the look in your eyes ( i've never seen the ocean );

[innoctuous]

For one that has come from the depths, spent their days and night and even more days still so far beneath the water's surface that near-everything has lost its novelty, the surface itself such a level of wonder and down right splendor that it's difficult to ignore, even if his father has insisted time and time and time again that the world above brings nothing but trouble, that it's best to stay hidden, stay safe. There is nothing in 'the above' that could possibly hold his attention beyond a fleeting fantasy, or some such nonsense that Regis is driven to instill in his only son, his heir to the throne, and it might just go without saying that insisting that there was nothing of interest to him would surely see the little prince of the sea looking upward, and wondering if that were at all true.

Spoilers: it very much isn't. There is a whole other world above him that holds so many wondrous things that he doesn't think he'll ever be able to understand them all, but oh does he try, collecting things that he might think have ties to the humans and their strange ways, their strange everything if only by dint of ignorance. Oh, but make no mistake, he is doing his best to close some of the gap that exists between himself and that world, because as the saying goes, the grass is always greener, or some such —

( We always want what we can't have, don't we? And oh, if that isn't about to become more than a simple phrase. )

He takes to the surface as often as he can, as stealthily as he can and that is in no small part due to the addition of a certain blond companion that covers for him when someone might think to call for him — giving him the sort of leeway and opportunity needed to make his way upward, slipping through the water as this otherworldly, ethereal thing that may or may not even be real, and it's one such instance that has him surfacing near a stretch of bright-white sand that still shines even in the light of dusk, shielded as he finds himself by a convenient outcropping of rock, and he settles with the intent to simply watch the distant city in the twilight, the unnatural light that shines on the surface of the water something foreign and wondrous, and then —

There is a figure walking close to the shore, barefoot with the cuffs of his pants rolled up to somewhere around mid-calf, and he's lean to the point that Noctis might find himself wondering if he's had enough to eat, but he's so beautiful that he can't bring himself to look away, even as the natural light fades to that which is given by the moon, even if it hasn't risen entirely.

This little prince has seen the beauty that the ocean holds, and has found himself intrigued by the unknown held out of reach by the human world — but this is something else entirely, something on a whole new spectrum, something that has the pit of his stomach bottoming out and the base of his spine tingling, and he. Comes back. And back, and back again, day in and day out watching this stranger like he might have some sort of answer that he hadn't been aware of looking for, something just out of reach along with that pale skin, those brilliant green eyes that he's only been able to catch the color of too briefly, and even still, he isn't sure that they don't more closely resemble the tide in the morning, seafoam, rich.

To his credit, all he does is watch — but he'll be damned if he doesn't already feel his heart wanting more, with every beat and every breath, and that he manages to keep his distance ( at least at first ) should be a testament to how hard he tries.

nobody likes you when you're 23;

[innoctuous]

a catch-all for that au comprised of saccharine cute interspersed with depravity;