@jaspvid-week day 7: free day - I decided to go with The One Where They’re Both Selkies, later down the line with their daughter and living their best lives bc they deserve it! And context for the fic: David used to be human in this one, but he chose to be turned selkie through magic~
Thanks so much for hosting another Jaspvid Week!
Extra doodle and a bit of the fic under the cut:
“Daddy!”
David looks up with a bright smile as the little girl runs along the shore with arms open, water splashing beneath her feet as she barrels towards him. He crouches down just in time to meet her, lifting Riley up into the air and catching her in his arms once more.
“Woah, there’s my little pup! Did you have a good time with Dad?” he asks, settling the giggling child against his hip as Jasper finally catches up to them at a much more languid pace, an amused grin on his face as he walks through the damp sand where waves lap at his feet.
“Yeah! We saw the big seals in the kelp!” Riley says excitedly as Jasper wraps arms around David, meeting him in a kiss.
“Oooh, did you get to play?” David asks once they part.
“Yeah, we played chase and hide and seek!” the child exclaims, raking the wild mess of hair away from her eyes where it hangs in wet tangles. “Daddy, will you come with us next time?”
“Of course sweetheart,” David insists, giving her a kiss on the forehead, her eyes clenching shut as her face scrunches a little from her smile. “I was just tired today, I needed a little extra rest.”
“Do you feel better?” Jasper asks softly, rubbing his back, his stormy blue eyes regarding him warmly like they have so many times before, but also with that concern that will never fully be eased.
“Yes, I’m feeling okay now,” David smiles, leaning into his embrace thankfully.
Jasper hums softly, kissing him on the cheek. “Good, I’m glad we could give you some quiet time.”
“Thanks for watching her.”
“Course baby,” Jasper insists. “Are you hungry? Want me to go catch you something?”
“I’m fine for now, when I get hungry I think I’ll be ready to go for a swim anyway,” David assures him.
“May we escort you when you go out?” Jasper asks gallantly.
“Oh I would be honored,” David replies with a posh flair, leaning in to receive another kiss from Jasper as their daughter’s attention suddenly shifts to the next topic.
“Daddy I found you some pretty shells!”
“Did you sweetpea?” David smiles, watching as she digs around in a little pouch she’d once found washed up on the beach. The ocean held an endless supply of shells and rocks and pretty things that grab her interest, and she loves to keep her little treasure hoard close.
“Yeah, I got a shiny one like yours, I got a spiky one, I got a blue one, I got-”
David chuckles softly as she sorts through her finds, walking alongside Jasper as his love keeps an arm around his waist. They walk without a destination in mind, just walking to scope out their beach and maybe find a nice rock to enjoy the sun as it starts to set beyond the ocean.
“Squirt, show Daddy the weird thing you found,” Jasper suggests with a grin.
“Oooh the weird thingy-” Riley murmurs as she shuffles through shells and rocks. “Here!”
David clicks his tongue in interest as she holds up a battered object. “Now that is a weird thing indeed,” he says, even though he recognizes it in an instant, worn and torn as it may be.
“What is it??” Riley asks, her eyes shining in wonder and waiting for David to magically know because her Daddy always seems to know what these weird objects are. Things that aren’t shells or rocks or seaweed, things that don’t come from the earth or the ocean but from the human world, he always just knows.
“That is called a swiss army knife,” David says, smiling as his daughter looks back down at the object in wonder. The red is long since faded in the sun, further washed away by the salt and waves, the vague outline of a white symbol just barely visible.
“What’s it do?” Riley follows up.
“Well, let’s see,” David says as he slows, carefully passing their daughter to Jasper before taking the newest find from her. “This is a tool that humans use, or I should say many tools in one,” he explains, hooking his nail into one of the indents and carefully folding the knife out. He then unfolds a screwdriver, a bottle opener, a tiny saw that can’t be good for much more than a twig, a cork screw…
He smiles to himself. He’d owned a swiss knife once, or a different brand of one, carried it with him most everywhere, yet the only parts he could ever remember using were the knife and the screwdriver, and even then wishing it was a flathead instead of a phillips…
“Wow,” Riley says in wonder from where she sits in Jasper’s arms, eyes shining, reaching a hand out to touch it-
“Careful sweetpea,” David says softly, making her pause. “A lot of parts of this are sharp, and I don’t want you to hurt yourself,” he says, carefully folding all the pieces back in. “But this is your treasure you found, can I hold onto it for you, just for a little bit? And when you’re a little older, it will come back to you.”
Riley stares at the tool for a long moment, pouting a little, but she relents. She so badly wants to see what other little funny tools will unfold from the knife, but she knows that her father knows about these strange things. “Okay. You can have it.”
“Thanks pup,” David smiles, leaning in to kiss her head. “I’ll keep it safe for you.”
“How do you know about all these weird things?” the little girl follows up suddenly.
“Well my dear, I am a human historian,” David says playfully, earning an ‘oooooh’ from her even though he’s sure she doesn’t know the meaning of the word, catching an amused smirk from Jasper over their daughter’s head.
“But how??” Riley presses, tugging the sleeve of his pelt a little, incessant, unable to contain her curiosity.
“I lived among humans in secret for some time, under cover,” he says very seriously, earning a gasp of amazement while Jasper just barely stifles a snort of a laugh. “I learned a lot about them and their tools and culture. That’s why your Dad and I wear their clothes, in case we ever need to blend in,” he adds with a wink.
“Can I come too?? I wanna know about humans!”
“Maybe some day,” David soothes.
“Why some day? How far away is that?” the girl pouts as they keep walking.
“Blending in with humans takes a lot of training and learning about them, and of course we have to find you a disguise,” David says playfully, making her eyes light up again at the prospect of a game so fun. “You need a good disguise to go undercover, the human world is not always safe,” he warns.
“Especially for a little shrimp like you,” Jasper says affectionately, jostling her gently in his arms and earning a laugh as they keep walking, David stowing the knife into the pocket of his shorts.
He smiles fondly as Jasper and Riley banter back and forth, taking a deep breath and letting it out in a quiet sigh. He listens to the sound of his family, the soft cry of the gulls adrift on the breeze overhead, the gentle roar of the ocean waves breaking against rocks and rushing up the shore to wash away the footprints they leave behind.
Even as Riley suddenly squeals, squirming until Jasper sets her on the sand to run down into the waves to investigate a possible new treasure, he’s never felt more at peace. His hand finds Jasper’s as they pause to wait out Riley’s scavenging, meeting his love’s gaze with a warm smile as the other man leans closer to kiss him. He hums into the kiss, gently pressing his forehead against Jasper’s once their lips part as his eyes close, letting out a sigh.
“Love you,” Jasper whispers playfully, giving his hand a squeeze.
“Love you too,” David whispers back, enjoying this little moment between them.
“Daddy look what I found!”
They look up in amusement, waiting to see what their pup has found this time.
New mer OC, name still up in the air for now. She looks deep-sea-monster but she’s very quiet and nervous. She usually keeps to herself… until she meets this pretty selkie girl…
I was planning on marrying someone else this time cause I’ve married Sebastian twice and Shane once, but I’m a dumb bitch and he pulls this shit on me and now I’m really struggling.
