It was surprisingly easy to fall asleep that night even if a stranger was sharing his bed. He made sure he planted himself firmly on the opposite side of the bed. Too bad Marcas didn’t know that Aed rolled about in his dreams, but when the redhead woke in the middle of the night - limbs sprawled and foot pressed firmly against the the other teen’s back - his guest remained sound asleep.
‘“I’m used to sleeping in the waves”’ Marcas would probably say.’
Aed pulled the covers over himself again and squinted at the bright light. He forgot to move his curtains back and the full moon shone over the ocean, but also right into his eyes.
It was quiet.
One last calm night before summer turned to fall. The redhead grunted and rolled away from the window to face the door. It was too comfortable to get up and draw the blind.
As he waited for sleep to return he studied the other’s resting profile. His companion’s long hair gave the image of spilled ink on his ridiculously pale skin. The teen admitted that the other was handsome, but it was strange for someone as fit as Marcas to be so fair. Only hard work outside could result in muscles like those. It shouldn’t have surprised him that Marcas refused to put his pyjamas on after coming back from the shower. It had taken much persistence to convince the teen to at least wear some boxers before they went to bed. The only piece of clothing Marcas seemed comfortable with was his cloak, which he now had tightly in his grip as if it were a safety blanket.
The thought made Aed snicker. He quickly grabbed a pillow and pressed it over his head to muffle the noise. What a strange day today was.
Well he might as well get more rest. The teen leaned into the darkness of the pillow and, after what seemed like hours, finally went back to sleep.
*
The next morning the teen woke to an empty bed. For a split second he considered all of yesterday to be a dream before seeing his clean room and Marcas’ discarded set of clothes. Shivering in the morning air Aed quickly dressed - the usual collared shirt and sweater - and went downstairs.
“After all, Aed doesn’t let just anyone into his room.”
“I really appreciate this. I won’t let you down.”
‘Well that’s that.’ His parents had come to their decision rather quickly. It was embarrassing that his Mam had to mention him, though. He waited another moment before slipping into the dining room and making a beeline for the kitchen.
“There’s some left overs on the stove,” Flann patted the space next to her, “after you heat them up please come here. I have something to discuss with you.”
“I know already. Marcas is staying,” Aed flicked the stove on and waited for the oatmeal to warm, “but are you ok with me not working with Dad?”
“You know we support you no matter what.” The teen ducked his head to hide a blush.
Marcas entered the kitchen and began washing his bowl. He offered Aed a smile and waited for him before they both returned to the living room.
“I have to go to work, now, so please clean up after yourselves. Aed, I’m waiting for a form to go though. You should be starting by Friday.”
Flann leaned over and Aed gave her a one-armed hug.
“Have a good one, Mam.”
“I’m glad you’re feeling a bit better. Remember to put some water on before I come home!”
The room went quiet as Aed started on his oatmeal. It was a bit awkward with Marcas just sitting there, but at least someone was home.
“So what túath are you?”
He paused from his oatmeal and gave the teen a blank stare.
Marcas elaborated upon noticing his confusion, “Ui Fidgente? Ciarraige Luachra? Corca Duibhne?”
Oh. The old tribes.
“Don’t know. Grandparents probably told me, but forgot.”
“Hm.” Marcas seemed to be scrutinizing him.
“What? That was ages ago,” he took a gulp of milk in his defense, “...what’s your tribe?”
“Murtagh. What do humans do then now days?”
“We have regular families and surnames. For example I'm Aed Carrick.”
“So you grew apart?”
“...” He had never thought of it in that way before, “Not really...I mean, annoying as she is, I don't hate Ena. My Grandma and Grandpa come often. And everyone in the village more or less gets along.”
The younger looked perplexed, then shrugged as if he just accepted that things were different.
“I guess I’ll be meeting them soon enough.”
Deciding to cut the chatter Aed cleared his throat.
“About last night...”
To his surprise, Marcas broke eye contact, the teen suddenly finding Aed’s oatmeal very interesting. Aed narrowed his eyes.
“What did you do?” If he stole anything...
“It got really hot. But if you saw, then you saw that I kept my cloak on.”
“Oh uhh” That was not what he expected...must have happened after he fell asleep, “I wasn’t talking about that.”
“Oh.” Marcas ran a hand through his hair, “then...what?”
“My research. If you’re going to help me, you’re going to need to learn how to read... and write since you probably can’t do that either.”
He saw the younger take on a guarded look, but pressed on.
“You’ll need to jot down figures for me and note descriptions of coastlines at the very least.”
After realizing that he wasn’t being made fun of, Marcas’ expression relaxed into a lazy smile.
“Alright. When do we start?”
“Now is better than never,” he crammed the rest of the oatmeal down, his mind buzzing with plans. A big swallow and he gagged. Shit. Wrong pipe.
His glass was pressed to his lips and he took it gratefully. The younger patted his back as he choked his way through the last of his meal, too busy getting air into his lungs than to shrink away from the teen’s touch.
“Thanks…” the redhead finally managed after a few minutes.
“Anything for a friend,” Marcas replied, hand comfortably resting at the base of Aed’s lower back.
Aed quickly pushed back his chair and tidied the kitchen instructing the other to meet him in his room.
The teen was lounging on his bed when he returned.
“It’s so weird, but I can definitely get used to beds.” Marcas bounced a bit, “there were some of them on Blasket, but they were all banged up. ‘Too busy partying anyway to use em, even if they were fixed. I like em though. They’re softer than rocks.”
“What do you mean? Blasket was abandoned a while ago” Aed shuffled through his books trying to find a simple enough one begin with. Creatures of the West Atlantic, 1000 Leagues Under the Sea, Earth Encyclopedia... He didn’t have any children’s books come to think of it.
“Which is why it’s the perfect spot for us. The times when we turn human could be dangerous if actual humans see us.”
Aed threw him a look that the redhead made sure clearly conveyed his exasperation.
It was hard to ignore ridiculous claims if they were shoved into his face at every opportunity. Yesterday, only his mentally exhausted state caused him to consider the teen’s story to be real.
“You really are stubborn,” Aed bristled at Marcas’ amused tone, “I thought you would be more accepting to the otherworld considering you were able to call me.”
The teen gave up on his shelf and considered his options. He could go to the library tomorrow and borrow some kids books (and get strange looks), or he could try and nick one from the school library when he went to check on his experiment he left behind. But if he got caught that would mean more questions...
He heard Ena’s voice from downstairs and smacked his head. Of course. Ena had most of his hand-me-downs.
Aed left the bedroom and opened the door to his parent’s room where his sister slept. He picked a thick alphabet book (the chew marks from raising two children had considerably worn down the pages) and tossed it to Marcas when he returned.
“Come to the desk. You aren’t going to learn if you lie around all day.”
“Alright, Mr. Carrick,” the younger plopped down on the single chair and smoothed out the creases in his jeans. He picked up the book and smirked at the bite marks.
“I didn’t know you guys had a dog.”
“It’s Ena’s,” Aed noted with appreciation that the book was held correctly this time. The kid seemed to be a fast learner.
Having no other option he leant against the corner of his desk and pointed at the first brightly colored letter “So there’s the alphabet, and each letter…”
---
When he woke there was an empty spot next to him. Again. For someone so chatty, Marcas could be quite stealthy when he wanted to.
A bit of cautious hope rose with him as he got out of bed and dressed. Today would be the day they both started their jobs and resumed his research. Although they hadn’t made enough progress yesterday to actually begin reading instructions, Aed had given him a test: report back on the patterns of deep sea currents during the week. Those were easy enough to remember to ask, that making tallies would suffice. Although not exactly what he wanted to look for, he had data to compare to that at least...it still felt foolish that he was going along with the teen, but it was the only way today was going to feel productive.
“Me first!”
Before he could open the bathroom door, a flash of orange ran inside.
Sometimes it’d be nice to be an only child…
While his sister hogged the bathroom he stole a few more books from her room. His Mam was already downstairs. Dressed and ate breakfast by now, too. He understood. After all, she was the one who taught them to always arrive to things 15 minutes beforehand.
*
“Look at you, so handsome on your first day. Your tie is so straight!”
“Yeah-yes. I still remember how to do it from graduation.” Aed muttered as he bent down so Flann could push back his hair. Every last bit of red in its place.
“I know you’ll be fine at any job. Just remember to smile.”
And they were in the open air. The sky was grey, and the sea smelled extremely fishy. Aed couldn’t see anyone out among the waves…
They dropped Ena off at school then walked back through town past the grocer's and the post office, past the three pubs and the bed-and-breakfast to the little white bank on the end of mainstreet. When they entered he recognized a couple of his former classmates chatting in the back, and quickly sought out work. He already started later than them, so he had to play catch up. There was no time to socialize.
After being introduced to the bank manager, Osirin, he was sent to work. Sorting mail was plain enough, but book keeping was especially dull when it wasn’t for research. At least then he could visualize the meaning behind the numbers.
When 5 o’clock came, the teen had to contain himself from sprinting out the doors.
As soon as they stepped inside, Ena charged. Flann chuckled as Aed blocked Ena, the youngest Carrick switching to cling to her Mother instead. His sister stuck out a small hand and waved a bright pink paper at Aed.
“We had free time so I drew!“
He was able to discern that the crude image depicted two people fishing...but the fat grey ovals in the water were too big to be fish.
“It’s Dad, Marcas, and Marcas’ family,” the girl proudly explained.
Aed rolled his eyes.
*
The three had finished their dinner and Aed helped Ena with homework before retreating to his room. All of the books from yesterday’s ‘reading class’ were still stacked on his desk. He gave them a long look before busying himself with changing. Research would need to be done in order to teach efficiently on the days when Marcas returned. Luckily Cárnach was small, so boats came back almost every weekend. The easiest way would be to ask Ena. She was still in primary school, so she’d remember her curriculum.
He peeked into her room. Fast asleep.
Returning to his room he flipped through the books for a few minutes before pacing to the window. The sea was vast. A contradiction of pitch-black water and shimmering light from another clear night...but he still could not see any boats in the distance.
It could have been him out there in the dark sleeping above the fish. His father must have seen something in Marcas to take him abroad within a day of meeting him. But then again, he had spoken up for Marcas and his Dad had always respected his opinion.
He was glad. Glad how quickly his family had accepted the teen. It was almost too easy how Marcas settled in. If he really was a selkie, wouldn’t he want to go back to the sea as quickly as possible? In the stories they always left. But then again in stories they were always beautiful ladies. This was different. Marcas would return.
His gut feeling nagged at him. Did he just miss another opportunity? First uni now-no. Stop that.
The other’s story was unusual, but not enough for him to believe in selkies. And if Marcas wasn't a selkie he would have to return.
But it didn’t make sense for him to make up his story, did it? So far only he and his sister knew the teen’s ‘secret.’
He tried to sleep, but his tumultuous thoughts carried him off as slowly as a feather drowning in the open sea.
---
Come the end of the week the selkie had the biggest smile on his face as he stepped into the home of the Carricks. Neil followed, both chuckling as Ena initiated a tackling hug for each. Aed’s eyebrows shot up as the teen stepped away from ruffling Ena’s hair to next approach him. Before the teen could react Marcas leaned forward and they bumped noses.
“Hey, Aed!”
“W...what are you doing?” The redhead sputtered backing away.
Given the looks on Neil and Flann’s faces, the other flushed red as well, immediately realizing his error.
“Er...where I come from, we do that when we haven’t seen each other in a long time.” The teen offered. Aed saw both his parents questioning looks, so he took another big step back turning to address his father.
“Have a good catch?”
“The best in a while! Marcas here is a natural,” Neil nodded at the shorter teen, “quite a good listener as well.”
“It was good to be back at sea, and I’ve never gone fishing on this scale. Neil’s quite a poet. I never knew!”
“Come, let’s not stand here. You two must be starving. Dinner is ready by now,” Flann gently nudged the group into the dining room.
“What was the biggest fish today?” Ena stretched her arms wider than the plate in front of her, “This big? Did you get any pink ones?”
“No pink ones today,” Neil ruffled her hair, “I’m surprised how many we got considering all the seals being ‘round the boat.”
Marcas laughed lightly.
“It was the selkies!” Ena gasped, “Can I go next time? Please, Mam, Dad?”
“It’s too dangerous.” Neil gently chided.
“But it has been a while since we all had a day out,” Flann mused, “when it’s spring next year we should go. It would be lovely to be on the boat then.”
“That sounds great,” Neil shot Aed an amused look, “the last time we were at sea was when you were just about to start high school.”
Aed remembered that summer well. The one where he tried to wear the same shirt every day to determine which bacteria would grow. Highly experimental, but not directional. He cringed.
“It’ll be a few months, but it’s better to plan ahead,” Flann decided. And they dug in.
*
“I assume you’ll want to resume lessons in the morning?”
“I could do a little now,” the selkie gave a yawn and rolled off their bed to join Aed at the single desk. The teen sat up and straightened the small stack of books, ready to put to practice the lesson plan he had produced.
He had gotten through twenty minutes when he felt a nudge at his arm and of course Marcas had nodded off. A little miffed the teen lightly shook his ‘student’ then prodded the younger off to bed.
“Thanks,” Marcas muttered sleepily as he snuggled under the covers. The younger stared at him, seemingly expecting something, but Aed had no idea.
“What?” he finally said.
“...Strange human,” the selkie let out a snort of laughter and rolled to face away. Aed huffed.
“Rest well, because we’re staying in and studying all day tomorrow.” He slid onto his own side of the bed and waited for sleep to come.
---
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