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Squall nearly faltered as he decided to stretch mid swim. One of those full body stretches with his arms extended out above his head that went all the way down his spine and the tremendous length of his tail. He nearly did an unintentional flip but there was no one around to smirk at his childish display so it really didn’t matter.
He could tell it was still the middle of the day above the surface and he was just finishing up his search for any possible damage to the reef from the last storm several days prior. The currents had been ridiculously strong and the incredible pull of the water couldn’t have meant anything good for the humans on the local land nearby.
They hadn’t found any sunken ships but the water had been almost murky for a full day after the storm had ended. It had been inconvenient but not really trouble for them in their reef. The damage had started being reported later. Impact to the reef had been minor, but enough they’d been keeping an eye on it.
The fish and other sea life had returned to business as usual in no time. Squall had even grabbed fish minutes prior to snack on before he met up with Cloud again. They often aligned their schedules to patrol together just to have a reason to swim side by side all evening. They weren’t the only mated pair that did it either.
Mating season hadn’t passed all that long ago but everyone was still feeling its aftereffects. The long looks, tails brushing against tails, the pheromones. It was amazing that anything had gotten done lately.
Swimming low for a moment, Squall looked over a section of coral that seemed to have been cracked in half. There was nothing around that immediately looked like it had caused the breakage but whatever it was could have easily been carried away in the storm. None of the other sea anemones looked badly crushed or anything so he’d take that as a positive sign.
He was just about to turn back around when he heard a warble. A weak, guttural noise that made his fins stand on end. Squall wasn’t sure what the problem was, many animals made that kind of noise but this one sounded… Pathetic? Desperate? He wasn’t sure but he did know it would nag at him until he found it.
Fish made noises all the time. Chirps, grunts, clicks… vibrations around the reef were quite normal. It didn’t mean this one needed to be alarming but that same little warble cracked this time and Squall found himself searching around the corals and the feathery red algae.
Squall clicked once, not exactly expecting to get an answer but a muffled chirp responded and he all but dove for the seagrass. With his hands, he carefully looked through the grass and let out a gasp when he found the last thing he’d ever expected.
A hatchling.
The little thing was tiny, and Squall’s scrambled brain could tell it hadn’t been hatched for more than two or three days. Their little tail hadn’t gained any color yet and was still transparent. Hardened scales wouldn’t begin to grow for weeks and wouldn’t truly be tough until their first year of life. It was why new parents were so desperately protective of their young.
The baby had somehow dug themselves a little divot in the sand, but their fingers were still fused together and couldn’t grab things yet with full dexterity. That would also take weeks. Their tail and arms did their best to cling to the seagrass it was hiding in and Squall felt a distinct crack to his heart. They were so young, their face was more eyes than anything else. They didn’t usually take long to grow into their baby fat, but getting free from their egg was always a trial for such little beings. Their ear fins were so cute and little and Squall could hardly see their mouth at all.
Squall swore softly, every foul word he knew leaving his mouth.
“Oh baby. Oh little baby, you’re shivering.” He said, voice nearly quivering as he swallowed down his panic. Hatchlings were not meant to be out in the open reef for weeks. They were so very fragile and since the little thing was only around seven inches long, even a fish could have eaten them up.
Squall scooped them up into his hands, trying to check for injuries but didn’t do more than note they were a little boy before the baby curled up against his chest, chirping for warmth.
“I got you. I got you.” Squall muttered, holding the baby to his throat so the baby could be curled up under his chin. Hatchlings were comforted by their parents' heartbeats when this young and instinctively knew to lay by their pulse. The baby was pressing his little face right against the thudding in Squall’s neck.
He looked around for any signs that someone could have left the child here but he saw no one and couldn’t think of a single sea dweller in the nearby communities that would lose, or disgustingly enough, abandon their baby.
No, something was wrong here. The season only just ended and even if eggs were laid, none of them should have hatched yet. The baby’s egg would have had to be laid before the mating season even started. Without the body temperature of a parent, it was amazing this one was even alive. Squall couldn’t fathom how he had hatched at all.
A dozen or two eggs would be laid at once and it was expected for only one of them to actually hatch. Two wasn’t uncommon but no one was prepared for that. Three was unprecedented but happened very rarely. Birth rates were expectedly low, and as such only a handful of little ones were born a year. No one would dare abandon a single egg since it was hard to say for some time which egg would be the viable one.
The baby made a noise again, a horrible little noise of neglect. His voice was rough from calling for help and attention and not being answered. They were small and their stomach wasn’t the least bit rounded from food.
“Okay.” Squall said, ignoring the way his hormones were kicking up with his panic. He and Cloud had opted out of trying to have a baby this year, but damn it they got one anyway and no one…
Squall pulled the hatchling away from his throat just long enough to nose at him. This sudden affection was probably him imprinting on the child already. It was nearly overriding his panic but he was a known multitasker. No one was taking his baby.
He chirped again, the weak noise sending terror through Squall’s tail. He needed to eat. He needed to return to his den where it was safe. He needed…He needed Cloud.
Squall swam, holding the little boy back to his throat again and feeling the affectionate headbutt in return. Fuck, fuck, fuck. They were wildly unprepared for a baby but they would make it work. They had no choice but to make it work since Squall was already locked onto the little one.
“Squall? You okay?” Selphie came up on his left, putting a little effort into keeping up with him when he didn’t slow down to chat with her. “You hurt?”
He hissed, his fins fluttering but Selphie wasn’t a threat and he knew that for now. He moved his fingers just enough for her to peer through the webbing and she gasped when she saw the little underdeveloped tail.
“Squall!”
“Anyone missing an egg?” He asked in a rough voice. “Rumors?”
“No!” She choked the word out, “Not that i’ve heard! I could find out for you?”
“Good. Mine though.”
“Okay. Okay, good!” She said suddenly. Whether she actually agreed or not didn’t matter after the imprinting was done. “Where did you find them? What do you need?”
He flicked his tail to vaguely gesture to the area he’d just come from. He was so focused on his self given mission to return home that words were almost difficult. “Cloud. Sea moss!”
“I’ll bring you some! I’ll be fast and spread the word where I can. You going home?”
“Yes? Yes.” He said roughly, something easing in his chest that Selphie wasn’t trying to argue with him. He did need the sea moss. Not only was it good for fertility but it also kick started bodily changes, including lactating. The baby needed to eat immediately and Squall and Cloud would need to provide. It was fortunate that it was still so close to mating season and both he and Cloud still had an abundance of hormones that would kick into gear once their bodies grasped the fact that they now had a hatchling to look after.
“I’ll meet you there!” She swam off, just a little orange blur but he’d appreciate her later when he was less possessive of his little treasure.
Squall avoided everyone he saw on the way to the den he shared with Cloud. He took every shortcut and gently tried to rub a little warmth into the baby. The boy’s gills were fluttering against Squall’s throat which was a good sign but they were so tiny, barely slits on the child's neck and ribs.
Wiggling his way into his den, he nearly shuddered in relief just having his son in a safe place. That was step one. They’d need to rearrange their things but their bed was made of soft grasses that was comfortable to rest against and they’d be able to keep him warm while he was still fragile and new. Warm was good.
Safe. Warm. His little one needed food but he needed to spark the hormones in his body for that one.
“Soon baby.” Squall whispered, nuzzling against the boy as gently as he could. A coo was pulled from his throat when the hatchling chirped softly and tried to cling to his face. Now that the baby had found someone to answer his calls, he wasn’t letting go for anything and Squall found he approved.
“Squall?” Cloud called from the entrance of their den. He wiggled through the short tunnel opening, his blond mane of hair the first thing Squall saw as he appeared. “Squall? You didn’t hear me calling? Are you okay?”
Squall just crooned in his throat, beckoning Cloud closer with a flick of his tail.
“Squall, what’s wrong–What is that?” Cloud cut himself off and drifted closer. A well timed chirp filling the walls of their den was his answer.
“Baby.” Squall answered simply.
“And you’ve imprinted. Fuck. Okay. Fuck. Sure.” Cloud said in a rush. “Where did you find him?” He asked carefully. The tone he used was warranted since he knew Squall would never have stolen him but that didn’t answer the question.
“Found. Alone. Seagrass. Weak. Baby.”
“Okay. Okay.” There was a slight shake to Cloud’s hands. “Alright, we need seamoss.”
“Selphie.”
“She’s…? Okay.” Cloud was looking around, likely already thinking of how they would need to rearrange their den. That kind of nesting would have normally been done after the eggs were laid. With the waters as chilly as they had been, Cloud likely would have carried the eggs Squall laid inside him rather than laying the eggs outside the womb into a nest in their den to be guarded.
Either way could have been done, but a warm womb would have upped the odds for a viable egg or two.
“Cloud. Look.” Squall said, all but shoving the baby in front of Cloud’s face.
“Hey, no. Wait.” Cloud said, but his eyes were already dilating. He could smell the combination of mate and offspring so pungently.
It had taken Squall a few short minutes of panic and care to imprint on the hatchling. For Cloud it would happen much more quickly since he knew his mate had already claimed the baby.
“Squall, we have to prepare…”
“No. Hold.” Squall demanded and Cloud was weak to the little chirps.
“Fuck, he’s… did he hatch yesterday or something?” Cloud muttered, holding Squall’s hands since regardless of what Squall said, he wasn’t letting go of their hatchling even to hand him over to Cloud.
Cloud nosed at him, and just like before, the baby clung to Cloud’s face and rolled to hide under his chin. “Alright Squall.” Cloud muttered, loosely coiling his tail around Squall’s. An unplanned hatchling didn’t mean they couldn’t keep him. “We need to feed him. He needs contact and food.” There was no telling what stress his little body had been under. The first handful of days were so important.
“Yes.” Squall finally let himself relax, carefully butting his head against Cloud’s.
The two of them rumbled in unison and they got a very satisfied answer from the hatchling between them but those little sounds petered out once the little boy no longer had the energy. Cloud was just about to make the offer to go get supplies himself when their den was intruded upon by two very excited mermaids.
“I brought your sea moss!” Selphie said immediately, struggling to get into the den since Aerith had decided to swim inside with her at the same time instead of waiting a moment.
“A hatchling!” She ignored the way Squall hissed at her volume. “Oh, I'm so excited you have a hatchling! No one around here has mentioned missing an egg or anything so far but it could have just as likely been tossed our way in the storm.” Aerith was swaying from side to side but both women knew better than to encroach further when they were certain at least one of the tritons had imprinted on the baby. New parents were certainly a deadly force.
Selphie nodded. “Supposedly some of the coast was really damaged in the currents.”
“Poor thing.” Cloud muttered, pushing the baby boy back against Squall as he met Selphie by the mouth of their den. He took the seamoss and wasted no time eating a chunk of it. “Well, we’ll ask around, I guess but there’s little point now. It’s not like we’re giving him back.”
Aerith hummed softly. “No one would expect you to, and really, assuming their birth parents survived the storm, there’s no way they’d expect an egg to have survived.”
It was tragic, but it could have ended up so much worse had Squall not found the hatchling. The sea was as monstrous as she was docile.
Cloud swam back to Squall when he made no move to come closer himself and held up some of the sea moss for him to eat. It would get their hormones on track sooner rather than later.
“Congratulations.” Selphie said, smiling warmly.
Cloud nodded but he stayed between them and Squall, now blocking his mate and their baby from their view. “Thank you.”
“We’ll bring you food tomorrow!” Aerith said, already tugging Selphie back with her towards the entrance. That was a tradition to help new parents and they’d have to allow it or risk leaving their den.
Cloud nodded his thanks for a second time and the tension in his shoulders didn’t leave until both mermaids had exited their home. There was no doubt in their mind that the pair of them were going to go tell everyone about this development.
“He needs a name.” Squall said and when Cloud turned, he found his mate moving to relax in the seagrass of their bed. Now that he was feeling safer he was sounding a little more coherent. The hatchling was still pressed against his pulse and would be able to eat soon. Cloud could already feel his own chest shift as lactation was building.
Squall looked so good… holding a hatchling. Cloud knew he would but they thought it wise to wait a few more years. All the reasons why escaped him now.
“Did you have something in mind?” Cloud asked, floating closer to relax next to him. He brought his hand up to hold Squall's like he had before, watching the baby’s fluttering movements against his throat. He shoved another bite of the sea moss into his mouth and was already working out how they were going to have to take turns guarding their son for the next few months.
He scrunched up his nose in that adorable way he did when he was thinking too hard. “Might have had a thought or two on the swim back home.”
“Let’s hear it then. Everything else today had been spontaneous. Why not this too?” Cloud offered quietly.
The hatchling warbled, the little sound too big for his little throat.
Squall glanced up at Cloud, one of his fingers trailing down the baby’s back. “Denzel.”
“Yeah?” Cloud rested his cheek against Squall’s shoulder, putting his face very close to the boys. Those huge eyes blinked at him, a hand coming to pat Cloud’s face. “He looks like a Denzel to me.”
“He looks like he’s ours to me.” Squall said, hardly understanding how their lives had changed in a moment.
Cloud snuggled against him. He’d need to needle Squall a little into letting him actually have a turn to hold their son soon. “That too. Squall. That too.”