When the sun sets, Felix stays inside, watching a drama with everyone squeezed on the sofa or on the floor between the legs of those quick enough to grab a seat. Artificial lights keep him distracted from the approaching dark.

"You know," Changbin breaks the silence when nothing particular is happening in the drama, just some artful shots of cherry blossoms blooming and then withering, appearing – to the main character – like rain. "I have a friend from uni, Wooyoung. He recently started working on a base like ours. He says they're five humans and three mermen. They're in the north of Greenland, so pretty much on the other side of the planet."

"Do you think..." Jeongin starts hesitantly. He's on the floor, and he turns his head to look up at Changbin with wide eyes.

"Yeah," Changbin nods. "It's... we have better webcams and surveillance technology installed, and there's bigger research bases here that have helicopters and in case of another injured merperson washing up, the systems would catch that now. They'd be able to help. And it's not like we do anything in winter, right?"

Jeongin smiles and turns his puppy eyes to Chan. "Hyung, can we?"

Chan sighs, but with love. "Lixie, how do you feel about another six months of sun?"

"Like... in Greenland, specifically?" Felix asks. "I... I don't want you all to do this only because of me."

"Felix, we can all benefit from this," Seungmin gently reminds him. "Sunlight is good for us, and absence of sunlight is bad for us. Six months of winter is hard, and we could only do it because we're together, but if we don't have to? If we can have more sunny days and who knows, make more friends? It might not be easy, but we're us, and we'll stay together and have each other even with more friends."

Chan nods in agreement. "Yes. What Seungmin said."

The others also nod, voicing agreements.

"Okay," Felix says. "With you."

Jeongin hugs his leg.

"I'll contact people later," Chan says, and it's decided. "We'll come back here in summer, of course, or even a week before sunrise, just so we can get a bit of decent sleep."

Minho chuckles. "Shouldn't we go stargazing tonight, then? As long as we're still here."

"Dude, this is sun slander!" Jisung whines, turning away from Minho and holding his hands over his heart. "I thought the sun was your favourite star."

"Bro," Hyunjin rolls his eyes, "Felix is my favourite star, the sun can be second."

"No, Felix is the sun, obviously," Changbin says, elbowing Hyunjin in the ribs. "Everybody can see that."

"Felix?" Chan asks him quietly as the rest of them descent into bickering.

Felix smiles and kisses Chan's nose. "Yeah, let's go see the stars."

The stars, simply put, are cold sparks of light across a darkening sky. Felix is wearing one of Chan's warmest coats and one of Jeongin's hats, and he's holding Chan's hand as they stand on their balcony, huddled together like the penguins.

He remembers the last time he saw these stars, freezing and hoping for the sun to rise. He remembers how the sun did rise, then, how his days were filled with warmth ever since. He remembers the loneliness of the aquarium, the few considerate humans who'd cared enough to talk to him. He remembers how he fell from the ship, the brief moments in time before gravity took a hold of him. He remembers the cold of the ocean, the wriggling mussel on his tongue, the dark so solid he didn't know whether his eyes were closed or not. He remembers glowing eyes.

Tell the stars hello from me, little one.

"Hello," Felix tells the stars.

Hello everyone. Thank you for reading ❤️

I'd be very happy to hear your thoughts on this fanfic, but I'm also very happy about votes,, as I crave validation 🥺🥺