Work Text:
"Y'know, I used to love you once," Kevin said, watching Argit with a pensive look.
Argit avoided his eyes. "Yeah... I know."
He did know. He had known it for years. He had reveled in it, used it, fought to keep it for years. Love was the one thing that money couldn't buy, and it was also worth more than anything else *because* of that fact.
Kevin stood watching him, arms crossed. He had his poker face on, and it had gotten a lot better since the last time Argit had seen it. Maybe that was what happened when years passed without seeing each other. It made something tight curl in Argit's chest, and he fought against the urge to say something, anything at all.
He had broken into Kevin's garage for a part. He knew it was dangerous; he could double cross Kevin a million times and Kevin would forgive him, but he couldn't set foot in that garage without Kevin's approval. He knew that, and he didn't hold it against Kevin, either. He wouldn't have done it at all, if he hadn't truly needed the part. If he got it and played his cards right, combined the part with a few other things and sold the whole kit and caboodle, he'd be loaded. He wouldn't ever have to beg, scrap, steal, dig through the trash... none of it, ever again. And it was worth losing his hide for a chance at freedom. But Kevin had caught him. Argit had probably tripped off a sensor at some point; the garage was probably locked up tighter than Fort Knox, so even if Argit had spent days finding and disarming all the traps and sensors, he probably still would've missed one or two. He knew it was a likelihood, which was why his plan had been to get in and get out before he got caught. But, of course, things didn't always go according to plan. If they did, he would've been rich long, long ago.
Kevin didn't make any move to grab Argit, but Argit still stood with his back to Kevin, quills standing on end, waiting for even just a hint of movement. The garage door was locked tight, reinforced with a Techadon shield, so the only way out now was through the door Kevin was currently standing in. Normally, Argit would've tried to smooth-talk his way out of this situation before quilling Kevin, but Kevin had thrown him for a loop with that little confession. It made Argit's fur stand on end, the way Kevin was so openly talking about it. They didn't do that. They didn't *talk* about their feelings. Their relationship was always give and take, and 90% of it was usually Argit doing the taking. This... this was *wrong*.
"...Ain'tcha gonna ask what I need it for?" Argit finally asked, licking his lips nervously. The silence was getting to him, making his nerves worse.
"Would it matter if I did?" Kevin asked, raising his eyebrows. "I already know what it's for. You're stealin' it to sell it. Doesn't matter beyond that."
Argit licked his lips again, eyes darting side to side. He didn't like this, not one bit. This wasn't the Kevin he was used to. It felt like every single one of Argit's dirty tricks was laid out on the table for Kevin to see, the whole of their history together in full view.
The one thing Argit never did was freeze when he was supposed to run. Why was he doing it now?
"I-I... I ain't built for love, Kevvy," Argit finally said, licking his lips again. His voice came out raspy. He felt coiled like a spring about to bounce but with no space to do so. "Never was."
"Your species is capable of it," Kevin replied nonchalantly. "I looked it up one time. You can guess why. But you guys are capable of it."
"Yeah, *they* are, but *I* ain't," Argit replied, swallowing. He could hear the rain outside, the rumble of thunder. Every instinct he had told him to run and hide, but he wasn't sure if it was from the weather or from this confrontation. "You know that."
Kevin shrugged, raising his hand to look at his nails. It was a minute movement that almost had Argit fire his quills at him just for setting off his nerves, but he was able to stop himself.
"I never did get you," Kevin said softly, eyes glittering in the dark. Argit didn't know why he insisted on sitting in the darkness for this; human eyes weren't built for it. The dark was only a boon for Argit, whose species were nocturnal by nature.
"Aw, sure ya did, buddy!" Argit said quickly, reassuringly, trying to fall back into their usual habit of Argit smooth-talking Kevin. "Remember how close we used to be? And if you let me out, I can-"
"I always understood you, but I never *got* you," Kevin repeated, emphasizing his words. "I always knew why you did the things you did, 'cause you and I were the same like that; did what we did to survive. But I never got why you couldn't let yourself be anything else. Anything more than that."
"Anything more than *what*?" Argit asked, eyes narrowing.
"Anything more than a street rat. You never let anybody closer to you than you had to to use them," Kevin replied. He crossed his arms again, gaze boring into Argit. "And look at you now."
"I am doing *perfectly well* for myself, thank you very much," Argit said, voice clipped. He bit back the urge to suddenly fire his quills and end the conversation that way. He wanted to do it, but it felt like a loss that way. He didn't want to lose this. "Just because I ain't livin' in some fancy garage, with a roof over my head and three square meals a day like you, don't mean I'm doin' badly."
"I didn't say you were doing bad," Kevin said after a moment.
"Yeah, but that's what you meant, isn't it?" Argit asked bitterly. He looked down at the ground, the wave of self loathing hard to contain.
Kevin was quiet for a long moment, the torrential rain outside filling the silence. Thunder rumbled overhead. "Nah," he finally said, voice so low and soft that Argit had to strain to hear it. "I think you're doing exactly how you should be. I think if you ever did any better than this, you would ruin it. I don't think you know how to be happy."
Argit's eyes blazed and he fired off a handful of quills into the darkness. Warning shots, not actually meant to strike. They missed Kevin by a wide berth. Kevin didn't even flinch.
"I know *exactly* how to be happy, thank you very much! I'm gonna take this part, I'm gonna add it to all the others I've been collectin', and then I'm sellin' it to the highest bidder! I'll be richer than you'll *ever* be, happier thank you'll *ever* be, and I'll have people fallin' all over themselves tryin' to get me to love 'em! How's that for happiness, huh?!" Argit hissed, voice rough and scratchy.
After a moment, Kevin said, "It sounds like you're just running again. Just like that first time I met you. Remember that?"
Argit did remember it. It was a memory he often recalled when the insomnia was at its worst and he couldn't do anything but think. Argit had been on the run after stealing some money; it was the first time he had ever stolen anything, and the hardest. Times like this, he felt just like that little boy back then; trapped, on edge, and with nothing left for himself except for what he held in his hands.
"Yeah?" Argit hissed, laughing lowly. "What do you know about runnin', huh? I ain't never seen you run from anythin' you couldn't come back from."
Kevin shrugged. "If you ask my friends, they'll tell you that it's what I do. I run."
"Does that mean we ain't friends, Kev?" Argit asked into the darkness. He didn't mean for his voice to sound so sad and pathetic, but he couldn't stop it.
Kevin shifted in the dark. "I used to think we were. Even with all the backstabbing," he replied softly.
"What changed?" Argit asked, holding the part tight in his hands as his heart pounded in his chest. He needed to know the answer desperately.
It felt like a goodbye. The one thing he could always rely on, slipping through his paws.
Kevin was so quiet that if Argit couldn't see him standing there in the dark he would've thought he had left.
Finally, Kevin said, "I did."
"Kev, I-" Argit opened his mouth to speak. He didn't know what he was going to say.
The sound of the garage door opening cut him off. Argit looked forward, to the door opening, and then back over his shoulder at Kevin, who was pushing the button to open it.
"Good luck, Argit. I hope that part finally gets you what you need," Kevin said quietly. His voice was almost drowned out by the rain and thunder outside.
Argit looked back through the open door, and then back to Kevin. Kevin still didn't move, arms crossed over his chest as he leaned on the doorframe. Argit swallowed and took a step forward towards the outside, then another and another, until he was standing in the rain openly. His fur was soaking through to the skin, his clothes drenched with rain. He looked back at Kevin again, willing him to speak, to call Argit back in, to beg for him to return, even just to say something, anything at all, but he didn't. Argit looked forward, mind tracing the path he would have to take to get back to his shelter for the night the fastest and safest. He could still feel Kevin's eyes on him. Everything he could never bring himself to say before sat heavy on his tongue, whereas it felt like Kevin had said it all.
He wished there was a way to take it all back. He didn't want to lose Kevin, too.
Hand tightly clutching the part he was stealing and the other hand resting on the outside wall of the garage, Argit looked over his shoulder to Kevin one last time.
"For what it's worth..." he said softly, meeting Kevin's eyes, "I *did* l-"
Lightning flashed and thunder clapped overhead. Argit didn't mean to run; it was instinctual. He hadn't even realized he had done it until he was running into the alley on all fours, looking back over his shoulder at the garage as he ran.
~*~*~*~
Later that night in his temporary hideout, Argit connected the part he had stolen with all the rest. His mind was already thinking ahead, plans about how to sell the piece and how to keep the money safe and what to buy first and who was most important to repay, but it all felt hollow. He pawed at the earring in his ear, not the one he had from his mother (though that one was there, too), but the one Kevin had given them when they were both young, back after the second time Argit had double crossed him and Kevin had forgiven him for it.
He realized it then, just how badly he fucked up. Worse yet, he knew that there was no coming back from it. Something had happened in that garage; it was a change for the better for Kevin. It was a change for the worst for Argit. And, though Argit would never admit it, he wished he could apologize for it all, every backstab and double cross and two time, every last bit, if only it meant that what happened in the garage hadn't truly happened. Instead, holding that part in his hand like a beating heart, he knew that chance had long passed.