Chapter Text
The world hadn’t ended yet.
Not for Two Time. Not for Azure.
Back then, mornings arrived like soft breaths. The sun didn’t blaze-it stretched, gentle and golden, casting soft light through the windows of their hideout.
Dust drifted through the air like it was dancing. The sheets were always tangled, warm from the two of them wrapped up in each other.
Two Time would wake first, usually. Not because they wanted to, but because they liked watching Azure sleep. Their face always looked peaceful then-unguarded.
The worry lines softened, lashes twitching faintly with dreams Two Time never asked about. Sometimes, they'd brush a strand of hair from Azure’s cheek. Sometimes they'd whisper something ridiculous just to see if it would slip into Azure’s dream.
Other mornings, it was Azure who woke first, and they'd quietly slip away to the garden. Two Time would follow minutes later, groggy and barefoot, with sleep still in their voice.
“You’re always up before me,” they'd grumble, arms snaking around Azure’s waist from behind. “Gonna think you love the plants more than me.”
Azure would laugh, low and bright, tilting their head back to kiss Two Time’s temple. “Plants don’t talk back.”
“Lies,” Two Time muttered. “I heard that daisy insult me yesterday.”
Azure turned around with dirt on their cheeks, sunlight caught in their eyes, and grinned.
“It said you have great hair but terrible watering technique.”
They collapsed together into the grass, tangled in limbs and laughter.
The garden wasn’t beautiful by most standards. It was wild, full of chaos-vines where there should have been rows, petals of colors that clashed more than they complemented.
But it was alive. Overflowing. Sacred.
And it was theirs.
---
Azure's hands were always in the dirt, coaxing life from it like it loved them back. They’d hum softly while planting-songs with no words, just melody-and they said it helped the roots grow straighter.
Two Time didn’t believe that, but they still caught themselves humming along sometimes.
“I don’t get it,” Two Time muttered once, watching Azure tend to a cluster of bluebells.
“How can something so fragile grow out of all this... crap?”
Azure glanced up. “Because it wants to. It has to. That’s how life works, love.”
Two Time stared a moment too long, their voice unusually quiet. “That’s what you are.”
Azure blinked. “What?”
“A flower in all this crap.” They shrugged awkwardly. “You shouldn’t have grown here. But you did. And I-”
They cut themselves off.
Azure reached over, brushing a bit of dirt from Two Time’s cheek, fingertips lingering.
“Then I guess you’re the sunlight.”
Two Time snorted. “That’s the sappiest thing you’ve ever said.”
“Yeah, well.” Azure kissed their forehead. “You like it.”
They did. God, they did.
---
The cult had already started to shift by then. The faith was growing... heavy. More serious. More blood-bound.
Two Time didn't like how some of the others looked at Azure-too reverent, too quiet, like they were something to be offered instead of cherished.
Azure knew it, too. They just smiled.
“If the path darkens, we walk slower. We don’t stop.”
“You sound like a sermon.”
They laughed. “Maybe I’m practicing.”
“Don’t.” Two Time leaned in.
“I don’t want you as a prophet. I want you as my person.”
Azure’s voice dipped into a whisper.
“Then promise me. If the day comes… and it’s me or the faith…”
Two Time cut them off with a kiss. “It won’t come to that.”
“But if it does-”
“It won’t.” Their eyes were steel. “I’d never hurt you.”
Azure didn’t answer. Just held them tighter, like they already knew what the end would look like.
Nights were their sanctuary.
Blankets heavy with warmth. Candlelight flickering on cracked walls.
Two Time would read from half-burned books in ridiculous voices until Azure laughed so hard they cried.
Sometimes they fell asleep mid-sentence, mouths still parted, hands clasped even in dreams.
Sometimes they stayed up until dawn, watching shadows move on the ceiling.
Sometimes they said things they couldn’t take back.
“I think I’d die if I lost you,” Two Time whispered one night, fingers curling tighter around Azure’s wrist.
Azure’s reply came slow. “You’d live.”
“No. I wouldn't. I’d just be... here. Without living.”
Azure rolled to face them, brushing their nose against Two Time’s. “Then don’t let me become something to mourn. Let me be something that stays.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You will.”
---
They always came back to the garden.
Azure taught Two Time the names of every flower. Made them repeat them. Over and over. Like they knew they'd need to remember.
“What's this one?” Azure asked, holding up a bloom.
“Uhhh...” Two Time blinked. “Poisonpetal?”
Azure laughed. “That’s not even a real flower.”
“It should be. Sounds badass.”
“It’s a crocus.”
“Bless you.”
Azure slapped their shoulder lightly.
There were nightshades, too. Azure kept them near the back, away from the rest. Not hidden, but distant.
“They’re misunderstood,” they explained. “Dangerous, sure. But beautiful. People fear them because they don’t try to look soft.”
Two Time never liked how much Azure admired them.
“You remind me of them,” Azure said once.
“I’m not that pretty.”
“No. But you are that dangerous.”
---
Some nights, Two Time would find Azure sleeping in the grass, curled up between patches of violets and white heather.
They’d lay beside them, careful not to crush the flowers. They'd just breathe together. Silent. Still.
And sometimes, just sometimes-Azure would whisper:
“If I go first… promise you’ll let something grow from it.”
And Two Time would say, like always:
“You’re not going anywhere.”
But that day was coming.
And this was the last time the sky would ever be blue.