“Yuck.Shoo, feline.”
Cats, like some of the very young human offspring, could usually tell a demon by sight.One time, when Fian had visited a bigger city further south, a horde of the beasts had decided to trail him while he had tried pistachio gelato, and that had not been the “inconspicuous behavior” the Human Liaisons Unit advised.
The cat meowed again and approached Fian to wind its furry little body around his legs.
“Ugh.”Fian stepped over the cat and lengthened his steps.He glanced back.The cat stared accusingly but made no move to follow, so Fian relaxed and went back to thinking about Kai.“I wonder if those dark rings under his eyes are from the magic, that nasty spell that has been placed on him?It’s lack of sleep, normally.I hope he gets to sleep right away.”
The breeze blew a noseful of salty air in Fian’s face.He wasn’t sure why he cared about magic being done by humans to humans, except technically possibly as a demon he should maybe perhaps not let them.
There were no super strict rules, but a human who didn’t know what they were doing (which, as far as Fian was concerned, included the entirety of the human race, but especially that surfer, Tom, who had consented to marrying Mikano) could seriously damage the Morpheusrealm and the balance between realms.Plus, magic was a demon thing and way too demonic for humans to get grabby about.
On top of all that, Kai had given Fian a gift, and he had not rejected the idea of being picked up.
“He’s under a spell.Maybe the very fact that he didn’t tell me to go and suck a sea urchin means that he would very much like to be picked up.”
Fian grinned into the wind and headed shoreward, a spring in his step.A gift was to be returned in equal measure, and an unprompted gift such as the jar of rosehip jam Fian was carrying in his arms was especially precious.
A demon might give such a thing to a lover, never to anyone random.It was how the demon myth of the landbride started, with a gift the landbride had given, and then the demon, knowing he could only match that value by giving her love, had thrown himself into her nets, thrice.The first two times, she’d tossed him back, had told him to keep to the waves, but on the third try, she’d kept him.
“Kai will be my landbride,” Fian said, trusting that the sea breeze would witness the oath.
There was still the issue of the spell though, the magic done to Kai.Fian could of course call Mikano because the Human Liaisons Unit was likely more responsible in this case, seeing as how humans using magic and disregarding the metaphysics that made it safe to use was also one of their duties.However, calling Mikano would have meant telling his brotherwhyFian had come here, and that would draw Mikano’s ridicule.
Or worse, Mikano might attempt to help Fian win Kai’s heart.There were few things worse Fian could imagine, and at the very thought, his skin turned blue.He had made his way almost to the ocean now, and so he checked he wasn’t being watched, wasn’t being caught at being demonic, but there was no one around.
He forced his skin to calm, decided firmly that he wouldn’t tell Mikano about Kai—not yet at least—and began the shifting between forms, allowing the magic to turn his human clothing back to its true demonic weave.
Fian walked out to the comforting cold of the water, the sea song of waves sounding brighter now that he had met Kai…Kai, who would be his.
Once he was deep enough, Fian let the shift come, abandoning human legs in favor of his suckers.He started swimming, but did so without haste, the jam jar firmly grasped in two of his arms, his suckers exploring.
“The salt is going to wash his taste off,” Fian told the waves.He then dipped beneath the surface when the next wave came crashing over his head.But there is so much human money at the bottom.Maybe I can use the coins I have at home to buy more jam?They are old and maybe from a different country, but they are as pretty as Kai’s eyes.I probably have to try; if Kai is to be my landbride, he has to send me away twice before I can give him love during my third visit—
Fian stopped midswim.Small bubbles came up from his mouth where it had fallen open.I have to love him too to give him love in return.Tremors ran through Fian’s arms, and the surface of the jar was almost entirely covered with his suckers.I’ve never done that, loved someone like that, but he gave me a gift.That means there is a small current of love, and all we have to do is swim with it, his head above the water, mine below it.
Fian resumed his swim back to the Morpheusrealm, but he slowed.His skin was a patchwork of shifting colors and textures, the only constant the jar and the taste the salt was slowly erasing.Humans love like this too, right?They give rings to one another before they wed, and before the love is fully formed, except in this case, Kai gave me a jar of jam.It must be the curse.Maybe he’d have given me a ring if not for that…where do humans keep their rings?
Fian, so caught up in his thoughts, was hit in the face with a plastic bottle, sea trash, the one thing he truly loathed about the human realm.He hurried back to the Morpheusrealm after that, the most precious thing he’d ever been given held safely in his arms: a jar of rosehip jam which was no less than the key to Kai’s cursed heart.
4
No,youshouldclosefor yourself.To rest, Kai, for yourself.Fian had spoken like he gave a damn.Kai gritted his teeth on his way up the stairs in the back that led to his small apartment above the shop.Nick never told me to do anything for myself, that asshole.Piece of shit.I want to forget him and leave this place behind.
Kai’s headaches had become more frequent over time.He couldn’t remember ever feeling the slicing pain like a cleaver before he’d moved to Salt Harbor.Then again, so many things had been different before he’d met Nick.
Kai stopped in the middle of the staircase and sat on one of the uneven steps to cradle his head in his hands and wait for the pain to pass, to wash over his vision like a cresting wave.His eyes were watering, and he just wanted that splitting headache to go away finally.Nick said he wants us to care for one another.Why does he have to go and cheat on me after everything I left behind for him?
Kai felt the hard wooden step digging into his back, smelled the dusty air.Nick liked things neat and tidy, but the staircase was out of the way, and there was a back entrance to the apartment Kai often used when he went out grocery shopping.It had been a month or more since Kai had mopped these stairs.
And I’m not going to be cleaning anything today either.I’ll do what that stranger said: close and rest, for myself.Not for anyone else.
After several long minutes, the sharp point of the headache had dulled, and Kai made it up the rest of the stairs, hand gripping the rail tightly.He had a futon up here set under the slanting part of the roof.There was a small window above it, and from that window, Kai could see the ocean.At night, he heard it, and sometimes he was certain the waves followed him all the way to his dreams.
He closed the door to the stairs and flipped that rarely used lock, kicked off his shoes and leaned against the windowsill above his bed.The ocean and its waves sparkled in the sun like hope, promising a faraway shore.
“Pretty, but sometimes I wish this whole place would vanish in a flood.”In the distance, past where the waves broke, Kai thought he spotted something dark, a long sleek sea snake, only larger.He cackled.“Wow.These fucking headaches make me hallucinate.Great, just great.Time to get out the monster-slaying games.”
He heaved himself off the bed and for the next half hour, devoted himself to multitasking: undress and get his comfy gaming PJs on, set up his consoles, and pick a game that was going to keep him busy for the foreseeable future.
