Mershark Boyfriend: Nalunani (complete)

    When I was first born, I was hand chosen to be the bride of the Oyabun’s son. I am a Koi, and was thus deemed the most acceptable mate for my future husband. I was also chosen for my colors, the golden spots amongst the pearly white scales of my tail and body. Not only that, I was born with a rare face spot on my face. In the eyes of the Oyabun and the rest of the tribe, I was considered good fortune and would bring prosperity and wealth to my future husband. I was raised to be ready to take on such a hefty role. Everything was planned before me. My every movement, my every action, it was made up for me.

    I was also kept under heavy guard, no one was allowed to touch me or speak to me without the permission of my father or future husband. I was told over and over how lucky I was and how I was going to enjoy my life once I was married. I would be rich and powerful, they all said. But really, let me be honest, my husband would be rich and powerful. Me? I was just like one of the servants in the mansion, just more decorated and more chained.

    I dared to dream of escaping this life, of being more than I was and what was predestined for me. The ocean was so big and I had seen so very little of it. I dreamed of traveling the world like mermaids before me. But my dreams were only hurting me in the long run. Such hope could suffocate me.

    Then the day came that the wedding was announced and my misery grew. Reo, my future husband, barely ever saw me. We had dinners together every so often and, while I knew everything about him, I didn’t know him at all. I heard rumors of him having many girlfriends on the outside. And yet if even one of his guards looked at me for too long, that was a punishable crime. How was I supposed to tolerate such obscenely high double standards? Let alone being married to a man who only saw me as a garden for his children?

    The wedding was fast approaching, and I was suffocated further and further. One of my guards, Touma, who had become my confidant and friend since he started guarding me when I was very young, could sense my worry. He was one of the biggest guards, covered in tattoos down his back and arms. Some of the tattoos had become misshapen with all the scars on his body. His long blue tail was thick and sturdy, and the fin had been replaced by a prosthetic.

    “I could be killed for saying anything against Reo,” he tells me one evening through my locked door. “But if you are so miserable now, it will only get worse.”

    “I know.” I sit by the door so that we can talk. “But I don’t know what else to do, Touma. And the ideas I do have-” I stop myself from going further.

    “What ideas, Lady Katori?” Touma insists.

    I sigh and wrap my arms around myself. “I know of a way to contact the Nalu.”

    Touma goes very quiet and I can hear the water shift ever so slightly. “The Nalu?” He whispers back. “How do you know of this?”

    “My mother,” I whisper. “Her brother works for him.”

    “But your uncle was killed,” Touma murmurs.

    “Oyabun wanted that to be true. But the Nalu saved him. My uncle has been loyal to him ever since and has been keeping secret contact with my mother for years now. She told me, if I am scared, she would ask her brother to send word to the Nalu.”

    “Lady Katori, if you do such a thing, that could mean war!” Touma hisses. “You cannot be thinking such a thing.”

    “I don’t care what training and power Reo has. You know as well as I do how unstable he is. Do you think that any of us would survive his reign?” I sigh and clasp my head in my hands. “I told you it was a crazy idea!”

    Touma is silent again for a long time. “If you have such a letter, now would be the time to send it.”

    Touma agrees to deliver the letter to my mother. When he does, he reports back to me that she is taking it directly to her brother and she would stay with the Nalu’s tribe until they come and attack the compound. 

    The waiting is miserable, but one day, my door is wrenched open and Reo comes inside. His sharp teeth are bared and his eyes are completely black. He says nothing and, instead, rips me from my room. He grabs me, digging his fingers as hard as he can into my arms.

    “You’re hurting me!” I scream.

    “I care not for your well being!” Reo roars in my face. 

    Has he found out what I’ve done? Does he know my mother has left and joined with the Nalu? I look aside and see Touma bloodied and beaten on the ground.

    “They’re coming,” he snarls. “Your well being is far from my mind.” He drags me down into the basement and throws me into a small cell. He pushes me down and I hit my head against the floor. 

    “You will stay here and silent for as long as necessary,” Reo snarls. “If the Nalu wants you so badly, he will die trying to find you.”

    “The Nalu?” I whimper as I hold my head in my hand. I see blood in the water, small red clouds of it rise before my eyes.

    Reo grabs me roughly by the throat and shoves me to the wall. He chains my tail and bounds my arms behind my back. 

    “What are you doing?” I cry.

    Reo takes a scarf and uses it to tie around my mouth and gag me silent. “I will come for you once the Nalu is taken care of. No one will ever touch my prize.” He slams the door shut and swims away in a fury.

    Blood is still rising from the cut on my head. I slouch, hanging my head. It’s all my fault. Poor Touma probably took the blame. I would rather be beaten and bloody than him. It’s my fault! Touma only wanted to help me. I am glad my mother is gone, she will at least be with her brother when she finds out I’ve died in a cell.

    Day turns into night and the waters grow cold. The cell is so small, and I cannot rest comfortably with my tail and arms chained so. I am faint with hunger and anxiety, but for some reason, I cannot sleep. 

    I hear screaming from above. I then hear something loud, like an explosion. There is a mad fury of sound and violence coming from just upstairs. Has the Nalu come? I know there are sharks in their ranks and they can smell blood. The small cut on my head has stopped bleeding, but I bet I can open it again. 

    I smash my head against the wall and drag it against the rough walls. It hurts and the water burns along the raw wound, but blood soon begins to rise from the cut. I sigh with relief despite the pain I’m in, and I watch as the blood turns into a red cloud before my eyes.

    I wait and I listen to the carnage upstairs. It is horrible and I don’t know if I have welcomed in a fate worse than the one I am living. But perhaps because of my mother and uncle, I can be spared. I can escape and live with the Nalu and just ‘be’. 

    The basement door is opened and I hear voices from above. There’s shouting and screaming, and even I can smell blood in the water.

    “Ay, this is where it was coming from!” A booming laugh fills the entire basement. “Aw, what a cute little door this is.” Knuckles rap against the thick steel. “I bet his grandma had this specially made to keep her dainty China safe. Don’t you think, Pit?”

    “I am extremely tired, sir,” a woman grumbles. “Just get this over with and stop with the act. I have kids to go home to who are more mature than you are.”

    “Thanks for letting me have fun, Pit,” the deep voice snarls. “Fine. Think it’s unlocked?”

    Pit sighs and I can actually hear her roll her eyes. “I don’t care.”

    “I think it’s probably locked.” Suddenly a sharp hand rips through the steel. The hand opens and waves at me. It’s far bigger than my head and the knuckles are knobbed and thick. The nails are shimmering black and sharp. The palm is pure white, but the back of the hand is a metallic dark gray.

    “Hello in there,” the voice laughs. The hand reaches in, grabbing the lock and ripping it out. The door then pulls open and an octopus mermaid appears in the doorway. She then steps aside as a massive shark kneels in the doorway.

    “Well now,” he chuckles. “This ain’t dainty china.” He grins, showing off the rows and rows of sharp teeth in his wide mouth.

    I’ve never seen anyone so big before. He can barely fit through the doorway as he comes into the cell. His face has sharp features, but it’s his bright black eyes that draw me in. His great big hands rip away the chains and free me. He then grabs me and holds me against him.

    “You done, Nalu?” Pit, the octopus, asks.

    Nalu lifts my chin with his finger and looks me over. He touches the cut on my forehead and he smirks a bit. “I think so, Pit.” He then cups the back of my neck and lays my head on his shoulder. 

    They swim out of the basement and the shark keeps my head down so I cannot see anything around me in the mansion. Only once we are in open waters does he allow me to lift my head and look around. He keeps his arms locked around me, not letting me go.

    Once we are far from the mansion, he and Pit stop and rise above the water. There, the shark sets me on a rock and sits beside me. 

    “I do so hope you’re Lady Katori,” he growls. “I forgot to ask names. I ain’t going back, regardless.”

    Pit grumbles something under her breath in another language as she looks over my wrists and tail. “Just ignore him,” she says. “You are Katori, correct?”

    I nod. “I am. Are you with the Nalu?”

    The shark snorts and Pit cast him a dark look. She then glances back at me in kind. “My name is Pit,” she says. “Does anything hurt?” She squeezes my wrist and I whimper. “Some bruising, but I don’t think anything is broken.”

    “What about her tail?” The shark snarls.

    Pit says something in the other language again. “Lift your tail, Katori.”

    I try to, but it hurts too much and I start to cry a bit.

    “I knew it,” the shark bares his teeth and grimaces. “He had her down there too long and the weight of the chain was too much! I should have ripped him twice. I swear I should go back there and do him in again. I bet-”

    Pit smacks him with one of her tentacles. “Shut up for a minute.” She then looks at me. “As long as you don’t mind, this moron will carry you back home. You’re not going to be able to use your tail for a while. Once we get back, I’ll get you bandaged up. Is that alright?”

    “Yes, thank you, Dr. Pit.” I say with a small nod.

    Pit smiles and sighs. “Just Pit, is fine with me, Katori.” She pats my hand.

    I glance back at the giant shark. His face is scary to me, sharp and dangerous with such a wide jaw. His mouth has so many teeth inside. “Who are you?”

    He tilts his head to the side. “Ah, so you don’t really know?” He kneels down just a bit. “What do you know of the Nalu?” He asks me.

    “I, uhm-” I swallow back the lump in my throat. “I know they are dangerous and extremely powerful and violent. All the ocean is afraid of them.”

    The shark chuckles. “Yet you sent for them?”

    I nod. “I did.”

    “The Nalu isn’t the syndicate itself,” he murmurs. “It’s just one person.” He lifts a finger then points it at himself. “Nalunani,” he says with a wicked grin. “But the oceans call me Nalu.”

    My face goes slack and my jaw hangs open. I had been told so many stories and rumors about ‘the Nalu’ that it all sounded like the works of a whole gang of people, not just one merman.

    “Yes,” Nalu laughs. “I know.” He flexes his arm and poses. “Intimidating.” He then grins at me and winks. “But you have nothing to fear. I would never harm a scale on your body.” He smooths his thumb along with the cut on my head. “Something as adorable as you deserve only the sweetest of touches.”

    Pit clears her throat. “You done here? Can we continue home?”

    Nalu rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, don’t lose a leg.” He slips into the water then holds his arms out for me. “Jump in, princess.”

    I frown, but slide into the water and his arms. Nalu holds me, keeping me braced as we swim through the ocean. I had always thought Touma was big, but compared to Nalu, he looks like a guppy. 

    We reach a small village that night. All the homes are built close together and there are manta ray merfolk swimming all around it. As we enter, my mother races from one of the houses. She grabs me up in her arms, away from Nalu.

    “I’m so glad!” She weeps. “You’re safe!”

    I’m then taken to Pit’s home, where she has an emergency room set up. Her children are all crowded around the door, their big, giant eyes staring as Pit tends to my tail and wrists. 

    “For a while, I wouldn’t recommend any swimming. Just let yourself rest.” Pit tells me.

    “I will try and find room for her.” My mother clutches my hand. “Her uncle’s place is so small, but we will find room.”

    All of a sudden, the children start yelling and laughing. Looking up, I see them swarming all over Nalu as he comes into the emergency room. 

    “How is the little princess doing?” He grins down at me.

    “She needs rest,” Pit replies. “So that way her tail can set and heal.”

    Nalu clicks his tongue. “I have the perfect place for someone to heal.” He says as Pit’s children climb all over him. “I have a lot of extra room and a whole bedroom that’s not being used. She can stay with me and rest.”

    My mother looks at me with concern. “What do you think, Katori?” She asks me. “It would be better for you there than cramped up with your uncle and me.”

    I glance at Nalu with uncertainty and then back to my mother. “Well-” I murmur.

    “I will make sure to your comfort every day.” Nalu winks at me. “And I will do all you command of me.”

    It feels so strange to me to have someone like Nalu say that. Back at the mansion, I didn’t have a voice. I was expected to be happy with all I was given. I wasn’t supposed to ask for anything, let alone complain. Yet Nalu himself, the leader of the most terrifying syndicate in the ocean, is offering himself to me.

    “Why would you do such a thing?” I hate how small and timid my voice sounds. 

    “Because you’re a princess,” Nalu replies. “And I am just a man who is eager and willing to please.”

    I look to Pit, who rolls her eyes, and then at my mother, who smiles at me. 

    “Can my mother stay?” I ask.

    “I will set her up as well,” Nalu replies with a bow. “Would you like your friend, Touma, there as well?”

    My eyes widen. “Touma’s alive?”

    “I told them that Touma was not to be hurt,” my mother says with a smile. “After all, he took such great care of you.”

    I sniffle and take a deep breath. “I’m so glad!”

    “He’s healing just fine,” Pit says. “But I wouldn’t recommend moving him just yet.”

    I glance back to Nalu as he wrestles with Pit’s kids. “Fine,” I murmur. “I’ll rest at your home.”

    Nalu wiggles his tail proudly and he scoops me up from the bed. I gasp and press my palm to his chest. His home is large, but nothing like the mansion of the Oyabun back home. It’s comfortable more than anything. My room has a wide window overlooking a ravine and coral reef. My bed is big and wide enough for three people. 

    Nalu sets up my mother in a room down the hall, but his own room is right next to mine. During our stay, my mother has taken over the kitchen and has been cooking my favorite meals every day. While at the mansion, I was kept on a strict diet and was rarely ever allowed my favorite treats. Now, I am eating foods I love and new things I had never tried.

    “Be careful now, princess,” Nalu chuckles. “You’ll eat your own fingers if you aren’t careful.”

    I steal a bun from his plate and eat it while he watches. He grins at me and licks at the corner of his mouth. “Did you just punish me?”

    I swallow the big bite in my mouth and give him a harsh look. “And what if I did?”

    Nalu shivers. “I like it.”

    I smile despite myself. I love his bright eyes and an infectious smile, even if it is all sharp teeth. Nalu has every meal with me, well, except for breakfast, he has the hardest time waking up in the mornings. But lunch and dinner, he is there with me.

    I think he enjoys my mother’s cooking more than I do. He sighs and pats his stomach after each meal with a smug look of satisfaction on his face. “You know, had I known you Koi folk were such good cooks, I would have raided the Oyabun mansion ages ago.”

    I shake my head. “I’m not a good cook. That’s all my mom.”

    “I think I’ll keep her then.” He glances down. “Good lord, she’s put a gut on me.” He grins up at me and pats his belly. “See that? It never jiggled before she came here!”

    I cover my mouth with my hand and giggle.

    “You want to smack it, princess?” Nalu leans in.

    I shake my head as the giggles grow.

    “You want to giggle at the Great White’s belly?” He inches in even closer.

    I’m sputtering and snorting as I try to hold my laughter back.

    “You want to jiggle the king of the ocean?” He takes my tiny hands and uses them to play drums on his stomach.

    I’m howling with laughter, which turns into ugly snorting. I rip my hands back and cover my face in shame. “I’m so sorry!” I whimper.

    “For what?” Nalu growls.

    “I made a fool of myself. I’m so sorry.” I shake my head back and forth.

    Nalu tugs my hands away from my face. “You have never looked so beautiful to me.” He whispers. “That is what I wanted. To see you smile and laugh like that.” His bright eyes become harsh. “Whoever told you that you weren’t at your peak when you laughed, deserves whatever bitemarks I left on them.”

    I sniffle and hold his hands. “Why are you so kind to me?”

    Nalu smirks and tilts his head to the side. “Because I’ve never wanted to see someone smile at me so much.”

    I lift my head and look at his lovely, shy expression. I lean in, kissing his cheek. As he turns his head, I kiss his lips. He touches my cheek and I put my arms around his neck. It is my first kiss and I grow painfully aware of this.

    I slip away and place my fingertips against my lips. 

    “I have been blessed this day!” Nalu poses and flexes. “I am stronger than I ever was! Yes!” He grins down at me. “What did I do to deserve such an honor?”

    “It wasn’t bad?” My voice squeaks.

    “If you did it, how could it be bad?” He leans in again, pressing a soft, loving kiss to me. I meet it, slightly opening my mouth and licking his lips. He sighs and clutches his hand around the small of my back.

    “How dare you be such a delight, my princess?” Nalu growls.

    I run my hand down his bare chest then slap his stomach. Nalu’s laugh fills the room and he kisses me over and over. 

    That evening, he has to go away with Pit for something secretive. I do hear him return home late in the evening. In the morning, I sneak into his room. I have been able to go short distances now, as long as I mainly use my arms. 

    He’s fast sleep and uncovered in bed. He’s snoring gently, and his chest rises and falls in slow waves. I swim up to the side of his bed, watching him slumber with such a serious look on his face. I touch his arm then recoil, waiting to see if he’s woken up. He remains asleep.

    I try again, touching his chest and stroking my palm down. I touch the fins on his tail and feel how silky his scales are. I inch in closer, studying his sharp face and seeing the markings and scars there. His gills flare for a moment, then he turns his head to the side and smacks his tongue. 

    I kiss his jaw and curl up to his side. I lay my head down on his chest and rub my hand up and down his side. I fall asleep beside him, comfortable and content. I feel safe with Nalu in a way I never felt back at the mansion.

    I wake to a heavy weight on my chest and find Nalu using me as a pillow. His head is resting on my breast and his strong arm is wrapped around me. I kiss the top of his head and he stirs slightly.

    He stretches and yawns and kisses me. “Is this a dream?” He whispers. “Or are you finally in my bed, where you belong?”

    I giggle and wrap my arms around him. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep here.”

    “I’m so happy you did.” Nalu grins at me. “Do you know how wonderful you make me feel, my princess?” He rubs his thumb against my lips. 

    I kiss his thumb and hold his wrist. “I only return what you give me.”

    Nalu chuckles. “I don’t scare you anymore?”

    “A little,” I whisper. “But only because you make me feel things I’ve never felt before.” I touch his face, and he nips at my fingertips. “My heart is going too fast-” I whisper.

    “Love me,” Nalu’s voice is quiet and soft. “The ocean will be yours. You will command me and hold me and you will become so powerful. All I ask is that you love me.”

    “What if I want none of those things?” I shake my head.

    “Then what do you want?” Nalu moans.

    I swallow the nervous lump in my throat. I pull him close, kissing him and feeling his strong body pressed against my little one. He sighs and kisses my neck and cheek.

    “Just you,” I shiver.