"Hey!" He was wearing the glasses and had his hair done up again when she walked in the next morning. "There she is."
"Morning. Your hair looks great like that, did I tell you yesterday?" Elly shuffled over with a coffee in one hand, yawning. "I meant to."
"No, but thanks. You look awesome in your water outfit, by the way."
"Water... oh, the wetsuit!"
"Is that what it's called? It's pretty, I like it. I like your other clothing too, but the <i>wetsuit</i> looks more like scales covering you up."
"I suppose you'd prefer scales." She looked thoughtful as she sat on the edge of the pool.
"What I like is when you come in the water with me."
"Mmm." Still too sleepy to process much, she didn't think about what he was saying. Instead, she brought up something that had been on her mind since the other day. "Speaking of the water, we were too busy last night to mention it, but you brought some of your things, didn't you? That's how you fixed your hair up." She pointed at the corner where the kelp bed nestled.
"Is that all right? I want to stay with you, even though I'm better."
Elly frowned, rubbing one of her elbows nervously. "Won't more of your people miss you? Your family, maybe, um... anyone else?"
"Nah, you saw Yagi already. There's some others - I got a friend I've known since we were pups -- but I talked to him. It's okay."
"You don't have a, um... what would you call it, girlfriend? A mate?"
"Whaaaat?" He drew the word out comically long. "No way! I don't have a mate. I wouldn't have been flirting with you if I... oh, shells." He swore softly and ran his hand over his hair. "I'm not saying what I mean. See, I, uh, like you."
Elly's cheeks started to burn. "I like you, too."
Hizashi's golden eyes took on a darker hue as he swam close. He took her hand in his left, keeping the pincer underwater. "I mean I <i>really</i> like you. I know I might seem gross to you or whatevs -"
"You do <i>not</i>!" Her shocked exclamation was enough for him to move his earflaps in amusement and relief.
"Okay, then. I kinda see how we've been vibing and all, yeah? But we're both so freshin' different. Are you really okay with that?"
Elly frowned. "You're okay with me, right?"
"Yeah! I never thought I'd be attracted to a human - no offense, but legs like yours, we call 'em 'sticks'. In a deragatory way." He shrugged. "They're weird to me. Your bottom half is different. But it's on <i>you</i>. That makes it interesting instead of gross, if that makes sense?"
"It does." She reached out and touched the tip of one of his antennae with her finger. It flicked back quickly but cautiously returned. "Scary, but interesting."
Hizashi nodded vigorously. "We don't hafta think about anything too much right now but would this be something you want?" His eyes paled and his ears lowered in fear. "Could you, maybe, want <i>me</i>?"
Elly saw his angst and it nearly broke her heart. She wanted to reassure him, to tell him all the right things, but she didn't know what to say. She slipped into the water instead, holding out her arms and entrusting that he wouldn't let her sink.
Hizashi caught her with a low, pleased whistle, reverting to his native language. His antennae flicked, curling around her cheeks as their noses brushed together. He took a quick, shaky breath and placed his lips on hers before he could overthink anything. They were nervous at first and it started out slow, a tentative brush against one another. But the contact was electric and they grew bolder almost immediately.
Hizashi's claw tensed, then pulled back as the kiss deepened, becoming more passionate. Her arms circled caressingly around him, her hands stroking the nape of his neck. His skin was smooth, slightly cool, with a pretty light scaling slick to the touch. Hers was warm and so very soft...
His claw snapped when she traced close to his gill slits, an extremely sensitive area. A bullet of bubbly water shot out and hit the edge of the pool, creating a jagged circle exactly like what it sounded like, a very loud gunshot. Elly shrieked, jerking out of his arms and slipping under due to her shock. Hizashi caught her and clambered quickly out so she wouldn't accidentally inhale any water.
"Sorry... sh - oh, sorry, I didn't mean -" He eyed the damage nervously. "Um... I can help fix that."
The door crashed open and the entire back room staff on duty tried to rush in all at once.
"What was that?"
"Are you okay?!"
"Was that a gun?!"
"It wasn't a gun," Elly assured them quickly.
"I did it," Hizashi admitted glumly, pointing to his claw. "Sorry."
Kan was staring wildly at their embrace. "What happened?"
Elly did a double take all at once. She was gently cradled in the shrimp mer's arms and a few of his top legs besides. "It was an accident... Hizashi, you can get out of the water?!"
"Yeah." He set her down. He was longer on land with his tail stretched out, and he instinctively curled it to appear less menacing to the frightened humans huddled near the door. "For a little while."
"An <i>accident</i>?!" Kan pointed at the hole in the solid concrete foundation of the pool.
"That was my fault," Hizashi repeated. "A stupid, teenage thing to do. I swear I don't snap off like that all the time. It's just, well..." He blinked, uncertain exactly how much she wanted her staff to know. "I got, uh. Too excited."
The big man stopped and turned slowly to face them. After a few moments of intense scrutinizing, he startled them all by throwing back his head and laughing loudly.
"Kan, what the hell!"
"My man got 'too excited'," he snorted, still laughing. "I see what was going on here! And to think I was worried about him <i>attacking</i> you. What we've got isn't a dangerous monster, it's just a horny shrimp!"
"<i>Kan</i>!"
Hizashi glared at him, his cheeks burning, and slunk off with his many legs skittering across the ground back into the water.
The others in the group started to disperse, though a few of the ladies lingered.
One of them grew bold enough to ask what they were all thinking. "Were you two really..?"
Elly sighed. "Zashi?" The top half of his head popped out of the water. "I have to go talk to my team about this... us. Do you want to be part of it?"
He shook his head, water flying.
"Okay."
"The guests heard," one of them told her as they hurried out. "We had to make up an excuse but they didn't look very convinced."
"Shit," Elly exclaimed, her eyes narrowing. "Endy's gonna hear about this, isn't he? I swear, that man will use anything as an excuse to harass us."
Hizashi frowned as the door shut. He might have caused more trouble than he originally thought.
