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It was sickening, being unable to say anything about that fucking pangolin. It made his eyes twitch, his nerves alight in frustration, his muscles tense ready for a fight that won't, can't, never will happen.
He wants to strangle him. He wants to smash him into pulp. He wants to stab him and watch as the life drains from his eyes. He wants to hunt him down until he's exhausted, tripping over his feet and falling to the ground, pleading - Sneeg knows he wouldn't do this - to let him go.
He wants and he can't have.
Sneeg wants to hurl insults at him, the worst he's ever said, to etch them deep into Pangi's psyche so he couldn't forget.
It's so uncharacteristic of him to wish this on another. He knows that. Pangi knows that. Stars even Phil knows that, and yet the crow never said anything about it other than a few curious looks his way. He hasn't said anything until right now, that is, staring at Sneeg expectantly.
A Sneeg that doesn't know how to phrase it other than “Yeah, Fate tied us together as ‘soulmates’ or some utter nonsense and now we can't hurt each other in any fucking way. Physically and emotionally or something I dunno.”
“...That sounds like the least insane thing you've ever told me.”
“Well Phil, I can sound insaner!”
“Oh fuck no, if you do that I'm leaving you to your pining misery.”
“It's not pining- you know what, whatever dude, why should I listen to you about it when you have a goddess you pined after for… what was it…. centuries?”
“I- we don't talk about that.”
“That's what I thought.”
Phil hums, continuing to hit at the tree he's been trying to down for the past few minutes. Once it falls, he turns back to Sneeg, who hasn't moved at all. “But seriously Sneeg, what's going on?”
“I said what's going on Phil! We're soulmates, whatever those are, and we cannot hurt each other.”
“Sooo the reason you keep missing isn't because you're a horrible shot, but because it'll just bounce right off?”
“Yes,” he sighs, flying up to meditate - number go up is more important than this conversation - before meeting Phil by his trees. “That's exactly why.”
“Oh. I thought you just sucked.”
“I hope you die.”
“You wish.”
“I do wish actually, fuck you.”
“I thought it was me fuc-”
“Don't you dare finish that sentence.”
“Just jokes mate,” a pause. “Stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Did you not- oh my stars you didn't.”
“Not what?!”
“Your voice went deeper! Were you actually mad at me?” Phil laughs, shaking his head as another tree falls. “Or is it ‘cause you're saving yourself for a certain someone?”
“I'm pushing you off the blender next time I see you.”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
○○○○○○
What was he talking about again?
Ah, that's right. How much he wanted to fucking kill Pangi. To watch the blood spill out of him and onto the floor, his lifeless eyes as his skin starts to dissolve and leave nothing but bone. Wants to fly him way up into the sky, held only by the neck, watch him struggle as he stares at Sneeg with those eyes that scream to do it.
And he can already hear Pangi's stupidly adorable laugh as he falls, falls, and falls to his death.
Fall, because Pangi wouldn't put on the elytra that could save his corrupted life.
It pisses Sneeg off.
Pisses him off even more when Pangi is pinned against a tree, smiling at him with a look in his eyes that Sneeg annoyingly couldn't place. When he just laughs at his attempt to strangle him, some unnatural force keeps him from applying any more pressure than a soft touch.
“I wish,” he starts, mouth opening and closing numerous times, his eyes twitching when nothing comes out. “I hate this soulmate shit so much.”
“Awh, don't wanna hurt my feelings?”
“The opposite, actually.”
“Good to know! Now do you wanna let me go or…”
“I'd rather keep you where you can't slither away.”
“I'm a pangolin, not a snake. Get it right or get away, Sneeg.”
“Nah,” his hands drop from his throat to Pangi's shoulders, pressing him harder against the tree and finding it's… not working. Like everything else. “Think I like you like this.”
“Pressed against a tree? That's a weird kink you have there, man.”
“You wish,” he grits his teeth. “But no, dumbass, obviously not.”
“Then what?”
“That's for me to know and you to never find out.”
“That's so… cringey man, what the fuck?” He laughs out in disbelief and looks at Sneeg through his sunglasses. “Never say that again.”
“Yeah you'd like that, wouldn't you? Too bad I'm not gonna listen.”
“...You're so weird- how the stars did I get you as a soulmate.”
“Saying that as if you're not weirder. Have you seen and heard the things you say and do?” Sneeg scoffs, rolling his eyes as a hand curls into Pangi's hair to tug at it. “It's so… have you ever thought why it was us?”
“Maybe you should let go of me if you want a normal conversation.”
“Maybe,” but he makes no move to do so. What would Pangi look like with his throat slit? Would he keep the smile still? Would he laugh through the pain? Would he crumple and cough and stare at Sneeg until he bleeds out? “Aimsey and Ros make sense, given… everything about them. Foolish and Bad, too. But us?”
Pangi looks at him harder. He brings a hand up to Sneeg's chest, presses flat against his heart to hear the soft, gentle thud, thud, thud of it. “Think there has to be a reason for it?”
“Probably not, but wouldn't it be nice to know?”
Pangi shrugs the best he can. “Dunno man. Maybe it's better to leave it unsolved, just this once.”
“Yeah,” Sneeg leans in close, their noses just barely touching. “You wanna know something?”
“What is it?”
“I want to kill you,” he says with a smile, watching as a sparkle comes to Pangi's eyes.
“And how would you do it?”
“Dunno yet. Definitely not the mace.”
“Have you ever hit someone with it?”
“Let's not talk about that.”
Pangi just smiles wider and nods, his other hand curling into Sneeg's hair, tugging him closed until their noses are almost smashed together, lips somehow not touching. A beat of silence before he, breathlessly, speaks again. “Continue, yeah? How would you do it?”
“There's so many ways to go about it,” he tugs on Pangi's hair again, wishing it was enough to actually hurt the other. “Been thinking ‘bout it since you forever.”
“Me too,” his hand on the chest moves upwards, sitting at the base of Sneeg's throat. “Wish you weren't practically a God now, it would've been nice to see you bleed at my hands.”
“As if you could do that.”
“Hey! I could've taken you on any day!”
“Keep telling yourself that.” A pause. “You wanna know something else?”
“Better be something good if you keep delaying this.”
“Oh it is,” he whispers, sharing breaths with Pangi as he matches the smile on his face. “I hate you.”
“Yeah yeah, whatever you wanna say. We both know the truth,” and Pangi tilts his head and leans forward, connecting their mouths in a soft kiss.