After the wedding had ended and everyone had said their say in the marriage, Damon returned to the Merkingdom with his newfound wife and royal in-laws.
Damon was tired and wanted to finally go to bed, but his usual sleeping bed was on land, so Charlotte took her husband to her room.
“Wow…”, Damon said as he looked around Charlotte’s room. The room was big and was filled with very lovely paintings of the ocean’s animals and locations. Along with that, Charlotte’s room was heavily decorated with seashells, pearls, and treasures she found back when she explored shipwrecks and found loot. It truly was a room fit for a princess.
But the main thing that caught Damon’s eye was the bed. It was large, yet looked comfy with the pillows and a couple of stuffed sea animals that were on the sides.
“Charlotte, your room looks amazing!'', Damon said in awe.
Charlotte giggled and held Damon’s hand. “It’s not my room anymore, it’s our room, Damon.”
Damon did a small take as he looked at the bed, he wanted to sleep and wasted no time laying on a side of the bed, it felt wonderful - He had never had a bed like this before on land.
Charlotte followed suit and swam to her side of the bed and embraced Damon, the bed was the perfect fit for them. She looked in her husband with glittering eyes.
“Damon… I don’t know how to say something like this but… I’m so glad I found you. I wish you were born a merman so my parents would have brought you to me earlier in life.”
Damon smiled at that, he looked his tail and curled it, its scales shimmered in the moonlight along with Charlotte’s. He stroked the fish half of his body and enjoyed the smooth feeling of his scales. “I can see why you would feel that way.” Damon looked back at Charlotte, “In a sense, I wish I was born a merman, too. Not even like a merman prince, just a… regular merperson.”
“Oh, you don’t miss being a human?”
“Not really. I’ll miss being with my family above land, but not being a human. When I’m a merman, I can move my lower body around and never feel tired of swimming. When I’m a human, I have to worry about the risk of my legs breaking and face cramps should I ever walk too much.”
Charlotte widened her eyes, “Walk… too much? That’s absurd, I never felt my tail hurt from swimming "too much"! It’s stuff like this that makes me wonder why any mermaid who would want to be on land instead of staying in the sea.”
Damon replied, “I think the surface-level appeal of seeing the sun and clouds appeal to them. However, the weather on the surface can change pretty rapidly and even be deadly with thunderstorms and tornadoes. They’re awful things that my kingdom has to worry about every day. Life above the water’s honestly exhausting.”
Charlotte nodded, “Indeed. It’s no wonder you adapted so well being underwater. Everything is much calmer around here.”
Damon stroked Charlotte’s cheek and spoke, “Yeah. That's why I chose to stay a merman with you. I just didn’t want you to be forced to give up your tail and live on the tiring land.”
Charlotte smiled and took Damon’s stroking hand and held it between her fingers, “Damon, I’m going to do my absolute best, as a wife, to make sure the sacrifice of your legs was worth it. You’re going to love living underwater."
Damon smiled back, “I already do.”
Charlotte came close to Damon’s body and cuddled him, her head upon his chest and her fish tail lovingly coiled around his. “I love you, Damon.”
“I love you too, Charlotte.”, Damon said as he kissed his new wife goodnight.
As night fell upon the Merkingdom, there was little noise aside from the sounds of happy dreaming merfolk.