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Matt groaned, letting his head hang back against the tree trunk behind him. This was it, he was done for. He’d come looking for a special kind of webbing for his friend to make armour out of, since his current breastplate and pauldrons were getting pretty damn battered. In one sense he’d succeeded, it hadn’t taken long at all to find the spider beast which produced the webbing, and he’d actually gotten quite a bit of it. In another sense, he’d failed miserably, because the webbing was currently pinning his weapon to the ground and his body to a tree. He’d underestimated the monster’s strength, and now it was going to cost him.
“How interesting.” the spider-thing said, its voice clicking and inhuman as it tilted Matt’s chin up with slender, chitinous fingers. “Bee boys do not stray far from their queen.” it gripped his jaw, and tilted his head from side to side. “Take me to your hive, and I may yet spare you.”
Matt bared his teeth, and the spider thing sighed. “A pity. I had hoped to egg a queen, but I suppose a drone will have to do.” it released Matt’s chin, and he spat in its face. It shrieked, a sound which set his hairs on end, and Matt flinched as it lunged at him, fangs bared.
He heard an impact, but didn’t feel it. Cracking an eye open, his jaw dropped. Between his training as a scholar and his months eeking out something like a living in this strange hellish land, he’d seen a lot of things. But none of what he’d experienced in his incredibly eventful life had prepared him for what he was now seeing. The spider thing had been tackled by a second, larger spider thing and was now being pummelled into the ground. Fuck, he was probably next on this raging monster’s hit-list.
Matt shut his eyes as the newcomer roared, swallowing hard against the acid fear rising in his throat. Even Taka couldn’t have survived an entire year in this place, let alone a year and the hundred-something days it had been since Matt’s own lot was drawn. At least, with any luck, he would be reunited with his boyfriend in death. Though if he hadn’t known what was safe to eat, then he was probably already burning in hell. Matt was no saint, but he was pretty sure he hadn’t done anything bad enough to warrant eternal torment. The thought that he might never see his lover again, for real, drew a small whimper from his throat.
The sick sound of breaking chitin stopped, and Matt bit down on his lower lip as he pressed his eyes shut tighter. He could only pray that his death would be swift and relatively painless. The only sound for a long second was heavy breathing. Then there was the sound of chitinous plates rubbing together, a familiar sound made ominous as it signified his imminently approaching demise. Smooth fingers, broader than the earlier set and wet with warm fluid he didn’t want to think about, brushed gently over his face. The line of his jaw, the curve of his ear, the bow of his lips. Even the line of his glasses, where they rested on his face, got a delicate sweep of nails along the underside.
“Where did you get these?”
This monster’s voice was different from the first one’s. Deeper, less of that weird clicking, more human-sounding. Matt cracked an eye open, then quickly squeezed it shut again. Its face was right in front of his, all of its eyes fixed on him. A deep scar split its nose in two just below the largest pair of eyes, and if Matt could’ve moved he definitely would’ve punched it there to make his escape. As it was, he couldn’t move, couldn’t so much as lift a finger in defence of his own life.
“I asked, where did you get these.” the monster repeated, its voice dropping to a growl that had Matt’s entire nervous system screaming at him to run away.
“My father!” he blurted, and the monster’s hand lifted from his face. “My father got them for me so I could be a scholar. They’re not enchanted, they just- they help me see. Please don’t break them.” his voice went a little weak and wobbly at the end, and he would’ve hit himself were his hands free. Stupid, stupid! To a monster, that was as good as an invitation!
The palm that touched his cheek was disconcertingly firm under the slick fluid coating it, and Matt flinched away from the contact. The hand pulled back, the monster making a noise almost like pain, and Matt shuddered at the sound of insectoid legs striking the ground as it... backed up? He cautiously opened one eye, then the other as he realized that yes, the monster had in fact backed away a few steps. In addition to the scar on its face, it bore scars all across its visible skin. It wasn’t nude, unlike the other one, wearing a dark sleeveless tunic which actually gave it a semblance of modestly.
“What do you want?” Matt asked, managing to steady his voice so he sounded commanding rather than afraid.
“You don’t- you don’t recognize me?” the monster asked, and Matt narrowed his eyes.
“No. You’re only the second spider-thing I’ve seen.”
“I knew I shouldn’t’ve let her dye this.” it whined, and something stirred in the back of Matt’s mind.
“Whatever you’re going to do to me, just, do it fast.” he said, closing his eyes again. He’d lasted a quarter of a year, he could die with pride.
“Oh, right, sorry.” the monster apologized, and Matt’s eyes flew open again as he suddenly pitched forward. Away from the tree. His arms were still frozen in relation to his torso, though, so he could only slump against the monster’s chest as the rest of his body was cut free. One muscular arm came up to support him, cradling him against the warm, surprisingly human-like chest of the spider thing. Its heartbeat was slow, steady, and it felt like he’d just drunk a vial of honey with how badly the inside of his skull was itching.
“Hold still.” the spider thing said as it laid him on the ground with a surprising amount of care. “I’m going to cut away the webbing on your shoulders, but my hand will be hot. If you move, I might hurt you.”
“Why do you care?” Matt asked, staring at its hard-jawed face and dark, glittering eyes.
It paused, right hand glowing with sickly purple magic where it hovered over his shoulder. “I could never stop caring about you, Matt.” it said, a strength and earnestness in its tone that Matt had only ever heard from one person. But it couldn’t be. It couldn’t be, but still Matt’s heart leapt in his chest, beating faster as his shoulders were freed, allowing him enough of a range of motion to start ripping off the rest of the webbing. He should’ve torn the sticky silken strands from his skin and run, should’ve lunged for his sword and fought no matter how exhausted his limbs were, but instead he just sat there, staring at the spider thing’s face, trying desperately to exterminate the seed of hope rapidly growing in his chest.
The face in front of him was unfamiliar, one he’d never seen before in his life. A jaw like a cornerstone, a deep gash across the nose, eyes dark enough to make the face inhuman even without being so numerous. But still, there was something. A quirk of the lips as they pulled up in a hesitant smile, the angle of the eyes as they bored into him, the way his name had sounded on that darkened tongue. A name, he realized, he had never spoken in this part of the world. “Taka?” Matt breathed, and the spider’s face lit up with a smile that he’d have to be dead to forget.
“Yes!” Takashi cried, pulling Matt in for a tight hug, crushing his wings flat to his back. “Yes, it’s me.” he buried his face in Matt’s neck, heedless of the sticky silk strands still clinging there. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
“I can’t believe you’re alive.” Matt replied, throwing his arms around his boyfriend’s chest. “When I came through and you weren’t at the portal, I thought-”
“I’m so sorry.” Takashi gasped against his skin. “I should’ve stayed.”
“You can come back with me now.” Matt smiled, ducking and turning his head to press it into Takashi’s hair. “We can guard the portal together.” he leaned back, and his cheeks warmed as he realized the mistake he’d made.
“Matt?” Takashi lifted his head, his concern familiar even on unfamiliar features.
“I, uh.” Matt looked away, pursing his lips for a moment. “I think we’re stuck.”
Takashi chuckled, pressing his forehead against Matt’s and meeting his eyes. “I don’t mind.” he tilted his head slightly, and pressed a quick, chaste kiss to Matt’s lips. “Gives me the perfect excuse to cuddle you for the next half hour.”
“Out in the open like this?” Matt felt his cheeks heating further, which was ridiculous. Far more intimate things than cuddling happened out in the open every day in this place.
“The locals won’t bother us.” Takashi murmured, pressing a gentle kiss to Matt’s cheek. “They know I can destroy them without breaking a sweat.” another gentle press of lips, this time to the tip of Matt’s nose. “But I could always carry you back to my camp, if you’d be more comfortable there. It’s not that far.”
From the firm muscles Matt could feel through Takashi’s tunic, he didn’t doubt one bit that his boyfriend could carry him around now. “Let’s stay here.” he mumbled into Takashi's shoulder, earning a deep, familiar chuckle.
“I missed you so much.” Takashi said softly, face pressing into Matt’s barely-restrained mess of hair. He’d been meaning to get it trimmed, but the only salon he’d found so far had been, well, shady was a generous description. He’d have to ask where Takashi got his done, later. For now, he’d just keep an ear pressed to his boyfriend’s chest and bask in the fact that they were both alive.
“I love you too.” he breathed, smiling for the first time in what felt like months.