Chapter Text
The two women stood waist deep in the cove, holding hands, talking quietly.
Rumi poked her head up above the water just enough to make sure they were the faces she'd memorized, the figures she now knew by heart. She could see the marks on them that made them hers—or at least could make them hers, if they accepted.
Their voices were like music to her. Familiar and sweet. They made her feel like she wasn't alone.
Rumi couldn't remember the last time she hadn't felt alone, even among her family.
She swam closer, using the reef to conceal herself, wanting to listen to them more, watch them more, like she'd done since she'd first heard their heartbeats in the water days ago. Heartbeats that had drawn her to them as surely as blood in the water drew sharks.
From her hiding spot she watched them kiss, Zoey giggling after in that adorable way and Rumi's chest swelled with affection.
They'd been hers from the moment she'd first heard their voices. Or was it she'd been theirs? Rumi thought it might go both ways at this point. It had been instinct and primal need and from the moment she'd laid eyes on them she'd known that she could not exist without them.
But they were each others' too and somehow that felt right. Like it couldn't be any other way. Her mother had had three mates, after all.
Running her tongue along her teeth, she slipped around them, circling them, close enough that they could see her. Mira called her name out and Zoey laughed in delight as Rumi rose out of the water and perched on a convenient rock.
The girls waded towards her, nervous in their step, clumsy like the humans they still were. Rumi smiled, teeth behind her lips, "You came."
"I'm not sure I could have resisted if I wanted to," Zoey admitted.
"You could." Rumi told her, "But it would hurt for awhile."
She held out her hands and they each took one, Mira slipping in close, running her hand up Rumi's arm and tracing the patterns on her shoulder. Zoey went straight for a kiss and Rumi happily obliged.
"So now what?" Mira whispered, nipping at her pointed ear, "Now that you have us?"
Rumi could lie. Lie and lure and claim in the way she almost had with both of them before she'd caught herself.
Rumi could lie.
But she wanted it to be their choice. She didn't want to change them without it—she'd never found out if her father had chosen the sea because he'd wanted it or because her mother had claimed him.
And while she'd loved her mother, she did not want to repeat past mistakes.
Though Celine was probably going to kill her for even going to the surface like this, let alone acting in ways just like her mother had.
Rumi chose not to lie, "You make a choice; leave and lament because the sea will always call to you but you will never see me again."
She leaned into Zoey's touch, "Or you join me. Become like me with the whole of the ocean ours to explore. But you can never return to the world you knew and that may haunt you for life."
"Like the stories," Zoey murmured.
"Or … I could make the choice." Rumi went still, closed her eyes, then forced the words out, "I could join you on land. But then I will never be able to return to the sea and it will haunt me for life."
"Rumi …" Mira moved to embrace her.
"Don't decide now." Rumi let out a breath, stealing a sweet selfish kiss from each of them, "Return here at the full moon."
Then she dove back into the water and left them, swimming as hard and fast as she could before her instincts could control her and she went back and made the choice for them.
She swam far, circling around the islands, trying to ignore the tug she felt towards them and failing miserably.
The two weeks until the full moon were the longest of her life, but she returned as she promised and waited on the rock as the moon rose high into the sky. She watched the silver body sail the night ocean and knew that she would choose them. She splashed her tail in the water and dug her nails into her palms, afraid of what the dawn would bring but knowing that she didn't really have a choice. She'd bound herself to them and would follow them onto land if she had to.
As the dawn broke she heard them. Humming and laughter, then their faces smiling as they came onto the beach. They both wore swimsuit tops with shorts and Rumi drank in the sight of them. Zoey burst into a run, crashing into the surf to reach Rumi first, but Mira wasn't far behind her.
Rumi said nothing, looking between them.
"We have a couple of questions," Mira said.
"I will answer as best I can."
Zoey nodded, "First…did you feel us? We felt you, even so far away."
"Yes." Rumi lowered her gaze, "That was my fault. For being so enthusiastic when I rescued you."
"Something to do with the bite marks then?" Mira asked.
Rumi nodded.
"Soooo you claimed us." Zoey touched Rumi's chin and made her lift her head to look at them.
"I'm sorry."
"It's cool, trust me."
"Do we get the teeth? If we choose to be like you?" Mira asked.
Tilting her head, Rumi studied her, "Yes?"
"Sick."
"So Mira and I have done a lot of talking," Zoey said, petting back some of Rumi's hair while holding Mira's hand. "I want to be with you, both of you. I don't really care which way we do it but if I'm honest the idea of exploring the ocean? Seeing sea turtles and whales migrating? I've been talking her ear off for two weeks about it. And not having to work a shitty day job? And with two sexy girlfriends? All sound super awesome. And you're something special, Rumi. I'd feel bad if I took the ocean from you."
"I… would." Rumi looked her in the eyes, "I mean I want the same. But I would choose land for you both."
Mira looked stunned. She slid her fingers along Rumi's cheek, "I don't think I could do that to you. And … I've been miserable. I'm tired of shitty people and fake smiles and I'm pretty sure my manager hired someone to kill me. Seeing Zoey's excitement only really made me more certain of what I wanted to do."
"We can lure him and others like him into the sea," Rumi suggested. "And rip their throats out."
"Why am I turned on?" Zoey whispered.
"I mean I was already sold but keep sweetening the pot." Mira grinned, leaning in and kissing her. Then she stepped back, pulling off her top and then pushing her shorts down.
By the time Zoey had done the same, Rumi was dizzy and needed a moment before she spoke, "You will be the most beautiful creatures under the sea…Or above it."
"Hard to beat you." Zoey took her hand, kissing the webbing between each finger one at a time.
"I'm ready," Mira said. "I made a will, everything I have given to one charity or another so I have no reason to stay on land." Her eyes flicked between the siren and Zoey, "And every reason to go."
Zoey leaned against Mira, "I'm ready, Rumi."
"This will probably hurt at first," Rumi warned.
Mira just nodded, "Figured."
Rumi pulled Zoey in, then Mira, filling their lungs with air and then she gripped their hands and dove.
Dove away from shore, from the shallows, deeper and deeper, only pausing long enough to keep air in their lungs. And once they were so deep that the only light came from Rumi, she let her instincts finally free.
She sank her teeth into Zoey's shoulder in the same spot as before but much deeper. She pulled Mira in to bite her thigh. Then she let go of both and sang as their blood drifted from their wounds. Both hung there in the water a moment, before light flared in the center of both of their chests. The cracking of bones rang heavy in the deep as Rumi sang faster, swimming around them protectively, eyes glowing brighter than the rest of her, operating solely on those instincts as she wove new shapes from old.
And when her song trailed off, she saw them.
Zoey, her patterns all greens and whites and glowing blue, her fins even more gossamer than Rumi's. Her eyes were a shade of sea-green she'd never seen before and the place she'd been marked was a slightly different white from the rest of her markings. Zoey looked at her fingers and the fins along her arm, then she laughed, the sound somehow even more beautiful in the water.
Pink light rippled across Mira's long form, her hair somehow even more voluminous, her fins elegant, her patterns various shades of shimmering pink. Her eyes glowed a lighter shade than her hair. Perfect, except for a slightly off-colored mark on her body where her thighs had once been. She hovered there like some coral goddess from the deeps.
Zoey swam in close to Mira, then tangled their bodies together.
Rumi moved in next, wrapping around them both with arms and fins and tail and whispered, "Mark me."
She saw the shift in their eyes at the request, the way their pupils blew wide and the way instinct took over. Mira pulled Rumi's head back by the hair and bit her throat. Zoey's teeth sank into her hip and Rumi twitched as a moan escaped her. She hovered there for a moment, recovering as her girls turned to mark each other.
Now they all belonged equally to each other.
"So does this mean we just eloped?" Zoey asked, eyes still blown wide.
Rumi blinked, looking at Mira, "What does that word mean?"
"Married."
"Oh!" Rumi ran her hands down their arms, "I suppose so. My kind don't really do marriages like humans, but we do mate for life."
Mira grinned, all razor sharp teeth, "I wouldn't have it any other way."
"I'm going to need to teach you proper etiquette," Rumi decided. "Flashing your teeth like that might get you attacked."
Mira shrugged.
"So where should we go?" Zoey let go of them, circling them, doing a loop and then darting around with greater and greater speed, little giggles escaping her.
Rumi watched, utterly transfixed, "Anywhere you want."
"~Everything's better, down where it's wetter~" Zoey sang, and Mira's laugh warmed up Rumi's insides.
"Do you have a place you live?" Mira lazily spun in place before bending backwards to see how flexible her spine was, "Beside the cavern with your guitar."
Heat coiling inside of her, Rumi smiled bashfully, "Yes, but that can wait, I'm not ready to share you with anyone."
Zoey vibrated with excitement, rushing in against Rumi and wrapping around her, "Can we find the sea turtles?"
Mira looked at Zoey and smiled, "Yeah, I think I'd like to find the turtles. Zoey has told me so much about them."
"Turtles then," Rumi said, her patterns and fins glowing with joy. "Try to keep up."
And when she started to swim, she felt them, one on either side of her, matching her speed. Rumi couldn't help but sing.
Their voices joined hers, hearts beating in sync.