Chapter Text
Ash was dying.
He wasn't worried much about it, he'd find the antidote soon enough. The thrill that went through his body every time he coughed was addicting. He'd missed this. The adrenaline of a hunt well executed, the breathlessness, the energy of it all. Ewron was gifting him the opportunity to feel these again. This period of reluctant peace was boring him. Ash was a weapon, he'd honed his skills appropriately, sharpened his sword and fletched his arrows.
Ewron felt similarly to him, for sure. He was Ash's blade. He couldn't just stand around willy nilly and become dull. What purpose would he serve like that? Ash suspected that was the reason Ewron had staged this… game of theirs. It had started with a single cupcake, funnily enough.
Ash shut the door behind him as he entered the room, and his attention was immediately drawn to the foreign object on his desk. It was a small box, not any larger than his palm, and was placed quite innocuously. He eased the door back open and leaned away to call for Tubbo.
"Tobias! Did we receive any visitors today?" Tubbo came to view a moment later, dusted his hands on his already-dirty pants and removed his goggles before answering. "Uhh no, I don't think so. Why?" He looked confused enough to be truthful so Ash decided to let him be. "It's nothing. Go back to working on the factory." He dismissed him, with a nod of his head. Tubbo didn't seem perturbed by the dismissal and just saluted happily before leaving with a Sir yes sir!
Ash just chuckled and properly entered the room.
"Now what do we have here?" He strained his senses for anything worrying as he continued in, but found nothing worth noting. There was no foreign smell or anything out of place other than the addition of the box. This was evidently the work of an experienced assassin. Huh. Almost giddy with excitement, he opened the box.
It was a cupcake.
He laughed as he picked it up. The chocolate cupcake was sitting on a bed of moss and had little to no piping, it wasn't a very impressive dessert. The moss though, was the intriguing part. He happily took that as confirmation that Ewron was the one behind this gift. But why would he do this? Why not give it to him in one of their meet-ups at the ocean?
"That man is a freak of nature." He said to himself as he debated eating it.
Ash was suspicious of the cake. It could be poisoned, for all he knew…
Who was he kidding it was definitely poisoned. Was Ewron trying to betray him, then? This was a terrible attempt if that's the case. He couldn't be underestimating Ash that much. This was more of a game to Ewron, probably.
Ash decided to indulge the man and took a bite out of the cake. It tasted… Nice. Not extraordinary by any means, it was average. The more pressing thing was the numbness sensation that spread in his mouth. His tongue felt like it was swelling, and he began to lose sensation.
It was poison! How cute.
Ash's heart started beating with the familiar rush of adrenaline again and he understood just why they were playing this game.
The waves lapping at their boats made them sway in place as Ewron watched him. His eyes had a weird look in them, a tension that was slowly building. Ewron had… changed his appearance, somewhat. His lips were a pretty red color and widened into a smile.
Ash didn't break eye contact as he smirked and raised the cupcake to his lips, taking a second bite. The sparse frosting clung to his lips and his tongue stuck out to clean them off. Ewron swallowed around nothing.
"Thank you for the thoughtful gift, Ewron. Tell me, what brought this up?" Ash spoke after he swallowed the mouthful of cake.
Ewron stood there for another moment, silent, before he suddenly moved to step on Ash's boat. Ash stood his ground and didn't lose balance as they swayed harder, the boat adjusting to Ewron's added weight.
The man in question looked crazed. His eyes- his irises were blown out so wide that they dwarfed the blue of his eyes. He had begun to blush prettily, and the soft redness clashed with the color of his lips. The red lipstick was applied perfectly, not a single spot was out of place or faded.
Ash barked out, "I asked you a question."
Ewron simply held his breath and reached a hand out, Ash let him. Out of curiosity of course. His hand met Ash's cheek and he thumbed away the forgotten bit of frosting left on Ash's lips.
He then took his hand to his own mouth and licked his thumb clean. His lipstick left pretty red marks on the finger.
Ash just watched with his own eyes reflecting the look in Ewron's.
"You can find the antidote can't you, my assassin?"
"Oh you bet."
"Fuck…"
Ash grit his teeth as he pulled the bandages tighter around his arm. The gash was thankfully not too deep, and didn't need stitches. Sweat was beginning to gather drop by drop on his forehead and he wiped it off with the back of his hand. He needed to get a hold of himself.
He couldn't let anyone see him like this- this weak and blundering. He couldn't let The North see just how injured he'd gotten. Ash couldn't let anyone see the effects of the poison coursing through his veins.
Aldo was good. Ash was better, no doubt, but the fatigue was getting to him. He had to either adapt, or find the antidote already. If he couldn't do either he ought to die to the poison.
The lab hadn't been able to find anything about it. It didn't match any of the known poisons more likely to be used in assassinations, and the efforts of engineering an antidote from scratch was going slow. He felt the fatigue accumulate on his shoulders every passing day.
He couldn't taste much of anything anymore. His taste buds were pretty much numb constantly nowadays.
"Get it together. You are the supreme leader of The Regime. Get up." Ash scolded himself as he stood up, and immediately grabbed at the couch cushions as his vision swam and black spots covered his sight. He stumbled- and hated himself for it.
The lavenders covering the ground around him trembled in the wind as if trying to bring Ash comfort with their smell.
He couldn't smell much either.