Aquata Cove: Epilogue 02

"Pop, here!" Jason says as he rushes in with a framed document and something large and silver to show Merrick, "Check it out!"

"Right, what's this?" Merrick asked as he first takes the framed piece, "'Certificate of Top Honors of Oceanography'. Wow, congratulations, Jase! THAT'S my boy!"

"And look! I was in the International Kendo Tournament in Japan last year!" Jason says as he holds up his glamorous silver trophy.

"Wow, 2nd place in the Internationals??" Merrick raises his eyebrows as he takes the trophy, "Nicely done, I knew you had it in you, buddy!"

"I would've made 1st if you sparred with me everyday."

"Next time you go for the gold, I'll whip you into perfect shape." Merrick says with a grin and hugging Jason with one arm while holding the trophy with the other as they go to the living room couch and coffee table.

"So how's the Fish House, babe?? Anything big happen, Captain?"

"Business as usual." Adam says with a smile, "Olivia is still riding my ass when she has the chance, but she's still awesome with the paperwork. But enough about that, what was Atlantis like??"

"Oh my gosh, I can't even begin to describe it." Merrick says.

"It was really amazing." Naomi says, "It was like living in a city of coral castles. There were all kinds of merfolk everywhere, and all kinds of sea animals!"

"Hahaha, Naomi had her eyes on a few mermaids while we were there." Merrick grinned.

"Oh reallyyyy?" Adam says with a broad smile.

"Yeah, and there were just as many mermen too. I got hit on like a dozen times."

"And I nearly killed every one of them for putting the moves on my daughter." Merrick said with a stone-face.

"Pfff, ha!" Jason snirked.

"Oh please, you were practically giving me away, Daddy." Naomi rolled her eyes.

"I was TESTING you, honey."

"And what about Richard?" Jason said with a chuckle, "I thought you and he were going out?"

"We're just friends, dummy." She retorts, "Richard is awesome, but I'm not sure if he's really my type. There was this really handsome Rain Fish merman who was really shy, but oh, so sweet. And there was this Wave Streak mermaid that was really interested with me, but to be honest her tail looked too much like Dad's for me to really get into."

"Wow, judging a girl by her looks? That's new for you, sweetie." Adam smirked.

"Hey! She was nice, but I don't really want to be with anyone who might remind me of my father. It's creepy!"

"What the hell about me is creepy, Naomi??" Merrick asked.

"You really have to ask, Pop?" Jason asked.

"You know what, Naomi would be lucky as hell to have at me." Merrick says as he pounds a fist to his chest.

"Ok, where are you going with this, babe?" Adam asked with a quirked brow.

"I don't know, your daughter is giving me a complex." Merrick shakes his head.

"What about you, Jason?" Naomi asked, "Is Tracy still interested? Or did you split?"

"Eh, it's a kind of an on and off again kind of thing." Jason says as he wavered his hand, "She and I can't seem to decide if we're really into each other. I mean, I kinda want to see about Felicity, but I don't want to come off like I just want to have sex."

"Easy there, bud." Adam says with a clasp to his son's shoulder, "I don't want people to think my kid is a hustler either."

"Soon as I can get a straight answer on Tracy, I'll let you know." Jason says as he shrugs off the hand. "I'm not sure if I really wanna girlfriend at the moment though, I still have a ton of classes to get ready for."

"Oh yeah, that reminds me," Adam says as he snaps his fingers, "Merrick, Yuri got in today, she wanted to see if you and Naomi made it back yet. She was wanting to have dinner with us at Kahiko Paku'i BBQ."

"YES! Say yes, Dad! You say it right now!" Naomi nags loudly.

"Ok ok ok, I'll give her a call then." Merrick laughs as he gets up, "You know your daughter has been a total whiner the whole trip. It was like taking a Kardashian on a no-tech camping hike."

"Daaaad!" Naomi growls, "Would you stop saying that please???"

"Well honey, if I am at all wrong, please. Do feel free to correct me."

"Here, I want to call Olivia too, I'm out for the day." Adam says as he gets his phone out.

"Hey, Jase, I want to show you something, come on." Naomi says as she nods too her brother.

"Oh sure." They get up and migrate away to her room.

"I'll be right back, Papa!" Naomi says.

"Ok..." Adam says as he watches them intently, holding his phone to his ear.

They enter into Naomi's room, decorated with Japanese-style paintings she and Yuri did together as well as an entertainment center with a flat-screen TV with two PlayStation consoles and a charming desk with a laptop placed upon it. On another corner of the room, there is very large brass cage with several smooth branches and logs nailed and attached around with the decorative gate open.

A white and yellow bird nods and bobs up and down a few times as the two teens enter, "Hi Pearl!" Naomi says with sugary sweet tone as she holds her arm out. The cockatoo squeaks a few times before her wings open and flap and promptly flying from the few top branches outside of the cage that was right next to the open window, and glides over to Naomi's arm. "Oh my gosh, whose my pretty birdy? You're such a smart little sweetie, aren't you~? Oooohhh missed you so much, Pearly." She coos with puckered lips as she strokes her knuckles into the parrot's head feathers.

"Fucking pigeon was a pain in the ass all year." Jason scowled.

"Eeeaaaoookk!" The white bird squawks threateningly at him as she opens her wings and fluff out her feathers at him.

"Yeah, just try it, I'll still make you extra crispy! I don't give a fuck, Leghorn!"

"Nonononono, eeeaasy sweetiegirl, easy~" Naomi shushes, easily making Pearl's feathers smooth over, close her wings, and push into the petting on her head. "Awwww was Jasey big and mean to my little tweety bird?"

"I opened the freaking cage to feed her and she tries to claw my eyes out! I had to get my glasses fixed like a dozen times!" Jason protested.

"Awwooo she just missed me lots" Naomi coos to her pet. "You let her outside to fly?"

"Yes." Jason said irritably, "Sometimes she didn't come back for a few nights, I was freaking out half the time afraid she was going to fly off."

"She likes to hang out on the roof and trees, it's ok."

"Not when I don't want to look after someone else's flying rat!"

"Hahaha, and Dad says I'M a whiney little bitch."

"Well, you are." Jason says gloatingly.

"Hey, you try going without a bed, friends, social media and processed food for a over a whole year and then talk to me about toughing it out." She then gives two whistles as she moves her arm up. Pearl obediently spreads her wings and flies right back to her beautiful while and brass cage/tree.

"Ok, so check this out." Naomi says as she turns to Jason.

~~~

"Oh he did? I didn't see the pictures yet." Merrick says with zeal as he talks to Yuri on the phone, "Two boys, that's rare for a merfolk... Oh yeah, I really- Hey!" Adam takes the phone.

"I'm sorry Mrs Umiyama, Mr Bryant it indisposed at this time, buh-bye." Adam ends the call.

"Baaabe, I wasn't done talki-" Merrick is interrupted by a very sudden open kiss. He groaned as Adam forced his mouth against Merrick's while he held onto his arms. Adam moans as he pushes his tongue into the other one before he puts his arm behind Merrick's hips and pulls him in. Merrick tilts his head as his lips dig onto Adam's smooth bristle around his lips.

Finally, Adam parts their lips, letting out a hot sigh and gives a single gnaw onto Merrick's blonde layered chin, "I've waited a whole year and a half to do that..." Adam growls as he grinds his front against Merrick's crotch.

"Don't exaggerate." Merrick smiled, "It was only a year and two months and four days."

"Mnnhhh I don't care..." Adam moves in for another hot kiss. Merrick closes his eyes as he puts his hand onto Adam's side while his husband holds the back of his blonde head.

"M-Mnnhh... Nnhh." Merrick moans into Adam's mouth as they move back and Adam almost shoves him against the wall, where Adam plants one of his hands upon right next to Merrick's head. Adam growls like a hungry bear in his throat as his teeth taps the other while his tongue really forced into Merrick's maw. Merrick groans submissively as he grasps onto Adam's rubber overall clad sides as he pushes his own lap onto him.

"Hhhgghhh... I wanna fuckin' wreck your ass..." Adam growls as he can feels his cock slowly push forward in his pants.

"Nnhhh... Gonna have to be a while... Yuri wants us to meet up in an hour..."

"Fine..." Adam then pushes his mouth onto Merrick's neck.

"A-Ahhh..." Merrick whines as Adam's teeth gnaw a hard love bite onto his tender flesh, "Uhhggnn..." The merman's shorts are already a rather pronounced tent as Adam gets as rough as he did before his husband and daughter left for Atlantis. Eventually, Adam leaves a few wet teeth marks on Merrick's neck before he pushes his forehead against the other.

"Soon as the kids head back, you and I are going home to ram my meat up your hole."

"Hhhhuuhh God..." Merrick huffs as he digs his fingers into Adam's outfit, before Adam then points Merrick's phone to him.

"NOW you can talk to Mommy Dearest." Adam says with an almost casual smile, before Merrick takes it back with a smirk and sits down at the kitchen table to hide his tent as he calls Yuri back.

"... Hey Yuri, sorry about that, it's been a while for Adam, heheheh... You know him, he can't get enough fish at home OR at work." Adam snirks and snickers as he walks off, taking his phone up again and ducking out of earshot.

"... Hey, Rajani? It's Adam. What time does your shop close tonight? ... Ah, any chance I can get a delivery then?"

~~~

"Wow..." Jason says as Naomi demonstrates a mirror-like formation around her hands, a breeze of snow and frost racing around her hands like a flurry river. The frost then migrates to her palm and grows into a tiny tree. Jason looks closer to note the highly intricate branches; even the leaves are delicate specs of ice.

"Normally, Noita powers are restricted in human form, but Grandma and Aunt Savarna showed me how to slip a few cracks."

"But you can't make like an ice sculpture unless you're a mermaid though, right?"

"Pretty much, yeah. They said my being human makes me flexible with what I can do."

"Why can't I have any powers??? Dad's been with Pop for years, I should have SOMEthing like that!"

"As Dad told me a thousands times on our trip." Naomi then flicks her fingers at Jason. His sister then released a small layer of frost to whiten Jason's face and also completely screening his glasses with a sparkling layer of white "Deal with it."

"I'll deal with you with a freaking hook, Frosty the Snow Bitch." Jason says as he takes his glasses off to rub off the frost from the lenses.

"Oh yeah, look," Naomi then goes to her kelp pouch, and takes out an old fashioned digital camera in a hard plastic container.

"Hah, took a fossil to a ruin? Don't you think that's a bit redundant?"

"If I had my phone, I could have used THAT." Naomi then turns on the digital camera, and selects the album file. Jason leans in to see a selfie of his sister in her mermaid form. She presses the arrow button to move on to the next one.

"I can barely see it..." Jason says as he squints at it.

"Hang on..." Naomi adjusted the settings to clarify the image, showing the entirety of Atlantis.

"Whoa..." The pictures clip to the next.

"This is Aunt Savarna's husband, Aalton."

"Whoa, he looks badass." Jason admired.

"He is. He's like, extremely serious and almost always stone-faced, but he's actually a very open-minded guy." They look through a few more pictures.

"... Oh hold on, go back." They backtrack to a picture of Umiato with her head turns as she drifts in the water, "Is this Grandma? Like, Pop's mom?"

"That's right."

"Holy shit, she looks exactly like you."

"I've been hearing that all year." Naomi chuckles, "And this is Brishen, Merrick's best friend."

"Hahaha, I know, I saw him in one of the photos that were sent, but I haven't seen him like this."

"Atlantis was amazing besides." She says as they go through a few clips of the architecture, "Almost everything was made out of coral." Naomi moves on to a picture she took of a few merfolk, over to an exotic and huge octopus, "Oh and this is one of the Disciples that ran the place." She says as she reveals the image of a unique and stranger mermaid with glowing silver eyes.

"What the... I gotta be honest, that one's kinda creepy."

"They're all like that, despite their species. They're the merfolk who see the truth and literally worship the moon - like, every night, they stare at it and pray. And the weird thing is, they're all blind."

"Blind?? What, did they need to have their eyes changed to be there?"

"No, they're just born that way. Since they can't see the real world, they basically see everything else, if you know what I mean."

"... Wait, if they're blind, how do they eat or move about?"

"Supposedly, they can see the life force in everything, so when they need to feed, they just draw to what they can find with the auras all around... Either that, or the Ningyo takes care of them."

"The what?"

"Oh yeah, Ningyo." Naomi clicks a few slides forward, and stopped at a picture of a shining golden merfolk statue. "They're basically the police force of Atlantis... Or FBI, executioners, SWAT Team, the Elite Four kind of thing. If a merfolk gets too troublesome, they're sent to put a stop to it."

"Executioners?"

"So I've heard. I haven't seen them kill anyone the whole time I was there."

"That you know of."

"What'cha got there?"

"HAH!" They both jumped from the sudden sound of Adam's voice, "O-Oh, hi Papa!"

"Why so surprised, kids?"

"You just snuck up on us, Dad, the door was closed."

"Uh-huh. Left open a crack." Adam leans on the doorframe and crosses his arms, "Why was it closed though? Got something to hide?"

"No, Papa, I just, I just wanted to show something to Jason, that's all."

"Aaaand what could you show Jason what you couldn't show me or Merrick?"

"Um, it's nothing, just... I took a few pictures of our trip, that's all, Papa."

"Really. Lets see it."

"Uh... Ok..." Naomi says hesitantly as she then brings up the digital camera. She shows Adam a few of the pictures, clicking on the arrow button without being able to see. Adam nods as he raises he brows.

"Wow. Those are nice."

"Yeah! There were all kinds of great things around." Naomi says, still racked with nerves.

"Sounds amazing." Adam agreed before he stands up from the frame and holds out his hand, "Now give it here, sweetie."

"What?! But Papa!"

"I don't want those pictures getting anywhere, young lady. Give me the camera."

"Dad, we're not going to show anyone, I swear." Jason said.

"I know you won't. Give me the camera."

"But Papa, it took me forever to get good shots!"

"And why do you think that is, Naomi?" Adam asked, "Atlantis is sacred beyond words, taking pictures is probably blasphemy for all you know."

"But there aren't any rules against it either, Papa."

"I don't care." Adam says calmly, "If you had to hide it, you know it's not right. Give me the camera."

"But Papa-"

"Don't 'Papa' me, sweetheart." Adam frowned, "Would you be ok if Merrick were to find out about this?"

"I, he wou- No, but-"

"Ok, so in THIS case, I'd say you're getting off lucky, don't you think?"

"Dad, it's just a few pictures." Jason said, "Even if anyone DID see them, they'd probably think it's just Photoshop or CGI or something."

"You raise a valid point. Give me the camera." Adam insisted.

"Papa-"

"Are you gonna be smart about this, or is Merrick going to give you the lecture of a lifetime?" Adam says with a calm scowl, "At least with me, I'm willing to keep it quiet. You knew it was wrong then, and you know it's wrong now. You both got a good look, and now it needs to stay out of anyone's record where they don't belong."

"No, I didn't see all of them-" Jason started.

"I don't want to hear it. You should've been smarter about this. Give me the film, or Merrick will have to know about this. Or do I need to tell you the LAST time someone got their hands on this kind of evidence? Because I REALLY don't want to dig up ancient history that WASN'T from your trip."

After a stubborn few seconds, Naomi sniffed as her eyes rimmed with angry moisture as she turned off the camera, and clicked the small compartment open, and she handed over the data chip to Adam's hand.

"Thank you, very, much." Adam said sternly before he turns around and walks out of the room, closing the door behind him.

"... So where'd you hide the back-up?" Jason asked after a minute.

"Where do you think? At the back of my sock drawer. I put it away after me and Daddy got back, they were already in my laptop when Dad went to take a shower." Naomi answers as she wipes the partially fake tears, not even sounding upset.

~~~

Adam walks into the garage, and approaches the fly-fish hook table. He puts the camera chip onto a vice and turns it tight, "I'm sorry about this, honey..." He says as he takes a pair of needle-nose pliers and snapped the chip in half. He snaps it into several pieces before letting them fall into a trashbin.

"Hey, stud." Merrick says with a knock on the door. Adam turns and grins as his husband approaches him, "What're YOU doing here all by yourself?"

"Oh just ditching some evidence." Adam said with a cocky smirk.

"Oh? What kind of evidence?"

"Ahhh, your son dug up some pictures I took when I ah," Adam adjusted to look aloof, "Fucked the mayor's son while you were gone."

"How's that again?" Merrick snickered.

"Well, got bored." Adam shrugged, "Got lonely. And he was tight, baby," Adam smirked, "Sure, he kept calling me 'Mommy' every time I spanked him, but I didn't mind."

"Hahahaha, sooo... Let me see if I have this straight. You cheated on me... With a 12 year old." Adam scoffed and snickered, "Who OBVIOUSLY has mother issues. And you're just NOW getting rid of the evidence after an entire year just when we got back?"

"I- whu- you- Ahhpfff, pssyaa," Adam stammered, "I-I-I-In my defense, he was really good. Like, I saw God every time we banged, and he does this thing with his ear when it touches my-"

"PFfffhghghghghgh! You are so full of brine, babe." Merrick smirked as he comes in and kisses Adam again, this time a little more slowly and affectionately. Adam rests his rump on the large wood table as Merrick puts his head on his shoulder. "Hahhhh... You know what I kinda regret?"

"Forgetting to brush your teeth when you got home?"

"No, smart-ass." Merrick slaps his back, "I just wish I had a camera that works in the water."

Adam's eyes widen slightly, "What?"

"Well, there's only so much Naomi and I can describe, but more pictures of Atlantis would've been great." Merrick says as he walks around, fiddling with a random item.

"Ah-I-Uhm... But I thought you weren't allowed to bring electronics with you?"

"I know. But still, being able to show the others about our trip would've been easier."

"But, babe... It could have been sacrilegious for all you know."

"If it was, the Disciples would've been all over it immediately." Merrick said as he points a tool casually at him, "You'd be surprised what those blind eyes can pick up."

"But wouldn't you get in SOME kind of trouble?"

"Mm, there's no laws that says we can't."

"Wouldn't you feel guilty about it??"

Merrick shrugs, "Felt a lot less for a lot worse."

"What about... You know, the government? What if somehow they got ahold of these pictures?"