Prompt - Something Lost, Something Found

[infringe]

SONG OF THE SEA ( joshua, alecto ) A selkie far from home, searching for his coat. He meets a kind, lonely, young fisherman who tends the lighthouse near the sea.

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[infringe]

He perks up at this and immediately goes to grab his own shawl, a pale off-white gossamer that shone when the sun hit the fabric upon his shoulders. "Yes, absolutely! I've got the boys taken care of as well - they're just on a bit of a break. You truly working them to the bone up there." But, he smiles as they dart out together to the waves.

Being out on the water was a kind of happiness Alecto couldn't find the words to describe. Perhaps there were no words that the human tongue could surmise that could accurately capture such a feeling. As the boat bobs along, he drags his fingertips across the water's edge, relishing in the cold touch of it against his skin, wishing he could feel it all over. Maybe he'd opt for a swim later on.

For now, he admires Joshua as he works the sails, his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows as he adjusts with the wind, guiding the boat towards where he needed it to. Alecto smiles; he adores this man.

"Darling," he says, voice warm with affection, once the boat seems stable enough and on the right track, "may I ask you something? It's important."

[singinthestorm]

That word, in that tone of voice, never fails to make Joshua melt; he thinks he would do anything within his power, give Alecto absolutely anything he wanted, if he asked just like that. He smiles, swiping a hand back through his hair, disrupted by the wind, tying off the lead rope with the angle set just so, as the wind sends them skimming merrily at speed along the surface of the water.

"Of course," he replies almost immediately, keeping a weather eye on the conditions, but the sea is shining, almost as smooth as glass all around them. He turns his focus almost entirely to Alecto, clearly attentive to him, even with one hand on the line for the main sail. "You don't have to ask, dearest."

[infringe]

The way Josh calls him that ("My dearest, Alecto," he'd often murmur and what a blessed thing for a man to say if he had to say anything at all) always makes Alecto swoon, leaning towards him naturally like a flower facing the sun. I can't resist him, Alecto thinks, I'd willingly follow him to the ends of the earth, the very deepest parts of the sea if he so wished.

“Oh,” he said, a breathless and content sigh, the gentle seawind swirling about him, lifting his shawl like the flutter of feathered wings, “I was just thinking we ought to get married. Don’t you?”

[singinthestorm]

Yes, his heart answers immediately, before he's even fully processed the words. Yes, a thousand times, yes.

"I -" is what he says out loud, his eyes full, his heart caught in his throat. "I would like nothing more," he finally chokes out, clearly overcome. "But - dearest one -"

He remembers, still, the circumstances of Alecto's previous marriage, its ignominious end, the lingering effects of that on him even now.

He remembers his own failure, the presence of the very thing that brought him so much joy and unexpected delight a reminder of it every single day when it was only by its absence that he could measure out success. "What brought this on?"

[infringe]

He casts his gaze down, a small smile still on his mouth though he looks suddenly much younger than he is and shy. "It's been on my mind for a while, actually. And there are...so many things I want to do with you." Everything, actually. I want to do everything in the world with you.

"Joshua," he looks at him now, meeting his eyes. "I love you." He pauses, lets the weight of those words sink in. "And I never thought I'd ever love a man more than I love the water and yet. Here we are."

He laughs a little, bright as a bell, but it sounds relieved. "And even if we never find my coat..." a slightly pained look crosses his face but it flees almost as quickly as it came, "...I think I could live with it. I'm...happy. Really. For the first time in a very long time. And it's because of you." He reaches out to touch Joshua's hand, stroke his knuckles, roughed by salt and rope and brine. "But, I also know that there are...rules around things like this here. And before we can move forward with all that we'd like to share with each other, all that I'd like to give to you...well, I believe a ring and a ceremony is in order."

[singinthestorm]

He opens his hand, turns it over so he can link his fingers with Alecto's, his hand slim and smooth and pale in Joshua's much larger one, even weathered by many chores, the visible evidence of all the things he does for Joshua's sake, all the little comforts and improvements he noted and then proceeded to create, before Joshua had ever even registered their possibility.

"Then..." He gazes at Alecto, his expression adoring and besotted and helpless with the depth of feeling and love for him. "Dearest, you shall have them. Anything and everything," else, "you want or need that I can possibly provide for you."

"And it's not...much," he adds, his expression almost shy, glancing away but drawn back to Alecto, utterly unable to look anywhere else. "But in the end, you'll also have - me. All of me. Whatever that means to you. Whatever we might do, together."