Chapter Text
John Dory has had a rough time. To put it bluntly, his life has kind of sucked up until recently. Sure, there’s been good moments but, honestly, most of it sucked.
His parents left him to take care of three brothers, he had a kid at fifteen, his boyfriend was taken from him, he abandoned his brothers and son, came back to raise his son, lost his arm trying to save a douchebag, saved the world from Rock, went on a musical adventure to save his brother from pop crazed giants and his brothers all hated him when they reunited.
And don’t get him wrong, it’s not that John isn’t happy with where he is now. He’s got his brothers back, they’ve worked on their issues, he has his son and his boyfriend with him, he has Rhonda. It’s great.
He’s just felt… weird recently. Like… like he’s being watched. And not the same way as being on stage in front of a crowd. This is different. He hasn’t felt like this since-
He doesn’t want to think about that. It’s probably nothing. It usually is.
After saving Floyd, the boys all had a long talk about what happened all those years ago. After a lot of yelling and crying from all parties, they decided they needed to fix things. They all started spending more time together as a family, Floyd and Clay moving into the bunker with John and Branch. Bruce still lives on Vacay Island but he tries to visit at least once a week, even bringing his wife and kids if he can.
A few months later, they’re getting ready to hangout together after a show in PopVillage. Hickory isn’t with them, he was actually watching with Tiny in the crowd, so he couldn’t see them but promised to meet with them after. The little dude has become really attached to his “Uncle Cowboy”, it’s adorable. And Guy is close by, since Tiny is still very very grounded.
John looks around and sees his brothers talking animatedly, going over stuff about their performance. They’d just finished a set as a pre show for Queen Barb’s band in Pop Village square. Floyd had surprised them all by singing a few rock songs he’d learned while solo.
They were heading back stage, when Poppy comes running up to them. She hugs Branch tightly, making him blush as his father and uncles all coo at him. “Branchifer! You guys were so cool up there!” She squeals, making them all wince a little. Girl is loud.
“Poppyyyy, not in front of them, cmon!” Branch whines, though he doesn’t try that hard to pull away from her, which she notices and giggles.
“Sorry, Branchie.” She sounds the total opposite of sorry as she says it, laughing as her boyfriend pouts. “I’m just so excited to show you guys everything! We did a lot of super cool updates last week.” She sounds really excited to show them whatever it is they did and the brothers all smile at her.
“Lead the way, your majesty,” Bruce says jokingly, bowing to her as she laughs.
“Oh hush! Cmon! I wanna introduce you guys to someone first.” Poppy grabs Branch’s hand and pulls him along, the other four following behind them. “He’s from TrollCity and was super impressed with the show! I’ve worked with him before and he’s super nice,” she gushed.
The brothers look at each other in confusion. Who could this be? They keep following as Poppy points out new set pieces they’d made recently, everything glittery and shiny, as expected.
They walk into a back storage area and come across an older troll standing in the middle of the room, seemingly waiting for them. His back is turned to them but when he turns to face them, John Dory immediately freezes where he stands. He faintly registers his brothers doing the same next to him, no doubt recognizing the person too, but it’s all static as his eyes focus solely on the lavender troll standing before them. His burnt orange hair is streaked with grays now but that smirk was unmistakable.
It was him.
Bold.
No.
John feels his legs go a little weak, causing him to stumble. Clay and Floyd thankfully grab his arms to hold him steady. He’s suddenly surrounded on both sides, both trolls holding his biceps and hands to keep him upright while also shielding him.
They need to get out of here without causing a scene. Fast.
“Poppy, I think we need to go…” Floyd mumbles, his usually soft features twisting in both anger and slight fear as he stared the old troll down.
Poppy looks at them in confusion, “Wha- but you guys just said you wanted to see everything we set up!!” She looks between the brothers, Branch joining her as his eyebrows furrowed.
“Sorry, kids, I don’t think we can do that…” Bruce doesn’t take his eyes off of the old man as he takes a step back, closer to Clay and Floyd’s safety bubble they’ve created around John, their tails wrapped around his waist. “Not when he’s here.”
Poppy blinks in confusion. “What do you mean? You’ve met Mr. Bold before?” She asks. She looks between them and Bold, her eyebrows furrowed.
The old bastard chuckles. “Don’t worry, Miss Poppy.” Poppy huffs a bit at being called ‘miss’. “I was the boys’ manager back in the day! It’s just been a while since we’ve seen each other.” He looks over each brother, clearly trying to get a look at John and noticeably souring when he’s blocked by Bruce. Then he smirks, taking a few steps closer, his wooden cane tapping against the floor, John flinching with each thunk, thunk, thunk. “You’ve all grown up so much.”
Bruce holds his ground, crossing his arms and rolling his shoulders, his bigger body blocking most of JD from view. Clay was growling behind him, both him and Floyd curling closer to John and their ears are pressed back in irritation. Bruce gives a humorless chuckle. “Heh. Yeah, we’ve grown up, Bold. We grew up and you’re fucking old now.”
Poppy gasps. “B-Bruce, what is wrong with you?!” She turns to Bold and smiles nervously. “I’m so sorry-“
Bold waves her off. “Don’t fret. I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it. He’s right after all.” He looks at them again all smugly, leaning on his cane. “Like I said, it’s been a long time.”
Floyd scoffs. “Not long enough.” He growls, baring his teeth. His claws start coming out and he’s thankful he’s holding John’s prosthetic arm as he feels them scratching the metal.
“Woah, okay, what the hell is up with you guys?” Branch finally steps in. That was so unlike Floyd to say something like that. He’s never seen the older troll this angry before, he’s never seen any of his uncles this angry before.
Bruce huffs. “What’s up is we’re leaving. Now.” He goes to turn around to start steering his brothers out of the room when they hear Bold chuckle, making them all freeze.
“You all really have changed so much.” He says, his tail swaying side-to-side behind him.
John looks up and over Bruce’s shoulder and suddenly stops breathing. Bold smiles sickly as John locks eyes with him and gapes in horror. “You’ve all changed,” He licks his lips and nearly purrs, “Especially you, Johnny Baby.”
John feels sick. He feels like he’s gonna pass out. He feels his legs finally give out as Clay and Floyd rush to keep him from falling. He feels his body going completely limp and his vision blurs and his chest hurts and he still can’t brEATHE-
Bruce tackles the old troll, screaming, “DON’T YOU TALK TO MY BROTHER!” as he pulls his fists back to punch him. Bold tries to get him off of him, only managing to smack Bruce in the side once with his cane before getting punched in the nose and then further pummeled into the ground.
Branch and Poppy jump in frantically to pull him off of the man and they succeeded, the three of them stumbling back. Bruce shoves them off and glares at Bold again. He was lying on the ground, groaning and clutching his nose, there were scratches and bruises on his face and he was covered in his own glittery orange blood. “Stay. The FUCK. Away. From John.” Bruce pants and shakes out his hands, flexing his exposed claws. He spits on the ground. “Bastard.” He turns back to his brothers. “Cmon, let’s get out of here.” He lifts JD up bridal style and Clay and Floyd follow him as he starts rushing to the door.
“Wait, hold on!” Branch runs after them, leaving Poppy standing in confused horror at what just happened.