Love is a game (Love in the air collection)

Old Friends, New loves

The beautiful selkie glided through the water towards the small island. Phayu seldom came to shore, the human world didn't interest him, but now one of his people is missing and it's Phayu's duty as leader to try to find him.

Phayu probably would have done so anyway, Prapai was his best friend and like a brother to him. The problem was Pai loved humans, a little too much to be honest. He was always leaving their underwater kingdom to chase after one human or another.

Usually Pai only needed a single encounter and he was satisfied or sometimes he would just forget about the human he had his sights on after a few days. However his latest human obsession, a tall black haired boy Pai had spotted on the deck of a small fishing boat, he had been searching for almost four months. Visiting all the local human inhabited islands in hopes of finding the boy. Two weeks ago Pai had headed to this island and he hadn't returned.

Phayu heads to the beach and removes his seal skin so he will blend in with the humans. He carefully stashes it away in a small hidden cave, and steals some human's clothes he finds drying near the edge of a small village.

Rain walks slowly down the beach, tears filling his eyes. A fresh bruise was forming on his cheek. He had run away that morning after being hit by his mistress for knocking over a bottle of expensive oil while he was helping with the kitchen. Now he didn't know what to do. If he went back he would be beaten for sure for running away, but where else did he have to go?

Normally he might have gone to his friend Sky for advice, but no one had seen Sky leave his house for two weeks. One of the village boys had been bringing fresh food to his house daily and had started a rumor that there was a handsome but ill stranger there that Sky was taking care of. So instead of going to his friend Rain had headed to the beach.

Now he walks along the small beach, heading for his favorite spot, a small hidden cave at the edge of the ocean. To his surprise there is a man coming out of the cave, and what's more the man is completely naked. This surprises him enough that he stops crying, his eyes opening wide. Rain quickly hides behind a large rock, peeking around at the man. "He is so handsome." Rain whispers.

Once the man is out of sight, Rain goes to the cave. He sees something shiny behind a rock and pulls out a beautiful seal pelt that seems to glow in the dark cave. Rain strokes it thinking something seems familiar about this pelt. The family he works for has plenty of animal furs all around their house and Rain even has an old tattered one that he is allowed to sleep under. The feeling here is somehow different though. It's as if he has somehow found a piece of his unremembered past.

One aspect of a selkies magic is that they automatically understand languages of any creature they are in contact with. This comes in handy as Phayu questions the villagers. That along with his charming smile and stunning good looks soon put the villagers to ease and they tell him about the rumors of a man staying with Sky in his house outside the village. They describe Sky as a reclusive boy just out of his teens that had come to the village a few years ago and taken residence in his family's house that had previously been abandoned for two decades. Their physical description of him also matches that of Pai's missing human, Phayu can't help but note.

He uses the directions the villagers give him to make his way to Sky's house. Somehow he isn't surprised when he sees Pai sitting on the front porch of the large house, although how frail he looks is a little bit of a shock. Pai greets him with a large smile though. "Yu, miss me so much you had to come find me?"

"You've been gone for two weeks, of course I came to find you." Phayu says exasperated.

"It's a long story, I came to this village looking for my boy, but I was caught naked in a storm. Turns out my Sky is the one that found me." Pai says.