I'm baaaaaaaack!

- Sian



University was very quiet when Rowan arrived just before seven in the morning. He had taken a pleasant stroll along the beach. The day was early enough for the morning to still be cold, and a whipping breeze had tumbled along the coast. Rowan was thankful he chose to wear a jumper, though he still chose his usual board shorts and sandals.

He looked a little windswept when he entered the library and saw Jack in the corner, sitting among the beanbags.

"Good morning," Jack greeted him, peering over his glasses.

Rowan sat down with a smile. "Did you get in touch with the other group members?"

"It's seven in the morning. They don't even come in when it's three in the afternoon."

"Good point." Rowan pulled out his laptop and sent over some work he had done the night before. Rowan wanted to spend the morning reading what Jack had about fairies.

"Wow," Jack said, and his face was as blank as the white wall behind him. "So, you reply to my messages when I'm right in front of you?"

Rowan ignored him. "I read through three new journals last night and highlighted bits we might be able to include, but I need your brain too."

"And I wrote down stuff you might find useful about fairies," Jack said and handed Rowan an A5 size notebook, full of handwritten paragraphs.

"Useful how?" Rowan asked, and Jack shrugged.

"Curses," Jack said, and Rowan's heart almost stopped until he remembered how he asked Jack yesterday if fairies made curses. "You seem like a reasonable guy, so I won't assume you want to curse anyone."

"No," Rowan mumbled, preoccupied as he flicked through the pages. "I'm trying to break one."

"Fairies are under Vampire's commands. You'll have to ask vampires about it."

"So, vampires would have made the curse, not the fairy?"

Jack nodded.

"How do you know so much about all of this?" Rowan asked, trying not to sound too demanding.

"Whose curse are you trying to break?" Jack asked, looking back at his laptop.

Rowan chewed the inside of his lip. If Jack's dad was a hunter, he didn't want to reveal too much about Mandy Solar, one of the most popular hunters in the area. "It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is finding out how to break it." Rowan looked back to the notes. Jack had been useful so far, though if he were a part of a hunter's family, Rowan would soon be on their hit list because of his connection with Kaerius.

Thinking about the Thalassic Mortal shivered his spine. Burning in his stomach made Rowan long for Kaerius's intense stare, and his poison-filled fingers to touch his skin. Rowan swallowed thickly and struggled to concentrate on Jack's handwriting. Kaerius was thinking about fish. Rowan concluded that food was a great love of his. Maybe one day, Rowan would be a great love of his too.

Rowan shifted on the beanbag and pulled the notebook closer to his face. The bond was strengthening each day. The mornings were getting harder to separate. Rowan could now talk to his dad about his relationship with Kaerius because his dad understood the bond, and the overbearing strength of the bond, and the emotions that should have taken him months to feel, not days.

"Why did you tell me you didn't believe in the supernatural?" Jacks question helped Rowan fade Kaerius's voice from his head.

Rowan stared at the guy sprawled across the beanbag. He wore jeans, black boots, and a long-sleeved white top with three buttons at the top. Jack's glasses often slid down his nose, and he frowned a lot to concentrate when he hadn't noticed they weren't fixing his vision. Jack was a long-limbed guy with little muscle. Everything he did looked clumsy, even his walking. He seemed harmless and just like any other human being, and just like any other human being, he was curious.

"My life outside of university is private," Rowan said as gently as he could. "Talking to you about fairies is me oversharing."

"I respect privacy," Jack said and shoved his glasses up his nose. "Read my notes and let me know if you need me to elaborate on anything." He climbed to his feet and stretched. "I'm going upstairs. No offence, but I work better alone."

Rowan was more shocked that Jack smiled at him before he left than Jack knowing a suspicious amount about vampires.

* * * * *

Kaerius squished his nose against a bunch of roses when the sun parted through the clouds and warmed his skin. Kaerius hated the feeling. He preferred the freezing temperatures of the deep sea. When he had enough of sniffing roses, Kaerius walked across the grass, watching the green blades poke between his toes. He knelt by some purple flowers and squished his nose into them too. The different smells were overwhelming his nose.

Kaerius was about to smell a different flower until he felt something swelling in his chest. It didn't take him long to realise the swelling was his heart crying for Rowan. Kaerius turned to see Rowan leaning against the back door, watching him.

Kaerius brushed the grass from his knees and pointed at the roses. "Smell good," he said, and Rowan smiled.

"Are you hungry?"

Kaerius nodded and approached the human. He didn't know how to greet Rowan, but the human held his arms out, and Kaerius walked right into them, only stopping when he couldn't walk through Rowan's body. Kaerius felt the human's arms wrap around him. His legs twitched to wrap around Rowan instead, but that wasn't how humans hugged.

"How was your day?" Rowan asked and pulled Kaerius's head against the side of his own when he didn't feel him hug back.

"Slow," Kaerius said, finding Rowan's scent more profound than the flowers. "You?"

"Slow too."

Kaerius eventually put his hands to Rowan's waist and pulled back to see his dilated pupils. "Miss Kaerius?" he asked, raising a black brow.

"You know I did," Rowan said, and Kaerius watched his face turn red and blotchy. His skin did that often. "And I know you missed me because you wouldn't stop yelling at me to get home from about lunchtime."

"Kaerius bored."

"Say I'm bored."

"Me bored?"

"No." Rowan chuckled. "I am bored."

"I am bored," Kaerius repeated, feeling proud when Rowan nodded enthusiastically. "There's not much for me to do on land. I'm only on land for you. I need to learn the way to the sea, so I can be with Jaiker and Laiken when you're not here."

Rowan looked apologetic. "I didn't think about you being stuck on land. No wonder you were bored. Do you want to go to the sea now?"

"Food now," Kaerius said, and Rowan chuckled again.

* * * * *

That night, when the sun still made its way to their side of the world, Kaerius was awoken by a storm. He had decided to sleep in the basement, wrapped up in his favourite kelp plants, while Rowan sat in the living room, struggling through a night without sleep.

Kaerius surfaced his head and stared at the small window near the ceiling, level with the pavement outside. It flapped in the wind and whistled. Kaerius had never heard thunder above the water before because Laiken taught him about the dangers of the bright light and the roaring clouds. The storm meant that the Goddess was angry, and the sea creatures had to lay low until it passed.

When the thunder grumbled, Kaerius gripped the edge of the fish tank hard enough to cut his palms. A sudden panic washed over him. He wasn't on the ocean floor where it was safe. He wasn't in the caves, huddled with his family and the group he had travelled with for most of his life. Kaerius was alone under the ground and more than two miles away from the sea. He couldn't see the moon when he looked up. He was trapped.

Kaerius hauled himself to the steps and swung his tail out so fast, he wobbled and almost fell to the concrete floor, but fell back into the fish tank instead.

"Steady there Kaerius," Michael said from the other side of the tank. "You could've broken a rib falling from there."

"Need Jaiker, Laiken. Ocean. Danger lights. Loud," Kaerius breathed. "Rowan. Want Rowan. Not safe. Goddess... angry. Need ocean. Jaiker. Laiken. Cave. Need-"

"Rowan?" Michael yelled when it was clear that Kaerius was in distress. "Rowan?" He soon heard his son running down the basement steps.

"Did someone shout me?" Rowan asked, popping his head through the thick curtains. When he saw Kaerius gripping the sides of the tank and gasping, Rowan rested a hand on his chest. "I thought that was my anxiety." He stood on a large box, so he was level with his soulmate. "What's the matter?"

Kaerius yanked him against the side of the glass and hugged him tightly. "Light. Loud. Ocean. Need Ocean. Jaiker, Laiken."

Rowan pulled back but kept his arms around the Thalassic Mortal. "Slow down, let me listen to your thoughts."

"I'm not safe!" Kaerius thought and squeezed Rowan painfully tight when the window slammed open, and the rain and wind and lightning filled the room. The window banged shut again, though Kaerius's grip didn't soften.

"You're scared of the storm?" Rowan asked.

"Storms make the water rough. The Goddess is angry and Thalassic Mortals have to be deep in the ocean to be out of danger until it passes. I shouldn't be on land; I don't belong here!"

Rowan's eyes flicked to his father. "Storms mean the Goddess is angry. Kaerius has never been in the air to hear thunder and lightning. He's a bit freaked out," he explained. Rowan rubbed Kaerius's arms. "You're safe in the basement," he told him. "I know it sounds scary, and you're in an unfamiliar place, but you'll be okay. The Goddess is not angry with you, you've done nothing to make her angry. We have many storms in the summer. They're not that bad in this part of the world, so you've got nothing to worry about."

Kaerius nodded and tried to relax. His eyes were still round and fearful.

"We'll wait for the storm to pass, and then we can go and see if Laiken and Jaiker are okay."

Kaerius dipped his head into the saltwater and deeply breathed until his heart stopped slamming into his ribs.

"In the meantime, let me help you." Rowan pulled Kaerius out of the water and dried his tail. When Kaerius's legs returned, and he had some of Rowan's pyjama bottoms on, Rowan guided him through the basement and to the kitchen.

Kaerius almost scrambled back down the stairs when a flash of lightning basked the darkroom in a blinding light.

"It's okay," Rowan whispered and pulled a hesitant Kaerius to the back door. "Sit down. We'll watch the storm pass."

"We're too close to the outside. What if we get hurt?"

Rowan sat on the tiles and pulled Kaerius down with him. "I've been outside when there was a storm. I've slept in a tent when there was a storm. I've seen hundreds, and not once have I been in any real danger. Sometimes people get hurt, but the odds of us getting struck is one in hundreds of thousands. We're inside too, and I'm sure that makes us safer."

Just being on land was daunting enough for Kaerius. Humans and sea creatures lived very different lives. Kaerius could have doubts and moments of panic when he wasn't near his home and on a place that would usually be harmful to Thalassic Mortals. In the sea, Kaerius only had to worry about anything bigger than him, and stinging sea creatures and the occasional human hunter. There were a lot more dangers on land.

"Rowan brave," Kaerius mumbled and shuffled closer until their arms pressed together. "I'm brave too, but more when I'm home."

Rowan smiled, glad that Kaerius was awake to keep him company, but wishing Kaerius had slept through the storm, so he wasn't so freaked out. Rowan wanted to tell Kaerius that he was more than brave. The Thalassic Mortal's courage was triple the size of his. Kaerius was spending time on land with strangers, where hunters had hurt him, and everything was different. Rowan panicked when he had been in the water only minutes. He had to build himself up to sleep in the ocean, yet Kaerius went to Rowan all on his own.

"We'll be brave together," he said, and they looked back into the garden, watching the rain pouring, the thunder roaring, and the lightning cracking the sky.