The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition
Team: Ballycastle Bats
Position: Captain (pairing) Lucius/Ted
Reserve: No
Word Count: 2,220
Warning for Mermaid!AU, mentions of past character death, and cheating on an intended spouse. I would like to take this time to thank everyone who beta read this story for me. It truly means a lot that you would take the time out to help me like this. So, thank you all very much! I hope you all enjoy It's a Love Story (Baby Just Say Yes).
Lucius watched the bottle float towards the surface, knowing that someone would find it. Perhaps they'd even be lured into the usual trap the kingdom of the Malfoy merpeople had set up to drive ships into the rocks: casting their cargo and people into the roiling sea to die or wash up on the shore.
"What are you doing, Lucius?" Abraxas asked his son, watching as the young man looked like he was debating on following the course of the bottle.
"I figured, Father, what better way to lure more humans into the rocks than by sending out messages in bottles?" he said, knowing it was entirely a lie. It had been discussed among the young merfolk of the kingdom on how best to sink more humans. But there was another reason for sending out the bottles; Lucius was most curious about humans and their world. "I thought you'd been made aware of the discussion of the topic of luring more humans to their deaths."
"I had been," Abraxas said, watching his son who was still tracking the bottle's progress. "But I didn't think that my son would be one of the ones out here trying to lure humans to their doom. This isn't the job for a Prince of the realm, Lucius. Let one of the others take over and come back to the castle. Your fiance is waiting to meet you."
"Yes, Father," Lucius said, rolling his eyes when his father turned his back. Didn't his father get that he was avoiding being home because he didn't want to meet his intended?
"Lucius!"
"Coming, father," he called, motioning for one of the other young merfolk to take over releasing the bottles and their messages. He then swam full tilt after his father who had started talking about something or other before he noticed that Lucius wasn't with him.
"One of these days, son, you are going to be king of this kingdom," Abraxas said, looking at him from the corner of his eye. "You can't afford not to learn how to rule. You also cannot afford to not marry. You know your mother and I had thought long and hard before we went to Narcissa's parents for her hand."
"But what if I don't want to marry Narcissa of the Black Sea?" Lucius asked, watching his father's muscles contract with tension. "What if I don't want the life that you and mother set up for me? What if I want to live my own life, Father?"
"You are the crowned prince of the kingdom. You don't have that luxury," Abraxas said, swishing his green and silver tail in agitation as he swam on. "Do you think that every match is a love one? Your mother and I are just getting to the point of liking each other and we've been married for… How old are you, son?"
"Almost seventeen."
"We've been married for nineteen years and love never once entered into the deal. We both followed our duties to our kingdoms and that was that."
Lucius couldn't imagine marrying someone he didn't love, let alone someone he'd never met before. He also had a secret he'd been hiding from his father and everyone else for almost a year now.
The first time that he'd sent a message out in a bottle had been a mistake, but something had seen that it got out of his grasp. He liked to think of that force as fate or something similar.
Call it fate or whatever you want, the message in a bottle had been sent to the surface. A few weeks later a bottle was seen drifting down from the surface, and not one of the merpeople's own magical bottles which would rise and fall as the purpose was needed; it was a human one. It must have lost its float. He and the other young merfolk collected bottles such as these and stored them to be turned into bottles like they had in his father's kingdom. But this bottle was more different than the others; it contained a message.
He had uncorked it and taken out the scroll of parchment that was inside after using the spell that would make the parchment safe from the water. He'd stared in shocked silence as he read the letter which was addressed to him. He hadn't expected a reply. He had expected that the sailor who wrote this would be driven insane with longing and sail right into the rocks or something like that.
Lucius,
I'm sorry to hear of the prospect of your unhappy home life. I myself am having the same problem. My parents and the people of my kingdom expect me to marry the girl that I have recently saved. She is a very pretty girl. The only problem is that my taste in companions doesn't run in that direction. I can't tell anyone that because it is expected of me to marry a nice young lady and produce an heir and a spare for my kingdom.
If you ever want to write again and hash things out, feel free to do so. I must go now. Father is asking who I'm writing to and I don't want him to get nosy. I don't think that he'd react well at all to knowing I was writing another male.
Ted
Lucius and Ted had corresponded with each other by message in a bottle for almost a year. It had been nearly a year of getting to know each other: knowing each other's fears and weaknesses, likes and dislikes. He was pretty sure that he knew everything about Prince Ted of the surface dwellers. They'd even gone as far as to send each other pictures which Lucius kept under his pillow at night. He was afraid of his father finding it and about his affection towards Ted.
"Did you hear a word that I have said, Lucius?" Abraxas asked, a rather harsh look upon his face as he turned to face his son.
"Something about Narcissa," he said, sulkily folding his arms over his chest.
"I said that you should treat the girl properly and not act like this in front of her," Abraxas said, raising an eyebrow. "You'll see that this is what's best for the kingdom, son. Someday you'll see and you'll thank me for not letting you do what you want."
"I doubt it," Lucius said, flicking his tail that was much like his mother's in annoyance. He needed to get back to the spot to see if Ted had written him back yet. He couldn't afford for anyone else to find out about their correspondence. He wasn't sure that they'd understand.
He followed his father into the well-lit palace, heading towards the drawing-room. His mother usually took the guests there. He wanted to get this meeting over with so he could return to the messaging spot in time.
When they entered the purple drawing-room, he was frozen in his tracks by a sinking feeling in his gut. His parents were looking at him expectantly as he looked at the young merwoman across the room. Any other merman would find this maid attractive. But to paraphrase Ted's first letter, Lucius was finding that his taste in a companion wasn't running that way. Nothing about the petite blonde-haired, blue-eyed mermaid was making him want her at all. She was pretty but not for him.
"Lucius, this is Narcissa of the Black Sea," his mother said, motioning him into the room. "Narcissa, this is my son, Lucius."
He watched as the girl's face lit up with a huge smile. But it still felt wrong. It felt very wrong to be speaking to this girl, especially when he closed his eyes and all he could see was Ted's face in the picture floating across his eyelids.
"I have to go," he said, hastily backing away from the drawing-room, out the door, and towards the message spot.
When he reached the message spot, he could see the familiar bottle sinking towards the ocean's bottom. He could also see Rabastan swimming towards it. He put on a burst of speed and got to it before the dark-haired merman could.
"I've got this one," he said, swimming a little distance away so that Rabastan wouldn't see the message that was in the bottle.
The message was a short and simple one. It gave Lucius a thrill of excitement that he hadn't felt upon meeting Narcissa and made him blush like a mermaid with her first human. The message simply read:
I want to meet you, Lucius. If you feel the same way, meet me at the port of the nearest kingdom.
Ted
Ted wanted to meet him. Ted wanted him to come up to the surface and meet him, in person. Not a picture or anything like that. The strange thing about this was the longing that had set into his heart to finally meet Ted.
He got out a sheet of paper and wrote quickly back that he would love to meet him. That he would be at the docks of the nearest port at evening time. He smiled as he sent the bottle and its message away. He felt as giddy as a mermaid with her first human once more. But how was he going to escape the palace to get to the meeting spot?
But as the time drew near to leave the palace, Lucius discovered that he didn't need to find a distraction to escape. There was already a ruckus going on near the dining hall. He looked towards the sounds of shouting and crying. Should he go and see what was going on there or should he just leave as he'd planned to?
He was thinking so deeply that he didn't feel the tap of a calloused hand on his shoulder. He jumped when he did and whirled to find Rodolphus floating there, smirking. How had he not heard the older merman's approach?
"Don't worry about that," Rodolphus said, jerking his thumb in the direction of the commotion. "Your parents and Narcissa just found out why she was putting up such a stink about marrying you."
"Why is that?" Lucius asked, curiously looking back.
"She and my brother Rabastan have been seeing each other for a while now," the older merman said, grinning. "Get out of here and go get your human prince, Lucius."
"Thank you, Rodolphus," Lucius said, swimming off towards the nearest town, his heart hammering in his chest as he did.
He thought of everything he wanted to say that couldn't be put to words in the messages he'd written to Ted. He thought of everything that they'd ever talked about. He thought of how Ted, like himself, didn't want to marry the woman that he was being forced to marry.
Rising to the surface, he looked at the port that he knew was the nearest one. It was a massive port that had been built into the rocky cliffside on purpose and standing at the edge of the first pier of the dock was Ted, looking much like he had in the picture that he'd sent to Lucius. Taking a deep breath, Lucius ducked under the water and swam towards the pier. He looked up to see Ted leaning over the side of the pier, looking most intently to see where he'd gone.
A smirk crossed Lucius's face as a thought crossed his mind. He knew just how he was going to surprise Ted. When Ted looked like he was about to turn away from the water and walk back to go look elsewhere for Lucius, he put his plan in motion.
His arms reached up, grasped the arms of the human man on the pier, and pulled him swiftly into the water.
"Lucius!" Ted said, sounding happier than a soaked human ought to sound.
"Ted," he said, grinning at the human happily. He couldn't believe his eyes. Ted was even more handsome than his picture had made him out to be. "You look very…." He didn't know what to say. What word could describe how Ted looked to him?
"Would it be wrong of me to say that it felt like we were courting this whole time through our correspondence with each other?" Ted asked, gasping as Lucius's tail pulled him closer.
"I have felt that way too," Lucius said, a smile forming on his lips as he leaned forward and closed the distance between them in a passion-filled kiss. "I feel like I know you very well. I don't know how to say this next part."
"What do you want to say?" Ted asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I want to….do that," he said pointing to a couple nearby that was having a meal. "Can we do that?"
"You want to go on a date with me?" Ted asked, blushing deeply. "I wouldn't mind doing that. But we have to figure out a way to make the whole…." He waved a hand at Lucius's lower half.
"Us merpeople have a way," Lucius said, biting his lip gently. "I'm pretty sure that we can make it happen."
"Then I would love to go on a date with you, Lucius," Ted said, grinning happily as he pressed his lips against Lucius's in a gentler kiss.
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I hope you all enjoyed It's a Love Story (Baby Just Say Yes) as much as I enjoyed writing it.