"Ugh."
Lansi clutched his neck and woke up with a sudden start.
[Wake up—time—to—eat—a—meal—]
The moment Lansi opened his eyes, he saw the little turtle crouching directly on his face, staring down at him "kindly." Startled, Lansi sat up abruptly, only to realize that dawn was already breaking.
He picked up his communicator to check the time and found it was only five o'clock in the morning.
"Where is Winsor?" Lansi looked over at the blanket. The other half was empty; Winsor was nowhere to be found.
[Back—to—the—sea—] the little turtle drone answered.
"Why do I think the look in your eyes is so weird?" Lansi remarked as he got up and began packing away his things.
The little turtle shook its head, offering no answer, and quietly waddled away.
It wasn't until Lansi finished folding the blankets that it suddenly clicked. Wasn't that the exact look a shipper gives their favorite couple? No wonder the little turtle's gaze had felt so deeply "kind."
After clearing up their sleeping area, Lansi found a piece of grilled fish that Winsor had left behind for him. He sat down on the beach, nibbling on the fish while trying to recall what he had dreamed about last night.
Unfortunately, Lansi could only vaguely remember that the dream seemed to involve Winsor, and that it wasn't anything good—it had nearly scared him to death. Beyond that, his mind was a complete blank.
"Alas, it would be great if Winsor were here" Lansi thought. "Maybe being around him would help bring back the memories."
He continued to chew on the fish and noticed it was still warm, indicating that Winsor hadn't been gone for very long.
Once he finished eating, Lansi remained on the shore, staring out at the endless sea in a daze. He turned the communicator over in his hands, debating whether he should talk to Winsor. But then he remembered that Winsor didn't want him going ashore in the first place. If he showed Winsor the contents of the device, would Winsor get angry?
Lansi went back to staring at the screen, re-reading the messages he had seen earlier. He was still caught in a deep internal struggle over whether or not to reply to the person who had texted him.
Before he could resolve his dilemma, a sharp "clack" by his feet startled him.
A pearl had dropped onto the sand. It was massive—about the size of Lansi's fist—and gleamed a distinct shade of purple. Lansi nudged the purple sphere with his foot. Feeling its cool, smooth, rounded weight, he realized it was entirely real.
Why were pearls suddenly raining down?
Lansi raised his head toward the water, only to see several massive, black tentacles breaking through the surface, waving playfully at him. Lansi's mouth parted in surprise.
The black tentacles began to advance. Under Lansi's astonished gaze, they slithered forward one by one, each carrying a pearl neatly cupped in its tip. Before long, a small mountain of pearls, ranging from large to small, was piled high at Lansi's feet.
Lansi's initial shock quickly dissolved into a bright smile. He watched affectionately as the tentacles deposited their treasures, counting them aloud: "One, two, three, four..."
After a flurry of activity, the black tentacles finally stilled. A moment later, one of them slowly lowered itself, offering the largest pearl directly to Lansi.
"Thirty-one," Lansi said with a smile, counting the final piece as it was handed to him.
The thirty-first pearl.
Back when they were staying among the coral bones, he had collected exactly thirty-one pearls. In those days, they had used them to play catch and to block off their "escape channels." Lansi had always been terrified that the tentacles would discover his secret schemes, so out of sheer boredom and anxiety, he would count those pearls every single day when he had nothing else to do. Every single time, the count was thirty-one.
Lansi had always felt that the largest pearl was the most valuable, so he had given it special treatment back then, bringing it into his anemone to use as a makeshift pillow.
However, all of those pearls had been left behind in the coral bones when Lansi made his escape. Sometimes, when he thought back to that collection, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of regret. He never expected that the black tentacles would actually return to the deep sea just to retrieve those pearls from the coral bones, one by one.
"Are these for me?" Lansi asked.
The tip of the black tentacle nodded, continuing to proffer the pearl-wrapped tip toward him.
A bright smile spilled into Lansi's eyes. Compared to his time in the coral bones—where he had to endure constant terror while pretending to playfully play catch with the creature—Lansi felt completely relaxed this time. He knew now that these black tentacles belonged to Winsor, and that Winsor was using his own unique way to please him.
`[PROPOSE—]`
The little turtle appeared out of nowhere, shouting hoarsely.
Lansi was taken aback. He looked at the black tentacles stretched out before him, then at the little turtle, his face suddenly flushing crimson.
Truth be told, the image of the black tentacles presenting the treasures really did resemble a human holding out a diamond ring to propose to a lover.
`[PROMISE—SAY—YES—TO—HIM—]` the little turtle roared on.
After its final shout, the little turtle promptly retracted its limbs into its shell and went *roll, roll, roll* away.
It was surprisingly considerate. Retreating like that not only helped warm up the atmosphere between Lansi and Winsor, but it also saved Lansi from total embarrassment.
"H-how can this possibly be considered a marriage proposal?" Lansi stammered awkwardly, twisting his fingers as he spoke to the black tentacles.
He didn't want Winsor to actually understand what the little turtle was shouting about, lest he try to copy humans and orchestrate some incredibly flamboyant, over-the-top proposal. This quiet gesture was perfectly fine as it was.
Fortunately, the black tentacles didn't seem to pay the turtle's words any mind. They simply nudged forward again, beckoning Lansi to take the prize.
Lansi looked at the tentacles, finally stepping forward to carefully gather the massive, rounded pearl into his arms. He cradled it tightly against his chest.
Even after delivering the final pearl, the tentacle didn't retreat.
Lansi patted the smooth sphere in his arms and asked the appendage, "What's wrong?" He had assumed the straight shot from the deep sea was solely meant for delivering gifts.
The tentacle naturally couldn't voice an answer. Instead, a tiny tip reached out, shyly wrapping around Lansi's wrist and gently tugging him toward the water.
*Is he asking me to come into the sea?* Lansi wondered.
Though a bit confused, he gladly agreed. Setting the giant pearl safely aside on the sand, he shed his clothes, ran happily toward the waiting tentacles, and dove into the surf.
The moment he submerged, Lansi transformed back into a mermaid, his gossamer white tail rippling elegantly through the currents. Following the guidance of the small tentacle looped around his wrist, he swam deeper into the ocean.
"Every time you manifest as tentacles, what does your actual body look like?" Lansi asked curiously, flicking his tail as he stared at the slender appendages leading him forward. "Are you just a giant octopus?"
Recalling the time Winsor had split himself into a tiny, cute octopus, Lansi couldn't help but laugh. Was it possible that every time Winsor deployed the black tentacles, his main body was just squatting in the distance, stretching his limbs out over miles of ocean floor?
The black tentacles seemed entirely helpless in the face of his teasing. One gently tapped Lansi on the forehead before continuing to guide him into the abyss. Lansi didn't resist; he simply held onto the tip of the tentacle and let it pull him along.
Slowly, gracefully, they drifted downward.
At last, Lansi spotted a black-tailed mermaid waiting in the shadows: Winsor.
The black tentacles gradually shrank, dissolving into dark shadows that melted seamlessly back into Winsor's body.
"Winsor!" Lansi opened his arms.
Carried by his own swimming momentum, he drifted straight toward the dark mermaid. As the white merman glided through the depths, his translucent, gauze-like tail fanned out in the water. Lansi settled into Winsor's embrace like a pristine white lotus petal drifting to rest.
Winsor wrapped his arms securely around Lansi's waist, pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead. "Do you understand now?" he asked, having chosen to show rather than tell.
"Understand what?" Lansi shook his head, intentionally playing dense. "I don't get it. Let me ask you—were those tentacles really you?"
Winsor hadn't expected Lansi to play coy. He let out a soft sigh, finally realizing that his little fish was deliberately waiting for a proper, spoken confession.
Left with no choice, Winsor finally nodded his head. "Yes. I am the tentacle."
"Then what exactly did you want to do to me in the first place?" Lansi pressed on. Having caught Winsor in a rare moment of vulnerability, Lansi felt incredibly smug, his white fish tail sweeping playfully back and forth against the sea sand.
Winsor let out a light cough, clearing his throat. "Time should be up soon," he deflected.
"What time?" Lansi froze for a moment, wondering why the other mermaid had suddenly changed the subject.
However, the moment he looked up, he was completely stunned by the scenery before him.
The place Winsor had brought him to was a massive coral colony. Vibrant rows of colorful coral and sea anemones swayed gracefully in the shallow water, drifting with the current. And now, as the water temperature in the ocean began to rise, countless corals and anemones were simultaneously releasing their spawn.
Tiny, translucent white spheres drifted out from their parent bodies, scattering into the ocean currents. Before long, the entire sea looked as though it were snowing, filling the water with a flurry of white "little snowflakes."
"So beautiful..." Lansi was instantly captivated. He reached out a hand, attempting to touch a winter landscape that belonged exclusively to the ocean.
Amid the kaleidoscope of corals, these white snowflakes didn't feel lonely or cold like the snow on land; instead, they burst with an incomparable, vibrant life.
"Do you like it?" Winsor asked. He had noticed that Lansi's tail was swishing happily, a clear sign of the sheer excitement bubbling in his heart.
"I love it."
After watching the display for a few moments, Lansi happily let go of Winsor and swam off into the open water, darting around as if trying to catch the floating embers of life.
Watching him, Winsor couldn't help but feel amused, followed by a profound sense of relief. He had wanted to confess outright that he was the monster with the black tentacles who had tried to imprison him before, but he had been terrified that Lansi would flee in fear. That was why he had sought out this specific location. With a view this breathtaking, Winsor had hoped Lansi would be too enchanted to be afraid.
Indeed, Lansi was overjoyed. He completely forgot to keep interrogating Winsor, not caring in the slightest that his question had been dodged. The ethereal beauty of the underwater snowfall was far too alluring; Lansi had so much fun darting through the currents that he temporarily forgot about Winsor entirely.
After weaving through the swirling white particles for a while, Lansi opened his mouth out of curiosity and swallowed a handful of the "snowflakes."
Winsor: "..."
"The texture is just like jelly," Lansi concluded, finally swimming back to Winsor's side after his impromptu snack. He smacked his lips thoughtfully and added, "It tastes a bit like lychee."
"Lychee?" Winsor blinked, his train of thought utterly derailed by Lansi's critique. "What does a lychee taste like?"
Winsor had spent his entire existence in the deep ocean and had never set foot on land. As for his past human incarnation, Wen Yu, he had lived through the apocalypse—an era where lychees had long since gone extinct, meaning he had never tasted one either.
"You don't know?" Lansi tilted his head. Then, right under Winsor's watchful gaze, he leaned in and kissed him.
Winsor froze, his entire body going stiff as he allowed Lansi to have his way.
Though Lansi's sudden action seemed bold, he was actually incredibly shy. Once his lips met Winsor's, he only dared to softly nibble at Winsor's lower lip, timidly darting the tip of his tongue inside for a gentle lick.
Faced with an invitation like this, remaining passive would have been downright criminal.
Winsor took the initiative, instantly deepening the kiss. He tasted a hint of crisp coldness and sweetness from Lansi's mouth, leaving him momentarily dazed, unable to tell if the flavor belonged to the coral spawn Lansi had just eaten or if it was simply Lansi's own natural taste.
After a passionate moment, Lansi suddenly broke the kiss. He let out a soft hiccup.
"What's wrong?" Winsor placed a hand on Lansi's waist. If his senses weren't mistaken, Lansi's body temperature felt highly unusual.
"I'm a little hot," Lansi murmured, letting go of Winsor with a dazed expression, looking thoroughly intoxicated. "You... why do you smell so good?"
Lansi raised his head to look at Winsor, his eyes clouded with a hazy confusion as his body heat continued to climb.
Things were taking a turn. Because he was so happy and the ocean temperature was exactly right, Lansi's deep-seated instincts were overriding his mind.
He wanted to court.
Ever since leaving the nesting grounds, Lansi had been rigidly suppressing his natural urges. But now, completely yielding to his primal nature in the heart of the ocean, he could no longer hold back. His mind was an absolute blur. He didn't know who he was or where he was anymore; all he knew was that there was a perfect figure standing right in front of him, and he desperately wanted to entwine his tail with Winsor's, never to be separated again.
Guided by ancient instincts, Lansi began to sway his fish tail rhythmically before Winsor. He started swimming in slow, hypnotic circles around the dark mermaid, humming the enchanting, ethereal melodies of the sirens.
Watching the white mermaid perform his courtship dance in the water, Winsor was stunned. Was this a surprise reward? He never expected that resolving their misunderstanding would lead to Lansi courting him so openly.
For a moment, Winsor couldn't help but feel a pang of regret. "If only I had confessed sooner."
Regardless of Winsor's internal monologue, Lansi's humming grew louder and more resonant when he saw that the dark mermaid wasn't moving. He arched his waist, his white, veil-like tail fin fluttering like liquid silk as he drifted closer and closer to Winsor.
He arched his waist, his white, veil-like tail fin fluttering as he drifted closer and closer to Winsor.
When Lansi opened his eyes again, he was locked in a deep kiss with Winsor. His white fish tail was tightly entwined with Winsor's black one, and beneath them lay a bed of soft sea anemones. Outside their shelter, the ocean snowfall continued to drift. Lansi lay on his back, gazing out at the shifting, rippling layers of the blue water. His heart hammered wildly against his ribs, overflowing with a dizzying sense of joy.
"What are you looking at?" Winsor murmured, pausing to gently rub his cheek against Lansi's.
"I'm looking at you," Lansi whispered, wrapping his arms tightly around Winsor. He buried his face into the crook of Winsor's neck, his fingers tracing the smooth lines of the dark mermaid's back.
He smelled incredible—so fragrant. How could anyone smell this good?
In response, Winsor held Lansi securely by the waist, his other hand sliding into Lansi's white hair, his fingers threading through the strands down to the roots. Cuddled tightly together, the two of them could hear the synchronized rhythm of each other's heartbeats.
"I'm so hot..." Lansi muttered. A sudden warmth flared in his abdomen, gradually spreading throughout his entire body and pooling down toward his tail.
Instinctively, his white tail tightened its grip around the black tail. The delicate scales along his lower abdomen parted slightly, allowing the tender skin beneath to press against Winsor's smooth, firm belly scales. The dark mermaid's scales were delightfully cool, offering a brief respite from the burning heat.
Faced with an invitation like this, how could anyone hold back?
Winsor chuckled softly, a low rumble against Lansi's chest. "Silly fish."
Male mermaids possessed a reproductive cavity as well, though it remained recessed under normal circumstances. However, that didn't mean it couldn't be used—it was simply hidden lower down, protected beneath a layer of specialized scales.
Coaxing him gently, Winsor waited until the exact moment Lansi completely relaxed into the embrace. Taking advantage of his vulnerability, Winsor guided himself in with a smooth, seamless motion.
Caught off guard by the sudden, intense fullness, Lansi let out a series of startled, breathless hiccups. His tail fin slapped against Winsor a few times in a flurry of mild protest, but Winsor remained entirely unbothered, anchoring them both in place.
Seeing that Winsor wasn't backing down, Lansi's eyes welled with tears of overwhelming sensation. "It feels strange..." he whimpered, a bit overwhelmed.
As he wept, tiny, shimmering pearls spilled from his eyes, drifting down one by one to nestle into the soft anemone below.
"It will feel better in a moment," Winsor promised, his voice tight as he exercised immense self-control.
As the black fish tail shifted rhythmically, its dark scales flared and settled, lightly brushing against the ultra-sensitive skin of Lansi's white tail. The sensation was a dizzying mix of sweet ache and unbearable friction.
Amid the rippling currents, Lansi instinctively tried to pull away, but his white tail refused to cooperate. It was as if his tail had a mind of its own, remaining locked in a tight, unyielding embrace with Winsor's dark form.
Outside, the white "snowflakes" continued to drift through the deep, gradually carried away into the horizon by the ocean currents. Perhaps, not too far from here, they would settle in the perfect spot on the seabed, and from that very ground, a beautiful new coral reef would grow.