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It is a story for his comrades, indeed. For after a few bottles have been passed from hand to hand, when they sang tales of the deep sea and for lovers left waiting on land. Only then, Quartermaster Kaeya can talk about that fateful day, the blessed day when he met a beast, half-sea and half-man, and survived. The day he touched it, the day he fought it, the day he kissed it, and the day he listened to its chants — or whatever strikes his fancy that night, whatever embellishment he gives to the narrative until it became anything but the truth.
"You are late," Kaeya reprimands half-heartedly. "But I suppose I can't blame you. After all, how can you tell the time from down there?"
A crown of red hair emerges from the water followed by a pair of equally red eyes, regarding Kaeya with a mix of caution and curiosity.
Smirking, Kaeya sits down on the edge of the old wooden pier. This part of the island is quiet, even isolated, with no ships in sight aside from a little boat sunk by the shore; the beach is too small for a harbor and so civilization has established itself a few miles away. Right now, late at night, it is just Kaeya, the lantern by his side, and the whispers of the wind. Rolling his pants' legs up to his knees, Kaeya sinks naked legs into the fresh, calm water.
"Captain Jean of the Favonius sends her regards," he adds, "to the unlucky lady I keep stranded on this island."
At least, that warrants a reaction — a raised brow, a few bubbles disturbing the surface that could either be a huff or a laugh or a mixture of both.
"Diluc." Kaeya parts his legs and beckons him closer. "Come up here."
No further incentive is necessary.
Pale hands find purchase on the pier, claws cracking the wood by each side of Kaeya's thighs, and with a sudden push, Diluc lifts himself from the depth. Balancing himself deftly on his arms alone, he fits himself in the space between Kaeya's legs, dripping water from his hair and torso and making a mess out of Kaeya's clothes. His sea creature is not a princess perched on a rock — his shoulders are broad from years of swimming, skin covered in scars from battles fought against men and underwater beasts, red-colored tail deadly in its strength and capable of sinking a ship with a single wicked flick. Kaeya would know, he has seen it before with his own eyes.
A monster, some would say, and that is part of the appeal. Knowing nothing apart from goodwill prevents Diluc from dragging him into certain death in the ocean makes his insides coil. The blood rushes in Kaeya's veins and his heart skips a beat — and perhaps that part comes from something beyond the thrill.
"Hello there, handsome," Kaeya says playfully. "By any chance, do you come here often?"
Unimpressed, Diluc merely blinks at him, long lashes and delicate features contrasting with the roughness of his body. Despite the fresh water, his shoulders are warm to the touch. Kaeya feels for the scars on his back, reveling in the human texture of his skin, and urges him closer until Diluc complies, leaning in to place a kiss on Kaeya's jaw.
"Good evening," Diluc greets softly. Then, another kiss. "Sea currents."
Kaeya halts. "What?"
A huff of breath against the skin of his neck. "You asked how I can tell the time," Diluc clarifies, a hint of amusement in his tone. "The tides shift with the moon, and so time passes."
"Ah," Kaeya breathes out. He shivers, because of their closeness or the breeze or Diluc's kisses climbing back to the corner of his lips. "I suppose it should be more accurate than a clock."
Diluc hums. "You are early."
"Perhaps," Kaeya chuckles. "I was eager to see you."
Tucking a strand of red hair behind a pointy ear, Kaeya lets his gaze fall to Diluc's lips. He cups a pale cheek, his chest warming at the sight of Diluc nuzzling his palm.
"I missed you," Diluc whispers, ever so softly, so sweetly, opening his pretty eyes lazily to look at Kaeya as if he is the center of the universe.
In moments like this, Kaeya almost forgets that this man can tear his head off with a single bite.
"I missed you too."
Truth closes the distance between them — Kaeya pulls him closer by the nape, wraps both legs around his waist, and kisses Diluc following the pace of his own heartbeats. His clothes will be drenched after this, but what is a little mess next to the feeling of Diluc slotted against him like the final piece of the puzzle? The pliant softness of his lips, the sharp ridges of his teeth, and the salt on his tongue — Diluc is a piece of the ocean Kaeya snatched for himself, and he won't let it go even if it means he'll drown in it.
Diluc pulls away and leans in again, then again, then again, and Kaeya chases after the satisfaction that always lights him up during their first kisses after spending time apart. He wants to keep it curled around him, around them, until the sun rises and he has to leave.
"I missed you so much," Diluc says between their kisses. His tone is eager, almost urgent, and the barely-hidden intensity is startling for Diluc isn't the kind to speak of his feelings so openly. Kaeya means to ask, but Diluc doesn't give him any time. "I brought something for you."
Kaeya blinks, perking up once again. "Is that so?" A slow smile grows on his lips, and he pushes aside that initial flicker of worry in favor of indulging himself some more. "Show me?"
With some noticeable hesitance, Diluc detangles himself from him and sinks back into the water, freeing his arms. It is then Kaeya notices: a thin, shimmering chain wrapped around Diluc's wrist.
Diluc unties it, and then, propping himself up on the pier with an elbow, offers Kaeya a necklace.
It looks precious and feels delicate on Kaeya's fingers. Plain and simple, yet it shows traces of true craftsmanship. Diluc's gifts are often like this, trinkets that have little value underwater but are worth a little fortune on dry land. That or food, it seems; chunks of meat and sea creatures Diluc hunts with his bare hands and brings back to him as part of whatever apex predator courting ritual he has going on.
And Kaeya loves everything. It hurts his pride to admit that if Diluc brought him a broken shell, he would keep it and cherish it as much as a pearl.
Twirling the necklace in his hand, Kaeya hums appreciatively. "Gold," he says. A pirate's eye never misses a treasure. Diluc nods, resting his cheek on Kaeya's thigh and nuzzling it like a cat asking for pets. It works, Kaeya is thoroughly charmed and runs his fingers through those unruly red strands. "Thank you, my love."
"How much could you get for it?" Diluc asks.
Sighing, Kaeya shakes his head.
"We've been through this, Luc, I'm not selling your gifts."
"Don't think of them as gifts," Diluc says. His tone is perfectly level, but the heat of his breath grazes Kaeay's inner thigh, and regardless of the topic, Kaeya shivers. "Just take what you need to live your life."
"Well, I can assure you, I do not need money." A rough palm brushes up his calf, a gentle caress that shouldn't feel as warm as it did. Kaeya ties the chain around his neck as if to further prove his point. "It would be terribly uncouth to sell a gift."
Diluc huffs, and then a sharp pressure on his thigh follows. Kaeya looks down.
"Don't bite," he warns. "Mind the teeth."
In turn, Diluc looks up, a little frustrated frown between his brows. He presses a kiss to the area, seemingly apologetic, yet he tightens his grip around Kaeya's calf.
"Do you intend to wear it?" he asks.
Making a show of pondering the possibility, Kaeya shrugs. "Maybe," he says. "Since it was a gift from you, I suppose I could. Like a little keepsake to remember you by."
Diluc lets out a pleased sound and places another kiss on Kaeya's thigh. That hand resumes its path, gently petting, rubbing the naked skin it comes across, and Kaeya doesn't try to remain unaffected. Another kiss, then another, and Diluc raises himself out of the water a few inches more, reaching forward with his lips, and Kaeya decides at that moment he is too weak to deny him anything. Sighing, he sinks his fingers into Diluc's hair and parts his legs further apart.
"Nothing left to say?" Kaeya teases, but the breathlessness of his voice is undeniable. "It's always straight to the point with you, isn't it?"
The reply comes in a hummed sound against his inner thigh, in the slightest pull to his leg like a plea to be closer. So forward, and Kaeya can see the appeal, but there is something odd about those open-mouthed kisses, something dazed about his half-lidded eyes. Nonetheless, nothing that Kaeya can't deal with — if Diluc is this pent up, perhaps it is better to just fuck it out of him until they can hold a proper conversation.
Kaeya tut-tuts at him in feigned disapproval. "Don't drag me to the water while I'm still fully clothed, uncivilized creature."
In retaliation, Diluc brushes his lips over the growing heat between Kaeya's legs. Barely any pressure, barely any friction, and Kaeya jolts, breath hitching.
"Then undress," Diluc says.
Regretfully, Diluc does give him space for that. He doesn't let go of the pier, but he pulls back enough to see Kaeya through it. There is a quiet type of hunger burning behind his eyes as they rake over his figure, watching as Kaeya peels off his clothes like a beast ready to pounce — perhaps he is, Kaeya reckons, when he spots that sliver of sharp teeth when Diluc licks his lips.
Body warm from the attention alone, Kaeya sits butt nacked on the pier, which is not that uncommon from somebody of his occupation. But it is one thing to go skinny dipping in an unnamed beach with the crew and another to reveal himself to his lover, so by the time he is done, he is shivering, leaning back on his palms and spreading his legs for Diluc's gaze and the fresh sea breeze.
"There you go," he smirks. "See something you want, my love?"
The answer is written in Diluc's expression, in the hand coming to knead the flesh behind his knee. The pier creaks and Diluc is on him once again, heavy puffs of breath teasing the wetness between his legs — Kaeya sighs at the first lick, slow and almost shy, and the weight of Diluc's lips on his folds, dragging the wetness there until he presses the flat of his tongue against Kaeya's hardening clit. Diluc closes his eyes, face flushing a deep shade of red.
"Ah," Kaeya gasps. "Keep going."
Without any warning, Diluc hooks an arm around Kaeya's waist and drags Kaeya off the pier.
It is sudden, shocking, but the water is warm after a day under the scorching sun. Kaeya struggles either way, he doesn't have enough time to catch his breath and his lungs ache as he fights back to the surface. Diluc pulls him up and out of the water, and Kaeya barely has time to gasp before his mouth is claimed once again — he is breathless, getting dizzy, and Diluc licks past his lips to slide their tongues together. Devouring more than kissing, and the urgency there is endearing, amusing, attractive, so Kaeya relents and allows his body to be pushed against the pier, and finds purchase in a sturdy piece of wood.
Diluc pulls back and he looks dazed — lips parted, cheeks colored crimson, and heavy-lidded eyes staring at Kaeya with the haze of a man who is far too gone for somebody who just got started.
Beautiful.
Then, without another word, he lets go of Kaeya and sinks into the water.
In that short moment of bereftness, Kaeya becomes very aware of how quiet the beach is — the palm trees whistle with the breeze, the water shifts around him, but apart from that, the place is dead quiet. They are truly alone right here. Kaeya grins, looking down at the darkness that the night has made of the water, and notices with growing delight that he can not see a single thing.
The period between being left under the old pier and being touched again is too long, too adrenaline-inducing; Kaeya waits, quietly, until he feels the brush of claws between his thighs, the firm pressure of a pair of palms prying them apart, and then, the heat of Diluc's mouth against him.
And in a mirror of the kiss, Diluc eats him out like a man starved. Kaeya hooks both legs around his shoulders, hands clutching at Diluc's hair, tugging and pressing him closer, deeper. Diluc closes his lips around his clit and Kaeya trembles, a moan leaving his lips, loud in the quiet of the night.
Though those claws feel amazing grazing the skin of his thighs, Diluc can't use his fingers in him. But it has never been an issue between them — Diluc has the softest lips, a wicked tongue, and when his nose rubs against Kaeya it feels like heaven itself. He moans against Kaeya as if he is the one being touched, tongue-fucks him until Kaeya's eyes are rolling back into his head.
"A-ah, Diluc…!"
Thighs shaking around Diluc's head, Kaeya tugs harder at the strands in his fingers — he doesn't have the support to grind down, but he still tries, rolling his hips against Diluc's face to chase the friction. The water splashes around him with his movements, louder than the waves and quieter than his moans, and Kaeya clings to the pier for dear life. Diluc groans, claws scraping over his thighs and Kaeya cries out, an embarrassing sound that resembles the word please.
He is not sure what he is asking for. Diluc is getting sloppier in his eagerness, messier and uncoordinated, and yet it feels so good, so good — perhaps Diluc's strange desperation is starting to rub off on him, because Kaeya can already feel himself stumbling into the edge of almost enough.
Kaeya pushes at his forehead until Diluc relents and obeys, his mouth leaving him as he swims back to the surface.
Claws brush his sides, his waist, his chest, leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake. When Diluc emerges, he looks like a wet dream Kaeya had as a teen: licking his reddened lips, blushing all the way down his neck, eyes hungry, dazed, and Kaeya is drawn to him like a moth to the flames. He pulls him by the nape, dives in for another kiss, and Diluc grabs him by the waist to press him against his body. Kaeya is drowning, tasting himself on Diluc's tongue and feeling the rhythmic undulations of Diluc's tail as he works to keep them both above the surface — and Kaeya wants to tell him not to worry about that, remind him of the time he didn't and fucked Kaeya as he struggled to breathe, and how hard Kaeya came back then, dizzy with both arousal and the lack of oxygen. He moans against Diluc's mouth.
"Kaeya," he murmurs between the kisses. "I want—"
Kaeya doesn't let him finish. He sneaks a hand between their bodies, looking for the little slit in the red tail, the one he likes to rub and spread and finger until Diluc is writhing and his cock is freed, but he finds that they will be skipping that part tonight — Kaeya's hand circles the fully unsheathed hardness, and revels in the feeling of it against his palm. Heavy, throbbing with arousal, thicker and firmer than a human's. Kaeya gives it an experimental pump and watches Diluc whimper, head falling against Kaeya's shoulder where he can feel the light scratch of sharp teeth.
"So sensitive," Kaeya chuckles. He thumbs at the slit on the head, smug at the sound Diluc sighs against his neck. "What is this, merman mating season?"
It is mostly a joke, but Diluc shivers. "No, just mine," he pants. "My rut."
"Oh," Kaeya says.
The movement of his hand stutters for a second, but he picks it up again. Perhaps it is a trick of his mind, but he could swear Diluc's cock feels bigger and thicker tonight. Kaeya feels himself throb.
"Kaeya," Diluc moans, lips parting against the column of his neck. "Kaeya, you said… you said you were mine."
Kaeya swallows. "Yes."
Right under his jaw, there is a light scrape of teeth. Again, and again, moving towards the side of his neck, right above his pulse. Diluc presses an open-mouthed kiss there, then licks the salt off his skin with a pleased hum.
"Then you will be my mate, won't you?"
All Kaeya manages in response is a nod. This kind of talk shouldn't leave him as aroused as it does, and maybe he should worry about what being a merman's mate entails, but even underwater, he can feel himself gush wetness, painfully eager to get fucked with that half-contained roughness only Diluc could give him.
And Diluc doesn't give him much time to be sensible — the instant he gets Kaeya's consent, he grabs him by the hips, flips him around, and slams him against the frail wood of the pier.
"Kaeya," he whispers, like a short prayer. "Kaeya, Kaeya."
He twists Kaeya to his will, bending his hips and pressing his chest to Kaeya's back, and with blood rushing through his veins, Kaeya lets him. It is the most delectable thing, to witness this eagerness. Kaeya secures his hold on the pier with one arm, and the other reaches back towards Diluc as Kaeya throws a look from over his shoulder.
"I'm here, darling," he smirks. "All yours, all yours."
Diluc groans, fitting his cock between Kaeya's legs and rubbing against him. It bumps against Kaeya's clit and Kaeya shudders, over and over, as the water is jostled around them.
"Ah, that's not it, love," Kaeya tuts. He parts his legs and twists his hips, trying, with the little support he has, to goad Diluc to move on. "Don't you want to be my mate?"
His response is a snarl. A low, predatorial thing that shows a sliver of sharp teeth and the sight alone is almost more than Kaeya can take. Diluc positions himself behind him, the head of his cock catching against Kaeya's entrance a few times before he breaches it.
The tip enters him and Kaeya moans — but that's the easy part. Diluc's cock is thicker at the base, and sometimes, after weeks without seeing each other, it takes a while before he can fit it in entirely. This time, however, Diluc tightens his hands around his waist, claws dipping into dark skin, and slams Kaeya down on him without a moment of hesitation.
Kaeya's mind goes blank. The stretch, the pressure, the suddenness — it is all too much. He feels everything and nothing at once, waves of bliss spreading under his skin and crashing in his lower belly. Diluc fits perfectly inside, and Kaeya clenches around him, over and over, vaguely aware of the groan that rips out of Diluc.
Claws sink into his skin, his waist, his hips, and Diluc wastes no time to start moving. Kaeya knows he tries to be gentle, to keep him above the surface, but it feels so good he is lightheaded regardless. He claws at the pier, trying to push back against Diluc's thrusts to urge him to speed up, but all he gets is a low warning growl by his ear and teeth scraping the back of his neck. The drag of Diluc's cock inside is unbearably hot, wet, burning — and Kaeya is sure he is bigger tonight, if that's even possible. Perhaps it shouldn't be, but when Diluc shoves it all the way in, it's so, so thick at the base it leaves Kaeya impossibly full.
How come, Kaeya wonders for no more than half a second before Diluc hits the right spot and his mind dissolves into there there there oh Diluc—
Diluc fucks into him ruthlessly, mindlessly, pressing him against the pier and each thrust causing its structure to creak. The water sloshes around them and Kaeya grabs onto the pier for support, feeling the pleasant knot in his guts tighten. It is perfect, deep and hard and eager, and the kind of build-up that leaves Kaeya gasping, choking on half-formed moans, whispering incoherently as he tries and reaches for Diluc. He closes his eye tight, breathing raggedly as the tension coils in his stomach.
"Luc— ngh," he moans, "Don't stop, don't stop, I'm—"
"Yes," Diluc hisses. One of his arms circles Kaeya's waist, almost clinging, and his free hand roams over Kaeya's lower belly, claws scratching the delicate skin until he flattens his palm there. "Kaeya," he whines, "I need you."
It sounds so needy, indeed — Kaeya swoons. He places a hand on top of Diluc's and presses down hard, as if this way Diluc would be able to feel himself moving inside, and Kaeya's vision spins at the thought of how hot that would be. "'M here," he groans. "Yours, your mate."
Behind him, Diluc makes a loud, animalistic noise. Inside him, Diluc swells.
Kaeya isn't sure how, it has never happened before. But it sends his eye rolling back into his skull either way, from the pressure and how Diluc stretches him to a point he can barely cope — it's too much, too much, but Diluc keeps fucking into him, and Kaeya can't find the words to ask him to stop.
Something warm floods him. It feels a bit too solid to be come, yet still strangely gooey. Kaeya tries to pull away but Diluc pulls him close, he tries to close his legs but a single hand grips his thigh and forces it open. It doesn't help that Diluc is still hard inside him, slowing down but abusing his hole with hard thrusts — it jostles the… substance inside him, pushes it deeper and deeper, and then Diluc moans, and then there is another gush of that, and it is at this moment Kaeya realizes that yes, this is Diluc's—
He whimpers, a pitiful sound wrenched from his chest, and Diluc keeps coming inside him, hot spurts of— of— Kaeya doesn't know, he is not sure he wants to know. He clenches around the cock inside him, stretching him so wide he thinks it could tear him apart, but it is good. So good. Diluc fucks it deeper into him, Kaeya's lips part as he gasps. He can feel his lower belly swelling under Diluc's hand, and if he looks down he is sure to find a bump, but he doesn't have it in him to do much of anything. All he can bear now is to take it, to keep himself stuffed with Diluc's cock, with that odd sensation that pushes against his insides.
"Diluc," he rasps, "Diluc, what…"
Still rutting into him, Diluc hums lowly. His hand rubs Kaeya's belly, right over the bulge there.
"Mine."
The word is groaned at the skin of Kaeya's nape, accompanied by a brush of lips and the sting of a bite. Kaeya mewls, toes curling at the prick of pain. He is so full, and full of Diluc, to the point that he cannot move without being shocked with wave after wave of mind-numbing pleasure. He opens his mouth to try and speak up again but all that comes out is a high-pitched noise, and Diluc makes no sign of stopping.
"Mine, Kaeya, I want you to be only mine," Diluc sighs. He buries himself to the hilt into Kaeya's hole. "Ah, I wish you could keep them, I wish—"
Kaeya chokes. "Them...?"
"The eggs."
Diluc barely pulls out before pushing back inside, his cock remains so hard, too large, and stuffing Kaeya with—
A wrecked sound escapes his lips as Kaeya touches his bulging lower belly. Eggs. Diluc came to him during the merman's equivalent of a heat to fuck eggs into him, and though there is a part of his brain that screams that this isn't right, that his body isn't made for hatching, he is too overwhelmed to react. His thighs quiver, his hole flutters around Diluc's cock, and his arms feel like jelly. Diluc thrusts into him a few more times, shallow and slow, and Kaeya is vaguely aware of the softest splashes of water before his head lolls back.
"Don't, don't stop," he manages to say. After the initial shock, it feels so, so good.
"Kaeya…"
Blindly, he reaches down, towards the spot where they are joined. His nails scrape over Diluc's tail and with his fingers, he finds himself stretched wide around Diluc. He is burning hot even underwater, and how wet he must be to take a cock this big — his thumb flicks at his clit and he moans unabashedly, and Diluc rewards him with a shallow thrust. There is a mess inside him and Kaeya feels like a mess himself.
Diluc presses down on his belly, not hard but insistent, times it with another snap of hips, and Kaeya cries out.
"Do— don't, don't, don't—ah…!"
Too much. Kaeya comes so hard he doesn't even understand what is happening. He shivers, trembles, squirms, and Diluc holds him in place, cursing when Kaeya spasms around his cock, over and over.
He can't stop shaking. After the white-hot wave of pleasure, a different kind of burn settles in him: overstimulation. He can't move without jostling the eggs inside him, so he tries his best to stay very still, trying to ignore how swollen his belly is. He breathes in slowly, deeply, trying to calm the loud thumping of his heart, but it is all pointless; it is indeed too much, and gets worse once Diluc starts to pull out.
It is possibly the most agonizing aftershock of his life — the drag of Diluc's cock sliding out is bad, but the sensation of the eggs following is worse.
"Gods," Kaeya groans. "Don't pull out, don't pull out, Diluc…!"
Too late.
Kaeya feels himself quake as those gelatinous eggs slide down, the sensation odd yet not unpleasant. Before the first one can slip out, Kaeya pushes three fingers inside himself, hissing at how raw it feels when he tries to keep the eggs inside.
Seeing his struggle, Diluc holds him up gently with an arm around his waist. It is a comfort as much as it is torture, and Kaeya's breath hitches.
Another hand comes to rest on the bump on his lower belly, rubbing softly with just the slightest scratch of claws.
"Does it hurt?" Diluc asks. The reply comes as a whine, terribly high-pitched and exhausted, and Kaeya slaps a hand over his mouth as if he could push it back somehow. "Don't hold them inside, Kaeya, you're not supposed to."
"I—ngh."
Diluc kisses the back of his neck. Soft, kind, apologetic. "Spread your legs."
Only then does Kaeya notice: at some point, he had closed his thighs together. They tense up for a moment — in fact, all of his body grows taut, anticipation sending shivers up his arms and he can barely move. The only thing stopping him from submerging is Diluc holding him up.
Kaeya groans.
Taking a deep breath, he parts his legs. His movements are sluggish and his thoughts aren't much better, but there doesn't seem to be much else left to do but follow Diluc's instructions. His thighs tremble as he forces them apart, the eggs shift inside him and the pressure in his lower belly only grows.
It takes a second or two before Kaeya feels brave enough to pull his fingers out; it still seems too much, his hole and swollen lips so oversensitive it stings, but it is not nearly as bad as he had anticipated. Then, the eggs begin to slide out.
His hips buck.
He makes a strangled noise, a mix of surprise and a mewl that is way too loud in the silence of the night, but he doesn't have what it takes to care. His hips buck again, and again, and again, he squirms in Diluc's arms as the first egg stretches his hole and then slips out and Kaeya moans, "Diluc."
It doesn't feel like pleasure. It feels like relief.
The second one doesn't give him any respite. He can feel the eggs trickling down as his insides hopelessly contract, the overwhelming sensation of being full slowly giving way to the desire of being empty. Another soft-shelled sphere leaves him and Kaeya has to resist the urge to take it in his hands — is this gross, he wonders, and finds that he doesn't know the answer. All he knows is the coil in his guts and Diluc's palm flattened over his belly.
That palm, warm against his skin, is a dreaded point of contact. It adds the slightest pressure against the bulge, increasing in intensity after a second or two, and soon the egg that slips out is followed by another, Kaeya feeling himself flutter against the shells.
"Wait," Kaeya says. His voice comes out in a rasp, but this is the most coherent he has been since they started.
"Does it hurt?"
Kaeya can feel the shape of each egg as it leaves his body. Soft yet solid, warm, a rounded shape stretching him open and popping out wetly.
"No," he breathes out. "But it's, it's too much, Luc."
A hum comes from behind him, then a kiss to the side of his neck. "Your body is not meant to take them," Diluc says softly. "I'm sorry."
Kaeya shakes his head. "You said I'm your mate." Diluc's hand remains insistent on top of his belly, rubbing and pressing as if it could somehow push the eggs out faster. Kaeya's hips buck when another one slides out, jostling the water, and Diluc holds him a bit firmer. "If I'm your mate then— then I have to do it. I can…"
He trails off, slipping a hand between his legs to spread his sensitive lips and make way for another egg.
"In fact, I," Kaeya whimpers, "I think it feels— ah!"
A particularly large shape moves inside him — it isn't nearly as intense as Diluc's cock, but the slide is smooth enough to leave Kaeya wanting.
"I see," Diluc says, and the worry in his voice is overcome by a hint of satisfaction. He nips at Kaeya's neck, right above his pulse, and massages Kaeya's belly harder, rubbing down his navel until Kaeya is squirming in his arms. "As expected of my mate."
The pressure inside him grows exponentially, but this time Kaeya is ready. His thighs quake but he keeps them apart, his head lolling back onto Diluc's shoulder as he gasps, heat rushing to pool low in his guts. He can feel the size and shape of each egg, sliding inside him even as he spasms around them — one, two, three, slipping out one after the other.
"That's it," Diluc praises. "You're almost done."
He fists Diluc's hair because it's the first thing he manages to grab, and yanks at it out of reflex. The lack of purchase almost makes him sink deeper into the water, but Diluc is quick to hoist him up, tightening his grip around Kaeya's middle.
Kaeya is positive he is losing his mind.
And he wants to ask, even if he can't think of the words at the same pace he can think of the images. Was he supposed to carry those eggs inside him? Was he supposed to walk around bloated with Diluc's clutch? As expected of my mate, as expected of my mate, and Kaeya comes to the realization that yes, he wouldn't mind, or perhaps he would but he would be into it — wasting time sitting on a cabin by the sea, living off the things Diluc brought to the surface, and stuffed so full he could barely move.
A fantasy without an ounce of realism but it makes Kaeya keen either way. Wave after wave of relief washes over him, just as Diluc presses down harder against his belly, and Kaeya trashes, rubbing his clit as hips buck and his thighs threaten to press together. His lips part around a moan Diluc's name, then again and again, and the last few eggs pop out of him as he is trembling in the aftershocks of his orgasm.
Diluc holds him through it, keeping him above the surface, and holds him after too. As Kaeya's mind is almost too fuzzy to keep up with the surroundings, Diluc pulls them chest to chest and kisses him, slow and careful and matching the cotton-like feeling in Kaeya's limbs, swaying ever so slightly with the tides.
When Kaeya comes down to it, Diluc is practically curling around him. A hand supports the back of his neck, the other trails over his side leaving goosebumps in its wake, and sharp teeth scrape his lips with measured strength. There is pressure over Kaeya's legs, the slide of scales on skin, and Kaeya witnesses with a shiver as Diluc's tail coils around his legs.
Kaeya smiles. "Mate, huh," he chuckles lazily. His whole body feels heavy and weightless at the same time, such a disconcerting sensation. "Should there be a ceremony?"
"A ceremony?"
"Forget it," Kaeya sighs.
Diluc pecks him on the lips one last time before pulling back just enough to look him in the eye, their noses bumping slightly.
"Did it hurt?"
"A little bit," Kaeya lies. "Just the stretch. I'll be fine after some rest."
That isn't a lie, he reckons. He is tired — bone-deep tired — and he could probably sleep a whole day.
Diluc murmurs something that sounds like sorry but Kaeya doesn't dwell on that. "So, about the mermaid mating season," he starts, "How long does it last?"
Right question, Kaeya thinks, as soon as a light blush spreads over Diluc's cheeks. Kaeya cups his face, rubs his thumb over the hint of embarrassment on his skin.
"It's over," Diluc explains, in a tone that sounds too controlled. "The next one is in four moons, if you're willing."
Kaeya perks up.
"Oh?" he says. "Interesting."