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He floated within the barrier of reality, standing still not from choice, but from...he didn't know.
The darkness was overwhelming.
He looked down at his hand, wrinkled from liquid blood. Then at the black, empty concrete.
"…It wasn't Void," he said distantly.
It was over. Arachnid's head was severed from his body, staring up at him with glazed, fearful eyes. Like the many before him.
It was over.
He turned away. Away from the shadows that wouldn't disperse. Away, away, away. Away from everything that hurt him. Away from the blood, away from his reflection in the muddy water, away from everything but—
God, the world was silent. Let there be no sound if it took Egg again. He can live without the cheers. He can live with anything as long as Egg remained all there was.
God.
Death had been so near, but they'd escaped it once more. How long until it catches up again? How long until Wemmbu weakens from injury, from exhaustion, from inevitable age, and it took advantage?
Egg will never be safe. With Wemmbu, no one is.
He stepped forward, fighting against the chains that tethered him. Opposing every Universal Rule. He floated within reality, unfeeling in all limbs and every organ, but his soul was shared with another much, much stronger than he.
Wemmbu stepped forward, and so unlike before…He was there.
The idiot. His weak link.
His most dearest friend, Egg.
"Hey," Egg called. "You with me?"
"You're alive," Wemmbu whispered.
Then he pulled him close.
Egg's beloved suit was torn, his tie missing. There was dirt everywhere. But Wemmbu cared little for any of that. He buried his face into his friend's shoulder, shuddering with leftover fear.
"...Dude, are you crying?"
Wemmbu only held him tighter.
Awkwardly, Egg patted his back. His matted wings shielded Wemmbu from the world, hiding his tears, his vulnerable heart. Nothing could get to Wemmbu here, when he was safe in his friend's arms.
"I thought I lost you," Wemmbu choked out.
Egg tensed. There was a stiffness in his limbs, like a creaking seen. He wasn't as unaffected as he made himself out to be.
With a jackhammering heart, Egg flung his arms around Wemmbu. His calm facade was no more.
"You— you fell and I couldn't catch you, I couldn't—" Wemmbu gasped out. The memory replayed over and over, ending more devastating than the last. Had Egg died when Wemmbu was so close to freeing him—
Wemmbu doesn't pull away when Egg's nails burrowed into his skin. He doesn't pull away when Egg started grasping at whatever part of Wemmbu he could hold on to, like he was making sure no one could take him away from Wemmbu again.
"You saved me, that's all that happened," Egg muttered fervently into the crown of his head. "Don't— don't think about it anymore."
Enraged, Wemmbu pulled away. "How could I not!"
Before Wemmbu could say anything else, Egg held him by the shoulders.
"I love you, brother."
There was a desperation underlying his words. In death, he would never be able to say it. But he was alive. They were alive, both of them. So while their bodies could still touch, while they were warm and not lying underneath the suffocating dirt, Egg would say it.
"Wemmbu."
Wemmbu scrubbed at his face, the embarrassment finally catching up to him. "What?"
"I wouldn't have blamed you," Egg said. "In the past, now, or sometime later, I would never blame you. Even if it was something you could've prevented, or you just didn't want to, I won't. You can't get rid of me with something so trivial as death."
Wemmbu attempted to break away from Egg's hold. Except, not really. "Who taught you how to talk like that, huh? I know you didn't get that from me."
Egg doesn't let him squirrel away from the conversation. "I love you, Wemmbu."
"Oh my god, bro, stop it with that! I get it!"
"But I looove you, dude. Seriously."
Wemmbu pretended to gag. Pretended, because…Egg was family. No matter their blood, he was the closest thing he had to one. He was the one.
The world quieted as they held each other, making up for time lost. Just Wemmbu and Egg, best friends. Family.
To think there was a time they had once been strangers. To think they lived at all.
"After this," Wemmbu said in a whisper, "let's go somewhere far."
Away, away, away.
"And never come back."