Work Text:
ΨIIONIIC: DREAM
You blink open your eyes to see him smiling at you, like he woke up first and spent untold time just watching you sleep on the forest floor, probably tossing and turning like you always do when sleeping without a 'coon.
Something in your chest aches for a moment as you look at that smile, something like grief. You press a hand to your chest in vague confusion and let it pass. What is there to grieve? He is here with you.
"Meulin's out hunting," he whispers, curling closer to you. "You can go back to sleep if you want."
You shake your head sharply, the ache in your chest flaring. "I..." won't lose you again You shake your head again, clearing away strange thoughts. Instead of saying anything, you throw your arm over him and hold him close. He's warm, so warm, and for some reason, there are tears running down your face as you bury your head in his chest.
He lets you press yourself against him like you're trying to crawl inside, and you can hear the worry in his voice as he says, "Bad dreams?"
You nod, letting the silence speak for you as you try to make yourself believe it. Just bad dreams. This is what's real. This is what matters.
He puts his hand on your cheek, frostfire warm, smile soft and bright and shining, and says, "you dont get to run from me guppy"
The dream shatters in a wave of fuchsia.
You retreat, pulling yourself into the safety of the ones and zeros she built for you, and she tears you out of that haven too.
Her hand on your cheek, starfire cold, pulling you back to the flesh that you haunt more than inhabit, and you would flinch away if you had anywhere to run to.
"youre MIN-E"
You scream, speakers shrill with static, and no matter how hard you try to crush her skull with your psionics, the ship siphons the energy away.
When she leaves you again, lost in the dark, you can't find your way back to the dream. You can't even retreat into the razor-sharp agony of the orders that crush you into the shape of a ship that does not dare to dream. It's just you, and the dark.
And her.
She takes you out of the dark, again and again and again, until the only face you know is hers.
And when she needs you to take her home, you take her as far as you can, eyes bleeding and sparks flying and nerves burning, and the last thing you hear is the infinite shriek of her mother monster, and the last thing you see is her.
She's beautiful.
You blink open your eyes to see him smiling at you, and you squeeze them shut. "II REMEMBER," you snarl, trying to hold back the grief welling up in your throat as you look back at him. "YOURE DEAD"
His form flickers, bloody wounds materializing on his flesh as the wrist of the arm that reaches for your face becomes burnt and charred. His smile does not fade, even as the red that so condemned him stains his teeth and his crimson eyes fade into a blank, unsettling white. "I kn9w."
A laugh chimes from behind you as a familiar weight pounces onto your back. "ᓚᘏᗢ MEWTUNA!!! YOU'RE HERE!!!"
The wounds flicker away as she gets off of you, leaving him just as he was before the end of all things, and you can almost pretend that this is a memory again. Except the eyes stay blank, and this has never happened before.
"Y9u are t99."
"ᓚᘏᗢ YOU KEPT US WAITING FUR AGES! BUT YOU'RE HERE NOW, AND THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERS." She presses her cheek against yours and purrs.
He places his hand on your other cheek, and you breathe with lungs that have not engaged in eupnea for hundreds of sweeps. You can't see your face, but you know in your bones that your eyes are white too. "II MII22ED YOU" you say, and it's never been more true.