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They had lost.
The army had fallen.
Parrot has failed.
Looking up to the crumbling buildings as he rowed them away, he felt his heart fall with them – with the people who fought with him, with the destroyed homes and decimated lands.
He bolted it onto the shore before they had even fully pulled to the beach, dragging his heavy legs through the water before inevitably collapsing onto the sand. His crown fell with him as the world around faded to darkness.
He felt the sand between his fingers as his breathing got shallower and quicker, tears- hot and rapid- following suite.
The screams of his army were a horrible symphony in his skull, bouncing and echoing to infinity as his arms wrapped around him – like that would help put him together. Like by sheer strength of will he’ll be able to pick himself back up piece by piece and stand up, ready again to face Cindercrest. Like he always does.
Except this isn't fantasy.
This isn't something that gets solved with the power of friendship and rainbows. This is reality, the reality that he made come to fruition. He has caused this. He was the King. And he led his subjects to death with the promise of the greater good.
Parrots wings wrapped around him in a pathetic shield, eyes stinging as he tried to hold back the scream that had been building in his throat for weeks, his sharpened nails digging through his clothes and scratching skin.
…Maybe Wifies was right.
Maybe he should have stayed. It would have kept everyone safe. In some cruel, twisted way, Wifies was right in the end.
Parrot was a poison that disguised itself as something sweet, something to be trusted, something you’ll drink whole and choke to death the next day.
There was no cure for him - for the blood that stained his hands, that trailed behind him in an endless shadow.
Everyone around him will be condemned to hell no matter how hard he tries.
The weight of the crown haunted his head as he curled further into himself. If he could just press himself closer together, maybe he’ll crumble out of existence, maybe he can finally free everyone and see–
A hand hovered over Parrot's shoulder, enough of a presence to snap his head up to see who he has to scream at to leave him to be, to leave him alone to let him disappear forever–
“Parrot, breathe dude, please.”
Theo?
It was Theo. He’d recognize that voice anywhere.
Parrot blinked through the haze to see his friend's face. He had blood stained his face, bruises forming on his cheek. His usual cocky attitude was replaced with panic, golden eyes wide as he suddenly yanked Parrot's hands off his arms and into his gruff ones.
His scarred fingers from years of using explosives and a bow rubbed gently over his own, soothing in the way of sandpaper against your skin.
“We’re okay.” Lies.
“We will be okay.” More lies.
“You just need to breathe. It's– I- I dunno what to do man. We can't go anywhere with you in this state so I–”
“Then leave me.” The words fell easily from his lips, a short hollow laugh following it. “Leave me. Leave me alone, here, and– and go have fun. Go do something, anything–”
“Dude. No, no! I am not leaving you here!” Parrots once loosened hands turned to fists in Theo's hands, if the cockatiel noticed he didn't comment. “You’re my best friend. And- and regardless what happened there we have to–”
“Keep what?” The multi-coloured parrot stood suddenly, barely, shaking as he picked up the crown. All he could do was stare at the burden in his hands, a thumb rubbing over the emerald in the middle. “Keep pretending like I didn't screw up everything?”
“That's not–” Theo spluttered, wings curling in on himself. The knife buried inside his heart twisted deeper. To see his best friend, the one who fought with the knowledge that Death had become a permanent resident in his shadow, looking almost as defeated as he felt–
It destroyed what remaining hope Parrot seemed to have. A hope that maybe, just maybe, Theo would be okay. Renia would be okay. That they would all be okay.
“We couldn't have known!” How confident Theo sounded, it made Parrot scoff.
“We could have.” He said matter of factly, as if he could predict when crops would grow. “If we had a better– if I had a better plan maybe we would have won–”
“That's bullshit!” Theo snapped, making his feathers bristle. “Parrot you’re not some all knowing bird! You and I did what we thought was best and it– it didn't work! But its- we can–”
The crown hit the ocean before Theo finished his meaningless ramble.
“Parrot! What the?!--”
“I’m done bro.” Turning to face his best friend, his eyes growing red from the tears that kept falling, his shoulders slumped. “I never deserved to be King. I never did. And now–...” He trailed off, mind screaming at him. Memories adding newer and deeper scars to his already war-torn body. “You need to leave. Both you and Renia.”
“Parrot…” Slowly his gaze shiftened back to Theo who looked utterly lost. Parrot wanted to scream. “I-- I amn’t leaving you. That's out of the question. Your my best friend–”
Images of a different time flashed in front of him, pale sand turning white, cold wind attacked him like it was telling him to run.
“And no matter what, we're in this together. Together till the end, right?”
The armour clinked as Theo (The Director?) walked towards him, invisibility slowly disappearing as the milk was drunk, as the world came to a sudden halt.
“Besides, come too far now haven't I? I’m your body guard! All yours to use to fight and–”
The face of another man morphed with Theo’s, (into Wifies?) his blonde hair bleeding to a brown as the explosion's scars grew across the cockatiel’s face, voices overlapping as purple eyes stared right back at him.
The cycle was repeating.
Nails dug into his palm, wings curling around him, trying to protect him from the cold wings of the Tundra.
“So we’ll make a plan! A better plan! Better than anything you've ever come up with–”
“No.”
A pause. Wifies– Theo… He stumbles over his words. “Whatcha mean ‘no?!’”
“I mean no-... no.”
He spoke as if that explained his words. Like that would offer insight into his tormented soul. As if he could possibly understand how much of a victim to his own mind he is. He was tearing himself from the inside out, hoping to find the source of the rot within, to find out why he was born like this. What caused this?
Was it a curse? Destiny? A cycle? Trauma response? The further he dug into his flesh, past the muscle and to the bones, the more he realised everything bled the same – no bad roots lead to something that could be the source of this damage.
He was born like this. He was destined to be alone by his own selfishness. By the world being cruel enough to show him what could be, but ripping him the chance to live it.
“That's– Parrot, come on now! We have to fight back! That's not how we work! We– you– you always get up! And fight, and--”
Obsidian walls flashed around him making Parrot flinch, hand reaching up to the one plat dedicated to the person in front of him. The black, white and purple beads looped into his hair. He twirled it around between his fingers, feeling the grooves of the beads, the sand under his talons feeling uneven.
He had to focus– someone was speaking to him. Who? Who was it? Every time Parrot blinked it was morphed into someone unrecognisable, yet distantly he knew that it was Theo– or was it him?
Blinking again it was the terrifying blend of faces and voices, of Tundra and beach, of obsidian floor and sand slipping under his feet.
“Leave me alone.” He mumbled, eyes wide like a deer in headlights, “Leave me alone.” He said it louder that time, the voices still bashing into every corner of his skull. “Leave me alone. Leave me alone. Leave me alone, leave me alone!-”
“Parrot!”
The wannabe king felt something on his shoulder, instinctively he swung, knuckles meeting skin. Breathing ragged, he didn't open his eyes (when were they closed?), hoping that his fist met the target. Hoping that it would be enough to ward off whoever was near him. Hoping that for once he could be alone and help the people around him.
Warm, sturdy arms wrapped around his body.
Eyes shooting open he was met with Theo's bloody shirt, his golden and grey wings wrapping around him, as if he is something that deserved protection. As if he is deserving of something– anyone– to be so kind and warm towards him.
“I got you.” As all he heard repeating softly. Parrot let himself crumble into his best friend's chest. Into Theo’s chest. The one who was here, right now, the one who almost took a mace to the head to save him from being–
Hands reached up and hugged Theo back, chest heaving as he racked out a sob, a pained yell echoing through the beach – the waves doing little to muffle the distressing sound.
Parrot doesn't remember collapsing onto the sand into Theo’s lap, or Reina finally joining them as she quietly sat beside them, offering silent reassurance in holding the cockatiel’s shoulder.
The sun set over the horizon, setting ablaze the sky, the comforting warmth leaving them as exhaustion overtook the trio the further it went down.
But neither bodyguard wanted to move Parrot whose eyes were fixed on the horizon now, mind blank as the echoes of war haunted his mind.
None of them spoke of the drying blood on their clothes, or their own throbbing injuries that needed tending taking care of.
Instead they sat in silence, not a comfortable one, but not uneasy, an in-between.
When they had finally convinced Parrot to sleep in a tree while they took turns on look out, Theo went back and fished out the crown, Reina drying it with her scarf.
~ ~ ~
“It's all yours.” The spyglass hit the pressure plate, a small crack echoing in the large hall.
“I’m all yours! Yours to use for protection, for fighting, I am all yours Parrot!” A sword hit the ground as the sounds of war boomed around them.
Nothing was ever his, was it though?
Not his spyglass, not Wifies, and certainly not- not...
Red seeped through the ground where Parrot stood, bloody hands grabbing at his feet and legs, dragging him below.
He tried running at first, and when he toppled over onto his knees at the grips around his ankles-
He switched to fighting and yelling, trying to yank his legs away, only for more hands to come flying out and grab more of him. Grabbing his wings as he began to sink into the ground, into the red.
He looked up for an exit, for a rope, for something to save him–
Instead in the distance he saw Theo lying on the ground with his crossbow just out of reach.
Reina beside him as her own sword lay broken in two beside her.
Saps stood right behind Theo, Wemmbu behind Renia, an axe hovering right over his chest and a mace above her head.
Parrot screamed, tears falling down his face as he's dragged further into the void–
A sickening slice of a heart and the smash of a skull echoed throughout the blood.
.
.
.
He wakes up screaming, nearly falling out of the tree he was resting in. Quickly he reacts, hands grabbing the branch he sat on, heart pounding in his ears he scans his surroundings, looking for Theo, for Renia, for some conformation that they weren’t–
“Parrot?”
A voice, Theo, landed in front of him as he tried to control his breathing. The branch bends slightly under the others weight, making Parrots stomach twist.
“Breathe dude, you're alright. We're in the forest by the beach. I brought you to a tree to rest, remember?”
Parrot nodded slowly, curling in on himself. Bringing his legs up to his chest he hid his face in his arms, wings curling around him. A wall between himself and Theo.
“Is he okay?” Another voice, Reina asked from above. He heard Theo sigh before a flap of wings and a creak of branches bending above him.
If they were talking about him he couldn't make it out. He didn't want to. Parrot knew how he looked– shell shocked and unraveled. Like he was some newborn chick who just experienced war for the first time.
He should be used to this by now, by the blood, by the nightmares and most certainly by death. Yet somehow this time, he couldn't manage. He was falling apart quicker, quicker than he had before.
And he could tell that Theo had no idea how to solve it. How to solve him.
He wasn't something that he could punch his way through, something that would be solved with threats of death and bribery.
Parrot was finally shattering.
Time passed slowly as Parrot watched from his branch as Theo and Reina built them a makeshift base, hearing vague conversation between the two, trying to fill the silence, but he had a feeling they were as lost as he was.
He didn't hear Theo’s bad jokes or stories of the fight they just had, didn't hear Reina comment with a sarcastic remark about Theo’s building skills.
It was meaningless, dull, noise that did little to nothing in filling the silence.
Eventually Theo coaxed Parrot down out of the tree and to a makeshift table the two bodyguards had made, a map on the table with a multitude of scribbles covering it. The three stood side by side, Theo in the middle. “Alright,” The yellow cockatiel began, pointing to the nearby spruce biome.
“There could be a haunted mansion further into the forest, we could restock on totems and maybe fish from the beach.” He then gestured ahead where Parrot assumed the beach was.
Clearing her throat the brunette spoke up, fidgeting with the trims of her scarf, a nervous habit Parrot had seen Reina develop. “We also figured we could maybe build some traps around here.” She pointed to the area near where they were. “The forest is dense, perfect to lay some things down and–”
“Why are you acting like what just happened didn't just happen?” The words were sharp, accusatory. The two fighters froze, sharing a look between each other. That only made Parrot's blood boil further.
The multi-coloured macaw's wings puffed up to make him seem bigger, an instinct to help him when he felt cornered– as if he was cornered at all. He felt like a feral animal not willing to be put down just yet.
“We aren’t,” Theo slowly began, carefully choosing his words. Like one wrong step would set Parrot off. He was right to be cautious, though Parrot wouldn’t lie and say it didn't sting a bit.
“Just, we have to think of a plan. The more we– sit around, the closer Cindercrest gets to us.” With that Theo offered the floor to Parrot, who after a long, drawn out moment, simply shrugged.
Theo and Reina stared at Parrot for a moment longer, awaiting his brilliant plan, for him to say something so crazy it could just work. Except, he stood there, shooting a glare at the both of them. “What?”
“Is– is that it? Are you giving up? Now? Only now?” Theo quickly asked, clearly bewildered by the idea.
Parrot laughed, bitter. “Of course I am. Why the hell wouldn't I?”
“Because you're– you!” The wannabe king scoffed at that, making Theo double down. “No, no! Don't do that! Don't act like what I’m saying is bullshit when you know it's not!”
“Guys–” Reina tried butting in, but Theo raised his hand slightly to her, a silent request for her to wait. For him to handle Parrot. That sparked something in him, for him to snap, to take back control over what little he already had.
“No, no Reina what were you going to say? Don't pretend like you're in charge of her bro.”
Another silent look between the two. With a nod she stood back, hands raised, a quiet surrender. “Seriously? Are we serious right now? You can't be–”
“Parrot.” Theo’s voice was even, calm, unlike his own which was layered with emotions. Air thick with tension, both birds stared each other down with their own stubbornness at the helm. Finally the cockatiel broke the silence with a simple statement.
“From the moment I met you, you have done nothing but think of plans after plans.” He went to interrupt, but Theo kept talking. “You’ve outsmarted everyone from Clown, the deadliest assassin in the world, to Spoke- a literal mad man! And now– what? You, you, are telling me you don't have another one up your sleeve? Another idea? C’mon man.”
Theo sounded so sure of Parrot's brilliance, of his corrupted mind, as if this entire time he hasn't been thinking of ideas. As if he hasn't been trying to find a weak spot in Sap’s defenses, in Wemmbu’s mace, in Flames relentless drive for a fight.
After another tense moment, Parrot broke, hands clenching into fists. “Of course I have been thinking. Of course I have!” Parrot snapped, wings bursting open for a moment, making Theo stance’s stutter, just for a split second.
“My mind is on overdrive right now dude. I keep replaying everything in my mind, every single action, every single death, but nothing– nothing is working!”
He ran a hand through his messy hair, feeling the dried remnants of his own blood stuck to his scalp. It made him want to throw up. “You're acting like I can solve this but I can't. We lost Theo. We lost. Get that through your thick skull.”
Theo’s eyes flashed bright with hurt, only to be obscured by his sunglasses seconds later. “And I am telling you we didn't! Come on dude, you have to have something-”
“I have nothing! Nothing! Don't you hear me?!” Parrot yelled, his gaze meeting his best friends, who looked more shell shocked than when he was fighting against thousands of players. “Just– I need, I need–”
Time.
The one thing none of them had. The one thing he never had enough of. If he had enough of it, then maybe the war would have never happened. Maybe Reina would have lived peacefully with her best friend, maybe Wifies–
The name made him flinch, eyes screwing shut. Grief gripped onto Parrot like a disease, refusing to let go no matter how hard he tried to ignore it. Grief was supposed to go away with time– that's what he was told.
There it is again, time.
“Parrot?” Theo was there, here, in front of him. Alive, breathing, time had yet to catch up with him yet. He has yet to unravel like he was. He was not-- no, could not be the reason for another persons death.
Parrot was never an emotional person. Or at least, he pretended not to be. But when he felt the burn of those uncomfortable feelings, the same rotten ones that lead to so many deaths…
Well, he was born a bird for a reason.
Parrot was up in the sky before Theo could say anything else, offering some reassurance like he has countless times before. He heard his and Reina's worried shouts–
But he did not yield to their concern.
~ ~ ~
Parrots wings without an Elytra were nothing special, simple blue and greens blended with some orange, it was like an almost complete sunset. With the Elytra they had an extra layer of muscle and feathers that connected to his shoulder blades, golden and vibrant feathers joining all his colours together. Completed, almost beautiful.
Without the elytra, he could glide around if he so pleased, but flying required more effort. It hurt his back and his wings, straining them in an unnatural way. As if he was constantly pulling a muscle while on a sprint.
But that didn't matter right now. Right now he had to just find somewhere, anywhere, to hide and live out the rest of his life alone. Hopefully forgotten by the rest of the server. Maybe Theo will claim Parrot died and everything can go back to normal– to peace.
His wings gave up mid flap, causing Parrot to go tumbling from the sky and crash through the trees before managing to catch himself on a branch. He hauled himself onto it as his wings spasmed against his, breathing heavily.
Parrot collapsed forward onto the branch under him, creaking loudly under him. He failed stupendously several times to sit up before admitting defeat and lying there for another while, his arms hanging loosely off the edge.
The wannabe King knew Theo couldn't fly after him. With his breed of bird, a yellow cockatiel, he needed an Elytra to fly at all. He could glide around after him, but even then he struggled with that. The selfish part of him was glad he couldn't, for once.
“It's like I have weights on my back when I fly without it,” Theo explained one night when they were cooped up in their towers Lettuce had made for everyone.
“Seriously?”
“Dead serious bro.” The bodyguard chuckled, a bit sad. Theo had been watching Parrot preen his wings, his own being untouched and unkempt. “Dude, I’d give up– I’d give up our gear to be able to fly around without an elytra–”
“Okay bro, don't go saying things like that!”
“What? It's true!” Parrot elbowed Theo, who in turn elbowed him back. The moment was quiet, the calm before the storm. “Wouldn't you?”
His wings seized behind him as he tried stretching them out. He let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, the pain from his wings turning numb the more he forced them to relax.
Something about the rules of Elytra in this world is that someone who was born with wings couldnt fly forever without them. Eventually, with or without the avians consent, their wings would seize up and they’d collapse, as if made of paper.
And they would be left with not only constant muscle seizing and bursts of pain, but their back would ache for days if not weeks on end.
With a groan he felt the wood press against his face, letting his wings collapse on top of him in exhaustion. Looking around he soon realised he flew directly into the spruce forest, into the thick of it by the looks of it. Well shit. Where was their base?--
What was he thinking? He needed to get away from Renia and Wifies– Theo, as soon as possible. Without him around, they could live normally, grow crops and start a happy and not war-torn farm.
That plan was soon thrown to the wind because, (un)surprisngly he fell asleep against the branch, the warmth from the sun that filtered through the leafs reminded him of different times, of a home that was long destroyed in the jungle, of one where he could breathe a bit softer.
But of course, the universe had a way of being unpredictable and unstable.
Like the branch Parrot was lying on. It was not as sturdy as he thought.
The loud creaks he heard before? Turns out it was not just the normal noise they make.
The snap woke him up before he felt his world give way beneath him.
With a yell he tried to use his wings, but of course, they simply flayed behind him like colourful banners. Right, right! Who needs wings anyway? What was this, his millionth concussion? Hit him with it! (Pun not intended.)
But instead he found himself falling onto something soft, and that something soft made an pained noise as he did. And this soft thing was bright yellow, wearing a black jacket and had cracked sunglasses hanging on his crooked nose.
…Oh come on.
“Fallin’ for me, are we Parrot?” Theo croaked. With a grumble the macaw stood and helped his best friend, his whole body screaming at him in protest. Whatever, when he finds a cave to go hide in then he can properly rest and–
“Parrot, dude.” Theo grabbed his wrist, not too tightly, Parrot noted. If he really wanted to, he could slip away, take off again. But he stood still, eyes trained on the forest.
“What do you want?” Parrot asked bluntly.
“What do I-- Are you serious?!-- Y’know. Alright. Okay.” He heard Theo take a deep breath behind him, letting go of his wrist, seemingly waiting for Parrot to turn around and face him.
He didn't.
So, instead, Theo walked over in front of Parrot and stood with his arms crossed, silently scolding him. Parrot scoffed at the action but didn't respond. “You flew away.”
“Yep.”
“When I was trying to talk to you about a plan.”
“Yep.”
“And now you are planning on getting away from everything instead of fighting against Cindercrest.”
Parrot crossed his arms to match his best friends, fingers digging slightly into his bicep. “How’d you even find me bro?”
“Dude, your feathers left a trail. Anyone with half a brain coulda follow you.” Theo pulled out multiple feathers from his satchel, fanning them out. “I could make a fan with how many I bothered to pick up” He joked, Parrot simply raised a brow at him.
Clearing his throat he put the feathers away, (why was he keeping them?) and turned his attention back to Parrot. “Listen, look, I know– look this is bad. What happened was bad, but we can't give up. We haven't come–”
“Oh save me the hero speech bro.” The macaw snapped, rolling his eyes. “I've made up my mind. So how about you get your head out of this fantasy land and you leave me alone.”
Theo paused, just for a brief moment, his gaze hidden behind his sunglasses. “You’re being selfish.”
…What?
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” Theo’s once worried demeanour was now defensive, growing rigid by anger. “If you give up now, then everyone died for nothing. They died because they thought– maybe they believed you wouldnt turn tail and run when shit went sideways. When the odds seemed stacked against us.”
“They were stacked against us! And I–”
“You have done worse impossible tasks with nothing but yourself and your brain!” Theo argued, his wings puffing up behind him, making Parrot’s own fan out slightly. “And now you're giving up?!”
“Yes Theo! I am! I just–” He ran a hand through his hair, a defeated laugh echoing through the cool forest air. “I can't understand why you’re acting like what happened wasn't awful!”
“What? That's not–”
“But it is! That's exactly what you're doing!” Parrot groaned into his hands. “People died, they're dead! And it's because…” of me. “...Yet you seem perfectly fine! Like all this death doesn't affect you! Like some– some–”
“Don't you dare.” Theo’s voice went deadly quiet. His words were laced with a silent plea, it made him hesitate. Parrot looked up to finally see his best friend's eyes, his sunglasses grasped tightly in his hand.
They were golden, but not the comforting warmth of honey and sun. It was the violent yellow of a fire, the beginning of an explosion before it destroyed everything in its path.
He knew right away what that burning look in his friend's eyes meant. He’s seen it countless times before. Right before he set off a TNT minecart, right before he got his sword embedded into someone's chest.
It was the look of Death’s hand guiding his weapon to bring him another victim.
Parrot knew what Theo was. He knew it from the moment he met him, from the nights they shared talking about their ghosts that follow them, neither wanting to acknowledge how deep the blood on their hands is.
But that shared violence that was laced into their being wasn't something they held over one and others head. It was a shared experience, a scar that was burnt onto their skin, a silent promise to be there for one another.
The long healed over wound surged with pain the moment Parrot opened his mouth.
“You’re acting like some apathetic killer.”
The words were hot and sharp, like a blade of a sword. A deep cut that sliced at the thread that kept the two birds together. Theo couldn't hide the recoil in his posture at what he said, his hands turning to white-knuckled fists.
Parrot stared back with a cold stare, a front for how much he was tearing himself inside. Regardless if he felt bad for what he's just now said, the damage was done. Theo was never going to look at Parrot with the same admiration he did before.
The punch was expected, though that didn't stop the almost blinding pain that engulfed Parrot's vision.
The macaw fell to the earth in a heap, holding his nose as hot blood flooded onto his palm. Before he could even question the cockatiel's actions, he was being lifted up by his collar and off the ground before his back was slammed into a tree.
“Ack!” He squacked, nails clawing at Theo’s hand. “Theo–”
“No. Now it's my time to talk.” He almost spat, using his other hand to summon his crossbow which he pressed the arrowhead to his forehead. Parrots body stilled as he stared down his best– down at Theo.
“I have fought by your side for months now. Almost a year.” The words were bitter, hurt. “And I have sacrificed so much to keep you safe, to keep us safe.” Grip tightening around the collar of his shirt he pulled Parrot back and slammed him back into the trees, his wings spasming behind him.
“You do not, and I repeat, you do not get to tell me what I am. I was someone before you. Before all of this. But I thought I could–..” The words died on his tongue, leaving Parrot staring in shock. “You do not get to say what I am, or fucking judge me. You carry as much blood, if not more, than me.”
The macaw noticed the tremble in his hands, how the crossbow shook just ever so slightly.
“Do not act like you are mightier than me just because I don't show my grief. Some of us weren't given the luxury of being able to show our heart’s.” He gulped.
“You are as innocent as I am, as anyone who lives here is. Your guilt for the dead does not mean you are a judge for the living.”
The words strunk Parrot deep in his core, almost making him nauseous.
“The difference between you and people like Saps,” Theo’s finger tightened on the trigger, making him freeze. “Is that you are doing it for the good of the whole server. You are doing it for all of us, new and old.”
Parrot felt himself get dropped to the ground as Theo let loose the arrow, right where his head would have been. A silent warning to the macaw. One he wasn't sure what it meant, not yet.
“That’s why I can’t let you ruin what we’ve built because of the grief that comes from war.” Theo turned around and began walking, his wings tucked behind him.
“If you give up now, then everyone and everything we know is going to be destroyed. So shut it and get up. You have work to do.” Parrot watched for a moment as his friend walked away, slowly forcing his shaking legs to stand as he then followed after him.
Neither of them spoke. Neither wanted to.
What was said, was said. Anything more would just be useless noise.
For now, they walked, Parrot had long accepted the stinging pain of his nose. Theo wiped his blood off his knuckles once they started walking, occasionally repeating the motion as if the sensation was still lingering.
The sky turned dark as they made it back to their rundown base, Parrot going to the map and beginning his brainstorming, Reina not asking about the smudgets of blood on both of them.
It was just another ghost that will follow both of them to their graves.