The Kings Doctor: Everything to Nothing (aquaman)
summary: spoilers for Aquaman: the lost kingdom (2023). As Arthur, Orm and her arrive at the Devil's Deep, news about the Doctor's Atlantean departure come to light.
warnings: enemies to (future?) lovers, violence, death/plague mentions, bickering, overall angst, 1.6k words tags: @illegalcerebral @stardustworlds
masterlist
prologue, part one: reunion, part three: the refinery, part four: not the same
Devils Deep was everything the rumours said they were. Volcanic rock edging the shore line, lush green jungle’s from every angle. Sickly, green ash soaring into the sky from the mountain tops. The sun was bright, too bright. Breathe in, breathe out. I could hear Arthurs groans from nearby, the sand squelching under his heavy footsteps as he collapsed against the grains.
“Too bright” I groaned, my arm covering my eyes.
Orm scoffed, “You probably haven't seen the sunlight in years”
I peeked out to him from behind my forearm. Hair in drizzly strands in his face, droplets running down his large nose and onto the sand. His dark clothing stuck to each muscle and curve.Those were once my curves, my strong arms. My nose that brushed against my neck. He was all mine. But it was all over. He got rid of me. I couldn’t bear to look at him for any longer, tearing my forearm away to slowly adjust to the light.
“You wouldn't be too far off” I grumbled, standing up slowly.
“Did I ruin sunlight for you too?” snarled Orm, clenching his fists.
“Yes actually!” snapping back, I squared up to him, feeling his hot breath huff onto my face, “Funny what destroying someone's life does to them, your highness”
Stepping back, I fake curtseyed. That slight smirk on the criminal's face made me want to puke. Everything he did made me want to rage. So smug, so knowing, still so kingly. Orm needed that grin punched off his face. I wouldn’t heal any blood coming out of his mouth that's for sure.
“Children” Arthur turned to us accusingly.
I paused, looking up at the mass in front of us. A roar came from within the dense jungle, miles and miles of vegetation that lead to a bubbling mountain. It did not look any more doable up close. Arthur lowly whistled, hands resting on his hips.
“This has to be it” I looked up at the green smoke billowing into the air.
“With all this greenhouse gases, it has to be causing the plagues as well. Timelines match up”
I sucked in a breath with a cough, “Plagues? Like multiple plagues?”
“They’ve been ravaging the kingdom for the past few months, recently hit the Fisherman Kingdom too”
My arms ran cold, goosebumps setting a chill in my bones. A part of me couldn’t help but be torn at the news. Could I have helped prevent this? Save a few lives? Maybe I could have, but as Orm came to beside Arthur I knew that it was impossible. He stopped that hope in its tracks. Firing me was the worst choice Orm could have made. The anger burnt away any remorse I had for the seven kingdom’s devastation. If they asked, with this information, I would have considered coming back. But not once was there any communication. If I was scrubbed from the records, it wouldn’t shock me in the slightest.
“We’re running out of time, let's go” I pushed past the two brothers.
The green jungle was everything you expected it to be: lush, dangerous and humid. Sweat beaded on my forehead with every step. Arthur and Orm walked ahead of me, talking about things I couldn’t be bothered paying attention to. I had been just fine until the King of Atlantis sent an octopus to find me, requesting assistance. If I knew Orm was involved in the package deal I would have refused outright. Black Manta can have him.
Arthur broke the group's silence, “What exactly was your job at Atlantis, Y/N?”
I stepped to be in line with the King, pushing his brother back as he stumbled over a tree root, “I was the King's doctor, head of medical advancement and I was on the Atlantean board of medicine”
“Oh wow, that's impressive” Arthur grinned, slapping my back.
“I was working on something revolutionary at the time of my,” I paused to look back at Orm, huffing as he wiped sweat from his brow, “departure”
“The council said you handed in unfinished reports” Orm said.
“The council stole those from my apartment when they banished me, as per his majesty’s request” I spat at him.
I charged forward. The sooner I got away from Orm and all this business was over, the sooner I could go back to my bedsit in the Sunken Citadel and the sooner he could go back to where he deserves. Leaves and branches crunched under his footsteps as Orm jogged closer to my quickening pace, grabbing my arm.
“I did not banish you, by Atlan what are you talking about?”
I yanked myself out of his grasp, his cool fingertips sizzling against my warm skin, “After you fired me, I went home there she was herself: the head minister. She told me that you and Atlantis would no longer be requiring my services”
“That, due to my unprofessional behaviour, it was best if I left Atlantis permanently” I yelled, water beginning to flood my vision.
After half a decade, I didn’t think that day would affect me so much. Orm was my everything. Fired in front of all his advisors, a ‘better’ job he called it in the Xebel Kingdom for me. I had tried to beg for some understanding, some information on where this was all coming from. Yesterday we were fine, last night we were good. That morning, I didn’t know where it came from.
“Y/N, you know-”
“No Orm, you fired me and sent your little minister to banish me from the only home I’d ever known so you could have Mera all to yourself”
Orm stepped closer, I stepped back, “I never sent them to banish you, Y/N, I thought you left willingly”
My chest heaved with each breath, tears brimming my eyes and I begged and pleaded for them not to fall. Not here, not in front of him. “Maybe so, but that doesn't change that I was kicked out and Mera moved in”
I spat her name with disgust. The lips that I kissed, the bed that I’d sneak into. Her royal ships meet him weekly to court. Her hair was like a beacon as she paraded around with his arm on her waist. I saw it once, just once as temptation grew too much. One more look, just to see if he was as miserable as I was. Instead, a smile on their faces as that glaring ring sparkled Atlantis’ light right into my eyes. Not even a week after I left and the Xebel princess had everything I had only dreamt of.
My legs had begun to ache after so much time on land, walking closer and closer to Manta’s hideout. I had been silent since Orm pushed my buttons. Although a painful past few years since I had seen Orm, a part of me felt bad. There was no denying I missed him. No denying that I still thought about him all the time. His weak, pained face as I told him about the council made me want to believe that he was right. That he really did have no idea about the minister banishing me. I couldn’t run to the Xebel Kingdom with that news, what reputation would I have had as a doctor cast out from Atlantis?
Shivers ran down my skin as I heard the brothers behind me. Every so often one of them would speak, possibly about bugs or fruit or something. I didn’t pause or join in their conversation, they’d catch up eventually or I’d stop Manta on my own. Orm spoke my name a few times, his footsteps loud in my ears as he tried to get closer and closer. Each word out of his lips I ignored. Facing him now, I couldn’t bear it.
"Hey" snapped Orm, getting frustrated.
I brushed past him, the dampness of his shirt almost pulling me to cling to him.
"Hey"
I was slammed against a tree. Leaves fell through the air like snow. Or it may have been the ash from the volcano. The warmth of his hand by my head screamed out to me. Past mewould of leaned into it with a grin, but now the feeling of it made me sick. I watched as a sweat bead rolled down his forehead, wishing with every might that it would go into his eye and burn.
"Look at me" he growled, "you know I didn't want Mera, it wasn't my doing"
"I would have done anything for you, but you threw me away” I whispered, unable to trust the strength in my voice.
I leaned the other direction, his hand jerking to block my other path. Orm blocked me in, his heat melting my bones, knees trembling as I finally looked at him. Icy blue eyes bore into my soul. Orm seemed softer, his gentle touch as his thumb gently reached to touch my temple. Instinctively, I recoiled at his touch with a hiss.
"You knew I was engaged to her as a child, what did you expect?"
"What did I expect?" I sighed, my anger resurfacing with every heartbeat, "I would have done everything for you Orm: been your mistress, scrubbed the castle with a toothbrush, sacrificed everything just for you to look my way"
I pushed Orm away, the force landing him against a moss covered stone column. His cheeks dropped, any frustration seemed to melt away. My hands yearned to cup his face once more but anger flowed through my veins, images of him crushed under Manta’s feet were a happy daydream. The Orm I would have loved to love again was gone. So was the King's Doctor that would have left the world behind for him.
"Instead? You fired me, left me in the lurch with nothing"
"Y/N, I -"
I laughed heartlessly, dusting my hands from the feeling of him, "that's what you are to me now, your highness, nothing"