Under The Sea Romance

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Chapter 6 – The Run-In

A couple weeks had gone by since I had found Logan and began living in the cave. I didn’t know how he did it for so long by himself. It was so boring. There was nothing to do. There were always plants to eat, but Logan hunts often. I still found the fish distasteful, but at least once a day he’d go out and spear a fish for us. I ate it, anyway.

I was surprised he wasn’t depressed, or lonely. He never mentioned any of those things. Once in a while he seemed to be far away, but he’d usually shake it off and offer me one of those huge grins of his.

“Have you considered moving?”

“Moving?”

“Yeah, you know. Something new to look at. Maybe you’ll find more of us,” I said.

“Well, I thought about it, but then I’d have to pack everything up. This area I live in is considerably warmer than the others, because of the hot springs. I’m just afraid that if I move away that something will happen and I’ll regret it. I’ve made this my home,” He replied.

“Logan?”

“Yeah?”

I sat back against the cave wall and stared at him.

“Has anything bad happened to you, while you were down here? Really bad, I mean,” I asked.

He nodded slowly, but didn’t meet my eyes, “Yes.”

He didn’t elaborate, but I wanted to know more. I had the feeling he was keeping something from me. However, I didn’t question him more that night. We went to bed like we always do, side by side on the narrow plant mat.

It was late when I felt a hand rest on my arm. I stilled, but he didn’t seem to notice. I felt his hand move slowly from my arm to my hair and he gently ran his hand through my blonde hair. I couldn’t take it anymore and rolled over.

“What the hell are you doing?”

He was startled, defiantly startled and even in the dim light I noticed a blush rise from his neck to his cheeks.

“Sorry,” He said, moving his hand instantly.

“You touched me,” I argued, sitting up and facing him.

He looked extremely guilty and I felt a strange feeling in my chest, but ignored it.

“I said I was sorry. I was….dreaming,” He replied, looking over my shoulder.

“Dreaming about me?”

“No!” He said too quickly, “Just…go back to sleep, Raven.”

I squinted slightly in the darkness and finally rolled down next to him. What was I going to do? Get mad? Sounded like a great idea. I’d get angry with him and then go sit at the corner of the cave because I sure as hell wasn’t going outside at night.

He didn’t say anything to me, so I resumed my same position, facing the wall. I felt a sudden cold chill and moved back a bit, right into Logan. I butted up a little close to him—to keep warm—and fell asleep. When I woke up in the morning, his arm was around me.

We went on like that for a few weeks and he found excuses to touch me. At least I didn’t need his help shaving anymore. He smiled at me a lot and was even getting ready to help me learn to hunt.

“It’s like this,” He said for the fifth time today, “You just aim and…hit it.”

I raised my eyebrows, “Sounds easy.”

“You’ll get it soon enough,” He nodded and followed me out with a spear, “Here, I made this one for you.”

It was similar to his other spears, but shorter in length and had a fresh tip at the end.

“You made this for me?” I asked.

He nodded slowly, “Yeah. Since you’re learning I thought I’d make you one—a nice one. It’s got a really good, strong handle and it’s shorter, so it’ll be easier for you to use.”

I smiled a little, “Thanks Logan.”

I was a horrible shot. He thought maybe the design of the shorter spear was bad, so he let me try his longer one. That made it even worse. I always thought that spearing fish looked difficult, but doing it underwater was even worse. More than once Logan had come up, wanting to demonstrate. I’d let him show me how and then I’d do it and fail.

After one point he grabbed the spear and glanced at me when I let go, “Keep holding it. See that blue and black fish over there? The big one?”

I nodded.

“Aim for it. I’m gonna help you,” He said and came around behind me.

I felt his chest and long fin press up against my back and he steadily held the spear in place. I waited impatiently for him to say something, but he didn’t say anything until the fish was almost directly in front of us. The warmth of his body pressed up against mine was making rather antsy. I didn’t know what to think. He was just showing me how to fish was all.

“Now,” He said and I let the spear come back slightly before throwing and hitting the big fish in the center of its body.

“I got it!” I shouted, grinning like mad.

“You got it!” He repeated, going towards the fish and picking up his spear, “Look at this, Rave. You got this.”

“But you helped,” I admitted.

“No, I just floated around a bit and helped you aim. You got it!” He said, pulling the fish off and holding it up, “Dinner is served.”

I didn’t hunt to eat, but he sure did like the fish. He went to the “chopping block” beneath the cave, as I had begun to call it and began to dice up the fish. I watched him with amusement as he shoved a few chunks in his mouth and then offered some to me. I reluctantly took a few bites, just because he was so proud of me.

He took his bowl of fish back into the cave and we sat together, talking about my fishing skills. Day quickly became evening as time passed with unsurpassed speed. I never thought that simply talking with someone else could be so relaxing and interesting. Logan was full of stories of his time under the sea and all that he had endured. Some of the stories were rather unpleasant, while some were downright hilarious.

He was so casual and pleasant, that I barely noticed his right arm slide down my back and rest on the warm skin there. His skin glowed in the illumination of the sea lights and he grinned at me and leaned back against the cool stone cave.

“I’m really glad you’re here,” He said suddenly and tilted his head to the side to stare at me, “I know I’ve told you before, but I just can’t say it enough.”

My stomach did a little flip and I nodded slowly and felt his hand move up my back and rest on my neck, “I know what you mean.”

I watched the bubbles of our breathing as we exhaled and I stared into honey colored eyes. His hand moved again from the back of my neck to my chin and he rubbed my cheek with his thumb. No words were exchanged as he pulled me closer. The kiss wasn’t passionate or earthmoving—it was sweet, gentle, and unlike any other kiss I had ever had. His eyes did not leave my own and I found myself transfixed as he gently probed open my mouth. The rush of panic hit me quickly and I almost pulled away, but soon realized that it didn’t matter. It was only him and I and no one else.

“Logan…I-”

“Shh…” He silenced me with another kiss and grabbed the underside of my other arm, pulling me closer to him.

I surprised myself by winding my fingers through his auburn locks and pulling his face closer to mine. My lips tingled in anticipation as his own finally locked upon mine. I wouldn’t have—in a thousand years—imagined this, yet it seemed so right.

Logan paused suddenly and inhaled deeply. I realized his eyes were red around the edges and he put a hand to his face. If we hadn’t been under the water then I would have realized that…he was crying?

“What’s wrong?” I whispered and searched his honey brown eyes that seemed to be in pain.

He sat back on his haunches and I saw his hunter green tail glitter in the moonlight, “There’s something I need to tell you.”

I furrowed my brow and shook my head slightly. Something was seriously bothering him. Was it something that I had done? I watched him inhale deeply and stare into my ocean blue eyes.

“You know you can tell me, Logan.” I said softly.

He nodded a couple of times and pulled his fin up to his chest. Brown eyes watched me for a few moments before he opened his mouth to speak, “Truth is, Raven—I’ve been keeping something from you and I feel horrible about it.”

“It couldn’t…it couldn’t possibly be that bad,” I suggested.

He frowned slightly and looked down for a moment, “I wasn’t the only person kidnapped. There was someone else. His name was Aron and he was about my age. We didn’t know each other before the kidnapping. Just as you had been—we had both been tortured and experimented on. He went through those agonizing days with me. When we were cast out into the ocean—he stayed by my side. We worked well together and saw eye-to-eye. We became best friends…and then lovers.”

I’m sure my eyebrows rose at the comment, but he continued on, “I loved him, but he became depressed. He told me he couldn’t stand it any longer. I tried to convince him that it would be alright—that we would have each other, but it wasn’t enough for him. One day we decided to go our separate ways while hunting, and we had planned to meet up later on, but I found him near the coral reef with one of my spears. He…he had his back to me and I thought he was hunting, but I saw the blood and I knew.”

Logan’s eyes glowed in the dim light and he sniffed and then I instinctively reached over to grab his hand.

“He cut both wrists and there was nothing I could do. I had screamed and yelled and tried to drag him back to the cave, so I could at least try to save him. He wanted nothing of it. His silver eyes were so…hollow and he had shaken his head. He told me he loved me, but he had enough. He died on that coral reef and I had cried my eyes out and thought I would die, myself. I had never felt so horrible and so disengaged from the outside world,” Logan sighed and glanced out of the opening of the cave, “I managed to bury him in a shallow grave behind this cave.”

He looked away from me and I couldn’t think of anything to say, “I-I don’t know what to say. I had no idea, Logan.”

He shrugged slightly and almost pulled out of my grasp, “I became…angry. I resented the world after that happened. I couldn’t bring myself to kill myself the way that he had, but I wanted to die. I hoped a shark would attack me. I actually prayed for it, but something happened when I prayed.”

Logan paused and glanced over at me with a glimpse of a smile, “I found you three days after that. And you were more than I could have ever hoped for.”

I honestly didn’t know what to say, but it started to make sense to me now—the double bedroll, the writings on the wall, the dates, and most of all what he had told me the cave has too many memories.

I understood now.