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There is something living in his soulmate’s (best friend, partner, his) body.
Wemmbu does not particularly care what form Eggchan takes, because he will love him the same, but it obviously bothers Eggchan, so it bothers Wemmbu.
Wemmbu, by definition, is selfish. He is a selfish creature born from selfish parents living in a selfish world. He finds he doesn’t quite care. He takes what is his and takes what isn’t his, and if there’s resistance, well, so be it. Once, a player asked him what Eggchan would think of him as he maced another in the knees, giggling at the screams. It made him pause, just a bit. He still killed the player, obviously, but it still made him think.
He absentmindedly herds a disgruntled and sleepy Eggchan back into bed to cuddle, because it is raining and Egg, I’m going to get my clothes and hair and tail wet, and you’re going to be whiny if your wings get wet, and we should stay inside today, in a very nonchalant and cool manner, to which Eggchan replies with a grunt and promptly falls right back asleep. Another W for Wemmbu yet again.
He stares at the something living in Eggchan’s body (which he has named Something-chan; yes, he knows his naming sense is amazing, thank you) in front of him and wonders what made it so distressed that it has carved a hole in Eggchan’s existence and made a home for itself. His tail thumps against the bed in annoyance as he drills a hole into Eggchan’s peaceful sleeping face. He wonders what Eggchan thinks of him, of them. He reaches for the back of Eggchan’s neck, tracing the faintly glowing mark on it.
Wemmbu doesn’t care to remember unimportant things, like how many players he killed or how many cities and villages he blew up, but he remembers when he and Eggchan first met like it was yesterday. If Wemmbu is careless and reckless now, baby Wemmbu was a different kind of beast. He winces as he remembers that they met by Wemmbu stupidly stealing from a group of three or four angels who came to visit from the Aether, only to be caught immediately and surrounded by said angels who looked at him in disappointment and pity. What the hell, baby Wemmbu.
And then, he saw Eggchan. Eggchan was younger then, too. The youngest of the angels, Eggchan had told him, years later. He had looked at Wemmbu, dirty, street-rat, demon Wemmbu, and smiled so brightly he thought he died and went to the Aether, which is stupid because by definition Wemmbu belongs in the Nether.
“Can I go play with him?” He had asked, looking up at his siblings, with his soft, giggly voice, pointing at him.
Honestly, Wemmbu would’ve thought the group of angels would say no, but all they did was share a look with each other, then let Eggchan run off with Wemmbu. Thinking back on it now, they probably thought (and could) easily catch up and kill Wemmbu if he did anything.
“What are you thinking about?”
Wemmbu, obviously, as he would, shrieks and tumbles off the bed, glaring at the giggling angel in front of him.
“Ow! Dude!” Eggchan yells as Wemmbu smacks him (gently, no spikes, barely any force, but Eggchan is dramatic) with his tail as he stands up.
He forces Eggchan to roll over and make space for him again, which the angel complies with, not without complaint. Holy dramatic.
“So, what were you thinking about?” Eggchan asks, turning to him.
“Just, remember when we first met?” He lazily wraps his tail around Eggchan’s forearm, purring as Eggchan scratches at his horns.
“Oh yes, when you stole from my siblings and tried to claw your way out of their hands." Which he did not (he did). He voices as such and tries to smother Eggchan with a nearby pillow as the angel snorts and rolls his eyes.
After he feels like he has rightfully given retribution for his grievances to Egg, he continues his earlier thought. “Do you think we would’ve met if I were a little more careful?”
Eggchan pauses at this, and Something-chan takes over. He frowns for a second before schooling his expression.
“Who knows?” (Eggchan does not say anything, but he wears a complicated expression. Wemmbu wonders if he doubts himself because of Wemmbu).
Hm. Wemmbu just curls his tail tighter around Something-chan. He hopes Eggchan comes back. He’s starting to miss his best friend more and more these days.
It is famously known Wemmbu has one weakness. And it is a good weakness, mind you. If Eggchan is hurt during a fight, Wemmbu can fly away from his fight, no matter the yelling of insults hurled his way, and kill whoever managed to lay a hand on Eggchan. But if Eggchan is captured, there is nothing he can do unless he makes sure Eggchan can get out of the situation safely. And if he can’t, then Wemmbu…
Wemmbu would sacrifice anything, everything, if it meant he could get Eggchan back again. Gear, weapons, potions, riches, his life – if he could, even if he logically understands that if he died, Eggchan would follow closely behind.
It is this precise reason that drives him as he lays low in the caves. He wonders what Eggchan does in his spare time. (It is writing. Eggchan writes like his life depends on it. He hopes Something-chan recedes to the back of the mind, at least when Eggchan is writing).
He feels his chest ache and frowns down at it. He gets distracted by someone calling his name.
His chest seems to ache a lot more these days.
He watches Eggchan try to climb his way out of his little hidey hole and drags him up, smiling slightly at the sight of Eggchan’s headwings fluttering. He wants to hug him so tightly his bones crack. Except, as he looks down, he realises he’s filthy, not to mention bloody.
Eggchan mumbles that he can’t see, to which Yungy (Too loud, too unpredictable. He doesn’t want him near Eggchan.) asks him to repeat.
Wemmbu is a selfish, selfish creature, but the pitiful sight of Eggchan makes him feel so much guilt and remorse; he does what he is best at. Avoiding his problems until they go away.
His chest aches a little harder.
Sometimes, when Eggchan is separated from him, Wemmbu cannot, cannot feel anything, he tells Jaden as the pirate looks at him in worry.
He thinks he feels something smash his hand. Or, no, something smashes Eggchan’s hand, and Wemmbu has felt it. He clenches his fist, ignoring the muted, phantom pain shooting up his arm. He steels his resolve.
He will get out of his hell, and he will kill Arachnid.
He has no other choice.
His chest aches more constantly.
He wraps himself around Eggchan when it’s all over. Jaden tells him he looks like he’s trying to swallow Eggchan up with his body alone. Wemmbu ignores him and also ignores Eggchan, who complains about being suffocated.
Or, well, it’s Something-chan right now. Has been, since the caves.
There is an eerie kind of peace on Something-chan’s face. He doesn’t like the look of it.
Something is clawing at the inside of his chest, trying to get out.
Jaden comes up to him at the festival, where they’re both watching Eggchan try and fly a kite. He’s failing horribly, and Wemmbu’s going to make fun of him forever, but he’s not going to discourage him.
“You should come back with me.”
Wemmbu tilts his head, a silent question.
“Back to the pirate civilisation. I’m going to rebuild it, I think. I think Eggchan will like it, and if anything happens, I’m always an extra hand to offer help.” Jaden says, rocking on his feet and looking at Eggchan, and pointedly not looking at Wemmbu.
Wemmbu considers it. Really does. It’s…not a bad idea, actually. He thinks back to the past couple whatevers, weeks, months, of his friendship with Jaden. They may have started off on the wrong foot, but it has blossomed into something beautiful, if Wemmbu says so, a little sappily. And Eggchan would. Like it, he means. There’s plenty of water to fish from, and there’ll be two people to protect him if anything goes south instead of one.
He knows whatever he says, Eggchan would follow. He also knows he will only say yes if Eggchan is happy with the decision.
“Why not. Eggy’s going to like it.” Wemmbu doesn’t mention Jaden’s sigh of relief, like how Jaden doesn’t mention Wemmbu’s tail flicking at his leg happily. They’re just synced like that.
And then for some reason Eggchan flies away with the kite, screaming, and Wemmbu has to fly after him as Jaden tridents after both of them.
His chest feels lighter than it has in ages. He finds himself so, so happy.
He wishes this feeling never ends.
It is another rainy day, and Eggchan is missing, again, and Wemmbu is going to kill the next player he sees.
He re-equips himself with all the PVP gear he can muster and gets around to equipping his elytra before he hears a distant trident in the air. He looks up and watches as Jaden lands in front of him, the siren looking the most panicked he’s seen him in ages, and waits for him to catch his breath, even with everything in his body telling him to start destroying everything to dust.
The siren shakily hands him the book Eggchan gave to him yesterday, telling him to read the letter.
He thinks the world stops. He thinks his heart stops. Something breaks, something precious. It feels like poison, seeping into his bones, dissolving his body until all that’s left is his love for Eggchan. He wonders if it was his fault.
He grips the letter so tightly his claws tear into the letter a little before he relaxes, because this is Eggchan’s letter, and Wemmbu is not going to destroy anything Eggchan wrote, no matter how devastating the content is.
There is a buzzing in his ear that strangely sounds like Eggchan. The real Eggchan. The Eggchan that giggles at Wemmbu when he messes up a combo but still heals him afterwards.
Jaden looks at him worriedly but nods at him, reading something in Wemmbu’s eyes.
There is no conversation shared between the two, but there is an understanding. An understanding that they’re going to get his everything back, until he is whole again.
His chest burns and burns and burns.
They ransack Eggchan’s room for anything, just a single clue that could, even just a little, show them the direction to Eggchan.
Wemmbu faintly remembers watching Eggchan, no, not Eggchan, Something-chan, write out a list for him. He leaves Jaden to keep searching Eggchan’s room and goes to his instead.
The list is missing, but there’s a book titled ‘Freudian Slip: The Truth’, which is weird, because it should be in Egg’s room. He opens it, and he is washed away by the soul-crushing words written in them.
His lungs are filled with water, drowning, drowning, suffocating. He thinks he cries. He thinks he breaks something. He’s not sure, but Jaden is comforting him in a messy room when he resurfaces. He brings the book closer to his chest, hoping that after all this, Wemmbu could forgive himself.
He makes a pitiful, devastating strangled noise as Jaden gently tugs the book out of his hands, to which the siren coos at him soothingly and comforts him, flipping through the book quickly out of consideration and giving it back to him as he finds the coordinates. He shoves the book inside his shirt, placing it over his beating heart. He touches the pulsing, aching, throbbing soulmark on his chest, hoping for an answer. There is none. That’s okay. (Please, please, please. Come back to me. Come back to me.)
They equip their elytras and head towards his heart.
Wemmbu’s not sure how long it takes. Later, when he asks Jaden, the siren also shrugs. It doesn’t matter.
They find a small clearing in the middle of a forest. There is a small bag in the middle of it and a river running next to it. There is a sloppy but blossoming little farm next to the river. All things considered, it is not a bad place. Of course, even in things like this, Eggchan would find something nice. However, it does not look lived in. It looks devoid of life, of love.
Eggchan (He hopes it stays Eggchan forever. He hopes when this is all over, Something-chan goes away, far, far away, and never comes back.) is lying down next to the bag, curled up and unconscious. Jaden has to stop him from immediately scooping up the angel and hugging him, and they check for injuries. He makes a noise as he feels how thin the angel’s wrist is.
He is so, so thin. He thinks he cries a little. He watches dazedly as Jaden does some first aid, the angel not waking once during this. It makes him worry. It makes him mad. It is complicated.
It’s time to go home.
Eggchan, worryingly, does not wake once during the trek back home. It’s not a good sign, but they force his body to at least drink water, and they’ll find a proper healer for the bigger things, considering Eggchan cannot heal himself, not in this state, anyway.
They stay at Jaden’s place, the siren giving them a spare room, because Wemmbu is never stepping away from Eggchan like, ever. Like forever, ever.
When Eggchan wakes, Jaden and Wemmbu are talking in hushed voices, the demon not separating his wings nor tail from the angel, and the siren petting Eggchan’s hair soothingly.
Eggchan groans, flexing his bandaged fingers (he ripped out his nails, Wemmbu tells him later, when they get some food in and some well-needed talking and crying. Jaden scratches at the base of his head wings as he passes by, going for another cup of coffee. Eggchan absently tells him drinking four cups of straight espresso in the span of an hour isn’t good for the body. Jaden just laughs) and shaking his head.
“What…what…?” He blinks up at the two unreadable faces above him. He watches as Jaden gives him a reassuring smile and gets up, leaving the room.
A demon and an angel sit in a comfy bed and stare at each other, neither saying anything.
“I-” Eggchan opens his mouth, only to be stopped as Wemmbu just cradles him close, clutching tightly at his back.
“I missed you." The angel widens his eyes, the display of vulnerability surprising him, just a bit, before his eyes well up with tears, and he, too, hugs the demon close.
They’ll be okay, like they always have been. They’ve got Jaden now, too. It won’t be immediate, and they’ll have to actually talk it out later, but in this moment, they are okay.
It is going to be okay. It feels like hope. It is love.