Fionn shuddered around him, wholly pushed off the cliff by Rory. Rory bucked in his arms, releasing an open-mouthed holler as Fionn’s knot swelled against his insides. He wriggled and writhed involuntarily, grinding ever more friction out of the heavy bulge nestled so tightly in the inner pocket of his bower.
At some point Rory’s cock shot its load, but it barely mattered because his climax was far from over. He was caught in a feedback loop with Fionn, in turn feeling the pulse of Fionn’s knot and then the pulse of his own insides and the way both their bodies trembled in an incessant state of euphoria and near-collapse.
What might have been hours later for all Rory knew, their joint orgasm began to run out of steam. The tremors slowed down, the waves of ecstasy flowed more gently. Eventually, with some coaxing from Fionn’s palms stroking over his chest, Rory came back to consciousness.
How do mermen get anything done?Rory wondered, staring at the sparkling rock above him. They had revolved several times in their floating position. He’d lost track of which direction was up or down.
Fionn stretched out a leg and hooked it around the hammock. Inching closer by degrees, he managed to draw their entwined bodies into the net. Rory’s spines had relaxed by this point, his entire body feeling loose and depleted. The warm weight of Fionn’s cock still rested inside him, no longer engorged but heavy all the same.
Rory’s eyes drifted closed. He fell asleep to the sound of Fionn’s gills behind him and light kisses over his hair.
* * *
A month passed in the peaceful shadows of the Shiant Isles. Rory spent all of it learning how to live like a Minchman.
He went on frequent foraging expeditions with Neacel, though at first he was too caught up in watching the wildlife to be any use at plucking good ingredients from the sea floor. Fionn made an admirable attempt to teach Rory how to fight with a spear, but Rory quickly found his claws and new reflexes were a much better match for sparring with.
He learned to distinguish the shapes of various shipping vessels from beneath their hulls, and then the shadows of larger sea creatures as they might appear through the underwater murk. Sharks were more placid than Rory imagined, dolphinsa source of occasionally destructive mischief, and whales his favourite travelling companions.
Fionn enjoyed more freedom too, now allowed to roam widely over the Minch. By the end of the month they had planned a trip to circumnavigate the entire Outer Hebrides. The islands represented a wall to Fionn that had hemmed him in, and a horizon to Rory that he had long looked over. Beyond them, the wide and cold North Atlantic Ocean butted up against the protected channel of the Minch.
‘Do you think you’ll be gone long?’ Neacel asked them over supper.
‘Probably just a few weeks,’ Rory said, trying not to worry him. Neacel wasn’t so keen on travelling beyond the bounds of the kingdom, so would be staying behind.
Neacel and Fionn exchanged glances over Rory’s head.
‘And what then?’ Neacel said.
Rory paused mid-slurp of red seaweed—a delicacy of Neacel’s that he’d come to think of as sea noodles. ‘What do you mean? We’ll be back here.’
‘Until the next expedition is planned,’ Fionn said with a knowing smile. ‘Have you spent more than a day yet without trying to explore somewhere new?’
‘There’s a lot to see,’ Rory replied defensively. But Fionn had a point. He was so full of energy lately, he couldn’t sit still. How could anyone sit still, knowing all of this was here? A whole ocean to explore. So much of it that humans hadn’t even seen. Christ, humans knew more about the surface of the moon than they did about the earth’s oceans.
What was out there, waiting to be found?
‘You disappeared on me the other day.’ Fionn chuckled, gesturing for Neacel’s benefit with his boiled clam. ‘I found him chasing a fishing trawler, of all things.’
‘There was a seal stuck in their net! You helped me release it, for Christ’s sake.’
‘I did. And I also stopped you from climbing aboard to berate the crew.’
Rory grumbled into his food. The young grey seal had been attracted by the fishermen’s haul of mackerel. It was the seal’s hunting grounds, after all—why shouldn’t it try to stick a nose into the seething shoal being dragged from the waves? Nobody on board had seemed bothered enough to try to release it at the time.
Fionn’s hand gently clasped his wrist. ‘I will always go with you, Rory. I will stand with you. And I hope that one day we will see the Great Reef together, too.’
Rory swallowed back the lump in his throat. He felt he could could anything with his warrior prince at his side. ‘I’d like that.’
Neacel rolled his eyes at them, but it was with a smile. ‘Hurry up, both of you. Else you’ll miss your own ceremony.’
Fionn withdrew with a pout. ‘I thought the advantage of doing it this way was that we got to choose the order of events.’
‘Probably shouldn’t keep your dad waiting though,’ Rory sniggered. He focused on eating mainly to keep his mind off what was coming. So that the butterflies in his chest didn’t overwhelm Fionn through the bond, though he was sure Fionn knew already how he was feeling.
They finished up their supper and then departed the cave as a trio. Fionn led the way to the palace through the moonlit ocean. A whole parade of guards had been stationed to greet them along the way, escorting at a respectful distance. Acha joined them halfway, frolicking around Fionn’s legs as he swam.
Inside the palace they followed the green glow of orb-lights to the throne room. The chamber was bedecked in kelp banners and filled to the seams with a waiting congregation.
