Chapter Text
Month pass and autumn fades into winter with quiet dignity. Bin sits out on the dingy dock everyday, just writing, until it gets far to cold and even then he takes time to stroll along the beach, winter wind biting his cheeks red. The sea turns grey and the sand loses colour until Bin’s bright blue coat is the only spot of colour all the way along the dreary horizon.
After about a month of writing and waiting Bin finishes the first draft of his book. He had been afraid that with Dongmin gone he would be unable to find his inspiration. Turns out all he needed to do was close his eyes and breathe in the salty air. He just needed to think of warmth and sweet melodies and touring purple mountains that loom over him in a way that’s oddly comforting.
One day in mid November Rocky asks him,
“Do you really think he’ll come back?”
“Of course.” Bin answers, simply.
“He’s been gone for more than a month. How can you be so sure?”
“He promised.”
Rocky doesn’t question him about it again.
At the end of November Bin hands in the first draft of his novel to Myungjun. It’s not perfect, but the story is all there. It’s like holding an unopened oyster. It’s not quite ready yet but you know that when it is, you’ll open it up to find the most beautiful pearl resting inside. And even once you have the pearl you’ll still need to rinse the whole thing off and make sure it’s clean. The first draft is done, and its good, but there is still a lot more work to be done.
Bin elects to get a job. He applies to be a barista at this little seaside cafe not too far from his house and somehow, even though he has no experience, he gets the job. It’s nice and his coworkers are friendly. Bin learns that by being around people from different walks of life he learns a lot about the way people describe things and he translates this new knowledge into the beginning of the second draft of his book.
It’s mid December and Bin has been at work all day. It’s been a particularly challenging day. Customers were especially demanding and his manager had been on edge all day. Then they had a health inspector come in for the routine yearly inspection. They had passed with flying colour but it was an additional layer of stress icing on top of his bad mood cake. He’s stressed and tired and sore and he really just wants to go home but they don’t have any food so he has to stop at the grocery store first.
He trudges home, arms piled with paper bags filled to the brim with groceries. The wind is particularly cold today and Bin can feel the snow that’s building up in the clouds, just waiting for the right moment to fall. He shifts his bags into one hand so that he can pull his keys out of his pocket. He sticks them in the lock and turns only to find that the door is already unlocked. Curse Rocky and his forgetting to lock the door before he leaves for dance.
He pushes the door open and sets his groceries down before shrugging off his coat. He scoops up the paper bags and heads to the kitchen to put everything away. He’s just a couple steps from the kitchen when he hears some kind of shuffling inside. Could someone have broken in? What if it wasn’t Rocky who left the door open but they were being robbed! Bin looks around frantically for a weapon, only finding this weird twisty vase that had been a gift from one of his great aunts. Still, its better than nothing. He grabs it and lifts it above his head, sneaking closer and closer toward the kitchen.
Then he leaps into the kitchen, vase hoisted above his head, ready to smash it over the burglars head if need be. He freezes when he isn’t confronted by someone dressed in black, complete with a balaclava, pilfering his stuff. Instead its wide powder blue eyes framed by thick black lashes. It’s soft looking, petal pink lips that he knows taste like sea salt. It’s flawless, pale skin and hair that looks black except in the sunlight when it shows its true earthy brown colour. It’s delicate hands with long, slender fingers raised in shock and surrender. Most importantly it’s Dongmin standing in the middle of his kitchen.
“The door was open and it was getting dark outside so I just thought…”
Bin doesn’t even realize that the vase is falling from his hands and he doesn’t care at all. He’s already all the way across the kitchen and back in Dongmin’s arms before the vase is smashing on the ground. Dongmin still smells the same, like soft warm sand and salt water. Bin buries his face into Dongmin’s neck, relishing in the new warmth radiating of his skin and opposes to the slick coolness of his skin before. Bin can safley say that it’s a favourable change. Dongmin’s fingers twist into the back of Bin’s shirt pulling him impossibly closer. He pushes his nose into Bin’s hair, nuzzling and taking in the scent that he’d missed so dearly over these past months.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Dongmin mutters over and over again into Bin’s hair leaving a trail soft apologetic kisses between each repetition of the phrase.
“What on earth are you sorry for?” Bin asks though he’s not sure if Dongmin heard him clearly with his face buried so snugly in the ex merman’s neck.
“For taking so long. I didn’t expect it to be such a long process.” He says pulling slightly away from Bin who just clings on tighter.
“You’re here, now. That’s all that matters.” Bin feels Dongmin’s fingers on his cheek, tilting his head up slightly.
“Come on. Look at me. I’ve missed your face.” Bin lifts his gaze to look Dongmin in the eyes and it’s almost to much for him. He feels his eyes begin to water and he sniffles to keep himself from crying. Two months may not seem like that long but when you love someone as much as Bin loves Dongmin it feels like an eternity.
“God, I missed you so much.” Dongmin croaks out, the reunion getting the better of him as well. He pulls Bin back into his arms again and they say like that for who knows how long. The stand wrapped up in one another, breathing in each others scents and basking in each others warmth. It’s only with Dongmin nosing gently against the skin above Bin’s ear that he realizes something.
“Wait. Are you taller than me?” He asks and he can feel Dongmin smiling against his ear, huffing out a soft breathy laugh.
Bin pulls sharply away from the embrace to glare at Dongmin.
“You are taller than me, aren’t you!”
“Yes, I suppose I am.” Dongmin says with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes and a shit eating grin plastered across his face.
“But that’s not fair…” Bin whines. “You didn’t even have to grown them yourself!” Bin is pouting full force. “What about all the energy I had to put in to grow up so that I would be this height and then you just get gifted legs that are longer than mine? It’s totally not fair…”
Dongmin giggles at Bin’s petulance and takes the pouting boys hand, lifting it to his lips and leaving a gentle peck across his knuckles. Then he steps closer to Bin and kisses him softly on the cheek. All of the fight melts right out of the other boy and he folds into Dongmin like putty. Dongmin presses a kiss to his temple and the tip of his ear before shifting down to kiss across his cheek bone and under his eye and then one soft peck against the tip of his nose.
“You’re the literal worst.” Bin mumbles against Dongmin’s lips as he hovers just out of reach. Now it’s Dongmin’s turn to pout, bottom lip jutting outward, so close to brushing against Bin’s. Bin has finally had enough and he presses their lips together. It’s starts chaste, just a simple press of lips but then Bin licks at the seam of Dongmin’s lips causing the ex merman to gasp a little. Bin doesn’t miss his opportunity and he presses his tongue inside Dongmin’s warm wet mouth. He still tastes like sea salt.
Bin shudders when Dongmin’s tongue presses back against his and his hands slide down Dongimin’s sides to grip his waist. It’s odd not to feel cold wet skin and scales but instead the thick padding of denim around his slender hips. The pants he’s wearing are slightly too big and they hand low and loose on his hips. They keep kissing and Bin’s fingers dig tighter into the loose jeans until something else suddenly dawns on him.
“Are these my pants?” He pulls back and asks. Dongmin looks a little sheepish.
“Well, Poseidon doesn’t exactly think things through when he gives you legs.”
“So they are my pants. And my sweater too.” Bin says. Then he pauses and replays Donmin’s sentence over in his head.
“Wait, wait. You met Poseidon? Mythical God of the sea? Shit that you said was only a story?”
Dongmin shrugs.
“I guess it’s not so much of a myth as I thought.”
“So he’s the one who gave you legs?” Bin asks. Dongmin pulls a little bit a way from him and hops up on the counter, prepared to recount what happened to him over the past two months.
“Well, I guess so. I don’t actually really know. When I swam back to the pack with Sanha we were migrating to warmer waters with the whales for the winter. They were all so happy to see me again that I had a hard time telling them that I wanted to leave for good. I found myself swimming to shore and hiding amongst the rocks just to watch the people. They reminded me how much there is about humans that I son’t understand. They all reminded me of you.
Eventually, our alpha figured out something was wrong and she followed me. She asked me about it and I told her the whole story of everything that happened here. She said that this wasn’t the first time that a merman or merman had fallen in love with a human. She warned me of the complications and that if I were to give up my legs, there was no going back. She wanted to make sure that I wasn’t just doing it for you, I guess. She wanted to know that, even if this thing between us fell through, I’d be able to find something in the human world that would make me happy. She said that two many times had she seen menfolk trade in their legs only to be betrayed by there lovers.”
“But, I wouldn’t ever do that—“
“And that’s exactly what I told her.” Dongmin said with a smile, taking Bin’s hand in order to calm him.
“She said that I should come and speak to her when I had a concrete plan of what I wanted for my future amongst the humans. I spent weeks thinking about everything. I wanted to be back by your side but beyond that I didn’t have any sort of plan. So I thought and I planned until I had a concrete idea of what I wanted to do. I fit didn’t work out that would be okay but at least I had some kind of plan for the future that stretched beyond being with you.
So I told our alpha my plan and then I told my parents. The alpha would take me to the nearest temple to I could meditate. Sanha demanded that he be allowed to come along. He said that he’d lost me once so he would be there to make sure that I was safe this time.
The whole trip took about three days of swimming from dawn to dusk but eventually we got there. The alpha told me that I would have to go inside and meditate by my self. They weren’t allowed to come any further with me and she couldn’t guarantee how long it would take. For some merfolk it took a couple hours and for others it took weeks or sometimes even months.
So I went inside and I sat in the middle of the inner sanctum and I meditated. I ate one meal in the morning for three weeks, spending the rest of the day in a meditative state in the temple. Then, on the final day of the third week it happened. I was meditating like usual when this strange force came over me. It suddenly felt like I was no longer inside my body and there was some unfamiliar voice speaking to me and saying that it would judge my heart. If I was found to be pure of heart and filled only with good intentions the my wishes would be deemed worthy of Poseidon’s magic.”
“Obviously they deemed you worthy?”
“I guess so? I mean here I am with legs and everything. When I woke up in the inner sanctum there was some kind of vile with some kind of shimmering violet liquid inside. It was almost black, the same colour as my tail. The voice that spoke to me when i was meditating told me to drink it when I was near to shore cause if I drowned there was nothing they could do to save me.
So then Sanha and the alpha escorted me back to the bay and we said our goodbyes. Sanha promised that he would come visit with my parents next spring when the pack migrates back.”
“So then you took the potion and got legs? Did it hurt?” Bin asks.
“Not really? First I pulled out one of my scales so that i’d always remember exactly what my tail looked like. I think I’m gonna make it into a necklace. But the actual transformation part kind of tingled? And my legs didn’t quite work right for a while. It was like when you cut off the circulation to one of your limbs and it feels all fuzzy and weird afterward. It was a lot harder to figure out how to get from the beach to your house without any clothes.” Dongmin laughs out.
“I’m… actually kind of sad I missed that.” Bin says, picturing a very naked Dongmin streaking across the beach towards his house. Dongmin punches him in the shoulder with a laugh.
“Don’t be gross. I found someones abandoned towel on the beach and used that to get up here. Then nobody was home and I was kinda scared that you had moved or something.”
“I would never do that. I was waiting for you to come back.”
“I mean, I know that. But it took so damn long you can’t blame me for being a little nervous.”
“And how did you know we hadn’t moved?”
“You left your journal on the table beside your bed. I’d recognize it anywhere.” Bin smiles up at Dongmin and he pushes his way between the ex merman’s parted knees. He brushes his fingers through the soft, almost black locks. He leans up to kiss Dongmin on the cheek and then on the nose. It’s his turn to tease and Dongmin who lets a soft whine escape his parted lips. Bin’s teasing is much less effective as he is completely unable to deny Dongmin anything he wants when he’s looking at him like that. So he kisses him gently and he feels Dongmin smiling into it.
Bin pulls away when the need for air became too great and he takes in Dongmin’s delightfully ruffles appearance.
“So what now?” He asks.
“We keep kissing until Rocky gets home and freaks out at us for defiling the kitchen?” Dongmin answers with an innocent tilt of his head. Bin blushes.
“As wonderful as that sounds, you know that’s not what I meant.” Bin says entwining his fingers with Dongmin’s. Dongmin sighs and responds,
“I guess I find some place to live. And I get a job. But if you mean for the farther future? I want to go to school. I know that there is a lot of stuff that I need to learn, not to mention all the governmental stuff that I have to do but I like learning. And all I want to do right now is spend time with you and learn new things. And learn new things about you.” Dongmin finishes with a smile.
“I love you. And I’ll help you figure everything out. You should stay here while all of that is being figured out and I’ll call Myungjun’s mom in the morning and ask her how she did everything.”
“I love you too.” Dongmin says back. He still reminds Bin of the sea and big purple mountains that protect him and his heart. He still imagines songbirds with blue eyes and sweet music. He looks at Dongmin sitting on his kitchen counter just like he was always meant to be there and he knows that everything is gonna be alright.