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"Hmm."
Torch looked up to the robed man. The two of them had just fallen through a sink hole while trying to get an escapee, and all Cl- Nova had said was
"Hmm? The heck do you mean 'hmm'?" He stood up, brushing the dirt off of his hoodie. It probably had a new tear in it.
Nova looked at him, then back to the hole they had fallen through. "I just didn't expect a cavern here." He straightened a bit, then turned toward one of the tunnels. "Come on."
"I'm not going anywhere with you." Torch huffed. It was partially a lie. He wished he could be with his Clancy again, that they could both walk off and forget about the whole bishop thing.
But that wasnt his Clancy anymore. He had to tell himself that. Every time one of them fell, he had to tell himself "its not Clancy anymore."
Nova looked back at him once more. "You want to sit here until someone tries to come rescue you?" It was a question, but it sounded like a joke when he said it. "Forgive me, Torchbearer, but there was no one around us for at least a mile and that escapee has probably decided to make it back to the city after that little display."
Torch rolled his eyes. "Well, going into a random cavern tunnel is so much safer, right?" Nova didn't respond.
He walked back over, sitting on the stone ground with a huff. "What's your plan, then? Wait around until death finds us?"
"I forgot how impatient you always were."
Nova's eyes seemed to soften a bit at that. "Waiting has never been any of our strong suits." He chuckled softly. "Though most of us believed we were waiting for a war to begin."
Torchbearer sat down a few feet from the bishop. He didn't want to get to close, not anymore. Nova didn't seem to mind the space anyway.
Sitting for the first time in days brought all the exhaustion Torch had been trying to hide up to the forefront of his mind. It felt as if weights had been attached to his eyelids.
"You're tired."
"I'm fine."
That had never stopped Clancy and it certainly wouldn't stop Nova. "Rest. I will keep watch until you wake."
"Not exactly reassuring." He muttered.
"I have no reason to harm you, Torchbearer. Not here, at least."
He was too tired to argue. Even if he wasn't too tired, he knew Clancy's stubbornness probably carried over to the bishop. Flopping patheticly, he let sleep overtake him.
𝄞⨾𓍢ִ໋₊˚・₊✧
It was dark when sleep abandoned him. Torch didn't want to get up. His body refused to move, keeping him lying against the ground.
There was something draped over his body. He wasn't awake enough to figure what it was. It was warm and thats all he cared about at the moment.
His eyes slowly opened. Clanc-... Nova was lying on the ground a few feet away, staring at the sky.
"I know you're awake." He said, looking over to Torch.
"Wish I wasn't."
It was an inside joke, the kind that never died with any if the Clancys. It carried on, from one to another. Torch hated the way his response still came out naturally.
Nova didn't move from looking up toward the sky. He seemed almost in awe of it.
"I missed this." He whispered. "We missed this."
"The sky is hard to see from the towers." Torch replied. He wouldn't see the double meaning to Nova's words. He couldn't.
"We missed you."
Torch looked away. He hated this. He hated bishops and Dema and towers and sinkholes. He hated feeling like this every time he got close. He hated losing the person he loved most over and over.
"... Would you take us back, Torchbearer?" Nova asked, just before the silence became oppressive.
He looked to the bishop again, being startled by just how close he was now. "Take you back?"
"To Trench. To the camp." He didn't look around nervously like the Clancy's and Bishops before. He looked right into Torch's eyes, a strange sweetness settling into the blood red color. "Just... back to how it used to be."
"..." Torch stayed quiet.
"We miss you."
The touch of lips on lips always caught all of the Clancys off guard. They would all blush and stutter afterward.
Nova froze, but quickly melted into the feeling. His hands found Torch's back just as tongues found teeth. They slotted together just how they always did. Just how all of them did.
In the morning, the banditos would find Nova and Torch sitting in the sink hole, just quietly speaking. Torch would have Nova's cloak wrapped around him, just as Nova had Torch's hand wrapped around his.
In the morning, Nova would follow the banditos back to camp, joking with old friends about memories he now had.
In the morning, Dema would awake to one less bishop.
But for now, this night, a bandito who never seemed to age, and all the Clancys he loved before would hold eachother close. Tongues would meet teeth, and hearts would meet hearts.