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Sora had been too giddy today for Riku’s liking from the getgo, to say the very least. The brunette had just about been running circles around him with how ecstatic he had been, a grin practically glued onto his face as he rambled on about some world that he wanted Riku to see.
World’s weren’t foreign to him. In fact, he had been to a handful of them himself. But, whatever Sora had been talking about, he was quite quick to realize that he hadn’t been to whatever world that his best friend-turned-boyfriend had been so intent about going to with him.
It was even further backed up as soon as he found himself encased in water, light filtering in from above as the sun shined down on the two boys underneath the water. It wa something that had Riku panicked at first, hands almost immediately being thrown to his neck as he registered that he couldn’t breath. They were underwater, and he was going to drown. His eyes were wide, a frantic feeling coursing throughout his body. Call it an adrenaline kick if you will, but the silver-haired boy was in hysterics when realizing the circumstance.
Sora on the other hand looked much too amused for the situation.
We’re going to drown! He wanted to scream, Why would you smile, if we’re both going to drown?
The thought of drowning never had been much of a pleasant thought to him. He couldn’t bear to imagine what a terrible death it would be, water filling your lungs until oxygen was entirely replaced with the liquid that was once beneficial to the human body. Suffocating, with only the fish to hear your cries and the ocean life being your witness.
It wasn’t much longer before he heard a laugh coming from the brunette he loved so dearly, an all too familiar grin painted on his face. “You’re fine, Riku! Come on!” He went into a fit of giggles, though was quick to put a hand over his mouth to try and suppress the laughter. “Try breathing! You’ll be okay, I promise!”
Riku couldn’t help but to give a pained glare in his direction. Breath? Breathing would only quicken the process even more! As much as he hated to admit it though, he was only coming closer and closer to needing some sort of breath. Against his better judgement, he took the leap of faith, and sucked in a breath— or, in this case, water.
But, rather than feeling the liquid flood his lungs, he felt a rush of oxygen filling them instead. He blinked once or twice, the wildness that was once in his eyes quickly faltering. “What…?” He mouthed the word, hand slowly dropping away from his neck. He could breathe. He could breathe perfectly fine, even though he was all too deep underwater.
His eyes locked on to Sora for some sort of understanding, Sora’s own blue eyes filled to the brim with amusement.
“Mermaids. You know what those are, right?” He giggled once more, doing a sudden flip in the water. “We’re Mer men. Pretty cool, huh?” He beamed at Riku, although the silver-haired boy was all too preoccupied on the glimpse of Sora’s tail he had caught.
Sora didn’t have a tail. Not once had he ever had a dolphin tail. For as long as he had known the other, he was positive of that fact.
But, it was then that it had clicked with him: form changes. It happened every now and then, from the few times he had dealt with it first hand. He supposed it would make sense anyways, with being under water. Hell, it was more efficient even considering the fact that it would’ve given better movement. That.. and, breathing was awfully important too.
He made a face, everything slowly clicking together as if he had found the missing piece of the puzzle. His eyes slowly trailed to where his legs had once been, replaced with a monochromatic tail. Or, as he recognized, it was an Orca tail. A Killer Whale. He watched on in awe, moving it just enough to process the feeling.
“We have tails.”
“ Uh-Huh! That’s sorta.. y’know- that’s the thing with mermaids. Uh- merman, too. They have tails.”
”We have tails, Sora. ”
Sora blinked once or twice. “Well, that’s the point, isn’t it? You said that before already, too.” Chuckling, he prodded a finger at Riku’s arm, grin remaining all the while. “You’re being silly. You’ve dealt with form changes before, haven’t you?”
Riku met Sora’s gaze finally, gawking at him. “I have. Nothing like this, though!” He answered, letting a hand run along the skin of the tail. It was an almost uncanny feeling, and it almost made him curious as to what other tails would feel like. Surely there would be different textures for different tails? His gaze trailed over to Sora’s dolphin-like tail. Which, the brunette following his gaze, he cocked his head to the side.
“What is it?” He asked curiously, clasping his hands together in front of himself. His tail swayed gently in the water, nothing more than a gentle current pushing at the two boys.
“Nothing. Just thinking.” Riku answered, swallowing back the odd anxiousness he felt. He flexed his fingers, before speaking again. “You’ve been here before, then?”
“Yep!” The other’s eyes lit up. “I have! It’s nice here, really! I think you’ll like it. I can show you around the palace, and you can meet Ariel, Sebastian…” he trailed off into a flurry of names, leaving Riku to pinch the bridge of his nose and wave his free hand quickly.
“Okay, okay. Slow down. ” He drew his bottom lip into his mouth ever so slightly for a moment. “I think… I need to adjust to this first.” For emphasis, he went to point a finger down to his tail. Sora mouthed a small “oh” before nodding enthusiastically, moving forward and reaching to grasp both of Riku’s hands in his. Eyes sparkling, he gave a mischrvious grin.
“So… I mean, first of all, you gotta make sure you know the movements. Like, moving your tail back and forth,” He began, words cheerful as ever. “From there on, I mean, it shouldn’t be too hard! You just gotta get the basic movements down.” He paused, before giving a joking wink. “Don’t be too jealous if you can’t keep up with me.”
Hearing the words, Riku snorted. “Jealous? In your dreams.” But, after he had spoken, he did go to try and follow through with what Sora had said: small movements, like letting his tail sway back and forth. It was beyond uncanny of a feeling, with just how odd it felt to have a tail rather than two legs.
Sora gave a small cheer, circling around him for a moment as he jokingly clapped his hands together. “Lookit that! You’re doing it, Riku!” He smiled happily, brown hair drifting with the small current.
Riku shot a glance in his direction, giving an almost timid grin. “Guess I am, huh?” He was getting used to it, albeit somewhat slowly. He was caught off guard suddenly however by Sora suddenly catching his hands in his, blue eyes locking onto his teal ones.
“Y’know, before you continue-“ He began, smugly almost as he cracked a toothy smile. “I think you gotta get a motivator, yeah? Partial reward, sorta.” He had to cut himself off before he began to ramble anymore, but he went to loop his arms around Riku’s waist soon enough and rest his hand against the small of his back.
Riku quickly found his face flushing, eyes searching Sora’s. “What’re you—“ he couldn’t finish however, cut off by the sudden feeling of Sora’s lips against his. Eyes going wide for a moment, he froze up for only a second or so before practically melting into the kiss.
Before he knew it, the moment that seemed to draw out finally ended as a Sora pulled away, grinning yet again. “There!” Giggling, he went to tap his index finger against Riku’s lips gently. “A motivator. Now..” he hummed, turning his head to look off in a specific direction.
“Over there!” He chirped, pointing in the particular area as he already began to swim off, giving a bit of his tail against the water as he cheerfully waved a had to Riku. “C’mon! I’ll wait for you if you need me to!” He giggled a bit as he turned onto his back to glance back to Riku.
Riku, grazing his fingers against his lips for a second, nervously cleared his throat as he followed after Sora, for once feeling a tad bit flustered.
“You don’t have to wait for me, I’m coming!” He retorted, earning another laugh from Sora as he waited for the other merman to catch up.
A motivator indeed.