I’m genuinely so happy to find more people who still remember epic, and more importantly mandrake. I’m here to request a fic, a list of headcanons, just anything about this man being a devoted husband. This man is just bug Gomez Addams and I’m so here for it.
Please *shakes my little tin can at you* just a crumb of bug dilf
Absolutely!! I need more bug dilf as well 😔😔😔
There’s not as much of him in here as I intended, I need to write more fluff with him.
Enjoy!
Mandrake x Reader
Tentative Truce
—
Voices. Thats what you heard past the deafening sound of ringing in your ears. Hushed voices whispered to each other in panic. It was hard to breathe, like something was pressing tight against your chest and ribs, resisting every time you inhaled.
Your eyelids felt heavy as you forced them open, however they didn’t stay open. Regardless, everything was blurry, fading in and out of focus, and unbearably bright. So bright, it made you flinch and groan.
The voices quieted for a moment, then shuffling.
“Why did you bring her here?!” A voice hissed.
“She was hurt! What was I supposed to do? Leave her to die in the mud?!” Another voice whisper-yelled.
“Not bring her to Moonhaven, are you insane?!”
Two voices, both male, arguing. At first, your brain could only register “two voices” and immediately thought of your loving husband and son. But…no, that wasnt right. Mandrake wouldn’t be bickering with Dagda, he would be at your side the moment he heard you stir, holding your hand, fussing over you.
Moonhaven…
Moonhaven?
In your exhausted and bleary state, you felt a hand against your forehead, soft and gentle and warm.
“Easy now,” a voice as smooth as the river spring said as the hand brushed the matted hair from your face. “You need your strength.”
“Ugh,” you let out another groan and tossed your head, eyes squeezing shut. “What—where-…where am I?”
“Nod you just put the entire forest at risk!” One of the voices snapped. “What do you think Mandrake will do when he finds out she is here? Hm?”
“Relax, Ronin! I was just trying to help—“
“Oh yeah, and Im sure he’ll understand. Here! Why don’t we just tell him exactly how you KIDNAPPED HIS WIFE—!”
“Both of you! Enough,” the woman cradling your head spoke.
With another groan, your eyes peeled open for the last time. The room was spinning, but over time it stilled.
The blinding light you were seeing was the sun, shining through tall green leaves and reflecting off of polished stone walls. There was never this much color in Wrathwood.
Another brush of hand against your side made you wince. Looking down, you see a slim dark hand against your side, pressing against a blood stained bandage that was wrapped around your chest. So thats why it was so hard to breathe in.
As you lay amongst soft white petals, you furrowed your brows in confusion. Then you looked up.
“Oh.” You blinked in surprise.
The woman gave you a friendly smile like you had been friends your whole life. She had a simple beauty to her, like how a breath of fresh air or the sight of blooming flowers felt beautiful. Natural, grounding and familiar.
“Sorry,” Queen Tara chuckled, raising a hand off of your body as you lay in her lap, “we couldn’t get you to the healers in time. This was our next best option.”
You swallowed and looked at her strangely. “It’s…okay?”
You sat up, the bandages pulling tight on your body as you held your head and tried to get rid of the airy feeling behind your eyes. “What happened?” You groaned, shaking your head.
“I think you got knocked off your bird by a hawk or something—“ a boy with brown hair said, before getting hit by a man in green armor. “Ow, hey!”
Ronin sneered and looked at you cautiously. The feeling was mutual as you bore your teeth in a hiss, although, it wasn’t nearly as effective when you weren’t a boggan yourself.
“Nod here found you on the forest floor bleeding,” he said, gesturing his head to Nod. “And stupidly,” he glared at him, “brought you here.”
“I didn’t know who she was!” Nod said, trying to defend himself. “I’ve never seen her without her helmet before!”
“That doesn’t matter!” Ronin said back.
“Boys, boys!” Tara spoke up, and instantly they both quieted. “Ronin, Nod did a good thing,” she smiled. “If he had left her there, who knows what would’ve happened. And then we’d have to deal with the consequences.”
You only looked back and forth between them with a raised brow.
“Uh, I’m sorry,” you interjected, eyes darting between them before looking at Tara sheepishly, “your majesty? Uh—“
“Please,” she snorted and waved you off, “you’re as much of a queen as I am! Call me Tara.”
“…your majesty,” you repeated, making clear the extent of your relation. “You…know who I am,” she nodded with a smile, “…so why in the seven hells did you allow me to be brought into your inner sanctum?!”
You looked at her in bewilderment. You were her enemy, the partner to the man who threatened her entire realm. So why on god’s green earth did she just so nonchalantly bring you in, heal you, and just idly keep you at her side?!
“You were hurt,” Tara answered bluntly. “Despite Ronin’s insistence,” said general crossed his arms with a glare towards you, “I would’ve have done the same for anyone.”
The irritation in you subsided. You blinked in surprise, looking at her with astonishment.
“Huh,” was all you could say.
“We should really send her away,” Ronin stepped forward, his hand never leaving the hilt of his katana. “Her being here is a threat, your majesty. We can’t risk her bringing the rest of the Boggans here.”
“She is our guest, Ronin,” Tara said firmly. “And besides, I can only heal so much!” You looked down at your torso, at the blood stained bandages that wrapped around and under your unclothed chest. It still hurt. “She still needs to rest.”
“If Mandrake figures out she’s here—“
You all stopped in place as a sudden boom rattled the ground beneath you, followed by the sound of screeching birds.
“Too late,” Nod said.
You sighed and shook your head. Always one for the dramatics, your husband.
You pushed off of your knees, grunting and wincing and pain as you tried to stand. Nod and Ronin rushed to your side, arms under your armpits and helping you stand.
“That’s my cue,” you grunted, the sound of clashing metal and shouts echoing down the stone halls.
“Come on,” Ronin scoffed. “Let’s get you back before your husband tears through my entire guard.”
“Wouldn’t be the worst thing,” you retorted, limping beside him.
You barely went out into the open without your weasel cloak, or the shrew skull you wore as a helmet. Ronin had been the only one in all those years to have seen you without your armor, at least when alongside your husband. So to the rest of the leafmen you were nothing more than an injured leafwoman or jinn, an associate, a peer, collateral damage that had been ushered in to be healed or a fellow soldier. They didn’t bat an eye as Ronin and Nod ushered you through the halls, your eyes squinting against the bright light of day outside the stone stronghold as the sound of battle grew closer.
You threw up your hand and winced at the bright sun light, glaring at it until the loud growl of your husband turned your head.
Looking left and right, you almost pushed Ronin away before your eyes fell onto the towering frame ahead among the many bodies of boggan soldiers versus leafmen. And damn it if you couldn’t stop the smirk on your face seeing Mandrake’s cloak swirl around him as he threw leafmen off the stone awning and slammed his cudgel against the ground. Damn it all if he wasn’t hot as hell when he fought with that sneer on his face.
“Mandrake!” You yelled, holding your side.
He didn’t even have to stop fighting to look up and spot you immediately, standing at his full height while kicking a leafman in the chest.
“Y/n!” He turned back to the leafman he was holding up in the air by the collar and growled. He slammed his head against the soldier’s, dropping him before stomping forwards.
Ronin gripped your arm tightly as you tried to pull away, glaring ahead as you tugged and cursed at him.
The moment he laid his hands on you once more, your carefully tuned ears picked up the sound of many many arrows being drawn.
You looked around, spying the dozen boggan archers hidden in the rocks now aiming their weapons towards Ronin and the leafmen who came to your side with shields raised. Your eyes fell on one particular archer, the familiar rat-pelt donned figure of your son Dagda.
“Weapons down,” your voice gave Mandrake pause as you yanked your arm once again to no avail. Ronin’s grip did loosen, however. He looked at you in surprise.
You looked up and made eye contact with your son, giving him a stern look.
Dagda glanced at Mandrake, then back at you, as if to say “are you sure?”
You nodded curtly.
He frowned and lifted his hand in a closed fist, telling the archers to hold as he lowered his bow.
With a huff, you got your arm out of Ronin’s grip, shooting him a glare and a well placed huff in his direction before running a hand over your head and sighing.
“Mandrake,” you said in relief and pushed past the leafmen who watched in shock and bewilderment.
Mandrake’s look softened and he let out a huff, shoulders relaxing. “Oh thank the gods,” he grumbled under his breath while rolling his eyes, his large hands settling on your shoulders as you stopped in front of him and he immediately began to fuss over you. “Are you ok? What happened—?”
“I fell off my bird,” you assured him and cupped his face with two hands, mostly to keep him from looking at your bandaged sides. “I’m fine, really.”
You stopped, sighing and looking back at where the leafmen were now parting, standing at attention as Tara made her way out of the palace walls. “She fixed me up,” you said, brows knitted together as you looked up at her with your arms crossed.
Mandrake looked up, his gaze immediately narrowing as he stood at full height once more, looking down at her.
“Tara,” he said with disdain.
“Mandrake,” she stopped and held her hands in front of her. That was one thing you respected about her, she wasn’t afraid to look her enemy in the eye. And she did it with grace too, even as her general behind her was biting his tongue until she returned to the safety of Moonhaven’s stoney walls.
“I apologize for the trouble,” Tara said with a smile. “Someone had found your wife badly injured on the forest floor without knowing who she was and brought her here.”
She raised her hands and looked at them. You noticed she still had some blood on her fingers.
“I healed as much as I could,” she added, looking back up and clasping her hands together and looked at you with a warm, friendly smile. “But you’ll have to figure out the rest. Personally, I’d recommend staying in bed for a bit, some good ole TLC never hurts.” With that, she winked at you, and it made you feel…strange. Tara was…a lot friendlier and more casual than you expected her to be.
Mandrake made a noise deep in his throat, moving his cudgel from one hand to the other.
“She’ll be fine,” he said bluntly, his hand itching to be somewhere on your body or to pull you closer. “Our healers will take care of everything.”
“Of course,” Tara bowed her head.
He let out a sharp exhale from his nose, putting a hand on your shoulder and pulling you back towards him, wrapping part of his cloak around you as he turned around and began walking away.
The other boggans cleared out, snarling and chittering both with each other and at the leafmen, mounting their birds as Mandrake’s grackle soared down and landed, ducking her head.
He was just about help you up onto his bird, Nightshade, when he stopped and turned his head slightly to look over his shoulder at Tara.
To your surprise, he gave her a slight nod, before heaving you up onto his bird and settling right behind you.
As he nudged his bird to take off, he pulled you into his lap, arm wrapped around your waist possessively as you took into the skies, leaving Moonhaven behind.
He was being unusually quiet. You almost said something, but he beat you to it.
“You’re not going to be leaving the nest for a while.”
You groaned and threw your head back as he didn’t even bother looking at you. “It wasn’t even my fault!”
“We need to find your bird as well,” he added.
“Hah! Good luck! I don’t know where those mockingbirds chased him!”
He looked down at you with a smirk and held you closer, nudging you and teasing, “Mockingbirds?”
“Oh don’t get me started,” you huffed and looked away, cheeks turning red as he chuckled and led the way back to your home.
