My Safe Haven [Aiden x Reader] (REWRITE)

Part 5 - Tiny More Like WHINY. DAMN.

Readers thoughts will be italicized since you can't talk underwater. Enjoy!

As you swim through the salty water, you notice that you've been holding your breath for... well, longer than you normally would.
You also didn't see anything out of the ordinary, just blue water.
It's very sunny too...
I don't see this "Tiny" guy... Aiden must be tweaking. Whatever, I'm not too worried about it anyway. I mean... "Tiny?" If you're going to be scary, thing of a scarier name.
The more you swim, the more you realize the water had gotten darker.
Not dark enough to where you can't see, just dimmer.
You thought you saw a bone float by...
Sure enough, you did. Because you saw another one, too.
You furrow your eyebrows, and look around the water for more proof of this.
However, instead of finding more bones, you see something in the distance.
You squint your eyes.
Is that thing... swimming towards you? Why is it going so fast?
... Uh oh.
...What is that? Wait... WHAT IS THAT!?
You reach out to Aiden, and grab his shoulder, but the thing reaches you before you can pull him back.
It grabs you by the arm with such inhuman strength, you think it'll crush it.
You open your mouth to let out a scream, forgetting you're underwater, and immediately fill your lungs with water.
You look at the thing square in the eyes as it tears the flesh off of your arm.
Its eyes are wide and bright blue, they almost look like they're glowing...
"T-Tiny!" You hear Aiden's muffled voice, and he swims in front of you.
He tries to pry the thing's hand off, but it doesn't let up.
It does look at Aiden, though, and you hear its voice that seems to reverberate in your head.
"...You again? Do I have to tell you to stay off of this level any more?"
You don't give a flying fuck about what it's saying, you just know that you are literally drowning right now.
You reach your free hand out to get Aiden's attention, and offer a motion that signifies you can't breathe.
"Ah! Oh! Tiny, Tiny please let them go! They're drowning!"
That's Tiny? Well, shit!
Tiny tilts his head, and looks at you.
"Good."
You flip him off with your free hand, which wasn't a good idea, because he tightens his grip on your arm, causing you to let out another gurgling scream.
"Tiny, please! Just let them get air! Please! For me!"
Tiny scoffs, still looking at you as you drown, "For you? Please, what do you take me for?"
..
"Tiny, if you do not let up, I will have to take drastic measures."
"Yeah? Are you going to call security or something? Oh wait, you are the security."
Lovely talk guys but can we focus on the fact that I am DYING???
"You are weak and pathetic. You call yourself a protector but you can't protect this human from me? Pitiful."
Tiny tightens his grip on your arm, and you feel your vision slowly start to fade.
"Tiny, I understand that you don't want us here. I promise, if you unhand them and give them to me, I won't return here. You have my word."
Tiny looks at Aiden, then back to you.
His face is blurry as you feel yourself slip in and out of consciousness.
"...Fine. But this is only for me. I don't care what happens to your little meatbag, nor do I care what happens to you. In the end, you're all just soft sacks of flesh."
Tiny finally lets go of your arm, and Aiden grabs you.
He starts to swim up quickly.
You see the water stained crimson with your blood, and Tiny following after you.
Then you black out.

Next thing you know, you wake up and start spitting up water.
You get rolled over to your side, and when you finally cough up all the water, you take deep gasps of breath.
"[Y/N]! Are you okay?" Aiden's voice rings in your ears.
You look around.
You're in the entrance room.
"What... happened?" You breathe.
"I carried you back here. Tiny helped me get you up."
You furrow your eyebrows, "T..Tiny?"
...Oh yeah, Tiny.
You look down to your arm to see that it's been wrapped in... seaweed?
It burns.
"Yes. It took... very much convincing. I'm not allowed to return here after this journey, or else I'll be killed." Aiden sighs.
You blink, and crawl over to the door to look up into the water.
Sure enough, there's Tiny, staring right back at you.
"Oh. It's awake."
It takes you a minute to comprehend the situation; at first you feel confused, then scared, then angry.
"'It!?' Hey, who do you think you are!? Swimming up to me at a hundred miles per hour and grabbing my arm like that, then calling me all kinds of-!?"
"Sheesh, is your kind always this irritable? Actually, don't answer that. I know the answer."
He just interrupted you! You oughta...
"What the hell!? You literally smell like fish! Not to mention your skinny arms!"
"Enough! You're incredibly lucky that I didn't kill you when I had you, and you're also lucky that I won't kill you when you come down here. Aiden has agreed that he won't return to this level after he gets you home if I let you live, so I'm letting you live. Reluctantly, of course, but I'd rather be alone. Now shut up, before I break that promise, along with your bones."
Your trap is instantly slammed shut, and you back away into the safety of the entrance room.
"No. What do you say?" Aiden asks you.
You look at him, absolutely bewildered.
"...Sorry." You mutter under your breath, looking away and crossing your arms.
"What was that? I couldn't quite hear you."
"I said I'm sorry!" You yell, a blush appearing on your face, "Stupid fish..." You mutter the last part under your breath.
"I heard that."
You groan, and roll your eyes.

After a moment of rehabilitation, you and Aiden jump into the water with Tiny.
You're very nervous at first, because this eight feet tall merman could literally rip your head off right now.
You just hope he keeps the promise.
The three of you swim down, back to where you were before and farther.
However, once you reach a certain point, Tiny stops.
"You've reached the end of the Twilight Zone. I cannot go lower. Take your pet and get out of here. You'd be lucky if the Fish were to not smell the blood and come after you. It does not listen as well as I." Tiny points at you, "Go. Go, and don't come back here."
You wave at him mockingly, but he doesn't wave back.
You roll your eyes as you turn away, and you feel Tiny swim off.
Thank goodness that guy is gone...
You swim lower, and it gets darker.
Aiden's voice breaks through the water, "We're in the Midnight Zone. We have to go towards the bottom, and look for a cave entrance. It will be on our right."
You nod, and continue to swim.
You feel yourself get cold, and start to feel a little bit of pressure as you go deeper into the water.
After a lengthy amount of swimming, you find the entrance.
Once you get inside, you notice that the water hasn't entered the cave somehow... despite it being completely submerged.
You take a deep breath, and sigh.
"Shit..." You look down at your arm, seeing it's still wrapped in seaweed, "This burns like a motherfucker..."
"Well, it is wrapped in salty seaweed..."
You roll your eyes, "Hey, why is it seaweed anyway?"
"That's all that Tiny could find." Aiden shrugs.
...
You look at your arm, "Tiny wrapped me up?"
"No, I did. Tiny gave me the seaweed."
"Oh."
You should've known better than that.
You look at your arm again, and start walking, "Alright.. Tell me about this level."
"Gladly! So this is Level Eight, and it-"
You listen as Aiden enthusiastically explains the properties of the level, and find yourself almost... excited to explore.
You've also noticed a growing fondness of Aiden arising within you.
Maybe this won't be so bad...

His name is Tiny and he'll kill you without remorse
I was sitting in the car this morning thinking "How the Hell am I going to make this scene play out?" because canonically Tiny wouldn't give a fuck and he'd rip you to shreds, but I bent the rules a little and now you're still alive so yippee!
Also I'm sayin he most likely wouldn't swim with you guys nor would he help you but I also bent the rules there
Yippee! 🥳