title: blue flowers
summary: "You shouldn't have let yourself get attached." -The Condesce, Alpha!John, Alpha!Jade
notes: based off of a Mama Condesce comic by tumblr user takaratime
-i.-
.
In another life she raises two kids-a blue eyed boy and a green eyed girl-and she isn't really sure why except that's a lie because the reason is actually that a green skulled asshole whispered in her ear and told her to go to Earth and change her name and become a baroness and raise two kids and she had to obey.
And that's the only reason, really.
(she tells herself that it's not because if the colonel were alive these are the children he probably would have wanted).
.
-ii.-
.
The girl is named Jade and the boy is John. They are probably somewhere around five human years. She doesn't care much for either of them. Especially not Jade (only five years old and the girl's a rebellious little shit).
"Hey lady!" a squeaky little voice says.
The Condesce turns away from her baking to sneer at the little girl (man, they were so tiny and useless and annoying).
"Whaddya want brat? 'M sorta busy here so-ow!" She drops to clutch her shin as Jade runs off, cackling with glee. She swears that the only reason she doesn't grab her trident and cull the girl right then is because the good-for-nothin' brat is hiding it.
.
-iii.-
.
"Here," John says, tugging on her sleeve.
She looks down to see him holding out a flower to her (it's soft blue, like the color of her old husband's eyes) and scrunches her nose up.
"Th' fuck am I s'posed ta do with that?" she asks and the eight year old shrugs.
"I dunno. I picked it up in the yard and thought it'd look pretty in your hair," he says and she narrows her eyes at him, immediately (and rightfully) suspicious.
"It's not gonna spray anyfin weird on me right buoy?" she asks (goddamn prankster, she thinks and then somewhere in the back of her mind, oh he's so much like him isn't he?) and he shakes his head. She rolls her eyes and snatches the flower from him.
"Tch. Fine. Now scram kid, I got important mattas ta attend to."
John grins and leaves and when he's gone she tries to figure out how to make the flower stay in her hair.
.
-iv.-
.
She watches the two of them play outside from her position by the window and when they venture too far into the forest where she can't see them she starts to panic just a little bit. Her first thought is what if they escape? And then, they wouldn't, but that quickly turns into they can't.
They're on an empty island in the middle of some great ocean. They literally cannot leave her without her knowing.
She pauses.
Escape. She meant escape.
.
-v.-
.
She kills their dog (the one where she has no idea where it came from, all she knows is that one day they went into the forest and came back with that stupid barkbeast).
It's mostly to prove that she hasn't gone soft on them like she's secretly begun to fear, that she is still the (once) great empress of what used to be her Alternia. It's to prove that she is still and will always be Her Imperious Condescension.
Jade's hate for her strengthens and grows. John does not speak to her for weeks.
(it sort of hurts a little, she can't quite put a finger on why, but it does).
.
-vi.-
.
Jade manages to escape somehow when she's ten and John's eleven. The only thing she leaves behind is a short note:
"Bye-bye Batterwitch! :)"
She always knew that Jade would leave-she was incredibly smart and she hated her enough-so she isn't really surprised, but the look on John's face can only be described as devastation. He's silent and unsmiling for most of that day.
She almost wants to say sorry-sorry that Jade's gone, sorry about the stupid mutt, and sorry he has to live here with her-but the Condesce has never apologized for anything before and she certainly does not plan to any time soon.
Instead she bakes a cake to cheer him up a little. It sort of works.
.
-vii.-
.
John makes her laugh.
Even though his puns are sort of stupid and terrible and his jokes are the corny kind, they're funny enough to make her laugh. He's the second peson to be able to do this. She remembers that the first one to get her to laugh was an older, gentle man with (those same) kind blue eyes who she might have loved if things had been different and she wasn't who she was.
John makes her laugh and that's the problem.
.
-viii.-
.
"Congratulations on your new show! We'll see you here soon!"
(she doesn't know what to call this feeling in her chest)
.
-ix.-
.
"Here," John says and it feels like déjà vu, "For you."
She takes the blue flower from him, places it in the wild mess she calls her hair and grins a sharp toothed smile at him.
"Knock 'em dead, squirt," she says and he grins back and then he-he hugs her. She isn't really sure what to do or how to react to this but it doesn't matter because he steps away and waves at her as he grins again-the same sweet, buck-toothed grin he's always had.
"Bye Mom!"
And then he's gone (and it feels like déjà vu except a little bit different).
.
-x.-
.
The flower in her hair starts to wilt and she thinks that maybe-
(-you shouldn't have let yourself get attached-)
-she kind of hates the color blue.