Mer AU! The Cursed Family

Maybe We Could Be Happy

Leviathan hadn't gotten any better in weeks. Atlas was worried. Nora was trying her best. Kaitlyn was being overrun by royal duties. None of them were ready for what this life was throwing at them. How could they? They were children.

"Levi?" Atlas gently shook the other awake. The two of them had returned to Atlas' vacant home. He didn't have anyone living there except himself so there wasn't an issue.

"Hm? Is everything okay?" he muttered groggily.

"You've been asleep the whole day. Just like everyday... Levi, this needs to stop: it isn't healthy..." The other shrugged his warm touch away, dismissing his wellbeing once again. "Leviathan." Atlas responded to the gesture firmly.

The other finally sat up - pushing himself up from the bed. "I'm sorry, Atlas. You're just trying your best to help..."

"Come on," Atlas pulled Levi fully off of the spare bed. "Let's go see Nora and Kate. Hm? Might lighten your mood a bit..." the yellow tailed merman held Levi's hands with such delicacy, as if he might break and shatter to pieces if he dared squeeze any harder. That was a strange but comforting thing to Leviathan. He was meant to be a monster. A servant to chaos. But here he was. A beautiful boy holding his scarred hands with such care as oppose to his own mother's roughness and cruel 'discipline'. 

"Alright... We can go. But, can we talk before we go?"

Atlas nodded in return.

The pair sat in the small kitchen together - Atlas still holding Levi's hand; providing the grey skinned man some sort of anchor. "I don't think I ever got to thank you for trying to ease me into the outside world... You have no idea how much that helped me, Atlas."

The other smiled and pulled him into a gentle embrace. "You have no need to thank me." Atlas paused as he felt Leviathan shaking under his arms. "Levi?" he pulled away to find tears streaming down the other's face. Well, as much as they can stream underwater...

"I'm sorry... I- I just feel so many new things and-" he sobbed. "I can't tell if they're good or bad and I just- I feel so out of place. You are the first person that I can trust won't hurt me and I feel like a freak just for saying that because nobody else feels like that and-"

Atlas cut off his panicked rant. "Hey, hey... You are not a freak. I don't give a shit what anyone else says, okay? I'm here and I'm going to be here as long as you'll have me. You don't have to worry about anyone hurting you ever again because I fucking love you and nobody I loves is going to be put through that much pain so long as I live and breathe!" 

Leviathan's eyes widened along with Atlas'. "You love me?" Atlas nodded.

"How could I not?"