Lissa Dragomir ✦ neal caffrey
Disney - the little mermaid
low - mention of eating lobster
complete
The entire time he’d been at the office, Neal had been struggling to get that song out of his head. A song that he couldn’t place, and he couldn’t remember the lyrics - if there even were any lyrics. It was just the most beautiful voice singing a beautiful melody. A voice that he was sure that he had to find somehow.
When the song wasn’t distracting him, thoughts of being out in the ocean fishing were doing the job instead. So much so that Peter could tell he was acting really off, and so he decided to call it a day and head home for the night. He’d called down to the docks to see about taking out a boat, but it wasn’t going to be available until the next day. So, on the way home, he decided to pick up a few things for dinner that he could have prepared for Lissa when she got home, or they could just make a night of it together. It was probably because of having fish on the brain that Neal was craving seafood. He glanced at some of the fresh cuts of flounder, but for some strange reason the idea of eating flounder didn’t sit exactly right with him, so he moved over to shellfish instead. Opting for lobster instead of crab legs, he was soon on his way back home.
“Honey, I’m home,” Neal said playfully when he walked inside and saw Lissa in the living room. He held up the bag in his hand. “And I brought food.” He set the things down on the counter, rolled up his sleeves, and started getting out some pots.
Lissa liked water just fine, but she had a strong pull to spending time in more and more water, and for some reason, she'd started talking less and less over the past couple of days. Lissa was always good at listening, but that didn't mean she didn't speak as well. It was weird, in her mind she had all of these things to say, but it was almost as if she just couldn't get the words to come out.
She left work early when she for some reason nodded during a meeting rather than talking. She also kept feeling like she was missing something, something, someone, a friend. On the way back she had stopped looking at crabs confused, shaking it off she got home and settled on the couch picking up a book.
Chuckling silently when Neal came in she got up and headed to the kitchen, she spoke softly. "What are you making?" She asked.
Neal grinned when she asked what he was making. Even if he hadn’t caught them himself, he was looking forward to getting the dinner prepared, and it had been a while since he’d had a good lobster tail.
“Lobster,” he said and rolled up one of his sleeves to reach into the bag so that he could pull out one of the little guys. Cooking fresh lobster and sticking them into the hot wasn’t always exactly pleasant, but boy did it taste good once the meal was prepared. Neal held up the thing for her to see and being careful to make sure his fingers didn’t get caught in its claws.
“I think we’ve got some steaks in the fridge, so maybe a little surf and turf for the night, yeah?”
Lissa’s expression turned slightly horrified. “Lobster!” She exclaimed, normally she would be happy with a small portion of lobster, but lobsters were related to crabs, well not really, but they had similarities and it just started to horrify her, and why on earth would anyone put a lobster into boiling water! That was so cruel!
She stood there as her expression turned from slightly horrified to terrified. “Why?” She whispered although as she did she couldn’t exactly figure out why she was so horrified about the idea of eating lobster, she ate seafood, but, why? Why? Was all that kept running through her mind, she didn’t even hear his comment about steak and surf and turf.
Truly shocked by the horror on Lissa’s face, Neal stood in surprise for a second with the lobster still in hand. Even if he hadn’t cooked it himself in a while, he was pretty sure they’d eaten some sort of fish or shellfish at the house even over the last couple of weeks. Why? Why what?
The mix of horror and terror caused him to panic a little, but he regained what little self-awareness he had in that moment and quickly stuffed the lobster back into the bag. “It’s gone, okay? You don’t have to look at it anymore. It’s gone. See this?” He said and held up the bag for her to see then shoved it into one of the cabinets. “No more.” He really hoped those things couldn’t tear through the bag and end up setting up shop in the cabinets somewhere.
Approaching her cautiously, Neal gently put his hands on her arms. “Are you okay?”
"It should be in the ocean. It should be free!" Lissa said. "To sing songs, and be with its friends." She wasn't completely sure why she was saying those things or why she felt this need for the little guy to be home in its home.
Looking at Neal, she blinked a little confused. "I um, I don't know, I just..." she looked over at where he had put the lobster. "I think I'm okay, are you okay?"
“It should feel…. What?” Neal was so confused at all that she was saying. Sing songs and be with its friends? She clearly looked like she was confused about something, and as much as he was looking forward to a fun meal for the night, he didn’t want to upset her more than she already was.
“I’m okay, but I think maybe you ought to sit down for a little while.” He poured her a glass of wine and walked her over to the couch to try to get her to sit and rest. He didn’t really understand a reason why they wouldn’t be able to eat the lobster or any other kind of fish. He might not have caught them himself, but there was no reason they shouldn’t have just cooked and eaten them. That’s what they were for, after all. Not that he was going to say any of that out loud after her strong reaction.
“We can order something and have it delivered? Something… uh, vegetarian?” That should be a safe bet, right?
Lissa let him lead her to the couch, she took the wine but set it on the coffee table as she thought more about the lobster. “Well, we can’t leave the poor thing locked in a bag all night.” She added as she thought about the lobster. “I wonder what his name is, or her name, I wonder if…” Lissa stopped herself as she started to feel like she should be singing.
“Oh, the meat’s fine, steaks fine,” she said giving Neal a look as if of course meat was okay, it lived on land, not in the sea.
Meat and steak were fine, but lobster had brought on a panic attack? Wasn’t that usually the opposite with most vegetarian types? They’d never touch beef, chicken, or pork, but they’d be alright with a fish or two. This made absolutely no sense, and Lissa was usually the rational one in this relationship. “Alright… I can order us some steaks.”
He really hoped that she didn’t want to adopt the lobsters as her pets or something now that she was thinking about their names. Neal still didn’t understand why she had the sudden aversion to shellfish, but he wasn’t going to question her much when she was worked up about it. He just really hoped she didn’t go search for the bag he’d stashed away in the cabinets. Maybe Peter or El could cook them up, but he wasn’t going to tell Lissa that.. He also wasn’t going to mention that he’d chartered the boat for another afternoon of fishing the following day. This was turning out to be a really weird afternoon.
“What?” She asked as there was an odd expression as if he should understand her, but at the same time she didn’t really understand where she was coming from herself, she never had a problem with seafood before, but she just couldn’t bring herself to it.
“We really should get our little friend back to his or her friends. Maybe we can do that and pick up dinner on the way?” She suggested as worry for the little lobster came back to her.
“Um, okay. Yeah.” Friends back at the fish market? Somehow, Neal didn’t think that would go over very well. Could they just drop them off in the water and be done with it? Was that even possible? Maybe Lissa had a better idea about this sort of thing.
He walked over to the cabinet and picked up the bag with the two lobsters inside of it. “You ready?”
“The zoo,” she said as she grabbed her coat. “Safe in the zoo, maybe we can rescue the others too!” She smiled pausing for a moment kissing his cheek before heading out to save the lobsters.