The boys sat together for a while on Shroud Island. When it was time for Rowan to go back to the mainland, they felt very comfortable in each other's presence and had talked a lot about surfing. Kaerius took Rowan back to the rocks and was a little reluctant to let him go.

Rowan felt him holding on, even when he tried to clamber out of the water. "I have a two-hour seminar soon. I'll come back to see you after."

Kaerius nodded, and his hands loosened on Rowan's waist. Kaerius hated waiting for him, but he figured that his life was going to be like that forever. He would always be waiting for Rowan to come back to the ocean.

"Go see Jaiker or Laiken. Go find some fish or whatever it is you do under there," Rowan smiled.

"Find fish. Kaerius hungry." Kaerius patted his stomach and Rowan chuckled.

"All right, well, I'll see you later." Rowan, with a thumping heart, leaned forwards and kissed Kaerius on the cheek. His skin was cold and wet. Kaerius looked sheepishly away. Rowan hadn't seen him shy; it was cute.

When Rowan was out of the water, he waved goodbye to the Thalassic Mortal. Kaerius waved a webbed hand in return and didn't want to be the first one to leave. Neither did Rowan, so they both edged backwards until the bond felt uncomfortable.

It was easier for Kaerius to leave if he was already hurting.

Rowan's walk to university felt long. With every step, his brain felt like it expanded and pressed against his skull. Rowan had a lot to think about, but at least his relationship with Kaerius was levelling out. Without worrying about what his mother would think, he worried about what his mother was hiding. Rowan buried his thoughts when he saw the grand building looming over the beach.

He couldn't yet decide if the university was getting in the way, or somewhere for him to escape from the chaos.

After the two-hour seminar, Rowan packed his things clumsily fast.

"Solar," Jack said, walking out of the room. Rowan had sat on the front row, and Jack had sat a few seats away. They didn't have one conversation the entire time. Rowan had tried, but Jack ignored him. "What do you want?"

"I want to talk about the group assignment. You still haven't added me to the Facebook group."

"I sent you the work. What more do you need?" Jack stopped and peered at him over his thick-framed glasses. "You look... odd."

Rowan raised a brow. "You look exhausted."

"I am. I've been up for almost three days."

"And you... think I look odd?" Rowan asked, pulling at the bottom of his t-shirt. He suddenly felt nervous. Jack was sleep-deprived enough. Maybe the bond was visible somehow. "Wait, why on earth have you been up for that long?"

"Yeah. Something's off about you." Jack stared harder until Rowan squirmed under his gaze. "Just kidding," he said and slapped Rowan's chest a little too hard. He turned and marched towards the library, sighing when he heard Rowan's footsteps following.

"You're not a very good team player. I want to speak to the other group members," Rowan said, trying to act as average as he could.

"Well, look for them yourself. It's in your emails, but I suggest not wasting your time. You and I, we are the only smart ones. We'll carry the load."

Rowan scoffed, and Jack stopped so abruptly, Rowan tripped over himself to avoid crashing into Jack's back. They were outside the library doors, and the sky was beginning to look bleak.

"I'm serious, Solar. The other group members are not pulling their weight. They don't care. We care. That is why we are going to study at your house."

Rowan's face visibly twitched with shock, but only until his brain zapped through a million excuses. "Not tonight. I'm busy."

"With what? I've seen you around here. You've got no friends." Jack spoke very matter-of-factly.

"I'm actually meeting up with someone," Rowan said and crossed his arms. Though it was true, he didn't have any friends. He wasn't yet sure if Kaerius had earnt the title. Rowan knew Kaerius would skip it all together. They were more than friends without being friends first. He didn't realise how fast their relationship had moved until he reflected on their kiss.

"The girl can wait. A degree is more important than romance," Jack said, and for a second, Rowan saw a shimmer of sadness in his eyes. It wasn't easy being alone. It was even harder pretending that you liked it that way.

"I'm gay," Rowan said so blankly, he surprised himself. It was much easier telling strangers. He didn't care what they thought because their opinion didn't matter to him.

Jack stared back as emotionless as Rowan's voice. "As I said, a degree is more important than romance. Tell him to wait. You're busy." Jack turned and entered the library.

Rowan hovered from foot to foot like a bird on a hot tinned roof. He did need to study, and he was sure Kaerius wouldn't mind waiting an extra hour or two. Rowan wished there was a way to reach the Thalassic Moral. He could only hope that Kaerius trusted him enough to know that he would be back soon.

* * * * *

Kaerius cut through the water like a fin through the waves. He had swum the length of the beach six times, and still, Rowan had not returned. Kaerius irritated himself. He didn't want to be so caught up on Rowan that is every waking moment was spent either thinking about him or being with him. There was no escape. Soulmate bonds guaranteed the obsession.

"Rowan, if you can hear me, get your stupid human-self back to the beach. The bond is hurting me," Kaerius thought and splashed his tail on the surface. The waves had calmed down, and the tide was out, so there was somewhere dry for Rowan to sit when he did return.

"Rowan?" Kaerius thought and swam another lap of the beach. When he returned to the rocks, no tall teenager was walking along the sand with his flip flops in his grip. "Dammit. Why can't I hear your thoughts too?"

When another half hour past, Kaerius started to worry that maybe Rowan had forgotten to meet him and went home. Or worse, Rowan was in danger. Kaerius could feel the human's emotions, and Rowan didn't seem like he was panicking. Kaerius was still trying to get used to separating his feelings from Rowan's. Humans were emotional creatures; Rowan could smoothly go through five different emotions in less than two minutes. It was overwhelming for Kaerius, but interesting, nonetheless.

"That's it," Kaerius thought, "You're taking too long. I'm going to your house. I'll wait for you in your room." Kaerius hoisted himself onto the rocks. The air always felt odd on his skin. Before Rowan, he rarely surfaced below his chin.

The sun beat down on him like a personal dryer. Kaerius had human legs in just under fifteen minutes. While he waited to dry, his purple eyes narrowed and scanned the beach. Rowan still hadn't returned. Kaerius assumed it had been four hours since he left, judging by the movement of the sun.

In a huff, Kaerius pulled on the shorts Rowan had shoved into a hole in the rocks and edged his way to the sand. The golden sand was uncomfortably hot on the soles of his feet. Kaerius had to jog. He smiled to himself as he climbed the dunes. He felt proud of his strange human legs for making progress.

The front door to Rowan's house was open. Kaerius looked around the front garden and the porch. Rowan's horrid mother wasn't around to startle him, so Kaerius slipped into the house, silent on his feet, but not alert enough.

As he tiptoed through the hall, the stairway was opposite the kitchen. Kaerius heard voices as he neared the banister. Walking into a hunter's home, he should not have assumed that nobody would see him. When his foot creaked the first step, Mandy shouted, "Rowan, is that you?" Her footsteps approached the stairs when Kaerius had only reached the third step.

She didn't see him, but the man who gazed around the doorway did. "Who's that?" he grunted with half a ham sandwich in his mouth.

Mandy's eyes froze dead on the stairs. "Who? I can't see anyone."

The man stared at Kaerius, and Kaerius stared back. The sea creature looked human enough, but if his purple eyes weren't a giveaway, then the fact that he was invisible to Mandy was.

More people crowded around the door, all looking Kaerius right in the eyes. The world stilled as Kaerius planned his escape. How fast can these legs go? He wondered. His gaze darted down the hall. He wouldn't make it to the front door or the back door. A window would have to do.

Kaerius's body whipped through the air, and he lunged up the stairs. The people in Rowan's home ran after him, barely leaving more than three feet between them. Kaerius threw himself through Rowan's bedroom door, disappointed that the human wasn't sitting at his desk.

Kaerius thanked the goddess that the window was open and without thinking of injuries, he dived out of it, headfirst. Kaerius hit the porch roof, loosening some of the tiles. The slant rolled him off the roof, and he landed hard on the grass below, knocking the air from his lungs and cracking a few ribs.

Kaerius's neck tightened, and his face burned red from the pain. He scrambled to his feet when the front door flew open and sprinted across the front garden. He couldn't breathe and only made it to the mud pathway leading to the beach when a hand grabbed his shoulder.

Kaerius was thrown to the ground and pinned to the mud by many large men.

"Help! Rowan!" Kaerius rasped. He kicked and punched and scratched. His poison hurt a few, but more people poured from Rowan's house and pinned him down.

"It's a Thalassic Mortal," a man said holding Kaerius's right wrist into the mud. "With legs. Mandy, what the hell is this?"

Mandy stepped through the hunters and towered over where she assumed Kaerius lay. He had thought she looked like Rowan, but her face had twisted so much with disgust, she looked nothing like him. "What does he look like?" Mandy asked, and she recognised the description. "He's here to hurt my son. This isn't the first time I've been close to this one." Her dark blue eyes, colder than the depth of the ocean, scanned the mud and she spat on him. "This one's a freak. Take him to the base and show him how sorry he is to mess with a Solar."

Kaerius begged with his eyes. Mandy couldn't see his gaze that screamed a thousand apologies. Still, she stared where she thought his face was like he wasn't a living creature. Kaerius, at that moment, had never felt so helpless and weak.

"Please," he said as a rock was lifted above his head, large enough to knock him out. "I Kaerius, I no hurt human-"

the man let go of the rock, and it collided with his forehead, knocking the Thalassic Mortal unconscious instantly.

* * * * *

Rowan had heard Kaerius's annoyed thoughts for him to return to the beach. Rowan kept replying with thoughts about being half an hour longer. Of course, Kaerius didn't hear him. Rowan was finally packing up his things when Kaerius declared that he was going to wait in Rowan's room.

Rowan chuckled to himself as he hurried down the stairs. He was in a better mood than that morning. Having a regular few hours at university helped him to push the thoughts about his parents to a place he couldn't reach. At least, for long enough to let him calm down and handle them properly when they resurfaced.

He said goodbye to Jack, who didn't respond and scurried to the carpark. Rowan sighed and followed the gravel path until it turned to sand and he was on the beach.

As the sea breeze graced his nostrils, and the waves pleasured his ears, Rowan was just about to slip his flipflops off when his chest tingled. He stood up straight and rubbed his ribs. "Strange," Rowan mumbled and tried to listen to Kaerius's thoughts. He was mumbling too fast for Rowan to understand. Then Rowan felt a wave of extreme stress until his head was suddenly silent.

Kaerius's angry mutterings were suddenly gone, and Rowan was left to listen to his lonely thoughts. Rowan stumbled in the sand and had to sit down when a surge of dizziness affected his balance. Now, Rowan's head tingled too.

He looked out into the ocean, kneeling on the sand with a hand on his ribs and a hand on his head. "Kaerius," he whispered, knowing something was seriously wrong.