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Wifies was in the ocean once more, drowning again. He felt so heavy, with the ocean pressing into him from all sides. Luckily, one does get used to drowning and dying if you did it enough.
He choked on the water, burning his lungs as he inhaled. He tried to keep his eyes peeled for any sign of Levi, but honestly, he wasn't trying too hard.
He couldn't do this much longer after all.
Wifies woke up in his bed, soaked to the bone. He was done with this. He wasn't built for water, and he certainly wasn't built to drown, over and over again for some guy that thought that's what this imaginary creature wants.
He stood up and shook his feathers and tail. Which didn't help whatsoever. Delightful.
He stormed out of the cabin and onto the deck where Hummer was. He loved the guy, but man. Drowning over and over for someone really puts a strain on any relationship.
"Hummer!" Wifies shouted, alerting the other man.
"Yes? Did you see Levi?" Hummer asked, enthusiasm dropping rapidly as Wifies's expression soured even further.
"Do I look like I saw Levi??? No. Let me answer that. I don't, because Levi isn't real, and it never was. I've just been drowning, over and over, pointlessly." Wifies was shaking, he was damn close to punching Hummer, but he wasn't that violent of a person (He knew it would only create issues for the future.)
"But- You just gotta-" Hummer began to stammer out, sounding like he was about to cry.
Hell, he probably would be, had he have been able to. He always seemed really sensitive when it came to whether Levi was fake or not, which confused Wifies somewhat- after all, it wasn't like he was saying he wasn't real.
"Believe?! No! Hummer I am tired of this! I hated the water before, and I certainly do now! I am done." Wifies raged, tail lashing behind him fast enough to create a breeze.
"Done?! But- but what about Levi? What about me?" Hummer asked, voice breaking in a way that Wifies's heart ached for.
He took a deep breath, "I am not doing this anymore. I've delayed the deadline long enough. There are other mysteries to solve, other puzzles to find. And I recommend you abandon the hope of the Leviathan being real as well."
Wifies walked to the edge of the boat, where they had the smaller, two person boats docked. "Look, I still love you, but I can't do this anymore. I'll be on my home server, Adrian. Find me if you want to keep doing... Whatever this was."
Wifies stepped into one of the boats and started paddling away. About 50 yards away from the boat he looked back. Hummer was facing his way, hugging his knees while his tail wrapped around himself and his antennae drooped.
Wifies couldn't go back and help him. He should get back to Adrian and get back home. And... Wait and see if he comes to him. But he wasn't going to kid himself and say that was likely.
He sailed to the shoreline. Usually, one has to change servers at spawn, but there are various trinkets one can make to go back to a specific server.
Unfortunately, they often were single use (but not always), expensive, and complicated to use. But it wasn't like he could fly to spawn. So, he gathered some flowers and walked back to the shore (easier to draw specific lines in sand than grass.)
But Hummer was standing there, his hands restless and tail twitching erratically. Wifies also noted how the waves were much rougher than it was when he left a moment ago.
Hummer noticed Wifies, "Why? Why didn't you ever believe?" He hated how just broken Hummer sounded.
"I did! And I had, but it never worked because no matter how much you believe in something- it's still. Not. Real." Wifies flapped his wings a few times for emphasis.
"You never did." Hummer muttered in a small voice, looking at his hands.
"Yes I did!" Wifies chirped out, exasperated.
"You didn't because you would've seen m- him if you did!" Hummer's voice cracked, and Wifies could've sworn that Hummer almost said "me".
Wifies went dead silent, not moving a muscle. It would make too much sense for Hummer to he Levi, someway or another. Everything would make sense if he was Levi.
And that meant that Wifies just yelled at something that he wasn't actually real. Man, did he fuck up. But how to fix that? There was a reason he didn't like to fight- the aftermath. Fixing and repairing relationships afterwards.
Hummer looked nervous- even more so than before. "Why didn't you believe?" He asked again, the quietest that Wifies ever had heard. Hell, he only heard because he had better hearing than humans did.
"I don't know," and before he thought better of it, "Levi."
Hummer immediately straightened up, still as could be. He distinctly reminded Wifies of an animal cornered. The waves began to break and crash against the shore even worse than they had before.
"I mean- I- Um- Yea- but like- I would've told you- after you saw me- please don't hate me- please." Hummer was stumbling over his words, trying to desperately repair this.
Hate him? "Why would I hate you?"
"B-because I lied? About who I was and that I was real. That- that- you had to drown yourself so many times. That I was always here- I don't know- People are hard." Hummer sounded like he was almost about to cry again, hands rubbing themselves together rapidly.
Wifies walked towards Hummer, and while he didn't like physical contact a lot, he knew Hummer did. He looked like he was one fast reaction away from leaping away, and so Wifies slowly wrapped his arms and wings around him.
"While I am pretty annoyed that I had to drown so much, I wouldn't hate you. I would never hate you. Besides, I'm sure there was a good reason." The waves began to gently slow down.
"There isn't. I don't know why it's like that, but those are the rules that I am bound by." Hummer clutched his hands into the fabric of Wifies's shirt.
They stood there, holding onto the other like he was about to run away. But eventually, Hummer piped up.
"If you- no. I'm sorry." Hummer murmured, obviously wanting to ask Wifies something.
"Hey now, what is it? You can tell me." Wifies asked, watching the robot with interest.
"If you want- and only if you want!- if you try to drown yourself again it should work. I can tell," Hummer said.
"What do you mean 'I can tell,' you were so confident every time beforehand, and it didn't work." Wifies was curious, but he really did not want to go back into the water if whatever this was wasn't going to work.
"I can tell you believe." Hummer grasped his hands against Wifies's jacket even harder than they were.
"Did you know beforehand that it wasn't going to work every time I went down?" Wifies carefully kept any aggression out of his voice, but man, that would piss him off if true.
"I didn't know that I could tell that sort of thing." Hummer pressed the screen against Wifies's chest.
"What? How didn't you know?" Wifies couldn't believe that Hummer didn't know that, it seemed to be something that you'd figure out pretty quickly.
"You're the first that believe in me." Ah. That explains it.
"... How old are you?" Wifies hoped Levi was just really young (but not super young, that'd be bad.)
" A couple decades younger than this calendar."
"Ah."
"What?" Hummer sounded hurt, but in the more playful tone he usually did.
"It's just that that is really sad." That'd be two thousand years without anyone believing that you existed. No wonder Hummer would always start to cry if Wifies mentioned the possibility of Levi not being real.
"I- yeah, I suppose it is." Poor guy didn't seem to know much about society, but Wifies had just assumed he'd have been born on a small world that didn't have many people.
"I don't want to do that tonight, alright? What about tomorrow?" Hummer nodded against Wifies.
"Let's go back to the ship." Wifies said and began to walk with Hummer to his boat.
They climbed into his boat, and Wifies expected to have to paddle them both back to the boat, but the boat went there itself, quite quickly as well.
The duo walked out of the boat and down below, where their beds were. Which they then collapsed into, while laying in each other's arms.
Wifies vaguely wondered if Hummer even had to sleep, and vowed to ask him in the morning.