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“Good. For this thing I want to try, you just need to shift and float. I’ll do the rest.”
“Okay. I trust you.”
Nero’s answering smile was brilliant, and then he turned and swam a little distance away and dove under the water. A few moments later, a tall black dorsal fin pierced the surface of the water, followed by a puff of air and water from Nero’s blowhole. I tried to be an adult and not giggle about that, but it was hard.This close to Nero in his whale form, I realized how truly massive and dangerous he was. He held himself still, and I approached him slowly, still in my human form.
His skin was soft and a little rubbery under my touch, the warmth of his flesh a stark contrast to the chilly water, but I loved the feel of him and rubbed my hands over his head. Nero flicked his tail happily, spraying me with seawater. Then, like a giant puppy, he rolled over a little and showed me his belly.
“I can take a hint.” I rubbed my hands over his wide, grayish-white belly, and he squirmed in the water, churning it up around us. “You’re not a sea panda at all, are you? You’re a sea golden retriever.”
Apparently, he didn’t like that comparison because he flicked his tail and drowned me in a wall of water. I emerged a second later, and I could feel Nero’s joy through our bond. It was different with him in this form, the sensations of emotion wider and harder to pin down, but I could still sense his happiness.
“Should I shift now?”
Nero moved his head up and down in the closest possible orca approximation of a nod.
For me, shifting was easy on land or in the water, and I called my sea otter form forward. Since my otter form was smaller than my human form, I had the sensation of my body shrinking and changing. The change felt effortless, and a few seconds later, I was swimming next to Nero.
I let myself slide against his body, and he made a sort of whistling sound that reminded me of a wheezing laugh. He’d said his skin was sensitive, and I wondered if maybe my fur was tickling him. I swam against the length of him again, and he made the same sound. With both of us in our animal forms, the emotions coming through our bond were more primitive and less nuanced, but I still felt his joy, and when I made another pass, he flicked me away with one of his pectoral fins.
He was strong and ended up sending me farther away than he intended, and it took me a minute to swim back to his side. When I got there, he turned, rolling onto his back. I didn’t understand what he was doing, and when he rolled back to look at me, I just stared at him. He did it again. When I still didn’t move, he splashed me again, and I squeaked at him, annoyed.
Nero rolled to his back, then flapped his fin at me. The pieces finally clicked into place. He had asked me if I could float in deep water. He wanted me to float on my back.
No problem. My body moved easily, and a second later, I was on my back, my feet sticking out of the water just a little, remembering that Nero had told me not to move. The water around me moved, and when I looked for Nero, I couldn’t see his dorsal fin anymore. I was about to roll over and go looking for him when I felt something under my tail.
My mate had picked me up and was holding me on his fluke. It wasn’t the same as holding a mate’s paw and floating together, but it was just as good, and I loved how small I felt compared to his massive body. I could feel the power in him, and I knew if he wanted to, he could punt me like a football. I’d seen wild orcas do it to seals, but Nero didn’t flip me into the air; he held me gently as he lazily moved us through the water. I stared up at the sky, feeling more connected to Nero than I had to anyone else. When I first realized he was fated to be mine, I wasn’t sure how we would make this work. In the wild, if an orca was holding a sea otter the way Nero was holding me, you could bet they were about to get turned into a tasty appetizer. But riding on Nero’s wide tail, I felt safe. I felt at home.
And I hadn’t felt that way in a long, long time.
The stars looked different in this form, brighter, bigger, and more beautiful. Or maybe that was just because I was floating with Nero, and it felt like we were the only two people in the whole universe.
Time also passed differently in my shifted form, and I couldn’t have said whether we’d been swimming together for minutes or hours when Nero gently tipped me back into the water. He dove under the surface, and when he came up, he was in his human form.
“Hi.” He smiled, and I acknowledged him with a squeak. He held out his hand. “May I?” Immediately, I swam forward and let him pet my fur. “Do you have any idea how much it tickles when you rub against me?”
I let out a happy squeak. I’d been right.
“Lucky, you are so cute in your otter form.” I wiggled with happiness at his use of my nickname. I loved when he called me that. I had from the first time he’d said it the day we met. “I mean, you’re cute all the time. Well, more hot than cute in your human form. Unless you’re snuggling Otto. Then you’re just adorable.”
I wanted to talk to him, to be able to kiss him, so I slipped under the water and pulled my human side forward. The stretch and pull of my body as it expanded was always a little jarring, not painful but not super comfortable either. It was easier for my bones to shrink than to expand. I realized Nero’s shift would feel the opposite of mine. When he took his animal form, his body stretched to accommodate his orca, and when he returned to his human form, his body shrank down again.
When I broke the surface in my human form, I swam into Nero’s arms and kissed him.
“That was amazing. Thank you.” I pecked another kiss to his lips. “I think you’re beautiful in your orca form. Thank you for sharing that with me.”
“Of course. I want you to know all parts of me.”
“I want you to know all parts of me too.” A shiver racked my body. “Sorry. My fur keeps me warm in the water. I lose that when I shift back.”
“Then let’s get you dried off.”
I wound my arms around Nero’s neck again as he swam us to shore. When we hit the drop-off, I let go and swam on my own until I had to walk up the rocky beach.
“Should we even get dressed when you owe me that dessert you promised?”
Nero’s answering laugh echoed around us. “Yes. You need to warm up, and I want to take my time. Besides, I’m a”—he held his forefinger and thumb up just a little apart—“little older than you. There’s no way my knees would appreciate this location.”
“Wait. How old are you?”
