9. Chapter 9 #4
Whether in human or cecaelia form, Curtis had his own mandala-like tattoo.
Daren knew finally why Lilo's had seemed so familiar to him when he first saw it.
He had seen the same design on Curtis once, just too many years ago to have remembered.
Curtis almost always had his forearms covered, probably to avoid questions about the tattoo unless he was being intimate with someone and couldn't avoid it being visible.
“Seriously, dick!” Curtis splashed some water up at Daren, but he was able to avoid it hitting him.
“See, brother?” Lilo circled around Curtis, and some of his tentacles reached for the coral ones, curling around them as if in support. “It is wonderful out here, and much better swimming with company.”
Brother. Lilo had called Curtis that from the get-go, but Daren hadn’t put the pieces together. Curtis was like family, maybe even distantly, actually related to Lilo, and finally, neither Lilo nor Curtis was alone.
It was a slightly somber thought, since Daren could never join them in being what they were, but he was okay in his own skin.
He had to get down to bare skin quickly too, or Curtis would keep trying to soak his clothes.
He started to undress while the pair of tentacled sea creatures swam together in the estuary’s splendor.
“Yeah, yeah, I guess it is pretty wonderful,” Curtis said. “But hey, I thought we were going to this sanctuary of yours.”
“Yes!” Lilo flailed his tentacles excitedly.
That was the plan, to show Curtis Lilo’s home, his collection of items, and his beautiful artwork.
From what they had gathered, while Curtis knew they were bioluminescent, he had never been in a location like that to truly appreciate it.
“But no mating with us, Curtis. Only me and Daren.”
“Lilo!” Daren laughed, finally down to his underwear, which he debated keeping on, since Curtis was with them, but he would be a hypocrite then. He tore them off too.
“Uh, no mating while I’m there, please,” Curtis said through his own laugh.
“No, no,” Lilo agreed—thankfully. “You can return to the boat early if we decide to mate.”
“Lilo!” Daren laughed again. Hopefully, he knew how to censor himself in other company or he might need more human lessons.
At least Curtis’s laughter and relaxing with Lilo in the water, swimming and tangling tentacles together, had smoothed Curtis’s furrowed brow. It didn’t suit him to be surly. “Agreed, but only if, should things go well enough with Bradley down the road, I get to use that place for myself.”
Ah, there was the Curtis that Daren knew.
“Deal,” Lilo agreed. “Daren, come! Join us!”
“I’m coming, I’m coming.” He stepped up onto the boat’s ledge, happier than he had been in possibly his entire life, like it had all been leading here, and the numbness, the monotony, the loneliness he had once felt and never thought he could escape had only been because he had yet to meet Lilo.
Maybe that was putting too much on Lilo. Daren had needed to figure out some things about himself too. He’d needed to believe he could be loved. He’d needed to believe he could be someone’s everything. Just like Curtis, really, who deserved his own happily ever after.
They all did.
Daren jumped, aiming to land somewhere that wasn’t a mess of tentacles or he might bruise himself.
He had barely surfaced for a gulp of air before he felt Lilo’s tentacles around him.
He met Lilo’s presence with an eager embrace, lifting his arms to wrap around Lilo’s neck, just as Lilo wrapped his around Daren’s waist.
“I love you so much, Lilo.”
“I love you too, Daren.”
They kissed, and with the reunited tangling of their tongues, all felt right with the world.
With the wind and sea and sky. Maybe Glooscap had been looking out for Daren all this time after all.
Finally, he had someone to not only help him fish and handle his day-to-day but to share his life with.
He might even change that Montgomery & Son sign for his business to just Montgomery's, honoring both his father and his new husband.
Daren imagined there were many other relics on the ocean floor like the items Lilo had gifted him that only someone like Lilo could reach, but Daren had the best treasure right there in his arms.
“Enough already, you two, come on!” Curtis splashed them with a thwack of his tentacles on top of the water, making up for missing Daren earlier, because now he was as drenched as being hit by a tidal wave in a waterpark.
Not that it mattered, given where they were and where they were going. “Time for mating later!”
Oh, there would be.
For as long as Daren had the miracle of Lilo in his life and hopefully into the hereafter.
“Ready, Lilo?” Daren asked, and once Lilo nodded with a knowing grin, he turned to Curtis. Lilo had explained to him how to get to the sanctuary, and even if he’d otherwise had trouble finding it, all he had to do was follow them. “Race you there!”
Blackness, but it was a comforting blackness beneath the water, because Daren knew that Lilo had him.