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It was a dark, quiet night in the Crossroads. Usually nobody would be awake at this hour, but it just so happened Boombox held a small party at his apartment that night. He invited just about everyone he knew, including Medkit. Though, Medkit wasn’t too fond of parties. It took Boombox begging him just to even consider showing up. Maybe he was lucky that despite Medkit’s constant complaints, he was fond of him.
Once the party had ended, it was already way past midnight. Boombox waved to everyone as they left, one by one or in pairs, and finally closed the door behind the last civilian. Everyone went home. Or, at least almost everyone. Medkit decided to stay the night to save the trouble of walking back to his own apartment… and the fact Boombox actually had a bed for him to sleep in. A lot better than the desk he resorted to sleeping on majority of the time.
“So, Meds, what’d ya think of the party?!” Boombox threw himself next to the deer-like demon sitting on his couch, who slightly moved away from him for personal space.
“Parties aren’t my thing, Boombox,” Medkit replied, sneering at the energy Boombox still had this late. “I only came because you begged me to.”
“Well clearly ya liked something here since you stayed!” Boombox wrapped his arm around Medkit and pulled him close into a side hug. “I mean, you even wanna spend the night here.”
The deer-like demon’s face flushed slightly as Boombox pulled him into a hug, and he rolled his eye. “...Sure.”
“Just teasing you, Meds!” Boombox giggled a little before looking down at Medkit. “Ya need to learn to not take everything seriously, dude.”
Medkit grunted, and slowly removed Boombox’s arm from himself and placed it on Boombox’s leg. “Where I’m from, everything is taken seriously. Maybe you aren’t aware of that since you’re from Playground.”
“Medsss… I know Blackrock is serious about everything, I mean, look at Subspace. He takes everything seriously!!” One of the eyes on Boombox’s visor squinted while the other stayed open, showing a snarky expression. “That guy is always yelling across the battlefield in Phights to people who even try complimenting him!”
“Oh, wow, really.” Medkit sarcastically mumbled. “It’s almost like I know that. I worked with her.”
“Oh, riiiight! I always forget you used to be a scientist..” Boombox’s visor returned back to its default expression before he continued talking to Medkit. “I always kinda wondered, what was it like? Working with Subspace, I mean.”
“Dear SFOTH it was awful.”
“Ah, can imagine that based off how she acts in Phights…”
The two demons sat in silence for a while, before Medkit surprisingly broke it.
“You know, this crystal I have was one of the things we worked on together.”
“Huh, really?? Never would have thought it was. It looks so natural on you, Meds.”
“Um… thank you, I suppose. No need to flatter me.”
There was another shorter pause of silence, before Boombox asked a damning question:
“So, what were the crystals for? Since Subspace has one too, and it looks a hell of a lot different than yours.”
“Oh. They were made with the intent of killing others. I thought that was pretty obvious with how Subspace uses his.”
Boombox’s visor showed two tiny dots in the place of what were once wide eyes. He surprisingly didn’t expect such a blunt answer like the one Medkit gave him.
“...Are you being for real, Meds?? That’s insane!!!”
“Blackrock is insane. Kind of why I left.”
Medkit moved some of his hair away from his face before reclining back and resuming his monologue.
“You see, Boombox, the Blackrock scientists aren’t necessarily in favour of the demons that live there, and especially not anywhere else.” Medkit scoffed a bit, and continued. “Though you probably were never told that since you’re from Playground.”
“Ugh.. really holding onto that Blackrock status, are ya Meds?” Boombox snorted a bit before continuing to speak. “Just ‘cause I’m from Playground doesn’t mean I’m stupid.”
“Well of course you aren’t. You have the brain to ask me stupid questions, though.”
“Wow, rude!!”
Medkit let out a soft laugh before he continued once more. “Sorry if I drew any offense to you. Just saying, your questions are quite dull.”
“Well, explain to me what the situation with those crystals are,” Boombox gently poked Medkit’s crystal between his horns. “They’re so different.”
“Ugh.. okay. Well, you know both me and Subspace were scientists. We worked on these crystals together. He, along with many other higher-ups wanted to use them for combat and killing.” Medkit took a pause to catch his breath, as he wanted to explain as quickly as he could. “I, however, wished to use them for things like healing. Clearly, Subspace didn’t like that very much, so we ended up having an argument in our lab, and…”
Medkit slowed down as he continued speaking, eventually stopping. He could feel the memories of that day coming back to him.
it was almost as though he was experiencing it again in real time. it was about the crystals.
The loud, screeching voice of Subspace, who just talked over him every single time he wanted to get a word in about the crystals. It was like talking to a brick wall with her. Medkit could barely even explain himself before Subspace started going on a tangent about Blackrock, and how they needed to do it their way. He was so sick of hearing this over and over again, every single time he brought up the uses of the crystals.
“I… I can’t. I’m leaving.” the teal deer-like demon quietly whimpered to Subspace. he sounded defeated. he knew that no matter how loud he screamed, or how much he tried to get Subspace to listen, she wouldn’t.
“Sorry, what was that,” Subspace scoffed before quickly stepping closer to Medkit. “You’re leaving? ”
Medkit stayed still, and stared into the eyes of Subspace, his lip quivering a bit before he managed to gather up the words flowing through his head. “Yes… I can’t do this anymore, Subspace.”
“HAHAHAHAHA, SERIOUSLY?!!” Subspace laughed in the other scientist’s face, scoffing once more before getting closer. “You CAN’T leave, Meddy… You do remember your contract, no..?~”
Medkit’s lips pressed together, and he kept quiet. It felt like there was a lump in his throat: words that he wanted to let out, but his body wouldn’t allow it no matter how badly he needed to say something. Anything.
“Or maybe you forgot… You’re a BLACKROCK SCIENTIST, you are devoting your LIFE to Blackrock,” Subspace hissed snottily while poking Medkit’s chest. “Both MINE and YOUR contracts say that we are to remain here and serve Blackrock. Neither of us get to leave.”
Medkit swatted Subspace’s hand away from his chest, visibly more shaken up. “Don’t touch me.”
“Oh..? You don’t like when I touch you, Meddy?” Subspace mocked him, getting closer to his face, poking his chest yet again. “Say you’ll stay and maybe I can stop.”
Medkit grunted, and started to back up from Subspace. Yet all she did was follow his tracks, invading his personal space as he always did. The adrenaline that ran through Medkit’s veins was starting to spike.
“I…I-I’m leaving, and that is final. I’m not going to use these crystals the way you want me to…I…I’m not going to KILL people.” the teal-horned scientist blurted out as Subspace seemed to close in on him.
“Oh, Meddy…” the pink-horned scientist’s eyes seemed to squint with a grin forming on his face. “Why didn’t you just say that…?~”
“...What?”
“Why didn’t you just tell me that… You really don’t have to jump to conclusions and leaveee..~” Subspace backed himself away from Medkit, still with that grin of his plastered on his face.
Medkit shook his head in confusion, unable to make sense of this sudden.. “kindness” from Subspace, “...I..I’m sorry, you aren’t being serious, are you..?”
“Hmmm..~” Subspace stood and stared at Medkit with his grin becoming even wider. Medkit was too confused to notice anything off about Subspace’s stance, or the fact he slowly came closer to Medkit again.
“Maybe…” and with a quick swoop of her arm, Subspace sunk her claws deep into Medkit’s left eye socket, and pulled back with force… his eye coming out with Subspace’s bloodied hand.
Medkit immediately screeched in agony, and covered the fresh wound of his empty eye socket. He fell backward, and with one hand, tried to move his body as far away as he could. His consciousness was fading in and out, the warm blood flowing down his hand and face as he felt the entire left side of his face throb in pain.
Subspace examined the eye, which very quickly seemed to lose all life in it as she turned it with her fingers. Her grin softened, and seemed to be much less aggravated. Subspace was too busy being mesmerized by his new “trinket”, that he hadn’t noticed Medkit scrambling up towards the chemicals in the lab room they were arguing in.
“You know, Meddy, your eyes really are beautiful… Do you think it could be nice blackmail if you leave..?~” Subspace let out a small chuckle before hearing glass clattering together, and turned toward the noise.
Medkit held a flask with an unassuming liquid inside in his free hand, his other still covering his freshly wounded eye. His entire body was shaking as he screamed. “I-I TOLD YOU, D-DON’T FUCKING TOUCH ME!!”
The flask in Medkit’s hand was thrown towards Subspace, and shattered instantly when one of her horns poked the fragile glass. She flinched as the liquid spilled onto his face and trickled down his shoulder. Nothing seemed to happen.
“....Really, Meddy?! Is that seriously all you could-”
Mid-sentence, Subspace’s skin started to burn in the areas the liquid touched… and the pain had set in for him. His once long hair seemed to dissolve and come out in clumps, her skin bubbled and bled as the burning sensation seemed to worsen.
“...h-huh…? M-Meddy, what did you throw at me..?!!” Subspace dropped the eye of her coworker, and tried rubbing her face with the same hand.. only worsening this situation. “W-WHAT DID YOU THROW AT ME, MEDKIT?!!! AUGH..I-IT BURNS..!!”
The pink-horned demon’s right hand began to burn with his face and shoulder, and he could only yelp in pain as his skin sizzled and popped. Her left eye had started to redden and water, the burning sensation becoming too much. The skin on her hand started to blister and sizzle as well, bleeding just like his face. Maybe it was the blood seeping from his pores, but it felt as though her skin was melting.
Subspace stared at Medkit, who stood there frozen in fear, quite like a deer in headlights. Her eyes showed nothing but pure hate and anger. “AAUGH…WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU THROW AT ME?!!!” She screamed before bolting toward Medkit.
Medkit now can just faintly remember what came after… he only knows the horror of watching this coworker of his turn into more of a monster than she seemed. He remembers escaping, yes.. but it seemed as though it was pure luck with the explosions that echoed in his mind trying to remember all of the details. He started to wonder.. was it really worth him becoming a traitor..?
“Hey, uh.. Meds? You there at all??” a familiar voice came through to Medkit.
Boombox.
“Oh… my apologies, Boombox, I...I must have gotten off track.” he quietly said, a small quiver in his voice.
“You okay, man?” the shorter, green-horned demon asked as he got a better look at Medkit’s face. “You look like you’ve just been through war.”
Medkit’s eye drifted to his hands that were in his lap, before slowly drifting to Boombox’s visor. He really did seem concerned, but..
“You were talking to me about the crystals and then you just, well.. paused before shutting down. You were like that for a good minute…”
Medkit’s ears pointed downward a little along with his eye before he spoke in a cold, monotone voice. “I’m okay, Boombox.”
“Sure doesn’t seem that way! What happened in that head of yours, Meds?” Boombox’s visor changed from a slight squinting expression to one of worry.
“I…” Medkit started to speak before slowly becoming silent again. His eye showed no emotion, or at least not any that were good. Maybe Boombox was right about him looking like he went through war.
Medkit felt his face heat up a bit, as his eye watered.. yet his expression stayed the same. Cold.
“Meds! You really sure that you’re alright?!” Boombox gently held up Medkit’s face, his worried look on his visor gaining small animated sweat pellets at the sides. “You’re tearing up, man…”
“Oh.…am I?..” Medkit asked, a tear slowly rolling down his cheek. “My… apologies.”
“No, man, don’t apologize to me,” Boombox gently wiped the tear off the teal-horned demon’s face, and stared into his eye. “Please, tell me what happened.”
“I..I don’t know if I can.”
“Why come, Meds? You genuinely look awful right now… I want to know what’s wrong, dude.”
Medkit sniffled a bit, and made eye contact with Boombox. The demon really did seem to care about him… yet he was being pathetic in front of him. Crying would get him nowhere.
“Thank you, but… It’s a me problem.. not yours.”
“Come on, Medkit..” Boombox brought his face closer to the other demon’s, and gently rubbed his cheek. “I really care about you.”
Medkit’s ears perked up when Boombox said those last few words. Looking at his visor…although it was purely digital, it seemed like genuine emotion. Yet something in Medkit’s heart just… didn’t want to accept this genuinity. Although they barely stopped in the first place, his tears resumed as he stared at Boombox.
“Do…do you really mean that?...” Medkit asked through sniffles and a shaky voice.
“Of course I mean it, why wouldn’t I?!” Boombox’s visor flashed question marks across it, before it went back to his worried expression. “You’re in front of me, and you’re crying after going dead silent… clearly something happened.”
Medkit sniffled more, his tears flowing down his face. He wanted to trust Boombox, even if his heart was screaming at him not to. It just felt as though.. he really did mean it.
“...Genuinely….you care about me..?”
“Yes, dude. I care about you a lot. More than the average demon, I’d say.”
Medkit seemingly couldn’t handle the amount of emotion he was feeling right now. Adrenaline, fear, sadness, love, and the bliss of knowing he was cared about… it all made him crumble into a crying mess.
“Meds.. I love you, I want you to talk to me about this…” Boombox wiped the other’s tears yet again. “I don’t want you suffering alone.”
“...Thank you, Boombox… I..” Medkit paused, his voice trembling a little. “...I love you, too.”
“Promise me, you’ll talk to me… okay?” Boombox rubbed the deer-like demon’s cheek, and his visor showed a more relaxed expression. “I don’t care how much you cry or how long it takes for it to come out of your mouth.”
Medkit sniffled, getting weaker the more Boombox showed any type of physical affection toward him, and nodded in agreement.
“I promise.”
“Good.. take your time, okay Meds?” the green-horned demon kept rubbing the other’s cheek, and slowly pulled in for a kiss.
Medkit allowed it, and slowly closed his eye as he felt the warmth of Boombox’s face against his own, returning the soft kiss. This feeling… what demons called love. It wasn’t something Medkit knew well. Though perhaps he could open his heart a bit to try and learn what it was… starting off by telling Boombox exactly what happened between him and Subspace.