A Touching Of Lips (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 5. Sleeplessness.

I couldn't sleep. My head was full of the information Ming and Pond had given me to the point that it felt like it was bursting.

I had chosen to help protect them. I had taken Ming's remark, if I didn't, to mean that I would die soon anyway. I don't know why I felt that, but it was a really strong feeling, not that I had any real hesitation in agreeing to help protect them. I had actually felt honoured to be asked.

Pond's face had lit up when I agreed. Ming then told me that Pond's sister, Fish, was unsure I was worth saving and had let me go in the water that day. Pond thought I was and rescued me. My decision to help them vindicated his insistence on saving me.

Ming and Pond had then explained everything to me.

It was by the touching of lips underwater that MerPeople could tell if a human could be trusted. They were able to see inside their minds and souls. Pond had said the reason Fish was unsure of me was she could sense a conflict between my heart and my mind. I was relieved to learn that Pond thought I was worth saving and went against his sister. He told me that because he was a boy too, he could understand what was troubling me.

I'm glad he could because I have no idea what they could be referring to.

When he said he was a boy too, that is stretching it somewhat. In MerPeople years he was 144. I learnt that every human year was equivalent to 8 in Mer years making him 18 and they aged very slowly. This meant that on land they led very nomadic lives, having to create a new identity in different places every so often to protect them from being recognised.

I learnt lots of other things too. That it was Fish that had retrieved my phone and camera from the sea bed, which answered the question of how they came to be with me when I was on the beach, and how Pond, and all Merman when on land, had to bathe for at least 30 minutes in sea water every day to stop his skin from drying out.

I learnt that Ming was not a Merman, but that he too had been rescued from drowning as a young boy, and now worked part time at the Bangkok Marine World Aquarium helping to look after any Merman that were on land and needing to soak in seawater. There was a secret network of people, in all walks of life, that were dedicated to helping and protecting them. All knowing pieces of the jigsaw, but never knowing or seeing the whole picture. It made incredible, yet fascinating listening. The fact that there were more Merman around enthralled me.

I was told that Merman only came on land for short lengths of time. Primarily it was to learn and to study, but they also came when it was necessary to protect or defend their environment. I was intrigued to learn that Pond was a member of a small unit of four Merman that had been sent on land to gather information regarding a suspected illegal marine development in the Gulf of Thailand. It was a development that threatened the area around their hereditary birthing caves, and if not thwarted could eventually lead to their discovery.

Ming said that he had been assigned to look after Pond, particularly at college. I wasn't told the reason why he was attending, but Ming was to be on hand in case he needed assistance and to help make sure he was safe from being discovered.

He said that stress could cause Mermen to replace their legs with tails almost instantly. It was a self preservation mechanism, that being 'young', he hadn't quite mastered yet..... that's if you can call being 144 young still. This was quite normal apparently, and something, only with practise, could he master. The other members of his unit were slightly older than him and mostly had this under control.

I had been intrigued to learn that Pond could speak 10 languages fluently. He looked more Chinese to me than Thai, so it didn't surprise me that much when he told me he originally came from island waters in the South China Sea, not far from Hong Kong. His real name was Sonchai, which seemed really funny to me as in Thai it means 'masculine', which really didn't quite suit him as much as his nickname Pond. He was actually what you would have described as a very pretty boy. His skin was flawless and incredibly smooth and I was imagining that if Ming was indeed gay, as Pang insisted he was, then Pond would make him an excellent boyfriend. Just the two of them sharing a room would give them every opportunity to indulge in nocturnal activities without causing any suspicion, if that was their thing.

I was dying to ask Ming if, in fact, he was gay, but the question of his sexuality never came up, and I was certainly not going to ask him outright just yet. I caught him looking at me a few times, and caught Pond looking at me too, but I had also been sneaking crafty looks at them, so I put it down to our common curiosity of each other and nothing else.

Pond seemed comfortable enough around Ming and gave me no indication as to what his sexuality was, that's if Merman had a human type of sexuality. That was something that would be interesting to find out. Pang could probably tell which way he swung, if anybody could, but I just knew she would say he was a bottom to Ming's top. I knew how her mind worked.

I looked at my phone to check the time. It was 1:30 in the morning.

Golf below me was breathing heavily, not snoring as such, and was well asleep. He had been watching a porno movie or something on his tablet when I had returned quite late. He had asked me where I had been and I just said helping Ming's roommate move in. He said nothing more and went back to watching his film.

Korn and Karn were cuddled up together on the bottom bunk opposite. Korn's bunk was on the top, but he always moved down to Karn once the lights went out. By the morning he was back in his own bunk. Korn was aware that both Golf and I knew, but it seemed to embarrass him for us to openly see them sleeping like that.

I was closer to Karn than I was to Korn, and not just because of the Music Club we both belonged to, and it was the only real time they were separated. Korn was not musically oriented but sporty and football was his passion. Karn was the opposite.

I had noticed Karn was highly sensitive and seemed more dependent on his twin than anyone else realised. Karn had secretly admitted to me that he needed to hold Korn before he could sleep. He described him as his security blanket.

Karn was the more intelligent, and more studious of the two of them, and carried his twin academically. Korn looked after his brother on the physical side of things, and was supportive when Karn was showing signs of depression. Something he suffered often with. What caused it I hadn't been told.

Together they were a formidable pair. Apart? They didn't stand out and appeared quite ordinary.

My thoughts turned back to Ming, and the way his eyes and face lit up when he smiled. I had already noticed the effect that his really cute eyes and a wicked smile had on me. My hand moved down inside my shorts to where Mister Happy was stirring and raising his head. I caressed him gently, until he was fully awake and demanding more action. I duly obliged and a short while later, my frustrations now satisfied, I settled down to sleep.