Depths

41. Flesh

Fun fact: In this universe, Hades is neither gay or straight, he doesn't find anyone but the goddess of Chaos attractive. But it's not in a loving way, she just makes his hair burn brighter.

...

Phantom zipped the jump-suite up the rest of the way, his abnormal flexibility giving him no trouble in lifting his arms the awkward way they needed to to get the little zipper up to the back of his neck. He put on his white gloves and boots, not hating how they contrasted against the ebony of the spandex onesie. Not that fashion was his main priority at the moment, but he thought it suited him.

Slipping on the grey cloak that was supposed to go with the outfit, Phantom looked in the mirror, wondering why he was ordered to wear this. It covered his head completely and hid any sort of identifiable features, and the added heat was an uncomfortable addition to why he hated the cloak so much.

Whatever, he huffed, he needed to obey the master.

Picking up his leather whip, Phantom walked out of his tent, eyeing the tiger he was supposed to tame. It was caged up and pacing around in the small space that it was given. He could read its mind and knew that it was scared of him. The tiger may not have known exactly what the kid-who appeared to be human- actually was, but it's gut instincts were never wrong when it sensed danger.

It growled at him in an attempt to intimidate, hoping to assert dominance or show the merman that it was not afraid and to try and invoke fear, but with a lift of Phantom's head and a little eye contact, the tiger cowered with a whimper as it backed away as far as it could. It's fright outweighed its curiosity of why the human looked like a human but didn't smell like one.

Phantom smirked with blood-red eyes and a lick of his lip, opening up the cage and going inside.

The tiger started hissing at him, it's hair standing on end as it snarled, but Phantom hissed back, his skin flashing blue and his forked tongue flashing out, and that's when the tiger shut up. Phantom reined in his own aggression and reached a hand out towards the big cat, letting it hover over the tiger's forehead.

The tiger didn't move for a moment, distrustful, but Phantom started exceeding hormones meant for comfort, trying to tell the tiger that he wouldn't hurt it. They needed to work together in their public act together, but to do so successfully, they needed to establish some form of trust. Phantom couldn't make the tiger do anything if it feared he would kill it.

Eventually, the tiger lifted its head up to press it into the merman's waiting palm, allowing him to pet it's head.

Phantom grinned.

...

The noise that attacked every nerve in the three teenager's ears was harsh. Loud voices came at them from all directions as goths and troubled teens in all shapes and sizes gathered and fought over seats with a good view. Danny searched around, not just looking for Phantom, but for any indication of what they were dealing with. The excited people talking about seeing a real-life siren as they got their cameras ready would have been considered gullible any other time.

I mean, come on... Some sketchy looking clown on TV says he's got a mermaid in his weird circus? Wow, it must be true.

This time though, the giant glass tub sitting patiently on the side of the stage made all of those gullible people so threateningly correct.

The three of them had snuck in the circus through the back where all the performers were, and they hadn't been seen. They were careful, obviously, but how easy would it have been for even one of the performers to see 3 teenagers sneaking in?