White Blood Cell (U-1146) x Gender Neutral! Reader || Maybe I’m in Love
Warnings: Blood. Reader getting hurt. Slight angst but happy ending.
You nonchalantly walked through the body as you hummed your favorite song and swung your arms from side to side. It was a quiet, peaceful day and you could feel it in the atmosphere. Cells were happily talking to each other as they carried out their duties, nobody was running and screaming-
“Bacteria!” a red blood cell’s panicked voice broke the calm atmosphere as he ran in your direction, causing the other cells to scream and to start running in the same direction as him. Looks like you spoke too soon.
You didn’t need to be told twice. You pulled your pink cap down more securely before you took off running in the direction of where the cell came from. “Is it back there?” you asked and pointed ahead of you as you approached the cell who screamed.
He nodded as the two of you sped past each other. Him with a look of pure terror and you with your eyes fierce with determination. You knew you arrived when you saw rubble and a grotesque creature laughing maniacally, “what a wonderful place this body is.”
You noticed some cells standing frozen at the sight, “get out of here!” you commanded as you ran towards them, in case any of them were hurt. That seemed to snap them out of their reverie as they let out petrified yells while they ran away.
There was a whizzing sound and you used your sasumata to deflect the barb aimed towards the cells. You frowned as you looked at the bacteria smiling smugly at you, “you’re just a little eosinophil, aren’t you?” he crooned.
You tightened your hold on your sasumata as you faced off with the creature, “what is your point?” you tried to stall for time, enough for a neutrophil to arrive and finish him off. You knew you could hardly do anything against him, but keeping him away from the other cells would be the best you could do.
“Today must be my lucky day!” he howled in delight as he cackled with laughter, your (e/c) eyes darted around as you looked for any more cells in the area frozen in fear, and much to your chagrin, many seemed to have forgotten how to use their legs. He was too busy laughing to notice you start to move and you were halfway towards him before there was another ‘shing’ and you barely dodged a barb aimed to kill. His laughter turned into a frown, “I’m gonna kill you!” he shouted and you frantically used your sasumata as a shield against the barrage of barbs coming at you.
“Get out of here!” you shouted to the cells across the area who were watching the entire scene play out with wide eyes. That got their attention and they started to move, but that also got the bacteria’s attention as he spun around and shot his barbs in their direction, “hey ugly!” you leapt up and tried to stab his head but your sasumata bounced off uselessly. It worked though, as he was distracted enough to let his barbs falter and the cells were able to get safely away.
“Trying to play the hero, are we?” he crooned as he pulled himself up to his full height and towered over you.
You gulped as you held your sasumata close to you and tried to keep your knees from shaking, “trying to play the villain, are we?” you mentally slapped yourself. That was a dumb comeback.
“Trying?” the bacteria leaned back in laughter, “honey, I am the villain!” his barbs rose up around him as he laughed maniacally, “and I’m going to take over this body!” there was a slash and blood spurted out from him as he fell to the ground. Dead.
You let out a sigh of relief and waited a moment for your knees to stop knocking against each other. Once you got your cool back, you smirked and kicked the corpse, “some villain.” You turned to the neutrophil who had come to your aid and gave a bow, “thank you for your help!”
“Yeah,” he let out a grunt and you looked up to see a familiar white blood cell with his hair covering one eye, “just doing my job.”
You sighed and crossed your arms at the blood covered cell, “one day you should just accept a thanks U-1146. I get that you’re doing your job, we all are,” you went to the edge of the open area and White Blood Cell followed suit, “but being appreciated is nice, y’know? Either way,” you grabbed the hose that was lying on the ground, “it’s good to see you again.” You really did love running into him. Just seeing him seemed to put a smile on your face. You smiled as you looked at the cell and pointed the running hose at him, effectively spraying him in the face with water. He let out a sputter from the sudden burst of water to his face and held up a hand to block the water. You laughed at the dark look he gave you as you put the hose back down, seeing as how he was clean again.
“Hmm,” he gave you an uncommitted grunt.
You sighed as you noticed this conversation wasn’t going anywhere. You walked past him towards the main area, “well, I’ll see you around I guess.” You spun around and walked backwards to give him a grin, “until then, don’t die!” while your face held a joking tone, you genuinely meant what you said. You wanted to see him again, and again, and as much as you could until the end of your days.
He had turned around when you shouted your last words and gave you a small grin, “same to you.”
“White Blood Cell!” your eyes widened as a female red blood cell sprinted past you and towards the white blood cell you were walking away from.
“Red blood cell!” you heard him gasp and you frowned. The two knew each other?
As you entered the main area you overheard a cell mutter, “ugh, what a weakling. Isn’t (pronoun) also a white blood cell?”
“Hey,” you spun around and glared at the cell who just badmouthed you, “how about you do it, then.” You stuck out your sasumata towards her and she stared back with wide eyes as she took a step back.
“That’s crazy! I’m not a white blood cell! That’s not my job!”
“My point,” you brought your sasumata back towards you, “my main job isn’t to fight viruses and bacteria, its to fight parasites, so don’t go around judging people before you know the whole story,” you angrily turned away from her and took a couple steps before turning your head back to let loose one last insult, “your lack of a nucleus is showing!” the girl’s face turned as red as the beret on her head.
↞↟↠
“It must be hard watching over her,” you let your voice precede you before you stepped out to face a certain white blood cell with his hair covering one eye.
“Eosinophil.” He gasped as he watched you approach him.
You let your gaze follow the energetic red blood cell bounding away to do her job as you continued to speak, “trouble always seems to find her, doesn’t it?”
He stifled a laugh, “and you.”
“Hey,” you turned back toward him with a half annoyed, half joking look on your face, “I look for trouble. That’s my job.”
“Did you just happen to be here?” he asked in confusion. Normally it was him who ran into you, not the other way around. And why were you talking about red blood cell?
You opted to ignore his question, seeing as how your explanation of ‘I’ve just been following you all day’ would be difficult to defend, “why? Why do you watch her in particular?”
“She needs it.”
“And the other blood cells don’t?” you raised a dubious eyebrow.
He sighed and rubbed his face, “her more than others. Every time I’ve run into her, she’s been hopelessly lost.”
“That’s rough.”
A small smile grew on his face, one that you saw, “but she’s doing her best, and I commend her for that.”
“You’re not falling for her, are you?” you frowned as you looked at the cell standing across from you.
His face turned red, “no.”
You sighed at his response, he wasn’t being subtle, “make sure you don’t, okay?” your voice softened as you looked at the lovestruck cell in front of you, “I don’t want you to get hurt.” ‘Or me.’ You couldn’t help but add in your head. You knew it was foolish, to fall for the cell who happened to rescue you every time you were in danger. There was no room in cell life for love. It was dangerous. Every day was a battle for life, and the two of you immune cells were the first line of defense. But something about his calm voice, cool attitude and strength drew you in. And perhaps it drew that red blood cell in as well. Maybe, maybe you weren’t the only one falling in love.
↞↟↠
It was another day of fighting in the body and you were struggling. The virus was relentless in his attacks against you. Barbs flew at you from every angle and you could hardly protect yourself, let alone try to attack. And to make matters worse, the place was teeming with other cells. Cells who had decided that instead of running away, they would stand and watch your butt get whooped. “You’re,” you grunted as a barb collided with your sasumata, “not,” another grunt, “revealing,” a yelp as you dodged two barbs coming at you at the same time, “your,” another clang, “plan,” another grunt, “for,” you winced as a barb sunk into your arm and roughly pulled itself out, “body domination?” there was another whiz and before you knew it, your sasumata had clattered out of your grasp.
The virus watched you unamusedly as you scrambled for your weapon while trying to dodge the barbs, ultimately failing as you ended up as a bloody mess from the amount of hits you were unable to dodge. Which was an embarrassingly high percentage. “You’re boring.”
You couldn’t help but let out an annoyed scoff, “that’s the first thing you say to me?” For the entirety of the fight you tried to get a reaction out of him, hoping to get him distracted enough to stop barraging you, but he just wasn’t taking any of the bait. He just silently stood and sent barbs flying at you as you desperately tried to do something.
“I tried to give you a chance,” he shrugged as he looked at you with two bored eyes, “if I was trying to kill you, you’d be dead by now, but all the legends are true.” You gritted your teeth as you glared at him, “all eosinophils are weak.”
“Then I thank you for giving me a chance.”
His face morphed into the first expression that you’ve seen on his face other than that perpetual boredness, “die.” All of the barbs came flying at you at once and you froze. You didn’t know what you could do against an attack of that size. They were coming at you from all angles, you couldn’t slip around and past it, and your sasumata was a weak shield. What were you saying, it wasn’t even a shield. You tightened your grip and let out a yell, if this was the end, you were going to go out as loud as you could. You poised your weapon and...he collapsed.
You let out a sigh of relief as blood leaked out from the fatal wound inflicted by a neutrophil. “What a weakling,” you heard a cell mutter, “(pronoun) didn’t even lay a scratch on him.”
“Yeah, and (pronoun)’s basically on the verge of death.” You heard the response and fell roughly to your knees. Now that the fight was over, all the adrenaline dissipated from your body and you could feel the pain screaming from what felt like every inch of your body.
“I thought I told you not to die,” you looked up to see a blood covered neutrophil looking down at you.
You smiled wryly up at him, “not dead yet. Good to see you again U-1146.”
He kneeled down to get on your level, “how injured are you?”
You groaned, “you already know none of the blood covering me is his.”
The single eye you could see widened, “I didn’t.”
“Surprise?”
“Hey!” he stood up and called out to the crowd of cells that were still gathered, “is anyone carrying nutrients?”
There was some muttering but someone’s voice was loud enough for the both of you to hear, “not for a weakling like (pronoun).”
You sighed and hung your head defeatedly. You almost wished the virus finished you earlier. “Your lack of a nucleus is showing!” you jerked your head up to look at U-1146 looking furiously at the crowd of cells, his fists were clenched by his sides and he looked ready to fight again.
“Are those my words?” you grinned up at him.
He looked over his shoulder to look at you, “maybe.” He frowned when nobody else reacted and turned back around to face you. He kneeled down and before you knew it, he was lifting you up bridal style.
“Woah hey! White Blood Cell!” you panicked and clutched at him and your sasumata, “put me down!”
“Don’t worry,” he told you as he began walking to who knows where. It was the opposite way of the main area, and because of that, the lighting seemed to dim, “you’re going to get your nutrients.”
You felt yourself relax in his arms, he was just so warm and comfortable, and his steady footsteps were strangely soothing in its own sense. “Hey U-1146?” you mumbled as you tried to snuggle deeper into his arms. Now that you thought about it, you were really tired, and the dim lighting seemed to be beckoning you to go to sleep. “Thank you.”
“Eosinophil,” he shook you, “hey, Eosinophil!” his voice rose in a panic and his footsteps quickened, “don’t fall asleep okay!”
“But you’re so warm,” you mumbled.
“Stay with me! Eosinophil! Listen to me!” you tried to, you really did, but soon his voice faded into silence as you gave way into sleep.
↞↟↠
You felt yourself rise from a deep sleep and you opened your eyes to see White Blood Cell sitting in a chair by your bed. Asleep. You smiled as you looked at the cell, it was nice to see him. You looked closer at him and your smile morphed into a frown when you saw the dark bags under his eyes. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days.
You sat up in your bed and lifted an arm to flip off your covers but stopped and let out a soft gasp when you saw your arm covered in bandages. You looked at your other arm and even at your chest to see bandages covering nearly every inch of your body. Your face flushed when you thought about the only other cell in the apartment, and how he must’ve been the one who put on your bandages. You buried your face in your hands. How embarrassing!
You tried to be quiet, since it looked like White Blood Cell needed the sleep, but he must’ve been a light sleeper as he let out a groan and blinked his eyes as he woke up. It took a moment for his eyes to focus and for his brain to catch up, but once it did, “Eosinophil!” his dark eyes widened as he looked at you.
“Good morning,” you rasped out. Your eyes widened in shock, how long have you been out that caused your voice to sound dead? You cleared your throat and tried again, “how long have I been out?”
“I’m so glad you’re awake!” he ignored your question and just burst out. His mind was reeling. For the past few days while he sat and watched you sleep (in a protective way of course. He wanted to be there in case you worsened, but he also wanted to be there when you woke up so he could help you.), his mind ran with thoughts of what he would say to you. Things he was afraid of saying but realized he should’ve said them, because if you didn’t wake up, he’d live the rest of his life berating himself for not telling you sooner. “I was so worried!”
You gave him a little bow, “thank you for taking care of me White Blood Cell.” You noticed a frantic look in his eyes and leaned forward in concern, “are you okay? You look a little shaken. Did something happen?”
He could hardly think, let alone hear your concern. His mind was yelling, fighting against himself. ‘Tell (pronoun)!’
‘I can’t!’
‘You might not get another chance!’
‘I couldn’t burden (pronoun) with this!’
‘This is a gift! Take it!’
“White Blood Cell?” he seemed frozen in time as he stared at nothing. You gently put a hand on your knee, “hey, I’m really concerned now.”
The touch seemed to have jolted him out of it as words suddenly started pouring out of his mouth, “Eosinophil! I was so worried for you!” your hand darted back to your body at the sudden movement, “I thought I lost you! I thought you were dead! And everyone else told me to just let you rest, but I couldn’t let you go! They kept on telling me to leave you and let you be, to let you die, but I couldn’t do that!” he gulped and took a breath, his chest starting to heave as if he had just fought a virus.
“Maybe you should’ve,” you muttered to your fists and they clenched around the blanket in your lap, “maybe it was my time to leave.”
“No!” The speed of White Blood Cell’s reaction took you by surprise, but maybe, he was justified in his reaction. He spent how many days by your side? Taking care of you while you were off sleeping. “Please don’t leave me.” He bowed his head into his hands so you couldn’t see the emotions darting around his face or the tears dripping off his nose. “Please, Eosinophil.”
It hurt you to hear him sound so broken, “I won’t leave.” You told him quietly as you leaned forward to rub his knee soothingly.
“Promise me.”
“I promise I won’t leave you,” you agreed in the same quiet tone. His reaction was starting to concern you, but you knew you shouldn’t push anything.
“They all told me you were a lost cause, but I couldn’t let you go because,” he broke off from what he was going to say and took a deep gulp. Was he going to say it? His mind continued to scream at him and he could hardly form a cohesive thought. “I love you.”
You did a double take. Did you hear that right? Did he just confess his love to you? He said it in a really soft voice, so you weren’t really sure what he said. He was expecting a response from you. What were you to say? What if you said the wrong thing? “You what?”
He took a deep breath and finally looked up to meet your (e/c) eyes with his own dark ones, “I love you.”
Your face broke into a grin and you forcefully leaned forward to pull him into a hug, “I love you too White Blood Cell,” you told him through happy tears, “I love you so much.”
Dendritic Cell helping you through a nightmare by reading to you.
(For anon)
“Y/N? Y/N?”
You woke with a start. Den had been trying to get you up for some time. You’d been tossing and turning, clearly distressed.
“Are you alright?” He asked.
You told him about the terrors that plagued you during your slumber, sparing no detail. He listened intently, and quietly, offering comfort while you spoke.
“I don’t think I can go back to sleep.”
“You just need to relax. I know just the thing.”
He went to the shelf to retrieve a book. He sat beside you on the bed and began to read aloud.
“Wait, Den, I don’t think this is going to help.”
“The story will take your mind off of the nightmare. At least try it.”
You agreed, and nestled in comfortably while he read. It took a while, but soon you were lulled back into the realm of dreams. Den kept reading until he was certain you were settled before laying down himself, cuddling up beside you.
