Archive of Our Own ^beta

The way his lips had pulled down when you’d mentioned the tooth and looked out over the ocean had tugged at your heart, and the mere idea of being the one to fix this for him made you want to try. He said he couldn’t do it, but he’d mentioned that anyone else could, which included you right? Maybe he’d get angry for you doing something so unbelievably reckless, but you were mere meters away from the box, and you wouldn’t stop now. 

Edging toward it, you grasped the screwdriver in your hand even tighter, before slowly lifting it up and placing it in one of the heads. At first you tried to be as quiet as you could, but you needed to put quite a bit of strength into it, so completely quiet was out of the question. 

One screw down.

You softly placed it on the floor, careful not to let it roll away.

There was no one around as you looked over your shoulder, the entire main deck pitch black, the shoft shine of the moon you’d admired on the water offering no visual aid above. It meant you couldn’t see what was going on, but it also allowed you to remain unseen, you supposed. 

Two screws down. 

The guy from before was making the same rounds, but you hoped the sound of the waves crashing into the boat would mask your unscrewing. He was headed your way, as you could see the light of his flashlight growing closer every second. There wasn’t really any decoration you could hide behind up here in the point of the ship, but worst case scenario, you could hide behind the box. 

Three screws down. 

Last time the guy had just circled the pool as well, so he wouldn’t look up here,  right? Your fingers were trembling as you continued twirling the screwdriver in circles, eventually pressing down the glass pane so it wouldn’t fall when you’d pull out the final screw. Looking back, the man still hadn’t passed the turnaround, meaning he could see you any second now, he just had to point his flashlight your way. 

Only one more to go. 

In- and exhaling deeply, you stopped moving as you kept your eyes straight on the guard patrolling. When he finally turned back around to circle back to the entrance of the main deck, you tried to calm your heartbeat, promising yourself to never do something as stupid as this ever again. What were you thinking?

The final screw was pulled out, and you slowly removed the glass pane that seperated the large tooth from the outside world. Firmly grasping it, you placed it inside the backpack you’d brought with, and placed the glass pane back, screwing the screws back with way less patience and finesse. 

The moment you touched the tooth, a weird feeling shot through you, but you figured that would probably be the nerves. 

It was a humongous tooth, larger than perhaps your entire arm, and it barely fit in the backpack you’d brought, though with enough pushing and prodding, you’d managed to make it fit. You wondered how the white haired man had ever found such a treasure, and what kind of creature even had such massive, sharp teeth. 

You wanted to hurry to Morel, show him what you did and hope it would never see the light of day again. This was so unlike you, to sneak away in the middle of the night and steal something, but it felt weirdly good to finally do something really exciting on the trip that was supposed to be life-changing. Who else could say they stole a giant tooth from a cruise ship just because their new crush was attached to it. 

The moment you sneaked back into the main area, a guard caught you a few meters away from the entrance to the main deck. 

“Did you just come from the main deck?” The guard asked suspiciously, pointing at the direction you’d just come from.

With a surprisingly steady voice you answered. “I didn’t go outside. I didn’t know it closed at night, but the sign at the entrance said so.”

“It’s also announced about fifty times a day on the intercom.” The guard stepped aside, letting you through. You nodded in gratitude. “Please pay a little more attention, miss.”

“I will, I apologize.” Greeting the guard, you hastily moved to the D-side of the ship, where Morel’s suite was. You didn’t want to think about how they’d find out the tooth was stolen soon and that the guard at the entrance had one hundred percent seen your face. This was so stupid. You should sneak back on the main deck and put it back before they’d find out. 

And yet your feet were swiftly moving toward Morel’s suite. 

What if he got mad? What if he didn’t want this at all? What if you’d made a huge gesture and he didn’t find it cute or nice at all? What if you were caught tonight and the cruise pressed charges and you’d get caught in a legal battle you couldn’t win? Was it really worth ruining your entire life for the possibility of gratitude?

When you reached Morel’s suite and hesitantly knocked on the door, you were already crying, panicking about the impulse decision you’d made. 

Morel opened the door, rubbing his eyes underneath his sunglasses before putting them back in place. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and had clearly been sleeping, his hair a bit tousled. The moment he saw you, and realized you were crying, he sobered up from his drowsiness, pulling you in and setting you down on one of the couches. 

After asking you if you were okay, he grabbed you a glass of water and sat next to you, rubbing your cheeks while you tried to explain what happened. 

You failed miserably, stuttering over your words and not able to get to the point. Eventually, Morel just pushed you against his chest, and shushed, softly telling you to speak after you’d calmed down. 

It took a few minutes, but eventually the caressing of your hair and the feeling of his skin on yours made you able to at least form coherent sentences. 

“Okay, so, I’m an idiot and I did something pretty bad.” You eventually mumbled. “You remember the conversation we had on the deck a few days ago?”

“Yeah, sort of?”

“Well, the cruise is ending soon and I kind of... wanted to do something nice, so I thought I could do something, and you mentioned it being something you couldn’t do, but someone else could, so I did, and I’m sorry. It’s really stupid-” 

It was clear you weren’t making any sense, even you yourself didn’t fully understand what you were saying, but the words kept falling out of your mouth without even a second of thought behind them. With a slight frown on his face, Morel tried to calm you down, encouraging you to try again. 

You sniffled.

“Like...the box thingie?”

Suddenly, a shot of understanding glimpsed through his expression, and the hand that was caressing your back stilled. He pulled you away from his chest, mouth slightly agape as he pointedly stared at you.

“Y/n.”

“...Yeah?”

“Did you steal the tooth?”

You tensed. “I can bring it back, I think? It’s still closed right now, and I don’t think they could’ve noticed yet. I don’t know why I did it, it’s so stupid. I should’ve asked first.”

Morel’s expression froze, and as you slowly grabbed your backpack from the floor and opened up the zipper, his fingers twitched when he saw the tell-tale white shimmer of his own tooth. The one he’d lost all those years ago, the one now used as a stupid binding method to keep him tied to this ship, bound to help a captain that didn’t deserve the title. 

And you’d stolen it.

For him. 

“I don’t think you know how much this means to me.” He started, grabbing the offered backpack and slowly retrieving the tooth from it. It was the size of his forearm, and as Morel held it, he felt a part of his soul return to him, a part that had been kept captive for so unbelievably long. The white-haired man shot you a look of utter amazement, his lips slowly curling up as tears fell down his face.

And with it came the words you’d longed to hear, the words you’d hoped would come as a reward for your grand gesture. 

“I love you.”

And yet you hadn’t foreseen what would happen next as the tooth suddenly started to glow in the hands of Morel, who stared patiently as the tooth slowly seemed to merge with his skin, bubbling into his flesh before disappearing completely, leaving not a trace of the giant tooth that had just been there. 

“I really, really, love you.” He breathed out. “I’m never going to let you go.”

While you were staring wide-eyed at the spectacle, Morel turned to you and pressed his lips against yours, the hand that the tooth had just vanished into now used to keep your head still as he kissed you. He’d kissed you hungrily before, but there was a new desperation lacing his actions now, his entire body forcing you back into the couch as he tasted you. 

From this angle, you couldn’t see the way his back split open, only hearing the cracking sound accompanying it. You also couldn’t see the mass of flesh suddenly appearing, nor the way his legs merged into the mass, his lips the final part of his body merging into the creature that seemed to be growing and growing and growing. 

Opening your eyes revealed a very different sight than what you’d expected. You’d expected to see your own reflection in Morels’ sunglasses, see his overjoyed face as he’d finally gotten back his possession. You didn’t expect to see the entire suite filled with a black, expanding monster. 

You cried out the moment you caught sight of it, fear encompassing you as you were confused and terrified at what was happening. You’d just been kissing Morel, where was he now? Where had this monster come from?!

The creature formed an appendage that wrapped itself around you, cradling you against the main part of the expanding creature, which was nearly bursting out of the seams provided by the walls and ceiling of the suite. 

The ceilings burst first, and you could hear the screams of other passengers waking up as the creature seemed to grow faster and faster. You couldn’t see any of it, clasped against what seemed to be the stomach of the thing, but you could feel the weird scaly texture you were pressed against, the scent of the sea overwhelming your senses.

After what felt like eternity, you heard a very loud splash, and the appendage surrounding you suddenly pulled you away from the body and up into the air. As you looked around, you choked on a scream as the sheer size of the monster came into view, 

No longer an amorphous blob, it had turned into an enormous sea-dragon of a creature, with numerous large tentacle-like appendages shooting out from the water, replacing what would’ve been wings. its teeth seemed to be about three times your height, with smaller ones surrounding the larger ones, its eyes pitch black and without pupils. Scales covered the creature top to bottom, the appendage that was holding you also slowly growing them, though they didn’t cut into your skin, as you feared initially.

While you’d just seen the sea when you’d stolen the tooth, a weird mist had started forming, and as your eyes followed the tentacles, you noticed they secreted the mist, fumes of smoke pouring out of the skin, covering the ship and the water surrounding it in a thick white fog.

When the fog reached you, you felt it before you saw it, the sensation the mist started in your skin like being burned from the inside out. Kicking back and forth in panic and crying out, you felt the scales around you tighten its grip and lift you up further, until the fog didn’t touch you anymore. 

It still hurt like hell, but at least you weren’t touching it anymore, you thought.

It was a selfish thought, born purely from the fear that formed every time you heard the passengers scream out, dying out as they were either crushed by the tentacles, or killed by the fog secreted by the creature.

Every time the mist rose and lapped at your feet, the burning sensation started again, making you cry out in pain. The appendage lifted you higher in response, until it at one point decided to basically hold you up as high as possible.

You were so high up, high enough to see the lights of the port you would’ve arrived at come morning, high enough to see the panicked people run around the main deck, though that view was getting more obscure by the second, the fog blocking your sight. The cruise ship, which had seemed humongous when you’d boarded, was missing half of the ship, the remainders of the cruise either on fire or crushed beneath the tendrils of the beast that was destroying every last bit of it. 

While at first you’d kicked at the appendage to be let go, now you were clinging to it, fearful to fall. Falling into water from this height would kill you immediately, and the white mist would make sure you’d definitely die before you’d even hit the water. Clinging to the monster was your only hope.

It was cold up there, wind coursing through the thin layers of clothing you’d been wearing. The appendage also sucked up any warmth coming off your body, feeling like cold metal against your skin. Your ears also hurt, the wind tearing like a knife through your ears. Desperately, you wanted to cover your ears, but your fear of the tentacle letting go made sure you kept your grip firmly on the cold scales keeping you in the air. 

You didn’t think the cruise stood much of a chance against the absolutely world-sized monster that it was up against, but the sea monster wanted to increase its odds even further and opened its large maw, a blinding ball of energy forming in the edges of its mouth. 

Before you could figure out what it was, it seemed to exhale, and a ray of pure destruction decimated any remainders of the ship. 

The heat from the ray could be felt even in your position, and for a moment you even closed your eyes, taking in the warmth that you needed so desperately. It was so cold up here, and even though the origin of the heat was terrifying, your body couldn’t help but lean into it.

You tried to come to terms with the high probability of your death as the entire ship blew up, leaving naught but ashes and broken wreckage. You tried to think of your family, of your friends, everyone still at home, and pray that they would be alright without you.

The appendage moved, and you kept your eyes pursed shut, wanting death to be quick and oblivious. The wind once again made every hair on your body stand up and your ears ring. When the appendage stopped moving and you didn’t fall or feel any sign of immediate and imminent death, you wondered what was going on and let curiosity get the better of you.

When you re-opened your eyes, you were meters away from the large completely black eyes of the sea dragon, and took in a deep breath, its gaze filling your heart with a fear so primal, your body felt like shutting down.

When it pulled you closer to one of the eyes, your mind couldn’t keep up, and you fainted, growing limp in the sea monsters hold.

You slept restlessly, your brain not even able to conjure up any dreams as the leviathan held you, though it would be a long while till you’d be able to pin that name to the creature.

Vaguely you could remember waking up underwater, panicking and immediately fainting again as you couldn’t breathe, but the memories were too blurry to focus on. Your eyes once again opened briefly when you were carried out of the ocean, two strong arms latched underneath your neck and legs, humming a song you hadn’t heard before, yet still the consciousness didn’t stick. 

When you did finally wake up, it was to the sound of a slow and gradual beep.

The white interior design of a hospital was familiar to anyone, though you’d never imagined waking up in one to be so disorienting. Your eyes slowly traced the machines standing next to your bed, as well as the many tubes going in- and out of your body. The questions came naturally, bubbling from your lips even before you’d even managed to sit up. 

The soles of your feet were killing you, and as you lifted the bedsheets to see what was wrong with them, you saw your entire legs were wrapped with bandages. Vaguely, you remembered how it’d happened, but the complete picture was still missing.

“You’re awake!” The nurse yelled out as she saw you, walking out the room immediately to notify some others. “She’s awake!” 

Within mere moments, your entire room is swamped with people, from police officers who want your statement to doctors who try to take your vitals, all bickering with each other to get the others to leave. Eventually, when you start crying in panic, scared and confused at what’s happening around you, the police officers leave first, vowing to be back the minute you’re ready to speak. 

Despite them wanting you to tell them what happened, they first inform you of the fact that you’re the only survivor of a disaster. 

A disaster with ten thousand casualties.

They need a few people to sedate you after you realize what that means and panic as the memories start coming back crystal clear, as if they’d never been missing from your mind. As soon as they return, you wished they’d stayed gone.

Just like you wish they would all leave you alone.

Journalists clamour around you for answers you don’t have, begging you to give statements on the attack and explain how you survived. You don’t answer them, uninterested in answering people who scream at your face and demand to have you tell them how horrible the attack was. The police you try to answer, though their distrust and invasiveness is just as bad.

You can’t blame any of them. Ten thousand people. Ten thousand. So many families. So many people, just like you, who’d gone for something as innocent as a vacation, and now their skulls drifted around at the bottom of the ocean. When you’d finally managed to get to a phone to contact your family, the entire country was holding wakes in mourning for a disaster only you survived. 

And you still don’t know why you did. 

When you ask where Morel is, nobody knows anything. His name wasn’t on the guest registration of the cruise ship, and the remaining employees of the company all claim ignorance, as if he’d never existed in the first place. 

You assume he’s dead like the rest. 

When you get released from the hospital, you’re put into thousands of protective services, all intended to keep you safe from mourning family members who assume you caused the disaster and journalists who’d kill to hear you say a word of what happened. 

They simmer down, as time passes, but still you’re advised to change your appearance regularly, and to never go outside alone.

You try to pick up the pieces of your life, but despite your best efforts, living alone isn’t in your cards for the foreseeable future, even neverminding your own safety. 

Whenever you’re alone too long, you start remembering, both the good and the bad. The good memories only amplify the worst of them, leaving you with panic attacks in the kitchen, clutching your knees and aggressively heaving as you try to forget both the feeling of being ragdolled through the air and Morel holding you as you woke up too early one morning, whispering sweet nothings into your ear until you fell asleep again.

The panic attacks only increase in intensity, and it gets to the point you can’t take care of yourself anymore.

Eventually, you start living at your aunts place, some room in her house opening up after your uncle passed away. Its weird to live there, and it doesn’t feel like home, but its nice to eat dinner next to someone else, someone who appreciates the company just as much as you do. Still, you suspect she’ll want you gone eventually, growing tired of calling back-up whenever you hallucinate seeing the eyes of the monster in your bedroom

There’s talk of you being put away, in some house for ‘troubled people’, as your aunt refers to it, but you’re unsure if they’ll go through with it. They haven’t spoken to you about it after all, but since the house is badly insulated, and sound spreads far, you know anyways. 

But time tends to heal most wounds, and while you’ll never be the same, the therapy is starting to work, and you no longer need medication to sleep. Your aunt eventually helps you get a job at her company, and to both of your surprise, you start getting back on your feet and manage to keep the job for longer than a month. 

Soon you’ll maybe try living on yourself again, maybe attempt to re-connect with some old friends and pick up a new hobby. It’s good to set goals, your therapist tells you, good to have an idea of what to aim for. You decide to aim for a day where you wake up and not feel a certain someone’s arms around you, squeezing you comfortingly before drifting away into nothingness. 

And it’s going well. You’re making progress. 

One sunday morning, you walk out of the shower and hear your aunt’s voice coming from the hallway, telling you to come downstairs. When you ask why while you’re drying your hair, she answers curtly. 

“There’s someone here to see you.”

You smell salt as you walk down the stairs.