Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Druig feels guilty for leaving the rest of the Eternals.

It’s only been a few days, but his people are organized and structures have already been built.

Druig spends most of his day out in the woods but comes back to take his meals in his building.

All the solitude gives him plenty of time to regret. He doesn’t feel bad for leaving the rest of them, however, just Makkari.

She had always believed in him, in his goodness, even when the others lost faith.

Druig can feel the hurt in her gaze pierce him, more than a week later in the Amazon.

There is a path that he's taken every day they have been here, just walking for miles until he figures he should turn back before it gets dark.

It should be peaceful, his little settlement in the middle of nowhere. Instead, his robes just don’t fit quite right, the air is just a little too warm during the day, and he’s just a bit too cold at night.

He knows it’s karma. Druig should’ve never abandoned Makkari and now the universe is punishing him.

Which is why he is surprised when one of his villagers runs up to him on the path, panting, hands on his knees.

“There is a woman,” he labors, “here to see you.”

Druig nods, and his first thought is that it is Ajak, needing them to be a team again, there are more deviants to fight.

But then a pretty yellow light zips down the path from where the scout came, and Druig’s heart skips a beat.

Makkari.

The villager looks aghast. “Miss,” he says and signs, “I told you it wasn’t necessary to strain yourself.”

He looks to Druig, who is still frozen. Should he apologize, or will they pick right back up after a cracked joke?

Makkari is still conversing with the stressed man, I’m sorry, I don’t think I heard you say that.

She giggles at her own joke, moving closer to Druig and laying a hand on his arm.

Druig flinches and sends out the order through his mind for the villager to leave them. The air is still too warm, and the cloth against his skin is just itchy enough to bother him.

The laughter fades from Makkari’s face as she sets her concerned gaze on his face. Druig stares forward, unwilling to glimpse her face, so overcome with guilt.

She moves in front of him, puts her soft hands on his face to make him look at her. When she pulls them away to sign, they are glistening with tears Druig hadn’t realized he’d shed.

Druig, she signs, My beautiful, beautiful Druig. What’s wrong?

He wrenches his eyes away from hers, moves away to survey the forest.

When he turns back, more tears are on his face, and Makkari’s face is further anguished.

“All of this is wrong,” he whispers, signing weakly, “It’s just… wrong.”

Makkari is determined now, always so determined to get to the bottom of things. It’s one of Druig’s favorite qualities about her.

Is it the mind control? The rainforest? The people? The other Eternals?

She hesitates.

Is it.. me?

Druig shakes his head fervently. “No, never. Makkari, it’s everything. I’m manipulating these people, but they are not happy and I don’t know what to do. And I left the others, I left you.”

He is sobbing now, and Makkari runs her fingers down his face, comforting him. “I left you. I left you. I’m so sorry, my beautiful Makkari. Beautiful, beautiful Makkari. I’ll never leave you again. Never.”

Druig pushes the words into her mind, hopes she knows that he means them. He can feel her respond there, in her thoughts.

It’s alright, Druig. I forgive you. I’m here now. I don’t blame you.

She wraps her arms around him, tucking his head into her shoulder. I’ve got you, Druig, I’m here.

Several minutes later, Druig pulls away and wipes his tears on his sleeves. They aren’t itchy anymore, almost comfortable.

Makkari takes his hand and encourages back along the path towards the camp.

You don’t have to stay here. You can let them go, come back to the Domo with me. Makkari still speaks in her head, knowing he will receive it, so that they can leave their hands together.

It makes something in Druig buzz with warmth.

“I’d like that,” he responds, grateful. Makkari has done so much for him, and all he’s done is walk away from her.

Druig knows that “his people” don’t need him. He relies on them, the power he can exert over them in the name of peace.

The best thing to do is to distance himself and free them.

He could do it from here, push into their heads and tell them they can leave, and can move on.

Druig waits, walks back with Makkari, holds her firm hand and when they enter the campsite, he calls, verbally, to the villagers.

The talk he gives will be a blur, but it doesn’t matter. No one’s eyes are glowing, and the air is just the right temperature to cool Druig’s sweaty palms, and the smile Makkari gives him in the soft evening glow is enough to power his own smiles for a lifetime.

When the speech is done, she speeds up to wrap him in a hug, and he’s ready to pick up her thoughts. I'm proud of you. She pulls back, a matching proud smile on her face.

“Thank you,” is all he says, because if he continues, the next thing to come out might be “I love you.”

Because he does. Love her.

Of course, Druig. You’d do the same for me, she signs now, probably just a habit.

She beams at him, and he gives her a small smirk, but it’s genuine. She grasps his hand again, to lead him to where the ship is parked, and Druig is starting to really like all the handholding.

No one else is in the ship, and she’s clearly made it her own, scrolls strewn about atop piles of miscellaneous objects.

It makes him curious that she only visited him, not any of the others.

“So… what do you do for fun around here, beautiful Makkari?” he signs, starting to feel a bit back to normal.

Well… her hands pause their signing in the air before swiping to the side as two animals slink into the room.

Meet George and Blue.

Druig is stunned. She has cats. They have names. They also have no fur. Actually, it seems they have a light dusting, enough to give them cute spots on their backs and little stripes on their tails.

Makkari snaps her fingers to call them and they scamper up, rubbing gently on her legs.

She scoops them both up somehow, and moves closer to Druig. He freaks out slightly, backing up to sit on the edge of the table in the middle of the room.

Makkari’s eyes twinkle with amusement at his panic but she places one of the cats in his lap anyway.

Druig’s hands automatically go around the feline, and he is surprised to find that it is actually quite soft, and it pushes into his stomach, curls up, and plops down into a little ball of warmth.

He glances up at Makkari and she peers back at him.

What do you think?

Purrs start vibrating through the cat on his lap and he quirks up the corner of his lips.

“I love it,” he says in her head and signs. “I love you, too. Just so you know.”

Makkari falters for split second and Druig’s heart stops.

But then she steps closer, picks up the cat (George? Blue?), and kisses him softly. Druig feels like every piece he’d never known he was missing just locked into place.

I love you too, he reads in her head.

Druig is just about to kiss her again when the cat that was handed to him previously jumps back onto him, mewling quietly.

Both of them laugh, but move away towards the wall where they can kiss without interruption.

And when they cuddle in bed that night, Druig will be warmed by her warmth, and he will sleep like a baby.

Chapter Text

When the other Eternals show up 5000 years later at the Domo, Druig and Makkari have raised countless generations of cats.

There is a garden out back that they tend to together, and cats come and go through the ship and the desert.

Druig mind controls anyone away from discovering them, and Makkari runs into civilization every so often to get them supplies.

Life is very quiet.

Until a very distinctive group of people approach their home.

“Hey,” Kingo waves. He is accompanied by Sprite, Sersi, Ikaris. Thena, Gilgamesh, and Phastos.

Druig looks up from the soil where he is crouched. He stands immediately. “What are you doing here?”

He keeps his tone purposely neutral, not sure whether their arrival is on good or bad terms.

Before they can reply, Makkari appears at Druig’s side, signing, What’s up, why’d you call?

Druig waves a hand at their visitors. Makkari turns to them.

Why are you here? She looks concerned, and he knows that she has noticed Ajak’s absence. The woman was commanding and her presence was always immediately noticeable.

“I’m not sure what’s happening with you two,” Kingo signs and says, “But the Deviants are back, and Ajak lied to us and she’s dead.”

Druig’s heart stops and he tugs his arm away from Makkari and turns his back on the group. He never got to apologize to Ajak for all the cruel things he said to her and about her leadership. She was a good leader. If only he had let her know. If only he had tried to make amends. If only he hadn’t said all those things in the first place.

Makkari comforts him, just a calming hand on his arm for a brief moment. It’s enough to steady Druig and he recognizes for the millionth time how lucky he is to have her in his life. Fill us in.

---

The details are worse. Druig feels sick to his stomach, but according to Sersi, his feelings are programmed by a brutal godlike be ing and everything he has ever known is false.

Including his love for Makkari. That’s the last straw.

She stays next to him, palm on the small of his back except when she is signing, and she always puts it back there. Whether it’s real or not, Druig wouldn’t give this up for anything.

Unfortunately, more is to come. Sprite and Ikaris leave because they believe The goes home to his husband/boyfriend/best friend/photographer/valet.

It’s hard to figure out what their relationship is just based on the Eternals gossip.

So it’s up to the six of them, Druig, Makkari, Thena, Gilgamesh, Sersi, Phastos, to stop the Emergence.

---

Like usual, things haven’t gone to plan.

Druig feels like his skin is being peeled off by Ikaris’s energy beam, and yet all he can think about is Makkari.

If they can’t stop the Emergence, they will all get their minds wiped and they will forget each other and everything they’ve been through, and Druig won’t have that.

He blacks out after what feels like hours of torture endured under Ikaris, whom he once considered a friend. The sting of betrayal hurts, but Druig once betrayed the others too, and this isn’t exactly a surprise. The group always had conflicting values, it was about time they came to light.

Now all he hears in the silence is the buzz of Ikaris’s power and the distraught scream of the love of his life.

He must’ve recognized it subconsciously, though he has no idea how, and all he wanted was to reach out and support her, call her beautiful, give her a hug.

It also occurred to him that it wasn’t just her he was leaving behind. He was leaving behind the life that they built together, with the cats and the garden and the books and stargazing and late night talks and handholding.

That was the final straw.

Druig opened his eyes somehow, blearily pushed himself up off the pile of rubble, and stumbled for several paces until his accelerated healing factor set in.

---

When he finally meets her eyes again, it’s like he can finally breathe.

She’s alive. She’s here, that’s all that matters.

And so Druig flashes his little smile, only ever for her, and she runs up, wrapping her familiar muscular arms around him and everything is right.

Her hair caresses his neck, and her fingers clutch his back, where he can feel her trembling through his clothing. He knows he’s doing the same, can feel the shakiness of his motion when she pulls back to rest her forehead to his.

“My beautiful, beautiful Makkari,” Druig whispers in her mind. “I love you.”

Makkari kisses him softly, pulls back and signs, I love you too, my Druig.

---

When it’s all over, Ikaris gone and Sprite a human, they all regroup at the Domo.

Kingo stays away, still at his own home with husband/boyfriend/best friend/photographer/valet Karun. He does offer their home to Sprite is at school though, his peace offering for not joining the battle.

Gilgamesh and Thena admire the laid back life they glimpse Druig and Makkari living, but they have their own, and they go back to it.

Phastos returns to his family as soon as he could, but not before lots of jokes were cracked about the Eternals getting soft and romantic. They don’t add “Like Sersi and Ikaris” as it is still a sore subject among all of them.

Sersi does eventually go back to London and reconnect with Dane but not before she bonds with one of Druig and Makkari’s new kittens, so she ends up taking a reminder of her family with her.

And then it is just two again. Life is the same, with a few more vivid nightmares, but more good things too.

Makkari starts visiting the others, collecting letters to bring back to Druig, and a couple of times she has carried him on her back to visit Dane and Sersi, or Thena and Gilgamesh, or Ben and Phastos, or Kingo, Sprite, and Karun.

It’s always tiring for her, however, and a very disconcerting experience for Druig who has to wear all sorts of protection made by Phastos to keep him unharmed at the high speeds.

They tend to stick to really long letters, but Makkari still teases his silly appearance every time he dons the strange equipment.

The two mix things up eventually, getting into art and starting to send poor sketches and renderings of the cats that Druig is sure the others laugh at, but would never in front of his face.

Makkari keeps looking for artifacts that she sends to Sersi and Dane, the latter whom is always mildly appalled but intrigued.

Things go back to normal, and Druig secretly hopes it will be another 5000 years before someone interrupts them again.