#cod mermay

A clawed hand wrapped around your ankle or delicately holding your hand was the new norm as he chittered to you about his day. If he was sunning himself on the pier, his fins needed to be draped across your lap, his forehead pressed against the underside of your jaw as he tried his best to cuddle up next to you. Multiple attempts to lie on top of you were made, but you could only handle so much of his weight before urging him back into the water.

They were both quite robust now after so many months of feeding them. Soap, especially, was fuller now, no doubt due to your inability to say no to him when he begged for more during feedings. A healthy layer of fat now hid his once protruding ribs.

And if Soap was being odd, Ghost was acting downright peculiar.

You were accustomed to his aloofness, didn’t hold it against him. Figured it was just part of who he was. Not to say he wasn’t expressive. An eye roll here, a murderous scowl there. He’d switch it up with the occasional puppy eyes when you fed him something particularly tasty.

More regularly, he’d bestow his ‘bored’ face on you, as you so affectionately referred to it. A disinterested, half-lidded gaze that he affixed to your person more often than not.

But where he was dismissive of you before, merely tolerant of your presence, he was quite intrigued by you now.

He was giving you that look again. Like he was seeing right through you. It didn’t matter how many times you looked away and back, his eyes never left you. Pinprick pupils that gave way to liquid espresso irises. Blonde lashes fanned delicately across the top of his cheekbones as he blinked slowly at you. Hypnotic and alluring, you found yourself locked in a staring match most days. You could only equate it to hunger, something primal that you couldn’t quite place.

You remembered the first time he initiated touch. He’d been unusually close to the pier, submerging and resurfacing each time a little closer to your hanging legs. Testing you. You’d merely chuckled at him, throwing a few shrimps in his direction to reward his proximity to you.

It wasn’t until he was directly below your feet that you’d started to feel antsy. Ghost had never gotten this close before, you’d never seen his fins in such vivid detail. Fins that flared around him like a crown of thorns, before settling against his body once again. His caudal fins were coiled tightly beneath him… like Soap’s before he-

You shrieked as Ghost’s massive body hurled itself out of the water. Stupidly, you covered your eyes as if that would stop the enormous mer from hurting you. He was finally going to do it. He was going to eat you.

Your tragic thoughts fizzled out when no such pain occurred. Carefully, you removed your hands from your face, eyes meeting Ghost's own as he towered over you. His torso was settled between your open thighs, arms on either side of your body as he held himself up on the pier.

You kept your chin tucked to your chest as you crawled back on your elbows. Your wide eyes remained locked on his own, fear still coursing through you as his scowl morphed into a smug grin. A rumbling purr vibrated deep in his throat as he used his massive forearms to crawl over you. His tail swishing back and forth to aid him as he leaned down to rub his cheek to yours. Satisfied with your display of submission, he merely settled in closer to you, chirping loudly when your legs wrapped around him in welcome.

Selfishly, you cradled his cheek in the palm of your hand, delighting yourself in the feeling of his cool skin pressed to your own. You allowed his subharmonics to lull your racing heart, the adrenaline slowly leaving your body as he trilled sweetly in your ear.

And so his cautionary distance became a thing of the past. You’d grown accustomed to the feeling of his bristly fins. The black spines often brushed against the bottom of your feet as he circled your legs under the pier.

He quite enjoyed terrorizing you nowadays. Barked a laugh every time he pressed a single claw into the arch of your foot, eliciting a shriek from you while Soap clicked in amusement at your expense.

He’d rub his face against your ankle in apology, a lopsided smirk gifted to you before submerging himself in the depths to do it all over again.

He was like a spoiled dog. Toeing the line of your boundaries, domineering your space, and bullying you into submitting to him.

Not that you minded…

Closer picture of him

Tail too because I thought it looked good