Page 29 of Not So Stranded
Kit couldn’t help it, he laughed out loud. “You’re all absolutely adorable.”
“Grandpa Eric says we’re a handful,” Keoni said with clear pride.
Kit laughed again. “And what are your names?”
All of them spoke at once, and Kit wasn’t sure what he heard, but then Keoni thrust into Kit’s face the absolute littlest cecaelia ever, big eyes bugging out and tentacles waving frantically. “This is Marius.”
“Keoni!” the talkative three-year-old hollered as they shoved Keoni’s arm back underwater, submerging the tiny baby. “You know you can’t take newborns out of the water!”
Oh, shit. “Uh, hey,” Kit said, “maybe we shouldn’t be running around with newborns at all, huh?”
“But they’re so cute...”
“Right, but they’re?—”
“I’m missing a baby!” came a frantic cry from the other side of the lagoon. Was that Larkin? “I’m missing a baby!”
“Here!” Kit yelled as he stood up and made Keoni turn around while keeping their arm down. “They’re here!”
Larkin and another man made to swim over, but a cecaelia shot across the lagoon like a bullet. The wave that created pushed Kit back into his chair and had the kids he wasn’t holding onto squealing as they were washed away. Kit reached down to make sure Keoni hadn’t lost the newborn, but then the frowning cecaelia was there and taking the baby from Keoni’s grip.
“I’m sorry,” Keoni whispered, sounding close to tears.
“That’s the last time,” the newborn’s parent said through a clenched jaw. They turned around and swam to Larkin and the other man, who were still standing near a…playpen?
“Keoni, Whetu,” a redheaded man said from the beach behind Kit’s chair, “you’re both on time out.”
It turned out that the kids hadn’t gotten washed away very far, because now the older ones tentacle-walked over to their father with their heads down, while the rest of them zoomed in every other direction like they were fleeing a crime scene.
And maybe they were.
“You aresucha troublemaker.”
Kit turned around to find Hiaka. “I didn’t do it!”
They tsked at him, shaking their head. “I leave you alone for two minutes…”
“Oh, shut up.” Kit flopped into his chair.
“Giving you breakfast now seems like a reward for bad behavior.” Hiaka set a plate of fruits and pastries on the arm of the chair.
Kit snorted. “If you’re practicing for parenthood, well done, but shut your pretty face.”
Hiaka laughed wickedly and stole a piece of pineapple.
Kit looked over toward Larkin with concern. “Can the newborns really not go above water?”
“Yeah, their lungs need time to develop more so they can breathe air. Larkin hosted for Moa’ali’i, my sibling, andthe hatchlings were born last week. They need another week probably.”
“And the older man is…”
“Oh, that’s Dean. Larkin, Dean, and Mo are all mated.”
“Ah, okay. I think I met Dean last night. And I know Eric mentioned that it’s the three of them, like us.”
“I swear, you’re going to have to meet everyone again,” Hiaka said with a chuckle. “You were so not present when you first got here.”
Kit blushed but agreed. “I’ll go over and say hello again. Make sure Marius is okay.”
