We were sitting on the beach behind Mt Justice. I was in my usual outfit, a two piece bikini with see through shoulder wrap and matching side-tied skirt that split over my left leg. Kaldur was sitting next to me, both of us basking in the evening sun as the waves lapped at our feet. I wrapped my arms around myself, the tattoos shimmering as if alive. My right arm was covered in predatory aquatic creatures; a great white, octopus, sword fish, hammerhead, and many more. My left arm was filled with an intricate design of coral, seaweeds, and smaller fish.

I was nervous. We had been sitting there for an hour now without a word said between us. It had been so long since I had last seen Kaldur, almost a week because of a mission him and the team went on. I had planned on telling him something, but now that I had the chance… well, I clammed up.

Kaldur could probably tell by how nervous I was, I kept fidgeting and messing with my hair. More than once I had taken it down from my pony tail only to put it back up a few minutes later.

I looked over at Kaldur, nervousness building. He was looking out into the water, his greyish-green eyes looking slightly worn and relaxed at the same time. His hair, trimmed to just barely come off his head, was the same shade of blonde as mine. His though was a natural color while mine was bleached by the sun. His dark skin, showing two thick black eels trailing up from his wrists to just barely his gills, shimmered the same as mine.

I cursed that he was so calm, I was about to just blurt out what I had meant to say when bringing him out here, but still I could not. I looked back at my feet in shame.

We were born in the same world while he stayed I fled to the land. My past was different from his, dry, simple, no magic or fighting. No, I was raised by a fisherman, strange as it seemed, I went to school with the other kids, learned to surf and read in their language as I had my own. Kaldur had been raised in the water, learning magic beyond my comprehension and fighting far more advanced than I could gain up here. We were different from when we were kids, where we would swim together and play in coral reefs like the small Minos we were.

Yet, here we were, thirteen years later, each of us trying to reach back. When I left, I was a wanted criminal but had now been abolished of my father's sins. By Atlantian law, if a parent does a crime, such as murder in a psychotic sense, the children, as well as the wife, the criminal are sentenced to the same punishment as he/she is. Thanks to the Justice League I was freed from Atlantian rule and considered a full member of the US. I had been so for almost a year now. And for almost just as long I had kept my feeling harbored in my (metaphorical) bay.

So here we were, sitting on the beach, me being a chicken and unable to even utter a word.

"Marn'na?" I flinched at my Atlantian name, an old habit I had picked up over my childhood. Slowly I looked back over at the older Atlantian, looking at his chin instead of his eyes. "I don't believe the reason you brought me our here was just to watch the ocean."

I shook my head, bringing my knees to my chest. "I…" Damn my idiotic muteness. I groaned inwardly and bucked into my crossed arms.

"Marn'na?" I felt a hand on my shoulder. Strangely enough it wasn't comforting like it should have been. Instead I shifted away from his hold, holding onto my biceps. "Marn'na what is wrong?" he sounded concerned now. I guess anyone would be at that point.

I sighed and looked up towards the ocean, praying for Poseidon to give me strength, even if this wasn't his area of expertise. "I... wanted to talk to you about something…" I admitted, my voice trembling some.

"Yes…" it should have been a question.

"I… I wanted to…" God wasn't this supposed to be easy, like how they do it on TV and such. Sighing I ducked into my arms again, feeling heat rise in my cheeks. Great, not only was I relying on Television for dating advise I was to chicken to talk to the one guy that I had ever liked.

"Marn'na?" I looked at him, straight into his eyes this time. His greyish-green eyes sparkled in the late sunrise, making my breathe catch in my throat. "Truthfully there is something I wished to speak to you with." He turned and faced me. "If I may?" I nodded, biting my lower lip in worry. He nodded in return and reached toward me, taking my right hand in his. I stiffened, not sure where he was going with this, then he trailed his hand over the tattoos there. His fingers lingered over the eel that swam around my wrist and up to my hand. "I've been wanting to tell you this since we meet once more on the docks. Do you remember?"

I did, it was the middle of September when Papa and I were bringing in our catch. I had been hauling boxes out onto the docs when Kaldur had showed up out of nowhere. Neither of us knew who the other was, truly, so we weren't as comfortable around one another like we were now. He had asked me if I was new in town, and I answered no, I had been living there since I was young. It kept going on from there, him asking more and more questions while I worked.

When he left, which was when I had to go back on our boat to finish out day's catch, it left me with a strange sense of Déjà vu. It was later, after a lot of flirting between us and many, awkward, meet up with me and the Altantian warriors did we finally see who each other was.

"Yes, but you didn't know who I was then." I answered, not taking my eyes of his.

Kaldur kept gazing at my tattoos, as if he would find so many things in the small pictures. "I knew… you seemed like a different person, both in looks and personality, but I knew it was you." He then looked up, his eyes holding something I couldn't quite recognize. "It took me a while to actually see it, but I knew." His hand rose from my wrist to my cheek, pulling a small lock of blonde hair between his thumb and forefinger. "I remember when this used to be blue."

I laughed, yes, my hair was naturally blue, but only when I was in salt water. While most Atlantians looked like humans I looked more like the mythical mermaids that they thought us as. My skin went to a leathery texture that was in weird ripples and strips of blues and greens. My legs sewed together and formed a tail that ended more like a manatee's than a fish.

"So do I." I told him, my face still holding the worry it did before but with a shy smile pulling at the tips.

Kaldur smiled back and nodded. "As I was saying before, I've been wanting to tell you this from that moment." He let my hair go, resting it back on my wrist once more. "Marn'na," he shifted, turning to me even more fully to where his face was actually pretty close to mine, "I've had feelings, since long before your departure that of which I find that I cannot ignore now."

I felt my face heat up, the meaning of his words hitting me. Yet, dumbly I still asked, "W-What do you mean?"

He chuckled, a small smile spreading on his lips. His other hand came up then, cupping my left cheek, his thumb running over my chin. "I wish to, as the land dwellers say, become romantically involved with you."

I stopped breathing, my eyes going wide slightly. My mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air and stupidly, I could not respond. My dream, my fantasy that had been haunting me since I was fucking six, had just come true and I was frozen. "Kaldur… I-." I never got my chance to respond because he leaned forward, gently placing his lips on mine. The only thought that went through my mind was 'How the hell did he move fast enough to do that?' Then I remembered that we were pretty close to begin with. Then, finally, I started to actually realize he was actually kissing me and kissed back.

His hand went from my cheek to my neck, tilting my face up to his to deepen the kiss. It was still closed mouth, small, simple, but still filled with the emotions we both felt for one another. Sooner than I would have like, Kaldur pulled back. "I suspect that that means you accept me as you… boyfriend." All I could manage to do was nod to him, eyes somehow managing to be closed.

Kaldur moved his thumb over my jaw line, running over a scar I had there. The webbing between his fingers caused slight sparks to flow through my skin, making me shiver slightly. "Marn'na?" I opened my eyes. The sun had gone down then, leaving us under the stars in a New Moon. Kaldur looked different under the new lighting, his eyes no longer shimmering but actually glowing in a darker sea green tone that made me both afraid yet attracted to the young superhero at the same time.

"Yeah?" I asked, my voice rasped and husked from our previous activity.

"You haven't answered my question." It was my turn to be in control here. I leaned forward and kissed him, raising my weight onto my knees so I could wrap my arms around his shoulders, all while being careful of his gills.

This time I liked his bottom lip, asking permission from the older teenager. He opened for me, and we went farther. Our tongues wrestled for dominance him winning overall. Not a moment later was I placed in his lap, his hands resting respectively on my hips as his thumb rubbed circles into my hips. I pulled back, sucking on his tongue before releasing him.

We looked at each other, out of breathe and the scent of lust surrounding us. I could tell his eyes had become even darker now without even having to look directly into them. "What do you think my answer is?" I asked him, a sly smirk playing on my lips.

He gave a smirk of his own before pulling me down again by my hair, kissing me more frantically now. I moaned, running my hands up and down his chest.

We sat side by side, looking out into the ocean, the water now lapping over our legs, making mine turn into several different shades of blue before going up to my tanned stomach. Kaldur had his arms wrapped around me while I leaned into his chest, one hand ran through my air, untangling it from his rough hold on it earlier.

"Does this make us…'official'?"

I laughed, looking up at him, all nerves and shyness I felt around him suddenly gone. "Yes… But I'd say we were already 'official' long before now."

He laughed and nodded. "I agree." He then leaned down and kissed my forehead, a slower and gentler pace than what we had not minutes ago.

"We have to have a date though." I said, nuzzling into his chest. I felt him shift under me, "Just to show everyone else that is." I added. He laughed and held me tighter.

"If you say so."

"You're buying though…"

"Of course."