Love Comes in All Sizes (Companion Sequel Fic to "Uniquely the Same")

The Open Ocean and The End

So this was my new home. This was it.

My mother's cave was... nice. I suppose that's all one really can say about a cave. It kept the pests out, it had nice sunlight.

I became accustomed to this town and its merfolk. The sea monsters were a bit cold towards me for the first month and a bit, but once they saw I could work, they accepted me full heartily and put me on the seaweed plantations.

I felt like things were just going back to what they had been in Portorosso with the fish farm. The only difference here was that I was getting paid, a silver coin a week (cough cough, Cheapskates!)

But I took my payment and did my job each day with the planting and cutting of seaweed and other tropical edible ocean plants.

Sometimes Erika would meet me like she used to do in Portorosso, almost teasing me and distracting me from work.

"Would you stop that, slave?" I said to her cheekily as I worked at cutting the stalk of a plant I was harvesting.

"But I'm yours now," She teased back and swam before me, leaning her head against mine.

I quickly looked around in case anyone was watching (luckily not a soul) and I took hold of her hand, pulling her behind a building and kissing her there in private.

She giggled when our lips separated, and I could feel the ever warm blush burn up my blue cheeks.

"That was nice," I said with lidded eyes, and was about to kiss her again but she put her hand to my mouth, and pushed me away playfully, saying.

"C'mon, I want to show you something."

"Fine," I said, not really in the mood for an adventure but she just winked at me and pulled me along till we reached a corral reef which was full of thousands and thousands of colorful tropical fish.

"Nice," I said, thinking this is what she wanted to show me but she only shook her head, giggling as she pulled me into a deep cave that hid in the sand floor and I swam carefully through it till it opened up into the big wide ocean. I raised an eyebrow confused, and she let go of my hand, pointing out to the empty water that was before us.

"I found this secret exit from the city."

I blinked, not surprised by this find, and asked, "...and?"

"I wanted you to see... the lovely scenic scene."

I was a little unimpressed and only asked stoically, "And this got in the way of kissing?" I shook my head going, 'tut, tut', and added, "You are a bad slave."

"Oh, shut up," She teased and just gave me a playful punch on the upper arm before she swam back into the cave's entranceway.

I was about to follow, but I just looked on into the vast blue empty sea. I only stared quietly out to it and felt my heart begin to hurt as the memory of the ones I left behind ran through my mind and was making me sad.

I missed them, I missed Portorosso, and I wanted to go back to the people I loved.

But that was the sad fact. There were people I loved here as well. And if I took the journey back across the ocean there was a good chance I would die if I went alone. Heck, even if I went with someone.

I continued to gaze ahead of me, before closing my eyes tightly in deep sadness and turned back to the cave.

The thought of the big wide ocean didn't leave though that day. It kept on playing in my mind before my inner eye, the vastness, the huge distance, the danger, and the wonder.