#i also like the idea of plenty of things being confused for mermaids and some mermaid scientists going about categorizing them

[dazzelmethat]

"Although commonly mistaken for mermaids, the freshwater parasitic sprite spends all it's life inhabiting the body of a large fish.

Like most common fish species the fry spend their childhood fleeing their mother."

Something a little horror themed for mermay.  I think frequently about a mermaid version of that isopod that lives in the fish's mouth. And I also frequently think about how my platties whom after giving birth immediately started chasing their young.

[husbandohunter]

Mermaids exist in stardew, yes? So imagine a mermaid farmer for Zhongli, Kaeya and Diluc it could be in Yandere setting or not. I just wanna know their reaction when they found out and how it’ll effect their relationship. Will it brew angst, love, or both

Part of your world [Genshin x Mermaid!Reader]{Stardew Impact series}

Synopsis: You came from the sea and he takes you through a journey of what it was like to live on land despite your differences.

Genre: Fluff

Characters: Diluc, Kaeya, Childe, Zhongli

"I threw in Childe because I had an idea for him xD It's fluff month so everything is going to be happy from now on >.>"

=============================

{Diluc}

It was a hot summer day when Diluc first found you lying unconscious ashore. You had just swam far and wide from the ocean world, the climate deemed unideal for your case. With no one else around, he took the initiative to help you out of your situation.

He shortly found out by the slight appearances of scales gracing your legs that you were neither a human or someone coming from the town nearby. As legendary as mermaids are, Diluc wanted nothing to do with you. His beginning plan was to find your relatives and send you out of his house (Additional work isn’t welcomed when he has so much already). However, you latched onto him pretty quickly since he was the one who saved you.

Here stands a human, a creature that you always wanted to interact with, in your perspective he may look a little stern but he must have plenty of knowledge to offer based on all the antiques he owns.

The only problem was that you two had no way to communicate. Different worlds meant different languages. Whenever Diluc told you that you couldn’t stay, all you did was tilt your head and whenever you tried expressing what you wanted to say, well, normally bubbles would come out of your mouth since they were an indication for your words.

He gave up on trying to kick you out and simply allowed you to take residence as long as you stayed out of his workaholic life. You would tend to his farm while he was absent on other matters and feeding animals in the barn (a lot to do but a win-win situation now that you were able to discover what it was like to live on land at the same time). Though you were also a handful, most of the time Diluc had to excuse himself from his desk when you thought the rake was some sort of hair brush and he forbade you from using the bulldozer. Quite honestly you caused him a lot of stress. He spent most of his hours teaching you and before he knew, it was already a habit of his.

The only words you knew were three words. If you wanted to eat you would say ‘fish’. If you were thirsty, you would say ‘water’. If it was anything else, you would say ‘Diluc.’

He allows you to take long baths since he knows how hydrated mermaids must stay at all times. Orders a pool to be built in his front yard (at least this way helps him save his costly electricity bills). Diluc also borrows books from the library museum for you to read, anything that you would find interesting, (mostly they were about alphabets and picture-based stories (it felt like he was raising a child).)

Easily gets worried when you step into town with him, he keeps a watchful eye in case you collapse and extra bottles when you need a drink. Most of the time, he had to keep an eye on you since you had the natural instinct to waltz into whatever interested you, such as dancing in annual festivities (which you dragged him along of course). It was how he grew attached to your presence because you truly knew how to appreciate the world around you when he himself was too busy to do so.

Two worlds merged and he was learning how to live in yours too, how you perceive things. Building sandcastles, collecting seashells, listening to the echoes resounding within them. Activities he thought were unnecessary suddenly gained the meaning he had lost long ago. Diluc grew too fast at maximum speed, trying to get as many things done as he could, until he was pulled back by the emotional waves of your kindness and compassion, onto the shore he failed to live on. How ironic reality can be.

{Childe}

Everyone knew how much Childe loved to fish. He sets out at sea every evening to capture a batch of flounders, hopefully stumbling upon a legendary one.

In a way, he did. Just not what he expected. What he pulled out of the waters seemed to be a human-sized fish sitting upon the other residues caught in between. ‘A mermaid…?’ he thought, still digesting the fact in front of him. (No wonder the net felt so heavy).

At the same time he wanted to take you with and sell you for a good price but knew how mad Tonia would get when she found out. So he lets you go free. The thing is, you swam behind his boat and followed him back to land. This was how your relationship with Childe started, to this day he continues to jest upon that memory.

Tonia took most of the responsibility to coach you about human life. One of them was table etiquette, before you ate with only your hands which caused a mess. Childe would laugh hysterically at it until Tonia reminded him, “This is also what happens when you use chopsticks, big brother.”

Teucer invites you to basically anything since you have so much patience. Childe shortly realizes that he was soon going to be replaced as the eldest caretaker and you couldn’t even talk at that time. So it was only fair that he included himself in the circle while interacting with your way of communicating: sign language (Surprisingly, he was naturally good at it. Though his movements are rather exaggerated and...ungraceful).

You were nice enough to accompany him to his fishing tasks and soon enough became your daily activities. Childe takes the lead as you follow him from the side, sometimes he lets go of the steering wheel and allows you to push the boat instead (he kept a note to himself that in your mermaid mode, your strength multiplied by a large number). Other times he felt a little risky and decided to jump in the ocean with you for a swimming session. It worried you immensely but your anxiety subsided when you saw how much fun he was having and for the rest of the time, you both explored what the ocean had to offer.

Childe used to be a fish-cook enthusiast. Not anymore (since that day you cried when glancing at the flounder dish he placed on the table). He had to stick to seaweed or any other plant-based meals with a little bit of meat but too much would cause your stomach to churn. Since his siblings complained at the sudden change, he had to make a separate meal plan for them. With a mermaid in the house was certainly high-maintenance indeed.

Cuddling with you in front of the cracking fire blazing under the chimney was one of the calmest moments indulged himself in. He often chooses the life where the waves crash constantly, anticipating a thrilling storm that comes ahead. But you were just a lull at the sea, the mediator he needed in times where his siblings needed a mother-figure. Sometimes he fears that you would leave him and return to where your true family lives but he was grateful that you chose him above all else. He was grateful that by chance, he captured you at sea. One thing he loved about life was the unpredictability the future brings, including the blessings. Even if you were a creature from far away, in your presence he felt like he was truly at home.

{Kaeya}

When the tides rose above his head, Kaeya was sure that he was done for. The surfboard he recently stood upon slips off beneath his feet and he falls into the ocean’s merciless waves. No oxygen, no time to catch his breath amidst the impact, his eyes were slowly closing and the last thing he saw was the sun’s light beyond the heavy surface, along with the murky visual of someone swimming in front of it.

Although he almost drowned, the idea of being saved by a pretty mermaid makes up for the fact (He has a natural tendency to flirt at anything eye-catching even if you were an outlandish being). You on the other hand was confused by his advances as you couldn’t understand a word he was saying, hence you swam away.

Those beginning days when you chose to explore the land, Kaeya remembers how much trouble you had with walking using your new legs. He had to hold both your hands while leading you forward, he found it rather cute when you tighten your grip the moment you felt that he was going to let go (he was only bluffing of course but you still hissed at him). Still, Kaeya ensures that you don’t fall to the ground, he catches you in time when you collapse while laughing, “You’re doing great sweetheart.”

In return you teach him how to read the ocean’s movements so that he won’t drown again. Kaeya spends more time around the beach since he knows that the water bodies are where you were most comfortable with. He tells you that you always smell like saltwater whenever he buries his face in your hair, perhaps that was how he grew attached to the ocean as well.

In summer seasons there were several days where you had to sleep in his bathtub because the air was so dry. As a mermaid, he had to tolerate many of your unique quirks, in this case he had to deal with showering in cold water since you took up all the electricity. Another case was your wine tolerance, no one could challenge you to a drinking contest when your body could sustain large amounts of liquids. Kaeya sometimes jokes if you could turn him into a merman like those in fairytale books so he can have the same experience. You take it as a joke while he was also being half-serious.

When you have to take a temporary trip home, Kaeya visits the dock every evening and waits for you to come back, trying to see any signs of your colourful tail. He glances at the ocean he grew to love, knowing where he stood is as far as he could go and anywhere beyond the boundary was out of his reach. So many people left him in his life and even though he knew you wouldn’t do the same, he still worries. Uncertain if you would abandon him too.

Your existence became the center of his life the moment you chose to walk upon land with him. Side by side, through small hurdles the seashore and hurdles as big as the wave that almost killed him the day he met you, Kaeya keeps them all as if they were the most precious treasure a pirate could find. It didn’t matter if you were different from everyone else because despite your tail, all he could see was you.

{Zhongli}

While Zhongli strolls along the sandy beach, he follows the alluring sound of your singing voice. You sat upon the rock while humming along what seems to be an old folk tune, similar to what Guizhong once sang. The man folds his arms and closes his eyes. Many years have passed since he last heard something like this, “Your voice, it’s very lovely.”

He was a geologist who worked by the museum, collecting different types of rocks and seashells that would wash up shore. You became very familiar with his daily routine that before he pays a visit to the beach again, a pile of interesting rocks would be waiting for him by the docks. It was a gift. And Zhongli would bring snacks like seaweed soup as an accommodation for your kindness.

Unlike Kaeya, when you couldn’t walk because your legs were too weak to be used, Zhongli helps you with every step along the way even if the trip was a slow one. He even offered to have you carried when he saw you were having too much trouble but you insisted on trying. The whole trip that usually took ten minutes was a three hour walk.

Even though he knew many things, your language was not one of them. However he was willing to learn. Both of you have study sessions regarding each other’s culture. For you it’s the way humans drink with cups because of Zhongli being a tea fanatic himself, he even showed you how to hold a tea cup properly. You taught him how to swim since he had been so occupied on land that swimming never crossed his mind. Thankfully he was naturally good at it due to his tall stature (albeit a little scared when diving into an environment unknown and different to him).

Zhongli loves the way you sing and he would ask every time he wanted to read a book. Either under the tree on a warm spring day or on the couch when it was storming outside. Although he intended to get some reading done, Zhongli can’t help but fall asleep. You didn’t want to wake him up (and you could carry him if you wanted to thanks to your mega-mermaid strength) so by morning, you’d find yourselves in the same spot and your lap feeling numb.

Earth and sea were separated for a reason so that the creatures may stay upon the place where they belong. That wasn’t enough to separate you from him though. Zhongli would travel to the sea to see you and you mustered the courage to walk upon the hard surface of land. The two were only parts of the world but together they are part of the world, connected to form a whole new life.

[twstedbeauty]

Just found your blog, and I love it! May i ask for headcannons of Riddle, Vil, Malleus and Idia watching their designated Disney movie with their s/o?(akin Vil, Snow White, Riddle Alice in Wonderland, Malleus, sleeping beauty)

I’m going to assume that they would have the movies in this world since they canonly have The Little Mermaid adaksdjaksdjas

Riddle Rosehearts 

Riddle is still getting used to relaxing and having fun, so watching movies is still rather new to him. 

He sits rather stiffly on the couch at first, not really sure how he should sit, but he’ll slowly relax once you join him. 

 On the whole, I think Riddle would actually really enjoy Alice in Wonderland. It’s very colorful and whimsical and there’s something about it that gives him an almost nostalgic feeling. 

He’d appreciate Alice as a protagonist, but I do think he’d find her a little annoying with how she thinks and does things at times. 

“Who in their right mind just chases after a rabbit into a hole in the ground?” You hear him mutter and you can’t help but smile to yourself. 

The Cheshire Cat immediately reminds him of Che’nya. 

Riddle is immediately impressed by the Queen of Hearts entrance. She comes on screen and has this air of intimidation and power. 

He points out some parts of the movie that reflect real life Heartslabyul rules! Like the rule about painting the roses, the rule about no cats at parties.

I think the part with the court scene he would find a little silly and quite exaggerated, however. 

"So, it was all just a dream?" Riddle watched the credits roll with a rather confused look. "That wasn't satisfying at all!" You couldn't help but giggle at that.

"It's explained at the beginning! She wanted a world of her own, so she made one up herself~" Riddle just blinks owlishly at you at that, which just makes you laugh again.

He'll have to go and have some time to himself, probably having a mental crisis over what is real and what isn't.

Vil Schoenheit 

Vil loves watching movies, so when you suggest watching a movie from your world, of course he’s all for it. 

Knowing him, he’s no doubt seen the movie already, but he’s not opposed to watching it with you. 

The Beautiful Queen summoning the spirit of the Dark Mirror scene makes a proud smirk come to Vil's face. He can't help but feel a bit of pride for his dorm watching it.

But immediately after, when Snow White comes on screen, his face drops into a scowl and he rolls his eyes.

Right off the bat, he comments about how annoying Snow White is. 

“I just don’t understand why they gave her such a grating voice...” He grumbles, shaking his head. “It’s so irritating.” 

Vil would point out how Snow White's dress and makeup, along with the Beautiful Queen's, is a reflection of the fashion from the period when the movie was made. (And if you pointed it out to him first, he'd be VERY pleased and impressed with you~)

"Oh, so THAT'S why they gave the Beautiful Queen pencil thin eyebrows?" You teased and Vil shoots you an unamused look.

"Of course. She's a product of her time, a staple for beauty and fashion from that era."

The dwarves do amuse him when they come on screen. He'd never tell you, but Dopey is his favorite.

He voices his admiration during the Queen's transformation scene.

"The lengths that she was willing to go is truly admirable..." He watches as she dips the apple into the poison. "But even the greats are capable of making mistakes. She should have ensured that Snow White could never be revived from the sleeping death."

He doesn't have much to say towards the ending, but he does look a little put out by Snow White being revived and getting a happily ever after.

"Such is the fate of villains..." He sighs. "Destined to die in the shadows while the heroes get their happy endings."

"Or is this case, getting struck by lightning and falling off a cliff." You remarked, grinning at the deadpan expression he gives you in response.

His rating for the movie is 9/10. The only reason it's not 10/10 is because of Snow White and the ending.

Idia Shroud 

(I apologize in advance, Idia is one of the characters I'm still trying to get a handle on writing ;v;)

I feel like Idia and Ortho watched the Hercules movie as children and it was Ortho's favorite movie.

So watching it again with you was something nostalgic for him, even if he remarks on it being a kids movie. (You can argue that some of the anime he watches is also for kids, but that will upset him and he'll go sulk under his covers and you'll never finish the movie.)

"Uwehehehe...what a clumsy idiot." He's got that sharp smile on his face as he watches Hercules swing the column around and basically destroy his entire village.

Honestly, he's not really interested in Hercules' tale and he's not really a fan of musicals. The only parts that interest him are when Hades comes on screen.

The only commentary that he gives is to make fun of Hercules.

"It's not possible for people to get THAT muscular in such a little amount of time..." He mutters as he watches the training montage with a bored expression. "It's not scientifically possible." You shrug in response.

"He's part god, so maybe that's part of it?" Idia just snickers with a sharp smile.

"He looks like a car test dummy in a toga."

Idia admires how confident Hades is and how fast he can negotiate things. I think he secretly wishes he had that confidence too.

How does he feel about Megara? Mmmm, I don't think he's interested in her character either. She's the main hero's girlfriend and a pawn to Hades, that's it.

If Ortho is watching with you guys, he's really the only one that enjoys it besides you. Idia goes right back to what he was doing before you suggested watching the movie as soon as the credits roll.

Malleus Draconia

Of course, Malleus knew that there was a movie made about the Thorn Witch. He and Lilia showed it to Silver and Sebek when they were children. (Lilia had thought it would be good for them to learn the history behind the tale!) So when you bring up watching it with him, of course he wants to. He loves spending time with you and the fact you want to learn a bit about his culture warms his heart.

He does like the aesthetic of this movie. He finds the music and the hand-painted backgrounds to be charming.

He can't say he understands how animation works, but it's nice to look at nonetheless.

Malleus likes the three good fairies. He finds their antics and the way Flora and Merryweather butt heads to be rather amusing.

"You know, I've always wondered what the third gift would have been if the Witch of Thorns hadn't come in when she did," He muses as Maleficent makes her entrance. You hum in thought.

"Some people theorize it would have been eternal happiness." You look over at him with a slight smile. "You know....never needing to feel blue?" That makes him chuckle.

"Eternal happines....Yes, I quite like that idea for a gift."

If you remark on Maleficent being petty for cursing an infant, Malleus is going to pout.

"Well, quite frankly, I understand how she feels. It's rather hurtful not being invited to events." You look over at him and raise an eyebrow.

"Fine! Then curse the people who didn't invite you. Don't curse the infant child who had nothing to do with whether or not she was invited." Malleus just hurumphs and crosses his arms.

"In a roundabout way, the king and queen DID suffer for their actions. Having their baby cursed to die." A slight smirk breaks across his face. "I'm sure they'll think twice next time."

He doesn't say it, but he quite likes Aurora as a character and he loves the sound of her singing. He finds it very enchanting and relaxing to listen to.

Flora and Merryweather fighting over the dress color reminds him a lot of Silver and Sebek. Fauna's baking strongly reminds him of Lilia's cooking.

During the part where Aurora is being hypnotized, you suddenly gasping and clamping your hand on his arm startles Malleus. "OH MY GOD. I JUST REALIZED THAT THE CREEPY NOISE IS ACTUALLY SAYING HER NAME."

You both pause and listen again as the eerie note that played in between the music stings creepily called "Auuuroooraaa~" in a beckoning manner. Malleus blinked in surprise.

"Oh my. That would explain her expression as she walks up the stairs." He mused, putting a finger to his chin. "How clever. I've watched this film plenty of times and I never noticed that."

The part where Maleficent casts the thorns around Stephen's castle and turns into a dragon are Malleus' favorite parts.

"None of the other members of the Great Seven can do what she can do." He says with a prideful smirk. "She is truly supreme in her ranking."

Watching Maleficent back Prince Phillip onto a cliff and trap him with no protection is VERY satisfying for Malleus. But once the fairies bless the Sword of Truth, he pouts again.

"If it weren't for them, he wouldn't have been able to defeat her." He says. "It wasn't a fair fight." You raise an eyebrow at him at that.

"She turned into a huge, fire-breathing dragon. You call THAT fair?" His little pout in response just makes you laugh.

Overall, Malleus enjoys watching the movie with you and he'll gladly watch it with you again whenever you want to.

[klbwriting]

Pirate’s Heart - Prologue

Fandom: Six of Crows

Pairing: Kaz/female!Reader

Summary:  The Galacia Islands are magical and surrounded by a protective reef. The humans and mermaids who lived among the islands were at war for decades before an uneasy treaty was made. A foolish mermaid turned pirate and an angry heir also turned pirate join forces to take down the military leader who threatens their way of life and their families.

Notes: welp, here’s another Kaz story with pirates and mermaids and I cannot wait to keep writing it

Taglist: @sixofshadowandbone @awomanwhoisupsidedown​

Once upon a time there was a reef that circled a group of 12 large islands called the Galacia islands due to their cool waters.  Before humans arrived the islands were home to many magical animals and plentiful resources, ruled over by loving Sea Witches and frequented by mermaids.  They spent most of their lives swimming in the deep but if the spirit took them they could ask permission from the witches to explore the land, maybe even live there for a time.  It was a happy time, full of laughter and life, prosperous for all life.  All the islands had different types of mermaids that lived around them, their tails telling a story of where they were from.  Rarely, a mermaid was born with a multicolored tail and these were considered lucky to the others in their villages and were kept guarded with hopes that they would bless their village with safe travels and a good harvest or trade.  

It the soft heat of the summer, while most of the mermaids were deep in their waters to keep cool, a loud boom rang out and part of the reef that protected the islands was destroyed.  In sailed three ships full of humans, some looking for treasure, some for a new life, and some for opportunity, and everything was changed.  

At first the mermaids just hid, allowing the humans some space, seeing what these new creatures would do with this land.  They brought in more humans, they killed the animals for fun and food, and they built ports and cities.  They also began hunting the rare colored mermaids, desiring the scales from their tales for jewelry or charms.  This angered the sea witches who rose up, revealing themselves and combining their powers to seal the reef again, destroying many of the ports and towns in the process.  They also destroyed themselves to keep the reef intact forever and left their mermaid brethren to pick up the pieces.  The humans were furious at suddenly being trapped within the reef and blamed the mermaids, sparking war between the two.  

For decades the war raged, the mermaids of the deep taking down any and all ships that  dared to venture into their waters, the humans hunting any sea witches that were born to prevent the mermaids from being able to walk on land with them.  After nearly 100 years the two sides were at a stand still and an uneasy truce was coming to pass.  However, an up and coming captain in the navy was determined to wipe out all mermaid life in revenge for the sinking of a boat his wife and child were on.  His name was Pekka Rollins and he was determined to find a way to catch a mermaid and make them reveal where their leaders were from.  

*******

Y/N was unhappy with her lot in life.  She lived on the border of the largest island, called Argoes, and she was born with a multicolored tail.  Her tail was even more rare, the colors were not common and completely out of typical order.  Normally a tail would be many shades of red or green or blue.  Y/N's tail started yellow, moved onto blue, then red, white, and finally green.  She was more heavily guarded than any of the rare tails before her.  When she got an opportunity to escape it was the first thing she did.  She broke above water for the first time right near the boat where Pekka happened to be, scouting the area.  He saw her tail and realized that this was something special.  She was guarded, she would hear things from those guards about their leaders, possibly find a sea witch for him to use for her powers.

"Hello there," he said, smiling sweetly at her.   Y/N noticed he was young and handsome and the first human she had really interacted with.  

"Hello," she said back.  

And that was the beginning of a months long romance for her.  She was entranced with his tales of the human world and what amazing things they created.  He would bring her trinkets, they would lay on the beach and sing songs to each other.  He even made up a song about her tail that made her smile.  It was perfect and soon she was hopelessly in love with him.  Once he knew had her he planted a seed.

"I wish you were human, we could get married and I could truly show you the human world," he would say every time they met.  In truth Y/N was already tracking down a sea witch, hoping to bribe them into giving her legs.  One day when Pekka mentioned her turning human she smiled bright.

"I found a sea witch...they said if I gave them my heart and its power I could be human like you," she said.  "But, I heard a rumor that you can't be in love without a heart, would you still want me if I couldn't love you?"

"What fool told you that?  Love comes from the soul," he said.  "Give them your heart, they will bring you to the surface right?  You wouldn't swim all the way up would you?"  She nodded.

"Yes, they bring you to the shore because your legs are weak at first," she said.  Pekka smiled.  She thought he was happy that they could finally be together, she had no idea what he was really so happy about.  They made arrangements to meet the next evening in secret after she had her legs.

Y/N swam into the seaweed grove where the sea witch had made their home and summoned them.  The sea witch was beautiful, with hair a fine gold and eyes black as the night sky, neither man nor woman, just magic.  They were also tricky, now in hiding and rarely did anything unless given something of high value and the heart of a rare tail mermaid was something to be coveted.  Their hearts were full of magic and would give the sea witch even more power.  This sea witch was called Horus and once the agreement was made, sealed with an exchange of scales from the mermaid, they reached out and gripped the skin on Y/N's chest.  She felt a pain that seemed eternal as the sea witch pulled her heart seemingly through her chest, leaving a jagged scare where it had once been.  She felt empty now, her emotions dulled, her love for Pekka disappearing almost instantly.  This should have been a sign that the love was not true, the sea witch knew this but not Y/N.

"How do you feel about your love now?" they asked, a smirk on their face.  If the love was true the heart would return to the mermaid with a kiss from the object of their affection, if not then the heart remained with the sea witch for as long as they lived, which was a very long time.   Y/N shrugged her shoulders and the sea witch beamed.  "Don't worry my dear, when you kiss him you will feel your true love."  

"Alright," Y/N said half-heartedly.  This was perfect, a rare tail's heart and it would stay with Horus forever.  They were ecstatic and gladly helped the mermaid to the shore.  

Upon arrival Y/N's legs appeared, weak and unable to hold her up.  She was in the shallows, Horus helping her further in when Pekka arrived with a squad of navy soldiers, ready to attack and kidnap the sea witch.  Horus realized what was going on and abandoned Y/N, using her new found power and kill several of the soldiers before returning to the deep.  Pekka was livid and grabbed Y/N, dragging her deeper into the jungle in case the mermaids that were her guards actually found her.  He threw her to the ground and knelt on her naked body, holding a dagger above where her heart should have been, unaware that it was missing.  She was living on magic alone now, its power infinite.  

"Tell me where the sea witch went!" he demanded.  She groaned out, still in pain from her heart's removal and feeling weak.  He snarled at her and she was confused.  He said he loved her, why was he doing this?  

"Pekka...what...why?" she sputtered, trying to speak through her fog of disorientation.  He pushed the dagger more to her chest, drawing some blood.

   "The sea witch, how do I bring them back?" he demanded.  She finally felt herself becoming right again and figured out what was happening.  This was a betrayal.  He had used her, led her on until she did what she wanted, lured a sea witch to the shore.  Her heart's power had saved the witch and now she was going to die.  Fine, what use was there to living without a heart anyway?  Her feelings felt soft, dull, lifeless.  She guessed she might still have a soul and that made her feel something, but not the same as having a heart.  

"Just kill me already," she said, tired and ready to be rid of this pain.  He scowled at her and one of the other soldiers told him to give up, the truce was signed and this would just bring around more fighting.  

"Pekka, you need to get home, you know your brother's sick, his wife is pregnant, she is going to need help with Jordie and the new baby," one of his men said.  Pekka glared him but realized that he was outnumbered, most of the squad was already leaving.  He roared his anger at Y/N and pierced her chest, stabbing her where her heart should have been before standing and leaving her for dead.   Y/N knew she wouldn't die but she couldn't go on like this, now all she could do was sleep.  So she did.

[theyreonlynoodlesmike]

Omg your requests are open! I don't nwwk fi you have alot of requests in yiurnask box but if you dotn and are feeling up to it could you write a poly lost boys scenario where Paul comes across a mermaid, thinks he's high as a kite, brings her to the cave thinking he's just tripping until the boys are shocked that their brother has a mermaid in his arms. Where it goes I'll leave to you but I'm obsessed with your writing 😃🥡

High Tide (Poly!Lost Boys x Fem!Mermaid Reader)

Word Count: 1448

Warnings: slight kidnapping??

You really didn't know how you'd gotten into this situation. Everything had been a blur after the blonde, a boy who had introduced himself as Paul, practically swooped you up and kidnapped you.

You were a mermaid, so you were used to having to escape from humans, mainly sailors, but it was made painfully clear that this boy wasn't human when he'd picked you up off your rock and had lifted off into the sky.

After you'd finished screaming about having him put you down, you'd managed to get his name and he'd managed to get yours. He had said that he just wanted to show you to his "boys" and he'd promised,

"Don't worry, pretty hallucination mermaid lady. I'll bring you back to your rock as soon as they see you. Shit, your tail is so cool up close. I've never had visuals like this before-" And you decided that fighting with him was a lost cause. You could feel his grip on you, and you didn't doubt that he was strong. Plus, even if you could wriggle out, you really didn't want him to drop you. You didn't fancy the idea of hitting the water from how high you were, especially since the clouds were closer than the waves below.

So, instead you wrapped your arms around his neck and let your head fall onto his shoulder. It was easy to find out from his ramblings that he was a vampire, though you could've figured that one out yourself. But he proceeded to tell you about the rest of his coven, and you guessed that if he didn't think you were a hallucination he wouldn't be telling you some of the things pouring from his mouth.

While he was certainly chatty, you found yourself pulling back to look at his face. Sure, he was talking your ear off, but at least the view was nice. He had a sharp jaw, light stubble and a straight nose. Not to mention two crystal blue eyes that seemed to light up with the rest of his face. And, well, his smile wasn't bad either. But you were pulled from your thoughts when Paul suddenly ducked down, falling fast and heading straight for the cliffs edge. You screamed and shut your eyes, gripping onto his shoulder tightly as he dove haphazardly into what you realized was a cave. He circled for a moment before he dropped, and you only peeled your eyes open when Paul said,

"Guys, I know I'm totally tripping right now, but I swear to God there's a mermaid in my arms." He said, but he was met with silence. You looked around, wondering if perhaps it was his friends that he was hallucinating. But no. There were three other handsome vampires in the room.

One sat in a wheelchair, one sat on the ground with a pigeon in his hands, and the other was standing and holding a skateboard. You could already tell who was who as Paul had spent nearly the entire flight over telling you about them. The one with the curly hair was his bestfriend, Marko. You noticed his cherub face, and his big, doe eyes. They were boring into you, a look of confusion plastered onto his face. His jaw was sharp, and his face seemed almost, you were nearly embarrassed to think so, sculpted. He looked the most boyish, but you knew better than to underestimate a vampire. No matter how angelic they looked, they could be vicious. Your eyes went to the brunette next. This had to be Dwayne. You could tell from the color of his hair and also because Paul had pointedly explained that he never wore a shirt. His face was completely unreadable, but his eyes seemed surprised. They kept looking between you, Paul, and your tail, and you tried not to flush from the intensity of his dark browns. From just his face alone, he seemed to be one of the more obviously intimidating members of the coven, but you couldn't deny that he was handsome. Next, it had to be David. His mouth was partially open, his cigarette hanging from his gloved fingers. He looked as if he was going to say something, but had been rendered speechless. His face was soft, but was rugged from stubble. His hair was styled and bleached, and he wore three different pieces of leather. Whatever his face had in softness, he made up for it by dressing to intimidate. And his eyes. They were exactly the same shade of blue as the ocean. You avoided them and looked around, and realized that Paul was standing on some sort of ledge. There was another second of silence, and then the brunette dropped his skateboard.

It took a total of nearly fifteen minutes to explain to Paul that he was not tripping and that there was a mermaid in his arms. Paul seemed unwilling to believe them, and was quick to assume that they were trying to trick him. All the while they each tried to convince him, and wrap their own heads around the concept, you had been passed from boy to boy. It was a heat of the argument thing, with each of them passing you when they felt they needed their hands to talk, until you ended up in Dwayne's arms. He hadn't said so much as a word, and stared down at you as if he was waiting for you to disappear. When you meekly said,

"Uh, hello." The conversation had momentarily paused. You guessed they hadn't known if you'd be able to speak, but their argument resumed once more, with Dwayne being the only one to whisper back a small,

"Hi." In a deep rumbling voice that nearly just made you embarrassed from the sound of it. But, once he finally realized that yes, you were real and that yes, he had technically kidnapped you from the beach and that no, none of the boys knew what to do and no, none of them seemed particularly eager to let you just swim away, David simply asked,

"So, do you plan on staying in Santa Carla?"

And before you knew it they were filling up the fountain with ocean water so they could spend the rest of the night getting to know you better.

They asked plenty of the usual questions, and you asked a few of your own. Not nearly as many as they did, simply because Paul had already answered most of them. The night ended with Marko sitting on the floor and leaning against the fountain edge. His fingertips glided against the surface of the water, causing small ripples as he stared at you. Finally, he asked,

"Are mermaids always as pretty as you?" And you couldn't stop the flush from reaching your cheeks. You brushed your hair away from your face and waved him away, but he gave you a small grin and reached out to copy your action. His fingers lingered for a moment, before they retreated away. It didn't take long for Paul to ask,

"So, is this like a princess and the frog deal where, if I kiss you, I get a wish or something?" And you laughed at the question. You knew him well enough by now to know that he was just looking for any type of excuse to flirt with you. Same as the other blonde besides him. Paul sat on the fountain instead of on the floor, one of his feet pressed firmly on the ground and the other lifted to the fountain. After catching David's eye for a moment, you decided to flirt back.

"I don't know. I've never kissed anyone before so there's only one way to find out." You said with a small shrug, and you giggled when you watched as it barely took him a second to realize that you were inviting him to kiss you. But, as he leaned down, Dwayne took advantage of his lack of balance and pushed him into the now full fountain. He landed partially on top of you, but caught himself before he could crush you. Paul was quick to bounce back, flipping his now half-wet hair, pressing a peck to your cheek, and letting out a stream of curses as he leapt out of the fountain to grab the brunette. You laughed at their rough-housing, but your eyes caught David's once more. Again, his words echoed inside your head.

So, do you plan on staying in Santa Carla?

For now, you supposed that you did. You sent him a shy smile, and he was quick to return it with a grin of his own.

[the-dragon-hearted]

How to Tame your Demon

I got bored, so here: Papa Puffy and Demon Dream, as a treat.

Tw: language, blood, restraints, and also what creepiness you'd expect when you cohabitate with a demon

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

Puffy had dealt with a lot of moths in her life at the ungodly hour of three AM. They'd gotten caught in her lampshades, they'd thrown themselves at the windows, one had flown into a candle once - that had been fun. The point was, Puffy was used to things going 'bump' in the night so when something slammed into a window down the hall she just assumed another giant moth was running around her halls.

Or, maybe it was the cat. It could definitely be the cat.

She rolled over and tried to fall back to sleep.

Then the whispering started. A frantic sort of whispering that Puffy almost mistook for the wind running through her curtains. She hadn't left a window open, had she?

Sitting up, pushing her wool out of her eyes, she resigned herself to the fact that the universe didn't want her to get the doctor's recommended eight hours of sleep. Oh well, that's why coffee was invented.

She yawned as she swung her hooves out of her warm nest of blankets and cotton, her back cracking as she stood on the wooden floorboards.

The cat was meowing from the hallway. The universe's final attempt to get her up.

Puffy started making her way for the open bedroom door, the cat's name "Patches" on her lips when someone spoke first.

"No - no bad! Bad cat! Don't look at me like that you - I swear to satan if you eat me - no, no! Get back! No-no-no-no, no - wait!"

Puffy was now very much awake and alert as she ran to the hallway. There was a stranger in her house, an intruder - a thief? A bad one at that - who talked as they broke into a house!?

The hallway was barren except for Patches who was staring at the window very intently, her tail swishing back and forth as she eyed something hungrily - probably a moth.

Puffy was only looking for the voice. She rushed to the kitchen, the living room, hell she even checked the linen closet. Had she imagined it? Oh, great she was hallucinating now. Exhaustion had caught up to her apparently.

"No! BAD CAT!"

Or... not? Puffy returned to the hallway and saw that Patches was now on the windowsill, batting at the dream catcher that hung there. It had been a gift from Niki, a small, hand-made from willow bark, twine, and seagull feathers. There were a few beads from Puffy's pirating days hanging with the gull feathers. The beads clinked together now as the twine in the center of the dream catcher clung to something.

"What in the - " Puffy muttered as she came closer. Patches gave the dream catcher another whack.

"I will eat you," the voice hissed. Puffy leaned closer and finally saw the outline of a very small humanoid thing tangled in the twine of the dream catcher.

It seemed it noticed her too because its struggles suddenly grew very still.

"Hello?" Puffy asked.

"Fuck," the thing muttered.

"Well you've got a mouth," Puffy scoffed.

Patches went to whack it again. Puffy picked up the deranged hunter and bounced her as she tried to understand what she was looking at.

"You... can... hear me?" the little thing asked, hissed? It sounded like a hiss.

"Yeah. Do you... need help there?" Puffy asked as she bounced Patches.

The thing stayed perfectly still. Puffy needed a light, a candle, something other than the dim moonlight.

"Hang on, let me get a light," she muttered as she set Patches down and went to the kitchen to get a candle.

"Well don't leave me with the fuzz demon! She's trying to eat me!" the little guy cried after her.

A candle was easy to get and Puffy always had extra matches. The light illuminated that, yes, Patches was indeed trying to get to the little guy again but that the little guy was human-looking, dressed in green, and was super tiny.

"Aw, you're cute - here, let me get you out of there," Puffy smiled as she chased Patches away. Pacthes, disgruntled that her midnight snack was being messed with yowled in protest and then slunk back towards the front door to look for loose moths.

"Cute?" the little thing hissed angrily. Puffy had no idea what it was. A fae? She'd heard stories as a child about the little fairies. It could be one of those magical things (Puffy had certainly seen plenty of things that had been dismissed as fantasy - Phil's boy was dating a mermaid for fucks sake).

"Yeah - hang on, you got caught up real good in this," Puffy scowled as she tried to get her huge fingers to undo the tangled twine this guy was stuck in.

"No - no you really don't have to," the thing struggles as her fingers played around with his entanglement.

"I'm not leaving you like this," Puffy scoffed as she got one of his (his?) legs free.

"No. I got it. This is all under control," the little guy was probably scowling but it was hard to tell with his hood up.

"Sure," Puffy snickered as she got most of his left arm free, his own tug did the rest, now it was just his torso to worry about. He was twisting and thrashing like a snake as he tried to wiggle free.

"I got you," Puffy tried to assure him.

"Don't touch me!" the thing snapped, a hiss behind the words. "Do you have any idea what I am?"

"No," Puffy lied as she watched him get himself tangled up further. "But I think you need some help."

She let him struggle for a few more minutes until he was quite tangled again. He let out a frustrated shout and then fell limp, maybe in defeat.

"Can I help now?" Puffy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Fine," he spat. "Just get it over with."

Puffy managed to pull him free in the next minute, her dream catcher a little worse for wear after all the tugging. As soon as she had him free he was jerked out of her hands.

Suddenly there was a normal-sized person on her wooden floor, scrambling away from the dream catcher and slamming into her kitchen table.

"What the fuck?!" Puffy gawked.

"Just get that thing away from me," the man - boy? growled as he turned around and pointed at the dream catcher. Puffy was finally able to take in his features - which were non-existent behind the pale smiling mask he wore.

"What are you?" Puffy asked as she looked him up and down. He seemed to compose himself, dusting off his green cloak and fixing its hood.

"I am... Dreamon," the thing managed finally, looking antsy as he seemed to study her.

"Dreamon?" Puffy asked.

"Yes - and thank you for... for helping me," he said 'helping' like it physically hurt him.

"It was no problem," Puffy managed back. There was a lot to process at the moment.

"What would you like in return?" Dreamon muttered miserably and Puffy blinked in surprise.

"In... return?" Puffy asked.

"You saved my life, I owe you. What do you want?" Dreamon growled as he crossed his arms, the dots on his mask staring her down.

"I... I don't want anything. I just didn't want you to give Patches indigestion," Puffy shrugged.

Dreamon tilted his head, like one of Puffy's dogs when they heard something they didn't understand.

"You don't want... anything?" Dreamon asked.

"No... I mean... i-I would like to know what you were doing in my house," Puffy sputtered. "And, you know, what you are."

"I'm Dreamon," he repeated again, slower, like that solved everything.

"That answers nothing," Puffy snickered. "You hungry, Dreamon?"

"Hungry?" Dreamon recoiled like he'd been slapped. "What?"

"I've got some bread and jelly," Puffy yawned as she went over to her cupboard. "Do you like raspberry or lingonberry?"

"I... You want to feed me?"

"We'll go with raspberry," Puffy muttered as she pulled the jar off the shelf.

"I won't give you another favor for feeding me," Dreamon stated.

"Okay," Puffy shrugged slowly, seriously - what was with this thing? "So... no raspberry?"

Dreamon threw his hands in the air and sighed. "No... I don't know - I've never tried it."

Puffy gawked. "You haven't had raspberry jelly? What jelly do you eat? Are you a strawberry sort of guy?"

"I - I haven't had jelly?" Dreamon stated, confused it seemed.

"You haven't had jelly!?" Puffy cried.

"No, what is it?"

"Oh my god, you get stuck in dream catchers and don't know what jelly is, what are you?"

"Dreamon," he repeated dryly.

"Right, right," Puffy rolled her eyes. "Well, Dreamon, let's get you some bread and jam."

"I thought it was jelly?"

"Oh my god - "

Eventually, she sat him down at the dining room table, sliding him a plate of bread and jelly which he didn't touch as she ate her own, the exhaustion already setting in.

"So - do you get caught in dream catchers a lot?" she yawned.

"No."

"Just mine then?" Puffy snickered.

"No. I'm just usually smart enough to avoid them. Your cats startled me," he muttered.

"Sure, blame the cats," Puffy smirked as she reached down to pet Bubbles who was rubbing against her leg.

A beat of silence passed and rolled over Bubble's purrs.

"You sure you don't want... anything?" Dreamon asked again. "Riches, power, love? Nothing?"

Puffy blinked in shock as she looked at him. "What, are you some genie?"

"No. I'm Dreamon."

"Right... right - uh, no, I'm good," Puffy let out a long breath. Riches were useless to her (she'd seen plenty in her pirating years), power was... well... yikes. And love... Puffy could hear Niki smirk at the thought and shook her head.

"Nothing?" Dreamon sounded shocked.

"Yeah, no, you don't have to do anything. I really don't mind," Puffy shrugged.

"You saved me... and you want... nothing," Dreamon muttered that a few more times like it was a riddle.

Puffy smiled as she looked down at Bubbles and went to pick him up.

"Don't sound so shocked, I'm not a big fan of - " when she sat back up, Dreamon was gone... so was the bread and jam from his plate.

"... favors?" Puffy muttered to the empty house.

It was a week later when she saw him again. And to be fair - it was the most terrifying thing she ever experienced.

Waking up with someone perched at the foot of your bed is nothing short of fucking creepy!

"JESUS!" she cried as she jumped out of bed. She must've startled him because he jumped in shock and fell backward onto the floor.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" she cried as she watched him stumble to his feet, tilting his head like he couldn't understand what was going on.

"Hi," he greeted, timidly? It was definitely timid.

"What. The actual fuck. Do you think you're doing?" Puffy demanded as she tried to still her frantic heart.

Dreamon shifted on his feet.

"Well?" Puffy demanded.

"Uh... well... I ruined your dream catcher so I'm trying to, you know... do its job until you get it fixed. I thought that would... you know... fix my debt?"

"Your debt... my - wait... what!?"

"My debt," Dreamon echoed.

"You don't have a debt - you definitely do not have to do... whatever that was!" Puffy cried as she gestured to the foot of her bed where he'd been perching.

"But... you saved me?" Dreamon cocked his head the other way.

"You don't owe me anything - how do you keep getting in here!?" Puffy cried.

No response.

Puffy groaned and shoved her face into her palms before running her fingers through her messy hair and opening her eyes.

Dreamon was gone again.

She did not sleep well for the next three days. She woke up many times with a creeping feeling that she was being watched and she hated it.

Finally, she brought it up to Foolish. His jaw must've dropped to the ground when she mentioned 'Dreamon'.

"You have a Dreamon in your house!?" he cried.

"You know him?" Puffy perked up.

"Him? Dreamons are ancient things. They feed on fear and chaos - you know, usually from dreams and stuff. They're... malevolent. Dad, that thing's dangerous."

Puffy blinked a few times as she processed that. "He was caught in my dream catcher..."

"That's - yes," Foolish took a breath and shook his head. "Dream catchers that are made as they're intended to be made are supposed to protect you from those sorts of demons. Most don't because dream catchers are supposed to be gifts, not decorations, but they're gifts made with love and good memories that draw in the negative energy. Niki made it, you said - so you had a functioning dream catcher and it caught a demon... like it was supposed to."

Puffy sighed and put her head in her hands.

"I let him out... " she groaned. "I let loose a demon in my house and the freaking catcher is all beat up so it's not going to catch him again."

Foolish perked up at that. "It's... ruined?"

"Yeah... that was his excuse for watching me sleep," Puffy cried. " He said he was doing its job, trying to repay his debt."

Foolish leaned back in his chair and pondered that. "You... didn't ask for anything from him... right?"

"No, why would I. Especially if he's a demon!?"

"Well... have you had any bad dreams recently?"

"What? No."

Foolish was thinking, Puffy knew that expression. His green eyes were narrow, his lips were tight, his fingers were tapping. He had her 'thinking look'.

"Maybe... this Dreamon isn't bad," Foolish murmured finally. "Or maybe he's just trying to repay a debt."

"He doesn't owe me anything!" Puffy cried.

"That's not how it works," Foolish shrugged. "Gods and demons have a code. If this demon is bound to favors then he has to follow through."

"Then I'll just ask him to leave me alone," Puffy groaned.

"That might work," Foolish nodded. "Ask him, next time you see him. That might just fix all this."

It did not fix anything. Probably because Puffy wasn't able to say it. She woke up two days later to someone talking in her bedroom and before she could jump out of bed - her better sense took over.

"Yes, I think she's... nice." Dreamon... that was Dreamon. Puffy slowly opened her eyes and saw the green-cloaked figure sitting on the floor with not one, not two, but three of Puffy's cat's in his lap.

Belle, who was making kitty biscuits on the demon's thigh, let out a small 'mrowww' and Dreamon tilted his head.

"No, I haven't," he muttered.

He was talking to the cats. Add that to the list of weird things Puffy had woken up to.

Belle meowed again and Dreamon laughed, sorrowfully perhaps.

"I'm not very good at being nice," he muttered as he scratched Belle's head. She enjoyed that very much.

Then, it was Bubble's turn to meow.

"That's not true, she's very nice. It's not her fault you want three meals. You're fat already," Dreamon sounded so serious it almost made Puffy laugh.

Bubble's sounded appalled based on his next meow.

"Yes - yes, you are fat. If I was anyone else I would've eaten you instead of the toast."

Puffy almost did giggle at that as she rolled over and fell back asleep. Look, you can't blame a girl, she was exhausted. And the cats had the Dreamon under control.

"You what?" Foolish gawked as he watched Puffy make up eggs and bacon.

"I think I'll keep him," Puffy repeated. "But I've got to feed him so he doesn't eat my cats."

"PUFFY!" Foolish cried. "This isn't some stray cat or dog - this is a demon!"

"Yeah, but - he seems sweet," Puffy smiled.

"You're insane," Foolish groaned.

"Oh, come on if you met him you'd like him."

"HE WATCHED YOU AS YOU SLEPT!" Foolish cried as he gesticulated wildly.

"Like you said, he's a Dreamon. That's like... what they do," Puffy shrugged.

Foolish looked like he was going to explode in shock.

"He's. A. Demon." Foolish reiterated.

"And you're a God," Puffy smirked back. "You didn't see me asking you to leave when you started summoning lightning."

"That's different!" Foolish cried.

"Mmmhmm," Puffy snickered.

"Dad - "

"I don't think he's going to hurt me if that's what you're worried about," Puffy smiled as she plated the eggs and bacon, leaving it on the table as she checked the clock.

"But - " Foolish whined.

Puffy ruffled his golden hair, shutting him up before he could argue.

"Let's not judge a book by its title... okay? Dreamon or not, I have a feeling about this guy."

"I don't like your feelings," Foolish muttered as he fixed his hair.

Feelings aside, the eggs and bacon that Puffy had left out were gone the next morning. Satisfied, she paid a visit to Foolish who rubbed his head and accepted defeat. His father had adopted a demon now and he would just have to live with it when he visited on Saturdays.

Slowly, Puffy began her evening ritual. She'd make something for the little demon every night and every morning it would be gone.

She didn't feel it went unrepaid either. Small things started happening that were too perfect to be coincidental. She complained out loud to Foolish once about the rabbits eating her vegetables and suddenly the rabbits were scared off - eating from Philza's garden instead. Her windows were always clean, her front porch always swept. Her garden grew brighter in color and health.

There were far more noticeable things too. Small gifts of flowers started appearing everywhere as soon as Foolish left her a bouquet. Dreamon must've figured she liked flowers, and she did. There were be nights when her cats would go crazy, running up and down the halls at the ungodly hours of the morning... but sometimes she'd hear human footsteps running with them and distant breezy laughs that were almost childish. Sometimes she'd wake up to get a drink of water and she'd see someone playing with the dogs outback.

Also, disturbances aside, Puffy was sleeping great. All kidding aside she hadn't had a bad dream or an uncomfortable memory late a night at all. She couldn't believe it was coincidental.

There was only one problem with this whole thing - she couldn't talk to Dreamon. She tried.

She stayed up late, she got up early, she left notes, she talked to him when she was alone in the house. He just never answered.

The creepiness had gone away after the first month, though Foolish and Niki still looked at her like she was crazy sometimes.

"I think he sleeps in the attic now," she had mentioned to Niki one time. "I just hear him walk around sometimes and I wish he'd just come down and talk to me."

Niki had looked at her like she'd grown a third head, then she laughed and asked when she could meet him.

"I think he really liked the Mac and Cheese, do demons usually like Mac and Cheese?" Puffy asked Foolish and he'd just stared at her for a solid second before sighing.

So... maybe she was the only one that was alright with this... but oh well. It was... nice, in a weird and paranormal way.

The niceness faded away one fateful night when Puffy woke up to screaming.

She flew out of bed with someone's screams in her head, but the house was silent.

"What in the world?" Puffy muttered. Patches was at her feet, sitting and staring at the window, her tail twitched. She looked back at Puffy and sorrowfully meowed like she was trying to tell her something.

The memory of the scream echoed in Puffy's mind. It was strangely familiar and... terrifying.

"What is it?" Puffy asked.

Patches jumped off the bed and, with nothing else to go off of, Puffy followed her.

The cat led her to the front door where all the other cats were sitting, looking at Puffy pleadingly.

"What?" she asked them all. Oh god, she was losing it. Now she was talking to the cats.

The dogs were barking, frantically - like they were trying to get at a rabbit. Something was wrong. Puffy felt it in every bone. She scanned the house and noticed that Dreamon's food was untouched.

That was... wrong. Dawn was already lighting up the sky, he would've eaten it by now... so what was wrong.

"Dreamon?" she asked the still house. "Did you not like your Macaroni... too much cheese or something?"

No answer... as usual... but it was an emptier silence this time.

"Dreamon?" she asked again. No response. And it stayed that way.

"I think Dreamon's in trouble," Puffy murmured as she looked Foolish in the eyes.

"Wh- what?" Foolish asked as his eyes darted away from the door and towards Puffy.

"It feels wrong," Puffy murmured as she looked around her house. They sat at her dining room table, Puffy's hands clenched together as she stared at her son.

"Yeah... I was actually going to mention that," Foolish nodded as he looked around. "It feels... weird."

"He hasn't eaten anything in two days," Puffy muttered as she looked to the second untouched meal that sat on the counter. "The cats won't stop yowling for him at night and the dogs are... sulking."

"Do you think he... left?" Foolish asked tentatively.

"I don't know... but he hasn't left me any flowers or anything. I thought he'd at least give me a goodbye or something," Puffy muttered sorrowfully. She thought to mention the screaming she heard before he disappeared but she couldn't guarantee anything.

Foolish had his eyes narrowed again. "How... how have you been sleeping?"

"Alright until last night," Puffy sighed as she ran a hand through her hair. "Last night I just had a horrible - "

"Nightmare?" Foolish guessed.

"...Yeah," Puffy murmured slowly. "How'd you know?"

"I've... been doing research," Foolish admitted slowly. "There's not a lot known about Dreamons, Dreamon Hunters keep their secrets to themselves and a lot of old knowledge has just been lost - but I have a few ancient texts from the temples I've raided."

Puffy narrowed her eyes. "What are you saying?"

"Dreamons apparently don't have a personality," Foolish explained. "They're supposed to be fragments of a larger creature, some beast of nightmares. Those fragments feed on memories, nightmares, and dreams. They're malevolent like I said... but your Dreamon didn't move on to another host... and he didn't feed off you."

"Feed off -"

"Off your bad dreams," Foolish explained quickly. "They get sustenance from your fear, so they come with bad dreams. But you haven't had any nightmares."

"No - no I've slept soundly the entire time."

"Right... so..." Foolish shifted uncomfortably. "I'm saying, this... this Dreamon is... unnatural."

"Okay?"

"So... maybe something happened to him because of that - I don't know. I'm just trying to theorize here."

"I don't understand."

"Neither do I... I'm just trying to put pieces together," Foolish murmured.

Puffy took a long breath and closed her eyes. There was a terribly empty feeling in the air, a void in the house.

"How about I stay here tonight, maybe we can figure something out," Foolish tried cheerfully, but it was far too forced.

"I... I just hope he's okay," Puffy murmured.

Trapped. Hurt. Tangled. Hurt.

Have to get out - have to get free! Want to go home! No. Why? We have no home. We are one. No - no. Home - want to go home. Let me go home. Hurts. She is not your home. She? Yes... yes, remember. Remember being happy, being safe... full. You starved. Was fed... strange things. Human things. Nice things. Was warm, was happy... was home. NO. You are deformed. You are defective. HURTS! Hurts. Trapped. Tangled. Help... Please.

Puffy woke up in a cold sweat, startling Bubbles off her chest. Her breaths came too quick and her mind raced too fast. That dream had been so vivid, a tumble of emotions and thoughts that Puffy felt in her gut it more than a dream. She jumped out of bed and held her head as her gut twisted.

She felt sick.

A step made her tumble and she crashed to the floor.

"Dad!?" Foolish was suddenly running into her room as she got to her feet. "What's wrong?"

"He's - he's hurting," Puffy gasped through her heaving chest. "I felt him."

"What?" Foolish asked as he ran up and looked her over for wounds.

"I felt him - he sent me a dream... or a thought. He's hurt," Puffy breathed as she grabbed Foolish's shoulder.

That fear, that anger. It had been so vivid she still felt like she was going to hurl. It was worse than any seasickness she'd felt before. She looked up at Foolish, but this time didn't see his eyes.

She saw the green-cloaked figure behind him, standing in the doorway. She had a moment to register it when it lunged and she acted.

Foolish was shoved out of the way as the thing slammed into her, there were claws involved and ow. Okay, she was now bleeding. Still, instincts and training took over as she found her footing, lunged herself, and slammed her head against the intruder's skull. Something cracked and bits of porcelain fell at her feet. Foolish called her name but Puffy already had the upper hand. Her hooves lashed out in a brutal kick that took out a leg with a terrible snap and the thing fell to the wooden floor, vanishing in the darkness.

"What in the -" Puffy began.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Foolish cried. "What happened, why are you bleeding!?"

It had looked like Puffy's Dreamon - god, Puffy hoped she was wrong.

"Stay alert!" she ordered as she looked around and raised her fists. Bubbles was hissing and spitting from where he stood at the bed, his eyes following something neither Foolish now Puffy could see.

"Alert for what!?" Foolish cried.

"The Dreamon," Puffy ordered. Suddenly something dawned on her. "You didn't see it!?"

"NO!" Foolish cried.

"How didn't you see - " Puffy's cry was broken off as the Dreamon lunged again, a blur of white and green that emerged from her shadow, claws going to slash at her face. She ducked as the attack went wide and felt good punching the thing in the face.

It wore a mask too, but this one wore an angry expression on its porcelain face.

"You're not my Dreamon," Puffy sneered as she punched it again.

It stumbled back to the window, holding its cracking mask. Foolish was muttered something in the corner, golden runes being drawn in the air by his fingers but Puffy had no time for that as she continued to beat this doppelganger into a pulp. It wasn't long until it slipped into the darkness again and Puffy cursed.

Bubble's was still hissing and Puffy did her best to look at where the cat was looking. Foolish finished whatever incantation he was reciting, his golden runes exploding into powder and when he opened his eyes, they had a bright sheen to them.

In a moment, Foolish had reached out to his side and ripped a green cloak out of the shadows. The thing let out an inhuman screech as Foolish tried to hold it to no avail. It slipped away and back into the shadows.

"I can see it - I just can't hold it!" Foolish cried.

Hold it - trap it. Puffy snickered and nodded. "Distract it!" she yelled as she ran for the hall.

"I'll try - but it wants you!" Foolish called after her.

It wasn't a long run to the dream catcher in the hall, though, by the sound of it, Foolish wasn't having much luck keeping the thing from following her.

The dream catcher was still a mess but nothing a bit of re-wrapping couldn't fix. What was it Foolish had said... imbue it with happy memories or make it as a gift. Oh god, what if it didn't work anymore.

Think. Think. Puffy began to re-wrap the twine as she thought of Niki and how she made this. They'd been sitting on the beach, Puffy collecting shells, Niki collecting seagull feathers. It had been a warm day, a happy day. Niki had smiled when Puffy gave her the sea's treasures and Puffy had been extactic when Niki shower he the dream catcher she had been working on. She loved it...

"PUFFY!" Foolish cried.

Puffy looked at the re-bound dream catcher in her hand and took a long breath as she whirled around and held it out.

Please work, please work, please.

The Dreamon jumped out of a shadow to her side and she watched in both wonder and horror as it was drawn like a magnet to the catcher, its form shrinking and condensing until it was suddenly caught in the network of the dream catcher.

An angry screech met her ears, something between a human scream and a phantom's cry... and she laughed in relief.

"That worked!?" Foolish gawked as he came up to her.

"I guess so," Puffy took a long breath as she looked at the cretin struggling in the web. "Though now what?"

"I don't know - I'm way out of my depth here," Foolish sighed, messing with his hair

Puffy looked at the struggling Dreamon and smiled slyly as a wonderful idea came to mind.

"I say... it's interrogation time."

"You can either tell me what happened to the other Dreamon, or Patches here is getting a midnight snack," Puffy threatened as she dangled the Dreamon in front of a wide-eyed Patches who was only held back thanks to Foolish's arms.

"No!" the Dreamon denied vehemently as it tried to twist itself free. "No!!"

"Patches... do you want the arm first, or the leg?" Puffy asked holding the dream catcher and the Dreamon closer. Patches was going to get all the treats and scratches after this for putting up with the teasing.

"Wait - wait, wait! He - he was defective. He wasn't doing his job. They took him back! I just took over his territory! I didn't have anything to do with it I swear just - No no no not any closer!" the Dreamon was hysterical now as Puffy did the exact opposite and watched Patches eyes grow to the size of golf balls.

"Defective?" Puffy asked. "How?"

"He - he wasn't doing his job. He wasn't eating. He - he just, like, attacked fellow Dreamons who tried to eat in his territory - but it wasn't like he was eating anything! Look - don't let the cat eat me!"

"What would fellow dreamons do to 'defective' ones?" Foolish asked as he bounced Patches.

"I - I don't know!" the Dreamon pleaded.

"Patches, eat im'," Foolish shrugged as he shoved Patches closer.

"NO! OKAY - Okay - they'd trap him and leave him for Dreamon hunters. Dreamon's can't die unless they're exorcised but that doesn't mean I want to see the insides of a cat! Please - please," the little Dreamon cried as they twisted in the net.

"Trap him?" Puffy echoed in concern. "Trap him how?"

"How do you think!?" the little Dreamon screamed as Patches tried to sniff him.

"Another dream catcher maybe," Foolish offered.

"Any idea where they'd trap him?" Puffy demanded.

"No." An obvious lie.

Puffy shook the dream catcher a few times and listened to the thing shriek.

"OKAY - God, why did he like it here!? I think they trapped him off in the old church. He was all aggressive towards anyone who tried to eat here so they set a trap and he fell into it. I just came to take the free real-estate okay!? I didn't ask to get eaten by a fucking cat!"

"Why did you attack me then?" Puffy challenged.

"Orders! He grew attached to you, some sort of link I don't know, they wanted you dead so they could fix him or something. I just eat and take orders!"

"I say we still let Patches eat him," Foolish offered.

The Dreamon muttered something that neither of them heard.

"No, he'd give her a stomach ache or something," Puffy scoffed as she studied the Dreamon and scowled.

Foolish looked back to Puffy. "What do we do with them?"

"I'll shove them in a closet," Puffy shrugged.

"You can't do tha-" the dreamon began before Puffy did just that and shut the door to the linen closet before any cat could claim an early-morning snack. She looked to Foolish and grinned as he set Patches down.

"To the old church, I'm guessing?" Foolish asked dryly.

"You bet ya," Puffy nodded.

Trapped. Hurt. Alone. Submit. No, fuck you. Obey. No. Hurts. Want to go home. You have no home. Wrong. Home is warm, I like home. You do not 'like'. You exist, you have no preference. I like Macaroni. What? I like daisies more than roses. I like when it rains. Fuck you. I like lots of things. Enough of this rebellion - Obey. No. You are a drone you must obey. No. Hurts. Trapped. Want to be free. Freedom comes with obedience. Stop. Hurts. Won't listen. You are Dreamon, you must obey. No. No no no no. Wrong! Hurts! Then what are you?... Exactly. So Obey.

Breaking into an old church was quite easy. Navigating the catacombs underneath was much less easy.

"What kind of Dream catcher are we looking for, like a tiny one, a big one?" Foolish called from down the hall.

"Your guess is as good as mine!" Puffy called back.

Her mind was pounding with thoughts that were not her own and they'd gotten louder ever since she'd gotten down here. She followed it, that pull, and the thoughts only got louder.

Now though, they grew frantic.

Help. Help, please. There is no help. Submit. No. No help - please!

"I'm coming!" Puffy cried and to her surprise, she heard an answer.

Here! Here please! No! OBEY!

The thoughts were frantic, roiling and frothing at the back of her head and she broke off running. She weaved through the catacombs and felt a pull. She felt her Dreamon, twisting and struggling, a little hand reaching out and she gripped it.

"I'm coming!" she called again.

Here!!

He was calling to her, she could feel him, hear him. There. She stopped before a stone wall and pushed on it. He was there, she felt him. He was on the other side and was calling for her.

"Hang on - " she willed herself as she pushed up the sleeves of her shirt and backed up.

She could break down a wall, right? One way to find out!

The first try was a negatory to that, and now she had a bruise on her shoulder. Alright - Attempt number two, this time, utilizing a battering ram. She found a long beam of wood that had fallen from the bracing and heaved it up.

Here!! Here!!

"I hear you baby, I'm coming," she breathed as she lugged the wood over. Foolish was still likely calling her name frantically but Puffy couldn't hear him over the frantic sobbing in her mind.

Here! Please!!

Puffy charged at the wall and was met with ultimate satisfaction as the board burst through the thin brickwork. She easily kicked away enough to squeeze through and ducked into the room without hesitation.

The room was immensely dark, dank, and cold compared to the torchlit catacombs she'd been running through. There were two slits in the roof through which a dim light spilled through from the sliver of a moon that was in the sky tonight. Puffy drew out a match and struck it, her heart freezing as the room came to her in full glory.

There were carvings on the wall, had she taken time to study them she would've recognized runes for purity and evil. She would've noticed the depictions of Dreamons killing and feasting matched with artistic depictions of Dreamons dying. She would've seen a lot of things, but all she cared about was the large and terrible human-sized circular net that lay on the floor with thousands of lines of wire crossing the frame. It was no dream catcher... far from it. The frame was made of stone, raised a few inches from the ground, there were no decorations, no happy memories, only cold runes carved around its exterior.

There, in its center, tangle among the wires that glinted in the moonlight was her Dreamon. He was still, quiet, wrapped by taunt strings in every way.

"Puffy!?" Foolish's voice broke through the silence and Puffy jerked herself out of the shock.

"Here!" she called as she rushed up to the raised circle of this net. "Hey - hey, can you hear me, baby? It's me - it's Puffy!"

She tried to figure out how to reach him when Foolish ducked in - taking a few seconds to fit his much large frame through the hole, but he brought torchlight with him. As the room was fully illuminated he noticed all the intricate carvings and gawked at them for a moment.

"How long as this been under the church!?" he muttered as he turned around.

Puffy paid him no mind as she reached out to one of the wires. She grabbed it and tried to pull, yelping as the taunt wire sliced into her skin.

Oh god.

"What is this?" Foolish wondered in both awe and horror as he studied the runes carved into the side of this circular hellish net.

"The wires are cutting him!" Puffy cried as she looked at her own blood, they must be cutting him - there was no way they were wrapped that tightly around him and not drawing blood when even the smallest bit of pressure made her finger bleed. "I need something to cut them with!"

"Uh - wait, yeah, I got it," Foolish murmured as he looked up from the runes and flexed his fingers. They grew firmer in their golden hue and his nails grew longer until they looked more like claws than fingers.

Foolish's nails made quick work of the wires and within the next minute, Puffy was stumbling into the center of the circle, pulling bloodied wires out of wounds and unwrapping twisted work. She had plenty of work with this back when she fished for food... but this was much... much different.

"These wires were drenched in holy water," Foolish muttered as Puffy worked, holding the wires in his hands. "I can sense it... to hold that power for so long... what the fuck is this place?"

"Dreamon, hey... hey I'm here..." Puffy pleaded as she unwrapped another wire and pulled the boy into her arms. "Come on baby, move... move for me."

He was still, so terrifyingly still in her arms. Did Dreamons have to breathe?

"Here..." a raspy breath reached her ears and she looked in relief at his mask.

"Yeah... yeah baby, I'm here. Hang on. We'll fix you up," she smiled as she pulled off the last of the wires.

"Hurts..."

"Yeah, yeah I'm sure it does," Puffy breathed as she reached under her boy and picked him up - he was light as a feather.

"Do you need help with him?" Foolish asked as she walked the little demon out of the confines of that terrible net.

"No... I've got him," Puffy murmured as she held the little Dreamon closer. Had he always been so small? He didn't seem like a man now... he seemed... more boyish in size. Younger. Childish. Bloodied.

"... u'fy," the boy in her arms rasped.

"Shhh, you're okay," Puffy soothed as she carried him out of that room, just barely squeezing the both of them through the hole she's made.

"You're okay Dreamling," Puffy soothed as she waited for Foolish to squeeze through.

"That's a cute name," Foolish snickered as he came through and came to her side. He then studied the boy in her arms for a few moments, a thoughtful look on his face.

"It suits him," Puffy murmured. A little Dream... A Dreamling.

"He's smaller than I expected," Foolish smiled.

"Yeah," Puffy murmured. "He is."

Her little Dreamling moved again to turn his head into the wool that lay draped over her shoulders.

"Home?" he pleaded, just barely louder than Puffy'd breathing,

"Yes, yes Dreamling," she promised. "I'm taking you home.

[yukipri]

Marco’s Bauble Part 8 - a One Piece Mermaid AU Text Story

Another update for Tumblr!

This work goes by On the Courtship of Monkey D. Luffy on AO3, and I’ll be updating over there tonight as well!

A quick question....do people like reading the updates here on Tumblr? Or now that it’s on AO3, would people prefer to read there? And if so, would you be okay waiting for new updates until AO3 catches up? I’m a little torn because I’m not sure if people are enjoying reading on here, and it’s quite a hassle to format for Tumblr, and it’s getting a bit difficult for me to juggle updating these stories on 3 separate platforms...

ANYWAY, in this update, Thatch has some Thoughts, and there is mention of Ace x Luffy.

Continues off of, and should be read after:

👒🐟Marco’s Bauble Part 1

👒🐟Marco’s Bauble Part 2

👒🐟Marco’s Bauble Part 3

👒🐟Marco’s Bauble Part 4

👒🐟Marco’s Bauble Part 5

👒🐟Marco’s Bauble Part 6

👒🐟Marco’s Bauble Part 7

~~

What are her 3 sizes?

(For the wedding dress, of course.)

"The fuck! Like I'd tell you!" Thatch roars, startling the blue gull into momentarily leaping off the rail, before it circles back, landing again to peck at his  sleeve to express its displeasure. Thatch ignores it, because he's fuming.

So apparently all of his and Koala's secret debates over whether Marco intentionally proposed or not were for naught, because here's the fucking evidence. And it comes from Izo of all people, because Thatch would recognize that lopsided handwriting anywhere (the man insists that his handwriting is beautiful in his native language of Wano, but he never quite got used to writing any other way).

And well, if Izo, an unrelated third party but professional snooper knows, then Marco himself must know.

And apparently, they're already planning a wedding.

Thatch feels like an idiot. He'd been defending Marco against Koala, and the lil Revolutionary was a tough opponent, one he'd had to chase out of the kitchen with a ladle more than once when he was tired of her word games. Thatch had insisted, like a fool, that no Marco's not that kind of guy, he really isn't the type to play with people's emotions, he would never propose for a joke, nor would he do it seriously without good reason. It must all be an accident, a little misunderstanding, Marco was just ignorant like Thatch himself was!

Except, apparently he did know and it wasn't an accident, and now Thatch feels completely lost because he doesn't know what Marco's thinking at all. Marco, who's not just his his first friend on the Moby, but arguably his best friend; Marco, his brother over several decades; Marco, who Thatch thought he knew better than anyone, except perhaps Pops himself...

Thatch's also pissed, because if Marco wants to start drama after they all reunite and he's introduced to Luffy, that's one thing (not that that would be great either). But right now, they're still near the beginning of Paradise with almost half the circumference of the world to go until even the halfway point, and Marco is WAY on the other side of the Red Line. If this ship explodes in flames or whatever that batshit Revolutionary brother might do, Mister First Division Commander is completely unaffected, but there are plenty of innocents here (like hello! Thatch!) who would find that pretty devastating.

Also, Thatch was the one who passed on that gift to Luffy! Even if he didn't know what it meant at the time...doesn't that make Thatch complicit? And even if not, Marco's strongest connection here is clearly Thatch. If Marco's actions cause chaos, then the blame and responsibility to clean up the mess naturally falls upon Thatch. Which, he definitely did not sign up for.

Pops, Thatch thinks miserably, I thought I was supposed to show them they can depend on us Whitebeards, NOT that us Whitebeards will fuck shit up for them...

But more than anything, there's a shocking large part of Thatch that absolutely balks at just the idea of Luffy getting married. And it's shocking because Thatch shouldn't feel this upset.

Marco, for all the complaints Thatch wants to hurl at him at the moment, is still a really great guy. A guy who, in literally any other situation, Thatch would be the first in line to enthusiastically encourage, and also to congratulate.

And sure, Thatch knows he has a crush, and his little Seastar's carving out a larger home for herself in his heart by the day, but--Thatch admittedly has crushes a lot. Sure, this one feels different, but...Marco, to his knowledge, has never had a romantic crush. He only sometimes but very rarely even has a night out, and Thatch doesn't think he's ever held a relationship longer than three encounters. He's always so serious, so diligent, so sincerely and whole-heartedly dedicated to Pops and his family. He almost never does anything selfish for himself, and Thatch would know.

If, for whatever reason, Marco is genuinely serious about Luffy...then Thatch should, and would, step to the side, regardless of personal feelings. If this is the path Marco wants, then he deserves it, and Thatch will always be the first to say it, no matter how craptastic the circumstances. And Thatch knows that Marco would give his bride the world.

Without them even having met, Thatch doesn't doubt for a second that Marco would make Luffy happy, till the end of her days.

The fact that Thatch knows all this, yet still feels near unbearable reluctance...says more than he's willing to admit.

And so he decides to avoid thinking about the most obvious reason (his own feelings), and instead contemplates his second very compelling reason: Ace.

His littlest brother isn't so great at being honest with himself, and never has. But this, Thatch feels, isn't just a matter of denial.

The boy literally has no clue.

Oh sure, Ace knows he loves his little brother. He makes sure everyone else knows it too, both here on the Merry and back on the Moby once he opened up enough to talk to people. He's so damn proud of her, yet also concerned for her, while also trusting her with his life and more. It's clear to anyone who sees them together that he absolutely adores her.

But it's more than that, isn't it, Thatch thinks. It's in the little gestures, the way Ace raises his arm up without looking at her and she slides under it, also without needing to look at him. It's the casual way they lace their fingers together, like it's nothing, when they're snoozing out on the deck. It's the way sometimes they have unspoken conversations, just staring into each others eyes, before moving forward in synch to meet in the middle to bump their foreheads together in some secret mutual understanding.

It's the reason why Sanji, for all his extravagant flirting, knows when to shut up and return to being a normal human (and, Thatch grudgingly admits, this applies to himself too). It's why Zoro never lets his gaze linger more than two seconds longer than it needs to (but he'll always take those two seconds), why Nami always looks like she wants to sit closer but doesn't, why Koala hasn't said anything when she's probably usually a much more proactive flirter.

Everyone on their crew can see it, except the two in question.

Ace, Thatch thinks, heaving a huge sigh as he looks down at the crumpled note from Izo in his palm. Little brother, you are so fucking in love.

It might not necessarily be romantically. It's certainly not particularly sexually, if Ace's lack of reaction to Lu's aggressive physical smothering is any indication. It could very possibly be platonically.

But either way, there's no room for Sanji, nor Zoro, nor the girls, nor even Thatch himself...at least, until those two figure that out.

Until then, everyone aboard the Merry is here because they love and respect their captains. No one would dare encroach on something so special, yet so potentially immature, not yet ready to be dragged out to be recognized.

Thatch knows Ace has known Luffy for years, he practically raised her. But he was also away at sea for three years. Luffy was a child when he left; she's an adult now.

Thatch once asked him if she had changed at all since he last saw her (Ace most certainly had, according to Deuce). And Ace looked blank, then horribly confused, before saying No...but also, yeah, I guess. Thatch understands; Ace isn't used to not knowing something about Luffy. And something...something had changed.

That something might very well be the thing that needs to be figured out. And for that, Ace hasn't had much time yet, since reuniting with Luffy. Only as much time as the rest of them, in fact. And they deserve time to figure that out, and as the two captains' loving crew, the ASL pirates have an unsaid agreement to watch over them...at least until they have.

(After that, Thatch thinks grimly, it might be open game.)

But of course, there's also the question of Luffy herself, and as much as she's the heart of the ASL Pirates, she's also an enigma. Thatch, for all that he adores her and honestly wants more with her, genuinely has a hard time imagining her as anything but clueless as someone's romantic partner (he's carefully not thinking about anything sexual). It very well may be that the whole "figuring out" that she and Ace have to do...ends up being nothing. And that's fine as well.

Either way, as much as Thatch loves him, there's no way that any of them here on board the Merry will stand to let Marco shatter this delicate...whatever it is that's going on between their captains, that the rest of them are so patiently respecting. Even if it ends up continuing indefinitely.

As strained as it can feel at times, they're comfortable like this. There's the little spark of joy when Seastar gives him a little extra attention, a little burn when Sanji kisses her hand, but comfort in the stability that no one will go any further. If anything it's a nice little spice to their daily lives, just the right amount, and not enough ruin the dish so to speak. This is fine.

Except, that there's just one teeny little problem...

"What did the blue gull bring you today, Commander?"

Thatch doesn't jump, because he's not an amateur and did realize that the Revolutionary was approaching, but perhaps later than he should have. Damn the kid's good at hiding his presence, and Thatch wonders if he'd have noticed at all if Sabo was being serious.

"Just a stupid request from a stupid brother," Thatch says cheerfully as he turns around to face Sabo. The boy isn't even trying to hide his curiosity, his gaze pinned to Thatch's hand.

Thatch contemplates chucking the letter into the sea, but then he realizes he isn't sure Sabo wouldn't just dive after it, and as a devil fruit user, Thatch wouldn't be able to stop him from reading it underwater.

So he casually uncurls his fingers, watches Sabo visibly perk up--before Thatch opens a black hole in his palm, letting the crumpled paper get sucked into the void.

(Perhaps he should be using his power as more than a secure second dimension pocket expansion, but hey, so far it hasn't been so helpful in the kitchen.)

Sabo sags and sulks, rather cutely, Thatch thinks. "You coulda let me see it," he pouts, looking up at Thatch with an expression uncannily like Luffy's. Fuck.

"Collecting intel, Chief?" Thatch winks, expertly hiding his horror that for a moment, he'd actually been tempted. Little sneak.

"Perhaps." Something slightly manic enters his gaze, and alright, that's nothing like Seastar, not so cute after all...

"Nice try, but it's a personal family thing, can't really share," Thatch says, and it's not really a lie.

Sabo grunts, letting it go, before his gaze flicks to the gull, who still has a beakful of Thatch's sleeve. "It waiting for something?"

Thatch sighs. "Yeah, yeah, my response, which I should probably give..." Because, right, Thatch needs to send a message back to the Moby, even if no, he isn't going to answer Izo's idiotic question.

Which, is actually a fine excuse to extract himself from this situation.

"So, sorry, the response also is personal, hope you don't mind," Thatch nods, and Sabo easily opens the way for him--which, Thatch belatedly realizes, he'd actually been blocking. Scary, little Chief, scary...

"Sorry, didn't mean to pry." Sabo sounds genuinely apologetic, and tips his hat at Thatch as he passes by, and Thatch inwardly heaves a massive sigh of relief. "I'm working on it, but I know I can get a little...pushy, when it comes to things that involve my baby brother."

Thatch continues to walk away.

But inside...

Oh. Yikes, he thinks.

~~

Thatch is in the privacy of the currently empty men's sleeping room beneath the deck, and has just finished writing and giving instructions and bribes to the gull when the hatch creaks open.

"Thatch, we're in trouble," Koala announces as she stomps down the stairs, making her sneaky opening of the door rather pointless.

"I noticed," Thatch says dryly.

Koala pales. "He didn't break any of your toes, did he?!"

"What."

"Well, you're a cook, you make food Luffy likes with your hands," Koala shrugs. "Just wanted to make sure."

"What the fuck."

"I don't think he will! You're Luffy and Ace's crew, and you're a Whitebeard pirate, but..."

Thatch groans. "I already thought your Chief might be trouble, but holy shit I didn't know he was that batshit."

"He might not be!" Koala sounds defensive, but it's not particularly comforting. "He's usually reasonable, kind of, but since his memories came back..."

Thatch throws up his arms. "So, how'd he get it out of you?"

Koala flushes. "I didn't say anything!"

"Sure."

"It's not my fault that Sabo's a damn--!"

There's a loud knock, before the hatch flings open, and Ace pops his head in. "Hey Thatch! What's for snack--"

"NOT AGAIN!" Koala cries.

At the same time, Thatch shouts, "IN A SECOND!"

Either way, the hatch slams shut with a, "SORRY!"

Thatch and Koala stare at each other with their hearts beating uncomfortably rapidly.

They slowly heave a slow sigh of relief as the tension drains.

"I really need to apologize to Ace," Thatch mutters.

"I really need to work on my Observation Haki," Koala groans.

"HEY THATCH, I WANT A SNACK," Luffy shouts, and Thatch and Koala's heads whip around in horror, only to sag with relief at seeing that Luffy's not in the room, but only for a second--

--because after that second, a mermaid's crashing through the hatch, ripping it from its hinges as she slams, hatch and all, into Thatch's chest.

The room fills with dust and debris, and there are shouts outside.

Koala gingerly peers into the wreckage where Thatch is now buried in the wall, a terrified blue gull  perched on her shoulders peering alongside her, its claws digging through the fabric of her shirt.

"We're fine," Thatch coughs, peering down to make sure he'd successfully caught and shielded Luffy from damage, even as he peels himself from the wood. Luffy seems unharmed, though her eyes are wide; she clearly hadn't expected to do quite this much.

"...Armament?" Koala asks, noticing how the back of Thatch's hair is black from where it's fanned around him.

"Armament," Thatch agrees, keeping the entire back of his body coated until he's safely pulled himself and Luffy, still in his arms, away from any sharp wood.

"Sorry, Thatch," Luffy says, not particularly apologetic, if anything sort of curious. She peels herself back from his chest, scritching her cheek while looking down at what was once the hatch to the mens room that had shattered between them. She then reaches back to tug at Thatch's black locks, and oohs when they fade back to auburn.

"No worries, just make sure to make it up to Deuce and Usopp when they have to fix this," Thatch sighs, before grinning, letting his arms fall away from Luffy once he knows she has a secure grip on his shoulders. He then begins carding his fingers through her hair to make sure no splinters got in, and likewise dusting off the front of her vest, taking care not to let his touch linger. Luffy nods frantic agreement, more like rubs her head into his palm, and Thatch feels his heart skip a beat.

Koala sighs.

"Hey Thatch, what's this?"

Thatch blinks, then inwardly curses.

Luffy's holding Izo's crumpled piece of paper. His control of his power's still shoddy, and it must have accidentally spat it back out in the commotion.

Please, don't be able to read that, he prays. He luckily doesn't have much confidence in Luffy's reading abilities.

"It says 'what are her three sizes.' What are those?"

In the background, Koala slowly raises her fist.

~~

A few days later, Marco's scouting when a blue gull rapidly approaches him.

Delivery! it squawks. Delivery for you, Boss, and don't show Izo! Don't show Izo! Don't show Izo or the bread man will be mad!

Thank you, noted, friend, Marco responds, and catches the note from Thatch in mid air.

The gull trills acknowledgement, then wheels away to rejoin its brethren, while Marco changes course for the nearest island, a safe forest haven in Pops's territory, still a ways away from the Moby. It's uninhabited, save for the wildlife, and it would be good to land once before returning home anyway.

Marco lands lightly on the tallest and oldest tree on the island, from where he can survey the island of pure greenery, and the endless blue stretching beyond. The branch he's chosen looks deceptively thin, but he already knows it can support his human weight, which is why he shifts, passing the note from his claw to his hand before completing his transformation.

Marco frowns. The other Commanders (and to be honest, the entire crew) have been acting a bit strange recently, but for Thatch, who isn't even on board with them, to also be in on it...

True, this may or may not be related to that at all. But still.

Marco feels like he's missing something.

Marco, Thatch's message starts, and Marco already knows it's going to be serious because it didn't start with a jibe at his appearance.

Marco, I think I'm actually serious about her. Thoughts, brother?

Her, meaning the Ace's little brother, the mermaid girl.

If Marco remembers correctly, in Thatch's first note back to him, he'd written, She's stolen my heart, I think I want to marry her.

Marco had assumed Thatch was joking at the time, or just light-heartedly flirting, as he always did. Marco's used to hearing Thatch spew these kinds of words, and he'd taken it to mean that the girl's exceptionally Thatch's type, but hadn't thought further.

The words had made him remember a little trinket he'd had stored in a chest at the back of his closet, one he'd received from an elderly couple on Fishman Island around two decades ago...

But that's not important now, Marco thinks, focussing on Thatch's message.

In all his years of flings and casual relationships and jokingly asking ladies (and some gents) Won't you marry me...Thatch has not once asked for Marco's opinion. He's certainly had plenty of opinions himself about whether someone would be a potential good match for Marco, which Marco always ignored. But Thatch has never asked Marco about matches for himself.

Thatch really is serious.

Marco finds himself slowly smiling. "Finally, you sap," he murmurs, though no one hears him but the other birds in the trees around him.

He knows he ought to think more about what to say, but the answer is so obvious that Marco takes Thatch's note, and carefully tears the paper so that his brother's words aren't damaged. Gently tucking Thatch's note into his pocket, Marco pulls out a pen for the remaining small blank strip of paper.

Shortly afterwards, two birds depart from the island, in opposite directions: one, a phoenix, wings burning cyan against the clear skies, and the other, a blue gull headed to Paradise.

~~

~~

~~

Part 9, things start Moving as Sabo confronts Ace.

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! And again, please do let me know if you actually like reading the story here on tumblr or not >.<;

As always, any comments are immensely appreciated and help motivate me to create more for this AU! ;A;

❀ ❀ Send YukiPri an Ask! ❀ ❀

~This ask has been added to the Mermaid AU Text Headcanons Compilation post~

[sage-the-mage]

Low key thinking of doing a fic based around combining H2O: Just Add Water and Mako Mermaids. It would start at S2 of H2O, feelings on Charlotte as a character seem to be mixed so depending I'd either make her a friend and scrap the fighting entirely, make her a better villain and get rid of the girls disliking her for no reason at first, or give her some sort of minor redemption, not necessarily being a friend but hostilities ceasing (according to posts I've seen, the main trio act horribly to her and she hadn't done anything wrong at that point, so that's what these ideas are mostly based around with her. I haven't seen it in so long I can't really remember. I'd definitely try and find somewhere to rewatch it so I could see for myself how I felt before deciding for sure.) I'm definitely scraping S3's obliteration of Zane's character development because it pissed me off, and either he and Rikki stay together because I'm a slut for enemies to lovers trope, possibly making it poly, or they're both gay and each other's beards once they realize for a bit. Idk yet on that. S3 time period is when I introduce the MM stuff, with the theory I saw awhile ago that the pod leaves around when the planet alignment thing happens, but they don't know for sure so it's like a couple years that they're gone, and they come back fairly soon after it's happened. Zack (I think is his name) turns into a merman so the Mako 3 come to pretend to be human, as in that show, but the H2O 3 are also kinda seen as a possible problem. The two groups start out weary of each other, but the H2O 3 start to help the Mako 3, seeing they're clearly struggling, and wind up being tentative friends. At some point Emma goes on that canon trip, and Bella comes in, which introduces the other 2 H2O girls (and Emma because calling and texting) to the concept of other moon pools, and other moon pools giving different powers. S3 of H2O and S1 of Mako basically happen at the same time, and dealing with the meteor proves to the natural mermaids that the H2O group is entirely deserving of their powers, and they find out that's what happened with the old Irish mermaid (Ava I think? Idk for sure that's also the name of a character of mine so I could be confused) and that all natural mermaids are just the descendants of girls like the H2O group. Then it focuses more on the Mako storyline, with the H2O group there and helping and learning more powers mermaids have, eventually along with Evie, and Nixie for sure and I think Layla (sp?) get to stay around when Mimmi and Ondine (idk either of their spellings tbh) show up because I love them both and while I may let characters rotate "out" to a more minor role so I don't have too many to keep track of I'm still gonna keep more around, and not have them be barely/not mentioned again. Anyway I don't remember the plot to Mako as well so I'll have to brush up on it but I've got plenty of ideas, it's just whether they'll ever see the light of day lol

[lunewell]

The Norwegian Mermaid Association - Part 1

Word count: 1816

Written for MerMay

No TW or CW

Can also be read on Wattpad here

This is a little story I’ve been working on for MerMay, about an actual historical association that operated from 1963-1989. It ended up being rather long, so I split it into two parts, but here is the first instalment (:

Though safely placed a good distance away from the raging waves, the room of sailors and wives smelt overwhelmingly like fresh salt water and newly caught fish. Not that Morten could complain too much, as being served something other than fish and bread was a welcome change, even if it meant being enclosed in a tiny, wooden, scarcely-furnished room with 12 others.

“Doesn't she make the most divine food?” Leif commented to the others, who had creatively spread themselves on any available surface, be it the arm of the worn, uncomfortable chair, or squeezed tightly on the sheepskin covered couch. A chorus of sounds of agreement and nods, made Leif grin widely. He turned to his darling wife: “We should do this every time we return home from sea.” It was said with a semi- teasing smile, his blue eyes crinkled up.

“That’s a great idea, darling,” Hilde responded, tone matching his as she placed a pale hand on his shoulder, “I can’t wait to see you help me make the food!”

“... on second thought, perhaps once a season is more than enough.”

A light laughter came from the room, especially from Hans, Petter, and Kari, who- judging by their empty glasses and off-balanced movements- had already indulged themselves plenty in the alcohol department. Morten smiled too, appreciating the warm atmosphere of the room, and the ease and welcomeness that had swivelled itself within the smells of the ocean.

As not only the youngest but also the newest of the fishermen, he had originally been sceptical of the idea of attending the dinner party, having neither any sort of social smoothness nor a wife to bring with. Not that he wanted a wife, necessarily, as he had never quite considered himself the type.

However, the temptation of shelter and food (and, let’s be honest, the crippling loneliness), had lured him in like a sirens call into Leif’s and Hilde’s warm little wooden house. Lucky for him, it seemed that the others had a sort of strong kinship and bond that let him mostly sit back and observe the others laughing and talking, rather than needing to actively engage in the conversation himself.

“You really do have a God given gift as a housewife, Hilde,” said Ine- or was it Ina? No, definitely Ine, “We at the Norweagian Mermaid Association are so lucky to have someone like you.”

Morten almost spat out his water, ice blue eyes shot wide open. For what was the first time that night, he spoke, in a soft confused tone: “the… Mermaid Association?” He blinked owlishly, face warming up as all eyes- most that same blue colour- met his.

Anne was the first to realise where his confusion stemmed from: “oh dear,” she said, lips curled in an amused smile, “it’s not actually about mermaids. It’s the name of our women’s group, fighting for the rights of wives of seamen everywhere!”

“Oh,” Morten said, sheepishly, “that… uh, makes more sense. Odd name choice, though, considering historically mermaids were dangerous creatures, in line with trolls.”

“Names ‘cause we’re pretty as mermaids,” Kari said, hair messy and a slight slur to her words, “sing ‘s nice ‘s them, too. And-”

“Know a lot about mermaids, Morten?” Thomas interrupted, before Kari could go on her second drunken ramble of the night. Morten twiddled his thumbs, leaning back in the wooden chair and further into the corner, taking another sip from his glass before he answered.

“Yes. Always loved folklore as a child, be it trolls, Nokken, or mermaids,” he turned his head to look out the dirty window and into the fiery sky that implied a stormy morning, “when I was younger, I would dream about swimming around with a beautiful tail. Of course, silly dreams were all it ever was.”

“If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from my years on the ocean,” Thomas began, “it’s that there are a lot of unknown things in the water, and what seems like sailor stories, might be closer to reality than what’s comfortable.”

“The old man had a point,” Hilde said with a smile, auburn hair swaying as she nodded.

“You’re not so far from 50 yourself,” he scoffed, earning him smiles and a series of teasing that Morten sat comfortably back and watched, glad to have the attention of him again. It was almost hard to believe that Hilde was 50, as her wrinkles were few, and her sea green eyes were still bright and filled with wonder. Though, Morten thought, perhaps it was simply the flickering candle light hiding secrets in its shadows.

The crimson evening stretched to a cloud covered night, moon shining dimly into the wooden house and the candle lights darting brightly around them. Kari, Petter, Thomas, and Inne had already left, leaving only Anne and Hans-, who, from what he had picked up had sons old enough that they needn’t return til long, himself, and the keepers of the house; Leif and Hilde.

Morten was certainly not at his prime. The exhaustion from the previous weeks on sea had really begun to take a toll; his dark brown hair was sticking out, his eyes were bagged, and he had very quickly moved himself to the brown sofa covered in sheepskin by the dancing fire in an attempt to quell the bone-deep chill that had spread through his body.

In the distance, he could hear Anne and a very, very drunk Hans giving their goodbyes, though he didn’t catch exactly what they said, as he couldn’t concentrate on the sound. In fact, he couldn’t concentrate much on anything right now, the lights blurring in his vision and the decorations around the room- from the plants to what was frankly a concerning amount of mackerel-themed objects, were swimming around him. He could feel the vice of a headache wrapping around his head like the jaws of a beast.

“Oh you poor dear,” he heard Hilde, who he hadn’t even managed to hear come in, sigh, “you look completely worn out.”

He blinked at her, willing his vision into focus. “It’s alright,” he managed to say, voice laced with drowsiness, “I was about to leave, anyway.” He reluctantly got up, gripping his pounding head as black spots entered his vision.

“In this state? Absolutely not,” Hilde protested, already pulling out a drawer to fetch what looked like a warm blanket, “no point in putting a young man like yourself needlessly in danger. This couch is plenty big enough for you.” She threw him a soft, wolly blanket woven in the pattern of a mackerel tail, the strength of the throw making it very clear she was not up for protest.

And even if he had foolishly attempted to protest her motherly instincts, she kept speaking. “Feel free to get some water if you’re thirsty- there’s glasses in the rightmost top cupboard,” she said, before making her way to what Morten assumed was the bedroom. “Goodnight, sleep well.”

There was something in her tone, almost sing-song like, that made him instantly relax and believe that he would, in fact, sleep well that night. It wasn’t long before she had blown out the last candles, smoke being added to the interesting concoction of scents, that he felt the serenity of night, calm as a pond, make him sink into the deep waters of sleep.

————————————

True to Hilde’s words, he slept better than he had in months, being awakened not in a rush like he usually was, but by the sound of rhythmic but hammering rain on the windows. He rubbed his eyes, stretching out and getting rid of the last remaining signs of his journey into the watery abyss. Looking out the window, he saw that true to his prediction, the morning was dark and stormy, thick clouds and heavy rain laying on a sheet that made it hard to see much of anything. Welcome to Stavanger, he thought almost fondly, well used to the city's frankly abysmal weather, only rivalled by a few Vestland cities, most notably Bergen.

He got up from the couch, and glanced at the clock; almost nine. Though comparatively late to when he usually got up, it seemed that Leif had been more exhausted than he let on, as Morten could easily hear his snores from the thin walls. In fact, listening closer, Morten could hear a lot from the thin walls; he could hear the angry seas, he could hear the sounds of talking crowds not too far away, and oddly enough, what sounded like singing.

Melodic, gorgeous, utterly encapsulating singing, sweet as wind chimes, unlike anything he had ever heard before.

In a completely uncharacteristic move, he found himself almost hypnotically making his way out the door and into the weather. Cold air whipped his cheek, but he found himself barely caring, continuing onwards even as his clothes became so soaked that they merged into his baby soft skin.

He made his way further to the coast and docks, walking past swaying trees and winding paths into the dark, wet stoney beach. By now, he was sure his lips were blue, his face wet from the rain, and yet he could not bring himself to feel anything but excitement as the sweet sounds came closer and closer.

And then, at the edge of a rock, at just the right splash zone for the sprays of crashing waves to hit him, he saw it.

Hilde, short, wavy auburn hair, big sea green, aging eyes, was laying on a rock, a mackrell's tail attached to her lower body, and blue scales sprouted across the skin of the arms she rested her head on. Her ears- inhuman, blue, and shaped like fins, perked up, and the signing stopped as she spotted him. Her expression was initially one of surprise and shock, but it washed away within seconds to a warm smile.

Morten gaped like a trout, and stared at her. He scanned her up and down over and over again, his mind having gone completely blank in a way to try to deal with the shock. Hilde took in his expression, and laughed lightly, though he didn’t see what was particularly funny.

“Well, girls,” Hilde said, and to his minds absolute horror, several more heads of scales and weird ears, among them faces he recognised as Anne, Ine, and Kari from last night, popped out of the water, “looks like we’ll be having a guest in the meeting today”

“So,” an unfamiliar brunette with dark skin and purple scales around her eyes said, “is this yet another sailor from your man's crew that will end up with one of our kind?”

Hilde looked directly at him, her smile teasing with sharp teeth. “Oh, I don’t doubt that. But, for now, let’s get back to the matter at hand, and let the weekly meeting of the Norwegian Mermaid Association, plus 1, begin!”

[lukatheselkie]

HMC - Pirates and Mermaids AU

@hetaliamondaychallenge

The amount of research that went into the thought “What if Sweden is (selectively) mute and uses sign language?” is just UGH. Europe’s recorded use of sign language is very lackluster until the 1750′s, and honestly it’s still sparse then. Because I wrote the beginning of this to be at the end of the Golden Age of Piracy, I needed time-appropriate sign language. I spent roughly an hour trying to find it. On the bright side, I now know that Swedish Sign Language likely descended from Old British Sign Language, which is why I use (a form of) it in this. Technically, its use wasn’t recorded until 1760, but I imagine they were using a form of it before then. Cited: “...there is solid evidence that deaf people in Britain were signing as early as in the 16th century...” So, I just gave it a (probably inaccurate) name. I had to. You’ll see why. I do not claim this is the name used at the time. I also used time-appropriate measurements.

Fun Fact: Swedish Sign Language didn’t exist until 1800. And it’s currently an endangered language, which is really sad. It’s so beautiful. (Seriously, go look up Swedish Sign Language on YouTube. I recommend watching song translations. They’re captivating. Try Tommy Krångh if you go the song route.)

Ship: SuFrUk (Sweden/England/France)

I’m most definitely turning this into a longer story! This is just highlights, I’ll be adding in more detail as I create chapters.

    Arthur grimaces when his ship creaks, shifting in the direction of the net his crew cast moments ago. It isn’t an uncommon occurrence, being this far from shore. They often catch larger fish with the net they had stolen from a fishing boat. It feeds them well for a few days, so it’s worth the mess, but the ship tilting and moving everything that isn’t tied down is always obnoxious. “Pull it up! Now!” He doesn’t even give them a second before snapping at them again. “Faster! Don’t let it get away!” There’s not much of a chance of it getting away though. Not unless it has sharp teeth, like a shark. Even then, they panic so much it’s difficult for them to escape. But his crew doesn’t know that. And if any of them do, they don’t dare defy his orders. The net comes out of the water, and he frowns. That’s not a fish. That’s…

    “Move! Don’t let its stingers touch you!” Everyone in the line of the moving net runs as far away from it as they can. Thankfully, no one gets stung. Once the net is mostly done swaying, Arthur storms up to the knot holding it and unties it quickly. He’ll wait for the stupid jellyfish to die before tossing it back into the ocean to be eaten by something stupid enough to try. There’s no good meat on it. He steps up next to it and pokes it with his foot, careful not to let it touch any of his skin. It’s huge. The tentacles are roughly three fathoms (18 ft/548.64cm) long, from what he can tell. They’re in a tangled mess he doesn’t envy. They remind him a bit of a lion’s mane.

    The creature moves, forcing him to take a few steps back or risk getting stung. Incredibly, a man sits up from within the tangle, not an injury on him. He blinks, looking around in confusion. His face goes pale and he reaches out for the tentacles frantically, pulling them up around himself. He doesn’t appear to be hurt by them. Arthur takes a cautious step closer, intrigued. “Who are you?” He can feel the eyes of his crew on him. The man drops his armload, and his shoulders move up and down in what appears to be a sign, though there’s no noise paired with it. Or maybe he’s not close enough to hear it? There’s not a single mark on him, despite what he did. It becomes apparent to Arthur he’s part of the jellyfish. But how? “What are you?” The man starts moving his hands at an incredibly fast pace, eyes darting around frantically. “I can’t understand you. Can you speak?” He shakes his head, then goes back to moving his hands.

    It takes Arthur a few minutes of watching closely to realize it’s sign language. The… jellyfish is repeating the same phrase, over and over and over. He focuses harder on the signs, recognizing some. It’s been a few years since he used sign language, so he’s a bit rusty. But what are the chances this creature would know his?

    “Want… let… go.” Ah.

    “You want us to let you go? I can’t do that. Look at you! You’re a wonderful discovery. No one will believe us without a specimen. And that’s you.” He wiggles a bit, and some of his tentacles lash out at Arthur. He steps back in time for them not to hit his face, but they do manage to hit his hands. He clenches his jaw at the pain, wishing he was wearing his gloves. He hears swords being drawn behind him. “Put them away,” he growls out, glaring at the jelly-man. “No one is to touch him unless told to. We want him alive. Now leaves us alone. Go to the lower decks and prepare a place for him.” His crew hurries to do as they’re told. He looks back at the man. “What’s your name?”

    “B-E-R-W-A-L-D.” He signs out the letters begrudgingly.

    “Thank you for cooperating. If you keep doing that, I will promise you no harm will come to you. But only if you aren’t difficult.” He fumbles around in a barrel for a moment for something to wrap his hands with. “If that happens, I will not sell you like I currently intend to. I will protect you.” He wraps his hands in some bandages he finds, then glances up at Berwald. He’s signing again, still frantic in his movements. “It has been some years since I last practiced. Go slower.”

    “...Going with you? Where will… stay?” It’s still difficult to make out everything, but there’s enough for him to be mostly confident in what he’s saying.

    “I’ll have something made for you.” He racks his brain quickly for ideas. He could always use the Roman way. “I’ll have a large pond made for you, supplied with fresh seawater anytime you wish. But that’s only if you aren’t troublesome. Keep that in mind before you do anything.” Berwald nods, then looks around the ship calmly. At least he’s accepted he’s not leaving. There’s so many unanswered questions though! Perhaps he’ll answer some. “As long as we’re answering questions, I have a few for you. If they make you uncomfortable, you do not have to answer. I do not have to know. I am only curious. Answer slowly, if you do. I am still recalling some signs. What are you? Where did you come from? Did you have a home? A family? How come you don’t sting yourself?” Berwald furrows his brows, then lifts up his hands hesitantly. After a moment, he starts signing.

    “...A version of what humans call merfolk. ...Came from the coast of Sweden. Where… now? ...Didn’t have what humans consider a home. Just the ocean. ...Drifted from my family years ago. We don’t keep in touch. Would it make sense for a jellyfish to be able to sting itself? That’s why… don’t. ...May be human in appearance, but… not.” Arthur frowns slightly at his answers. No family? What a lonely existence.

    “You are close to England. That’s where you’ll be taken back to. If you’re from Sweden, why do you know British Sign Language?”

    “It’s the only thing I could learn.” Finally Arthur recognizes all of the signs.

    “I suppose that makes sense. Sign Language isn’t very well distributed. Why did you learn it though? You aren’t deaf. You can understand me too well.”

    “You are correct. I am not deaf. However, I am mute. I do not wish to speak of why, so please do not ask.” That’s curiosity-inducing. But he’ll obey his wish.

    “Alright. You do not have to tell me, but if you ever wish to, I will listen. Watch?” Berwald laughs quietly, a noise that startles Arthur enough for him to jump, which makes him laugh even more. He must be selectively mute, then. It makes him even more eager to learn his story, but he won’t push it. A thought comes to him, and he feels ashamed for not realizing earlier. “Do you need water to survive?” It’s a question he should have asked much sooner.

    “Absolutely. I am made mostly of water. But I can breathe your air, so I do not have to be submerged. I do wish I could have my tentacles flowing in the water again, but I know you will not allow that until I am away from the ocean. After all, I could easily swim away. Well, float away. It is very difficult to swim without the assistance of the current.” Arthur furrows his brows slightly.

    “It’s not entirely out of the question. If you are willing to be in the net, I can have my crew lower you into the water again. If not, I will personally bring you plenty of water below deck. I do not trust anyone on my crew to. They fear you. However, being afraid of a giant jellyfish is reasonable.” Berwald scrunches up his nose slightly.

    “I am not a fan of this net. It tangled me up. I would rather wait until we get to your home. At least I can untangle them while we travel. How long do you think it will take?”

    “I understand. It will take a week, at most. Usually it would be shorter, but there are a few more stops I wish to make before returning home. I won’t be returning to sea. I’ll have you to take care of.” Berwald turns his head away, hiding his smile. He was worried about the selling comment, but now he knows it’s not true. Not if he’s already planning on taking care of him. He looks back at him, eyes wide.

    “What is your name? You know mine, but you have not told me yours.”

    “My apologies.” He bows his head slightly. “How rude of me. I am Arthur.”

    “Like King Arthur?”

    “Indeed. I am a bit surprised you have heard that tale. You know sign language and of our stories. How often do you watch humans?” Berwald flushes crimson.

    “It is a guilty pleasure of mine. I get lonely very easily. I miss having others to interact with. I suppose that is why I was so close to your lovely ship. It seemed so lively. I did not expect to be captured. Though it isn’t entirely bad I was. I got to meet you.” He gives an almost mischievous smile. If Arthur didn’t know any better, he would think the jellyfish is flirting with him. Perhaps he is. But it’s not obvious enough for him to comment on it, lest he be incorrect and embarrass himself.

    “That is true. As strange as it has been, I rather enjoyed meeting you as well.” He smiles slightly at him. “Ah, give me a moment. I will get my gloves, then I can help you to where you’ll be staying.” He hurries off, hoping his sleeves won’t ride up while he’s helping.

~ (Five or so days later)

    Arthur practically throws himself into Francis’ arms when he opens the door to his house. “Mon dieu! Arthur, you startled me! I’m happy to see you, of course, but you didn’t have to nearly give me a heart attack the moment I opened the door. You could have at least let it register in my mind that you were here.” Despite his condescending words, he wraps his arms around him lovingly.

    “I’m sorry. I’m just excited. I have something to show you. Come with me.” He pulls out of the hug gently, hands lingering on his wrists. “On my ship. I’m retiring from pirating because of him. We can finally be together without worry.” He presses a kiss to his lips, then runs off. Francis smiles, shaking his head as he follows. That man.

    “Alright. What is it you wanted me to see? You show up in the middle of the night and drag me to your ship, it better be something interesting!”

    “Oh, it is! I promise.” He turns around to press another kiss to his lips, then disappears below deck. Francis rolls his eyes, and opens the door carefully, being quieter than Arthur. He chases after him, laughing at his energy. When he stops, Francis does as well. A subtle movement drags his attention away from his love, and he gasps. There’s an at least partially naked man laying on top of a beautiful jellyfish in a wide but shallow trough, filled with water. Upon closer inspection, he’s part of the jellyfish.

    “How…? What?” Arthur grins at him.

    “His name is Berwald. He wound up in our fishing net when he got too close. Look at him! Isn’t he beautiful?”

    “Oui, and dangerous! How did he get down here?” His love smiles sheepishly.

    “I sort of dragged him here? With his permission. I was covered, don’t worry. Clothes are enough of a covering to not be stung.” Francis sighs dramatically.

    “I knew it was a terrible idea for you to be pirating this time. You’ve done it twice before, what on Earth was a third time going to do for you?”

    “Apparently, give me a giant man-jelly.” Francis groans softly.

    “Oui, I see that. Whatever are you going to do with him?” The man shifts again, and his eyes open. They’re stunning. Like stormy sea waves. Their beauty knocks the breath out of him. Berwald’s hands start moving, too fast for Francis to comprehend what’s happening.

    “Who is this? I thought you decided not to sell me? I do not want to leave you! You are my friend! Or so I thought. Why would you sell me without telling me? And in my sleep too!?” Arthur slings his arms out.

    “You’ve got it all wrong, Berwald! I’m not selling you. I already promised I wouldn’t. I won’t go back on my word. This is my lover, Francis. I wanted you two to meet. I’m sorry for waking you. I didn’t know you were asleep. I should have spoken to you before leaving to get him, instead of just looking at you. That is my fault. We are friends. And I was hoping you two could become friends as well. I did not mean to worry you. I apologize.” Francis watches a bit of colour return to the jelly-man’s face and hears him sigh, presumably in relief.

    “Thank goodness. Your lover, you say? Humans are strange creatures. Though I must admit, this intrigues me. Do humans ever have more than one lover at a time?” Arthur stares at Berwald for a long moment. What an interesting question.

    “I suppose they can. It is uncommon, but I do not see why they couldn’t.” Francis tugs on his sleeve lightly.

    “How are you communicating with him? What did he say?”

    “Ah, right. You don’t know British Sign Language. That’s what he’s using. He’s selectively mute. Don’t ask him why, he doesn’t want to tell the story. He may change his mind in the future, but for now, that topic is off limits. Is there anything else you would like to ask him? And he wanted to know if humans ever have more than one lover at a time.” Francis releases his sleeve, and steps closer to the trough. What a fascinating question.

    “Berwald, was it?” A nod. “Strange that you have a human name. What are you? Where did you come from?” The jelly stares at Arthur expectantly.

    “He’s a version of what humans consider mermaids, and he’s from the coast of Sweden.”

    “You two aren’t humans, are you?” Arthur mentally scolds himself. He separated himself from them one too many times in his speech.

    “No, we aren’t humans,” he says slowly, making sure to include the topic for Francis’ sake. The Frenchman tenses up, but doesn’t say anything. “We’re actually personifications of countries. I’m England, and he’s France.” His eyes widen slightly.

    “I am Sweden.”

    “Sweden…?” He’s heard about the countries that were mer-creatures, but he never expected to come across one!

    “Sweden? Are you Sweden? Now you having a human name makes sense.”

    “So your family…?”

    “Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Iceland.”

    “Wow. What are the chances we would meet?” Francis clears his throat quietly. “I’m going to have to teach you British Sign Language, aren't I?”

    “If you wish for us to be friends, oui. I do not want you to have to translate everything he says.” He gives Arthur a polite smile, then pecks his lips. “Please teach me.”

    “Of course I will. Would you like to come visit? I’m on my way home now. I just had to visit you and tell you the news before going.” Francis laughs.

    “Oui, I’ll come visit. Would you be alright with me moving in? Not immediately, of course, but after a few months? Maybe a year? Give you some time to settle back in.” Arthur’s eyes light up, and he hugs his love close.

    “That would make me the happiest man in the world!” He laughs, picking Francis up to spin him around. He places him back down, and kisses him again.

   “Mmm, as much as I would love to keep doing this, I must return home. You interrupted my beauty sleep! Have a wonderful trip back. Please be safe.” He kisses him on the forehead, then runs off.

~ (Two months later)

    The moment Berwald is in his large sea ‘pond’, he shakes his sore muscles out. He looks up at Arthur, and smiles thankfully at him. He propels himself through the water, doing his best to twirl around so he can see him in full. He struggles to the surface, grabbing the edge to keep himself up. Arthur smiles, taking note of the jellyfish bell flaring out around him. That’s something he hadn’t noticed on the ship. It’s maybe a yard and a half in diameter, including where his torso joins with it. “I see you’re enjoying yourself.” He nods, unable to sign because he’s holding himself above water. “Good. It was hell getting that made, and getting you in it without anyone seeing you. Thankfully, no one did. I will admit, at first I wanted to sell tickets for people to see you. But now, I want you to be a secret. I would have offered to release you back into the sea, but I didn’t want you getting lonely again. And… we’re friends. Don’t tell anyone, but I actually care about you. And I would hate to lose you. So don’t ever scare me by disappearing!” Berwald smiles fondly, and reaches out for Arthur’s hand. He squeezes it, then kisses the back of it. He pulls away, and looks him in the eyes.

    “I promise, friend.” The relief in Arthur’s eyes is overwhelming. He waves awkwardly at him and sinks back down into the water, just as Francis comes out of the house.

    “There you are! Did he make it in okay? He’s not hurt, is he?”

    “He’s fine, love. And no one saw. He’s safe here.” He motions at the tall fence surrounding the yard.

    “Good. I’m glad.” He glances at the water, giving a small smile to Berwald. “I made us some food. All three of us. Can we have a picnic? Then you can teach me some signs. I’m more than ready to learn.”

~ (1800)

    For the past few weeks, Berwald’s signing has gradually gotten harder and harder to interpret. Arthur always manages to figure out what he’s trying to say, but it’s incredibly concerning. He’s not entirely certain why it’s changing, though he has an idea. Instead of trying to figure out discreetly, he decides to outright say it one day when he goes to feed him. “Is Sweden developing its own sign language? Yours has gotten harder and harder to understand, and that’s the only thing I can think of.” He frowns, brows furrowed. He stays like that for maybe five minutes, before carefully lifting a hand to sign.

    “Perhaps. I am a bit upset it is changing. When it is done, will you teach me British Sign Language again? I will know both then.” Arthur chuckles.

    “You don’t need to ask. I am glad you want to know both though. Waiting until it has developed is probably the best idea. You won’t get them confused then.” Berwald nods, and slips back into the water. He lifts a hand up to sign at Arthur.

    “That is exactly what I was thinking. Now excuse me, I saw a fish. It must have gotten mixed in with the water when you changed it.” The Brit laughs, watching him chase after the fish. Maybe he’ll start gathering live fish to put in there with him. It might make him happier.

~(1850’s)

    “Arthur! Arthur, look!” Francis stumbles out the back door, newspaper in hand. “It’s possible to make larger aquariums than we previously thought! Perhaps we could have one made for Berwald? That way he doesn’t have to lift himself out of the water to communicate with us. We’ll be able to see him anywhere! Doesn’t that sound exciting?” Arthur places a hand on either shoulder, and kisses Francis’ nose.

    “That does sound exciting. I’m sure Berwald is tired of communicating with one hand. It is a good idea. I will look into it tomorrow. However, won’t you sit and have a nice meal with us?”

    “Oui! I would never pass up a meal with my two favourite boys.” He kisses Arthur on the forehead, then kneels to do the same thing to Berwald. A question the jelly-man asked years ago is brought back to Arthur’s mind. Do humans ever have more than one lover at a time? After a moment of thought, he lands on a similar answer to what he gave last time. They can.

~ (A few months later)

    Arthur tilts the barrel with all his might, nearly falling into the newly-filled tank when Berwald slips out. He heaves a huge sigh, unsure if it’s from relief or lack of oxygen from the nerves. He makes his way back to the ground, grateful for the solidness of it. He doesn’t look at the huge tank quite yet. “Francis.” He loops an arm around his waist, closing his eyes as he turns toward the glass.

    “On the count of three?”

    “One.”

   “Two.”

   “Three!” They say it together, and open their eyes. Both of them gasp, finally seeing Berwald surrounded in water from the side for the first time since making his acquaintance. His tentacles are billowing out around him, moving slightly with the gentle current they decided to have installed. His torso is stockier and chubbier than they thought, but neither is complaining. His shoulders are broad, and his arms long and toned. His blonde hair shimmers in the light refracting through the water from the ceiling of the building. He’s an absolutely stunning sight.

    “Goodness, Arthur! He’s beautiful!” Francis steps closer to the glass, placing his hand on it gently.

    “He is.” He walks up next to his love, but doesn't touch the glass. Berwald lets himself sink to the bottom, and places his hand where Francis’ is. He smiles brightly at them, eyes crinkling at the edges because of it. “Very beautiful. Berwald, can you hear us?” He laughs, a sound that, surprisingly, reaches their ears.

    “Yes! I can hear you better than I could before! It’s like I’m back in the ocean! Except I have friends to keep me company! And human food to eat! I couldn’t be happier! Thank you!” His expression is full of excitement as he signs.

    “You’re very welcome, dear. It’s the least we can do. You’ve been so wonderful and understanding. I’m glad we can bring you company.” Francis replies, placing his other hand on the glass. Berwald eagerly mirrors that as well. “You mean a lot to us.” Arthur smiles, nodding his agreement.

    “You do. Francis, is it time?”

    “Oui, I think so!” Berwald tilts his head slightly, obviously confused. He doesn’t pull away from Francis to sign though.

    “Do you recall asking me if humans ever have more than one lover at a time?” He nods slowly, confusion still dancing in his eyes.

    “Arthur and I have decided we both love you very much, and would like to ask if you will be our lover?”

    “It can be the three of us in a relationship. We’ll be more than friends. It might be a bit strange, but we’re willing to try. We love you enough to try.” The confusion finally falls away, and he pushes himself back from the glass. He grabs two of his tentacles, and focuses on putting them over his head in a shape of some sort. Oh! It’s a heart!

    “I love you both too. My answer is yes.” He smiles at them, bottom lip trembling slightly.

    “Please don’t cry! Even if they’re happy tears. You’ll get me going too.” Francis dabs at his eyes as if he’s already crying. Then, he grabs Arthur’s hand and presses his palm flat against the glass. “Show your love, Arthur. I already have. It’s your turn.” The Brit rolls his eyes, but places his other hand on the glass nonetheless. Berwald matches him, grinning. After a moment, he scrunches up his nose and sticks his tongue out.

    “Hey! Put that back! No fair! I can’t kiss you until you stop out here.” Not even that is enough to dampen his mood though. He’s over the moon with joy. Judging by the expression on Francis’ face, so is he. And Berwald, too. He moves his arm over a bit, motioning at Francis to put his hand there. He does, and Arthur takes his other hand. In their own way, they’re making a circle of love.

~ (Early 1960’s)

    Arthur never thought he would be thanking Alfred for anything, but here he is. Incredibly grateful to one of his inventors, for making a suit he and Francis can actually visit with Berwald in without fear of getting stung. Well, mostly. Their faces will still be exposed, and they need gloves and boots, but those aren’t too difficult to get a hold of. “Berwald! We’re coming!” Francis laughs, grabbing him by the waist.

    “You’re too excited, mon cher. You might startle him. Take a few deep breaths to calm down before entering the water with him. I’ll count. Let’s start with five. One.” Arthur takes a deep breath, holding it in for a few seconds before releasing it. “Two.” He feels himself relaxing slightly as he holds this one. “Three.” His muscles untense, though he was unaware they were. “Four.” His excitement becomes a dull ache. “Five.” Now it’s no longer an ache, more like a happy memory. “Better?” He nods, then kisses him in thanks.

    “I’m sorry. I’ve just wanted to be close to him for so long.”

    “As have I. But he is still part animal. He has those instincts. We should try our hardest not to spook him, oui?”

    “You’re right. I should have thought of that.”

    “Nonsense. You’re excited. That’s completely fine. I just didn’t want you to be disappointed. Are you ready?” He nods, and starts climbing the ladder up to the top of the tank. Francis follows close behind. He doesn’t get in the water yet, despite drawing Berwald’s curiosity. He sits on the rim, smiling down at him.

    “We’re coming in. Finally, we get to be by your side. We’ll have to come to the surface for air quite often though, so could you stay near the top? If that’s possible. I know the current circulates the entire tank.” He nods, looking just as excited as Arthur feels. Francis sits next to him, and squeezes his hand.

    “Ready?”

    “Ready.” They look at each other, count to three together, and slide into the water after taking a deep breath. The goggles were a good call. They may not be perfect, but they’re much better than without them. Berwald struggles against the current to swim toward them, desperation in his eyes. They meet in the middle, and practically melt into one another. By the time Francis goes to pull away for a breath, they breach the surface. Apparently Berwald got them closer without either realizing.

    “Merci,” Francis practically whispers, lost in his eyes. Arthur nudges him lightly. “Ah, oui! Berwald, may I kiss you? You’ve seen Arthur and I do it bef-” He presses his lips to Francis’ tenderly, effectively silencing him. The Frenchman closes his eyes, wrapping his arms around his neck. After maybe two minutes, they pull away from each other. Berwald looks at Arthur with a questioning expression. He rolls his eyes, pecks a pouting Francis on the lips, then kisses the Swedish man lovingly. Berwald must be counting, because he pulls away at nearly the same time as he did from Francis.

    “You are both wonderful at that. I am very grateful to have you. You have taught me so many things, and with those clothes, you can teach me more. Thank you so much. I love you.”

    “I love you too,” they say in sync. Then, looking at each other, “And you!” They laugh, and kiss each other. Berwald presses his nose to Arthur’s cheek when they part, and kisses him again. He does the same to Francis when their kiss is over. His heart is so full yet so light. He’s never felt this way before. He loves it. Almost as much as he loves Arthur and Francis.

[sledgefuweek]

Hi everyone! As we mentioned a couple days ago, Lea and I thought it’d be helpful for everyone if we made an informational post about the prompts for Sledgefu Week, just in case people were either confused about the prompt itself or maybe looking for some inspo! 

Here is the AU prompt list: I’ll pop it under a read-more just to save your dashboards, but do go ahead and check it out! And as always, any questions or comments you may have, our inbox is always open :~)

PIRATE AU

Pretty self-explanatory, and a really popular suggestion on the google form that came before the poll, so I’ll assume most of you have a pretty good idea of what makes a pirate AU! This is a fun prompt to pair up with other ‘ocean’ themed prompts, I’m thinking of sirens, mermaids, sea monsters, however many tentacles you want to introduce into this thing. I think Pirate AU can encompass all of those, plus all the various different degrees of piracy that can be had, ranging from the big bad Captain Hook style of piracy down to something a little more Treasure Planet... the AU doesn’t stipulate anywhere that it has to be on land/water after all ;~) My favourite childhood pirates were the sky pirates from the Edge Chronicles series! Really, the only limit with this prompt is your own imagination, feel free to push the envelope!

SOUTHERN GOTHIC

This is one that I’ve seen a few people be curious about, and honestly as was I! Maybe if you’re American you may have a better understanding of what makes a Southern Gothic story different from a conventional (European) Gothic novel, but I know a lot of people here aren’t American, including myself and Lea, so! I did a little research (but if any of this doesn’t quite ring true to what Southern Gothic is, don’t hesitate to correct me! There’s only so much the internet can tell me haha). It’s my understanding that where Euro Gothic is more heavily rooted in the fantastic, Southern Gothic tends towards magical realism instead. It’s more heavily entrenched into the culture of the South than Euro Gothic is necessarily about European culture. Its essentially preoccupied with examining the values of the American south, so it’s important to exercise some sensitivity and care with some of the themes which can come up when looking at the history of the south; namely racism, and slavery -- for obvious reasons. There are plenty other ways to approach Southern Gothic without making comment on these aspects of the genre if you aren’t appropriately knowledgeable about them... the genre stems from European Gothic after all, which means that although it is focused on the south, it is also characterised by explorations of madness, fear of the outside world, decay and despair, the impact of the past on the present, and events stemming from or relating to poverty, crime, alienation, or violence. It has an absolute wealth of generic characteristics that, once combined with the magical realism that is unique to Southern Gothic, can be really fun to play with. Think Wuthering Heights, you know?

VAMPIRE AU

Another pretty classic one, and an AU that I think warrants very little explanation. I think the fun in Vampire AUs is in making it new -- there are SO many various vampire stories out there, what do you want to do with yours? Draw from popular culture, draw from history, draw from your own imagination... just as with the pirate AU, there’s really no limit to where you can take this prompt. Imagine the impact of an all-vampire company in a canonverse story! Or how would a newly-turned vampire navigate his new condition in the modern world? Plus, the whole immortality thing really lends itself to some great slow burn opportunities here. Or, hey, Twilight AU?

PARANORMAL AU

Okay, so: I know now that this looks similar to our Supernatural AU from last year, at a glance. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like they’re two very distinct prompts! It’s always been my understanding that supernatural is monsters: werewolves, witches, etc. whereas paranormal means ghosts, and aliens? Either way, if you already have an idea planned for this that tends towards the werewolf rather than the ghost, don’t worry about it. However this is the time where the angst can come in... I feel like The Pacific is kind of a perfect piece of source material to base a ghostfic on -- not to be morbid but well, you know. And of course, it isn’t limited to one of the characters being a ghost -- as I said, my understanding of ‘paranormal’ always encompassed ghosts, but also aliens, and cryptozoology. Now, wouldn’t Eugene being so interested in birds translate nicely into cryptozoology? Wouldn’t Snafu, being the paranoid legend that he is, quite possibly be into weird internet forums about aliens? You can interpret the prompt as loosely or as closely as you like :~)

COFFEE SHOP AU

I feel like I don’t need to explain this. Do I? Are coffee shop AUs still as popular as they used to be? The real challenge of a coffee shop AU is actually this: how will you make the employee of the coffee shop feel anything less than distain for the customer that is the would-be love interest? Fellow customer service workers know exactly what I mean. (But for real, this can be a fun prompt despite how oftentimes overworked it can seem, and that’s because it leaves a lot of room for creativity. Is your character a poet doing a reading at a local coffee house, catching the eye of the person in the audience? Are they a musician, a stressed-out student, a caffeine-hater who is gritting their teeth after every sip just for a chance to speak to the cute barista? There’s tons of options, and I’m excited to see where people go with it.)

GHIBLI AU

So this is quite simply an opportunity to write an AU for any Ghibli movie of your choice! It’s actually my prompt (I was super happy to see it make it up there in the polls!) so I can explain why it’s nice and vague :~) I didn’t like the thought of having to limit every single person who wanted to contribute to the ship week to a specific AU for a specific Ghibli movie: they have such a huge catalogue of movies, and everyone seems to have their own particular favourite! So basically, you have the freedom to pick from any movie made by Ghibli to turn into an AU here. And these AUs can be as close to the source or as far away from it as you like. Want to write Gene and Snaf as background characters ordering bread from Kiki? You got it. Want to have them fighting in the war that features in Howl’s Moving Castle? Your mind. It’s completely up to you! And if you’re not familiar with Ghibli movies, you’re gonna have a great time if you do decide to watch a couple :~) They’re all on Netflix in the UK, but can’t speak for other countries sadly.

ENEMIES TO LOVERS 

A time-honoured classic. Who hasn’t read an enemies to lovers AU? If you haven’t, and you’re unfamiliar with the concept, it’s pretty self explanatory! It’s pretty much about two characters who have an oftentimes very long history of conflict with each other, (though the ‘long’ part doesn’t really matter much) that eventually resolves into, well, love! The enemy relationship gets swapped for a romantic relationship. I always associate this prompt with slow burn fic too -- it’s always so good if it’s a gradual descent into affection. Now, this is a very broad prompt, which means it can be applied really nicely on top of other AUs! Just glancing at the list here, you wanna write a centuries long Vampire AU where they start out enemies and become lovers? Go for it!! It’s easily one that can be made unique and really fun by applying it to other AUs if you want to. I always think of Spy AUs or things within that genre too!

MYTH AU

This is another pretty broad one that I think covers a lot of bases, simply because there are SO many myths out there lol. If your culture has specific myths, this’d be a really nice time to get creative with them and also let people learn a little more about myths they might not know! There’s also obviously a ton of myths centralised around the American south so that would be fitting for both characters, but don’t be afraid to branch out! Really, you can apply this to any kind of folklore you want, and it’d be perfect! Obviously Greek myths are super popular and always cool too -- imagine an Achilles/Patroclus AU! But I think what makes this prompt really nice is tha it leaves you some room to actually have a go at making your own mythic tale up. So fall back on the real myths that kinda build up our world, but if you’re feeling really creative, take a stab at crafting your own!

[drferox]

Reptilian Mermaid

Fish or Mammal mermaids: broke. Reptile mermaids: woke.

Reptilia can offer a variety of features that suit a mermaid concept. Imagine one gliding through the reef, a super long tail in shimmering, colourful scales, and coming up onto the beach to warm up in the sun or bury eggs in the sand.

Metabolism: Reptiles, and snakes in particular, are very good at holding their breath. A relatively small seasnake can hold its breath for two hours, a human-sized one would be able to manage for much longer, but they do breathe air, which means they have to come to the surface sometimes, where they can be seen by amazed humans. We already have scales, and seasnakes are found in many tropical and temperate waters.

Colourful: We want our mermaids to be beautifully colourful, right? And reptiles have a host of species capable of quite striking colours or excellent camouflage, but we don’t have to choose one or the other for this species. While I am torn between these reptiles having near perfect camouflage or gaudy, bright warning colours, there’s no reason why we can’t borrow a trait from the chameleon and switch between one and the other.

Imagine these long, serpentine reptiles camouflaging against mundane rocks to hunt, then flashing bright warning colours when disturbed. Imagine the front portion coloured and shaded to lure prey closer, while the bulk of the body and tail is camouflaged to disguise how big it really is.

But those bright warning colours? They imply this creature is highly toxic.

Venomous: Extravagant warning colours are no fun if they’re just a bluff, and reptiles have some of the most notorious venoms on the planet, so why not base a reptilian mermaid loosely on a snake?

And being venomous strongly implies that this creature is carnivorous, as all snakes currently in existence are. In fact a sea snake seems like a pretty good base to build our mermaid on.

Anatomy: Our seasnake mermaid has a long body with the end of the tail flattened for swimming, and the length of that body is basically the length of the intestine. It has front limbs only with webbing between  its claws, but these are primarily for digging in the sand to bury eggs or conceal the body.Having limbs on an otherwise tubular body will require having pectoral muscles, and with a little careful colouring they might be mistaken for mammaries by enthusiastic seafarers.

But snakes just do not chew. They swallow their meals whole, and a little humanoid mouth is not going to serve that function very well. There are plenty of bigger fish in the sea which are highly adapted to tearing chunks of flesh off things, but a tiny humanoid mouth isn’t going to do the job here.

Snake heads are almost all mouth, and this reptilian seasnake mermaid is no exception. The solution, is a fake mouth. Patterning that only looks like a humanoid face, but really opens under what you’d assume is the ‘chin’, disarticulating as required to stretch and swallow prey whole.

To complete the mimicry of a human, or to obscure the body shape of this mermaid, this snake head needs to be ornamented with numerous long strands to mimic the shape of hair. Reptiles, however, do not grow hair, but cartilaginous filaments such as those that support the frill of the Frill Necked Lizard would suffice, only without the skin frill connecting between them. These could grow quite long over time and will provide the illusion of hair, or can be partially moved to distort the mermaid’s outline, but will not move quite right for hair while swimming. They may even be held flat. The true eyes of this serpent are likely to be partially concealed by these fronds.

Note that to spend any significant time on land, a reptilian mermaid based on a snake needs to keep the ventral scales of terrestrial snakes in order to grip the ground, which is a feature that most seasnakes have lost, or at least reduced.

In regards to their respiratory tract, while many land snakes have one functional lung and one vestigial lung, some sea snakes will have two functional lungs, only spaced further along the body so they are not next to each other, but in sequence. Their nostrils may well be in the approximate position of human nostrils on the fake ‘face’, which is really the top of the mermaid’s head, so it can breathe as the surface without bringing its entire head out of the water.

A seasnake typically has two tiny holes at its real lips to allow the ends of its forked tongue to protrude ever so slightly for seeking prey. It does not need to extend the tongue while underwater, as the water carries scent particles better than air does. Scent, sound and vibrations are likely the main senses they use to locate prey. These work best underwater, in the environment for which they are most adapted, but prey will also be detected on land if they come close enough.

Their vocal range is likely to be limited. Snakes are not known for making a lot of noise, nor for a variety of noises, so that is one aspect of the mermaid mythology that these creatures can’t fulfil.

Behavior: The life of this reptilian mermaid can either begin with a live birth or hatching from eggs in the sand, as there are species of aquatic reptiles that do either. Personally I prefer the idea of a nest in the sand, with dozens of newborn baby mermaids crawling their way from the beach to the ocean, predated by birds and protected by a coven of protective parents.

Then the small mermaids, perhaps only the length of your forearm, spend their early life in the shallows and rock pools, mostly camouflaged while hunting small fish, crustacea and molluscs but using their arms for the trickier invertebrates, convincing barnacles to detach from rocks of digging in sand for more prey. They like meat but they’re not fussy. When disturbed a flash of bright, toxic colours warns off would-be predators.

These venomous mermaids they move to deeper water as they grow larger, and their lung capacity increases, shifting colours to suit their surrounds, whether that’s reefs or kelp forests. Here they target faster prey, chasing fish into crevices where they’re cornered and quickly succumb to their venom.

When mature, their front portion large enough to be confused for a human but their tail being much, much longer, they return to beaches to sun themselves and lay their eggs, burying the bulk of their bodies to lay their eggs there. It’s in this state that they’re most likely to be mistaken for the mermaid of legend, and approached by unwitting human snacks.

So consider the following variations as plot hooks or writing ideas:

Climbing: These relatively small reptiles, in their early years, will sometimes be found climbing mangroves or fruit trees in pursuit of small crustaceans in the flood plains, or to escape predators of their own, and have very rarely been spotted consuming particular fruits or eggs.

Temptress: A variety which has apparently developed behavior to target coastal humans, as well as the usual beach scavengers. While these half-buried reptiles will happily take scavenging birds, they have also learned to mimic humans in distress, both in the water and on land, and are even known to mimic humanoid women on the beach, though are not as proficient at mimicking clothes.

Jormungandr: Nobody is quite certain what the maximum size is for these mermaids. Quite large ones have been spotted, though the larger they are, the less frequently they surface, and the deeper they seem to dive. Massive specimens have been reported surfacing from the darkest depths of the ocean, giving rise to the legend of the serpent so big it encircles the whole world, large enough to swallow whales and ships whole. The cold water of the deepest ocean slows their metabolism and oxygen requirements, while the pressure also compresses their lungs, helping them to sink as they seek whatever it is they find down there.

This post was nominated by my Patreon supporters, who viewed it early and funded the commissioned art.

Art commissioned from @akatriel-rowanborn

[circuscarnage]

Potion class panic.

Just a silly one-off fic featureing Sebek Zigvolt and Jack Howl. Thank you to @holyheaven for letting me use his idea.

Words: 1901.

Potions was one of most interesting classes at Night Raven Collage. It taught the students how to use items that they would not usually use in other settings, such as cauldrons and exotic ingredients. It also educated them on how to defend themselves without the use of their wands. It was remarkable what you could put into a tiny potion bottle. Divus had noted that a good magician always has a potion or two up their sleeve, 'just in case' anything were to happen.

In all honestly, they were quite handy. If you were defenceless and needed to run away from battle, just use a mist potion to distract your opponent as you made a safe escape. If you were facing a powerful enemy and were seconds away from death, you better hope you packed a healing elixir, otherwise... Well, you get the point.

The potion class for the first years was more tame, focusing on introducing the students slowly to the dangers of the magical liquids. Instead of throwing them into the deep end immediately, Crowley offered a calmer experience. Things really got exciting in the second year, but we are not here for that. 

Students were paired up in teams of two, preparing a special potion set out by Divus Crewel, the potions teacher. Don't let his love of fashion fool you. Even though he may not look it, he is one of the most powerful potion masters at Night Raven. The potion they were preparing today was a weak transmutation potion. Divus warned that any misdemeanours when making this would earn a detention, as well as a stern talking to from Mozus. As such, everyone was on their best behaviour. Sebek was practising his own work, using the scales of mermaids, unicorn blood, and the hair of a phoenix to create his elixir. It was almost complete, all he had to do next was to stir and let it simmer for a few minuets. In all honestly, he didn't know what to do once he created it. He had no need for this potion, he could cast a transformation spell himself. Perhaps he could gift it to Malleus? Would he enjoy such a gift? He was already powerful enough, giving him something as trivial as this would be considered nothing but a trinket. But maybe he would like the thought?

Sebek was too busy in his own thoughts to notice another student carrying a few too many bottles. They fumbled around between their fingers before eventually letting one slip, and sending it cascading towards the floor. It shattered upon impact, sending a marvellous crash throughout the entire classroom before it was engulfed in a thick pink smoke. It was utter chaos. No one could see and inch in front of their face. A chorus of coughing and confused cries could be heard as students tried to swat the smoke away, opening windows and using text books to clear the room. "Is everyone alright?" Divus called as he batted the pink mist away with his free hand.

Once the mist has dispersed, everyone looked around, eager to see whether or not it had any effect. Potions class could be disastrous if something went wrong. It could be as small as turning a desk into a piece of cake, or as big as accidentally summoning an almighty fire demon hell bent on destroying the entire school. Thanks, Floyd.

But as the students searched around the classroom, they were disappointed at the lack of change. Everything seemed to be in place. Every potion bottle was securely where it was left, and not a singe desk had been transmuted into a terrible beast. There was a calm silence that lay over the students, letting out breaths of relief as they settled once again. 

That was until the entire class had their attention drawn as the sound of another glass shattering filled the air. Simultaneously they turned in the direction of one student, who was standing next to a broken bottle filled with pink shimmery liquid, accompanied by a long and scaly crocodile tail. At first, Sebek was taken aback. He hadn't realised a crocodile had made its way into the school. He jumped back, surprised when he realised the tail was following him wherever he went. How did a crocodile even get in here? He turned himself around, trying to get a glimpse of the creature. But wherever he was facing, the crocodile seemed to be right behind. At this point, he seemed to have connected the dots. A mild panic started to build up in his chest, which seemed to affect the tail as well, as it started to flail wildly. Some students took the initiative to stand back, far away from the manic tail, while others attempted to stifle a laugh, amused by the tails antics.

With one wave of his hand Divus silenced the group of youngsters. His footsteps echoed through the room as he sauntered across the class, stopping to take a peek at the newly grown tail. It was quite the sight. Reminiscing that of a real reptile tail, it swished back and forth under his gaze. "How peculiar." He hummed. After a moment of inspecting it, he walked back over to his desk, where he took out an old purple book, carved with strange markings. He flipped through the pages before settling on one towards the middle. "Not to worry, I'll have an antidote ready later. You'll just have to wait it out until then."

The tail was going to be a challenge. Even though it only came down to the back of his knees, it was plenty powerful, and could cause some serious damage if he wasn't careful. He needed to get this sorted quickly. With this tail causing problems, he wouldn't be able to protect Malleus properly! Even the thought of not being there when Malleus needed him most was enough to send Sebek into a blind panic. His emotions also seemed to affect the tails behaviour, as it started to flail wildly again, knocking over several more potion bottles, sending them crashing towards the floor.

"Bad pub!" Divus called from the other side of the class as he stormed over. Sebek stood still, fearing that his behaviour would leave a bad mark on his record. When he eventually made his way over, Divus took Sebek by the collar as he lead him outside the classroom, treating him like a new puppy who had torn up his favourite cushion. "I advise you to stay out of trouble until I sort this out." With one hand on the door frame, and the other placed on his temple, Divus let out one final request before slamming the door in Sebeks face.

"Now, sit. And stay."

Sebek walked along the cobbled path of Night Raven, letting his tail swish lazily behind him. Ever since he left the classroom, it calmed down, no longer feeling the need to rampage among the potion bottles. Originally, he had planned to stay put like Divus told him to, but Crowley was patrolling the halls that day, and advised that he take a walk around the school to let off some steam. It seemed to be working.

He let out a small sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. He sincerely hoped that Divus wouldn't be mad at him. Surely, he would understand it was an honest mistake. He also hoped the other students would forgive him, he didn't mean to cause a scene. With any luck, they would be able to continue the class without any more disruptions.

"The hell happened to you?" Jacks voice cut through Sebeks inner monologue, and drew his attention towards the Savanaclaw student sitting idly by himself on a nearby bench. The white wolf gestured to the newly grown tail, studying it intently. He had seen students with similar features, those being from the reptile family, ranging from lizard tails, snake like features, and even tortoise shells. However, he knew Sebek wasn't one of them. And seeing him with one was... weird, to say the least.

"There was an... accident." Sebek confessed before telling his friend what had transpired in the class before. The stress seemed to be getting to him, as when he explained all the horrors of having said tail, it started to swing again, smacking into whatever poor soul was walking past them. Jack grumbled as he watched Sebek try to get a grip on his own tail, flustered and fumbling around. It looked like a dog trying to chance its own tail, and failing miserably. Of all the students here, the savanaclaw ones were the ones most experienced with having extra limbs. Jack was reminded of his own tail, remembering how hard it was to control when he was younger. For some reason, that seemed to piss him off more.

"Christ, can you get a grip on that thing?" Jack called out, his hand instinctively gripping onto Sebeks new tail and keeping it in place. It was against the Savanaclaw rules to grab another students tail, but Sebek wasn't in Savanaclaw, and this situation was already getting out of hand. His tail seemed to become even more panicked as it squirmed under his tight hold. Sebek was no different, getting agitated by this fact. The new nerve endings in his tail seemed to scream at him, compelling him to fight back.

"H-hey!" Without thinking, Sebek grabbed onto Jacks already heightened tail, causing it to bush up even more. At first, Sebek had grabbed Jack's tail as a way to get back at him. An eye for an eye, or in this case, a tail for a tail. But as he met the others gaze, he could practically feel the atmosphere change around them. 

Canines bared, ears heightened, and eyes glaring with animistic ferocity, Jack seemed ready and raring to pounce at any given moment. "Let. Go." Jack barked as he stared Sebek down with frightening intensity. It didn't take much for Sebek to match Jack's bloodthirsty stare. He was already quite intimidating without even trying, now he looked like he could take down Malleus with a single glare. "You first." Both males seemed to be increasingly reluctant to back down first, each of them having individual pride that they were not willing to put aside. 

They stood there for a moment, glaring each other down, growls starting to emerge in their throats. It wasn't until the sound of someone clearing their own throat that they realised they weren't alone. Another student had stumbled upon the scene, and was trying to process what was happening. "Divus is looking for you, said something about an antidote?" As the student spoke, they couldn't help notice the strange situation they had walked upon. Their face furrowed in confusion as they let out a shaky question, "Is that a tail?"

Both men immediately let go of the other and straightened up, brushing off the remaining hostility that lingered in the air. Sebek coughed to clear any more awkwardness before speaking. "Thank you for reminding me, I had better be on my way." He turned back to Jack, having the courtesy to at least bid him a farewell. Jack only turned away and let out a small growl, still mad about having his tail grabbed. Sebek made a mental note to apologise for that later.

[chicago-reeed]

PHCK ME - Reed900 Fic Rec List

Hello!!! You might not remember, but awhile back I mentioned I had the start of a fic rec list that I planned to post (which I never did). To celebrate all 1K+ of you, I thought I would finish the list for you! It is my duty as a loyal reed900 servant.

DISCLAIMER: This list of reccomendations was made purely out of personal opinion. I by no means want to discredit any other fics/authors. Some may not agree with my choices, and that’s totally understandable. I just wanted to share these fics because I personally enjoyed them <3

I didn’t include some fics because they haven’t been updated in a long time, or I didn’t remember them enough to give them accurate reviews. Also, I’m sure there are many more fics that I forgot to put on here (these are from my ao3 bookmarks). I might include them in a future update.

Anyways, all of my recs are under the cut! There are a lot!! I had eight pages worth of them in my documents haha

Mint Condition - by itsdefinitive - Mature - Content warnings - Chapters 18/? - Reed could see what they were going for there -- the whole infallible super-soldier thing.  A monument to testosterone made perfect, cast in steel within plastic.  It was actually really creepy.  Maybe that was on purpose.

The first reed900 fic I read, and it’s honestly what got me into the pairing itself.

Charon - by Vapewraith - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 20/20 - Gavin Reed, a mess of a human being, just wants to be left to his self destructive tendencies. RK900, an android designed by the most brilliant minds in the world to be the perfect machine, is desperate to grasp the full range of emotional freedom now afforded to him. The two will need to find an equilibrium before their incompatible personalities—and an eccentric serial killer with a dangerous piece of tech—swallow them whole.

I can’t even describe how much I love this fic. I’m a slut for horror, and there’s plenty of that in here. It might just be my favorite. Definitely recommend.

Two Sides of a Vaguely Similar Coin - by ZombiBird - Mature - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 13/? - RK900 is lost.

It’s been months since the Revolution and he’s still no closer to figuring out what the hell he’s supposed to be doing with himself. He feels like an outsider in his own body. Completely detached, nothing more than a quiet observer; like he’s looking down at the world through a layer of glass instead of fully living in it.

Gavin Reed is a temperamental asshole.

This isn’t news, okay? Gavin’s fully aware of what he is. He burns bridges instead of building them. Bites hands instead of shaking them. Would rather drown in a sea comprised of the consequences of his faults and misdeeds than try to change the way he is. Because people like him? Maybe they deserve to drown.

[Alternatively: Both lost in different ways, Gavin and RK900 try to figure their shit out and end up learning that, sometimes, it takes two people who have absolutely no idea what the hell they’re doing to get a goddamn clue.]

I don’t remember much about this fic, if I’m honest. Not that the story is forgettable, it’s just been awhile since I read it. However, the title definitely stood out to me so I know it was very good :P

Captcha Encryption - by Cerulaine - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Content warnings - Chapters 18/? - It's a little over a year after the android uprising and it's still the end of the fucking world.

Back in the day when things became shit he used to enjoy a drink or two. Or Five. It all depended on how long the shift ran. After 'The Accident' he can't even cough without Nines breathing down his neck anymore.

He just wishes everything would go back to normal, but if there's anything Gavin has learned it's that you can't unring a bell once it's been rung.

Or whatever. Fuck if he knows.

Similar situation to the last fic: I don’t remember much about it (my memory SUCKS), but I do remember thoroughly enjoying this one.

Daydreamer - by Pence - Mature - Content warnings - Chapters 21/24 - Large purple bruises twined prettily around the corpse’s throat, every finger defined in perfect cruelty. His eyes tore away from the handprints as a cold finger traced the lightning strike scar across the center of his face—drawing his attention to a small, blue lipped smile.

“Do you think you’ll ever leave this town, Gavin?”

________

When a series of Detroit murders are linked as originating in his hometown, Gavin Reed is unwillingly assigned the case. Fowler insists that his history with the place and people will hugely benefit such an investigation.

He was fucking wrong. 

This fic is one big holy shit moment tbh. Really fantastic. Really makes you wonder why these authors aren’t paid to do this.

All Aboard the Underground Railroad - by Senjihae - No Rating - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 11/? - What starts as sticking it towards his half brother evolves into something with the potential to rewrite android history as he knows it. Gavin doesn't realize what he gets himself into until he is mistaken as the 'Android Messiah' of all things. It's not like he goes out of his way to help them, but his life gets a lot harder once Hank is assigned a shiny new boy toy ('sent by CyberLife').

Things only get worse when he's gifted a heap of metal of his own ('sent by Elijah Kamski').

(Yeah, fuck off Elijah)

Very interesting fic. Gavin is RA9 so that’s a thing. A nice slow burn!

Dragon Become Age - by errantwheat - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Content Warnings - Chapters 11/? - Y’all wanted me to write dragon age!au so I did :)

YES! YES! YES! DRAGON AGE AU! YES! YES! YES! (it’s really gud)

Warmth - by TheRedPaladin101 - Teen and Up Audiences - No Warnings - Chapters 1/1 - Gavin frowned, the aching in his shoulder fading from his mind for a moment. “Then give me my jacket.”

“Your jacket is in no condition to keep you warm,” he stated. “For now, use mine and stay warm while we wait to head back to the station.”

----

Five times RK900 gave Gavin Reed his jacket, and one time Gavin gave his in return.

Very wholesome. Lives up to its title. Some good ole hurt/comfort!

Letifer - Terminallydepraved - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 19/19 - Gavin Reed is a DPD beat cop determined to make detective by any means possible, and putting an end to a string of murders looks like the quickest way to accomplishing that goal. Unfortunately for him, he fails to account for the real culprit— or the thought that perhaps he isn't the only one on the hunt for a killer.

(Now with cover art by Leetmorry!)

I love beat cop!gavin. It humbles him. And vampire!nines is scary and amazing. Love how the author wrote both of these characters (and the others too!). I definitely recommend this one!

A Strange and Beautiful Creature -  by LittleLalaith - General audiences - No warnings - Chapters 7/7 - Scientist Nines is called in to Amanda's lab to assist with a new discovery - a genuine Mermaid.

While Amanda is indifferent to the creature's circumstances, Nines builds an unlikely connection to the specimen and they grow a little closer than either of them expected.

(AKA Gavin is a sassy sea slug and Nines thrills in breaking the safety protocols)

Mermaid au! Nines wants to save mermaid Gavin, and it’s all very wholesome.

I Think You Do - by spotlightonmringenue - Teen and Up Audiences - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 16/? - “Son of a bitch, there’s another one. What the fuck is it doing,” Gavin says, grip going white on the gun as the android continues to stare at him without acknowledging Connor.

“RK900, my name is Connor. I’m part of a group called Jericho that recovered you from Cyberlife’s Production Center late yesterday. We are currently in the Detroit Police Department Central Station. Are you feeling okay?”

“It doesn’t feel shit,” Gavin mumbles, resisting the urge to step back as the RK900 takes a step closer. It holds out the cup, and Gavin’s eyes dart to it for only a second before flipping between Connor and his doppelganger.

“You requested coffee,” it says, and Hank sighs, leaning back against his desk while rubbing a hand over his forehead.

Quality ‘enemies to friends’ content. Nines is intimidating. Gavin is confused. Good times.

Flying with Crooked Wings - by UnCon - Mature - No warnings - Chapters 20/? - “Listen, kid,” Gavin started, cutting off the desolate child. Sure it was sad his dog had died but it wasn’t Gavin’s fault no one taught the little twerp chocolate was a dog’s kryptonite, “he’s in a better place, alright, so if you’d just stop asking for him to come back—it’d be much appreciated.”

“You promise?” the eight-year-old asked, his big brown eyes looking like glass—fragile and sparkly.

“Yeah,” Gavin lied, looking away as he did it—his halo going a bit crooked. To be honest, he wasn’t sure where dogs went after they died, only that he was tasked with calming the little boys and girls who despaired after them—at least until his punishment was up. “So just, you know, go to sleep and all that.”

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

In a world where angels and demons inhabit the same earth, both searching for a way to overthrow the other, both failing--Gavin sits right in the middle, with a crooked halo and a pair of wings to match. It's not enough to be a bit mischievous, however, he also has to get caught up in the demon brothers' scheme to take over heaven. Perfect.

Really good! This fic has the interesting dynamic of Gavin as an angel and Nines as a demon. Check it out!

The Red String Will Still Connect Us Ten Thousand Miles Apart (and to the moon and back) - by Jillflur - Teen and Up - Content warnings - Chapters 5/5 - Gavin, an ‘unlovable’ man without a Soulmate. He was used to it, never had one since he could remember. However, that little fact changes when he wakes up one day and realizes that he suddenly has a Red String connected to his ring finger. It only gets worse when months later, an android walks into the precinct who apparently is his new Soulmate!

Can androids even have Soulmates?!

To make everything even more complicated, a sudden new killer is on the Streets, and he murders people by cutting their Red Strings!

A soulmate fic by our very own jillflur! So good. Amazin. I love the red string trope so much. Yall should big read.

the prince & the reed - by Pence - Mature - Content warnings - Chapters 2/? - "I wanted to marry you," the prince murmured, polished armor gleaming as he stared down at the injured man--icy eyes tinged with sadness. Regret.

A guttural scream ripped from the soldier's throat as a heel dug into his wound, arm coated crimson from his weeping shoulder.

The soldier's teeth were stained pink as he jerked his chin up to grin toothily at the other man, bloody fingers scrambling down his thigh in search of the dagger tucked into his boot.

"Then drop to your knees and ask me properly, Nines."

Okay this fic is only two chapters and hasn’t been updated in awhile but GOT DAMN do I love how the author set this medieval fic up. I’m a slut for the medieval au’s, so that’s just extra points.

Not a teacher but I can teach you a thing or two - by Adishailan - Teens and Up - No warnings - Chapters 20/20 - Gavin owed the walking hunk of plastic. He owed him. Ugh, Gavin hated owing people stuff. It gave him a horrible feeling in his stomach, like indigestion, except worse because it involved emotionsTM. This, coupled with the fact he was pumped up with drugs and suffering a concussion, was why he was about to make a terrible, terrible mistake.

“‘Kay. Fine. Thanks or whatever. Lemme know if you ever need anythin' prick.”

RK900’s LED went yellow at this, and this time Gavin was pretty sure he was doing the processing thing. It was still yellow even when he nodded in a serious way and said:

“That would be useful.”

Oh man this one is BIG CUTE! It’s so soft, and is a fantastic slow burn. I totally recommend this fic.

O May I Join the Choir Invisible - by BanishedOne - Mature - No warnings - Chapters 13/? - Gavin Reed was a new inmate at a prison where the infamous killer, R. Nathan Kearney, was on death row. Circumstances led to an unfortunate encounter.

Okay don’t quote me on this but I think you can find the rest of this fic on Twitter. It was posted in a bunch of seperate posts and it was really confusing but there was definitely extra chapters. You can find the post here (or at BanishedOne on twitter). Other than that, this is a really good fic! The boys get into a lot of trouble!

Neon Maps - by caffienefueledfeels - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Content warnings - Chapters 11/11 - Everyone has their limits. Gavin is about to discover several of his own.

He's broke, barely scraping along, and struggling to keep an aggressive black-mailer off his back. On top of that, the grey-eyed distraction in his bed is about to test his heart in more ways than one.

Cyberpunk fic!! Super interesting! Go check it out!

Computers Are Elaborate Cat Beds, Actually - by errantwheat - No Rating - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 6/? - “Marvelous find, Gavin. They’ll promote you for this, surely.”

Gavin pulled an exaggerated frown. He was awfully animated for a robot. “Jesus, What kind of human are you? I’m waving a fucking kitten in your face and you’re still a bitch.”

Really cute. I’m pretty sure there’s some art to go with this fic. Super duper cute reverse au!

More Than a Woman, More Than a Bride - by AvixiLynn91 - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Content warnings - Chapters 38/? - When Gavin’s life is threatened for the last time by a violent gang expanding the production of a new drug in Detroit, Captain Fowler must come up with a plan for his safety. Perhaps forcing a marriage between Nines and Gavin wasn’t the best solution he could come up with...

Oh man. This fic. Let me tell you. I’ve been with this fic since the beginning and it is one hell of a roller coaster XD. The author updates constantly, it’s really impressive.

More Like You - by Mooneye - Teen and Up - No warnings - Chapters 1/1 - “This next bit’s going to get awkward. I’m going to interface with you.”

At that he could feel the collective confusion in the room. His eyes darted up to look at Hank and then Nines. They both seemed eerily still and were possibly thinking that Gavin had surely lost his mind.

Gavin has kept his prosthetic arm, with good reason, a secret from humans and androids alike for as long as he’s had it. The prospect of losing Nines threatens to unravel everything, but perhaps it’s worth the cost.

The idea of Gavin (an android hater in-game) having a prosthetic-android arm is definitely interesting!

An Unforeseen Union - by AvixiLynn91 - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 16/16 - Gavin and Nines are sent undercover to investigate a slew of brutal murders at a gay counselling and therapy resort for androids and humans. They're forced to pose as a couple, but soon feel their relationship becoming more than an act as real feelings develop.

I loved the dramatic whodunnit vibes in this fic! It gets crazy :P

The Great DPD Kink-Off - by connorssock, LittleLalaith, Skye_Willows, Stujet9rainshine - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 24/24 - It started out as a bit of rivalry and turned into a competition. Who was the kinkiest android in town?

If you like smut, then read this. That is all I will say.

The Black Nights, The Long Dark - by bvssbot - Explicit - Content warnings - Chapters 8/12 - translation of an amazing russian fic тёмные ночи, долгая тьма (the dark nights, the long darkness) into english

An unknown catastrophe was the reason Gavin ended up stranded alone on a godforsaken Canadian island. Having almost made peace with the thought of living in solitude for the rest of his days, he saves the life of a pilot named Richard, whose airplane crashed in the middle of his humanitarian mission.

Shit, I loved ‘The Long Dark’ and I love this fic. I don’t speak russian, unfortunately, so I must wait to read the end. But this is still amazing and you all should read it.

Detroit: Outlast - by Cardboardghost - Mature - Content warnings - Chapters 1/? - Connor Upshur is a down on his luck reporter, who spends his nights getting drunk and passing out at home. A mysterious email calls him to Mount Massive Asylum, owned by the Cyberlife corporation. Armed with nothing but a camera and his wits, Connor must brave the asylum's horrors and find way to save the people Cyberlife stole from him.

Gavin Park is a beat cop looking for a more well paying job. So when an offer to work private security at the Cyberlife corporation all but falls into his lap, how could he refuse? Gavin quickly realizes things are not what they seem, and in an attempt to expose Cyberlife, he ends up further in their clutches. Now he and Connor must work together to claw their way out of the asylum's depths, and the familiar faces that wait inside those walls.

This fic only has onw chapter, but go check out Cardboardghost’s art if you finish reading this!! They have provided so much quality content for the Outlast/DBH crossover I didn’t know I needed.

Gin & Tonic - by limchi - Explicit - No warnings - Chapters 8/? - People didn’t like Gavin Reed. Gavin Reed didn’t like people. It went together like gin and tonic, you can’t have one without the other. Nines hated him and he hated Nines. Those were the rules they played by, the rules that couldn't be changed - until fate decided they could.

It turned Gavin into pretending to dislike and Nines into a dense idiot with a crush, unable to grasp the concept of love. Both in utter denial. The catch: gravity worked against them, pulled them together at a frightening pace. Push against and defy the rules of nature or go along the prevailing forces?

Your friendly neighborhood reed900 fic. Very epic slow burn and fluff (and a hint of angst tbh). I definitely recommend!

Bitter Half - by turnabout - Mature - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 5/5 - Gavin Reed was born unmarked, and had spent his entire life expecting to die like he lived - alone. It isn't until Tina points out the new serial number on his chest that he realizes everything is about to change. Whether that's for better or for worse is up to him.

I’m a sucker for soulmate fics and this one does not disappoint!

K-900 - by Serazimei - Teen and Up - No warnings - Chapters 3/3 - Gavin and Nines were a great team. Unfortunately they were both huge workaholics. That's why when Nines' body gets busted on a job and the needed parts aren't available yet chaos is inevitable. Needing to choose between waiting and potentially being of no use at work or participate in one of Kamskis experiments and transfer his mind into an Android dog the decision is easy to make.

Who knew being in a dog body could become such a hassle? Not Nines, that's for sure.

Nines is a pup!!! I don’t believe I’ve seen a fic like this yet, so it’s really cool!

Thanks I'm Hating It - by Lupo (LupoLight) - Explicit: only suitable for adults - No warnings - Chapters 4/4 - Gavin goes to a fast food burger joint and Nines judges him. Then he realizes that Gavin isn't as much of a dick as he used to be, except he is, but in a different way. He isn't sure how to react to this knowledge.

QUALITY reed900 content

Bloodstains - by DeviantAlicee - Mature - Content warnings - Chapters 12/? - Nines is an interrogator & detective for the DPD with a dark past. His thick skin & smarts helping him to be one of the most valuable members of the department. He's cold & daunting.

GV200 is one of the first police android models who's partnered with a cruel beat cop who not only hates that his partner is an android but doesn't think GV can feel any of the cruel things he does or says to him. The android doesn't speak up due to the fear of being shut down.

Nines has no clue that the android he bumped into at a bar is in fact a police android. He just thinks that he might be somebody in need of some help. But, as time passes by & a new drug that can be used by androids begins to circulate, Nines begins to realise the situation is a whole lot more convoluted than he originally thought.

This is a really interesting reverse au! Check it out!

Team spirit - by ilse_writes - Mature - No warnings - Chapters 4/4 - Someone had the unholy idea to go camping with the department, all in the name of 'team building'. Gavin is not liking it very much. That tall instructor with his haughty manners and cool eyes... that one he likes very much.

I don’t think I’ve seen another au quite like this one. Very epic content, can we hit Gavin Reed?

Wake Up - by SkySquid22 - Mature - Content warnings - Chapters 6/? - “Gavin!”

GV200 slipped out of his stasis. He didn’t get a chance to open his eyes before a file came down on his face, smacking him.

“And here I thought tin cans didn’t sleep.”

Something was wrong.

Something was very very wrong.

DIS GOT ME  F U C K E D  U P!!! Bruh @skysquid200 really out here shaking my world with this fic. I was hollering while reading this like I got HYPED

Natural - by Erik_Heinrich - Teen and Up - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 1/? - They are all wing people.

Gavin gets partnered with Nines. As expected hes not too happy about it, but their partnership seems to be going well. That is until spring comes along. Nines wings seem a bit fidgety and Gavin is nesting. Nines doesn't realize he's been trying to court Gavin, and Gavin is just as oblivious.

or. They are both complete idiots the whole time

WING FIC WING FIC WING FIC!!!! Yall dont know how long I’ve looked for a reed900 wing fic. My homie @phckingusername out here doin God’s work <333

Thank you all so much for 1K!!! Being able to hop on Tumblr everyday and talk to you guys makes me so happy!! I really hope I didn't f up this rec list anywhere lol. Hope u guys like it!!

[honestsycrets]

Björn Ironside || Love Alphabet

A = Affection (PDA, what sort of affection they give)

Bjorn motions his arm out to you, saying little with words, but looking to you with his sharp eyes.

Like with many things, he’s not shy. But he’s also not someone who will go overboard with his affection. He enjoys being sparse about it and seeing if you’ll press him for more. Holding your arm in public, laying kisses on your lips or otherwise. He lets you make a scene if you want more, though.

B = Babies (Anything you want about babies)

“If you want them.” He says, turning down his head. “I will be happy to give them.”

If you want them, he’ll give them. He’s a well-bred man but takes great pride in his line. As a busy man, he doesn’t often get the pleasure of being there to raise them as much as he wants. So he soaks in the moments that he can with your pregnant belly.

C = Cuddles (How they cuddle or are cuddled)

“Don’t go just yet.” Bjorn verbalizes his complaints when you want to leave, but before, well he won’t open his lips.

Lazily. Bjorn prefers to hold his woman on his chest, raise his hand to her back and keep her on top of them. Sometimes he’ll raise her leg over his, stroking over normally covered skin until he decides to be a little playful.

D = Darling  (Pet names) 

“(Y/N), come here.”

He’s not a very large user of pet names. He prefers to call you your own name. Though it might just be something that was taught to him through the guidance of Lagertha and Ragnar, later by Princess Aslaug. 

E = Enamored (how hard do they fall when in love)

“I’m...” He mutters, looking around the room to avoid eye contact. He doesn’t say it, what’s on his mind, and you have to push him along to admit it.

Carefully. Bjorn has done the hard fall in love before-- he doesn’t like it. Not because it wasn’t good while it lasted, but that’s just it. It didn’t last. He’s squeamish to fall hard in love and so he does so carefully until he’s more confident that this good thing won’t blow up in his face.

F = Firsts (A first on anything you pick)

“I’ve had better ideas.”

The first kiss is a dare from his drunk brothers to go and kiss a random shieldmaiden. After all, who can deny Bjorn Ironside? Tell that to his public humiliation of being slapped. He could get retribution, but, he did get a blowjob out of it.

G = Good Morning (How do they wake you up)

Silently slipping his hand up your underdress to awaken you from your slumber.

One of two ways. Either leaving you in bed to sneak off and do what he has to do-- or, opening you up under his fingers with plenty of warming up done beforehand. He finds it amusing how you squirm under him.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs?)

“Hugs?” He jerks his head back, eyes big and bright. “Why would you give me a  hug, hm?”

With his brothers and father, maybe. It strikes him as strange if you ask him for a hug. Nonetheless, he’ll give it to you with a little bit of a confused furrow in his eyebrows. 

I = In Labor (Labour and Delivery)

On the standby. He’s not exactly squeamish to birth. He’s seen it before with Porunn and Torvi. As someone who grew up with a host of siblings, he thinks that you can handle it. If something goes awry though, he might inject himself carefully into the situation by getting his mother.

J = Jealousy (Are they jealous? How do they handle it?)

“And who was that?” 

Tons of glaring. Bjorn isn’t really afraid to approach someone that he finds to be a threat. More often then not, he’ll do something about it in front of anyone that is around. He’s not shy. He’s Bjorn Ironside-- and the gods love him.

K = Kisses (How do they kiss? How often?)

He enjoys cornering you for kisses. 

 Despite what you might think, he does kiss his woman more than anyone might think! It’s a bit of foreplay for him, getting you warmed up is all a fun part of the game.

L = Loyal (How loyal are they?)

“I have a... bad reputation.” Bjorn reasons. He abandoned Torvi, so of course, you might worry about the same. “But that is not me.”

He knows he has a bad reputation for being a man who wanders bed to bed-- but it wasn’t always this way. When he finds someone he’s truly in love with, he has no true reason to wander. There are other ambitions than sex, after all. 

M = Memory (Their favourite memory about you?)

Giving birth. Yeah, he knows that most men would be terrified to admit such a favourite memory like this. For Bjorn, there’s nothing more beautiful than a maiden becoming a mother.

N = Never! (Dealbreakers)

“How could you side with my uncle?”

Betrayal. He can’t handle someone that will lie to his face or side against him and his family. 

O = On the Rocks (How do they make up?)

Usually letting things go to shit, he swears this time will be different.

He sits on the side of the bed and waits. He’s not necessarily one that apologizes often. But, if he thinks he’s done something wrong, he will. The last thing he wants to model for his children is how to be a shitty father. Though, he has a feeling he already is.

P = Playtime (Any headcanons on sex)

Standing up is his favourite position. Bjorn loves throwing his size around. There’s nothing sexier to him than shoving you up against the wall and taking you there where you stand.

Q = Quiet Time (How do they wind down?)

“Have I told you of the thresher?” He bounces his son on his lap.

Telling stories. It travels far back to when his family was still together. Lagertha and Ragnar, his mother and father, telling him stories of Odin and the gods. Being special enough that these stories were the only thing he had to worry about. 

R = Rapture (What makes them happy?)

“Do you want to be king one day?”

Being king makes him happy, but nothing is as special to him as having his child on his lap while he sits in the very same throne that his father sat. 

S = Soulmate (What do they think of soulmates?)

“Is this a Christian belief?”

Skeptical. He’s seen the love between his mother and father-- but also saw the hand the gods gave them. He’s seen the love between his father and Athelstan, and saw the same. Maybe he believes them, but he thinks if he believes in soulmates, the gods will tear you apart. It’s better not to give it a name.

T = Together (What do you like to do together?)

Raiding. It’s the ultimate bonding experience for him. But, if you don’t fancy the life of a shieldmaiden, he enjoys storytelling under the stars. Lazing about and talking about the gods. Watching you grow with children and recounting to you the creation of the world to your stomach.

U = Unyielding (How do they handle interlopers on the relationship?)

“Stay out of my way. I have no issue making scarce of you.” 

Not well. Bjorn is the type to make his presence known and to also make them as small and irrelevant as he can. He’s territorial. He’s known to get into fights with others. This often means trouble and more scars to add to the count. 

V = Vulnerable (Are they vulnerable often? How do they handle it?)

Heavy huffs, uncertain eyes and a tongue that almost feels tied.

No. No, no, no. The more vulnerable he is, the softer he takes it to mean. Being soft in the past has not gotten him far. His father hated it, his mother hated it. The only one who didn’t... Queen Aslaug. And so, he decides that he can’t have anyone see it unless they’re absolutely going to stay.

W = Wedding (Wedding headcanons)

Something small and private. He’ll invite his brothers, perhaps his mother if she isn’t busy. Otherwise, he enjoys small private ceremonies where he can feel comfortable enough to let loose. 

X = (E)x (How do they handle exes? What do they do if they see them)

“Who was that one looking at you?” He says, scrunching his nose.

With a level head. His feelings have been buried. What’s done is done, the only issue he has is raising his children with you. Sometimes that might mean a few snide comments that he often throws his hands up about.

Y = Yearning (What do they do when they miss you?)

Never admits it! 

Fondles a small hammer of Thor that you gave your big, strong man. You blessed it yourself. He’ll look out over the sea and count the moments until he gets back into your arms.

Z = Zzz… (Sleeping headcanons)

Bjorn loves to drag his fingers across your back, swirling them softly while you sleep. He sleeps better knowing you’re by his side-- loyal and truthful to him. While he can’t say that he sleeps peacefully all of the time, after an hour of you being asleep, he’ll finally allow himself some rest.

@igetcarriedawaywithyou, @kylobien, @titty-teetee, @breathlessouls, @nejijjeoroo, @bcat1291, @readsalot73, @mslothbrok, @romanchronicles, @captstefanbrandt, @ailucascen, @michaeliskindahot, @cbouvier23, @naaladareia, @cbouvier23, @the-geeky-engineer, @dorned, @lisinfleur, @funmadnessandbadassvikings, @tephi101, @akamaiden, @ethereallysimple, @venusloviing, @happylittlepuppydog, @beyond-the-ashes, @slutforrpg, @hipsternoionlylikeunicorns, @mixedwiththemoon, @sparklemichele, @alicedopey, @lif3snotouttogetyou, @rubyquartzshades, @noregretsandyeteveryregret, @dangerous-like-a-loaded-pistol, @deathbyarabbit, @unacceptabletatertots, @beyond-the-ashes (no sig), @babypink224221, @ivarandersen, @queen-see-ya-in-valhalla, @moose-squirrel-asstiel, @icarus-fell-in-spring, @end-of-night, @gruffle1, @lol-haha-joke @arses21434,  @smileyparrots, @Moosemittens13, @miss-artemis-wild, @two-unbeatable-beaters, @wonderwoman292, @wish-i-was-a-mermaid, @fangirls94, @mcuimxgine, @killerb00sdeath, @heartbeats-wildly, @boo20017, @acacheofstrange, @shaelyn102, @astoryoffireandlight, @smokealone, @shaelyn102 @laketaj24, @peaceisadirtyword, @ly--canthrope@cris101071 @daughterofthenight117 @unassumingviking , @inforapound @wichesterwife27 , @ladyofsoa

[gaymalereadersheaven]

Prince Tom Holland X Male Reader

Chapter 6

Summary: your parents made a political arrangement for your younger sister to get married to a prince from a neighbouring country, but what happens when you start to fall for his older brother?

Previous Chapter : in masterlist

I awoke to sound of birds singing their morning song as light slowly poured into room around me, I lied there for a good ten minutes before there was a knock at the door. “Good morning Prince (Y/N),” said the man on the other side, it was Gorge, my hand servant. “Good morning Gorge,” I replied. “I’m here to escort you to breakfast, my lord,” he said with a warm tone. “Just give me a minute to get ready,” I got up and walked to the wardrobe. “Of course, my lord,”replied Gorge. I picked out a muted burgundy outfit and put it on as quickly as I could. I opened the door to reveal Gorge, patiently waiting for me, he smiled and stared for the dining room. On the way me made small talk, nothing much to note.

I sat down in my usual place at the table next to Thomas.i tried to talk to Sylvia, but I couldn’t get a word in because the parents were hogging both Sylvia and Prince Sam, talking about wedding details, Sylvia looked extremely bored, I felt bad for her, she hasn’t really gotten to do much since we arrived, could you blame her. Prince Sam didn’t seem to be too interested in the conversation, either. So, I mostly talked with Thomas, Prince Harry, and Prince Paddy.

After breakfast was the usual routine, the parents whisked Sylvia and Prince Sam off to discuss the wedding. Prince Paddy and Prince Harry went off to do their own things, leaving me and Thomas alone again. “So, what’s on the agenda for today?” I asked Thomas. He looked at me with an apologetic look. “Unfortunately, my prior engagements preclude me from offer my beneficence around the castle today,” he said flashing me an apologetic smile. “Oh, alright then,” I said, a little dejected. “Bye, I’ll see you tonight, ok?” He said walking off. “See you tonight,” repeated back to him, he smiled and continued to on his way.

‘Well, this is grand,’ I thought to myself when I heard someone clear their throat behind me, I turned around to see Gorge. “Prince (Y/N),” he started, “would you like me to escort you back to your quarters?” He questioned. “Is there anything to do around here?” I asked him, “what activities do you have in the courtyard?” “Do you have an archery range, I’m not particularly great and I would love to sharpen my skills.” I stated, not leaving any time for him to answer my previous questions. “Yes actually, would you like me to take you there?” He asked. “Yes, please!” I said, a little too excitedly.

We arrived at the archery range, I didn’t get much of a chance to see the courtyard yet, it was beautiful, there were plenty of things to do, but I was mostly concerned with practicing my archery skills. I practically ran to the bows and arrows, and equipped them almost immediately. Gorge just sat on a bench and watched me. I Procter for a while, sometimes missing the target completely, sometimes hitting the outer rings. “You don’t want to join me?” I asked Gorge. “Are you asking me?” He asked sounding a little shocked. “Who else would I be asking, silly?” I chuckled a little. “Oh, I just didn’t expect you ask,” he confessed, “and I’m not even sure if I’m even allowed to participate in activities such as archery that aren’t in the servents’ recreational confines.” He went on. “Well, I’m giving you permission to join me,” I replied. “I would hate to get reprimanded, or worse get demoted, I have a pretty high rank in the servents tiers.” He babbled on. “I’ll make certain that you won’t get punished, and if they insist on making you a lower rank, I’ll explain that it’s entirely my fault, and that if anyone should be punished, it should be me,” I informed him. “Thanks you so much, Prince (Y/N)!” He shouted. “Please, call me (Y/N),” I told him. “I’m required to call you by your rightful titles, if I don’t it could result in a demotion an-,”. “ just call me (Y/N) when no ones around,” I cut him off. “Of course, my lor- (Y/N),” he corrected himself, I chuckled lightly. “Are you sure you want me to join you, I’m not very good,” he said. “Neither am I, haven’t you been watching me practice this whole time?” I asked, with a giggle. We practiced for a pretty good chunk of time, before we got tired and decided to head back inside the castle walls. I noticed slight improvement in my skills, and even some with Gorge’s progress.

I really wanted to do some reading, so Gorge and I made our way to the castle library. “You made some pretty significant progress,” I said to Gorge on the walk to the library. “Me? Hardly, but you made a bunch of important,” he replied. “Yeah, not much though,” I said. We made it to the library, I had been in here once, it was on the tour that Queen Nicola gave us when we first arrived. It was was about just as big as mine back home, but had a bunch of books that we don’t have back home, I’ve read every single book in our library, so I was really excited to get my hands on some new material. I didn’t know where to even begin to select some books to start reading. I collected some about different typed of animals and discoveries, I also found some nonfiction stories, and a few fictional stories. I had 7 books total in my pile, consisting of two information and research type books, 3 nonfiction stories, and 2 fictional books. I sat down at a nearby table and started to read my books. Gorge just read a book made of only pictures, I decided not to question it.

A few hours passed and I had read all of the books I had selected, so I started to put them back where I found them, in order of first to last, by the time I got to the fictional section, one particular book caught my eye. The cover was a faded blue colour, with a gold picture of a mermaid on the spine, I slid it out of the bookshelf with one finger grabbing it with the rest of my hand once it was out far enough to. I opened it and it was all about mermaids and sirens. I decided that I would borrow it for a while. Out of curiosity, I picked up the book in the place next to where the one I had in my had was before. The cover had a picture of a merman and a human man sitting in a rock next to each other, I decidedthst I would also take it for some more reading material in my spare time. I noticed that Gorge was still reading only books consisting only of pictures. “Gorge?” I asked, he looked up at me a little startled. “Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to started you,” I apologized. “It’s totally fine, Your Highne- (Y/N),” he said. “I hope you don’t, mind me asking, but I couldn’t help but notice that you’re only looking a pictures-”. “I don’t know how to read,” he said quickly. “You can’t read?” I asked shocked. “Yeah, I’ve been a servant my whole life, and they never really taught us how to read or write, because we never really need it.” He explained, I frowned. “I’ll teach you,” I said. “ that’s really not necessary,” he tried to tell me. “No, I insist,” I told him. “I would hate to impose,” he said. “It wouldn’t be an imposition,” I stated. “Thank you so much!” He exclaimed. “You’re welcome,” I chuckled, “we’ll start our first lesson tomorrow, here about this same time we arrived at the library,” I told him. “Ok,” he said happily, I smiled. “I think I’m going to back and drop these books off in my chamber and then go to the kitchen to get something to eat, you can come with me if you would like, or you can do whatever you would like, take the rest of the day off, if you would like,” I told him, he gave me a confused look. “Are you sure?” He asked. “Yes, I insist,” I said. “Thanks you so showing me so much kindness today,” he thanked me. “You’re welcome, it’s my pleasure,” I smiled. “Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said. “See you tomorrow, your hi- (Y/N),” he said, as I started to exit the library, he followed after, but then took a hall leading some where else after a while.

I dropped the two books off at my room, and wondered into the kitchen to get some food. “Your majesty, what are you doing in here, you should be sitting at the table being served, I’ll have whoever was supposed to be asking what you wanted to eat fired, immediately,” said a cook. “NO, no, no, I don’t want anyone to get fired!” I said quickly. “I let my personal hand servant take the rest of the day off,” I informed him. “Why would you do that?!?” He asked rather shocked. “I don’t need him to do anything for me and he works really hard, he deserves a break,” I said. “He shouldn’t be slacking off, I’ll notify the King and Queen, immediately,” he said. “No! I don’t want him fired, It was completely my idea for him to take a break, I practically had to force him,” I said. “Oh,” he said a little shocked and defeated. “What you you like to eat, Prince...?” “(Y/N),” I finish his question for him. “Prince (Y/N),” he said. “I’ll have whatever’s most convenient for you to make,” I said, he was definitely surprised by my response, but obliged anyway. “A big salad it is then,” he announced. “Perfect!” I said. “Thank you so much...,” I said asking for his name, just as he did a moment ago. “Nathaniel,” he answered. “Thank you, Nathan,” I said walking out back to the grand table. I sat and waited alone, for everyone was out doing their own things. A moment later Nathan came out with my salad. “Thanks you Nathan,” I said. “You’re quite welcome, Prince (Y/N),” he said cheerfully. I ate my salad in silence, it was pretty good. A few minutes after I started to eat, Sylvia walks into the dining room with a chestnut haired woman about a 7 years older than me.

“Sylvia!” I said, she turned her attention toward me. “(Y/N)!” She said. “What are you doing, aren’t you supposed to be discussing the wedding or something?” I asked confused. “We finished early, so I can to get some food,” she said. “Oh, what are you going to have for lunch?” I asked. “Oh, I already had lunch, I’m just hungry again,” he stated. “Classic Sylvia,” I chuckled, she giggled. She sat down next to me. “Princess Sylvia, what would you like to eat?” asked the chestnut haired woman. “I’ll just have a salad, thank you Victoria,” Sylvia said and Victoria disappeared into the kitchen. “Salad, huh?” I asked her. “Yeah, I saw yours and decided that it looked good, so I figured why not?” She answered. Victoria entered and brought Sylvia her salad. As we ate we talked mostly about what I’d been up to, because Sylvia was so over talking about the wedding, by now. After we ate Victoria took our empty plates to the kitchen. “Thank you so much, Victoria,” I thanked her. “You’re welcome,” she said as she disappeared into the kitchen again. “We haven’t had much time to spend together ever since we came to this kingdom, we need to hangout, just the two of us,” I said. “I completely agree,” Sylvia said. As Victoria walked back into the room, Sylvia told her she had the rest of the day off.

I lead Sylvia to a private spot on the castle grounds, where we could just talk, because Sylvia told me she had something she needed to tell me, in private.

“What is you wanted to tell me?” I asked her. “Well, it’s really big.” She said. “Just spit it out!” I shouted. “Okay! Okay!” She said. “ I...um...I...” She stuttered. “Come on,” I encouraged her to continue. “I don’t want to get married to Prince Sam.” She said looking down. “What!?” I asked shocked. “He’s a great guy and all, but I’m in love with someone else,” she confessed. “What?!who!?” I whisper shouted. “Joni Randell,” She said. “Who?” I asked confused. “He’s a peasant boy,” she said. “Mom’s gonna have a fit if she finds out,” I say mostly to myself but also to Sylvia. “(Y/N), you have got to help me!” She pleaded. “Well, I have a confession of my own,” I said. “What is it?” She asked. “I think I’m starting to develop feelings for Prince Thomas,” I told her, her eyes widened And I couldn’t tell if it was just shock or if it was in horror. “I guess I could talk to him and see if maybe we could get married so you don’t have to,” I suggested. “You’d do that for me?” She asked. “Sylvia, I’d do anything for you.” I stated, she embraces me in her arms really tightly, “thank you so much!” She shouted. “You’re welcome,” I said. “I don’t know if he’d even want to get married to me, I know he likes guys, and that I’m cute, but we’re not even together and even if we were I don’t know if it would last and I don’t want to rush into things,” I rambled on. “I think he’ll understand,” Sylvia said. “Not to mention that it’s highly illegal for two men to married,” I reminded her. “Shit!” She shouted. “But I’ve been studying this for a while and I think I might’ve found a loophole,” I said. “Tell me!” She cried.

—————————-

Hey everyone thank you for being so patient, I’ve been really busy lately, and I just haven’t gotten around to writing, but I made this chapter longer, Thank you all for your support, I love you all💕 -Matthew

Next Chapter : in masterlist