#twcoa

[whoreforthemandalor]

the waves clasp one another (chapter one)

Pairing: Ezra x afab!reader (no physical descriptions, no y/n)

Series Rating: M for now, will be updated to E in later chapters and will be tagged as such

Chapter Rating: T, but this blog is 18+ so MINORS SCRAM

Tags/Content Warnings for Series: SLOW BURN!!; adventure; peril; discussions of disease; canon typical violence; thalassophobia tw; Ezra is his own warning. EVENTUAL SMUT.

Tags/Content Warnings for Chapter: mentions of PTSD symptoms; guilt.

Series Summary: When Cee is required to complete an internship to graduate from The Euphrate, Ezra insists on accompanying her off-world. You are a conservationist with a vested interest in preventing a mass outbreak of a transmissible brain disease, and your new intern has brought along a companion. When things suddenly go sideways, will all three of you make it out alive?

Chapter Summary: Cee has a decision to make.

Word Count: 1.7k

A/N: OKAY SO I have been working on this fic since the beginning of April 2022 and I have four chapters (mostly) written so far, with at least a rough outline for the entire story. I’m thinking this will end up being about 20-25k words when it’s done but who knows where the tides will take us! HUGE THANKS to @imtryingmybeskar​ @pentechnics​ and @ejacutastic for allowing me to scream in your inboxes like a cornered raccoon for the past several months <3 This is my love letter to one (1) trash goblin, Mister Ezra Prospect himself <333 also, while I have done quite a lot of Research on the themes in this story, I am by no means an expert so let’s just roll with it, shall we?

A/N #2: My main blog is @tentacruels so I will interact from there!

*******

Chapter One:

The annoyance in Ezra’s apartment was palpable any time the subject of Cee’s imminent departure came up.

“Ez, I really don’t think you need to come with me. It’s just six weeks, I’ll be back before you even have time to notice I'm gone. You’d be bored to death waiting around for me to have down time, this planet doesn't really have anything else to do, other than whale watching,” Cee said with mild irritation, not looking up from her notebook where she was scribbling reminders for the upcoming trip. It was the fifth time in two days that she and Ezra had rehashed this particular portion of their argument, or non-contestable disagreement, as Ezra had taken to calling it.

“Now, little bird, you and I are both acutely aware that I would be more restless than a sea of ferns in a dust storm if I sent you off into that wild yonder with nary a way to communicate with me for the entirety of your trip,” Ezra drawled with a simmering frustration, hip popped out and hand akimbo. He shifted on his feet, hovering near where Cee’s legs were propped up on the arm of the sofa. She glanced up at him for a moment, the stern look on his face causing Cee to roll her eyes and heave a long-suffering sigh.

This circular discussion had been going on for nearly a month at this point, ever since Cee told Ezra that she was required to participate in a work-study program during her last year at the Bowsum Conservatory. “Intergalactic Relations Concerning Native Species Conservation'' was a previously unknown passion for Cee and also necessary accreditation in order to pursue a career in eco-journalism after her graduation the following year. The unconventional timing of Cee joining the Conservatory upon her return from the Green Moon with Ezra a year and a half prior meant that she had quite a lot of catching up to do in order to graduate on time with her peers. This work-study was something that her fellow classmates had finished during the previous year, and although the aurelac that they had managed to bring back from that ill-fated trip had been enough to secure a place for Cee’s education and an apartment for Ezra in The Ephrate near enough to Cee’s housing, the haul hadn’t been hefty enough to account for her entire education and she was loathe to drag out her graduation and drive up the cost.

Cee rationalized going on this trip alone as an opportunity to do something for herself, something to be proud of and look back on as a time in her life where she would be free to make her own decisions. She could admit to herself that, selfishly, she wanted to temporarily forget about the specter of guilt hanging over her head that permanently disabling Ezra had draped over her. 

Yes, she had saved his life in the long run, and for that Ezra had thanked her many times and many ways over in the intervening time spent in safety, but there were occasions when she could hardly bear to live with herself. When she stayed with Ezra on weekends or on a longer break from school, she had noticed him struggling to cope with the loss of his dominant arm while trying to hide how much he was affected by it, and the self-loathing would rise in her throat like bile and make her legs itch to run away.

To that end (and not that Cee would ever admit to him), the short list of planets that she’d been interested in were all within the classification that Ezra had described with loving, if verbose, detail as being similar enough to his home planet of Terra. He had gone through the listings with her at the start, either scoffing at the pathetic photos listed by the ambassadors or thoughtfully considering what was on offer for each planet’s program. The majority were too superficial for Cee, mostly consisting of recording aggregations of native plants that were at no risk of being in danger from anything other than a hard frost at the designated season change. But one had finally caught both their eyes about a week prior. 

Chelroth.

There were more than enough things right with this planet to capture Ezra’s attention. It wasn’t exactly like Terra, but it was a planet that could sustain a human populace without killing it, covered in water and teeming with life. Cee had immediately decided on submitting her application for this program, knowing at the very least that the prospect of being a member of an endangered creature’s species rehabilitation program would fulfill the requirements and bolster her credentials. The fact that the creatures she would be working with were small, soft and cuddly-looking cemented her desire to be accepted into the program. When her application had been approved two weeks before her scheduled departure, her excitement had risen to a feverish pitch while Ezra seemed to sink down into unfathomable doldrums.

“You know exactly where I’ll be the entire time I’m gone,” Cee murmured in a soothing tone, giving Ezra a wry smile that he didn’t return. “It’s only a day’s shuttle ride from here, it’s got breathable air, and I’ll be with someone experienced. You really don’t have anything to worry about, other than missing me.”

“Cee.”

“What, Ezra.” 

He hesitated for just a moment. His dark eyes skittered away from her to look past the hanging plants in the living room window, eyes focused on the dark sky outside the tiny apartment. 

That caught her attention. Normally, when Ezra had something to say, words flowed out of him like a broken faucet. But now? The fact that he seemed to pause to choose his words carefully made Cee’s ears prick up, and she closed her notebook to give him her full attention.

“You know how apprehensive I am about you flying solo on this trip. I understand your reasons, but this old man will truly only feel useful if he’s put to the test once more before you leave this little nest entirely.” Ezra ruffled his hand through his hair, making his bright blond birthmark stick up wildly. “Little bird, I wouldn’t be able to carry on in this mortal coil if something happened to you and I knew that I could have been there to prevent it.”

Cee’s heart clenched, thinking of leaving Ezra to his own devices and anxieties while she was off having an adventure. His desire for companionship and conversation didn’t often shred up on the ragged edges of her heart like this, but knowing how terribly lonely he had been on the Green before they had stumbled across one another, how starved he had been for any kind of connection beyond the proximate closeness of another person, tugged on those frayed strings. She physically felt her heart soften and was quiet for a long moment, contemplating the options laid before her. 

On the one hand, she truly did want the opportunity to spread her metaphorical wings and experience life out in the vast galaxy without the crutch of anyone to help, anyone to make the smartest choices, anyone to be looking out for her. Cee knew better than anyone how hard Ezra tried to look out for his own.

And yet, Cee remembered the way Damon, her father, had crashed through time and space with little regard to the way it completely devastated her. Damon had been primarily driven by grief, then by ego, and finally by greed. Cee’s mother’s death had caused an irreparable rift in the relationship between the grown man and the precocious child, one that Cee had never truly forgiven him for. With Ezra though, it felt like the empty space in her soul, that a parent was meant to fill, was healing. She didn’t want to jeopardize that relationship by being callous to him now.

Cee hemmed and hawed, tapping the pointer finger of one hand on her chin as she pretended to consider for a moment longer. It was almost amusing to watch Ezra twist himself into knots, knowing he had a point but not truly being able to force her into seeing things his way. Cee knew that Ezra fully respected her and her ability to make decisions, which is why she figured he would be alright with a few…caveats.

“Alright Ez, you can come with me. There’s kind of a lot of paperwork to fill out so-”

“Birdie, whatever I must do to keep you safe is no burden to me,” Ezra interrupted. His grin was infectious in his triumph, making Cee shake her head and belly laugh at how quickly his mood shifted from concern to elation.

“I appreciate your enthusiasm! Can you keep that same energy when I give you the rules for how this trip’s gonna go?” Cee watched as Ezra’s face fell from unrestrained joy to cautious suspicion, and her own smile only grew. Cee pulled her legs off the arm of the sofa and spun around slightly to make room for Ezra to sit down, pulling herself up fully and patting the seat beside her. She waited for him to sit before picking up the tablet on the low table in front of the couch that she had been using to scroll through the packing lists for her program and opening up a blank document.

“I know you’re the one with experience in this kind of situation, but this whole trip is meant to get me ready for what I’ll be up against once I’m done with school and actually out in the field. So!” Cee clapped her hands together, making Ezra jump slightly at the sudden noise. The twinge of immediate guilt for accidentally triggering his adrenaline had her placing a gentle hand on his left bicep. “Sorry, Ez, didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Don’t fret birdie, I presume that I’ll need to get reacquainted with the unexpected if I’m to join you on your adventure. You don’t need to concern yourself with this jumpy old fellow,” Ezra said gently, awkwardly angling his arm to cover Cee’s hand with his own, and giving a reassuring squeeze. Cee smiled thinly, wondering if she would regret this down the line.

“Have you tried swimming with just one arm yet?”

*******

Thanks for reading!! Please let me know if you want to be tagged/untagged, or if there are warnings for this chapter that I missed and I will update accordingly!

[whoreforthemandalor]

the waves clasp one another (chapter three)

Pairing: Ezra x afab!reader (no physical descriptions, no y/n)

Series Rating: M for now, will be updated to E in later chapters and will be tagged as such

Chapter Rating: T, but this blog is 18+ so MINORS SCRAM

Tags/Content Warnings for Series: SLOW BURN!!; adventure; peril; discussions of disease; canon typical violence; thalassophobia tw; Ezra is his own warning; Smut (eventually!)

Tags/Content Warnings for Chapter: disease/brief mentions of death; animal neglect; humans being shitty; teenage angst.

Series Summary: When Cee is required to complete an internship to graduate from The Euphrate, Ezra insists on accompanying her off-world. You are a conservationist with a vested interest in preventing a mass outbreak of a transmissible brain disease, and your new intern has brought along a companion. When things suddenly go sideways, will all three of you make it out alive?  

Chapter Summary: Several explanations and a few introductions.

Word Count: 2.3k

a/n: thank you once again to my lovely @imtryingmybeskar @darkstarcomics for beta reading this for me!! I really appreciate you!! ❤️

*****

Honest to Kevva, it wasn’t like you were always pissed off. It was more the fact that your job wasn’t exactly...simple. 

Keeping an endangered species away from the perilous edge of extinction wasn’t a task that most would willingly commit themselves to, but this subspecies of mustelidae was especially difficult. On top of their niche diet of a certain species of shellfish being hard to come by due to poaching by humans, and the problem of their preferred natural environment being isolated, underwater caverns, it was nigh on impossible to figure out a way to turn your sweet little albino charges into the sex-crazed heathens that their Terran-born counterparts had been, but frankly, the creature’s low birth rate was the least of your problems. The enhydra Chelrothica fodiens had gone completely undiscovered for millennia, and had managed to keep themselves unbothered for many hundreds of years past that. Things had truly been fine for your charges until some rich assholes discovered that the shellfish that made up the majority of their diet were, allegedly, an incredible aphrodisiac. 

The little blue-shelled creatures were almost hunted to extinction half a hundred years before, nearly wiping out the fodiens at the same time. The only thing that had stopped both species’ complete erasure was a group of scientists that had stepped in at the second-to-last moment, determined to prevent the loss of yet another micro-ecosystem to the greed of people who had more money than sense. The Conservation for the Proliferation of Endangered Species had been founded by your biologist grandparents and a number of other like-minded scientists, and they had passed their passion project onto their children, and then their grandchildren later. Between you and all your cousins, not to mention the children and grandchildren of all the other founding members, the fodiens and other endangered species on this side of the galaxy were being closely monitored at all times. Sometimes it felt like overkill to have such a tight grip on the fodiens, but the Conservation’s collective zealotry was the only thing keeping a dangerous problem at bay.

What all those rich assholes didn’t realize was that, though they had enough money to pay hundreds of points per shell to fuel for their hedonistic lifestyles, there was no amount of money in the galaxy that could save them from a potentially hideous end. The molluscs that they loved so much were potential carriers for a prion disease, a type of misfolded protein contained in the deoxyribose nucleic acid of the molluscs that was transmissible to humans in the event that they slurped down enough of the wrong ones. The disease would then be passed onto the next unsuspecting host, the person unlucky enough to have shot blindly in the dark and sent a thrower bolt through their own brain. The prions would then take up a sinisterly quiet residence in their grey matter, staying dormant for years before ripping the rug out from under the person within a matter of weeks. 

The infected person would seem fine for at least a few years post-exposure, with the first signs that something was wrong being issues with balance and fine motor skills, followed by general memory loss and personality changes. It always progressed quickly after the memory loss began; the victims wouldn’t know up from down within the week and it ended with the poor unfortunate bedridden and unable to move or speak, wasting away in front of their loved ones without a treatment or any answers until they died. If they were suspected to have partaken of the molluscs within the previous two decades, a biopsy of the deceased’s brain was always ordered, conducted under vacuum and with the medical examiners in entirely self-contained hazmat suits, since it wasn’t clear how prolific the disease could become once the human host had passed from it. That was how serious this problem was.

Luckily for the fodiens, their digestive enzymes contained something of an antiserum for the prion, causing it to be neutralized before absorption, which was another part of the problem. The fodiens were being farm-raised for that property alone, and The Conservation was left to deal with the consequences of abandoned fodiens after their prime breeding year. The intergalactic-government sponsored scientists who were charged with optimizing this program, to harvest the enzymes at their peak, at least had the wherewithal to dump the animals past their peak usefulness onto a planet that actually contained a flourishing population of their main food group. So, here you were, working with the fodiens to prepare them for reintroduction to the wild environment they were meant to be born into.

The weight of this burden had been feeling heavier in recent years, and you were almost ready to let someone else carry that mantle for a while. The pressures of the job aside, you also had the expectations of your family and cohort on your shoulders; graduating with two post-doctorates at a tender age, when most of your peers had only just finished their undergraduate work, meant that you were not only the head of the research division but also the liaison between The Conservation and those knuckleheaded scientists and their flippant, flagrant neglect of the fodiens.

Hence why you’re waiting in The Blind Shark for your understudy to arrive. A sweet little gal named Cee, whom you had exchanged quite a few messages with after her acceptance. She was a girl on the cusp of womanhood, trying to find her way and passion in the vast galaxy. She had written at length about her qualifications for the program as well as her travels as an assistant to her father’s ambitions. She had touched on his death on the Green Moon, which was as infamous for its aurelac as it was its poisoned atmosphere.

You had cried for Cee, after that last message. Not for losing her father, but for being alone in such an inhospitable place.

*****

You drum your fingers against the surface of the small high top table, waiting for the exterior bar door to open. You had been sitting there drowsily watching people come and go for close to an hour before the door banged open and caused you to jerk to attention in your seat.

The first thing you notice is the fresh-faced young blonde, standing in the doorway and shivering from the cool air outside. On your first glance, your eyes land on the utility pants and heavy jacket she wears, as well as the long blade strapped to her thigh. Ah, a wary traveler. She’s seen more than her fair share of the world, you surmise.

The young woman peers around the dimly lit interior of the bar and you feel your eyes catch hers for a moment longer than would be appropriate for someone just passing through. A grin lights her face, and she makes a quick path through the tables to the empty seat beside you. She plops down unceremoniously and sticks out a hand to shake.

“My name’s Cee, you must be the one I’m looking for.”

Her introduction is succinct, and she carries a calm presence now that she is sitting next to you and you instantly feel yourself relax a bit. You give her your name and confirm that you are the one she had been seeking out. Both of your smiles are warm enough to dissipate any lingering awkwardness.

“I’m surprised you were able to pick me out so easily in this crowd,” you tell her. You’d tried your best to blend into the patrons at the bar so you could get a true reckoning of your charge, so the fact that she was able to pick you out almost immediately spoke of an astuteness that was unexpected. 

Cee’s lips twisted wryly and she leaned closer into your side before speaking. “It wasn’t hard to find the only female xeno in here that’s dressed for practicality.”

You give her a wide grin, but it falters a bit when you see who had been hidden behind Cee’s approaching form.

The tall, golden-skinned man who ambles up to the table is a pleasant surprise. He’s disarmingly handsome, with wavy, deep brown hair a shade lighter than his warm eyes and a surprisingly lithe curved nose. His full lips part to reveal a gleaming smile directed at you. A blonde streak above his right temple peeks out from under his bright blue beanie and is charming in a way you hadn't been expecting, falling gently over his forehead to accentuate his dark eyes and brows. You were so captivated by his face that it took you a moment to notice the most obvious thing about him.

His right arm was missing. At least partially, anyway.

At your first cursory glance it had escaped you, as it was well hidden by his jacket. The loose way that the sleeve moved had your eyes tracing down the arterial seam to where his right hand should be, but it was conspicuously absent. Your eyes skimmed over it, noting it but not lingering long. It piqued your curiosity to learn how that had happened; it looked like a somewhat fresh injury from the way the man turned his body half-away from you, as if he didn’t want you to see it. You feel a heat creep up your neck when you realize you’d been staring at the man for a bit too long, but Cee thankfully saves the moment without calling attention to the long silence.

“This is my guardian Ezra. He absolutely insisted on coming with me, even though he read through your credentials and said that he had the utmost faith in you to protect me,” Cee announced, glancing between you and Ezra with a roll of her eyes.

You stick your left hand out, palm open to him in an invitation to grasp it, and peer up at Ezra with a wide, genuine smile on your face.

“It’s certainly a pleasure to meet you, Ezra. Cee waxed poetic about you in our messages before our meeting today so I feel privy to almost all of your secrets.” Your smug smirk is met with a glow in Ezra’s sparkling dark eyes, as if he’s sizing you up. His warm, large hand meets your own and his handshake is firm but surprisingly gentle.

“The pleasure is entirely mine, doctor.” He lowers his lips to your hand, and the breath he expels before pressing those plush lips against your knuckles, the warmth of it, makes your own breath hitch in your throat. You try to keep your expression as neutral as possible but your eyes soften sweetly as Ezra raises his gaze to look at you. “My apologies for the intrusion onto your routine, my headstrong ideals concerning guardianship required that I accompany my little Birdie here on one last foray before she sets off into the vast unknown upon completion of this program and obtaining her degree.”

“Kevva above, can you rein it in, Ezra?” Cee huffs from your left side. You break eye contact with Ezra to turn toward Cee, and see that her expression is almost thunderous but not directed at you. She has her eyes firmly on Ezra, and he releases your hand and lifts his own as if in apology. The slightly chagrined look on his face is enough to have you biting back a laugh. 

“It’s completely fine Cee, Ezra was just-” you start to say, but Cee cuts you off with an exasperated sigh. From the look on Ezra’s face, a rant is incoming.

“Sorry doctor, it’s just that I barely received clearance from my prison warden here to come on this trip. I don’t need him making eyes at you and making this weird. You know, Ez, none of my classmates had their programs chaperoned by their parents,” the last part being directed at Ezra makes a slight scowl form on his face, eyebrows drawing together and you can’t help but to find the little crease between them terribly endearing.

“Birdie, I thought we had resolved this back home. You know I would never do anything to jeopardize the completion of your program, and far be it from me to make a mess of something so important to you.” Ezra’s placating tone does little to soothe Cee’s ruffled feathers, but regardless he turns to you to apologize. “Doctor, I have nothing but the utmost respect for you and your work here. I won’t meddle in your plans for Cee while we’re here with you, just consider me an extra set of hands-” Ezra cuts himself off, his mouth snapping shut abruptly. 

Cee’s sudden, loud bubble of laughter makes a smile ripple its way across his lips, until Ezra is cracking up too and they laugh themselves breathless until Cee’s addition of “Well, just the one, really” has you joining in the mirth. Once the three of you have calmed and a warm silence between you has fallen again, you feel it’s an appropriate time to bring up your earlier thought.

“Well, now that it’s been acknowledged, I would love to hear the story of how you came to be permanently left-handed, Ezra,” you say, hoping you aren’t overstepping the bounds of propriety by asking so early in your acquaintance but still burning with curiosity to hear the tale. Ezra and Cee exchange a loaded look across the table, and you feel as though there’s much more to their partnership than you originally gleaned, and Cee is actually the one to address your question.

“Well doctor, I know you’ve just met us and don’t know us from the first man, but I truly hope that you can…look past what I’m about to say. To be fair though, Ezra had just killed my father so I was just returning the favor. My aim was worse than his, though.”

Shocked isn’t the right word. 

Maybe horrified is better?

*****

Thanks for reading! If you see any subjects that I should content tag, feel free to shoot me a message. if you want to be tagged, let me know! my askbox is open, or you can shoot me a DM @tentacruels

taglist:

@darkstarcomics @imtryingmybeskar

[whoreforthemandalor]

the waves clasp one another (chapter four)

Pairing: Ezra x afab!reader (no physical descriptions, no y/n)

Series Rating: M for now, will be updated to E in later chapters and will be tagged as such

Chapter Rating: T,, but this blog is 18+ so MINORS SCRAM

Tags/Content Warnings for Series: SLOW BURN!!; adventure; peril; discussions of disease; canon typical violence; friends to lovers; thalassophobia tw; Ezra is his own warning; Smut (eventually!)

Tags/Content Warnings for Chapter: rehashing of traumatic incidents; vague mentions of sex work; harassment.

Series Summary: When Cee is required to complete an internship to graduate from The Euphrate, Ezra insists on accompanying her off-world. You are a conservationist with a vested interest in preventing a mass outbreak of a transmissible brain disease, and your new intern has brought along a companion. When things suddenly go sideways, will all three of you make it out alive?  

Chapter Summary: You learn the backstory of Cee and Ezra's strange partnership. Ezra is impressed by you. Ezra POV.

Word Count: just shy of 2k

A/N: Thank you to my beloveds @imtryingmybeskar @darkstarcomics and @ejacutastic for reading this over for me and being so lovely and encouraging <3 y'all are the real MVPs!!

*****

Chapter Four:

Ezra is having a difficult time keeping his eyes off of the doctor.

You are far more fascinating than the brief bio and blurry headshot on the placement program website had led him to believe, and as far as Ezra can reconcile, Cee had almost certainly minimized the exchanges between the two of you before their arrival on Chelroth. Dedicated and competent were the two words Cee had used most often to describe you whenever he had prodded Cee about your qualifications during their planning sessions at his apartment.

“Ezra, she has doctorates in biology and infectious disease control. She graduated from The Conservatory at sixteen and on top of all that, she’s been working on this specific rehabilitation project for more than a decade. She’s more than capable of keeping me safe from that horrible illness…that wasting disease.”

“The technical name for it is a prion disease, Birdie. It was one of the many things that caused Terra to become uninhabitable in the last thousand years before our xeno’s escape out into the greater galaxies. It’s an illness so misunderstood and quietly nefarious that it caused our star-chasers to work even more expeditiously on a way off of the only home our xeno ever knew, especially compared to the sluggish way they dealt with the impending heat death of the habitable zone on Terra.” Ezra glared at the pattern on the rug between his feet as he sat on the couch in his cramped apartment, listening to Cee’s restless pacing and biting his tongue as she tried to come up with yet another angle to support her desire to not be coddled while they were off world. He gritted his teeth before continuing, “It’s not just the wasting disease that I’m concerned with, but if you think that the good doctor knows best, then I will defer to your judgment.”

Ezra thinks back on that conversation now, his apprehension and wariness for someone he had never met weighing heavily on his conscience at the time. But now… The mood around the small table has shifted in the last few hours.

As he and Cee had traded off on recounting the tale, your eyes had shone bright with tears on multiple occasions. The two times they had fallen were terribly injurious to Ezra’s heart, for reasons he couldn’t quite fathom.

“Oh Cee, you must have been horribly afraid after your father died.” Damon had been less like a father and more like a slavedriver to Cee, and she had quickly disabused your notions, and given a short explanation about the stark difference between Damon and Ezra. “Doc, Ezra could have killed me at any time and commandeered my ship to safety, but he…didn’t. He decided to save a little girl on the Green Moon. Ezra’s been more of a father to me than Damon ever was. Damon never cared about anything other than points, and the fastest way to get them. I never have to worry about my safety when Ezra’s around.”

Then a bit later, learning about the act that had truly intertwined Cee and Ezra’s fates had prompted you to gasp so loudly it was almost a shriek, causing more than one table full of scruffy looking patrons to look in your direction.

“Kevva Above, Ezra! I can hardly believe you were able to stay stoic while Cee performed your amputation! And Cee, where in the world did you learn how to do that?!” It had then been Ezra’s turn to elaborate. 

“Cee was as thorough and expedient as any surgeon in the galaxy, doctor. I’d have been in dire straits without her. She was able to cut quickly enough that the whole horrible ordeal is but a distant memory, and besides all that, she had done similar jobs before, not on humans of course but instead while clearing out the cavernous remains of the Jhata Balu.”

You now knew their history as thoroughly as they did.

How Damon had tricked Cee into taking one last job to raise enough money to get out of prospecting. How the two of them crash-landed on Bahkroma’s Green Moon to chase a legend. How Damon had failed Cee one last time, and the hand Ezra had played in it, even in an act of mercy. How Cee had been absolutely desperate to find a way off of that cursed place. How Ezra had come to be injured by Cee’s hand, and the reluctant partnership that they’d been forced into for survival. How a failed negotiation with a camp of zealots had swiftly crushed that partnership, and how Cee had run, and run, and run, while Ezra licked his wounds and limped to the safety of his tent to slowly die, alone and forgotten.

How Cee had stumbled across him just mere hours away from being taken by the poison that she had inadvertently introduced into his system, and then how she had brutally saved his life by removing his arm. How Cee had turned back to save him from ruthless mercs at the last possible second, after Ezra had sacrificed himself to give her a chance to catch the last slingback away from that horrible place. How they had struggled and scraped to make a new life for themselves on The Ephrate, far away from that nightmarish landscape.

Now you have heard the whole ugly truth of his meeting with Cee.

*****

Cee chats with you about the upcoming trip, the two of you falling into an easy camaraderie, and  Ezra allows his gaze to wander over the rest of the dining room of The Blind Shark. A watering hole-cum-staging location for similar groups of fishers and dockworkers, it was clear that you had been here many times before and had a certain level of familiarity with the staff based on the friendly smiles you exchanged with them as they came to check on the quiet corner the three of you were occupying. He relaxes back into his seat, knowing that at least for the moment his charge is safe.

From the few hours of conversation that the three of you had exchanged, you frankly didn’t seem like the type to take anyone’s shit, well meaning or not, and he is drawn to the way your eyes sparkle when you speak about the critters that you had apparently dedicated quite a lot of your life to. His eyes are periodically fixed on your hands as you speak; they are calloused and smaller than his own, and he briefly wonders what it would be like to hold a hand like that in his remaining one. His thoughts are interrupted by a low noise of discomfort from Cee when a man plops down, hard, in the seat between him and Cee. The man’s back is turned towards Ezra and his greasy smile is directed at you and Cee, and the audacity makes Ezra’s insides shrivel with unbridled rage. 

“What’re a couple’a girls like you doing in a shitty place like this?” The man inquires with a slurring, hoarse voice that he probably thinks is seductive rather than repulsive. Cee flushes and freezes in her seat, and Ezra’s vision clouds with streaks of crimson. He’s not a man prone to unnecessary violence anymore, but his hand curls into a fist, ready to suckerpunch this interloper into the next week. He suddenly notices the warmth of your hand clutching tightly around his own, and through the haze of his rage he at least has the wherewithal to recognize it’s not his moment to shine.

“Pardon me, you pathetic excuse for a slug, but what in Kevva’s name gave you the idea that you could even breathe in the proximity of my charge? Leave now, cretin, before I forcibly remove you.”

There’s a venomous acidity in the condescending tone of your voice, and your eyes are fiery, sending the interloper a look that would cut anyone’s ego to complete shreds. The interloper blinks awkwardly a few times, maybe trying to decide if you're serious. You make it abundantly clear that you are, in fact, deadly serious by employing a half-dozen rude hand gestures to let the man know he needed to leave, like, yesterday. The pathetic sod stammers out a half-apology and hurriedly gets up to join another group of men who all look like life has kicked them right in the gems, and the furtive look the interloper sends back towards your group doesn’t escape Ezra.

“Thank Kevva, doc, you made that look so easy.” Cee’s eyes are round with awe as she calms down a bit and turns to face you again. “Can you teach me how to be that intimidating? I hate when people think that just because I’m young, they can make me uncomfortable for no reason.”

Your soft, melodious laugh cuts through the surrounding din, and your muttered reply to Cee of “just gotta be hard on those thick-skull types” pulls a smile out of Ezra that he hadn’t been expecting, one that dimples his cheek and draws your eyes back to him. You return the smile, almost matching the playfulness in his eyes, but there’s an apprehension in your voice when you speak loud enough for him to catch your next full sentence. 

“To be frank, Chelroth is almost entirely male-xeno dominated because of the types of work available here. Not a lot of female xenos come here for that reason, and the ones who do…” you trail off at this point, and Ezra thinks he’s never been so quiet and focused on someone else speaking in his entire life. “Well there are those who really work for the money, and then there are the ones you see toiling out on the docks, fishing boats, farms, and market shops.”

Cee’s bright peal of laughter once again draws the eyes of several tables worth of tired looking laborers.

“Ahh, so what you’re saying is that you and I are an anomaly, huh?” Cee’s chuckles are completely infectious to you, and you both break off into giggles that devolve into clutching each other, gasping for breath as you both struggle to overcome the inherent awkwardness of the topic.

“What I’m trying to say is that, as far as companions outside of our little group goes, the grand majority are going to ask for some sort of compensation for their time or services with you. So you’d best get a move on if you have any extra business to attend to, because for the next six weeks, we will be adrift at sea and modern…conveniences will be hard to come by.” The doctor gives Ezra a pointed look.

Ezra’s face is warm as well with the knowlege that almost every female xeno within a hundred clicks is either a sex worker, a laborer or…you. He skims his finger along the rim off his glass, wishing that the bar staff would come around again so he could order another drink. He almost never indulges in any kind of mind altering substances, especially after learning Cee’s feelings on such coping mechanisms, but the way that you are laughing and gasping for breath has him thinking that perhaps something to dull his racing thoughts isn’t such a terrible idea. 

“I’m sure I will be able to cope, doctor,” Ezra shoots back slyly, even through the heat of mild embarrassment. 

You give him a challenging look, raising your eyebrow and your glass in a facsimile of a toast.

“To new and abiding friends,” you murmur, eyes locked on Ezra.

He hears his voice harmonize with Cee’s as they both say, “To new and abiding friends.”

*****

Thank you so much for reading! Please let me know if you would like to be tagged for future chapters, or come yell in my inbox <3

[whoreforthemandalor]

whoreforthemandalor's masterlist

good morrow, fair traveler! i see you have journeyed a vast distance to thirst over Pedro Pascal and his universe of cinematic characters!

welcome! welcome, please stop and stay for a whi-

WAIT, LET'S JUST GET ONE THING STRAIGHT FIRST!

ARE YOU OVER EIGHTEEN??

option 1: YOU ARE UNDER EIGHTEEN??? FUCK OFF. I AM SO SERIOUS. SCRAM. GET SO LOST THEY SEND OUT A SEARCH PARTY.

option 2:

>you are at least eighteen.

>you don't get instantly blocked.

ALRIGHT great! :) you are over eighteen! :) then please, fair traveler, come over here! warm yourself by the hearth! take a seat (in the Pedro-character-of-your-choice's-lap) and have something warm to drink (no! i shan't say it!!)

here at whoreforthemandalor dot tumblr dot com, we specialize in yearning for one 48-year-old, Chilean-American Zaddy™, José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal. you'll find: Yearning! Angst! Comfort! and most importantly, SMUTTY THOTS!!

my AO3

general tags for characters:

Din Djarin

Javier Peña

Ezra

Pero Tovar

Dieter Bravo

my writing:

the waves clasp one another (Ezra x biologist!afab!reader)

chapter one

chapter two

chapter three

chapter four

taglist:

@darkstarcomics @imtryingmybeskar @harriedandharassed

[whoreforthemandalor]

the waves clasp one another (chapter two)

Pairing: Ezra x afab!reader (no physical descriptions, no y/n)

Series Rating: M for now, will be updated to E in later chapters and will be tagged as such

Chapter Rating: T, but this blog is 18+ so MINORS SCRAM

Tags/Content Warnings for Series: SLOW BURN!!; adventure; peril; discussions of disease; canon typical violence; thalassophobia tw; Ezra is his own warning; Smut eventually.

Tags/Content Warnings for Chapter: mentions of PTSD symptoms. guilt once again. mentions of past parental neglect/abuse. WARNING FOR LOSS OF LIMB DESCRIPTIONS. Ezra POV.

Series Summary: When Cee is required to complete an internship to graduate from The Euphrate, Ezra insists on accompanying her off-world. You are a conservationist with a vested interest in preventing a mass outbreak of a transmissible brain disease, and your new intern has brought along a companion. When things suddenly go sideways, will all three of you make it out alive?

Chapter Summary: The arrival on Chelroth reawakens some memories for Ezra.

Word Count: 1.4k

A/N: i'm sorry that this is a slow burn but the next couple chapters are written and considerably longer. once again, thank you to my lovely friends @imtryingmybeskar @darkstarcomics @chocolateghost @mbpokemonrulez @pentechnics and @ejacutastic for allowing my mental breakdowns in your inboxes <3 and sorry for a short chapter, the next couple will make up for that!

***

Chapter 2:

Ezra didn’t often have nightmares, but when he did, the dreams were always the same.

He was back on the Green, with a failing air filter and a mute, slowly dying partner. His chrono beeped shrilly, constantly, to let him know he had about a day’s worth of filtration before he would be permanently stuck inside his tent with an air scrubber that was also far past its recommended expiration date; his literal minutes were numbered without a transport pod or any other way to leave the cursed planet. In the dream, no matter how thoroughly he scrubbed his filter with the designated brush, the alarm on the breathing apparatus would beep and beep and beep, counting down the moments until his inevitable demise. Always, without fail, his nightmare would lead up to the sharp, spreading ache of Cee’s thrower bolt piercing his bicep, and the throbbing pain that had teased at his every waking moment since that fateful day. 

By the dream’s end, the raw, fresh gasps of air that he pulled into his permanently bruised lungs would always snap him back to reality, but the psychic damage would linger for the rest of the day. It was always worse when he was alone in the apartment without a groggy, grumpy Cee to cheer up with slightly burnt pancakes. 

This time though, after his nightmare shoved him awake, he was on a passenger shuttle, and the announcement on the overhead speakers chimed their imminent arrival on Chelroth. Turning slightly to the left, he met Cee’s eyes as she turned away from her window to level him with an empathetic stare.

“We’re almost there. Just a few more minutes and we’ll be on solid ground.”

The smile Cee gave him was bitten off, and Ezra felt his anxiety multiply.

Ezra breathed in the briny, cool air as soon as the door of the shuttle opened onto the steely gray horizon, pulling in great lungfuls of humidity that made his eyes widen and the stump of his arm tingle with the remembrance of his home. Terra. He hadn’t felt the clammy dampness of an atmosphere like this since he was barely more than twenty. A lump swelled in his throat as the mist from the water breaking over the nearby rocks off the dock settled gently into the worn fabric of his utility pants and thin flannel shirt. The sound of the waves crashing and roaring was almost too overwhelming for him, and he wiped at his face, unsure if he was feeling the spray of the water or the wetness in his eyes spilling over.

He turned from the view of the sea and was met with Cee’s gaze, soft and curious, watching him take in his surroundings.

Ezra had a feeling, deep down in his gut, that she had picked this planet not just for the sweet creatures that she would be working with. No, he knew that Cee had picked this particular adventure partially for him as well. She had asked too many pointed questions in the days leading up to their departure from The Ephrate for Ezra to not have caught on to her game; her questions had caused him to reminisce fondly about his home planet, and had stirred a deep wistfulness in him for what was now uninhabitable. He had done quite a bit of research on the planet the two of them would be on for the next few weeks, and it had given him a better grasp on what they would be dealing with.

“Your hair’s gonna be completely unmanageable by the end of this trip if you don’t cover it, Ez.” Cee’s teasing was meant to put him at ease, but Ezra recalled reading a recent article that the seawater on Chelroth was slightly more chlorinated than saline. It reminded him of the last few years on Terra, when the drinking water had to be boiled and collected via evaporation twice over again before it could safely be consumed.

He pulled out and awkwardly situated his bright blue beanie from his bag, one that Cee had gifted to him not long after their return to the Ephrate and Ezra had an impolite reintroduction to the concept of season. He didn’t want the spray to discolor the naturally blond birthmark above his right eyebrow, one of the only parts of himself that he still liked. It wouldn’t take long for that discoloration to happen, with the sticky chlorine clinging to everything that it could. The slow bleach could and would destroy everything that hadn’t adapted for tens of thousands of years to the more alkaline properties of eighty-five percent of the planet’s cover.

Ezra turned away from Cee’s watchful gaze and  spun around far enough to view the little port town where the two of them would be meeting the research team. It was small and surprisingly clean for a seaport town; neat rows of colorfully painted shops and restaurants in the immediate foreground, and the rolling hills behind the town displayed a sprawl of homes built into the land, interspersed with pastures full of grazing creatures, all in varying shades of the bleach associated with chlorine exposure. Even the fauna covering the hills was a pale shade of yellow, devoid of the chlorophyll that would have thrown him completely back to Terra, or worse, the Green Moon. In a way, it was grounding for Ezra to know he wasn’t hallucinating his past.

“So the restaurant that we’re meeting the doctor and crew at is called ‘The Blind Shark’, and the message said it’s violently orange. D’you think it’s listed on the main map? I don’t see it on the index for Port Pilou…” Out of the corner of his eye, Ezra could see that Cee was nose deep in the guidebook she had picked up for Chelroth at the transport station before they had departed. The thin booklet featured a scenic picture of a blazing orange sun dipping into a sunset over the ubiquitous ocean, and was emblazoned in an almost unreadable, stylized script with the cheesy slogan “Visit Peaceful Chelroth!”

Of course, he had already pored over every drop of information on his tablet about Port Pilou, the meeting place they had landed in, so spotting the building in question was easy enough. It was hard to miss among the mostly cooler colors of the other shops along the main drag, but part of the guidelines that Cee had laid out for him before their departure had included allowing her to take the lead on their trip. She wanted to feel like she was in charge of her own fate, and that had involved her sheepishly asking Ezra to put a lid on the deep well of his knowledge so she could have an authentic experience. 

Over the last year and a half, Ezra had gained a deeper understanding of Cee’s neuroses, her soft lines and hard stops. What had caused him to be so lenient on this trip was something that Cee had told him, the night before their departure. She had confessed that she never truly been able to make decisions purely for her own reasons while traveling with Damon. Even as a young child, when all she should have been thinking about was what her entertainment for the day would be or wondering where the sweets were hidden, she had always needed to consider a dozen different outcomes to Damon’s rash impulses, and think a hundred clicks down the road to see how things would pan out. Ezra’s heart constantly ached for the little child that Cee had never been allowed to be, so giving her these concessions was easy enough. He knew she would ask for help when she truly needed it.

“Looks like your little map there doesn’t quite pick up on that terrifically horrendous shade, so we should probably scout it out ourselves.” Ezra nodded at the guidebook in Cee’s hands. “We’ll have to count on our own fallible eyes to twist us in the right direction for the beginning of our adventure.” Cee rolled her eyes at that and started a quick clip into the town’s center, not bothering to turn and see if he was keeping up.

Ezra hauled his and Cee’s bags onto his good shoulder and set off after her, a grin pulling at the edge of his mouth.

***

Thanks for reading! if you want to be tagged/untagged in this series, please message me here or at @tentacruels. If you see content warnings that I didn't tag, please message me and I will update the tags!

Taglist: @imtryingmybeskar @darkstarcomics

[whoreforthemandalor]

a writing and life update!

Hello friends and comrades! I was hoping to have the next chapter of “the waves clasp one another” ready to post on July 14th, but a family emergency is taking up a lot of my time, aside from already working crazy hours (healthcare, amirite?) and eating into my writing/editing time. I will be posting July 16th instead, and I appreciate your patience as I finalize chapter three!

In the meantime, if you have any funny or cute Pedro memes I would love to receive some!! My inbox is open :)

Tagging: @imtryingmybeskar @darkstarcomics

[whoreforthemandalor]

the waves clasp one another (chapter three) will post today at 5pm est!

[whoreforthemandalor]

i’m going to be posting chapter three of “the waves clasp one another” hopefully by tomorrow evening. i apologize for not posting it on the 16th as i had said but life gets in the way! it’s mostly ready to go! we finally get an introduction to reader and the actual plot will finally be underway! :)