Stranger Things and Vore

Chrissy was a little mouse borrower who was just now moving into a new house, having to flee her previous home because of an ill-tempered human spotting her. This home wasn’t too far from her previous one, and from what she knew, there was only one human living here. It made for less crumbs and things to borrow, but it also made for less opportunities for someone to spot her, as well as less chances for someone to notice something missing.

In her opinion, one or two humans was perfect. She did like to watch them, but that didn’t mean she wanted to interact with them exactly. Humans are scary. They could catch her and crush her, drown her, do whatever horrible things they wanted to her. Yeah, she’d rather stay away.

She carried her little bag of things into the home, quickly scurrying about in order to find a place to build her new nest. Soon enough, she finds a little nook in the wall, close enough to the kitchen that she could borrow crumbs easily, yet tucked far enough away that it would be hard for the human to find her.

She opens up her bag, one that was made out of a child’s mitten that she used as a bed in her previous home. Out of it, she brings her favorite little trinkets, an extra needle if anything were to happen to the one on her waist, some string, paperclips, and the last bit of food she had saved up from her last home. The little mouse started putting everything where she wanted it, laying out her mitten bed, placing her trinkets on the other side of the little makeshift room along with her needle, the food in a little bundle underneath the mitten, and her borrowing supplies next to her bed.

It was almost day and Chrissy, along with most borrowers, was mostly nocturnal. She lay down on her little mitten bed, snuggling into the soft, familiar fabric and started to doze off, thinking about how she’d scope out and make routes to places when she woke up.

*

Chrissy yawned and stretched, waking from her long sleep and looking around, taking in her surroundings. It wasn’t nearly as decorated as her previous dwelling, but she could fix that in time. It made her sad to have to leave her old home but she’d rather not be killed.

The borrower got up, shaking the sleepiness off of her before slipping her trusty needle into the sash sewn into her dress. She took out some of her food, munching on a bit before putting the rest back under her mitten bed. She grabbed her borrowing bag as well as the string and paperclip, ready to start traversing the house.

She stepped outside her burrow, looking around before making her way through the wood structure in the walls, looking for little holes that might already be made, hopefully in convenient enough spots.

Turns out the borrower was pretty lucky. Either that, or another borrower had previously lived in the home and made their own holes, though she didn’t think so because it wasn’t very easy getting to them. Multiple times she had to use her string and paperclip to climb, her having bent the metal into a hook-like shape to more easily secure onto things. She found one hole behind the stove that led onto the kitchen counter, and another one closer to the fridge. Those would be extremely useful in gathering food.

Having scoped out the kitchen, she decided to explore other places in the house. There were two holes in the living room walls, one in the hallway, none in the bathroom, one in the bedroom, and one leading to an empty room that looked like the size of another bedroom. All in very convenient spots, if only it was easier to access them. She would have to fix that. She also lucked out in the fact that the human who lived here didn’t have any pets! No clawing cats or barking dogs to worry about. The only problem was the mice. She could definitely tell there were signs of mice, but generally speaking, mice and borrowers were indifferent towards one another, unless they were fighting over food.

The borrower was a bit tired from exploring, so she figured she’d gather some food in the kitchen before returning home for the day so she could sleep. She climbed through the walls, scrabbling away at the wood and drywall until she was where she knew the kitchen was. Now she just had to get up from the ground level. She hopped up onto a piece of wood, jumping to another before she couldn’t anymore. The next piece was too high up, though she could see the hole from where she was.

Chrissy took out her string and hook, swinging it around a couple times, aiming for the little hole in the wall before throwing it. Not high enough. She groaned, pulling it back in and trying again, this time throwing with all her might, letting out a little cheer when it sailed through the hole. Now for the real test. She started to tug on it, face lighting up when she managed to snag it in the side of the opening, a strong enough hold for her to climb.

She made her way up the wall, using the string to pull herself, going up and up until she reached the counter, heaving herself up onto it. She breathed heavily, just sitting for a moment as she pulled the string back up. The mouse got up, looking around and trying to spot something to eat. In the corner, she saw something that made her mouth water. It was a plate of cupcakes, plenty of crumbs littering the ground underneath them. Humans would never notice those!

She quickly scurried over, opening her back and stuffing it full of cake crumbs, enough to last her a good few days. Once her bag was full, she picked some of them up and ate them right there, squeaking happily at the taste. She was right in guessing that the pink cake meant it was strawberry flavored!

Once she’d had her fill, Chrissy made sure her bag was shut tight, then darted back to the stove, growling behind it and climbing around the wood, not having to use her hook as much because her nest was just a bit lower than the level of the countertop. She popped inside, finding all of her things right where she left them. Through her adventures of the night, she’d managed to collect some things other than food as well.

The mouse walked over to her bed, filling up her food bag before starting to pull little found things out of her borrowing bag, spreading them out so she could see. First was a stamp with a very pretty picture on it that she could use as a poster, then there was a big shiny flat disk she could use in unison with one of her other trinkets to create a table where she could eat off of, then a few buttons which she was sure she could find a use for, and an old earring she could add to her trinket collection. The stamp went up on the wall above her bed, the borrower admiring it before hopping onto the mitten, sighing happily. This would be a great home.

*

She spent the next few days, almost a week, out borrowing every night. She found more trinkets and things to decorate her home with, scoring big time when the human left out a bag full of things like paper scraps and shiny plastic pieces that were perfect to decorate with. She got a thimble to drink out of, some fake flowers and an abundance of other things to pretty up her nest.

She looked around it happily, loving the way it was coming along, and she’d only been here less than a week!

One odd thing she noticed was that she hadn’t run into any mice. Normally, that’d be a good thing, but she didn’t even know their territories yet or anything, so she’d assumed a run-in or two were bound to happen, especially with all the signs she’d seen. Oh well. Just count herself lucky and wait for the day it does inevitably happen.

Her life was good in this new house so far. The human was usually out during the day and sleeping at night, there were plenty of crumbs and pieces of food left out, there was no sign of any danger aside from what usually came from being a borrower, and there were plenty of things to borrow that the human wouldn’t miss.

Chrissy was just settling down, and though she didn’t know it, her next borrowing trip would end in disaster.

*

Billy was a naga. He was a teeny tiny, itty bitty little naga living inside a human’s house. He decided to pick this one because they didn’t seem to notice a whole lot, and they had a mouse problem. Honestly it was a win-win for both of them. They wouldn’t have to deal with pesky mice all over their home, and he got an easy meal once a week.

He slithered through the walls, forked tongue slipping in and out, smelling his surroundings. Over the past week, he could tell something wasn’t quite right. It was the usual smell of mice, but there was something… different. Another scent caught his attention, something he’d never smelled before. It was almost like a mouse, but it also had a bit of a human-like smell to it. The snake man was determined to find the source.

He followed where it went, looking for where it was the strongest. Soon enough, he caught a strong whiff, immediately twisting his body around to where it was coming from. He slithered on, tongue flicking in and out, in and out as he used it to find the source.

There. He was close. So close to the creature, closer than he’d ever been. He just had to turn this corner and… oh. Billy paused as his piercing blue eyes met another pair of paler ones of the same color. Both widened, his in shock and curiosity, hers in pure terror.

It was a little mouse girl. Someone the same size as him, no, someone even smaller than he was. He didn’t know little mouse people existed! Let alone that he’d live in the same house as one. His tongue flicked out curiously, gathering the scent in the air. He could smell fear, mouse-smell, and then there was that other thing. That not quite human-y smell that mixed with the mouse scent. It was her.

Chrissy was on the verge of having a heart attack. There she was, missing her own business, just another routine borrowing trip when a man came whipping around the corner. She yelped a bit in shock, thinking it was just another borrower, but her shock quickly morphed into terror when she saw the rest of his body.

Suddenly it all made sense. The conveniently placed holes that may have been hard for her to get to, but not if you were a snake. And then there was the next thing that made her heart sink. The mice. That was why she could see traces of mice but hadn’t seen any yet. He was… he was eating them. Of course he was, he was a snake. She didn’t even know there were little snake people, but it was just her luck to run into one, right? One who had a taste for mice.

She backed up, eyes still wide in terror. Her breathing was heavy, and she was trying to look anywhere other than those eyes. Those piercing ocean blue eyes that would surely glue her in place if she met them again. The end of his tail twitched, and her face paled when she saw the rattle on the end. So he was venomous. At least she’d be killed quickly instead of being crushed to death in his coils.

He seemed to snap out of his initial shock, starting towards her which caused her to turn and run, bolting down the wooden beam, careful not to lose her footing as she escaped her predator. She heard a surprised hiss behind her, then the sound of scales slithering against wood as he gave chase.

“Hey, wait!”

He called out but she ignored him, knowing it must be a trick. What else would a snake want with a mouse other than to eat it?

She hears a frustrated groan behind her, and tears start to leak out of her eyes as she can feel him getting closer. She tries to put on a burst of speed, but honestly she doesn’t know where she could possibly go. Anywhere she could fit he could as well, and if she went to her nest it’d only corner her.

“Leave me alone!” She shrieks, trying in a desperate attempt to reason with him.

Turns out it didn’t really matter as she felt a hand grasp her tail, the little mouse letting out a squeak as she’s stopped, trying to wriggle out but to no avail. She turns around, tears flowing from her eyes as she stared at the snake in fear. A clawed hand still grips her tail, but he doesn’t look… malicious. He looks almost curious, like he’s never seen anything like her before, and maybe he hasn’t.

“Please let me go.” She says in a small voice, but instead he slithers closer, causing the girl to shiver.

“You sound like a mouse.” He says, slowly slithering around her.

His coils wrap a loose circle around her frame, just barely touching her, but it’s enough to make her shutter. She doesn’t know what he wants, but she’s just hoping, praying, it’s not to eat her. Her pupils are shrunk down to little pinpoints as his tongue flicks out in her direction, a contemplative look on the man’s face.

“You kind of smell like a mouse. A little different though.”

“T-that’s because I’m not a mouse.” She says quietly. He looks up at her.

“I know you’re not a mouse. You’re like me, but instead of being a snake… you’re more like a mouse.”

“Yeah… I guess so. Um… does that mean you’re not going to eat me?” She asks hopefully.

“Hm… I dunno yet. I don’t wanna hurt you though.”

“But surely eating me would hurt. You know that, right?”

“I wouldn’t bite you.”

She can feel him wrap around her more, whimpering as his coils travel farther up. She tries to squirm, to push them away but they get tighter, squeezing her in warning.

“Ah, ah, ah little mouse. None of that.”

“Please…”

“I’m not gonna hurt you.”

He can repeat it as much as he wants, but there’s no way she’d believe it. He’d just told her he might eat her, and she’s pretty sure that’d hurt.

“Eating me would…”

“Not if I don’t bite you. I could just swallow you alive. Then you’d be okay.”

Her heart sinks, face pales and she tries to squirm. It’s only met with a light tightening. Nothing that would hurt, but it’s clearly a warning. ‘Don’t struggle any harder, or I’ll squeeze tighter.’ She whines in fear, looking over the snake. It really doesn’t seem like he wants to hurt her. He looks more curious than anything, and she wants to give him the benefit of the doubt, but she really does not want to be eaten alive.

“I- um… even if you do that, won’t I.. you know…” she trails off, not wanting to say it.

“No. You won’t get hurt, little mouse. I’m just going to keep you nice and safe. My cute little mousie.”

He smiles, and it’s almost endearing if not for the two huge fangs on display, right alongside the rest of his sharp teeth. And that’s ignoring the fact that she’s pretty sure he’s about to eat her.

She feels his tail slither up around her shoulders, and her eyes squeeze shut, tears coming out the sides of them. There’s a gentle touch on her cheeks, and she dares open her eyes, looking out at the face right in front of her. She feels his hand come up under her eye, wiping away the tears, then it moves to the next side, wiping those too.

“What are you…”

“Don’t cry, little mousie. I’m gonna keep you nice and safe.”

She looks up confused until her expression morphs into horror as she sees the jaws part above her.

“No, no, no, no!”

She squeaks in terror, squirming against the coils but it doesn’t seem to help. They just tighten up around her, not letting the borrower squirm, but not exerting enough pressure to actually hurt her.

It doesn’t matter what his tail is doing though, because his mouth is coming down around her head, enveloping her entire face, ears pinned to the top of her head and eyes squeezing shut as she’s forced into the maw. His tongue slithers around her face, licking over every inch as he lets out a pleased hum, the sound echoing around her. Her eyes open just in time to see the throat opening up, and she lets out a squeak as he swallows, sending her head down into him.

It goes on like this for a few minutes, the snake licking over every inch of what was in his mouth before swallowing and repeating the process. All the while he lets out pleased hums, clearly enjoying her flavor as he gulps her down. The muscles are tight as they massage her body, relentlessly pushing on her and sending her deeper and deeper into him. Eventually her head is forced through a tighter ring of muscle, and she can only guess the slightly roomier portion she’s being deposited into is his stomach. Only her feet remain exposed to the cold air now, and those are easily worked into his mouth and down his throat with one last swallow.

She lets out a quiet whimper as the strong internal muscles squeeze her farther into his belly, eventually her whole body being pushed inside. She lays spread out in the chamber, shivering as she hears the gurgles and groans around her, walls pressing in a bit on their new occupant. His heartbeat is fast, and his breathing is slowing down now that he’s got her all the way down.

She feels a soft pressure on the outside, squishing a bit of the stomach against her and she squeaks. His voice is clear around her as he speaks.

“You tasted even better than a mouse. Got you all to myself, gonna keep you safe.” He says, speaking directly to her.

The first comment makes her shudder, and the next part of what he says might’ve almost been sweet if he hadn’t just swallowed her alive.

She’s too afraid to say anything at the moment, and she feels him start to move, soothing off to who knows where. Probably going back home so he can just sleep, let his stomach do all the work. Oh god, she didn’t want to die. The little borrower weeps silently, feeling every little twist and turn her captor makes as he makes his way through the walls.

Eventually he stops, coiling up on top of himself, and by proxy her, causing the stomach to squish all around her, squeezing her frame.

Please… please let me out. I don’t wanna be food.” Her voice is so quiet, she wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t even hear.

Billy does hear, however, and he deflates a bit. It felt so nice getting the little mouse in his belly, loving the way she filled it up all the way, and the fact that he got to protect her in the process. It seemed she didn’t feel the same way, though.

“You’re not food… you’re safe. I’m keeping you safe. Nothin’s gonna get you.”

“You got me…” she says, voice still barely above a whisper.

He frowns, upset by her words. He didn’t… get her. He wasn’t gonna hurt her, but she didn’t seem to know that.

“No… I’m not hurting you.

“You are hurting me. I’m gonna die in here. Please don’t let me die in here…”

“You’re not gonna… I told you it was safe. I would never hurt a cute little thing like you.” He says, trying his best to comfort her.

“Then why would you eat me?”

“I told you it was to keep you safe. I wanted to keep you safe.”

“But… how is this safe?”

He sounds genuinely upset, something that wouldn’t come from a ruthless predator that just wanted a meal. It seemed that either it really was safe, or he didn’t realize he was hurting her, but he didn’t seem to want to.

“I can’t hurt you if you’re alive.”

“What?”

He sighs.

“My stomach can’t digest living things, so you’re okay. You’re not food.”

“Oh.”

They’re both silent for a bit, thinking over what the other had said. Billy feels bad for the little mousie. He hadn’t meant to hurt her feelings, or make her feel like she was in danger. He only wanted to protect the cute little mouse.

“I’m sorry, I only wanted to protect you.”

“…why?”

“I just- I saw you, and you were like me, but you were small, and cute. I wanted to make sure nothing could hurt you.”

“Oh.”

It’s silent for a few moments before she speaks back up again.

“What’s your name?”

Billy blinks, looking down at his belly. He didn’t expect that from her, thinking she’d still be afraid and unbelieving.

“Uhm… Billy.”

“Billy. Seems like it fits you. My name’s Chrissy.”

“Chrissy… that’s nice. Are you still afraid? I promise I’m really not gonna hurt you.”

“I’m… still nervous but… you said you weren’t gonna hurt me, and I like to see the best in people.”

Her words make Billy feel happy, the warmth of her filling his stomach and seeping into his veins, traveling throughout the rest of his body. He sighs, curling up a bit tighter with her in his belly, eyes getting a bit heavy.

“M’ not. Just gonna keep you safe. My mousie. My Chrissy.”

“Oh.” She says, voice full of surprise, not having expected that from the snake. “Um… your Chrissy?”

“Mhm. Mine. Gonna keep you safe~”

“Oh. Uhm… okay. When do you plan on letting me out?”

He grumbles sleepily a bit at that, but answers her anyway.

“M’ gonna let you out after a little nap. That okay?”

She can tell how tired he already is, and she doesn’t think he’d even be able to spit her out at this point. She looks around as best she can, feeling the folds of the stomach around her, rubbing a hand up against them. She’s startled when she hears and feels a deep rumble, clearly coming from the snake. He also seems to slump a bit, squishing Chrissy even more.

“Um… Billy?” She asks a bit worriedly.

“M’ okay. That just… feels nice.” He says with a sigh, completely blissed out.

“Oh! Okay… um, that’s nice.” She keeps it up, smiling as the rumble deepens.

“M’ gonna fall asleep.”

“That’s okay. You were gonna anyway.”

“Mhm.”

Billy settles down, happy with the warmth and weight inside of him, slowly drifting off the sleep.

Chrissy stops her rubbing, yawning herself and stretching out as best she can in the tight belly. It’s actually not so bad when she thinks about it. It’s warm and soft, the gurgles and the heartbeat creating background noise for her to listen to, helping make her sleepy. Nothing had happened to her yet, and even though she’d just met Billy, he seemed like someone she could trust. She makes herself comfortable, falling asleep within the snake.

*

By the time Chrissy wakes up, she immediately notices that she’s out of the stomach. She seems to have been dried off and placed in a rather large nest made up of little fabric pieces and ripped up tissues, really anything soft. This must be where Billy lives, though the snake is nowhere to be seen.

“Billy?” She calls out.

She knows she could escape, just leave but then he’s slithering through the entrance, a little bag full of food crumbs in his arms. She noticed a little bulge in his tail as well. It’s not as big as her but he clearly had something to eat.

She shakes it off, giving him a smile as she sees the crumbs.

“What’s that?” She asks.

“These are for you. I don’t know what you eat, so I got you some of whatever I could find.”

“Oh?”

She takes a look at what he has, accepting the little bag to see little bits of popcorn and a big piece of fruit. She smiles back up at him.

“These are perfect. Thank you Billy.”

He seems to smile at that, happy that he provided for his little mouse. He nods, slithering over to her, curling around her in his nest.

Chrissy starts to eat her popcorn, munching on her breakfast. It seemed Billy had already gotten his, so she just kept it up. She takes up the fruit, eating away at it, looking up at Billy as he watches her with a smile.

“You wanna try some?”

He looks a bit surprised, but takes the piece of offered popcorn, looking from it to Chrissy and back again. She nods in encouragement so he takes a little nibble, tasting the popcorn on his tongue. Not bad. He eats the rest of the piece, looking back down at Chrissy.

“Not bad, little mouse. I already had my breakfast though.” He says.

“Yeah.”

She finishes her breakfast and they talk. Talk about each other, talk about life, talk about their experiences. Chrissy sees that the snake isn’t so bad, just… lonely. She’s been alone for a long time too, and it’s actually nice to have a friend. She has a feeling this is going to be the start of something great.

Eddie spotted the boat on the horizon, a small thing, maybe for one or two humans. He hoped it was only one. Two was a pain to deal with, and he wasn’t that hungry anyways.

He started up his song, singing a sweet, low melody, the one he always sang it always worked, so why change it? He sang and sang, watching the boat, willing it to come closer with his voice. But it wasn’t. The boat just sat there on the horizon, unmoving. His face contorted in confusion and he stopped. Maybe they couldn’t hear him? He swam closer, tail cutting through the water as he approached the ship.

He popped his head back up out of the water. Now he would definitely be close enough. He started singing again, waiting for the boat to change direction, putting his whole voice into his performance. It wasn’t coming. He frowned, still singing as he swam even closer, getting up close to the boat. Was it abandoned? He sure hoped not. He at least wanted a meal.

The closer he swam, the more he could make out the figure on the boat, tied to the mast and struggling. He clearly wanted to hear the song, to experience it but without falling victim to him. He’d seen people do it before, but they always had others with them. This one was alone. Not very smart in his opinion. Because he could stop singing and as soon as those ropes were undone he’d start up again, luring the man to his doom.

Eddie approaches the side of the boat, looking up at his prey. His eyes widened and lit up with a spark. Damn, this guy was pretty. He gazed at him as he sang, muscles straining against the ropes that held him, trying his best to get to Eddie. He didn’t really have a choice at the moment, his mind only wanting to follow the song. His arms flexed against the ropes, glistening in the sun as they sweat, trying to do what the brain was telling them. His eyes trailed up to his face. Brown eyes like his, though his pupils probably weren’t slit like his. His face was a nice shape, with big brown hair on top of his head.

He couldn’t eat this one. He was too damn pretty.

Eddie stops singing, watching as he snaps out of the hypnosis. He looks around, confused for a moment. He waits there a good ten minutes, just making sure there wouldn’t be anymore singing before undoing the ropes, getting out of his bindings and starting to do his usual things. He got to the steering, starting to get his boat ready to go when he spotted the head popping up out of the water. The man fell back, looking over the edge of the boat with wide eyes.

Whelp. He’s done for.

Eddie just watches him with a keen eye, his huge brown eyes never leaning his face. His lips split into a grin, looking up at the man. “Hey big boy~”

“Speechless are we~?” He swims closer, that grin still on his face as he lifts himself up onto the boat, elbows holding him on the edge. Steve’s eyes widen, falling over as he backs away from the creature that was surely out for his blood. He had to admit though, it was pretty….

Wait, what the hell was he thinking?! A beautiful creature or not, this thing was going to rip him to pieces! It was toying with him! He got up, reaching for a weapon when he paused. It was singing. His hand fell to his side and he looked over to the siren, walking over willingly, right up to it. It placed a hand on his cheek, looking up at him with a grin full of sharp, sharp teeth as it stopped. “None of that, big boy~”

Steve broke out of the song, looking into those big, beautiful brown eyes, slit pupils be damned. He didn’t try to break away, he knew there was no use. This thing had him since the moment he sailed into its domain. He put a hand on the one it had on his cheek, just looking into those eyes.

“You, uh, you’re gonna eat me, right?”

Eddie just smiled, taking in the sailor’s face.

“I was.”

He saw the spike of fear that made the man’s eyes widen and pupils shrink.

“But… now I’m thinking you’re far too pretty to eat~”

Steve released a breath as he looked at the siren, taking in its face. It looked sincere. Maybe it really wouldn’t eat him? But then why’d it try and lure him out… it said it was going to….

“N-no, I can’t be…”

The siren frowned. He didn’t want it to do that. “Why not?” It asked.

“Because you- you’re a siren… doesn’t that just make me a better meal?”

Eddie chuckled a bit, looking into his face, dragging sharp claws down his cheek.

“I wouldn’t want to ruin that beauty~”

Steve tensed at the sharp claws, eyes looking over to them. They weren’t hurting him though…. He looked back to the siren, the beautiful creature with big brown eyes like a doe, matching curls framing his soft looking face, and those soft lips.

“I- I,” he swallowed. “Okay… will you let me go?”

“Not quite yet.”

Eddie took in his face, a single claw moving to trace every little brown dot, smiling as he looked at them.

“These are pretty.”

He looked into his lighter brown eyes.

“And these.”

He looked up to his hair, feeling it with a hand, fluffy and light. Better than most humans he saw.

“And this… this is nice.” He said, gazing at the still terrified face.

Steve’s breath hitched as the siren’s claw wandered his face, shuddering at the touch. He let it, though. Doesn’t want to make a predator angry.

“You really are pretty, aren’t you big boy?”

There was that name again. It always called him that. He wasn’t sure why, it was surely bigger than him with the addition of its tail.

“I- I’m Steve.”

Damnit. Why the hell would he tell it his name? It just grinned at him once more. “Eddie.” Steve paused.

“What? No, my name-“

It cut him off with a laugh. “No, my name. It’s Eddie.” He giggled, covering his mouth with a clawed hand.

His cheeks heated up. “I- yeah, I knew that!”

Such a normal name for a creature like this? Eddie…

Eddie gazed into his eyes, tail swishing in the water below.

“So Steve, huh? Pretty name for such a pretty human~” He said, leaning in closer.

Steve instinctively backed up a bit, causing the siren to frown. He really didn’t like it when he frowned.

“Aww, big boy, are you really that scared?” He asked.

Of course he was scared. This was a predator known to drown and devour humans. So why was he so damn alluring? Why was he so beautiful yet terrifying? The mixture of danger and beauty somehow called to him. Both fear and delight, adrenaline pumping through his veins. He kind of liked it.

“It’s… you’re pretty too…” He knew his cheeks must be dusted pink.

“Oh? I am now, am I?” He asked with a grin. “But that’s all part of the trick, isn’t it? To lure you in with?”

That smile. “I don’t care.” He didn’t. If he wanted to eat him he could. He was right there, there was no way he could get away. Not with that song.

“You don’t?” He shook his head.

The siren leaned in farther, their lips almost touching. They looked so soft, and Steve wanted them. He didn’t care how stupid this was or even if it was a trick. He took the initiative, leaning in and smashing his own against Eddie’s, squeezing his eyes shut. The siren didn’t even flinch. He just leaned in, pushing against Steve’s lips as well, a clawed hand resting on the back of his neck, tips barely grazing the skin. It was dangerous. He loved it.

The siren pulled away and Steve almost whimpered, wanting more. He’d never wanted something more.

“There we are, pretty boy. I knew you’d come around~” he whispered against his lips. “You are tasty, but don’t worry, I won’t bite. Not unless you want me to.” He teased.

Steve’s face heat up, burning redder. He just leaned in again, pressing his lips to the siren’s, allowing him to press in more, kissing him deeply. He yelped as a pain exploded on his bottom lip, pulling away just a tad. He saw his blood on the siren’s tooth, a bit in his lips as well.

“Must’ve gotten you with one of my teeth, Hm?” He smiled, licking the blood from his lip and teeth. “Mmmh, delicious~”

Steve’s eyes widened and he flinched back a bit.

“Don’t worry, big boy, I’m not gonna gobble you up. Even if you are delicious.” He said, leaning in.

“Let me clean that up for you~” he added, licking the blood leaking from his lip, starting in his chin and working his way up until his lips met the human’s again, leaning in for yet another kiss.

They stayed like that for a while, until Steve finally pulled away. He was breathing heavily, looking up to the sky, then back down to the creature.

“It’s… getting dark. I should head home.”

The fins in the side of the siren’s head fell, and he looked up to Steve desperately. The man pulled away, pausing at the feeling of a hand around his wrist. He turned.

“Come back…?” The look on his face was almost… pleading. He contemplated. It would surely be dangerous and certainly stupid.

“Yeah, I’ll come back.”

But smarts were never one of his strong suits, were they?

————————————————-

Steve did come back. Again and again.

One of these times, however, something he wasn’t expecting happened. Not at all.

He’d been telling that damn kid not to come onto the boat, not now. Maybe in the future when he was actually doing his duties, but not when he was visiting Eddie.

Sure enough, though, he was on his way to visit the siren, his ears plugged lest he jump in and Eddie mistake him for another man and eat him up, when another figure shot out from underneath the tarp holding his equipment, diving into the water.

Steve’s eyes widened, not expecting that at all, and ran to the edge of the boat, trying to see who exactly it was that stowed away, yelping out when he saw who it was.

“Dustin! No, no, no, Hey!”

He knew it was no use, that he was under the siren’s influence and wouldn’t stop. He just shouted out at him, then started warning Eddie, yelling not to eat the kid, that he was a friend, that he was just a kid.

Eddie poked his head out of the water, looking over to Steve, then to Dustin swimming towards him. He approached the kid, signaling to Steve that it was fine before putting both his hands underneath his armpits and lifting him up.

As soon as he stopped singing, the kid snapped out of it and looked around, first to the hands underneath his armpits, then to the fucking siren that was holding him up.

He screamed.

Dustin flailed around, trying to slap and kick at the siren, eyes blown wide. Eddie struggled to hold him up, just swimming him back to the boat before deciding that it wasn’t worth it.

“Fine.”

He dropped him into the water.

Dustin gasps and tries to swim back to the boat, getting away from Eddie. The siren motions for Steve to unplug his ears.

“You don’t have to plug your ears, you know.” He tells him.

“I don’t want you to mistake me as someone else.”

Eddie grins.

“Like I’d mistake that pretty face of yours.”

Steve blushes and Dustin is just scared and confused.

Dustin just looked between Steve’s blushing face and the siren, confused as anything.

“W-what’s going on?!” He yells, grabbing Steve’s shirt and getting behind him, hiding from Eddie. Steve looks down at the kid.

“Why don’t you tell me, huh? I told you not to come on the boat.” He says sternly.

Dustin ducks down and looks away before spotting the siren.

“You never let me come! And what about *that*, huh? Why isn’t he eating us?” He shouts from behind Steve. Eddie looks up with a grin.

“I can answer that. First of all, I’m not eating him because he happens to be a… very good friend of mine.” He says, pointing to Steve.

“And second of all, I’m not eating *you*, because you’re a kid. M’not that cruel.”

It takes Dustin a bit, just looking at the siren. The creature was nonthreatening, making no moves to come at them or eat them or yank them into the water. He slowly creeps out from behind Steve, eying the predator.

“So… you’re not gonna eat us.” Eddie looked at him.

“Nope.”

He hesitantly stepped forwards, watching the siren’s every move. He outstretches his hand, holding it out to him. Eddie smiles and takes it, letting the kid shake his own clawed hand.

“Hey kid. Name’s Eddie.” He said. “D-Dustin!” Said the kid, a smile creeping across his own face.

He shakes more excitedly before turning his hand over, looking down at Eddie’s. His fingers were tipped with claws and they had webbing stretched between them.

“That’s cool…” he said, looking up. “Can I see your teeth? They were sharp, right?”

Eddie is taken aback a bit at how quickly the kid turned around, but just grins and opens his mouth, showing off his pearly fangs.

Steve just sits back and watches as Dustin looks over Eddie’s more ‘scary’ features, asking him a million questions in the process. He laughs when Eddie doesn’t know what to do, never having really seen the siren like this before, earning a glare as Dustin holds his mouth open and looks at how sharp his teeth are. He even has to pull himself up farther so the kid can get a good look at his tail. Eventually he pushes the kid back.

“Alright, alright that’s enough. You sure ask a lot of questions, don’t you kid.”

Dustin just shrugs and moves back at being shooed off by the siren. He motions for Steve to come closer, giving the man a hug and stealing a quick peck on his lips, laughing at how his face turns red before dipping back into the water.

“Oh Hopper, I don’t really think that’s necessary.“

“Well I’m doing it Joyce, are you coming with me or not?”

The woman sighed before coming out of the house, shutting the door behind her.

“I guess I’ll come too.”

They both swam around, looking for the kids who they spotted ducking behind buildings and swimming through shadows. They noticed the prince with them, which made them even more confused.

“See?” Whispered Hopper, “suspicious.”

They followed them until they got to a hole in the kingdom walls, and Joyce was ready to stop them then and there.

“Wait.” Whispered Hopper, putting his hand in front of Joyce.

“What do you mean, wait? They’re going outside!”

“I want to see where they’re going.”

Joyce sighed but relented, staying quiet and following Hopper through the crack. They followed far enough behind the group so they could just barely see their tails, not wanting to be discovered. They watched in confusion as they swam into the caverns just outside the kingdom, following them inside. They didn’t see exactly what cavern they went into, but could make an educated guess that it was the one with glowing crystals lining the walls. Their theory proved true when they heard the familiar voices as they swam into the cavern.

They both rounded the corner into a larger cavern, only to see a familiar guppy tail hanging out of the mouth of a giant fucking kraken.

“WILL!” Joyce shrieked, the petrified mother rushing forward. That was her baby! Her little guppy who’s tail was now disappearing into the monster’s maw.

Eddie froze, seeing the distressed mother swim forward, noticing immediately that she was a guppy as well. Probably the mother of the one he had in his mouth. The woman sobbed, both in anger and sadness, not knowing what to do.

“Y-you spit him out! Spit him out right now!” She shrieked, the words barely coming out through her cries.

Eddie immediately opened his mouth, the tiny guppy swimming out of it and rushing to his mother. Meanwhile, Hopper was rushing forward, yelling at the kraken, not noticing the other kids around him.

“Mom! Mom, I'm okay! See, I’m okay!”

She grabbed her child in a huge bear hug, her crying momentarily slowing down a bit.

“Y-you’re okay? B-but I thought-“

“What are you even doing here?” He asked.

“I- Hopper and I followed you guys because he thought you were being suspicious and I- the- the kraken! It-“

She looked up to see Hopper arguing with the rest of the kids, them being in between him and the kraken. Said kraken was actually cowering, looking directly at her, a guilty expression on his face.

“Wha- I- what’s going on? Will?“

“This is where we’ve been going so often lately.”

“You have?!”

“Yeah. The kraken isn’t the same one as before. His name is Eddie and he’s actually been really nice to us.“

“A different- he was eating you.”

“I let him! It’s completely safe, and he's done it to all of us before. He always lets us out when we want to. It’s like he’s protecting us!”

Joyce took a minute to process the information, looking over at the kraken who was still looking at her sheepishly. She then swam over to him, hesitantly approaching him and looking him in the eye.

“Joyce! What are you doing! Get away from that thing!” Yelled Hopper as the kids held him back.

“Have you really been protecting my baby all this time? And all these other kids?”

Eddie immediately nodded, looking at the little guppy nervously.

“And you’re different, you’re not the same kraken as the one before.”

He shook his head, and Joyce sighed.

“Thank you.”

Eddie looked from side to side, then back at the mother.

“Y-you’re thanking me?”

“If what Will says is true, then it sounds like you’ve been good to him and all his friends.”

“I- uh, it’s really- I’m not gonna hurt a bunch of kids-“

Joyce laughed a bit.

“The fact that you’re saying that and that you seem nervous of a little guppy like me proves that you’re not a monster.”

Eddie teared up a bit, and Joyce swam forward, hugging the man’s nose.

Hopper looked on in disbelief, watching as this huge monster of a creature melted at the touch of the mother guppy. The kids let go of him, and he just stayed in place, looking at the display.

“We were trying to tell you.” Said Dustin.

“Yeah.” Added El.

Hopper looked at them, then back to the kraken, then back to the kids again. He then turned and swam over to the beast, swimming forward as Joyce let go of him.

“What do you think you’re doing with these kids, huh?”

Eddie scowled, looking at the eel with disdain.

“You are exactly the kind of person I didn’t want finding out about me.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

The tension was almost palpable as the two stared at each other, angrily scowling.

“Hopper, it’s okay, he’s not a monster-“

“Stay out of this Joyce, this- this thing has just been waiting for the right moment to eat us all, haven’t you?”

“If I wanted to eat the kids, I would have in the many weeks they’ve been visiting me. Oh, wait! I have.” He gave Hopper a smirk.

“You what?”

“Yeah, I’ve eaten them many times before, and guess what? They let me. You know why? Because I. Am. Not. A. Monster.” He snarled in Hopper’s face.

By now, the eel was red in the face, anger all but seeping out of him.

“I’ve even eaten the little octopus.”

Oh, he really touched a nerve there. The eel flew at his face, and Eddie opened his mouth at the last second, Hopper zipping inside before he realized what had happened. The kraken closed his mouth behind him, careful not to hurt the man, even though he was being a prick. The eel fought wildly, trying to get out of the mouth. Eddie winced as he felt a shock to his tongue, not having realized he was an electric eel. He toughed through it, however, and swallowed hard, sending half the man into his throat. The tail still thrashed around his mouth, Eddie swallowing again and sending the rest of the mer into his esophagus. The muscles slowly worked him down as he still tried to struggle, periodically delivering a pulse of electricity into his flesh. It didn’t feel too bad, but was certainly uncomfortable.

He felt the eel pool into his stomach, immediately wreaking havoc on the organ, thrashing and shocking around. Eddie gently extended his spines, causing the man to calm down so he wouldn’t hurt himself, or Eddie for that matter.

“H-Hop?” The guppy mother asked hesitantly, eyes wide.

“He’s fine. He just needed to calm down.” Said Eddie.

El swam up to the kraken’s stomach, hearing the eel inside.

“Dad?”

“El! Go, get away!“

“No.”

“What?!”

“He’s fine. You’re fine.”

She swam away, ignoring the eel yelling at her from inside. They all kinda just ignored Hopper, letting him cool down. Joyce was a bit nervous, but the kids assured her it was completely safe, making her calm a bit.

They talked for a while, many of them explaining their encounters with the kraken and introducing him to Joyce. The mother was still a bit hesitant at first, but grew a bit more comfortable as the kids shared stories. She even was okay with the whole eating thing and by the end of it, he was basically one of the kids to her.

He eventually spit Hopper back out, the eel having calmed down, but was still angry when he got out of the mouth. El came to his side immediately and began talking to him, going through a shortened version of what they told Joyce. In the end, he still didn’t like the kraken much, which was fine by Eddie because he didn’t like the eel. He threw a fit when the kids told him not to tell anyone.

“But I’m the head of the kingdom guards!”

“Okay? So?”

“I’m supposed to keep the city safe and deal with threats.”

He looked up at Eddie, scowling which made the kraken growl in response.

“He’s not a threat! We just explained everything to you and he didn’t even hurt you when he swallowed you!”

“He ate me! Who’s to say he won’t actually eat eat anyone?!”

“Everyone stop!”

All heads turned to Steve, who had been the one to shout, an angry expression on the prince’s face. The wrasse swam up to Hopper.

“First of all, you had no business following us at all.”

“I-“

“Second, as the prince of the kingdom of Hawkins, I order you not to tell anyone about the kraken!”

“Nice try kid, I don’t take orders from you.”

Steve was exasperated at this point. That’s when Joyce swam up, speaking gently to the eel.

“Hop, come on. He hasn’t hurt anyone, and I trust him. Please don’t tell anyone. At least for the kids sake.”

Hopper turned to the young mers, looking at their pleading faces. He then saw El, the little octopus begging for him not to. He sighed, finally agreeing to keep quiet. For the kids.

“However,” he turned to Eddie, “if I find out you hurt anyone, I won’t hesitate.”

Eddie just snarled at him, sticking his tongue out at the mer. Hopper rolled his eyes and gathered the kids together, all but shoving them towards the exit. They all said their goodbyes, telling them they’d be back soon. Joyce stuck around a little bit, just long enough to tell him one last thing.

“Don’t worry sweetie, I’ll make sure you stay safe and keep Hopper in check, okay?”

————————————————

It had been a while since Joyce and Hopper found out, the two having come back a few times, Hopper so he could “keep an eye on them”. Steve would go back by himself sometimes, seeking comfort from the kraken when he was having a bad day.

“You know, I don’t actually like being the prince.” Came a voice from inside Eddie’s stomach.

“Why not? Seems like it’d be nice.”

“Well it’s not! Everyone treats me differently just because I’m the king's son. The others my age don’t want to be around me because all think I’m just rich and stuck-up! You and the kids are the only ones I can just be myself around without any judgement.”

The kraken felt the mer curl up in his belly, and he could hear the wobble in his voice as Steve cried softly. Eddie placed his hand on his stomach from the outside, gently kneading it and making comforting rumbling sounds. He knew mers would often purr to comfort each other, but he didn’t have that ability so he tried his best. Steve seemed to appreciate the effort anyway, lightly purring back at him, putting his hand on the stomach wall.

This is what led to the first time the prince fell asleep in the belly of the beast, tired from all the stress of the day. Eddie fell asleep too, curled up with the warmth of the pretty mer settled in his belly.

Steve looked around his room, opening drawers and looking under almost everything. Where was it? He knew he had a tooth from a giant ancient shark that lived long ago, but he couldn’t find it for the life of him. Eddie had commented on the shark-tooth necklace he always wore, and to thank him, Steve wanted him to have one too. He finally opened up his last drawer and found it, grabbing the massive thing.

It was the size of both his hands together, probably a little bit larger than one of Eddie’s own teeth. About as sharp, too. Or at least Steve guessed it used to be, now it was much duller from years of aging. He found some thick rope similar to the one his necklace was made of, and tied it tightly around the top of the tooth, making another loop to act as the necklace itself. Before tying it off, he took some large handmade beads that matched his own, but in different colors, and strung them onto either side. Once he was finished, he had one massive necklace to give to his giant friend.

He grabbed a little side bag and stuffed the necklace inside, hiding it so as to not raise suspicion. He swam out his window, ducking around in the shadows so no one would see him. He took off his jewelry except for the shark necklace like he always did, not wanting to be associated with being royalty.

He soon made it outside and to the cavern, a path he now knew pretty much by heart. The signature glow of the crystals comforted him as he swam, reaching the large cavern that Eddie resided in.

“Hey prince, back already?” Asked the kraken with a grin.

A bright pink flooded Steve’s cheeks, the mer shaking his head to get rid of the heat.

“Yeah, well, I don’t exactly have anywhere else to go.”

Eddie just looked at him skeptically, then his eyes noticed the bag by Steve’s side.

“What’cha got there?”

Steve looked at the bag, then back at Eddie, trying to keep the blush from coming back to his face.

“I, uh, I have something for you…”

The kraken’s eyes widened in surprise.

“For me?”

Steve nodded as he opened it up, pulling the giant necklace out of the bag and presenting it to Eddie. The kraken looked at it, eyes focused intently and mouth open slightly.

“You said you liked my necklace, so I made a bigger one for you. It’s like mine, but I changed the color of the beads to match you better, and the tooth is from a shark that used to exist a long time ago…”

The kraken took the piece of jewelry gently in his hands, looking over it. He just stared at it, the beautiful red and black beads with a tooth even bigger than his own sitting in the center. He was silent, just taking it in. No one had ever given him a gift like this before.

“You don’t like it, do you. I- I’m sorry, I just-“

Eddie grabbed the mer, holding him to his chest.

“I love it. Thank you.”

He let the prince go and carefully put the necklace around his neck, pulling it over his head. He looked down at it, the tooth settling perfectly on his chest.

“You do?”

“It’s beautiful.”

This time the blush came back in full force, what was just a light dusting of pink growing into a bright red. He looked away from the kraken, not wanting Eddie to see. What was wrong with him? It was just a simple gift, right? Friends give each other gifts… usually not jewelry, though. But it was fine! It’s not like Eddie knew what it symbolized… right?

He turned back around and the kraken noticed the abnormal color of his face, smirking when he did so.

“Is this supposed to be a courting gift?”

Shit.

“W-wha! N- no! Of course not!”

He could deny it all he wanted, but his face almost matched the color of Eddie’s tentacles at this point, Steve raising his hands to cover it up.

“I’m just messing with you, man.” Eddie said, bumping him gently.

“O-oh. Well, uh, I gotta go!”

Steve turned and swam off, bolting out of the cave quickly, Eddie just shaking his head as he watched. He looked back down at his gift, fingers brushing the smooth tooth and beads. He could feel the heat traveling to his own face as well.

—————————————————

Chrissy Cunningham was a parrotfish who lived in the upper-class part of the kingdom. She was often sought after by many male mers because of her beautiful pink and blue patterning. That’s how she ended up with Jason Carver, a young bull shark who her parents pushed her into getting together with. They told her it would be good for both families, that this would help all of them greatly.

At first it was okay, in fact it was actually pretty good. Jason was kind to her and showered her with many expensive gifts. Sure he was often a dick to a lot of the other mers, but he was never mean to her!

Then things took a turn. She wasn’t exactly sure what had happened, but the shark began getting more aggressive, snapping at her and bossing her around. She was sure he still cared about her, he would always apologize and be sweet afterwards, but she began to fear him. She never knew what kind of mood he’d be in, whether he’d hold her hands and be all sweet, or if he’d yell at her and back her into a corner, not letting her escape.

She’d always be afraid after one of his episodes, swimming away crying. She tried to tell her parents about it but they told her that he didn’t mean it and to just deal with it.

Then came the night where it all came to a breaking point. She came over to his house with a gift he’d been wanting in her hands, excited to surprise the shark. She knocked and he flung open the door, looking pissed about something.

“What are you doing here?”

She backed up a bit.

“Oh, I uh- I brought something for you.”

She gingerly held out the gift, the mer taking it and looking over it.

“Thanks, you can come on inside.”

She nervously swam after him, following him through the door. He shut it behind the both of them, turning to her with a grin that for some reason made her sick to her stomach. He reached out to touch her face, hand cupping her cheek.

“I-I uh,”

“Shh, be quiet.”

The shark leaned in, about to press his lips to hers. Chrissy moved back, lightly pushing him away.

“I should really go back home, I only came to drop off the gift, I’m sorry.”

“Come on, you can stay for a little while.”

She tried to pull away, but the mer had a strong grip on her arm.

“No, I- I really have to get back I-“

A hand suddenly connected with her cheek, a sharp, stinging pain erupting across the left side of her face. Tears stung her eyes as she looked up at the shark in fear. He immediately let go of her, face falling and trying to stutter out an apology.

“Wait! I- I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-“

But she was already out the door. She swam quickly, wanting to get away from him as fast as she could. She didn’t even go back to her house, not wanting to face her parents either. She just kept swimming and swimming until her eyes spotted a little crack in the kingdom wall. Funny, she’d never noticed that before.

“Chrissy!”

She panicked as she heard Jason behind her, he must have followed her when she left. Making a split-second decision, she slipped through the crack and made it outside of the kingdom. She’d never left before, and was amazed by the sight outside. It was so empty. Just a large sand bank with what looked to be a kelp forest in the distance. Coral and various shelled creatures decorated the ground, schools of various fish swimming about. She saw a darker area in the distance, and, being curious and wanting to get away for a little bit, swam in that direction.

The dark area she spotted turned out to be a collection of tunnels and caves, all made up of rock. She hesitantly swam through them, looking around at many small creatures she’d never seen before. She explored a bit, her crying subsiding a bit before her eyes spotted a pretty glow coming from one of the caves. She swam over to it, seeing little glowing crystals in many colors decorating the sides of the cave. She smiled a bit, swimming in and taking in the views. It was beautiful. Blues and greens and reds and so many other colors lit up the area, blending together and lighting up the whole tunnel. She slowly made it to what seemed to be a ginormous cavern at the end of the tunnel, larger and brighter crystals decorating all the sides.

Then her eyes found something else. Something that was also beautiful like the crystals, and yet also the most terrifying thing she’d ever seen. She let out a scream, flinging backwards, new tears coming to her eyes as she looked at a monster. She’d heard stories of krakens but nothing could have prepared her for actually seeing one.

The beast’s own eyes widened when they caught sight of the parrotfish, immediately looking nervous himself. They both stared at each other, frozen for a moment, before the tiny mer broke the silence.

“P-please don’t e-eat me!” She sobbed.

The kraken’s eyebrows furrowed in worry, looking at her with a mixture of sadness and nervousness, but not making any moves to attack or even get near her. She stared at his huge face, wild dark curls with eyes of the same color. Black pupils just tiny slits in the expanse of brown. She noticed how scarred his face looked, many little cuts around his mouth and one large scar across the bridge of his nose. She then saw the necklace he had on. It looked almost similar to the one the prince wore, colorful beads with a shark tooth in the middle.

“H-hi?” The monster spoke, his voice coming out quiet.

“Y-you, you’re not g-gonna eat me?”

“N-no.“

“But I thought krakens- I thought they ate mers…”

Her voice was so small, almost a whisper. Eddie couldn’t help but be reminded of Dustin when they first met, the kid was terrified. But the parrotfish didn’t look just scared, she also looked sad, and Eddie felt a pain in his chest.

“I’m not going to hurt you, it’s okay…” his voice was gentle, soft, and it immediately helped to calm the scared girl.

“Y-you’re not?”

“Not all krakens are bad guys, you know.”

She looked up at him in disbelief, slowly swimming a bit closer. If he wanted to do anything, he would have already, right? Hopefully he wasn’t just playing with her…

“I thought that krakens poisoned their prey before they ate them…” Then added, “I actually wouldn’t mind that right about now…” under her breath.

Eddie heard, heart saddening but pretended not to as he went on.

“Krakens actually aren’t poisonous, or venomous. And mers generally aren’t on the menu for me, at least not as food, anyways.”

She looked at him confusedly, wondering what that could possibly mean.

“W-what?”

“Well I can actually eat mers safely.”

“How?”

“If I swallow something whole and still alive, it’ll stay alive in my stomach. I actually can’t digest things unless they’re already dead. I’ve actually heard that it can be quite comfortable from other mers.”

Chrissy looked up at him with wide eyes, taking in the information.

“C-could you do that with me?”

“Why would a mer like you want me to eat you?”

“I- I think that it would be nice, like a little space I can just calm down in, and- and nothing could get me in there, right?”

“That’s true, but you seem to believe me quite easily.”

She looked down.

“Well I just- I don’t know why you’d need to trick me. I guess it could all just be a game, but you could’ve just eaten me before…”

“You’re lying.”

Tears came to the mer’s eyes, and she broke down.

“It’s just- I- my boyfriend. I know he loves me but- he’s just so mean sometimes. And I’m not really allowed to break up with him because then my family would be upset, and-“

Eddie gently scooped the parrotfish in his hand, holding her up to his face, causing her to let out a surprised squeak.

“You shouldn’t have to do anything you don’t want to. And for the record, I wasn’t lying. It really is safe. But it’s dark, so if you still want to,” he handed her a small crystal, “you might want to hold onto this.”

She looked at the crystal, then up at him, smiling nervously.

“I- I believe you. And I do want you to, please.”

“Okay. Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle.”

He then opened his mouth wide, tipping his hand and letting the parrotfish slide into his maw. He carefully made sure she avoided his teeth, the mer landing on his big, squishy tongue. He made sure she was all the way inside before slowly closing his jaws, giving her time to swim out if she wanted. He then ever so gently moved her with his tongue to the back of his mouth, her tail just at the entrance to his throat. He felt her shudder a bit, but then she called out.

“I-I’m okay! You can swallow now, if you want…”

Eddie gently gulped, sending her whole body into his esophagus, the soft muscles gently kneading into her as they pulled her down slowly. His heartbeat pulsed in her ears, the mer never having experienced anything remotely like this at all. It was loud, but nowhere near overbearing. She felt her tail poke into a larger area, knowing immediately what it was and the rest of her soon followed. When the last of her was inside, she looked around, the organ surprisingly empty and comfortable. The warm, squishy walls gently pulsed around her, and she felt them with her hands.

“Wow, it- it’s actually pretty nice in here…”

“Glad you like it. And if you ever want out, just let me know and I’ll spit you back up.”

“You know, you’re not what I thought a kraken would be like.”

“What?” He asked, pressing a hand to his belly, “mean and scary?”

“Yeah.” She said, giggling.

“Well, when I first saw you, I actually thought you would be mean and scary.”

“Me?” She asked, voice barely audible.

“I thought you’d swim off to town, yelling through the streets about the terrible kraken outside of the kingdom. Then I’d be done for.”

“But you didn’t try and stop me?”

“I’m pretty persuasive. Plus, I wasn’t going to hurt you for no reason.”

She was silent for a minute, before responding.

“You’re a lot nicer than even some mers I know.”

Eddie felt a wave of anger pulse through his body, but he tried to keep it cool so as to not spook the mer in his belly.

“You really shouldn’t stay with that guy if he’s making you so afraid.”

“How’d you know?”

“I could see how sad you were when you came in. I know it’s none of my business, but you should find someone else. And you’re always welcome back here if you want.”

“Thanks. I actually really needed this.”

The two sat in silence for what felt like an hour, before she finally asked to come back out. Eddie immediately spit her back up, carefully taking her out of his mouth. She said she’d try to follow his advice, saying her goodbyes to him and assuring him she wouldn’t tell anyone about him.

She came back time after time, actually pretty often at first. So often, in fact, that Eddie would sometimes forget she was even in his stomach, especially when she’d sleep in there.

One of these times led to a kind of awkward situation.

Chrissy was fast asleep in his belly, and had been for hours. This caused the fact to slip his mind when Steve came swimming into the cave. He was looking a little distressed, and he swam directly up to Eddie’s face.

“You okay Steve?” Eddie looked at him, a worried expression on his face.

“Just eat me.”

Eddie sighed, but opened up his mouth and let Steve swim inside. He didn’t even waste any time, moving directly to the back of the kraken’s mouth to be gulped down. Eddie did just that, gently swallowing the wrasse down head first. He shut his eyes in contentment, sighing as he felt the man land in his stomach.

Then they immediately shot open as there was a shout.

“W-what are you doing here!?”

“Me? You’re the prince!”

“I-“

Eddie realized what had happened. Chrissy was already in his stomach, and Steve had woken her up by coming in as well. He stayed silent, letting them both work it out themselves, laughing silently to himself.

Steve was certainly not expecting to come face to face with another person when Eddie swallowed him. Not to mention she looked like she’d been sleeping before he accidentally woke her up. She blinked slowly, looking up and her eyes immediately shot open.

They immediately started yelling at each other, both wanting to know why the other was in this very secret spot. He barely even knew who this girl was. Chrissy, he remembered her name was, which he only knew because she was one of the higher up families in the kingdom. She, on the other hand, argued that he was the prince, and that he shouldn’t be here either.

Steve was honestly too tired to keep up his ‘perfect prince’ image, and just explained to the girl. He dropped his voice to a whisper, not wanting Eddie to hear, and told her that it helped him calm down when everything was getting to be too much. She said pretty much the same thing, voice lowering as well. They both then explained their encounters and how they met Eddie for the first time.

The kraken, of course, heard the whole thing and smiled when they said he offered a safe space for them. Then his smile faltered a bit when he heard Steve explain what happened when they met. Damn, he really was a monster, wasn’t he. Then the conversation took a different turn.

“You know,” said Steve, voice quieting even more, “I actually do like him, a lot.”

This was after Chrissy had inquired about the kraken’s necklace.

“Like, as in-“

“Yeah. Even if I didn’t realize it at the time, the necklace was definitely subconsciously a courting gift.”

Eddie froze. His heart clenched, skipping a beat, then picking up the pace, pumping rapidly. Steve actually… Steve liked him? Did he want to be his mate?! But Eddie was a monster, he was just a big, scary, dangerous monster. Tears came to his eyes as he started to cry.

The mers were talking together, when all of a sudden, they started to hear and feel their captor begin to cry. They both immediately looked up.

“H-hey Eddie! What’s wrong?” Steve asked.

“Are you okay?” Chrissy added.

“I-I’m a monster.”

“What?! No, you’re not a monster!”

“I am! I- I’m huge, I have these ugly, scarred tentacles, my face is all beat up, I have sharp teeth and sharp claws and I- I ate you guys!”

“We asked you to. And you know why? Because you’re not a monster!”

“Yeah, Eddie,” said Chrissy, “we trust you. And I’ve met plenty of mers who are more of a monster than you could ever be.”

Eddie continued to cry, taking in the kind words. He placed his hand over his stomach, rubbing lightly and feeling the comforting rubs from the inside.

“Thanks you guys. I really needed to hear that.”

————————————————

Jason was pissed. He had no idea where the parrotfish went, but when she came back, she immediately stood up for herself, breaking it off with him. Not only was he angry, but his parents were angry as well, asking him what the hell he did wrong.

Then he started seeing her hang around with the prince. Wasn’t he supposed to go out with that wheeler girl? Why the hell was he hanging around Chrissy so much lately? Why were they all buddy buddy? And then there were those kids. He already didn’t trust that Henderson kid, but now? He hated him. The group also included that octopus freak, which couldn’t be good either. He saw them traveling together all too often, making him angrier and angrier every single time.

One day, he decided to do something about it.

Chrissy wasn’t with them this time, instead it was just Steve and the group of children he herded around like some kind of fucking babysitter. He trailed behind them, sticking to the shadows so that he wouldn’t be seen. He swam quickly but silently, watching as they all went through a crack in the walls. So they’ve been leaving the kingdom, huh?

His tail moved quickly, slicing through the water like a hot knife through butter. He followed them to an amalgamation of tunnels and caves, going after them as they swam into one covered in glowing crystals. Perfect. This would have them cornered so he could deal with all of them easily.

Jason charged head first at the group, hands shaped into fists, aiming directly for Steve. A growl escaped his throat, causing the prince to whip around, eyes wide at the incoming threat. His fist connected with the wrasse’s eye, the mer crying out and his other hand reached to wrap around his throat. His fist never connected, however, and he yelled as he felt something wrap around his midsection, yanking him back.

He shook out of his disoriented state, only to be face to face with a giant snarling mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. A low growl rang out that caused his blood to run cold. He looked up farther, seeing a pair of brown eyes with paper-thin black slits as pupils. A mane of wild curly hair framed the horrifying face. Jason shrieked, trying desperately to squirm and get out of the grip, but it was tight, his arms pinned to his side.

“W-what is that?”

Eddie squeezed him tighter, causing the mer to gasp, struggling to breathe.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

The voice was icy, and Jason locked his eyes on the kraken, trying once again to struggle free, but to no avail.

“T-that asshole fucking turned her against me! I’m going to fucking kill him!”

That was the wrong thing to say. The tentacle squeezed so tightly, his eyes were almost popping out of his head, drool leaking out of the kraken’s mouth as he growled.

“That’s Jason!” Dustin shouted. “He’s been out to get me since forever.”

“Yeah, that guy’s kinda unhinged. Chrissy told me what he did to her.” Steve added.

“Oooh, so this is the douchebag Chrissy has been talking to me alll about, huh?” Said Eddie, voice sickly sweet.

He loosened his grip the smallest bit, allowing the bull shark to speak.

“W-what?! Chrissy’s been coming to you?”

“Yeah, and she’s told me all about you.”

“You- you guys are a bunch of fucking freaks, I’ll fucking kill you, let me go!” By this time, Jason was hysterical, the man screaming in rage, thrashing about.

“I think I know what to do with you.”

Eddie opened his mouth, about to shove the shark inside before turning to look at Steve, seemingly asking permission. The prince nodded, mouth set in a hard line. Jason took one last look at the kraken, eyes widening as the sharp-toothed mouth grew closer and closer. He let out one last scream.

Snap.

The other mers flinched as the sickening crunch rang out through the cavern. Eddie kept his mouth shut as he ground flesh and snapped bone between his teeth, chewing the bull shark mer before swallowing him down. He licked his lips, tasting the last of Jason on his tongue.

Most of the others were looking away, only Steve and Dustin left looking on in a mixture of shock, horror, and relief. The rest of them slowly turned around, looking up at Eddie, the kraken showing no signs of what he just did. He looked back at them awkwardly, what he’d just done clicking in his mind, wondering how that must make him look.

“H-hey, I-“

“No, it’s okay.” Steve shut him down. “I told you to, and that guy definitely deserved it.”

There were nods and murmurs of agreement throughout the rest of the group, even if they did look nervous. Eddie understood. They did just watch and/or hear him eat one of their own kind, even if he did deserve it. It must make them realize just how dangerous he is. So they all surprised him when they swam closer, giving him little smiles and still wanting to be around him.

“You also probably just saved most of our lives.” Added Dustin.

The kraken grinned, making sure all the blood was off his teeth before doing so. Then Dustin looked down and spotted the necklace around his neck.

“Ooh, where’d you get that?” He swam over to it, inspecting the giant shark tooth and the had-crafted beads.

“I haven’t seen you with this before… it almost looks like Steve’s…”

The clownfish looked over to Steve, a shit-eating grin plastered across his face as he noticed the other’s expression and the color of his face.

“No way.” He said.

“Just shut up you little shrimp.” Snapped Steve.

The kid burst into uncontrollable laughter, Steve repeatedly yelling at him to stop. The others looked either confused or shocked, knowing that jewelry was usually a courting gift. Eddie just looked at Steve with a surprised expression on his face, pink dusting the kraken’s own cheeks.

“Maybe we should leave the prince with his b-“

A hand slapped itself over Dustin’s mouth and Steve’s face met his, a red brighter than any coral.

“Shut. Up.”

Dustin nodded rapidly, eyes wide at the angry and flustered wrasse. Steve slowly lowered his hand and the clownfish stayed silent. The meeting was a bit awkward after that, but soon fell back into how it usually was, both the whole Jason thing and Eddie’s necklace incident left behind.

When they went back to the kingdom, no one had realized Jason was gone yet. When they did, the only people who were really upset were his parents. They looked for him and the guard looked for him out of necessity, but they just turned up blank. They assumed he just left the kingdom after Chrissy broke up with him and that was that.

——————————————————

Of course, eventually the beans were spilled to other people. Both Mike and Steve tried their damndest to keep it from Nancy, but it was hard. The angelfish was persistent, and if she wanted to know something, she would damn well figure it out. This only led to Robin, a rainbow trout who recently became close friends with Steve to also inquire about what she was being left out on.

On the other side, both Will and Joyce had to keep the secret from the other occupant of their home. Will’s older brother Johnathan wasn’t usually very aware lately, which the smaller guppy knew was because of the drugs he was taking with his friend Argyle but Joyce was clueless on the whole thing. Eventually, though, he realized that something was going on and talked to Argyle, a mandarin fish, about it. They both ganged up on the other two guppies, asking what was going on. The mother and son were both pretty terrible liars, so the truth came out soon enough.

The group gathered all four of the new fish together. None of them knew quite what it was they were being kept in the dark about, but they were all informed they’d soon find out. They were surrounded by all six kids, Steve, and even Joyce, the mother wanting to tag along for Johnathan’s sake. They informed them to keep quiet and follow them closely. They then led the four to Eddie’s cave. They arrived, Eddie already knew they were coming so he wouldn’t be surprised. The other four, however, had no idea and, in fact, were surprised.

A high pitched scream came from the mouth of the angelfish, the girl who was about Steve’s age shrinking back. Robin also flinched back a bit, letting out a “Holy shit.” Johnathan had about the same reaction as Robin, immediately swimming backwards and looking up at the kraken with wide eyes. Argyle, however, had a completely different reaction than the others. He swam forward, looking confusedly up at the giant creature.

“Whoa, man. That’s a biiiig dude.”

Eddie just looked down at him, eyebrow raised. He’d expected all the new mers to be afraid of him, not whatever the hell this guy was doing. He actually swam up to the kraken’s face, looking him over. Joyce, meanwhile, was trying to calm the other three down.

“Man, those scars are gnarly. Pretty cool brochacho.”

Eddie stared, having no idea whether to feel offended or complimented. He opened his mouth to speak, and that’s when the mandarin fish swam forwards, inspecting his maw.

“Whooooa, these teeth are sharp, my dude.”

He looked around them, Eddie awkwardly keeping his mouth open as Argyle explored around inside. He eventually made it all the way inside, Eddie staring at the group, a pleading look in his eyes. Then the mer’s tail accidentally brushed up against the back of Eddie’s throat, causing the kraken to reflexively swallow. Argyle was sent sliding down the throat, a small bump forming on the outside as the mer disappeared.

The good news? The original group knew he would be fine. The bad news? They had not yet had a chance to explain that particular thing to the rest of the group they had brought, who were now freaking out.

“ARGYLE!” Screamed Johnathan in horror.

“Holy shit, holy shit! He totally just ate that guy!” Panicked Robin.

Nancy just looked up at him with wide eyes, a shocked expression on her face.

“Hey, it’s fine, Argyle’s fine!” Said Will, trying to calm Johnathan.

“Fine?! He just got eaten! He-“

Joyce came forward and placed her hands on his shoulders, calming him down and explaining. Steve was trying to calm both Robin and Nancy, Mike helping out with Nancy and Dustin and El helping with Robin. Eventually, they all got the group to calm down, especially after Eddie spit Argyle back up, the mandarin fish joining the rest of the group.

“That was weird, man. But it was also soft and comfy. You should try it, my dudes.”

The other three actually did not want to try it out, and Eddie said he wouldn’t. This made them a bit more comfortable, and eventually they were completely calmed down, conversing with the kraken and agreeing that he was cool.

Another person Eddie met was Murray.

The catfish had been pestering both Hopper and Joyce all day, asking them what they were hiding. They tried to shut the man down, but he would not relent. So eventually, they just decided to let him come with them. The catfish was extremely secretive so they knew they’d be able to keep him from blabbing.

The entire time he was following them, he kept droning on and on about his wild thoughts and theories.

“I saw them, Jim, they were just like us, but they had legs instead of tails! And their ears were tiny!”

“Oh yeah, where then?“

“They’re on those big things that float on top of the water!”

“You know we’re not supposed to get that close to the surface.”

“And we’re not supposed to leave the kingdom, either, but here we are! And do you ever wonder why we’re not supposed to get too close to the surface? It’s because they don’t want us to know!”

Hopper just rolled his eyes as he spoke, turning into the cavern with the glowing crystals.

“What are these?” The catfish asked, inspecting them.

“Those aren’t what we’re bringing you to see.”

“Fine, fine.”

He continued following the two mers, until they came to a larger cavern, also lit up with glowing crystals.

“Is that a fucking kraken?!”

He looked up to the beast in horror, mouth open and eyes wide in shock.

“‘Sup?” Asked Eddie.

“You two mind explaining?!” He asked, turning to both Joyce and Hopper.

“You wanted to know what we weren't telling you.” Said Hopper. “Here he is.”

“So you two have a tamed kraken?”

Hopper laughed.

“Tamed? No, he does what he wants. And sometimes he’s a dick.”

Eddie scowled at that.

“Only to people who deserve it.”

“Boys, come on.” Said Joyce, trying to intervene.

Then Hopper got a wicked grin on his face.

“Hey Eddie, you ever wonder what catfish tastes like?”

“What?!” Screeched Murray, whipping around to face him.

Eddie grinned as well, picking up the mer as he squirmed and tried to get away. The kraken simply placed him in his mouth, closing it and licked around him. He flinched slightly when he felt the sting of the catfish’s spines, but mostly ignored it as it didn’t hurt too much. He then closed his eyes, enjoying the flavor and then swallowed, sending the mer down to his stomach.

“Pretty good, actually.”

Hopper was rolling in laughter, arms around his stomach as he bent over. It was soon cut off, however, when Eddie said his next sentence.

“I think it’d be even better with eel, though.”

Before Hopper could register what he said, Eddie scooped him up and put him in his mouth as well. Before he could even try to escape, the kraken’s lips closed around his middle, slurping the long tail in like a noodle. He also took his time tasting Hopper as well, finally gulping twice to send him down to the already slightly-filled stomach. He snickered, laughing at the way Hopper shouted as he was sent down.

He then looked over to Joyce, who looked up at him with a light smile on her face.

“Well don’t just leave me out here all by myself.“

Eddie looked at her in surprise, but shrugged as he picked her up.

“You sure?”

She nodded and he placed her in his mouth, gentle this time. He also gave her a light to bring with her. When he was sure she was okay, he slowly closed his mouth, tilting his head back and sending her down with a gentle swallow. All three mers soon joined together on his stomach, the two men arguing with each other and Joyce trying to calm them down.

It honestly kind of reminded him of the kids.

Y/n was walking along the beach, picking up trash as they did so and putting it in the large half-full trash bag they had to their side. It was really disrespectful, in their opinion, that people would just throw their trash wherever the hell they felt like. Another group of plastic rings, the ones that held soda cans together. They sighed, picking it up and placing it in their bag with the rest of the garbage. Don’t they know how easy it’d be for an animal to get stuck in these? They supposed that those people didn’t really care. If they did, they wouldn’t have just left it on the beach.

They continued to walk for another few minutes, just picking up any plastics or empty cans or any other trash within the sand, even fishing some from out of the water. They liked living by the ocean, both because it was a beautiful view and they liked to swim, but also so they could help out where they could. Like now. They picked up yet another empty can before looking up, scanning their surroundings. By now the bag was almost full, so they might have to just come back tomorrow with another bag so they could clean up the next stretch of beach.

That is, until they spotted something.

It looked like an animal, a sea creature was stuck on the beach. It was far away, so they weren’t quite sure what it was, but it was large. Maybe a dolphin? They decided to approach, getting closer to whatever it might be, hoping they’d be able to help it, if it was even still alive. They had no idea how long the animal had been there.

As y/n got closer, the more they could make out. They could only see the back half of it, and it was still moving, so definitely alive. Their heart swelled at the thought of the poor creature suffering, and they began to speed up, lest it die before they could even try to help. When they weren’t so far, however, maybe fifty feet, they realized that this was not, in fact, a dolphin. No, it was a shark. A really big shark as well. They grew nervous, not quite sure if they should help, in case the animal might not appreciate it. While sharks weren’t exactly the monsters most people made them out to be, that didn’t mean they weren’t dangerous.

It thrashed again, struggling to probably get back in the water, and y/n decided it would hurt to get closer, it’s not like the shark could jump at them from this distance. They began to approach, noticing exactly why it was thrashing so much. The shark was wrapped up in a fishing net, the thing tangled in its fins and…

Holy shit.

It’s… arms? The shark had arms… not just arms either, it was a shark tail, yes, but the animal looked to be attached to a human torso. Was this a mermaid?! Well, merman, it looked like from here. They couldn’t see his face, exactly, but the mucked torso definitely looked like that of a man. They were about twenty feet from him now, and only getting closer. They figured it was probably a good idea to announce their presence so they didn’t scare him or get bitten or something. He probably had sharp teeth.

“H-hey! You need some help over there?”

His head immediately snapped over to them, eyes full of rage and oh… he was pretty. He had piercing blue eyes that settled onto them, thick eyebrows above them. He had a small, thin mustache underneath his nose, settled above pink, soft-looking lips. His jawline was defined, going right along with the muscles along his body. His whole face was framed by dirty-blonde curls. The only problem was that he didn’t look happy. Those eyebrows were set in angry lines above his eyes, his mouth open in a snarl to reveal his expectedly sharp teeth.

His pretty face didn’t make him any less scary though, and they stepped back as he growled, eyeing his teeth and claws.

“Hey, hey, none of that. I just wanna help-”

“I don’t need help from you.” He snapped.

Huh, so he could speak. They weren’t sure he’d be able to, at least not English.

“It looks like you could use it, I promise I won’t hurt you.”

“Yeah, right. You’re a human.”

He spat out the last word like it was some kind of curse, like it left a foul taste in his mouth.

“So? What does that have to do with anything?”

“Humans are assholes. All they want to do is hurt me.”

“That’s not true, I really only wanna help. It looks like that net is pretty tangled up in you and it’s hard to get off.”

“I don’t care. I can do it myself. Just get the hell away from me.”

Y/n sighed.

“Fine. I’ll just leave you to dry up out here on the beach. Maybe someone else will come across you. Though I can’t promise they’ll be as nice as me.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You know, there are some men that would just love to find something like you. They’d probably mount you on a wall or stick you in an aquarium or something for a bunch of other humans to gawk at.”

He snarled.

“If they try anything I’ll fucking kill them.”

“Not in that state you’re in right now.”

He scoffed, but looked up at them, still angry but now a bit nervous, though he tried not to show it.

“I promise, I only want to help, okay?”

“Fine.”

“Good, now just sit still, okay?”

He did as he was told, stopping his wriggling and thrashing. They slowly approached under his watchful gaze, piercing eyes never leaving them, watching their every move. Y/n slowly pulled a small pocket knife out of their bag, holding it up so he could see.

“What the hell is that?! Don’t bring that shit near me.”

“It’s just to cut the net, okay? You can watch the whole time.”

“If you try anything I’ll fucking kill you.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

They crouched down next to his tail, slowly sliding the knife carefully underneath the net, cutting upwards. A portion of it snapped, allowing it to slacken against him.

“See? I don't even have to touch you, okay? I’m only cutting the net.”

He scoffed at them, snarling a bit.

“Calm down, big guy.”

They continued to cut the net in the same fashion, just slipping it underneath and not touching the merman with their hands. As they cut, they were able to remove parts of it, taking it off so it’d stop restraining and digging into him. They took extra care around his gills, pulling the rope from them slowly. They could tell he didn’t really like the proximity, but let them either way. He didn’t have much of a choice if he wanted to be free of the net.

“See, this is why I hate when people just leave their trash wherever they want. It just hurts the animals that live in the ocean, not that you’re really an animal.”

“Hm? What’re you talking about?”

They placed some of the net into the trash bag, turning back to get more.

“I’m gonna have to go near your face now, so don’t bite me. okay? It’s in your hair.”

“Okay, but what do you mean you hate it?”

“I do. I can’t stand how people just throw their trash in the water or leave it on the beach without a second thought. It kills and injures so many creatures.”

“But you’re a human. Don’t you do the same thing?”

“No, of course not!” You said, a little offended. “Not all humans are the same, you know. I’m not like that.”

He looked lost in thought, just watching y/n as they removed the net from his hair.

“There. That should be it. It’s all off of you now.”

“Yeah.” He said, though he was still eyeing them cautiously.

They stepped back, looking over him to make sure he was okay. He really was something. His pretty face and muscly torso along with the beautiful shark tail attached to him. Now that they could see it closer, they were almost certain he was a great white. At least, he looked like one.

He glared at them once more before looking to the water, starting to try and pull himself towards the waves with his sand-covered arms. His claws dug in, but they mostly only slipped through the grains. It was almost painful to watch, the man barely moving inches towards his goal. Y/n stepped forward, looking down to him as they approached. He noticed, giving them an admittedly murderous look and snarling.

“Get the hell away. You already got the net off, what more do you want?”

“You don’t look like you’re getting very far. I can help you get to the water.”

“I don’t need it.” He growled.

“Yeah, you do. Quit being so stubborn, I’ve already proven I’m not going to hurt you.”

They were definitely afraid, but they didn’t want to show it. It’d both help him be more calm and it also might make them look less weak, dissuading him from killing them. They were no way prepared for what he said next, though. The shark smirked.

“Yeah? Why would I need help from my food, huh?”

Y/n froze, eyes going wide. Food? He was bluffing, right? Though it might be entirely possible that he did eat humans… especially with the way he talked about them, and he was a shark…

He laughed at their reaction, turning and starting to pull himself towards the water again.

“I want to help. I would hate for you to dry out, or for someone else to come along like I said. I don’t want you to die.”

He looked back at them, annoyance clear in his face. This did not help them calm down.

“I. Don’t. Need. It.”

“Yes, you do.”

They stepped closer, receiving a warning growl.

“Look. How about this? I’ll help you get back to the water, and then I’ll go, okay? I’ll leave you alone.”

He seemed to consider this, pausing in his attempt to get back to the ocean. He looked them up and down, wrinkling his nose at them. Finally he spoke.

“You can try, if it’ll make you happy and leave me alone. But you’re far too weak to carry me into the water.”

They sighed, not really appreciating the insult, but glad he would let them help. Y/n walked over to him, crouching down and slowly sliding their hands under his arms. He flinched at their touch, but didn’t make a move to bite them, so they counted it as a win.

He was certainly heavy, and they struggled to lift him up, straining their own muscles to lift his. Eventually they got him up, his torso lifted while his tail was still in the sand. They began dragging him, pulling him slowly to the ocean. It wasn’t the fastest in the world, but it was better than the progress he was making on his own. He sat still as they pulled, letting them take him to his home.

“You are pretty heavy.”

“Told you. Surprised you could even lift me, even though it is pretty slow.”

They scoffed.

“Better than what you were doing.”

He was silent.

They continued dragging him, pulling him inch by inch to the waves. It had already been getting dark, so by the time they were able to get him to the water, the sun was almost under the horizon behind them. One last pull and their feet splashed into the water, pulling him extra hard so he could get in as well. The force pushed them over, falling into the ocean and getting themselves soaked, the merman nearly falling on top of them.

He looked over to them, regarding their body in the water before wiggling his tail, pushing himself further into the ocean. Y/n quickly sat up, turning around to look at him. He was turned to face them, tail almost fully submerged behind him, though they could see the fin on top poking out.

“So, uhh, I guess I’ll just go now. You don’t need any more help, right?”

They got up, watching him as he watched them, a contemplative and calculating look on his face. They turned to leave, stepping out of the water when they felt a clawed hand wrap around their ankle. They froze, heart skipping a beat as they were paralyzed in fear. Why did he grab them? Was he going to kill them? Eat them?

“H-hey! L-let go! I helped you, please don’t, I’ll leave you alone I swear!”

He was looking up at them, that same look on his face. Though it quickly morphed into another look, one that was almost unreadable. He let go, backing up a bit into the water.

“Uh… okay, um. Why’d you grab me?”

“I- I don’t- you don’t have to leave.”

“What?”

“I mean, I’ve never seen a human like you.”

“What do you mean?”

“A human who didn’t try to hurt me. You’re… nice.”

“Y-yeah. I told you not all of us are the same. Some of us are nice.”

He looked at them for a bit, considering this.

“So, uh, you want me to just go…?”

“I said you don’t have to.”

“You don’t want me to?”

He shrugged.

“I don’t care. You can stay if you want.”

Y/n sighed, looking down at the merman. He clearly wanted them to stay and talk, but he wasn’t going to admit it either. So, they took their water shoes off, placing them and their full trash bag on the sand and waded into the water, sitting down next to the shark and resting their feet on the sand. He looked at them, regarding the human sitting next to him. His eyes traveled to their legs, then up to their feet, settling in them.

“Whatcha looking at?”

“…what are those?”

“What, my legs?”

“Kind of. At the end of them though.”

“Oh, those are my feet.”

“Oh.”

They wiggle their toes and the merman jumps back a bit, eyes widening. Y/n can’t help but laugh.

“They’re like little fingers.”

“They kinda are. I have a friend who can pick things up with them. It’s weird.”

The merman made a little face, nose wrinkling.

“But you have a tail, though. That’s really cool.”

“Yeah, it is cool, huh? I’m a great white shark!” He said with a smirk. He was clearly very proud of that fact.

“You are! That’s pretty cool. Big scary predator, huh?”

He nodded, grinning.

“Bet you swim pretty fast.”

He nodded again, looking at them.

“Oh yeah! What’s your name, by the way. We never introduced ourselves. I’m y/n.”

“Oh, my name’s Billy.”

“You know, it’s really cool to see something like you. I never thought… I mean who would ever think something like you existed?”

“You’ve never seen a mer before?”

“A mer?”

“Yeah. I guess we don’t really come up to the surface a lot, so you wouldn’t have seen one of us.”

“So there’s more of you then? That’s so cool, though I guess the stories had to have come from somewhere.”

“You have stories about us?”

“Yeah, we do. Have you never seen a human before?”

“Oh… I have, but I’ve never talked to one before though.”

“Oh, how have you seen them before?”

“Uhh, y’know, that’s not really important.”

They looked in confusion, wondering what he meant. Then their mind wandered back to the comment he made about not getting help from his food… oh. They laughed a bit awkwardly, looking at him.

“Yeah… right.”

“I’m not gonna hurt you though…” he said, trailing off.

He looked at something, their mouth. His face contorted in confusion, looking at it carefully.

“What is it?”

“You don’t have sharp teeth.”

“No? Why would I?”

“Well I’ve seen humans eat fish before. How do you do that without sharp teeth?”

“Well we still have teeth, dummy.”

“Yeah… but I thought things with flat teeth ate plants.”

“We do. But we also eat meat. And some of our teeth are sharp, see?” They asked, showing him their canines.

“Oh. I see. All Mine are sharp.”

He showed off his own teeth, a large smile on his face as he did so.

“Right. I figured that, with you being a shark and all.”

“Not just me. All mers have sharp teeth.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah. And claws.”

“Interesting.”

They talked for a while, all into the night. They talked about the differences between their worlds, both under the water and on land, what they did, how they lived, until eventually y/n yawned. They were growing tired, and it was almost pitch black. They stood up, much to Billy’s dismay, but they could tell he was getting tired too.

“I’m sorry but I gotta go, it’s really late and I have to get some sleep.”

He frowned, but accepted this.

“Don’t worry big guy, I’ll come back tomorrow, how about that?”

He perked up at this, looking at them.

“You better.”

It’d been a nice day, uneventful mostly. The sun was high in the sky, it was nice and warm, and Billy had the whole thing planned out. He’d woken up late, stretching his arms and tail, until he’d heard his stomach growl. When had he eaten last? Must’ve been a while. A week, at least. He would go out and find something to eat, then. He would fill his stomach and then bask in the sun for the rest of the day, helping him digest his meal. He had a nice sunning rock, big and flat just outside his cave.

The morning started well, he easily picked up the scent of deer not too far from where he was, carefully and quietly tracking them down. Deer were always good, they were big so they made him full for a while, and they were warm, which helped with his cold-blooded nature. Humans were good too, easier to catch, but he couldn’t smell any nearby. The other nagas told him he shouldn’t eat humans, that it was ‘wrong’ and ‘they were just like him’ but he would just scoff. They’re easy to catch, fill him up, and they taste good, so why not eat them? And they were not like him. Humans were weak, and all they’d do is try and hurt him if they found him.

He slithered along the scent trail, the smell getting stronger and stronger, his mouth watering as he neared. Damn, he hadn’t realized just how hungry he was.

That was when it happened.

He heard the metallic snap, then a white hot pain shot through his tail. He quickly whipped around to see what it was, causing even more pain. He saw blood soaking his scales, a sharp metal trap snapped around him, gripping him tight. He tried to wriggle out of it, but he hissed as it just buried itself deeper. The more he struggled, the more he got trapped. But then something else started to dig into him. A rope, a metal rope, was getting tangled up in his arms and wrapped around his chest and tail. He thrashed even more, only getting it more and more tangled around him. Now he wouldn’t even be able to try and pry the trap off.

“H-hey, are you-“

His head whipped over to the voice, eyes landing on a human. He hissed, trying to coil defensively but only managing to pull on the trap and causing it to scrape him more. He winced, but continued baring his fangs at the threat in front of him.

“S-stop, you’re just gonna get hurt more!”

The human started to approach, and Billy let out a low growl mixed with a hiss, the rattle at the end of his tail raised in the air and started shaking. The human flinched a bit.

“Whoa, whoa, hey! Calm down, okay? I just wanna help…”

Billy thrashed more and more as they got closer, hissing in pain when the ropes got tighter and the trap dug into his tail more.

“Hey stop! Stop thrashing around, it's only making it worse!”

“I don’t need your help!” He hissed, venom dripping from his fangs.

“Oh, so he speaks.”

Billy growled.

“If you don’t need my help, I could just leave you here.”

He narrowed his eyes at them and hissed, tail still rattling, but less so.

“Are you going to let me help you?”

“Fine.”

He supposed he didn’t really have any other choice, he could let them try and ‘help’. He knew they wouldn’t, though, humans would never help him. If they tried anything he could just bite them anyways, and they’d die quickly. He watched with narrowed eyes and a quiet growl in his throat as they got right up to his tail, where the trap had snapped around it. They hesitated before going into the bag they had with them and pulling out what looked to be a shirt, probably from an extra change of clothes they brought with them.

“Here, this might hurt a little, but if you need to bite something or dig your claws into it, you can use that, okay?”

He took it with a sneer, but agreed to not bite them. Unless he had to, of course. They made one wrong move and they’d be his lunch instead of the deer he’d been tracking. Though with how hungry he was, he might just eat them anyways. He watched as they took either side of the trap in their hands, counting to it quietly.

“Okay, one, two… three!“

Billy cried out and dug his fangs into the soft shirt the human had given them when they pulled apart the trap, seemingly holding it with all their strength.

“Can you… try and slither out?”

They asked through clenched teeth, eyes shut tight as they pulled as hard as they could. Though it hurt, the naga managed to get the portion of his tail that was in the trap out of it. The human sighed, breathing heavily as they let go of it, the trap snapping back closed. Billy watched, then, as they got their bag, pulling out a knife. He hissed, seeing the sharp blade as he was still restrained by the ropes.

“Hey, hey, calm down. I’m just gonna cut these ropes for you, okay?”

The human then took a portion of his tail in their hands, carefully sliding the blade under the metal rope and cutting upwards. It snapped easily, and they got to work in the next one. Pretty soon, they only had to take the rope off, without cutting anymore. Then they moved into his torso. The human began cutting through the metal binding his arms to his chest, quickly yet very carefully slicing them off, allowing the naga to have more movement in his limbs.

“There we go, now was that so bad?” They asked as they took the last bit of wire off of his frame.

He sneered at them, but shook his head as he could now freely move. Well, almost freely. It still hurt like hell to move his tail, particularly the portion that was sliced up by the trap. They looked down when he winced, eyes widening as they saw just how bad the wound was.

“Oh, let me fix that for you, I can wrap it up and clean it.”

Billy looked at them in confusion as they rifled through their bag, seemingly finding what they wanted when they pulled out a little box.

“Always bring a first aid kit with me.” They said.

“What are you doing?” He asked, watching as they put the injured part of his tail in their lap.

“I’m gonna help, okay? This’ll make it heal a lot faster, I promise. It might sting a little, though. Think you can handle it?”

He scoffed at them. What a silly question, why wouldn’t he be able to handle it? He watched as they pulled a dark brown bottle from the box, taking the cap off and pouring the clear liquid over his injury. He inhaled quickly through his teeth. Damn, that did sting. The human quickly took a cloth and wiped away both the blood and the stuff they’d just poured on him. They went back into the box, taking out some thin white cloth wrapped around itself, their hands unraveling it before starting to pull it around his tail. They took something else out then, a little pink thing they placed on where the bandage ended.

“There. All fixed up. It should heal a lot faster now.” They said, gently patting his tail.

Billy looked down at it, contemplating for a bit before looking back at them. They were looking at him a bit nervously, not quite sure what to do now that he was all healed. Then the naga’s stomach growled. He looked down at it and so did the human, their eyes widening a bit.

“Oh! Uh, are you hungry? You can have some of my food…”

They quickly rummaged through their bag again, pulling out a smaller bag and opening it up, pulling what was apparently food out of it. They took half of it and handed it to him, holding it out.

“Here, you can have this.”

Billy looked at it skeptically, eying what they were offering to him.

“Go on, you can take it, it’s okay.”

Billy hesitantly took the thing out of their hand, hiding it up and sniffing at it, flicking his tongue out at it. He wrinkled his nose, holding it away from him. There was no way he was eating that.

“Okay… so you don’t want the sandwich, that’s fine. I Uhh… I have some fruit in here too…”

Billy looked at them like they were stupid.

“Do I look like I eat fruit? Snakes are carnivores.”

The human paled, backing up slightly.

“I-uh I think I’m just gonna go…”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

His stomach growled once more, and he looked back up at the human. Maybe… maybe he could eat them, he could eat them without killing them and they’d be fine, other nagas did that. Maybe he’d just keep them to fill his stomach until he could track down those deer from earlier, then he could let the human out. But why did he want them to be fine? They were just some shitty human… but they were nice to him. No one’s ever really been nice like that. Humans were supposed to be bad… He’d figure it out later, right now he was starving.

The human yelped as they felt his tail start to snake around their legs, quickly but gently traveling up their body. They looked into his face, fear in their expression clear in their features. They shivered slightly.

“W-what are you doing, I- I…”

“I’m not- I’m not gonna hurt you.”

They must’ve noticed the drool leaking from his lips, because their eyes went wide. He could smell them. They smelled so good, he wanted to see how they tasted. He wouldn’t hurt them though, just… keep them for a bit.

“Please… please don’t…”

“I said I wasn’t gonna hurt you, okay?”

They were wrapped all the way to their neck, arms pinned to their sides and they couldn’t move. He started to open his mouth, and with a snap and pop, his jaw unhinged, allowing it to open much wider. The human whimpered as they saw the maw approach their face, saliva dripping from the fangs and tongue. They cried out as he closed it around their head, shutting his eyes as he took a deep swallow. He sighed through his nose, feeling them enter his throat as more and more of the human was pushed in and swallowed down. They were warm, and they tasted good too. He continued to gulp, uncoiling them and getting them in as fast as he could. Soon enough, only the human’s feet were left outside, and he easily swallowed them down as well, closing his lips and sealing them inside.

He sighed deeply as he felt them slide fully into his snake stomach, giving him a bit of strength to go off and find an actual meal. He could feel them squirming and struggling within him, and he felt… bad. He never felt like this when he’d eaten a human before…

“I- I helped you.”

He could hear the tears and a bit of anger in their voice and God, that made him feel worse.

“I said I wasn’t going to hurt you. I just… I was hungry so…”

“So you ate me. I should’ve known, I was so stupid not to expect this. You’re a snake. I’m just… snake food.”

“You’re not- no, you’re going to be fine. I’m just, I’m going to let you out, I just need to find something else to eat.”

They didn’t say anything else, no matter how much Billy would poke at them, say something to them, none of it worked and it made his chest tighten. He knew they were still alive, he could feel them breathing and he’d seen other nagas have live humans in their stomach for a lot longer. He supposed that eventually they might’ve passed out. From fear, exhaustion, he didn’t know, but it was probably for the best.

It felt weird though, having them in there. Sure, he’d eaten plenty of humans before, but he hadn’t ever eaten anything, let alone a human alive before. It felt odd as they moved about, even unconsciously, and the fact that he could feel their breathing. It was different. Not a bad feeling persay. It even felt kind of… good?

He shook his head and continued his search for the deer, a bit farther away now that he had that little snag. It didn’t take too long to find them though, Billy making sure he was downwind of the small group so as to not scare off his meal. He picked out one in particular, a fairly large buck that would definitely keep him full for a while, though he’d have to take the antlers off. He snuck slowly around a tree, in between bushes, directly behind the grazing animal. His tongue flickered out from between his lips, tasting the air and getting the animal’s scent. His mouth watered, and he crouched down, coiling himself up so he was ready to strike.

The buck leaned down to eat the grass once more and Billy took his opportunity. He leapt out of the bushes with a growl, grabbing onto the deer with his claws and quickly coiling tightly around it. He wrapped his arms around its neck and lunged down with his head, burying his fangs into its throat, delivering a dose of his deadly venom. He then leapt off of it, slithering a few feet away, watching as the animal struggled but eventually gave out, collapsing onto the ground within seconds. All the other deer had fled when they heard and saw the huge predator take down one of the strongest of the group.

He slithered up cautiously, making sure his meal was dead before starting to spit up the human, making room for the deer instead. It was a new experience for him, never really having to spit up prey after it’s been eaten. This isn’t prey, though, he has to remind himself, though it’s a strange thought to him. He managed to start getting the human out, using his stomach muscles to push them back up and he found it was easy after that, instincts taking over and helping to pull them the rest of the way. To say that getting them out of his mouth and throat was uncomfortable would be a bit of an understatement. It was weird, and not the most pleasant thing. He grabbed them in his hands and pulled them out gently, carefully laying them on the grass, still unconscious. He checked them over, tongue flicking and his ears listening for their breathing and heart. They were okay.

He went back over to the deer, looking down at it. He picked it up by the antlers, coiling around its neck and pulling hard on them. It didn’t take a whole lot for him then to give way and a loud crack sounded out. He tossed the broken antlers to the side, blood leaking from where they once were. His meal was ready to be eaten. He wrapped his tail around the buck, starting with its head. He stretched his mouth wide, unhinging his jaw and starting to shove it in, swallowing around his meal. He was used to this, so it didn’t take too long for the deer to make its way into his snake stomach. He sighed in satisfaction, feeling the warm meal fill him up. Then he remembered.

Billy quickly turned around, looking down at the human. He sighed, picking them up in his arms and holding them, one arm behind their knees and the other on their back, just under their neck. The human’s head hung down, as well as their arms, but they were only unconscious, Billy could still feel them breathing. They’d wake up soon. He slithered off, back into the woods, a little tired because of his full stomach and the warmth of the human but he pressed on.

Soon enough, he followed the scent back to his cave, slithering to the back of it and curling up on himself. He placed the human in the center of his coils, checking them over one more time just to make sure. They were still breathing and their heart had a steady beat. It was a little faster than his, but that might just be because they were smaller than him.

Billy lay down on top of his coils, looking down at the human with a contemplative look. Why didn’t he just eat them? Well, he did, but why not just keep them as his meal? Why did he spit them out and eat the deer instead? Maybe he could just… keep them until he got hungry again, then he could have them. But… he didn’t want to do that either. He didn’t want them to… he wanted them to be okay. He guessed that was why he even ate them. Sure he was hungry, but it also kept them safe. He still didn’t know why he did it though. Maybe it was because they weren’t mean.

The naga couldn’t help but feel the warmth from the human slowly seep onto his coils, the deer already having lost its own heat. He sighed, leaning further into his own tail, eyes slowly closing. Wait, no, he couldn’t fall asleep. The human was… they’d still be there, right? He’d feel it if they woke up. Plus he was so full. He was full and warm, both those things separately would make him tired, but combined? He didn’t stand a chance. He felt himself slowly start to drift off, the last thing he saw before closing his eyes one final time being the human, still unconscious in his tail.

——————————————————

Y/n woke with a start, not knowing where they were. They felt something cold against their back, which was weird, but then it moved. They jumped, whipping around to see… a giant snake. A huge fucking snake. Then it hit them. They looked up, seeing the human half the snake-man had and they shrieked, the last thing they remembered being this thing having eaten them. They squirmed as they felt something move again, something that was very clearly inside the snake’s stomach.

They watched as the man woke up from the shriek and the squirming from them, his tail immediately starting to rattle. They squeezed their eyes shut when he did, shaking and just waiting for him to chow down on them again. But nothing happened. They opened their eyes again to see him almost right in front of them, causing them to flinch back. He was looking at them with what looked to be a mixture of confusion and worry.

“Sorry, forgot you were there… you were warm so I kinda fell asleep.”

“What?!”

“Well I- you were still asleep so I just put you there, and then you were warm so…”

“No, no, no… you ate me!”

“Oh. I spit you out though… I didn’t hurt you like I said.”

“But you…”

“I said I wasn’t going to hurt you, you’re okay. I found something else to eat.”

“Yeah, I-I felt that…”

“Oh. It’s a deer. And that must feel weird, sorry.”

“A little. But… I’m just dessert, aren’t I? And I helped you.”

They crossed their arms, angry but also terrified.

“I didn’t hurt you. I wasn’t going to either.”

“Don’t things that get eaten usually… you know…”

“Oh, yeah. Uhh… I didn’t bite you, if I want to actually eat something I have to kill it first, so I usually bite it.”

“I don’t understand…”

He sighs.

“If you’re still alive when I eat you, you’re safe. I can’t digest you. You would already have to be dead. Like the deer, I bit it first.”

“Oh.”

Y/n looked to the deer, then back up to him, their body relaxing a slight bit. They weren’t quite sure if they could believe him all the way, but he wasn’t hurting them now, so they tried to be calm.

“Okay, that’s… okay. How’s your tail?”

They were trying to steer the conversation in another direction, but they actually did want to see how he was doing. He looked over at his tail and they did as well, seeing the bandage on it. He tried to move it a bit, wincing and sucking in a quick breath through his teeth.

“Still hurts, but it’s probably better than it would be without you helping.”

“Can I see it?”

“Why?”

“I just want to see how it looks, and change the bandages.”

“Change them?“

“Yeah. You probably bled quite a bit, and we don’t want it to get infected or anything, right? Then we might have to cut it off.”

“What?! Cut it off! There’s nothing wrong its-“

Reader laughed.

“I was just joking. Now let me see it, okay? I’ll fix it up.”

He hesitantly gave them his tail, slowly moving the portion that was injured onto their lap so they could look at it. Y/n took it and started to unwrap the bandages, taking the band-aid off first and setting it aside. Underneath, there was a whole lot of dried blood all over his scales, as well as in and around the wound. It looked like it’d stopped bleeding though, so that was good, and it seemed to be scabbing over quickly.

“Wait, where’s my bag?” They asked.

“Here.”

The snake man picked the bag up and brought it over to them, watching as they dug the first aid kit. They grabbed out the peroxide as well as clean bandages and a cloth to wipe the blood. They also got out that shirt, the one that they gave him last time. It was certainly ruined by now, so it didn’t really matter what else he did to it.

“Here, you can have this again in case you need it.”

He took the shirt with a nod, watching what they were doing with his tail. They looked up at him, making sure he was okay before uncapping the dark brown bottle, starting to pour the contents all over the wound and dried blood. They watched as he dug his claws into their shirt and winced, but didn’t make any moves to stop them. They sighed in relief and continued, taking the clean cloth and using it to wipe both the blood and the peroxide off. After it was properly cleaned and disinfected, they grabbed the bandages, starting to wrap them around his tail.

“That too tight?” They asked, looking up at him.

“It’s fine.” He said.

“Okay.”

They finished wrapping it up, sealing it once more with a little pink bandage.

“Sorry, this is the only color I have.”

“I don’t care. It’s small.”

“Alright. Feeling better?”

“Little bit. Uh, thanks, though. For helping me. You didn’t have to.”

They looked up to him, not expecting a thanks from the grumpy snake.

“Oh! It was no problem, I just can’t stand seeing animals in pain… not that you’re an animal, I don't like seeing people hurt either.”

“That’s… good. It’s good it was you, any other humans probably wouldn’t have helped.”

“I dunno, some probably would’ve.”

He sneered a bit, clearly unbelieving of them.

“No they wouldn’t have.”

“O-oh. Well, umm, you’re pretty cool, y’know?”

“What?”

“You’re cool.”

“Yeah, I mean I guess I would be since I’m cold-blooded-“

They laughed.

“No, no, I mean cool, like you’re a snake… I like snakes. What are you, exactly?”

“Oh. You do? I thought humans hated snakes. And I’m a naga.”

“A naga, huh? And a lot of us actually like snakes. I used to have a pet snake, she was nice. Not as big as you, of course, but I liked having her.”

“A pet snake?!”

“Oh! Wow, that must be weird for you. I mean, like, a regular snake, the animal, not like you.”

“Oh. I didn’t know humans had snakes as pets.”

“Some do. It’s considered more of an unusual pet, a lot wouldn’t.”

“Hm.”

“Soo, you said you were cold-blooded, right? That's so cool! I guess you’re more like a reptile then… What other things can you do like a snake? I mean I know how you eat of course…”

“Yeah, uh… I guess I shed like one?”

“Oh, really? Is it like.. all in one go, or is it in pieces, or…?”

“Oh, uhh… all in one go, mostly. We shed once a year. The tail comes off all in one, and then the spots on our upper bodies that need to shed.”

“We? There’s… more of you?”

“Yeah. Three more. There’s my little sister, Max, and then there’s Steve and Eddie. You don’t have to worry about them, though. They’re idiots.”

“Oh, you have a sister?”

“Yeah. You sure ask a lot of questions, don’t you?”

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you. It’s just, I mean never in my life did I think I’d find something like you, y’know? You always ready the stories about dragons and princesses and whatnot, but only in fairy tales.”

“I’m not a dragon.”

They laughed.

“You’re not, no. But you’re similar! I mean you’re both reptiles, right?“

“I guess.”

“This is just so cool. To find something like you and then just… have a conversation like we are. It’s so surreal.”

“Yeah? You think I’m cool? I thought you’d be afraid, y’know?”

“Oh, it’s still scary, but not as much. You’re not doing anything mean or hurting me.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Oh, wait. Duh, silly me. I never asked your name. Mine’s y/n.”

“Oh. Uh, Billy.”

“Billy, huh? Nice na-“

They were cut off when a new voice sounded in the cave, Billy quickly grabbing them and shoving them underneath his tail, covering them up with his massive coils.

“Billy, who are you talking to in here?”

“No one, fuck off.”

“Wow, okay. I literally just came in and asked a question.”

“Don’t you ever, I don’t know, announce your presence before just barging in?”

Y/n shifted slightly in the coils, their leg in an uncomfortable position. The coils on top of them were heavy, and a portion of them was crushing their leg.

“What do you have?”

“What the hell do you mean?”

“I just saw your tail move.”

“I just ate, Maxine. What the hell do you think it is?”

“What’s on your tail?”

“There’s nothing on my tail.”

“Really? Because I think I’d have remembered if you had white scales.”

“It’s just something that got stuck to me while I was hunting. Didn’t have a chance to take it off because you just fucking barged in here.”

There was a pause, they assumed the other person that came in was probably his sister, another naga. She was probably assessing the situation, looking at her brother. They held their breath.

“Whatever. You better tell me why you’re acting so weird tomorrow.”

“I’m not acting weird!”

“Yeah, okay.”

The naga waited a few more seconds, making sure his sister was gone before moving his tail off of y/n, causing them to let out a breath of air, quickly breathing in after. They were no longer weighed down by both the heavy coils, and the deer inside of them.

“Oh, are you okay? I wasn’t hurting you, was I?”

“No, no. It’s just… you’re really heavy, especially with the deer.”

“Sorry, that was my sister.”

“I figured as much. It’s okay.”

They continued to just breathe for a bit, now being able to better. They then looked outside, seeing that the sun was going down and it was starting to get a bit dark. They slumped a bit, knowing they had to start heading home. They were tired anyway, was it really that late? Maybe they’d be able to come back tomorrow, and possibly bring him something to eat for breakfast, if he was even hungry. He did have that deer.

“Oh, it’s getting late… I should probably head home. I really hope I wasn’t bothering you.”

They began to get up, making their way towards the entrance when they felt a hand grab their arm. They let out a little squeak, looking back at the naga.

“What is it?”

“You… you can stay here if you want. For the night.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I mean I know we just slept a bit, but it was only for an hour or two.”

“You want me to stay?”

“Only if you want. You don’t have to… but you’re warm.”

“Oooh, I see. You want your own personal heater.”

“Whatever. You don’t have to stay, it was just a suggestion.”

“I’m joking with you. I’ll stay. Long as you don’t eat me in my sleep or something.”

“What? No, I’m not-“

“It was a joke! I know you’re not.”

“Oh.”

Billy slithered over to a corner with what looked to be covered with soft leaves and other things that might make it a comfortable spot. He curled up on top, resting on top of his coils and looking over at them expectantly.

“This is where I usually sleep. Uh… make yourself comfortable I guess.”

“Oh, okay.”

They walked over to the naga, sitting on the edge of the leaf bed. Billy rolled his eyes.

“You can get closer. I don’t bite.” He said with a grin.

“Right, yeah.”

They stepped closer, sitting on the leaves and laying against his coils. They sighed, feeling the coolness of them against their skin, shifting ever so slightly. They jumped a bit when the end of his tail started slowly wrapping around them.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh. Didn’t realize I was doing it. You’re warm.”

“Ah, of course.”

They let him wrap his tail slowly around their body, yelping a bit when he pulled them closer. They knew it didn’t mean anything, or at least it probably didn’t. He was just using them for their warmth, which was fair. He was cold-blooded after all, and they did say that they’d stay for the night. Plus he wasn’t human, so they didn’t even know if human things meant the same. They shook the thoughts out of their head, just focusing on getting comfortable within the snake-man’s coils. He was already asleep, so it wasn’t like they had much else to do. They closed their eyes, letting out a sigh and falling asleep for the second time with the naga.

Reader was somewhat of a wildlife researcher, if they did say so themselves. They took notes and sketches of anything from rabbits to deer to even a pack of surprisingly docile wolves one time. Their main focus, though, the one thing they’d always wanted to come across, were harpies. That’s why they’d moved to Hawkins, Indiana. As soon as they heard there was a population of harpies in the woods behind the town, they’d gotten in their van with all of their belongings and hightailed it there.

Reader didn’t really have much, only what could fit in their van. They never stayed in one spot for long, traveling from place to place for their research. They had countless sketches of countless animals as well as notes about each and every one. The animal they didn’t have, however, was, you guessed it, a harpy. They were pretty rare and elusive, not to mention aggressive, so not many humans had seen them at all. But reader had managed to hear through the grapevine about a small population of them outside the small town seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

That had led them here, eagerly walking through the woods, practically skipping when they’d heard that the harpies might be friendly. They’d asked around a bit before going into the woods, learning a little bit about a few of them. There was a small family of hummingbirds as well as secretary birds, then there was a crow, a cardinal, and one that they really hoped they didn’t run into, one everyone had said was aggressive and would kill them on sight. The vulture. A bearded vulture to be exact, which was a shame because they really were beautiful birds.

They walked quietly, not trying to draw attention, but still actively looking for any sign that there were harpies nearby. They suddenly stopped, something on the ground catching their eye. Reader knelt down, picking up a small blue-green feather, inspecting it. It shimmered a bit when they moved it in their hands, the sun glinting off of it. They excitedly stood back up, putting the feather in the first blank page of their sketchbook. Must be from one of the hummingbirds. They hopefully looked around, but didn’t see any of them in the surrounding area. Oh well. Guess they’d have to look around longer. When they did find them, they’d ask if it was okay to keep the feather or if they wanted it back. They weren’t too sure about harpy culture.

Reader’s head snapped up when they heard heavy wingbeats above. Definitely not as frequent or loud to be a hummingbird, nor did it sound like it was quiet enough to be one of the secretary birds… maybe the crow? They’d heard that one was a bit elusive and only showed himself to certain people, but one could be hopeful. They then heard whoever it was land behind them, talons hitting the ground. Reader whipped around, face lit up in pure excitement. The expression, however, quickly did a three-sixty, morphing into one of raw horror. It was the vulture. The very harpy, the only harpy they were told to avoid. They had to admit, he was even prettier than they thought he would be, but there was no time for that. He didn’t look happy.

Reader quickly turned around and bolted, sprinting through the trees and hopping over rocks and branches. Tears sprang to their eyes when they heard those same wingbeats behind them, the harpy audibly gaining behind them. They ran and ran until their chest began to burn. They really needed to start running more, didn’t they. In their distraction, they tripped on a root or a rock or whatever it was, not that it really mattered because it sent them tumbling down a hill, crying out when a sickening snap sounded, their ankle exploding in pain. They tumbled down further, all kinds of scrapes and what would soon be bruises collecting on their skin until eventually they rolled to a stop.

As soon as they stopped, Reader bent over and clutched their ankle, trying desperately to look small. They heard the harpy at the top of the hill. Quickly, they devised a plan to look dead. This harpy liked to kill his victims, right? Maybe if they played dead, he’d lose interest. Bad idea apparently. They tensed as they felt and heard him land right beside them. Reader heard a few chirps that they had no idea were for, then a wave of hot breath over them as he sniffed repeatedly at their ‘dead’ body.

Then they felt something warm and wet around their feet. Reader yelped and jumped up from the ground, looking back in horror at their legs quickly being pulled into the harpy's mouth. His eyes widened at seeing them look at him, and he doubled his efforts, trying to get the human in as fast as he possibly could. They grabbed at the ground, trying desperately to scrape at it with their hands, grabbing at something, anything they possibly could. For every inch they managed to get out of the maw, they were sucked in another six. Eventually they were all the way inside, the harpy closing his lips behind them rapidly. They cried as they felt their feet start to slip into the throat, and they threw their hand forwards, trying desperately to grab at the lips, tongue, even the sharp teeth ahead of them. They were breathing heavily, trying to struggle as best they could but their tiredness combined with their injuries proved it difficult.

They froze as they felt and heard a loud gulp echo around them, pulling them up to their waist into the esophagus. “No” they said quietly, a defeated little sound coming from their own throat, their head still in the maw. Another gulp and they were pulled farther in, getting their last glimpse of sunlight as the harpy opened his mouth, throwing his head back to finish his meal. They felt the tongue press against their hand as they slowly slid in the rest of the way, fingers dragging across the muscle as they too slipped down above their head.

The strong, wet muscles pushed into them, pulsing and pulling them down. The harpy’s heartbeat next to them as they were dragged past it, loud and rhythmic, faster than they expected it would be. They’d taken enough anatomy to know what the larger chamber their feet were slipping into was, wincing when they felt their definitely broken ankle go through the tighter opening. The rest of them soon followed, causing them to curl up in the eagerly gurgling organ. The walls pressed in on them, hugging every inch of them as it prepared to digest its prize.

They felt a hand press against the outside of the belly, slowly rubbing it from the outside. Great, the harpy was clearly enjoying its meal. This, combined with their tiredness and the soft sounds around them caused them to unwillingly close their eyes. Reader knew they wouldn’t wake up, but they didn’t have much of a choice. The last few tears slipped out of their eyes as they passed out, the exhaustion and pain overwhelming them.

*

Billy panicked, the human in his stomach growing still. Had- had he killed them?! He didn’t want to do that! As soon as they’d seen him, they started to run away, and Billy followed them, wanting to see who they were as he’d never seen them before. Also, he had to admit they were kinda pretty. He had winced when they fell, then panicked when he heard the snap. That couldn’t be good. He thought they’d been unconscious so he began eating them to keep them safe, but they were apparently awake, trying to escape.

Now they were definitely passed out, maybe even dead, the very thought making Billy upset. He rushed to his nest as fast as he could, lifting off and flying to his tree. It didn’t take him too long to get there, quickly landing in the branches and already starting to spit them up. He’s only done this maybe twice before, both with Steve so it’s still a bit difficult and new to him. He does his best though, making his stomach muscles push them back into his esophagus, the feeling of prey coming up his throat out of his stomach extremely strange. This isn’t prey, he has to remind himself, and he spits them out as soon as he feels the human on his tongue.

Billy looks at them on the ground, so small and clearly injured. He winces as he spots their ankle, swelled up large and purple, foot bending the wrong way. He doesn’t think human feet are supposed tobe d like that, anyways. They still aren’t moving though, and he quickly leans in, gently putting his ear up to their body. He lets out a sigh as he hears their breath. He didn’t kill them. The relief was short lived though, as he still had no idea what to do with them or how to fix them. But he might know who would.

He made sure they were safely tucked into his nest and that no one would bother them, and then he took off, flying around to find the one person he could think of to help. Steve. The human had helped him when he was injured, so it would be logical that he’d be able to help one of his own species as well. He sniffed the air, being familiar with Steve’s scent. It took a few minutes, but eventually it hit his nose, and he took off in that direction, quickly spotting the human in question. He extended his talons, grabbing him up and causing him to shout, screaming as he looked up.

“B-Billy?! What the hell, man?”

“I need you for something.” He said as he flew.

“You couldn’t have just told me that?”

The harpy considered this, then quickly flew back down, dropping the human and landing in front of him. Steve could immediately tell he looked nervous, shifting slightly and a frown on his face.

“Hey, you uhh, okay?”

“So, just a question, are human feet supposed to bend like, sideways?“

“Ummm, no?”

“So like, theoretically, if one did do that, what would I do?”

“Please don’t break my foot.”

“What? No! I- uggh, I need your help, okay?”

“What did you do?”

“It’s not- I didn’t do it! There was a human I’ve never seen before and they saw me and they got scared and they ran and they fell and I think they’re broken.”

The harpy said all of this in one breath, Steve trying to keep up as best he could.

“Whoa, whoa, slow down, okay? They ran when they saw you?”

“And then they fell down and they’re broken.”

“What do you mean they’re broken?“

“They’re foot. It’s bending weird and they got scraped up too. I wanna help them.”

Steve sighed.

“I’ll get the first aid kit. You wait here.”

Billy did as he was told, but paced nervously as he waited, hoping the human would be okay. He immediately jumped up when he saw Steve coming back, glancing at the bag he was holding. He carefully but quickly grabbed Steve in his talons, causing him to yelp, but continued to lift him up into the air, carrying him to his nest where the injured human was waiting. He dropped Steve in on the other side, landing in it himself and walking over to the human who was still unconscious.

“Here, see? They’re still not awake.”

Steve walked over to Reader curiously, looking them over. He then grimaced as he saw their definitely broken ankle, large and purple, also bent like the harpy had said. He reached down to reset it but Billy pulled him back, hissing.

“What? I’m helping!”

“I wanna do it.“

Steve rolled his eyes.

“Just let me reset it, okay? You don’t need to-“

“No. It’s my fault this happened, so I want to fix it. Just tell me what to do.”

He looked up at the defiant face of the harpy, realizing that this wasn’t going to be easy.

“How about this. You have to be extremely gentle and know what you’re doing in order to reset it. So let me do that, and I promise I’ll let you do the rest, okay? You can bandage them up and make the splint. I’ll walk you through it.”

Billy considered this, and eventually nodded, stepping back a bit and letting Steve place his hand on either side of their swollen, plum-colored ankle, then quickly inhaling and snapping it back to how it’s supposed to bend. There was a sharp intake of breath from the human, but they stayed asleep, making no more noise. Steve continued to very gently poke and prod at it, inspecting the injury.

“Okay, so a cast would be good, but a splint should still work to help it heal”

Billy stepped forward, ever so gently taking the human’s tiny foot into his clawed hand. Steve handed him a strong piece of wood and some thick bandages, the same ones his wing was wrapped up in when it had broken. He did what Steve told him to do, placing the wood next to the foot and then started to wrap the bandages around both it and the human’s lower leg. Steve told him it needed to be tight, but not too tight so the circulation wasn’t cut off. Billy didn’t know exactly what that meant, but followed his instructions, tightly wrapping it up.

He then worked on the scrapes, gently licking the blood off and then pouring this clear stuff that Steve insisted wasn’t water over them. He looked in surprise when it created white bubbles on top, Steve telling him to wipe it off with a towel and then put a bandage over it. He asked why he couldn’t lick it off and Steve said it was good to put on wounds but would hurt him if he drank it. He didn’t quite understand but he trusted Steve.

Soon enough, it seemed the human was all patched up and not bleeding as much. Steve smiled up at Billy, telling him he did a good job. Billy huffed but was happy they were okay. He then had to bring Steve back to where he was, but the man insisted he just bring him to Eddie’s nest since that was where he was headed anyway. Billy wasn’t too sure the crow would like that but he did it despite that fact. After all, he did owe Steve both for this and for helping him when he himself had gotten hurt. So reluctantly, he grabbed Steve back into his talons and took off for the crow’s nest.

*

Reader groaned, groggily sitting up from their lying position. A white-hot pain shot through their ankle, causing them to gasp. They slowly opened their eyes, trying to figure out where they were. They immediately shot open when they caught a glimpse of their surroundings. Bright blue sky above, a bit cloudy, and there they were, inside a huge tree, surrounded by branches and a nest. A giant nest that looked to be made by a bird.

Then the memories came flooding back into their head, the vulture harpy, the running, the pain in their ankle and… the harpy had eaten them! How were they still alive? They remembered slipping into the stomach, the warm, slimy organ churning around them. They must’ve passed out. But why did he spit them out then? Reader looked over themselves, first checking their ankle, surprised when it was covered in bandages, a piece of wood sticking out the top. They looked at their arms and legs as well, seeing the same white wrappings around them. Some of them were dyed red a bit, the blood leaking through showing small spots.

They were a bit dazed and certainly confused, holding their pounding head. They tried to get up, but collapsed trying to put weight on the bandaged limb. Normally, they’d be ecstatic to be inside of a harpy’s nest, but this particular circumstance made them feel the opposite. Absolutely terrified. And the worst part? They couldn’t get out. Even if their ankle wasn’t broken, they doubted they’d be able to climb down the tree.

The flapping of wings in the distance made them freeze and snap their head up to the sky, watching for the black wings and the golden-red body. They saw the red alright. A quick flash of it fluttered across the sky, above the nest. Then a harpy of the same color landed on the edge of the nest, peeking curiously at them. They breathed a sigh of relief. This must be the cardinal’s nest. She was the one who bandaged them up and was now taking care of them, right? But that still didn’t answer the question of how Reader had gotten out of the vulture’s stomach.

“H-hello?” Reader asked.

The harpy stepped forward. She was young, flaming red hair to match the feathers as well as a splattering of freckles across her face. She got close, but not too close to them, probably thinking they’d be afraid.

“Hello.” She mimicked.

“Uh, thanks for bandaging me up, but how-“

“I didn’t do that.”

“What?”

“I didn’t put those bandages on you. I was passing by and saw you in my brother’s nest and I got curious.”

“Y-your brother’s nest?”

“Yeah. I didn’t think he liked humans very much. At least he stopped eating them.” She looked over them. “Or maybe not.”

“What!?”

“I dunno. It’s pretty new. Have you done anything bad?”

“What do you mean bad?”

She shrugged.

“He says he only eats the bad humans now. Why’d he put you in his nest?”

“I- umm. I didn’t know there were other cardinal harpies here, I was told there was only one.”

“I am the only one. My brother is a bearded vulture.”

Reader paled.

“I- he is?”

“Yeah, that’s what I said.”

“Oh. He- he ate me… but now I’m here.”

The cardinal’s eyes widened.

“He did? The only human I’ve seen him do that with is Steve. Do you know why?”

“No… well I thought it was, you know, to be food, but then I wake up here and I’m all bandaged up.”

“Hmm. If he swallowed you alive, then he didn’t intend for you to be food. Harpies only do that to humans they wanna protect. Can’t explain the bandages though. He might’ve gotten Steve to help him.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

There was another sound above them, similar to the wings of the cardinal but larger and heavier. They both looked up to see the owner of the nest flying down, landing inside. He looked annoyed.

“What the hell are you doing here, Maxine?”

The cardinal rolled her eyes.

“I saw a human in your nest and I was curious.”

“Why don’t you get back to your human, huh? Leave us alone.”

“Yeah, okay. They thought you were gonna kill them, you know.”

The vulture flared up his feathers.

“Okay, okay, I’m going.”

Max hopped up on a branch, spreading her wings and taking off. He watched as she disappeared, then he turned to the human who was cowering in the corner of his nest, looking up at him with wide eyes. Reader was definitely terrified. This harpy had eaten them for god’s sake. Sure, the cardinal said it was fine, but could they really believe that?

“Hey, you okay over there?”

Their eyes widened when he spoke. It was such a casual tone, just asking a simple question. He even looked… concerned. Speaking of how he looked, Reader couldn’t lie. He was definitely handsome. He had large ocean blue eyes, the scleras creating a contrast with their deep red. Black feathers surrounded them, creating a dark frame. He had blonde hair on the top of his head, a thin mustache of the same color above his upper lip. His plumage was beautiful, the golden feathers covering his body matching his hair along with the red around his neck, fading into his chest.

They swallowed.

“Umm, hi…”

“Oh, um, hi. I asked if you were okay?”

“Right, right. Yeah, I’m… I guess I’m okay. But… aren’t you going to eat me?”

“Hm? No, I’m not gonna eat you, why?”

“You did before… and-“

“I only did that so I could get you here safely. I wanted to fix you.”

“Fix me? But… why?”

“Well I scared you… that’s why you fell. So I wanted to help because it was my fault.”

“Are you… saying sorry?”

“I-“ his face went red, turning away. “No...”

Reader laughed.

“You know, I heard you were mean and tore humans apart, but here you are, having bandaged me up and now you’re apologizing?”

“No! I said no, I just wanted to fix my mistake. That's all.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s what I said, you deaf?”

“Well I’m all fixed up now. Guess I’ll just be going then.”

“Wait, you can’t go yet!”

“Oh? Why not?”

“Because you’re still hurt.”

“So? I thought you didn’t care.”

“I-”

Reader got up and started moving towards the edge of the nest, limping as they did so. They threw their injured ankle over the edge and started lowering themselves onto the branch underneath.

“Hey, where are you going?!”

The vulture rushed over, gently grabbing the back of Reader’s shirt with his mouth and lifting them up carefully, pulling them away from the edge. He set them down in the nest, sitting down and putting them in between his legs so they couldn’t go back.

“Hey! What’re you doing?!”

“You can’t get down by yourself. You’ll just get hurt.”

“So?”

There was a beat of silence and the harpy simply lowered his head, pushing the human into him further with his chin. Reader huffed. It was silent for a few seconds before they broke it.

“Why are there all those awful rumors about you? You seem nice to me...”

The harpy froze.

“They’re not exactly fake…”

Reader tensed.

“I used to be like that. I’m trying to be better though, I only eat the really bad humans. Other harpies do it too.”

“I know the crow one does that, right? He eats criminals and stuff?”

“Yeah, I’m like him now. Only bad ones. Someone changed my mind.”

“Well that’s good. Definitely good for me, right?” Reader laughed nervously.

“Yeah… I- I’m not gonna hurt you. More than I already have, anyways.” He looked at their ankle.

“Oh, that’s not your fault. I’m the one who wasn’t looking where I was going.“

“But I scared you.”

“You didn’t mean to. I just ran as soon as I saw you.”

“Yeah, but-“

“But nothing. What’s your name, anyways? I don’t think I ever got that.”

“…Billy. What about you?”

“That’s a nice name. Mines y/n.”

“Cool.”

They then felt the harpy start gently pulling at their hair with his mouth, sort of playing around with it.

“Whatcha doing up there?”

He didn’t respond. It felt nice, if a bit strange, so reader didn’t do anything, just let him continue. They sighed, lying against the harpy’s stomach, closing their eyes a bit. They got what they wanted, didn’t they? They finally got to meet a harpy. Then their eyes snapped open and they jumped up.

“Wait!”

“What!?” Asked Billy, concerned.

“My backpack! Where-“

They spotted their bag over at the edge of the nest, getting up to go get it. Billy stopped them, grabbing the backpack himself and bringing it over to them, setting it down. Reader sighed.

“I can do some things myself, you know.”

Silence.

“Can you put me over there with my bag?” They pointed to a spot against the wall of the nest.

“No.”

“Why not.“

“Because I have to keep you safe.”

“Listen, I’ll be fine if I stay in your nest. Nothing can get me up here, right?”

He seemed to contemplate this for a moment before sighing and doing what they asked. Reader snuggled up against the side of the soft nest, reaching into their bag. Billy watched curiously at what they were doing as they pulled out their sketchbook, flipping to the page with the green feather they’d found earlier.

“Who gave you that!?” Billy asked, pointing to the feather.

“Oh! I just found it on the ground. I wasn’t too sure if it was okay to keep it so I was gonna ask when I found the owner.”

Billy looked a bit conflicted, but didn’t say anything more about it when they set it on the ground next to them. Reader then turned to their sketchbook, grabbing a pencil and getting to work. Their ankle may be injured, but they could still draw. They looked from their book to Billy repeatedly, sketching the rough outline of the harpy before adding into the details. They weren’t the best drawer out there, but they could capture most of an animal pretty okay. The harpy’s face might not look the best but the rest of him was just like drawing a bird, and they’d drawn hundreds of birds. The shape was a little different, but he was still covered in feathers.

“What are you doing?”

The question startled Reader. It’d been silent for probably ten minutes before he asked, and it caused their pencil to slip. They quickly erased the mistake, trying their best to fix it and make it how it was before. Billy was clearly not a very patient harpy, because he stepped forwards and got into Reader’s personal space, putting his head next to theirs and looking down at what they were trying to fix. His eyes widened when he saw it, pupils dilating and laser focusing on the page.

“Is- is that me?”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess I didn’t really ask permission if I could draw you, but I’m used to drawing animals and they can’t really-“

“It’s fine.”

“Oh, okay.”

They continued to try and keep sketching, but Billy was still hovering over them.

“If I’m going to keep drawing, I’m gonna need you to stand over there so I can see you better.”

Billy huffed, but stood up and walked over to where Reader was pointing. He looked over to them, then tried to match the position he’d seen in their sketchbook as best he could, causing them to laugh a bit. They continued to sketch him though, trying their best to capture his basic facial features and the shape of his wings. They finished his body and face, now drawing his legs and talons. They looked up.

“Can you put one of your wings out? Like this?”

Reader motioned with their arm, showing them how they wanted him to put it out. He rolled his eyes but did as he was asked, holding it out so it was open. They drew it coming from the body, opening up so they could get the full wing in the sketch.

“How long do I have to hold this up?” He complained.

“Just a bit, okay? I’m almost done.”

He grumbled but kept it out, letting them finish.

“Okay, it’s done. You can come see it.”

Billy put his wing down and hopped over, moving his head to look down at the sketch Reader was holding out to him. It was so tiny compared to the harpy, so it was hard to see, but it did, in fact, look like him.

“How’d you do that? How am I on there?”

“Well I draw animals all the time, have been for years. I also used to draw a lot as a kid, so I’ve gotten pretty good-“

“No, why am I on there?”

“What? I drew you, see?”

Reader then took their pencil and drew a little sketch in the corner of the page, the harpy watching closely.

“See? I use the pencil. I did that, but just made it look like you.”

Billy looked skeptical, but accepted the answer after having seen this ‘pencil’ in action. He still had no idea how the human managed to make it look like him, but decided he’d figure it out later.

“Now I’m going to add a little bit of color.”

“Color?”

Reader looked back into their bag and pulled out some more of those ‘pencils’, but each one was a different color. He watched as they grabbed ones that matched his colors and began adding it to the sketch. He watched in fascination as the reds and golds were added to their respective places, as well as a range of black and dark greys on his outstretched wing. They looked up at him.

“Do you like it?” They asked.

Billy nodded, staring down at the copy of him on the paper.

“You wanna see some other drawings?”

He nodded again. Reader started at the beginning of the sketchbook, flipping through the pages and showing him all the drawings and notes of various animals. Some he’d seen and others he never had. He pointed to some of those, asking questions about them, and what the writing on the sides said. They explained, and he listened until it got back to the page he was on.

“Are you gonna write about me?”

“Yeah, eventually. I mean, I came here so I could study harpies.”

“You did?”

They nodded.

“I’ve always liked to study and observe animals, but I’ve always been the most interested in you guys. Now that I’ve actually met you, though, I’m starting to see you as less of an animal. You’re more like a human than an animal I think.”

He contemplated this for a bit, then reached down and picked them up in his mouth, causing them to yelp.

“What’re you doing?!”

“It’s getting late. Time to go to sleep.”

He brought them to the center of the nest, laying down and putting them down in front of him. He licked them a few times, Reader pushing the tongue away with their hands. He then opened his mouth, engulfing the human’s head and starting to pull them in.

“Hey, hey! What are you doing!”

He spit them out, huffing.

“I’m gonna eat you, obviously. I have to keep you safe. And it’s cold.”

“Okay, but I don’t want you to eat me… please?”

“Why not?”

“Because… I’ve never been eaten before… and I still don’t know if it's completely safe…”

Billy rolled his eyes.

“If I was going to kill you, don’t you think I would’ve done it already? And I already ate you once.”

“Yeah, but… the last time you did wasn’t exactly under very nice circumstances and… I’m still afraid.” They said the last part in a small voice.

Billy looked at the human in front of him, still annoyed, but he really didn’t want to scare them any more than he already had. So he didn’t eat them. Instead he just pushed them into his chest, trying to get them underneath him, and Reader couldn’t help but draw the comparison to a mother hen. He was warm, and his feathers were soft, so it wasn’t hard to get comfortable. But then there was another problem.

“It’s kinda hard to breathe under here.”

Steve was walking through the woods, leaves crunching underfoot as he stepped between trees. His original intention was to go and visit Eddie, the crow harpy he’d grown to be good friends with. That being said, he knew he was in harpy territory though he knew most of the harpies in the area anyways, so he figured he’d be fine. It wasn’t like this was the first time he’d visited, and he’d had no trouble before. Most of them were friendly, and even the ones, or more accurately, the one harpy that didn’t seem to like him wouldn’t actually hurt him. She didn’t usually hurt humans.

There was one harpy in particular, however, that he did not want to run into. In fact, no human wanted to run into this particular harpy. It’d be a death sentence. The harpy was Billy Hargrove, and he was the one that gave all the others a bad reputation, the reason the humans of the town outside the woods were afraid of all harpies. He would, and Steve had seen him do this, rip apart and devour any human he laid eyes on. For no reason as well, he’d do it even if he wasn’t hungry. Needless to say, he was an asshole. Not even other harpies wanted to be around him, the only one who actually sort-of did was his sister. She was much nicer than him though.

So you could understand then, when Steve saw the flash of red and gold feathers in the sky above him, he was terrified. At first, he wished, it might just be Max, the smaller red harpy who was Billy’s step-sister. Those hopes were soon dashed, however, when he caught a glimpse of the black wings. It was most definitely the harpy he’d been dreading. He was going to scream, hopefully alert some other harpy in time to save him, but then he watched as a brown shape grabbed him out of the air, causing the harpy to screech and plummet from the sky. He crashed not far in front of Steve, branches breaking and snapping underneath the weight of the large creature falling until there was a loud thud, the ground shaking slightly under his feet.

Steve contemplated a bit, wondering if he should either run the opposite way, which would be the smart thing to do, or to investigate. Unfortunately, curiosity took its hold on him and wouldn’t let go, almost pushing him forwards and towards the danger. Steve did have a knife on him, so he would probably defend himself if he needed to. That’s what he told himself, though in the back of his mind he wasn’t exactly sure what a maybe five inch blade could do to a fifteen foot bird monster that was surely out for his blood.

He slowly began to step forward, towards where he could hear desperate struggles and bird-like shrieks coming from. He peeked out from behind a tree, looking at the sight before him. The harpy was trapped in what looked to be a strong rope net, not being able to get his claws into it as they were pinned to his side. A large crater in the dirt surrounded him, the stuff flying everywhere as the creature squirmed and thrashed about. He paused, sniffing the air, then his head immediately snapped to Steve, facing him.

Steve gasped and fell over as the piercing blue gaze locked onto him, the harpy’s scleras a blood red, an angry, murderous look in his eyes. The black feathers framing them only made them pop, Steve one hundred percent sure they were laser-focused on his form. A low growl penetrated the air, feathers along the monster’s wings and body puffing up threateningly. Steve’s eyes moved from the eyes to the mouth, wickedly sharp teeth on full display. He looked pissed.

It didn’t seem like Billy could escape, however. He was clearly injured if the scrapes littering his body had anything to say about his condition. Some were slowly dying his gold feathers red to match the rest of his plumage, and even though he was snarling at Steve, it was more of a grimace, and Steve caught his eyes momentarily flick to the knife he had in his hand. Steve looked down at it, then back at Billy. He actually might’ve been able to kill the harpy…

He slowly crept forward, looking over the now nearly defenseless monster, though he was certainly trying, snapping at Steve and lunging towards him when he got too close, growling the entire time. Steve walked in a circle around him, inspecting everything. He was stuck real good. Steve also thought he could see one of his wings bending in an unnatural angle, possibly broken. He stepped forward at a spot the harpy wouldn’t be able to get him, and readied his knife.

“Get the fuck away from me, I’ll fucking rip you to pieces.”

So he finally spoke. And he was threatening Steve, which was to be expected. Though Steve didn’t actually have any intention to hurt the man, no matter how horrible he was, the human just didn’t have the heart to. He could just leave him there. Certainly whoever shot him down would come looking for him, and then it wouldn’t be Steve’s issue. But he couldn’t do that either. The man sighed, knowing what he was about to do was probably the dumbest, most suicidal thing he’s ever done. He picked up a section of the net and started cutting.

“Hey, let go! I’m gonna get outta here and I’ll tear you to shreds! Rip you limb from limb and tear them apart with my teeth.”

Steve winced but tried his best to ignore the threats. He worked on freeing his legs first, very carefully cutting around the razor-sharp talons and working his way up. He slashed the ropes tying his legs together, doing his best to avoid feathers and skin, profanities and threats being spewed out at him the entire time. As soon as they were free, Steve jumped back, the feathery appendages kicking wildly, talons slashing at empty air. Steve was hesitant to approach once more, giving the talons a wide berth.

Now was the scary part. He slowly made his way to one of his twitching wings that were stuck to the side of his body, clawed hand trying desperately to cut ropes or grab at Steve. The man took a deep breath and went in, quickly but carefully cutting through with his sharp knife. This wing was, in fact, broken, so it made only a feeble attempt at getting Steve, causing the harpy to cry out in pain. He sat up though, using his claws to cut through the rest of the ropes, freeing his other wing. He then ripped the net around his head to shreds of rope, snarking as he did so. His head snapped over to Steve with a growl. Now that he was free, he immediately lunged for the human, Steve yelping and jumping back as the harpy narrowly missed his body.

“Hey, hey, hey, whoa! I just cut you free, man!”

“I don’t need a shitty human’s help. And I’m starving.”

He looked at Steve with a hungry smirk, ready to lunge again but he suddenly cried out and fell to the ground. His eyes squeezed shut and he grimaced, broken wing lying uselessly at his side. The scrapes were apparently a lot worse than both him and Steve had originally thought, blood spreading farther. Steve wanted to help, even though the harpy had literally just tried to kill him, but he didn’t have any first aid, let alone anything big enough to treat this guy.

He watched as Billy struggled to move, not being able to get back up. He dragged himself a few more feet towards Steve, but then collapsed once more, heaving out a breath. Steve decided he would leave Billy here for the moment. It’s not like that harpy would be able to go far. He’d quickly get the right supplies he needed and come right back to try and help without getting ripped to shreds. Steve bet it wasn’t gonna be an easy task.

He was right. Steve had decided that bringing a shit ton of raw meat to feed the harpy along with all the medical supplies would be beneficial. He did say he was starving, after all, and he didn’t want to be what satiated the monster’s hunger. Steve found him about ten feet from his original position when he came back. There was a clear line in the dirt where he’d dragged himself. Steve slowly wandered over to him, the harpy growling when he caught the human’s scent.

“Fucking idiot to come back here. At least I’ll have something to eat.”

A hand shot out to grab him, but Steve easily dodged it, claws not moving nearly as fast as they would have had the harpy not been shot down. Steve reached into one of the bags he held that he’d gotten from the butcher’s. He pulled out a huge package of ground beef from the brown paper bag. He sliced it open, the blood flowing out and onto his hand, the red liquid’s scent hitting the air. Steve could tell Billy immediately smelled it, the harpy perking up ever so slightly. Steve tossed the meat in the general vicinity of his head, and it was snatched up, quickly devoured. Steve gulped. That’d certainly be him if he made one little misstep, wouldn’t it?

The harpy glared at him after he was done, but also eyeing the several more brown paper bags the human held. Time to put his plan in action. He would occasionally toss pieces of meat to the harpy’s head, distracting him for now. Then he slowly went up to the broken wing. Steve knew he had to be quick but firm, he really had to push hard in this one. He threw a rather large piece of meat over to him, distracting the monster. Now or never. He quickly grabbed the broken wing, pushing on where it bent weird until it snapped back into its original position, the harpy screeching in pain and anger. Steve jumped back. But nothing happened. The harpy was limp.

Steve slowly approached, not getting too close lest it be a trap. He grabbed a rather long stick, poking at the bird-man but with no response. He slowly made his way to the other side of Billy, looking at the face. His eyes were closed, mouth open in a snarl but it wasn’t moving. He knew it was stupid, but he pressed on, getting up close to the mouth. There was still breath going in and out, so that was good, he wasn’t dead. Steve guessed he must’ve passed out from the pain of getting his wing reset. Well at least it’d make the next part a lot easier.

Steve went back over to the broken wing, looking around for a large, sturdy branch. It wasn’t hard to find one when he went back over to the crash site, and he picked one up, bringing it over to the harpy. He steadied it on the lower part of the wing, where Billy’s hand was, and began to wrap the sticky gauze around his lower arm-like wing.

When he was gathering supplies, he’d made a quick stop at Dustin’s house, figuring he could ask the kid if he knew anything about fixing a broken bird wing or possibly if he could help. Dustin was a bit skeptical when he’d asked about a broken bird wing. He’d automatically gotten a worried expression on his face because he thought it was one of their harpy friends, but Steve said it wasn’t. Dustin told him what he knew, saying you had to wrap it up in its original position. When he finally told him exactly who it was, however, his face immediately morphed into one of horror. Steve asked him to help and Dustin told him he was crazy, that this was a really stupid thing to do. Steve, of course, went anyways. Much do Dustin’s dismay.

And so here he was, wrapping up the infamous murder-harpy’s broken wing. At least he was unconscious, so he couldn’t try and eat Steve. After it was thoroughly wrapped with the stick to keep it steady, he moved into the bloody scrapes across his body. Thankfully, most if not all of them had stopped bleeding, so that wasn’t an issue. Steve poured a bottle of hydrogen peroxide over a cloth, soaking it through. He then started to rub at them, cleaning them out. After each one was thoroughly cleaned out, he bandaged them up. By the time he was done, the harpy’s legs were nearly covered in bandages and there were some littering his body.

Steve was looking for if he’d possibly missed any when Billy began to stir. He immediately jumped back, watching as his eyes fluttered open. They locked into Steve first, a low growl growing in his throat, but then he seemed to register something and he looked down at his wrapped up wing. Then to all the white bandages covering his body. He scowled.

“What the fuck is this shit? And why can’t I move my wing?” He demanded.

“I- uh… it's broken from the fall, so I was trying to fix it.”

“Wait, hey that’s what knocked me out! That shit hurt!” He winced at his movement.

“I also cleaned out your scrapes and bandaged those.” He said.

“Fucking idiot. Can’t wait to see how you taste.” He said with a smirk.

“You know, I helped you. I could’ve just left you there. And you don’t have to eat me, I have more food for you.” Steve gestured to the brown paper bags.

“I’m gonna leave them here for you.” Steve turned and walked away from him, back into town.

“Get back here asshole, I’m going to rip you to pieces!”

“With that threat? I don’t think so.”

He continued to walk back to town, shivering when he was out of sight. He didn’t want Billy to see just how nervous and afraid he was of the harpy. He’d come back tomorrow to check on him, hopefully with some help, although he somehow doubted he’d get any.

His thoughts were correct, because everyone he asked just turned him down flat and/or called him an idiot. He knew he this wasn’t the smartest idea he’s had, but it was like a blow each time he was called dumb. He even went to other harpies in the woods, but they didn’t seem to want to help either. He was careful with who he went to, though, because some harpies might take the opportunity to kill Billy when he was vulnerable. They weren’t a very violent species, but Billy was an exception. They didn’t want to help either.

And so, with more meat in his arms as well as fresh bandages should they be needed, Steve walked alone to the spot he’d left Billy the night prior. He could tell he was getting closer, because as soon as the harpy caught his scent, he heard a deep growl. He approached the sound, glimpsing the blue eyes glaring at him.

“It’s just me, man. I brought more food for you.” He said, holding up the same paper bags.

Billy eyes them, then looks back at Steve. He also saw the other bags he had in his hands, the human following his gaze.

“Oh, I brought clean bandages if you need them. Or will even let me change them.”

“Get the fuck out of here.”

“I’ll take that as a no. Though you’re not actively trying to tear me to shreds or eat me, so I’ll take that as a step up from yesterday.”

Billy growled.

“Yeah, yeah. Here.”

He tossed one of the bags towards the harpy who picked it up, quickly pulling out its contents and shoving the meat into his mouth. Bones and all. He barely even chewed, just swallowing his food then looking back at Steve hungrily when it was gone. Steve threw another bag, then another and another until there were no more left. The harpy licked his lips, cleaning off the blood from the raw meat. Steve started to approach, noticing some of the bandages were but Billy hissed and he backed off.

“Fine. You can do it.” He said, tossing the extra large size gauze and wrap-around bandages towards the man.

He picked up the box of gauze, inspecting it before ungracefully opening it, ripping the lid off and taking out the contents. He looked from the sticky gauze to the ones on his body and back, then to Steve, narrowing his eyes.

“What the hell are you looking at me like that for?”

Billy was silent and just took the edge of the roll and pulled on it, unwrapping a section from them. He then looked down and saw the bloody ones on his legs. He put down the clean gauze and cut into the ones on his leg extra carefully, pulling them off. He flinched a bit when some of his smaller down feathers came with it, scowling at Steve who put his hands up. He then went to pick up the roll, but it was stuck to his leg. He snarled and tried to use his other hand to pick it up, but it was hard to move without his wing hurting. When he finally did, the fresh gauze stuck to the gauze on his hand. He continued fruitlessly to try and get the gauze off of him, only succeeding in getting himself more stuck. He screeched in rage and Steve chuckled a bit. Bad move.

“What the fuck do you think you’re laughing at, stupid human? This is all your fault.”

Steve immediately stopped laughing.

“My fault? I saved you from the net!”

“I would’ve been just fine on my own!” He shouted.

“Yeah, it sure looked like it.”

Steve shouted as a clawed hand quickly and roughly snatched him by his leg, dragging him closer and lifting him up in the air, the man dangling upside down. His face was just inches from the harpy’s, and Steve shivered, looking at him with wide eyes as he scowled.

“Hey, hey, don’t eat me, dude! I- I helped you!”

“Get. This. Shit. Off.”

He was promptly dropped and Steve fell to the ground, landing roughly. He quickly took out his knife and began to cut at the gauze wrapped around his wing and leg, then carefully ripping off the sticky bandages, trying not to take any feathers with it. As soon as it was all off, he jumped back, a clawed hand barely missing him.

“Whoa!”

Billy growled.

“You’re lucky I have a broken wing.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Steve then turned back to leave, but he knew those bandages needed changing and he had to try. He waited until Billy wasn’t razor-focused on him and moved over to his healthy wing, trying to change the bandages there. As soon as he touched him, however, the gator whipped his head over to him, mouth open. Steve cried out as sharp teeth sank into his arm, quickly letting go, presumably to get a better grip and tear his arm off, but Steve didn’t let that happen, scrambling back and holding his arm to his chest. Blood was leaking through his fingers, and he looked back at the harpy. Murderous eyes looked into his, neck feathers puffing up around the head.

“Get. The fuck. Away from me.”

Steve did not need to be told twice, and he quickly ran off, grabbing the bandages and cradle of his bleeding arm. He sat down when he thought he was far enough away, taking out the bandages from the bag he had. He also took out some peroxide, pouring a ton of it over the wound. He watched it bubble and hissed as it stung. He then wiped it dry and wrapped one of the bandages around his arm where the bite was. Thankfully, it didn’t look too deep, but it was certainly deep enough.he walked back home, getting inside and plopping onto his bed. He had originally intended to visit Eddie after he fed Billy, but now he couldn’t.

Dustin came by later, waking Steve from the nap he’d fallen into. He woke confusedly, looking at the kid on the other side of the room.

“What is that?” He asked, pointing to the now bloody bandage around his arm.

“Wha- oh. Shit.”

Steve quickly took it off, unwrapping the bandage and inspecting the wound underneath. He grimaced.

“Holy shit! What the hell bit you!?”

“He, uh, it was a harpy…”

“Who would- no. You’re not actually-“

“Yeah. I tried to change his bandages and he bit me.”

“You’re lucky that’s all he did!”

“I know, I know. But I couldn’t just leave him.”

“Yes, you could have.”

Steve gave him a look.

He then got up and went into the bathroom, turning the sink on and sticking his arm underneath the cold water. The blood washed off his wound, leaving a no-longer bleeding yet rather large bite mark, the thing stretching across his entire forearm. He poured some more peroxide on it for good measure before drying it off. Dustin watched as he wrapped another bandage around it, then went back into his room.

“You should probably leave him be, you know.”

“Yeah, I should, but he doesn’t know how to change them and-“

“Steve. You are going to get yourself killed. Do you understand?“

“It’s fine, Henderson. I’ll be more careful.”

Dustin looked at him with pity and a bit of fear for his babysitter.

“Just- don’t die, okay?“

Steve sighed.

“I won’t.”

Steve skipped the next day of going into the woods. He contemplated even going back at all, wondering if the harpy really would be fine on his own. But then he thought about it. Sure he was able to almost eat Steve, but that’s because the man had been stupid and got too close to him. Would he even be able to get his own food? Then there was the issue with the bandages. They needed to be changed and Billy wouldn't be able to do that. He’s already proved as much.

So, regrettably, Steve decided to go the next day. His bandage was off his forearm, the bite mark having scabbed over but still looking pretty bad. He got extra food this time to make up for yesterday in case the harpy wasn’t able to get anything to eat. He also brought clean bandages. Maybe he could talk Billy through on how to use them.

He showed up to where he last left the harpy, but he wasn’t there. There was, however, a trail of feathers leading from the spot. Gold, red, and black ones. He followed them, leading him farther into the woods. When he finally got to the harpy, it wasn’t a very nice sight. He was slouched over against a tree, breathing erratically. He wasn’t even growling. He looked to be semi-lucid, and Steve soon saw why. There was blood leaking out of one of his sides, a very dead and mutilated half-eaten bear on the ground next to him. Steve’s face paled.

Against his better judgement, he ran to the harpy, inspecting the wound. He let out a token growl, but he didn’t seem to be all there enough to do much else. Steve immediately grabbed a towel he’d brought and pressed it into the wound, the harpy hissing as he did so. Steve then took a new bottle of peroxide and opened it up, removing the bloody towel and pouring it all over the deep gashes he had. He then wiped them with a clean part of the towel, cleaning the dirt out so they wouldn’t get infected. He then took the large bandages, wrapping them around his whole torso, pulling tightly so as to try and stop the bleeding as best he could.

He then grabbed some of the meat out of one of the bags. The butcher was probably questioning him on how much meat he was buying every day, but he didn’t care. The harpy wouldn’t take it from him so he climbed up onto his chest, placing the meat right in front of his mouth. This is how I die, isn’t it? He thought to himself as it was roughly taken from him, the harpy almost biting his hands in the process. He fed him more and more, the bird-man gaining strength as he ate. Eventually, Steve hopped off, just tossing the meat towards him so he wouldn’t get eaten, Billy being able to grab it himself.

He picked his lips when it was gone, then looked to Steve, grimacing. He was still weak, but not as much as he had been before. Steve let out a sigh of relief. If he wouldn’t have come back, Billy probably would’ve died. He asked in the back of his mind if that would’ve been such a bad thing, but quickly pushed those thoughts down. Max would be upset at least. He warily started to approach once again. Billy glared at him, but didn’t do anything else, so Steve took that as a sign he was allowed to approach. He did so very cautiously, holding his hands up the whole time.

“You okay man?”

Billy snarled.

“I’m fine. Not like I needed your help.” He winced as he tried to move.

“Yes, you did. And I could’ve helped you more if you cooperated and didn’t bite me when I tried to change your bandages.”

Billy’s eyes drifted to Steve’s forearm, looking to see the bite mark he’d delivered the other day. He scoffed.

“You’re lucky all I did was bite you. Ducking deserved it.”

“No, I didn’t! I’m trying to help you. You know no one else wanted to help me? Not even the other harpies I went to.”

Billy’s face had an unreadable expression as Steve looked at him. He grumbled a bit, saying something quietly that Steve couldn’t quite make out. He put his hand on one of the bloody bandages on Billy’s leg, to which the harpy flinched back a bit, growling but with no real bite behind it.

“Look, these are dirty, and they need to be changed. So you want to get an infection?”

He was silent.

Steve looked back down at them, finding the edge and slowly unwrapping it. The sight underneath wasn’t too pretty. It was all covered in blood, the red smeared around the injury as well as matting the feathers where it was dried. Steve grimaced, but took a fresh towel out of his bag. He started pouring peroxide over it to both kill the bacteria and wash the area. He wiped it off with the towel, getting it covered with the newly wet blood. He wiped off the feathers and scrapes, getting a bottle of water out of his bag to pour over it. He then continued until it was clean, grabbing a clean bandage. He wrapped it around his newly cleaned leg, covering it up until it was scabbed over.

“See? I’m just trying to help.”

Billy scowled down at him but let him change the rest of his bandages.

It had been about a week of Steve checking up on the harpy and giving him food. He was always angry and was never once nice to the human. He continued the threats but never actually acted on them, so Steve took that as a win. Billy would occasionally glance at the bite mark on his forearm, but Steve could never tell what he was thinking. Probably how good he’d tasted.

It was at the end of the week that Steve finally visited Eddie. And it was good timing too, because the harpy looked frazzled. His face lit up as he saw his human, rushing towards him and grabbing him up, hugging him close to his chest.

“Where’ve you been, man? I haven’t seen you in over a week!”

“I know, I know. I got caught up with something.” Steve said, pushing away from his friend.”

Eddie set him down, looking him over.

“What could’ve kept you for so-“ his eyes landed in the bite mark. “Who did that.” He asked, venom in his voice.

Steve quickly looked at his arm, then back at Eddie, trying to cover it up.

“Oh, this? It’s nothing! I just got bit by a big dog!”

“Steve. I’m not stupid, I know what a bite from my own species looks like.”

Steve sighed.

“Look, it’s no big deal, okay? Just trust me on this one it’s fine. They won’t do it again.”

“Tell me who.”

“No! I’m not going to, I don’t want you to hurt them, that’s what I’ve been trying to prevent.”

Eddie looked at him, brows furrowed.

“Fine.”

Steve let out a breath, and the two quickly fell into their usual routine. They joked and laughed for a while, Eddie preened his hair, something he usually did when Steve visited. He couldn’t help but notice, though, that the crow harpy would periodically look at the bite mark on his arm. Then Eddie began to close his mouth around Steve, pulling him inside.

“Whoa, whoa! Not right now, not now!”

Eddie spit him out, pouting.

“Why not?”

“Just- I’m pretty busy right now, okay? I can’t.”

“Does it have something to do with that?” He asked, gesturing to his arm.

“Wha- I mean yeah, it- it does, but-“

“You’re not cheating on me, are you Stevie?”

“Cheating on you?! We’re friends, dude! Plus, it’s not like that.”

Eddie rolled his eyes at the ‘friends’ part. Steve was dense as a rock, but he believed the man when he said it wasn’t like that. He was a terrible liar. Eddie complained a whole lot, but proceeded to just lick the man instead of eat him. He was disappointed, but let Steve go later without being eaten.

As the days went on, Billy grew stronger and stronger. With the help of Steve, of course, but he’d always deny that. The bandages came off shortly after the first week, allowing his feathers around the wounds to mostly grow back during the second, though there’d always be a scar in his side from the bear attack. He was strong enough to catch his own food, and Steve started coming less and less, Billy wondering why that was. He did maintenance on the scrapes and scratches, making sure they didn’t get infected and whatnot, and he’d occasionally bring him something to eat.

“Why haven’t you been coming as much as you usually do?“

Steve had been checking on Billy’s wing after having given the harpy something to eat to hopefully distract him. It’d been two weeks, and it looked to be healing quickly. Probably because of the hollow bones, Steve would have to guess. But the question caught him off guard.

“W-what?” He asked incredulously, looking up at the harpy. “I mean, you’re healing well, and you don’t need me to bring you food since you’re strong enough to get your own…”

Billy considered this. It did make sense, he had to admit, so he just stayed silent, letting the human re-wrap his wing, telling him it’d probably only take another week, possibly two and it’d be fully healed. He then packed up his stuff and quickly left, leaving Bily to his own devices. The harpy looked after him, understanding that he was okay now, but not quite getting why the human didn’t want to stick around other than simple maintenance.

The first time Billy ate a human after the accident was, to say the least, a different experience than it had before. He usually took joy in eating them, mutilating any and all humans he saw. This time, however, it was just a reflex, he didn’t really think about it before pouncing on the man who’d wandered too close to him. Maybe if he had, he wouldn’t have done it. When he bit into the freshly killed man, it didn’t taste as good as it did before. He looked down at him, seeing his face. He couldn’t help but be reminded of Steve. It left a bad taste in his mouth.

He backed up, looking at the corpse and spitting the chunk of flesh out. He felt something deep in his chest he’d never really felt before. He didn’t understand. Humans were lesser than him, they deserved to be killed and eaten. They were just food, right? That’s what he’d been told his whole life by his bastard of a father. All they wanted to do was hurt them.

Steve didn’t, though. That stupid asshole had actually helped him. Why? All he did was try to eat and kill and maim him, and all Steve did was try to help. No one had helped him before. No one had even been nice to him. What had the human said? No one else wanted to come when he’d asked them to help Billy? Not even other harpies. Damn, he really was an asshole, huh?

He left the corpse there in the middle of the woods. He knew other harpies ate humans but they’d explained it was only the bad ones. Murderers, assholes. Probably people like him. Maybe he could try that instead of killing indiscriminately. A lot of those humans were probably innocent.

If a few tears made their way down Billy’s face as he walked away from the man he’d killed, no one had to know.

The next time he tried was a few days later. There was a man in the town nearby who was well-known for killing people and was now on the run. He’d learned this information from Steve when the man was checking on his wing again, having wanted to talk about something so it wouldn’t be so awkward. Billy immediately formed a target in his mind at that, listening to the description Steve gave and his habits. He liked hiding in the woods.

Billy watched around for a day before spotting him. At least, he was pretty sure it was him. He looked shady as hell, in a dark hoodie and dark pants. The bloody knife he slipped into his pocket only confirmed it. Billy watched where he was going, the criminal sticking to one direction, constantly looking behind him. The harpy had an idea. He ran ahead of the guy, not quite being able to fly yet and climbed up into a tree. He lied in wait for the man, a mischievous grin on his face.

His ear perked up as he heard footsteps in another direction, coming towards him. That didn't make sense. The guy was supposed to come from the opposite direction. He turned his head in annoyance, seeing another man walk up. He had a small beard and mustace, as well as a bit of a belly. He was wearing some type of uniform, tan all over him as well as a hat on his head. It took him a minute, but eventually he looked up and spotted Billy in the tree, face going pale and stumbling back. Billy smirked at him, looking down at the man. It seemed he was waiting for something, bracing himself. Billy frowned.

When nothing happened, the man opened his eyes back up and looked at him, bewildered.

“Whatcha doing out here all by yourself?” Asked the harpy.

The man was visibly sweating.

“I-uhh, aren’t you going to eat me?”

“You asking me to?“

“No, no! I just… I’m looking for someone out here.” He backtracked quickly.

Billy laughed. The man’s eyes then traveled to the makeshift cast on his wing, face contorting in confusion. The harpy hissed and shielded it, scowling at the man who put his hands up.

“W-what are you doing?” He asked nervously.

Billy grinned wickedly.

“Hunting.”

The man clearly did not like what that implied, and he stepped back a bit at the sharp-toothed grin the harpy gave him. Billy may not kill innocent humans anymore, but that didn’t mean he didn’t like teasing them and watching them squirm. He turned back to where he was watching, hearing faint running coming from there. He readied himself, getting into position to pounce on the man from in the tree. He watched him come into view, crashing through the bushes and into the small clearing. Billy jumped out of the tree, landing on top of the man and grabbing him up in his claws. He bit into the man, causing him to scream loud, the sound cutting off as his throat was torn out. There was a gasp to his side as he swallowed the flesh, and he turned to look at the man who’d come up earlier.

“You still here?” He asked, fishing around in the clothes to find something.

He pulled out the bloodied knife, tossing it over to the man who jumped back. He also found a little leather folding thing in his pants pocket, tossing that over to him for good measure, though he had no idea what it was. The man slowly approached it, eyeing the bloody weapon before picking up the leather thing. He looked inside, pulling out a tiny flat thing. He looked from it to the man and back again.

“Huh. Can I see the face?”

Billy rolled his eyes but turned the man over so he could see.

“Yep, that’s him. Guess I don’t have to take him in…”

“He went missing. Died from the animals of the forest. Not like it’s a lie.”

He went back in, biting into his arm, tearing pretty much the whole thing off and chewing it for a bit, then swallowing it down. The man watched in horror, looking a bit sick.

“You gonna stick around and watch or something?“

That seemed to snap the man out of his daze, and he shook his head, backing out of the area slowly. Billy went back to his meal, ripping the other arm off and snapping the bones between his teeth before swallowing it, licking the blood leaking from his mouth. He repeatedly tore large pieces from it, chewing and swallowing. Soon enough, there was nothing left of the man. He ate the entire thing, bones included. Most harpies didn’t eat the bones, but he was a bearded vulture, and the actual bird he was related to’s diet was mostly bones, so he ate them too. Either way, he tasted good.

He still smelled the man close by, so he decided to pay him a visit again, probably scare him shitless. The man was close to the edge of the woods when he found him, and Billy smirked, jumping out and landing in front of him. He let out a shout, stumbling back and falling on his ass, looking up at him with widened eyes. He scrambled away, scared out of his mind as he looked up at the looming harpy.

“Where’d you think you’re going?” He asked with a sharp-toothed grin.

“I- uh.. I need to get back to town. I have a job…”

“Yeah? What do you do there?”

“I'm the chief of police.”

Billy could not believe he didn’t catch that before, what with the uniform and all. He knew what police did, and that with his broken wing he’d actuate in danger if a group of humans were to come after him. He growled at the man, reaching out and pinning him underneath the claws of his uninjured wing.

“You’re not gonna get anyone after me, are you?”

“W-what?”

“I said, you’re not going to get a group of humans to come try and kill me, are you?”

The man rapidly shook his head, squirming underneath the harpy’s hand.

“Good,” he said, releasing the man, “and if you do, just know I’ll find you.

The man nodded before stumbling to his feet and running in the direction of the town, not even bothering to dust himself off. Billy watched him go, hoping he actually wouldn’t try and take him out. It pained him to trust the human, but he wanted to do better, not kill random innocent people, and he knew that guy was good. He stuck to his word.

It had been about three and a half weeks now since the accident. Steve came and went, less and less often as the days went on, much to Billy’s annoyance. He didn’t know why, but he wanted the human to visit more. Maybe even stay longer sometimes. He was pretty sure he was that crow harpy’s mate, not that he thought of Steve that way, but the guy probably wouldn’t appreciate it if he stuck around Billy more. That must be the reason.

The bandages on his wing were off now, though he wasn’t able to fly when they first came off. His wing was incredibly sore. He helped it though, stretching the thing and practicing flying motions. About two days later, he was able to take off and fly around, though not for long.

Steve came to visit that day, looking around for Billy, who saw him down on the ground and landed in front of him, looking down at the human who stumbled back a bit. He looked to the previously broken wing and back up to his face, smiling nervously.

“Guess you’re okay now, right?“

“Yeah, healed up pretty good.”

“Umm, okay. I’ll just leave then, and I’ll stop visiting you. I know you probably don’t want me around anymore. I did bring this, though.”

Steve reached into a bag and brought out a rather large fish, knowing that harpies tended to like them and that Billy seemed to like them the most out of anything else he gave him. He tossed it to the harpy who reached down and caught it in his mouth, chewing a few times before swallowing the entire thing in one gulp.

When he looked back down, Steve was already walking away, about twenty feet from the harpy and going further into the trees. Billy frowned. He didn’t want the human to leave, especially when he said he wasn’t going to come back. Billy wanted to call out to him, but that probably wouldn’t work. So, he did the only thing he could think of. He took off, flying towards him and swooping down, grabbing him up in his talons. He heard the man let out a shriek, squirming wildly and trying to get out. He then froze when he realized how high up they were, and began to shake, sobbing within his grasp.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, okay? Please let me go!”

Billy felt a little bad, but kept flying in the direction of his nest, taking Steve along for the ride. He quickly got there, but it took him a bit longer, having not been there in almost a month. He made it inside, plopping the human within the large tree and landing in it himself. Steve immediately ran to the edge, looking over it and seeing the large drop, face paleing. He turned back around to face the harpy.

“I- uhh, please let me go… I’m sorry, okay? I shouldn’t have stuck around, you were fine, I knew that.”

Was he… afraid of him? Why? Billy hadn’t tried to eat or maul him in the past two weeks! Why was he still so terrified? Billy frowned down at him, getting closer. He wanted to thank him for helping, but still couldn’t bring himself to say it outright. He knew harpies could eat humans without hurting them, and protecting Steve seemed like a good thank you, but he’d never done that before. Well, now was as good a time as any to try it, right?

Steve backed up as he got closer, back pressing against the edge of the nest, looking up at Billy and pleading for his life. The harpy bent down, mouth opening and Steve screamed. He grabbed the human in his mouth as gently as he could, feeling him squirm and kick, screaming and apologizing the entire time. Billy just took him in further, pushing him to the back of his tongue. Steve went limp as he took his first swallow, the man seemingly giving up. He continued to gulp him down, the feeling of swallowing an entire human while being a strange one. He’d never done this before, not that it was uncomfortable, but different. He felt the man slowly slide into his stomach, his form pooling into his belly, the organ letting out a gurgle, happily accepting the man.

“WAS THAT STEVE?!”

Billy snapped his head to the side, seeing his sister looking at him in disbelief, cradling her human mate to her chest. He also looked terrified, staring at where Steve had just disappeared.

“Seriously Billy, did you just eat Steve Harrington?” The cardinal looked pissed, but also wary.

“And where the hell have you been?“

Billy scoffed, looking to his sister. He didn’t want to look weak.

“Yeah, it fucking was. I’m putting the shitty human in his place.”

“Eddie’s really not going to like that, you know.”

“Yeah? What’s that shitty crow gonna do to me?”

“Eddie’s not going to like what?”

Billy froze at the voice behind him, slowly turning around to see the black-feathered harpy. He did not look very happy.

“I- uh…”

“He ate Steve.”

“You WHAT!?”

His eyes were full of both rage and sadness, looking at the larger harpy before him with a murderous gaze. Billy quickly began to bring the human back up, backing away from the angry crow. He felt the lump rise in his throat and as soon as he was in his mouth, he spit Steve out onto the ground of the nest. He immediately ran over to Eddie, clearly seeking comfort. Billy, on the other hand, took off, flying away as fast as he could and leaving the others behind.

He came back to the nest the next day, making sure Eddie was gone.

“He helped you, you know. And you’re just being an asshole.”

He turned to Max.

“But- I wasn’t gonna hurt him. Why doesn’t he want to keep coming to visit me?”

Max looked at him like he was the dumbest creature on the planet.

“Really? You keep yelling and threatening and scaring him! And don’t you think I didn’t see that bite mark on his arm. He’s being nice, and you’re just being an asshole. Even if you weren’t going to hurt him, how the hell was he supposed to know that?”

Billy was taken aback. Max had never spoken to him like that.

“And, when he was in your stomach, you said he was a shitty human and you were putting him in his place.”

Billy thought for a moment about what she said.

“Shit, well what the hell am I supposed to do now?”

“If you really care, then apologize.”

It was a week after the whole ‘Billy eating him’ incident, Steve having avoided Billy as best he could after the harpy ate him. He knew he should have helped, he just knew it. No good deed goes unpunished, right? Thankfully Eddie was there to save him, the vulture harpy spitting him up before he could start to digest the man. He was doing another walk through the woods, going to visit Eddie. The harpy who landed behind him, however, was not in fact Eddie.

“Hey.”

Steve froze, turning around to meet none other than Billy, the vulture staring down at him with those terrifying piercing eyes surrounded with black. Steve stepped back, already starting to shake, terrified at the thing in front of him.

“I- I’ve been staying away! What else do you want me to do!? I thought you were different now, but all you want to do is eat me!”

There were tears in his eyes now, and he was looking up defiantly.

“Well? Just get it over with!” He closed his eyes, holding out his arms and shaking.

“I’m sorry.”

Steve’s eyes flew open.

“I- what?!”

“I said I was sorry, okay? You were helping me, and all I did was try and hurt you.”

“You- you’re sorry?”

“I said it, didn’t I? That so hard to believe?” He yelled.

Steve flinched back at the yelling.

“Shit, I’m sorry, okay?” He said in a quieter voice.

He sat down a few feet from the human, just looking at him.

“Then- why’d you eat me…”

“Don’t give me that shit. I know other harpies eat humans like that too.”

“Yeah, but… why did you?”

“I-“ he sighed. “I wanted to say thank you for helping me, but I was too much of an idiot to actually say it, so I ate you.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Also, I’ve stopped eating so many humans.”

“You- you have?”

“Yeah, now it’s only the assholes like that shitty crow.”

“Oh. That’s… actually that’s really nice.”

“Yeah. Just wanted to tell you that.”

“Okay.”

Billy got up to leave, ready to walk away when he paused.

“Oh yeah, almost forgot.”

“What?”

Billy turned around to face Steve, picking him up in his claws, causing the human to freak out a bit.

“What’re you…”

Steve yelped as he was shoved into the harpy’s maw once again, Billy doing it a bit slower and less rough this time. He eased the man to the entrance to his throat, taking his first deep swallow, sending him halfway into the tube of flesh that was so eager to accept him. Steve watched in horror as he was pushed once more down the esophagus, feeling the harpy gulp again in order to pull him in. Before long, his head popped into the larger open space that was Billy’s stomach, his body following soon after. He curled up inside, there was a bit of room to move about, but the walls hugged him on all sides. He jumped as he felt a hand on the other side start to rub the belly. At least he was pretty sure he wouldn’t die this time.

He felt it as Billy took off, seemingly flying to his nest. He was used to the feeling of being inside a harpy’s stomach, but usually it was Eddie who had him. Billy’s didn’t feel much different, if maybe a bit larger. He sat in the churning and gurgling organ, waiting for the vulture to get back to his nest. He landed, and Steve heard what sounded like Max on the other side.

“Hey Bill- what’s in your stomach?” She asked, noticing the slight bulge.

“Harrington.“

“What?! Again? You killed him this time, didn’t you? What the hell is wr-“

“He’s fine.”

“What?”

“He’s fine. He’s not dead. I just swallowed him whole.”

“Why?”

“Because. You’re the one who told me to apologize. I didn’t want anything to happen to him either.” He said that last part quietly.

Then a new voice came up.

“Steve was supposed to be at my nest already, I swear to god, Hargrove, if you hurt him I’ll-“

“I didn’t. He’s not hurt.” He said, placing a hand on his belly.

“You ate him again?!”

“He’s okay!”

“Spit him out.”

“Fine.”

Steve once again felt the muscles press into him, pushing him back into his esophagus and up to the mouth. Billy gently spit him up onto the floor of the next, but this time he stayed between the two harpies.

“Steve! Are you okay? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

“No, no. He’s fine.”

“What do you mean he’s fine, he’s Billy Har-“

“I know who he is.”

Eddie looked to the vulture harpy.

“You devour every human you see, so why not him, huh?”

“I just- he’s different…”

Eddie must’ve taken that the wrong way, because he went to grab Steve away, but the man didn’t let him.

“He’s mine. Don’t you even-“

“What? No, no, not like that.”

“Then like what?”

Billy then sighed and started to explain everything that Steve did for him, how he helped him when he got hurt, fixed his broken wing, and even that the bite mark was indeed from him. Eddie got pissed at that, but Steve calmed him down.

“That was a really dumb thing to do, you know.”

“I-“ Steve looked down. “I know.”

“I’m right here, guys.” Said Billy.

“You shut up, you have no room to talk.”

Billy shut up.

“I don’t really appreciate everyone calling me stupid all the time!”

Eddie’s face grew angry.

“Who’s been calling you Stupid, give me names.”

“Don’t even, Eddie. You just did.”

“I-“

“I know I could’ve been killed, but no one else would help and I couldn’t just let him die.”

Billy winced a bit when Steve said no one else would help him.

“And he’s better. He said he was sorry, and that he’s stopped eating all the humans he sees, only the bad ones like you.” He said, pointing to Eddie.

The crow looked up at Billy, a bit skeptical but he believed Steve. Once again, the man was a terrible liar.

“That true?” He asked the vulture.

“Yeah. It is. I’m… grateful that Steve helped me. I wanna be better. I want people to actually want to be around me.”

Max came up next to her brother and pressed her head into his side, nuzzling him a bit.

“I’m glad. I want you to be better too.”

Billy sighed, wrapping a wing around his sister. Eddie then grabbed hold of Steve, pulling him in as well. He then shoved the man into his mouth, quickly devouring him a lot faster than Billy did, as he was used to it.

“I’m taking him with me.” He said, then took off to fly back to his own nest.

Eddie was running for his life. He had left the abandoned barn the kids had put him up in like an idiot. He knew they’d be sure to tell him that. But he just had to get away from that snake guy, who he learned was Steve fucking Harrington, the king of Hawkins, after being stuck in there with him for so long. Sure, he was happy to not be all by himself in there like he was at the boat house, at least he had some company. But the dude fucking swallowed him when they first met.

He claimed it was because Eddie was being too loud. Eddie had been screaming because, you know, he was locked in an old barn with a fucking snake dude. Eddie didn’t really mind snakes, he’d even thought about getting one as a pet at one point, but this was a snake person, which were two completely different things.

Eddie had climbed out a window while Steve slept up in the rafters, landing on the ground and running as fast as he could away from the barn. He knew he couldn’t just go into town, people were looking for him, after all, so he decided to run into the woods.

Turns out, the jocks on the basketball team were also looking in the woods for him. ‘Hunt the freak’, right? He’d been running through the trees for a while when he’d run into them. Literally. He ran himself right into the chest of Jason Carver, head of the Hawkins High basketball team while looking behind him to make sure Steve wasn’t following.

“Hey watch where you’re goi- is that the freak?!”

Eddie’s head snapped up at the voice, looking up from where he fell on the ground.

“Shit!”

Jason grabbed the front of his shirt, lifting him up and getting in his face.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?”

“I, uh-“

Eddie brought his knee up into Jason’s crotch and he yelled, letting go of him and putting both his hands over his jewels.

Eddie turned and ran back in the direction he came from, beelining it back to the abandoned barn, yelling “shit, shit, shit!” The entire time.

“Don’t just stand there, you idiots, get him!” Jason shouted in rage at the others just standing around him.

Eddie ran and ran as fast as he could, incredibly lucky that he was able to get a head start from the jocks. He was fast, but he definitely wasn’t as fast as them. They were athletes, and he was far from it.

He gasped in relief when he finally saw that old red barn ahead of him and through the trees, but he could also hear the jocks catching up behind him. He ran even faster across the open stretch between the forest and the barn, coming around the front when he reached it.

He pulled open the door to the barn and jumped inside, turning to shut it behind him.

He never got to, though, because he felt a large, long scaley tube wrap around his midsection and yank him up into the rafters, causing him to let out a small yelp. He looked up only to be face-to-face with an angry snake. Steve was looking at him, fangs bared and forked tongue flicking out of his mouth in an annoyed fashion.

“Where the hell have you been, Munson?”

“L-look uh, I can explain b-but I’m in kind of a pinch right now, I need to close the door!”

Steve heard the jocks getting closer to the barn and snarled, looking back at Eddie.

“You’ve really done it now, Munson, haven’t you?”

Eddie shrugged and smiled sheepishly at him.

Steve sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and thinking. His annoyed expression quickly turned into a grin.

“I have an idea, Munson,” he said with a smile, “but you’re not gonna like it.”

Eddie's face immediately fell.

“Wait! No, no, no, not again!”

The jocks were closing in at this point, almost right outside the door at this point.

“Fine,” Eddie said, squeezing his eyes shut, “Just get it over with.”

Steve opened his maw wide, his jaw unhinging like a snake’s, and shoved Eddie’s head inside just as the jocks made it into the barn, bursting through the open door.

“Where the hell did he go?”

The jocks stand there in confusion, looking all around the barn for possible places where Eddie could’ve hidden. This is, until they hear a loud gulp from above them.

Steve had just taken his first gulp of Eddie Munson, the bullies underneath them snapping their heads up in the direction of the sound. They didn’t see anything at first, until one must’ve caught sight of a section of his tail.

“Holy shit! Look at that huge-ass snake up there!” One of them said, pointing up at him.

Their eyes trailed across the scaly tail, following as it got thicker and thicker, winding through the wood in the rafters. Then Steve took another gulp. Their eyes snapped immediately to where the sound came from, only to see the bottom half of one Eddie Munson hanging out of the freakishly human-like face of the large snake. The rest of the tail was wrapped around the metalhead’s legs.

The teens' faces morphed into expressions of horror, looking on as the snake-man took another gulp of the guy they’d been chasing.

By the third gulp, only Eddie’s legs were out of the mouth, and the snake easily slurped them down like a pair of noodles, gulping in quick succession.

The jocks just stared dumbly, not knowing what else to do but stand there.

“Hey, uh… does that snake guy kinda remind you of Steve Harrington?”

One of the other teens looked over to him.

“Steve?! As in King Steve?!”

They began arguing about whether or not the snake looked like Steve. He had been gone for a while, but most thought he just left Hawkins, even for a little bit. They’re arguing turned into shouting, them being obviously scared and trying to think about something other than what they just witnessed.

“Well whatever it is, at least it got rid of the freak.” Said a particularly bold member of the basketball team.

They then heard someone clear their throat directly behind them.

“Forget about something?”

They all whipped around and found themselves face to face with the snake man.

Steve bared his fangs, growling at all of them and snapping his teeth. He slithered closer, making himself taller and looking larger than he really was, claws out.

The smell of ammonia filled the air as a few of the jock’s pants started to grow wet. Steve snickered, his fangs on full display and they all turned around and ran out the door. If they had tails, they’d certainly be between their legs.

One man lingered behind, stepping backwards slowly out the door.

“Y-you, you don’t scare me, freak!” Jason yelled, raising his fist.

Steve’s amused expression fell, and he slithered directly up in Jason’s face.

“You wanna join him?” He said, opening his mouth wide enough to fit Jason’s head.

Jason stumbled back when he felt a small tug at his foot, looking down to see a thin coil around his ankle. He screamed and fell over, quickly getting up and scrambling to get away, running off after his friends into the woods.

Steve smirked and shut the barn door behind him, slithering back up and into the rafters where he was relaxing before. He purposely hung the section of coils that Eddie was currently trapped in, like a living hammock for the metalhead.

“Uh, thanks Steve. You can let me out now?”

Steve snorted.

“Yeah, I’m not going through all that work to get you out when it’s your fault you’re in there in the first place. Plus I have to make sure you don’t escape again. Get comfortable in there, I’m going back to my nap.”

Eddie sighed. He really didn’t know what he expected, but he decided that he’d better take Steve’s advice and get comfortable, which wasn’t very hard as the flesh surrounding him was soft and warm, plus he’d always liked hammocks.

Both boys settled down to sleep, hanging from the rafters in the safe abandoned barn.

Steve was sitting, tied to a chair, face all bloody, drugged, and surrounded by angry Russians. Robin was tied to a chair behind him, right against his back, both still in their Scoops Ahoy uniforms. They’d been there for what seemed like hours, the Russians uselessly trying to get nonexistent information out of them. They had literally nothing to say. One of the Russians smiled at him, getting close to his face. He barked some order at the others, and they quickly scrambled off. He giggled a bit, being high out of his mind, and asked the man what he was saying.

“We have something special, experimental, to try in you.”

Steve wasn’t sure what to think about that.

“What kind of experiment.”

The man just smiled, standing back up straight, and backing up from him. The other Russians came back into the room, grabbing Steve’s chair and beginning to drag him out. He freaked out a bit, trying to plant his feet on the ground, Robin asking where he was going, giggling the whole time. She clearly had a bit more than he did.

Steve was taken into a separate room, still tied to the chair. It was pretty empty, other than a single light bulb on the ceiling, a small camera in the corner, and a window to another room, seemingly to watch him through. All the Russians left, leaving him alone to think about what they were going to do to him. Not that he could think much, anyways, the drugs they injected into him clouding his brain. He waited in the room for at least an hour. They sure were taking their sweet time, weren’t they?

Soon enough, however, they were back. They looked to have protective gear on, some with masks covering their faces. He looked nervously to their hands, one in particular holding a rather large needle filled with a deep green liquid. Or swirled around in the syringe, almost taunting him. He immediately knew that was going into him, though he had no idea what it was going to do. He would soon find out, he guessed.

They grabbed his head, jerking it to the side and prepping a spot on his neck, wiping it with a little sterilization pad. They then spoke to each other. In Russian, of course, so Steve had absolutely no clue what the hell they were saying, which he thought was funny for some reason. He giggled, causing the others to also laugh, but at his expense. The one holding the needle placed it against his neck, waiting to push it in. A final order was given, and the cool, sharp metal was plunged into his neck, piercing his skin.

He cried out, it didn’t feel good, of course, but soon whatever liquid had been in there was slowly spreading throughout his veins. It started off as a warm, dull numbing sensation, growing warmer and warmer as it spread. First it was warm, then hot, then burning. He squealed, writhing around in his chair, the ropes burning his wrists and ankles. By now all the Russians had left, leaving Steve alone. His eyes were squeezed shut, so he couldn’t see if there was anyone in the room with the window, but he would bet that there were.

While the burning was going on, he could feel other things happening in his body as well, or more specifically, happening to his body. His fingers ached, fingernails almost pushing out of the tips. He felt the same feeling in his jaws, teeth piercing through his gums. His ears were stretching as well, but those things were the least of his problems. He felt his legs, which were already tied together, becoming one, almost melting into one another. They also stretched and grew, getting longer and longer. Steve was hyperventilating as he felt a pricking sensation across his entire body, like needles trying to burrow their way out of him. They were trapped, and needed to get out.

It went on for Steve doesn’t even know how long. It was probably only a few minutes at most, but to him it felt like hours. Then the pain faded, he wasn’t burning, there weren’t any needles, and no more stretching. He opened his eyes, and found that he could now pretty easily wriggle his way out of the ropes. After he was free, he actually looked down at himself, eyes bugging out when he did. It was… a snake?! Why was there a snake in here?! He flowed it from the end of the tail, trailing up and up until he got to the… there was no head. It connected to his torso! Was he a snake?! He was still wearing his uniform, albeit without shorts. He looked down to his hands, only to see claws. His skin was also brown and scaley, all of it, not just the tail.

While normally he’d probably be freaking the hell out, right now he just thought it was hilarious. He giggled, inspecting himself. He looked to the window to see a few of the Russians looking at him through the glass, and he waved at them, a dumb grin on his face. Then they left. Soon after they were in his room, many with more protective gear, reinforced this time. They grabbed him, two for his upper half, and a lot for the snake part. He was dragged to another room. The same room he was in prior, actually. Robin was still in there, now untied, and he waved at her. She looked at him with wide eyes.

“Whoa, that’s a big snake, why’s there a big snake in here?”

“It’s me, Rob! It’s Sssteeeeve.”

“Steeeve?! Why are you a snake?”

“I dunno,” he shrugged, “they injected some stuff in me.”

The Russians left the room, allowing them to interact. Steve’s stomach growled.

“Hey, hey Robiiin, I’m gonna hide youuu.”

“You’re gonna hide me?“

“Yeah, from the Russians.”

“How’re you gonna do that?”

“Well come here.“

Robin did as she was told, approaching the snake and giggling. Steve placed his newly clawed hands on the girl’s shoulders and began to open his mouth wide. His jaw unhinged with a little snap and a pop, larger than a normal person’s would. Robin just looked in awe, staring into his open maw.

“Whoaaa, your mouth is sooo biiiiig.”

Steve started bringing it down gently onto Robin’s head, muscles stretching to envelop her. She giggled the whole time, Steve moving his mouth side to side like a snake would. He took his first swallow, sending Robin’s head down his throat.

“This feels weeeird.” She laughed.

He giggled around her as well, gulping once more, sending the top half of her torso into his gullet. Swallow by swallow, little by little, she sank into his body. He felt her enter into his first stomach, sighing as she did so. The muscles worked to pull her in, then pushed her into the opening tunnel on the other side. She was going further into his snake half. He swallowed again, letting the combination of both gravity and his internal muscles do their job. One last gulp and her feet were sent down. He let out a satisfied sigh, feeling Robin start to enter his second stomach. She pooled into his snake belly, a warmth settling inside.

He was giggling, thinking he hid his friend from trouble. He could hear her giggling inside as well, because apparently getting eaten by her friend turned snake was hilarious. One of the Russians came back in, smiling.

“Well well well, have a good meal?”

“What do you mean? I’m hiding her, shhhh.” He put a finger to his lips. “Don’t tell anyone.” He whispered.

“You ready to talk now?” He asked.

“About what?”

“Who you work for? Who else knows?“

“Uhhh Dustin! Yeah, Dustin knows, and he’s telling Hopper, Hoppers gonna tell the US army or some shit, and you are gonna get your asses kicked all the way back to Russia.” He said, laughing.

“Is that so?” He asked, getting close but not too close to the snakes face.

Then an alarm blared. A loud wailing accompanied by red flashing lights.

“Told you.” He said, smiling.

He angrily left, rushing out of the room to see what was happening. That’s when both Dustin and Erica rushed in, looking around the room.

“Jesus Christ!” Screamed Dustin, immediately flinching back when he saw the snake man in front of him.

“Hendersssson! That’s really funny, actually, I was jusssst talking about you.”

The curly haired kid looked on in disbelief, staring at him wide-eyed.

“Steve!? What the hell?!”

“What?”

“What- why are you a goddamn snake!?”

“I dunno. They injected me with ssssome green shit and now I'm a ssssnake.”

Dustin gave him a look.

“And where’s Robin?”

“Shhhhhh. I’m hiding her.”

“Hiding her where?”

Then Dustin saw movement in his snake half. It was bulged out a bit, like a snake that’s just had something to eat…

“What the fuck did you eat?!”

Steve giggled.

“Rooobin.”

“What?!“

“Listen!” Erica broke the silence.

“We should all probably be getting out of here while we still have time.”

“But-“

“No buts.”

She grabbed Dustin’s arm, pulling him forwards, then looked over at Steve.

“Come on, snake boy.“

Steve slithered after them, following the two down a long corridor and into the back of a truck.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Asked Dustin.

“What?“

“First of all, spit Robin out!”

“Noo!” He yelled, hugging the lump in his coils. “My Robin! My friend Robin!”

“She’s not going to be able to be your friend much longer if you don’t spit her out.“

Steve frowned at that, considering spitting her out. But somehow, deep down, he knew she would be fine. He stuck his forked tongue out at Dustin, flicking it a bit.

“Nnno my Robin.”

Dustin just looked at Steve’s determined expression in disbelief. He couldn’t seem to convince Steve, so he eventually dropped it. For now.

They made it to the elevator and quickly got inside, getting it to go back up. There, Dustin prodded Steve even more to let Robin out, wondering what the hell was wrong with him, and why the hell he looked like that.

“What do you think is wrong with them?” He asked, turning to Erica.

“I dunno, maybe he’s drugged or something.”

He turned back to Steve.

“Did the Russians drug you Steve, are you drugged?”

Steve laughed a bit, then slithered closer, leaning into Dustin’s face.

“Hehe, I don’t do drugsss dad, itsss only marijuana.”

He then reached out and booped Dustin’s nose with a clawed finger. Dustin stepped back, shaking his head.

“Just… spit Robin out, okay?”

“Whyyy.”

“Just do it!” He shouted at the snake.

Steve refused.

They reached the top of the elevator, bursting out into the warm summer air, to which Steve flicked his tongue out, seemingly tasting it.

“Whoa, can you guys taste the air?” He asked.

Dustin and Erica rolled their eyes, then they heard a bang and voices speaking in Russian. They jumped, hurrying and hushing Steve as they rushed into the mall. It was closed by now, and they led the snake into the movie theater. Erica stayed with them as Dustin fiddled with the projector, turning a movie on to keep the man busy. They then left him, only for a bit, so they could try and find the others.

“H-hey.” Steve said to Robin after about twenty minutes.

“What.”

“I’m bored. And I don’t understand the movie.”

“Well I can’t see the movie from in here.”

“Oh. Well I gotta hide you. I’m gonna go do something else.”

“Okay!”

Steve slithered out of his seat, making his way out of the theater. He looked around, then spotted a water fountain, suddenly realizing he was thirsty. He quickly rushed over to it, drinking in the cool water as it touched his lips.

“Hey, that’s cold!” Yelled Robin.

“I was thirsty… whoa. The ceiling is shiny. Glittery like a buncha stars…”

Steve suddenly didn’t feel as great as he had before. He slumped a bit, then shook his head, trying to clear his mind. He then felt like he was gonna puke. He rushed to the nearest bathroom, leaning over one of the toilets in the open stalls, but nothing came out. He sat there for maybe five minutes, sweating and breathing heavily.

He then slithered out of the stall, leaning over the sinks. He turned the water on and splashed some of it onto his face, looking up and into the mirror. As soon as he did, he yelped, flinching back. His eyes widened, and he reached out to touch his reflection, looking at it in horror. He saw the claws on his hands, and let out a choked sob.

“S-Steve…?”

His eyes widened even more, and he looked down at his snake half, a section of it bulging out and moving a slight bit. He mentally freaked out seeing the snake attached to him, tears running down his face. But he had to get Robin out.

“Oh, oh god… Robin!”

He felt sick. Sick with how he looked, sick with what he did, sick with himself in general. He felt his stomach turn, his snake stomach, and his friend began to move up in the coils, to his torso, until he puked her up onto the bathroom floor. He then immediately flinched away from her, curling up in the far corner, looking over himself. His skin was replaced by scaly flesh, different colors of brown forming patterns on him. His hands were tipped with black claws and they too were scaly. He looked down at the tattered remains of his scoops ahoy uniform shirt, the pants nothing but a waistband with a few scraps of fabric still clinging to it. And it was because of his snake half. Oh god, the snake! His legs were gone, replaced by this ugly scaly tail that was currently curled up and wrapped around itself. He let out another sob.

“S-Steve?”

He looked up to her, tears flowing out of his eyes, immediately hurt by her fearful expression.

“Oh god, Robs, look at me! I- I’m so ugly, I’m a fucking monster.”

He broke down into uncontrollable sobs, nothing coherent being able to be deciphered for a while, just heavy hyperventilating and choked sounds coming out of his mouth. Robin softened a bit, seeing how hurt her friend was. Yes, her friend. This wasn’t some monster, it was still the same ol’ Steve. She reached a hand out and placed it on his shoulder, causing him to flinch and look at her.

“Hey, you’ve still got your best feature.” She said, looking up.

Steve raised his hands to his hair, yes, thank god, his hair! He turned and looked in the mirror.

“Oh, oh thank god… but… the rest of me, I’m, I’m horrible, Robin. I’m a-a- monster, I- I- ate you!” His eyes widened as if just now realizing that fact.

“Yeah… but I’m okay, aren’t I? You were high… and you didn’t hurt me.”

Steve contemplated a bit. Yeah, he had been high, and she was okay. But he wasn’t high now. And he couldn't ignore the hunger in his gut, somehow, deep down, knowing she’d be safe if he put her in there again.

“But… I’m not high now… and I still want to eat you.”

“You what?!”

Robin looked at him in somewhat horror, not knowing what to make of that statement. Steve flinched back, almost as if he couldn’t believe what came out of his mouth either. He immediately backtracked, starting to cry again.

“No, no I- I’m sorry I’m a monster, I won’t-“

“H-hey.” She said, putting her hand on his shoulder.

“It’s okay, you- you can… just- like, do what you did last time, okay? Can you do that?”

“I-I think so.”

“I’m gonna need more than an ‘I think so’ Steve. I need to know you’re not gonna kill me in there.”

“I won’t, I won’t. I can do it again, you’ll be fine.”

“Okay.”

Steve slithered a bit closer, placing his hands on her shoulders. He instinctively started to wrap around her a bit, his tail grabbing her legs and working up her waist. She shivered a bit, but let him keep going. Steve’s tongue flicked out a bit at her before he began to open his mouth. With a small pop, his bottom jaw dislocated, allowing him to start sliding his mouth over her head. She stood still and allowed him to do so, closing her eyes tight. Steve sighed happily and took his first swallow, bringing more of the girl into his mouth. He kept gulping and swallowing, sending her into his throat, the tube of flesh eagerly accepting her, pulling her deeper. She went right past his human stomach, and deeper into his second one, Robin beginning to pool into his snake stomach. She was soon fully inside, Steve sighing in relief. The snake curled up a bit, resting his head on the small bump, feeling his friend inside.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay. It’s warm…”

“You’re warm too.”

They chatted for a bit, before Robin asked another question.

“You still in love with Nancy?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I think I found someone a bit better for me. It’s someone I never even talked to in school, and I dunno why. I guess because I’d get made fun of? It’s stupid, I know.”

Robin was silent, growing a bit nervous in his stomach. She had an idea of where this was going…

“Shoulda been hanging out with her the whole time, I mean first of all, she’s hilarious. I feel like this summer, I’ve laughed harder than I have in a long time.”

More silence.

“She’s smart… way smarter than me, but that’s not really hard, huh? She can crack top secret Russian codes, and she’s honestly different from anyone I’ve ever been with before.”

Robin didn’t respond. She couldn’t.

“Robs? You okay I’m there?”

“Y-yeah, yeah. I’m alive.”

“Well, what’d you think? Of this girl?”

“She sounds awesome…”

“She is. And the guy?”

“I think he’s on drugs. And not thinking straight.”

“Really? I think he is.”

“He’s not. He doesn’t even know this girl, and if he did, he probably wouldn’t even want to be friends with her.”

“That’s not true.”

“Steve, listen.” She sighed.

“You know when I was complaining about Mrs. Click’s class? It wasn’t because I was jealous of you. It’s because she wouldn’t stop staring at you.”

“Mrs. Click?” Steve asked, confused.

“Tammy Thomson. She wouldn’t stop looking at you and your perfect hair. Even though you got bagel crumbs everywhere and asked dumb questions. I wanted her to look at me. And I’d go home at night, screaming into my pillow.”

Steve thought for a minute, confused.

“But… Tammy Thomson’s a girl…”

“Steve.”

…

“Oh.” He said, softly.

He sat for a minute, silently. And so did Robin. Then the stomach walls started closing in on her.

“Oh God… Steve?! I-I’m sorry, please don’t kill me!”

“What?! I’m not! You’re, you like girls! That’s fine, that’s cool!”

“You- but your stomach…”

“Its okay, I’m not going to hurt you. What’d I do?”

“The walls were closing in, I thought you were going to get rid of me…”

“They were? No, I’m not.” The walls relaxed.

“Okay…”

It was silent for a few seconds.

“Steve?”

“Tammy Thomson… I mean, she looks good, sure, but she's a total dud!”

“She is not!”

“She wants to be a singer, move to Nashville or whatever.”

“She has dreams!”

“She can’t even hold a tune! Practically tone deaf, have you heard her?”

Robin giggled a bit, and Steve started to sing, mimicking the girl. It was terrible.

“She does not sound like that!” Robin said, laughing.

“She sounds exactly like that! Perfect impression!”

“You sound like a muppet.”

“She sounds like a muppet! A muppet giving birth!”

They started singing, both in muppet voices together. Then it devolved into laughter, Robin a bit muffled from inside of Steve, though they both seemed fine with the situation. The door to the bathroom burst open.

“Okay, what the hell!” Shouted Dustin.

They both just laughed hysterically again, both Dustin and Erica looking at them in disbelief.

“And you still have Robin in there!?”

“It’s fine, see? She let me. She’s fine in there.”

“Yeah! I’m fine!”

Dustin sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Just please spit her out.”

Steve grumbled a bit but sat up, getting ready to get her out. He focused, moving the muscles in reverse, pulling the girl up and into the tube of flesh leading up to his mouth. The bulge in his snake half moved up, into his human stomach and then his esophagus, Robin beginning to poke out of his mouth, his jaw unhinging to let her through. She was spit out onto the floor once more, and Dustin looked a little grossed out when Steve looked up at him.

“There. You happy?”

The two kids got them up and pushed them out of the bathroom door, rushing to get out of the mall. They got up to the doors and froze. They were blocked. Russian guards were posted at the exit, seemingly waiting for them. They began to scramble back and they heard shouting behind them, accompanied by loud footsteps.

They ran to the main center of the mall, ducking behind a store counter to hide from the bullets being shot. They were all silently freaking out, trying to keep quiet so the Russians didn’t hear. It seemed they were about to be discovered, Steve getting ready to defend everyone when a car horn activated, alarming the men. Then there was a crash, and all four listened as something large was flung across the area, along with screams.

They all peeked over the counter, seeing all the men dead on the ground. They then looked over to a car, smashed into the wall and banged up on its side. They slowly looked up at the top railing to see El with her arm stretched out, breathing heavily. She was soon accompanied by the rest of the kids, along with Nancy and Johnathan. They waited there until the others came down, Erica reuniting with Lucas and Dustin with the others. Steve slowly slithered forwards, until he was noticed by someone with a scream.

“W-what is that?!” Asked Nancy.

Steve flinched.

Everyone zeroed in on him, mixed reactions from the group.

“Hey, hey. It’s just Steve guys!” Shouted Dustin.

“Steve?! What the hell happened to him?!” Asked Mike.

Steve flinched again, looking down. He supposed he couldn’t blame them. He was a monster.

“The Russians did it to him, but El took them out with the car!“

“Wait, those were Russians?”

“Didn’t you get my message?”

“I couldn’t make anything out!”

Everyone yelled out questions and answers, explaining from both sides. Steve had to do a lot of his own explaining too, and some visibly relaxed when they realized it was just him, only his appearance had changed. Though Nancy was still a bit wary, which stung. But then Mike noticed El, and the girl wasn’t looking good.

They all rushed over to her, asking what was wrong. They saw something under her skin, moving around. Some looked like they were going to be sick, but it was clearly causing the girl pain, and they had to get it out. Johnathan rushed off to one of the restaurants, finding a sharp knife and a wooden spoon. He heated up the knife with a lighter and handed El the spoon.

“Here, bite down on this.”

She did, and Johnathan plunged the knife into her leg, causing her to scream silently as it made a large gash. Many gagged and looked away as he stuck his fingers inside, trying desperately to fish the thing out. El stopped him, crying.

“Stop! I- I can do it.”

She cried, holding her hand out over the thing and seeming to focus. Steve watched as a little tiny piece of fleshy grossness was dragged out and flung away, it scrambling off as El sighed in relief.

It was immediately squished by a boot, the group looking up to see Hopper, followed by Joyce and who Steve assumed was Murray judging by the description he’d heard from Nancy and Johnathan. Then the three adults froze, eyes in Steve. Joyce yelped, hiding a bit behind Hopper and said man drew his gun, pointing it directly at him. Steve’s eyes widened, staring at the firearm.

“Hey, hey stop! It’s Steve!” Shouted Dustin, getting in front of the snake.

Hopper's eyes widened but still seemed wary, gun still up. That was until both Will and El stood in front of him as well, making Joyce and Hopper waver a bit. The man sighed and put his gun down, and Joyce stepped out from behind him. Will rushed forward to her, and the two hugged. Hopper approached Steve, Murray behind him and just looked at him.

“That really you?”

Steve looked down.

“Y-yeah. Yeah it’s me…”

“What happened?”

“The Russians. They got me and did some sort of experiment and…” he gestured to himself.

Hopper sighed.

“I see.”

After they all explained about Steve and what they’d all been doing and going through with the Russians and whatnot, they all got together to form a plan. The adults were arguing with the kids, while Steve and Robin were mostly off to the side talking to each other.

It ended with Steve being called over, Hopper asking if he could still drive so he could take both Dustin and Erica up to the hill that the kid apparently had a super powerful radio set up that could reach all across Hawkins. He shrugged, saying he’d give it a shot, but he didn’t have his keys as the Russians had taken them. Hopper tossed him a key that apparently went to a car he had outside, so Steve took the two kids plus Robin who wanted to tag along.

“Oh yea, this is what I’m talking about!” Steve exclaimed at seeing the sick car parked outside.

“Toddfather?” Robin remarked.

“Screw Todd, Steve’s her daddy now!”

“Did you just refer to yourself in the third person?” Asked Robin.

“Did he just call himself Daddy?” Asked Erica.

Steve slithered into the driver’s seat, looking below him to see if he could figure this out. He figured he could just use the tip of his tail - which he still couldn’t believe he had - to press on the gas and break like his foot used to. He started the car and tested it out, and it worked! So he quickly peeled out of the parking lot, Dustin directing him on where to go.

Steve didn’t last long on the hill, the walkie spilling not so great news, and they sounded like they all needed help at the mall. So he left the two kids on the top of the hill and fled back to the car with Robin, Dustin shouting from behind them. At least he got them there, right? They’d need him more at the mall. So that’s exactly where he went, driving full speed back to Starcourt. His eyes went wide as he peeled into the parking lot, seeing a car that definitely belonged to Billy Hargrove headed straight towards Nancy, who was standing in front of a car with Lucas, Will, and Johnathan inside. He sped up, ramming directly into the side of the mustang, making it scrape across the concrete and bursting into flames.

Johnathan screamed at them to hop into the car as a huge fleshy monster climbed atop the mall, roaring angrily. Billy seemed to be unconscious, so Steve did just that, hopping inside along with Nancy and Robin. Johnathan stepped on the gas and got onto the road, the monster taking off after them. He looked out the window at it, face twisting in disgust.

“What is that?” He asked.

“It’s the mind flayer.” Answered Will with a grim voice.

They drove for a while, watching the thing when it suddenly turned around.

“Wait, why’s it turning around?”

“Shit, it must’ve found out El was still back at the mall.”

“What?!”

They turned the car around, though they weren’t sure how they could possibly help, even with Steve’s new attributes. That’s when Lucas piped up.

“The fireworks!”

“What?” Asked Steve.

“The thing hates heat, right? Plus, who wouldn’t get hurt by a bunch of fireworks being thrown at them?”

The adults looked to one another before nodding, deciding to make a pit stop to stick up on the improvised weapons before following the beast again.

When they got back to the mall, they were met with a terrible sight. Billy was hunched over, dragging El to the center of the mall, the mind flayer thing directly over them. Seeing it up close, Steve could see the flesh pulsing and wriggling, the wet mass of melted humans moving in sync. He almost vomited. But then the first firework was thrown and it screeched, pulling back to face them. They all shouted and jeered at the thing, Steve throwing his own colorful explosives. But then he could see El still struggling with Billy. He was holding her down, and she couldn’t get up. Steve would absolutely not stand for that.

He shouted to the others before quickly making his way down to the first floor while the mind flayer was distracted. He got to the two and shoved Billy, El scrambling back. Billy shouted with rage, getting up to see his assailant before spotting him. He looked confused, but then it went back to anger.

He scoffed.

“Is that you, Harrington? Damn, you really let yourself go, huh?” He smirked wickedly.

Steve’s mind almost clouded in anger, but he was hurt by the comment. He tried to calm himself, reminding himself that this wasn’t really him all the way, that the mind flayer had influence. He was still a dick though. Steve hissed, approaching the other man.

“Wow, you’re really just an animal now, huh? A stupid fucking snake.”

He charged, fists at the ready, but his eyes were locked onto El. Steve ducked under the punch thrown at him, using his tail to grab the man, quickly wrapping around his body. Billy struggled wildly, making almost animalistic snarls and shouts. Steve squeezed. Billy gasped, closing his eyes and trying to get his arms free. The more he struggled, however, the tighter the coils around him got. Steve still made sure he could breathe, but barely.

“Billy!” Shouted a voice, Steve snapping his head to the source.

Max stood there, eyes wide.

“Please don’t, Steve. Don’t kill him. I know he’s a dick, but…”

“I’m not.” Steve said, looking down at him.”

“I won’t kill him, but he needs to be taken out of this for a little while.”

Steve started to unhinge his jaw with a snap and pop, opening his mouth wide. Billy still struggled but looked up in horror as Steve’s maw descended onto him. Max shouted and took a few steps forward, eyes wide in shock. Steve continued, taking his first swallow of the man, pulling him in farther.

“H-hey! Steve, you- you said you wouldn’t kill him.”

“It’s fine!” Shouted Robin from above, chucking a firework.

“He did it to me when he was first turned, and I was perfectly fine!”

“W-what?”

“I don’t know how it works, but trust me, he’ll be fine!”

Max turned back to Steve, now up to the man’s waist, her brother’s legs hanging out. She could see him thrashing within Steve, the half-snake wincing occasionally. He slurped down the rest of Billy as quickly as he could, one last heavy gulp sealing him inside.

“Is- is he really okay in there?”

“Yeah,” Steve winced at a particularly hard punch to his stomach walls, “he’ll be okay, not sure if my guts will be though.”

“How do you know?”

“I honestly have no idea, but something in my mind tells me I can eat people and they’ll be okay, almost like an instinct.” He winced again. “I did it with Robin, as she was in there for a while actually, she was fine.”

Max looked at the frantic wriggling form within Steve’s snake half, watching as punches and kicks pushed out the flesh periodically. She then looked back up at Steve and nodded.

“O-okay. I trust you.”

Steve smiled, though it was more of a grimace from the abuse his insides were being subject to at the moment.

“Shit, we’re almost out!” Yelled a voice from above.

Steve yelled to Dustin through the walkie who then yelled at the people underneath the mall to hurry up and close the gate. It wasn’t long before they actually ran out of fireworks, the monster shaking itself off and going to get El, but she wasn’t there. It whipped its head around, looking all over for the girl, and it shrieked in rage when it couldn’t see her. It could sense her though. It extended its sharp tentacle-like appendages to where she was, as well as one at Steve, probably because it knew he had Billy, the man still fighting.

Then, suddenly, the thing shrieked. It took back its tentacles, the things writhing and shrieking in pain. It slammed into the railings of the top floor before letting out one last shriek and falling to the ground. It didn’t get back up. Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief, then they all hollered in victory. Billy was still inside of Steve, a fact both the snake and Max noticed.

“Billy? Is- is he okay!?” She yelped, running to the man.

“Yeah, he’s still breathing, but I think the mind flayer’s gone now, so that probably took some strength out of him.”

Max pressed her ear to the slight bulge in Steve’s snake half, hearing Billy breathing heavily inside.

“Billy?”

“Get me the fuck outta here!”

She leapt back at the new round of struggles, though they were significantly weaker this time.

“He’s fine.” She said, sighing and meeting up with the rest of the group.

Nancy looked to him, then to the bulge in his snake half, face a bit pale but she tried to give him a little smile. Steve smiled back at her, slithering over.

“Uhh, so, I didn’t know you could do that…” she said, a little unnerved. “I mean I know Billy was an asshole but-“

“What?! No, he’s not gonna die in there!”

“What?” Two voices answered, one outside and one from inside his stomach.

Steve looked down.