A/N: The prompt for this one was "Selkie AU: Ian temporarily turns back into a seal and Clara gets the ability to as well."
1801 words; this sounds absolutely rad and base-breaking let's do it; takes place about seven years or so after the main story, so when Terra is six and Douglas is two; I might play around with this concept more later on, but for now, here this is
Ten: Time Off
"Say bye to Mum and Dad, kids!" Dave said cheerily. He was standing on the deck of the ferry boat, holding Douglas on his hip and with Terra standing at his side. The children waved to their parents on the pier, the two parties waving at one another until they were out of sight.
"Well," Clara said, "now that's done."
"Two whole weeks of quiet," Ian marveled. He offered Clara his arm and the two of them began the walk back home. "This is going to be absolutely hell on our routine."
"I noticed how quickly you took my dad up on the offer," she smirked. "We haven't exactly had a lot of time for ourselves, have we?"
"We've barely had time for other adults, let alone each other."
"You're one of the most anti-social people on this island."
"Even if I wasn't…" He shrugged. "...you know."
Clara chuckled at that and the two continued to stroll lazily until they made it back to the house, the magical barrier that surrounded the property crackling softly as they passed the gate, with an additional one when they crossed the threshold. With it being summer, neither of them had much as far as formal duties at the school aside from unlocking and locking the building, which was something several people on the island could do anyhow. The couple made good use of their newfound situation to snog lovingly and without the background commentary as they sat on the sitting room couch, deciding to use the rest of the late afternoon to simply cuddle in silence.
"Could almost get used to this," Ian chuckled. He rolled off the couch and onto the floor before helping Clara to her feet. "I almost feel sorry for your dad, getting both at once."
"He's had practice taking Terra; it's Linda who is going to be in over her head." The two went to the kitchen and began to put together dinner—nothing fancy—and stole passing glances and openly touched one another as they moved about the room.
"You're almost cruel," he replied.
"Then it serves her right, with how she's behaved over the years," Clara nodded. "I almost hope Douglas spontaneously transforms before her eyes."
"...but we don't even know if he can."
"Doesn't make the prospect of her panic any less sweetly karmic."
Unable to refute that—Linda had been a nasty mother-in-law the collective few days that they'd interacted—and any empathy he'd normally have for a normal mortal interacting with the offspring of faekind was completely out the window. Instead, he concentrated on helping make dinner, then eat dinner, and after the dishes were taken care of, running up the stairs to their bedroom for a round of sex that they were guaranteed to not need to be quiet about.
Later on, however, as Ian and Clara were both beginning to doze off as the sun began to set, with the selkie and his love cuddling in their bed. He inhaled sharply, his nose buried in her hair.
"What…?" she murmured.
"I think I'm going to go for a swim."
She blinked at him. "Ian, it's nearly dark out."
"I know—it's not like anyone can see."
As she watched the grin cross his face, it hit her. There were so many things that they missed being able to do with their quick jump into parenthood that they giggled at the very thought. It should not have felt so naughty as they put on joggers and pajamas, but they did, grabbing a pair of towels on the way out the door. They helped one another over the side of the stone wall separating the garden from the beach and, after checking to make sure that there were no sheep in the area, took off their clothes and hid them and the towels in a niche before rushing into the water.
Cold rushed over them both as they jumped directly into the waves, letting the sea spray batter them as they swam together in the frigid water. Despite the summer months, the ocean's winter chill had not yet fully left, and it was what Ian normally would refer to as "invigorating". He couldn't call it anything, however, as he went and let his fae side take over, his body glowing a soft gold and a VWORP VWORP VWORP sound coming from his as he transformed. Soon he was a seal again, something he did not often do anymore, and slipped under the water for a moment, gliding about underneath the waves before popping his head above the water to bark at Clara.
"Yeah, yeah, you still got it," she laughed. Since putting on his selkie skin, she could understand him in seal form, and it was still surreal whenever it happened. She watched as he circled around her, swimming on his back happily. "I think we should give the kid to Dad more often, maybe take the boat out on a good day and hit some of the islands from here to Shetland. What do you say?"
Ian made a happy noise and he dove down again, heading up straight for the surface so that he leapt into the air. With the sea spray and his silhouette against the twilight, he seemed free, in a way, and it was beautiful, ethereal, and just a slight touch of unnerving. She watched him splash down and braced herself against the wave he created, laughing as he nudged his snout under her arms and poked at her cheek with his nose.
"This is very weird, I'll have you know," she smirked. He barked pitifully and allowed her to hold his face, rubbing their noses together as they tread water. "I married a man, not a seal."
He barked again.
"Okay, I married a fae, but I did not go to Kirkwall with anything possessing flippers." She let him go as he slipped under the water again, allowing him to swim on his own.
The long-lived twilight was slowly dimming as Clara floated along, allowing the sea to take her where it willed. She was being less cautious in her swimming habits now that she had a husband that could turn into a literal seal, rescuing her from any roost-related predicament, and it was almost freeing in its own way. Closing her eyes, she floated on her back and let the ocean carry her.
Ah, it was so nice to feel the salt water surround her, make her feel as much at home as she was on land. Wanting to test the waters, she kept her eyes closed and took a deep breath before rolling over and diving down, seeing how deeply she could swim.
Down, down she went, even as she heard the muffled VWORP VWORP VWORP sound which came alongside her husband's transformations. Thinking nothing of it, as she knew he often shifted in and out of his fae form in the water, she kept going, and going. The water became dark and, out of caution, she made her way back to the surface.
"Clara! What happened?!"
Clara looked about in an effort to find Ian. When she did, however, she was confused to find that he was still in his seal form.
"Wait, Ian, you can talk properly as a seal…?" she wondered. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Wiggle your toes, Clara," he said. She tried, and gasped as all she could do was wriggle around a flipper. "This is new."
"How in the hell did this happen?!" she barked. "What did you do to me?! Change me back!"
"I don't know what happened to you…"
"I TURNED INTO A BLOODY SEAL."
"Well, that part is evident, but I don't know how. Give me this, Clara—I so rarely know what's going on when it comes to these things anymore."
"Put me back to sorts or this will be one of the worst fortnights of your entire miserable life," she insisted. He pointed with his snout back towards the island.
"Well, let's best get you on dry land, at the very least." He began to swim away, only realizing after a few yards that she was not following. "Uh… Clara…?"
"I can't swim like this!"
"You just were—come on…" Ian swam back to his wife and gently nudged her along, helping her back towards shore. The two seals hauled up onto the beach, where some sheep were staring at them curiously. "Give us some privacy, why don't'cha?! Don't make me come over there!" A few bounces in their direction and the sheep bleatingly retreated, allowing Ian to concentrate on Clara in the nearly-gone twilight. "Alright now… what happened here?"
"You're the one explaining to my dad if you can't change me back," she warned.
"You're going to be able to change back," he assured, tone blasé and only partly confident. "I wonder what makes this time so different compared to all the other times we've gone swimming…"
"Maybe because we went in without anything on…?"
"Wait… that's it…" Ian pressed his nose to Clara's and a golden light enveloped them both. They transformed together into their human forms, breaking their kiss once bipedal and blubberless.
"Feck, it's cold," Clara swore, breaking the kiss to clamor for her joggers and jumper. She pulled on the clothes while she gave her husband a skeptical look, watching as he went to dress slower. "So… what was it?"
"You were still wearing something rather significant," he stated. "Do you remember our wedding night?"
"...and all the sex? Yeah…"
"No, before the sex—you put on my skin." He touched her shoulders and held her at arm's length. "You put on the jacket which was the basis of my selkie skin and it entered your being. You never really took it off, and that was the only thing you were wearing when you dove deep into the ocean. It activated… something… and turned you into a seal."
"Do you think it can happen again…?"
"Let's try some time when there's not about to be a storm rolling through." She stared at him and he silently counted back from three on his fingers, pointing at the sky when reaching zero. The clouds in the distance began to rumble, signaling that they were done for the night. Going back to the house, they took a shower to rid themselves of the ocean salt, drying off just enough to fumble their way into bed again, except this time with sleep on their minds and in their limbs. Clara slept with no dreams, thankful when she woke up that her mind had been completely blank.
...except, when she did wake, there was a seal conspicuously in her bathtub, lazing about as he waited for her to join him.
This was so bloody weird.