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When Abolish opened his eyes, he was absolutely not in the arena anymore. In fact, his back was to the ground, laying in dirt and grass facing up toward what he assumed was the night sky - only he could see maybe a dozen stars at most. Propping himself up on his elbows, his gaze swept the area, and he quickly realized he was laying in someone's backyard.
Well, that was inconvenient. He didn't want anyone upset at him for trespassing; if he had no idea where he'd come from himself, he doubted he'd be able to explain it well to anyone else. And that was assuming they'd even believe him. If someone came up to him and said that they'd died, spent decades in the Underworld, been revived, then had competed in a fight to the death for weeks, he wouldn't trust a word they said either.
His head whipped around when he heard a door swing open, stumbling to his feet and meeting the deep brown eyes of someone who looked a lot like him, only shorter with black and white hair, and of course his eyes looked much darker and more human-like than his own. He said something Abolish couldn't understand, freckled face twisting up into a look of confusion, and with dread pooling in his stomach he realized that this person probably didn't speak Greek.
"Uh… hello?" it tried anyway. The shorter man appeared taken aback for a moment, hands twitching at his sides. "Sorry, I… have no idea what's going on right now."
His mouth opened, then closed, before he at last said, "You're- you're fine. You, uh… don't speak English?" It wasn't sure what that was exactly, so it shook its head. "That's alright. Um- I'm a… bit out of practice, but come inside, you're… We can talk in my house."
He gestured at the manor Abolish had appeared behind, and he slowly followed him in. The architecture was like nothing he'd ever seen before, dark and gloomy and decorated with mainly red and black, a few paintings on the walls. If he hadn't guessed that he wasn't near his home just based off of whatever language the man had been speaking, it was even more obvious now.
"So… what's your name?" he asked, gesturing for Abolish to sit down on a couch. He sat on the opposite end, folding his hands in his lap, and he took a moment to look over the strange clothes he was wearing before he responded.
"Abolish." His eyes widened slightly, but it continued anyway. Maybe he recognized it, somehow, even though that was extremely unlikely and he looked more freaked out than anything. "I really have no idea how I got here, honestly, I just… passed out, and then I was laying there. In, uh, your backyard?"
He leaned forward, his brow furrowing again, a slight frown tugging on his chapped lips. Even in the dark, it could tell he was pretty, curls falling in front of his face in a similar way to its own - he looked much more handsome with that split black and white hair of his, though. "What were you… doing before you passed out?"
"It's… a very long story," he muttered, a quiet laugh slipping out of him. "You're gonna think I'm insane, probably."
The man shrugged slightly, glancing him up and down. "I think I've been through weirder before."
His gaze lingered on its chest for a moment, eyes narrowing just slightly more, before flicking back up to its face when it spoke. "I mean, if you're sure."
The man - whose name was apparently also Abolish, not helping the strange sensation that the two of them were a lot more similar than it'd initially picked up on - ended up having to get a notebook to write everything down in. To give him credit, he didn't seem skeptical in the slightest, only confused in the same way it was. Neither of them had any idea how this had happened, although he promised to start doing research as soon as he could to get an idea.
Abolish was especially confused because this had definitely not been his wish, nor had he even won when he'd been brought here. He hadn't died, either, which was another one of the other's theories, nor had he been struck right before he'd passed out. It'd just… happened. Like something - or someone, perhaps? - had yanked him away from his own world and thrown him here.
But either way, it'd been several hours since he'd arrived here and the other Abolish seemed set on figuring out what was wrong. He'd waved him away and then proceeded to hole up in the house's library, stacking a good amount of books on a table and then curling up in a chair to begin reading. Keeping his notebook beside him, he kept jotting doing various things he read, writing in a language Abolish had never seen before; he stood there behind him for about a minute before he got bored and left.
He'd been told not to leave the house yet, and he certainly didn't plan on it. Based on everything he'd learned so far, no one else here would understand him, even though the idea of almost nobody knowing his language at all filled him with dread. Doing his best to brush it off, he wandered down the dark hallways, looking in various rooms whose doors were open, and maybe he took a quick glance around through some of the closed off areas until he eventually found what he could only assume was the other Abolish's room.
The door creaked as it pushed it open, gaze sweeping the area. Everything seemed to be decorated sparsely, perfectly clean and put together, not a single thing out of place. With the curtains drawn shut, it was even more difficult to see, so he carefully made his way across the room and pushed them open before turning around again.
It supposed that it wasn't too strange that the man's room wasn't very fancy. Even though it didn't understand a thing about what it was wearing or what any of the proper aesthetics for a place here were supposed to be, he seemed… well, not bland, but certainly not extravagant. A bed with simple black sheets, a shelf with books pushed against the wall, a closet that only contained all black and red clothing with a hint of gray and white.
As he was about to leave the room, not wanting Abolish to come looking for him and find him snooping around, his eyes caught on a small painting tucked toward the back of the shelf. The individual looked vaguely similar to Pyro, with shining, nervous eyes and soft brown hair, although the person had pale blue eyes rather than golden brown. They also looked a bit older, maybe by a few years, the ghost of facial hair on their face.
Something about seeing that made his heart ache like it was going to split apart, and he dragged his gaze away as quickly as possible. He may have shut the door a little too loud behind himself, although he figured the other was too focused on his work to notice. Slipping down the hall, he decided to try finding something to eat - and then he could at last get some rest without having to worry about anyone trying to kill him.
By the time he'd processed that he somehow didn't feel wary at all around his other self, he'd already slept through the rest of the night and awoken late in the morning, sprawled out a bit uncomfortably on the couch. Sitting up and stretching his arms over his head, he cracked his neck with a grimace; he probably should've asked if the other Abolish had a guest bedroom for him to sleep in.
Then its gaze fell on the man standing in front of it, expression blank and staring off into the void - until their eyes met and he seemed to startle back to consciousness. "Um- Sorry, sorry, just… tired."
"How long have you been standing there?" it asked, trying to keep its amusement out of its voice as he gripped the contained he was holding tighter. Judging from the hole on the top, it assume it was some sort of drink.
"Not that long?" His throat bobbed as he swallowed, reaching up with his free hand to carefully brush his hair out of his eyes. "Just, uh… a minute at most, maybe? I was… waiting for you to wake up, um- I'd like to… start teaching you English, as soon as possible, so you can… talk to people here, and everything."
The man's words were much more stilted than earlier, stuttering from the exhaustion clearly weighing down on him. He must not have slept at all the whole time Abolish had been resting; something twisted strangely in his gut and he found himself beckoning him over. The other hesitated, brow furrowing in that adorable way it did every other time he was confused, before he took a few steps forward.
Not allowing him a chance to protest, he reached up and slipped the drink out of his hand, settling his other hand on his much skinnier waist to drag him down onto the couch. A soft squeak escaped him, mumbling something in his own language that sounded far beyond confused. Then his head hit Abolish's chest, arms flinging around his neck, and it only took a couple moments for him to melt completely.
"You need to rest first," it murmured, tucking its face into his hair as he tried to wriggle out of its grip. It wrapped its arms tighter around him, and clearly he wasn't that intent on escaping, because he went limp with a soft sigh hardly a second after he'd started. "Teaching me… English, can wait. I don't think you'll be able to teach me very well anyway if you're about to pass out."
A few moments of silence passed, his face nuzzling into its chest, before he huffed, "You do have… a point." He squeezed its shoulders briefly, then fell still again. "I did want to ask, though, you don't have… scars? On your chest?"
"Scars…?" Abolish slid a hand up to run it through his hair, tilting his head slightly; he swore he could see the faintest hint of red dust his freckled cheeks at the touch.
"Yeah, like… the ones I have." His thick eyelashes fluttered, clearly struggling to keep his pretty brown eyes open. He fought the urge to lean down just a little more and press a kiss to his parted lips. Maybe he needed to rest more as well, gods, what was he thinking? "Mm, I know that wasn't… invented yet? But did your, um, god… change your body, or are you…?"
Oh, that was what he was referring to. Its shoulders shook as it chuckled quietly. "No, I'm not sure why, but my body has always looked… different."
"I see." He paused, then opened his mouth again, starting to say something before he was cut off with a deep yawn. Blinking rapidly, he visibly struggled to recollect his thoughts for maybe ten seconds before Abolish decided he really needed to just sleep.
"We can keep comparing our differences once you're awake." It gave a couple light scratches at the nape of his neck, which seemed to do the trick perfectly, his head falling back against its chest with a low hum. "Sleep well, Abolish."
He mumbled something incoherent in response, his chest rising and falling slowly, already fast asleep almost the second his eyes shut. Laying its cheek on top of his ever so soft hair, it noted that his body was freezing, only now warming up that he was tucked up in its arms. Perhaps it was a good thing that the two of them had found each other somehow - he got to be warm and sleep well, and it got to snuggle up with possibly the most handsome guy it'd ever seen.
If only he had any idea how he'd gotten here. But he was sure he'd figured that out eventually.