When her foot sank into the pliant sand she smiled a little and took another step up from the depths of the ocean. It felt delicious to have skin. Human skin. It was so soft, so alive with a thousand sensations coming from a thousand different sources. Her hair floated around her, weightless and black as the deepest abyss of her home. Her limbs felt light and the water felt cold and warm at the same time. She could feel the currents drifting by her, and the soft seaweed tangling itself around her ankles. A small school of fish was swimming around her legs, and she could even feel the currents of their passing.

It was everything and nothing she'd expected it to be, and the transition was so completely foreign that it terrified her even as it awoke emotions in her that she'd never felt before. Well…actually, she'd never felt before, period. The deep waters of her home had been too dense to allow sensation, her skin too tough and her bones too strong—and the hundreds of years of solitude and silence had required another sacrifice. Her people had been the only species capable of surviving in those waters, but survival meant adaptation, and adaptation meant that they had become numb to the world in body and mind alike. Otherwise, there would have been no way for them to live out their long lives.

Up here though…there was so much light! There was no need to suppress her awakening excitement. She was nearing the surface, and the peculiar pulsing in her chest picked up speed as her spirits soared. She heard a splash above her, and looked up as a beautifully colored fish swam down through the clear blue waters toward her. She'd never known that fish had colors, or that her waters were blue, but the stories were that such things had been the gifts of her people long ago, before they retreated to the deepest waters of the oceans. The fish swam down to her and swiveled between the prongs of her bone trident, her only weapon. She'd forged it from the spine of a giant enemy many, many years ago, and today her need for it created a strange mix of grim resolution and despondent reluctance, for she was on the hunt.

The fish swam away then, and she looked up. There were still lines of glowing light running down her skin, for she had not wholly made the change, and some of the radiance bled off to drift away in the water. It spread through the darkness and drew her forward, and the currents came alight with her power, shifting through dozens of softly colored hues before they swirled around her and lifted her up. She shot toward the waves, breaking the surface at last to take her first breath of air and throw an arm over her eyes to ward away the blinding lights. She'd forgotten to change her eyes into human eyes…but that was soon remedied, and she slowly opened her new eyes to look upon the world above the water for the first time.

Oh…wow. She stood now on a pillar of moving water, her trident still gripped hard in one hand, and marveled at the thousands of white lights above her. It looked like the ocean ran on forever with thousands of glorious spells cast to drift about like charms. Erratic currents drifted through the nothingness above the water, and it glided across her skin with a cooling touch. Wind. She smiled, looking around, feeling as though she'd been blessed beyond imagining. A warrior granted a chance at true life.

Then the soft notes of music reached her ears for the first time, and her eyes came away from the majestic sight above as her attention became captured once more by the spell of searching she'd cast back in the depths of her home. She held her breath as the music filled her newly formed ears, wrapping around her aching heart to stroke the tempest in her soul into a maelstrom of emotion.

And above her, the bright lights started winking out of existence, and the first rumble of nature answered the storm in her breast. She lifted her trident and called for a spell of sight, and a column of water leapt up from the ocean to flatten into a lens before her. She looked through it, and saw the man she had come for.

He sat on a great rock that was far out from the shore of land, his bare feet just inches away from the water. He looked different from his ocean form, and she studied in his angular features. His body was no longer made of the rigid armor and scales that kept their people alive. Now he had muscled flesh that looked soft and hard at the same time…smooth as silk and strong as dolphin hide. The powerful physique he'd had in their homeland was no longer as hidden as it had been, and she couldn't help but be mesmerized by the movements at the end of his hands over a small stick. Such fascinating intricacy…and his feet. She wasn't sure how such extremities could be of any practical use, but they were fascinating none the less. Even more interesting though were the eyes that stared so forlornly out at the ocean. They were so vibrant and held infinitely more expression than the glowing orbs their people possessed.

He had been a powerful warrior among the people of the Deep. Their hierarchy hadn't been one of messy manipulations, as the stories of the humans had been. Instead it had been based on the simplest of factors: strength. This man had been the strongest, or at least as strong as his own father, who had been the one to send her on this hunt. However, this…man…was a deserter. Still a powerful user of Deep magic, but now no longer one of their people. She wasn't even sure she could best him, but her mission was to end his life, and then her own—for there was no returning to the black depths of the ocean once a creature of the Deep had tasted air even once. Her fate was sealed, whether or not she succeeded in killing him. So, in order for her sacrifice to have meant anything, she must succeed.

It was strange though…even knowing that she must succeed…why was she so reluctant? Now that she looked upon him in his human guise, with her own skin as new as the strange feelings filling her mind with doubt, she found herself distracted by the look of him. She'd never been attracted to anything before, but to her new eyes he was almost…majestic. Beautiful.

Unfortunately she did not quite trust these new emotions, so she steeled herself against them and dove back into the ocean, pointing her trident before her, and gathered the currents around her to shoot forward. Leagues passed in moments, and she felt him come closer through her spells. He had the feel of the Deep wrapped around him, like dark, alluring magic that lulled and charmed like a sweet song. It was powerful and magnetic, and she wanted so badly to wrap herself in it and stay forever here above water.

The music paused as she burst forth from the ocean and the waves rose up to give her a place to stand, bringing her level with the eyes of the man she'd come to kill. Lashes so dark they looked like night hooded his aqua blue gaze when he lifted it. His black hair was shorn to within a couple inches of his head. The edges were jagged and damp, making him look somewhat ragged, somewhat charming. Mostly charming. Water clung to his skin in beads, emphasizing his tanned human skin and lean, muscled physique. She was still studying him when he lowered the little stick at last to speak.

"Calypso. You've come," he said, and she looked at him, not sure what to make of the strange sounds he was emitting. "Here I had just decided to hold on a little longer, and now you show up," he said with a chuckle, and then stood, unfolding with the smooth grace of a warrior to face her.

"Gods, but you're beautiful," he said, looking over her almost-human skin with its barely glowing lines still fading from her old body. That was a look she could understand even without knowing the sounds he used. Her cast lines came down her shoulders to her arms, and down her spine and chest to her legs, so that the glow had been beautiful and iridescent in the Deep. Now it barely cast a shimmering rainbow on the water at her feet, but he still looked at her like she was something…unique, perhaps.

He glanced up to meet her eyes again, but when she still gave no reaction, he held out his hand so that a tiny white light appeared over his fingers. She turned a little so her side faced him, and immediately lifted her trident to ward off whatever spell he was casting.

He sighed softly, but held his hand where it was. Moments passed, until she realized he wanted her to take the spell for herself. It was a small spell, which could be easily countered if it was harmful, so she stepped forward, and he stepped back, making room on the rock for her to stand as well. She reached out to touch the little spell, and felt it wrap over her, filling her with a gasp as warmth and power rippled through her flesh. Panic filled her as heat pooled between her legs, causing such sensations as she had never thought were possible, and she glared at him.

He chuckled again. "It's an after effect —and don't look at me like that. You can understand me now."

He was right. She could.

"Lan…guage?" she asked when her breath had recovered and her body was not quite as overcome with desire.

"It is what the humans use," he said, and his muscles were so tight with restraint that she felt his tension rippling through her spells of searching. There was something powerful roiling through his emotions that was getting channeled through to her. It was intense and primal, and it was striking an empathetic chord in her, which felt kind of…dangerous. She met his gaze again and felt anew the stirrings of want, and quickly shut the spells off to lift her trident once more.

"You can't run anymore," she said. "I'm here to…"

"I know why you're here, Calypso," he said.

Calypso again? "What is that word?" she asked.

"Your name," he said. "It used to sound like this." He lifted the little stick to his mouth and blew out three short notes, and she sucked in a hard breath when she recognized it.

A…name. There were stories of such things, in relation to the ancients…but he was distracting her. Calypso stepped forward so that her trident was pointed at his neck. He made no move to defend himself, and that made her pause.

"Why did you leave?" she asked, stalling. Why couldn't she just make the blow and be done with it?

He smiled. "I'll show you," he said, "If you put your trident down."

Calypso shook her head and began calling forth a spell of destruction, but in a moment he reached out a hand toward the ocean behind her, and in a huge explosion of water, the waves spat out his bone-carved trident and sent it flying through the air toward them. Unlike hers, his trident was made of one carved bone from the leviathan. It was longer, stronger, and sharper, and she wasn't eager to be impaled by its descent so she stepped back with a hiss as he reached up to grab it. He swiveled the weapon around his body, calling up a spell, and she thrust her trident forward to counter the spell with her own. The two spells lashed out and clashed in a sphere of blinding light. It started out as a small void where the powerful spells countered each other, and then it burst outward in a boom that spread to the skies. Streaks of their power ran through the roiling black clouds above them and arched down to the sea to one side, and the land to the other. Spells flew as they attacked, their tridents whipping around and countering each other in a vicious physical dance even as they flung Deep magic at each other, fueling the storm above.

"Die, traitor!" Calypso cried, and brought her trident down with a spell of pressure. Unfortunately, spells of pressure worked a little differently underwater. She wasn't expecting her opponent to go flying toward land, or the boulder to break into chunks that went crashing into the water, or the giant vacuum that sent water flying in every direction, or, especially, that she was going to be thrown backwards by the power of the spell. She fell into the water, which was surprisingly painful, and for a moment the world seemed to fade to the same black as her home. She was dizzy, and strangely out of touch with her new senses. If it hadn't been for the flash of light above her, or the crash that followed and the thrashing of the waters around her, she would have faded completely.

The storm snapped her out of it, however, and she let loose a stream of bubbles as the air left her lungs. She tried to inhale again, and the water washed down her throat. She coughed, and in desperation she gathered all her power and threw herself up out of the water with the waves. She shot to the shore of the island to land with a splash of water on the sand, coughing up the harsh liquid she used to breathe in.

Calypso dropped to her knees, holding her trident upright and leaning on it for support. She couldn't seem to stop coughing, and never heard him approach. She just saw feet step into her range of vision, and immediately lashed out. He ducked back out of range of the swiping weapon, and they fell into battle again. It was strange, Calypso thought, how different their melee was on land. It was faster, more vicious, with nothing to slow down their movements or deaden their spells. The storm grew more powerful as they fought…but he was holding back.

She knew it, because she was throwing everything she had into her attacks, and he wasn't. It was partly that her new body was untried, and her weight was different, but it was also that his power was more potent. The island was getting destroyed as they ran and attacked, ducked, swiveled, and cast their spells…until they had climbed up a group of stone cliffs and Calypso was finally knocked right off her feet. She took a wrong step and he hooked his trident under her heels and flipped her onto her back near the edge of the cliff, where the water leapt up from below. A moment later the prongs of his trident were crackling with raw magic in her face, and the shaft of hers was only barely holding it back.

He could have ended it then, but instead he called back the spell and lifted his trident.

"You don't even know my name," he said in a soft tone that was almost lost to the wind, and as she looked up at him, she saw the sadness in his eyes.

"No," she said as he crouched next to her and reached out for her free hand. She almost yanked it away, except his touch was so unthreatening and…gentle.

He lifted her hand to press his lips against her palm, and she gasped in surprise at the feeling that ripped through her. She did yank her hand back then, and looked at him in shock.

"You are not the man you once were," she said softly, as realization hit her.

He chuckled as he lifted his trident to brace the hard bone base against the rock at his feet. "Neither of us are, now…" he said, and reached out to touch her face. She tensed, but his finger stroked down her cheek, and her eyelids grew heavy as the blissful sensation took up the whole of her attention.

"You see?" he asked. "You would never have thought twice about a touch such as this if you were still your old self."

"You would never have touched me like this," she said without really thinking about it, and opened her eyes to look up at him.

"You're wrong," he said softly. "I touched you like this once before." Then he gazed down the length of her bare body with a slow, sad look before coming back to her gaze.

It was really just desperation that made her cast the next spell. Her orders had been to kill him, but hesitation had made her want to wait until she could be certain that order was one she…wanted to carry out, oddly enough. It was bizarre and scary all at the same time, and it was that mix of emotions that made her cast the spell of destruction on his trident. He ducked his head and tried to shield himself from the abrupt explosion of the weapon, but a couple of the jagged pieces stuck in his bare arm and shoulder, spraying her with his blood. She swung her trident back up and pushed him over backward, then jumped forward to straddle him, the sharp prongs of her weapon just barely touching the skin of his neck.

Calypso should have struck the final blow, but she couldn't—not when she suddenly saw his blood trailing down his skin. He could have stopped that spell. She tensed herself, preparing to thrust her weapon down, but her arm never moved, and he lay still beneath her with no expression. Why didn't he fight back? WHY did it infuriate her that he didn't?

She screamed at him in anger, and above her the sky echoed her rage.

"Why'd you just let me beat you?" she cried.

He smiled and reached up to wrap his hand around her trident and press it against the skin of his throat, drawing more blood. "Having a conscience is somewhat inconvenient, isn't it?" he asked, sitting up a little to brace himself on one elbow.

"What is your name?" she asked, trying not to pay much attention to the feel of his hips between her legs.

"Triton," he said, "son of Poseidon."

"Triton…" she repeated. "The son of our leader, and the name of a man powerful enough to defeat me if he'd wanted to."

"Yes," he said with a small smile, "but perhaps my purpose was never to defeat you."

Triton, the strongest of her people and the first to abandon them in a thousand years or more, sat up then to press his lips against hers, and as he did so she felt a spell of memory wash over her.

Their army had been in the middle of a slaughter. One of the leviathans had come to their territory in search of food, and many of their people had died before the warriors were able to assemble. The battle had been almost entirely in the favor of the leviathan, even when the fury of the people of the Deep had nearly lit up the ocean and threw the seas into riot against it. The monster moved faster than a creature of such size should have been able to, and it seemed impervious to most of their spells. Triton had led the warriors, and he'd felt a strange sort of stirring in his chest—a feeling he would later be able to recognize as desperation. In the midst of that new sensation he'd seen one of his warriors charge into the mouth of the creature to attack from inside. He followed, seeing the logic of the attack, and suddenly, sparingly, he became aware of its danger as well. The warrior's magical attack lit up the creature's mouth, and its cry echoed through the deep as it tossed its head and closed its jaw on the escaping warrior.

At first it was only because the mouth had been the creature's weak spot, and a good place to attack. Triton went in and plunged his stone trident into the roof of the creature's mouth, and cast another spell of destruction that shattered his weapon and blow open a hole in its head. The creature threw its jaw open and screamed, its cry echoing through the ocean waters, and Triton dragged the warrior away. The creature thrashed, snapping and rending its way through his warriors even as it fell into its dying throws. Triton wasn't sure why he kept swimming. He just held the wounded warrior and took her far away from the bloody waters where they'd battled, and hid her where she would not be eaten.

But then, in her worst moments he'd heard her sad song and slipped back into the cave where she hid, expecting to watch her die. She'd reached out to grab his arm though, and her grip had been so strong that he'd known she would live, and another strange emotion came to him. He was glad she would live.

After she had healed enough to leave the cave, they went back to their people, and he watched her. Maybe it was because he was old—one of the oldest—that he began awakening to thought and reason beyond what was needed strictly for survival. Maybe it was that hand on his arm. He wasn't sure, but soon enough, he realized that the Deep could no longer be his home, and he had left.

Calypso came out of the spell slowly and in a mess of confusion. She had been literally dragged from the jaws of death, bleeding and weakened and easy bait for other predators, and even then Triton's actions had seemed strange. Her people were used to ending the lives of those considered too close to death to save, and Triton's behavior had impressed itself upon her merely by the merit of its unusual nature. Without an emotion like gratitude though, it soon became a distant memory…only there because it served to make her wiser in the future.

Now…

The waves were splashing around the base of the rocks, leaping up from their base so far below in wave after massive wave. As Triton moved his arms to encircle her, a powerful gust of wind came whistling in from the open sea to whip around them in an almost vicious celebration. It died away just seconds later, leaving nothing but their sensual contact, and the soft sounds they made. Then another massive wave came crashing into the side of the rock, sending water shooting straight up in the air and spraying them with salty droplets.

So soft, she thought. She explored his mouth with the strangely pliant flesh of her own new lips, helpless with a hunger she'd never known before. And…she was curious. Heat flooded through her, and she savored the touch between them, craving it more with each passing second. When she could explore no farther she sent her tongue forth to dance around his. Then, when he gently caught her tongue between his teeth and suckled it, a chill swept down her bare back and settled like a vice around the heat in her guts. He felt it, and she felt him tense against her thighs. It made her inhale sharply, just as the sky roared loudly and a huge show of flashing lights and booming thunder blinded and deafened her for a moment. She shook from fear, from desire…she wasn't sure. It was all new. It was all powerful. How did the humans deal with it all?

"The storm is feeding off of us both," he said, louder now because the world had suddenly become a mass of noise. A moment later she realized he was right though. Besides her own Deep magic, she felt his dynamic essence churning through the storm that wrapped around them, and through the electrifying force that gave it strength…but behind the voltaic power she also felt a longing so powerful it tore at her soul. It was an elemental aggression that barely restrained disaster just beneath the surface of his human skin, and it excited her.

Triton rolled over then, putting her back to the ground and settling over her, and the only thing separating them was the strange two legged cloth he wore from his hips to his knees. Calypso didn't like the new position much. It made her feel too vulnerable. She sucked in a breath and started to squirm away, realizing she'd dropped her trident, but he hushed her and pressed his lips against her palm again.

"You're not a timid woman, Calypso. Stop trying to repress your own nature," he said, and moved back along her sensitive skin. She gasped, because she felt every touch like a web through her flesh. He pressed his lips to her elbow, then her shoulder, then her neck…and she started to relax, slowly, into the demanding need that was sucking up what was left of her reservations.

He leaned in toward her ear. "Calypso, Terror of the Deep, too strong and too wild to have any male weaker than her…do you know why my father sent you?" he asked as he did something wonderful to the soft skin at the base of her ear.

She shuddered. That's right…she had a mission…but, she couldn't really muster the resolve to follow it through. "Why?" she asked.

"Because you're the reason I left," he said, and leaned down to kiss her chest, and then, one breast.

Calypso was not expecting the heady rush that action caused, and she reached up to push him away, desperate.

She took a deep breath. "…What?" she asked.

Triton cocked one arrogant eyebrow, but what he said wasn't like the otherworldly being she remembered from the Deep. He moved his hand from her face to tuck a lock of long wet hair behind her shoulder.

"Calypso, I think I would scare you if I told you the truth."

"Tell me anyway," she said, "I need to understand what is going on."

Triton looked at her for a moment, and she studied him as he leaned over her. "Let me show you," he said, and leaned down again to take one heavy breast into his mouth. Calypso sighed out a soft moan, thinking this was surely the best that a human could feel, until his hand slipped down between her legs.

That was when the rain came, pouring around them in heavy torrents.

Calypso's head dropped back and her whole body shuddered in wanton lust, and she cried out as the rain fell in sharp droplets of sensation across her skin. Triton was not supposed to have defeated her. Not like…this. They were warriors of the Deep, and had been alive for thousands upon thousands of years. Besides Triton's father, Poseidon, there were none who could equal them in either martial skill or in the strength of their magical mastery. The two of them had controlled the oceans and protected their people from the leviathans and warring tribes for centuries. They had been around since the world had been covered in water, and had watched as their oceans shrank and the lands rose up—since the first of their people had abandoned the ocean, and denied their magical heritage to become human. The deserters gave birth to humans, who gave birth to more humans, and the stories of the people of the Deep faded to myth. It had taken other great disasters, and magical intervention by those still of the Deep to remind them of their heritage. The names they learned in those days became the names of their gods.

Now…none of it meant anything. Calypso, goddess, warrior, mermaid, woman of the Deep, had no pride in her deeds, no reason to remember those days as anything other than worthless happenstance. No loyalty for a king whose careless orders had been for her to destroy herself upon the destruction of his son.

Calypso arced into the feel of his fingers pressing into her, and moaned as they moved along between the soft lips of skin. Ah…she reached up to tangle her fingers in Triton's short hair, pressing his head against her breast because she was frantic to feel more. The move made her realize, oddly, that the soft trail of his silky locks over her hands was almost as enticing as skin against skin. On an impulse she reached out to run a hand up his chest. She wanted to feel the shape of him, and moaned as his fingers worked inside of her, and her fingers mapped out the contours of his powerful body. Her other hand moved down to his back with the same intent, and Triton moved his mouth back up to hers.

He was right. It scared her…but at the same time, she was filled with nothing but a burning, exhilarating pleasure that filled her from her toes to her scalp. It rippled along her skin and filled her chest with tingling energy that made breathing come harsh and loud. The muscles in her belly trembled with the effect of her desire, and she wanted more.

Calypso sighed into Triton's kiss, and in that moment cast aside the past. The consequences would come later, but now she knew what it meant to be of the Deep, and likewise, to be human. Now she knew what deprivation she'd lived with throughout her long existence, and she wanted never to return to it.

The last of her transformation settled into place then, and all the little sensations she'd been feeling seemed to leap into even greater intensity as her skin ceased its glowing and settled into a pale white hue. The hurricane whipping around them battered her skin with its harsh winds, causing pain in the middle of her pleasure—but they were still somewhat protected from it, as the authors of its devastation. The island was being torn apart though.

So, she came to the conclusion that she had done enough waiting.

The craving that filled her seemed to be the pilot that moved her body, guiding her hands to his hips where she shoved at his flimsy clothing. She knew the mechanics of the act she wanted so keenly to engage in with this man, but never had her body…demanded its commencement before. Triton leaned back onto his knees to help her shove down the cloth, and Calypso's eyes followed a strong v-shape at his hips down to a feature that impressed her almost as much as her new knowledge of his…abilities.

When Triton leaned back down over her, his hips settled between hers, his skin against her skin. She felt something press against the entrance of her body, then he rocked forward and she cried out in rapture as it slid into her. She felt him hit the soft inner skin of her thighs and knew when he was all the way in. It was like pure ecstasy, and the whole world went white within her vision, as though bliss caused her senses to become suddenly overwhelmed.

And then he pulled back out. It was like she hadn't even noticed the first move until the second made her feel like his withdrawal left her empty…but then he thrust back in, and her muscles quivered with such intense excitement that her whole body shook. He would retreat, and thrust in again, and she began to breathe in merciless gasps that wracked through her as immoral lovemaking threw the storm into greater force. Not far from them, Calypso heard a chunk of the cliff break off and fall into the sea, and the waves came breaking against the rocks more frequently now.

Triton was breathing hard to, and as she looked up at him—even with her back arced, her head rolling and her mouth open so she could breathe more freely—his gaze met hers. That look was like another sensual touch that sent a thrilling, sensual charge rippling through her body like the crackling and volatile lights dancing through the sky. Triton hooked an arm under her hips and lifted her up to slip his knees forward, and her body arced up to his hips, where he thrust into her harder…and faster…and deeper. Calypso moaned as she rolled her hips around him, clenching her fists and stretching her arms above her as the tension in her lower belly built, coiling around her muscles until she could restrain the storm in her breast no longer.

Calypso screamed, her arms thrown out to her sides and her body arcing as though she were in her dying throws. Every muscle tensed, and above her Triton grabbed her legs to hold himself in her as he too went completely tense. He threw his head back to cry out, his thunderous bellow ragged and elemental as it flew up into the clouds. The sky boomed all around them, and the arcs of light flew down to slam into the rocks on all sides, breaking off chunks of rock in some places, and leaving black burns in others. In every strike though, the energy they carried travelled through the rain and the water on the rocks back to the couple. The cries of both were fueled by that power until their bodies crackled with the energy and their senses burned out.

They collapsed, and the thunder faded. There was no more lightning, and the rain began falling more peacefully around them. The wind gentled a little, gradually fading as they panted against one another and the crashing waves slowed. It was still a storm, but its rage had been spent.

They lay there for a time, exhausted in every form of the word. Calypso was the first to move. She wasn't sure what drove her to do it, but her arms slipped up around Triton's torso to hold him close. He turned his head to press his face against her neck. He wasn't kissing her, but she felt his lips there, and felt the warm breath that came out of them brush across her wet skin.

"You have no idea how hard it was to live with that," he said with a small smile against her neck. "I was about to go mad just wishing you were up here too."

Calypso laughed a little. She was confused for a second as to why she found the statement funny, but she nodded. "What is it called?"

"The humans call it love," he said.

Love. It was such an unpretentious word. The humans might think they were gods or mere merfolk, and stories would drift through the eras but still no one came even close to guessing what power lived so far beneath their hulls. Yet, they were the lucky ones, she realized. Her people were as ancient as the waters they lived in, and magic still coursed through their veins when it had died out in the humans. It was darker and crueler than the fairy tales the humans imagined, because the People of the Deep were vicious in their emotionless efforts of survival. They hunted, killed, mated, and drifted with nothing but the bare essentials of emotion. Nothing but fear of dangerous neighbors and carnivorous fish with big teeth.

This love thing…felt even more dangerous though. It made her feel too susceptible, too little in control of herself. She felt provoked and incensed, happy, content, and oddly anxious all at the same time. Was it love?

"I'm not sure if that's it yet," Calypso said, and tightened her arms around him. "But I am definitely never, ever, ever, ever, ever going back."

Triton laughed then, and pushed away from her to stand. He held out his hand.

"The island looked somewhat prettier before you came," he said, "but it'll look pretty again in time, if you're willing to stay with me."

Calypso smiled, and took his hand.

Their home became what is now known as the Bermuda Triangle.

********

A/N - Sequel, anyone?