— evaporate
➯ When you leave the safety of the ocean to find the origin of the heat wave that has swept the continent, you meet a man that makes you fall head over heels. Literally.
pairing: hoseok x reader; ft. jackson wang and lee jooheon genre: mermaid!au, fluff, some humor, smut, oneshot word count: 18.9k masterlist
part of “the heatwave project” with @btssmutclub‘s summer project; special thank you for the amazing header goes to the moon of my life @junqkook
warnings: this is a fluff fest mostly, innuendos, dirty talk, face grinding, oral sex, fingering, unprotected sex, multiple orgasms, aftercare, mentions of blood/wound care, small scene of peril (involving swimming)
The swell of the wave carried you forward, lifting your body with ease before gently settling you back down as it continued its way towards the shore. Your gaze stayed trained on the beach, anxiously scanning the multitude of people crowding the shoreline. You hadn’t considered how the heat wave would affect the humans, driving them to seek whatever relief they could find from the sweltering weather in the waters of the cove. It would be even harder to surface now without drawing attention to yourself.
You cursed the mischievous water sprites that had brought you here in the first place. They’d finally gone too far and awakened the faeries’ wrath if the sudden heat wave that had flooded the continent was any indication. A heat wave that was so powerful, it’d even reached your people beneath the sea. It was no secret how volatile and relentless the faeries were. There would be no reprieve to the magic until peace was made. And you dreaded to think what a suitable atonement would be in their eyes to make that peace.
Another wave nudged you closer to shore and your fingers circled your clamshell necklace protectively. As soon as the magical pearl inside was exposed to the air, its magic would be activated and you would be given something only a few merpeople would ever experience: legs. Legs that you were unsure would be able to carry you to shore from this distance.
You studied the humans, watching the way they swam with four limbs, logging their movements into your mind so you could mimic them. They looked so strange flailing about in the water, constantly having to come up for air. As much as you longed for the opportunity to experience what it was like to be human—to walk on land, to breathe fresh air, to feel what weather was like—the idea of losing parts of yourself for it terrified you. But it wasn’t as if you had a choice anyway. You were on a mission. And you couldn’t fail. Because failure meant not only shame from your people, but the possibility of losing your own life if the faeries didn’t feel particularly merciful when you arrived. You clutched your necklace more tightly at the thought, teeth biting into your lower lip. You hoped the magical pearl also brought good luck. You had a feeling that you could use every bit you could get.
Something caught your eye as you drifted a little closer. Or maybe it was more accurate to say someone caught your eye. You watched as the man tilted his head back, pushing his hair off of his forehead with one hand and causing the water droplets clinging to the ends to drip down his back. Your eyes drifted down, admiring his warm skin and subtle muscle. His shorts sat low on his hips, giving a generous view of his taut abdomen. But what really caught your eye was his smile. Even from this great of a distance, you could see how bright it was, how it filled his entire face, causing his eyes to scrunch adorably.
You floated even closer, unable to tear your eyes away. You knew much about humans, your curiosity of how the mortals lived too much to quench. Even though you’d been criticized by nearly every person who knew this trait about you, you’d never been ashamed of it. Humans were often far kinder, more caring and softhearted than any supernatural you’d ever known. For someone such as yourself who’d been pushed aside your entire life, made to feel as if you were expendable—something proven true by the very fact you were the one sent on this mission—the stories of human kindness were like a fairy tale to you. A dream come true just as their stories often ended. And although your people saw your mission as a death sentence, you saw the chance of true happiness if only for a short time. And watching that man with the slicked-back hair and huge smile showed you that the stories were true. Real happiness existed. It was written all over his face.
