Chapter Text
After a few days of rest, Saps’s leg had healed. It may seem like a good thing for someone else, but in the moment he realized that he could walk, there was only one single thought in his mind.
…
Fuck.
There was still like a week until the meeting, he COULD NOT let anyone know that he had healed. Flux couldn’t go to that meeting no matter what.
So,
His plan was simple,
1- Act like he still needs bed rest.
2- Tell Flux that he shouldn’t go without him.
…
2.5- If he refuses, make a big fuss out of it.
…
2.7- if he still refuses, break HIS leg.
3- enjoy early retirement.
A fool proof, three stepped plan!
A success was inevitable, all he had to do was to act convincing enough. And, he had a few tricks up his sleeve thanks to being a lazy kid in his last life. He would fake all kinds of sickness just to skip school and go play games, he was like a master of this.
So, all he had to do was stay calm.
Calm…
But how could he stay calm when Flux was right against his face..?
..
There he was, lying down as Flux examined his face. His soft hands were touching Saps’s forehead, it felt like a dream… He could feel himself tensing up.
“Well, are you sure you’re not okay? Your forehead isn’t as hot as before.” Flux sighed, slowly pulling his hand back. Saps slightly frowned, how dare HE question his wellbeing!?
“Well of course! Why the hell would I even lie about something like this?” He groaned, averting his eyes away from Flux’s gaze. There was no way he was getting caught that easily.
Once, he had crushed a bunch of chalk and mixed it with water to drink it so that he could skip school. After that, he did indeed skip school. But he also spend the whole day throwing up with a REALLY bad stomachache. And still, he NEVER confesses to it being his fault. He was really stubborn about this.
“I know, I know.. It’s just.. weird okay?” Flux looked ashamed of himself for questioning Saps.
Flux sighed, getting up from the chair he was just sitting on.
“I guess I’ll go check out the construction, I’ll be back soon.”
Before Flux could take a step, Saps quickly grabbed his sleeve, yanking him back with all the force he could muster up before it felt too much.
“WAIT!” He yelled, causing Flux to suddenly flinch. Saps realized that he may have raised his voice a bit too much, but that was one of his smallest worries at the moment.
“Well, um… About the Tricolor meeting, I- I don’t think that I can go…” Saps raised his head to directly look at Flux’s eyes. His dark hair drooped over his shoulders, he looked like a prince…
No, no. This was not the time to simp, back to the point.
“What do you mean..?” Flux asked, his voice carried a glint of surprise. “It’s like a week away, you’ll be fine before then.”
“Well, what if.. what if I don’t..?” Saps stared down to the floor.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean, what if I don’t get better, don’t heal before the meeting?”
“…” Flux glanced at Saps, he put his hand on his chin, thinking for a second before answering.
“Then you’ll simply rest until you’re better.”
“Will you go?” Saps persisted, he wanted a clear answer.
“Well, I mean-“ Before Flux could reply, he was cut off.
“Will you go if I don’t..?” Saps slowly raised his head, staring at Flux as he tried to look as pathetic as possible.
“Uh, that depends… Saps, you know that this is a really important meetin-“ He did not finish his sentence.
“Will you still go, if i can’t go and ask for you to stay..?”
…
Saps may be pushing it a bit too much, but he needed a clear answer. Flux may just leave him and go to the meeting by himself, and the step he had jokingly written down in his head would simply not work. Not that it wouldn’t be effective, it was just that Saps was too much of a coward to attack someone, let alone Flux.
“Well..” Flux mumbled under his breath, looking away from Saps’s gaze as he slightly flushed.
“You’re asking me to skip a diplomatic meeting, Saps.” His gaze stayed firm.
…
He forced out a cough, averting his gaze away from Saps.
“But, if you insist, I guess.” He faintly flushed.
…
WHAT!?????
LETS GOOOOOO!!!
Saps celebrated inside his head, this was going to be easier than he had thought it would. Now, all he needed to do was relax, sleep and act weak. Things couldn’t have been better.
“But I’m sure you’ll be perfectly fine by the time the meeting comes.” Flux continued, slightly kicking the small stool out of his way as he walked back to the door. He grabbed the handle, glancing back at Saps but not saying anything. After standing for three seconds, he left the room, not closing the door behind him. Which was abnormal for someone like Flux, but Saps wasn’t paying any attention to that at the moment.
His plan could work.
It WOULD work.
He dropped his head back onto the pillow, it felt more comfortable than before. Probably because he was in a good mood.
He got this in the bag.
Yeah…
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
“Are you sure you still cant walk..?” Flux groaned, he looked really tired. Next to him, Thomas was holding his knees, berating himself as he mumbled under his breath.
“Oh I’m fucked I’m fucked, if I cause you to miss this meeting I’m- oh my god. It’s all my fault oh my god are you now paralyzed!? OH MY GOD ARE YOU PARALYZED!????” Thomas rubbed his eyes, holding his weight onto his knees. He looked tired.
Saps was very confused, he was confused on why everyone else was confused. Normally, it takes nearly a whole month for a broken bone to heal, why was everyone acting like it was so abnormal of him not healing by now..?
To be honest, he found it somewhat strange too. He had healed so quickly, too quickly… Maybe it was because he was inside a fictional world or something like that, but this just didn’t feel normal..
Well, there may be a simple explanation… This WAS a fictional world in the end, and these fictional characters all lived inside this world’s fictional rules. Healing a lot quicker was probably normal- no, expected from everyone. This was so dumb, fake world and it’s fake rules. This world wasn’t fake, Saps knew it, he was inside it, it was real.
Well fuck me then, Saps thought. His whole plan was only getting harder and harder by the day.
“I’m- I’m not paralyzed..!” He finally spoke, trying to calm everyone down. “I can still feel my legs it just- it’s just. It just hurts, okay..? It still hurts and I CANT even stand up, let alone walk.”
“Oh thank GOD!” Thomas let out a sigh of relief, falling to the floor onto his knees. He looked really relieved, so calm, almost like he had fallen as-
wait what.
“Thomas, wake up!” Flux kicked Thomas’s back, causing him to drop head first onto the floor. He jumped awake, holding his nose as he groaned.
“Ugh, what..?” His voice came out all raspy and tired. Saps noticed that he looked quite groggy, he may have not been paying attention to him before this…
“I told you to rest yesterday, the construction is not open at night, stop running off to wherever you’re going and lying about it.” Flux scolded Thomas, Saps couldn’t understand what the two were even talking about, not that he cared much. He was too focused on how he could get his plan back on track.
“Wha- I’m not lying. The- the bridge is just too-“
“Go to sleep, now.” Flux shook his head.
“Come on Flux! Just let me-“
“Go, rest.” His voice was stern. He wasn’t asking Thomas, he was demanding.
“Ughhhhh!..” Thomas rolled his eyes, shooting a look at Saps before slamming the door behind him. Flux stared at where Thomas stood moments before. He stood there silently for a few seconds before immediately returning to normal.
He turned back to Saps, he couldn’t tell anything from his face.
…
He sighed, turning away from Saps.
“Just-“ he groaned, placing his palm onto his face as he rubbed his forehead.
“Just tell me when you’re better. There’s still Three days until the meeting I’m sure you’ll make it.”
…
Noooooo………
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Two days until the meeting.
…
Saps was starting to get bored. So bored in fact, that he couldn’t even sleep. He was spending hours staring at the walls whenever he was alone. Yeah, sometimes people would visit (mostly Flux) but they would all leave shortly after. He should have agreed to Thomas’s offer about the books, how foolish had he been days before… Not that he could ask him now anyways, he hadn’t seen Thomas for the last day.
And worst of all…
He had to pee so bad.
He couldn’t just call someone to help him to the toilet- it’s was if they even had toilets. He’d been holding himself for quite some time now, and it was getting harder. He’s even tried asking Thomas once, but he had started rambling on about weird stuff Saps didn’t get.
But good news, he had (kinda) started memorizing everyone’s schedules. It was a good thing that they had clocks in this world, or else he couldn’t even tell the day.
So, as the master of planning, he made yet another plan. At an hour when everyone would be at the construction, he would secretly slip out of his room to relieve himself inside the forest. That seemed to say enough, now all he needed to do was to wait.
…
—————————
Finally, after an hour they were all gone.
… probably..?
After waiting for a minute to make sure no one would return, Saps silently got out of the bed. His back was hurting like crazy, he hadn’t stood up for a few days now.
He stretched his back, hearing the crack sounds made him feel so much better, he was pretty sure they somehow emitted a fluid that calmed his nerves.
Or maybe not. He was just making shit up anyways, he wasn’t a medical student.
He quietly slipped out of the room, trying to find the exit. Where had he ran off during the first day…
…
After a few minutes of wandering around aimlessly, Saps spotted a familiar vase. Or atleast, that was what he hoped. Thankfully, he was right. That lucky bastard.
He sighed, leaving the building, all he could see was trees again. It was so green that it made his introvert ass eyes hurt. He’d been in that room for days now, even the sunlight burned his eyes.
After checking around the trees, he decided to just quickly get it done with.
He found a tree that wasn’t that far away from the build, he quickly turned to it, fumbling with his pants. He was so tired, it was getting really hard to hold it in.
There weren’t any zippers on the pant. Stupid, he thought. These guys had clocks an even PHONE LIKE STUFF here but no pants with ZIPPERS..? This was all so stupid.
He had to pull the pant down, feeling extremely exposed. He just wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.
…
Finally.
He sighed, letting himself loose as he finally felt at peace. He’d forgotten how much he hated that.
That thing.
Ugh.
After a few seconds, he finally pulled up his pants, getting ready to get back.
…
He felt something behind him.
…
Someone…
…
He slowly turned around, coming face to face with…
“FUCK.” He quickly pulled his pants up, as high as he possibly could.
Behind him stood Flux, he was somehow still here. Saps didn’t even hear him walk, he didn’t even hear his footsteps, didn’t even see a shadow. This was the aura of an antagonist, he thought.
He was sweating bullets, Flux stared at him with a strange smile. It almost felt- no, even Saps didn’t know why it felt weird.
“Uh..” Saps tried to speak, he tried to explain himself. Why he was in the forest with his pants pulled down, or why he was acting so secretive. But, he couldn’t even make a sound.
“I- uh..”
“Psht!..” He heard a strange sound coming from Flux.
…
Laughter..?
He cackled, staring at Saps. But in mere seconds, he was back into his aloof self.
“Ehm..” he cleared his voice.
“Well, it- it looks like your leg is perfectly fine, ain’t it?”
“…”
How could he have been so stupid, was this how he got caught..? So so so stupid, oh my god.
“Oh- uh. Yeah yeah it is yeah, it just- well.” Now, what was worse? Admitting that he’d been lying for days about faking an injury just so he could prevent Flux going to a meeting OR abandoning all of his pride for one last attempt of convincing Flux that he had magically healed at this exact hour and decided that instead of telling anyone about this magical recovery, he was going to go shit in the forest instead.
…
It was ridiculous, how the second option was the better one.
“Well, I. I just started feeling better but you guys weren’t here sooo… I was- I was just trying to find you. Yeah!…” He looked behind Flux, hoping to see Thomas, anyone, anyone that could help him.
Why was Flux still here anyways, he wasn’t supposed to be here. There were so many weird things going on that he just couldn’t take it. He wanted to yell, he wanted to scream or make a fuss. He hated this, and yet he wanted this for some reason.
…
What the hell was he even talking about. He was, he was drifting off again.
“- and..?”
Oh, Flux had already replied to his pathetic attempt. Somehow, he had missed everything he had said.
“Uh, what?”
“Oh, yeah. And, what were you doing here? You know the road is on the exact opposite way.”
Oooohhhhhh…
Wait why was he surprised, he already knew this.
“Yeah, yeah. I.. uh- my mind is still foggy and stuff yeah.”
“How did you know I was where anyways. He continued.
Flux stopped for a second before replying.
“Oh, Gotoga saw you whilst he was going back to the council. And, since I was just coming back, he told me that he saw you wandering off again.”
…
It seemed like Saps in fact, did not memorize their schedules AT ALL.
…
This was so embarrassing.
So utterly embarrassing.
And the worst part was that, Flux somehow actually believed everything he said…
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
And now, his whole plan was utterly ruined. Flux knew his leg was healed, there was only 2 days until the meeting and he had to act fast if he wanted to stop Flux from going.
At least now, he had more resources he could reach to. Not being bound to a bed had its advantages.
New plan, he needed a new plan.
After Flux finally left him alone, he started searching for a pen and some paper in his room. A list, he needed to make a list. He had the upper hand, he knew what would happen. He just needed to use his knowledge right, yeah.
He thought about just breaking his leg again too, but he was too much of a coward to do so.
Finally, he found a small notebook under the wooden desk. And sadly, he needed to write with ink.
Fucking ink, ewww… he hated ink. It would always ruin his clothes and bag. But there weren’t any normal pens here, obviously.
So, he needs to adapt.
He grabbed the weird ass quill, dripping it into the ink as he started writing down his new plan.
…
Was there any other way to stop Flux from going..?
Or, was the meeting not the thing he should be putting his focus on..?
He couldn’t just change Flux’s world views, no- that was stupid.
And, he needed a plan B just in case. He knew that the whole propaganda about Island 1 hating on Island 2 was near entirely false. Island 1 has many trustworthy people.
People that could be useful for Saps, if he got to them first…
…
He wrote down two names into the notebook, deciding to think about what to do tomorrow in the morning.
The sun was setting anyways.