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A loud sound came from the bedroom.Illumina almost jumped and bit his tongue full of toast.
“Fruit? What the heck.”
He dropped the food and simply wiped his mouth with his hand, putting his chocolate milk aside. Curiosity and concern pushed him to the front door of Fruit’s bedroom. Without knocking, Illumina opened the door gently, only to find his roommate lying on the floor. It seemed like Fruit was trying to reach something.
Fruit lit his head hearing the sound of the door, but didn’t meet Illumina in the eyes. He tried to push himself up.
“Illumina? Is that you?” He asked with his voice shaking, almost whispering to himself.
“Of course, it’s me,”Illumina softened his voice and stepped inside. Trying to pull Fruit up. “What’s happening? There’s no one else.”
Something was wrong. But Illumina was too dull to spot it. He checked carefully to make sure Fruit wasn’t hurt, but...Fruit was weirdly silent. It was until he felt Fruit’s hands on his shoulder.
“I - I can’t...Illumina，I...”
There’s nothing inside his chocolate eyes but hollowness.
“I can’t see you, I can’t see anything...You-you know what I mean?”
Illumina caught his hands. Fruit was slightly shivering, and panicked. He had never seen Fruit like this before. Fruit was always grinning, smiling, laughing, sometimes pouting, but not like this. He was afraid of the thought that Fruit was dead serious.”No way...”
He mumbled, staring at Fruit once again. There’s literally nothing else but his worried face in those chocolate irises. There was no light. No light in Fruit’s dark brown eyes.
Fruit broke the uncomfortingly long silence. “I-I think I’m blind.”
“There’s no way you’re-it’s impossible.”Illumina stressed, “You’re imagining things. Here,take my hand, we’ll go to the doctor.”
“But...”
“You’re fine, Fruit, you’re fine.”Illumina dragged him out of the bedroom. “I can help you to put on your coat, shoes, et cetera...”
“I mean...” Fruit poked his back, “I haven’t eat breakfast, m’ hungey.”
“Oh.”
Illumina froze for a second. That was absolutely embarrassing. How could he forget about that. He was so bad being a friend.
“I bet you’re blushing so hard right now,” Fruit chuckles, “You idiot.”
“Oh, just shut up. Take my hand.”
Fruit definitely would laugh at him, and his tomato face. That’s how much of a menace Fruit is. He felt empathetic for just a moment and this was what he got.
“Love you, Lumi.”
“Peanut buffer or jelly?”
“Jelly, strawberry, put as much as you can, thank you.” Fruit took a sip of whatever it was besides his hand. “Ow. So bitter.”
Illumina came out of the kitchen, holding a plate of toast. He placed it in front of Fruit and began to add sugar to the coffee. “Coffee’s not ready yet, dummy.” Though he preferred less sugar, he knew that Fruit was a big fan of sweet coffee.
“You can’t call me dummy, I’m smarter than you.” Fruit took a huge bite.
“1000 IQ?” Illumina giggled as he saw Fruit nodded. He pushed the cup forward, “here you go big-brain Berries.”
“Thank you, middle-sized-brain Lumina.”
Illumina couldn’t help but laughed. Fruit always made weird but funny nicknames for him, and he fell for them literally every single time.
“Why is this so hilarious, like ,every time.” He took off the light blue apron with a little white cat on it. Illumina felt freezing cold all of a sudden.
How could he explain it to Salty? What was going on with Fruit's eyes? What if the worst thing happens?
Fruit was so young, even younger than him. So young and talented and ...kind. Both the streamer Fruitberries and his best friend Fruit. He could still remember the first day they met up when the beautiful chocolate eyes locked on him, shining with curiosity and intelligence.
“What’s up? Anything wrong?”
Everything went wrong. Illumina felt his heart racing faster and faster at the terrifying thoughts that kept lingering in his head.
“I’ll take you to the doctor after breakfast.”
“Thank god you are fine. I was literally scared to death.”
Illumina tightened the safety belt for Fruit and got himself into the driver’s seat. He added a note on his phone to remember when to help Fruit take the medicine as the radio turned on, making a tune.
“Want some Oasis? Queen? Beatles?”
Fruit shook his head in response, “C’mon, we’re not British or something. What are you, a bommer?”
Ignoring the scoff, Illumina turned the radio up instantly and took the wheel. They drived out of the parking lot when the guitar began to play. It was loud to be fair, but not annoyingly loud.
“You don’t mind some Wonderwall, do you?”
The duo hummed with the music on the way home. There’s nothing to blame about the old time rock, and it suited the city night pretty well. It was an unexpectedly long way that made Illumina wonder what’s going though Fruit’s mind.
“Are we there yet? I’m starving.”
Yeah, basically nothing important. That was a Fruit thing to say. What a legend.
“Almost home.” Illumina stopped the car at the red light, “what do you want for dinner? Don’t expect me to make a 3 course meal though.”
“Mac and cheese maybe? I’m okay for anything, I mean.”
“We still got some vanilla ice cream in the fridge.” Illumina turned around. Fruit was closing his eyes as if he was asleep, with a tired but comforting smile on his face. He would’ve look healther without those pale cheeks. Just before Illumina was gonna concentrate back on driving, Fruit opened his mouth.
“Heck yeah.”
After dessert, Illumina led Fruit to the couch. Illumina closed the windows before, but it was still cold in the living room. Fruit grabbed the blanket and snuggled.
Fruit’s hands were cold, ice cold. His body always worked like this, it would take quite a while for him to warm up. It just didn’t seem abnormal until this point when Illumina thought about it seriously. That might be a problem under the surface as well.
“You’re such a chef.” Fruit sighed, “I’ll never be able to cook like this.”
Illumina went silent for a moment. Last time it was a taunt when Fruit “praised” his cooking skills. To be honest, he was embarrassingly bad.
“Uhh...is that sarcasm?”
“Nope sir, nope, absolutely not.”
They cuddled together, talking about life, about work, about games they won or lost. And as usual, they ended up laughing into a mess.
“Wait. Can I recover before the next MCC tournament?”
“I’m sure you will if we do what the doctor told us. Everything will be fine.” Illumina softened his voice.
The anxiety and nervousness was clearly shown by the frowning eyebrows. Fruit took a deep breath in and out, body still slightly shivering. “I’m like, what is it called, Helen Keller or something.” He forced a smile on the face, trying his best to tease.
They didn’t say a thing for a long time. Illumina pulled Fruit closer, hugging him gently with pats on the back. There’s not much he could do for Fruit, but it was very painful to watch Fruit suffer. He knew there was air in his lungs, but it felt like choking. He ran his hand through the hazel hair, trying the best he could do to comfort the man.
“There, there.”
“I’m scared.”
It was at that point when Illumina realized how vulnerable he was.
“I’m scared, Illumina...it’s so scary.”
There were tears rolling down Fruit’s cheeks. It was heartbreaking and almost tormenting. He hugged Illumina tight as the black-haired man wiped away the tears carefully.
Illumina felt more than helpless. His brain was so stuck that he couldn’t think of anything to say. He hugged back, letting Fruit rub the tears all his hoodie and the blanket.
“I’m here with you. I’m always here, Fruit. It’s okay...we can go through this, I promise.”
“We can go through everything together...I promise you.”
“Everything is vague, but the doctor said I'm fine. No, I can't play Minecraft or basically anything that involves using eyes. I'm... okay l guess. Illumina is taking good care of me. Aw, thank you Salty. I love you.…. ! guess I just... need time to recover."
Illumina walked out of the kitchen with a plate of fried eggs and bacon while Fruit was still talking to Salty on the phone. He seemed less and less anxious as the days passed by. He was getting better for sure.
“Bye Salfy, I love you. Talk to you soon!"
Fruit put his phone on the sofa and waited for the girl to hang up. It was surprising how fast he was healing up, thanks to the work-outs. Doing push-ups and lifting was...not pleasurable to say at least. lt was a good thing that he bit the bullet and didn't give up half way.
"Fruit, what do you want for drinks?" Illumina's voice came from the dining table.
"I'd like to have..." Fnat stopped for a second, "something sweet."
It's not that he didn't like making choices, he just liked to leave them for Illumina a litle bit more. It's fun to see Illumina's confusing face, it's much funnier when Illumina said " I’m Confucious." It's rare, but definitely worth a try.
"This is ... too accurate for me. l'm Confucious."
The man said it. He said the phrase.
Illumina sighed as Fruit bursted into laughter. He took the carton out of the fridge and poured some chocolate milk ihto the glass. After evenythng's ready, he came to Fruit and led the way.
"Thank you for making me breakfast, dude. Thanks a lot."
"No problem, I mean... as long as you don't make fun of me."
Illumina took a seat across from Fruit. He had been learning recipes of meals to make sure they have enough nutritions, but he still prefered instant noodles and lasagna deep inside.
“Woah woah woah, " Fruit put the glass down, " that's not how things work, mister thirteen-thirty-seven."
"Remember to take your medicine dummy."
Illumina ended the topic, there's no point going on. Fruit was going to win it anyways. ln regular times Illumina's got a good ol fifty-fifty win rate, but now... he just couldn't have it over a patient. Especially when it’s Fruit. He still wanted to be the best man at Fruit's wedding afler all.
"Where did you put it? I'll take it when I'm done eating.”
Fruit took a bite. He seemeed to savour the meal as his face lit up with joy. It felt even more precious when the man used to be kind of picky.
"On your left hand side as usual."
Illumina grinned. Fruit was getting better. Once he had made up his mind for it, everything was getting better.
“Imma stream for a bit. lt's been so long since the last one. "Illumina got up from the bed , "you wanna stay with me?"
"l mean, if you want me to leave-"
Fruit seemed nervous again. Somehow he managed to learn using this trick as a camoflage of asking more. And who could say no to this annoyingly cute guy? Definitely and obviously, couldn’t be Illumina.
"You're staying with me then. You're not going anywhere until l finish the stream."
lllumina sat by his PC in a camfortable position, waiting for the computer to start. He stretched his arms and fingers, to be prepared for the next few hours.
Fruit grabbed the quilt to hide himself inside. It felt safe hanging in Illumina's room even if he couldn't use his eyes. Tnere's a special bound between them that he failed to find an accurate word to describe. It's more than the relatonship with frends, it's like... they're a family.
He felt like home when Illumina's around.
Illumina started the stream with his regular title of speedrunning on his main account. He got everything set up quickly, farming "my streamer's alive"s at the same time in chat. He muted up and cleared his throat.
“Hello every body. Hope you all are doing well."
"1.16 RSG? Yeah. It's still possible to break my PB.... as long as I get a zero cycle."
Fruit yawned. It's not easy to stay awake and sober when you're in a warm bed, hearing the legendary speedrunner himself talking next to you in his gentle voice.
It's just too comfortable. He really was getting spoiled.
“Don't mind if you hear Fruitberries in the background , he's having a vacation in my room."
"Yay... Let's go. "Fruit mumbled lazily.
"I don't like the hospital," Fruit tightened the seatbelt clumsily, "it just smells weird."
“Good thing we don't need to go there in a while. You wanna come with me to the market this time?"
It's a nice day in early spring. The air was fresh clean after the rain yesterday washed everything away. The sun was finally back in place, giving out the warmth that slowly waked up the lives on earth. There were squirrels on the sides of the road, and birds flying through the cerulean sky. There's something unique about the beauty of nature. lt always finds a way to touch one's heart.
"Sure, you're the best."
Fruit looked up to the sky. It felt so good to be able to see things more clearly. The blue, the green, the black, everything catched his eyes. It took quite a while for him to realize how fantastic and amazing the world is.
He felt grateful for everything he saw, and of course, especially the black-haired man on the driver's seat.
"Wait. What if someone recognizes me?"
That's a problem for poople more famous to consider about, but whatever. Normally Fruit didn't have such big of an ego, but...Everything seemed possible in a cozy spring day.
"Uh... I mean, you haven't shaved in a year or so, " Illumina took a turn,"I don't think they can recognize you in a situation like this, unless it's...a stan or something."
"Oh. Is Illumina a stan then?"
Fruit chuckled. It's such a shame he couldn't see Illumina's suspiciously red face in the back seat.
"Well, to be fair, you kinda look like a little monkey."
"What? You're calling me a little monkey?"
Illumina laughed, Fruit followed after.
"C'mon Illumina, we all know you are the little monkey."
“How am I the little monkey?"
Illumina was almost 100% sure the answer wouldn't be reasonable. Possibly something Fruit just made up, or the first thing that came across his mind. But yeah, he'd admit that he quite enjoyed the jibber-jabbers with Fruit.
“Don’t you remember the, you know, Ultimate chicken Horse thingy?"
There's nothing better than a actual solid clue. He did recall the memory of choosing the monkey character on Feinberg's stream, but that was long ago. The traps, the doors, the gentlemen's agreement, they suddenly all came alive inside Illumina's head, like they just happened yesterday.
Memories are complicated and bizarre. Illumina had never figured out how they work, but they always came with either laughters or tears, sometimes a mixture of both in very rare situations.
"Yeah... and they still call us the cat boys."
Tears clouded Illumina's vision because he was laughing way too hard. His stomach hurt so bad.
"Let's be the monkey boys then." Fruit stated seriously, then bursted to laughter.
"You sure you're fine now?" Illumina asked with concern.
It's been a good couple of weeks. thankfully the MCC break was long enough. Finally, Fruit was able to see things clearly as before after all these days of waiting. The first thing he did was telling it to Illumina, the second thing he did was texting Salty. And here came the third thing, which is probably not very good for his eyes.
"l need practice. I don't want to throw it like l did in MCC 15." Fruit nodded with determination,"the Reddit roasted me so hard, man. It's tough."
"Just.. ignore the comments. They're being way too toxic."
Illumina sighed. There's too much stress for them to be the so called "s-tier players". Thankfully the most people in chat were being understanding and supportive. But Fruit always cared too much about what the people said.
Pete had the similar conversation with him months ago. Unlike Dream or Sapnap, Pete was not used to standing in the center of the stage. And Illumina couldn't agree more with that. A little mistake could turn into a fatal error so easily when the pressure was on them.
"Who are you teamming with this time?"
" Grian, Joel ... and Martyn I guess, if l remember it correctly."
Fruit sat down at his PC. lt felt unreal to be back ih this place. Kind of strange. He moved his finger to click on the opening screen.
"Guess I'll do some speedrunning first to warm up."
Illumina patted on he his back and smiled, " I'll be doing some chores, call me if you need anything, okay?"
Illumina went outside, taking out his phone to message the doctor. What could Illumina say, his roommate was just talented. Fruit was born a gamer, and he gained happiness supporting the man. He wouldn't even be surprised if Fruit passes him one day. But he still dropped his chin and phone when he received the mesage from Fruit.
"I might have just got a PB lol "
"I' m back."
Fruit stomped on the carpet, taking the scarf and the coat off. He put on the green slippers and stepped inside , holding the bag of plushies Salty just bought him when they're hanging around.
There were two cute kittens ih the bag. A black one with aqua eyes, and an orange one with emerald eyes. Salty had one as well, it's a white little kitten with eyes of different colors. The plushies were adorable to say at least, Fruit 's heart almost melted when he saw them.
There was no response. The apartment was dead silent. Seemed like Illumina was taking a long nap.
Fruit put the bag on the dining table gently. He walked over to the couch and stopped. Illumina was cuddling on the couch, covered with the blanket. There were some sort of papers inside his hands, grabbed by his long fingers loosely.
"What a sleeping beauty. " Fruit murmured as a grin appeared on his face. He took a step closer to have a look at the papers. To his surprise, it was a bunch of dessert recipes. Fruit slowly pulled one piece of paper out of Illumina's hands.
"How to make muffins ... hmm ... l can do that."
One thing about Fruit is, when he had made his decisions, no one could stop him, unless it's Salty or Illumina. This would also be a good way to show his thanks. Fruit rushed to wash his hands and dashed into the kitchen.
Hours later, he came out with a complicated expression.
Clearly Fruit didn't quite understand how cooking worked, but he brought out his best for sure. To be fair, it was absolutely not good enough. The muffins tasted fine, but they looked awful. Almost hideous. Some of them even had faces looking lilke they're getting tortured in hell. Hopefully they were not forboding something.
"EW," Fruit took a huge hite to destroy the face. It's such a relief it worked somehow. He rubbed his tummy. The ominous soul of that muffin wouldn't have a good time there.
It was at dusk, the clouds slowly swallowed the sun as the sky turned from orange and violet to red. And Illumina was slightly snoring. what a scenery.
Kneeling down at the couch, Fruit pulled the rest of the papers away on the floor. He shaked Illumina’s body gently, and patted the man's face.
"Wakey wakey, little sweetie."
Illumina turned around, slowly opening his sleepy black eyes. He gazed back and began to sit up, with that silly smile on the face.
"You had fun with Salty?" His voice was a bit deeper than before, due to the lack of water. But still, it was comforting as usual.
"Yeah. I made you muffins."
Fruit got up and slt by Illumina's side, grabbing the blanket over to cover him as well. "She bought us 2 plushies, you can pick one first."
"What on earth is happening. You made something edible, and Salty picked a gift for me? This is my lucky day."
Illumina laughed, pulling the blanket more to his side. But Fruit refused to give up as well, using more strength to pull it back.
"let's get up before we tear it apart."Illumina fell back to the couch, "You get the desserts ready, I'll gather up the papers."
It was a lot of recipes to be fair, and they had to be organized into the correct order. Fruit got up from the couch, leaving Illumina alone.
Illumina leaned down to reach the papers. He checked them one by one very carefully in a steady pace , until one of them dropped out and Illumina froze.
It was the letter from the doctor. Did Fruit see it? Did Fruit discover anything he was trying hard to hide?
Will Fruit hate him for lying?
Oh god. Oh lord. No.
"The muffins are ready, Illumina!"
Fruit called out from a distance.
"His eyes won't get better at any chances."
"I' m sorry for that. There's nothing more we could do."
“But you have the opportunity to decide, Mr. Ridell."
“To make everything vague in the rest of his life, or to make him see things clearly for a short amount of days? ln that situation, he will be living out in the darkest void forever after."
"l know, it's hard to make a decision."
"What is your choice, Mr. Ridell?"
"I don't know if this could work... but please hear me out."
Illumina took a deep breath in and out. He cleared his throat.
It's MCC day. The highly anticipated tournament had finally come. Fruit got a message from Salty to check up if he was doing alright before he sit back to the computer. it's understandable that Salty was still worried, but Fruit felt better than ever.
He started the stream, doing some 1v1 fights on the PVP Legacy as usual to warm himself up. There was not much to talk about, but the chat were still excited, spamming random "goat" and "pog” , as well as his favorite one: "my streamer".
Without their love, he would never be able to make it a job. And he would never have the chance to meet Illumina. Fruit was more than glad and grateful to live a life like this.
He got a text from Joel," are you ready for the event my friend?"
And as always, there's Pete, good ol' Petezahhutt. He was the only one that Fruit told the truth to, other than Illumina and Salty.
“Good luck have fun! Looking forward to meet you in Dodgebolt Fruity B <3"
The facecam wasn’t on, so the chat missed a big smile. Fruit logged on the server. Surrounded by familiar faces, the seaon 2 continued. The Burgurs But Fast came into sight, then the red carpet, the big timer.
" Yo. what's up? "Fruit joined the group chat.
"Screenshot! Hey Fruity B! C'mon guys, let's take a screenshot!"
Grian's voice was lively and uplifting. Fruit couldn't help but wondered if Grian carried the gong this time.
“ There we go... Blue Bats! Let's go!"
Then there was the dance party, as well as the fireworks. Fruit still got shocked and amazed when the fireworks lit up the night sky in different shapes and colors. It really was fantastic.
The count down was over. The horns blew. lt's time to get more intense. He kind of wished Illumina to be in the event as well though.
"Yes, l am willing to do it by all means."
" When should l sign the agreement?"
After breaktime, Fruit found something unnormal. His right eye began to hurt slightly, and tears started coming out.
Not big deal. Not a big deal for the gamer Fruitberries.
"What do we want to play next?"
"I'm down for anything actually," Fruit wiped the burning liquid out of his vision with his finger. He was doing well, there's no way to stop right here. They had absolutely dominated the Grid Runners and Buildmart, which gained them lots of points on the leaderboard.
“Sky battle hasn't been played yet ...this is really getting on my nerves. I always behave badly in this game."
Grian sighed. Fruit didn't worry at all if he was being honest. He had faith in all his teammates , not only because they 're good players. In fact, Fruit could see great potential in those "hermits" and "builders". Sometimes he wondered, did he count as a builder as well? ln his defense, he was part of the House Builder Gang. Would he be invited to the Hermitcraft?
"Let's go for Skybattle then," Fruit laughed a little, " we'll be fine, I mean, as long as we don't get pushed on by multiple teams."
Grian agreed, "yeah...I guess its better to play it now than later."
The game started. They decided that Fruit should be the one to bridge, and Martyn should take iron blocks to make armors. Fruit began speed-bridging, smoothly and flawlessly, as elegant as usual.
His eye hurt.
His eye hurt badly all of a sudden and he lost control. Without a single warning, the green figure fell into the void.
"I'm very sorry... I fell off."
Fruit took his hands off the mouse and keyboard and rubbed his right eye. lt wasn't even that painful when the shame hit him. He just felt kind of dissappointed at himself.
" You're fine, Fruit, you're fine." Joel comforted him.
"We'll carry it on. Would you like to do some call-outs? " Martyn suggested.
It was too late. A good team rushed and killed the rest of them, but Martyn managed to get 2 kills. lt was good, but not good enough.
"We can pop off next round. It's okay guys."
Grian rang the gong. Round 2 had begun. This time they did pretty well, despite Grian almost used a TNT to blow himself up. Fruit was lost to Pete and False in the last second, but they still moved up a lot on the leaderboard. And the last round was insane. Fruit wiped out a full team at the border and took the win with joel in the end.
"We're so good at this. We're gaming! " Fruit joked.
"Blue bats let's go!" Grian said in exciement and joy.
"Let's go!"
"HBomb was so mad at me when he went through my Sands of Time POV last MCC." Fruit chuckled.
It was at the last game. Usually a Sands of Time finale would be so much more stressful than the others, but they did very well in Survival Game and To Get To The Other Side, so there's not much pressure. The Blue Bats were almost guranteed to get first at this point.
"Take it easy, play it safe. Good luck! I'll do the sand-keeping. "Joel laughed, " are you doing it again Grian?"
"Sure. Everyone tokes a deep breath in... and out."
Fruit didn't feel much better. His right eye was burning and screaming so hard. Tears were rushing down and he didn't have the chance to wipe. He was sweating like he just went at through a huge storm.
It's okay, Fruitberries. You're better than that.
Suddenly, the vision of his right eye went totally dark. The endless void of black spanned half of his world. Fruit couldn't see through his right eye anymore, and the tears just made it worse. But the worst thing was, his left eye began to hurt as well.
It's to bite the bullet or bite the dust. Make up your mind, Fruitberries.
"Screw it. lmma YOLO it ." Fruit murmured.
"Don't YOLO it, Fruit," Martyn answered in a chill voice," we don't have to do the lava parkour and that sort of stuff."
"] mean...yeah. l guess you're right. " Whatever.
Thank god they didn’t realize he was talking about a totally different topic.
“Remember to use markers and torches. Break the spawners if you can, and call it out if you need anything! " Joel added.
Well, he really could use a bottle of eyedrop. Unfortunately there's no such thing to call out for.
The last game had begun. This is it. The game to decide who would have the chance to compete for the coin.
Fruit went down a tunnel, searching through every inches carefully with his left eye. They had opened three vaults successfully. It all went well before Grian slipped into lava accidentally and lost his coins. Still good though. Not gonna lie, Fruit was quite satisfied.
"Oh my gosh...we're first! We are actually first! " Martyn shouted.
"You are first on the individual board! Congrats Fruity B!"
He was running out of time. He realized it when Joel said it as the sandkeeper, but the whole thing sounded so different to him.
The right eye was just complete darkness, and the leff eye was burning hurt. There was not no time to consider if he could recover after this, but he definitely would hate himself if he hesitated or chose to retreat.
Fruit held the dignity as a "pro" gamer. His belief, his faith, his honor, they kept his head up but hurt him badly at the same time. Gaming was almost everything that Fruit lived for, and gave his life a meaning. He couldn’t give up. This was the thing he loved deeply for years.
He would do what it takes. He was ready to do what it takes.
"Are we gonna feed all the arrows to Fruit? " Martyn said nervously.
"Nah...we rise together, we go down together."
Fruit wiped his tears once again. They had finally made it to Dodgebolt, it would be too selfish of him to take all the credit.
There he was, as well as his old friend and rival, Petezahhutt. lt wasn't the first time they've met in Dodgebolt. He truly wished it wouldn't be the last time.
It was the Blue Bats versus the Purple Pandas. The intense music began to play. On the other side of the arena, False grabbed the arrow for a quick shot. As her old teammate, Fruit knew her well. The amazingly underrated acuracy made her a goddess in Dodgebolt.
"Watch out, False is going to-"
Unfortunately, it was too late. Martyn's body had blasted into blue fireworks when Fruit called it.
"Take your time, team, toke your time. Download their moves!" Grian encouraged.
Other than Ren, Krinios was the easiest to target. But there's no point wasting arrows on them, they were not threatening as false or Pete.
It felt weird and uncomfortable to aim with one eye. Fruit bet Krinios felt the same. He took a deep breath, then released the arrow. lt was close, but he still missed. At the same time, Ren blasted into purple particles.
lt was hard to shoot with one eye. it was even harder to dodge with one. Loosing control seemed so much easier, but Fruit tried to get used to the new feeling. Though he was talented, it still took a while.
In fact, it took quite a while. They have already lost two rounds when Fruit realized it.
"Geez, Krinios is doing so well as a cyclop." Fruit laughed. His left eye hurt so bad every second, tears beginning to cloud the vision again.
"l might go for a quick shot this time."
Fruit rubbed his eye roughly with one hand ,the other staying still on the keyboard. The vague view reminded him of Illumina. His salvation when there's no light. The man who illuminated the path and took his hand, telling him there's nothing to be scared of.
"Go for it, Fruity B! Here comes the reverse sweep."
The man who held him up with the warmest hug that could melt all the negative thoughts and make him feel at home.
“*Petezahhutt was tagged by Fruitberries"
The man who learned cooking so hard till latenight just to make him breakfast.
"*FalseSymmetry was tagged by Fruitberries"
The man with the brightest eyes and the cutiest smile in the world.
"*Renthedog was tagged by Fruitberries"
lllumina, his roommate, his best friend of all time.
“*Krinios was tagged by Fruitberries"
lt came to the last round, the round to decide. The fourth round was kind of a fluke when Grian got a few narrow escapes.
Now that Fruit wanted to win it for Illumina. Not for the first place, not for the crown, not for the coin, just Illumina. He wanted to make Illumina proud. He wanted to see Illumina's smile.
Fruit blinked.
Hang in there, come on, Fruit. lt was painful indeed, but you can make it.
Martyn targeted Ren successfully, and Joel got a shot in Pete's head. Grian got tagged soon after, followed by Martyn. Finally, it came to a 1v2 when Joel got False out of the way.
"Take the wheel, Fruit! Take the wheel Fruity B!" Grian cried.
The colors began to blend into each other. He felt airheaded and nauseous. There’s no time for Fruit to realize what happened, everything went dark all of a sudden. Then, there's music of winning playing , all his teammates were screaming and shouting.
What does it feel like to fall into everlasting mazes of darkness?
Illumina hardly passed out when he broke into the room. Fruit was still sitting on the chair, looking more feeble than ever. He turned back, with a vacant stare.
"Did l win it ? " Fruit smiled with his hollow eyes.
"l' m sorry l lied," Illumina sighed. He came closer to sit by Fruit on the couch as usual, and got a slap on his shoulder. He was pretty sure it should've landed on his face. "But yeah, l just signed the agreement to donate one of my cornea to you... so, uh... are we even now?"
"Wha- you-Illumina!"
Fruit tried to reach out, but Illumina catched his hands. There was a smile slowly appearing on Illumina's face.
"You - you can't come to me and just say...This is not okay. Now l feel bad. You're such an idiot!" Fruit panicked.
"Well, I suppose I can be an idiot for you."
Illumina shut his eyes. lt's hard to put his feelings in words when he heard the situation, but he had made up his mind for so long. Fruit went silent for a moment, and his hands stopped fidgeting.
Fruit took a deep breath in," l don't deserve this. I don't want to ruin your life , especially when I've already ruined mine."
"l don't deseve this. l don’t deserve everything you give me. l don't deserve you, Illumina... l really don't."
"What are you talking about? Fruit, we are best fnends, and you deserve everything." Illumina patted him on the shoulder.
It's difficult to imagine what future would be lilke. But Illumina would gladly accept the fact that he'd have to live on with one eye. They could share what he saw. He could show Fruit more about the world, about the colorful wild flowers on the field, about the stars in the night sky, about the things they would never find inside the cyber world.
"I owe you so much."
Illumina reached out for a cuddle.
"I mean, if you want to pay me back ... you can be my best friend forever, just saying."
It’s okay to fall down, together they would always find a way to get up.
Illumina opened his eyes. lt's rare to see Fruit blush like this, like a cute red apple. He chuckled in the most comforting way, "look who's got a tomato face right now. ls that you, Strawberry?"
Fruit couldn't help but blushed harder. He almost felt the warm liquid running down from his eyes again. With the familiar grin back on his face, he pulled the blanket closer.
Maybe his life wasn't all about video games. There's so much more that they are living for.
There's so much more.