Arbed House Headcanons

Mermaid's Wish Pt1.3

"Why did you bring so much......" Japeth swallowed down the word trash: "Why did you bring these?"

"Found them all in shipwrecks," Aric replied, rummaging through the pile of objects he just dumped on the sand between them. "Thought you could tell me what they were used for."

"Which ones do you want to hear about?"

"All of them."

Japeth sighed and started teaching his curious mermaid student. When Aric was listening attentively, his tail swayed. The movement left a ticklish feeling in Japeth's chest.

Halfway through the pile, Aric cut Japeth off:

"There's something I forgot to ask you last time."

"What is it?"

"Where are your pets? What are they?"

"......pets? Oh, you mean my scims?"

"Yeah, if you mean the snakes."

Japeth smiled, amused: " I thought you'd hate to see them after your unpleasant experience with them from the first time we met."

"Nah, they seemed cool, besides the fact they......tied me up." Aric gritted his teeth a little when admitting it. "But they're your pets. And I guess we're friends now. So, I trust you not to let them tie me up again?" Aric half-joked, setting his mesmerizing amethyst gaze on Japeth's cold blue ones.

Friends. That word made Japeth heat up.

"Uh, oh, of course. Of course, I won't let them prank you again." He stammered.

"Good. So, where do you usually keep your pets? They seemed an awful a lot."

"Scims." Japeth corrected. "Strictly speaking, they're not natural." He summoned the scims and in a flash, slithering, rippling scales covered his body.

"You see, they're born from my magic."

At this point, Japeth had to confess he was a bit anxious. What if after seeing him covered with eels, Aric thought of him as a hideous monster? Japeth remembered the restrained look of detest his mother and brother always gave his scims. Japeth's mother had beautiful, electric blue butterflies, and although Japeth had inherited her talent, he changed it to version-black-squirming-eels.

Contrary to Japeth's worries, Aric's eyes lit up as he quickly scooted over to admire the scims. He held out a finger, wanting to touch them, then remembering they were on Japeth's body:

"Can I pet them?"

"Whatever you like."

Japeth ordered the scims to unwrap him and surround Aric. They hissed meekly as Aric fondly petted them.

"Go on with telling stories about these things." Aric nodded towards his pile of sunken treasure, and added, "Please."

So Japeth did. But Aric listened half-heartedly, toying with Japeth's scims, and at one point Japeth put down the item he was lecturing about and stopped talking. Aric noticed, setting the scim down and returning his full attention to Japeth.

"It seems like you like the scims better than their master, do you?" Japeth demanded with a sour tint to his voice.

Aric cocked his head a little and looked at Japeth, puzzled. After a moment, his eyes widened and he laughed.

"Why Japeth, why should you be jealous of your scims?"

"I'm not jealous," Japeth grumbled, but Aric laughed even harder.

"I didn't know you were the kind to be so childish." Aric teased.

"I'm not!" Japeth insisted, but his reddened cheeks betrayed him. Before he could protest again, Aric ceased his laugh.

"Of course I like you better than your scims."

Japeth's cheeks turned a deeper shade of red. Aric smirked, clearly satisfied with the effect his words had on Japeth.

Japeth didn't comment on Aric's response. He just picked up the next object in the pile and continued, until the sun went down and they had to say goodbye again.

Notes: Ahhhh it's been such a long time since I last updated I'm so sorry! Thank you for all the likes and votes~! Next chapter there'll be a time skip and that'll be the last part of Mermaid's Wish Pt1! Thank you again!