Namor x Reader

Atecocolli

Rating: General (fluff, confessions, general cuteness)
Word count: 1.2k
Summary: After the King of Talokan confesses his love to you, he leaves you with a gift. Reader isn't gendered, no use of y/n

What a strange thing it was to have a god-king look at you with eyes so vulnerable.

"I understand if you do not want to answer me right now. So I will give you this and leave you in peace," He presented you with a shell, an Atecocolli. It's coiling spine was covered in intricate, raised patterns that your fingers couldn't help but admire. You traced the shell's spout as he traced your knuckles.

After a long breath filled with salt-dusted sea air, you gathered the courage to look at him again. It felt like staring at the sun.  You had no idea what to say to him but thankfully he seemed to understand that.

"Should you ever need me, my love, speak my name into it as you would a whisper in my ear. When you place it in the water, I will be with you as soon as I can."

"How?"

"Your voice will call me to you." He replied, and he looked forward to hearing it.

The king's body dipped as he brought your knuckle to his lips. His eyes poured into yours as he did it.

He'd never felt more vulnerable than when he confessed his love for you a few moments ago. He tore a cavity in his chest and bore his soul to you, his heart. He asked only that you respond to his confession when you feel ready. So one day, when courage possessed you, you did just that. You raised the shell to your lips, let the fresh sea air fill your lungs, and whispered his name softly, as you would a prayer.

"K'uk'ulkan..." and then let the shell sink into the sand to be taken by the sea.

You could barely hear your own voice over the wind yet it drifted through the ocean - through currents and reefs, past lightning-fast fish and rippling jellyfish tendrils - until it reached the pointed ears of the man you wanted to hear it. He heard it from his place on his throne, seated within a megalodon's jagged jaws. Your voice floated across his sensitive ears like a ghost of a kiss and he sighed in relief and ecstacy at the sound. He adored how you tasted his name on your tongue.

He emerged from the waves and stood before you not long after with the Atecocolli clutched in one hand and his spear in the other. It was then that you were reminded that the man who told you that he loved you was indeed a god. He was built like one, with his broad back, chest and shoulders. His face longed to be immortalised in stone for how strong his jaw was, how beautiful his nose. Seawater stuck silken hair to his forehead, the droplets rolling down his body drawing branches into his skin like veins in marble.

His entire being ought to have been carved from marble but the stone surely wouldn't do him justice, you thought. A sculpture could never capture the gentle starlight in his eyes.

"Are you alright?" He asked, checking you weren't calling him for aid. You nodded and he took a breath of short-lived relief. "You have thought about what I said..."

"I have." You confirmed.

"Then I beg you to put my misery to rest," He pleaded, throat bobbing. No matter what your answer was, he had to hear it.

He handed you back the Atecolli, the shell so large you had to cradle it with both hands. It was an extension of reassurance that even if you didn't love him back he'd still come to your aid, he'd still keep you safe and visit if you asked.

You hesitated, let the air hang a moment longer and the wind whip through your clothes. He thought that was that - a rejection. He prepared himself to change the subject and bid your farewell so he might wallow in his longing alone. He didn't realise you were simply gathering courage to do something you'd been wanting to for longer than he could possibly imagine a mortal waiting for anything with lifespans so short.

"Do I frighten you?" He asked with eyes so soft they put the sand beneath your feet to shame.

The question confused you. "No," you answered quietly. "Not at all."

"Why then do you tremble?"

He was right, you were trembling. Whether it was from anticipation or something else, he couldn't tell. But he couldn't escape the sinking feeling that maybe he had scared you and that was why your body shook.

He had never before cared what another being thought about him. He'd never had to. He ruled with dignity and respect for his people and they returned that sentiment. His enemies? He couldn't have cared less. But you? He cared that the sun shone bright enough for you, that the grass you walked upon stayed green. He cared so deeply about how you perceived him that it scared him at first. But then he realised that he, the King of Talokan, was in love with you. That's why he cared. As the realisation dawned on him, he'd never felt more vulnerable and so sickeningly human.

"In yaakunech," your voice broke him out of his spiralling thoughts. I love you.

He stilled and grew quiet for a moment and you worried you'd misspoken or that he was perhaps offended by you speaking his mother tongue. Then his eyelids fluttered closed, guarding the beautiful brown from your gaze. When his eyes re-opened, they watered and his mouth bore a smile so wide it must have hurt.

"Thank you. Thank you." His quivering hand cupped your cheek and leaned his forehead against yours and you stood there just enjoying the ease of which you could be with one another. The warmth radiated off him, cutting through the cool ocean breeze. "You have no idea how I have yearned to hear that from you. Thank you, in yakunaj."

My love. He called you his love and he meant it with his whole heart. Those words were a promise.

He was half a millennia in age and all around him his loved ones perished with the slow yet inevitable crawl of time. One day he would lose you too as he did all things eventually. So your time together would be short but precious. He was grateful that his longing could end and that you could be together, even if for a little while.