Azul x gn!reader
A/n: Sorry this wasn't out earlier, I'll be extremely busy in the following weeks so I had to not only prepare this one but the other dishes I'll be posting next week
warnings: angst hurt/no comfort, betrayal, bullying
word count: 2.1k
The Coral Sea was a place of curated beauty, where the light of the surface filtered down in shimmering, caustic rays that danced over gardens of anemones. But for Azul Ashengrotto, the ocean was a place of sharp edges and cold shadows.
Azul hated mers with more than every fiber in his being. They were arrogant, selfish and prideful beings who looked down on any other species who they deemed “useless”, and all those characteristics lead to their downfall
He was hiding again. Tucked behind a jagged outcrop of obsidian rock, the young cecaelia curled his eight dark, heavy tentacles tightly around his torso. He hated them. He hated the way they moved like a tangle of snakes, the way they were thick and clumsy compared to the streamlined, shimmering tails of the merfolk.
"Look at him, hiding in the dirt like a bottom-feeder!"
The voice belonged to a mer with a tail the color of polished sapphire. He and his friends circled the crevice, their laughter carrying through the water in vibrations that made Azul’s skin crawl.
"I bet he tastes like bitter ink," another jeered, reaching out with a sharp-finned hand to poke at one of Azul’s suction cups. "Hey, freak! Why don't you do us a favor and crawl into a deep-sea trench where we don't have to look at you?"
Azul squeezed his eyes shut, his glasses sliding slightly off his nose. He didn't fight back. He couldn't. He was just a "slow, chubby octopus" in their eyes. A mistake of nature.
Suddenly, the water around them shifted. A strange, radiant warmth began to glow, cutting through the dimness of the rock’s shadow.
The voice was soft, like the chime of a bell against a glass reef, but it held a quiet authority. The bullies froze. Emerging from the kelp forest was a figure that looked like they had been crafted from the foam of a breaking wave.
They were a vision of iridescent pinks and creams. "Oh, it's [Name]," the sapphire mermaid stammered, his bravado vanishing. "We were just... joking around with Azul."
"Your jokes aren’t funny to him," [Name] replied, floating closer. Their eyes, bright and kind, landed on Azul. "And you’ve overstayed, leave. now"
The bullies didn't need to be told twice. With a few flickers of their tails, they vanished into the blue.
Azul didn't move. He stayed hunched, waiting for the lecture, the mockery, or the demand for payment. No one helped a cecaelia for free.
"Are you alright?" [Name] asked, drifting down to his level.
Azul flinched, his tentacles tightening. "What do you want?" he hissed, his voice cracking. "If you’re looking for a thank-you, I don't have anything to give you. I know how your kind works. You save someone so you can hold it over their head later."
[Name] blinked, surprised by the venom in his tone. "I don't want anything, except maybe to know your name."
"Azul," he spat. "Now go back to your palace, Princess/Prince. You’ll ruin those fancy gloves getting close to someone like me."
[Name] didn't leave. Instead, they tilted their head, looking not at his face, but at his tentacles. "Why would I leave? Those are the most incredible things I've seen all day. They’re so... powerful looking. And the color is like midnight."
Azul froze. Powerful? Midnight? He looked at [Name] as if they had grown a second head. "You're delusional. Go away."
For the next week, Azul tried to find a new hiding spot. But no matter where he went—the sunken shipwreck, the thermal vents, the gray sand plains—[Name] found him.
They didn't come empty-handed.
"I found this," [Name] said on Tuesday, holding out a polished piece of sea glass that glowed with a faint violet light. "It reminded me of your eyes."
"I don't want it," Azul grumbled, though his gaze lingered on the glass.
On Wednesday, it was a rare, spiraling shell that hummed when held to the ear. On Thursday, a silver ribbon dropped by a human ship.
"Why do you keep coming back?" Azul finally demanded, hovering over a patch of sand where he had been trying to practice his ink-control. "I've been nothing but rude to you. You're a high-born mermaid. You should be at balls and tea parties, not hanging around an octo-twerp."
[Name] sat on a nearby brain coral, their translucent coattail drifting around them. "Those parties are boring. Everyone talks about the same things—lineage, pearls, status. You’re different, Azul. You’re smart. I saw you reading those old scrolls the other day. And... I like your company."
Azul looked away, his heart performing a strange, fluttering rhythm he didn't recognize. He was used to being loathed or ignored. To be liked was a sensation more terrifying than any bully.
"I’m going to start a business one day," Azul said suddenly, his voice low. "I’m going to make sure no one ever looks down on me again. I’ll make contracts. I’ll take what they value most if they can’t pay their debts."
[Name] smiled, a genuine, warm expression that made the water feel brighter. "I believe you. You're going to be the greatest merchant the sea has ever seen."
Azul felt a lump in his throat. He reached out, his smallest tentacle tentatively brushing against [Name]’s gloved hand. They didn't pull away.
"Fine," Azul muttered, though he couldn't hide the small smirk playing on his lips. "You can stay. But don't blame me if your reputation suffers."
"I think I can handle a little ink," [Name] teased.
Years passed like the turning of the tides. Azul grew taller, his movements becoming more graceful, his mind sharper. He had begun his studies at Night Raven College on the surface, returning to the sea only during the long summer breaks.
[Name] had grown into a figure of breathtaking elegance, yet they remained the only person who truly knew the boy beneath the calculating merchant(Besides the tweels). To the world, Azul Ashengrotto was a formidable businessman. To [Name], he was still the boy who liked his glasses polished a certain way and who secretly loved the "useless" trinkets they brought him.
On the final night of a summer break, the two met at their secret grotto. The moon above the surface was full, casting a silver path across the water.
"I’ll be gone for many months this time," he said, his voice unusually soft. "The Mostro Lounge is expanding. My contracts are becoming... complex."
"I know you'll do well, Azul," [Name] said, reaching out to touch his arm.
Azul reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, velvet-lined box. When he opened it, a glow filled the grotto. Inside sat a pearl. It wasn't a standard white or black pearl; it shimmered with a shifting, iridescent light, swirling with pinks, purples, and blues. It looked like a captured nebula.
"This is a Deep-Sea Core Pearl," Azul explained, his eyes fixed on it. "It is incredibly fragile. If it hits the floor or is handled with malice, it will shatter. But it holds an immense amount of magical energy—my own energy."
He looked at [Name], his expression vulnerable for the first time in years. "I want you to keep it for me. Protect it. It’s... it’s a part of me. If you hold onto it, I’ll know that my heart is safe while I’m away."
[Name] took the box with trembling hands. "Azul... this is too much."
"No," he whispered. "When I return next year, you will give it back to me. It will be the sign that our contract: the one built on trust, not ink—is still standing. Will you do this for me?"
"I promise," [Name] said, looking into his eyes. "I will protect it with my life."
Azul leaned in, pressing his forehead against theirs. For a moment, the world of contracts and debt vanished. There was only the pulse of the ocean and the warmth of the person he loved.
But the shadows of the past are long.
Watching from a distance, hidden behind a plume of sulfur from a vent, was a merman. He had been one of the bullies from Azul’s childhood. Years ago, he had tried to swindle Azul out of a rare coral artifact, only to end up signing a contract that cost him the agility of his left fin. He walked with a limp in the water now, and his heart was black with spite.
“So”, he thought, his eyes narrowing as he watched [Name] swim away with the pearl. “That's where he keeps his soul, is it?”
He waited. He waited until Azul had departed for the surface, until the excitement of the "Great Merchant’s" return had faded into the quiet routine of the deep.
[Name] kept the pearl in a pedestal of soft silk within their private chambers. They visited it every day, whispering to it as if it could carry their voice to the surface.
One evening, while [Name]’s family was away at a royal banquet, the merman struck. He didn't come with a sword; he came with a lie.
He knocked on [Name]’s balcony, looking battered and bruised. "Help!" he cried. "The cecaelia... Azul... he’s in trouble on the surface! He sent me to get the pearl! He needs its energy to survive!"
[Name] rushed to the balcony, their heart racing. "What? Is he hurt? Why didn't he come himself?"
"He's trapped in a human's net!" he lied, his voice thick with fake desperation. "Please, give me the pearl! I’m the only one fast enough to reach the shore!"
[Name] hesitated. Azul had told them to protect it. But the thought of him dying, cold and alone on the surface, clouded their judgment. "Wait here!"
They swam to the pedestal and grabbed the pearl. But as they turned to return to the balcony, the merman lunged forward, his face twisting into a mask of pure hatred.
"You're just as pathetic as he is!" he roared.
He didn't grab the pearl. He slammed his hand into [Name]’s wrist. The pearl flew from their grasp, spinning through the water.
The pearl hit the marble floor with a sickening crack.
The mer laughed, a jagged, horrible sound. "Tell him I said hello. Tell him his 'heart' is just as broken as my fin." He vanished into the night before the guards could arrive.
[Name] collapsed to the floor. The pearl lay in dozens of dull, gray shards. The light was gone. The magic was dead.
The day of Azul’s return was supposed to be a celebration. He arrived at the secret grotto, his heart lighter than it had been in months. He had achieved everything he wanted. The Lounge was a success, his power was growing—but all he wanted was to see [Name].
He swam into the grotto, a smile already forming on his face. "[Name]? I’m back. I’ve brought you something from the surface, a flower that stays—"
[Name] was there, sitting on the sand. But they weren't smiling. Their puffy sleeves were torn, their hair was a mess, and they were sobbing silently.
In front of them, scattered on a silk cloth, were the gray, lifeless shards of the pearl.
Azul felt the world go cold. The water felt heavy, like lead. He looked at the shards, then at [Name].
"You broke it," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. It was the voice he used when a client defaulted on a deal.
"Azul, please, listen to me," [Name] gasped, reaching out for him. "It wasn’t me, it was someone else, he lied to me, he attacked me—"
"I told you it was fragile," Azul interrupted, his eyes flashing with a sudden, searing pain. "I told you it held my power. My trust."
"I was trying to save you!"
"You didn't trust me to save myself," Azul hissed, his tentacles lashing out, stirring up the sand until the water was cloudy and dark. "You let him take it. Or maybe you just got bored of playing 'friend' to a monster. Was it fun? Watching the freak’s heart shatter on the floor?"
"Love?" Azul laughed, and the sound was more heartbreaking than the shards on the cloth. "Love is a bad investment. It has no collateral. I was a fool to think I could have something that wasn't bought and paid for."
He turned away, his ink clouding the water so [Name] couldn't see the tears streaming down his face.
"The contract is null and void, [Name]," he said, his voice echoing through the grotto. "Keep the shards. They’re all that’s left of the person you knew."
He swam upward, toward the surface, leaving the shimmering mer alone in the dark, clutching the dust of a broken promise.
After all, a mer is always no good.
No this serving isn't based off of Lord Oyster and White Pearl, who told you that?!
