Gem of the Sea (Mertalia SpaMano AU)

34

After he left the dungeon, Lovi didn't care to hear more of Cerce, even when she was executed and her body left to rot with her sisters, instead, he spent his time trying to behave like his brothers, a way he perceived to stay out of trouble.

It didn't work. Comparing his scales, clouded and soft and still healing, to his brothers' shining ones made him irritable and he broke a pot in his temper. He tangled and snapped the trinkets and chains he'd gathered up in order to look like the others, they were simply too heavy and sharp against his poor tail, the only thing that survived his attempt was the gold cross he'd found the day he met Toni, and he cling to that cross like a lifeline, he hadn't yet brought the pirate up in front of his family, and honestly, he was afraid to do so.

It was actually Romulus who first mentioned him, a few days later at the dinner table, when he caught Lovi staring at the charm "you miss that Human, don't you?" He tried very hard to keep the sneer from his voice when he saw his son flinch "he was very amusing"

"He...was...?"

"Oh definitely, once they captured Cerce, he insisted on carrying you back himself, even though it would have been much easier to have one of the guards do it, side note, did you know that humans need to use their arms to swim properly? How inconvenient is that? Anyway, as soon as they all got back to the castle, he came straight to me, I must say I was shocked, and you know what he did? He got down on his hands and...ah geez, what's that word? The...uhm, the bendy bits of their legs" he gestured about halfway down his tail

Lovi sat with his eyes wide, jaw hanging open "uh....knees?" He offered nervously

"Yeah, that's it! He got down on his hands and knees and actually begged me to let him marry you, as if I had any say in it!" He bellowed with laughter and his brothers laughed along, but Lovi suddenly couldn't breath, his stomach twisting into almost painful knots. Seeing his son's distressed look, Romulus suddenly worried he'd said something wrong and tried to amend by saying "of course, I told him to ask you once you were better and sent him back to the shore Sunny took him from, he should be waiting for you, since the blessing wore off"

That cut through everything else for just a moment "the.. .what?!"

Sunny shifted in his seat, looking down at his plate "the uh, the blessing that I...gave...him?" He squeaked "it was only so he could come save you! I didn't know what else to do!" He squealed as a fork sunk into the chair back by his head, if it would keep the nauseating nerves at bay, then, for a little while at least, Lovi opted to be mad at Sunny for kissing his pirate.