Writing block break continues!

Everything was still. For a moment, all there was, was a gentle warmth around him, a comforting smell, a bright light. Then the light faded and Sora could taste salt on his tongue, feel his hair tickled by a current, the weight of his tail was a tad lighter.

Sora took a deep breath and he could just feel how open the space around him was now. Blinking his eyes open he could see nothing but an endless expanse of open water and the vice that had been around his chest for so long finally melted away.

"Sora?" The warmth against his back shifted, turning his head to see Riku, eyes full of worry and hope at the same time. A hand brushed his cheek and he leans into it with a purr, smiling happily and twisting in the arms that held him to hold back.

"….t-ank-k yo.." the words were rusty and heavy like Sora's tongue had forgotten how to work but it was enough to reach Riku's ears as he hugged his sky closer. Any tears the shark could shed just disappeared into the water around them but his heart swelled with relief.

They spent hours out in the borders of Atlantica, Sora pulling Riku along as his tail pushed them both through the brine, it was closer to his original dolphin form but still off. Once his muscles finally started to feel thoroughly spent, they turned their attention to getting Riku comfortable with his own tail.

It was a bit of a puzzle at first, it moved side to side rather than up and down like Sora's, but in the end Riku got the gist of it and didn't have to rely on Sora to get him anywhere in a decent amount of time.

After that Sora decided to play tour guide, showing him the way to the palace, all the hidden tunnels and alcoves along the way, Ariel's treasure grotto, seemingly well-kept even after she remained human for her prince, and finally a ship graveyard, where Sora had decided he couldn't resist giving Riku's tail a thorough look over any longer.

Riku resisted at first, afraid of hurting Sora or what he now carried especially in a strange body, but the touches and rubbing had given rise to not one, but two appendages that Sora set to attacking, giving way to a strange smell and desperate sounds that Riku could only describe as a painful need to be sated, ending in Sora wrapped around him more relaxed than he had been since they were here last.

The brunet was finally sleeping peacefully, Riku couldn't help but feel relieved even if he was exhausted from the long day. Sora hadn't talked much more, when he did the words sounded hoarse and sore like his throat wasn't quite built right to make those sorts of noises. For the most part they hadn't seen any other merfolk which he was grateful for, hopefully the few schools of fish that they did encounter wouldn't make much of a bother.

The older teen lifted a hand and pets through Sora's hair earning a satisfied smile, his own mouth frowning as he traced a finger on Sora's skin worriedly.

Sora didn't notice at all, whether too distracted by his regained freedom or perhaps that he simply couldn't, but as soon as they landed Riku knew something was wrong with him.

For one thing Sora wasn't completely back to his original dolphin look, it was more of a halfway point in between what he saw the first time after finding him and what he ended up being at the tower. For another Riku had a very probable reason to believe Sora had been placed under some sort of curse….

His skin had marks, images of tendrils writhing over it. Right now, they were mostly a dull purple, like the color of a bruise, wrapping around his torso, encircling over his heart, around his throat, his arms and tail, a sickening illusion of them cradling his stomach like something precious. But there were times, when Sora seemed to revert back to the primal state from the tower briefly, that the marks would light up in an eerie electric pink. Those on his stomach burning especially bright once Riku was thoroughly distracted by his own lower regions.

Even now they still glowed softly, Riku's hand trailing down across Sora's still flat stomach, thoughts wandering on what it'd look like in time, it had been almost two weeks now but will they even show? What would they look like? How long would it take? Just how many will there be? If Sora could go back to normal once it was done and just who placed these marks on him in the first place?

Riku's knack for karma decided to answer when the faint pink lit back up under his fingertips, a soft pulse ran through the marks on Sora's stomach and the shark could feel something within swelling slightly. First one small soft lump then a second possibly no bigger than golf balls shifted against his touch as the light grew brighter, Sora groaning in his sleep at the sensation and curling into Riku, the marks died down and though it wasn't much of a visible difference Sora's abdomen now had a firmness to it that wasn't there a minute ago.

"Well! Isn't he just glowing~ Can't say I blame him, you've turned into quite a catch, haven't you?"

Riku tensed whirling around, instinctively laying himself over Sora, hands clawed in the sand and showing all his teeth.

Ursula cackles spinning in delight, her tentacles spreading around her waving joyfully. The undersides sparked familiarity in his brain, they were the same color.

"YOU! You did this to him!" somehow his snarl felt bigger, stretching his jaw for a bigger bite with more teeth. The very thought on how those marks matched up, Ursula had to have completely entangled around something that wasn't hers to touch!

Not one to deny her own work, Ursula laughs harder a satisfied grin splitting her face.

"Oh my dear boy, quick as ever I see~ I thought you'd be happy with this outcome? The brat is powerful yes, but his magic is too wild for something this.. intimate shall we say, everything he does is on instinct, he's really not the type that can handle such a delicate task. Sorta fitting with the way he's acting huh?"

Riku realized too late that Sora hadn't reacted at all, laying still under his chest the whole time. He shifted between Riku and the sand below, turning to stare up with electric pink marks and a glow to his eyes. Before the shark could move Sora wrapped an arm around him and bit on his neck. Teeth framed on either side of his trachea not hard enough to kill but just enough to freeze him still to avoid it.

Riku growls in his throat, the vibrations making him painfully aware of his incapacitation.

"Though I must say he isn't nearly as far along as I had hoped. But I guess that's my fault for forgetting one tiny little thing. Let's fix that shall we?"

A snap of her fingers sends Sora pulling him closer arms and tail tangling Riku down. The pink writhing over him and his thunder magic sent little shocks between them, Riku felt more than saw the tainted pink sparks center in his mouth and across the teeth that held him.

The shark cried out and jerks his voice mingling with a hint of a roar. Sora's fangs dig in as he moved drawing beads of blood. The shocks tingled in and around his throat, the feeling of something icy crawled across the skin of his neck, while warmth traveled down to his heart and stomach right to the tip of his tail fin.

It dragged on for ages until the sparks fizzled out, the teeth released their hold and Sora fell limp back into induced sleep. Riku pressed on top of him, burying him further into the safety of the sand even while his muscles twitched with spasms and heavily sucked in water till his gills ached.

"There~ hard to have a little fun by yourself, now you can frolic around together any time you want! Looks quite fetching if I do say so myself." The witch chuckles, a wave of her hand conjured up a mirror allowing Riku to see his reflection.

There where pinpricks in his neck bleeding sluggishly, his nose somehow could tell that the flow of blood wasn't anything serious. Around the bite an intricate tattoo swirled and flowed into a collar around his neck. A heart shaped clasp like design was nestled between the punctures, across his Adams apple with a shark's tooth dangling off the bottom tip resting across his collarbone.

"W-why..?" Riku coughs forcing the shakiness from his voice. "You don't make deals without a price, Sora knows better than to sign with you anyway!"

"Hahaha! I merely passed by, saw his heart dreaming and decided to generously to help things along~ such a poor unfortunate soul, I even let him by without making a contract just this once for old times sake; but you know what they say, don't count your eggs before they hatch, you never know which ones'll just end up as bait~"

Teal eyes widened, hastily pulling on his magic to take them back home. The cackle of the witch following even as the familiar tank surrounded him. It made sense now, why the Keyblade was sealed, why most of his spells were locked, why his legs wouldn't reform. The price for this 'gift' was Sora's own vulnerability. And now Riku was linked to it too.

His appearance hadn't changed as drastically as Sora's, his fins a little bigger, the stripes on his tail more pronounced but also continued up to decorate his back and arms, a few curling around the back of his neck and creeping up his cheeks. He was sure his mouth could change shapes now, opening wide enough to take large jagged bites then change back to its natural state.

Unlike Sora, when Yin Sid noticed their return and beckoned him to the top of the tank for a closer examination, Riku's body turned back to normal when he pulled himself halfway out of the water. By some stroke of luck, or perhaps it was intentional… it seemed to be the only spell the tattoo held. Allowing Riku the freedom of both worlds while His Sky was adrift in the sea.