Reptilian fae x female reader (nsfw) *commission* (Patreon)

Here's another one to add to my fae realm series! It features a reader whose aunt once fell in love with a fae, but who was apparently jilted, and who is bitter about the fae in general. It takes the unexpected arrival of a different fae, and his interaction with her niece, to warm her to them again, and to be open to reconciling with the triton who broke her heart all those years ago!

Anyway, here's 9000+ or so words for you to enjoy! Do let me know what you think, as always. 

The moment you stepped down at the quaint little coaching station, with its white awnings and dangling baskets full of colourful geraniums, you had to smile. From year to year, it never changed. The horses’ hooves clattered on the flagstones as the stagecoach rattled off to the next little town on its route, and you moved briefly into the shade of the stone coach house for a moment to escape the searing heat of summer. Carriages were never exactly your favourite way to travel, but it was really the only feasible way to visit your mother’s older sister all the way out here.

The coast road lay like a dusty white ribbon at your feet as you wound your way through the buzzing meadows on either side. After perhaps three miles, you took a sharp fork right, through a copse of oaks and beech which offered some blessed relief from the baking sun. A flash of rich, sapphire blue up ahead and the tang of salt in the air, along with the wheeling, calling gulls, announced that you were almost there. Aunt Ellen lived alone, her humble cottage sitting within a stone’s throw of the sea, right atop gleaming limestone cliffs. It must be bleak in winter, with storms thrashing the coastline, but in summer it was a haven, with the clifftop breezes cooling the air just enough to make it pleasant. 

After perhaps another ten minutes of walking, pausing only to rearrange your grip on the handle of your weighty bag to stop it bashing you on the back of the legs as you walked, you rounded an old standing stone and glimpsed the old cottage. Everything was unchanged from your last visit, with the herb and vegetable garden at the back, a beehive not far off, and heard the dull bleating of Annabel the nanny goat a moment later. Chickens scratched and bathed in the dust not far from the vegetable garden, and a few of them looked up as you approached the house.

Aunt Ellen stepped out of the front door and shook out crumbs from her apron onto the stone path, but when she looked up and saw you, she gave a cry and clapped her hands in delight. “Oh my sweet niece,” she giggled as you dropped your bag and scuttled up to her, laughing and hugging her. You had always thought that she was a beautiful woman, with steel grey hair swept back into a plait, and laughing green eyes, just the same as your mother’s. 

It didn’t take you long to unpack and settle into the tiny spare room of the cottage, and once the two of you had caught up over tea and freshly made hearthcakes, she suggested that the you take a walk together along the beach since it would be low tide. 

The cliff path was somewhat treacherous, but once you’d wound down the narrow, switchback path, the pale golden sands of the beach stretched along the coast for miles. Ellen had brought a basket and began gathering seaweed while you took yourself off down to the very shoreline, where the waves lapped peacefully at the ridged sand as they retreated. Little shells were left behind in their retreating wake, and you stooped to examine one or two of the more interesting ones. Your room at home had slowly filled up with shells and other treasures from your younger days, but now you had a little more restraint, tossing most things back to the sea where they belonged. 

You soon fell into your regular pattern. You would help Ellen with the animals and her household chores during the day, and in the evenings, you would walk along the beach, seeing how far you got before you had to turn back. 

It was an average kind of evening, the weather being just on the cusp of a change for the worse with a stiff breeze blowing in off the sea, when you headed down to the shore for your usual walk. The previous day had been blustery and cloudy, whipping the sea up into a foaming frenzy, but it had quietened down again for now. The sand was littered with debris - driftwood and seaweed, and the even the occasional lobster-pot from further up the coast - but in the shushing waves themselves, something was moving. 

You froze as you watched whatever it was roll over onto its back, its skin shiny and glistening, its chest heaving. Your first thought was that it was a beached dolphin or something, and you kicked your feet into action, but you skidded to a horrified halt when the figure lurched suddenly upright and staggered sideways. It seemed at first as though the creature had three legs, but you realised almost immediately that it was bipedal with a tail. And then you clasped your hand over your mouth to stifle a scream. 

The figure was utterly inhuman. 

For one thing, he was completely bare of clothing, which revealed a muscular, tall, reptilian body, with a thick, crocodile-like tail which was now trailing in the surf behind him, and clawed feet that dug into the wet sand as he swayed and staggered out of the water. His hard-looking skin was a greyish green with darker green patches over his shoulders, and he had a paler, almost creamy coloured belly. Round, jade eyes blinked in surprise when he saw you standing there, mute with horror at the sight of something so incomprehensibly unusual. 

“Hi,” he said in a calm, rasping, husky voice, revealing a row of sharp teeth, nostrils flaring. His pink, forked tongue darted out to taste the air, and then it was his turn to act surprised. “Oh shit,” he said in a rush. “You’re human.”

“What are you?” you blurted. You had honestly never seen anything like him before. You’d heard merchants’ tales of lizards and crocodiles in distant lands, but none of them said that they could walk on their hind legs and talk. 

“Now, that’s a little forward of you,” he grinned playfully, “Don’t you think? I mean, considering we just met and all.”

“What are you?” you demanded more firmly. 

He sighed as though heavily put upon, muscular shoulders slumping melodramatically. “I am a kind of fae,” he said. “Pretty rare, I’ll grant you, but honestly I'm rather disappointed that you didn’t work that out, but still. Never mind.”

A thrill of fear spasmed through you and you backed off, eyes wide, heart racing. 

“Now, now,” he said, raising clawed hands. His fingers were knuckly and strong looking, with pale palms, the backs dark. “I give you my word that I won’t hurt you, unless you try to hurt me of course. Not that you could. Gods, I’ve never met a human before - you’re so… tiny and fragile looking!”

You snarled at him, and he responded in kind, baring his teeth and making the thick spines down his back and over the crest of his head rise up like the hackles on a dog. 

You swallowed, closed your eyes and inhaled, and then said, “What are you doing here? What do you want?”

“You ask a lot of questions, little human,” he grinned, even having the audacity to add a dry little chuckle at the end. “But, since I am in your realm now, I will answer them. I think I swam through a tear in the veil between the realms,” he said, but he broke off with a hacking cough, and swayed rather dramatically. “But I fear I might have to find somewhere to sit down and warm up a little. I am cold blooded after all, and I’ve been in the water rather a long time.”

With another breath for courage, you asked, “Would you like to come up to my aunt’s house? You could rest there for the night I’m sure, and you could try and find your way back home in the morning.”

His round, pale green eyes narrowed, and you realised his pupils were slits, narrowed against the slanting light of the setting sun. “Alright,” he said cautiously. “But while my promise not to harm you and yours still stands, I will defend myself if you try anything. I know what you lot do with folk like me.”

“What? I thought your kind were mostly a legend. I didn’t know you could even get through the veil between the worlds…” 

He snorted and began to walk towards you. He was tall, at perhaps six and a half feet, and with his impressive musculature which was not exactly bulky but which still spoke of raw power with his broad chest and strong, stocky legs, he looked more than a little intimidating. “You keep us as exotic pets,” he purred in your ear as he drew level with you. 

He carried on walking towards the cliff path, leaving you stunned and, perhaps most surprisingly of all, with a distinct tingle between your legs at the way his voice had dipped and his breath had fanned across your ear. Had he cast some kind of spell on you already? Could all fae do that? 

Over his shoulder, he called, “I must insist on offering you a payment though.” He waited for you to catch up, and then waved you ahead of him like a gentleman ushering a lady inside at the door of a ballroom; a rather cocky gesture for someone who had just hauled himself out of the sea, you thought. 

“Well, it’s my aunt’s house, so she can set the price,” you said, to which he nodded. 

He moved slowly behind you, and as you glanced back halfway up the path, you caught sight of him with his taloned hand over his ribs, leaning with his other braced against a boulder. When he saw you staring, he winked at you and said, “You try climbing a cliff when your muscles are as cold as mine, and when your lungs are still half full of seawater.”

“No, I’m alright thanks,” you said dryly. “Take your time.”

His toothy grin widened and he chuckled softly. He was oddly handsome, for a reptile. Grunting, he straightened and continued to slog up the path behind you. When he reached the top, he swayed again like a little yacht at anchor, but he kept his feet and followed you up to the door of the house. He hung back politely as you opened it and called out to your aunt. “Ellen! There’s… um… Can you come here a moment?” 

The lithe little woman appeared a second later, drawn at a worried trot by the tone of your voice. The moment she saw the creature behind you, she shrieked and grabbed you, yanking you inside and slamming the door in his face. “How dare you bring a fae to the house!” she yelled. “Oh gods,” she went on, wringing and flapping her hands. “Oh gods. Where’s that iron poker?” she added, scuttling off to the hearth and grabbing the wrought iron fire poker from its stand beside the fire. “Perhaps he can be persuaded to leave with a gift?”

“Aunt Ellen, wait,” you said, trying to halt her frenzied panic in its tracks. “Wait! He washed up on the beach and needs somewhere to warm up and rest. He said he came through a tear in the veil between worlds or something. He just wants to go home, but he’s not strong enough.”

Ellen’s green eyes narrowed. “He’s not coming in this house,” she said. “And that’s final.” She turned around and grabbed a blanket off the old sofa and marched straight past you like a charging warhorse, making for the kitchen and grabbing a freshly baked bread roll. She stormed back to the front door, opened it, and flung the blanket and the roll at him. He barely managed to catch both of them, and before you could say anything to him, she had rammed the door shut again, bolting it and even dropping the bar down which she only did when there was a heavy storm expected. 

“You,” she said, pointing a finger at you with eyes flashing, “Will not go anywhere near him. You will not open this door, do I make myself understood?”

“But -”

“No! Absolutely not. Promise me, child,” she said. “Fae are dangerous and tricksy with their honeyed words, but they will break your heart, I promise you, my girl.”

A frown tugged at your brows, but before you could glimpse any more of her strange expression than the glistening in her eyes, she had dumped the iron poker beside the door, spun away, and headed for her bedroom, closing the door behind her with a firm snap. 

Hours later, you lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. In the end, you had promised Ellen that you would not open the front door, and as much as you wanted to learn more about the fae, you were not one to break your word. The wind had died down and the moon had come out, painting the simple lines of the rustic furniture in your bedroom with a silvery light. Ever fond of the way the moon danced on the waves, you headed to your window and gazed out at the view beyond. 

A movement in the shadows drew your eyes away from the sea, and you saw the reptilian fae sitting with his back against the apple tree in the little yard, one knee up, gazing at the moon as well. You heard his voice in your mind once more, and bit your lip. Curiosity burned inside you more brightly than the moon itself that night, and, without breaking your promise to your aunt, you lifted the latch on your window and clambered out into the night. Reaching back inside, you picked up the cup of water you’d been cradling in your hands and brought that with you. 

At the sound of your footsteps on the dirt of the yard, the fae turned his head, eyes shining eerily in the shadows. He tilted his head and you held out the full cup. “Thought you might be thirsty,” you said by way of introduction. 

“Thank you,” he said, bowing his head a little. Huddled in the blanket, he did not get up, so you approached him and let him take it from you with a surprisingly gentle motion. 

His lips peeled back into a smile that showed his teeth but was somehow not unfriendly, and he drank deeply before returning the empty cup to you. 

“Can I ask you something?”

“You just did,” he chuckled, resting the back of his head on the rough bark of the apple tree. You wondered if he had to be careful of his iguana-like spines; they looked surprisingly delicate. You rolled your eyes at his answer and he laughed again. “Of course. It’s not as if I’m trying to rest or sleep or anything…” he added playfully. 

“I can go if you’d rather,” you said. “You just have to say so…”

“I’m sorry,” he said, turning to face you properly. His gaze darted to the house behind you, and he added, “Your aunt doesn’t seem to fond of fae…” 

You raised your eyebrows and sucked in a breath. “I have no idea why,” she said. “She’s never mentioned the fae to me before at all.”

He shrugged. “Sounds like she got screwed over by a fae in her past if you ask me…”

“Something you know a lot about?” you asked archly. 

A soft bark of laughter was his only reply as he stared out at the open ocean again for a while, but then he looked askance at you and said, “I’ve never met a human in my life,” he said. “I’ve seen your kind of course, chained up in the marketplace, waiting to be sold as slaves, but I’ve never spoken to one. You’ve got more spirit than any of them did though.”

Horror plunged through you and you took a step back from him, recoiling. “Slaves?”

He sighed. “Yeah. Look, sweetheart, your kind keeps fae as pets as well, and we think you’re pretty exotic too, I suppose.”

“I’ve never heard of fae being kept as pets,” you retorted. 

He looked you slowly up and down and then snorted. “It’s only the nobles who do that. No offence, but you don’t look like you’ve got a lot of spare cash floating around…”

“I don’t,” you said flatly. “So you don’t have any slaves then?”

Another short laugh, this time more of a snort through his flaring nostrils than an actual laugh, shot out of him, and he rested his thick forearm casually on his bent knee. “Like we could afford the luxury of a pleasure slave,” he said. “But no. I can’t say I’m particularly comfortable with the idea of collaring sapient beings, and you, at least, appear to have the capacity for fairly intelligent conversation…” 

“You’re an arse, you know that? And who’s ‘we’?”

“My sister and I,” he said, eyes twinkling at your comment. “She’s a jeweller - hell of a talented one if you ask me - but we can’t afford the finest materials, so she makes what she can out of what I can bring her. The fire pearls fetch the best price.”

“Fire pearls?”

“They’re a fae realm thing, I think,” he said, inspecting his claws briefly. “They’re these iridescent, glowing pearls produced by clams that live pretty deep. Took me years of diving to be able to hold my breath and withstand the pressure for long enough to reach them. The only others who could go so deep are tritons and merfolk, and maybe the selkies too, but they all tend to keep to themselves.” 

You blinked. “I thought merfolk were just tales that sailors told to gullible land-dwellers…”

He shot you another wry grin. “Maybe they swam through portals like the one I found? Maybe they know about them and pass between the worlds all the time?” The lizard-like fae yawned and stretched, drawing the blanket up around his neck like a cloak. 

“I should let you sleep,” you murmured. 

He tilted his face up to look at you, and cocked his head to one side. “My name is Adan, by the way,” he said softly with a little smile before curling up inside the blanket and wishing you a rather more perfunctory goodnight. 

You stood there a moment longer, stunned that he’d reveal his name to you so easily. You knew three things about the fae: they couldn’t lie, they hated iron, and they never revealed their names. 

The next morning you and Ellen stepped outside together, but when your eyes went to the old, gnarled apple tree, you saw that Adan was gone, and in his place he had folded the blanket neatly into a pile, and on top of it he had placed a stone to weigh it down and stop the wind tugging at it. 

As you approached, Ellen gasped and stooped to snatch up the stone and the blanket. She stared at the stone in her hand and whispered, “This is an adder stone…”

“A what?”

“An adder stone,” she said, eyes still locked on the large pebble that filled her palm. It had a sizable hole through the centre. “They are supposed to offer protection from fae magic,” she said, voice quavering, “And if you look through the centre, it is said you can see the true nature of a fae. This is no meagre gift…”

“How do you know all this?” you asked carefully. 

Ellen sighed, seeming to age ten years in the space of that single breath. She shook her head, a wispy section of her grey hair falling forwards into eyes that seemed suddenly immeasurably sad. “Come,” she said, taking your arm. “It’s time I told you.”

The two of you walked along the upper cliff path and she told you her remarkable story. “When I was not much older than you,” she said, drawing her woollen shawl more tightly around her shoulders, “I fell in love with a fae.”

Your eyebrows sailed towards your hairline and you gasped in surprise. “You did what?”

She nodded. “He was a triton, but he had the rare ability to shift easily and exchange his beautiful green tail for human legs. We were very deeply in love. He used to visit me here, coming through the same portal that I assume your ‘friend’ found his way through last night. We were so close that I was… I was the next thing to leaving the Mortal Realm forever to be with him. He had a little cabin on a remote island, right on the edge of the Court of Water’s territory.” She looked down at her feet, stalling and biting her lip to keep from crying. “He took me there few times. It… It was so wonderful…” 

Instinctively you reached out for her and squeezed her arm. Her eyes met yours and she offered you a watery smile. “What happened?” you asked gingerly. 

“One day when he came to visit me he was agitated, and he tried to call it all off, to convince me that I shouldn’t come. I was heartbroken. He said he didn’t have long this time, and that I would be in danger if he came to see me again.” She shook her head. “He didn’t come back for months. I thought he’d just got cold feet, so to speak, but when he appeared again in the spring, he was thinner, harder looking, and he had new scars on him.” 

Once again, she paused and steadied herself. The wind hissed through the lush grasses behind you and whistled in the branches of the sparse trees that studded the edge of the pale, limestone cliffs. 

“Did he give you an explanation?” you asked in a hushed voice. 

Ellen smiled sadly and nodded. “I asked him what he was doing here again, what had kept him away… I’d thought he had died or that something awful had happened to him. He told me he hadn’t even meant for me to see him, that he’d only meant to check on me and make sure I was alright. I lost my temper and shouted at him. His only answer was that it wasn’t safe for our plans any more, and that I would be better off without him. He broke my heart,” she choked. 

From around the trunk of a twisted tree not three yards away, a figure stepped out into the sun, and the pair of you shrieked in shock as Adan moved into the light. “Apologies, ladies,” he grinned. “I didn’t mean to startle you. Only… I heard your story…”

“That was not for your filthy ears, you vile creature,” Ellen snarled, trying to put herself between you and him. 

“Easy,” he said. “I swore not to hurt you. In fact, I thought I might be able to shed a little light on why your triton might have been so cold towards you, that’s all. It’s really quite chivalrous when you think about it.”

“You’ll twist the truth for your own enjoyment,” she hissed. “I won’t hear it.”

“Wait,” you interjected. “Surely it’s worth hearing him out? Surely it’s worth finding out the truth?”

“What would he know of it?” she growled. “Besides, we’re just playthings to their kind… Didn’t my story show you anything?”

Adan’s shoulders dropped and he lowered his head. His voice was hoarse as he spoke, turning his head away from you and gazing out to sea again. For all his blustering assuredness, he suddenly seemed disheartened, saddened. 

“There’s a war going on in the shadows,” he murmured, voice barely louder than the wind. “There’s been a darkness growing in the realm for a long time. The Seelie and Unseelie Royals haven’t told us anything much about it - maybe they’ve told the Court Royals, but certainly not us low-borns.” He snickered and shot you a look before going on. “It affected those with weak wills first - wraiths and sprites with no real physical form - but it has spread to others. Whatever it is, it turns them rabid and savage, tainting their minds. We’ve been fighting it for a long time, fearing it the way you humans fear the bogeyman, but about forty years ago there was a surge. Waves of tainted creatures flooded across a number of the courts, including the Court of Water, the Court of Fire, Air, and even the courts of Summer and Day where the light is strongest and the taint weakest.” 

He broke off and began to pace along the cliff edge, to and fro. Ellen went still beside you, and you watched them both intently. 

“Many of us were drafted in to reserve forces to combat it. I assume that’s what happened to your triton. He wouldn’t have wanted you anywhere near the Fae Realm if there was even a chance you could be infected. Humans who are bitten or turned become…” he shuddered violently. “Something else; ghouls without souls… But it’s been better since we fought back. The Unseelie Royals were in power at the time, and they used their magic to contain it, at least for now. He should have come for you though,” he added. “He should have explained it all to you.”

Adan stretched and you watched the muscles of his broad shoulders and lean back bunch and flex, feeling your cheeks heat, and he released the tension in a rush and shook himself out. “Well, I think I’m back to normal now,” he grunted. “I should go home. That portal is deep, but I should be able to get through alright, now that I know where it is. Listen,” he said, turning to face the pair of you. “I could offer you two things in payment for your hospitality.”

“I don’t want anything at all from you,” Ellen snapped, and turned on her heel and heading back to her house. 

Adan sighed and watched her go. “He lost a good woman when he tried to keep her safe…” he muttered. His jade green eyes slid back to your face and he smiled. “I was going to offer you a fire pearl, the only one I managed to find before I got sucked through that portal… or… I could offer to look for your aunt’s triton and try and convince him to come back here and talk to her.” He held out his hand towards you, and lying in the centre of his pale, creamy coloured palm, was a gorgeous, opalescent pearl the size of a peach stone. It gleamed a fierce gold, like the setting sun over the water, and seemed to move and shift even as it sat still in his hand. 

You reached for it, but something made you pause. “Find him,” you said. “She deserves closure.”

Adan’s grin was broad as the horizon, and he bowed his head, closing his palm and making the pearl vanish with the magic of the fae. He moved slowly, taking a tentative step towards you, and scooped up your hand. His skin was cool and hard as polished leather as he raised your hand towards his face, and he nuzzled his hard, reptilian lips gently against your knuckles, letting his tongue flick out to give you a little kiss. “There,” he murmured in that harsh, rasping voice of his, “Our bargain is sealed. I promise to return if I find the triton who loved your aunt.”

Something in your chest sank at his words. He would only return because of the bargain. As cocky and flamboyant as he was, you had glimpsed a sweet side to him. After all, he could simply have offered you the pearl as payment. “Thank you,” you said, voice cracking a little. “You didn’t have to offer that.”

He turned away from you and stalked gracefully towards the cliff path. Just before he vanished out of sight, he paused and looked back at you. With one rather courtly bow, he bid you farewell. You waited there until he reemerged at the bottom of the cliff path and walked across the short stretch of exposed sand. He didn’t hesitate as he strode straight into the sea, the waves smacking against his sturdy body as though trying to buffet him off his feet and drag him down. He swam with the elegant side-to-side motion of a reptile, using his powerful tail to propel him forwards as much as his arms, and, hanging back just once, bobbing in the ocean like a piece of flotsam, he looked for you. 

When he found that you were still standing atop the cliffs, he raised an arm and waved before diving down into the water and vanishing with a flick of his long tail. 

“Be safe,” you whispered to the wind before turning and heading back to the cottage. 

You never forgot your encounter with Adan, and by the time the wheel of the year had come round again, you had heard nothing from Ellen in her letters that spoke of either his return or the reappearance of her triton, and you didn’t like to bring it up. As you sat with her at the dinner table on the first evening of your summer vacation with her, she turned her green eyes to you and chuckled. “Oh child,” she smiled ruefully. “I see the same light in you that I remember from my youth. Whether he did it deliberately or not, you’re under that fae’s spell, aren’t you?”

“I…” you faltered. “I mean… I… I just want to know if…” 

She laughed. “It’s alright. But here, take this,” she said, reaching into the pocket of her dress and bringing out an iron pendant on a leather cord. It was a simple hoop of iron, forge-welded to form a seamless circle, and through it was looped the string. “It will keep you safe. Now, off to the beach and see if he’s there. I should warn you though,” she said as you pushed back your chair, wooden legs scraping hideously on the scrubbed wooden floors of her cottage, “I haven’t seen scale nor claw of him in a year. Don’t get your hopes up.”

You nodded, and practically fled. 

The beach was deserted, and you waited until the moon had sailed high in the sky before returning. Ellen said nothing as you latched the door quietly behind you, but simply offered you some herbal tea and combed her arthritic fingers through your hair. 

Three more nights passed with no sign of him. Those three nights became a month, and you had only a few weeks left before you returned to the city after the summer. Eventually you gave up hope of seeing him again, and tried to convince yourself to enjoy the walks for what they were - a lonely stroll along the beach. 

The gentle breathing of the sea was something you missed in the clangour of the city, with carts rumbling, traders and vendors yelling, and the constant racket of the crowds in tiny, ancient streets, but out here it was peaceful and quiet, with nothing but you and the endless water, and - 

A voice yelled at you from along the beach, and you froze. It was a male voice. 

“Oi! Human! Huuuuumaaaaan!” and then he laughed. 

You whipped around and squinted through the darkness along the beach. Your footprints disappeared into the night, the lacy froth of the waves just kissing their imprint in the dark sand, and perhaps a hundred yards behind you, a tall figure was standing, his body gleaming in the moonlight. 

It was Adan, you were sure of it. 

Your heart leapt and you ran towards him. 

He was laughing by the time you reached him, and he flung his arms wide and, before you could slam to a halt, he had stepped forwards and picked you up, swinging you easily around in a wide arc, all the while clutching you to his wet, cold chest. 

“Oof, put me down!” you wheezed, and, still chuckling, he obliged. 

“I didn’t think you’d remember me,” he said. 

Easing the crick out of your neck, you stared up at him. “Honestly, I thought you’d forgotten about me too.”

“Never,” he said, his voice suddenly serious. “I could never forget you,” he said, bringing his fingertips to your chin and carefully tilting your face up so that it caught the moonlight behind him. “Besides, I made you a promise, and a fae never breaks a promise.”

You smiled. “Did you find the triton then?”

He nodded, blinking the salt water from his eyes. 

“You must be getting cold,” you said quietly, trying not to stare at his naked body. He was even more beautiful than you remembered. “Don’t you folk ever wear any clothes?”

He barked a loud, happy laugh at that, head thrown back, teeth on show. “Yes,” he said. “Yes, we do, but we’re not shy like you lot. And in the water it’s impractical. Clothing could get caught on the coral, and it’s heavy - it could drag you down. Why?” he added, leaning down and purring in your ear, “Am I making you blush, human?”

The next word to come out of your mouth was your name, and Adan drew back sharply in surprise, staring at you. 

“What?” you asked, now really blushing. “I know yours. It’s only fair.”

He tilted his head slightly and smiled. “It’s lovely,” he said. “Thank you. I shall treasure it.”

“Come on,” you grumbled, turning away. “Let’s go and find Ellen.”

The two of you chatted as you made your way up the beach and then up the cliff path towards the house. He told you of the Court of Water where he lived in a small fishing village on the coast. It was an inconsequential place, far from the grand palace of the royal court, but it was everything he needed. You asked after his sister, and his eyes glistened, grateful that you had remembered her. “She’s well, thank you,” he said. “Actually, a noble visited and saw her work, and she might end up with a patron and a steady income.”

“You sound very proud of her,” you commented, pausing at the top of the path to catch your breath. He, this time, was barely winded. 

Adan leaned his lithe body against a rock and nodded. “Yes,” he said. “We were hatchlings from the same brood, and we’re all that’s left. We’re all the other has. Well, actually no, that’s not true,” he growled. 

“Oh?”

“Magda has herself a sweetheart now,” he snarled, and you had to laugh. 

“Protective or envious?” 

He fixed you with that eerie, intense stare. “Bit of both,” he said. “But,” he went on with a sigh, shoving himself off the boulder and continuing up the path ahead of you, “I’m happy for her. Come, let’s make your aunt happy as well.”

Ellen was not at all, in fact, happy to see Adan. 

But she tolerated him enough to let him inside, and he, to your surprise, made no comments about the simple furnishings or the humble life she led. He was actually the perfect house guest. 

“I take it the reason you’re back is that you found him,” she said flatly after offering him a small glass of elderberry wine. 

He took it gratefully and sipped, humming in delight as he tasted it. “This is beautiful, thank you,” he said, nodding. “And yes. I did find him.”

Ellen poured herself a slightly larger glass and sank down into her chair by the fire. Adan simply plonked himself down cross-legged beside the fire, as close as he could get without cooking his scales, and you took the only other chair in the modest little living room, opposite your aunt’s. 

“I tracked him down, at last, only a week ago. He’s well, but he’s been living alone for a long time. Perhaps that’s a good thing though,” he added dryly. “Anyway, once I’d convinced him not to kill me - bloody hell, I’d forgotten how fierce a triton can be!” he added with a laugh, taking a gulp of the wine before continuing, “I told him my story, and how I had met you both, and eventually I managed to talk him round. He said he’d like to come here and see you again, but only if you want it.”

Ellen sat there looking positively thunderstruck, but after a long drink and a deep sigh, she nodded. “Yes,” she said, eyes shining with tears. “Yes, I… I think I would like that.”

You and Adan both grinned, and he glanced up at you. When your eyes met, something leapt in your chest. He was beautiful, with the firelight glinting on his hard skin, the curves of his muscles accentuated by the low, flickering light that seemed to delight in the shape of his unusual body. He cocked his head again, the very tip of his tongue flickering out, and you shook head subtly, not wanting to ruin the moment for Ellen. Not now.

“When… When can I see him?” Ellen asked hesitantly. 

“He asked me to come and fetch him if you accepted. I can go now if you’d like?”

“No,” she said. “No, stay here for the night and go tomorrow.”

He nodded, and shimmied a little bit, shuffling around in front of the fire. 

“You like the warmth, don’t you?” Ellen laughed and he nodded. 

“It’s glorious,” he said. “I spend half my life in the water, freezing my bollocks off, so it’s always a treat to come in and warm up.”

You all laughed, and Ellen even offered him some of the fish she’d prepared earlier. 

Your aunt excused herself later, with a final warning look at Adan to behave himself, and the two of you were left alone. 

He stared up at you for a moment, leaning confidently back on his hands, legs crossed, tail curled neatly around them. “I missed you,” he said. “I know we didn’t know each other for very long, but I thought about you a lot.”

“You did?” 

Adan nodded. “You don’t live here, do you? Where do you go when you’re not staying here?”

“I live in the city,” you said, and on a whim you joined him on the floor beside the fire. 

The two of you shared the remnants of the elderberry wine, and you told him everything about your life in the bustling, noisy, dirty city. He was fascinated, asking about every little detail until your voice was hoarse and you began to yawn. At one point, whether from tiredness or from the wine you weren’t sure, you had leaned your head against his solid shoulder. He hadn’t objected or moved you, and the two of you sat like that, staring into the fire and talking. 

“I’m sorry,” he said eventually. “It’s getting very late; I should let you sleep. Thank you though.”

“You’re welcome,” you murmured sleepily. “It was nice. I don’t think I’ve ever just… chatted with anyone like that before?”

He chuckled and impulsively ran his clawed fingers through your hair. The delicious scrape of the sharp tips of his talons against your scalp drew a deep groan from you, and you had closed your eyes and leaned into the gesture before you’d even realised what you were doing. When you snapped them open again, he was looking down at you with a very different expression on his reptilian face. His tongue darted out briefly, and his own eyes rolled closed. 

“I should stop,” he said. “And you should go to sleep.”

Reluctantly, you pried yourself from his arms and took his glass over to the sink. “Goodnight,” you murmured at the door, and he nodded, curling up on the hearthrug like the strangest dog in the universe. 

In the morning he was still there, curled up in a tight ball, the ashes of the fire cold behind him. You knelt beside his head and ran your fingertips up his muzzle and over his head, eliciting a deep shudder from him before he blinked groggily and smiled. 

“Morning,” you whispered. 

“Warm,” he mumbled, leaning into your touch. “You’re so warm.”

Ellen marched in a moment later and tutted at what she saw. “Stoke the fire up and heat that lizard up so that he stops spouting nonsense, and then go and check the chicken coop for eggs, will you?” she snapped at you. 

Laughing as you extricated yourself from a grumbling Adan, you did as she asked, returning ten minutes later to find him sitting beside a now blazing fire and looking rather sheepish as he meekly shelled peas into a bowl with a deft flick of his dark claw. 

“Don’t tell me Aunt Ellen has bullied you into submission already?” you laughed. 

He flashed you a toothy grin and said, “Just being polite.”

Adan left not long after breakfast and you remained up at the cottage. Before he left, he had promised to return that evening, and this time, he would not be alone.

“Are you alright?” you asked Ellen once the two of you had watched Adan leave from the front door. 

She closed it and sighed. “No,” she said. “It’s been forty or so years since I last saw Kaerio…”

You read your aunt instantly, and smiled. “He’ll still love you,” you said. “And if he doesn't, he doesn’t deserve your love in return.”

Her smile was watery, but she kissed you gratefully on the cheek and set about clearing the remnants of breakfast away, bustling around and keeping herself busy. In order to distract yourself, given that you could barely contain your excitement and anticipation either, you took yourself off for a long walk along the cliff tops, heading inland slightly, past the cattle farm about five miles away where Ellen traded eggs and handmade preserves for milk and cheese. 

By the time the sun was setting, you were sure you were almost as nervous as Aunt Ellen was. The two of you made your way down the cliff path in silence, Ellen occasionally fussing with her grey hair, keeping her back straight and her jaw set all the way. 

When you arrived, you saw two figures already waiting for you. Adan was standing not far from the reach of the surf, with another figure on his arm. He had just arranged a cloak around the figure when you and Ellen stepped down off the rocky path onto the hard sand, and the figure, who must have been Kaerio, brought a hand to cover his mouth at the sight of the pair of you. 

Ellen ground to a halt, and it took a gentle shove from you in the small of the back to get her going again, but as the two of you approached, you saw that Adan was grinning. The triton was a handsome man, looking in this form like a human in his early sixties. He had long grey hair that fell down his back, and tanned, muscular shoulders. He had a scar on his cheek and a few claw marks on his neck that disappeared out of sight beneath the cloak. 

Tears streamed silently down Ellen’s face as she stared at the triton, who was still holding onto Adan’s arm. Eventually Kaerio broke the silence by laughing, “I’m a bit shaky on my legs. It’s been decades since I’ve used them. Forgive me… Ellen…”

At the sound of his voice, she flung herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck, burying her face there and sobbing uncontrollably. 

Adan cast you a look over her shoulder and twitched his chin at you. You read his meaning, and left Ellen with Kaerio to reunite. 

Once the two of you had walked a fair way along the beach, you looked back at them and saw that she was leading him towards some low rocks at the foot of the cliff. “You think they’ll be alright?” you asked. 

“Yes,” he said. “He wouldn’t like me telling you this, but he was afraid to face her again after all this time.”

“I don’t blame him,” you muttered darkly. 

Adan snorted. “Your Aunt Ellen is a formidable creature, for sure.”

You punched him on the bicep. “That’s not what I meant. He hurt her…”

“He made a mistake,” Adan conceded, rubbing at the spot where your blow had connected. “He thought he was keeping her safe.”

“He should have talked to her,” you said, exasperated. “It never works out well when one party just acts. It’s not fair.”

Adan took a deep breath and looked down at you, pale green eyes gleaming. “You’re a remarkable woman, you know that?” he said. 

“Oh come off it,” you said, waving a hand. 

He caught your fingers up in his and kissed them gently, making you shiver. “I mean it,” he said. “And I have a gift for you. No strings attached either,” he added with a laugh at your wary expression. “I promise.”

He pressed another kiss into your fingers and turned your hand palm-up. As he trailed his claws lightly across it, a pearl appeared in the centre. It wasn’t particularly large, perhaps the size of a pea, but it glowed faintly with a light of its own, and it swirled constantly as if it contained some opalescent liquid. The sight of it took your breath away.

“I found this six months ago,” he said without taking his eyes off your face. “I kept it for you.”

“But what about your sister? She could use it to make something…”

“Maybe one day she will,” he said cryptically. “But regardless, it’s yours.”

Your eyes met his, and he let out a shuddering breath. He took your cheek in his other hand and bowed down, bringing his face close. 

“May I kiss you?” he asked breathlessly. 

You nodded, and he smiled. Mindful of his sharp teeth, he pressed his firm lips against yours, and perhaps a heartbeat later, his tongue darted out, tasting your lips. A deep, rumbling groan sounded from him, and he tugged you closer to him with a hand around your waist. You slid your palms up his firm chest, feeling the ridges of his armoured skin. He drew back for a moment, breathing heavily, nostrils flaring wide. 

“Just how sensitive are you?” you asked, watching your fingertips trace over his skin. 

He trembled and whispered, “Very.”

You smiled and said, “Follow me.”

You took him by the hand up a winding path that led up the cliff, and though you paused several times on the way up so that he could back you against the rock and kiss you senseless again, you finally made it to where you had in mind. A small grove of twisted, stunted, wind-blasted trees offered a little privacy from the night, and the moment he saw what you had in mind, he moaned and smiled. “Are you sure?” 

You nodded and lay down, drawing him down beside you. 

“I want to taste you,” he hissed, tongue flickering out again. It was forked and thick, and suddenly you could think of nothing more that you wanted than to experience that tongue on your body. 

He undressed you carefully, kissing along your body as he revealed your bare skin, and when he finally had you naked, he pulled back and stared at you. “I had no idea humans were so beautiful,” he said hoarsely. 

“Don’t stare at me,” you blushed. “It’s rude…”

He laughed and slid his hands over your thighs. “My apologies,” he said. “Let me make amends for my rudeness. Now, tell me what you like.”

His talons pricked at your skin and you gasped, but allowed him to part your thighs. He groaned when he saw you and his tongue slid out again, tasting the air as you felt heat throbbing between your legs. 

“Please…” you hissed. 

“Don’t rush me,” he complained, circling your hipbones with his palms and leaning over you as he took your breasts in his hands and kneaded them gently. His tongue coiled around your hardening nipples before he brought his sharp teeth to them and pinched you hard enough to make your back arch but not quite hard enough to hurt. “You make such beautiful sounds for me,” he added as he straightened and moved back down your body. 

As he did, you saw that the slight mound between his legs had swollen, a slit beginning to appear, and in the bright moonlight, you could see that it was glistening softly. Your smile drew a low-frequency rumble from him that was halfway between a growl and a moan, and he dipped his head between your legs and laved his hot tongue over your sex in one slow, deliberate stripe. 

A broken cry left your lips and you forgot about everything as he began to pleasure you. He circled you and sucked at your clit before driving his long, thick tongue inside you, his maw almost covering you as he stretched to reach as deep as he could. The sight of him between your legs, the feel of him inside you, the tension he built up until you thought you were going to burst, were too much, and after his tender, eager ministrations reached a crescendo, you came with a yell. 

He held you while your back arched and your hips twisted, his tongue pressed against you, drinking down the taste of you, until you finally slumped back against the cool grass, oversensitive and still twitching. 

“You are so beautiful,” he rasped. “Gods above, but you’re beautiful.”

Dazed, you stared up at him. 

He was kneeling between your legs, and as he shifted, he moaned, eyes screwing shut for a moment. 

“You alright?” you asked, and he laughed ruefully. 

“That’s caused a little trouble…” he said, glancing down his body. The slit at the top of his legs was definitely swollen now, and it leaked freely between his thighs. You pushed yourself up and guided him to lie beside you. 

“It’s my turn now,” you smiled. You trailed your fingers down his body, starting at his throat which bobbed beneath your touch, and then as you neared his slit, you parted your fingers and traced the edges of the sheath, one on either side. 

Adan’s spine lurched and he pushed himself up into your hand with a broken, pleading cry. Smiling, you slid a finger into his sheath and he began to shake. “Oh gods,” he whimpered. “Oh gods, oh gods, that’s so good, oh…” 

As his clawed hands dug into the turf beneath him, you realised that only with a tongue could his kind elicit this kind of pleasure from one another, but you weren’t able to think about much else for very long, as his cock began to unsheathe itself. With a pale, spear-shaped tip, his cock was ridged and thick, and apparently prehensile, because the moment it had slithered free of the sheath, it twisted and tried to coil around your hand like a tentacle. 

Adan was lost in his pleasure as you gripped him and began to work his length. 

He writhed and moaned beneath you, chanting endless rubbish about how good it felt and how he adored your touch and how beautiful you were. 

Tentatively some time later, you lowered your lips and let your tongue just graze over the the pale tip. Without warning, and with a bellow to match, Adan came, covering his clenching torso in his own release, and barely missing you. His orgasm ripped through him so powerfully that he spasmed and grunted, his cock twisting in your grip as he spilled over his pale belly until he was utterly spent. 

His head hit the ground beneath him and he lay there, breathing hard and occasionally whimpering while you stroked him through the end of his peak. Releasing his cock, you watched as it lay across his thigh for a moment before his sheath began to pulse a little, and it started to retreat back inside him. 

Adan cracked an eye open and saw you watching him. “Enjoy the show?” he hissed. 

“Very much,” you laughed, looking at the mess he’d made of himself. “Did you?”

“Do you even need to ask that?” he snarled, though there was no malice in it, only fondness and a hint of exhaustion. “That was intense. I don’t think I’ve ever come like that.”

It took him a while to recover, but when he did, he sat up and looked down at himself. “Now what?” he asked. 

“I suppose you’ll have to go and clean up…” you giggled. 

“You stay here and get dressed, and I’ll go for a swim then,” he said, standing up a little shakily a few minutes later.

Throwing your clothes over your arm, you stood, naked too, and said, “Or I could come for a swim with you.”

Hunger flashed in his eyes and he grinned. He scooped you up into his arms and purred in your ear, “Now, there’s an idea.”

Laughing, he carried you all the way back down the cliff path towards the now empty beach. He strode into the water after you’d dumped your clothes on a rock well out of the reach of the sea, and you gasped as the water hit your bare back. 

“Not too late to turn round,” he grinned. “It’s alright, my fragile little human,” he added. 

With a disgruntled and mock-offended little yip, you rolled out of his arms and slipped into the sea. It was freezing, but as you disappeared beneath the surface, you swam round behind him and grabbed hold of his tail. Trying not to laugh, you yanked it as hard as you could, and he staggered and fell over in the water, landing with an ungainly splash beside you. 

He surged to the surface, bringing you with him, and laughed, “Oh, you’re in trouble now, little one.” His tongue laved across your neck, teeth scraping, and you moaned, turning soft and pliant in his grasp as it quickly turned into a very different kind of playfulness.

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