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The gravel surrounding him was coated in cobwebs and the remains of a battle. This wasn’t fair to start. Yungy had fully repaired netherite and Wemmbu had armor he scraped off the purge ground floors.
Wemmbu limped out of the arena, Yungy’s arrogant speech on power and pride bouncing back straight into his ear through the halls of the caves. His body was littered with injuries, disguised by the diamond armor that used to be only slightly dented before now fully bent and broken, the wings on his back in similar shape. Medbay. That’s all he needed to head to–the medbay, and he’ll finally be able to leave this desolate place with Egg.
He was under the impression that Flame had long abandoned the caves, and Egg was out with Jaden and CodMaster restocking and preparing to leave, but he was soon proved wrong.
“Damn, you look rough bro.”
Wemmbu nearly jumped out his skin, clutching his arm and flinching at the unexpected voice. Flame was leaning against a wall, arms crossed with medkit in hand and medical cot beside him.
“I could hear Yungy screaming his head off like a rooster from here. Seems like things didn’t go allat well huh?”
Wemmbu let an exasperated breath escape him, scoffed and dragged his feet over, plopping down on the bed with a profound thud.
“You could say that again. Diamond armor doesn’t do shit.”
Flame let out a huff as he kneeled beside Wemmbu with the medkit open. This obviously wasn’t the first time they had patched each other up, but it had been a while from the LAW arc. So when Wemmbu`s leg raised and he leaned away from where Flame was making himself comfortable on the floor, his abnormally warm hand came up to bring it back down. Despite appearances, Wemmbu was a huge coward toward healing.
“Don’t. Egg was worried sick, this isn’t just for you.”
At that, Wemmbu let himself relax a tad more, still keeping a close eye on what Flame was doing. Just his left leg would take a while to do, with all the shrapnel from his armor.
Flame always kept a distinct warmth to him compared to other PVPers, an advantage point because they didn’t want to touch him or get near him, but Wemmbu was naturally colder, so Flame's heat really didn't do anything but balance out his bitter body temperature, attracting him like a moth to a decently warm mug.
Wemmbu eventually gave up on monitoring all of Flame's moves and leaned back against the bed, leaving his legs hanging over the edge.
“Where is Egg?”
“Probably running as fast as his chungy legs can take him to you right now.”
“Huh?”
As if on cue, Eggchan came crashing through the door, tripping over the splinters that was once a sturdy oak door, with Jaden and Codmaster observing behind him. Wemmbu propped himself up by his elbows and tensed in preparation for Egg crashed into him, burrowing his face into Wemmbu's shoulder with his arms tightly wrapped around his shoulders.
“Hey Egg.”
“Wemmbu bro you can't keep fighting like this.”
Egg pulled back from him and circled around to face Wemmbu. His eyes were contorted with worry, every emotion visible on his face as he held Wemmbu's shoulders, Flame still silently patching him up. The seraphim really was an open book when it came to expressions, though Flame supposed it came alongside the angelic properties of being a descendant from the Aether.
“He's right, Wem. You look awful.”
Came from Flame as he pulled tight another bandage, and finally stood back up.
“Every time I see you, you look worse.”
“Thanks.”
“It's true.”
Wemmbu let out an drained sigh and let his elbows fall out from underneath him, his arms sprawled on either side of him.
“I'll get time to rest after I restock. Until then, Egg isn't fully safe.”
“Alright bro. Lemme just patch you up.”
At that, Egg and Flame continued to bandage Wemmbu in silence, their faces warping into disturbance as they found out the magnitude of his injuries. Egg has patched Wemmbu up time and time again, but never has it been this bad. His joints and muscles were tender and bruised, any contact causing him to let out a low groan before stifling the sound of pain.
After about two hours, he was in the best condition possible with the limited supplies available despite being in a medbay. They were finally able to leave. Thank Aether.
Wemmbu managed the trudge out of the caves fine on his own, gritting his teeth to avoid showing vulnerability in his already weak state. Eventually the sun began to warm their faces as they surfaced from the depths of The Caves. Egg cheered in joy at the sight of the silky golden rays.
Jaden however was still a major leader at The Great Sea, his confirmation and guidance long absent, so he and Codmaster began back as soon as they could. The three of them remaining waved them off, savoring the sweetness of the bittersweet flavor left on their tongues.
Wemmbu let out a prolonged sigh, his shoulders falling and eyes drooping lower. He stood completely still for a few seconds, watching as Jaden's and Codmaster's bodies slowly got smaller and smaller until the blurred edges of the horizon took them. Egg and Flame remained in a tense silence, patiently awaiting what would happen next. Suddenly, Wemmbu fell forward, his arms not even moving to brace himself, and fell flat on the ground.
Flame was shocked. Maybe in a situation where he was expecting Wemmbu to pass out would he have moved to catch him, but he just froze and stared at the body before slowly shifting his gaze to Egg.
Egg was hovering just over Wemmbu, a slight panic to his movements as he softly nudged him in his side with two fingers steadily, as if he'd wake up from that. Flame sometimes forgot that Egg was inherently useless without the purple blob melting into the grass right now, and that he had no strength to lift up Wemmbu, especially with all his gear and maces.
“Egg move. We'll take him to my base, it’s closer.”
Flame picked him up without breaking a sweat, one hand supporting Wemmbu's back and the other under his knees. The demon-tiger hybrid wasn't particularly surprised that the other had suddenly passed out, they had looked awful for weeks. In full honesty, he was shocked it wasn't sooner.
Occasionally Flame glanced over his shoulder to see Egg trekking behind, clearly sweating and tired but not wanting to give up and possibly worsen Wemmbu's condition. It was admirable, seeing a weak player such as Eggchan pushing himself to his limits for his best friend.
The sweltering heat of the Mesa biome washed over Flame, the familiar dry heat and towering terracotta mountains. It was normal for Flame, but the biome alone would only prove to further worsen his condition.
“Egg can you run?”
A small puff of air came from Egg, evidence of his exhaustion.
“Yeah.. no I'm fine..” he wheezed out, giving a thumbs up from where his hands were on his knees.
“Okay bro..”
Flame looked back forward and bolted towards his house, the wind created by the movement hopefully making the heat a little more bearable. Behind him he could vaguely make out the quiet cries of Eggchan trying to trail after him.
Finally Flame arrived at his front door, skidding to a stop. Egg collapsed behind him as he was opening the door, breathing heavily on the ground.
“You good?” Flame called from where he was still fiddling with the door handle, while trying not to drop Wemmbu.
He let out a huff when all he heard was a wheeze formed to say yes, and went inside to put Wemmbu down on his bed.
He was going to have to carry Eggchan in too, wasn't he?
Ah, the ceiling.
It was a dizzying swirl of warm-coloured terracotta, glazed with intricate designs. If Wemmbu wasn't lucid enough, he'd thought he was looking at an eldritch entity.
The pattern was beautiful, and even leaked onto the walls before fading into a gradient of orange to red. Surrounded by warm colours, and warmth.
He was warm? A rare luxury in the caves, one that didn't come when he was in his mansion-disguised-hellhole. He also doesn't remember any part of the caves that looked this colorful.
He lifted his head up, ignoring the pain that shot through the back of his neck. Oh there was Eggchan! He was out of breath and looked more flushed than usual, when did this guy ever do physical activity?
“Oh you're up? Wow, that was faster than I thought.”
A blur that may have resembled Flamefrags was on the other side of his bed, his arms crossed and head tilted at Wemmbu’s most likely dazed look. Flame took out another first-aid kit and potions to finish patching his wounds properly, his hand coming up to smack Wemmbu flat on the forehead to get him to relax again. Wemmbu fell back against the pillow as Flame began working on his wounds again, turning his head to see Egg seemingly peacefully asleep. Flame, who noticed Wemmbu staring, huffed in amusement and looked back down at his wounds.
“He ran probably five minutes, and now he’s out. Seems he really pushed himself for you.”
He gave an absent-minded hum, the pain that radiated from every puncture in skin for the stitches. Every experienced warrior that committed themselves to their lifestyle was well-acquainted with the pain that came with it. Exhaustion, pain, terror, adrenaline; all mixed into one big mess of a life that Wemmbu and Flame had grown to know. It was already better than usual since he was warm, in a bed, with someone he trusted knew patching his wounds, not to mention Egg finally being free and less than two paces away.
His peace was quickly shattered when Egg abruptly woke up, falling out of his chair from his panic. Flame tensed, pulling the stitches a little tighter than necessary. Egg’s (many, many) eyes focused onto Wemmbu with a crazed intensity before relaxing.
“Oh hey bro, you’re awake.”
The closer Egg got to him the more he grimaced from the condition Wemmbu was in; tangled hair, unpreened wings, eye bags deeper and darker than he’s ever seen him.
“Yikes bro.”
“The fuck does that mean bro?”
“It means yikes bro! You look genuinely horrendous.”
“D’alright.”
Flame didn’t bother commenting on their banter and continued with his stitches. Wemmbu opted to lean back and try to get some more sleep. In his highly (un)professional opinion, passing out really didn’t count towards sleep, and it didn’t feel like it either. With his closed eyes however, he failed to see Eggchan coming to his wings to preen them, something they often did strictly when it was just them. Eggchan didn't do this by accident, of course. He always noticed that Wemmbu was much more relaxed and lenient when it was just them, so he took advantage of that to preen and brush his hair, oftentimes making him fall asleep in the process from the safe vulnerability he was able to show.
“Egg what are you-”
Flame pushed Wemmbu down by his chest again, firmly planting him against the bed with a sharp glare and a sharper needle in his hand. Right, he was still stitching all my wounds.
“Relax Wem, Flame has let you stay in his bed he'll be okay with preening.”
Before Wemmbu could protest, Egg took his wing into his hand, spreading out the iridescent display of raven-black feathers. Within moments of his fingers cleaning out debris from the tips of his primaries, he was already on the knife's edge of complete peace.
His limbs went lax at his sides, his eyelids dropping to be half-lidded, drooping more and more with every movement across his wings. He was going to stabshot Egg for this, making his head feel like the equivalent to overcooked potatoes. He could pull out the fishing rod right now, make a hole through Flame's base and pop Egg's totem in revenge, but he found his arms and hands unwilling to cooperate.
One of Egg's hands left his wings, the other one staying where it was and soothingly scratching underneath a feather. He almost chased the lost contact but was ultimately subdued by the comfort. His other hand came up to Wemmbu's eyes to cover them, the tipping point for whatever remained of his brain to completely shut off.
Egg barely bat an eye, but Flame took a few glances when Wemmbu didn't even twitch at disinfectant invading his wounds.
“Is that all you have to do to get him like this?”
Flame looks towards Egg, his voice as quiet as possible. The seraphim just nods and continues to gently sort through the crooked feathers, picking apart his consciousness with every small adjustment. All hybrids had their own weaknesses, usually dealing with vulnerability or willingly showing a more closed off and personal part of themselves due to instincts.
It made Flame wonder if Egg had any of these characteristics, since he wasn't exactly a hybrid, but a seraphim. Lately, he's been trying to interact more with Egg when he can, since the only times he has talked with him are to get information. The last thing Flame wants to do is be hated or feared by a simple and gentle creature such as Eggchan.
It was at least an hour to midnight.
Eggchan was now working on his wings closest to his back on the inside of the wings, arguably the most sensitive and vulnerable spot. Not like it mattered with Wemmbu yet again deeply asleep and sometimes chirping at particularly relieving spots that were bothering him. Flame was done with his injuries and just helping detangle Wemmbu's hair, and with the avian's limp body, proved to be more of a challenge than he had first expected. Not that Wemmbu was noticeably heavy, he was an avian, ergo making him biologically lighter.
“Okay bro, I'm finally done with his wings. He really needs to take more breaks and hang out with me for longer.”
Flame let his arms slip to his sides as Wemmbu fell back on him with a small “ouf”. Despite being a combat master, his arms ached after that feat.
“He couldn't really do that with your life on the line bro.”
“Yeah but… it'll be different now. I'm not kidnapped or in danger, he can just… live, not survive.”
Flame gave a thoughtful hum and leaned back, gaze going to the ceiling that Wemmbu woke up to. It had been a long day for everyone, and now they were the safest they could be. Even with their respective injuries and exhaustion, having both top PVPers in the same room, their weapons within arms reach, is quite the security protocol.
Wemmbu wiggled onto his front and leaned into the warmth Flame outputted. Under any other circumstance he would've thrown Wemmbu off of him and shot him with an arrow. But with Egg falling asleep against Wemmbu, his wings opening and resting against his black wings, the two colours clashing in a war of fluffy comfort. And this being the only sleep he's gotten in weeks? He'll let it slide.