It had been a month since 'The Feeding Of The Sea' festival and Roman would sneak out of the house, every night, with a bowl of strawberries to meet his siren.

Virgil was gorgeous. Like, drop-dead, anime-nosebleed gorgeous. His hair was black and it had tiny, indigo highlights. His eyes were the bright cyan colour of the seas surrounding the Maldives, and he had dark blue skin, to blend in with the ocean he lived in. His tail was long and, as Roman had found out, incredibly strong. Once, he had taken a strawberry from Virgil and then he felt the siren's' tail around his waist and next he was in the water, Virgil eating the strawberry from his fingertips.

Needless to say, he had gotten closer to Virgil over the months. From the first night they had met to today, a lot had changed.

Roman waited as he listened to his mother and father talking in the bedroom down the hall. He crawled out of bed and instantly put on a jacket and swapped his pyjama pants for jeans. He didn't need socks because he'd always wear flip-flops. Silently, he opened his door and padded out into the carpeted hallway, closing his bedroom door behind him. He walked slowly forwards, reaching the stairs and moving down one at a time. Roman was completely soundless as made his way to the fridge and picked up a bowl of strawberries he had prepared before he went to bed. Then he opened the kitchen window and went out that way. The front door was too noisy.

The streets were empty, except for one or two people, who were too busy doing their own thing to notice Roman sneaking down to the coast with a bowl of strawberries. Roman reached the tunnel and carefully began to walk down inside.

"Virgil?" He called out.

His siren suddenly popped up brightly from the water. "Princey!" He chirped, propping himself up on his elbows to look up at the human. "You came back!"

Roman smiled fondly, picking up a strawberry and tossing it to Virgil. It arced in the air and the siren pulled back but caught it between his teeth. "You say that every time," He chuckled, ignoring the fact he got sprayed with water.

"Well, you come back every time too," Virgil answered with a playful roll of his eyes. He pushed his upper body out of the water, lying along his stomach, holding his head in one, webbed hand as he picked strawberries with the other. Roman glanced down at the translucent, dark purple fin that ran down his spine and allowed himself a brief moment to wonder how it had felt. No one had ever touched one of the seafolk, even when they were common. Roman wondered if he'd be the first.

Trying to repress those thoughts, Roman picked a strawberry of his own. "True. Only because you are too beautiful to forget."

The siren scoffed. "Sure, princey, of course I am. It has nothing to do with how the land-walkers haven't seen us in years."

Roman laughed. "Okay, that also participates a large factor into why I'm still around. But you're also beautiful."

Virgil looked up at him, batting those bright, electric blue eyes flirtatiously. "Didn't know I was a mirror.~" He drawled.

Roman blushed.

.:*:.

Roman was turning nineteen today and, honestly, Patton and Logan were expecting him to be a bit more pissed. After all, it was supposed to be his least favourite day today. Publically, Roman was groaning and complaining but, the moment he thought you were looking away there was a small smile on his face. He'd look out to the sea almost reminiscently, daydreamingly excited, and he didn't admit it at all.

And Patton and Logan were determined to find out what it was about.

"Ro, you seem happy today," Patton tried, elbowing his friend with a smirk.

"Do I?" Roman instantly groaned. "Let me fix that." And he scowled instantly.

Logan narrowed his eyes. "Roman, honestly. You need to at least attempt at some maturity, for goodness sake."

"Well, this is a stupid festival. I don't want to attend-"

"Hey, Roman!" Cooed a familiar voice. "Guess what your mom said!"

It was Remy, swaggering up to the trio with a grin that was disturbingly happy and triumphant. Never a good sign.

Roman raised an eyebrow cautiously. "What?"

"Your mother says you have to attend the festival tonight. Isn't that great?" Remy said tauntingly.

Okay. So, they had been expecting a dramatic and angry reaction. They had not been expecting Roman to start panicking loudly, saying he 'couldn't go to the festival,' in a fearfull, nervous voice. Their friend was practically hyperventilating.

"Dude, I'm sorry," Remy tried, looking quite stunned. "You mother was pretty stubborn about it, though-"

"I can't though!" Insisted Roman. "I-I have to do things!"

Patton grabbed his friend's' arm. "Roman, it's one night! Please, calm down! You don't have to enjoy it or anything!"

Logan popped up on Roman's' other side. "It'll be okay. Whatever you have to do, surely it can wait till tomorrow?"

Roman shook his head softly, but he seemed to have accepted his fate, even if he was not happy about. He didn't smile for the rest of the day, not even when no one was looking.

.:*:.

Patton softly lay the clam bowl out on the water, pushing the pork dumplings out to sea. It had taken him ages and he hoped something would like them, whether they were seafolk or not. He sighed happily, leaning his head against Logan's' shoulder. It was late, and he was tired. He yawned and then saw Roman out of the corner of his eye and, oh, boy.

He looked very angry.

"Hey, k-kiddo," He tried and Roman snapped his head around to glare at him.

"What?" He growled.

The moment the festival had begun, Roman had gone from unresponsive to furious. He didn't enjoy the dancing, he didn't enjoy the singing and he had only pushed out a bowl of strawberries into the water.

Patton swallowed nervously. "I-I was just wondering if you wanted to offer the sea some pineapple. Mr Lacey has some-"

"No, I don't. Leave me alone."

Logan narrowed his eyes. "You're behaviour is inexplicable, Roman. Grow up."

Roman scoffed. "Says the one who believes in mermaids."

That definitely got on Logan's' nerves. "Seafolk are an important part of our culture and history! You're being so damn rude to the both of us and it's not fair!"

"You wanna talk about things being unfair, nerd? Fine!" Snapped Roman. "I was forced to my least favourite holiday ever on my birthday just to sing, dance and shove food into a large body of water! So go away!"

"Maybe I will!" Logan retorted harshly. "Come on, Pat, if he wants to sulk, he can sulk." Patton's' boyfriend marched away down the beach. Hesitatingly, Patton shot one more, hopeful glance at Roman before following after Logan.

If they had only stayed a little longer, or if the two had turned back, they'd be seeing something that had just made their friend light up.

The surface of the water broke and black hair with purple highlights popped out of the water, along with giant, translucent fins on the sides of a dark blue head.

"Virgil!" Roman whispered happily. He glanced down the beach to see everyone else wondering back to the village, so he scuttled forwards to the edge of the water. "Oh my god, I'm so happy to see you!"

"I saw your strawberries floating in the water," Virgil explained. "They bumped into me when I gave up waiting." He looked angry but his bright blue eyes seemed more hurt than anything else. The siren waded out of the shallows, all the way up to sit by Roman, curling his tail around the two with a heartbroken look in his eyes. "You didn't come back..."

Roman ignored his heart that decided to beat even faster when Virgil decided to sit less than a foot away. "I really wanted to, I swear," He promised. "But my mom forced me to come to the festival. She wouldn't budge, no matter how many times I pleaded with her."

Virgil glanced down at his webbed hands sadly. "You could've told me, though..."

"I would've if I could've, but the whole village was practically keeping me with them. Apparently, my mom had convinced them to keep me with someone at all times to stop me from running off," Roman claimed.

A spark of what looked like hope glimmered in Virgil's' eyes and he shifted closer. "So... you wanted to be with me more than the village?"

"Of course, I did."

Virgil's' tail suddenly swivelled behind him and he leaned in close to Roman, pushing the human down on the sand. The siren held himself up over Roman, smirking and Roman quickly noticed that it hadn't been hope in his eyes, instead the shine of flirtatiousness and teasing. "That's sweet," Taunted the siren, his voice low.

And Roman gave up pretending. He grabbed the siren by the waist and pulled him down into him. Virgil opened his mouth to protest, but Roman caught him in a kiss. And Virgil no longer seemed to protest.

Instead, the siren quickly moved his webbed hands to hold Roman's' head, pulling it closer to his, and the human could hear Virgil's' tail slapping against the water happily. Virgil was soaking his shirt as their chest pressed against each other's', the seawater making it smell funny, but Roman didn't care. Instead, it just made him pull his siren in closer, one hand slipping down to the start of Virgil's' navy tail and the other playing with the siren's' fin, making Virgil's' tail beat against the water even harder.

This was the first time Roman had held Virgil, let alone touch him. The siren was warm to hold and, obviously, very wet. His skin was smooth and his fins were fine and soft. His hair was almost heavy with water and Roman could feel it laying on his forehead. Virgil's' tail sat between his legs, soaking his jeans, and then a thought broke through Roman's' lovesick haze.

His mom was gonna have so many questions as to why her son was wet and smelt like sea salt when he got back home...