2. Chapter 2 #2
He couldn’t be sure if the merman understood him, but the head popped up again with another curious tilt.
“This is plenty,” Daren said again, gesturing at the fish, and then holding out both hands in a stopping gesture.
The merman smiled like before, and though his teeth should have made it a frightening image, he was truly stunning. He didn’t want to capsize Daren’s boat. He was trying to help. The gifts weren’t a ruse. They were offerings of… friendship?
Curtis was never going to believe this.
In fact, there was no way Daren was going to tell him!
“Thank you,” Daren said. Even having just arrived, he had more than enough fish to return to shore for the day. “I’m, um…” He placed a hand on his chest. “Daren.” Then he gestured at his guest.
The merman’s brow scrunched.
Why would Daren even think a sea creature could speak, let alone understand English? He tried again anyway, patting his chest. “Daren.” Then he gestured at the merman.
Hands came up to rest on the side of the boat, and Daren could see that the fingers were webbed. The merman used the leverage to lift out of the water enough to press one of his hands to his chest where Daren could see it.
“Liloki,” he said, and it was a strange voice, both low and higher pitched at once that Daren imagined could probably be understood even underwater.
“Liloki,” Daren repeated. “Kinda makes me think of Lilo and Stitch.” He chuckled.
“Lilo!” Liloki nodded, patting his chest again, as if to say Daren could call him that, or that it was a nickname he was already used to.
“Lilo,” Daren said.
“Daren,” Lilo said back to him.
This was wild. Not Glooscap as a similar Maui character but still Disney and equally as implausible despite proving real.
“Thank you for the fish,” Daren said again, pointing at the catch.
Lilo smiled wider, so Daren thought he understood.
“I wish there was something else I could give you.” Daren cautiously bent down to retrieve the fork he had dropped, which was a little buried by the fish, but he found it. “Thank you for this too.”
Lilo reached down beneath the boat where Daren couldn’t see, eventually returning holding the keychain, though Daren had no idea where he had plucked it from. Hooked around a scale maybe? Did he have scales? “Tank—thank,” Lilo corrected, “Daren!”
Daren chuckled. “I’m glad you like it. But I don’t have anything to give you for the fish.” He spoke slowly, unsure how much Lilo could understand, even if he could parrot words back to him, and gestured at the fish again around his feet, hoping it conveyed what he meant.
Lilo tilted his head once more, but not as if he didn’t understand, more like he was thinking. After a moment, he waved Daren closer.
Daren obliged. The beautiful merman hadn’t tried to do anything bad to him so far—he’d been giving him gifts and apparently helping him catch more fish for days—so Daren went right up and crouched at the edge of the boat.
A bluish-purple tentacle rose over the side, and Daren was so startled, he nearly fell backward like he had when he first saw Lilo in the water. He froze, understanding that this was a part of Lilo and that he maybe wasn’t exactly a merman. An Ursula, whatever her species was?
While Daren watched in amazement and maybe a little terror, the tentacle coiled around his bicep and pulled him forward.
For several harsh rapid beats of his heart, Daren thought he had guessed wrong, that Lilo had been toying with him and was going to yank him into the water to drown him, but the pull was gentle and only brought him closer to Lilo’s face.
Beneath the water’s surface, Daren could see many similar tentacles making up Lilo’s lower half. Lilo even looped the keychain around one of the smaller suckers on the end of a tentacle that came up to take it like another hand, then disappeared with it back under the water.
Definitely more Ursula than Ariel.
Lilo pulled Daren closer, still gentle, the tentacle on his arm almost tender, and closed his eyes as yet another tentacle came up to lightly touch Daren’s cheek, drawing their heads together.
He wanted a kiss, and Daren, however frightening the thought probably should be, was too entranced to pull away. He gave Lilo what he was asking for, kissing his smooth, wet lips, while trying to not think about the sharp teeth beyond them, and closed his eyes too.
Lilo made a noise like a contented purr/hum/whimper, and Daren shivered in return.
He only opened his eyes when he felt Lilo retract, the tentacles sliding away to slap seemingly pleased upon the water.
“Th-that’s all you want for the fish?” Daren asked, still amazed and half wondering if he had lost his mind out here, yet unable to keep from smiling.
Lilo’s rows of fangs glinted back at him. He paused in thought like he was trying to recall something, then said, “Come… back?”
“I’ll be back.” Daren nodded. Technically, it was the weekend starting tomorrow, and he didn’t usually go out on the water on Saturdays and Sundays, but he didn’t want to disappoint his new…
friend? “Tomorrow.” He pointed at the sun, motioning across the sky, and dipping down below the horizon, before circling around in a loop to the sun again.
Lilo nodded and repeated, “Tomorrow.” Then he pushed off the side of the boat and disappeared into the water with a flurry of periwinkle tentacles.
Daren wondered if a kiss was all Lilo would want the next time.
LILO
He had kissed him. Daren had kissed him! Lilo knew his name! Daren!
Lilo might never have dared to request such a thing, but Daren had liked his gifts and kept bringing ones for Lilo in exchange. When he had wanted to offer Lilo something for the fish, it was all Lilo could think of, all he had wanted for so long, and so, he had taken the risk to draw Daren closer.
Daren. Daren. Lilo had watched him for so many years, sneaking peeks around rocks.
He knew the boats never came into his area, but he had hoped with encouragement that maybe Daren might do so, allowing Lilo to reveal himself.
He had been too timid the first few days, but after beginning the customary gift-giving for courtship and having Daren offer gifts back, he hadn’t been able to wait any longer.
Lilo couldn’t be sure if humans courted the same way as his people, but even if they didn’t, Daren hadn’t shied from the kiss.
There was nothing more dangerous than revealing oneself to a human, but Lilo had known, as clearly as he knew the wind and sea and sky, that Daren would be different.
Daren. What a wonderful name—and an even more wonderful kisser.
Holding tight to the new gift with one of his tentacles, Lilo swam back toward his sanctuary, eager as ever to see Daren again tomorrow.