Spring is melting into summer, and you always find him this time of year stretched out upon his favorite rock, reveling in nonchalance near the shore in a deep back bend. Droplets on his chest hugging his every curve and evaporating in the sun with delicate hands overhead elegantly on display, patiently awaiting your return too…well, perhaps he’d never admit it to you at least.
As he often reminds you unprovoked, he takes deep pride in his tail as he always keeps it close to his form. Often with a mind of its own, languidly curling up his torso, caressing his sun kissed cheeks and framing his face. His freshly dripping tail shields his eyes from the unforgivable rays as he pretends not to desperately search for you out of the corner of his eyes. Why aren’t they on time?
It’s in this moment in which he must remind himself that he’s Levi, the Prince of Pearls for god’s sake, and you’re just one of…them. So why does his heart swell like the sea when he sees your face emerge from the sand dunes, gently gliding through the reeds like the ocean breeze that has once again coaxed him to the surface? Just like I remembered; they get lovelier by the year. He muses against every natural inclination to flee in your presence. Another season. Another failure to swim far away from the sweetness you bring.
He rises like the tide and deliciously peers over his shoulder at you, gaze like a tempest. Adorned in milky pearls beaming against tar-black hair in falling waves against his forehead, a few ink stained strands tucked behind his ear. His namesake and crown perched upon his head tilted back, throat exposed like a dream. His spritely and playful expression breaks across his features in an instant, washing away his doubt and betraying his bleeding heart kept locked away like a treasure buried deep.
“You’relate,” the words drip heavily from his tongue laced with salt from the waves lapping his rocky throne below.
You can’t help but smirk at his murky little attitude with a fondness that escapes any rational thought, that’s simply against your nature…What a bastard you think He never changes. And you’d have him no other way. Powerful, mischievous, unpredictable…sometimes even soft.
“Oh, Levi,” your doting in jest meant to maim (just enough), “Sweetheart, don’t tell me you actually missed me all this time?”
“I certainly did not.” He breaks his own heart. And even your face drops slightly at the sting.
Why is he like this…The question hangs in both your minds.
“Well, maybe just a little.” He yields still somehow thick with pride.
“That’s much better.” Your smile restored. “Now come down from there, or are you still too self-important to come see what I’ve brought you?”
“I’m not-,” his blush competes with his first sunburn of the year as he let’s out a sigh; his excitement overwhelming his pride, “Your irreverence isn’t very becoming, you know.” He leans forward, slipping into the water, darting through the current and to your feet now wading in the shallows.
The bridge of his nose breaks the surface first, water gliding over his sharp features, revealing his eyes that rival the sea in their color and ferocity. His slender neck and broad shoulders breach and what’s left is his stare, burning right through you.
You spar his intellect to keep the playing field even, but when he’s so close, too close like this? You’re humbly reminded that nature herself designed him to drag you down to the depths with one simple siren song, to kill.
And yet, you stay. Not only that, but you keep coming back to him with the season. And so does he, to you.
For earthly trinkets? For borrowed time? You’ll never know…perhaps maybe this summer you will, if he keeps looking at you this.
Like he never wanted the changing tide to sweep you away, the winter to steal you deep inside for warmth…Like he never wanted you to leave.
