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Another day, another fight between the other halves. I always try my best to ignore it, but they’re being louder than usual today. I reluctantly get up from my spot on the couch and drag myself into the next room where Heart and Mind are at each other’s throats for what feels like the millionth time this week. I lean on the doorframe, not quite entering the room just yet. Neither of them have noticed me.
“(YOU ARE SO ARROGANT!)” Heart screams from his purple lips. Mind’s blue ones frown in response.
“[Me? Arrogant? Well maybe if you stopped acting like a child-]”
“(AGAIN WITH CALLING ME A CHILD! WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH YOU?!)” Heart cuts Mind off, burning with rage. He’s never been good at containing his emotions, and is usually the reason for the fight starting.
“[I’m just stating the facts, and the fact is that you are childish. You need to be more logical. Why can’t you understand that?]” Mind’s tone is flat and unaffected.
“(Call me a child one more time. I fucking dare you.)” Heart’s eyes have a threatening look to them.
“[Or what? Are you just going to continue to prove to me how childish you are?]” Mind chuckles with a smirk.
Heart growls as Mind laughs at him. The purple haired boy rummages through the pocket of his hoodie before pulling something out of it. From where I’m standing, I can’t tell what it is, but whatever it is makes Mind’s expression turn to one of immense fear. Something I’ve never seen before, Mind is scared, scared of Heart, out of anyone!
“[Juno, what are you doing with that?]” The blue haired man takes a step back, clutching his drumstick necklace.
“(What I’ve always wanted to do.)” Heart raises his hands, and I finally get a good look at what he’s holding. A gun. My eyes widen in horror, but I’m frozen in shock. He wouldn’t, right? Heart would never actually try to harm Mind… Right?
“[JUNO, NO!-]” Mind is cut off by a loud gunshot, and blue blood splatters everywhere. Mind raises his mechanical hand to his throat, getting it covered in his own blood. It spills out of his mouth as well, and he collapses to the ground as he coughs and sputters.
Heart, shocked, takes a step back and drops the gun to the floor. He covers his mouth and his eyes well up with bright purple tears. “(O-oh, God… Oh God! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!)”
“{I don’t think sorry is gonna cut it this time, Juno.}” I finally speak up, glaring at the trembling man in front of me.
He whips his head in my direction. “(Atlas!)”
“{DON’T “Atlas!” ME. WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO?!}” I can feel myself beginning to fill with rage as well. I grab my crown off of my head and press on the gem in the center of it, transforming it into my trident.
Heart trembles and steps back, glancing over at the suffering Mind.
“(A-Atlas, please!-)”
“{SHUT UP! I am SICK and TIRED of you two fighting all the time! This is the last straw, Heart. I’m not tolerating this shit anymore.}” I shout as I approach him rapidly.
I shove Heart to the ground, pressing my foot into his chest so he can’t run.
“(SOUL! SOUL, PLEASE!)” Juno sobs and begs, but it’s too late. He can’t take this one back.
Without another word, I raise my trident above his head, prongs pointing down. His screams and pleads don’t faze me, and I slam the trident down. Purple blood gushes and sprays everywhere. After a few seconds of holding it there, I rip it out, my trident covered in Heart’s blood. On the side prongs, Heart’s eyes remain, ripped out of his skull. I look down at the damage, and there are three holes across Heart’s face. Two being his eye sockets, and then one in the center. Blood spills out of all three holes, getting all over my clothing. I scoff and step away, cleaning off my trident.
“{Have you learned your lesson, Juno?}” Heart doesn’t respond. He most likely passed out from the pain. Or from blood loss. Or both. I step over to where Mind lies, still bleeding from the hole in his throat, although now unconscious. I lift him up and bring him to the couch, carefully digging my fingers into the hole in his throat, pulling out the bullet.
“{Eugh. Gross.}” I state plainly, although mostly unphased by the blood. It is still gross, however.
Once the bullet is safely out of Apollo’s throat, I walk over to the first-aid kit that we keep in the living room. I grab it and go back over to the man bleeding blue all over our damn couch. I kneel down next to him as I pop open the kit, pulling out a roll of bandages and peroxide. I grab a rag as well and pour the peroxide on it, cleaning up the wound. Once the wound is clean, I securely wrap the bandage around the Mind’s neck. The white bandage is quickly stained a deep blue.
I sigh and walk back over to the unconscious Heart on the floor. His entire face and upper body are covered in his deep purple blood. It’s stained the carpet beneath him as well. Oh well, it’ll wash out eventually. I kneel down next to Artemis, grabbing more bandages and peroxide from the first-aid kit. I clean up Artemis’s wounds just as I did with Apollo’s. I wrap the bandages around his head and over his freshly empty eye sockets. Once the bandages are secure, I can’t help but feel a little bad. I lift Heart into my arms and carry him into his room, resting him on his bed. I shut the door as I leave, and go back to where Mind is, now awake.
Mind is looking around frantically, grasping at his neck. He spots me and motions his mouth as if he’s trying to speak, but no noise is coming out. I suddenly get an idea and run into my room. It takes a bit of tinkering, but roughly an hour later I walk back over to the distressed Mind. It’s strange to see him like this. He’s usually so calm and unphased by anything. The last time I saw him like this was when I… Ahem, anyways, that’s besides the point.
“{Hold still.}” I sit down next to Apollo, and I can tell he tries his best to calm down, although he still shakes. I carefully remove the bandages from his neck, and of course the wound has magically healed within the time it’s taken me to build this voice modulator.
I carefully apply the modulator to his neck, adjusting it so the actual modulator part is over the hole in his throat. He flinches from the cold metal against his skin, but I don’t react. Once it’s securely applied I back away.
“{Speak.}”
He hesitates for a minute. “[...What the hell just happened?]” Mind’s voice is much deeper and robotic than before, and it takes both of us by surprise.
We both freeze for a few seconds, before I shake my head and regain my bearings. "{Heart…sort of…kinda…tried to kill you, I think? He should understand by now that it's impossible for one of us to die without the other two.}" I sigh and look away.
"[Where is he?]" Mind asks, looking around in a paranoid fashion.
"{I put him in his room. I believe you were passed out when it happened, but I sort of…ripped his eyes out?}" I chuckle nervously.
"[...You WHAT?!]" Mind yells.
"{L-Listen! I was blinded by rage, okay?!}"
Mind puts his hand to the bridge of his nose. "[Jesus Christ, Soul. Now you've disabled both of us.]" His deep blue eyes stare daggers into my mismatched ones.
"{Hey! Don't say that! I'm sure his eyes will grow back. We're not technically human, you know.}" I try to defend myself.
"[Did my arms grow back?]" Mind growls.
I try to respond, but I can't find any words to. He's right, after all. I try to mutter an apology, but a loud thud coming from Heart's room catches us both off guard. We glance at each other before standing up and sprinting to the purple boy's room.
Upon opening the door, we see Heart on the floor, bandages torn off of his face. He's crying out of his empty eye sockets.
"(Mind? Soul? Help! PL-PLEASE, HELP! I CAN'T SEE!)" He yells and cries. I can't help but feel horrible for what I've done.
I sit down next to the sobbing man on the floor and I wrap my arm around his shoulders, trying to assure him. "{Hey, hey. Calm down. It'll be okay.}"
"(Soul!)" His expression turns to one of fear, but he doesn't move away.
"{Mhm, it's me, I'm here. Calm down, Juno.}" I pat his back.
"(St-stop calling me that.)" Artemis shudders.
"{Right, sorry.}" I glance up at Mind, who is just standing in the doorway with his mechanical arms crossed. I motion for him to come over and comfort Heart as well. He reluctantly obliges and sits on the other side of Heart, putting a cold hand on his shoulder.
"(Mind…?)" Heart turns his head to where Mind is, although unable to see.
"[Yeah. It's me.]" I can tell Heart is shocked by the change in Mind's voice as well.
"(Y-Your voice is so different?! God, I… I'm so sorry. I was just so mad, and I-)"
Mind cuts Heart off by putting a finger to his lips. "[Shut up. I don't want to hear it right now. Just calm down.]" Mind pulls Heart into a tight hug, surprising even me.
Heart hugs him back. "(...You forgive me?)"
"[Not at all. You shot me in the fucking throat. I'm only trying to get you to calm down.]"
Heart's purple lips curl into a small frown. "(...I'm blind now. I don't know what to do…)"
"{We can help you as much as you need until you get used to it… alright?}" I smile reassuringly and pat Heart's shoulder.
"(...Okay.)" Heart buries his face into Mind's shoulder as he tries to force himself to stop crying. He winces and backs off once the tender flesh of his eye sockets gets touched by Mind's jacket.
I look around Heart's room and grab a silk black cloth that was sitting on a table. "{Heart, would you like me to tie this cloth over your eyes?}"
He nods silently and leans more towards me. I wrap the cloth around his eyes and tie it securely at the back of his head. I make a few adjustments, Mind helping me pull Heart's curly purple hair out from under the cloth.
"{There we go. Better?}"
"(Mhm… Thank you, Atlas.)"
I smile softly. "{You're welcome, Artemis.}"
Mind interrupts the sweet moment by chuckling, his voice modulator crackling a bit. "[It looks like he's wearing a blindfold.]"
I turn and look at Heart properly. It really does look like he's wearing a blindfold. Heart doesn't seem to mind, though.
"{It's better than having to look at his empty eye sockets, no?}"
A small silence falls over us three, before Mind speaks up again. "[I guess you're right.]"
Some more time passes as we sit in silence, before I begin to talk. "{Okay, it's getting late. I need to feed Darrell, and… I dunno, try to sleep, I guess?}" I chuckle.
"[G'night, Atlas.]" "(Sleep well, Soul. Tell Darrell I said hi, and give him lots of scratches for me.)" Heart giggles.
"{I will, I will! Okay, goodnight you two. Please, don't try to kill each other again.}" I shut the door on my way out, walking back to my room.
Once I open the door, I'm greeted by a small chicken, bawking up at me. I chuckle and pick him up. "{I know, Darrell, you're hungry. I'll feed you!}" I pour some food into his bowl (Author's note: Idk how people keep pet chickens I am just. Trying my best here.) and set him next to it before collapsing onto my bed.
Once Darrell finishes eating, he hops up onto my bed and sits directly on my chest. I giggle, giving him a bunch of pets and scratches. I continue this until my eyes close from the exhaustion of today and I finally am able to fall asleep.