Ivan wasn't sure why he had agreed to meet Mylene at the swimming pool in the campus rec center that evening.

By all rights, he should have listened to his common sense and stayed far away from the clearly crazy young woman. Whoever carried around an animal skin and claimed that they were married just because he had handed it back to her was probably someone he should avoid.

But… she had been so serious. She, at least, believed what she was saying.

And even if he knew it couldn't be real, looking into those sweet, warm golden-brown eyes…

Ivan almost, kinda wanted it to be true, just so that she wouldn't face inevitable heartbreak.

So maybe that was why he slouched through the chill darkness, around the side of the building to the side door that Mylene had told him about. He had been here before, to use the weight room, but Ivan wasn't much of a swimmer and so he had never visited the rec center's pool.

Looks like today was just full of firsts.

The rec center was closed for the night, but Mylene had told him to come around and she would meet him at one of the doors. Unfortunately, she had neglected to tell Ivan which side, and so he ended up walking three-quarters of the way around the rec center before he spotted Mylene, standing just in the shadows by a pool of light cast around a door. She was fiddling with her phone, the brightness turned all the way down, but even so it took Ivan longer to see her than he thought it would. In fact, he nearly walked past before he realized someone was there.

And no, he did not jump, thank-you-very-much. He just stepped on an uneven part of the ground and stumbled. Right.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to startle you!" Mylene squeaked, putting her phone away and reaching out to steady Ivan with one hand, although he didn't need it at this point.

"No, I just… stumbled," Ivan said, coughing slightly and looking away. "So, um…"

"Ah, right!" After a brief moment of fumbling in her pockets, Mylene pulled out a keyring, then selected one and stepped to the door to unlock it. "Like I said, I have a friend who got me a key, so as long as I don't make a mess…" She gave Ivan a shy smile as he stepped forward to open the door for her.

Look, it was a weird situation but that was no excuse to not be a gentleman, okay?

"So, don't mess things up, got it," Ivan said, hesitating briefly before following Mylene into the dark, chlorine-scented room. A moment later and lights flicked on overhead, though only every fourth lamp was lit. The pool itself had no lights on, leaving the water dim and the bottom only a suggestion.

Really, if you had seen one huge indoor pool you had seen them all, so Ivan barely glanced over it and the high-dive platform before turning to Mylene.

He almost squeaked, but his throat was suddenly tight at the realization that Mylene was pulling her shirt off. Yes, there was what looked like a one-piece swimsuit underneath, but he would have liked a little warning beforehand!

Mylene didn't seem to notice, too busy slipping her pants off and folding them along with her shirt to rest on one of the bleachers lining the long walls. She must have noticed Ivan's expression, and possibly how red he had gone, because she flushed and twiddled her index fingers together, looking down.

"Sorry, I can only wear something skin-tight while Changing. I mean, I can with looser clothes, but they always make me feel uncomfortable."

Ivan swallowed past the tightness in his throat and took a careful step closer. "Mylene, I…"

He really should stop this before it went any further. Before he had to see the disappointment in her eyes when it didn't work.

But Mylene had already turned away and was pulling out that silvery animal skin, carrying it with her to the edge of the pool. "No matter what, know that I won't hurt you, okay?"

Ivan opened his mouth to tell her to stop, because he really wasn't the greatest swimmer and having to rescue her from the pool if she got tangled in that skin probably wouldn't end well for either of them, but only got as far as "St-" before Mylene flung the heavy skin around her shoulders in a practiced movement. It snugged tightly around her body as her body flowed into motion, arching forward and into the water with only a small splash.

His breath caught in his throat, and Ivan was halfway to the edge of the pool before he even realized his legs were moving. He skidded to a halt and dropped to his knees beside the pool, focusing on the dark shape under the water.

Ivan let out a breath of relief, the terror holding his chest tight beginning to relax as the form grew larger and closer. Okay, as soon as Mylene surfaced he would help her out, then he could give her a stern talking-to for trying to give him a heart attack.

The darkness broke the surface and rose up… and up… and up. Big, golden eyes set in a head larger than a bear's focused on him, even as the massive seal surged up higher than Ivan's own kneeling height, then braced itself against the edge with just its flippers, leaving the rest of the seal's body in the water.

And then it gave an open-mouthed 'grin', showing disturbingly long fangs and why did a seal have fangs?!

He dimly registered the spotted, silvery and grey coat before Ivan fell backwards and a scream tore out of his throat.

The seal jerked back, snorting in alarm, and then surged forward and shimmered and suddenly Mylene was crouching over him, that spotted hide draped over her shoulders. "Are you okay?!"

"I… bwah… wha… seal… teeth… why fangs?!" Ivan babbled out, scrambling back and away from Mylene as it hit him that she had not been kidding and she really does turn into a fucking seal!

Mylene blinked and looked honestly confused. "All leopard seals have fangs."

"You could have warned me that you turn into an apex predator!"

Mylene flinched, and Ivan's chest squeezed as hot guilt shot through him. He tried to speak but had to swallow hard before his tight throat would let him. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped like that."

Because even if she was an apex predator, he still couldn't bring himself to hurt her feelings.

Mylene gave him a shy, but admonishing look. "I told you that I wouldn't hurt you."

"Sorry, I mean… I… I honestly didn't really believe you about the whole seal thing until you actually did it. And then you weren't some tiny, cute fuzzball, but something bigger than me!"

That earned a shy smile. "I probably should have warned you about how big I am."

Ivan smiled hesitantly in return. "I don't think I would have believed you." He cleared his throat, swallowed, then continued. "So, you really… that's really you in there. With those big teeth."

"I promise you, Ivan, I'm me, no matter what form I'm in. I just get a lot fuzzier."

Ivan glanced over the skin still draped over Mylene's shoulders, heavy and damp, and decided that if she was trusting him with this, the least he could do was extend a little trust in return.

"So… If you want, we could try that again. I'll do my best not to scream this time."

Once more he was rewarded with that shy, warm smile. "If it'll help, I'll stay back until you let me closer. I sometimes forget how big I am when I'm transformed."

That piqued his curiosity. "How big are you exactly?"

"A little over four meters. I know it's bigger than most leopard seals get, but selkies don't always conform exactly to our basic animal species," Mylene said as she stood, adjusting the skin around her shoulders.

Ivan stood as well and stepped back, giving Mylene space as she once again wrapped her skin tighter around her and slipped into the water. This time, when the large seal head broke the surface of the pool and puffed a breath at him, Ivan was able to stay quiet.

Barely.

Look, she was huge, okay?

Mylene puffed a breath at him again, then trilled, a surprisingly light and playful sound from something so big. Ivan laughed softly, though he wasn't sure whether it was stress from the entire evening or just the fact that such a noise came from such a huge creature.

Mylene briefly dove, then resurfaced and trilled again. The sight of such a large creature acting, for lack of a better word, adorable, drew Ivan closer to the edge of the pool. True to her word Mylene kept her distance, watching and occasionally slipping under the water for a few seconds as Ivan crouched by the edge of the water.

This earned him another sound, a soft call that Ivan could only call singing. He smiled and hesitantly dipped the fingers of one hand in the water. "Mylene?"

A soft chuff, and the leopard seal slowly drifted closer. Ivan appreciated the slow pace, even if he had to make a severe effort to keep the Jaws theme from playing in his head.

He was nowhere near successful on that matter.

Eventually a warm, damp head nudged up under his hand, and Ivan reflexively stroked down it. Mylene's fur wasn't like anything he had ever felt before, damp and dense with an odd, almost oily texture. Still, it wasn't entirely unpleasant, so he kept petting the oversized head. Ivan jerked back with a squeak as Mylene rose up a bit out of the water, but that turned out to be just so she could plop that massive head into his lap with a content croon.

Trying to ignore how his jeans were now soaked, Ivan went back to petting the selkie head in his lap as tension slowly drained out of him. After the shocks he had been through, he needed this bit of quiet.

He wasn't sure how long they stayed there, but both were shaken out of their reverie when Ivan's stomach growled. He gave a wry grin as Mylene slid back and chuffed at him, somehow expressing amusement even with her animal features. "Sorry, haven't eaten yet." A niggling thought teased at the back of his mind, and Ivan sighed. "Look, we need to talk. How about I take you to dinner? I know a good sushi place not far off campus."

Just as he was kicking himself for offering sushi to a seal and wondering whether that made him racist or species-ist or something, Mylene hauled herself out of the water next to him (while drenching him further in pool water), then with a shimmer slid her skin off of her shoulders.

"I'd love to."