Chapter Text
“---, get down!” He tackled them to the ground, wincing as they yelped in pain at both the collision and the landing. The explosion sounded, sending shrapnel flying every which way as he covered their form with his own; rocks, dirt and gusts peppering his protective figure. As the rumbling died down, he lifted his skull to look about the area. Seeing no immediate threat, he rolled off the human, stood, and offered his hand to them, his voice thick with concern, “are you okay?”
The human lifted their gaze to his after catching their breath, their eyes searching his own as they nodded their head, their hair dropping bits of dirt and rock as they stood with his help, wiping the particles and debris from their body. He turned to look back to the battlefield with them, his own heart aching desperately as one by one monsters and humans alike fell to the clutches of war. How did this even come about? One moment, he was telling someone how much they meant to him, and the next an all out war had broken out between humans, monsters, and… he didn’t want to finish that thought. Seeing so many bodies and the rivers of dust that snaked across the massive graveyard filled him with an inexpressible sorrow. Among the fallen were people they both cared about.
As he finished clutching his necklace to update the ‘checkpoint’, the human’s arms wrapped around him, their warmth seeping through their sweater and onto his worn limbs. He leaned into their embrace. He was so tired. Tired of death, fear, and waking up from the same bloodied corpse haunting his dreams and the corners of his vision. More than anything, though, he was tired of failing.
He hugged the human tightly, his agony seeping from him via dry sobs into the crook of their neck. They kissed his cheek, the only thing they could do aside from try and comfort him, as they knew no words could. They rubbed his back, gently shushing him as his embrace tightened around their form. He lifted his head and cupped their face, running his boney thumb over their plush cheeks and pulled them into a kiss. They happily reciprocated, slipping their arms around his neck and tilting their head to the side. After breaking the kiss, they looked up at him with such joy he couldn’t stop himself from professing his love to them. They gave him a tired smile and returned the affectionate phrase.
Their moment was cut short by a crash roughly a hundred metres away. The two pulled back from each other and he felt his stomach drop as the faint beeping reached them. He turned to his lover, commanding them to run as they both took off in the opposite direction, their hands locked together. His breathing was ragged, as was theirs, when they heard the panicked beeping. He pleaded with whatever was watching over them to help as a wall of light and heat erupted behind them. He grabbed the human, wrapping his arms around them as he yanked them in front of him to shield them from the blast. He heard them scream as the pulse of energy engulfed them.
--
He opened his eyes, the words ‘continue’ and ‘reset’ listed before him amidst the vast emptiness that swirled about him. He rubbed his sockets, releasing his longest, most disappointed groan yet. There were only so many versions of the same universe. After all this time, all these resets, all these failures, there was one timeline that he had yet to succeed with. Be it because for whatever reason this universe’s god chose to make it more difficult than a hell mode, or that he just sucked the most when it mattered, he couldn’t tell you. He stared over it, looking at as much as he could, wanting to know if there was any way he could take this knowledge with him this time. He made so much progress. He finally got them to say yes, and then they… he couldn’t accept it. He refused.
His SOUL aching, he pleaded to whoever is listening that he can retain this knowledge. This knowledge that is so vital it could literally mean whether or not they live and the two of them could be happy. He watched the scenes play backwards, watching them go from being his lover to being a stranger once more. He didn't know if he could survive it this time and was honestly debating on just staying in the void just so his friends don’t die. So his human didn’t die. So that he doesn't die.
It was getting so hard losing them over and over. He’d almost become numb to the pain, but this last time was so informative and tender. What made it worse was how he knew what was going on. That unless they listened, they wouldn’t be able to survive. They wouldn’t be able to be with the one they pursue every timeline, even the ones the being in question goes out of the way to avoid them in. The entity they continuously say makes them happier than anyone else in the world.
Him, a literal skeleton monster.
Every time he ran into them he never had much to offer them, often times making mistakes out of petty anger or hurt that end up with either witnessing or causing their death. He curled in on himself, his SOUL crying out for its special human while the tears that seeped from his sockets dripped from his chin into his arms and sobs rocked his body. He couldn’t keep doing this. They were always the one reason he even woke up in the morning. Every time they met, his world got brighter as he fell for them again and again. Never the same appearance, never the same voice, never the same form, but everything else was. Their hair, carrying the never changing scent of their shampoo, was always soft to the touch. Their plush, glowing flesh that held such an intoxicating aroma for him, no matter its tone, blemishes, or features. He longed to look back into their ever gazing e/c eyes that read him like a book and routinely called him on his bullshit, and to hear their musical voice that sang him pieces composed specifically for himself.
He wanted them back. He’d even go so far as to give up all knowledge that he has to truly fall back in love with them. To see them, hold them, and hear them say they love him for the first time all over again. He felt a surge of pain as his SOUL gave warning it was close to giving up. It was so broken at this point. He pulled it from his chest via magic, examining the cerulean object’s newest addition to the bundle of cracks that was once his SOUL and watching as it almost completed its stretch to the centre. He gave another sigh as he flopped back, looking it over some more and saw that it wasn’t a new crack that had formed but it had made one deeper instead. Sharp snap sounded off as he stared at his essence, tightening his chest in heartache as another ravine formed in it.
Returning his SOUL to its home behind his magic, he laid back in the void, closing his eyes and reminiscing of all the times he met them, all the different choices he had made to get this far, and he couldn’t even figure out if the knowledge he had was worth it or not. His eye lights found their way back to the options before him, settling on ‘Reset’. If he were to be able to succeed… The pain from his soul seemed to amplify as another crack shocked it's way through him, bringing him to his limit as he felt his strength falter.
A wry smile etched itself into his skull as their smiling face flashed in his head. “...hey, sweetheart,” he whispered, his cheekbones glowing with a soft, blue hue as his thoughts raced to the one he loved and his heart rate picked up, "do you know who you are?"
He swore he heard their sweet voice, amusement thick as he mocked a response from them in his mind. He gave a chuckle, continuing the one sided conversation, "that’s right. you’re the bonely one for me…"
He closed his sockets one final time, mentally holding them to him and replaying their laughter as he delivered his punch line and felt his body turn to dust.