Interning on the Aronnax

Cursed Connections

A/N: Sorry for the wait, but writing is now competing with accounting classes, drawing for Pat reon (you can find more details on my FanFiction profile!), and reading books that have been on my "to read" list for ages. But, hey, good news. While I was procrastinating on editing this chapter, I wrote the next eight chapters! They're mostly edited, so there'll just be a two or three day gap between them.

Also holding up this chapter was a bit of... confusion might be the wrong word, but I'm going to go with it. Everyone who made a guess about Finn's announcement asked the complete opposite of what I was expecting, so I was suddenly doubting Finn and Fontaine's thought process here...

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Of all the explanations Finn could have given, his parents had to be the wildest.

"Your... how? Are you sure?"

"Yeah... yeah, I'm sure." Finn resumed pacing. "Mom hid it really well. When I think about it, I'm sure I caught her eyes glowing. I wasn't around a lot of other people until a few years ago, so I assumed everyone's eyes glowed. But after Pete told me it wasn't normal, I just... forgot about it, I guess. I thought it was a trick of the light."

"Did you ever ask your mom?" Fontaine asked.

Finn shook his head. "Maybe. But she liked to tell tall tales, anyway, so who knows?" Finn halted his pacing, blinked, then chuckled. "And Mom's favorite story was about a glowing dolphin. How did I miss that?"

"I wouldn't have believed it if it wasn't for us and the seahorse," Fontaine said. "Anything else?"

Finn's hands were gesturing as he kept pacing. "Mom always knew when Dad was in trouble. Either a storm, a raid gone wrong, or that time half the crew got sick. And Dad always returned to base when one of us kids got sick or hurt."

"Didn't you guys have radios?"

"Yeah," Finn admitted. "But sometimes she was with Maddie, Pete, and me all day, and I never saw her near the radio when she told us that Dad was going to need help when he got back. Once, Maddie was so sick, all Mom could do was just hold her. Dad returned that evening, and it was pretty clear that he'd pushed the old Orca to its limits."

"Nereus did say we might eventually feel each others' emotions," Fontaine mused. "Wait, what do you mean 'old Orca'?"

Finn shrugged. "The current Dark Orca is Dad's third. The second sunk five years ago; the first when I was a baby."

"Three submarines?

"What? Pirating is hard on submarines."

"Okay..." Fontaine trailed off with a grin. "Hey, did you get excited just before the sea horse rescued us in the Blue Hole?"

Finn nodded. "I saw Luna on the external cameras."

"Luna?"

Finn flushed. "That's what I named the sea horse."

Fontaine tilted her head, then nodded. "I like it. It suits her. Okay, so we can feel things the other feels, and your parents might have, too."

"Either that, or Mom was just really good at guessing. But I'm almost positive that sensing the other person is part of this... connection."

"No offense, but can we disconnect?" Fontaine chuckled at Finn's pout. "You can't tell me that you want to be stuck feeling everything I feel for the rest of your life, do you?"

"There has to be a way to lessen it," Finn said.

"How?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's all in our heads. You know, if I didn't want you to feel something, I keep it to myself, and vice versa."

"Sounds simple enough, in theory," Fontaine said.

"Last night, I tried it."

Fontaine leaned forward. "What did you do?"

"I... I wanted to make up for how tired you were."

Fontaine frowned. "Huh?"

"Okay, so, with this connection, I think there's a way we can... I dunno, concentrate what's wrong to ourselves."

"I don't get it."

"We were both exhausted. I wanted you to not be. So, I..." Finn gestured helplessly. "I dunno, I wanted you to be awake and I'd sleep longer."

"You slept in for me?"

"It sounded less stupid in my head," Finn said, grinning awkwardly.

Fontaine shook her head. "It's not stupid."

Finn raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, a little stupid," Fontaine admitted. "Because it's impossible."

Finn shrugged. "You woke up early and I slept in."

"I don't know what happened, but something's changed. Did your parents ever have weird sleeping habits?"

"Not that I noticed, so maybe it's just a coincidence."

"Well, I've never woken up so early on my own," Fontaine said. "So it's not so impossible that the... connection caused it. But changing sleeping habits and hiding emotions are two very different things."

"Is it? I wanted you to feel better."

"Yes, it's very different, Finn."

The two lapsed into silence. Fontaine didn't know what Finn was thinking, but her own mind was racing.

Had Finn really slept in for her? Was that possible with the curse? And if it was, what else could they do? Finn's excitement feeding into Fontaine was insane enough, but the thought that they could share each other's burdens like Finn was suggesting...

And then there was the matter of Finn's parents. Nereus had said they were both Atlantean and, them being married, Fontaine supposed it wasn't too much of a stretch for them to connect.

Fontaine wondered what it would have been like to have been connected to someone for most of your life. What sort of things could a connected pair do? Sensing emotions might be just the tip of the iceberg; what else was there? Would they be able to intentionally share emotions? Would Finn become a constant presence in her mind? How must Hammerhead have felt-

Fontaine gasped. Finn turned to her.

"Finn, I don't think your parents were cursed."

Finn frowned. "No, I'm pretty sure they were."

"They couldn't have," Fontaine said, spreading her hands. "Nereus said the curse won't let us be separated."

"Yeah?"

Fontaine leaned forward. "Then how come the curse didn't kill Hammerhead when Violet died?"

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A/N: The next chapter is small and will be posted by Wednesday!