Merman Tails

Aki couldn't help but sigh blissfully as he and Haru soaked in the hot spring's water. The salty waters of the sea would always be their home, but the hot water really hit the spot during the colder days.

They were both leaning on the same large rock in the middle of the hot spring, Aki leaning his back on it while Haru laid his head on his crossed arms on top of it. Since it was quite late into the night, meaning not many humans were likely to come by, they had their merman tails out instead of using their human forms. It was more comfortable that way. Their human forms weren't fully unpleasant, but their tails felt much more… Right than the legs that wouldn't even look fully human, as they would still have some webbing between their toes and a few tiny scales spread through random spots of their skin.

As Aki heard the sound of the sliding door opening, he opened one eye to see Yumoto walking out of the small inn. The young hot spring spirit happily hopped towards the edge of the wood flooring by the water.

"Are you guys enjoying the water?" Yumoto asked with a smile, sitting down so only his feet dipped into the water.

Aki smiled at him. "It's wonderful as always. Thanks for always letting us use it like this."

Yumoto giggled. "Don't worry about it! An-chan always says that water creatures should help each other!"

"Is he back yet?" Haru asked, and Aki noticed he was looking at the water near Yumoto's feet rather than Yumoto himself.

Yumoto shook his head. "He's still out getting groceries."

Haru just nodded, and then went back to simply relaxing in the hot water. Aki followed suit, closing his eyes again. The silence that befell the three of them was oddly pleasant.

However, as nice as that silence was, Aki opened his eyes… Yumoto wasn't usually this quiet.

He looked at Yumoto for any sign of something being off, but he seemed just quite relaxed. He slowly swung his feet back and forth in the water, a few small spots of red scales showing up at his feet where they were submerged. But his eyes had an odd expression to them as he softly smiled…

Aki attempted to find what he was looking at, but he didn't find anything that interesting.

"Is something up?" He asked.

"Hm?" Yumoto snapped his head to his direction, being drawn away from his thoughts too suddenly.

"You're really quiet. What are you looking at?"

"Ah, it's nothing. I just…" Yumoto giggled. "Your tails are really pretty! I like looking at them."

Aki and Haru both raised eyebrows at that, instinctively looking down at where their tails were, both very close together. Aki then realized they were, in fact, in the direction that Yumoto had been looking at.

Aki chuckled. He and Haru were used to other creatures being so dazzled by their tails, but perhaps because it had never come up in the years they had known the Hakones they had never thought Yumoto would be that charmed by them.

However, once he thought about it more, it made sense. Hot spring spirits like the Hakones didn't have as many scales as merpeople, despite sharing an evolutionary ancestor. For the spirits, their scales only showed up underwater, so it could be hard to appreciate the few they did have.

Aki smiled at Yumoto as an idea popped into his head. "If you wanna touch them, you can."

Haru let out a confused squeaking noise, blushing from ear to ear. Aki held back on the urge to smirk at him, not wanting to make it too obvious that he wanted to tease him just as much as he wanted to feel Yumoto touching him. Instead, he gestured his head to Haru's tail, wordlessly telling him to take it out of the water. Looking away from both of them, Haru complied.

Meanwhile, Yumoto looked at Aki with a sparkle in his eyes. "Really!?"

Aki nodded, and Yumoto smiled from ear to ear as he hopped into the water and happily walked up to them.

Haru's tail was a little closer to him, so he reached out for him first. He touched his tail very gently, eyes sparkling as he watched the light coming from the lamps on the wooden walls around the spring reflect on his scales. He ran his fingers through his scales as if he wanted to remember each and every one of them as perfectly as possible later.

Aki held back the urge to chuckle as he watched Haru's reactions. His whole face was red now, and Aki could tell he was trying very hard to not make it obvious that he was enjoying it. Aki was already planning to tease him to hell and back about it later.

Yumoto moved his hand to the fin at the tip of Haru's tail, but Haru quickly pulled it back underwater with a yelp.

"Sorry! Is that somewhere I shouldn't touch?" Yumoto asked with a frown.

"I-I just… I'm sensitive there…" Haru mumbled, still not looking at Yumoto.

Seeing that Yumoto was looking concerned, Aki lightly shook his tail to catch his attention. "Wanna compare them?" He asked with a smile.

Yumoto nodded, coming a little closer to him. He touched Aki's tail just as gently as he had touched Haru's. And even though Aki was very relaxed by it, he could see why Haru was so flustered. The way Yumoto softly ran his fingers through his scales sent a nice chill down his spine, and he happily leaned against the rock and closed his eyes, enjoying it as if it was a massage.

"My fin isn't as sensitive as Haru's, so feel free to touch it." He said, lightly moving the tip of his tail vertically.

"If you say so, don't mind if I do!" Yumoto said, gently moving his hands towards the fin. Right as he first touched it, he was surprised by it. "Oh, it's thicker than I thought it would be!"

Haru made a choked noise at that comment, flustered by how it sounded.

Aki held back the urge to laugh at his brother as he opened one eye. "Yeah. It's very see-through, so it looks thinner than it actually is."

Yumoto looked even more charmed as he kept running his hands through it, even going back to the center of his tail. Aki felt the way he pressed against his scales to be a bit interesting, as if he was testing them for something…

"Your scales are softer, too!" Aki cocked his head to the side at that, and Yumoto gladly kept going. "Haru's scales felt a little harder. And a little sharper, too. As if they would cut my fingers if I wasn't careful."

"Oh, that." This time, Aki couldn't hold back and let out a little giggle. "That's just because he's nervous. The scales get softer if we're relaxed, but get tougher if we're nervous or scared."

Yumoto looked back at Haru with a frown. "Did I do something bad to you? You should have told me and I would have stopped!"

"You didn't do anything wrong…" Haru mumbled.

Although Yumoto heard it, the worried expression wouldn't leave his face.

"Haru is just shy, don't worry about it." Aki reassured Yumoto with a smile.

"Shy? Why? You two have been coming here for ages now."

Haru quickly changed into his human legs and stood up, hurriedly walking out of the water and grabbing a towel to wrap around his waist. His face was a pretty deep shade of red. "It's getting late. I'm going to sleep."

Although Yumoto was still confused, he still smiled and waved at Haru as he walked away. "Good night!"

Aki had to hold back another giggle. Haru had walked off fast enough that Yumoto hadn't seen the front of his body as he left, but Aki had clearly seen it. His blushing had already been a very obvious indication of how Yumoto's touches were affecting him, but in his human form there was also a very obvious boner.

He couldn't help but smirk. He was definitely going to have fun teasing him further about it that night. Perhaps he could even offer his brother some relief… But for now, he was going to make the most of his remaining alone time with Yumoto.