The Surfer and the Merman CH20

Arun stared at the small piece of paper in his hands that he had found taped to the door of Skye's bedroom. Barely knowing anything about the English written language, Arun struggled with the words for a few minutes.

"Going... on a...." Arun paused at the next word, unsure of how to pronounce it, "Be.. back... later."

The burgundy-haired boy brought the note close to his face and focused directly on the word that he had skipped.

"Dah-tee?" Arun guessed. He repeated the word a few times out loud before he realized what it was.

"Date!!" He exclaimed.

He paused for a moment, and the happiness of accomplishing his goal of reading the note quickly faded into dread.

"Wait, that means you're gone for the day??" Arun gasped and the note slipped from his hands.

He dashed back into the television room where he and the other mermen slept. The small boy snatched up another piece of paper that was on the bed.

"So you're ALL leaving me then??" Arun complained as he read the note again that was written in Nagisa's handwriting.

"Going out for...." Arun couldn't read the last word, so he decided to spell it out loud, "B-U-S-I-N-E-S-S....."

Arun crumpled up the paper and tossed it across the room.

"Gaaaah! Why can't you just write 'date'??"






Meanwhile, Skye and Cyan were walking down the streets of the shopping center. They had passed the thrift stores that they had visited previously. Cyan wore black, pleaded shorts and a short-sleeved button-down shirt that had a skinny black tie connected. Covering him was one of Skye's sweaters, which was far too big for him, but it kept him warm from the increasingly cold winter weather. Skye wore plain jeans and a long-sleeved, striped shirt, and felt that he didn't need a jacket. The weather was especially cold on this day. The sky was pure white and slight fog crept along the tops of the store roofs.

Cyan's eyes darted around at all the fascinating objects that the stores had on display. Skye stared more at Cyan than the stores; he found the young boy's excitement at small things to be positively adorable.

"Any place you want to stop at, just ask," Skye suggested.

The giddy merman brought his attention away from the shops to beam at his lover. He looked around to decide which place to go to first, but a noise made him pause in his thoughts. It sounded very similar to a dog barking, if a dog had a mega-phone in front of it, that is. The sound echoed through the streets, but Skye could tell where it was coming from. The Morro Bay Aquarium, a place he hadn't visited since he was a kid.

"A sea lion!" Cyan exclaimed.

"Want to go check it out? It's not far from here," Skye asked.

It took only a few minutes to walk down to where the aquarium was. It was a small building, right alongside the bay water. Skye remembered how small it was, and how it hadn't changed since his childhood. He knew that they wouldn't have to worry about crowds.

They both entered the aquarium into a gift shop and proceeded to buy admission. Cyan immediately dashed inside to the first exhibit, which was the sea lion cage.

"Don't lean to far!" Skye warned as Cyan leaned against the short bars of the cage.

Even though Cyan was who Skye loved, the surfer still didn't know everything about the merman. Cyan was always full of surprises, and Skye wasn't sure if Cyan would jump into the cage and go for a swim or not.

The sea lions continued to bark like dogs, and a few went to the bars and held their mouths wide open while continuing to make loud, demanding noises.

"They're hungry..." Cyan said sadly.

"Here," Skye said as he handed him a small paper bag, which he had purchased when he bought admission.

"What is it..." Cyan began, but soon found out that it was full of fish heads.

Skye took one out without hesitation and tossed it over the bars where it disappeared in one of the sea lion's open mouths. The blonde turned to Cyan to see if he would follow his lead.

"Don't do that!" Skye gasped as he stopped Cyan who was only milliseconds away from popping a fish head into his mouth.

Cyan stared at him in confusion.

"I-I'll buy you lunch later... Save those for the sea lions," Skye explained and laughed nervously.

A sea lion began to slap its fin on its side to get Cyan's attention.

"Good... he didn't eat it..." Skye thought as he was relieved to see Cyan happily feed the sea lions their fishy lunch.

After they had run out of yummy fish heads, the two boys entered the next room. It was very dark inside, the only light came from inside assorted large fish tanks spread out across the room. Cyan peered inside through the glass. Inside was an orange octopus, sitting calmly on the cage floor and gently swaying with the water. He turned to face Skye.

"I haven't seen one of those since I was really small..." Cyan said in awe to Skye.

Skye merely nodded in response, he was too focused on how the glowing blue light looked on Cyan's face, and how it made his teal eyes glow. The light hitting the water reflected against Cyan, as if he were underwater himself. Cyan then looked back at the octopus, bringing Skye's mind back to reality.

The blonde glanced around and discovered that, besides themselves, there were only two other people and they were on the other side of the room. Skye decided to take his chance and stood behind Cyan and wrapped his arms around his shoulders. The smaller boy brought his hands up to Skye's arms in an attempt to return the embrace. Through the reflection on the glass, Skye could see just how much Cyan was blushing.

"There aren't that many people today," Cyan mentioned. He must have been worrying about the same thing Skye was.

"Yeah, I'm glad we chose this place," Skye said and placed a quick kiss on Cyan's ear. Skye could feel the merman shiver in his arms.

"You're not... worried about hiding...this?" Cyan asked after deciding his words carefully.

"What do you mean?" Skye asked as he rested his chin on Cyan's shoulder.

"When we're in public, you used to never do stuff like this... and even with Gwen, you call me your 'friend'," Cyan said. "Not that I'm upset or anything! I'm just wondering..."

Skye paused.

"Is it... something weird? It's not normal, is it? What we're doing..." Cyan mumbled.

"I want to keep you a secret, that's all. Especially when it comes to Gwen. If she found out that we were together, she would instantly become curious about you, and that might create problems. I just don't want so much attention drawn to you. After what happened, with that one asshole..." Skye stopped himself before he could go on an angry rant about Asher.

"But other than that... is it weird? Us being together?" Cyan asked.

"I'm hugging you right now, aren't I?" Skye pointed out as he squeezed Cyan tighter, causing Cyan to giggle.

"Don't worry about it," Skye reassured Cyan as he took the merman's chin into his hands and brought his lips to his own.