#which horrified her and she outright said please no I don't wanna explain sex to my brother's girlfriend

[softquietsteadylove]

Fo the mermaid au!

Thena asking gil how human reproduction works. Now that she knows what "the thing" in his pants is for, she wants to know what exactly is between her legs and why it feels so funny.

"Gil?"

Gil groaned, turning over in bed--trying to turn over.

"Gil!"

He blinked, finding a curtain of blonde hair around him as he stared up at the light of his life. He sighed, "yes, Angelfish?"

"I need to ask you something."

Light of his life, he reminded himself; he rubbed his eyes, "can it not wait until morning?"

"No," she whispered, still perched over him like a predator waiting to pounce. She waited until he was done rubbing his eyes to ask, "how does human reproduction work?"

"What?!"

She winced, his sudden outburst and the volume of it hurting her much more delicate senses.

"Sorry, sorry," he rushed, holding his hands over her ears and then her cheeks. She frowned at him, "I'm sorry, Thena. I just...didn't expect that."

"Well?" she implored, looking at him with those eyes. He had never really gotten to see them like this, but they had a faint, almost gentle glow to them in the dark.

He sighed again; it wasn't as if this was out of nowhere. But had he been doing his very best to avoid it for as long as possible?--yes. "What makes you ask that, sweetheart?"

Thena didn't move off of him, but did lean back from all fours to sitting on him. "I...was thinking."

Gil's hair stood on end.

"Of," she looked down at his chest, her finger moving through his chest hair idly. "When we were on the couch."

Gil blushed, but did his best not to rush, nor discourage her. He nodded, "okay."

"I have never taken a mate," she admitted quietly. She had said so before, but a veneer of vulnerability came with this statement, as well as what followed, "but I find myself...curious."

"Right," Gil sighed, looking up at his ceiling for a second, trying to think of how to approach the delicate subject.

"I know how it works for mers," Thena pressed on, leaning closer to his face again. "I have asked, I know what happens when one takes a mate, especially for reproductive purposes. But I have to imagine it's very different for humans."

"Very different," Gil murmured, mostly as he tried to think of how to retain his dignity and also answer her question honestly.

Like Thena said, she was a grown woman, and she wasn't so naive about mating and its many forms. She knew approximately how it worked. And as embarrassed as he was, he had no desire to lie to her or tell her some bullshit birds and the bees nonsense.

He adjusted himself on the bed, wrapping his arms around her. He could tell she had been asleep in the tub because her skin was cooler to the touch than normal. Sometimes it did make him wonder how she managed to get out of water so silently, though.

"So, the, uh," Gil blushed, grateful for the dark and the angle they were in allowing him to avoid her eyes. "The part of me-"

"The penis?"

"That," he sighed. It was better than 'dick'., he supposed. "It becomes engorged with blood. That's what makes it hard."

"And this happens during arousal," Thena continued. If anything, how straightforward she was did actually help to lessen the embarrassment of things. It did quite the opposite of set the mood, currently.

"Usually," Gil added. "Sometimes it happens with a surplus of testosterone. So, like, when I wake up from sleeping, sometimes..."

Thena nodded, connecting the metaphorical dots. She looked down at him again, "does this happen after every sleep?"

"No, not every sleep." Thank the seven seas for that one. "Just sometimes. Sometimes it just gets stimulated from light touches and it reacts. It's kind of...delicate."

"I see." And she had seen--she did see.

Gil shifted under her, trying to keep his mind out of the gutter and on the task at hand. "When the act of intercourse ends and the male reaches climax, he...ejaculates."

Thena tilted her head a few times, which was actually quite familiar and comforting in the moment. "The white stuff-"

"The white stuff," Gil confirmed, unwilling to let her go further with that statement. "For procreation it's done, um, in the-"

"Birth canal."

"Yep, yeah, yes," he confirmed multiple times, pushing all other thoughts from his head but the words themselves. He looked at her again, still charmed by the faint glow of green standing out in the faint moonlight. He put his hand to her cheek, "anything else, Angelfish?"

"Well..."

Gil's eyes strained in the low light as colour rose in her cheeks. She looked down at his bare chest again, and then the blanket which separated his skin from hers. She was wearing his shirt, at least; that was the rule. If she was wearing her legs, a shirt was required.

"I feel," she started and paused still, shifting her weight on top of him. Her knees squeezed against his ribs faintly.

Gil's heart picked up speed.

"Different."

He swallowed, trying to keep his eyes on hers, and on what she was saying, and not on the beautiful body seated on top of him. He nodded, "o-okay. What feels, uh...different?"

Thena wasn't really that shy when it came to most things. She didn't have the same sense of shame about bodies and their functions that humans did. Seeing her sheepish or embarrassed usually indicated something more personal to her.

Thena gulped as well, holding his eyes as her hips pressed into his, "h-here."

Gil held in a groan as she grinded against him through the blanket. "W-What feels different there, Angelfish?"

She looked away from him again, but her hips didn't stop. She braced herself with her hands again, nails digging into the bed on either side of him. "I don't know. But it feels...urgent."

Gil gulped. He had been thinking about this since that day on the couch. He had thought about it in passing before, of course, but always scolded himself. He had no business impressing anything onto Thena if she didn't bring it up on her own.

He didn't even know she had a...a functioning...well, clearly she did.

Gil let out a moan as Thena continued to move above him, both of them seeking friction against what separated them. He gripped her hips, "Cuddlefish, slow down."

"But," she whimpered, biting her lip but obeying. She looked down at him, "I want-"

Gil gripped her hips in his hands, under the shirt. He gulped as a certain scent reached his nose. He looked up at her, "Thena, do you want this?"

She nodded, diving down to kiss him. She pressed her hips against his again, gasping as the shape of him became more clear through the blanket. "Yes!"

Gil groaned, all but humping her through his blanket like a teenager dry rubbing for the first time. But it felt damn good for something so simple. And everything with Thena felt good.

Thena pulled his shirt off over her head, "my skin burns."

Under any other circumstance, he would be alarmed. But he knew exactly what he meant, this time. "It's okay."

Thena kissed him deeper, her tongue looking for more. Her tongue was a little more pointed and a little longer than his, actually. Now that he could feel it so acutely, that was to say.

Gil sighed as he felt her breasts press against his chest. The more their hips moved, the more ruffled it became. He groaned into her mouth as her breasts met his bare chest.

"Gil," she whimpered at the new sensation. She ran her fingers through his hair, kissing him feverishly. "What is that?"

"Here," he grunted, pulling her other hand off his neck and guiding it to her breast for her. "Touch that."

Thena whined as she did. "W-What-"

"Good?" he whispered in the dark, unable to see anything but the vague shape of her as they moved so closely entwined.

"Gil," she whined louder, moving against him more urgently. "Something--I-I want-"

Gil gripped her buttocks - surprisingly plump and also firm - in his hands, driving them together more firmly.

"Gil!"

Gil groaned as she writhed against him, coming from the sheer friction and stimulation. He wasn't quite there but goddamn did he feel good. He gasped for breath, as did Thena. She almost sounded a little wheezy, but he was pretty sure breathing hard with only her lungs made her miss her gills. "Angelfish?"

"Hm?" she purred, her face pressed into his chest.

"You good?" he whispered, pulling her off of the blanket on top of him and rolling them over. He manoeuvred the blanket around her completely limp weight beside him until she was also tucked in. "Thena?"

"Hm," she responded again, blinking those eyes at him. It was incredible to think that he would be able to tell if she was looking at him or not, even in the darkest dark.

"Angelfish, how do you feel?" he asked softly, looking for any signs of distress, or being overwhelmed, overstimulated. This was just as important a first as any of her other firsts as a human.

Thena shimmied over to him, kissing him languidly under the blanket. She really could purr, and it reverberated through him gently as their lips met. "That was nice."

He looked at her again, "nice?"

"Nice," she conceded, shrugging one of her shoulders. Some of her scales were popping up on her shoulders, and he was delighted to think that her concentration in the midst of things had...slipped.

Her finger traced around his nipple, which she had just discovered did actually have a purpose.

"I could...continue."