Peaceful
Warning: it’s just fluff. Straight up cutesy fluff because I live for that shit.
Pairing: established 1x2x1
Inspired by a prompt I found by @merprompts (Mer Prompt #6) which is as follows:
Mer A will braid Mer B’s hair while they’re sunbathing on the rocks. Everything is calm with the gentle push of the waves on the rocks, the air is warm and there’s a light breeze.
All the hugs and thanks to @janaverse and @robo-rad for their encouragement and help figuring out what kind of sea creatures the boys should be based on! <3 <3 <3
The gentle burble and crash of the waves breaking on his sunbathing rock was easily one of his favorite sounds. He had been there, delightfully warm, for the past several hours while he waited for his mane of auburn hair to dry enough to rebraid and replace his jewelry. Duo really didn’t like having to go through all the trouble sometimes but after the storms last night that whipped his braid into a mess of hair, jewelry, and varying kinds of sea debris he just didn’t have a choice. Before he had painstakingly untangled it all, pieces of it had been folded up and pinned against itself in ways even he was surprised by.
With a small huff, he readjusted himself and let his tail dip into the water. The fins of his long black and white tail lazily rocked with the waves and he was unsurprised to feel them brush gently against the smooth skin to rough scales of another mer. He cracked one eye open and glanced off to his left in time to see the darkly striped dorsal fin of Heero break the surface of the water just a moment before his head. Dark chocolate hair plastered itself to his face as the water trailed back down into the ocean.
“Everything is back in order,” he said by way of greeting, propping himself up on the edge of Duo’s large rock. “And everyone is fine. You hair appears to have been the only casualty… As expected since you decided it would be fun to roll in the undercurrent.” That earned a grin from Duo as he rolled onto his belly and dropped his head onto his arms.
“C'mon, Heero, you had fun too! Don’t try to lie to me. I saw it on your face!” Duo snickered, grin cheeky. Heero simply rolled his eyes and pulled himself out of the water to sit beside Duo, careful to not fling too much water on him and his mostly dry hair. Not that Duo would have really minded, distracted as he was by water trickling over Heero’s muscled form. He liked watching it roll over the olive skin and darker stripes that crawled across Heero’s back and shoulders.
“I didn’t say it wasn’t fun. Just that your hair being as it is now is your fault.” Replied Heero. After shaking off as much of the water on his hand he could, he reached over to run his fingers through the meticulously brushed locks. “It’s dried well. Do you want it totally dry before I braid it?” His hand continued the slow, easy motion as they talked.
Duo glanced up at him with a pleasantly surprised smile and shifted so he could press his cheek into Heero’s side. “I figured I’d wait until it was totally dry but if you’re going to do it for me, well, I won’t complain about whether you braid it damp or dry. Thanks, Heero.” He rubbed his cheek against him again and asked, “Do you want me to sit today or is lying down okay?”
Heero looked at him for a moment then around the large rock they were on. Surely there was plenty enough room for the both of them on it. “Laying down is fine. I’ll just sit next to you. Scoot over.” With that statement, he lightly poked Duo in the direction he wanted him to move and waited while the Orca mer get settled again.
When Duo was finally settled on his stomach with his head on his arms Heero pulled himself up beside him and gathered the several feet worth of hair across his lap. He brushed his fingers through the length of it to get rid of any tangles trying to take hold and then began parting it all into three sections. Duo let out a pleased hum and relaxed further into the rock.
Hair evenly separated, Heero started the over-under process of twining the locks around itself. With each successful plait he straightened out the rest of the separated pieces in order to keep the braid smooth. Over, under, over, under, over, under. Again and again, Heero wound the silky strands around itself into Duo’s customary braid. As he worked he admired the way the strands glowed in the full sunlight, hints of red and blonde mixed in with the brown to make the gorgeous auburn that was Duo’s hair.
A couple times he had to pick up the braid and set it farther on Duo’s back so he could continue braiding it without it bunching up and each time he set it down he would stroke a hand down the soft skin of Duo’s back for a moment. With each caress, Duo let out another quiet, pleased hum. Occasionally, he would mumble out a sleepy, “Mmm, thanks ‘Ro.” and Heero would smile just a little.
By the time Heero had all of Duo’s hair braided and had grabbed the small woven bag holding all of his jewelry, Duo was fully asleep and looked so peaceful it made Heero want to curl up beside him and do the same. He refrained because while this was a generally safe area for merfolk, sometimes humans were stupid and sometimes larger merfolk would come by and decide they wanted the spot. He couldn’t defend them if he was asleep.
So instead he dug around Duo’s bag for the latest bit of ribbon he had acquired from a human for tying off the braid and wound it around the end with a solid knot. It wouldn’t be coming loose anytime soon. He glanced into the bag of jewelry again, briefly debating setting them in their places within Duo’s braid, but decided against it in favor for gently running the braid through his hands over and over.
He readjusted himself so that he was pressed up against Duo’s side with just the very tips of his tail fins in the water and pulled Duo’s braid back across his lap. Gently, so as not to pull any of the hairs out of place by accident, he wrapped and unwrapped the braid around his hand, turned it this way and that in the light, and used the short bit that he couldn’t braid to lightly brush Duo’s back to pass the time. No way was he going to wake Duo when he was sleeping so peacefully, especially after the storms last night.
Because while yes, it had been Duo’s idea to go out during it and he had wanted to have fun in the end, the main reason had been because he wanted to make sure none of their smaller friends had been caught unawares in it. Luckily none of their friends had been caught in it but they did manage to catch some debris from a shipwreck nearby and prevent it from crashing into the coral reef, in the process getting rolled into a mess that had caused most of the problem with Duo’s hair. After getting rid of the debris they had returned to the open sandy area to let the undercurrent roll them around for a little while before heading back home to their cave in slightly darker waters to curl up and sleep. Heero had gone to check on all their friends earlier in the morning while Duo had set off to untangle the mess that was his hair.
A low hum alerted him to Duo waking slightly and he released the braid in favor of setting a hand on Duo’s back, next to his dark dorsal fin. His fingers gently massaged the skin, always careful of the sharp claws on his fingers. The sleepy Orca mer cracked his eyes open to look over at Heero and mumbled, “Done already, ‘Ro?” before letting out a wide yawn. Heero nodded slightly, shifting again so he was facing Duo better.
“I didn’t put any of your jewelry back in today. I just wanted to play with your hair.” He said, holding up the closed bag for Duo to see before carefully setting it down on Duo’s other side so it didn’t get rolled on and crushed. Duo chuckled, smiling as he stretched his arms and tail as far as he could before letting everything drop unceremoniously back down. His tail fins hitting the water splashed both of them, making Duo snicker and Heero roll his eyes. “Do you want to stay here for a while longer or go back home?” Heero asked, setting his hand back down on Duo’s side once the mer stopped moving. Duo hummed and looked to the sky, clearly thinking, before a wicked grin split his face and he abruptly tackled Heero into the water surrounding them with a whoop of glee.
Heero let out a brief shout of surprise as he suddenly hit the water but quickly recovered, wrapping his arms around Duo and dragging him deeper into the water only to pin him down against the sandy floor. Duo face was split in his trademark mischievous grin and Heero had to chuckle a little at him. This was his Duo after all and he usually expected nothing less from the mer.
With a small grin on his face, Heero nuzzled his face against Duo’s briefly before pressing a kiss to his lips and quietly saying, “Race you home. Loser has to help Trowa with his pets next time.” He had shoved off of Duo and was swimming as fast as he could in the direction of their home when he heard Duo shout, “No fair, Yuy! You left my bag on the sun rock on purpose!”
The last thing Duo heard from Heero was his laughter traveling through the water as he raced away.
@thisweekingundamwing
