Work Text:
Shang Qinghua was so, so fucked.
The man made a mad dash towards the coast, taking a quick glance at his phone screen. The time read 11:56 pm. Fuck. He was cutting it close.
Instead of taking the public path to the edge of the seaside cliff as one may expect, Shang Qinghua took a detour to the right and headed down a steep path. Anyone else may have stumbled and fallen several hundred feet into the raging sea, but Shang Qinghua had walked this road more times than he could count. Granted, usually not in such dire circumstances, but he was familiar all the same.
After scaling down the cliffside like a mountain goat, he rushed into a small cave carved into the rock by eons of rough waves. He took a second to take a breath and looked at his phone again. 11:58. 7 missed calls. He didn't have time for this.
Quickly, Shang Qinghua stripped off his winter coat and jeans and reached into a crevice in the stone wall. He pulled out a beige fur pelt and shoved his clothes inside in its place, along with his phone and watch. He kicked his shoes off, not bothering to look where they flew, and ran back towards the cave's opening.
The man wrapped himself in the fur pelt and leaped without hesitation out of the cave and into the freezing ocean.
Shang Qinghua, no longer a man, but instead a small, chubby seal, sighed in relief. He made it. He had lived to see another day.
For one such as him, remaining on land past midnight was suicide. For centuries and centuries, selkie men who had stayed out of the water when the moon was at its highest were doomed to a sudden death. Shang Qinghua may not hold himself in a very high regard, but he certainly didn't want to die in such an embarrassing and meaningless way.
Having dealt with this reality all 26 years of his life, one would think Shang Qinghua would know to be careful and return to the icy seas he called home long before he reached the danger zone. And he usually was careful, he swears!! This time he had just…gotten sidetracked.
He'd been mindlessly clacking away at his laptop for hours, taking advantage of the sudden rush of inspiration he'd gotten to write out another chapter of his novel, and it was finally catching up to him. Before he knew it, he'd passed out at the table, face pressed down on the keys.
When he finally woke up again, he found himself on his editor/frenemy's couch. A familiar sight. After a few seconds of groggily attempting to return to the realm of unconsciousness, Shane Qinghua snapped up. Desperately, he searched for his phone to check the time. Oh no.
"Shit shit shit shit shit," he chanted, throwing on his coat and shoes as fast as he could. This cannot be happening.
The voice of his editor came from the other room. "Oh hey, you're awake—"
But before he could say anymore, Shang Qinghua had already dashed out of the house, leaving most of his belongings on the coffee table where his editor had placed them for him.
Thankfully, it had all worked out in the end. He was safe and sound, and he could deal with any repercussions with his editor in the morning. The adrenaline rush started to calm down, and Shang Qinghua relaxed his muscles.
…
Now that the pounding of his heartbeat had calmed, the deafening silence of the empty ocean started to permeate through his body. It was so…still.
Really, it was kind of ironic. Male selkies were said in human legends to visit land in order to seek out lonely hearts, and yet here Shang Qinghua was. Lonelier than any human he'd met so far.
A few years ago, he had been separated from his family, left to fend for himself. They never really liked him much anyways; he wouldn't be surprised if they'd never even bothered to search for him when he'd gone missing. Instead, Shang Qinghua had turned to the human world to pursue his secret lifelong ambition of being a storyteller. Humans had a written language too, meaning he could record his stories to tell without ever actually having to speak them to his audience. It was perfect for him.
As Shang Qinghua's moment of melancholy passed, he suddenly remembered that this area was almost never empty. Often there would at least be a school or two of fish swimming around. Yet, he seemed to be the only living being around. Something was wrong.
The eerie silence stabbed through his heart, and he could feel himself starting to panic. If the water around him was so empty, there had to be something keeping them away…and nothing was a stronger deterrent for vibrant populations than a fearsome predator.
Shang Qinghua felt a sense of intense foreboding. Something was looking at him. Slowly, he turned his tiny body around.
The largest creature he had ever seen stared intently at him. A sleek black and white sea monster several times the seal's size, with a long tail resembling a shark's…or maybe an orca's? Its torso seemed almost humanoid in form, except for the sharp fins extending from its joints and the pointed, elf-like ears on either side of its head. A head of what looked like long, beautiful hair flowed from his skull, blending into its forehead covered in regal blue markings.
Shang Qinghua was frozen in place, absolutely mesmerized. Partially because he was terrified for his life, but also because it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.
A few seconds pass, and suddenly the creature opens its mouth, revealing razor sharp teeth, and reaches out its huge hand towards the little seal in front of it. This is it , Shang Qinghua thought, after all that I went through to get back to the sea in time, I'm going to die and become an appetizer to this insanely handsome monster instead. Dammit.
But instead of being eaten, the creature pulled his tiny seal body to its chest and nuzzled into the fur on his head.
Wh.
What.
Hello?? Mr. Beautiful Monster Man??? Was this guy hugging him? Hell, it was downright cuddling him! Shang Qinghua's tiny little brain could not comprehend what was happening right now. There was no way. He was just hallucinating from stress, right? Yeah. That had to be it.
The creature squeezed him a little tighter and made a low, rumbling noise. It almost reminded him of…purring. The vibrations from its chest and the surprisingly comfortable way it cradled him were strangely calming. Against his better judgment, Shang Qinghua found himself starting to doze off a bit. I suppose I may as well sleep now so I won't feel it when it eats me…
—-------------
Shang Qinghua woke up to find himself back in his cave. His seal skin was wrapped around him, but he was back in human form, and almost completely dry. As he got up to go check on his clothing, he noticed a silhouette blocking the entrance of the cave.
Oh god. The orca creature had its upper body inside the cave. It appeared to be sleeping, its arms folded on the floor and its head resting atop them. Before his brain could tell the rest of his body to shut the fuck up, Shang Qinghua had already instinctually let out a tiny squeak of surprise.
He covered his mouth, but it was already too late. The creature stirred, lifting its head and looking directly at him. It "purred" again, tilting its head. It opened its mouth, and, to Shang Qinghua's surprise, it spoke.
"My One," it rumbled. "Rest well?"
Shang Qinghua blinked. Was…was it asking him a question? "I…y-yeah…" he managed to stumble out. What is happening right now??
The creature nodded contently. "Good," it stated. It reached out and wrapped its hand behind Shang Qinghua's waist and pulled him towards it. Then, completely out of nowhere, it kissed him.
Well, if it could be called a kiss with how much bigger its face is in comparison to his. Its mouth latched onto his the best it could, and its strange tongue began to explore. The texture was strange, and the kiss was kind of sloppy, but it still felt… kinda good.
Shang Qinghua would be lying if he said he didn't fall under the monsterfucker category. He'd written plenty of raunchy scenes like these in his novel. But, despite his mythological origins, he never expected something like this would happen to him outside his wildest fantasies!!
Shang Qinghua found himself kissing back. He won't lie, the creature was attractive as hell, and this was probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He was taking this chance while he still could, screw common sense! A guy is allowed to be a manwhore every now and then!!
The creature picked him up, still kissing him, in such a way that Shang Qinghua was basically sitting in his arms. After another uncountable period of time, he pulled away to breathe, flushed red and feeling nonsensically horny. The creature leaned its head to the side and gently bit the man's earlobe. "Mine," it rumbled before affectionately nuzzling its nose against his forehead.
Shang Qinghua had fully lost his (albeit lackluster) sense of reasoning in favor of impulse and desire. "Yours, hm? I don't even know your name," he teased.
"Mobei-Jun," it said. "My Name."
"Mobei-Jun, hm? Are you some kind of lord, with that Jun title?"
"Mn. I am King."
He's a king??? he thought to himself. Damn. That's kinda hot. "Ah, it's a pleasure to meet you, my King." He leaned forward, blinded by his horny thoughts, and pressed his lips to the marking in the center of Mobei-Jun's forehead. "I am Shang Qinghua."
"Qinghua," Mobei-Jun purred. "My Qinghua. Love."
Shang Qinghua's not insane, you're insane! He flushed bright red as the huge monster rubbed its face against him like a big cat.
"Warm," Mobei-Jun declared. "Soft. Squishy. Please, Be Mine."
Shang Qinghua actually might lose his mind at this point. "I'm not sure why you seem to like me so much," he chuckled a bit.
"Saw you. Alone. Sad. No one around. Did not run. Comfort you. No alone. Mine now."
Shang Qinghua got the gist of what it meant, he thinks. Was that why it was staring at him? "Honestly, I thought you were going to eat me," he chuckled again. Even though that was the most reasonable assumption for someone to make in that situation, he felt a little silly now. Maybe he was going delirious from all this excitement.
Mobei-Jun hummed to itself, considering something. It pulled back a bit and looked Shang Qinghua directly in the eyes. "Can be arranged," it said, and once again their mouths met.
—--------------
Shen Yuan was pacing back and forth in his living room, unfortunately very worried about the man who'd ran out of his house last night, and without his prized laptop. Shang Qinghua treated that thing like his beloved child; he never left it behind like this. He'd kept calling and calling the man all night, to no avail, and now he was even considering filing a missing person report.
If it were anyone else, he might've just gone to their house to drop their things off, but there was one problem. Shen Yuan did not know where the strange author lived.
Despite knowing him for years, he'd only ever had the man over to his house, and never actually gone to his. He tried checking the records from the company they both worked for, but when he put the listed address into the GPS, it showed as some spot in the middle of the ocean. He had no more leads to go off of.
Just as Shen Yuan was about to try calling him one last time, his door swung open to reveal none other than Shang Qinghua. He was completely disheveled, his clothes ripped in places, exposing his bare skin covered in…bite marks?
"What the fuck," Shen Yuan asked, "is WRONG WITH YOU? "
Shang Qinghua tried his best to catch his breath before responding. "I can explain, I swear—"
"You'd better explain yourself, asshole! "