A/N: This fic was fun to write. And Life Is a Highway is a fun song. It's stuck in my head now again, even. This is an AU for sure. Demyx is a mer-dolphin and Xigbar is a mer-sea snake.
He sang and hummed along to himself as he made his merry way through the depths, gray tail flipping as he swam. He was a bottle-nosed dolphin, or at least his lower half was. Streamlined, built for speed, which only made the fact that he was always full of energy even worse. He liked to play, and romp, and did so often, no matter who was around to be bothered by said things.
"There's a world outside of every darkened door," he sang in his piping, melodic voice as water streamed through his dirty blonde hair, "Where blues won't haunt you anymore, where the brave are free and lovers soar."
He did a loop as he swam, spreading his arms wide and relishing the feel of water drifting across his skin. Mismatched eyes of blue and green closed for just a moment as he looped again, over backwards this time. He hummed the next few lines to himself as he darted around small tropical fish and green, waving kelp, jumbling the words all together.
"There's not much time left today. Life is a highway!" he sang the next line louder, much louder, and bubbling giggles clung to the ends of the words as he spun in the water, rolling around so that his back was to the kelp forest and he was facing up towards the surface that was far, far above him.
This sudden burst of noise unfortunately caught the attention of the creature who was currently trying-and apparently failing-to catch a nap in the before mentioned expanse of kelp, and a sole golden eye snapped into existence. It didn't take him long to locate the source of the disturbance-he only had to look up as the mer-boy drifted over the exact spot where he was resting.
"I want to ride it all night long," the blonde continued to sing, as carefree as anything and completely unaware of the presence he'd awoken with his actions.
He rolled again with an easy flip of his tail, trailing open palms along the waving wide tops of green and yellow kelp as he smiled widely. Though he didn't know it, it was very lucky for him that he'd rolled when he did; he'd saved himself from an unpleasant, early death. Because if the disgruntled sea snake hadn't caught a glimpse of how handsome the dolphin was, he probably would have went through with his desire to throttle the kid to restore peace and quiet.
"If you're going my way, I want to drive it all night long," he continued, and now he was swimming out of sight, forcing the sea snake to uncurl from where he lay to follow.
Mottled muddy-yellow and black scales glinted on his tail as he swam through the kelp, making sure to stay as low as possible and disturb the aquatic plants only as much as he had to. He was an ocean predator after all, as his scars showed, particularly the one across his face, and his missing right eye; stealth was what he was good at.
"Through all these cities and all these towns," the blonde sang still, darting around a particularly tall clump of kelp that stuck out from all the rest, "It's in my blood and it's all around." He wasn't sure where he'd picked up this song from-he thought he vaguely remembered hearing the humans singing it at some point, as he'd followed along in the wake of their ships. Or maybe he'd gotten it from a friend, he really couldn't be sure. He just knew that he loved it, and loved to sing it even more.
"I love you now like I loved you then," the dolphin dove into a corkscrewing figure eight, dipping down just a bit into the kelp forest, "This is the road and these are-argh!"
In mid-sentence he was suddenly grabbed around the middle, trapped by a black and yellow striped tail, the tip flattened and paddle-like. Water whooshed past him as he was pulled down into the kelp, the plants stirring wildly around him as he was pretty much thrown against the sandy bottom. Instinct was to fight and escape and he started to do just that when a figure loomed out of the still settling cloud of sea sand.
At once he fell still, just gaping at them. He wasn't so sure, at this exact moment, if he could say that they were handsome, but they were definitely interesting. Scars, sole golden eye, long black hair streaked with silver, pulled back into a low ponytail to keep it from blinding the sea snake in the water. Sea snake. The blonde realized that quite suddenly, but…he found that he oddly lacked fear.
"You could ride my highway any time you wanted," the sea snake purred, leaning in close.
A blonde eyebrow arched, and un-matching eyes just blinked at him for a moment. "Please let go of me," the boy requested kindly with an indignant kick of his tail. To his surprise, he found it was easy to free himself and he promptly rose up over the kelp forest again, planning on continuing on his way and forgetting about the creepy sea snake and his attempt to waylay the blonde.
Now where had he left off? Being interrupted like that, he lost his place in the song for a moment. "From Mozambique to those Memphis nights," he picked up, gliding from side-to-side as he sang, though he was not completely unaware of the dark shape that skated along below him. "The Khyber Pass to Vancouver's lights."
"The name's Xigbar," he heard the sea snake say as he paused for a moment between lines, and he directed a frown down into the kelp, catching a glimpse of a grinning face as he did so.
"Knock me down get back up-Demyx, it's Demyx," the blonde relented after just a few seconds, unable to stop himself from answering. This time he interrupted himself, and so had no one to blame but himself.
"Demyx," the snake repeated with a purr, "You've got a nice voice."
"Thanks," he replied, really just hoping though that his unwanted company would go away. "There's no load I can't hold, road so rough, this I know," he tried to continue again, hoping the hint would be clear that he just wanted to be alone.
Apparently it wasn't.
"So what's the cold shoulder for?" Xigbar asked, "I didn't scare you that bad, did I?"
"I just don't want to talk to you," the blonde said bluntly, not even bothering to look down this time. At least he was approaching the edge of the kelp forest soon, and then there was a colorful coral reef ahead. Maybe he could manage to be alone there.
"Ouch, that is cold."
Demyx ignored the comment, instead clearing his throat and focusing on singing again. "I'll be there when the light comes in, just tell 'em we're survivors." There, he swam out, away from the kelp forest-and to his utter dismay, the sea snake followed him, finally emerging fully into sight. The blonde paled just slightly-the serpent was larger than he'd expected, and he had a brief moment of worry about ending up on the menu. That was silly though; sea snakes didn't chow down on dolphins. At least, he'd never heard of it happening before.
"Oh, so you're going to ignore me now, is that how it is?" Xigbar sounded indignant as he continued to keep pace with the blonde.
"Life is a highway, I want to ride it all night long," he spun through the water, stretching his arms out, and bent fluidly to the side just in time to avoid smacking into the side of the coral reef, one hand brushing over a velvety sea fan.
"Guess I'll have t'do something to get your attention, huh?"
Demyx wasn't even really paying attention anymore now though, he'd sunk back into his own little world, where there was just him, the ocean, and singing. "If you're going my way, I want to drive it all ni-ack!"
Again it happened in mid-sentence, black and yellow tail wrapping around his own gray one and pulling him down, though this time he was also captured by the waiting arms of the sea snake. He was held tightly against that bare, scarred chest, and for a moment he could only blink in surprise, mouth gaping open at the audacity of this creature to continue bothering him. He was about to discover though that being open mouthed was a very unwise thing in this situation.
As he was still gaping, his mouth was captured in a kiss, and if it was even possible, his eyes opened even wider until they were just about but not quite ready to pop out of their sockets. He floundered uselessly, giving a muffled protest that was quite clearly ignored as a somewhat long, somewhat serpentine tongue slipped into his mouth. Really though, he had to admit to himself-this wasn't so bad.
Of course thinking that way only served to cause a fierce blush to spread across his cheeks, and as Xigbar finally drew back, the sea snake chuckled. Without a word, Demyx spun away-although a little clumsy-and tried to coordinate himself into properly swimming away. What a day he was having.
Finally feeling it safe to stop, the blonde paused beside a large purple sea fan that was drifting lazily from side-to-side in the current. His hands twisted together anxiously, but he couldn't tell anymore if he was upset about being stalked by this sea serpent, or excited by it. He had to admit that his initial impression had been wrong, and this fellow really wasn't so bad-or bad looking either.
"So've I got your attention yet?"
That now familiar voice came from the other side of the sea fan, and Demyx squeaked, looking over to see Xigbar there, lounging back against the coral with his arms folded under his head.
"Hmph," the dolphin said, turning to swim away, but a firm hand wrapped around his wrist, pulling him to a stop.
Risking a glance back, he saw Xigbar emerging from around the velvet purple edges, tail undulating through the water as he moved closer and closer. The blonde only tried halfheartedly to get away, and surrendered quietly as those arms wrapped around him again.
"I just want to get to know you better," the serpent said, again with that seductive purr that sent a not unpleasant shiver down Demyx's spine, all the way to the tip of his tail.
"Could've gone about it better," he said, trying his hardest to appear uninterested, but it was made increasingly difficult with the way Xigbar's tail was now stroking along his side, from dorsal fin to fluke and back again.
"But I didn't," Xigbar said, voice dropping lower and gaining more of an edge that made the blonde's pulse skip a few beats, "And you don't seem to mind."
"Well, I-I don't, really," Demyx stammered, blushing as the serpent drew closer, forehead resting against his.
Any further comments he intended to make were all silenced by another kiss, this one better than the first as it'd been more expected. And this one he returned, lips parting against Xigbar's and allowing in that serpentine tongue again, allowing it to trace and explore the inside of his mouth. Much sooner than Demyx expected-or would have liked-the serpent drew back, taking him by the hand and beginning to pull him along through the water.
"Where're we going?" the blonde asked, slightly dazed as he blinked and looked around, only vaguely aware that they were heading towards the foreboding cliff that lay just on the other side of the coral reef, a particular dark hole in the side of the rock.
"Home," Xigbar replied, not slowing or even looking back.
"Home?" the dolphin repeated, suddenly much more aware of that black cave entrance.
"Yeah," this time he did look back, flashing a sly grin, "Don't worry, I won't bite."
"You'd better not," Demyx said crossly, knowing very well that the bite from a sea serpent like Xigbar would likely kill him. That wasn't what he was the most nervous about, but it didn't seem like he was going to get much of a chance to voice his thoughts, as the next second he was pulled into the cave.
"Xigbar!" he squeaked, surprised both by how dark the cave was and how cramped-well, at least it felt cramped to him. He was used to roaming through lots of space after all. He yelped a bit as his shoulder hit a rock outcropping he didn't and would likely never see. "Are you sure two people can even fit in here?" he questioned skeptically.
"Of course we can, if I do this," came the response from somewhere to his left, and suddenly that long tail wound around his waist again, drawing him close against Xigbar.
"O-oh," Demyx said with a blush that would never be seen in the dark.
"Now, where were we?" He didn't have to see to know the sly grin that accompanied those words, and he was pulled even closer.