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the blue blood was his reality check.
and the sword sticking out of gill’s shoulder.
the tip slick with blood. a shocked and pained expression on gillion’s face. the way everything seemed to grow ever so slightly quieter.
it nearly sent him over the edge.
panic bubbling in his stomach, chip immediately charged gillion’s assailant with swords raised and a guttural cry, he stabbed them dead in the gut.
yanking his sword out of the, now dead—or dying, chip didn’t care—person’s gut, he knelt next to gillion, hands shaking.
“hey, hey, gill, hey, buddy!” chip exclaimed, “hey, man, how’re you doing?”
“chip, i—” gillion coughed, a light spattering of blood spitting out of his mouth, slightly unfocused eyes resting on chip with a dazed, pained expression. “jay—”
“she’s fine, getting the last of the guys, just hold on.” chip grabbed gillion’s hand, albeit clumsily, and pressed it to his mouth, nothing but concern and worry flooding his mind as he tried to keep himself as calm as he could. “you’ll be alright, i promise.”
gillion smiled weakly. “are you alright?”
“yeah, yeah, gill, i’m fine! you’re the one who’s been stabbed, gill!” chip lowered their entwined hands, glancing behind him to see where jay was. the woman was battling the final attacker, shoving them over the railing and sending them into the sea. she glanced over her shoulder at the two, eyes flashing with concern as her eyes landed on gillion’s wound.
“gods, gill, are you okay?” jay slid to sit next to them, hands already starting to glow green with magic.
“jay, there’s a fucking sword in his shoulder, what the fuck do you think?” chip hissed, fingers still entwined with gillion’s, thumb rubbing absently against the soft spot between gill’s pointer finger and his thumb.
“i swear i heard you say the same thing—”
“jay, shut the fuck up, help him!”
— — —
the light from the flame flickered softly in the dark of the room, catching the constant wetness of gillion’s blue skin. chip’s amber eyes lingered on the bandages wrapped around his friend’s chest, leg bouncing with anxiety. it’d been about two, maybe even three hours since chip had decided to take watch of gillion. his mind raced with the events of the earlier battle, replaying gillion’s being stabbed over and over and over again.
“is he awake yet?” jay whispered, slipping through the door as silently as possible.
“no,” chip whispered back, swallowing, “fuckin’ scared he won’t.”
“chip....” jay sighed, rubbing a hand down her face. “he’s gonna be okay, how many times have i told you this?”
“does it matter? you’re not a fucking doctor, jay! you can’t judge this shit!” chip’s hand clenches into a slight fist as his gaze flicks to jay.
jay reaches a hand to rest on her co-captian’s shoulder, but recoils when he goes to swat it away, face soft with concern.
“chip, i have basic knowledge of injury. he isn’t bleeding, he seems to be stable, he’s not going to—” she starts, but gets cut off by chip, his gaze had hardened on her.
“but what if he does?”
waves slapped against the sides of the albatross as the room fell into silence, the white noise nearly roaring in chip’s ears.
“what if he does, jay? what if you misjudged it? what if that fucking sword hit something vital? there’s so much shit we don’t know about him because he doesn’t share much about it and— ” chip inhaled, wiping tears off his face with a choking, strained exhale.
jay grabbed chip’s wrists lightly, pulling his hands away from his face. “hey.”
chip’s gaze fell to her eyes, browned amber flooded with tears meeting dry, sky blue.
“you’ve got to breathe for me,” jay whispered, “panicking won’t do you any good.”
she gently rubbed her thumb on chip’s wrist, talking a deep breath in. chip follows suit, repeating her quiet breathing patterns, half-lidded eyes heavy with the weight of a lack of sleep.
“okay?” jay asked, breaking the silence of the room.
“okay,” chip replied softly, “y-yeah.”
his eyes fell down to gillion again, biting on the inside of his mouth.
“but how can i not be worried?” he whispered.
“he’s survived much worse than this, chip,” jay whispered back, wrapping her fingers around chip’s in a reassuring manner. “he’ll be okay, i promise.”
— — —
the wind carries the smell of salt as chip shakes his head, the memories of none but a few hours ago fading back into his subconscious. standing on the deck of his ship, the millennium chipper (some may call it the albatross, but they’re wrong and all liars), he watches the moonlight reflect on the waves, light refracting across the constantly shifting surface.
something creaks behind him, and his hands instinctively reach for his swords before remembering they're below deck. he spins around, yelping when he realizes how close they got without him realizing.
"gill, what're you doing up?" chip hisses, eyes falling to gillion's bandaged chest. "you're supposed to be resting!"
"i feel fine, chip, i will be alright," gillion replies, voice lower than usual, with the slight husky tone of disuse and sleep.
"gill—" chip begins to protest, but gillion shushes him.
"may i sit?" the latter asks, ignoring the fact that chip was standing straight up with no intention of sitting down.
"you can sit on your bed, gill," chip whispers, not exactly angry, more so frustrated.
gillion seems to ignore him, sitting down on the deck next to where chip stands. chip sighs, crossing his arms on the railing and burying his head in them.
"you're stubborn when you want to be, y'know that, tidestrider?" chip remarks, peeking at gillion from his position on the railing. gillion stares back with a small smile on his face.
“yes, i can be if i wish to be,” he replies softly.
“gillion motherfucking tidestrider....” chip mumbles, standing from his bent over position and turning around to face gillion, arms leaning on the railing still.
after a few minutes of silence, chip speaks up.
“you know how much of an idiot you are?”
“c-care to elaborate?” gillion stammers, confused.
“gill, you motherfucker. you’re fucking senseless when it comes to yourself sometimes. you realize how self-sacrificial you are?” chip shoves himself off the railing, crossing his arms. “every fight we have you have no regard for yourself. you throw yourself into the heat of it all, forgetting that you’re a person too, basically.”
chip swallows as gillion pulls himself up to stand slightly more eye to eye with him, continuing. “you get hurt and never ask if you are going to be ok, only if we are, even if we’re literally fine! gill, you—”
chip sighs deeply, rubbing a hand down his face. “you wanna know something?”
“o-of course, chip—”
“you’re a weak point.”
gillion stares at chip with wide eyes, biting his lip.
“more specifically my weak point.”
“chip, i— sorry?”
“you know the story of achilles? the one i told you about?”
gillion nods, recalling the story of the old hero chip told him in a sleepy haze one night.
“you remember?”
“i do.”
“so then you’ll understand that i’m achilles and you’re my heel.”
gillion's breath hitches, eyes widening at the realization of the metaphor.
"if i die...."
"then i'd feel fucking dead too, gill, don't you—" chip chokes back a sob, tears glistening on his cheeks. "don't you know how much you mean to me? to jay? to earl, a-and ollie, and john and everyone?"
"i-i do, but i—"
"then why don't you ever take it to heart?" chip's voice cracks at the end of his words, wiping at fresh tears spilling from his flooded eyes.
"because i don't want to see any of you hurt." gillion swallows, his own tears running down his face now as he laces and unlaces his fingers out of nervousness.
"you think we want to see you hurt?"
the duo lock tear-filled eyes, the chosen one of the undersea and a man trying to find himself in the world, both on a pirate ship in the ocean leaving their mark on the earth.
"chip, when i made that arena of ice and challenged you to that duel all that time ago, when we fought, i never wanted to truly hurt you. i was upset, and the anger went to my head. looking at you, when you shoved my sword to your throat and demanded i kill you, in my rage, i almost did. but seeing how battered and bruised and beat you were, all because of me, i couldn't. because you do you know something, chip?"
and gillon's gaze never leaves chip's with his next words.
"i love you."
— — —
the world seems to stop spinning. chip's lungs stop receiving air. the ocean stills and quiets at gillion's proclamation.
"i love you."
three simple words that utterly shatter chip.
"you....?" chip breathes, terrified that any word will break the practical spell gillion put on him.
"yes, chip, i love you, and i would scream it to the heavens to show them their chosen one has chosen his one." gillion smiles softly, grabbing chip's hand ever so lightly.
"wow, okay," chip inhales deeply. "i— fuck it, shit, i love you too."
"you don't have to pity me, chip—"
before gillion can finish, chip presses his lips against gillion's, softly snaking a hand to hold the back of the triton's head. gillion's eyes fly open in surprise, but close as he reciprocates the kiss, sliding his own hands around chip's waist.
a moment later, their lips part, both pairs of eyes locked on the other, amber meeting blue. chip smiles, bashfully, as he begins to laugh. gillion smiles with him, chuckling quietly as chip runs his free hand down his face.
"been wanting to do that again since desire island," he whispers.
"really?" gillion replies, as quietly as possible despite his usual boisterous voice. the two smile again at each other, the moonlight seeming to shine directly on the two, when—
"did you two just fucking kiss?" jay's voice screeches from the doorway into the sleeping quarters. the two men's heads whip toward their co-captain, faces flushed pink and blue.
"uh, jay, hi—" chip stammers, panic flooding his veins, "wh-when did you....get....here....?"
"been here long enough, tell me everything. now." the woman crosses her arms over her chest as she walks closer to the two.
once closer, however, she steps back, realizing the intimacy of the moment and realizing exactly what she just overheard.
"or, now that i think about it, i'll let you two be." she slips back belowdecks, with a wave and a smirk in chip's direction.
alone again, chip and gillion lock eyes once more.
"she's such a fucking—" chip starts, but is cut off by gillion pressing his lips to chip's once more.
"i think it will be best for us to sleep, now," gillion says after pulling away, a yawn confirming his statement.
"yeah, it's late, big guy, and you're still injured," chip replies, running his hand down to grab gill's in his own.
"that in itself calls for rest, does it not?" gillion smiles up at chip.
"the whole reason all this happened is because you didn't rest, you dumbass," chip remarks warmly as he leads gillion back to their quarters.
"yes, i did not make the best decision, my achilles," gillion says, so nonchalantly that chip raises an eyebrow.
"you're really something, tidestrider," chip whispers as they part, going toward their separate sleeping areas.
— — —
BONUS DIALOUGE FOR FUN
jay : so what the fuck happened last night between you two (rock eyebrow raise)
chip : jay stfu i will fucking kill you if you say another word about it
gill : wait don't kill jay what huh D: