Fighting The Tide

Chapter Seven: The Outline

Wander and Hater shared a lovely evening together, while Sylvia and Peepers presumably got a bit of a break. Wasn't there some kind of plan to enact?

I'm so so happy everyone enjoyed the last chapter! I think it is one of my personal favourites. We got some spicy moments and some sweet moments. We have a little aftermath to get to, and then we will be getting into some more episode rewrites. Wonder what's next in line…

See you at the bottom!

"So, you have fun last night?"

Hater froze in the corridor. The threat from behind him was unmistakable.

He turned to find the zbornak staring him down, and squared his shoulders obstinately.

"Not that it's any concern of yours," he scoffed as best he could when faced with the powerful creature's glower, "but yes, we did."

"Uhuh." Sylvia nodded, looking down her snout at him critically. "I figured that from the stupid grin you had on."

Hater blinked uncomfortably. He hadn't realized he'd been doing that.

"So?" He asked in as dignified a manner as he could manage. "What do you want?"

"To warn you." Sylvia's voice was casual, but with a dangerous edge. "We never did get to finish our discussion a couple of weeks ago, and since Wander and I are heading out soon, I think we should do it now."

Hater winced internally at the memory of that 'discussion,' when the zbornak had dragged him off to talk about his feelings. They had been interrupted by Peepers' surprise capture of Wander, and Hater had rather hoped it would never come up again. He should have known better, he supposed.

"So, what?" he groused. You want to talk here, in the middle of the hallway?"

"No." Sylvia turned, opening the door to Hater's dining room and gesturing for him to enter. "This'll do."

Hater walked reluctantly through the door. The dining room was empty now, after Wander had carried away their breakfast plates. As delicious as that breakfast had been, Hater now rather wished the two nomads had left first thing in the morning, though knowing Sylvia, now that she'd brought it up, she wasn't going to leave without having this out with him.

Hater sat in his chair stiffly, as Sylvia dragged a chair across from him, sitting as well.

"What do you want to talk about anyway?" Hater didn't bother to keep the annoyance out of his voice. "We both know I don't hate Wander anymore. We're boyfriends now and everything, and you don't have to worry about his safety when he's with me."

"Yeah, well…" Sylvia made a face like she was thinking of something unpleasant. "It's not really his safety that's worrying me at the moment. She took a deep breath, looking across at him levelly. "Look, Hater, I admit I didn't believe this whole thing at first. Flarp, I half expected I'd have to come in and rescue Wander from another of your stupid plans to destroy him, but I was wrong; you really do care about him, and don't even bother denying it, because you've done plenty to show how much you care."

Hater looked away uncomfortably.

"I'm not denying anything," he muttered.

"That's good." Sylvia's gaze was intense. It felt like it was pinning him to his chair. "It'll make this a lot easier. Because, let me make this clear, just because you're going out with Wander doesn't mean you can do anything you want. When you get to see him, you are going to treat him like he's the best thing that ever happened to you because, trust me, he is."

Hater sputtered angrily; figurative hackles now completely raised.

"Just what are you trying to –" he started, but Sylvia didn't let him finish, raising her voice and talking over him without apparent effort.

"And that doesn't just mean not hurting him. Grop, you couldn't even manage to destroy him when you were trying to. No, if you actually want to be his boyfriend, you're going to treat him properly, and if you don't, I will find out and then I will destroy you."

Hater's eyes blazed and he stood abruptly.

"You can't threaten me, you great, dumpy –"

"Oh, you bet your bones I can threaten you!" Sylvia stood as well, meeting his glare easily. "Wander is special, and if you ever push him into something he's not ready for, or try to manipulate him, or break that big heart of his, I will take you apart like I've done to this ship more times than I can count. And that's not a threat, Hater, it's a promise. Do you understand?"

Hater drew himself up.

"Okay, first off, I wouldn't do any of those stupid things!" he snapped. "And secondly, what are you so worried about anyway? He's Wander. Name one time he wasn't totally fine!"

"Yesterday." Sylvia's voice was suddenly quiet, completely without emotion.

Hater felt his heart drop to the bottom of his ribcage. All the indignant anger seemed knocked out of him.

"Wha…what's that supposed to mean?"

Sylvia sat back down heavily, waiting until Hater did the same. Once he was seated, she gave him a long look.

"He wasn't fine yesterday," she repeated. We were caught in the middle of a battle between every self-styled villain in the galaxy, and you know why? Because you were there. Because you'd put a massive target on your back like a complete flarf-narbling idiot and he was worried you might get hurt. He ditched me and went running after you into the middle of the biggest firefight I've ever seen because he was worried about you."

She narrowed her eyes at Hater, who shuffled his feet uncomfortably. He wanted to say something to defend himself, but nothing seemed to come to mind. Sylvia looked away after a moment, and when she looked back, she looked tired.

"And despite what it seems like, Wander isn't invincible. I've seen him scared, I've seen him hurt, and I've even seen him heart broken." She paused, seeming to steel herself as though the next words were painful. "And sometimes it was because of me. And believe it or not, I get it, Hater. He used to seem invincible to me too, especially back when I first met him. He seemed so carefree and happy, even when he was in danger, I thought nothing could get to him or hurt him.

"I was wrong. Not to say that he's not carefree and happy. He's certainly that, and he's really resourceful, and bounces back like he's made of rubber or something, as I'm sure you know. He's fine most of the time, but not always, and when those rare times crop up, he's not always the best at protecting himself because he's always thinking about helping someone else."

Her voice had gotten quiet, almost as though she was talking to herself, eyes wandering away from Hater's to trace the wood grain visible in the shiny surface of the table. Now, she looked up again, intense gaze once again finding Hater's.

"Meeting Wander, and becoming friends with him, was the best thing that ever happened to me," she said quietly.

"How, um, how did you two meet, anyway?" Hater's voice was equally quiet. He'd never wondered about that before, but something about the way Sylvia sounded when she talked about Wander, and their first meeting, made him want to know.

Sylvia chuckled slightly, though it sounded more strained than mirthful.

"Don't think you're ready for that particular story, and I'm certainly not interested in telling it to you at the moment. Suffice it to say, he helped me out of a pretty dark place, and he let me keep traveling with him. He helped me to find a life I could look forward to and enjoy, all the annoyances and craziness included.

"Point is, you are luckier than you know right now. He's always going to have your back, and he's always going to take care of you. Like you said, he's Wander. It's what he does." She narrowed her eyes again, and Hater struggled to keep looking back. He felt uncomfortably like she was staring right through him.

"So if you want to be with him, as a friend, or a boyfriend, you also have to take care of him. You've got to be there for him when he needs it, and you've got to be prepared to do things you don't want to do sometimes because he needs them. Just because he puts you first and doesn't think about himself doesn't mean he doesn't need it. And if that's not something you're willing to do, you should break up with him now and go back to trying to hunt us down."

"Why…" Hater moistened his suddenly dry mouth. "Why are you saying all of this to me now?"

Sylvia leaned back in her chair slightly, crossing her arms, but still keeping Hater pinned with her gaze.

"Because I didn't get to say much of it before, and it's more important now after what you two were probably doing last night. Because, given how you acted on the 'date', with Linguini Von Breadstick, I figure you have literally no experience in this area and are probably in desperate need of advice." She paused, giving a long, put-upon sigh. Hater glared, the urge to deny her assertions rising, but somehow, he couldn't quite bring himself to interrupt. Sylvia continued, "And because I know what your plan was yesterday, and I'm pretty sure you're still thinking about doing it, right?"

Hater's eyes slid sideways.

"Maybe," he confirmed.

Sylvia spread her hands.

"Then there you go. I'm not going to go on about what an idiotic idea that is, or how you've only been on about three dates so far. I'm sure Peepers has given you an earful about all of that already, and I'm willing to bet you didn't listen to him. Besides, I can't control whether you want to rush in like an overdue space coaster and make a huge, massive, completely bone-headed mistake. That's something you're going to decide for yourself.

"But I am going to make sure that you treat Wander with the respect and kindness he deserves as long as you're lucky enough to be with him."

She leaned forward slightly, hands folded in front of her on the table. Her voice was soft, but her eyes were so hard Hater almost wanted to move backward. He felt himself stiffen under that gaze.

"So, you're going to be the perfect gentleman Wander says you are. You're not going to pressure him into anything he's not comfortable with, you're not going to disregard his feelings or ditch him because someone 'cool' comes along–" once again rallying somewhat, Hater tried to interject indignantly, and Sylvia somehow managed to roll over him to continue talking, "–and it can't just be about what you want all the time. You're going to take care of him when he needs it, because Grop knows that's what he'll be doing for you. And if you don't, it's my job as his best friend to scatter your bones to the four winds."

She smiled, almost pleasantly, over her icy glare.

"Now, I'll ask again, Hater, do you understand?"

Hater's jaw opened and closed a few times, as he tried to sort out something to say. There was lots of stuff she'd said that he'd like to deny or take issue with. Part of him still wanted to start up from his chair, overturn the table in a rage and yell at Sylvia that none of this was any of her business, and he'd do whatever he liked with Wander, but the rest of him was smart enough to know that that was a terrible idea.

As Wander's best friend, Sylvia's voice carried a massive amount of weight with the nomad, and Hater had no doubt she could cause a lot of problems with his relationship if she was so inclined. Grop, he wouldn't put it past her to prevent him from even seeing Wander if she didn't like his answer. It wasn't like Wander had a phone of his own Hater could call.

But also, despite his indignation and totally justifiable anger at her threats and assumptions, he had to unwillingly admit to himself that a lot of what she'd said made sense.

It brought his mind back to when this whole thing had started during the destruction ceremony, and the reason Wander hadn't escaped from the Disaster Blaster 5000 after Hater set it off, why he'd stayed as the deadly laser had charged when he could easily have gotten out of his restraints. He'd stayed because he hadn't wanted to ditch Hater or disappoint him after all their work, because he'd wanted Hater to be happy. He'd been putting Hater first, even back when Hater was still trying to destroy him.

What if Hater hadn't thought to save him in time, or if he hadn't been able to? He remembered knocking Wander's rack over and landing on him, the searing heat of the laser on his back as it passed directly over them and the massive hole it had burned in the wall of the skull-ship. Resilient Wander might be, but not that resilient.

And, as for the rest, Hater himself had recently seen that he could hurt Wander's feelings, even without trying sometimes. He'd never been able to before, not really, at least as far as he could tell, back when even making Wander briefly sad would have been viewed as a major triumph.

Things had changed between them, and not only on Hater's end.

He thought about what Wander had said the night before, about being nervous. Wander must have opened up around him, and that meant Hater actually could hurt him, now when he no longer wanted to. He thought about his own worries about whether he might do something to offend the nomad or even make Wander not like him anymore.

This wasn't a video game. If he did something to screw things up, he couldn't just hit 'reset' and pretend it hadn't happened. If he screwed things up with Wander, he'd lose something he'd never had before, something he was only learning now how much he wanted.

He didn't want Sylvia to be right about all of this, especially after how insulting she'd been throughout their 'talk,' but he at least had to admit that she wasn't completely wrong.

And, even though he was pretty sure he could totally take her in a fight if he really tried, he didn't want to face an enraged, vengeance-seeking zbornak. There were a fair few horror stories floating around about that.

Although, when all was said and done, the threat was secondary. He didn't want to lose Wander, didn't want to lose the confusing feelings, or the embarrassing moments, the way Wander snuggled up to his side and smiled at him the way he smiled at nobody else. He didn't want to lose the kisses and cuddles he was just barely starting to get used to, or the overwhelming emotions that were kind of frightening but still amazing despite that. Even the parts of their relationship that could be annoying or frustrating seemed precious when he thought about losing them.

Even an angry zbornak paled in comparison to that.

Sylvia was still waiting for his answer, and the fact that she hadn't tried to hurry him along made Hater uncomfortably aware that she must have figured out at least some of his thought process.

Taking a deep, steadying breath, Hater met the zbornak's gaze as well as he could. He tried to look stern, as though she hadn't succeeded in unsettling him, but he wanted her to know he was taking this seriously because, even though she was wrong about some of the stupid stuff she'd said, he knew she wasn't wrong about Wander. And, given his own feelings and the pain he'd inflicted on Emperor awesome when the villain had messed with the nomad, he could even kind of understand where she was coming from.

He raised his chin, making sure to keep a glare on his face, just to show her she wasn't forcing him or threatening him into anything.

"Yeah," he said, voice slightly rough, but firm. "I understand."

Sylvia stared at him for a long moment, and Hater could feel himself start to sweat uncomfortably. He forced himself to keep glaring back.

Finally, she nodded, then stood, brushing her hands off briskly.

"Okay," she assessed. "We're done."

"Really?" Hater raised a brow suspiciously. He was surprised she wasn't going to push him to agree to anything else.

"Yep, for now anyway." Sylvia stretched her arms above her head as though finally relaxing. "Well, now that that's dealt with, Wander and I should probably get going." She shot a sharp glance Hater's way, belying her relaxed posture. "We'll talk again another time, I'm sure," she concluded, before turning and strolling back out of the door.

Hater's brows lowered as he crossed his arms, annoyed once again.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he growled.

Well, that hadn't been very short, and definitely hadn't been painless. And even though he had kind of understood Sylvia's viewpoint on a few things, he found himself muttering some very disparaging things about a certain zbornak.

At least Peepers hadn't scheduled an invasion for today, because Hater had more than half a mind to retreat to his room and play video games for about nine hours. He was pretty sure he needed it after all of that.

Peepers watched the two nomads orble away from the skull-ship, relief finally settling over him.

At least Hater had held off on his proposal for now. Peepers hadn't loved the amount of time the furry mop had spent with Lord Hater last night, or how weirdly…happy his boss had seemed this morning at breakfast, but there wasn't much he could do about that at the moment. Hater was in charge, and therefore, he got what he wanted. And it just so happened that what he wanted was Wander, at least for now.

Peepers grimaced quietly to himself. It was probably wisest not to speculate about what the two of them had been doing together in Hater's room, and he didn't have time for such nauseating thoughts in any case. He had an entire ship to run and a long line of planet takeovers to organize, something the logistics of which took up most of the time he wasn't using to oversee the inner workings of the skull-ship, fill out paperwork, and reprimand unruly troops.

Then there were all the other minor tasks that took up his time. Today, for instance, Hater wanted him to send out a message rendering all his bounty posters for Wander and Sylvia null and void, and Peepers had to find a way to do that without causing rebellion on the planets they controlled, or enticing territory raids from other villains, who would surely take it as a sign of weakness. There were already plenty of rumours spreading across the galaxy about Hater and Wander's relationship, much as Peepers had tried to stop them, and they couldn't afford many more blows to their reputation.

Then, once all of that was taken care of, he had his own plans to begin.

He was fully aware it wouldn't be enough to just get Hater and Dominator on a planet together and hope some sparks of a more romantic nature started flying. Hater had someone he was involved with at the moment, and though he may be attracted to Dominator, it was clear that Wander could exert a fair amount of allure in the overlord's eyes, much as Peepers winced to think about that.

No, for his plan to work, he needed several important things.

First, he needed Hater to see more of Dominator, not just her drilling into and blowing up planets, which would be easy, if dangerous, to find, but her in a different environment, a more casual setting, where Hater would be able to appreciate her charms and her obvious attractiveness. This was a pretty difficult task, but even a villain of Dominator's caliber must have some equivalent to 'down time,' even if she stayed on her ship for it. It would certainly be dangerous, since he would likely have to sneak on board her ship and gather some more information about her, or at least recruit some watchdogs to do that.

At least the information gathering would be useful in the long run, even if none of his plans panned out. Getting to know your enemy was always worthwhile.

Second, he needed to boost Dominator's perception of Hater. Even knowing next to nothing about the villainous other than the incredible power and menace she wielded, Peepers was pretty sure Dominator would probably never be attracted to Hater, but he hoped she could at least be convinced to respect his power as a fellow villain, and he almost certainly needed to do that in order to get Hater more attracted to her. His boss was unlikely to respond positively to someone who completely disregarded or despised him, especially with how affectionate Wander currently was.

This plan actually had some groundwork laid for it already. Hater had been the only villain to go toe to toe with Dominator in yesterday's battle, and his final attack had at least gotten her attention, as the sheer amount of firepower she had thrown at them in retaliation could attest.

Third, and hardest of all, he needed to start chipping away at Hater's attraction to Wander. This was the really dangerous part. Yes, messing with and attempting to manipulate a powerful foe who was clearly already out for their blood had its risks, but it was this step in his plan that really worried Peepers, simply because of what Hater would surely do to him if he found out what his commander was up to, despite the fact that this would all be the best for Hater in the long run. It would also be, from what Peepers could tell, the most difficult part of the plan.

Hater was completely enamored with Wander, especially after…whatever they'd been doing last night. Worse still, he was happy about it, or at least in some kind of love-haze. Peepers had even noticed the overlord humming a little tune to himself in the hallways this morning, which was just creepy. He had no idea how he was going to throw a wrench in the works of this deranged relationship, but it had to be done, and it probably wouldn't be as impossible as all those times he'd tried to convince Hater to stop trying to destroy Wander. He didn't have to break Hater out of the cycle of his obsession this time, after all, he just had to crack it a little, sow some doubt here and there. He'd have to do it carefully, of course. Hater had already gotten annoyed at him for speaking plainly about what Wander might be up to, and giving his boss advice about breaking up with the furry nuisance. Hater had shut down all of that. He didn't want to hear it anymore, which meant Peepers needed to be more subtle about it.

Which he was perfectly capable of doing. He didn't like to go behind his boss' back or trick him, but sometimes, for the good of the Lord Hater Empire, as well as for Lord Hater himself, it was something he'd needed to do, and this was certainly one of those times.

It might also make sense to go at it from the other end as well, i.e. talk to the orange mop himself. If Wander could be convinced Hater wasn't happy with him, or if Peepers could at least create a little doubt in the scruffy vagabond, that might be the best way to drive in a wedge, especially as Wander was unlikely to blame the watchdog, or even tell Hater if he figured out what Peepers was trying to do.

Peepers considered, stroking his bottom eyelid thoughtfully.

At least according to the hairy toothpick, he'd had 'feelings' for Hater for quite a long time, definitely as far back as the overlord's last birthday, if the flirting Peepers had unwillingly witnessed was anything to go by. Yet he hadn't acted. He'd continued to stroll into the skull-ship and their invasions, cause chaos and get Hater to chase him or get the skeleton involved in whatever new distraction had entered his furry little mind, but, aside from that occasional flirting, he hadn't ever tried to start something romantic with Hater.

Why not?

Perhaps there actually had been some doubt there, a question in Wander's mostly empty head about whether Lord Hater wouldn't want such a thing with him. It couldn't be simply because of the overlord's constant attempts on his life, since he'd persisted in trying to befriend Hater.

Yes, there might well be something there he could investigate, and potentially exploit some time when the furry freak was alone.

Feeling slightly better, Peepers turned away from the window, and headed down towards the barracks to begin his long list of tasks for today. He always felt better after a good bit of scheming, even if the plans he'd been scheming about had yet to even begin to come together. Most of the details remained obscure, but it was certainly a start, and more hope for the empire than he'd had since finding out his boss' plan yesterday.

But he'd better get started; he had a lot of work to do.

Thanks for reading!

It was about time for Sylvia to threaten Hater. I think he was actually overdue for it. Probably best she waited until now to finish that discussion. I think Hater has done some growing in the interim, and had some reminders that he has a possibility of losing Wander, as well as having some vengeance feelings of his own, and getting a look at Wander's proverbial underbelly.

And we got more of a look at Peepers' plan. Not sure how well any of those steps are going to play out, but I'm sure he'll try his best. We did manage to have a slightly ominous ending…

Next up, we have another episode rewrite. I hope you like my take on this one!

Probably The New Galaxy will get updated next. When I'm working on my version of an episode, it usually takes a little longer because I want to really try to do it justice.

See you soon!