Chapter Text
Even after all these months spent in Unstable, he still couldn't get over how different it was. The people, the wars, the fact there's no evil entity taking over his friends and sending him through his worst nightmares just to get out.
Everything was different, a nice different. Yeah, he had to deal with people destroying his farm constantly, but that was nothing when it really came down to it. He rather fix his farm over and over than deal with… yeah.
Better not get too far into it.
When he joined, he vowed to himself to not talk about it ever. Not to himself, not to anyone. He's been doing well to keep that promise so far, so he rather keep up the streak.
Especially now that he has Flame over constantly.
He doesn't allow the cat into his room where he hides all the old things from that server, but he won't lie and say he doesn't expect Flame to find it at some point. Don't get him wrong, he trusts him, has saved his ass more times than he can count, but that doesn't mean he's ready to share something so vulnerable with him.
Lomedy did that with the mace already, and they both know where that got them.
He winces; he shouldn't be thinking like that, not about someone who has consistently helped him. Flame might not be the best of people, but he's certainly not the worst. He wouldn't use anything he found against him.
Might be his previous experiences talking too much.
No one could blame him for not trusting Flame either. In his defense, the last time he tried to trust someone, they-
No, no, he promsied he wouldn't get into it. Lomedy will hold himself to it.
He doesn't even know what he's thinking. Of course he trusts Flame, he's done more for him than anyone else ever has.
A low growl works its way up his throat as he scratches as his ear, wishing he spent the day doing self-care instead of being outside in the garden. In his defense, this was supposed to be his self-soothing mechanism, but it doesn't really work when his brain won't shut up.
It's fine.
All that matters are a few simple facts:
He's okay. He's alive. He's out of there. He has a good friend named Flame whom he trusts more than anything. And he's safe here.
"Yo, Lomedy!"
Ah, speak of the devil and he shall appear.
But not even he is immune to how happy the cat sounds when he sees Lomedy, and it makes him perk up. He easily spots him, the other standing on the other side of the gate and waiting to be let in. It was a nice change compared to the times he came right in without warning.
"Hi Flame, how are you?" He can't help it as his tail wags fast at the sight of him, his frown turning into a smile as easily as breathing. Despite his earlier thoughts, he really did enjoy seeing Flame.
Weird for a dog to love a cat this much, but after everything he's been through? This isn't even in the top 500 things.
"'m good bro! Wanted to uhm," Flame, honest to stars, shuffles and… curls in on himself? Lomedy blinks in shock as the other seems to pause before he speaks again. "Ask you something?"
"Uh… yeah bro, come on in." He opens the gate to let him in, closes it right after, and leads him straight into the house.
Flame takes off his armor the second he's inside and flops onto the couch like he owns it. Which he does, considering he helped him build it. Flame helped him craft a lot of things in his house, and maybe that's why he spends so much time here.
Well, he hopes it's partly because he enjoys Lomedy's company.
Either way, Lomedy appreciates the fact he remembered that he desn't like armor in the house, but it doesn't douse his own worry as Flame's tail seems frozen stiff and his ears on constant alert.
He swallows down the words he wants to say and settles on a chair and waits patiently for Flame to speak. The air around them, for the very first time since they met, is suffocating as Lomedy watches him open and close his mouth a few times.
It's so weird to see him like this, quiet and unwilling to speak. He's always known him as someone proud, someone that can control the room the second he walks in from how confident he is in his abilities.
Flame has every right to be, too. He remembers what Flame has told him about his various encounters on the server, how Lettuce called him death when he approaches, how people seemed to whisper about him in the markets Lomedy's attend.
Must have been a little lonely for Flame.
He's getting distracted.
"Do… do you need something to drink?" Lomedy stands before he even finishes speaking and makes his way into the kitchen to grab some water for the both of them. It takes him a long second before he comes back out and places both glasses on the table, watches carefully as Flame seems to loosen up at the action. "Take… take all the time you need, Flame."
"Thanks bro," and the words make Lomedy relax a little too.
He was almost worried Flame was broken. How would he explain that to anyone? 'Hey everyone, I broke the Immortal Demon!' That wouldn't go well at all!
Well, he could also not tell anyone, but- whatever, he's getting sidetracked. He needs to worry about Flame and why he still hasn't talked, hasn't even looked at the water since Lomedy set it down.
"You should ah… drink something. Might help calm your nerves."
"'m not nervous bro, dunno where you got that from."
"…Sure bro, sure."
Lomedy can tell, though. After spending so long trying to figure out if his old friends were themselves or the entity, he got damn good at reading body language. He can see how Flame's tail still hasn't moved, his fingers tap, tap, tapping against his bouncing leg as he looks around the room.
It's a long few minutes before- "There's someone that looks like you."
"What?"
His heart stops.
"They uh… bro it's so weird, y'know? They look exactly like you but they're not? When I walked up to them-"
"Wait- wait slow down. There's someone that looks like me?" He feels like he can't breathe. Was he even breathing? He doesn't think he is, but he has no frame of reference when it seems as if Flame isn't either. "When did you see them? You talked to them?"
"Yeah bro it was… I talked with them for a bit before I- I realized it. They said they were in two places at once which was weird. But then it was, like bro I asked 'are dinner plans still on?' and they looked as if they didn't know anything. And it- their eyes weren't the same pretty color yours are bro."
"Pretty? Nevermind- so are they," he pauses, if only to catch his breath and compute everything he was just told. "There's no way."
"No way what bro?"
"I- I thought I got rid of It completely, there's no way- it has to be a different entity, right? It can't be It all over again, not on this server. Bro I was told nothing could get through… Just follow me."
He practically shoots out of his chair and towards his room, leaving Flame in the dust as he slams open his bedroom door. Lomedy doesn't waste a second in dropping to his knees to pull out the chest he keeps hidden under his bed, yanking it out as he goes through it all.
Flame's standing in the doorway, his head tilted like the cat he is would be as he says something Lomedy doesn't catch whatsoever.
He's much too busy grabbing at an old journal of his, flipping through the pages in a panic.
It never hinted at there being others, but if there's one, there has to be more. If there's more, then why even switch servers? There'd be no use if one attaches Itself to me again and follows but… nah, I gotta have hope, right?
I think there are. Others, I mean. Tyler used to say he saw me, but whenever I said I didn't see him, he dropped the topic entirely. That was… overshadowed by It… I should've listened sooner.
I'm gonna hide this journal and hope I never have to look at this again. Chasing entities that might not exist will be my downfall. Psh, as if it isn't already.
A loud thud shocks him out of his page flipping, his head shoots up as the journal is forcefully closed on his fingers.
"Flame what- what was that for?"
"Bro, you were muttering to yourself, what did you want me to do? Let you sit there and work yourself into a panic?"
…He's got a point. One that has Lomedy taking a deep breath as he puts the journal into his bag at his side instead, paranoia creeping it's way into his body as he looks over at Flame.
The cat simply tilts his head again and offers that one smile Lomedy loves to see on him.
"Yeah uh, sorry bro. I'm just… a little too close to home, y'know? You get chased by a shape-shifting entity that takes all your friends and wants to duplicate to spread Itself across the enire server, and you get a little paranoid over things." He tries to laugh it off, but when he casts another glance at Flame, the other is… off.
In a way that he's never seen before.
"Lomedy- Lomedy bro it's… I dunno what you're saying, but you're making me nervous."
…Nervous?
Flame?
Nervous?
"It's… it's more than what it looks like, Flame. There's- maybe I should've told more people or something, or told you earlier but- the journal has everything, could explain it better than I could but I don't-" trust you with it would not be the truth ten minutes ago, but this wasn't ten minutes ago.
"Hey, hey it's okay," Flame rests his hands on Lomedy's shoulders once again, standing over him in what would usually be a place Lomedy loves to be, but isn't anymore. "Whatever you're talking about should be fine, right? Maybe I was just imagining it?"
"How can you imagine someone that looks like me bro?! That doesn't even make sense!"
"I- I dunno, was just trying to offer solutions that didn't make you panic."
Lomedy almost feels guilty as he looks over Flame, but he swallows back the hundreds of words that want to escape him and sighs. "Sorry, I just… it remains me of something in my past is all."
"Well bro, 'm here to listen, give me a better explanation than the word vomit you gave? How 'bout you sit on the bed?"
Despite his words, it takes a long minute before he lets go of Lomedy's shoulders, and, with a nod of his head, Flame helps him onto the bed.
He suddenly doesn't want to tell him anything.
"Actually can you… tell me more about the thing you came in contact with? B- before I say anything else."
"Uh… yeah, yeah I can do that." He takes a breath, rests his hands on his shoulders once more, and starts to speak. "From faraway, he looked just like you bro, it was almost an exact match. If I didn't know you as well as I do, I would've thought it was you the entire time. Like bro… it was… weird."
Lomedy nods along even as he grits his teeth.
"Like I said bro, everything was normal. Only reason I realized it was 'cause I talked about the dinner plans we made for tonight and his eyes went wide in confusion. There me off bad, Lomedy, but I… I knew it when I saw the eyes. They weren't the color yours were, didn't have the same sparkle or… well any sign of life in it."
Lomedy licks the inside of his teeth as his hands curl into his pants.
He doesn't like the sound of this one bit.
"And when I took a closer look, it's skin seemed more… fake? Like a doll's skin or something bro, it was weird. It almost looked as if their skin was glued on in places or something. I dunno, but the second I was able, I got out of there and came directly to you."
"Ah- that's… nothing like It used to do. Uhm, I- "
Lomedy almost jolts as he looks up at Flame, his eyes widening as he searches his face. He's inspecting every inch of it as he looks at him thoroughly, trying to find something to prove his own brain wrong. "Flame can you- what color are your eyes?"
"Huh? Bro why're you asking that?"
"C'mon, we're friends, can't you just indulge me this once Flame? I never ask you of much?"
He can see the gears turning in Flame's head right before the other slumps forward, pushing more weight on Lomedy's shoulders to the point it's almost painful. It doesn't take a second longer before his voice, quiet and soft, comes out, "Brown."
"Can you show me?"
"Why?"
"Please Flame? This once? Don't you remember the last time you- you showed me?"
"…Yeah, yeah I remember. Uhm, hang on bro." Flame lets go of him reluctantly, his hands reaching up to behind his head and slowly unties it. It comes away easily, and there, clear as day, are Flame's brown eyes.
He can almost breathe.
Almost.
He takes another look at Flame and he feels his heart stutter in his chest.
Lomed really, really looks at Flame.
And blinks.
"You're not Flame."