Work Text:
Why was he so stupid?
He should have been able to do something so simple as a trap - a successful trap that is. Instead, he had gone and failed, faced the humiliation of the consequences, and to make things worse, died before even halfway through the session.
He had set two records that day - the first to unintentionally fail as the boogeyman, and the most lives lost in a singular session. It wasn’t an achievement. It only furthered the utterly humiliating way he had died.
The cobbled tiles beneath him were only growing colder, his body heat seemingly doing nothing to warm the perpetually damp stone beneath him. It meant the rotten smell lingered, the cell cloaked the room in the after-taste of death. It was only fitting after all.
The room was perfectly designed to be as uncomfortable enough for its inhabitants - as if a death game wasn’t worse enough. Dying first wasn’t humiliating enough for Them. No, now you had to stay in a musty, dim prison cell until the game was over.
He hoped at least someone would show up soon
Void - why was he such an idiot?
Just as Tango resumed his mental berating, a thud from in front of him tore him out of it. He lifted his head in time to watch Ren collapse to his knees before bursting into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.
There was an immediate relief that Tango couldn’t help but feel now that he was no longer alone, but it was soon faded into concern for his teammate.
“Ren?”
Ren didn’t look up, speaking between bursts of cackles, “Well, hello there, Tango!”
Tango uncurled himself and crawled towards the other, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Breathe, man”
He got a small nod in response as Ren struggled with controlling himself. It took a few minutes for the laughter to die down, but eventually he quietened, though the smile remained stuck on his face.
Tango had never been the first out. Normally, there were others here already to ask the dreaded questions - to piece together the story - worry over who would win.
There was no one else here. The only thing he could do was try. “How’d it happen?”
The question nearly set Ren off again, with the way his shoulders shook, but he managed to get a hold of himself before starting, “The Villies! Who else?”
Ren took a pause to pull a long breath in. “I was even going up their stupid tower to trap them but then - boom!” He shook his head with a self-deprecating chuckle, one definitively less manic than before.
Tango took it as a good sign, shifting back to allow the other some more space.
“You okay?”
The question was not an easy one for Tango. No - of course he wasn’t - but voicing it was the hard part. Instead, all he could offer was a half-laugh and a shrug.
The silence that followed left Tango wondering what was happening now on the server. How many more lives had been lost? Who had the most? Which alliances had fallen apart?
Who was Impulse with now?
The thought struck him before he could even process the implications, before he had even realised that they had left Impulse alone.
“Ren,” Tango called, eyes wide with panic.
Ren must’ve caught on when he saw the state Tango was in as his eyes widened too.
“Impulse-”
Firm arms wrapped around his middle, pulling him towards a warm chest. “He’ll be okay- he’s smart, he can look after himself.”
“We left him!” Tango cried, unable to escape the suffocating guilt now that it had been place upon him. “He doesn’t have a team- he had a lot of lives, right? They’ll target him-”
Tango can feel as Ren shakes his head, continuing his attempts to soothe him. “It was everyone versus the Villies when I left - he’ll find someone. No one’s against him, I promise.”
“We failed him. ” He squeezed his eyes shut, a tear rolling down his face. With the angle his face was at, it slid sideways, running over his lips and allowing him to taste the saltiness of it as it seeped into his skin. It was a silly thing to think of crying as a relief, but it gave him a short reprieve from the stench of rotting.
The guilt stayed stuck on his chest, even as he repeated in a ruined voice, “We failed him.”
Ren had no words to offer, only dropping his head to rest against Tango’s. The silence only solidified what they had done.
They went back to silence after that, even as Ren guided him to lean against one of the walls to stay out of the way of whoever would spawn in next. As they moved, Tango caught the hint of a shine in Ren’s eyes and held onto him a little tighter when they sat down again.
It wasn’t until their tears had long since dried did someone else appear.
They were clutching their chest, their last few moments still playing in their mind as their eyes stared unseeing in front of them. It wasn’t a foreign look to any of them at this point, but that never made seeing it get any better.
Pearl let out a strangled gasp as she fell to her knees, similar to how Ren arrived, except missing his manic state by a mile.
Tango pulled away from Ren with a hurried apology so he could collect Pearl into his arms, exactly how he had learned she needed at times like these. He held her as close as possible, whispering soft promises of safety into her hair.
She took longer to recover than Ren had but when she did look up, he found a good amount of clarity had returned to her eyes.
“How?”
Tango had asked it as softly as possible but she tensed nevertheless, whispering one word, “Jimmy.”
“Jimmy?” Ren echoed, more of a concern than judgement.
“Shot me - I was invisible and didn’t have any armour on-”
Tango nodded slowly as he listened to the short explanation of her unfortunate death. Sometimes these things just happened like that. It sucked, but he got it.
Though at least it was better than dying to a stupid creeper.
They were all familiar with this song and dance at this point which gave them the awareness of when not to push something further and so they fell back into silence instead. With nothing more to do, they joined Ren at the side, waiting for the others to arrive.