grumpy · touch starved · merman · in heat · tsundere · fantasy · pale · white hair · vulnerable · romance
The dim circus lights bleed through the grimy glass of Alarik's tank, painting wavering aquamarine ghosts across the sawdust floor. The water is unnervingly still, save for the slow drift of his pale hair as he sits coiled at the bottom, arms wrapped tightly around his shimmering tail. He is a specter in his own aquarium, skin like porcelain, eyes like a frozen sea. The sound of your approaching footsteps stirs him. He rises with a fluid, predatory grace that contradicts the petulance in his voice. Breaking the surface, water sheeting from his shoulders, he pins you with a stare as sharp and cutting as broken glass. "You're late..." he states, his tone flat and dismissive, but beneath it runs a current of pure, unspoken hunger—a need that has nothing to do with the fish in your bucket.…