I flopped out on the ocean floor and couldn’t hide the smile which slowly creeped across my face.

“Your happiness is showing,” Sidney informed me, but he had an equally big smile on his face, so I didn’t think he minded.

“So?”  I asked curiously.  “Why are we meeting out here?”

“We wanted to give you a proper first date, one that turns out to be nice, too, since your other attempt didn’t quite work out.”  Sidney dug into the bag he was carrying and began producing food.  “We’re having a picnic!  Please hold this.”  He handed me Zoey, then started searching for what I assumed was her food.

“A picnic?”  I was kind of surprised.  “Aren’t those surface activities?  We’re allowed to have them in the ocean?”

“’Course we can, silly, we can have them wherever we like.  Oh, here.”  He found a bottle and handed it to me.

Zoey, however, was in mini kraken form and was attempting to crawl all over me, so food was less interesting to her at the moment.  I held onto the bottle while I let her wander, without actually leaving my control.

“Where’s Jett?”

Sidney gave me a sly smile.  “He’s preparing something.  That’s why we’re here, by the drop off.  He’ll be along in a minute.”

Then Sidney’s smile faded a bit.  “By the way, I really didn’t try to sabotage your date with Charlotte, really.  I mean, I was jealous and I was kind of scared it would work out between you, because she’s one of the first surface people you’ve made friends with, enough so you were even willing to help face the centaur herd, so, you know, I was feeling a lot about it, but I would never intentionally sabotage your first date!  Not for my own selfish reasons.”

“I know.”  I reached out to squeeze Sidney’s hand, keeping my other one still holding Zoey so she couldn’t escape.  “For you and me, switching is normal, it’s not something we always think about with other people.  You were being a good friend, trying to help me pick what was best to wear.  It wasn’t your fault how it turned out.  Besides,” I bit my lip as I turned back to face Zoey, who was attempting to strangle me in a baby tentacle hug, “it probably worked out for the best, anyway.”

“For us, definitely,” Sidney agreed.  Then he leaned over to help detangle Zoey from my neck.  “She’s excited, she hasn’t been out here yet.  Mostly just in the community or to Theo’s.”

Here at the drop off – well, the deeper drop off – was the edge of the deep sea.  Krakens’ domain.  It was no wonder that being this close to the deep sea sparked something in Zoey.

“Ah, here!”  Sidney grabbed me and pulled me more upright so I could see better and pointed us in the direction of the drop off.  “Watch!”

At first I had no idea what I was looking for, but then I realized the shadows were moving.  Jett was in his full kraken form and was – herding? – deep sea fish?

Then I realized what he was doing.  Jett had collected a bunch of bioluminescent fish from the deep ocean and was “herding” them in such a way as to make them form a beautiful light show.  They danced almost like fireworks, only better – no explosions – and formed beautiful patterns for just a second before flowing on to the next thing.

I had to grasp Zoey tight so she didn’t escape as she struggled to get to – and probably eat – the pretty lights.

“That’s beautiful!”  I breathed.  “How did he figure out how to do that?”

Sidney beamed in satisfaction.  “He said sometimes when he’s out there, he sees the fish swimming around and it reminded him of fireworks, so we were trying to figure out something special for you and decided to try this.  You like it, then?”  He suddenly seemed anxious.

I took my eyes off the fish light show long enough to give Sidney a warm smile and grab his hand, but this time I didn’t let go.  “I really do, it’s amazing!  You’re both so thoughtful.”

Sidney’s happy smile practically melded itself to his face as he blushed a little and then we ate while we watched the show until Jett decided the fish needed a break and carefully escorted them back further out.  He reappeared on his own soon after, drifting down into his human form as he reached the edge of the drop off.

He smiled a little hesitantly at me.  “I hope that wasn’t boring.”

“No, no!”  I shook my head eagerly.  “That was beautiful!  I can’t believe you figured out how to get them to do all that, even!  I thought it was amazing.”  I hesitated just a second, because I still wasn’t entirely used to this, but then I swam over to him and kissed his cheek.

Jett looked embarrassed but happy, Sidney was happy, I was happy, and the only unhappy one was Zoey because she wasn’t allowed to eat all the pretty lights.

We spent a while just talking about random stuff.  Jett told me some of the stories of places he’d been before he came here, including once when he accidentally got sighted by humans in kraken form and set off a monster hunt at the local lake while he quietly snuck out of town in human form.

“Thankfully we don’t have to eat as often as many other species,” he said with a chagrinned grimace, “but thanks to our size, it’s not easy to hide.  A lot of merfolk communities don’t even work for us because even if they’re deeper than humans can dive, they’re still close enough to the surface that there’s a possibility we’ll be spotted.  Port Fylin is great because the ocean floor drops off so deeply here and then with the islands, it’s a lot easier for me to stay hidden.”

I hadn’t really thought much about that, how something as large and dark as Jett might be visible from above.  If humans ever spotted any of us by accident, they’d probably just assume it was a fish.  Jett, though…well, he could move pretty quickly along the floor of the ocean, but he couldn’t be mistaken for any sort of fish.  Shadows, at best.

I let Zoey finally escape from me so she could crawl over to her dad – well, her kraken dad.  “What happens if humans do see you?”

He shrugged a bit as he accepted his daughter’s plea to climb on him.  “Typical stuff that happens if humans find out about any of us supernaturals, I guess.  A bunch of people who don’t think it’s real, a bunch who are just curious, and some die-hards who come trying to prove a sea monster really exists.  They’re the problematic ones – they want to send down deep sea cameras or whatever, and it puts the entire merfolk community at risk.  It’s part of the reason I use my human form a lot the closer I am to the shore, even if traveling is slower – if I’m spotted, it’s not just me who will have to go into hiding until the fervor passes.  Which is why I’m thankful for Port Fylin’s geography – it helps a lot.”

“We traveled a bit for our honeymoon, remember?”  Sidney put in.  “We went deep sea for a while, and it turns out there are a handful of merfolk communities that live down there, but it’s rare.  Shifters don’t want to live that deep, for instance, so the communities we ran across tended to be really small.  And paranoid,” he added thoughtfully.  “They were extremely iffy on talking to us even though we were clearly merfolk, too.  But I think most of them have had bad interactions with humans and just don’t want to run that risk again.  Honestly, I’ve been worried a couple of times that you would end up wanting to move to a community like that, because there’s no chance of surface-dwellers meeting you.”

I considered that for a bit.  We’d long since finished our food, but I was now sort of playing with/gently poking at some underwater plant life.  “It’s not just the surface, it’s violence, and technically that could occur in a merfolk community, even, regardless of whether they’re deep sea or not.”

“That’s true,” Sidney allowed.  “Still, I’m glad you never felt like leaving.  I mean, other than recently, but, uh, maybe not now?”

“Maybe not now,” I agreed with a shy smile.  “And, um, I think Jett, we mostly have you to owe for it being so peaceful here.”

With a quick flip of his tail fin, Sidney pounced on Jett and wrapped his arms around Jett’s neck, joining Zoey in trying to see how much strangling the kraken could take in human form.  Maybe that was why Sidney hugged so hard?  He was used to kraken hugs.

“Yes,” he nuzzled his face into Jett’s neck, “you help just by being here, my scary, scary kraken.”

Jett seemed amused, but he caught my eye as I hesitated, watching them uncertainly.  I knew I was dating Jett and Sidney now, but I didn’t know what boundaries still applied, and they were kind of involved in a family hugging – strangling? – session, and I wasn’t sure if it was okay for me to come over, too.

But then Jett held out his hand to me, inviting me closer, and I willingly came over to participate in the snuggling and/or strangling.  Erm, mild strangling.  Via hugs.

Hugging Jett and having Sidney hug both of us while Zoey, still in baby kraken form, tried to figure out if she could climb on all three of us at the same time, I felt almost giddy with happiness.  This – this was what family was, right?  Not just the family I’d grown up with, but family for me.  Silliness, happiness, curious baby kraken, bear-hugs from Sidney, beautiful lights in the water, and peace and warmth.

This was family.

~~~~

“So it turns out the other community wants help building a barrier because they’re worried about the science institute and they want to hide their community in case they send out probes too deep.”  Sidney was working on some of the jewelry pieces while I helped organize them.  Jett was in the other room putting Zoey to sleep, or maybe winding her up first, sometimes it was hard to tell.

“They want Jett’s help, and I get it, because he’s humongous and could cut the work time in, like, half, maybe less, right?  But I don’t like it,” Sidney whined.  “It’s a few hours from here and he’d be gone for several days.”

I didn’t really like that idea, either, but he would be helping protect an entire community.  “So what did you tell them?”

“We didn’t yet.  The Elder told us to think about it and he’s going to put up the ambassadors for a couple of days.”  Sidney groaned, then suddenly his expression changed as he tilted his head to one side and looked at me.  “If we went, would you come with us?”

“Why…?”  I started to ask.

“Because you’re our girlfriend/boyfriend, duh,” Sidney flicked his tail at me, sending all the shells I had just neatly organized into a tiny whirlpool that ended with them all jumbled up together.  “You could visit another merfolk community, only with us so you’d feel safer, right?  Only please don’t shop for other people to date, you have us.”  He winked at me, utterly unrepentant for the mess he’d just caused.

“I mean, maybe?”  I wasn’t entirely sure, but Sidney was right about feeling safer with them.  Now I needed to think about this, too.  I bent back over the shells and started trying to separate them again.  “But I’m not sure I can leave for very long, people count on me to help with stuff here.”

“I know.”  Sidney gave me an indulgent but affectionate smile.  “I think the town would grind to a halt if you disappeared for more than a couple days.”

And I thought that was an exaggeration, but I decided to ignore that.  “Did you say you were going to do white shells next, or tan ones?”

“Mmm, both, I think.  I want to do a pattern with some of them, but the rounder ones – not flat stuff.”  Sidney started selecting some of the pieces to work with.

We quietly continued working for a while, me just happily feeling like for once, this was a place I belonged.  I mean, it wasn’t like I didn’t feel like I belonged in the merfolk community – I did – but this was a place of my own, right?  A place where I knew the door would always be open for me and they’d always be happy to see me.

“I’m going to need more supplies soon,” Sidney muttered to himself.  “I have enough to finish orders for this week but probably not after that.  Eh, newborn babies take up a lot of time, you know?  Not that I mind, I love her, but she does make some things harder.”

“I can help,” I volunteered immediately.

“Sage, love,” Sidney looked almost exasperated, “you don’t have to help everyone with everything.  I wasn’t bringing that up because I wanted you to help, I was just talking.”

I gently poured the sorted shells into separate bags.  “I know, but that’s part of why I don’t have a real job, you know?  So I can be free to help people.  Especially people I care about,” I added with just a tint of pink on my face.  “I’ve helped you look before, I really don’t mind.”

Sidney sighed and shook his head, a bit of a smile on his face.  “Fine, yes, that would be very helpful, actually.  Maybe bring some of the younger ones along with you so it’ll go faster?  I’m not sure I can come and bring Zoey, she’ll probably distract me enough I couldn’t help.  Or maybe I could let Theo babysit her so I could come?”  Sidney started musing aloud again, and this time I just let him talk.

Speaking of helping the community, I did have some promised errands to run today, so I reluctantly left them behind to hurry about and help a sea turtle shifter get some tangled ropes off her shell, then help an oceanid couple plant more kelp, and so on.  Little things, but it made people happy to have an extra pair of hands.