Work Text:
Día 5: I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light
Prompt: “And the sea began to foam.”
"You didn't save my life, you ruined my death!" shouted an enraged blonde towards the cryptid figure that perched on a rock near the seashore.
Fugo Pannacotta, the man who brought us to this moment, was furious after what he called a rescue against his will. That same afternoon, a storm had formed in the sea, and although any other human in his situation would have felt scared, he decided to take advantage of this situation to do something that he had wanted for a long time.
It was not difficult, just a jump into the sea and everything would end. However, he did not count on what could be called a marine intervention.
Narancia, as the creature called himself, had made an appearance and with what he said were his "merman powers" had managed to rescue his body from the depths of the sea, thus saving him and bringing him back to life.
But he didn't want that.
It was not that he felt particularly depressed, but that impulsive act had been due to a constant tiredness and an emptiness that he had felt for maybe some weeks... No, not just weeks, that fucking tiredness had been carryied him all his damn life. He just wanted to end it all, to not get a second chance.
“You’re ungrateful! On top of you coming and wanting to pollute my home with your dead body, you yell at me for rescuing you!” the merman replied indignantly, waving his tail in anger, a gesture that apparently did not go unnoticed by the human.
“Well, the sea is not only yours. And my corpse would have served as food for sharks, fucking idiot.”
“Stop trying to pollute! And don't call me an idiot!"
"Make me!"
That had been the beginning of their relationship. Narancia, son of the mighty merman Bruno, and Fugo, a nobleman who spent his whole life reading books, had managed to find a lot in common after their discussion about that incident on the high seas. After a sincere apology and getting on good terms, the two had decided to continue seeing each other in this place that was their lair, a place that witnessed the beginning of a pure romance between two complete opposites.
The talks, the laughs, the discussions. Only they could understand each other as they did, and it was thanks to that that it became inevitable to develop a new and unknown emotion for the other, something more than that already precious friendship.
But not all stories are made to have a happy ending, and they both knew it. As much as they loved each other, they belonged to different worlds. Narancia could not spend more than a few hours on land, and Fugo's fragile body was not made to withstand the harshness of the sea.
It seemed that their thing was destined not to be…
But Narancia was not going to let him go. He couldn't let him go.
So he decided that, if fate didn't have a happy ending written for both of them, he was going to rewrite that story. Even if he actually didn't know how to write.
A kiss, just that was what he needed to fulfill his wish, or at least that's what the pair of sea sorcerers known as Squalo and Tiziano had told him when making a deal that, in the eyes of anyone, was insane… Just like in that story Fugo had told him a long time ago, and with the same punishment if the conditions were not fulfilled.
However, he was determined. There was only one person with whom he longed to spend the rest of the days, and that was Fugo, his prince with blonde hair and sad eyes. Lose that freedom that only the ocean could offer? Yes, it would hurt him, but it was not like he didn't have other brothers who could claim his throne if they needed to.
Knowing the consequences and closing the deal, there was no going back.
The cave was empty. It was the first time that Fugo had been the first to arrive at one of their date nights: sometimes escaping from the castle was so complicated that when he arrived, he was convinced that Narancia had had enough of waiting for him and had returned to the open sea. That never happened: Narancia was always there, welcoming him with a huge smile and the sound of his tail hitting the water as it wailed with excitement.
But Fugo had been waiting almost half an hour, and there was no sign of Narancia.
He wasn't the kind of person that allowed to be carried away by his irrational instincts. But this time, he just felt that something was wrong. Something inside him screamed at him. So, ignoring the logic that told him to wait, that surely Narancia had had a setback and would show up sooner or later, he ran to the beach where they had met.
Then the sea began to foam… and Fugo felt a fear that ran through every corner of his body.
Running to the shores of that beach, he prayed that what he imagined was not true, because that legend that he once heard was just that, fiction.
But a couple of minutes had already passed and there was not sign of Narancia, only that foam that was forming more and more on the beach. No, he refused to lose him that way, that the sea so cruelly snatched from him the one who was his only reason for staying there.
He didn't want to cry but it was the only thing he saw possible in those moments...
Or at least that's what he had thought, until that miracle that his young heart longed for happened.
From the agitated shores of the ocean, the naked figure of his lover seemed to want to arise, or so he managed to interpret, because he was moving like a fish stuck on land.
Yes, that was being completely anticlimactic at the moment, but he didn't care too much, he just wanted to see him safe and sound. "Narancia!" he called, wading into the water to help him. The poor young merman didn’t stop squirming trying to understand how that pair of limbs that had just been given to him worked, swallowing more water than air in his desperate attempts to breathe. He still seemed to be in the process of transforming, but leaning more towards the human side, which, considering he was still in the water, was an alarming fact.
Fugo was not an excellent swimmer, but Narancia had given him some lessons, and that was enough to, with great effort, drag the ex-merman to the shore, where they both remained for a few minutes in silence, trying to catch their breath, hugging each other. More than seeing it, Fugo could feel the last of the scales disappearing from Narancia’s body, being replaced by soft, smooth skin.
Many questions went through Fugo's head, but the main one was, why had Narancia done that when he had always been so proud of the beauty that his seaside gave him? Was he crazy? No, he must have a logical answer to this, something to justify this decision.
Later than early he was clear about the reason for what happened.
Narancia had waited long enough, prudent enough to get used to this new body, when he decided to do what he had been wanting for what felt like an eternity. Breaking away from the embrace they had been giving each other, his face approached that of his beloved prince in an invasive way, and he did nothing more than seal what he longed for so much with a soft, almost imperceptible brush of lips.
It took Fugo a while to assimilate it, longer than he would have liked to admit, because it felt too good to be true. It was so that, as soon as he realized the miracle that was happening in front of his eyes, he could only wrap his arms around Narancia's neck, and attract him to deepen that contact.
They had been longing for this moment too much, there was no place to hesitate. Narancia could only think of having him closer, of not letting him go, and if luck was on his side, of increasing the intensity of the kiss. That, until an unusual glow began to emanate from the ex-merman's body, who, surprised by what was happening, stopped what he was doing to observe the change together with Fugo, who was just as puzzled as he was.
Those moments were something from another world, a scene that would have made believe in magic even the most skeptical soul if they had seen it with their own eyes.
The consummation of a true love spell.
“Woa-”
“I love you,” Narancia said as soon as he noticed that his body was no longer glowing.
"W-what?" Fugo stuttered, but not with fear. If his heart was beating nonstop, that was because he was more than excited to hear those words. He had dreamed about that since he knew that Narancia had become so important to him.
"I love you, didn't you hear me?" Launching himself back into the arms of the one who he could now claim as his lover, Narancia did not hesitate to devour him with kisses, glad not only to know that his love was reciprocated, but luckily for him, he had not lost his voice.
Sharing kisses and small caresses, both lovers could not let go for the rest of the afternoon. There was much to learn about this world that now belonged to both of them, but they knew well that they had a lifetime to explore together.
Fugo could only smile as he shared the most beautiful of loving gazes with who he was sure was the love of his life, because he had no doubts about something and that was that, that night so far away, looking to die, he had found a reason to live.