Destined: Cross's Story (Part 1)
So this is the first installment of a Leviathantale soulmates AU, this one's centred around Cross. Cross's story currently only has two chapters, this one and another that's still a WIP, but most of the other Bad Sanses will at least get a drabble.
Leviathantale belongs to Skumhuu
Read on AO3
(First (you are here) - Next)
(There are a few useful notes at the bottom, I didn't want to put them up here but they might be good to read at some point.)
~~~
Every dark night in the lab, Cross had been comforted by the faint marks on his forearms. When one of the marks flickered, saying that his soulmate was in pain, he cried for them. He wished more than anything that he could help them, protect them… But he can’t even protect himself. Not even now, when he’s free from the prison that was all he knew. And that hurt to know. But it was a fact he couldn't escape. Every day that passed, he was reminded of how weak he was. He traced over the cyan crescent on his left forearm, the main source of light in the tiny cave he was hiding in. It glowed brighter in response to his touch. He quickly covered it, hoping the creature outside wouldn’t notice.
Suddenly a crash could be heard from outside, and the red mark in the shape of claw marks on his other arm flickered slightly. He wiggled around in his crevice ‘til he could see outside. A large shape with a red eye was dragging the creature that had been chasing him away through the water. He narrowed his eyes, trying to see better through the dark water. He didn’t understand how Dream did it so well. Well, he didn’t understand a lot of things. The red mark on his arm glowed almost painfully bright, and he tried to cover the glow with his hand. It seemed he failed, as the dark figure turned around and looked straight at him. He wormed his way further down into the crevice, ignoring how it irritated the wounds running up and down his tail. The other figure looked into his crevice, and Cross trembled in fear. Up close he could vaguely make out the face of a skeleton mer, with a scarily large hole on part of his skull. They rumbled a quiet greeting, accompanied by an assurance that Cross was not in danger. Despite that, Cross tried to worm his way further into the crevice. More dirt got in his scratches. The pain and fear brought a few tears to his eyes. The eyelight looking at him turned worried, and they backed up a bit, quietly rumbling more comforts. (I cannot find the right word for this and it has been like 20 minutes of staring of into space I just give up-)
“Yo Horror!” The shout interrupted the semi-quiet that had been established between the two. Another one of the marks on his arm lit up brightly, this one a brilliant red target-shape on the back of his hand. “Did’ya find s’methin’ neat?” ‘Horror’ replied with a request to quiet down, before swimming a little bit away. The two marks on Cross dimmed a bit, but still glowed brightly. He could hear quiet murmurs nearby. Trying to shake himself out of the haze of fear and pain, Cross rubbed the soulmarks on his hands and arms. The cyan crescent covered almost his entire left forearm, and always glowed the brightest. It had never flickered in Cross’s life. The target soulmark on the back of his left hand was much smaller, just barely taking up the space on the back of his hand. Four scratch-like lines ran down his right arm- this one had flickered the most in the past. The final mark was on the palm of his right hand, a calming lavender mark in the shape of a pilot fish. He mentally chided himself, these are your soulmates, what are you doing? Hiding like the weak little experiment you are. He built up a bit of courage and wiggled closer to the entrance of the crevice, to the point that if he went forward a bit more his head would stick out. From this point, he could see the other person who had greeted ‘Horror’. They appeared to be a shark mer as well, but with his limited vision Cross couldn’t tell. The most prominent detail about them was a red target-shaped soul hovering in front of their chest. ...That cannot be healthy. Cross thought.
His movements had evidently caught the attention of the two mers, who slowly moved a bit closer to him. The new mer greeted Cross, and introduced himself as ‘Killer.’ He could see a glowing ‘X’ on the palm of one of his hands- it was rather hard to tell which in the dim light. ‘Horror’ also introduced himself, confirming his name was, in fact, Horror. He slowly swam a bit closer. “D’ya wanna come ou’ from there? It can’ be comfy.” He offered quietly, his red eyelight still full of worry. “We ain’t gon’ hurt’cha.”
Cross wiggled out of the crevice, his eyes darting around for any kind of danger. You wouldn’t be able to see it anyway. When nothing showed itself, he relaxed just the slightest bit and let his eyelights focus on the two skeletons in front of him. They were still hard to see in the darkness, though the bright glow from Killer’s soul, Horror’s eyelight, and everyone’s combined soulmarks brightened it somewhat. The open water and currents on his tail were somehow more painful than the dirt and rocks, and he had to hold back tears. Horror’s eye looked down at his tail and widened significantly. “Are ya okay?”
Killer snapped back before Cross had a chance to answer. “‘Course ‘e’s not, one of ‘is fins looks like it’s ‘bouta fall off!” His tail was lashing in the water, and it was obviously taking every ounce of effort not to rush forwards toward Cross.
Horror hummed quietly, and started to reach toward Cross, before reconsidering. “Can I touch ya?” He rumbled, and Cross relaxed slightly more at his gentle and calming tone. Cross nodded his consent. Horror reached out and grabbed his wrist, where the bright red soulmark was, tracing it as the colour faded slowly, marking that his soulmate had found him. Horror let out a low rumbling noise and slowly pulled Cross into a loose hug, tightening it when Cross didn’t protest his hold. “Wha’ happened ta’ ya’?” Cross tensed slightly when Horror asked this, but this just made Horror hug him tighter.
“Ya don’t have to tell us, Horror probably jus’ wanted to murder whate’er it was.” Killer piped up. He had swam a bit closer, but was still pretty far away from Cross. Cross’s heart did a little flip at the gesture, glad his soulmates clearly cared about him. “Tell ya what, we’ve got healers back at home and I'm guessing your other two soulmates as well. Ya wanna come?” Horror pulled back a bit so that he could see Cross’s reaction. Cross slowly nodded again, cautious, but if he wasn’t dead yet, chances are at least Killer and Horror wouldn’t hurt him. They're your soulmates, why are you so afraid? Because you’re weak. Horror pulled away a bit more, offering Cross for Killer to carry. Cross didn’t protest, staying limp in Horror’s hold. When passed to Killer, he tensed slightly again, but tried not to move, as that only made his tail hurt more. Killer traced his own soulmark on Cross’s hand, his smile widening a tad.
Horror swam up beside him, now holding the thing that had been chasing him earlier. “C’mon, let’s get ‘im to Nightmare,” he hummed quietly. Cross tried to move away from Killer to swim, but Killer just readjusted him in his hold to make it easier to swim and carried Cross through the dark water.
~~~
“Night, we’re back!” Killer’s shout pulled Cross out of the drowsy haze he had fallen into. It seemed they had gone deeper into the water, into a deep trench somehow lit in a cool cyan. He tensed when he saw one of the sources of light, a large tentacle that was reaching for the three shark-mers. Cross tried to worm his way out of Killer’s grip, but only succeeded in getting one hand free. Killer’s grip tightened significantly. “Relax.” He ordered, loosening his grip again when Cross stopped struggling. The tentacle paused and retreated. Cross looked up into the massive cyan eyelight looking down at him, wiggling a bit closer to Killer for safety. The other mer chuckled quietly, and changed his hold back to being more of a hug. He swam a bit closer to the bottom of the trench, while Horror could be seen swimming up towards the eyelight. The conversation that had been started between the two above them was interrupted by Killer. “That’s Nightmare. He’s my one’a my other soulmates, dunno ‘bout you. ‘e’s a very... very… very... large softy. ‘e can be a bit spooky at first, I get it.” He looked down at his arms, one of which was emitting a bright cyan glow. The other two marks that had been glowing earlier had faded entirely, signaling that he had met his soulmates. “While Horror’s explainin’ all o’ this, wanna tell me your name? Don'’ think ya told us earlier.”
Cross spoke up, his voice quiet and slightly hoarse. “C-cross. My name’s Cross.”
Killer pulled away a bit to look into his eyes, smiling. “Nice ta’ meet’cha, Cross.” Something about the way Killer said his name made a shiver run down Cross’s spine- oddly enough, it wasn’t in a threatening way.
“Who’s this?” The approach of the new mer made the remaining soulmark, the pilot fish, glow it’s gentle lavender.
“Check your hand, Dusty~”
The other mer looked at the glowing ‘X’ that was on the palm of his right hand, which was shining a bright scarlet. He let out a quiet hum, and swam closer to the pair. “How’d you get hurt?”
“Geez, jumping straight to the point aren’t ’cha Dusty?”
‘Dusty’ shot a halfhearted glare at Killer, before shaking his head. The sudden movement disturbed a (Ghostly? What the fuck?) pilot fish swimming near his head, and it swam back down near his tail. “Sorry. Should introduce m'self first. ‘m Dust.”
“Nice t’ meet you. ‘m Cross.” Cross managed to mumble in response.
Horror swam down to the three, offering Dust a kiss when he reached their depth. “Nightmare wan’s ta’ see ‘m.” He said quietly, removing himself from Dust and moving to hold Cross. Cross was transferred between the two mers, resisting the urge to complain that he was capable of swimming.
“And why don’ I get to cuddle the newbie?” Dust complained, a slight smirk appearing on his face.
“‘e just told ya, Noots wants to see ‘im.”
“Fine, but I call next cuddle time.” Cross smiled at the debate. Killer noticed and smiled back, making Cross glad it was bright enough to see. Horror sped up to Nightmare’s level with a few strong flicks of his tail, stopping when they were level with the giant eye.
A few tentacles came up from the deep, and Nightmare spoke, his voice deep and soothing. “Horror, you may leave.” Horror deposited Cross into the little bed of tentacles that had been formed beneath him.
Cross protested this, “I don’t need to be carried everywhere, I can swim!”
Nightmare leveled a glare at him for that statement. “You’re going to injure yourself. Besides, I’m told this is nicer than trying to stay afloat.”
Cross huffed at this, but didn’t try to move. He resisted the urge to say that he’d been through worse and been fine, but he got the impression that wouldn’t improve his case. The levithan reached a hand out to Cross, starting to ...pet? Cross when he didn’t protest. The combined sensations of the petting and the tentacles beneath him swaying slightly lulled him back into his earlier drowsy state. Nightmare looked like he wanted to say something, but sighed and closed his mouth again. Cross cuddled into the nest of tentacles, quickly drifting off into true sleep.
~~~
Ye
Notes-
*Cross never truly befriended Dream here, they were just… companions for a bit. Most important is that DREAM DOES NOT LIVE WITH NM’S GANG AND IS NOT ONE OF THEIR SOULMATES.
*Yes they wear clothes, yes they’re underwater, shut up and don’t ask questions
*This isn’t canon and is probably really out of character.
*Horror has a weird accent because the hole in his head disturbs his thinking, Killer’s is just because he’s too lazy to speak properly so drops syllables, Dust is the same but he’s not quite as lazy as Killer. Cross just drops them because he's tired. If any of their accents are too hard to read I can… translate? (?????)
*As per usual this is copy/pasted from Google Docs, so any weird spots are probably because I forgot to italicise something, or because a paragraph isn’t separate from the previous one.
