The Fucky Mer AU ( Keith x Kolivan )

Bend Me, Break Me... But Put Me Back Together Again

Chapter 4

Somehow he's back in Kolivan's ship, how they made it there he has no idea. From the moment the other merman cradled him in his arms the rest of the ocean had faded out of existence. As soon as the adrenaline had left him so had the last traces of his energy. Keith had simply curled against Kolivan's chest, one ear pressing to the other's pounding heart, and let the sound soothe him to a place far, far away from where he'd been.

Apparently Antok was there now. He still couldn't hear much at all that the squid merman said, his voice far too low to comprehend, but Kolivan was definitely talking to someone, even as his fingers and arms stroked Keith's head and limbs.

"It was that nurse shark, wasn't it? What's his name... Uron? Ulat?"

Some noise comes from Antok.

"Ulaz... right. I can't...." Keith feels Kolivan's chest press closer against him as he sucks in a breath. "I'm going to kill him. I'd heard he'd had trouble finding mates, but this? This? I'll make him regret every egg he put in him, every last finger that touched him, I-"

"...Kolivan?"

The octopi's tirade stalls instantly at Keith's interjection. His eyes are locked down on the small merman in his arms, still pressed as close against Kolivan as he possibly could. Close enough that he could convince himself this wasn't a fevered dream while he lay abandoned on the ocean floor. It had to be. He couldn't be imagining every last start and stop of Kolivan's heart, or the way his hair tickled Keith's brow. There was too much... so much he hadn't even realized he'd missed these past few months.

"Keith..." His voice takes on softer tone, all the ice and bitters gone. The swell in Keith's treacherous heart at the very shift of it is enough to know how far gone he is. "You're awake... what is it?"

"He... the mershark... Ulaz, he didn't do it."

Kolivan waivers. "He didn't? But he-"

"No," Keith shakes his head. "He spotted me after Antok went to go find you. I don't... I don't know if he- he..."

The thought brings back a fresh wave of nausea, so strong that for a second he's terrified that Sendak's poison is continuing to kill him. He seizes up, the image swimming before his eyes, Sendak's body with another murky face, claw-like hands digging into his hips...

"Keith... are you alright? Keith!" Kolivan is shifting him in his arms, tucking Keith's face into his shoulder, large hand petting the nape of his neck. "It's okay... they're gone. Nothing's going to happen now. I've got you."

How long he holds Keith like that he's not sure. As long as he needs for his pulse to calm and his muscles to relax bit by bit. It could be minutes or hours, everything blends together into one moment strung up in time. Kolivan lets Keith's fingers dig into his back, his many arms support and guide Keith's unwieldily bulk as he tries to press himself closer. He doesn't even care that Antok is there watching this. Everything else is an afterthought, tossed away as soon as it comes to mind. The only constant is Kolivan, his warmth, his safety, and his embrace. Why he ended up leaving it he doesn't know.

"Kolivan?" Keith's voice is a whisper, his breath barely enough to make the smallest hairs on the other's head dance, even as close as he is. He exists in the moment in a bubble made of Kolivan's presence. Anything that can break out beyond that feels wrong. There's a hum in return, and Keith know's he's listening to every word.

"Please... take them out."

Kolivan stills, Keith hugged even closer to him. "Are you sure?"

He nods, chin bumping Kolivan's neck where it sits. "I don't... I didn't want them. Any of them. It feels wrong. They're..." he swallows, "they don't feel like yours."