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“Hiya!” Scott greeted with a dazzling smile, stepping out of the ender portal and onto the wheat field high above the ground.
Jimmy whirled around with a start, eyes wide with panic. He quickly relaxed once he realized who had shown up.
“Oh my gosh, you scared the living daylights out of me.” Jimmy laughed, placing a hand dramatically over his heart.
Scott rolled his eyes playfully, “You live on the open roof of a mansion, you should be used to unexpected visitors by now, Jimothy.”
“Yeah, I guess.” He shrugged, his eyes darting up to Scott’s name color. “You’re looking mighty yellow there.”
Scott knew what was coming, he knew how Jimmy played these games. That charming personality being able to smooth talk his way into anything. He bore witness to it, even susceptible to it himself, the shiny gold ring on his finger served that reminder.
“I am,” Scott confirmed, raising an eyebrow. “I take it you want some time?”
“Maybe, just one kill?” Jimmy asked, a stupid grin on his face. “How much time do you have?”
Scott glanced at his wrist, the yellow numbers of his internal timer glowing under his skin. “Ten hours.”
Jimmy’s eyes went wide, mouth falling agape. “Dude, you have like nearly double my time! Surely you can spare some for me?”
Scott sucked in a breath, a sense of dread filling him. Normally he would do so without a second thought. He was willing to do anything for Jimmy, but this-
“See the issue is, I already gave time to Cleo because you killed them.”
“I see, so for some you give your time but others not.”
Scott tsked, crossing his arms and tapping his fingers in thought. He tried to think of who was still on an even playing field as him, looking around them and his eyes landed on TIES tower, poking through the clouds.
“Tell you what, I’ll give you some time if you can kill Tango first.” Scott told him, turning his gaze back to Jimmy.
Scott watched Jimmy think for a second, looking at the tall stone tower in the distance, before pushing his glasses up to cover his eyes and turning to rummage in the chest behind him. He pulled out a crossbow, loading it with an arrow and turning back to him.
“Scott, I’m going to give you thirty seconds.” Jimmy aimed his crossbow at Scott, his flirtatious tone gone and lowered into something to scare Scott. A threat to make Scott want to run. His feathers were puffed up, the way they did when Jimmy felt threatened.
And wasn’t that something? Scott could remember when Jimmy told him that he could never feel unsafe around him. It felt like a stab in the heart, looking at Jimmy being so defensive where he once felt safe.
Scott took a deep breath, the cool air from being so high burning his lungs. “Okay, okay fine. I love you.”
Jimmy’s eyebrows twitch, in an irritated way. “Thirty seconds.”
“Say I love you back,” Scott called back, trying to recover the playful banter the two had grown accustomed to this time around. It was usually easy and light hearted. On the wheat fields hundreds of blocks in the air, it was the two of them and the moon.
It wasn’t playful this time, but Scott would try and hold onto at least that much.
“Thirty seconds.”
That just was the final punch to the gut. Scott had witnessed Jimmy take his heart and hold it so gently in his hands, acting like it was glass and would shatter and the slightest misstep. Promised whispers when days were tough and nights were cold, once spoken so softly now nowhere to be seen. The love of his life threw it on the ground and shattered it into a million pieces.
All because of him.
“This is about Tango, isn't it?”
Oh, and the way Jimmy’s face morphs from defensive to confused makes Scott realize he’s said the wrong thing.
“What?” Jimmy demands, trying to keep the threatening demeanor though the tone had shifted. This was about more than just the games now, beyond whatever rivalry they had been ‘pretending’ to have.
It hurt, knowing Jimmy was choosing his soulmate– who he hadn’t even talked to since double life– over his husband. He had never been quick to anger, but the mere notion of it made his blood simmer with frustration.
Of all people, Scott knew Jimmy wasn’t as dumb as most people chalked him up to be. The man wasn’t some bumbling idiot, rather an impulsive idiot who wore his heart on his sleeve. Before, there was no question about what he thought about Scott. Now though?
Jimmy’s grip on his crossbow loosened and he lowered it in front of him. “Scott, what are you talking about?”
“Like you don't know,” Scott scoffed. He didn't often consider himself to be a jealous boyfriend, despite how many men seemed to throw themselves at Jimmy. Yet, something about Tango got under his skin.
“No, no I don’t know,” Jimmy blinked, the eyes behind his sunglasses wide with confusion.
That- Scott wasn’t expecting that. He blinked back at Jimmy, the two of them falling into silence. Wind whistled around them, the wheat swaying at its influence.
“You… don’t know what I mean.” Scott said, more to confirm it with himself than Jimmy. The man nodded in response regardless, sensing the misunderstanding that had been brewing.
Oh, oh dear. Scott had jumped way too quickly to a conclusion. Maybe he was a jealous boyfriend after all, or maybe he just didn’t want to accept Jimmy leaving him. He didn’t want to know what that particular thing said about him.
“Scott, petal, did you think that I…”
“Shut! I didn’t mean-”
Scott’s face was burning red now, embarrassed at his misunderstanding. Of course his adorable, goofball of a loyal husband would never do that to him. He wasn’t even sure Jimmy was capable of doing something like that. It was almost laughable at how enamored he was with Scott.
Even in the midst of these games, where they were supposed to be against one another, Jimmy had come to him. He had plenty of allies he could have asked for time, but he asked Scott. Sure, he had the most amount overall but Jimmy didn’t think about those kinds of things.
Void he felt stupid, getting so caught up in his head instead of just talking to his husband.
“When you get down to an hour, no, thirty minutes. That’s when I’ll give you the time to boost you back into the safe zone.” Scott told him, wanting to get away as quickly as possible so he could go crawl in his self made hold of shame.
Jimmy gave him a look that Scott pointedly ignored, but simply sighed in agreement. “Yeah I can do that. Thirty minutes and I’ll come find you.”
“Thirty minutes.”
Silence followed once more as Scott looked around for an escape route, not wanting to stand up in the chilly night air any longer. The quicker he left, the quicker he could pretend this conversation never happened. Shame was starting to bubble up, and Jimmy didn’t need to see Scott’s in such a stupidly vulnerable manner.
“Wanna push me down?” Scott asked, glancing over the edge and squinting into the abyss below them. He could barely make out the water that flooded the top of the mansion, creating a safe surface for him to land on to not lose an hour; not that it would do much.
“Yeah, I got you.” Jimmy responded, walking to the edge with Scott to make sure it was safe before standing behind him. A bit of silence, before Jimmy spoke up again. “Scott?”
“Yes, what?” Scott asked, turning around to fully face his husband.
Before he could react, Jimmy had pulled him forward into a soft kiss. Scott’s eyes went wide and it was over before he could fully process it, then he was falling with Jimmy’s voice fading into the wind rushing through his ears.
Scott hit the water with a large splash and he was left dazed and red faced. Still, he smiled as he swam up, breaking the surface with a gasp and hauling himself onto the sodden wooden roof to look up at the sky from where he had just fallen. Jimmy’s golden wings that shone in the moonlight disappeared into the wheat stalks.
He delicately brushed his fingers against his lips, chuckling to himself with a newfound giddiness. His husband’s lips were cold and chapped, but they still felt every bit as loving as the past hundred times Scott had been kissed by them. Nothing had changed, Jimmy still loved him. It felt the same, if not warmer, as the day when he was presented with the bright red poppy for the first time in those caves.
And for the first time since Limited Life had begun, in the final days before Jimmy would inevitably meet his cursed fate, Scott allowed himself to believe that everything would be alright.