Toshiya sighed, cupping his hands behind Die's head and dragging it down to kiss Die's lips. The bed creaked as he flopped down beside Toshiya, sighing and throwing an arm across Toshiya's stomach, murmuring "g'night" on his way into dreamland. Toshiya sighed. Normally, he thought with a wry smile, sex with Die was quite tiring, and it was VERY easy to fall asleep right after. Normally. But, tonight he was not tired. And as he lay there, propped up on his pillow, resting his cheek in his hand, watching Die fall asleep, he was profoundly... Bored.

"Na, Die," he whispered, poking Die lightly. "Die...?" *poke poke* "DIE-chan," he hissed in Die's ear, tugging lightly on a lock of hair. When he got no response, he pouted, then leaned in very close and ran his tongue along Die's earlobe. If nothing else, surely sex would wake Die up. Die tilted his head around to give Toshiya a sloppy kiss, then flopped back onto the pillow, eliciting light snores. Toshiya glared. "Humph!" he managed to disentangle himself from Die, and padded into the bathroom, where he turned the faucet on cold, filled up a cup with cold water, and return to the bed. Crawling back in, he proceeded to dump the water on Die's head.

"KYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! Toshiya, what the fxxk are you DOING??!" All innocence, Toshiya chirped, "I was wondering if you were awake." He blinked innocently.

"Did it ever become apparent to you that I wasn't??"

"Well, I'm bored! I'm not tired! Everyone else is asleep. Even Kyo, cuz if he wasn't I would have gone out and played with him." Everybody knew the diminutive vocalist of Dir En Grey was often taken to spending the hours in which the mortal world slept in doing god knows what. But when Yoshiki got tired of having Kyo sleep through practice, he put him on a curfew and gave Kyo some nice and powerful sleeping pills. Not even the demonic singer could stay awake with those pills. Without Kyo to play with, Toshiya felt it was his lover's responsibility to entertain him.

"Ne, Die, tell me a story! And make me the main character!" Die sighed, shooting Toshiya a long-suffering look before trying to think of a story in his head. Lets see...Little Red Riding Toshiya? No, he's much more of a blue then a red...besides he'd probably end up coming on to the wolf. Toshiya and the beast...? No, Toshiya would end up loving a gothic castle to live in. PocahonToshiya? I REALLY can't picture Toshiya without makeup... Die decided to make up his own story, though he did settle on Toshiya being a mermaid. "Ok, ready? Once upon a time..."

Once upon a time, there lived a very beautiful, very solitary mermaid with no name. He had a glowing blue-green tail, blue-black hair, and bright brown eyes. The myth that all mermaids live together in some huge castle together is totally unfounded. Mermaids are actually very solitary creatures, preferring to travel alone or in mated pairs. Since he had no mate, he swam alone along the shore hunting fish, the whale song thrumming through the ocean as his company. And as he lived underwater, he did not communicate with words, but with his own song, like all the mermaids did. This song gave no name to individuals, and so he had none to call himself.

One day he went too close to shore, and was snagged in a fisherman's net. Up out of the water he was dragged with the flailing fish, and dumped on the deck of the fishermen's boat. When the fishermen saw this pale, writhing half-human struggling amongst the carp, they knew he would make an excellent gift for the prince. The prince was a man who loved pretty things, and he collected anything, living or inanimate, that he found attractive to his eye So they brought this little treasure back to the shore, still entangled in the netting.

When young prince Kyo saw the present he had been brought, he clapped his hands in joy. "I adore it! It's gorgeous! I shall build a pond in my garden right away to put him in." Kyo looked closely at the mermaid, being dragged up out of the boat, encased in netting and staring back at Kyo. He spotted the bracelet on his wrist and ordered it removed. The mermaid fought, not wanting his magical bracelet removed, for all his wishes and dreams were stored within it. But the fishermen won, and removed the bracelet and brought it to prince Kyo, who smiled and tucked it away. "I think I'll name my pet. Everyone shall know this mermaid as 'Toshiya'"

And so there was a pond constructed for Toshiya, a large one at the center of the maze in prince Kyo's great garden. And for several months Prince Kyo would go with his friends into the garden and watch the mermaid swim. Shinya, Kyo's friend and lady in waiting, sniffed and turned his head away, annoyed to be confronted with something more beautiful than he. Kaoru, by virtue of wanting Shinya to be happy, proclaimed that he really wasn't all that pretty of a mermaid. Die thought he was beautiful, but as Die didn't share his thoughts much with anyone, he kept his thoughts to himself. They sat and talked and watched, and then one day a very large and elaborately decorated (and empty) coffin arrived at the castle. The fickle young prince adored it right away, and forgot all about the existence of the mermaid. And because prince Kyo forgot, the rest of the world forgot as well.

For several months the young mermaid swam alone in the pond. He did not starve, for there had been fish put in the pond to begin with, and since fish screw like rabbits ("or like fish", added Toshiya) there was never a shortage of supply. But he was very confined in his pond. The whale song was muted by distance, and he felt lonely.

Then one day the prince had a large party, and he invited many people. A rather drunk Die soon grew bored, and wandered through the gardens until by dumb luck he managed to find the pond. He saw the mermaid sitting on a rock on the far end of the pond, beneath the drooping branches of a willow tree. When the mermaid saw him, he dove into the water and remained just below the surface watching Die.

"You're name is Toshiya? Can you speak at all? My name is Die." Toshiya surfaced and slowly floated toward Die.

"I speak. I don't like speaking, it is your language, but I speak. I hate this place, I want my bracelet and I want to be free."

Die decided that this mermaid was a brat, but he saw Toshiya's loneliness and he felt pity and sat with the mermaid and spoke with him all night. He continued to do this for many nights, visiting he mermaid and leaving by morning. He found that the only thing Toshiya liked about this place was his new name. It sounded like a noise he made in one of his songs. Once Toshiya tried to sing the song for Die, but he dissolved into tears trying, for without the bracelet to hold his wishes to music, he could not sing. Die saw that Toshiya was all the lonelier for not having it, and though he STILL felt Toshiya was a brat-- ("baka!" cried Toshiya. "Making such a pretty mermaid like me into a brat!!" "are you going to let me finish?" "....") --He decided he would get the bracelet back. He did not know why he was being so kind to this mermaid, but he knew he wanted to make him happy.

One evening Toshiya rose out of the water to rest on the bank, and saw Die striding toward him with a big grin on his face. Before Toshiya could ask what Die was so happy about, Die handed him his silver bracelet. Toshiya gasped in surprise and snatched the bracelet into his pale hands. "How did you steal this from Kyo?" Asked a bewildered Toshiya.

"Easy," replied Die, "I just got Kyo drunk and asked him to tell me a bit about the mysteries of the coffin that he is so fond of. He goes off for ages on the stupid thing, and when he got drunk, I slipped away and got the bracelet from his room."

"You have given me back that which holds all my wishes and dreams. Now I can leave this place," said Toshiya gratefully.

Die frowned, and before he could stop himself, he said, "If I knew that you would leave, I would not have given you the bracelet."

Perhaps the moonlight was playing tricks on Die's eyes, but he thought he saw the pale skin of Toshiya's cheeks blush. Toshiya struggled farther up onto the bank, where Die knelt down and hugged Toshiya. It was the first time he had touched Toshiya, and it was like touching pearl. Toshiya's smooth pale shoulders were slick and soft to the touch, and the tears that were slipping down his cheeks shone silver in the moonlight.

"I want to be with you longer...but my wish is to be home with the whale song, to be free in the ocean. My wish is to be happy again."

Before Die could reply a soft gold light scattered from Toshiya's bracelet and wrapped about his body. Die watched as Toshiya's sad face floated up and away from him, and then the gold light consumed Toshiya, and he faded into starlight and mist.

For several weeks after, Die was inconsolable. He never told prince Kyo or his friends that the mermaid had returned to his home, and he was moody and silent most of the time. He had no momento by which to remember Toshiya, only the memory of his beautiful pale face in his mind. He asked to be placed in a room in the castle that was closer to the water, so that he could look out to Toshiya's freedom and remind himself of why he gave Toshiya the bracelet rather than keep it to himself and keep Toshiya in captivity forever.

One night when the moon was full and glowing, he looked out to the water, and saw a gathering of bright stars in the water, pulling together until they took shape, and before his eyes Toshiya materialized. Toshiya surged out of the water until he clung to the window ledge and Die helped hoist him up.

Resting on the windowsill, he wrapped his arms around Die in a hug, and felt it returned. "I wanted to be happy. I want to be happy. You make me happy. I wish to be with you."

Die watched, astonished, as the golden light from Toshiya's wrist bled together with a band of moonlight that had wound around Toshiya's body. The light curled and twisted and wrapped around his fin. Toshiya threw his head back as if in pain, or maybe pleasure. The two were indiscernible. With a sigh he let the gold and silver light coil around his tail and twist it apart into two separate bands of light. When the light faded Toshiya had two pale legs in place of his tale.

Toshiya sang his song for Die, sang the song of his name and of his love. He weaved a beautiful song of how he would never be apart from Die again. Die picked him up and took him to his bed, and they spent the night learning each-others bodies and promising happiness to each other for the rest of life

Toshiya, his cheek resting against Die's bare chest, smiled sleepily and drew circles with his fingertip on Die's skin. "And did they live happily ever after?" he murmured questioningly as he looked up at Die.

Die grinned. "Nah, they prob'ly broke up a week later cuz Die found out his little mermaid is a brat that snores loudly after sex and eats too much." His laughter was muffled by the pillow that smacked into his face. "Baka!" cried Toshiya, "Well, maybe the mermaid dumped Die cuz he found out Die drools in his sleep sometimes and smokes in bed!"

Die only laughed and wrapped his arms around Toshiya, pulling him into a tight hug and turning them both over onto their sides. "Well, MY little mermaid isn't going anywhere!" he said triumphantly. "Damn straight," muttered Toshiya burying his face into Die's chest and tightening his grip around Die's stomach.

Die was just beginning to drift off into sleep again when he heard Toshiya's quiet voice calling, "Ne, Die..."

"Yah?"

"Thanks for the bedtime story, now I can sleep." Toshiya kissed Die on his nose, rested his head on Die's chest, and drifted into sleep.

~fin~ ...

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