#Late but better to have a little something for MerMay than not at all I guess?

[dragonshoardofworks]

DannyMerMay 2024

Day 1: Insect/Anchor

The return of Little Baby Moth! (From last year DannyMay)

Something happened since last time the two of them met, so LBMo is reasonably surprised to see Little Baby Man Mer's new form... or is this just an alternative dimension iteration of LBM (by @tourettesdog)? 🤔

(Keep reading to find the answer!)

@pikakaistudios Little Baby Mer inspired me in doing my own, so Kudos and credits where are due!

More fanarts and lore under the cut because it was getting long...

(^～^;)ゞ

Prompt for DannyMay by @dannymayevent and MerMay by @vladdyissues.

〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜

Since I'm a serial procrastinator and I wanted to be sure the art pieces were at least decent/accurate, I was almost late (but thank CW that I did, because some of them had the wrong orca-pattern and I would have brought disgrace upon myself if I published anything not done right since orcas are one of my favorite animals).

That being said, let's continue the DannyMerMay journey!

Day 12: Time Travel/Seafood

My poor Mer-boy got yoinked temporalily into the past when he was still Danny (so even before the "normal" LBM-fication) and he's feeling reeeaaally distressed at the act of practically cannibalism that his past-self is committing...

(≧∇≦)

Day 2+4+29: Wish/Starfish + Wander/Night + Fireworks/Bioluminescence

Wandering in the night, some interesting encounters are bound to happen...

I wonder what would happen if you wish upon a(n alien) star(fish)...

(≧∇≦)

Day 19+20: Iron/Pearl + Pitch AU/Abyss

LBMer found a his rightful Crown (of Fire) sunk into the depths of the ocean!

But since it was rusty and forgotten, what better way to restore it than ghostly mother pearl?

(Works like ghostly ice, but it's an exclusive power of LBMer.)

(The Crown got bigger than canon, but he smol!)

Day 26: Shoes/Camouflage

They say that imitation is one of the best form of flattery, but when you don't want to get caught by a certain dimensional hopper (and be mistaken for one of his foes), it's the best way to blend in!

(Octopi can camouflage in ways that make you think that magic is real...)

ฅ^≧ﻌ≦^ฅ

(Little Baby Terror unfortunately got caught in the same "accident" that LBM did, so they generally prefer to stick together-ish in case they need help.)

Day 16+22: Glowing Veins/Courtship + Song Lyrics/Songs

I couldn't help myself and sneaked in some Everlasting Trio for the soul.

After all, LBM (and therefore LBMer) is still Danny, even if he has new form(s) and instincts.

They do incarnate the "Would you still love me if I was a worm?", don't they?

(◡̀_◡́)

Song: A Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay

(It feels such a Danny song to use, plus I checked how orcas court and while there's some posturing, they also sing! It felt only natural from there... >:3c)

Day 11: Mutation/Shell(s)

And finally: the answer!

LBM found this weird shell on the beach while they were on vacation, but when he checked it (read: nibbed it), it reacted and tooted a magical cloud that mutated our Little Baby Man into a Mer!

(The same fate happened to Dani/Little Baby Menace and Dan/Little Baby Terror, changing them into a Seahorse Mer and Octopus Mer respectively.

I've got a lineart done of them for another prompt, but I didn't manage in time to clean and color it yet, along with a couple of others... ( ≧Д≦) )

This has two versions because I couldn't decide which was better. @teacupsandstarlight suggested the first because of the transforming smoke around our boi, but since I saved both, I told myself: why not upload both?

For now, that's all! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

I still have some linearts to finish/digitalize/color, but at least I contributed to these two fantastic events, hope y'all enjoyed them and my works!

Hope to type ya soon! ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ

[genderfluid-insomniac]

I disdain all glittering gold // Siren!Kafka x reader

A/N:: This is late but I did write this in Mermay and I love mommy kafka ❤️

You were painting by the lake that led out to the ocean and switching between your muse and the canvas in front of you, adjusting your headphones so you could hear the music better. Something caught your eye splashing around in the deep water, you took off your headphones and put your brush down. “What was that-”

Another splash could be heard and you whipped your head around to try to catch what was making that noise, only to see a fin dipping into the water. “Is that a… no- no it couldn’t be.” It was probably just a big fish that came in from the ocean and your mind was pushing magical impossible reasons because it was tired from not getting enough sleep. You turned your back to the lake and headed up the your easel, not noticing the top of a head peaking out above the surface and the wet purple hair flowing on top of the water.

Before you knew it, you were back to outlining the lake and trees when a voice shook you out of your stupor, “You know, you must be pretty bold to turn your back to a siren.” You shot up and locked eyes with a women who was completely bare except for her long hair covering both her breasts and waist deep in the lake. “or stupid.” There was no one when you got here, you swore it. Even going so far as to call out in case you were intruding because you wanted to paint alone- wait.

“Did you just say siren?” Your brush already discarded on the rock you were sitting on and stepping closer to the shore, more curious than anything although the only rumors of sirens being deadly creatures. She chuckled in a deep suave voice and dove under the water, creating waves that rippled on the surface as you scoured the water for her.

A drop of water was flicked to your cheek and you glanced to your right to see her resting her head on her arms against a boulder that was taller than you with several outward perches. “Well, well it looks like you aren’t entirely clueless. But I have to say I’m hurt you only just noticed me, sweetheart.” Her pale pink and magenta eyes luring you in closer and closer, flicking some water on your face again with her fingers and laughing at your shocked expression.

Your mind was reeling for many reasons but the main one being how long had she been watching you. Who was she? Why show herself? What-”I can tell you have many questions, little human.” She smoothly said and lifted her tail out of the water, letting fall back into it with a slap. “Since I’m feeling nice today I’ll answer two questions and that’s all. I’m sure you know how we sirens are around those who we want?”

The woman’s lips smirked, revealing a sharper set of teeth than any normal person would have and pushing her arms together to make her chest more emphasized. You blushed and looked away, finding yourself more interested in her tail which resembled a tigerfish like design. “Alright. uh- What’s your name?” Pretty sure it didn’t hold any power over her like it did to fae but you wanted to know her name. “Well hm, fine but only if I get to know yours~” You nodded and carefully got closer, sitting down next to the rock.

She hummed thoughtfully and gave you a once over before laughing coyly. “Kafka, darling~” Kafka laid her cheek in her hand and flicked her tail around in anticipation for your name reveal. “Name. My name is Name.” The siren eyed your face and waved her finger towards her, silently asking you to come closer and humming a song you didn’t recognise. Her voice was beautiful. Ignoring her wasn’t possible and you didn’t want to in the first place.

“Come to me, Name. Come here.” You didn’t register your clothes getting wet or the cold temperature of the lake swallowing you whole. “That’s a good obedient human. Hm, you’re much too precious to let go so I think I’ll keep you.” Kafka softly chuckled at your dazed state and swept you into her arms, guiding you deeper and deeper into the lake. Why did you come here in the first place again?

[tineeericeee]

What Waits Off the Coast of Santa Barbara

Chapter One: Taking a Short Walk on a Long Boardwalk

Summary: Carlton Lassiter is going on a late night walk on the pier, when he sees a figure just off in the distance.

Notes: Happy mermay! To both the psych community *and* the g/t community (I know you guys go nuts for Mermay)

Takes place post the first scene in season 1 episode 6: from the earth to the Starbucks, except Shawn and Lassiter still haven’t met.

Lassiter was drunk. Very drunk.

It had been two years. Two whole years, to the day, since he and Victoria had unofficially separated.

That, coupled with the fact that he felt he was slowly losing his touch at being a detective, put him in a very depressed mood. A mood he was just a tad too familiar with.

And the cherry on top, his partner, Lucinda Barry, had been transferred to a different station in a different city a few weeks ago, and he still hadn’t completely gotten over her. It wasn’t exactly clear whether she had done it of her own volition or if the chief had her transferred, but one thing was for sure: It definitely had something to do with their secret relationship.

Somehow, word had gotten out and spread fast, and soon enough the whole station knew about them. Lassiter wouldn’t have put it past her if she had requested the transfer out of embarrassment of being outed for dating her superior.

The new junior detective was okay. It could have been worse. But it also could have been better. Juliet O’Hara was a little bit too bushy-tail bright-eyed for his taste. She definitely had a lot more energy than Lucinda.

All of this added up to him desperately needing a night to himself. To go to a bar and drink all of his emotions away.

Lassiter had drink after drink after drink. Predominately whiskey, but there was some brandy at one point.

Eventually the bartender cut him off for the night, and told him to find a taxi to take him home. Lassiter had a better idea. A stroll on the boardwalk to hopefully clear his mind and let the sea air help sober him up.

———

Lassiter had been walking for at least an hour now, which would have been impressive had he been going at his usual gait. But he was mostly stumbling along, just focusing on keeping his feet below him and on the wooden boards.

Eventually, his vision stopped swimming and he could focus more on where he was going rather than the simple task of staying upright. Now he was able to take in his surroundings better.

He was far away from Tom Blair’s, and had walked long enough that the beach and the boardwalk was completely empty, save for him and what seemed like a lonely tarp crumpled in a heap down near the shore.

Lassiter sneered at it. People had no respect for nature anymore. They thought it was okay to just leave anything they weren’t using and expect no consequences.

He should pick it up and… what, drag it back to the bar where he left his Crown Vic? Haul it to the nearest trash can and just… set it down next to it?

As Lassiter walked down to grab the tarp, something else in the distance grabbed his attention. In the weak, dim light emanating from the small street light on the dock, he could pick out a large figure just out of the way, next to the shoreline.

‘…Strange.’

Curiosity getting the better of him, he trekked further down, digging through his pockets for the little pen light he always kept with him.

Just as Lassiter got to the… whatever it was, his hand finally found the tiny flashlight. He fumbled it for a second before locating the little button and clicking it on.

But what he saw made his heart stop, sobering him up.

The first thing Lassiter’s flashlight landed on was an impossibly large back end of a fish tail. It was absolutely massive. It must have been the size of a Great White, and this was just half of it! Each scale seemed to be roughly the same size, if not slightly smaller, than the palm of his hand, each one shimmering an unearthly green under the light of his torch. Small nicks and scratches dotted the whole of it. The whole thing was tangled in a green synthetic fishing net, wrapping around tightly.

He moved the flashlight upwards, and saw…

‘No. No, that’s just not possible.’

And yet there it was. Skin. Human skin, blending smoothly into the fish scales. It was a torso, and just as large as the tail. There were slightly larger gashes covering the soft, surprisingly slightly tanned skin.

It was also covered in the same plastic green netting, tangled and knotted all around. The fibers irritated the skin, cinching tightly and turning it an angry red.

An arm, on the opposite side, was tied up in the same shitty netting, and the other lying limply besides the body. Cuts that matched all of the other ones littered its arms. Arms that were size of his own body, with hands that could easily smother him if they so wished.

Lassiter almost didn’t want to, but he kept going.

And he saw the face. And it wasn’t anything like what he was expecting.

It was the face of a young man, with a chiseled jaw and roguish stubble. Perfectly pink shining lips — that were so big he could put one hand on them and just barely cover — parted slightly to show pearly white teeth, sharp and pointed. Long, beautiful brown lashes hid eyes that he was sure were just as mesmerizing as the rest of his face.

But it was just… the sheer size of the merman, mixed with his intoxicated brain, that caused Lassiter’s legs to crumple beneath him, and unceremoniously fall on his back into the soft sand. He groaned as stars winked out of sight as his vision was consumed by darkness.

—————

Notes: thanks for reading! And also a big special thanks to @arrowheadedbitch for beta reading!

ao3 link

[queengiuliettafirstlady]

To follow the Polar Star

To follow the Polar Star   

Fandom: Ikemen Prince

Pairing: Keith x OC (July)

Prompt: Mermay

Tag: Forbidden Love Stargazing Mythological creatures Fluff

Word Count  1.561

Author’s Note: Special thank you to @kissmetwicekissmedeadly for suggesting this challenge to me, with the prompt Celestial a bit different than something I usually do, here it is my entry, super late but anyway I really hope you can enjoy this fic and the banner, I spend more time than I would like to admit creating it to my liking. 😆

A story worth telling between two people who should have not met, but they did, turning upside down all the belief they had, following the polar star that led them both to their destiny, bonding them together with Love. 🥰

Tag list

@kissmetwicekissmedeadly @lordsisterxotome  @aquagirl1978 @violettduchess @natimiles @nightghoul381 @dragon-liquorice @candied-boys

You can find me on AO3 as QueenJuliet 😊

Thank you for everyone who will like, reblog, or comment please be gentle with me english is not my first language so please do not leave rude comments I apologise for eventual errors I hope you will like it 😊

Stars glimmering in the sky,  they attired every kind of gaze from the inquisitive of the sailors looking at them to find their way to the loners, looking at them with a whirlwind of thoughts swimming in their minds to couple romantically looking up at them only to soon indulge in far more pleasurable activity letting their kisses be a worthy show for the crowd of the glimmering constellation witness to their love, to the dreamers searching the universe to find answers for all the question that arises in them, wandering in their reveries like they were used to, a place to let their hearts free of chains of any sort ... not being called weirdos but finally free to be themselves be it for a while.

It was like that he felt everytime he looked up at the night sky, nestled near the border of the ocean where sand meet the water caressing from time to time the curious sea animals that went to check up on him, more often that any of his friends and family ever did anyway, judging him like everyone else a freak with his head on the clouds more interested to learn about other cultures than about politic, struggling all the same to do any choice that he deemed better for his Kingdom, his role of a prince no more than a chain he felt attached to his wrist, able to break free only at night when everyone was asleep and his guards thought useless to watch over the meek and mild prince of Atlantis.

His eyes locked to the stars above the only place he felt to belong to, the slow rolls of the waves crashing on the shore pleasant melody to that spectacle, noticing a figure sat on the sand gazing at the sky the same way before he knew it words he never intent to spoke resonated in the still air of the night

“Do you like the stars ?”

he swimmed closer to it taking on her figure quietly sat on the shore, little waves crashing on her feet melting with the long light gown now floating above the water, startled by the voice she looked at him in the dark, noticing him only when he was so close to her she could almost have touched him if she wanted to, 

“I am sorry I did not want to scare you away… please stay.” his voice  reached her before she could go away, moved by the pleading apologetic tone of his voice she returned to her place on the shore as little waves begin melting back into her gown

“I do like stars and you ?” he was becoming bolder he knew of that, maybe even bothering her, but at that time something else was winning over, his need, his deep desire to have someone to talk to, someone who understood him, someone that maybe could see him as something more than the weird kind prince he was … not receiving an answer he sighed in defeat when suddenly her voice crystal clear and soft like the frizzy breeze rustling on the ocean resonated in the still air of the night.

“I do too.”

Her smile was the most glimmering he has ever seen and her eyes two pools of turquoise he want to dive in and never remerge shining under the light of the full moon, as hair wavy and black like the night sky rustled around her beautiful features

“What is your name ?”

“Keith Howell… and yours ?”

“I am July.”

“It is such a pretty name it suits you.”

“Thank you.”

her question coming unexpected like a summer storm

“Are you not cold in the water ?” no one ever asked that, no on ever cared enough to ask, her eyes hiding an hint of concern as she stared at him warming his heart

“Thank you for your concern but I am not. The water at night can be surprisingly warm.”

a knowing smile light up her lips as she continued 

“From the morning sun, I thought the ocean was different.”

“Not in this part, here we are protected from the cold and harsher sea currents from the barrier reef, we build it up for that reason.”

“You ?”

“Well my kind.” confusion glimmering in her eyes, he bit his lips nervously while his fingers kept fidgeting with his bracelet

“I did not want to deceive you but … I am not human.” her eyes widened in disbelief, he hold his breath mustering enough courage before facing her again

“I am a merman.” he closed his eyes not to see disgust curling her lips, reopening only at the sound of her voice tickling his ears

“I never met one.” he could not believe it at first so much he had to pinch his hand to see he was not dreaming, for there was nothing but curiosity painted in her glimmering eyes as she got closer to him, unable to look away as she stared in his amber eyes

“Well …I have never met a human either.”

“Me neither.” it was his time to stare at her taken aback by her revelation, swimming closer to her rock

“I am a water nymph, more precisely a nymph of the Ocean.”

“There are others kinds ?”

“Oh yes, some are bonded to lakes while some others to seas.”

“ I did not know that … we have pretty much the same thing, some of our kind thrive in colder water while others do in tropical ones.”

“Interesting.”

The curious stars only witness to their peculiar encounter, first of many others as their heart grow closer each day, he taught her the constellations and all sorts of legends about the stars while she helped him understand the water currents, all the while learning together to take care of the water animals they both loved so much.

It was a warm night, they were admiring the little twinkling stars appear one by one in the sky, melting from afternoon to night in the span of few hours they spend leisurely talking about everything and nothing, until she pointed out at a shooting stars, her eyes glimmering like the full moon as a sun bright smile curled her lips, she turned to face him 

“I never told you that but there is a custom among my people, it is said if you wish upon a shooting star your desire will become true, and if a couple do it they will be together forever.”

“It is really interesting. We shall do it.” she nodded enthusiastically 

“Remember to keep the secret to yourself or it will not become real.” he was used to keep things to himself anyway but to please her he nodded, shooting her a side line glance once the shooting stars come into view, desiring for their wish to match and be turned into reality, how beautiful it would have been if it worked, he sighed softly admiring her gorgeous smile lit up her pretty features, resisting the urge to caress her soft cheeks, unaware of the gaze she stole from time to time to his side, seeing his amber eyes reflecting the brightness of the moon, shining over his curly grey hairs she did her best to resist the temptation to slide her fingers in his soft locks, oblivious to that feeling taking roots in their hearts.

All the creatures of the ocean advised him to not meddle with people outside the water not to love them for their were far more instinctual people than oceanic ones irrational and weirds he should have been away should have despised them even, and yet every time he thought of her he felt something he never had in his chest an indescribable warmth spreading from his heart galloping wildly like a seahorse, countless nights they spend together watching the stars and talking about the usual thing the weather, their worlds ... and themselves, little by little they hearts were caught under the spell of love.

No one approved of it and no one ever would have if the old men and women of their tribes would have not recognized publicly that feeling claiming it unbreakable, forbidding everyone to tear them apart, forcing them to accept their union, and by consequence even the frequent visit they paid to one another, able to disguise their bodies and meet in each other world with the help of a magic seashell ring they gifted one another.

She was a water nymph.

He was a merman.

They should have never met but they did, two worlds believed irreconciliable were now allies able to forget their quarrels in honor of a prosperous peace for their kinds.

Their feeling was unusual, they were frowned upon by everyone and yet after seeing the everlasting happiness their love brought them both, changed minds and hearts of the more rebels people among their kinds, all that give immense entertainments of the asters and all the star peeking curiously at them hiding behind the clouds as the tales of a forbidden love turned reality were the talk of the animal proof and evidence that there was no breaking the most powerful magic of them all enrapturing people since the beginning of the universe for mighty and deep was the spell of love.

[borzoifeet]

The Prosaic Mermaid hunt via aggressive mimicry. The bottom of their lower jaw evolved to resemble a humanoid face and chest. Their vocal tract resemble humans but carry much farther. Unlike other Mermaid species, their calls do not hypnotize compliance to humans who hear it. The Prosaic Mermaid will simply pretend to be a human in trouble, usually drowning. Younger Prosaic Mermaids sometimes give themselves away by echoing the wrong phrases to attract help.

Some say that the bottom of their lower jaw carries the face of a past life that drowned in the sea.

[celinolesunshine]

Once At Sea

A SUN/MOON X GN!READER FANFIC

CHAPTER ONE: rumours of the sun

chap. 1 ||

~~~~~~~~~~

FOR THIS FIC! THIS IS A BLIND!SUN/MOON MERMAY AU. this was created to celebrate Mermay, and I couldn't help myself. But in this AU, Sun is blind, Moon is not, and they are two separate fishies!

~~~~~~~~~~

Collection Day happened every month. The tales of the Sunfish were spread every day. People talked big, skinned their fish, and went on with their life.

Blinkshore was never anything more than a dinky old town with an even older sense of fairytale-telling. That was, until June's Collection Day.

Until a fish the size of a car appeared in one of the collection nets. It wasn't the Sunfish- the Sunfish found you. Came looking for you. So.. who was the beautiful creature back in that boat?

It was the Sunfish's friend. Sun only wanted his friend back. He wanted his eyes back.

And you wanted to get him and his shark-boy-fish-friend out of there so you could go back to a normal life as a complete nobody.

But you got, say.. reeled in.

Some things you just can't get back. And after a while, you realized that your heart may be one of those precious few things.

~~~~~~~~~~

Today is Collection Day. Today marks the countdown to the summer solstice.

But today is a little more exciting- something's been found.

rumours of the sun

--

It was a tale you had heard over the dinner table.

Just a garden-variety fairy tale that adults told children before bedtime. To keep them away from shore. To protect them from the riptides lurking just below the surface of the waters in your ocean-side town.

But even boardwalk towns’ little fairytales had elements of truth.

You had heard whispers of creatures living beneath the silky green waters of your hometown. More commonly, a creature– the fish that would glow like the sun. 

It had been rumored to only have been spotted at dawn, right when fishermen would depart on their boats for the day. It could have been a regular fish; some rumored it was half-human, even. But you had no reason to believe them at all. It was all a silly tale. 

Right?

Well, now you weren’t so sure. 

Why? You were standing on your rooftop ledge sticking out from your bedroom window, and you could see the water glowing. Even better? Something was slinking out onto the riverbank.

–

FOUR HOURS BEFOREHAND

–

“Hey, starfish! Get your butt down here!”

It was your childhood friend and cohort-in-arms, Nina Wellaby. You had attended most of primary school together, and while the both of you had moved past schooling age, you still spent most of your summers together. Nina had debated moving out of Blinkshore, into the city (Trundahm City was foul. Too much air pollution and not enough open space), but she couldn’t bring herself to part from their hometown. 

You scrambled to get out of bed, whisking your fish-printed duvet off of your body in record time. Shit. 

Today was collection day.

Throwing on a vaguely not-soiled t-shirt over your head and pulling on your trademarked cutoff shorts – you were truly the pinnacle of trendy boardwalk fashion – and slamming your feet into some old tennis shoes, you let your door swing open with a loud crash as you stomped down your stairs so fast you could have given the banister whiplash. 

You were now face-to-face to Nina. Well, best as you could be- Nina was much taller than you to begin with.

A feud that had never ended through all of your years knowing each other. 

“I’m here, I’m here. God, are we late?” You internally crossed your fingers that you weren’t. Much as you dreaded Collection Day, you couldn't afford to be late at the hands of your boss, Mr. Agupta. He was a gruff, taut old man, and you knew he was kind, you just.. didn't feel like taking his sideways glances the entire day.

Nina shook her head. “Nah, we’re not late. I just needed to make sure you were gonna get your happy little ass out of bed before dawn. You knew today was Collection Day, and yet..” 

You groaned. “I know. Let’s just- let’s just get going. No point in leaving Mr. Agupta waiting on us.” With an approving nod from Nina, you both left your house. The air was chilly for a June morning on the coast, and condensation from the previous night’s rain clung to your skin. You shuddered as you stepped out into the pre-dawn atmosphere.

Collection day was one of the most important events in Blinkshore. Everyone was necessary to carry out the feat of collecting all of the fish from the month’s catches; This month was particularly important, because this Collection Day marked the countdown to the summer solstice, a special holiday in Blinkshore’s community. 

The fish from each month’s catches needed to be counted, sorted, and skinned in preparation for its departure into Trundahm City, where the county would donate funds and supplies to the town in exchange for the fish. It was a bone-crushing, detrimental monthly task, but as you began to enter the town square, you could feel the crowd buzzing with excitement.

The summer solstice brought great abundance and joy, and, or course- the hope of seeing the Sunfish.

A glowing fish that showed itself at dawn and only appeared during the week of the summer solstice. It was said to bring great happiness and fortune on whomever saw it.

Stupid people with their stupid fairytales.

As you approached the docks, you spotted Mr. Agupta in the crowd. It was easy, really, since he was kicked back in a rocker near his squat, modest little boat. The poor thing was full to the brim with silvery white fish in nets, lobster in iced containers, and crabs in metal cages. Something about seeing these helpless slivers of marine life made your stomach pang, but you knew you had to muscle up. 

It’s for Collection Day. It’s also for the food we eat. 

Just twelve more hours and you could be done with it. 

Sighing, you pulled on a pair of latex gloves, giving your boss warm regards. “Good morning, Mr. Agupta! How were the waters last night?” 

His gruff shrug told you everything you needed to know. Being a mostly unspoken man, it didn’t take you too long to decipher his little grunts and noises. He was content. For now.

– 

The longer you sat in Mr. Agupta’s grimy little boat, the sicker you felt yourself become. You hated chopping fish heads. You thought that fish teeth were cool as hell (which was why you pocketed a few of the heads to pull the teeth out of later), but you hated having to watch the light die out of these helpless being’s eyes as you sliced their necks clean off with the brand-new butcher knife Mr. Agupta had managed to afford in the city markets from last month’s wage dishouts. 

“Gross. I’ve never liked crabs, starfish, but this really solidifies it for me.” Nina was waving a sad little crab around in the air before plunking it into a dish of boiling-hot water. 

At least it died quickly.

“Yeah.” You didn’t care. You wanted off this boat. 

The smell alone was enough to kill your resolve. The putrid aroma of dead sea life combined with the sweat from all of the other collective workers on various boats and tables strung out across the West Docks made you want to puke. Not that indulging in mass animal homicide didn’t make your stomach sour in the first place. 

Then, as if your prayers had been magically answered, a scream erupted from the crowd.

The sound was a shrill, ear-splitting cry that would make even the heartiest of men convulse, but to you, it was music.

A way out. 

“What is that thing?! Someone, come help me!” The voice said. The crowd began to flock around a frail little boat named the Old Marhta. It was small, rickety, and looked as if it had been handmade around twenty-something years ago. Paint was peeling off in thick strips along the hull, and cracks laced around the edge of the once-lacquered wooden surface. 

The Old Marhta wasn’t the subject of disgust, however; it was what lay inside it that garnered far more attention. 

It was a giant fish. 

It was really more like a Shark. Fish. Boy. 

Boy..?

The thing laying inside of that old boat could not be a boy. It could be a girl.. No. That thing wasn’t human, whatever it was.

“It’s grotesque! What is it?” someone from the crowd jeered. They weren’t important.

It was far from grotesque, you knew that much. The length of its entire body was a striking navy colour, and splotches of yellow as bright as sweetcorn adorned its tail. It definitely seemed as if it had a human boy’s torso, but it was a lighter, softer blue than its tail. Two spots of navy spread across its chest, and two fleshy fin pieces flexed on their neck. 

Its face was obscured from view, but a mass on the top of its head with more yellow splotches informed you it was another fin, based on the tail. The entire thing was encased in a thin mesh netting, and it looked as if it had given up all hope in struggling. 

But then you looked a little closer. 

Its neck flaps were twitching. It couldn’t breathe. 

Panicked, you went into full fight-or-flight mode. “Out of the way!” you shouted, opting for the more violent path of shoving your way through the crowd and into the boat. 

People scoffed and laughed and pointed at you, but this wasn’t the time to care. You had to save this beautiful creature, damnit, and if you were going to see the last of your days here on these docks, you were going to make damn well sure it was doing something more productive than killing fish for twelve hours straight. 

As you began to tear away at the netting encasing it, you felt people try and pull you away from the boat’s edge, pulling at your clothes, your hair, your skin– 

“What are you doing?!” “-It’s hideous, stop that!” “-enough, out of the boat!” “-away from that.. Terrible thing!” The chorus of people shouting at you was a booming cacophony in your ears. 

“Stop it, stop it! Can’t you see it’s hurt?! It can’t breathe, for god’s sakes!” You cried. 

The netting wasn’t tearing. You were going to fail. To let it die, and it would be all your fault–

A strong pair of arms seized you. “Enough, nuorukainen.” It was Mr. Agupta, who lifted you off of the boat. A bit of the netting was still wrapped around your finger, and it sliced into the pad of your thumb as you were pulled back onto solid ground. Hissing and screeching all the while, you thrashed wildly in his arms, tears stinging in your eyes as he finally let you down. 

You whirled around to face him, painfully aware of the entity laying deathy still inside of the Old Marhta. “Are you just going to let it die?!” Mr. Agupta shook his head, the grey of his beard glinting off of the morning sun peeking over the horizon. He adjusted his yellow fisher’s hat- a wide-brimmed thing, like what you would see out of a safari tour-, patting you on the shoulder. 

“It’s best if 'ye leave now, nuorukainen, while it’s still pardonable.” The look of betrayal on your face couldn’t have come faster.  

“What?! You’re just going to let that poor, beautiful creature die all alone like that? Can’t you tell how miserable it would be if it were one of us in that position?!” 

“ENOUGH! You will leave these docks right now, and if ‘yer a decent enough young one, you’ll not show ‘yer face ‘round here again, y’hear me?” 

Breath running heavy and ragged, you sob and presume what you hope is a relatively straight face. “Yes, sir.” 

You spotted Nina's face in the crowd. Her face mirrored her father's- one of pity and disgust. It hurt to see that sort of expression upon her face at the thought of saving a helpless, innocent thing, but you looked away from her piercing amber eyes. You couldn't care less of her opinion of you right now.

You made for the dock’s exit- a creaky set of stairs leading down to the square, and as soon as you did, you fucking booked it. 

As you tore across the square and back to your flat, the wind whipping you half a dozen different ways as the early morning sun warmed your skin. It would have been a pleasant sprint, all things considered, but you had just lost your job and your reputation in your tiny little hometown, so no. It was less than ideal.

Slamming the screen door behind you as you flew up your front porch steps, you ran up to your room, ready to collapse onto the floor. But the space blocked you in, and, suddenly claustrophobic, you wrenched open your creaky wooden window, stumbling out and onto the roof. It was a small overhang below the actual roof a few feet above you, and really shouldn’t be climbed on, but you didn’t give half of a fuck.

You wondered what would become of that fish in the Old Marhta. You knew that it was inevitable that it would die, suffocated and alone at the hands of merciless, judgemental fisherman, but you couldn’t help but daydream the reality where it could possibly be let back out to sea. 

Blinking back another set of fresh, warm tears, you noticed the glow from the shore. You lived close by the ocean’s shore, just a stone’s throw away from the arcing sand dunes that protected most of Blinkshore from the terrible late-summer storms. A small outcropping of rocks was what made up your “backyard”– large boulders eroded from decades of being in the saltwater, catching the waves of the sea in a little alcove. 

Something was glowing from the shore; you were sure of it. Squinting your eyes just to see it, you attempted to make it out. 

Ah- there! Something long and golden slithered out from beneath the gently lapping waves of the nook your backyard boulders had created. 

Could it really be true? 

Had you just found the Sunfish?

[janshu]

In The Shallows...Part One.

Summary: @hanji-is-life more merman!Bakugo and so I shall provide! I was hoping to get this out much earlier, back in may because MerMay but better late than never I suppose! You, a marine biologist, take a scuba dive to see the local fauna off coast and you find more than you ever could've bargained for...

Word Count: 1.5.

Warnings: None but minor curses, mentions of the ocean, an illusion of drowning. Viewer discretion is advised at least.

How did you manage this?

You hadn't walked on the beach, much less roll around in the coarse substance. So how did it manage to get into your pockets? This was a new jacket so how?

A short walk from the parking garage to the pier was all it was, no beach travel involved yet it had wormed its way into your pockets, in between your toes and nearly everywhere else. 

Your team chuckles at your discomfort finding your squirming the funniest thing on the planet as they loaded up the sizable vessel for the day on the water. For the past several weeks you had been cooped up in a lab studying the samples others brought to you but now you were given the green light to head out into the field yourself. Your goal for the day was to gather samples, check on the status of the coral nursery, and a checklist of other menial tasks. A full plate all things considered, much better than getting a migraine staring through a microscope at sea water until you either give up or get sent home. 

Waves battered against the hull of the boat while you and your fellow colleagues suit up in scuba gear. The goal wasn't to go to the bottom of the ocean, far from it, fifteen meters was the maximum for today so simple snorkeling hear wouldn't cut it. You didn't get your diving certifications to be stuck in a lab. The salt spray refreshing against your skin for the few seconds it was vulnerable while you changed from your outfit into the designated wetsuit. Not the full suit that covered your body from head-to-toe, just a body one to keep your core warm when your swimsuit didn't offer much protection.

The boat came to a stop right around where the GPS locator dinged where the nursery site was and the captain gave everyone a thumbs up as you and your fellows attached their fins, tanks, SPG's and all the other necessary equipment. One-by-one each of them held their regulators to their mouths and fell back into the blue ocean below until it was your own, to which you received a wink instead while everything turned upside down.

Ten, twenty, thirty, a hundred. Regardless of how many dives you've had you'll never get over the beauty of the reefs. Each time serving something new, change was ever present in your line of work. Never seeing the same specimens twice to witnessing a rare species and everything in between. The sunshine overhead casting glittering ripples on the sandy floor, catching your eye on the schools of fish that swam by as their scales gleamed in different patterns. This was the closest feeling you had ever come to your childhood dream of becoming a mermaid. When you wished on your birthday candles and shooting stars to holding your breath underneath tub water in hopes gills would magically appear. That's what started this career. Maybe it was a long forgotten portion of your evolved brain from life's time in the ocean but you felt at home, a familiar sense of belonging that you didn't have on dry land. This was where you were meant to be but sadly your wishes had never come true and you were cursed to remain a land-dwelling mammal.

The beeping in your ears ripped you from your fantastical daydreams to remind you of the harsh reality. This is as close as you were going to get but that wasn't so bad, it was better having a little than nothing at all. Looking at the gauge meter it showed that you have roughly an hour left of oxygen which meant you had been in the water for an hour already. How time flies when you're having fun, absorbed in your daydreams, and checking on coral and taking samples.

"Hey, could we switch our tanks out without getting oxygen narcosis or are we screwed in that department?" Your voice came over the radio built in the full face masks everyone in the diving team used no doubt scaring those who were lost in thought as you just were. 

"Y/N...do you really want to stay out here longer? Shitting Christ, you should be glad you're out here in the first place!" The captain's voice responded from the safety of the boat. "Now get your asses back up here n' we'll head on ba-...what was that?"

"What was what?" 

A chorus of responses chimed in immediately after, some crackling from the distance they were from the source and others sounding as if they were a foot away.

"Nothing, never mind, must've been a Manta Ray. Forget about it. Just get your shit and come back, I'm gettin' hungry and its close to lunchtime so hurry up." The static cut off as he put down the radio and looked out into the churning ocean. The massive shadow he had just seen passing by the boat putting him on alert, he didn't want to witness any reef shark's feeding frenzy.

"We can come back tomorrow, Y/N. Nothing's stopping us from that, right?" Another voice, one of your favorite colleagues suggested. That was right, you were there and your boss hadn't explicitly said that this was a one time thing. Another visit would do some good to see if the biometrics have changed in a span of twenty-four hours.

"Alright, okay, we'll come back later for a differential test."

The group had a collective sigh of relief. You were notorious for loving the ocean to such a degree you'd do anything to stay in a while longer, they were all content with leaving now and coming back later if it meant they wouldn't see your sad pouting all the way back to the van. Picking up their equipment and vials everyone began swimming back to the boat now most of them making small talk and discussing their plans for the weekend while you were once again lost in your thoughts.

Something impossibly dark darted through your vision. Blocking out the beautiful view of the turquoise water and colorful life like an angry, ominous storm cloud. A blanket of blindness shrouding all light for a moment but it felt like an eternity as dread sunk in the pit of your stomach, anchoring you to the spot. The warm water now felt cold, goosebumps running up your bare arms and thighs like pinpricks. The heart that had been so calm in the home of your ribcage now pushing adrenaline through your bloodstream, adjusting to a state you weren't acting on. Fear. That wasn't a Manta Ray or a comically large Stingray that was something else entirely. A predator that crashed against the fragile cage of safety, security and believing you were untouchable in shallow depths.

You were reminded of the psychologically scarring and irrational fear of one's ankles being grabbed particularly in the ocean by a shark, the part of your lizard brain firing signals all across your synapses to detach the leg. If only. A fair trade, being left alone at the price of a limb but unfortunately humans couldn't detach or regrow whatever they lost.

That fear was horrifically evoked when something far more firm than a limp leaf of seaweed wrapped around your ankle. Slimey, cold as death and tipped with five sharp points. Reminiscent of a hand, a very large hand. Expanding across your bare skin like a calloused cuff that threatened to break the skin, sink into the meat and tear your foot off entirely. However, that didn't seem to be happening. No cloud of your own blood instead the safety of the boat got further and further away, turning into a speck barely seen in the shallow water.

"Wait, wait no! What the fuck?! Let go! What the hell?" When your brain managed to get over its fear and shock of the situation your fight-or-flight instincts kicked into high gear and your body began to thrash around against the hold. If it was a shark hitting it in the snout and eyes was imperative to get it to release but what if it wasn't? What else could possibly have your leg in its grip with a goal of pulling you away from the boat?

A flurry of indistinguishable voices and noises came over the radio. From yelps, screams and to curses but the thudding in your ears and the furious splashes drowned them all out, everything became topsy turvy, what was the bottom of the ocean and what was the surface became an abstract concept. The primal urge to escape was ripped away when the respirator giving you oxygen was unceremoniously and harshly ripped from your mouth, the hand that had done it orange and black. The water was salty, like you had dumped an entire container of table salt into your mouth and you washed it down with a sip of water. It was invasive, slipping down your throat into your lungs as they tried to gulp air instead. The more you inhaled the harder it was to move. Your limbs becoming as heavy as cement bricks. Unconsciousness began to consume everything, your body down to your mind. The eerie sensation of falling was the last thing before everything faded to black...

[carlatsukinamistolemyhamsandwich]

Siren’s Call (Siren!Shin x Reader One Shot)

It’s two months late but my Mermay one shot is finally here! Apologies for how long it took but this one shot is over 12k words so I hope that makes up for it!

Quick warning: this one starts out a little dark although it’s nothing worse than anything you’d get in the games.

Potential triggers include: choking, discussion of drowning, discussion of consumption of human flesh, magical compulsion, very mild body modification and just generally Shin being kind of awful. If anyone needs me to add any other warnings then please let me know!

You didn’t think the phrase ‘sleepy seaside town’ had ever fit anywhere quite as well as it did your hometown. Even calling it a town seemed like a bit of a stretch, with its single row of shops and lone pub that could house around half of the local population, and usually did so on Sunday afternoons. It was the sort of place where everyone knew everyone else and most of the housing consisted of little thatched cottages with pretty white window boxes.

And then there were the folktales. For as long as you could remember, you’d heard stories of mermaids and mermen that swam in the waters by your home. Some were like fairy tales, stories of the merfolk saving sailors from shipwrecks or granting a wish in exchange for a single human tear. Others were considerably darker, mainly accounts of people upsetting the mers and getting drowned for their troubles.

The elderly woman who lived next door to you swore up and down that her once-fiancé had left her after being seduced by a mermaid and the rest of the townsfolk all had similar stories. 

You, on the other hand, knew it was all nonsense. Even in a place as rural as your hometown, if merpeople were real, then someone would have found some evidence by now and the stories would be plastered all over the internet. No, these folktales were the product of a town full of people with nothing better to do than gossip and make up stories and the sooner you’d saved up enough money to move to the city, the better. 

Still, there were one or two benefits to living here, namely the lagoon. It was nestled in a rocky part of the coast that bordered the small wood next to the town. The lagoon was grand enough that it might have had a proper name at one point or another, but it had long since been forgotten and no one had any interest in trying to uncover it, perhaps because no one else in the town was willing to go near the place.

As you stretched out on a cluster of rocks jutting up in the middle of the pool, limbs tired from your late night swim, you couldn’t believe anyone let some old legend keep them away from somewhere like this. You’d never heard the specifics of the tale, but it was a common belief that the place was cursed or haunted or something of the like. Absolute nonsense.

The lagoon had served as your private swimming spot for years, an escape from the boring lull of the town. It was beautiful in the day with calm shimmering blue water, shielded from the majority of the wind by the large rocks cutting it off from the rest of the ocean. But at night, when the water formed a perfect mirror of the night sky, a deep inky black speckled with stars, it was magnificent. 

You leaned back to admire the sky itself when your hand slipped on the sharp surface of the rocks and a flash of pain ran across your palm.

Letting out a sharp curse, you lifted your hand and squinted to try and make out the damage with only the moonlight to guide you. A dark stain had blossomed in the centre of your palm and was slowly starting to spread across your skin, painted silver in the dim light. 

Damn. It wasn’t like there was any risk of you bleeding out but it did seem deep enough that leaving it untreated probably wasn’t a good idea. You angled yourself towards the shoreline where you’d left your belongings, trying not to wince as blood continued to ooze out of your palm and dripped down onto the rocks before running into the dark depths of the lagoon. It wasn’t too much of a swim back to land but that didn’t mean you were looking forward to it when you knew the salt water would sting your palm the entire way. 

As you geared yourself up for the pain, something in the corner of your eye caught your attention. It was nothing really, just a faint flicker of movement at the edge of your vision. Still, you glanced towards it, more out of instinct than conscious decision. 

It was probably just a trick of the moonlight but- had that rock always been there? You couldn’t make it out very well but across the pool, something pale was sticking slightly out of the water. It had to just be a rock, there were plenty jutting out of the surface at the borders of the lagoon, but something about the shape seemed off and you could have sworn it wasn’t there earlier when you were admiring the view.

You blinked, but upon opening your eyes again the shape was gone, leaving a faintly rippling black surface. Unease started to curl around your gut. 

“Hello?” you called out hesitantly. There was no response, just the faint sound of a breeze sending tree leaves rustling. Leaning over the edge of the rocks, you stared out over the water, searching for anything that seemed out of place. A minute passed but nothing caught your eye, no flickers of movement or strange shapes. Maybe you were just tired, you really should start to head home.

Suddenly, a pale hand shot from the inky black surface and seized hold of your wrist. You screamed, attempts to pull your arm back halted by an iron grip. 

If anything, the hold on you only tightened in response to your struggles, several sharp somethings piercing the fragile skin of your forearm. All but whimpering, you sat motionless for a moment as you stared in horror at the slender fingers wrapped around your wrist, brain struggling to process the dark, wickedly sharp claws attached to them. This couldn’t be real, some part of you tried to reason as warm blood began to trickle down your hand. Whatever had grabbed hold of you could not possibly exist.

But that didn’t stop it from pulling you into the water with a single hard yank. Your face hit the surface before you even had a chance to hold your breath, limbs scraping against the sharp planes of the rocks as you were dragged fully underwater. The feeling of cold liquid against your skin seemed to knock you from whatever stupor you’d fallen into and you started to struggle, frantically trying to free yourself and get back to the surface.

It was too dark for you to see the thing holding you underwater but you felt something scaly brush past your legs as you thrashed around and your hand struck something firm.

Just when you thought your lungs might burst, the hold on your wrist vanished and without a second of hesitation you surged towards where you thought the surface might be. You didn’t know if whatever was in the lagoon with you had been put off by your struggles, but you did know that you needed air. NOW.

After a few terrifying heartbeats of praying that you were swimming in the right direction, your head broke the surface and you took in deep gulping breaths. Blinking the water from your eyes, you realised that the creature must have dragged you to the centre of the lagoon, the shoreline now a decent stretch across the open water. On a good day, it wouldn’t take you that long to cross the distance but now, bleeding, tired and trembling with fear, it seemed like a much greater challenge. And that was without considering the fact that something might be chasing you. 

You stared into the water as you kept yourself afloat, looking for any sign that the thing lurking beneath the surface might be nearby. A few tense seconds passed by as you waited, too anxious to start to swim to shore for fear that the creature would surface as soon as your attention moved elsewhere. But there was no sign of any movement except the rippling reflections of the stars.

And then you felt a set of claws trail down your leg. It clearly wasn’t intended to injure, closer to a lover’s caress than anything else and yet that didn’t stop your heart from leaping into your throat. Whatever was in the water with you could drag you down easily enough and it clearly hadn’t lost interest either. No, as cold dread filled your veins, you had a certain feeling that it was toying with you. 

Scales brushed past your feet and you could almost hear it urging you. 

Run. Go on and run. Run so I can chase you.

That same, awful set of claws traced across your skin again, more insistent this time, following the curve of your spine and you choked back a sob in panic and terror. The shore looked so peaceful and far away and as much as some part of you screamed to try and get to safety a larger part was afraid of what it would mean to be chased. To be hunted. 

Sharp stings of pain flashed across your abdomen as the creature struck again, clearly starting to lose its patience. So were you. You weren’t going to give this thing what it wanted. Using all of the willpower you could muster to make yourself move, you powered your fist down into the water in front of you and struck something hard. The texture was strange too, while every other part of the creature had felt scaly or like skin, this felt more like… hair?

For a beat everything was still, even the water seemed to stop rippling, and then an arm surged from directly in front of you, a clawed hand wrapping around your throat. The grip wasn’t tight enough to cut off your airway but you panicked and grabbed at it regardless. Something else started to rise out of the water, and you froze as you found yourself looking into a face that was almost human.

It was hard to make out any colours in the silvery light of the moon, but you could tell that its skin was pale, save for some dark scales scattered across its cheekbones, leading into two fin-like structures where its ears should be. A single pale eye glared at you with a heavy intensity while the other eyelid remained shut and sunken slightly. Its facial structure was striking, and you might have even called the thing beautiful were it not for the many sharp, pointed teeth you could see glinting in it’s mouth. 

“You must think very highly of yourself, human, to try striking me.” The voice sounded male and human enough but there was a slight musical quality to it that made you feel like you could get lost in the sound of it.

“Wh-what the hell are you?” you stammered out, nails digging into the creature’s skin as you tried to pull its hand from your throat.

The thing tilted its head slightly, examining you. “Has it really been so long since we were sealed away that you humans have forgotten to be afraid of us or are you just stupid?” 

Eyes tracking over the scales on its cheekbones, you could feel your worldview crumbling. You didn’t want to believe that there was any truth in the tales you’d spent almost all of your life dismissing but evidence to the contrary was staring you right in the face, its claws digging into your flesh.

“You can’t be… one of the merfolk.” The words sounded hollow as they left your lips. The merfolk in the stories could be dangerous but they were never described as terrifying, not like the creature in front of you.

Its lips screwed up in disgust, “I guess you really are an idiot if you can mistake me for Karlheinz’s lot.” The grip on your throat tightened and you started to find it difficult to breathe. The creature moved its face closer to yours until you could feel its cold and clammy breath against your skin. “Listen well human, I am a siren, one of the old kings of the sea and if you mistake me for one of those pathetic mer a second time then-” you felt its claws break through the skin of your neck “-you won’t like what happens.” 

“Please,” you choked out, “let go, I’m sorry.”

“Hmph, you don’t look very sorry, although that terrified expression isn’t too bad.” It grinned in a way that showed off its teeth and you tried not to think about what it might need them to be that sharp for. 

The fingers on your neck loosened their hold slightly. “Why don’t you show me how sorry you are for insulting me like that?”

“What do you mean?” Dread settled into your veins as you looked at the malice gleaming in the creature’s eye. 

“Hm… How about you let me bite your lips off? It wouldn’t take much with these,” it ran its tongue over its teeth. “It’s been a long time since I’ve tasted human flesh.”

You started to tremble at the horrific implications of what the thing had just said and from the way the corner of its mouth quirked up, it could feel it.

“Ah, are you afraid that it’ll ruin your looks? It’s not like you’re that attractive as you are so I don’t think you have much to worry about there, although if that’s no good,” it grabbed hold of one of your hands and brought it up to its mouth, “how about a finger or two?”

Tears burned hot trails down your cheeks as you gave up trying to hold yourself together; the thought of what it would feel like as those pointed teeth buried themselves in your flesh was far too much for you to cope with. 

“No, please no. Please just stop and let me go,” you begged. It let out a cruel laugh and you felt any remaining hope that you could get out of this shrivel up and die.

“That’s the sort of miserable expression I wanted to see. How does it feel, having to beg? Ah, but I guess it’s kind of pointless isn’t it?” Its hand released your throat, just as another wrapped around your waist, pulling you into a firm male torso. Pressed against the creature you could feel the point where its human features transitioned into a long, scaly tail that sliced gracefully through the water, keeping the pair of you afloat.

“I don’t need your permission.” You were so close you could feel its voice reverberate through its chest as goosebumps crept up your spine. The creature moved its head and spoke its next words right into your ear, “after all, it’s not like you can do anything to stop me from just taking what I want.”

Before you could even fully process the words, the thing lowered its head and you felt its teeth sink into your flesh, right at the juncture where your neck met your shoulders. You screamed, the pain hot and agonising, the creature’s grip like iron as you futilely tried to shove it away from you. Neck and shoulder burning, you wondered if this was how you died, devoured by the awful thing that lived in the lagoon, your fate a mystery to the rest of a naïve world.

You waited for the creature to bite down further, to tear out a chunk of you but instead its teeth stayed embedded in you and you could feel every single sharp point piercing through your skin. Black spots started to swim in front of your vision by the time its teeth finally slid out of you, a cold tongue running over the wound as it pulled away. Fighting to stay conscious, you feebly tried to shove the creature away from you as it licked the dark stain of your blood from its lips. 

“Hah, it’s been so long I’d forgotten just how soft humans are,” it said, a sick grin on its face. “ Hey, do you really think it’s a good idea for you to keep struggling? Do you even have enough strength left to swim on your own?” The arm around your waist loosened a little and you realised with a sense of horror that it had a point. The wounds across your arm, stomach and now neck stung as the saltwater of the lagoon lapped against them and your limbs felt heavy and cold. 

Seeing the doubt on your features the creature continued. “You know, drowning humans make some of the best prey. You can watch the fight slowly drain out of them as they run out of air and then when you take the first bite, you get to see the expression on their faces when they realise they don’t even have enough left in them to scream. I wonder, what sort of expression would you make then?”

“Stop, just stop,” you sobbed, “please, I don’t want to die.”

“Is that so? Hm, maybe if you beg hard enough I’ll decide not to kill you, but it had better be good.” Its mouth was still curved in that wicked grin and you got the feeling that the creature viewed this as just some awful game. 

“Pl-please,” you tried again, trying to get enough air in between sobs, “please don’t kill me.” Your voice sounded pathetic even to your own ears but there was nothing else you could do. It continued to watch you as you pleaded desperately, repeating the same words over and over again. 

Eventually a claw-tipped thumb pressed against your lips, halting the pleas spilling from your mouth. 

“I tell you what human, if you can make it to shoreline from here, I’ll let you go, I won’t even chase you. But if you can’t then… Well, I can do whatever I like to you. What do you think? You’re lucky I’m feeling so generous.”  The look it gave you was so smug you almost wanted to try to slap it off its face, consequences be damned. Almost. Instead you gave a feeble nod, willing your body to have enough energy left to make that desperate dash to the shore.

“Ah, that’s not a very good attitude when someone’s doing you a favour, but then again do you even have it in you to do anything more than meekly nod your head like that?” The arm around you slipped away and the creature started to sink into the water. “Go on, swim like your life depends on it.” Its smile disappeared into the inky black and as the trees rustled upon the light breeze, it was almost like the lagoon had returned to the peaceful paradise you’d always thought it to be. Or at least it would be, were it not for the throbbing wound at the base of your neck. 

You blinked the tears out of your eyes and forced yourself to start swimming. It wasn’t easy, nor was it pleasant, your injuries stung like hell and the feeling of mocking eyes at your back followed you the entire time. About two thirds of the way to shore, you were convinced your limbs couldn’t take anymore but you fought through it, fear of what would happen if you didn’t the sole thing driving you forwards. 

By the time you made it to the point where your feet could touch the bottom, you almost wept with relief. Somehow, you managed to make it to shore, even though you ended up crawling the last stretch on your hands and knees, body on the verge of giving out. 

Collapsing onto the gravel that made up the shore, you couldn’t bring yourself to care about the sharp rocks pressing into you, instead just grateful that they weren’t claws. Or teeth. 

Through your blurry vision you could just about make out something rising out of the water several metres away from you.

“Hah what a pitiful state. Still, not bad human. But I wonder, just how long do you think you can stay safe for?” You were too tired to feel any sort of horror at that statement. If the creature could climb onto land, you’d had it and you knew it was too much to hope for that it would honour its bargain with you. For a moment, you watched and waited for it to come after you, wondering if you had enough strength left to throw a handful of gravel at it before it could reach you. However the creature made no effort to move. No, it just started to sing. 

The sound was the most wonderful thing you’d ever heard. It was as though up until now you had only listened to a cheap imitation of music, a mere fraction of the true majesty of the real thing. You lost all awareness of your surroundings, the song in your ears the only thing that mattered. The next moment, an awful pain shot through your neck and you found yourself blinking hard, trying to process what was happening. 

The creature was much closer than it should have been and cold water lapped against your shins. You had no memory of standing, let alone of starting to walk back into the water. A new kind of horror ran through you as the creature paused it’s song to offer you a wicked flash of its teeth before resuming its singing. This time you could feel the melody threatening to drag you under, your body desiring nothing more than to pursue the source of that glorious sound. 

You slammed a hand against the wound on your neck, the pain was agonising but it was the only tether you had to sanity. This thing was the one that had done this to you, you did not want to go to it. Staggering, you turned and fled in the opposite direction, towards the wood bordering the shore. The singing grew louder and you pressed your other hand over your ear, trying to drown out the sound. 

Just past the first line of trees your legs finally gave out and you were unconscious before you even hit the ground; the song of the siren the last thing you were aware of as your consciousness faded into oblivion.

You weren’t sure how long you were out there, sprawled in the woods, but when you finally came to, it was to the sun just peaking over the horizon and the sweet melody of birdsong. It took a while for you to piece together what had happened, and once you had, a quick glance over your body told you that it hadn’t been a dream. 

Raised, red scratch marks marred the skin of your abdomen and you could clearly see the individual points on your wrist where the creature’s claws had pierced you. Although you couldn’t see the wound on your neck, the faintest touch was enough to make you wince; you could only pray that it wasn’t infected. 

You had to return to the lagoon to get your things before you could go home. In the time it took for you to steel your nerves, the sun had risen high in the sky and when you did finally pluck up enough courage, the water of the lagoon was a shimmering blue, not a trace of the siren to be seen. But that didn’t stop you from borderline running all the way home, swearing never to return.

Perhaps it should have been obvious that your life could not simply go back to normal following an encounter with a creature that was supposed to be a work of fiction, but no one could fault you for effort. 

Once you finally made it back to your house, you’d all but hurtled into the shower and turned the temperature up to near scalding, as though the heat could burn away the memory of cold fingers and scales. After scrubbing every inch of yourself twice over, you shut off the water and turned your attention to your wounds. The disinfectant stung something awful as you cleaned out your injuries, but you soldiered on regardless, treating and dressing each one in turn. 

It was only when you got your first real glance at the wound on your neck that you faltered slightly. It was an unsightly thing, the individual indents of the creature’s teeth painfully obvious, surrounded by red, inflamed skin. You tried not to look at it too much as you dealt with it, hastily covering it with a patch of gauze as soon as you were satisfied that you’d done all you could. In reality it was probably the sort of thing you should see a doctor about, but even in your town, you suspected rambling about sirens to a medical professional would not end well.

And so that was that. Falling back into your regular routine was easy enough, and you made every effort to block out the memories of the creature in the lagoon. If that meant turning on the loudest, most discordant music you could find when echoes of the siren’s melody drifted through your thoughts and scrubbing at your skin when the feeling of phantom claws trailed across it, then that was how it was going to be. You were going to save up enough money to move deep into the city and leave this town and all its legends behind. 

It only took about a week for you to start to realise it might not be that simple. 

You’d sort of expected the nightmares, they’d started the very first night after the ordeal. Awful dreams of being dragged under the water and held down while the creature laughed, a jaw full of sharp teeth the last thing you saw before you inevitably woke up covered in sweat. But they were just that, dreams. Lying in bed, you told yourself over and over again that they couldn’t hurt you. 

Until they started to change.

The dream began much like the others, you were floating in the water of the lagoon, the surface above you dark save for rippling blurry stars. But unlike the nightmares, no hands immediately grabbed for you, nor did wickedly sharp claws slice open your skin. If anything it was peaceful, the water was a cool but comfortable temperature and there was no burning in your lungs that urged you towards the surface. 

Then the singing started.

It was beautiful and even though the voice was unmistakable, it didn’t carry with it the surge of fear that occurred whenever you thought of the siren in your waking moments. You’d have been content to stay like that, enjoying the feeling of the water and the most lovely melody you’d ever heard, but the song was calling for you. How you knew, you couldn’t say, especially given that it was in a language you’d never heard before and didn’t understand, you just felt it. In the same way that the sky was blue and gravity drew you towards the Earth, you knew the voice was calling out to you and you should go to it. No, you needed to go to it. 

Slowly, you started to swim towards the sound, your limbs moving as though you were trying to carve through treacle rather than water. Your hand came into contact with something metallic and you wrapped your fingers around it, the cold of the object biting into your palm.

The next thing you knew, you were standing upright, staring at your bedroom door as you gripped onto the handle. Blinking furiously, you tried to shake off the dazed feeling of waking during the middle of a dream.

Had you been sleepwalking?

The longer you stood there, the more the fog lifted and your confusion was replaced by fear as you recalled your dream. This had to just be another one of your nightmares, there was no way you could hear the voice of the siren in the lagoon from your bedroom, just no way. 

You ran to your bathroom to splash some water on your face, hoping to rid yourself of the last whispers of that compulsion to follow a voice you could no longer hear, but when you caught sight of yourself in the bathroom mirror you paused. The gauze you’d been using to cover the wound on your neck was gone, presumably it’d come off during whatever motions had led you to be standing in front of your bedroom door. The injury had been healing normally enough as you’d kept an eye on it throughout the week, the reddened skin fading into the green and purple hues of bruises and scabs had formed where the siren’s teeth had punctured your skin. 

Yet now as you stared at it, the injury looked almost completely healed, the teeth marks appeared as slightly raised light scars and the bruising was nearly gone. Or at least you thought those were the traces of bruises, but as you stepped closer to the mirror, you realized they didn’t look anything like those that had stained your skin just several hours earlier. Dark blue marks that looked almost like veins traced around the edge of the bitemark, a couple crawling slightly up the side of your neck. 

You ran your fingers over them as you tried to work out what the hell they were. Was it some sort of infection? But then what sort of an infection caused an injury to heal faster? Did the siren have some form of venom? If so, why were you only starting to see signs of it now?

Gripping the sides of the sink, you stared hard at the wound in the mirror. What you were looking for, you couldn't say, but no matter how long you stayed there, the markings remained the same. They didn't start to flow further across your skin but nor did they fade.

When your hands began to ache from holding onto the porcelain too tightly, you knew you'd gain nothing further from simply watching and waiting for something to happen. Truthfully you had no idea what to do, and perhaps it was that that led you back to your bedroom, shutting the door behind you. You could try to research it on the internet but you didn't hold out much hope and you just felt so tired. The continuous nightmares were finally starting to catch up with and all you wanted to do was rest. 

Although that didn't stop you from checking that your bedroom door was locked before you got back into bed.

You awoke from a fitful dreamless sleep several hours later to the sunlight filtering through your curtains, catching dust motes in the air. Forcing yourself out of bed, a quick glance in the mirror confirmed that the events of last night were no dream, those blue markings still sprawled across your skin. At least it didn’t seem any worse. 

A quick internet search while you nursed a hot drink proved as useless as you’d feared it might. As it turned out, looking up images of infections was not a terribly good idea when you already felt nauseous. Your only takeaway was that if it was some sort of infection, then it was likely supernatural in nature and you couldn’t decide if that was better or worse than learning that you had some awful but mundane disease.

Looking up sirens also provided no useful information, just vague myths you’d already heard of as well as things you could now proclaim to be solidly untrue having met an actual siren. It seemed your only hope was either to ignore the problem and hope it didn’t get any worse or try to delicately probe some of the older members of the town, who might know some older local tales that you’d never heard. The thought of actively looking into stories of the supernatural after a lifetime of rejecting them turned your stomach, but it didn’t take long for you to realise sitting idle wasn’t much of an option either.

The next night you had the same dream as before, that incredible song, foreign and familiar at the same time, calling for you as you tried to swim towards it. You awoke just feet away from your front door, bedroom a reasonable distance behind you. It didn’t take long for you to start trembling as the fear set in. 

You knew you’d locked your bedroom door, you’d checked it half a dozen times before you’d gone to sleep, whether to keep yourself in or keep the siren from getting to you, you couldn’t say. Racing back to your bedroom, you spotted the key on your bedside table, exactly where you’d left it, gleaming in the soft moonlight that crept into the room. You flicked the light on before inspecting the lock, squinting a little as your eyes readjusted to the brightness now filling the room. 

Was that water dripping from the keyhole? 

Whatever it was, the metal seemed undamaged, but that didn’t mean you were willing to touch it with your bare hands. Grabbing a tissue, you quickly wiped away the liquid, pausing to sniff it slightly to try and work out what it was. There was no scent to it, no suspicious viscosity or strange colour; it really did just seem like water. 

For some reason that didn’t make it any less sinister.

You had to force yourself to examine the mark on your neck again, too afraid of what you might find for it to be an easy task. Mercifully it didn’t seem to have spread, but the marks looked a little bolder, the dark blue more opaque against your skin, and you could have sworn a couple of the thinner tendrils winding around the imprints of the siren’s teeth hadn’t been there before you’d gone to sleep.

That day you tried gently asking your elderly neighbour if any of the town’s older legends featured sirens. She’d seemed pleased, if a little surprised, that you were finally showing some interest in your town’s history but told you that only the Mers lived in the waters near your home. You did get a long rambling tale about how the King of the Mers’ first wife was so beautiful she stole the heart of every man who laid eyes on her, including that of the King’s own brother, all of which fell on deaf ears as you frantically tried to think of someone who might know more about what was happening to you.

The next night, you awoke on the street outside of your home, the phantom singing of the siren still in your ears as you shook off the last vestiges of the dream. You’d raced back into your home, slamming the door shut behind you before collapsing to the floor. Every time you blinked, the face of the siren flashed before you, his mouth in a grin that showed off too many sharp teeth. What had he done to you? Why was your body drawn to him when in your waking moments you couldn’t stop thinking about the awful things that waited for you in that lagoon? 

It was only several hours later, when you’d finally crawled your way back to your bed after wiping away the mysterious liquid coating the locks on your doors, that it occurred to you to wonder when you’d stopped thinking of the creature as an ‘it’ and started thinking of it as a ‘he’. 

Over the next few days, you tried everything you could think of to confine yourself to your room at night. Tying yourself to your bedframe with an old scarf did nothing to stop you from waking down the road from your home, your wrist noticeably free of any cloth and the cold of the road seeping into the soles of your bare feet. You couldn’t find any trace of the material in your bedroom when you returned either, just a large damp stain on your pillow where it had once been. 

Staying awake to escape the dreams proved not to be an option either, one moment you’d been at your desk, a large coffee in your hand as your tried to fight off sleep, then the sound of the siren’s voice suddenly filled your ears and the next thing you knew you were outside, right at the start of the woodland path to the lagoon. You’d run back home on trembling legs, fear and nausea twisting your gut at the feeling of having control stripped from you, your body being made to feel like that of a puppet. 

You’d tried asking almost every elderly member of the community you knew for information on sirens, only to be told time and time again that only the merfolk lived in the sea near your home. If sirens were real then they likely lived elsewhere, too much competition for them here. The one scrap of information you’d been able to gleam came from the old man who used to own the bookstore. While he hadn’t known anything about sirens, he had told you that his grandfather used to make him swear to stay away from the lagoon, and that the Mer King had sealed something away in there a long time ago, something very old and very dangerous. 

It wasn’t exactly helpful, but at least it meant it was unlikely the siren could leave the lagoon. Not that it mattered when every night you awoke further from home and closer to him.

That night, you finally made the decision to leave town. You didn’t have enough money to move properly, but you could at least stay in a cheap hotel for a couple of days until you could sort out something more long term. Perhaps the siren’s voice could only reach so far. And if not, well, at least being far away from the lagoon would buy you a lot more time. It wouldn’t be easy, to uproot your life so suddenly, but you couldn’t stop thinking about the day when you would awake from your dream with the siren’s teeth around your neck. 

The next bus to the city wouldn’t come until morning, so you resigned yourself to another night of being drawn to the siren's call and could only pray it wouldn’t be the end of you. 

You awoke in the woods this time, fortunately still out of sight of the lagoon. All willing, this should be the furthest you would ever get to going back there. As you started to turn around to begin trudging back home, pain burst from the mark on your neck and you cursed, stumbling as it felt like hot iron poker was being driven into your skin. Somehow worse than the pain though was the itch. Tears burned your eyes as you sank to your knees, fingernails biting into your palms as you fought against that unbearable urge to scratch at the skin until there was nothing left of it. 

How long it lasted for you couldn’t say, only that it was long enough for you to have bitten through your lip as you tried not to scream, a copper tang coating your tongue. The pain did fade eventually, and you spent several moments on the floor, panting, before you dared to touch the mark on your neck.

The skin felt strangely cool considering how brightly it had burned just moments earlier, but it was the texture that really caught your attention. Patches of it felt oddly smooth, almost like-

You were sprinting back home before you could even finish the thought. No, it couldn’t be. 

And yet as you charged into your bathroom and flicked on the light, a single glance in the mirror was enough to confirm your fears. Dark blue scales were scattered unevenly around the mark at your neck. They looked almost iridescent in the brightness of your bathroom and you might have thought they were pretty if not for the fact they were literally growing out of you. 

Experimentally you tried tugging on one to see if it would come off easily. It didn’t, instead it just hurt as the motion pulled on the patch of skin it was connected to. It wasn’t long before you were dry heaving into the toilet, a hand periodically straying to the base of your throat to check that this wasn’t just one awful long nightmare. 

Every time the scales were still there.

You couldn’t just leave town, not if you were going to start sprouting more scales or worse. How long would it be before someone spotted them and you were labelled as a freak of nature, doomed to be studied in a lab for the rest of your life? More than that, you couldn’t cope with the uncertainty anymore, the fear of not knowing what was happening to your body. You had to find out, even if the one being who could give you answers scared you almost as much.

While you knew that your only real option was to seek out the siren, that didn’t mean you were so foolish as not to consider the risks. His voice was the main one; if he truly was sealed in the lagoon, then you ought to be safe as long as you didn’t step foot into the water, but that meant nothing if he could hypnotise you into going to him of your own accord. 

And so you found yourself trekking along the woodland path to the lagoon, headphones blaring music into your ears at a volume that was just past comfortable. It meant getting answers to your questions might be a bit tricky but to have no protection against him was just asking to find yourself in a watery grave. 

Timing was the other thing. The midday sun cast the wood in warm golden tones as light filtered through the leafy canopy overhead. So far, anything related to the siren had only happened at night, so it followed that he might be somewhat weaker during the day. Or at least that was your hope anyway. 

Clutching the cable of your headphones for some sense of security, you stepped through the final line of trees and cast your gaze around the lagoon, searching for even the slightest hint of the siren. There was no movement save for the water gently lapping against the shore, no ominous shadows or clawed hands curving over the edge of the rocks jutting out of the surface.

Still, you didn’t trust it.

“Oi,” you shouted, the anxiety and terror of the past few weeks morphing into frustration as you stared at the seemingly deserted lagoon. “You’ve been trying to get me to come here for weeks. Well now I’m here, so what do you want from me?”

Nothing seemed to happen, the water remained as peaceful as ever and while you were tempted to turn your music off to check for the sounds of something approaching, you weren’t silly enough to give the siren that sort of opportunity.

“Hey!” you tried again, finding the hand that wasn’t clutching your headphone cord subconsciously moving towards the mark on your neck, as though to check that this wasn’t all just some elaborate delusion. The feeling of scales under your fingertips made you clench your jaw. How dare he do this to you? Bending down, you grabbed a heavy-looking rock from the beach. “Tell me what you did to me!”

Again nothing happened and after a moment you tightened your grip on the rock before hurling it as far and as hard as you could into the lagoon. You could only just hear the splash over the music in your ears. A cool breeze sent the water rippling and you fought against a shudder as goosebumps prickled over the back of your neck. Still no sign of the siren. 

Cursing loudly, you picked up another rock, preparing to throw it further into the lagoon. If need be, you’d toss every damned stone on the beach until one of them hit him and finally got his attention. Just as you were about to release it, a dark shape moving through the cerulean blue water made you pause. It was large, a bit more so than the average human perhaps, and moving towards you with some speed. The rock slipped from your grasp and your anger started to peter out as quickly as it’d appeared, fear taking its place as a form finally broke from the surface several feet away from you. 

At night, the siren had looked ethereal and striking. Now, in the light of day, he looked positively radiant. His hair was not the silvery colour it had been painted in the moonlight, but a soft strawberry blonde, and even from the shoreline you could see that his single iris gleamed a bright gold. Shimmering dark blue scales decorated his pale cheeks, the exact same shade, you noticed, as the ones on your neck. 

It didn’t take long for his gaze to meet yours, and you could see the white points of his teeth as he started to say something. His voice was completely drowned out by the music in your ears and you squinted a little as you tried to read his lips. The siren stopped speaking for a moment and then frowned when you failed to respond, his eye trained on your headphones. 

As you opened your mouth to demand answers to your questions, he lifted a hand out of the water and snapped his fingers. Instead of words, you let out a loud shriek as the music stopped and freezing cold water fell on your head. You lifted a hand to your head, only to find nothing but damp hair as the sound of cruel laughter reached your ears. 

“Did you really think something like that would keep you safe? You must be even more stupid than I thought or-” the mirth in his expression dropped “-were you underestimating me?” 

Heartbeat loud in your ears, you took a step back towards the treeline. Coming here was a terrible idea. You turned, planning on running back into the woods.

“Oh no you don’t!” the siren said from behind you and before you could even think to reach up and cover your ears, he started to sing. You didn’t feel your body stop moving, nor could you still see the trees in front of you; there was only the song. Even though you’d heard it every night for over a week, nothing could strip it of its majesty. It was raw and beautiful and in those few moments it was the only thing that mattered. 

Awareness came back to you all at once and you struggled to process the sudden return of sensation. You were submerged in cold water up to your chest, your clothes heavy and awkward as you kicked your feet, trying to find solid ground. Something was wrapped tightly around your waist and you could feel cold, damp skin under your hands. You had to blink several times to get your eyes to focus, but when they did you recoiled in horror at the sight of the siren’s face right in front of yours. Your hands were resting on his shoulders and you fought to push him away as the grip on your waist tightened. 

“Do you really think that’s going to do any good human? I’m a lot stronger than you, you know?” 

You did know, you could feel the strength in his arm as he held you to him, the firm muscles of his chest from where it was pressed against yours. 

“And even if you do manage to get free, I only have to call you to bring you right back to me. I’m not going to let you get away from me a second time.” He spoke in a low predatory tone that made a shiver run down your spine, and even as you continued to struggle, you knew it was useless. 

The siren brought his free hand to the top of your neck, trailing his claws across the delicate skin. Once they reached the hem of your shirt, the tips of his fingers curved into the fabric before yanking it with a sharp, sudden movement. You flinched and screwed your eyes shut at the sound of the material ripping, waiting for the hot sting of pain as his claws cut deep into the meat of your shoulder. But it never came, instead you felt a thumb brush over the skin at the base of your neck, right where the bite mark was. Your toes curled and a shudder ran down your spine at the sensation, it felt similar to someone blowing cold air on the shell of your ear. 

Opening your eyes, you found the siren’s gaze trained on the mark, his expression unreadable as his thumb trailed across it once more. 

“What the hell did you do to me?” you asked, fighting against a gasp. 

A single golden iris flicked to you and a shadow of that insidious grin returned to his features. “What do you think, hm? I thought I was pretty clear about what I intended to do to you the last time we met. It wouldn’t be very good for my pride as a siren if my prey were able to get away from me. Hey, where should I take my first bite from this time?” 

Even as fear rose up in you, there was something else as well. Somewhere, deep down, you knew he was lying to you. There was nothing rational you could tie it to, just a feeling, a certainty founded in every point where you touched the siren in front of you, in the mark at the base of your throat. 

“No,” you said, voice quiet. “I know that’s not it, I can feel it. What did you do to me?” However you were expecting the siren to react, it certainly wasn’t the surprise you saw clearly displayed on his face; his single eye went wide and you felt his hold on you slacken slightly. You’d hit on something, but before you could dwell on it further, the shock on the siren’s face gave way to mild annoyance. 

“Hah, I guess it’s not that surprising that even an idiot like you would be able to feel it a bit.”

“Feel what? Tell me what’s going on!” you demanded.

“You’ve really got a lot of nerve to use that tone with me. Do you think you’re that special just because the great Shin Tsukinami showed you a little bit of attention?” The name clanged through you like some great revelation. Shin Tsukinami. The answer to a question you hadn’t known to ask but in that instance felt like the most important thing in the world. 

From the way the corner of his lip curled, your emotions must have been written all over your face. 

“Heh, that’s not a bad expression. Just for that reaction I guess I’ll tell you, but keep in mind that if you don’t watch your tone, I might just decide to eat you after all, get it?” 

You frowned but nodded nonetheless.

Shin leaned forward until his face was right by your ear. “This,” he said, trailing his thumb back over the base of your neck, “is a siren’s mating mark. My mark.”

“What?” You instantly tried to shove him away from you but to no avail, a whole new kind of horror filling you as the potential implications of what you’d just heard ran through your mind. 

“You heard me. That’s what you can feel isn’t it? That there’s a part of you that’s drawn to me. Isn’t that why you finally returned here? Even without the song, you’d always have come back to me eventually.” The arrogance in his voice turned your stomach. 

“No, I… No…” You’d come here of your own accord to get answers. You had made that decision. It was something you had chosen to do. 

Right?

Shin drew back enough that you could see his face. “What’s with that reaction? You should be honoured, under any other circumstances I wouldn’t even look at your kind as anything other than food. In fact that’s right, you should be thanking me for showing you any consideration at all.”

“Thanking you?” you said, incredulous. “I never agreed to this, hell I don’t even know what it means.” And if his idea of courting was nearly drowning you and shredding you to ribbons with his claws, you were pretty sure you didn’t want to find out what being his ‘mate’ would entail. “Let go of me, I don’t want anything to do with you! You’re- you’re nothing more than a monster!” You started struggling as hard as you could, only to be stopped when the arm around your waist tightened until it was painful. 

“You really seem to be set on trying to piss me off enough to kill you. You might say you don’t want anything to do with me, but I don’t think your body will agree.” Shin lowered his head to your neck and you braced to feel his teeth sink into your flesh. But there was no stab of pain as you felt him run his tongue over the mark on your neck. A rush of heat went through you at the sensation, but it was nothing compared to when his lips met your skin and he started to suck lightly on the mark. 

It made every clichéd romance-novel fireworks description pale in comparison. Even though part of you wanted nothing more than to push him away, your body betrayed you, a moan slipping past your lips as you clung onto him, face heating in a mixture of embarrassment, shame and something else.

“Haha, can you really say you don’t want anything to do with me when you’re making those sort of lewd noises?” Shin asked, finally lifting his head.

You could tell your face was flushed, your core uncomfortably warm. And yet even so you stammered out, “I- I don’t. I don’t want this.”

His features twisted into a frown and you tried not to flinch as his claws pressed into skin. “You think you have any right to complain in this situation? It’s not like I particularly wanted you, you were just the first person dumb enough to come here since that damned Mer King sealed me away,” Shin practically spat the title, his upper lip curling to show more of his wickedly sharp teeth.

“If you don’t want me then- Then let me go and I’ll find another siren and bring them here! Surely that would be better.” Your limbs still felt weak from whatever he’d just done to you but it didn’t seem like a terrible plan. At least until Shin let out a bitter chuckle and you felt that small kernel of hope shrivel up.

“You really don’t know anything do you? There are no other sirens thanks to that fucking Mer, I’m the only one left.”

“What do you mean?” you asked, curiosity warring with the need to free yourself from his hold.

Shin gave you a considering look. As the silence stretched on you started to think he wasn’t going to answer but eventually he spoke. “I guess it’s better for me if you’re not completely ignorant. That bastard was jealous of our power. He managed to convince some of the other old races to join forces with him and used their numbers to drive us into the lagoon before sealing us all here. I don’t know what kind of ancient magic he dug up for it but even with all of our power we couldn’t break the seal. And yet that still wasn’t the worst of it.” His expression was mainly one of anger but there was something else there too, if you’d believed the siren to be capable of feeling such a thing you might have thought it was grief.

“Because this lagoon is magically sealed off from the rest of the sea, we were cut off from the root of our power. Unlike humans, we don’t have to eat to survive, but we do need magic, being cut off from it… Well, think of what happens to starving humans but make it worse. I had to watch as every other member of my race started to wither and rot from the inside out, even my-” The volume of Shin’s voice had risen as he’d fallen into a rant, only to cut off suddenly, his face twisting. He let out a heavy breath before continuing, though whether it was out of rage or something else, you couldn’t tell. 

“Eventually I was the only one left, so I had nothing to do but sleep, waiting for the end to come. Or at least,” his gaze lifted from where it had drifted down to the surface of the water, his single eye staring into you, “that’s what I thought, until the smell of your blood woke me up. And now-” a dark, cruel smile played at his lips “-I have a chance to get my revenge and restore my race.”

It didn’t take a genius to work out the implications of that, especially not with how he ran his thumb down your side as he said it. “No,” you said, softly at first and then your voice grew louder as you continued. “No, I won’t- I’m not going to…” You couldn’t even bring yourself to finish that statement, not with the sharp inhuman claws digging into your side, the tail you could feel brushing against your legs.

“You really think you’re going to get a choice?” The seriousness of his tone made any lingering heat in your body turn to ice. Curiosity forgotten, you focused on trying to get out of his grip, pushing against his chest for all you were worth and kicking out at his tail with your legs. 

The grin quickly fell off of his face as he grappled to maintain his hold on you. “Damnit, stop struggling!” he yelled into your face as his claws punctured your skin.

You let out a whimper of pain but didn’t stop, trying to think of something, anything you could use to your advantage. But there was nothing, you had no weapons, no talons or sharp teeth. And yet you still didn’t stop trying, even as his claws sank deeper into you.

Suddenly, Shin let go of your waist but before you could swim away, one of his hands seized hold of your jaw, forcing it open as he shoved the index finger of his other hand into your mouth, the tip of his claw pressing painfully against your tongue. “If you don’t stop fighting me, I’m going to slash your tongue in two.”

Your limbs stilled, tears starting to well up as it sunk in that you really wouldn’t be able to get away from him.

“Although maybe,” he continued, as his claw dug in until a copper tang coated your tongue, “it would be a good idea to show you how serious I am. It’s not like I need you to be able to talk for you to be useful to me anyway.”

Before you could even process what you were doing, you panicked and sank your teeth down hard on his finger. It wasn’t enough to break his skin but as you felt your teeth press into the digit, you suddenly realised what a terrible idea it was to try to bite someone with teeth much sharper than your own that they clearly would have no problem using in retaliation. And yet as you risked looking at Shin’s expression, you felt your jaw slacken when you realised he was grinning. It wasn’t the dark, sadistic curl of his lip that you’d seen before. No, his expression now looked positively unhinged, eyes alight with something you couldn’t name.

He took his finger out of your mouth and lifted it, examining the faint red marks left by your teeth. As you stared at them, you noticed the marks start to emit a faint white light. 

“Finally,” you heard Shin mutter, as the light grew stronger and the mark on your neck began to warm. Soon even the water around you was alight with that same white glow and the base of your neck felt blisteringly hot. One of your hands flew up to the mark, as though you could smother the heat. The pain was agonising and even with your eyes screwed shut, the light continued to burn through your eyelids. 

It was too much. You didn’t realise that Shin’s hold on you had loosened until you felt yourself slip out of his grasp. As your head dipped beneath the surface, you heard him curse faintly over the ringing in your ears. Sinking into the water, some small part of your brain that wasn’t overwhelmed with pain told you that this wasn’t good, that you needed to swim to the surface before you ran out of air. But it was useless, black spots danced in front of your eyelids and your limbs might as well have been lead weights as unconsciousness started to claim you. 

The burning at the base of your throat started to fade, although you had no way of knowing whether it was actually waning or a result of you losing sensation in your body. As you teetered on the edge of oblivion, you felt something wrap around your waist and the last thing you were aware of was the sensation of a pair of cold lips pressing against your own, air being breathed into your lungs. And then there was nothing.

“Oi!”

“Hey! Tch, come on, wake up!” 

You awoke to the unpleasant feeling of someone slapping you repeatedly in the face. Batting whoever it was away, you struggled to think why someone would be trying to wake you up and let out a groan as you attempted to sit up, limbs heavy and sluggish. 

“Tch, finally. For a minute there I really thought you’d died.” Blinking groggily, you looked towards the source of the voice, a head of strawberry blonde hair slowly coming into focus as you tried to work out what was going on. It was only when your eyes snagged on the single golden iris boring into you that you finally remembered what had happened before you passed out. 

Letting out a startled gasp, you shuffled away from him, taking in your surroundings as you did so. You were sitting on the rocky shoreline a couple of metres away from the lagoon, the water still shimmering a bright blue in the midday sun. And the siren was…

Shin was standing on the shoreline, still leaning over where you’d been just a moment before, on a pair of very human legs. The scales on his cheekbones were gone, as were the fins and his fingers ended in nails rather than wickedly sharp claws. 

For all intents and purposes, he looked just like an ordinary human.

A stark naked ordinary human, complete with all of the biology one might expect to find on a member of the male sex. 

You let out a loud curse and slapped a hand over your eyes.

Laughter reached your ears as you stared stubbornly at the ground, trying not to think about the image that had just imprinted itself onto your retinas. “Do you really think you can act bashful after you were just so clearly ogling me?”

“I wasn’t- What? How?” You hadn’t recovered enough to process all of this. There was a naked man (siren?) right in front of you who apparently considered you to be his mate. What was going on? Why did he look like that? How had he just been able to leave the lagoon he’d supposedly been sealed in for hundreds of years? You felt like you should be running but the thought of even getting to your feet made you feel weak and dizzy. “What just happened?” you settled on asking, still not looking at him. 

“I don’t feel like having a conversation with someone who’s refusing to look at me.”

“Then put some clothes on!” you snapped, even though you were fairly certain that should not have been the part of this whole ordeal that bothered you the most. 

“Don’t think I’ll take orders from you but I guess it is going to cause problems if other humans see me like this.” 

The sound of water rippling drew your attention to the edge of the lagoon and you watched out of the corner of your eye as it started to move. A stream of water rose up, trailing above the ground towards Shin. Through one of the gaps between your fingers, you saw it wrap around his leg and curve higher up his body, until every part of him you could see was covered in a thin film of water. It started to change colour, growing darker and more opaque and you gaped as it turned to fabric right before your eyes. 

Hesitantly, you lowered your hand and looked at him. Shin was newly dressed in dark boots and tight black pants, with a white ruffled shirt that seemed like something out of the 18th century. There was even a black eyepatch covering his left eye, decorated with a white cross design. Somewhere, in the recesses of your brain, it occurred to you that he looked vaguely like a pirate. 

Shin smirked at you, evidently having caught sight of your expression. “Are you that in awe of me over such a simple display of power? Well, I don’t know why I would expect any different from a human, even something like this is leagues beyond what you can do, isn’t it?”

At that, you finally remembered to shut your mouth. “What the hell just happened?”

“You mean how you rudely ordered me to put some clothes on and then proceeded to gape at me like a very stupid fish?” he said in a mocking tone.

“No, I mean-” you waved a hand in the direction of the lagoon “-the light, everything. How are you-” you gestured to him “-like that.”

“Ah, well, to put it simply,” he raised his hand, and you caught a faint glimpse of what looked like a silvery scar just above the first joint of his index finger; the same one you’d bitten. “You marked me and completed the bond.”

The ground dropped out from under you. 

“I did what?” you said, voice faint as a sudden wave of nausea washed over you.

“You bound yourself to me. Well, you were too stupid to know what you were doing but before, with just my mark on you, the bond was incomplete. Now, you’re fully my mate.”

The colour drained from your face and you were pretty sure your jaw had fallen open again. When you failed to respond, Shin chose to elaborate, “Hah, how do I explain so even you can understand? I guess the equivalent for humans is… marriage isn’t it? Before, when my mark was on you, it was like, what’s it called? ... Ah, an engagement ring. But this,” he said, brushing his thumb over the mark on his finger, “is like a wedding ring.”

“We’re not married,” you managed to croak out faintly, at which Shin just looked annoyed. 

“No, we’re mated, it’s not like your flimsy pathetic human marriages.” 

He took a step towards you and you didn’t even react. Couldn’t. Your brain just kept cycling through the same series of words on repeat.

Bond, mate, marriage, engagement, wedding, mated.

You’d done the siren equivalent of marrying him. No, it occurred to you as you remembered his face after you’d marked him, he’d tricked you into it! He’d put you in a position where he’d known you’d bite him while you were still ignorant of the consequences and now had the gall to look irritated while you struggled to process what they meant.

“Why?” There were a million things you wanted to say to him, most of them full of curses, but that seemed the most pertinent. He’d had you right where he wanted you already hadn’t he? What difference did it make whether you were fully mated or not?

“To get past the seal, of course.” 

To get past the- You blinked up at him. He’d bound himself to you to get past the magic sealing him in the lagoon? “What do you mean?”

“Hah, it’s annoying to explain every little thing, can’t you work some of it out for yourself?” There was a long pause in which you strongly considered using all of your energy to get to your feet and punch him in his stupid smug face. You didn’t though. Well, you did struggle to your feet, tired of having him looking down on you both physically and metaphorically.

“Does it have something to do with you being… human?” you asked.

“I guess that’s as close as you’re going to get. Mating magic is old, some of the oldest. In the past, sirens only ever mated with other sirens, to keep the bloodlines strong but some of the lesser races take mates of other species. The magic binds you in a lot of ways, but part of it is about making you more compatible. All sirens can take a humanoid form, after all, it’s no good if prey can escape from us just by running onto the land-” he flashed you a nasty smirk “-but we don’t look human. However, as your mate, it’s no good if I can’t blend in with humans, so the mating magic let me change my form.”

“But make no mistake,” as you looked at his face, the light seemed to ripple on him and you caught a glimpse of blue scales and wickedly sharp teeth before they faded like they’d never been anything more than a mirage, “I’m still a siren underneath.” He turned towards the lagoon, his eyes holding the same wild look you’d seen after you bit him. “Although I can pass for human enough that that damned seal can no longer recognise me enough to contain me. Finally, after all this time, I’m finally free!”

You could swear the air stilled at his proclamation, like nature itself was quaking. What had you just unwittingly unleashed?

“If you’re free now then-” Shin’s head snapped to you and you tried not to falter under the intensity of his gaze “-can’t you break the bond? You don’t need it anymore right?” 

His expression became laced with irritation. “Were you not listening earlier? Mating magic is old magic, like the stuff on the lagoon. Nothing can break it.”

“But, I don’t want...” You took a step away from him.

“It’s not like I want to be shackled to you either,” he spat. “But it can’t be helped, it was the only way to get past the seal on the lagoon and I’d rather have died than stayed another minute in there! Although,” some of the anger drained from him as he looked at you and his expression became more drawn as he muttered under his breath, “I didn’t think it would be quite this bad.”

Before you could ask him to elaborate he carried on. “Anyway, I might be free but I still have to accomplish my goals.” His goals. You thought back to your conversation before you’d blacked out. 

‘I have a chance to get my revenge and restore my race.’

Restore his race. You took another step away from him, and would have considered bolting but for the fact your legs already felt unsteady. 

Shin didn’t seem to notice, having gone back to glaring at the waters of the lagoon. “Just looking at this place is enough to make me feel sick. Oi,” he turned back to you, “we’re going to your home.”

You froze. “No.”

“After everything do you still not get that you don’t get to refuse me?” Before you could react, he was striding towards you, stopping only when he was close enough that you could feel his breath on your face. “I might not be in a position to kill you but don’t think I won’t discipline you if you step out of line too much.” He dropped some of the illusion of being human, his teeth turning sharp and deadly.

“I’m not taking you back to my house when you just want to use me to have children!” you exclaimed. Admittedly you weren’t sure how you were going to stop him from doing anything when just the walk home seemed daunting. 

“Oh that,” he said, like it was some idle concern. “I am going to restore the siren race at some point, but I need to recover my magic first.” Shin looked down at his hand and frowned, as though he could see the power flowing under his own skin and found it lacking. “And as soon as I do, the first priority is going to be carving out the heart of that damn Mer King.” For a blink, his claws were visible, wicked sharp and glinting slightly in the sun, before once again being replaced by human nails. He looked up at you and smirked. “Although given how you were looking at my body earlier, I wouldn’t be surprised if you come crawling to me for that long before I can extract my revenge.” 

As much as you hated it, you could feel a blush burning across your cheeks. You were never ever going to want something like that from someone like him, but that didn’t change the fact that he was atrociously attractive. “How are you going to get your magic back?” 

“It’ll come back on it’s own now that I’m not trapped in that fucking lagoon anymore.” Shin kicked one of the larger rocks into the water, sending it rippling. “Normally I’d go back to the sea to recharge but having you there with all of those mer around while I don’t have my full power might be a problem, so we’ll have to use your dwelling for now.” 

You didn’t particularly like the way you were included in that sentiment, as though having you at his side was a given now, especially if he was planning on dragging you off to the ocean at some point. And the way he said it, like staying in your home was some great ordeal. “I don’t have to be with you, you can go back to the ocean by yourself. We might be-” you waved your hand back and forth between the two of you, refusing to say the words “-but you said yourself you’d break the bond if you could. Even though you can’t, you don’t have to stay with me.”

“No.” He said the word so forcefully it was an effort not to flinch. “You might not have felt it as much before, but it’ll be stronger now, the pull. It might be a bit different if you were another siren but regardless of that-” he took hold of your chin and tilted it, forcing you to meet his eye “-you belong to me now. And even if you wouldn’t be my first choice, I’m not letting you go.”

His expression was intense and you swallowed heavily before knocking his hand away. “Fine, fine.” You shouldn’t be agreeing to this, even if you didn’t have a choice. Maybe that mate mark really was affecting your judgement. “But even if we’re living under the same roof I want as little to do with you as possible.”

Something simmered behind his gaze as he replied, “maybe right now, but it won’t take long for you to change your mind.” 

Perhaps the most alarming thing about that statement was that you couldn’t tell whether it was born from pure arrogance or a certainty that he knew something about the bond you didn’t. Either way, it made you want to kick him back into the lagoon. You didn’t of course, you weren’t quite that foolish.

“Well then,” Shin said, throwing an arm out. “Lead the way, mate.” 

Ignoring the way the word sent a shudder down your spine, you turned to follow the path into the woods, pausing to take a final look at the glistening blue waters of the lagoon as you did so. How many times had you swam here with no idea of what was lurking beneath the surface, asleep until you’d been unlucky enough to wake him up? It was the last time you’d ever come here, you knew with certainty. Even if the only remaining monster from the lagoon was already bound and tethered to you, you were reluctant to take another swim in open water anyplace Shin might feel compelled to follow you. 

Catching a glimpse of the siren and all of his beauty out of the corner of your eye, you felt apprehension settle in your gut. What on Earth had you gotten yourself into?

[crystalninjaphoenix]

MerMay 2022 Day One Night at the Lagoon

Jack woke up to something poking him in the face. At first, he tried to ignore it by staying completely still. Perhaps a fish had wandered into the lagoon and was now inspecting him. But then it continued. Poke. Poke. Poke. After a solid minute of this, he opened his eyes. “Yeah, Sam?”

Sam, just going in for another poke, backed up. She swam quickly in circles before going up to nuzzle Jack’s neck.

Jack couldn’t help but laugh. “Yep, I’m still here.” He sat up from the bed of watery weeds he was sleeping in, running a couple fingers along Sam’s dorsal fin. “Don’t worry.”

It was the middle of the night. The lagoon’s phytoplankton glowed a bright blue, drifting through the small pool in luminescent clouds. Jack glanced around. Everything looked the same as it always had. The pool, off the side of the lagoon, hadn’t changed a bit while Jack had been stuck asleep. The only thing that was different was Sam. She was a bit bigger than he remembered, and much more clingy after being left alone for months.

“Look. Sam.” Jack exhaled slowly. “You know I love you.” Sam’s fins fluttered in delight. “Heh. I do. And I know you’re worried. But I promise, I’m not going anywhere. You have to let me get some sleep.”

Sam flitted back and forth. She swam over to the gap in the rock wall that served as the pool’s entrance, then back to Jack. “You want to go for a swim?” he asked. Sam swam back to the gap and paced back and forth in front of it. “Okay, that’s a no. You’re worried about something coming in?” She darted up to him, bumping against his collarbone. “Oh. Okay, uh...”

Her concern wasn’t unfounded. It was pretty easy to get into the pool. As demonstrated by Anti swimming right in, all that time ago. Had a year passed since then? No, not quite.

“Well, we can’t really do anything about that right now,” Jack said carefully. “I don’t have anything big enough to act as a door.” He looked around the pool again. It was piled high with his various belongings, some human-made, some merm-made, some natural. Nothing that could block the gap in the rocks.

Sam circled him, her tail flapping quickly. She swam over to the gap and back again.

“I know, I know,” Jack said, unfurling his tail and swimming over to peer outside. The lagoon was empty except for the glowing phytoplankton floating near the surface waves. Sam bumped against his shoulder a couple times. “Hey, calm down a bit,” he said in a reassuring tone. “There’s nothing out there. See?” He pet her scales. “But you’re right, it would be best to be careful. Anti’s still out there.”

Though...Jack wasn’t sure if that was as bad as everyone thought. Sam wasn’t the only one worried; his friends had panicked when they realized Anti got away. Jack could understand why—after all, Anti had done a lot of bad things. He’d kidnapped Chase’s kids, hurt Jameson, and used that siren stone to hypnotize Jack himself.

But even knowing all this, Jack just couldn’t see Anti as a threat. Maybe that was because he didn’t clearly remember the hypnotism. From his perspective, he’d only met Anti twice. Once while out exploring, and once while both of them were captured by that human organization, TridentCorp. And while Anti had scared him a little, he didn’t seem...malicious.

Jack shook his head. It didn’t really matter what his first impressions were, did it? The facts were that Anti had gone out of his way to try and kill them all, and he had now escaped and was wandering the seas. Even if Jack didn’t think Anti would do anything, he had proven in the past that he would jump at the chance to attack him and his friends. Better to be safe than sorry.

“We’ll work on the door situation tomorrow,” he said to Sam. “Right now, it’s late and I’m tired. I want to sleep.” Sam darted back and forth, still worried. “I know. But you can wake me up if anything happens, okay?” He smiled. “I promise, nothing will.”

After a few seconds, Sam calmed down. She bumped against his face once again and he laughed. “Yeah, do that if you see anything. I’ll wake right up.”

As Jack disappeared back into the rock pool, already almost asleep, there was a faint movement in the still lagoon waters outside. A pair of bright green eyes appeared, lifting up from behind a small sandbar. They stared at the pool’s entrance for a long while. And then, with the flick of a dark tail, they disappeared.

[thiswasinevitableid]

For mermay, could you do 11 for sternclay? sfw please :) I love your prompt fills!

Thank you so much! Here you go. The prompt was “royalty” and I based Barclay on a basking shark and Joseph on a mimic octopus.

For the last two weeks, Joseph has been hearing what a difficult assignment he’s taken, and how most bodyguards wouldn’t take it even with the handsome pay. That the princes of Sylvain are impossible to guard, that they’ve gone through more security staff than sharks go through teeth (this part he knows to be true from the records he’s found). 

Two days in, he’s starting to wonder if there’s been some sort of mistake. 

Now, had he received Duck’s assignment, he’d understand the warnings. Prince Indrid, seer to the court of Sylvain, has already shown himself to be a strange mixture of aloof, demanding, and spoiled.

But Prince Barclay?

When Joseph was shown into his chambers and introduced, the instant the servants left Barclay swam over to him with a nervous smile. He asked if there was anything he could get him, was he hungry, would he like something to drink? Joseph accepted that last offer, curious to see how the prince would react if called upon to perform hospitality rather than simply offer it. 

What happened was Barclay swam into an anteroom and came back with a carved coral platter with mother of pearl pitcher and goblets, pouring Joseph’s first before taking a glass for himself. 

That set the tone for his behavior, and it hasn’t changed in the week since he’s arrived. The prince, charcoal tailed and a little shy, seems to view Joseph as just another mer to talk to. When in the castle, Barclay will ask him his thoughts on the historical and political scrolls his tutors assign him as part of his preparation to one day inherit the kingdom. Out in public, Joseph shifts into the background, watches everything with care while the prince swims behind his parents or, more often, their advisors. 

“Do you think there was some kind of misunderstanding with his previous guard?” Joseph asks Duck over a late night dinner in the hall, which allows them to keep their eyes on their charges rooms. 

“I mean, he seems like a nice enough fella to me. But nice fellas can still be sneaky; from what Ned told me, Barclay’s an escape artist. Think he might be lurin you into a false sense of security.”

“And I think trusting what Ned Chicane tells you is a terrible way to gather intel.”

Movement from Indrid’s room and Duck stiffens, listening, then relaxes.

“Shouldn’t you go check on that?”

“Nah, he’s just pacin, does that a lot, especially at night.”

“He really should get some sleep.”

Duck shrugs, “He should. But treatin him like a child is the wrong way to go. He knows he oughta rest, my remindin him will just annoy him. Besides,” Duck raises an eyebrow, “maybe you better be more focused on your prince.”

“He turned in an hour ago.”

“You sure?”

Something in Duck’s voice sends worry bubbling through his guts, “I’ll check now, just to be positive.”

The bed is empty, the prince nowhere to be found. 

“Shit!” He darts back into the dim hallway, “he’s gone, I’ve got to find him and fast. How, how in name of the deep did you know?”

“Call it a hunch. Indrid likes to play the ‘I know somethin you don’t’ game, but if I let ‘im play it long enough, he let’s somethin important slip out.”

“Shit” Joseph says again, “I, if anyone asks-” 

“I’ll say I ain’t seen you or Barclay since dinner. Ain’t a lie.” Duck winks and Joseph flashes him a quick smile before swimming back into the prince’s rooms. There’s only one door and no secret passageways, (he checked for those himself), so the windows it is. His tentacles can sense Barclay’s trail, faint but unmistakable, and he follows it until he’s almost at the shore. Then it’s gone. 

He spends the next three hours feverishly tracing and retracing his path and keeping his panic to a minimum. When he spies a figure swimming towards him, he backs against a rock, planning to hide until they pass. 

This plan changes the instant he registers who it is. 

“Gaahfuck” Barclay catches his yell quickly and muffles it down to a hiss, “what the hell Joseph, you scared me.”

“And you just made me spend three hours swimming around and wondering if my charge had been abducted. I’d say that makes us even.”

“Didn’t make you do anything.” Barclay grumbles as Joseph turns them towards the palace. 

He sighs, “No, I guess technically you didn’t. But I take my job very, very seriously. If this past week hasn’t demonstrated that sufficiently, maybe tonight has. When you disappear into the night, it’s my duty to follow.” He catches brown eyes studying him warily and adds, “I’m not doing it to be punitive or steal your freedom, or even because their majesties told me to; I’m doing it because you’re under my protection.”

The prince nods but says nothing else until they return to his rooms. 

“Joseph? I’m uh, I’m sorry. For scaring you. You got farther than anyone else did, none of them ever tracked me that well, if they noticed I was gone at all. I figured you wouldn’t notice, so you wouldn’t worry. So, yeah. I’m sorry.” 

Joseph knows a false apology when he hears it, and this is as far from one as a desert is from the deep sea. 

“Apology accepted, my prince. But Barclay” he levels the other mer with a stern gaze, tries not to notice his cheeks tinging pink the longer he holds it, “don’t do it again.”

-----------------------------------------------------

“Are you certain we cannot trade?” Indrid’s fin ripples with agitation as he draws. 

“Nope, Joseph is a good bodyguard.”

“And your crush on him is not governing your answer in the slightest?” Indrid smirks but doesn’t look up. 

“No idea what you’re talking about. Besides, Duck seems nice.” Barclay stretches his other arm, then pauses, “wait, fuck, is he hurting you or something?”

“No. On the contrary, he is annoyingly concerned with my wellbeing.”

“That’s his job.”

“It was the job of all his predecessors as well, but all it took was ordering them around or demanding things in the right tone before they were letting me do as I pleased. I wanted to go to that bar on the edge of town last night and do you know what he did? He told me no, because word had gotten around that it was a spot I frequented and someone there might try to take me hostage.”

“...And?”

“And, and then when I tried to leave anyway he blocked the door with that blasted muscular tail and obnoxiously charming face and wouldn’t move! Then he told me he would if I looked at the future told him we’d both be safe if we went. It turns out he was right, the chances of violence were high.”

“I mean, you don’t like places that loud anyway-”

“It’s the principle of the thing.” Indrid sighs, “so we stayed in and I made him read to me as penance but he was very good at it and I fell asleep within a half hour.”

Barclay is trying hard not to laugh, only because he knows how hard it is for his brother to admit such things. And because, given what else he knows of Duck, the mer might be exactly what his brother needs. If nothing else, Barclay hopes Duck might be observant enough to notice what’s there, not just what his brother tries to toss up like so much sand in hopes of obscuring the truth. 

Indrid goes back to his drawings. Barclay can remember the first time their ministers caught Indrid capturing the futures this way and scolded him, saying the futures to look at were only those the court asked him to, nothing else. Indrid had explained, in a number of different ways, that this was how he could keep the images from overwhelming him, but still they insisted he stop. It wasn’t until he drew on his status and threw a near fit that they relented. That was a lesson he never forgot. 

Barclay hopes todays lessons will be more enjoyable. One of the jobs of a royal bodyguard is to train the princes in self-defense. When Joseph and Duck enter the gym through kelp curtains, Barclay can’t help but be mesmerized by the poise with which his tentacles move across the ground. 

“Good morning, your highness. And to you as well, your highness.” Joseph bows to them each in turn, “Barclay, today you and I will be working with swords while Duck and Prince Indrid work on hand to hand combat.”

“What?” Indrid looks up, red eyes wide, “Barclay is the one who trains hand to hand, not me.”

“Which is exactly why we gotta mix things up. You need all the modes of defense you can get. Unless of course you’re, uh, afraid you can’t take me.” Duck raises an eyebrow at Indrid. 

His brother says nothing, simply grabs his bodyguard and pulls him towards the designated room, calling, “I’ll see you after lunch!”

He and Joseph trade an amused look, then swim to the shelf of blunted training weapons. They’re still bone or sharks tooth, but they’ve been sanded down so no one can get hurt. 

“Now, you mentioned you’ve done some sword work, so am I right that you know how to hold this safely?”

“Yep.” Barclay takes the sword, swimming over to one of the Xs on the floor. 

“Good. To keep things fair for now, I won’t use my tentacles for anything other than swimming.” Joseph takes his position on the opposite X and lifts his sword, “ready?”

Barclay nods and then immediately parries as Joseph lunges with a burst of speed. He recovers quickly, and they begin an elegant back and forth, bubbles and stray sand swirling through the air as they spin and dodge around one another. Joseph keeps up a steady stream of commentary, either positive or instructive, and Barclay is having a hard time ignoring the the thrill he gets every time Joseph pulls off a graceful maneuver. 

When they break, both a little winded, there’s a crash from the next room. 

“Fuck! You okay, your highness?” Duck sounds concerned. 

“Yes, now try that again, I am going to get this right.” 

Joseph glances at him, “Should we-”

“Nah. He kinda sounds like he’s enjoying himself.”

The other mer studies him, “Are you?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Then I’m going to ask you to stop holding back. I can’t train you effectively if I don’t know what your skill level actually is.”

He’s learned not to insist Joseph is mis-observing things when he’s actually observing them perfectly; the other mer is too sharp for that. 

“I...I just don’t want to hurt you.”

Joseph swims close, sets a hand on his shoulder, “For starters, these are fake swords, and I’m not a bad fighter. But more than that, I suspect there’s a very impressive swordsman under those scales.”

They take their positions and when Joseph gives the signal Barclay attacks with all the force his tail can muster. Joseph dodges easily but makes an approving noise. Then he grins, the expression downright rakish, and attacks with such precision and speed that Barclay barely manages to counter him. 

His focus narrows down to the fight, to watching Joseph’s body for every sign of movement, every twitch of muscle and tentacle. Finally, he sees his opening and drives the other mer backwards until he’s trapped, back to the rocky grey wall. 

“Well” Barclay pants, images of finishing the fight with a kiss banging about his mind, “what do you think of that, Joseph?”

Two tentacles rise, plucking both swords from their fighters hands as his bodyguard murmurs, “I’m impressed.”

-------------------------------------------------------

It’s been a month and a half since Barclay slipped out of his room, and while he’s tried twice more, Joseph has been ready each time. Tonight, however, he’s opting for a new strategy.

He bids the prince goodnight, well aware he’ll swim out the window around moonrise. Then he waits just across from the window, skin and tentacles camouflaged with the rocks. Right on time, Barclay emerges, swimming quickly and quietly towards the shore. Joseph follows at a safe distance, forces himself to focus on the prince’s likely path rather than on how handsome he looks in the moonlight. 

When they reach the shallows Barclay pauses, slips a woven bracelet onto his wrist, and kicks towards the surface. 

Who in the name of the wide ocean gave him legs?

Joseph’s physiology allows him to crawl across the tidepools, keeping his eyes on Barclay as the prince retrieves a set of clothes hidden behind a rock and walks into the small town of Kepler, turning towards a restaurant on the pier. 

Someone had to enchant that bracelet for him, has to know where he’s going while using it. And that someone has to be a mer he trusts. 

------------------------------------------------------

“Yes. I made him the bracelet. What of it?” Indrid says coolly. 

“Indrid, do you have any idea how dangerous that is?” Joseph throws his arms and several tentacles in the air. 

“Hold up” Duck turns to his prince, “Indrid, I’m guessin Barclay probably asked for a reason, right?”

“Indeed, but if I say what it was, you will reveal it to our parents and ministers and take it away from him.”

“I won’t. I promise. I, I just want to help.”

Indrid narrows his eyes. Then, remarkably, he turns to Duck and cocks his head. Duck nods. 

“Very well. And yes, I will grant you that favor you’re about to ask for…”

----------------------------------------------------------

How do humans manage with these things? His tentacles tell him so much more than these useless feet do. 

Joseph makes his wobbly way into Kepler, following Barclay’s trail down the pier, the one he’s walked the last two weeks while Joseph intermittently clung to the nearby wooden supports or fencing to make sure his prince wasn’t in danger. 

Even with Indrid’s explanation, the room he enters is a surprise. Several counters with what he knows humans call “stoves” sitting on them, each manned by one or two people. 

“Hello there” An affable older man in a multi-colored shirt approaches him, “you here for the class?”

“Yes.”

“Great! Hmmm, since you’re new, better pair you with someone, just to be safe. Follow me.”

Joseph isn’t afraid of much. But when he sees who the man intends to pair him with, he almost jumps out the window and flees back to the sea.

“You’re in luck, gonna pair you with my best student. Barclay, this is…”

“Joseph”

“Joseph’s first class with us, so I’m handin him over to you. Make me proud.”

Barclay isn’t blinking, but he manages to say, “sure thing, Thacker.” 

The older man nods, pleased, and makes his way towards the kitchen set-up at the front of the room, greeting people as he goes. 

“What the fuck, Joseph?” Barclay keeps his voice low, “did Janelle give you legs just so you could come drag me out of class?”

“No, no not at all. Indrid did this.”

“What?”

Joseph takes a deep breath, “Barclay, I told you that first week that I’m here to protect you. The way I see it, I’ll do a much better job if I come with you to something that clearly matters to you, rather than force you to hide it from me. No one knows about this but Indrid and Duck.”

Barclay seems stunned, doesn’t say anything as Thacker opens the class and instructs them on how to make something called “marinara” to go on “pasta.” The prince stays silent until they’re working on the cookies the human is also having them make.

“Here, it’s easier to cut them out like this.” He sets his hand atop Joseph’s, pressing and shaking it so the dough comes away from the stone slab in the shape of a heart. 

“Thank you.”

Barclay smiles at him, and the kitchen grows hotter. 

When everything is done cooking, they sit on stools at their station, eating the fruits of their labor. Barclay is animatedly describing the pie they made last week, occasionally stopping to chat with some of the other students. He looks so happy, and Joseph decides he will not tell their majesties about this even if they torture him. Or fire him. 

As they walk back along the beach, Barclay explaining all the things he’s learned about cooking and how much he wishes they’d let him cook at the palace rather than insist it’s beneath his station, the prince takes his hand.

“Humans do this when they’re waling on the beach together. I think it’s to keep them from getting separated if they get hit by a wave.

Joseph is pretty sure that’s not the reason, but he’s not about to say so now. 

They dive back under the waves, removing their charms and swimming side by side in the dark water. Once they’re safely inside, Barclay turns to him, beaming, “Thank you so much for coming.”

“Even if I wasn’t invited?”

“Yeah. It, uh, it means a lot to me that you wanna learn about the stuff that matters to me. That you wanna know the real me.”

“Of course I do.”

Barclay swims dangerously close, “You, uh, do you wanna know another part?”

He nods. Barclay leans in and presses their lips together. Joseph manages to keep his hands himself, but his tentacles have other ideas, curling protectively around the prince’s tail and waist. The instant Barclay pulls back with the most adorable sigh in the sea, Joseph forces them to return to their normal position. 

The prince gives him a final, shy smile and whispers, “‘Night, Joseph. And thanks for everything.”

[freckledoriya]

“h2whoa” (midoriya x reader fic)

PAIRING: izuku midoriya x reader

WARNINGS: mentions of alcohol

PROMPT: “I’ve never seen someone as stunning as you.”

WORDS: 2.3k

A/N: here’s my submission for @bnhabookclub’s mermay event! special thanks to @k-atsukidayo​ for helping with this! 

feel free to send me requests HERE

You knew that you shouldn’t have come to this party. It really wasn’t your scene: the music blasting, deep bass shaking the corners of the house, clouds of smoke looming above your head, cheap beer spilling onto the hardwood floors. But it was your high school graduation party, and you felt some kind of cosmic teen obligation to attend the rager. It’s not that you didn’t love your classmates, you absolutely did. And you wished on everything possible that you’ll keep in touch after graduation, especially with your long-time crush, Izuku Midoriya.

Midoriya has been one of those crushes that slowly devours your soul until he’s unintentionally claimed your entire heart. It started your first year when you shyly asked for some tutoring for an upcoming combat exam. You knew his incessant note-taking would prove to be useful. Plus… you really just wanted an excuse to talk to the cute, quiet kid in class. After some blushing and stammering, he agreed to help. You fell headfirst as he hesitantly showed you some of the notes he had already taken on your quirk, a quirk you had always thought was nothing to brag about: a mermaid quirk. 

Sure, it sounded wonderful-- a true fantasy come to life. But the reality was that when on land, your quirk was rendered pretty much useless. You did have some water-bending abilities that you could call upon, but the mermaid extension of your power had little potential unless the fight was in the water. And then there was the issue of when your human legs would turn into an iridescent mermaid tail. When your skin comes in contact with enough water, your body automatically transforms, whether or not you want it. You always saw it as a pretty big weakness of yours-- that a villain could pour a bucket of water on you and in ten quick seconds you’d quite literally be a fish out of water. Luckily, your water manipulation proved useful in situations like that, but only if you were able to notice the water about to hit you before it made skin contact.

But all that considered, when Midoriya talked about your quirk, he made it sound like one of the greatest possible quirks someone could have. 

“Your body goes through a whole transformation that exponentially increases your speed in water and your water manipulation ability. Almost any villain would be at an automatic disadvantage if they were in the water with you. It’s an incredible quirk!”

You smile at the memory, cherishing those moments where Midoriya could make you feel like the strongest person on Earth while simultaneously making you weak in the knees. You adore his passion for hero work, his constant devotion to bettering himself never fails to inspire you. Plus, you can’t deny that you enjoy watching him fight. The way his messy, green hair tousles as he activates his quirk consistently lights a fire in you that you’ve never been able to extinguish. Sure, he could be a muttering mess of a nerd, but dammit if he didn’t have you completely wrapped around his finger.

Of course, he didn’t know that. You two went through high school together remaining nothing more than close friends. The second something would tease crossing that line, one of you guys would chicken out. And before you knew it, high school flashed by, leaving you with a heap of unconfessed feelings of infatuation. 

As you now stare at him from across the room and this graduation party, you can’t help but feel a twinge of regret. What if he has felt the same way about you, and you just wasted four years of your life pining for no reason? Then again, the fear of rejection weighed heavily on your shoulders, never really giving you the chance to break free and shoot your shot. 

Your thoughts are cut short by the sensation of cold water being splashed on your back. 

“MINETA!” you scream, whipping around to see the Fresh-Picked Hero running around, pouring water on other unsuspecting girls’ shirts. 

Your anger gets the best of you as you stand to stomp your way towards him, completely forgetting about the fact that your legs have begun fusing to form a tail. You begin to fall face-first into the floor, but right before you do, you feel a crackle of energy around you, the air fizzing as you feel yourself be caught by, who else, but Izuku Midoriya. 

“A-are you okay?” he says, balancing you in his arms. 

You try to catch your breath as you blush from all the eyes on you. 

“Damn, Midoriya,” Kaminari drunkenly slurs his words. “You ran across the room in less than a second to catch her. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen you run that fast in the four years I’ve known you.”

There’s an awkward silence as you look up at your hero, his emerald eyes trying to keep focused on your eyes, blushing as he too notices the room staring at the pair of you.

“Uh, Midoriya,” you say before clearing your throat. “Can you carry me outside? Somewhere where I can wait to dry off?”

“Oh! Yeah, yeah of course.”

You tentatively wrap your arms around his neck as he begins to carry you through the house, trying to keep your heart from beating out your chest. You were so close to him. You attempt to take a few deep breaths to calm down, but every breath is immediately taken away by his presence.

“Thank you for catching me.” 

He smiles before setting you down in a reclining patio chair. “No problem. I’m sorry that Mineta did that to you.”

“Not your fault,” you shrug. “I’ve gone through all of high school with that little perv, I should know what to expect now.” 

Midoriya lets out a short laugh and takes a seat next to you, causing your heart to flutter. Was he going to sit with you while you waited to dry off and get human legs again? Could he get any more thoughtful and charming?

A few moments of silence pass. You let the gentle buzz of bugs, occasional croaks of frogs, and chlorine smell from the pool next to you fill the air. You look over and catch Midoriya staring, causing both of you to blush and look away. There’s a special kind of tension in the air, one that’s making your stomachs do flips as you ponder it. He could like me. He could like me, and now’s my chance to-

“So how long does it usually take for you to transform back?” he interrupts your thoughts. He must see the disappointment in your eyes because he immediately starts backtracking. “N-not that I’m in any rush! I’m fine sitting here with you! It’s just…” 

He sighs and his green eyes stare into yours. “-it’s just that you always look so sad when you’re in this form.”

His observation catches you off guard, but doesn’t surprise you. You’re never thrilled to have this quirk; whenever you transform you see it as a burden rather than some kind of gift. 

“I guess I kind of dislike this part of me, that’s all.”

Midoriya looks at you like a kid who was just told that Santa isn’t real: shocked, confused, and hurt. “But! But, it’s such an amazing quirk! The possibilities of all that you can do to save people and fight villains are endless. You must at least know that! And your water manipulation and combat skills mean that you’re just as effective out of water. And then you-”

“I know,” you say, cutting him off. “I know. It makes for a good hero quirk sometimes. But sometimes I just want to enjoy my class’ graduation party without turning into a half-monster with scales.”

“Monster?!” Midoriya practically yells, looking even more shocked and upset than before. “You think that your quirk makes you a monster?”

You gesture down to your tail, half hanging off the patio chair. Its iridescent scales reflect the moonlight, scattering hues of purple and yellow into the pool beside you. “What else would you call this?”

“Beautiful,” he says quickly, before blushing and beginning his usual stammering. “I-I mean beautiful in the way that I’m sure other people see you, not that I don’t think you’re beautiful, I mean, I do, but I just meant that you shouldn’t think that about yourself because I’m sure no one thinks of you other than beautiful, not that you’re not smart either, because you are, I just mean-”

As he mutters, you can’t help but feel a magnetic pull towards him. It’s too strong, too strong for you to try to resist anymore. You’ve fought it for four years. Four years of stealing glances during late-night study sessions. Four years of your hands occasionally “accidentally” touching his, causing electricity to flicker throughout your body. Four years of always hoping and dreaming that one day you’ll get to know the feeling of his arms wrapped around you. You can’t fight the pull anymore, even if you wanted to. So you give in. And you kiss him.

The kiss catches him off guard, effectively stopping his rambling. He tenses and gasps, but once he feels your hand reach up to his cheek, his eyes flutter close and he absolutely melts into your touch. Your lips move gently against his, guiding him at a slow, yet eager, pace. After a few fleeting moments, you’re forced to pull away for air.

You see your long-time crush, Izuku Midoriya, eyes big with adoration, cheeks flushed red, and your lipstick slightly staining his lips. In that moment, you can’t help but wish you had done this sooner. 

“I… I really like you, Izuku,” you whisper, unable to break eye contact as he hypnotizes you to move closer to him. “I have for a while.”

He smiles and attempts to blink back the tears in his eyes that threaten to spill over. “I really like you too.”

You don’t know this at the time, but Midoriya’s entire being is overflowing with elation. He has liked you far before you ever said your first words to him, choosing to admire you from afar. He never stopped having the mindset of the awkward, quirkless boy he once was, so he never considered that you could feel the same way. That you could reciprocate the way his heart practically bursted out his chest every time he laid eyes on you. Or the way he often found himself lost in a daydream where he magically had the nerve to go up to you and tell you how he really felt. Tell you that when he’s walking beside you, he can’t help but feel like he should be holding your hand; that when he’s talking to you, all he really should be doing is kissing you. 

So having you here beside him, quite literally sparkling under the moonlight and confessing that you like him just after kissing him… it’s almost too much to handle. He feels like his brain is short-circuiting.

“You wanna hop in the pool?” you suggest, effectively snapping him out of his daze.

“The pool?” he replies incredulously. 

“Yeah! Why not? It’ll be fun. Plus, now that I know you think I’m beautiful like this, maybe I want to stay like it,” you say with a wink. 

Midoriya feels his brain short circuit again. “I-I think you're beautiful without your quirk too!” 

You can’t help but giggle at his unwavering concern that he might say the wrong thing. You start to try and shimmy yourself off the patio chair to get to the pool, but Midoriya reacts quickly and leans over to help you lift you up. You admire his upper body strength (your mermaid tail was in no way a lightweight body part) and relish in the feeling of once again having his arms wrapped around you. He slowly lowers you into the pool water, blushing fervently once he notices the way your wet shirt clings to your body.

“Well? Aren’t you coming in too?” you ask, splashing at him. 

He chuckles and begins climbing in, not bothering to take off any of his clothes.Right as he enters the water, you take a breath and go underwater, feeling freer than ever before, completely in your element.

“Not fair!” he whines, watching you swim circles around him. “Not all of us have fins, you know.”

You giggle as you come up behind him, using your quirk to cause a small wave to crash over him. 

“Did you get me in here just to tease me?” he asks, trying to catch his breath from laughing.

You smile and swim up to him, getting as close as possible. “Maybe, but also to do this.”

Your lips crash into his, this kiss having much more confidence and purpose behind it than the one before. Midoriya lets out a soft moan as he kisses back, running his shaking hands through your wet locks. When you both stop to get air, he stares at you with wonderment.

There’s a special glint in his eyes that you can’t make out. Maybe it’s just the pool lights reflecting in his green irises. Or maybe there’s something else, shining bright within him like the stars above you, burning with passion and brilliance.

“What is it?” you ask, bewildered and hypnotized by his stare.

“It’s just,” he begins and looks up towards the sky, as if searching for the proper words, the ones that would have the right amount of letters, just the right sound to describe his current feelings. “It’s just… I’ve never seen someone as stunning as you. Both inside and out. And.. you absolutely amaze me.” 

It’s at that moment that you know with complete certainty-- you will keep in touch with Izuku Midoriya long after graduation.

[theaviskullguy]

What's a mermaid to a king? A lover, apparently

i wrote this a while ago on my Wattpad, bringing this here for Mermay!

Ship: Emperor x Gloves

Fantasy AU!

Please, enjoy!

-----

It was a simple run along the cliffsides, but a misstep caused Emperor to fall off of them. It happened too fast, it seemed. The blonde let out a cry for help but no one seemed to care.

Even though the cliffs had water, Emperor was sure that when he hit the surface he would die-the  cliffs were high up.

So, he closed his eyes and braced for the impact. And when it came, he passed out.

..Only to awake on the shore.

Emperor opened his eyes, rather groggily, and saw startling, pure coral pink eyes-sclera and all- staring into his own. The next thing he noticed was tan skin, and seaweed green hair and...scales?

The creature smiled, showing sharp teeth. "Great! Thought you'd never wake up, two-legged!"

The blond was confused, obviously, and sat up, pushing the green beast off in the process. "What...What happened to me?" He asked.

"You seemed to take a nasty dive off of the cliffs. I found you, swam you to the surface so you could breathe, and brought you here!" They explained, lifting...a green betta-fish like tail.

Emperor backed up. What this real? Did he actually get saved by a freaking mermaid?

The mermaid only tilted their head. "What? Did I scare you?" A look of realization dawned on their face. "Are you scared of me?"

"No, I'm not. In fact, I am in your dept." Emperor answered, still a bit shaken. "Just...I thought mermaids were nothing more than a child's nursery tale, not real beings.."

"...Guess that makes sense." The mermaid shrugged, and held up and out a hand. "The name's Gloves. Nice to meet you!"

The blond took it and gave it a firm shake. "Emperor Castilo."

Gloves' eyes widened in excitement. "Castilo? As in the Royal Family Castilo?"

Emperor only nodded and Gloves smiled widely. "Oh, sweet!! I get to tell my friends I rescued a prince!"

Said prince chuckled. "I suppose you do. Now...need help getting back into the water"

Gloves nodded, and chuckled a bit sheepishly. "Yeah... Will I ever see you again?"

Emperor nodded. "Meet me at the cove tomorrow, when the sun rises. I'll bring something for you then, alright?"

"Okay!" They smiled, and Emperor scooped them up bridal style and walked until he was waist deep in the water, and released Gloves into it.

Gloves gave a small wave, before swimming off into the ocean.

---

Days of meeting at the cove turned into weeks, into months and soon, a year. Every morning, Emperor and Gloves would meet at sunrise and talk well into the day. On a few occasions, the prince would even get in the water and swim around with the mermaid.

Gifts were given both ways; Emperor gave Gloves beautiful golden jewelry that wouldn't really weight them down or get in the way of swimming if they wore the pieces correctly. In return, Gloves gifted Emperor with small trinkets from their little collection of junk that fell to the bottom of the sea, or some beautiful piece of coral, a shell, or even an occasional pearl. The prince would tell the mermaid the object's name and purpose or treasure the object dearly, putting it up in display in his room.

Slowly but surely, Emperor fell in love with Gloves, finding himself wanting to be able to run away from the stress and responsibilities that came with being royalty and spending the rest of his life by the seashore, with his fishy lover.

But, one day, Gloves did not come. Emperor waited until the sun set.

For weeks the mermaid didn't come. The prince felt his heart break every day his friend was a no show.

Two months after Emperor last saw Gloves, his father called him to a freak show of sorts. To see what scum his people would be.

The prince wished he could save each and every being there. And then... someone caught his eye.

In a small tank, there was a mermaid with coral pink eyes and hair and a tail of seaweed green, golden adornments on their wrists. They were curled up, as small as they could make themselves, but even then their tail had to drape over the side of their tank.

It was Gloves.

Emperor ran over to the tank, his father following.

"Now, that is a mermaid. They're terrible creatures," His father started. "Sabotaging our fisherman's hauls. This one got caught in a net trying doing just that. Don't stare at it for too long. It'll think you're a meal."

The prince just stared at Gloves with a look so sorrowful you'd think his brother would have died. He reached out a hand to touch the glass and Gloves put one against his.

The king scoffed and walked away, leaving the two practically unsupervised as Gloves poked their head out from their tank. "You came."

Emperor nodded. "But it seems a bit too late... The show is moving out tomorrow and I have until sunrise to help you all escape."

"Midnight." A separate caged being said. Emperor turned to face them.

It was a kitsune, with 6 fluffy orange tails and in the form of a human with ginger hair and emerald green eyes. "Come at midnight. No one guards us then and the keys are left lying around."

The prince nodded yet again. "Alright. Just...try and stay alive."

Gloves nodded. "Will do."

------------

The full moon shone high as Emperor snuck out of his window, a cloak over his figure. He headed to the freak show with purpose. He needed to save his people. And most of all, he needed to save Gloves. No aquatic creature should be stuck in a tank that small.

With the lockpick he was given by the mermaid once upon a time, he picked the lock of the building and headed in, to find most of the creatures asleep, and the hall completely devoid of guards.

Perfect.

Emperor took the keys from the stand they were on, and unlocked the cages. Some beasts simply flew away. Some thanked him and others used claws or talons to help with others.

Soon all of the cages were empty and the beasts were freed, but... Gloves was no where to be seen.

The prince felt himself begin to panic, but the kitsune brushed his shoulder with his tail. "The back room. They were taken in there after getting sick."

"Sick?" Emperor asked, rather concerned.

"Mermaids can't survive any part of them being dried for more than a few weeks. They got deathly dehydrated." The kitsune stated.

Emperor nodded, and raced to the back room, unlocking it.

Inside, there was a small but simple pool, and in it was an unconscious Gloves, who looked almost deathly pale. The prince bit his lip to keep from loosing his cool, and knelt down to gently shake the mermaid. "..Gloves?"

Gloves stirred, and opened their eyes. "...E-Emp?"

Emperor nodded. "It's me, Gloves. Listen, I'm going to get you out, but I need to lift you out of the pool. Alright?"

The mermaid nodded and allowed themself to be lifted by the prince, who dashed out of the door and ran to the ocean. The cove, more specifically.

As the two arrived, the sun was starting to rise, reflecting off of the water with a golden light as Emperor lowered Gloves in it. "There..."

Gloves smiled, already starting to look better, "Thanks, Emp... And, can I ask you something?"

Emperor nodded. "What is it?"

"..Can I kiss you? Not in a romantic way I promise! Just.. A mermaid's kiss can grant someone the ability to breathe underwater and I want to show you something.

"...S-sure?"

The mermaid nodded and leaned up, their lips being met by Emperor's own as the prince felt the power flow through him. And then he was pulled into the water by Gloves. "A-ACK-"

Gloves giggled, their hair billowing now they were both fully underwater. "Gotcha!"

Emperor huffed, taking a deep breath to find he really could breathe under the water now. "...I'll get you for that."

"But for now, follow me?"

The prince nodded and followed the mermaid as they led him to a smallish cave-on the outside at least. On the inside, it was huge and full of wonderful things. Even a makeshift vanity on a shelf-like rock formation, using fragments of mirrors. Much of the jewelry Emperor gave to Gloves was on this shelf, but other pieces were on other shelves or adorning Gloves. The prince guessed this was their home.

Gloves stopped after finding a bottle full of some strange gold liquid. "I got this a while ago at a market." They explained. "I... I wanted to give it to you to drink."

Emperor raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Well, it's apparently a potion that can turn a human into a mermaid. You often expressed how stressful the prince life is... I thought it'd help." Gloves explained. "I could help you with learning the basics of stuff, and you could even live with me!"

This seemed to be something out of a dream! But, Emperor wasn't willing to go. Not yet. "..I'll consider it, Gloves. I still have things to do on the surface."

Gloves looked a bit down, but nodded. "I get it... Well, take it in case you decide to drink it." The handed the potion to Emperor, who nodded and placed it in his pouch.

-----

The elixir was kept in a locked safe of sorts and almost forgotten. A few months after that exchange, Gloves didn't bring it up. But Emperor had been shown more and more of the watery neighborhood Gloves lived in; from the motherly siren and his selkie husband, to a sea nymph in love with a kitsune who lived on the surface, the prince had become as well known and respected as if he actually lived in the area.

Every night, Emperor would consider packing a bag and writing a note and drinking the elixir, to live there with Gloves permanently. And each time he decided not to drink just yet.

That all changed one day.

"Son," The king said. "I'd like you to meet your fiancé-"

Emperor tuned out her name, being frozen in fear. He didn't want this at all! He just... all he wanted was to spend his life with his mermaid friend!

So the moment he could, he sprinted up to his room and grabbed a waterproof bag, filling it with keepsakes of his brothers, along with the things Gloves gave him and the rest of his adornments (He wished to give some to his new neighbors, along with keep at least two matching rings for himself and Gloves). He grabbed a piece of paper and a quill, writing a note that simply he was running away, and to not look for him.

And with that, he unlocked the safe containing the elixir and headed out the window and to the cove with his bag.

When the prince reached it, he smiled in relief. Carefully, he stripped himself of his clothes and folded them to set on the rocks, keeping his circlet. He opened the bottle of the potion.

"Well, bottoms up.." Emperor said, to only himself. He downed the liquid in one fell gulp and jumped into the water.

He felt a weird sensation in his lower half but he didn't look until it was gone, and he saw a gorgeous and elaborate yellow mermaid tail, with specs of iridescent purple scales. Upon looking at his arms and feeling along his spine, Emperor noticed he grew fins as well, along with fin-like ears much like Gloves, though the ex-prince felt he paled in comparison to the mermaid of his affections.

He took his bag from the shore and quickly swam to where Gloves' cave was, his tail beating the water as hard as he could to get their faster.

When he arrived, he simply knocked on the stone, and was greeted with a tackle of seaweed green as Gloves hugged him tightly. "EMP!!!"

Emperor chuckled and embraced the betta fish back. "I missed you, Gloves."

Gloves smiled and looked Emperor up and down. "You drank it. You..."

"What can I say? Why would I not want to stay with the one I love?"

Gloves' face turned a shade of red, and they nuzzled into the crook of Emp's neck. "...I love you too, Emp..."

---------

When Prince, Regent, and their father found the note, a search for Emperor was called for. The kingdom searched far and wide before anyone thought to check the cove. All that they saw left of the kingdom's heir was his royal robes, folded neatly on the rocks with an empty bottle.

As for Emperor himself? He moved in with Gloves, permanently, and the two got together for reals. After a few years the two were married, and had two wonderful children. One was named Princess, and the other, Prince.

Some say the family learned of a way to turn into a humanoid form and roam the land as humans, and returned as the royal family when the kingdom fell to the grasp of chaos, but no one knows for sure.

All we can say, is this truly was a happily ever after.

The end.

-------------

The father shut his book, and the faces of his two children lit up.

"Are you saying you and Zaza are MERMAIDS?" The young girl asked.

The father only laughed. "Don't be silly, Princess. It's simply a story. A child's tale."

The son hugged his plush betta fish. "Y-yeah, sis. It's n-not real."

Princess pouted. "Awww! But that would be so coooooool!!"

"You know what else would be cool?" The father asked. "If you two went to sleep, now. I let you two stay up past your bedtime, your Zaza is going to get mad at me."

The two children nodded. "Night papa!" The son called.

He smiled. "Goodnight, Prince. You two, Princess." He blew out the light, and headed out of the room.

The other parental unit, Zaza, was waiting just outside the door. "Telling the kids the story again. Huh, Emp? "

"Gloves! You startled me there, love." Emperor stated. "And, yes. Princess won't stop thinking it's real."

"Well, who knows?" Gloves placed a kiss on Emperor's cheek. "You thought mermaids were a child's tale and yet you met me."

The king rolled his eyes playfully. "I suppose you're right. Now, it's been ages since we've done a good one, so..."

Gloves raised an eyebrow. "Midnight swim?"

"Midnight swim."

The two lovers headed out of the palace and to the cove, hands intertwined under the moonlight. they stripped away each others clothing as not to ruin it, and dove into the water.

A flash of colors followed, then green and yellow mermaids swam around the large cove, their laughter like springs of fresh water.

They got their happily ever after, after all.

[thecandywrites]

Micro-mermaid Chenera Part 3 Finally

Last and final part. Short and sweet. This was fun. I should do another series for Mermay 2022. Again, sorry Mermay 2021 I was late, by like, two months. But hey, better late than never? Hope you enjoyed reading this. I should have named this series, Against All Odds but it didn't occur to me until I was proofreading this last part. Oh well. Enjoy.

Micro-Mermaids

Chenera

Part 3

A few days later, you were all at the subadult stage to set your permanent adult colors as your parents seemed eager to get rid of their current brood so they could have some peace and quiet and start a new brooding season as Ethel scooped all of you up and put you into the colors tank with the other chameleon beta micros and it was almost instantaneous that your siblings began changing and morphing while pairing up with others from the other pairs and there was something in the water that seemed to accellerate the maturation process as you could feel yourself already start to form eggs within your abdomen as the males were already fighting for the attention of your sisters as your brothers could have any pick of any other female in the tank. Their fancy and flashy colors and bountiful fins were impressive but in your mind and heart, they were no match for Nona.

So here you sat, on the only part of the tank with black obsidian rocks, looking bittersweetly at your tail that still had Nona’s pattern on it and still missing him, and having no desire to ‘pair up’ with any of the others.

“Hey, you need to pair up.” Your sister Dina insisted as she took a break from her many suitors who were trying to playfully chase her around the tank.

“I am not attracted to any of the others.” You argued as you refused to move or even look at any other.

“Chenera, listen to me, if you don’t find a mate in this tank right here right now, you’ll be left as a single, and be sold as a single and put into a single’s tank where you stand a very slim chance of finding an equally attractive mate. And even if you don’t find a mate there, there are other breeders who specifically look for single females just to put them into harems, where you’ll be forced to mate with their males, who may be far more aggressive and mean and cruel than the ones from Ethel’s tanks who have been bred to treat the females with tender loving care. And you’ll have to compete with the other females just to be laid with, and you’ll raise your clutches all alone and your life span will be half of what it can be with a mated pair like this. I know you miss Nona, but he is a guppy micro, you’re a betta micro, a gold chameleon one at that. Your worth far exceeds his and there is no hope of ever meeting him again, let alone ever breeding with him. Betta micros can be two to three times the size of guppies and interbreeding among the different kinds never works, it's been tried and it usually ends in failures. Follow his own advice and let him go completely. If you wish to be all black, then so be it. But keeping this guppy pattern will only hurt your worth and keep the other males away, they're allready calling you "guppy girl" do you really want to be known as that for the rest of your life? You have to know that you're better than that! You have been through more than they could ever dream of, you may be smaller than the rest of us but you're stronger than any and all of us, you're a warrior, you beat up a dwarf gourami for crying out loud! You could bank on that and get that big red male over there instead of moping on this black rock at the bottom. It's either this or the harems by other breeders who would scoup you up in a heartbeat because you're different, but not in a good way. Do you want to die so quickly and so horribly?” She pressed anxiously.

You looked at her and just felt pity for her before you looked out over the tank of other potential mates, and while they did look strong and handsome, they were still no match for Nona in your heart and you just curled in on yourself, hugging your tail that still had Nona’s pattern on it, it was a sorry excuse for the real Nona but it was all you had before you found a cave and hid yourself away in it and dismissed every male that tried to approach, even getting aggressive towards the more insistant ones before all the males bonded to the others instead, leaving you alone completely.

The next day Ethel came back and happily scooped up the different pairs into separate bags for the shop as she counted up how many pairs she had before she noticed there were still a few unmated girls in the tank since these clutches were a bit girl heavy because the ratios were never perfectly equal, which was a good thing because the last batch of betta micros were boy heavy and the boys were getting a little too eager to mate up with a betta woman.

“Ok, all the others into the net now, I’ll put in with the single female tank.” Ethel said before you finally left your cave and swam into the net with the other females and into its own bag before you simply sat at the bottom of the bag, feeling the water shift with the motion of the car as Ethel drove you and your siblings and their mated pairs to the shop before she dumped the mated pairs into their own little tanks as the pairs eagerly hid away in the caves to start the mating process after their first meal in their new enclosures before you were dumped into another larger tank and there was only a pane of glass with several holes that separated the females from the males who were all waiting by the holes to see the new girls that didn’t get into mated pairs as the other girls eagerly swam around to the different holes to meet the guys who were a few to several cycles older than they were but who were desperate and eager to find a mate.

But one look at them and none of them were anything close to Nona, so you ignored their calls out to you as you found a cave-like hide and began digging under it, moving the sand and gravel out of your way to make a crevice like cave under the hide before you got to work, taking your long gold hair and putting it into a bun to collect and tear up bits of foliage to line your new cave with, just like how you used to with Nona and by the time you were done, Ethel came back by and noticed the new pairs and eagerly scooped them up and put them into their new enclosures as you settled into your new cave under the hide as your eggs began to mature, waiting to be fertilized but you kept them inside you and simply re-absorbed them. If Nona himself was not going to fertilize your eggs, you were never going to lay any as you fought with your own instincts to pair up and mate as you stared determinedly at Nona’s pattern on your tail.

Meanwhile on the other side where a line of guppy micro tanks were, Nona was doing the same exact thing, he had been here for over a week, and had dodged and ditched every attempt every female who tried to mate with him, even though his own instincts were screaming at him to try to mate with every mature and available female present, but if none of them were you, he was never going to pair up or mate with any other female as he worked on collecting new foliage for his cave under the hide, which was made a little difficult since he had grown into a pretty impressive guppy micro male. He still sorely missed you, and he had vowed he would keep doing this in remembrance of you for as long as he would live and if he could not fertilize your eggs, he would fertilize no one else’s. And he would continue to live his life alone, but committed and faithful to his memory of you. That sounded better than passing on what little good his own personal genetics had to another guppy woman who would only like him for his flashy colors and handsome pattern instead of his personality. That and no other guppy woman, could come close to your beauty.

“So what’s the story with this girl?” Amy asked as she walked by the beta tanks and saw you instantly dive towards your cave under the hide and noticed your unique coloring and pattern.

“Oh that one, that’s Chenera, she’s actually a gold headed chameleon betta micro- her siblings are all the ones you see with the same gold head and gold hair but much prettier colors. But when Ethel’s house was broken into by fairies when she was a youngling, one fairy yanked her out of her tank and tried stealing other younglings from the odds and ends tank when they dropped her into that tank. A betta micro’s instincts are always to hide, so she hid in a little cave under one of the hides in the tank and she ended up growing up in that tank with guppy micros, dwarf gouarmi micros, molly micros and all that, so that’s why she has that guppy pattern to her because chameleons change to their environment but at a certain stage when you put the sub adults into a brightly colored tank filled with semi precious stones and surrounded by those shimmering fabrics, they change themselves into these gorgeous colors. But she never did. So she’s actually on sale, but I don’t think she’ll ever breed for you because she has rejected every single male that’s ever met her, sometimes aggressively so, I think she’d be best as a pet only.” Samantha explained, repeating what Channel had told everyone at work.

“So she’s been through hell, like me, I’ll take her.” Amy said before she went around the store and bought everything she could for the perfect micro beta tank and all the foods and things she would need, including some guppy flakes because if you had grown up eating some micro fish flakes, you’d probably like to have them supplement your diet and it would be comforting to you as Samantha put a “sold” marker on the tank with your name and description on it and once Amy’s tank had been set up and stabilized, Amy came back and took you to your new home a week later.

The whole way though, you cried because you feared your sister’s words were about to come true but once your bag was put into the water and you looked around the new tank, you didn’t see any other micros in the tank and you didn't smell any other either as you looked from the tank to your new owner in confusion and once she tilted the bag so that you could swim out, you called out to see if any others were in the tank but were hiding before you tentatively explored the tank, discovering it before you realized- you were alone. You were not going to be forced to breed after all which was a big relief for you.

Granted it was going to be a lonely life but you were no stranger to solitude at this point. This tank was perfect. It was larger than your parent’s tank, it had been previously used, it wasn’t a brand new tank either, but it had been salvaged and refurbished and most of the plants had clearly come from some kind of sale since most of them had damaged leaves or broken stalks but in the new environment, they were regrowing and thriving with the proper care now, it had a surprising variety of foliage and mosses and little snails to eat up algae, mostly sand at the bottom, really soft sand too and a few spots of brightly colored gravel and several patches of moss you could lay in and soak up the rays from the lights. It had multiple caves and hides of all sizes and even a really nice amethyst geode, which is what Amy could afford, after she spent what she had on everything else since you had been on sale for such a steep discount and Samantha had given her everything else for practically a song because Amy was “rescuing” you and Samantha got to unload the less “pretty and perfect” items in the shop to help set up Amy’s tank because from a business perspective, you were kind of a “lost cause” but that didn’t mean your story was any less compelling, especially to Amy who was a self proclaimed bleeding heart.

But for Amy, she was used to rescuing those who needed rescuing as she had her fair share of three legged animals or one eyed animals or birds who had plucked out most of their feathers and were now sporting little “sweaters” and micro- mermaids now completed her menagerie.

And with a peaceful heart you realized the special geode that your new owner had bought for you and the way it had been placed in the sand that there was already a very soft cave under the geode, already prepared for you that you didn’t necessarily need to line with foliage to keep comfortable, but you couldn’t help yourself, you still lined it with moss and other soft foliage to make it perfect as Amy took pictures of you and your pattern in your new home as she fed you the special food she had bought you as you happily munched down before she took a chance and fed you guppy flakes as well as you let go of your beta food to grab them as you ate those reverently, remembering how you used to eat those with Nona, having missed the colorful and flavorful flakes more than you had thought you would.

After a couple days and you seemed to settle in quite nicely, not hiding in the cave at all, still preferring to sleep in it though, actually spending your days exploring every inch of the tank and discovering all the fun things about it and enjoying all the enrichment it had been filled with and laying in the soft moss and taking naps, braiding your own hair so it wouldn't tangle, making your new space wholly yours as you rearranged it a little to suit your liking and improving the flow of water and functionality before Amy returned to the store and asked to speak with everyone involved with you and your story before she got a hold of Channel.

“So you’re the one who found Chenera in the odds and ends tank?” Amy asked her.

“Yup, it was quite something…” Channel explained before she repeated the story and remembered the key part, how there was a guppy male that you kept holding onto and kept trying to hide and protect and how once you got into the net, you had camouflaged yourself to his pattern but how you kept that pattern once you were taken out of that tank.

“Can you show me where the male guppy male micro is? Did you sell him already?” Amy asked.

“No we haven’t, he won’t pair up and he hides in caves he makes under the hides themselves, and he keeps lining bits of foliage in them, he’s actually right over here.” Channel said as she led the way over to where his tank was before she got the flashlight on her phone and shined the light into the little cave as he tried to hide from the light but Amy recognized his tail pattern as the same pattern on you.

“He’s actually on sale as a pet only because he refuses to pair up and mate with anything and forcing micros to mate can send them into a depression and they can die prematurely.” Channel explained.

“I’ll take him. I already have the perfect set up for him.” Amy insisted as she showed Channel the tank before you had moved into it as Channel had the hardest time catching Nona and putting him in a bag for Amy.

Amy bought “baby bits” and put them in the bag with Nona who starred reproachfully at the baby food. He had been bought and was going to be forced to mate with a guppy and produce hatchlings despite his best efforts. He was hoping he would have avoided this but it seemed that there was no way for him to keep avoiding it now as Amy happily bought him and brought him home and put his bag into the tank.

When you heard the lid open you came out of your cave from putting new foliage in it but stopped and hid away again when you saw a bag with another micro in the bag as once again, your fear and anxiety that your new owner had bought you a mate and was going to expect you to mate with whatever she bought as you tied your hair up and armed yourself. You’d rather die a virgin than be forced to mate with any other.

Meanwhile Nona stared out into the empty tank in relief that there were no other guppy micro women already at the bag, ready to pounce on him the moment he would be let loose, he’d rather die a bachelor than be forced to mate with another and once the water had been acclimated Amy let Nona go and sat in front of the tank with baited breath as Nona hesitantly began exploring before she saw him call out.

You stiffened in your cave at the sound of a male’s voice as you got a whiff of the water that he had come from that had been in his tank, it smelled foreign but you could smell a male in the water as once again, your body reminded that you had new eggs that were now moments away from being mature and ready to be fertilized as you fought with your instincts once again.

His voice was deeper and much more mature than most others you had heard before as you stayed in your cave, ready to attack if he came near you.

Nona could smell a female in the water though, but it wasn’t quite like anything he had smelled before, it smelled good actually as his own body reacted to it, as his body’s instincts were screaming at him that it was time to find this female and fertilize her eggs that were already at the proper stage to be fertilized. But even though he could smell this female, there was no sign of her as Nona carefully and hesitantly inspected the tank, looking for her and calling out to see if anyone else was there before he followed his nose and found the little cave under the geode hide and slowly approached the mouth of the cave but once he was about to climb in to see if it was occupided, he saw you and froze as you did the same, letting the two pieces of gravel fall from your hands as you pulled yourself towards him and stared in disbelief at a very grown up Nona as he stared at you in the same way, in awed wonder, you had grown and matured and while he could still recognize you, you were even more beautiful now all grown up and mature.

“Chenera?” He breathed.

“Nona?” You asked, almost afraid to believe your eyes.

“Yeah, it’s me, Nona, wow you’ve...oof.” Nona began before you quickly left the cave and tackled him to the floor rolling with him in the soft sand and holding him and kissing him all over his face as he did the same as you were both laughing and crying at being reunited as Amy recorded it and cheered before you and Nona disappeared into the little cave under the geode to continue with your reunion.

“I thought I would never see you again.” You cried happily as you hugged him tight, his now adult size and pattern still of some resemblance of his sub adult pattern that you had copied onto yourself but he had gotten better with age.

“Me either.” He confessed as he happily kissed you all over and held you just as tightly, his heart feeling like it was going to burst with happiness as he recognized his own subadult pattern on you, that you had kept for all this time. He felt that you would have changed like all the others he had seen in their little dishes as other buyers had bought them in pairs along with their clutches of eggs in other geodes and carried them throughout the store, their gold heads and gorgeous colors and impressive sizes still eye catching but his heart hurt too much to see if any of them had been you.

Finally, after what felt like eons of time, you were back together and in a similar place where you had first met, in a cave, under a hide, but this time, under a wonderful geode of your own. And while you were still a little bigger than him, but still smaller than the rest of your family, he was used to the size difference of the females being bigger than the males and while you had gotten used to seeing males with fins twice as big as yours, somehow, Nona’s fins were just to your liking because of who they were attached to.

“Please, I have eggs already, I can feel them and I don’t want to keep reabsorbing them, fertilize them, please.” You pleaded between heated kisses and that was all the permission Nona needed before his cock speared your entrance and he began to make love to you in your little cave curling around you and holding you and caressing you and rutting you so vigorously into the sand underneath you as you found your sexual release and Nona did as you asked and fertilized every available egg in your egg sack, your abdomen getting even larger from the fullness of them before you led him to the geode and together you placed each one, carefully into its socket surrounded by facets of amethyst.

“So this is how beta micro’s lay their eggs, in geodes.” Nona noted as he helped catch each one and put it into its place, already seeing signs that they were fertilized and that the fertilization had taken successfully. Never been brave enough to even dream that this was possible.

“Yes.” You giggled as you did the same. Since it was your first, official clutch. It was rather small, but oh so precious as Amy was once again, outside the tank with her phone, recording it.

“Well, fingers crossed, and they can hatch.” She smiled happily, happy to see such a star crossed lover’s pair be reunited and mate and already get to laying clutches in just a matter of moments.

Over the next several weeks, Nona and yourself took turns waving fresh oxygenated water over the eggs, watching as the little micro-merbabies grow and develop. Feeding each other and even when you had no other eggs to lay, continuing to mate for the fun of it as well as to bond even closer all over your new home as you eagerly awaited for the clutch to hatch.

Then one day, just as the shells of the eggs grew super thin and soft- the babies began to squirm and hatch into your waiting hands as well as Nona’s as you instinctively gave them their first milk and brought them up to the surface so they could get a gulp of air for their swim bladders before touching your head to theirs, the gold transferring to their heads and hair as well as you could already see that the middle of their tails had the same guppy pattern that their father had but otherwise were the perfect mix of you and him as you named each and every one as you helped them eat their first meal, “the baby bits” and after they ate one baby bit, they caught another before Amy put in some baby guppy flakes for them as they all caught the flakes with their other hand and began to congregate in one of the many super soft sand pits, each one with a baby bit in one hand and a flake in the other, taking a bite out of both as you and Nona continued to repeat the process until all of the eggs hatched successfully as the shells dissintergrated in the water completely, before you happily gathered your little family in the pit and began your new lives as parents, and living long, happy lives together. Raising a new breed of micros- betta-guppy micros.

[thisweekingundamwing]

This Week in Gundam Wing 6-12 June 2021

Here’s this week’s roundup! June 6th -12th!

Remember to give your content creators some love! Be sure to join in on the events at the bottom! And remember to send in any new works you see or make next week!

~Mod Hel (Sorry this is so late all!)

Fanfiction/Snippets/AU Ideas:

@destinysblackrose​

Losing my Breath https://destinysblackrose.tumblr.com/post/653297355731435520/fic-losing-my-breath-gundam-wing-heero-x

F/M, Heero Yuy/Relena Darlian

Rated M for mature. Contains smut and angst.

Before his ‘reconnaissance mission’, Heero had been coaxing her, week after week. Waiting for her to become comfortable with this aspect of their relationship. Their last 'exchange’ gave him hope that maybe, they were getting closer.

The patience of a sniper. He used to hate it. Waiting. Watching. Aching. Breathing. Boring.

At least nothing about waiting for Relena was dull.

@lemontrash​

Pride Day 5 https://lemontrash.tumblr.com/post/653269838365638656/pride-day-5

5 It Used to be a Different Game - 1x5 SFW - UST.

After a war and a rocky experience with ambivalent heterosexuality, Wufei is not entirely sure what to make of this situation.

@noirangetrois​

Gundam Wing Diaries https://noirangetrois.tumblr.com/post/653438898421284864/the-gundam-wing-diaries

May 8, 2000 (Monday)

Episode 46 - “Milliardo’s Decision”

May 9, 2000 (Tuesday)

Episode 47 - “Collision in Space”

Gundam Wing Diaries https://noirangetrois.tumblr.com/post/653714468147265536/the-gundam-wing-diaries

May 10, 2000 (Wednesday)

Episode 48 - “Takeoff into Confusion”

May 11, 2000 (Thursday)

Episode 49 - “The Final Victor”

Of the Sea (Ch. 11) https://noirangetrois.tumblr.com/post/653792472043077632/of-the-sea-chapter-11-archive-of

M/M, Duo Maxwell/Heero Yuy

Mature, No Archive Warnings Apply, fairytale my way, Meroctopus!Dorothy, Slow Burn, Multi POV, POV Third Person Limited, merman au, MerMay, Fantasy Politics, mentions of abuse, Unnatural November

Heero Yuy will soon be reaching the age of majority, at which time he will ascend the throne of Wingaria. Before such time, he must needs choose a bride. But what if there are no good choices? What if someone else has captured his heart?

simulacraryn

Friday, I’m in Love https://archiveofourown.org/works/31705282/chapters/78469714

F/M, Gen, Zechs Merquise/Lucrezia Noin

Teen And Up Audiences, No Archive Warnings Apply, Hangover, Alcohol Mentions, Explicit Language, Established Relationship, Alternate Universe - College/University, 1995 college au, khushrenada family has more issues than a magazine, background Treize being a gremlin, unbetaed - we die like men here

[College AU, 1995] Zechs is well aware of the upcoming social obligations that come with being friends and sharing a home with a "snob". The issue is when said friendship is actually cramping his own style, then it's time to enlist his girlfriend in order to help the friend find a better coping mechanism for the upcoming activities.

@thaiteaaddict​

Reincarnated As A Minor Villiainess and I Survived Past My Death Scene (Ch. 28) https://thaiteaaddict.tumblr.com/post/653740109010747392/i-reincarnated-as-a-minor-villainess-and-i

M/M, F/F, F/M, Heero x Duo, Trowa x Quatre, Wufei x Meilan, Dorothy x Relena

Full cast

Teen, AU - Fantasy, AU - Isekai, POV First Person, Unreliable Narrator

After being killed in a traffic accident, Duo wakes up in a medieval fantasy novel - except he’s woken up as one of the novel’s minor villains who was supposed to have died in a main character’s backstory. Intent on righting the wrongs of his novel counterpart, Duo sets out to change his fate and just maybe improve the relationship between himself and his estranged husband, Duke Heero Yuy. (Duo is isekai’d into the body of a novel’s villainess character and runs with it.)

@zaganthi​

Catered https://zaganthi.tumblr.com/post/653846550482665472/catered-zaganthi-caffiends-tzigane-gundam

M/M, Chang Wufei/Quatre Raberba Winner

Teen And Up Audiences, No Archive Warnings Apply, Blindfolds; Demisexuality; Dinner; First Kiss; Hand Feeding, GW Pride 2k21 – Day 13, Blindfolds; Day 17, foodplay

“I would like you to do a blind taste test.” Quatre sat down across from him on the cushion, smiling that serene little smile that he only used when he was up to something. He’d done stranger things. That smile made him a little paranoid, though. Anyone with the least bit of sense would be paranoid when Quatre looked like that.

“All right.”

“Thank you.” Wufei could see the smile, but he could also hear it in Quatre’s voice as he moved behind him.

Gnossienne https://zaganthi.tumblr.com/post/653752431378890752/gnossienne-zaganthi-caffiends-perryvic

M/M, Duo Maxwell/Quatre Raberba Winner; Treize Khushrenada/Duo Maxwell; Treize Khushrenada/Quatre Raberba Winner; Trowa Barton/Chang Wufei

Explicit, No Archive Warnings Apply, Aged-Up Character(s) Quatre Raberba’s Uchuu no Kokoro | Space Heart; Preventers (Gundam Wing); Team as Family; Domestic Bliss; Friendship; Friendship/Love; talking with exes; Double Penetration; rompy sex; Aftermath of Violence; Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery; Awareness of the trouser legs of time; Talking about Therapy; Dinner Party; Swordfighting; Enthusiastic Consent

It was as if his words constituted permission because Quatre’s smile was blinding then as was his emotional reaction - figuratively and literally because he damn well started glowing as he said in a reverent whisper “Sandrock,…”

His Gundam impossibly powered up there and then right in front of them even as Quatre literally ran towards it. This time around he really got it, he could feel Sandrock as Quatre felt him - and it was a him strangely. Just as he felt that Deathscythe was more than just metal and technology, Sandrock had a presence. How, he didn’t know but it was like seeing him reunite with a beloved family member.

Fanart/Crafts/Photo Manips:

@alphaikaros​

https://alphaikaros.tumblr.com/post/653299730884050944/late-mermay-post

Dorothy/Quatre, fanart

https://alphaikaros.tumblr.com/post/653860625645256704

Relena/Heero, fanart

@anukisart​

https://anukisart.tumblr.com/post/653291417640304640/first-anime-crush-right-here

Heero Yuy, fanart

@babygray-dam​

https://babygray-dam.tumblr.com/post/653427876479303680/a-sketch-of-duo-maxwell

Duo Maxwell, fanart

@cloakandfire​

https://cloakandfire.tumblr.com/post/653518473738305536/milliardo-peacecraft-lucrezia-neuenheim-noin

Millidardo Peacecraft/Zechs Merquise, fanart

@duointherain​

https://duointherain.tumblr.com/post/653647734686072832/a-new-duo-render-from-violet-in-tooth-and-claw-i

Duo Maxwell, render

@gundayum​

https://gundayum.tumblr.com/post/653389873532796928/im-just-gonna-copypasta-from-ao3-lmao-sorry

Relena & Heero, fanart

@idrawprettyboys​

https://idrawprettyboys.tumblr.com/post/653393436572106753/duo-in-a-crop-top

Duo Maxwell, fanart

@twillpoint​

https://twillpoint.tumblr.com/post/653752343129636864/until-next-time-afternoon-tea-booth

Duo/Quatre, fanbook

Photosets/Gifsets/Screenshots/Manga Pages:

@cuteciboulette​

https://cuteciboulette.tumblr.com/post/653254092113723392/doujinshika-sango-show

Destiny, doujinshi

https://cuteciboulette.tumblr.com/post/653344695287775232

Duo & Heero Book, doujinshi

https://cuteciboulette.tumblr.com/post/653707101846306816/cuteciboulette-tsuki-no-kodomo-vol-3-full

Act 3, doujinshi

Head Canons:

@bryony-rebb​

https://noirangetrois.tumblr.com/post/653352279647371264/lemontrash-bryony-rebb-bryony-rebb

Trowa & Cathy, headcanon

@lemontrash​

Quotes:

@incorrectgundamwingquotes​

https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/653552300665782272/duo-kinda-gay-to-make-a-wanted-poster-duo-why-do

Duo & Heero

https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/653642909168631808/duo-im-hella-fucking-tired-but-i-need-to-go-to

Duo & Quatre

Calendar Events:

@gundamzine​

Rhythm Generation 2021

Meet the Mods: https://gundamzine.tumblr.com/post/636708854145613824/come-on-over-a-meet-your-2021-zine-mod-team-head

Check out the blog for the Zine schedule!

@gundam-wing-pride​

Gundam Wing Pride 2k21 https://gundam-wing-pride.tumblr.com/post/648237909672083456/incoming-transmission-faq

A Beautiful Rainbow of Prompts https://gundam-wing-pride.tumblr.com/post/649898271517573120/a-beautiful-rainbow-of-prompts

@gwcocktailfriday

Cocktail Fridays!

Post responses on Friday, during Happy Hour between 3 & 5 pm in your own timezone.

Here’s the prompt for Friday, ! [starting back up next week!]

In need of Summer/Fall(Autumn) prompts!

@gwshootingstars

Shooting Stars Online Convention https://gwshootingstars.tumblr.com/post/653339481502564352/hey-everyone-guess-whos-back-with-a-brand-new

This has been tabled for future action.

https://gwshootingstars.tumblr.com/post/653641678082752512/hi-all-thank-you-so-much-for-the-response-and

Latest news.

@oztober-rust

Welcome to Oztober Rust

We’re an up and coming Gundam Wing event with a slight twist! This page is still a work in progress, but you’re welcome to join us over on discord and get a feel for the event.

Have discord, will fan. https://oztober-rust.tumblr.com/post/647568110262566912/i-see-a-nice-and-steady-following-we-do-have-a

@seasons-of-gundamwing

Summer Event Prompts Needed https://seasons-of-gundamwing.tumblr.com/post/652830126852177920/alright-folks

@thisweekingundamevents

Events Calendar https://thisweekingundamevents.tumblr.com/post/644080386309275648/events-calendar-update

If you are hosting an event currently, or are planning on one, hit us up with links and dates! We’ll add them to the Calendar and reblog your notices to get the word out!

[nuzgen]

So I lied I couldn't find the words to write, apologies, however I do have to say let me slide this fanfic by you I wrote on the 13th of May, for mermay!

AO3 LINK:

Underwater Love (Wilford Warfstache x reader)

PROMPT: I keep sinking to the bottom of the sea. Why don't you join and become a mermaid, like me?

_______________________________________________

You hadn't been sure how long you have been visiting these shores, however, it always felt like home. The gentle breeze of the wind and the glimmering sea was all very nice, although there was something you'd always notice, always out of view. A presence in the waters along the rocks. You sat on the sand, allowing some water to touch your feet. It was a quiet day today, not like many people come around anyways. Little did you know a sea fairing spectator was watching you. His dark pink eyes followed you, trying to be as quiet as he can. You were so wonderful to him, a real gem. He'd almost been caught a good number of times, sometimes he'd just get so excited to see you. He usually wouldn't bother this much with a human but you captured his heart.

Wilford decides to get just a bit closer. He didn't mind the thought of being caught as much if it meant he could get a closer look at you. You snap out of your daydreaming to the sound of movement in the waves, sounds like a large creature. You look around, you could have sworn no one was there when you had sat down. As you glance towards the sound of the noise you spot the end of a very pretty pink tail. You stand up to go and look at the sea animal that caused all that noise. Wil has no other choice but to sink downwards. You get there a little too late as you can only see a tuft of dark hair float downwards. You sit on the rock trying to look for it. You sit there for a while, and Wil grows impatient. He wants to meet this person who's captured his attention. The man rises upwards, although he doesn't see the sands and the rocks, only the ocean? He only notices his error after he hears the voice of the person he's been looking at for so long.

"Hello...?"

You only see the back of this person, and it seems he has a strange patch of the same pink you saw earlier along his back.

Wilford wastes no time turning around, "Hello love! How are you?"

His eyes are a beautiful shade of dark pink, skin, a nice beige, with patches of the pretty pink color you saw before, accompanied by a pink mustache. The man's stubble was dark. He had pink and white freckles all over, like a mystical being. His hair was dark but faded to pink, and there were some whisker-like things on the sides of his head. As you process this, he stares in awe of the person he's seeing in front of him. You looked just as good up close, if not even better. He was the first to speak.

"I'll introduce myself first then, the name's Wilford Warfstache, a pleasure to meet you! Might I say you're looking positively stunning today? Oh, where are my manners, what's your name?"

You try to gain your bearings, "I'm Y/N, it's nice to meet you as well. Forgive me if this is rude at all but... What are you?"

Wilford smiles, "Y/N... sounds amazing. It's not rude at all darling! I'm what you humans call a mermaid of sorts, I'd consider myself to resemble those axolotls, no?"

"You do seem to look like those, they're very cute." Something about this man felt so comforting like you could lay in his arms and you'd be ok. The two of you ended up talking for a while, he seemed to take in everything you said and did.

Eventually, he just couldn't take it, Wil wanted to hold your face. He'd never talked to a human like this, nor touched one. He wanted to know what it was like. Wilford's hands were dry enough at this point so he just took his shot. The two of you got very close while talking and moving around, then you felt his hand touch your face. His eyes were bright as he took in every detail of your face, and you were taken aback by the gesture. Realizing how dumb it was Wilford started to take his hand off your face but you hold it in place.

"But I- Y/N you moved away, I thought I did something-" You shushed him.

"No, it's fine Wilford, it's nice."

He holds it there for a bit, not wanting this moment to end. He'd dreamed about being able to meet you, and now you're here. He still couldn't help feeling like something was missing, he wanted to get closer to you. He wants to show you the wonders of this world and show you... what's the word to describe what he's looking for? Oh, love. He's in love. What if you thought it was too soon? Only one way to find out he supposes.

"Y/N, I've been looking at you from a distance for a while, you're so stunning, your very presence could bring color to a dead coral reef gumdrop. Well- I was wonderin' if we could like, go on a date of sorts?" Wil's expression held a great sense of anticipation.

you're flustered by his words. He's asking to go on a date? "I'd love that so much." Your words seem to melt away Wilford's fears and replaced them with anticipation.

"Well sugar, I keep sinking to the bottom of the sea. Why don't you join and become a mermaid, like me? It could be our first date!" Wilford is practically glowing, he couldn't be happier.

You ask, "Can you do that? Turn me into a mermaid, like you?"

Wilford responds affirmatively, "I certainly can! Come on love, there's no time to waste! Oh, for this I'll have to kiss your legs, you alright with that?"

You get flustered at the prospect but agree, and he starts. His kisses are light and leave a tingly sensation in your legs. The kisses pepper your legs and make you feel warm.

"And now one to finish it off gumdrop!" He gently kisses you on the lips, you two melt into it. His hands reach to cup your face, he never wants to let you go. He's so kind and gentle with you, your eyes close involuntarily and the two of you stay like that for a bit. Your legs are even more tingly as he gently lowers you from the smooth rock into the waters, you only open your eyes once he's taken his lips off of yours. He looks at you lovingly.

"I didn't think you could look better but here you are, you look so amazing gumdrop!" He takes a moment to fawn over your new form, and then pulls you over. Swimming with your newfound tail comes to be easier than you thought, and Wilford is here to guide you through it. Being able to breathe underwater is strange, but exhilarating. The two of you share another soft kiss, something he seems to be a master at. Each time it takes your breath away. He's got eyes for you and you alone. You both go on to find a nice spot for your date, although you can't help but feel it's already begun.

[bellafarallones2]

A/N: so I wrote some nsfw indruck for mermay? angst with a happy ending

Duck usually stayed in his quarters when the rest of the crew raised the drag-net every morning. He didn’t enjoy watching the fish flipping across the deck, watching men scoop them up and snap their necks and cut cleanly down their spines. But this morning, the sheer volume of shouting brought him forth from his quarters and into the ice-cold air.

A silvery tail lay across the deck, flopping weakly, larger than any fish Duck had ever seen. The mesh of the net cut into the fine scales. One of the sailors raised his arm and drove a harpoon through the tail. An unearthly scream made him stumble back, and Duck realized that this was not a fish at all, because the tail was attached to a human torso, with skinny arms and damp silver hair.

The mer mewled pathetically, shivering, and tried to drag itself away from the sailor standing over it, smearing bloody scales onto the deck. For a moment Duck met its frantic red eyes.

“Hey!” said Duck. The other sailors turned around. He wasn’t quite one of them, but his broad shoulders talked. “What are you, an animal?” he said to the man who’d speared it. “That’s not a fish.”

“Yeah, a fish wouldn’t fetch us each a fortune on the London market!” another sailor called.

Duck ripped the harpoon out of the mer’s tail and immediately realized his mistake when it screamed again. “Shit!” Duck said. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” He was kneeling, now, trying to staunch the flow of blood with his hands. The mer seemed to be in shock, its sharp teeth chattering. Lord only knew how long it’d been trapped in the net before being pulled up. He couldn’t put it back in the water in this state.

Not knowing what else to do, Duck scooped the mer up in his arms and carried it back below deck. His cabin was dark, lit by only a single porthole window to the outside. Even in that dim light he could see the ice crystals in the mer’s pale hair. Duck put it down on his bunk, curling up its tail to fit.

“I’m going to fix you up,” Duck said, more for his own benefit than the mer’s. When a wet cloth touched the mer’s wound, it hissed and clamped its spindly fingers around Duck’s shoulder. “Shh,” Duck said, and continued gently wiping the blood away. “Joe, help me.” The ship’s doctor, who had been sitting transfixed, leapt into action, preparing a clean bandage and taping it down over the wound.

The mer had stopped shaking, now, and seemed to relax a little into the pillows, shifting to get comfortable. “Please don’t tell me it’s about to die on us,” Duck said.

Joseph shook his head. “Probably just needs rest.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“Hey, if your bed is still… occupied… tonight, you can share mine.”

“I can sleep in my desk chair, but I appreciate the offer.” A shout from somewhere else on the ship, calling everyone aboard to breakfast, made Duck turn back to the mer in his bed. “We’ve got to go, but we’ll be back later, okay?”

--

When Duck and Joseph returned to the room that evening, the mer was awake and alert. Duck distracted himself from the urge to stare - it had a fascinating face, smooth and angular - by laying out what food there was available. Hardtack and salt cod. The mer reached hesitantly for the fish and took a bite.

“Yeah,” said Duck. “The food ain’t great, but at least even the captain doesn’t have anything better.”

The mer took Duck’s hand, and with surprising strength pulled Duck down on top of him. For a moment Duck panicked, thinking he was being strangled, but the mer was only… hugging him?

Face burning slightly, Duck got fully onto the bed. The mer’s lips were only an inch away from his ear, and his voice was barely louder than a breath. “Thank you.”

Duck pulled back. “You can talk?”

The mer gestured at his throat.

“Maybe it’s difficult out of water?” Joseph suggested.

The mer nodded. Even just the few hours in the air had turned his skin dry and cracked.

“Do you feel okay to go back?” said Duck.

The mer nodded.

“Alright, up you get.” This time the mer leaned against his chest as he picked it up and carried him up onto the deck, and the narrow end of his tail curled around Duck’s waist. As soon as he’d lifted him over the rail he slithered down the side of the ship into the water and disappeared.

--

The HMS Kepler followed the red hand of its captain’s compass northward, slipping between the shifting ice floes, until one day there was no way forward. And then no way back. The arctic was a nightmare of a lover, squeezing the ship in a deadly embrace.

While the shores of ice closed in, Duck and Joseph spent the day in their cabin, playing cards. They could hear the muffled noises of the rest of the crew elsewhere in the ship, and then a horrible creaking from all around them.

“Uh, did you hear that?” said Duck, looking around.

“It’s the ice,” said Joseph calmly, putting down a card. “It’s reached the ship.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“No,” Joseph agreed. He stood up and went to the bookcase, where he reached behind his books and pulled out a bottle. It was rum, two-thirds full, significantly more expensive stuff than the swill they got with meals.

“Holy shit, have you had that this whole time?”

“I certainly didn’t pick it up out here. Look, do you want any or not?”

“Hell yeah I do!”

Joseph uncapped the bottle and took a sip before handing it over to Duck. “To our icy doom.” He sat down again, leaning gingerly against Duck’s side. Duck put his arm around Joseph’s shoulder, and they sat there for a while, side-by-side, passing the bottle back and forth.

The captain decided the next morning that they would take their chances out on the ice. They threw a rope over the side of the ship and climbed down, carrying whatever supplies they could on their backs, and started walking. East, towards Greenland.

The sun never set, this far north, so they slept only when they could walk no longer, and walked again when the freezing wind ripped sleep away.

It didn’t take long for their supplies to run out. Duck didn’t know how long. Joseph was counting the sleeps in a notebook he insisted on carrying (“it’ll be helpful to know, if anyone ever finds our bodies”), but Duck didn’t pay much attention.

One of those mornings, while the others packed up their tents, Duck stood exhausted at the edge of a hole in the ice, hoping something edible would surface that he could spear. The regular harpooner had already succumbed, and the harpoon felt strange and heavy in Duck’s hands.

What did surface was a pale head of hair. Duck blinked. A pair of cold hands gripped his ankles and yanked him down into the freezing water. The harpoon clattered onto the ice.

“I’m sorry,” the mer said. It had been long enough since they’d last met that the wound on his tail was only pink scar. “If you stay with your crew you’re going to die.” And then he pressed his chilly lips to Duck’s.

Screaming pain, then, as his legs broke and were re-made, but the water no longer felt so cold. And Duck realized all at once that he could breathe.

He looked down. He had a tail like a seal, thick and gray.

“Oh,” breathed the mer. “You make an even handsomer mer than I’d imagined.”

Duck grabbed him and kissed him again. The mer’s sinewy tail wrapped around his. “Uh,” Duck said finally. “What’s your name?”

“Indrid.”

“I’m Duck.”

“I know.”

Duck mustered a smile and a teasing tone. “Does this mean I get to sleep in your bed now?”

“Yes, but I won’t be as much of a gentleman about it as you were.”

The mer had always been cold to the touch above the water, but now he was warm, and Duck allowed himself to rest his head on the other’s shoulder. He was exhausted. Months of hard work on a ship and, even worse, weeks of struggling on foot across the ice to an uncertain destination would do that to you. But the water washed the sweat and grime easily from his skin.

Indrid lived in a cave at the center of an iceberg, where the layers of ice above them softened the light of the sun. When Duck flinched awake in the middle of the night, dreaming of starvation, Indrid petted him and let him drift off again in the faint glow of his red eyes. When Duck was strong enough to swim Indrid taught him how to hunt, driving schools of fish upwards and trapping them against the surface.

And still they slept with their tails intertwined.

“Indrid,” Duck said late one night as he traced patterns on Indrid’s narrow back.

“Yes?” Indrid raised his head from where it was resting on Duck’s shoulder.

“Do I have a dick?” He’d figured out how to go to the bathroom, but the rest of the smooth front of his tail was a mystery to him.

“Yes.”

“Where?”

Indrid’s smile showed in his voice. “Would you like me to show you?”

“Please.”

Indrid wrapped his fingers around Duck’s wrist and guided his hand down. “Under here. But it only comes out when you’re aroused.

“Can we… do that?”

Indrid’s tail wrapped more firmly around Duck’s, both restraining and holding him close. “I told you I’d take care of you, didn’t I?”

“You sure did,” Duck gasped as Indrid’s hand pressed his against the tender flesh. He relaxed into Indrid’s hold, letting him take the reins.

“Oooh, you’re sensitive. We should have done this ages ago.”

“Yes, we should have, Indrid please-”

Indrid kissed Duck’s neck. “Can I bite you? Just a little, I won’t -”

“Fuck yes, mark me up, want everyone to know I’m yours.”

Indrid’s sharp teeth sank into Duck’s neck, and Duck squirmed in his hold. A slit he hadn’t even known was there was opening near the top of his tail, the unmistakable head of a cock emerging.

“Good boy,” murmured Indrid, and they both saw how his cock jumped. “Go on, touch yourself.” Duck plunged a finger into his slit, forcing his cock out into the water. “I told you you had a cock, didn’t I? And what do you say to me for showing it to you?”

“Thank you,” Duck gasped. Indrid had let go of his hands and was now feeling up his chest. “Please, Indrid, please -” Indrid’s tail had him so tight he could just barely twist his head around enough to kiss him.

“Do you want me to touch you some more?” said Indrid, muffled by Duck’s lips on his.

“Yes.”

Indrid’s clever fingers closed around Duck’s cock, and he didn’t let up with the kisses for a moment as he stroked him, and then with a twist of his wrist Duck was coming, milky fluid dissipating quickly in the water between them.

“Well,” Duck said when he’d finally caught his breath. Indrid had released him, so Duck could look into his eyes again. “Now I know I have a dick. But I have a second question.”

“Oh?” Indrid squirmed as Duck pressed his palm down on the upper part of his tail.

“Do you?”

--

Joseph had been watching, when Duck disappeared beneath the ice. He’d gone to pick up the harpoon and looked down into the water and saw nothing but gray-blue.

It was a shame. Duck’s presence was what had kept the rest of the crew from bullying him. He didn’t allow himself to think about the rest of it.

Not that he had long to ruminate. One day he was looking into another circle in the ice when a face appeared, a face very much like Duck’s. Joseph immediately thought back to determine what might be making him hallucinate: the lead from the cans of food? Plain starvation? And then a pair of strong hands pulled him into the world below.