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Egg was, very rudely, woken from his sleep by Wemmbu screaming.
“Yo,” Egg grumbled, sliding Wemmbu’s door open, letting the hallway light spill into the darkness, still rubbing the bleariness from his eyes. “The hell are you yelling about?”
A very loud “GET OUT” was what Egg was met with, despite him just being polite and checking up on his homie.
Egg rolled his eyes, but despite the growing urge to just turn on his heel and get out of there, he stayed planted in the doorway.
Because while he’d make up some excuse for this later, Wemmbu didn’t scream like that unless something was actually wrong, and there was a part of Egg telling him this wasn’t some video game jumpscare-induced fear.
“Dude, you can’t just scream in the middle of the night and not tell me what happened.” Egg stepped farther into the room and shut the door, plunging them both into almost complete darkness.
“Wait!” Wemmbu said quickly when he saw Egg reaching for the lightswitch. “Don’t turn that on.”
“Ooooki dokie…” Egg blindly stumbled about until he got a bit closer to Wemmbu’s bed. He didn’t want to get too close, in case Wemmbu tried to chase him away like some hostile alley cat and he needed to make a quick escape.
Egg couldn’t see much, but the flinch from Wemmbu he could see made him more worried than he’d ever admit.
“Um, bro… are you, like, actually okay? ‘Cuz you’re getting me kinda concerned right now.” Egg fiddled with his hands awkwardly. This was absolutely not his forte.
He heard Wemmbu’s soft sigh, and based on his silhouette, the demon was sat upright with his knees up almost to his chest under the blanket. It was a strangely vulnerable scene, not something Egg was used to when it came to Wemmbu.
“It’s fine,” Wemmbu mumbled, voice rough with sleep. He turned his face towards the wall instead of Egg. “Go back to bed.”
“I want to,” Egg grumbled, but he hesitated when Wemmbu didn’t react. Normally he’d be laughed at or teased or… something. He didn’t like whatever this was.
Carefully he stepped forward, giving Wemmbu time to react, before gently lowering onto the edge of Wemmbu’s bed. For a second, Wemmbu tensed, and he fully expected to be kicked out… but Wemmbu remained totally silent. Not a yes, but not denial, either.
“Bro, if you’re genuinely upset, you know you can just tell me, right? I’m not judging you or something.” Egg hesitantly put his hand on Wemmbu’s shoulder. “It’s fine, dude. It’s—it’s fine to be upset.”
Wemmbu finally turned to face him. Even through the darkness, Egg could just barely make out glimmering tear tracks against the demon’s skin. He’d either previously been or still was crying.
“Egg…” Wemmbu whispered. “What color were Rejoice’s eyes?”
Egg froze.
Because that wasn’t what he was expecting.
He knew Wemmbu missed Rejoice probably every single day. They didn’t talk about that stuff. They didn’t talk about him.
How could they? How could they open about a wound so brutal it had left Wemmbu completely shattered for weeks? One that had permanently changed how the demon navigated the world?
“…Blue and red,” Egg murmured. Wemmbu visibly relaxed with the answer. “Bro… why are you talking about Rejoice?”
“I—” Wemmbu cut himself off and made an unfamiliar expression, one that Egg himself hated seeing on his friend’s face. “Just wondering.”
Egg frowned. “Don’t give me that. What happened, bro?”
A few tears slipped down Wemmbu’s cheeks before he could stop them. “I had a really bad dream.”
“Oh really.” Egg didn’t say it as a question. He shifted closer so he could sit beside Wemmbu, leaning against the headboard. “…about Rejoice?”
Wemmbu instinctively leaned towards Egg but stopped himself before they could touch. “…yeah.”
“What happened in the dream?” Egg could make a pretty educated guess, but Wemmbu was talking, and he was gonna milk that until he couldn’t anymore.
“It was with the wardens again. Rejoice was already dying. The same as always. It wasn’t even bad at first.”
Egg’s chest tightened at the way Wemmbu’s voice broke on the last few words. He was describing something that sounded like it would've terrified Egg himself, and so casually, like a typical Monday.
It probably was a typical Monday for Wemmbu, he realized.
When he didn’t continue, Egg very slowly closed the gap between them, his left shoulder and arm pressed against Wemmbu’s right.
“That all?” he asked softly.
“No…”
“You don’t have to talk.” Egg paused. “I get it. I get that it’s hard sometimes.”
Wemmbu looked up at him, the demon’s purple eyes wide and shining with unspilled tears. He gave Egg approximately two seconds to react before he was crashing into him, arms flying around the angel’s shoulders with a small noise that sounded suspiciously like a sob.
“Oh,” Egg said immediately. He stayed stock-still for a moment before melting into it, wrapping his arms around Wemmbu and hanging onto him like he’d disappear if he let go. “Okay.”
“It’s not fair,” Wemmbu rasped against Egg’s shoulder. “Why did—why did he have to die? After everything?”
“Life’s not fair,” Egg mumbled, comfortingly. “It’s not fair that he died. But you—listen to me,” he added when Wemmbu sobbed again. “Listen. He’s dead, Wemmbu. There’s nothing you can do now. You can’t change that.”
Wemmbu looked at him, expression twisting with hurt. “I know that.”
“Nothing is ever gonna be fair.” Egg went on. “But you can’t fall apart every time something happens. You’re strong, bro. Rejoice might not be here anymore—” Egg poked Wemmbu’s chest where he assumed his heart was. “But he’s always gonna be there. He’s always gonna be with you.”
Wemmbu looked at him for a long time. His face was a mix of surprise and a slow, spreading resolution—not the kind made from decisiveness, but the kind made from something of slow acceptance of grief.
“Dude—” Wemmbu’s voice caught in his throat. “That’s so corny, bro…”
Egg laughed quietly. “Sure, bro. Whatever. Come here.”
Wemmbu gladly fell into Egg’s offered arms, forehead coming down to rest where Egg’s neck met his collar. The demon was warm, a stark contrast to Egg’s cold skin. Neither of them spoke—just stayed there with each other, in the darkness of Wemmbu’s room, peaceful in a way they hadn’t been for a long time.
Egg could’ve counted the times he’d seen Wemmbu like this on one hand—unguarded, and purely him. Not with his boisterous facade, not full of attitude and sarcasm, not with his mask of nonchalance.
Egg knew Wemmbu had a lot of feelings. He knew Wemmbu managed a lot on his own. Knew that there were things he’d gone through pushing him to be this way. But he hadn’t really stopped and thought about… everything. Everything Wemmbu had been pushing through, dealing with all on his own, because he thought that was what made him strong. Keeping it all to himself until he broke apart.
Comforting people was never Egg’s strong suit. When it came to emotions, Egg preferred to keep everything surface-level, and deflect from anything too deep with jokes and sarcasm. He made people laugh—that was all he really needed sometimes.
But sitting here with Wemmbu in his arms, giving up on looking strong for the first time in months, he realized that he’d put in all the effort he possibly could if it meant taking just a fraction of the weight off Wemmbu’s shoulders.
After a while, they’d shifted so Egg could lay back against Wemmbu’s pillows with Wemmbu’s head against and almost atop his chest. Wemmbu had stopped crying—or just went silent—somewhere around the twenty minute mark.
Egg was getting drowsy, finding it harder to keep his eyes open no matter how many times he tried to blink himself awake. Based on the split-second glance he’d stolen at the clock, it was some time around two in the morning. Wemmbu seemed tired too, breathing slow and evenly, but still stubbornly watching Egg through those half-lidded, sleepy eyes.
“Quit staring at me,” Egg grumbled.
“...‘M not staring.”
“Okay, bro.” Egg smiled despite himself, but it faded when Wemmbu didn’t return it. In fact, something somber shifted his previously calm expression. “You good?”
Wemmbu nestled a little closer and looked away like a child building courage. “Egg…”
Egg propped himself up on one arm, suddenly much more alert than he’d been two minutes ago, ignoring the soft noise of protest from Wemmbu at his pillow moving so abruptly.
“What’s up?” Egg pressed.
Wemmbu looked at him, laying flat with Egg above him, and his breath audibly hitched.
“I don’t remember Rejoice’s face.”
“What?”
“In the dream,” Wemmbu sniffed. “His eyes were—they were just empty. They weren’t brown or blue or red. Nothing.”
“Wemmbu…” Egg whispered. He reached over to pull Wemmbu into another hug, this time tighter, more instinct than reason. Wemmbu returned it easily, like this had become second nature already. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, bro.”
“I’m forgetting him,” Wemmbu sobbed into his shoulder, tail curling around Egg’s wrist to keep him there. “I can barely remember what he looked like. I’m a horrible person.”
“Good.” Egg was surprised he said it himself. “That’s good. Bro, you know what that means?”
“…What?” Wemmbu asked shakily, voice bordering on defensive.
“That means you’re gonna be okay.” Egg pulled back to get a better look at Wemmbu’s tear-stained, desperate expression. “You’re not bad at all. That means you’re not thinking about him as much, that’s all. You’re getting better, dude.”
“But I don’t want to forget him. How could I—I can’t do that to him. Not after everything. I can’t throw it away.”
“You’re not throwing away anything. You’re not forgetting about your experiences, are you? Everything you did with Rejoice? No. Nothing changes if you forget his face.”
Wemmbu’s face fell, but Egg wasn’t done.
“You can’t cling onto him anymore. You can’t cling onto something that’s already gone.”
Throughout this entire odd pep-talk, Egg had taken both of Wemmbu’s hands firmly in his own. Wemmbu flinched at the contact, then relaxed and stared down at where Egg’s thumbs ran gently over his knuckles.
“You have to let him go,” Egg murmured.
“I can’t.” Wemmbu was sobbing again. “I-I can’t.”
“Yes you can. You’ve already gotten so far. You can’t give up now. Is this what Rejoice would’ve wanted?”
Wemmbu went rigid, looking away and somewhere distant, away from Egg and this room and the grief Egg knew was crushing him from the inside out.
“...No,” Wemmbu breathed, the sound almost lost to the silence. “It’s not.”
“Then why do you insist on sitting with your sadness?”
Wemmbu laughed, actually laughed. It was soft and short and broken, but it was there. And for the first time tonight, Egg felt something in him lighten.
“Shit.” Wemmbu scrubbed his face and the tears that hadn’t yet fallen. “When did you get so wise, bro?”
Egg shrugged one shoulder. “I dunno, bro. Maybe you should ask the guy that got me onto this server in the first place.”
Wemmbu exhaled another little laugh, then went quiet again. “...It’s hard.”
Egg nodded slowly. “I know.”
“It’s really, really hard some days.”
“I know.”
“Sometimes I don’t want to get out of bed. Sometimes I—” he sucked in a breath. “Sometimes I think it should’ve been me instead of Rejoice. It would’ve been better that way.”
Egg shook his head. “It wouldn’t be different at all, dude. Rejoice would be in your position. He’d be worse. I’d be, too.”
“I just want him back. I’d do anything.”
“But he’s still here.” Egg poked Wemmbu’s heart again. “Right here. You can let go and you can forget all about him. But he’s still gonna be right here, and he’s gonna be watching over you. He’ll make sure you stay safe. I will, too. As long as you try. Can you try?”
“...Yeah,” Wemmbu whispered. “I can.”
Egg smiled. “Good. Come on, dude, it’s late as hell. You wanna sleep?”
“Yeah.”
Egg settled down right beside Wemmbu again, gazing up at the ceiling with sleep-blurred eyes. They stayed quiet for a couple of minutes, just sitting in each other’s presence, the worst parts of the storm having finally passed.
When Wemmbu spoke again, Egg barely opened his eyes, let alone turned to face him.
“And… Egg?”
“‘Sup?”
“Rejoice would be proud of you.”
Egg smiled to himself.
“He’s proud of you, too.”
“I had the weirdest dream. You were in it.” Wemmbu pointed to Egg across the kitchen counter.
“Huh?” Egg said, intelligently. “Whatever, bro. You’re tweaking.”
Wemmbu rolled his eyes. “Sure.”
But after what seemed like months of heaviness, he felt just a bit lighter.