wolfieonatypewriter

[wolfieonatypewriter]

SO I WAS UNAWARE IT WAS SAILOR MOON LGBTQ WEEK…

but coincidentally i drew future reinako as the usamamo cosmos leak yesterday so im uploading this here also for day 1 - morning/evening :3

(also bc i love talking about butch lesbian rei and all my hcs for reinako)

[wolfieonatypewriter]

I just heard my mom tell my brother, “when you die, you will go outside and garden until your father says you’re done” and it took me a second to realize that my brother was playing a videogame and this was not a theological discussion.

[wolfieonatypewriter]

@sauceistastybb Thank you so much for your kind words!!! * crey emoji *

Bayojeanne Week 7 - Dancing With You

Fandom: Bayonetta

Ship: Bayonetta/Jeanne

Summary: The world upstairs was filled with music and dancing witches but Cereza’s world had been lit with something altogether much more special.

A/N: Fact of life: this fic has been written for 3 years and it has a lot of other friends sitting in my files, for reasons I cannot comprehend. The missing prompts are furiously being written and I *really* wanna post up my AU prompt today. So here goes prompt 7, hope you like!

There was a faint sound that filtered through the upper levels into the moonlit training room down below. The skylight was the only source of illumination at that hour, the torches had long since been put out and the full moon provided plenty of light into the ring.

If Cereza strained, she could almost hear the music of the Winter Ball and imagine the worthy denizens of their home as they danced and twirled with their respective partners. The joy and laughter upstairs must have been something amazing to see.

She slumped further down the pillar she was standing on, the ice cold ground hitting her legs suddenly and making her flinch a little.

It was cold like Inferno and her breath misted, settling uncomfortably on her lungs. At fifteen years of age, she had enough magic in her that she most likely wouldn’t get sick but when she was younger, her birthday always meant sickness and fever.

Cereza, not for the first time, wondered what would be like if she was allowed to attend all the balls, dances and nice things the witches did.

Keep reading

[wolfieonatypewriter]

Echoes Across Time And Space

Summary:

Bayonetta was very much ready to have a great and relaxing birthday in the company of Jeanne and a ton of free time when one of her gifts turns out to be more than what she bargained for.

The Remembrance of Time of the day she was born that their absent god had sent her way could prove to be too much, even for her.

Word count: 2.6k

A/N: Golem the discount store siamese is Jeanne's cat that she finds as a stray and he's pretty consistent across my fic universes

“Golem, I swear to fucking God that I will boil you in a big witchy caldron if I go back there and see anything broken!” She had opened the door to their swanky Manhattan high rise to the cute delivery girl for some of her birthday parcels but there was a distinct ruckus of someone breaking things. “I'm sorry, it's the cat you know.”

The other lady laughed and tucked in her signing machine underneath her arm, handing her the parcel emblazoned with ‘From: Luka Redgrave’ in swirly, obnoxiously composed handwriting. “This one is fragile, so maybe do keep it out of reach.”

Cereza carted the box back to her kitchen and to the source of the disturbance, only to find the balcony door wide open to the snow storm and Golem meowing in displeasure from the other side of the room.

“You shouldn't have opened this then, you butthole.” He pinned his ears back and harrumphed out with an upturned tail, showcasing such a body part right at her as he trotted away most imperiously.

“About as charming as your owner.” She mumbled to herself, rubbing her bare arms and crossing the expansive kitchen to shut the balcony doors before the blizzard parkered itself on their home.

The wind must have been truly hazardous to have slammed the door open. She spared a thought to Jeanne, out and about in the city probably getting some private party favours for a little birthday one on one fun. She loved her toys and not even the dreadful weather had dissuaded her, especially considering those had been a backed up special order that had been ready at just the right time.

With a graceful pivot, she hummed her way back to the kitchen island, her favorite marble monstrosity, when a twinge of magic rippled in the back of her head. She turned, looking around for what might have caused it. If angels decided to rain down on her for her birthday, she would march straight to Paradiso and punch Jubileus in the face.

Odd, there was nothing out of the ordinary and the flick had since passed with no hint that it had ever happened. With a shrug, she turned back to her parcel on the marble countertop.

Luka had promised something good and she had no doubt he would deliver. What could it be, he was very tight lipped about it but had sworn up and down she was going to love it.

When she looked again, the brown box was no longer anywhere to be found and in its place rested a single blue card.

Aesir.

Cereza jumped into action, looking around wildly and turning her living room around searching for any clues on where he might be. The apartment was as she had left it, everything undisturbed, not even Golem was around to make a mess of things.

“Come on, little one! You can't just drop by like this.” She called out, walking back to the kitchen island once more. Spotting a note that wasn't on her fridge before, she snatched it. “At least show up for a chat…”

Hey, Bayonetta! I got you a little something I do think you'll enjoy. I still don't think you look like a Cereza but after hearing about it, I could be convinced.

Cereza huffed, rolling her eyes. Couldn't anyone in her life not be a dramatic ho with a flair for the theatrical? The simple sheet did not reveal any other tricks so she pinned the damn thing back to the fridge.

The card rested face down and another cursory look revealed that the box Luka had sent was resting on Jeanne's favorite chair. A sense of exhilarating anticipation itched in her chest, a feeling she hadn't gotten since she asked Jeanne to move in with her. As soon as her fingertips touched the card, a rebound of energy coursed through her arm.

With a flick of her wrist, the card was now facing up and a picture of her mummy and Balder appeared. It was stylized in the same way as Loki's old cards, her parents back to back with their hands clasped together.

It was a beautiful figure, bold in it's intent but sad given all that she knew had transpired between them.

“Sentimental, little one.” She was about to grab it to stash it somewhere safe when it lit with a surge of incomprehensible power. The world around her turned to gold and blue, her living room ending up looking like it had been ran with a bad photo filter.

She was about to move when the distant cry of a baby started up. Bayonetta looked around her apartment for any clues, bringing forth her guns from her summoning pocket.

The sound was seemingly everywhere at once but no images materialized. In between whimpers and bouts of crying, a voice sounded over it.

‘My most precious starshine, it's your first morning. What has you ever so displeased?’ The man had a rich baritone, so loving and emotional that something stabbed through her heart at the realization. He wasn't speaking English, it sounded like something of a cross between Portuguese and Galician which could only be Vigridian. Cereza was astounded she could still understand it.

This was a remembrance of time and that was… ‘She’s so Umbra but reacts so well to your magic.’ A woman chimed in, voice low and somewhat hoarse. Tired but content and Bayonetta wasn't dumb enough to miss why. All in all, she had to thank Rosa for a job so well done.

‘Daddy loves his little girl so, he can hardly stand to part with her.’ The rustle of cloth followed his statement and she strained to try and picture what could be happening. Was he holding her? Passing her over to Rosa? ‘Mummy has food, tasty and delicious. Is that what you want?’

After a few seconds, the unmistakable sound of a baby nursing filled the silence. In that time, Bayonetta came crashing down to earth on what she was seeing and hearing. Her parents, her very own parents were there in echo on what seemed to be the day she was born. Balder sounded so soft, so in awe of what had happened. His tender tone was ripped right out of a fairy tale, of parents not filled with grief, not confined to the back of an annulment cell. Of all the things she knew of him, distorted and fragmented as they were, this facet was the hardest to swallow. Father Balder had been dramatic and violent, his younger self has been angry and hurting. In neither of those had there been any space for the loving care she was hearing.

Bayonetta didn't know what to do with that information but she didn't have much time to chew it over as Rosa started speaking again.

‘She is so small… felt much larger a couple of hours ago though.’ They shared a chuckle and a the sound of a couple of soft kisses reached her ears, the rawness of their affection was obvious even without visuals. Young spouses, newly minted parents with their whole world suckling peacefully in front of them. 'Well then, what will our daughter be called?’

'I think Cereza is a perfect match.’ he supplied, words reverent and Rosa laughed in reply, so joyful and unfettered like Bayonetta only heard a scant few times in her life. ‘And may her life always be bathed in the summer sun.’

There it was, oh there it was. A name that was a blessing of the highest calibre coming from her Lumen father. A prayer that had fallen on deaf ears.

‘She was born in the dead of winter, Balder. Might I add, exactly as a good little Umbra should.'

A small sob escaped her throat and before she knew it, a couple of stray tears made their way down her face. This wasn’t...it wasn’t fair and Bayonetta had no clue on how to process the turbulent tide of her overwhelming sadness, her unconfronted grief or even just the unfairness of her misplaced anger at her parents and their decisions.

“Cereza!” The rapid staccato of heels pounded across their foyer and Jeanne sprinted into the kitchen only to halt immediately at the scene that greeted her harried entrance. “What is…”

‘That’s precisely why she needs a summer blessing. To balance it out!’

That voice brought back a flood of memories and she raised her guns, teeth gnashed and all of her was ready to summon Madama Styx right then and there but when she noticed there were no threats at their gates, she uncoiled enough to take a good look around.

Her most beloved was crying, their kitchen felt like an hub of undetermined energy zapping through her whole soul and Jeanne, brightest witch in an age and Elder of the Umbra Witches, had no clue what was going on. So she did the first thing that came to mind. Envelop Cereza in a hug.

‘The daughter of the night and day, an auspicious portent. Though many would disagree.' Rosa's voice continued to sound in their spacious kitchen, gaining a harder edge and at some point Jeanne realized that it came from the card on their table. Oh no, a remembrance of time. ‘ How long do you figure this safehouse will hold? A month?’

She hugged back, burying her face on Jeanne's shoulder and biting her lower lip to keep from shedding more tears while the memory kept going like a stuck tape on a broken recorder.

'At best, yes.’ All of a sudden he sounded very tired and they heard a sigh. ‘For now, we can all rest. This is as isolated as isolation can be, it seems the legends about Fimbulventr are not as true as they seem.’

‘For now as well, the people's whispers are too loud to ignore.’

Bayonetta lifted her head from Jeanne’s shoulder and furrowed her brow at those words, turning to her. They had taken refuge on the Holy Mountain and somehow had been taken in with warmth. Her personal experience told her acutely that being received kindly in there was next to impossible.

A thousand and one questions burned inside her head but none more intense than the age old query: Had their absent God interfered? Had he taken pity in his own Eyes, harbouring the Left and Right facets of creation and their precious bundle of the apocalypse in his own domain?

Little whimpers broke up their strategy meeting and rustling cloth sounded up again. ‘You’re daddy's girl already and you barely know what a daddy is, moonstone.’

Balder chuckled at her words, whimpers growing louder. ‘Why do I think it's not a me she likes best. You might be right, she pays attention to my magic but it's not working now.’

A string of lilting bird calls, like one would expect from a songbird, followed his statement and Jeanne just held her close, commenting “Lumen sages are keen on their bird natures, it's part of their communication.”

‘See, she likes that.’ Rosa’s voice had a hint of smugness that sounded so very characteristically Bayonetta in its execution. However, despite having quietened down a touch, little Cereza still made her discomfort known.

‘Not enough to soothe her it seems.’ He replied, chirping a little more but without any further success. A rumbling purr broke through and that Bayonetta knew what it was.

Somewhere in the back of her memories, she remembered her mummy purring at her, as close as she could through the thick bars of her cell. Her chest rattled and rumbled and her little tiny self would bask in the comforting certainty of it all.

The lack of visuals was both infuriating and a boon, as they could only guess at Cereza’s adorable fussiness from the squirming sounds she was making.

But it also meant Bayonetta couldn't see the love in her parents’ eyes, couldn't see their weariness and their bone aching tiredness tinged with overwhelming relief of having found shelter just in time for their little one to be born.

Couldn't see all she had missed.

‘Fly me to the moon…’ Their perfect harmonizing jarred her from her thoughts like a vengeful poltergeist.

‘And let me play among the stars’ the song was perfect in it's execution, a performance born of repetition. ‘In other words, please be true.’ Of singing it many times together.

‘In other words…’ No fussiness could be heard anymore, only the well polished lullaby in the unique duet version Bayonetta had never even guessed could exist.

‘I love you…’

The magic faded slowly after the last bar like a record player winding down and the last she heard was the faint noise of another soft kiss.

At that time, she had stopped caring about the tears streaming down her face or the fact that she was hanging on for dear life on Jeanne. It was embarrassing and heavy but at the same time a part of it felt…

Good.

A soft purr vibrated near her cheek, breaking the uncomfortable silence of their apartment and Jeanne held her closer. The purr picked up, higher pitched and softer than her mother's great big tiger purr, causing her to scrunch her eyes shut for a second.

“In other words.” Jeanne started, her words vibrating through her rib cage.”I love you…” Cereza felt a kiss to her hair and she sniffed, wiping her stray tears with the back of her hand.

She lifted her head and Jeanne smiled, kind and caring and loving and all just for her. She replied with a watery smile, disentangling from her lover and taking off her glasses to rub at her eyes.

The card was facing up near them on the countertop, Rosa and Balder with clasped hands staring back at them, defiant. And wasn’t that the foundation of their life, a relationship forged out of defiance. A daughter born out of love.

“Please tell me you didn't get me an emotional gift as well.”

Jeanne chuckled, snaking her arms around her waist and kissing her lips softly. “I have some things you'll like in my bag of tricks but it's mostly earthly pleasures, I promise.”

Cereza was exceptionally hard to shop for so she just got her luxury spa days and shopping trips. She had gotten her a pair of heels her most beloved had commented she had her eyes on for Valentine's and Cereza had replied the fun was in the going. Going out shopping with her was always an event that had even the most upper brow places at the beck and call of Cereza’s inexorable charms.

With a tentative touch of her fingertips on the card, Bayonetta snagged it from the kitchen island and stashed it on her summon void. She hoped beyond hope it didn’t start up again, another tongue lashing of emotions and past trauma would surely leave her soul even more raw than what it currently was.

That would take time to process and she was sure to either yank little one’s ears when she next saw their absent God or thank him for giving her such a thing, she wasn’t sure which one yet. In any case, that was an issue for future her because for now…

“Earthly pleasures you say?” The flip to predatory was so fast that Jeanne didn't even have time to react before a nip to her neck dragged an embarrassing moan out of her. Cereza had snagged her up with feline proficiency, the back of her thighs bumping against the countertop and Jeanne found herself at the complete mercy of Cereza’s hungry grin “Did you find what you went out for.”

Oh yes, she had and she was more than ready to see how it worked.

“Yes.”

Golem wouldn’t even complain.

[wolfieonatypewriter]

BAYONETTA WEEK DAY 2  New Era

Bonus lines

[wolfieonatypewriter]

Bayonetta Week 4 “Freedom”

Summary: The life of a Witch only truly started with a pact and Jeanne had just seen history happen. Cereza, her Cereza, had crawled out of Inferno with a pact so coveted that the assembled Umbra were stunned to their core. 

And now, at long last, they could be free. 

Word count: 3466 A/N: And my biggest prompt for the week! A huge shoutout to @xall4one for always being so tireless in the Bayonetta fandom and to my so very lovely @maeday-gae for making sure this happened. This is technically a prequel to my AU prompt from the Bayojeanne week but can be read as a standalone 

And there it was.

Cereza emerged victorious from the pocket of Inferno she had clawed her way into in a storm of dark energy and the raw, unstoppable power of Madama Butterfly the Mistress of Atrocity.

Who else to forge a successful pact with one of the most powerful and unpredictable denizens of Hell if not her very own Cereza.

It was the most breathtaking moment of Jeanne's young life and it was all she could do to keep from jumping the veranda, away from her mother's stern gaze and into the arms of her lover.

There was no more taking it back, there was no more denying, no more casting doubt, no more censure or hindering. Cereza, her Cereza, the best friend she had, the only other Umbra she could trust, was now unmistakably, intrinsically Umbra and she had held fast to even the harshest of challenges.

She had a pact, a pact many a witch would have died to have ( many had, in fact) and it meant their society had witnessed such a thing, leaving them no choice but to offer respect.

Served them right.

Cereza was breathing hard, bleeding from a thousand holes, her glasses had since fallen to the wayside but still hadn't summoned the will to pick them back up.

The Elder and the gathered Umbra said nothing for the longest time, looking on with varying looks of apprehension and surprise. Finally, her mother put them all out of their misery. "Dismissed" was her only word and she turned back and disappeared through the dark building of their proving grounds.

She was loathe to leave her beloved when she was wounded and exhausted but despite everything, these were hallowed grounds and no harm would come to pass to her from her fellow Sisters. Jeanne couldn't tip her hand too soon or all of their hard work would be for nothing.

With feet as heavy as lead, she followed after her mother but as she looked back one more time, Cereza was looking at her and Jeanne smiled back so proud and so big her soul swirled with dark energy.

Her mother would retire to ponder on the turn of events she had created when she let her own misgivings lead her to thinking Cereza would perish attempting a contract. Not only had she returned but she came back triumphant like Inferno had accepted her as it's ruler, the Elder had plenty to think about and Jeanne would certainly use that to her advantage and squirrel Cereza back to her room to drench her in healing concoctions.

Cereza dragged herself upright as everyone streamed out of the arena, promptly falling back on her knees and barely keeping herself from collapsing back on the dirt and blood.

The first rays of sunshine hit her back and she sighed, rubbing her dirty face with an equally soiled glove. Madama Butterfly slithered through their link, a sort of phantom in the back of her mind and she wondered if she would ever feel truly alone ever again.

Jeanne and her mother had done their best to prepare her for her proving and yet the task had been both very similar yet nothing at all like what they had mentioned. Inferno wasn’t for the ill prepared and she had almost been a victim of it. The Mistress of Atrocity was brutal and harsh, far more so than many of the other demons whose domains she had briefly touched before being drawn into the Madama’s domains and she was still reeling from her trial.

As if sensing her thoughts, a dissonant chuckled breezed by her soul and Cereza bolted to her feet in fear. Sheba, what had she gotten herself into?

Her legs more or less cooperated with her, the dawning day not doing her any favours in terms of healing faster. Where was a full moon when you needed one?

She managed to stagger to her dwellings and all their ruins in disrepair charms but at least there was a modestly soft surface for her to collapse on and no one to harass her.

Not anymore.

Slumping on her bed, she felt the welling of a smug satisfaction at the way the other witches had looked at her on her way to her room - fear, reluctant respect and a newfound appreciation for her ability to inflict copious amounts of hurt.

A soft knock sounded at her door and she did a quick scan. Jeanne!

Cereza sprang out of bed, leg failing her landing and making her stumble into the piece of junk she called a desk with a pang. Uprighting herself with a wince, she padded to her door and dispelled her wards in one smooth gesture.

Jeanne was there, looking so lovely and Cereza did her best to not kiss her in plain sight. It seemed she didn't care either because the door was slammed open and Jeanne captured her lips in a fierce kiss that left her somewhat dazed and clutching her rickety bedroom door.

“I'm so proud of you, so so proud.” She started, gingerly touching the bleeding claw marks and bites on her Formal with worried gestures. “Come back to my room….I have a bathtub full of salve.”

“Enticing, I won't lie.” She felt Jeanne's body heat radiating in her freezing room and into her battered bones, a salve of it's own as she leaned against her body in a loose hug.

Her injuries caught up with her much faster than she would have liked but Jeanne's arms circled her closer and supported her weight in full. “I can carry you, the halls are clear and mother is...she's assessing and won't come anywhere near for the rest of the week I'm sure.”

Plus, no one dared to enter the heir’s room uninvited. With a contract, she was full Umbra and to trespass into another's vital space was a sin of the highest calibre. Sometimes she wondered if she couldn't convince Cereza to just...move in permanently.

Cereza hummed and blinked against her coat, making a big effort to keep her eyes open. With a feather light touch, she was lifted off her feet into a comfortable carry for her height and she surrendered to the plush comfort of Jeanne's front.

The trek between their rooms had been perfected by a decade of sneaking around and the vast, expansive wealth of abandoned tunnels, secret rooms and panic exits that existed around Luna. Cereza was fast asleep, occasionally mumbling something when Jeanne jostled her on some steps that she promptly soothed with a kiss to her fluffy, black hair.

A final door separated them from the large antechamber that gave way into the door to her bedroom. The floor was all hers and it had more secret entryways and exits than what she knew what to do with.

Paranoia ran deep it seemed, in their ruling class but she couldn't help but wonder - all that exited, also entered but so far she hadn't had any assassination attempts coming in through the old tunnels.

Fragrant herbs and comforting heat from the fireplace greeted them as Jeanne kicked open the door and deposited Cereza on her bed, despite her protests of not wanting to soil the luxurious duvet.

“Don't worry about my bed, just rest up for a while.”

Cereza cast a bleary eye her way and she still got up to take off her gross hood and shoes before slumping back with a happy sigh. “You have that look about you that tells me you're going to head off somewhere.”

Jeanne nodded with a reluctant motion. “ Just for a bit, I need to go do something... I'll join you for the bath when I return?”

She lifted her head and tried to keep her apprehension off her features. Jeanne wasn't exactly an elder Umbra, who knew who still thought they could just barge in there and if they found her sleeping like she belonged in the princess’ room, she would get shackled and thrown in with her mother.

It had happened before and she wasn't keen to repeat the experience. The thought of having annulment shackles slapped on again made her nauseous.

“I’ll put in the usual charms outside, anyone coming over to the floor will make about as much noise as an Umbra construct.” She approached the foot of the bed and leaned into Cereza with a sweet kiss. “Besides which, I'll lock it. Nobody will think it odd and I'll be back in under an hour.”

Cereza looked away briefly before returning the kiss, holding her close and letting her go just as promptly. “If you must.” She sassed and Jeanne smiled, a soft and caring thing that made Cereza's heart somersault in her ribcage. “Go then princess, I need my beauty sleep.” She finished, wincing at her hurt midsection.” Quite literally.”

“ Be safe, I'll be right back.”

Her heels clicked on the ancient stone floor with a methodical and driven cadence, the early hour discouraging any other witches from pottering about in her path.

She arrived at the dungeon and barely nodded at the gatekeeper. Nobody would dare ask her what her business was and she liked it like that.

The cages around her were of no interest to her despite the permanently agitated occupants and she soon reach the cell she had come to see.

“ She did it, better than anyone I have ever seen. Everyone was stunned stupid.” Pride bled into her tone and she didn't bother to hide it.

The witch in front of her was still for a long time, the shackles weighing her down to the floor and in between the her cowl and hood, she was barely distinguishable from the drab grey of the walls.

Jeanne didn't come down here by herself too often, the reality of their system became too hard to stomach in these days but she had to see this through.

“It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, it was historical! She came back, victorious and bloodied like a...a! An avenging avatar and the whole of the Umbra couldn't deal with it”

With a slow, ponderous deliberation, Rosa lifted her head as best as her position allowed her and locked her dark grey eyes straight into Jeanne's silver. “Who, little one?” She voiced, soft, too soft like a night breeze at a haunted cemetery.

“Madama Butterfly.”

Her eyebrows shot up well past her hood and even beneath the cowl, Jeanne could spot her surprise. Had she not been the daughter of a Lumen Sage, the feast in her honor would be grand after such a contract.

As it stood, only the cold comfort of the princess’ bedroom awaited her.

“Is she well? Has she been harmed?” Jeanne was almost taken aback by the vehemence of those words, of the display in strength she had never seen from Rosa before.

“She's…” she hesitated, her hands fidgeting with the hem of her top for a second. “ She's exhausted but she's safe, in the best place she can be and has everything she needs to feel better.”

The fight bled from Rosa's frame as soon as it had flashed with a grating noise from her chains. “I'm sure she's missing an important component. Thank you for letting me know.”

A dismissal that was subtle yet final in it's execution, though Jeanne still had something else to say before she went off to fix the missing piece.

“I'm going to present her!” She blurted out and all of a sudden Rosa was on her feet, standing tall with the full, imposing power of the Left Eye of Darkness upon her. “At the Winter solstice.” Jeanne said with a finality she wasn't quite sure of as it seemed. “I seek your blessing.”

Rosa was still for a long while, seemingly fixated on her and Jeanne squirmed under the scrutiny. “Do you understand the implications?” she started, the edge of her tone barbed and harsh. “do you know what this means, what you'll put her through?”

Jeanne took a step back and her embarrassment burned hot. She wasn't a child anymore, she knew what she was doing. “Did you? When you tangled with the sage?” She shot back and in the fraction of a second after she opened her mouth, she wished for Inferno to swallow her whole.

“I'm sorr-”

“You've your mother's argumentative capacities, little one, no doubt about that.” Rosa settled back down again, the strain on the chain relaxing and the tension on her body easing away. “I did, thoroughly and I hope you have as well.”

Jeanne looked hopeful, her heart racing on her chest like one of her prized horses, the wild beat of a deer that had narrowly escaped a wolf.

“You have my blessings, may darkness enrapture your promise to my daughter and may it be taken to fruition.”

She felt like going inside, hugging Rosa, crying, something. Would she have gone ahead without her blessing? Well, yes she would but it was better if her ( future?) mother in law agreed with what she was doing.

“Thank you, thank you!” Jeanne gripped the bars and grinned, catching herself and straightening her back. She was the Heir after all and soon she would fight for her right to rule, she'd better behave like her station demanded.

“I know you'll be handing in your letter of intent a few years down the line, Jeanne. I figure it's better to not stop you.” Rosa said, a smile ghosting her features and she couldn’t figure out if that was a certainty or a threat.

She nodded and Rosa winked at her, causing a blush to cast over her cheeks once more. “Moon's blessing, Matriarch.” She bowed, as was proper. “I will do my best.”

“Shoo now, I know someone who needs you more than I need to peacock my parental rights at you”

With one last bow, Jeanne was off the cell block with a definitive spring to her step. Sheba's eternal glory, it had been a great day!

After she was healed up enough to stand unaided and they had celebrated to Inferno and back several times, Cereza had to return to her life.

Jeanne ranted and raved about how this would make her accepted, a proper Umbra and that nobody would ever dare harm her again.

That this would be freedom...but Jeanne had also taught her that sometimes laws changed but people did not, of the fulcral difference between de jure and de facto. Maybe she could no longer be harassed under their laws but that didn’t mean the other witches would obey it.

Jeanne squinted and her from her luxuriously rumpled bed and whined, extending an arm in her direction. “Must you go?” she mumbled, knowing full well what the answer was.

“I’m afraid so, at least go tell mummy I’m still alive and well.” Cereza replied, gathering her ratty clothes and going to wash her face and hands in the richly decorated basin on the far side of the apartment.

Jeanne blushed a bit and covered up her embarrassment with a cough, covering herself with the sheet. “Might be pleasant that she knows, yes. Can I meet up with you later? I have something I want to give you but I need to fetch it first.” She commented, her breezy tone betraying the seriousness of what she was going to attempt but she didn’t want Cereza to panic.

Cereza looked at her with a slight furrow of her brow, she sounded way too casual but something about the tension in her body made her keen Jeanne-knowing senses ping. What was she up to? “Yes but I need to procure some more supplies from the outside so I’ll be out most of the day.”

Jeanne nodded, plotting her day to accommodate that and still have time to fetch the bracelet she had commissioned from the demon smith himself.

With one final kiss, Cereza went to the door and waved her goodbyes. She was curious on what the day had in store for her but for now she needed to focus on how to best steal some food for herself.

It was Winter and the fields were bare of anything remotely edible, which meant she had to break into storage facilities and snag whatever she could. As she plotted, the wards near her room blared in alarm and she nearly jumped out of skin.

Fuck. It had started.

She tapped into her magic and she realized who it was. A looming blonde Witch, solid like an ancient oak and taller than even her mummy was stock still at her door and she knew she was Cornelia, head Tribunal and the Elder’s personal protection detail as well as Jeanne’s main carer during her formative years.

As with all other witches, Cereza avoided her like the plague and she knew that meeting up with such an important Umbra could only be bad news, especially when it was the highest advocate of law in Luna.

“I am not here to harm you, sister.” Fat fucking chance but Cereza knew she was trapped. Her only thing she could do was see what was requested of her and pray that the kick wouldn’t be too brutal.

She opened the door, her heart racing on her chest as the tall expanse of heavy Formal came into view. The power she exuded was insane and Cereza only wanted to flinch away and slink far from view before it could be turned on her.

“Congratulations are in order.” Cornelia said, hands behind her back and spine perfectly straight. For such a praise, it was delivered with an impeccable lack of emotion. “You may now own property and be protected under our laws.” If she objected to it at all, Cereza couldn’t tell. “You have been assigned new dwellings that reflects your status as an Umbra witch, please direct to the proper wing as outlined in the documents provided.”

With that, she presented her with a simple wooden box bearing the sigil of their Clan and Cereza nearly dropped it after what she had said. Property, protection, a new home?! What…

“Meet with the quartermaster for your work assignment. As of tomorrow, you are to present to the fisheries for management work.” She continued, droning on while Cereza just looked on with her mouth agape. “Your compensation is monetary in accordance with your experience bracket as well as in the form of basic sustenance. For every month of work, you are awarded an extra share of the labour you produce, in this case fishing products. Should you have any doubts, please consult the appropriate documents I have just handed to you or their source that can be found in the library.”

Cereza looked back down at the box and then at Cornelia’s taller form and she was floored at not being able to hint at any form of joke or entrapment.

“Due to your status, you must present in two months time for an aptitude evaluation to see if you'd thrive in more specialized environments. Usually this is done before a work assignment, however it's best you have access to income and food before we can allocate you in a more appropriate position. Meal hall is open from 1 pm to 5 am.”

Apparently that was all she was required to say to Cereza but the whole of the information dump still had not cleared and there was a moment of long silence.

“Do you have any questions?” She tried, mask of distant politeness cracking a bit with her confusion. “Everything you need to know is in that box.”

“Yes! No I mean…” Cereza mumbled, yanking on the frayed end of her cowl in embarrassment. She just wanted this scrutiny to be over with soon. “Everything is fine.” She said but she remembered who she was talking too and hastily added. “Mistress? I uh go where darkness treads.” Jeanne had told her about the proper way to address an Umbra above her station before but she just had scoffed at that.

Never in her wildest dreams did she think she would ever need to have a neutral discussion with a full fledged Umbra Witch.

Cornelia nodded, if she was offended by her clunky formality she also did the favor of not showing. “I'll take my leave, sister.”

And with that, she was off the ancient and dilapidated section and Cereza was left alone.

Left alone with the key to her freedom among her Clan.

A job, wealth, legal protection... food! Food she didn't have to steal and maybe even a long, hot bath without having to break into the bathhouse or depend Jeanne's admittedly very consistent good will.

She was Umbra and she was finally free.

[wolfieonatypewriter]

Bayonetta Week 3 “Rescue”

Summary: What do you regret the most when there is so much left unsaid? Bayonetta looked on at Jeanne in the purple fluid, her stasis would only last as much as the blink of an eye and it was well past the time for her rescue.

A/N: Life not killing me so much so I’ll just slink right in 30 minutes GMT before the day ends...

The glow of whatever Rodin had whipped up to keep Jeanne on their Realm a little longer was basically the only light in the room and the atmosphere could not be more somber.

Time was running out and it was running out fast, she couldn’t keep staring, she couldn’t keep hoping this was all a bad dream and that she’d go back home to Jeanne lounging on their couch.

Her feet would be bare, heels discarded onto the dark wood of the apartment floor and her legs would be propped up onto Cereza’s beautiful decorative pillows.

If the sun was streaming through the large living room window, she’d most likely have a fallen book or other nearby, fast asleep and Golem would be on a kitty heap on top of her. Cereza would strut back in from whatever errand she had to run and set the table for their mid afternoon snack.

She had lived in America for all of her recent life and her memories had yet to return (if they ever would at all) but Jeanne had all sorts of Vigridian quirks they had adopted when they started living together, one of which was the need to have some coffee and bread between lunch and dinner.

The other thing was their predominantly sit down meals at the table. Jeanne had an inherent refusal to sit in front of the TV to eat and Bayonetta started by indulging her lover but after half a year, she had stopped having couch meals all on her own volition.

“Important things left unsaid, huh?” Rodin said by way of a greeting, having returned from the depths of his bar with even more weird concoctions that he promptly dumped onto Jeanne's stasis basin.

“Some, yes.” She wasn't in the mood to reflect on all of that, on all the things she still wanted to say to her, to share with Jeanne and maybe even… “This isn't how this ends.” She clenched her fist, swallowing down her rising panic. This couldn't be how their story panned out.

It wouldn't be.

“Funny how that works. Try telling them to her when she comes back, Bayonetta.” He lit his cigar, eyes flaring a deep red as he inspected his handiwork.

“Maybe even put a ring on it!” Enzo commented from his perch on the tipped back chair. He had elected to stay quiet during the critical moments of putting Jeanne in stasis and making sure Rodin had what he needed but now apparently he had felt the need to voice his sage advice.

She snapped up straight and blushed, it wasn't altogether a baseless statement. They had been living together for a couple of years, ( serious, committed) dating for almost as long but there was much she had to learn and even more she had to rediscover. About herself, about them, about their future. “Still a little premature, Enzo. Give a girl some time, till death do us apart means much longer for a witch.”

The ever mysterious bartender grunted in reply, tossing yet something else into the mixture. At this point, Cereza almost thought he was just pelting her with her favorite booze in hopes of getting her to wake up. “Feels altogether too late already.”

Her whole body went rigid but she couldn't even find it in herself to take a couple of shots at him for his insolence. He was right, too right and all that was left was for her to go to Inferno and snatch back her sleeping beauty.

Bayonetta would mount the most daring rescue in the Trinity of Realities or die trying.

[wolfieonatypewriter]

Bayonetta Week 1 “Who Are You?”

Summary: It’s 8:30 am and the unlikely has happened...Jeanne seems to be up and about. Bayonetta will have to traverse the treacherous depths of their apartment for her wayward love but will she find her?

A/N: Haha guys, life is killing me but have this!

The alarm was about to ring but Cereza swiped it shut before it could screech its cheerful yet tremendously obnoxious song.

8:30 am. It was an indulgent hour for her, she was usually up at the crack of dawn to go about her day, after all Enzo didn’t harass himself now did he, but it was the first day of earnest summer and she wanted to bask for a while.

She felt the bed dip just the barest and all of a sudden Golem, their housegod and discount store colourpoint, was on her face. “Your luck is your owner likes you, cat.” He seemingly listened to what she had to say, blinked his dazzling fake siamese eyes at her and then very slowly set his hand on the space between her eyebrows, the rough texture of his jellybeans a foreign feeling on her face.

Cereza sighed loud enough to be heard and he meowed at her again, bapping her face repeatedly. “Jeanne, the annoying one wants something please see to it.” She commented and as she put her arm to the other side of the bed there was a conspicuous absence of said lover. “Jeanne?”

The side had been used and was still somewhat lukewarm, so she had slept on it for sure but that had also meant that Jeanne, princess, heir, Elder to the Umbra and the least morning person on the whole of the Trinity of Realities had woken up at a decent hour.

Something had to be wrong.

“I see what you mean, pest.” He meowed, the undertone of smug to it near unbearable and he bolted out with a raised tail. Cereza sighed and grabbed an overlarge t-shirt from the chair, following him out.

As she stepped into the hallway, the smell of something in the oven wafted over her way and her apprehension melted into full on curiosity. The world couldn’t be ending or Jeanne couldn’t be feeling all that too bad if there was fresh, buttery dough in the oven.

Or so she hoped.

She crossed the archway into the large living room of their swanky Manhattan high-rise, the scene before her was…

Insane.

The small window side table was set with a variety of beverages, several types of bread and cheese and neatly prepared for two people to bask in the morning sun.

Not only that but the living room was pristine, all the dirty clothes littered about were conspicuously absent from their usual surfaces but even the surrounding area of their sturdy and spacious sofa had zero underwear strewn about (despite the fond recollections of having tossed a lot of it the night before).

Someone baby talking in French sounded from the kitchen and she knew Golem must have ran off to tattle on her to Jeanne, something that was prone to happening all day, every day.

Without waiting for whatever it was the cat was telling her most beloved, she poked her head into their kitchen.

Jeanne had grabbed Golem with one arm and was whisking pancake batter in just her lace red panties and the nice apron Cereza preferred to save for when they had guests over. The view was too delectable for her to even think about complaining that Jeanne pilfered her fancy apron.

The oven dinged and she bent down to take out a tray of fluffy croissants (only partially homemade judging by the bag of premade dough on the counter), Golem still aloft in her left arm.

Bayonetta was too engrossed on the display, culinary and otherwise, that she didn't think to say anything before Jeanne turned and nearly dropped the tray in surprise. Before she could reply, Cereza blurted out “Who are you?” In such an baffled tone that Jeanne froze for a second and then laughed.

Setting the tray by the window to cool down, she went over to Cereza and leaned up to kiss her. “And a good morning to you too.” She kissed her again and went back to her batter, gently setting Golem down and away from the croissants. He had something of a sweet tooth for thing with a lot of butter and more than one bread slice had been stolen from under her watchful gaze “Breakfast?”

“If you are a Joy, I quite appreciate the view and also the food.” Cereza started, snaking her arms around her waist and sliding down to rest her hands on the small of her back.

Golem lifted himself in his legs and tried to bap her hands away from Jeanne like the jealous little bean he was but she wasn't having any of that. She clacked her heel on the floor and he was encased in a purple shimmer, floating harmlessly away in a storm of huffy meowing.

Jeanne gave her a look and Bayonetta pursed her lips for a second before floating the diminutive housegod onto the couch. “Play nice with Golem or you get no pancakes.”

Cereza leaned forward, kissing her softly and yanked the spatula from her hand to flip said pancakes. “Well I do love them extra crispy so I guess I'll find it in myself to enter a temporary truce with the principality of chastity.”

Jeanne shooed her away from the stove and slathered the griddle with some more pancake batter, busying herself making breakfast.

“You haven't answered me though, you being up before noon is a more unlikely event than resurrecting Jubileus.” she snarked back when the spatula tapped her hand as she snagged a piece of half cooked batter.

Jeanne chuckled and flipped the last pancakes onto a plate, carrying it out with the croissants and Cereza followed her to the table.

Golem had done her the favour of shedding copious amounts of fur onto her chair before shooing him out of it and taking a seat while he primly hopped into Jeanne's lap.

“To answer your question, it's the summer solstice and it's a special day for the Umbra.” she explained, pouring herself some of the fragrant coffee from the carafe resting on the floral print table. The view over busy Manhattan was magnificent and the sun was shining bright, all the ingredients for a good day. “I guess I wanted to do something nice.” She ended with a shrug and sipped her beverage, looking down into the traffic below with a vague look in her eye.

Cereza piled up pastry on her plate before hogging the freshly squeezed juice and a massive mug of coffee, turning to Jeanne with a slight furrow to her brow. “Huh, really? It's the shortest night of the year. If you had asked me, I'd say it was more of a Lumen thing.”

She wasn't wrong but as with all cultural things, whoever observed it gave it their own slant. For the Umbra, they decided, like they did many other things, it was a time of good omens, to dance naked in the moonlight.

“Well yes but it's also when the nights start getting longer. We celebrated it with joy and welcomed the coming darkness but I do know it was a time of somber reflection for the Lumen.” She replied, raising her croissant so Golem could not run off with it. “Conversely, they went all out during the Winter Solstice.”

With a hearty bite into her jam filled croissant, deliciously mixing the airy buttery flavour with the strong flavour of raspberry, Cereza nodded. “And the Umbra? In the other solstice, what are we supposed to do?”

Jeanne grinned as if expecting that very question and Cereza felt her heart get lighter. “We party even harder! Winter was miserable for everyone in Vigrid, I supposed they preferred the excuse to be merry.”

There was a special kind of happiness her lover seemed to be able to achieve when she could share in their lost...well, near lost culture.

As with all ancient, dead and buried things, Jeanne coated her pain with her teacher matter of fact tone or, like now, with a hearty dose of good mood. Yet, underneath it all, it was still a gaping wound that would most likely never fully heal.

She reached out for Jeanne's hand and ran her thumb over her knuckles, hoping to stave off the ghosts of their shared past and keep her in good spirits.

“Thank you then, for letting me know and for this delicious breakfast.” She replied, typical Bayonetta sassiness well away from the situation.

Jeanne's returning smile was a little more contained, sure sign she had almost gotten trapped inside of her own memories but she still leaned over the table to kiss her, sweet and passionate.

They kept kissing, absolutely not noticing Golem swipe three pancakes into his mouth and bolt away to the other side of the apartment before it was too late.

“My pancakes! That damn cat!”

[wolfieonatypewriter]

Heya guys! In honor of the launch of Bayo 1 and 2 for the Switch ( OF WHICH I’M WAITING TO GEEETTTTT) I drew a little sagesona self portrait because I too love the sun, think Umbra are cute and can’t get enough of the sound of my own voice.

(I write fic too, check em out on the links to my blog)

[wolfieonatypewriter]

Collision Course

Word count: 1608

Summary: He was lost and deep within sovereign territory without any permission what so ever. What could he do?

Balder and Rosa's first meeting, an event that sets off the chain reaction for everything that follows.

AN: Part 1 of an ongoing AU series about Rosa and Balder’s relationship throughout the years

“Come now, little ones. We must move before the storm settles in.”

His younger wholly charges were having some difficulty focusing enough to follow the rest of the herd which made locating somewhere better suited for his flock that much harder.

Tapping his cane gently on the straggler to get her to move, everyone managed to start going in what he hoped was the direction of a safe pasture, away from the flooded valley.

“My, my… I heard Lumen travelled in flocks but had never guessed it would be quite so literal.” A voice broke through the silence of the forest, coming from the top of one of the granite boulders littered about the steep valley.

He whirled around to the vaguely mocking voice to find a Witch perched on the smooth rock, her eyes shining with a mirth that was bordering on insulting.

“Umbra!” He growled, pointing his herding cane at her before realizing it wasn't his glaive and quickly lowering it, fighting a rising blush. “Begone, I have no issue with you.”

She chuckle, jumping down from her perch and landing with a near soundless touch. The commotion made his flock shuffle away nervously, startled bleats marking their retreat closer to him.

“Ah, but I have issue with you.” She tutted, and a pair of long revolvers materialized in her hand, twirling them with practiced ease as she slowly circled him “You're on Crescent Valley, Sage and I'm sure you can appreciate the issue?”

Balder blanched and looked up, trying to figure out where the sun was behind the lead coloured clouds so he could know where the mountains that bordered Sunrise Valley were. No, he was sure he was still well within the boundaries of his home.

“You lie!” He accused, having given up on trying to orient himself and deciding to pay attention to his interloper.

“I do not.” She reiterated, pointing towards a mountain range to her left. “You've crossed to this side of Dusk's Peak, therefore, you are on our lands with your adorably fluffy clouds.”

His stomach clenched in harsh knots as he tried to see where in Paradiso he had wandered into. If the Witch was telling the truth…

He spotted Dusk’s Peak in the distance, the official boundaries of Sunrise and Crescent Valley and he was clearly on the wrong side of it. If the powers that be found out he had trespassed, however accidentally it has been, they would have his head.

With a slow movement, Balder coiled and glared at his interloper, preparing to summon his Formal and weapon when she dismissed him with a gloved hand.

She drilled him with a stare, grey eyes glinting with danger and power behind her butterfly glasses and black cowl. “Your kind are always so quite lucky, it must be the divine light guiding you I’d wager.” He tensed again, hands itching to summon his holy glaive but she just quirked an eyebrow at him  “ I’m the only one who has spotted the bleaty ones.”

She cocked her head and dropped her guns back into her summoning void. “Well, yet of course. It’s only a matter of time before my Umbra sisters run into you and your suitably lost lot so I would advise you to go back by the mountain pass and stick to the river.”

He looked around and couldn't feel any other hints of dark magic or of an encroaching coven. Balder relaxed a fraction of an inch, his back adopting a less solid stance and he leaned on his herding staff with a much more relaxed posture than what he was truly feeling. She didn’t seem interested in attacking him or apparently reporting him to the authorities but nothing ever came free. “Why?”

The Witch shrugged and petted the lamb that had trotted over to nose at her charms with a gentle hand and he was scared when he didn't bolt back to his mother's legs like he did with everyone else. “I’ve spotted you a while ago and you seem to care a lot about your charges.” She chuckled down at the small lamb when he nibbled at her wrist jewelry, undaunted by her large size. “I wager you really did get lost, especially since the rains last week pooled in the lowlands and it was no place to leave animals.”

Of course, she wasn’t supposed to know that quite so well if it was forbidden to cross territories without explicit permission from the sovereign clan but as with all rules, the real problem only started when one got caught. She was very good at not getting caught, much to her roommate's eternal chagrin.

“I can’t guarantee you’ll find pastures that are suitable back in Sunrise Valley but you should not stay here. “ She couldn’t, in good conscience, turn him into the authorities.

When she had spotted him by the river, she nearly turned tail and sounded the alarm. After all, she was on patrol duty that day and nobody had told her to expect a Sage barreling into the borderlands. In the 21 years she had lived, never once had she seen a diplomatic envoy or even known of such trips into their territory, so if it was to be expected, she was sure the job of keeping an eye out would fall to a high ranking Tribunal and not her, barely a full fledged Umbra.

When her decision was about 90% made, the flock streamed into the small meadow and their shepherd, not all that younger than her and about as gangly as her friend Clara, looked up and breathed what she assumed was a prayer.

He had fussed over them for a good while, pottering about his charges and checking for injuries with a methodical care she was surprised to see was ever so loving and tender.

So, she decided to wait and see what he would do and he looked so lost, she figured he was just trying to do his job to the best of his ability.

What was the harm in giving him a chance to leave? If he was a spy, the only thing he had managed to see was forest and rolling green meadows.

Balder kept silent for a few seconds, the only sounds were of his flock and their conversational bleats in the background.

His gut was screaming at him to be wary but he had no choice but to trust her. All things considered, if she had wanted she could have summoned a whole coven on his head and he was sure they would not be nearly as accommodating as this Witch seemed to be.

All he could try and do was venture through the pass and cross Dusk’s Peak to safety, preferably with as many sheep as he had left with.

“I thank you, the flash floods have compromised much of our space and eroded some of my references…” He admitted, scratching at his barely there stubble in embarrassment. When the Elder had said his tracking skills could use improvement, it was most likely this he was talking about.

She laughed at his earnest statement and he could see the material of her cowl move with her grin. Good to know the Umbra across the valley had a sense of humor.

“I’m Rosa and I promise to let you go unimpeded if you can answer me just one question.” She said, lifting her hand and twirling her index in the air, amusing ringing clear in her tone.

“There is always payment with your kind! Is it because your partnership with Demons?” He shot back just as fast, echoing her early statement with a dry tone, feeling more confident he would would manage to get away with his mishap.

“You needn’t be like that, Sage. I just want to know…” She set her index to her chin and tapped in a mock display of deep thought, the theatrics as delicious as they were unnecessary. “Is it easier to shepherd when you are your own sheep dog?”

He burned a deep scarlet at her question and wringed his cane in his hands, the wood creaking in complaint. “Yes…” He mumbled which caused a bark of laughter from Rosa but he continued, determined to grind out a proper answer. Of all the questions she could ask! “It is actually. It does make things easier.”

She chuckled a couple more times and he managed to take full stock of where he was and where he had to go next. Balder just wanted this day to be over so bad.

“Does that satisfy your feline curiosity?”

At her nod, he whistled loudly and a chorus of bleats answered him, the shuffling of hooves starting immediately. “I shall take my leave, then...Rosa.”

She stood to the side as the mass of sheep went by, speeding up as they crossed her eyesight as fidgety flock prey were prone to doing.

The whole flock was a couple of yards away from her with Balder at the rear. He was probably waiting for her to leave his line of sight before turning into his Beast Within and really putting a move on his fluffy charges.

He stopped abruptly and turned his head back, golden monocle glinting in the weak afternoon sun. “I’m Balder, by the way and you have my gratitude.”

“I shall use it wisely!” She said, setting two fingers to her forehead in a mock salute.

He chuckled and clicked his tongue at the sheep, finally leaving the valley and taking the noisy chatter of bleats with him.

That intersection of light and dark had gone well, all things considered

[wolfieonatypewriter]

Fandom: Balder from Bayonetta 2

Ok, guys like the Reason I decided to draw Balder in booty shorts is honestly convoluted, involves AUs and timeline hopping but this is the brainkid of two lesbians horsing around with fics and me just wanting to do something ridic different to combat an art slump.

Sometimes i get these feels after Bayo 2 where like Balder Be Happy For 5 Whole Minutes.

Thick thighs save lives (I shall draw the other side one of them days)

Pic had a ref and here’s some deets:

And a ridiculously good composition i zoomed in on by accident:

[wolfieonatypewriter]

Bayojeanne Week 6 - Jealousy

Word count: 3760

Summary: Bayonneta and Jeanne’s cat are at constant odds and who will get the upper hand?

A/N: Oh boy whats it like posting bayojeanne week things like, 2 months after the fact? A promise is a promise though so I am doing all of these. This one has a bit of a buy-in, it features Artemisa, their daughter from my other fic Barren Ground Blooms in Change (I guess you really only have to know it’s their kid, basically but feel free to read!) 

Jeanne had loved horses once upon a time. Lovely horses, big horses, light and springy horses. If it had hooves, a bad temper and could be saddled she liked it.

With the advent of modern technology and shackles that didn’t allow for the sort of long term care of an animal, she had found herself replacing her beloved horses with the roaring charm of motorcycles.

Angel Slayer was a bike all on it’s own category, extensively modified and of course, with more magic running through it than a young witch. That being said, sometimes the real world needed more finesse than what equated to a Mad Max chase gone off rails and for the times she needed to look like Ms. D’Arc, mild mannered teacher, other bikes had to do.

Her most recent purchase was a big and bulky touring bike with all the bells and whistles, in an attractive blue and black. It was a...compromise to get Cereza to ride with her and not keep getting detoured for her to flirt at humans.

For her cool teacher Jeanne days she had her tremendously fast streetfighter, slinky and aggressive that went from 0 to 60 in a staggering 2.6 seconds. By all standards, her mortal made pride and joy.

Only had one caveat. The passenger riding position.

Especially if that passenger was seven whole feet of legs, ass and overflowing charisma. 

To combat that, a sofa on two wheels was acquired and Jeanne couldn’t be happier. Umbra she was, true, but long travel with her streetfighter was like trying to eat angel flesh.

From her position on the curb, she gently buffed the gas tank while humming. It was a deliciously warm sunday and best of all, it was August which meant no kids to put up with (much as she loved them).

A raspy meow broke her peaceful groove and she set down the polish can and rag on the floor. A couple more faint sounds reached her and she followed it to the back of the alley.

“Little one, where are you?” She called in hopes the cat would keep on making noises.

The raspy meow intensified into a full blown distress call and Jeanne called forth her magic. She looked for any energy signature that could correspond to a cat and she found the source of the meow.

A drain grid had collapsed and a young cat was staring up at her, trying to climb the walls and constantly slipping. It was not yet an adult but no longer a small kitten either.

“ Oh no, I sure hope you’re not hurt.” She leaned down and reached into the maintenance shaft, dirtying up her work jeans and tank top beyond further usability.

Cat securely in her arms, she gave them a cursory inspection which revealed a he. He was skinny and was shivering harshly in her arms which made her worry intensify. Poor darling had to have been stuck for a considerable amount of time, if the dirt and mud on his cream and black fur was anything to go by.

“We’ll get you home, all cleaned up and maybe fed. How's that?”

Her only response was a little dust mote snuggling closer to her.

“Cereza, we have a guest today!”

Bayonetta poked her head back into the kitchen from the pool patio outside and gave her a puzzled look. “ A guest? I doubt you picked up Luka out of the goodness of your heart, darling so who do we have?”

Out of the two of them, she was much more likely to invite other people over for tea or something of the sort whilst Jeanne preferred to go out with her other friends.

“I found a dapper young gentleman in some dire straits on the Bettencourt’s ridiculous drain grid and plucked him from his predicament.” Said gentleman purred gently, eyes closing occasionally in clear exhaustion. “ I went in with him to Dr.Carter and she said he just needed some TLC. Not chipped either, a shame.”

“A cat? An actual cat?” Cereza crossed the threshold proper and looked at the muddy ball of fur in her arms. “Poor thing… Come on then, if we managed transdimentional toddler versions of ourselves, I’m sure he'll be in the best hands.”

Famous last words

His human was just the sweetest and incredibly well trained (if he could say so himself) but she wasn't the sharpest claw in the paw.

She kept willingly walking into the water spouting death trap, especially with the annoying one.

Did she not know that having no scent profile was *dangerous*? He thought he had broken her out of that habit with the departure of the other one but that had proven to be just temporary.

What if she went outside only wafting the pungent fragrances humans had, any other cat would not know who she belonged to.

They could even have the gall to approach and rub on her legs! It was a situation he could not stand for.

He trotted to the location of the watering hole, she had been there long enough and he had to improve her habits.

The annoying one noticed him first from her relatively higher position on the turbulent pond. The mating procedures, adorably goofy as they were among humans ( they didn't even rub facial fur), were well underway and she narrowed his eyes at him.

“Jeanne, you keep not closing the door and now the dust mote is here to cockblock again.”

He meowed, loud and articulate as he would to unruly kittens and got up on his legs to look at his human. They didn't understand much of their nuances so he had to employ baby talk.

“Heya Golem, what do you need hmm?” She rose up to lay her hand on his head and he stretched as best he could to meet it.

He purred and rubbed his head on her wet hand, getting it scratched by soft nails. “My treasure, did you just want some attention?”

Her colony mate ( who more often than not, stole his human’s attention) sighed and got up abruptly, spilling water over his immaculate and well groomed coat.

His angry yowl did nothing to faze her. This was why she was the annoying one.

“Just so you know, it's weird that you baby speak in french to the diminutive Auditio of Chastity"

He ran between her legs while she was trying to find a towel and swiped at her feet. As she turned to curse at him for clawing at her ankles, he was encased in a fluffy towel himself and lifted off the floor.

“My heart, don't be so mean to Cereza. She's just grumpy I’m giving you attention” His human had saved the annoying one from swift and brutal discipline but he found it hard to be mad when she was rubbing his now messy fur.

Snuggling into his human, he purred his agreement.

The sun on the outside was luxurious and he basked in it for the better part of the afternoon, as it was proper.

He was about to turn for the fifth and final time when the door opened with a near silent woosh that he was highly attuned to.

Oh, his human had to be home! Bolting upright, he meowed in her direction so she knew he was there.

The inside was pleasantly cool and he purred expecting to be greeted in the grabby manner humans usually did but no one came forward.

He sniffed the air, trying to figure out who could be in the colony but it revealed nothing but dust and their wafting herbal scents that lingered around the enclosed space.

When his cursory survey was finished, he was about to take a turn to bite his food when a low rumble sounded from somewhere he couldn't pinpoint.

Assailants! Intruders! His human could be in danger!

He arched his back and hissed in the general direction of the noise. The rumble increased in intensity and darted around everywhere.

Hissing as loud as he could, he held on steadfast under the onslaught of noise.

His bravery held out until the very moment a gargantuan beast landed in front of him and roared with all it's teeth.

It wasn't his most dignified moment, the jump up to the top of the tall fridge but he was clearly outmatched and hoped beyond hope his dear human would not be harmed.

“Cereza! Don't scare Golem like that!” His human was defending him from the beast and he marveled at the ingenuity and heart she had. “Oh little one, come here she cannot harm you”

He was scooped from the fridge, heart thundering and fur sticking all over the place and as the assailant bled into the annoying one, he snuggled into the warm bosom in a huff.

A cat of his status always chose to ignore the mocking noises humans made but he felt a smug satisfaction (something humans seemed to always do) at the scolding his human was giving her colony mate.

What better place to be, than purring away on a soft chest.

Bayonetta had a feeling...

No!

She was absolutely sure the young idiot Jeanne had picked up from the street about two months ago kept trying to sabotage her.

Why else would he monopolize Jeanne's attention? He was jealous, so *jealous* that she was there first.

Was she too proud to admit she was badly losing a war of wits to an obnoxiously adorable Siamese knockoff? Yes, definitely she was.

Golem was the featherless embodiment of Castitas, of that she was more than sure. Why else would he demand attention at the most idiotic of times?!

If she got home and Jeanne was already relaxing after a long day, usually by sitting on the seat that got most of the afternoon sun, she could well forget getting any sort of affection the little butt wouldn't oppose to.

Oh and Jeanne just coddled him to hell and back, softly murmuring to him in French and making fun of her for getting mad at a young adult cat.

His smug be-whiskered snout was highly unbearable.

She got him good right back ( oh the illusion charm over the pool board had been a riot even if Jeanne had yanked her ears for it) but invariably, her lover always sided with him and what was he good for? Shedding and being Lord Demandypants, that's what.

Part of her wanted to get an even more obnoxious pet just to annoy the living crap out of the discount-store siamese but there was a chance they would ally against her sex life and that wouldn't do.

“Jeanne?” She asked, her exasperation hitting an unprecedented, never before seen level.

“Yes?” She replied with a brush in hand, not even looking her way as the idiot purred and kneaded their (fucking) expensive duvet.

“Not to make this awkward but I was trying to seduce you, oh I don't know, a minute ago?” With a big measure of success too, her mistake had been to exit the room for a hot second to fetch the harness from the pool lounge.

Time the Cardinal Virtue Of Chastity had used to slink into the room and enthrall her previously very willing partner.

“It will literally just take a minute, Cereza. Last I heard, silicone erections lasted a long time.” The appreciative inspection Jeanne cast her way was the only thing that saved Golem from having a nasty encounter with her beast within.

“I promise I'll even put my darling little cream puff in quiet time.”

Bayonetta tossed her arms up in defeat and stood there awkwardly holding a dildo aloft with her crotch. “Fine but I expect compensation!”

Didn't save the furry brat from having his food eaten right in front of his face from her cat form but that, she kept to herself.

The littlest one was perhaps the greatest delight of his life. She was remarkably young, as humans measured things, and she was just now starting to realize her own strength.

Her ever increasing life skills usually came at the expense of his tail or ears. She was strong, far stronger than she looked but he was making good progress in teaching her manners.

Well, it was a struggle for her to not slobber on his tail but it was endearing. His human’s cub had been contributed by the annoying one but so far, that had yet to show, a fact that pleased him even further.

Said little one was sleeping on the other end of the crib like a kitten while he kept guard on the fluffy pillow nearby. She was hard pressed to do so and was about as nocturnal as a bat and he saw no end of her parents shuffling into the nesting room looking like shambling dogs in the middle of the night.

The late summer breeze wafted in from the open windows and he purred at the coolness of it on his face when whatever was pinned on them fell with a loud smash.

A low whimper started from the human kitten, most likely disturbed by the crashing object. Human made things were always so fragile. He snapped to high alert, inching closer to the little human and giving her hair some gentle grooming.

She quietened down and he nuzzled her soft head in reward, purring all the while which earned him an interested gurgle.

They were both about to settle down again when an odd light burst forth from the window. The little one snapped in its direction and she sniffled again.

He started grooming the fine human fur once more when the jangle of metal sounded on the ledge and he lifted his head.

A red beast cooed and twisted it's grotesque head like a toothy pigeon, hopping into the room with a curious spring to its step.

He growled loudly at the approaching intruder, daring it to come and further but it paid him no mind. His small kitten was crying in earnest as the metallic jangle sounded closer to the nest.

Too close.

Golem was a cat that knew a serious threat when he saw one. He had to protect his humans, had to keep them safe.

Yowling as loud as he could and puffing out his fur, he positioned himself with his ears pinned back between the little one and whatever mangled predator was in front of him.

It glanced in his direction at the noise but was undaunted in its path, leaving large burnt gauges on the floor.

With a massive paw, the thing was going to try to knock down the nest but Golem wasn't about to allow that.

With a decisive jump, he attacked the ugly dog thing with all his bravery.

Bayonetta heard her little girl cry and Golem making his usual mess of things, which had her reluctantly waking up.

Jeanne was out fulfilling her obligations as a witch, after all the ever present clock of their infernal fate never stopped ticking.

Umbra she was, the dark night and all that but she was also half Lumen and nothing quite replaced  the sun. Plus all the cutest mommy and me videos did not adequately prepare anyone for the event of shoving the littlest Umbra from a narrow pelvic canal.

A bright, heavenly light spilled the door to the nursery and her eyes snapped fully open, tiredness fully banished and she bolted into a full sprint.

As she yanked open the door, the Fairness was in the process of striking a flaming paw on the aggressively strong ward. A purple shimmer materialized into existence that rebuffed the Dominion back with a strong shove.

Most surprisingly, Golem had jumped quite literally to Artemisa’s rescue in a daring flight of courage. He had landed on the big head and scratched and bit at the staggered angel, making them shake their head.

Before she could do some real damage, the draconic angel bit on the young cats arm and tossed him to the ground. Oh, now they'd done it!

With several well placed summons and a harsh volley of bullets, they fell down into a mess of halos and angel bits she'd have to clean up. All in all, not too many damages to the nursery that they'd have to make up some random story to a contractor to fix it.

She knew Artemisa was safe albeit in a very, very bad mood but Golem had taken a hard hit trying to protect his charge. Her heart clenched at his arm injury, the bite deep and ugly.

“Come now, oh principality of courage. We'll tell Wes you got into a fight with a really big dog.” She scooped him up as gently as she was able and he meowed in distress in Artemisa’s direction. Bayonetta had to admit it took massive courage to stand up to a second sphere angel and even after getting beaten up, he tried to make sure the little one was safe.

Fortunately Dr.Carter did house calls and double fortunately, Jeanne would only hear about it when it was resolved. The cellphone conversation about this would not be easy.

The good doctor was baffled at his injuries and was going to take him to the practice for a closer look. She had to do x-rays but his soft tissue damage looked worse than what it was and she was able to stitch him up on site.

As Dr.Carter set him in the carrier, she looked at him straight in his good looking blue eyes and nodded.

Maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

"How many expensive cashmere pillows draped with Merino wool does a cat need?" Bayonetta wondered for the fifth time that week, as her most beloved kept piling on finery beneath the obnoxious albeit very daringly brave Walmart brand feline.

The answer right now was on 4 and she had to guess it wasn't the last she heard of it.

To Jeanne, he was the most lionhearted of beings on the planet and she nearly cried three times in Dr. Carter's office even though she assured her it was just a ding and nothing a little plaster and bandages wouldn't fix.

Showing her the clearly only hairline fractured arm on the X-ray had prompted a stricken but still very stoic pair of glistening eyes and even the good doctor was looking at Bayonetta with something that was bordering on panic.

Had he stayed overnight to be observed? Yes. Had Jeanne slept a singular wink? Of course she hadn't

He returned home the next day a little sluggish from his fashionable fentanyl patch but bright eyed and vivaciously blabby, a cute vet wrap bandage in a shocking bright pink and ruby red encasing his arm. Wes had mumbled something about the vet wrap matching her riding gear with a colour to her cheeks Bayonetta had ticked as a blush.

And now there they were, the unbearably smug cat, the little human on her front sling and herself, fielding status report calls every hour from one very worried witch. Her classes had to be going swimmingly that day.

All in all, she couldn't complain. He was willing to risk life and limb for her daughter and... They had reached a sort of understanding.

She reached over into the crib where he and his mountain of pillows currently resided and scritched his chin.

Huh, maybe he really wasn't all that bad after all.

( Maybe she could get Luka to toss himself in front of an Applause and Jeanne would make peace with him as well)

[wolfieonatypewriter]

Bayojeanne Week 5 - Alternate Universe

Word count: 4200

Summary: AU where Rosa and the former Elder die during the Clan Wars and the Jeanne and Bayo inherit the throne and the Left Eye. Set 30 years after the Clan Wars, at the onset of the Witch Hunts.

A/N: Boy oh boy did this one run the heck away from me! Clocking in at 4.2 k words, its kinda a behemoth. Enjoy!

The heavy wooden doors to her office slammed open and a harried young witch skid past the antechamber and almost into her meticulously messy desk.

Jeanne did not bother to look up from her parchment, knowing full well that Tzipora needed at least a minute to catch her breath. She was their fastest courier by a long stretch and while Jeanne fully appreciated her service, the young girl sounded and moved like a stampede of draft horses.

She had heard her climbing up the stairs a long while before she barreled through the doors in a flurry of huffing breaths and sweat.

“Elder, el-” Her heavy intakes of air kept cutting off what seemed to be an important message she wanted to hear in full, all at once.

“Take your time, Tzipora, I doubt the message will expire in the time it takes for you to catch your breath.”

Nodding, the girl bent down and leaned on her thighs with a heave that left her somewhat concerned she was going to throw up on her nice rug.

“The Left Eye has returned, mistress, and she requests you meet her without delay.” Jeanne’s eyes turned hard and the courier straightened her back in response. If she was asking her to meet up when she hadn’t even crossed the valley into Vigrid proper then she could only bring grave news.

“Tell my wife to meet me by the waterfall grove, I’ll be waiting.” Tzipora looked at her with a measure of uncertainty, unsure if that was all the information she was required to carry.

Jeanne, with a long practiced patience she had acquired through her decades of teaching and ruling, leveled a smooth reply towards her even though her anxiety was twisting itself into harsh knots. “Go, Cereza will know what to do with that information worry not.”

She bobbed her head up and down with vigor, her black hair shaking about and she spun around like Jubileus herself was on her heels. In the antechamber, a purple and golden leopard materialized into existence that knocked the priceless coat hanger her sisters across the Atlantic had gifted to her on her last trip.

Rubbing her forehead in frustration, the esteemed Elder of the Umbra Witches sat down her report on the relief efforts coming from the imperial centers in Ubinu. The witches hailing from Edo were among their most affluent members but they had been quick to coordinate and assist in a large part of the rebuilding efforts post Clan Wars.

Much was still to be done and now, she was sure to be on the cusp of receiving news that she would not like to hear.

With a resolute sigh, she fished Angel Slayer from its lofty perch on the wall and walked out of her inner sanctum.

“Impeccably late as always, Cereza” She commented when she heard the rustle of foliage from behind her comfortable seat on the sandy bank of the waterfall.

“I’ve heard it called fashionably late, dearest, I much prefer that.”

Cereza sat down next to her and offered her a small smile that didn’t quite reach the expressive blue eyes with bags Jeanne hadn’t seen so dark or so pronounced since the wars.

Since the fateful day the previous Left Eye of Darkness had sacrificed herself to stop a storm of summoned Auditio from crashing into the youth halls. Rosa had died to protect the future of those who had denied her a present and the Umbra hadn’t deserved her. And most of all, Cereza hadn't deserved to see it.

“I’m not going to like this, am I?”

She set her mouth in a grim line and shook her head, stretching her left hand towards Jeanne.

The other witch quickly entwined her hand with Cereza’s and even after all of these years, the glimpse of the simple gold band made her heart lighter. They had fought harder than most for the right to be together, to be accepted as the Elder and as the Left Eye of Darkness and to be able to ride off together into the sunset.

However, in joy forever after resided in children’s tales and reality rarely matched up with such a fanciful notion.

“There’s something brewing that’s bigger than the Clan Wars ever were. I’ve chased after reports and local leaders, they are all saying the same thing and they all stand by it.”

Witches missing, smaller compounds raided and attacks too deliberate to be random. It wasn’t the first time such things had crossed her desk and Jeanne had sent the person best suited to find out what was happening.

Now she had. Fuck.

“What is your take on it?” She demanded, immediately regretting the bite in her words but to her luck her wife took it in stride, a routine honed by nearly half a century of companionship.

“I’ve not a singular doubt about it, there is a disturbance so large looming on the horizon the treasured left eye feels like it’s going to burn right out of my skull.” Said eye obliged their conversation by pulsing with a near blinding intensity and Cereza flinched like she’d been stabbed. “There it is, if you had any doubts.”

Banging her hand over her eye socket like she was trying to keep no more than an ornery headache at bay, she continued.

“Beyond that, the scope is massive. Humans have been spurred into a frenzy, nothing has gone dark yet but we’ve suffered loses.” She had received those reports with a heavy heart as well. Two girls had gone missing in the kingdom of Joseon and at least five torture devices had been found scattered around Mu'a. Enough for concerns but not enough for certainty, their relationship with mortals had always been respectful coldness at best but things were changing. “Small, for now. But I know, deep in my bones it's a giant wave travelling towards the coast.”

It was certainly not the Lumen working against them but then the question remained. Why now and how were humans all over the world getting the same idea?

Cereza's impressions were more or less always spot on and if she was worried like this, then it meant they could not afford to stand idle.

“We have to call the Umbra to the ancient grounds and ready ourselves to go to war”

Cereza frowned and twisted her torso to look at her wife straight on. “You cannot go to war with all of the world, Jeanne, it’s folly.”

She punched the sand in frustration and growled, primal and loud. Her beast within was a thin breadth away from her skin and for a moment she entertained the thought of freeing herself into the mindlessness of her beast form. “All of the world has already gone to war on us! What do you want me to do? Continue with diplomatic overtures that have been consistently failing for the 30 years I’ve been the Elder?”

She glared right back with righteous fury, teeth bared in a show of frustrated, spinless aggression. “To delay action is to let our sisters be murdered and I will not stand for that as long as I draw breath.”

They stared at each other, gazes hard and closed off. It wasn’t usual that they disagreed on diplomatic matters, they were a terrifyingly united and powerful front and, as such, were routinely accused of less than savory political associations. If Cereza was being honest, she didn’t disagree with Jeanne, at least not entirely.

There was something wrong, something utterly and unstoppably vicious was looming on the horizon and Cereza had every singular feeling attuned to wrong about this. This wasn’t just a temporary hiccup, there was a balance shifting that was akin to the rumble of snow before a deadly avalanche.

She bit her lower lip in worry and yielded to Jeanne, looking away for a moment. The Left Eye bit like a bolt of thunder and lit her iris with an otherworldly red glow, making Jeanne’s easily provoked temper melt away in caring concern.

“Be careful, please. The Clan Wars were too close, for all of us. How many times did you evade death by sheer, dumb luck?”

Too many times to count. “I can’t lose you Jeanne. To either war, politics or just to your own bull-headed protective instinct. Tread lightly and treat this as if Jubileus themself is trying to come down for a not so friendly conversation.”

Silence descended like an oppressive blanket, cloying all other feelings in a haze of fear. The sun was starting to set on their little meeting spot, the secluded beach at the base of a small waterfall. It was an ancient haunt of theirs when they could not been seen with each other and running away to kiss was still a vital requirement.

In the grand span of an Umbran lifetime, it had been yesterday but Jeanne felt their wedding, an event so extravagant and elaborate it had installed a party that had lasted half of a month, had been an insurmountable time ago.

Were the years of strife taking such a toll on her? They had inherited a broken world and it was up to them to patch it as best as they could but did that really mean all good things were eroding away and she was powerless to stop them?

Cereza was staring off into the streaming water with a slightly pinched face, most likely trying to fight off the lancing pain in her head or digesting what had to be done.

Getting up, she settled herself behind Cereza, entwining their legs and letting her lean back into her front.

She poked the side of her neck which caused her to look back a bit before removing the neck and shoulder portion of her Umbran formal. Jeanne yanked her gloves off and rolled the dense muscles in her hands with precise yet soothing motions, causing her to draw out a long, low moan.

“Cereza, can I ask you something?” At this point, she was essentially letting the weight of her upper body rest on Jeanne's strong hands and she managed a nod.

“If it's for my hand in matrimony, you are quite late. I fear I am taken, darling.” she replied, wiggling her left hand and the nondescript gold band with it. Jeanne chuckled, exhausted and high strung still but just getting something out of her put a smile on her face.

“Do you regret”, she paused, taken with a sudden hesitation her public and political persona never, ever showed. “Do you regret not having any daughters?”

Cereza stilled, suddenly going back to supporting her own weight with her torso and she nearly backtracked all of her words.

It wasn't as if they hadn't, Sheba willing, centuries to have a whole legion of kids to dote on but there was something inside her chest that triggered an uncomfortable sense of finality. And she knew Cereza had to be feeling that times a hundred, her tuning to the finer workings of the Trinity was unparalleled.

“I don't know… there was never a right time for it, was there? I suppose that people find ways to make time but our situation has been so uncertain. A little girl would most likely grow up with us lurking on the edges of her life.”

They had discussed children, of course, several times over the years and they had both agreed that the number one condition was that she would grow up with both of them there, present and accounted for. Such a time had never quite come to pass.

“Though I think that some version of us, out there in the great existence of things, has managed such a thing and they are probably very happy about it.”

To anyone else and from anyone else, it would have sounded like an empty comfort. However, Jeanne found herself smiling at those unlikely words. If Cereza, the powerful Left Eye Of Creation, thought so, then she would entertain the notion.

“Though, we did get close a couple of times.” Jeanne remarked, kissing along her broad shoulders with the occasional stop for a teasing bite. Cereza leaned back again, melting into her caresses.

Not due to any will on their part, mind, but such things were bound to happen with two magical powerhouses. All that was needed was a strong full moon, physiological processes that bypassed magic control and a pinch of the literal dark powers of the god of their realm made Umbra.

For something that usually needed a concerted effort and a more or less complex ritual, they had accidentally started (and more than started…) it enough times to know it was easier than it looked.

Cereza moved her head to the side to give her better access, moaning softly at the nips that were turning harder. “It's the new moon now, I think we are more or less in the clear.”

She got up and turned to Jeanne, hips cocking with a swagger she often used to great effect. “I think we could have some fun, before the sky crashes on our heads.”

Jeanne blinked and looked around at the thick forest around them, stopping to look back at her wife. She was staring at her like she was good enough to eat and there they were.

Alone.

Responsibilities, chores, work were leagues away on Luna.

She laughed, clear and loud like she was still a young, unworried princess and Cereza winked at her. “How about you join me?”

She started walking backwards into the water, her formal disappearing with each step.

Jeanne got up, intent on stopping her from pulling one of her usual stunts like getting buck naked and swimming where certainly other young witches were lurking about. “This isn't nearly as secluded as you think it is!”

Cereza reached forward and pulled her close, continuing her walk towards the crystalline pond. “Pretend we are twenty.” She kissed her, long and unhurriedly and Jeanne had not realized how starving she was for this, for a break. “And that for tonight, it's just you and me.”

The water was warm like the encroaching Iberian night around them and they had progressed far enough it was level with their ribs.

Cereza's formal was long gone, instead she exposed her tan skin and well defined muscles to the relative darkness of the new moon. Jeanne found herself slowly calling her own robe out of existence as her breaths grew heavier at the sight before her.

“I think...I think there are still Umbran matters you haven't been taught, Cereza.”

The witch in question grinned at her successful gambit and at the returning shine in Jeanne's beautiful eyes, letting her mouth be taken with an intensity she too had been longing for far longer than she had realized.

If any other Umbra was watching, well they’d show them how it was done.

Jeanne had never believed she’d see the day where an Auditio flew directly from Laguna not encased in shimmering peacock feathers but in their full, unchained and monstrous glory.

As Fortitudo ripped the clocktower to pieces, taking one of the most precious symbols of Umbran power with it, she desperately wished she had remained ignorant.

It had been like an earthquake, a terrible stillness that had given way to an upset so large they hadn't even managed to scramble a counter-offensive.

And now came the insurmountable wave that would wash away the remains of the Umbran.

72 hours since the first report landed on her desk. First Mēxihco-Tenōchtitlan, then Marka, Samarkand, Vijayanagara, followed by all of their other compounds, enclaves and communities far and wide.

In less than a week, the ancient and powerful network of the Umbra Witches had been reduced to nothing. Jeanne didn't know if there was anyone left alive outside of Crescent Valley but having read the news of swift calamity that the reports had transmitted...

She didn't hold much faith.

Angels poured from every corner of Luna, a defile so great she hardly believed she was bearing witness to it and she knew the humans were just barely being held at bay by their fortifications. Every single battle had been lost and now the axe was about to swing one final time.

The chaos was unsalvageable and her sisters had since decided unilaterally, as was expected by a Clan of strong willed and independent individuals, that Luna was their home and all but ordered her to let them choose to defend it.

“So be it.” She had declared to a forum of bedraggled witches all trying  to talk over each  other. “Then we fight to write in the annals of history that when Paradiso descended on us.” It had probably been her last rousing speech, all things considered.

“The Umbra Witches fought to the last for their home!” She had pulled her sabre from its sheath, raising it as high as she could and the crowd had erupted in cheers and gunshots.

She would have usually considered it hollow populism, barren of solutions and nothing more than empty words but this was their last stand. The least she could do was given them all a poetic ending.

The density of Laguna was becoming impossible to navigate the further she progressed into the compound but she, herself, was now on a single minded mission to find Cereza in the middle of all the chaos.

The children and those who could not fight had left Luna at the first sign of trouble but Sheba knew what their fate had been. Had she sent them all like lambs to slaughter or had she afforded them the chance to hide.

An Affinity jumped up from the growing mass of flames and angels and had nearly torn off her head and she forced herself to focus on the now rather then her mounting regrets. She had to get to Cereza, nothing else mattered.

After all was said and done, the Elder lived to protect her Clan and that meant being the highest protector of the Left Eye. She had done all she could for her sisters, for her friends and acolytes and students. Now it was time to undertake her ultimate responsibility.

Where could she be...they had separated after the clock exploded but Cereza had to be in the compound proper still. Wrangling away from fights, she kept to the edges of the hallowed grounds and ghosted through long forgotten passages she and Cereza had explored in their youth.

Jeanne managed to drag her way near the throne room with no new clues as to where she could be when a bright light shone through the heavy doors. She kicked them open with a bang and her heart sighed in flooding relief.

Cereza looked like a vengeful demon as a mass of bullets and summons accosted the two pairs of Gracious and Glorious that had clearly been sent after her.

The ground was littered with corpses and the commotion beyond the gate of rabid humans was nearly deafening but Jeanne pressed on.

No doubt that she was keeping them at bay but they were wearing her down enough her exertion was noticed. Before they had time to realize she had entered, she summoned Madama Styx right into the fray.

Cereza looked at her in clear surprise but also renewed purpose as she joined up with Jeanne in a deadly battle formation perfected through decades of fights.

Her most beloved was tired and hurt and Jeanne was as well but they soon strangled the First Sphere Angels back to Paradiso.

Panting harshly, Cereza looked at her with worried eyes. “Jeanne...Jeanne! Are you ok, why are you here?!”

“I'm here for you, I'm here to keep you safe.” Jeanne responded and she opened her mouth to protest but she grabbed her face and kissed her, tasting the soot and sweat on her lips but effectively cutting her off. “ Don't argue, it's my duty as the Elder and as your wife to keep you safe.”

Cereza chafed under the protection, under her immense importance, under the need for every Umbra from here to the literal moon to keep her safe. “And as your wife, it's my duty to keep you safe!”

Jeanne shook her head and opened her mouth to disagree right back but she was forced to swallow some of her own medicine when Cereza planted a searing kissing on her lips. “Besides that, I know why they are here now and what the moon’s blessing they want.”

She frowned despite the tangible relief at having found Cereza more or less safe and sound. And then it hit her like a ton of rocks.

“They want the Left Eye! They want you…”

Cereza nodded, grinding her teeth together. Her sisters were dead because of her, because the feathered fucks wanted to use her for something.

“Those people out there are collaterals! They are fodder for Laguna to throw at-”

The crowd outside roared louder than ever before and a loud bang sounded against the sturdy outer door. Jeanne cursed loudly and steeled herself. Their time was running out and running out fast.

“Cereza, I l-”

“Jeanne, listen to me! They want the Left Eye to resurrect Jubileus! We have to stop them, stop this madness, do something!”

At her words, she halted and stared at Cereza with abject surprise.

The Festival of Resurrection, that's what the angels wanted and consequently why they seemed bent on retrieving her beloved Cereza.

Frenzied humans would be inside within the day and she was sure they’d never leave anyone alive. Mankind was a feeble rod but even weak sticks could be unbreakable given enough numbers.

“Yes, we do.” She accepted what she needed to do with an uncharacteristic calm, like the world had been blanketed in silence and only the correct path remained dead ahead.

Cereza cocked her head at her and frowned. “What has gotten into you?”

She was still for a long moment, trying to commit to memory her truest friend, her lover, her wife, her Umbran gem. Fate hadn't been kind to them, right from the start but they had managed their place in the grand scheme of things.

“Jeanne? You’re worrying me, we’re running out of time. We need to do something.”

Jeanne approached her slowly, steps reverent and deliberate. Cereza stayed in place, worry increasing with each clack of the gun heels on the ancient stone floor and, finally, a gloved hand cupped her face softly.

“Cereza, there is nothing to be done but make sure they won’t find you.” It sounded sensible, reasonable.

And utterly fucking wrong.

“What?! If you think you’re going to squirrel me away in some...what, some far off hole somewhere or shove me in stasis while all of my sisters, all of my world collapses again”, she roared at Jeanne’s calm demeanour and small, resigned smile. “You are dead wrong!”

The crashing of a battering ram intensified for a moment and they both looked in it’s direction. How long did they still have?

“Our treasured Left Eye…” She broke her placid composure, her voice laden with regret and a bitter finality that was impossible to hide as she got close enough to touch their foreheads.“My treasured Left eye shall never fall into the hands of another.”

The gem in the middle of Cereza’s watch glowed like fire in the faint light of the room, a symbol of commitment among their people, as good as any modern ring. It was a powerful charm, a rare stone that became more powerful the longer it was in contact with the witch.

It was sacrosanct and to taint it, a sacrilege.

“Jeanne n-”

The dagger was upon the charm with the strength of a bullet and her world turned to black.

FATHER

The feathered flock was dealt with, leaving a mess of gore behind that mingled with the remains of whoever had woken her up and had swiftly been torn to pieces by her previous attackers.

A young child was knocked out nearby, she picked him up and was relieved to not see any injuries.

She looked around but there were no clues to be found, to her location, identity or even purpose. A sort of structure peeked from behind the trees.Well, that direction was as good as any.

She walked.

“Someone left something for your here, Bayonetta.”

The small plastic bag clinked on the counter and she picked it up, curiosity getting the better of her. After all, who would find Rodin and leave something for her to fetch?

“A couple of years topside and you’ve already admirers asking for your hand.” The sound of the ice slushing inside the shaker accompanied his joke as she inspected the small parcel closer.

A ring. Gold and worn, it looked positively ancient in Rodin’s shitty overhead lights. She frowned and turned her gaze to the mysterious proprietor, whose only response was a nearly imperceptible smirk.

Whoever had put the band on her left hand, had just handed her its pair.

[wolfieonatypewriter]

Bayojeanne Week 7 - Dancing With You

Fandom: Bayonetta

Ship: Bayonetta/Jeanne

Summary: The world upstairs was filled with music and dancing witches but Cereza's world had been lit with something altogether much more special.

A/N: Fact of life: this fic has been written for 3 years and it has a lot of other friends sitting in my files, for reasons I cannot comprehend. The missing prompts are furiously being written and I *really* wanna post up my AU prompt today. So here goes prompt 7, hope you like!

There was a faint sound that filtered through the upper levels into the moonlit training room down below. The skylight was the only source of illumination at that hour, the torches had long since been put out and the full moon provided plenty of light into the ring.

If Cereza strained, she could almost hear the music of the Winter Ball and imagine the worthy denizens of their home as they danced and twirled with their respective partners. The joy and laughter upstairs must have been something amazing to see.

She slumped further down the pillar she was standing on, the ice cold ground hitting her legs suddenly and making her flinch a little.

It was cold like Inferno and her breath misted, settling uncomfortably on her lungs. At fifteen years of age, she had enough magic in her that she most likely wouldn’t get sick but when she was younger, her birthday always meant sickness and fever.

Cereza, not for the first time, wondered what would be like if she was allowed to attend all the balls, dances and nice things the witches did.

Jeanne tried to describe them as best as she could, finding her books with illustrations of glittering coats and flowing dresses but she was sure the reality had to be so much more stunning.

It was a silly thought, that she would ever be able to go to such an event but didn't stop her from dreaming of attending.

Dreaming of going down the crystal steps Jeanne talked about, being announced to the whole room, like she mattered, like she was important and everyone would stare in awe at her during her descend.

She’d meet her partner, Jeanne of course, in a stunning midnight blue dress or perhaps a finely tailored suit and just...dance the night away. At the end of it, like in mummy’s stories, she’d lead her out into the gardens and maybe even finally find the courage to kiss her under the moonlight.

She snorted in self pity and hugged herself closer. Dreams were nice but they did nothing to fix her more pressing issues, like winter was coming into full swing and the keeper of the laundry room was paying way too much attention lately. If they’d just give her the old things…

She sighed and rubbed her arms, the chill making her back contract painfully. She'd have to fashion herself a new sweater with the old covers she had found the other day or else she’d freeze in the coming months.

That’s what she got for taking time from doing clothes upkeep to train with Jeanne but their afternoon had been so good. Except when Jeanne had accidentally grabbed her boob to push her away and they both had stumbled into each other which had led to lots of awkward apologies.

Maybe she should go see her mother, at least that way she'd forget the cold for a bit and maybe mummy would tell her of the balls she used to go to.

The sound of heeled footsteps, light but decisive and commanding, the cadence of someone who knew exactly where they wanted to go broke the distant sounds of music and Cereza panicked.

Who on Paradiso would be down here at this hour?! If they caught her in here again, they’d shove inside a cell for who knew how many days. Upside of that would be actual decent meals guaranteed three times a day but the scorn and hate were too much for her and also, most importantly, no Jeanne.

She was halfway through her bolt hole, a well hidden latch that led to the sewers, when a very familiar and rather welcome voice called out.

"Cereza? You here?" Jeanne said, striding in all the glory of the heir to the throne and Cereza was breathless at the scene.

Her hair was down in a loose braid, glittering jewels and gold woven in to make it look like she was sparkling all on its own and the red silk dress fit her so well, layers of white and golden ribbons adorning the cloth so perfectly Cereza couldn't but think of her as the most beautiful girl she had ever seen.

"Yeah...you kinda scared me. I was thinking it was one of the guards." She approached her friend and Jeanne looked so ridiculously out of context in the dimly lit training room, a beautiful princess adorned with the most precious jewels, ready to grace the masses with her presence, it was almost a sin.

Though Cereza, lowly pariah whose clothes were mostly all patches, was so very glad she was there.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I just thought..." Jeanne blushed a bit and looked down, kicking some dirt around bashfully. "Just thought the party was not the same without you." She smiled at her and Cereza’s heart sped up

Oh… Had the guest of honor of the most important social event of the year just sneak away to be with her?

"So I decided to mix them both. You and the party." With those words, she fished a small blue gem from her Umbran watch and laid it over her palm.

Pouring a little magic into it, the jewel levitated into life and a soft melody started playing. Cereza instantly recognized the tune but her joy was short lived when a gloved hand extended her way.

"I, er, I don't know how to dance and I've no clothes and..." Jeanne shook her head and chuckled, approaching her slowly and laying her hand on the small of Cereza's back. "...my butt is cold" She finished lamely, her cheeks burning a bright red at their closeness but she didn’t fight her friend’s invitation for a dance.

"That is most inconvenient. Maybe a spot of dancing will fix points one and three?" And before Cereza knew it she was being led around the circle with only minimal clumsiness on her end, though certainly she owed that to the expert dancer seeing her through the paces and not any inherent talents on her end.

After a while, she had gotten the hang of about part of the rhythm, enough that she wouldn’t be too foolish at it. All of her newly gained skills evaporated and she fumbled again when Jeanne brought her that much closer to her body, the distance between them now pretty much nonexistent.

Wow, up close her lips had the most attractive shade of red and Cereza found she couldn’t stop looking at them. She wondered how she had failed to notice how pretty Jeanne's lips were up until that very moment.

They looked so soft and silky and all she wanted to do was lean in and see if they actually felt like that too...

A boom cracked in the night and the teens looked up, spell seemingly broken. A shower of glittering fireworks filtered through the skylight, signaling midnight.

"Seems we've danced the night away, just like in the books." Jeanne said in a husky whisper, breaking their silence and biting her lower lip as she looked into Cereza’s blue eyes.

It was basically now or never.

"This was so much fun. I didn't even tell you, you look beautiful...I mean! You are always beautiful but that cleavage, wait no the necklace...the necklace goes well with the dress..." Cereza would have done better headbutting the Elder at that moment instead of opening her stupid, dumb mouth.

Before she could further embarrass herself, a soft pair of lips were on hers and all rational thought fled her that very second.

It was fleeting and altogether too short, no more than closed eyes and a press but it left them both slightly out of breath.

"Thank you. I picked it out just for you."

They were a hundred times softer and silkier than they looked.

In the cells nearby, Rosa smiled softly.

Her little Cerecita was growing up.

[wolfieonatypewriter]

Bayojeanne Week 4 - Death

Fandom: Bayonetta

Ship: Bayonetta/Jeanne

Summary: Things in her life are fleeting and Jeanne fears the day she will leave the eye of the hurricane once again.

A/N: I have Prompt 3 - Amnesia in the backburner but I will publish it eventually! pinky promise *sips late Starbucks*

“Just for reference, darling, I can hear you think from here.”

The low, sleepy mumble made Jeanne look to her right ( to where most of the covers usually resided) and she quirked her eyebrow at her lover. Cereza rubbed at her eyes and felt around the nightstand for her glasses, accidentally dropping them under the bed.

“Fuck on a stick.” She grumbled, digging herself out of her dragon hoard of quilts and leaning over her side of the bed.

Jeanne kept silent as Bayonetta, graceful as a drunk ostrich, tried to retrieve her precious glasses. It wasn't going too successfully, judging by the flailing and muted curses coming from her beloved partner.

With a triumphant grunt, she settled back on the bed and continued smoothly. “What has you up quite so late?”

Jeanne laid her arms behind her head and took a deep, steadying breath. “I’m sorry, I was not aware my absolute immobility and silence were quite so disturbing.”

Cereza snaked an arm around her naked midsection, which prompted an appreciative flexing of abs, and nuzzled against her clavicle. “But you see, it is because by this hour you're usually your pretzel ballerina sleeping self all over my side.”

“It's where the covers are, Cereza” She deadpanned, kissing her short hair to smooth over any ruffled feathers. She had learned to manage but, no matter the covers, they were definitely not on top of her ever.

“Regardless”, she waved airily and extended her arm to poke at her shoulder. “You sleep about as well as a cat on caffeine but this is odd even for you.”

Her tone turned soft and tender and she looked up at Jeanne's exhausted eyes with gentle worry.“Tell me what's wrong”

“I was just...thinking.” Bayonetta resisted the urge to sigh with worry but she only managed to divert it to a strong exhale through her nose. She knew as well as she knew herself that thinking with Jeanne always meant trouble, more so if it made her stare at the ceiling for hours on end on a school night.

“What were you spinning around obsessively on that smart head of yours?”

The silence stretched on for several seconds more and Bayonetta was about to lift herself up to look at Jeanne when a calloused hand threaded on her hair with the gentlest of touches, moving talented fingers to massage her scalp softly.

“About death and...about dying and how that throws our unbelievably lucky reunion to shit.”

In truth, it was something she always worried about, more or less every hour of every day with varying intensity. She hadn't been counting on making it this long, worse she hadn't been wired to make it so far.

She had been heir to the clan, was technically the Elder now, with no clan or court but one nonetheless. It was part of her core makeup to put the safety of others well before herself and it was the job of the Elder to make sure hers was the least important life.

The Clan, their culture, her sisters had to be protected at all costs and her life was a paltry sum compared to it.

Nothing had changed really, just the object of her priorities. Though, in all fairness she had always prioritised Cereza (perhaps more than she should) because nothing made her angrier than the Umbran injustice and cruelty towards someone who had not had any control of her circumstances.

“I’ve heard that does tend to happen” she replied in attempt to keep the mood as light as possible, nipping slightly at the hard muscle underneath her cheek which earned her another lingering kiss to her head.

“I was not supposed to be here.” Was the blunt follow-up, her tone worryingly truthful and absolutely terrified.

Cereza was at an impasse, caught in a situation so delicate approaching it badly would drive Jeanne further into whatever she was struggling with. Against all of her instincts of protectiveness that demanded she comfort her and stop her from feeling bad,  she remained quiet and waited for further explanation.

“I was sure the Clan Wars would be it for me but they weren't, I was sure the hunts would definitely be it for me and then…”

She ground her teeth together in helpless frustration.”They weren't! But everything was ruined and you were no longer around and I… I did what I could, which ended in a failure I was sure would kill me.”

Bayonetta held her close, Jeanne's heavy breathing rattling against her cheek.

“The world was at it's literal end, reality as we knew it was about to be destroyed and I gave my life as forfeit.” She finished, a note of bitterness colouring her voice and echoing into the darkness of the night.

The odds were ever stacked against and still, she had come out the other end alive time and time again. She wasn't counting on it, had no plan for freedom, for life, for joy?

Those had been foreign concepts for centuries and now, she was out in the big open pasture and she had no clue what to do.

Cereza listened and pondered on her words carefully. She wanted to intervene on that self destructive rant, wanted to hold her close and kiss her softly and tell her all was alright.

But was that really what she needed?

“What bothers you the most, then...is it that you think you're on borrowed time.” She started, taking a leap of faith so valiant her heart hammered on her throat. It felt like reasoning with a spooked fawn, any odd movement would send her bolting into the wilderness“ Or that you have no clue what to do with relative stability?”

The hand on her hair massaged her scalp with increasingly more absent-minded movements till it stilled to a slow scratch.

Another long sigh that displaced her head still laying on her chest. “I keep waiting for the hammer to fall for the last time. I feel I've ran out of luck and opportunities, that all my good fortune was spent up just coming back from all of that.”

And now that she had Cereza, a home, a life that was her own. How long till that was snatched away from her? “I love you, so much... being here, now is absolutely not what I was expecting would happen.”

Bayonetta got up from the soft perch on her chest, her heart clenching at those words. There was no mistaking the utter sincerity of them and it skyrocketed her worries right into the redline.

“But I’m here and darling, let me inform you, you’re definitely stuck with me now.” She countered, running the back of her hand on her jaw with utmost tenderness. “You haven’t used up all the good things in life to stay alive, if anything you have earned them in triplicate.”

Jeanne furrowed her brows at her words, the notion sitting with an uncomfortable drop on her chest.

”You’ve been through so much, sacrificed everything for all of us, for me in particular. You get to reap those rewards.” She leaned in for a soft kiss, parting slightly to look into the stormy grey eyes of her somewhat decidedly better half. “I love you too and I’ll be here to remind you you gave so much, now you get to receive.”

Her words were gentle and uplifting but she couldn’t help thinking that all of the good things in her life were inevitably snatched away. Her life had a long track record of doing that but underneath it all, that notion started feeling less uncomfortable.

Receiving for once seemed like a positive thing to look forward to.

“As for not knowing what to do with yourself without purpose, take it from someone who has spent two decades adrift at sea” She twirled her index in the air, an old sign of theirs for Jeanne to lay down on her stomach. “The world is your oyster and you get to choose how you want to go about it.”

Jeanne did as she asked with a modicum of hesitancy, probably thinking the more good things she had the closer she was to having it all stripped away again. She swiftly straddled her narrow hips and bent down to kiss her shoulders, not leaving any space for her to change her mind. “Do what you want to do and you’re always going to be doing there right thing, love.”

Could it really be that simple? Exhaustion was minutes away from steamrolling her into a puddle of mush and Cereza’s heavenly, unfairly talented hands were making quick work of the tension on her back.

She managed a somewhat whiny but half way coherent agreement and Bayonetta chuckled, leaning down fully over her strong back to whisper in her ear. “You’re the best thing in this Trinity of Realities, darling, and I want you by my side for the duration, ok?”

Jeanne finally relented and nodded, twisting around to yank her lover down for a long hard kiss. “Ok, I think I can try that.”

Life wasn’t perfect, far from it, nor was this issue so neatly resolved as it would on a feel-good sitcom.

But

It was a start.  

[wolfieonatypewriter]

Bayojeanne Week 2 - Argument

Fandom: Bayonetta

Ship: Bayonetta/Jeanne

Summary: Cat charms for good luck, she had once said but where was her good luck now?

A/N: *arrives late with starbucks* I am sorry but this got waaaayyy away from me!

The loud, methodical clack of the gun heels sounded like thunder in the empty grand amphitheatre of Ithavol tower.

“Oh Jeanne, I am always in awe of your obedience”

She stopped dead in front of him, staring with mindless passivity at the tall Lumen. A part of her wondered why she did so, wasn't that quite odd for her?

Balder chuckled and turned his back on her to inspect the oppressive model of the Trinity of Realities that dominated the room. A thought buzzed insistently in the back of her head that he should not be so arrogant as to turn his back on her.

But why?

She looked down at her beloved set of guns as he kept pacing about, heels clacking almost as loud as hers had a minute ago.

“My little pets tell me you're a terrible team player, Jeanne. Why is that? Could it be your Umbra side shining through, your kind has always been incapable of working together after all.”

He circled her, face still amiable and smile firmly in place despite the ill concealed venom of his words.

“Or is it a personal quirk, like your many many others? Your memories are rife with anger, anxiety and a dazzling spectacle of other less than savory things.”

Her eyes followed his motions around her and she glanced down at the dangling cat charms of her guns. Those were special, for reasons that she could not recall but the last time an angel had gotten into their heads to toy with the small charms, they were swiftly beheaded.

“I find it quite amusing how this works, that you're so wily while away from me but not even a peep here. Where is the ferocious hunter, the legendary Jeanne d'Arc that so valiantly defended her clan, hmm?”

Without hesitation or any fear, he yanked out one of her guns and chucked it in the air like a juggler's ball, just to catch it back again and repeat the motion.

“Tell me you can feel it too!” He kept tossing her gun as if it was worth no more than a cheap human trinket and the grating feeling intensified like a sea at the onset of a storm.“We are on the cusp of the Festival of Resurrection and I could not be happier!”

“Well…” Balder halted his careless tossing, catching the priceless weapon with expert dexterity and leveled it at her forehead. “ Except for one little detail, isn't that right?”

The cool metal touched her forehead with the barest of pressure. She took no heed of his posturing and threats (were they really that empty?), instead focusing on the still swinging charm hanging from the hold.

Balder regarded her with insufferable haughtiness over the barrel of her beloved weapon still resting in the square center of her forehead.

“No matter,” the shot would open a gaping hole in her forehead that would land her in eternal damnation faster than she could blink but the imminent danger of it all failed to register. “My dear, sweet child will show up when we need her I’m sure. And when that happens, I want you to welcome my darling Cereza back.”

Cereza

The plume of the kitty hat was barely in her line of sight but it's blue and bright colours seemed to attract her full attention. The charms the charms the charms

Cereza?

She blinked hard as the gun finally drew away, the droning of the sage a subtle backdrop to the building inferno in her head.

Cereza

“Oh?” Something was happening around her, with the sage, with the room but she missed it completely. What had he said? What did that mean. “Did I say the magic words, Ali Baba? Iftaḥ yā simsim?”

Cereza!

“Hello, Jeanne!” Cereza said, while skipping closer to her friend. The halls were blissfully deserted at that time and no one seemed to be inclined to give them any grief on their way to the more secluded sections of the Grand Library. “Aww, you kept the kitty charm I gave you!”

“Good morning, Cereza. Of course I did, you gave it to me” She replied, giving her companion a small smile and touching the little figure at her belt. It hadn’t been the easiest day with her mother, the all powerful, mighty and revered Elder, breathing down her neck to master advanced forms of defensive magic well before her other peers but she always managed to make her day brighter.

She wanted nothing more than to be around her friend  (...*friend*) and maybe get to teach her some new, nice things about the Umbra and magic. The joy in Cereza’s eyes when she had access to books and learning made the brightest of full moons seem paltry in comparison.

Jeanne had taken all of those things for granted for many years, had taken her position and luxuries as absolute but in truth, they could very well evaporate without warning and then she’d be just as on the bottom rung as the outcasts and their more ill fitting members.

Being a princess was a privilege and one that, the more she spent around Cereza, the more she felt she had not earned. Had she been given the same opportunities, Jeanne had the humility of knowing Cereza would far outstrip the coddled, nurtured, honed princess.

All in all, she was best realizing her fortune and making sure her head always managed to fit indoors.

“What did you manage to sneak in?” She was basically hopping on the tips of her toes, dancing around her like a fleeting butterfly that could not decide which colourful flower she was going to visit next.

“I think you’ll like this one” Jeanne said, grabbing a chair from their usual desk deep in the recesses of the library. Theirs was the only section that looked to be regularly used and around them the dusty furniture and books encased in thick layers of spider silk and gross dirt multiplied as far as the eye could see.

“It’s actually a really good compendium on edible fungi of the Iberian Peninsula and I th-”

“Why does it say ‘Common law proceedings’ then?”  She interrupted, pointing at the smooth leather tome and Jeanne stared down at her book.

Fuck.

It was the wrong book and now they had a stupid, boring law book instead of the interesting natural philosophy book she had found in the more popular sections of the library. Worst of all, their section was unused, to the best of their knowledge, but it was most likely because the only thing it housed were real estate records and medical reports of their many births.

Jeanne frowned harshly at the offending volume and Cereza giggle, which earned her a heated look her way. Realizing her friend had goofed, she plucked the book from her hands and set it down on the polished table with a grand gesture as if it was the most interesting of manuscripts.

“It's ok! I don't know what's this book about but it sounds interesting.” At her serious nod, Jeanne chortled and sat down as Cereza waved her over enthusiastically.

“It's a book about laws, all the stupid things you can and can't do and their corresponding punishment.” She said with a dismissive hand. Sheba, was it the most boring book she had the misfortune of being forced to study.

Cereza cracked it open and settled her hand against the page to aid her reading. “It says here you can't wear hmm red or purple gems to weddings?” She turned to her and Jeanne shrugged. She wasn't the best law student and Matriarch Zia’s relentless monotone did not make her want to be any better.

Not to be be daunted by the bone dry page, she kept leafing the book in search of something interesting to read.

Jeanne leaned back on her chair and half looked at where her friend was landing. After some moments of quiet contemplation and low humming, Cereza lifted her head from the pages and pursed her lips.

“What's the worse punishment an Umbra can suffer?”

Jeanne, who up until that moment had been unconsciously studying how lovely Cereza's long hair was, was caught by complete surprise but the intense look on her face told her it was a really serious question.

“Well…” She started, scratching at her short platinum hair. “I guess you could say death is the worst cause well, you die.”

Cereza nodded, that indeed made sense. “But mother says that the worst thing that can happen to an Umbra is for her to lose her freedom and that's why…”

She trailed off, realizing belatedly that her mother had been making a point about Rosa more than about crime and punishment. To her credit, Cereza took it in stride and nodded again, as she often did in thanks for an explanation.

“I can see that, to be fair. Imagine spending all day, every day without being in control of your fate.”

And at that, Jeanne nodded right back.

The roaring in her head hit an explosive point and as the unseen but ever present shackles seared deep in her bones, her fists moved on their own accord.

Balder had been too close and too cocky to realize a thunderous punch was about to hit him and for the first time in a long while, Jeanne felt pure, unbridled satisfaction at the loud crunch her fist made on his face.

He skid across the floor, taking half the tiles with him. Balder hadn't yet stopped careening and Jeanne was upon him with all 900 lbs of feline fury.

Her claws tore through easily hurt human flesh but her teeth clamped into hard muscle and fur. Balder quickly shook her off and went on a brutal offensive.

Once upon a time, Jeanne had prided herself on having honed her natural disposition for anger into a sharp, well calculated blade. But now, only the raw primal roar of her deep seated ire flowed from her and she was bent on burning the world with it.

If she had to turn herself into ashes, so be it.

Even Balder, a man whose temper was as stable as the rocks on the mountain, was meeting her brute force with just as much finesse.

He bit into her lower back and hurled her into the hard stone, leaving a large crater in her awake.

Despite her wounds, she tried to get from under the rubble as fast as she could and she managed to rise to her knees.

Jeanne could feel the shackles suffocating, searing, choking her. She should be reacting, grabbing her guns, charging him…

Something!

Blood dropped from her shoulder onto shattered rock and tile and she mustered the will to attempt motion once again.

The glimmering spear sliced through the air with a near soundless displacement and impaled her clean through the back, pinning her to the ground.

Her panic rose sharply for a moment and she pawed at the spear with feeble hands. Why resist? No matter how hard she looked, she could find no satisfactory answer and her fight or flight instinct tamed back into a complacent passivity.

“Jeanne, Jeanne, Jeanne… so that's where you hide your terrible temper.” The pain was nearly unbearable and breathing was a chore nearly too insurmountable as fat droplets of blood ran down the blade buried into the ground. His heels sounded vaguely near her head but the world was dangerously muted.

“I should have expected no less from the pride of the Umbra.”

He was finally back in her field of vision, his gaudy boots not two feet from her face and she wondered in a breezy passing if he was going to stoop so low as to kick her when she was this helpless.

“But if you think you're so clever that I don't know full well that you have the location of your precious Umbran treasure squirreled away in that dysfunctional little head of yours.”

All of her muscles tensed like rocks and the shimmer from the glowing ropes on her skin nearly blinded her as she was forced to stare right into the stern oh so very familiar blue eyes of the last Lumen.

“I was surprised to encounter such pure devotion for her! I didn’t think you could produce emotions so positive, Jeanne.” He enthused, smiling around the deep gashes on his face but that did nothing to hide the steel in his eyes. “But that is exactly what betrays you. I need you alive and coherent more than I need the precise location of my darling Cereza or else I’d invade the little dark space that you hold so dear in your memories and extract it.”

His arm shot out and he grabbed the spear unceremoniously, making pain radiate all over her body. “With or without you still there at the end, do you understand?”

The extraction was slow and deliberate, the metal sliding through her ribs and organs with excruciating agony. If he wanted a reply from her, he didn’t show it as he glided out the room in a wave of light and brilliant feathers, leaving her behind to crawl somewhere she could heal before heaven's ugly helpers flocked the room.

What he wasn’t counting on was that in the little dark space, lived the only memory that offered a handhold of sanity in the luminous flood of his influence.

The golden seal glowed bright in front of her iris for a second before fading into the darkness of the room but there was still life to be found on the grey eyes behind it.

[wolfieonatypewriter]

Bayojeanne Week 1 - Beach Day

Fandom: Bayonetta

Ship: Bayonetta/Jeanne

Summary: Bayonetta wonders if its still a beach day if all she can see is the full moon and a pretty girl.

A/N: Bayo doesn’t have her full memories, set between Bayo 1 and 2. (Technically part of Barren Grounds but is a standalone) 

“You know, when you said to make time for a nice spot of beach leisure” Bayonetta commented, sitting down on her towel overlooking the fine sandy shores of Fort Tilden beach “I was thinking this was going to be more of a day thing and not a, you know, midnight rendezvous”

She much preferred the sun and the early afternoon heat, even with the bustle of large families, loud teens, sleazy bros and all those things, to bathing out in the shine of the August full moon. Few things in life manage to win over the simple luxury of sand, sun and surf which, unfortunately, was  something Jeanne quite disagreed with. She rarely enjoyed getting pelted with the obnoxiously bright noon light and, truth be told, she burned easier than a marshmallow over a roaring fire.

Yet there she was in a ruby red bikini so well fitting and small, saying it was sinful was a ridiculous understatement but it wasn't quite the well defined muscles on display that caught her eye and gave her a bad case of dazed breathtakingness.

Jeanne was guarded, well to say she was guarded was another  ridiculous understatement. She was the kind of guarded that had come from years of being groomed for adversarial competition within the Umbra and literal centuries at Balder's command and she wasn't given to switching off. Her constant, relentless drive  to never be caught in a moment of weakness left little space for the vast expanse of her softness to shine through.

But at that very moment in time, with the cold breeze of the night blowing in and the heavy, damp presence of the ocean pressing on them like an ancient deity, she was...

Relaxed

More than that, Jeanne was smiling at her in a way she rarely saw at present time but that flashes and pings of her lost memories told her she used to see it more often when the days of youth seemed endless and were filled with unlimited possibilities.

“Yeah?” She laughed, pure and light in a way that made Jeanne glow with breathtaking life and by God, Bayonetta didn't think she could fall in love with her grumpy, neurotic and infuriatingly stubborn lover any harder but there she was, doing just that. “ I think maybe you should have asked instead of just blurting out a yes I get to see you in a bikini”

Cereza caught herself blushing like some shy maiden in a corny romance novel, an action that earned her a soft brush of the back of Jeanne's hand on her cheek and a lingering peck. In any other day she would have grumped at her smug look but she decided to let her have it.

“Well, can you blame me?!” She defended, waving her arm towards the deserted beach. “Who on their right mind wants to get some sand on during the night? It didn't even cross my mind as a possibility when I said yes.”

“Maybe it was just a ploy to get you alone and in a cute little pink number in a hard to access deserted beach” The tone was sultry in a way that lit all corners of her brain and the teeth nibbling at her jaw nearly made her combust then there.

But she didn't like losing power games.

Ever. 

“Darling, your idea of romantic involves angel guts and letting me pin you to the wall.” The ensuing hard bite to her neck made her yelp in surprise and she good-naturedly shoved the other woman from her.

“Talk about ruining the mood, Cereza” She said while she slumped back on her own towel but the soft contentment was still all there in her voice “ Fine, maybe I didn't bring you here to have my wicked way with you. Truth is…”

The pause was heavy and Bayonetta knew at that very second this was something more important to her lover than she was letting on. “Truth is, we used to this somewhat regularly.”

“Back in Vigrid?”

A nod was followed by a bout of silence that normally signified Jeanne was accessing less than pleasant eras in search of more pleasant memories.

“I used to come out with mother to train when the moon was full, off the coast of Spain and to hang out with my proper Umbra friends in the Portuguese beaches that were about as warm as a glacier to the face and…”

She snorted and ran her hand through her long, platinum hair. “I used to meet you by the little beach near the waterfall grove in the mountains, you see, fairly regularly.”

Bayonetta perked up and leaned on one arm towards her. “But one day you were, for reasons to this day I don't know, bathing a ways away from that and I was sprinting through the forest in my lynx form.”

She bit her lower lip to hide a smile and Jeanne rolled her eyes at her. “At least do me the favor of bursting into laughter *after* I tell the full story.”

“Anyway, there I was energetically attempting fitness when I run into you.”

“Naked. Literally” She mumbled the last part but it was too late as Cereza had started laughing and even in if it had been a humiliating moment for her, in a way, it was still a funny story.

In distant hindsight of course.

“You fell with all the grace of a sack of rocks back into the stream and I right with you. When I noticed you had 0 clothes on your person, I did what any flustered teenager would and well ran like Jubileus was on my heels in what you described as a 'huff of red fur and whiskers’” She finished, raising her arms to do visible air quotes as Bayonetta wiped tears from her eyes and complained about getting sore abs.

It hadn’t been her most graceful moment, she had to admit but she had noticed she had ended up splayed on the warm, tremendously naked Cereza and Jeanne had only been 16 with a crush the size of Sheba’s left buttock. She ran and didn’t do so with the flowing beauty of the Umbra (more like with the clumsy flapping of a cat caught with their tail on the door).

After wiping her eyes one final time and putting her glasses back on, she turned to her slightly embarrassed companion. “What a dashing gentlelady, giving me privacy at the first peak of my ankles.”

“I’ll have you know a lot more was on show than your ankles! What I have never known is why in Paradiso’s heavenly blight were you even *there*, naked, bathing of all things.”

Bayonetta frowned for a second and bit her lip as a mental worm wiggled in her brain. There was an inkling of something, of a feeling that was fleeting and diaphanous but there was something to it that felt important. If she thought hard enough to untangle the murky waters of her past, there was a ping full of emotional impressions… wanting freedom, wanting to be away from Luna and it’s occupants, of having the simple pleasure of indulging in a thing just for the heck of it.

“I…” She started, closing her eyes tightly in frustration at not being able to yank a full, coherent thread of thought. “I was trying to be by myself a little bit, to get some fresh air.” Locking eyes with Jeanne’s own, she finished with a shrug. “ I guess.”

Jeanne nodded tersely and looked back onto the ocean. “After the incident, I apologized rather profusely, both for running you over and for running away after that.”

At the giggle that sounded from the other towel, she knew she was never hearing the end of it till some planar Deity actually managed to finish off the world. “Laugh it up, laugh it up.”

”You used to love going out to the small beach by the waterfall at night and so did I. It was a sort of neutral ground badlands, hidden away from most people, which made served our purposes quite well.”

She got up and breathed in the damp ocean breeze. “I know you prefer the sun now but… I quite like it away from the bright, heavenly light. Makes me feel safer, has good memories where I’m not making an ass of myself.”

Cereza stood next to her and grabbed her hand gently. The world wasn’t easy, never would be for them but at least under the glittering moonlight and the cloying smell of the water, Jeanne bloomed like a lunar flower and she would never stand in the way of that.

“Payback is a bitch, though” Before she could react, the flimsy red bikini top smacked against her face and the corresponding bottom was not far behind. “Catch me if you can!”

“Jeanne!” she laughed in a not small modicum of incredulity as the other woman bolted ass naked down the dune before rippling into her cat form and diving into the surf.

Without waiting another beat, she did the same and they ended up tangled by the water line in a mess of red and black fur that quickly devolved into warm bodies and wandering hands .

Bayonetta was not going to be the one pointing out that seeing her delectable everything move about with no clothes was not exactly the bitching payback Jeanne had figured it would be.