Alone Together

by thedemonsurfer

Summary:

Eclipse studies him, golden eyes narrowed, before a smile stretches across his face. One long claw crooks at the Mesmer, beckoning him closer. “C’mere. I want to get a better look at you.”

Ruin stiffens, pressing himself further back into the cave. “Y-you know, as flattering a statement as that is, I believe I would like to stay right where I am. You understand, don’t you?”

---

A what-if? on how Ruin and Eclipse met 20 years prior to the events of "The Abyss Stares Back", when they were younger, dumber, and in Ruin's case, tastier.

Notes:

• For SinclairMaxwell, Fiona_of_Random_Fandoms.
• Inspired by [Restricted Work] by Fiona_of_Random_Fandoms, SinclairMaxwell (Log in to access.)

Hahaha whoops! Didn't think I'd be writing this, and then my hand slipped and here we are 8'D

In "The Abyss Stares Back", we aren't given a lot of details on how exactly Ruin and Eclipse hooked up-- mostly because it doesn't matter to "Abyss", what's important is that they're Solar's sexy DILFs. But I love a good first meetings, especially ones with some crisis to them, and there seemed to be room for that.

Consider this to be an unofficial prequel, as though I tried my best to not outright contradict anything we're told in "Abyss", I still just kind of came up with this without asking any questions.

A note on ages: We really have no idea how old anyone is in "Abyss" apart from the Celestials having reached maturity recently. So for this, I kind of went with the angle that Ruin is the equivalent to early 30's-- but he's been sheltered, which makes him more shy than the Mesmer that flirts with Solar two decades later. Eclipse is maybe around Earth's age in the present. Still young enough to be an arrogant asshole before fatherhood mellowed him out.

Chapter 1

Beware silent waters.

That was one of the pieces of advice his mother had given him, so long ago. Even as time chipped away her already fractured heart, bitter anger finding roots in widening gaps and clouding her vision–  she would still offer wisdom to her last-born when she recognized him. 

Never neglect your glow, it is your greatest weapon, but do not rely on it to be your only weapon. 

Kill only what you can eat; lingering blood will attract leviathan bigger than yourself.

Beware silent waters.

Eminently practical, when your territory borders that of the Silence, he thought. 

Ruin huffed out a stream of bubbles, twisting around in the nest and feeling stone under his scales. There was barely a scrap of acid mushroom left for cushioning; unfortunately, replacing it meant locating a Reefback pod and harvesting more from the miniature ecosystems they carried on their back. Not that the inelegant leviathans were dangerous, but he might end up searching quite far if his luck was bad enough. 

Such was life in the Void, after all.

Especially when one lived so close to a monster straight out of old stories.

Ruin had only seen the Silence once. He'd been barely half grown, with all the stupidity that came with youth, and had somehow gotten into his head to see the monster for himself. Never mind that he'd grown up able to scent the Silence if certain currents veered near the nest! 

So he'd swam out into the Void, gradually edging his way closer to what had to be the center of its territory, all the while painfully aware of just how exposed he was. With his glow snuffed out he was invisible in the dark waters, but that was a rather ordinary trait for Void-dwellers, and wouldn’t be nearly enough to preserve his life should something detect him.

Just a glimpse. Just to satisfy his curiosity.

So focused on repeating that mantra to himself, it had taken him far too long to realize that the pounding of his heart wasn’t drowning out every other sound just because of his nerves- there were no other sounds.The background hums and clicks of the Void, unnoticeable unless one had a reason to pay close attention, had faded out into nothing.

Beware silent waters.

Something moved.

He couldn’t see it, of course, but he could feel it. Displaced water buffeting his body, going on and on . Whatever it was, it was huge, and he had a pretty good idea of what that could be. In a panic, he'd flared the special fins that gave his type their name, the mesmerizing patterns and lights dancing through the water. It was no longer time for stealth.

The shifting glow barely grazed something solid, obsidian against abyss, and with a lurch he’d recognized it as a face. The Silence, peering down at him like the morsel he was.

Despite the fear thrumming through every scale on his body he’d shifted his rays to face the massive beast. Instinct told him to lull the larger predator to sleep, clouding its thoughts and reactions so he could escape. 

A moment later and he'd snapped his fins flat against his head in horror, when he'd realized that the Silence had no eyes. 

It couldn't be mesmerized.  

The great leviathan seemed to have picked up on his fear, because he'd seen the hint of a tooth flashed in amusement before Ruin doubled back on himself and swam away as fast as his tail could take him. 

Against all odds he'd escaped– though, he wasn't about to lie to himself and say his escape had been anything but the Silence allowing him to flee. After that he'd given the Silence's territory a wide berth, uncertain if he'd be allowed to run away twice. It wasn't an experiment he was eager to try out. He'd never told his mother why he'd come back to the nest in such a state.

And now his mother is gone. 

Another huff escapes him as he digs his claws into the rock. The grief still stung like a patch of missing scales, even years later. It had been so hard watching her fade away, her glow becoming dimmer as she weakened, unable to hunt or even leave the nest. 

Harder still had been the steady decay of her mind. In his earliest memories there were times where she would become forgetful or snappish, but as he grew, those times became more frequent. His scales bore faint scars from when she had mistaken him for an enemy and he'd been too slow to dodge her claws and teeth. An illness without a fever, something he long suspected stemmed from a broken heart, poisoning the rest of her body. 

Mesmer Leviathan were weak at hatching, his mother had said. He'd been the only one out of a clutch of three to open his eyes, and the first thing he'd seen was his mother weeping. He learned later that his father had left when his siblings failed to hatch, blaming his mother for the loss. Supposedly he had a precious handful of older siblings out there in the dark water, but he'd never met them. He'd barely met anyone before his mother began to weaken, and now…

Now he was alone, and he couldn't remember the last time he'd talked to another.

But that was the way of the Void. Prey was too scarce and territories too large, so that one could swim for days without seeing another life form. Supposedly there were more pods to the north, where the water was cold even at the surface and prey more plentiful, and Ruin had considered moving before–  but he'd been hatched in these waters, and his mother's bones lay on the sea floor some uncountable depth below. He couldn't leave. 

At least the Season was over. Bad enough to be alone in a hard stone nest at the edge of a monster's territory, but for the last few years the Season had been particularly irritating. Ruin could only assume that somewhere close by was another Leviathan that had reached maturity- though, ‘close by’ could mean anything from a half-day’s swim to almost a week, depending on the currents.

The temptation to seek them out was, admittedly, as influenced by loneliness as it was the desire to breed– but he’d quashed the impulse every year with cold practicality. 

A pod large enough to have unattached adults within swimming distance? Who wouldn't just run off the socially inept Mesmer at first glance, and would humor his attempts to display?

No, his luck wasn't nearly good enough for that. It was probably a small family unit, all quite happy with one another already, and uninterested in taking on any interlopers.

The best Ruin could hope for was that some day, eventually, he might catch a glimpse of someone’s display out in the dark, and perhaps find another just as lonely and desperate as himself. Someone who was willing to stay, who wouldn’t drift away with the currents as soon as their progeny hatched– or failed to. 

Realistically, he would probably meet his end in the mouth of a larger predator, and that would be that.

---

His mother had warned him of silent waters. 

The beast prowling around outside his narrow hiding place, however, is anything but silent.

Ruin wasn’t entirely certain what had happened, actually. He’d finally decided to venture out of his territory, partially to find a pod of Reefbacks, but mostly for the change of routine. Just the potential for danger helped push back the dreary loneliness, at least for a while– it was difficult to feel alone when you had an enraged Ghost Leviathan on your tail! 

His exploration had taken him out towards one of the clusters of floating islands, right on the edge of the Silence’s territory, and as a precaution he’d stuck to shallower waters than usual. As far as he knew the Silence mostly hunted in the deep Void, where no light could reach, so this murky twilight should be at least marginally safer. The Reefbacks preferred shallower waters as well. 

It had been a while since he’d visited the islands, and some of them appeared to be rather new, only recently broken off from wherever they’d been and drifting on the currents until reaching this place. He’d been poking around some of the tunnels and caves that threaded through the largest when his instincts started screaming danger!

Ruin hadn’t lived by himself for so long by ignoring his instincts. Without even bothering to look around first, he immediately flattened his rays to his head and dove into the mouth of the nearest tunnel. It was somewhat of a tight fit, barely wide enough for his bulk to squirm inside, though he was able to turn around with some difficulty and a few lost scales once he’d penetrated deeper. 

The danger doesn’t keep him waiting for very long. 

A shadow brushes over the mouth of the cave, followed by the dark loops of something’s tail. Which is all Ruin needs to know that it isn’t a Ghost outside, as it lacks the distinctive blue-green bioluminescence of the beasts. The head that peeks into the cave a moment later definitely doesn’t belong to a Ghost.

Larger than him. Two sets of eyes, a crest of rays edged with an orange glow. Far too many teeth. 

“Never seen a fish like you before.” 

Ruin’s gills stop pumping.  

Another Leviathan. Another person. 

The other Leviathan tilts his head slightly, impatience crinkling the space between his eyes. A clawed hand reaches out to rest lightly on the rock, and Ruin takes note of how those claws are longer than his own, yet with similar serrations for grasping slippery prey. “Crabsquid got your tongue? Or are you all flash and no wit?”

Right, speech! Talking to others was a thing! His throat feels tight, tongue clumsy in his mouth, but he manages to shape the proper sounds for communication in a voice raspy with disuse. “Ah- y-yes, I– hello! Right, sorry, I was just– I wasn’t expecting to actually meet anyone out here, t-that’s all. You took me by some surprise.” 

“Well, that wasn’t very bright of you, was it?” The other Leviathan snickers, showing more of his teeth. “It’s not safe to travel strange waters alone. Never know if you might end up as someone’s snack.”

Ah, of course. The markings running down Ruin’s spine and across his fins dampen along with his enthusiasm, and the teeth he bares are more of a threat than a smile. Just his luck that the first person he’s met in who knew how long was an asshole . 

“To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?” If their head and hands were anything to go by, this other Leviathan was maybe the size of an adult Ghost– too large for one scrawny Mesmer to fight head-on, but also too large to force his way into the narrow cave. 

The other Leviathan rests his cheek on his palm, golden gaze flickering over the slightly smaller Mesmer. “Eclipse.”

Now it was Ruin's turn to frown. The word that had been used was one he was barely familiar with, and reflexively he glances upward, though there's nothing to be seen but rock. “Shadowed-sun? What sort of a name is that?”

A snarl and a pulse of red down the other's bioluminescent marks. Ruin has to admit that what he can see of the effect is rather fetching, even if it is a warning display. “Eclipse, you moron! And it's a perfectly fitting name for a Fire Dragon Leviathan!”

“My apologies, I didn’t mean to offend.” The art of pacifying was coming back to him now, how to pitch his voice and angle his fins to appear the least threatening. “I’ve never seen the sun– never been up to the surface, really! But I'll take your word on it that your name is suitable.” 

“Hmph.” Eclipse settles back. Red still flashes slowly over his body, and his irritation could not have been more obvious if he'd sung about it. “What are you called?”

Ruin's tail twitches, brushing loose stone from the walls. He'd only had the chance to introduce himself a few times in his life, but the response had been generally… discouraging. He doesn't anticipate this brute acting any better about it. “Ruin.”

Two sets of eyes alternate blinking: first the top pair, then the bottom. The red crawling across Eclipse’s fins fades to a more neutral yellow-green. It’s a struggle not to bristle up when the larger leviathan leans in a little closer, as if trying to see what could possibly be wrong enough with the Mesmer to warrant such a name.

(Was it that his eyes didn’t match, a visible fault that could hint at other, more subtle problems within his body? Was it superstition, an inauspicious name as a talisman against disaster? Or was it simply his mother’s way of reminding herself of who’s fault it was that her mate had left, even when the forgetfulness took her?)

“...you don’t get to judge my name,” he says eventually, and his tone is so matter-of-fact that it startles a laugh out of Ruin. 

“Well, I suppose that you do have a point there.” Even if anything involving the sun was a weird choice for a Void-dweller.

Eclipse studies him, golden eyes narrowed, before a smile stretches across his face. One long claw crooks at the Mesmer, beckoning him closer. “C’mere. I want to get a better look at you.”

Ruin stiffens, pressing himself further back into the cave. From the brush of the currents around him he can feel that the cave is really more of a tunnel, going deeper into the rock and perhaps to another exit. That means he has options, ones that don’t involve running a gauntlet of teeth and claws. “Y-you know, as flattering a statement as that is, I believe I would like to stay right where I am. You understand, don’t you?”

He doesn’t, if the sharp smile stretching into something a bit more threatening is anything to go by. The larger leviathan presses closer, but stops when the spines on his back brush the cave entrance. Ruin can see the calculations running through Eclipse’s mind, in how the spines around his head twitch, before the Fire Dragon slowly pulls back, pillowing his chin on his crossed arms at the edge of the hole. Pretending to be perfectly innocent and harmless.

“Come on~ I won’t hurt you,” he not-at-all sincerely purrs. The edges of his rays light with a soft yellow glow, a poor imitation of Ruin’s own lure. “I’ve never seen a fish like you before, that’s all.”

“Never?” Ruin tilts his head. His claws open and close, digging into the soft, spongy gel sacks that dot the walls of the tunnel. The other Leviathan could easily be lying, of course, but if he wasn’t… 

Deciding to take the chance, Ruin crouches down in the tunnel. The cramped space wasn’t ideal, but he had enough room for the rays around his head, and that was the most important part. The hypnotizing effect wasn’t nearly as pronounced with his body fins, serving as reinforcement more than anything else. 

He trills sweetly, and is rewarded by Eclipse’s full attention. 

“I am called a Mesmer Leviathan, dearest.” A tilt of the head as he slowly raises his crest, showing off the bioluminescent patterns. Their shifting glow illuminates the water around them, dancing off of the tunnel walls and the clinging gel sacks. “There are little fish who bear a similar name– did you know? Barely more than a scrap of fins and cleverness. But they know how to use their beauty to endure.”

Eclipse nods absently. His four eyes are wide, briefly flicking to Ruin’s face before refocusing on the shimmering. “...doubt they’re half as pretty as you.”

He’s too focused on bringing the larger Leviathan under his sway to let the comment affect him beyond a pulse of light running down his spine. “You think so? Well, I would agree with you. Mesmer fish are more limited in what they can do, and how complicated their patterns can be. As you can see, that isn’t a problem for me.”

He inches closer. In open waters the subject would normally be compelled to approach his glow, and he doesn’t want to risk Eclipse trying to do the same, only to wake himself up when he scrapes against the cave entrance. 

Ruin drops his voice to a soft coo. “Although, I have heard that our glow can be a little bright for eyes not used to it. And I wouldn’t want to cause you any pain! So go ahead and give those golden eyes of yours a rest, hmm?”

For a moment he’s not certain Eclipse will comply– he’s never tried this before on a Leviathan with four eyes. Maybe that would change something? But after flicking his own crest, the Fire Dragon’s eyes slide shut. Ruin can see when the suggestion takes hold, how rays and fins go limp down that long body. Given Eclipse’s aggressive temperament, he won’t count on the other Leviathan staying asleep for very long, but hopefully long enough for him to escape.

Though…. he will edge a bit closer, until he can see more of the Fire Dragon’s body. And it’s a damn shame that Eclipse is a total asshole, because the Leviathan is unquestionably gorgeous. Long fins, muscular tail, shiny scales– what scars Ruin can see are clean and well-healed, and there are fewer of those than he’d expect.

Ruin sighs a stream of bubbles. Oh well.

Eclipse’s bulk is blocking the exit: there’s no way Ruin will be able to slip past without brushing against him, and he isn’t certain he could outrun the larger Leviathan. Nor does he feel confident in being able to hide in open waters, where there wasn’t anywhere to hide. So instead he twists around on himself, trying not to scrape off too many scales on the rock walls, and squirms deeper into the tunnel.

There are a few tight spots where he has to twist himself oddly, and at one point he’s forced to pry a exceptionally sized gel sack from the wall to make enough room, but finally his efforts are rewarded when the tunnel opens up into a larger, almost cavern-like space. Wilted plants he’s never seen before dot the bottom of the cave, their glowing tips dim and flickering. Others resemble pale tentacles, gently bobbing and waving in the weak current.

How odd! A faint tang to the water and a few irregular pools of blue brine on the cave floor suggest that at one point there had been much more brine inside this cave, yet most of it seems to have drained away when the island was wrenched from its resting place by the floaters. 

The cavern– more like a fissure, narrow at the bottom and widening out before abruptly becoming a ceiling of stone– snakes away, and Ruin follows it, keeping an eye on the ragged walls for any crack or hole he could use to get back out into open water. Hopefully there was one large enough for a Mesmer Leviathan to squeeze through; if there wasn’t, he’d be forced to wait until Eclipse grew bored enough to leave.

He turns a corner– and comes to a dead stop.

A Ghost Leviathan is staring right at him.

Distantly Ruin notes that this Ghost is tiny: its whole body stretched nose to tail would fit between the horns of an adult. That doesn’t stop it from immediately charging, screeching loudly, nor does it change how sharp its teeth are. 

Instinctively Ruin flares his fins. Shifting lights dance through the water, ensnaring the Ghost, and Ruin is forced to move out of its way as its charge becomes a tumble and it crashes into the cavern wall. 

Before he has time to blink, more screeches sound behind him. With a sense of growing dread, Ruin slowly looks back over his shoulder. 

At the other end of the cavern is a twisted, branching shape, made of either coral or some kind of plant he'd never seen before. Its fronds pulse with a fading magenta hue, most of them embracing a sagging transparent orb too large for him to wrap his arms around. As he watches in growing horror, a familiar set of horns shoves its way through the tattered membrane, followed by a long, partially transparent body. It snaps and screeches as it joins similar shapes already circling its birthplace.

Hatchlings. He'd stumbled upon a Ghost Leviathan hatching ground.

Ruin swallows around the tight knot in his throat. Adult Ghosts didn't brood or tend their nests– as far as he knew, anyway– so at least he didn't have to worry about an irate parent barreling down on him. The danger lay in the fact that juvenile Ghost Leviathan ate anything they could get into their mouths, and there had to be at least eight of the little bastards in the cave. What they lacked in size they more than made up for in number.

Alerted by the screeches of the first Ghost, which is just starting to pick itself up from the floor, others have taken notice of the larger Leviathan hovering in the water. They, too, let out shrill cries, and the combined noise forces Ruin to clamp his hands over the sides of his head. So much for being able to just sneak away!

It– it was fine. It would be fine. He could handle this– he still had the advantage here. The cave was long and narrow, and the hatchlings were all clumped up together. Dropping his hands to his sides, Ruin takes a deep inhale and flares his rays. Their soft, shifting glow lights up the water around him, painting the rock walls with confusing patterns. Just as he’d done with Eclipse not a few minutes ago, just as he’d done with predators and prey throughout his whole life– hypnotizing them with his glow, until they were quiet and calm and he could make his escape.

The hatchlings slow their approach, shrieks tapering off into clicks as they glide through the water. As long as he keeps them in front of him, where they’re fully exposed to his glow, the Ghosts will stay quiet. Now he just has to swim backwards through the cave without losing anyone, which will be difficult, but as long as nothing breaks his focus–

He screams as sharp, tearing pain explodes along the edge of his ray. His glow falters as both fear and blood–  his blood–  cloud the water, and he squints through the pain just in time to see a dark lump travel down the throat of a fleeing hatchling. A crack in the nearby cavern wall flickers with cyan light, another Ghost forcing its way into the main cave.

He hadn't known there were more of them. 

Either due to his lapse in attention, his scream, or the blood beginning to permeate the water, the hatchling Ghosts he had mesmerized begin to wake up. Immediately they turn on one another, voracious mouths tearing chunks of flesh from their siblings in a nauseating cannibalistic frenzy– and him caught in the middle of it.  

Ruin's glow snuffs out, leaving only a dim flickering down his spine and sides. His instincts are telling him to hide, to vanish by mimicking the faint bioluminescence of the cave, but there's far too much blood in the water for such a trick to work. He screams again when sharp teeth sink into his upper arm, lashing out with his claws and tearing through the Ghost's outer membrane. It releases his arm and is set upon by the rest of the brood.

With his pulse pounding in his ears, Ruin doubles back on himself and flees. 

He’s fast and the hatchlings are tiny, but there’s no room in this narrow cave to get away except for the tunnel out, and only if he reaches it without being swarmed. Holes and cracks dot the cavern walls, all ignored in favor of the one passage that he knows will lead to open water, even if the idea of trying to get through all of the twists and turns with the bloodthirsty monsters chewing away chunks of his flesh is sickening.

He almost makes it. The tunnel mouth gapes at him, a sliver of shadow against fitfully lit stone, promising a chance at safety. He’ll come away from this with scars, but at least he’ll come away from it. 

Something clamps down on his tail fin and doesn't let go. Panicking, Ruin spares precious seconds to twist in a tight spiral, trying to shake the horrible creature loose. The desperate maneuver works in that he feels the Ghost fall away, a chunk of his tail fin in its mouth. 

When he looks up, there’s nothing in front of him but jagged rock wall. 

He has just enough time to flare all of his fins, dumping his speed in an attempt to not slam face first into the rock. His mismatched eyes flick over the irregular surface, searching for the tunnel mouth. He can’t have gotten that far off course with that rolling maneuver, it had to be just a few feet towards the left or the right–

Ruin has no time to begin properly panicking when bright spots of pain erupt along his tail and fins. 

After that, things become hazy.

There’s pain, obviously. Burning along his sides, his back, his tail; a network of agony tracing erratic patterns all over his body. Everything reeks of blood, filling his nose and gills, clouding his eyes. The injured ray throbs with the beat of his heart, an erratic pulse reflected off of stone walls and crystalline bodies. 

Ghost Leviathans scream as his claws pierce their translucent hide; as their teeth sink into each other; as they pull away with mouths full of their hatchmate's innards. He's screaming too, in pain and fear and the sparking rage that fuels survival.

There's so much blood. There's so much blood and too much of it is his, and the ice cold water is seeping into his veins to replace it, robbing his limbs of strength. The Void has narrowed to this stone nest, jagged rock walls and murky water. 

He's never going to make it back to open ocean, is he?

Before black despair can take him, something booms, loud and deep, enough that he feels it in his chest. The wall of the nest cracks, splits, widens until a large hand with long claws forces its way inside. Snarling rage lights up the cave with reds and yellows, almost overpowering the cyan hue of the Ghosts that meet this new challenger with shrill cries.

The water churns with blood and silt and scraps of translucent flesh–  and then it is quiet.

It's quiet.

He doesn't even notice when he sinks to the rough stone at the bottom of the crevice, only that one tattered fin is colder than the others, its tip resting in a small brine pool. Numbly he pulls it free. He knows that his scales are littered with deep bites, and even raises one arm to his mouth to half-heartedly lap at a wound–  but abandons the effort when he catches the scent of open water. 

The way out, torn right through the rock. 

(Later he'll hear the full story–  how the sound of screams had woken Eclipse up from his stupor, and how he'd followed the scent of blood to a narrow fissure. It had been too small to admit any Leviathan, but the stone and earth were thin, and Eclipse was very stubborn.)

His battered body protests movement, and he half-crawls, half-swims across the crevice floor, ignoring hatchling bodies with their fading cyan glow. He doesn’t know where the rest of the brood went; he barely remembers the Ghost hatchlings at all, nor the possibility that they might return to finish the job. All of his attention is on the ragged hole torn through the stone, that subtle depth to the twilight that makes it obvious where the rock ends.

And if that wasn’t enough, the looming form of a certain Fire Dragon Leviathan certainly serves as a decent marker. Anxious ripples of yellow and white flicker over those long fins and down a sinuous spine, trailing away and out of sight. Eclipse– his name is Eclipse, a Void-dweller named for something that had no place in their world– watches him flop down right at the edge of the hole.

The Void yawns below, deep and infinite. If he tips over the edge, will he sink forever? A glittering glow in his wake, growing smaller and smaller, just like his mother’s body?

Only, he would leave no sons to watch that glow. He has no mate, no pups–  just a Fire Dragon Leviathan watching with wary golden eyes. Faint wisps of blood trail from a shallow gash across a ruby shoulder, fading away into nothing in the current. Injuries earned while coming to his rescue.

The Void is infinite. He is not. Even as lightheaded and tired as he is now, Ruin turns away from the edge. The depths will be waiting to welcome him on any day, after all. There is no hurry.

Eclipse is saying something, deep voice rumbling with notes of worry and agitation. Speech, communication– but his throat won’t cooperate to form a response, and his glow only pulses erratically. The best Ruin can manage is to tilt his head, gaze unfocused, until some of those sounds become recognizable.

“Hey. Look at me.”

He is, he is! Promise. It was just that golden eyes were so intense, and really, wasn’t it a bit much to have four of them? Especially if they were going to narrow like that, as if his scales were as transparent as those of a Ghost.

Long claws grasp the side of his face, run through his limp crest, and Ruin leans into the touch with a soft purr. Could that happen again? It was very nice. A contrast to the ache settling in his bones, making his muscles stiff. Nothing hurts and yet everything hurts, and exhaustion is pulling at him despite the anxiety of unsafe waters.

Another low growl, claws carefully hooking onto undamaged flesh, and it takes a long moment to realize that the world has become sandstone and ruby scales. Flickering out of the corner of his eye is a yellow-tipped ray, and another; he's looking at the back of Eclipse’s head, with his arms draped over the larger Leviathan’ shoulders. Claws guide his hands towards one another, and instinctively he locks them around his own wrists in a hatchling hold, meant to keep him secure on a parent’s back during long journeys.

How odd, how odd. His mother was dead. He was alone– yet the world is filled with the smell of worry and determination, warmth that pushes back against the cold water flowing over his sides. With a quiet trill he nuzzles against that warmth, letting his eyes slide shut. 

The darkness of the Void seeps behind his eyes, filling his mind, and he slips into unconsciousness.

Chapter 2

Notes:

I really thought this would have come out a lot sooner, but alas! It's out NOW, though, so enjoy!

Ruin awakens, slowly, to the feeling of something hot and slick dragging over his scales. 

It isn’t a problem in and of itself, really. In fact, there’s something quite soothing about the action, coupling nicely with whatever it was he was laying on. Firm, yet yielding, and pleasantly warm. He could go right back to sleep like this.

The only problem is the stinging that comes with every swipe. The pain draws an annoyed whine from him, and he reaches out to push away whatever keeps touching him. “S-stoppit… m’awake…” 

The surface he’s laying on rumbles, and hot water washes over his hand, along with very familiar sarcasm. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you wanted your wounds to get infected.”

With a sense of dread, Ruin opens his eyes. 

The first thing that greets him is light– as bright as any display he was capable of making, bright enough that he immediately has to shut his eyes again. He hadn’t gotten dragged up to the surface, had he?! After a moment or two he tries again, slower this time, giving his eyes time to adjust, and the brilliance resolves itself into a small reef teaming with corals and waving fronds and small fish, all supported by magenta floaters. Beyond is the impenetrable darkness of the Void.

Something about this unnatural oasis of light tugs at faint memories, but that’s when he realizes that his hand is pressed against something warm and moving, and the overwhelming scent around him is a major clue on what it could be. Sure enough, he follows the line of his own arm up to a wide grinning mouth and four golden eyes crinkled with amusement. 

Ah. 

“...you’ve kidnapped me,” he deadpans. Eclipse barks out a laugh, reaching up to pull Ruin’s hand away from his face. 

“That’s right~. I wasn’t about to let a handful of Ghost larvae make a meal out of you before you apologized for that little trick.” Despite the words, Eclipse’s tone is one of amusement rather than anger, and perhaps the smallest bit of relief. 

Ruin sighs, tail flicking in irritation, and winces when the motion pulls at all of the bites on the appendage. “I apologize for taking advantage of your ignorance as to what a Mesmer is. I will not, however, apologize for assuming that you meant to do me harm.” He tugs on his arm, trying to free it from Eclipse’s grasp, but the larger Leviathan isn’t letting go. “May I have my arm back now?”

“Nope. I’m not finished yet.” Purring, Eclipse leans forward and drags his tongue over Ruin’s upper arm, where a chunk of skin and scale have been torn away. 

The wound stings, causing Ruin to flinch, but he doesn’t resist Eclipse’s ministrations. It had been years since someone else had groomed him, and despite the possible danger he can’t help thinking how nice it feels. How safe he feels. 

That's the only positive, really. Though he's more present than before, when the fight for his life faded into a confusing collection of impressions and injury, he still doesn't feel well. Everything is a bit indistinct and distant, and some part of him recognizes the danger of such a state of mind. If a predator approached right now, he wouldn't have the sense to flee. 

He no longer feels like he might die, at least. So there were two positives! 

As much as he’s enjoying the attention, pride compels Ruin to speak up anyway. “I can clean the wounds myself, I don’t need you to do it…”

One last swipe of the tongue and Eclipse releases his arm. “Not all of them you couldn’t.”

Ruin is about to ask for clarification when the Fire Dragon presses closer, all but trapping Ruin in the loops of his body, and that hot slickness is dragging over his crest. Now he remembers one of the Ghosts biting those crucial fins. This time the attention hurts, and he lets out a whine, instinctively trying to pull away. If Eclipse’s low growl wasn’t enough of a warning not to move, the large hand gripping his shoulder prevents it anyway.

“Where are we?” he asks, seeking a distraction. 

The answer comes between swipes of Eclipse’s tongue. “My father’s nest. My own territory isn’t quite secure enough yet, and…” The larger leviathan huffs, blowing hot water over Ruin’s fins, causing him to wince again. “...you lost a lot of blood. Or at least, I assume that was why you were acting so disoriented– unless we happened to stumble upon the first ever nest of venomous Ghosts, in which case I’m going back and eating the rest of them before they grow up.”

Ruin giggles, and the sound is met with a quiet rumble. For a moment it feels like Eclipse nuzzles against his head, but the gesture is so quick that Ruin thinks he might have imagined it, and anyway the Fire Dragon is talking again. “So– yeah. I wanted to make sure nothing would dare take the risk in following us.”

“I see.” Was Eclipse’s parent so fearsome? The nest smelled of something large and oddly familiar, but his own blood and Eclipse’s scent of dusky spice were too fresh to discern anything else. 

Eclipse finishes cleaning his ray, and Ruin reaches up to carefully feel along the edges of the wound. His fingers skirt torn skin hanging in jagged shreds, and a sick dread goes through him when he realizes that the base of the fin is barely half the width it should be. Ruin bites his lip in anticipation of the pain he knows is coming, then flares the fins around his head. 

It hurts, of course; badly enough that he almost immediately flattens his crest back down, and the scent of blood grows stronger. And none of that quite matters, because for all of the pain the damaged fin barely twitches, hanging limply behind his head. The Ghost must have severed the muscles needed to move it. 

It… it was fine. It would be fine. He has the rest of his rays, of course! And he can’t check if the damaged ray still glows without a test subject (and Eclipse isn’t available, having just slid back behind him, snarling about the reopened wound) but– but it still has a blood supply, it should be fine. As long as the rot doesn’t take it, and Eclipse seems determined to prevent any kind of infection from setting in with how he’s cleaning it again.

“There.” Another huff of hot water, and Eclipse moves so that he can give Ruin an admittedly impressive glare. “Don’t try that again until it’s actually healed.”

“Of… of course.” Something in Ruin’s chest crumples a little, cold and oozing, and he can’t quite muster the energy to keep his scales from reflecting that feeling. The fear of a predator when it knew it was injured, and therefore likely to become prey for something else. He wouldn’t be safe until he made it home, back to his own nest.

Where was his home from here? Landmarks in the Void were few and far between, and while it was unlikely that Eclipse had carried him more than a half-day’s journey from the floating islands, that could still turn out to have been an enormous distance. His only hope to find his way back to his nest would be to backtrack to the islands themselves, something that every single scale on his body does not want to do right now. 

Speaking of Eclipse, the Fire Dragon’s wide head butts against his own, careful not to brush the injured fin. “This is the dimmest I’ve seen your glow outside of being outright unconscious.”

“Well, that would be because I’m quite tired.” A sigh, and he rubs the back of his hand over his face. “Something to do with Ghost Leviathan larvae and blood loss, I suspect. We may never know the truth.”

Eclipse rumbles, the tip of his tail twitching. “Smartass. You should eat something.”

“Not hungry.” Ruin’s fins pulse briefly before dimming again. A longnose fish with more curiosity than sense sifts through the sand nearby, an easy snack if not for the fact that Ruin mostly just feels tired and a little sick. “Not hungry, and I feel that it might be a poor decision on my part to start hunting in someone else’s territory.” 

More rumbling that never resolves into words, and Ruin is surprised when Eclipse shifts to coil closer around him. He would have expected the Fire Dragon to leave and seek his own meal– he probably wouldn’t be bitten in two for interloping, if this truly was his father’s territory.

That head butts against him again. “Then sleep if you’re tired.”

He flexes his claws and fins. His instincts struggle between the need to heal and the need to flee to safer waters, overwhelmed by the strange-familiar scent of the nest around them. “Should I be worried about you taking a nibble of me while I’m asleep? Now that you know what the Ghosts found so appealing, after all.”

“Oh for–” A huff, and Ruin squeaks as Eclipse pushes him over. He scrabbles at the stone, but a heavy loop of ruby scales keeps him pinned down. “If I didn’t eat you before, I’m not going to do it now.”

“You might~.” 

“Won’t.” Maybe Eclipse thought his glare was threatening, but Ruin struggles to smother his giggles at the downright pout on the larger Leviathans’ face. 

He has mercy, however, and simply curls himself into a more comfortable position rather than continue teasing Eclipse. Even with his eyes closed the reef around them is too bright, and finally he flips a ray over his face to block out the light, ignoring the deep chuckle from somewhere off to his side.

---

The next time Ruin wakes up he’s alone in the nest, feeling much more clear-headed and even a little bit peckish! A good nap really could work wonders for a person’s general state of being.

He’s also feeling like one big ball of ow.

Whimpering a little as he shifts against the stone, Ruin seriously considers going right back to sleep to avoid the ow . Surely more rest could only be good for him, right? However, as thorough as Eclipse might have been in cleaning his injuries, Ruin still hasn’t actually checked the damage for himself yet, and the last thing he needs is an infection. With a sigh of resignation he uncurls, beginning a careful inventory of what all hurts and how badly, flexing fins and twitching his tail.

It seems as though he needn’t have worried. The deepest wounds hurt when he brushes his hand over them, of course, but nothing feels unusually sore or hot. Some of the wounds will require further neatening up once they’ve healed more, any loose shreds of skin nibbled away. Everything else will just need to be monitored for the next several days, and any potential infection treated as quickly as possible.

He’s not looking forward to that if it comes down to it. Deep shrooms hurt, worse than getting bit in the first place.

More or less satisfied with the outcome, Ruin settles back down into the nest, getting as comfortable as one can when they had been used as a hatchling chewtoy. He can’t sense nor hear Eclipse anywhere close by, but the sand still bears a strong scent, so he must not have left too long ago. 

The thought that he might have left at all brings an unexpected pang to his chest. Which didn’t make any sense– it wasn’t like the other Leviathan had promised to guard him or anything!  

Perhaps it’s just the general awareness that he’s vulnerable like this. His glow should match the reef around the nest, helping him to blend in even while asleep– it was why his own nest was surrounded by carefully maintained fronds of luminescent algae, after all. And the scent of blood has faded, covered up by Eclipse’s dusky spice and the strange-familiar scent of the nest’s owner. 

But he’s still injured. In a resting position it’s mostly the deeper bites on his tail and upper arm he can feel, the persistent throbbing of the damaged ray. The bites on his fins are the ones that will bother him once he starts swimming, the thin membranes stretched and tugged just as a normal consequence of motion. It’s going to slow him down for a while, and he’s not looking forward to the inevitably long journey back to his nest.

Truly this had been one of, if not the worst trip he’d ever taken out into the Void. The only positive he could definitively point to was having met Eclipse, and no amount of sass or exasperation could change the fact that the Fire Dragon was another adult Leviathan he could socialize with. 

Eyes falling halfway shut, Ruin bats around the idea of visiting Eclipse once he’s all healed up. The other Leviathan’s territory couldn’t be that far away, right? The floating islands had been close enough that Eclipse had considered returning to his own nest, if Ruin understood him correctly, which also meant Ruin’s own nest was close-ish. By Void-dweller standards, anyway.

(It feels like a mistake, or like he’s getting his hopes up. But, well, Eclipse had carried an unconscious, bleeding Leviathan who knew how far across open ocean instead of eating him. Surely that meant something.)

He must have dozed off anyway, because the next thing he knows there’s movement in the water above him, followed by something large dropping down into the nest. An irritated growl and the scent of spice are all Ruin needs to know the other’s identity.

“How is he still asleep?” Hot water washes over the Mesmer’s scales with Eclipse’s grumbling. “I should have made him eat something first, he’s going to starve before he wakes up.”

Ruin is about to let Eclipse know that he is awake, thank you– when something else speaks first, in a deep voice embodying the Void itself.

“Patience, Eclipse. If he must sleep for longer, do not disturb him. His body knows what it needs to heal.”

Ruin’s eyes snap open.

The first thing he sees are ruby and sandstone scales, close enough he can feel the warmth coming off of them, and he hears Eclipse make a surprised sound. Past the Fire Dragon’s bulk is stone, crisscrossed with smooth-edged grooves from years of scales and claws scraping across it, leading right up to the edge of the island.

Hanging in the darkness, nightmarish form only partially illuminated by the reef, is the Silence.

Ruin… isn’t exactly proud of his next action. 

Mesmer Leviathan had their glow to hypnotize both predator and prey, of course, but there was another trick that could be pulled in situations that required more speed than subtlety. Acting purely on instinct, Ruin flares the fins around his head and on his body, and flashes his bioluminescence as brightly as he can. 

There’s a yelp from behind him, the shift of scales and muscle, and the loops around his body loosen. In better health this would be his chance to swim away– right now, though, Ruin is too busy curling into a small ball and hissing in pain as every injured fin screams at him. That was, unquestionably, one of the stupidest things he’s ever done, and both the pain and immediate self-recrimination snap him out of his panic. He’s lucky he didn’t tear any of his wounds open.

Eclipse has both hands clapped over his face and is spewing curses like a thermal vent. It’s almost comical, except for the fact that there’s a literal spectre of death looming over them, and that he honestly hadn’t meant to injure Eclipse this way.

“I-I’m sorry! Sorry, that wasn’t– I didn’t–” Words trail off into a concerned chitter as he uncurls, his hands hovering helplessly over sandstone and ruby scales. “I-I was taken by surprise, and…”

“It is alright, little Mesmer.” That deep rumble is almost enough to stop his heart all over again, and his gaze snaps to the Silence. It makes a sound like an amused chuckle. “Eclipse is just being dramatic.”

It… doesn’t escape his now clearer notice that the Silence is completely unfazed by his attempt to blind it, given that it was already blind.

“Yeah, well, it hurts,” the Fire Dragon grumbles, finally dropping one of his hands. The other continues to rub at his golden eyes, and Ruin could just let guilt swallow him whole right now. Eclipse had gone through the trouble of rescuing him from a swarm of hatchling Ghosts, brought him all the way back across the Void, and even cleaned his wounds. And how had Ruin repaid him? 

“I…apologize for blinding you.” He sinks down into a miserable coil, guilt outweighing even the discomfort of stone against his wounds. There’s a moment of tense silence before he hears a huff, and then warm scales are sliding over his own as Eclipse curls around him. 

“It’s whatever.” The larger Leviathan snickers, resting his chin on top of Ruin’s head, forcing his rays to flatten. “Honestly it was kind of worth it to see you freak out so badly upon meeting Father.”

He wants to protest, maybe twist around a little to nip at Eclipse as the guilt is overtaken by annoyance, but one word in that sentence sinks its claws into his attention and leaves little room for anything else. “Father?!”

Eclipse’s father was the Silence?! 

….no wonder he’d sought out his father’s nest as somewhere safe to bring a bleeding, unconscious leviathan. Anything stupid enough to follow the trail into the Silence’s territory had already been eaten before it could reproduce.

That massive head tilts slightly, and then Ruin is doing his best to phase through Eclipse when the Silence leans closer, sniffing deeply. Rationally he knows it’s unlikely that the Silence will eat him, not when spearing him would doubtlessly catch Eclipse as well– but he can’t help his thin whine, nor the pulse of light across fins that cannot save him.

He could especially do without Eclipse’s laughter! The Fire Dragon Leviathan doesn’t seem at all sympathetic to Ruin’s fear, and also shows no inclination in letting him escape. “Relax! I’m surprised you haven’t given yourself a heart attack yet with how jumpy you are.”

“Well excuse me for being a bit– bit nervous !” He thought he had some very good reasons to be on edge, such as the extensive injuries that made fleeing nearly impossible, or asshole Leviathans who are just going to snicker and nuzzle against his rays while their behemoth of a parent scents him. 

“Ah.. as I thought. I do know you, little Mesmer.”

“...you do?” The words emerge as barely more than a squeak. That was not something one wanted to hear! 

The Silence rumbles with amusement. “Of course. It is only natural for me to be familiar with those territories that border my own.” That massive head tilts, the dents where eyes should be crinkling slightly. “You need not worry. You have always been a respectful neighbor, and I have no reason to quarrel with you.”

“O-oh, that… that is quite good to hear!” A strained sound that was vaguely related to a chuckle escapes him. How diplomatic to phrase it as ‘a quarrel’ and not what would really happen should there be a territory dispute, which would be just a few floating shreds of Mesmer for some scavenger to find.

There’s that laughter again, from both parent and child. Ruin squirms against the Fire Dragon squishing him, finally managing to work himself free. He takes a moment to catch his breath, then turns and hisses at his assailant, fins shimmering in warning. Eclipse isn't at all perturbed, just rolling his eyes and slipping out of the nest. A moment later and Ruin catches the flash of scales and swirls of Eclipse’s scarce bioluminescence as he chases something.

Now that it’s been revealed, the Silence slips forward, and for a terrifying moment Ruin is certain that it’s going to climb into the nest with him– but instead the Leviathan settles in a comfortable curve around the nest. Its long tail drapes over the reef, frightening off fish too small to bother with chasing. 

“I am Kill Code,” he announces with little preamble. Teeth longer than Ruin's arm catch the light of the reef as he smiles. “Doubtlessly you know me as the Silence.”

“Ah, yes.” The Mesmer swallows hard, trying not to sound as nervous as he felt. “Mother– Mother told me that you eat up sound, so that the only way a Leviathan could escape your notice was if he were to still his own heartbeat. And, well–  at that point he'd be dead anyway, so there's not that much of a difference!”

Not to mention he still recalls his own nestling experience! 

Kill Code chuckles. “She was correct. Though, I do not need to hear your heart to be able to track you. Mesmer are not known for their subtlety.”

Ruin can only shrug at that. With larger fins came greater drag and a noisier passage through the water–  yet that didn't really matter when he was supposed to entrance anything that got too curious, turning the tables on any would-be predators. It just happened that there was one predator that seemed to have been specially designed to be as much a Mesmer's opposite as possible, and it was ‘watching’ him right now.

“My name is Ruin. Thank you for your hospitality. I– well, frankly, I am rather surprised that you are putting up with my presence.”

He doesn't think those teeth nor that chuckle will ever be anything but terrifying. The bone spike on Kill Code's frill sways gently as the Leviathan shakes his head. “A couple of decades ago and your assumption would be correct. However, I have recently come to find that there is merit in compassion– and that I am helpless before my children's whims.” 

Before Ruin can puzzle that out, something mostly solid smacks into his arm, startling a yelp out of him. The scent of blood follows, and he recognizes the shape of a dead Grabeel settling onto the stone. 

Hovering behind it is a very smug Eclipse. The tips of his rays and the row of spots running down his long body pulse soft yellow-white in a shameless display, and Ruin can’t help huffing in exasperation.

“Oh you are pleased with yourself, aren’t you?” Truthfully Grabeel wasn’t his favorite– a bit too gel-like in consistency, with a lingering metallic aftertaste– but the scent of blood that isn’t his own reawakens his appetite. Without thinking he reaches for the body, then freezes and looks up at the Silence. Was it impolite for him to eat this? 

Both his stillness and Eclipse’s irritated growl communicate what Kill Code cannot see, and the larger Leviathan makes an amused sound. “By all means, partake. You need to regain your strength.”

“Ah… thank you.” Manners can only hold him back for so long, and Ruin doesn’t need to be told twice. He digs his claws in behind the heavily armored head, pulling it from the body in one smooth movement, before taking a bite out of the flesh. Just as gummy as the last time he’d had it.

After a few more bites (and Eclipse taking the head for himself, crunching through the carapace with his strong jaws) Ruin thinks he might have worked up the courage to ask a question or two. “Forgive me, ah, K-kill Code?” Yeah, no, just casually using the Silence’s given name like that was weird. “I suppose that… I wasn’t aware that you had a mate…?”

Actually, he knew for damn certain that the Silence had no mate, given that he might have noticed had another terrifying Leviathan moved out of nightmares and into the neighboring territory. Beyond that, there was no scent in the nest as strong as Kill Code’s, which suggested that it was his and his alone.

So where in the Void had Eclipse come from?!

“I do not,” the Silence rumbles deeply. “Eclipse is not of my blood, but a foundling that strayed into my territory when his spines had barely hardened.”

He ‘looks’ down at the Fire Dragon fondly, who responds to this paternal attention with a huff and those aforementioned spines flaring. “As soon as Father realized I wasn’t fully grown and that I didn’t have a pod, he decided right then and there to adopt me.”

Kill Code tilts his head towards Ruin. “I doubt you would be surprised to learn that his initial response was trying to fight me. I believe he may have left a scar, actually.”

Ruin cackles as Eclipse puffs up more, snarling about how ‘you would fight someone too if they tried to scruff you in their outrageously sized teeth’. No, that isn’t hard for him to believe at all.

(It also makes him wonder– if he hadn’t fled with such purpose, would Kill Code have dragged him back to this reef so long ago?)

“Until that time, I had not considered that I would ever be a parent,” Kill Code continues, amusement slowly leaking away under what sounded like an old pain. “I have not heard another of my kin since before I settled in these waters, long before you or your parents or your grandparents were hatched. I am the last of my kind, I believe, and what other Leviathan would have me? When my song is ended, there will be no more.”

“O-oh. I am… sorry, to hear that.” Something flutters in Ruin’s chest, a nervousness that he attempts to cover by shoving the last bite of eel into his mouth, licking away the traces on his hands. The fact that he himself was unmated, lonely, and desperate felt like it was flashing across his scales with every beat of his heart– but was he this desperate?! 

Kill Code seems to pick up on those feelings, because the monstrous leviathan huffs in clear amusement. “Peace, little Mesmer. Do not trouble yourself overmuch with my plight, as it is not your responsibility to resolve it. Nor would I accept an offer made out of pity.” 

The tension eases from him, and though Kill Code cannot see it, Ruin still flashes him an apologetic grin. “Well– I am sorry, regardless. And I do hope that one day you will find a mate.” 

The Silence rumbles agreeably, then continues in an almost mischievous tone. “Besides, far be it from me to deny my eldest his chance to court another, not after he’s worked so hard to make a good impression.”

Eclipse outright squawks, patterns flashing down his body rapidly, and Ruin’s own bioluminescence brightens. True, Eclipse had been anything but subtle in his flirting earlier, if one allowed for a distinctively predatory lean when it came to flirting– but that was before the whole Ghost Leviathan thing. Ruin wouldn’t be surprised if, somewhere between here and the floating islands, the other Leviathan had changed his mind about Ruin’s potential.

Strong arms wrap around his middle, pulling him close to a muscular chest, and he can feel Eclipse’s growl through his spine. 

“I’m taking him home, now,” he spits at his father. Kill Code doesn’t seem at all perturbed by his child’s rudeness, his deep chuckles shaking the water around them. 

“Very well.” The massive Leviathan shifts, looking sightlessly out into the Void. “Your territory lies in that direction, little one.”

Ruin brightens, literally. Home might be much closer than he’d thought, but he still hadn’t known in which direction to travel, given that Kill Code’s nest was roughly in the center of his territory. He’d been expecting to just pick a direction and swim until he figured it out. “Thank you!” 

“Of course. Once you have healed, I would be glad to have your company again. Next time you can meet the twins as well.” Kill Code’s tone is warm and perfectly friendly, which is mindboggling in its own right. To have the Silence just casually inviting him to visit! 

It’s a truly terrifying offer, and Ruin knows he’ll be spending his recuperation working up the nerve to accept. 

The Mesmer chirps appreciatively, but before he can actually verbalize any sort of response Eclipse flicks that powerful tail of his, and Ruin is dragged away. The reef and the sinuous looping shape of the monster that tends it gradually fade away behind them.

“‘The twins’?” he echos curiously. Eclipse huffs in response, his crest of spines flaring.

“My younger brothers, Blood Moon. They're foundlings like me. A Lurker pair.” 

Ruin's eyes widen. Lurkers were dangerous, even more so than other Leviathans, because they always came in pairs. A Mesmer such as himself didn't stand a chance, not with his body literally covered in reminders of why it was nearly impossible to keep more than one subject enthralled at a time. “I-I see. And they were absent because…?” 

“Because they're idiots with Jellyrays for brains. Actually, just one Jellyray, and they share it.” Ruin can't help but giggle at Eclipse’s irritation, and the sound seems to draw the Fire Dragon Leviathan out of his thoughts. Eclipse’s severe expression softens. “Well– alright. They're not that dumb. Usually. But they get excited easily, and you reeked of blood, so Father decided to take them elsewhere for a while.”

“Ah.” Well, in that case he deeply appreciated the Silence’s forethought. He would have really hated waking up to something else trying to chew off his fins, or some kind of high-stakes game of keep away. “I hope that if I do meet them some day, I’ll be able to make a good impression.”

Being carried while conscious is a much more uncomfortable and embarrassing experience, and it isn’t long before Ruin is squirming. Not that Eclipse’s hold is particularly painful or restrictive– but he wasn't a hatchling, and he wasn't half-dead from blood loss this time. And he is decidedly not thinking about the strong arms wrapped around his chest, nor the flex of muscles he can feel against his back.

“I can swim for myself, you know!” He hisses, twisting around to glare up at the larger Leviathan. Eclipse snorts, not even bothering to look down at him.

“Uh-huh, sure. And it’ll take you at least a week to get anywhere with those bites all over you. You should be thanking me for getting you home before you become as old as Father.”

Ruin growls, lashing his tail. “You do realize that I will have to swim when I hunt, yes?”

Now he gets a glance, a quick flash of golden eyes. “Yeah, I know. But not yet.”

Digging his claws and teeth into sandstone scales would probably get him released, but truthfully Ruin wasn’t at all interested in actually injuring the other Leviathan, no matter how much of an ass he was being. And… despite the embarrassment, he does appreciate the ride, and the opportunity to put off aggravating his wounds for a bit longer. He isn’t above sulking about it, though, arms and fins trailing miserably in the water.

Eclipse mutters something, nuzzling against his rays, which Ruin tolerates with a sigh.

A while later (too long for his already bruised dignity) a familiar scent has him raising his head, inadvertently smacking Eclipse in the face with his rays. “Oh! We’re close– here, let me go, it will be faster than if you try to find it–” 

For a moment he thinks that the larger Leviathan is about to ignore the request, those strong arms tightening before gradually letting him go. Ruin is surprised at how cold the water feels– realistically he knows that it is no cooler than usual, the same constant temperature found below twilight waters. A shudder runs down his spine and he flares his fins a little, testing their range of motion, before beckoning to Eclipse.

Much to his irritation, swimming under his own power is just as painful and slow as he’d predicted, and he can just feel Eclipse’s smug grin. The Fire Dragon Leviathan doesn’t offer to take him in arm again, and he doesn’t ask for it, only carefully feeling his way across the currents until he spies the particular groupings of blue-green algae that mark home . 

By the bottomless depths, he has never been so happy to see his own empty nest! 

Ruin trills brightly, heading straight for the gap between two large stone columns. Fronds of luminescent algae twist along the rough surface, and Ruin’s own glow shifts to match in color. When Eclipse finally catches up, he finds the Mesmer happily rolling around in a shallow depression carved out of the rock. 

“Well somebody’s pleased,” he rumbles. Ruin stops re-scenting his nest to peer up at the Fire Dragon reproachfully, and sees the large Leviathan curiously sniffing around the shallow cave. The floor of the cave sloped gently downward, into the island itself, with Ruin’s nest at the very back against the odd columns that made up the walls. It made for a cozy and well-hidden home.

“Can you really be surprised? For a few moments during that fight I wasn’t sure I’d ever make it home again.” More at ease now that he’s back where he’d supposed to be, the Mesmer lets himself relax, stretching out to his full length. “Oh, perhaps I’ll sleep for another week, without meddling Fire Dragons to bother me.”

Eclipse huffs, then reaches out and digs his claws into the rock.

“You–!” Immediately Ruin sits up, outraged. His fins flare, marks glowing despite the pain from the injured ray. He will hypnotize this arrogant brute into swimming out into the Void, no matter how attractive he might be! “Excuse me, what do you think you’re doing?!

Eclipse doesn’t seem at all perturbed by the display, though Ruin doesn’t miss how those golden eyes avoid focusing on the area around his head. “What does it look like? I’m making it bigger.” 

“Big– why are you making it bigger?! It’s my nest!” He hisses, then flicks his tail to put himself in front of Eclipse. “Is this really your attempt at taking my territory? No, no display, no challenge– you’re just going to muscle in and steal my nest?!” 

“Not steal.” A tail fin brushes his own, and he just barely restrains himself from turning and snapping at the offender. The hand that grasps his chin, pulling his mismatched gaze to burning golden eyes, is a pretty effective distraction. Color shifts along the rays framing Eclipse’s face, following his long spine and flared fins. “I was thinking more like share.”

Oh.

Oh.

---

They don’t become mates immediately. 

That sort of heady, all-or-nothing commitment was much easier when the Season was bearing down on you. Without the compulsion to breed burning through his veins, it was a bit easier to meet Eclipse’s showy displays with gentle teasing or witty commentary, and for the Fire Dragon Leviathan to respond in kind.

Mind, only a bit easier. Eclipse was very attractive, and not at all shy about flaunting it

But Kill Code supported the match, even after Ruin had hesitantly, shamefully divulged the fact that Mesmer Leviathans rarely bore full clutches. There wasn’t anything he could do about it, it was just how they were– but it still hurt to admit to the great Leviathan and his son that he would be unable to fulfill the most basic job of a parent: bear your children alive.

It had made him feel a bit better when Eclipse just declared that he’d carry if needed, to say nothing of the very interesting lightshow that had danced over Ruin’s scales at the thought of Eclipse carrying his clutch. Not for the first time he was glad that Kill Code couldn’t actually see, though he was pretty sure the Silence could sense what was going through Ruin’s head anyway. At least he had the grace to never comment on it. 

Blood Moon had approved as well, after the surly pair had gotten over their suspicion of the strange glowing Leviathan their brother seemed ray over tail for. Somehow they had come to the conclusion that Ruin had hypnotized Eclipse into accepting him, a theory that they were unable to justify once Eclipse pointed out that Kill Code certainly hadn’t been hypnotized.

It had been kind of charming, actually, to see how the twins postured and threatened, even though Eclipse was nearly twice their size and certainly could defend himself if needed. After some time, a few joint hunts, and one fight that the Silence had broken up (and, consequently, had all four smaller Leviathans cowering in their nests), Blood Moon’s hostility had lessened. 

Those few weeks of Hibernation– shorter in the Void, where it was the scarcity of prey that prompted the sleep rather than shifting temperatures– were spent in the curve of Eclipse’s warm orange scales, the twin lumps of Blood Moon on his other side, and the Silence coiled around them all. Never had he felt so safe or protected, secure with his new family.

And when the Season started, well… It turned out that Ruin really didn’t mind meeting his end in the mouth of a larger predator, when that predator was his lovely, powerful, wonderful mate.

Notes:

Kill Code: -listening to teenager Ruin swim away- ....wait. Orphans are a thing. Wait I can totally adopt an orphan.
Eclipse: -wanders into KC's territory-
Kill Code: 8D Mine now.

Sorry about your ray, Ruin-- i thought it would be a cute way to imitate your hat!