinhai replied, tone light. Jinhai had a habit of making light of everything; it was his nature. He saw the world as a constantly changing tide, and he only survived this long because he allowed himself to be washed wherever the world wanted him to end up. But he liked the idea of having someone else to hold onto when the currents got too strong. "You keep smiling at me like that and I'll do more than ravage you senseless," he threatened with a laugh.

@KEAHI IONA "I didn't /ogle/," Jinhai defended. "Besides, if you didn't want me to look you wouldn't have worn something that showed them off. Especially not with /those/ pants." He made a tsking sound, throwing the white pants at Keahi's face. "You're still insufferable even after declaring your love for me. I should have guessed as much." But Jinhai was smiling, shaking his head. "Just change. I'll ogle your form another day. I'd rather be slow and careful with you than take things too fast and one or both of us get ahead of ourselves."

@KEAHI IONA "Can you be bad at cuddling?" Jinhai wondered. But he got up, twisting a bit to adjust himself. He glanced over, giving Keahi's pants an appreciative look. "I knew that's why you wore them. You wanted me to stare at your , didn't you?" But he went to a chest, opening it up and rifling through his clothes. Jinhai only wore traditional clothing, but there tended to be underwear under all of it that comprised of white linen pants and a shirt that you closed by wrapping it and tying it at the waist. "Do you need a shirt too?" he asked, producing a pair of the white linen underpants along with a pair of black, baggy outer pants. "These might be too big, but the white ones will be a bit better. They tie at the waist."

@KEAHI IONA "I--um." Jinhai looked at the ground, the wall, the ceiling--anything but Keahi. Jinhai was embarrassed. "Yeah. I think slow...slow sounds good. Slow sounds better." The merman slowly made himself look into Keahi's eyes, making himself remember that this was Keahi, not a stranger. It was his best friend and he was allowed to not only get hard, but that he could feel these things without needing to feel embarrassed. It simply took Jinhai aback. "Can we just...cuddle? You know I don't really--I haven't--not in at least a hundred years."

@KEAHI IONA Jinhai ignored the comment about him being old in favor of continuing to kiss Keahi. Jinhai knew he was old, he didn't need the reminder. Instead he gripped Keahi and pressed him in close. Jinhai's mouth opened up to the dragon, his tongue slipping languidly against the male's lips, asking for permission. That heat from earlier had returned and was pooling in Jinhai's belly, and suddenly Jinhai gasped and pulled back, looking down. He was...hard. Jinhai did not engage in ual activity often at all. It was rare for him to desire someone enough to warrant ual attraction but well...this was different. Were Jinhai being honest, he had gotten hard while thinking of Keahi before but had forgotten about it until now. But in any case, it was a rare occurrance for the merman.

@KEAHI IONA "I am also older than you," Jinhai pointed out with a roll of his eyes. He glanced up at the male in his lap and nodded, his hand slipping up the back of Keahi's shirt to caress the warm, bare skin. "We have all the time in the world," he agreed. Jinhai leaned forward, connecting their lips once more. This time he was not distracted nor in shock, instead moving his lips gently against the dragon's. He tasted like salty seawater and sweet plum wine and it made Jinhai sigh against his mouth.

@KEAHI IONA "You are, but that's okay. You make up for it with your personality," Jinhai offered helpfully. He grinned and set the bottle down on his desk. "I made it myself. It was buried under a peach blossom tree for one hundred years before I dug it up." Jinhai sat down on the edge of his plush bed, pulling Keahi onto his lap, his hands landing on the male's hips as he smiled up at him, dimples showing. "No? I guess I should have kissed you before then, huh?" Jinhai's fingers slid over Keahi's jaw, slipping into his hair. "Hao piaoliang," he murmured in Chinese. How pretty.

@KEAHI IONA Jinhai grinned and took a drink of the wine before offering it to Keahi, his own arm around the male's slim waist. "You really are tiny," he laughed, as if realizing it for the first time. He knew Keahi was small, and had many times for it, but now he was fully aware of their difference in size. Jinhai was over 180 centimeters, but he never felt as tall as he did next to Keahi. "Aw. It's cute."

@KEAHI IONA "Not entirely by myself, but I designed it. Takes too much manpower to build a ship by yourself. I've made smaller boats by myself, though." Jinhai slid his hand over the steering wheel lovingly, then walked down a set of stairs to get into the captain's quarters. "This..." he said, producing a key to unlock the cabin, "is my cabin." The fading sunlight lit the rich dark reds of the room. His bed was messy but full of plush cushions and blankets. An extra sword hung on the wall, and under a window was his desk. It was also messy, full of maps and documents with a ink grindstone and calligraphy pen resting atop of them along with a compass. Jinhai hated modern day pens and still preferred a brush and ink. The notes he wrote to himself were in ancient Chinese, the characters much more rounded and long. The mermaid walked to a decanter, using his teeth to pull the cork from it. "Want some?" he asked, offering it with a grin. It was plum wine, his favorite.

@KEAHI IONA Jinhai pulled his vest and boots back on, shaking his head. "I'm really not that tall, you're just exceptionally short." He smiled though, walking over to the dragon and placing a kiss on his forehead. "But I don't mind. Come on." He took Keahi's hand and lead them up the ramp onto the ship. It was quite large, but with no one on the ship currently, the deck was large and quiet. Jinhai lead them to the helm, grinning. "Ships these days tend to be motorized, but mine is still traditionally made. I use sails, wind, and the rudders to move me. No machines required. I trust the sea to get me to and from my destination safely."

@KEAHI IONA "I think you're the first to call a pirate sweet." Jinhai grinned, but easily began swimming back to shore, grabbing onto Keahi. "We can if you want. My cabin is still set up so we can spend the night aboard if you wanted to. I'm more comfortable on the ship than in my house anyway. Water is the best for sleep." Jinhai yanked himself out of the water, laying back on the sand while his long tail faded into his human legs. Jinhai began to stand up, always a touch shaky once he came back on land again.

@KEAHI IONA "I thought you knew. Well--I don't cry, so I guess there's no way for you to know. They do though." Jinhai smiled, his arms looping around Keahi's waist tightly. "Is it? I didn't know for sure. I was just happy letting it be. But...this feels nice. Right." Jinhai pressed his lips gently on Keahi's cheek, sliding a hand down his back. "Perhaps we should return to shore?" he offered with a lift of his brow. "The sun's going down and the moon tends to make the tides a bit erratic. I'd be fine, but I don't want to risk losing you to the current."

@KEAHI IONA "I didn't mean to make you cry," Jinhai said quickly with a worried frown, reaching out to wipe Keahi's tears. "When merfolk cry, our tears turn into pearls," he said offhandedly, tilting his head and wiping Keahi's cheek, looking into his eyes. A slow grin crept onto Jinhai's lips as he placed his hands on Keahi's hips. "I'm not sure entirely what it means. I've never experienced...this. But...I like making you smile and kissing you made me feel like I finished a marathon. Whatever that means."

@KEAHI IONA "You don't kiss people you don't like? Sterling must like a lot of people," Jinhai laughed, trying to lighten the mood a bit. He scratched his head, one of the bells in his hair ringing quietly as the water shook out of it. "I mean, mer...lots of mer come to land for a person. But um. If they have a one-sided love and don't return to the sea they turn into seafoam. I've always thought they were stupid; humans die, and it was usually always humans they fell for. Mer are free people. I have never wished to anchor myself to one port. But..." Jinhai looked up at the other male curiously. "I guess this explains why I haven't turned to seafoam. It never was unrequited."

@KEAHI IONA "Allowed to? Isn't that what asking is for?" he asked, incredulous. "I don't /get/ mad, you know that. Well, I do, but if I'm mad I usually end up killing someone. Venting, you know. Can't do it as much lately but I used to all the time." JInhai nodded, expression serious. "But...I don't think kissing would ruin our friendship? Wouldn't kissing make it...better? It just adds a different kind of intimacy, doesn't it?" Jinhai reached out to trace over the tattoo on Keahi's shoulder, following the curve. "I don't see how it would...ruin things."

@KEAHI IONA Jinhai pushed his dark curls out of his face, looking at Keahi in a sort of astonishment. "Years?" he echoed. "Years and you--never did it? It's a kiss, you could have..." But Jinhai trailed off into a mumble. Their friendship was a constant push and pull of teasing and joking, of hurting and healing. Keahi would go on dates sometimes, Jinhai knew, but he never said anything because if he did he'd get upset. But Jinhai didn't know what that meant. He thought it meant that he was protective of his friend. "Well. It seems we have both been exposed as cowards," he said finally with a crooked grin.

@KEAHI IONA Jinhai blinked, but he very slowly shook his head. "No...I don't think I'd mind it." The merman frowned, looking at his friend with a tilt of his head. "Why do you keep laughing?" Jinhai was almost whining. "That's not very nice if you're laughing about the idea of kissing me, you know. Not very nice at all." The merman crinkled his nose, swimming up towards the surface, his muscled arms stretching out in front of him, his tail shimmering shades of gold alongside the teal and blue in the water while he swam.

@KEAHI IONA Jinhai's fingers trailed along the shark's back as she swam away, and Jinhai turned his attention to Keahi. Jinhai blinked once, twice, and then a sheepish smile crept onto his lips. "I uh...wasn't even sure if that's what you were doing. You don't need to be sorry. I should be sorry for not telling you /how/ I needed to give you air. But--really! Don't be sorry about the kiss. I liked it." Jinhai's voice softened towards the end, and he shot Keahi a dimpled smile through the water.

@KEAHI IONA Jinhai snorted, unable to help himself. "Sharks don't have names," he said. "They know who they are, so they don't need them." The mermaid d the shark's nose, humming to it in a low, melodic voice so he could communicate. The shark swam closer to Keahi in response, circling around him and rubbing against his legs. Jinhai smiled. "She likes you. Lemon sharks have close relationships even with humans. If you ever come in the water again, she'll probably find you."