3. Chapter 3
DAREN
That night, Daren made his stop at Curtis’s shop as brief as possible, knowing he might simply blurt out what had happened if he lingered there for too long. Just his luck, Bradley showed up again, making it easier to exit quickly while Curtis was distracted.
Daren wouldn’t lie—part of him thought he might have hallucinated the entire encounter and that, once he returned the next day, there would be no tentacled creature with a beautiful face and shark teeth beneath tender lips.
Lilo surprised him yet again.
Like before, Lilo helped get more fish into Daren’s boat, making Daren’s work hardly any work at all, and before he knew it, he was technically done even earlier than the day before.
Speaking to Lilo was easier this time too, because he seemed to know some English and picked up more incredibly quickly.
Daren had brought a gift again just to be safe—a spoon, in case Lilo hadn’t seen the fork’s non-pronged cousin—but was relieved that Lilo showed up without offering a gift of his own.
Keeping that up every time they met might get extravagant.
It seemed to have been more of a testing the waters between them sort of thing, an icebreaker, but had it been…
wooing, given what Lilo asked for yesterday?
Did kissing mean the same thing in his culture?
Daren was dying to ask and started to before he could stop himself. “So, Lilo, um… about yesterday, what happened between us, would you—”
“Kiss?” Lilo leaned up over the side of the boat, webbed fingers splaying on the ledge again to support him.
He was actually quite a bit bigger than Daren.
Lean but with nicely defined muscles in his arms and chest to the taper of his waist. Of course height was impossible to determine, given Lilo was half octopus. Or something.
Lilo’s black eyes blinked normally enough, not sideways or with doubled lids.
He even had eyelashes. Other aquatic mammals had eyelashes.
Hippopotami. Otters. Manatees were the original mermaids, but although they were mammals, they didn’t have traditional eyelashes.
If they had, that might have explained what tricked all those sailors.
Or maybe it had been their dark, soulful eyes, like something innocent and sweet that was so beguiling.
Lilo had those too, but he wasn’t a trick or illusion. He was very human looking for his top half and possibly the most beautiful man Daren had ever seen, black eyes, tentacles, fangs, and all.
Daren sat on his cooler, closer to Lilo at the bow of the boat. “You want another kiss?”
Lilo nodded with childlike exuberance. Which was another thing Daren didn’t really understand.
How old was Lilo? He was definitely an adult, but did he age like a human?
His face was mature yet still seemed young, enough that he could have been twenty, forty, or a spry one hundred for all Daren knew.
Yet another thing Daren would have to get up the courage to ask.
“Daren like kiss... ing?” Lilo was unfairly cute when he searched for the right words.
“I do. I'm maybe a little out of practice.”
“Practice?” Lilo repeated with that equally adorable head tilt of his.
“Um, it means it's been a long time since I've kissed someone, so I’m not so sure how good I am at it anymore.”
“Daren good!” Lilo nodded again, batting those long, mesmerizing lashes. “Good at kiss.”
Despite the bitter winter air, which Lilo was clearly unaffected by, Daren could feel his cheeks growing warm and probably rosy pink. “Th-thanks.”
“Daren like kissing Lilo?”
Adult or not, this still felt like fumbling in the dark as a teenager, when everyone else seemed at least a little more knowledgeable and confident than Daren, even if the truth was that they were likely just as lost and unsure as he was.
Well, maybe not Curtis.
“I did like it, Lilo. And I wouldn’t mind kissing you again.” Which had to be insane, wasn’t it? But Lilo was more humanoid than sea creature. Maybe. Sort of.
Lilo lifted himself higher, leaning his toned body into Daren’s space, and one of his tentacles came up over the side like yesterday to curl around Daren's bicep in a gentle, encouraging squeeze. “Again,” Lilo confirmed, “but… deeper?”
“D-deeper?” Daren sputtered, unable to think past the rows of fangs in Lilo’s charming grin.
“Oh. Um… I'm a little, uh...” As he fumbled and trailed off, Lilo's answering pout made Daren hasten to think of an explanation. “Your teeth,” he blurted, which was maybe not the most tactful way of handling it, but at least he was being honest. “They’re a little sharp.”
Lilo’s brow scrunched, but he proved to understand, since he opened his mouth wider to run his tongue over his razor-like fangs, apparently with no issue. Daren hadn’t seen Lilo’s tongue before, but it was a darker purplish-blue than his skin. "Daren teeth not sharp?"
To show that his teeth were much flatter, Daren opened his mouth wider too. “See? Mine aren’t pointy like yours.”
Lilo gasped as if concerned. “How Daren eat fish?”
Daren laughed without meaning to, but the genuine alarm from Lilo was too sweet.
“That might be difficult to explain, but I could show you. Another day. A different day.” He didn’t have everything he would need right now, but he did have portable supplies for camping that could help him show Lilo what cooking meant.
Lilo nodded, but he hadn’t retreated from his closer lean toward Daren. His arms didn’t seem to suffer any strain from holding him up. He must be incredibly strong. His tentacles too. “Lilo be, um… safe?”
“Careful?” Daren surmised. “You'll be careful with your teeth, you mean?”
“Yes! Careful. No... ouch?
The smile ever-twitching at Daren’s lips while in Lilo’s presence tugged upright again. “You'll be careful so you don't hurt me?”
“Yes. Kiss?” he asked again. “Deeper kiss?”
This had to be wooing, but even if it was insane to entertain courtship with a sea creature, Daren didn’t want to say no, and not only because of gifts or fish or Canadian politeness.
Something about Lilo just made Daren’s heart flutter, and he didn’t think he had ever experienced that with another person.
He had read about it. Dreamed about it. Secretly yearned for the taste of it. But he had assumed, in the end, a dream was all it was. Although that flutter might be equal parts fear and infatuation, it was something he had never believed was in the cards for him.
“Deeper,” Daren agreed. “Careful.”
Lilo nodded again, almost frantically in reassurance.
He licked his lips before Daren leaned the rest of the way to bridge the gap between them.
Any closer on Lilo’s part, and he might have toppled onto the deck.
The start of the kiss was like the previous day’s gentle press.
Lilo’s lips felt almost entirely human, if a little slipperier and smoother.
His tongue, however, was just slightly rougher than a human’s.
Not quite as rough as, say, a cat’s might be, but textured in a way that sent shivers through Daren when it tangled with his.
There was more muscle to it. More power.
Commanding the kiss with how it twirled.
As nervous as Daren had been, Lilo was true to his promise.
He kept his teeth in check, so Daren barely felt a single graze, only Lilo’s tongue and the fervent pressure from his lips.
When Lilo finally let Daren pause for air, Daren was panting with visible puffs leaving him from how hot his breath was now amidst the cold.
Lilo licked his lips again. “No ouch? No hurt?”
No more room in Daren’s pants, he thought to himself, because they had definitely grown tighter. “I-I’m fine,” he said, flushed and aroused and seriously unsure how to handle what was happening between him and a sea creature, but fine was not inaccurate.
“Lilo like kissing Daren,” Lilo said with his fanged grin. “Lilo like Daren.”
It would definitely be silly to ask, do you mean like like, so Daren simply said, “I like kissing you too, Lilo.”
Lowering himself so he merely perched on the ledge of the boat by way of his forearms, Lilo glanced at the mass of fish he had helped Daren catch. “Daren… leave now?”
“I don’t have to,” Daren answered. “You did all my work for me again, but we could do something.” He had actually thought quite a bit about this besides choosing a final reciprocal gift. What did two opposing cultures do to better understand one another?
Communicate.
Show patience.
Exchange gifts to learn what each other values and to show respect.
Kissing was probably not on that list.
But games were, passing the time together in shared community.
Like the deck of cards Daren pulled from his jacket pocket. Funnily enough, they had octopi on their backs.
When Daren splayed them out for Lilo to see, the poor mercreature looked distraught.
“More gift? But Lilo bring no—”
“No. Not a gift,” Daren corrected. “We don’t need to keep exchanging gifts, much as I love everything you did give me.”
Lilo’s distress dissipated into instant delight. “Lilo too!”
“I’m glad. But this is a game.” Daren started to shuffle the cards, which entranced Lilo, only for him to suddenly recognize what Daren had said and lift himself higher on the ledge of the boat again, slightly rocking it on the water.
“Game! Lilo like game! Gamezzz,” he added to make it plural, which was so damn endearing, Daren couldn’t help giggling.
“Great. I’ll teach you one, okay?” He figured even young kids could learn Go Fish, so Lilo should have no trouble.
He didn’t, he picked it up pretty fast, although the first time Daren started to explain the go fish part, Lilo had dived back into the water and brought up a fresh one for him.
“No!” Daren had giggled again. “It's pretend fishing. We fish for a card. Like this.”