Work Text:
It had been a week since the narrator last saw Stanley move. Now that Stanley was moving around again, the narrator pleaded to him, begging him to stay. But the story must move forward, and Stanley moved to press the button - he had to see what would happen next.
The narrator had never felt so much despair. As Stanley started to freeze again, loneliness and emptiness began to creep in. The glimmer of hope faded away. He was alone again. He had no idea how long it would be this time, how long he would have to wait here, in this claustrophobic office, all by himself, at the microphone, for his Stanley to return. He wondered if he should start talking to himself again, just so that the silence could be less deafening.
Just as he was about to speak, he heard an unusual noise. Something, or, more precisely, someone, had landed in his office. He turned around to discover none other than Stanley, the one he had been obsessively following and directing for god knows how long, on the ground. ‘Stanley?!’
Stanley looked up, confused. ‘Where am I?’
‘This is my office, and you - somehow, a version of you - appeared all of a sudden! Oh Stanley, I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you here, you have no idea how awful the past week had been, I am absolutely delighted to see you, I -’
Stanley smiled. ‘Well, I did something to the mechanism of the story, and somehow it worked. I couldn’t bear to leave you here, you know. Sometimes you piss me off, but I know you’re just as desperate as I am. Maybe, together, we can beat the system and both become free.’
The narrator looked at him with widened eyes. ‘Really? Do you really think we can - Stanley, don’t give me too much hope. We have restarted so many times, we have explored so many different endings, and nothing has got us out of the loop. And now this malfunction with the skip button…it was my mistake, I should’ve been more careful, I should’ve known or should’ve tried harder to plan a more meticulous story…’
’Ssh, come on, it’s ok, you’ve just been in isolation for too long. No one can plan for everything, it’s only natural that things go wrong once in a while. Honestly, even if we can’t find a way out of here, we still have each other, you know, so it won’t be too bad.’ Stanley walked towards the narrator, and stopped in front of him, slightly leaning on his desk.
The narrator looked up, and Stanley noticed that some tears welled up in his eyes, though the narrator was not the kind of person that would let them fall. Stanley sighed, and pulled the older man into a hug.
’Promise me you will never leave me like that, ever again.’
Stanley gently stroked his hair. ‘I promise.’