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nanowrimo2k18blog · 6 years ago

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Chapter 8: Well dang, Casanova, better try a different route

The whole day, the only thing I could focus on was meeting the merman. Even when I met with Ethan, the fish-like being was in the back of my mind.

“Why did you want to meet?” Ethan asked, hands in his pockets and eyes on the ground.

I exhaled softly. “I wanted to talk to you in person.”

He kicked the sidewalk with his busted up converse. “You wanted to turn me down to my face.”

“I’ve been thinking about it. A lot. And I talked it over with my mom.”

“Mom, Ethan likes me. What should I do?”

My mother looked up with a start from where she had been working. “Ethan?”

“Yeah. He asked me out and I’ve been thinking about it.”

“Oh? And what did you decide?”

“I want to make as many people as happy as I can. Would you be happy if I accepted?”

“Only if you are. I don’t want you to be miserable because you don’t like him.”

“I don’t know.” I sighed. “I don’t know if it’s crueler to never let myself be open to it or to try and find out that I can’t.”

“I don’t know either, America. Do what you think is wise. I’ll support you either way.”

I hugged her tightly. “Thanks, mom. I love you.”

He didn’t say anything, but I could tell from his body language that he was expecting a negative word.

“Yes.”

For a moment he didn’t react. Then he looked up from the sidewalk and stared at me, dark eyes bewildered. “Wait, what?”

“I want to try.” I told him. “Try us.”

For a long moment he just watched me, like this was all a cruel joke and he was waiting for the punchline. Receiving none, he let out a shaky laugh.

“Y’know, I fully expected you to stomp on me. I don’t...I wasn’t prepared for this.” He scratched his blond head and avoided my gaze.

“You’re happy?” I hoped he was.

“More than you know.” He smiled at me.

It was the kind of smile that broke through the clouds on a dreary day. The kind of smile that warmed you from your nose to your toes. The kind of smile that told me I was doing something right.

“I have work this afternoon, but do you want to do something this evening?”

I was reminded of my appointment with the merman and cursed him. “I can’t. Tomorrow morning?”

His nose wrinkled. “You know I hate mornings.”

I bit my lip as guilt hit.

“Ames, I’m teasing. Of course we can meet tomorrow morning.”

“Eight? Old clubhouse?”

“Perfect.” And to my surprise, he bent down and kissed my nose.

I squeaked. He smiled, wished me well, then hopped onto the sidewalk and disappeared into the building.

~!!~

All day my focus bounced from my meeting that night and Ethan. I couldn’t decide which was more important. In the end, I ended up blasting my music and painting for a while. I was behind on my commissions and needed to work.

The sharp smell of the paints were a slight distraction from the way Ethan had glowed. But the pale, washed out blue mimicked the color of the merman’s fins.

I audibly cursed and rubbed my eyes. There was no cure for whatever I was suffering from. ~!!~

My feet quietly thumped on the dock. The wood was still warm under my feet, a reminder for how nice the day had been.

“Hello?” I called, sitting down on the edge.

Nobody replied. Feeling a little silly, I pulled out my phone. A couple minutes till sunset.

Ethan had texted me a couple minutes ago, but it seemed strange and rude to text him while waiting for another guy. When I thought about it that way, what I was doing seemed even worse. But I couldn’t date a merman. That wasn’t really possible, right? The difference in species definitely threw a wrench in my nonexistent Date A Mer plan.

The merman surfaced, and I tucked away my phone, Ethan left unopened and momentarily paused.

“Hi. I didn’t make you wait long, did I?” He greeted, shaking some of the water off of his face.

“No.” I replied truthfully.

“Okay, good.”

“I guess merfolk are generally punctual?”

“It’s rude to make people wait.” He pointed out.

“Fair point.”

We were both quiet for a moment, then he spoke up again. “My people call me Kailani but I prefer Kai.”

“America.”

He cocked his head, eyes wide. “Like the country?”

I nodded.

His expression briefly soured, then brightened again. It was a little startling. We made small talk, and again I noticed his voice dipped and pitched oddly. I mentioned it, and to my surprise, his fair skin went pink.

“I know. I can’t figure out how to project it above water. It sounds so strange compared to what I’m used to.” He said, embarrassed.

I waved my hand. “Don’t worry about it. It’s kind of endearing.”

He blinked a couple times, then went pinker and smiled a little.

“So do you have to be in the water the whole time or can you be out of the water?”

“I can be out of the water but I can’t let my fins dry out.”

I nodded in understanding. It made sense.

“So can you change your fins to feet?” I wiggled my fingers, mimicking... something.

To my shock, he burst into laughter. Now I felt kind of stupid, and looked down at my feet.

“Is that what humans think we can do? No, I can’t. I’ve never heard of the Mer changing species.” He chuckled. “I am what I am.”

“Have you ever wanted to change?”

He looked thoughtful, his expression growing distant. “Recently, yes. Often.”

“That’s so sad. Why?”

He shook his head. “I’d rather not talk about it.”

I dropped it. To his credit, he asked an unrelated question. “Do all humans adopt other creatures and keep them as pets? It’s a custom I find strange.”

I laughed and clapped my hands cheerily. “Yes!! A lot of us do!”

“But why?” He seemed bewildered.

“Because we have this innate sense to protect things that are smaller and things we find cute. We want to nurture them, and we get a lot of happiness and satisfaction out of it.”

He seemed bemused by the idea. “How strange.”

/~!!~/

She’s exotic. That’s the first word that came to my mind whenever I looked at her. The intelligence behind her dark eyes that were smoked with gold dust, (I think it’s called makeup,) the loose shirt she wore, the dark hair cut short and angular and close to her head...

I wanted to touch her. To know what a human felt like. The curiosity was killing me. I knew I was partially human, but it didn’t feel like it. Especially after seeing a full human; I was constantly reminded of how inhuman I was.

But she still seemed wary around me, and I couldn’t blame her. I knew I seemed foreign to her, something that was probably feared. I did my best to convince her that I was far from terrifying, and I could only hope it was working.

“How did your parents come about to call you America?” I asked curiously.

An exotic name for an exotic creature. I wanted to know everything I could about her. Her family, her wants and dreams, how she came to find my conch shell, why she let me out of that net...

Whether she had found my shell or not, it didn’t matter. I couldn’t tell my dad because it was humiliating that I almost became wall art and jewelry for some messed up human; he was mad at me as it was, he didn’t need any other reason to send me off to military school.

Like it or not, I owed her a huge debt that I doubted I could repay. A Life Debt wasn’t easy to compensate, and the fact she had my shell didn’t make it any easier. I highly doubted she knew the significance of it.

Frankly, I wanted her to keep it. Her having it meant I was connected to her to some extent. I liked the idea of being attached to something that actually made me want to get out and explore.

“My dad was from Hawaii and my mom’s from New York. They both moved here after meeting at college. My mom’s a florist and my dad had extended family here. He was an artist.” She explained.

“Was?” I cocked my head, trying to understand why she was using the past tense.

“He passed away.” She looked uncomfortable.

My heart in my chest ached for her. “Oh. I’m sorry.”

She waved it off.

“What’s a florist?” I changed the subject.

“A florist? It’s someone who arranges flowers for a living.”

“What’s a flower?” I felt kind of dumb for asking, but I was also genuinely wondering.

Her dark eyes widened. “A flower is a type of pretty plant. Wait, I’ll show you.”

She scrambled to her feet and darted off the dock, leaving a colorful, square box on the wooden surface. I wanted to touch it, figure out what it was, but didn’t dare.

She came back with a fistful of bright blue plants. They were pretty, I guess, though strangely shaped.

“These are flowers.” She said, offering one to me.

I tentatively reached up and took it, then turned it over and over in my hands. It was bizarre, with a sharp, but not unpleasant, odor. When I pulled off one of the blue things, I think she called it a petal, and stuck it in my mouth to taste it, she immediately freaked out.

“Don’t eat it! It’s not edible!” She exclaimed.

I quickly spat it out. It didn’t taste good, anyway. It limply floated on the surface of the water.

“You have strange plants. It tasted terrible.” I bobbed up and put the flower back onto the dock.

She picked up the small box and tossed it between her hands. “I guess, if you say so. I think it’s perfectly normal, but to each his own.”

“What’s that?” I asked, changing the subject as she fiddled with the outer layer of it.

“Oh, this? It’s my phone.” At my confused expression, she elaborated. “It lets me talk to people from great distances.”

“Ohhh.” I nodded. “Okay. We have something similar.”

She pressed a button, and the screen lit up. She sent me an apologetic look as her fingers flew across the screen. “Sorry. I need to reply.”

“It’s all good. Is it your mom?”

“My boyfriend.”

Both of my hearts seized up and I almost choked on my own spit. “Oh.”

She cast me a funny look. “Is there something wrong?”

“Nope.” I lied weakly. “Everything’s great. Message your boyfriend.”

“Do merpeople date?” She looked back at the screen; the blue glow lit up her face in a way that I somehow found irritating.

“Yeah.” I said, gritting my teeth at how she studied her phone.

I wanted to rip it from her grip and bash it against the rocks. Tell her that she belonged to me.

But that wouldn’t be fair. It wouldn’t be right. It was my fault she was attached to me, and she didn’t even know it.

“I should probably get going soon.” She said a couple minutes later.

“Mmkay.” I watched her stifle a yawn, noting how smooth and round her teeth looked.

Fascinating.

“Good night, Kai.” Something jumped in my chest at her words. At the way her voice pronounced my name, like it was something casual but significant.

“Night, America.” I watched her stand up and stretch, then wave and walk away. I hauled myself up on the dock to watch her disappear up the rocky path.

“She has a fucking boyfriend.” I growled to myself, smashing my fist on the dock.

It thudded uselessly on the wood, echoing how I felt about the whole thing. I didn’t go straight home, instead joining a pack of sharks and attacking small schools of fish to relieve my frustrations.

Humans and their customs were so aggravating.

#chapter 8

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nanowrimo2k18blog · 6 years ago

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I stared at myself in the mirror, trying to decide if this really was a good idea or not. The dark blue, partially sheer lingerie wasn’t something I was prone to wear, nor was it something I thought I looked particularly good in. It had been an impulse buy, and I was regretting it.

They looked better on the model. They always do.

I struck a scandalous pose, then cringed really hard and made a face at myself. “What an idiot. You spent way too much on these, America. Put them away.”

“I don’t know, I think you should keep them.” A voice said from behind.

I froze, my eyes darting to Kai’s reflection. “Y-you’re home early. Who drove you?” I stammered.

“My therapist let me go early. She had family to get from the airport. I wanted to surprise you, so I stopped by your mom’s before taking a cab home.” He sat the bundle of flowers on the dresser, then carried himself on his crutches up behind me.

“You look stunning, by the way.” One hand let go of the crutches to settle on my waist as he kissed my neck. “When did you buy this?”

“Recently. It arrived today.”

He trailed kisses from my neck down my shoulder. “Mm, and you were planning on not showing me?”

I shifted, uncomfortable. “You know how much I like the way I look in basically anything.”

“You look amazing and you never believe me.” He pulled me flush up against him.

I shuddered. Sharp, grey eyes watched me in the reflection. “Would you like for me to show you how great your body is, or would you like me to tell you outright?”

“I feel like both are more explicit than I can handle right now.”

He smirked, dangerous and sexy, his hand sliding up my torso. I instinctively sucked in. The smirk disappeared, replaced by a dark look.

“Yeah, hell no.” He practically spat.

I watched with wide eyes as he turned and hobbled out. “Kai?”

“Sit on the bed and wait for me. Don’t move from that spot.” He ordered.

“Do you need help?”

His voice was distant; he moved fast for someone whose legs didn’t work right. “No!”

Unsure of what else to do other than to obey, I sat on the edge of the bed and waited. He came back with a pair of sweatpants and a loose shirt tossed over his shoulder. A bag of popcorn was hanging from his mouth.

Kai dropped the bag on the dresser next to the bouquet, then tossed me the clothes. “Change into these, then open Netflix.”

My eyes widened. “I thought you were thinking something more sexy?”

His nose wrinkled. “And make you uncomfortable and feel like you were forced into it out of necessity? No way.”

By this point, my mouth had fallen open, and I stammered for something to say. “But, like, you, I thought you were going to, like, I don’t know, try to change my mind?”

He stared at me. “How the heck am I supposed to do that when you feel so strongly about yourself? It’s way easier to fuck with the lights off, so to speak, though of course it would make me happier to have them on. But whatever makes you happiest.”

I stared at the oversized, comfy clothes, then up at his earnest face, blinking, blinking.

“You’re crying again. What did I say?” He crossed the side of the room faster than I thought he could.

“Nothing, but like, everything? I don’t know. I love you.” I was babbling, nonsensical and bewildered and overwhelmed.

He sent me a soft look, reaching to run his fingers through my hair. “I know. I love you too.”

“Why are...who allowed you to be so thoughtful?” I swiped at my eyes.

His own narrowed, almost into slits. “It’s not being thoughtful. It’s called being a decent person. Hurry up and get comfy, that new episode came out yesterday and I’ve been wanting to see it. I know you’ll murder me if I watch it without you, so please??” His voice pitched into a playful whine at the end.

I giggled, despite my tears, earning a satisfied smile. “Okay, okay. Give me two seconds.”

#excerpt #america #kai #spoilers #sort of??#more like an #au

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