gender-neutral reader x katakuri, whole cake island arc spoilers, tooth-rotting fluff, gets angsty towards the end (bc it’s katakuri)
[part 2: katakuri confessing]
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katakuri’s observation haki is keen enough to know when someone’s lying so it completely baffles him when, to his face, you call him cute.
no bullshit detected.
no one calls him cute (except mama when he was, like, 6). he’d love it and hate it since it’s at odds with his perfect image.
outwardly, he’s stone-faced as always but his ears are pink enough to match big mom’s dresses. he’s all too aware of it and, even if there's no one tall enough to see it, he bunches up his shoulders to move his scarf fluff to cover his ears more.
he’d just silently leave while everyone berates you for saying something so thoughtless and stupid. he can’t stop thinking about what you said and stresses out about what he did wrong to make you think that. he tries to convince himself he only hates it. nothing else.
at first, he thinks this might be some elaborate plot of yours to humiliate him and ruin the charlotte family. the thought enrages him enough to consider killing you. maybe what he saw with his haki was a fluke.
you’re bold, he’ll give you that. or just plain stupid.
for the sake of the charlotte family, katakuri decides he needs to figure out your intentions.
but he’s still confused as ever after encountering you several more times. the way you treat him is… odd. you show him due respect as big mom’s right-hand man yet you don’t put him on a pedestal like so many others do. in fact, you keep insisting that he’s cute to his face and seem to delight in teasing him.
he’s used to being admired and swooned over from a distance but he’s never been met head-on with flirting as shameless and sincere as yours. even with his future sight, he’s not prepared for the menace that is you because all his future sight does is preemptively fluster him before you actually do anything.
he still hasn’t recovered from when you told him that he has pretty eyes. you even gave him flowers the color of his eyes, saying that they made you think of him. he keeps them in his office and, when they start to wilt, asks mama to turn them into homies. you’re delighted by his flowery little secretaries.
ever since katakuri swore to no longer show any weakness, he’s also shunned romance. the cold, perfect persona he has carefully cultivated has no use for it. furthermore, he’s seen what marriage does to people and he had no interest in carrying that extra stress.
having had little to no romantic experience, he’s never been kissed on the lips. sometimes a part of him wished he had, just so he’d stop wondering what it’s like. now all those wonderings come back in full force when he looks at you. he likes to pretend for a moment that you’d actually accept his scars and fangs but he knows better. all your little comments and teasing would come to a stop.
you’d stop calling him cute. only disgusting. he didn’t realize how much he dreaded the idea of you calling him that.
he then realizes he might be a little bit in love with you.
this is part 2 to flustering katakuri headcanon post. this might get a part 3 with "dating katakuri" as the premise.
mild hurt/comfort, whole cake island arc spoilers
katakuri’s love epiphany doesn’t push him into pursuing you. instead, he avoids you like the plague, finding his feelings shameful and as another flaw to hide.
you’re a distraction, a chink in the perfect armor he has so carefully crafted over decades. you were dangerous in ways he could never have anticipated. he pretends not to see the clear hurt in your eyes. sometimes he wishes his observation haki wasn’t so keen, the pain in your heart is palpable.
katakuri tells himself it’s for the best. for you, for him, for the family. you’d find someone worthy of you and katakuri… katakuri would continue like he always he had before you.
but seeing less of you doesn’t turn out to be the cure that katakuri hoped for.
his heart would race whenever he caught a glimpse of you from the corner of his eye and just hearing your name would send a pang of longing through him. even during his meriendas he finds himself gently singing your name.
absence makes the heart grow fonder felt more like a curse than a saying.
despite his resolve to excise you from his heart, the flowers you gave him are still in his office. he tells himself it’s because they were useful homies that gave him one less thing to worry about by keeping his office tidy. but, really, it’s just katakuri letting this be the smallest piece of you that he’ll let himself have.
until a certain strawhat comes along.
getting punched in the face by luffy also comes with certain revelations. katakuri lets himself be selfish in a way he hasn’t in a long, long time. he doesn’t want to run from his feelings anymore. he can’t bring himself to reveal his mouth to you just yet but he can at least come clean about his feelings. katakuri will accept the consequences, whatever they are.
when katakuri confesses to you and explains why he had avoided you, he braces himself for rejection. he’s always prepared for the worst. but it’s always the unthinkable that catches him off guard.
you accept his feelings.
katakuri’s mind reels with all the possibilities. even with his future sight, there is only one question on his mind. something that fills him with excitement and anxiety.
considering on adapting the katakuri headcanon post i made into a one-shot since there's enough stuff for me to do so and i don't think the length would be too intimidating but idk.
the one-shot would add a few extra background details for the reader-insert character bc i don't want to keep it super vague like did in the hc.
as for a hypothetical part 2 to the headcanon post it still needs more work. i think the getting together part is what's stumping me (which is why "flustering katakuri" ended like it did) bc im worried about making it believable and don't want to brush over katakuri's emotional baggage since that's such a huge part of his character.
i feel like katakuri being a virgin could go either way (never had sex or very inexperienced). but i firmly believe he's never kissed.
katakuri doesn't have sex because he just sees it as another stressful situation where he has to put up a front. but the charlotte family misinterprets it as him being so perfect and focused that he's "above" that. meanwhile, katakuri suffers in horny silence.
anyways do you think during his merienda katakuri jerks o-- (sniper shot)
