Part 1/2 of a Pierrot one-shot. Ever since that AMA where someone asked about him chasing the reader, this idea has been living rent-free in my head and I finally gave in.
Anyways, first time writing a TFC one-shot, I did not beta read this so please excuse any mistakes, I hope you guys enjoy!!
Tags: pierrot x gn!reader – established relationship – afab reader – fluff – teasing – playful flirting – chasing game – pierrot being pierrot – reader is a menace – reader bullies pierrot affectionately – monster romance – humor – slight possessiveness – predator/prey dynamics.
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You were running faster than you ever had in your entire life.
Your legs burned with every step, muscles protesting the abuse as cramps threatened to start at any moment. Your lungs burned, every breath scraping painfully through your chest, and your hair had long since escaped whatever attempt at a ponytail you'd subjected it to that morning.
Honestly, if someone happened to stumble across you sprinting through the middle of the forest right now, they'd probably turn around and run in the opposite direction. You looked less like a person and more like a SCP cryptid that had just escaped containment.
Your current predicament had a reason and, more importantly, someone to blame.
To absolutely nobody's surprise, that someone was you.
It had been several months since you saved a certain red-dressed, honey-eyed clown, got kidnapped by a circus, discovered said circus was composed entirely of man-eating monsters, and then – against all common sense, survival instincts, and basic self-preservation – decided to enter a relationship with said clown.
In your defense, when you laid out all the possible outcomes you'd run through your head at least three hundred times, dating Pierrot genuinely seemed like the best option available. After all, the alternatives included being dissected by the Doctor, trying to escape and getting slimed by Jester, or one of the other 339.293 variations of being brutally murdered and served for dinner. Compared to that, everything was manageable.
Suuuuuuure, you had been terrified at first... Well, terrified didn’t do it justice.
Your entire life had been uprooted overnight, tossed into a blender, and served back to you with a clown-shaped cherry on top. Yet through all of it, the only person who had consistently reached out a hand to support you was Pierrot.
And no, Harlequin's relentless attempts at getting into your pants absolutely did not count as support.
Besides, Pierrot had been absurdly persistent in his efforts to woo you. Suspiciously dyed flowers, gifts, compliments, awkward flirting, more flowers. At some point, he simply wore you down through sheer determination. And honestly?
So what if they were man-eating monsters? It wasn't exactly their fault. They couldn't help what they were any more than humans could help needing food. Besides, you weren't exactly vegan yourself. If chickens could talk, you were fairly certain they'd have some very strong opinions about humans too.
You forced yourself to focus again, inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth as another exposed tree root nearly hooked your ankle. You stumbled but kept going, silently thanking whatever higher power might exist for the fact that you hadn't eaten anything particularly heavy that morning.
A quick glance at your wristwatch revealed you still had seven minutes left.
The realization made your heart pound even harder, excitement bubbled beneath your ribs, tangled together with that nervous, electric kind of fear that made your stomach flutter and your skin tingle. The good kind of fear, if such a thing existed.
You had to bite the inside of your cheek to stop yourself from giggling.
The day itself had started normally enough. You'd woken up in Pierrot's trailer to the smell of breakfast drifting through the cracked window, luring you out from beneath the blanket. The circus had been traveling towards a new destination for the past several days – where exactly, you still had no idea. Jester had chosen the route, and trying to understand Jester's decision-making process was something you’d given up for the time being.
Currently, the circus was camped on the outskirts of a medium-sized city. The reason was something along the lines of ‘’gathering more fools’’. The fools were still a concept you hadn't entirely accepted, if you were being honest. You understood why they existed, of course. Five monsters, no matter how efficient, couldn't realistically operate an entire circus by themselves – Not for lack of Ticket Taker trying, though – but it still left a bad taste in your mouth.
Still, the decision had been made to remain camped there for the next two days, which left you with a problem.
You were painfully bored.
Without an active circus to run, there were no flyers to hand out, no errands to complete, and no small jobs to occupy your time. You ended up sitting around Pierrot's trailer, doodling absentmindedly in a sketchbook.
While everyone else was out and about for the day, they had decided to leave Pierrot with you. Jester still didn't trust you enough to leave you unattended, and Pierrot would immediately become pissy at the mere suggestion of Harlequin acting as your babysitter. After several hours trapped inside the trailer with nothing to do but doodle and stare dramatically at the ceiling, you'd finally had enough.
You called his name in a singsong voice that was filled with anything but innocent intentions. Judging by the way his attention immediately snapped toward you, hook, line, and sinker.
"What if we played a game?"
"A game?" he asked, looking up from the knife he was sharpening. "What sort of game?"
"Hmmm." You stretched your arms over your head before standing from your seat. "I don't know. Sitting around in this trailer for days has made my legs feel stiff." You wandered over to where he sat, stopping directly in front of him. "What if we played a little game of chase?"
"Chase?" His head tilted slightly. "My dear, do you mean pega-pega¹, perhaps?"
"Is that like tag?" You considered it for a moment. "Not exactly. I was thinking something more along the lines of..." Your smile widened. "You give me an hour to run, and then you come find me."
You punctuated the suggestion with a wink.
Immediately, Pierrot's face began turning the shade of pink that had become increasingly familiar over the past few months.
"M-My dear!" His grip tightened around the sharpening stone. "I-I truly don't think that would be a g-good idea. I mean, I would love to, but–" You cut him off by stepping between his knees.
One hand came to rest against his thigh, mostly because you knew exactly what it would do to him. The poor clown practically froze.
"I know what you're about to say," you continued. "Something about not wanting to frighten me, or that it might be dangerous, or whateverrr. But I promise that's not how I'm going to feel."
You leaned forward slightly, watching with immense satisfaction as his breath caught.
Teasing Pierrot was embarrassingly easy, and if his reactions occasionally made your stomach do weird little flips, well... That was nobody's business but yours.
"Besides," you said, dragging out the word shamelessly, "I reeeeeally want you to come after me."
For a moment, you could practically see the gears turning inside his head. His expression shifted through at least five different emotions in the span of a few seconds as he weighed the pros and cons of your proposal.
Then his irises turned into hearts.
Any objections he might have had were immediately crushed beneath the combined force of your pleading and his inability to tell you no. He could deal with Jester later.
Anyways, that was the gist of it. Stealing another glance at your wristwatch, it told you all you needed to know.
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¹Pega-pega. It's basically what everyone calls tag but brazilian.
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