Work Text:
Bad had recently built a hammock at his base, because he wanted to use it for when Dapper came back. To sit there in a gentle swing together, talking about all of the stuff that went down in the time he was gone.
He just missed his son.
The fabric of the hammock was red, it was their favorite color, and Bad liked it. The shade he chose was a pretty ruby color, and it almost glowed when the sun hit it.
After he tired it up and tested to see if it could handle some weight he laid down. Being careful to keep his balance, trying to steady himself as it swung from side to side.
He looked up, the trees above him mostly covering him in shade, and the sun peaked out from beside him, making him feel warm in the cool fabric.
Bad smiles, sighing with relief to finally just lay down. No more wandering around, and trying to kick that dumb bear out of his house, just him and the hammock.
He’s also excited. Excited for Dapper to see it, and excited to lay down in it with him and tell him all of the stories possible.
He sniffles, biting his bottom lip in thought.
What if he never came back?
He wipes his eyes, staring up above him, admiring the leaves turning back to green. Spring started and Dapper hadn’t even gotten to truly see it.
He hadn’t been attached to someone like this, not since Skeppy. Not since..
Bad wouldn’t call Foolish his best friend personally, but he liked to tease him a lot. Through the years and generations of watching as life passed by together, he started to just say it to see the other’s reaction.
He was all Bad had when it came to having company in every universe. They were immortals after all, and they’d be the only two to outlive the rest of the people on the island.
It would always just be them two, so it only made sense for him to at least humor the thought that they could be anything more than opponents.
After letting a few fall down his face, he wiped his face clean and breathed slowly to calm himself.
The hammocks slow rocking made him feel like a baby in a cradle, it was really nice and calming. He smiled, the sun slowly going down in the distance, the sky turning red, pink and orange.
The clouds looked painted, and the sun was shining so brightly it reminded him of Dapper again.
He shakes his head, not wanting to mourn just in case he does come back.
Besides somewhere on the island was Roier and his family all watching the exact same sun, all wishing Bobby a goodnight.
He says, shutting his eyes for a moment.
Bad sat there for another thirty minutes after the sun was fully gone. The moon was risen, and the light shone softly onto his dark skin.
The air was chilly now, and there was chirping from crickets somewhere.
He wishes he brought a blanket out with him, but he also hadn’t expected to sit here for so long.
For a moment he considers getting out and going inside but he can’t bring himself to figure out how to get out, and he’d rather let future him deal with that.
His thoughts come to an abrupt stop when he hears footsteps and the sound of grass getting stepped on. There’s a quiet rumble as whoever is approaching him, and he tries to stay calm just in case it’s someone he doesn’t wanna talk to.
Like Cucurucho, or one of the rabbits, it could be Ollie..
There’s a laugh before the person is close enough for Bad to see, and immediately he knows who it is.
He risks falling by peaking his head out from the folds and his eyes are met with yellow glimmering skin, and the greenest eyes he has ever seen.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Foolish asks, still laughing slightly as Bad returns to laying comfortably.
“Language.” He grumbles. Hugging himself tightly.
There’s another laugh before there’s a hand stopping the hammock’s swinging and the totem is leaning over the top to look down at him.
“You didn’t answer my question! What are you doing?” He grins because he can tell from the look on Bad’s face he wasn’t particularly in the mood to see him tonight.
Bad sighs, “I’m laying in my hammock. Is that not obvious from the way I’m laid on a big piece of fabric being held up by two trees and rope?”
Foolish shrugs, raising an eyebrow at him, that dumb grin still on his face revealing his sharp shark teeth. The usual person would be scared of them, not Bad.
Bad hadn’t ever thought of his teeth as scary, or even terrifying.
He’s always been Foolish to him. Nothing, not even in appearance, could change that.
Bad has known all kinds of people while living for so long.
He’s met cannibals, and tyrants, gods, spirits, etc. Not once has he found any of them particularly scary.
If anything most of them motivated him to keep going.
Bad looks up at him, narrowing his eyes as he realizes the other looks curious, and he tries to fight the urge of biting his fingers off of his hand so he would stop holding onto his hammock.
He misses being rocked, he liked the feeling of being cradled, he kinda got used to it.
“What do you want?” Bad almost growled. The demon part of him is just begging him to get him away.
He was having such a good time until he showed up! He could have easily fallen asleep if he tried.
Foolish’s grin falters but he keeps it up as much as he can. “Can I lay with you?”
Bad’s eyes widen, and his brows furrowed together as he purses his lips.
He didn’t wanna share his hammock.. It was meant for Dapper.
Something in him still cries to get the shark hybrid away from him, because he just wants to sit there and imagine that his son was back, but Foolish was looking at him with this sort of glow in his eyes, and all Bad can think about is how he so badly wants someone to comfort him..
How he so badly wishes that he wasn’t alone anymore. How he misses the life he had when it was just Skeppy and him against the world.
He can hear the swaying of Foolish’s shark tail, and the faint sound of his fin ears flickering when the wind blows against them, and all he knows now is that he really wouldn’t mind laying down with Foolish. Only if it meant he got to feel half of the warmth he did before the sun had set.
Bad looks at Foolish, not remembering when he had looked into the distance to think about it.
“Fine.. but no funny business, mister.” He points an accusing finger at him, pressing it into his chest before pulling back and scooting over for him to situate himself.
Foolish nods, letting Bad move over before even trying.
It takes a few tries, and a few redirections from the demon already in the hammock before Foolish was in and comfortably laying beside him. Or more so with him in his arms.
It was made for two people, not an average sized man, and another man 7 feet tall with a heavy shark tail attached to him.
Foolish hums softly as he uses his tail to swing them gently since it still reached the ground.
Bad listened, his ear pressed against his chest. The soft rumbles of his humming vibrating in his ears. He yawns, fully prepared to fall asleep but Foolish interrupts his slumber.
“So.. why are you out here?” He asks.
Bad can feel the way he tilted his head down to look at him and he takes a moment to think about it.
Even though he knows exactly why he was there.
He decided to postpone his response by wrapping his arms around Foolish’s waist.
“I.. I guess I just sorta missed the eggs.”
There’s a soft chuckle, and for a moment Bad thinks it’s the sweetest sound ever but it could just be the exhaust talking.
“Really?”
He nods wordlessly.
One of Foolish’s hands moves from being draped over him to move up into his hair. His fingers run through the black strands as he searches for the words to say.
“I was missing them too..” He says, an airy laugh escaping him. “Mostly Leo. It’s been weird not seeing them, I had to watch the sunset without her, I don’t think I’ve ever done that, not since Purgatory.”
Bad nods again, not really knowing what else to say, so he doesn’t, because Foolish doesn’t ask him to, because Foolish isn’t done himself.
“It’s kind of all fucked up, yuh know? Like we worked so hard for them to always constantly be taken from our literal arms. It isn’t fair.” He says, voice wobbling at the end.
It wasn’t something Bad thought about, don’t get him wrong he worried about Dapper and Pomme quite fucking regularly, but he never considered the thought of losing them forever .
Sure he considered them losing all their lives, ever since he left that other universe behind that’s all he could remember when someone reminded him that their children had limits.
He was so used to just worrying about them when they got downed, and hurrying to their rescue so they wouldn’t have to experience what it was like to respawn and then being cautious for when they enveloped wouldn’t.
Bad was just happy to have a family.
A family he could call his own, instead of having something to control them to work as a ‘team’.
His arms around Foolish tighten, bringing him closer. The shark makes a startled noise but he quickly relaxes.
Bad really didn’t know what else to do now. He can only handle running around all alone with Cucurucho on his trail so much.
It was repetitive.
Lying here with Foolish was new, and almost refreshing?
It wasn’t like they hadn’t laid together before in the past, at one point that’s all they did together. There was nowhere to go back then, it was like a really long hibernation.
Foolish was warm, and his touch was soft, like he was scared he’d crushed Bad somehow, even though Bad is stronger than that.
They laid there for a while, time becoming unknown as minutes passed. Bad mostly had his eyes shut, going in and out of sleep, only waking up again because Foolish would move slightly.
He would apologize each time, even though Bad didn’t really mind it. He didn’t exactly wanna sleep, he wanted to stay awake for awhile even if his body wanted the complete opposite.
At some point Foolish moved his tail up off the ground and draped it over them like a blanket, it makes the hammock sway weirdly and Bad protests before they’re balanced again and he really doesn’t care anymore.
A couple of minutes pass after that and finally , Foolish says something.
“I’m glad it was you who I’ve gotten to spend all eternity with..”
Bad’s heart skips a beat, and his face feels warm suddenly and never in his life has he ever had to blink so many times thinking : “Am I dreaming right now?”
Foolish wasn’t the type of guy to confess suddenly.
Bad doesn’t think this was a confession of feelings of course, there was no universe where he and Foolish would ever work out together.
Especially not romantically.
They were opponents.
They were opposites.
He was the sun and Bad was the moon, always to orbit each other but to never meet.
They would never ever work out to be anything more than two immortals who only had each other for the rest of their lives.
Bad takes a deep breath, trying to calm down his pounding heart.
“I’m.. I’m glad we are too.” He says back, trying to ignore the fact it took him a while to respond.. Did he even want a response?
Foolish sighs above him, his breath sending weird shivers through Bad’s spine to his tail, that flicks in confusion.
“Hey Bad?” He says in a whisper. Bad hums, not really knowing what to say right now.
“Do you remember when I said you look pretty in the moonlight?” He says to him, his voice still in a whisper, and if Bad didn’t have good ears he would’ve missed what he said and immediately can feel his heart picking up in speed again, and he swallows dryly.
“yeah.. I do.” He whispers back, laughing awkwardly.
Foolish hums, “I meant it yuh know..” He says it with a smile like it’s funny or silly in a way, but all it does is make Bad’s brain spiral.
Foolish was serious? He genuinely thought Bad looked pretty when the moon lit up his face?
He huffs before grumbling, “You don’t have to say that to make me feel better, Foolish..”
The hand in his hair moves to rub his back and he still grins cheekily. “But I’m serious! Even now. You are one pretty boy.”
Bad’s face feels warm and the warmth feels like it’s all over his body. He can’t really tell if it’s over heating or just his embarrassment making him feel all fuzzy and warm, but he couldn’t do much about it.
“And maybe if I wasn’t such an asshole you’d believe it..” He shrugs again, wobbling their hammock and Bad holds onto him tightly.
Foolish had a point. They were always fighting, or bickering like some old married couple with tons of history, because they did have tons of history, but the point is not once had Foolish ever actually shown Bad he cared.
Not once had he realized all the compliments were genuine and not just for the heat of the moment.
Bad couldn’t help but feel a little bit confused though.. What did he mean by this? Why bring it up now ?
The demon slowly relaxes his hold onto the other and he looks at him with a just as confused face as before.
“What does this mean..?” Is all Bad can think to say.
“What do you want it to mean?” Foolish says back.
He feels like a dumb kid getting told his crush likes him too, except he didn’t know what he felt for the other man.
Sure he considered it before, he wouldn’t mind spending all of his life with him if it meant they just got to hang out all the time.
That’s what made being immortal so nice.
So easy. Being with another immortal just made the time go by faster.
Made life more worth living. There was no worry of watching your partner grow old and die. No worry of being haunted for the rest of your life by that constant thought you’d suddenly lose them.
They were both immortal, and both gonna live forever until the world inevitably ends.
Bad is sure he’s heard a whole speech about this before, or at least read it somewhere.
He remembers deciding to read it on a weird whim, a book about a girl and her chronic illness. At some point in the story she falls in love, and the boy loves her so much to the point when he confesses it’s the most heart wrenching moment in the entire story.
Other than her inevitable death.
Bad sighs, he remembers finishing it and thinking : “wow.”
It was hard to imagine that’s just how it was for humans. They had time limits no matter where they were while Bad and Foolish were free to risk their lives because they knew they could survive it.
Even if the possibility of dying for heroic and justice was a thing.
They still had all the time in the world.
“I'm in love with you, and I'm not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I'm in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we're all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we'll ever have, and I am in love with you.”
Bad recited it to himself, heart beating in his chest all but to remind him that he was technically alive and yet it felt like it wanted to escape. He looked up into Foolish’s eyes again and was met with him looking back with fondness in them.
He shutters, tail flicking again.
He tries to form words, to tell Foolish he didn’t know what he wanted, all he knew was that he didn’t want to not be without him.
Which sounded corny, and dumb. But it was the honest truth.
He didn’t care what they were because they’d be together regardless.
He probably makes a fool of himself as he opens and closes his mouth, and he only stops when Foolish sighs again. For what felt like the millionth time since he showed up, he laughs and it makes butterflies appear in Bad’s stomach.
He decided that he’d rather sound cringey than go without saying anything at all.
“I don’t care what it means.. we’ll somehow end up together regardless, won't we?”
Foolish hums, this time instead of smiling with his teeth he smiles with his lips.
“Yeah?” He says, “I suppose you’re right, BBH.”
He doesn’t judge him for how it sounds, and that reliefs Bad just a bit, his tense shoulders lax and he has a moment to collect himself.
“So.. You wouldn’t mind me kissing you right now then?” Foolish asks suddenly and all of Bad’s relaxation is gone and blown into the starry skies wind.
He wants to reject him, but part of him wants to see if maybe this will change him opinion on the matter..
He shakes his head, hoping Foolish wouldn’t be dumb enough to think he was saying no to the kiss and luckily he isn’t.
Foolish kisses him, and it’s electrifying .
Bad smiles, pulling him closer again, as he puts a hand on the side of his face.
They fight over who gets to be in control and Bad let's Foolish do it.
He hadn’t kissed anyone in a long time, it was only responsible to expect him to take the lead when he’s kissed people more recently.
Though right now Bad wouldn’t want to think about it, because right now Foolish was kissing him and focusing on somehow getting him closer when they were already glued together.
Foolish tries deepened the kiss only for the hammock to rock slightly on Bad’s end and they ended up causing it to go unbalanced again but this time instead of being able to right themselves they immediately fell out.
Bad yelped once he hit the ground and groaned in pain again once Foolish is also on top of him.
It takes a few seconds for them to sit upright.
“I’m so sorry-” Foolish apologizes as he stands, helping Bad up as well. “I didn’t mean to make us fall!” He rubs the back of his neck, smiling apologetically at him.
Bad brushes his hands on his pants, brushing dirt off of himself. He checks on his tail, grabbing it and blowing dirt from his tail fur.
“It’s ok. I kind of expected that to happen somehow- uh..” His face gets warm again, “Not the way I thought it’d happen but y’know I can’t do much now..!”
He looks up at Foolish, who's already looking back at him, and again there are those emerald eyes looking back at him.
It only sets in now that his right eye is a pale shade of blue, still just as beautiful as the other, but it makes Bad’s heart ache.
Purgatory did a number on them both.
Bad lost half of a horn and Foolish lost part of his vision.
He can’t even imagine what that would’ve been like, or how that’s been.
He doesn’t think about it as he reaches forward to put his hand on the others face, cupping the side with his blue eye.
He just stares at him, his thumb trailing up and down his face, his golden skin feeling cold underneath his touch, even though moments before he was like a furnace of heat.
Bad can see him smile as he leans into his touch, ears falling down in a sign of vulnerability.
“You’re also very pretty.” He tells him.
Foolish’s eyes go round, and he pulls the demon closer to him. Hand on his lower back.
“You think so?”
“I wouldn’t be saying it if I didn’t.” Bad shrugs, a smug grin on his face.
Foolish rolls his eyes, “Ok Culero.”
Bad scoffs, moving his hand away to punch him in the shoulder, “Language!”
The totem barks with laughter, pulling him closer so he can lay his head on his shoulder. His laugh is contagious because Bad joins him shortly after.
They laugh together in weirdos in the front yard of Bad’s house, holding onto each other for balance while the red hammock Bad got for his son swings slowly beside them.
Bystanders would probably think they were drunk.
Bad felt drunk, but not necessarily in the way he drank alcohol, mostly in a serotonin way. Like Foolish was making him feel happier than he had in weeks.
After they calm down Foolish doesn’t hesitate to kiss him again, pulling away immediately just to smile at him.
“I’m glad you’re here, Bad.”
“Thanks, Foolish.” He smiles back, kissing him again.