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XXIII. The Sea

In honour of the birthday of the one and only @porters-fangs , I present a Porter and Treasure fic inspired by the first thing we ever spoke about. Aster I adore you so much and I hope you enjoy reading this <3

Porter and Treasure break into an aquarium for a birthday date.

Word count- 5.1k

The sky of Dahlia lay strewn with the pinpricks of a thousand constellations, the tufts of ivory mist across it’s cascades of celestial fabric were the veil the moon hid behind as she watched the city’s gem stand statuesque at their balcony railing, the tired figure caught between the urban earth and starry sea.

‘Treasure’ was a moniker they were growing indulgently accustomed to, and they found it amusing how a word that -hitherto- held no meaning to them had suddenly woven it’s way across their veins and into their very soul; they wondered idly if they would ever forsake their actual name for the endearment, the purr of a honeyed, accented, addictive voice echoing across the cavern behind their eyes said yes.

Tonight however, no amount of turning the word over within their thoughts could distract from the ache of the sheer emptiness that blanketed their home and heart. Halls that once reverberated with laughter and joy had for three days lain achingly silent, as if in solemnity of their owner’s own solitude. Treasure sighed as they told themselves that it was after all, just another night, and let their gaze wander back to the stars, and back to him.

____

‘...what is this?’, The human asked, turning over the orb their vampire had placed into their palm.

It was at once both corporeal and intangible, a marble of not-quite glass that seemed to hold within it a dried flower. Except upon closer look, it was nothing more than pseudo-flora. Veins of wrinkles upon deep indigo petals revealed themselves to be ravines of stars and light at a turn of the sphere, the liquid-sugar composition of the globe making the starry rivers entrap and reflect whatever light fell onto the thing, casting kaleidoscopes of cosmic-touched prisms across the walls of their very plain kitchen. A beam of scarlet red and silver squinted in mirth as it’s living counterpart spoke,

‘You told me you were loath of not being able to see the night sky in its true glory, my dear. This can pull the fog of pollution from the skies and let you see them as they are, let you see them as I do.’

Cursed be Porter Solaire’s charm. They tore their eyes from the wondrous enigma of reality and met his ruby-flecked silver eyes, lilted with that indecipherable look they always donned whenever he was around them, as if he was a child with a crush, or an emperor looking at his throne.

‘That’s…I…This is too much!’, They stumbled over their words, the right ones stolen away by the divinity of this bubble of magic he had so casually brought before them, as if it was nothing so long as it was for them, as if they deserved even the slightest bit of it.

Porter let his hand trail up their star dusted face, cupping their cheek. He tilted their head up to look at him and murmured, ‘One of these days, when I shower you in the gifts you deserve, you’ll say ‘This is too little’ instead of that sordid, worth-smothering sentence,’, and leaning in before they could voice further opposition said, ‘Until that day comes, would you please accept my gifts, and perhaps maybe the fact that you are worthy of this cosmos itself?’

‘...I’ll settle for just the gifts.’

‘For now.’

And an eye-roll sent waves of their iris’ enrapturing hues cascading across the room, and Porter could have fallen to his knees in reverence of this home turned sanctuary right there and then.

‘So…what? Is there a spell to say? Do we have to perform some sort of ritual?’, they asked, rolling the marble over their fingers, scrutinising it as if by glaring at it hard enough, it would reveal all its little secrets.

Porter’s voice took on a somber tone, face falling into seriousness as he spoke, ‘Oh yes my Treasure, this particular piece of magic is one of the rarest and most coveted, and requires the most intricate of rituals and spells, and only the most skilled of wielders may perform it, and even then their chances of success are miniscule.’, with those words, he plopped the orb into a pot of boiling water Treasure hadn’t recalled being there, the splash sending puddles flying across their counter as the thousand hues trapped within it exploded in bursts of light, as if they were iresome fireworks with a scorching vendetta against the human’s poor kitchen.

‘Oops’

Treasure looked at what had to have been magic butchered at the most grandiose of levels and exclaimed as they scrambled to salvage the mess with their sleeves, ‘Porter! Now what!? All that about rareness and skill and-’, They cut themselves off when they saw the corners of his lips trembling and his shoulders shuddering in barely contained laughter.

‘It’s a glorified over-magicked teabag, isn't it?’, deadpan voice betraying their empty annoyance.

Porter burst into bouts of cackling that made it difficult for even them to keep their straight face, so they resorted instead to elbowing him in the ribs before joining in.

By the time the pair’s laughter had subsided, the orb had melted into a swirling, glimmering cosmos that seemed to stir itself within their pot, the sight was almost hypnotic in the way it’s deep amethyst currents melted into dazzling sapphire meteor showers, and suddenly they felt that their meager teapot was far too plain for something as magical as this.

Porter’s voice was coated in that indecipherable emotion as he poured twin galaxies into equally far too plain teacups and cooed as he passed them theirs, ‘Bottoms up, Treasure.’

And past the taste of nebulas unravelling upon their tongue, and shooting stars dancing down their throat and making their every nerve burst into entirely new solar systems, and past how the sky now loomed over them with a majesty so vivid and clear it was as if they were up there with the constellations themselves, they tasted that indecipherable emotion.

And it was undeniable as they looked into his devout eyes,

Love.

____

Knowing that they were seeing the stars just as he was, and hoping that he may be gazing upon the same ones at the same time they were gave them scarce consolation. So they instead opted to take their vexation out on the railing, subjecting it to an iron, white knuckled grip.

They were frustrated, they were alone, they hadn’t seen their lover in over three days, and this day was supposed to be…not what it was.

They wanted nothing more than a quiet night, and nothing more than solitude.

Both of those thoughts were lies, they craved something special today and most of all they craved-

Him.

And there he was.

Standing below their balcony as if to serenade them, looking up at them with moonlight reflecting off his fangs, dastardly mouth curled into a dastardly grin that reached his dastardly eyes.

In the time it took for them to fix him with a heat-death stare he had already reached their side, and now they got to look at his dastardly face up close.

‘Where have you been.’

‘Oh my Treasure, I’ve missed how adorable you look when you glare at me like you want to bite my face off.’

The way the moonlight nestled itself into his hair, and soaked into his skin, softening his already dashing features made them feel very much like they did want to bite his face off - in which way though, they were much less sure about.

He coaxed their hand off the railing to press a velvet-esque kiss to their knuckles, scouring their eyes as he did, as if searching for the piece of himself he left behind for safekeeping in their heart.

Treasure could only be vexed for so long. They tugged him into them and let themself sink into his skin, burying their face into his moonlight-rimmed neck and breathing in the scent they’ve so dearly missed. Only pulling back once they’d had their fill.

‘I missed you.’, they cooed, letting themselves fall into his scarlet-flaked pools of mercury.

‘I missed you too, my dear. I’m sorry I’ve been gone for so long, I’ve been making… arrangements - of a sort.’

‘For your king?’, the word spearing the air as if it were a slur, and they felt pangs of regret when his eyes winced as they said it, followed by billows of curiosity as his eyes betrayed his signature look of mischief.

‘No, actually, these were for something far more…to my taste. For you, actually.’

Treasure’s confusion made them cock their head before they could catch themselves.

‘For me?’

Porter hummed as he answered, ‘Do you remember when I told you about the magical oceans? And about the host of elemental marine life that only makes itself visible to those touched by the same magic they’re woven of?’’

Treasure remembered the trail of his fingers against their skin that night as he told them tales of eels formed solely of seaweed and pollen, they remembered the way he massaged circles into their back and kissed their crown as he told them about manta rays of crystalline, glowing ice, and a menagerie of other animals that their heart pained at not being able to see. The softness of his voice as he whispered to them about creatures so mystic and unworldly they would shatter human comprehension if discovered.

Of all the fantastical beings he told them about, what they yearned for most of all, were the jellyfish woven of immortal flames, with tendrils of psychedelic, fiery, prisms; divine creatures supposedly so ethereal in their kaleidoscopic wonder that when they were in the presence of deep, true emotions, they erupted into colours and hues so unique they couldn't be found anywhere else on the planet. ‘Runaways from Aria’ Porter had called them.

Unworldly animals of enchanting, unparalleled beauty and elegance, adrift in glorious and everlasting transience, those were what Treasure ached to witness for themselves.

‘What are you getting at?’

‘Well, the Verne Aquatic Conservatory has from its conception dedicated itself to the rehabilitation of marine life- animals affected by poachers and pollution. They’re one of the most highly secured establishments of our world, and strictly forbid any and all access to their enclosures.’

Treasure had an inkling of where he was going with this, but hummed their understanding and let him continue.

‘Unfortunately for them, their current lodgings are simply no longer sufficient to hold as many creatures as they’ve undertaken, so they’ve decided to open another branch in Kennedy.’, The wicked glint that gleamed in Porter’s eyes gave away what he would next say before he even said it.

‘Very unfortunately for them, there just so happened to be a terrible accident a few days ago at the aquariums at Kennedy they were planning on repurposing, and this accident just so happened to occur while the animals were already on their way there, and the enclosures just so happened to be travelling through Dahlia. And it's just quite coincidental really, there’s an aquarium here with just enough space to house them while Kennedy employs its finest earth and fire elementals to re-sculpt all the glass that so tragically decided to separate from itself and begin an acquaintance with the floor.’

‘And tonight just so happens to be the only full night they’ll be here before they’re on the move again.’

Treasure stared at him in absolute incredulity.

An accident a few days ago,

And he’d been gone for three days,

And tonight was the only night they had,

And tonight was also-

Oh.

‘Porter, tell me you didn’t-’

‘Oh but I did.’, And the devious grin on his face said that he’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Treasure appraised their absolutely ridiculous, reckless, handsome, lovable vampire with eyes that betrayed they still couldn’t believe he’d gone to such lengths just for them.

‘With that being said, my dearest Treasure’, and he slid into a coy bow as he extended an open hand, looking up at them through his fluttering eyelashes, ‘Would you grant me the honour of taking you on a once in a lifetime, private tour of every aspect of magical marine life your heart could ever wish for?’

And Treasure may have been a fool in love, but they would be a fool not to accept.

‘I do, my dearest lover.’, and they took his hand.

‘Then let us not allow a single second to slip by.’, with that, he scooped them up into his arms, let them kiss him with all the love under the moon, and jumped off the balcony to hit the ground running.

Treasure would enact revenge for the heart attack that unwarned jump gave them later, for now, their focus laid solely on him and his devilish laughter as he carried them through a blur of city light, stopping only when the pair reached the periphery of what looked to be a derelict, shabby warehouse. Porter let his human down to let them see that It stood alone in a barely guarded clearing surrounded by looming trees, isolated save for a rusty pick-up truck parked just outside bent, broken metal that looked like it had some centuries ago been a shutter door. The place seemed so dead it made certain politicians look childishly youthful and spry by comparison.

Although by now, Treasure had learnt better than to take anything the magical world had to offer them at face value.

They wove their fingers through Porter’s and let themselves feel the stars only magic allowed them to see. And straining their eyes as they strengthened their grip on their lover, and felt him grip back in turn, saw the illusion flicker away for just a few moments before returning as they sucked in an exhausted gasp of air.

‘You genuinely amaze me with everything you do.’, his words were laced in such admiration Treasure had to believe them to be true, ‘It’s no small feat for an unempowered human to be able to look past even a sliver of illusions and wards this strong, and yet I could feel you reaching out and tearing it down. You’re extraordinary, my Treasure.’

They felt a deep scarlet feather it’s way up their cheeks, and demurely turned their head away before replying, ‘It wasn't that hard, I had you by my side.’

Porter leaned in to kiss their temple, ‘Then lets undo this illusion together then.’

And they met his gaze as they felt his magic course through their veins, setting every nerve alight as it surged through their body; and they sensed streams of something flowing from them into him. Being able to feel him so intimately, as if their souls were one, and being able to hold his hand and feel their energies combine to be one, stronger force, was perfection.

Existing with him was perfection.

And just like that, the rust flaked away to reveal pristine obsidian walls, and the desolate shack gave way to the most formidable of structures, growing and teeming and extending out into what they thought was just bare grass, rings of concentric fences and magical barriers coalescing into existence right before their eyes, until they realised that they were actually right up against the building. The eroded old pick-up morphed into a sleek, intimidating, impossibly large truck, the words ‘Shaw Security’ detailed onto its sides. While earlier the place looked devoid of all life, now they saw guards patrolling the perimeter of the structure, four to be exact. Two paced around each side of the aquarium while the other two were stationed at what looked like the back, peculiarly leaving the front gate unattended.

‘This has to be some sort of trap, right?’, Treasure scrutinised, surely there was no way they’d just leave the front door unsupervised.

‘Perhaps, but it may just be our stroke of luck. See, actually getting in through the back gate is much more difficult than the front, with three internal wards and quite the hefty physical security system in place, you’d be hard earned to get into any place of substance once you get past the door. The front entrance on the other hand only has one physical security system, a trip-wire, if I’m not mistaken. All of its magical boundaries are external, so there’s no hope of stalking up to it unless we want to waste the night covertly unravelling wards.’, He spoke the words with such attractive, astute, deliberation that Treasure hoped every future date could be a break-in.

‘So what you’re saying is, if we somehow get in through the back gate and then make our way to the front without actually entering, we can avoid all the wards and get in no problem?’

‘Ever crafty, my astute Treasure.’

They felt licks of mischief scoring their way up their being, curling their lips into a delicious grin, ‘But how do we get past the guards and barriers?’

‘Leave that to me, my dear.’

And the two shared a chaste kiss before Porter renewed his grip onto their hand and the pair set off on a devious break-in.

They felt his magic once again course through them, except now in place of bright, illuminating surges, they felt a low, smoky cloak overwhelm their every sense, and it was as if they themselves became one with the blanket of smoke. They looked over to Porter, who had turned nyxian in appearance, for they were able to stare right through him if they gazed long enough. They realised with exhilaration that they must look the same.

He gave them a reassuring squeeze before stalking off into the shadows with them in tow, effortlessly ducking and dashing just out of sight, as if he were long acquainted with the shadows.

Treasure had heard many of their vampire’s recollections of stealth and shadows, but seeing him and navigating them with him was something entirely different. They felt their heartbeat pounding beneath their skin, and weren’t sure they ever wanted the sensation to end. So long as the two held onto each other, his magic was theirs.

The pair reached the first metal gate, and Treasure faltered for a moment. They knew of people with skills to pass through solid walls, but were certain they’d never be able to do it on their own.

Another reassuring squeeze.

They weren’t alone.

They were sleuthing around hand-in-hand with the most perfect man to ever grace this world.

With him by their side, they could more than do this.

And do it they did, leaping forward with him and passing through not only that gate, but the remaining few as well, until they were flush against the building. Being here, so close to creatures of such oceanic wonder, they swore they could feel them thrumming and floating just beyond that physical barrier. Their fingers twitched in anticipation, barely able to contain themselves anymore.

‘Are you alright?’, he whispered into their ear, concern lacing his words, ‘We can turn back if you-’

‘Absolutely not. I want to do this, and I want to do it with you.’

His shadowy cheeks swelled as he broke into a smile, ‘Almost there then.’

They stood right at the corner of the aquarium, metres away from the back gate, and metres away from the guards. Being so close, Treasure’s breath hitched as they got a better look at them.

One was far taller than the other, and both had an air of seriousness about them, yet upon closer look, they could tell the two were familiar enough with each other to not be rigidly focused. All they had to do to hear their conversation was strain their ears just slightly…

‘-ya sure we can trust Chrissy with manning the front gate? Are ya sure we can trust him being here at all?’, the shorter one asked, to which the taller replied in what had to be the raspiest voice Treasure had ever heard,

‘I mean it’s literally the easiest post there is! I don't see how he could possibly fuck this up. So anyway I said to the big guy…’

They looked over to see Porter at the tail end of an eye-roll. All they had to do was get past these two guards and they’d be so close they could taste the saltwater in the air. And considering they were now talking about Espeon as compared to Vaporeon, they had faith they could actually make it.

‘I’ll distract them, you phase through the part of the door just behind the short one.’

That threw them off, and suddenly their faith in themselves faltered,

‘You aren't coming with me?’

‘We stand a much better chance of getting in if they’re distracted. Don't worry, my Treasure, I’ll make the wall incorporeal just long enough for you to slip in, and I’ll be with you in the vents in a matter of moments.’

‘I…’, they trailed off, but one look at their lover’s features, sculpted in determination, steeled their resolve.

‘I trust you.’

And with a silent kiss, he was off, and seconds later, a scream like a startled, oversized, wolf cub rang through the air, coming from just within the woods bordering the aquarium.

‘OH MY FUCKIN HEY CHRISSY’, the short guard yelled at the woods, the raspy-voiced one having quite a start at all the sudden screaming while the former had already taken off into the woods.

This was their chance.

They stealthed forward as fast as they could, and mentally screamed Porter’s name as they phased up and through the thick, obsidian wall and made a mental note to thank Chrissy if they ever ran into him later on in life.

And just like that, they were in. In a rather crammed ventilation system, but in.

And just like he said, Porter was there beside them in a matter of heartbeats, and Treasure wasted no time in making sure he was actually there by capturing his lips with theirs.

The next bout of sneaking passed in a blur of exhilaration and climbing, they were in the vents, then with a drop, they weren't.

Despite having landed into Porter’s arms, they were still stuck aloft within the air, for they dropped out of the vent and onto teeming, stretching rafters that overlooked the expanse from what had to be at least two dozen metres high, the beams criss-crossed and seemed to extend forever across the aquarium ceiling, and even the slightest misstep could send them falling to their death, but oh, what a beautiful death it would be.

For unfurling beneath them in biomes of aquatic spectacles were enclosures of such diversity and number Treasure felt breathless just scouring over them with their eyes. In the dim light of the closed aquarium, each tank was aglow with shades of glorious, elemental bioluminescence, and the menagerie came together to form the most beautiful of kaleidoscopic collages. The scent of saltwater lay thick in the air, and it brought with it notes of smoke, earth and electricity. Treasure felt every nerve in their body swell and ebb in tune with the life beneath them.

Porter Solaire gazed upon his lover as they lost themselves in reverence of this morsel of the ocean, even standing as high as they were, where there was no fathomable way their mortal eyes could see each creature in it’s full detail, and the exhibits must have seemed more like languidly flowing blobs, they looked at them with such adoration he saw the seven seas themselves reflected in their eyes.

He would bottle the seven seas just to see them smile like that again.

Painfully, he tore himself away from his own reverie to fetch their attention.

‘Would you like to go see them up close?’

‘I would like nothing more.’

A construct of sloped rafters lay some distance away from them, where the beams creeped down onto the floor like hollow, metal-skeletoned stalactites, getting down would be a simple matter of carrying Treasure across the precarious beams and slowly letting them drop to the floor from there.

Treasure seemed to have other plans, and those plans included enacting that revenge they swore they’d have.

For instead of walking into his arms and letting him gently carry them down, they leaped across one of the many gaps in the rafters and turned back to stick him with a coy smirk.

‘Treasure! Be careful, you could fa-’, and they took another cavort, this time fixing him with a bow mirroring his own.

Oh. So they wanted to dance.

Porter peered at them incredulously, and the devious look in their eyes was all the reminder he needed of the kind of person he had fallen inexorably in love with.

Very well then, let’s dance.

And the two flitted across the beams in a tango of thrill and laughter, and gravity itself held its breath as the two danced across the framework holding the expanse up, twirling and leaping and taunting, the forces of nature be damned, they were caught in each other’s gravity.

Many times did Porter come close to catching them, only to have them dodge his advances every time, and Treasure only relented when they had reached a part of the rafters low and just atop the very edge of a sizzling, electric green tank. They beamed up at their lover as his arms finally entrapped their waist in a vice-like, unrelenting grasp, as if they would once again turn into smoke and slip through his fingers for good shall he even think about letting go.

Porter caught his breath as he caught them, ‘You know, If I let go of you, you’d fall right into that tank of lightning-laced sea bunnies.’

‘If you let go, I know you’d jump after me in less than a second, and then we can both give our lives to the lightning-laced sea bunnies.’

Porter ducked down to steal another kiss, before turning and dropping down -with his love in his arms- onto the ground just outside the sea bunny enclosure, and it was almost as if the two could feel the sea bunnies sadden at having lost their chance of two new legged tank mates.

He set his Treasure down as they lost themselves to the swathes of oceanic beauty before them, for now that they were on ground level, and entirely eclipsed by clusters of aquatic wonder that seemed to flow into each other and teem so high above their head they may as well have been at the ocean floor itself.

All about them life itself cascaded through the space in a thousand hues of pure enchantment, creatures that lived only the pages of fairytales were now swaying and dancing before them as if in pride of their very existence.

Treasure was sure they had forgotten their breath up in the rafters as they trailed fingers over glass blurred with undulating aquatic flora, a living, breathing ecosystem that moved of its own volition, shifting and grouping and dispersing as if underwater land given life, and it was only when Treasure honed in on the glowing, soft orbs strung across the lithe bodies that formed the bed of gaea did Treasure realise what they were looking at.

‘Swamp-sunset eels’, Porter whispered behind them, voice laced with the same awe coursing through their body, and it was an apt name, bubbled through their viney seaweed bodies were marbles of pollen that mimicked bottled sunsets.

Their gaze shifted over to a tank just ahead of them, where slabs of ice were gliding gracefully across water so frigid they felt goosebumps prickling their skin despite standing well away from the enclosure glass. No, not slabs of ice, impossible, wondrous manta rays of crystal glaciers. They created an underwater blizzard as they soared through the water, so pure in their magnificence Treasure could see them prism and refract the light cast onto them by the hundred other tanks that surrounded them.

Treasure was so enraptured by the sight before them, they barely remembered what they were, and what the nature of these mystical beings was.

‘Only those touched by the same magic they’re woven of can see them’, they echoed Porter’s words from earlier that night, ‘So how can I…’

One look at the vampire beside them was the answer, all this time, he had been reaching out to them with his magic, coaxing them into the world they thought they were entirely alien to, when they accepted him into their heart all that time ago, they accepted the wonder he brought with him. When he gave them a drinkable galaxy so that they may see the stars just as he did, when tonight he extended his shadows to them, and they accepted his darkness so readily, and countless other times, when he had pulled them into his world without them even realising it.

And in that moment they knew, they were home.

A roaring spectrum of colour reflected off the crystalline rays however, and reminded them of the one thing they had been yearning for most of all, but Porter had his hands above their eyes before they could move. The let him guide them as he walked a slow pace and leaned back into his touch as he spoke,

‘Treasure, I know you wanted tonight to be special, and I know you’ve been let down by so many others. I know you feel as though you don't deserve the things you absolutely do, so please believe me when I say that you deserve this. When I’m around you, I feel whole, as if the storms within me have quelled, and given way to something complete. In your embrace I am bare, and I never in my life thought I’d feel safe being bare until I felt your touch. You make the shadows bearable.’, They felt him come to a stop.

‘All this is to say, Happy Birthday, my Treasure.’, and he let his hands fall, and before the two of them erupted a cosmos of the most divine jellyfish Treasure had ever seen. Light flowed from them in prisms of pure, absolute magic that somehow beat in time with their own heart, casting colour richer than the rarest of gems that into liquid crystal across their eyes, encapsulating them and their lover in a cascade of infinitely-hued constellations. And as their wonder swelled, so did the jellyfish’s emanations of what could only be described as godly ambrosia. Treasure was all at once enraptured in their astral tides, and they could have lost themselves in the sight forever.

Yet turning away and pulling Porter Solaire into a kiss so passionate it sent blasts of galaxies across the entire aquarium, and the words that followed came to them easier than breathing.

‘I love you, Porter.’

‘I love you too, my Treasure.’

#porcelaininkpot #redacted asmr #redacted audio #redacted porter #porter solaire #redacted treasure #redacted solaire clan #redacted headcanons

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