"It appears I must go for a dive, and I cannot do that in this dress."
Xanne's hands stopped halfway down her back. "No way. You'll drown!"
Mara chuckled softly, lifting her hair higher and twisting it up off the back of her neck and exposing her gills. "Do not worry about that,ma chère. I have not lost all of the Mer that I once was."
"How the fuck have I never seen those before?"
Hawk's eyebrows knit as he pulled Silverfin's hair off his neck to stare at his gills. "What? Did you have those before?"
"Of course I did! How else do you think I rescued you when theOrcawrecked?"
"You're both daft," Mara agreed with a smile, turning and leaning in to press an affectionate kiss to Xanne's nose. Then she stepped out of her dress, tossing it into the bottom of the longboat with a sodden plop. "Wait here for me," she said, and jumped off the rocks to dive beneath the waves.
Watching her leave, Xanne glanced at Silverfin and snorted, going back to wringing out her clothes. Ordinarily Silverfin would have felt insulted, but he was too happy to have Hawk back again to think twice about it. He pressed a kiss to Hawk's knuckles, looking up at him. "If we can't be together..."
"We'll find a way," Hawk reassured him.
"But if we can't..." Silverfin hesitated. "There's something I want you to have. Will you wait here for me? I won't be a minute."
Hawk hesitated before nodding, stroking Silverfin’s hair with a gentle caress of his fingers. "Just as long as you come back." The look the captain was giving Silverfin, so full of softness and hope, melted the last dark recesses of his amphibian heart.
"Always." Silverfin arched out of the water again as Hawk leaned down to kiss him. Then, he dove down under the waves, hurrying back to his grotto.
He'd felt a fool when he'd started weaving the pearls. He'd tried to tell himself that he was only doing it to attempt to be rid of his feelings for Hawk once and for all, to accept the heartbreak and move on. But he knew in his heart that he'd done it in hopes of this very moment.
He clutched the crown to his chest as he swam back, breaching the surface and making his way to where Hawk still perched on the edge of the rocks. "Mara says that bipeds - that humans - don't do this," he started, nervousness making his stomach do flips. "But it's very important to us. It means... it means that you are my intended... my everything. And you always will be, no matter what is to happen. So..." He held the crown out with both hands outstretched. "I hope you will wear it for me, even just for a little while?"
Wordlessly Hawk leaned forward, bending his head, his russet hair reflecting in a streak of red in the azure waves. Silverfin drew a trembling breath, heart aching with happiness, and carefully tucked the crown into place, noting with satisfaction that it fit around Hawk's head perfectly. He pressed a kiss to Hawk's forehead and breathed, "You've made me so happy, Samuel."
"I promise I will keep it and treasure it forever," Hawk murmured, ignoring the gagging noises coming from Xanne's side of the island. He slid off the rock and back onto the water to pull Silverfin into a warm kiss. "No matter what happens."
Silverfin closed his eyes with a little happy moan, melting into the warmth of Hawk's kisses. But his bliss was interrupted by the sound of a crab clearing his throat.
"My Honored Lord."
Silverfin's arms tightened around Hawk's waist. "I'm busy kissing my Pirate King," he growled against Hawk's mouth, and felt Hawk laugh happily.
"What are you talking about, darling?"
"So you are," Lord Scarletclaw continued, ignoring Hawk. "But you are also summoned. Unless you don't care about Mami Wata’s commands anymore?"
Silverfin's heart jumped into his throat. He kept one arm tightly around Hawk as he turned to look at Lord Scarletclaw. "I won't leave him."
"Fortunately he is also summoned. You are to meet with Mami Wata and the Lady Maraxilla in the Cavern of the Hidden Pearl. Immediately."
Silverfin bit his lip as he looked up at Hawk. "Will you come with me?"
"Of course. Ah... where?"
"The Cavern of the Hidden Pearl. Mami Wata is waiting for us."
Xanne snorted, picking her way back over the rocks towards the boat. "Oh, sure. Hidden Pearl. Ain't that a brothel in Tortuga? Taking orders from crabs. Woman I’m fucking has goddamn gills. Wait 'til Alex gets a load of today!”
Silverfin rescued one of the longboat oars from the water, bringing it back to the boat as Hawk and Xanne climbed in. "Follow me," he said, hoping he wasn't leading his lover to both their dooms. Oh, and his sister’s lover, somehow, too.
Surely the day couldn't get any stranger, Hawk thought as he carefully navigated the longboat through a channel of rocks and into a darkened cavern, following Silver's dark head in the water. The hard part was over, wasn't it? He'd found Silver again, and begged his forgiveness. Gotten far more love in return than he deserved. Things had to be easy now, didn't they?
Inside, he found that the cave glowed with a strange green luminescence, glinting off the waves and throwing rippling shadows up onto the walls. Mara stood on the rocks along the side, seemingly unconcerned with her own nudity, and Hawk tried to avert his eyes as he pulled the longboat up alongside them.
