Life Under the Sea Ch. 02

"You don't know how pretty you look right now..." whispers Varon.

"Thanks, but I think I know... You're not too bad either." whispers back Lily.

"Hah. Anyway, let's go wash off. Huh?" says Varon as he looks down their bodies. "Ah. Not quite finished?"

"Wha- what do you mean?" asks Lily, as her face adopts a reddish glow.

"I was about to pull out, but it seems that you won't... er... let go of me."

"Well, I'm still not all worn out. One more go, Varon?"

"What?! No way. Not right now. I already gave you everything I had. I'm all out." he whispers "I swear, it'll be blood coming out of me."

"Fine. Fine." whispers Lily with a hint of disappointment. "But next time, you owe me five."

"Five! I... Fine. Deal." responds Varon. "Let's get in the water to wash off though. I don't want the others to know, especially since the two of us aren't going out."

Varon finally pulls out with much relief visible in his face. He then rolls off of Lily and drags himself into the rising tide. Lily soon follows him and dives in after him. The refreshing water cools their burning hot flesh nicely. In the midst of all this, Varon remembers something.

"Hey, Lily. Shane said he saw your brother with some new mermaid. I saw her too and she's pretty cute. What do you think of her?"

"They're not going out. And she doesn't really bother me anyway."

"You know what I mean, Lily." says Varon, sternly.

"For one thing, she seems a little strange and out-of-place. I can't put my finger on it though. She seems to lust after Riley but I doubt there's much love between the two of them. Anyway, I already warned Riley to be careful. Just in case she's up to no good."

"You're the same age as he is. And yet you take the time to warn-, no, lecture him?"

"So?"

"You're too nice. You care a little too much about him."

"He's my little brother and my twin. I can never care too much."

"Haha... You sound so unlike the Lily most people know. Normally, you're somewhere between carefree and careless. Though you have calmed quiet a bit in the past few years. You even have a serious side now." says Varon with a laugh. "Though you've gotten pretty wild in the sack."

Varon smiles to himself, pleased at the reddish tint on Lily cheeks. She turns away as well, but quickly swims back to the beach where the others are. The merman follows right behind her hoping to get another glimpse at her blushing face.

The sun eventually rises from the eastern edge of the sea and its light pierces the transparent surface of the water. In that glow, the creatures and beings of the daylight begin to stir and awaken, ready for another day. As the sounds of voices and the swishing of tails fills the water, Jesse wakes with a start. She immediately shifts her head to look up, where she finds Riley looking down at her.

"How long have you been awake?" asks Jesse.

"Oh... For a short while now..." says Riley.

"So why didn't you get up? You didn't have to wait for me?"

"Well, I don't think you ever notice, but you do have a pretty strong grip, even when you're asleep."

"Ah..." says Jesse, blushingly. "I'm sorry about that, Riley."

"It's no big deal. Anyway, I didn't want to wake you. You had such a pleasant smile on your face."

"Well.... Anyway...." continues Jesse. "What do you have planned for today?"

"Me? Well, I wanted to check on Brynn, Lily, Miek, and the others. It's getting pretty bright out and the humans will be combing the surface any minute now. Do you want to come with me?"

"Sure. Let's go!"

A few moments later, Riley and Jesse are seen bolting out of the home and towards the shimmering surface. Jesse herself is amazed at how fast she is moving through the water. Her tail even moves the way she wants it to without her having to consciously think about it anymore. With her mind free to ponder, Jesse finally takes note of the sensual side that is swimming in mermaid form. With each flap of her fins, Jesse glides and cuts through the water. The clear water seems to caress her body lovingly as she swims through it. It is a wonderful feeling that surrounds Jesse, like almost nothing can harm her while in the sea's embrace. The sensation of the water flowing over and around her skin and curves will be something she will not soon forget.

Looking ahead at Riley, she wonders if mermen get the same feeling as mermaids apparently do, especially since their most sensitive parts are left completely exposed. With her eyes locked onto his manhood, she sees no evidence of arousal. Though Jesse just guesses that Riley had grown used to the unearthly feeling after years of being exposed to it. Riley himself appears to be focused on other things: precisely his sisters and friends. Even now, the lowest edge of the sun had appeared from the horizon of the early morning sky. He looks over his shoulders every other moment, expecting a boat to appear from out of nowhere.

To Riley's great relief, he reaches the beach Shane mentioned the day before. All of them are still there on the sand, laughing amongst themselves. Together, Riley and Jesse burst forth from the surface of the water and land on the firm sand of the beach. Everyone turns in surprise towards the two of them. While Jesse tries to move wet hair out of the way of her eyes, she hears several familiar and unfamiliar voices.

"It's Riley and Jesse." calls out Brynn.

"You're right. It is... Hey guys!" says Miek.

"Riley! Jesse!" exclaims Lily. "I thought you'd eventually come out here to join us. That's why we waited a bit longer."

With her hair comfortably out of the way, she can see Lily, Brynn, Shane, and Miek smiling at her and Riley. There are other merpeople around them, all of whom she had never seen before. As they wave and beckon her over, she grants them a smile and drags herself towards them. She takes a second to look toward Riley, who is currently engaged in a lively conversation with Miek and Shane. When Jesse finally joins the circle of friends, the mermaid on her right promptly greets her in the same way that Shane did the day before: with a hand over her heart and a peck on her cheek.

"Hello. My name's Beth. Shane has told us all about you, Jesse." says the mermaid.

Barely a second after Beth says this, the rest of the mermaids and mermen around her crowd around Jesse and each greet her in the same way. Jesse smiles weakly as soon as it is over. No matter how many times it happens, it is still an awkward custom to get used to. Beth sees the expression on her face.

"Don't worry about that. Shane told me that it's been a very long time since you last were among other merpeople. We're all just happy to meet someone new." says Beth with a smile. "Hey, guys. Introduce yourselves already!"

Each of the merpeople around her bow their heads and announce their names in turn. Soon enough, she has the names Shawn, Marissa, Lyzabeth, and Aiden. For a few seconds she takes the time to match each and every name with a face, each of which was enviously gorgeous. She then turns back to look at Riley and notices another merman she does not recognize.

"Who's that merman?" asks Jesse as she nods her head at her target's general direction. "The one with his arm around Lily."

"Hm?" peeps Marissa as she turns to look at what Jesse is nodding towards. "Oh. That's Varon. He's a good friend of Lily's."

All of them on the beach remain locked in conversation until a boat in the distance told them that it was unsafe to stay out of the water any longer. Jesse tries to move closer to Riley, but is blocked by Marissa and Lyzabeth. Trying to recognize these mermaids from earlier, she identifies the brunette with blue eyes and a light pink tail as Marissa and the redhead with green eyes and a purple tail as Lyzabeth. The two mermaids smile at her and urge her to join them for the day. Reluctantly, she agrees and wordlessly waves good-bye to the rest of the group. As soon as they are out of sight from the others, Marissa takes Jesse by the hand and drags her to a side of the village of Okeanos that she had yet to explore.

Jesse recalls the wall of the crevice that the home Riley, his sisters, and Miek shared; there were a large number of homes built into that cliffside, reminding Jesse of the side of an apartment. Right now, the homes that come into view around her appear to have been hollowed out of incredibly large boulders. These homes were not as cramped together as the homes built into the cliff wall are, so Jesse presumes that she has just entered a high-class neighborhood. Each of the homes has a beautiful and unique garden made out of ornate coral. Jesse looks left, right, and all around her, taking in all the beauty of the place. Marissa continues pulling on Jesse's hand while Lyzabeth swims along beside them.

"Where are we going?" asks Jesse, as if snapping out of a trance.

"My house." responds Marissa with a friendly smile. "I think you'll like it."

Marissa points to a house in the distance. Jesse's mouth opens in a gasp and stays open for a few seconds. If she weren't underwater, Jesse swears she would have been visibly drooling at this point: Marissa's house is gorgeous. Gently glowing crystal gardens actually grow out of the boulder itself and colorful coral gardens form complex designs on what must be an underwater lawn. Marissa takes Jesse closer and pulls her in through the entranceway. Jesse receives an even bigger surprise when she sees that the interior of the home is just as stunning as the exterior. However for the moment, Marissa leads Jesse and Lyzabeth to her room, which is decorated lavishly with various pinks and whites.

Lyzabeth swims around them and sets herself on Marissa's bed, which looks like an overstuffed bean bag chair. Marissa lets go of Jesse's hand as she too swims over to rest beside her friend. She then pats her hand on the surface of the bed.

"C'mon, Jesse. Join us." says Marissa.

"Su- sure." responds Jesse hesitantly.

Jesse swims over and gently rests with her stomach on the bed. Even around the mermaids, she still has trouble accepting the whole nudity issue. Even if their eyes aren't doing anything suspicious, Jesse's paranoia forces her to think otherwise. Unlike Jesse, the other two are sitting on the bed not even making a visible attempt at human modesty. Despite her fears of being stared at, she finds herself drawn to try to stare at the two mermaids before her. She finds that the answer to her problem is to just look them in the face rather than avoid looking at them all together. The beauty held in their faces was a distraction enough for her. Jesse suddenly catches herself in the middle of such awkward thoughts and reminds herself that she isn't a lesbian, despite the strange feelings she has towards Marissa and Lyzabeth. Still, the idea of being naked with them just seems to sexually charge the water around them.

"Jesse? Jesse? What's wrong?" asks Lyzabeth. "You're looking at me very strangely..."

"Oh, sorry." she responds. "I was just thinking about something."

"Was it Riley?" asks Marissa suddenly.

"Um... Yes. I was..." lies Jesse.

"So what happened last night then?" asks Lyzabeth. "Brynn told us you slept over at their place. And it was only the two of you there..."

"Nothing happened." replies Jesse, choosing her words carefully. "We just shared a hammock for the night."

Marissa and Lyzabeth look at each other and smirk for a second.

"Why did you bring me here anyway, Marissa? Lyzabeth? We just met today and you already bring me into your home?" asks Jesse.

"We just want to be your friends, Jesse. You're new to Okeanos." says Lyzabeth.

"So what about those questions about me and Riley?" asks Jesse with her eyebrow slowly rising.

"We just like to gossip. Besides, he's a friend and we're just watching out for him." says Marissa.

"Are you sure you guys don't love him?" continues Jesse.

"We used to." admits Lyzabeth. "But then we found other mermen, though it took a while."

"What do you mean it 'took a while'? Both of you are pretty enough to get as many men... er... mermen as you want!" blurts Jesse.

"You sure are full of questions, Jesse." says Marissa smiling. "The problem is that there aren't many mermen."

"That's right." adds Lyzabeth. "We outnumber the guys three to one. Not all of us can find a single merman in this village for herself at times. That's why we move from village to village in search of partners."

An uncomfortable silence comes over the bedroom. Jesse feels wonders if she's actually stealing a merman from these mermaids, especially since she wasn't born a mermaid. Her obsession with Riley still persists regardless.

"So what do you think of Riley?" asks Lyzabeth.

"Well, I think he's very cute and he does seem sweet." says Jesse. "I was wondering though... Has he had girlfriends?"

"Yeah. Of course he has." says Marissa. "Though he has been single for a while now."

When Marissa had just said that, Jesse could have sworn she saw a wink. The conversation about Riley soon died down and just moved to the discussion of the other available mermen of the village. A few hours later, Jesse bids good-bye to Marissa and Lyzabeth before heading back to Riley's place. On the way, Jesse can't help but think about what the mermaids had said about there not being many mermen for the mermaids. A troubling thought invades her head: what if he is destined to be with someone else and I'm just in his way? A slight frown appears on her face as she passes through the center of the town.

Back at Riley's place, Lily, Varon, Brynn, Miek, and Riley are sitting in the main room on soft spongy furniture. They are talking about the beautiful night sky from several hours ago. Soon enough they get into a light discussion about Jesse and what happened in the bedroom adjacent the night before.

"So... what did you guys do, Riley?" asks Miek with a goofy smirk on his face.

"Nothing much. We just cuddled close I guess. Though she did hold me tightly." says Riley.

"Like I said..." says Lily. "You're too nice. She was probably too nervous to do anything since you didn't even make a move. And you know she likes you. She's just shy for now. Eventually, her true feelings will show."

"Yeah, I know..." replies Riley.

"Interesting..." says Miek. "But do you like her back enough to do something about it?"

Riley pauses and looks all around him. Four pairs of eyes are staring back at him intently. He looks pleadingly at Lily to rescue him from this situation but she too is waiting for him to answer Miek's question. He takes a deep breath and sighs in surrender.

"Yes, I do like her. Though I think she likes me many times over more than I like her. I could sense it from her just by the way she held me to her." says Riley. "We'll see what happens..."

"Why don't you tease her a bit and see how she reacts? I mean, if you show some interest, maybe she'll let her guard down." says Brynn.

Riley suppresses any laughter seeing Varon and Miek's confused faces at what Brynn said. Apparently, they took the hard way in terms of flirting.

"I guess that could work...." says Riley.

"Anyway, let's move on..." says Lily. "Who wants to get up close to a human ship?"

Riley, Varon, and Miek stare at Lily incredulously.

"What?!" yells Miek. "Where's this come from?! You know how much trouble we'd be in if we got caught by one of those things? Even being seen is bad enough. We don't exist to them and that has suited us for thousands of years..."

"Which is what makes it more fun!" adds Brynn.

All three mermen stare at her with the same skepticism. They can't believe the two mermaids are planning to go through with this.

"And when is this going to be?" asks Riley.

"In a few days..." says Lily. "I want to be at the surface when the sun is at its hottest. That way, the poor humans will think they're hallucinating when they see us up close."

"You seem to have planned this out, Lily." wonders Miek. "With Brynn's help, right?"

"Exactly." says Lily with a wide smile on her face.

Jesse continues swimming towards Lily, Riley, and Brynn's home. Her thoughts still dwell on Riley and her affection towards him. She wants to talk to someone but no merperson would understand her problems. Jesse pauses and closes her eyes as if meditating. As soon as she opens her eyes again, she has come to a decision: she will venture to the surface to talk with Nikos again.

Jesse instantly swims up and out of the crevice and heads towards the beach. Right now, it is the middle of the afternoon and there isn't a cloud in the sky. Jesse hurries even faster since she is easily visible in the clear seawater. Luckily, no boats cross her path on the way to Nikos'. All she can pray is that there were no low-flying aircraft in the area at the time. When she does get to the beach and sees the familiar hut, she calls out. No one answers. She does this several times but still she hears no response. Jesse sits in the crashing waves, wondering where Nikos went. She even plots to beat him up with her tail the moment she sees his face. After what feels like an hour, the mermaid decides to turn back. That's when she sees a large fishing ship laying nets in the sea behind her.

From what she can tell, they don't know they have just cornered a mermaid. Jesse looks from the ship to Nikos' hut. Seeing as she'd rather be locked in an acquaintance's hut rather than an ugly fisherman's trophy fish, Jesse drags herself onto the blistering sand of the dry beach and moves as quickly as her arms can pull her. The burning feeling on her tail from the heat is inexplicable, she knows her tail will need to get wet as soon as possible. The fact that she has to drag her belly on the same hot sand doesn't help as the fine sand is steadily finding itself in an extremely uncomfortable place for her. When Jesse finally gets to the door, she turns the handle and, surprisingly, finds that it isn't locked. Using most of what's left of her strength, Jesse pulls all of her form into the hut and closes the door.

Breathing deeply, Jesse desperately looks around for water. Everything in the hut is the same as when she was last here, but she sees something that simply infuriates her. Nikos is sleeping on a mattress with his nose wedged into a book. Apparently he has been asleep this entire time since he is hardly dressed for going outside with a ragged pair of shorts. Forgetting all reason and why she came here in the first place, she kicks her tail at the floor and flies at him. Nikos stirs and slowly pulls the book off his face to see a mermaid flying at him. Before he can do anything more, Jesse's tightly clenched fist makes contact with his stomach.

"OW! By the gods! What was that for?!" bellows Nikos with equal fury as Jesse.

"You almost let me die at your doorstep! I was calling for you!" screams Jesse.

"Ah. Well..." mutters Nikos, most of his initial anger gone. "I am very sorry about that."

Nikos gets down on his knees before Jesse and bows till his forehead touches the ground.

"Fine. I forgive you for now... Just get me some water!" scowls Jesse.

Nikos promptly gets up and looks appraisingly at Jesse's sand-covered form. He then picks up a bucket on the floor and runs out the door. Mere seconds later, he runs back in and gently pours refreshing seawater onto Jesse's body. Her anger cools with her body as she asks Nikos more and more politely to fetch her buckets of water. Soon enough, Jesse tail had regained its healthy shine and shimmer. Tired from the effort of running back and forth in the hot sun, he plops down with his back on his mattress and looks at Jesse. The mermaid slowly drags herself onto his mattress and sits at his side.

"So what brings you here? I saw you just yesterday. I thought things were going smoothly." says Nikos panting.