Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Xisuma couldn’t breathe.

Evo had fallen. As he read the names of the members of the server, he started to feel his chest tighten, and his head started to race with all the possibilities.

Xisuma was going to throw up.

He wondered what he was supposed to tell his brother.

He was on that list. The person who opened all the doors that are available to them now. He was gone. It felt as if all those doors just got slammed in his face.

Xisuma couldn’t care for him and his brother alone. That was a fact.

He was still going through school. He couldn’t do that and take care of Exavion.

Xisuma didn’t hear his brother's concern at his panic; every sound was blending at this moment. Xisuma was going through every possible scenario of what could happen now that he couldn’t care for them.

“…Xisuma. Xisuma! Xisuma!” Exavion’s yell snapped Xisuma out of his panic. “Oh, thank void. You’re back to earth. What even happened for you to panic like that?”

Xisuma swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat.

“Xisuma? What happened?”

“Xequla. He’s gone.”

Chapter Text

Four years earlier.

Xisuma weaved through the crowd of players, searching for a familiar alleyway. Once he found it, Xisuma glanced around, ensuring it was the correct one, and slipped into a large hole in the wall, slipping in to come face to face with his brother, his red eyes staring into his soul from under his white hair. Xisuma always found Exavion to have different-coloured hair and eyes than him, which was strange.

I mean, if you, having brown hair and purple eyes, saw your brother look almost opposite of you, would you not be surprised?

“Xisuma? You okay? You’re staring.” Xisuma snapped out of his thoughts.

“Oh, I’m fine, Exavion, just distracted.” Xisuma smiled, glancing up at his red antennae, then at his own purple ones.

“Okay!” Xisuma smiled wider at Exavion’s enthusiasm. He always found it nice that his brother was as positive as he was. He certainly was more positive than Xisuma himself.

“You seem happy today? Did something good happen to you today?”

“I made a friend!”

“…you made a friend, huh?”

Chapter Text

Exavion wandered the streets of the Hub, looking around for the familiar tall antennae of his brother. His brother Xisuma had gone out for some reason, one he can't remember.

Exavion tried to see over the sea of unfamiliar faces, but simply balancing on the tips of his toes wouldn't be enough to reach above the heads of the group of tall players. As Exavion stood there, searching, he got knocked over by a short blond-haired elf, who had eyes as dark as lapis.

“Hey! Watch where you're going!” Exavion sent a sharp glare at the elf, who offered him a hand to help him up.

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to bump into you, kid.” The blond smiled brightly, despite the harsh words and unfriendly glare.

“It’s fine, I guess,” Exavion grumbled as he grasped the elf’s hand, pulling himself up from the ground. As Exavion stood up straight, he bit back a laugh as he realized he was almost as tall as the elf. “You're pretty short.”

“No, I’m not!”

“Yes, you are. I’m almost as tall as you!”

“I’m not short,” he paused, realizing his height wasn’t worth the fight. “Anyways, what's a kid like you doing wandering around here? You lost?”

“I’m not lost! At least I don't think…” Exavion frowned, staring at the blond. The blond looked back at him disbelievingly. Exavion stared in return. “I swear I’m not lost! I’m looking for my older brother! He’s around here! I’m sure of it!”

“Sure, kid. If you say so.”

“Glad you believe me.”

“Kid, that’s not-“ The blond ran his hand down his face, shaking his head.

Exavion wasn’t listening to the blond's exasperation, as he had started searching for his brother once more. “Huh? What’d you say?”

“Nothing of importance. Anyways, uh- wait, what’s your name? I never asked. Sorry.”

“Exavion. My name is Exavion. What’s your name?”

“My name is Xequla.”

Chapter Text

“So what you’re telling me is, you got lost, and bullied some random guy, and now you’re friends with him?” Xisuma wondered what happened for Exavion to be this oblivious to social norms.

“Yup!”

“Exavion, I hope you know that’s not how you make friends.”

“Huh? What’d you mean it’s not how you make friends? I mean it’s how I normally interact with you.” Exavion tilted his head in confusion.

“I mean- it’s different I’m your brother, he’s some random dude.” Xisuma sighed, wondering how he was going to find the guy Exavion was bothering earlier. Wait bothering? When did Xisuma start thinking his brother was a bother? That was weird it was almost as if-

“It’s different? How?” Exavion broke through Xisuma’s train of thought.

“Relationships with your siblings are different than friendships Exavion. You can treat your friends like your siblings but that’s only when your close. But people you just met, that’s mean.” Xisuma explained, sitting in their small hideout.

“Oh. Okay.” Exavion’s antennae lowered, and Xisuma winced at the thought that he upset his brother.

“Hey, I brought you something.” Xisuma tried to distract his brother from what he said.

Exavion perked up at his words, “Huh? What’d you bring me?”

Xisuma smiled, and pulled out a package of Cobblemon cards, “For your collection. I saw you eying em last time we went past the store.” Exavion’s face split with a smile.

“Thank you so much Xisuma! Wait, how’d you even get these? I thought you didn’t get a job? You didn’t steal them did you?”

“It’s not stealing, it’s sharing is caring.” Xisuma smiled mischievously, “Plus, what they don’t know won’t hurt them.”

“Xisuma, you need to stop doing that…” Exavion frowned.

“You want the cards or not?”

“I still want them.” Exavion snatched them from Xisuma, ripping the card pack open. “Oo! No duplicates this time!” Exavion placed the cards into a binder that Xisuma had supplied for him, that held over a hundred cards at the moment. “Thanks ‘Suma!”

“No problem Exavion.” Xisuma smiled at his brothers excitement, his worries melting away. Exavion filtered through all his different items in his stash, and his hand froze over a picture of the End.

“Suma?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think it’ll ever go back the way it used to be?”

“…I dunno. I hope so.”

Xisuma felt terrible. He hadn’t told Exavion that the portal had been closed. He hadn’t told him they barely escaped the massacre of their people. He hadn’t told him. Hehadnttoldhimhehadnttoldhim-

“Xisuma? You okay?”

It wasn’t okay, the air felt thinner than usual. It hurt to breathe more than usual- He couldn’t breathe- Xisuma sucked in a breath. Calm. You must be calm.

“I’m fine!” Xisuma managed to keep his voice steady and paste a smile on his face.

“…If you say so.”

“By the way, I also found a cool bottle cap! I’m going to add it to the wall!” Xisuma pulled out a bottle cap, a small orange and red one, and stuck it to a large wall of bottle caps.

“I swear there are more bottle caps than walls…” Exavion muttered, ignoring the obvious subject change.

“Huh? What’d you say?”

“Nothing.”

“Okaay…” Xisuma looked at the wall of bottle caps.

“How many do you think you have?”

“As of today? 346!”

“…do you like, have too much free time or something? How. Just how. Y'know what, I don’t wanna know.”

“Your loss.” Xisuma stretched, yawning, and peeked his head out the hole in the wall into the alley, seeing the dark streets. “Its late. We should probably go to bed.”

“Fine- but! I want the flower pillow you found.”

“Huh? Why! It’s my favourite-“ Xisuma hugged the pink pillow to his chest.

“Because it’s pretty.”

“…fine.” Xisuma handed Exavion the pink flower pillow, and laid down on the ground next to his brother. “Night Exavion.”
“Night ‘Suma.”