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“Alright, your time is up. Out.”
“What-?” Wemmbu asked, before he was shoved toward the door. “But I-“
“You had your five minutes.” Yungy said simply. “And now it’s time to leave.”
The door opened. Wemmbu shot a look back over at Egg. His best friend, sitting alone at a table surrounded by guards, and the purple demon was helpless to stop it.
He’d been putting up a facade the entire time, the guards, and least of all Yungy, needed to see all the yucky emotions he was feeling about this, but now that he was forced to leave, something in him broke.
The expression he shot Egg was full of desperation and fear, and he was sure it was written all over his face and everyone else could see it.
Egg gave him a small nod, and he knew it was supposed to mean “I’ll be fine, I’ll wait as long as I have to,” but it wasn’t enough.
He was just going to sit there, every move watched, in a tiny room. He was probably being forced to write too.
The door slammed shut and Wemmbu’s head snapped away. His feet struggled to obey, but he followed Yungy back down, swallowing past the lump in his throat and the burning in his eyes.
***
After the meeting with Arachnid, Wemmbu was surprised to find that he got a little break.
He went down to where Jaden was waiting for him, bullied the guards into letting him up, and then stalked back to his new house with the pirate in silence.
“Dude what happened?” Jaden asked once they were inside.
“They took me to see-“ his traitorous voice cracked on the last word- “Egg.”
“Oh.”
Wemmbu found a spot by the wall and curled up. After a moment of hesitation, Jaden sat down next to him.
They sat in silence for a little while, but it didn’t last long before Jaden spoke up.
“You’ll get him back.” He said. “You always do.”
“But what if I don’t?” Wemmbu burst out, curling tighter around himself. “It feels like they were mocking me, to let me go and see him. And what do they want from him? It doesn’t really feel like it’s just about me anymore.”
“I… don’t know.” Jaden sighed. “I wish I did. But I’m on your side. Whatever you need, I’m here, even if I’m not great at it.”
It was almost like Egg, who was always beside him, no matter if it meant being in the middle of wars, chased down and in hiding, and…
Well. Right now.
Wemmbu leaned a little bit closer to his friend, and Jaden slung an arm around him. He got the impression the man had wanted to do that for a while now.
Wemmbu turned his head and buried it in the pirate’s shoulder. He still smelled like the ocean, but it was muted by the stink of dust and stone.
Tears slid down his face. “It’s ok.” Jaden murmured. “You aren’t doing this alone.”
“Yeah.” Wemmbu agreed, even if he didn’t believe it in the slightest. He’d been alone since Egg had been taken.
Jaden kept his arm around him, and Wemmbu tried to keep himself from falling apart.