#last chance for illumina and ran to team | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

redwinterroses · 3 years

Note

Request should you feel up to it: Some of the MCC participants reactions to seeing that Ren is a cyborg now (I know his MCC 15 skin didn't show the machine in his chest but what if it had). Would love to see Martyn in particular but anyone else Ren has interacted with that you feel like tossing in there works too.

I worked on this all day that I was logged out of tumblr, which just goes to show what can be accomplished when one isn't constantly refreshing this hellsite. XD

“My liege!”

Ren, startled, jumped several inches in the air and whirled around to see Martyn jogging toward him down the brightly-colored causeway, wearing the purple uniform of their team.

“It’s good to see you again!” Martyn declared, a massive grin on his face.

“Oh! Me hand!” Ren laughed and spread his arms wide. “The Hand and the King have been reunited!”

Martyn grabbed Ren in a warm hug, pounding his back heartily.

“Ah, ya love to see it, ya love to see it,” Ren chuckled. His face felt like it would crack open from smiling—it hadn’t been that long since he’d seen his friend, but it seemed far longer than a measly few months. For Scott to put them on the same team for this competition—well. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t been looking forward to this for weeks.

Martyn stood back, holding Ren’s shoulders and giving him a small shake. “How you been, dude?” he asked. He frowned, and tilted his head. “You look a little thinner since the last time I saw you. Which is saying something since you were dead then. You good?”

Ren didn’t stop smiling, but he nodded toward some benches off to the side of the path. “Of course I’m good, my dude,” he said. “Better than ever, ya might even say.”

They moved toward the benches—dodging a few other eagerly-bouncing teams as they crossed the walk—and sat down. Ren raised his hand and waggled the new metal fingers at Martyn.

“Got myself a few… upgrades,” he said. “What’d ya think?”

“Ren—what…” Martyn’s face creased in concern and he reached out—pausing, with a glance for permission. Ren nodded, and Martyn took the robotic hand gently, turning it over and tapping the silver casing. He ran his fingertips over the delicate joints and shook his head. “What happened, dude?”

Pulling his hand free, Ren rubbed it self-consciously. “Eh… had a little run-in with, erm—” he hesitated. “That is, I got in a bit of a scrape. Renbob and Doc came to my rescue but…” he gave an awkward little laugh. “Some of me bits are never to be seen again.”

Martyn was still looking at the hand.

“I’d heard you had a rough end to your season seven,” he said. “There weren’t a lot of details, but…” He met Ren’s eyes with an expression Ren didn’t quite have a name for. “Nobody gave the impression that it was this bad.”

Ren was tempted to just brush it off—ah, it was no big deal. Nothing I couldn’t handle, ya know—but this was Martyn. Next to the Hermits, there was no one he trusted more.

He shrugged. “Technically…” he said. “Just between you and me and this bush over here… I think I technically died. Again.” He forced a grin. “Bad habit, I know.”

“Wow.” Martyn sat back against the bench. “Wow—that’s rough, dude. How…” he reached out and tapped Ren’s cyborg arm again. “How bad is it?”

“My arm,” Ren admitted. “And my leg.” He lifted his pant leg to show the cybernetics beneath. Then he rapped at his chest, the metal thunking hollowly under the purple team hoodie he wore. “And… a lot of other bits and bobs that I don’t honestly really understand myself. Doc cracks jokes whenever I ask, but... I think it was a pretty close thing, to be honest.”

Something dark flashed across Martyn’s face. “And I had no idea,” he said. He leaned back, rubbing his forehead and closing his eyes. “You might have died and I wouldn’t have had a clue. Some friend that makes me.”

“Oh, good grief, Martyn—” Ren kicked Martyn’s shoe. “Don’t even start with that, man. It’s not like you knowing would have made any difference.” Though, as he said it, the thought flitted through his mind that the same could be said of him: anything could happen to Martyn, and he’d let the radio silence stretch long enough that he wouldn’t have known until it was too late. “Lesson learned,” he said aloud. “After this, we keep in better contact. We’ll be regular pen pals.”

Martyn huffed in something close to amusement. “Sure,” he said. “I think Netty’s got some cute stationary somewhere I can steal.” He gestured at Ren’s arm and leg. “Honest question: are you good for today? A near-death experience isn’t exactly something to laugh at. If you’re not ready, I’m sure Scott could find someone to swap in for you.”

“Not a chance, not a chance.” Ren bounced to his feet and made a grand gesture to the stadium around them. “We’re the winning POV, baby!”

He was glad to see some of the concern melt away from Martyn’s face. It was worth the twinges of discomfort in his still-recovering limbs, and he surreptitiously clenched a fist. Nothing—especially not a little bit of pain—was going to hold him back today.

“Oh, absolutely.” Martyn stood, and punched Ren lightly on the arm. “Hey, you guys have all won before—you and False and Illumina. No pressure, but I’d love a win today.”

“We’ll see what we can do, me hand. For the honor of Dogwarts and all that, right?”

Martyn leaped up on the raised edges of the path. “Indeed, milord!” he declared loudly, earning amused looks from other players. “For the honor of Dogwarts!”

#MCC15PurplePandasForever

#hey look red is entirely capable of writing cute happy fluff #okay so there's a tiny dash of angst in there #but they're HAPPY and it's GOOD #redwinterwrites #thanks for the prompt Anon!#i also wrote the second-to-last chapter of Follow Me Home today too #it needs some heavy editing but I really want to have it posted tomorrow sometime #redwinteranswers #purple pandas my beloved #rendog #inthelittlewood #renchanting duo my beloved

214 notes · View notes