Chapter 25
Keld
“So…” Grayson winced slightly as Keld pulled free. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
Keld kissed his forehead. “Who says anything is going on?”
Grayson raised a brow at him.
“Fine, fine, you’re right.” Keld let out a long breath. “Without going into too much detail, my home life growing up wasn’t the best. I was at my mother’s house last night and it didn’t go well.”
A flurry of emotions swept across Grayson’s features, too fast for Keld to read.
“Mother?” is what he finally said. “You came from a mixed-gender couple?”
“Not… couple,” Keld said slowly. “But the Mer who fathered me was male, yes.”
The Omega was quiet for a minute, his finger tracing little patterns along the scales on Keld’s chest.
“So it was just you and your mom? Growing up?”
“Yes.” Gods, he really did not want to be talking about this.
“My home life wasn’t great either.”
Keld paused, staring down at the man in his arms. He took in the sharp jaw and pale skin, the light, silky hair, and the way that Grayson shivered at his own words. He tried to imagine Grayson’s parents, looking at their gentle son, and finding cruelty in response.
“Tell me,” Keld said quietly.
Grayson shook his head. “This isn’t about me. You first.”
Keld tightened his grip and rested his chin on Grayson’s head. “There’s not much to tell. She didn’t want me. I was an embarrassment and a constant reminder of a bad memory. She found solace in getting high.”
He felt Grayson’s muscles stiffen. “She’s an addict? I didn’t know Mer could do drugs. I mean, you can’t even drink alcohol.”
“We have our own substances, just like humans do. It’s a sap from a plant called tavra.
It was brought to Earth because we need it to manufacture pain medications.
But the pure sap is… I guess it sort of dulls everything.
Takes away pain, both mental and physical.
But it’s highly addictive. Once your body’s used to it, sobriety feels like agony.
She’s been on it so long, she’ll die without it. ”
“Fuck…” Grayson whispered. He was quiet again for a while, occasionally pressing kisses to Keld’s chest and neck. The little flares of heat kept the worst of Keld’s memories at bay.
“What about when you were a kid?” he asked. “Was she just not able to take care of you?”
Keld stared blindly at the pool in front of him. Was she unable? Or did she not want to?
“I don’t know,” he said at last. “Sometimes she did the basics, like feeding me and signing me up for school. But mostly, she hated the sight of me. When she was low on tavra, the smallest thing would set her off. I spent a lot of time in the water, just swimming, trying to be anywhere but home.”
“She hurt you?” His voice cracked slightly.
Keld’s jaw clenched. “Sometimes.”
“Is that what happened to your tail?”
The limb flicked on instinct at the mention. Rough, thick scarring lined the bottom edge, bringing the fin to a ragged point. The memory of the knifepoint piercing his fin was still sharp and clear, even after all this time. Pinned to the floor, until he tore himself free.
But Grayson didn’t need to hear the gory details.
“Yes,” he answered.
“Jesus. Keld, I’m so sorry…”
Keld’s shoulder jerked. “It’s over now.”
“It’s not, though. You were with her today and she upset you. Did she hurt you?”
Keld gave a dry laugh. “No. She’s too weak to do much of anything other than scream at me.”
“Why was she screaming at you?”
“Just her usual complaints. Not enough food, not the right food, not respectful enough, not enough money for tavra, the fact that I didn’t die in the egg…”
At those words, Grayson pulled free of Keld’s embrace and wrapped his arms around Keld, pulling his head into his chest. Keld felt Grayson press his cheek to the top of his head and whisper, “I’m so sorry.”
Mer didn’t cry—not like humans. But emotion spilled from Keld’s body in shudders and flattened fins as he allowed himself to be held by his Omega.
As time passed, the tremors subsided, and Keld lifted his head from Grayson’s chest. Pale blue met blazing orange.
“I really like you,” Keld murmured.
The corners of Grayson’s mouth curled. “I really like you too.”
∞∞∞
“So this is how you shower?” Grayson watched the tiny fish dart across Keld’s scales, collecting bits of debris trapped between them.
“Yep. I mean, we also have scale scrubbers, but the fish are more pleasant.”
Grayson wrinkled his nose. “We have some fish like that, but only for feet. It’s some kind of pedicure thing in Asia, I think.”
Keld raised a hand. “Want to try? I don’t know how they’ll react to a human.”
“What if they bite me?”
“They’re too small, don’t worry.”
Grayson shot the fish another dubious look, but took Keld’s outstretched hand and stepped down to the submerged bench.
“Oh my god, they have arms.” Grayson’s voice shot up an octave. “Keld, why do the fish have arms?”
“Why do you have arms? Just sit down.”
Grayson obeyed, but with his eyes squeezed shut. The little fish darted toward their new target, brushing their silvery bodies over what was undoubtedly a bizarre texture.
“Ew, ew, I can feel their little grabbers.”
Having decided this strange, squishy Mer was an acceptable client, the fish got to work.
“Huh, I guess kopish aren’t speciesist,” Keld commented. “Very progressive of them.”
“That’s what they’re called?” Grayson’s eyes were still screwed tight. “Kopish?”
“Yeah. One kopis, two kopish.”
Grayson peeked through the lashes of one eye. “They’re not going to try and clean inside right?”
Keld laughed. “I can honestly say I’ve never had that problem.”
With a slow, steady breath, Grayson leaned back against the pool’s edge and looked over at Keld.
“I was thinking… Maybe we could do something together. Like, away from Siren.”
Keld grinned. “Public sex, huh? I never thought I’d see the day.”
Predictably, Grayson’s face blazed red. “No, not sex! I mean, like a date.”
Keld slid his arm around the Omega’s bare shoulders. “I’d love that. What kinds of not-sex things do you enjoy doing?”
Grayson tilted his head. “Well, I’ve been trying a lot of new things since I got here. Being friends with Jenna has that effect. But to be honest, I kind of miss some of the things I did back home.”
“Like…?” Keld encouraged.
“Like… camping. My family used to go out camping all the time when I was a kid, then it was just me and my brothers whenever our parents got sick of us. It was nice… most of the time.”
Something sad lingered in Grayson’s face at those final words.
“Camping, huh?” Keld hadn’t known Grayson had brothers.
Even now, he had no idea how many. So many hours spent learning this man’s body, but so few learning about the man himself.
“I think there’s an island, maybe an hour from here, that was converted into an outdoor recreational area like five years back. ”
“What was it before?” Grayson’s eyes were trained on the busy kopish now investigating his navel.
“It was a base for a stealth unit that existed in the first years of occupation. Obviously, we haven’t needed it for decades, so the Paeil government went ahead and turned it into an Usoi getaway.”
Grayson’s gaze snapped up to meet his. “Usoi? As in, they made it look like an Usoi forest or something?”
“I think so, why?”
The sadness had vanished from Grayson’s perfect face. “Can we go? It’d be like seeing a piece of your home planet.”
It was Keld’s turn to let sorrow cross his features—a home planet his species had abandoned before he had hatched. Earth was his home planet, technically, but the loss of Usoi was one that spanned generations of Mer.
“You know Miami is also kind of like visiting Usoi,” he pointed out. The plants are mostly Usoi’n and the sand is a replica of the sand on Usoi too.”
“Yeah, but it’s all humanized,” Grayson said dismissively. “There’re lots of earth plants, the buildings look like the ones on the mainland, and the car roads break up all the nature.”
“Well, I’d love to take you,” Keld said, smiling. “Are you free this weekend?”
Grayson’s face dropped slightly. “I told Jenna I’d go with her to some class… Now I can’t remember what it was… Wait, did she even tell me?”
“We can go any weekend you want, don’t worry.” Keld kissed Grayson’s hair. “Just let me know.”
Grayson leaned on Keld’s shoulder and hooked his arm around Keld’s. They sat together in the pool, watching the plants glow and the kopish work, until Grayson started shivering.
Keld then underwent a brief yet frantic search for something to dry Grayson off before coming back with a roll of paper towels, fins flat to his head in embarrassment.
“I’ve never had a human in here before,” he muttered, dabbing at Grayson’s skin.
He laughed. “I’m surprised you never brought anyone home from Siren, to be honest.”
Keld half shrugged. “I don’t have the amenities Siren does. And, as you can see, I don’t exactly have a human-friendly home. Otherwise, I’d ask you to sleep over.”
Grayson froze in the midst of tugging his shirt back on. “You want me to stay the night?”
Keld tipped his head. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
Grayson finished dressing himself, mumbling, “We’ve just been keeping this thing so… casual. At the club. I guess I’m just still getting used to you being…”
“Your boyfriend?” Keld supplied. His lips twitched. “You’re the one who set that rule. You told me we should keep it at Siren that very first day. I didn’t want to push you, so I tried to be content with what I had. Obviously that went over perfectly.”
“Shit, I did say that, didn’t I?” Grayson sighed. “Well… Are you sure this is what you want?”
Keld cupped Grayson’s face in his hands and kissed him. “I’m sure. I’m also sure I want to wake up next to you tomorrow morning.”
“That can be arranged.” Grayson stretched up for another kiss. “Come up to my apartment. I’ll wake up and spritz you with a spray bottle every hour.”
Keld barked a laugh, letting his hands fall back to his sides. “I have my own auto-spritzer, I’ll have you know.” He paused. “You don’t have to, if you’d rather take things slow.”
Grayson took his hand. “I want to.”