14

Bringing Mero Home

I take my shoes off before walking into the living room.

"Ah, Dear Sir!" Mero claps her hands together on seeing me. "Welcome home!"

"Welcome home, Darling," says Miia.

"Welcome home, Aruji-dono." Cerea smiles.

"Your house is nice as ever, Darling." Smith adjusts her glasses.

"Thank you." I smile. "My loves."

The four girls blush. Miia looks down, covering her mouth with her hands. Cerea covers her whole face. Mero stares at me, hands over her lips, eyes shimmering.

Smith watches her feet, mumbling, "Mo, you're such a playboy, Darling."

I laugh. "So, Mero, they've told you everything?"

"Yes." Mero nods with a smile. "Miia-dono is your wife, Cerea-dono is your loyal servant and wife, and I am your mistress."

"Hai?" I cock my head to the side, a question mark appearing on the side of my face. "Mistress? Miia, what exactly did you tell her?"

"No, no, Darling!" Miia fidgets, features frantic, voice intense. "I told her that I am… your wife, and Cerea is your knight. I don't know how she came up with the Mistress part."

"It is pretty simple." Mero smiles, hands steepled in front of her. "You're married to Miia-dono. Cerea-dono is your obedient knight. You keep Cerea-dono for gratification, in addition to your wife, because you love tormenting your lovers."

Before we can speak, the glow on Mero's face grows more brilliant. Her hands move to her cheeks and a pained expression reigns on her face, like an actor in a Shakespearean tragedy.

"And now that your two lovers have made peace, you brought me, the Mistress, to torture all three of us."

"Something is very wrong with this picture," I whisper.

Smith snickers.

"Also, there is Smith-dono," Mero continues, making Smith pause and stare. "You also keep her under the influence of your… man's thing, to keep a steady flow of lovers. You are a playboy who loves breaking hearts."

"Ma, saying that he keeps me to…" Smith starts and stands up, crossed arms pointed at me. "You don't keep me to bring more girls for you, do you, Yamato?"

I think for a second. "No, I don't."

Smith walks closer to me. "Why did you pause?"

"Because, if I said 'No' without pausing, that would mean I'm speaking from instinct and not my mind."

Smith stands in front of me and stares. "Hm."

"Well." I scratch the back of my head. "I see my, sorry, our house has been renovated again. I wonder what the changes are."

Smith continues staring for another second and then sighs, hands on her sides. "They have made another room for Mero."

"Oh." I punch my left palm with my right hand. "Was there any need for that?"

"She's a mermaid. What do you think?"

"Oh!" Mero says. "I have my own room? How lovely!"

"It's upstairs," says Smith. "Why don't you take her to show it, Yamato?"

"Sure." I walk to Mero.

"Thank you, dear Sir." Mero smiles. "You see, I can't walk up or down stairs."

"Oh. Well, let's see what we can do about that."

I pick her up bridal style. Blushes creep on all four faces in the room.

"What are you doing, Darling!" Miia says to me, slithering closer to me, fingers twitching as if wanting to strangle someone.

"What?"

"Mero is a cold-blooded creature, just like you, Miia-chan," says Smith, placing a hand on Miia's shoulder. "She needs to be in water to adjust her body temperature."

"Well, I'm a cold-blooded creature too! Darling, I'm cold."

"In that case, you should take a warm bath, Miia." I smile at her walking up the stairs, Mero blushing in my arms.

Miia appears a second later with a towel covering her torso, another wrung around her hair, a glass bottle of milk in her hand.

"Mo, Darling!" I hear her as I continue walking up the stairs. "You're so caring and I love you for that, but I only want you to be caring to me."

"Calm down, Miia," Cerea says.

"Why are you so calm, Cerea?" Miia's attention turns to her. "Aren't you jealous?"

"I am, Miia, I am. But the will of my dear Aruji is greater than my insignificant feelings."

"They really love you, don't they, Dear Sir?" Mero says.

"Huh? Oh yes, they do," I chuckle, my heart swelling at the thought of my girls.

"Do you…" Mero starts and then starts fidgeting, looking away with a swallow.

"What, love them back?"

"Um…" she pauses and nods.

"Of course I do." I place my forehead against hers, making her face go redder.

"Oh." Pain creeps over her face again. "You love them dearly, and yet you flirt with me too. Who are seeking to hurt, me or them?"

As if two not-normal girls weren't enough. The thought makes me smile wider.

Walking, I'm too occupied with her and don't notice when I reach the last step. As a result, I trip and fall. Mero screams.

Not making sense of where I am or what I'm doing, I touch the back of my head. Steps sound on the stairs.

"What happen…" I hear Miia pause and then scream, "what are you doing, Darling!"

"Huh?" I open one eye to glance at her. Then I notice that I have one hand on Mero's breast, which is uncovered, the cup of her bra slipping. She is covering her blushing face with her hands.

"No, this isn't what it…" I try to defend myself.

"Darling!" Miia steps forward, her hands raised in a clawing gesture, the aura of a demon around her. "What kind of man-slut have you become?"

"No, no, you're…"

"Calm down, Miia-chan." Smith places a hand on Miia's shoulder.

Miia turns her face to Smith, hoping to intimidate her with her aura. Instead, Smith's cold gaze freezes her demon.

"I don't think Darling is the one who's wrong here," Smith continues after pacifying the situation. "No one is wrong here, in fact. Mero is a mermaid. Her body is covered with fluids to keep her moisturized. That makes her clothes… slippery."

"Is that the truth, Mero-dono?" Cerea asks, appearing more composed than Miia.

Without speaking, Mero nods, looking down at her hands in her lap.

"Aruji-dono," Cerea says to me.

"Hai, Cerea?"

"Take Mero-dono to her room. I brought her wheelchair." She pushes the wheelchair forward for added effect.

"Oh, Sir Knight!" Mero's face glows. "You truly are honorable, worthy of your master's praise."

Cerea blushes with her mouth open, her confident aura evaporated.

I take the wheelchair from Cerea. "Good girl, Cerea." I pat her head.

Under my hand, her eyes close. Her horse ears flap as I pat her. She purrs.

"I know you'll continue to serve your master, Noble knight," Mero says after I shift her from the floor to the wheelchair.

Cerea kneels in front of her. "Hai!"

I have the vision of Mero sitting on a throne with a crown and regal attire, with Cerea kneeling in front of the crown, wearing an armor, clutching a helmet under her right arm, a sword on her belt. I'm sure Miia and Smith have seen the same vision.

"Let's take you to your room." I turn the wheelchair and walk to the room.

Miia slithers behind me. "We'll come too!"

"Wow!" Everyone except Smith cannot help but exclaim on seeing the room.

It is a large swimming pool, complete with tiles on the sides, a large window on the opposite wall bringing sunlight in.

"Is the water heated?" I ask.

"Yep!" Smith adjusts her glasses with a smile. "Customized for Mero. Oh, heads up, everyone. This is Mero's pool. No one uses it without her permission."

"Why's that?" Miia asks.

"Because she's a different species, with different needs, Miia-chan. You should know better than anyone."

Miia's frown loosens. "I see."

"Dear Sir!" Mero smiles at me. "Will you…"

"What? Oh!" A smile erupts on my lips. "Sure."

I pick Mero up in my arms. Her eager arms wrap around my neck. She is less shy than the first time.

I place her by the pool.

"Dear Sir?" Mero gives me a questioning look. "You have to put me inside."

"I know." I put my hand on her head. "But are you gonna go in with your clothes on?"

"Darling no ecchi!" Miia bursts.

Mero looks at me with wide eyes, a blush on her face that I'm already used to.

"This is not what you think." I shake my head with a smile. "Miia is getting angry because I'm not referencing to taking off her clothes."

Miia has an abrupt pause. She swallows and looks down, her fingers playing with each other.

"Busted." I grin. "Now, as for you, Mero…"

"What about me, Dear Sir?" Mero's voice is a mewl.

"You are going to swim in your swimsuit, right, without the additional clothes? That's how all of us swim."

"Yes, of course, Dear Sir."

"Then, let's take the additional stuff off."

She raises her hands like a child and I take off her Lolita garb, leaving a bra and panties.

"There." I smile and pause to leer at her boobs and her smooth midriff. There are gills in place of ribs.

"Thank you, Dear Sir." She looks down, a hand below her chin. "Will you…?" The end of her tail splashes in the water.

"Put you in?" I finish her sentence. "Sure."

I put my arms around her. She hugs my neck as I pick her up and place her in the water. She lowers herself butt-first and drops her weight.

Maybe she's not aware that her arms are still around my neck. When she drops her weight, she drops me with it into the water.

"Cyah!" My clothes are heavy with water as I surface, coughing.

"Darling!"

"Aruji-dono!"

"Dear Sir!"

In this chorus of voices, I feel a warmth around my body.

Mero is holding me aloft.

"Oh, dear Sir!" She looks at me, her eyes full of what I think are tears.

"Why are you crying, Mero?" Unthinking, I put my arms around her.

"Oh, oh…" Tears escape her.

She throws her head on my shoulder as her body shakes with sobs.

"Wha…" I try to ask, then smile. "There, there." I pat her head, not caring about what I'm attracting from the three females outside the pool.

"Darling!" A moment later, a massive weight falls on me and I find myself unable to breathe or swim.

Liquid warmth wraps me and I fall, noticing a light as it reclines in my sight.