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The one thing that Logan hadn't expected today was for Remus to break down his door and drag him out to the Imagination, very much against Logan's will. Logan supposed he didn't have an excuse to get out of it, though - he was ahead of schedule in doing his jobs for Thomas, and had actually allocated that day to rest, perhaps to read a few astrology books from the steadily increasing pile on the corner of his desk. However, those plans were soon thwarted as Remus explained his own plans.
Logan somewhat got along with Remus, unlike the other light sides, although he'd never thought that he would ever be Remus' first choice to play around with - or 'torment', as Remus liked to put it, although Logan knew that was just his way of showing affection. Apparently, Janus had been busy that day - something about Thomas working too hard lately, the two of them were having a 'self care day' according to Remus - which meant that Remus had come to Logan instead. Which would usually be fine - Remus often came to 'hang out' with Logan, although that usually consisted of Remus ranting at him whilst Logan worked. This was the first time that Remus had taken Logan into the Imagination.
"Might I inquire what we are actually doing here?" Logan asked, calmly walking alongside a bouncy Remus through the Dark Forest.
"I was bored," Remus said.
Logan sighed. "Yes, Remus, I'm quite aware of that. But that doesn't explain why I am here, or what activities you have in store for us."
"Basically, I was reading The Hunger Games last night-"
Logan raised an eyebrow. "You can read?"
Ignoring Logan's statement but throwing him a glare, Remus continued, "-and I wanna learn archery. And maybe go hunting. So I made an archery range to practise!"
Logan breathed in. "Is that safe?"
"Who cares about safety?"
"I care about safety."
"Well, you're a nerd-"
"I'd just prefer not to die."
"Boring."
Logan sighed. "Please just tell me it's safe."
"Yeah, sure, it's safe or whatever." Remus grinned. "You'll like it, though!"
Logan nodded. "Sure." Over the years, he'd found that it was better to just agree with Remus.
Eventually, the two came across an archery range, where two targets, two bows and several arrows were waiting. One bow had been painted a sickening shade of green and decorated with tiny tentacles, and the other had been painted a solid dark blue, with some white lines dotted around. Logan hummed.
"Did you make these yourself?" he asked, as Remus picked up the green bow and got himself into position.
"Yeah. I didn't sleep last night."
Logan frowned. "Remus, sleep is important, you shouldn't be skipping out on that just to paint something."
"You can't say anything, I know you stayed up late last night reading Sherlock for the hundredth time."
"That's only because I don't have time to read it during the-" He paused. "Wait, how do you know what I doing last night?"
Remus shrugged. He hooked an arrow onto the string and pulled back, sending it flying into the air. It flew straight over the target, landing on the ground a few metres behind the targets.
Logan sighed. "Remus, if you're going to shoot an arrow, at least aim." He stepped towards Remus, as Remus went to get another arrow. "Oh, Lord, you're not even holding it correctly. Here-" He reached up and moved Remus' fingers so one was above the arrow and two below, then fixed his grip on the bow itself. "Alright, now pull to your cheek, try to centre the arrow on the target, and-"
Remus shot the arrow, landing straight on the target. A little off centre, in the red section, but still a pretty good shot. Remus grinned in excitement and immediately went to get another arrow, taking another shot. This time, the arrow bounced off the board, landing in the ground below. Remus pouted.
Logan chuckled lightly. "You need to keep up your technique with every shot, Remus. Don't loosen your grip."
"You're such a nerd, Logan," Remus said, taking another shot and this time getting closer to the bullseye. "How come you know how archery works?"
Logan didn't want to tell Remus about his three am Wikipedia trips learning about subjects that had never particularly interested him but sure were fascinating when he had nothing else to be thinking about, or didn't want to go to sleep, so instead he grabbed his own bow and took a few shots himself, all landing pretty close to the bullseye, one only just off the centre. Remus turned to him, admiration in his eyes.
"I take back what I said about you being a nerd, that was so cool."
Logan gave him a small smile, trying to ignore the fact he was blushing a little. "Well, you're doing a good job yourself, as well."
Remus grabbed his hand and began to run off, dragging Logan with him. "C'mon! We can go hunt real things now-"
"Remus, I don't think-"
Remus shushed him and continued running, deeper into the Dark Forest. He summoned a quiver around his own shoulder and one around Logan's, filled with a never ending supply of arrows. It didn't seem like Logan would be able to get out of this.
Eventually, they stopped as they came across a clearing, with a few deer standing around. Remus ducked under a bush, dragging Logan with him.
"Try to hit that one," Remus whispered, pointing to a large one in the middle.
Logan sighed. "Do I have to? They're deers. They haven't done anything to us."
"They aren't real deers, Logan. They'll be fine. This is just for fun."
Logan breathed in. "Alright." He hooked an arrow onto his bow and aimed towards the deer, trying to keep his breath steady as he released it and watched the arrow soar through the sky, hitting the deers shoulder. It cried out in pain and collapsed to the floor, the other deers running away. Logan couldn't help but feel a little sad.
But Remus was smiling so much, and Logan did like seeing him happy. "You did it!" He exclaimed, jumping out of the bush. He clicked his fingers and the deer came back to life, looking a little confused but beginning to wander around the forest again, the arrow previously stuck in its back disappearing. "C'mon, let's go find more things to kill!"
The two began to walk through the forest now, falling into a comfortable silence as they looked around for their next prey. Logan had to admit that he was... somewhat enjoying this. The forest was a fairly pleasant place to be - being surrounded by nature was calming in a sense, and seeing the various creatures that Remus choose as his targets was actually quite interesting, some of these creatures Logan had never seen up close before and it was certainly an eye opening experience. Of course, he would have much preferred seeing the animals in a context where he wasn't killing them, but still, it was an enjoyable enough experience.
And there was something about Remus' forest that made Logan want to explore even more. He very rarely came to the Imagination, usually only popping in to check on Roman in times where Patton was unavailable, but he had never come to the Dark Imagination. He'd been expecting something a little more... dark, to put things simply, although what he'd been met with was a pretty realistic forest, with a scientifically accurate ecosystem, hardly any nonsense (asides from Remus' apparent ability to revive dead fauna). It was a stark difference from the Light Forest, with danger at every turn and a hundred different species that Logan was a hundred percent certain did not exist in real life, or should even exist in the realm of fiction.
This forest was nice, though. Logan was half tempted to come back here alone at some point, it seemed like an alright place to carry out some research, perhaps a little camping trip would do him some good. He could almost imagine it, a little tent by that stream over there, the berries on that bush didn't appear to be poisonous, there was a family of deer just beyond the stream that he could work with...
"Logan, duck!" Remus shouted, from behind him.
"Duck?" Logan spun around to face Remus, then looked around the area for this supposed duck. "Where?" He failed to notice the arrow quickly flying towards him, and the look of horror on Remus' face as the arrow pierced through Logan's chest.
Or rather, he noticed it a little too late. Logan glanced down at the arrow lodged quite a bit into his skin, looked at the blood beginning to soak through his shirt, and promptly began to freak out. On the outside he tried to maintain a composed look, but on the inside his mind was screaming and he was fairly certain that he was about to die. Well, logically he knew that he couldn't die, and even if he did Remus could just bring him back to life, but damn he had never felt this much pain in his life-
Pain. Pain. The more he thought about it, the more it hurt. He felt himself fall to his knees as all his limbs began to ache, the sharp pain extending from his chest and spreading across his entire body. He felt tears prick at his eyes and his vision become blurry - or was that just his glasses falling off, or- no, no, everything was growing dark as well, and he could feel the blood dripping down his skin, finding it harder and harder to breath.
He felt a hand touch his shoulder, pulling him up and reaching around the arrow.
"No!" Logan exclaimed, wincing at the sudden movement as he twisted his body to face Remus, a look of panic spread across his face.
"Logan, you-"
"Taking-" He took a gulp of air. "Taking it out will make it worse."
"Are- Are you okay?" Remus asked, gently.
"Yes, Remus, I'm doing just great, it's not as if I have a fucking arrow in my chest."
"Okay, okay, that was a dumb question, I'm sorry, I-" Remus breathed in. "If I'm not allowed to take it out, what are we supposed to do?"
Logan bounced his leg up and down, trying to get his thoughts straight and to push the pain down. "I don't know, this is your imagination, can't you get it to go away or something?" Remus' various weapons never usually hurt Logan when he was hit by them, Remus could never usually affect him, why was it different here?
"It's not my imagination, it's Thomas', I-"
"You fixed those animals earlier, can't you-"
"They weren't real, Logan-"
"So? I'm not real either."
"You're real to Thomas."
"Just do something," Logan snapped, getting increasingly frustrated with their back and forth.
Remus glanced around the forest for a second, trying to figure out his next move, before snapping his fingers and picking Logan up. A building had opened up in front of them, some sort of Medieval-style hospital, or... no, more like a witches hut. As he was carried inside, Logan glanced around to take everything in, another attempt to distract himself from the pain. There were bottles of various coloured liquids lining the walls, along with more modern looking medical supplies on tables, and a bed in the far side where Remus went to place Logan down. A woman came out and began to treat Logan's wound, carefully taking out the arrow and rubbing various liquids into it until the pain had soothed just a little. She then wrapped a bandage around Logan's chest, a little too tight for comfort but it kept the blood in, at least. The entire time, Remus held his hand, squeezing it in a comforting manner.
Eventually, the woman disappeared, and Logan's vision slowly return to normal. The pain was still there, but a lot better, and he could breathe much, much better now. After a long silence, he looked up at Remus, frowning at the tears staining his cheeks.
"Remus, are you-"
"I'm so sorry," Remus choked out, squeezing Logan's hand tighter. "I didn't- I didn't realise-"
"There's no need to be sorry, Remus," Logan said, calmly. Inside he was anything but calm, but he needed Remus to know that he wasn't mad at him. "I'm actually rather proud of you, that was quite an impressive shot, considering earlier today you could hardly hit a target-"
"Now isn't the time to compliment me, Logan, you could have died, I almost killed you!"
"I seriously doubt that I would have died," Logan said. "I don't believe it's possible for me to die, being a figment of Thomas' imagination and all-"
"That isn't the point." Remus was crying again. Logan couldn't quite figure out why. "I- I was worried, what if-"
"Why would you be worried about me?" Logan asked, genuinely confused.
"I fucking care about you, Logan, why wouldn't I be worried about someone I care for almost dying?"
Logan blinked. "You... care about me?"
"Of course I do, why would you think I don't?"
"I- I don't know." Logan hummed. "I mean, you hit me with all those weapons daily, and I know it never really affects me but it doesn't exactly scream 'friendship'. I was under the impression that you didn't care about anyone, actually."
Remus collapsed onto him, hugging him tightly. Logan tried not to wince at the sudden pressure, and instead awkwardly patted Remus on the back. "Well, I care about you. Don't scare me like that again."
"I mean, you're the one who hit me in the first place-"
Remus shushed him. Logan sighed, sitting up in the bed and pulled Remus into a proper hug, to which Remus' eyes lit up.
"Maybe we should stop with the archery," Logan suggested.
Remus snorted. "Yeah, okay, in hindsight, it wasn't really a good idea."
Logan smiled. "I did have fun, though."
Remus gasped. "Really?"
"Of course."
Remus hugged even tighter. Logan planted a small kiss on Remus' forehead, and then allowed Remus to sink into his body, as Logan tightened his own grip around Remus as well. The two refused to ever let go.