hybrid_prince | For Garrrr

For Garrrr

They call it a gift when they bring it before the throne. Dorrek VIII, young emperor of the Skrull people, barely even bothered to pay any attention to the cloth covered box that was rolled up before the throne. These particular military leaders weren't much of ones that he cared for, and frankly while he was invested in the eventual journey to Earth and conquering it ~~as was his lofty and prophesied fate from long since before he was born~~, that didn't mean he cared too much about the recon team he had sent. They annoyed him, and sending them to a planet protected by 'heroes' had been meant as a punishment.

The 'gift' to get back into his good graces didn't seem likely to amuse him in any way. There was nothing intriguing about Earth. So the Emperor had ignored their simpering and scrapping before him. It was unbecoming of a Skrull to be anything other than strong and dominating warriors. Still, he cut off their rambling dialog and waved to one of his royal guard. K'lrt, ever the devoted servant, stepped forward and whipped the cloth off.

And Dorrek considered what was presented to him with a raised eyebrow. This, of course, was not what he'd been expected. He hadn't expected a living being.

"Where did you find it?" he asked in Skrull, continuing the conversation in his native tongue.

"It attempted to attack us," one of the generals, who was kneeling out of reach of the cage spoke. "It is more than it seems. Like Skrull, but not."

Intriguing. Dorrek gestured for the clear tank on wheels (with air holes of course), to be rolled closer. Let him better see this prize.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Fair. Very fair.

"Perhaps... I should just arrange someone else to provide company to you, if you believe such things of me?"

Gar deflates.

"No one else wants to be company for me...Shouldn't you just take the more challenging option of finding a way to prove it, though? If you want me to be wrong?"

"I do, but I don't know how. People... don't question me. Except for my military leaders. And only because they have better plans. And the priests. Because they think that I should just find a plague that doesn't affect Skrull and unleash it on Earth."

And Dorrek does NOT agree.

“I guess it’s really going to be a challenge then isn’t it?” Gar says and he still hasn’t gone back to eating.

Dammit, Gar, you're not working with him. But he supposes it's not the man's job to do that. Find. He'll... try and figure it out.

I must seem so... pathetic to you.

It’s definitely not about making it easy for Dorrek. It’s kind of the point.

“Pathetic? No, I wouldn’t say that.”

"What would you say then?"

Please tell him. Be honest. The Skrull don't get much concrit.

Gar sets down his utensil and looks up at Dorrek.

“I’d say you’re set in your ways and a bit pig headed.”

"Pig?"

Sorry, the point is lost in a word he doesn't know.

"It's.... nevermind. You're stubborn and think you're always right," Gar exhales in a huff.

"I don't," Dorrek shrugs. "I made a mistake not sending you home."

“You don’t want me here now?” Gar questions.

"No, i mean... Yes, I want you here. Which isn't fair. But when they brought you to me. I shouldn't have... I should have sent you home."

And it was as simple as that. No, not simple, but whatever.

“But you didn’t. I was a novelty toy for when you got bored,” Gar knew he had really been nothing but some form of entertainment. He’s still not sure he qualifies as anything more than that now.

“Which is just another reason you really need to invest time in bring back the arts. Less bored? Less need for captives.”

It’s flippant to say the least.

Yep. Dinner without a fight isn't going to happen. Dorrek pushes back from the table, because he no longer has a hunger.

"Have I not treated you well?

"That's not the point, Emperor, and you know it," Gar shoots back. And he doesn't get up because if he does he's going to try and run for the door. He drops his utensil and pushes his plate away.

He should have just kept his mouth shut.

"You didn't even see me as anything more than a toy. I'm not sure when that changed or if it even really changed. Some people play nice with toys until they want to throw them away when they're tired of them."

"I spend time with you because you intrigue me. I don't see a toy. I see... a man that will talk to me. But I see I was wrong. I will admit to that failing."

"Now, but not then," Gar frowns when the other says that.

"Wrong about me talking to you? Just because we disagree you think you're wrong about that? You... are seriously just another spoiled rich brat."

Gar doesn't know if he's interpreting things wrong but he's frustrated and he doesn't care at that point. He knows that he likes Dorrek and that it's pointless and the kiss, both of them meant absolutely nothing.

"I shouldn't even care. I'm like a perfect case study for stockholm's syndrome," he pushes out of his chair and heads to the door that separates their room and he's not sure if he wants Dorrek to stop him again or not. He isn't sure of anything aside from the frustration and there was so much lingering from the months of captivity that a nicer room and dinner just didn't erase.

“Wrong about you seeing me as more than some... some monster to defeat. You may use words as weapons, but clearly you seek to destroy my confidence. Perhaps even myself. To make me feel strange.”

As if to underline how his fingers brush briefly over his lips. That had happened, or was he going mad?

"You are so... dense," Gar blurts and he so rarely gets angry. After everything Rachel had done to him and Jason had done to him they might had gotten him frustrated but he'd only ever actually fought with Rachel once and he's not sure they were even really fighting about what they were fighting about anyway.

Not that it matters anyway, he's probably never seeing her again. And everything's different now. Gar's different after this.

"That's not what I'm doing," Gar deflates and he just leans against the door instead of opening it, having turned around in time to see the way the other's fingers touched his lips. Gar could remember the press of them that second kiss.

"I shouldn't like you or care about you. You held me prisoner and pretended it was alright because I didn't want for anything. You gave me false choices of freedom when none of them would really make me free and I'm supposed to be grateful?"

Gar's arms were wrapped tight around himself then. "I'm not trying to destroy you or make you feel strange. I'm trying to make you a better leader becuase if you want to lead my people then I need you to be better."

Not that it matters because Dorrek always dismisses it and apparently takes it as a personal insult too. Gar rubs the material on his elbow and he looks anywhere but at Dorrek. "I didn't kiss you to make you feel strange. I kissed you because you make me feel so much and I shouldn't and I don't know what to do with all of it."

"I don't want to lead your people," Dorrek counters. "But it is my fate to see it. 'The hybrid prince, of both and neither, born of war, shall rise the people from the shattered ashes. That which was sundered shall again be united, the broken peoples swearing to his banner as he rules from the Throneworld anew. For his shall be the Milky Way from the blue pearl of its planets, and three people shall be one.' I've been told that damn prophecy for all of my life. And other ones, that name Earth as the new Throneworld. My people had been preparing for this time for generations. All I'm trying to do is make sure as little blood as possible is spilled."

His people are dying. Yes, he is the Emperor of a great people, but Gar doesn't know that they lost their true Throneworld. THat even the planet the Skrull originally evolved on is completely gone. They are a dying people and they look to him for salvation. And he doesn't know how to bring it.

But the kiss. Just referencing it earns a blush. Again. For an intimidating alien emperor, the guy is still blushy over feelings stuff.

"So the right thing to do with all you felt was to kiss the man who holds you captive?"

Gar sighs and he just sags against the door more.

"Whether you want to or not you're intending to, aren't you? All I want you to do is try..." Gar trails off because it's a tired argument and he's tired of making it for now too. He knows that it'd undoubtedly come again.

It's almost easier to talk about the kiss.

Gar lifts his shoulders at the question. "No, it isn't right. I shouldn't kiss you,. I shouldn't want to kiss you," Gar's staring at the floor instead of Dorrek for this. He's never been good at being open and vulnerable with his feelings. He was the guy that always had on a smile for everyone even when he looked in the mirror and all he could see was blood all over his mouth after the first time he'd bitten someone as a tiger. He'd never told anyone. Gar's happy, Gar's always fine. No one needs to worry about Gar.

"But I do. It's just... everything's so...much. You were kind to me even while I was your prisoner but then I wouldn't see you for weeks... and everyone else was awful and until I started tutoring I only had you... and yet it was all your fault that I was there. And you're hot... handsome... and I shouldn't want you or care about you but I do."

Interesting. Dorrek watches Gar carefully, silently.

"The way you describe it, you almost make us sound like the way my parents met."

Which is absolutely true. But they had fallen in love, and had him, and then Anele had thought Mar-Vell lost to her, and then, when Dorrek was very young, he had lost her and his home world barely making it out with his mother's old nursemaid Sh'rah, and her body guard Kl'rt.

Gar frowns at that and he's not sure why.

"Holding people captive runs in the family?"

He groans as soon as he said it. "Sorry," he mutters.

Cute. Dorrek rolls his eyes and shifts back to the more human looking form.

"My father, Mar-Vell, was a Kree warrior and hero of some renown. My Grandfather fought him and his people time and time again. And one day, captured Mar-Vell. He was, to paint a picture, a pink-skin Kree. Like the form my body so badly wants to default to. Like this. I'm told I look a bit like him. They were going to execute him, as a message. But my mother, Princess Anele, tried to help him go free. My mother was very much of the belief that our peoples should find peace, after all our suffering. The issue? She fell in love with him. And after a single heated night, she was carrying me. With the help of Kl'rt, the guard you most often see me with, she helped my father escape, and never saw him again. Her father punished her savagely. I..."

He sighs and runs his fingers through blonde hair.

"I barely remember her. I was four when I lost her, but Sh'rah, she tells me stories. She raised me, as my mother would have wanted. Her and Kl'rt. She's the one I sent to tutor you. She's the only mom I really know."

He didn't just give Gar a tutor. He gave Gar his mother. A wise woman who was more than happy to protect someone Dorrek considered important.

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