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Two always got too attached to the wrong people.
People they knew weren't going to stick around.
They knew everyone in their life they cared about would abandon them, which made it all the more painful when they inevitably left, leaving Two numb and sinking further into their mattress.
Two buried their face into their pillow and tried to ignore the chaos they glimpsed from their bedroom window; the black, oozing substance leaking from the sky. They weren't entirely sure what was going on. All they knew was that no-one had come barging into their room for quite some time now. For a while they were okay with the silence, but as time stretched on and hours (god, they hoped it had only been hours) blurred together, they longed for any sort of company. Frankly, Two was scared. Terrified, even. They were left powerless, glued to their bed, only able to watch as reality crumbled around them, and worst of all, completely alone.
Two gripped their pillow lightly and pressed their face further against it, attempting to stifle their tears. They had pathetically wasted away in their bed, isolating themselves and shrugging off anyone who tried to help in a haze of grief.
They didn’t want to be alone anymore, but it was too late. Everyone was gone.
Ironic, isn’t it?
They sobbed into their pillow, the white fabric stained a melancholy grey from the countless times they’ve cried into it.
“I- hic -don’t want to be alone…p-please!” They cried out, partly muffled by the pillow.
Two didn’t know who they were crying out to. It was stupid and naive, but they almost hoped that someone would hear their sobs and burst through the door; a knight in shining armour that would tell them that everything was going to be okay. Two knew it wasn’t okay. Nothing was okay right now. They had taken all those visits from the contestants for granted and here they were, selfishly wishing someone would comfort them. They wanted the contestants, they wanted Gaty, and most and strangely of all, they wanted Four.
They felt stupid for it. There was no one else in existence Four hated more than Two. However, he had been the only person to consistently visit them- even if it was only to get their powers. Whenever he strutted into their room, Two enjoyed the familiarity of it, and found comfort knowing Four would always be there, even if he despised them.
Until he wasn't.
Suddenly all the spiteful remarks Four constantly hissed at them seemed appealing, infinitely better than nothing at all. The worst part was they had no clue where he had vanished off to.
They hoped wherever he was, he was doing better than they were.
_______________________________________
Four had assumed that the dark would be the worst part. He knew he could deal with that; tough it out, like he always did.
But as he lay, slumped against the sides of the hollow moon, the silence eating away at his mind was endlessly more unbearable than darkness. The air was stagnant but freezing; it pierced his skin like daggers. He wondered if this was why One was so bitter, enduring this for over 16 years - though he quickly dismissed any thought of sympathy for her. One was inexcusably evil.
Hypocrite.
A whisper in the back of his mind made frustration flare up inside him. He was nothing like her.
Four had been alone before, but never lonely. When he isolated himself from everyone during BFB, it was voluntary; he felt unwanted. However, now he had people who cared for him. People he needed to protect. Four’s breath caught in his throat as faces flashed in his mind; X, clock, the contestants, hell, even the other numbers he hadn't heard from in years. All in danger. He smashed his fist into the hard rock ground in a fit of rage and felt a chalky substance linger on his knuckles. Another face drifted into his thoughts from the dark, repressed parts of his brain. Four imagined them being cornered by One, alone and defenceless, and felt his stomach churn at the thought.
Two.
God, he despised them. That stupid wide grin, their thick accent, the way they acted so casually around him like they didn’t steal his contestants.
So why did their idiotic face stick in his mind like an unwanted piece of gum?
Pity? Yes, of course. What else would it be? The only reason Four could ever possibly be worrying about Two was pity for their dismal little situation.
Four remembered when he first saw Two after TPOT 15. He’d walked in, preparing to borrow a bit of their powers for the next contest and spit out a few hostile remarks, but ended up stopping dead in their tracks. Two lay like a corpse in their bed, their eyes sunken and hollow, staring up at the ceiling with despair. Such a jarring contrast from the annoyingly bubbly host Four had become accustomed to. He hated to admit it, but he almost missed how sickeningly cheery Two was.
Four tentatively reached out a hand.
“Erm, Two.” He began, “I need to yoink some of that power those contestants are crazy over for the contest.”
“...Hmn?”
Two slowly averted their gaze from the blank ceiling and stared numbly in fours direction, their eyes glazed and unfocused. Lethargically, they lifted up a hand and lightly gripped onto Four’s, who almost jumped at the contact, feeling electrical sparks course through him as he felt Two’s soft skin.
As Four started to sap Two’s powers into his body, he noticed the way their hand trembled softly, and how their waterline twitched like they were on the brink of tears. Four watched as a few stray tears rolled down their cheek, but immediately darted their eyes away, internally cringing. What the hell was he thinking anyway? Four hated Two, why was he analysing their condition like they were under a microscope?
Four should've let go after that. Every logical part of his brain was screaming at him to go, that he had got what he needed and he had to avoid staying in the vicinity of Two for longer than what was absolutely necessary.
But he didn’t. Four couldn’t bring himself to abandon Two when they were in this state, so visibly broken. He didn’t know why, but his fingers remained intertwined with Two’s. The one person he despised more than anything. Four had never imagined he would be this close to his self-proclaimed “sworn enemy”, and the sensation of Two’s hand intertwined with his own felt impossibly strange.
Four glanced down, accidentally caught Two’s solemn gaze and immediately felt their throat close up. Their eyes locked. The awkward silence that followed threatened to choke him. He was too close to them. Closer than he had ever thought he’d be.
This was too much. Too fast. Too intimate.
Something glimmered in Two’s sunken eyes. Gratitude, maybe? Four didn’t wait to find out, didn't want to find out. The blue number snatched his clammy hand away and darted out of the room at lightspeed.
Four shuddered as he recalled how panicked he felt, how scared he felt. Looking back he felt stupid for feeling this way; Four didn’t get scared. So why did he freeze up like a deer in headlights? He felt as if his heart would jump out of his chest, and he was sweating like crazy. All things correlated with fear.
And another feeling.
It couldn’t be that- could it? No, of course not. How could he feel like that about Two when he absolutely despised them. At least, that's what Four had been so desperately convincing himself was true for the longest time.
Four rested his head in his hands and rubbed his fingers against his temple. God, why did feelings have to be so complicated? Four wasn’t good at expressing his emotions at the best of times. The one and probably only upside of being trapped in the moon was that he had some alone time to think.
Four disinterestedly gazed up at the top of the hollow moon, barely able to make out the rocky surface through the darkness. Anything to distract him from the silence. And his own thoughts.
He noticed some sort of rough scratches in the rock’s surface- wait, was that him? A crude drawing of Four with a big angry cross over his face, accompanied by the other numbers, was scratched into the rock. He laughed softly under his breath as he stared at the silly depictions of him and the others. Even if they were silly little drawings, it almost made Four feel less alone looking at them. His eyes lingered on the little doodle of Two for longer than he would’ve liked. Four would’ve preferred if the real Two was with him - god knows why - but this would have to do for now.
For now.
The words stuck in his mind like a bad dream. What, was he expecting after a while One would get bored and free him? He felt the false hope he had been blindly clinging onto until now shatter. A feeling of dread settled in Four’s stomach as he realised no one was coming to free him. There was no-one left to free him. He might be here forever-
No. Stop it. You can’t think like that.
There was still X. There was still hope. Four knew that his yellow friend had great potential, a power strong enough to level planets. If he ever managed to unlock his vast potential Four knew X could defeat One. Even with his mixed feelings, Four hoped X could keep Two safe from her.
Four could imagine Two right now, probably still wasting away in their bed, with that same distant look in their eyes. He felt nauseous thinking about the state they would be in now that they were completely alone- like himself.
They were both trapped in a way, both isolated; Four in the moon and Two in their own bed. It almost felt comforting knowing someone else was going through the same thing as him- even if it was Two.
God, he couldn’t stop thinking about them, could he? Four took a mental note of another thing he hated about Two- how they occupied his brain space like an annoying green parasite.
Four felt his eyelids grow heavy as he stifled a yawn. He was too tired to stop his brain from thinking about that forsaken green number that plagued his psyche anymore. He tried to get as comfortable as possible in the cold, hard interior of the moon. He let himself drift off into sleep thinking of Two’s endearing wide grin, their charming accent, the way they acted so casually around him. It was weirdly comforting. He could almost imagine them curled up next to him, almost feeling their body heat.
He already knew his dreams would be full of Two.
His sworn-enemy.
The one person he whole-heartedly despised.
And for once, he didn’t mind.