Chapter Text
Parrot woke up that morning warm. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this way, but he couldn’t even put words into what he was feeling.
Reluctantly, he peeled his eyes open. It took him a moment to register what he was seeing.
Above him, Wifies mumbled something unintelligible and curled closer.
He’d forgotten… they used to cuddle like this all the time. Either for warmth, or because they were stuck in a small hole in the ground, or just for comfort.
Despite himself, Parrot found himself relaxing. He’d missed this.
Parrot stretched his arms out and draped one over the shorter man, but kept his wings firmly behind him. Wifies hummed contentedly.
The avian let his eyelids flutter closed again with a soft sigh. He’d indulge in this for a little while.
***
Wifies’ jaw cracked with a yawn before he was even half awake. He grumbled, burying his head more in his pillow. Stupid body, waking him up when he didn’t want to be woken.
He laid there for a bit, before he registered what he was holding onto, and that it was rising and falling gently under his hand.
He forced one eye open and stared at his room. The mattress on the floor was empty. Why was it empty?
Blinking, Wifies’ gaze trailed down and caught on a head of reddish brown hair. Huh. Since when did Parrot dye the ends green? And how hadn’t he noticed that beforehand? Wait.
“Parr’t?” He slurred. To his horror, it turned out the man was very much awake, and he turned his head up to squint at him.
“G’morning.” He said.
Wifies was automatically pulling away. “Hi. Sorry.”
“S’ok.” Parrot hummed, pushing himself up into a sitting position. He stretched his wings and managed to hold them there for a little while before they slumped down again. He didn’t bother adjusting them into a more comfortable placement.
Wifies did not want to get up yet. He rolled onto his back instead and shut his eyes defiantly. The bed creaked and then rose as Parrot slid off.
He'd almost fell asleep again when his bedroom door was loudly opened.
“Whaaatt.” He whined, propping himself up on his arms.
“We’re leavinggg!” Ken exclaimed, skipping over.
“Already?” Wifies asked. Ken and Wato pulled him into their arms. “I thought you were waiting until later.”
“We’re going to do a bit of shopping before we go.” Wato explained.
“Mom’ll miss you sooo much!” Ken sang, nuzzling his cheek.
Wato deposited kisses all over his nose and forehead and they all giggled.
His best friends. Wifies was going to miss them.
He reluctantly let them pull away and watched as they cooed at Scarlet and waved Parrot goodbye. When the front door closed, Wifies laid back down.
"Are you sulking?" Parrot asked.
"No." Wifies grumbled. He was. He 100% was. His best friends had just abandoned him when he needed them most. He glared at the ceiling. (He'd miss Ken's mom as well).
"Come on, get up lazy bones." Parrot smirked, tugging his arm. Well, at least they were somewhat back to normal. "You need to show me how good your food reallyis, without the peanut gallery. Can't have them influencing my taste buds, you know?"
Wifies smiled. "Right." He heaved himself up and reached blindly over his headband.
For a moment, a shot of panic went through him when he found it laying on a smooth surface with nothing underneath it like there should be. He whipped his gaze over and… oh yeah. The spyglass was in his inventory.
"Uh, you good?" Parrot asked when he'd been staring for too long. Wifies akwardly glanced over at him. He had no idea…
"Yup." Wifies coughed, fumbling to tie his headband around his head. "Nothing happened." Great job dude, now you sound more suspicious. Parrot frowned at him.
They got dressed. Wifies made eggs and bacon for breakfast, because he was tired, still kind of sulking, and didn't feel like making anything else.
Parrot enjoyed it though, and that's what mattered.
He wondered what in the world they were going to do all day, just the two of them, without Ken and Wato there to buffer in a way.
An idea came to him. It made him freeze from where he was setting his plate on the sink to be cleaned later.
~~~
"Yeah, and then he said I should leave, and I wasn't about to argue, heh."
Wifies winced in sympathy as Dean finished his story, shooting another hoop.
They were at an arcade today, messing around with the basketball game near the back.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"Eh, I'm fine." Dean waved him off. "Not the worst situation I've been apart of."
"Dean you almost got robbed." Wifies stated.
"Yeah, but I didn't!" Dean scored another goal.
Wifies sighed. "Sometimes I think you don't need any protection anymore, and then you pull something like that and I don't know how to feel."
"Oh come on." Dean stuck his tongue out at him. "I lived, didn't I?"
Wifies raised his eyebrows at him. You didn't last time said his expression.
Dean softened, reaching out to pat his shoulder. "I promise I'm okay, and I'll be more careful. Besides. It's the Hub, what's the worst that could've happened?" He assured.
Wifies smirked. "You're lucky it's just me and not Parrot. Can you imagine how he would've reacted?"
Dean sucked in a breath and set his face. "Dean, what were you thinking? You could've gotten so hurt and I wasn't there to protect you! Don't leave my side again!" He said, in a nearly perfect mimicry of the avian's voice.
They both broke into giggles.
"If he was here right now he would've squawked like a bird and shoved you into the machine because of that." Wifies chuckled.
"Yeah." Dean agreed with a faraway look in his eyes. The smile on his face turned more sad than happy. "I miss him."
Wifies sobered up immediately. "So do I." He murmured. He shot another ball and it missed the basket entirely, clunking off the wall and rolling back down to the bottom.
Dean shook himself. "Anyway, enough of that. I'm getting bored of this game, let's go find another one!"
"Okay." Wifies huffed a laugh, and allowed himself to be dragged off.
~~~
Wifies slowly turned over to Parrot. He needed to see him again. It was arguably more important than their reunion had been. They'd lost Dean so suddenly, and he knew Parrot had never had time to properly grieve. (He certainly hadn't. He hadn't let himself, because he had thought keeping Parrot safe was worth more of his time, and Dean's death was just another example of why he was doing what he was doing. The first few weeks after his own death on Unstable had been… rough).
Parrot was humming to himself, fingers tapping in the counter along with the rhythm.
"So what should we do today?" He asked innocently.
Wifies set his jaw. "You know." He began. "I have just the perfect thing."
***
Private messages between Wifies and DeantheBean9
<Wifies> Hey
<DeantheBean9> Hi!
<Wifies> Guess who's on the Hub for a visit rn
<DeantheBean9> :0 Who??
<Wifies> Parrot
<DeantheBean9> WHAT
<DeantheBean9> THERE'S NO WAY
<DeantheBean9> CAN I SEE HIM??
<Wifies> Of course lol
<Wifies> He doesn't know you're here though yet so let's keep it a surprise :)
<Wifies> We can meet up for lunch around 12:30?
<DeantheBean9> Ooo sneaky :)
<DeantheBean9> Sure!! I'll see you there :D
<Wifies> See you
***
"Soooo, where are we going?" Parrot asked, trailing after his shorter friend (were they friends now? Parrot kind of hoped they were. The longer he spent with him, the more he craved their relationship back).
Wifies' face was a bit hard to see from this angle, but the avian could make out a small cheeky smile on his face. Parrot relaxed without realizing he'd been tense in the first place. This wasn't the Director leading him to a prison to keep him in forever. This was his best friend, dragging him on another adventure and seeing where it would take them. "You'll see~" He sang.
Wifies pulled out his communicator again and typed furiously on it. It was the third time he'd done it since they'd left the house.
"Are we going to see someone?" Parrot asked, bewildered.
"I don't know." Wifies said, as if he wasn't the one keeping him in the dark. "I guess we'll find out."
If that wasn't a yes, Parrot didn't know what was.
Eventually, a small homey looking diner came into view. Someone was lingering by the doors outside.
"Parrot!!" Dean waved, jumping up and down excitedly. "You're actually here!"
The avian gaped, standing stock still for all of two seconds before he was was throwing himself at the younger man with vigour.
"Dean." He breathed, tears already stinging his eyes. His friend was warm around him, laughing in his ear, and Parrot couldn't help but shake with sobs, holding him tight.
"Aw dude." Dean murmured, patting his back. "It's okay. We're okay now."
Parrot wanted to apologize, to proclaim that he trusted him so so much, and that he'd missed him every day since he'd been gone, but all that came out was a whimpery; "we are?"
"Yeah." Dean confirmed. "We are."
And that was that.
They managed to move into the diner and get seated after Parrot had gotten all his tears out.
Wifies and Dean sat on one end of the booth they were at, and Parrot sat across from them.
"How have you been?" Dean asked. "You took down the Mafia, right?"
"That's a really loaded answer, I hope you know that." Parrot winced. "But yeah, the Mafia is gone now. I've been… fine, I guess. Super busy. That's kinda why I'm here actually. My friend Theo pretty much shoved me off the server to take a break."
"I haven't met him, have I?" Dean tilted his head.
"No. He was actually in Farlands Civ though. We were kinda friends there, I guess. But it was a few months later where he saved me at spawn, and then we just. Stayed together." Parrot explained.
"What's he like?" Dean asked, sounding genuinely curious.
Parrot couldn't help but grin. "Oh, he's great. He might like you, I don't know. He used to not really care for weaker players, but I guess my influence rubbed off on him. He'd probably get on the "protect Dean" train. He's already technically my bodyguard, so."
"Really? Why?" Dean leaned closer.
"Oh, I'm kind of the king now." Parrot scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "Which is why I'm so busy."
"Oh wow! That's amazing!" Dean clapped his hands together. "How did that happen?"
Parrot grimaced. "After the Mafia was taken down everything was, relatively, peaceful for a few months. And then this group called the Law formed. Their leader, LettuceK, wanted to be king so he could supposedly help the server. But he did that by throwing a bunch of people in jail excecuting them. He held an election and I ran against him. This big war happened and I won."
This was the second time Wifies had heard this story, but he looked just as tense as the first time.
"That name sounds familiar." Dean mused.
"Who, Lettuce?"
"Yeah."
"He was in Mining Civ." Parrot said.
"Oh!" Dean exclaimed. "Yeah I remember him. He was so nice too."
"Unstable can bring even the nicest people into the lowest of the lows." He didn't look at Wifies when he said that. "But it's okay. He's in jail now, and everything's fine. I just have so much. Work. To do." Parrot sighed and rubbed his temples, feeling a familiar flash of anxiety at the fact that he wasn't at his desk right now, working away. He didn't regret becoming king, never, but wow, sometimes he wondered how he'd gotten to this point. "Anyway. How have you been?"
Dean opened his mouth to answer, but then a waiter came to take their orders, so he was interrupted.
After she left, he hummed, considering.
"I've been good." He finally said. "Got a good group of friends. It turns out we were all in the Mafia together and didn't know, which is good because we understand each other."
"That's nice." Parrot replied.
They lapsed into an awkward silence. Parrot fiddled with his fork. He wished they could just go back to how they'd used to be, when there wasn't any tension or history in the air. Stupid Ash. Stupid Mafia. Stupid Director.
"Wifies you should tell him what you and Squiddo get up to on the weekend occasionally." Dean prodded cheekily.
Parrot looked up just in time to see Wifies roll his eyes. "Oh come on." The man complained.
"It's funny whenever you tell me!" Dean insisted, pushing at him. "She has videos right? I know you have them! Show ussss!"
Parrot felt a bit lost. Wifies and Dean… hadn't had a great relationship near the end. Or at the start really. They had cared about each other, but on a server like Unstable it was hard to get over little nitpicks that you might have with someone, especially because it might cause you further detriment in the future. Like being apart of an Invisible Mafia trying to take over the server.
It seemed, after reuniting on the Hub, that they were able to foster a better connection. Parrot was glad. He… also felt a little left out. Here were two of his best friends that he'd lost over a year ago and had never really gotten over, and they'd been hanging out and sharing jokes for apparently most of that time.
"What videos?" He said. Wifies groaned.
"Fine, alright." He pulled out his comm. "She sent them to me on here. Uh, Parrot. There are some… references in these. I mean, not all of them, but when I was trying to get over my like. Trauma and stuff, I found it easiest to make jokes about it, amongst other things. There are also just references to my characters though." Wifies rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
"But they're really funny." Dean declared, puffing his chest out and slapping his friend on the back. Wifies jumped. "There's one about a moon, and spiders, and evil counterparts and um. I'm not quite sure how to explain the last one."
"Neither am I, if I'm being honest." Wifies sighed. "If anything makes you uncomfortable we can-"
"I'll watch your dumb videos, Wifies." Parrot interrupted with a smile. Sue him! He wanted to see what his friends had gotten up to. "Is Dean in any of these?"
"Nah, just Squiddo and I. She invites me to play these like. Horror mods. It's fun." Wifies motioned for Parrot to come around to their side of the table.
It took a bit of shuffling, but they managed.
"The spider one is my favourite." Wifies was saying, rotating his comm so the video was bigger. "She records them on her camera and then sends them to here."
"Don't you have a phobia of spiders?" Parrot asked skeptically.
"I do." Wifies chuckled. "We both do. It was pretty scary."
"Alright, let's see it." Parrot said. What was he getting himself into?
***
Theo was just sitting down to have something to eat when he got Parrot's call.
He picked it up immediately of course, not one to miss out on the opportunity to talk to his best friend face to face, even if not in person.
His first instinct was that something was wrong, Parrot never usually just called him, he always messages first, and with what he'd told him yesterday it left him more nervous about who he was staying with, if only he was there to protect-
Parrot was smiling. Theo automatically smiled back.
"Hey dude, how's it going?" The cockatiel asked.
"Really good." His friend said passionately, and he was beaming. Theo hadn't seen him look that happy since he'd won the election. "Really, really good. You'll never believe what happened."
"I'm sure I won't." Theo agreed, settling down into his seat, relieved that this was good news.
"Dean, my friend Dean that I lost in the mafia, he's here. I got to see him and touch him and he's real. He's alive. I'm not dreaming." Parrot explained.
Theo wondered privately how many times he'd dreamed of his aforementioned friend.
"That's amazing!" He exclaimed instead, and he meant it. This was exactly why he's insisted on Parrot taking a break, and he could already see the change. It assured him he'd made the right decision. Of course he didn't want to send his best friend away, especially when he wasn't able to be there and protect him, but this was the best thing for him right now. "I don't think I've ever met Dean before. He wasn't in the Farlands, was he?"
Parrot's smile saddened a bit and Theo cursed himself inwardly. "No, he never made it that far. We had a fight and he left before we reached it. You might've caught a glimpse of him uh. Of when his totem popped before he- yeah. I don't know if you were in that one. The fight with the mafia by those plane things I mean."
"Yeah I know what you're talking about. I don't think I saw him, no." Theo said.
What he had seen was the shock on his face, rain plastering the hair over his eyes and mixing with the tears slowly crawling down his cheeks. Parrot had hardly said a word afterwards, not until they got back to the Farlands.
And of course, Theo had seen Dean's grave in the Northern Council gardens many, many times, but that didn't count.
"It's better that way." Parrot sighed, before he took on a more determined look and completely changed the subject. "I'm going to visit my family tomorrow. I'll probably spend the night."
"Oh perfect!" Theo declared. "Yeah, 100% you need to do that. It's been what, nearly three years sincd you've seen them now?"
"Yeah." Parrot confirmed, a bit of guilt flashing on his face. Parrot had always tried concealing his emotions, but Theo loved watching his expressions. He'd gotten very good at reading his mood. Right now, he was nervous. He had no idea what he needed to be nervous about.
"Can you…" His friend continued. "Can you come with me? Tomorrow morning? To go see them?"
Theo straightened. "Obviously!" He agreed at once. He still didn't know what there was to be nervous about. Had he thought he'd say no? Theo had been struggling to not follow Parrot onto the Hub anyway! And if his friend needed support, he would be there in a hearbeat.
Parrot fully relaxed, shoulders decending and face softening. "Okay." He said, and then he said it again, almost as if to reassure himself that had just happened. "Okay. Get on the Hub around 8:15 in the morning. I'll be waiting for you by the portals. Does that work?"
"Yeah." Theo replied. Getting up a bit earlier was worth it to see his best friend in person. (He knew it had only been barely three days. He didn't care. Parrot was his everything. But he wouldn't keep him locked up in a cage because of that, he'd lose him anyway. Wifies had learned that the hard way apparently. Theo wasn't really sure why the man couldn't have just let Parrot be, but that wasn't his place to say anything. If the two of them had worked it out, then good for them).
"Okay." Parrot's smile returned to full luminosity. "I'll see you tomorrow then." And Theo knew that Parrot had been missing him too.
***
It was a relief when Ken and Wato came home. The two people he knew he never had to stress out about their relationship or ruining everything between them.
As soon as they came through the door, Wifies was up off the couch and leaping shamelessly into their arms.
Ken didn't even falter, immediately pulling him in and nuzzling his head. Wato fumbled for a second and then latched on as well.
"We were only gone for a few hours." He huffed, but Wifies could hear the smile in his voice.
He… didn't want to get into how everything had felt so much more realwithout his best friends there to buffer. Of course he knew that he and Parrot had smoothed out their relationship, and in hindsight, there was really nothing to be scared of having the avian reunite with Dean, but that didn't stop his brain from working overtime and screaming that one little thing could cause everything to crumble again.
"But it felt like so longgg." He settled on whining, purposely slumping over.
"Aww, poor Wifies." Ken teased, ruffling his hair. "He can't handle being away from us."
Wifies pursed his lips to prevent from smiling. They had no idea how true that was. And they probably never would.
Wato leaned in and peppered kisses all along the side of his head. Wifies scrunched his face and tolerated it for all of three seconds before he darted away and hid his face in Ken's shoulder instead.
His friends were so stupid. Wifies loved them so much.
"Have you eaten anything?" He asked once he was free from the barrage of kisses.
"Oh come on!" Ken whined. "Why are we going immediately to protective mother hen mode?"
That was easy.
"You haven't eaten." He declared, and grabbed them both by the wrists, dragging them to the kitchen.
"Wiiiifieeeeees." Ken groaned.
Wifies was hit with the sudden reminder that Parrot was in fact, still here, when he saw a bright spot of colour in the corner of his eye. He resolutely did not look in that direction.
"I can make you grilled cheese." He coaxed, knowing full well he wouldn't have to put much effort into it because they were insane. He could make them a plain cheese sandwich- hell, he could give them two pieces of unbuttered bread, and they would say it was the best thing they've ever tasted. There had to be a limit, seriously.
As predicted, Ken straightened up immediately and began following him obediently instead of trying to drag his feet and make it more difficult. Wato, who had already been compliant, looked quite pleased.
"Can you sprinkle some shredded cheese on top as well?" Ken asked, butting his head against his, trying to butter him up. Wifies actually rolled his eyes.
"Who lets you get away with this?" He sighed. Ken started purring. This little brat. He decided to ignore him. "Parrot, how many sandwiches do you want?"
Parrot looked up from his communicator. Ah good. Hopefully he hadn't seen… all of that.
"Oh." He looked a bit startled. "Hm. Just one is fine?"
"Alrighty- Ken get your paws out of that!"
***
I'm missing someone, was Parrot's first thought.
He sat with all his friends on a picnic blanket, food spead out between them, edges crinkled from where a couple of them had tussled, air singing with laughter and joy.
I'm missing someone.
Parrot looked over all his friends, his wonderful amazing friends. He was so glad they were here. Dean, Luigi, Nufuli, Spepticle, Theo…
There was an empty space beside him. It was subtle, but Parrot noticed it, because he'd already noticed his absence. His.
Parrot frowned. He looked at that spot, and could think of nothing but the colour purple. His hand trailed to where his spyglass should be, and grasped at nothing. What?
He looked back over at the group, at a loss.
He had everyone right here, even though his heart was screaming that someone very important should be here. The most important. His best friend.
Parrot looked over at Theo. There he is, he thought, but he must've been wrong, because the feeling didn't go away.
What was happening? He felt like a giant pit had opened up in his stomach and was eating him whole. Someone was gone and he couldn't remember who it was, and he'd taken the spyglass with him.
How do I know it's a "he"?!
Parrot didn't think he'd ever been more frustrated in his life, and now he couldn't enjoy the very nice picnic all his friends were having because it wasn't all his friends, but he couldn't remember who in the world was supposed to be there.
A terror overtook him next. He'd forgotten this person. Why had he forgotten this person?
He tried hard to remember their name.
John? Marcus? Jay? (No, he remembered Jay just fine. That was a relief). Wyatt? W! It started with a W. That was something.
Wemmbu? No, he remembered Wemmbu, and unless he was forgetting some secret past, they weren't even really close enough to be considered friends. Wemmbu was purple though and W had a purple headband.
W… Wi…
Oh come on, it was right on the tip of his tongue…
***
Parrot woke up.
Wifies.
A small sob came out, and it surprised him. His hands curled into fists and clutched the blankets.
This wasn't the first time he'd had a dream like that. Every other time, he sat in fear because he never wanted to forget him, ever, but how was he supposed to remember him without him there?
Parrot turned over. Up on the bed, Wifies lay facing him this time, one arm dangling off the mattress and the other tucked under his chin.
He shouldn't do this a second time. He shouldn't…
He thought of his dream again and swallowed a lump in his throat.
Parrot sat up, shivered at the cold, and half crawled, half dragged himself over to him. He wouldn't wake him up this time, he just… needed more proof. (Comfort. From his ex best friend. The one who locked him in a cage and kept him there because he "couldn't protect himself." The one who he never, ever, ever wanted to forget, because he had made him so happy, and had always been there for him, at his side, and then he was gone).
The avian gently slid his hand into the man's own and leaned into the nightstand beside him.
Wifies' hand twitched and then squeezed, and he shuffled closer, but didn't wake.
There was no way he couldn't sleep through this but the thunder storm yesterday had him snoring like a baby.
Parrot set his head against the wood and shut his eyes, wings wrapping around him for warmth. He felt better now. And he hadn't even needed to wake him up.
He must've dozed off, because when Wifies squeezed his hand again, his eyes blinked open blearily and awareness shot through him. He was cold.
"Parrot." Wifies mumbled. "Why're you on the floor?"
"I was already on the floor." Parrot whispered back, wing flicking to his sleeping arrangements.
"S'not what I mean." Wifies grumbled, sitting up a bit. For some reason, he kept holding his hand. For some reason, Parrot let him. "That doesn't look comfortable."
"I'm fine." Parrot argued quickly. This was really dumb. But he didn’t want to let go.
Wifies thought for a moment, running his tongue along the inside of his cheek before sighing. "Well you're not gonna sit on the floor all night." He stated matter-of-factly. He shuffled back. "Come on."
"Oh." It had made sense yesterday, why Wifies had let him share the bed. He'd been practically having a panic attack. The man knew very well of his fears about thunderstorms. Parrot wasn't quite sure why he was letting this happen again. …He wasn't quite sure why he himself was allowing it, but here he was, climbing up into the bed, still holding his ex best friend's hand, and maybe everything between them hadn't been ruined when he'd thrown that spyglass on the pressure plate.
Wifies hummed, letting go of his hand so he could instead pull him in, just like he had yesterday, and that thing in his chest that had been rearing it's head since that dream finally settled.
Parrot threw his own arm over him, and in a moment of impulsiveness, he draped his wing over them as well.
"I missed you." He whispered.
He felt Wifies smile into his hair. "I missed you too." He murmured back. The smile dropped. "We can uh. Keep doing this if you want." He offered awkwardly. "So you don't have to keep waking me up. Not that I mind! But… we clearly both feel better this way, so…"
"Okay." Parrot said quietly, and was surprised that he meant it. He shut his eyes. "Yeah. I wouldn't mind that."