al s o “Do I scare you?” for icari
Icarus is not sure what made him show himself that night. He was only supposed to be in passing; get what he needed, and then leave immediately. Instead, he is still there, hidden under the docks of Vesuvia. He should have left when the man had appeared. Mingling with a Lander’s private business isn’t always a good idea, especially with men. But this one, who is standing on the edge of the pier and looking out the sea… Icarus doesn’t like what he senses from him. Melancholia, nostalgia, fear… And so he stays, in case the Lander tries to do something terrible, like jump and drown himself.
The man sighs, steels his shoulders, and takes a step forward, inching closer to the edge of the jetty, and Icarus kicks out of his hiding place with a strong swerve of his tail. The man jumps away with a cry of surprise, startled.
“How long have you been here?” he yelps, a hand over his heart, which Icarus can hear beating rapidly, and another at his waist, where a weapon is resting.
“Long enough to wonder when you’d start monologuing.” Icarus replies, a bored tone to his voice.
He eyes the Lander’s weapon and clothes while the Lander observes him. Icarus feels golden eyes rake over his bare torso, the scales of his tail underwater, and do a double-take at the spines on his back. He raises his own eyes to the Lander’s, which he finds wide and staring, unblinking, or blinking too rapidly to see it.
“Do I scare you?” Icarus hears himself ask.
“Huh? No- no I’m not scared.” The Lander huffs, red blooming on his cheeks. He shuffles nervously on his feet, glancing away from Icarus, but his eyes are inevitably drawn again to Icarus’ spines. “Are you poisonous?”
Icarus nearly makes a show of rolling his eyes and yawning. He was expecting that question. He is always asked that question.
“Do you want to find out?” he drawls instead of answering.
The Lander squints at him, like he’s trying to determine whether Icarus is serious or not. In the end he shakes his head and extends his hand.
“I’m Commander Uri Elrich.” he introduces himself, something solennel, hilariously so, in his voice.
Icarus doesn’t even look at the offered hand. “Good to know. You’re mine, now.” he purrs, looking up at the man through his eyelashes.
The Lander’s – Uri – eyes widen comically and his mouth falls open. The colour on his cheeks darken at an alarmingly fast pace.
“Wh-what?”
Icarus grins. “Oh, haven’t you heard? Mers work like Faes. Give me your name, and you belong to me.”
Uri’s expression cedes to shock, regret, panic, in a matter of seconds. He flails around, mouth opening and closing, stutters around words of excuse and denial, while Icarus slowly, discreetly, swims closer to the pier.
“You Landers have no sense of humor.” Icarus sighs, shaking his head.
The dock is a little too high for him to reach from underwater. He gathers his magic into a pedestal under him and raises it to rest his arms on the wooden planks. Uri takes a few steps back, his face a mixture of weariness and wonder.
“You were... messing with me?” he asks, brows joined in confusion. “The Fae thing... it’s not real?”
“Well it could be. I could do it, if I wanted to.” Icarus answers, head tilted to the side, observing the man. “But you seem like you already have that around your neck.”
Uri unconsciously reaches a hand up to his neck.
“How did you- How did you know?” he whispers breathlessly.
“I observed you, just a minute ago. It seems rather obvious that you are here, in Vesuvia, against your will. But you are a soldier, a highly graded and trained one. You could have escaped, fled this city easily. Unless someone was holding you on a leash.”
Uri’s eyes flash with anger. “I’m not held on a leash!” he snarls.
Icarus says nothing. What is there to say? He and the Lander stare at each other. And then he turns around. A hard swat of his tail jolts a red and white seashell out of the water onto the dock, to Uri’s feet. Uri collects it slowly. When he looks out to the sea again, the Merman is gone.