3. Chapter 3 #3
“Oh.” Daren wondered how long ago that was if there weren’t recent stories of mythological creatures in these waters, but he was afraid to ask. Lilo really could be centuries old. “But you never had a mate that you lost?”
“No. No good… choice? No good fit for Lilo.”
“Same. I never found someone who I wanted to be with like that, you know?”
Lilo started to nod again, only to suddenly spring up taller. “Daren never do mating?”
“I’ve done that!” Daren tried to not laugh too hard at the momentarily scandalized expression Lilo had been wearing. “I have been with other human men like me, just not any I wanted to keep around. Does that make sense?”
“Yes. Lilo same,” he said with a softer smile.
“But for you, there aren’t any others like you to be with anymore?”
“No. Only human. Humanzzzz,” he forced the plural like before.
“So, you could… would… want to be with a human like that?”
“With right human. Could. Would.”
There was too much weight in that admission for Daren to know how to respond.
As if to save him from having to, the sun dipped behind the rocky landscape that hid their inlet from the open water, indicating it was getting late and time for Daren to head home.
Lilo noticed too.
“Daren come back?” he asked. “Tomorrow?”
Without pausing to remember that it would be Sunday, Daren promised, “Tomorrow.”
Tomorrow turned into every day the whole next week.
LILO
Lilo didn’t intend to follow Daren home. He really didn’t! Although it hadn’t been the first time he had trailed after Daren’s boat beneath the water.
The other times, Daren had always docked with the other human boats, where they unloaded their fish or dropped off people who were visiting.
It was a busy area, filled with enough humans that Lilo had to be extra careful to not be seen.
He would usually steal a quick glimpse of Daren, and then hurry back to safer waters.
But after several more days of spending time together, Daren had explained that humans had what was called a weekend, and Daren needed a couple days off from going out on the water to fish. He promised he would return again on Monday, which would mean two days of not visiting Lilo.
When Lilo had pouted and asked why Daren couldn’t come anyway, Daren had changed his mind and promised he would come again on Saturday to spend the day with Lilo like usual, but he couldn’t on Sunday like he had last week, because he had chores and important human business to take care of.
Lilo didn’t really understand, but he didn’t want to be so possessive of Daren’s time that he made him not want to come back at all.
Everything was just so much better when Daren was around.
Finally, Lilo had someone to talk to again.
Finally, he had someone who fit him. Someone who made Lilo feel the way courtship was supposed to feel, like he never wanted to be away from Daren, even for a weekend, because Daren made him feel like the best version of himself.
It was all so new though, too new and too soon to admit such things, even if they had confessed that neither had ever had a mate before but had only mated casually. That was so long ago for Lilo now, he barely remembered such pleasures outside of his own touch.
He couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to touch Daren beyond simple caresses and tangles of their tongues.
He was so curious to know what humans looked like beneath the strange layers they wore.
Daren’s scarf, for example, came off with a simple unravel.
Were the other pieces as easy to remove, like his gloves?
What plagued Lilo most of all, however, was imagining an entire day alone after seeing Daren for so many days in a row.
And so, on Saturday, when Daren left just as the sun was dipping low and the sky was growing darker, Lilo couldn’t simply retreat to his sanctuary.
He stayed low beneath the water and followed Daren’s boat.
He peeked—very carefully—above the surface once Daren had stopped to secure his boat for the night only to realize they were nowhere near the usual docks.
This must be Daren’s home! He had his own dock and stairs leading up a hill to a building that Lilo watched Daren enter and turn on the lights inside.
There were other similar looking homes around it.
Almost all of them had their own small docks with boats secured.
Since it was getting so dark, no one else was outside, unlike elsewhere around the coastline.
It was quiet and peaceful and safe enough that Lilo could keep his eyes above the water and watch Daren’s silhouette.
What did the inside of Daren’s home look like, Lilo wondered? He knew some things from what Daren had described to him, but so much was a mystery, and there was always something new to learn about the beings who lived on land the way his people lived beneath the water.
For now, Lilo could only imagine what he couldn’t see, as he watched the familiar silhouette move in front of the light. He could see that Daren was removing his layers. His hat. His scarf. His… coat? It was so easy for humans.
It would not be so easy for Lilo. But for Daren…
Maybe Lilo could.