TBG MERMAID AU
Chapter 2 curiosity
TW/// FLUFF, SILLYNESS, FEAR, SOME ANGST, HURT/COMFORT, MENTIONS OF DEATH
Stevie was sitting outside of the medical section of the valley sea research facility, worried for Milton as he's going through surgery. Unfortunately his fin was too injured to save, thus it had to be amputated. He will be given a prosthetic fin so he could properly swim again. Unwanted thoughts started to swarm in stevie's head, “What if he doesn't make it? What if when he goes back into the ocean he wouldn't make it? What if-”.
“Stevie?” said a great white shark named lou, his eyeballs very noticeable.
“Yes, Lou?
“The surgery's a success, he's recovering from it now.”
“he's okay” stevie thought to himself as he sighed a sigh of relief. He doesn't know why but something was different about this mermaid from other people (land dwellers or mermaids), just the way he managed to still look majestic while nearly on the verge of death. Stevie told himself it was just him managing to find one of these beautiful creatures, he was obsessed with the supernatural after all.
“Hey little guy, it's time to go home. Let's get in Moe's car," Lou said, interrupting the tarantula's train of thought.
“Okay, hold on lemme grab my coat real quick,”.
Stevie then proceeded to grab his coat, there's a storm outside. Rhonda calm she “told him so” about the weather but in reality it was because of the weather app he has on his phone. He was about to leave before abe, the marine botanist, ran towards him.
“STEVIE PLEASE STAY SAFE, MOE'S ALREADY NOT THAT GOOD OF A DRIVER. I DON'T EVEN WANNA KNOW HOW HE DRIVES IN BAD WEATHER-”
“Calm down abe, I'll make sure he doesn't get too anxious?” Lou interrupted abe, grabbing stevie as they head outside. Abe just stared at them with confusion and proceeded to fly back to his garden of seaweed and algae.
The ride was uneventful, besides moe screaming when thunder struck.
When they made it to lou's apartment (which they all share because it's hard asf to get a place to live these days cheap), stevie heated up one of those cups of Ramen and proceeded to go to his room. His room has a bunch of supernatural themed things in it, posters of cryptids and mythological creatures, little figurines of folklore creatures, and a few plushies of cryptids. Stevie sat down and turn on his laptop to watch some anime, it was something called “generic fantasy adventure anime title because the author is too lazy to put an actual anime here”. He continued to eat the ramen while watching it, he trying to keep his mind off of milton due to him being extremely worried towards the mermaid. After a while, he decided to go to bed, sleeping with his mothman plushie.
Milton opened his eyes, his vision blurry, confused as to where he was. His confusion turned into horror as he realized he can't feel his fin anymore. He started to panic, worrying he was gonna be killed or worse, kept as a pet as some sick trophy.
“Don't worry big guy, we're not here to hurt you, we just want to help you,” a voice softly spoke, Milton looked at who said it but didn't see anyone.
“he meant down here” another voice said, but it's more feminine. Milton then proceeded to look down and see both a tarantula and a Tasmanian devil who are both in lab coats.
He instantly became curious of the two scientists that are outside of his enclosure, his tail gently swaying back and forth.
“You're land dwellers!” Milton spoken with excitement, getting the zoomies from it and tried to swim around, albeit it was difficult for him to swim. Stevie looked at him in awe, there was no way this is the same mermaid who was on the verge of death yesterday. He looked so energetic, so curious, so happy.
Rhonda simply stared at Stevie, she hoped that he wouldn't get attached to the creature because eventually they'll have to bring him back into the ocean and never speak to them again. But she knows Stevie, and he's as clingy as a velcro dog.
“Might I ask what's your name? Is it Neptune or something ocean themed?”
“It's Milton,"
“Fucking Milton?”
“Surprising isn't it,” Milton replied jokingly, trying not to laugh, Stevie also wanted to giggle but noticing Rhonda's annoyed face he quickly stopped laughing.
“Anyways Milton, you'll be here while my researchers tend to you while you recover, we promise to put you back into the ocean as soon as you're healthy enough to do so,” she told Milton in a gentle tone.
“Okay miss rhonda,” the mermaid said quietly, truth be told, he didn't want to leave them. Milton is an incredibly lonely mermaid, it's been years since he has seen a mermaid, let alone one of his species. He just wants a pack to call his own, a friend to call his own, maybe even a partner.
While he was recovering, Milton met the researchers of the valley sea research facility. He had to comfort and calm down both Lou and Abe whenever they got too emotional. Granny gumbo once tried to wrestle with him, to which Rhonda had to yell at her to stop, he was a little scared of gumbo. Zee once tried to show Milton analog horror, which made him sob from fear to the point of needing comfort from Lou and Stevie. Milton often snickers whenever Moe complains about Rhonda making him work. Rhonda gives him snoot pats whenever he does well in his rehabilitation with his new prosthetic fin lou and zee made, he often sees Rhonda looking away, as if she was afraid to show she deeply cares for him…
Stevie was hanging out in Milton's enclosure, happy to be there after doing some field research at sea. He stared at the mermaid with a look of endearment, Milton was excited over the blue shell he gave to him (he has an entire collection btw). He has come such a long way since they found him a few months ago. Stevie is sad that in a few days he'll have to say goodbye to his new friend, but it was for the mermaid's safety since the beachside town they lived in is the same place that buck thunders dwells in.
He is a notorious hunter who often kills mermaids claiming he's saving the people who lived on the land from “vicious sea monsters”. This is a lie he used as an excuse to kill mermaids for profit, and he doesn't care if he ends up killing people who lived in the sea who happened to be aquatic animals and not mermaids, as long as he makes money. This made both him and Stevie enemies due to him refusing to let him in the valley sea research facility because he suspects they're hiding a mermaid.
He worries that buck thunders will eventually find Milton and kill him. Stevie started to sob from the thought of it, “this isn't fair, why can't I be both friends with him and protect him…” he quietly said to himself. Milton noticed this and proceeded to hug him, his heart breaking at the sight of the sobbing tarantula.
“shhh don't worry dear boy, let me hug you, you'll feel better,” he quietly whispered to Stevie. His voice is very comforting, like how warm tea during a stormy day feels. The tarantula stayed in the embrace, his tears starting to slow down. “When was the last time I was hugged,” he thought to himself, besides Lou and Rhonda giving him headpats, Stevie hasn't really ever gotten physical affection, causing him to become touch starved.
“Hey milt,”
“Yes, Stevie?”
“I just want to make sure you're safe from buck thunders, we all want you safe…”
“I have no idea who he is but I'll try to stay safe,” Milton reassured Stevie, the tarantula heard lou call for him as he started to leave the enclosure.
“Well it's time for me to go, I'll hopefully see you tomorrow if I'm not too busy with work,”
“Oh you're leaving now, I wished there was some way you could stay with me longer. It gets lonely here…” Milton quietly said with a sad look in his face.
“Believe me, I want to stay here longer, but I'm not really allowed here after hours plus I don't wanna catch hypothermia from being in the water too long, but I really have to go bye Milton…”
“Bye dear boy…”
Stevie then left the enclosure, dried off, changed his clothes, and got into Moe's car with Lou. While on the way back home, he started to think about how sad Milton was when the tarantula left the enclosure, how comforting Milton is with physical affection, and how lovely his voice is. Stevie started to slightly blush from thinking of Milton, he brushed it off as some friendship thing due to him not really having that many friends (outside of a few of the researchers in the valley sea research facility) due to him being an arachnid.
(Apologies if this is rushed lmao)
