Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Venomshank quietly watches from afar, his presence unknown by the man he watched, who was battling his mentor.

"Excellent work, you're a very quick learner." The mentor complimented, after her mentee successfully blocked against her attack and broke a block from her. She calls out for his brother, who skips out and stands next to the other student, "We shall begin your lesson. Katana, you may watch your brother or go out in the city if you wish." Katana bows, and thanks his mentor, before turning and leaving, not noticing the deity watching him.

With a grin hidden behind his mask, Venomshank speaks up once Katana walks past him, "That was very impressive." he compliments, "Always fun to learn new things your gear can do if you work it the right way, huh?"

Katana flinches at the sudden voice he didn't expect, before relaxing as he just realizes its his friend, Venomshank, smiling(?) up at him, "How did I not even notice you?" He chuckles at his own ignorance, "I guess, I don't know where I'll use them other than defending myself." he shrugs.

Venomshank shakes his shoulder, "Don't be like that, at least you'll always be able to win against your foes!" he encourages Katana to be more mindful of his learning experience, "Now that you're free for the day, why don't we go get some drinks?"

"Sure, just don't start sobbing and confessing about things you did when you were younger once your drunk." Katana playfully teases.

Venomshank wakes up to the sun painfully hitting his eyes through the small gap in his curtains, he keeps having dreams about Katana. Every night it's always something to do with one of his old friends,  sometimes they're so realistic he can't tell if his mind is replaying memories or is just that good at making up stories, either way, its just a reminder how happy and free he used to be, without ever knowing it then.

Right, today was the day he would teach Sword to block against attacks. Did his dreams make him remember that?

Tiredly, he sits up and gets off the bed, doing his morning routine, having a shower, brushing his teeth, getting dressed, and making breakfast for the two of them. Honestly, today he didn't feel his best, his dreams just bringing back memories he should've forgotten. He makes eggs on toast and coffee for himself, once he finishes his food, he goes to Sword's room to wake him up.

His knuckles hit the door, waiting for a response, only to get nothing. Venomshank opens the door, seeing Sword still asleep, snoring quietly in his hammock, Sisyphus woke up to the knocking, squawking as he grooms himself. Venomshank walks over to Sword, gently shaking him awake, "Time to get up, your breakfast is getting cold." Sword groans tiredly at being woken up. "You have training this morning, come meet me when you're ready." Venomshank turns and leaves, heading upstairs where they usually train.

The place they lived in was a large abandoned building that used to be used as an office complex, which Venomshank refurbished soon after finding Sword. The place was safe from civilians because where it stayed was a groups of stores and houses nobody went in because of rumours and its confusing layout which can make people get lost. Downstairs was the place Venomshank made into a home for the two, upstairs is where they trained usually, and the next three floors Sword was not allowed to go up.

Leaning against the wall next to the entrance, Venomshank quietly waited, occupied with his own thoughts as he awaited Sword's arrival. Why have those dreams now and so suddenly? It's bringing back the harsh memories he had witnessing The Scorch.

Katana was dead.

He thought he knew that over 10 years ago. These dreams were unnecessary, like someone coded it into him just to make his life worse, its not like he's stressed over other things, such as protecting Sword from the things that would him fear Venomshank, or staying away from the civilians he used to pass by years ago, receiving grins, compliments, and even discounts at shops. Nowadays, the Inpherno would burn him at a stake if he dared to walk the streets, or the fear that he may hurt someone in a feral state again, especially Sword. He still hasn't forgiven himself, and hates that scar under his eye that reminds him of his aggression.

More often than not, Venomshank wishes he was mortal, The Scorch was inevitable, considering that was Firebrands decision, that decision leaving Venomshank and his siblings having to hide from mortals, some being more confident and uncaring, even creating more reasons to hate The Swords. He wishes he was mortal so he wouldn't have to hide from everyone, be able to go out without getting screamed at by groups of Inphernal's for things he didn't even commit.

This abandoned place was safe for now, but Venomshank longed to bring Sword back to his home faction, or perhaps the place Venomshank spawned, Blackrock. 

Katana used to tell him that when they were trained, him and his brother were going to go to Thieves Den, and maybe Venomshank could come with.

"Venom!" Sword shouted, a little frustrated. Venomshank jumped, being yanked out of his thoughts, turning to the short Inphernal, who impatiently waited for their lesson to start, "Can we please start? I wanna go to Rockets house after."

Venomshank sighed, turning to his mentee, "Yes, lets begin."

They walk into the middle of the large training room, where Venomshank summons his gear, standing opposite to Sword, who has his sword ready, "Do you know what we're learning today?" Venomshank questions, seeing if Sword's memory recounted to at least 3 days ago.

Sword pauses, "Uhhhhhhh...." usually, whatever it is, he needs work on it. Apparently, he thinks for too long, judging by Venomshank sighing.

"Blocking, I'm going to teach you how to block attacks." Venomshank answers, "Here, try attacking me, and I'll block you."

So, Sword grips his gear tighter, mind thinking back to all of Venomshank's other lessons, lunges toward Venomshank, who swerves his sword out of the way with his rapier, causing Sword to nearly trip, Venomshank then pokes him with his rapier, to indicate stabbing him. "If you're fighting and experienced swordsman, they wont just lunge at you like you just did." Venomshank comments, watching Sword get back up and return to where he stood before.

He remembers Katana sometimes messing up with these things, it was a bit funny to watch him trip, especially with how big the learning samurai was. He remembers wanting to spar with Katana once, always offering the idea up, only to be dismissed with "Maybe when I'm more experienced to fight a deity."  Did he and his brother ever spar?

"So, how should I respond to that type of blocking?" Sword speaks up after the sudden awkward silence, Venomshank had zoned out again, thinking of Katana.

Shaking his head free of his wandering thoughts, Venomshank coughs and clears his throat, "Right, do it again, but when I sweep your sword away, try to push back, like in arm wrestling."

Again, Sword lunges at Venomshank, and when Venomshank goes to sweep Sword's sword out the way, he's meant with Sword pushing his rapier back, "Great, now you and you're opponent are usually stuck, though, this doesn't equal a draw, your opponent will try to attack when you're not guarded," Venomshank suddenly shoves his rapier forward, and it pokes Sword's chest. "This is why you try to throw their weapon out of the way so you can successfully stab them, now lets try again."

Their weapons met once more, straining against each other, Sword uses his strength to force the rapier away, successfully doing so, he attempts to lunge his sword at Venomshank, but is blocked by the rapier, despite the thin "blade", Venomshank manages to block the attack, forcing Sword's sword to also be flat against his rapier. He begins to push Sword back. "Now, how do you force a block out of the way? How can you stop being pushed back by your opponent? Demonstrate."

Sword, now left on his own to guess, tries to force the rapier down, and dash to his side to get out the way. Venomshank hums in response, while yes it worked, that most likely wont in a dire situation, "That's a way to do it, but sometimes your opponent is stronger than you, their grip is stronger and they might have a faster reaction time. You leave a moment of vulnerability, where your opponent can attack as you move out of the way."

If Katana ever met him again, would he attack him? That would be a poetic way to die, formerly begging to spar, and end up fighting them in the future when they've been told to hate you. Katana would hate him, Venomshank should've been there, maybe it is their fault for not showing up and protecting the mortals from whatever the hell their brother was doing. Maybe he does deserve someone he considered a loved one dead, "Deities can't love mortals, you're well aware of the rule we made."  

"Should we take a break?" Sword asks, concerned.

Venomshank glances at him, "What? Why?" breaking out of his thoughts once more.

Sword lowers his guard, unsummoning his gear, "You keep zoning out, are you okay?"

He scoffs, folding his arms, "That's nothing you should worry about, lets continue."

Despite the command that Sword usually follows, he shakes his head, "I think you should rest, can we continue in the morning before the Phighting tournament?"

At first, Venomshank is taken by surprise by Sword not following with his words, usually he's quite obedient, as much as he want to deny such a thing, he could use a smoke right now. "Fine, you can go to Rockets house." He doesn't like how Sword is noticing his reclusiveness, he tries to act like he knows Sword is just saying that so he can hang out with his friends,  but its nice to think Sword cares about his feelings, even if sometimes its better if he was oblivious.

"Great, thanks Venom!" Sword skips out of the room, dashing downstairs and out the house.

Sometimes, Venomshank wishes Sword would call him dad, he knows Sword isn't his son, but it always feels like he is, and he considers Sword his son, despite always calling him his mentee. Katana was a unnaturally spawned Inphernal, his caretakers were apart of his life until The Scorch, sometimes Katana would tell him about his dad, while Venomshank made Sword promise not to speak about him to civilians, for Sword's own safety, he would love for someone like Rocket to consider him Sword's dad, not his mentor, just hearing 'dad' would be exciting, even if it was a slip-up.

He drops his shoulders, unsummoning his gear and walking downstairs and to his room, grabbing his cigarettes from the bedside table. Venomshank doesn't consider himself a smoking addict, he barely touches cigarettes, he has to be really stressed in order to smoke. Opening the box, one cigarette rolls around. Shit, he'll have to grab some more when he gets groceries tonight, how is he out already? When was the last time he even had one?

He takes the last one and a lighter, going outside to calm down. He really should occupy his brain with something else, nicotine might not be enough, considering he's going to alone with his thoughts. Cautiously, he glances around to make sure Sword is gone, to have the young apprentice see him smoking wouldn't be a flattering experience, he's not sure what he would do then. Lifting his mask, he puts the cigarette in his mouth, clicking the lighter so the flame burst, lighting the other end of the stick.

He really should quit this, even if he barely touches cigarettes, its not a healthy coping mechanism, and he only recently started doing it.

Katana used to meditate to relieve his stress, if only he was still here to teach Venomshank how to meditate, because sitting down and focusing attention on things that weren't his mind sounded impossible. He coughs the smoke out of his mouth, and his throat burning from the hot nicotine smoke entering his lungs. The first puff is always burning.

The dreams flow back into his mind, he inhales another hot puff of smoke. Why are they coming back now? after 10 years? so realistically? Venomshank resents his immortality, he should've died in that fire alongside Katana, "Deities will always outlive mortals, don't get attached to him." Each deity must've at least broken this rule once, Darkheart with Zuka, Firebrand's kid, Ghostwalker and the Watchers. Apparently not even deities can be friend with each other, all the others died. Firebrand and Icedagger are missing. Darkheart and Venomshank both dislike Illumina for whatever reason. Will Sword be like this? Firebrand and Windforce have good relationships with their children, but Sword isn't part of Venomshank's gear, the other don't have to be shielded from things such as the Scorch. Sword learning about the rumours others made of him and believing them is one of his biggest fears.

His own body is against him, the feral state he can go in, the immortality, the cruel memories and dreams, every part he's worried about Sword. He's hurt Sword in his feral state, Sword will die before him, his own feelings requiring him to reveal what he's hidden from the oblivious Inphernal he considers his son. All of this wouldn't of happened if he were a mortal. He feels cruel, hiding Sword from everything that happened, it feels selfish to shelter him just so he doesn't hate him. He can't reveal what happened.

The cigarette dies out after not long, and Venomshank feels calmer.

.

.

.

Sooner or later, its time to head out for groceries, Sword had returned home hours ago and went to bed. Venomshank usually goes out late at night so nobody sees him, usually wearing a hood to cover his horns. Thank fuck most grocery stores encourage self-checkouts now, the amount of embarrassing memories of seeing cashiers yell at him or shake as they scan his groceries is in the millions.

Its quiet, other than bins crashing against the ground, the occasional yelling and shouting, a lamp post flickering loudly and drunken idiots sing loudly on the street, Venomshank usually goes through alleys to get to the store, but today was apparently 'sell weed day' so he could only dash into the empty ones to avoid someone.

The store he regularly goes to smells like washing detergent today, he grabs a paper bag, searching the store for things missing from his fridge.

• Cheese
• Snacks - Usually chips, considering Sword regularly asks for some
• Any food he can find for lunch and dinner.
• Eggs
  
  and Cigarettes. Maybe some ice cream too.

He quietly searches the store, grabbing what he needed, as well as strawberry and mint ice cream. The nicotine section gives him a wide variety of options, vapes and packs of cigarettes brightly coloured and appealing like its candy for kids. Venomshank couldn't imagine Sword vaping or smoking, its one of the reasons he refused to smoke in front of him. He grabs a pack of what he had last time, before buying everything and leaving.

The alleyways were open now, with some still occupied, he moves through them, careful to check for any Inphernal as he dashes through.

Though, a teal coloured poster wafts in the wind from the alley just opposite on the road he needs to turn to get home

"MISSING"

"WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE"

The middle of the Inphernal's face has been punched through, the bottom of the poster is a tell-tale sign its from the TRUE EYE cult, 'if found, contact xxx-xxx-xxx, TRUE EYE welcomes all!' the phone number has been scribbled out, and in very neat writing, 'Do not join.' is written after the welcoming moto of TRUE EYE

The horns on the Inphernal are familiar, too familiar, but not his, these are teal. Venomshank scans around for any intact poster, only to see nothing, gently, he takes the poster off the wall, before continuing home, maybe Sword can recognise him, he likes to go out a lot, those tournaments have criminals which he worries Sword might talk to.

Once he unpacks the groceries, he enters his room again, preparing himself for bed, he brushes his teeth, changes clothes and puts the cigarettes back into the beside table, the poster sits on top of it, and he wraps himself in his blankets and goes to sleep.

"Katana?"

Venomshank searches the aspiring samurai's house, he was close with his family, being Katana's only friend, besides his brother, so he freely entered their house, searching around to find nobody, "Katana, where are you?" He calls out, louder. Venomshank doesn't know what he actually needs him for, but he's looking for him for a reason.

Suddenly, a loud scream of pure despair and pain rings loudly outside, Venomshank recognises it instantly as Katana's voice.

"KATANA!" He turns and runs outside where he heard the voice, Infront of him,  the city burns and crumbles, loud flickering flames and screams of terror fill his ears as the Lost Temple heat he thought he had gotten used to intensified by a million, distraught by the sudden burning, he looks around, seeing Katana bent over, crying over a body crumbled under a part of a building and horrifically burnt.

"Katana!" He runs over, "What the hell happened?!"

Suddenly, Katana stands up and turns to him, his face is covered in flames, and Venomshank cant see his face. Despite this, Katana is speaking just fine with the sobbing and hiccupping, "You lied!" he cries, pushing Venomshank away from him, "You said you would protect us! All of you did!"

Venomshank backs up, "What? I had nothing to do with this! Dear creator- Who did this?" He looks around the flaming city in shock once again.

"YOU DID!" Katana shouts, "YOUR FUCKING BROTHER IS BURNING THE CITY!" Katana sobs, "You said you would protect me and my family. You promised us."

"I-"

"DONT EVEN START! MY PARENTS ARE DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!"

"LOOK AT MY FACE VENOMSHANK."

Katana shouts and screams, leaning towards Venomshank and forcing him closer to the bright flames covering his face, Venomshank can feel the burning heat melting his face.

"LOOK AT IT."

"YOU CAUSED THIS!"

"I'M BURNING TO DEATH BECAUSE OF YOU!"

"YOU'RE THE REASON IM DEAD, VENOMSHANK!"

"YOU KILLED ME!"

"YOU KILLED MY FAMILY!"

Venomshank jolts awake, his eyes wet with tears and his skin covered in sweat, he sits up almost instantly, breathing heavily. Slowly coming down from the crash of reality, he leans forward and hides his face in his hands, his ear feathers puffed up from fear. As much as he tries to calm down from thinking of anything else, his mind crawls back to Katana's words in his dream, its not working. His breathing is starting to sound similar to growling, and his mouth is thick with saliva.

Hurriedly, he reaches for the cigarettes, tearing open the box, and grabbing his lighter as most of the cigarette sticks fall onto his blanket, he grabs one, lights it and inhales the burning smoke deeply, like its oxygen. He doesn't cough this time, with his vision clearing up from the blurry vision he gets before he goes feral. He hates that the cigarettes worked to calm him down, he leans back against his bedframe, trying to relax his breathing.

He shouldn't be smoking inside.

He shouldn't be smoking at all. 

He doesn't care at this point, its not like anything's worth it anymore if everything will worry him.

The smoking wont kill him. He's immortal. He could smoke a pack an hour and still live. Fuck you Zuka for letting me try a cigarette.

Once he finishes the cigarette, he presses it against the table, listening to the crackle of wood as it leaves a burn mark on the wood. He puts the butt in the drawer, alongside the cigarettes he dropped onto his blanket.

He lies back down, staring at his wall as he waits for sleep to hit him once more.

.

.

.

The sun greets him once more, his room smells like smoke but nothings on fire. The scent of cigarettes clung to every part of him, he cant tell if its calming or not. He stretches his arms out, sitting up once more and cracking a window, washing himself, brushing his teeth and getting into his clothes. He's tired today, and unmotivated. He grabs the poster and walks out to the kitchen, where Sword finished his breakfast and washed his plate, a plate of cold eggs on the other side of the table.

"You're awake already?" Venomshank groggily asks, surprised, thinking its only 6:30 AM, when usually Sword gets up around 6:50-7:30 AM.

"I've been up for 3 hours, its 10 AM." Sword answers, "Sisyphus woke me up squawking for food."

Speaking of him, the bird flew over to sit on Venomshank's head, originally on the counter walking around and tapping things with his beak. "I see." Venomshank grabs the eggs, reheating them in the microwave, its bad to waste them. He sits down as he waits for the eggs to heat up again, putting the poster onto the table, "Do you recognise this man?" He pushes the paper over to Sword, who looks at it curiously, Sisyphus hops down and pecks at the paper curiously as well, cooing quietly.

"Kind of looks like Katana."

Venomshank nearly flinches at the name, eyes now fully opened as he stares at Sword, "How do you know that name?" he hurriedly asks, worried someone told Sword about him, Darkheart being his first suspect.

"He goes to the tournaments, this guy has the exact same horns as him, but Katana's are red." Sword answers with confusion from Venomshank's quick voice.

Venomshank pauses, mouth agape, "He...goes to them?"

Sword is visibly confused, the microwave loudly beeps but Venomshank ignores it, "Yeah..? Do you know him?"

Venomshank looks around, eyes still wide open behind the mask, Katana isn't dead? "Are you sure? What does he look like?" With the dreams Venomshank has, Katana always wears the same dark kimono and red scarf, a green jade ring on his left horn.

"He looks like a samurai, he's really big, like, he's almost as tall as you. He's really quiet and reclusive."

Venomshank swallows, glancing away for a second, the sudden news is overwhelming, he's alive? Katana didn't die? "Listen, you can go to the tournament without training today, just when you're there, can you ask.. him.. or anyone if they know where he lives?"

Sword raises an eyebrow, usually Venomshank doesn't cancel training, and never really acts like this, "Why?" his question still wasn't answered, so he asks again, "How do you know him? Why do you wanna know where he lives?"

Venomshank stands up from the chair, "Don't concern yourself with those thoughts." He leaves the eggs in the microwave, Sword goes to remind him to eat the breakfast, but he ignores it, leaving the kitchen and heading back to his room, the stench of cigarettes gone out the window.

He draws open the curtains so sunlight his room, staring out the window.

Katana's alive. Venomshank's been grieving over someone who wasn't even dead. What does Katana think of him now? He must believe Venomshank was one of the causers of The Scorch. If The Scorch didn't happen, Venomshank wouldn't worry about leaving his house, wouldn't need to shelter Sword from cruel siblings and their actions, Katana wouldn't hate his guts.

If The Scorch never happened, what would Venomshank and Katana be? Maybe they would be in Thieves Den with his brother, living and raising Sword like a son. Firebrand is the cause of that never happening. Firebrand is the reason Venomshank is stressed. Firebrand is the reason Venomshank is constantly worrying.

Venomshank huffs in anger, claws digging into the window sill as his eyebrows furrow, staring out into the city, his head shaking slightly.

If it wasn't for Firebrand, he wouldn't have been grieving over an alive man for 10 years. If Firebrand dared to ever return, Venomshank would pierce his heart and keep it like a trophy.

His claws rake into the window as he suddenly turns around, leaving a mark, he stomps to his beside table, yanking the drawer open. Another one. Venomshank lights yet another cigarette, forces his mask up and inhales the smoke, going back to the window. He lightly coughs as he puffs the smoke out window. I can't keep doing this. I shouldn't be acting like this. I need to forget about him.

His eyes blur, not from his feral state, but from his tears. He can't be acting like this over Katana. A mere mortal. Their relationship wasn't even that memorable, sure, he was one of Venomshank's only friends, beside his brother, but that shouldn't be a reason he grieves to this day. Has his heart grown that soft?

The door creaks open, and Venomshank gasps, "Swor-!" He inhales the puff of smoke he just exhaled, causing him to cough and hack, shoving the cigarette onto the window sill, the heel of his palm crushing it, the cigarette lightly burns him as it dies out. Venomshank shoves his mask back down, smoking puffing out the gas mask.

"Didn't consider you much of a smoker, 'Shanks." Darkheart hums amusingly, Venomshank turns his head to him, leaning against the window, "Neither did I." he mutters quietly.

"What do you want?" Venomshank questions, what a great time to interrupt him, his vision was still blurry from the tears, his voice does little to hide the state he was in prior.

"We can't visit our dear brother anymore?" Darkheart playfully whines, almost oblivious to Venomshank's feelings. "What's got you huffing nicotine?" He walks over to Venomshank, looking at him with that stupid grin stuck on his face.

Venomshank sighs, looking away from him, "Its nothing, don't concern yourself." he dismisses. "Please, don't tell Sword." Venomshank knows how much free time Darkheart has, and how much he loves to gossip, that's probably the reason he's here.

Darkheart hums, "We'll think about it."

"I'm serious. Don't tell him."

Darkheart crosses his fingers, "No promises!"

Knowing that arguing about this will get him nowhere, and Darkheart more likely to spill his secrets to Sword. "Just.. tell me what you want and get out, I'm really not in the mood right now."

Darkheart ignores the clear indicator of Venomshank's saddened mood, "We found a little poster, care to see?" Darkheart holds out a rolled out poster to Venomshank. Venomshank turns, maybe its a not torn photo of the teal-horned Katana-look-alike, he takes the poster from Darkheart, unravelling it to see who was on it

"MISSING"

"WANTED PREFERABLY DEAD"

A picture of Firebrand is printed on it, at the bottom, it says "Please provide proof of Firebrand's death to Redcliff Wranglers for bux reward. Crossroads has no king."

"That's a really old photo of him." Darkheart points out, pointing at the toothy grin on Firebrand's face, he holds a young Valk and Dom in both arms, both of their faces torn off.

The poster is crumpled in Venomshank's fist, and shoved back to Darkheart, "Darkheart, I'm really not in the mood for anything related to Firebrand right now." of course, he's only here to gossip.

Darkheart frowns and pouts, "What's up with you? Wake up on the wrong side of the bed? You know conversations about Firebrand are important, we need to know everything about our dear brother.."

"What about Icedagger?!" Venomshank turns to face Darkheart, "No one seems to care where he went, why do we have to keep talking about our terrorist of a brother?!"

Darkheart chuckles, amused by Venomshank's anger, "No need to get your claws out.." He teases, "Firebrand is a bigger priority because of what he did, we're not really trying to get Icedagger back just so he we can know he's alive." Darkheart clears up.

A scoff leaves Venomshank, "You're impossible to talk to." Venomshank sighs, "I'd prefer to know Icedagger is alive than to find out where Firebrand fucked off to."

"Do you have pin feathers or something? Why are you so grumpy?" Darkheart huffs, not liking how Venomshank isn't fuelling his amusement.

"No, I'm just constantly stressed nowadays, and its all Firebrands fault." Venomshank stops gripping the windowsill, the cigarette butt crushed against it. "If it weren't for him getting bored and deciding to burn a whole city, I wouldn't have any worries, his actions are the whole reason I have to hide from mortals and shelter Sword."

Darkheart shrugs, "Well, you don't have to shelter Sword."

Venomshank groans, Darkheart's ignorance not helping his mood, "I do! If he ever learnt about the rumours they made of us, what The Scorch is, and any other shit the deities did, who says he wont believe them?" Venomshank wants to rub and wipe the tears from his eyes, but cant with the mask in the way, "Sword's extremely gullible, he'll be terrified of me if he believes those rumours."

Darkheart chuckles with little care, "Maybe getting rid of Sword is a good thing, you know you shouldn't get attached to mortals." Darkheart hums, "You know what happened to Katana."

"Katana's alive!" Venomshank responds, earning a raised brow.

"What makes you think that? Besides, even if he was alive, he would hate you." Darkheart almost laughs, finding Venomshank grieving to be funny.

The soft deity turns and whips his head back to the window, as if to hide the tears welling up in his eyes once more, "You don't think I already know that?" he grits his teeth, "If you are here just to remind me of my worries, I suggest you leave."

Darkheart shrugs, "Just consider it, letting go of everything is how you lose all that worry. Don't say we didn't try to help you." Darkheart vanishes.

...

When Venomshank reunites with silence once more, he removes his mask and lets it fall to the floor, as sniffles and small hiccups leave his mouth. He hides his face in his hands.

"You're making it too easy, Sword." Rocket grins, walking with his hands in his pockets, acting like the tournament meant nothing to him.

"That's so not fair, you have it way easier than I do, Rocket!" Sword huffs, his mohawk messy and dirt staining his knees, cuts on his elbow and a little grime on his face, Rocket's goggles have some gunpowder on them.

"Yeah, sure. You heading home to Venom now?" Rocket rolls his eyes, stopping their walking to face Sword.

"uhh, actually! I have to do a favour for him! I'll see you later Rocket!" Sword looks around him, waving to Rocket as he skips away.

Rocket waves back, "See ya." he turns away and continues walking home.

Sword searches around the exit of the tournament, searching for one of his teammates, finding her talking with her siblings, "Oh! Vine Staff!" He calls out, waving his hand in the air to get her attention, Sword didn't really know Vine Staff that well, but she seemed pretty nice.

When he reaches up to her, Shuriken and Slingshot look at him weird, before they both say they'll be heading to home. "Vine Staff, hello! Uhm, you know Katana right?"

Vine Staff holds her staff in one hand, a bit curious on why one of her teammates she barely knows is talking to her, "I do, yes, why?" She tries to sound polite, but after the loss, she isn't very motivated to talk to anyone who aren't her siblings.

"Uh, well- I'm trying to find out where he lives, do you know?"

Vine Staff raises an eyebrow, "Yes, he lives right next to my apartment." she answers, "Why are you trying to find out where he lives?"

Sword pauses, his nervous look being a clear sign he's not being honest, he stammers, trying to think of a explainable lie, "I- uh- I have a friend- uhm, who knows him!" he stammers, grinning nervously after.

Vine Staff drops her shoulders, "Why don't you come over to our place for tea some time? Apparently Slingshot has heard about you through someone." She offers up, smiling, "You know Slingshot's Café? Come there during the hours we're open and I'll introduce you to the others." She then turns, and points to a rather large apartment complex in the distance, "See that? We live there, room 206. Katana will be in 207, he's not very friendly to a lot of people if you're friend plans to be a nuisance." She warns.

Sword grins happily, "I'll definitely see when I can go! Thanks a lot, Vine Staff!" Sword recognises the building, as its the same one Medkit lives in. Vine Staff is now walking away,  presumably to catch up with her siblings. When Sword turns and goes to leave where he was originally walking with Rocket, he sees a pair of large, red, bull-like horns turn the corner, "Oh! Katana!!" He calls out, running over to where Katana went, turning the corner to see the large Inphernal disappeared. Weird.

Well, he turns around and starts to make his way home, the room numbers repeat over and over in his brain, trying to remember, 207. 206. 207. 206. 207. 303..? Medkit's room was 303, Katana's room was 207, Vine Staffs room was 206. He moves past Inphernal's who looks at him strangely or furrow their brows at him squeezing past, he turns the corner next to abandoned maze of shops.

"Heading home?" Darkheart's voice echoes from the alleyway, a green smile casted in a shadow of Darkheart's figure pasted at the end of the alleyway.

Sword flinches and turns to the voice, glancing around him for any witnesses before running into the alley, making Darkheart appear in his regular form, "We have little secret to share with you," the mischievous deity grins, "Would you like to hear it?"

Sword furrows his brows, a little confused why Darkheart is suddenly here just to tell him a secret, although, his curiosity gets the better of him, "Uh, sure, what is it?"

Darkheart chuckles mischievously, "Have you noticed how your mentor has been acting recently..?"

Initially confused how Darkheart knew about how weird Venomshank has been acting recently, "Yeah..? do you know why he's acting weird?" Sword asks, worried about Venomshank.

"Well.. not exactly, we do know that he has a certain way of coping with the recent worries he's been faced with." Darkheart vaguely answers, leaning closer, speaking quieter as if he was sharing a secret that other may hear, "Been smelling anything weird recently? Like smoke?" Darkheart chuckles, "He's smoking cigarettes to cope with you."

Sword's eyes widen, a betrayed look in his eyes, "What? To cope with me? Why does he need to smoke to cope with me?" Sword asks, visibly disheartened.

The deity laughs at Sword's hurt voice and look, "Don't be too scared, he doesn't hate you, just worried about his little canary." Darkheart teases.

"Okay.. why is he worried about me?" Sword turns around to glance and check no one is watching him after hearing a can clatter to the ground, but when he turns back, Darkheart has mysteriously disappeared, "What? Darkheart!" Sword audibly groans in frustration, Darkheart had a knack for disappearing randomly, and it ticked him off. Left with nothing but his thoughts, Sword turns and leaves the alley, trying to figure out why Venomshank would be so worried about him that required him to calm down via cigarettes.

Maybe he can convince Venomshank to stop. 

.

.

.

"Venom?" Sword calls out for Venomshank, walking through the house, searching through each room, finding Venomshank at the table, eating a freshly made dinner. As much as he wants to ask if Darkheart was lying or not, he cant think of a way to ask.

"Come, eat your food before it goes cold." Venomshank invites him over to the table, Sword tries to appear like he isn't suspicious and concerned for Venomshank.

"I managed to find out where Katana lives." Sword informed, stabbing his food with his fork, the wind outside has picked up since he got here, and the sun was slowly lowering down. "The person who told me also invited me over, do you think I can go to.." He pauses, remembering the name, "Slingshot's cafe?"

Venomshank's quiet for a few seconds, "Is Slingshot one of the Phighters?" he asks, his voice very monotone as usual, but something makes it sound forced.

Sword nods, taking a bite of his food. Venomshank is wearing his mask, having it pushed up to reveal his mouth, Sword wonders how he can even see when its like that, and why he doesn't have it off right now.

"I suppose you may visit them."

Sword mutters a thank you, "Uh, Katana lives at that big apartment complex, by the way. Room.." Sword pauses again, 206 or 207? Darkheart's gossip had yanked his memory of what Vine Staff said, so, he takes a guess, "2..07, I think." 

Forks scrape against Venomshank's plate as he picks up the last bit of food, "Thank you, Sword." He stands up, placing his dish in the sink, "I bought ice cream, by the way." Venomshank mentioned, before leaving the kitchen and heading upstairs.

Listening in for a door to shut and footsteps fade away, Sword stands up, leaving his half-finished plate to go search. He really shouldn't be doing this, snooping through Venomshank's belongings, but he cant imagine that he makes Venomshank worry so much he needs nicotine to calm down. He quietly moves through the homey part of the complex, finding Venomshank's room, and quietly opening it, peering inside.

Its dark, quite boring and simple, and freezing cold from the wind coming through the window, the curtains snapping against the wall. Sword looks around, spotting the poster on the bedside table, which he moves over to, opening the drawer to search.

a cluster of cigarettes are messily thrown into the drawer, one butt, and a torn box that used to hold all these, and a multitude of other things. Sword gulps, hating the fact Darkheart was right about the cigarettes, but, what to do with this discovery? If he asks Venomshank about it, Venomshank will just deny it and leave him with no answer.

He reaches out, collecting each cigarette and stuffing them in his pocket, planning to toss them out, finding a blue pen, he rips off a blank piece of the poster and writes a note for Venomshank if he ever discovers Sword's thievery.

Quickly, he puts the pen back and closes the drawer, dashing out the room and closing the door quietly, attempting to act like nothing just happened.

.

.

.

Sword stays awake just a bit longer, listening in to hear Venomshank go to bed so he can sneak out and toss the cigarettes in a bin. Once his door closes, Sword gets up, "Don't tattle on me." He whispers with what he thinks is a menacing look to Sisyphus, who coos sleepily, Sword quietly sneaks out his room, closing the doors behind him as quiet as he can, before he practically gallops away once outside.

Everything hurts. Venomshank wakes up, feeling groggy and tired once more, he sits up, no sun hitting through the blinds, actually, its pitch black outside, what time is it? His feet hit the floor and he stands up, looking out the window to see nothing but void, for some reason, Venomshank acts as if that's normal.

Turning to the door, Venomshank walks to it, turning the knob and opening, expecting the small hallway on the outside of his room.

A long hallway with no ceiling meets him on the other side, he cant see the end, and above him, a light sways. Despite his disarray and confusion, his legs started walking for him, "Sword?" He calls out.

As he continues on through the pitch black part of the hallway, he flinches as a light flickers on and off, revealing a infinitely long teal door in front of him, a hole punched through at Venomshank's eye-level, revealing a light-bulb swaying from the endless ceiling. The door creaks open as he steps out to open it, and suddenly, Darkheart's writing starts to glow, similarly to the notes he puts in The Backdoors, many arrows follow the writing and point to the room,

"ARE YOU READY?"

"GET RID OF IT ALL!"

"COPE."

"WE'RE HELPING YOU."

"NO SOFTIES!"

"THE REAL REASON FOR YOUR STRESS!"
 

On the floor, many arrows point to the room, thick text written at Venomshank's feet.

"HE HURT YOUR LITTLE CANARY."
"NO MORE WORRIES IF YOU GET RID OF HIM YOURSELF!"

Looking back up, Katana is sitting on a bar stool, the light sway above him, in front of him; a red and white domestic canary's corpse. "Katana..?" Venomshank takes a few steps into the room, the door slams when he's nearly half-way to Katana, making him jump.

"Don't come any closer." Katana mutters, his voice monotone. He's not crying this time, and his horns drip wet teal paint, the base of his horns go unpainted.

"You can't be any closer." Katana commands, "I can't be near the fraud who killed my parents."

Venomshank sighs deeply, not from frustration but from stress, "Please, Katana, you don't understand, I never meant for any of this to happen."

"Yet you let it happen. You cant lie to me, Venom, everyone knows you and your siblings planned this." Katana's voice remains monotone, anger hidden behind it. "Even if you didn't, you are still as bad as your siblings." Katana accuses, "Hiding Sword from the truth. You're as selfish as Firebrand, refusing to reveal to him what a horrible person you are."

"Katana.. please, I'm well aware of my own mistakes-" He's suddenly interrupted.

"Do you even remember what we looked like?"

Venomshank pauses, "...What?"

"My family. My caretakers, my brother, my mentor," Katana pauses, spinning the chair around. "Me?" Katana's face is covered by the poster, the hole recovered, but replaced with fire.

"I-" Venomshank desperately tries to remember what Katana looks like, thinking to his memories and dreams, in each dream, his face was covered by something, unfamiliar or blurry. Venomshank's heart stops, he can't have forgotten what Katana looks like. No, there has to be at least one clear memory of his face. He stammers more, "I- I-" tears form in his eyes, and he looks at the ground, trying to remember. The light bulb sways more, the cord creaking.

Katana stops him, appearing Infront of him, the soft crackle of fire echoing through the room. Venomshank looks up at him, his gear suddenly appearing in his hand.

Katana lunges at him with his gear, and Venomshank blocks it with his rapier. Katana starts to force him back more, "YOU CANT HAVE FORGOTTEN!"

"YOU ARE THAT INCONSIDERATE!"

"NO ONE, NOT ONE OF US!"

"ITS THE LEAST YOU COULD'VE DONE, YOU MURDERER!"

Something pokes Venomshank's back, and Katana suddenly relaxes, Venomshank doesn't lunge at him when he's walking back to the stool, standing in front of it. Venomshank turns around to see what poked him,

With his sword at the ready, in the stance he always uses, Sword points his sword at him. But, Sisyphus is with him too, large black wings are raised in fear behind Sword, and two small wings cover Swords face.

"Sword!" Venomshank goes to reach out and pull away the wings from his mentee's face, desperate to see at least someone's face. "Do you even remember me?" Sword's voice is shaky, he's struggling to hide sobbing.

"What? Of course I-" And in the moment, Venomshank cant even remember his own "son's" face. 

Sword sniffles, "Not even me...? Do you even love me?" He sobs, "Are you trying to get rid of me?" As Sword cries, his body doesn't move an inch, it doesn't even look like he's talking.

"I HATE YOU, DAD!" He screams, and suddenly lunges his sword at Venomshank, Venomshank is quick to block it, and Sword backs him up faster, despite using all his strength, Venomshank cant push back.

Darkheart's laughter echoes through the dark room, "Did you read our notes?" he giggles, finding everything amusing. "No softies!"

The light-bulb shatters against the floor, making everything go black.

His chest suddenly feels warm, his shirt feeling sticky and wet as ichor gushes through it, a blade has gone through his chest, its curved, and Sword still has his blade against his rapier, which now falls to the floor. His heart beats loudly in his ears, but.. his heart is no longer in his body, the organ sits just past the tip of the katana, glowing a soft red, despite the loudness of it, it doesn't beat at all. Suddenly, it vanishes, leaving the room dark once more.

"As if a murderer like you even had a heart." Katana growls, his voice being the last thing Venomshank hears, if it even is his voice.

His blanket was thrown off the bed, his body hot and wet with his own sweat, a large puddle of tears on his pillow, Venomshank sits up, his breathing ragged and sounding more like growling once more.

His hand smacks against his drawer. Fuck, Fuck. Its all getting blurry, what's happening? He tries to recollect his thoughts, but it ultimately goes fuzzy. The drawer is forced open, nearly torn out of the table.

...

Its empty, a small piece of paper sits where his cigarettes would be, despite how blurry his vision is becoming, his eyes let him read the note.

"Nicotine is bad for you, even if you're using it to cope."

A small frowning face sits under it, and its clearly Sword's messy hand-writing. His hands shake, claws digging into the drawer, "What..?" he growls out in a mutter, his claws grab his mask, with the little consciousness he has left, he locks the mask to his face, just in  case he breaks the door, falling back against his bed, curling into himself, his claws dig into his bed, his body shakes violently as he growls, saliva pouring out of his mouth uncontrollably, glowing a bright neon green.

A light-bulb shatters, and everything returns to black once more.

"Shit!" Sword whisper shouts, jumping away from the light he shattered, hopefully Venomshank didn't wake up to that. Sword had accidentally ran into yet another Phighter who was on Rocket's team earlier today. One of his biggest idols, Coil, even with how much Rocket would rant on about how much of an asshole the guy was just because he's from playground, Sword can't help but idolise the experienced wrestler. Sword was caught by him dumping all the cigarettes, and Coil dismayed him for wasting all of them, taking a few out of the trash when Sword turned around. His meeting with Coil made him stay out longer than he expected, so he expected Venomshank would be asleep by now.

He can't really clean up the glass on the floor now, he'll be sure to confess to Venomshank in the morning.

Walking back to his room, he stops when a loud crash echoes from Venomshank's room, followed by growling and stomping, Sword hears Sisyphus squawk angrily at being woken up.

Sword slowly approaches the door, more crashing and scraping coming from Venomshank's room,

"..Venom?" Sword's shaky nervous voice calls out for his mentor, concerned if he's okay.

He receives silence, no more crashing, growling or stomping.

THUD

Venomshank smacks against the door, a loud, almost hungry growl roars through the door, his claws digging into the wood, scraping against it as he tries desperately to claw his way to the voice. Sword jumps and flinches backwards, the growls and scraping bringing back memories he knows both Venomshank and him wish to forget. Venomshank's ragged, heavy breathing that's interrupted with rumbling growls echo through the house, and Sword runs to his room, locking the door behind him and covering his ears and sliding down his door onto the floor, acting like a barricade.

Sisyphus coos as he peers at Sword curiously, fluttering down from his ledge to caw quietly at Sword's feet.

Sword sniffles, trying not to cry. He hates when Venomshank gets like this, and he's sure Venomshank hates it a whole lot more than he does. "What have I done, Sisyphus?" He sobs, if Venomshank was using cigarettes to calm down, why on the Inpherno would he get rid of them, even if they are bad for him?

Sisyphus climbs up Sword's boot, standing on his knee, tears fall down Sword's cheeks and he cried softly, trying not to sob, in fear Venomshank will hear him.

Louder thuds and growls sound outside, Sword takes his hand off his ears, covering his mouth to hide his hiccupping.

Venomshank growls loudly, in pain and hunger as his hand bursts through the door, wood flying out onto the floor, his claws scrap and knock against the door as he tries to reach out for the voice that was there before, when nothing but air wafts through his fingers, Venomshank digs a large claw mark into the door as he returns to what he was doing before; destroying his room.

Hands fall slowly down from his mouth, a small hiccup escaping him, "How is he this worried about me?" Sword questions, speaking to Sisyphus, who responds with coos or silence. "Why does Darkheart always have to be so vague? Why cant he ever explain what he means?"

The bird caws, pressing his beak to Sword's nose, flapping its wings and readjusting his feet.

"As little as that is, Sisyphus, It's comforting." Sword gently pets the birds head, trying to ignore the crashing and thudding, focusing on Sisyphus, who coos.

His hand throbs painfully and his mask is wet with saliva and the condensation from his hot breath, crashed against a pile of clothes thrown from his now thrown down closet. He doesn't wake up to the sun, that's on his pillow, he wakes up from the pain in his back and hand. Groggily, he raises his fist, his knuckles are bleeding, swelled with bruises and splinters, it hurts to uncurl his fingers, he curses tiredly, letting his hand fall to his chest and he stars up at the ceiling, the wind blowing the curtains into his view.

The dream that caused this resurfaces in his mind, and he curls onto his side, his un-injured hand wipes the tears appearing in his eyes. Has he seriously forgotten Katana's face? His heart suddenly aches, he needs to see him again, even if its just to see his face, he just wants to dream Katana right, to know that he at least remembers one face from when he was happy. He needs to see everything, his lips, those eyes, and whatever scar Venomshank left on him.

Though, he can't just sob about Katana for hours again, he went feral, he has to make sure Sword's okay. His bones ache and he sits up, clothes winkled and crumpled beneath him, his walls are covered in scratches and claw marks, his window having 4 slits in it, his closet is thrown against the ground, his beside table is basically broken, and his mattress is torn up, despite the state of his room, he uses the wall to help himself up, finally noticing the broken door, its still closed, but the hole concerns him.

He leaves his bedroom, noticing the smashed lamp near the entrance, he quickly moves to Sword's room, heart beating fast.

"Sword?" He calls out, almost banging against his door, "Are you okay, Sword?"

Sisyphus caws loudly, that's one of them. Venomshank knocks again, "Sword, answer me, please." his injured hand grabs the handle of the door, he ignores the sharp pain and blood leaking onto the floor.

"I'm okay."

Sword quietly mumbles inside the room, despite his words, Venomshank still fears he hurt Sword.

"Can I come in?" He asks, trying not to seem to worried.

"You can."

Venomshank opens the door slowly, Sword is still in his hammock, facing away from Venomshank, Sisyphus is sitting on his shoulder, but flies back to his ledge not soon after Venomshank enters. He leaves the door open, walking slowly to Sword, "I didn't hurt you last night, did I?"

Sword sniffles, " No.." he mutters quietly, his voice shaky.

"Sword..?" Venomshank places a hand on his shoulder, looking down at his face, seeing Sword, who was failing to not cry. "Why are you crying?" He asks, and Sword sits up nearly instantly, turning to face Venomshank.

"I'm really sorry for getting rid of your cigarettes, I just didn't want you to get addicted!" He cries, his face wet with tears. "I didn't know you would go feral!"

Venomshank sighs, knowing that denying this wouldn't make Sword just suddenly stop believing, especially not after tonight. "Oh, Sword.." He shakes his head, "Who told you?" he wipes Sword's tears away with his non-injured thumb.

Sword sniffles, despite Darkheart telling him it was a secret, he couldn't hide it from Venomshank, "Darkheart..."

Venomshank's eyebrows furrow behind the mask, right, because who else knew? "Of course.." He sighs, "Please, Sword, don't listen to him, he doesn't have good intention for you. What else did he tell you?"

Sword swallows the saliva pooling in his mouth, hiccupping, "H-He said, that you smoke cigarettes to cope with me."

Hands envelop Sword, bringing him into a hug, "That prick. I don't smoke to cope with you, Sword, dear creator- You are one of the best things to ever enter my life."

Reciprocating the hug, Sword sniffles, "Then why do you smoke? Darkheart said you worry about me and smoke because of your worries."

Annoyingly, that's true, Venomshank clicks his tongue, trying to come up with a reasoning that shouldn't make Sword worry about his worries, "I do worry about you Sword, I worry of you a lot, and yes, I smoke when I'm stressed, but that shouldn't be anything you or Darkheart should be concerned about." His thumb rubs Sword's back, "I won't have any stress as long as you're with me." He says, slightly lying, "As soon as we're able to go back to our home, and its safe, I promise you, the smoking will stop."

"Why not now?" Sword's tears soak Venomshank's shoulder.

At first, Venomshank pauses, initially stuck, "Uhm.." He hums, "Well- It's not that easy, Sword." He sighs, "I'll look for healthier ways, okay? I promise."

"You better." Sword huffs against his shoulder.

Venomshank lightly chuckles, finding the saddened pouting adorable and childish, especially for Sword.

...

"You know I love you, right?" Venomshank asks.

"I love you too, dad." Sword responds, before pausing, "I mean- Venomshank-!"

Venomshank laughs, "Dad?" he teases, acting like he wasn't been waiting for this, grinning brightly behind the mask. He teases more, trying to lift Sword's mood, "Are you getting soft?"

"No!" Sword blushes with embarrassment, pushing Venomshank away from the hug and folding his arms.

"Where's my mighty warrior that I've trained so well gone?" Venomshank chuckles, pinching Sword's cheek.

"I'm still a warrior! I just slipped up!" Sword slaps Venomshank's hand away.

"Mighty warriors call their mentor dad? I never knew that."

"Shut up, Venom!!"

.

.

.

"So.. when are you going to visit Katana?" Sword asks, watching as Venomshank polishes his blade, his broken hand wrapped in bandages

The focused deity pauses for a second, right, he needed to see Katana, for a reason he plans to hide from Sword, thankfully, Sword has accepted that he wont tell him. "Uhm.." He wipes down the gear with a cloth. "When are you heading to Slingshot's café?"

Sword kicks his feet, thinking, "Maybe after the tournament." He answers, before adding on, "Which is tomorrow."

"I suppose I'll go visit him the day after that." Venomshank hums, "Room 207, you said?"

Sword stops kicking his feet, "Uhhhh..... yyyyyyeeah!" Venomshank hands Sword his gear, before standing up.

Despite the fact one of his hands is broken, Venomshank doesn't stop training just because two of his knuckles broke. "Lets begin training."

.

.

.

Night rolls around way faster than Venomshank expected, and he knows that if he goes to bed, his nightmares will return. He doesn't even want to sit in bed. Sword has already fallen asleep by now, Venomshank cant just watch TV all night. To occupy his mind, he leaves the house, maybe just a walk would pass some time.

He isn't even sure how long he spent, staring out the window, dreading sleep, considering that nearly every store is closed, only the 24/7 grocery stores remain, flickering LED signs and a tired worker trying not to collapse inside. Tonight, the alleyways were free.

He legs walk for him, his mind past idea of where he was going.

The bandaged hand throbs painfully, its calmed down, but the hand won't heal properly. Thankfully, Sword has a doctor for a friend, Venomshank doesn't really know him that well, only knowing Sword considers him a brother.

Staring down at his bandages hand, he uncurls his fist, his fingers unable to straighten from the pain. The bruises have worsened, peaking out from the thin bandages, his two broken fingers appearing the worst, he has them wrapped together poorly. Maybe Katana will bandage them up for him, he remembers letting Katana practice on him, as his mentor taught him how to properly bandage wounds. Medkit probably doesn't like Venomshank, Sword's scar a clear sign as to why.

Once he accidentally hits a wall, Venomshank peers out the alleyway to find where he had wandered off to.

A large, compact building is on the other side of the street, staircases on the side to access special rooms, and balcony's on each floor, three rooms on both sides, Venomshank wonders how they fit that many rooms on one floor.

He doesn't have to look around for long before his eyes catch something.

Stepping out of his room, Prince quiets his hooting, a rolled up note tied to him, his geta tap against the concrete floor as he approaches the balcony, bringing his hand out for the bird to step onto.

Prince steps onto his hand, letting him take the note before climbing his arm and sitting on his shoulder.

The note unrolls, his message to Hyperlaser remains, Hyperlaser's response on the back.

"Thank you for the message, Katana."

"I sadly cannot join you for drinks then, as I'll be heading out on a mission not soon after the tournament."

"Talk to me before the tournament, and we can rearrange a different time."

- Hyperlaser

A small drawing of Princess is next to his name, (P.S. Princess keeps trying to hunt Prince.), he sighs, yet another drinking night ruined by a mission, is Hyperlaser trying to sober him up? Either way, he folds the note back up, glancing out into the city once more. Prince returned late, its nearly 3 in the morning, he dreads the angry complaints of his neighbours, they already woke him up by banging on his wall and floors.

Just as he turns, a loud crash sounds from an alley, diverting his attention, a tall, green Inphernal hides themself before he can clearly see them. A cat yowls as it dashes from the alley.

Prince coos, wishing to return inside to sleep on his ledge, so he returns to his room.

Venomshank hides behind the wall as a cat suddenly tips over a trash can, Venomshank doesn't shoo it away, its just a stray. When he darts behind the wall, the cat flinches, staring up at him from the now tipped over trashcan, its fur rises and it growls at him, hissing.

The cat suspected Venomshank of trying to steal its food, and suddenly runs over at jumps at him, he earns a few scratches before he grabs the cat and throws into the more open part of the alleyway, it yowls as it's thrown, before dashing away.

Venomshank sighs, his shirt now has cat scratches in it, somehow, the cat managed to pierce through the clothing, and thin droplets of ichor stain his shirt, right where his heart was. It's not as bad as his hand though, so he'll ignore it.

He pokes his head out the alleyway, and the figure on the second floor is gone, as well as their owl. Venomshank recognised those large red horns, but not the tusks that protruded out the mask. Was that Katana? Maybe the Newspawn of Katana's gear was just abnormally similar to him, that figure didn't look young though, but its hard to tell with a mask in the way. They were as tall as Katana, as strong as Katana, as red as Katana, the only unfamiliar part is the mask and tusks on him.

Even if that isn't Katana, he wants to see their face.

The people he know all have had parts of their face covered, Katana in all his dreams, Darkheart hiding his eyes with shadows, Sword in his last dream, and even himself. He's not sure how many more masked Inphernal's he can see before he forgets what an actual face looks like.

Fatigue slowly envelops him, there's cold coffee in the coffee maker. Venomshank turns, making his way back home.

The small store he usually heads to is still open, Venomshank pauses, right, Sword dumped his cigarettes so he's all out

He glances away from the store, continuing on, he promised Sword he would try to find other ways to cope.

.

.

.

The coffee machine has barely an inkling of coffee left, making coffee now would wake up Sword, since the machine whirred like a motorcycle from age. He curses under his breath, he'll have to rawdog the night if he's so worried about his dreams.

He moves to the living room, laying down on the couch and staring up at the ceiling, its a good time to try think of what he'll say to Katana once he meets him again, if that was actually him. It would be a bit weird to just bang on the door, beg to see his face, and then leave once he does, he'd need to explain his reason for being here, explain why he so desperately needs to see another Inphernal's face, preferably his. Venomshank doesn't need to try explain to a victim of The Scorch that he had nothing to do with it and had no idea it would happen, that's just selfish.

but, realistically, what would Katana do when he saw him? Slam the door in his face? Summon his gear and attempt to kill him to avenge his family? Katana used to be a very open-minded Inphernal, has that since changed?

Considering Katana wasn't in Thieves Den, and was referred to as a 'quiet and reclusive' by Sword, which wasn't like the old Katana, he must not be with his family anymore.

Should he bring flowers? As a way to pay respects to Katana's loss?

Sand flies out beneath his feet, a distant crackling and snap concerning Venomshank. Is something on fire?

He glances up, the city he was walking to now adorns bright flames and has lost parts of its buildings, Inphernals are either burning, crushed under rubble, or running away from the burning city.

Katana's home city was burning down, why? what caused this sudden attack of flames? "Katana?!" He shouts out, about to run to the city to search for Katana, but he's stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

"I wouldn't recommend running into open flames." And unfamiliar voice teases lightly, seeming indifferent and careless for the burning city. 

Venomshank turns to them, yet another blurry face, obscured by thick black smoke that wafts in the air, coming out the short Inphernal's mouth, Venomshank can see their bright cyan teeth as they speak and smile.

"Your friend is safe." The Inphernal appears short, wearing a cassock with cyan eyes that stare at Venomshank. They let go of Venomshank, turning to their side, revealing Katana, horns dripping with teal paint and face was covered with the mask he saw on the figure he presumed to be Katana earlier. He doesn't say anything, holding a bouquet of Forget-me-nots. "He's safe with his true family."

The fires flicker loudly, screams and shouting still sound as the converse, the other two Inphernal's act like nothings happening, but Venomshank can feel the heat of the flames, even with how far he is. "Katana..?" He ignores it for now, but the heat is intensifying.

Katana doesn't respond, walking up to Venomshank, and handing him the bouquet.

Sweat drips down his forehead, it feels as if the fire is right behind him, watching over his shoulder, he takes the bouquet, looking up at Katana.

"So you don't forget me."

Venomshank looks down at the flowers, and they've suddenly been lit aflame.

"Why did you try and avoid me? Do you not want to see me?"

His hand throbs painfully, waking up to the ceiling of his living room, mask still on his face. His heavy breathing returned.

He curls up, turning so he facing the couch, his injured hand goes behind him, reaching for the bedside table, his curled claws find nothing but air. Even if his table was there, there wouldn't be any cigarettes because of Sword's discovery.

"We meditate to relieve our stress, to train our attention and to get rid of negativity we may be facing." Katana's mentor explains, the mentee listens quietly, "Focus on your breathing, feel the air go into your nose and out. Keep your eyes closed, whatever thoughts come your way, let them pass without giving them attention."

He closes his mouth and shuts his eyes, breathing in and out his nose.

"Venomshank?"

He ignores the voice, his breathing slows and he stops shaking.

"Venomshank?" The voice repeats, louder this time.

He slowly opens his eyes, feeling calmer, his heartbeat slowing its constant and loud thumping, his hand feeling numb again.

"Venom!" Sword shakes his mentor's shoulder.

looking up to the voice, Sword is bent over him, staring down at his face with a scared look, "Oh, Sword." Venomshank relaxes his tensed shoulders, and coughs as he sits up, "What's wrong? How long have you been calling my name?"

Sword sniffles, "Only just then.. I was scared you were having a nightmare."

He was. Venomshank ruffles his mohawk, "Please, don't worry yourself." he stands up, "I'll make us breakfast."

Sword nods, but the saddened look doesn't leave his face, still worried for Venomshank, "Were you worrying about me again?" He asks, his voice a little quieter as he follows Venomshank to the kitchen.

A soft sigh leaves Venomshank as he refills the coffee machine, "No, Sword. It was just a silly nightmare." It was much more serious, but he cant tell the nightmare to Sword.

The chair squeaks across the floor as Sword sits down, "At least, you didn't smoke to calm down this time."

A small chuckle leaves Venomshank, still trying to make Sword not worry about that, "See? I told you I would find better ways." If only he remembered Katana's meditation training before the cigarettes.

.

.

.

His bedroom is still destroyed, but Venomshank is too tired to try fix it now. As much as he's recently dreaded the night, fearing his dreams, he really can't stay up tonight, his eyes already droopy and his body aching to collapse against his bed. Thankfully, only one side of his bed is torn up.

The ripped wallpaper is kicked into the air as he shuffles to the other side of the bed, falling down on it, spawled out.

What dream will he have tonight? One about the Scorch? An old memory of Katana? The new Katana-like figure he saw before? That strange Inphernal that appeared in his dreams last night? He rolls to his side, grabbing his pillow and dragging it down to hug it, bringing his knees it. The blanket remains on the floor. He can't be bothered to pick it up.

His mind is silent tonight.

No new nightmares, memories, or even something other than Katana or Sword, then again, he's only been focused on the two for the last few weeks, so a different dream would be impossible.

The night drifts on, Venomshank doesn't wake up in a sweat, puffing heavily and clawing at anything. Actually, he sleeps quite comfortably.

The sun hits his other pillow, when he groggily opens his sore eyes, aching to close them again, he's confused. No attack? No nightmare? He worries he's in another nightmare, like the one that made him feral three nights ago. Sisyphus squawks loudly, flying over from the window perch to stand on Venomshank's horns, eyes searching his tired owners, dropping a small blue flower onto his face. Good morning to you too.

His back cracks as he sits up with a exhausted breath, bringing his finger out for Sisyphus to perch on, the bird flutters down, following Venomshank as he leaves his half destroyed room, "How'd you get in here?" Venomshank asks, as if the crow could respond. The flower falls onto the bed, Venomshank ignores it.

Knocking on Sword's door to wake up him and get an explanation, Venomshank earns no response, gently, he opens the door.

Its dark, Sword's hammock is empty. Must be at the tournament, what time is it?

Sisyphus loudly caws, Venomshank can tell he's hungry, and Sword didn't feed him on time. Venomshank sighs, grabbing some seeds from the small bag kept in Sword's room, scooping some into the food bowl and putting it down for Sisyphus, who flies onto it and starts pecking at it.

Closing the door behind him, he goes back to his routine, getting ready for the day.

What did he have to do today? Sword was planning to head to Slingshot's café after the tournament, did he even have anything to do?

...

Right, he told Sword he would visit Katana today.

Loudly, his heart beats, echoing in his mind, suddenly nervous as if he were standing in front of the samurai right now. He didn't even know what he was gonna say to him yet. His best clothes had a cat scratch in them, hopefully Katana will ignore that for now.

What if it is a newspawn? How awkward would that be?

The clock ticks loudly as he passes by it in the hallway, 5:00PM, how'd he even manage to sleep that long? His feet move before his mind decides where he's going, and soon, he's out the house.

Has Venomshank even accepted the fact that if Katana refuses to speak to him, he'll have to return home knowing well that Katana is alive, and hates him. Maybe that'll stop the dreams, even if he hasn't seen Katana's face again, just accepting the fact Katana's gone from his life.

Katana not hating him and forgiving him is the only hope he has left.

.

.

.

The alleyways are dangerous during the day, but he really can't turn up to Katana's door at midnight. He has to sneak around people, try to not attract attention, and get there fast.

He can't believe he's doing this, it feels selfish.

People stare at him strangely as he nearly runs to the thankfully empty elevator, moving to the second floor. He steps onto the concrete balcony, peering side to side to make sure no one's out of their apartment. The sun is close to lowering, it being 2 hours till sunset.

His heartbeat returns, nervousness flooding back to him, this has to be the dream, right? Everyone ignoring him, the time he woke up at, the fact he arrived here without thinking of what he would say. His gloves are hot with sweat.

This is so wrong. He should run home before he embarrasses himself.

He's in front of room 207 before he could even realize it, lifting his shaky, injured hand to knock on the door. He doesn't even realize he's about to knock with his broken hand, still trying to calm himself down and mentally prepare for the interaction.

Shutting his eyes, he focuses on his breathing.

His hand knocks on the door for him, he curses from the pain of his broken fingers, inhaling sharply as he tears the throbbing hand away from the door, not even realizing he knocked on the door until footsteps approach.

Listening to the doorknob jiggle, he stares down at it, heartbeat intensifying as it becomes louder than the doorknob.

...

The door creaks open, the porcelain mask peering out the sliver of the door.

The figure gasps, before slamming the door in Venomshank's face.

Its Katana.

It's him.

It can't be anyone else. Who else would react to him like that? Who else would slam the door in his face?

Venomshank's heart stopped once the door slammed, beginning to speed up again at the realization.

Just the sight of an alive Katana already fulfils one of his worries.

Katana probably wants him dead though, he probably has his katana summoned, ready to strike.

Does he fear Venomshank will hurt him? Come to finish his family off?

His broken fingers uncurl, he winces at the pain that shoots up his arm, but ignores it as he gets closer to the door, claws dig into the wood of the door, leaving marks, Venomshank's head rests against it, "Katana," His voice is quiet, nervous and tired, "Please. I don't want to hurt you."

...No response.

Venomshank swallows, he can feel his emotions welling up again, getting the better of him. He is a softie. He's too soft.

He speaks again, "Please, Katana, just listen to me," he huffs, before shaking his head, sounding desperate, "Please, just open the door and listen to me, you can kill me after, I don't care." The wood creaks as his claws dig in harder, it hurts.

"How'd you find my home." Katana demands, making the question sound more like a command.

Venomshank can tick off another worry, that Katana wouldn't talk to him. Its so nice to hear his voice again, his dreams were accurate with that, at least. Its so nice to hear it in real life though, if this isn't a dream. He inhales, almost scared to answer, wondering if he just heard the question, "I-I had Sword ask your neighbours."

A disappointed sigh leaves Katana from the other side of the door, muttering something to himself.

Its silent, Venomshank cant handle the silence, he wants to hear Katana talk again. "I'm not here to argue, I just.. I just-" He stammers, how can he ask him to show Venomshank his face? Katana never wants to see him again, and revealing his face is like doing the polar opposite. "I-I have a request, you won't like it."

It's still silent, Venomshank's claws dig deeper, his other hand curls into a fist, resting above his head on the door, as if he's leaning on it or trying to hide his face. "Please." He mutters, "Please speak." 

"...What is it."

Memories of the nightmares of Katana's hidden, blurry, or covered face claw at his mind, "I've been having nightmares." He starts off, he knows Katana doesn't want to listen to him, but he feels as if an explanation is necessary, "About you. About us, when we were younger, and so many cruel stories where I'm only reminded of the trouble and pain I gave you." Tears well up in his eyes again, his head pressed against the door as he stares down at his feet. "I know its strange, still thinking about you even after 10 years. I don't understand it myself." He admits, before exhaling shakily, "Each dream, every single one, I haven't seen your face." 

"I miss your face." He confesses, "Everyone I know has their face hidden, Sword being the only face I've seen in forever. I'm going insane. I need to see a Inphernal's face, and I need it to be your face."

He sniffles, "I was slowly forgetting what you looked like, and never realised it." Chips of wood fall to the floor as he digs his claws deeper, the pain doesn't even hurt anymore. "Please, show me your face, let it be the last one I see." He begs, "Then kill me. Avenge your family, the family I failed to protect, the family I lied to."

The silence that follows after only squeezes at his heart more. The heart that belonged on his katana. The heart that didn't exist.

Its too silent, is Katana is shock? Trying to think? Or did he abandon the door, leaving Venomshank begging to no one.

"...I can't kill you." His voice is softer, yet it tries to appear not.

"Why not?" Venomshank asks, "I'm asking you to kill the murderer of your family."

Katana keeps pausing to process everything, inhaling as if he was trying to regulate his emotions and calm down. "It wouldn't help anyone, and it especially won't help your ward." Katana responds, referring to Sword. A soft shimmer barely sounds as Katana de-summons his gear.

"Sword's old enough to live on his own, he can be mentored by someone more experienced in his gear," He lists, "He can learn to live with a dead loved one."

Katana growls under his breath, "Stop begging me to kill you." Venomshank can't tell his emotion, maybe it is a dream, considering Katana's actively listening to him. "I wasn't trained to kill based on relations, and you know that."

His breath is slightly heavier, pained claws scratch the claw mark, before digging into it once more, the pain is almost a way to rid the silence. "Then.. please, let me see your face, just one more time." He begs, sounding a little disappointed at Katana's refusing. "Then I'll leave, I'll never bother you again."

...

The doorknob jingles again, and the door opens up again, "This better not be a trick." Katana huffs, opening the door to see a barely-hanging-on Venomshank. He can see the damage Venomshank had done to his door.

"Its not." Venomshank mutters, standing up straight again, hand pulsing with pain, "Thank you for this."

Katana eyes the mess, sighing, knowing his landlord will get on his ass for it.

"..Sorry." Venomshank quietly apologises, Katana steps to the side, letting him in.

Besides, someone's going to walk out and see him, hearing his painful begging, and that wouldn't be good for either one of them. Katana hates his face, and he assumed he hated Venomshank for failing him, just like every other false god, but apparently Venomshank's words sounded too serious to not let him in.

"Tell me about your nightmares." He commands, eyeing the god, carefully watching him and maintaining a distance. Venomshank appears nervous and a bit tired, its hard to see his emotion with the mask.

Well, he certainly didn't expect to be invited inside, let alone allowed to talk more, he nervously stammers a bit, "We-well, they've been constant." He answers, "And they're always about you, because I've been stuck thinking about you for weeks now." He doesn't even look around Katana's apartment, too focused on the mask that he yearned to have taken off. "You remind me that I killed your family, that I'm a murderer and a fraud."

The other Sword's know they aren't murderers, they know Firebrand's decision was out of their control, but, Venomshank refuses to live with himself, and none of the other deities seem to accept that he's troubled, almost like its strange behaviour, especially Darkheart.

"Every time I have those nightmares, I wake up in a sweat, feeling like I'm about to.. go feral." His poor memory of the feral attack he had makes him have glimpses of claws scraping against wall paper and the injury he caused for himself, he looks down at his hand, his broken fingers have bruised all over, his bandages wet with ichor and incredibly shaky from the fact his fingers aren't in a fist.

Katana notices his gaze change from him to his fist, "..Did you even bandage that right? What happened?" Katana asks, its concerning bloody and bruised.

Fingers curl into a fist again, no longer shaking, "I.. It's nothing you need to concern yourself with, It'll heal."

Katana barely supresses a scoff, "Not like that, it won't." he huffs, "Go sit down and I'll bandage it for you."

A weak wince of fear leaves Venomshank, "Please, Katana, don't feel forced to help me." He says, the interaction feeling wrong. Katana should've killed him by now. Why doesn't he ever listen? "Just kick me out and I won't-"

Demanding once more, Katana points to his couch, "Sit." He seems to care less what Venomshank did to his family, his begging can't have flipped Katana's mind around. Maybe he feels obliged to help, its probably some stupid mending thing he learnt from his mentor.

He trudges to the couch, he's inviting him even more inside, worse, forcing him to sit on his furniture. This is a dream. It has to be. Why is it taking forever to end? He sits down at the far side of the couch, feeling uncomfortable. Its not right. Nothing about this is right.

Katana sits down next to him, grabbing his hand, Venomshank stares away from him. Wishing Katana's mentor taught him that he could kill anyone he liked. Its what the Inpherno will teach you anyway.

"This isn't right." Venomshank suddenly yanks his hand back while Katana was about to take the bandages back, "Why are you trying to help me? Why am I even inside your house? Why are you letting me talk to you?"

Katana isn't amused by Venomshank's sudden uncomfortable confusion, "Because you came to my door, told me your sob story, and I fell for it, now give me your hand." He reaches over, yanking his hand back. Venomshank says nothing, letting him fix his hand, trying to focus on anything else. This can't be Katana.

Katana works in silence, unwrapping the bandages to the ugly sight that is Venomshank's broken hand, "Jeez, what did you even do to bruise this badly?"

...

Katana whacks Venomshank's arm, "Answer me."

The feeling of Katana's now calloused hands working on his bruised, broken hand was nice, as weird and unrealistic as the situation felt, "My fingers are broken." he answers, his voice much quieter than before.

"...You could've started with that." Katana huffs tiredly, continuing to unwrap his bandages.

Soft hiccups and sobs escape Venomshank, Katana chooses to ignore it for now, picking splinters out Venomshank's claw, wood from his door, but eventually, when he finishes and brushes his fingers over the large discoloured bruises, and scabs, the sobbing coming from the man starts to irritate him. "Don't start crying now."

"This can't be real."

A sigh leaves Katana, finding Venomshank's sudden turn-around annoying, "What can't be real?"

"You!" He cries, refusing to face him, "You weren't meant to do this." He growls, "You were meant to stab me through the heart as soon as you saw me."

Tired of Venomshank, he yanks his arm, forcing him closer and grabs the beak of his mask, forcing him to face the irritated samurai, "So you came here on a suicide mission just to see my face and die?" Katana pushes him away, "Have you been drinking? Why are you sobbing about everything?"

He scoffs, before continuing, "I'm sorry I was taught to learn to forgive, forget, and most of all, not kill based if I hate them or not." He sarcastically huffs, before shaking his head and talking in a less aggravated voice, "Don't get mad if you turn up to my door, break it, wake up all my neighbours, cry and beg to get killed, then I invite you in to discuss this easier."

Tears are still falling from his eyes, but he hides his sobs and swallows, "Sword told me you weren't friendly now."

Hearing his voice so strained and saddened is starting to tick Katana off, "Did he tell you I was also easily irritable and a good ward?"

Venomshank doesn't say anything, letting Katana work in silence.


"There." Katana lets go of his hand, its properly bandages and the bruises are now hidden, Venomshank takes his hand back, his claws have been bandaged, meaning he cant claw at anything and destroy them more.

He quietly mutters a thank you, and its barely audible.

"You didn't answer my question."

Venomshank tilts his head at him, confused.

"How did you break your hand?"

He gulps, feeling the bandages with his other claw, he almost wants to rip the bandages off and hit his hand just to feel the pain. "I.. I don't know." the bandage rips slightly  from his sharp talons, and he pauses, "It.. It must've been when I went feral 4 nights ago."

Katana squints at him through the mask, "Feral? Why'd you go feral?" He's aware of Venomshank's aggressive state, experienced first hand, managed to save Venomshank from entering such state, just the though that Venomshank's feral state has gotten this bad since he ran away.

... He's the one who recommended the mask.

"You didn't... infect anyone, did you?" Katana asks, slightly worried that Venomshank's silence.

He fiddles with the bandages more, "It was from one of the nightmares." He answers, "You killed me in it." Like you should be doing now. "When I woke up, covered in sweat and drowning in my own fear and hunger, my..- the thing I used to calm down wasn't there."

Katana folds his arms, looking away from the deity and at the tea set on his table, which he regularly uses when guests are around. "What was that 'thing'?"

Venomshank glances at him from the side, swallowing nervously, "Its.. Its a bad thing." He admits, "I only started doing it a few months ago, only when I'm stressed enough to go feral, but.. ever since my dreams, it's nearly become daily from the attacks."

With no response from Katana, he continues.

"I've been smoking."

It's silent again, Katana looks over at him, disappointment evident, even with the mask. "...I-" He stops himself, huffing angrily as he shakes his head. Muttering something under his breath. Suddenly, he stands up, walking to Venomshank to yank him up off the couch, letting go and walking to the door, Venomshank follows, unsurprisingly.

All those exercises I taught him, just for him to smoke? It's like he completely forgot I was the main reason he didn't go feral back then.

He doesn't say anything, arms reaching behind his head to unclick the mask, revealing the face underneath.

It's definitely not what it used to be, but what happened is obvious.

Venomshank's quiet, staring at him, he goes to reach out and touch Katana's face but his hand is slapped away.

...

"I can't believe I did this to you." His voice is strained once more.

"You didn't."

"I did."

Katana grits his teeth, not wanting to argue. "Show me yours."

The plague mask tilts, following Venomshank's head.

"Your face."

Venomshank pauses for a second, unsure, before he reaches behind his head, unlocking the mask and removing it.

...

"You look terrible." Katana says in response to the tired look, tears stained on his cheeks and eyes red and wet from crying.

"You look handsome." Venomshank responds, "You've always looked handsome, even if I can't remember."

Katana looks away from him, don't get any ideas. He grabs the door knob, opening the door.

That's his cue to leave. "Thank you, Katana." Venomshank sighs, clicking the mask back on as he walks out the door.

...

"Wait." Katana grabs his arm, still not looking at him.

"..Do you still like sake?"

This is so wrong. He shouldn't do this. Its selfish.

.


.

.

He always sobs and confesses to everything when he's drunk. 

"The fact you're inviting me in again is strange, especially for drinks." Venomshank wonders, getting prompted to sit on the couch again as Katana walks off, not responding as he grabs the bottle that's been sitting untouched for months from Hyperlaser's absence.

"I haven't had alcohol in forever." Venomshank mentions once Katana puts a glass in front of him, pouring some into it. His mask is taken off, and put next to Katana's mask, which sits on the table in front of them. Katana's glass doesn't have much in it.

Still quiet, Katana sits down next to him.

Talons tap against the glass as Venomshank grabs his glass, I hope its laced, he looks over at Katana briefly, the glass eye reflecting in the slowly setting sun. Did he cause that? How badly was Katana burnt? Maybe drinking will quieten the reminders. He takes a large sip.

Not even a slight hesitation. Katana watches him, before grabbing his glass with his talons.

"I don't like how you're smoking." Katana's voice is calmer, quieter, knowing Venomshank will stop begging him to murder him.

Venomshank lightly chuckles, "I could tell." his chuckle sounds a bit forced. "I don't like it either."
 
"Then why do it?"

Venomshank sighs, "It's the only way I've been able to calm down." he admits, sipping his sake.

Katana's talons tap against the glass, waiting for slurred words to sound in his ears, he stares at Venomshank's face, how bad can a nightmare be to get him like this? To get him begging to have it all over? "...You don't remember much, do you?" He hums, still sounding disappointed.

Venomshank looks over at him, "What do you mean?"

"...Nevermind."

He doesn't want to admit he still thinks about those times as well.

...

With how fast Venomshank was drinking compared to Katana, who had barely sipped any of his, despite it being his favourite drink, he started to act like he used to when he was getting drunk; tired, muttering random things and making beats with his talons against the glass.

"How has Sword been? Have you told him about the dreams?" Katana questions, his eyes exploring the others face more than he realised.

"Oh," He swallows the sake in his throat, "No, not really. It's really complicated, but he knows about the smoking thing." He sighs, "Why do I have to be siblings with assholes?" Venomshank leans back against the couch, staring up at the ceiling.

He sips his glass, "Darkheart?"

"Not just him, but he's the only one that speaks to me. The prick caught me smoking just to shove a picture of that terrorist in my face, then told Sword about it." He huffs, before drinking more of the sake. "I nearly went feral, I want to kill him so bad." He sits up a bit, "Revenge for your family."

As Venomshank is pouring another glass, Katana hums, "So, about.. Firebrand," or 'The Terrorist', as Venomshank puts it, "You know about the rumours, right?"

"Well aware." He groans, tipping his head back as he drinks the sake.

"Are they true?"

Venomshank loudly grumbles, "No. Why would I want to make my home unsafe? I don't want to shelter Sword. I want the life we were meant to have. Living in Thieves Den, none of this bullshit." He sniffles, "Firebrand and these stupid rumours are the main reason I worry so much all the time."

He takes a sip, coughing before he continues, "How was I meant to stop my brother? I didn't even realise he left Crossroads. I don't even remember most of my sibling's faces I haven't seen them in so long." he sighs, "I should've been there though, I'm so sorry I wasn't."

"Don't start."

Venomshank doesn't respond, wiping a tear from his eye, it soaks his bandage but he doesn't care.

"You said you weren't able to see my face in these dreams, what was hiding my face?"

Venomshank exhales, "Everything." He sips his glass again, before staring at the ceiling, "Usually its blurry or hidden by some random thing, but, the recent ones have been more specific." He answers, "Fire, a wanted poster of you, or that mask of yours."

"Wanted poster?" Katana raises a brow, "Mask? How do you know what my mask looks like if you just saw me for the first time?" His mind returns to the strange green figure who ran before he could see him, was that Venomshank? "You weren't spying on me yesterday, were you?"

"...Uh, not intentionally." Venomshank's grin is crooked and looks forced, it drops quickly as he takes another sip. "There was a wanted poster of a Inphernal with your horns, but teal, their face was torn off."

"Ah, I see." Katana forgot he did that. He pauses, drinking his sake again, "Say, you said the other deities and their actions are the main reason of your worries, correct? Do you have any others?"

Venomshank exhales loudly, "Yeah. Sword." He drinks again, "I hate that I have to shelter him from all this stuff. I'm scared he'll hate me if I tell him about Firebrand and The Scorch, I would tell him how I failed to protect you and he would.." Venomshank sighs, eyes wet with tears once more, "I don't know." He gestures with his hurt hand, and lets it fall back onto his leg, Katana eyes him for that. "He would know I can't protect him." He sniffles, drinking his sake once more, setting the empty glass on the table.

"Just like I couldn't protect you." Venomshank feels his chest with his thumb, the fabric of the cat scratch gliding across his thumbs.

Katana only now noticed the ichor stain on his chest.

Without any questions, Katana quietly sips his sake, waiting for a thought to enter his mind.

...

Venomshank looks over at Katana, "You're so handsome." He reaches out, attempting to touch Katana.

Katana doesn't slap his hand away, letting him touch his face. Not like he'll remember this anyway.

"You know, I used to have the fattest crush on you." Venomshank confesses as if its normal, his thumb caressing the 'x' scar across the glass eye, talons lightly scratching it.

"What?" Katana looks over at him, his cheeks dusted with a faint blush, Don't let his words get to you.

"The day I saw The Scorch, I was gonna tell you how handsome I always thought you were. I thought you died. I thought you were dead for 10 years, and all that time I grieved for an alive Inphernal." A tear rolls down his cheek, but he isn't sobbing yet, just slurring his words and stammering. "The Swords had a rule about deities, ever since Firebrands kids had a divorce." Venomshank starts, dropping his hand and looking back up at the ceiling, "We weren't allowed to fall in love with mortals, let along get attached to them." He looks back, "Guess that didn't work for me." He chuckles, but sniffles after. "The Scorch is probably why." 

Venomshank furrows his brow, "If you were anyone else, if you truly hated me like everyone else, you wouldn't let me be saying this to you." He sighs, "But of course it had to be you, it was going to be you ever since the start of my life. If you said no, I don't think anyone else would accept me." He hums, "Its like one-sided soulmates. I'm destined to love you, but you're free to love who you want."

Talons suddenly grip Venomshank's shirt, pulling him in for a hug. "You're a dork."

Venomshank giggles, hugging him back, tighter.

Katana's eye is wet with tears, he can't believe he never noticed Venomshank crushing on him. It was probably obvious, with how attached and nervous the deity was, how did he not assume? "I'm destined to love you too." Please, don't be a joke, please let this be the honesty drunk Venomshank was known for.

Venomshank's eyes are buried into Katana's shoulder, arms wrapped loosely around the samurai. Quietly, he starts to sob into Katana's shoulder.

Katana rubs his back, "Why are you crying?" He asks, suddenly not feeling irritated by it anymore, maybe its because he knows Venomshank gets emotional when he's drunk.

He sniffles, "Because I missed you." He hums, "I missed you so much, I never thought I would be crying into your shoulder, telling you how much I loved you." he rubs his face in harder, "And being told that you love me too."

"Well, I do." He lifts Venomshank's hat, kissing him on his head before lifting him off him so Venomshank's sitting again. Katana wipes his tears away with his finger.

The sun has nearly lowered past the horizon, the clouds painted with shades of pink and orange, the sky darkening. "I don't think I can send you home when you're like this." Katana admits, what would Sword think? "You don't mind staying over, do you?"

Venomshank rests a hand on Katana, as if trying to balance. "No."

Katana sits up, "I'll go get you a blanket and you can sleep on the couch."

"Wait-" Venomshank grabs his hand with his broken one, "Stay?" Stay and never leave.

He rolls his eyes. "...Oh, alright." He sighs, grinning softly.

Only for the face I never want to forget again.