Mershark Boyfriend: Dorian (complete)

Female Reader x Male Monster (both cis)

Blackforte Cove used to not be on anyone’s radar, just a spot to stop and find a restroom. That changed some during your childhood. What had once been a quiet, perhaps boring, little seaside town became a popular tourist attraction overnight when the town’s namesake, Captain Blackforte’s ship, was discovered offshore by oceanographers studying the mershark population.

The pirate ship’s discovery provided a wealth of historical knowledge, but along with it came curious tourists. Once-regular spots in town now all had stories about Captain Blackforte. Signs were posted everywhere about the history of the village that never existed before. Homes and businesses were marked historic. And the beach became filled with sunbathers, metal detectors, and occasional ghost hunters. Now that you’re grown, you’re getting annoyed with it.

Your family operates a boat tour during the summer, including a gift shop and snack food eatery on land. The boat tours take people out onto the ocean, over the notorious spot where Captain Blackforte’s ship sunk, and also allow them to glimpse the infamous mersharks who were supposedly the cause of the ship’s sinking. The mersharks enjoy scaring people, and are very much in on the joke. Some bite marks on the ship’s hull and internet gossip are the main sources of this myth, but it brings business to the mersharks just as much as it does the town. They sell handmade crafts and bottled pieces of the ‘wreckage’, and put the money towards cleaning the ocean and keeping the beach pristine, rather than letting it fall to the usual destruction of tourism.

During fall and winter, the town reverts to its usual quiet. During this off-season you get more of the ghost hunters, looking for the long-dead Blackforte himself. They often rent your family’s boat so they can inspect the waters around the sunken ship. Often you’re the one who takes the boat out during the winter, as you’re the only one willing to do it. The ghost hunters can be obnoxious, but the money is good, and the mersharks are bored. The mersharks loved to fuck around with the tourists as it was, but these investigators are so much more fun. They got excited over the littlest things they perceive to be a haunting, and they seem so much more ready to be terrified.

One jokester mershark has been a friend of yours since youth. Dorian knows when he sees your boat that he’s about to have a lot of fun. Even back when your family used the boats for fishing and crab hunting, he would come swimming up to hang out. This cold evening, he approaches the boat while the ghost hunters are inside with their equipment, and you’re bundled up on the deck with your phone. He slides over the edge, plopping down beside you.

“What have we got tonight, eh? What’s their lot like?” he asks in his raspy voice, waving his webbed hand towards the light of the cabin.

You shrug. “They actually seem kind of nice. Well, most of them anyway. This guy is some YouTuber who ghost hunts alone, but he has a whole crew.” You’ve not been able to talk to him without wanting to roll your eyeballs out of your head.

“A solo act?” Dorian turns and grins at you, revealing the serrated rows of teeth in his big mouth.

“The rest of the crew is nice though,” you shrug.

“Well, I suppose that’s good.” Dorian’s tail curls around your feet. He’s quite large, but in his youth he was quite puny and had always been the runt of his family. Then he went through a growth super, and is now one of the biggest around Blackforte.

“What are you going to do?” You tuck your phone into your heavy coat. “Rock the boat again? Throw things?”

Dorian scratches at his jaw while he thinks. “Never had a solo act before. Always been groups of them.” His black eyes turn to you. “What would you like to see?”

You exhale, blowing out a cloud of steam. “If nothing happened at all, it would be kind of funny. This guy just seems to be here for the clout.”

Dorian glances towards the cabin again. “Have you ever heard of him before?”

“I was just looking him up,” you reply. “Apparently he’s pretty popular. His username is Cory Courageous, and his ghost-hunting videos aren’t his only claim to fame. He does lots of challenges and stunts too, apparently.”

“A class clown.” Dorian’s smile returns. “So you think I should do nothing?”

“For now, maybe just keep a watch and see what he does. If he drops a camera into the water, block it.” You return his smile. “Otherwise, you can take the night off.”

“Nah, I’ll like to babysit you. Just in case,” Dorian says, hopping back up onto the rail. He lowers himself down, hanging on as you look over. “You never know when you might need me.”

You give him a smirk. “When have I ever needed you?” you say teasingly.

Dorian winks and splashes back into the water. “Always.”

He dives under just as the YouTuber comes out with his crew. Cory’s talking away while also tapping on his phone. “Okay, you there,” Cory says towards you, “let’s get you out of the way for now, behind the cameraman, but don’t go too far. I have some questions for you.”

“No,” you say a little bluntly as you move aside. “I just run the boat. If you wanted the regular tour, you should have said so.”

“You can answer questions though, right?” he asks with a charming smile. “C’mon, you don’t even have to be on camera.”

Tourists are bad enough, but with his follower count those numbers could get a lot worse. You shudder to think about the coming summer, but then again, your family hasn’t taken a vacation in years. If they do well enough this summer, maybe they’d be able to do that in the fall. “Fine,” you grunt, standing aside while lights and the camera are set up.

Cory smirks. “Good, maybe I can convince you to go out later, too.”

You’re a bit taken aback by this, but you make yourself laugh. “Yeah, sure.” You can’t help but roll your eyes.

There’s a hard splash on the other side of the boat that startles you. “What was that?” Cory looks over the edge.

“Probably one of those mersharks, Cory,” the cameraman assures him. “Get back into the position, we’re close to the golden hour here.”

Cory huffs. “Those things give me the creeps.”

You grimace and glance over the edge, kind of hoping Dorian does do one of his tricks now.

“Okay, Cory, and five, four, three, two…” The cameraman signals one and points, and Cory instantly launches into his spiel. You sit by the side for a long time while Cory gives a rambling pitch about the ghosts of the sunken ship and Captain Blackforte, exaggerated for his audience of young boys. Then he whips out a Ouija board, and you have to really keep yourself from groaning in embarrassment. You’ve seen some very professional ghost hunters, even among amateurs or hobbyists, but in all your time doing these boat tours, no one has ever used a mass-produced Ouija board.

“Now, why don’t we invite out someone who has lived here all her life?” Cory grabs you, pulling you into frame with his ridiculous ouija board. “Someone who has connections to the Blackforte ship and has seen quite a bit of what these apparitions can do.”

You just stare at the camera, unsure what’s happening or why it’s happening to you. If you could leave your body, you would. “I mean…” Your voice cracks.

Cory has you kneel beside him over the ouija board and put your hands onto the planchette. “Using this lovely lady as a vessel, I am going to try and summon the spirit of Captain Backforte himself! No one has ever attempted this due to his violent nature.”

You want to laugh, or scream, or wrench yourself away. But you remain frozen as Cory rambles on about how dangerous the spirits of the shipwreck are. Where he got this information, you don’t know. All you can hope for now is not to be embarrassed further, and maybe, just maybe, Dorian will save you.

“Okay, so first question,” Cory says ominously. “Who is here with us?”

The planchette moves, but you can tell it’s Cory pushing it along. He’s placed himself so close to you he’s basically on top of it, and that makes the whole experience so much worse as he spells out the word ‘captain’.

“Holy shit.” He’s overreacting. “Holy shit, we’ve got Captain Blackforte!” He looks at you, but all you can do is give a half-assed smile. He does this a few more times, asking questions, moving the planchette to his whims. It’s getting aggravating and you want to go home. Where the hell is Dorian? Probably enjoying seeing you writhe like this.

“Okay now, Captain. What is it that you and your crew want? What will help you to move on to the light?”

You can only imagine what he’s going to make the planchette point to, but what he actually does is so ridiculous and humiliating, you finally have to laugh. He spells out ‘sex’ like some twelve-year-old who thinks toilet humor is the peak of comedy. “Okay, that’s it.” You stand up and away from the board.

“Are you getting bothered?” Cory rises with you. “Can you feel how horny the ghosts are?”

You turn to glare at him when something smacks him in the back of the head. You hold your breath as the clump of seaweed dribbles down Cory’s shoulders and chest, then walk quickly away from the camera. Thank goodness Dorian did something. Another clump of seaweed hits Cory, then another and another. He starts yelling trying to get away from the rain of gross seaweed that’s pummeling him. You go to the back of the boat, just behind the cabin, and Dorian rises out of the water. “That was getting embarrassing,” he says quietly.

“Mortifying,” you laugh. You rush up and hug him. “You acted at the right time. Thank you.”

“I was hoping he was going to stay boring with that board game bit.” Dorian holds your cheek in his palm. “You okay?”

You huff and cross your arms. “Aggravated, but I’m fine. Just hoping this will make him want to leave.”

“Do you want me to stay here?” Dorian asks, a concerned look in his black eyes. He places his big hand around your arm, squeezing it comfortingly. “Just in case he tries that horny ghost thing again.”

You can hear Cory shouting behind you. “Maybe,” you grumble. Having Dorian there brings you a level of comfort. You don’t think Cory will try anything, but it’s always good to have backup.

One of the crew rounds the corner. “He’s wanting to head back to land. How fast can you get us there?”

“It took us half an hour to get out here.” You place yourself in front of Dorian, who luckily blends into the shadows with his dark grey skin. “So let's assume another half-hour.”

“Any way you could speed that up?” The crewman looks concerned.

“We’ll see?” You head back into the cabin to start up the ship while Cory is having a fit on deck. He comes into the cabin, wet from the seaweed barrage.

“It was getting good, too!” he complains. He tries to put up his hood, but more seaweed plops out. He kicks it across the floor in frustration. “It’ll make a good video still, but not as good as where we were going.”

You ignore him, just nodding and humming in response to him. “Can’t you make this thing go any faster?” he asks.

“This isn’t a speedboat. It’s doing what it can to get us back.” You glance at the window, hoping Dorian is still outside.

Cory comes up close beside you. “My crew is cleaning up outside, you know? Maybe we could fool around a little bit to pass the time.”

Is this guy serious? “Excuse me?”

“What? Lots of girls like me, and I wanna spend some time with you.” Cory comes even closer. “I promise it’ll be fun.”

You shake your head. “No, thanks. I’ve had enough fun for one evening.”

Cory scoots back towards the windows. “Fine,” he scoffs. “Suit yourself.”

The window opens behind him and he’s yanked outside with a scream. You’re shocked at first until you see Cory running, tripping over seaweed to get to his crew. You look out the window and see Dorian hanging over the edge, with a huge shit-eating grin on his face. “A bit much, don’t you think?” you laugh quietly, grateful that he broke the tension.

Dorian smirks. “I was getting a bit jealous, so maybe I did.”

Jealous? What for? Dorian slinks back to the window, reaching inside to grab you. He pulls you close, placing a cool, wet kiss on your lips. You’ve kissed once before, but it was when you were kids. This time, he knows what he’s doing. He pulls away slowly, taking in a shaky breath.

“What the heck are you doing?” you ask breathlessly.

“I’ll tell you later,” Dorian says against your ear. “But you can’t be surprised.”

“A little.” You gaze into his dark eyes. “But not much.”

Dorian slips away into the water, while you close up the cabin. You don’t expect to see Cory Courageous or his crew again once they leave the boat. You don’t think he liked his special treatment. As you’re cleaning up the deck and getting the boat ready to leave for the night, Dorian hops back on board. “I didn’t like him hitting on my girl,” he says as you approach.

You smirk. “And since when am I your girl?”

Dorian’s smile is cocky. He runs his fingers through his long hair, pushing it away from his face. “You’ve always been my girl.”

You were always attracted to Dorian, but your friendship outweighed that. You’d been friends for ages, ever since his mother used to leave him in your father’s care during hunts, worried about his small size. You put your hands on your hips. “Since when has that meant anything more than being friends?”

His chin lifts as he looks down at you, his smile becoming shy. “A long time now.”

You take another confident step towards him. “Then why didn’t you say anything until that idiot made a move?”

“Because,” Dorian says uneasily.

“It would’ve been nice to know beforehand, Dorian,” you sigh. “What were you waiting for?”

“That courage thing,” he chuckles nervously, then shakes his head. “It never seemed like something that I could bring up naturally. Or I chickened out at the last second.” He looks disappointed in himself.

You place your hand over his, and his gentle gaze falls on you. “Then say it now.”

Dorian nods, tucking his fingers into your hair and smoothing the curls away. “I’ve loved you since we were kids,” he says, breathless and a little timid. “But you’re my best friend and I didn’t know what to do.”

You’re touched by his words. You could understand why he was hesitant to confess. You’ve been like family for so long, it would be hard to imagine a day without him. You place a kiss on his cheek, feeling him lean into it and push for more. You look into his eyes, smoothing your hand over his slick skin. He’s not sad he said it, just nervous and waiting for your reply.

“I’m sorry I’m an idiot and never realized,” you chuckle.

“I’m not that bright either, so it’s okay,” Dorian laughs quietly in return. “I never wanted anything more, but… maybe I do.”

You kiss him again, this time touching those cool lips. You have to stand on tiptoe, but he lifts you up, placing you on his tail. He holds you close, wrapping you up in his arms so that you’re almost hidden from the world. “Can we go to our spot and talk?” he asks.

“What about my place? It’s getting really chilly.”

Dorian smirks. “I do like your bathtub.”

Your home is just off the shop, a small guest house that was once used for storage and was renovated so you could live there when you got older. Dorain barely fits through the doorway, but over the years he’s figured out how to squeeze inside. You fill your bathtub with warm water, so he can soak while you talk. You’ve done this often, but you’re a bit nervous for this conversation.

“Are you okay?” Dorian asks.

You nod. “I’m fine. You?”

“Terrified.”

You chuckle and smile up at Dorian. “Don’t be. You're my friend and always will be.” You sit down on the edge of the tub, and he puts his arm around you.

“But this is different.”

You kiss the top of his head. “Not really when you think about it.” You mind drifts, remembering how you played as kids, even as teenagers. You’d kissed each other often. This shouldn’t have been a surprise at all. “What’s so different now than when we hung out before?”

“The confession, for one,” Dorian mutters. “Now you know how I really feel. It could change a lot of things - how you see me, how you act around me.”

You kiss him again to reassure him. “Perhaps that will change.” Your heart is sputtering. You kiss him once again, building in intensity, and he grabs hold of you, his big arms wrapped around your back and his hand cradling your head.

“I’m losing my breath,” Dorian laughs softly.

“Sorry, I’m getting carried away.”

Dorian nods and smiles. “It’s okay. I liked it.”

You take off your clothes, keeping on your panties and bra as you slip into the tub to cuddle with him. You lay your head on his chest so you can hear the loud thrum of his heartbeat. “This is nice,” he says quietly. His hands rub up and down your back tenderly.

“This is.” Your tub is small, so it’s a bit cramped. You wish you had a bigger bathroom so you could have one of those monstrous jacuzzi tubs, but for now, this will do.

“So it’s okay?” Dorian asks. “I kind of would like an answer.”

You sit up on his tail and look into his eyes. He looks scared. “Yeah, it’s okay.” You place your palm affectionately on his chest. “I want to be with you.”

Dorian sighs in relief and wraps you up tightly again. “You had me scared there for a second!” Dorian laughs.

You return his embrace. “I’ve always loved you too,” you reply tenderly. “I’m just glad one of us had the guts to say it eventually.”