8. Chapter 8
DAREN
It was Lilo!
But it also wasn’t, because Lilo stood on legs, wearing clothes, including jeans and a sweatshirt, and his periwinkle skin was tan and olive-hewed now. His eyes, still dark, had the whites and normal irises of a man.
And despite it being summer, he was also wearing a periwinkle coat.
“Lilo…” Daren said breathlessly.
“Daren!” This new, strange, and wonderful version of Lilo rushed him, throwing arms with non-webbed fingers around his neck and embracing him tight. “Coat,” he whispered through a snuffle. “For Daren. Took time. Lilo sorry.”
Daren hugged him so hard, he worried he might bruise the newly human skin. But Lilo’s coat was so thick and soft. It felt like suede, and Daren could see that its interior was lined with white plush. “But… won’t you miss the water?”
“Lilo go back. Visit,” he said firmer as though to assuage Daren that he had no intention of ever leaving him again for good.
Lilo pulled away to look at Daren, but kept his arms wrapped around Daren’s neck.
It was strange to think of Lilo as having height, just slightly taller than Daren, when before he had only had tentacles.
The flat human teeth when he smiled were even stranger, but that hardly changed how beautiful he was in any form.
“Swim anytime. Together. Lilo… I want to be with Daren. With you. Forever.”
Daren’s eyes were pooling with so much moisture, he prayed this wasn’t an illusion conjured by his desire for the same happy ending as that book—which he had dropped to the floor yet again, but he didn’t even care.
He’d buy it later, especially if it was dented. He’d treasure that damn book forever.
Forever.
“Me too,” Daren said, grasping Lilo’s face with both hands. “Me too. I am so sorry I didn’t understand.”
“Lilo showed Daren. I showed you,” Lilo corrected again, obviously having worked on his English while awaiting however this transformation had taken place. “I love you, Daren.”
As the tears broke free down Daren’s face, he stroked his thumbs along Lilo’s cheekbones with reverence, up to his rounded human ears, and said, “I love you too,” before pulling Lilo in for a kiss.
Lilo’s lips had always been wet and smooth like…
well, like a seal or octopus or other sea creature maybe.
Now they were soft and dry and completely human in texture, yet somehow, they felt the same in all the ways that mattered—especially when their tongues connected and Lilo whimpered and sagged against Daren.
Daren laughed. He was so deliriously happy to be able to hold this creature in his arms again, and while standing too. It was miraculous.
“Where did you get clothes?” Daren had to ask, thinking the items beneath the coat too ill-fitted for Lilo and… familiar.
“Take from boat.”
Daren’s eyes widened.
“Daren’s boat!” Lilo added.
Better. No wonder they looked familiar.
“Hey! Are you gonna introduce me yet or what?”
Daren looked over Lilo’s shoulder at Curtis, who was propped with his elbows atop the counter, watching them with the biggest shit-eating grin Daren had ever seen.
It dawned on him that they were having this reunion basically in the middle of the store. It wasn’t too busy, and they had been whispering the entire time, but they were still making a spectacle.
Taking hold of Lilo’s hand and feeling heat rush to his face now that he could see how many bemused eyes were on them, Daren brought Lilo to the counter.
“Glooscap, right?” Curtis kept on grinning.
“Glooscap?” Lilo questioned.
“This is Lilo,” Daren introduced. “Lilo, this is my friend Curtis.”
“Oh, Curtis! Yes, hello, brother!” Lilo said even more brightly than he had greeted him the first time, now including a rapid-fire wave.
“Hello, Lilo!” Curtis parroted with a chuckle. “Nice to meet you. What’s the accent? I can’t place it.”
“He’s…” Daren hurried to answer for Lilo, but then had to ask himself—what did Lilo look and sound like?
Mediterranean? Filipino? Both of those mixed with Inuit and fish person?
It was insane and yet somehow all those options seemed equally fitting.
“He’s… a little bit of everything. I’ll introduce you properly next time, Curtis, I promise.
” He tugged on Lilo’s hand to begin leading him from the shop. “We, um… really need to catch up.”
Lilo’s smile said he knew exactly what Daren meant.
“Have fun!” Curtis waved at them.
“Bye, brother!” Lilo waved back.
Daren was too excited to think about the questions no doubt running through Curtis’s mind. He didn’t care. Not right now. Not when he was finally going to be able to do something he never thought possible.
Bring Lilo home.
LILO
Walking was still very strange to Lilo, but once he had found his feet—somewhat literally—he had also found he rather enjoyed it.
Not as much as swimming, but it was fun in its odd, one-dimensional way.
He felt guilty, however, for having made Daren wait so many more days than he had initially planned while getting things like walking right.
He’d just wanted to be certain he could pass for human before presenting himself.
He had wanted to be the perfect two-legged partner that Daren would accept back into his life with open arms.
And he had.
With open lips too.
Lilo had missed those lips.
Daren had a vehicle, a truck, it was called, parked outside of Curtis’s shop, but he said he didn’t want to risk Lilo getting sick from riding in it. “I don’t know if you even can get motion sickness, but it’s very different from being in the water, and… we shouldn’t chance it. Next time.”
As interested as Lilo was in the vehicle, he could wait until next time, and so, they walked. Lilo was walking with Daren, hand in hand, toward Daren’s home.
Lilo hadn’t allowed himself much sightseeing once he had gotten on land.
He had been too excited to find Daren. He had practiced taking his coat on and off, practiced walking, practiced all manner of human things he thought he needed to know or improve upon, and once he had been convinced he was ready, he’d first swam to Daren’s house.
Not seeing Daren’s boat parked there or any sign of him inside, Lilo had swam to the docks next, found the boat, sneakily removed his coat underwater to avoid any humans from seeing his tentacles, and was also careful to not be seen when he climbed up onto the boat to dry off and find clothes.
Humans were very particular about wearing their layers.
Lilo knew Daren had a towel and fresh clothes on the boat at all times and managed to get dressed before anyone spotted him.
He wouldn’t have wanted someone thinking he was stealing the boat!
Thankfully, the magic in his coat meant it was dry almost immediately, allowing him to slip into it and disembark onto the shore.
There was a pull when having his coat on him, even through clothes, like a tug at his human skin to change back, but he could resist it. He could simply wear the coat as a human would and only let it envelope him to form his tentacles when he was naked again and in the water.
He had gotten several strange looks from passersby while walking to Curtis’s shop.
It was too warm outside for clothing more suited for winter, like what Daren had worn when they’d first met.
Lilo’s coat was much longer than the one Daren had worn too, but the coat was the embodiment of Lilo’s other form and regulated temperature so well, he didn’t feel the heat and hadn’t minded the stares.
There were still very nice people he had come across. And helpful. He had known that the next best place to find Daren would be with his friend Curtis, and simply mentioning Daren and Curtis’s names had led him to the shop without trouble.
Now that Lilo was letting himself look around the town, there was so much more to take in, having found his treasured quarry. Homes of different shapes and sizes. People of different shapes and sizes. People of different colors too and with such varied clothing, all doing different activities.
Children were splashing in puddles from a recent storm.
A group of older children—teenagers?—were walking very quickly, all talking over each other in excited tones about some terrifying movie they had seen.
Movies were something Lilo was very interested in.
Daren had shown him a few, stories acted out that could be shown on his flat mirror-like thing.
His… tablet? Lilo preferred the movie version of the story about the woman with the fish tail compared to the book.
Daren had worried Lilo might not like the witch with tentacles because she was the villain, but she had been Lilo’s favorite part!
He wondered if he would enjoy something terrifying.
It was a lovely day out. Warm and sunny. Lilo thought he would feel horribly dry, but in his new, human skin, he felt amazing. He had Daren, and together, they were headed home.
“Well, do you like it?” Daren asked while they were walking. “Being able to see the town on this side of the view?”
“It is lovely, Daren. Lovely people. Lovely homes. And—” Lilo gasped at someone walking toward them with a small creature on a… leash? It was a leash! “Is that a dog?” he asked excitedly.
Daren chuckled. His firm grip on Lilo’s hand was wonderfully different without Lilo’s webbed fingers, because it meant they could lace their hands together even tighter. “Yes, that’s—oh, actually, no. That’s Mrs. Thompson and her cat Henry.”
“Oh… a cat!” Henry was small for a dog, but large for a cat, Lilo supposed. He was bright orange with stripes, medium length fur, and walked very primly beside his owner as if he were the one walking her. “Humans walk cats?”
“Not often.” Daren chuckled again. “Cats usually prefer free range. Henry’s special.”
They were nearing Mrs. Thompson and Henry, so Lilo tugged on Daren’s hand. “Lilo pet? Can I pet Henry?” he quickly corrected.