Catch of the Day - Eighteen Years On
Jul. 12th, 2011 09:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sonora_conejaPairing: Hannibal/Face
Rating: pg-13
Warnings: merman AU
Summary: Epilogue for a fill for this prompt on the kink meme.
Hannibal is a rugged angler whose catch of the day is a merman, Face. There is an instant attraction, but Face is terrified at first that Hannibal is going to kill him. He grows legs, does not grow legs, whatev.
Right as Hannibal is beginning to make progress with Face, big bad Lynch or Pike gets news of Hannibal’s discovery and tries to steal Face away for experimentation purposes. The more angst the better :D
Second prompt (I’m new to the fandom) I hope its okay! *Hides*
Eighteen years after the events of Catch of the Day, Hannibal and Face have to make a heartrending goodbye...
Eighteen Years Later
“Tem! Get back here and kiss your sisters goodbye!”
Hannibal, turned the corner of the reef where they were staying, and chuckled to himself. Face had his hands on his hips, the tips of his fins twitching angrily, one of their sleek little girls winding herself through the crook of his arm, the other clinging to his tail, all of them staring at their son. It was almost comical.
Almost.
“Papa! We need to go!” the teenager pouted, that expression identical to his father’s. “The pod’s only going to be within reach a few days!”
And Hannibal made sure to slap him lightly with his tail on the way past. “You’re being a brat, kid,” he said, watching his mate intently, seeing a small, rueful smile there despite the anger. “Get over here and say goodbye.” He held out his arms to his daughters, and looked back over his shoulder. “Your sisters won’t see you again.”
“None of us will,” Face said softly, and pulled that little girl in his arms close, stroking his clever fingers through her hair. The other was in her da’s outstretched arms in a heartsbeat, cuddling up.
Both so young still, barely four years since they hatched out, bright, smiling little girls, golden like their papa, the same pale green as their grandma, the one who had died at the hands of human whalers. Face had had so much trouble carrying them, he’d been so scared of another one dying inside him, but then they'd had not a disaster but a blessing. Not one healthy, happy baby girl but two, twins, something his mate had insisted was impossible for merfolk. Yet there they had been, their little miracles. The prettiest things Hannibal had ever seen in his life, and the most mischievous. Face had had his hands full of as much family as he could handle since then. The trouble those two got into... so unlike Tem, who'd always been a good baby.
But those days were long gone, and a young merman on the verge of adulthood had taken the place of that cute little boy, and Hannibal was going to miss him.
Tem bit his lip, clearly torn between different instincts, different longings, the urge to leave, the need for family. The kid had done them proud over the last few years. Still young, still so young, but he was growing up into a proper merman, filling out to be nearly as long as Hannibal himself, brave and independent, as clever and beautiful as his papa, a good brother to his baby sisters, a generous streak a league long. And Hannibal remembered what Face had said, that little warning, back when they'd brought that red-cheeked little baby into this world, that someday he would leave.
Someday he’ll be called to leave, to wander on his own, find himself his own waters, a mate, make himself a family of his own. We won’t see him again, Hannibal. It’s the way it is with merfolk, there’s no sadness in it...
Yet Face was the one who’d been having the hardest time with it, the letting go, especially since Tem had come home from one of his weeks alone, training for what was upon them now, talking about the sperm whales and a doctor and the possibility of apprenticing himself to her...
The fight had been horrible. Tem had taken off for nearly a month. Face had been heartbroken, despondant, terrified that the boy had finally gone for good, thinking they were angry with him. But their son came back to them then, a little battered and skinny but alive, a fire in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. The desire to wander that pulled at them all stoked into fullness.
Tem had survived whatever he’d faced then, Hannibal knew then. He’d survive whatever else he would face in his life. Face had known it, too, because the evening was full of quiet talks, out of earshot of the girls, and they’d been laughing together when they’d returned.
But the course had been set. Face’s only condition was that Tem allow his Da to see him there safe. Anything else was up to the boy, he’d said.
Hannibal couldn’t be prouder of them both.
Tem swam back over, hugged his sisters, whispered to them, both in turn, who were too young to really understand what was going on. They hugged him back and giggled and then pounced on a passing crab on the sea floor, little minds full and occupied.
Hannibal wrapped one big hand around that lean waist. “We do need to get going, sweetheart,” he whispered softly. “The current’s better this time of day.”
Face nodded, and reached an arm out to his hesitant son, pulling him in close. “Where the whales are, humans follow,” he said, low, so the girls couldn’t hear. “Where humans are, death comes. Remember what's happened to your family, your...your grandmama. Be careful. Promise me you’ll be careful of them.”
“But papa, Uncle Murdock and Uncle BA have always been...”
“They are very special humans, Tem. They’re your family, and your family loves you. Most...will not be so kind.”
The pain in his mate’s voice, even after all their long years together, safe and happy, was evident, and Hannibal squeezed him close. “You’ve taught the kid well, darling. He’s going to be okay. Right, Tem?”
The teen nodded. Barely sixteen, and he was trying to seem so grown up. The framework was there, Hannibal could tell, but it wasn’t full yet. Not fully realized. And he was scared, just a little, trying to hide it, trying to smile now, trying to be the brave boy he was, pretending to be the man he hadn’t yet become. Yet. “Yes, Da.”
Face looked torn for a moment, and then moved away from Hannibal a little, drew their son up into a tight, tight hug. Kissed him on the forehead once, like they had when he was a little boy, sleeping between them, and let him go, hands leaving only unwillingly. “I love you, Tem, and always will,” Face said, and nodded, lip turning white between his teeth. He looked over to Hannibal. “Get him there safe. Come back to me.”
“It’s only a three day swim out, three days back,” the older merman said, embracing his mate, kissing him gently on the lips, knowing their son was rolling his eyes and not giving a damn about that. Their children were wonderful, marvelous, amazing, but Face would always be his boy. Aching to be loved. Aching to belong. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s something,” Face said softly, and laid a hand on Hannibal’s chest, almost pushing him back, but not quite.
"Are you going to be okay? The twins..."
"We'll be fine. It'll give me a fine opportunity to start teaching them to forage." His mate shook his head, some kind of hesitancy there, all those old fears that would never, Hannibal knew, truly go away. Of abandonment, of loss.
So the older merman let his fingers tangle with his mate’s for a moment before cupping those fingers up in his, and pressing it back to Face’s smooth chest. “Remember what I promised you all those years ago, kid?” he whispered.
Luminous blue eyes slid shut. A nod. “Yes, boss.”
“There isn’t a force in this world that will ever keep me from you,” he murmured, and let the hand drop, watching Face keep it clutched to his chest, looking at his darling girls, poking the crab, giggling as it snapped at them. He loved his son, but those two, those two had him wrapped around their little fingers the moment they hit the water, and Hannibal wouldn’t have it any other way. “Da loves you,” he told them.
They looked up, and two little love you, das were chorused back. He dropped to kiss them both and flipped back up, a lazy barrel roll that brought him right back behind Tem.
“You ready to go, son?” he asked, and watched a grin spread out on his boy’s face.
“Yeah, Da, please. Let’s go.”
They didn’t get out of sight in the clear South American waters before Tem turned, racing back to his papa for one more hug. Hannibal waited patiently for him there, until he returned a few minutes later, eyes rimmed red but shining bright.
The ocean calls us home, Hannibal remembered Face saying once. He'd had years to learn how true that was. He hadn't been on shore since before the girls were hatched, hadn't felt the need, hadn't wanted anything but this. And for his son, for whom the human world and dry land had been but a passing adventure of his youth, the older merman couldn't imagine how deep that longing ran.
“Come on, son,” he said gently, starting off east, out into the deep waters, “time to head out.”
"Da..."
"It's the way we're made," he said softly. "Your papa will be fine."
His son nodded, fell in beside him, and didn’t look back again.
+++++
The swim was easy, open waters, few predators to speak of, navigating by all those little signals that Face had taught him to read, sleeping when they grew tired, eating when they could catch something. No problems at all. Nothing he needed to protect his boy from. They spoke little in their travels, Tem mulling his own future, Hannibal not wanting to interrupt the boy while he figured out whatever it was he was thinking about.
The morning of the third day, long after they’d woken and set on their way, the whale calls had started, beckoning them closer, the deep notes carrying the awareness of an old merwoman, the doctor. Tem had perked at that, and started talking again, chattering, about all the things he wished to learn, all the seas he wished to see, full of wonder at his own future, and Hannibal listened to all of it, barely contributing, enjoying the sound of his son’s voice while he still could.
By sunset, they were upon the pod. Pilot whales, Hannibal remembered, the human name for the relatively small, sleek cetaceans. Friendly, Face had grudgingly acknowledged, good for teaching, good for learning and the whales did seem friendly, clustering as the two mermen approached, crowding, clicking, rounded heads bumping gently in acknowledgement. The babies, too, came, following like puppies, and Hannibal found himself laughing as he scratched one like it was a dog, the little thing rolling over, waggling a fin...
“He likes you,” a female voice said, heavy with age, and Hannibal turned. A white-haired merwoman, silver-blue hair pulled back into a long braid, the same color as her tail, was weaving her way through the gunmetal gray bullets of the whales. She made a clucking noise and the calf rolled away from Hannibal, up to the surface. “But they’re silly things at that age. Little boy might forget to breath.”
The merman smiled. “Children can be like that.”
“Yes,” she mused, and looked at Tem. “You the boy who wants to study under me?”
“Yes ma’am,” he said automatically, casting a glance over at Hannibal, clearly, desperately trying to be polite.
She cocked her head, and took a second look at Hannibal, then back to his son. “Why? Tell me.”
“My grandparents were doctors and worked with them, my father grew up with them. I feel... I feel like I could be good at it. Like I could really help.”
“You ever dealt with humans, boy?”
He nodded, again, looking over at Hannibal, probably thinking of his papa’s warning, all those family reunions, how his uncles Murdock and BA used to come to wherever they were, once a year, rent a boat, visit... “I can handle humans, ma’am, I promise.”
The doctor tapped a finger to her lips, and then nodded. She seemed familiar, somehow, Hannibal thought. “I believe you, Tem. I look forward to seeing what you can learn.”
He smiled wide, and turned to Hannibal, excited, and the older merman just nodded, pushed his son back over to his new teacher. “Yes, yes ma’am, I won’t let you down, I swear...”
The old merwoman shook her head and smiled a little, pointing over her shoulder. “Now, why don’t you go help my other student catch dinner? She has a terrible time keeping the babies away from what she catches...”
“Da?”
He chuckled at that. His son, so eager to leave home, still asking him for permission. “Go on, kid.”
And as soon as his son flipped away, the doctor turned to the merman. Definitely familiar, Hannibal thought. Something so, so... “Your son knows humans?” she asked, and he nodded. “We need to talk.”
The merwoman dove, beckoning Hannibal to follow, settling them far below the main body of the pod in darker waters. He could dimly hear his son’s laughter, filtering down through the water and frowned.
“He knows better than to do than when he’s hunting,” the merman said disapprovingly, looking over at the doctor with an apologetic smile. “I’ll talk to him before I leave.”
“He’s a big boy, your son. He’s probably just met my other student. You know how teens are at this age,” she replied, smiling back, but her eyes were narrow, like she was trying to recognize something.
Hannibal frowned. “Then I’ll definitely have to talk to him...”
“No need, Hannibal. When your son found me a few weeks ago, I pressed him on that very thing. He’s not here for her. I wouldn’t allow it if he was...”
“Your student?”
“A foundling,” she said softly. “A little girl I found up in the northern seas, parents gone, too hungry to even tell me what happened, poor thing...since I lost my own child, I try to take care of the ones who need it. Sometime they stay for a few days, sometimes for years...she’s stayed the longest. She wants to learn...”
The sadness in her words was evident and he nodded slowly. “What was it you wanted to talk with me about? About the humans?”
“How much experience has your son had with humans?” she shot back. “What happened? He talks like he knows them well. I can’t afford somebody who’s entranced with those people. It’s too dangerous for the pods.”
Hannibal thought about this for a moment. Encountering other merfolk was rare, outside of the few yearly holidays or the odd meeting in the family-friendly shallows of the Caribbean. They didn’t have friends or neighbors they had to lie to frequently about where Hannibal was from, anything like that, but they’d worked out a story years ago, a modified version of the truth, the one they’d told their children, they one they told everyone else.
The one he told her now.
“My mate was taken by humans once, back when we had just joined, taken ashore and experimented on. A few of the townsfolk helped me save him and destroy the research they’d collected on him, a doctor and his mate. Tem met them in his sixth summer, when his father fell ill and I had to call the doctor to help him...”
“That’s a lot of trust, to place in a human.”
Hannibal smiled, thinking about his old friends he hadn’t seen in years, not since they'd made a little trip out to the Galapagos to visit. They'd gotten older, BA and Murdock, a bit slower, no less in love, no less themselves... “They were good people, humans or not.”
The doctor nodded her head, like she was digesting that comment. “Does he understand, what humans are capable of?”
“Humans killed his grandparents...”
“Your parents?”
“His papa’s.”
“What about yours?”
He shrugged, thinking of what they’d told their son about his father, their past, what she might get as an answer from his son, and answered that one honestly. “My father died not long after I left, I’m told. And my mother was gone a long time before that.”
“Died?”
“I was ten. I never really got the full story out of my father.” He frowned again. “What are you looking for here, doc?”
She sighed and glided away, down further, the dark shapes of the whales far above them now. Hannibal followed, not sure where any of this was going, stopping a few feet away from her. The old merwoman rubbed an arm down her arm, and looked away. “I...I knew a human once. A good man, like the ones you talked about. Loved him, let it blind me to everything else. But...things like that aren’t meant to last. Between our peoples. I lost my son to my foolishness.” Her head dropped. “I’ve no idea what happened to him. Stayed a human, mated to some nice human girl, probably. I couldn’t even bear to go back to visit, not after abandoning him like that. Why would he want to see me after I left him like that...”
Hannibal closed his eyes, thinking about those days, so long ago they seemed more dream than reality now, his Face, so scared of him, so in love, wanting to be together, insisting it couldn’t be...but then, what she said...something familiar about her, so...and it hit him. His old photograph, the one he hadn’t seen in nearly twenty years...
And the merman wasn’t sure, wasn’t sure what she saw, what she recognized in him, if she was thinking...but he took a shot at it anyway. “I heard a story once, when I was on dry land, looking for my mate, about a fisherman who found a merman in his nets,” he said, feeling himself start to shake a little. “The human took care of the merman, nursed him back to health, came to love him, and when the merman returned to the ocean, the fisherman was...was so overwhelmed with grief that he followed. The story says they’re together now, somewhere at the bottom of the sea....”
The doctor was playing with the end of her braid, and snorted. “That’s ridiculous. The human would die.”
“Not if he had mer blood in him already.” And Hannibal edged a little closer, the doctor looking at him with something like fear in her wide blue eyes. “Not if his mother had been a merwoman.”
Her mouth parted a bit, into a little ohh shape, and he saw her tremble. “Where did this happen, this story?”
“A place the humans call Maine,” he said slowly.
Her hand was shaking then, and Hannibal couldn’t stop himself from taking it up in his. She looked down at that, and then back up to him. “What...what was the fisherman’s name?”
“John,” he said, voice cracking a little. “They said his name was John...”
“No, it was Johnny,” the old merwoman replied, shaking her head, like she was remembering something forgotten, recalling something from very long ago. “Johnny. That’s what I called him. My sweet little boy...”
“Mom?” he asked, just knowing now, hardly able to form the word, gills flaring, collecting nothing, unable to breathe as it surfaced, bright, shining, undeniable. “Mom...”
She blinked once, and then ran a hand up his arm, up to his neck, slow, speeding up, pulling him into a warm, warm hug. “Yes,” she whispered, tail moving softly, keeping them level, holding him tightly. “Oh, yes, that’s what humans say, isn’t it, my son?”
Hannibal clung to her, remembering the way her arms had held him as a child, a lifetime ago, and laughter and smiles, the way she’d sing to him at night, the grief he’d felt when she’d left, the dream he’d had of her, that last day... “I’m not human any more, mom. Don’t think I ever was...”
She shushed him and kissed his forehead, but her words came disjointed, thick with emotion. “Doesn’t matter, baby boy. You found your way home. I can’t believe...I only dreamed... you...you found...that you’re...such a fine merman...children of your own...”
“It was all him, mom, the merman I caught by accident. My mate showed me the way...”
And it was then Hannibal realized she was crying, sobs wracking her entire body. So he held her, the slight form of his mother, lost to him for nearly fifty years, fifty years of grief, of guilt, pouring out of her, washing away, until the dark came fully and she pulled away, saying she needed to make sure her students were okay.
He followed at a bit of a distance, the happy chatter of his son, a young mermaid, his mother’s voice admonishing them both for something or other, and he could have sworn that he felt his Face embrace him from behind, kiss him behind the ear, wrap his hand around his waist, lay his head on his shoulder, just like his mate always did.
I love you, Hannibal. I’d do everything again, just for you...
“I love you too, sweet boy,” he whispered to the waters, trusting the message to carry back to his mate, and swam up to the rest of his people here tonight. Before that voracious son of his ate everything. Kid would put away a whole tuna by himself if he wasn’t watched.
+++++
After his week of traveling, the last three days of it completely alone, Hannibal wanted nothing more than to sneak up on his mate, grab him, swing him around, kiss him senseless, open him up and take him, bury himself in the silky heat of Face’s body...
But the girls saw him first, shooting up from the shallow, sandy shelf where they were waiting, coiled and quiet, and shot towards him, giggling, calling out for him.
“Da! Da! You’re home!”
He was knocked totally off balance by the combined assault, one of them catching him square in the chest and the other wrapping her little self around the base of his tail, hugging tight. Hannibal couldn’t do anything but laugh back as they took him down to the floor, pretending to fight against their little hands, letting them hold him.
“Ah, you got me, girls.”
“We’re huntin’, Da...”
“...we caught you instead of the mean ol’ eel...”
He chuckled, and roughed their hair, lifting his tail to drop the one down there straight into his arms, scooping her up with her sister. “But then what will we eat tonight?”
“We can have Da fo’ dinner instead!” “Bet Da’s tasty!” they chimed at each other, and started giggling, all over again, and Hannibal was seriously considering tickling them into submission when Face popped into his field of view, sighing melodramatically, folding his arms.
“I’d like to eat Da,” he said. “For being a day late. I was starting to get worried...”
“You would have known if there was something wrong with me,” Hannibal replied lightly, pushing up and listening to the girls protest as he broke their game. “Don’t even start on that one.”
“Better be a good reason for it,” Face huffed, genuine hurt on his handsome features.
And Hannibal slipped free of his daughters, swimming up to give his mate a soft, slow kiss, cupping his jaw, putting everything into it. To say he’d missed this over the past week would have been an understatement. It had been the longest separation they’d had as a pair, since those awful days when Buress had trapped Face in his tank, and Hannibal had never slept alone since the change.
He’d never really thought about it, the feeling of exposure, of insecurity, of being adrift with nothing to anchor on to. So, so alone...he had no idea how Face had lived like that for so many years, and he was intensely glad his son wouldn’t face it right away, that he had the pod, that cute little mermaid, his grandmother...
“Oh, sweetheart,” Face whispered, pulling away. “What happened?”
Hannibal smiled and thumbed the line of one fine cheekbone. “Something wonderful.”
They made their way back to the little sheltered grotto where they were staying, where the girls had been born, deep in a column of coral, safe from any marauding predators, a comfortable home, however temporary. Soon the girls would be big enough to travel, big enough to go off on their own, leave as their brother had...
But for now, Hannibal knew, there was no use in worrying about those things, so he told his family the story instead. The great silence of the deep Pacific ocean off the continental shelf, how excited Tem had been, the pod of whales, nuzzling their brother like he was one of their own, his meeting with his mother...
“You foun’ her again?”
“Yes, my little starfish, I found your grandmama. I haven’t seen her since I was ten...” he said, trying to keep the emotion out of his voice.
Face squeezed his hand and said nothing, but his pale blue eyes were sparkling. He slipped away then, out to stretch his fins a bit and find something for dinner, since the girls had that eel away.
In the meantime, the girls hung on Hannibal’s every word, and he told them all about the whales, everything he could, loving the way their little faces lit up. And when that story ran out, he told them another, and another, all the children’s stories from his human past that he’d learned how to retell for Tem, when he’d been a little boy, stories that he’d made up since then, merfolk stories that Face had taught him. They seemed to love his speaking voice almost as much as they loved their papa’s singing voice, and they were half-asleep in the soft sand, when Face came back.
With an eel.
“It’s the principle of the thing,” he explained sheepishly, and Hannibal started laughing.
+++++
“They’ve been doing good with the hunting, the last few days. Really good, actually. Remember how we had to convince Tem that fish are food, not friends?” Face snuggled in to his mate’s shoulder, watching their girls sleep on the other side of the dark little grotto, glowing with the faintest bit of bioluminescence from the coral, the plants around them. Two pale green forms, splashed down against the pale sand, eyes shut tight, their papa’s murmured lullaby probably still echoing through their dreams. Cuddled together. Even sleeping, they were inseparable. “Downright vicious, your daughters. My Tem was so sweet...”
Hannibal rolled his eyes. “He learned, though. You should have seen him with the pod, dashing through the fish after that cute little mermaid my mom’s been caring for...”
Face raised an eyebrow. “Mermaid? You didn’t mention her.”
Hannibal chuckled, remembering the other student. About Tem’s age, pale and freckled, red hair, red tail, a sweet, shy little smile forming every time she’d looked at their son, some kind of iron will to her that even she hadn’t found yet. The way Tem had looked at her... “I talked to Tem about it. He knows how serious mating is, and he just got his freedom. He won’t dishonor the girl.”
“Of course he wouldn’t. He’s too good for that,” Face said, tail beating a bit on the sand of the grotto, raising a cloud. “He never had any ugliness in his life...”
“And with any luck, darling, he never will,” the older merman murmured back, laying his cheek on the crown of Face’s head. “You gave him that.”
“We both did.”
“Yeah, but I wouldn’t be here, without you.”
That earned him a laugh. “You’ve been downright sappy since you got back, Ha...”
“I mean it. You’ve done this, Face. You’re the one who believed in me, you’re the one who gave me myself...”
“It was seeing your mother, wasn’t it? That’s what’s got you acting like a little girl right now,” Face chuckled, splaying a hand across Hannibal’s chest. “I shudder to think of what you’re going to be like now, with just your daughters around...”
“I love you,” the older merman said, cutting it all off, catching Face’s hand that was resting against him and holding it still. “I love you, Face.”
His mate smiled, and flipped them both, laying his hands on Hannibal’s pecs and pressing him down into the sand of their little home. He was close, right over the top, near enough for the older merman to feel the slightest bit of current off his gills, his breath, and that hardness was starting to grow, right down...
“The girls are with us. Can’t have Tem watch them anymore,” Hannibal whispered, watching his boy’s eyes darkening in arousal in the soft blue night light of their home.
A nip at his ear. “I sang them to sleep, Hannibal. They aren’t waking up until morning, not for a hurricane. Need you...”
“We’ll scar them for life, sweetheart.”
“We’ll use it as a teaching moment,” Face grinned. “But they aren’t going to wake.” A hand snuck down, clever fingers playing at the edge of Hannibal’s little cleft, brushing his own cock within, hardening at that light touch. “Please, mate, I haven’t seen you in so long...”
Hannibal groaned, knowing he was going to lose this particular battle, and kissed the younger merman lightly, letting his tail wrap up and over. And he suddenly thought of something. “Face, my mother...”
“You really gonna go there right now, boss?”
“No, kid, not...jesus, no. Just, my mom...she should have been... older, wasted...like how humans age.” He kissed Face again, thinking of how he hadn’t felt older since the change, how the last two decades passed in a flash. “How long do we live?”
“Merfolk?” his mate murmured, sliding his hand down to that spot, the first place he’d ever touched Hannibal as he really was. “Really? We still have unasked questions?”
Hannibal flushed. “I wasn’t...wasn’t young for a human, and I’m sixty this year and I didn’t want to think I only have a few more years...”
That earlier, teasing grin turned far more devilish. “Sixty?” he asked softly, hand starting to work again, lips exploring. “That’s nothing. We can live a long time, a very long time, if the ocean doesn’t claim our lives back again...”
“All that time with you?”
“Well, yeah. Mate for life. You’re not going to be rid of me that easily,” Face whispered, the faintest hint of that old fear beneath his teasing tone, those clever fingers drawing him out, stroking so, so gently. “I’m stuck with you...”
He could have laughed out loud, the joy that thought, that touch, brought to him, but Hannibal settled for tackling Face around to the ground, moving on top of him, kissing him fiercely, reminding him, no matter what came...
“I’m here, kid. I’m here.”
A hand touched his cheek. "Show me."
And they didn't talk for a long while after that.
Rating: pg-13
Warnings: merman AU
Summary: Epilogue for a fill for this prompt on the kink meme.
Hannibal is a rugged angler whose catch of the day is a merman, Face. There is an instant attraction, but Face is terrified at first that Hannibal is going to kill him. He grows legs, does not grow legs, whatev.
Right as Hannibal is beginning to make progress with Face, big bad Lynch or Pike gets news of Hannibal’s discovery and tries to steal Face away for experimentation purposes. The more angst the better :D
Second prompt (I’m new to the fandom) I hope its okay! *Hides*
Eighteen years after the events of Catch of the Day, Hannibal and Face have to make a heartrending goodbye...
Eighteen Years Later
“Tem! Get back here and kiss your sisters goodbye!”
Hannibal, turned the corner of the reef where they were staying, and chuckled to himself. Face had his hands on his hips, the tips of his fins twitching angrily, one of their sleek little girls winding herself through the crook of his arm, the other clinging to his tail, all of them staring at their son. It was almost comical.
Almost.
“Papa! We need to go!” the teenager pouted, that expression identical to his father’s. “The pod’s only going to be within reach a few days!”
And Hannibal made sure to slap him lightly with his tail on the way past. “You’re being a brat, kid,” he said, watching his mate intently, seeing a small, rueful smile there despite the anger. “Get over here and say goodbye.” He held out his arms to his daughters, and looked back over his shoulder. “Your sisters won’t see you again.”
“None of us will,” Face said softly, and pulled that little girl in his arms close, stroking his clever fingers through her hair. The other was in her da’s outstretched arms in a heartsbeat, cuddling up.
Both so young still, barely four years since they hatched out, bright, smiling little girls, golden like their papa, the same pale green as their grandma, the one who had died at the hands of human whalers. Face had had so much trouble carrying them, he’d been so scared of another one dying inside him, but then they'd had not a disaster but a blessing. Not one healthy, happy baby girl but two, twins, something his mate had insisted was impossible for merfolk. Yet there they had been, their little miracles. The prettiest things Hannibal had ever seen in his life, and the most mischievous. Face had had his hands full of as much family as he could handle since then. The trouble those two got into... so unlike Tem, who'd always been a good baby.
But those days were long gone, and a young merman on the verge of adulthood had taken the place of that cute little boy, and Hannibal was going to miss him.
Tem bit his lip, clearly torn between different instincts, different longings, the urge to leave, the need for family. The kid had done them proud over the last few years. Still young, still so young, but he was growing up into a proper merman, filling out to be nearly as long as Hannibal himself, brave and independent, as clever and beautiful as his papa, a good brother to his baby sisters, a generous streak a league long. And Hannibal remembered what Face had said, that little warning, back when they'd brought that red-cheeked little baby into this world, that someday he would leave.
Someday he’ll be called to leave, to wander on his own, find himself his own waters, a mate, make himself a family of his own. We won’t see him again, Hannibal. It’s the way it is with merfolk, there’s no sadness in it...
Yet Face was the one who’d been having the hardest time with it, the letting go, especially since Tem had come home from one of his weeks alone, training for what was upon them now, talking about the sperm whales and a doctor and the possibility of apprenticing himself to her...
The fight had been horrible. Tem had taken off for nearly a month. Face had been heartbroken, despondant, terrified that the boy had finally gone for good, thinking they were angry with him. But their son came back to them then, a little battered and skinny but alive, a fire in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. The desire to wander that pulled at them all stoked into fullness.
Tem had survived whatever he’d faced then, Hannibal knew then. He’d survive whatever else he would face in his life. Face had known it, too, because the evening was full of quiet talks, out of earshot of the girls, and they’d been laughing together when they’d returned.
But the course had been set. Face’s only condition was that Tem allow his Da to see him there safe. Anything else was up to the boy, he’d said.
Hannibal couldn’t be prouder of them both.
Tem swam back over, hugged his sisters, whispered to them, both in turn, who were too young to really understand what was going on. They hugged him back and giggled and then pounced on a passing crab on the sea floor, little minds full and occupied.
Hannibal wrapped one big hand around that lean waist. “We do need to get going, sweetheart,” he whispered softly. “The current’s better this time of day.”
Face nodded, and reached an arm out to his hesitant son, pulling him in close. “Where the whales are, humans follow,” he said, low, so the girls couldn’t hear. “Where humans are, death comes. Remember what's happened to your family, your...your grandmama. Be careful. Promise me you’ll be careful of them.”
“But papa, Uncle Murdock and Uncle BA have always been...”
“They are very special humans, Tem. They’re your family, and your family loves you. Most...will not be so kind.”
The pain in his mate’s voice, even after all their long years together, safe and happy, was evident, and Hannibal squeezed him close. “You’ve taught the kid well, darling. He’s going to be okay. Right, Tem?”
The teen nodded. Barely sixteen, and he was trying to seem so grown up. The framework was there, Hannibal could tell, but it wasn’t full yet. Not fully realized. And he was scared, just a little, trying to hide it, trying to smile now, trying to be the brave boy he was, pretending to be the man he hadn’t yet become. Yet. “Yes, Da.”
Face looked torn for a moment, and then moved away from Hannibal a little, drew their son up into a tight, tight hug. Kissed him on the forehead once, like they had when he was a little boy, sleeping between them, and let him go, hands leaving only unwillingly. “I love you, Tem, and always will,” Face said, and nodded, lip turning white between his teeth. He looked over to Hannibal. “Get him there safe. Come back to me.”
“It’s only a three day swim out, three days back,” the older merman said, embracing his mate, kissing him gently on the lips, knowing their son was rolling his eyes and not giving a damn about that. Their children were wonderful, marvelous, amazing, but Face would always be his boy. Aching to be loved. Aching to belong. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s something,” Face said softly, and laid a hand on Hannibal’s chest, almost pushing him back, but not quite.
"Are you going to be okay? The twins..."
"We'll be fine. It'll give me a fine opportunity to start teaching them to forage." His mate shook his head, some kind of hesitancy there, all those old fears that would never, Hannibal knew, truly go away. Of abandonment, of loss.
So the older merman let his fingers tangle with his mate’s for a moment before cupping those fingers up in his, and pressing it back to Face’s smooth chest. “Remember what I promised you all those years ago, kid?” he whispered.
Luminous blue eyes slid shut. A nod. “Yes, boss.”
“There isn’t a force in this world that will ever keep me from you,” he murmured, and let the hand drop, watching Face keep it clutched to his chest, looking at his darling girls, poking the crab, giggling as it snapped at them. He loved his son, but those two, those two had him wrapped around their little fingers the moment they hit the water, and Hannibal wouldn’t have it any other way. “Da loves you,” he told them.
They looked up, and two little love you, das were chorused back. He dropped to kiss them both and flipped back up, a lazy barrel roll that brought him right back behind Tem.
“You ready to go, son?” he asked, and watched a grin spread out on his boy’s face.
“Yeah, Da, please. Let’s go.”
They didn’t get out of sight in the clear South American waters before Tem turned, racing back to his papa for one more hug. Hannibal waited patiently for him there, until he returned a few minutes later, eyes rimmed red but shining bright.
The ocean calls us home, Hannibal remembered Face saying once. He'd had years to learn how true that was. He hadn't been on shore since before the girls were hatched, hadn't felt the need, hadn't wanted anything but this. And for his son, for whom the human world and dry land had been but a passing adventure of his youth, the older merman couldn't imagine how deep that longing ran.
“Come on, son,” he said gently, starting off east, out into the deep waters, “time to head out.”
"Da..."
"It's the way we're made," he said softly. "Your papa will be fine."
His son nodded, fell in beside him, and didn’t look back again.
+++++
The swim was easy, open waters, few predators to speak of, navigating by all those little signals that Face had taught him to read, sleeping when they grew tired, eating when they could catch something. No problems at all. Nothing he needed to protect his boy from. They spoke little in their travels, Tem mulling his own future, Hannibal not wanting to interrupt the boy while he figured out whatever it was he was thinking about.
The morning of the third day, long after they’d woken and set on their way, the whale calls had started, beckoning them closer, the deep notes carrying the awareness of an old merwoman, the doctor. Tem had perked at that, and started talking again, chattering, about all the things he wished to learn, all the seas he wished to see, full of wonder at his own future, and Hannibal listened to all of it, barely contributing, enjoying the sound of his son’s voice while he still could.
By sunset, they were upon the pod. Pilot whales, Hannibal remembered, the human name for the relatively small, sleek cetaceans. Friendly, Face had grudgingly acknowledged, good for teaching, good for learning and the whales did seem friendly, clustering as the two mermen approached, crowding, clicking, rounded heads bumping gently in acknowledgement. The babies, too, came, following like puppies, and Hannibal found himself laughing as he scratched one like it was a dog, the little thing rolling over, waggling a fin...
“He likes you,” a female voice said, heavy with age, and Hannibal turned. A white-haired merwoman, silver-blue hair pulled back into a long braid, the same color as her tail, was weaving her way through the gunmetal gray bullets of the whales. She made a clucking noise and the calf rolled away from Hannibal, up to the surface. “But they’re silly things at that age. Little boy might forget to breath.”
The merman smiled. “Children can be like that.”
“Yes,” she mused, and looked at Tem. “You the boy who wants to study under me?”
“Yes ma’am,” he said automatically, casting a glance over at Hannibal, clearly, desperately trying to be polite.
She cocked her head, and took a second look at Hannibal, then back to his son. “Why? Tell me.”
“My grandparents were doctors and worked with them, my father grew up with them. I feel... I feel like I could be good at it. Like I could really help.”
“You ever dealt with humans, boy?”
He nodded, again, looking over at Hannibal, probably thinking of his papa’s warning, all those family reunions, how his uncles Murdock and BA used to come to wherever they were, once a year, rent a boat, visit... “I can handle humans, ma’am, I promise.”
The doctor tapped a finger to her lips, and then nodded. She seemed familiar, somehow, Hannibal thought. “I believe you, Tem. I look forward to seeing what you can learn.”
He smiled wide, and turned to Hannibal, excited, and the older merman just nodded, pushed his son back over to his new teacher. “Yes, yes ma’am, I won’t let you down, I swear...”
The old merwoman shook her head and smiled a little, pointing over her shoulder. “Now, why don’t you go help my other student catch dinner? She has a terrible time keeping the babies away from what she catches...”
“Da?”
He chuckled at that. His son, so eager to leave home, still asking him for permission. “Go on, kid.”
And as soon as his son flipped away, the doctor turned to the merman. Definitely familiar, Hannibal thought. Something so, so... “Your son knows humans?” she asked, and he nodded. “We need to talk.”
The merwoman dove, beckoning Hannibal to follow, settling them far below the main body of the pod in darker waters. He could dimly hear his son’s laughter, filtering down through the water and frowned.
“He knows better than to do than when he’s hunting,” the merman said disapprovingly, looking over at the doctor with an apologetic smile. “I’ll talk to him before I leave.”
“He’s a big boy, your son. He’s probably just met my other student. You know how teens are at this age,” she replied, smiling back, but her eyes were narrow, like she was trying to recognize something.
Hannibal frowned. “Then I’ll definitely have to talk to him...”
“No need, Hannibal. When your son found me a few weeks ago, I pressed him on that very thing. He’s not here for her. I wouldn’t allow it if he was...”
“Your student?”
“A foundling,” she said softly. “A little girl I found up in the northern seas, parents gone, too hungry to even tell me what happened, poor thing...since I lost my own child, I try to take care of the ones who need it. Sometime they stay for a few days, sometimes for years...she’s stayed the longest. She wants to learn...”
The sadness in her words was evident and he nodded slowly. “What was it you wanted to talk with me about? About the humans?”
“How much experience has your son had with humans?” she shot back. “What happened? He talks like he knows them well. I can’t afford somebody who’s entranced with those people. It’s too dangerous for the pods.”
Hannibal thought about this for a moment. Encountering other merfolk was rare, outside of the few yearly holidays or the odd meeting in the family-friendly shallows of the Caribbean. They didn’t have friends or neighbors they had to lie to frequently about where Hannibal was from, anything like that, but they’d worked out a story years ago, a modified version of the truth, the one they’d told their children, they one they told everyone else.
The one he told her now.
“My mate was taken by humans once, back when we had just joined, taken ashore and experimented on. A few of the townsfolk helped me save him and destroy the research they’d collected on him, a doctor and his mate. Tem met them in his sixth summer, when his father fell ill and I had to call the doctor to help him...”
“That’s a lot of trust, to place in a human.”
Hannibal smiled, thinking about his old friends he hadn’t seen in years, not since they'd made a little trip out to the Galapagos to visit. They'd gotten older, BA and Murdock, a bit slower, no less in love, no less themselves... “They were good people, humans or not.”
The doctor nodded her head, like she was digesting that comment. “Does he understand, what humans are capable of?”
“Humans killed his grandparents...”
“Your parents?”
“His papa’s.”
“What about yours?”
He shrugged, thinking of what they’d told their son about his father, their past, what she might get as an answer from his son, and answered that one honestly. “My father died not long after I left, I’m told. And my mother was gone a long time before that.”
“Died?”
“I was ten. I never really got the full story out of my father.” He frowned again. “What are you looking for here, doc?”
She sighed and glided away, down further, the dark shapes of the whales far above them now. Hannibal followed, not sure where any of this was going, stopping a few feet away from her. The old merwoman rubbed an arm down her arm, and looked away. “I...I knew a human once. A good man, like the ones you talked about. Loved him, let it blind me to everything else. But...things like that aren’t meant to last. Between our peoples. I lost my son to my foolishness.” Her head dropped. “I’ve no idea what happened to him. Stayed a human, mated to some nice human girl, probably. I couldn’t even bear to go back to visit, not after abandoning him like that. Why would he want to see me after I left him like that...”
Hannibal closed his eyes, thinking about those days, so long ago they seemed more dream than reality now, his Face, so scared of him, so in love, wanting to be together, insisting it couldn’t be...but then, what she said...something familiar about her, so...and it hit him. His old photograph, the one he hadn’t seen in nearly twenty years...
And the merman wasn’t sure, wasn’t sure what she saw, what she recognized in him, if she was thinking...but he took a shot at it anyway. “I heard a story once, when I was on dry land, looking for my mate, about a fisherman who found a merman in his nets,” he said, feeling himself start to shake a little. “The human took care of the merman, nursed him back to health, came to love him, and when the merman returned to the ocean, the fisherman was...was so overwhelmed with grief that he followed. The story says they’re together now, somewhere at the bottom of the sea....”
The doctor was playing with the end of her braid, and snorted. “That’s ridiculous. The human would die.”
“Not if he had mer blood in him already.” And Hannibal edged a little closer, the doctor looking at him with something like fear in her wide blue eyes. “Not if his mother had been a merwoman.”
Her mouth parted a bit, into a little ohh shape, and he saw her tremble. “Where did this happen, this story?”
“A place the humans call Maine,” he said slowly.
Her hand was shaking then, and Hannibal couldn’t stop himself from taking it up in his. She looked down at that, and then back up to him. “What...what was the fisherman’s name?”
“John,” he said, voice cracking a little. “They said his name was John...”
“No, it was Johnny,” the old merwoman replied, shaking her head, like she was remembering something forgotten, recalling something from very long ago. “Johnny. That’s what I called him. My sweet little boy...”
“Mom?” he asked, just knowing now, hardly able to form the word, gills flaring, collecting nothing, unable to breathe as it surfaced, bright, shining, undeniable. “Mom...”
She blinked once, and then ran a hand up his arm, up to his neck, slow, speeding up, pulling him into a warm, warm hug. “Yes,” she whispered, tail moving softly, keeping them level, holding him tightly. “Oh, yes, that’s what humans say, isn’t it, my son?”
Hannibal clung to her, remembering the way her arms had held him as a child, a lifetime ago, and laughter and smiles, the way she’d sing to him at night, the grief he’d felt when she’d left, the dream he’d had of her, that last day... “I’m not human any more, mom. Don’t think I ever was...”
She shushed him and kissed his forehead, but her words came disjointed, thick with emotion. “Doesn’t matter, baby boy. You found your way home. I can’t believe...I only dreamed... you...you found...that you’re...such a fine merman...children of your own...”
“It was all him, mom, the merman I caught by accident. My mate showed me the way...”
And it was then Hannibal realized she was crying, sobs wracking her entire body. So he held her, the slight form of his mother, lost to him for nearly fifty years, fifty years of grief, of guilt, pouring out of her, washing away, until the dark came fully and she pulled away, saying she needed to make sure her students were okay.
He followed at a bit of a distance, the happy chatter of his son, a young mermaid, his mother’s voice admonishing them both for something or other, and he could have sworn that he felt his Face embrace him from behind, kiss him behind the ear, wrap his hand around his waist, lay his head on his shoulder, just like his mate always did.
I love you, Hannibal. I’d do everything again, just for you...
“I love you too, sweet boy,” he whispered to the waters, trusting the message to carry back to his mate, and swam up to the rest of his people here tonight. Before that voracious son of his ate everything. Kid would put away a whole tuna by himself if he wasn’t watched.
+++++
After his week of traveling, the last three days of it completely alone, Hannibal wanted nothing more than to sneak up on his mate, grab him, swing him around, kiss him senseless, open him up and take him, bury himself in the silky heat of Face’s body...
But the girls saw him first, shooting up from the shallow, sandy shelf where they were waiting, coiled and quiet, and shot towards him, giggling, calling out for him.
“Da! Da! You’re home!”
He was knocked totally off balance by the combined assault, one of them catching him square in the chest and the other wrapping her little self around the base of his tail, hugging tight. Hannibal couldn’t do anything but laugh back as they took him down to the floor, pretending to fight against their little hands, letting them hold him.
“Ah, you got me, girls.”
“We’re huntin’, Da...”
“...we caught you instead of the mean ol’ eel...”
He chuckled, and roughed their hair, lifting his tail to drop the one down there straight into his arms, scooping her up with her sister. “But then what will we eat tonight?”
“We can have Da fo’ dinner instead!” “Bet Da’s tasty!” they chimed at each other, and started giggling, all over again, and Hannibal was seriously considering tickling them into submission when Face popped into his field of view, sighing melodramatically, folding his arms.
“I’d like to eat Da,” he said. “For being a day late. I was starting to get worried...”
“You would have known if there was something wrong with me,” Hannibal replied lightly, pushing up and listening to the girls protest as he broke their game. “Don’t even start on that one.”
“Better be a good reason for it,” Face huffed, genuine hurt on his handsome features.
And Hannibal slipped free of his daughters, swimming up to give his mate a soft, slow kiss, cupping his jaw, putting everything into it. To say he’d missed this over the past week would have been an understatement. It had been the longest separation they’d had as a pair, since those awful days when Buress had trapped Face in his tank, and Hannibal had never slept alone since the change.
He’d never really thought about it, the feeling of exposure, of insecurity, of being adrift with nothing to anchor on to. So, so alone...he had no idea how Face had lived like that for so many years, and he was intensely glad his son wouldn’t face it right away, that he had the pod, that cute little mermaid, his grandmother...
“Oh, sweetheart,” Face whispered, pulling away. “What happened?”
Hannibal smiled and thumbed the line of one fine cheekbone. “Something wonderful.”
They made their way back to the little sheltered grotto where they were staying, where the girls had been born, deep in a column of coral, safe from any marauding predators, a comfortable home, however temporary. Soon the girls would be big enough to travel, big enough to go off on their own, leave as their brother had...
But for now, Hannibal knew, there was no use in worrying about those things, so he told his family the story instead. The great silence of the deep Pacific ocean off the continental shelf, how excited Tem had been, the pod of whales, nuzzling their brother like he was one of their own, his meeting with his mother...
“You foun’ her again?”
“Yes, my little starfish, I found your grandmama. I haven’t seen her since I was ten...” he said, trying to keep the emotion out of his voice.
Face squeezed his hand and said nothing, but his pale blue eyes were sparkling. He slipped away then, out to stretch his fins a bit and find something for dinner, since the girls had that eel away.
In the meantime, the girls hung on Hannibal’s every word, and he told them all about the whales, everything he could, loving the way their little faces lit up. And when that story ran out, he told them another, and another, all the children’s stories from his human past that he’d learned how to retell for Tem, when he’d been a little boy, stories that he’d made up since then, merfolk stories that Face had taught him. They seemed to love his speaking voice almost as much as they loved their papa’s singing voice, and they were half-asleep in the soft sand, when Face came back.
With an eel.
“It’s the principle of the thing,” he explained sheepishly, and Hannibal started laughing.
+++++
“They’ve been doing good with the hunting, the last few days. Really good, actually. Remember how we had to convince Tem that fish are food, not friends?” Face snuggled in to his mate’s shoulder, watching their girls sleep on the other side of the dark little grotto, glowing with the faintest bit of bioluminescence from the coral, the plants around them. Two pale green forms, splashed down against the pale sand, eyes shut tight, their papa’s murmured lullaby probably still echoing through their dreams. Cuddled together. Even sleeping, they were inseparable. “Downright vicious, your daughters. My Tem was so sweet...”
Hannibal rolled his eyes. “He learned, though. You should have seen him with the pod, dashing through the fish after that cute little mermaid my mom’s been caring for...”
Face raised an eyebrow. “Mermaid? You didn’t mention her.”
Hannibal chuckled, remembering the other student. About Tem’s age, pale and freckled, red hair, red tail, a sweet, shy little smile forming every time she’d looked at their son, some kind of iron will to her that even she hadn’t found yet. The way Tem had looked at her... “I talked to Tem about it. He knows how serious mating is, and he just got his freedom. He won’t dishonor the girl.”
“Of course he wouldn’t. He’s too good for that,” Face said, tail beating a bit on the sand of the grotto, raising a cloud. “He never had any ugliness in his life...”
“And with any luck, darling, he never will,” the older merman murmured back, laying his cheek on the crown of Face’s head. “You gave him that.”
“We both did.”
“Yeah, but I wouldn’t be here, without you.”
That earned him a laugh. “You’ve been downright sappy since you got back, Ha...”
“I mean it. You’ve done this, Face. You’re the one who believed in me, you’re the one who gave me myself...”
“It was seeing your mother, wasn’t it? That’s what’s got you acting like a little girl right now,” Face chuckled, splaying a hand across Hannibal’s chest. “I shudder to think of what you’re going to be like now, with just your daughters around...”
“I love you,” the older merman said, cutting it all off, catching Face’s hand that was resting against him and holding it still. “I love you, Face.”
His mate smiled, and flipped them both, laying his hands on Hannibal’s pecs and pressing him down into the sand of their little home. He was close, right over the top, near enough for the older merman to feel the slightest bit of current off his gills, his breath, and that hardness was starting to grow, right down...
“The girls are with us. Can’t have Tem watch them anymore,” Hannibal whispered, watching his boy’s eyes darkening in arousal in the soft blue night light of their home.
A nip at his ear. “I sang them to sleep, Hannibal. They aren’t waking up until morning, not for a hurricane. Need you...”
“We’ll scar them for life, sweetheart.”
“We’ll use it as a teaching moment,” Face grinned. “But they aren’t going to wake.” A hand snuck down, clever fingers playing at the edge of Hannibal’s little cleft, brushing his own cock within, hardening at that light touch. “Please, mate, I haven’t seen you in so long...”
Hannibal groaned, knowing he was going to lose this particular battle, and kissed the younger merman lightly, letting his tail wrap up and over. And he suddenly thought of something. “Face, my mother...”
“You really gonna go there right now, boss?”
“No, kid, not...jesus, no. Just, my mom...she should have been... older, wasted...like how humans age.” He kissed Face again, thinking of how he hadn’t felt older since the change, how the last two decades passed in a flash. “How long do we live?”
“Merfolk?” his mate murmured, sliding his hand down to that spot, the first place he’d ever touched Hannibal as he really was. “Really? We still have unasked questions?”
Hannibal flushed. “I wasn’t...wasn’t young for a human, and I’m sixty this year and I didn’t want to think I only have a few more years...”
That earlier, teasing grin turned far more devilish. “Sixty?” he asked softly, hand starting to work again, lips exploring. “That’s nothing. We can live a long time, a very long time, if the ocean doesn’t claim our lives back again...”
“All that time with you?”
“Well, yeah. Mate for life. You’re not going to be rid of me that easily,” Face whispered, the faintest hint of that old fear beneath his teasing tone, those clever fingers drawing him out, stroking so, so gently. “I’m stuck with you...”
He could have laughed out loud, the joy that thought, that touch, brought to him, but Hannibal settled for tackling Face around to the ground, moving on top of him, kissing him fiercely, reminding him, no matter what came...
“I’m here, kid. I’m here.”
A hand touched his cheek. "Show me."
And they didn't talk for a long while after that.
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Catch of the Day--Eighteen Years On
Date: 2011-07-18 03:20 pm (UTC)Re: Catch of the Day--Eighteen Years On
Date: 2011-07-19 12:31 am (UTC)I admit, I sort of love the idea of these two having kids together, having that bond like you describe...I imagine it's like that...and having their firstborn leave home...is it bad I had to wait for a merman AU to give it to them?
And there are definitely different types of love besides erotic. I think with these two, there's a bond there that's almost deeper than that. Isn't that the way a good relationship should be? (Or maybe I just imagine these things - my personal experiences with all...that...have been pretty fucked up so far...)