Taking The Plunge

Chapter One: The Ceremony

Disclaimer: Very talented people who are not me own Wander Over Yonder. This is just for fun.

This story starts with a rewrite of "The Big Day." This episode is so much fun, but one interesting detail is that although the whole thing starts as Wander trying to distract Hater, he eventually gets distracted himself and just has fun planning the day with Hater. By the ceremony, Wander has completely forgotten that they were supposed to be escaping, and probably wouldn't have remembered except that Sylvia was there reminding him. That made me wonder…what if she wasn't there? Would Wander still have remembered to escape? What would Hater have done if he didn't?

Skeletondance, but I will be keeping it pretty light. It was inevitable that I'd eventually write a story with this paring. These two goofy characters just feel like they belong together. Let's see how long it takes them to figure that out.

Enjoy!

Okay, Hater could admit, only to himself, he got a little carried away.

He had really tried to move on, to focus on conquering the galaxy. Peepers had had lots of ideas for regaining that prestige and recognition the Lord Hater Empire had once commanded, and Boomapalooza had been the perfect opportunity to show everyone that Hater was back and better than ever. It would have been impressive and showy, and sure to make certain villains, including that upstart Dominator, think twice about who was really the Greatest in the Galaxy. And Hater had been ready to focus on the event and put any thoughts of annoying wandering weirdos out of his mind. He had been ready to move on, he was sure of it.

He had been ready to move on, right up until Wander had sauntered into the picture, floating by in an orble without a care in the world, strumming his banjo and singing a stupid song without any words in it.

That had been the first distraction.

Even then, Hater had figured he could just sneak quietly away, blast Wander into oblivion, and be back before Peepers or anyone else realized where he had been. It would have been over quickly and Wander would never be able to distract him again. He would be free to focus on conquering the galaxy like once again. It should have been particularly easy since Wander was even by himself on this particular occasion, with no brutish zbornak anywhere to be seen.

But then Wander had to suggest that they make his doomsday special and, well, he hadn't been wrong. Hater had spent so much of his time chasing down the annoying furball it really would have been a bit of a letdown to just blast the wanderer and be done with it. It wouldn't have been very satisfying. That's what he told himself anyway.

And all while they were going through various methods of destruction, picking a special outfit for the occasion and choosing mood music, part of Hater kept telling him to just do it; get rid of the annoying pest and get back to what was important, but another part, a deep, treacherous part of him kept whispering that this was important. After all, wasn't Wander his greatest enemy? Hadn't he spent almost two years trying to destroy him? It deserved some fanfair, surly.

Then every time Hater was all prepared and ready to destroy the nomad, Wander would stop him with an objection or a suggestion, and Hater would go along with it, even when he was annoyed at the delay because, well, Wander would make a good point. This day was important to him after all. He'd been waiting for it for so long.

He should say something special on the occasion. It would be more meaningful, wouldn't it?

He should invite the watchdogs. They would get to see him finally destroy his greatest enemy. Wasn't it kind of their victory too?

And at some point, during all of this, it stopped being annoying and it started getting fun.

It was fun to look at various rooms in the skull-ship with Wander and choose one to have the ceremony in.

It was fun making invitations together and sending them out to the watchdogs.

It was fun choosing a cake and picking out decorations and planning out every aspect of the ceremony.

By the time the day arrived, Hater didn't regret the delay any more. He was glad they'd waited and made it special. He was looking forward to the ceremony, even if he was worried about Peepers finding out.

Hater had walked down the isle, between the rows of watchdogs with Wander bound to his rack at the end and everything had been perfect. The lights, the music, the decorations, the admiring watchdogs, his sparkling cloak; everything combined had made Hater feel like he was on top of the world. He felt powerful and commanding with all eyes focused on him. He couldn't keep the smile off his face as he continued between the rows. Then he looked ahead to where Wander was waiting for him.

Wander's smile was so large it took up his whole face. He was waiting patiently for Hater at the front of the hall, focused entirely on the overlord.

And Wander looked so happy.

Granted, Wander was almost perpetually happy, but usually his smile bothered Hater. That huge smile had always been a sign for the overlord that some disaster was about to happen. Wander was about to mess up his plans, distract him from whatever he was doing or make him look like an idiot in front of his watchdogs. But this time was different. For some reason, maybe this was something they'd planned together, or maybe because Hater wasn't already annoyed with the wanderer, he didn't see the smile the same way. The smile wasn't mocking, it wasn't smug or teasing or any of the ways Hater often interoperated Wander's smiles.

Wander looked genuinely happy to be here, to be doing this with him.

For once Hater felt no anger when he met that smile. Instead of the usual rage, there was a strange pressure inside his ribs, almost like something was constricting painfully inside him, and he almost stumbled on the red carpet beneath his feet. He didn't know what the feeling was, but he didn't have time to figure it out, because that was the moment when Peepers burst through the double doors.

Peepers was upset; of course he was. That was why Hater had tried to do this quietly. It was why each of the invitations he and Wander had sent out had contained the all-important message: 'Don't tell Peepers.' He'd wanted to get it over with before Peepers figured out what he was doing.

Hater was uncomfortable. He couldn't help feeling just a little bad at how hurt his commander was, even if the blubbering was getting on his nerves. He knew Peepers had been excited for Boomapalooza, and there had probably been a lot of planning involved in the event. This had been their chance to really wow the other villains, but he found that he didn't regret skipping out on it. Sure, it was kind of fun blowing up a planet, and a great way to attract attention, but was it really that important? He was the greatest in the galaxy, after all. He could find other ways to get the rest of the villains to fall in line. Besides, it wouldn't have been as fun as everything he'd done in the past few days getting ready for Wander's doomsday. He'd put a lot of work and planning into this. As he listened to Peepers' tearful ranting, he found himself running out of patience with his third in command.

Peepers didn't get it. He had never gotten it. Sure, what he was saying might be, in some way, correct, but he'd never understood Hater's feelings about Wander. He always wanted Hater to just ignore the fuzzy weirdo when he inevitably showed up, but Hater couldn't do that, not until the annoying menace was gone for good. Now he finally had everything all perfect to destroy his greatest enemy and Peepers had to barge in and cause a problem.

Hater wanted to do this. He needed to do this. Still, Peepers' impassioned speech deserved some kind of response. Hater perhaps felt a tiny bit guilty for ditching his third in command. The overlord found himself kneeling down to Peepers' level. He took one of the watchdog's hands in his and took a deep breath.

"Peepers," he began, trying to keep his voice gentle in response to Peepers' tears. "You've made me realize two things. One, you're absolutely right. And two, I don't care!" Patience gone, Hater dropped Peepers' hand and spun around, whipping out the remote for the Disaster Blaster Five-Thousand.

Hater pressed the button before he could allow himself to think, or hesitate or let himself be stopped again, by Peepers or anyone else who wanted to ruin this for him. As the button depressed, Hater's eyes rose to meet Wander's once again. A small part of him had expected the nomad to be gone, to have used the opportunity of Peepers' interruption to escape once again, but Wander was still there, still smiling, and at that smile Hater felt that strange something tightening in his chest again. Wander's smile wasn't quite as wide as before. It was softer somehow; intimate, as though they were the only two in the room.

Hater could hear the Disaster Blaster charging, see the green glow building at its tip, but he couldn't tear his eyes from Wander's face. Time seemed to move in slow motion as the anticipation Hater was feeling drained away rapidly, replaced with a sudden strange sense of unreality. Surly any second now Wander would slip out of his restraints and dodge out of the way, just like always.

Except he didn't.

He wasn't escaping.

Why wasn't he escaping?

Hater's mind was frozen in confusion, but his body moved without a conscious decision. In an instant he was across the polished floor of the hall. The laser was unbearably bright behind him now and still Wander hadn't moved. Hater crashed bodily into the suspended rack, knocking it to the floor with himself on top. He felt searing heat pass directly over him and shut his eyes against the glare. There was a shuddering sound as the laser impacted the wall behind them, shaking the skull-ship, then silence aside from the lazy clatter of falling rubble.

Hater found himself nose to nose with his nemesis. Wander's smile was gone now. He looked confused, maybe even a little concerned. One orange furred hand slipped out of its restraint to rest gently on his shoulder.

"You alright, Hater?" Wander asked softly. His hand rubbed comfortingly along the shoulder of Hater's robe. "That laser was awful close. It didn't zap you none, did it?"

Hater didn't answer. He barely registered Wander's question or the furry hand on his shoulder. His cheekbones felt hot and his heart seemed to be beating too quickly. His throat felt tight and painful as if he was choking back something unpleasant. He could hear the exclamations of his watchdogs behind him; Peepers' voice in particular was raised in agitation, but it all seemed strangely muted.

Hater felt almost dizzy with confusion. He met Wander's eyes and didn't know what he was feeling. He wanted rage to fill him. He wanted to blame the nomad for distracting him, for ruining his plan again, but he knew Wander hadn't done a thing this time. Hater had ruined everything all on his own, and he still didn't know why.

The skeletal overlord felt like he was drowning, trapped in Wander's concerned gaze. The voice of his commander behind him was becoming louder in his ears again, and suddenly Hater couldn't face either of them. He pushed himself jerkily to his feet, turned and fled without a word, the squeaking of his sneakers on the polished floor his only answer to Wander's questions and Peepers' cries.

Thanks for reading!

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Next time, we will see some stuff from Wander's and Peepers' points of view. Maybe some Sylvia as well, and Hater will do some reflecting.

See you soon!