Chapter Text
"You tried to kill me. I'd like to return the favor," Fyodor said quietly, twirling a knife betwixt porcelain-smooth fingers.
Nikolai tapped his cane on the ground, smiling sadly.
"Lovely..." he mumbled, stepping towards the Rat. "How do you plan to do it? Stab me in the heart, slit my throat, gut me and watch me bleed out?" He grabbed Fyodor's wrist, fingers pressed into skin feather-light, and touched the tip of the knife to the dip of his throat. "One stab, and I'll die drowning in my own blood. That's what your God instructed of you, yes?"
Fyodor couldn't pull his hand away. His limbs felt sluggish, stiff, like he'd fallen into a frozen lake.
Nikolai pulled the blade closer, a drop of wine-red blood slicing down skin to soak into the white of his collar. "Well? All ability users must be eliminated, including myself. A faithful man such as yourself would never go against the word of his Lord. Drive the blade in- I'm sure you can do it. Or you could eliminate me with your ability. Would that be too painless for me? A miserable, twisted monster such as myself deserves to go painfully, choking on his own blood."
The priest pressed the knife harder against Nikolai's throat, cherry-red drops of blood falling from his throat. "I suppose you're right. Ability users are naught but a sin in the face of God, after all." He pulled the blade away. "But perhaps there's one last sin you desire before you are released from your final cage and cast into the pits of Hell."
Nikolai arched a brow. "And what would that be? I'd think I've committed my fair share of sins." He grinned a bit, swiping his thumb through the line of blood on his neck.
"Do you truly believe I don't see how you look at me?" Fyodor asked. "How your eyes are always drawn to my lips as I speak?" At this, Nikolai- who'd unconsciously done that very thing- flicked his gaze up to meet Fyodor's, face red.
"What is it you're offering me?" he asked suspiciously. "A kiss, or something more? Wouldn't anything of that sort be against the word of your beloved Lord?"
Fyodor sighed, wiping the blood off of his knife and staining the stark white of his shirt. "I already live a life of sin due to my..unbiblical thoughts towards other men. I believe He would not begrudge me breaking once, to ease the pain of a dear friend."
The clown's heart skipped a beat at that- his beloved Fedya, his only friend, thought of him as dear- but he tried not to let it show. "In that case, one kiss before I'm free of this world?" He stepped towards the Rat, tipping his head down a bit to meet his eyes. He hadn't realized before the slight height difference; just a few inches, but enough that, in another life, Nikolai would have been able to rest his chin on the top of Fyodor's head.
The black-haired man nodded, wrapping one arm around Nikolai's waist while the other dug into his hair, pulling him down into a kiss.
Nikolai let out a quiet, muffled yelp, eyes widening a bit before tightly embracing Fyodor and kissing him back. In his joy to finally, finally be able to kiss his dear, intimate friend, he made a crucial mistake- closing his eyes.
Fyodor removed his arm from around Nikolai, grabbing the knife from his waistband and stabbing it into the back of the clown's neck in one quick movement. A gurgle escaped from his throat along with a dribble of blood, a look of betrayal entering his eyes just before the light in them was eternally extinguished.
"I'm sorry, Mykola.." Fyodor whispered, hugging Nikolai's lifeless body tightly before yanking the knife from his neck and lowering the corpse to the ground. "Maybe we'll be able to be happy in the next life, but it just wasn't meant to be."