Happy Whumptober! To start things off, here's the fic I wrote for Day 1's prompt of "this wasn't supposed to happen". I can very much agree, since i didn't expect a brotp between Skye prime and Katie to be my very first fic.
Dylan, it seems, is safe.
(For now. ;))
The fic is down below, but you can also find it here over on AO3!
arachnophobia is an intense fear of spiders
Something goes wrong after a Weapon UwU mission.
“Does anyone know where Ye Shou’s skin is?” Gladdy asked, tired. The entirety of Weapon UwU was all technically tired, as the group had just spent the day bouncing between three missions of varying importance, but Gladdy’s voice sounded especially tired.
Ye Shou, who was currently just spiders, rearranged into an I-D-K in quick succession.
“It’s not my fucking job to keep track of her skin,” Katie growled. Now that the missions were over, Skye’s clones had returned back to whatever part of her they went into when she didn’t have them out—leaving only Skye to react to Katie’s response. Skye shuddered and nervously looked at the others. She had known Katie for more than a year at this point, but their personalities were so different. Katie was more like the other Skyes than Skye was.
“I thought Lou had it,” Maddy said.
Lou frowned. “I thought you had it.”
Maddy turned to Gladdy, an expectant look on her face.
“I don’t know where it is,” Gladdy said, an affectionate yet frustrated sigh leaving her lips. “That’s why I’m asking.”
“I-I don’t know where it is, either,” Skye whispered. Her gaze dropped down to her feet. If she studied the grass, twigs, and leaves littering the forest floor, she could maybe forget about how she was so scared that she was feeling nauseous.
“We should check with the clones,” Lou suggested to Gladdy. “Maybe they know where it is.”
Skye bit her lip, then gave a little nod. A second later, the other Skyes folded back out of existence. Skye was barely paying attention. She felt lightheaded, and dizzy, and like she was about five seconds from passing out. It wasn’t the first time she had felt this way, but it usually wasn’t this bad. Because, usually, she didn’t have to spend long periods of time with Ye Shou looking like-
Skye took a deep breath. Ray said that was supposed to help her with her anxiety spirals, as well as a whole host of other grounding activities, but all Skye could imagine was the theoretical sensations of tiny little legs creeping all across her skin.
“Prime,” Gladdy said.
Skye blinked. She looked up, still fiddling with her fingers, and bit her lip again.
“You can put your clones back now,” Gladdy said.
Skye was pretty sure she was freaking out too much for her clones to go back, but they miraculously all did. Now they were just waiting here for Alex to bring them all back home, and oh God was Ye Shou still going to be all spiders then-
“When’s Keepaway coming?” she asked, voice quiet. Normally they would have just messaged, but the service out here was horrible. They had to decide on a pickup time instead.
“In another hour,” Gladdy replied. Skye squeaked. Katie let out a sudden low growl, which caused Skye to squeak again. Could Gladdy see how scared Skye was of this whole situation? Both of all of the spiders, and of Katie?
Gladdy sighed.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Gladdy said. Her gaze lingered on Skye. Skye was sure she had been caught. Gladdy could see what anyone’s worst fears were, and Skye ranked arachnophobia very high on the list of things that absolutely terrified her. Then Gladdy looked away, and Skye returned to staring very intently at the ground. Maybe a fear of spiders didn’t register high enough to be picked up.
“We probably left Ye Shou’s skin at another one of the mission sites,” Lou offered.
Maddy thought for a moment, then added, “We could get Keepaway to teleport us back to check the sites when they arrive.”
Gladdy nodded in agreement.
“In the meantime,” Gladdy said, “we’ll wait here.”
Skye, feeling a little bit brave for once, had a very stupidly brave idea. She raised her head ever so slightly.
“...Can I go for a walk in the woods?” she asked. “While we wait?”
Heads spun to look at her with bewilderment and shock, including all of the little spider heads that were normally nice and hidden away in Ye Shou’s skin.
“I thought one of the clones said that,” Maddy commented, incredulous.
“Are you okay?” Lou asked.
Skye gave a very quick but small nod. She wasn’t going to bring up being absolutely terrified of spiders. That would be too rude to Ye Shou, who was nothing but nice to her most of the time. The others all exchanged a look.
“You shouldn’t go alone,” Gladdy said. “We only just cleared this area out. You should bring out the clones-”
“I’ll go with her,” Katie volunteered.
Skye fought back another squeak. Instead, it just came out as a tiny little noise.
“B-L-E-S-S-U,” Skye watched the spiders spell out, because of course Skye had accidentally raised her head a little too high and had caught a glimpse of Ye Shou again.
“You don’t have to volunteer,” Gladdy said. There was a twitch of a smile on her face for reasons that Skye couldn’t understand. She said nothing else.
“I want to fucking go for a walk.”
“Go for a walk, then,” Gladdy said, and Katie immediately stormed off into the woods with smoke curling out of her lips. Skye glanced at the others, then raced off into the woods after Katie. She’d take dealing with Katie over dealing with many, many spiders any day.
They didn’t say much at first. The two of them just walked , Katie huffing and puffing and Skye meekly following in her footsteps. A few started squirrels and birds rushed away when they heard Katie marching through the undergrowth. Skye’s gaze dropped down to the crushed plants underneath her feet.
And then Skye felt the very edges of a rush of heat.
Skye skid to a stop, eyes alert. Her body itched to let her clones out, but something made her pause. She hadn’t heard anyone else while they were walking. There couldn’t have been anyone attacking them, right?
She looked up.
Katie was breathing smoke. The charred remains of what had once been a perfectly constructed spiderweb hung tattered between two equally charred branches. If there was a burnt spider corpse anywhere, Skye didn’t see it. Part of her was glad for that. Even though she was absolutely terrified of spiders, seeing a burnt, dead one would only make her think of something terrible happening to Ye Shou.
“Are…are you-” Skye started to say, but it was the wrong comment to make. Katie spun around and stared at her with unnaturally orange, angry eyes. They were wide with anger, and her skin was pale-
No, wait, even Skye could register that angry people didn’t look so scared.
“Don’t you dare tell anyone,” Katie hissed.
Skye gulped.
“...You’re also scared of spiders,” Skye whispered, “aren’t you?”
Katie froze up. The smoke leaving her lips disappeared, and Katie suddenly looked a whole lot less dangerous. She still could lash out at Skye, probably. Skye would have likely deserved it. But it was kind of comforting knowing that Katie of all people had the same exact fear she had, and that she had also been hiding it for so long.
“Not even Gladdy knows,” Katie said. There was a bit of pride to her voice, but also a bit of danger.
Katie studied her for a second, then turned back to the burnt webs.
“I never realized you were scared of them,” Katie finally said. “You’re normally so fucking vocal about what you’re terrified of.”
Skye gave the tiniest of smiles that Katie couldn’t see.
“...I guess that’s my secondary mutation,” Skye whispered, “being so scared all the time that no one notices when I’m more scared than usual.”
When Katie looked at her then, Skye felt like she was seen in a way that none of the other Weapon UwU members had made her feel before. She was just the scared girl with the clones that would always be more courageous than she was. And while she was still very much the scared girl, this was different.
Katie let out a breath of smoke. “My secondary mutation’s being so fucking angry all the time that no one notices when I’m scared.”
“You’re not as angry now,” Skye noted, almost shyly. “You’re less angry than when I first met you.”
“You’re less terrified than when I first met you.”
Skye blinked. “R-Really?”
Katie nodded. “You would have never hid that she was afraid of spiders for so long. You’re being fucking brave, not wanting to hurt Ye Shou’s feelings by admitting how scared you are.”
Skye’s heart swelled with pride. Someone had called her brave. When was the last time she had gotten that compliment? It was her clones that always were applauded for their bravery, even when they were reprimanded for their recklessness.
“...Do you think Gladdy can tell we’re scared of spiders?” Skye asked, glancing back towards the clearing.
A sour expression passed on Katie’s face. “She was giving us both funny looks.”
So that sealed their fate, then. Gladdy knew.
“...I hope she doesn’t tell,” Skye whispered.
“She better fucking not,” Katie said, fire in her voice. She looked ahead of them. “Want to keep walking?”
Skye nodded. She fell into step beside Katie, a heat as warm as Katie’s flames settling right into her chest.
