Pathos bit down on his lip as he watched Virgil swimming toward the reef one afternoon. He was cleared for the rest of the day, so he decided to follow him. "Hey Virge! Wait up!" he called, swimming after him quickly. The dark-tailed merman looked over his shoulder, startled but relieved to see it was him. "I wanna talk to you about something!"

"Um, okay?" Virgil said, pausing and shrugging as though he was waiting for him to start talking.

The light-tailed merman flushed, chewing on the inside of his cheek as he looked down at his fidgeting hands and then around at their surroundings. "We should probably find somewhere more... private... to talk," he said, hoping he caught his drift.

He narrowed his eyes at him briefly before it seemed to click. His eyes widened and he nodded a little, checking their surroundings as well before nodding toward the reef. Pathos nodded as well and they continued swimming. Their tails pumped powerfully behind them, propelling them through the water and leaving a small stream of bubbles in their wake. Creatures on the coral and sea floor curled into their shells or retreated as they swam over them. 

Once they were safely out of eyesight of their kingdom and surrounded by the shallower waters of the reef, Virgil cleared his throat and looked at his friend shyly. "So... you wanted to talk?"

"Yeah, I wanted to ask more about you and that human," he said, swimming down to a little clearing in the coral to sit on a boulder, looking at him expectantly. "I want to know more about what happened between you two, and well... what you felt, why you decided to break the rules, what about him you felt was good."

The dark-tailed merman swam down to lay on the sand, sighing. "Well, you know I was swimming a little too close to the shore, and there was this net. I didn't see it until the wave had already crashed down on me and got me all tangled up," Virgil explained. "The wave pushed me all the way to the shore, and I got beached. I... I thought I was going to suffocate, but... he came running up to me. He knelt down with a knife, and I thought he was going to kill me, but he cut the ropes. Once they were out of the way, he scooped me into his arms and carried me back to the water, but instead of running, I stayed and I tried to communicate with him, because I just felt... I felt like I knew him... I can't even explain it, but as I was swimming away, I noticed my marks glowing, gradually fading as the distance between us grew, and I knew. We were soulmates, but I didn't know what to do about it."

"Have you seen him since?" Pathos asked quietly after a beat of silence between them. He looked apprehensive to answer his question so he smiled reassuringly. "I promise, I won't tell anyone."

With a deep breath, he nodded. "I saw him a couple times after it happened, but he hasn't been arriving recently... I wonder if he's lost interest in me..." he murmured under his breath, sounding upset by the idea. "I mean, it's not like he really knows me, we can't even speak to each other. He speaks an entirely different language, so I can't imagine he ever felt the connection I did."

"Virgil, I'm sure the feelings are mutual," his friend said. "Maybe you both keep going to your meeting spot at different times and missing each other?"

"I guess that's possible," the dark-tailed merman admitted, looking wistfully off toward the shore. "I just miss him, that's all... It's like I have trouble breathing without him near me, but I don't know if he feels it. Maybe it's only a one-sided feeling, maybe humans can't feel soulmates."

Pathos shrugged, not knowing the answer. It wasn't as if he'd ever really met his soulmate.