Chapter Text
It had been a few days. Regect was beyond worried, and Moe had frequent panic attacks from the stress. Ze had been gone for 4 days at this point, or was it 5? Regect's head was a jumbled mess of thoughts all over the place. Despite this, he knew he had to be there for Moe, they couldn’t do this alone.
Regret tore at his chest, he wish he at least had the chance to say goodbye, instead of petty insults and argument. The entity shook his head as if trying to dismiss the thoughts circling his head. Ze wasnt dead. He couldn’t be. They'd find him, they just had to keep looking.
Still, like an invasive vine, the spiral he was barely keeping at bay slowly crawled back after every ineffective distraction. Digging its thorns into him, imbedding itself deep into his thoughts. The part of him that whispered that he had failed again. It couldn't happen again, he couldn't lose another.
Regect racked his memories again, for the millionth time. Maybe he'd missed a detail, maybe he forgot some conversation where Ze said he'd be gone for a few days, an explanation buried beneath the reality of the situation already setting in like a cold blanket in his mind. The same loop of thoughts that had been circulating in his head since he had first noticed Ze had been gone.
Moe honked hesitantly, snapping him out of the never ending loop. The noise made him blink his one floating eye a bit, looking around as if to remember where he was, what he was doing. They had gone on another trip to look for Ze, going farther each time. The sun was just setting over the trees as darkness engulfed the distant forest they were wandering somewhere deep in.
The hand at his side clenched dangerously. The pool of despair in his head warped into rage, like gasoline set on fire. He already lost Micha, why did he have to lose him too? He didn't deserve this did he? Why did everyone he grow close to, the only people he has, always leave. die. disappear. Maybe it'd be better to leave Moe before some terrible thing happened to her too, before she suffers because of him too.
Maybe he was cursed. Maybe this was karma for the mistake he made of being created. Maybe the eyes did this- THE EYES. he stopped in his steps, eye widening as if realizing a long lost thought. Moe gave another tentative questioning honk, looking at him with confusion.
The eyes. This is all a sick joke to them. This is all their fault. How had he forgotten? It can't have been a coincidence, they're never quiet. They never leave him alone. Yet when he's around Ze, it's as if he's protected from them. Oh Ze, the playful banter, his teasing and personality, Regect reminisced as if recalling a long lost friend, swooning so hard he nearly forgot about the cause to his anger. What made him lose his everything for the second time. The horrible being that stripped him of everyone he cared about, then as soon as he started to build himself back up it was ripped away from him again.
It had to be those stupid eyes, there was no explanation, and he refused to even begin to accept Ze being dead as an option. Moe reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing lightly. The clown looked deep into his eye, and Regect realized he had been speed walking in circles for nearly an hour. The moon had begun to rise, and the forest suddenly looked daunting as he took note of the long shadows stretching away from the trees.
Moe looked worried, but for the first time since Ze went missing, it was about Regect.
She pulled him into a hug, her arms a tight cage around his torso as if she never wanted to let go. He heard the smallest sniffle come from her, a weak honk pathetically leaving her as if on the verge of crying. That broke him out of his daze, and he wrapped both of his arms around Moe in return, voice shaking as he buried his face into her hair
“I'm so sorry Moe. With Ze gone I don't even know what to do with myself anymore. If we don't find him i don't even know what I'm going to do. I Need him, and I need you too. A part of me keeps saying, saying that he's dead or or that he's gone and not going to come back and I'm going to be all alone again and i i don't know i-” The words got lost in his throat, and he just sobbed. She simply squeezed tighter, letting Regect ramble on and get out all of his emotions, tears dampening her hair.
After his shaking died down and the tears slowed, the entity slowly slumped out of the hug, releasing his tight grip on her. Regect sniffled a bit, looking into Moe's eyes for a long moment. His mouth opened, as if to say something, but the words seemed to catch in his throat. Moe gently squeezed her horn, letting out a reassuring honk. He looked away before continuing "...thank you, Moe. It...really means a lot. I don't know what i would do without you or Ze or this stupid world. Before you two came along it felt as if i was trapped here, and now there's no place I'd rather be than with my stupid friends. What I'm trying to say is...now that Ze's been gone so long, that trapped horrible feeling came back but it's worse. i cant lose any of you."
Moe heard a small chuckle, looking up in confusion as Regect wiped away some of his tears "How corny was that? Me, the big bad scary entity sobbing over his friend being gone for a bit." he continued in a more sour tone "How pathetic. He would've loved to see me sobbing like the failure i am." The clown's face turned to that of one of shock, assuming "He" was referring to Ze. Their best friend would never! Moe shook her head in denial, cupping his invisible face in her hands, rubbing a thumb on his cheek comfortingly.
Regect pulled away, despite his head screaming at him to lean into the sole comfort he had. Looking away, he tried to focus his gaze on what little he could make out of the forest in the dim night. The moon wasn't doing him many favors aside from illuminating the clown, the single person who he didn't want to meet eyes with right now. Despite this, Moe didn't look away from Regect at all, determined to not stop her attempt at helping him feel better. She was deep in thought on what she could do, before a twig snapping behind her pulled her attention from the spiraling entity finally.
She whipped around, frightened, and now painfully aware of just where she was. A dark forest in the middle of the night miles away from home. If Regect had heard it, he hadn't reacted at all so she simply assumed he was too busy swimming in his suffocating thoughts to be too aware of his surroundings. The thoughts she was supposed to be helping him out of. Her head swam with fast-paced thoughts, bouncing all over the place at all the possibilities. Her eyes strained to see who was looming above her, until a soft breeze pushed a tree branch casting the silhouette in shadow out of the way.
It...couldn't be. They were in the middle of no where- how did he even find them?? Moe looked up at Ze, already feeling tears well up in her eyes, she jumped to her feet and pulled him in a tight tight hug, her clown horn squealing loudly as it was pancaked between them. Regect jolted at the abrupt sound slicing through the air, golden eye immediately snapping to look at Moe, and with that almost instantly noticing the moon illuminating who she was embracing.
"...Ze? is that you man?" He slowly stood up, staggering. The forest floor crunched under his footsteps softly as he tried desperately to hold back another round of tears. He barely noticed his ankle chain catching on a twig, or how he fell into Moe's arms. All that mattered was seeing Ze's face again.
Ze turned to Regect, then pulled him into the group hug, not minding as tears drenched his hoodie. The entities clung to him shaking, and he simply wrapped his arms around them lovingly. Obviously this was a bit unlike him, but they brushed it off as him being thankful after the huge scare. Regect forgot all his worries and thoughts about the eyes, now that Ze was back everything was okay again. He wouldn't lose Ze, or anyone else, ever again. He'd make sure of it.
no one noticed the way Ze's hoodie didn't catch the light quite right in the moonlight.