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Lunch in the cafeteria was rarely quiet, but that day, the noise around Jade Leech felt especially muted. He sat at the table with his usual grace, his back straight, head held up, napkins neatly folded next to his plate filled with an unhealthy portion of tender meat and noodles. He held a fork between his slender fingers while he ate delicately, seemingly unaware of the awkward silence surrounding him and the silent murmurs behind his back.
Except he was, and he found it rather amusing.
The topic of that day’s history class was circulating among the third-year students like unpleasant gossip. The concept of man-eating mermaids was not a completely new idea to everyone, but it was certainly something that was never talked about too often. According to what Jade had heard, Professor Trein had given a far too detailed analysis of legends, including stories about mermaids luring sailors into the water to drown them – or worse, to eat them.
These stories were fascinating, especially when observing the reactions of students. Some just looked curious and genuinely invested, while some looked away, shivering when Jade decided to direct his gaze towards them, flashing an innocent looking smile in their direction.
His attention, however, immediately shifted as he saw a familiar shade of green from the corner of his eye.
Trey Clover just sat down at a nearby table with a tray in his hands, packed with sandwiches, salad, and sauces in colourful containers which Jade wasn’t fully familiar with. He seemed to be busy, having a conversation with Cater. For a moment, his amber eyes met Jade’s gaze, offering a soft smile in his direction, before turning his attention back to his friend again.
A smile like that should have disarmed Jade. Instead, it lit a spark of something dark and indulgent inside him.
He often met Trey under the cover of night, far from watchful eyes – but here, in broad daylight, the smallest glance between them felt like a touch.
“Seriously, man-eating merfolk? Yikes!” Cater said, dramatically throwing himself on the chair next to Trey. “That’s like, horror movie stuff! Imagine getting kissed and then chomp – no more you!”
“You’re not saying you believe those stories, right?” Trey asked, half-laughing.
Cater raised his hands. “Just saying! They are spooky! There must be a reason for the sharp teeth, long claws, and all that unnerving aura they have going on! Like…for example if someone told me Jade-kun or Floyd-kun had already eaten a guy before, I’d just say, yeah, checks out! No offence though, Jade-kun!”
“None taken,” said Jade smoothly, now having the attention of both Cater and Trey. “I do enjoy folklore. It’s fascinating to hear what humans fear.”
That wasn’t a lie. Fear reveals far more than truth ever could, and Jade enjoyed watching what people did with theirs.
Cater tried to keep his tone light. “So, uh… is it true? About the singing? Do merfolk really lure people to their deaths with, like, lullabies or something?”
Jade’s smile widened just enough to flash the sharpness behind it.
“Oh, no. The singing is exaggerated. We don’t sing much at all,” he said, his expression perfectly still.
Cater choked on his drink. Trey, however, remained completely still.
Unmoved. Unreadable.
He didn’t look away. Didn’t tense. Just watched Jade in complete silence.
And that was what truly disturbed Jade – not Cater’s discomfort, but Trey’s lack of it.
He couldn’t tell if Trey saw him as something capable of devouring him whole, or something far more dangerous.
That look stayed with him long after lunch ended.
Even hours later, long after the halls had emptied and the dorm had gone quiet, it kept coming back in his mind – and when Jade finally slipped into Trey’s room in the middle of the night, it was that same tension hiding under his skin.
The dorm room was dressed in complete darkness, while the air was laced with the faint scent of warm skin, sweat, with a complete mixture of sea salt and vanilla.
Jade just barely crawled onto Trey’s lap when his lips were already captured in a passionate kiss driven by heat and desire. Each touch seared like fire even through the barrier of fabric covering the sensitive skin, making him even hungrier for more. It wasn’t the first time he found himself wrapped around Trey, mouths kept busy while the crimson sheets wrinkled underneath their bodies. No one remembered how it had started, but it hardly mattered now.
It might have been Jade’s curiosity about human customs. He found Trey intriguing ever since they’d met, it was only a matter of time before he dared to venture closer expecting to learn, to observe – to experience.
It wasn’t his fault Trey’s scent was sweeter than any of the delicious desserts he baked, or that his hair had the same shade of green as the moss Jade was taking care of in his beloved terrarium. And those eyes – they’ve been driving Jade crazy. That soft gaze, hiding something deeper, unreadable, awakened his predatory instincts. He kept chasing Trey like the deep-sea predator he is, seizing his prey.
He didn’t expect to end up in Trey’s bed with curtains closed, pinning each other down on the soft sheets while panting heavily, gasping for air – but he was nowhere near feeling regret. He thought his curiosity would fade after their first night together, but instead he felt himself drawn towards him even more as the time passed.
Right now, with his hands coiled around Trey, chests glued together, tongues intertwined, he couldn’t help but let his mind linger elsewhere. There was something inside his head the entire day, a thought he could hardly get rid of.
A deeply upsetting thought.
Jade’s lips slowed down steadily as he wandered off, making Trey the only one who was still eager – yet being the one to finally break away from the kiss, likely from sensing Jade’s discomfort.
“Are you alright?” he asked, sounding genuinely worried.
Jade looked deep into his eyes. It was hard for him to believe Trey was doing all of this, like that conversation in the cafeteria didn’t even happen.
“Would you still kiss me…” he started, voice quieter than intended, “if the legends were true? If I had ever tasted human flesh before?”
Trey’s face didn’t move an inch – his eyebrows were relaxed, his lips formed a straight line, and the look in his eyes was unreadable. Jade swallowed, even though he couldn’t quite understand why he cared about Trey’s reaction so much. He shouldn’t care. He didn’t want to care. But the ache in his chest suggested otherwise.
He parted his lips to speak again, this time expecting an answer.
“Would you still touch me the same, with such…tenderness, knowing I might have consumed someone human before?”
The silence felt awkward around them, while Jade waited impatiently. Then Trey’s serious gaze softened, and he raised a hand to Jade’s cheek, grazing the sharp line of his jaw. His silence wasn’t hesitation. It was consideration.
His touch didn’t change. It remained calm.
“Yes,” he said at last. It was just one word, but it was certain and unshaken. “Would you tell me if you did?”
Something between guilt and defiance passed through Jade’s expression. His eyes dropped briefly, now avoiding Trey’s gaze entirely.
“No…” he chuckled awkwardly, a ghost of a smile appearing on his face, gone as quickly as it came. “I would let you wonder. I would let you play with the thought. To see how far you would let me in after considering such thing.”
The air between them felt heavier now, saturated with implication. But Trey didn’t look away. He didn’t flinch. He drew in a slow breath and let it out just as calmly as he was before.
“I’m not scared of you, Jade,” he said. “Should I be?”
Jade tilted his head slightly, blinking once. For a long pause, he just observed Trey, searching for any flicker of fear he might have missed in his gaze. But there was none. No hesitation, no revulsion – just a steady gaze. Perhaps that was the most dangerous thing about Trey – how little he feared being devoured.
It threw Jade off more than any trembling ever could.
“I’m not quite sure,” he let out a hesitant laugh, but Trey gave no answer.
Instead, he closed the distance between them, pressing their lips together yet again. But this kiss felt different – slower, deeper, less about lust and more about something else entirely. Trey’s mouth moved against his like it already knew the answer to every terrible question Jade had dared to ask. Jade sank into the kiss, but not yet allowing himself to melt into it entirely.
He wasn’t finished yet. He needed to confirm.
“What would you do,” he whispered against Trey’s mouth, “if I told you I’ve thought about it? About eating you. I’m curious how you might taste like – your blood, your flesh, and what lies beneath. I thought about having you inside me, storing you in my body where no one else can touch you, but me. We could be united entirely.”
Jade watched as Trey pulled away creating a distance between them, but not enough to completely retreat. His hands were still secured on Jade’s hips, anchoring him, while his expression showed no fear, no disgust – only the signs of satisfaction and entertainment.
“That’s a very alarming way to say you’re into someone,” he said in a teasing manner, eyebrows raised.
“Be serious, Trey-san,” Jade pouted.
“Oh, I am serious.”
Trey’s voice sounded steady, while his eyes were filled with mischief, trust, and maybe desire. He leaned in closer, his breath brushing against Jade’s cheek.
“What is holding you back, though?” his tone lowered, but there was no trace of mockery in his voice. “You had plenty of opportunities already. I am right here and I’m not going anywhere. If you want to taste me that much…then suit yourself.”
Trey tilted his head, sliding his shirt down on one side of his shoulders, exposing more of his neck. Jade’s gaze flicked to it, drawn to the sight helplessly like a shark smelling blood in the water. The pulse he had longed to feel between his teeth now throbbed just inches away, practically inviting him in for a bite.
As Jade’s eyes lingered on the bare skin, he felt his face flush. The invitation was so sincere, it made him hesitate. He had imagined this moment again and again – but reality felt far more intimate than any fantasy.
He slowly moved closer, hands holding onto Trey’s body now desperately. It felt soft and warm – so inviting it was hard to resist not to tear the skin open immediately. Jade wanted to be slow, letting himself get lost in the moment. His lips parted slightly as they finally brushed the skin on Trey’s neck underneath, feeling the pulsating of the veins carrying his blood, feeling every nervous swallow waiting for the razor-sharp teeth to sink into the sensitive flesh.
But it didn’t happen.
Instead of letting his hunger take over, Jade retreated, sitting silently with his forehead resting against Trey’s shoulders entirely disillusioned, as a sign of surrender.
“How can someone offer themselves so…recklessly? I just…” he said quietly, confusion echoing in his voice, “fail to understand such thing.”
He felt pathetic.
The question echoed in his mind like a riddle he failed to solve. His fingers gripped the sheets tight beneath him, and his body shivered as he felt the warm hands wrap around him securely, pulling him into a tight embrace. Then careful fingers slowly ran through his silky hair, caressing him gently which confused him even more.
What did he even do to earn this?
He hadn’t expected comfort. He hadn’t earned it. And yet, he craved it like a starving thing.
He almost felt small in Trey’s arms – it was not a familiar feeling for a predator like him surely, but he couldn’t quite describe it as something uncomfortable either.
“That is alright,” Trey whispered softly, almost pushing Jade towards complete madness. “You don’t have to understand that yet.”
The air around them shifted, thick with something unspoken. Jade parted his lips as Trey brought their faces closer again, but instead of their mouths uniting, he felt Trey’s breath on the crook of his neck. Jade jolted, his eyes widened in sudden shock when teeth sunk into his skin, gentle, but passionate enough to draw blood and leave a mark. Jade dug his nails deeper into Trey’s back as excitement rushed through his entire body – it felt undeniably enjoyable to be bitten. The sensation of teeth bruising his fair skin, and Trey’s tongue running across his slender neck, licking his blood like icing had nearly driven him completely insane.
Trey wasn’t the prey after all – he was the bait. And Jade had fallen for it.
He had never known being the prey for the first time could feel so powerful.
It was a pleasant feeling, and his body almost felt lonely, when Trey’s mouth retreated, leaving only the slight sting of his bite behind.
“Humans eat fish, you know,” Trey said, voice amused but strangely earnest. “Always bite when you’re given the chance – your prey might not stay prey for too long.”
Strange.
So, humans really didn’t fear anything after all.
An amused laugh escaped Jade’s throat. He had thought he was the predator in this game with all the dangerous questions and razor-sharp teeth – yet he was the one to be bitten first. He thought he was in complete control of the strange situationship they had with each other, but there Trey was, completely messing up his calculations in a surprising turn of events. There was no fear in Trey’s touch in the way he pressed their bodies together, the way he marked him with his teeth – it was unexpected, but Jade loved it exactly for that reason.
After facing his own hesitation and cowardly behaviour, he should have felt insulted by a human taking control over him, tasting him as if biting merfolk was an everyday indulgence.
He was supposed to be the predator. He’d wanted to peel Trey open and see what lies beneath, but never expected he’d have to let Trey see what lies beneath him first.
His fingers brushed the place Trey had bitten, already aching. He just wanted to touch it. To press his fingers on the bruise, to feel it bloom.
“You might be right…” he murmured, leaning in again, voice low and trembling. “I wonder who will consume whom, in the end.”
Jade smirked, before grabbing Trey’s cheeks to clash their lips together again without hesitation. There was only heat, and the taste of blood and something sweet lingering on their tongues. And something else.
Perhaps hunger.
As the night wore on, there was no clear answer – only the sound of lips against skin and the hush of breath between lovers. They pulled each other close, shedding their clothes between desperate kisses and touches, slowly, steadily stripping themselves bare among the ruffled blankets. They moved together with their bodies tangled, slick with sweat and the ache of closeness.
Tonight, they would devour each other – piece by piece, kiss by kiss.
The white shimmer of the moon peeking through the crimson curtains was the only source of light in the dark room when Jade opened his eyes – he woke up before dawn yet again.
It was instinct by now – the stillness of Trey’s dorm room, broken only by the rhythm of their shared breath while bathing in sunlight felt too intimate for Jade to even consider staying in the morning. It was too revealing, vulnerable even to let Trey wake up lying next to him still in deep slumber. He already got used to crawl out of the warm blankets leaving nothing but cold behind him on the bedsheets, wrap himself in his clothes neatly, then step out of the room to the silent corridors without even looking back like a coward.
But this morning, something felt…different.
Trey’s arm, slung loosely over his waist, felt unusually warm on his skin. The weight was not restrictive, but it was like an unconscious gesture of trust, or even a request.
Stay.
The thought made Jade pause, turning his gaze fully towards the boy beside him. Trey’s face was peaceful in his sleep, half buried in the soft bedsheets, his brow relaxed, and his lips just faintly parted. His forest green hair was messy from sleep, and nestled among the strands was a single white feather – likely fallen out of his pillow during the night. His breathing was slow, and he snored softly, barely audible, in a way the soft sound almost got lost beneath the rustle of morning air.
There was something vulnerable about it all. He looked unguarded, completely at ease. And Jade…
Jade just couldn’t take his eyes off him.
He didn’t run away like he always did.
Instead, he let his fingers brush against Trey’s skin gently, palm resting on his chest, feeling the rhythm of his heartbeat. His body, his scent, the beating of his heart – everything about him was so dangerously human.
It was tempting.
Jade had told himself countless times what he felt was hunger, instinct, and predation.
Yet in this quiet moment, tangled in bedsheets and lying next to Trey, with the touch of his fingertips and the imprint of his teeth still burning on his skin, Jade felt no hunger. Only longing.
What a foolish creature he had become.
Jade sighed, closed his eyes, and with a slow motion he shifted closer, burying his face into the crook of Trey’s neck.
As much as he had wanted to consume Trey, to possess him completely, to dissolve all the boundaries between them, he wanted something entirely different even more.
To keep him.
To stay with him.
His lips curled into a smile as he finally let himself relax for the first time in weeks. For once, he didn’t feel like running. Not from Trey.
Jade would let himself be devoured by his warmth instead.