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It was no secret that Regect hated winter. The weather would go from beautiful sunny days to being stuck inside until it got cold enough for the rain to become snow, and that was the only upside he could think of. The rain had been okay for the trio at first, but then it just didn’t stop. The dirt became a slip hazard if anyone took one step outside. If the mud didn’t already get you, the strong winds would've pushed you over anyway.
The three of them ended up deciding to stay inside until things cleared up. It would've been nice if there was snow outside, but somehow it hadn't gotten cold enough for the rain to freeze yet- Which annoyed Regect. So, of course, he decided to make it everyone else's problem by complaining about how cold it was. Constantly.
It was his own fault, really. In his rush to build a brand new house (while Ze was occupied with finding new building materials for not even a split second), Regect had failed to consider adding an indoor heating system, or anything else in general that would help keep the house warm. So, aside from the fireplace in the living room, the entire house was absolutely freezing during the winter.
But of course Regect would forget to make sure of this, instead prioritising he had the best and most comfortable bed in the entire house. No wonder he'd been able to sleep like the dead this whole time, he actually had somewhere comfortable to rest- unlike Ze's bed which, in comparison, felt like laying on solid stone bricks. He wouldn't be surprised if Ze didn’t even have a mattress under all those blankets he had hoarded in an attempt to deal with the lower temperatures in the middle of the night.
Today had especially been extremely cold and extra rainy, which made the lack of snow outside even more disappointing. Regect was starting to think at this point that the constant rain had to be some kind of cruel joke from the universe itself.
Since it was so cold, Regect hadn’t been surprised to see Ze following him back into his room when they were all heading upstairs to sleep that night. It wasn’t like this was the first time they’d slept together, but they still weren’t at that point where either of them felt like pointing it out when it happened. Besides, Ze, being a human, was way warmer than Regect was, so he wasn’t gonna complain.
Waking up, Regect immediately felt that something was different. Not wrong per se, but something was definitely …off. Opening his eyes, the first thing he noticed was that Ze was no longer next to him. What time even was it? It couldn't be that late, since nobody was yelling his name to wake him up yet like there usually was when he slept in.
Reaching over to grab Ze's phone to check the time (knowing Ze didn’t care anymore if he did), Regect noticed something: He was wearing Ze's sweater.
Which usually wasn’t that surprising. Ze had given Regect some of his spares he didn't wear as often, after the entity decided that sometimes wearing something warm and comfortable was rather nice. The problem was that this was not one of those spares- It was the exact same one that Ze had been wearing last night because Regect still hadn’t figured out the indoor heating problem. He’d recognised it as the same sweater because it still had the small stain on the sleeve from the previous night’s dinner. Apparently, getting sauce stains out of white fabric takes a lot more effort than just wiping it off.
Regect's first thought was that Ze could've maybe woken up first, somehow managed to get the sweater onto him while he was still asleep, and then gone downstairs to make himself breakfast.
But there were many holes in that theory.
One: Ze almost never wakes up before Regect. In fact, he's sure that if the house exploded one day, Ze would probably sleep through it all. He’d even thought Ze had died in his sleep during the first night they had spent in their shared house.
Two: It was clearly still cold outside. Why would Ze even try to force the sweater he was already wearing onto him, instead of grabbing one of the spares? How would he have even managed to get it onto Regect in the first place? He's almost certain that it would've woken him up.
And three: Well, Regect didn't get around to thinking of a third reason for why his theory wouldn't make sense, because by now he had gotten distracted by noticing what was on his hand.
Or well, what was under his hand.
Their hand.
It was Ze.
Somehow, without Regect knowing, the two had fused overnight. While he was asleep. Which had never happened before.
At least that answered his question as to why he was wearing Ze's sweater.
"Ze? You there?"
Regect wasn't usually the one to take control of their shared body, since he’d become used to Ze being the one in charge. And when Regect was the one in control, the other would keep pointing out everything he was doing wrong as if he were an annoying back-seat driver. That was the problem, though: Ze hadn't said anything yet. Their mind felt so empty, and no matter how hard Regect focused, it was almost as if Ze wasn't even there in the first place.
But- he had to be there somewhere! It's not like it could just be Regect, right?
It couldn't just be him... right?
But- what if it was?
Regect froze.
Possession. To take control over someone else's entire being. To make it your own, and leave no trace of the original person behind.
He knew he’d always had the ability to possess people. It was how they had begun this whole fusing thing in the first place. But he had never wanted to actually fully commit to it.
The fusion was just partially possessing Ze in a way where they both had a say in what they did. He'd always made sure to be careful every time they were together to ensure that the other would still be safe. As far as Ze was concerned, what they'd been doing this whole time was all that the entity was capable of. He'd never told him it was an option in the first place. Not because he was hiding it or anything, he'd just never thought it was important enough to bring up.
Maybe it'd been stupid to not at least warn Ze it was an option. Sure, it wasn’t like he would’ve intentionally done that in the first place, but it probably would’ve been a good idea anyway. Was it selfish to not tell him? What if Ze had decided to stop doing all this out of fear of it getting worse? Maybe they should've kept their distance, this was an awful idea in the first place, Regect should've never even offered-
Regect paused. Now was not the time to be thinking of the worst possible outcomes. He just needed to lock in and figure out what was going on, and how to fix the problem. He was good at fixing problems. Usually.
Realising that he'd been staring at their hand for a concerning amount of time, Regect instead shifted his focus to the window on the other side of the room. The weather clearly hadn't improved at all overnight, with rain still falling and the clouds preventing almost any sunlight from getting in. If it weren't for the fact Regect had checked the time on Ze's phone already, he probably would've assumed it was still early in the morning.
Moe was probably already awake. She'd always been the first one to wake between the three of them. Maybe she would have some idea on what to do? Asking her for help couldn't hurt, and that way she’d know what was going on, if something bad ended up happening. Regect didn’t want to think too much about that last part.
Yeah, going downstairs and talking to Moe was probably the best idea he had right now.
It was far from the first time Regect had full control over their body. He'd just gotten used to giving Ze priority when it came to what they did, only stepping in to fuck with him or prevent them both from getting horribly injured. There had also been the rare moments where Ze would give Regect full control instead, where he’d go quiet for a while and let the other be in charge of what they did. He'd never pushed for the reason why, but considering the shared thoughts and emotions it'd been easy to come to his own conclusions. If Ze wanted a break from everything to let Regect to take control for a while, he wouldn't question it.
But this was different. Even when Regect was basically given free reign over what they did, he could still feel Ze's presence in their shared mind. Whether that be his offhand comments on what the other was doing, or the mild annoyance they'd both feel when he'd do something stupid, which was usually most of the time.
Making his way towards the stairs, Regect ended up pausing in front of the mirror they had in the hallway. It had been Moe's idea to add it- since she'd been fed up with the other two wasting their time doing god-knows-what in the bathroom when she wanted to apply her makeup every morning. Her solution had been the titular giant mirror in the middle of the hallway, just outside her room. When asked why she didn’t decide to put it in her room, Moe had explained that keeping it in the hallway meant they could all use it, not just her.
Usually, Regect wouldn't pay much attention to it- Hell, he'd forgotten it was even there a lot of the time. But he couldn't help but stare at himself. At both of them this time.
From a distance, it was easy to see how someone could think they were just Ze. Regect didn't exactly contribute much physically besides the splotches of black covering their body, and even that could be easily missed if they were wearing something that would cover it up. It would only be once you got closer, that you’d be able to tell that it wasn’t just Ze, assuming you knew who he was in the first place. They had definitely confused a few people they’d met for the first time while together.
It had taken some time for him to get used to seeing a face staring back at him when he looked at his reflection like this. As much as he made fun of Ze for spending time "checking them out" when they'd fused for the first time, Regect couldn't deny that he was also astounded at what they looked like together. It was a rare moment where, technically, his face could actually be seen by others. To be able to see someone looking back at him in the mirror. He'd never considered that fusing would affect that.
When he did eventually pull himself away from the mirror and made his way downstairs, Regect could hear the sounds of someone moving around in the kitchen. Not surprising that Moe would be there, after all. While they all knew how to cook for themselves, Moe would sometimes wake up and decide to surprise the other two with breakfast- something she seemed to be doing right now.
Moe, hearing them walk in, honked a simple “good morning” without turning around at first, her attention focused solely on whatever surprise meal she'd decided to make for the trio today. Once she did turn around to face him, though, Regect could instantly recognise the confusion on her face.
“So, uh. As you can see… It's all a bit. Uh. different this morning. Didn't expect it this early, either.”
After a while of the two randomly showing up together like that, Moe had slowly got used to it just happening sometimes. Giving a couple more honks, it seemed that her confusion stemmed from the fact that they'd never been fused this early into the day.
“There's just a very tiny, actually maybe kind of concerning problem today…”
Another confused honk was all Regect needed to hear before continuing,
“Sooo… Might have woken up today. Like this. And uh… Ze's not exactly saying anything. Like, at all.”
Now, Moe's full attention was on who she now understood was only Regect. What did he mean, Ze wasn't saying anything? Isn't he usually the one doing most of the talking for them?
“Well, yeah- That's the problem! I woke up like this, obviously Ze's supposed to be somewhere in here too, but he- he's just not!”
Which, again, had never happened before. And the fact it'd never happened before was what scared Regect, as much as he didn't want to admit he was actually scared that something bad had happened to Ze.
“And now- I don't know what to do! What if I screwed up, and now he's just gone? What if it's just me in here now? I just- Moe, I don't know what to do-”
Regect honestly hadn't meant to lose his cool like that in front of Moe. It was just that in that moment, it had finally hit him that there was a chance that he might have very well unintentionally turned their group of three into a group of two. And then that thought made him spiral even more, especially since it would’ve been entirely his fault if that was what had happened.
Despite Moe's best attempts to get Regect to calm down, he couldn't focus at all on what she was saying to even begin to ground himself. The only thing circulating in his mind was that this was his fault, and that Ze wasn't there with him.
In fact, Regect was so focused on his own thoughts spiralling that he almost didn't notice a quieter, second, not-Moe voice, trying to talk to him.
Waking up had been an extremely weird experience for Ze this morning.
Last night hadn't been anything out of the ordinary, aside from the two deciding to share the bed. It made sense to spend the night in Regect's room with the weather being this bad. His bed was way more comfortable, and being next to someone made it easier to stay warm. It was nice just to spend time with him in general, honestly- not that he would admit it to his face, though.
He'd even woken up at some point in the middle of the night to Regect clinging onto him as if he was a giant teddy bear. Not that he was complaining or anything, but it was definitely something he wouldn’t dare bring up to the entity. But at the same time, part of him felt bad for Regect.
It had become increasingly obvious since they first met that Regect had a problem with the rain. Every time those dark clouds would make their way over, he’d suddenly decide that he didn't want to be outside anymore, regardless of what they were doing before.
It'd been something he'd especially noticed when the two were fused. He had never pushed for why Regect hated it, though. Sure, he could've dug through a bit more of Regect's side of their shared mind to find the answer, but that felt like a breach of privacy and Ze wouldn't take advantage of him like that. If Regect didn't want to explain, he wouldn't force him to answer.
So suddenly waking up to the entity clinging onto him in the middle of the night made a bit more sense in this case- especially considering the extensive rain. It wasn't like he could do anything about it even if he wanted to, either. There was no chance of escape with how stupidly strong Regect could be sometimes. The only thing he could do at that moment was close his eyes and wait for sleep to take him again.
At first, when he was aware enough to acknowledge what he was seeing, he'd just assumed it was a vivid dream. He could see himself moving around, but it was almost as if he was stuck on autopilot. Something else was definitely controlling him, but everything was such a blur that the most he could make out were outlines of his hand, his phone, and what he could only assume was his own reflection in the mirror.
Ze was sure that he could hear someone calling his name at one point too, but he couldn't make out who's voice it was. It was too far away, too quiet to identify. It felt like he was underwater and someone else above was trying to talk to him.
He'd had weird dreams before- some even stranger than this- but this one felt different somehow. Usually at some point during the night, when he would experience those weird dreams, he'd get this sinking feeling of something being wrong. Maybe one of his friends’ faces were slightly off, or there were hints that something was following him, or maybe even something else that he’d tried desperately to forget about would unearth itself, becoming the only thing he was allowed to think about. This would eventually snowball into panic and result in Ze waking himself up at some stupid hour of the morning, missing out on sleep for the rest of the day.
Part of him knew that there was a much better way to describe them. But he would never admit to anyone, not even himself, that he was losing sleep over some stupid nightmares like a little kid.
But this dream never felt like that. The complete opposite, in fact. It felt normal. Safe. Like nothing out of the ordinary was happening, despite the fact he had no control over his own actions. It felt like no matter what, everything would be okay. Should he be concerned about the fact something else was likely piloting his body? Probably. But he couldn't bring himself to care all that much. After all, what was there to really worry about? It was all just some dumb dream in the first place, anyway.
Ze instead stayed put, watching the blurry shapes he could see move around. One of them even looked a bit like Moe, with her bright red hair and vibrant makeup that she insisted on wearing everyday. Ze could probably count on one hand the amount of times he'd seen her without it on.
Before he could lose himself in another train of thought, he felt a jolt of panic. Odd, seeing that nothing up to this point in this dream should've caused him to panic at all. So why did he feel so suddenly uneasy? Was some part of his mind trying to tell him to wake up? Ze hoped not- this was the first time in a long while that he'd had a dream that didn't have something horrible happening in it.
It was only a matter of time until his hazy, faux-panic snowballed into actual legitimate panic- he was now freaking out over something that he couldn't see, and that realisation only made the panic worse. Whatever part of his mind that was causing these feelings of unease kept getting louder and louder, clearer and clearer, until-
He woke up.
Ze woke up, not in bed, not in Regect's room, where he had fallen asleep the night before, but in the middle of the kitchen.
Ze was now standing in the kitchen, with Moe staring right at him. If he weren't too busy comprehending what had just happened, he might’ve even said that Moe looked just as worried as he felt.
He was very confused. Why was he standing in the kitchen? How did he end up in the kitchen? Last time he checked, he’d never had a history of sleepwalking. Wouldn’t he have fallen down the stairs anyway?
He could have stood there for ages trying to figure out what the hell was going on if he wasn't so rudely interrupted by a stream of thoughts hitting him like a truck. Thoughts that, as Ze quickly realised, were not his. It took a moment for his mind to catch up to the fact that they were Regect's thoughts. Which, really, only resulted in even more questions about what had happened while he was asleep.
But that wasn't important right now. What was important was the fact that Regect was freaking out over something, and that Ze had to somehow snap him out of it. Which was easier said than done. It felt like standing under a waterfall, with how fast the other's thoughts spiralled out of control. Not to mention the fact that it was so loud. He honestly thought he’d adjusted quite well to now being able to hear Regect’s thoughts too, but after all this, he was starting to reconsider that statement. Sure, sometimes the entity had his moments where he’d overthink things to the point of flooding their shared mind, but it was almost never this bad.
The only thing he could think to do was to try and talk to him. Talking helps calm people down, right?
Regect?
Sure, maybe he could’ve started that with something else, maybe even an ‘are you okay?’, but in his defense, he did only wake up about a minute ago.
Either way, him saying anything at all seemed to do the trick, as that waterfall of thoughts almost immediately screeched to a halt. It was silent, almost as if Regect was making sure that he had heard anything at all. Ze felt like the only thing he could do was keep talking to him.
What the hell happened last night?
Okay, he could’ve phrased that one a bit better. Was that too harsh?
Ze?
And then whatever panic that still remained in their system immediately disappeared, replaced with an overwhelming feeling of relief.
Oh god, Ze, we must’ve fused or something while we were asleep- Fuck- I was so worried that I might’ve accidentally killed you or something-
That definitely explained how he'd ended up in the kitchen.
-and when I woke up, and you weren’t saying anything, I panicked, ‘cause I didn’t know what to do, since this hasn’t ever happened before-
Sure, they'd accidentally fused once or twice without realising, but that had still been while the two were awake. Up until this point, the two had never been together while asleep, let alone fusing in their sleep.
I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to- I don’t know how or why it happened, I promise it won’t happen again, I’m just so thankful you’re not dead, or brain dead, or actually dead, or any other kind of dead-
His best guess as to how it happened was that it had something to do with the fact Regect had been clinging onto him all night. It wasn't too out of the question to come to the conclusion of it happening subconsciously while the two were asleep.
You’re saying a lot of stuff right now, and I don’t know what made you think you killed me, but I’m not dead. Okay? You didn’t do anything bad, and I’m not dead. Yet.
You can’t- you can’t just say “yet” like that!
What? I’m not gonna live forever, you know.
I do know! And I don’t want to think about you dying, so can we please not joke about that? Please? I don’t want to think about that right now-
A worried honk cut through both of their thoughts, snapping Ze back to reality. Right. They were still in the kitchen, and Moe was looking at him, giving a few more concerned honks as if to ask if he was okay, which- was Regect okay? He could hear the thoughts pause for a second, for just a quick moment, as if he were trying to focus on what Moe had asked them. Only to spiral once again, with only Ze able to hear Regect asking himself if he really was okay.
Ze could only imagine what they looked like to the clown right now. Staring off into nothing while they tried talking to each other, not acknowledging a single thing around them. Yeah, he could see why she was starting to freak out, too.
It was thanks to Moe grabbing them by the shoulders, asking again in a panic if they were okay- both of them this time, that their mind started to calm down. Yes, they were okay, they were both there, and Ze wasn't dead.
"Oh shit-"
"-Moe I- we forgot you were there-"
They'd never been the best at trying to talk at the same time. It was easier for the both of them if only one spoke at a time, usually being the one mainly in control at the moment. Trying to say something at the same time just resulted in mixed up sentences, jumbled words, and an overall confusing time for anyone who had to decipher what they were attempting to say.
Luckily, Moe had lived with them long enough that she was able to understand them like this. A few questioning honks were the only warning the two got before they were suddenly trapped in a hug, with Moe wanting to make sure they were both okay before freeing them again.
"No, yeah- I, uh, we're fine, I think?"
"Just give us a moment, Ze's here now-"
“-and not dead! Sorry for freaking you out, I promise I'm all good-”
Which seemed to be reassuring enough for not only Moe, but Regect as well, considering the small smile that appeared on their face. Ze knew that it definitely hadn't been from him, and usually he would've teased Regect about it, but he chose not to acknowledge it for now.
It seemed Moe had just been about to say something else, only to be interrupted by the smell of something burning, and the smoke that had gradually started to fill the room around them. Oh yeah. The food.
Turns out, that was another thing Regect had forgotten to install in the house. A smoke detector.
Thankfully, the house had not burnt down after the incident in the kitchen that morning. Somehow, Moe had been able to work with whatever hadn’t been burnt to a crisp, and only another half hour after they’d successfully cleared out all the smoke, breakfast had been served.
Only after Regect had offered to eat the charred remains of Moe’s first cooking attempt did the two finally separate, with Ze refusing to let what was essentially charcoal be anywhere near him. The entity may not have standards when it came to food, but he certainly did. And those standards included not eating something that couldn’t even be classified as food anymore.
It was much later in the day when they decided to finally address the elephant in the room. After the eventful morning they’d all had, the rest of the day had been mostly boring. The sun had gone down hours ago, and the trio had agreed they should all head to bed with how late it was getting. Like the previous night, Ze had once again followed Regect back to his room, listening to the entity try his best to explain the incident that had unfolded that morning.
"So, possession is something that most entities can just do. You know, sort of like what we've been doing already, but less about the sharing part and more about the 'taking control over the human' part."
Ze supposed that made sense. He’d been so used to how Regect acted, that sometimes he forgot the guy was meant to actually stalk and harass him like any other entity would. It was easy to conclude that possession would somehow come into play with the whole ‘evilly haunting someone’ thing.
"So this whole time, you've just been possessing me in a way where it goes both ways? Is that it?"
Laying down on the bed next to Regect, a sudden thought struck him. Should he be worried about the idea that Regect could theoretically use this ability to hurt him?
Ze thought about it for a moment.
"Yeah, something like that! That way we both get an equal amount of control, makes it more fair and way safer for you too!"
"And so the reason you were freaking out this morning was because you thought you'd accidentally fully possessed me in your sleep?"
"Oh, uh- yeah. I did think that. But that didn't end up happening, so we're all good!"
…Nah. There was nothing to worry about. He knew Regect well enough to confidently say that he wouldn’t do that on purpose. Today had been enough proof of that.
Ze watched as Regect reached over to turn off the small lamp that Moe had gifted him a few months ago. It wasn’t like the entity needed it, he could see just fine in the dark. But he’d still make sure it was on just for Ze.
“So just making sure, I'm not gonna wake up tomorrow in the middle of the kitchen again, yeah?”
It was clear by his tone of voice that Ze was just messing with Regect.
“Not my fault that you decided to cling onto me last night, that's probably why it happened anyway!”
Both of them knew that wasn't true, and that it had in fact been the other way around. But Ze couldn't be bothered to correct Regect, knowing that if he did, they'd end up arguing about it for the next hour and end up getting barely any rest at all.
“Whatever you say, man. Just go to sleep.”
Regect didn't reply, instead turning to face Ze, moving ever so slightly closer to him in the process. Ze didn't mind, not making any attempt to move the entity away. It would only be a matter of time before Regect would fall asleep, with Ze, as usual, being the last one in the house to still be awake.
Due to the entity's lack of a head or face, the only thing that gave away that he'd fallen asleep was the sound of his breathing slowing down. It wasn’t long before Ze felt Regect move even closer to him, once again clinging onto the human like he was going to disappear at any second.
Ze cracked a small smile.
Even though he could hear the heavy rain falling outside, it didn't feel as cold as it usually was tonight.
He was still going to bother Regect about the indoor heating problem tomorrow.