Chapter Text
“Stop the PDA ghoul boys!” Steven Lim shouted from behind his monitor.
Ryan and Shane broke out of their kiss, Ryan felt the blood rise to his head as he chuckled nervously and turned back to his computer slightly embarrassed. They had agreed to keep the PDA in the office low, but Ryan and Shane frequently broke that rule, what were they gonna do? Fire them? They were 2/3rd’s of the company!
“Oh my god am i going to be your third wheel for the rest of my career?!” Steven had groaned when they told him about their relationship while discussing the making of the company. At least the news of them dating was softening the blow that was Ryan being a Merman. Ryan had seen Shane give Steven a mean glare the first time they talked again after ‘the incident’ , as if daring him to mention anything about it. They’d talked about it since and Ryan had expressed that he wanted to keep it a secret for now, everyone on their team had been kind and understanding.
Ryan was practically living as any other human now, save for whenever he accidentally got splashed somehow. Rain was a major pain in the ass but Ryan dealt with it by wearing a lot of rain clothes and alway carrying an umbrella with him. It was nice, living like this. Way better than the solitude of the ocean, in Ryan's opinion. Of course that was also due to his large gangly boyfriend.
“I love you baby,” Shane practically purred into Ryan’s neck.
“I love you too big guy,” Ryan hummed, enjoying the feeling of Shane’s breath on his neck.
They were curled up in their bed, legs tangled, Shanes chest against Ryan’s back, his arms holding him in a warm embrace. Ryan wanted to stay like this forever. He felt himself drifting off, lulled to sleep by Shane’s hot breath on his neck and the feeling of his heart beating against Ryan's back.
There were screams, they were piercing to his ears. Every noise felt like daggers in his ears. He could feel the blood dripping from them. Everything his body touched was painful, each surface colliding with his skin sent a white hot searing pain through him. He could barely hear his own screams over everyone else's.
“Ryan”
No. no no no no no. He crawled away from the voice. “Don’t- don’t hurt me!” He managed to choke out.
“Ryan”
He screamed, he screamed and crawled for his life as he heard the voice grow louder.
“RYAN!”
He woke up with a scream, drenched in sweat, tears streaming down his face. He was breathing fast as he took in his surroundings. He was in their bedroom. It was just a nightmare. He flinched when he felt something on his shoulder and looked back to see Shane with surprised and concerned eyes.
“Ryan? It was just a dream. I’m right here.”
Shane carefully reached out again, as if not to startle him. When Ryan didn’t move away, he snaked his arms around him and held him close. Ryan let himself fall into Shanes arms.
“Shh baby, no one’s going to hurt you, I promise.”
Ryan let out a long breath.
“I’m sorry I woke you up,” He said, looking up at Shane, who shook his head at the notion.
“Don't be sorry for having a nightmare. I would rather be woken up and pull you out of it, than just sleep through it.” He smiled down at Ryan as he rubbed gentle circles into his bicep.
Ryan returned the smile and leaned up to kiss Shane.
“What time is it?” He asked, as they broke apart.
Shane picked up his phone and groaned.
“7:45, we might as well just get up now if we want to be at work at 8:30.”
Throughout the day, Ryan couldn’t shake the nightmare, which was weird of course, because it was just a dream, as Shane had said. But it felt like the pain and the screams had taken home deep in his bones. He felt strange and.. out of it the entire day. This didn’t go unnoticed by his coworkers, and especially not by his abnormally large boyfriend.
“Can we uh.. uhh, try again?” Ryan stumbled over his words, feeling as if he was somewhere else than the sofa he was sitting on.
“Ryan, do you need a break? We’ve been trying to film the intro for 10 minutes now.” TJ asked, peering over the camera.
“Maybe you need to go splash some water on your face,” Steven suggested.
“Great idea Einstein,” Shane snipped back, with a smile.
“Oh yeah, forgot about that,” Steven chuckled.
“No, I’m- Im fine guys, just a little out of it today.” Ryan did his best to give a genuine smile, but it came out weak.
“I’m not sure you are fine Ry-guy,” Shane said, concern tinting his voice. He put a hand on Ryan's shoulder.
Ryan rubbed his eyes and sighed.
“Maybe I'll just disclose to the viewers that I'm having an off day, hopefully they’ll understand.”
“I’m sure they will, Ryan.” Steven replied genuinely, before turning back to the camera and attempting another take at the intro.
“Ryan, relax.” Shane took his computer from him.
They had gone home early to try and pull Ryan out of- whatever this was. But Ryan had immediately beelined for his computer to work from home instead.
Ryan grabbed for the computer.
“Hey-! Shane! I need to get at least a little work done!” Ryan protested.
Shane easily avoided his attempts at taking back the computer.
“What you need is some rest.” Shane sent him a stern look. “And you’re not touching this-” He wiggled the computer in one hand.
“Hey careful-!”
“-For the rest of the day!” Shane put the computer in a cabinet. Ryan pouted.
“I’ve never met someone who’d be so upset about not being able to work.” Shane smiled, amused by Ryans suffering.
Ryan just replied with a ‘hmpf’ noise, which only served to make Shane laugh at him.
“wwwwyyyyyyyyyoooonnn”
Ryan nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the whisper. It couldn’t have been Shane, and there was no one else there with them, except Obi, but Obi couldn’t speak.
“What? What’s wrong Ry?” Shane looked at him with furrowed brows.
“I just- I thought I heard something.. nevermind.” Ryan hesitated.
“You really need to relax.” Shane said, visibly concerned. “Maybe you should take a nap baby.”
Ryan sighed for what felt like the hundredth time today. “Yeah maybe you’re right.”
“Couch or bed?”
“I’m just going to stay here on the couch I think.”
Shane went to bring Ryan a blanket and then kissed him before going to the table to get some work done while Ryan slept.
“Rrrrrrrryyyyyyyy”
He couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. A sudden pain crashed into him and he tried to scream, but he couldn’t. He felt emotion overcome him, though it didn’t feel like his own. A weird glee in the back of his head, despite the searing pain he was feeling. He heard what almost sounded like a demonic giggle.
“Ryan”
The giggle stopped abruptly, along with the pain.
“Ryan!”
The pain started again, this time even worse than before. Finally he felt his scream breach whatever had been stopping it before. The world began to shake.
Ryan felt his lungs burning and stopped screaming when he realized Shane was shaking him awake. It took him 30 seconds to even begin focusing on Shane’s face. It felt as if he was shaking real pain off of him, despite it only being a nightmare.
“-causing this?”
Shane had been speaking to him. He hadn’t noticed. Feeling awake now, he felt his eyes well up. What was wrong with him?
“W-what? Sorry I um.. I didn't quite catch what you said.” Ryan could hear his own voice trembling. Why was he feeling this way? It was just a nightmare. It hadn’t been real- but it felt real.
“Do you have any idea what’s causing this- oh, Ry.” Shane wiped a tear away that Ryan had barely noticed run down his cheek. “Ryan… baby… what’s going on?” Shane ran a hand through Ryan’s hair as he sat down next to him.
“I.. I don't know.” Ryan replied honestly. “I just.. I keep having these nightmares that feel so.. real.”
“Rrrrrrrryyyyooonnn”
“What?” Ryan asked, he hadn’t seen Shane open his mouth, but he’d heard someone speak.
“Hm? I didn’t say anything.”
“Oh..” Ryan sat up and furrowed his brow. Hm.
Shane put a hand on his chin and turned Ryans head to look at him.
“Ryan, what happens in the nightmares? If you feel comfortable telling me of course.”
Shane looked concerned, Ryan felt a tinge of guilt for worrying his boyfriend like this. Almost as if Shane could sense this, he put his other hand on Ryan’s cheek gently and gave him a soft smile. Ryan let out a breath as he felt some of his tension leave him.
“It’s… They’re strange.. It’s like, a lot of just- pain.” Shane nodded along, his concerned expression only growing. “So much pain and screams, some others, some my own. In this one i.. I couldn't move and something was laughing at me. The pain.. it just feels so- so real. I can’t shake it when I wake up.” He let his head fall onto his boyfriend’s shoulder and in turn Shane let his arm slip around Ryan.
“Oh Ryan...”
“Ryyyyaaaannnn”
He thought he heard someone repeat Shane. He shut his eyes tightly and tried his best to ignore it. Get out of my head , he thought, what he was asking, he didn’t know, but he didn’t have the energy to confront it at this moment. Maybe it was just remnants of the nightmare still lingering in his tired mind. Shane pulled Ryan onto his lap, fully embracing him. It made Ryan feel safe.
“I promise i won’t let anything actually hurt you as long as i'm here, okay?” Shane hummed lowly against his ear, the vibrations of his voice soothing the merman. Ryan nodded, his head tucked into the crook of his boyfriend’s neck.
That evening, as they went to bed, Ryan safely tucked against Shane’s chest, long arms held him close, he hoped Shane would never leave, that he’d always be there, keeping him safe.
“Hellooo Ryyaaan.” Ryan could hear a demonic laugh somewhere close to him, it made his ears bleed. There were no other screams now, just his own.
“FUCK!” Ryan screamed as he felt a boot on his back, kicking him to the ground. His hands and knees on the ground burned so bad. It felt like asphalt in 100℃. He tried to stand up but he felt something stab into his back and fell back down with a scream. He could feel the blood trickling down his sides. There was the laugh again, deafening, all encompassing, he felt tears run down his face. He felt a hand jank his head up by his hair and a breath in his ear. “We’ll have soooo mucchhh funnnnn.”
The hand shoved his head onto the ground and he screamed even louder than before when his face hit the scorching asphalt.
“Ryan! Ry! Wake up!”
Shane? Was that Shane? He was dreaming. The voice was coming from somewhere outside of the dream. Why wasn’t he waking up?
Another stab to his back, he fell completely onto the ground, his entire front burning.
“S-SHANE!” He screamed, choking on his tears.
“Baby, baby wake up, please.”
Why wasn’t he waking up? He felt panic start to surge through his body, his breath quickening.
“SHA-” The hand from before got clasped over his mouth.
“Ry… love.. wake up, i can’t bear to see you like this. Please.”
Shane’s voice was shaky now. Ryan closed his eyes as tears rolled down his cheeks, his hiccups the only sound in the dark. He mustered up whatever bravery he could and bit down onto the hand.
Ryan woke up with a gasp. Shane’s arms were wrapped tight around him.
“Ryan? Are you awake?” Shane’s voice was shaky and filled with urgency.
All Ryan could muster was a nod as he let go and sobbed into Shane’s shoulder. Shane put his hand on the back of Ryan’s head and held him as close as he could.
“We- we need to do something about this Ry, we can’t just let it keep happening.” Shane sounded upset, almost as if he’d been crying. Ryan pulled back and looked at Shane’s face. His eyes were red and there were tear stains on his cheek.
“Shane…” Ryan put his hand on his boyfriend's cheek and Shane pushed his face into it.
“I can’t bear to see you like that, writhing and screaming in pain. It breaks my heart Ry.”
“I’m sorry” Ryan felt incredibly guilty for making Shane cry like this.
“Ry, nonono, Ryan listen to me, it’s not your fault okay? I just really care about you, and it hurts me to see you hurting. Trust me Ryan, I'd never blame you for something like this, alright?”
“Okay..” Ryan managed, voice small.
“C’mon Ry, let’s get up so you can shake this nightmare off of you alright?” Shane stroked his hair gently. Ryan closed his eyes for a second.
Ryan had gone to the bathroom to try and shower the feeling off of him. As the warm water hit his back he hissed as two spots stung when hit by the water. He pulled himself out of the shower, tail flopping onto the bathroom floor. He dried himself as fast as he could so he would be able to see himself in the mirror. When he could finally stand up again, he looked over his shoulder to see his back in the mirror. What the hell? There were two red spots with dried blood on them. Like in his dream , he thought and felt dread spreading in his chest.
“Shane! Come here for a second!” He yelled after his boyfriend.
A second later Shane was standing in the doorframe.
“What’s happening?” He asked. Ryan turned his back to him.
“Sheesh Ry, how did that happen?!” Shane stepped closer to him to inspect the marks, Ryan hissed when Shane let his fingers trail over one of them. “Is that dried blood?!” He exclaimed.
“I don't know how I got them but..” Ryan bit his lip, suddenly nervous Shane would think he was being ridiculous. “In um.. In the nightmare, I got stabbed in my back, twice.”
“Oh? Maybe your subconscious responded to something you felt while asleep?” Shan proposed. Ever the skeptic.
“Shane.” He started, “What could have possibly done this while we were both soundly asleep in our soft bed?”
“I don’t know, maybe a bee or a wasp flew in from the window and stung you?”
Ryan sighed, giving up, there’d be no arguing with Shane about supernatural stuff, he was a hardboiled skeptic. Ryan however, was starting to suspect there was something more at play.
