Warning Mature Content Ahead.
Lucky thing Alastor was what one would call a waste not, what not, person because on that night he had a bonfire on the beach with Charlie and Beth, he had brought some of the remaining firewood back to the house just in case a situation called for it. And a power outage in the middle of a hurricane definitely called for it. Using the flashlight he found under the sink and lighter, he was able to get a nice, warm fire started on the hearth. After that he grabbed a box of candles from the closet and proceeded to light each of them one by one, as he placed them around the house. Not only did it make things inside easier to see, but it made a very romantic setting.
"Better?" Alastor asked Charlie, as he wrapped a blanket around her shoulders.
"Much." She sighed, glad that she could at least see again.
Once again there came thunder and it caused her to jump, but thankfully not cry.
"I think we need something to block out that dreadful noise." Alastor said. "And I know just the thing."
He walked back to his room, pulled out his little treasure box, and grabbed a cassette tape from it along with his wireless radio. Next he brought it back into the main room, placed it on the counter top, and put the tape inside the device.
"What's that?" Charlie said.
"A little music to pass the time and overshadow the thunder." He answered. "This was my mother's favorite song because it was the first one she ever danced to with my father."
"Let me guess, it was at a fancy party where they were dressed formally and couples were getting together on the dance floor."
"No." He chuckled. "Just the opposite. They were on their second date to a fair but suddenly it started pouring down rain and they had to seek shelter at a diner. The song came on the radio and my father asked her to dance, and my mother just couldn't refuse. Now a greasy diner may not be the most romantic place to have your first dance with the love of your life but, it didn't matter to either one of them."
"I like that. It doesn't seem so superficial."
Alastor pressed the button on the radio, and turned up the volume, allowing the song on the tape to fill the entire house.
"Maybe you thought I hung the moon,
Maybe you thought we were Johnny and June.
Maybe we thought it was just us two,
Maybe we spoke too soon."
"This song is nice." Charlie remarked.
Alastor approached her with a smile and extend his hand to her.
"May I have this dance?"
"Here?" She asked him. "Now?"
"Why not? It beats just sitting and waiting."
"Good point."
She smiled too and dropped the blanket on to the floor. He took her hands and they began to dance. It was a very playful waltz, one where they didn't care about having proper grace and balance. This was just a motion of letting their excitement and pleasure control how they moved.
"We never lie and we don't tell tales,
We bite our tongues and our fingernails.
We fall in love and we don't fall out,
Maybe we speak too soon.
Here's you and me,
And in between we draw a line but we can't see where it's bend.
We scratch our heads and race against the heart's content,
Oh, whoa-whoa-oh, yeah."
As Alastor spun Charlie in his arms and listened to her laughter, he couldn't help but feel that the two of them had danced together many times. He could have never imagined a greater happiness than being here with the woman who had the most beautiful eyes.
"Maybe we hurt who we love the most,
Maybe it's all we can stand.
Maybe we walk through the world as ghosts,
Break my own heart before you can.
Here's you and me,
And in between we draw a line but we can't see where it's bend.
We scratch our heads and race against the heart's content,
Oh, whoa-whoa-oh, yeah."
Charlie found herself wishing that this moment could never end. The fear of getting her heart broken and losing her life was becoming overruled by her growing desire for the human man with a charming smile unlike any other.
"Maybe we know how the story ends,
Maybe it's not even about us.
We both retreat to opposing stands,
And the love lives on without us.
One thing I know for sure is love will find a way.
Love will find a way.
Here's you and me,
And in between we draw a line but we can't see where it's bend.
We scratch our heads and race against the heart's content,
Oh, whoa-whoa-oh, yeah."
Despite their better judgement, Alastor and Charlie just kept falling more in love every minute. A spin made her heart fly, a dip made his heart want to burst, and when their gazes met, oh Heaven help them, no force in all the world could pry them apart.
"You and me."
The singer's voice echoed as they drew closer to each other.
"You and me."
They were leaning in again, she was trying to initiate a kiss.
"You and me."
But when the song ended, Alastor stopped. His joy was now replaced by hesitation and slight fear. Fear over where this was going. Over what this could mean for them. He didn't want to hurt Charlie, but he wasn't sure how this would all end.
"The other night was a mistake." He said quietly.
She briefly looked disappointed, yet she agreed with him.
"Yes it was." Though she sounded unsure.
"Please understand, you're a wonderful woman and I enjoy your company greatly. More so than anyone else's, but I....I can't do this." He said in a tone that was very gentle. "I don't want to do this."
"Neither do I." She confessed, her voice just as gentle as his. "Not with you. It's nothing against you it's just...It wouldn't workout between us. We live two different lives."
"Yes so let's just stop." Alastor said shaking his head, disgusted with himself.
He looked downward to avoid meeting her gaze, but this allowed him to better see the blisters and callouses on her hands.
"What happened here?" He asked lifting her hands up to study them.
"Oh it's nothing." She said. "I just did a little pearl diving yesterday."
"Pearl diving? That's a rather risky activity. What were you doing that for?"
"Well I don't have any money and there was something I wanted to buy from that pawn shop. You said a lot of pearls was worth something."
"I know but you've could have drowned collecting those pearls and look how bad you hurt yourself. If you wanted something, why didn't you ask me to buy it for you?"
Charlie stepped back, feeling bashful.
"Because it wasn't something for me. It was for you."
"What do you mean?"
Charlie then opened the hall closet and brought down something she had hidden at the top of the shelf, presenting it to Alastor.
"I was waiting for a better day to give this to you, but since you asked. Here."
Alastor couldn't believe his eyes. It was the model steamboat from the pawn shop, the one that looked exactly like the one he had been given as a child.
"I could tell how much you wanted it and you're always giving me such things, I wanted to do something for me. Do you like it?"
Alastor didn't say anything. He didn't even smile. He just slowly took the boat from her hands and looked at it. Trying to comprehend what this woman had just done. She actually did something difficult, painful, and possibly dangerous just for him. Just to buy him something that would make him happy. No one else had ever done that for him. Not since his mother had passed away. It was always him who had to go through so much for another person. Not the other way around.
"You don't like it?" Charlie asked after five minutes had passed, and he had spoken no words and smile had not returned to his face.
"No!" He quickly assured her. "No I do. Really I do."
He carefully placed the boat on the counter, next to the radio.
"But I don't understand, why did you do that? It's only a silly boat."
"A silly boat that would have made you happy." She said. "I wanted to make you happy."
"I appreciate the thought, but you didn't have to go that far. Just look at your hands dear, and what if the current had pulled you down? My happiness couldn't have been worth all that?" He looked up into her eyes and found himself once again drowning in a sea of blue and silver. "I mean, why would you do that for me?"
For a moment, she was too flustered to answer because there was only one she could give him. There was only one truth, and it was forbidden in her world. But then she thought, for now, that didn't matter. Not tonight. Not here. Not when it was just the two of them. So she smiled up at him gently and simply said,
"Because I love you."
Alastor's heart was sweating, his body shook, and his mind ceased to be his own. Hearing her speak those words, confess what was in her heart without any fear, learning that he meant so much to her. He couldn't hold himself back any longer. Alastor moved toward Charlie, pulled by gravity, pulled by forces he couldn't begin to control. She looped her arms around his neck, and he held her closer.
"Charlie." He whispered.
He knows that this is a bad idea. He told himself that he was only asking for trouble. Giving into his inner desire would only bring disaster n to his head. Yet none of it mattered to him anymore, because now he had accepted that he had been looking for Charlie forever and now that he had found her, he wasn't going to let her slip away.
Stroking her cheek with his thumb, he kissed her mouth. Her lips softened beneath his, and she clutched the front of his shirt. First he kissed her slow. Then he kissed her again, and again, and so much faster. He touched her skin and she didn't stop him. She could feel herself giving in to his kisses, opening her mouth to let his tongue explore her lips. Without breaking lip contact, Alastor slowly slid down to the floor, lowering Charlie on to the blanket. His mouth released hers and he look down at her flushed face.
"I've never done this before." He said breathlessly.
"Me either." She replied.
"We...We don't have to do this." He said willing his body to be calm. "If you don't want to do it, then tell me. I don't care."
She knew what he wanted. She could feel it deep in her heart. He wanted to mate with her. That's what this would be called in her world and it would mean they would be together til death do them part. She wanted that. Right now, she wanted that more than anything.
"Alastor." She sighed, placing his hand to her cheek and holding it there. "I give you my love, my body, and my virtue. To you alone, I relinquish them. No other shall have them."
"And I give you all of mine, my dearest. You and only you."
He started to slowly press kisses to her throat with caution, but gradually his kisses became more rapid and passionate. She quietly gasped and moaned, which spurned him to go further. The next time he stopped to breathe, he unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged it off.
Charlie was astonished. His broad back and firm chest was so tanned, his skin was like gold. He was power and strength and majesty. A physique that she believed surpassed all the mermen in her kingdom. Made her think her sisters Evelyn and Delilah foolish because they had always said human males were ugly, when Alastor himself was magnificent. She couldn't stop her hands from going up his torso, feeling his glorious flesh.
Alastor shuddered and panted, his throat became so tight and he almost couldn't breathe. Normally he hated the idea of anyone touching him like this but her fingers felt sensational on him, and he wanted her to keep going. His own hands then came to her shoulders and he slowly undressed her with care. Her Summer frock fell to the floor, followed by socks, her bra, cloth by cloth until finally she lay before him fully naked.
She was breathtaking. Her hair like the sunshine rising over the ocean's horizon, her skin like the moonlight as it settled on the sand, her graceful and Venus-like form. She was perfect, like no other creation in the world.
"Such beauty." He panted in awe. "Surely you are the loveliest woman in all the world. No other lady could enchant me the way you do, especially with your expressive eyes and your lilting voice."
His words made Charlie's heart flutter and her longing for him grew stronger.
She reached for his belt and pulled down his pants and boxers. He kicked them away and swept her up into his arms, kissing every inch of her, marveling at how she fit him, flesh to flesh. As though she had been molded for him. At long last he entered her. His body shook violently, his teeth grinded, he moved at a different speed which he had never known. But he remembered to be as gentle as well as firm. Kissing her lovely white throat and rose-bud lips, and tenderly caressing her figure with each thrust.
As for Charlie, she was lost in a wilderness of new sensations. In the beginning she felt shock and pain that made her grip his shoulders and back ever so tightly. But soon afterward, she felt warm and wonderful, exciting and right. She felt her expressive eyes fill with tears of joy for the first time in her entire life. This is what it meant to be in love. This was the glory of realizing you had found the one person you wanted to give your entire being to and spend eternity with.
She could have never done this with any merman because a merman was not whom she was destined for. She was destined to be with a human. To be loved by a human. To be a human's mate. Even though such a union was forbidden, she didn't care. How could she? When she loved him so much.
In the final thrust, her arms secured themselves around his neck and she embraced him with all her strength.
"Forever, my beloved." She thought, forgetting all sense and reason. "Now I am yours forever. Even if we live in different worlds, even if you die while I live, even if you leave me for another, I belong to you."
They fell together on to the blanket, wrapped themselves up in it, and fell asleep by the warm fireplace, entangled in the arms of the other person. It was too late to go back now. They made love and now, only if their love was true, determined what fate would be fall the mermaid.