Returning the Favor (Commander Peepers x Reader Oneshot)

Returning the Favor

"Hate's great, best villain!" she shouted, pumping her fist into the air. "Hate's great, best villain!!"

Everyone quickly caught on to what Sylvia was doing, following her motions with their own proclamations of "Hate's great, best villain!", including the two of you, one of which was more than thankful for the glaring interruption.You both watched in a shared state of awe as Hater unleashed his true power, that being the power to save everyone and everything.

***

Peepers brought himself back to the present moment with a brisk shake of his head. That was the last time he could remember seeing you before running off to intercept Lord Hater, along with a crowd of thousands of other appreciative aliens who had watched the skeleton single-handedly pierce Dominator's ship with her own planet-demolishing drill.

As he stood there on the former battlefield, marveling over the past hour, he came to a realization. All the years of planetary conquest, all the years of trying in vain to appease his boss and aid him in his journey of attaining the status of being greatest in the galaxy were for a reason he previously had not considered.

He was indeed aware of his own shortcomings and insecurities that he had, no matter how much he wished to withhold from admitting it, and he found himself continuously fighting to make his and Lord Hater's dreams become reality because of his desire to rid himself of the shame attached to his own unchangeable imperfections, to compensate for his lack of perfection. To find the missing piece of himself, to replace the void filled with an astronomical amount of emptiness, loneliness, and deficiency of self-worth. He believed the missing part of himself would be found only when he did what he previously set out to do over the past two seasons... of his life.

But only in these couple of moments of deep reflection did he realize the real reason he was questing to achieve the near-impossible for so long was because of something hidden, something unrealizable until then: what was missing within himself was not glory or power or the affirmation of having superiority over every living thing in the universe. No, it was something entirely different. It was someone entirely different.

Peepers gasped a bit in understanding as everything became clear.

The eyeball man came to the stunning realization that he, after all this time, could finally begin to understand the endless extent of the amount of affection, admiration, and compassion a certain attractive individual had held for him for so long despite the several avoidance tactics he had used to push her away in fear of tainting his reputation, situating himself in such a stubborn state of denial for years on end.

A realization that would have seemed silly to his past self, namely the version of himself from before he got to witness the monumentally immense bulk of altruism displayed from the being who single-handedly saved his neck from the merciless jowls of death, from becoming nothing more than a shattered shell of who he once was.

It was a realization that both startled him out of a stupor he had not realized he was in and also opened his eye to the greater possibilities of a happier, more fulfilling existence. A realization that he was missing something, some part of himself and his reason for existing that had been standing right there in front of his very eye all this time.

Like a desert flower, feeling the first drops of rain descend from the heavens after a longer than long period of drought sprinkle upon its parched petals, his heart blossomed in his chest and adopted a wholeness unlike anything that had been felt before.

In that moment, Peepers came to the realization that he loved you.

Overcome with a rather strong desire and urge to see the very individual who risked her life to save his own, the commander furrowed his "brow" in determination and started off in search of you.