Mershark Boyfriend: Dorian (rough draft)

Blackforte Cove used to not be on anyone’s radar. It was a small blip between main coastal attractions. A spot to stop and find a restroom is what the local had affectionately referred it to. That changed sometime ago, during your childhood. What had once been a nice quiet, perhaps boring, little seaside town, had become a popular tourist attraction overnight. Thanks in part to some magazine articles about the local eatery and views. But the main reason was that the town’s namesake, Captain Blackforte’s ship had been discovered offshore by oceanographers who had been studying the mershark population.

The sensational news of the pirate ship’s discovery was a wealth of history and education. But along with it came the tourists and curious. 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 was now regularly filled by sunbathers, metal detectors, and the occasional ghost hunters. Now that you were grown you were growing annoyed with it.

Your family operated a boat tour during the summer. This included a gift shop and snack food style eatery on land. The boat tours took people out onto the ocean, over the nefarious spot where Captain Blackforte’s ship sunk. People also got to see the infamou mersharks who were supposedly the cause of the ship’s sinking.

The mersharks enjoyed scaring people, and were very much in on the gag. The rumor that they were the cause of the shipwreck was hilarious to them, all because there were some large bite marks along the hull of the ship. Internet gossip had been the main enforcer on this myth, but it brought business to the mersharks just as much as it did the town. They sold handmade crafts, bottled pieces of the ‘wreckage’, but had used the money with the help of the town to put towards cleaning the ocean and keeping the beach pristine, rather than let it fall to the usual destruction of tourism.

During fall and winter, the town reverted to its usual quietness. While it wasn’t exactly what it was when you were a kid, it was something of its old self. Although, it was during this off season you got more of the ghost hunters who, through another widespread internet rumor, had become assured the town was haunted by long dead pirates, maybe even Blackforte himself. They often rented out your family’s boat so they could inspect the waters around the sunken ship.

It was often you who took the boats out during the winter as you were the only one willing to do it. You didn’t care about the ghost hunters, most were obnoxious, but the money was good, and the mersharks were bored. The mersharks loved to fuck around with the tourists as it was, but these supernatural investigators were so much more fun. They got excited over the littlest things they perceived to be a haunting, and they seemed so much more ready to be terrified.

One such jokester mershark had been a friend of yours since youth. Dorian knew when he saw your boat he was 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.

That cold evening, he came upon the boat while the ghost hunters were inside with their equipment. You are bundled up and sitting with your phone. He slid over the edge, plopping down beside you.

“What have we got tonight, eh?” He asks with that raspy voice of his. “What’s their lot like?” He waved his big webbed hand towards the light of the cabin.

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

“A solo act?” Dorian turns and grins at you, revealing the sharp, 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 he didn’t always used to be. In his youth he was quite puny and had always been the runt of his family. He had gone through a growth spurt though and was 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.”

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

“I was just looking him up,” you reply. “I had never heard of him before, but apparently he’s pretty popular. His username is Cory Courageous. His ghost hunting videos aren’t his only claim to fame. He does lots of challenges and stunts too apparently. One of those who just does shit for attention.”

“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 down into the water, block it.” You return his smile. “Otherwise you can take the night off.”

“Nah, I’ll like to babysit you.” Dorian says, hopping back up onto the rail. “Just in case.” 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 down into the water. “Always.” He dives back under the water 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, get 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 were bad enough, with his follower count those numbers could get a lot worse. You shuddered to think about the summer as packed as it was. Then again, your family hadn’t taken a vacation in years. If they did well enough that summer, then maybe they’d be able to do that in the fall.

“Fine,” you grunt, standing aside while lights and the camera are set up.

He smirked. “Good, maybe then 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 golden hour here.”

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

You grimace and glance back 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 goes into his spiel. You sit by the side for a long time while he does different takes for editing. He does a rambling pitch about the ghosts of the sunken ship and Captain Blackforte, one that was exaggerated for his mostly young boys audience.

Then he whips out a ouija board and you have to forcefully keep yourself from groaning in embarrassment. You’ve seen some very professional ghost hunters and the like, even when they were amateurs or hobbyists. In all your time doing these boat tours, no one had ever whipped out a mass produced ouija board.

“Now why don’t we invite out someone who has lived here all their life?” Cory grabs you, pulling you out with him and his ridiculous ouija board. “Someone who has connections to the Blackforte ship and has seen quite a bit of what these apparitions and spooks 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, putting 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 wanna scream laugh, you wanna walk away thinking about the future of society. But you remain frozen there, as Cory rambles on about how supposedly dangerous the spirits of this ocean were. Where he got this information, you don’t know. All you can hope for now is that you aren’t 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. It makes the whole experience so much worse. He spells out on the board ‘captain’.

“Holy shit,” he’s overreacting. “Holy shit we’ve got Captain Blackforte!” He looks at you for reaction but all you can do is sort of halfass a 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 was Dorain? 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 could 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 look at him with a harsh glare when something smacks him in the back of the head. You hold your breath as the clump of seaweed wraps around his head and dribbles down along his shoulders and chest. You walk away quickly, getting away from the camera. Thank goodness Dorian did something. Another clump of seaweed hit Cory, then another and another. He starts yelling, screaming, 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 up 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 remain boring with that board game bit.” Dorian holds your cheek in his palm. “You okay?”

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

“Do you want me to stay here in case?” Dorian asks, a concerned look painted on 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 though 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 lets assume another half hour.”

“Anyways you could speed that up?” He looks concerned.

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

“It was getting good too!” He fusses. He tried to put up his hood but more seaweed plops out. He kicks it 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 whines.

“This isn’t a speedboat, it’s doing what it can to get us back.” You glance to 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?” You look up at him, not sure if you should laugh or scream. “Excuse me?”

“What? You should feel flattered. All the girls I get and I wanna spend some time with you.” He comes up even closer. “I promise it’ll be fun.”

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

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

The window opens behind him and he’s yanked back outside while he screams. You’re shocked at first until you see Cory running and tripping over seaweed to get to his crew. You look out the window, seeing Dorian hanging over the edge with a huge shit eating grin upon his face.

“A bit much don’t you think?” You laugh quietly to him, grateful he did do it.

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

Jealous? What was he jealous for?

Dorian slinks back to the window, reaching inside to grab you. He pulls you close, placing a cool, wet kiss upon your lips. You had kissed once before, but it was during your youth. This time, he knew what he was doing. He pulled away slowly, taking in a shaky breath.

“What the heck are you doing?” You say breathlessly.

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

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

Dorian slips away, going back 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 a bit cocky. He runs his fingers through his long hair, pushing it away from his face. “You always have been my girl.”

You have always been attracted to Dorian, but your friendship has always outweighed that. You’d been friends for ages, ever since his mother used to leave him in your father’s care since she was worried about his small size during hunts.

You place your palms on your hips. “Since when has that meant anything more than being friends?”

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

You take another confident step towards him. “Then why never say anything until that idiot made a move?”

“Because,” he says with uncertainty.

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

“That courage thing,” he chuckles nervously. “Been waiting on that to come in.” He smiles shyly and shakes his head. “It never seemed like something that I could bring up naturally. Or I walsy chickened out at the last second.” He looks disappointed in himself.

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

He 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’d been like family for so long, been so close, it would be hard to imagine a day without him. You place a kiss upon his cheek, feeling him lean into, even push for more. You look into his eyes, smoothing your hand against 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,” he 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 upon his tail. He holds you close, wrapping you up in his big 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, but it was renovated so you could live there when you got older. Dorain barely fit through the doorway, but over the years had figured out how to get inside easily.

You fill your bathtub with warm water, so he can soak while you talk. You had done this often, but this was different. You were a bit nervous for this conversation.

“Are you okay?” Dorian asks.

You nod. “I’m fine. You.”

“Terrified.”

You chuckle and smile up at him. “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 in youth, sometimes as teens. 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 so fast. You kiss him again, building in intensity. He grabs hold of you tightly, his big arms wrapped up your back, his hand on the back of your head.

“I’m losing my breath,” he 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 rest upon his chest, laying your head so you can hear the loud thrum of his heartbeat.

“This is nice,” he says quietly. His hands hold you and rub you preciously.

“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 upon his chest. “I want to be with you.”

He sighs in relief and wraps you up tight in his big arms again. “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.”