Chapter Text
This was going to be interesting, Asami thought, smirking.
He continued looking at the little golden merman who seemed to radiate anger and mischief.
How the hell that pretty thing ended up in the Arena was a real mystery. He would make sure to question that later. The Arena was meant to be a challenge for the big, scary and notorious, not visibly weak, little things like the golden merman currently in there.
Asami could easily take him out of the giant cage any time, being the mighty and powerful Emperor, but would he really? That adorable thing had broken his treasures after all. Right now, the golden merman's gaze was fixed intently on the sharks about to be released. Asami moved a little closer to look through the glass that separated his imperial cabin from the Arena. What did that adorable thing have in mind to get out of his predicament?
"Suoh."
"Yes, sir?" replied the hulking merman standing next to the Emperor.
"I want you get ready to take that little thing out of the Arena before the sharks eat him. Wait until the very last moment."
"Yes, sir." Suoh replied and moved away, to an opening to get better access to the Arena. It was a pretty dangerous mission. The Emperor was actually risking the life of his royal guard for that unknown brat, even though said guard would never even dream of questioning an order.
Asami folded his strong arms and quietly watched the scene before him unfold.
----------------------------
The Golden merman, as some people called instead of "dead fish" wasn't all golden; just his hair and tail. His delicate skin was as fair as ivory and his eyes were as blue as shallow seawater, not quite cyan or aquamarine but close. He was a real gem, as rare and pretty as one.
The sharks were released and they were hungry; so hungry that they spotted the golden merman right away. The smaller of them, albeit still rather large, came at him first, being the most agile. Akihito didn't move at all and Suoh almost interfered to rescue him. However, on the last second he made a tailspin and hit the tip of the shark's nose.
There is one thing to know about about sharks. Despite being big, strong and definitely dangerous, their nose is pretty sensitive and Akihito's tail blow made that one see stars.
The biggest shark started towards him really, really fast but Akihito had a plan already. He moved towards the shark and the audience fell into a heavy silence thick with tension. Even the Emperor frowned at the boy's unexpected behavior.
To everyone's surprise, the boy turned away at the last second and confused the shark. The shark then attacked the first moving thing behind the vortex created by the movement of the merman's tail.
The big shark ended up taking a huge bite out of the other, and in the next second the two beasts were attacking one another viciously.
The audience was too shocked to even react.
"Oh. It worked." the boy whispered, slightly amazed at the success of his impromptu plan.
Suddenly, he was grabbed by strong arms from behind.
"I survived, can't you let me go now?" He asked the big man - that he recognized as the chief of the royal guard. "Please, Suoh-san?"
Wordlessly, the big merman dragged Akihto out of the arena and suddenly he could hear the sound of the great suction tubes pumping the blood and remains of sharks. The crowd was delirious. A survivor was rare, but a survivor who had somehow singlehandedly defeated two giant white sharks was practically unheard of.
Akihito had become a new hero and people would be talking about him for a long time.
The next instant he was thrown into the room of a shipwreck, now redesigned to be a luxurious office, comfortably and richly decorated.
"This is the standard procedure when someone gets the right to be free after winning a game, right? I mean, I am alive and the sharks... well, I'm not so sure about them..."
Suoh didn't say a word, simply turning his back and leaving Akihito alone.
He just listened to the narrator announce that after a break, the game would resume with other convicts.
Soon, the door opened and none other than the Emperor entered. He was impressive, big, manly and scary. He was also handsome as hell.
Akihito felt small all of a sudden.
Asami Ryuchi was a fair but greatly feared leader. His long tail had a dark shade of - depending on the light, purple or dark blue. And unlike Akihito's, it had scales with sharp edges and a somewhat frightening aspect to it. His tail alone would be a powerful weapon. Next to him Akihito looked like a doll; a delicate merman with a soft and smooth golden tail.
They were so different, not only in terms of origin, social standing and appareance but also because of their castes. The big mermen with scales were born warriors, and the smaller and much less harmless mermen like Akihito were the 'healers'.
Some people preferred to refer to the healers as 'omegas' and the warriors as 'alphas'. While there were betas everywhere they weren't particularly big or strong like alphas or small and delicate like omegas.
In actual fact, it was rather hard to come across an omega, much less a golden one. Asami had heard stories about them, stories of how beautiful their sweet singing was, and how the smell of their heat was terribly powerful. The Emperor didn't even need to know all this, as he had already decided that he wanted the pretty thing to himself. And he always got what he wanted.
"I've never seen a golden marman before." Asami said, after closing the door quietly. His black hair was carefully combed back and humans would be surprised with what a little magic could do.
Akihito noticed he was staring a bit too intensely and averted his eyes shyly.
"I am not completely golden, however." By now, he was already used to the reactions of those who had never seen a golden merman before. To greedy people, he was practically pure gold, and was even more attractive to the big alpha guys, literally emitting pheromones. And the one in front of him was very dangerous. "Only my tail and hair."
"I am curious... how come I've never heard of such a pretty golden thing like you living in Atlantis?"
"I guess I just don't mingle around that much...? I mean, my work is pretty much just scavenging... things. Like during this current season, when the waves are big and knock down human ships, I find useful stuff in there. Sometimes I sell what I find, other times I keep it. But basically, in order to make my job easier I live just outside the city. I also avoid the main city because I don't like the way some alphas look at me. Like a hunk of meat of something." At that, Akihito glanced at the Emperor grimly.
"That's good. I wouldn't want other alphas looking at you either." Asami smirked.
"What do you mean by that?"
Casually ignoring his question, the Emperor changed the topic. "Why were you arrested, by the way? And do you have any particular talents?"
Akihito had heard that some mermen had very interesting talents, like creating fire under water or turning into a human for hours or even day sometimes. It was all in the color of their tails. Kou, Akihito's best friend, for example had a blue tail, which meant that he had the ability to camouflage himself. Takato, another best friend, had a green tail, which meant that he could swim really, really fast. Big ones like Asami, Suoh and his secretary were warriors, and so their talents were usually related to strength and endurance.
Akihito was supposed to have a talent because of the magic too. All mermen were a little bit magical, especially the rare ones with golden and silver tails. That usually meant that they were really talented in magic. His problem was that he didn't have any idea of what he was capable of and all those legends only served to make him upset and disappointed in himself.
"Oh it was all thanks to my curiosity. I saw some people doing bad things and when the patrol arrived, I happened to be there and they thought I was one of the bad guys. So then they arrested me and threw me into the Arena. It was totally unfair, for your information."
"I see. And what about your talent?"
"Oh, as for that... I'm pretty much useless."
Asami smirked. The boy was really adorable.
"I heard that rare mermen were very good at magic."
Akihito scoffed and flicked his tail nervously, accidentally hitting a vase on the table.
"And yet, you said you were useless."
"I don't really understand it myself, but that's pretty much it!" Akihito smiled like it was a good thing.
"You won't have to worry about that anymore."
"What do you mean?" The boy stopped smiling. There was something sinister about the Emperor's smile.
"From now on you're going to be very useful. After all you're now mine and I will make good use of you, with of without magic."
Akihito stared at the Emperor as his words starting to sink in. When he finally understood the implication of his words, two very intelligent words left his mouth.
"Oh shit."