#nonbinarytaemin

“So.” Jonghyun coughed lightly to clear his throat, averting his eyes as best he could, but they slid back after a moment, drawn inexorably in. He swallowed when he realized he was staring. “So,” he said again, “you wanna, uh… talk about this?”

Taemin lifted their eyes to Jonghyun’s face, looking up from where they were half-sprawled on the ground. Their cheeks were a little flushed, and if it had been any other time, Jonghyun was sure he’d think it was cute as hell. But Taemin looked more embarrassed than anything, and Jonghyun wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not that Taemin didn’t look at all surprised.

“Can we get out of the rain first?” they asked, lifting their eyes further up, towards the slow drizzle that was starting up, threatening a downpour if they stayed out much longer.

Monsoon season. Jonghyun hadn’t thought twice about it, honestly.

Apparently Taemin hadn’t either.

“Yeah– yeah, course. That’s a good idea. We should–” He gestured haphazardly to somewhere behind him. His apartment was a few blocks away. Could they get a few blocks with Taemin like this?

Taemin gave a nervous smile. “I can’t really…” They swept a hand in the air over the lower half of their body, shrugging sheepishly.

“I…” Jonghyun made a helpless motion. “What, do you need me to… uh, do?”

“You could…” they started, and then shivered a little as the rain started coming down a little harder. “Yeah, could you maybe carry me?”

Jonghyun gulped. “Sure, yeah,” he choked out, bending down awkwardly. This was normal, right? Or, no, not normal at all, but they’d been going out for two months and it wasn’t like Jonghyun hadn’t wrapped his arm around Taemin’s waist before. But that was when Taemin’s waist had led down to, well, not this.

Now, Taemin was sitting on the ground, slowly getting wet, the water seeping into their hair and skin and shirt. And where there had once been legs, Taemin had a tail stretched awkwardly out in front of them. A tail. With scales and fins and… and… fuck.

“How, uh… how do I pick you up?” Jonghyun croaked, one arm around Taemin’s back now, the other hovering a few inches from the side of their tail.

“Just pick me up, Jonghyun. I don’t know. It’s probably easier without legs, honestly,” Taemin said, looking at the sky. “Please, or I’ll never get dry, and I’ll be stuck like this for hours.”

“Hours?” Jonghyun asked, eyes going wide. “Is this common? How often does this happen?”

“Just, you know, when I get wet,” Taemin said, shrugging. “Like, really wet. I mean, maybe an hour or two after I take a shower. Or go swimming. Or–”

“Or get caught in the rain,” Jonghyun said, nodding in understanding. Because yeah, sure, why not? Understanding. That was what he was going for here. Jesus.

“Yeah, so can we get inside, maybe?” Taemin asked, pouting a little at him. It had no right to be as cute as it was.

He hesitated, just a few seconds longer, and then slid an arm under Taemin’s tail. Their tail. Jesus.

It was actually surprisingly warm, a little rough where the scales overlapped, and it was heavy. Maybe no heavier than Taemin’s legs, but Taemin had incredibly thin stick legs, like they weren’t quite sure how… how legs were supposed to be shaped. Damn.

Okay, Jonghyun wasn’t going to sit here and think he was dumb, because who would have ever guessed? If Jonghyun wasn’t sitting here looking at them, feeling their tail in his arms, he would probably assume he was making everything up in his head. Instead, Taemin was a heavy weight in his grip, and Jonghyun hefted them, grunting quietly at the effort.

Taemin bit their lower lip in a way that Jonghyun guessed was suppressing a smile. Jonghyun scowled, but it was halfhearted at best. “So what?” he asked, beginning to walk, looking around furtively. The oncoming rain had driven people inside, and there hadn’t exactly been a lot out anyways, but Jonghyun wasn’t sure how to explain away the person-with-a-tail that was settled in his arms.

“So what, what?” Taemin echoed unhelpfully. They were still biting their lower lip, dug in enough to make Jonghyun huff.

“So what are you exactly?” Jonghyun asked. Half a second later, he winced. “Wait, that came out wrong. I meant… no, I mean that, just not so, y'know, rudely.”

“Wow,” Taemin said, blinking up at him. “You’re a real wordsmith.”

Jonghyun frowned at them, but Taemin was snickering, lifting their hand to cover their mouth as if it might hide the sound. “Sorry I don’t have any prepared speeches for finding out my datemate is a mer-person.”

“Mermaid,” Taemin corrected absently, flicking one fin and frowning. The rain was really starting to come down now, and Taemin burrowed their face into Jonghyun’s shoulder like it helped, but honestly, it wasn’t going to. Jonghyun was starting to get soaked through as well, and they were still a block from his place.

“Mermaid? Isn’t that… I dunno, a female term? I mean…”

“It’s not an anything term,” Taemin said, cocking their head. “Yeah, remember how I told you I wasn’t male or female? That’s because human genders are honestly kind of dumb.”

Jonghyun blinked. “I… I mean, yeah, they are. I just thought…”

“Not human. No human genders,” Taemin said, and then stopped. “This is probably a lot of information to absorb. Sorry.”

“Kind of, but it’s okay,” Jonghyun said, shifting Taemin's weight a little. Half a block left, but his arms were starting to get kind of tired. “The gender discourse is honestly a lot easier to process than, you know, the tail.”

Taemin wriggled the very end of their tail up and down for a moment, snorting when Jonghyun startled a bit. “What, you don’t think the fins are kind of cute?” they said, grinning gleefully. “I have some of the prettiest coloring of any mermaids I’ve met.”

“There’s more of you?” Jonghyun said, startled.

Taemin blinked. “Yeah, Jonghyun. I’m not the last survivor of a dying race. I mean, there’s not as many of us as there were – global warming’s been rough on everyone – but there’s enough of us.”

“Oh,” Jonghyun said, and then let out a breath of relief as they reached his building, Jonghyun pausing. “I’m gonna set you down.”

“Okay,” Taemin said, helping Jonghyun lower them gently. They waited at least semi-patiently as he unlocked the door, and then grinned and hefted themselves a little. Jonghyun winced and reached down to pick them up before they could do something like drag themselves through the entry-way.

“So you’re a mermaid,” he repeated, trying to wrap his head around it. “And you’re… here. In a land-locked city. Why?”

“Your stunning beauty struck me from the depths of the sea,” Taemin deadpanned, making Jonghyun regret picking them back up.

They were joking of course; Jonghyun hadn’t been to the ocean in like 12 years, and he’d met Taemin a couple of months ago.

Taemin giggled. “Nah,” they said. “I just wanted to see what the surface was like. We’re not banned to the ocean or anything. As long as we get dry and stay dry, we get legs. Water equals fins. And gills. Can’t forget the gills.”

Jonghyun blanched. “You have gills?”

“Oh my god,” Taemin burst into laughter. “You’re adorable. Of course we do. I’m not a dolphin.”

Jonghyun refused to acknowledge his blush on principal. “I don’t know anything about mermaids,” he said. He wasn’t pouting. He wasn’t. “How was I supposed to know?”

He dumped Taemin on the couch, almost unceremoniously, and Taemin lounged, stretching all the way down to the tip of their tail, body arching and shirt lifting to show the smooth plains of their stomach. Maybe in another circumstance, that might be hot, but Jonghyun was still a little freaked out right now.

“Hey,” Taemin said suddenly, sitting up. Their voice was softer now. “Hey, Jonghyun, if… if it’s not okay, I can get dry, wait out the storm, and just head home. I get it. You didn’t sign up for cross-species dating. It’s okay.”

They said that, but Jonghyun knew at least a few of Taemin’s signs, and they didn’t look like it was okay. Their hands were clenching uncomfortably on nothing, like they wanted to grab on to something or someone, and they wouldn’t meet Jonghyun’s eyes at all.

Jonghyun sighed. “Tae, I… I’m not gonna lie. This is weird. But I’m not exactly with you for your legs, you know.”

“Nah, you’re with me for my ass,” Taemin said, but their face was still turned away.

Jonghyun reached out, cupping Taemin’s chin, turning their head gently enough that Taemin could refuse if they wanted to. They didn’t, turning with Jonghyun’s palm until they were looking at him.

“Hey,” Jonghyun said.

“Hey,” Taemin echoed, a little more hesitantly.

“I’m with you because I like you. You know that, right?” Jonghyun said, brows a little furrowed. "And unless your personality is contained in your lower body, I’m pretty sure we’re gonna be okay. It’ll just take some adjusting. On my part, not yours.”

Taemin blinked rapidly, just for a moment, and then smiled, almost shy. “You know, most people would have run screaming. It’s only our sixth date.”

Jonghyun grinned. “You’re counting.”

“Nah, I have notifications on my phone. It gets antsy if I have too many things set as ‘Date with Jonghyun’ so I started numbering them,” Taemin said, but they were blushing anyways.

Jonghyun bit back a smile. “Okay,” he said. “So. I’m gonna kiss you, and then I’m gonna get us both towels. You okay with that plan?”