Chapter Text
Lunda first noticed the odd behavior during her time as a spy for Nebula.
It wasn’t anything unusual. Eldar and Nebula had been allies for years by then, it made complete sense that they’d get along on some level. Otherwise Nebula would’ve vassalized them. Probably.
Lunda’s issue was how obvious he was in his bias.
She’d give him perfect reports, follow whatever orders he gave (albeit with complaints), and even played board games with the guy. Yet all her efforts granted her little more trust than one would give a fox that’d just snuck into your house.
…which is sort of what she was. Darn.
Fine then. Eldar wasn’t a double agent like Lunda was and unlike her Eldar had no particular relationship with the other players. So Nebula treated them better. Which made some sense but was still annoying. Seeing the way Eldar cheerfully sat just near enough to be considered friendly. Or how he’d let Eldar ramble longer than he ever let Lunda. Or any of the other hundreds of injustices the bastard had done towards her.
Infuriating. It felt like an intrusion any time Lunda called and saw Eldar hanging by Nebula. Whether it be sitting beside him or hanging off his chair or generally invading his personal space which Nebula just allowed.
Lunda at some point suspected he did it to specifically piss her off.
What do you mean you hung up on me for attempting small talk but you’ll let Eldar rant about literature!? She’d thought indignantly, staring down at the screen that informed her the whisper message had been ended. There’s no way literature is something you’re even remotely interested in Nebula!
The bastard was purposefully trying to tick her off. There was no other explanation.
Even when she’d stopped being a double agent this behavior continued. It had calmed her nerves somewhat when she realized she wasn’t being exclusively treated like total dirt. Nebula naturally treated all the players like that.
All the players except Eldar.
Don’t get her wrong, Nebula’s never been sweet. The thought made her shudder. No, sweet was not in his nature. Scheming, assured, confident…
…soft.
Nebula wasn’t soft in the traditional sense. After all he was still the player who ultimately had led to Eldar’s worse than vassalized state back in Avartin. Although their treatment had gotten better over time as their alliance became more genuine.
No, Nebula was soft in subtle- strange ways that, in all honesty, Lunda was pretty sure Eldar themselves didn’t notice.
He’d let them get away with things other players would’ve been lectured for. Indulged in their little habits like having proper manners despite the fact all of them were constellations. Let them talk about their interests for far longer than he ever listened to anyone else’s. Which meant he tolerated it for around five minutes before he told them to stop but that was still five minutes more than what most others got. Barring Hegemonia.
And that’s only because she makes a point to ignore Nebula’s dismissals.
Point blank; Nebula was a biased jerk who favored Eldar. And Lunda couldn’t even be that upset because out of all the constellations, Eldar was one of the most pleasant to be around. Not to mention Eldar didn’t have any true hostility with any of the other former gods unlike other agreeable personalities like Krampus, Yummy, and AR.
It was hard to feel resentful when Eldar was so nice.
So she was stuck hating Nebula like usual. Glaring at said offending constellation as she was ignored in favor of Eldar, again, who’d come in to ask Nebula a question. He’d easily dropped their entire conversation for the Constellation of Beauty without a second thought. Which hurt her pride more than she’d admit.
All these years, decades, centuries have given Lunda more than enough time to realize why exactly this dynamic set her off so much. Aside from the fact it was blatant favoritism.
It was because the stupid guy was pining.
The realization had struck during one of the sabbaticals. Lunda had been walking through the Great Garden when she’d overheard talking. She wasn’t exactly known for keeping herself out of others’ business so she’d sidled closer and peered around the trimmed hedge in the way. Watching the scene with intrigue that slowly morphed into horrific realization.
Eldar and Nebula were talking. Having tea and eating pastries from Eldar’s cafes. Nebula obviously didn’t care for whatever topic Eldar was talking about but he still listened. Sat politely across from them as he picked up another pastry and ate it with little indication he actually tasted what he’d just eaten.
Because his eyes were purely on the person in front of him.
Nebula didn’t often take off his buffalo skull, a preference that no one minded. RD still chose to walk around in the form of a person-sized rubber duck, so there wasn’t much ground to judge the reigning constellation for his fashion choices. Jang-Wan made a snide remark a while back that she was glad she didn’t have to see Nebula’s face so often. To which Krampus had thrown popcorn at her for being boring and petty which led to the two getting into a scuffle that promptly ended with Hegemonia beating them both up.
Not that she cared for Nebula’s honor or anything, she just saw it as an excuse to fight.
Back to the main point- it was one of the rare occasions that Nebula wasn’t wearing his buffalo skull. Instead the familiar mask was set upon his lap as he nodded and answered but never truly putting spirit into any of said actions. Likely because his gaze seemed lost as he watched Eldar ramble on about some obscure topic.
Relaxed, that’s how he looked. Completely relaxed. Nebula wasn’t known for being active by any means but Lunda very rarely saw him so…unguarded. Peaceful definitely didn’t suit the usually calculating constellation.
The look on his face had been the final puzzle piece for her to put together the whole picture.
It made sense why she was so disquieted any time she saw the two now. Lunda had been third wheeling them for literal centuries. And she hadn’t even realized it till now! She couldn’t even be properly upset by it because it seemed like both Nebula and Eldar didn’t know! Because of all the things to not be good at, Nebula decided feelings should be one of them. It’s not like he ever tried getting better at understanding them.
Lunda sighed.
She was watching Eldar and Nebula now as all of them were seated at the meeting table. Picking out the subtle way Nebula listened closer whenever it was Eldar who spoke, or the way Eldar would shoot him a smile, which in turn had his eyes softening just a smidge that would’ve gone unnoticed if she hadn’t been paying attention.
And ugh, Lunda never thought she’d be so disgusted by the idea of two people being in love but anything was possible when it involved Nebula apparently. The way they looked at each other made her want to tear her hair out because how was no one else noticing!? Sure she hadn’t noticed either until recently but now that she had it was impossible to miss.
There wasn’t much Lunda could do but accept her fate however. As much as Nebula was an absolute asshole he wasn’t the kind that deserved to be called out on his obviously unknown crush. Lunda was petty, but she wasn’t that petty.
Plus, such a scene would probably end with her taking a trip to Hegemonia’s colosseum. Because Nebula was terrifying when he was ticked off. And because he probably knew how much the idea of fighting Hegemonia scared her. He’d find a way to get Hegemonia to beat her into the ground as payback for sure.
“You good?” Lunda flinched and whipped around to find Krampus looking at her with concern. The conversation seemed to have halted from Enthusiasm’s inquiry and she found herself flushing due to the embarrassment.
“I-I’m fine. Nothing to worry about, just got lost in my head.”
Everyone seemed to accept her answer easily, which she was grateful for. Even if she was 90% sure Nebula was only half focusing on her, too busy staring at Eldar. He even perked up a little when they began the discussion once more.
Lunda sighed, I guess of all the dumb slow burn stories I know…this isn’t the worst out there. If anyone deserved a happy ending Eldar was certainly a prime candidate. And Nebula may be a total douche at times but, well, admittedly he wasn’t the worst person ever. For being the supreme constellation in charge he was actually pretty laid back. Not that she’d ever say that to his face considering his attitude was still atrocious but, well, not everyone was perfect.
Eldar giggled at something another constellation said and Nebula’s eyes went unbearably soft.
Lunda slammed her head down onto the table, uncaring of the startled shouts she earned through the unexpected action. Everyone else could deal with it. She was going to sit right here and question how she’d gotten to this point.
If I have to watch Nebula stare at Eldar like a lovesick puppy for another second- death by Hegemonia might not be too bad after all.
Of course that thought didn’t translate to reality. Lunda had a feeling it’d be a long time until either of them even noticed what they felt was more than simple friendship. As much as she wanted to scream from how sickeningly sweet and weird it was to witness Nebula like that- she wouldn’t interfere.
She wouldn’t.
…even if the heart eyes Nebula was making made Lunda hold back a gag.