"Can I ask you a question?" Eric asks on the way to the kelp-beds. He's swimming hand-in-hand with Anna, and he's impressed by how quickly and naturally she has taken to swimming with her fishtail.
"Shoot," says Anna.
Confused, Eric looks around, and says, "Shoot what?"
Anna giggles. "I mean, go ahead and ask."
"Oh, okay. Well; I'm just curious. How did you know that merfolk fertilize eggs when we mate? That other merman I talked about, the one who used to be human—he didn't know for a long time, not until I told him."
Anna stops swimming and lets herself hover in the water. She discovers that when she does this, her fin does this cool thing where it swishes underneath her and flicks this way and that in small subtle movements that keep her treading in place without her even having to think about it. Eric stops too.
Anna runs a hand from her human tummy down to the belly-scales on the front of her tail and says, "I just kind of guessed. I mean, I'm completely fish below the waist, right down to this glandular slime all over my scales—which is totally funky, by the way—and most fish fertilize externally. I guess I just figured, don't get my hopes up, right? And if it turns out once we get into it that I do still have a vag after all and we can still have normal sex, hey, bonus, I get to be pleasantly surprised." Then Anna pauses and adds nervously, "But it sounds like you're telling me that I guessed right, and we do fish-business out into the water, all—pew, pew, swish—I shoot out eggs and you shoot out your—uh, your man-juice, and hey-presto, fish-babies."
Eric blinks and then stares at Anna, nonplussed. He finds the way that Anna speaks, all rapid-fire and intelligent, completely adorable. "Um—yes, that is how it works for us."
"Okay." Anna nods. "I—can deal with that. I think. Does it—does it feel good?"
Eric blushes and looks away. ". . . I hope so. But I've never, uh—"
"You're a virgin!?"
Eric nods, embarrassed.
"But—but you're so fucking *hot*! How can it possibly be the case that a super sexy mer-guy like you has never *done it* before!?"
Eric is blushing harder now, but for an entirely different reason. "Well, I guess it's because Clia and the other mermaids have never been interested in—in me."
"I can't figure it out," says Anna. She swims up to Eric, catches him in a hug, and kisses him again. "No pun intended, you seem like a total catch to me."
"Not to a mermaid," says Eric. "In mermaid society, um . . . let's see, how do I explain this to a human? Um; okay. Mermaids outnumber mermen, by a *lot*. For every one merman under the sea, there are at least ten mermaids."
"Whoa," says Anna. "How does that even work? Do mermen have, like, harems full of wives?"
"No, nothing like that," says Eric. "The mermaids make all the rules, and they also choose their mates. Mermen aren't supposed to—to be too obvious about showing interest in mermaids. It's more, um, socially acceptable to be, I don't know, demure, I guess? You're supposed to wait until a mermaid chooses you, and until then, you play 'hard to get.' But me—I knew what I wanted, and I guess that made me too aggressive, and nobody liked that."
"That's . . . insane," said Anna. "It seems so—sexist. It's gross." Then she hugs Eric tightly again and brushes her tail against his, a long and sensual rub that ends when her tailfin flicks across the merman's—it feels *really* good, and Eric shivers from the sensation. Anna gives Eric an alluring, mischievous look and says, "And just so you know, I think a guy who takes control is fucking sexy."
Eric grins. "In that case, I'll do my best to take the lead."
"You'd better, Mister." She swats the merman on his scaly rump and says, "Now lead the way."
"Yes, Ma'am."
* * * * * * * * *
It's roughly midday on the first day of the mating cycle when they arrive at the kelp beds. (Hours have passed already since Clia has laid her eggs, and her merman mate has fertilized Thea and Lyla's.)
Eric very much wants to mate with Anna—all thoughts of Clia are practically gone from his mind now, and he is aware of the possibility that he may just be falling in love with this smart and funny ex-human. But there's a problem. He doesn't actually know much about how merfolk making works, and he says as much to Anna.
She answers, "Well, it can't be all that difficult, can it? Or else nobody would ever have any kids. Let's just . . . do what feels good and let instinct take over, m'kay?"
"All right." They swim together until they're among the tall sheets and stalks of kelp, and along the way, Eric and Anna both ogle the many groups of mermaids who are all either leisurely kissing each other on the mouths and breasts, or lying on the sand and napping together with their tails wound around their upper bodies. Anna notes the paucity of mermen and remembers what Eric told her earlier about the male-to-female sex ratio of merfolk, so she doesn't comment on it.
"So," says Anna, "do we just pick a spot and start—gettin' biz-ay?" She swivels her mermaid-hips in a suggestive manner as she says that.
"Um—nest!" says Eric suddenly. "If we want to fertilize, the mermaid is supposed to pick a spot for her nest."
"Well we're definitely going to do that," says Anna, "but I don't know what to look for. So why don't you be a big, strong, takes-the-lead merman for me and decide where we'll mate?"
Eric didn't really know what to look for either, so he just picked a spot on the sea-floor at random that looked like it was well-hidden and a reasonable distance away from the other couples and trios. "Here," he says excitedly. "I like this spot."
"Okay," says Anna. She swims down to the sand and sits down on her tail. "Now what?"
Eric sat down on the seabed next to her and scratched his head. "I guess—we just do it now."
"Sounds good to me," says Anna, and she reaches for Eric and starts kissing him on the lips.
As Eric and Anna take their first halting steps towards mating, Anna notices that her body isn't responding the way she's used to. As a human, when she got really turned on, there were certain sensations below the waist that she expected to feel, not least of which was a wetness between her legs. But now she didn't have legs, which meant that she didn't have a between-her-legs, and she wasn't feeling anything from anywhere down in her tail. It was disconcerting at best.
Eric, meanwhile, was acting really nervous and hesitant, and after a few minutes, he stopped kissing Anna and said, "Anna, can I ask you something else?"
"Shoot."
"I just . . . are you sure about this? Because, I *really* like you, but we have only just met, and if we do this, there's no going back. We'll be mates, and you'll be a mom."
"Eric, I'm sure," says Anna. "Trust me when I say, I've never wanted anything more in my life!"
"Really?"
"Really-really. I've always devoted myself to my schooling and my career, and I've missed out on relationships in my life. I was starting to think that I'd never meet a guy; never get to start a family. But now that I have *this*," Anna lifted up her fishtail and waved her caudal fin in front of Eric's face, "well, it's not like I can just haul my ass into a wheelchair and go back to living my old life, can I?"
"No," said Eric. "You can't. Merfolk can't breathe air for very long."
"Though so," said Anna. "And there's no way to change me back, is there?"
"Actually, there is," Eric admitted. "But it requires the use of a rare magical necklace. They're not easy to come by."
"Figures," says Anna. "So if I'm stuck like this, I might as well take the chance that's fallen into my lap. Er," Anna points down at her belly-scales and says, "is that a lap? Do mermaids call that their—?—never mind. Point is, it's not what I was expecting when I got out of bed this morning, but now I've got a great guy and a chance to be a mom! And no more final exams or student loans." She wraps her arms around Eric's neck again and concludes, "Besides, turning into Princess Ariel is like, every little girl's dream. I get to be a mermaid! That's pretty fucking awesome all on its own."
Eric doesn't know who this 'Princess Ariel' person is, and he doesn't bother asking. He just takes Anna into his muscular arms and resumes kissing her.
As their making out grows in heat and intensity, Eric and Anna begin to explore each other's bodies. Anna is particularly infatuated with Eric's midsection (she can't quite bring herself to think of it as a "groin"; but maybe, she thinks, "loins" are more appropriate), and as she kisses the scales on the front of his tail, she eventually locates a slit and licks it—Eric shudders with pleasure, but says, "No! Not there!"
Anna stops what she's doing and looks up at Eric. "Not there?"
"Wrong hole." He points at his male vent, located a couple of inches higher up than his anal opening.
"Oops," says Anna, her face suddenly beet-red with embarrassment. She starts tickling his more situationally-appropriate fishy slit and Eric leans back on the sand, basking in the sensations and in the joy he feels when he realizes that a mermaid is actually giving him head.
"That feels *so* good," whispers Eric, and Anna continues to tongue at his vent with abandon. But after some minutes go by, Eric notices that his excitement isn't really building at all. It just feels . . . nice, and very intimate, but not like anything that will lead up to a climax. So he decides that turnabout is fair play, takes Anna by the shoulders, and re-positions them both so he can return the favor and do the same to her egg-slit.
Anna gasps and falls back onto the sand. "Oh—oooh, yes, baby, do more of that . . . !" She runs her hands up to her breasts and starts playing with her own nipples, while Eric tongue-diddles her fish-hole.
After a while, though, Anna too notices that her fish-genitalia don't exactly make for the most sensitive of erogenous zones. She realizes that she's getting more out her self-administered nipple-play, and she decides that that's just a little bit too masturbatory for her first-ever time with her hot new mer-guy.
"Hold up there, sexy," she says to Eric, and she turns the tide right back on him. She flicks her tail and spins them both around, then she pins Eric down on the sea-floor underneath her and plants a heavy kiss on his lips, pushing her tongue into his mouth and letting their tongues dance and duel. Then she moves down to Eric's neck and tries grazing his gills with a gentle lick. "Grkh—careful there," says Eric.
"Good?" asks Anna.
"Y—yeah," says Eric. "But—*very* sensitive."
Anna takes note of that fact and lingers on his gills for a few moments more, until she notices that Eric's tail is starting to flop and buck more violently underneath her. And so she starts to move her kisses down his neck and over his collarbone and down to his spectacular, many chest. She kisses all over his pecks, and starts to play at his nipples, teasing them with light suckling and swirling motions of her tongue. Eric's body goes rigid, and he cries out, and Anna giggles. Then she starts lavishing all the attention she can muster on her mer-hottie's nips, and soon Eric is breathing rapidly and crying out and—and then—Anna notices a funny, sticky sensation down between their tails, which had been pressed together at the loins, and she stops what she's doing and looks down, only to discover a mass of semen coating both of them.
"You came on my tail," says Anna matter-of-factly.
"Guess I got excited," says Eric.
"Understandable for your first time," laughs Anna. "But I think that if we're going to do this right, you need to get my eggs out first."
Eric laughs too. "I'll see what I can do."
"Damn right you will, Mister Hot-Fins," says Anna. She points at her breasts and says, "Your mouth, my tits, ten minutes ago! Chop-chop!"
"I love it when a mermaid takes control."