(A/N: I've started watching the sub and... I had to make an edit to the disclaimers in the previous chapter, because WOW is the original show different! Better in almost every way conceivable, but different. Particularly in Jonathan and Ira's characters/personalities. So, I really don't think this fic would work as a "Precure" fic at all; it only works as a Glitter Force Dokidoki fic. Sorry if that's an inconvenience to anyone! Maybe in the future, I'll write a fic where the sub and dub characters interact with each other... that would be fun...)

"Ira bit you?!"

Rachel's voice was near hysterical, and the other girls looked massively concerned. Jonathan waved his arms in haste.

"No, listen, it's not what it sounds like—"

"There's no need to defend a Mercenare," Mackenzie growled. "If he attacked you, trust me, we will pay him back."

Jonathan shook his head. "He didn't attack me!"

"Well if you say he didn't attack you, I believe you, but in that case what in the world did happen?" Maya exclaimed.

"Yeah, Maya's right!" Lance added rapidly from Clara's purse. "The guards said you were completely knocked out in your bed with bite marks, and nobody could wake you, too!"

"Lance, settle down," Clara said, stroking the pixie's head. "I'm sure Jonathan has a perfectly good explanation."

Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Clara." He turned back to the others, all of whom looked ready to assume a fighting stance at a moment's notice. Mackenzie already had her hand on Davi, who'd turned into a glitter pad. "Listen, last night… I was being really selfish."

Rory looked up in disbelief. "You were being selfish?"

Jonathan nodded. "Mhm. I even snapped at Dina, which I've never done in my life." He glanced over at the girl sleeping peacefully in the corner, a bubble of nighttime surrounding her crib. "I suppose that's what summoned Ira."

"And that's when he attacked you," Mackenzie filled in, narrowing her eyes.

"No! He didn't attack me! At first, I thought he was going to create a Distain out of my dark energy. He whispered in my ear and everything. But then…" Jonathan closed his eyes. "He just… talked. He started telling me about his race, the Mercenares."

"Really?" Maya looked genuinely intrigued. "What did he say?"

"Well, as it turns out, dark energy isn't just a tool they use to gain power, or even just their energy source. It's literally what makes them up— like cells in the human body."

Nathalie— who had been standing off to the side silently until now— looked up at this comment with wide eyes. "Come to think of it… when we went inside King Mercenare, we ran into a bunch of dark monsters that called themselves his cells."

Jonathan nodded. "And do you remember what happened when you defeated King Mercenare?"

Clara clapped her hands together. "I know this one! He turned into a tiny, bitty speck that couldn't harm a fly!"

"Until Bel ate him like a crumb and unleashed yet another terrifying creature of darkness," Mackenzie added with a growl.

Jonathan looked at the girls gravely. "Exactly. That's what happened on Ira's home planet."

"Wait… you're not saying they…" Rachel gasped and put her hands up to her mouth. "Ate each other?"

Jonathan nodded sadly. "They ran out of food— out of dark energy. Ira didn't specify much, but he said he was weak and would've died if Bel hadn't saved him at one point. They were part of the same 'clan,' which I think means some sort of alliance that weak Mercenares formed to gain safety in numbers."

The girls were strangely quiet for a moment. Finally, Maya spoke up, veering the subject a little.

"But, why did only the weak ones team up?" she asked. "Wouldn't everybody have been stronger if they worked together?"

"From the way Ira described it," Jonathan said sadly, "I'm pretty sure teaming up was seen as a disgrace among the Mercenares. And remember, they had no other way to get food. I'm pretty sure they have to spend a lot of dark energy to teleport to and from different dimensions, judging as how none of the Mercenares ever followed you or made a follow-up attack when you defeated one of their Distains. I mean, otherwise, they'd just teleport from person to person until you were tired out, right?"

Rachel looked down at the ground, seeming upset at herself. "I never thought about that before… and I'm supposed to be the smart one."

"Well, don't blame yourself, Rachel!" Maya retorted, throwing her arms around her oldest friend for comfort. "None of us have ever given much thought to the Mercenares, even me. And I'm supposed to be the considerate one!"

Jonathan nodded. "I think that's why Ira came to me. He told me his story as if it were a campfire story or something, and he laughed whenever he brought up something really dark. But I finally realized why he came to me. He followed the first dark heartbeat he heard because he needed someone to talk to. He was frustrated and upset, but he didn't have anyone to vent his frustration to. He certainly couldn't come to you girls."

Even Clara looked sad now. "Poor Ira…"

"And… to be honest, that's kind of how I was feeling at the moment," Jonathan continued sheepishly.

"Huh?" Maya looked up, still hugging Rachel. "Don't tell me all that paperwork is getting to you."

"No… it's not that." Jonathan stole a quick sideways glance at Mackenzie. "I was just… frustrated that I was the only one without a happy ending."

The girls looked at each other in alarm. Jonathan took a deep breath, willing himself not to back out of the conversation.

"I… I'm the president of an entire world, I have more money than I even know what to do with except donate, and I'm raising the sweetest magical baby anyone's ever met. But I… I never asked for any of that." He clutched his arms and glanced away as his eyes filled with tears. "I only… ever wanted… to be with my love. I felt like… like my happiness was being sacrificed for everyone else's. But," he added quickly, "I pushed that frustration down. I thought I couldn't show any signs of anger or selfishness because the people of Splendorius would think I was a repeat of the last king."

"But that didn't work so well, did it?" Mackenzie asked. Jonathan looked over at her in surprise. "Hiding your feelings, I mean."

"No, it didn't," Jonathan confirmed. "Nobody ever noticed I was suffering, so it worked in the short-term, but what I didn't realize was that I wasn't truly getting rid of the darkness in my heart. I was just shoving it down, so deep that even Ira couldn't see it at first. But when I finally told him my true feelings, all of it came rushing out at once." He clutched his chest with mixed emotions in his eyes. "The strange thing is, at first, it… actually felt good. I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders."

"I know that feeling," Rachel said. The other girls nodded in unison.

"But there was too much dark energy pushed down. Once it started coming out, I couldn't stop it. That's when things got weird." Jonathan took a deep breath, trying to put what he'd felt into words. "I couldn't see what was happening, but it felt like… like my heart cracked. I think it was breaking."

Nathalie looked up in alarm. "Your heart cracked?"

"Yeah. And stranger than that, I felt all the dark energy escaping from the crack, swirling around until it found a passage out of my body, which was my tears. They felt burning hot, but not in temperature… I don't know how to explain it."

"Ohh, that's so creepy," Lance commented, shuddering.

"That's when Ira acted," Jonathan continued, wishing to finish recalling the events as soon as possible. "But he didn't attack me. I know because one, I'm not dead, and two, he was screaming my name while the darkness was overtaking me. I think he could see what was happening and realized I was in danger. But when that didn't work…" He closed his eyes for a long moment, then looked up. "This is what I've been trying to tell you. Kippy, Rory, Davi— do any of you sense a dark heartbeat in me?"

The pixies looked at each other. "Umm… no?" Rory asked. "Just a normal heartbeat."

"Exactly. If Ira had been attacking me—" those words were kind of aimed towards Mackenzie— "—he could've just left my heart to break. Even if he were acting on an instinct of hunger, his first thought should've been to do what he's always done and detach my heart from my body to consume it. But he didn't."

The girls' eyes widened as Jonathan looked up with a set face.

"Instead, he somehow sucked the dark energy out of me, without touching my heart— something even he didn't know he could do. He wasn't acting on an instinct of hunger. He was acting on an instinct to save me."

"Would you mind not making me look like a hero for two seconds?!"

Everyone turned and gasped at the sudden appearance of a new face. "IRA!"

"Sheesh." Ira glanced away. "It's rude to talk about someone behind their back, you know?"

"Ira," Jonathan said, smiling. "Sorry, but I couldn't invite you to the conversation if I didn't know where you were. You disappeared before the guards found me; they didn't even know you'd been in the castle."

"Hmph!" Ira stuck up his nose. "Obviously. Your guards aren't exactly fond of me. And anyways, I'd had my meal."

"And cured Jonathan," Maya added with a smile.

"That was a side-effect!" Ira huffed. "It's not like I was trying to save him."

"Riiiight." Rachel winked. "So you just happened to discover a way to feed off his energy without hurting him. On accident."

"Wh— I— YOU again! Gah, get away from me!" Ira shrieked and flew higher away from the group. Rachel giggled as Clara stepped up.

"And Jonathan was found safely in his bed, not in the room where he'd fallen unconscious. Of course, I'm sure that was an accident, too."

"Th-that wasn't me!" Ira insisted. "The stupid toddler probably flew him back or something. Heaven knows she's got enough powers to."

"You know…" Jonathan noted. "I've noticed that you use a lot of odd phrases for a Mercenare."

Ira cocked his head. "Huh?"

"You say stuff like 'Heaven knows' and 'at least I'm playing fair.' Those aren't your typical bad-guy phrases."

"I definitely did not say that last one."

"You definitely did. Last night."

"Oh yeah? Prove it!"

Maya waved her hands, smiling but looking nervously at the corner. "Shhh! Boys, boys, settle down! You're going to wake up Dina."

Ira glanced at the bubble of darkness where the baby princess lay. "Oh, so the cute little brat is here too? Geez, Jonathan, do you go anywhere without her?"

"There! There you go again!" Kippy hopped up on Maya's shoulder, pointing an accusatory paw at Ira. "You just called Dina cute!"

"I WAS BEING SARCASTIC!" Ira put his hands to his head. "GAH! You dumb glitter-girls just don't know what's what, do you?"

"Glitter girls?" Rachel mused. "I actually kinda like that."

"Yeah, it's not so much an insult as it is a nickname," Maya added in agreement.

A happy cry from the corner woke everyone out of the 'argument.' "Diiii-na!"

"Oh, Dina's awake." Johnathan smiled and walked over to the crib, picking up the smiling baby. Then he turned around to face the band of kids. "Well, I'm sorry to leave so early, but I just dropped by to let you know what happened. I'm sorry for worrying all of you; the palace guards can be a bit… dramatic."

Maya whispered something in Rachel's ear, then held up a hand as he started to leave. "Johnathan, wait."

"Hm?"

"The five of us are actually having a sleepover tonight," she said, smiling at the other girls.

"NINE!" Rory huffed from Rachel's shoulder. Maya laughed.

"Right, the nine of us."

"An' Di-naaaa!" Dina added, flying over to Natalie, who caught her with a giggle. Jonathan smiled.

"Aw, well, it looks like Dina wants to stay. I don't blame her; a sleepover sounds fun."

"That's what I was getting to. Why don't you stay over as well?" Maya asked. "The more the merrier! Plus, Regina's spending the night with her dad, so we have more space than we usually do."

"Not that it doesn't get cramped with five people and four pixies," Rachel amended, laughing, "but she is right. The couches downstairs are free; you could sleep there after we hang out and then rejoin us for breakfast!"

"Plus," Clara added with a polite smile but no-nonsense tone, "you can't tell me that it's healthy to stay cooped up in your office all the time. According to Sebastian's reports, you spend almost no time talking with your subjects unless they're bringing you more work to do. That's probably part of the reason you blew up like you did last night; you can't very well talk about your feelings to your friends if you don't spend any time with them."

Jonathan grinned at the Glitter Warriors' enthusiasm, but his smile fell short as he was reminded of the piles of papers on his desk. "I'd love to stay and spend time with you girls, but I'm afraid there's just too much work I have to do. Clara, I kind of get what you mean, but surely you get that all my papers aren't going to sign and file themselves. Trust me, I wish they would."

Before Clara could respond, there was a loud snap! from above. It took the girls a moment to locate the source of the sound as Ira, who was floating with his legs criss-crossed and his eyes closed. He opened one eye nonchalantly.

"It's done."

"Um…" Jonathan looked around, half-expecting a Distain. "Sorry, what?"

"Don't make me repeat myself," Ira huffed, rolling his eyes. "It's done. Your wish is granted. The papers are filed. Whatever."

There was a very long moment of shocked silence before Maya leapt into the air fully high enough to grab Ira by the legs and tackle him down to the floor in a hug.

"OHHHHHHH THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!" she exclaimed, absolutely disregarding any notion of safety. "YOU'RE THE BEST!"

"Ack! Hey, get off me!" Ira choked. "Hugging— too— tight— someone— help!"

The group of girls burst out laughing as Rachel dragged Maya off the boy. "Come on, Maya, don't kill him or Jonathan won't have a bunkmate."

"For once, thank y— wait, what?" Ira asked.

"Well, we don't want Jonathan to stay on the couch alone," Clara said in her never-wavering smile. "That would be a bit awkward, don't you think?"

"You are— you are not convincing me to sleep over like some— some glitter girl!" Ira defended.

"Really? Rachel asked smugly, leaning in a bit too close for comfort. "You sure about that?"

"N-n-n-n-no!" Ira yelped, fighting the blush on his face. "I-I mean y-yes! I-I mean yes I'm sure no! O-or no I'm sure yes— GAH, STOP MESSING WITH MY HEAD!"

The pixies fell beside themselves in a fit of giggles as Rachel took the weakly-protesting boy by the wrist and dragged him over to the rest of the group, not loosening her iron grip when he tried to struggle free.

"Y'know, he could just teleport if he really wanted to get out of there," Davi noted smugly. Rory snickered.

"Well, Dina seems happy about the arrangement," Natalie said, smiling at the clapping girl in her arms.

"Dina… an'… fwiends!" she exclaimed. Maya clutched her heart and pretended to fall to the floor.

"Aaaaugh, she's just too cute! She's attacking us with Glitter Force Sparkle Puppy Dog Eyes!"

Even Mackenzie stifled a laugh. "Get ahold of yourself, Glitter Warrior! What's rule number one of the Glitter Force?"

"Never talk about the glitter force!" the pixies piped up from their huddle.

"No! The other rule number one!"

Maya raised her hand from the floor. "Keep moving forward, no matter the pain or the obstacles put in your way!"

As the girls dragged the boys off to Maya's house, Jonathan and Ira glanced at each other.

A man with now-tousled blond hair shoots a quiet kind of smile. He mouths the words, "Thank you."

A boy with turquoise hair sticks out his tongue with what he hopes is an angry glare.

The sun is sinking slowly over the horizon, glittering off a multitude of wildly colored hairstyles and outfits. In the arms of a young brown-haired girl, a baby falls asleep.

A consciousness behind the group smiles.

She is watching.

She will always be watching.

(A/N: This isn't even the first time that this has happened

me: I'm gonna write a fic about some people from two different ships interacting!

me:

me: oh no they turned into a brotp)