Chapter Text
The train slowly ground to a halt in the middle of the forest. Leaves crunched underfoot as they stepped out the carriage, Blu walking ahead to see if the rails were blocked. Mole dashed out not long after.
“S-sorry, we’re out of fuel.”
“Is there any way to refuel?” Lucy asked.
Mole shook his head.
“Well, it was fun while it lasted,” Blu said. “It’s getting dark now, so we should set up camp before it gets too late.”
Lucy grabbed CG and tugged on Blu’s sleeve, dragging him off into the trees to gather firewood. He followed her in the dim light, keeping an eye on the foliage for any sign of danger. It was nice to see greenery for once. At least these trees didn’t have eye-like patterns that appeared to blink in the corners of his vision, like the weird-ass trees around Emet’s did. One tree was very obviously dead, and had been before the sun split open. The barren trunk was starkly pale compared to the woods around it. The dry wood split easily, hitting the ground with a thunderous crash. Lucy frowned once the dust had settled and silence had returned.
“Do you… hear something?”
Shit.
He couldn’t, but he knew her hearing was much sharper than his. She was a kid, and hadn’t been exposed to any wars, and the noise that came with them.
“That’s our cue to leave, then.”
He gathered a few branches as fast as he could, while Lucy readied her bat, sticking close to him. He could tell she could still hear something by the way her attention darted over their surroundings. Nothing attacked them the whole way back to camp, though, where Emet and Mole had set up most of the tents.
“Everything alright?” Emet asked as Blu and Lucy reached the clearing.
“Lucy heard something, but it should be fine,” Blu responded, dumping the firewood on the ground.
As it turned out, those were famous last words.
There was a low snarl from the trees behind them. He whirled just in time to see a creature, crystals studding its side and sprouting from where its eye should’ve been, burst out, bearing down on Lucy. She didn’t even have time to raise her bat; it was already too close.
Mole managed to get to her before Blu or even the creature could.
Moving faster than Blu would’ve thought he could — given how clumsy he was — he tackled the girl out of the creature’s path. It skidded in the dirt. It whirled to face them, teeth bared, when Blu hit it in the side of the head. It crashed to the ground, but began to rise shortly after. Emet rifled through his bag, eyes down, only noticing at the last moment that the creature had turned on him. Blu yelled out a warning, and he leaped out of the way of the attack, but his bag went flying. Emet stumbled back, and Blu managed to dash to stand in front, raising his fists as the creature prepared for another blow. One it never got to make.
There was a loud bang and it stumbled, collapsing to the ground with a hole in the side of its head. Lucy stood, wary of it rising again, with Emet’s gun in her hands. His bag had skidded to rest by her feet. Blu cautiously took a few steps forwards, poking the body with his foot. When it didn’t move, he gave Lucy a thumbs up.
“Nice shot!”
She returned a slightly hesitant smile before running over.
“What is it?” she asked, crouching down. “I don’t think we’ve seen something like it before…”
She motioned to the crystals growing from it.
“Well, we’re in a new area..? I haven’t seen it before either, actually.”
“We should keep a better eye out moving forward,” Emet said, crossing to retrieve his bag. He hesitated. “I… uh, assume I’m coming with you?”
Blu glanced at Lucy, and she nodded.
“Sure. I don’t see why not,” he replied. Emet broke out into a wide grin, turning back to the firewood.
At that moment CG whacked into Blu’s leg. He looked down to see them urgently repeating his name, tapping his leg the best they could.
“Uhh… is something wrong?” He glanced up before they’d even responded, eyes landing on Mole.
Since Lucy was there, he managed to resist swearing. “Oh, crap.”
Mole looked up, startled. His hand flew up to press against his arm. “I-It’s not that bad…”
Blu crossed the clearing in a few strides, stepping over the creature’s corpse on the way. Forcing Mole’s hand away revealed several claw marks in his upper arm, concerningly deep.
Blu raised his eyebrow, even though Mole couldn’t see it. “Not that bad?” He motioned for Lucy to bring over a bag. “Right, jacket off.”
Mole froze.
“I,— uh— I can treat it myself—“
“You’re not going to die if you take it off for two seconds,” Blu said impatiently, gesturing towards the blood-soaked sleeve. Mole took a step back, body tense like he was about to flee.
What the hell is he hiding?
Blu decided that, at least for the moment, it wasn’t his problem.
“Okay, sure.” Taking the bag from Lucy, he tossed it to Mole, who almost dropped it. “Just deal with it properly this time, instead of just wrapping a dirty rag around it.”
Mole mumbled a thanks before retreating. Lucy frowned, opening her mouth to argue, but Blu gave her a shrug.
“Let’s just go help Emet.”
“…Alright.”
***
As usual, Blu was on watch again. It wasn’t an issue; he’d volunteered, after all. He could hear someone — not naming names, but it certainly wasn’t Lucy, CG, or Mole — snoring faintly on the other side of camp. From his spot, sat up on the roof of the train, he could see across the whole camp, although everything was little more than grey and black shapes in the dark. Didn’t help that his vision wasn’t exactly the best. He’d rather die than tell anyone else, but… the vision in his right eye was gone. He’d be lucky to distinguish differing light levels with it. He managed. Obviously. And it didn’t bother him too much anymore. He could see the stars clearly enough, at least. They twinkled far overhead, and he wondered if any were like the Sun. If any contained Monarchs, if any would someday split open and destroy the life around them. If those stars were lucky, the Sun was the only one like that.
There was a small rustle. Blu froze, turning slowly and tensing for a fight. There was nothing for a few seconds, and then a hand grabbed the side of the train, something pulling itself up—
Oh. It was Mole. He was suddenly very embarrassed by how scared he’d gotten.
The other man struggled for a second, before he got up on the roof too, sitting beside him. He fidgeted with his sleeve slightly, casting the occasional glance towards Blu, seemingly having no idea what to say.
"Couldn't sleep, huh?" Blu asked.
"No… I, uh, usually can't. But I figured, since you're awake..."
He looked sideways at Blu, faint hope creeping into his voice, and Blu didn't bother waiting for him to finish his sentence.
"Yeah, sure, you can talk to me," he said with a casual wave of his hand. "I won't exactly be sleeping anytime soon."
"Right— uh, thanks."
"Don't get used to it," he teased. The silence only fell for a few moments, but Blu shifted. Since when was the surface beneath him so uncomfortable? "Listen, uhh... sorry about being so rude to you. For the past, y'know, forever."
Mole laughed nervously. "It's fine, I did almost run Lucy and CG over after all—"
"No, seriously," Blu insisted. "Yeah, I was mad over that, but then I just kept trying to invent reasons to keep hating you. Honestly, you aren't even that bad."
"I'm 'not that bad'?" Mole broke into genuine laughter this time, doing his best to muffle it before he woke anyone else up. "That's the nicest thing you have to say?"
Blu went bright red, and he'd never been so grateful to wear a mask. "Shut up, I'm trying to apologise!"
"Sorry," Mole giggled, sounding not that sorry for once. Blu would be offended if it was anyone else — anyone else being people who weren't constantly apologising over nothing.
Blu sighed, pulling off his hat to run a hand through his hair. "So, let's, uh, start fresh, alright?" He held out his hand. "Hi, I'm Blu."
Mole was still struggling to control his laughter. "I'm— I'm Mole."
Their hands met in an overly formal handshake.
"Nice to meet you. Mole."
"Y-yeah, same."
Mole's face looked slightly redder. He couldn't tell in the starlight. Everything was mostly monochrome.
"So, normally I'd ask you to tell me about yourself, but... I reckon I should be self-centred and just talk about me for a while. Alright?"
"Alright," Mole said with a smile.
***
Mole had given up on balancing on the train tracks. He’d slipped an embarrassing amount of times, while Lucy made it look effortless. It was just so hard to keep his balance, and he kept putting his foot down wrong or something? It didn’t matter. He’d found it easier to keep up with the others on flat ground, anyway. The sleeve of his jacket snagged on the thorns of a nearby plant, and he pulled it free. Emet had fixed the shirt underneath, stitching the fabric and getting rid of the bloodstains. Neither of them could be bothered with the jacket. Mole’d get a new one at some point, probably. Whatever kept his wings hidden.
“How’s your arm?”
He really needed to work on his situational awareness. So he stopped being scared by everything. Everything being someone — this time, Blu — talking to him.
“Oh, um, it’s fine now.” He awkwardly tugged on his sleeve. “I think.”
“That’s good.”
They walked in silence for a while longer.
“Uh… Emet mentioned s-something about Monarchs?” Blu didn’t have an obvious reaction, but the only reason Mole kept talking was because it was too late to back out. “He said you found me near one of them. Is that… do you know anything about them?”
The resulting silence was deafening, and Mole mentally began kicking himself. Of course he had to go straight into this, when him and Blu had only just started getting along. Maybe there was a reason Blu wasn’t telling him anything?
“Its… I didn’t know if you knew it was a Monarch, and I’ve never seen something actually survive them. Not without being turned into some mindless monster, at least,” Blu sighed. “So, I didn’t really trust you at first.”
Mole’s wings twitched. “I uh… knew.”
It had taken him embarrassingly long to make the connection. But not really his fault, surely, given the amnesia and all.
“So, how did you survive it?” Blu’s eyes narrowed. Even Mole could tell.
“I don’t know.”
It wasn’t a lie. He really didn’t understand why Ac—it—had spared him.
“Alright,” Blu said with a shrug. “We should be fine, as long as we don’t run into it again, or any of the others.”
“Can you try not to jinx it?” Mole mumbled, and Blu laughed.
Huh. That was nice. Having Blu laugh, because of him. He wasn’t sure why these thoughts kept popping up. It was getting hard to ignore, but yet he still continued to ignore it, since he did not feel like addressing that yet.
“Blu!” Lucy yelled, and both their heads snapped up. “I don’t think we can go any further!”
They caught up with her and Emet not long after, CG by her feet.
The nearby hills had risen into cliffs, and this particular cliff had collapsed across the track. There was no way around. Mole suddenly realised how lucky they were that the train had stopped already; he’d hate to have hit what was practically a wall. Blu swore irritably under his breath, hands on his hips.
“Right, guess we have to go around then.”
“Could we climb over?” Lucy suggested.
Blu shook his head.
“We might have to turn around.” Everyone turned to look at Emet, who’d been checking to see if there was any way through the landslide. “We could go along the beach, which should take us roughly the same direction. I didn’t initially want too, since it’s way too exposed, but it’ll do.”
“Anyone have an issue with that?” Blu asked.
Mole wanted to say he did. He wasn’t sure why. From what he’d seen of the ocean, it looked fine, but something in him was screaming that it was a bad idea.
He was just being paranoid.
He’d get over it.