Title: Eclipse
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Categories: Gen, M/M
Fandoms: Trigun Stampede (Anime 2023), Trigun (Anime& Manga 1995-2008)
Relationships: Million Knives/Zazie the Beast, Millions Knives & Zazie the Beast
Additional Tags: Bottom Millions Knives, Fae Zazie the Beast, Eldritch Elements, nonbinary Zazie the Beast, Dubious Consent, listen the smut is very vaguely Kafkaesque because I can’t write smut but please bear with meAuthor’s Note: Again bear with me this is my midnight brainrot and divine offering to Bottom!Knives. Please Bottom Knives fellows show me your hand I AM UTTERLY ALONE HERE.
All the Fae elements are directly or indirectly inspired by either Torchwood S01E05
Small Worlds or the brilliant The Waters and the Wild by the wonderful soera
Summary:
Every time Knives showed up in their peripheral vision, they couldn’t help but inhale deeply, let Knives’ scent wash over Zazie, and in turn its flower notes eclipsed all their faculties of perception.
The first thing they noticed about those independent plants was how deliciously mouth-watering they smelled. It’d been millennia since the last time they had the urge to feast, to devour the divinely sweet nectar that the nature of this planet had denied them. So, it was up to nobody’s surprise that they let themselves be led by Knives and his band of foolish followers.
Every time Knives showed up in their peripheral vision, they couldn’t help but inhale deeply, let Knives’ scent wash over Zazie, and in turn its flower notes eclipsed all their faculties of perception. They felt distinctively like going through another transformation, of which they distinctively know that it was nothing more than wild-born fantasy. For it had only been twenty millennia since the last circle of metamorphosis, and it would be another twenty millennia more till the next one approaching.
Sometimes, they couldn’t help but stare at Knives, through Zazie’s lenses, but the act of looking alone was intimate enough, they knew. As another time Knives whipped his little head around and stared at Zezie with questions, oh he couldn’t help himself, and they didn’t blame him one bit. Knives were just absolutely redolent when he was apoplectic.
They couldn’t help it.
Who was Knives, to make them meditate on their esurient hunger, to make them hesitant on their, by all means, offering feast. They loved this forsaken sand of a planet and in turn this planet loved them, for she delivered Knives right to them, like nectar on a silver platter with bow, arrow and garnish altogether, ready to devour at any moment of notice.
“Greeting, Millions Knives,” they spoke and Zazie’s voice carried the sound.
“What are you?” Knives asked them, addressing them and not Zazie. And oh did it flutter something deep inside them, like a soothing feather to their unquenchable thirst.
“I we ours are us, Millions Knives,” and because they couldn’t help their curiosity. “How do you mortals stand it?” The question escaped their hand and landed itself out in the open.
“Mortal? Ants are mortal. Humans are mortal. And I am neither. What are you, Zazie?”
“The name is Zazie the Beast. You may call us—me—either or both, since we—I are both and either.” Funny how Knives could perch himself on one of their very tiny pieces of patience, the only piece that they had to spare mortals after countless blasphemies they committed on their kind.
“Millions Knives. Knives. Knives!” They sang. And the song was a collective of multiple voices intertwined with the sound of rushing leaves and buzzing insects.
*
Knives could feel the wind caressing his cheek, smell the earthy aroma of something similar to a breathing forest, which was impossible. He were sitting alone on the edge of some desolate chasm in the middle of nowhere, with only rocks and sand and the five moons as companions. Zazie, or the thing now resided in him, still looked at Knives with those unblinking eyes. Their hair didn’t seem to be moved out of place, despite the strong gale gushing around Knives right at the moment, they were just entirely unaffected.
Knives watched Zazie’s steps. There was such an unnatural grace in the way Zazie now moved. Yet for Knives, it felt like a storm approaching, not some teenage snot that Knives dug out several moons ago. Knives always knew there was something unnatural about Zazie, because after all these years he still stayed as a teenager, from the time Knives laid his eyes on them, to this moment when Knives was witnessing their transformation.
“Do you know. Do you know? Millions Knives! Knives!” Zazie sing-songed. Now Knives felt like speaking to a five-year-old, not a teenager nor a beast. A small child who just learned to speak, couldn’t for the life of themselves make sense of the question.
The wind around him was too strong now that it had become a greater bother than a mere inconvenience. Knives could hardly see anything; the sand was getting everywhere. No wonder he just wanted to end humans and terraform this whole planet, at least to make it something less sandy.
“Do I know what, Zazie? What are you doing?” Knives were getting impatient with this game of words. He loathed the biting wind and the sand getting inside his suits didn’t help the situation either.
“Millions Knives, you and your kind, humans or plants alike, are trespassing on our land.” Zazie’s voice changed again, more mature. It sounded distinctively masculine. The statement draped itself over Knives, like a weighted blanket threatened to swallow him whole. Knives involuntarily shivered.
“This land is not yours. I am building a paradise here for me and my kind! I am doing this desert barren planet a favour and transforming it for the better!”
“Oh,” Zazie drawled. “Knives, you intrigued me. That’s the sole reason I’ve allowed you this conversation. Don’t delude yourself and waste our time. I’d expect better from her offering.” Zazie ended his sentence with a feather-like touch on Knives’ cheek.
Knives saw the caress, yet for some reason his body refused to react. His head froze in its place; his shoulders were taunted as a bow string. Zazie was much shorter than Knives, yet when he looked at Zazie, all the hair at the back of his neck stood to attention. For the first time in his more than one hundred years old life, Zazie made his heart race. And good lord did it pound like mad. Knives felt his blood rushing, pumping hotly through his veins. He wanted to fight. He wanted flights. This was a hunt between a predator and a prey.
And this time, Knives was not the predator.
*
They watched Knives choking on epiphyllum and an eclipse of comet moths. Knives’ blades were sharp but it didn’t change the fact that he was a trespasser. And in her territory, Knives might as well be equal to the so-called ants he so often looked down on. However, Knives was her offering to them. A truce, or a gift of good will for ceasefire, of which inconveniently was capable of breathing and walking, with a side of causing havoc.
Zazie knew she had caught them this time with Knives, yet they couldn’t spare any remorse for that. Knives looked delectable now more than ever, writhing on the ground. He dragged his struggle out longer than any of the fortunate mortals with the same fate previously, the end result was still inevitably the same though.
They were quite fond of Knives’ blond hair, so he would only pass out for a bit. The last comet moth fluttered its wings and flew away from Knives. Zazie picked the epiphyllum up from Knives’ lips and took a deep smell. Their favourite flower’s scent helped relax their tense muscles. Troublesome Knives might birth several troubles, but for his scent alone, it would be worth it.
“You really did outperform yourself with this one, old friend,” they patted the ground affectionately. “I will treasure your gift, and shower him with eclipses of comets. You have my thanks.”
They shrugged the coat a little, the cloths swayed back and forth, not unlike a butterfly flapping its wings. They knelt down next to Knives, and gently lift his body up. Zazie’s body was much smaller than Knives, so it looked a little bit awkward, but the sand and the wind helped. Together, they walked to the edge of the chasm, and without any hesitation, jumped.
The sand swallowed their silhouette, and removed all the traces. The ground parted its way for their travel, Zazie floated both of them to their closest nest. It had been a few millennia since the last time they had set foot in this nest, but for Knives, it would certainly do.
“I know you’re awake, Knives. Didn’t I tell you to stop deluding yourself?” They were watching moths, butterflies, and orchids rearrange and freshen their nest, their back facing toward where Knives was lying, didn’t mean they couldn’t smell it. The air changed when Knives swam back to consciousness; let alone his heart beats hiccupped for just a short second or two. All of that just announced to Zazie loud and clear of Knives’ coming back. It was even better, they enjoyed conversing with Knives a great deal.
“How do you mortals say it? Welcome to our humble abode, isn’t it?” They turned around and now were looking at Knives straight. There was a moth orchid blossom right behind Knives’ head, some of the painted ladies and comets were fluttering lazily nearby. The whole scene looked so otherworldly Zazie stopped their breaths to bathe in the scent and soak in the sight instead.
“Where are we? What do you want with me?” Knives seemed calm and collected. His scent just spoke a whole nother story though, it turned sour with notes of bitterness spreading out. They just loved it to death, everything about Knives’ scent, not only the sweetness but also the bitter, sharp edge of it.
“We’re at my domain, a nest, if you’d want it. You’re a precious gift from my old friend. And like a precious gift that you’re, I am planning to enjoy every last bit of it.”
They chuckled to the face Knives made as a reaction to that answer. To be young and ignorant. They had a sudden urge to be playful with Knives, to indulge him and his little foolish fantasy of being god.
“Knives dearest, there is no coincidence. There never has been. Your ship crashing on this land is no coincidence either.” They shared a knowing smirk with the comet moth perching down on Knives’ hood. Somehow its bright yellow wings paled next to Knives’ hair.
“And you mortals may call her No Man’s Land, or Gunsmoke, or whatever names your pea-sized brains may muster. But this land is never yours. It’s always her territory. Hence, trespasser.”
They reached out and gently put down Knives’ hood. His blades were sharper than ever, but Knives were still so young. There were many things he had no idea about. For instance, how could physical knives ever dream of cutting light, slicing wind, and imprisoning sunshine?
*
Knives felt like burning alive with anger. How dared Zazie compare him to those humans, how dared Zazie group him with those two-leg ants. He had eviscerated the entire town to millions of pieces, he certainly could destroy this beast masquerading as Zazie.
“Do not group me with those despicable humans. I am never one of them. And when all the dust settles I will always be superior,” Knives watched with annoyance how anything he did couldn’t leave a faint scar on Zazie’s body. The only evidence Knives had that his blades were still sharp was the rags Zazie wore and named clothes were now turned into truly rubbish rags.
“Remember your duty Knives. You’re a gift to me, on a silver platter no less. I want to indulge you. It doesn’t erase the fact that I want to devour you whole.”
Zazie’s words made his blood boil. Or maybe it was something else, because Knives felt his whole body burning up. His skin prickled and he was sweating profoundly. All his muscles were feeling as if they were set aflame.
“I have no duty to you. I am neither a gift nor a silver platter. Leave me alone.” Knives gritted out between heat strokes.
“Oh Knives, how many times do I need to remind you not to delude yourself? You’re gripping my hand, your body is begging me not to leave.” Zazie drawled. His voice sounded like grating metals on Knives’ nerves. He wanted to bite Zazie’s neck or bury him alive, whichever comes first.
Perhaps smothering Zazie would work too, anything to liberate Knives from this insane heat.
When did it come to this? Knives found himself now climbing all over Zazie. Indeed Zazie’s body was cool to his touch, but it wasn’t enough to soothe the fire in his belly. He faintly remembered Zazie taking off his clothes. They were now a tangle of naked limbs on the dried leaves nest. Everywhere around him, the scent of orchid and epiphyllum slowly encompassed them all.
It was not even his season yet, but Knives recognised the signs. He wanted to bloom. He was blooming.
Zazie was murmuring some nonsenses to him. Knives’ flower bud was fluttering. His petals were burdened with nectaries, with the juice brimmed in them. Moths and butterflies alike devoured all the overflowed liquid. Knives felt himself slowly enveloped Zazie, from his anthers to his stigmas; from his stamens coiling around Zazie’s antennae, to his sepals and petals wrapping around Zazie’s wings.
For the very first time in his centuries long life, Knives knew his pollens had a chance to nest. He had a brief moment of triumph and solace, and then Zazie was suddenly on him, kissing him furiously, chasing after him with tongue and limbs in bursts of possessiveness, and Knives shuddered with lust and delight and sank back with them, victoriously.
End.
Author’s Note: 1. Title because a group of moths is called an eclipse of moth lmao.
2. also look at this flower diagram, for easier brainrot during that Kafkaesque smut welp 
3. source of the above flower diagram: https://journeynorth.org/tm/monarch/nectar_diagram.html
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_moth
5. painted lady is also a butterfly name too FYI. I picked it because https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180613102004.htm
Dead Erlkönige Society 