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The next morning, there’s a baby snake wrapping itself around Luka’s arm.
He doesn’t scream, nor does he shake his arm off. He stares at it, so small, harmless. It’s looking up at him with round eyes, and it can’t possibly be older than a few hours old, and…
Oh, it couldn’t be, could it? He sits up straight, passing the baby to his other arm. It’s so fascinating, and its little brown eyes are so innocent but whimsy, with potential to be something greater, and the shade—
“Oh,” Luka says out loud. There’s no doubt in his mind: this is his child. “My little snake. What should I do with you?”
He couldn’t name it on his own, could he? Such an important event! The miracle of bringing life, a life that was created by him and Hyuna—it couldn’t be his sole decision. He looks around, as if by miracle, Hyuna will show up as well.
Nothing.
He would have to wait for her, then.
Right before the sun sets, Hyuna arrives, bringing all the sunlight with her presence. She stops in her tracks when she sees Luka waving at her non-stop, the baby snake still wrapped around his arm.
“Hyuna! Hyuna!” he calls out, smiling, “Come quicker!”
“Oh, don’t yell, ” Hyuna yells back. “You’re so loud.”
She does walk faster, though. When she gets to the pier, Hyuna leans down to kiss him, but he places two fingers over her lips to stop it. Hyuna frowns. “What?”
“We have to hold off on kissing,” Luka explains. “You have to meet your son.”
“My what?! ” Hyuna’s eyes widen immensely. “I don’t have a son?!”
“You do! It’s our son,” he explains. He rubs his head against the snake’s little one, smiling, “He was born today.”
Hyuna grabs him by his shoulders. “Did you give birth to it?”
“Maybe,” Luka holds the snake up to her. “Greet him.”
Hyuna backs her head away. “I’m not greeting him! Luka, were you pregnant? ”
“Apparently I was. Why are you not ecstatic? Are you not happy about the miracle of life?”
“This can’t be,” Hyuna starts pacing. She runs a hand through her beautiful hair, encapsulating all the stress in a majestic way. “I—there’s no way. Can sirens get pregnant from fingers? That child is not mine.”
“I don’t believe it was your fingers,” he says, placing down their son in the water. “And of course it’s yours. It has your eyes!”
“It doesn’t have my eyes. Are you crazy?” Hyuna gestures at the little snake floating. “Why would it have my eyes? ”
“Because you’re his parent,” he explains. Why is she being so irrational about it? Who else has Luka been intimate with? “Like I said, I don’t think it was your fingers. I think it was our kiss.”
“Okay, you’re fucking with me,” she crouches down in front of him, eye-to-eye. “What do you mean?”
“Think about it. Sirens have sex with sailors, always, but we don’t get pregnant. I kiss you and I wake up with this? That is the only logical explanation for this.”
“You’re so weird,” Hyuna holds his face in her hands. Luka places his own over hers, helpless to not smile back, enjoying the frenzy she’s currently in. “That is not how anything works.”
“You’re not a siren, are you? What would you know?”
“I know I would have seen a pregnant belly,” Hyuna says. She lets go of his face, pointing at the snake. “I don’t think that’s ours.”
Luka gazes down at it. “But I already thought of names. ”
“Names?” Hyuna sighs, then she laughs a little. “You’re kind of adorable. What names?”
“Jinyoung,” Luka says. “Miyoung. I haven’t decided yet. I was hoping you would do the honors.”
“I’m not doing the honors because that snake is not ours,” Hyuna sits down on the sand at last, letting her feet dip in the sea. She is a lot more relaxed now. She picks up the snake and holds it up. “We can adopt it, if you want.”
Luka watches her play with it, and unsettlement finds its way to his stomach. It’s likely it’s not theirs, sure—since Hyuna looks so convinced about it— but it fills him with dread. Hyuna is not his, and now, neither is this snake—everything that’s related to her is always, always an ocean away. What life could a mermaid have in a pirate ship? What life could a pirate have in this secluded corner of the sea?
When would she ever be his?
“Hey, come on,” she tilts his chin up. “Are you sad you weren’t pregnant?”
“Why can’t I ever have anything of yours?”
Her jokey attitude drops immediately. It’s hard to hide his emotions around her, the way she always—digs, and digs, and digs everything out of him. Involuntarily. He is always at her mercy, when it should be the other way around. She’s always the compass, she’s always the north, and it never makes a difference for him.
Hyuna holds his hand. It’s pitiful, but he can’t help and take what he gets.
“We can keep this as ours, really,” she says. “I liked Jinyoung as a name.”
It’s a consolation prize, but it puts him in a better mood. “So did I.”
“I’m sorry my fingers can’t get you pregnant,” Hyuna says. She brings up his hand and kisses it. “I can try harder next time.”
“When you say it like that, it sounds silly, ” Luka tries to not laugh, he does, but she’s always good at making him experience everything he doesn’t want to. “You should stay and raise it, then.”
“Oh, I have a crew to raise,” Hyuna grins. “I can half-raise it.”
Half of her, as always. If Luka could be more mythical, if he could command her whole attention, if he could be worshipped by her—have her be truly and fully his…
He needs to start somewhere. This could be a good start.
“You’ll get attached to it,” Luka says. “You’ll have no choice but to remain with us.”
“We’ll see,” Hyuna pats his cheek.
She’s still so gorgeous. Luka’s going to find a way to get pregnant. A baby snake is not enough—he needs to trap her somehow.
“We will,” Luka smiles back, and leans in to kiss her again.