this piece was literally the death of me
but you guys know i had to do my statue au for one of these days
its when!! when david comes to life!! no more statue!!
i wrote about this au for a class assignment, and I wont bore you with the entire thing but i'll give you guys the ending bit where this happens (click keep reading)
The sun poured into the room through the window, shining on his face. He had fallen asleep at the foot of his statue.
He talked to it last night. Well, more so mumbled abstract thoughts. Prayers that developed into pleads. Messy kisses painted along the cool, smooth marble. He longed for it to be warm, and for it to move under his touch.
He was lonely. God, he was so lonely.
He felt drunk. He hadn’t had a lick of alcohol and yet he felt out of it. The rain outside didn’t help. His mind was buzzing. Until it eventually lulled him to sleep.
His joints popped and cracked quietly as he stretched, reaching out for his statue. He remembered he had rested his hand over the foot of his statue, something about knowing it was there helped him sleep.
The only problem was he couldn’t feel it anymore.
A couple pats around and he feels a hand over his. A warm hand. His eyes fling open and he flinches, not expecting that. His eyes immediately land on a face in front of his.
Fair skin. Auburn hair. Green eyes.
Oh, my God.
The figure smiles.
“Good morning.”
David.
It was David.
His statue David.
He blinks a couple times. He had to be dreaming. There was no way this was happening. Just mear hours ago he was stiff, cold marble. He remembers very distinctly how cold it felt.
But it stood right in front of him. He. He stood right in front of him. He wasn’t an it anymore. David was never an it. His sharp features he has painstakingly carved out were there. Plain as day. Clear as day? Ah, who cares.
He rubs his eyes just to make sure what was happening was happening, and then realized David was politely waiting for a response.
“Oh.”
His voice sounded unnatural.
“Hi.”
David tilted his head, a charming smile making his eyes squint a little. It made his heart flutter.
“Did you sleep well?” David asked. He sat up, sitting in a more comfortable position, but never breaking eye contact with his David.
“Yeah.” His joints were saying otherwise, but he could bear it. Almost ignore it.
He noticed David was wearing a big cloth over himself. The cloth he usually placed on top of him when leaving the home or going to bed.
He hesitantly lifted his hand up and reached over, cupping the other man's face.
Warm.
It was warm.
Like the sun had come down and kissed his skin.
David leaned into the touch, and he wanted to weep.
“You’re so beautiful,” the phrase spilled out of his mouth. David huffed out a small, pleasant laugh.
“What is your name?”
“What?”
Oh, yes. He had never said his name out loud in front of his statue. He felt bad, as if the statue could’ve heard him the entire time it was being built. Could it?
“Oh. Jasper. My name is Jasper,” he responded. His own name sounded foreign to him, he rarely ever said it.
The other man smiled, bringing his hand up to place over Jaspers.
“What a handsome name.”
Jasper's breath felt knocked out of him. It took him a moment to compose himself the best he could.
The heavens had blessed him. Listened to his prayers and granted his wishes.
@jaspvid-week day 6: angst/hurt/comfort, in which a merman who's gotten a little too comfortable coming to shore to see the human he'd saved from drowning, finds himself caught by a fishing boat and taken to a strange place.
More under the cut:
He peers around the corner warily, scouring the area for employees, ready to feign being lost at a moment’s notice.
He sees no one, hears no sounds of conversation or footsteps or working, so he creeps quickly over to the large tank, the most likely one that they might keep something as big as a merman. The wall is mostly concrete on this side with a few observation windows, but there is a set of stairs leading up to the second level that overlooks the large tank.
He bites his lip, waiting another pause to make sure the coast is clear before he starts tip toeing over to the stairs. As he passes one of the windows, he does a double take, seeing a large green tail disappear behind a coral formation.
“Davey!” Jasper whispers frantically as he runs up the steps, kneeling in front of the short glass wall between the tank and the floor, his eyes scanning desperately. He passes over schools of fish, a few small sharks, a sting ray, until he sees that tail again. He looks around nervously, wary of calling for the merman too loudly and attracting attention. “Davey!” he tries again, a little louder.
His heart races as he sees the figure turn and swim towards him, ducking down as it nears before abruptly turning upwards to launch himself out of the water just enough to grab the edge of the glass partition, hauling himself up just as Jasper reaches out to pull David into a hug, holding him tight and uncaring to the water that soaks into his shirt as the merman’s arms wrap around his shoulders in turn, David’s body trembling in his hold.
“Oh, Jasper,” the merman says in relief, eyes clenched shut where his face is buried in the crook between Jasper’s neck and his own arm.
“God, I’m so glad to see you,” Jasper whispers as they hold each other, remaining like that for several aching moments before separating just enough to face each other, one of David’s hands clenched over the edge of the glass as Jasper takes the other in his own. The clawed, scaly fingers shake in his hold, gripping tight.
His eyes rove over the merman, checking for signs of harm, before picking out a few scratches in the dim lighting, small patches of scales missing from his tail. His heart drops, putting his free hand on the ginger’s shoulder. “Fuck, what did they do to you?” he whispers in dread.
“They didn’t- it was mainly from me struggling in the net,” David replies, his voice shaking and hand clinging tightly to Jasper’s. “Jasp- I’m- I’m scared, they were talking about moving me somewhere, some place far,” he says frantically. “I don’t know what they’re going to do to me!”
“It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m gonna get you out tonight!” Jasper insists.
There's an uncomfortable pause, a shaky breath, a dread.
“T-tonight?” David repeats weakly, heart sinking in a sickening feeling as his fins droop. A cold feeling swirls in his stomach, almost feeling like he’s been sucker punched. “Why- why not-”
“I’m so sorry, I can’t do it now,” Jasper says, his heart breaking at the look on David’s face, how let down he sounds. “There’s too many people around, I’ll never be able to just walk you out. I have to wait til tonight when the place is empty, and even then I’ll still have security to worry about!” he insists gently.
David chokes on a quiet sob, trying to hide it. “I understand,” he whispers, looking away, his hand still holding tight and trembling around Jasper’s, his knuckles surely white under the dark scales.
“I’m so sorry Davey,” Jasper says, his voice breaking, his eyes welling with the beginnings of tears as a terrible feeling runs through his chest. “It’s my fault this happened, and I hate to leave you in here any longer… I- Believe me, if there was any way I could get you out now-”
“It’s okay, I understand,” David says softly, sincere, squeezing his hand tighter, his lips pursing briefly as he tries to keep himself together. He takes a breath, letting it out slow. “I’m just glad to see you,” he says, so soft Jasper almost can’t hear, eyes closing tiredly, tears dripping into the water below him.
Jasper frowns, his heart aching fiercely to see the merman like this, captured, frightened. Dreading whatever these people have planned for him. Jasper heard the news report speaking of this place he’s to go to, a national marine institute. He can’t let it happen or his chance of getting David out will be gone.
He leans down, prompting David to look up at him, and moves closer until their foreheads are touching gently, David’s wet hair mussing with his own. The ginger stares at him in surprise, his eyes bright, a little red in the face as the breath trembles past his lips.
“I will get you out, I promise,” Jasper says quietly as the merman’s eyes well with fresh tears. “Or I’ll get my ass arrested trying,” he adds with a weak grin, his voice breaking again.
David stares up at him for a long moment, tears running trails down his cheeks as his lip trembles a little. “I trust you,” he whispers, blinking against the tears that blur his vision, unable to muster a smile in return but still thankful for a sliver of Jasper’s usual humor. It’s a comfort it this strange place, this glass box of water that seems so small, so confined, leaving him so exposed. At least the aquarium staff hadn’t hovered around his tank too long, treating him like any other ‘wild animal’ that needed some observation but not too much so as to cause undue stress. Leaving him to acclimate.
It was probably the only thing that allowed Jasper to sneak in here to see him, and for that he’s endlessly thankful.
Jasper takes a breath, swallowing the lump in his throat. “I- I should go before someone finds me, I don’t want to ruin it for tonight,” he says regretfully, hating the way David’s face falls again, but the merman nods without complaint, his eyes flickering briefly down.
“Okay,” David whispers, looking up at Jasper again as the man leans back, preparing to release his hand, but Jasper hesitates. They stare at each other as the low buzz of the aquarium goes on around them, the hum of systems keeping the water filtered, temperature controlled, manufactured ocean currents lapping water at the edges of David’s tank. Lights and filters and fans filling the space between them.
The pause is both a comfort and curse, words needing to be said but smothered beneath the heavy tension. It’s all held back for now, everything that’s pressing to be said slipping instead through the desperate grip between their hands and the ache behind their eyes.
For a moment, Jasper almost considers scooping David out of that damn tank and making a run for the ocean right here and now, security and people and cameras be damned, but he fights the urge. Much as it hurts to leave the ginger here any longer, he needs to wait until closing to have a chance. He can’t be slowed down by crowds of people and aquarium employees on top of security.
So he takes a breath, bringing their linked hands close, and presses his lips tight against David’s bony knuckles in a chaste but desperate kiss. He closes his eyes, breathing slow through his nose, feeling the trembling in David’s hand and hearing his breath hitch and soaking up this little bit contact. It won’t be the last, he tells himself, just to tide them both over until tonight.
It’s not the last.
“Okay,” he finally sighs as he pulled back, meeting David’s eyes, wide and shining in the soft blue light of the tank. “I’ll see you tonight,” he promises.
“Okay,” David repeats softly, still frightened, still devastated, but finding himself comforted by that one small gesture. So raw and full of emotion that he can’t possibly begin to untangle right now. It will have to wait until Jasper gets him out of this terrible place, he has to have faith that his friend will succeed. Faith that he’ll see the ocean again, and not this big research facility he hears murmurs of.
Jasper moves his hand from David’s shoulder to grip the one hanging on the glass wall, carefully lowering David down into the water. When their hands finally slip apart, the merman drops down under the surface with barely a sound. Jasper watches his figure sink down with a heavy heart, his chest aching, but he stands and turns to go back down the steps. He quietly trots down the stairs and stops at the observation window in the big concrete wall, seeing David.
The merman swims closer, putting his hands on the glass and watching him, red hair waving slowly in the current. Jasper watches him back for a long, heavy moment, managing a smile and wave, wishing to give the merman hope. A wordless promise to see each other again.
David finally manages a shaky smile back, one of his hands returning with a small wave. Jasper’s smile widens, his heart racing, his mind whirling with a plan of action for tonight, and he turns and hurries out of the employee area. He’s already been back here a long time, he doesn’t want to push his luck.
