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revasserium · 8 months ago

Note

hi! I've been reading your opla!zoro stuff and I wanted to tell you your writing is so gorgeous! it's truly breathtaking, you're really talented ❤️ i've looked through your prompts tag, im not sure how requesting works, but could I ask for "edge of falling" or "the spaces between us" (whichever one you like the most) with zoro and fem!reader? i'm a goner for longing and feelings realization and the prompts give me those vibes, but i'm sure anything you write will be lovely <3

reqs are open!

the edge of falling

opla!zoro; 7,475 words; fluff and angst, hurt/comfort, passing mentions of: cult!, physical violence, & trauma/cult-programming, ex-cult member!reader, strawhat!reader, traumatized!reader, protective!zoro, healing from past trauma, learning to trust etc, angst with a happy ending!, a metric TON of plot

summary: "Lie to me," Time said to Love; Love smiled and said, "I promise, I'll never let you slip away."

a/n: thank u for the request anon!!! i uhm idk what happened with this fic tbh. there's def uh -- longing of SOME kind here??? welp. pls read the tw list! there's some dark-ish content in this. but i promise it ends well u__u

prelude: in which a fox teaches you to speak

Time is the greatest liar, so you are told, over and over and over. For the longest time, you think it’s the only truth you’ll ever know.

But we will live forever…

So long as you do the things you’re told. So long as you make the Fox happy. So long, so long, so long.

There is no way to mark the passage of time in the compound; with no sunlight to guide the way, you are left to other, more primal ways of keeping track — that elusive, silver-fish creature — time — always slipping through your fingers when want to hold on most.

You measure it in wounds, in the time it takes for a fresh wound to seal over, for the scab to break and reveal the soft, tender pink flesh beneath. You measure it in gulps of water, in bites of cold food, in the droplets of artificial rain that they let fall through the ceiling sometimes. You measure it in rewards too, in long baths and hot meals, in the evenings when the Fox would tell you stories in his low, lilting voice instead of leaving you in his seething silences.

And he is ever so good with stories. If you stay still and keep quiet, and let his voice wash over you like a hungry tide across a rain-starved beach, you can feel the words seeping into your bones, ringing out till they feel like nothing but god’s given truth.

As long as you’re good… I promise I’ll make you live forever.

Like this, you learn the weapon of words, the power of speech, how to listen for lies, and how to tell them, and tell them, and tell them.

The Fox is good at lying; you’ll just have to learn to be better.

act i: yet another sad, desperate soul

Roronoa Zoro has never been a man of many words, but it would be remiss to say that he isn’t a man of his word — you see, when he does speak, he speaks with intention. And always, with conviction.

“Hey. No one’s gonna hurt you anymore.”

This, then, is the first lie he tells you.

“Liar.” You spit out the word, drawing back, your body a tangle of livewire nerves, your eyes darting back and forth, an entire life’s worth of fight and flight caught on the hair-pin trigger of his breath as he jolts back slightly and blinks at you.

“Y-you — you can’t know that,” you say, your voice still ragged. But Zoro sees it for the attempt it is — an olive branch, however tentatively extended. And he takes it, wordlessly.

He nods once, reaching out to help you up. The compound crumbles around you, and you unconsciously wrap your arms around yourself, as if to hold yourself together, to keep from shattering into a hundred million tiny little shards of pain and mistrust.

“The fox-guy’s dead! But it looks like this whole island’s gonna blow!” Nami races out of the massive, temple-esque structure just as it starts to collapse from the inside out.

Luffy slingshots passed, cackling as Sanji and Usopp bring up the rear. On the Merry, Robin and Chopper are waiting, and the second Zoro manages to hoist you onto the main deck, the ship careens off into the dark tumult of waves.

You skitter away the minute Zoro’s arm slips from around your waist, and he turns to find you pressing yourself back against the railings, staring at them all with wide eyes, your expression caught halfway between fear and consternation. He takes half a step back, crossing his arms just as Luffy bounds forward with a bright, unassuming smile.

“Don’t worry! You’re safe now!” He makes to slap one of your shoulders but you duck out of the way, chewing on your bottom lip.

Robin clears her throat gently and offers you a smile, “We’re not going to hurt you.”

You narrow your eyes, your gaze darting between them like a trapped animal, but after another beat of stillness (punctuated only by Nami swearing softly to herself as she steers the Merry around a particularly difficult formation of rocks), your entire body seems to soften, and Zoro uncrosses his arms again, resting a hand casually on the hilt of his blades.

“Th-thank you…” you bob your head once, swallowing hard passed chapped lips and a raw throat. Your white linen dress is stained with blood and dirt, a tear at your collar making it slip from your shoulder.

“’S alright now, darlin’ — how bout we run you a nice, hot bath? I could cook you just about anything y’like. Fancy a drink as well? I think a bubbly would be good for a —”

“Lay off, cook.” Zoro cuts Sanji off with a scoff, barring Sanji’s approach with an arm in the gut.

You watch them with dark eyes, your expression curiously blank.

“Will you let me look at your wounds?” Chopper offers.

You jump a little at his voice, piping up from your left side. You glance at Zoro once before looking back at Chopper and nodding.

Sanji tucks his hands into his pockets and watches as Chopper leads you beneath the deck, Zoro following a few steps behind. He lights a cigarette as soon as the trap door clanks shut.

A beat of silence, and then —

“Wow, that island really, really sucked!” Luffy says, turning back to his crew.

Sanji lets out a puff of smoke as Usopp slumps down against the main mast with a groan.

“You can say that again.”

“What happened?” Robin asks.

Sanji sighs, shaking his head, “Trust me, you don’t wanna know.”

Below deck, Chopper dabs at your wounds with expert ease as you sit very still on the kitchen island and Zoro watches from the sofa, arms crossed loosely over his chest.

“These surface wounds aren’t that bad but…” Chopper trails off, his eyes running over the network of old scars that mar your skin, layers and layers of them — down your arms and along your torso.

“It’s fine,” you say, your voice smooth as polished marble, “I’m —” you swallow, “I’m fine.”

And if it weren’t for the hiccup, the slight hitch in your breath, you would’ve been utterly convincing. Your expression is flat, your voice, even more so.

Across the room, Zoro makes disbelieving noise, “If it hurts, just say so. Chopper’ll fix it.”

“I’m… I’m fine,” you say again, tugging at the sleeve of your torn shift, your tone now a bit more honest, your words tired and resigned. Zoro looks to Chopper, who gives a faint nod of acquiescence before Zoro stands up and jerks his head towards the door.

“Cook’s right — you should wash up before dinner.”

You follow him down the hallway, through a small door that leads into a washroom that’s much cleaner than one might expect a ship’s bathroom to be. A large, wooden soaking tub sits in the middle of the room, and a clean change of clothes has already been laid out on a bench next to the bath.

Zoro grunts after he takes a once-over of the room, satisfied that all’s in order, and makes to leave.

You tug at his sleeve, head lowered.

“Can you…” you lick your lips, “can you stay?”

Zoro glances down at your fingers curled into his shirt sleeve before his eyes flick up to find your face. You’re looking at some indiscriminate point over his left shoulder, but your lips are trembling and your jaw is set.

He lets out a long breath, slowly twisting his body towards the room and you.

“Sure.”

He makes a show of turning around to face the door as you slip off your clothes and sink into the steaming bath water. A long exhale and the light slosh of water is all the indication he gets that it’s safe to turn back around.

He leans himself against the door, his swords propped on his shoulder, his head lolled back, his eyes closed.

He listens to the soft sounds of the water, to the faint splashes as you rub the grit and grime from your skin, inch by inch.

“We were only allowed to bathe as a reward for doing a good deed.”

Your voice makes him open his eyes, his gaze focusing in on the shape of you, nearly submerged in the bathtub, your hair slick and sticking to your pale shoulders. Even in this dim lighting, he can see the patterns your scars make against your skin. Water glimmers along the contours of your face as you run your palms along your cheeks, rubbing at them till they’re ruddy with color.

Zoro ticks his tongue against his teeth, “Quit bein’ so rough,” he moves forward without thinking, reaching out a hand to help you with some of the more stubborn pieces of dirt but he pauses, realizing how utterly still you’ve gone.

You stare at him for a long moment before relaxing back into the water and shifting towards the edge of the tub to allow him better access.

He runs a callused thumb along your cheekbones, wiping away the remaining dirt there.

“What was a ‘good deed’?” he asks, letting the tips of his fingers skim the warm water’s surface.

You shrug, “Mostly anything that made Mr. Fox happy… so all of us would —” you take another breath, your hand opening and closing beneath the surface of the still bath water, “we’d spend all our waking hours trying to think of something — anything — that’d please him. No matter how small… no matter how… terrible.”

“This Mr. Fox… what was his deal, anyway?”

You stare down into the dark water, now rapidly cooling from warm to lukewarm.

You take a deep breath, lifting a hand out of the water to distort the image of your ghostly reflection.

“He… was a liar. Except… he could make all his lies sound like the truth.”

“It was uncanny, really,” Sanji says, now at full throttle in the kitchen prepping for dinner service, Usopp lounging on sofa, his feet propped up on the hanging table.

Chopper and Robin both frown.

“What do you mean?” Robin asks.

“It was like… the guy could say anything and make it sound like the truth — even though you knew somewhere inside you that it can’t be real. Like — he could tell you the sky was green and every single part of you would believe him, even though you’re outside and starin’ up at the sky.”

“Yeah! Like he said I’d never be able to beat him and… for a second, I kinda almost believed him!” Luffy offers, munching on a bushel of apples and spitting out the seeds.

Robin’s brows furrow, tapping at her chin with a thin finger.

“It sounds like the Uso-Uso no Mi…”

“Ugh, what a weird, scary power…” Chopper shudders, shaking his head, his tiny hooved hands coming up to cup his cheeks, “I’m sure it’d mess with people’s heads!”

“It sure did. But he also used it to feed false information to the Marines,” Nami says, slipping through the half-opened door to join the rest of the crew on the sofa, “ran a series of taverns that just so happened to be situated in major Marine towns.”

Sanji glances up from a huge, steaming pan of paella, a cigarette caught between his teeth.

“So what was his end goal then? Just to fuck over the Marines?”

Back in the bathroom, you run your fingers along the edge of the tub as if playing an invisible piano.

“Power, domination… I don’t think he had a goal or purpose… I think… he just got off on it…”

Your voice is light, conversational, almost as if you were talking about the weather. But Zoro sees the glazed look in your eyes, the tightness at the edges of your lips.

“You called me a liar,” he says, reaching into the tub and flicking you lightly with a bit of water.

You blink, a smile threatening the corners of your mouth.

“Yeah… guess I did.”

“I wasn’t lying.”

He pulls out his hand and wipes it on a towel, leaning back to stare at you.

You shrug, “Sometimes… people lie to others, and sometimes, people lie to themselves. It’s the ones we tell ourselves that are always the most convincing.”

“I don’t lie. ‘Specially not to myself.”

You let out a tiny laugh, “But I guess… sometimes, if you believe in something hard enough… it’ll just start to be come the truth.”

There’s a note of… something in your voice that Zoro doesn’t like, but he can’t put a name to the feeling so he stays quiet as you continue the laborious work of scrubbing your skin clean, till all the water in the tub’s gone cold.

The rest of the evening passes as most evenings on the Merry do after a big fight — with a lot of food and even more booze. With music and laughter, and new crew member, sitting in the corner, watching mostly and smiling occasionally. No one pushes you, though Sanji does make a valiant effort in getting you to admit to your favorite foods, and Luffy tries two or three times to drag you into the more raucous celebrations (mostly involving way too much meat being roasted on a spike).

No one questions the way Zoro never wanders too far.

No one questions the way your eyes track him around the room, or how, even when Robin and Nami finally get a laugh out of you, you still instinctively searched for Zoro’s figure till you’ve found it in the other corner, a bottle caught between his lips, his eyes half-shut but his gaze caught on you like a fish to a seaman’s hook.

act ii: everything and nothing

A week passes, and then another. And you slowly, but surely, come out of your shell — it’s a strange sort of blossoming, the way you reveal yourself in shards and pieces, jagged and jarring. The shrapnel bits of your personality peaking out amidst the flotsam and jetsam of all your manifold defense mechanisms.

You’re a brilliant liar, but even better at spotting a lie, and it’s a thing that none of the crew had ever really thought about until you’d come along, casually poking holes in their daily deceits.

“Mm! These pancakes are perfect! Just the way I like them!”

“The new dress looks beautiful, Nami.”

“I absolutely did not finish the last bag of popcorn… Luffy did it!”

You clear your throat.

“Okay fine… the pancakes were really good but… but I like them… sweeter.”

“The dress is… well, everything looks gorgeous on you, of course, you know that Nami! But — the color… clashes just a tiny little bit with your… hair.”

“I might’ve uh… taken a few bites out of the popcorn bag… last night… but I was keeping watch and I needed to keep my energy up!”

Robin titters, a sphinx-like smile spreading across her lips.

“Apparently, 60% of people lie at least once every 10 minutes,” she says, casually taking a sip of orange juice as Zoro runs through his daily training regime, seemingly unbothered by the chaos currently taking place on the main deck regarding the “popcorn incident”.

“Dunno why people bother,” Zoro says, working through a set of single-armed burpees.

“I suppose it’s just human nature. We want other people to like us… so we say what we think they might want to hear, instead of what we really think. It’s harmless, mostly,” Robin remarks, leaning back against a white planter box, basking in the shade of the tangerine trees.

“Till it isn’t,” Zoro says, finishing up his workout and pushing himself up for a long stretch. He casts his eyes once more towards where you’re now laughing as Usopp tries to think of some new tall tale to tell.

It only takes you half a second to turn your head, and Zoro wonders at the kind of life you might’ve led to make you so sensitive to another person’s gaze. What must’ve happened to warrant this kind of alertness? But then again, he’d been a hunter long enough to know exactly what being hunted looks like.

He caught a glimpse of it at the compound but — still, his fingers itch toward his swords, his jaw clenches tight enough for Robin to cock her head and raise a brow.

“Yes… until it isn’t…” she echoes, her eyes also trailing towards you.

Zoro holds your gaze for a second before rolling his shoulders and looking away, squinting at the far horizon.

“Oi. Looks like trouble.”

Robin straightens, and a second later, Chopper sounds the alarm from the crow’s nest.

“Marines! Marines!”

There is the shink of swords being drawn, the gentle echo of Robin’s voice as her arms multiply. There’s canon fire and a lot of yelling. But at the end, there’s only bodies and blood and the tattered remains of the Marine’s ship, bobbing in the stained sea below them.

“Should we go after them?” Sanji asks, lighting up a cig, watching as the tiny emergency boat rows off into the distance.

“Nah. We’ll be alright!” Luffy says, wiping a hand across his nose.

Zoro turns towards you, sheathing his swords.

“You alright?”

“I’m fine,” you say, your voice immediately taking on an unctuous sheen that makes Zoro take a step closer.

“You hurt anywhere?” he runs an appraising eye down your form and nods in the knowledge that at least you don’t look hurt.

“No… I —” you chew down on your bottom lip, fingers digging into the bare flesh of your arms. But you back away from him the moment he tries to take a step forward.

“Hey — quit that,” he taps at your wrist with the hilt of his sword, the touch hard but not harsh, forcing you to pull away.

“It’s — I’m — I’m alright,” you say, insistent and mollifying. Zoro runs his thumb against the hilt of his blades and scoffs.

“Liar,” he says, tossing the word casually back at you in a way that makes your breath hitch. Then, he turns, and marches below decks to tend to his own wounds.

A deafening silence rings out around you as you stare down at the ships blood-drenched planks before Robin places a gentle hand on your shoulder.

“C’mon now — lets get your back looked at.”

Below decks, you find Zoro dabbing gingerly at a large slash on his right arm.

“Here, you’ve missed a spot —” you reach out to take the iodine soaked cloth from Zoro’s hand, only to have him jerk away. You flinch back, wide-eyed.

Zoro softens, if only ever so slightly.

“I’m fine,” he says, a harsh edge to his voice as he goes back to trying to twist around himself enough to see the spot he’s missed. You purse your lips, watching him for a second, two seconds, three — before you glance back at the place Robin had been only to realize that she’d gone.

“May… I?” you reach out your hand, palm up, tentative and imploring. But you hold yourself still, waiting for Zoro to make the next move. And he does, eventually, sighing as he turns back around to drop the piece of cloth into your palm.

You reach forward as he turns to his side, offering up his arm as you slowly start to wipe away at the bits of dried blood caking his skin to reveal the raw, red gash, the angry, raised flesh around it. You lean forward, blowing slightly as you daub at the wound, making your way down his bicep till the entire cut’s been coated in iodine.

“There. All done.”

You lean back to toss the cloth into the sink but Zoro stops you. He catches your wrist in his good hand and with a slight tug, has you toppling forward towards his chest.

“Turn around.”

His voice is soft, but firm. And it leaves no room for protests as you stare at him for a long moment before sighing and resigning yourself to your fate. You turn to show him your back.

A disgruntled huff is all you get before you hear the distinct sounds of Zoro rummaging around the first aide kit for a fresh piece of cloth, and the pop of the iodine bottle opening again.

“Who did this?” he asks as he slowly reaches out to tug a thin spike from your skin, small as a needle and just as sharp. You bite back a wince.

“The porcupine guy…” your voice trails off as Zoro grunts.

“Right.”

He tugs out another spike; it tinks against the metal of the sink as he tosses it away. A brief sting, and then the cooling feeling of the iodine cloth.

After a few minutes of working in silence, Zoro sighs.

“Geez, he really got you bad, didn’t he?”

“Not really,” you say, and you feel Zoro’s hands pause.

“No?”

You shake your head, “I’ve… been through much worse… and lived to tell the tale so…”

Zoro doesn’t need to ask to know that you’re talking about your past on the island, inside that windowless compound. He can see it in the scars that mar nearly the entirety of your back, the criss-cross lines of what looks like knife-wounds, the occasional puckered marks that look suspiciously like burns. He steels himself then, and continues to work — plucking out a spike and cleaning out the wound.

“You were right,” he says, when he finally finishes cleaning up your back and you both straighten to face each other. He wipes his hands clean and winces slightly as he flexes his newly bandaged arm.

“Right about what?” your voice is innocent, but the flash in your eyes tells him that you know exactly what he’s talking about.

“That first day — I couldn’t protect you. I couldn’t… make sure that no one ever hurt you again.”

His fingers curl into fists at his sides and you can see the muscle ticking in his jaw as he clenches his teeth.

You reach out, tracing a thumb along his jawline. When you pull back, there’s a small daub of blood on your finger and you wipe it away without breaking his gaze.

“No, you couldn’t but… you tried.”

Zoro scoffs, “Tryin’s not good enough.”

“No,” you jerk up to glare at him, your voice harsh in a way that he’s only ever heard right after they’d rescued you, the edges of your words raw and ragged as a serrated blade, “trying is everything.”

interlude: truth or dare

It gets better after that, and you grow and bloom and grow some more. Zoro does too, though in his own way — he gets stronger, gets faster, hits harder. And though you two never quite agree on anything, he is always by your side, and you’re somehow always by his.

“’M not even a lil drunk —”

“Liar~” you singsong, giggling as Zoro shakes his head, tipping the remains of a bottle of sake back down his throat before wiping at his lips with the back of his hand.

“Mm… ‘s that all I am to you? Just another guy who lies?” Zoro swings lazily on the hammock hung on the main deck, his eyes half-lidded and alight with the dancing firelight.

“Stupid question — drink,” you answer, bringing our own bottle up to your lips.

Zoro laughs, quiet and pleased as he reaches for a new bottle.

“Alright then — truth or dare?” he asks, uncorking the new bottle and reaching out to offer you some. You bat him away, your movements languid and heavy, your back pressed against a heavy wooden barrel, one leg propped up to support your arm, the other stretched out long and lithe in front of you.

“Truth,” you say, your voice easy, your smile even more so.

“Alright then — do you trust me?” Zoro’s voice dips, and your eyes flash up. There’s a sobering light somewhere behind the alcohol soaked haze clouding his gaze and you can tell by the steadiness of his hands that he’s not nearly as drunk as he might seem.

“What do you mean?” you ask, casually evading the question.

Zoro tuts, “’S not an answer.”

“I’m asking for a clarification.”

Zoro shakes his head, taking another soft swig, “Simple question — do you trust me?”

You purse your lips, mulling over the myriad answers you could provide and make it sound like the truth. But that’s not really how the game goes. So instead, you take a deep breath.

“I — I want to,” and it’s the way your voice breaks that makes it honest, the way you can’t hold the truth in by the seams of your careful cadence, no matter how hard you try to smooth out the ragged edges.

“So… that’s a no,” Zoro says, keeping his tone even. You can’t help reaching for him — imploring.

“Not yet but —”

“Why?”

“Why… what?”

“I guess…” Zoro leans back, casting his eyes up at the wild, dark sky, careening above the ship in an ecstatic spread of stars and, long sinuous, moon-silvered clouds, “why d’you want to trust me? Doesn’t seem like something you’d be eager to do after… y’know, everything.”

You lick your lips and stare into the empty bottom of your glass.

“Honestly?” you say, “because you’re kind of a shit liar —”

Zoro lets out a soft, rumbling laugh, but doesn’t deny it.

“But… also because you’re the only person I’ve met who… who treats words so carefully — I mean…” you swallow, leaning forward slightly as Zoro drops his gaze back down to you, “it’s like — my whole life has just been people saying things they don’t really mean, and never meaning what they say, and then trying to figure out what’s really happening — trying to say the right thing, not the thing you mean but the thing you think they’d want to hear —” your breath quickens, “and — and if you don’t or if you’re bad at it, then bad things happen to you and the people you care about —”

“Hey.”

A hand presses down on your shoulder and you gasp, your breath knifing through your chest as you clasp your shaking hands to your sternum.

“Breathe. You’re okay.”

You nod, unable to say anything as Zoro sits in front of you, his hand like an anchor in a summer storm, keeping you tethered.

You breathe and take stock of your limbs — feet, legs, hands, arms. It’s then that you realize Zoro’s crouching in front of you, your drink glass resting by his side.

“Thanks,” you say, nodding as he gives your shoulder a slight squeeze before pulling away. Physical touch has never been one of your strong points, and it seems Zoro’s learned that without you ever having to tell him.

It’s strange — the sudden knowledge that somehow, his understanding of you has been wordless and implicit. Complete, from nearly the day the Straw Hats had picked you up on that island. You’d never had to explain, never had to draw your boundaries.

And yet somehow, he knew. As if he’d always just known.

“Truth or dare?” you ask him, your voice barely a whisper, shifting to make more space for him on the dark deck of the ship’s forecastle. Zoro sits down in front of you, crossing his legs.

“Dare.”

You don’t fight the grin as it lifts the side of your lips.

The quiet pulses between the pair of you like a heartbeat.

“Tell me a secret.”

“Gotta be more specific,” Zoro’s grin lilts to mirror your own.

“Any secret,” you say, “something you… something you wouldn’t otherwise say out loud.”

“Isn’t that what a secret’s supposed to be? Something you don’t say?”

You laugh, tasting the sound like a mouthful of champagne, bubbling up through you and spiraling towards the endless summer’s night.

“Quit stalling!”

“Think I wanna kiss you.”

A gasp slices through the air between you. You feel the weight of it in your throat, the white-hot flicker of his gaze as he glances down at your lips. You wet them without thinking, and as Zoro lean’s in, you can sense the night around you slowly coalescing into something warm, something solid. Like a marble clutched in a child’s palm, or a pearl held on an oyster’s velvet tongue.

“Truth or dare?” he asks.

He stops just short of your lips, his nose almost grazing yours. You can nearly taste the sweet sake on his breath —

“Dare.”

“Close your eyes.”

Your lashes flutter and for a second, an eternity revolves in the space between your heartbeats. Faintly, you register the gentle rocking of the ship as an indolent wave catches her starboard side.

You close your eyes.

For a second, there is space. For a second, there is breath. For a second, there is gravity. And then — all of that disappears. All of it eclipsed by the kiss. And then, the kiss is all there is.

All there was, and ever will be.

There’s a graze of fingers against skin, the bump of legs against legs against thighs against knees — there’s knuckles and noses and hair falling, hair being tugged into closing fists. There’s the clink-clink-clink of earrings, and the clatter-clap-clat of swords and hilts and rough, wooden planks.

There’s the dull thunk and baseline rumble of a glass being knocked over and rolling away.

But all of that is afterthought. All of that is supplement, a postscript, marginalia and footnotes.

Because there, then — there is only the kiss, and nothing but the kiss: a catastrophe of inevitability, smooth as a secret, and whisper-sweet.

When the pair of you pull away, there’s a chaos of wings against your ribcage.

There’s the honeyed, lambent light in Zoro’s eyes as he grins down at you.

“Truth — or dare,” a breathless gasp punctuates your words.

Zoro’s grin only grows as he tips your chin back between his thumb and forefinger.

“Dare.”

It’s only then that you realize his cheeks are wine-flushed, his chest rising and falling nearly as fast as yours. You swallow slow and track his eyes as he watches the pale bob of your throat.

“Kiss me again.”

act iii: fool’s gold

It takes all of three hours for Sanji to get something out of Zoro, and three days before Robin and Nami manage to wheedle something out of you.

“No seriously! Things have been different since that one party we had —” Nami presses her palm to the kitchen table, here eyes wide. Robin sits on the couch, her expression one of mixed amusement and near academic interest.

“Different how?” you reach into the cookie jar and fish out a crumbled corner of what used to be a double chocolate chip cookie.

“Ugh! You know what I mean!” Nami turns to Robin, motioning towards you, “Help me here!”

Robin laughs, tossing up a graceful hand, “I suppose something does seem… changed.”

“Something?” you ask, licking at a smudge of chocolate on your thumb.

“Well…” Robin says, drawing out the syllable and making to examine the nails on her long, thin fingers, “it’s definitely not nothing.”

You allow yourself a smile, “Something’s definitely not nothing.”

Nami lets out a frustrated groan, but she’s smiling too.

It’s been long enough that you’d learned to relax around them, and you’d since also learned that nothing is so sacred as the sanctity of sisterhood. That bonds between friends might be forged in fire and brimstone, but bonds between women are forged in cinder and smoke — in the wreckage of after, when the fighting’s been done and all that’s left is the mending.

“What’s all this giggling about?” Zoro ducks into the half-ajar door, staring at the three of you.

Nami cocks an eyebrow; Robin shrugs.

You, for your part, smile and bat your lashes.

“Oh nothing,” you say.

“Just girl-talk,” offers Nami.

“Nothing to interest a legendary swordsman like yourself,” Robin polishes off.

Zoro’s eyes narrow, his gaze jumping between the three of you before it lands on you and he scoffs.

“Yeah, whatever. We’re docking soon.”

And that’s all he offers before sauntering back out of the room, leaving the door swinging behind him, but not before you catch sight of the redness at the tips of his ears as he hurries away.

You give it a beat of three seconds before pushing to your feet and following after, humming to yourself. Behind you, Nami and Robin share a knowing look.

“Definitely not nothing,” Robin says as she stands to follow you.

The island, if it can even be called that, is nothing more than a rough conglomeration of steep cliffs strapped together by a thin band of land barely wide enough to be categorized as a beach.

“Well! This is something!” Luffy declares, his arms akimbo on his hips as he stares at the island.

“Yeah… it’s uh… something for sure,” Usopp agrees, making a face as he squints at the cluster of rocks that look more like the jagged edges of a broken bottle than any kind of proper land formation.

“We’ll just anchor here for the night… get some good rest, and then...” Sanji’s words trail off, interrupted by a ghostly wail that rises from the gathering of dark cliffs, turning them into an echo chamber until it seems to rumble through the sand beneath them.

“… gold, all gold! — no, not a liar — please!”

A shiver etches itself up your spine and instinctively, you wrap your arms around yourself.

Zoro steps out in front of you, as if to shield you from whatever might come. His thumb presses against the hilt of his swords, his shoulders tense as corded wire.

“Uh… everyone else heard that too, right?” Chopper asks, peaking out from around Robin’s legs.

“Yep. Definitely not just you,” Sanji confirms.

Luffy grins, “Seems like there’s someone else on this island! Maybe they can show us around!”

Time passes by strangely on the island — one minute, the sun is still hanging low on the far horizon, and the next, the sky is the color of a bullet wound, darkness seeping in around the horizon.

“Whoever’s here on the island — they sure aren’t making it — easy —” Sanji grunts as he hoists himself up a slippery piece of rock face, sweat glistening on his forehead as he squints into the looming blackness.

“Luffy? You sure you know where we’re going?” Nami shouts, her voice ringing back in a way that makes everyone wince and cover their ears.

Zoro grabs your elbow a second before you slip, fingers digging into your flesh even as you steady yourself against him.

“Sorry — thanks,” you say, unsure of which one you really mean.

“Yeah! I can smell something — like a campfire! And… cooking!” Luffy’s voice calls back from somewhere in the gathering dark. Everyone shares a glance before bracing themselves and trudging on.

By the time you all catch up to Luffy, no one is certain of what time it is, only that it’s dark. But the kind of darkness that seems to cling to the skin — a darkness so dense it starts to take on shape and weight.

It presses in around you and you feel your breaths shortening in your chest.

Beside you, Zoro reaches out to brace a hand at the small of your back.

“Oh! I see a light ahead! C’mon!” Luffy’s voice rings out from somewhere up ahead, followed by the patter of sandals on stone. The rest of you follow, and then all too suddenly, light flickers to life in what seems to be a huge, subterranean cave deep within the cliffs of the island. It casts stark shadows against the slick, cavernous walls.

You frown, goosebumps rising along your arms and legs.

But before you have time to dwell on the wrongness of something there, Luffy’s voice snags your attention like a thread on an errant splinter.

“Hi! Oh, wow — that looks delicious!”

You turn a corner to find Luffy hunkering down over a blazing campfire and the silhouette of someone sitting opposite him, a sharp spike held out in front of them, turning slowly over the flickering flames.

“Oh… please… come join me — sit and listen to a story — I have so many stories — so many adventures to share!” the figure across the fire seems to quiver with the dancing flames, his voice filling up the whole of the cave, loud and boisterous and eager. But strange and hollow too.

You frown, chewing on the insides of your cheeks.

Ahead of you, Usopp and Chopper both take tentative seats next to Luffy, who had cheerfully plopped down next to the fire.

“Wow, this looks great! Are you here by yourself? I’m here with my crew! Are you a pirate too?” Luffy asks, his endless enthusiasm pouring from him like a spring.

Robin, Nami, and Sanji all hold back, but you take a step forward, and then another. Something compelling you towards the voice, pulling you closer. There’s a desperation, a loneliness with which you’re all too familiar — you inch closer, and then closer, till you’re almost level with Luffy, and you lower yourself to the ground next to him, Zoro dropping down beside you, his knee pressing against your leg in a silent reassurance.

“Come… come closer! It’s a good story — I promise!”

“Truth,” you mutter, just beneath your breath. Beside you, Zoro lets out a puff of breath, though his stance doesn’t loosen.

Behind you, you can hear the distinct sounds of the rest of the crew drawing just a step closer.

“Once upon a time… there was a city on an island where everything, and I mean everything was made of gold!”

The figure across the fire sounds cheered, elated even. Behind you, you feel Nami take half a step closer. Cold seeps into your veins despite the warm, dancing flames, and your fingers dig into the hard packed earth beneath you.

“I found it — I did! With my crew — the best sailors and seamen around! But the king… he was greedy! And he wanted his own men to take the treasures, so he forced me to lead them to the city again —”

“Truth,” you say again, but something in the tone of the figure’s voice makes you frown.

“Except… the city had gone… and there was nothing left… nothing but lies!”

You shudder back, swallowing hard. All around you, the darkness presses in with long, thin tendrils like so many loving fingers. The fire flares up, casting sparks up towards the cave’s ceiling, where stalagmites hang like broken teeth in a petrified monster’s maw.

“Oh… don’t be scared… come back — I won’t hurt you —”

“Liar!” you spit, the word scraping its way out of your throat.

Zoro leaps to his feet just as Luffy does the same. The fire flares again, a second before snuffing itself out, but in that second, you finally catch sight of the figure, hooded in shadow, sitting across from you — it has the shape of a man, tall and broad, but the limbs of a spindle-legged monster. It wears the darkness like a cloak, with beady, red eyes and a too-wide mouth.

“Don’t! Call me a liar! That’s what they called me — that’s what they called when they killed me! KILLED ME FOR TELLING THE TRUTH!”

You scramble back, Zoro nearly lifting you off the ground in his haste to pull you away. Luffy whips back his arm and swings it forward but all it catches is tendrils of shadow.

“Hey! That’s not nice!” he shakes off his fist, frowning as he stares at the bits of wriggling darkness still clinging to his skin.

“Run!” you shout as everyone bolts for the lightless path you all took to get to the heart of the cave.

“NOT A LIAR! NOT A LIAR! I FOUND IT! THE CITY! BELIEVE ME! BELIEVE ME!”

You clap your hands around your ears and race for what you hope is the exit. Behind you, you can hear the distinct sounds of Zoro’s blades whistling through the air*.*

“Damnit! How’dyou fight a shadow? There’s nothin’ to hit!”

“Quit tryna hit it and just run!” Sanji’s voice answers a second before he breezes passed you.

“Why don’t you believe me? Why?!”

“We — I believe you!” you shout, your chest a thundering mess of footfalls and scrambling bodies, and against all instinct, you turn around to face the darkness again, cupping your hands around your mouth, “I believe you! I know — I know you’re telling the truth!”

“What’re you doing?” Zoro asks, leveling himself by your side, his arm pressing against yours. Behind you, the thinnest sliver of light is creeping into the cave from what you assume is the entrance.

Morning. Has it really been that long?

Time is the greatest liar, you remember, suddenly, violently, the thought tearing through you like teeth.

“I — he’s telling the truth,” you say through gritted teeth, even as you take a few steps back. Inside the cave, the figure seems to shrink back from the encroaching light.

“What truth?” Zoro asks, his blade held aloft, his stance wide and ready.

“All of it,” you say, forcing your voice to be gentle, turning your face back towards the darkness, “I know, I can hear it — I know you’re telling the truth — about the island, the city — all of it!”

“Yes… all I wanted was to get back to the city… but… no one believe me… and I died… I died for it!”

“I know, and I’m sorry… no one should be punished for telling the truth —” your voice cracks.

“I tried!”

“I know…” you say as the figure shrinks and shrinks and shrinks and the light behind you grows and grows and grows, until you can feel the warm seeping into the skin of your back.

“And trying is everything,” you say, biting your lip as Zoro wraps an arm around your waist.

“Come with me… I’ll take you to the city — we can go together!”

You shake your head, heat prickling at your eyes as you turn away from the darkness of the cave and towards the light of the oncoming day.

“Liar…” the word falls from you like a rock, or a tear, cast off the cliff that greets you and Zoro as you both stare over the edge. The rest of the crew is nowhere to be found, but Zoro’s arm is still around your waist, and you can feel his warm breath by your cheek.

“Hey — do you trust me?”

You look up; in the dawning, morning light, Zoro, with his sun-kissed skin and dark moss hair appears to be limned in gold.

And maybe it’s the air, or the sea, or simply the angry pieces of this jagged, left-behind island of shadows like broken teeth trying to tear apart the sky, conducting his voice into a cacophony of echoes that sing and scream through the crags and eves of the valley beneath — but the whole island seems to reverberate with the question —

Do you trust me?

You close your eyes and breath. When you open them again, your heartbeat is steady. And when you speak, the rising sun streaks the tips of the saw-toothed peaks in strokes of molten gold. The valleys beneath you conduct your answer into an entire single-syllabled symphony —

Yes.

You feel his arm tighten around your waist, the wind as it tangles soft fingers in your hair. All around you, everything is light, and light, and light.

“Jump!”

You close your eyes, and jump.

-----

footnotes/appendix

uso-uso no mi translates to "lie-lie fruit"; i made it up bc it would be too op to have in the actual animanga i think

the "acts" refer to a classical 3-act structure that most movies/plays/scripts are written in: setup, confrontation, and resolution... with a smattering of other things sprinkled in for ~vibes~

in much of classical japanese and chinese mythology, foxes are associated with trickers and lies, often turning into beautiful women to deceive men, luring them into forests and mountains before taking their lives

the "figure" in the last scene is... can you guess? noland! kudos to anyone who figured it out as they were reading *\ (>o<) /*

did i absolutely take the "do you trust me" line from disney's aladdin??? HELL YEAH i did !!!! tru trust is my kink u__u

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kpopgirlbtssvt · 1 year ago

Text

Ahhh love this so much!!!

Carry Me From The Forest | Morpheus x F! Reader

Warning: Battle violence

Requested by: Anon

Notes: Thank you, anon, for requesting this! The reader has magical abilities, and there’s an established marriage. A slight spiritual successor to “So, Mote, It Be” Also, I made a new realm for The Sandman. I hope you like it.

If you'd like to be a part of “The Sandman” tag list, just ask me! Requests are open.

Word count: 3.6k

Masterlist

You couldn’t comprehend how you got into this predicament in the first place. One moment, you were gathering fresh ingredients from the farmer’s market near the plaza, and the next, you were facing one of Morpheus’ sworn enemies. ‘My brain hurts from trying to understand how I went from point A to point B in a matter of seconds,’ you thought before blasting a swirl of magic at his enemies. Their roaring echoed through the forest, blood splattering on your face. You wiped their blood off your face and continued to cast magic to kill the rest of his enemy’s minions before helping Morpheus. “We can never have a regular wedding anniversary, can we?” You muttered to yourself while running towards the creatures roaring and running towards you. Before this happened, you were walking to the farmer’s market with Matthew, laughing about Morpheus falling into the river after he misplaced his step by the river bay a few days ago. “I can’t believe he got scared by a rat,” Matthew said before bursting into deep laughter. You were wiping your tears away and began to cough from remembering the event. “A king of nightmares and dreams is scared of a rat!” You laughed, “Not even I, the queen of this realm, am afraid of rats. Although, I do fear spiders.” Matthew cawed and whispered, “I can’t wait to scare you.” You stared at him, and he cooed before staying silent, perched on your shoulder.

The rest of the trip was silent until you saw the farmer’s market filled with people and chatter. It was an alleyway with farmers exclaiming great deals and negotiating with customers. You can smell the sweet citrus fruits and berries from one farmer’s post and a hint of cinnamon and vanilla from the bakery. It was crowded, and you kept Matthew on your shoulder for safety. While the citizens made room for you, most were too busy buying fresh products. After peeking around the farmers’ posts, you finally found the new fruit post. “Lady (Y/N)!” exclaimed Kasper. He exited his chair and greeted you and Matthew, “It’s nice to see you again. I kept those blueberries you wanted from last time.” You smiled at him and shook his hand before he returned to his farmer’s post and bent down to grab a crate of blueberries. Matthew cooed and ruffled his feathers at the sight of the blueberries as you looked around the container of blueberries. Kasper’s pale hands grabbed a smaller crate and asked, “Tell me, Lady (Y/N), how many pounds do you want of blueberries?” Matthew cawed and flew on top of the large crate. He looked around the blueberries, and you could see him drooling over the berries.

You hummed as Kasper glared at Matthew, inches from stealing a handful of berries. “Please give me two pounds,” You said before Matthew could steal a blueberry, “I’ll be making a small cake for Lord Morpheus today, and the rest of the blueberries will be given to Matthew.” Kasper smiled and grabbed a handful of berries to put on the small crate. Even though Kasper smiles at you, he immediately frowns at Matthew. According to another local, Matthew would swoop in to steal berries from Kasper’s post whenever Kasper would leave the berries unattended. This resulted in Kasper hiding his berries from plain view, and if he saw Matthew alone, he would chase Matthew away with a broom. Kasper gave you a tooth smile after weighing and delivering the berries. You paid him accordingly and placed the small crate into your basket. Matthew flew on top of your shoulder as you waved bye to Kasper. When you turned around, Matthew turned his head to see Kasper’s golden eyes staring into Matthew’s soul. Matthew cawed, and Kasper shook his head while muttering how lucky Matthew was.

You continued walking around the farmer’s market, looking for sugar. Unfortunately, all you could find were cinnamon and honey, which frustrated you. Your stomach began to growl from hunger, so you bought a small bread roll to share with Matthew. Sitting at the fountain in the heart of the plaza, you were staring at the floor while slowly eating your bread roll; Matthew would occasionally sneak a bite or two and steal a blueberry from the basket. Everything was peaceful since you were far away from everyone else. The wind blew through the trees, with the brown leaves slowly falling and the constant ripple from the water fountain behind you. Occasionally, a group of people would walk by you, but you were usually alone. Unfortunately, as a queen with duties, you could only be in true peace when there’s no danger. You continued staring at the floor, thinking about what Morpheus was up to since he wasn’t in bed in the morning. Your thoughts shatter when you hear the clicking of heels and your name being screamed over and over again. Looking up, you saw Lucienne running towards you with a large book. “Lady (Y/N)! Something is happening!” She shouted as she stopped in front of you. Standing up from the fountain, you asked, “Lucienne, what’s wrong?” She fixed her glasses and opened the large book in her hands. You peered at the book and saw a passage from the book.

Quickly, you skimmed through the passage which mentioned Arcturus, a bear deity known for their constant interference with Morpheus’ work. “Morpheus went to meet with Arcturus to stop them from interfering with his work, but he hasn’t returned.” Lucienne explained while pointing at the pictures of Arcturus, “They’re powerful, and I’m afraid that Morpheus is in danger. Can you please find him and help him?” You touched the ruby necklace Morpheus gifted you and nodded. “I’ll bring him back, Lucienne. Where is he?” You said while trying to control your breathing and focus on the realm description, she was going to give you. “He’s located by the Hibernating Terrain. It’s close to The Silver City; please be careful,” Lucienne stated while looking at you with her eyebrows furrowed. You clasped her hand to comfort her and nodded. “I will be careful, Lucienne. Make sure Matthew doesn’t eat my blueberries.” You said until you turned around to see Matthew standing still with his beak awfully close to the blueberries, “I can never have anything in my life, can I?” Matthew cawed and shuffled away from the blueberries. You rolled your eyes and began to use your magic to transport yourself to the Hibernating Terrain.

Your eyes were closed as you began remembering what the realm looked like. Letting your mind wander, you began to envision tall trees sprouting around you, the sky turning a dark gray with fog covering your legs. The mist was thick to the touch, and it went up to your thighs, with the trees reaching the endless gray sky. When you opened your eyes, you knew you were in the realm when your nose was filled with the scent of musk and fish, and you could hear the echo of a nearby running river. Gray large rocks covered in patches of moss were scattered around the forest as you walked around to find Morpheus. You were wise enough not to call out his name because you knew you were in enemy territory. Instead, you relied on the necklace he gifted you. The ruby necklace was connected to his dream ruby and would glow if the necklace gem was near the dream ruby. The necklace gem was on your palm, and carefully you walked deep into the forest. The forest was still and quiet, with the occasional wind blowing through the trees and the river running. You could see a faint glow from your necklace gem as you went deeper into the woods. “Bingo,” You whispered to yourself, “Don’t worry, Morpheus, I’m coming for you.”

Meanwhile, Morpheus was in the heart of the forest fighting Arcturus, the bear deity, and their subordinates. Morpheus’ sand was dispersed around the forest floor, and the blood from the bears covered the trees and rocks nearby. He had been fighting Arcturus and their soldiers, and he had lost track of time for how long he’s been fighting them. Morpheus was cornered to the top of a large rock, giving him an almost perfect view of the forest. However, he knew he was running out of time because the bears began to climb the mountain. He would swirl the sand around their necks to choke or impale them.

Nevertheless, the bears would continue to come, and it was an endless cycle. Morpheus was getting tired, and he was feeling weak. Regardless, he continued to fight and create sand creatures to help him fight. Arcturus, one of the giant bears with deep purple fur and a large star on its forehead, began climbing the rock. The rest of the bears continued to add casualty after casualty after defeating Morpheus’ sand creatures. Morpheus started to look around to see where he could transport too, but he was stuck because he could see countless bears running through the forest. He was too distraught to transport back to the dreaming realm and had his hands tied because if he didn’t defeat Arcturus, the bear would enter the dream realm for war. He could not afford a war that would kill your citizens, friends, and, more importantly, you. He looked down again from the rock and saw Arcturus advancing from the rock climbing. Morpheus continued creating more sand creatures and just prayed for some miracle.

Little did he know, you would be his miracle. After walking for what seemed too long for you, the necklace gem was glowing brighter and brighter. Your eyes began to hurt from the shine to the point you didn’t see a bear in front of you. The blood from your body froze, and your spine tingled when you heard the bear roar at you. The brown bear stood up on its hind legs while shouting; it was merely a couple of inches away from you. Without thinking, you ran around the bear and deeper into the forest. Your breathing began to get hollow as your eyes scanned the woods, and you could hear the bear’s giant stomping behind you. The stress levels were so high your brain couldn’t process your magical abilities until you saw a second bear. You stopped running and saw the second bear growl. You turned your head to see the other bear coming to a complete stop. The bears circled you and would grunt, with their nose sniffing the air. Your eyes lock to one of the bear’s eyes, and your magic allows you to form a telepathic link with them. Their voice was harsh and deep, “What shall we do? Eat her alive or tear her body open?”

You heard them think. “No, let us take her to Arcturus. He will know what to do with her,” The other bear supposed while licking their lips, “Do you think she is with The Sandman?” Your sweat ran cold when you heard Morpheus’ alias. ‘Morpheus…’ You thought, ‘I must get out of here.’ You began to take deep breaths as the bears started to growl, and you tried to relax. Clearing your head, your heart raced as you felt a sense of control over the wind. A slight breeze of air was swirling in your palm. You raised your hand to swerve the bears with an enormous air ripple, making them flung to the trees. Once the bears hit the trees, you dashed away from the area and began to run forward. You heard the bears’ bones cracking and their roaring, but you paid no mind and continued to run.

The necklace glowed brightly as you advanced, but you stopped when you saw an army of bears running from all directions. None of the bears minded you. Instead, they were all focused on running into a large opening in the forest. “Is this the heart of the forest?” You asked yourself while walking. When you saw the sight, your mouth was left open. The forest's heart was a significant clearance of trees, with a tall gray rock in the middle of the clearance. There was just one tree next to the stone that glowed a faint gold with the branches swirling up to the sky. You looked around to see the bears rushing to the rock, and when you looked up, your heart sank to the floor. Your husband Morpheus used all his power and will to fight the hundreds of bears rushing towards him. You could see the giant bear was nearly half away from reaching him, making you scream. Was it wise of you to cry during a battle? No, but it did work on stopping Arcturus from reaching Morpheus since the bear stopped climbing and looked in your direction. Your eyes widened when the bears stopped running, and you heard Arcturus roar, “Get her as well!” You mentally said fuck, and ran in the opposite direction. You could listen to a group of bears rushing toward you, and they were close to surrounding you until you used your magic to fling them to the trees. Your hands were raised as the bears were pinned against the trees, and you began to yell as you felt your magic get stronger to pin them against the trees harder. The pressure from the bear and magic snapped the trees in half, and the bears went in every direction. You were catching your breath when suddenly another group of bears was running towards you. Your heart was beating fast as your hands trembled. You closed your eyes to gain control of your magic. When you opened your eyes, you felt a ripple in your hands as you sent out a wave of magic that repelled the bears, making them land on the ground. You continued to send waves of magic, making the bears fly away from you.

“Well then, time to amp this up a bit more,” You said to yourself. A sharp pain from your fingers jolted as you sent intense waves of magic into the bears, cutting into their necks and some splitting them open. You could run back to the forest's heart and see Morpheus continuing to create more sand creatures and blast sand to hit some of the bears. You were unsure if Morpheus knew you were there by his side, but there was no time to contact him since you saw more bears rushing to your area. When Lucienne talked about Arcturus, you foolishly thought it would be an easy job, but you underestimated everything. You continued to send sharp waves of magic to every bear that blocked your path to Morpheus, and you wiped the blood off your face when their guts and blood would splatter on you. It seemed like a never-ending battle with the bears because they continued running towards you, despite seeing you cut off their friend’s guts and heads. You also had to be careful from where you were running, or else you would slip on a pile of bear guts—slashing the bears apart, looking at the ground, and trying to see how Morpheus was doing. From your short glances, it appears that Morpheus is doing well, but you also know it is only a matter of time until he gets weak from abusing his abilities. Unfortunately, it would be game over for you if he gets weak and passes out. Your magical abilities could last so long until you, too, pass out. Your heart was already unstable from the constant magic usage, and your hands began to shake from the magic. However, you pushed through and tried your best to meet Morpheus.

When Morpheus heard a scream, he thought he was already going crazy, but when he looked in the direction of the screaming, he saw you. For a split second, he felt relief, but then his stomach twisted when he realized you were putting yourself in danger. Morpheus wanted you to run away and leave the realm, but it wouldn’t matter because Arcturus also wanted you. He pushed his emotions aside as he focused on his sand to kill the bears, create sand creatures and stop Arcturus from reaching him. After seeing you run away, he shifted his attention to Arcturus, who was climbing, but he could blast a wave of sand in Arcturus’ direction, making him fall. Morpheus stepped back and panted for air, trying to find you. Seeing you taking down the animals and trying to go to his side, he felt relieved. He hoped you were strong enough to handle your battle. Actually, he didn’t wish. He knew.

Your hands constantly shook, and your vision was blurry from the constant magic use. It wasn’t a good sign for you. But it was worthless no matter how much you tried to advance to meet Morpheus. Bears from all directions would circle you, and you would use your magic to kill them all. However, you got this idea to end this tedious war. It was a stupid plan, but anything to end this. You shook your head to fix your blurry vision and huffed, “Let’s do this.” Your breathing became controlled, and you gained more control of your shaking hands. The bears still circled you and roared, but you blasted magic to the ground to lift you before they could attack again. You began to create magical pillars to help you get to Morpheus. He noticed this and started working harder to slow Arcturus from reaching the top of the rock. Morpheus created more giant sand creatures to help and continued to blast sand at Arcturus. Arcturus would get angry and use some of their hidden magical abilities. Morpheus was unaware of this and created a sand shield to protect him from Arcturus’ blast of light coming out of his mouth. The sand shield immediately broke, and Morpheus took another step back. After witnessing Arcturus’ new ability, you stopped near them and shouted, “Arcturus, leave him alone!” Arcturus stopped climbing again and looked at you. Standing on a magic pillar, you raised your hands, and you felt your blood rush to your hands. A blast of pure magic released from your hands directly hits Arcturus. The bright white magic continued to hit Arcturus, and Morpheus moved to the edge of the rock to see the rest of the bears disappearing. The bears began to roar one by one as they withered away to the forest’s ground.

Morpheus shifted his gaze to you and heard you scream. The explosion made Arcturus roar, and he tried to climb to the floor, but your magic was strong enough to pin him to the rock. Morpheus began to hear the rock cracking and felt the floor shaking. The rock was starting to split from the pressure of your magic and Arcturus. He collected his sand from the sand creatures and used it to get to you. It was as if he was racing against time, trying to get to you. Your hands began to shake again, and you tried to stand your ground, but your abilities were weakening. Your head began to hurt as a throbbing vein pulsed on your neck, and your face turned red. Your screams echoed throughout the forest as you closed your eyes to focus on releasing more magic against Arcturus. The bear was waving their arms, and the rock cracked underneath them. Your vision got worse, and you slowly looked around to see where Morpheus was. You continued to blast every ounce of your magic until you heard Arcturus stop roaring. At least, you thought you had stopped hearing him roar. Your magic drastically got weak, and your body collapsed. Your vision immediately turned black, but before your body could hit the floor, Morpheus caught you in time.

The magic pillar collapsed, and Arcturus withered away due to the magic blast. Morpheus cradled your body and saw your eyes were shut close with your breathing becoming shallow. His pale hand touched your cheek and brushed away your hair from your face. “(Y/N),” He whispered while caressing your cheek, “That was a foolish plan, yet you did it.” Morpheus’ lips twitched a smile, and he picked you up to take you back to the dreaming realm. He used his sand to transport you back to the kingdom and continued to carry you back to his chambers. Lucienne had rushed over to see you resting in his arms as he walked back. She motioned what happened, but Morpheus shook his head, and she let him go. Morpheus reached his chambers and laid you on the bed carefully. He sat next to you and continued to look at you, resting, waiting for you to wake up again. Matthew would fly by, but Morpheus would shoo him away. After nearly five hours had passed, you slowly began to open your eyes. Your eyes were looking around the room, and you looked to your right to see Morpheus’ eyes. Your hand slowly reaches for his face and rests them on his cheek. Morpheus smiled at you and placed his hand on top of yours. Before you could ask about Arcturus, Morpheus leaned forward to place his lips against yours. It was a gentle kiss on the lips, but it was filled with love and an endless amount of thank you. “Thank you, (Y/N),” Morpheus whispered after breaking the kiss and kissing your forehead, “Also, happy 6th year anniversary.”

“Happy 6th anniversary, Morpheus.” You replied before kissing his neck. You shifted to get on top of his hips, and his eyes widened. You sat by his crotch area and said, “I rested well enough, and it’s time to celebrate our anniversary. Relax and enjoy the ride.” Morpheus grabbed your hips and said, “Gladly.”

#dream of the endless #dream x reader #endless dream #dream x you #dream x fem!reader #dream x y/n #dream but the netflix one #morpheus x reader #morpheus x you #morpheus x y/n

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