Love snaps, 8

 Kayama was ecstatic that she was invited to the institute. She followed Hizashi closely all the way back to the aquarium medical bay, only hesitating when he opened the gate to get inside. Hizashi quickly looked around, then darted to his bed of seaweed in the far end to hide the necklace.

"I'm not giving it to her with you around," he told her in exasperation when she stared at him.

"Aww."

"Don't embarrass me," he hissed in warning as he surfaced.

"Zashi!" Elly only just returned and she rushed forward with such a look of relief on her face he felt ashamed.

"Sorry, baby." He held her tight when she splashed into the water without a care. He noticed in passing she had her wetsuit on, and wondered uneasily if she had planned on going out to look for him. "I should've let you know I was leaving."

"No, it was perfect. The cops showed up and I was afraid we wouldn't be able to warn you in time."

"Oh." He blinked. "That's different, then." She was trembling so he started purring softly to soothe her. "But it's okay. I'm okay."

"Y - yeah."

Kayama cleared her throat from behind him, and he waved a hand towards her. "Another friend of mine wanted to meet you. I'll have to translate for this one, though. Her human's a little rough."

"Oh!" Elly was startled to see a woman this time but she smiled and waved. "Okay. Hi! I knew Hizashi had a lot of friends. He's so sweet."

After translating for Kayama she rolled her eyes. "Sweet?" The mermaid snickered. "Tell her I think she must have the wrong guy."

He gave her a sour look. "Really?"

It didn't get any better after that, as his so-called friend was invested in outing Elly as a terrible person. After several innocent-seeming questions she tried another tack.

"So... you <i>don't</i> know the rumors about his type of mer?"

Hizashi glared at her. "Kayama."

"No." Elly blinked in confusion. "I didn't know you guys even existed before I met him! I thought you were a fairy tale... no offense."

"Huh." She squinted while she decided if this were true or not. "I thought maybe a few of you wa - err, humans knew some stuff about us."

"Not really. All we have is some stories. And I don't think they're correct at all."

"Hmm. Aren't you concerned about, well..." Kayama made a wiggling gesture on her stomach. "He hasn't got anything to screw with, he's all legs!"

"<i>Kayama..!</i>"

"Well you don't!"

"I'm not translating that!" He carefully kept his claw under control, though it was clicking in agitation at this point.

"It's okay." Elly placed her hand on the shiny shell, startling both mers. Hizashi was more stunned knowing she had <i>seen</i> what he was capable of and still chose to touch him there. "She just wants to make sure you're safe. That you're all going to be safe. My species hasn't been the kindest to yours."

"Do you know what she said?"

"I didn't need to know to understand it was something touchy. It's okay. I want to hear."

This was met with a ferocious grin from the merwoman. "Yeah! So ask her why she wants to be with you if you can't mate!"

He dutifully repeated this, choking only a little. He also waved Kayama out the door, indicating she'd overstayed her welcome.

Elly was surprised at the blunt observation and it took her a minute to answer as they progressed outside. "I study sea life so I <i>do</i> know we're not compatible."

"Don't humans want to breed? You're not gonna be able to with him."

"Not everyone wants babies. And we could adopt."

"Human or mer?"

The question struck Elly as she fully realized the problems of living with Hizashi as a husband. Not only would they not be able to legally marry in her world, she would never be able to live in his. They might be able to work through a lot of the issues but it was definitely going to be more stressful than she originally imagined.

Still...

They reached the end of the dock alongside the open waterway and Elly gave up with a shrug.

"I don't know," she said in exasperation. "I don't know a lot of things. What I do, though, is that he's so important to me I'm willing to deal with the tough problems. He's worth it."

Hizashi beamed up at her from the waterway.

Kayama stared hard at the couple for a moment, her eyes narrowing once more. All at once she broke into a toothy grin and waved goodbye before dipping down into the ocean.

They stood for awhile looking out over the water sparkling in the dimming sunlight before he beckoned her back to the aquarium. "C'mon inside. I've got something for you."