The Curran Sea

Young Lust

"I gather, Jackie boy, that I do not need to sit you down for The Talk?" Judah asked quietly.
   "Puppa!" Shawn's eyes darted around the room. His siblings and uncles were there!
   "He's got to know, Shawn," Jamie said. "If they're gonna make us be dads someday, they might be able to tell, if you've already... y'know..."
   "Okay, are you gonna tell 'em about Sherry, then?"
   Jamie blanched, looked at his toes.
   Even Jonah squirmed. Judah's brows rose, but he hastily said that they hadn't done anything, but a girl in town had really tried to get him down an alley once.
   "Thank God you came around that corner, or I don't know what would've happened! She was awfully strong!"
   "Town isn't far from the pod," Liam said. "Makes sense. We'll want to exercise more caution from now on, if we need supplies."
   "If they are, as she says, yearning for parenthood, aching, whatever, we can't underestimate them. Tell ya what, though, that seals it in my mind! I'm not gonna be some--oh. Sorry, Orla. But I grew up free to do whatever I want, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody, and I could never--"
   "We can do whatever we wish," the mermaid interrupted Cora. "It is only the heart that is dictated by the Elder." Her conviction faltered.
   "Deal breaker," the twins said in unison. Mary was quick to echo them.
   "Might be why it's so hard to keep people around," Jonah observed. "If it were a pod full of happy little couples, with happy little families, they might wanna stay put."
   "He was concerned with inbreeding. The northern pod, who you know as Alver, has had much of that in their line."
   Ed scoffed. "He lives next to a bunch of scientists! We can test their DNA, to make sure they're different enough. He could just ask nicely."
   A faint glimmer of hope shone in Orla's eyes. "I will bring it to him, when I am... erm... When I return." Her blush was bright against her cheeks. Judah knew that she meant "when I am with child."
   "To that, I have to ask when the mermaids leave their partners. Is it as soon as they know the guy did the deed, or do they wait 'til they pop? Whether it's a boy or a girl?" This was Shawn, who was leaning heavily toward volunteering.
   "And does it change if you're married, like Puppa?" Alfie added.
   "They would need to know, if they were thinking about it," Jamie said. They noted that, although he wasn't a virgin, he wasn't keen on joining them.
   Jonah also wasn't keen, though some cultures would let him.
   "Marriage does change things, yes." Orla was defensive. They were thinking of the mer as they did the aliens, and it offended her. "A wife may remain with her husband, until they know whether she carries a daughter or a son. A... temporary companion will only see the mer once. If it does not take the first time, they move on."
   Judah's jaw clenched. "One and done isn't very good odds, girl. Even if you only venture out during estrus, one... dose... would guarantee nothing."
   Here, her eyes twinkled. "I said they would see her once. I did not say that they would only couple once."
   Shawn looked positively green. "I think great grandpa might get mad at me, then."
   "Not me," Jamie said. "Pretty sure, based on what y'all have said, she was human... maybe alien, dunno how I'd know."
   Alfie and the adults shook their heads. "Nah, they don't do things the old-fashioned way. I'd lean toward human. Maybe some other race we've never met, but neither of the ones we know."
   "That... sort of helps. It seemed fun and all, but this talk of dad stuff... I've gotta wonder, now, if she was trying to get into my genes... with a 'g', not a 'j'."
   They felt bad for laughing, so they clapped him on the back, or patted his knee. Had his father been there, he would have said "welcome to the family curse." 
   "So, to sum up, if you marry a mermaid, you get nine months, if you don't, you get one day. If you're a mermaid, it's better to marry than uh... do the deed, 'cause then you get more time topside. That about right, Aunt Orla?"
   Cora always did cut to the heart of the matter. When you weren't built like a Curran, you learned to get your point across succinctly. Just look at Ed and Liam! Even Andrew was becoming less like the Curran-built men, more like his uncle and adoptive father.
   Orla was more quiet than they liked.
   "What have we not understood?" Judah asked quietly. His innate gentleness was tempered with wariness.
   "With your science, we would know the gender sooner than the mer without it."
   "Wait, what if it's twins?" Aiden asked. He was untouched by the larger aspects of the situation, being both underage, and raised by the irreverent Liam, and awkward Pierre.
   "What if one's a girl, and one's a boy, you mean?" Andrew asked.
   Orla blinked. "I... do not know. My sister and I are the only twins in the pod, that I know of."
   "Okay, anyone with the Curran curse, hang around my wife a lot, if she gets pregnant. Deal?"
   Liam laughed, but agreed. Pierre didn't think it would work, as he only had the body, and they'd never figured out what caused superfetation, but he was willing to try. Alfie didn't know how much Pierre's blood diluted the curse, but he was also game. Jonah had to have it explained before he would agree, since he hadn't quite understood what was being asked.
   "How do we know if we've got it?" Cara asked. "Especially if we're around all of you?"
   Liam shrugged. "I guess we don't."
   "I'm in no rush to find out, with you girls. I doubt your father... would be, either."
   Into the gloomy silence, Ed said they'd just have to hug their aunt a lot, if it came down to it.