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Wakuu near talks his ear off about the new farmer, when they first move in.
Wataru relaxes as his boy goes on and on over breakfast about how they're so strong, and quiet, and wonders if they've met everyone yet. He talks about how the farm is so big and messy now and wonders if they'll be able to fix it up. He mentions how they're handsome, and blushes when Wataru raises an eyebrow at him.
Wataru remembers them. They'd bowed when they'd met him at the docks, from the waist, and then stood there awkwardly until he led them into the boat. Gentle grip, careful step. They hadn't talked at all on the way, just stared out at the water until they'd arrived. He'd appreciated that; too many strangers like to blather on. When they'd disembarked they'd bowed again and thanked him for the passage, and then the last he saw of them that day they'd been content to be led around and have their ear talked off by Mayor Connor. Wataru isn't sure about handsome. Solemn, thoughtful, yes.
Over the next year the tone of Wakuu's stories changes. He's always told Wataru about his little friends, and Wataru is glad to gather he's made a new one. He and Hongjing hung out and cleaned the bathhouse. Hongjing is incredibly bad at pool. Hongjing is such a good listener, and he and they get along in so many different ways.
He's not sure he's ever seen the boy quite so pink, even that one time he'd refused to wear sunscreen.
Li Hongjing comes by once in a while with a basket of vegetables and a polite bow for Wataru. Li Hongjing fishes with him sometimes in companionable silence. Li Hongjing learns, from somewhere, to smile, to call him "captain", to help his boy wheedle him into doing yoga, of all things.
Li Hongjing mentions offhand that his boy had mentioned liking cenil (in some ways, he's still just that little boy-) and how it's difficult to learn because they don't know how it should taste, and Wataru wasn't born yesterday.
It's a different Li Hongjing now, a year later, who finds Wataru when he's weeding and listens to him talk about his boy. Wataru watches them as they watch him; they've gotten a little darker, under the sun. Their smile is clear in their eyes as he tells them about Wakuu in his youth on the Mermaid. Their voice is gentle but sure as they tell him he should talk to Wakuu.
He considers them, as they fish the sugarcane he requested out of their bag.
"You like my son, do you?" He says, and has the pleasure of watching their whole face blush red as a sunset. Watches their emotions move across their face. A sudden wide-eyed stare, a flustered hop. That bright red blush. And then, all that agitation melts away into a soft, distant smile. He has his answer long before they finally open their mouth.
"I- yes," they say. They blink, as if startled to hear themself say it. "I do. I… like him- a lot. More… than… Oh no…
"More than… just like, captain," they say. They finally look up to face him, and Wataru breathes.
"Warms my heart to hear that," he says. Their blossoming smile is shy and sweet and, god above, Wakuu doesn't stand a chance. "The last thing I want is for the boy to end up all alone like me."
"He's- a good man," they say, clearly more willing to speak about Wakuu than themself. "And a good son. He has- he has a lot of people. He wants you to- to also not be alone. He works hard."
Bah. These two, ganging up on him…
"I'll talk to him," Wataru says. Hongjing relaxes, clearly spent by the effort.
"Thank you," they say, and then fidget a little. "I have to- I have to go…"
"Go," Wataru says with a laugh. He turns back to his plants and he hears them clatter off, uncharacteristically graceless; the breeze brings him their last flustered mutterings, and he laughs again and then tunes them out.
They've never said it aloud before.
They've never thought it completely before.
They've never thought about it at all before!
Li Hongjing jogs back home from the lighthouse and swaps their bag out for their pair of walking sticks and shorts under the skirt for the chafing, and then they go.
Down the back path, past the giants' village. Up past the cavern. Down monkey lane, up past Ben's caravan. The day is warm and breezy. Their skirt swishes beautifully around their ankles. It feels like their hands and the sticks are carrying them more than their feet, and they feel like they're flying.
Clatter up past the bathhouse. Past the observatory; for a moment the grass the stones the walls beautiful amazing Wakuu is heading to Raja's to have coffee with Millie- half-slide down the path towards the lake, the island will not let them fall-
A moment by the stream to catch their breath and wipe the sweat out of their eyes. Should've worn a bandanna…
Past the school, past Paul and Anne's house, resist the urge to vault over the wall and into the lake knowing the water will catch you-
Splash carefully down the steps into the lake. Meander a bit; revel in the coolness of the water, the gentle brush of the fish that can swim over the stones, the beauty of it all. The weight of their now-waterlogged skirt, the pink of all the flowers, the perfect blue of the sky.
Up the steps, more arms than legs, laughing at their skirt slapping against their calves.
Liking someone. "More than just liking" someone. Ah, all the gods and buddhas,
Past the houses, past the graveyard, down… Auntie Ling in her lab, Surya at his desk, the singing of coral, Hongjing flying flying flying now,
Past the beautiful tree, past the general store, Sam checking his inventory, Eva praying the bread doesn't slide off the paddle as she takes it out of the oven, Frank singing to himself as he wipes the counter, Millie lining up for coffee and- Don't look, don't look, don't think about it…
"Handsome" again by the fountain, and Hongjing's energy sparks and Gong and Grog catch their hands and they spin each other with a laugh.
"Friend Hongjing is happy?" Gong says, still holding their hands as they stop spinning, and Hongjing doesn't know how to answer that.
"I think so," they say. "I'm not sure yet."
"Silly hooman," Grog says, below Gong, and Hongjing laughs again.
"I'll tell you when I know," they say. "But I have to- I have to-"
"Friend Hongjing has to keep moving," Gong says. "Understand, we do." Hongjing bows, deeply and theatrically, and then…
Down, down the beach, down to the diving pier, Mister Wataru in the lighthouse, humming to himself, Hongjing caught by the water's cool embrace to the tune of Kible's flustered beeping.
Cold.
Quiet.
The water washes Hongjing away from the island, their body and legs twisting into a fish's tail. Weightlessness. Power. Quiet.
With a few flicks of their tail they're dozens of li from the shore, slicing through the water faster than they ever could on land. The sea stretches out infinitely, blue all around and a smeared riot of color far below; the water washes everything away until only Hongjing remains, until only the water remains, formless and infinite and pure.
They whirl; they're far enough away that…
Faster, faster, faster-
Everything is white as they shoot through the surface. They laugh, twisting in the air, flying; the sun glitters on the sea, and Coral Island is a green gem in the distance. They fall back into the quiet embrace with a huge splash and a contented sigh in their heart.
When their unruly energy has all washed away they pull themself up the ladder again, water sloughing off them in great sheets; premonitions of the cost of all this accepted as their clothes turn waterlogged again. They flop onto the pier, panting, joyful, spent, Kible beeping admonishments from the water.
The breeze is cool. The sun is warm. The water from Hongjing's clothes seeps into the wood, drips from their skirts and their feet and their hair. Slowly they dry out, coarse and sticky with salt, to the music of the crashing waves and the wheeling gulls.
"I want," they sing quietly into the sea air, and then they laugh. To want, how terrible, how terrible, how terrible. Ah, how many times has wanting made a fool of Li Hongjing? Too many times.
But… ah, to fall for Wakuu is a lovely thing. They can play it by ear, for now.
Millie sees them first, perking up and waving at them before- they see her expression change, as she processes the walking sticks. Hongjing doesn't usually take them out this early, these days; in the early days of the farm, the ocean, they'd needed them more, but… they also hadn't appeared to other people much, those days.
But today Millie is already scrambling to get them a chair and they drop gratefully into it, and when Wakuu gives them a sunbeam smile the thump of their wild heart is no longer a mystery.
"Hello, my brilliant sunflower!" Millie says. "We were just talking about the cherry blossom festival." Ah, they love Millie. They want her to have everything she wants.
"Thank you for your hard work," they say, and she blushes.
"You're too kind!"
Hongjing is content to sit there for a while and relax, listening to the two of them talk, about the food served, the big pot, the work Millie put into the event, how pretty the cherry blossoms were. When the air cools and they shiver, Wakuu goes and buys them a hot chocolate- "no, it's okay, stay right there-" and they sit there with their mug in their hands, drinking in the warmth.
"Hongjing- why were you so wet?" Millie says. They're dry now, but they were still a little damp when they arrived.
"Went swimming," they say.
"In your clothes?"
"Can't swim naked." Wakuu snorts and Hongjing, emboldened, grins at Millie.
"That's not what I- oh, never mind." She shakes her head. "But- you have a swimsuit. We've seen you!"
Hongjing… fidgets. "Didn't know… I was going swimming until I was in the water."
"Hongjing! That's dangerous!"
"What were you thinking?"
They fidget a little more, grinning sheepishly.
"Kible was there? Dr- Auntie Ling's drone."
"Oh, that's fine, then-" Millie smacks her forehead. "Hongjing. You beautiful jellyfish. Why?"
Hongjing, betrayed by their body, glances at Wakuu. Millie's eyes widen, and then she peers at them as she puts things together in a way that terrifies Hongjing.
"I visited Mister Wataru," they blurt out before she can keep putting together goddess only knows what. "Sugarcane. He wanted some. We talked."
"What did you talk about?" Wakuu says, and his gaze is bruised and delicate like flower petals, and Hongjing holds very still and does not flinch.
"This and that," they say instead. Wakuu's eyes shutter and he gives them a flat look, and then-
"Ah, would you look at the time," Millie says. "I'd love to stay and chat some more, but I have to go yell at Scott. You mandarin ducks, we should have dinner together some other time?"
"I'd like that," Hongjing says. Wakuu nods. They watch her go, and then…
"He told me about you as a child," Hongjing says gently, looking just to Wakuu's right. The blue of the sky deepens around them and the lights come on, making him glow warm gold.
"Did he?"
"You were so inquisitive even then." They do look at him now, at his open, pleading face. They need him to understand that they were always going to tell him what Mister Wataru told them.
He blushes, flustered, when they tell him Mister Wataru spoke fondly of a little boy who'd follow him around asking endless questions. He laughs, when they remind him he's the exact same way now, head over heels in love with the endless universe. His eyes soften even more when they tell him Mister Wataru hasn't seen him since…
"He misses me?" Wakuu says, and Hongjing nods. "He told you that?" Hongjing nods again.
"I… He wants to talk to you," Hongjing says. "He'll- he's working up to it, I think." Wakuu nods, mouth tight, eyes pointed away.
"You sounded like an adorable child," they say, trying to lighten the mood. "Does he have pictures of you? I should've asked." Wakuu sputters, and Hongjing laughs.
"You- don't ask him for those," Wakuu says. "What did you talk about that had you jumping into the water? And- your walking sticks…"
"You like 'em?" Hongjing says. "I can go really fast with them. And my feet don't hurt." He looks at them, considering.
"What did you talk about with my dad?" Wakuu says, and Hongjing… remembers, remembers speaking it aloud to Mister Wataru, that they-
Their face blazes again just like before, and Wakuu looks so startled Hongjing has to laugh. They hold back the most dangerous words, behind their teeth. Swallow them back down with the hot chocolate to make it go easily.
"He's glad you have friends," they say instead. "I think he likes me. He's glad we're friends." There.
Wakuu is bright red now, same as them. The two of them must look ridiculous, to Hongjing's delight.
"I'm glad he likes me," Hongjing adds. "I like you a lot." It seems like the kind of day for saying such things. "I'm glad I met you."
"Hongjing…" He's sooo flustered now. Hongjing is very happy.
"Do you also want to throw yourself into the sea with all your clothes on?" He looks like he wants to throw them into the sea with all their clothes on, and Hongjing laughs.