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forbidden-sunlight · 5 months

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yandere! merman!chu wanning with a male!researcher!reader scenario

Warnings: Canon Divergence/Alternate Universe, Obsessive behavior, implied bullying, and OOC.

There may also be possible triggers in this story.

If you do not feel comfortable venturing any further, please hit the 'back' button on your mobile device or computer and read something much more pleasant than a possible series of unfortunate events.

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Hey guys, welcome to the White Husky and His Pet Cat Shizun ficlet that I collaborated with the talented @berrypuddingpwease a while back. Definitely check out their blog if you are interested in this series, or others such as Heavenly Official's Blessing.

So without further ado, sit back, relax, and enjoy! :)

It hadn’t been that long since the merfolks first made contact with the humans, and definitely not enough time for any self-respected scholar to drop everything and study them. Whether it was blessing in disguise or simply dumb luck, you, a leading researcher in xenobiology, volunteered to be the one to carry out the task.

You would live in a small cottage overlooking the sea, near a merfolk’s nest, though you weren’t sure if that is even the correct terminology to use to describe their habitat. It would probably be better to use the terms lower world and higher world. After all, the merfolks still maintained a cautious line of behavior and were not truly ready to meet any humans, much less a researcher who would be documenting everything about them for the next six to seven months. Thank goodness for generous and curious sponsors.

Your territory covered a choppy part of the sea, although it is technically under the water. Beneath the waves were beautiful reefs and unusual marine life forms, most of which had not been discovered yet by other biologists, until now. Although you were cautious when diving, the merfolks had warned you about the others living in the lowlands and not to remove anything from their environment unless there was consent from the leader. You began to spend less time swimming in unknown territory and more time on land to communicate with the merfolk who were willingly to participate in a mutual research experiment, all in the name of learning how to coexist with one another.

The merfolks’ settlement was called the Summit of Life and Death. While you were not well acquainted with the other merfolk, it wasn’t your place to judge why they named certain landmarks or customs that were part of their everyday life.

However, from the small group of merfolk who were willingly to communicate with you, there is one who kept coming back even when he did not seem like a friendly one at all. His name was Chu Wanning, and his physique resembled more of a shark than a merman with his silver tail that reflected golden right beneath the rays of the sun and his thin, sharp facial features. His eyes were the most fascinating feature of him, in your opinion; the inky irises resembled an eternal winter, or a phoenix who could not be reduced to ashes even if he were at death’s door.

You did your best to keep your questions as brief as possible while giving him as much personal space as needed so he did not feel more uncomfortable than he already did, though you were always excited to see and talk to him with each passing day. Chu Wanning might believe those lovely webbed hands of his were too ugly for any human to see, but not you. They could not possibly be dry or unpleasant to the touch. Neither could the merman himself, this creature who appeared to have been carved from marble and given life, cold and beautiful. This strange, aloof merman who always maintained eye contact when speaking to you and exchanged information about his culture and customs, but never anything personal. You would never dare to cross that line when he has already given you so much, his words slowly filling the pages of your research journal.

You did not know what it meant for him when he brought a small group of younger mermen with him on your next visit, but this unexpected development did allow you to interact with the most sociable, talkative, and shameless mermaid you have ever met: Mo Ran.

Unlike his peers or his mentor, the scales of his obsidian tail shimmered beneath the sunlight as a light shade of crimson. Apparently it was very rare for someone of the merfolk to possess such a dark colored tail as Mo Ran did. Other clans speculate it is a sign of a terrible omen to befall upon those closest to them in the distant future. While he said this with a casual smile, waving it off as superstition…you could see the faintest glimmer of sadness in his eyes, and the way he looked at one of the other mermen, Shi Mei, you believed was his name.

“If it means anything, coming from a human…I believe your tail is very beautiful.” You said, smiling softly as your deft fingers flipped to another empty page, steadying the pen in your hand. “What else can you tell me about the courting customs between the merfolk?”

“Why do you want to know so much about us anyway?” He fired back, face flushed, no doubt from exposure to the sun. “Do you plan on courting that cold-hearted bastard? You know it’s forbidden for a merman to interact with humans, much less fall in love with them.”

Your brow disappeared into your hairline at his words. “Chu Wanning has been nothing but polite and cordial towards me in this experiment.” You answered carefully. “Furthermore, all of this information will be collected in a book to share with fellow scholars. If there is anything that he does not wish for me to share with the world, I will gladly omit it. I will not jeopardize our…tentative relationship, for a rise in status. There are more important things in life than being a renowned researcher, you know.”

Mo Ran just stared at you with a stupefied expression. Perhaps he believed you had ulterior motives, another selfish reason why you would even bother doing all of this. Perhaps he thought you were the oddest human you had ever met. Perhaps this is the first time he had someone speak about his master without any animosity, or any animosity towards his kind. Either way, you hoped he was satisfied with your answer. And he seemed to be, or just decided to change the subject by going into excruciating detail about the courting rituals of mermaids. He was about to sing into your tape recorder and provide an example of the bawdy love poems that were performed by the males to their intended mates, when Chu Wanning suddenly appeared behind the young shark.

He seemed…quite furious. He didn’t even give the poor thing a chance before he lectured the daylights out of Mo Ran, going so far as to say that mermaids do not sing such shameless lyrics unless they are actually desperate to attain the affection of their desired mate, even when they rejected them for whatever reason.

Mo Ran glared balefully at his master for a long moment, then spared you one more glance before he disappeared beneath the white-capped waves with a flick of his glistening tail.

To your shock, the great Chu Wanning lowered his head and apologized for his disciple’s behavior, promising to punish Mo Ran for acting so unsightly.

“It’s quite alright, really.” You reassured him quickly. “He wasn’t being disrespectful, he was….very honest. And he kept me company. Though, if I may be so bold to say this, I do enjoy your company quite a bit more than Mo Ran’s.”

You said, smiling at him, glancing down at your journal briefly to flip to a crisp, new page. “So, where did we leave off from our last conversation? I believe it was something to do with the mythology behind the summit’s origins?”

“…Mn.”

You took the singular syllable as confirmation, your grin stretching from ear to ear in utter delight and anticipation. What you did not realize back then, your head being so wrapped up in possible theories and many other ideas, is that your companion was physically and mentally relieved to know that you were not besotted with Mo Ran in any manner beyond a scholarly fascination.

It eased his mind tremendously, because he has already begun to secretly make the necessary arrangements to commence a courting ritual of his own. Obviously, you were the one he wished to serenade. The desire to claim you and present all of the treasures in the world at your feet…it’s suffocating, but in such a lovely way that it sent pleasant tremors up his spine at the thought of being your mate, husband, whatever you prefer to refer to a lifelong companion by human terms.

After all, that’s why you had continued to actively seek him out ever since you have arrived, is it not? Because you see him as not someone who is coveted for his strength and position as the master of Sisheng Peak, but someone who yearns for love, and you believe he is worthy of love and being loved in return even when he is an imperfect, disgusting creature.

Right?