Mar 23
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Dragged Into It
The Gentle Manhandling trio! Part 1. (EDITED!! - I didn't love it the first time. It's better now.)
Pairing: Bucky Barnes x you (gn, I think)
Word Count: <1000
Summary: You won't move from the couch. He won't move from the bed. You both get what you want in the end.
Trigger Warnings: Being dragged playfully off the couch? it's fluff.
Author’s Note: FINALLY I'm publishing my Gentle Manhandling trio. Idk why it took me so long. I just had a hard time coming up with paired manhandling acts.
Masterlist
You were face-down on the couch and firmly committed to never moving again.
You weren’t dramatic, just had the low-battery kind of domestic exhaustion that turned your limbs to jelly and your brain to static. Wrapped in a throw blanket like a human cinnamon roll, you groaned softly into the cushion when Bucky called your name.
Managed to finish up a scene, edit it, and get it coded. (In between Phasmo runs, I had my bestie help narrow down an opening quote so I can go ahead and get the opening scene coded in.)
utdr with adventure time stuff.. purely self indulgent....
(more below)
@quesitocake what did you do to me that i decided to draw this at midnight?
"No one will come for me, and even if they do, I could be seen as nothing but the enemy by my own people." Maomao, muse alone, locked in the room alone
“I am a mere servant; I could not blame them for not seeing me as Maomoa the apothecary."
She hated to think of him right now, the unwilling daughter of La Clan.
Bam
Her heart raced; was she scared? This was it; she was going to die.
‘Wait.'
She blinked a few times; although she could not admit it or express it through her face, she was glad and relieved at the same time.
“...”
Maomao thought
‘I won't die today.'
She only played along as she often had in this cold cruel world; she acted as others expected to survive.
Someone had come – no, not to someone, not just anyone; it was him.
“Master Jinishi?"
She paused for a moment, her hand raised up, but she backed down and stopped herself. She knew her face was read from where she had been struck.
“May I ask a favour of you?”
“Maomao?” he asked confused.
“May I ask you for protection?"
He laughed as he approached her, looking at her bruised face sadly. She looked just as bad but not as bad as when that guard struck her.
“Why do you need ask such a thing?" he asked, flabbergasted by her.
She was so strange sometimes, almost maddening so.
She couldn’t not answer him.
Wait, she could; the answer was there on the edge of her lips, but she couldn’t vocalise it.
“I don't want to die in the enemy's stronghold; too many don't know my face. I am your humble servant; many don't observe. If it were anyone but you who found me right now, surely I would have been killed without question.” She logically resorts
That wasn't the whole truth but was as much as she could admit.
“I only did what I needed to survive, like I always have; it does not mean I am with the enemy.”
The only people she felt sorry for were the children and…
She grimaced and shook her head.
............................................................
Before she knew it, it was over; she was back home, with knowledge she didn’t want to ever acknowledge.
Moamoa was glad the children were safe; it made her happy, but sadness stuck in her heart when she was alone. She hid in the apothecary as she messed around with healing medicines for Jinishi's wounds to treat his scar.
Tears slipped from her eyes; she thought herself incapable of tears. She held her knees there – so much had happened – and she waved it off, but it all hit her at once.
She was safe, but her friends were gone; she was alone once more.
She looked at her medical equipment with tears; she was used to this feeling. She had been alone for so long with only those she called 'family' keeping her company in a distant manner, and they were a world away yet so close.
They were not here, and now she was alone, being away so (although she never said it) admittedly fearful of her life and future; how pathetic it was to want a man she hated to come save her. If it had been Lakan, her birth father, at that door instead of Jinishi…
She shuddered at the thought.
Jinishi didn’t think of him that way; she didn't react to him like she would have to that man.
Jinishi was different, yet why?
She lets out a noise she hasn't made since her childhood.
“No one will come when I cry.”
No one will come.
A knock. She tried to calm herself.
“The apothecary is closed.”
A lie
…...............
Jinishi heard a strange noise from the said apothecary from the room, but from the apothecary Maomao
“You were going to treat my scar.”
He heard movement; she slid the door open only by a little, but he could see red, puffy eyes and tears slipping from her eyes, yet anger as she slammed the door in his face, raising her voice.
“ i am closed.”
She slid behind the door, placing her hands on her head.
“I brought you something you've been wanting for a while. Can't I give it to you?”
Moamoa would normally jump at the opportunity; she suspected the gift.
She slid the door open with her back turned, reaching a hand out.
“Why now? Why give me that item now?"
Jinishi was kneeling, sliding it forward.
“I'm happy to have you back; I was so worried while you were gone. Besides, my sources just finally worked out at an opportune time to welcome you back to…”
She didn't seem excited to receive such a rare ingredient; that wasn't like her.
“I don't know what is wrong. "
Moamoa held the item in her hands, the ingredients she had searched for so long, yet she felt no joy; the door only had opened by a few inches.
Of course I would never expect you to comprehend. I don't quite understand it myself.
“I want to understand.” Jinishi replied softly.
The door didn't move, it didn't open, and it didn't close. He understood not to break the boundaries in that moment; he wanted to pull her close and tell her whatever was hurting her to this point.
Not understanding, she wanted to hide, not be seen, yet the door's slight openness meant something more. Moamoa was impossible to understand, but she tried to understand her symbolic nature.
"Understanding does not change anything."
“Nothing has to change; I tried to tell you so many times."
"That's not it. Jinishi is Jinishi; knowing your secret changes nothing truly; that's not it."
He wanted to take her hand; he breathed, relaxed, glad it wasn't him.
“I'm alone here …“
No, not if Jinishi were here. She knelt close to the door, glad it hid her.
Her voice is bearly audible. “I didn't think my life had value to anyone; I used to. My sisters couldn't come at my every cry. I love them, I do, and they love me, but I know they had their jobs. I learned long ago that people don't come when I want or need them.”
She held the wall, her hand sliding down the wall.
'You're the first.’
'You came.'
“I always will if you allow it. I want to force your hand. I…”
She closed the door a little, sliding it. He sighed; she didn't want to hear those words right there and then.
He understood.
Yet from his hands to the door, ready to pull them aside.
“You're not alone here; your wants and needs are important; you don't have to simply do what is necessary to survive.”
'Why can't you see how loved you are, not just by me either?'
He pulled the door hard, and she was sat kneeling; she sat in shock at his action.
Her protection was gone. He could see her in this state.
“You can cry all you want; I will be there.”
And she falls forward into his arms, collapsing.
….
Lakan of La Clan, Moamoa's father, although she'd never admit it, walked to her humming, holding a token of affection in her hands.
He wanted to be the one who saved his little girl but had shamefully injured himself in his sheer desperation to move to just that. However, the sky fox had still moved the tropes prefect, and his daughter was safe at home.
Her little apothecary wasn't technically in the rear palace, so he could enter to see her; she'd set it up in-between the rear and outer, believing anyone was entitled to her knowledge.
He chuckled proudly, carrying a brand new Go set, rather expensive too.
Yet as he approached with his peace offering, he saw her clinging to the well-formed moon prince, but since Jinishi still held power and influence, he had to tread carefully. Until things settled and he mastered the new political spectrum around him, he chose his move carefully.
Yet he held his box in anger, seeing her like that in pain, hearing another comfort her. His low, soft tone was barely audible, but he could hear the words of the not-so-moon prince.
“You're not alone anymore.”
Yet almost sensing him, she pushed the prince away from her, sliding her apothecary door shut, leaving the prince sat stunned, sensing the reason. He stood and turned to face him, smiling his fake smile.
“The apothecary is closed, Lakan Kan."
Fake politeness.
He approached and knelt.
“I have a gift for my precious Moamoa, yet if she is not open to receiving my offering.”
The door didn't move; it strung. He wanted to play Go again without tricks or objectives; check in on her progress after returning. What he had gathered from his intel and from the one of his men who had escorted his daughter to safety told him that she was in good health despite a red mark on her cheek.
Not all things were physical, and he was right. something had bubbled to the surface for her.
She must have been so scared in the enemy stronghold alone, fearful that someone who didn't know her may kill her. He had told them his daughter was to be saved, but no one who she was what she looked like. Expected because it was not as she acknowledged him as a father.
"Ah, but you were never one for games, were you? But please look at the go box anyway. I have been trying to give it for some time. Don't think I didn't though think I do know my own daughter.”
He pulled something out of his shelf.
“I have medical research documents from the west; I had them translated to our language.”
No response, but he heard movement; the door slid only by an inch. He saw her red puffy eyes as she pushed out a small medicine pack and closed the door again. Maomao gives him a small acknowledgement for a brief moment because in a moment of desperation and despair, a moment of weakness, she had wanted the man before her to come for her.
“You hurt your back." She mumbled lowly, "It will take any lingering pain away.”
Behind the screen, she took in the go box and opened it.
Fengxian
Her birth mother's name, she passed a couple months back when she was away with Jinishi in the cave; she felt guilty she wasn’t there when it happened. She spent years watching over her, trying to care for her and find a cure for that sexual disease that had come a few years after her birth.
Moamoa held it behind the door as she looked at the research paper, that man had given.
She would never call him father.
Lakan stood; he had noticed another gift when the door had slid open. The sly fox saw a rare medical ingredient, and his eyes moved up and down to the moon prince – same tactics, different results – so he chose to retreat for today with the small token of his daughter's affection in hand.
Still, he paused as he grinned like an idiot that his daughter had gave him that one moment.
He didn’t approve of him, but he had no power to do anything.
"You helped prevent the emperor from taking her as a consort, and I owe you some debt of gratitude for that. You found her in the enemy stronghold – another debt I owe you if only you could find the strength to use that power of yours to use it to your advantage.”
With that the fox was gone, and Maomao almost sensed it; she opened the door and breathed the weight of his shadow gone. She knelt, holding the go box, and sat exhausted on her hands and knees.
Lakan liked to stir things up, but she was tired for different reasons. Everything was different in her life now; even if Jinishi was Jinishi, that didn't mean the burden of his secret weighed on her.
Jinishi stood respectfully now at a distance from her as she looked at the go box.
“I don't want a reminder of that woman; why would he give me such a memento of the woman who discarded me way before her madness set in?"
She flung it, and Jinishi jumped, shocked. Maomao, who spoke so quietly and calmly, was only ever seen with a look on her face that he never wanted to see again once.
Jinishi knelt again, looking at the go pieces; he knew a bit of the story she told him, like rippled bit by bit her tragic life. She allowed him close after all that.
He felt the heaviness of her pain within him; he'd been so close to helping her, and then Lakan came and ruined that moment. He had all forgotten the reason he’d come; even though his cheek was still bandaged, he forgot he wanted her to see to it.
“Why did you take his offering then?" Jinishi asked
She looked to him with sincerity.
“In a moment of weakness and despair when I was alone in that place," she admitted slowly, “before you came for me to save me.”
She watched him move closer, picking up the pieces bit by bit, inching ever closer.
“Before that, I wanted him in that moment of weakness.”
Maomoa placed her hand on her head to hide from the shame of her confession.
He placed the good pieces he collected and placed them in her hand, closing her hand around them.
“You were scared; it is understandable," he replied with comfort in his tone.
Maomoa clenched her fist on the pieces as the moon prince held her hands together. It wasn't as if she had not heard Lakan's words; he said them loud enough for them both to hear.
He understood his riddles and clues; he basically told Jinish.
If you asked to repay the debt I owe, I would give it, which meant if Jinishi asked for what he wanted, what he often hinted at, then despite how much he hated the idea, he would give it to her. That was how it all worked.
Even though she was free from the verdigris house contract, that did not mean she was free from the control of man; she disavowed men's lives.
“Keep the go set, not for your birth mother's memory.” Jinishi said gently, "For the one day we can play a game together, I won my freedom to be me over a game of Go.”
The apothecary felt his hand in her own and looked to him with wide eyes; she looked at him and remembered why he had come finally. She touched his cheek, the scar of battle.
The scar he got for her, she moved the bandage from his cheek, observing it, tracing his cheek with her finger as he breathed in.
“It is healing well; it won't leave a notable scar. You got off lucky.”
That didn’t matter to him; he didn’t mind a scar. All that mattered was that she was here back at his side.
The stitches were gone, and now his skin was melding together nicely; she wanted to clean it to be sure.
“May I clean it to be sure?"
Jinishi breathed in anticipation of her soft touch on his skin.
“Of course I am your patient.”
She moved away to her apothecary, preparing warm water and a cloth and some medication to disinfect the skin. She returned back to him and knelt; she rang out her cloth and placed it on his skin. He gasped at the warmness on his skin.
So tender, it was a simple short touch, but he adored her doing it.
She placed a new covering over his face.
Moamoa placed her item back and discarded it safely and washed her hands. She stood for a moment. She would read the research paper later when Jinishi was gone; she wanted to learn what the West had knowledge about in regard to medication. That was something to do later.
The water dripped from her hands; she didn’t notice her body's reaction. She was unknowingly trembling, and her body began to feel the weight of everything again. The tears began again, and Jinishi noticed her body trembling.
“Maomao, you're trembling.”
His voice, like silk, soft and concerned
He got up and moved toward her. He placed his arms around her, not with hunger but with true concern.
“You’ve been through hell; of course your body and mind were going to react.”
Maomoa felt his warmth; she smiled at this incensed body and well-oiled hair. She hadn’t before when he held her to comfort her.
Her arms were by her side as she rested on his chest; she could hear how his heart pumped, how it beat.
His lips touched her head; she didn’t withdraw or back away.
“I am here, for however long you need me.”
She didn’t feel so alone anymore, yet even if the truth weighed on her, it didn’t mean his wish could come true.
Although they were a step closer to it.
She was recognised as a high-ranking official's daughter (although she didn’t acknowledge it); he was a man of power to whom, if he wished, he could simply say, 'I want this woman.'
She was getting pulled closer into his world, something she so tried hard to fight; she held his face once more.
Jinishi was different for her; she hadn’t worked out why yet, the pieces hadn’t fallen in line, and she never let anyone in this close to her that wasn’t another woman.
The clues within her hinted at it, but she couldn’t fathom the weight of such feelings. He leant in to her; he was obvious, so easy to read.
Behind those eyes was his love for her, his desire to take her as his wife, not a consort but a wife.
She didn’t back away; she simply froze as the sweetness of her first kiss hit her. Her mind went blank for the first time in years.
end