#need to push him into a volcano (affectionate-somewhat)

[suckitphaneuf]

Vying for Versailles players to Louis

[cant-blink]

Separated, Part 1

Summary: COMPLETELY CLEAN CHAPTER! Requested fic. San, Ichi, and Ni have their own separate bodies?! Takes place during San’s dream mentioned in Weakness. This chapter covers San’s shock at finding himself as a one-headed dragon. The next two chapters are smut, so those not interested, stick to this chapter :D

-

The warmth washing over him was familiar, yet something felt wrong. Terribly wrong. 

Opening his eyes slowly, San lifted his head up from the ground, blinking drearily. It was daylight already; they must’ve slept in. Very odd, as Ichi did really well at keeping them on a reliable schedule. Maybe the stress of what happened the night prior drained everyone’s energy. But something still felt off for some reason, although everything looked as it should: he was still by the volcano’s caldera where he and his brothers-

It came as an unpleasant jolt when he realized that his brothers weren’t immediately next to him. But that was impossible! They were always there, being attached and all! But when his wide and panicked eyes scanned the area around him, he saw nobody. Not even the slave sleeping in the lava. Did the bird escape? Why wasn't Ni keeping watch?! Wait, no, it was San's turn to have the last shift, wasn’t it? Has he fallen asleep on the job?! Ichi and Ni will be so mad at him!

Well, the slave couldn't have gotten far with his injuries, they can follow the blood no doubt left behind.

Or they could, if he can find his brothers! Felt weird he even had to do that!

He looked over to his right side, expecting to see his siblings maybe curled up against their back. But no, he saw not even the slightest hint of their presence. Have they been ripped off somehow, without his notice?! No, there was no wound and their body would've regenerated them quickly given their proximity to the volcano. Their, -his?-, shoulders were bare as if he was born with just one head. He looked down the rest of his body in horror, looking for anything else that may have changed, any sign of where his brothers may be.

He still looked the same. Two wings, two legs, two tails. Except for the absence of his brothers, everything was as it should be.

Breaths heavy in terror, he reached out with his neurons on reflex, to share his distress and fear-riddled thoughts. But there was nothing but silence within him. No other thoughts to respond to his own, nothing to even hint that his siblings were there. For the very first time in his life, he was alone.

Completely and utterly alone.

He couldn’t stop the whimpers from escaping him. He was never meant to be completely alone like this! He wasn’t a first-born, like Ichi was! He remembered the stories the eldest told him of his early life of solitude and although there was nothing inherently terrifying about it, the concept still freaked San out. He could never imagine living life without his siblings...

Well, now he’s living it!

He was so very confused. What even happened to cause this? None of it made sense. Ichi and Ni were fighting, but that happened before and never resulted in this! They mated with their slave, but what kind of side-effect is this?! It didn’t add up!

Before he can stop himself, his whimpers escalated into a piercing wail, calling in distress for his brothers, for SOMEONE! There was no response, everything around him deathly quiet, with not even the bubbling of the volcano’s magma breaking the silence. Not even an echo of his call returning to him. 

Unsettling. 

Something didn’t feel right about this, some sense of hidden uneasiness beneath his blanket of fear. Okay, he just needed to take a few breaths, work this out. Breathe in, breathe out. He shook his head, he never had to work anything out on his own before. He always relied on the guidance of his older siblings to show and tell him how he was supposed to act, what he was supposed to do. He wasn’t the brightest star in the galaxy, but when he did try to act on his own, his brothers were always there to help him through whatever problem he came across.

Or rather, Ichi did. Ni always just wanted him to figure things out on his own. To be more independent. San never understood why he would need to learn how to be self-reliant, but now he wished he had listened to Ni. At least, then he would be able to function somewhat on his own right now!

Okay, everything will be okay. Keep taking deep breaths. His brothers would want him to keep calm. Don’t panic.

When he managed to calm down a bit, silencing his whimpers, he came to notice a rumbling through the earth, the air. He felt something on the edge of his mind, correlating to the rumbles. His instincts recognized this sensation.

Another Ghidorah’s infrasonic and telepathic waves, announcing their presence and claiming this planet. Listening, there was two of them now. He let out his own telepathic and infrasonic waves on instinct. He never had to do such a thing, it was always Ichi’s job or Ni’s if Ichi was incapacitated. 

Wait... 

Those other Ghidorah...

There’s two of them....

He’s missing two siblings...

They had to be his brothers!

Alongside the waves, San let out another long-distance call as loud as he can. Still no echo returning to him, but it didn’t matter. Because he heard the responding roar from one of them! The great distance was distorting the call a bit, but San swore it sounded like Ichi!

His anxiety and dread made way for relief. Even if his hopeful mind was playing tricks on him and these two weren’t his brothers, surely the other Ghidorah would know what happened to him, right?

Right...? 

They would chase him off the planet, he realized. They’ll court him and then chase him off, taking away any hope of relocating his brothers.

As he sits there crestfallen, waiting as the nearest Ghidorah’s signal grew closer, he resolved that he would sooner fight than allow himself to lose any chance of finding his brothers. Hopefully it won’t escalate to the need, but San would rather die than flee this world and abandon his brothers.

He waited, and waited.

Growing restless, he began to pace circles around the volcano’s summit, his movements clumsy. It occurred to him that he never actually moved the body around on a world before. He had freedom of movement when traveling through space and it was his shift while the other two slept, but the presence of gravity when on a planet meant they had to sleep on the ground. If San tried to walk around then, he would wake his siblings and receive punishment, and so he never did. And they’ve never been in a position where he would have control of their body in waking hours. Ichi had full domain over it, and Ni was the back-up should something happen to their alpha. Never before had the responsibility fallen onto San’s shoulders.

Wow... He never actually WALKED. Or ran. Or flew through a proper atmosphere.

The revelation did well to distract him from his anxiety, at least temporarily. Even better, at least he's getting practice for when the other Ghidorah arrived. If they weren't his brothers, and things went south, he had to be coordinated enough to fight.

It wasn't so hard, really-oh, nevermind!

He slipped and tumbled down the volcano's slope to the ground below. Rolling along a short distance, he slid to a halt, knocking many trees over and leaving a bit of a furrow in the ground. Pulling in his wings as he righted onto his feet, he pushed himself up and shook the dirt and debris off. Nothing seemed damaged at least, and nobody witnessed such embarrassment.

Maybe he should keep practicing on level ground, where the chances of screwing up is a little bit lower. Yeah, that sounded better.

After some time working to coordinate his movements, he looked up and tensed when he spotted a speck in the distance, the signal telling him this was the other hydra, the closest one to him. He waited with baited breath, ready for a fight, as it came close enough for him to make out some features. One head. Hatchling? Maybe he didn’t have to fight after all- wait, no! It soon became clear this was no hatchling; it was far too large, horns and body too well developed.

A large grin broke over his muzzle as he recognized the scarred face, the broken horn, the intimidating aura San has admired all his life.

“BROTHER NI!!” he exclaimed, scrambling over with ungainly strides as his older brother landed by him. He doesn’t even think as he pressed his muzzle and forehead up against Ni’s neck in an affectionate gesture, joyful cries escaping his throat as he took in his brother’s familiar scent. Their shared scent. He flicked out his tongue to take in more of it, and to lick his sibling’s scales. He got a responding snarl and when he didn’t immediately pull away, he felt jaws close onto his horn and harshly threw him off.

Yep, this was Ni alright! He was undeterred by the rejection, shining eyes gleaming happily as he stared. Ni was the same size as he was, although he was noticeably bulkier with more muscle mass around his chest and shoulders. No doubt a compliment to his battle prowess.

Ni was staring at him too, looking him up and down, no doubt trying to make sense of this. San could feel an instinct ebbing within him, but it was buried under his emotions and the concerns pressing onto his mind. So Ni was separated too, and for some reason was flung to another part of the world. Or has he and Ichi flown off in search of a solution, leaving him to sleep so as not to worry him? Doesn’t matter! He missed them so much and everything will be okay now that he had an older brother to follow the lead of.

Still, he wanted answers and if they had gone out to search, maybe they found something. His questions leave him at a rapid-fire pace. “What happened to us, Brother Ni? Where were you? Where’s Brother Ichi? What’s going on? Why-” His barrage of inquiries were cut off when Ni snapped at his muzzle harshly, causing him to cry out.

“Shut up.” Ni snarled at him and San immediately averted his eyes with a whimper.

“Sorry. I just woke up like this and I don’t know what to do.”

“You never do,” Ni huffed, his eyes still scanning over the younger dragon. There was a flash of intent in his eyes that San didn’t know what to make of and he felt his concern grow. But Ni shook his head as if shaking something off before grumbling. “Ichi is on his way right now. We will wait for him to arrive and see what he’s found. We’ll plan from there.”

“Right,” San agreed, nodding quickly. He was so happy to have someone here to lead him. The previous concern left him as he took a breath, taking in more scent as he does. That buried instinct tried again to catch his notice with that breath, and especially when Ni gave him another glance. This time he recognized the persistent instinct. It was his impulse to breed, insisting he climb onto the other dragon, grab onto him, an-

No! He can’t, that’ll involve fighting and the last thing he wanted was to get into another fight with Ni! Anyone else, maybe, but not him!

San shook himself as if it’ll throw the instinct off and moved clumsily to settle down by the former right-head. Without even thinking, he was choosing to sit by his brother’s left side, almost as if trying to recreate their natural positions if they were still joined. It helped San feel better, but it also made the lack of Ichi more noticeable.

Everything just felt so wrong!

The impulse within still doesn’t leave him, despite his rejection to it, made stronger every time he glanced at the other hydra. Ni kept looking at him too, nostrils flaring as he took in deep silent breaths. Every so often, his tongue would flick out. San tried to keep the instinct muffled by focusing on his wings. He can still feel his brother’s gaze on him. Seemed even he couldn’t wrap his head around this phenomenon either.

San was trying so hard to get used to the idea of having his own body. It felt odd and horrifying that he didn’t have the presence of his brothers’ neurons within him. Although he still had Ni here next to him, it wasn’t the same and it made him feel even more alone somehow. It was distressing enough that he didn’t even notice the sound of someone shifting closer towards him. He didn’t notice until he felt an unexpected bite into the back of his neck, where it met the rest of his body. Folded wings wrapped tight around his waist and the instinct within intensified.

San immediately shrieked, convinced of an enemy ambush. How they managed to sneak up on him, he didn’t know but he reflexively threw his wings back to try to push them off and snapped around to bite into flesh. He felt the ‘enemy’ shake viciously, the pain tearing through him. That shake felt familiar.

Crying out as he jolted himself away, scales ripping off from his neck, he turned towards his aggressor with wings flared defensively and tails rattling. He was stunned to find that the ‘enemy’ was his brother and he only had a second to recognize what was happening...

He was going to have a courtship fight with Ni... 

[dragon-village]

Volcano Ship: A Headcanon