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Living in a world where humans and myths mixed wasn’t odd for Sapnap. He had grown up in it. In fact, his great great great great grandparents had grown up in it. The intermingling of humans and mythological creatures was still fairly new in terms of history, but had been quickly accepted years ago. Sap was glad for this because he didn’t know what he would do without his friend George, a half elf whose family had a long mythological heritage.
The merger of many races wasn’t as much of an issue as many people would have thought. Elves and Mer people had started intermingling with humans and their customs long before the races lived together. Plus, the different cultures had started to be taught in schools long ago to help everyone better understand each other.
It’s not that Sapnap didn’t care about other races' cultures, it’s just that there were so many he could hardly keep track. He did good enough to remember that George’s ancestors, wood elves, were highly polygamous. So he assumed that this was just some cultural thing that he didn’t remember when he placed this gorgeous man’s coat back onto the back of his chair and only got a wide eyed stare in return.
Sap really hoped he didn’t offend this man because he was so gorgeous. Fluffy brown hair and light blue eyes staring straight into his. He looked thin but not frail. And he also continued to look straight at Sapnap.
“Um, you dropped your jacket. Sorry if I wasn’t supposed to pick it up.”
The man’s friends snickered behind him. A few of them were eyeing him down as well over the rims of their coffee cups.
“Thank you,” the man finally replied.
His voice was soft, hardly audible, almost breathless.
Before Sap had any chance to embarrass himself more he said a quick your welcome before booking it over to the table Dream, Sap’s best friend and George’s boyfriend, had gotten them.
Once Sap sat down, George looked up from his textbook unimpressed.
“Do you know who that was?” George asked.
“Um, I’m-I’m actually not too sure,” Sapnap was still a little flustered.
George only hummed in acknowledgment, but Sap could see the mischievous grin he was trying to hide.
“Am I supposed to know who that was?”
Sap swept his eyes over to Dream, silently pleading for an explanation, but the man looked as clueless as him.
“No. He’s just in my English class. We sit next to each other.”
“Oh,” is all the reply Sap was able to muster, still trying to not die of embarrassment.
The table carried on with their light banter as they worked on school work, not mentioning the incident again.
Until the next day.
The three men regularly met at the coffee shop, but never on back to back days. George typically had too much anxiety for that, insisting that the staff would start to know them as if they didn’t handle hundreds of students who looked just like them every day. So when George suggested they go back to the coffee shop after they had just been yesterday, Sap knew something was up.
Sap was normally the last to show up to their meetups. He wasn’t very punctual, plus his class always got kept a little later than Dream and George’s. George had the same mischievous grin as yesterday but Dream looked nervous instead of clueless.
Something was going on.
“What’s up with you two? Dream looks like he’s seen a ghost. Are you two pregnant?”
Sap tried to lighten the mood but instead caused Dream to choke on his coffee that he was anxiously sipping.
“I’m not pregnant. I can’t even get pregnant, idiot,” George rolled his eyes.
Before Sap could retort he felt a tap on his shoulder. When he turned around in his seat, the same beautiful boy from yesterday was standing behind him.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
The two continued to stare at each other. Sap was afraid to say something that might offend the pretty boy again. And the other boy looked too caught up in drifting his eyes over Sap’s facial features. After what seemed like hours, but was more than likely only 30 seconds, the blue eyed man spoke again.
“I’m Karl. I figured you’d like to know before I gave you this.”
Karl lifted his hand into Sap’s line of vision and offered up a small black box. Sap was very confused. But he took the box from the other regardless. Upon opening it he was even more confused.
A pretty gold ring was nestled in the box. It wasn’t anything extravagant, just a simple band.
“Um. This is very nice. Whoever this is for is going to like it a lot,” Sap said as he tried to hand the box back.
It was Karl’s turn to look confused.
“It’s for you. The ring. I figured we should get married by human traditions as well,” he explained while pushing the box back.
In that moment, Sapnap’s world slowed down a little. He could hear George giggling behind him and even Dream hyperventilating slightly. He was finally able to sputter out a short response.
“Married?”
“Yeah!” Karl exclaimed excitedly, “you gave me back my coat. By Selkie tradition we are married now!”
Sapnap’s confusion and worry was likely visible on his face.
“You-you didn’t know did you. Oh my god. You were just being nice and giving me back my coat. Oh good god this is so embarrassing. I’m so sorry. George said-“
Karl’s sentence wavered off as he looked to the other side of the table to see George looking anywhere but at Karl.
“George is a terrible friend,” Sap interjected, “but I would love to take you out on a date. Maybe we can work our way up to the whole marriage thing.”
Karl’s cheeks went red and he shoved the ring back in his pocket in favor of pulling out his phone.
“Yeah, yeah I’d really like that. You can-you can put your number in my phone and then I can go die of embarrassment.”
Sap smiled to try and ease Karl’s emotional turmoil and also tried to turn whatever charm he had on to at least bring light to the situation.
“Ok pretty boy. Just text me whenever you’re free and I can buy you dinner.”
Karl took his phone back and looked at the contact that was just input.
“Sapnap?”
Loud laughs broke out behind him, both George and Dream sounded like they were losing their minds.
“It’s a childhood nickname. It just stuck around.”
“Ok, Sapnap,” Karl smiled, “I’ll text you tonight.”
“I’ll be waiting for it.”
The laughs didn’t die down even as Karl left the coffee shop.
“You fuckers knew this whole time,” Sap accused as he whipped himself around to look at his two friends.
“I didn’t, I swear I just found out last night,” Dream wheezed.
“I can’t believe you didn’t remember that Selkies use their coats as wedding proposals,” George finally said after his laughter died down.
“Yeah yeah, whatever. At least I have a date with a gorgeous man.”
“Gorgeous Selkie,” George corrected.