Work Text:
Every tie to their original timelines had long been severed. Color bounced from universe to universe without a need to settle down, and while some part of Killer craved normalcy, being given choices as if he was a person was enough. Had the cats not deserved something other than being stranded in a white void, they wouldn’t have bothered with the cabin at all.
Having a house was…Something. Killer could hoard any stupid thing from any nowhere AU without needing to hide it. One time, he’d picked up a rough stone to see Color’s brow lift as he incredulously grumbled, “That’s a rock.”
Despite thinking it was stupid, he didn’t protest when Killer put it on a shelf in the front room. It was still there the next day, and every day that followed. So were the several other rocks he’d grabbed.
What was even weirder was Color knocked before entering the room Killer had been given, and asked before touching anything in the same way he always used to ask Killer before touching him.
It was Something. Not a bad Something. Just. Something.
It was Something that Color grappled with adjusting to too. A month passed before he added a piece of sea glass to the rock collection, and it took two months longer for him to furnish his room with anything more than a mattress. Not that he spent much time there.
Tonight, he didn’t even want to sleep in it.
“backyard night?” Killer leaned in the doorway.
“Backyard night.” Color sprawled across the grass, stiff and with sharp-edged flames. As Killer sank down beside him, he casted a cursory glance over the red target hovering in front of Killer’s chest. “You okay?”
“yeah, it was a nightmare. probably.” Killer shrugged, unable to remember or ask. “he’s quiet.”
“Miss him?” Color rumbled, eye fixed on the sky again.
“fuck no.” Maybe they’ve been compromising, and maybe Killer stopped actively wishing One would disappear, but that didn’t mean he
liked
the stupid weakling.
Even if it felt like something was missing.
“it’s just weird not hearing him whine.”
Color grunted, a noncommittal, little rasp he only made when he didn’t feel like talking. He never mentioned the way Killer’s soul broke down and frayed, and Killer wouldn’t mention how the shadows under his socket seemed deeper.
“want me to keep talking, or shut up?”
“Keep talking,” Color replied with the same answer he always gave.
So Killer spoke of anything and everything, and Color quietly listened. There was a time he almost kidnapped one of Ccino’s cats when it jumped on his shoulders right before a shortcut. They made the decision that they were probably, definitely going to take the job he’d offered. He slipped into capitalizing his sentences and over-gesturing as he recalled several different pranks he’d pulled on Dust. While Color never looked at him, his scowl twitched.
Killer wondered what Dust and Horror did without him terrorizing them. He wondered if Nightmare missed him. If Nightmare could miss him.
Marmalade’s claws caught in the curtains and that was why they were torn. He had the cutest picture of the orange cat cuddling Cleaver at the very top of the cattree and he had to show it later.
At some point, Killer laid on his side and picked at the grass in the space between them. Eventually, the tension eased from Color’s frame. Killer rested his forehead against Color’s shoulder.
“Thanks,” Color said after Killer capped off another story, and laid a hand on top of his wrist.
“yeah.”
Killer let his sockets close and soaked up the unnatural warmth Color radiated.
“are we tying you down?”
Color’s flames popped.
“I suppose I wouldn’t be right here right now if I didn’t have you,” Color said. His teeth brushed Killer’s skull. “But I do have you, and you’re the best commitment I’ve ever made. I’d give up thousands of hours exploring hundreds of new universes if it meant I could keep it.”
“ok.” Killer didn’t know how to respond further. Color never expected him to.
They lapsed into silence.
A house towered behind them, but they’d sleep in the middle of the forest. Another night in the backyard.
It was fine.
After all, Killer would pry away the void swamping Color’s bones for as long as the godling deemed it a worthwhile time to chase away Killer’s ghosts.