By the time I reached home, it was almost 2:50, which meant I had ten minutes to change out of my "I'm done, I'm not buttoning anything clothes" to something slightly more presentable. Shuffling into my slippers, I slip-slap-ran to my room and threw on a pair of jeans, a thermal shirt, and a chunky sweater. A knock on the door sent my heart beating into overdrive.

"Coming! Gimme a—whoa!" I slipped on my partially pulled up sock and slammed hard on my butt.

"Dang it, that frikkin hurt," I moaned, rubbing the sore spot.

"Are you alright?" Came Andrei's muffled voice.

"Ye-" my voice cracked, so I cleared it and tried again, "Yeah, I'll be right out!" Finishing up upstairs, I bounded down the steps and landed at the front doorway.

Do I let him in before I tie my shoes, or do I finish up before I open the door? Oh, what the hell—I opened the door.

"Hey—"

"Hey."

We stood there, awkwardly, for what felt like a few minutes before I remembered my still-slippered feet.

"Let me just—I need to put on my shoes first. You can wait inside if you want?"

He nodded slightly and ducked to get in.

Sitting on the bench I shoved my feet into my docs and double-knotted them in record time. I quickly grabbed my jacket and beanie from the bench beside me and slipped them on. I spun around to meet him and noticed his gaze was anywhere but mine. His eyes were wide and his mouth was moving in silent speech. His hands shoved into his jacket's pockets were splayed wide in chicken wings. His body was slightly turned away from me, so engrossed was he in checking out my living space. It was kind of cute.

No, stop that. You don't know him. I berated myself.

But you could know him, that side of me that I hated teased.

"Soooo, uh, where are we going?"

That snapped him from his reverie.

"To the ocean."

"Are you—are you going to change again?"

"No, not today. You are not comfortable with change, yes?"

I laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of my neck,

"You got me there. It's a work in progress, I guess."

He chuckled, then held out his hand palm up.

"Shall we?"

I hesitated. Would it too forward of me to take his hand? Was that giving him hope where I didn't want to give him any? Did I even want to give him any hope?

My brain short-circuited, and my natural impulses took control. I took his hand, and he gently led me out the door.

Outside, a large motorcycle was waiting. How I hadn't heard it pull up, I would never know.

"Where are we going?"

"The ocean."

I froze and pulled back on his hand. He stopped immediately and turned to meet my startled eyes.

"Are you going to, you know..."

"I know?"

"Change... again?"

He gave me a slight smile,

"Not today. Yesterday make you sad, I show you new beach."

"Oh," I giggled nervously, "okay, I guess."

He led me over to the motorcycle and helped me sit in the proper position on the back seat. Handing me a second helmet, I strapped it on and looked around, adjusting to the limited field of vision. After I was settled, he fluidly stepped over the front of the seat and kicked the machine into ignition. It roared to life, and we were soon speeding up the road from my grandfather's lighthouse.

"So you mentioned that yesterday made me sad, how did you know?" I yelled past the roaring wind.

"I have microphone in helmet, you do not need to shout." His voice came through as slightly crackling, but clear.

"Oh, sorry. Uh, but seriously though, how did you know?"

"Your eyes are, how do you say, big? I do not think that is correct. But you smell sad."

"Big eyes? Do you mean puffy? Swollen?"

"Yes! That is word!"

I was a bit miffed. I was sure my concealer had been doing a fairly decent job, but apparently not. The last thing he had mentioned, though, helped me move on from that bit of information.

"So how do you know I smell sad? How can you smell that?"

"When I am seal, I see good in water, not good in air. I smell good in air. When I am human, I see good in air, not in water, but still smell good in air."

"Is that how all selkies are? Do all selkies have a strong sense of smell in seal and human form?"

"Yes, this helps us survive."

"I get how it helps when you're a seal, but how does it help when you are a human?"

Andrei was silent for a bit, as he took a steep curve at a surprisingly fast speed. I squeaked a bit, and I felt him chuckle through his jacket. Coat? I assumed that this was the same offending jacket, why would a selkie leave that second part of themselves at home, but instead of the gray soft fur that I remembered, I only saw a black leather biker one.

"Full humans are confusing. They lie much. Smell sees if they are mad, sad, happy. Do you see?"

I thought about what he said for a bit,

"Yes, I think I understand. So if you smelled that I was sad, what did it smell like?"

"Bitter. Like cranberries."

"Oh, so you can smell the emotions, like the ones from Inside Out?"

"What is Inside... Out?"

"You've never watched Inside Out?! What?!"

"Is Inside... Out a movie?"

"Yeah, and it's positively beautiful. I freaking love it."

He only nodded and continued to drive.

We were coming up on a pretty curvy area of road, and my handhold on the side bar of the bike wasn't feeling as secure under my hands as it was before. I think he noticed how tense I was getting, because he reached confidently behind him, grabbed my hand and pulled it around his waist.

"Hold on, safe."

Terrified of falling off the motorcycle, I latched my arms around his waist and held on for dear life. In response, he sped up and took the turns much smoother than before. I buried my face into his jacket, the bitter late fall wind biting my cheeks and nose.

Eventually, he slowed down enough that I was able to lift my face, and I found that we had arrived at a beautifully open, rocky beach, no cliffs in sight except for ones in the far distance.

"Whoa." I exclaimed, as Andrei helped my shaky legs off the motorcycle. Just my luck, the adrenaline buckled my knees, and I went down, hands splayed in front of me. In the nick of time, strong, wiry fingers grasped my waist and pulled me back up. I hands gripped his forearms as I struggled to catch my breath and regain the strength in my legs.

"Thanks," I whispered breathlessly.

"Always." He muttered, ears turning a faint shade of pink.

I blinked, taken aback. He must have sensed that I'd gained my bearings because he let go of my waist like it was on fire and stepped back.

"Are you ready?"

"Ready? Ready for what?"

"I have plan for today."

"Oh you do? What's your plan?"

He looked down at the ground then back up at me.

"We find rocks that match our eyes."

"Oh, so I find one for mine and you find yours?"

"No," he moved closer, "you find for me, I find for you."

"Oh," that was oddly romantic, and got my heart fluttering a little bit, "okay, so I have to look at your eyes, right?"

He simply nodded and made no move to get closer to me. I took a few tentative steps forward, but he still made no move. Heart beating an irregular tattoo, I got close enough to see every way the light hit his eyes, and they were breathtaking. A deep brown that lightened once the sun hit them at an angle.

At second glance, they seemed to be a lighter brandy, the kind that Grandpa had brought out the morning after my first night staying up to watch the lighthouse through a storm. The stuff had burned on the way down, but with the burning came a sense of accomplishment that only came after someone you admired and respected commended you for a job well done. An overwhelming sense of home came over me then, as I studied his eyes, looking for more familiar memories in this strange, supposed fiancé of mine.

"Are you ready?"

Andrei's deep, somber voice broke my reverie.

"Yeah, I think so."

We parted ways and went to go searching for our respective stones. The first time I called Andrei back over to me to look at his eyes again, he seemed surprised, and stood there awkwardly, but after the third or fourth time, it became a sort of inside joke between us. I would cup my hands around my eyes like glasses and squint at him until he saw. Once he would see, he would shake his head and laugh a bit, then make his way carefully over the small and medium hazardous rocks.

I would comically study his eyes and point out weird similarities and he would smile, then I would wave him away, and he would turn with a bark of laughter and pander back over to where he was looking. Every once in a while, I would hold up a rock to his eyes and he would hold very still and turn when I asked him to. Each one I found didn't pass muster, and I dropped them into a steadily growing pile. He had yet to find one that he thought matched my own.

After a good few hours of scrounging about the dry side of the beach, I decided to take a risk and get closer to shoreline. There were some pretty big waves coming in, so I had to be careful and time my escapes just right.

As I was looking, I found the perfect rock, sitting pretty in frigid, knee-deep water. I ignored my absolutely soaked jeans and boots and bent down, focused on the task at hand. As I was reaching for the rock, I heard a rather loud roaring coming from my right. I looked up, and saw a monstrous wave hurtling toward me.

"Andr—!" Was all that left my mouth before the wave hit me and knocked me flat to the ground. I started to panic as I felt the water pulling me farther, and I thrashed my arms and legs about, hoping that Andrei would see me. My water-soaked clothes were weighing me down, and I couldn't seem to stand back up again. Panic and fear were all that were ringing through my head, and my lungs were going to burst when I felt strong, limber hands grip my underarms and lifted me with barely any resistance out of the water.

"Sam! Sam! You're safe!" I thrashed in his arms until my fight-or-flight response recognized that I was safe again and was no longer in danger of drowning.

"What were you thinking! The ocean is dangerous! You do not have a seal skin, you will not survive!" He shouted at me as he carried me, vehemently shivering, to shore. Only when he wrapped his fur coat around my shivering form did I realize that he wasn't wearing his jacket any longer.

It took me a little to get my chattering teeth under control, but once they were, I simply stated,

"I found it."

"Found what?" His voice still hard, upset, but with a curious tilt at the end.

"The rock."

"The... rock?"

I held out my hand, which was firmly clenched around a solid object. When he looked down at my hand, I opened my clenched white fingers and revealed the palm-sized chocolate-brandy rock that started the whole fiasco.

He stared at the offending object, speechless, till his eyes slowly trailed up from the rock to my own eyes.

"Sam, you are dangerous."

I chuckled.

"I like to think so."

His lips quirked into a smile, until a rocket sneeze from me broke the good mood.

"You need to go home. Shower, pajamas, and a fire."

I nodded in agreement and started to stand, but the frigid breeze from the ocean cut through my wet jeans and I promptly sat back down.

"Come, I will take you."

He held out his hands then asked,

"Can I carry you?"

I nodded quickly, I was so cold, I felt my legs for frozen stiff. With little to no visible effort, he lifted me into a princess carry and started back to the motorcycle. He set me down on a log close to his parked machine, then lifted the back seat and pulled out a dry set of clothes.

"For you. You will freeze if I drive now."

"Oh, okay, um," I took neatly folded pile of clothes and looked around for a place to change. When I found none, I looked back up at him, "Could you turn around?"

He nodded and promptly did so. I set down the rock and inspected the clothes. In the bundle were a pair of sweats, tshirt, hoodie, socks, and boxers. I smelled the shirt, which passed inspection, and assumed that everything else was clean. Didn't want to go sniffing someone's boxers, now did I?

I was able to shimmy out of my pants and underthings and slip on the loose pants, boxers, and socks. I ran into some trouble when trying to take off my soaked jacket, sweater, thermals, and bra. The coat would start to fall off when I moved around too much, and the frigid ocean air would slice through and set off another round of shivers. Valuing survival over embarrassment, I called Andrei over.

"Could you hold up the coat while I change my shirt please?"

"Yes, how high do you need it?"

"Above your face, please."

He lifted it up till I could no longer see his brandy-brown eyes. I stayed within the front fold of the coat as I stripped off my top layers, and only a little bit of a chill passed through the coat and met my bare skin. Quickly, I pulled on the tshirt and hoodie, and immediately felt the difference between my wet things and Andrei's spare dry ones. I quickly pocketed the rock in the loose sweatpants and tapped the hand I could see peeking over the top of the coat.

"You are done?"

"Yup, all done."

"Get your clothes and put them in the seat with your boots."

I did as he said and made sure my underthings were securely stashed within the folds of my other clothes.

"I need to go fast so you can go home, okay?"

"Okay," I agreed, as I sat back in my previous position, helmet on and ready to go.

"You need to hold on, okay?"

"Okay," I agreed a second time, all for holding onto his oddly warm body on the chilly ride back.

The ride back felt longer than before, I'm sure that my wet and frigid state didn't improve that much. Andrei was very considerate while driving, he would notify me when we were coming up on a turn, and I would hold him tighter until he said it was straightening out. Because of this, he was able to take the turns at a faster speed than before and make it back in record time.

I had the inkling, though, that he held out on telling me that the road was alright again until the last possible second. Men. The same regardless of what race they were.

When we reached the lighthouse, Andrei—coat back where it belonged—walked me to the entryway, carrying my wet things for me in a plastic bag he had procured from somewhere, and made sure I was able to unlock the door with no problems.

"Can I see you tomorrow? I need to see if you are okay." He asked, his brow furrowed and his mouth upturned into a slight frown.

"Yeah, that's okay with me. It's Saturday, too, so I won't be working—hopefully—at all."

"Good. I will bring you cocoa from Sally."

I smiled up at him.

"That sounds perfect, thank you."

"Always."

Again, with that always. I didn't know if this guy was a player or just a natural heartbreaker, because he could make a girl's heart flutter like nobody's business.

"Tomorrow, then." He turned to walk away, and just as he did that, I remembered the precious cargo I carried,

"Wait! I have something for you."

He turned back to me, and I held out my closed fist. He looked at it questioningly, and I simply shook it and raised my eyebrows at him. He gave me a look, then placed his hand palm out beneath mine. I opened my fingers and dropped the chocolate brandy rock into his open palm.

"This is for you. It's the reason I got caught."

He chuckled down at the rock then looked up at me.

"And I have something for you." He pulled it from his pocket and held it out to me. I picked it from his hand and held it up. It was a brown rock, smooth in texture. Within the rock were flecks of obsidian and gold, which twinkled when the light hit it just right."What's this?"

"Your rock."

I held it up to the light again and watched it twinkle.

"Thank you."

"Always."

I smiled and looked to the side.

"Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yes, I will see you tomorrow."

"See ya."

"Goodbye."

He turned and strode towards his bike. I watched from the doorway as he kicked it to life then drove off. I promptly shut the door and switched on the furnace. Iset the rock on the kitchen table then sprinted upstairs. Quickly stripping, I laid the borrowed clothes on the radiator to keep them warm while I showered the ocean salt from my hair. The hot water hitting my cold toes and fingers burned, and it took a bit of adjustment before I found a temperature that warmed me back up, but didn't cause any further damage.

Once I'd finished, and my body temperature returned to normal, I was barely able to throw the clothes back on, a wave of exhaustion had slipped over me. Shuffling back to my room, I slipped on two pairs of wool socks and buried myself under the covers. Against my will, my eyes began to droop, and sooner rather then later, I feel into a deep, dreamless sleep.