The next morning, Lugh rushed through his chores with a sense of urgency, chuckling to himself at how what he once dreamed of as a grand adventure—his life's work—now felt like just another set of tasks to complete.
He set out the fishing lines, then hurried to the market to help Ronan prepare barrels of ice to display the catch.
Ronan noticed the unusual energy in him and raised an eyebrow with a knowing smile. "Looks like you had a good time with that girl."
Lugh, letting down a bit of his usual composure, smirked. "I won't deny it."
Ronan laughed. "Love catches up with all of us eventually, I guess. So, what's the plan? Are you giving her your coat, or are you bringing her to the island?"
Lugh gave a half-smile, shrugging. "I'm just going to see where the current guides me. For now, I'm her… boyfriend."
Ronan's eyes widened, then he burst into laughter. "A boyfriend? That's not exactly the selkie way! I didn't even think you knew what that was, you being all noble and godly, stuck in your old-fashioned ways."
Lugh scratched the back of his neck, looking sheepish. "I don't exactly know what it means. But she seemed happy when I said it."
Ronan laughed even harder, clutching his stomach. "A boyfriend means you go on dates with her, buy her gifts, hold her hand—all that stuff."
"Like a companion?" Lugh asked, his head tilting curiously.
Ronan wiped his eyes, still grinning. "You've been in solitude far too long, my friend."
Lugh nodded thoughtfully, a small smile tugging at his lips. "I like the sound of that."
He stood, ready to leave, when Ronan grabbed his arm. "Don't forget about my fish!" He motioned to the empty ice barrels.
"Sorry!" Lugh laughed, grabbing his knife and heading to pull in the nets.
In no time, he hauled in the catch and dumped the nets, leaving Ronan to clean the fish. As he worked, Lugh glanced up and froze when he spotted Maeve leaving the wolf compound and heading toward the Fomorian town.
Setting his knife down quickly, he asked with a hopeful grin, "You can finish this, right? I'll even let you have all the earnings."
Ronan sighed dramatically, following Lugh's gaze to Maeve. "Go ahead. It's not like I have a choice."
Grinning from ear to ear, Lugh bolted after her. He came alongside her, trying to steady his excitement. "Good morning, Maeve. How are you today? Do you have any plans?"
Startled by his sudden appearance, Maeve blinked but quickly smiled. "Oh, Lugh! I'm doing well. I was just heading to find Vali and Narfi. Why?"
Lugh hesitated, then plucked a flower from the side of the path and handed it to her. "Well, as your… companion, I thought I'd take you on a date and maybe buy you gifts."
Back at the market, Ronan, who could hear the exchange clearly, slapped his forehead with a groan.
Maeve, however, didn't find it strange. Instead, she blushed, tucking the flower behind her ear. "A date? Yeah… okay."
Lugh offered her his arm, which she took with a shy smile. He glanced back toward Ronan, who was still watching, and grinned when Ronan gave him a reluctant thumbs-up.
With Maeve on his arm, Lugh happily led her away, the thought of their future adventures together filling him with a sense of excitement he hadn't felt in years.
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Vali and Narfi sat on the couch watching television for a while waiting for Maeve to come.
"She's not going to come today." Vali said frustrated. "I bet she's with that boy."
"Are you really going to fight Sirius for her?" Narfi asked after a while. Referring to her vampire husband who she had given up on.
Vali folded his arms. "Well I was going to, but now it seems like Lugh's going to be a problem and I can't fight him in the water, so I don't know what I'm going to do. Assuming Sirius will even come back, I'm not sure how he could find us here."
"Dad could find us." Narfi said.
Vali sighed, "maybe he thinks we jumped into the right timeline because he hasn't tried to stop us."
Narfi shrugged. "Perhaps whatever timeline we are on, it's the only one we truely exist on. In that case, there isn't really another thing we would choose to do. It's like if a tree falls in the forest, they say if no one hears it, does it make a sound?"
"Of course it does."
"Yeah but we can never know."
"Well I'm going to go find her." Vali insisted.
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Lugh and Maeve held hands as they walked into the fomoire town and Lugh struggled to decide what to do next. What should he do on a date?
"Do you want to eat some breakfast?" Maeve asked him as if she read his mind.
Yeah that would be a good idea he thought, "sure!" He said, "what do you eat if you're a plant spirit?" He asked.
"I normally get energy from sunlight." She said, "but it's not like I can't eat other stuff too. How about we go somewhere you like to eat."
"Ok!" He said, "I like fish, but I bet you knew that."
Then he let out a laugh that was so cute to Maeve, but then he was mysterious and sometimes his power radiated off of him in a way that would worry anyone about his intentions.
Not Maeve though.
Vali thought he would take her in the sea, but when he laughed like this, she decided Vali must be wrong.
In fact, the next minute, he stopped at a small grocery store and got a few ingredients, and then he walked her straight out of the town and down towards a beach.
"Where are we going? I thought we were going to eat?" She questioned.
"Just wait here." He said and he sat her down on a rock before diving into the water.
A few moments later, he came back smiling with a few crabs in his hands.
Then he gathered some driftwood and pulled out a lighter from his pocket. "It's waterproof." He said. Then he ignited some small pieces of wood and slowly coaxed the fire until it blazed enough to cook the crabs.
He summoned some water from the sea and suspended it there as if it were in a pot. He pulled out a pocket knife and began cutting some onions and celery and dropped it into the bubble.
He halved some lemons, dropped a bay leaf in, some cayenne, and peppercorns.
He added a few more ingredients until he had made a stock to cook the crab in.
The aroma was amazing to Maeve.
He dropped the crabs in and after a bit they began to turn red. Then, separating the bubble of water into two groups, he set the cooked crab aside to keep soaking in the stock as he used the remaining stock to cook some potatoes and corn.
Once he finished, he pulled out a plate from the grocery bag and removed the crab and vegetables from the water, placing them on a plate for Maeve and another for himself.
"Wow!" I didn't know you could cook like that!" She exclaimed.
"Of course!" He said, "why wouldn't I know how to cook?"
Maeve shook her head, "I mean you cooked with magic!"
He laughed his sweet laugh again. "Yeah well I guess I did."
They continued eating as the sun rose higher in the sky. Then they splashed around a bit in the shallow waves.
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