Chapter Text
"Theo?" Parrot breathes, kneeling in the blown-out remnants of LAW. The rubble digs into his knees - he's dimly aware that one of them is bleeding. Bleeding; mixing with the slowly-expanding pool of blood that's dribbling from a pale throat. "Theo?" he asks again, so, so quiet. As if saying a name will make it all okay again; back to days in the gilded Farlands before Wifies twisted something in Parrot, or maybe back to serene, peaceful days in Capital City. He'd give it all up, everything, if Theo would only smile cockily again. "Don't..." die, he starts to say, but the words get caught in the mesh of grief and fear in his throat.
"Parrot," Theo rasps, and a little bit of blood burbles from that long, deadly cut on his throat. Red on white. Theo's face is - it's so, so, pale. Ashen; deathly. Like a ghost, like Theo's already gone somewhere Parrot can't reach. "I'm the biggest bird, okay?" Theo slurs.
"Shut up," Parrot snaps, grabbing the cuffs of Theo's jacket with trembling fingers. Brown stains the black cloth; Parrot tries not to think too hard about it. "I - you - you're going to be okay," he says. The words come out harsh.
"No..." Theo says, each word painfully slow, as slow as Parrot dragging his dying best friend across the ground, "you..." But his voice trails off into nothingness. "Ow," Theo whispers as Parrot pushes him into a little crevice in the rock. The builders must've patched it up when they built the Northern Council, some miniscule part of his mind thinks calmly, logically.
"You - Theo - do you have totems?" Parrot asks, begs with a tremor in his voice. Theo shakes his head, barely a twitch that he can barely see in the dimness. Above them: the screams of the dying, the thudding of thousands of armored shoes. Here: the panicked inhales of Parrot and the ragged exhales of Theo. Here, it is only Parrot and Theo. Here, it is quiet and cool and calm and dark and -
And blood is dripping slowly in the dark, bright little plinks as they wind their way down. Black in the darkness, reflecting the entrance’s overcast sky. Theo is dying, Parrot realizes suddenly. It knocks the air out of his lungs and he doubles over, choking on the damp air, tasting of blood and terror. For a moment, he thinks it’s Theo's coughs, not his, that he’s hearing.
"You’re okay," Theo whispers. With it comes a terrible bubbling that echoes around in the cave, in Parrot’s ears. Here he is: panicking when Theo's on the edge of death, and Theo is comforting him. He’s so, so useless, when Theo is right there. He fumbles for something, anything in his inventory. He fumbles for golden apples, forcing Theo to take a bite. They both know that it won’t do anything; Theo is too far gone.
“I’ll - I’ll go look for a totem -” Parrot gasps, but a hand grips his wrist as he tries to get up.
“No,” Theo whispers, and this time Parrot has to lean in to hear. Theo’s breath burns in his ear. “I need you to listen to me… When I die…”
“You won’t,” Parrot whispers back with a fierceness he doesn’t feel.
“Don’t… interrupt me. When I die, find… find Flame - or Fymada… or someone, okay? To… to help you.”
“I - Theo, what - why -” He’s knocked speechless by Theo’s selflessness.
“I’m sorry,” Theo whispers, although what he’s apologizing for, Parrot doesn’t know. “On my grave, I want it to say… good friend and biggest bird…”
“Okay. Okay, Theo. I can do that.” He’d do anything, if his best friend asked him, right here, right now.
“You’ll be okay without me,” Theo whispers.
For a few seconds and an eternity at once, it’s just two friends and their breaths.
And then, in the space between heartbeats, Theo’s grip goes slack and it’s quiet in the cave, with only one set of breathing. Breathing for the one lying silent.
Parrot will gather Theo in his arms and whisper his name over and over and over. Tears will slide down his face like dying stars, and then he will leave and drown himself in the fight, and when he comes out on the other side he will be a different man.