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He was late.
He was very, very, very late.
But it wasn’t Steve’s fault that his parents wanted to speak to him about things that they have lectured him about before. About responsibility, their disappointment that he's not acting like the royalty he is, that he was the only heir to the throne so he needed to stop his mingling with those underneath him. Steve rolled his eyes at the appropriate times and nodded to the words that his dad was speaking. His mom, just like always, was silent at his dad’s side and looked at him with pity.
Steve didn’t need pity, thank you.
“We just want you to be happy.”
Happy.
Which was why in the coming weeks, he would have to suffer through a line of betrothed waiting to see if he will pick them. Some would be eager while others much like himself, would have to do this because of their parents. To extend their own family lines with the Harringtons.
Regardless of any of that, he was late.
“You’re late , Harrington.”
Steve grimaced, his long hair falling flat on his face when he broke the surface of the water. “Sorry, parents kept me behind.”
He let his tail slap against the water in greeting, tucking a piece of wet hair behind his ear. He swam nearer, almost purring at the other merperson he was meeting. Billy Hargrove. "Said that they wanted to talk to me about my future. Like I haven’t heard the same damn thing over and over.”
To think that they would be meeting like this.
After Billy nearly took a sizable chunk from his tail during that night and… everything else when Billy had been possessed by that leviathan deep below.
It wasn’t an immediate thing. Steve was royalty and had swum the castle infirmary, demanding they healed Billy as quickly as possible. With a few strings pulled from Hopper and his parents, he cast Neil Hargrove out of the kingdom. Banished him. That had been Max’s idea completely, not that Steve was complaining. He got a glimpse of how Neil acted towards his son when Billy’s family was allowed to visit him in the infirmary.
Perks of being royalty.
Billy Hargrove was… beautiful. Beautiful for a mermaid their age. He had long, blond hair that shone in the sun whenever he rose out of the water or perched on a rock to sunbathe, with a strong yet pretty blue and red tail. The scales glistened in the sun regardless of whether he was in the water or not.
Steve had to assume that they birth mermaids differently in the western waters. He wanted to dress Billy up in the finest treasures he could find on the ocean floor if Billy would let him that is.
They have talked, maybe kissed a few times. But presenting another mermaid with jewellery? Something shiny that the mermaid could treasure or put in their own collection? That was courtship practice. When Steve had been exploring one of the underwater caves with Dustin, he had come across a string of beautiful pearls. Not at all had been damaged and were probably made by human hands.
The first thought he had was that he wanted to bring it to Billy as soon as possible, Dustin had to smack his own tail against Steve for a good few moments to get Steve to stop staring at the pearls so longingly.
“By the gods, Steve, you really need to get your shit together. Have you considered maybe taking your parents up on that list?”
Steve gave Dustin a not-so-gentle smack with his tail in the process. He wanted… Well, he wanted to be mated for love . Sure, it was a wise tale at this point and not many mermaids, especially ones of royalty mated because they loved each other. The only difference was that there was no claiming bite, but Steve was a romantic at heart. He'd read all the books in the library about the beauty of courtship and mating, how mating rituals worked. How mermaids would test their potential mates by fighting, teeth and claws tearing into the flesh just to see if they could withstand each other’s violence.
There was beauty in their violence. They were known for luring human sailors to the depths, and sinking ships that dared to come into their territories and Steve wanted that.
“Oi, Harrington.”
Steve was brought out of his musings when Billy flicked a small starfish at his face with a shit-eating grin. He groaned, prying the creature off him and gently tossing it back into the water. Billy was perched on a rock just a few meters above him, some of his long tail in the water moving to and fro. Steve took a moment to let his gaze wander, Billy looked so pretty. He must have been waiting for a while because his hair had dried up, the curls were bouncy and shiny. How? Steve would never know, he wanted to though. The fish hook earring that Billy commonly wore was gleaming in the sunlight of the secret coven that they both shared. Billy had shown it to him, practically racing Steve to follow along.
Among their peers Billy was the faster swimmer, able to keep up with Steve.
No.
Billy proved himself by surpassing Steve.
He still had the smirk on his face, as if he was enjoying the ogling Steve was doing, “Parents still giving you a hard time, Pretty Boy?"
Steve groaned, rubbing his face with his hands, “Tell me about it, started lecturing me about the responsibilities of our kingdom as if I didn’t know that myself. And… mates.”
“Hm.”
Steve let his mouth ramble before he could stop it, their meetups happened like this sometimes. He would rant and rave about his parents while Billy just sat there and listened. It wasn’t like Steve was all that bothered by the lecturing, he was just annoyed. His parents tell him that they want him to be happy and yet still treat him like a child, demanding that he do certain things. All he wanted to do was swim with Billy and explore wrecked ships with Dustin, sometimes El and Max if they decided to tag along. Just…
“I’m… not ready to rule. Not yet.”
He could admit that now. He would be ready one day, not today though. He wished his parents would allow him to just… live a little. Most of his formative years were spent being around tutors and other nobles. After… after the breach, he had mingled with merfolk that he wouldn’t have before.
“And don’t get me started on the courtship ball they have planned for me,” Steve sighed, his face buried in his arms.
Billy had said nothing the whole time but then ran his hand through Steve’s hair, making clicking noises. “Gods Pretty Boy, your hair is tangled. Turn around.”
Billy grabbed a comb from his side and with a noise, flopped back down into the water and rose again to face Steve. “Well? Turn around.”
That… that was intimate.
Steve had pretty hair, one of his best features and the first that others tended to dwell on. Yet he'd never had anyone comb his hair before, anyone that wasn’t his mom but she stopped after Steve grew from a guppy into an adolescent. She didn’t feel that it was necessary and yet… Billy Hargrove was doing it.
The silence was comfortable between them as Billy worked through the knots in his hair, some of which Steve didn’t know that he had. Billy was suspiciously silent today… what was up with that?
“So this… courtship ball that your parents are throwing…”
Steve groaned again, careful not to jostle Billy too much with his head movements, “It’s just a normal ball, only difference is that I have to sit there with my parents while potential mates and their parents introduce themselves.”
Billy grunted, “Well, what if you find someone you are interested in?”
“Probably won’t.” Steve’s reply was short.
He felt Billy pause in his movements, he could just imagine his face right now. Billy perched his head on Steve’s shoulder with a sigh, he sounded… resigned. “Look… Harrington, if this is… well… fuck. We should stop then.”
Steve blinked, trying to turn around, “Stop? Stop what?”
“This.”
This? Meeting up? The kisses?
What?
Steve whirled around, his eyes looking at Billy, “I don’t want to stop.”
Billy just looked like a fish out of water, his face schooled into a blank stare but his eyes said it all. The eyes were a window to the soul, right? Billy’s eyes looked pained, even suggesting that they stopped hurting him. Just…
“Hey, Billy.”
He ignored the electricity that he felt when he touched Billy’s cheek, “I… I just… you…” He bit his lip. Fuck it. “I wanted to give you this.”
Floating away for a moment, he grabbed the satchel that he set on the rocks and reached in to draw out the long string of pearls. “I wanted to… well this is for you.”
And Billy.
Billy just stared. He stared at the pearls in Steve’s hands, before staring at Steve and back down again. His eyes narrowed, almost as if he was angry. “What is this?"
“Dustin and I were exploring this underwater cave, I guess some humans were exploring and one had a string of pearls or something. It looks intact and… I just thought to myself ‘ this would look so pretty on Billy.’ ”
He shrank in on himself for a moment, “It was a thought, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what they would look like on you.”
Gods.
He was a sap.
Billy didn’t say anything or cut him off when he confessed to thinking about Billy Hargrove even after their secret meet-ups, revealed to imagining Billy bejewelled by things that Steve would find scavenging among wrecked ships, that Billy would have a pile of treasures of his own that Steve gave to him. His own heart leapt in his throat, the realisation hitting him then and there.
He wanted to court Billy Hargrove.
He wanted to make the other boy his , entwined for years by a single bite that would mark them as each other’s…
“I know that you and I… didn’t have the best relationship. But that doesn’t mean-”
“God Harrington, just put them on me.”
That shut him up. Steve grinned and swam over to Billy’s back, placing his hand amidst the middle. “You’re trembling, sweetheart.”
Draping the pearls around Billy’s neck, it was… Steve couldn’t describe it. He fastened the clasp together before gliding back around to get a better look at Billy. The other boy, one who always was loud and brash… looked almost shy. “You’re… you’re so fucking beautiful.”
He had to touch Billy again, he just had to. Touch his arms and his torso, where the scar of what he had been through was there for everyone to see.
Billy has never been so pretty.
“Harrington.”
“C’mere.”
They'd kissed before. Many, many times before. But this one was different, electric. They broke apart, before Billy pulled Steve in again by his hair, arms around his torso and their tails curling around each other. Steve sighed into the kiss, breaking it into pepper kisses on Billy’s neck and shoulders, gliding his lips down his torso.
Billy trembled from the touch like he was overwhelmed by it. “S-Shit, Pretty Boy. You know how to make a guy feel special.”
“Hm. Special. Special and soon to be mine.”
Billy seemed to have shrugged off his hesitation, cupping Steve’s chin so that he was forced to look at him. “Do you think you deserve my claim?”
“Not yet, but I will prove it.” Steve pushed his hair back to reveal the untouched flesh of his shoulder. “We’ll prove it to each other.”
His fingers caught a strand of Billy’s hair, twirling it in his fingers.
“How much do you want to bet that my parents will freak… when I introduce you to them?”
Billy hummed, leaning down to nuzzle at Steve’s neck, his sharp teeth just barely grazing the flesh. “Well, I did save your kingdom. That has to give me some points, right?”
Steve wrapped his arms around Billy’s torso, “Well, they can’t refuse. This is my courtship ball, they never said that anyone attending couldn’t be chosen.”
“And I choose you.”