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“cellbit, slime, are you at green’s base?” foolish’s voice echoes in his earpiece.
“i’m trying to find their merchant,” slime says, his voice is muffled, as though he’s saying through grunted teeth. “fucking bamboo everywhere, man. these things keep slowing me down.”
after trekking through the desert, the snowy mountains and the forest, they finally got to the jungle. cellbit’s legs tremble, but his determination keeps him standing. this is not the time to fail, fatigue is not an excuse when richas’ life is on the line.
“i saw some crafting tables on the way, not sure if they’re still here though,” he answers, quickly.
“i’m on the opposite side of cellbit, we’re trying to cover as much ground as possible,” slime adds.
cellbit’s back is drenched in his own sweat, his white tank top is covered in a thousand different shades of red and brown. blood and dirt, the perfect mixture of everything that makes them what they are. a canvas of life and decay.
“keep your ears peeled,” comes philza’s voice. cellbit takes a deep breath, he doesn’t know why his heart is racing. they know the green members are not at their base right now, but there’s something that makes a prickle of fear, or something that he assumes to be very similar to that, run up his back. “i’ve been trying to find blue’s base, i can tell i’m getting near it, but i have to be stealth. can’t let fucking badboyhalo find me.”
foolish’s menacing laugh can be heard, even though, he’s too focused on gathering materials across the island, “that motherfucker, if he kills you philza, he’s fucked.”
“we’re already fucked,” cellbit whispers. there’s no one around, but even the animals around are starting to make him paranoid.
cellbit clicks his tongue. once again, the sweet reminders of war spread in his head, like an infection, slowly consuming every inch of who he is, with no remedy or cure. he remembers one of his teammates, someone who’s probably already dead and whose face he can’t remember, another body to decorate the ground that swallowed him, “always be alert, you never know who will stab you in the back.”
“try not to lose your focus if you come across roier, cellbit,” jaiden warns him. cellbit has no idea of where she is right now, but he knows the implications of this coming from her.
“i won’t.”
“sure,” foolish taints. “if you come across him right now, will you kill him?”
“no.”
the howls of laughter in his ear remind him of a bunch of starved wolves, desperate for food, for prey. it makes sense that the red team, although doomed, are the ones who will do anything for the sweet taste of victory – or in his case, blood. anyone’s blood. except roier’s.
“would he kill him if he saw you?” foolish insists.
“i don’t know,” he answers, but it’s a concealed lie that slips through his teeth. he knows that roier wouldn’t kill him for the sake of it, but that’s something intimate, something that only they’re supposed to know.
“that’s my son.”
cellbit trusts and loves his team, they’re all that he has at this forsaken place, but roier is the love of his life. his anchor. his husband. in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. from the day of their wedding forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do they part. that’s the only pact cellbit is not willing to break. his vows to roier were not mere words, they were a promise to devote his soul to his husband for the rest of his life. the federation can try all that they want, they can take richas, they can try to break the bond he has with his husband by putting them on different teams, but they won’t be able to accomplish anything.
if there’s something cellbit is stubborn with, it is with the love that he gives to the people that matter to him. he can die a thousand deaths, be stabbed repeatedly, have every limb ripped from his body, and they still won’t be able to take the love that he has for his son and his husband from his hands.
the conversations in his ear continue, but he no longer pays attention to it.
cellbit finds a small cave, an opening that could easily be lost if you weren’t paying attention, a perfect spot to hide and to watch.
“i think i found something.”
“really?” all of their voices resonate at the same time.
“be careful, someone might be watching or underground,” philza warns him. cellbit doesn’t need to be told that, but it still brings him a sense of safety to have his leader watching out for him even when miles away.
his voice is low, barely a whisper, “don’t worry, i’ll be quiet.”
“i found their merchant,” slime giggles. “what should i do with it? kill it? hide it?”
“do your worst to it,” jaiden answers, a smile that cellbit can’t see, but knows it’s on her face.
cellbit pushes a few rocks aside, slipping through the crack on the wall. a smile blooms on his face, but it’s not happiness, it’s bloodlust.
the cave opens into a big space, he can hear the fire crackling from a furnace he can’t see and a couple chests are stacked on top of each other. when he opens them, he’s not surprised to see that there’s only a few random items. a bunch of rocks, wood and copper. he smiles to himself. of course, they wouldn’t have left anything that it’s important inside it. a team with etoiles, fit and roier, wouldn’t risk it. they wouldn’t make the same mistakes his team is willing to do.
something in the middle of one of the chests makes his stomach flutter. the blood in his veins pumps faster, his heart accelerates. the sound of different federation workers screaming in his ear, a beautiful cacophony – a knife.
cellbit thinks about stealing it. he rolls the knife in his hand, feeling the weight and how sharp it is with the tip of his thumb. the sweet strain of steel on skin. it nicks him, of course, it does. this is not the extension of his arm like rubro is, this one is useless, so he presses it further onto his skin. with a smile, he uses the blood from the now open cut to paint the blade red and lays it on top of the chest. they will understand the message, or at least, he knows that his husband will.
ignoring the other chests on his way, he continues to explore the cave.
“found something, cellbit?” baghera asks. she’s with philza now.
“just trash.”
“as expected,” philza says.
cellbit hums, moving rocks that keep falling with his foot. “indeed. they’re smart, they probably have everything that is good on their backpacks.”
“any indication of how advanced they are though? enchantment tables? lapis?”
“i think i saw a chest with some lapis, but it’s impossible to know, it would be better if we just assume they have everything,” cellbit squints, he can hear water somewhere. “and even if they don’t, roier and etoiles are too good at fighting for us, the only way for us to escape or to win against them is for us to use our brains.”
“hey!” foolish complains.
“put some more faith on us,” baghera says.
“slime, what about you?”
“my dear leader, i’m currently on a boat with their merchant.”
once more, his earpiece explodes with laughter, this time even cellbit can’t contain his own.
“what the fuck?” jaiden whispers.
“bolas! bolas! bolas!” baghera starts their chant and all of his teammates join in, cellbit stays quiet.
in the distance, he notices something that reminds him of quesadilla island. a plantation, uneven. some of the crops are growing in one side and some are forgotten on the other, it’s obvious that the person who did it wasn’t looking for optimal growth, they were just doing it to help their team. it reminds cellbit of all the plantations under roier’s house. it’s almost like he can smell his husband at this spot.
the conversations in his ear continue, but he zones out. it’s like his vision is blinded and he has to swallow down the feelings that threaten to spill... the truth is that he desperately misses his husband.
cellbit is aware that in times of war, feelings have no place in the battlefield, but he’s not letting go of them. he’s not the same kid who fought with badboyhalo. he’s a man with a family, with people who he loves and who love him. even if he loses everything, he won’t lose that. he won’t allow himself to.
he runs his fingers over the wheat. the bleeding has stopped. vegetta probably wouldn’t be proud of his son if he saw how uneven roier’s plantation is, so he destroys it. even if his father-in-law isn’t here to see it, he will do him this favor.
it’s easy to rip the wheat from the floor and step on the seeds that are still growing, there’s not much, and considering how well roier knows how to cultivate, he will be able to remake all of this in a single day. this doesn’t even compare to the beauty of everything that roier has grown on quesadilla island.
maybe he has grown soft, maybe it’s the fact that he knows that this is roier’s, but instead of burning all the seeds that he got, he places them inside a chest, and it’s just as he’s closing it that his eyes spot something red behind it. he leans forward, reaching down to pull it from behind the wall. it’s stuck under the heavy chest, so he kicks it away. his foot aches with the blow. the moment he manages to lift it, it’s like all air is stolen from his lungs.
he knows the material, the pattern, every single seam of this red hoodie. cellbit has laid his head on it a thousand times and has washed it even more at the castle. the black spider on the back of the red hoodie greets him once more. he brings the fabric to his nose. roier’s hoodie.
cellbit inhales the smell of his husband, it’s almost gone at this point, but he can still sense it – he might be imagining it, but it doesn’t matter, it’s the closest he has gotten to his husband in days. he kisses the cuffs of the hoodie and hugs it tight.
it will all be worth it. they’re bringing richas and leo back. it will all be worth it. they’re bringing richas and leo back. it will all be worth it. they’re bringing richas and leo back. it will all be worth it. they’re bringing richas and leo back. it will all be worth it. they’re bringing richas and leo back. it will all be worth it. they’re bringing richas and leo back, he repeats it like a mantra.
he considers putting it back on the place where he found it, but he decides to be selfish. roier can be a little cold, the last time they saw each other, before hell started, roier was wearing a black jacket, so he won’t mind it.
“found something, cellbo?”
“nothing, foosh.”
cellbit wraps the hoodie around his waist, he’s on the red team after all. it is now his most prized possession, no diamond axe or sword could compare.
the following day, he’s at the red base with slime. they know etoiles is coming to visit, they have struck a deal to kill badboyhalo for what they did to jaiden.
“put your mask on,” cellbit reminds slime. it’s weird how the mask feels like an extension of their body at this point, even if they don’t need it, they have it on. it’s a way of showing their alliance and their dedication to the red team, just like his empty finger where his wedding ring was supposed to be. it’s not there, but he still can feel it. he knows that when he goes back, even when he doesn’t have the mask on, he will feel the weight of it.
“they’re coming,” slime warns him from the top of the hill.
“they?” cellbit says to himself. only etoiles was supposed to come. he places his hand in his pocket, holds the knife inside it in a tight grip.
on top of the hill, the sun is setting, everything the light touches shines like gold, except the blue sky that is looming over them. cellbit doesn’t even need to look to know whose footsteps he hears, knows the sound of the weight on the floor way too well.
he jumps from his spot, running towards his husband, he doesn’t care if he looks desperate to slime. he knows he has a facade he needs to maintain, knows they’re enemies, but fuck everything, he misses his husband.
roier is talking to etoiles, but the minute he sees cellbit, he ignores his leader, walking towards him.
roier wraps his arms around cellbit, caging him. “gatinho!”
cellbit lays his head on his husband’s shoulder, voice muffled by roier’s hair. he presses a kiss to roier’s neck, the only inch of skin he can see. “guapito!”
roier sounds tired, both of them are.
the arms around him tighten.
“i missed y–” roier speaks into his ear, his lips skimming over cellbit’s lobe. a shiver runs down his back.
“hey, look!” cellbit tries to step away, but roier refuses to let him go. it’s only after a few beats that he drops his arms. cellbit takes a few steps back, proudly showcasing the hoodie around his waist. “i have your sweater.”
roier smiles, “pendejo. so that’s where it went.”
“it’s red, so it should be mine.”
etoiles, charlie and jaiden are talking away from them, still, roier steps closer to cellbit, opening his jacket to show a knife. it’s covered in blood. cellbit’s blood. “i guess this is yours, so it should be mine.”
abruptly, cellbit pulls roier by the collar of his shirt and presses a kiss to his lips. roier trips forward and into him, cellbit’s teeth nick roier’s lip, it draws blood. the only kind he will ever draw from his husband. the metallic taste tastes sweet.
under the sunset, they seal another deal. a blood pact. their devotion to each other is stronger than life or death. it will all be worth it. they’re bringing richas and leo back.