Work Text:
Somewhere in the End, a Watcher with black and white hair sighed.
Orez was tired of Joe being a constant nuisance, their latest stunt being the most insulting to date. They, in all their infinite stupidity, had bought five hundred individual cans of what players called “Silly String” and sprayed it all over the Iron Council’s doors and meeting room.
This was worse than their orange fruit obsession - tangerines, Joe had insisted. Not to mention consistently calling Quoroth “meow meow,” calling him “Oreo bastard,” and their constant shouting about benches, bats, and beavers.
The point was, Orez was getting sick of the veiled Watcher being a nuisance that the Iron Council refused to pass judgment on. He was itching to stab them in their stupid veiled face. With how things were going right now, Orez’d never be rid of them. He needed to take his mind off things.
So the Watcher closed most of his physical eyes, fell forward, and Watched. He felt his wings release a bit of tension - nothing like omnipresence to relax oneself. Orez spread his gaze further, stretching and seeing and that player looked familiar and the Watcher blinked his physical eyes open in shock.
He looked again, just to be sure, before he slumped backward and materialized an arm to drape over his face. Of course that player wasn’t dead, because none of the problems in Orez’s life could just fix themselves with a few knives and some traumatizing injuries!
It had worked well enough for Quoroth, at least before the nitwit had run off somewhere. In comparison, Xelqua was a prick and the two-toned Watcher didn’t particularly like that he was slipperier than the slugs he had the intelligence of. The fact that the runaway had managed to stay hidden for two years before they’d found him again was almost shocking.
Almost.
Back to the matter at hand - the problematic human that Orez absolutely did not want Xyrstad to find out about. In his defense, Orez had stabbed the guy with his favorite stabbing knife. It’s not his fault that it failed to kill him.
The Watcher massaged the crease between his brows before he shifted into the world holding the player who had begun to build a treehouse. One Bakugo Masaru.
Orez changed out his rings of eyes and disconnected wings for a more humanoid appearance - avian, if he had to say. He kept a few extra limbs out, though. For the intimidation factor.
“Hello, player,” the Watcher said.
His voice wasn’t very distorted, only carrying a slight sense of something other .
The sudden voice startled the player out of the tree he had been sitting in. The brunette’s thin form hit the ground with a satisfying thump. Orez tried to hide a small smile behind his hand - it wouldn’t do him well to be amused by some human.
Especially considering how bland he looked. If Joe were here, they’d probably call the player something like a “boytoy twink” or whatever strange phrase it was.
“Oh! Hello there!” the “twink” said. “Didn’t you stab me a while back?”
Orez sighed, “...Yes.”
“Oh.”
“...Oh? That’s- That’s all ?”
The player grunted as he climbed back up the tree he had been situated in, “What else do you want me to do? Scream in terror?”
The Watcher considered this, “Actually, that would be preferred.”
“Well, tough luck buckaroo,” the brunette said, resuming his building. “I don’t care what you ‘prefer.’”
Orez was getting very pissed very quickly. Who did this player think he was, to defy the will of Xyrstad’s right hand? It was…
It was…
For void’s sake, he was not doing this again. No matter how tempting the prospect of his own little human was, Orez wasn’t going to act on the urge.
He was a Watcher. He was calm. Collected. In control of himself.
“Oi,” the player snapped, “What are you still doing here? I don’t know if you’ve never interacted with other people before, but most of us don’t like hanging out with people who stab us.”
Orez scoffed, “I would never sink so low as to participate in your strange human customs,” he paused. Then, “...But I do… apologize.”
The brunette’s head whipped back to stare at him faster than the Watcher could register, “ You ? You’re apologizing??”
“Don’t- bring attention to it, please-” he started to say, but it was too late.
“A Watcher just apologized to me~” the player sang, “I just got an apology from a Waaa-tcher~!”
“Shut up, you idiot -” Orez pleaded, “Stop it!”
Orez? came a call from Xyrstad, What’s going on? Your thoughts are spiking.
Nothing! Nothing at all! the oreo-colored Watcher quickly replied, Nothing to worry about… dad.
He could feel the other Watcher’s thoughts melt at the nickname, Well- Alright. Just keep me updated.
Acknowledge you.
Acknowledge you too, sweet, Xyrstad said, and pulled away.
Orez immediately sank to too-weak knees. That was an unbearably close call. A slight touch on one of his hands caused the Watcher to flinch back into his more-than-human form. A small gasp registered, and he turned a few of his eyes to look at the same player from earlier.
He didn’t look horrified, or even fearful.
He was in awe.
In that moment, Orez threw all caution to the wind and sank to the grass of the world they were in. He consciously shrank until he was no bigger than the player’s torso.
“I’m sorry,” the Watcher repeated, “I’m sorry…”
“Are you alright?” the brunette asked, “You’re panicking quite a bit.”
Orez didn’t answer and instead opted to climb into his player’s hands with two powerful flaps of his wings. He settled there.
“I know I asked you once before, but… what was your name?” the Watcher asked after a bit.
“I’m Masaru. Bakugo Masaru,” the player - Masaru - said after a moment.
The two-toned Watcher closed his eyes, impression of a smile in his rings and wings. “Masaru… I’ll remember it this time.”
An absentminded hand began carding across Orez’s wings. Then, “Is this the part where you try to kill me again?”
“...No,” he admitted. “I won’t be trying that again anytime soon.”
“Oh,” Masaru breathed.
And so they sat, player and Watcher, until their respective duties called them away.
“Come by here again sometime!” the brunette called as he waved goodbye.
Orez raised his hand in farewell and turned to leave before he changed his mind and teleported next to Masaru. He brushed his lips against the brunette’s forehead and returned to the End, leaving the other to blush furiously as he returned to the city-server he called home.