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It had been a day since Waru and Gabriel had returned from their vacation. They'd planned to stay on a little longer, but they'd received a call from Fëdor about some sort of emergency at home, and cut their vacation short. Upon arriving, both of them immediately noticed that everyone looked wrong, like they'd partially fused with Kuromaku. Fëdor had very gently sat both Waru and Gabriel down and explained the situation to them.
Kuromaku was gone and he wasn't coming back.
At first, Waru hadn't wanted to believe it. This had to be another prank they were playing to get back at him. They'd probably dyed their hair and changed clothes or something. There was no way this had happened. But no, they showed him what was left of the cards. The king of clubs was well and truly dead.
Despite the sickening dread pooling in his stomach, Waru was determined not to let the other clones find out he was upset. Maybe he could lighten the mood a little, too - the others seemed distraught, and the atmosphere was quite gloomy, as you'd expect from a house where someone had just died.
He'd tried some light ribbing with Felix, but Felix had barely responded. He'd tried messing with Spade, who had responded by trying to strangle him, but his grip was a lot weaker than before - Waru internally wondered whether this was because his arms had been swapped with Kuromaku's, or because Spade was afraid of getting yet another clone irreversibly harmed, or because Spade had understood that both he and Waru were grieving on the inside. Dante had Kuromaku's voice now and Waru didn't want to hear it, so he left Dante alone. Romeo had been going out and partying hard, indulging himself in alcohol and women to try to forget, so he was hardly home. Waru didn't have it in him to be mean to Gabriel at a time like this. And Brolly… Brolly was hardly able to get out of bed. It was almost like having a second Dante. One time Waru had seen him up and about in the kitchen, trying to brew some tea, and Brolly had offered Waru a cup made just the way he liked it, with extra lemon. He didn't have the heart to bully a fellow jack who'd just lost his king but was going out of his way to be nice to someone like Waru despite his depressive state.
And that left Waru with nobody to mess with. He was alone with his own thoughts. As he plopped down onto the couch - not the recliner, of course, because nobody wanted to sit in Kuromaku's seat right now - Spade approached him, holding Kuromaku's old blazer.
"Kuromaku wanted you to have this," Spade said, thrusting it into Waru's hands.
"Oh, right. I was in his will," Waru recalled.
The night passed uneventfully, though not comfortably. Waru found himself internally recoiling at the idea of having to sleep on the recliner, but there was nowhere else to sleep. Kuromaku's mattress and blanket remained untouched below his beloved whiteboard, where his notes remained, as nobody had dared, or wanted, to erase them. Waru had spent the night tossing and turning, occasionally hearing Felix or Brolly wake up and cry a little. He couldn't blame them.
Waru sat on the bathroom floor with his back against the wall, having checked a dozen times to make sure the door was locked. Nobody else was home at the moment, but they could return at any time, and he'd rather not talk to anyone right now. He flipped the blazer over in his hands, feeling its soft fabric pressed against his fingers.
Fingers shaking, he slipped it on over his torso. He'd always thought he looked good in it, but with the blazer having come into his possession the way it did, he really wished it wasn't his. It smelled faintly of cologne - Kuromaku had always prided himself on his personal hygiene and neat appearance. Waru looked at himself in the mirror and froze on the spot, his breath hitching in his throat.
He looked just like…
Waru opened the bathroom door a crack to make sure nobody was home yet, made a mad dash for the prized item on the TV stand, and brought it back to the bathroom with him, securing the door once more. He hesitantly opened the case and there they were: Kuromaku's glasses, the only thing that had been left of him when he disappeared, sacrificing himself for everyone. He slipped off his own glasses - ugh, was the bathroom always this garish? At least his paintings of Waruland's buildings were still there - and hung them out of his pocket. Slowly, he picked up Kuromaku's glasses and slid them up his nose.
Kuromaku stared back at him from the mirror.
It didn't matter that his hair was green or that his eyes weren't gray. Everything looked green to Waru most of the time anyway, including Kuromaku. Kuromaku might as well have been green to Waru. Waru looked far, far too similar to Kuromaku for his own liking. His breathing turned sharper, rapider, and more erratic as he clawed at the buttons on the blazer, trying to remove it as fast as he could while still making sure not to damage it.
He yanked the glasses off his face, catching a glimpse of his tear-filled eyes in the mirror, and hurriedly put them back in the case. He sank to the floor clutching both the blazer and the glasses case, his back pressed against the door, as sobs wracked his body. He hated everything. He hated that he was weak enough to cry. He hated that he was weak enough to not cry in front of everyone else, because his own ego wouldn't allow for it. He hated the fact that he looked just like Kuromaku.
And more than anything… he hated that Kuromaku was gone. Kuromaku, who he loved playing jokes on and messing with, if only to get his attention. Kuromaku, the one who tried his best to help everyone, and clearly cared for the others despite his seemingly stoic nature. Kuromaku, who was one of the few other people in this world that understood the hardships of being a clone. Kuromaku, who he'd known and cared about for the entire duration of his existence. Kuromaku, who was practically a brother to him. Gone.
As tears flowed down Waru's face, a knock at the door startled him.
"Brolly? Is that you? Are you okay in there? I heard you crying," came Felix's voice from outside. Oh great, he was home.
"Yeah, I'm fine! Don't worry about me!" Waru called from inside, doing his best Brolly impression.
Felix paused for a second, and Waru almost thought he'd left, but he heard some shuffling outside.
"I got you some candy! I'm leaving it outside the door so you can come get it whenever you're ready," Felix said from outside the bathroom. "I just want you to know that… if you need a friend to talk to or a shoulder to cry on, you can always come to me. I know we don't always get along, but we need to be there for each other now more than ever. I love you and I care about you, okay?"
Ugh, typical sappy Felix. But since when did he and Brolly not get along? What had even happened during that short little vacation? He'd only been gone for a week…
Sighing, Waru stepped out of the bathroom, putting his own glasses back on. The bag of candy outside caught his eye. It was a bag of sour candies, his favorite. Attached to the bag was a note: "I hope you feel better soon, Waru - love, your friend Felix. P.S. - You're not very good at impersonations."