Gunakan’s head rested lightly on Nori’s neck as he listened to the deep sound of his lover’s breathing. The sun had risen casting shades of gold and pink across the sky until it looked like they kissed the waves in Sushi Cove. Nori’s brow was smooth as he slept. Gunkan knew that soon he’d have to move to start the day and wake him. But he had time yet, at least a little. He breathed in the salty air that blew across their home.
Nori woke gently, smiling sleepily before startling himself into wakefulness. Gunkan laughed, nuzzling Nori to calm him. “They’re not here yet, there is time.”
Nori’s brows smoothed again then creased, “There’s so much to do before they’re here. I want everything to be perfect. We ne-”
Gunkan sighed, “There is plenty of time before they come. And everything doesn’t need to be perfect, we talk about this every time. They don’t need perfect to come home to. They just need you not to worry or stress. This place is where they grew up,” his breath was a soft sigh against Nori’s neck. “But you are their mother, you’re their home”
Nori let out a huge sniffle, “What did I do to ever deserve so much love from you? From all of you?”
Gunkan pulled himself to his hooves as Nori stood up beside him. “No one does anything to earn love. Everyone deserves it.” Nori leaned into him and buried his neck Gunkan’s soft mane.
It had been around the time when Nigiri had popped from his basket that they’d founded Sushi Cove. Back then it’d been beautiful but desperately remote. A lot of hard work and love had changed that.
Winter had ended and the first touches of spring had begun. Not that you could tell by the water it was still frigid–but at least it was slightly warmer than usual. It was also much calmer. During the winter months, they farmed seaweed from the cove they had inhabited for a decade. Each year, in the spring along with their family, they had grown the little seaweed farm.
At first it’d been little more than enough for Gunkan and Nori and their first two sons, Onigiri and Nigiri. But as the seasons passed and they family grew, they’d tended to more and more seaweed in the cove for when the open seas were too cold.
They’d barely got the small cave ready for habitation by the time the girl’s- Ikuara and Kisu’s baskets had popped. By the time the next set of baskets had come and they had adopted the twins, they’d started cultivating the coconut grove.
Each day their love–and seemingly their family-grew more numerous than the sands on their beach. Kisu lived only a few caves away–their wild-free spirited child had actually settled down to raise a family and to help them take care of the place. Nigiri lived a few beaches down, but the rest regularly came to visit. Kaitombo was always pulling some kind of stunt or mischief. But he had a good heart even if he didn’t always have good intentions.
Gunkan shivered as he forced himself into the ocean. The water made him shiver at first, but as soon as he dived beneath the surface everything changed. A whole new world opened up to him. The bright schools of fish and coral caught his eye, as he swam deeper into the reef.
It was in this exact area that he’d met Nori on perhaps the most ordinary day of his life. Or so it seemed at the time. He’d been diving beneath the waves when a stallion he hadn’’t even known had come to “rescue” him. Nori had thought he was stuck on the reef in the seaweed and had heedlessly dived into save him, an absolute stranger. Nori was notorioucsly clumsy though and instead he’d gotten himself stuck so that Gunkan had had to save him. When they’d surfaced to talk after he’d rescued Nori, Gunkan realized that it had been Nori who saved him. When he looked into the other stallion’s eyes, it felt like it was the first time he’d ever breathed.
At the same time, it was like his breath had been ripped from his lungs.
They hadn’t been apart from that day. They also hadn’t been alone for long, their family grew by leaps and bounds. They’d spent a decade raising foals and doting on grandfoals. They both just had so much love to give, and even as their family expanded further and further away–so did that web of love.
Gunkan’s heart fluttered in his chest as he made his way to the surface with a bouquet of sea anemones-Nori’s favorite. This was their time to grow more together, to enjoy each other’s company alone….but Gunkan’s mind had been straying of late to small smiles like sunshine.
Nori sent off Kaitombo to knock down some coconuts—hopefully, without beaning someone on the head with them or knocking down a tree. That boy could get in trouble in an empty cave. He was always finding some kind of mischief to get into. It made him think of Funa and Yakinori as they grew up, constantly having prank wars with Kisu and Ikuara.
Except, the pranks always backfired and almost anyone but the one who was supposed to be pranked was pranked. Once Yakinori and Funa had set a trap to dye Ikuara and Kisu with squid ink–only he’d wound up being the one walking around like voidless shadow for a week until the dye had started to wear off.
Nori smiled wistfully, shocked that he rather missed those days. He laid out more strips of seaweed to dry in the sun before the family would arrive. Most of them came back several times a year. Some of them several times a week, but the rest came at least once a year to visit. His heart soared in his chest, it’d been almost the whole year since he’d seen Kurage and his mate Jessica Lynn and the grandchildren. It was simply too long.
Nori let out a mighty sigh, as he went about the daily tasks as he constantly checked the horizon to see if anyone was going to arrive early. Sometimes they’d like to surprise him that way. Nothing made him more joyous as the sight of each of their faces when they finally came home
He spent the day lost in preparations for the homecoming, his heart growing more joyous with each moment. When the sun finally began to kiss the horizon goodnight, he found his mate and joined him for their nightly walk.
It didn’t seem that long ago that the footprints they left behind had been mixed with a multitude of tiny ones. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy these evening walks with Gunkan now that they were alone, he did. He just missed the tiny trilling sounds of laughter that seemed to be everywhere all at once.
Sometimes it made him a little sad. He was growing old with Gunkan, and he should be blissfully happy–and he was. But he missed those childish sounds, the feel of little heads leaning against his shoulder. The sound of little voices confiding what seemed like such big secrets.
He’d been thinking about it a lot actually. It wasn’t like they were old! They were grandparents, but that didn’t make them old. At least he didn’t think so. Gunkan seemed just as handsome as the first day he laid eyes on him–he didn’t seem like he’d aged a day.
Maybe it was crazy, this aching, haunting want that he head deep inside of him. But Nori just felt like he–like they–had so much more love to give. There were foals out there that had never known love who they could take in….and maybe there were even more foals of their own.
Once the thought took shape in his mind, it took on a life of it’s own. More found baskets. Little eyes just like Gun’s. Big brother Nigiri teaching a sibling how to swim….
He sighed again. Maybe he was foolish to want to give up this time, this time that could be theirs and just theirs. But he wanted more, he had so much more love to give.
Gunkan’s voice broke him out of his silent reverie as they walked beside each other. Gunkan’s voice seemed soft and hesitant as he struggled to speak .
Nori stopped walking and looked at the love of his life in the velvet draped night. “What’s the matter?” He tilted his head a little, concerned with what was bothering Gunkan.
Gunkan though, blushed, reminding Nori of when they’d first fallen in love ten springs ago. He took a deep breath and started again, “I know it’s insane.”
Then those sky blue eyes connected with his, and just like always for a moment he was lost in the eternity of that gaze. Gunkan’s face was flushed as he spoke softly, “I want to raise more foals with you. I want to have more foals with you, Nori. I–”
Nori laughed as he leaned his head against Gunkan’s neck as they continued their walk. His voice was little more than a whisper of wind, “I want more babies with you, too.”
Whatever the future held, they'd meet it happily together.