Lapiz

Geale warily approached the clam. He could feel life radiating from the rough layered ridges of bone that formed its hard shell.

He placed his palms on its surface, brushing his fingers on the spots that were left exposed by the coat of barnacles.

He wasn't dreaming. It was really an ancient clam!

Ancient clams were once part of the human world ocean's marine life, back when the titans of the sea hunted in shallower waters.

Most of them left during the Migration of the Ancients - the great exodus of entities immortalized in human folklore. Some who were left behind should have turned into boulders supporting coral beds, chunks of rock, or sand with the passage of time.

So how did the ancient clam get there?

Geale pressed his forehead against its shell and closed his eyes. He recalled the first song he was taught as a child:

Oh great keeper, titan of protection

Purveyor of life, bounty of safe harbor

Hear this humble child in need of comfort

Beseeching your kindness, in dire of aid

A place away from nightmares and danger

In exchange sustenance, care, your desire

The clam hummed in response as words filled Geale's mind:

This titan desires nothing in return

Rest under my protection for as long as you need

Geale opened his eyes and smiled.

Bubbles rushed out of the edges of the structure, tracing its wavy mouth as the clam began to move. Geale scooted back as it sucked water into the empty space within itself.

He watched the ancient clam slowly open its mouth, revealing layers of plump flesh lining its bottom half and silky luminous sheets lining its upper one.

Geale could see the blood running through the sheets, illuminating the inside of the clam. He quickly dove into the plush flesh, bouncing off against it so he could feel its soft and warm touch all over his body.

He lifted a layer from the bottom shell and settled underneath it, sighing in delight as he listened to the clam's thrumming heartbeat.

Was this why Marnthe took him to the attic? Was this his room and not the cave where the pool was in? "You'll love it," Geale recalled Marnthe say.

And he did love it. He enjoyed being inside a proper clam.

He then remembered the bed that Marnthe said he slept on. Why did he sleep there when there was a clam underneath the house?

Geale scanned the space inside the clam. It seemed big enough for two mermen to share.

Perhaps Marnthe was too shy to ask if Geale would be willing to share it with him.

"Of course, I'll share it with you," Geale said, flushed at the thought of curling up to Marnthe inside the clam - their fishtails cozily intertwined.

"I'll share anything with you, including my entire existence. Ah! How embarrassing."

Geale was convinced he had completely lost his mind. He had seen merfolk gushing over their companions many times.

He had gushed over his first few relationships too, but not to the extent of fantasizing them without sex in mind. Was it because he hadn't seen Marnthe naked yet?

Most of the partners he went home from the Crescent Moon Festival had been merfolk he had danced with, made out with, flirted with, and slept with.

But Marnthe? He only watched him sing on stage and he was fully clothed the entire time.

Geale wasn't completely dense. After rescuing Marnthe and realizing he had lost his path home, he did wonder if it was all worth it.

What if he lost interest in him a few weeks later? What if he got fed up of the human world soon after?

What if he was just another passing fling to him?

But the more he interacted with Marnthe, the more he wanted to be with him, the more confident he was that the love he felt for him was different. It wasn't simple or fleeting.

He was the one, and sex with the one - at least from the stories he had heard - was always the best…not that he was in any rush to sleep with Marnthe…was he?

Geale sighed. But Marnthe was in love with someone else.

He had to woe him first, which he soon realized he didn't really know how to do beyond the passionate activities in the Crescent Moon Festival.

"How do you woe a merman?" he thought out loud.

Comfort him.

Geale stared wide-eyed at the beating flesh of the clam overhead. He smiled, realizing that the clam just offered him an advice.

"Thank you, great one. I think I know how to do just that."

He busied himself with planning how he could offer Marnthe comfort; the thoughts about how the ancient clam got there already forgotten.

***

Marnthe finished arranging the closet when Geale resurfaced from the pool. He heard a loud splash behind him and knew immediately that the younger man had returned.

"Marnthe!"

He turned around to look curiously at Geale. He held back a snicker at the wide smile on the younger man's face. "I told you you'll love your own room," he said, approaching him.

"Thank you!" Geale replied, resting his arms at the edge of the pool. "Is the clam yours? It's big enough for the two of us, so why don't we share it?

I promise I won't bother you in your sleep. I'll be a good merman."

Marnthe chuckled. He sat down in front of him. "Thank you for the offer, but I'll be sleeping upstairs in my room."

Geale frowned. "On that hideous bed? When it isn't comfortable?"

"I'm used to it."

"That's not an excuse!"

"It isn't. The clam isn't mine to begin with. It was someone else's."

Geale froze. Someone else's…the mermaid! Marnthe gave him the clam of the mermaid he was in love with?!

Geale suddenly felt disgusted that he enjoyed the clam so much.

Wait! So it was Marnthe who brought the clam there? He brought the clam into the human world for her?!

"It was a gift from the goddess," Marnthe continued, surprising Geale.

"The goddess?!" Geale's rival was close to the goddess?

"Yes, in exchange for Pierre's devotion to Lapiz."

"Pierre? Lapiz?"

"The original owners of the beach house."