Chapter Text
It has been 3 days since Avery fell off that platform.
Derek knew, deep down, it was for the best. Whatever the King had planned for Avery- Derek wasn’t gonna let it happen.
He stared the eldritch being down while reciting the spell. He watched its immense, all powerful form crumble and corrode under the weight of a few simple words. The being, once so omniscient, reduced to a pathetic, begging, desperate individual. Whatever happened to it after it vanished, where it went, Derek may never know.
The moment the spell was complete, Derek blacked out- kinda. He was unconscious, sure, by definition. But in practice he was more watching his body from afar, his soul separated from his physical form. He watched it breathe, golden armour uselessly sprawled in the grass, helmet rolling away. When he got to a grassy plain, he could not tell. Infinite knowledge be damned, he was at a loss.
He thanked whatever being was out there (or- maybe he shouldn’t be thanking higher beings after what the King did to him…) that he couldn’t feel anything in this state. His head was no longer burning. His mind was no longer pressing on his skull with knowledge too vast to be contained in the few square inches of space between his ears.
Knowledge no human should ever know.
Avery.
Why did he forgive him?
Derek gave him the mercy of, what he hoped was, a quick death. A kindness in the face of eternal damnation. He told himself, reminded himself over and over that he did the right thing, that he saved an innocent life from the cold, unforgiving clutches of Hastur.
That’s funny, he was pretty sure he didn’t know the King’s name up until this point.
Hastur.
Certainly much quicker to say than “The King in Yellow”, and it just felt right. Hastur it is, then. Funny how he just knows things, now.
He knows everything, but he doesn’t know why-
“Wake UP, sleepy,” Called Avery, who had been tending to Derek’s motionless body since the incident.
“Wake up already,” he laughed, fully aware Derek wasn’t gonna wake up anytime soon. Avery checked his pulse regularly, gave him water, and generally just stayed beside him, through all of this, while he waited for Derek to wake up.
Derek knew he didn’t deserve it.
There was no way he could deserve this.
But he couldn’t help but smile, feeling his worries start to melt away, when he saw the genuine care on his face.
Why was Avery so quick to forgive him?
Through this strange mindscape, floating separate from reality, Derek moved closer to the slime. He had his hair pulled back in a ponytail, his translucent greenish skin glowing in the early morning light. It reflected shades from pale yellow to a dark, oceanic blue across his arms as he pulled a makeshift blanket over Derek’s body.
“You gotta wake up,” Avery muttered. “Please, because, like, I kinda don’t know where to go from here, like, on my own.”
“Cuz like- I kinda don’t have anyone to go back to, and I’m not leaving you here, but talking to your catatonic body isn’t really all that fun.”
Avery sighed, laying on his stomach beside Derek and resting his chin in his hands. He kicked his feet idly in the air as he shredded blades of grass between his fingers.
In the mindscape, Derek reached a hand to Avery. He pulled back before he could make contact. He wasn’t quite sure what would happen, and with the curse-
“You know,” Avery started.
“I think- I think you were too hard on yourself back there, you didn’t willingly offer yourself up to the evil mustard guy.”
Avery laughed slightly, pulling a worm up from the dirt, then flicking it away absently.
“But I wish you’d let me help you when you obviously needed it.”
Derek paused.
“You were so quick to… throw me aside, thinking you were doing me a favor. You’re lucky I woke up here and not dead in the King’s goofy lookin’ void.”
He’s so persistent. So stubborn. That’s both a good and bad trait in Avery, his determination and unwillingness to back down. He clawed through a netherite brick with his bare hands, then proceeded to laugh off his beat up knuckles when asked about it. He wouldn’t just leave, turn back through the gate, when he found himself on the platform with Derek. He knew the trouble he was in, and yet…
And maybe that’s why he was so quick to forgive.
He’s persistent. He’s always seen the good in Derek and continues to do so. He knows that. he looks at Avery and more knowledge than he wishes he ever had about him floods his mind. He knows Avery trusts him with his entire being. He knows Avery sees the good in him. And he knows Avery is incredibly pissed that he was hit off of that platform. He’s waiting for Derek to wake up to slap him for it.
That's an incredibly Avery thing to do, Derek laughed to himself.
Of course he’d do that.
Now Derek had to wait till he woke up.