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it-happened-one-fic · 10 months

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Play the Fool - Dottore (Part 4)

Author's Notes: Just one more after this one this series will be done! It's kind of odd in a lot of ways to write a series that unfolded the way this one did. But overall, I'm satisfied. Just like the previous parts, I listened to "Black Sea" by Natasha Blume while writing this. Reader is gender-neutral. I hope you enjoy!

Type: Mer-Dottore/ Merman AU/ gender-neutral reader/ I'm not gonna label this as fluff since that doesn't feel quite right, but know that it's NOT angst, yandere, or anything like that

Word Count: 2307

Trigger Warning: Discussion of past crimes including murder (Dottore), Fatui are generally shady

[Part One], [Part Two}, {Part Three}, {Part 4: You're Here!}, {Part Five}

EDIT: Entire series now available on AO3! (link deleted due to glitches)

“You’re out, now what?” I sat on the toilet at a safe distance from Dottore’s tank, my head resting in one hand as I questioned the now unmasked merman.

He emerged from the water once more, an indefinable smile on his face as he resurfaced. He’d recovered from having been in proximity to that strange algae at an impressive rate. But then, he’d made that gunk himself, he’d no doubt formulated it so that his recovery would be fast.

“The final step. It's time I returned to my lab to continue my work,” I stared at him dumbly before straightening as his words registered.

I could hardly believe what I was hearing, “You’re going to reverse your own mistake, get your legs back, and take back over as a harbinger?”

He nodded, rising just a little more out of the water and gripping the edge of the tank with a slow roll of his fingers, “And you will help.”

I swallowed, determined to not let myself be threatened even as I refused to merely accept his orders, “And why would I do that?”

My voice came out level, and, if anything, he appeared to be pleased as he responded, “Do you really have a choice? With us both having disappeared from their headquarters the Fatui will rightly assume that you have taken me.”

I crossed my arms, shifting into a more comfortable position myself, “Who said I was disappearing? I intend to go back tomorrow and act like I know nothing. I’ll face punishment, but that's better than being condemned as an enemy of the Tsaritsa. And something tells me you can’t return to your original state before dawn.”

“And that is why you’ll get me what I need from the lab tomorrow. The longer I remain missing the worse your punishment, and it will reach the point of death. After all, you’re of no use to them if I’m not there.”

His words were true, frustratingly so. My position had not greatly changed even if his had. I still had to play along with his plans or face death in some form or another.

Either way, I was in way over my head now. It seemed that it was do or die.

“What do you need?” That knowingly confident smile spread across his face once as soon as I spoke. But he’d won. Again.

“There’s a vial. It holds a small amount of what appears to be black water. That is the cure. It will no doubt be in the head scientist’s office.” I grimaced at his words, knowing they meant I would have to deal with the person who would be most upset by this entire situation. The head scientist.

It wasn’t long before I was frowning slightly though, noting the other meaning that Dottore’s words held.

He had already crafted himself a cure that the head scientist had been holding onto this entire time. Meaning it had already been made by the time Dottore had been found. So Dottore had known what his experiment might cause and had created himself a fail-safe.

But I didn’t question any of this. Instead, I focused on his instructions and the potential problems they held, “And if he doesn’t have it anymore?”

Dottore’s tail curled languidly under him as he smiled just as smoothly, “He does. He needs it.”

I frowned, but remained silent as I stood. Assuming that the cure was needed because no one else knew that Dottore could still speak. That cure was, no doubt, the head scientist’s get out of jail free card. If Fatui ever made demands… If he ever needed his maniacal genius to save his own skin he would have to cure him.

I glanced at the clock as I tucked the list into my pocket and realized, with yet another frown, that I hadn’t gotten any sleep and now needed to head back into work. This time with the intentions of faking innocence and then stealing from the very people who’d be the most upset by the disappearance of Dottore.

I let out a sigh, turning towards the door only to get stopped by a wet hand wrapping tightly around my wrist and causing me to go tense. I didn’t even have to look to know who it was, but I turned nonetheless.

Dottore was leaned out of the tank, one arm reaching out to grasp my wrist while the other held him braced against the thick glass that surrounded him. I felt myself go slightly cold at the realization that I’d been well within his reach this entire time without even realizing it.

His mask was still off and his red-eyed stare now seemed to root me to the ground as he spoke once more. Only two words.

“Be careful.” It wasn’t a warning, but rather an order. With only those words he released me and slid back into his tank, his eyes staying on me even as I turned and walked away, feeling his gaze drilling into my back. A firm reminded of that singular order that had thrown me completely for a loop.

Even by the time I was walking into the room to face those who would doubtless condemn me, those words stayed with me. Puzzling me slightly since this whole time our interactions had been a delicate balance filled with questions of who would burn first. Me or him?

It was true that he needed me in order to get this potion or whatever, but Dottore was not the type to tell someone, or rather order them, to be careful. He was more the sort to ignore them since he quite simply had no care for a fellow person.

Dottore was not a man of compassion, but rather, was one of imposing intellect that was unconstrained by matters such as empathy. That was what made him so dangerous and so feared by the scientists.

But I didn’t truly have time to question his motives or reasoning. I would simply have to accept that all I understood was that, evidently enough, I was still quite necessary to whatever plans he held.

“You!” The head scientist’s head whipped around and he was pointing a condemning finger from the very second I’d opened the door. I ignored him though, staring at the empty tank that once held Dottore in mock horror. As if I’d had no clue that he wouldn’t be here.

My acting did little to convince the man in charge here though, and he crossed the room at surprising speeds.

“Where is he?” Bony fingers dug into my shoulder as the head scientist gripped me tightly, growling out his question in the most accusatory fashion possible.

I shook my head, my mouth gaping open in the appearance of shock, “I… What? What happened?!”

I pitched my voice high enough to draw the attention of others. It was something I’d done in the past when having to stop scientists from drawing too close to the merman who would drown them if given the chance. And just like always, it worked.

Play the fool and those who deem themselves greater will always come at the mere scent of possibility. It was something I’d learned during my time here, and though I didn’t understand why people here did it, it always worked.

“Hey, they obviously don’t know anything. There’s no way they could’ve made off with that monster anyway. They’re just the caretaker.” One of the other men stepped over and I recognized him as one of the soldiers who sometimes passed through. Nikita, I believed his name was.

He looked at me in an almost pitying fashion, but he did exactly what I’d needed him to. Make the head scientist appear foolish so that he would want to do any further interrogating in private.

“True, though that may be, they were the last person known to be near him.” The head scientist defended himself with a sniff before looking down at me with a special amount of irritation. But his hand had already been forced and he didn’t even know that I’d orchestrated it with a bit of amateur acting.

The man maintained his hold on me, steering me around so that I was walking in front of him like some sort of criminal being taken to a cell, “I must interrogate them further. The rest of you keep working!”

His words were barked as he shoved me through a door and into a large lab that I could only assume was his office. Especially when I noticed a small vial filled with about a tablespoon of black-looking water.

I was shoved roughly towards a seat right in front of the vial, placing it in tantalizingly close reach as he rounded the table.

“Where did you last see the creature?” His tone was dry once more as he looked down at me. He'd calmed down now and had once more reached the perspective that I was no more than a lesser worker. Which was exactly what I’d needed.

“In the tank, where he’d been placed for the cleaning. I left him there after feeding him his supper. That’s the last time I saw him… Really.” It was an excuse that lined up perfectly with what had been Pantalone’s plan.

I fidgeted with my fingers, pretending to be nervous about the man who now peered down at me as I tried to figure out how to swipe the vial in front of me. I had been incredibly lucky up until now and had relied on whoever it was that was pulling strings behind the scenes. But now this little conundrum fell to me and me alone.

Or so I thought it did until a polite knock was heard on the door.

The head scientist cursed almost silently under his breath before lifting his head and barking out a sharp, “What is it?”

The door opened and I got to watch as the head scientist went pale as not one, but two harbingers, stepped into the room.

One was Pantalone, who wore that same falsely polite smile that always served as his mask as he stepped in. His eyes flicked over to where I sat, now truly nervous, before they shifted back to the head scientist, “I understand that our merman was stolen. How did this happen?”

The head scientist floundered slightly before drawing himself up and spouting some sort of explanation that went entirely unheard by me since I was far too busy staring at the other harbinger.

I had never seen this one before, but if the gigantic suit of armor was anything to go by, I knew who he was. Il Capitano. Possibly the most famous of all the harbingers.

He stood silently, but even his mere presence was imposing, making it difficult to concentrate on the situation at hand.

He had none of the oily, false charm of Pantalone, nor did he possess the curious draw that Dottore held. But then, I had never met him and knew only of his supposed sense of justice.

“And what of this person?” His voice startled me, causing me tense and he gestured to me with an armored hand, sending both Pantalone and the head scientist’s gazes my way.

“They are the last person known to have seen Dottore in his tank, I am questioning them as to what they know.” The head scientist looked down his nose at me, almost like he was a principal gazing at a particularly naughty student.

“So they are the prime suspect,” Capitano now turned to look down at me and I shifted uncomfortably. Looking nervous was becoming less and less of an act as I pondered exactly how I was going to crawl my way out of this situation and get the vial for Dottore.

“Indeed… I recall they were to clean the tank,” Pantalone spoke in an almost solemn manner before he twisted to look at the armor-covered man. “They are the ones in charge of taking care of Dottore and his tank. Outside of that, they are no one of any real import.”

I almost slipped up and let my eyebrows jump up at his words. They almost sounded like he was trying to shift blame further away from me by making me sound as unimportant as possible. But, in the same sentence, his description of my job was not inaccurate.

“If that is the case, haven’t they had plenty of other opportunities to kidnap the merman or harm him in some way?” Capitano’s voice resounded once again, filling the room with its heavy, cultured tone that brooked little argument and I felt my eyes widen slightly at his words.

I watched, stunned, as the conversation slowly drifted away from me and back to the circumstances of the situation as the blame piled more and more onto the head scientist who’d let a precious commodity be stolen while under his care.

“You will help us look around the premises, after that we shall decide on your punishment…. The Tsaritsa is most displeased.” Capitano’s voice was dispassionate as he delivered his weighty decision that had the head scientist going pale.

I watched as all of them began to file out, Pantalone in the back of the line before he paused to look back at me, “You are free to go, but this matter will be revisited.”

A warning, but also a chance.

By now I was certain that there was someone helping Dottore from behind some curtain. There was no other way that this entire ordeal would go over so smoothly otherwise. I also had a feeling I knew who, but I would deal with that later.

I swiped the vial quickly, tucking it into a pocket inside my shirt before rebuttoning my jacket. Right now I had more pressing matters.

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