As my multi-chapter story Devil's Bargain has been delayed by University and original fiction I thought a one-shot might be in order, full of that twisted Viola/Doffy goodness (yes I am a horrible person).
Springs and Strings
The roar of the Colosseum bored Viola - a thousand mouths giving voice to their baser instincts, baying for blood. Of course Doflamingo loved it, he was completely in his element. She swirled the wine around in her glass, not giving him the attention she knew he wanted. He had enough fans with the whole of the bloodthirsty audience gawping at him adoringly, none more so than that man - Bellamy 'the Hyena'. The pirate captain seemed entranced, he kept staring up at the Royal Box as if he couldn't quite believe Doflamingo was really there watching him.
"I can't work out if he merely loves you or is actually in love with you." She said idly.
Doflamingo laughed as he drew her close, caressing her face. "Too bad for him I don't swing that way."
"Pity." She said as she pulled away from his hand to sip her wine.
"Fufufu so you could get some respite you mean? But I think you're wrong." He looked down at Bellamy and smiled. The fool almost fell over himself as he grinned back and bowed. "I'm his hero!"
Viola continued drinking. "He obviously doesn't know you well."
"Oh he does Violet. That's why he worships me." The tall man reached out to recapture her and when she leaned nonchalantly back out of his reach, he crooked a finger and her body curved back towards him as if she adored him as much as Bellamy.
"That's cheating." She said as she snuggled by his side involuntarily on the wide throne that served as his seat.
Doflamingo's smile was even more fiendish than usual. "No. You were just being coquettish. I simply cut to the chase."
"Bastard." She said her body pressed itself harder against him and he chuckled, settling an arm around her.
"Oh stop pretending you don't like it. You certainly sing a different tune in the Rose Suite."
Viola refused to blush, thinking of the luxurious apartments in the palace he reserved for their nights together. She had made that choice herself two years ago when it was clear the way his thoughts were headed. Men were so easy to control through desire…She'd been too innocent once to understand the power of that.
"At least I can do so under my own volition there."
When his smile turned upside down she allowed herself a smirk. "Besides there's no way you could keep up the concentration needed for that control then." Her smirk widened as his hand tightened around her waist and abruptly she regained autonomy.
"I wish we were there now." Doflamingo said huskily, hand coming up to stroke her long dark hair and down her neck to her shoulder. Viola felt an inadvertent shiver of warmth in her stomach and her eyes went from his red glasses to his lips, remembering how skilful they were.
Satin sheets damp with sweat. Hot mouth, harsh breaths. Her nails across his muscular back as he pushed her down into the mattress. On top of her, inside of her. A single drawn out gasp of pleasure no matter how she tried to hold it back…
I don't want him. She told herself, as the shiver came a furnace. It's all for show. Let him think what he wants…
One day it would all come back to haunt him. One day…she told her father and Scarlet and little Rebecca hidden in the countryside and hopefully safe.
"But think how disappointed poor Bellamy would be if you just left." She smiled at him, refilling his glass then hers.
"My heart bleeds." Doflamingo said as he took the glass from her.
"I didn't think you had one." She grinned and he slapped her playfully on her behind.
"I'm hurt, Violet. You know I have a heart. Dark, twisted and full of hate but I do have one."
She sipped the North Blue vintage. "I'll believe it when I see it."
"Huh. Well Bellamy needs no encouragement. So what do you think of him then - my precious Hyena?" The Shichibukai nodded towards the ring where the so called 'The Bullet of Dressrosa' was warming up, preparing for the bout ahead. Gatz was doing his usual over the top introduction for which he would probably give himself tonsillitis later, or at least Viola could hope. She tried to blank him and the crowd out to focus on the large blond man who was flexing his muscles just below them.
As Gatz finished with a ringing ego boost Bellamy took his last look up at his idol. His eyes were wide, his face shining with a desperate, hopeful light.
He looks like a boy looking up at his father, desperate for approval.
In that moment despite despising anyone who willingly followed Doflamingo, Viola almost felt pity for him.
"Make me proud, Bellamy!" Doflamingo cried and laughed when the man raised his fist in salute, looking like he was about to explode with happiness.
"Well?" Doflamingo turned to her as the fight began.
"Is it hyena or lapdog?" Viola shouted in his ear over the roar of the audience. The King threw his head back and laughed.
"And you say I'm heartless! Where's all that sweet compassion you used to have?"
"After all you did to get rid of it? Well I do feel bad for him." She cried, leaning in.
"And why's that, my beauty?"
"Because you're going to eat him alive."
"Fufufu! We'll see. Look at him go!"
Bellamy's legs had turned to springs and he was leaping around the arena chasing his opponents who Viola hadn't even bothered to invest in, knowing they would be either dead or a toy by the end of the match.
Doflamingo seemed to be giving the fight his full attention but his fingers were drawing circles on her skin, sending further shivers up her arm. She pulled herself away, fetching and snapping open her fan as an excuse when he gave her an irritated look. She fanned herself against the mass of bodies surrounding them and dry heat of the Dressrosan midday sun and began covertly watching him. He had turned back to the match, lazily placing a few grapes into his mouth. Viola couldn't stand the fruit after years of seeing Sugar eat nothing else but she was more interested in taking in his subtler reactions.
Survival, especially in those first, fraught years had meant becoming acutely attuned to every slight expression and gesture. How much observation had it taken for her to realise for every garish over-reaction, the Warlord hid a thousand more hints of his true feelings under his flamboyant facade. He was far more cunning than he let on. That, she suspected, was what made him so deadly, far more than Devil Fruit, Haki or his entire criminal empire. This man…this demon who held her strings.
"This man might become a fellow executive one day." He said, without looking at her. "The least you could do is observe him properly for me."
The side of her luscious mouth curled up. So dangerous and yet she found she enjoyed this game more than the long fermented plans for revenge. If he pulled strings attached to her, she could also bind him with them.
"I don't need to look at him." Viola said, snapping the fan closed. "I've seen all I need to. All I have to do is look at you to know he's never going to be one of us."
That familiar grin appeared and Doflamingo looked over. "Have you learnt to use your talent without the pose Violet? Shame, I do so enjoy when you make it."
She crossed her arms. "No. I just know you're not seriously interested in him because I know you. I can tell you don't think he has potential. Which means after that puppy look he just gave you, I feel truly sorry for the man."
There was a sharp scream and the crowd cried exultantly. Doflamingo's head whipped back and he licked his lips. "I wouldn't feel too sorry for him, Violet. He clearly doesn't have any comprehension of mercy either."
Viola didn't want to see. How many times, in how many new and horrifying ways had she seen a person killed yet she found herself looking only if just to confirm Bellamy deserved no pity.
He didn't. The so called Hyena leapt off the squashed corpse of the gladiator he had been fighting. There was a sticky pop as he bounced away with a sick smirk on his face so different from the needy boy of a few minutes ago.
Viola glanced away again. "Perhaps you're right. Although on second appearance he seems just perfect for you."
"Fufufu. When are you going to give in and admit you like a good fight the same as the rest of us!"
"That wasn't a fight, it was a slaughter. And I prefer to kill people myself if it needs doing, not watch others make a spectacle of it."
"Ahh." Doflamingo leaned back, watching as Bellamy attacked another victim. "This is your problem, Violet. You don't appreciate spectacle. Or at least with regard to violence." He chuckled again and this time Viola's shivers were of disgust. "There is an art to it. Hmm one that dear Bellamy doesn't possess."
"Doesn't?"
"No." He seemed blasé in his observation, his tone light if a little disappointed as he took a sip of his wine. "You are right as always, my dear Violet."
Bellamy had crushed the second man. Viola didn't stop to observe the grisly end, the screams of the crowd told her everything she needed to know.
Pathetic scum. She thought, glancing up at them. You've forgotten everything my father strove to teach you. Although I know who is really to blame for that..
"Are you going to ask me why?" Doflamingo appeared next to her.
I hate it when he does that!
"You have your reasons, I'm sure."
"Don't tease me." He said, wriggling his fingers so both her fan and half empty glass were pulled from her grip and set on to the table beside them. He leaned down, speaking into her ear. "It's because no matter how hard he tries Bellamy will never possess what you and the others have."
"And what's that?"
"A certain class."
"Class?" She quipped.
Jora, Dellinger, Lao G any of them have class?
"Fufufu I know what you're thinking. They might have idiosyncrasies but they're good at what they do, they can be relied upon." His body remained close to her but Doflamingo inclined his heads towards the now victorious Bellamy, who had thrown his hands up to the crowd and was basking in their cheers. "Where as Bellamy here, can only be relied upon to clean up the dregs."
"So he's viscous, has an interesting ability and idolises you but that still not enough. I'm wondering how I ever managed to get into the Family at this rate."
And that was the real question, wasn't it, even now.
"A fact that my little fan is no doubt wondering." Doflamingo sniggered as Bellamy strode back towards them, and bent down on one knee to pay his respects to his King. "I think he thinks I'm merely fond of you because of our escapades in the Rose Suite."
"You told him about that?!"
"Fufufu of course not. But it's obvious we're…close. " Doflamingo said, ignoring his subordinate's display of reverence to press his face into her neck. Bellamy's brows knotted in frustration.
"Do you know why I am so fond of you, Violet?" He whispered.
"The Rose Suite evidently…" She kept herself still, seeing strings again in her mind. Then with the heady sensation of someone tempting a cliff edge she said sweetly "or is it because you know how much I hate you and it amuses you to make me dance regardless?"
Again the laugh boomed out of him and she let of the breath she didn't know she had been holding. Finally Doflamingo deigned to give Bellamy a bland wave which sent the pirate captain into fits of joy. The Shichibukai returned the admiration with a conceited smile, then ignored him again.
"If this is hate, how much to I want to experience love." His hand moved lower this time to her waist, then across the silky fabric of her flamenco dress to the curve of her buttock.
"The reason," He said breathily into her ear. "is that you are a queen and he is and always will be a cheap thug."
Viola looked at him sharply, sure he was mocking her. "I was never a queen, just a princess." Forcing her tone back under control she said lightly "besides you took all that away….not that it matters now."
"I might have stripped you of the title but you're never stopped being noble, Violet. You are a queen in your heart. No-one, not even I can take that away from you…"
Do you tell yourself that, Fallen Dragon?
"I have have a different life now." Viola reminded herself and him.
That's what he's angling for. He either wants to trip me into confessing treason or affirm how much better being part of his wretched family is compared to my own.
That tingle was back - the cold shiver as you walk, knowing something behind you is hunting you. Viola courted it, tempted it as she strode to the balcony edge to look down on the bloody pit and the man bowing before them. He might as well get some attention for his trouble, even if it wasn't from the man he worshiped as a god.
Doflamingo embraced her from behind and looked down at Bellamy with a condescending smirk. Any minute he could turn and those caresses could draw blood. How much did he truly consider her family or was she just like Bellamy, with the same masochistic thrill running through her veins? Was she really able to play him or was that part of his game all along?
"I think he thinks I'm merely fond of you because of our escapades in the Rose Suite."
Her pulse increased, fear mixing with anticipation. Perhaps she hadn't read him well enough. The strings were tangling her, cutting into her, imaginary or not. Wasn't it treason either way to who she really was? Here at his side, in his arms, in his bed. Him in her head, making her as blood tainted as the roaring crowd around them. What was worse - to be like Bellamy idolising this demon, or to know his true nature and be chained to it anyway? A toy as much as the ones in the Factory.
"You do have a new life…."
This time when he whispered she heard it over and over, even into her dreams.
"This fool thinks he can sail on my ship to greatness. Fufufu! But you…You're my queen, Violet. Let the peons watch as we'll rule this world with the rest of the Family together. This is just the beginning."