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Clambering up the loose shale of the mountainside would’ve been hell without the rabbit-lined gloves Arthur had given you what felt like a lifetime ago. Still, the sheer exertion required to hoist yourself over ledges and navigate around bodies leaves your arms vibrating with strain by the time you find him half collapsed on an outcrop.
“Arthur!” It comes out haggard, raw emotion clogging your throat as you approach him wheezing and without the energy to cough anymore. You’re on your knees beside him in an instant, wrapping your arms around him to support him against your chest. There are layers of pain clouding his bright green eyes and he has to blink heavily a few times before recognition dawns across his face.
“Thought you was an angel,” He hoarsely whispers between thick puffs of breath. Normally you’d bashfully smile at him but a heavy pit of dread in your stomach won’t let anything but fear show. You take a moment to rip off your gloves before cupping his face, thumb brushing against a protruding cheekbone. He’s scorching hot yet you feel him faintly shiver.
“I can fix this. If I can take you with me I can fix this. There’s medicine- better doctors- I just-” You fall silent when he reaches up to brush away a tear you didn’t even know you were shedding.
“M’fraid we both know that’s a trip I can’t make.”
“Don’t! Don’t say that! There’s gotta be-”
“Promise me somethin’,” Arthur quietly murmurs with a pleading look in his eyes as his hand brings your faces closer to press your foreheads together, “Get home safe an’ do somethin’ that makes you happy.”
Scalding trails of tears flow from your stinging eyes and fall onto Arthur as his hand drops from your face to limply lay on his chest, his eyes taking longer and longer to blink with each passing second. Bitter desperation coats your tongue and makes you hold him tighter in some small hope that if you keep him close enough nothing can take him away.
“It’s not home if you’re not there.” You whisper, voice quivering, before biting down on your lip harshly and praying to anything that would hear to just let you go back and fix this one thing. It’s only a second of closing your eyes but when you open them Arthur is completely still, a ghost of a smile on his lips, and the wheezing’s stopped.