Siren's Son ASMR Oneshots

Simply Divine - Part Four: Leo

I glared at my mom. She'd spend the carriage ride home interrogating me about "Mr. Peters." It had started off oddly touching. She had been concerned, and she'd questioned me about why I'd looked so uncomfortable. I wanted to tell her everything, but if she didn't believe me the first time, why would she believe me now?
When she didn't let up, I started to get annoyed. She kept asking me why he'd approached me, and she didn't seem satisfied with my "I don't know."
I snapped, "look, if you're not going to respect my answers, then I don't see the point in giving them to you."
"Don't talk to me like that!" she shot back.
"Try and stop me!" My authority issues kicked in, and I stomped out of the house.
"Aspen, get back here right now!" my mother shouted after me.
"I'm going to the woods! I need to cool off. I'll stay safe, but I need time alone." I shouted back at her.
"No! You can have time alone in your room," she yelled, but I ignored her.
"Can't hear you!"
And soon enough, I couldn't.
I have terrible stamina, so breaking into a run only took me so far. I went from a sprint to a run, from a run to a jog, and from a jog to a wheezing lump of self pity, as happened any time I tried to exercise.
I tried to control my breathing as I slowed to a walk, finally giving myself time to appreciate the scenery.
The forest seemed unusually bright and vibrant. The leaves shone in the warm sunlight, and the lichen and plants growing on the sides of the creek that burbled by the side of the trail were highlighted by the rays of sun breaking through the canopy. As I walked, I spotted a flower across the creek that stood out from its surroundings. Its petals were bright pink and lush, a stark contrast to the wilted ferns around it. Unable to resist, I left the trail and leapt over the creek.
As I crept towards the blossom with the pointed petals, I felt an urge to pick it. Part of me argued that if I picked the flower, its beauty would be lost. The rest of me ignored it.
My fingers wrapped around the delicate stem. I wrapped it around my finger and tugged, breaking the stem. The bloom now rested in my palm with the stem dangling below it.
I backed up with my prize, but I soon noticed red bumps popping up on my hand. I gasped as they started to itch like crazy, and I tucked the flower into my pocket. I pulled my sleeve over my burning hand to keep my from scratching it and set off deeper into the woods. Even if it was toxic, it was still beautiful, and I could study it when I got home.
"Hey!" someone called sharply.
I looked up. A man was standing on the slope that connected the creek to dry land, positioned so that I was between the creek and him. He had long black hair tied back in a ponytail beneath a woven, wide-brimmed hat, and he wore a loose magenta farmer's shirt and black shorts.
"What are you doing picking my flowers?" the man demanded.
Had I been in his yard or something? I looked around, but I couldn't see any evidence of an organized garden.
"Oh- I'm sorry! I didn't realize."
"That much is clear," he sneered. "You must be daft. Who goes around picking flowers out of random gardens?"
Now, I was able to apologize when it was clear I had done wrong, but I didn't appreciate being insulted. "Well, I didn't see any borders, or rows, or any organization at all. If this is a garden, it's a pretty shoddy one," I snapped.
The gardener raised his eyebrows. "Oh?"
I muttered under my breath, "Oh my god, tear this dude apart."
This seemed to amuse him. I had no idea how he heard me over the creek, but the evident lack of rage was more disconcerting than if he'd shouted at me. Doubt filled me, but I doubled down.
"Yeah. I'm sorry I picked your flower, and you can have it back if you want, but maybe in the future you should consider marking your garden so that people know it's off limits. That way you don't have to sit on the riverbank yelling at anyone that mistakes these flowers for wild ones."
He looked repulsed, and laughed derisively. "That's quite a way to speak to me. Don't you know you're alone in the woods? I'm quite a bit bigger than you, you know."
"Oh, and now you're threatening me!" I officially gave myself mouthing-off freedom. "That's super, um, mature and responsible." I laughed. "You really think you scare me, don't you?"
He didn't look moved by my snark. He just observed me with cold eyes, like a shark's.
"Well, if you had any brain at all in that head of yours, you'd be pleading for mercy."
I snickered. "And why's that?" I challenged, fairly certain I didn't want to know the answer.
The farmer laughed smugly. Suddenly, I found a vine tangled around my waist. When had that gotten there? I ripped it away, but I found my wrists and ankles wrapped in more vines, some of them whip thin and lined with thorns that tore at my skin. I growled in pain and struggled, but I was too preoccupied to notice a huge vine until it wound around my torso and lifted me into the air.
A burst of green light obscured the farmer. When it cleared, he looked very different.
It was unmistakably Leo, though of course I knew that by that point. The lime green invocations and hair tips proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt, as did his cold and unforgiving expression. I gaped as the divine of life fixed his eyes on me, and a cruel expression adorned his features.
All I could say was, "Oh, divines."
"You, mortal," spoke Leo. "You dare lay your filthy hands on one of my creations? I should flay you where you stand."
Now, two things were battling in my head. I don't know why, but I was more scared of Leo than I was of Rex, or maybe I just had more respect for him for some reason. I valued his hunger for knowledge, though I held contempt for the unethical lengths he went to to gain such knowledge. And I really hated the legend about what he did to Stannis Karagna.
On the other hand, I couldn't believe that I had now met no less than four divines in the flesh. What on Al'terra was the reason for this? I was tired and confused and rather frightened of the divine known for using his natural abilities to conduct horrific experiments on humans, one of which turned out to be the half bloods. My mouth moved before my brain did, not for the first time today.
"ARE YOU FRICKING SERIOUS?! PUT ME DOWN!" I yowled, kicking my feet and pounding the thick vine holding me with both hands.
"Charming. I'm always impressed by humanity's decorum in the face of adversity."
"Leo!" I yelled. "You cursed Stannis, you motherfluffer! I'm going to rip the green ends out of your hair and stuff them into a blender! Put me down so I can YELL AT YOU SOME MORE YOU SADISTIC MAD SCIENTIST WITH DADDY ISSU-"
A vine curled around my throat, cutting me off. I squirmed, suddenly afraid for my life. Funny how having your throat squeezed can do that to a person.
"Well, that was an interesting reaction. Not many people who know of the naga would have the balls to speak to me in such a manner." The vine loosened, and I coughed. "Do you know what this plant is, you imbecile?" he said, a conniving little grin on his face.
Patience wasn't my strong suit. "A flower? Look, if you're going to kill me, get it over with," I panted, glaring.
"Are you so eager to die?" he challenged.
"No, I'm just terrified and feigning courage. Please don't actually kill me," I said in a deceptively calm tone of voice.
"Oh, come on. Humans these days don't read the old stories. I don't kill mortals... intentionally."
"No, I know that part," I said with false bravado. "You use them in your experiments, like you did with Stannis." I started to talk faster, hoping I could distract and delay him. "He was a famous gardener who you felt threatened by, so you came down to Al'terra and challenged him to a gardening contest. WHOA, Bella's butt cheek on a stick, I didn't realize I'd gotten that high," I said as I looked down and realized I was now almost a hundred feet above the forest floor, level with the lower treetops. Leo's lip twitched. "You challenged him to a contest where the winner was whoever could grow the best orchid. He grew a moonbell-orchid hybrid that glowed purple, and you grew a solid gold one that appealed to humanity's greed. The books can never agree on who won, but they do agree on the fact that you freaked out and turned him into a half-snake to be abhorred by society forever because he dared to threaten your fragile masculinity."
The last part slipped out before I could stop it. I clutched at the vine in case it suddenly loosened, squirming to try and get a better hold.
I looked up. "Uh, I didn't mean that last part. Actually, you know what, I did. You disgust me."
Leo looked profoundly weirded out. "How very bold of you. You really must have the brain of a rock," he said.
"Okay maybe, but it's still absolutely ludicrous to punish me for something I had no idea about! I saw a flower in the woods and I picked it. Maybe I shouldn't have done that, but there was no way to know it belonged to you! This is unreasonable."
Leo rolled his eyes. "Mortal, I literally have you suspended by the throat." As he said it, the vine around my waist fell away so that I really was hanging by the throat, although the vine was wrapped beneath my armpits and cinched around my wrists so I wouldn't immediately die. "Do you really... want... to test me?"
I just glared at the sky, limbs twitching like they didn't know where to go, unwilling to dig myself any deeper. I was being held in a T-pose over the forest floor, but I felt anything but confident.
"Huh. Finally, some common fucking sense." Leo's gaze lit on my scarab bracelet, and recognition sparked in his eyes. He looked from it to my face and back.
"Oh," he said to himself. "It's you. You're that mortal my brothers won't shut up about!" His glare turned equal parts amused and accusatory. "Have a real lucky streak, huh?"
I looked up and shot the glare right into his eyes, silently daring him.
"Well, mortal, I'm not going to kill you, as much fun as that would be. Bek and Daz would kill me, and I don't want to waste time beating them that could be spent on more worthwhile pursuits."
The vines slowly lowered me to the forest floor. I hung there awkwardly, wondering how I could be this lucky- or if this even counted as luck at all. As much as I tried to land on my feet, the vines lashed onto nearby boulders and logs and pulled until I was forced to drop to my knees with a cry.
Leo landed before me. I snarled, hating every part of this. I was two seconds from spitting at his feet, so the reasonable part of my brain hoped whatever he had to say was short.
Leo took hold of my chin. Whatever thin strands of self-control remained kept me from biting at his fingers.
"This is me on a good day. If this ever happens again, little human, don't think I'll be so nice," he said coolly.
I had to restrain myself from screaming. Being on my knees in front of this man burned.
"Let me up right this fucking second so help me."
The divine of life noticed how upset I was. "Oh? Don't like being forced to your knees, do you?" He grabbed my face again. "Good."
That was it. I snarled and tried to bite his fingers. He wrenched my head to the side and reached into my pants pocket, taking out the slightly crumpled flower.
"Don't touch me!" My voice was closer to a shriek than I would have liked, but at least I got the words out instead of letting panic choke them off. He laughed disbelievingly and waved, turning around. "Toodle-oo, human."
With that, he strode off into the forest, leaving me tangled in a butt ton of vines that then hardened and went still, tethering me to the ground as if they'd been there a century.
"You're seriously going to leave me here?" I yelled after him.
He didn't deign to answer me.
It took me so long to snap myself free that the sun had begun to go down. I tramped back to my house, sore, scratched and bruised, and when my mom spotted me from her perch on the rocking chair out front, she merely stretched and raised an eyebrow.
"What happened to you? Get into a fight with a brush beast?"
I plodded past her, scowling. "Something like that."
"I feel bad for the brush beast," she teased.
She probably wasn't concerned because I'd done this many times before- storm off in a huff into the woods and come back scratched up. It was very therapeutic to swing sticks at trees for a few hours, scrapes and flying splinters be damned. Nevertheless, I glared at her, hating her bored expression with every ounce of my rattled existence.
"Your concern is touching, mother dear," I said.
I tromped back into the house past my mother, ignoring her confused eyebrow.
Safe in my room, I started to spiral.
My journal was open on the bed in front of me, but I couldn't make myself pick up the pen. What was with my random encounters with the divines? I could explain my unfortunate encounter with Rex as him looking for Bek. Bek, he was probably just there randomly. Daz said he sought me out on purpose, and today seemed like the product of unfathomable bad luck.
But did my encounters with Daz and Bek really save my life? I couldn't believe it. Why on Al'terra did either of them care if I died, particularly Daz? Was I really that entertaining?
Well, if they wanted entertaining, I wouldn't give it to them. I would tamp down every chaotic instinct in my body and be a normal boring human, just to piss them off. That would show them.
It would be hard, though, and my family would think I was dying.
Eh.
I guess we'd see.
Author's Note: Battle of the Sass! Angry teen with authority issues VS divine with daddy issues! Who will come out on top? And will they clash again?