Chapter Text
The expanse of the deep blue ocean was freeing.
Fresh air, wind in his face, the taste of salt and texture of it in his hair, Keigo feels free as a bird. He stands in the crows nest, resting on the ledge to see the world out in front of him, a blank canvas that his ship makes a clean stroke through. It's enough to make him forget he’s Prince Takami, eligible bachelor for the power hungry and diplomats, only making him Keigo, just for a bit. The thoughts of paperwork, ruling a kingdom, being the prince, floating away into the wind.
“Your Highness!”
Ah, there it goes.
His advisor stands below on the deck, craning his head to look up to him best he can. A gray, bland man, appointed by the late Queen Regent. But, he’s been there since Keigo was first taken in by her and became royalty; regardless of the stress or the terror, he’s always been there.
His boots land on the deck, and Keigo sighs, turning to his advisor. “Tanaka, to what do I owe the honor?”
“The crew wishes to celebrate your birthday,” Tanaka says with a smile. “It’s not every day that the crown prince turns twenty-three. Rumi has quite a few games in store as well.”
The prince’s shoulders relax a bit, keeping his head up. Knowing Rumi, the games would have quite a bit of alcohol, and an unpredictable amount of arbitrary rules, but they were fun.
Perhaps he could use a bit of a break from the work. It wasn’t going to go anywhere. And it’s just as Tanaka says, he only turns twenty-three once.
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Stupid announcement, stupid coronation, stupid Enji and his stupid volcanic connections. Stupid arctic skin and build, Touya just needs out. And he has the audacity to act as if all four of the kids were good for him, despite only giving the crown to the youngest, by all means, which wasn’t fair–
Shut up!
He’d rather go into the open waters and never return. Maybe if he was lucky an orca would eat him. Instead, he opts for the next best thing: scavenging, and learning about somewhere new.
“Touya, slow down!”
Touya, in fact, did not slow down, letting the current carry him further. Get him as far from that fucking palace as he can get. Get him away from them, away from his father, from that stupid little guppy of a –
His head slammed into something solid, and Touya goes careening into the open water, dizzy and disoriented. Once the bubbles cleared from his vision, the two came into eyesight.
Fuyumi, the second oldest, with the white hair a halo around her, streaks of red like blinding evening sunlight, and Nastuo, the middle, broad and icy like a glacier– that explained the thing Touya rammed head first into. Their tails were a similar pattern of red with white flecks and speckles, similar to that of a carp or a koi fish like their mother.
“Will you at least tell us where you’re going?” Natsuo sighed, crossing his arms. “If it’ll piss off the old man, I’m down to come with you.”
“He’s already pissed,” Fuyumi huffs. “And if we go back, we can get the least of his wrath. No geyser steam coming from his ears or volcanic eruptions.”
“Oh, like that’s stopped him before.” Touya huffs, absently rubbing his thumb against his forearm, where scarred pink skin meets the pale of his hands and wrists. “I’m going to the giant human… thing that sunk. It's better than being here.” He turns, beginning to swim towards the canyons, making sure to flick a little harder at the end to blow some of Fuyumi’s hair. “If you want to come with me, I won’t stop you.”
“Touya, are you crazy? There could be sharks!” Fuyumi follows after him anyway. “You could get hurt more than you are now.”
“You also don’t have to come with me.” He reasons.
“Yeah, but someone’s gotta save your ass,” Natsuo joins them on his left. “Besides, it’s been a while since our last adventure; I want to see what we find. Oh! Do you think we’ll see another one of those human paintings? Or one of their strange sea glass things with the handle?” His demeanor changes, despite his stature. Natsuo, tall and broad, similar to their father in every way physically, but with whimsical curiosity, reminding Touya that he’s only twenty. He still sees a little guppy in him if he looks hard enough.
“Oh, okay, but we don’t tell him about this okay?” Fuyumi looks around, checking the rocks and the terrain for anything that may be lurking. “If he asks, we helped you blow off some steam and went to the closest trench.”
“If is the key word,” Touya says, holding an arm out to stop them. “Shh, we’re here.”
The ship is broken in two, something tied to the two large poles in the top, gently moving in the current of the water. If it weren’t for the algae and seaweed that had collected, it would have looked untouched by time. Touya dives down, entering in one of the larger holes in the side, as his siblings follow. The inside is darker, with the door jams and beams fallen in their paths as obstacles, some of the reflected light of the ocean spilling in.
Touya passes one of the rooms, and back strokes, clenching his fists. In the middle of it, is the youngest, Shoto, opening up a small box with two foreign objects in it. Stupid brat is already as big as him and he’s only on the cusp of sixteen, and he was the perfect mix– literally. Able to tolerate the volcanic undersea heat, and the arctic ocean cold, the white and red blending like a sea anemone on his tail. He has their mother’s delicate features but father’s stern gaze, yet here… Well, Touya is reminded once again how young his brothers are.
“You little brat,” he says instead, rushing in. “What are you doing here?!”
Shoto looks up, blinking at his eldest brother, and at the two siblings who follow in. He looks back down at the box, and then up again to Touya. “I wanted to see the sunken ship.”
“Well, congratulations, you did, now back off. He’s gonna kill you when he finds out you snuck out, his precious little pearl.” Touya lunges for the box, but Shoto is quick to move it out of the way. “Ha ha, very funny. Give it here.”
“What is it?” He asks instead, moving to present it gently. “I’ve never seen something made with this kind of sea glass.”
Inside the box is a mirror, small enough to hold in their hand by the stem, with strange anemone or flora shapes adorning the frame. “Humans don’t make mirrors with sea glass. They melt sand above the surface to do it.”
“Human glass?”
“Human glass.” Touya reaches for the second object, pulling it out and inspecting it. Similar to the mirror in size and shape, it has a stem to hold, but no glass. Rather, it has a strange, prickly surface, not enough to hurt, but a strange sensation on the skin no less. Fuyumi shivered as she ran a finger over it.
“What a strange thing,” she hums. “What is it?”
“I don’t know, that’s the best part.” Touya grins, turning both objects over to look at the back. The room got darker, and he squinted, trying to make out the design on the back, before his shoulder was violently shook. “What the hell?”
“Shark.” Natsuo points to the broken porthole, and blanches. “Shark!”
“Swim away! Go, go go!” Fuyumi shouts.
They swim back through the wreckage, the shark following after the group, biting through beams and slamming into walls, before they were out of the trench and back into the open waters, seemingly having lost its trail. But Touya still moves, heading up to the surface near the trench again, where stray rocks litter above water, and his siblings follow.
Once Fuyumi pokes her head above the water, Touya is resting his front half up on one of the jetty rocks, Shoto and Natsuo following his lead. The eldest whistles, a small little bird chirping in response, before turning into a human. She looked young, with messy blonde hair and alight golden eyes, and a smile screaming danger.
“Touya! Are you insane? A human?! You know we can’t go up to the surface and absolutely cannot talk to humans.” Fuyumi hisses, trying to snatch back the box that he’d snagged from the ship.
“I’ve been told that quite a bit, yes. But she’s not a human. Toga’s a…” he trails off, scratching a hand into his white hair.
“Chimera!” The girl, Toga, giggles. “I take many forms. It helps to learn about a lot of different places!” She rolls onto her stomach, holding her chin in her hands while kicking her feet. “So, whatcha got for me this time?”
“What are these?” Shoto asks, pointing to the box in his brother’s hand.
“That is a box.”
“Yes. I meant what’s inside the box.”
Touya gives him a light smack on the back of his head, opening the lid, and pulling the mirror and other object out. Toga picks up the bristled one, and turns it in her hands, murmuring to herself. “Oh! I got it! I know what it is! It’s used for your hair, see,” she demonstrates by taking a few locks and running the bristles through her hair. “Humans use it all the time for hair styling and running their hands through it; they like it really soft for some reason. But they use this to make so many different things with their hair like little bubbles, or these!” She uses it to pull her hair up into two buns, with strands falling all out of them.
“What is it called?” Natsuo asked.
“It’s a…” Toga racks her brain, tapping her chin. “Ah! I got it! A dinglehopper!”
“It’s like how we use the lionfish combs.” Shoto turns to Fuyumi, eyes wide. “Is theirs made of bones too?”
“No,” Toga sighs, gesturing with the dinglehopper wildly. “You would think that’s what they’d do though, it’s smart! Guess they don’t have enough bones to make a comb. I don’t know what these are made of.” She runs her hand across the bristles again, and hums. “But wow, this is a great find! All the humans love these, I can’t believe you just found one in the ocean! The human world really is something, it’ll blow your mind.”
The last words clicked, and Touya hisses. “Blow, god dammit. You three need to go back, now, before he blows a geyser!”
“But you have to come with us!” Fuyumi grabs his wrist, grip tight and eyes watery. “Please, Touya. Come home.”
She knows he can’t resist the sea dog puppy eyes. He sighs, and collects the human things into its box. “Fine,” he relents. “Let me drop this off first. Otherwise then he’ll make another Marina’s trench if he sees human things.”
Waving to the chimera, the four dive back into the water.
Touya takes them to his little grotto in a cave not too far from the palace, but far enough out of the kingdom it’s under the radar. His father’s old stomping grounds of Sekoto Trench, right under his nose to where he wouldn’t check for his children. Pushing a boulder aside to get in and moving it back gently, he leads them into the middle, arranging the new box amongst his many treasures and trinkets from the human world. The rock shelves are lined with paintings and trinkets and treasures, some glimmering like gold and pearls, the others strange and foreign.
“Are these all yours?” Shoto asks, keeping his voice down.
“...I want to go there one day.” Touya responds, hand tracing a painting of a human thing called a candle. “These make it easier to see what it’s like when I can’t.”
Shoto’s about to speak again, when the light in the water turns a brilliant purple. The four siblings look up at the hole at the top of the cavern, another blast of light– green this time– fills the space, before a large shadow covers it.
Touya stares up at it, before steeling himself, and swimming up towards the surface.
Poking his head above water again, he sees the sky is dark, save for the moonlight and the colors coming from the giant human ship. On the side, he can read “Hawks,” and he moves to inspect more. There’s laughter, and music, and ruckus coming from above, and he has to see more. If he’s careful, Touya might be able to make just enough of a geyser stream to let him up to see through the railing of the deck…
He makes it up, seeing Fuyumi and Natsuo have stabilized him with a small iceberg. They’re watching from the base of it, keeping to the shadow of the ship. Looking through the rails, he sees them. Humans, moving and dancing, singing to a strange song.
His left arm grows a bit colder, seeing Shoto has also made it up to watch. Little copycat fish. His youngest brother’s eyes are locked onto a green human boy, close in age to him, as they clap along and dance. Touya lets himself scan over the humans, before landing on one.
He’s dancing with a woman with long white hair, and he looks absolutely stunning. Hair gold as the sun, skin tanned and freckled, the smile on his face blinding. He’s wearing loose human clothes that follow how he moves, getting pulled into the other humans and back out. The woman says something to him, and he tips his head back, a laugh sounding into the air.
An older man claps his hands, gaining the attention of the crew. They gather around a large object covered in a sheet, and he begins to speak.
“Tonight we celebrate the joyous occasion of the prince’s birthday. Twenty-three years ago today we were blessed on this world to have him, and it’s our honor to present to you, the sculpted portrait of your Royal Highness, Prince Keigo.”
Keigo, Keigo is his name, Touya thought to himself.
He pulls the sheet off, revealing a large carved statue of the prince. It was sharp and angular, highlighting his aquiline nose and hooded eyes. One foot was on a shield, one hand with a sword, as the statue looked forward into the distance, with two large wings on his back.
The prince, Keigo, smiles, but it’s practiced, too polite. “This is… certainly an interesting take on me.”
“You’re our kingdom’s angel of glory,” The older man says, wiping a tear away. “Only fitting we display your power when you are soon to be king– and queen or king, whichever you settle with.”
“Again with that,” Keigo shakes his head with a chuckle. “That’s a problem I’ll solve when I get there.”
“But you’ve turned down every suitor we have, what are we to do? Everyone is just getting worried, and the late Queen Regent–”
“I know, Tanaka. I know. I just haven’t… I haven’t found the one yet.” Keigo runs a hand down his face. “It's not like I don’t want to, I just… Don’t have that connection yet.” He pauses, and sniffs. “The timing must not be right yet. I might just be an optimist though. They have to be out there.”
“What will the moment be then if not what you’ve experienced already?”
“I don’t know. I’ve always imagined finding the one is.. Finding the one is sudden, unexpected, but you just
know
. It’s like a–”
A booming sound fills the air, different from the burst of colorful light the humans were shooting off, as blinding white takes over from a bolt of lightning. “Fire! Fire!” One of the crew members said, and chaos erupted. Everyone had moved into their positions, tying down whatever is needed.
The waters begin to churn and pick up, the waves rocking the boat and small glacier in tow. “I think dad knows Shoto snuck out.” Natsuo calls up. “Come down! We need to get below the surface!”
Another bolt of lightning, and rain begins to pour upon the crew. Touya still can’t take his eyes off them, searching for the prince again; seems he’s disappeared into the chaos. The crew tries tying down masts and sails, some trying to go for the anchor, and getting pummeled by waves over the side of the ship. The fire is only getting worse despite the rain, as if the lightning is targeted to the ship itself.
“Did we not give a proper offering for safety to Lady Nagant?” One of the crew asks.
“This has to be the work of Endeavor more!” Another yells back.
Keigo appears again from below the deck, carrying a small bag and stuffing a scroll into it. Touya can’t hear what he’s saying, but crew members start heading to the smaller boats on the side. That’s their cue to leave. He pulls Shoto off from the ledge and dives back in the water, joining his siblings.
“We need to go!” Fuyumi says, yelling above the rain. “It’s too dangerous!”
“Those humans will be capsized though!” Shoto yells back. “We can’t just leave them!”
“I know, but there’s not much else we can do, we need to get you home. Now!”
Touya chews at his lip, looking at his brothers and sister. His gaze lands on Fuyumi, the furrow in her brow making her look like their mother at too young of an age.
Their mother. That’s it!
“Siren song,” he says. “We can guide them to safety in their small boat, and at least into calmer waters.”
“Its been forbidden since mom left though,” Natsuo exchanges a look with him, ducking when a wave tries to overtake them. “Are you sure?”
“Fuyumi has the most practice, and Shoto too, they can get them at least out of harms way,” Touya nods. “If we’re careful, we won’t get caught. They don’t have a lot of time. You’re with me, Natsuo, try to get the boat steadied or a way to get them to the others.”
The four split up, navigating the horrid waves and debris littering the sea.
Most of them gathered on the life boats, just trying to guide the stragglers to them. Keigo and the Rumi were helping two others off the ship, tossing them as close as possible to the raft.
“Your turn,” she says, turning to the golden prince. “Go!”
“No, you first.” He gestures quickly. “You need to get on there and protect them. You’re my knight, I trust you with it.”
“I can’t be your knight if you aren’t there!” she argues. “Bird brain, I can’t just leave you!”
The prince pays her no mind, using her distracted self to push her over the railing and into the water. She makes it to the boat, where he throws the bag to her. “Come on!” she screams. “Your Highness! Jump!”
Keigo takes a few steps back, ready to get a running start.
Lightning strikes the fireworks, and the ship is engulfed in smoke.
Keigo goes flying into the water.
“Prince Takami!” Tanaka shouts. “He’s overboard!”
The crew frantically looks around for any sign of the prince, the waves too large to see much aside from driftwood. Rumi keeps looking, the rain clouding her sight. A bit away, she sees blonde hair emerge from the water, and up onto a piece of driftwood. Lifting him up… was that another person? He’s pushing the driftwood out, away from the wreckage.
“There! I see him!” She yells, pointing towards them, before the waves overtake her vision again. “That way! Towards the shore! We have to follow him!”
The sound of the thunder and crashing waves begins to drown out, instead replaced with melodic, beautiful voice. From close to the raft, a head of hair, white and red, peaks up, a woman with a beautiful round face and pretty pink lips begins to sing. On the other side of the boat, there’s a boy, hair split down the middle as red and white, joining her in the melody. The green haired boy, Midoriya, rises, grabbing the paddle. His eyes are glazed over, never leaving the other boy’s.
The prince… We have to follow him…!
But that voice… I want to keep listening.
The woman in the ocean points to the paddle, and Rumi grabs it. They swim alongside the boat, a third voice joining in, but the boat moves faster despite their paddling.
She’s lost in the trance of the voice, the sounds of the ocean no more.
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Touya pulls the prince onto the sand of the tide pool, low enough to be shallow and easy to spot.
He was terrified, seeing the lightning strike the boat, and watching him sink into the water like a stone. He swam him all the way to shore best he could, despite the clothes being a bit worse for wear, the prince was relatively unharmed.
If you count the fact he wasn’t waking up as a good thing.
The small little bird lands on one of the tide pool rocks again, and Toga chirps. “Oh, you found a human! Did he sink to the bottom of the sea?”
Touya shoots her a look, shaking the prince’s shoulder. “He almost did, if I didn’t stop him. I can’t tell if he’s okay.”
Toga hops over to his hand, placing her tiny bird head to the palm. “I don’t hear a heartbeat.” She quickly changes to a human form, placing her hand on his neck, before grinning. “There’s a pulse! I feel the blood moving in his throat!”
“But he’s not waking up,” Touya hisses.
“Well, wake him up then! Use anything you have. Hit him, sing him a wake up call, burn him?”
“I’m not going to burn him,” He rolls his eyes. He’s not even sure he could, right now. Not without burning himself in the process, especially with the heat of the sun only adding to it.
Instead, Touya tilts the prince’s head to the side, studying his features. A sharp jaw and stern brow, with freckles aligning his nose and cheeks like speckles of sand. Even in this state, he looks like a gift from the sun to the mermans’ eyes. There’s a little bump in his nose, one Touya is familiar with having broken his before, but still a sharp and incredible feature. Everything about him seemed crafted by the hands of the gods. Who knew humans could be gifted with such beauty?
Sing him a wake up call, Toga’s voice echoes in his head, while she looks up at him with big and cheery eyes. He takes a deep breath. His voice isn’t as refined as Fuyumi’s or Shoto’s, but… He can at least try. He begins to sing, recalling a song from his mother years and years ago.
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His siblings appear at the edge of the tide pool, brushing their hair out of their face, wrecked from the storm. They look tired, rightfully so. Shoto is the first to perk up, staring at his oldest brother in awe. “That’s mom’s song,” he says, keeping his voice down.
“Tourner dans le vide, il me fait tourner
Dans le vide, vide, vide
Tourner, tourner dans le vide
Tourner dans le vide, il me fait tourner…”
“It is,” Natsuo is hushed, a red hue painting his cheeks. “I haven’t heard Touya sing that in years.” Fuyumi, between the two brothers, watches on, eyes watering.
Touya is gentle in his movements, strange for the loud, brash and arrogant brother, but they know those gentle hands and care anywhere. He’s fixing his golden locks out of his face, with such a strange look in his eyes as he sings to the human. One that seems almost…
Fuyumi smiles wide.
____________________________________
Touya sings, keeping his voice low to not draw too much attention. He feels it might be a lost cause, as the prince won’t awaken.
But Keigo stirs, before coughing up a bit of water, and slowly opening his eyes. Beautiful, honey gold met his, and the song died a bit in his throat. Touya is entranced by him, and neither dare to say a word.
“There he is!” A woman’s voice calls. “I see him! The tide pool!”
Shit!
Touya pushes away quickly, retreating into the waters and beyond the edge of the tide pool. He watches with his family (when did they get here?) as the white haired woman approaches, kneeling to help the prince to his feet. “You’re alive! Thank the gods!”
“Rumi,” he croaks, still looking out towards the ocean. “I heard the most wonderful voice, and saw… Did you see the one who pulled me out of the water?”
“No?” the woman, Rumi, looks around. “I didn’t hear anyone. Are you sure you didn’t dream it?”
“I didn’t!” The blonde stands up a bit straighter. “He was… he had these eyes, they were bluer than the sea. Like you’d never seen the color before.”
“I think you swallowed some sea water,” she pulls one of his arms over his shoulder, turning towards the beach. “Let's get fixed up, yeah?”
Keigo looks out to the sea one more time, before walking with her, and Touya pokes his head back over the tide pool wall. His heart thrummed in his chest, watching as the two humans disappeared. There were splashes behind him, before Natsuo’s cold hand came onto his shoulder.
“We should head back,” he says, swallowing. “Before we’re in even more trouble.”
He looks back towards the beach again, before diving into the water after his brother.