Chapter Text
My heart is pierced by Cupid;
I disdain all glittering gold.
There is nothing can console me
But my jolly sailor bold.
Jon’s earliest memory was a weird one.
If he closed his eyes and tried to go back to the very start, all he could see was…green.
He remembered being surrounded by salty water, getting in his lungs, stinging his eyes, pulling him under.
A scary memory, you’d think, and indeed it was…his parents had often told him of how scared they had been, when their 5 years old son fell from their boat, plunging into the water in that fateful holiday in Sicily.
One second he had been there, playing with ropes, trying to get his parents’ attention cause he had been SURE he had seen some pretty, big fish “Dwolphins!!! Mama, DWOLPHINS” he had screamed, pointing with his head turned, losing his balance, and splash! Green waters had engulfed him.
He had been miraculously saved, his mother always said, washed on a rock nearby. They never knew how. They had searched and searched, his father, the other sailors, their guide… then his mother had spotted him, unconscious, hanging on a rock by his t-shirt.
Jon knew pretty well it had been no miracle. Sure, he had told his parents many times, about the ‘pretty fish’.
All he had got in return at first, was a smile, and a ‘you must have imagined it, dear’.
As he got older, he learnt to keep his mouth shut. No one wanted to talk to a dude that believed in fairytales.
Jon knew they were not fantasies.
He knew what he saw.
Green.
Green everywhere.
It had surrounded him, enveloped him a scaly embrace cold as ice. A dragon, his childish mind had supplied at first.
A dragon is going to eat me.
But as the scales had turned tighter and tighter, green eyes had come into view.
Emerald green eyes.
That’s all he remembered from that face. The eyes. So beautiful, like gems, getting closer and closer, peering intently at him.
Then something icy had touched his lips, and his whole body had plunged into cold and darkness.
After 13 years of silent obsession, tons of books, movies and legends had given him a pretty good idea of what he had seen. Of what had saved him.
A mermaid kiss can save a drowning man, after all.
He woke up, bleary eyed, and for a few moments all he could think of were those brilliant eyes that had been looking at him again, in his dreams.
What reality was telling him, however, was that he really had to get up, or risk being late for work.
He groaned, blindly pawing the ground to find his charging phone and turn off the too loud alarm.
5.30 am. He hated morning shifts. With all his might.
He dragged himself to the bathroom and then the kitchen, finding a note form his mother telling him to buy some groceries on the way back.
It was summer, and college was out. He was happy to finally be back home with his parents, if only they would be at home, once in a while.
Between his father job as a pilot, and his mom being a reporter, he was practically living by himself.
Sighing, he went to make himself a strong coffee, and check his emails and messages.
One message from his friends from college group chat in particular made him smile.
From Kathy:
I found us the perfect Airbnb for the weekend!!!
Only five more days of work to survive, and then he’ll be surfing with his friends on the beach for a whole weekend. Or well, Kathy and the others would be surfing. He would most likely be making a fool of himself. He wasn’t exactly a duck in the water.
Oh, well, no one could be perfect.
For some reason Jon was physically incapable of swimming. He could splash around, sure, but the moment he stopped flailing around he sank like a stone.
A question comes to mind then, why would he go surfing?
Well.
Jon was no coward.
Unlike what many would think, having had such a bad experience as a child, Jon wasn’t scared of being in the water. He liked it, in fact.
The ones that had been terrified of the notion had been his parents. Reason why all of their vacation after that first one and until Jon had been 15 had been somewhere, far, FAR away from the sea.
Jon, on his part, had gotten obsessed with it. When all his peers went though their superheroes phase, Jon went with pirates.
Every time he could choose where to go on his birthdays, it was always the aquarium. He had never asked for a dog, or a cat, as soon as he turned eight he asked for turtles and fishes. His room was a treasure trove of books related to ancient legends, fairytales and adventure of the seven seas.
‘ A way to cope with trauma’ the specialist his parents had brought him to had said.
When he chose to study marine biology at university, his parents had just sighed.
‘Ariel’, his friend Kathy liked to call him when he got too day dreamy about his imaginary savior.
He had know her about them since elementary school, and even thought she liked to tease him, she had never told him that he was crazy for believing in what he saw.
“the world we live in is crazy, Kent. For all we know, there are Aliens out there!”
And so they had been best friends from elementary school all the way to college, an astrophysics student and a marine biology one at MET U.
“I mean, if you fall to your death from your board, your friend could show up again and save you like the princess you are” she teased him for the hundredth time while they walked on the road leading them from the parking lot to the beach, surfing boards in hand.
“Maybe we should get you floaters” someone else from the group laughed. “Superman floaters to go with your superman surfing board!”
“Ah-ah. Very funny. If I fall into the water I’ll just grab on my board. It’s not like I’ll die!”
“I don’t know… water seems to hate you pretty bad. It’s like you don’t respond to the laws of physics or something. You’r so tall and broad, you should float like a log!”
Jon stuck out his tongue at the remark, when they turned a corner, and the salty breeze, charged with salt and the tangy smell of rotting seaweed hit him. He stopped to admire the vast spread of see in front of them. It glittered under the sun, calling to him with its soft melody.
Jon loved the sea.
He took off running, ignoring the others calling for him to wait, he let go of his board letting it fall on the sand without a care, and as his feet hit the cold water, he started to laugh.
He had missed this. So much.
A whole year had passed since the last time he had come to the ocean, being busy with classes and all, and he had MISSED this.
He felt like coming home.
He crouched down, to put both hands in the water, caressing the sand that swirled around his fingers in small vortexes.
“hi…” he whispered softly.
“Earth to aqualad” called his friend Garth “I can’t decide if the fact you talk to the water is more cute or creepy, fishbrain”
“If he’s a fish brain, then what are you?”
“Hey! I’m a vet student, sure, but I don’t go around waxing poetic about cow’s tits!”
Wallace behind them grimaced “Don’t start with the cows again…”
“hey, cows are majestic animals! Do you know that-”
Jon tuned them out. He took the board Kathy was handing him and he took off with her into the water, the waves just perfect for surfing.
Later that night, after dinner, he sprawled on the bed groaning.
He hurt all over.
He had fallen from his board hundreds of times, hurting himself when hitting its surface, or on some stupid rock or just landing in the water wrong one too many times.
“Are you ok?” Asked Kathy upon leaving the bathroom, ready to go out “I can stay with you if you want”
“Nah, it’s fine! You go with the others, I’ll just relax here and go to bed early”
She gave him an apologetic smile and left.
For a while he just laid there, a gentle breeze coming from the open window, and the sound of the waves in the distance crashing on the sand. Kathy had actually found the perfect house for them to rent. It was literally on the beach, and it costed a fortune. But there were seven of them and they manage to split the costs. Jon loved it, and Kathy knew it. She said he could consider it an early birthday present. He closed his eyes, letting the sound lull him to sleep.
He had almost succeeded, when a piercing shriek cut into the night air, forcefully waking him from his half slumber.
He shot out of bed, his battered back protesting in pain, and went to the balcony, looking out.
At first, all he could see was darkness, since the house faced a rocky bay with no artificial lights, but then a cloud moved away from the full moon and he started to make out dark figures on the beach. He heard the sound of fighting, and without thinking he started to run.
Someone was in danger, his instincts told him.
And Jonathan Kent was no coward.
As soon as he got to the beach, he found what seem like three men, battling a fourth one…dragging him into the water…?
“Hey! Let him go!” Jon screamed, and did the only thing he could think of, turning on the lamp on his phone to see what the hell was going on.
This seemed to take the group by surprise, as they all shielded their eyes from the hard light.
More splashing sounds could be heard, and more screeching. An inhuman sound, as the growl of a wounded animal, made Jon’s blood curl in his veins, but still he ran forward, throwing himself on one of the men, tackling him to the ground.
“Who the fuck are you?” On of them screamed “it’s just a brat!” Another one said, grabbing Jon by the waist.
“Go away, boy, it’s none of your business!! Leave, before you regret it!!”
Jon did no such thing. He bit the man holding him, who howled in pain and let go, dropping him in the water.
He had run out in his jeans and sneakers, and the water soaked clothes were starting to weight him down.
Still, he came to stand up between the attacked man, that still hadn’t risen form he water, and his attackers. Was he hurt? Should Jon call an ambulance? “Are you ok?” He asked, avoiding a blow to the head. He got no answer. All he could hear coming from behind was harsh breathing.
He hazarded a look behind his shoulders and that was his undoing. He felt a sharp pain in his neck and the world tilted on its axes as he was lifted from the ground and thrown, like he weighted nothing, several feet in the air. When he fell back, he had one second to think that it was impossible for a normal human to have that kind of power, when the water swallowed him once again. He flayed around, trying to make sense between top and bottom, but he couldn’t find a floor to lever his feet on, and neither could he reach to breach the surface and grasp some much needed air. He just sank, and sank, around him only darkness.
As he finished his last reserve of air and he felt consciousness slip away, he heard the same screech he had heard from his room, but from under water, instead of sounding high pitched and shrill it sounded deep and melodious. Like a war cry. He felt the water pulse like a bomb had just exploded, and then a ball of light rushed towards him.
No…not a ball… stars. It was like a whole milky way of stars, undulating and twirling towards him like a shiny current. No…not a current, a tail. A long, sinus tail, that coiled around him tight, pulling him forward.
Cold. He felt cold al over.
A pair of green, bioluminescent eyes appeared in his darkening field of vision. Alien, and yet strikingly familiar.
Something cold and soft touched his lips.
Like when he had been a child, he was being kissed.
Unlike his naive childhood memory, however, there was nothing innocent about THIS kiss.
A pair of lips were insistently trying to prod his mouth open, and when Jon complied, his lung empty and forcing him to try to gulp some much needed air, a tongue slithered in, sucking what felt like his life out of him.
Jon blacked out.
He woke up to a frantic voice calling to him.
“-On! JON! JONATHAN KENT!!!”
Someone slapped him.
“Hey! Cut it out!” He said, raising his hands to protect himself for the blows.
When he opened his eyes, he found Kathy’s face on top of him, fat tears rolling down her cheeks.
“I tough you were dead you idiot!!!” She half screamed, throwing herself on top of him.
He hugged her, trying to make sense of the situation.
“Jon, Man, you alright?” Wally asked, helping him getting back to his feet.
“Yeah…” he said, looking at the water.
The sky was starting to lighten, dawn was near.
There was no trace of the men that attacked him..or the person that had saved him.
The only traces on the sand where those coming from their rented house.
“I’m fine, I just fell asleep. Sorry if I scared you guys…”
Damian Wayne, son of the great dark lord of the west Atlantic Ocean, was pissed.
How could he had committed such a rookie mistake? He had let his enemies lure him straight into a trap. He was supposed to track those sea creatures traffickers and put a locator spell on their primitive transport in order to see where they were carrying their poor captives to finally burst their entire operation and rid the seven seas of their foul scheming. He and his brothers had been scouting them for months now. As soon as he had seen the brutal way they had treated those poor creatures, Damian had felt his cold blood boil. Like his father had often chided him for, he had let his heart run his mind, and had now put the entire mission in jeopardy. They would be on the look out for other attacks from the waters now. That meant that they where now forced to do what his father loathed more than anything else. Ask for help from the earth dwellers. A wave of shame cursed trough him.
How was he supposed to explain to his father what he had done? Not only had he blotched the operation… he had also broken on of his father most sacred rules. But then again…how could he help himself? How could he have known HE would be there? His boy with the ocean eyes.
HIS.
He was not supposed to be there.
Last time Damian had seen him, it had been in his old home, back when he was still a small fry under his mother’s care.
Before he joined his father’s pack.
His boy was supposed to be somewhere in Italy, or Greece. They were on the other side of the world, in the open ocean.
And yet Damian was sure. It was him.
His smell, the touch of his sun kissed skin.
His ocean blue eyes.
Damian had never forgotten him. How could he? It was one of his most cherished memories. A memory he had buried deep down, far away in his heart were not even the most brutal training regime could take it from him. He had never told anyone, what he had done. His biggest sin.
A merfolk wasn’t supposed to even come near a human. Damian had not only come near the surface, close to the humans, but he had saved one of them.
When he had seen the small earthling creature fall into the water, he had felt pity for it.
His mother had taught him to be heartless, to be a warrior, to kill humans on sight.
“They are a blight on this planet of ours, my beloved. They destroy and pollute everything they touch. You were born to get rid of them, freeing the world from their curse”
When the boy had turned towards him though, all Damian had seen were his big, ocean eyes. SO bright, blue and pure. Scared. beautiful.
He had grabbed the child with his small tail and held him close, bestowing his blessing upon him.
A merfolk’s kiss could give air to the drowning men. It put the blessing of the sea upon them, marking them as a child of the waters. Forever welcomed in its embrace.
In his mother’s ancient lands it was a crime punishable with death.
His father, on the other hand, was against killing in all its forms. He still wouldn’t be happy, however, if he knew he had done what was, even here under his father’s benign ruling, frowned upon, not once, but twice. With the same person, to booth.
Damian didn’t care. What his father didn’t know, wouldn’t hurt him. He would fix this mess, and keep his boy to himself.
With a swish of his dark green tail, he broke the surface, to see his boy surrounded by other humans. They were hugging him, one of them crying on his chest while he petted his…her? Head.
“Jon, Man, are you alright?” One of them asked, pulling his boy to a standing position.
Jon. His boy’s name was Jon.
Jon.
‘Jon’ turned towards the sea and Damian quickly ducked back into the water, afraid to be seen.
When he came to peer on the surface again, his boy was gone.
The following day, his friends hanged around him like a flock of mother hens.
No matter how hard Jon tried to tell them he was alright, that nothing had happened, they still didn’t trust him on his own.
It was quite annoying, if Jon was being honest, cause all he wanted was to be left alone to think.
It had been him. Her…? No. Him. All his life he had wondered if what he had seen was a fantasy after all, a production of his hyperactive imagination as a child, but this time he was SURE of what he had seen.
A strong green bioluminescent tail, a male torso, and a strong, angular face, black hair and those eyes. Those gems like green eyes.
It was real. His mermaid…merman, was real. And he had saved him again. He had kissed him.
Jon blushed.
He had kissed him. He felt heat curl in his stomach. The feeling of those cold lips imprinted like fire in his brain.
As if called by the waves, he walked on the shore, away from his friends distracted by a card game until his feet hit the water. He walked some more until the water reached his stomach and he spread his hands under the surface. The water called back to him.
“Where are you…” he whispered.
The waves singed back to him. What had been just a vague sensation since his childhood, hit him in full blow. The waters were calling to him. It was a sweet, deep, entrancing song, pushing him forward, telling him his lost half was waiting for him, if he would just take a step forward, and then another…and another…
“JON!” Kathy called, rushing running tough the water in a cacophony of splashes.
She grabbed him by the waist, pulling him back.
“What are you doing???” She asked in a panic.
“…what? I was just walking…” he protested.
“If you walked farther you wouldn’t touch the ground anymore!” She yelled. That’s when Jon felt the water lap at his chin.
He hadn’t realized.
“I… was distracted…”
“Jon. You’re scaring me, Jon!”
Kathy said, hugging him.
For the reminder of the day, his friends didn’t allowed him to go in the water again. They watched him like hawks and tried to occupy his mind in every possible way. Jon kept looking at the water though, and when it was time to leave, he threw a last look at the vast ocean and he made a promise to himself.
He would be back.
There is nothing stronger than a man with a purpose, as they say, and a week after found him back on the beach.
He had to fight pretty hard for it, his parents were completely against the idea, probably cause Kathy had told them of his strange behavior, and he had to lie to them saying that it was for a paper he had to write for school -which wasn’t a complete lie, he did have to write a paper, it just wasn’t supposed to be about mermaids- but at the end he had won. He had found a small job at a restaurant near the beach and he was going to spend the last month of his summer holidays here. Looking for his mysterious merboy.
He would find him. If it was the last thing he did.
He signed for all the morning shifts he could, since he had a feeling he would have better luck finding him at night, when the beach was less infested with tourists. He also studied the terrain, finding on the maps all kind fo hidden bays and caves he wanted to explore as soon as possible. He was more likely to be somewhere away form crowds, right? It’s not like the existence of Merfolks was a wide spread knowledge, and they probably wanted to keep it that way.
Were there more than just his merman? There must be…it wasn’t like he could have sprouted from no where.
How had he gotten here? Had he swam all the way from the Mediterranean? He knew some big fishes could swim for thousand of miles with no problems. Maybe it was the same for merfolks.
A week passed without him finding a trace of his savior.
Still he persisted.
After having explored all of the easier caves, he turned to the most dangerous to reach ones.
One of those was hidden deep between two walls of rock. During the day it was possible to reach it by walking, if you stayed close to the sides were the waters were more shallow, but as soon as the tie started raise, the only way to get there was swimming.
Jon was not goin to let that stop him.
He WOULD find his merboy. He had to. He would never feel complete otherwise.
For this reason, as soon as the sun had started to set, Jon had taken hold of his water proof light, had put his phone in a water proof bag, stuck his arms in a couple of hideous yellow floaters and went on his way.
Call him crazy, but he was a man on a mission.
Of course, as soon as he got in the cave, which turned out to be much bigger that he thought, he dropped his light. Since it was water proof, it didn’t switch off, just floated to the bottom, several feet down.
Jon definitely couldn’t touch the bottom with his feet, not even if he stretched, and now he couldn’t even see how far the walls were, if there was a stretch of sand he could get to or not.
All in all, he realized, he was pretty fucked.
Did he dared bring out his phone? What if he dropped that too? Then he’d be completely lost, in the dark, all alone.
He looked down at the torch, as his legs were getting more and more tired. How far down could it be? He could still see the light under his feet, so not too far down. If he removed his floaters, got the light and then went back to the surface and slipped the things back on, he would have solved all of his problems. How hard could it be?
So he did it.
As soon s he removed the yellow monstrosities, he sank like a stone. He was used to it by now so he didn’t panic. He dived down until his hand closed around the flashlight, and then he pushed with his feet against the rocky bottom to propel himself up. As he emerged back on the surface, he felt pretty proud of himself. That’s when he realized his floaters were no where to be seen.
He frantically turned back and forth searching for them, his legs frantically battling with the waters to keep him afloat, when he saw one of them several feet away from him.
He tried not to panic, flailing his arms to reach it, but he didn’t gain an inch. He was tired. SO tired, his legs were getting heavy, and as his breathing got more and more ragged, real fear started to settle in.
This had been a stupid idea. What the hell was he doing inside a cave, at night, by himself? He was an idiot.
He was going to die.
He didn’t want to die.
Pain shot thought his leg, as a cramp paralyzed it, he gasped, and water filled his mouth. He coughed and splattered, as salt invaded his sense “Fuck!” He screamed. Not again. Not like this. Not before…
A pair of strong hands grabbed him by the waist, pushing his face out of the water, and a strong, smooth surface coiled around his flailing legs, efficiently blocking them.
Jon fought against it for a second, when a pair of lips sealed his own shut, pushing against his, nibbling and sucking, cold and unrelenting. Jon recognized his green eyed savior and against all surviving instincts, he relaxed. He was safe, and he had found him. He was there, all around him, kissing him. Jon sighed into the kiss and he felt his companion shiver.
He raised his arms to clung to the broad shoulders below him, tangling his fingers in short spiky strands, and pulled his merboy forward, crushing their lips together.
He breathed him in like air, tasting the salty scent, sucking in his cold tongue, that battled with his in equal passion.
How could someone be so cold and yet so warm? Fit so perfectly against him even though they were so different? Jon was home. He had wandered all his life, but he had finally found what he was missing. His missing merboy. His savior. HIS.
When they separated, their breaths ragged, Jon stayed with his eyes closed for a while longer, his lips barely touching the other’s as he slightly nuzzled their noses together.
Then Jon took a deep, tremulous breath and opened his eyes.
All he saw was green.
Green light raising form the water like fireflies, green scales surrounding him, smaller ones gracing brown flushed cheeks like freckles made of stars, and deep, luminous green eyes. He smiled.
“I found you” he whispered against his black hair.
“TT. You mean I found you, human. What were you thinking? Do you have a death wish after all?! Three times I’ve saved you now!”
“I’m sorry” Jon laughed “I can’t swim! And I lost my floaters”
“Your what?” Jon pointed at the yellow kiddy floater sadly bobbing a few feet away from them. His merboy frowned at them.
“You are ridiculous” he grumbled, but he did in such a cute, fond way that Jon didn’t even get offended.
“Well, dear my merboy, not everyone has fins”
The merman turned to glare at him. He had thick, expressive eyebrows that formed the deepest frown between them. Jon wanted to kiss it away.
“Damian” he said imperiously.
“…What?”
“My name. It’s not ‘merboy’, it’s Damian. Damian Al ghul Wayne Ibn al Xu’ffasch”
“That’s a mouth full”
“Well not everyone is graced with such simple names, JON”
“…how…”
“I know everything”
“aaah” Jon answered in complacency.
Damian’s frown deepened, and Jon found it was quite funny to anger him.
“Anyway” Damian grumbled, breaking the moment “what do you need those ridiculous things for. You have the blessing of the seven seas, you can’t drown”
“I…what?”
“I gave you my blessing when you were a child. And then again last time we met, and…now…”
“You mean…the kisses?”
“TT. Yes”
“What does that mean I can’t drown. I need air to survive. And I can’t swim!”
Damian huffed.
“No you don’t”
“Uh, I’m pretty sure I do”
The mer smirked “wanna bet?”
“…no?”
Damian pulled him under.
Jon’s eyes went wide and he trashed, trying to pull away, to no avail. The merman’s tail was like a cage made of steal.
He felt his lungs burn as he held his breath in for as long as he could and the water rushed around them.
Was Damian trying to kill him? He started to punch against his chest, when suddenly they stopped.
They were deep under the surface, probably outside the cave, his light lost somewhere in the struggle. Damian bioluminescent scales creating a constellation all around them.
If he wasn’t currently dying, Jon would find it all very pretty.
That’s when Damian cradled his face in his hands, and kissed him again.
This time it was sweet and slow, and all encompassing. Jon’s brain turned to literal mush, melting in the absolute bliss of it all.
When he finally pulled away after a while his breathing was ragged again.
Wait. His breathing? He was breathing big lungs full of water, and he down right panicked again. DROWNING. He was drowning. He held his breath again, pushing his hands against his mouth, and Damian laughed.
He laughed.
Underwater.
And Jon heard him.
“Oh shit!” He said.
HE COULD TALK.
“What…?”
Damian pulled him back against him, flushed against his chest, tail tangling swishing between his legs and Jon… yeah, Jon didn’t give a fuck. If he was gonna drown, so be it. This was a good way to go.
They floated underwater for a while, surrounded by colorful fishes and stars that were not stars but shined all the same, learning each others bodies and laughing voices. If this was a dream, Jon never wanted to wake up again.
At some point they breached the surface again, Damian floating on the surface on his back and Jon resting on his chest.
“Where have you been all my life?” He asked in a small voice against Damian’s cold skin, tracing constellation trough the scales littering his flesh like small moles.
“And where were you, Jon? I thought I had left you behind in Italy”
Jon raised his head in surprise.
“What?”
“That’s where I first saw you”
“Yeah, but I was there on vacation?”
“And what about now? Are you gonna be here only for a little while again? Will you go back on the Earth and walk away?”
“What? No! I mean, yes, at some point I need to go to school and shit, but I’m coming back! Any time I can! I live only one hour away from here! I…” he struggled a bit to straddle Damian’s torso, in a frantic attempt to look into his eyes.
“I can’t- No. I DON’T WANT to live without you. I’ve felt like something was missing all my life. And it was you!”
Damian smirked, holding him by the hips to steady him, and then his smile turned into something sweeter.
“Beloved” he called him, and the term did something to Jon’s insides that made him feel weightless and warm, like a hot air ballon filled with butterflies “I believe you. I’m not leaving you either. I’ve waited to meet you again all my life. You’re mine”
Jon sighed in bliss and snuggled back against Damian, wrapping him arms tight around him.
As he fell in unconsciousness he was quite sure he could hear a sweet melody lulling him to sleep. A deep, beautiful song without words, pulling at the strings of his heart.
You’re home, it said.
You’re home.
That night, after contently looking at the stars cradling his boy in his arms for a few hours, Damian gently nudged him awake, depositing him near the beach closest to his ‘rented nest’. He loathed parting with him, especially now that they had promised what to Damian had sounded like eternal loyalty and love. But he had things he had to do. Battles to fight. And apparently Jon had… tables to serve? Whatever that meant. He didn’t really like the sound of that. His love shouldn’t have to ‘serve’ anyone. He should be in his father’s cave, being attended to, covered in jewels, adored by the masses.
But that was a discussion for another time.
As he watched him gather the things he had hidden under the sand, he felt a presence behind him. He went still, bracing himself to attack, when a delicate, familiar scent hit his nostril.
He relaxed.
“You, little brother, are so SCREWED” Maya said, breaching the surface behind him.
“Only if you tattle. Are you gonna tattle on me, Maya Ducard of the souther seas?”
Maya huffed at the formalness of his request.
“Of course not. But still. When your father finds out, AND HE WILL FIND OUT, you are gonna be SO screwed. You went against all of his rules! What were you thinking? Showing yourself to a human? Cuddling with him?” She grabbed his shoulder and turned him to face her, in a move that would have gotten anyone else an electric shock at the very least. He just glared at her, however, as she had what one could call ‘best friend privileges ’.
“Promise me you’ll never see him again? Please? He’s human, Damian! This CAN’T WORK”
He looked to the side, unable to bare the worry he knew he would find in her dark eyes.
“I can’t promise you that”
“But-”
“I love him, Maya. He…he is MINE”
She flinched back, her gills flaring.
“You…YOU KISSED HIM?!” She screeched.
“Scream some more, would you? I think the merpeople of the baltic sea haven’t heard you yet”
She bit her lip, grabbing on his arms, her sharp claws digging in his flesh and she shook him a bit.
She was really pushing her ‘best friend privileges’ now.
“You kissed him?-she repeated in hissed whisper- Have you gone mad?!”
“It’s not like it was the first time. And I can assure you it won’t be the last!”
“What do you m-” then her eyes went wide, in realization “it’s HIM. The boy you told me about!! Wasn’t he supposed to be back in the Mediterranean? In your mother’s reign?”
“Well he’s not anymore, is he? He’s here. He is HERE, Maya. And… I WANT him. No…I …need him. He is my mate. I told you. I will never want anyone else. If…if my father can’t accept it then it is his problem. I can’t…I can’t…”
“Oh, Dami…” she hugged him tight, dragging him under the water with her “I won’t tell. I promise I’ll even help you but… your father will know. No matter how much you try to hide it. And then…”
“I’ll take my responsibilities then. I won’t run or hide. I have nothing to be ashamed of”
He saw her face crumple as if in pain, but he also saw the resolve harden to diamond in her eyes.
“I’ll stand by you, brother. When the time comes. I promise”
And that was why he loved her so.
He gave her one of his rare smile, playfully nudging her white and pink tail with his green one.
“That’s all I ask”
The next weeks were spent in absolute bliss. Jon decided not to think of anything that wasn’t Damian, Damian, DAMIAN. He spent from 8 to 5 working and the rest of his day with him. And Damian was always there for him, when he run straight from work to ‘their’ cave.
He had asked why there was never anyone else there, as he knew the cave was a tourist spot. Damian had told him not to worry. That he ‘had made sure’ no one would be there to disturb them, whatever that meant. Jon didn’t care.
He didn’t care about anything, as long as he was held close in his love’s strong arms.
And Damian was strong. His torso was lean, and he was by no mean bulky, but his frame was pure muscle. His skin felt smooth to the touch but the muscles underneath felt hard as stone. Ever since Jon had realized he could breath under water he didn’t even feel cold. Damian always felt pleasantly cool and welcoming.
Jon never felt tired of looking at him. He was… he looked scary, sure, but in a handsome, wild, fascinating way. His bronze skin was littered in green scales, he had gills in his neck and the side of his torso, and gossamery dark green fins running on his back and from his elbows to the back of his hands.
His fingers were connected by a semitransparent film and terminated in sharp claws that were, against all odds, always so very gentle when touching Jon.
He bet he could do real damage with them, not to mention his extremely long and powerful tail, if he wanted to. And he was a fighter. Countless white scars littering his body were a testament to that.
When Jon had asked him about it, Damian had told of his work with his father and ‘brothers’, term which he had said with some kind of sneer Jon hadn’t commented on.
They apparently were constantly battling humans and merpeople as well that put their sea at risk. They battled against pollution, the trafficking of creatures and goods, the drug trade and -and Jon and been thrilled at that one- pirates.
When Damian had asked the reason for the shining light in his eyes at the mention of the latter, Jon had gone on a tirade on his childhood obsession with anything sea related, the books, the legends, the fairy tails. Damian had laugh, but not in a mocking way. Damian never mocked him.
“Oh, beloved. I wish they were like that. But no…the people we fight are vicious. Might you never find them on your path. Or I might very well have to break a rule I do not wish to break…” he had concluded ominously.
Rules.
He had come to know that Damian’s world had rules, much like Jons. His father, not that Damian had ever said much about him, was some kind of king. His word was absolute, apparently.
One rule they had to obey at all cost, Jon had come to understand, was to never kill. Never.
That sounded a bit much to Jon. He was an American after all. He had grown up in a state where there was still the death sentence for major crimes.
He liked the idea though. A world where life was a sovereign thing, to be forever protected.
Damian never talked about his mother. She was back in the ancient seas, apparently, and they didn’t talk anymore.
“Her vision fo the world doesn’t match with that of my father, and I’ve chosen to follow his ways”
He asked questions to Jon also, about his childhood, his parents, his school, the animal of dry lands.
He was absolutely fascinated with every book Jon managed to bring him, and once he carried his tablet with him, they spent a few hours looking at cats and dogs videos.
Damian genuinely laughed in delight at them, and Jon felt his heart grow two sizes bigger every time he did that. One of these days it was going to explode.
They also spent a lot of time…in other activities.
Damian was always touching him. There wasn’t a moment when they were together where he didn’t have a hand on him, his mouth on his skin, his tail around his legs.
Not that Jon minded. If he could, he would never part ways from him.
His very strong minded mother, or Kathy, would probably frown at that, they would say Damian was too possessive, that they had become too coo-dependent in too short of a time, that it wasn’t healthy.
They wouldn’t understand. Couldn’t understand.
Every time Damian so much as touched him, Jon’s whole body singed. They were made for each others, fit into each others like two piece of a puzzle, like the crashing waves and the gentle sand being molded by them, like the moon up in the sky, calling for the sea to raise up and meet her.
The urgent kisses had soon turned too passionate to be called just that, and Jon had quickly decided that clothes were overrated. There were only the two of them in the cave anyway, and he didn’t feel any shame when in Damian’s presence. He was a part of him. He didn’t want any barrier between them.
That day was one of those occasions, as Jon was tailing kisses from Damian’s ear all the way to his gills, which Jon had found to be quite sensitive to the touch. He was tracing them with his tongue when he felt his legs being freed by the impeding swimming shorts, that floated down to the bottom of the cave, forgotten. Now free, his legs came to wrap around Damian’s torso, pulling him impossible close to him.
He felt his love’s breathing turning ragged, like he, impossibly, was the one drawing as Jon’s cock pushed against his taut stomach.
Jon felt his fresh breath against his jugular and his sharp teeth biting his skin playfully, up and down form his collar bones to his ear, his tongue tracing the shell of it, his voice whispering a sweet lull in a language he couldn’t understand, but was, nonetheless, whispering love and devotion straight to his heart.
“Jon…Jon… I need you…I… please, please…” he kept whispering, over and over, against his heated skin.
He didn’t say what he was praying for, what he was asking, but Jon knew. He wanted it too, but…
They hadn’t really talked about that. They were a different species. He wanted it, he wanted it so much…
“Yes. Please. Yes” he prayed back. He didn’t care. Damian was his, and he was Damian’s. He wanted that imbedded in his skin. He pulled back a few inches until he could nuzzle Damian’s cheek to push him to do the same. He look straight into his eyes, blue against green, a promise in them both.
“Yes”
He saw Damian’s slit pupils dilate impossibly wide, his gills flare opened as he surged up to meet him in a bruising kiss, his arms caging his frame, bracing against the rock behind Jon’s back, and pushing away, carrying them in the middle of the cave pool, away from everything.
Much like the first time he had finally laid eyes on Damian, the only light in the cave was his luminescent scales, they reflected against the dark ceiling, and back into the waters, creating a galaxy, just for them.
“Let me, in, Jonathan Kent, and I will be yours forever” Damian whispered against his wet lips.
Jon swallowed his promise up with a kiss. And another.
And another…
If Jon were to describe what happened next, he would not be able to.
“And then we had sex” didn’t exactly cut it.
He didn’t even know if they had been above or below the surface.
All he knew in those moments was that Damian was there, he was everywhere.
Jon had fumbled a bit, not knowing what to do at first, but then Damian had smiled, showing his perfect pearly sharp teeth, and as Jon had licked the salt off of them he had guided his hand against his chest and then lower, and lower, against his taut abdomen and then down, where skin turned to scales and down, down…where the diamond hardness turned back into fleshy softness. He had found silky smooth folds he didn’t not know where there. Like a secret meant to be hidden away from anyone but them, vulnerable, welcoming, warm, pulsating, and Jon…Jon lost it.
He got drunk on the sweet noises the usually reserved and stoic merman released into the resounding cave, at every touch, at every caress, only for Jon, only for him, and when Jon dived underwater and tasted him-
“Jon! Jon, Jon Jon, beloved, please…please, Jon, please”
His webbed hands tangled in his black hair, a messy halo around his head, his claws digging into his scalp sending shivers of pleasure down his spine as he licked and nibbled and drank up the heady and honeyed, musky slick, until the folds finally gave way, like a red, bloody flowers opening up right in front of him, a strong hard member ready for the taking.
And taking Jon did, renewing his efforts, kissing, sucking, getting ready to swallow him up when Damian grabbed him around the chest and pulled him up, to eye level with him.
They both panted, foreheads touching, eyes closed. Jon kissed him again, and again as Damian trembled in his arms, he wanted more, he wanted…
“Beloved, if you keep this up I’m— I’m not going to-I’m—” he tried to mutter, getting distracted by Jon’s kisses, turning his head away from him, huffing as Jon laughed over and over, making a game of it.
His eyes were almost completely black now.
“Dami…” Jon singsonged against his cheek, not recognizing his voice. It sounded wrecked, low, guttural and deeper than usual. He didn’t care.
“make me yours, Dami. Take me”
Damian’s blackened eyes widen at that, as he took a sharp, hard breath trough his nose.
In a blink he pushed Jon back against the rocky walls of the cave pool and raised him to sit on the edge. Jon let out a yelp of surprise but didn’t have the time to even think about what was happening as Damian went down on him like a mer starved, returning Jon’s previous favor.
Jon arched his back against the pebbled shore as he felt Damian’s lips trail an icy path down his abdomen, to his pelvis, up his cock, and then down and down until he was mouthing at his entrance, with his tongue, his hands, his fingers, so gentle.
“Mine. Mine, mine, mine” he mouthed on his skin over and over, branding him like fire.
“Yours”
When the merman finally drew him back into the waters, as he felt the pebbles roll under his back, Jon felt like a man about to drown. Draw into the dark depth, ready to give his soul to Davy Jones’ treasure chest. He didn’t fight it this time. He let the current take him, back and forth, back and forth. Like waves crushing on the sand, and the sand molding to accept their passion.
They were one.
As Jon came back to his senses, he felt sun rays warming his back. He slowly opened his eyes to see the light twinkling against the jade scales on Damian slowly raising chest.
It must have been morning, as the gentle light filtering thought the cave ceiling seemed to indicate.
He was probably going to miss work.
Not that he cared.
He raised his head to see that they were resting on the shore, the gentle waves lapping at their chests. Damian was asleep, his eyes closed, mouth slightly parted.
Jon couldn’t help the grin he felt spreading on his face.
He was happy. So happy.
They had done that.
He and Damian… his merboy, his…
He loved him.
He loved him with every fiber of his being and he was going to find a way to stay with him. He couldn’t let him go.
He couldn’t.
He kissed his chest, his scales, his nipples, his collar bones, his gills, up his jaw until he felt Damian stir under him, his hand flex against his side, coming up to his shoulder blades.
He giggled. Damian the scary merman honest to god giggled “that tickles beloved” he said, laughter in his voice, a laughter Jon kissed right off his face.
“beloved, if you keep this up, I’m gonna ravish you again”
“Omg. Who uses the word ‘ravish’ in this day and age” Jon smirked, and Damian narrowed his eyes. He titled his head and bit Jon’s neck, right where neck met shoulder, a bite too sharp to be pleasant, dragging him under.
“i don’t know, maybe I should just eat you, then. I did skip breakfast, and after so much, uh, fun activities last night, I am rather ravenous”
Jon mocked a look of shock “I see. The predator finally shows his true colors. Oh, no. I’ve been thwarted!” Damian grimaced, letting him go like Jon’s words were a physical pain. He dived down to fish out Jon’s lost shorts, presenting them to him with a flat expression.
“here, beloved. And do shut up”
Jon gathered of all his things, and realized he still had an hour to get to work, thankfully. He hugged the mer around the shoulders, careful not to crush his back fin and they dived in the tunnel that would get them out of the cave.
When they were about to step out int he opened sea, however, Damian stopped dead in his track, making a sudden loop to turn back and pushing Jon behind a rock. His face had gone pale.
“Stay here! Don’t come out, don’t make a sound!” He whispered in hard breaths. Jon wanted to ask why, suddenly scared, but another voice beat him to it.
“I think it’s a bit late for that, don’t you think?”
It was an adult male voice, and that was all Jon could make out, as Damian turned with a hiss covering him with his bulk, all of his fins flaring out in a clear hostile posture.
Peaking from behind Damian’s shoulder, Jon saw the other merman, cause a merman it was, broader than Damian, with a long sinuous electrics blue and black tail, raise his hands in a placating gesture.
“Please, Dami. There is no need for that! I’m not gonna hurt your friend, I swear!”
“talk for yourself, Dick” yet another voice boomed from afar “cause I make no such promise”
Another merman, this one looking huge, with a tail read as blood and full of spikes, wearing a full armor on his hard muscled shoulders and arms, weapons at his side and a red helmet to match his tail came into view, wearing a scowl to rival Damian’s at his worst.
“What were you thinking, you brat, uh? Fucking around with a human? Is that where you were tonight? Do you have any idea of what happened back at home? Do you even care?” The blue merman -Dick, the other had called him- put himself between the two posturing mermen, extending his hands palms up, trying to calm them both “Jay, calm down. He couldn’t have known. It was a surprise attack, we should just be glad we found him unarmed!”
“Glad? The fuck I give he is unarmed, he should have been there! He left the others alone to go with a fucking human, Dick! Look at him! He even gave him his blessing - the red merman spat out like a curse - look at the fucker, he’s breathing!” He took out one of the jagged knives holster against his sides and pointed it at Damian, and Jon felt his blood run cold. This was getting out of hand, and FAST.
“Is this where you were, in the past weeks? Fucking your human bitch while we fought for our lives? We left you home to guard Tim and Alfred, we trusted you, and we come back to find the den destroyed! They disappeared! All of them! Tim, Alfred, Cass and Steph, even Babs! No trace! The city is in turmoil, how could you!”
At the other’s words Jon felt the fight leave Damian’s body, his shoulder slump as if in shock.
“…What…? I… what?” Damian started to mutter, his head shaking.
“That’s…that’s impossible. Everything was fine when I left. There was no threat, I-”
“Well you were obviously wrong now, were you?” The other hissed, but then the blue merman grabbed the wrist holding the weapon and whispered something in the red’s ear. ‘Jay’ huffed and put the weapon back in its scabbard, turning to swim away, directing a last look of disgust towards them “Don’t think I’m going to forget this, ‘little brother’” he sneered and disappeared.
The other mer turned towards them with a sheepish smile.
“Forgive him” he said towards Jon, who jerked in surprise at being addressed. The other mer had treated him like an ant under his boot. Or you know. The mer equivalent of that. But this other one looked at Jon with kindness “He’s just worried” then he came closer, slowly, his hands up “Dami” he called “I know you didn’t do it on purpose. The mere thought that someone managed to sneak into our cave is unthinkable, it wasn’t something you could have foreseen. And while we are still going to have a long talk about were you were tonight and what you did - he paused at that giving both of them a pointed look that made Jon blush hard - we really have to get going now. I’ sure the other are alright. Cass and Babs were with them, Alfred can take care of himself and even Tim, thought in a delicate condition, can defend himself and others if needs be. But we need to find them quick. Come. I’m sure your friend can find his way back?”
When Damian didn’t move, Jon touched his shoulder, turning him to face him.
Damian was pale as a ghost, fear clearly cursing trough him. Jon’s heart shrank to see his love, usually so fierce and headstrong, shiver in fear and regret. He didn’t want their beautiful night together to be tainted by this. But the situation was what it was. He ducked to meet Damian’s lowered eyes and kissed him, not caring of the presence of others.
“Go” he said “I’ll be here, waiting” Damian’s head snapped up, to meet his eyes, and steely resolve slowly bled into his gaze. He nodded, once, and then turned and took off with Dick, disappearing in the turquoise waters fast.
In a few seconds there was no trace of them left.
Jon sighed, hoping, praying to any god listening, that he would be back.