Let the Waves Up Take Me Down (Ben)

[ALEJANDRO SANCHEZ]

SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA

Water surrounded him in a cocoon of familiar comfort. Swimming came as natural to him as walking did for humans once they had grown and adapted. Home. The first few minutes he spent twisting and swirling and gauging how to do all the tricks he once was an expert on. He had gone to the surface, smiling and waving at Ben. He came back close to the beach only once to shout that he would return and come back. Alex then dove down and wondered if he really would ever come back. It was a passing thought as soon all that he was concerned about was the wild ways of the sea and exploring everything .

His family flocked around him nearly nonstop, all his brothers and sisters rejoicing from his return down to the dark blue deeps that turned into a black abyss at the bottom. Alex swam through coral reefs, played with his siblings and even went to visit his mother. She was understandably upset with him but she eventually had over her anger as Alex brushed her with his noise and let out noises that begged for forgiveness. He was her last child of many and somehow Alex knew deep in his heart that she always conceded to his quirky behavior because he reminded her of that one last love.

Two days and it felt like too little. Alex had barely swum around, only gone around a few hundred miles around. The ocean was limitless it seemed but Alejandro barely scratched the surface. With an aching hurt in his chest Alex brushed pelts with all those he loved beneath this beautiful free landscape came to the surface. His small black eyes stared up at the moon and his body knew from experience it was an hour past midnight. The promised time had been an hour ago.

Alejandro swum at full speed to the rocks that were the designated meeting place and burst forth from the waves. He wearily stepped out of his pelt and nearly collapsed on the sand. Another few steps and he fell to his knees and then inched forward to relax on the sand to catch his breath. A nervous twitch was bothering him but Alex just ignored his fears of Ben being angry at him while he tried to regain himself and figure out how to stand as a human again.

[BEN CREWE]

[atrb=style, width: 500px; background: #6e7174 url(http://teaandheresy.com/moon/ben02back.jpg) no-repeat center bottom; border: 1px solid #000; -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;-webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000, bTable][atrb=valign,bottom][atrb=cellspacing,15,true][atrb=style, padding: 0px 15px 15px 15px; border: 1px solid #000; color: #000; background-color: #cccdce; opacity: 0.7; filter:alpha(opacity=70); -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;-webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;] It was hard to find a beach in the popular resort and surfing town of Santa Cruz that was truly deserted, even after midnight, but they'd found a spit of sandy beach not far from Seabright. It was probably technically private property, but nobody had turned up to object, even when Ben had lit the fire at sundown. He'd been sitting in the same spot since midday. There was a cheap drugstore chenille throw spread out on the grass, two more rolled and still in their cardboard sleeves in case he needed them later. The cooler that had started out full of drinks and sandwiches was down to ice chips swimming in cold water, a couple of bottles of cranberry juice cocktail, and the partial bottle of Wild Turkey he'd been working on for hours. He'd brought his Selmer out with him and was sitting with it on his lap, playing idle chords and pick patterns more than real music at this point. Ben was exquisitely aware of every minute that had passed since midnight, and despair wasn't far off at this point. But when he saw the seal come arching up onto the beach he was up on his feet, running toward Alex with one of the clean blankets. As the skin split open and the naked human form dropped to the sand Ben spread the fuzzy afghan around him, holding it there in an almost-hug. "Breathe, luv. I'm here."

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[ALEJANDRO SANCHEZ]

Alejandro just remained in Ben’s partial embrace as his breath slowly returned to him. It was slow coming, as if he had been running some sort of marathon which at this point he was close enough to. The water had been turbulent this night and even though as a seal he was smooth and moved through the water with inhumane speeds it had been rough getting up to the surface. He felt himself already drying up, glad for the warmth of the afghan since his skin was starting to prickle from the cold and being without his pelt.

“G-grab it. Take it.” He gestured almost wildly to the pelt as he just relaxed for a bit to let his body get used to not being in seal form. Once he got enough strength back in him, he would want to take the pelt back into his arms and go back to the sea no matter how much he loved Ben. Alex had some self-control but nothing powerful enough to overcome his instinctual urges for much longer than this.

[BEN CREWE]

[atrb=style, width: 500px; background: #6e7174 url(http://teaandheresy.com/moon/ben02back.jpg) no-repeat center bottom; border: 1px solid #000; -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;-webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000, bTable][atrb=valign,bottom][atrb=cellspacing,15,true][atrb=style, padding: 0px 15px 15px 15px; border: 1px solid #000; color: #000; background-color: #cccdce; opacity: 0.7; filter:alpha(opacity=70); -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;-webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;] Ben kissed Alex's salt-wet hair and tucked the blanket tighter around him, then stood up and went to retrieve the pelt. It wasn't easy to walk away from him, but it was worse to lose him entirely and so he wrapped the pelt around itself as he jogged off to the spot he'd prepared earlier, stashed the pelt and locked it down. He'd retrieve it later, when Alex was asleep, stow it someplace more permanent. The musician was already looking in to buying or leasing property along the west coast somewhere, give them a spot to launch from. Which was, he knew, making a whole lot of assumptions about how things were going to work out, but he had to think in terms of the long run. His heart didn't allow anything else. Once the pelt was secured, Ben came back and dropped down next to Alex again, got his shoulders to lead him over to the fire. "Come get a drink. Get used to having skin again." He grinned a little at saying it, his life was a lot stranger now that he had a selkie in it. But he got Alex over to the blanket and sat down, reaching out for one of the juices out of a feeling that it might help to have something to clear the seawater out of his throat. "I've got you, you're okay."

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[ALEJANDRO SANCHEZ]

“How did I ever do this before?” Alex groaned, wanting to curl up like a dog on the blanket and just sleep even though he was wide-awake from slipping out of his pelt. The sensation wasn’t painful but it was just irritating enough to keep him aware of his surroundings almost non-stop. His skin prickled at the wind and he was upset that he didn’t have the comfort of his pelt. The urge to run back into the water with his pelt was strong… he felt relieved that Ben had taken it when he did or else Alex would have tried wrangling it away from him. He made a small groan of discomfort, trying to ease himself back into some semblance of normalcy.

Blearily Alex reached out and took the juice, smiling weakly at Ben. “Thank you.” He waited a few more minutes to raise his energy some more and to ignore the itching and then took a sip, relishing in it. The creature comforts of humans always settled him down when he was stressed and he was glad to see it worked when he had just changed as well. “I love you,” He mumbled sleepily, content for the moment. Ben had allowed him to see his family and be in the ocean where he felt free and alive. It was more than he could ever ask for.

[BEN CREWE]

[atrb=style, width: 500px; background: #6e7174 url(http://teaandheresy.com/moon/ben02back.jpg) no-repeat center bottom; border: 1px solid #000; -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;-webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000, bTable][atrb=valign,bottom][atrb=cellspacing,15,true][atrb=style, padding: 0px 15px 15px 15px; border: 1px solid #000; color: #000; background-color: #cccdce; opacity: 0.7; filter:alpha(opacity=70); -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;-webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;] Ben crouched down next to Alex, running a hand through his wet hair to keep it back out of his eyes and to hopefully soothe the selkie down some. "Last time? You got really, really, really pissed. I definitely remember the pissed." He kissed Alex's temple and then finally sat back, wiping his hands dry and then packing up the Selmer to give the selkie a few minutes to get hold of himself again. Settling on the blanket so that just their knees touched, trying to give Alex a tiny bit of room while he pulled it together, Ben said, "I love you too. Enough that I'm not even going to give you shit about being late. Mostly." He grinned at his lover, more amused than he probably ought to have been by it all. "Was it good? Do you feel okay with this?" This was about as much of the rampaging nervousness that he actually felt that Ben was going to be capable of displaying. He might be mushier with Alex than with anybody else in his entire life, ever, but it's still something that existed along a fairly narrow spectrum.

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[ALEJANDRO SANCHEZ]

Alejandro gave a breathy, almost hesitant laugh. It hurt even just to laugh. Well, not hurt, just…his skin prickled up again. “Yeah, being angry distracts you from pretty much anything.” He sighed, leaning back and just resting on the ground for a moment and was grateful for the blanket that helped keep the sand from getting into his hair and eyes. It felt like he was a newborn again. “My skin…it’s like when you burn your skin and a new layer comes out and it’s sore. But it’s all over my body.” He attempted to explain as he got his bearings.

“I was worried you’d flip out.” Alex mumbled, getting enough energy after a few more minutes to sit up again. His lower back ached from the strain but he ignored it. “I hurried back as fast as I could. There was just too much ocean to ignore and I barely scratched the surface.” He crinkled his nose. “I…I feel like I’m back where I belong.” Maybe it wasn’t his first home but Ben and the surface mattered to him just as much. “I’m good with this. Just not happy with the skin prickling and the fact that I still want to run back to the ocean. Good thing you took it when I told you.” Alex didn’t even refer to its name. Yes it was his pelt but despite his longing for it at the moment it was just a pelt. Just a pelt. Not a human being and definitely not the man he was in love with.

[BEN CREWE]

[atrb=style, width: 500px; background: #6e7174 url(http://teaandheresy.com/moon/ben02back.jpg) no-repeat center bottom; border: 1px solid #000; -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;-webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000, bTable][atrb=valign,bottom][atrb=cellspacing,15,true][atrb=style, padding: 0px 15px 15px 15px; border: 1px solid #000; color: #000; background-color: #cccdce; opacity: 0.7; filter:alpha(opacity=70); -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;-webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;] "We'll find a balance for it," Ben promised. "The right amount of time in the water that doesn't make you forget." He was never entirely going to finish being afraid of being forgotten. He'd read the legends, all of them, and he knew the pull the ocean had on the selkies, even if he didn't entirely understand it on that visceral level where it lived in Alex. He nodded when Alex brought up the pelt again, prepared for him to mention it a hundred more times if need be because he knew that was where his head was right now. "It's safe. And when you're ready, there's food for you to eat incredibly slowly, and whiskey for you to turn your nose up at, and the hotel room is nearby." However long it took, Alex's last transition from sea to land had been traumatic and that was entirely Ben's fault, and so he wasn't exactly trying to make that up to him except...well, he was kind of trying to make it up to him.

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[ALEJANDRO SANCHEZ]

No snippy remarks and as Alejandro gazed at Ben he saw no sign of fear or anxiety. He was pleasantly surprised by how gentle and caring Ben was being. Not surprised by the act but surprised at how attentive and slow he was going trying to help Alex get used to the land. Definitely different from the first time when Ben had just taken the pelt and Alex had cursed and cried out after him to try to get it back.

“You’re being very careful with me,” Alex noted aloud, lips curving into a smile as he watched through half-lidded eyes. He was still sleepy but trying his best to adapt quickly so as not to be a burden and so that they didn’t have to spend the whole morning on the beach to await him getting his strength back. “What kind of food?” The whiskey…hrm. He might skip that but if he kept gulping down this juice as fast as he had in the last minutes then it probably would be the only thing left to use to attempt to squelch his thirst.

[BEN CREWE]

[atrb=style, width: 500px; background: #6e7174 url(http://teaandheresy.com/moon/ben02back.jpg) no-repeat center bottom; border: 1px solid #000; -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;-webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000, bTable][atrb=valign,bottom][atrb=cellspacing,15,true][atrb=style, padding: 0px 15px 15px 15px; border: 1px solid #000; color: #000; background-color: #cccdce; opacity: 0.7; filter:alpha(opacity=70); -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;-webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;] "I think there's a turkey sandwich and a couple of pears," Ben said, largely indifferent. He'd brought food because he needed to eat, but he'd been nervy and unsettled all day and though he'd eaten the other sandwiches and so on he hadn't really tasted them. He was doing a decent job of covering up just how sure he'd been that Alex was never coming back from the sea. But he still had to try to play it cool, so he laughed at Alex's observation and rubbed his hand over the selkie's knee. "Enjoy it while it lasts. I figured you could use a few hours to recover before I started yelling at you about being late and taunting you with what you owe me for it. Here's a hint: a lot." He grinned, though, because while he would absolutely extract favors both sexual and otherwise from Alex if he thought he could get them, he mostly just wanted a few hours to ground himself and come to really believe that Alex was really back, he wasn't alone again. Ben was still having some trouble with that concept, he was too used to thinking of himself as perpetually lonesome and after Alex had disappeared on him a few months ago he'd run all out of faith in a hurry.

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[ALEJANDRO SANCHEZ]

Alejandro felt his nose scrunching at the options. Such plain food. Fruit was okay but he had been hoping for some seafood. It was a bit presumptuous, especially since he had just come from being underwater and eating all the fish he could dream about. “Can we go out to a sushi restaurant tomorrow?” Raw or cooked fish didn’t matter. Alex just wanted some sort of seafood in his mouth to take away the sting of leaving the ocean. It would be better than nothing so Alex nibbled at one of the pears to occupy his stomach.

The touch was pleasant and Alex scooted closer to his lover, practically snuggling into the thirty-year-old’s lap. They made quite a pair. An older looking man with experience and a young selkie (who had lived nearly 500 years) with no experience at all. “I owe you?” A bit of a soft giggle. “Ask and you’ll receive.” Although if it was anything extreme and kinky Alex might refuse but he wouldn’t hesitate to feel the warm fuzzy butterflies in his stomach again. That first night, their true first night had awakened him to the pleasures of sex.

[BEN CREWE]

[atrb=style, width: 500px; background: #6e7174 url(http://teaandheresy.com/moon/ben02back.jpg) no-repeat center bottom; border: 1px solid #000; -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;-webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000, bTable][atrb=valign,bottom][atrb=cellspacing,15,true][atrb=style, padding: 0px 15px 15px 15px; border: 1px solid #000; color: #000; background-color: #cccdce; opacity: 0.7; filter:alpha(opacity=70); -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;-webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;] A cheerful groan. "I will never understand the appeal of eating raw fish. This entire country is obsessed with it. Fish is meant to be battered and fried and served in a cone of newspaper. Or, if you got to be niff about it, poached and served with a nice lemon butter sauce. It is not meant to be eaten raw on a blob of rice." He actually shuddered at the idea, but then kissed Alex's shoulder. "But I suppose we can find a place where you can get your fish-rice blobs and I can get a decent ton katsu." When Alex asked what he owed, Ben laughed low and menacing and pleased. "Like that, is it? You might want to put a bit more thought into it before offering things like that." He splayed his hands out on Alex's chest and leaned in so that he could whisper int he selkie's ear and outline the ways he was planning to have Alex make it up to him. He had a good head for detail, and clearly a deep faith in his own physical flexibility and endurance, and it was also clear that he'd set the bar high for the selkie and expected him to be able to keep up.

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[ALEJANDRO SANCHEZ]

Alejandro laughed, almost tempted to threaten to make Ben eat some sushi himself just to see that look on his lover’s face again. It was priceless. “Well, I don’t know about them, but I grew up on raw fish. Even in this body I like it a lot.” True, he also enjoyed the fish prepared and cooked in the ways Ben was suggesting but raw was his absolute favorite.

He made a face before smiling. “It’s not like you’ll give me much of a choice anyhow.” Alex shivered pleasantly at the touch but then playfully swatted Ben away at his whispers. “You are very demanding.” Though he supposed it was only fair considering Alex left to go to the sea a few days every month. Now that they had it all planned out Alex felt a bit of regret that he didn’t try to push it further and demand a week every month but Ben would have gone ballistic. Alex then sighed and snuggled closer; enjoying the heat from Ben’s body despite how warm he already was getting from the afghan. “Why is it always about sex with you?” The selkie couldn’t resist getting his little jibe in even though he was finding himself a bit addicted to the act himself.

[BEN CREWE]

[atrb=style, width: 500px; background: #6e7174 url(http://teaandheresy.com/moon/ben02back.jpg) no-repeat center bottom; border: 1px solid #000; -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;-webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000, bTable][atrb=valign,bottom][atrb=cellspacing,15,true][atrb=style, padding: 0px 15px 15px 15px; border: 1px solid #000; color: #000; background-color: #cccdce; opacity: 0.7; filter:alpha(opacity=70); -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;-webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;box-shadow: 3px 3px 10px #000;] Ben gave Alex an odd look and stretched out to get himself the bottle of bourbon, dosing his own cranberry juice cocktail and not coincidentally taking himself out of physical contact with Alex. "I love the way you say things like 'it's not like you'll give me much choice', really. Nothing like making a bloke sound like a rapist to set a happy mood." He wasn't pissed off, not quite, but he wasn't as pleased and affectionate as he'd been a moment before. Which made it so that there was a hint of bitterness in his voice when he answered the next thing. "And it's always about sex because we're supposed to be in the honeymoon phase and actually enjoying being all over one another. If you're not having fun with it, just say so instead of hinting that you're being victimized somehow, eh?" He hated the way Alex did that, the way he phrased things somehow like he was the poor innocent being abused in any situation. Ben had cancelled a gig and driven the entire width of the country for this, had just been sitting around thinking about how he could permanently change the way he booked gigs and invest a million dollars in a California beach house so that Alex could have the things he needed, and five minutes later it's shoving him away and snarking about him wanting sex all the time.

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[ALEJANDRO SANCHEZ]

Alejandro rolled his eyes, “You overreact too much. You’ll just probably convince me, that’s all.” He wasn’t going to admit any weakness by telling Ben that his touch made his body want to submit so easily. “Don't read too deeply into things. Of course you wouldn't force me.” Ben was being ridiculous. “Just…I want to do more than just have sex.” Sex was amazing, and Alex was getting a bit addicted to the pleasure from it but there was more to the world than just one thing.

This was why things tended to get heated and argumentative. Ben never really paid attention to what Alex was saying and how he was saying it. He just assumed the worst in him. “Somebody’s cranky.” Alex bit his tongue before saying anything he’d regret…like talking about how he wished he hadn’t come back to the surface so soon. If Ben was gonna act like this every time he surfaced…well, this wasn’t what Alex had wanted or expected. “Can you really not tell when I’m teasing?” Alejandro was exasperated but hid it behind a curious raised eyebrow directed at Ben. Phrases like stop being so sensitive popped into his head but he didn’t dare say them out loud because he knew that Ben would have a fit.