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It wasn’t as cold as he had been expecting, the sea. In fact, given everything he knew from experience, knowing where they were in the great ocean, the time of year it was…
The wind had been biting cold, nipping at his bones under the freezing gaze of stars…
And somehow the sea felt warm. Inviting. Like a friend guiding him into the depths and the darkness.
You said you wanted to see everything the sea had to offer…
The fingers wrapped about his forearms tightened.
I can show you everything, Anthony.
The grip about him didn’t need to tighten, though, nor the pull on him to strengthen. Tony followed willingly, now as he ever had before. The draw of those eyes, green and glittering as gems, and a smile sharp as a knife’s edge were enough to keep him pursuing.
He had followed him this far already, hadn’t he? What was a little further, especially when the water felt so warm?
The smile widened, the points of teeth showing past lips which drew at Anthony as surely as the strength which tugged him ever downward.
That’s right, Anthony, my pet. You’ll follow me, won’t you? There is so much to see, so much to learn… so many treasures to find and secrets to discover. You want them all, and I can be the one to lead you…
The promises whispered in his mind were seductive, enticing. There was no denying that they spoke to a deep-seated part of his soul. The thirst for knowledge and the discovery of new things had driven him from one side of the world to the other, always seeking more, always racing out ahead of everyone else.
But those felt like a distraction, now. Shining baubles he no longer cared for or had any use. Tony had always been single-minded in his quest for whatever it was he wanted, and those things – the very things which had set him on journeys across every sea and against every authority, more often than not at the risk of his own life…
They didn’t matter so much, anymore.
They were a lure to draw him – when it was the hook he desired.
For the first time, Tony tugged back against the pull drawing him into the darkness.
The creature, the beauty, frowned. His eyes darkened like the sky before a storm, his mass of black hair an angry cloud floating round his head. The grip on Tony’s arms tightened a little more, the points of claws pricking against his skin.
Anthony? What’s the matter? The creature smiled at him again, and a hand came up to stroke alongside his face, rough and soft all at once. Do you not wish to see the wonders I have in store for you?
Tony blinked. It was difficult to think, difficult to reason, but he tried. He was good at reason, at least most of the time. Pursuing a creature only half see in the moonlight off the bow of his ship might not have been the sound logic of a man in his right mind, but for the most part… he considered himself a man of reasonable faculties.
He focused on the creature before him, the one which had drawn him more powerfully than anything else had ever hoped to attain, from the very moment Tony had first glimpsed the flash of fin and tail. Unknown, beautiful, elusive, he had haunted Tony’s dreams and waking hours alike, teasing at his thoughts, seen briefly out of the corner of his eye, or glimpsed as a shadow beneath the waves…
Tony reached out his own hand, reaching out to touch the creature he had in his darker moments believed only to be a trick of his imagination.
For a moment, the creature pulled away, avoiding his touch, eyeing Tony’s hand as though he didn’t trust it. When Tony paused, though, he seemed reassured, and allowed the contact.
I have seen every marvel I could possibly wish to see, Tony thought, willing the words from himself and across the distance between them.
When the creature tilted his head, cheek pressing into Tony’s palm, his frown deepening, Tony smiled in return.
For have I not seen you? He traced his thumb over the cheek of the very startled looking creature. I could wish for nothing more wondrous than that. I could only dare to desire more.
The creature’s lips parted, his expression one of confounded astonishment.
You… you want only to be with me? The question was in the same voice, but the tone was so much more than it had been before. Less the lure, and more the hook.
Tony nodded, his grin widening.
He might be mad, he might be pursuing his own fate into the waves… but he would be doing so with a smile on his face.
You could offer me nothing I could want more than to be by your side.
The shadow beneath the creature – the long, muscular tail which had first caught Tony’s eye with its flirtatious flashing – flicked uncertainly, mirroring the expression on his face. After a moment’s hesitation, the creature leaned forward, and pressed his lips to Tony’s.
Loki, whispered the voice in Tony’s mind, a caress in his thoughts. My name is Loki… and you are mine now, Anthony.
Tony smiled into the kiss, into perhaps his own destruction.
And I am yours, he agreed, and held on tighter. And gladly.