Logan stared at the beautiful creature before him in awe. "Soulmates?" he repeated, still freaked out by his sudden ability to breathe and speak underwater. The merman nodded. "Well, I've heard of them, but they're just a myth. No one has this one person they're destined to love."

"A myth, like the myth of my people's existence?" Patton challenged with a knowing smile. He reached out, gently touching his cheek. "Not everything in this world has to make scientific sense, Logan. Some things can simply be explained as the supernatural or as magic, because whether you believe it's real or not, it exists. I would think you'd believe though, considering you're breathing underwater right now."

The man looked down at himself, knowing he had a point. "So what does this have to do with the marks and soulmates?"

At this, the merman broke into a bright grin that seemed to outshine the moon hanging in the night sky above them. "Let me ask you something. Have you ever been the type to fall in love easily?" he inquired. Logan shook his head; he wasn't the type to have any kind of romantic or sexual attraction to people. Feelings just weren't his thing and yet... "Yet you began to fall for me essentially from the moment you laid eyes on me."

"But there's a difference between liking the way someone looks and liking someone," the intellectual young man argued. "I don't want you to think I only like you for your looks-"

"Aw, you're so sweet," he murmured, swimming gracefully around his soulmate like a cat rubbing up against its owner's legs. His marking glowed and lit up the water around them. "I know you love me for me because we're soulmates, Logan. That's what my marks mean. Soulmate marks on merfolk begin to glow when they get close to their soulmate, and just before I found you in the cave, they began to light up. I followed the intensity of the glowing until I found you."

He smiled as he stopped in front of Logan again. The man was blinking rapidly as he tried to comprehend his words. He could admit that there was something about Patton that had made his knees weak from the second their eyes met. "Would that be why I feel so warm when I look at you?"

The merman gasped happily. "You feel warm too?! I've heard of merfolk matching with humans but it hasn't happened in so long that I thought you wouldn't feel anything," he said, smiling. "So... now what?"

He laughed a little, reaching up to hold Patton's cheek before leaning in to connect their lips again. The merman hummed happily, feeling a wave of calmness and affection wash over him. When they pulled away, he giggled a little. The intellectual young man felt his chest grow warm at the sound and he smiled."How is it possible that I think I'm in love with you when I just met you today?"

"Soulmate magic!" he replied excitedly, eyes practically sparkling. 

He smiled and looked upward at the surface of the pool. "I'm gonna go back up to the surface because my head's starting to hurt from being underwater so long," Logan said, kicking off the ground and swimming up to catch his breath.

Once he broke the surface, Patton came up next to him, smiling and following him as he swam over to the steps. "So you can't understand me that well anymore now that we're out of the water, right?" he asked, earning a slightly dazed look from his soulmate. "I take that as a yes then?"

"Well... I think... I can understand you," the merman said slowly, nodding as if he was working out the words in his head. He grinned with realization. "Oh my gosh!! That's so cool! Because we shared a soulmate kiss, I can speak your language!!" 

Logan blinked in surprise as he surged forward and pressed another kiss to his lips, finding himself smiling into it despite himself.