Chapter 71: The Secret of Ouran Bay

"C'mon, Nēchan! Since when do you let me beat you to the top?"

"Shut up. You always complain that I leave you in the dust. I was trying to be nice."

"I think you've been skipping your training days at the dojo."

Jin paused in her climb, gaping up at her sister. Haruhi snickered and kept moving up the rocky terrain. She clambered up onto a large rock that jutted out on the side of the trail and stopped for a second, looking back at Jin with another witty quip on her tongue. Between one blink and the next Jin had passed her. Now it was Haruhi's turn to gape. She stumbled after Jin, but there was no point trying to catch up. Jin bounded up the slope with ease, kicking loose dirt and rocks back down the hill in her wake.

Less than a minute later, Jin crested the edge of the hill and finally stopped, catching her breath and allowing Haruhi to join her. Her calf muscles burned, as did her lungs, but there was a thrill in the ache that Jin honestly loved. Judging by the sweat that soaked Haruhi's shirt and her bright red face as she wheezed, it was not a mutually shared love.

Jin rolled her eyes playfully and held out a hand, pulling her sister the last two steps back onto flat ground. Haruhi limped another four steps forward and collapsed onto a boulder, breathing heavily and occasionally coughing. Jin moved to stand by her sister, swinging the small bag off her back and pulling out a bottle of water. Haruhi lunged for the bottle, cradling it in her hands but not drinking it just yet. Jin appreciated Haruhi's aversion to choking. Especially after the long walk it took to get up here in the first place. She would not be thrilled if she was forced to immediately carry Haruhi back down to the beach and pray there was a doctor on hand.

Pushing her flyways out of her face, Jin looked around. When she had first discovered the faintly worn footpath on the edge of the beach, she and Haruhi had walked along the tree line down to the water, trying to see where it was supposed to lead. The vegetation had hidden everything from view, so the only course of action was to follow the trail itself. After all, they had come to the beach for the purpose of finding something new. Having grown up just a few blocks away from the ocean, they'd been shocked to actually find a place they had never explored before. Now, finally getting to see the fruits of their labors, Jin decided the journey was well worth it.

Their long hike up the steep incline had spit them out on a rectangle of stone, most likely the top of a cliff. Jin carefully made her way closer to the edge and craned her head to search for the bottom. The stone jutted out over the ocean, waves crashing against the base at an angle Jin couldn't see. The distance down to the water made her vision swim a bit so she backed off. They weren't guaranteed to die should they fall… but they should definitely avoid the edge all the same.

Facing the ocean, trees and thick vegetation lined the long sides of the cliff, while behind them the stone narrowed into another thin, overgrown path of sand heading back in the direction of the road that bridged between town and the local beach. Jin wracked her brain, trying to remember if she'd ever seen where that path ended, but came up empty. Which was weird, because she and Haruhi had been walking down that road to the beach ever since their parents carried them as babies.

Jin stared out towards the horizon, a few drops of ocean spray kicking up over the lip of the rock to splash over her toes. Haruhi stood and slowly shuffled her way to stand beside her, pressing the water bottle back into Jin's hands along the way. Jin took a couple gulps and stuffed the bottle back into her bag before following Haruhi's careful movements. The two approached the edge and stopped five steps away from tumbling over. Haruhi dropped to her knees and crawled a few more inches, peering up and down the shoreline.

"Hey! I think I see a house down there!"

"Down where?" Jin inched a little closer, leaning over her sister. Haruhi pointed to the left, opposite from where they'd come from. Jin stretched her neck a little more and, sure enough, she saw a rather grand looking beach house off in the distance. For a moment she thought it was a temple, but then noticed the large bay windows and the yacht tied to the docks at the base of the stairs that lead down from the house. The beach it stood guard over was empty, a stark difference from the dense population on the beach the sisters had just come from.

"It must be private property. Remember that gate over the road with the sign 'Private'? That must lead here. Wow, what a safe haven."

"Yeah." Haruhi tilted her head in thought. "Hey, there's no one up on this rock and the path was hard to find… you don't think this is also private property, do you?"

"Private, huh?"

Jin spun around, eyes widening in shock. Three boys climbed over the edge of the rock from the same path the girls had used. They staggered over, wearing matching grins that promised trouble. The guy in the middle, the one who spoke, drained the last of his beer can before tossing the trash off into trees. "Does that mean we're alone, Cutie?"

Jin took a defensive stance while Haruhi scrambled to her feet. Jin quickly pulled her sister behind her. "We didn't know it was private. We were just leaving."

"Aw, and not enjoy the view? C'mon, no one knows we're up here." The three boys closed in on them. Jin tried not to show her worry on her face, but it was impossible to not be nervous. They were cornered. Even though she could defend herself just fine, throwing Haruhi in the mix made the situation complicated. Especially given her perchance to-

"Just leave us alone, you jerks! We aren't interested."

-escalate.

The middle guy, most likely the leader of this merry troop, looked down at Haruhi and curled his lip. Shit. He was the kind of guy who took offense when girls turned him down.

"What'd you just say? In case you didn't notice, squirt, I wasn't talking to you. I'm interested in the pretty one. Now, why don't you run along and leave the adults alone?"

Jin didn't have time to think. One second the boy was reaching out in Haruhi's direction, the next, Jin had punched him square in the jaw. Her left hook wasn't as powerful as her right, but his head still snapped back before he fell to the ground. His friends screamed in shock.

"Aki!"

"You bitch!"

The guy on the left lunged forward and grabbed Jin by the elbow. She swung her right fist but he pulled his head back fast enough to dodge. Without missing a beat, Jin stepped forward and followed her fist with her elbow, slamming it into his face with a satisfying crunch. He screamed and let go, cupping his hands over his broken nose. Jin kicked him in the chest, knocking him down on top of Aki who was trying to crawl away on his hands and knees. Jin turned, hands up and ready to fight off the third boy, just in time to see Haruhi bite down hard on the hand holding her wrist.

The boy yelped, but didn't let her go. "You Runt! I'll teach you to mess with me!"

"Wait, no!" Jin jumped forward and grabbed the back of his shirt right as he shoved Haruhi backwards off the edge of the cliff and into the sea. The boy spun around, arms up to defend himself. Jin's hold on his shirt pulled her around. The toe of her sandal caught the edge of the rock. The shirt fabric slipped through her fingers and she threw her hands out to catch herself, but there was nothing there. With a scream, Jin tumbled headfirst after Haruhi towards the dark water below.

Jin spun through the air, momentarily timeless. She barely had a moment to whisper a prayer before she hit the water and the world went dark.

Jin woke up to the sound of arguing. Her whole body hurt, so she lay still for a moment and listened. It was the sound of two boys, and for a second she started to panic, worried the boys from the top of the cliff had come back. But then a sharp voice cut across the other and she relaxed. The voices she was hearing now were much deeper than the three she'd heard up on the cliff. Maybe these were the lifeguards? How had they seen them fall?

"Tamaki, we need to go!"

"But what if they're hurt? We should get them up to the road, at least!"

"And do what? Leave them to be run over? This was an idiotic plan to begin with."

"Kyoya! We couldn't leave them to drown!"

"Yes, we could've! If our families knew what we were doing we'd be in so much trouble-"

"Shh! I think mine is waking up!"

Jin felt her heart lodge itself in her throat when someone groaned off to her right. She recognized the voice. Haruhi! Jin started to turn her head, but a nasty headache she hadn't realized she had suddenly made itself known. She bit back a whimper.

"Are you alright?" one of the boy's asked. Tamaki was his name, she was pretty sure. Something heavy shifted along the rocks to her left. It must be the other boy, Kyoya, moving.

"Who are you?" was Haruhi's groggy reply.

"My name's Tamaki. You're going to be fine. You're lucky it was high tide when you fell."

"Where's Nēchan?"

"She's next to you. She's fine, too."

Jin heard her sister's body shift, followed by her grabbing Jin's hand and giving it a squeeze. Jin squeezed back without a second thought. Haruhi sighed in relief.

"You pulled us out? By yourself?"

"Oh, no! I just grabbed you. My friend, Kyoya, grabbed your sister. Don't worry about his face, he's not actually angry. He just looks that way when he takes his glasses off."

"Tamaki, we need to go."

"But… Kyoya-"

"They're fine. They're alive. Now come on. "

"Fine."

Realizing their saviors were leaving and she hadn't thanked them, Jin cracked her eyelids open. The light did her no favors, but she fought against the pain and looked around. The first thing she noticed was the huge cliff face stretching up above them. Equally tall trees framed the rock against the sky. Jin slowly shifted her head to the left, using the shade from the trees to block the sun. From there, she raised her head and looked down by her feet, in the direction she'd heard the voices retreating.

She was laying down on another slab of rock. A few yards away, the rock dissolved into a series of rocky pools before narrowing into a choke point between two huge boulders. The ocean lapped and crashed against the rocks, sending the spray up the cliffside and onto the pools of water like rain, turning the light gray stone to a dark, almost black color. Similar stains, the size of two grown men, snaked up from the closest pool of water to either side of Jin and Haruhi's bodies.

Their rescuers were gone. They must've dragged the girls from the water and then… gone back to the ocean?

Headache slowly fading to a more manageable pain Jin straightened up, followed by an equally lethargic Haruhi who quickly wrapped her arms around Jin's shoulders. Jin returned the hug, grateful that she and her sister had survived their fall.

Jin continued to look around, trying to figure out where exactly they had ended up. To their right, the stone they were laying on dissolved into sand that was quickly overtaken by ferns and thick tree trunks. To their left, a shallow stream of water cut through the rock they were sitting on, draining into another one of the shoreline pools. On the other side of the stream, the rock sloped upwards into the cliffside. Jin looked behind them. The stream led up a slight incline into a cave mouth. The cave was too far up the shore to be flooded during high tide, but Jin couldn't tell where the water could be coming from inside. Weird.

"Where are we?" Haruhi was already crawling onto her knees. Jin held up her hands, supporting Haruhi just in case she fell down, but Haruhi stubbornly stood up despite her shaking limbs. Jin followed her up, wrapping an arm around Haruhi's shoulder and guiding her over to the stream. It wasn't very wide. On a normal day, Jin and Haruhi would be able to step over with ease, barely a thought. But today was no longer a normal day. One foot at a time, the pair crossed the stream and continued towards the cliff side until Jin could lean against the stone like a crutch.

With the extra support, the sisters followed the cliff side. The occasional drop of ocean spray wet the rock beneath their feet, but not enough to make it slick. They rounded the corner and had to stop, the rock beneath their feet coming to an end. Leading around the edge of the cliff base, the rock had been worn away into sand by the tide, leaving a pool of water as far across as Jin was tall between the stone and dry sand. But, to their surprise, a wooden bridge rose out of the water to connect the two surfaces. It looked handmade, but the boards were smooth, glossy, and didn't appear to have any water damage. Jin slowly set one foot on the bridge. Then the other. Then Haruhi followed behind her and a few steps later the girls were off the bridge and rounding a large boulder back onto the pristine sand of the beach.

Jin looked up and wasn't surprised to see the fancy beach house Haruhi had spotted earlier. They were on the other side of the cliff. Haruhi slowly sat down in the sand and rubbed at her temples. Jin knelt down beside her, also a little tired from the short walk over.

"What did they look like?" Jin asked. "I kept my eyes closed the whole time."

"The one who was talking to me was blond. The other had black hair. I was squinting, so I didn't see much detail."

"Huh. Where did they come from?"

"Maybe their families own the beach house and they saw us fall?

Jin shrugged. "They could've been on the yacht."

"Yeah, but where did they go after?"

"I dunno. Still, this is definitely private property and I don't want to be arrested. We need to head back."

Haruhi groaned and pressed her forehead against Jin's arm. "Do we have to hike all the way back up there?"

"Yeah. Don't worry. We'll take breaks this time."

* The Next Day *

Jin grabbed her sister's hand as Haruhi's foot once again slipped out from under her. Haruhi's other arm flailed a bit as she regained her balance, managing to catch herself this time. Jin sighed and let go.

"I don't remember it being this steep yesterday, Nēchan."

"You only think that because you're still sore."

Haruhi didn't answer, grabbing hold of a nearby tree before taking another three steps down the hill. Jin followed behind, slowly testing each foothold as she went. She was also plenty sore after their tumble from the cliff yesterday. Her joints felt like they'd aged thirty years overnight. It did help that she was wearing a backpack again today, helping her counterbalance against the incline.

"Maybe we should've just walked down the private drive," Haruhi said.

"We don't know if it leads to the house," Jin replied. "It's probably not the only private estate around here. And we don't know if those boys live here. They could've been trespassing, too."

"Then why would they come back today?"

Jin didn't have an answer to that. They walked a little further before she spoke again. "I'm still shocked we never found that secret path between the road and the cliff before. We've walked past it a million times before."

"Yeah, but we never thought to look closer at the 'Watch for Turtles' sign. Or look behind the tree it was nailed to."

"That's true. Strange that no one else thought to do it either."

The girls stepped onto the sand and looked around. The private beach looked as empty as it did yesterday, the yacht still tied to the dock over by the house. Haruhi led the way along the base of the cliff until they came across the little wooden bridge again. They had another four hours until high tide, so there was nothing but slightly damp sand beneath the bridge, but they used it to cross anyway.

The secret cove was also empty. With the water down low, more isolated pools showed themselves, the ones higher up in the rock nearly empty. All of them were probably filled with creatures that grossed Jin out and made Haruhi's stomach rumble.

"Oh well," Haruhi said, clapping her hands together. "We tried. They aren't here, and we already agreed not to go knock on the door of the beach house. We can maybe leave the gift here, but they might not-"

"You came back? And you brought a gift?"

The girls whirled around. Down by the shoreline a blond boy was bobbing his way towards them. His head disappeared momentarily beneath the surface of the water before he popped back into view in one of the many pools, giving Jin her first look at one of their saviors. He was handsome for sure. Not really Jin's type -she didn't have a type in general- but he had an easy smile and stunning purple eyes that could capture anyone's attention. He rocked side to side in the water, making little waves swell over the lip of the rocks around him, eyeing the girls in anticipation. It was cute.

"Um… yeah. To say thank you." Jin slid her backpack off her shoulder and unzipped it. "We didn't even tell you our names after you saved us, so it seemed only fair to come back with a proper thank you."

She pulled out a little blue box with a silver ribbon tied around it. Tamaki's shoulders shimmied. The boy looked ready to launch himself out of the water and at the package. He reeled back and planted his hands on the rock face right as another boy emerged from the water right behind the blond, his black hair plastered to his head. He grabbed Tamaki's right arm and pulled, aborting Tamaki's lunge. The blond yelped and disappeared beneath the surface for a second before bobbing back to the surface.

Tamaki looked at the other boy and pouted. "Kyoya…"

"Are you insane? Please, just tell me if you are. I won't be surprised."

Jin tilted her head. So, this was Kyoya, their other savior. Jin had a hard time believing his glare was just from him missing his glasses.

Kyoya turned towards the girls and gave them a curt nod. "Thank you for the kind gesture, but we really must go."

"Wait." Jin held out a hand. To her surprise, the boys stopped. She gave them a proper bow, seeing Haruhi mirror the motion out of the corner of her eye. "At least let us tell you our names. I'm Fujioka Jin, and this is my younger sister, Haruhi. Thank you for saving our lives yesterday."

Kyoya let out a scoff. "It's nothing we don't expect. You two aren't the only thrill seekers to have almost lost your lives jumping off that cliff. Why else do you think Tamaki's father extended the private property to include it?"

Haruhi stepped forward, snapping back, "We didn't jump on purpose! I was pushed! And Nēchan tripped!"

"You were pushed by your own sister?"

"No, by some guys who showed up. We were exploring and they followed us up the hill." The memory of watching Haruhi being shoved off the cliff flashing before Jin's eyes. "They didn't take kindly to us telling them to leave us alone."

The boys in front of them looked stunned. A few moments passed between them all, only the sound of gentle waves lapping at the shore in the silence. Kyoya cleared his throat. "I apologize for assuming. That must've been frightening."

"A bit. We're sorry for climbing up the cliff. We didn't realize it was private property at the time."

Haruhi scuffed her sandal against the rock. "Nēchan can defend herself just fine. I just got in the way. Anyways, we just wanted to thank you. If we died… we'd leave our dad all alone. He wouldn't have even known what happened to us."

Tamaki stared at them for another few quiet seconds before turning to face Kyoya. "I'm going to tell them."

"Tamaki, you know we're not allowed to-"

"I don't care. They're good people. I can tell."

"How?" Kyoya asked, clearly exasperated. Tamaki didn't answer, but Kyoya let go of his arm anyways, sinking back into the water until only his nose, eyes and hair were above the surface. His dark eyes watched the girls carefully.

Before Jin could ask what the heck they were talking about, Tamaki grinned up at them and said, "Well, if we're going to enjoy your gift, we'd all better be on dry land!" He then planted his hands on the rock. Jin briefly got a good look at them before Tamaki pushed himself up. His nails were sharp, almost pointed, and his fingers looked… webbed. Then Tamaki heaved himself up and sat sideways on the rock, his legs still dangling in the water until he turned and pulled them out.

Except… there weren't any legs.

Just a fin.

"Merman." The word fell from Jin's lips, unprompted.

"Bingo!" Tamaki chirped with a wide smile, showing off too many canines for a normal human mouth. For a moment, the girls simply stared at the merman's fin. It was long, starting from Tamaki's waist and almost double the length of his upper body. The scales glistened even in the shade of the cliff, beautiful golden yellow that matched his blond hair perfectly. Gossamer white tendrils sprouted from the sides of the fin, Tamaki's elbows, and down the length of his spine.

Before their eyes, the fins slowly disintegrated into a puddle of slime and finally a puddle of water, leaving behind a pair of pale human legs. To Jin's great relief, Tamaki wasn't completely naked. He had on a pair of light blue swim trunks. She didn't understand how that-or anything that just happened-was possible, but she wasn't complaining.

Out of the corner of her left eye, Jin saw Haruhi sit down while, in front of them, Tamaki stood up. He wobbled a bit, but seemed to get the hang of his legs fairly quickly. Jin realized her mouth was open and she shut it.

Tamaki placed his hands on his hips and smiled at the girls again, his teeth noticeably missing the extra canines Jin had spotted earlier. "It's been a while since I've walked on dry land," he exclaimed. "I mean, I grew up in my human form, but it has been a few months since I used my legs. Hopefully I don't trip on anything."

He laughed and took a few careful steps around the rock to reassure his footing. Jin had so many questions in her head she felt like it was going to explode, and yet none of them would come out of her mouth. She stared at Tamaki for a moment longer before her eyes dropped back into the water. Kyoya hadn't moved from his spot earlier, though his head had sunk down until only his eyes were above water. He wasn't breathing air.

Jin blinked at him.

"You too?"

Kyoya withdrew further, inching closer to the edge of the pool that led back to the ocean. Tamaki, noticing his friend's retreat, marched back over to the pool and leaned as far over as he dared without losing his balance.

"In for a penny…" he taunts.

Kyoya's face resurfaced, though his scowl had somehow deepened. "If we die in an aquarium because of this, I'll kill you."

Tamaki's smile never faded. If anything, he looked positively delighted at Kyoya's death threat. He took a step back as Kyoya swam back to where Tamaki had left the water. Ignoring the hand Tamaki offered to pull him out, Kyoya also pushed himself onto the rock and spun his tail out of the pool. Where Tamaki's fin had been bright, Kyoya's was the exact opposite. His fin was black, almost purple when caught by the light. His scales glittered for a moment before fading away the same way Tamaki's did.

Tamaki offered another hand up and this time Kyoya didn't hesitate to accept. He wobbled to his feet, much less steady than his friend, but his glare was no less deadly as he stared the Fujioka's down. "No one will believe you if you say there are merpeople here. And we'll sue you for trespassing before the story reaches the news. We still should, regardless, since you came back a second time."

Jin scowled back. She opened her mouth to shoot back when Tamaki, seemingly unperturbed by Kyoya's direct threat to the girls, came up to her and graciously accepted the present. He then shifted a few inches to his left and crouched down in front of Haruhi who was still sitting in shock.

"I take it you have questions?"

Haruhi nodded blankly.

"Ask away!" Tamaki sat down properly, setting the present down at his side before expectantly waving for Jin and Kyoya to join them on the ground. Haruhi's mouth opened and closed with no sound exiting her lips, so Jin decided to take the lead and ask the first question that popped into her head.

"How are you able to change form like that?"

Tamaki shrugged. "Magic."

Great. Great start.

Despite the lackluster response, the ice breaker question seemed to be enough for whatever fog was clouding Haruhi's brain to clear up. Her head tilted slightly to the right, a cue that Jin knew meant her sister was recalling something said before she wanted clarified.

"Do you live in the ocean all the time? You mentioned growing up in human form but not using your legs for a while. Is there a reason for that?"

"Oh," Tamaki waved his hand through the air. "Being raised on land was mostly a 'me' thing. Many of us live solely in the ocean, but we pop up onto land every once in a while to integrate with humans. Most of the adults in our pod have jobs on land since we still need to earn some form of human income."

"For what?"

This time Kyoya took up the mantle, his right hand coming up and bumping the bridge of his nose like he was supposed to have a pair of glasses there that were missing. "Most funds go to pay for use of this property, but many of the jobs the adults have also contribute to keeping an eye on our area of ocean. We need to make sure no humans accidentally stumble upon our homes while scuba diving and no oil rigs are planned to take root nearby. Quite a few of our pod members are environmentalists for the sole purpose of keeping their coworkers from exploring this section of beach."

"That's a lot of work," Jin mumbled. She thought Kyoya would take the olive branch (though it was more of an olive leaf if anything) but the boy merely glared at her still. She sneered back before turning to ask Tamaki directly, "Your family owns the beach house?"

"Yeah, my father's name is on the lease. It used to be my grandmother's name, but it was passed to him when he officially became the leader of our pod. It's mostly a front, but it's also kind of a 'human-school' for the children when they're first learning their human forms."

"Do you all speak Japanese or is there a specific language for merpeople?"

"Ehh…" Tamaki rocked his head from side to side. "Yes and no? When we're underwater we don't speak like we are now. We communicate with sounds. Kind of like dolphins. As for speaking Japanese, the story is that our ancestors first learned human languages from trade and pirate ships. Traveling the ocean isn't quite like how you humans travel around the world, but when some of us do travel it can be hard to understand each other when we both speak different human languages and have different dialects when speaking underwater."

Jin tapped a finger against the dip by her ankle. While she had always enjoyed learning about myths and fairy tales growing up, she had never been bothered by the darker sides of the stories because she knew the fantastic beasts described were not real. Only now, said fantastic beasts were sitting right in front of her and she had to get a certain question off her chest before she started trusting mermen out of the blue.

"I'm not trying to be rude, but most myths involving merpeople say they sank ships and drowned humans. Is any of that true?"

Kyoya butted in sharply. "I heard humans will hunt down anything they think is different from themselves and use its corpse for other humans to experiment on or to oggle at it. Is that true?"

"Sometimes," Jin mumbled. "Humans are stupid."

Kyoya didn't seem to have a response to that as he went quiet again. Once again it was up to Tamaki to bridge the silence. "In the old days, sinking human ships was our people's version of hunting for sport. It's incredibly outdated and most pods have outright forbidden it. Especially with the rise of modern technology and cameras. I only watched something like that happen once, and that was when one of the children got caught in a fishing net. Half of the pod created a problem for the crew on the surface while the rest cut the child free. I also know of one pod who sank a boat because it was one of those 'shark culling' boats."

"That's good," Jin said, but spoke no more on the topic. She really hadn't meant any disrespect, but she still felt embarrassed for bringing it up.

Tamaki finally seemed to clue in to the fact that the air between the four of them was not as clear as he would've liked. He plucked at the ribbon that was tied around the gift. "So, uh… how about we eat this together?"

"Tamaki-" Kyoya started.

"Well, it's not like we can take this underwater!" Tamaki said. "We can share it! I've never talked to a human for this long! Even when we're allowed on land we're always supervised and we're not allowed to talk to anyone we don't know!"

The two boys stared at each other. Jin couldn't help but feel a little bad for them. Well, more Tamaki than Kyoya at this point. But regardless, she knew what it felt like to be isolated from other kids her age. Finally, Tamaki appeared to win the battle of wills against Kyoya again. Kyoya sighed and sat back on his hands, looking off towards the water. "I don't want anything too sweet."

Tamaki chirped back a happy, "Okay," before digging into the gift. There were four little slices of cake within that Tamaki passed out along with the mini plastic forks that came in the box. Sitting in a square on the ground, the four teenagers ate their cakes with tiny bites, asking each other questions back and forth.

Jin and Haruhi had talked quite a bit before going to bed last night. Haruhi said she didn't want to go back to the private beach. Jin agreed, especially since Kyoya might have them arrested for trespassing a third time in a row, regardless of Tamaki asking to see them again in the future. And yet, the very next morning the girls were once again picking their way down the cliffside. Before they could follow the stone around to the cove, they heard someone shouting their names. Jin spun around, heart in her throat, and spotted a blond figure standing on the deck of the yacht waving frantically at them. A few seconds later, the person dove off the side of the boat. Another person calmly walked into view on the yacht deck before dropping into the water.

Jin and Haruhi continued along the path and waited by the pools for the boys to arrive. A few feet from shore, they spotted Tamaki poking his head above the surface to wave at them again before diving below.

Haruhi scoffed. "He's so annoying."

Jin giggled and softly elbowed her sister in the side. "I think he's sweet. He's so curious about humans. He kind of reminds me of that Disney movie."

Tamaki's head bobbed out of the water again, this time in one of the water pools. He grinned and hauled himself onto the rock. "You came back! I know I said you could but I wasn't sure if you'd come!"

Kyoya's head surfaced behind his friend, though he doesn't seem as enthused about climbing out of the water. "Tamaki, if your father or any of the adults in our pod find out about this, all four of us are going to be in huge trouble."

"Yeah… I know."

In that moment, with Tamaki looking so crestfallen, Jin abruptly decided she was not going to allow Kyoya to win that easily. For as little time as they'd had to get to know each other, Jin already knew Tamaki was someone she wanted to be friends with. She had to do something to get Kyoya off of their backs. Without thinking, Jin pointed at the stream of water that cut through the rock from the cave mouth to the shore.

"Where does that lead to?"

The others looked at the stream.

"Um… I don't know," Tamaki replied.

"Let's follow it, then." Without waiting for a reply, Jin grabbed Haruhi's hand and started following the stream up to the cave entrance. She heard Tamaki's feet padding along behind them and a large splash that sounded like Kyoya exiting the water. Jin didn't slow down or even turn her head.

Jin took three steps into the cave mouth before realizing it was much lighter inside than in most caves she had visited. She squinted into the grey darkness and realized there seemed to be another light source coming from further inside the cave. The four carefully walked through the shadows along the side of the stream. They walked in a straight line for a while before taking a left turn, the light growing brighter with each step until the four teenagers were standing in sunlight once again.

It took a minute for Jin to realize what exactly she was seeing. They seemed to have reached the end of the cave system, though that might be because of the cave in. Half of the cave ceiling appeared to have fallen down, blocking a sizable chunk of the cave wall opposite the exit they were standing in. The incline of rocks leading out into the sunshine was covered in sand, beach grass, and even a few small trees that had grown over time since the collapse. The left side of the room was flat rock that was covered with a faint dusting of sand and the occasional dead leaf, while two-thirds of the remaining room was taken over by a crystal clear pool of water that fed the thin stream they had followed.

"It's a natural spring," Haruhi said in the silence. A little obvious, but Jin let it slide.

"We'll meet here from now on," Tamaki announced.

No one argued.

* Three Weeks Later *

Life went on, and life was not perfect, which meant the group of teenagers could not meet up with each other every day even after finding their little hideaway. Some days, Jin and Haruhi had to stay home and work on the chores that were piling up. Others, the girls decided to stay home and spend time with their dad. Tamaki and Kyoya had other priorities, as well. One day, the girls had made their trek to the beach, to the cove, and into the cave only to find the word 'Sorry' spelled out on the ground with small rocks.

Today happened to be one of those days where all of their schedules aligned. Tamaki and Haruhi were off on the left side of the cave beneath the 'sunroof', Haruhi showing off her school textbooks to the excitable blond. Jin smiled at the pair before turning back to her Sudoku book. She tapped the end of her pen against her bottom lip, looking for something she must've missed in the puzzle, when cold water was splashed against her bare feet. She yelped and pulled them back towards her, glaring at Kyoya over the edge of her book. The boy glared back and gestured to her to move closer.

She didn't really want to. Kyoya still annoyed and angered her to this day. It was like he took personal insult to every word out of her mouth. But, she was momentarily stuck on her puzzle, so she set the book aside and scooched closer, stopping a few inches away from the edge of the water. Kyoya's pout seemed to deepen.

"What?"

"Why do you never come near the water?"

Jin shuffled her feet against the stone, feeling sand gritting under her toes. "What do you mean?"

"I mean you never put your legs in the water. Not out on the beach or in the outside pools or in here. Are you ashamed of being near me and Tamaki? Do you not want to get too close to freaks like us? Trying to not get too comfortable around us?"

"It's not that!"

"Then what is it?"

Jin swallowed, eyes darting at the dark shadows in the pool despite herself. "I'm…I'm afraid," she admitted quietly.

"Afraid? Of us? Or because of your fall last month?" Kyoya's voice, while still not the kindest tone Jin had ever heard, had definitely lost its sharp, biting edge. Man… she did not want to admit this. Especially not to Kyoya. If humans who didn't like her found ways of using her phobia against her, who knows what a sea-creature could do. But, it wasn't like Kyoya was giving her much choice.

"No. I'm afraid of sharks. It's a phobia, so it's not as simple as rationalizing that there are no sharks nearby. I don't swim in the ocean, but even with a spring like this… putting my feet in the water could make me hallucinate if I'm not careful. I know it's stupid, but my family can't afford therapy for it so I just have to live around it."

Kyoya didn't speak again for a long moment. He looked almost shocked by her confession. This was probably one of the last directions he was expecting his interrogation going and now they were both embarrassed. Jin pulled her legs even closer to herself.

"I…" Kyoya's tail flicked nervously behind him, forcing him to grab the edge of the pool to keep his balance. "I can tell when something dangerous is close by. Currents and water distortion and all that."

Jin wondered where the heck Kyoya was going with this.

"So… I know you said rationalizing doesn't work, but I can tell you as a cold hard fact that I'm the only living creature in this pool right now. There's a flat rock right here in front of me. It's not very deep below the surface. If you want to… put your feet in, I can promise nothing will hurt you."

The idea wasn't… bad. It still wasn't the greatest thing Jin had ever heard of, but it certainly wasn't bad. She pulled her eyes away from the underwater shadows and instead focused on the area where Kyoya had indicated. Sure enough, right between Kyoya and the lip of the pool was a large rock just barely beneath the surface. Barely deep enough to reach Jin's ankles were she to stand on it.

She inched closer to the edge.

"That's it. Here." Kyoya held his palms up at the surface of the water. "Press your feet against me. Go at your own pace."

Jin shimmied her feet over the edge and onto Kyoya's hands. They were cold. Water temperature. She stared Kyoya dead in the eye and he stared right back. They had never been this close to each other before. For once, Kyoya wasn't glaring.

"Why are you helping me?"

"Because…"

He hesitated and she slowly pushed her feet against his hands, dropping below the water surface. She shivered a bit, but it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. Having something solid beneath her feet was helping. Kyoya didn't move his hands until they reached the flat rock, sliding his fingers out from beneath her feet to over the tops instead. Not pushing down, just offering a reassuring presence. One of Kyoya's fingertips moved in a figure-eight pattern around her ankle bone, seemingly without his knowledge.

Finally, he said, "I misjudged you. And if you become more comfortable with the water, you'll be more comfortable when you come to see Tamaki."

The two remained in that position for almost half an hour, just quietly making small talk until Haruhi announced it was time to head home for lunch. Jin pulled her feet out of the water, but didn't stand up just yet.

"You know, as annoying as you are, I come to see you, too. Not just Tamaki."

She got up and followed her sister out of the cave, hearing the sounds of Tamaki cannonballing into the spring while Kyoya shouted at him to stop being annoying.

Summer ended in the blink of an eye. Before Jin and Haruhi were ready for it, they were once again donning their school uniforms and boarding the train just a few blocks away from their apartment. Jin stared out the window at the shoreline, her school bag clenched in her lap. Haruhi sat beside her and tried to pretend like she wasn't doing the same. They had already decided that they could only visit the boys on the weekend from now on, as they had to focus hard on their studies. It was frustrating, because not only did they lose time spent with their good friends, they were once again gaining time with some not-so-good people.

It started almost as soon as they set foot on campus.

"Oh, Jin~ "

Jin mumbled a curse word under her breath and kept her eyes forward. This did nothing to dissuade the three girls who were hurrying over to them. Their names were Atsuko, Hiroko, and Sawako Hara, and they were not only triplet sisters but the banes of Jin's life. Haruhi glared at the approaching bullies, which made Hiroko laugh meanly. The other two gave Haruhi slightly disdainful glances, but otherwise ignored her altogether. They had another goal in mind.

"Wow, Jin. You look tan. Which tanning salon did you go to?"

"Oh, please, Atsu, you know their family can't afford a tanning salon. And it's so uneven. She probably bought some cheap spray and applied it herself."

"Wait, it might be a real tan, though! Probably from working in a field all summer, since her family is so poor."

"Isn't it against the rules to have a summer job?"

The girls snickered around each other and despite Jin's thick skin, her heart raced in fear. Her bullies had gotten away with their torment for years because their aunt was their middle school's superintendent. Said aunt believed that her nieces could do no wrong and believed everything they said, giving them credibility when they argued against any bullying allegations. This was a new school with new staff. Jin wasn't sure who the school board would believe if these girls really tried to accuse her of breaking the rules. And how would she be able to prove that she wasn't working? It wasn't like she could tell everyone she spent the summer hanging out with mermen.

"You know what… Haruhi's looking a little tan, too. Do you think she was working?"

Maybe it was the tone Sawako used for the word 'she', even though Haruhi did use she/they pronouns. Maybe it was the fact that Sawako was reaching out to touch Haruhi's face. Or maybe it was because no one was allowed to hurt Haruhi on Jin's watch. Whatever the reason, Jin's thin stretch of patience snapped and she spun around, smacking Sawako's hand away. For a moment, the five girls stood still on the front steps of the school, staring at each other on the steps of the school while other students walked around them like fish in a stream. Then, the triplets' expressions turned thunderous. But for once, Jin didn't care.

"You can make fun of me all you like, I don't care any more. Your words mean nothing to me. But if you ever say anything bad about Haruhi again, I will be reporting you to the school board. Your auntie isn't here. You don't have a magic, win-all card any more."

Atsuko licked her lower lip, her eyes darting to the sides where more students were gathering to watch the confrontation. Hiroko looked like she was ready to leap forward and tear Jin's hair out in fistfuls. Sawako was the only one who looked calm. She took a deliberate step forward, entitled smirk and all, and said point blank, "As if anyone is going to take the word of someone in a freak family. I don't know what you're misunderstanding about this, Jin. You and your family… Well, there's only one position in society where you belong. We're just here to make sure you know that. When you enter the real world, it's going to get even worse for you. I mean, who in their right mind would ever-"

"Jin! Haruhi! We've been looking everywhere for you!"

Everything that followed moved in slow motion. Sawako's eyes flicked over Jin's shoulder in annoyance before her face went bright red, mouth dropping open with a gasp. Jin spun around, because she couldn't have heard Tamaki's voice just then. It had to have been a figment of her imagination. She had turned about three-fourths of the way around when time resumed and Tamaki crashed into her, throwing his arms around Jin in a big hug. Jin returned the hug on instinct. Tamaki let her go and turned to Haruhi next, able to hug her as well since she was too frozen in shock to ward off the blond.

Before Jin had even processed the fact that Tamaki was there, Kyoya stepped through the crowd and approached, telling Tamaki not to wander off again. It was then that Jin realized both boys were wearing the school's male uniform. A very natural conclusion blinked to life in her mind, but Jin couldn't make herself say it. Because if it wasn't true and this was a big trick the universe was playing on her…

Kyoya grabbed Tamaki by his collar and pulled him away, chiding him all the while. "This isn't how we agreed to surprise them, you know."

"But they were already past the front gate! And it's not like we could've waited in class if we wanted to tell them both! "

"Which is why we were in the entrance hall-"

"You're here."

The boys turned to Jin and smiled. Tamaki brought his hands up to his jacket and straightened it out. "Of course we are. We convinced our parents to let us transfer here. My father did just accept a position on the school board, so it would've been awkward if he'd said no." Tamaki's eyes had that special twinkle in them, letting Jin know there was more to the story they couldn't share here. But she hardly cared. They were here. Her friends were here.

"What class are you in?" She muscled out.

"2A."

Jin bit her bottom lip to keep it from trembling and threw herself at the boys, looping her arms around their necks and hugging them tight.

"Excuse me, but did you just say you're new students here?"

Jin released Tamaki and spun around, leaving one arm still slung over Kyoya's neck. Sawako was still standing there with her sisters behind her. Most of the students who had stopped to watch were drifting along the fringes. Some of them clearly interested in what was going on but not wanting to seem rude, while others couldn't care less. Sawako twirled a lock of hair around her finger, eyeing up Tamaki and Kyoya. Behind her, Hiroko and Atsuko were doing the same. The boys didn't look impressed, though they did respond that they were, in fact, new students.

"Oh, that's perfect. You know, my sisters and I would be so honored to show you around the school. I-"

"No thank you. I'm sure Jin and Haruhi can do that just fine. Besides, Jin is our classmate now, so it would make more sense for her to help us."

Sawako stared at Jin like she was trying to burn a hole through her head. "Yes… how do you know Jin and Haruhi? You four don't seem like you'd run in the same crowd."

"That's where you're wrong. We met at the beach and spent most of the summer together. I'd consider the four of us to be best friends at this point."

"Best friends?" Hiroko smiled, though it looked painful to do so. "How… cute. "

"Yes, they are," Tamaki added quickly, playfully pinching Jin's cheek. The triplets looked stricken. He turned and took Haruhi by the hand. "C'mon, Haruhi. We'll drop you off at your classroom first! I see you wore the male uniform today! It looks good on you! We make quite the fashionable pair!"

Jin wasn't even able to give her bullies a final glance before Kyoya was pulling her along by the waist after Tamaki and Haruhi. They walked through the hallways in silence for a minute until Jin broke it.

"Did that really just happen?"

"It did. I may not go so far as to say we saved you, but after hearing your stories over the summer and overhearing what that girl was saying to you outside, Tamaki and I couldn't stand by any longer. Though, attending human school will come with its own challenges and what not, I think we'll survive."

Jin grinned up at Kyoya and was rewarded with a smile in return. A real smile. Something fluttered in her lower belly when her eyes caught on the boy's glasses. She remembered when Kyoya first brought his glasses to one of their little get-togethers. They became wet and useless underwater and he hated the look of his prescription goggles, so he usually didn't bother with either of them. But that day, he had climbed out of the water and offered the glasses to Jin with a rather pitiful expression.

Jin had wiped them clean with her shirt hem and delicately slipped them onto Kyoya's face. Immediately his glare was gone and the lines between his eyebrows smoothed out. Jin, at that point, had already admitted to herself that she found Kyoya handsome. But the glasses added another element to that until she swore she was swooning. They stood there staring at each other for almost two minutes before Tamaki yelled at them to enter the cave. The pair did so, but not before Jin gave Kyoya's face another critical look and she proclaimed, "Hm… glasses suit you."

Jin still stood by that statement.

It was then that Jin realized Kyoya still had his arm around her waist. A few students were staring at them, but Jin hardly cared. She had her sister. She had her best friends.

And, her mind supplied, You'll get to see Kyoya all the time now.

Ah, yes. That too. Jin looked to the side, trying to hide her smile. After years of bullying, Jin was now best friends with the newest Hot-Guy-On-Campus. She couldn't help but feel a little smug about it.

"C'mon, Haruhi! The secondhand stores will be opening soon!"

Haruhi stopped in the middle of pulling her shoes on, giving Tamaki a weird look. " That's what you want to do today?"

"Yeah! Hurry up, or we're gonna miss the train!"

"There is no train. We're walking. And we don't have to get there as soon as it opens."

Jin watched the back and forth between Tamaki and Haruhi in amusement. She was incredibly tempted to wish them luck on their date, but knew her friend and sister would fall over themselves in denial and possibly cancel their outing altogether. And Jin didn't want that… because of reasons.

Instead, she followed them out the front door and down to the street with no comment, merely giving them a wave as Tamaki pulled Haruhi towards town, the pair promising to catch up with Jin later. Jin waited until she was confident Tamaki wasn't going to accidentally pull her sister into traffic before turning and making her way towards the beach. She hummed a bouncy tune under her breath, a slight skip in her step, more than a little excited about spending some one-on-one time with Kyoya today. Going to school with Tamaki was fun and Jin loved her sister to pieces… but time with Kyoya was an entirely different situation.

In all honesty, Jin was slightly embarrassed by how long it had taken her to realize she had a full-on crush on Kyoya. She had no idea when it began, either. It seemed, to her at least, that one minute she had only slightly tolerated him then bam! It was a crush. Thankfully Kyoya appeared to have no clue that Jin felt anything beyond friendship towards him.

Jin was so wrapped up in her daydreams of what quality alone time with Kyoya would be like that she almost missed the private driveway she was supposed to take. Although, she supposed it wasn't totally surprising considering this would be the first time she would ever set foot in the beach house. According to Kyoya and Tamaki, they had gotten special permission from their pod to let their human friends come to the beach house on occasion. Since Jin and Haruhi were their only human friends, it was an exclusive offer. One that Jin could not refuse. She was excited to see inside the glamorous building, though it would never hold a candle to their special cove. Except maybe once it got colder in the winter.

Ducking underneath the gate that read 'Private Drive', Jin continued down the pavement. She had once asked Kyoya how his family handled trespassers with no one regularly on guard duty by the gate or the house. What was the use of a guard house if there was no guard? According to Kyoya, they used to have guards but had quickly switched them for state-of-the-art security cameras. The pod upgraded the system almost every chance they had. Kyoya had noticed the look on Jin's face and reassured her they only had cameras along the driveway and around the house, with one pointing at the yacht. There were no cameras near their secret cove. All of this to say that even if someone was watching the security cameras in real time today, they'd recognize Jin from the photos Tamaki and Kyoya had provided and, politely, not call the police on her.

" You're on private property! "

Unless they hadn't seen her photo? Jin spun around in a panic, her mind rushing through various ways she could convince a mermaid in human form that she was no threat and had been invited onto the property. Her frantic planning came to a halt as soon as it started, because it wasn't a strange person she didn't recognize standing behind her.

"I knew you were up to no good with that smile on your face," Sawako sneered. "But to find you breaking the law? Have you no class whatsoever?"

"More like no brain, " Hiroko chimed in.

Jin's mouth went dry. They had seen her walking and followed her! What absolute creeps! She opened her mouth to spit back that she had been invited by Kyoya, but stopped just before the words escaped. She couldn't say that Kyoya or Tamaki had any affiliation with this place. Not if the boys wanted any peace in the future. The Hara girls followed them around the school enough as it is. And if they tried to sneak onto the beach at the wrong time and saw someone's fin? Jin wouldn't be able to live with herself if her pettiness caused the pod to be discovered!

Without waiting a second longer, Jin bolted to her left towards the beach. The Hara's screeched behind her and gave chase, hollering that they were going to call the police on her. Jin's mind raced, but she couldn't afford to slow down and think everything through. Right now, she had to escape. With the way back up the driveway blocked, Jin had to hope that she was quicker at climbing cliffs than her pursuers and get to the public beach on the other side. From there she could lose the girls… somehow. She'd continue with her plan when she got there. But for now, she had to run until she could call Kyoya and tell him-

Out of the corner of her eye, Jin saw movement. She risked a quick glance and saw someone standing on the deck of the yacht. They waved at her frantically before they jumped into the water. Even with only a quick glance, Jin knew it was Kyoya. And he wanted her attention. So, against her better judgment, Jin changed directions and ran straight for the water, the girls still running behind her.

Jin was down to one shoe by the time she reached the shore. She didn't know where she lost it, but she did not stop running along the damp sand towards the cliff. She kept her eyes locked on the entrance to the cove, expecting Kyoya to come out from behind the rocks.

To her surprise, Kyoya emerged from behind a completely different boulder barely ten feet away from her, in human form.

"What are you three doing here?"

Jin didn't stop running until she was standing beside Kyoya, a little winded but otherwise okay. Kyoya stepped around her until he was between her and the Hara's. The triplets were panting heavily and frantically trying to fix their hair and outfits, stunned by Kyoya's sudden arrival. Jin had the sudden urge to cover Kyoya's bare stomach with her hands. Atsuko crossed her hands behind her back, tossing Jin's lost shoe onto the sand behind her as an afterthought.

"Oh… Kyoya! W-what are you doing here?"

"My family owns this beach. I'll ask again, why are you here?"

"We… we…" Astuko's eyes were wide and panic stricken. "Did you invite her?"

"I did. I did not invite you three. You are trespassing on private property."

Sawako looked between Jin and Kyoya a few times, looking like she was trying not to cry. "But… but… No! It's not fair! You can't like her! She gets everything I want! All the boys like her because she's pretty and smart and it's not fair! No-"

Out of seemingly nowhere, a huge wave that none of them had noticed building just offshore crashed against the rock formation beside the triplets and doused them with water, cutting Sawako's rant off with three blood curdling screams. Kyoya pushed Jin back two steps so neither of them got too wet from the splash. The same could not be said of the bullies.

For a moment, the five stood motionless on the beach, the triplets staring at their ruining clothes as their makeup streamed down their cheeks. Sawako sniffled once before turning tail and running back the way they came, wailing at the top of her lungs. Her sisters followed, mimicking the cry.

Their crying tugged at Jin's heartstrings just a little. Kyoya was not so impressed.

"I'll call the police later to make the claim of your trespassing! We do have cameras on the property!"

Jin slumped against Kyoya's side and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. "Thank you. I didn't know what to do when they showed up." She pulled back and looked Kyoya in the face, the boy looking incredibly proud of himself.

"It's fine, Jin. But wasn't that ending thrilling? It almost looked like someone planned that outcome based on the weather and water currents today. They would've had to have grown up on this beach to pull off something like that of course. How interesting."

The only warning Kyoya got from Jin was her grabbing hold of either side of his face before she pulled him down into a kiss.

"Smart aleck," she mumbled against his lips. For once, Kyoya didn't have a response as he was too busy leaning in to kiss her back. Jin gasped as she felt Kyoya's hands, cold from ocean water, slowly slide along the hem of her t-shirt. The fabric bunched between his fingers, shifting until his fingers trailed against her skin. His hands met at the small of her back, fingers weaving together. Jin moaned and tilted her head to the right, pressing further into Kyoya's mouth. Her hands slipped from his face and ended over his shoulders, wrists crossing loosely behind his neck.

Cold water washed across their feet, causing them to gasp in unison. Jin drew back, her brain kick-starting all at once. Kyoya stared at her, eyes half lidded and still very much focused on her lips. Happiness and relief rushed through her, making Jin's knees shake just a little.

"Kyoya… someone could see-"

Kyoya's eyes darted over to the beach house, an annoyed pout adorning his lips. Without hesitation, he grabbed her hand and pulled her in the direction of their secret cove. The implications made Jin giggle, though her laughter was cut off every time Kyoya stopped walking to kiss her some more.

Tamaki and Haruhi showed up at the cove an hour later. Haruhi nearly ran into Tamaki when he stopped suddenly at the very edge of the cave. Peering around him, she saw why. Kyoya was sitting on the edge of the pool with Jin straddling his lap, his fin drifting lazily back and forth in the water as the two made out. As Haruhi's mouth popped open in shock, Kyoya's eyes opened by a slit, staring directly at them.

Without pause or even a hint of embarrassment, he closed his eyes and lifted his right hand from Jin's hip to wave them away. Tamaki started backing out of the cave, forcing Haruhi to do the same unless she wanted to be knocked over. Right before they backed out of eyesight entirely, Kyoya's right hand came up to cradle the back of Jin's head as he moved backwards to lay on the stone floor, pulling Jin down with him.

Tamaki then turned around and pushed Haruhi out of the cave entirely. The two stepped out into the sunlight and stopped, staring out at the ocean in silence.

Then, Tamaki turned to Haruhi and gave her a ridiculously smug smile.

"I told you so."