“That’s fine.I don’t either.My name is Fian.Can I ask yours?”
Kai relaxed.This felt familiar, meeting someone, exchanging names, no other expectations beyond being pleasant.
“I’m Kai.I make jam and tea.I don’t even like tea.”Kai’s head throbbed, but he ignored it, grabbed the jar of jam he’d just put away.“Here.My latest rosehip batch.On the house.”
Fian’s eyes went wide, and his mouth dropped open.“You are giving me a gift?Just like that?A freely given gift?”
Kai shrugged.“Yeah.It’s nothing special, just a jar of jam.On the downside, I’m kicking you out and closing up shop today.”
Fian nodded, face set like an athlete’s ready for competition.“I understand.And I accept this gift, Kai.I’ll let you toss me back to the waves like a merkin who lets themself be caught in a net of silk.I suppose you don’t know what that is, the dance of nets and seafoam.Really, it’s a bit old-fashioned if you think about it, but with the gift you gave me and the magic—”
“Huh?”
Fian shook his head, cleared his throat.“I’m sorry.I blabber.I’ll go.I have one last question though.”
“Okay?”
Fian, the rosehip jam held in both hands reverently, stepped closer to Kai again, moving right into Kai’s personal space.Kai didn’t really mind.
“Kai.Do you like mushrooms?And okra?”
Kai put his hands in the back pockets of his jeans and considered this.“I guess.The mushrooms more so than the okra.They’re good on pizza.”
“I thought so.I thought so!”He held up the jam.“I am grateful.It’s a pearl from an oyster’s mouth.I’ll keep up my end and…thank you.”
“Right.You’re welcome.”
Fian pointed at the door.“I’ll go.You’re getting some sleep, yes?”
“I just might.I’m definitely taking the rest of the day off.It’s not like I get a ton of customers out here anyway.”
“No, you should close for yourself.To rest, Kai, for yourself.Make sleep the salt of your days.Bye, and I will find you!”
Fian, who really looked handsome in that superior, almost arrogant way that was more attractive than it should have been, left Kai’s shop with hyper-puppy energy about him, cradling the jam and beaming as he waved at Kai through the store window.
Kai waved back and walked to the door.Fian kept up the waving, so Kai did too.In the end, Fian turned a corner, and Kai let his arm drop, then flipped the lock and the “open” sign.
“What an odd dude.But fun.More fun than things usually are around here.”
Kai’s headache came back for another punch.He was so done with the day.
3
Thehumanwasalovely specimen, prime plus-one material, but also… Fian bit his tongue and shook his head.If he’d seen the human bathing in the water, acting like he had and giving a gift freely like that—Fian would have thought him a sea sprite, would have wrapped him in all his arms to make sure he was real and not a siren image.
But it wasn’t just the human’s looks, of course, not just the honey-blond hair that reminded Fian of sea grass in a current or the eyes like drops of golden amber washed ashore.Fian was a hugger—he liked to get his suckers on people he was friendly with—but that would have revealed his demonic nature.As a result, Fian had been waving, and he knew it had been too much and not at all within the acceptable ranges for humans.And yet Kai seemed to be okay with the exuberance, and had in fact returned the gesture with matching enthusiasm.
“He wants to make sure I feel welcome,” Fian muttered to himself, his gift clutched closely to his chest.
He cast one last look at the Jammery, which was the little seaside shop’s name, according to the rustic sign outside and the much smaller, much prettier label tied around the lid of Fian’s gift.The one that Kai had given him.
“Kai,” Fian said, tasting the name on his tongue like he wanted to taste the human’s skin with his suckers, but for now he had to leave.
He considered his next steps as he walked along the winding roads of the small town where the houses were mostly one story and the gardens small but vibrant with flowers and unusually full of garden gnome displays.The gnomes struck Fian as an odd decorative choice for the townsfolk, but he’d carved several hundred dicks out of driftwood not too long ago, so he wasn’t going to judge anyone for favoring gnomes with very erect hats and a penchant for fishing rods and other wooden garden tools.
The jam though.Fian couldn’t keep his suckers from coming out, and with his fingertips, he tasted.Most important of all, there was Kai.The human’s own taste had been tampered with magic, unpleasant like an oil spill on the water.That taste, the magic, it darkened the taste of the ink on the label and of the jam, noticeable to Fian even though the jar was sealed.
Fian came to a halt when a tabby cat jumped out of a gnome-full garden and stopped right in front of him, locked eyes with him, and meowed noisily.
