Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Two did not deserve their sympathy. None of them did - after all, they were the ones who imprisoned her in that moon for what easily could’ve been an eternity. She’d prefer dividing themself by zero over ever daring to show pity for them after what they did.

So why did she feel so guilty right now?

That was what was running through One’s mind as they watched into Two’s room from within the whiteboard they were currently hiding in. She’d have thought this would be simple enough - take away the things Two loved, and they’d have no choice but to give her their power. So far, it had been going... well, “smoothly” was probably an overstatement (that annoying little leaf and amazingly-stubborn donut would be the end of them), but they did think they had gotten pretty far into their plan.

Now, however, having to look at how desolate Two looked after their dear, beloved Gaty was effortlessly wiped from existence... what was this feeling, regret? Pity? Whatever it was, she hated it, but it just wouldn’t go away no matter how much they tried to shove it down.

Two was an old friend... was, she had to remind herself. Not anymore. They don’t care about them anymore, shouldn’t care about them anymore... and yet, here she was, watching someone waste away in decline from whatever nearby object she chose to hide on for the day as they tried to untangle the spider-web of feelings they had just gotten themself tangled into.

She shouldn’t feel sorry for them, but she did.

And they hated it so much.

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It had been about three days, and Two wasn’t looking any better. In fact, they only seemed to be getting worse the more One watched over them.

The contest to win their power was still going, she was sure of that, but it just wouldn’t be fun to mess with it if someone else was hosting. She just enjoyed toying with Two the most, truth be told. It had always been so much fun watching them panic as control was wrenched away from them, as everything started to fall apart around them... but this wasn’t very fun, now was it? Watching someone waste away in their room like this? The person who... used to be their...?

...

She’d better get their attention.

“Heyyy, Two... you, uh, having fun there?”

Two blinked in confusion, barely even processing who it was that wanted to talk to them or what they wanted as they tiredly looked around the room. That voice at least sounded vaguely familiar, but then again, nearly every voice they happened to overhear seemed to be blending into each other as of late.

“Hey, over here, dude... on the whiteboard?”

One winced as the green algebralien finally shifted their gaze over to the whiteboard she was resting on, giving them an awkward grin and trying not to think about the deep, sunken bags under their eyes. “Yeah, there you go... uh, how are you doing, pal?”

“One?” Two gave the suddenly-animate doodle of her on the whiteboard a bit of a glare, narrowing their eyebrows a bit. “Ugh... what are you doing here? H-how’d you even get free?!”

One laughed nervously. “Well, you know... i-it wasn’t really that hard for me~ What, did you think that moon would be enough to hold me forever?”

It very nearly could’ve been forever, her subconscious bitterly tried to remind herself, but they just chose to ignore that... they did not enjoy listening to whatever their conscience had to say.

“Great,” Two deadpanned, “wonderful. Look, mate, if you’re gonna talk to me, can’t you at least get off the board?”

“Oh, can do!”

And with that, One popped off the whiteboard and rejoined reality, giving Two what in theory should’ve been a comforting smile but still stretched much too far across their face. As Two laid there, they weren’t sure whether they should be feeling scared out of their mind or just at their wit’s end; the sight of One standing there already felt alien enough as it was.

“Sooo, uhh...” One clicked her tongue. “You okay?”

“What do you think?” Two retorted. “You show up square out of the blue, I’m sure you’ve been the one screwing things up around me... you-” They suddenly stopped for a moment, before sighing and looking away to admire the fine color of the wall. “...bring ‘er back, mate. I know you did it.”

One shut their eyes for a moment... the thing was, they didn’t want to bring her back. She had thought it’d be more fun having Two live the rest of their days without their friend - their replacement - but seeing them sulk around like this...

“Well... what can I do in return?”

Two sighed. “Well, you can sod off, One, that’s what you can do. You’ve caused enough havoc for your own good, and I damn well know everything’s gonna be better if you just leave me-”

“Will it?”

“...huh?” Two glared at them a bit, trying to figure out what they were on about. In return, One just rolled her eyes.

“Ugh, come on, Two... do you think you’re just magically gonna be better once I give you your friend back? I’ve been sitting on that whiteboard, watching you rot for three days straight, and I can tell you it’s making me feel things I just don’t want to feel. I... I-I actually pity you, Two, like genuinely! And I don’t know why! But... I guess as long as I’m gonna be stuck feeling this... this- this guilt, this regret... then fine. Whatever. I’ll work with it. Just please let me help you feel better, okay, Two?”

Two gave them a look that suggested they weren't buying any of that for a second, prompting One to just smile awkwardly and add...

“My... old friend?”

Two had to think about that... they really had to think about that. How could they just take everything their “old friend” (even that was pushing it a bit) was saying at face value, when originally they just seemed to have it out for them no matter what? And how would they know if she would actually keep her promise? They’d sooner believe she was looking to sell them a cheap car, never been driven before, only slightly wrecked, then accept whatever her friendship had in store for them.

And yet... they did sound pretty genuine...

“Just...” Two sighed. “You’ve got me pinned against the wall here, mate. Bring ‘er back- in fact, just bring back everyone you mighta taken at some point or other, and then just... jog on for a while. I need to think about this.”

Well... a deal’s a deal.

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With every day that passed since that transaction, One kept mentally kicking themself for being so hasty to give up on their plans.

She had been doing this for a reason, she had to remind herself... she just wanted to fix her mistakes. And now? Two just suckered her into giving it all up. Sure, it didn’t seem like they did, but she knew the sort of mind games people played! Making them feel guilty about other people’s personal issues... they already had their own issues they needed to work through first! It wasn’t fair for others to just pile all their problems on top of those!

For all she knew right now, Three could still be stuck in that jail cell... and she’d never be able to save them at this rate. Then again, how would they be able to make things better? What, should she just jump inside Four, waltz up to them and go “hey, sorry I shattered you like that and then made your life a living hell afterwards by failing to bring you back correctly, my bad~” Yeah, like she’d get far with that... she just had to hope Four would take good care of them.

...Four.

Oh, how they loathed him... it was his fault they were stuck in that moon for fifteen years, him and all the others who just shoved her aside. And for what? Something she could’ve fixed if only she just had more time? More power? Math, she hated every single last one of them.

Except... for Two. Truth be told, no matter how much she messed with them, they just... didn’t really hate them? Like, sure, they got all the power and were just pawning it out to anyone with that dumb competition of theirs, but as far as she could tell, they hadn’t played any role in sealing her up in that moon. Of course, that was probably due to their interest in avoiding any type of conflict imaginable, but... for some reason, that still gave them even the faintest glimmer of hope.

And so, as they watched into Two’s room from the TV in their dimension (she figured they wouldn’t be comfortable anymore with being watched over from that whiteboard, so she might as well watch them from a distance), One found themself wondering if they should give them some sort of gift to show their appreciation. Yeah, sure, they didn’t trust them yet, whatever, but they could work on that! Slowly earning their trust by doing nice things for them... wasn’t that usually how it worked?

Now... what did Two enjoy?

Two sighed to themself as they trudged down the hallway, looking for their room. Ugh, math divide it, One was right... they had Gaty back, but that only really raised their spirits a little - enough where they felt comfortable hosting again, but not enough to the point where every day didn’t feel like a constant mental battle for them. Whatever, at least they could apparently mask it pretty nicely... didn’t stop Gaty from calling them out for it though.

As the green algebralien pushed open the door to their room, the first thing they noticed was... huh. They were pretty sure they didn’t just leave a cheesecake sitting out on their bed, but they didn’t really want to turn it down either. After all, cheesecake was their favorite food... well, all types of cakes were, really, but cheesecake was definitely number one on their list.

The next thing Two noticed was that there was a note laying next to it... that was odd. It was yellow in color, with some deep blue handwriting on it... and Two already had a feeling who it was from even before they picked it up to read it.

“still don’t trust me yet? here, have a gift! hope this helps :)

-Your friend, One!”

Included in the corner was a drawing of One giving a hesitant-looking smile, making Two sigh and shake their head a bit as they sat down next to the cheesecake.

“Oh, mate... look, I-I appreciate the gift, if you can hear me right now, but... you aren’t just gonna win me over with this. I mean-”

“-what makes you think I’m just gonna trust you after what you did to poor Three?”

One scowled at that, shaking a bit in their chair. What they did was an accident! They could’ve fixed... no, control yourself. This probably wasn’t the time for that.

“And besides,” Two continued, “I think this takes time, mate. It’s been... what, a day since you showed up here by now? It’s way too soon to start sending me goodies like this, I’m sure.”

Okay, sure... her bad. She probably could’ve waited a bit, but to be fair, her conscience was just screaming at her to do something, sooo...

“I-I should... probably stop talking to myself now, but... I guess you’re at least taking a step in the right direction with this, One. I’m trusting you maybe... one degree more now? Not by much, but just be happy with that, I suppose.”

Well, One had to admit, they were a little proud of Two’s personal growth right now! They actually wanted to hear them out instead of just messing with them for no reason! The blue algebralien quickly found herself kicking her legs out of excitement as she sat in her chair, feeling thrilled they were at least getting somewhere with this.

Now they had two lessons to keep in mind for the future, though: wait between gifts, and find something way more impressive than a cheesecake next time.