The people in the cave, mermaid and human alike, surveyed their surroundings. For better or worse, this undersea grotto was their home now, at least for the foreseeable future.
“What the hell will my parents think? My brothers?” John said aloud, his face in his hands. They’ll think I’m dead, and there’s fuck all I can do about it!” He slammed his hand in the sand.
“If it’s worth anything… I’m worrying about my folks are thinking too.” Susan said, gently putting a hand over his.
“Same here… they might not even believe I’m who I say I am… if we ever see each other again.” Melina gazed at her reflection in the water.
“My family’s an entire ocean away. Are they dealing with this in my country too, do you think?” Akiko asked.
“All good questions. Ones we’ll have to figure out in the coming days I guess.” Amber offered.
Their solemn thoughts were interrupted when their drunken guest hiccuped loudly.
“Wait, we should probably split you three up.” Melina said with a hurry in her tone.
“I don’t follow?” Susan looked at her quizzically.
“The transformation! You know what it was like, for us?” She prodded.
She blushed. “Shit, good point, good point.”
“What is this now?” Asked Mark with a wavering sound in his voice.
“For some people, turning into merfolk seems to turn off the inhibitions, hard.” Amber replied. “We had experience aplenty with that since we three all changed pretty much at once. If you’re not comfortable with that, you should probably finish out your changes a good distance apart.”
“And this girl, she’s clearly in no shape to consent to anything.” Susan added.
“Too right.” Amber nodded.
Mark and John looked at each other, and back to the mermaids, and each other again. Mark gulped down a lump in his throat, John’s mask of composure was clearly faltering.
“Does it hurt?” Mark questioned.
All of them shook their heads. “It felt really good, for what it’s worth.” Amber answered.
“My change didn’t hurt either, but it wasn’t as intense or sexual as my friends here describe. I didn’t start having those feelings until I got up close with them.”
“Sounds like pheromones or something. Weird, fish don’t usually work that way, I don’t think.” Mark mused.
“Well, we’re no fish. We’re mermaids. Sirens. We don’t even know if this is like a disease or actual fucking magic.” Susan countered.
“Touché.” Nodded Mark.
“So going off and crawling in a corner while I kiss myself goodbye… sounds like it’s just delaying the inevitable.” Sighed John.
“Well, if it makes you feel better. I’m still myself.” Melina said. “I just have some new things about myself to get used to.”
“Amber and I can put this girl in one of the side chambers to sleep it off.” Akiko offered. “We’ll… leave you to figure out what you want to do.”
The officers considered their situation and decided…