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Ro
She’d pattedthe top ofKian’stank and my fins raised of their own accord, my fury building as she left the space.
He’d tried to steal her. He’d tried to steal mymate, and now she wasgone.
Why was my mate gone?
What was that movement over there? Another fish?
Rival. Kill.
I charged towards the other fish, something firm and painful arresting my forward momentum. Enraged, I tried again, pulling up at the last second as the current told me there was an obstacle. I flared, sending him a murderous look that was all challenge.
My rival flinched, and pride filled me down to the very tips of my fins.
Coward.
Kian
As Ariana left the apartment,her reusable bags still in a neat pile on the counter, I turned to check on Ro. I did this little ritual every day whether he wanted to or not, striking up a small, terse conversation to keep him from going wild and hopefully sparing myself in the process.
Dread pooled low in my piscean belly when I turned to my friend and saw absolutely no recognition in his eyes. It was like staring at one of the actual bettas back at Pet Bonanza, and he was flaring again, adding insult to injury. He charged the glass sidewall, swimming backwards in an angry daze as he made contact. Had he forgotten the glass was there? How fish-brained had he gone?
“Ro? Hey, you there?” I turned and straightened my fins behind me, peering expectantly beyond the half-barrier Ariana had put between our tanks. Silence met my hesitant inquiry, and as the minutes stretched out and Ro just periodically charged at me, I realized I was on my own now.
Bettas were competitive, so shifters of our type were as well, but we weren’t as fight-to-the-death as our pure animal counterparts. I cared about Ro - I liked him. Okay, maybe more than liked him. If we hadn’t gotten snagged by poachers when we did, I probably would have stumbled through a conversation I’d had in my head dozens of times, before and after. Once we were stuck in both our fish forms and forced into cramped cups besides, it seemed pointless to voice my secret desires - it wasn’t as if we could even fool around as fish.
I didn’t know if I could even save Ro now; even though we’d had a short, blunt conversation only a day ago, there was no telling when one of our own had crossed that threshold to wild. No matter what, saving either of us started with me getting out of my fins and into a mating potential, and that meant getting Ariana to kiss me. I could speak to her, break that barrier, but the drawbacks just weren’t worth it. Better to live as a fish forever, even gone wild, than lose my life to shifter council enforcers.
Ariana seemed tender-hearted, and kind. I wasn’t a manipulative fish by nature, but things were getting desperate and time was running out for both Ro and I. I began to pull together a half-assed plan, needing to turn towards the door to block out Ro’s reflective flaring. It was annoying only because he didn’t recognize me, because his fins really were impressive. I needed to concentrate though, andreallysell this if it was going to work.
When I saw the apartment door open and Ariana step in, I bobbed up to the surface of the water and set things in motion. I took a huge breath of air, letting myself float to the top of the tank as if I were dead, my fins limp and fluttering like sodden flags. I tried to loll my eyes in the direction of the kitchen, waiting patiently for her to notice something was wrong. It only took a minute or two before she was rushing over to my tank with an anguished gasp.
“No no no…” Ariana’s voice got progressively tighter with panic, and I had to focus on keeping my “dying” eyes fixed to the ceiling rather than looking at her expression. The top of the tank lid clunked open, and a whooshing sound told me she’d dipped a hand in my tank, just before my body was lifted out of the water and into the air. Did I feel bad for misleading my hopefully-mate? Sure, but I’d spend our time together making it up to her in a million different ways, hopefully at least half of which would be in bed. I made a big show of heaving breaths, ceasing my thrashing as soon as I was in her palm.
“I…uhm…oh god, what do I…” Ariana made a little whimper of alarm before doing exactly what I’d hoped she’d do: she cupped her other hand over me and leaned in, and I braced for the kiss that would hopefully jumpstart my return to bipedal freedom. Instead of the expected grief-ridden peck, however, she blew firmly. Honestly, the change in air pressure was pretty unpleasant from a fish standpoint, particularly because I didn’t actually need whatever half-assed fishy CPR she was attempting. But that bare brush of her lips into her closed hands was enough to start the mate magic working. A kiss was a kiss, and it was good enough to get me out of my fins.
Ariana sank to her knees as my weight increased in her palm, flopping my rapidly-expanding body awkwardly onto the carpet, her eyes wide with horror. She looked away as my fish-skin stretched and split along my limbs, absorbing into my long-lost human skin. I sighed happily as my body remembered half of itself again, flexing fingers that weren’t connected to each other. As I got to my knees and enjoyed a truly satisfying stretch that felt like it’d been years in the making, Ariana scrambled backwards on the carpet like a startled crab. “What thefuck!”
Her chest expanded as she sucked in a deep breath, eyes going even wider, ready to scream her lungs out. Thankfully, even with ungainly feet to contend with, I still had a measure of my aquatic grace in human form. I launched myself at her as she clambered to her feet, shoving her back into the soft embrace of the couch, covering her body with my own and her mouth with a careful palm. As soon as I was sure I had her properly caged, I leaned down to murmur in her ear.
“Shh. Shhhh. Easy now, lotus blossom. I’m going to explain everything, but first I need you to stop that screaming of yours. I’m not going to hurt you. You’re going to let me talk if I take my hand away, right?”
The reality of Ariana assaulted my now-human senses in the very best of ways: her scent, spiked by adrenaline, the softness of her silky skin, just barely damp from where I pressed against it. And Gods help me, the struggling wasn’t helping matters. Every jolt of her hips and shift of her thighs trapped between mine made my already-clear attraction to my potential mate even more obvious. The one prominent organ I didn’t share with my fish-self flexed and bobbed like it was seeking the water’s edge, leaving a thin, glimmering trail of arousal that stretched from my tip to the waist of her skirt.
I stared into her soft green eyes, imagining what we’d be like together, when her brow creased and a sharp pain bloomed in my hand. I yanked it back towards my chest with a yelp, a flash of red in the movement as I stared incredulously at my palm.
Ariana
I struggled again,swiping a hand across my mouth and spitting, torn between screaming now that I might be heard and getting the blood off my mouth. What if - oh God, what if he had some kind ofdisease? Where had he evencome fromand why was henaked?
I’d clearly been so worried over my fish that I hadn’t noticed a whole-ass goddamn nakedguythat had broken into my apartment.
How did he get in?
How long had he been here?
And why was his voice so sexy?
