Merman Husband (part 2/?)
Part One “Married?! Oh no- no no no no no…” The words spilled out, your brain futilely grasping at verbal seaweed, “Y-you are-” Your eyes had widened impossibly and you stumbled back, landing firmly in the sand on your rear end. It stung, but the pain was quickly masked by the fear that froze your body to it’s gritty wetness.
“I am…” There were those teeth again, each sharper than the last, flashed with an alarmingly gentle smile. It was still unnerving having an apex predator staring down at you from atop a rock no matter how kind or gentle his face was. His lilac skin was another oddity. You thought of all the stories of the mer people, said to look like humans but had tails like a fish, but he was different. A flatter face, pointed ears that laid flat to his skull, and sharp cat-like eyes that held a nictitating membrane. And the colors, oh my the colors, you couldn’t help but stare in awe as he moved even closer. The fins drooped and rose with each movement and emotion of his, catching the sun like little glass windows, and his tail was so brilliant it nearly blinded you. He was beautiful and you were falling into his spell. “I am Kan’dah, the fourth and final child to the dynasty that my parents have fulfilled. And you, beauty who fills my heart with the sweetest anticipation, are my mate.”
This wasn’t happening, it must be a hallucination, too much oxygen or maybe you fell asleep and it was all a too-vivid dream. But then the bite of sand inching up your shorts into delicate places as you tried to scoot away from the creature brought you back to the present. “W-what do y-you mean, mate?” You tried to stand but your legs were still too wobbly and you fell again to your knees this time, a hermit crab skittering away from you. “I- We- I don’t even know you?!”
“But you do, my love, seek it out in your heart. We’ve met before in past lives, we’ve spent an eternity together. I can feel it,” His hand raised to rest over his heart and the shape of his hands became suddenly apparent. Short, sharp claws sat at the end of long digits that held the same fin-like webbing between each one, his arm and hand a gradient from lilac to a deeper hue. “In here, I know it to be true.” His eyes searched yours, a prayer and hope shining so brightly it almost hurt you to stand and turn to leave.
“I don’t know you, you’re… some mer person from the depths of the ocean and I’m a crazy person for still standing here and having this conversation!” There she was, that girl who took no shit and held her chin high. Rarely did she make an appearance, but when she did, you were usually glad for it. “I am going to leave now and I would appreciate it if you left too, I’d like to enjoy my time here at the beach while I still can.” And with that you turned around, brushing the sad from your behind and thighs and went to fetch your sandals. He was stuck on that rock at the water’s edge, at least you hoped, and in a few more steps you’d be out of his song’s range.
“But!” The hurt that struck his face was like a child’s, told no and not why. “We are meant for eachother! Wait! What is your name, please!”
He called out but the rocky hillside ate up his voice, making it that much easier to make the trek back to the cottage. The door creaking open and shut just as swiftly and the deadbolt locking into place. Tomorrow you’d return and you hoped he’d be gone, or that maybe it was all just an elaborate figment of your mind.
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Morning came and you started it much like all of the others, wrapping the silk robe around your naked body and putting the kettle on for tea. The day had a chill to it and you knew it meant your time here was almost to a close. You’d stay for as long as you could, but it wouldn’t stay warm forever and you’d be forced back to the city, back to a life of cramped monotony and lifeless walls. Out here, in the little cottage on the sea, your surroundings were endless. You could see for miles and not another soul was nearby. Except for one. You hoped he’d left, prayed he had, and that your solitude at the beach would be uninterrupted today.
You’d lost track of time as you’d fallen into your thoughts but the kettle took care of that for you, it’s scream a cut to the silence surrounding you. You hurried to grab it and set about finishing your morning, trying to keep the thought of the beautiful merman out of your head. Even as you prepped the tuna salad and toasted some bread, you swore up and down that nothing would deter you from enjoying your day. You’d run along the beach barefoot, catch and grill fish for dinner, and maybe start a new rock collection for the sun room, no mer-fish-shark-man to be found.
This notion was completely swept away of course as soon as you heard it once more, the same melody and song beckoning you. As you crested over the hill sometime after your completed your picnic and had gotten dressed, you let out an exasperated sigh. “You- you again! Why?!” Your stomping, while making deep, threatening trenches in the sand, wasn’t helped by the oversized skirt flouncing around your thighs. The fabric lifted and settled again and again and all you could hear was his melodic laughing. Warm, and almost comforting despite it being directed to you.
“You know you look like a jelly fish with that ridiculous thing?” His eyes were so bright and amused as they raked over your, making you suddenly feel self conscious about your clothing choice. “Perhaps you should just take it off, it would make this whole ritual go much smoother.” While his intent wasn’t overly sexual, more playful than anything, you couldn’t help but be embarrassed and intrigued by his insinuation. You had stopped on your warpath, a good distance between you two you deemed, and he let his eyes wander over you once more, their gaze softening into something else.
“I asked you to be gone, why have you returned once more to harass me? Do you not have a mermaid wife or something to go home to?” Truly, you assumed he did have a family and was only bored enough to mess with a human. Mer-folk rarely even showed themselves to humans, and if they did, it was usually to take it for their own. Those who escaped from an encounter were usually not believed anyways and now you knew why. This man was… something else.
Confusion and sadness took to his features and he shied back on the large rock. Was he, hurt by what you’d just said? No, he had to just be playing. “I’ve no wife, love, you are to be my mate until our bones return to this world, then we will start our journey all over again.” There it was once more, the ridiculous notion you were to be married to some fish-man who just so happened to be sitting on your favorite outcropping two days in a row. You needed to put an end to it now.
“I’m sorry, Kan’dah, but I really think you have the wrong person. Maybe you’ll find your mate at the next beach, it’s some miles down that way.” You pointed in a direction, the way not really mattering to you anyways. You just wanted him gone so you could return to your solitude. It really was something you understood best, having been alone for most of your life and now working miles away from any semblance of a home and tending to your own needs, loneliness had permeated your life. You assumed that that was just how things would go and you really, really did not need a merman screwing it up.
“But… I can feel the pull, the tug along our cosmic lay-lines that wraps itself around our souls. We are one, meant for each other, forever.” He almost sounded like he was pleading, begging, and you decided it didn’t suit the fiendish man.
“Sorry, I can’t feel a thing.” It was only a half lie, for while you could feel *something* there, you couldn’t tell if it was some cosmic bullshit or if you really just were that lonely and his mer-folk allure had begun to affect you. Either way, you realized you were being a jerk to a man who’d been nothing but kind in the short span of time you’d met him. Making a friend couldn’t hurt, right?
“I am sorry, terribly so, that you have lost your connection… Maybe…” He suddenly looked hopeful and turned with a quickness only demonstrated by those who dwelled in the depths. When he turned back he held a large fish, as long as your torso and as wide as both your thighs, “Perhaps… you’d let me court you? Your kind, they…” Kan’dah stammered, worrying over the wrong words, “they give gifts, yes? To show another they are interested?”
The fish had to have weighed fifty pounds at least, and it looked nothing like the fish near the beach, had he brought it from the deeper ocean specially for you? It was a beautiful specimen, you had to admit, glittering blue scales and a nice fat body. Grilled with just a sprinkle of salt would make it perfect. “Y-yes humans do give each other gifts sometimes. Friends, family, those you wish to court and those you have decided to spend your life with are all people humans might have a reason to give a gift for.” You took a step or two closer, setting down the picnic basket to free your hands. You told yourself if was just so you could more easily inspect the ‘gift’ and nothing more. “I cannot accept this, Kan’dah,” Your hand ran down along its smooth side, appreciating how much meat was really on the catch, you couldn’t send him away now, the fish had already given it’s life, “I cannot accept it unless you share it with me.”
His eyes widened and his head tilted, unsure if it was a trick or if you’d had a change of heart. “My light!” The excitement had gotten to him, “I would love to share this with you!”
The smile that broke across his troubled features was worth it, you decided, he looked so eager and happy. You’d be a monster yourself for taking that away. “Tonight, for dinner, is that alright? I can grill it over a fire. Besides,” You motioned behind you, the basket still sitting on the wet sand, “I brought lunch.” This was it, you’d made a split decision and now you were letting him into your life. Possibly, that was, “I can share it, if you’d like. Ah- uhm…” your brow furrowed in thought, “It’s human food, I don’t know if you can eat it or not.”
Kan’dah had seemed to relax some, but was still somewhat guarded in his hope, reigning in the overjoy. “Dinner, then, a date.” His bubbly laugh filled the air and all of the water around you seemed to dance with it, “As for your… human food, I am willing to try it. Perhaps I could bring some of my food for what you call… lunch, tomorrow?” There was that hopeful look in his eyes again.
“Sure, I think I’d like that.” A date, multiple dates even, and you hadn’t intended for it to really mean anything more than friends. Truly you knew so little about mer-folk it still floored you to even be speaking to one so openly. “Find a spot to keep that for now, I’ll lay out the food I’ve got, k?” You gave him a smile, lopsided and messy and unsure, like fumbling for the lock in the dark, before turning away to fetch the basket. He nodded, clutching the fish to his chest and with one silent slip he was gone in the water again.
A merman. Dates. Sharing your tuna sandwich and potato chips. This day was just getting more insane.