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zeddhood · 28 days

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“Are you afraid of me?” “Yeah. I mean, kinda. Definitely.” For Stephen & Mera

Enjoy 2.2k words of Stephen being a bundle of anxiety and Mera being a supportive future sister-in-law!

Time ceased to matter when Stephen was with Orm. Lying on a blanket in the lighthouse’s front yard, he talked and talked, one arm wrapped around Orm’s back while the other hand gestured emphatically. Any of his exes would have fallen asleep or asked him to stop by now, particularly when he ranted about Atlantis, but Orm listened attentively to every word he said about every topic that crossed his mind, his head pillowed on his shoulder and his leg draped over his thighs, occasionally offering a thoughtful question that set him off on an entirely new tangent. The only idle thing about him was the way his hand traced random patterns across his stomach, alternately wrinkling and smoothing his shirt, the softest touch from someone who could crush steel without batting an eye. Stephen talked from broad daylight to sundown, his boyfriend’s warmth keeping the cooling temperature at bay, and his attention never wavered.

Orm listening to him like this wasn’t new, but everything else – the relationship, the cuddling, spending time like this with someone who cared – very much was, and he never wanted it to end.

The front door creaked open, footsteps crossing the porch. “Hello, lovebirds.”

Time slammed back into full speed. He and Orm both jumped, but while Orm’s clenched fist immediately relaxed upon realizing it was Mera, Stephen’s entire body tensed. He sat bolt upright, guilt twisting in his stomach when the movement very abruptly dislodged his very comfortable boyfriend. “Um, hi, Mera,” he greeted.

Orm shot him a wounded look, but there was concern beneath the indignation. Mera stopped in her tracks. “Is everything all right?” she asked.

“Totally fine, yup, why wouldn’t it be?” he responded, barely suppressing a wince at how blatantly awkward it sounded. Which wasn’t exactly unusual for him, but he didn’t want his rambling mouth to betray his nerves right now. Though it’s far too late for that.

Mera arched her eyebrow, predictably seeing straight through the forced cheerfulness. Orm did, too, and Stephen didn’t miss them sharing one of their silent conversations about it. She glanced at her best friend, and he tore his gaze away from Stephen to subtly shake his head in response. Frowning, she tilted her chin towards the lighthouse, and Orm nodded. “I’m going to make us some sandwiches.”

Stephen’s heart sank when he started to sit up, a chill already creeping across him where he had lain. “You don’t have to,” he tried, almost reaching for his hand to pin him in place until he remembered that Mera was watching. He withdrew his hand before they could touch, heart aching when Orm’s hand closed around empty air.

“You said you were hungry a little while ago,” he answered through visible disconcertion. He glanced at Stephen’s cheek, clearly wanting to kiss him, but Stephen couldn’t make himself lean in for his usual invitation, and Orm didn’t push him. “I won’t be long.”

“Ok,” he mumbled, looking away to avoid the confusion in his eyes as he stood. I swear I’m not trying to push you away, he wanted to say, but no words made it out of his throat.

With one last glance at both of them, Orm headed inside. Mera took his place before Stephen could even think about protesting, sitting down in one graceful motion. “I could be diplomatic about this,” she said, “or we could skip straight to the whale in the room.”

Wishing, for far from the first time, that he had even a shred of her poise under pressure, Stephen hoped that his attempt to shuffle slightly away just looked like he was getting comfortable. “There’s no whale,” he lied feebly.

“Not when I first stepped outside,” she allowed. “You were as happy as could be. Until you heard me.”

He ducked his head, unable to argue. She was a born and raised politician who had lived a lifetime in secrecy, trained from childhood to observe even the tiniest of details about everyone around her – of course she had noticed his timing. “It’s ridiculous,” he mumbled.

“Arthur insisting that the president might be Atlantean solely because he looks similar to Orm is ridiculous,” Mera said. “Whatever this is… is not.” She paused, considering him, smoothing the fabric around her thigh with fidgeting fingers. “Are you afraid of me?”

A million judgmental stares flashed through his mind, a lifetime of seeing the exact moment everyone around him mentally wrote him off as ludicrous at best or insane at worst. A lifetime of struggling to make relationships work, of fighting tooth and nail not to be himself long enough to get to the meeting the family stage of a relationship, only to see the crushing disapproval in the eyes of the few people he did manage to get introduced to the second they recognized him. “Yeah,” he admitted quietly. “I mean, kinda. Definitely.”

She furrowed her brows. “Why?”

“It’s not… I mean, it’s…” He sighed, taking his glasses off to scrub a hand down his face. “It’s not you, exactly. It’s- it’s all of you, but it’s not… it’s not really any of you, either. I’m just- I’m not really used to my boyfriends’ families… liking me.”

And they were just normal people, he added to himself. Not… the Atlantean royal family.

“We’ve all been rooting for this relationship for the better part of the last two years,” she reminded him. “You two were the last ones to notice your feelings. Arthur and Tom are the ones who talked Orm into realizing he’s queer in the first place.”

“I know,” Stephen said wearily. “I know it makes no sense. You guys have been there for me since Antarctica, and it’s not like any of you are going to think I’m crazy for believing in Atlantis. It’s just…” He put his glasses back on. “I’m a scientist. I like patterns and data. And my entire dating history… is a lot of data forming one big pattern. Recognizing that far sooner than I actually did could’ve saved me a lot of heartbreak.”

“Allowing old data to scare you now would only cause more heartbreak,” she pointed out gently. “Patterns can always be broken under the right circumstances, and you have those here. We all do. Just about everyone in that lighthouse has broken one or two in their lives, and we have no intention of stopping now. You became part of this family well before you officially began dating Orm. We’re not going to suddenly turn our backs on you simply because everyone else made that mistake.”

“You say that now,” Stephen muttered, anxiety bleeding out as bitterness, as the twisted pain that had built walls around his heart for so long. It had taken a lifetime of agonizing rejection after agonizing rejection, but he had finally learned to push people away in the end. David had been the first exception in a long time, and everyone knew how that went. He had nearly forgotten how it felt to put those walls up when dating Orm was no more than a wild fantasy, but now… “Everyone changes their mind at some point.”

“No.” She laid her hand on his arm, catching his eye. “You saved my son, Stephen.”

“I sent a message,” he said with a shrug. “Two years ago.”

“You sent a message that no one else could send,” she said firmly. “And you were nearly killed trying to protect him on your own until we could get there. Every moment that I’ve had with my son for the last two years has been because of you, and every moment after this will be the same. The gratitude I feel for that will stay with me until my dying breath. We are together because of you, and the least I can do in return is approve of you dating my best friend.”

He searched her expression, looking for the lie, looking for the doubt that had shadowed his every relationship. “You really do?”

“I do,” she assured him. “We do. You’re kind, intelligent, and brave. The two of you make each other happy, and you trust each other in ways neither of you trust anyone else. We would be fools not to continue welcoming you into his life and our family.”

“Even though I’m not a prince?” he asked, the silent insecurity slipping out, tinged by the desperate need to believe her. “Or a warrior? Or anyone special who can keep him safe when the Fishermen come looking for him?”

“I was a princess and I didn’t deserve him.” Old guilt haunted her eyes until she blinked it away. “Just as he became a king who did not deserve me. He can protect himself, and when he cannot, that is why we’re here. If he cared that you can’t do for him what we can, then he wouldn’t feel so safe in your arms. It matters far more to all of us that you are one of the very few people in his life who has never hurt him.” She squeezed his shoulder, letting the words sink in before she continued. “You do not need a title to be noble or superpowers to be strong – those are qualities that only mean anything when they are found in your heart, and you have a good one, Stephen. That is what makes you special. That is why we will always want you here.”

There was no hesitation in her voice, no reservation in her touch. Her words didn’t reek of false pleasantries, of the pressing need to tell Orm to dump him the second he stepped out of earshot. She really meant what she was saying. Maybe David did go horribly wrong, he conceded slowly. But it landed me here, didn’t it?

Hope dared to bloom where once there had only been despair. Stephen looked over her shoulder when the front door creaked open again, and she followed his gaze to Orm, heading back to them with a couple plates in his hands. “Cuddle with him all you want, Stephen,” she told him. “Gods know you both deserve it.”

He learned to lower his walls to get us this far, he thought, remembering the withdrawn, touch-averse man who had first moved in with him. If I want this to work – and I want nothing more than that – then… it’s my turn now.

Orm paused a short distance away, head tilted in question. Stephen nodded, and his shoulders visibly relaxed in relief as he resumed walking. The same relief escaped him in a heavy breath, the same weight lifting from his own shoulders. “Thank you,” he murmured to Mera.

“I’m always here if you need to talk.” She leaned in, and Stephen thought she was going for a cheek kiss until her eyes started to glow, ominous in the fading daylight. “Never forget, though,” the queen whispered, a mischievous smile softening her words, “that I am still his best friend. If you break his heart, I will break you.”

“Don’t worry.” It was far more foreboding than any of the stiffly polite conversations his exes’ families had exchanged with him, but his answering smile was easy and reassured. “He’s safe with me.”

And I’m safe with him. With… our family.

She sat back, content. “Good.”

“Stop threatening him,” Orm said, reaching them in time to catch her teasing. “And get out of my spot. Please,” he added grumpily when she didn’t move.

She sprang lightly to her feet, stealing a chip off his plate. He frowned but didn’t protest, handing the plates to Stephen before sitting down, still not quite as graceful on land as she was. Happily crunching her stolen chip, she headed off for her regular evening swim, and Orm asked him, “Are you feeling better?”

“Much.” He set the plates aside and cupped Orm’s cheeks. “I’m sorry I got weird.”

“It’s all right.” He leaned into Stephen’s touch. “Weird is normal in this family.”

“True enough,” Stephen said with a laugh. “Come here.”

He didn’t need to be told twice. He kissed him gladly, and Stephen savored the combined hint of salt and taste of Atlantean heat that had quickly become one of his favorite things in the world. The last traces of bitterness and fear melted away at the touch of his lips, as loving here in front of his family’s house as he was in the privacy of their apartment, a far cry from the sudden uncomfortable distance his exes had shown when they took him home. He even savored the pulling away, breaking apart just enough to breathe, because it was his choice, just as it always was, and Orm lingered just as he always did, staying close where everyone else had only pulled away.

Maybe that was all the proof I should’ve needed that this time is different.

“You do know that I would protect you from her, right?” Orm asked, their noses still brushing, his hands on his waist, his fingers curled into his shirt.

“I know that you would try,” Stephen said. “But we both know that you can’t beat her in a fight. Or during game night.”

He pouted. “I defeated her at Monopoly once.”

Stephen shook his head fondly, kissing him again and instantly wiping away the adorable pouting. He pulled his boyfriend back down to the blanket, the sandwiches entirely forgotten, caring only about holding on to him and never letting go, regardless of who might see them.

#Aquaman #OrmShin

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