Work Text:
"So, how about you get this over with? Do it." Pootoot stared at him, Slushly's mind hadn't caught up with what was happening yet. "Do it!"
"I—" He hadn't even processed what Pootoot had told him.
"Come on, Slushly. I put you through all this, I made you kill your friends or whatever you still believe. I'm standing in front of you, armorless. So, kill me. Like the murderer you are."
"… Pootoot."
"That's me." He couldn't understand why he was hesitating. "You want nothing more than to kill me, so why are you still hesitating?!" Pootoot walked up to him, standing uncomfortably close. "Do you think that sparing me will make you see yourself as a hero again?? If anything, keeping me alive will just cause more pain upon everyone. Especially you." He raised his voice, it made Slushly snap back to reality.
"I don't—"
"Why are you hesitating?" Pootoot's voice was quiet, but demanding answers.
"… I don't know. I don't— it's not to be heroic, I just—"
"You what? You're too weak to do it? You killed all of those innocent players in cold blood yet you can't kill me?" He wanted to kill Pootoot, he could kill Pootoot. He had thrown his armor away, he wasn't even trying to run. He was standing right in front of Slushly, demanding for him to kill him.
"I can kill you."
"Yeah? Then do it." His face was incredibly close to Slushly's, yet Slushly didn't find that he minded.
"No."
"What do you mean no?" The man seemed to be growing frustrated with him, it almost amused Slushly.
"I don't want to kill you." He wasn't sure if that sentence was truthful, but he knew he wasn't going to kill Pootoot.
"So, after going through all of that to you're not going to kill me?" He sounded bewildered, as if he hadn't thought this would happen.
"No."
"Are you serious?" The disbelief and shock in his voice was almost funny, Slushly had finally done something Pootoot hadn't already foreseen. It felt like freedom.
"I am." He sounded completely calm as he said it, sounding more like himself than he had had in the last few weeks.
"Why??"
"Why not? You didn't think I would spare you, didn't you?"
"Oh, so you think that just because I was wrong about what you would choose you've suddenly won? Slushly—" He laughed, but it wasn't a very happy laugh. "You'll never win. It doesn't matter if you kill me or let me go, I'll always be lurking in the deepest corners of your mind."
"Yea. So it doesn't matter if I kill you or not. You'll be there either way."
"Do you not care for your dead friends? Do you not care that you'll be disappointing them by sparing me?!"
"Aspen always told me to do what I think is right. I don't think Train would really care what I do, and Faemoose doesn't even know who you are. So really, this is up to me."
"If you think you're doing something by sparing me, then you're wrong. Because you—"
"I do think I'm doing something by sparing you. Look at you, you aren't in control anymore." He found himself laughing. "It's funny how frustrated you get when I do something unexpected. I wonder how you would have reacted if I didn't flick that lever."
"Hm… guess I played with you a bit too hard, you aren't yourself anymore."
"Really? Because I feel more like myself than I've ever had since I was in your Game Show."
"That's cute. But this is definitely not the 'you' you used to be."
"Yea? Surprised for once?"
"A bit. But the change isn't exactly unwanted, this—" Pootoot grabbed his face, Slushly making no move to stop him."—is more interesting."
"So you like it when I'm interesting?"
"I mean, when you're predictable it's more satisfying but I don't think I mind this." Slushly was about to do something he would probably regret right after, but he couldn't find it in him to care. After everything that happened to him, nothing seemed like it mattered.
He leaned in closer to Pootoot, pressing their lips together. Pootoot didn't react at the start, looking confused. Then he pulled Slushly closer from the waist, kissing back.
Pootoot's lips weren't exactly the softest, but they weren't dry either. They were Pootoot's, which made this feel so wrong. But that was what made it exciting, that was why Slushly wanted to kiss him. He was tired of always doing the right thing, tired of being a hero.
Instead of that, he could just indulge in what made him feel alive. He had been suffering for so long, trying to be the hero he felt he was destined to be. But destinies didn't exist, he had free will. He wanted to use it for once.
He pulled away from the kiss, there was no regret settling in. He didn't hate that he had kissed his worst enemy, he didn't hate that everyone he had ever cared about would think this was wrong. He thought it was wrong too, but he wasn't a hero anymore. He didn't have to keep himself from doing things he shouldn't be.
"You're insane, Slushly." But if it meant that he wouldn't be feeling the guilt being a hero brought with it, then he didn't care.
"You made me like this, you have to deal with it."
Pootoot smiled, looking like he was planning something. "Well, I'll see you later then." Before he could even speak, he heard Pootoot teleport. A stasis. He had had one the entire time, yet he hadn't pulled it when Slushly had won the fight.
Was this the story he wanted to tell? A hero being broken by the villain then finally being able to defeat him, only to be haunted forever. But the story hadn't went as planned, because Slushly had diverted from the path he was supposed to take.
He wasn't even close to being a hero anymore, maybe that was for the best.