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nonuggetshere · 1 year

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OKAY, WAYWARD ROYALS AU TIME

PV in this AU is named Flower, which is what I'm gonna use instead of the acronym. Gonna use a read more because Holy Shit there's a lot once again

So like I mentioned in this post, their relationship was rocky at first. Pale King and White Lady were crushed by guilt and regret, and not only did they not want to deal with these emotions, but they were also under the belief that their child didn't want them in their life after everything that happened. So, they became distant and while they made an effort to be pleasant and respectful to them, it was nothing more than that. It was awkward, and Flower's insistence on continuing to act emotionless and only giving them short responses with either a nod or a shake of their head just solidified their idea that they didn't want them as their parents. Meanwhile, Flower thought they were angry with them and didn't love them anymore, so they started to avoid them too whenever they could to deal with these feelings of abandonment on their own. Communication is not this family's strongest suit.

But they do have to work together to get home or even to raise geo for supplies and to pay the stag that so graciously offered his services. So, whenever they arrived at another civilization, kingdom or otherwise, they'd split up and try to get the odd jobs to raise money and buy supplies. White Lady would default to selling the flowers and plants she grew, while Flower got an odd job here and there usually where somebody needed some muscle to help. Meanwhile, Pale King dusted off his hunting skills and would make tools and leather from the things they didn't eat to sell (he eventually taught Flower how to hunt as well). They'd spend a few days at any given place before moving on again.

At some point, Pale King and White Lady decide to try and at least bridge the gap somewhat between them and save up for a gift for them. It's a little rose made of gold with a light blue ribbon tied to its stem. They thank them and put the rose in their pocket before simply walking away.

They of course cherish that gift and almost cry from it when they're alone, but they would rather die than cry in front of their parents at that point so they quickly evacuated themself from their presence. Meanwhile, the Pale King and White Lady think they didn't like their gift and Pale King especially proceeds to have a mini-crisis about it, like "Oh God, what if they think we think their love is something we could buy?! We're so stupid!". Once again, like 99% of their problems would be resolved if any of these assholes just talked to each other.

But regardless of what their parents think, they keep that rose close and cherish it more than anything.

Enter trouble, stage left.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Flower has a near-death experience courtesy of One Motherfucker.

His name is Norel Stillbreath (people in this AU have surnames simply because I love picking surnames, especially fantasy ones (PK's and his family's surname is Palelight, go figure.)), a grapeleaf skeletonizer moth (when I made him I didn't consider the fact that he's a moth that important but now I find it hilarious that the source of their problems always seem to be moths.)

He's been obsessed with gaining immortality for ages and has eventually set his sights on void after meeting an escaped vessel years ago. Since then he's been studying this substance and hunting down any vessels to experiment on, many of which ended up dead as the result. He's managed to worm out information from a few of them so he knows about the Baby Pit and has been keeping track on Flower for a bit now, whom he's very interested in thanks to their status of a God. He's an absolute scumbag who only thinks to further his own agenda and I think he's a pretty fun foil to PK, though that part was completely accidental (didn't meant to make him a foil, I just thought "hey you know what'd be fucked up?" and made him).

When he learns that they're away from Hallownest he pounces on that chance right away and begins tracing their steps, eventually setting a trap for them with the help of an ant queen and her army whom he managed to manipulate onto his side. When they arrived at her kingdom and Flower was alone, they cornered them. It took a lot of manpower because they were a god, after all, but eventually, they brought them down, even if it took a lot of casualties on their side.

They're bound in chains and dragged away. Norel plans on keeping them pacified by keeping them just on the brink of death, where they need to use SOUL to regenerate constantly and so can never get enough strength to break out of their chains and not enough SOUL to cast spells or focus. He clips their claws too short and muzzles them as well, before they're thrown in a small, cold cell.

Their parents realise something was wrong when they don't show back up to meet up with them. To keep a long, boring part short, they manage to track down where they were after a week and broke into Norel's hideout to break them out.

Facing his imminent demise at the hands of two very angry gods, Norel decided to twist the knife just a little bit. A last hurrah before he plunges into the waters below after he flew too close to the sun.

"Where is our child?!" "Oh, it's your child now, is it?"

He mocks them, calls Pale King a hypocrite and says he's even worse than he is. Sure, he might have killed and hurt the vessels, many of whom were children, but at least he wasn't their father, somebody who should have protected them from the very evil he embodied. He ends by throwing that golden rose to them, now covered in blood and void and the ribbon torn.

They're shocked, they didn't think their child kept it.

"The brat wouldn't let go of the damn thing. Like a petty child refusing to let go of their toy."

They're clearly distressed, so he pushes it further. He mentions how they wouldn't stop crying and screaming for the two of them, putting on a childish, mocking tone.

He actually managed to get away, injured but alive, just because I want Flower to be the one to kill him later on. They deserve to go apeshit💜 Pale King wanted to follow, but his queen pulled him back and said that finding their child was more important

Pale King and White Lady find them barely conscious in their cell and break them out, and are taken outside and patched up. Their father hands them back the rose and their face lights up just a little. They keep it closer to themself, then pass out shortly after.

They immediately head off to the nearest kingdom with healing springs and try to make them feel as comfortable as possible on the cart. The two of them proceed to break down over this entire situation. They wonder if what Norel said was true, if they really cried for them for help and called them mum and dad. At that moment they decide to be better parents to them (plus, seeing Norel was almost like looking in the mirror, and PK Did Not Liked That. It did slapped some (more) sense into him)

They finally arrive at the kingdom and they help Flower get to the springs. Pale King sits with them while White Lady goes to get some food for them. He lets them lay their head on his lap and they almost doze off, they're so exhausted from everything. Then their mum returns with some sweet buns and they let out that soft "mmrp?" cat start-up sound (killing both their parents on the spot). They just rest and eat, and afterwards, the two finally apologise for everything and promise them they're going to be better people and parents.

That's pretty much THAT scenario, will make more posts and answer any asks y'all would like to send later but I've been writing this for a long while know and I need a break fkfbfjf

Some side notes though!

Flower/PV didn't take this beating laying down, the entire time that they were in captivity they fought back and gave Norel and his followers quite a bit of wounds. They're strong and resilient, and that bitch if a moth didn't manage to break them.

Also, I didn't make Norel just to make Pale King look better by comparison, I don't vibe with these types of characterizations. I just love a fucked up man 💜 Also when I first made Norel, PK was admittedly way more of a scumbag before I decided to rewrite FaaF (and by extension Wayward Royals) to make it sadder for me, aka the whole "they shouldn't have been loved and they shouldn't have loved back, but they were and they did anyway" thing I mentioned in the FaaF post. I also have AUs where PK is a complete asshole, because I love all shades of grey for this morally grey little rat. Just mentioning it so that people don't get the wrong impression about Norel, he's like that because I love complete scumbags that are unapologetically evil, not because I wanna make that wet tissue of a man PK look better by comparison

#thylacines can talk #wayward royals au #WOW THIS TOOK A FUCKING WHILE HUH #I don't feel like proof reading this bitch so if you see types or weird autocorrections. That's why

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ratonnhhaketon · 3 years

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Still Breathing

Read on Ao3 | Next Chapter

Summary: Six months after the defeat of Thanos, the world is still in chaos. The threat of the Flag Smashers combined with the new headstrong Captain America means it's time for Valencia Zicari to help save the world one more time. But, in doing so, she also has to pick up the pieces of a broken relationship.

Warnings: Major TFATWS spoilers, Swearing, Angst, Fluff, Slow-Burn, John Walker (just in general)

A/N: HHH, new fic time! TFATWS has been consuming my brain these past few weeks and it was only a matter of time before I made another oc and wrote for Bucky. I’ve had this in the works since the first episode but I’m super excited to finally be ready to start posting! This fic will be relatively short but I do also plan on doing a prequel fic eventually to further flush out my marvel oc, Valencia Zicari. I apologize that this starts off kinda slow, with just two phone calls at the beginning, but it will pick up a lot in the upcoming chapters. In the meantime if you have any questions or comments about the fic or Val’s story, don’t hesitate to send them my way! Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1 - Your Number On Speed Dial

Bucky’s eyes shot open, his throat closing and lungs gasping for air. He felt the sweat covering his body, the thin blanket tangled between his legs. The cool metal of his dog tags swung against his chest as he sat up, chest heaving as he sucked in breaths and tried to regain his breathing. He looked around his surroundings, slowly calming down as he noticed he was in his apartment.

Another goddamn nightmare.

Realizing he was alone, Bucky instinctively reached up onto the chair next to him for his cellphone. He flipped open the phone, eyes squinting to adjust to the light of the small screen in front of him. He noticed the time, 3:08 am. While he knew that she would more than likely still be up and wouldn’t mind talking, he felt guilty for instinctively reaching out for her this late. Still, he let his hand press accept and after only two rings he heard her familiar voice pick up.

“Hi Buck,” she said with a smile, exhaustion evident in her voice.

“Hi,” he replied with a hoarse voice, sleep still clinging to his vocal chords. “Shouldn’t you be asleep?”

“I could ask you the same question,” she said with a small laugh. “But, yeah. Probably. I’ve been working my ass off trying to get in contact with Fury and nothing is working.”

“Not even through the SHIELD lines?”

She sighed, a hand coming up to rub at her temples. “I’ve tried, but he’s ‘on vacation’ and is only taking messages if they’re life or death.”

“I mean, shouldn’t he be able to make an exception for you? Given, y’know..”

“Unfortunately I lost the ‘you’re my adoptive daughter’ privilege when I decided to grow up and join the Avengers.” Bucky chuckled in response, his nightmare finally starting to fade from the back of his mind. “I’m just.. worried about Wanda. The whole situation still isn’t sitting right with me, especially since any information has been classified and no one at all can access it.”

“Val,” Bucky said quietly, his metal hand coming up to rub against the chain hanging around his neck. “When was the last time you took a break?”

He heard an audible sigh over the phone and a pause before she spoke up. “Not since half of the world disappeared.”

“Well, how about this. Thursday, you finally put all of that aside for a few hours and we can grab lunch. I’ll buy.”

She thought it over for a moment, Bucky’s breath hitching in his throat in the few seconds it took before she spoke up. “Yeah, that sounds nice. We can go to that sushi place you used to take me to.”

“Sounds perfect, doll. I’ll see you then. Now go get some rest.”

“You too, old man.”

~~~~~

Valencia stood in the common room of the compound, a scowl present on her face as she watched the tv. John Walker’s Good Morning America interview was playing at a low volume. She hadn’t even met the man yet and already hated him. Partly because of how he talked about Steve without knowing the first thing about him, and partly because every journalist in the state of New York had been contacting her in an attempt to interview her about the new Captain America. Pulling her eyes away from the screen, she noticed her phone vibrating to announce an incoming call. She answered, a smile tugging at her lips for the first time in the past day. “Hey Bucky.”

“Hi,” he said shortly. She could feel the anger in his voice. “Have you seen the news?”

“Absolutely,” she replied, her scowl returning to her face. “Everyone has been bothering me about it for the past day. I had to tell Pepper that if one more reporter asked to take a statement from me I’d throw someone out of a window.”

“Jeez. Little harsh, don’t ya think?”

“Probably,” she said with a small laugh.

“Hey, have you talked to Sam recently?”

“Yeah, I was just talking to him earlier before you called. He was telling me about having to go to Munich today, something about the Flag Smashers? I don’t know, he didn’t really give me a lot of information.”

“No, that's great. Thanks, doll. See you Thursday.”

“Alright, Buck. See you then.”

~~~~~

Any normal person would be astonished by the amount of trouble one person could get into in the span of 18 hours. But, in terms of being an Avenger, it’s just a normal Wednesday. Especially when it’s Sam and Bucky’s fault. But, Valencia still found a way to be freaking out when Pepper rushed into her room, shoving a phone into her face to announce that Bucky had a warrant out for his arrest. And had subsequently ended up in a Baltimore jail.

In under an hour she had flown down to the city and found the facility Bucky was being held in. She pulled open the door to the jail, eyes quickly scanning the crowd of people before landing on Bucky’s literal partner in crime.

She made a beeline straight for the dark haired man. “You want to explain to me what’s going on here, Sam Wilson?” Eyes narrowed, lips pulled into a tight line.

Upon seeing her he pushed himself out of his chair. “Val! How ya’ been? You been doing okay?”

“Oh cut the shit, Sam. You better have a good explanation for why I found out that Bucky not only had a warrant out for his arrest, but then ended up in a Baltimore jail leaving me to haul ass down here to figure out what in the hell is happening.”

“First, I need you to calm down. Promise me you won’t freak out?”

She glared at him. “Are you-”

“Val,” he said in a stern tone.

She let out a huff before nodding. “Alright, fine. I’m calm.”

“He helped me with that mission in Munich I told you about and then wanted to introduce me to someone in Baltimore. And he may have missed his therapy appointment in the process.”

“He missed-!” Val immediately yelled out, voice louder than anticipated, which drew the attention of the people around them. Sam put an arm around her shoulder and led the two of them over towards an unoccupied side of the room. “Sam, are you serious? He’s been doing so well! He put in so much effort to make sure he made the appointments and you let him go with you?”

“First of all, I told him repeatedly that I didn’t want him coming, but you know how stubborn he is.”

She let out a defeated sigh and dropped her hands to her sides. “So what do we do now?”

“Well lucky for you they’re actually releasing him.”

Before Val could reply she was cut off by the sound of heels clicking before a familiar voice spoke near them. “Sam. I’ve heard a lot about you.” She reached out to shake his hand. “I’m Dr. Raynor. I’m James’s therapist. It’s good to see you again, Valencia.”

Val gave her a smile. “Good to see you too, doc.”

“So nice to meet you. You two already know each other?”

“I took Bucky to the first few of his appointments to make sure that he would, y’know, actually go. But that was before..” she waved a hand in the air, “everything.”

Sam nodded. “Well thank you, Dr. Raynor, for getting him out.”

“Oh, that wasn’t me.”

From across the room a booming voice spoke up, instantly grabbing their attention. “Christina!” The three of them all turned in unison and were met with none other than the new Captain America himself, taking pictures with a bunch of fans. “It’s great to see you again.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. You know him?” Sam spoke up with a frustrated sigh.

“Yeah, we did some field ops back in the day.”

“I heard you were working with Bucky, so I thought I’d step in.” Val watched as he approached the group, her arms instinctively crossing over her chest. “Miss Zicari, it’s nice to finally meet you. I’ve been trying to reach out for a formal introduction for several days now.”

“It’s Agent, actually. And unlike you I’ve had a lot of other pressing matters that required my attention.”

“Right. Well, anyway. Bucky’s not gonna be following a strict schedule any longer.”

“What?”

“We haven’t finished our work. Who authorized this?”

“Um,” John used both hands to gesture up towards himself. “He’s too valuable of an asset to have tied up.”

Val’s attention went from John to the sound of a metal door closing behind her. Her head turned towards the sound and she was met with none other than a familiar set of blue eyes side-eyeing the blonde man in front of her. She felt the corner of her mouth turn up in a half-smile as his head turned and saw hers. Almost instantly the token frown he wore at all times faded and turned into his own partial smile. She walked over to him, her arms finding their way around his neck subconsciously. “Hey, Buck,” she breathed as his arms wove around her middle, pulling their bodies flush together.

“Hey to you too,” he said with a small laugh. “Pepper finally let you leave the compound?”

She pulled away to look at him. “Less her letting me leave and more so her immediately getting me a flight and shoving me out the door when she found out you got arrested.”

“Alright lovebirds, break it up.” Dr. Raynor said from behind them. Val’s arms dropped to her side and before she had the chance to correct her, the woman spoke up again. “James, condition of your release, session now.” Bucky let out an audible groan, rolling his eyes slightly, to which Val couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle. “You too, Sam.”

“That’s okay, I’ll be out here with Val.”

“That wasn’t a request.”

She pulled her phone from the pocket of her leather jacket and noticed an incoming call. “Just go, I’ll be outside. I gotta take this anyway.” Val walked outside of the jailhouse, sliding a thumb across the screen to answer the call in the process. She partially paid attention to what Pepper was telling her as the new Captain America walked past her, obviously checking her out with a side-eye as she leaned against the chipped bricks. Her eyes narrowed at him as he turned to steal another glance her way before turning her eyes away and down the opposite side of the road.

“Yeah, he’s okay… no, I don’t know the specifics of how it works out with the pardon... I’ll keep you updated, but it doesn’t look like I’ll be back any time soon. I kinda feel like I’ll be joining the idiots on whatever they plan on doing next… Alright, I will. Keep me updated on the whole Westview situation and tell Morgan to stop stealing the snacks from my room. Oh, haha. Take care, Pepper.”

As she hung up the phone she saw the door next to her swing open with a visibly angry Sam walking out of it. Bucky trudged out a few seconds later, looking angry but more upset than the man in front of him. As the door started to close behind him he saw Val and walked over to her.

“Do you think Steve was wrong about me?” She could tell he was fighting back tears by the way his voice cracked at the end.

Her hands cupped his face. “Bucky, no, absolutely not. Why would you say that?”

He looked away, not able to look her in the eye. After all the nights they spent together, her talking him down from a nightmare, reassuring him and chasing the negative thoughts away, he couldn’t admit that part of him still felt that same way. “It.. doesn’t matter.”

“If it’s making you this upset, then yes it does.”

He let out a huff as her thumb began to lightly rub against the stubble on his cheek. “Sam shouldn’t have given up the shield.”

“I know, Buck, I know. But there’s nothing we can do now, so let’s just try to figure out what’s happening with..” she lifted a hand from his face and used it to make vague gestures around them. “Everything right now.”

The loud siren from a police cruiser halted their conversation, the sound making Val physically jump. She looked towards the source of the sound and scowled. This asshole again. “Gentlemen,” John’s eyes scanned Val’s figure quickly before adding, “and lady. Good to see you again.” Begrudgingly, she followed Sam and Bucky’s lead and walked towards the blonde haired man and his sidekick. “Look, if we divide ourselves we don’t stand a chance, you guys know that.”

Sam crossed his arms over his chest. “So what do you got?”

“Should she be hearing this?” John gestured to Val.

She scoffed. “I’m on board now, so out with it.”

“Alright. Well the leader’s name is Karli Morgenthau. We’ve been targeting civilians that have been helping Karli move from place to place. They geotagged a location, then scrambled the signal. But our satellites have found their symbol popping up in various displaced communities all across Central and Eastern Europe. We think that she's taking the medicine she just stole to one of these camps.”

“Well there’s been hundreds of those put up across the planet since The Blip,” Valencia interjected. “So I guess you’ll have to look real hard.”

“Good thing I have 20/20 vision, huh?” John shot back, annoyance prevalent in his voice.

“Where is she now, Walker? Do you know?” Bucky spoke up, patience quickly being stretched thin.

“No, we don’t know, Bucky,” Walker’s voice rose dramatically. “It’s only a matter of time before we find out.”

Bucky cocked his head to the side, eyes narrowing at the man in front of him. “Things are really tense for you, aren’t they Walker?” Val rested a gentle hand against Bucky’s chest, holding him back as a reminder not to do anything irrational- although she definitely wanted him to.

Sam approached the super soldier, putting a hand in the air to further make him back off. “Take it easy. Look, Walker’s right. It is imperative that we find them and stop them. But you guys have rules of engagement and all kinds of authorizations you have to get. We're free agents. We're more.. flexible. So it wouldn't make sense for us to work with you.”

The trio started to walk off before Walker stood up from the cruiser and spoke. “A word of advice, then.” The three of them turned to look at him once again. “Stay the hell out of my way.”

Knowing that it wasn’t worth it to get a final word in, Sam put a hand on either of their shoulders and pushed them to keep walking away. Once they were a reasonable distance down the street, Val turned to Bucky and noticed he was deep in thought. “What’s on your mind, Buck?” she asked with a hand coming up to rest on his shoulder.

“Well, I know what we have to do. When Isaiah said “my people”...” he trailed off, still staring ahead.

“Oh, don’t take that to heart. That’s not what he meant-” Sam tried to correct him before Bucky cut him off.

“No, he meant HYDRA.” He paused for a moment, feet coming to a stop as he looked between the pair next to him. “HYDRA used to be my people.”

“Bucky,” Val spoke up cautiously.”

Sam scoffed. “Not a chance.”

“Walker doesn’t have any leads.”

“I know where you’re going with this, no.”

“He knows all of HYDRA’s secrets. Don’t you remember Siberia.”

“Oh, you cannot be serious,” Val said as she dragged a tired hand over her face.

“So you’re just gonna sit in a room with this guy?”

Bucky hesitated for a moment, obviously not thinking about his idea that much ahead of time. “Y-yes.”

Val sighed, shaking her head slightly. “Out of all your ideas, this has got to be the dumbest.” She looked at Sam, who shrugged his shoulders and nodded. “Fine. Let’s go see Zemo.”

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