losing my mind and I have no one to talk to about this because the fandom for this couple no longer exists (everybody moved on I stayed here etc etc) so I will just post into the void about it:
I cannot stop thinking about a bradleylaura Pluribus AU fic where Laura is one of the survivors and the hive sends Bradley to her to be her chaperone.
of course this would be set years after Laura said "I want nothing to do with you. I am done with you." to Bradley. but of course we all know that the last thing that Laura ever said to Bradley's face was "I thought we would get old together. I really did."
thinking about a Laura who became convinced that she would never love anyone else the way she loved Bradley. thinking about a Laura who always carried a little torch for Bradley despite herself (despite Bradley!), persistent and inextinguishable like a coal-seam fire.
thinking about Laura, who we know is estranged from her family of origin. Laura, who has great friends but who was never able to rebuild a new family unit for herself with a partner—but who wanted to do that so badly. Laura, who was jealous of the way Bradley would choose her family of origin over her again and again (Laura who said as much to Hal!), Laura who wanted to be as important to Bradley as Hal, Laura who wanted Bradley to be hers.
thinking about Bradley—or an eldritch horror version of Bradley, not the woman who Laura in many ways still cannot stop loving, but something else wearing her skin, sharing their memories—showing up on the doorstep of Laura's Montana ranch, and in more ways than one Laura feels like she's seeing a ghost.
Laura was a foreign correspondent. Laura covered wars. Laura has spent a lot of time considering the concept of peace. and she knows that the concept of world peace that the hive presents is just a facsimile.
and she knows that the Bradley Jackson they have sent her is just a facsimile, too. but she never thought that she would have any version of Bradley again. and Laura has spent so much time pushing down the part of her that longs for any part of Bradley. and then, suddenly, here is a Bradley who wants to give her everything that the real Bradley Jackson could not. and when the world ends, when she loses everything else, that is intoxicating. this Bradley is intoxicating.
it's not real and it's wrong, but in some ways, this is everything she wanted. it's not real and it's wrong, but Laura doesn't know how to tear herself away. it's not real and it's wrong, but she doesn't know what will happen if the joining can be reversed. it's not real and it's wrong, but she doesn't know how she would ever look Bradley in the eye again if they survive this, if she ever had to admit to Bradley that she clung to a facsimile of her. it's not real and it's wrong, but she doesn't know what she'll do if she loses what she has of Bradley again, even though she's under no illusions that what she has is scraps.
