Baetica watched his cousin as he approached the kelp forest. Cidaris was swimming listlessly around and slowly sinking to the sea floor. Then, as if he’d brushed anemone, he’d jolt straight and swim upwards before slowly slumping back down. But, as far as Baetica could tell, Cidaris wasn’t injured.

“Hey cousin,” asked Baetica as he reached Cidaris’ side, “how’s it going?”

A volcano of bubbles shot towards the surface as Cidaris looked over at him and sighed.

“That bad, huh?”

Cidaris nodded. With a graceful flick of his dark grey tail, Cidaris swam down the length of kelp. “These days feel like an eternity. I—” He shook his head and reached for one of the purple urchins eating the base of the kelp.

If Cidaris was any younger, Baetica would have reminded him to leave the spiny creatures alone. Since his cousin was nearly an adult, Baetica decided he was old enough to choose to get stabbed in the hand.

Carefully, Cidaris picked up the urchin by one of its points and lobbed it away from the kelp. Silently, the two of them watched as the orb slowly fell back to the seafloor. Cidaris sighed and swam along the base of the kelp.

With a longing look towards the city, Baetica bit back a sigh of his own and followed his cousin through the water taking care not to scratch his tail along the ground. “What’s wrong?”

Cidaris shrugged and chucked another urchin.

Baetica flicked his tail irritably and winced. If he hadn’t promised Gadilidae and Mytilidae he would try and find out what was wrong; he would have left his cousin to his taciturn ways. He inhaled a mouthful of water and shot it at a couple of kelp leaves to suppress the urge to smack his cousin. “Look, I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s going on.”

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“You can’t fix it anyway.”

Baetica balled his fists and slowly unclenched them, willing his frustration to flow out of his body as he did so. “If you don’t want to speak to me or your parents, what about talking to…” he swished his fingers before him as he tried to remember the mermaid’s name, “Kellia?”

“No,” Cidaris snapped.

Baetica flashed backwards from the ferocity of Cidaris’ reply. Swiftly he reassessed his cousin, “Are you in love?” he asked cautiously.

Cidaris nodded and slumped back onto the ocean floor. “Not that it matters.”

“Because she’s not in love with you…”

Cidaris shook his head. “She loves me,” he let forth a fresh slew of bubbles as he threw another urchin, “but she doesn’t like me right now.”

Swooping down, Baetica patted Cidaris on the back. “Ah, I see.” He didn’t, but figured it was probably best not to say that. “What happened?”

“I asked her to… you know.” Cidaris’ cheeks flushed. He looked away and very earnestly began combing the ground for more urchins.

“And she said no, I take it.”

Cidaris nodded miserably and tossed another urchin without looking. “We went to the cave that overlooks the coral reef because she loves to watch the fish playing there. I brought her a dish of red algae that I made myself. And I thought… you know, this is perfect. There’s no one here. We’re in love…” his voice trailed off and his whole body wilted over a rock outcropping. His voice took on a snide tone as he continued, “But she’s not ready for that. She’d much rather wait. For what? I don’t know.” He sighed again. “Now she won’t even speak to me.”

Baetica lightly punched Cidaris’ shoulder. “Don’t worry cousin. There is a cure.”

“Really?” Cidaris looked up hopefully.

Baetica nodded. “Yep. Pretty easy one too.”

A small cloud of silt rose up and surrounded the merfolk as Cidaris pushed himself up off the rock. “Well, what is it? Don’t just leave me hanging like this Baetica.”

Baetica placed both hands on Cidaris’ shoulders and made his face as serious as he could manage it. “The cure for what ails you is…” He paused and watched the hope flicker to annoyance. As Cidaris raised his arms to push Baetica’s hands off of him, Baetica continued, “The cure is to find a new mermaid.” He shrugged at Cidaris’ shocked face.

“You expect me to just, forget her?” Cidaris snapped. “She’s beautiful. The way the sunlight flickers off her hair. The smooth curve of her silver fins…” He shook his head. “Even if I were blind, I’d never be able to forget her beauty.” He threw another urchin away from the kelp as he shook his head again. “You’re wrong. I’ll never be able to move on.”

Baetica tussled Cidaris’ head and grinned. “Trust me. We can fix this.”