Motorcity: Join me, chapter 17
Disclaimer: I do not own Motorcity or the listed characters
Title: Join Me
Rating: T+
Summary: AU, Chuck and Mike never met in Deluxe; Chuck is leader of the Burners and Mike is still Kane’s Commander. Despite being enemies, Chuck and Mike find themselves having feelings for each other, but are both too stubborn to leave their sides of Detroit.
Pairings: MikexChuck, DutchxTennie
Warnings: Don’t read if you don’t like or are triggered by violence or dystopian societies
Author’s Note: For the sake of the AU to work Chuck is OOC and some events have been slightly changed.
“TEXAS TOLD YOU NOT TO STICK YOUR DICK INTO EVIL.”
While Dutch, Jacob, R.O.T.H and Julie was stunned into silence, Texas did not miss a beat in yelling that, jumping out of his chair and grabbing Chuck by the collar of his shirt, the intimidating effect was unfortunately not lost by Texas’s inferior height.
“I-I-” Chuck stammered, the less bold aspect of his personality started to surface at his anxiety, he was cut off when the Stronghorn driver slammed him against the wall and drew his fist back to punch him. Chuck froze at the remembrance of the beating he’d gotten from Tooley that resulted in his artificial eye.
“Knock it off, Texas!” Julie snapped and grabbed the dark haired man’s fist, effectively stopped him as he was grounded slightly out of his angry state. Blinking, he absentmindedly dropped Chuck. The leader was still shaken, but fixed up his jacket anxiously nonetheless.
“Chuck… You’re not serious are you?” Dutch asked, looking to his robot companion before back to his programmer leader.
Damn the Duke, damn the duke right to the recycling bin of the netherworlds. “I’m… I’m serious.” Chuck confirmed, soft and morose.
“You’re… You’re DATING Mike Chilton?! Chuck, dude - he’s Kane’s right hand man!” Dutch near stammered.
“I’m aware, Dutch.” Chuck had his arms behind his back, as to silently and unseenly up the level of his fear inhibitor. It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep a straight face.
“How… How did this happen?” Julie inquired, there was something else in her voice that Chuck couldn’t immediately pick up on.
“I… I… well…” The blond swallowed hard, “He… He sneaks down here because the freedom we have down here intrigues him- well, mostly the food and cars actually. One day a couple of months ago we were both at the same fast food place at the same time, and, we couldn’t fight with so many people around and instead had a conversation about loyalties and ideals… and, well…”
“Then you stuck your dick into evil?” Texas broke in when Chuck trailed off.
“…Bluntly, yes. We… Started dating soon after.” Chuck admitted, raising the level of his inhibitor to half-strength, the sclera in his natural eye became a rose shade.
“…Dude.” Was all Dutch could say, R.O.T.H was chirping something of similar meaning in his robot language.
“Guy’s… Guy’s I…” Chuck swallowed “I’m sorry, okay… I’m sorry; I knew it was wrong to lie and hide this from you. I know it’s wrong to feel this way about someone who’s our enemy.. But…”
“You can’t continue this relationship with Mike, Chuck.” Jacob half-consoled, half-scolded as he approached the younger man and gently touched his arm
Chuck got onto the defensive “You don’t understand - Mike’s different.” He himself wasn’t sure why, but he knew deep down Mike was different, he wasn’t the same as Kane, the other Kane soldiers or even Dutch’s brother. He just… was different. He just didn’t see the true corruption behind Kane’s execution of his ideals.
“You can’t have your loyalties divided like this Chuck.” Jacob argued back “Chilton still fights on the behalf of Deluxe, he’s a soldier and it’s a soldier’s job to follow their orders. He’s not just any soldier either, his orders come directly from Kane.”
Chuck’s expression twitched and then faltered, like a drooping leaf. In response Jakob placed a hand on his shoulder, sensing the distress he was beginning to fall into.
“I’m not heartless Chuck, I understand how both love and infatuation feel. And however strong the feelings you are you can’t balance the safety of Motorcity on them. Chilton is military official of Kane’s army, and he himself will eventually have to choose between you and Deluxe…. Settle this with him now, Chuck, or.. You can ‘t be a Burner anymore.”
His blood spiked with ice - not be a Burner anymore?! That was all he was! He dedicated absolutely everything for the cause of liberating Motorcity, for the cause of liberating people in general from the oppression of Kane. “You can’t be serious! Isn’t that a bit overkill?”
“It is not overkill, Chuck. If you were dating some random from Deluxe - hell, any /other/ soldier than this wouldn’t be a problem. But this is the commander we’re talking about… talk to him tonight, tell him he can either choose Deluxe, or choose you.”
This was some Disney plot inconvenience bullshit right here “So you’re trying to tell me either break up with my boyfriend or I’m booted out?”
“That… may be what’s best, Chuck.” Dutch drawled out slowly “I mean, this relationship between you and Chilton? It’s messed up. But… We can’t tell you how to feel, or who to feel for. Just… go find him, tell him to pick. You’ve been trying to recruit him forever so… I guess now’s your chance? We don’t want to lose you man.”
He kept frowning, he turned his fear inhibitor off, and realized he was actually quite close to tears but he didn’t want his team, especially Texas, to see it. “F-Fine… ” He stammered “I’ll… tell him to meet me at the charging ports, and I’ll ask him if he’s willing to leave Deluxe…”
“Do you want one of us to go with you?” Julie asked.
“No… It’s between me and him.”
His radio really liked being as ironic with his life problems, because the song that came on once he was halfway to the charging ports was “I Hate this Part” by the Pussycat Dolls, a song and band from the time before dystopia. Chuck heavily sighed, he really could drive faster than five miles below the speed limit, but he was too nervous to confront Mike with this.
“You okay nerd?” Texas asked as his head appeared from the back seat.
“Not really- WHAT THE-?!” Chuck swerved and had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting anything. Once parked temporarily, he twisted around to face his unexpected passenger “What are you doing here?!” He demanded and summoned his sling-shot for good measure.
Texas put his hands up defensively in the face up of the other Burners weapon “Hey hey put that thing away!”
“I told you I didn’t want to bring anyone with me!”
“I’m here as back-up to make sure he doesn’t attack you!”
“Texas I swear to-” Chuck inhaled deeply and pulled back, reminding himself to be the adult here. This wasn’t the first time Texas went against his orders after all, so he’d have to take this with a grain of salt, it was too late to take him back. “Fine, but when we get there stay in Blonde Thunder okay? Only come out if you see that I’m in danger, okay? Keep yourself hidden.”
“Roger that nerd.” And with that Texas ducked back into the junction between the front and back seat.
The song ended as Chuck pulled up to a spot near the charging ports, Mike was already there, mostly in uniform but he was wearing his Burners jacket rather than his uniform top, and his hands were resting in the pockets. When he spotted the approaching blond, he flashed him a smile.
A knot formed in Chuck’s throat and his legs grew heavier with each step. “H-Hey Mikey…”
“Hey Chuckles- you alright babe?” He asked, concerned as he noticed his usual confident partner was shaky and seemingly timid.
“I-I, u-u-uh-” Chuck began with a stammer, Mike had to grab his upper arms to keep him from falling over with how shaky he was; Chuck held onto him back and in his current state, instinctively hid his face between the shorter male’s neck and shoulder.
Confused but concerned, Mike drew his arms around the blond in return in an attempt to calm him down “Woah… is, something wrong?” He asked, kissing the back of his head.
Why did Mike have to make this harder by being so damn sweet?
“…Promise me to not be mad.”
“I… I, I promise?” Mike agreed, albeit reluctantly. “Whatever it is… I want you to know, I… I love you.”
If you strained hard enough you could hear something akin to glass breaking in the distance. That was Chuck’s sanity. Of all times to tell him? Of all damn times?
Chuck looked up from his shoulder slightly “D-Do you mean that?” A hand stroked him back gently, making the whole situation even worse.
“Of course I do.” Chuck wasn’t exactly the most emotionally developed guy out there, but by the sound of Mike’s tone he knew that he meant it.
“Huh?” The brunet inquired, Chuck had spoken too fast for him to quite catch what he had said, only really picking up ‘Burners’.
Chuck sucked in a breath, trying to internally stabilize himself as he continued to cling onto the pillar of strength that was Mike Chilton “I told the Burners.” He paused, then continued to clear the confusion “About us. I told them about us-” He started to ramble, starting with the incident with the Amazons and the Duke, and finished where they currently were, sans Texas being in the car.
Although Mike was very stiff, he continued to hold him in anyways “They… Know about us?”
“Mike I can’t keep doing this…” Chuck admitted, gripping the black fabric of his jacket, he noted Mike’s shocked and nearly horrified expression “Like this, I mean. I want to stay with you- because I l-love you too.” His voice started to lurch with his body, a sincere if somewhat forced confession he’d been saving for a less tense time “I can’t date the right-hand man of Kane, not when he’s the very person I’ve staged this rebellion against. Mike… the only way for us to stay together, is if you join me (1).”
There was a long silence, stretched farther than the eye could see.
“Chuck…” The shorter man began, his tone was soft but his hold on the other was growing limp, a bad sign “You know… You know I can’t do that.” Chuck pulled away from him, his eyes were streaming tears. Well, only his right eye was. His left eye wasn’t his real eye.
He wanted to be angry, he wanted to be upset. He wanted to scream at Mike all of Kane’s injustices and crimes against humanity. About the Terra’s. About Red and the fate of Red’s home. About how Kane had not only exiled him for trying to do the morally right thing, but had him beaten and taking his eye away. Back when he had been loyal to Deluxe and Kane, just like Mike.
He wanted so badly to be enraged.
But all he felt was mutual sorrow when his maya-blue eyes met Mike’s dark brown ones.
Of course he should have seen this coming. They had talked about this at the fast food restaurant all of those months ago, when their forbidden liason’s began. They were both loyal. Loyal to their respective causes, to their people. Mike was loyal to the people of Deluxe, he was a soldier and he served his people first. Chuck was loyal to Motorcity, to his people, and to their liberation.
He swiped his sleeve across his right eye “Well then… I guess this is where it ends.”
More silence, Mike stood there still. Chuck knew the other commander wasn’t heartless, that this was hurting him as much as it was hurting Chuck. He stayed silent. Up until Chuck turned to leave “Come back with me to Deluxe… I’ll put a word in for you.”
“You know I can’t do that Mike.”
Texas was almost asleep when his leader finally returned - Chuck had opened the door fast and had slammed it closed equally as fast - the Stronghorn driver peered out and saw Chilton had exited through the charging ports. “So he said no? No surprise there nerd, you really know how to pick them.” Texas said, as he sat up.
“…” Chuck was silent and had his back turned to him as he sat in the driver’s seat, and started up Blonde Thunder.
“You’re better off without him anyways-” Texas was surprised when a sob ripped itself away from the other Burner, followed by shaky sniffles, but Chuck refused neither to turn back nor even cover his face with his hands to cover his most likely devastated expression “You, uh, you alright nerd?”
Chuck didn’t answer. Not to his question, not when the other man’s arms went around his shoulders and drew him in for an awkward bro-hug, not when his sniffles began dying down. Yet he realized, that maybe the painful choice was the right choice… because even though giving up Mike was painful, he could never give up the Burners… A the usually insensitive Texas providing him with comfort in his moment of weakness further vilified his resolve that they were his family. A weird, loud, sometimes dysfunctional, and chaotic family, but they were all he had.
1: Don’t you just love it when the title of something appears in the dialogue.
No I’m not giving up this story, now that I’m out of Korea (I was there for work purposes) and back in the states with a… mostly, stable connection, I can go back to regularly writing. Thank you for your patience. There’s like… two to three chapters left.
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