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Arf! Arf!
The tinny, electronic sound of a barking dog that was Morgie’s text tone sounded from underneath one of the books on his bed, where he was sprawled on his belly, studying. He hoped it was Hook as he dug for his phone. It was, and Morgie smiled, glad for the pleasant distraction from math equations.
He and Hook had been texting for a few days, ever since they’d been paired up for a short in-class project in History of Woodsmen and Pirates. Morgie, like everyone at Merlin Academy, had been admiring the dashing, mischievous young man since the start of the year, but they’d never actually talked until then, when they had to throw together an impromptu presentation on Calico Jack.
It was impossible to not be drawn to how stunningly gorgeous Hook was, and he had an air of mystery that made him pretty irresistible. That day though, Morgie learned that he was also surprisingly well spoken and intelligent.
Also, his sparkling eyes kept dancing over Morgie in a very intrigued manner, almost making their target dizzy as they’d worked out their talking points for the assignment. By the time class was over, Hook had secured Morgie’s number and told him he would text him. Yeah right, the sorcerer had thought, he probably collected numbers just because he could, for the ego boost.
But then he did text him, that evening, a flirtatious ‘hey there cutie’ and Morgie couldn’t help but feel a little special. He’d answered with a simple, tentative ‘hey you’ and thus it began. They’d flirted and chatted for over an hour, then Hook texted him the next morning as well.
A pic of him still in bed, dark hair messy against his pillow, looking so scrumptious and beautiful that Morgie stared at it for longer than he would ever admit to anyone. They started sharing smiles when they’d see each other in the halls, Morgie having to endure an elbow in the side from his friend Maleficent when she caught him, and Hook walking with Hades so much that Morgie had at one point thought they were together.
Morgie and Hades were cool, though, and the god had confirmed that he had no interest in the pirate. He said he liked hanging around the showoff because on the occasions that a girl didn’t go all gaga over him, Hades could tell they had actual taste, and then he’d try to move in. Morgie didn’t know if Hades was teasing him or not, because he himself was undeniably interested in the showoff in question.
It was probably just a bit of fun, Morgie told himself, trying not to hope for anything serious to happen between them. If Hook wanted to be actual boyfriends, Morgie didn’t think he’d say no, but for now it was merely flirting and sneaking glances.
A few real conversations bloomed over text, though, spurred by one of them ridiculing a teacher during class and that had segued somehow into talking about parents and home life and likes and dislikes. It almost, maybe, felt like something real might be going on.
‘So can you actually shapeshift?’ Hook had text one day, and Morgie had told him yes, though he was mostly limited to cold blooded creatures, with snakes being his specialty. Gathering his courage, he then sent him a selfie with his snake eyes on display. If this was going to be a deal breaker, better to get it over with quickly.
Hook had sent back '😳🥵'. Well then. The whole thing freaked most people out, which Morgie was proud of and liked. But he also liked that Hook seemed to be into it.
So now, as he opened the latest text, Morgie only squinted at it in probably half as much confusion as he otherwise would have.
‘Send newts?’ it read. Like, did he mean the animal? Was he asking him what Morgie thought he was asking him?! That was rather bold, but also kind of sweet. Morgie thought he could shift into a newt if he tried - he’d done a salamander before and they weren’t that different - and if Hook wanted him to show off his special talent a little, Morgie was flattered.
Happily shoving his math homework to the side, Morgie gave an amphibious wiggle and concentrated, picturing a red, rough skinned newt. Hook liked red. In a couple of moments, Morgie was much smaller, had a long tail, and the sheets of his bed were scratchy against this more sensitive skin.
At once, the instinct to find water almost overwhelmed him, so this was not a form he could stay in for too long, but he should be able to get some quick pics. Except there was one big problem, he realized. Well, maybe two. Since he was now approximately the size of his phone and didn’t have thumbs, he had no way to operate the device as a newt.
He shifted back, and hurriedly grabbed a bottle of water from his mini fridge, then checked out his phone’s camera settings. Morgie frowned. It would only let him set a timer for ten seconds, not nearly long enough to shift and also get a picture.
He thought about texting Hook back and telling him he couldn’t do it, or maybe offering to shift for him in person sometime, though that felt awfully personal for where they were in their getting-to-know-each-other journey. He wanted to supply Hook with what he’d asked for, it would be cute. There was only one way he could think of to get it accomplished, though.
‘Hey Mali, can I ask you for a favor?’ he texted his friend. She’d laugh at him, but she’d be willing, which is exactly what happened, so to Morgie it was a win.
They met up in the courtyard, and Morgie, with an eye for the artistic, asked if Mali would be willing to go to the edge of the Enchanted Forest, to take pics in a more natural setting. She rolled her eyes in that affectionate way she did to extremely few people, and allowed Morgie to lead the way to the spot he was thinking of while there was still enough light.
“You really are a strange little man,” Mali said as she consented to kneel down on the grass as Morgie shifted again.
“Actually, I’m a strange little newt,” he corrected happily once he was back in the form. He thought he was funny. Mali did chuckle, holding Morgie’s phone in such a way as to get a ground level pic of him. He tried to make his newt face smile. Sure, he felt kind of silly, but he hoped Hook would appreciate this.
“Why don’t I just text him how hot you are for him and that you love him while I have your phone right here?” Maleficent teased with a devious smirk. “That would be ten times easier than all this.”
Morgie rushed back to being a human.
“No!” he squawked, “For one thing I don’t love him, we’ve only been talking a few days. And I’m pretty sure he knows I have the hots for him.” He remembered how he’d replied to Hook’s last selfie, a daring one with him obviously shirtless, with a tongue emoji. Morgie snatched his phone back before Mali could open the text chain and see anything.
Choosing an especially clear pic that she’d taken with his golden eyes looking almost right at the camera but not quite, he sent it off to Hook, quietly grinning to himself. Mali threw an arm around his shoulders as they got ready to head back to the castle.
“You’ll tell me if this ends badly, right?” she asked, serious now. “Like if he breaks your heart?” Morgie was about to retort that his heart wasn’t involved, at least yet, but he knew he’d be lying.
“Yeah, I promise,” he told his friend gratefully. He knew Mali would not hesitate to use her evil powers to put Hook to sleep and avenge Morgie, if it came to that. He didn’t think it would.
Arf! Arf! His phone went off the moment that he and Mali had begun walking.
‘No…like a sexy pic’
Morgie was a bit confused at this one, he had to admit. A sexy pic…of a newt? Um, okay…
“Mali, hold up.” The light was starting to fade so they would have to be quick. “Can you take a few more pics? Just a few? I’ll buy you dinner.”
They turned to face the lake, and Morgie handed his phone off to be able to shift one more time. Crawling up onto some wet rocks, which honestly felt good against his newt skin, he tried to think how to begin. He giggled at the thought; maybe Hook was only having fun with him, but he would get a sexy newt pic.
“Please, uh…no matter what I do, keep snapping,” he implored Maleficent in some embarrassment. This was probably going to look weird and while Morgie wasn’t a stranger to weird, this might be a whole new level.
“What…are you…doing?” Mali drawled when Morgie posed, his back to the camera with his tail slightly lifted. He tried to give the lens a smoldering look but his facial expressions in this form were limited. He also didn’t know what exactly Hook was looking for; how could a newt be sexy?
“Shut up and keep going. Please,” Morgie muttered. Mali raised an eyebrow at him like she clearly thought he’d lost his mind but she did as requested.
Morgie tried writhing to his side and posing casually by propping his body weight up on one front leg while letting his upper back leg drape over his lower belly. But a newt’s shape was not built for that and instead he lost his balance, rolling backwards onto the rock.
His limbs splayed out and he was aware he was laying there spread eagle, his belly and the underside of his tail fully exposed. He laughed at himself and half lifted his head to look at Mali.
“Are you getting this?” he asked her, somewhat urgently as this was not a comfortable position. He watched her physically cringe.
“You actually want me to take a picture of you like that?”
“I don’t know, this is what he asked for. I think,” Morgie said. Mali started to also laugh.
“You know, whatever…let’s just get this over with.” She snapped a few more pics and Morgie could have sworn he heard her utter to herself, “That pirate must be even freakier than I thought.”
After that, Morgie was done. It was getting dark, he was out of ideas for poses, and Mali was never going to let him live this down. They returned to the school where Morgie fulfilled his promise to get Mali dinner, but not before he scrolled through the pics and chose one to send Hook.
He settled on one from when he was on his back, probably the silliest. His newt belly was bright red and it looked like he was showing it off with the way he was laying. Morgie paused for a second, then hit send. It was goofy, but what else did Hook mean? And if they were going to be anything real, it was best he learned about Morgie’s tendency to be a little coo-coo early.
He expected a bunch of laughing emojis as a response, or maybe a joking ‘nice tail’ or…something. After dinner, Morgie returned to the hated math, waiting to hear his text alert and checking his phone repeatedly when it didn’t sound. It wasn’t like Hook to not reply, or at least it hadn’t been so far.
Morgie wondered until he fell asleep if he’d done something wrong, and desperately tried not to be disappointed. After going to all that trouble, Hook was probably texting or even seeing someone else. It wasn't like it was a big deal, though; they weren’t together, after all.
Hook, alone in his room, eagerly opened his texts when his phone vibrated. That pic that Morgie had sent of himself as a newt had been adorable, to be honest, and Hook had caught his typo only at that point. Bloody voice to text! He hadn’t noticed before he sent the request.
Which he wasn’t sure Morgie was quite ready for anyway, but Hook was nothing if not bold, and he was feeling a little naughty that night. He’d tried to clarify by asking for sexy pics and now he was very curious on what Morgie may have sent him.
Hook was uncharacteristically smitten by the sorcerer boy with messy blonde hair that flopped all over when he laughed and his sharp hazel eyes that caught everything around him. Until they’d been paired together on a project in Hook’s favorite class, he admittedly hadn’t taken much notice of him, though he knew he was a casual friend of his buddy Hades.
But oh when he had seen those eyes and that smile up close and heard that laugh! He knew he needed more. He scored Morgie’s number and things were going well, if Hook said so himself. Hook was good at flirting, of course, but Morgie was giving it right back. He was sweet and also the perfect amount of saucy, which was a dangerous combo that had Hook distracted from so many others he could be texting or messing with.
Not being the relationship type, it was mostly simply a bit of fun to Hook, but sometimes…sometimes, he would wonder what it might be like to call Morgie his boyfriend. That was ridiculous, they hadn't even been on each other’s radars that long, and yet Hook thought of it. More than he had with anyone else as of yet, anyway.
For now, though, for tonight, he just wanted to see if he could get Morgie to go that far. Hook had sent him a shirtless pic the day before, which Morgie had definitely seemed to like. If he sent something risque tonight, Hook would match him. He was a gentleman at heart, if a horny one.
However, when he opened the next text and saw a newt sprawled out on its back, fiery red belly pointed up, limbs askew, his libido took a nosedive. What…the hell…was that? A newt, Hook understood that much, but…why?
It was Morgie, presumably. Was this his way of taking the piss out of Hook, of mocking him for the request? Maybe his humorous way of saying he didn’t want to play this game.
Hook wavered between annoyed at this level of coyness, if that’s what it was, and confusion. Morgie could have said he wasn’t comfortable with pics like that and Hook wouldn’t have pushed.
He would have turned the typed texting dirtier, certainly, to see if Morgie would be up for that, no pun intended, but he would have respected whatever Morgie wanted. If a real date was needed before he could get that far, Hook was not at all opposed, at least for this boy.
But did Morgie think he actually wanted to see what might be construed as a sexy pic of a newt? He was a shape shifter; he could be into stuff that might be well outside Hook’s kink level, for all he knew. Damn it, and he’d seemed so cool. Hook needed to process this, or try to, before he responded.
The next morning in homeroom, Hook threw himself into his seat next to Hades with even more flounce than usual. His first thought upon waking had been of Morgie and how he wanted to text him a ‘good morning handsome’ but then he remembered that things might be weird between them.
He’d ghosted people before, and been able to act aloof enough in person that they got the hint; that was the last thing he wanted to do to or with Morgie, however.
“What the bloody hell do you make out of this?” Hook asked Hades as he thrust his phone screen, open to Morgie’s texts, towards the god. Hades swiveled his head over to the pirate, as unamused as ever, then focused on the phone. His eyes widened as he understood what he was looking at.
“Whoa, wait, man. That’s Morgie? I don’t want to see him like that!” he exclaimed in shocked disgust as he turned away. Hook gaped at him for a moment.
“He’s a newt in this pic!! I don’t think it counts as anything…like that!” he spluttered. Hades’s eyebrows rose in uncertainty.
“Hey, whatever you guys are into…” he trailed off in a tone that said he wouldn’t judge but he would most definitely judge. Hook swiped at Hades’s hair like a cat batting a fly in annoyance. He didn’t dare actually touch it, because he knew the god would singe him in a heartbeat. Ask him how he knew.
“We’re not into anything,” Hook clarified in a desolate whine. “I was just trying to flirt with him!” Hades smirked at him like he didn’t believe him.
“Well then you should probably work on your typing and spelling skills,” he shot. Hook narrowed his eyes at his so-called ‘friend’.
“YOU try typing with a hook for a hand!!” he nearly shouted and the homeroom teacher tapped her pointer stick on her desk to let him know to quiet down. Hook seethed while he should have been studying for his History of Magic exam later that day.
He opened his phone screen again, poorly hiding it in his lap, and stared at his stupid typo. ‘Newts’ had certainly not been what he’d meant, but he supposed when talking to a shapeshifter, it was possible it had been misconstrued…still, how could Morgie not have caught on when he said ‘sexy pics’?
Damn it. He missed him. It had barely been twelve hours since the last texts but he actually missed the bloke. He had to figure this out.
‘Hey’ he texted Morgie.
Then ‘When’s your lunch period?’ He wasn’t sure if he’d get a response after not replying himself last night, but his phone went off as he left homeroom.
‘1’ it simply said. Hook would have to miss the second half of a class, but he didn’t have any exams in that one today so whatever.
‘Meet me in the courtyard? By the willow tree?’ he sent.
‘Please’ he tacked on. A full five minutes passed before his phone lit up with an answer. It felt like half a lifetime.
‘Ok’
Hook frowned as he read the short word over and over. Morgie’s responses were definitely flatter than usual. Ugh, this actually liking someone and caring what they thought was so complicated! But he was willing to meet so that was something.
Hook counted down the hours until then, probably did badly on his test, and peeked at his phone every chance he got. Morgie really was extremely cute, even as a newt. At five minutes to one, he slipped out of the door of his classroom, wanting to be punctual.
There he was, an enigma wrapped in green satin and sunshine, literally watching the clouds and grinning at the sky. Hook’s heart stuttered for a couple of beats and he realized he was actually nervous. No one made the fearsome Captain Hook nervous. Except a gorgeous sorcerer boy who could turn into a newt.
“Hey,” Hook said as he got close. They hadn’t had much interaction in person after starting to text, and if Morgie still liked him, Hook knew he wanted that to change. Texting was easy, and noncommittal. And Morgie deserved better.
“Hey,” Morgie answered, and a tentative smile flashed across his face, which was encouraging.
“Beautiful day, aye?” Hook tried, and almost winced at himself. He was opening with the weather? Really?
“Yeah,” Morgie agreed, “Not too cold, not too hot, you know.” He was giving Hook nothing here, no indication of how they were doing. The pirate decided to take the flying leap.
“Look, I wanted to talk to you because…I wanted to make sure I didn’t…offend you or something. Yesterday.” Morgie blinked at him as if he could read his mind if he stared long enough.
“Offend me?” he finally said.
“Aye, by asking for…you know…” So he was much braver saying stuff over text to the boy he had a massive crush on, so sue him!
“Newts?” Morgie asked, and giggled. Hook’s heart swelled at the beauty of that sound. He was so screwed. Hook sighed and sank onto the bench they were standing next to.
“You really thought that’s what I was asking?” Hook tried to keep his tone gentle but he feared some incredulity leaked out. Morgie shrugged.
“That’s what it said. So, that’s what I did.” He then started turning pink around the ears, confirming the fact that he was too sweet for words.
“I know that second one was a little goofy, but I hoped you’d get a kick out of it.” His lingering smile faded completely away and Hook was painfully reminded that he never had responded to that text. Morgie had taken that pic for him, and he’d left him on read all night.
“Morgie?” Hook motioned for him to come sit next to him, praying he would and breathing again when he did. Having him this close was nice.
“Those pictures were adorable,” Hook said sincerely. Morgie’s eyes lit up with the praise, like the stars on a summer night. “But ‘newts’ wasn’t quite what I meant. Not at all what I meant, actually.”
“I thought it was a little odd,” Morgie admitted. “But I figured maybe you want to see me in full shift.” Then he squinted at him.
“Wait. Then what did you mean?”
Here, in the light of day, face to face, other people within view, it wasn’t the easiest thing to say. Hook had set himself up for this, however, and he was going to see this through now. He felt his own cheeks warm up. He leaned in a bit towards Morgie to make sure he wasn’t overheard.
“Nudes,” he said in a subdued voice. “It was a typo.”
Now Morgie’s whole face turned pink, which was the cutest thing Hook had ever seen, and his lips quirked into a smirk. Then he laughed briefly again. Hook wasn’t sure how to take any of this.
“Oh!” Morgie exclaimed, apparently seeing that Hook was being serious. “Like, as a human?” His eyes were playful now, dancing like Hook enjoyed so much.
“Aye. Aye…as a human,” he clarified. The smirk grew on Morgie’s expression as he gave Hook a hooded look that made the pirate’s blood jump in his veins.
“Ohhh,” Morgie said, this time in a deeper tone. He moved closer to Hook on the bench, until their legs were nearly touching.
“Maybe we can arrange that,” he said slyly. Then like rippling water, his expression grew serious again. “But you should know, I don’t do that for just anybody.” Hook met the hazel eyes that he loved so much, and never wanted to stop looking into.
“What about for a boyfriend?” he said, barely above a whisper. He took a deep breath, hoping Morgie could tell he wasn’t messing around, and for good measure, he found the boy’s hand with his own. It was warm and heavy in his, and best of all it didn’t move away.
“A boyfriend could definitely get those privileges,” Morgie intoned meaningfully.
“And newts as well,” he added with a cheeky grin. Hook was never going to live this down. But that was fine if it helped him win the heart of the wonder that was Morgie le Fay.