"Ah, that's true," Yoongi says, nodding. He can't even reach every spot on his own back with ease, and he's not a flat flapping ocean pancake. It must be much more difficult for the stingrays to manage such things. "It must be hard to get around without hands. Although I guess pretty much everything in the ocean has it figured out."

Maybe it's like cats, he thinks, the way they brush up against people, looking for scritches where they can't reach, using attention to achieve their own ends. In an unexpected way, that's what the rays remind him of now, cats looking for attention, steady and calm, though there's something more playful in their movements. It's like they're flying just beneath the surface.