Curly awoke to Jane crying from the other room. He was still entangled in Lily's white arms, and he smiled remembering what had taken place a few hours ago. He propped himself up on his elbows, and kissed the mermaid gently on the mouth before scrambling to put on his clothes and go see what Jane needed.

Lily took a deep breath and sat up to Jane's wailing. She tied her shells back on and walked out to the main living area.

Curly held Jane rocking her back and forth, but she clung to him still inconsolable. "What's wrong Janey?" he asked, kissing his sister on the cheek. He'd changed her best he could with the pieces of sail the mermaids had made into strips to be used as diapers.

His heart broke as all the boys' did when they heard Jane cry. It was her special power. Wherever they were in the house, all of them would drop what they were doing to go and see what was wrong. She almost always cheered up immediately, and then they would make a game of pirates, with Jane as the buried treasure. Or they would whoop and holler like Indians, running through the house with her on their backs.

But there were no extra brothers to make Jane happy.

"Here Curly, I think I know what she needs." He smiled at Lily, almost a little bit shy again as Lily reached into her little bed they had made for Jane and pulled out a glass shipwrecked bottle. She walked over to a pile of coconuts, and Curly jumped amazed as she split the hard shell open with her bare hands and drained the liquid into the bottle.

She walked over and took Jane from Curly and let the babe drink as she rocked her back and forth, singing an unearthly lullaby. Jane calmed down finally, and began to make baby gulping noises.

"Ho... how did you do that?" asked Curly.

"How did I do what?" she asked.

"How did you break open that coconut?"

"Oh!" she said giggling. "That's easy. Mermaids are very strong."

"I'll say," he said quietly.

"But we're almost useless if you have us by the hair. We become powerless." Lily tugged at a strand of her long white hair. "When we fight, we don't even grab locks. It's forbidden."

"Hm," said Curly, tucking this knowledge away.

Jane was asleep again. He felt like it had something to do with Lily's song, it was so soothing, though it had done nothing to calm the beating of his heart when he looked at her. She saw him staring, and she gently put Jane down again, and practically ran at him full force, grabbing him by the head, and kissing him passionately on the mouth.

"Lily?" he asked softly. He was feeling awkward about what they'd done. He knew it was silly, she was so innocent, and it had felt like it was done in the purest of love, but now he was feeling he'd stepped onto a runaway train.

"Yes Curly?" She breathed his name out, and he got a tingling sensation through his belly again.

"Did you say you loved me?"

The mermaid blushed, and curly thought she was the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen. The red of her cheeks looked like roses in snow.

"Did you say you loved me?" she returned.

"I did. But now what?"

"Now what what?" she pulled away, her hands still on his shoulders.

"What do we do? Should I marry you? I think I've ruined you otherwise. I think that's what they call it."

"What's marry?" she asked, her head doing a cute tilt to the side.

"Marry? Well, it's when two people love each other, and make a promise to spend all their time together."

"I like that," she said kissing him again.

He didn't want to think about what happened after he took Jane home again. Would Lily come with him? He pushed these thoughts aside, and gave in to her demanding lips, pulling her hips to his.

Suddenly, she pulled away as if remembering something. "What do you mean when you say 'ruin me'?"

"Well, what we did in the other room, was well... something I think only married people do, and... yikes!" he yelped as her hand came to rest on the front of his pants.

"Mm, hm..." she purred.

He removed her hand and kissed it, holding it to his chest. He wanted to get this out first, he felt like it was very important. "Well, I think i took something away from you that you're supposed to give to your husband..."

"What's husband?" she asked, snaking her free hand down his shirt, unbuttoning it slowly.

Curly swallowed hard, and took that hand as well. She looked at him perplexed.

"When you get married, it's the man half. You would be the wife," he explained.

"Oh, so you are my husband!" she squealed and kissed his mouth hard.

"Oh, I suppose so," he said against her. "But there's something that I want to do with you that we didn't quite get to if we're going to be married in real life."

"I want to know," she said freeing her hands to grab his lapels, bringing him close again.

"Well..." he started, just as Nerissa and Marina surfaced in the water. "Blast!" he said.

"Lily, it's your turn! I'm done letting you have the Pearl all to yourself, and hogging the boy!" said Nerissa, pulling herself out of the water, onto the stone platform.

Lily's teeth became suddenly sharp, and she hissed at her, drawing Curly behind her.

"What's gotten into you!" exclaimed Marina. "You've never been this possessive over a boy before!"

"That's because I never had one before!" Lily said dangerously. Curly was taken aback by the sudden changes to her features, but could not really complain at the fact he was being fought over.

"He's mine!" said Lily, her hands going into claw shapes.

"Fine Lily, he's all yours. Now where's the Pearl?" Nerissa walked past them as if nothing Lily had done phased her in the least. Lily smiled triumphantly, and wrapped her arms around her prize.

"Husband," she said, cuddling into him for a moment before letting go and running to the water, diving perfectly into the surface. She poked her head up for a moment, winked at Curly and was gone.

Marina flipped her green hair over her shoulder and appraised Curly knowingly, putting her hand to her chin. "You look older," she said.

"Oh, well, not any older than I was this morning."

"Yes you are," she said, and walked over to where Nerissa was dancing Jane around. The baby had happily woken up to Nerissa wanting to play.

Curly pondered this for a moment, but shrugged and looked around the cave for something to eat. "Hey, you mermaids have any food? I'm famished!"

"We have some fish in the pool," said Nerissa, swinging Jane around and gesturing to the tiny pool off to the side of the cavern. Curly looked in, and was dismayed to find them alive, swimming happily in tiny circles. He had never been fond of gutting fish, but he was hungry enough to do the dirty task, if only he could find a spot to build a fire.

"Ladies, where do you keep your fire pit?" he asked innocently.

"Fire pit?" exclaimed Marina. "Why would we want an awful thing like that in here?" she asked, incredulously.

"To cook the fish?" he answered.

"Cook them!" cried Nerissa, as if that was the silliest thing in the world. "Why would you want to ruin them?"

Marina demonstrated by walking over and scooping one out of the pool. Her face suddenly became monstrous, and her teeth sharpened the way Lily's had when she was defending him as hers. He grimaced as Marina tore into the raw fish, and chomped on it with disgusting noises. She offered some to him, and he shook his head with his nose wrinkled. "I... no thank you. I think I've lost my appetite.

Marina shrugged as if to say, "Suit yourself," and continued to eat the fish until all that was left were the bones.

"I think I'll go outside and look around if that's alright," he said.

"Go ahead, I'm sure Lily's waiting for you to kiss you again," said Marina in a sing-song voice, her face returning to it's normal exotic loveliness.

"We have the Pearl, she'll be alright," offered Nerissa.

"Jane," he said.

"Right, whatever." She went back to blowing on Jane's stomach, and Marina tickled her neck. He didn't exist again. Wonderful. Just like at home.

He dove into the water, and swam quickly up to the surface. When he got there, Lily was nowhere to be found. Still, he wasted no time climbing out of the water and looking around for something to eat. He lucked out when he found a prickly pear bush, and began gathering the fruit carefully so as not to get stabbed by the prickles. He sat on the beach and peeled them drinking the juice and devouring the contents. When he'd eaten about five, Curly stood and walked back to the edge of the water looking around for Lily's white head. He was about to call for her when suddenly he was attacked from behind, a body hitting him hard and pushing him into the water.

He went under in a panic, thrashing afraid of drowning when he remembered that he could swim like the mermaids. He surfaced with his fist ready to punch at anything in his way when he heard musical laughter coming from behind him. He turned to see Lily joyously giggling.

"Did I scare you?" she chortled.

"Why! You! Did you scare me?! You're going to pay now!" he exclaimed laughing now as well and began to swim after her as she squealed. She could swim faster than him because of her fins, but slowed down, wanting him to catch her. He grabbed her arm, and they spun in circles in the water like a whirlpool, and settled against a large rock. He pinned her back to the stone and began to kiss her neck. She sighed, wrapping her arms around him when they heard a clearing throat above them. Curly looked up with horror, and all he heard was Lily's scream.