#WHY ARE THOSE FEW STRANDS OF HAIR SO PRETTY I'M LITERALLY KICKING MY FEET | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

little-red-and-his-wolves · 7 years

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Hey I'm sorry you're feeling down. ❤ I'd love to submit a prompt. AU mermaid Stiles that's curious and mischievous and Derek the poor gruff that Stiles wins over with his charms. Either like pirates or seaworld type exhibit or anything!! I really hope whatever's got you down goes away soon. ❤

Hey, thank you for the prompt! It was really fun to write. And thank you for your kind words. Unfortunately part of what has me down isn’t likely to go away for the next few weeks but the rest should, hopefully, be temporary. Regardless your prompt was a blast to fill and I hope you like it!

(It got a bit long so I also posted it on AO3 if you like to read it there.)

Don’t go to thesurface, he’d said.

It’s dangerous,he’d said.

There’s nothingworth seeing, he’d said.

I swear to God,Stiles, if you don’t listen to me, he’d said.

Joke was onFather then. Stiles never listened and there was definitely something worthseeing. Specifically six feet of something tall, dark, and gorgeous.

Stiles dippedbeneath the water again so he was mostly submerged, letting the current carryhim towards shore a little more. He took shelter behind a rock, clinging easilyto its slick edges as the waves beat against him, the water lapping in and outof the shallow alcove rhythmically.

The man, whoStiles had taken to calling Beasty, grumbled to himself as he tuggedfruitlessly at his tangled net before throwing it away with a huff and kickinga bucket for good measure. Stiles laughed quickly ducking fully beneath thewater when Beasty spun around at the sound.

Slipping easilythrough the water Stiles resurfaced on the other side of the pier grasping thewood to pull himself up far enough to grab the net before diving back into thewater prize in hand. He heard a shout echo muffled from the surface fading awayas he swam deeper pausing about part way down to examine the net. It really washopelessly tangled. He settled at the edge of the shelf, staring absently outinto the deep blue while he let his fingers work at the knots. Eventually heworked them all free and had the net untangled. He cast it out to make sure itwas completely free of knots before carefully bundling it up and securing itwith a strand of seaweed.

Beasty wasn’ton the pier when Stiles returned. Instead he had his back turned to Stiles ashe fought with one of the lines on his adorable little boat that wouldn’t lasta day out beyond the harbor. Stiles smiled hauling himself up to rest hisforearms on the pier as he watched Beasty trip over a bucket and promptly loseall the tautness he’d managed to gain in the line.

Stifling downhis laughter Stiles glanced over the pier taking note of a small leather objectresting beside a metal bucket full of chum and a metal ring full of keys. Heset the net aside and stretched across the pier to snag the edge of themysterious object. When he flipped it open Beasty’s face greeted him, gloweringup from a small square covered in the odd symbols of the landwalker’s languageStiles had never bothered to learn how to read. He spoke it well enoughlearning from those merfolk who had walked among the landdwellers and fromlurking along the shore, but he’d never seen much point in learning the writtenwords. Now though, he wished he knew what the lines meant.

He stroked afinger over Beasty’s picture before cocking his head to the side to look at theother picture. It wasn’t the same material as Beasty’s, far more flimsy andworn, but it was devoid of words. Stiles picked Beasty out amongst the otherfaced easily, settled in-between two girls and smiling. It was odd seeing suchan expression on Beasty’s face, but Stiles had to admit he had a nice smile.Nice enough that Stiles kind of wanted to see it for himself in reality.

Somethingclattered against wood and Stiles jerked back, glancing over to the boat andshocked to find Beasty staring at him slack-jawed. Stiles just stared back amoment, some part of his brain urging him to flee while another tried toconvince him to stay. Several long moments ticked by and then Beasty moved.Stiles’ hand darted forward almost on its own volition, snagging the keysbefore he pushed off the pier and dove back into the water. He swam straightfor the shelf and then beyond it out into open water keeping his hands clutchedtightly around his spoils.

“The…mermaidstole your wallet,” Laura said slowly looking like she was about three secondsfrom suggesting they take a ride to the county hospital. Not for the first timeDerek questioned his decision to tell her the truth rather than continue lyinglike he’d been doing for the past few months.

“My keys too,”he added. “And my watch. And my water bottle. And a couple pieces ofsilverware. And my shoes. And one of my coats. And my cell phone.”

Laura blinked.“You told me you accidently dropped your phone off that stupid boat.”

“Yes. Because Ifigured you’d call me crazy if I said I thought a mythical sea creature tookit,” Derek said dryly.

“I wouldnever,” Laura protested pausing when Derek arched a single eyebrow to sighdramatically. “Fine, okay, maybe I would have been concerned about your mentalhealth. But, really, Derek, can you blame me? You’re out here for weeks on endall by yourself with this stupid fishing boat. What are you even doing?”

“Hey,” Dereksaid mildly offended even if he also thought the boat was stupid though likelyfor much different reasons. “You’re the one who said I should get a hobby.”

Laura rolledher eyes. “Yes, like yoga or krav maga or even crocheting. Not…fishing orwhatever it is you do out here.”

“Not a lot ofactual fishing to be honest.”

“And that’s mypoint, Derek. What are you doing? Like, what even is that?” she asked pointing at the small bucket Derek had forgotten toclean out earlier. “It smells awful.”

Derek frownednudging it with his foot. “It’s chum. Supposed to lure fish in.”

Laura wrinkledher nose. “Does it work?”

“Not really inmy experience, no,” Derek admitted a bit forlorn. Nearly ten weeks and he stillhad yet to actually successfully catch anything. “But I think I’m doing itwrong.”

“Okay,regardless, what made you change your mind now?” Laura said turning a little onthe pier to face Derek fully. “Why tell me about your mermaid?”

“I think he’sactually a merman,” Derek corrected squinting against the sunlight glinting offthe water. “And because I actually saw him. Stared at him for a full coupleseconds really. I’d always just caught him out of the corner of my eye before.But this time…I literally watched him steal my keys. He just dove across thepier and snatched them before diving off.”

“Okay,” Laurasaid again pausing before continuing. She kicked her feet in the water,drumming her fingers against the wood. “For the record I still think there’s apossibility that smelling that fish chum all day has rotted your brain andyou’ve lost your mind. But on the off chance that you haven’t…do you thinkhe’ll come back?”

“I don’t know,”Derek replied honestly, but a small part of him certainly hoped.

Derek spent thenext few weeks keeping an almost obsessive eye out for any not-so-mythical seacreatures peeking up from the water but the surface remained frustratinglyundisturbed. Derek took to leaving odds and ends scattered about the pierhoping that one morning he’d come out to find something missing. By the end ofthe third week he had a collection of a couple shot glasses, a small wolffigurine Cora had given him years ago, a keychain with a fork bent into a peacesign, several pens, a screw driver, a big mug shaped like Darth Vader, an oldcell phone that hadn’t worked in years, and several coins scattered over thepier.

He’d prettymuch given up any hope of the sea creature coming back, and started seriouslyquestioning exactly why he found that thought so disappointing, when it finallyhappened. Derek was once again swearing at the stupid boat for not justcooperating for him when the hair on the back of his neck stood up and hecaught a slight disturbance in the water out of the corner of his eye. He frozefor a second, surreptitiously glancing over his shoulder at the face justbarely peeking up from the water by the pier, large eyes trained Derek’sdirection. After a moment Derek forced himself back into motion all butignoring the merman’s presence. The head dipped back beneath the water andDerek felt a pang of disappointment before the merman resurfaced on the otherside of the pier.

He hovered justvisible for several long minutes before slowly rising more, one webbed handclutching the edge of the pier as the other carefully plucked one of the shotglasses up for inspection. One long finger stroked over the glittered lettersas his lips moved silently almost like he was trying to puzzle out the words.

“It says‘fucking magnificent’,” Derek said, not raising his voice too much and keepinghis tone purposefully calm.

As expected themerman pushed off the pier, backing away several feet but not diving beneaththe surface. Derek kept himself focused on the ropes in front of him onlyglancing over every once in awhile.

“A gift from mysister,” he explained. “She thought it was hysterical. Something about theunicorn really spoke to her.”

Derek paused,kept his fingers twined in the rope as he glanced over his shoulder pleased tosee the merman still bobbing in the water even if he looked a bit suspicious.He raised the glass again to look at it, running his finger over the image. “Ithought this was a horse?” he said and Derek almost dropped rope in shock.

The merman’svoice carried easily and was surprisingly clear though accented. It held athroaty, almost guttural undertone and Derek wondered if it was from notspeaking often or from not speaking above the water.

“It is,” hefinally replied. “But the horn on its forehead turns from just a horse into aspecial horse. A unicorn.”

“A unicorn,”the merman repeated staring at the glass contemplatively. “And these words,what did you say they were?”

“Uh, fuckingmagnificent,” Derek said.

“Very special.I see. Because it is a unicorn.”

“Right,” Dereksaid weakly watching at the merman swam closer again to peer at the otherglasses. Derek swallowed easing off the boat and onto the pier.

“What aboutthis one?” he asked pointing at one that Derek wasn’t even sure how it came tobe in his possession. It was just one of those things that showed up in hisboxes between one of his many moves, and he’d kept it because the quote kind ofspoke to him.

“It says ‘theregoes the last fuck I gave.’”

The mermanfrowned, smooth brow furrowing in confusion. “What’s a fuck?”

“Uh, in thiscontext its…an element of caring. It means you don’t care anymore. At all.”

“I see,” themerman said plucking it up from the pier. “I like your things.”

“I noticedsince you’ve taken a lot.”

The mermansmiled at him, sharp teeth peeking out from behind pale lips. “You shouldn’tleave it laying about then,” he said. “If you don’t want it taken.”

And beforeDerek could reply he slid a shot glass between his teeth, snatched an objectoff the pier, and dove back into the water slapping the surface with his tailas he did so to send a wave up over the pier leaving Derek drenched andsputtering.

Father would beso disappointed, Stiles thought as his head broke the surface of the harbor.Beasty wasn’t on his boat today and there wasn’t a collection of odd itemscluttering the pier. In fact, the only thing on the pier was Beasty with hisshoes off, pants rolled up to his knees, and feet kicking gently back in thewater as he stared out across the horizon.

Stiles had keptaway as long as he could after Beasty had first seen him and their secondinteraction had left him craving more. He crept over to the pier, surfacingagain behind Beasty and hoisting himself up lifting his tail out of the watercarefully. He tried to do it quietly but, well, water and fins.

Beasty nearlyfell of the pier as he spun around just barely managing to keep his balance onthe edge. Stiles grinned and thumped his tail against the pier causing itbounce erratically and dump poor Beasty right into the water with a squawk andflailing limbs. He resurfaced a few seconds later sputtering and spitting waterout of his mouth as he glared up at Stiles.

“What thehell?” he snapped scrambling back onto the pier and looking quite ridiculous.Stiles didn’t know why exactly, but unlike merfolk landdwellers looked patheticwhen they were soaked. “Do you enjoy ruining my stuff?”

Stiles cockedhis head to the side. “I haven’t ruined any of your stuff,” he argued. Surehe’d taken a lot of stuff, like, a lot but he could bring it all back if hewanted. He didn’t.

“Really? Whatabout my wallet or my keys or my phone?” Beasty said shaking his head so waterdroplets rained down on Stiles.

“Phone?” heechoed confused.

Beasty pausedthen held his hands out about six inches apart. “Little rectangle with a smoothside wrapped in red plastic. Has a round button the bottom. You might have seenme holding it to my ear and yelling in it.”

“Ah, of course.The magic brick,” Stiles said remembering the most interesting of objects he’dtaken. It was the only one he and no one else had recognized. “You know itstopped working once I took it.”

“Yes,” Beastysaid dryly sounding amused again. “Probably because it’s not made to workunderwater.”

“Then it wasn’tvery well made,” Stiles replied with a sharp grin because seriously why wouldsomething be made to purposefully not function under water. “Now was it?”

Beasty sighed,running a hand through his wet hair and settling down nearer to Stiles on thepier. He stuck his feet back in the water without bothering to fix the one pantleg that had fallen down. “My name is Derek,” he said after a moment. “Ifigured that even though you stole my wallet you couldn’t read my license.”

Derek, Stilesthought mulling the name over. Derek. It was a nice name. Strong. It suited theman. He had no idea what a license was, wished suddenly that he’d broughtBeasty’s wallet along so he could have the name pointed out to him.

“Here,” Beastysaid jogging Stiles from his thoughts. Stiles looked down surprised to see aninteresting object in Beasty’s hand. It was small sitting nestled in Beasty’spalm. There was a clear sphere with a fish inside attached to a base with morelandwalker lettering on it. Stiles picked it up turning it around forinspection as he tried to figure it out.

“What is it?”

“It’s a snowglobe.”

Stiles noddedcommitting the name to memory as he shook it and watched the little whiteflakes flutter around the orange and white striped fish. “And this fish inside?I know the name in my language but what do you call it?”

Beasty clearedhis throat. “Uh, it’s a clown fish.”

“You know thisisn’t as much fun if you just hand things to me,” Stiles said even as hewrapped his fingers around the item.

Beasty just shrugged.

“Derek,” hesaid trying the name out for the first but hopefully not the last time, “thisis the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

The water wasfreezing as it beat against him, choppy as waves rolled around the two of them.It was the dead of night but the moon and stars were bright making it all tooeasy to make out Stiles’ features. The smooth expanse of his skin glisteningwet with ocean water and illuminated by starlight. Once again Derek foundhimself breathless as he stared at the beautiful creature before him. The firsttime Derek had seen Stiles he wouldn’t have used those words.

Intriguing.Sleek. Captivating.

But notbeautiful. No, that had come later.

“Do you trust me, Derek?”

Derek spit outmore water, kicking his feet to keep treading water with some difficulty as thewaves rolled around them. “Not at all,” he replied and Stiles laughed, thesound just as musical to Derek’s ears now as the first time he’d heard it allthose months ago.

“Remember,”Stiles said bracketing his hands on either side of Derek’s face. Stiles’ skinwas cool, fingers long enough to nearly wrap entirely around his head, andDerek shivered as Stiles stroked his thumbs along Derek’s cheekbones. “Don’thold your breath. And don’t let go.”

Derek pulledStiles closer, wrapping his arms around Stiles’ waist and letting the powerfulmotions of his tail keep them both afloat as he whispered, “I won’t.”

Stiles grinnedat him, eyes bright and mischievous, near mesmerizing as they reflected thestars from the sky and water all around them. “Are you ready?”

Throat too tightto reply with anticipation, Derek simply nodded, heart beating double time inhis chest as Stiles’ impish grin softened into something fond and sweet as heleaned in. His lips sealed over Derek’s, cool and exhilarating, echoed momentslater by the water that closed over their heads.

#ask #katsa-the-graceling #prompt #teen wolf #thank you!#fic

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