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scriveynerTitle: Unexpected Visitor
Fandom: Samurai Flamenco
AU: Mermaid
Characters/Pairing: Gotou/Masayoshi
Rating: T
Length: 2633
Summary: “You know,” Gotou Hidenori said with an exaggerated sigh, “you need to warn me if you’re going to do this. You’re lucky I was nearby, if anyone else had found you wandering around naked you’d be locked up right now.”
Hazama Masayoshi, prince of an underwater kingdom of mermaids, had been granted legs with which to explore the world above the water. It was a gift given to him by his friend, the sea witch Moe; with the caveat that he exchange his voice for the ability when he emerged from the waves. After all, he had siren in his blood and even as a human that would grant him the ability to control the weak-minded. It was a fair exchange, he thought, sitting naked in the surf, even if he had no idea how he’d find his betrothed without words.
As luck would have it, he wouldn’t have to go far.
#
“You know,” Gotou Hidenori said with an exaggerated sigh, “you need to warn me if you’re going to do this. You’re lucky I was nearby, if anyone else had found you wandering around naked you’d be locked up right now.”
Masayoshi cinched Gotou’s coat tighter around himself and beamed happily as he followed his beloved on shaky, uncertain legs. It took some time to get used to this, strange hard ground beneath newly-formed feet, and he always stepped careful and deliberate, bare feet banging solidly against the cold terrain. Gotou led, and he occasionally glanced over his shoulder at Masayoshi, brow furrowed.
Gotou didn’t really understand, what he was to the prince. Masayoshi knew he didn’t understand, but that was okay; he was here to express that. Masayoshi rubbed his nose with his free hand, delighted that he smelled a little bit like Gotou just by wearing his coat.
It was cold, out of the water. The sea had its seasons as well, he knew winter … but the chill that settled on him wasn’t anything he was used to. He opened his mouth to speak, remembered in annoyance when no words came, and settled his mouth into a frown.
Gotou lived not far from the sea. It was close enough in the summer that he could hear the waves through the open window, even if his view was not unobstructed. “You’re awfully quiet,” Gotou said finally as he unlocked his small, Spartan apartment. “I haven’t decided if that’s a blessing or not, yet.”
As he wasn’t looking back at Masayoshi, Masayoshi had to tap his shoulder. Gotou glanced back at him, and Masayoshi pointed to his throat, mouthed the words: no voice.
Gotou stared at him.
“Did you sign away your voice to some sea witch for a pair of spindly legs?” Gotou asked.
Masayoshi kicked him.
#
Gotou had called his part-time job as Masayoshi held a pair of pants in front of himself, Gotou’s jacket still draped over his shoulders. He listened in without shame, still struggling into the foreign garment, as Gotou told a half-truth; a family member had turned up unexpectedly and he had to take care of him, he’d be unable to make it tomorrow, he would come in extra early after the holiday to make up for it. Masayoshi puffed out his cheeks in disappointment as Gotou hung up his call, and Gotou looked at him then did a double take. “Don’t look at me like that,” he said, pointing his cell phone at Masayoshi. “This is your fault.”
After being urged to dress in more of Gotou’s clothes (more things that smelled like him! Masayoshi beamed beatifically) and sat in front of a low table, Gotou undressed and fetched himself a beer. Masayoshi enjoyed watching him move around; land creatures had their own peculiar grace. He would work hard to emulate it.
“So,” Gotou said. “If no sea witch, why no voice?”
Masayoshi cocked his head, then started gesturing with his hands. Gotou held up his hand, palm out. “Wait, wait,” he said. “I’ll get some paper.”
He didn’t question how Masayoshi knew how to write, even if he didn’t know kanji. Masayoshi wrote out the short form. It was an exchange, I’ll get my voice back when I go back to the ocean.
“Okay,” Gotou said. “I’m glad to hear there’s a ‘when’ in there and not an 'if’, but … why your voice?”
Masayoshi thought hard, then wrote his answer on the notepad. She was worried I’d seduce people.
Gotou stared at the notepad, stared at Masayoshi, and then busted out into the loudest laughter Masayoshi had ever heard from him. Masayoshi blinked, eyes wide, and watched as Gotou laid his head on his arm, still laughing, palm smacking his thigh. “S-seduce people,” Gotou wheezed through his laughter.
Masayoshi blinked, then frowned. He wrote something quickly and scribbled it out again before Gotou could see the words. He settled on a different set of words. You’re mean.
#
Gotou had met Masayoshi by accident, throwing rocks into the sea in a rare fit of pique. It had been a long day, that day; and Gotou had pitched the rocks as far as they could go, burning off steam. No swimmers came out here, the water was too choppy, too dark, so the last thing he’d expected was a yelp of pain, followed by a tow-headed young man popping his shoulders out of the water and yelling at Gotou for littering in his ocean.
Thus began a peculiar friendship, of land-dweller and mermaid. Gotou started to spend a lot of time down by the sea, or off on an old abandoned fishing pier. The two loners hit it off.
But, Gotou thought as he sat at the window, cracked slightly to let the smoke from his cigarette escape, he hadn’t expected to encounter Masayoshi away from the sea; never mind naked (and fully formed as human, his eyes had darted to look despite himself), and still unsteady like a newborn foal. He sighed, exhaled smoke and watched it drift out and away.
Masayoshi was sitting at the low table, his elbows on it, chin in his hands and eyes wide as he watched the television. He liked it when Gotou brought him shows, on a tablet he took care to try not to drip on but here he was able to watch live television and even the commercials captivated him. Gotou smiled despite himself.
“Masayoshi,” Gotou said, and after a long moment he tore his gaze away from the television, head cocked as he looked over at Gotou, eyes wide and shimmering in the dim light. “What are you doing here, really?”
He opened his mouth to respond before he remembered that no sound came forth, and touched his throat a moment. Then he smiled at Gotou, expression open and without guile. Gotou felt that strange fluttery feeling in his stomach again and looked away guiltily.
Masayoshi tapped his hand on the table and Gotou looked over at him, to see Masayoshi scribbling something on the pad of paper he’d given the mermaid. Masayoshi held up his picture of leaves clustered together, and Gotou stared at the drawing, then back to a clearly-pleased Masayoshi. “Leaves….?” he said, confused.
Masayoshi pouted, then lifted the pad and held it above his head, pursing his lips. Gotou got it now, mistletoe. “How do you even know about mistletoe?” he asked, putting his cigarette out in the small ash pouch he usually carried with him, and tucking it away. “That can’t possibly be a mermaid thing.” Masayoshi pointed at the television, which Gotou had been ignoring, and Gotou shook his head and sighed.
“Of course you heard it on TV,” he said. “That’s a Christmas thing.”
Masayoshi nodded his head animatedly, then touched his throat with two fingers, then touched his lips and looked at Gotou hopefully.
“You’ll … get your voice back, if I kiss you?” Gotou said carefully.
Masayoshi nodded excitedly.
Gotou stared at him. “That wouldn’t make us married, would it, Mr. Didn’t-say-anything-about-getting-engaged-over-a-fuckin’-shell?”
Masayoshi went full-on pout, big watery eyes and everything. After a full minute of this, Gotou finally caved. “Okay, fine,” he said, standing up from the bed. “One kiss. That’s it, you understand?”
The grin that split Masayoshi’s face was brighter than any other illumination in the room. Gotou couldn’t help but smile back, it was that contagious, and Masayoshi hopped to his feet, the pad of paper dropped on the table. “So, uh,” Gotou said, suddenly a little nervous … as a human, Masayoshi was just a little taller than he himself was. It felt different, worlds different, them facing each other like this, Masayoshi’s eyes bright and clear and still, the color of the ocean.
He didn’t think about it. Gotou slipped his hand up, touched Masayoshi’s cheek – his skin warm and soft and dry, he’d never touched him before save fresh out of the water – and Masayoshi wet his lips, eyes flickering between Gotou’s lips and his eyes. It was strangely natural, the rhythm in which they moved together, tugging and yielding, and suddenly Masayoshi’s mouth was against Gotou’s own, soft and warm and just a hint of salt, to remind him of the sea.
Gotou blinked his eyes, broke out of his own reverie, took his head back, brow furrowed. Masayoshi didn’t open his eyes, made a soft, wordless noise of loss at Gotou’s mouth being gone. “Well?” Gotou said, trying to keep his breathing normal, to keep his chest from heaving.
Masayoshi touched his throat, and shrugged.
Gotou shoved him. “You lied,” he said, and Masayoshi held on to his arm, eyes wide and glimmering. He gestured frantically with one hand, but as Gotou was not fluent in mermaid charades he had no clue what Masayoshi was trying to say.
“Pad,” he said, pointing at Masayoshi’s writing pad.
Masayoshi huffed, then dropped into a seating position, scribbling out a response in shaky kana lettering. It was worth a shot!
Gotou crossed his arms, resisted the urge to sigh because yeah, Masayoshi did have a point there; and he didn’t realize how much he missed the sound of his voice until it was gone like this. However, Masayoshi’s next scribble was; can we try again?
“I’m going to bed,” Gotou said gruffly, turning his back on Masayoshi, and missing the scrawled, great, me too!
#
Gotou stared across the pillow at Masayoshi, who had his eyes half-closed, practically vibrating in excitement. “This means nothing,” Gotou said firmly. “I don’t have a guest futon and I’m not making you sleep on the floor, that’s all this is, you understand?” Masayoshi nodded his head sharply, too excited to bother with even his writing pad.
He wanted, suddenly, to reach out and brush his hand through Masayoshi’s hair, to settle his hand against the back of Masayoshi’s head and yank him close. Gotou resisted both of those urges with a closed-mouth grimace, and rolled over. “Good night, Masayoshi,” he said gruffly.
He didn’t flinch when Masayoshi draped his arm over Gotou’s side and buried his face against the back of Gotou’s neck. Instead he sighed, and closed his eyes.
It took a while to fall asleep.
#
“Gotou-san, Gotou-san,” Masayoshi’s voice was insistent. Gotou opened his eyes blearily, rolled a little onto his back. Masayoshi was sitting up on his arms in the bed beside him, looking a little wrung-out. “Wake-up.”
“I’m up, I’m up,” Gotou said, although the pull on his eyelids was strong enough that he wanted to sink right back to sleep. “What is…” His voice trailed off as he woke up enough to register the fact that Masayoshi was using his voice. “Wait, it worked? My kissing you … Worked?”
Masayoshi looked sheepish, if anything. “Kinda,” he said, lying on his stomach in the sheets, Gotou’s shirt just the right size on him. Gotou rubbed his hands over his face.
“I don’t like that ‘kinda’,” he said. He moved to sit up, and realized that the heavy weight keeping him down was Masayoshi lying across him. “You weigh a ton, get off me!”
Masayoshi looked at him, then shifted - and the entire top sheet moved, as out the far end appeared a translucent red tail-fin. Gotou stared. He lifted the top sheet and looked down along them to see Masayoshi’s powerful red tail, curled a bit and still long enough to spill over the edge of the bed. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
#
Masayoshi folded his arms over the side of the bathtub and sighed in relief. He barely fit in the tub, his tail looped out over the side but enough of him was submerged that he no longer felt dried-out. “I don’t like being dry,” he said, as Gotou dropped a damp washcloth atop his head. “It’s not natural, I don’t know how you stand it.”
“Says the mermaid,” Gotou muttered. He crossed his arms and sighed, looking down at Masayoshi lounging in his bathtub. “You know, this is not how I envisioned my Christmas Eve going.”
Masayoshi blinked up at him innocently. “How was it supposed to go?”
Gotou hesitated and Masayoshi noticed, watched him turn the answer over in his mind before responding. “I was supposed to go out on a romantic date, but now I guess I’m stuck here with you.”
“I can be a romantic date, Gotou-san!” Masayoshi pushed himself upright and water slopped all around the tub. “If you kiss me again, I bet my legs will come back and we can still go out on your date!”
“One,” Gotou said, holding up one finger, “I’ve had enough mermaid magic for the day, thank you, my bed is full of mermaid scales and smells like fish. And two,” he held up a second finger. “Don’t assume the date was with you, I didn’t even know legs were a possibility until yesterday.”
“Then who are you going on a date with?” Masayoshi asked, all earnest innocence.
More hesitation, then Gotou’s expression seemed to soften about the edges. “Don’t worry about it,” he said instead, and surprisingly put his hand gently on Masayoshi’s head. He blinked up at Gotou, who didn’t seem to realize how tenderly he was touching Masayoshi.
Abruptly, Gotou shifted and took a step back. “I’ve got to go buy some food,” he said. “What do mermaids eat, anyway?”
Fandom: Samurai Flamenco
AU: Mermaid
Characters/Pairing: Gotou/Masayoshi
Rating: T
Length: 2633
Summary: “You know,” Gotou Hidenori said with an exaggerated sigh, “you need to warn me if you’re going to do this. You’re lucky I was nearby, if anyone else had found you wandering around naked you’d be locked up right now.”
Hazama Masayoshi, prince of an underwater kingdom of mermaids, had been granted legs with which to explore the world above the water. It was a gift given to him by his friend, the sea witch Moe; with the caveat that he exchange his voice for the ability when he emerged from the waves. After all, he had siren in his blood and even as a human that would grant him the ability to control the weak-minded. It was a fair exchange, he thought, sitting naked in the surf, even if he had no idea how he’d find his betrothed without words.
As luck would have it, he wouldn’t have to go far.
“You know,” Gotou Hidenori said with an exaggerated sigh, “you need to warn me if you’re going to do this. You’re lucky I was nearby, if anyone else had found you wandering around naked you’d be locked up right now.”
Masayoshi cinched Gotou’s coat tighter around himself and beamed happily as he followed his beloved on shaky, uncertain legs. It took some time to get used to this, strange hard ground beneath newly-formed feet, and he always stepped careful and deliberate, bare feet banging solidly against the cold terrain. Gotou led, and he occasionally glanced over his shoulder at Masayoshi, brow furrowed.
Gotou didn’t really understand, what he was to the prince. Masayoshi knew he didn’t understand, but that was okay; he was here to express that. Masayoshi rubbed his nose with his free hand, delighted that he smelled a little bit like Gotou just by wearing his coat.
It was cold, out of the water. The sea had its seasons as well, he knew winter … but the chill that settled on him wasn’t anything he was used to. He opened his mouth to speak, remembered in annoyance when no words came, and settled his mouth into a frown.
Gotou lived not far from the sea. It was close enough in the summer that he could hear the waves through the open window, even if his view was not unobstructed. “You’re awfully quiet,” Gotou said finally as he unlocked his small, Spartan apartment. “I haven’t decided if that’s a blessing or not, yet.”
As he wasn’t looking back at Masayoshi, Masayoshi had to tap his shoulder. Gotou glanced back at him, and Masayoshi pointed to his throat, mouthed the words: no voice.
Gotou stared at him.
“Did you sign away your voice to some sea witch for a pair of spindly legs?” Gotou asked.
Masayoshi kicked him.
Gotou had called his part-time job as Masayoshi held a pair of pants in front of himself, Gotou’s jacket still draped over his shoulders. He listened in without shame, still struggling into the foreign garment, as Gotou told a half-truth; a family member had turned up unexpectedly and he had to take care of him, he’d be unable to make it tomorrow, he would come in extra early after the holiday to make up for it. Masayoshi puffed out his cheeks in disappointment as Gotou hung up his call, and Gotou looked at him then did a double take. “Don’t look at me like that,” he said, pointing his cell phone at Masayoshi. “This is your fault.”
After being urged to dress in more of Gotou’s clothes (more things that smelled like him! Masayoshi beamed beatifically) and sat in front of a low table, Gotou undressed and fetched himself a beer. Masayoshi enjoyed watching him move around; land creatures had their own peculiar grace. He would work hard to emulate it.
“So,” Gotou said. “If no sea witch, why no voice?”
Masayoshi cocked his head, then started gesturing with his hands. Gotou held up his hand, palm out. “Wait, wait,” he said. “I’ll get some paper.”
He didn’t question how Masayoshi knew how to write, even if he didn’t know kanji. Masayoshi wrote out the short form. It was an exchange, I’ll get my voice back when I go back to the ocean.
“Okay,” Gotou said. “I’m glad to hear there’s a ‘when’ in there and not an 'if’, but … why your voice?”
Masayoshi thought hard, then wrote his answer on the notepad. She was worried I’d seduce people.
Gotou stared at the notepad, stared at Masayoshi, and then busted out into the loudest laughter Masayoshi had ever heard from him. Masayoshi blinked, eyes wide, and watched as Gotou laid his head on his arm, still laughing, palm smacking his thigh. “S-seduce people,” Gotou wheezed through his laughter.
Masayoshi blinked, then frowned. He wrote something quickly and scribbled it out again before Gotou could see the words. He settled on a different set of words. You’re mean.
Gotou had met Masayoshi by accident, throwing rocks into the sea in a rare fit of pique. It had been a long day, that day; and Gotou had pitched the rocks as far as they could go, burning off steam. No swimmers came out here, the water was too choppy, too dark, so the last thing he’d expected was a yelp of pain, followed by a tow-headed young man popping his shoulders out of the water and yelling at Gotou for littering in his ocean.
Thus began a peculiar friendship, of land-dweller and mermaid. Gotou started to spend a lot of time down by the sea, or off on an old abandoned fishing pier. The two loners hit it off.
But, Gotou thought as he sat at the window, cracked slightly to let the smoke from his cigarette escape, he hadn’t expected to encounter Masayoshi away from the sea; never mind naked (and fully formed as human, his eyes had darted to look despite himself), and still unsteady like a newborn foal. He sighed, exhaled smoke and watched it drift out and away.
Masayoshi was sitting at the low table, his elbows on it, chin in his hands and eyes wide as he watched the television. He liked it when Gotou brought him shows, on a tablet he took care to try not to drip on but here he was able to watch live television and even the commercials captivated him. Gotou smiled despite himself.
“Masayoshi,” Gotou said, and after a long moment he tore his gaze away from the television, head cocked as he looked over at Gotou, eyes wide and shimmering in the dim light. “What are you doing here, really?”
He opened his mouth to respond before he remembered that no sound came forth, and touched his throat a moment. Then he smiled at Gotou, expression open and without guile. Gotou felt that strange fluttery feeling in his stomach again and looked away guiltily.
Masayoshi tapped his hand on the table and Gotou looked over at him, to see Masayoshi scribbling something on the pad of paper he’d given the mermaid. Masayoshi held up his picture of leaves clustered together, and Gotou stared at the drawing, then back to a clearly-pleased Masayoshi. “Leaves….?” he said, confused.
Masayoshi pouted, then lifted the pad and held it above his head, pursing his lips. Gotou got it now, mistletoe. “How do you even know about mistletoe?” he asked, putting his cigarette out in the small ash pouch he usually carried with him, and tucking it away. “That can’t possibly be a mermaid thing.” Masayoshi pointed at the television, which Gotou had been ignoring, and Gotou shook his head and sighed.
“Of course you heard it on TV,” he said. “That’s a Christmas thing.”
Masayoshi nodded his head animatedly, then touched his throat with two fingers, then touched his lips and looked at Gotou hopefully.
“You’ll … get your voice back, if I kiss you?” Gotou said carefully.
Masayoshi nodded excitedly.
Gotou stared at him. “That wouldn’t make us married, would it, Mr. Didn’t-say-anything-about-getting-engaged-over-a-fuckin’-shell?”
Masayoshi went full-on pout, big watery eyes and everything. After a full minute of this, Gotou finally caved. “Okay, fine,” he said, standing up from the bed. “One kiss. That’s it, you understand?”
The grin that split Masayoshi’s face was brighter than any other illumination in the room. Gotou couldn’t help but smile back, it was that contagious, and Masayoshi hopped to his feet, the pad of paper dropped on the table. “So, uh,” Gotou said, suddenly a little nervous … as a human, Masayoshi was just a little taller than he himself was. It felt different, worlds different, them facing each other like this, Masayoshi’s eyes bright and clear and still, the color of the ocean.
He didn’t think about it. Gotou slipped his hand up, touched Masayoshi’s cheek – his skin warm and soft and dry, he’d never touched him before save fresh out of the water – and Masayoshi wet his lips, eyes flickering between Gotou’s lips and his eyes. It was strangely natural, the rhythm in which they moved together, tugging and yielding, and suddenly Masayoshi’s mouth was against Gotou’s own, soft and warm and just a hint of salt, to remind him of the sea.
Gotou blinked his eyes, broke out of his own reverie, took his head back, brow furrowed. Masayoshi didn’t open his eyes, made a soft, wordless noise of loss at Gotou’s mouth being gone. “Well?” Gotou said, trying to keep his breathing normal, to keep his chest from heaving.
Masayoshi touched his throat, and shrugged.
Gotou shoved him. “You lied,” he said, and Masayoshi held on to his arm, eyes wide and glimmering. He gestured frantically with one hand, but as Gotou was not fluent in mermaid charades he had no clue what Masayoshi was trying to say.
“Pad,” he said, pointing at Masayoshi’s writing pad.
Masayoshi huffed, then dropped into a seating position, scribbling out a response in shaky kana lettering. It was worth a shot!
Gotou crossed his arms, resisted the urge to sigh because yeah, Masayoshi did have a point there; and he didn’t realize how much he missed the sound of his voice until it was gone like this. However, Masayoshi’s next scribble was; can we try again?
“I’m going to bed,” Gotou said gruffly, turning his back on Masayoshi, and missing the scrawled, great, me too!
Gotou stared across the pillow at Masayoshi, who had his eyes half-closed, practically vibrating in excitement. “This means nothing,” Gotou said firmly. “I don’t have a guest futon and I’m not making you sleep on the floor, that’s all this is, you understand?” Masayoshi nodded his head sharply, too excited to bother with even his writing pad.
He wanted, suddenly, to reach out and brush his hand through Masayoshi’s hair, to settle his hand against the back of Masayoshi’s head and yank him close. Gotou resisted both of those urges with a closed-mouth grimace, and rolled over. “Good night, Masayoshi,” he said gruffly.
He didn’t flinch when Masayoshi draped his arm over Gotou’s side and buried his face against the back of Gotou’s neck. Instead he sighed, and closed his eyes.
It took a while to fall asleep.
“Gotou-san, Gotou-san,” Masayoshi’s voice was insistent. Gotou opened his eyes blearily, rolled a little onto his back. Masayoshi was sitting up on his arms in the bed beside him, looking a little wrung-out. “Wake-up.”
“I’m up, I’m up,” Gotou said, although the pull on his eyelids was strong enough that he wanted to sink right back to sleep. “What is…” His voice trailed off as he woke up enough to register the fact that Masayoshi was using his voice. “Wait, it worked? My kissing you … Worked?”
Masayoshi looked sheepish, if anything. “Kinda,” he said, lying on his stomach in the sheets, Gotou’s shirt just the right size on him. Gotou rubbed his hands over his face.
“I don’t like that ‘kinda’,” he said. He moved to sit up, and realized that the heavy weight keeping him down was Masayoshi lying across him. “You weigh a ton, get off me!”
Masayoshi looked at him, then shifted - and the entire top sheet moved, as out the far end appeared a translucent red tail-fin. Gotou stared. He lifted the top sheet and looked down along them to see Masayoshi’s powerful red tail, curled a bit and still long enough to spill over the edge of the bed. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
Masayoshi folded his arms over the side of the bathtub and sighed in relief. He barely fit in the tub, his tail looped out over the side but enough of him was submerged that he no longer felt dried-out. “I don’t like being dry,” he said, as Gotou dropped a damp washcloth atop his head. “It’s not natural, I don’t know how you stand it.”
“Says the mermaid,” Gotou muttered. He crossed his arms and sighed, looking down at Masayoshi lounging in his bathtub. “You know, this is not how I envisioned my Christmas Eve going.”
Masayoshi blinked up at him innocently. “How was it supposed to go?”
Gotou hesitated and Masayoshi noticed, watched him turn the answer over in his mind before responding. “I was supposed to go out on a romantic date, but now I guess I’m stuck here with you.”
“I can be a romantic date, Gotou-san!” Masayoshi pushed himself upright and water slopped all around the tub. “If you kiss me again, I bet my legs will come back and we can still go out on your date!”
“One,” Gotou said, holding up one finger, “I’ve had enough mermaid magic for the day, thank you, my bed is full of mermaid scales and smells like fish. And two,” he held up a second finger. “Don’t assume the date was with you, I didn’t even know legs were a possibility until yesterday.”
“Then who are you going on a date with?” Masayoshi asked, all earnest innocence.
More hesitation, then Gotou’s expression seemed to soften about the edges. “Don’t worry about it,” he said instead, and surprisingly put his hand gently on Masayoshi’s head. He blinked up at Gotou, who didn’t seem to realize how tenderly he was touching Masayoshi.
Abruptly, Gotou shifted and took a step back. “I’ve got to go buy some food,” he said. “What do mermaids eat, anyway?”
