~ Water X Fire ~

"What?!" Serenity yells at her mom.

"That's right," her mother, Suni, the water goddess of the waves, replies to her daughter in a gentle tone. "You are going to be married to Gobi in two weeks."

"But, Mom! He's the god of ocean landforms. No wonder why he's such a bore!"

"Ser-"

"No, Mom," she retorts, cutting her mother off. "How can you expect me to marry a guy like that? All he talks about is his 'beloved' volcanoes!"

"You're being overdramatic."

"No, I'm not! It's just the fact that you want me to hook up with the most boring god out there!" Serenity bangs her fists not the dinner table, then walks out of the thatched-roof hut and onto the beach. She takes her hair out of its ponytail and takes off her human clothes.

She walks out into the water until she's waist-deep, then head dives. As she swims, her legs fuse into each other and eventually morph into her tail. She touches her hip with one hand, feeling the metallic mint green scales to make sure that they are there.

After about ten minutes, she finally arrives at her most favorite place in the world: her private island. It's not that large, only about the size of Rhode Island's New Shoreham, but to her, it's a second home. She comes here all the time, when she's stressed, angry, sad, or even if she just wants to have some peace and quiet from time to time. And the best part is that no other living being knows about it except her.

About twenty feet off the shore lies a decent-sized thatched-roof hut made of bamboo and reeds. She goes up the steps of the front porch and enters the hut. At this point, her tail has split into her legs again and she wears a strapless bikini top and bottom. She passes through the kitchen and the living room, then makes her way up the stairs to her bedroom.

Serenity goes to her closets and chooses a wrap skirt and a strapless crop top with the same metallic color and pattern as her tail. She puts a pair of flip flops on and puts her white-blonde-into-mint-green hair into a high messy bun. She gives herself an approving look in the mirror then heads back downstairs into the kitchen.

When she gets there, she immediately goes to the fridge to get some fruit and vegetables. She grabs some pineapple, a few baby carrots, two bananas, a pint of strawberries, a lime, and a jar of coconut cream she made the day before. She goes over to the countertop where the blender is and places the pineapple, carrots, bananas, and strawberries inside to blend. She cuts the lime in half and places it on inside the blender. She also adds two dollops of coconut cream to the mix.

When it's thick and creamy, she gets her favorite coconut husk bowl and spoon and places the smoothie inside. She spreads it out evenly, covers the top with oats, and drizzles on some regular and purple honey. She picks up the bowl and walks to the living room, mixing everything together.

As she enters the room, she takes a spoonful of her smoothie but pauses midway. There, sitting on the couch and looking back at her, is a male around her age with caramel tan skin, dark blonde hair, and playful, golden-brown eyes. He wears a white shirt and goldenrod shorts with sandals.

"Who the heck are you?" Serenity asks him fiercely, putting her spoon back into her bowl.

"I'm wondering the same about you," he replies, his voice rich and smooth.

"Well, I asked you first."

"I'm Hearth, you?"

"Serenity."

"Well, Serenity, what are you doing in my hut?"

"Pfft. Your hut?" She rolls her eyes. "This is mine and has been mine for centuries."

"Who gave it to you?"

"My father back when I turned a hundred."

"And how old are you now?"

"Two thousand, one hundred, ninety-nine."

Hearth's face turns red and he stands up from the couch. "Well, I guess I should be going then." He turns around, hands in pockets, walking to the door that leads to the back porch. "Enjoy." He opens the door, then steps a foot out.

What was Serenity thinking? She was literally kicking out a cute boy from her hut! She walks into the room and sets her bowl on the coffee table. "Wait," she pleads, "you can stay if you want."

He turns around. "Really?"

"Really." She smiles, gesturing to the couch. They sit down at the same time. She sits crossed-legged on the opposite side of the sofa. "Do you want something? I can make you a smoothie bowl if you want."

"That would be nice."

Serenity gets up and goes over to the kitchen. She gets all the things that she used for her own smoothie bowl and prepares it the way she usually does. She puts it inside a coconut husk bowl and covers the top with oats and the two kinds of honey. She gets the matching spoon and goes back to the living room. "Here," she says, handing Hearth the bowl.

"Thanks," he replies, taking a spoonful and put it in his mouth and his eyes go wide. He eats three more spoonfuls, then asks, "What's in this?"

"Nothing really. Just some pineapple, a few baby carrots, half a lime, bananas, strawberries, and a bit of coconut cream." She smiles proudly.

"This is the best smoothie I've ever had." He takes a few more bites.

"Thanks," she says shyly, taking a spoonful of her own. They eventually go to into a deep conversation about family and friends. Serenity finds out that Hearth is a fire god, and his real parents abandoned him when he was born, and the humans who raised him were long dead. Serenity tells him about her family, her dad was a freshwater god who died a couple centuries back and her mother, goddess of the ocean waves, was going to marry her off to someone she couldn't stand.

Hearth felt bad for her, telling her that since she's a pure-blood water goddess, she doesn't have to do everything her mother tells her to do. Serenity agrees but explains that her mother refuses to accept her independence.

"Then find someone else to marry and convince her," Hearth suggests, finishing his smoothie. Convince her to marry me, he says to himself.

"Maybe, your right," she agrees. I'll try to convince her to marry you.

The two stare at each other speechlessly. The more they stare and get to know one another, the more they fell in love. Eventually, Serenity breaks the gaze and grabs the bowls. She stands up, Hearth stops her. "No let me," he says, rising from where he sat. He grabs the bowls from her hands and walks past her into the kitchen, where he cleans them. He puts them on the dish rack to dry.

When he gets back, he sees that the couch that they were sitting on has been dressed as a bed. He looks and Serenity, confused.

"I thought you might want to sleep here tonight," she explains, her cheeks turning red.

"Thanks." He goes over to the sofa and sits down. They pass through a moment of silence.

"Well, good night," she says.

"Good night."

Serenity hurries up to her bedroom and closes the door. She turns off her ceiling light, leaving the nightstand's lava lamp on. She jumps onto her queen-sized bed. She kicks off her flip-flops, throws them onto the floor, and lies on her side. She closes her eyes and smiles, and eventually drifts off into a peaceful sleep.

* * *

"Mom, you can't be serious," Serenity says.

"I've never been more serious in my life," her mother replies.

"But Mom, I love him, I don't want to marry Gobi."

"You are going to marry him and that's final!" Her mother shouts. "Amnd I forbid you to see that fire god of yours!"

Serenity's eyes burn with anger. "You know what? Fine." She looks around her underwater home, thinking of all the memories that lie within the cracks of the stone walls. She looks back at her mother, tears running slowly down her cheeks. "You're gonna regret this, I hope you know that." Because I'm not even showing up to marriage, she doesn't say.

They stand there in silence, and Serenity watches the gills on her mother's neck open and close. She looks at Suni one last time in the eye, then storms off to her room. Not that long after, Suni calls her daughter so that they can go to the family hut so they can have dinner, but Serenity doesn't respond. Suni takes a deep sigh and leaves her daughter in the house. When her mother is gone, Serenity leaves, too, but she goes to her own hut on her own island.

* * *

For three weeks, Serenity has been living on her island with Hearth. Not once has she gone to visit her mother. She even stood up at her wedding last week when she was supposed to marry Gobi. All this time, the only person she's talked to is Hearth, but they've kept their physical boundaries so as to not commit immorality.

Eventually, Serenity has to go back to the underwater house she shared with her mother so she could harvest the kelp and seaweed. As she's picking some stalks of kelp, she sees a flash of baby blue in the corner of her eye. She turns to check it out. but finds her mother, with her metallic baby blue tail, staring back at her.

"What do you want?" Serenity asks coldly. "Do I need to get dolphins to be my bodyguards?"

"I just want to talk. And just because you're the goddess of sea animals, doesn't mean you can hide from your mother," Suni replies.

"About what?"

"About your husband. I've decided to allow you to marry Hearth."

Serenity's heart skips a beat. "Are you serious?"

"Yes." Suni smiles at her daughter.

"But why'd you change your mind?"

At this point, Suni launches into a story about how she wasn't supposed to marry Serenity's father but did it anyway. "I felt bad about refusing you."

Serenity gives her mother a hug, "Thank you. Thank you so much."

* * *

Two days later was her wedding. It was a full-fledged tropical theme, with a towering, fiver tier, chocolate cake with buttercream icing. Painted in the frosting was the sun setting over the beach. It was absolutely gorgeous.

The wedding feast lasted for three days and the whole reception was hosted on Suni's island. Everyone ate and drank. and even some of the kids that were brought had fun, too.

After the wedding ended, Hearth and Serenity decided to have some kids of their own. Not long after, she gave birth to a pair of twins: a boy and a girl. The girl was named Demetris and the boy was named Mackrell. As the children grew up, their mother noticed that they were earth gods. The older they got, the more their abilities grew. And eventually, they all lived their lives dreamily and happily.