Nero hovered patiently in the water as his mother swam in circles around him and muttered to herself under her breath. Her fingers kept grazing his sides and her fin brushed his back more than once as she weaved around and inspected him. He knew better than to protest against the fussing. The stiller he sat, the quicker she would ease off.

“You have a lot of tension here,” she whispered as she pressed two fingers firmly between his shoulder blades, just above his dorsal. Nero stiffened as the muscles tightened further. “We are going to have to deal with that later.”

Nero dipped his head in agreement. “Later, though.”

“I assume we are going to discuss how you got these when you tell us what happened?” she inquired next as she ran a finger along one of the thin scars wrapped around his torso. The wounds had been severe, but their mark had faded to twists of firm skin no wider than a single hair, a few of them along his sides and tails. He imagined they would fade completely in the next few cycles, but he was not surprised his mother had located them easily.

“Yes.”

Rebecca hummed her satisfaction and pressed a hand to his chest. “You are a little malnourished, but I will blame that on your trip. Other than that, you are in good health and I am just glad to see you.”

Nero leaned forward and wrapped his mother in a firm hug. “I have missed you both,” he murmured. “I am sorry if I worried you all this time.”

She purred and squeezed him back just as tightly. “You are alive and safe, and you are here now,” she stated. “That is all that matters.”

His mother lingered for a moment more before she pushed out of his embrace and crossed the short distance between Karina and himself. Karina hugged her arms around her chest and tried to follow his mother as she began spinning around her too. He could hear her muttering to herself again and shook his head. After a moment, Rebecca clucked her tongue. “You are even tenser than Nero is,” she murmured as she hovered behind Karina and placed a hand on her spine. “Well, no wonder. Karina, can you lie down for me please? Just here on the sand, on your belly. Prop your upper half up on your forearms, but bow your head until your forehead is against the ground,” she urged.

Karina shifted her fins nervously and glanced at him, so Nero nodded. His mother would not encourage it if she did not think it was going to help Karina. He watched his mate take a breath and then comply with the instructions, though her shivering returned as his mother hovered over her with a hand on her back.

“Ixion, mind your son, please,” she said.

Nero frowned at the statement as he watched his mother trail her fingers down Karina’s spine and pause at the highest arch. Before he could ask what she meant, his mother pushed down and up on Karina’s spine with the flat of her hand. His mate gasped and her gills flared before she stiffened and a whimper escaped her lips.

Though logically Nero knew his mother meant Karina no harm, he could not help the instinct that surged in him at the possible threat to his mate and he suddenly understood his mother’s comment as his father grabbed him by the dorsal and wrapped his other arm around Nero’s waist. “She is alright,” he told Nero as he held him firmly.

Nero watched his mother move further up Karina’s back and push again, and this time, Karina remained stiff and her body shuddered before a sorrowful cry whistled past her gritted teeth. Nero pushed against his father. “Let me go,” he growled.

“Be at peace, Nero; your mother is helping.”

As his mate broke down into heavy sobs, his mother helped pull her up and into an embrace. Despite any of her previous anxieties, Karina clung to Rebecca like a lifeline and continued to sob openly. Nero could taste the grief flooding from her and it made him woozy with the need to reach her, but his father outmatched him in strength and his lack of true desire to battle his parents kept him from struggling aggressively.

His mother continued to press on Karina’s spine with her fingers while holding the girl close. She did not say anything to Karina, simply allowed her to cry as she normally tended to. He remembered from his childhood any time he or Kera were upset. His mother would hold them and allow them to cry. Talking and reassurances were for afterwards, once the tide of emotion stemmed naturally. His mother had never once shushed a child – hers or a patient – or tried to offer premature verbal comfort. She believed that allowing the emotions to flow uninterrupted was the healthiest way.

Karina’s cries became desperate and laced with hiccupping breaths that spurted bubbles from her gills in rapid puffs. It cracked Nero’s heart to see her so distraught even though he knew she needed to release it all.

When the emotional tide began to fade out, Karina was left limp and shaking in his mother’s arms. Rebecca rested her chin on Karina’s head and cradled her like she was still a child. “Grief is one of the worst pains we can feel,” she whispered just loud enough for Nero to hear. “You will never forget your grief, but the pain will ease with time.”

“I-I just-I just miss them s-so m-much,” Karina whimpered. His mother glanced up and nodded her head, and as she did, his father released him. He hurred to Karina’s side and carefully extracted her from his mother’s embrace into his own. Her nails bit into the skin of his back as she clung to him desperately and he nearly tripped over her tail while settling down on the sand with her, but he paid neither any mind. All that mattered was that she needed him.

“What happened?” his mother asked in a hushed tone.

Nero swallowed the rising lump in his throat and squeezed Karina when he felt her shiver. “A bad storm crashed a human ship into the reef. It had been filled with dark sludge that poisoned everything.”

“You two were infected?”

Nero nodded once. “We were…away from the reef at the time, so our exposure was minor. We were sick for several turns from it. I lingered at the edge of the poisoned zone in hopes of finding other survivors, but I never saw anyone. We could not linger, so I brought her here.”

His mother nodded. “I am glad you are safe, but I am sorry for the tragedy that led to this.”

Nero shook his head and held Karina closer. He kissed her brow and rubbed her back. “Are you alright?” he checked.

Karina was limp against him and she rubbed her face against his chest as she shook her head. “I feel empty,” she whispered.

Nero nodded and continued rubbing a hand up and down her back. “That will fade…right?” he glanced up at his mother to pose the question.

She dipped her chin down. “Yes. It is merely the exhaustion bringing a hollowness. You might find you feel a little better once you rest. It is important to let the hard emotions free once in a while, despite how tiring it can be. The more they fester, the longer it takes for you to heal and the more the process hurts.”

Within his embrace, Karina shivered, but she did not respond to the comment. When Nero glanced down at her, he found her eyes squeezed shut and her fingers twitching in half-closed fists. She was still shaking softly, so Nero pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. “Take a rest,” he murmured into her hair. “I have you.”

When he glanced back up, his mother and father had settled on the floor of the sandy alcove with him. Both were watching him with warm, patient expressions, but he could see his mother’s desire for answers in the way her fin twitched and she continued shifting her weight. Finally, the question came. “Nero, what happened to you?”

He winced and shifted Karina in his arms so they could both be a bit more comfortable, and then returned his attention to his parents. “I got separated from the rest of the hunting group in the storm. At first, I was not too worried, we were all strong swimmers and I knew my way back. I would have simply hunkered down, but we were in open water, so I had to press on for the shelf. It should have been fine, an unpleasant struggle, but not one I felt unprepared to deal with.” He sighed and shook his head. “But I was in a bad spot and the currents were pulling me three different ways at once. Once I realized what was happening, it was too late to swim free of the forming tempest tube. It was a disorienting experience. The water ripped at my skin and tossed me around, it was like being bounced back and forth between rocks. I do not remember most of it, I was knocked out rather quickly.”

He paused to stroke his fingers through Karina’s hair. He was not sure how well she was listening to the story. Her breathing had evened out but she did not seem to be fully asleep yet. He hoped that she would fall to unconsciousness. She needed to rest and he did not wish to burden her heart further with a conversation that might bring up painful memories.

“It is okay,” Karina whispered as he hesitated. “I can handle it.”

He hummed and continued stroking her hair as he redirected his attention back to his parents. “When I woke, I was with Karina’s pod. They are a stationary group and usually rather closed-off and wary of outsiders, but they helped me get well again. My injuries took a couple of moons to heal properly and in that time, I could move very little. Karina spent a lot of that time with me, talking to me and keeping me company.”

Karina shrugged and pushed herself upright a bit more. She turned to face his parents, so he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back so she was leaning against his chest. She purred softly at the proximity, but he could see the way her cheeks had coloured slightly as his parents smiled knowingly at them both. “It was hard to leave you there alone,” she admitted. “I imagined you must have been as lonely as I felt. And it was nice to have company who did not seem bored or annoyed with me. I expected so many times for you to shoo me in the beginning.”

“Never,” Nero replied as he leaned his head over her shoulder to kiss her cheek. “But the longer I stayed, the more reluctant I became to leave. I had fallen in love and I knew Karina was under a lot of pressure to take a life partner and that I would lose my chance if I left.”

Karina nodded. “My pod puts less priority on the emotional connection of bond mates. Since we are stationary, we do not meet outsiders often, and there was a pod that travelled through the area around the same time. I could have chosen to go with them for the security of a partner or tried to coax one of them to stay. I did not truly wish to leave my family. My reef was all I knew. As much as I wanted to remain with Nero, I would not have had the courage to leave,” she explained. Then she sniffled and hugged her arms around her chest. Her mane drooped. Nero hugged her more tightly and kissed the back of her skull in hopes of soothing the wave of emotion swelling in her. “I am only sorry that my cowardice forced you both to believe your son was dead. I could not have imagined the pain I was causing at the time, but I can fathom it now.”

His father clucked his tongue and shook his head. “Do not apologize, Karina. I am heartened to know that Nero had someone by his side all this time. His absence was not your fault, nor something for either of you to feel guilt over. We are just glad you are both alright.”

“Yes,” his mother agreed. She closed the distance between them and cupped one of Karina’s hands in her own. Nero smiled. He was glad Karina was going to get to see that she had nothing to fear. She was struggling with too many overwhelming emotions as it was. “Karina, I understand your fears. I once worried about acceptance too, but I promise you will find it here. And while your loss is great – and we would never seek to take the place of the family you have lost – you have family in us as well.”

Nero felt Karina shiver in his embrace, and then she lurched from it and wrapped her arms around Rebecca. She did not say anything, but his mother did not require anything to embrace his mate warmly. Her dark brown eyes were staring at him from over Karina’s shoulder.

“Thank you,” he murmured as he leaned forward to rub Karina’s back.

His mother hummed in agreement.

Nero sighed. There was a lot to adjust to and he imagined he was going to have far more company than he would tend to want as he got reacquainted with his pod members once more, but at least Karina could have a place to settle and heal, surrounded by people who would help her feel wanted and more comfortable. He would give her all his love, but he knew she needed more than what he could offer alone after everything they had lost.

When their embrace ended, Nero pulled Karina close once more. “Feel better?” he checked.

Karina’s smile did not quite reach her eyes, but it was more genuine than it had been in quite a while, and Nero could not help but smile back. They were going to be okay.