When Kai came to, he was in the arms of the stranger, and he was at the bottom of the Black Sea.
Forgetting his newfound ability, he panicked and began to thrash in the stranger's hold, stirring a storm of bubbles. He waited for the wretched sting of water in his lungs, for the agony of slowly drowning, but the pain never came. Only then did he realize that he could now, thanks to a certain golden merman who gave him the kiss of life, breathe under water. But his reasons for panicking were not all gone.
Oh, no. Far from it.
Memories of what transpired right outside his home came rushing back to him all at once and he involuntarily gasped. A pair of cruel, shark-like blue eyes haunted him; they had haunted him even in his troubled sleep. He remembered fighting to protect himself and his mother. Bitterly, he remembered losing to the stranger. He'd been painfully outmatched and it stung his pride to recall how easily he'd been defeated despite his years in swordplay. He also recalled that he was currently being kidnapped after he'd unceremoniously been dumped into the sea by none other than the stranger.
He looked up into the familiar pair of predatory blue eyes and an instant chill raked his body.
The alarms in his head began to sound.
Kai started thrashing and struggling again, putting all his strength into it this time. Arms like bands of steel pinned him against the stranger's muscled chest, holding him in place. Once again, he was rudely reminded of the stranger's superior physical strength. The action brought him closer against the stranger so that their faces were now a hair's breadth away. If either one of them leaned forward...
"Unhand me," Kai growled, ignoring the foreign feeling of speaking tangibly underwater. He pushed against the stranger's corded, branch-like arms with all his might. His might wasn't nearly enough. Gritting his teeth, he tried to take a swipe at the stranger, seeing that he'd made the mistake of not tying his hands.
Instead of the stranger's jaw, his fist struck his open palm. Immediately, his large hand closed around Kai's fist like a vice, nearly crushing it. Undaunted, Kai seized the opportunity of the stranger's loosened hold on his torso to wiggle out of his grasp.
It was no use.
Dammit, did nothing budge him?! They'd sent the Underwater Terminator after him, it seemed, whoever 'they' were.
But Kai would not give up just yet; not when his fate was so wrapped in uncertainty, and definitely not when the safety of his mother depended on him.
Baring his teeth like a wild animal, Kai sunk them into the first area in the stranger's body that he could reach before his attack was thwarted again: his collarbone. Granted, his teeth barely pierced the scale-covered bodysuit, but he still managed to do some damage.
It was the first time he was able to draw some sort of reaction from the stranger. He winced and -in his surprise- released Kai.
Kai wasted no time. As soon as he was free, he brought his feet all the way up to the stranger's chest, put his up feet against it, and kicked him away. Then, he whirled around in the water and pumped his legs, swimming away as fast as he could with everything in him.
He didn't get far.
Something tugged him back and stopped him, keeping him from swimming any further. Alarmed, he looked down to see-
Chains?!
A small gold chain connected to a gold cuff wrapped around his ankle, and it was, like the rest of this day, unnatural. It glowed in the water, shinning some of its light upon the seabed.
"What the hell!" he shouted, terrified. He'd chained him like an animal for the slaughter?! And where the hell had it come from?
It was the whole kelp scenario all over again.
Not this time!
Instinctively, he reached down to try to remove it-
The stranger tugged at the chain with such force that Kai went gliding toward him, feet first. Wide-eyed, Kai fought against the pull in vain, thrashing his one unbound leg. But soon he was back in the stranger's arms.
A hand fisted in his hair and tugged back while the other wrapped around his torso again. Kai let out a howl of pain as his head was forced backward and his hair was brutally pulled. He unscrewed his eyes to see shark-like blue ones glaring at him. Kai couldn't look away no matter how much he wanted to; the hand in his hair was forcing him to meet his predatory gaze. A shiver of dread skittered down his spine and his heart stuttered.
Oh, he'd done it now. Any second now, he'd get one good punch to the face for angering the Terminator.
"I would advise against trying to escape again. It's no use." The stranger's deep and deceptively-calm voice rolled over Kai like a tidal wave and he very nearly shivered again. His face was a forbidding mask, revealing his displeasure at being bitten. But, much to Kai's shock, he did not look particularly angry. If anything, he looked like a dog owner chastising their pup.
Before Kai could say a word of protest, the stranger released Kai's hair and raised the offending hand to Kai's face.
On instinct, he flinched, expecting the blow.
Instead, the stranger was showing him the gold cuff on his wrist, a perfect match -if a little bigger- to Kai's ankle cuff.
"This here is a Master's Chain. It appears whenever a slave is particularly disobedient toward his master to remind him of his precarious position, and to fall in line before harm befalls him." The warning was crystal clear in the stranger's voice, clear enough that he did not have to spell it out to Kai.
Kai understood well enough that the next time he 'disobeyed', there would be consequences.
He could scarcely believe what his own ears were hearing. So he was to be the slave while Shark Eyes was to be the master?
He glared daggers at his capturer, his eyebrows deeply furrowed. He'd never felt such burning hatred toward anyone in his life before.
His kidnapper continued, "If I want you near me, then the chain keeps you near me. If I want you out of my sight, then the chain disappears so that you may move about, but it is not completely gone. The chain remains invisible until it activated. Understand?"
Kai pursed his lips.
The stranger's eyes narrowed on him ever so slightly. He seized Kai's chin and gave it a small shake. "Understand?" he repeated, his tone icier than the Arctic.
Begrudgingly, Kai nodded once.
"Oh, and one more thing."
The stranger abruptly released him, then drove his fist into Kai's gut, knocking the air (or was it water?) out of his lungs. Kai immediately doubled over with his arms around his stomach.
For a moment, he'd believed the stranger to be somewhat civilized and above petty retaliation. How wrong he was.
Coughing dryly, he barely managed to raise his head and meet his capturer's gaze head on. Cold eyes regarded him with blatant disdain.
"Never touch me again, you filthy human," the stranger snarled, his eyes glowing a dangerous blue even more fierce than the sea at dawn.
