Veli laughed himself, shaking his head. "I can see why he wouldn't wanna let that get around." He stopped playing with the girl fish and stood. "Now, do we just reach in and grab, or find someone?"

"No doubt." Veli said, reaching into the tank. Ah, now that brought someone over quick.

"Excuse me, Sir!" The girl said, spazzing.

"Shhhhh." Veli coaxed, hand open in the tank. "You'll scare her."

"Sir, we get the fish for you-"

"That's no fun. I'm not gonna eat her." Then, to the water. "C'mon, cher. You know me. C'mon to Veli, we gonna take you home."

And Artie's new girlfriend very compliantly swam into his hand.

"Atta girl."

Veli carefully removed the docile fish and put her in the bag. He leaned down, smiling. "We got a good place for you, cher. Don'tcha worry, you won't be in there long!"

"Okay, I take fish, you pay worried girl with the strange human money. Come to Veli, love."

"She's not my type." Veli assured him, making noises to the fish. "Too flirty. Artie will love her, though. Perhaps more than the bubbles."

Veli grinned at him, slowly taking the bag to Artie's tank. Making various odd crooning fishnoises, he carefully picked up the docile female, moving her into the tank.

The silly merman moved his face into the water, making more weird noises. The female swam around before meeting up with Artie. Veli stayed with his face in the water for a few more minutes before coming up, beaming.

"Oh, you are the bringer of all things good, Noah." He laughed.

Veli went gladly, feeling so happy inside. Hooray for making Artie's day!

"Mmmm, Artie is happy, and so I am I. We both have our mates."

"Leave me alone, you weird human." Veli grinned, climbing on his lap. "Merfolk don't take husbands or wives. They mate. I get the terminology confused a lot."

Veli hummed, stroking the back of his short hair.

"Merfolk fear the power of love. They don't kiss, they don't marry. There's a lot of fighting between males of a female they like. We're kind of like animals in that way."

He smiled, nuzzling against his man. "That's why I like this so much. I never expected it to happen. This love... Is amazing."

"I know." Veli smiled, wrapping his arms around him. "Amazing isn't the word for it."

Behind them, the fishies were happy. And the fish on the couch was pretty damn happy as well. Mmm, Noah was the bringer of all things good.

Veli had noticed a change starting probably a week or so after they got Lizzie. It started small, with a little headache that was easy to ignore.

Then his hair started to fall out. Not much, of course, but more than usual when he brushed it. More came out when he washed it. But, still. Not too much to worry about.

But when his usual apatite for sex started to wane, then Veli started to worry. He wasn't healing as fast as he should've been, nor was he sleeping through the night.

So he was up before Noah was, looking tired and talking to the fish through their tank.

"M'not tired." Veli sighed, his voice raspy. He seemed to be cooler than normal, leaning against Noah and grateful for the warmth that he had. "You need t'sleep."

"No. I'm fine." A shudder moved down his back, and Veli leaned against him more. Ugh.

"C'mon, I'll lay down with you. You need to sleep." Veli sighed, gently taking Noah's hand and leading him back towards the bedroom.

"Just cold." Veli sighed, nuzzling against him. He was, too. "Do we have more blankets?"

And that was probably the most he'd admitted to feeling bad since it started.