#beestation

Part Two

🍓🍓🍓

The hive is silent. No one dares to breathe a word as they wait for their kings, their remaining royals, to tell them what to do. Obviously a search party is needed, there are already bees out scouring the nearby biome, but what else is there to be done? Surely they can do more??

“I WILL KILL THEM!!” The drones jump away from the chamber doors, watching in horror as Emmet claws his way out, held back from pouncing the closest drone only by his brother. “I WILL TEAR OUT THEIR WINGS! I WILL TEAR OFF THEIR LIMBS!!”

“YOU WILL CALM DOWN!” Ingo roars in response. “OUR QUEEN WILL NOT BE FOUND BY YOU MAKING SUCH A SCENE!”

“They have our queen!” Emmet shrieks. He fights off Ingo’s hold, and whips around, eyes wide and delirious. His wings don’t stop twitching for a moment. “They have our queen!” A sob chokes his screaming. “They have our queen!”

Ingo watches his brother collapse to his knees, wailing for their sweet human mate. His chest feels so tight, like he’s about to explode from all his pent up emotions. But he can’t acknowledge it, not now. There’s work to be done.

He can cry after they have their Queen back.

“Scouts will shift duties.” He announces, voice loud and thundering. “Our queen is our top priority. Honey production can wait, and our storage will support us. Only the workers necessary for survival are to continue their duties; the rest will follow me.”

In a heartbeat, the hive is abuzz once more. Ingo pulls Emmet back to his feet, and walks his twin to the closest room with enough space for everyone. Drones file inside, eager and ready to search. Ingo assigns teams and sends them out to various areas to search, while Emmet paces behind him, no doubt ready to begin a search of his own. But he will not leave Ingo behind.

Once all the drones are taken care of, they both take to the skies. Their area is smaller, since it’s only the two of them, but they’re meticulous. Any sign of life is exposed, interrogated, but none have seen signs of their queen.

Only one little ladybug has any clue what they’re asking. She leads the twin kings to an abandoned fire, and tells them she saw two hybrids here some days ago, talking about a hive. But they only wanted a human, not honey nor any bees.

“Have they demanded anything?” The ladybug asks, hands wringing. Ingo carefully shakes his head as Emmet scours the campsite for clues. “Why would they only want a human?”

Neither king replies. That very question plagues them, worries that seep into their thoughts despite their desperate attempts not to acknowledge them.

Emmet tears through ashes and burnt threads, teeth grit. What if they hurt you? What if they hide you away, and they never find you? What if this was revenge? Their previous queen was not kind; did she spite someone? Is this revenge for a crime they, you, did not commit?

Emmet wipes his tears on his sleeve and takes off into the forest once more, Ingo on his heels. He won’t rest until you’re found. He won’t stop until he has you in his grasp again. He will make this up to you, worship you, never leave your side again.

And any injury you have will be dealt back tenfold.

🕸️🕸️🕸️

Ashes is the one to carry you, more often than not. He huffs and puffs and grumbles and grouches, but his arms are tight and secure. You don’t fear falling, even as he wizzes around, faster than any bee you’ve flown with. You’re grateful for Hunter as well, who cradles you from below, clutching Ashes as you three fly along.

The forest is thinning out, you can see. Hills roll and dive beneath you, a deep green that’s spotted with every color of wildflower. They grow in small patches, bright and beautiful in the spring sunshine.

Ashes lies you in a bed of blooms when he lands to take a rest. You watch him stretch, face contorted as sore, overworked muscles are stretched out. You remember Ingo being in a similar state, after a heavy rainstorm destroyed part of the hive. He wouldn’t rest, and pulled muscles in his wings. You had to rub them and put heated pads on his back to help ease the pain.

You miss him sorely in this moment.

“Alright, Honeybee.” Hunter picks you up from your bed, and sits you upright. Two of his hands tug on your gag, while two more grip your scarf. “You need to eat. But be careful.”

You swallow, but nod.

The gag comes off and you sigh heavily, released to have that pressure lifted. Hunter, kindly, massages the joints of your jaw as he pulls out small rations of dried meet and soft bread.

“You’re somethin’ else.” Ashes drawls as you eat what’s given. He bends down some, cocking his head at you. From this angle, you can see his eyes are a bright, bright yellow. “Your little bees are so loud! Yet you don’t talk.”

“I was gagged.” You huff. Hunter chuckles, but Ashes blusters and stomps around. Thank goodness he’s not allowed to hurt you. “Who’s paying you to do this anyway? We’re so far from-”

Hunter pushes another piece of bread into your mouth. “That’s nothing you need to worry about, Honeybee.”

Ashes pokes at your head, seemingly saying his anger by annoying you. “Humans are so squishy.” He pinches your cheek and tugs, ignoring you shout of protest to point at you, like Hunter can’t already see. “Look at that! They stretch!”

“They squish too.” Smirking, Hunter reaches up. His palms seem to be covered with small hairs that tickle and itch your skin. He presses, and you huff as your cheeks squish you mouth into a purse.

“Ha!” Ashes cackles, holding his stomach. “Ain’t that something! You look like a fool!” He leans down again, grabbing your head to tilt it to and fro. “How come those bees chose you?”

“It is interesting,” Hunter agrees, holding a canteen of water to your lips, “choosing a human as a queen. What do you offer any hive?”

Ashes squishes your cheeks, using one hand while the others rest on his hips. “Well, Queenie here is pretty c-”

In a flash of yellow and white, Ashes disappears. You and Hunter whip around, startled to see the wasp grappling with a familiar figure in a bright white coat.

“Emmet!” You cry, relieved to see him. Your relief quickly fades with the tightening of the scarf around you neck. “Em-!”

Emmet whips around when you choke on his name, giving Ashes an opening. The wasp nails him, and you can hardly cry out as your precious king hits the ground, reeling.

“Not very nice.” Ashes puts his foot on Emmet’s back, stopping him from getting back up. “Thought bees were more polite than this. The other hive sure was.”

“I’ll kill you!” Emmet swipes back, practically frothing at the mouth, but Ashes’ weight against his back stops him.

“You won’t.” Hunter drawls. A whimper escapes you at the scarf tightens again, pressing harder against your throat. “Lest you want Honeybee here to die too.”

Emmet stares, wide-eyed. Ashes chuckles, bearing down more on Emmet with a large, fanged smile. “No, little bee,” he grabs the back of Emmet’s head, bearing his neck, “I think you’re outnumbered. Queenie won’t die, so long as you do instead.”

Ashes bites onto Emmet’s neck.

“EMMET!” You shriek, thrashing against Hunter. You throw your head back. Hunter shouts, the impact of your skull against his sudden and bright. “NO!!”

You hit the ground, just as Hunter lets out another shout. Ashes pulls back, venom dribbling down his face. Emmet, paled but still furious, throws a punch of his own. Ashes hits the ground in time for Ingo to reveal himself, protectively hovering over you.

Hunter is silent, wherever he is.

“Emmet?” Ingo calls. Emmet wobbles, but grabs Ashes by the head, slamming into his own. “Ah, seems he’s not too staggered.”

Drones rush in before Hunter or Ashes can regain themselves. Angry buzzing covers up the presence of your captors, not that you’re too concerned with them at the moment. You struggle, even as Ingo tries to cut you free from your bindings, crying for the king limp and surrounded by nervous drones.

“Emmet!” You wail, clutching Ingo’s head as he buries it in your neck.

“My queen!” Emmet gasps, wiggling. Drones scramble around him, but aid in lifting him up, moving him to where Ingo clutches you close. “Darrrrling!” He whines, grasping at your lap. You drag him by the coat, pushing his head into your chest as you cling to his shoulders. “My legs are numb. . .”

“We have antidotes at the hive!” A drone assures you three, not that you can tell who through your tears. “He’ll be fine!”

“It was only a little venom.” Another drone says, patting your head. “He’s strong, your highness! King Emmet will live!”

Ingo lets out a loud sob. “Thank the stars.”

“My kings.” You whisper pulling their heads closer. Weak, wet kisses press against your head, whimpered apologies laced on shaky breath. “My heroes. My saviors. My boys.”

You never doubted they’d come for you. You knew they’d save you, drones or kings. Your sweet bees.

“Let’s go home!” One drone whines. “King Emmet needs an antidote and Queen needs rest.”

“Yes, rest!”

“Plenty of rest!”

You sniffle, smiling at your bees. They buzz and twitter under your attention, wiggling into your cuddle to help lift you and Emmet into the air. Ingo carries you, to the pouts of the drones.

He kisses your temple with a shuddering sigh. “You’re safe.”

“You saved me.” You agree, kissing him.

Ingo curls around you, as though to shield you from the world. He looks at you reverently, devotion ready on his tongue, only to be interrupted by Emmet’s shout of jealousy.

“Let’s go home.” Ingo hums, flying after the drones.

You can’t wait to be back.

🍓🍓🍓

Part One

I love bees

One round I decided to use the quirks system that the server I was on has (Beestation was that server, btw), where you choose buffs and debuffs for your character that may make the game harder but are interesting for the story that unfolds. I made a lizardperson who didn't know galactic common (everyone's default language) but also with the linguist quirk to make it so some tiny words are overall the same, or at least follow a pattern.

I ended up being the cook as that character one round, and also there weren't many lizardfolk on the station so most people were completely intelligible to me. At some point, the head of security came over and after he tried to talk, he pointed at me, slammed his fist on the counter, and then ran his hand along the blade of his sword. I thought he was threatening me, so I just tilted my head at him, and he screamed in frustration. He kept repeating this sequence of actions for a solid ten minutes before they got another lizardperson to translate.

They needed a whetstone. They were trying to mime it out. Why did they need it? To do some ritual to prevent a warp entity type thing from coming into the station. Did I give it after they got it explained? Of course, I hadn't even used it.