Work Text:
Leone Abbacchio looks big and monstrous to the outside viewer. All sharp teeth, dark fins, and flashing eyes. They’re not wrong, Leone does have all those features, but they’re not all he is. The outside viewer doesn’t know about his loyalty and his desire for approval, but Bruno does. And that’s why Bruno lets himself press into purple stained lips that hide razor sharp teeth and occasionally curl into one of the prettiest smiles he has ever seen.
It’s a small sigh that ultimately pulls the koi fish from his thoughts. Bruno pushes himself backward with a lazy flick of his speckled tail in order to fully see his partner’s face. Leone’s face takes up Bruno’s whole field of vision with the movement. Sculpted pale eyebrows sit scrunched up in concern over mismatched eyes of gold and violet, framed by the same silver hair in bangs that hang over his face. He’s stunning.
“Bruno? Bruno, are you okay? You seem distracted,” the shark asks in a soft voice that is reserved for Bruno, and only Bruno.
A warm surge of fondness fills Bruno at the question. He leans forward and places a chaste kiss on the tip of Leone’s nose. “I’m fine, Leone,” he hums quietly, “just thinking.”
Leone hums back, the small to him vibrations causing Bruno to tremble slightly as the shark presses his lips against Bruno’s chest. The two of them fall into a comfortable silence, the only sound that carries through the water is the sea life that is happening around them. But they might as well be in a bubble, time, life’s worries, and other people’s opinions can’t reach them where they are.
They shift positions at some point, Bruno moving away from Leone’s face to instead curl up above his heartbeat. Sharp nailed hands rest gently above Bruno’s body, acting almost like a blanket. It’s comfortable like this. The life and sound the kids Bruno has “adopted” are wonderful in their own right and Bruno wouldn’t trade them for the world, but moments like this between just him and Leone are a different type of wonderful.
“Leone?” Bruno says, voice quiet so not to shatter the peaceful silence the two have found themselves in. Leone only hums in response. “I love you, I hope you never forget that,” he softly finishes.
“And I, you.”
Leone Abbacchio looks big and monstrous to the outside viewer. Maybe at one point Bruno would have agreed with them. He doesn’t anymore. Leone is big and looks intimidating, but Bruno knows better. His shark is protective and despite complaining that their “children”, specifically Giorno, exist to annoy him, he cares about them. Their family is weird, all sorts of different mers from all different backgrounds. But they work, and Bruno adores them all.