Everything's Prettier Underwater

Chapter 10: Land of the Morning Calm

When Seungmin woke up, it was to a slightly suffocating heat and a weird mix of textures rubbing against his skin. Opening his eyes with a groan, he saw the sun barely rising over the horizon, showing how early it was. Turning his head, he realized that he was laying in the middle of a gigantic cuddle pile, that mixed skin, scales and sand. It was also a little humid, but not as much as he would've expected while being surrounded by 5 merboys.

Sitting up slowly, he let the sleeping bag fall down to his waist and shook off the sand that was stuck in his hair. He heard some groans as the people around him rearranged themselves and gasped in surprise when he ended up with a tailfin straight in his lap. He chuckled and followed it all the way up to Jisung's face, seeing the shark boy cutely frown in his sleep.

A hand wrapping around his waist tightly surprised him, the scientist turning sharply to his right. He was met with a glare from Changbin, who held him tighter and burrowed his black tail under Seungmin's sleeping bag.

"'s too early... g'back to sleep..."

Seungmin had to say, he was not expecting to have Changbin be the one pod member that cuddled him like this in his sleep. But neither was he expecting Jisung to be sprawled all over him, so his half-asleep brain was understandably confused. Looking behind Changbin, he managed to see Felix cuddling the mer's broad back and Hyunjin right behind the freckled boy, snoring lightly, his horn thankfully pointing far away from the group.

On his left, behind Jisung, he wasn't surprised to see Jeongin breathing calmly with a small smile on his face. The youngest's arm sneaked under Jisung's head and his hand reached up to where Seungmin would've been laying down, giving him a comfortable pillow all night long.

A wave of unconditional adoration submerged the pink-haired human, at how easily those boys had let him in their pod, and in their little bubble of love and safety. Not only had they accepted him, but they were willing to make some sacrifices for him. Just thinking about them not hesitating to come out of hiding and sing for him to get back to them still pulled something deep inside of Seungmin's chest. Those sacrifices didn't even need to be very big to move him though; just the fact that they'd all willingly spent the night with him, on the beach, despite their drying scales and the obvious discomfort it must've brought, already meant a lot to him.

Stretching his arms up to the sky, Seungmin took stock of his own body and how he felt and was surprised when he discovered that he was still sore, but definitely less hurting than he thought he'd be after the day he'd had. His eyes scanned the little cove for a moment, trying to spot the two missing merboys and allowing himself some time to wake up properly. The cove, with its white sand and clear water, was definitely a little corner of paradise. From his spot, he could actually see the rising sun framed by the two tall cliffs that protected them from the wind, allowing only a gentle breeze to pass through and ruffle the biologist's hair softly. The cove wasn't that big, but it fit his boat comfortably and still allowed space for the boys to swim around, which was probably why they knew about this spot in the first place.

His eyes landed on a lone figure sitting in the water, watching him. With a smile, he disentangled himself from the cuddle pile, leaving behind a disgruntled Changbin who quickly latched onto Jisung instead. After carefully stretching his limbs some more, he walked down to the shore, sitting next to the figure that had crawled out of the waves to settle on the wet sand.

"Hello Minho hyung" he smiled at the older, admiring the way Minho's golden scales were glistening under the sun rays, almost like melting gold.

"Good morning little human" the merman smiled back at him, one of his hands going to caress Seungmin's cheek. "Did I just hear you call me by the same title you gave Chan?" his voice sounded teasing, but there was no denying that his cheekbones were colored the same red as the tips of his fins.