[Fics] Home (Is Where the Heart Is)
Title: Holly & Marigold
Series: Cable & Deadpool (Marvel Comics)
Pairing: Death/Wade Wilson (implied Nathan Summers/Wade Wilson and Providence/Wade Wilson)
Summary: In which Death wants Wade to be faithful and Wade wants Death to stop being so demanding.
Notes: This was part of something bigger (that I may never finish), but it didn't quite fit in there, so now it's its own side-story thing. Primus, I am actually writing something after like ... YEARS. People, it's been YEARS. (I have pages of hidden Transformers blahblah in this journal. I should unhide it, LOL)
When Wade saw her, Death was gliding down the steps from Mrs. Addicks apartment, her dress a swirl of purple shadow as it draped across her bones. The setting sun cast her in ivory and gold, granting the illusion of softness and warmth to cold white bone.
"My beautiful bony babe! You didn't tell me you were coming!" Wade met her as she touched down on the street, catching her up and twirling her around, her dress enveloping him like a funeral shroud, heavy with frankincense and myrrh. "Did you lose weight? You're already bone and robe, sweet thing, you can't stand to lose any more."
Death's hands gripped his shoulders for balance, "Wade?"
He set her down, leaning back so he could admire the spare lines of her frame, "Your dress has gone all green around the edges, which looks pretty Maleficent with the purple, by the way. I'm shipping it. Really brings out the gold in your bones. Keep the green, babe."
"Still as observant as ever, Wade," Death brushed her hands over her dress, trailing green sparkles like will o' wisps, emphasizing the swell of her pelvis, "You're not dead."
"Not even a little!" Wade said happily, pressing a kiss to her teeth as he wrapped her in his arms again. She had no waist, but his hand could curl neatly over her pelvic bone and her ribs twined naturally with his fingers, as though they were made to slot together. "Which is pretty amazing. How are you doing it?"
"I'm not the one doing it." Her hands raised to cup his face and Wade leaned into her touch with a sigh, eyes drifting shut. Thumb bones stroked gently across closed lids, paper soft and cold, "Your eyes are wide open, my darling."
"They always are, sweetheart ... " Her thumbs curved and plunged straight through his lids into his eyes, "Except for right now when you're stabbing me with your thumbs." Not that he minded, she could punch all the holes in him that she wanted.
"Not like this," she said reprovingly as she wiggled her thumbs in his eye sockets, fingers digging into the sides of his head to hold him still as she ground his eyes to mash.
"Babe, you just fingered out my eyes, which is entirely the wrong sort of fingering I want from you, by the way," maybe he minded a little now that bones were scraping against bone, "I can't see anything."
"You can still see me, baby boy."
"I protest the completely emasculating nickname you've decided to give me, babe," Wade frowned. He could feel the viscera running down his face and her thumbs were still slotted into his sockets, preventing his eyes from regenerating, but now that she mentioned it ... "That is a pretty neat trick," he acknowledged, "Am I dreaming?"
"You're not dreaming or dead," her fingers slid blissfully free of his eyes, brushing gore down his cheeks as she stroked his face, pulling him gently downward until their foreheads touched, "Wade, my beloved, you've opened your eyes."
"You keep saying that like it's an important plot point or something," he murmured, brushing the curves of their cheek bones together, smearing blood across her arches like wet rouge, "If it means I can see you any time, then I'm not complaining, dear heart."
"You've been watching ... " delicate blood wet finger tips stroked down his throat, making his pulse jump in response, "for how long? Since you've been here?"
"Oh. Oh. Yeah. That. I've done that before too. Sometimes! It's like my thing. Just watching out for the place, right?" Wade shrugged, then shivered as her fingers hooked to draw sharp bleeding lines down his collar and over his shoulders, "I didn't think you could tell," he added in a mutter.
"You noticed my dress, -- "
"It's a very pretty dress," he interjected, but she continued on without allowing herself to be distracted.
" -- the color of my bones -- "
"You have the sexiest bones."
" -- my weight -- "
"Light as a bony feather! You need to eat more souls, babe. Fatten you right back up again."
"Shut up, Wade."
"The weight thing was too much, huh?"
Death affixed him with a long stare. He mimed zipping his lips. "Of course I notice when you're different. You're not even wearing your suit, dearest."
Wade glanced down at his clothes, just a Deadpool shirt and Bermuda shorts, and scuffed a geta clad foot, "This is the South Pacific. It's sort of hot here ... and rainy. The suit is just completely sweltering and the sweating starts to get to even me -- "
It was Death's turn to cut Wade off, "You're comfortable here."
"It's a cool place," Wade shrugged and scuffed a foot again, "They don't even mind that I'm here. And it's pretty, right? I think I've finally gotten to the point where I can invite a classy babe like you up for coffee."
"I'm here, aren't I?"
"You are," he said, delighted.
"It'll be my birthday soon," she murmured into his ear, apropos of nothing.
"Is it?" he released her pelvis so he could catch hold of her bloody finger bones, twirling her around in the first steps of the waltz, "Shall I throw a party, my beautiful girl? Bring you some presents wrapped with pretty red bows?"
"I don't want a party, darling boy," she rested her head against his shoulder as they spun, dark stars gleaming in her eye sockets, "I want you to leave Providence."
"You know ... you're really pretty demanding," Wade pulled back, gripping her narrow shoulders as he held her away from him, "Wade, I want you to die. Wade, you won't stay dead. Wade, your visits are too short. Wade, you always leave when I'm talking to you. Wade, stop looking at me. Wade, I want you to leave your home. Dear heart, we have to talk about your completely unreasonable demands. I like it here."
"I know. You love her more than me."
"What? No, darling, no. You'll always be my best girl, the first in my heart."
"Your heart belongs to her now."
"She's not a person."
"Neither am I."
They stared at each other across the gap in silence, that dragged on until Wade couldn't take it anymore.
"You're jealous," he finally said in disbelief, "That's why your dress is ... is ... greening! And this isn't about Providence, this is about Nate."
"Whose life is like a flower?" She folded her arms across her chest, chin lifting up as green filigree curled up her bodice, "Love as many mortals as you wish, my darling, it only makes you love me more."
"Yeah, okay, I see that," Wade said after a horrified pause, setting his own chin, "Which is why you shouldn't be jealous of a place. It's not like it's going to outlive him."
"Not all those who wander are lost, my love, and you are a wanderer born."
"That's only because no one's wanted me to stay before," Wade pointed out sharply, fists clenching at his sides, "And quoting Lord of the Rings doesn't get you off the hook for being all cryptic."
"Home is where your heart is," her voice dropped coldly, "and you promised your heart to me."
"So ... what? I can't have a home as long as I love you?"
"You've opened your eyes for her. You'll die for her. You'll leave for her. She'll be perfect in your memory forever!"
"At least then something will be perfect," he shot back.
"Keep this place then," she turned her back on him, "for you have no place with me."
"What? Wa -- "
"No, Wade," Death thrust her hand out, pushing him back with a thought, "Close your eyes. Give up this place. Then you can come back to me."
"I can't," he looked away, feeling bitterness well up in his heart, "You always want the impossible."
"You're the one who can never let go."
When Wade looked back to answer, Death was gone.
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Notes:
Holly - Foresight, Domestic happiness
French Marigold - Jealousy
Source: http://www.languageofflowers.com/flowermeaning.htm
This was part of something bigger (that I may never finish), but it didn't quite fit in there, so now it's its own side-story thing.
Brought to you by: "Collect Call" by Metric and "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran.
It entertains me to think that this is the real reason we never see Death in the whole of the Cable & Deadpool comic. Deadpool's /real/ Civil War.
Title: Agrimony (1/2)
Series: Cable & Deadpool (Marvel Comics)
Pairing: Nathan Summers/Wade Wilson
Summary: Nate is a flower, temporary ... but Wade is thankful to have met him anyway.
Notes: Sequel to Holly & Marigold. Part of the Home (Is Where the Heart Is) series. This was part of something bigger (that I may never finish), but it didn't quite fit in there, so now it's its own side-story thing.
More Notes: Dear Primus, THIS FIC. It was 90% complete when I wrote Holly & Marigold. Then the last 10% spawned, like ... 5,000 words! Which were all terrible and didn't fit and it was just aslkfhksjhfakhdkdsh i can't. I am tired of messing with the 10%. This is your flower spam!
"What are these for?" Nathan asked as he took in his desk, which had been rather abruptly covered in flowers and the detritus of obscure greenery. It surprised him to realize he recognized one of the flowers in the pile. It was the yellow cockle, a healing herb he was familiar with from the future. He began to group the cockles together to save them for later.
Wade dusted debris off his shirt rather than look at Nathan, "Well, it's sort of a thank you."
Instead of immediately launching into a tale of why he absolutely had to hack a garden to death to get the cuttings, Wade just stopped talking. The silence dragged on for a long worrisome moment before Nathan prompted, "For what?"
"For letting me stay here."
It was a strangely quiet statement and Nathan looked up, watching as Wade studiously examined his geta rather than look at him. "You don't have to thank me. You belong here."
"I really don't."
"Because you attacked a shrubbery?"
Wade looked up to see Nathan giving him a bemused smile, so he made a face at him. "This isn't shrubbery."
"It looks like shrubbery."
"They're flowers, Nate! Flowers! Haven't you seen flowers before," Wade demanded, appalled.
"I've seen these before," Nathan carefully lifted his collection of yellow cockles. "but never so many of them in one place. I didn't think cockles grew in bushes, though."
"Cockles? What? Ehrmahgerd, are you completely ignorant?"
"Botany is not my realm of expertise," Nathan said, amused that Wade of all people would be outraged by a person's lack of horticultural knowledge. "There aren't a lot of plants where I come from."
Wade stared at him for a long, long moment. Long enough that Nathan grew concerned by the silence, "Wade?"
"Budge up!" Wade said abruptly, shoving Nathan's shoulder so he could climb into the chair with him, "I'm going to educate you, you ignorant putz."
"Watch out, you'll crush them." Nathan lifted the cockles out of the way, setting them back on his desk as Wade rearranged himself.
"I'm not going to crush them," Wade disparaged with a huff. He finally found a spot, sitting on the chair arm, one leg braced against the desk as he leaned back against Nathan's metal arm. Nathan slid the arm around Wade in reflex, broad hand spread across his stomach. "Look, that stuff in your hand was agrimony. They have a cool long name and everything. Agrimonia eupatoria L. Sometimes they get called other things, like cockleburrs. Not cockles. That's stupid."
"It's not stupid," Nathan interjected without heat. He appreciated that Wade had brought him so many of something so precious. "It's shorter."
"Maybe it's a more efficient name, but it's still stupid. Though not as stupid as liverwort, which sounds like Voldemort. This is the Flower-That-Must-Not-Be-Named! See? Stupid. These other yellow ones are tulips." Wade leaned over to pick up the large yellow flowers that were shaped like a wine glass, "They exist to look pretty. Like you. And me. Obviously."
"I see. Obviously." Nathan was smirking now.
"These are willows." Wade completely ignored his interruption and picked up what looked like fuzzy yellow fingers on a string, "They come from a tree that grows by lakes. They're branches all the way to the ground like this." Wade grabbed a few more long stands and dangled them in front of Nathan's face, "They are amazing trees. You could hide in them or have a tea party, like little green pavilions. I'm gonna take you to one for lunch one day when you least suspect it. This is your only warning, so make sure your body is ready."
"Let's schedule it, then," Nathan murmured into Wade's shoulder, agreeable to the idea of a secluded lakeside rendezvous, but less agreeable to the spontaneous nature of nearly all of Wade's decisions.
"Fuck your schedules," Wade huffed, "it's going to happen when you least suspect. It's going to snipe you from a distance. This will be a lunch sniping."
Nathan was going to have to schedule this soon and preempt Wade's plan entirely, or else he would find himself in greenery the next time he was in the middle of a meeting at the United Nations. Until then, it was time to deploy chaff ... redirect the conversation, that is, to get Wade back on task and out of lunch planning. "What about the purple one?"
"Because all these others was too much yellow and purple looks good with yellow. Purple is sort of like red, it looks good with like, everything." Nathan slanted a look in the direction of the Deadpool emblem on Wade's shirt and made a hmmmm noise, "Shut up. Anyway. It's called a scabious. I guess because it looks scabby? I don't know. Flower names are dumb. It's part of the honeysuckle family, even though it doesn't look like one. And this, this," Wade picked up a long vine, covered with wispy blossoms, "is it's better looking brother. This is honeysuckle. It is a perfect plant."
Nathan was fairly familiar with what Wade considered perfect and it was disproportionately weighted towards weapons and sex, "Because it poisons the enemy?"
"Ehrmahgerd, really?" At Nathan's lifted eyebrow, Wade went on, "Because it's delicious."
Nathan's eyebrow lifted some more, "Vines are not delicious."
"The future is obviously a shitty place, if you don't even know this," Wade said solemnly before he laid the vine over his lap and pulled a blossom free. "Look. Here. You pinch the base and then pull like this." With a deft motion of his fingers, Wade pulled the back off the flower, pulling the long stamen out. A bead of liquid hovered at the juncture of flower and stamen and he lifted it to his lips to lick the drop off.
Seeing Nathan's expression, Wade grinned, "It's sweet. Taste it~" Wade plucked another blossom and separated it, turning so he could hold it under Nathan's nose. Well, a drop or two wouldn't kill him. Probably. He bent forward to lick the drops off the stamen and made a small surprised noise. It wasn't just sweet. It was light and delicate and tasted like ... like sunlight?
Wade grinned widely at the wonder on Nathan's face, "I know, right!"
Nathan pulled Wade off the chair arm and into his lap so he could reach the vine with both hands, tugging a blossom loose and only succeeded in tearing it. "It's harder than it looks."
Wade snickered, "That's what she said." He plucked the broken flower from Nathan's hands and tucked it between marred lips, sucking the nectar out directly.
Nathan stole the flower back, tucking it behind Wade's right ear, fingernails scraping lightly against the skin there, making him shiver. Nathan smiled against the side of his head, "Show me what I'm doing wrong."
This time when Nathan pulled a flower free, Wade caught Nathan's wrists, kneading his palms gently with whorled thumbs. "Mmmm, you're just being too rough, Nate. Loosen your grip. You don't want to break the insides. Be gentle with it. It's a delicate lady."
It was Nathan's turn to shiver as Wade cupped slender fingers over Nathan's larger ones, guiding him gently through the motions, stroking him lightly back into place when he was misaligned. This time, he got it right as the flower separated from the shaft of the stamen.
"There you go. See? Nothing to it." Wade turned his head to smile at him.
"I see." Nathan met Wade's pale blue eyes as he lifted the flower to his lips and a licked the nectar off. With eyes so pale, it was easy to tell when they dilated. "What were you planning to do with all of these?"
"I got them for you," Wade pointed out, attention focused on Nathan's lips, "That was the whole of my plan ... and it was quite masterful if I do say so myself. I'm a damn genius."
"As a thank you," Nathan remembered.
"Yeah," Wade murmured, abruptly quiet and somehow distant again, in the far away place that had spurred the sudden gift of flowers, a place far from Nathan. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Nathan murmured back, tightening his grip on Wade, as though he could keep him in the here and now with him. When Wade didn't respond, Nathan wrapped him up in an even tighter hug, squeezing until he felt him gasp for air. He hooked his chin over Wade's shoulder and spoke right into his ear, "You are always welcome, Wade."
He could feel Wade's muscles tense and relax, a tremble beneath the skin, ready to bolt, "This isn't a romcom, Nate. I'm not the outspoken lady lead and you're not the handsome main man and -- and I'm not going to spend half the film agonizing over if you're Mr. Right or Mr. Wrong ... so stop with the mush already."
Nathan smiled against the side of Wade's head and let him change the subject, "You're more like the Zoe to my Mal, if Mal had the good sense to propose to her before Wash did."
Wade twisted in his grip to give him an incredulous look, but the tension was easing from his body, "Yeah, you're the lone space cowboy rebelling against the tyranny of the empire ... but what the fuck? I mean, yeah, she's a total badass. I want to be her when I grow up. But I'm nothing like her!"
"Loyal, a crack shot, and amazing in a bodysuit?" Nathan asked oh so innocently as he slowly loosened his grip.
"Have you confused me with Domino? I'm the Jayne in this space opera. And if I'm not Jayne, I'm River. I've got your 100% authentic crazy ass kicking right here, baby."
"Barefoot in a dress, with two blades. I'd like to see that."
"I'm a modern woman, Nate. If I'm barefoot in the kitchen, it's because I'm gonna kill you with these steak knives."
"Or to chop me a salad," Nathan gestured with one hand toward the flowers still spread across his desk.
"These ain't salad fixins, pardner."
"Then what am I supposed to do with them?"
"I don't know." Wade paused, "Flowers for your cowboy hat, Mal?"
Nathan picked up the honeysuckle and turned it in his hands, resting his chin on Wade's shoulder. "How about a crown to match your dress, River?" The vine looked like it would be easy enough to loop into a circle.
Wade turned to look at him, "Have you ever made a flower crown?"
"No, but it can't be more complicated than basket weaving."
Wade's head thumped down on Nathan's shoulder as he broke into laughter, "Nathan Dayspring Askani'son Basket Weaver Summers!"
"I'm sure these willows will be perfect for it," Nathan said sedately as Wade guffawed.
"I've got your merit badges right here!" Wade nearly fell off Nathan's lap he was laughing so hard. Nathan hooked an arm around Wade to pull him back before he slid off.
"I'll make one for me, as well."
"You will not! I'm making that! There is no way you are out merit badging me at Camp Serenity!"
--------------------------------------------------
Notes:
In order of mention:
Agrimony - thankfulness/gratitude
Tulips, yellow - hopeless love
Willow - Forsaken
Scabious - Widowhood, Mourning
Honeysuckle - Bonds of love, Generous and devoted affection
source: http://www.languageofflowers.com/flowermeaning.htm
There is no flower that represents "Home". So the flowers are mostly Agrimony and Honeysuckle. Then Wade's unhappiness with Death sort of ended up being the underscore. "I've been widowed (Forsaken by Death). Thank you (for taking me in). I love you."
Title: Agrimony (2/2)
Series: Cable & Deadpool (Marvel Comics)
Pairing: Nathan Summers/Wade Wilson
Summary: Nate is a flower, temporary ... but Wade is thankful to have met him anyway.
Notes: More flower spam!
Irene paused in the doorway, hand still on the door. Then she backed up and nearly closed it, peeking through the generous crack as she groped for her phone, nearly jumping out of her skin when the immigration secretary touched her elbow. Margaret flashed her an apologetic look, holding up her own phone. Irene scooted over to make room for them both to peer inside. It was easier if one of them took pictures and the other held the door.
Neither of the room's occupants had noticed them. Straddling Nathan's lap, Wilson couldn't see them without turning his head and Nathan ... Nathan Summers was too adorable for words, so solemn and focused as he threaded a purple flower into a lopsided circlet of leaves and fuzzy yellow flowers, which was balanced somewhat precariously on Wilson's bald head, ever threatening to slip down past his ears.
Wilson wasn't the only one wearing flowers. Softening Nathan's serious features was a crown of tulips and honeysuckle, tilting slightly forward on the left, giving him a rakishly sweet air. Wilson reached up to pluck a honeysuckle blossom from the crown, readjusting it so it tilted forward over on the right.
"If we keep eating my crown, Wade, I won't have any crown left," It wasn't the warm rumble of Nathan's voice that made Irene feel a little bit like a voyeur, it was the intimate tone he attached to the ordinary observation, like he and Wilson were sharing secrets rather than flowers.
"Can't be helped," Wilson said carelessly, tugging the blossom apart, "All the other ones are gone now and I vowed, like the good worker bee that I am, that I would feed my Basket Weaving Queen Priscilla all the nectar he could ever want. Speaking of, how goeth the weaving, most manly of monarchs?"
Basket weaving? Irene didn't even try to make sense of Wilson any more. Not that it mattered. If Wilson's nonsensical interests got Nathan to relax and wear flower crowns, Irene was all for it.
"I need red flowers." Nathan examined the flowers scattered across his desk before picking up another purple flower to add to Wilson's crown.
"Oh, so /now/ you see why red is the perfect color."
"Why /are/ almost all these flowers yellow?"
"They were the important ones," Wilson rolled his shoulders in a shrug that didn't move his head. He was holding shockingly still while Nathan worked, "I don't make the rules, Nate, I just follow them."
"You make up your rules as you go along." Nathan's lips tilted up into a smile, blue eye soft and amused. Irene wanted him to smile like that more often.
Wilson huffed and Irene imagined he was pouting, "Shut up. I'll get you all the colors. I will drown you in a sea of flowers. There will be fucking forests in here. The valley of the shadow of sunflower palooza. This will be a goddamn fairy kingdom with the mushroom rings and the sakura blossom ninja shit. Just you wait. You've brought this on yourself!"
Despite this diatribe, Nathan only smiled wider and having finished setting his flower, trailed his fingers down the side of Wilson's face. "You'll look even prettier in sunflowers and sakura blossoms, Wade," the pleased note in his voice made it obvious that Nathan enjoyed Wilson's ridiculous antics on his behalf.
"Oh, that is such -- " Wilson put his hands on the sides of Nathan's face and asked very seriously, "Did you eat a tulip by mistake? Are you blind now?"
"Very, very, pretty," Nathan reiterated, ignoring the grip on his face as he tipped Wilson's head up with a finger beneath his chin.
"And high?"
"Only on these future mushrooms and you."
Nathan leaned in and Wilson leaned back, letting go so he could cover Nathan's mouth with a hand. "Don't say anything you'll regret," he declared dramatically.
Nathan lifted his eyebrows, one after the other, then one up and one down, then the reverse. His blue eye was bright with amusement and something soft that really did make Irene feel like a voyeur.
"Allergic to honeysuckle, you think?" Wilson asked the air, sounding suspicious. Deciding that Nathan couldn't answer the question if he couldn't talk, he cautiously lifted his hand.
Now freed to speak, Nathan intoned his next words like a prophet, "I have come from the future and seen how beautiful you are wearing it."
"Seriously?!" Wilson threw his hands up in the air, completely exasperated, "Future you is blind too!"
"Wearing those flowers and nothing else," Nathan added with a smirk, "Don't be shy now. It's going to happen. It's done."
Wilson's head thumped down on Nathan's softer shoulder with a groan of despair, "You are such a dick. The future turns people into dicks."
Nathan didn't say a word as he stroked a path down Wilson's spine with a broad metal hand. Not a single word as Wilson slid an arm around Nathan's neck in a one armed hug, turning to press his face into Nathan's throat, his voice muffled by skin, "You should be the one wearing flowers and nothing else, you stupidly beautiful man."
Nathan tipped his head to lean against Wilson's, flower crown perilously askew. His eyelids drifted shut as he smiled, obviously pleased with himself, "That happens too."
Irene started guiltily as Margaret touched her elbow. After exchanging a sheepish glance with her, she eased the door shut gently and tiptoed away. She knew they shouldn't have been spying on them for that long. Margaret tapped her phone with a conspiratorial grin and Irene grinned right back. Well, maybe it was just long enough.
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Notes:
Nate's Crown:
Tulips, yellow - hopeless love
Honeysuckle - Bonds of love, Generous and devoted affection
Wade's Crown:
Willow - Forsaken
Scabious - Widowhood, Mourning
source: http://www.languageofflowers.com/flowermeaning.htm
what have i even written
Series: Cable & Deadpool (Marvel Comics)
Pairing: Death/Wade Wilson (implied Nathan Summers/Wade Wilson and Providence/Wade Wilson)
Summary: In which Death wants Wade to be faithful and Wade wants Death to stop being so demanding.
Notes: This was part of something bigger (that I may never finish), but it didn't quite fit in there, so now it's its own side-story thing. Primus, I am actually writing something after like ... YEARS. People, it's been YEARS. (I have pages of hidden Transformers blahblah in this journal. I should unhide it, LOL)
When Wade saw her, Death was gliding down the steps from Mrs. Addicks apartment, her dress a swirl of purple shadow as it draped across her bones. The setting sun cast her in ivory and gold, granting the illusion of softness and warmth to cold white bone.
"My beautiful bony babe! You didn't tell me you were coming!" Wade met her as she touched down on the street, catching her up and twirling her around, her dress enveloping him like a funeral shroud, heavy with frankincense and myrrh. "Did you lose weight? You're already bone and robe, sweet thing, you can't stand to lose any more."
Death's hands gripped his shoulders for balance, "Wade?"
He set her down, leaning back so he could admire the spare lines of her frame, "Your dress has gone all green around the edges, which looks pretty Maleficent with the purple, by the way. I'm shipping it. Really brings out the gold in your bones. Keep the green, babe."
"Still as observant as ever, Wade," Death brushed her hands over her dress, trailing green sparkles like will o' wisps, emphasizing the swell of her pelvis, "You're not dead."
"Not even a little!" Wade said happily, pressing a kiss to her teeth as he wrapped her in his arms again. She had no waist, but his hand could curl neatly over her pelvic bone and her ribs twined naturally with his fingers, as though they were made to slot together. "Which is pretty amazing. How are you doing it?"
"I'm not the one doing it." Her hands raised to cup his face and Wade leaned into her touch with a sigh, eyes drifting shut. Thumb bones stroked gently across closed lids, paper soft and cold, "Your eyes are wide open, my darling."
"They always are, sweetheart ... " Her thumbs curved and plunged straight through his lids into his eyes, "Except for right now when you're stabbing me with your thumbs." Not that he minded, she could punch all the holes in him that she wanted.
"Not like this," she said reprovingly as she wiggled her thumbs in his eye sockets, fingers digging into the sides of his head to hold him still as she ground his eyes to mash.
"Babe, you just fingered out my eyes, which is entirely the wrong sort of fingering I want from you, by the way," maybe he minded a little now that bones were scraping against bone, "I can't see anything."
"You can still see me, baby boy."
"I protest the completely emasculating nickname you've decided to give me, babe," Wade frowned. He could feel the viscera running down his face and her thumbs were still slotted into his sockets, preventing his eyes from regenerating, but now that she mentioned it ... "That is a pretty neat trick," he acknowledged, "Am I dreaming?"
"You're not dreaming or dead," her fingers slid blissfully free of his eyes, brushing gore down his cheeks as she stroked his face, pulling him gently downward until their foreheads touched, "Wade, my beloved, you've opened your eyes."
"You keep saying that like it's an important plot point or something," he murmured, brushing the curves of their cheek bones together, smearing blood across her arches like wet rouge, "If it means I can see you any time, then I'm not complaining, dear heart."
"You've been watching ... " delicate blood wet finger tips stroked down his throat, making his pulse jump in response, "for how long? Since you've been here?"
"Oh. Oh. Yeah. That. I've done that before too. Sometimes! It's like my thing. Just watching out for the place, right?" Wade shrugged, then shivered as her fingers hooked to draw sharp bleeding lines down his collar and over his shoulders, "I didn't think you could tell," he added in a mutter.
"You noticed my dress, -- "
"It's a very pretty dress," he interjected, but she continued on without allowing herself to be distracted.
" -- the color of my bones -- "
"You have the sexiest bones."
" -- my weight -- "
"Light as a bony feather! You need to eat more souls, babe. Fatten you right back up again."
"Shut up, Wade."
"The weight thing was too much, huh?"
Death affixed him with a long stare. He mimed zipping his lips. "Of course I notice when you're different. You're not even wearing your suit, dearest."
Wade glanced down at his clothes, just a Deadpool shirt and Bermuda shorts, and scuffed a geta clad foot, "This is the South Pacific. It's sort of hot here ... and rainy. The suit is just completely sweltering and the sweating starts to get to even me -- "
It was Death's turn to cut Wade off, "You're comfortable here."
"It's a cool place," Wade shrugged and scuffed a foot again, "They don't even mind that I'm here. And it's pretty, right? I think I've finally gotten to the point where I can invite a classy babe like you up for coffee."
"I'm here, aren't I?"
"You are," he said, delighted.
"It'll be my birthday soon," she murmured into his ear, apropos of nothing.
"Is it?" he released her pelvis so he could catch hold of her bloody finger bones, twirling her around in the first steps of the waltz, "Shall I throw a party, my beautiful girl? Bring you some presents wrapped with pretty red bows?"
"I don't want a party, darling boy," she rested her head against his shoulder as they spun, dark stars gleaming in her eye sockets, "I want you to leave Providence."
"You know ... you're really pretty demanding," Wade pulled back, gripping her narrow shoulders as he held her away from him, "Wade, I want you to die. Wade, you won't stay dead. Wade, your visits are too short. Wade, you always leave when I'm talking to you. Wade, stop looking at me. Wade, I want you to leave your home. Dear heart, we have to talk about your completely unreasonable demands. I like it here."
"I know. You love her more than me."
"What? No, darling, no. You'll always be my best girl, the first in my heart."
"Your heart belongs to her now."
"She's not a person."
"Neither am I."
They stared at each other across the gap in silence, that dragged on until Wade couldn't take it anymore.
"You're jealous," he finally said in disbelief, "That's why your dress is ... is ... greening! And this isn't about Providence, this is about Nate."
"Whose life is like a flower?" She folded her arms across her chest, chin lifting up as green filigree curled up her bodice, "Love as many mortals as you wish, my darling, it only makes you love me more."
"Yeah, okay, I see that," Wade said after a horrified pause, setting his own chin, "Which is why you shouldn't be jealous of a place. It's not like it's going to outlive him."
"Not all those who wander are lost, my love, and you are a wanderer born."
"That's only because no one's wanted me to stay before," Wade pointed out sharply, fists clenching at his sides, "And quoting Lord of the Rings doesn't get you off the hook for being all cryptic."
"Home is where your heart is," her voice dropped coldly, "and you promised your heart to me."
"So ... what? I can't have a home as long as I love you?"
"You've opened your eyes for her. You'll die for her. You'll leave for her. She'll be perfect in your memory forever!"
"At least then something will be perfect," he shot back.
"Keep this place then," she turned her back on him, "for you have no place with me."
"What? Wa -- "
"No, Wade," Death thrust her hand out, pushing him back with a thought, "Close your eyes. Give up this place. Then you can come back to me."
"I can't," he looked away, feeling bitterness well up in his heart, "You always want the impossible."
"You're the one who can never let go."
When Wade looked back to answer, Death was gone.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Notes:
Holly - Foresight, Domestic happiness
French Marigold - Jealousy
Source: http://www.languageofflowers.com/flowermeaning.htm
This was part of something bigger (that I may never finish), but it didn't quite fit in there, so now it's its own side-story thing.
Brought to you by: "Collect Call" by Metric and "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran.
It entertains me to think that this is the real reason we never see Death in the whole of the Cable & Deadpool comic. Deadpool's /real/ Civil War.
Title: Agrimony (1/2)
Series: Cable & Deadpool (Marvel Comics)
Pairing: Nathan Summers/Wade Wilson
Summary: Nate is a flower, temporary ... but Wade is thankful to have met him anyway.
Notes: Sequel to Holly & Marigold. Part of the Home (Is Where the Heart Is) series. This was part of something bigger (that I may never finish), but it didn't quite fit in there, so now it's its own side-story thing.
More Notes: Dear Primus, THIS FIC. It was 90% complete when I wrote Holly & Marigold. Then the last 10% spawned, like ... 5,000 words! Which were all terrible and didn't fit and it was just aslkfhksjhfakhdkdsh i can't. I am tired of messing with the 10%. This is your flower spam!
"What are these for?" Nathan asked as he took in his desk, which had been rather abruptly covered in flowers and the detritus of obscure greenery. It surprised him to realize he recognized one of the flowers in the pile. It was the yellow cockle, a healing herb he was familiar with from the future. He began to group the cockles together to save them for later.
Wade dusted debris off his shirt rather than look at Nathan, "Well, it's sort of a thank you."
Instead of immediately launching into a tale of why he absolutely had to hack a garden to death to get the cuttings, Wade just stopped talking. The silence dragged on for a long worrisome moment before Nathan prompted, "For what?"
"For letting me stay here."
It was a strangely quiet statement and Nathan looked up, watching as Wade studiously examined his geta rather than look at him. "You don't have to thank me. You belong here."
"I really don't."
"Because you attacked a shrubbery?"
Wade looked up to see Nathan giving him a bemused smile, so he made a face at him. "This isn't shrubbery."
"It looks like shrubbery."
"They're flowers, Nate! Flowers! Haven't you seen flowers before," Wade demanded, appalled.
"I've seen these before," Nathan carefully lifted his collection of yellow cockles. "but never so many of them in one place. I didn't think cockles grew in bushes, though."
"Cockles? What? Ehrmahgerd, are you completely ignorant?"
"Botany is not my realm of expertise," Nathan said, amused that Wade of all people would be outraged by a person's lack of horticultural knowledge. "There aren't a lot of plants where I come from."
Wade stared at him for a long, long moment. Long enough that Nathan grew concerned by the silence, "Wade?"
"Budge up!" Wade said abruptly, shoving Nathan's shoulder so he could climb into the chair with him, "I'm going to educate you, you ignorant putz."
"Watch out, you'll crush them." Nathan lifted the cockles out of the way, setting them back on his desk as Wade rearranged himself.
"I'm not going to crush them," Wade disparaged with a huff. He finally found a spot, sitting on the chair arm, one leg braced against the desk as he leaned back against Nathan's metal arm. Nathan slid the arm around Wade in reflex, broad hand spread across his stomach. "Look, that stuff in your hand was agrimony. They have a cool long name and everything. Agrimonia eupatoria L. Sometimes they get called other things, like cockleburrs. Not cockles. That's stupid."
"It's not stupid," Nathan interjected without heat. He appreciated that Wade had brought him so many of something so precious. "It's shorter."
"Maybe it's a more efficient name, but it's still stupid. Though not as stupid as liverwort, which sounds like Voldemort. This is the Flower-That-Must-Not-Be-Named! See? Stupid. These other yellow ones are tulips." Wade leaned over to pick up the large yellow flowers that were shaped like a wine glass, "They exist to look pretty. Like you. And me. Obviously."
"I see. Obviously." Nathan was smirking now.
"These are willows." Wade completely ignored his interruption and picked up what looked like fuzzy yellow fingers on a string, "They come from a tree that grows by lakes. They're branches all the way to the ground like this." Wade grabbed a few more long stands and dangled them in front of Nathan's face, "They are amazing trees. You could hide in them or have a tea party, like little green pavilions. I'm gonna take you to one for lunch one day when you least suspect it. This is your only warning, so make sure your body is ready."
"Let's schedule it, then," Nathan murmured into Wade's shoulder, agreeable to the idea of a secluded lakeside rendezvous, but less agreeable to the spontaneous nature of nearly all of Wade's decisions.
"Fuck your schedules," Wade huffed, "it's going to happen when you least suspect. It's going to snipe you from a distance. This will be a lunch sniping."
Nathan was going to have to schedule this soon and preempt Wade's plan entirely, or else he would find himself in greenery the next time he was in the middle of a meeting at the United Nations. Until then, it was time to deploy chaff ... redirect the conversation, that is, to get Wade back on task and out of lunch planning. "What about the purple one?"
"Because all these others was too much yellow and purple looks good with yellow. Purple is sort of like red, it looks good with like, everything." Nathan slanted a look in the direction of the Deadpool emblem on Wade's shirt and made a hmmmm noise, "Shut up. Anyway. It's called a scabious. I guess because it looks scabby? I don't know. Flower names are dumb. It's part of the honeysuckle family, even though it doesn't look like one. And this, this," Wade picked up a long vine, covered with wispy blossoms, "is it's better looking brother. This is honeysuckle. It is a perfect plant."
Nathan was fairly familiar with what Wade considered perfect and it was disproportionately weighted towards weapons and sex, "Because it poisons the enemy?"
"Ehrmahgerd, really?" At Nathan's lifted eyebrow, Wade went on, "Because it's delicious."
Nathan's eyebrow lifted some more, "Vines are not delicious."
"The future is obviously a shitty place, if you don't even know this," Wade said solemnly before he laid the vine over his lap and pulled a blossom free. "Look. Here. You pinch the base and then pull like this." With a deft motion of his fingers, Wade pulled the back off the flower, pulling the long stamen out. A bead of liquid hovered at the juncture of flower and stamen and he lifted it to his lips to lick the drop off.
Seeing Nathan's expression, Wade grinned, "It's sweet. Taste it~" Wade plucked another blossom and separated it, turning so he could hold it under Nathan's nose. Well, a drop or two wouldn't kill him. Probably. He bent forward to lick the drops off the stamen and made a small surprised noise. It wasn't just sweet. It was light and delicate and tasted like ... like sunlight?
Wade grinned widely at the wonder on Nathan's face, "I know, right!"
Nathan pulled Wade off the chair arm and into his lap so he could reach the vine with both hands, tugging a blossom loose and only succeeded in tearing it. "It's harder than it looks."
Wade snickered, "That's what she said." He plucked the broken flower from Nathan's hands and tucked it between marred lips, sucking the nectar out directly.
Nathan stole the flower back, tucking it behind Wade's right ear, fingernails scraping lightly against the skin there, making him shiver. Nathan smiled against the side of his head, "Show me what I'm doing wrong."
This time when Nathan pulled a flower free, Wade caught Nathan's wrists, kneading his palms gently with whorled thumbs. "Mmmm, you're just being too rough, Nate. Loosen your grip. You don't want to break the insides. Be gentle with it. It's a delicate lady."
It was Nathan's turn to shiver as Wade cupped slender fingers over Nathan's larger ones, guiding him gently through the motions, stroking him lightly back into place when he was misaligned. This time, he got it right as the flower separated from the shaft of the stamen.
"There you go. See? Nothing to it." Wade turned his head to smile at him.
"I see." Nathan met Wade's pale blue eyes as he lifted the flower to his lips and a licked the nectar off. With eyes so pale, it was easy to tell when they dilated. "What were you planning to do with all of these?"
"I got them for you," Wade pointed out, attention focused on Nathan's lips, "That was the whole of my plan ... and it was quite masterful if I do say so myself. I'm a damn genius."
"As a thank you," Nathan remembered.
"Yeah," Wade murmured, abruptly quiet and somehow distant again, in the far away place that had spurred the sudden gift of flowers, a place far from Nathan. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Nathan murmured back, tightening his grip on Wade, as though he could keep him in the here and now with him. When Wade didn't respond, Nathan wrapped him up in an even tighter hug, squeezing until he felt him gasp for air. He hooked his chin over Wade's shoulder and spoke right into his ear, "You are always welcome, Wade."
He could feel Wade's muscles tense and relax, a tremble beneath the skin, ready to bolt, "This isn't a romcom, Nate. I'm not the outspoken lady lead and you're not the handsome main man and -- and I'm not going to spend half the film agonizing over if you're Mr. Right or Mr. Wrong ... so stop with the mush already."
Nathan smiled against the side of Wade's head and let him change the subject, "You're more like the Zoe to my Mal, if Mal had the good sense to propose to her before Wash did."
Wade twisted in his grip to give him an incredulous look, but the tension was easing from his body, "Yeah, you're the lone space cowboy rebelling against the tyranny of the empire ... but what the fuck? I mean, yeah, she's a total badass. I want to be her when I grow up. But I'm nothing like her!"
"Loyal, a crack shot, and amazing in a bodysuit?" Nathan asked oh so innocently as he slowly loosened his grip.
"Have you confused me with Domino? I'm the Jayne in this space opera. And if I'm not Jayne, I'm River. I've got your 100% authentic crazy ass kicking right here, baby."
"Barefoot in a dress, with two blades. I'd like to see that."
"I'm a modern woman, Nate. If I'm barefoot in the kitchen, it's because I'm gonna kill you with these steak knives."
"Or to chop me a salad," Nathan gestured with one hand toward the flowers still spread across his desk.
"These ain't salad fixins, pardner."
"Then what am I supposed to do with them?"
"I don't know." Wade paused, "Flowers for your cowboy hat, Mal?"
Nathan picked up the honeysuckle and turned it in his hands, resting his chin on Wade's shoulder. "How about a crown to match your dress, River?" The vine looked like it would be easy enough to loop into a circle.
Wade turned to look at him, "Have you ever made a flower crown?"
"No, but it can't be more complicated than basket weaving."
Wade's head thumped down on Nathan's shoulder as he broke into laughter, "Nathan Dayspring Askani'son Basket Weaver Summers!"
"I'm sure these willows will be perfect for it," Nathan said sedately as Wade guffawed.
"I've got your merit badges right here!" Wade nearly fell off Nathan's lap he was laughing so hard. Nathan hooked an arm around Wade to pull him back before he slid off.
"I'll make one for me, as well."
"You will not! I'm making that! There is no way you are out merit badging me at Camp Serenity!"
--------------------------------------------------
Notes:
In order of mention:
Agrimony - thankfulness/gratitude
Tulips, yellow - hopeless love
Willow - Forsaken
Scabious - Widowhood, Mourning
Honeysuckle - Bonds of love, Generous and devoted affection
source: http://www.languageofflowers.com/flowermeaning.htm
There is no flower that represents "Home". So the flowers are mostly Agrimony and Honeysuckle. Then Wade's unhappiness with Death sort of ended up being the underscore. "I've been widowed (Forsaken by Death). Thank you (for taking me in). I love you."
Title: Agrimony (2/2)
Series: Cable & Deadpool (Marvel Comics)
Pairing: Nathan Summers/Wade Wilson
Summary: Nate is a flower, temporary ... but Wade is thankful to have met him anyway.
Notes: More flower spam!
Irene paused in the doorway, hand still on the door. Then she backed up and nearly closed it, peeking through the generous crack as she groped for her phone, nearly jumping out of her skin when the immigration secretary touched her elbow. Margaret flashed her an apologetic look, holding up her own phone. Irene scooted over to make room for them both to peer inside. It was easier if one of them took pictures and the other held the door.
Neither of the room's occupants had noticed them. Straddling Nathan's lap, Wilson couldn't see them without turning his head and Nathan ... Nathan Summers was too adorable for words, so solemn and focused as he threaded a purple flower into a lopsided circlet of leaves and fuzzy yellow flowers, which was balanced somewhat precariously on Wilson's bald head, ever threatening to slip down past his ears.
Wilson wasn't the only one wearing flowers. Softening Nathan's serious features was a crown of tulips and honeysuckle, tilting slightly forward on the left, giving him a rakishly sweet air. Wilson reached up to pluck a honeysuckle blossom from the crown, readjusting it so it tilted forward over on the right.
"If we keep eating my crown, Wade, I won't have any crown left," It wasn't the warm rumble of Nathan's voice that made Irene feel a little bit like a voyeur, it was the intimate tone he attached to the ordinary observation, like he and Wilson were sharing secrets rather than flowers.
"Can't be helped," Wilson said carelessly, tugging the blossom apart, "All the other ones are gone now and I vowed, like the good worker bee that I am, that I would feed my Basket Weaving Queen Priscilla all the nectar he could ever want. Speaking of, how goeth the weaving, most manly of monarchs?"
Basket weaving? Irene didn't even try to make sense of Wilson any more. Not that it mattered. If Wilson's nonsensical interests got Nathan to relax and wear flower crowns, Irene was all for it.
"I need red flowers." Nathan examined the flowers scattered across his desk before picking up another purple flower to add to Wilson's crown.
"Oh, so /now/ you see why red is the perfect color."
"Why /are/ almost all these flowers yellow?"
"They were the important ones," Wilson rolled his shoulders in a shrug that didn't move his head. He was holding shockingly still while Nathan worked, "I don't make the rules, Nate, I just follow them."
"You make up your rules as you go along." Nathan's lips tilted up into a smile, blue eye soft and amused. Irene wanted him to smile like that more often.
Wilson huffed and Irene imagined he was pouting, "Shut up. I'll get you all the colors. I will drown you in a sea of flowers. There will be fucking forests in here. The valley of the shadow of sunflower palooza. This will be a goddamn fairy kingdom with the mushroom rings and the sakura blossom ninja shit. Just you wait. You've brought this on yourself!"
Despite this diatribe, Nathan only smiled wider and having finished setting his flower, trailed his fingers down the side of Wilson's face. "You'll look even prettier in sunflowers and sakura blossoms, Wade," the pleased note in his voice made it obvious that Nathan enjoyed Wilson's ridiculous antics on his behalf.
"Oh, that is such -- " Wilson put his hands on the sides of Nathan's face and asked very seriously, "Did you eat a tulip by mistake? Are you blind now?"
"Very, very, pretty," Nathan reiterated, ignoring the grip on his face as he tipped Wilson's head up with a finger beneath his chin.
"And high?"
"Only on these future mushrooms and you."
Nathan leaned in and Wilson leaned back, letting go so he could cover Nathan's mouth with a hand. "Don't say anything you'll regret," he declared dramatically.
Nathan lifted his eyebrows, one after the other, then one up and one down, then the reverse. His blue eye was bright with amusement and something soft that really did make Irene feel like a voyeur.
"Allergic to honeysuckle, you think?" Wilson asked the air, sounding suspicious. Deciding that Nathan couldn't answer the question if he couldn't talk, he cautiously lifted his hand.
Now freed to speak, Nathan intoned his next words like a prophet, "I have come from the future and seen how beautiful you are wearing it."
"Seriously?!" Wilson threw his hands up in the air, completely exasperated, "Future you is blind too!"
"Wearing those flowers and nothing else," Nathan added with a smirk, "Don't be shy now. It's going to happen. It's done."
Wilson's head thumped down on Nathan's softer shoulder with a groan of despair, "You are such a dick. The future turns people into dicks."
Nathan didn't say a word as he stroked a path down Wilson's spine with a broad metal hand. Not a single word as Wilson slid an arm around Nathan's neck in a one armed hug, turning to press his face into Nathan's throat, his voice muffled by skin, "You should be the one wearing flowers and nothing else, you stupidly beautiful man."
Nathan tipped his head to lean against Wilson's, flower crown perilously askew. His eyelids drifted shut as he smiled, obviously pleased with himself, "That happens too."
Irene started guiltily as Margaret touched her elbow. After exchanging a sheepish glance with her, she eased the door shut gently and tiptoed away. She knew they shouldn't have been spying on them for that long. Margaret tapped her phone with a conspiratorial grin and Irene grinned right back. Well, maybe it was just long enough.
-------------------------------
Notes:
Nate's Crown:
Tulips, yellow - hopeless love
Honeysuckle - Bonds of love, Generous and devoted affection
Wade's Crown:
Willow - Forsaken
Scabious - Widowhood, Mourning
source: http://www.languageofflowers.com/flowermeaning.htm
what have i even written