Summary: Because being a punk rocker is not just for humans
Pairing: Ember Nomad x Imperial citizens
Genre: Fluff
TW: Bit of gore mentions and blood, otherwise the fluff will try to kill you
Goblin tag squad: @cardinalcanis @finchly-tintinnabulation @artemisareia
@echo-of-damnation @meervalv0 @jaghatai-khock
@druidwolf21 @gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan @beckyninja
@absynthe-mind @saintsylestine
A human heart
Cleaning his wounds on his own had never been really a bother to the, retired, captain of the 10th Company Jubik; he laid there on the ground with his helmet discarded to the side as he carefully and steadily moving his fingers through the hoops of the needle and flesh sewing it all together, then covering his sewing with a piece of the cloth he carried with him all the way from back in Cthonipem, being careful to stop whatever drops of blood could come out of the flesh wound; once he had done all this he stood up and decided to trail the way back to his company on foot instead of using his jet bike to do so.
It was a grieving world, one that would had been left well alone to rebuild themselves on their own, the Astra Militarum took that decision by now, with the only outsiders still in the surface being the Astartes that saw the reflection of their own people on the scarred and desolated faces of those inhabitants. Most were already in the task of transporting living necessities to the tribes, with some like Jubik doing more manual work directed at their rebuilding process rather than just helping them survive the next winter or so with supplies.
Enabling the directives on his vehicle to follow its user, the Nomad took this moment to look high towards the rising sun in the horizon, thanking the Spirits of nature that allowed him to survive one more battle and being allowed to see the beauty of worlds so distant from his yet equally beautiful. Veltryn IX had been recognized as a settled human colony just recently, having still being in the early stages of evolution on their technologies, they still resembled the ages of pre Unification Wars back on Holy Terra, but that did not meant the people there weren't smart or did not had their civilizations and cultures within them.
Still, the settlers had built in soil belonging to that antique race, which once the defensive protocols activated created a singular long bloody war between spears and early iterations of weapons such as the bolter or lasguns against the technologically advanced weaponry and tactics of the Necrons; once the Ember Nomads responded to the pleas of help from a nearby Agri-world that had been informed of these combats, the inhabitants of Veltryn were almost wiped out in its entirety, not many tribes survived, even less so the civilians that were not the warriors who defended their lands.
On the horizon, by the edges of the earth that blurred and turned itself into little waves product of the heat manipulating the eye perception of distance, Jubik saw little children poking their heads out, curious to see the giant caucasian warrior approaching them; with his keen senses and sharper perception, the Nomad could read the lips of those little ones, who were screaming at their mothers for the chance of go out and see the stranger up close. Some were frowning and pouting already, pointing towards his looming arrival and arguing that the man didn't seem dangerous and that he had actually was one of those that had helped the warriors to drive the invaders away.
Jubik saw a little smile tug to the side of his lips as, finally, six little dust clouds formed in unison advancing towards him; the Marine carefully took the helmet that he had been holding on his arm and attached it to the little hook his armor had by the hip, allowing both his hands to be free and for the helmet to dangle in it safely. He inhaled deeply, mentally preparing himself to react as kind as possible measuring his strength and the shifts in his weight to not cause a bruise in the kids that would most certainly want to bump their little bodies against him. He didn't want to hurt those little ones, after all, not even accidentally by the sheer anatomically different manners in which his body had been reconstructed by the Astartes process.
After a while the children got bored, asking the giant to leave them on the ground, which the Nomad did so with extreme care, watching how they sprinted towards his bike now, admiring it and exclaiming in awe on their own language about how "cool" it looked; they had most likely never seen such a thing before, let alone one full of trinkets and memorabilia like the one Jubik had.
When the faces of the little children attired with leather long sleeveless shirts and comfortably soft footwear were getting closer and closer to him, Jubik kneeled to receive them, extending his arms to embrace the little kids in a clash so pure his arms could well fit another ten kids under his wing. He jerked backwards to administrate the body clash between them and himself, laughing as the words "Big giant!" were uttered by those soft and young lips of theirs.
He rolled to his side, fingertips finding the little ones armpits and necks, causing the fits of giggles and chuckles he expected to get by doing tickles to them; each of the children wanted to ask him something or poke at some part of his armor, the eldest of them already trying to forcefully yank one of his gloves way from his hand. He groaned in laughter as he stood up with the kids arms wrapped against his limbs, they giggled when their little bodies were raised from the floor to many feet in the air as tall as the Astartes was. Jubik between laughs made a quick check of the grasps of the children, not wanting to accidentally drop one from that height and hurt them somehow, but the kids were too into enjoying the view from his arms to take in the danger they could be in if their grasp failed them.
"Want to hop on?" He asked the kids, leaning down towards their level and pointing to the handlebars of his bike
Once he received the happy screeching responses from the six kids, joyous with the chance to try something new, Jubik made them form a little waiting line as he gracefully took the first of them and gently put him on the driver seat; the kids looked comically small in the vehicle, so little they couldn't even get to the handles from the seat, having to inch forward and be helped by Jubik to grab onto them (although the Marine had his fingers on the brake, for safety). The ones in the waiting line played with themselves around the bike, doing the "tag" game or just running in circles around the massive vehicle.
The distant calls from their mothers snapped Jubik out of the fun moment, clapping as he ordered everyone to obey their mothers, helping the last kid to get off from the bike and run back to their parents. The smile was still on his face as he saw the dust clouds get lost over the hilltop once again, figuring a visit to the rest of the tribe wouldn't be too disrespectful, as he had already shared a moment with their youth and the elders certainly would be questioning themselves about the true nature and intentions of Jubik and those who looked like him.
Seeing a man straining his muscles, the veins showing upon his skin, Jubik approached the structure he was trying to raise and, with the ease one would lift a toy, helped the man stabilize the roof tile long enough for others to secure it with sticks and ropes, before Jubik stopped holding it and fit in its place. The men thanked him in their language, one of them running back to his home in search for something.
As he got to the hilltop, Jubik heart swelled with the most sincere feeling of hopefulness and happiness his heart had felt since he took on the stars on that campaign to assist those in need; people came and went from different huts and fireplaces, greeting the children with their heads as they carried the food for the ill who could not stand on their own, or used their animal's strength to help them raise some parapets for the cold nights that would come for those whose homes had been destroyed. Humans helping one another in adversity, lending their hands to rebuild and start their lives over again.
In time he realized folks were staring up at him, leaving their duties on hold as their eyes tried to understand the purpose and intentions of the stranger so different from them yet still resembling a human, one with a look of awe and respect in his countenance. Jubik bowed like he had done so many times before back home on his own tribe, receiving a similar gesture for those who dared to acknowledge him and the gesture.
"It was nothing, only my duty" Jubik raised his hands and shook his head, trying to deter any sort of gift of gratitude
His plea wasn't heard however; a big bowl filled with exotic fruit and seeds was handed to him honorably so, with no chances of refusing it. The Nomad rolled his eyes and huffed, entertained with the insistence of the tribals, kneeling and bowing his head to the floor in Cthonipem tradition of deep acceptance, then grabbed the bowl (which was a quarter of the size of his hand) and proceeded to leave in on the floor next to him, knelt in such a way as to eat with freedom but also capable of moving his limbs in case someone else approached him. And someone indeed did so.
A woman, the wrinkles on her face suggested she had not lived so many decades, knelt in front of him and pointed to the braids in Jubik hair. The Nomad seemed to understand, somewhat, taking his strands of hair forward, pointing to the braids he had made himself and those his battle brothers had done for him extending the hair in her direction; her soft hands caressed the braids, passing her fingertips through them and giggling on the changes of texture between those he made versus those his brothers had made.
She, in turn once the curiosity was sated, did the same with her hair, although it was so thin in the hands of Jubik the man took the double amount of time to appreciate the rudimentary designs of them. He smiled, thanking her the opportunity to do that exchange of cultures, bowing his head all the way down to the earths he did before and the girl copied his movements.
As he began to stand up, the woman ran up to him, kisses his oversized cheek with her lips and went off to her hut to help in the tasks her mother would probably give her. He watched her until she disappeared in her home, then slowly rose up to his feet and went to the edges of the camp. Looking around he noticed the guards of the tribe were watching over the settlement with nothing to stand on to keep watch over much further distances; he frowned at that, signaling the warriors to follow him and collect some wood.
He helped them all night long to build rudimentary watchtowers, doing the first on his own explaining the instructions and watching as they did the other four encircling the camp; when the task was completed, he simply nodded and pointed to their huts, more so ordering them rather than suggesting the warriors to sleep well. He stood on watch all that night, not moving an inch from the hillside right next to the camp.
He called his jet bike which arrived in no time from the parked spot he had left it the day before on the hills, saddled up and took one last glance at those precious, welcoming little folk that had accepted him as one of their own for the little time he spent with them. He howled a goodbye in Cthonipem to them and then departed, driving as fast as his bike could take him through the tundra between the tribe and the Ember Nomad transport units. He yelled and screeched words and howls of his native tongue, thanking the earth and skies once more for the new people he had the privilege to have met, then embarked on the Imperial port station once he arrived there, greeting his fellow Nomads and glancing once to the PDF's who would stay in the planet for taxes and security reasons.
By the morning of that planet Jubik blinked a couple of times, getting used to the sunlight and checking on how much power did his armor still had; he walked back to the village, glad to see people getting up after a well rested night, some gave him some type of breakfast typical of the tribals, he sat next to the elders sipping some herbal tea accompanied by the food that it had been given to him.
As one of his last actions before departing on the last trek back to his own brothers, he blessed the children of the village, kneeling before them and touching their bellies and their foreheads with two fingers while reciting a litany in his homeworld language invoking the Spirits of his people and the Emperor to watch over them to become strong men of good; next he gave some last few small helps to the villagers by carrying to supporting heavy structures for their fortifications and, at last, taking some crafting ingredients handed to him by the people and building some trinkets for their protection or favor to their Spirits, handing them over to the elders of the tribe once they were done.
"Treat them well, their hearts are pure" He told the commander
"I don't know what the frakk you mean by that, but we'll try sir" The man replied, bidding the gentle giants farewell
In space, with the flagship of the Chapter going over the last preparations for the Warp jump, Jubik looked down at the trinkets he received as gifts from the people of Veltryn IX, fidgeting with them for a few moments before adjusting those he could fit into his hair braids onto his long hair and already thinking in the places on his boater or jet bike he would place those which were too big or cumbersome to have dangling off in front of his face.
And thus, the Nomads gained another planet to revisit in the future, one as welcoming and wild as his own homeworld.
