(no subject)

[sealonging.insanejournal.com]

WHO: Ceana & Bertie
WHEN: Saturday
WHERE: Subway, Times Square
WHAT: Hubby plz come collect your seal-wife

Ceana wasn't really enjoying the tuna sandwich she'd been bought. It was better than the food they'd given her at the hospital, but it wasn't anything like the fish she'd fed on during the darkness. She'd felt like a seal again, tearing into the flesh and forgetting how weak her human teeth were.

She chewed slowly, watching the man who spoke to her. He'd let her use his phone and he'd bought her food. She knew his type. He thought she was delicate and ethereal. He wanted to take her away and look after her, wanted to lay his lips on her skin. She knew his type.

Ceana waited for Bertie.

Comments

[out-there.insanejournal.com]

The house had been too empty without Ceana. Bertie hadn't expected her absence to be so visible, so startling. When his co-workers asked how he'd fared during the blackout, Bertie had answered "My wife is missing" without even pondering when he'd begun to honestly think of Ceana as his wife.

He had more or less sprinted from the moment he got off the actual subway until he reached the Subway Ceana was eating in. He was not in sprinting shape, so he was panting quite badly by the time he got there. But none of that mattered when he saw that Ceana was actually here and alive.

"Ceana!"

oh sweetie boy!

[sealonging.insanejournal.com]

Ceana stood and smiled, paying no more attention to the man who had been chatting to her.

"You came," she said to Bertie, and she sounded both pleased and surprised. "And... are you alright?" He seemed to be having a lot of difficulty breathing right now.

:3

[out-there.insanejournal.com]

"Yes, yes, just a little out of breath," Bertie wheezed. He leaned over, hands propped on his knees, and took several deep breaths to calm himself. When he was a little less likely to have a stroke, he straightened up and beamed at her. "Oh Ceana, I thought that you had been killed or abducted by aliens or were in a tank at Sea World or-or-I'm just so glad you're all right!"

[sealonging.insanejournal.com]

Ceana looked at the man at the table now watching the pair of them and said to him, "thank you for the sub. And letting me use your phone." Then she put her arm through Bertie's and slowly drew him out into the street so people weren't listening to them. "I went to sea," she told Bertie. "I swam in the darkness and ate fish alive and forgot that I didn't have seal-flesh any longer."

[out-there.insanejournal.com]

Impulsively, Bertie pulled her into a hug, needing to reassure himself that she was really here.

"Are you sure you aren't hurt?" he asked. "The ocean couldn't have been any less dangerous in the dark."

[sealonging.insanejournal.com]

Ceana smiled contently as he hugged her and she wrapped her arms around him as well. "I washed up on a beach somewhere," she said, resting her chin on his shoulder. "Someone took me to a hospital." She drew back out of the hug and looked at him. "I'm sorry I ran away."

[out-there.insanejournal.com]

"No, no, it's completely fine," Bertie said, petting her hair worriedly. "Things were strange. Really, really strange, and I felt a bit like running myself. I'm so glad you're all right, Ceana. I thought I'd never see you again."

[sealonging.insanejournal.com]

Ceana smiled at him, tilting her head to the side as she looked at him. "You really worried about me? Because... I'm your science test?"

I forgot it was my tag, I am so so sorry D:

[out-there.insanejournal.com]

"No!" Bertie said quickly. "No, because, well, you're you and you're my wife and I missed you and thought you might be hurt!"

That's okay!

[sealonging.insanejournal.com]

Ceana's smile was warm and she put her cold hand against his cheek. "You're a very sweet boy." Then she leaned forward and laid a kiss against his lips. "I'm not hurt."

[out-there.insanejournal.com]

"Are you sure?" Bertie asked. "You said you were in the hospital? Oh, here, let's try to find a cab. There should be some still running."

[sealonging.insanejournal.com]

"I was a naked young woman washed up on a beach with an abnormally low body temperature," Ceana reminded him. "Until I woke up again the doctors were very concerned. They kept trying to warm me up." She smiled a little at that. She was a seal - her natural temperature didn't want to match that of a human.

She slipped her hand into Bertie's. "Get us a cab," she said to him, resting her cheek against his shoulder. "Let's go home."

[out-there.insanejournal.com]

It took some time to find a cab, given that a large percentage of them had been half-flooded. But Bertie didn't mind overly much. There was something wonderfully reassuring about walking hand in hand with Ceana. It helped him know that she was really there.

When they finally found a cab, the ride home was brief. "All your things are where you left them," Bertie said, leaning back against the seat and keeping her close.

[sealonging.insanejournal.com]

In the backseat, Ceana pulled her legs up and curled against his chest. He smelled like dry land. "You're a good husband," she told him. "I'm glad the darkness let you live."

[out-there.insanejournal.com]

"I am also," Bertie said, leaning his cheek against the top of her head. He hadn't been sure that he would. He had talked to Hannah about the supernatural, chattered that this was definitely the work of gods or maybe fairies, but none of that had calmed him down at all. And then Ceana had left, and things had seemed frightfully bleak.

"We should go down the to coast tomorrow," Bertie said. "Unless you're tired of the ocean."

Jesus, they're just so lovely *strokes them*

[sealonging.insanejournal.com]

"I'd like that. I'll never tire of the ocean," she said, sleepy and quiet, slipping an arm around Bertie to properly anchor herself against him. Warm and with a steady heartbeat - although with the rocking of the car it made it hard to keep her eyes open. "It's the only place I truly belong."

Their marriage is so strange and wonderful

[out-there.insanejournal.com]

Bertie went silent at that, closing his eyes and hugging her closer to him. When the cab arrived at his home, he paid the driver and then turned to Ceana. She looked very comfortable.

"I could carry you, if you like?" he offered. He was not a particularly fit man, but Ceana was quite light.

so strange and wonderful

[sealonging.insanejournal.com]

"Like a princess from a fairytale?" Ceana asked him, but her quiet smile wasn't teasing. She held out her arms to him, figuring that was enough of a yes to his question.

[out-there.insanejournal.com]

"A seal princess, yes," Bertie said, ducking his head and smiling. He circled the car to open her door and scoop her up. She was cold against him, but that wasn't at all unusual. At this point, Bertie would have been terrified if she'd been warm like a normal person, since it surely would have meant a fever. Or eminent spontaneous combustion, but definitely one of the two.

He had been in such a panic to get to Ceana that he hadn't bothered to lock the door behind himself.

"Bugger," he said as he realized it. Stepping inside and still carrying Ceana, he called out, "If you're a burglar, please don't take my notes on the Bermuda Triangle, I worked very hard to organize them." There was no response, and Bertie smiled. "All right, no lurking thieves."

spontaneous combustion, hahaha, oh bertie.

[sealonging.insanejournal.com]

"Very heroic," Ceana said, and this time she was teasing a little. But she followed her words by leaning up in his arms to kiss his lips softly. When she broke the kiss she remained looking at him and suggested, "you could probably put me down now."

[out-there.insanejournal.com]

"Right, yes, sorry," Bertie said, setting her down carefully. "And I'll have you know that I could almost certainly hit a burglar with a baseball bat. It would be very heroic. I could make you something to eat, if you're still hungry?"

[sealonging.insanejournal.com]

"The man at Subway made sure I had enough," Ceana said as she found her feet again. "He wanted to take me home with him." She didn't let it show on her face, but she was curious to see what his reaction to that would be. "Even after I told him I was married."