Chapter Text
At last Jinyoung felt the baby existing his womb once and for all as he took him into his arms, clearing his nose and mouth and finally feeling relief as a powerful cry erupted from the tiny lungs. He kissed his little Hyunjin on the small forehead, bringing him closer to his chest, as he instinctively knew his baby would need all the nutrients he could possibly give to him. He then called for his mate, the sound of his voice resonating even with the strong storm that was audible from the cave where he now sat as he nursed Hyunjin. There was still a great deal of pain, but the hardest part was definitely through, or so he thought holding his newborn to his chest as a shadow made its way into the cavern.
A chill went down his spine as he noticed a foreign presence near them, cradling his baby close, he quickly inspected his surroundings, Panic rising as all his instincts screamt danger at him, Jinyoung finally noticed the threat. Hidden near the entrance of the cave, a merman with jagged teeth smiled creepily at him, almost unnoticeable of it wasn't for the malicious glint with which his eyes shone.
Dread filled the blue tailed merman especially when he noticed what, or better yet, who the stranger was looking at.
The moment Jinyoung saw the unwavering gaze directed at Hyunjin, he knew what the other was after. Typically, a fertile mer such as Jinyoung would not enter a new mating cycle for about the next two years after giving birth given he had to nurse the newborn and dedicate himself fully to raising the baby. That is, if his child survived, otherwise, upon losing a baby, his body and mind would forcefully seek to mate and attempt to conceive again, to help soothe the pain of losing a child when his maternal instincts would be at their peak.
That was most likely why the other mer was eyeing the newborn with such interest, after all, his only obstacle to subdue a fertile mer that would be able to give him his own offspring was a defenseless baby and his real target, the merman who was weakened after giving birth to the referred child.
After what seemed like an eternity, the threatening stranger finally approached Jinyoung, earning himself a hiss and a warning growl from the blue tailed merman who moved back, curled protectively around Hyunjin who, sensing the tension, broker into a wail, redirecting the intruder’s attention to his tiny body that Jinyoung attempted to desperately hide. As the focus shifted, he attacked.
The young parent saw red, and it took all of his will to lay his baby behind an algae covered rock that had been placed near the end of the cave, knowing fully well that he would not be able to fight and defend both of them with Hyunjin on his arms. His animalistic nature took full control of him as adrenaline pumped his body and he went berserk, distracting the bulky threatening merman from the fragile merbaby.
As the obviously older and stranger merman stroke, Jinyoung dodged and stroke back. It would be easier any other day, but this stormy night, Jinyoung had given birth, losing a lot of blood, and it was becoming evident very fast as he grew more and more exhausted when he avoided the sharp claws but started getting hit by his opponent’s tail an increasing amount of times, his own retaliation losing strength by the minute.
He wondered where his mate was, he knew he was the one asking Jaebum to leave the cave, but he also expected the older mer to respond to his calling. He was too tired to keep fighting for long, and eventually, an aimed blow to his head was too fast for him to dodge, the strength of it sending Jinyoung to spiral down the waters. The other merman grinned victoriously, hovering above the hurt merman until he noticed the red scale pending from his neck, which he mercilessly ripped off and threw to the side, chuckling as he noticed Jinyoung trying to reach towards it. However, the cry of the child shifted the monster’s attention towards the rock Jinyoung had hidden the baby behind, the blue tailed merman gathered his remaining strength, and on his desperation to defend his child, he cursed his missing mate before becoming absolutely feral as he screamt while launching himself to the invader, the instinct to protect was the only thing guiding him, he could not remember his name or why there was a sharp pain on his abdomen, but he remembered the strong bond to his offspring.
Between moments where his rational side blacked out, Jinyoung could only see his claws covered in red.
~~~~~~~
Jaebum backed up surprised at his mate's hostility towards him, he expected the younger to be able to recognize his own mate, but it seemed that was not the case.
Jaebum's heart was beating at a crazy speed, there was an intruder laying destroyed on the cave floor, reeking up the place after what had been an attack to his family, his mate was gone past feral to the point where he hadn’t recognize him, his body showing signs of a difficult fight and labor (he could still see the bloodied mass of flesh of what was probably the placenta discarded next to the younger), and their baby… He had no idea where their baby was, fear emanated from him as he tried to figure out where he might be.
He tried to approach Jinyoung again, slowly, but the younger kept a snarl on his face while he curled up closer to himself. The red tailed merman was able, however, to notice a small purplish shape between the younger's arms, and when he finally heard the most soft cooing sounds he understood that while Jinyoung was in such place where he did not even respond to his own name, as if the word meant nothing to him, he still cradled their tiny newborn with such undeniable care, shielding him from Jaebum with his own body, as his weakened state would probably not allow him to do much more now.
Immensely relieved his child was safe and that Jinyoung, even with everything else that had happened, had survived, Jaebum looked at the body of the attacker. How he wished part of that damage had been inflicted by himself, but considering its state, he could see how Jinyoung had gone animalistic, flesh ripped apart, marks of claws rendering his face unrecognizable, gashes littering the body, a severed arm. Strange as it night be, he was proud of how fiercely Jinyoung had defended both the baby and himself. He gripped the pile of flesh and dragged it out of their cave under the ever so vigilant gaze of his mate, and he took the disgusting remains inside a sea canyon, far away from the cave, but close enough for him to be able to see if any threat would present itself.
Even if the scent of blood and death still remained, removing part of its source had certainly helped calm everyone down. Jinyoung still eyed him distrustingly, but the burden on his body had taken its toll, and he eventually passed out, still curled defensively around Hyunjin.
Jaebum could not wait to hold his child, but he knew that if Jinyoung woke up without the baby, he would most likely snap at him and they could end up hurting each other. So he just gathered his mate in his arms carefully and laid him in the nest which they had readied together.
From the corner of his eye, he saw a red glint shining at him and there, half buried in the sand, the scale he had gifted Jinyoung laid forgotten, much as he'd been forgotten by his mate. Eyeing Jinyoung’s neck, he could see where the small chain had provoked a redness when it had been ripped off from there. He picked it up and sat in a corner of the cave, keeping guard over his family while they slept.
~~~~~~~
The red tailed mer watched over his mate and baby while they rested. He kept himself half awake as it was hard to remain fully alert with the exhaustion, but as his head was about to drop, he heard Hyunjin crying, and he definitely felt more awake as he saw Jinyoung arouse, cradling his baby close to his chest before cooing at him as he began nursing. Now, that Jinyoung was not actively trying to hide the child he could see the purple color of his tail and the red and blue reflexes it gained in the soft morning light.
The calm picture was however broken when the blue tailed mer noticed Jaebum watching them. He growled lightly, inspecting his surroundings as much as he could without having Jaebum come out of his sight. He finally seemed to calm down slightly when he noticed that not only he was laying in the nest, but the red tailed merman had made no move towards him and Hyunjin.
Eventually, as the babe fell asleep once more, Jinyoung laid him in the nest, before hiding him from Jaebum with his body. The older male couldn’t help but feel discouraged by his mate’s rejection, but he had not been able yet to dwell on his thoughts when Jinyoung widened his eyes and, faster that anyone would have expected given his body’s condition, he ripped the small chain from where it rested in Jaebum’s hand, cradling it towards him.
It was now time for Jaebum to widen his own eyes, for Jinyoung to have recognized the object and hold on to it the way he had, it meant that there was hope for him to eventually recognize Jaebum.
A flicker of recognition shone in Jinyoung’s eyes as he compared the red scale in his hand to the red scales from the unmoving merman in the cave. Ever so slowly, as if fearing a sudden attack, Jinyoung moved towards Jaebum, sniffing lightly when he got closer. His stance lost part of its defensiveness when he could find no ill intent from the red tailed merman and instead, found a sense of familiarity coming from him.
Jaebum, on the other hand, stood still as Jinyoung examined him throughly, hoping beyond all that his mate would recognize him. He inhaled sharply as the merman reached towards his face, sustaining his breath as the other extended his index finger to touch the twin moles above his eye, his other hand tracing his jaw.
He, however, could not keep himself from letting go of a heartbroken whimper, and immediately afterwards, Jaebum heard his name being muttered from the other’s lips.
It was then that suddenly he had a shivering merman in his arms, whispering his name over and over and he felt like collapsing from relief, embracing Jinyoung tightly against him as they both cried in each other’s arms, tears of relief, tears of fear for what could have happened, tears of happiness for having been able to go through it all.
When Jinyoung made a motion to back up from Jaebum’s embrace, the latter just gripped him tighter and whined, refusing to let go of his mate after all they had been through, but Jinyoung shushed him kindly, releasing himself before taking his hand and swimming towards their nest. There, he carefully picked Hyunjin up and deposited him in a surprised Jaebum’s arms.
Holding the merbaby in his arms for the very first time, Jaebum cooed at the child, beaming at the chubby face that rested against his chest. His eyes were seemingly glued to the baby, and only changed their focus when Jinyoung pressed a kiss on his cheek before nuzzling against his side laying down against him. It was then that he noticed again how tired he was, as he saw Jinyoung finally letting his guard down.
Laying down in front of him, they both curled protectively around their baby, and for the first time in many days, he fell in a calm contented sleep, together with his family.