Work Text:
Tenna was dying.
This was something he was sure of, speakers crackling with static as he lay twitching in the snow. So, so much snow.
It showed no sign of stopping. An endless torrent of ice and cold.
Tenna deserved this. He *knew* he deserved this. Hopefully soon, the snow would cover him up entirely. Would save his (former) crew a lot of the hassle of burying him properly.
--------------------
The sight of his once partner, both in business and actual, slowly being buried in a blanket of soft white had his chest aching. He knew he was the last one Tenna would ever want to see while currently on his deathbed, but Spamton couldn't just sit back. Spamton had to try, even if it was pointless.
Raising his hand to block thick flakes from flying in his line of vision Spamton raced to the still figure of Tenna. Spamton's hands shook as he surveyed the damage up close. The cut was jagged, metal sharp and wires sparking. Tenna's screen was cracked in the corner, sharp lines spread like a web across the glass monitor. A small part of Spamton found sick glee in seeing the man defenseless, but a bigger part was screaming to *get moving.*
--------------------
He needed to find his legs. They had to be somewhere out here, in the cold, barren emptiness lying at the outskirts of Tennas realm. Ignoring the pit in his stomach, he raised his arm to shield his eyes from the torrent of snow, and started slogging through the darkness.
A spark in the distance had him perking up immediately, strides longer as he approached the hunk of metal, lifeless and heavy as he dragged it towards his former partner. One down, one to go.
He found the other leg discarded in the same direction, just a few feet further than the first had been, this one equally as cold, not part of Tenna anymore. Just a *thing*.
Is that was Tenna was now? Just scrap metal, no thoughts in that once vibrant chassis? Spamton laughed coldly as he set the second leg down with a thunk, falling to his knees as he stared at what was left of Tenna, wind whipping past them, the sound reminding him of white noise. That sick voice in his head made itself known again, telling Spamton to leave him, to let him rust down here, let him be forgotten.
But an even sicker part of him wanted to fix Tenna just to rub his failure in his face. To sneer at him, to kick him while he was down.
--------------------
Would it be cruel to repair him, just to take it all away again? Undoubtedly - but was it any crueler a fate than the one Spamton himself had survived? He could do it. He was trained as a mechanic, he could fix Tenna up... only to tear him back down again.
He got to work re-attaching Tenna's limbs, lining up detached wires with nimble fingers. He probably should've cared more about his own safety. If he fucked this up he could get electrocuted...
But he'd been burned before. Tenna... hadn't always been a gentle lover. He was used to the zing of electrocution, of fire like lightning zipping up his body and numbing everything except the instance that they were experiencing in that moment. A world where only Tenna and his power mattered.
He needed a soldering iron to do this properly; but he didn't have one. He'd have to pull from his own magic... or the depths of Hell. The Dreemurrs were the ones with fire magic. Spamton's own was cat/puppet type, even though he himself had once been a predominantly electrical being like Tenna himself. Maybe that's why he was able to take his shocks. If Spamton had been anything but electrical, would he have succumbed to the eternal darkness during one of his dalliances with his former boss? Would he have faded from existence entirely?
... There were always revivements. But those only worked sometimes - as evidenced now. ... Had anyone tried a revivemint on Tenna? Spamton had nicked one off of Kris... Kris probably could've used it right now, considering that they were currently fighting he Roaring Knight... But it was worth a try, wasn't it?
He could give the Revivement to Tenna, and see what happened. ... Or he could go and give it back to Kris, joining in on their fight against the Knight.
--------------------
Spamton sighed and pulled out the mint. He walked over to Tennas head. This would probably be the only chance he had to save him. While one corner of his mind wanted to leave him here to die, he also knew that he would probably regret it at some point. He slipped the mint into the TV's mouth and waited. Spamton gazed over at his legs, hoping there would be at least some improvement there. Nothing yet. He pressed F1 a few times, hoping that the little angel versions of himself would work together with the revive mint to heal Tenna a little faster.
Suddenly, Tenna's body convulsed and he wailed in pain. The revive mint had woken him up. Spamton rushed back over to his head.
--------------------
"Who-? What?!" Tenna grit out through pained breaths and spasms of agony. Everything hurt. He was so cold, so broken, his legs felt like they were on *fire*. He couldn't see anything, the spider webbed cracks in his screen distorting everything in front of him.
No. No, if he tried it could focus a little. Distorted from the cracks, he could make out a person. He could make out someone helping him. A starkly pale white face, a gold tooth glinting in the low light coming from his screen, obnoxiously slicked back black hair-
"Spamton?" He called to him, watching his savior freeze in the snow before quickly turning his back on him. How dare he! That little parasite! Why now? Why here, when he was at his lowest? Was he just back to gloat? To mock how far he'd fallen? "Stop it! Don't you fucking touch me!"
"Relax T-T-[Tennessee resorts], I'm just [Fix-it Felix] you up." Spamton muttered, knowing Tenna couldn't stop him right now if he tried. That Revivemnt might have got him back on, but the damage was still extensive. He was still hurt.
--------------------
Tenna did not in fact relax, continuing to writhe against the freezing ice burying his body. It was hellish. It felt like his insides were on *fire*, it *burned*. Angel, it *burned*.
"*FUCK!* What did you do to me? WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?" He tried to push up, out of the snow, but Tenna couldn't seem to get his limbs to move. The most he was able to do was pitifully roll onto his side, sending sparks of pain shooting up his back.
--------------------
Spamton muttered an apology under his breath, grabbing Tenna by the hip and holding him place.
"[Relax], I'm trying to [F1] you." Spamton grumbled.
Spamton called upon his magic, quickly holding up one of Tenna's legs to work on soldering the metal together. Tenna's speakers warbled with his shriek of pain, desperate to get away but knowing it was useless.
"You *bastard!*" Tenna snarled, fangs bared.
"What else is [new and improved]?" Spamton murmured to himself.
Spamton winced when Tenna jerked, stopping his magic for a moment to call upon his angels once more in an attempt to sooth the unbearable pain. The work was slow as Spamton squinted in focus to make sure his lines were perfectly straight. He rewent over the areas that were bubbled. Moving over to the other leg Spamton grumbled at how much more extensive this one was.
"I'm going to beat the everloving *shit* out of you after this!" Tenna spoke through gritted teeth.
Spamton made a noise in response, clutching Tenna's thigh to keep himself steady. It was a tad bit awkward to solder so close to something so sensitive but Spamton forced himself to look past it. He'd apologize later for being so close, right now he had to get this right.
--------------------
"You fucking hear me?" Tenna hissed, trying to hide how much pain he was truly in, how badly he wanted to cry. "You're dead, Spamton. For this, for everything you've done to me." He choked back a sob as he snarled, Spamton trying his best to ignore the scathing words as he worked, one wire at a time.
"[Trash Heap], I-"
Tenna barked out a laugh, fist pounding the snow into a flat sheet beneath him. "It's always an insult with you, isn't it? Can't even let me die in peace without rubbing salt in the wound one last fucking time!"
"[Ten-cent], I didn't-"
"Just fucking say my name Spamton!" He cackled deliriously, bashing the back of his chassis into the ground over and over. "You know my name, why don't you just use it for once?!" Tears were falling down his screen now, rainbow against the harsh static glowing against the snow. "*Please?*" The last word came out as a whimper as the TV stilled, only the sound of the storm left to fill the silence.
Spamton could feel his stomach twisting into knots, guilt and regret like needles in his abdomen, twisting into him relentlessly. Sometimes he found himself forgetting that Tenna could feel, that he was a person, he had emotions. He could *hurt*.
"Even now, you won't say it, huh?" Tennas screen flickered off, blanketing them both in darkness once again, Spamton relying on the glow of his small angels to see what he was doing. "You're so fucking cruel, Spamton. Is this what I did to you? Did I make you this way?" He was quieter now, somber. "Is it my fault that you like seeing me suffer?"
--------------------
"I'm [try, try, try again] 2 [FIxer Upper Cars] U." Spamton stated, calmly but firmly. It hurt too much, Tenna's words hitting close to home. "I can't [lettuce] U [[Major Character Death]], [Ant poison]."
Tenna let out a harsh, wheezing laugh. "You still can't say my name. Fucker."
"I [less than three] u, [Boob Tube]." Spamton finished up the final line of soldering, magic giving out. He didn't have a single tension point of energy left to give. Everything he had he'd expended upon Tenna.
But he'd saved him. He'd ultimately saved his ex-business partner's life... his former love's.
Their relationship was fucked beyond fixing, and now Spamton half-expected to die for the sin of trying to save his former husband. Maybe Tenna'd just torture him for fun, and keep him alive for shits and giggles.
Had he been the one to do this to Tenna? To fuck him up so badly? To warp him into a cruel, manic monster?
"If you loved me, you wouldn't have left me!" Tenna scooped Spamton up in his clawed hands, frigid with cold.
"I [[Save Game]]d your [[Life: The Board Game]]." Spamton stated, matter-of-fact. There was no use fighting - it would just turn Tenna on. He'd become quite the sadist after Spamton had fucked with his feelings.
Tenna stilled at that. Yes, Spamton wasn't good at communicating with words, but his actions? They showed a kind of respect - a desire for atonement. He hadn't needed to save Tenna... yet he'd still risked his life to do so. His former mailman had expended every iota of his magic, leaving himself entirely vulnerable and at Tenna's mercy...
Should Tenna show him mercy, in turn? "Do you still love me, Spamton?" He let the words escape, whipping around them like the wind.
"I [LOVE] u, T-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-" his voice glitched out.
"Spamton." Tenna lifted him upright, so that the smaller man's eyeglasses were at level with his screen.
"I - I - I - I - I [[loving husband]] U, Ant Tenna!" He managed to force out, the words wrenched free from his lips. He glitched, body shuddering, eyeglasses turning to static.
"That's all I've ever wanted to hear." Tenna pulled him close into a hug. "Let's... let's get us both inside." He'd be able to crawl them both back to safety, because of Spamton's willingness to help his former lover. His lover.