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taliaxwinters · 2 years ago

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Alright hear me out.. Jonggun x a big deal member reader.. 🫣 like, both of us hating each other to guts, but somehow an odd feeling causes us to desire to spend time with each other etc while not even knowing the reason, and once gun feels close enough to us to inform us about his Yakuza clan and his whole shiro oni side, it turns out we were actually gun's childhood friend back then 🤭

Anon. You'll be the death of me. Apologies for the delayed response as usual! I started this today with a small idea. Came back to it tonight and 2k words later, it's now nearly 2am. I... I think I really like this. Let's sleep on it anyway. Hope it hits the spot and thanks for requesting!

Gun Park x Big Deal!Reader: Yamazaki Yuzuru

G/N. Enemies to lovers. (...Childhood friends turned enemies to lovers).

Cynics would say you sold your body in a different way, although you hate to think about it like that. You suppose that it may seem so for someone on the outside looking in.

Big Deal is famous for its passion, its romance. You never thought it applied to you. Not like it did to others.

The first time you meet on Big Deal street, Gun studies you. Gaze hidden under his sunglasses, curiosity piqued as he wonders who you are.

A sea of gangsters but your face sticks out like a sore thumb. Familiar. Like a distant memory just out of reach, like trying to recall a dream.

Notices your scar-littered knuckles faded silver with time. Hardly unusual for gang members yet Gun still peers down at his own hands.

They're similar. Almost matching. A pair.

Ever watchful eyes burn into the side of your head.

When you turn in his direction, you know for certain he is only looking at you.

Age old scars start to itch. Absentmindedly, you scratch at your hands.

Gun asks for your name during your second meeting.

"Who are you?"

Jake Kim frowns, searches your face for a reason why he would be asking you. Why he would be taking an interest.

You give your boss an imperceptible shrug.

"None of your business," is all you offer. Clipped. Brusque. Not wanting to cause any more trouble for Big Deal by outright ignoring him.

What you mean to spit is fuck you.

What you mean to scream is I want to kill you with my bare hands.

You don't look at him today.

"Oh, this one is feisty," Goo Kim steps forward, duffle bag of cash in hand and eyes roving over you with approval.

Trouble still finds you.

Jaw clenching, hands scrunching into fists; Jake ready to defend his crew-

Gun beats him to the punch.

"Let's go. The money is all there."

His blonde associate throws him an odd look. Nevertheless, they still leave. You're not sure if you've ever seen anything better than their retreating backs.

Big Deal survives for another day.

Your luck runs out on your third meeting.

Gun finds you when you're miles from Big Deal and alone. When the rain drenches the earth and the air suffocates. When instead of water bringing life, it brings an omen.

This time you have no choice but to look at him, glaring into his pitch-black eyes. Fear eclipsed by loathing as he holds his umbrella over you, downpour providing a shroud and shielding the two of you from the world.

A strange game of silence starts, neither of you wanting to speak first.

Minutes tick by. The feeling of hatred is tiring to keep up. Holding onto the anger at the surface drains you. Infinitesimally your gaze starts to soften until Gun's curiosity is mirrored in yours.

To your surprise, he cracks first.

He tells you he recognises the vitriol in your voice from last time, no matter how much you thought you had successfully veiled it.

(A tiny smirk, almost fond, graces his features as he is reminded of your animosity.)

Offers you a chance, an escape line, a tantalising small glimmer of hope for Big Deal to leave the four crews.

Taking a drag on his cigarette, he proposes, "You can have your freedom if you can kill me."

Oh?

The odds are not in your favour. You agree anyway.

You manage to land a hit on his left arm, even as he turns and deflects most of the damage with a roll of his shoulder.

Had it been successful, it would have left it limp and hanging. Unfortunately, Gun only seem inconvenienced at best.

Your next attack manages to break the skin on his cheek. You miss your mark, wanting to gouge out his eyes instead.

Still, seeing the trickle of blood pleases you.

Gun Park takes no prisoners. Aims to incapacitate at the best of times, if not to maim or kill.

The thrill and adrenaline surges once he notices the cut. Feels the blood rushing to the surface and it already swelling.

He lunges after you, launching an open hand strike straight for your chest.

Throwing up both arms just in time, you manage to negate most of the intensity of his hit. Even still, you are flung to the other side of the street and hard into the ground.

Death would have been on the cards if not for your quick thinking.

When Gun sees the crimson falling from your lips, you spluttering and winded, choking on your own blood and body barely able to move-

All he can think about is how intriguing it is that you are still breathing. How peculiar that you managed to defend yourself, like you had foreseen his move. How mesmerising that particular shade of red.

Gun doesn't kill you today.

He tells you you have failed and leaves you to wallow in your own humiliation. You watch his figure growing smaller into the distance and find no joy in this retreat.

Blood and sweat mingles with the rain, cold seeps into your bones. When you think all hope is lost-

You catch a glimpse of maroon beneath your nails. Even as your body lies broken and beaten, you think of how you have managed to spill droplets of Gun Park's own blood.

It's a pleasant thought.

The fourth time he asks again for your name.

You wonder how he manages to find you once more during heavy showers.

As if he is only able to venture out during storms, like a worm awakened with the pitter patter of raindrops and slithering out of wet soil.

Fitting.

Amused both at this and the audacity of his question, you chuckle at his tenacity. The action causes you to wince. Body still recovering, a result of your fight from last time.

Gun takes a step forward and you flinch away immediately. Worsening your injury, grimacing and groaning as black spots appear in your vision.

"Stop," he orders and you are tempted to do it again just to defy him. "I'm not in the habit of repeating myself. I'll ask you for the final time, what is your name?"

In no fit state to fight, loss inevitable even if you were, you finally give it up.

You tell him through gritted teeth and a seed is planted in his mind.

"And you know mine."

"Gun Park."

He loves the fury in your voice. He wants to hear you say it again.

Gun slams you into a wall during the fifth time. Pins your arms above your head as you thrash against his hold.

Desperately trying to regain your footing, regain your strength as he has once again bested you.

He leans into your ear, voice taunting and infuriating. "Y/N." Relishes the way your name sounds, "You've failed again."

You whip your head around, ready to do something, anything. Bile in your throat and venom on the tip of your tongue-

His face is centimetres away from yours, breath hot and your skin prickles.

Own breath hitching as he drops his eyes to your lips. Desire and hunger plain on his face.

He doesn't lean forward and you wish he did.

He lets you go and you wish he didn't.

You hate yourself for it.

Sleep becomes difficult. You lie awake at night and think about him. Replay the scene in your head.

Your self hatred builds.

Thoughts of what-ifs tiptoe through your mind during the day. Conjures up scenarios of what if Gun Park actually did brush his lips against yours.

You hate yourself more than you hate him.

Like a self fulfilling prophecy, it happens during the sixth meeting.

All fight dissipates from you as your traitorous mind wanders and strays.

Gun Park catches your fist. He doesn't shove you away. Sees your pupils blown huge with lust and slams your body into his instead.

Your lips crash together, all teeth and snarls. It is both everything and nothing like you had imagined.

The umbrella lies forgotten on the ground as he rams you up against a wall in a forgotten alleyway.

Your legs wrap around his hips as he pushes into you.

Meetings end in a stalemate.

Meetings end in more sordid alleyways. A quick and dirty sprint to the finish line.

In backseats, cramped and rushed and hot. Leather sticking to sweat slick skin, windows fogging up with steam.

In hotel rooms and tangled sheets.

In walks of shame at 3am.

In showers, exploring each other's bodies.

In baths with your back against his chest.

In his bed and waking up together in the morning.

You don't act differently when Gun Park and Goo Kim come to collect their dues.

But the bruises left by his fingers under your Big Deal uniform pulses and throbs.

You still hate yourself but you hate Gun less.

Seeing him reminds you of the way he moans your name. The additional scars you've scratched into his back. The way his hips rock against yours.

(When it's just you two, you can't bring yourself to hate him at all.)

You stay still and silent as Goo counts the bills.

Under his sunglasses, Gun always observes you.

"Where did you get these scars?"

Gun traces over your knuckles. Touch gentle and tentative. A far cry from your first contact.

Truthfully you can hardly even remember. It was another life. In the land of the rising sun, when you saw the world through childhood innocence.

You piece together what you can.

"I used to spar when I was younger. With another boy that was on my street..."

Eyes affecting a far off look, reliving what you can of your memory.

Snapshots of a small stature, below average for his age but lightning fast reflexes and a terrifying strength.

You were never a match for him. Not really. But he still insisted on seeing you everyday.

Training together. Developing a language of your own through punches and kicks.

Above all, you fought. But that small quiet boy, who talked infrequently, whose bite was just as bad as his bark gave you the first taste of something real.

"You lost more than you won." Gun's voice cuts through. You thought they were teasing words but- "Cried when he beat you and he would bribe you to shut up. Spent three summers together getting stronger until he had to leave."

Gun holds his own scarred hand up.

You remember the scar the boy got when you kicked him into the ground, how you bandaged it afterwards. Unravelling as soon as you wrapped it, handiwork sloppy and inexperienced.

The scars when you both would practice your punches, strengthening tendons wherever you could. On whatever surfaces available.

And one scar in particular: when you bit down hard on his hand after a particularly gruelling fight and refused to give him the victory.

How have you missed this? How has the string of fate managed to stretch across land and oceans and borders and years?

The fog lifts and the name slams into your mind.

"Yuzuru."

Gun kisses you, hand cupping the back of your head and other curling around your waist. Whispers your own name against your lips. The one you were born with. The one he used to call you.

A name you haven't heard in years, but he never forgot.

"Say my name again." His voice is rough, choked.

"Yamazaki Yuzuru."

He kisses you more fiercely than ever before.

The first meeting wasn’t on Big Deal street. It wasn't even in South Korea.

You didn't sell your body.

The Big Deal passion and romance flares within you. It just always belonged to someone else.

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taliaxwinters · 2 years ago

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I am absolutely IN LOVE with this! It’s amazing, and so well written! I’ll probably read this a few more times and still not have enough of it! 😁 ❤️

Sailing

During the age of discovery, the sea was a battleground. For kingdoms and empires to travel across for exotic spices and more land. And for the folk that looted those official ships. As so many people travelled throughout the sea, legends and stories about creatures lurking beneath the surface are bound to be spread. About a territorial, power driven clan of people with fish tails called merfolk.

What happens when one of those merfolk- one with pitch black eyes- catches a glimpse of you, portraying your ability to capably fend for yourself and your crew?

A merfolk! Gun Park x Pirate Captain! Reader fic to indulge myself with an au I adore. Mermaids are cool and I like the pirates of the Caribbean movies :)

Also this has erased itself like four times before I finished it. So damn u tumblr-

Inspired by a song of the same title. But I do recommend listening to the entirety of the album (To the island)

Masterlist

The sea has always been your friend. Ever since you were a child, you had been enamoured by the waves lapping at the shore. So much so that your parents had to grab you and pull you back when you wandered too close to the waves.

At the time, you had not understood why they had done so, as the ocean vast and glorious. It had promised you freedom and adventure. But now that you were older, you understood them. You understood that although the waves seemed welcome and beckoning, they hid a cold relentlessness that took children from parents and spouses from families.

You grinned to yourself as you climbed up the ropes that held the sails up. With your feet planted steadily on the wooden beam and a hand wrapped around with the rope, you laughed as the salty sea breeze caressed your cheeks.

You had been a stow away in an Imperial ship.

Your town had been a rather small one, one that no ships frequented. And you had been itching to get out of the place where everyone knew everyone. So you had taken the opportunity when it presented itself to you.

It had been a hard journey, and you had almost been fish food a couple of times, but during all that, you had met your current quartermaster, Samuel.

“Get the fuck down from there- what are you, an idiot?”

Ah, speak of the Devil and he shalt come.

You waved at the man, and even though you were far from the main deck, you could see the snarl on his face.

Samuel had been a reluctant ally at first, mainly due to the fact that the two of you seemed to be chased after by the same group of people. But then, after you had dragged him to one of the pirate ships to avoid getting caught by an organisation of Imperial soldiers called the Workers and had somehow gained the approval of the captain and the other officers, he had become a friend.

Although he would deny that fact to his dying breath.

After a couple of years on the ship and after the death of your former Captain, you had been elected as Captain of the vessel, and you had assigned the role of your second in command to Samuel.

Mainly to stop his inferiority complex from rearing it’s ugly head, but also because you trusted that he would do anything for his own benefit. And if he had a higher rank on the ship, he’d move to protect it.

“C’mon, Sammy-”

“Fuck you!”

“The sea breeze is so nice up here! Daniel would agree!” You looked up at the younger boy who was sitting on the crow’s nest. “Right?”

The boy was a skittish thing, unfitting of his lithe, muscular form.

“Uh- yes captain?”

You shook your head slightly. Daniel was still pretty new, and he was terrified of you.

But considering the fact that your first meeting of him started with you punching him right in the face after mistaking him for one of the higher ups of the Second Affiliate of the Workers…

“The Artist wants to know where we’re headed to next!”

The navigator. Or as your other officers called the browned haired boy; the Artist. He was young, brash, and reminded you more of a puppy than a wolf even when he snarled at you during your first meeting with him.

Johan was a phenomenal navigator and apparently, one of the other vessels had abandoned him when he started to go blind and thus unable to navigate any longer. You had picked him up, rather akin to picking up a stray pup, and all but told Samuel that you were keeping him even as your quartermaster disagreed with you vehemently.

Although his eyesight comes and goes, he was still very reliable. Both in combat situations and in navigating ones. And he was also very cute when he followed you around like a lost duckling.

“Just pick anywhere, Johan! As long as the winds are kind to us and the Lady is sated, we’ll end up somewhere we need to be!”

Although you heard Johan yell profanities at you, you couldn’t help but tip your head back and laugh.

The ocean was your home, and your crew were your family. You didn’t need anything else.

~♥~

With the calm of smooth sailing also came the increased chances of a… violent collision with other vessels.

You had formed an agreement with some of the other, larger pirate crews to not attack each other randomly and to help each other in the face of the Imperial vessels. But if both groups were after the same loot, battles could be initiated.

Big Deal, the Burn Knuckles, and the Hostel were the three pirate crews you had this alliance with. And other, smaller and less notorious vessels knew better than to meddle with you and your crew.

But the Imperials… were a whole other story.

You laughed as you ducked under a gleaming sword. It narrowly missed your neck, but you didn’t really care. You parried the blade when it neared you again and impaled the soldier’s arm with your own blade.

You surveyed your crew with the corner of your eye. Samuel was doing well against the numerous foes coming at him at once. Fists glinting with brass knuckles and a thrilled grin on his lips, he was one-sidedly whaling on the white-wearing soldiers.

Johan and Daniel were fighting back to back, mirroring each other’s fighting styles. A kick for a kick, and a punch for a punch.

There was a reason why your relatively smaller crew was notorious in the seven seas. Although smaller than most, the individuals making up your crew were highly skilled, and in many cases, the entire crew got out of battle situations barely scathed.

With a cackle, you reared back and threw the blade at the short boy standing tall in the deck of the other navy vessel.

Magami Kenta.

There had been rumours that his entire family was brutally maimed by a single mer with a tail as white as snow and hair as dark as obsidian. That he had risen up the ranks of the Workers to seek out that mer and to kill them.

The blade didn’t reach him, and instead splashed onto the murky ocean between the two vessels, but it seemed to have caught the boy’s attention as he tilted his head to you, silently accepting your challenge for a fight.

“Hey Samuel! I’m going to go fight Kenta! If anything happens to me, you’re in charge!”

“For fuck’s sake-”

“But Captain-”

You winked at Daniel as you simultaneously kicked one of the soldiers sneaking up at you right in the groin.

“No worries, Danny boy! I’ll be back!” You pressed your hat to your head firmly. “See, I even have my hat on! Besides, I wouldn’t let you all suffer under Sammy’s rule-”

One of your officers threw you a piece of rope attached to the wooden pole of the sails and you caught it expertly.

With a grin, you grasped onto the rough rope and jumped off of your ship and flew overhead of the Imperial soldiers, not forgetting to kick at some of them.

You landed in front of Kenta, your boots slamming into the wooden deck. The boy readied his hands in a fighting position and you gave him a mocking bow and prepared your own fighting stance too.

~♥~

Gun was getting bored of fighting the same couple of strong mer beneath the surface. They were all so weaker than he was, and fighting Goo had lost a lot of merit after they both learnt each other’s habits and styles.

Besides, the blond idiot was off somewhere, presumably trying to attract a potential mate.

He wanted to cause havoc onto the humans on those wooden vessels of theirs, but the general consensus amongst the other mer was that as more humans ventured to the sea, there would be a greater chance for them to be captured or maimed if they did anything that might catch the humans’ reactions.

Gun had scoffed at them. Old fools who had never even killed a human before.

Humans were soft and squishy and weak.

Well. That was before he observed the chaos between two human vessels. That was before he saw the human wearing a triangular hat demolish their enemies with a gleeful grin on their face.

That was before he saw you.

Oh, how his cold blood sang as you kicked one of your foes off of the vessel. How his heart raced when he saw you all but fly across to the middle of your enemy territory to fight… a boy that was strangely familiar to him.

Regardless, even with the distance and the chaotic mesh of human scents, Gun could smell you. Alluring and dangerous and all so fitting for a mate-

He paused in his thoughts. He was supposed to be the one to lure humans into the sea. He was supposed to be the one to sing alluringly- beckoning men and women alike with whispered promises that would never be kept. He wasn't supposed to be the one to be lured.

Gun knew his own courting period was nearing and he knew the tell-tale signs of desire and need thrumming under his scales. But this felt different from all his previous ones. This time, his pure primal instinct wouldn’t be sated by something meaningless.

He decided to observe you for a little while longer.

~♥~

“Johan- hey! Stop hitting me!”

“No. Good job. Keep hitting them.”

“Sammy-”

“Captain, you really didn’t need to fight the captain of the Imperial ship. You kinda deserve this…”

“You too, Daniel?”

You eventually grabbed the scroll Johan was hitting you with and pulled it out his grasp, opting to laugh at the furious glare he was sending you.

“At least I broke his arm?”

“At the expense of your ribs,” Samuel stated, expression schooled and carefully neutral. But you could hear the disapproval in his words.

“Are you worried, Sammy?”

“Fuck you. If you got hurt, then we’d have to find another Captain that would be insane enough to do the shit you do. And I don’t want to do that.”

“You could be the next captain-”

Samuel scoffed in unison with Johan.

“As if anyone would be insane enough to vote for him.”

“Alright, alright- I’ll take it easy for a couple of days. Silver lining though!” You shoved your hands into your pockets and pulled out several pouches. “I stole all this from their vessel! Gems.”

Instantly, your quartermaster snatched the pouches from your grasp and grinned at you gleefully.

“I’ll get these all recorded, Captain. Artist, set course for the nearest Port city so we can sell all this.”

In a flurry of movement, all your close officers left your cabin, and you couldn’t help but smile to yourself at the flurry of chaos the three of them left behind.

You dropped your smile and slumped onto your hammock as pain flared at your chest.

“Fuck,” you whispered out as let your eyes flutter closed.

You needed the sleep tonight. You had a ship to run tomorrow and unlike Big Deal or the Burn Knuckles, you didn’t have numerous quartermasters. It was just you and Samuel winging a lot of things.

The ship rocked back and forth, rocking you in a gentle motion that would have lulled you to sleep on any other occasion. But… it only kept you awake tonight.

You grabbed your coat and shoved your arms through the sleeves before slipping out of your cabin to walk the deck.

The moon shined brightly above you, and you couldn’t help but feel at ease when you tasted the salt of the air and felt the breeze cradle your cheek.

Almost instinctively, you peered out into the sea, being reminded of the stories the townsfolk back home told you and the other kids when you were younger.

About how mer existed far out in the ocean. How they would whisper about anything and everything to lure you into the sea. To taint your soul with the Devil and to drag you to your murky death.

You believed that the mer existed, especially after your long time floating about in the vast seas, but you never thought that you would be… lucky enough to see one.

Your breath caught in your throat when you saw a vaguely humanoid shape bobbing in the water. Although you couldn’t make out the specific characteristics of the… creature, you could identify the glowing white pupils they had.

But when you blinked, the creature was gone.

Leaving behind only a sense of indescribable longing in your chest and an echoing song.

~♥~

“You’re insane.”

“Captain, if the quartermaster says you’re insane, you probably really are insane.”

“I’ll be fine, Johan. I won’t stray too far from the ship. There’s just something I need to check.”

You clambered into the small rowing boat and shot your crew a bright grin.

Samuel pinched the bridge of his nose, and you knew that he would go fuck up his own sleeping quarters if something happened and his plans turned more complicated.

Something urged you to venture closer to the surface of the sea, and you assumed it was the call of the sea. Her beckoning for you to see something she wanted you to see.

Your heart hammered in your chest as your crew lowered you down, and when the gentle waves lapped at your row boat, you couldn’t hear anything but the sound of your blood rushing in your ears.

Mesmerised, you reached to touch the emerald water-

Only to feel a sharp, clawed, hand wrap around your wrist and tug you to the edge of the boat, almost making you tumble into the unforgiving sea.

“Fuck!”

With your other hand, you pulled out a knife from your belt and immediately slammed it into the hand. And thankfully, you were released from the grasp.

An inhuman, animalistic snarl made you stiffen as you uneasily looked around yourself.

You loved the sea, yes. But you knew creatures beyond your knowledge lurked underneath it all. Your former captain had been killed by one of them, after all.

Your row boat rocked violently, as if something was trying to knock you over and into the cold water. Immediately, you looked into the water, trying to find out what-

There. Something black.

Your hand shot out to grab the black… clump? and tugged it up with as much force as you could, only to come face to face with a… man?

Then you peered further down. To see a glimmering, pure white tail.

You stared at this creature, who sneered at you and jerked his head away from your fingers. You half expected that he would leave, but he stayed, his head bobbing above the surface.

You scooted to the edge of the row boat, even though you had nearly been forced off of it, and just… stared.

His clawed fingers were pure white and sharp, as you could tell from the scratches on your wrist as well as the splintering of wood that was right under his grip right now. His hair was black and surprisingly dry, as if the water didn’t affect him the same way it affected you. The fins at the sides of his neck were flared, and they seemed to shimmer under the sunlight.

Unlike those fins though, the ones at his forearms were relaxed.

His eyes were pure black, and you assumed that the white areas were his pupils as those were the ones that travelled along with your movements. He also had a huge scar in between his eyes-

Well… he had a lot of scars in general. On his arms, his torso, and his tail.

Oh gods. His tail. White and glimmering and iridescent-

You wanted to touch him. But you also didn’t want to be pulled into the water. And you really didn’t think Samuel would forgive you if you drowned this way.

“You can’t pull me into the water.”

The mer regarded you with his eyebrows furrowed and tilted his head.

Oh. Right. Of course. He couldn’t speak what you spoke and you probably couldn’t communicate the way he did.

Would body language work?

You pointed at the ocean and shook your head vehemently.

The mer seemed to understand that, as he huffed and rolled his eyes but nodded regardless.

“Asshole,” you mumbled half-heartedly.

You gently touched the back of his hand, feeling the hard, yet smooth texture of his hand. His claws were sharp, and you pressed your pad of your finger onto the sharp tip and watched as a bead of blood blossomed on your skin.

~♥~

You were soft. And although Gun knew that humans were soft, you were soft in a way that mattered to him.

You spoke in sounds that he didn't understand, but he was quick to pick up on the tone of your voice. You were unimpressed with his actions, but enamoured by the way he looked.

Gun would have preened, if he listened to his base instincts, but he was a little to prideful for that. Even so, the fins at the sides of his neck flared up at your attention, wanting to show off to you,

Your fingers were hot against his claws, and you were just- so, so soft.

He wanted to bite you. Sink his teeth into your flesh. He wanted to pull you into the water- to make you stay with him for as long as you lived.

Gun watched avidly as you pricked your finger against his claw, and he could smell you stronger than ever, and it took everything in him to not take you into the water and fight you, there and then.

It would be the dream, to fight you. You were so very clearly strong. And like he could fight to a certain degree, you probably could fight to that extent in the ocean. But it would be far more interesting to fight you with both him and you on the same playing field.

But he would rather not visit the witch for a pair of legs. Gun liked his tail, thank you very much. He didn't spend all that time training to lose it.

Gun knew of a way to communicate with you. It was a method of communication that many of the mer used to lure humans off of their wooden vessels. And a method he loathed to use.

Singing. He'd rather climb up those vessels using his claws to drag the humans into the sea forcefully.

You said something, and your burning hot touch- scorching, slightly painful, and glorious- slipped away from him.

His instincts took over, and he grasped at your hand, bringing the soft appendage to his face. And without a second thought, he licked the blood off of your finger, and let his tongue caress it for a little while.

You said something once more, and Gun could hear the reassurance in your tone, and a promise.

Promises were dangerous. Especially ones with the merfolk. What were you promising? Were your promising to come back? Were you promising to touch him?

Gun didn't know, but he knew that you'd come back.

Because those who saw or interacted with the mer were bound to search for them again.

~♥~

You stood at the deck of the ship, tilting your head up at the sight of the swirling stars and the galaxies above you.

It had been a couple of weeks since you first met the mer. And you had gotten into the routine of spending a certain amount of time after all your crew mates were asleep.

The first time the white-tailed mer had popped up to the side of your ship, you nearly had a heart attack when he rose to your level whilst water covered his tail- as though the sea was pushing him up- and the asshole had the audacity to smirk at you.

"Hey," you said, greeting the white tailed mer with a wave.

The obsidian-eyed mer nodded at you before reaching out his clawed hand to grasp at your hand.

He liked your fingers. For a reason you didn't know. But he really liked to trace them, with the sharp tip of his claws. They left behind raw, slightly irritated skin, but you couldn't really bring yourself to mind.

His skin was cool. Nearly cold. Like the sea you would dip your feet into back when you were a child. Like the ocean you had dropped into when you escaped the first Imperial ship with Samuel. Like the unforgiving waves you had pulled Daniel from.

The mer snarled and you watched, alarmed, as the fins at the side of his neck flared. Not in the nearly presenting way of the first time you met him, but in a more threatening manner.

Sharp teeth bared and his white-scaled forearms turning completely black.

"Huh?"

The mer wrenched you closer to him, and you had to press your palms against the wooden railing to stop yourself from toppling over.

He pressed his cool cheek against your neck, and you couldn't help but shiver at the soft yet foreign sensation of his cheek against you.

A low humming sound- rough and harsh and possessive- could be heard in the background, and you furrowed your eyebrows in confusion for a moment, wondering where the melody was coming from, and what it was-

"Mine."

The full force of the sound hit you. The rumble in the mer's chest. The relatively smooth voice. The puffs of air against your neck-

Singing. Was this how mer communicated? Was this how the rumours of a Siren's song spread?

Did you have to mimic the melody? Did you have to sing to communicate too? For gods' sake, the only singing you'd done involved drunken sea shanties at the local inn-

"Mine?" you attempted to sing back, your note wavering and way rougher than the mer's.

His grip on you tightened and he pushed his face deeper into your neck, ignoring your question altogether.

"Fine, you asshole. Just ignore me," you muttered.

You probably wouldn’t get an answer from him any time soon, so you opted to stay silent as well, basking under the night skies with one of the infamous merfolk clutching at you.

There could be worse ways to spend your night, you supposed.

~♥~

“Cap’n!” A drunk voice called for you as your crew lounged about the deck, drinking ale as a celebration for yet another job well done. “I didn’t know you were a monster ‘ucker!”

Oh. Oh gods. Daniel was drunk, and drunk Daniel was simultaneously a funny Daniel and a terrifying one.

“Danny, what the fuck are you talking about?”

You watched as Johan attempted to stifle Daniel, but the other boy was stronger than assumed, as he wrenched away from the navigator’s grasp.

“I knew you didn’t really like people, but I didn’t think sea monsters were like, your thing-”

You shot Samuel a glare, silently asking who let Daniel near the barrels of ale, and he tipped his head to one of the crew mates who looked sheepish and slightly apologetic.

“Danny, sea monsters are everyone’s thing.” You said gently. “That’s why we’re all here. Sea monsters are children of the sea, and we all became pirates to see Her, didn’t we?”

“Hm. I guess you’re right-”

You cut him off by slamming the side of your hand to the back of his head, knocking him unconscious.

You caught the boy before he could bang his head onto the hard, wooden floor and lifted him up rather easily in your arms.

“I’m going to put him in his hammock.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“There’s literally no need. I’m on the same ship as you-”

“I’ll. Come. With. You.”

At Samuel’s firm words you relented and nodded. When the two of you escaped earshot of the rest of the crew, your quartermaster said;

“So. Mer.”

“Yep. You can’t say shit to me though. You’re literally friends with Jake, whose half-mer-”

The true heritage of the other captain was something a select few knew, and you and Samuel were two of the lucky ones graced with that piece of information.

“Calling Jake a friend is a stretch.”

You arched an eyebrow at him, clearing recalling the way Jake had invited him back to Big Deal with a grin on his lips and a wink-

“Sure, and I’m not the Captain of this ship.”

“Captain, I’m not going to say anything about who or what you fuck-”

“I’m not fucking anything-”

“-as long as it doesn’t have a white tail and black eyes, you won’t hear anything from me.”

Uh. That’s pretty awkward. You inwardly wondered about how your dark-haired mer friend (?) got into the bad side of nearly everyone you knew.

You winced.

“So… about that…”

At Samuel’s exasperated, completely done utterance of your name, you just smiled sheepishly.

~♥~

Gun twirled the obsidian dagger in his claws as he glided through the sea.

You had given him this dagger, awkwardly singing to him about how the... weapon had reminded you of him.

He ran a finger over the sharp edge of the blade. It was sharp, yes. But his claws were sharper and harder. It may work on humans, but it was a little too frail to permanently injure him or any of the other merfolk.

Nonetheless, his primal instincts appreciated the offering.

When he saw Goo approach, Gun had to prevent his face from forming a grimace at the rather... flashy comb carded in his hair.

His golden partner in crime was outwardly preening and flaunting the ornament- all but shoving his head to Gun's face. Immediately, Gun pushed the other's head away with more force than he needed to do.

"Look at it, isn't it so pretty?"

Gun regarded Goo with the same annoyed indifference that he always looked at the other with. And the blond responded with the same disregard for him.

"Definitely worth leaving this part of the sea for. You should go search for a proper mate too. Y'know, unless you want to die completely and utterly alone-"

"Shut up."

"Oh? What's that?" Goo made a grabby motion with his claws, and Gun immediately snatched the blade away from the other's grasp.

"Fuck off."

Gun's hand went to the back of his neck, where his courting scale had been before he had handed it over to you instinctively when you gifted him the obsidian blade you were currently holding.

Goo blinked at him momentarily before grinning wildly and making more of an effort to snatch the dagger away from him.

Gun really, really hated Goo.

~♥~

You brought the rather large scale to your eye level, watching as the sunlight bounce off of it to make it glimmer iridescently.

It was a gift from him. Your white tailed mer friend. And it was a beautiful thing, pure white- just like his tail.

Now that you could communicate with him properly, you knew for sure that your assumption of him being a complete and utter asshole was found to be true. He was silent most of the time, even with your attempts of holding a conversation with him.

And when he did speak, he was almost always judging your singing.

Which made you annoyed because it wasn't like you could hold a tune as well as him, an actual mer who could lure sailors to their watery demise with just his song alone-

Even so, you couldn't help but meet him every night, when everyone else on the ship were asleep. You couldn't help but eagerly wait for him to come to you.

The scale you were holding had meaning. Even you could tell that. Even if you didn't specifically know what it meant, you could tell that the scale meant something. And that you should keep it safe and on you at all times.

You should ask Jake about it later, when you got the chance to see him again.

~♥~

"Fight me."

"No thanks. I don't have a death wish."

The dark-haired mer regarded you with an unimpressed look.

"You enjoy fighting. As much as I do. It'll be fun."

You looked at the sharp teeth and claws the mer had. Then you looked at you relatively softer fingers. You arched an eyebrow at him.

The white tailed mer was dangerous. His sharp teeth and claws were the first things that alerted you of the danger, but the dangerous aspects of him didn't stop there. His muscles were apparent, and the ease of which he controlled the sea water to elevate himself up to the vessel alerted you that he was something completely different from you.

There also were the numerous scars decorating his well-defined torso-

You knew he could break you in half if he decided to. He could slam his teeth into your neck and could tear out a good chunk of your flesh before you could do anything. He could kill you before you felt anything.

And yet... you were attracted to him. Like a moth to a flame.

Because his mere presence made your heart skip a beat and your soul sing. Your soul sang like the first time your feet touched the cold, unforgiving waves of the ocean. Like the first time the salty sea breeze caressed your cheeks as you gazed at the emerald waters from atop the crows nest. Like the time you reached into the unrelenting sea to pull out Daniel-

You sincerely contemplated his suggestion. He had a point. You did enjoy fighting. And fighting a mer did pique your interest. Nearly no one came out of a fight with one alive.

Besides, you had a secret weapon up your sleeve. A small knife made of celestial steel. A gift given to you when you spoke to the former captain of Big Deal during one of the supply runs your crew had at the port city he had retired to. Sinu had dragged you to the inn he had opened with Yeonhui, and you had confided to him about your weird relationship with a mer.

The knife had apparently saved his life during a fight during a golden tailed mer, and that Jake and Samuel had dragged him away when the mer was taken off guard by the blade.

Said blade was currently slipped into your boot.

"Fine. Just- No killing. Or seriously maiming each other."

The mer's answering grin made you regret agreeing with his suggestion, but it was a little too late now.

~♥~

Daniel stirred at the sound of clashing, waves slapping against the ship, and a distant melody.

He would have fallen back asleep at the sounds, as they were rather familiar, but something urged him to wake up and check up on the deck.

Slowly, he clambered off of his hammock and made his way over to the stairs, being careful to avoid stepping on Johan, Miro, or Eden. He walked up the stairs and nudged the trapdoor open-

Only to be greeted with a sight he had only heard described in tales that his mother had told him.

You, fighting against a white-tailed, dark-haired mer with a glimmering knife in your hands. The mer was moving above the deck by the large tendril of sea water. Claws were extended towards you, and you were dancing away from him.

There was a rather maniac grin on your lips and the garbled, incomprehensible melody grew louder.

Daniel rubbed his eyes and closed the trapdoor back shut. He was dreaming.

This was a hallucination caused by all the work Samuel made him do today. You weren't really fighting a mer.

He decided to ignore what was happening on deck and plodded back to bed.

~♥~

"I think we're done."

You wiped the sweat from your forehead and grimaced slightly when you saw the shallow cuts and bruises on your arms as well as the tattered state of your sleeping shirt.

You glanced at the mer, who looked very, very satisfied with himself, even though his own forearm was covered in light cuts as well. You furrowed your eyebrow in slight worry when you saw the blood drip from the deeper gash on his cheek.

"You-"

Before you could properly start your sentence, he was lunging at you, teeth bare and claws extended-

You flinched back violently when clawed fingers grasped at you, and closed your eyes, fully expecting for the sensation of your blood dripping down your neck-

Preparing for yourself to be bitten and mauled brutally and hoping for a quick death-

But...

You slowly opened your eyes when you felt a sting of pain at the side of your neck. And... Well... It was a bite alright. Just not the type of bite you were expecting. You hissed when his teeth sunk in deeper when you tried to pull away.

His claws were gripping onto you, digging into the comparatively softer flesh of your body.

Your hand reached up to grasp at his hair. You carded your fingers into the softer locks and pulled with all your strength, akin to the way you had done during your first proper meeting with him.

The mer rather pliantly let you pull him off of your neck, and you watched the way his obsidian eyes bore into yours as he licked his lips- which were coated with a light sheen of your blood.

You should have run. You should have pushed him away. You should have been terrified of him and the rather deranged smile on his face.

But before you knew it, you were grabbing him and smashing your lips against his in a rather painful manner. You bit his lip, pulled his hair, and all but shoved your tongue into his mouth.

He tasted of salt and iron- presumably from your blood.

When you pulled away, breathless and reeling from the adrenaline of kissing a creature like him- your hand was cupping his injured cheek, pushing against his wound.

You opened your mouth to apologise, but...

You stopped when a rumbling, near inaudible sound reached your ears. It was a mix between a groan and a purr, and you watched as the mer pressed his injured cheek further into your hand.

Oh gods. He was a masochist.

His expression was controlled into the more neutral one you were accustomed to, and he seemed to be indifferent to your touch. But you saw the way in which the fins on the sides of his neck flared. Glimmering and glowing in the dark.

You pulled your hand away from his cheek to tentatively brush at the fin, marvelling at the texture of it, as well as the manner in which they glowed even brighter.

A clawed hand slipped into your pocket- where you had stored the scale- and pulled you closer to himself, wetting your clothes completely with the seawater that was wrapped around him.

Mesmerised by him, your name slipped out of your lips. Quietly and uncertainly.

You knew of the old wives' tales about how names were precious and could be used. About how one should be careful to tell their true name to any creature, regardless of whether they were of the forest, the sea, or the skies.

Would the mer take your name and leave? Or will he tell you his in return?

The mer regarded you.

"Gun." His voice was quiet, and you had to strain yourself to hear him. "You've proven your strength to me. I think you deserve that much."

You repeated his name, and felt a surge of power flow through your veins momentarily. You knew from that alone that not only was he a mer, he was also a very powerful one at that.

You had kissed him. And he had responded.

Fuck. What did that even mean for you?

~♥~

"You've changed."

"Have I?"

You and Jake stood near the steering wheel of your ship, watching as your crews interacted with each other. Drinking ale, exchanging stories, and gambling-

You tilted your head at the other captain, who regarded you with a smile. You watched the way his eyes glowed purple momentarily before dimming down into a black that you were more accustomed to.

"Yeah. The sea's infected you."

You hummed contemplatively. You had spent more time with Gun. You had sung to him more than before, and he had been a little more responsive to you.

Jake gripped your chin and tilted your face to study you. And you let him, looking unblinkingly into his eyes.

The other captain hummed as well.

"Yep. Your eyes flicker green every once in a while." A pause. "How much do you know about the mer?"

"Not much. Just the stories. How they drag sailors into the sea, how they lure people into the sea, and how ethereally beautiful and powerful they are."

"Oh, flatterer." Jake said in a teasing manner. "Those are all kinda true, but there's also less well-known stories about what happens when a mer becomes enamoured with a human."

"Is that what happened with your parents?"

Jake's smile turned a little strained when he shook his head.

"My case is... weird. My dad had taken legs for a couple of years and married my mother, but he died when I was thirteen. I was told he died at sea, but I know better now. Like all mer that made a deal with the sea witch, he probably turned into sea foam."

"Oh. Shit. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it."

"So. What happens?"

"There's two major things that could happen. One, the mer drags the human into the sea without any prior courting. And that kills the human. Two, the mer gains legs and lives on the shore with said human. But..."

"But?"

"Sometimes the sea can invade the human the mer is enamoured with. The sea cares for her children. And sometimes, she can nudge for certain changes to be made."

You slipped a hand into your pocket to rub at the scale Gun had given you.

"Will I be like you, then? Not fully mer but not fully human?"

"Probably not. Your pull to the ocean would be greater than mine-"

Jake was cut off with a loud splash, panicked yelling, and a sharp clawed hand wrenching Jake's fingers from your face.

A wet, possessive arm wrapped around your waist, and you could see how his forearms rapidly turned black.

"Don't hurt the mer!" Daniel shouted.

"Don't fucking hurt it!" Samuel reiterated, the order spreading through your crew rapidly.

Gun's lips were pulled in a snarl and furious clicking and hissing escaped him, making Jake grimace back before taking a step away from you.

The other captain looked at you and shook his head.

"Of course it's him."

Jake's eyes glowed purple again when he turned to fully regard Gun. The other captain's shoulders were tense and you could see the gloves covering his fingers tear slightly as his fingers sharpened into claws. He responded to your... friend with short clicks.

Gun promptly shoved his clawed hand into your pocket and pulled out the scale. His claws were completely black now, as he raised it to Jake's eye level.

"You should keep this on your neck."

"I tried. But the scale was too thick. I couldn't put a hole through it."

Gun gave you a withering glare and pierced the tip of the scale with his claw rather easily.

You snatched it out of his hand and pulled out a piece of string and threaded it through the small hole, before tying the necklace around your neck.

"There. Happy?"

"Mine."

"Yeah, sure. Can you please go back into the sea now? My crew's getting very skittish and so is Jake's."

Gun bit your neck lightly before retreating back into the depths he had come from.

"What the fuck." Johan muttered. "What the actual fuck."

Several eyes were on you, and you knew that you had a shit ton of questions to answer.

~♥~

A singular ship with a singular crew. Flying under a singular flag. Logically, those pirates should not have gained the notoriety that they had currently. They should have been caught by the Imperial vessels before they could gain this much fame.

But they weren't. Their crew was small but extremely tight-knit and lethal. The quartermaster and the navigator not being the ones to take more care for their safety, but were the ones jumping into the fray first. The captain laughing and joking around with them as they efficiently slashed at their foes.

Looting from Imperial ships and Imperial aligned merchant ships, fighting toe to toe against the Workers.

Those were the rumours from before. But now, more rumours followed.

How even the most furious of waves settled around their vessel. How the captain's eyes glowed and eery, sea green in certain situations. How their opposing ships always rocked violently. And how their opponents seemed to snapped up by the sea water.

There were rumours that the captain was not fully human. And that they were more mer than not.

That was why the Workers were given the order to do whatever they could to capture those pirates. Their leader- Eugene- even giving the command to use the First Affiliate's fleet.

~♥~

The situation was looking bad. The Workers had really come with their claws sharpened. It was your ship against an entire fleet. Your little crew against hundreds, if not thousands of soldiers.

Gods above, even Eugene and his immediate lackeys were here.

The smile on your face was gone as you dripped with blood. Whether the blood was yours or not, you didn't know. But... You were struggling, and you could feel yourself get a little light-headed.

"This will go to shit," you huffed out to Samuel, who had his back against you.

"Yeah, no shit."

"I'll get hanged and my body will be set on a pike for crows to eat. But you and the rest of the crew might not share the same fate."

"Shut up."

"You're smart, Samuel. You'll survive. The rest of the crew will follow your lead when I'm gone." You grinned to yourself. "Hey, at least you get the power I know you wanted. You said you didn't want to be captain, but I know you. You wanted it too."

"And I'll get it later. With another vessel and a completely different crew."

"Where ever you get to, take Johan and Daniel with you. They don't know anything." You readied yourself to jump onto the wooden railing of your ship. You had to get the attention on yourself so that your crew could have a chance to escape. "They want me alive. They want to hang me themselves."

"Don't be ridiculous-"

"It's been nice sailing with you, Sammy. Wish you the best in your voyage beyond."

You stepped up onto the railing, cupped a hand around your mouth and shouted.

"Hey Eugene!" You grinned gleefully when said leader turned to you, his eyes widening momentarily. "Fuck you!"

With that said, you let yourself tip backwards, your fingers curled around the scale as the sea reached up to catch you.

When you closed your eyes and felt the unforgiving cold water engulf your head, you could feel familiar clawed fingers against your skin.

~♥~

"What happened to them? How should I know? They abandoned the crew and drowned. Didn't you see what was reported?"

"Hm? Wasn't I their quartermaster? Perhaps. But everything's been erased after I willingly joined the Workers, so I strongly suggest that you keep quiet."

"...They've always loved the sea. That was what made me follow them, back when I was naive and believed in freedom. They're probably happy. Where ever they are."

~♥~

"Selfish. They were selfish. They pick me up like a stray dog and then they left everyone to deal with their death."

"Do I blame them? No. I blame the drugs and the cult that broke my mother. I blame people for not helping. I blame the sea witch for taking away the opportunity for me to fix my mother's eyes. They gave me the chance to travel when I was at my lowest."

"...Oh. Manager Kim's asking for me. I think the interview should end here."

~♥~

"The sea called for them. And they answered. It was bound to happen. But I do regret not being able to help them when I promised the Big Deal would have their back."

"Could I have stopped it? Probably not. They were mesmerised by everything. The ocean and all her children. They liked to hear stories about the mer, and I liked to indulge them."

"...How do I know stories about merfolk? Well, my mother knew someone rather intimateiy-"

"They had a lucky charm. A gift from someone enamoured by them, so I doubt they're dead. If anything I have a feeling that they're feeling more alive than anything."

~♥~

"Uh. I'm not sure? I know they fell in love with a mer. And I did see them fight one... But I don't know for sure if that was a hallucination or not."

"I mean, would you believe your sanity if you saw someone fight a mer that was held upright by sea water? No."

"Yeah, of course I miss them. They were my captain and my friend. So I think that's why the Second Affiliate has an eye on me. Unlike Samuel, I'm not heartless."

~♥~

No one truly knew what happened to the captain of the small, yet notorious group of pirates. But that was the norm. Pirates enamoured by the sea often lost there, and many chose to die in that manner than to die on land, far away from the waves they loved so much.

But those closest to you had an inkling of what had happened. You loved the sea, and she and her child loved you back.

And later, an Imperial ship would be found, bodies mauled beyond recognition and a single triangular hat left neatly atop the steering wheel.

A life at sea, surrounded by adventure was something you had wanted ever since you were young.

And you had that life now, your now clawed fingers interlinked with Gun's.

Wild and free and happy.

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