Chapter Text
"He's so cute!" Beverly exclaimed as she looked at the male mer baby was wrapped up in a bundle of seaweed. She could not deny it when a kid was cute. She had done the exact same thing after Hannibal and Will had their little ones.
Margot chuckled. "Isn't he? I still can't believe that it was just last week that he was brought in the world."
"I bet Alana was exhausted right after." Beverly knew for certain that must have been stressful and tiring for the mermaid queen.
Speaking of the mermaid, Alana swam into the baby's nursery. "It was. Morgan was taking his sweet little time coming into the world."
"At least he's here." Beverly said with a sigh of relief.
Since her friends were all busy parents or newly mated like Jimmy and Brian, Beverly had spent her time doing something else. She still was not mated herself, but she was in no rush for any of it. She was happy for her friends and wished them the best, but she thought a change of scenery would be nice.
It was not unheard for mers to leave their kingdoms and see other kingdoms in the ocean. Primavera was not the only mer kingdom out there. She had visited a mer kingdom known as Dolarhyde which was run by the King Francis and Queen Reba. It had been quite the trip and she had returned back home because she had enough traveling at the moment.
Besides, she could not have arrived at a better time now that Prince Morgan was born.
"I still remember when Clarice was just this small." Jack said as he observed the baby prince with Bella by his side.
Jimmy chuckled. "Now Clarice is three. How about when Abigail was that small?"
"I still can't believe they're growing so fast." Brian said with a sad smile.
"Abigail is just six, Brian. Besides, I can't believe you two have barely mated. Why did it take you two so long?" Beverly could not believe her two friends.
Jimmy and Brian looked at each other, both trying to decide which one would explain it to Beverly.
"Honestly, we were just being patient." Brian informed Beverly.
Jimmy rolled his eyes. "And Brian's mother had a hard time letting go of her only child. My parents were glad when my brother mated and were happy to find out I already knew who my mate was."
Beverly just shook her head at the ridiculousness of the two, but she could see they would never change. "Hannibal and Will have two, Margot and Alana just had theirs, what about you two?" Beverly eyed Jimmy and Brian with crossed arms. She was always one to tease.
Brian was quiet for a moment. Jimmy was the one to answer to Beverly. "I don't know if even we're ready for kids yet, Beverly."
"Uh huh." Beverly said, turning to Jack and Bella. "How long do you think it'll be before they're parents?"
"I don't care when, to be honest. I'm still feeling a bit happy seeing all these children. Will wasn't extremely young when we took him in." Jack said with a wide grin.
Bella smiled. "It's sweet to see so many of them."
"It is just three little mers, Bella." Jack said.
"More than one." Bella leaned on Jack as she stared at little Morgan.
Beverly thought of the other little mers. "I'm guessing Abigail and Clarice have met the little prince already, haven't they?"
"They were so excited to meet him." Alana remembered Will telling her that his daughters had kept asking when they could see the prince of Primavera. Morgan would end up being a friend of Abigail and Clarice's for certain.
Margot cooed at little Morgan when he turned to her. "They got to hold him and wanted to stay, but they'll get more time to play with him as he keeps growing."
"They certainly will." Beverly agreed, taking a look around the room. It was nice seeing her family. Hannibal and Will's family were too, of course.
Beverly was happy to be home.
🐚 Hannigram 🐚
Two little mer girls were looking at all box full of stuff. There were little patches of seaweed scattered on the box. They knew there were objects inside. Their parents had told them that there were human items inside the box.
"What do you think is in there, Clarice?" The little mer girl with the long dark hair and a teal colored tail.
The other little mer girl had short brown hair that nearly touched her shoulders. Her tail was a lighter shade of red. "I don't know..."
Clarice sat and watched as her sister opened up the box so they could both take a peek at what was inside. There were a ton of objects in there that they could not name.
"Papa and Mama promised us they'd show us soon. Why not now?" The other little girl said with a little grin.
"Abigail! Clarice!"
Clarice turned around with worry on her face. "You don't think we'll get in trouble for looking?"
The other girl, Abigail, shrugged at her sister. "I don't think so. Besides, they're not going to know we were looking in here."
Abigail pulled out another smaller box and opened it. Inside were little silver hooks that had little colorful things attached to them.
"What are those?" Clarice asked.
"I don't know..." Abigail replied with just as much awe. She went back to the bigger box and took out a necklace that had a big blue stone. "Whoa."
"It's so pretty!" Clarice exclaimed with wide eyes.
Abigail handed Clarice the necklace and fetched something out of the box. It was a bunch a little thin colorful rectangles. "What are these?"
"They're called tarot cards, my dears." Abigail and Clarice gasped and turned around to see their father looking at them with amusement on his face. "You know, curiosity killed the fish, they say."
"We're not fish though, Papa." Abigail said in her defense.
Hannibal chuckled at his daughters' response. "You're right about that."
"What are you guys doing?" They turned to see Will swim into the room. He noticed Abigail and Clarice were near the box. "What are you two doing?"
Abigail took the smaller box and lifted it up. "Clarice and I wanted to see what's inside. Papa and you said we can see one day. Why not now?"
"They're as curious as you were." Hannibal grinned, turning to his husband. He could remember long ago when Will was just as curious about human stuff.
Will crossed his arms. "I was about ten at that time. Neither of them are even eight yet, Hannibal."
"Where did you get all these from?" Abigail asked, looking at the little colorful rectangles.
Hannibal and Will exchanged looks as they were debating in their heads whether or not now was the time to tell their daughters.
"It's a long story actually..." Will said.
Clarice's eyes lit up. "We want to know!"
"Yeah!" Abigail agreed with her sister. Both girls were looking at their parents, hopeful that they'll tell them the story.
Hannibal grinned. "I don't think you can say no to those faces, Will." He swam to closer to his daughters to sit with them on the floor.
His husband had been right. Will could not say no to his daughters he loved. "Fine." Abigail and Clarice triumphed as Will sat down with them. He picked up the box of the silver hooks in a box. "These are called fishing lures."
"Fishing lures?" Abigail repeated.
"Humans use them to fish. Many fishermen throughout the world use them all the time. They're all different too." Hannibal explained, taking one fishing lure out with a little fish on it. "See?"
Abigail took the fishing lure from her father, examing it closely. "Where did you get it from?"
Will glanced at Hannibal. "It was one of the first things your papa had given me when we had first met."
"Papa, where did you get fishing lures from?" Clarice asked as she took two out.
Hannibal placed a hand over Clarice's head, gently stroking her hair. "Well...I was not born a merman. Like how your mama was. Or how Abigail and you were born mers. I was once a human, born to a human family."
Abigail and Clarice gasped. They had never met a human before and their own father was a former human!
"Really Papa?" Abigail asked.
Hannibal nodded. "Yes. I was just on the beach when I noticed someone from under the water was staring at me."
Clarice glanced to Will. "It was you, wasn't it, Mama?"
"I was just a child when I met your papa. Your aunts and uncles were so mad at me. They made me promise to never go back. I couldn't keep that promise though." Will answered.
Abigail still had her eyes on her father. "Then what happened, Papa?"
Hannibal continued his story. "He told me he was interested in fishing lures since there had been a mermaid who had all this human stuff and out of everything she had - it was the fishing lures he was intrigued by. So, I promised him I would get him a whole box of them if he wanted."
Will watched as Hannibal continued telling the story of how they met. Abigail and Clarice were surprised, confused and happy throughout it all. Hearing his daughters giggle and seeing his life mate's smile warmed his heart.
This was all he ever wanted with Hannibal.
And it was beautiful.