Work Text:
The clock ticked back and forth, tick, tock, tick, tock. Rae could swear each tick was getting progressively faster as he furiously scribbled on another page. He pushed down too hard on his quill though and the end snapped, splattering black spots across the page. Damn it, that was the third one this morning and now the book was a mess. He could toss it in the pile with the other books to be discarded but honestly there were some in the Archives that were far more ruined than a few ink blots and with a glance at the clock still loudly ticking on the wall he grabbed another quill and kept writing. The sun was starting to peep through the windows and considering the mountains surrounding the little plateau that was a feat of itself meaning it would likely be noon far sooner than he liked. Tick tock the clock warned. Yes, yes, I know, he was tempted to scream at it but reasoned that wouldn’t do anything other than make a fool of himself.
Caspian worked his way to the archives, the sun had set over the mountains and the last of the light from the other side was fading as night took its shift. Rae still hadn’t come home and if what he heard from Athena was right this would be day three of working at the Archives without a break. He opened the door and immediately a few feathers and scraps of paper flew out, nearly wacking him in the face with a nearly full sheet of spiraling letters. The inside of the Archives was a mess and for a second he worried about a break in before spotting a wall covered in sticky notes. Ahh back to that, better on sticky notes at least. Less concerned now he served the place. Enough quills lay about to make it look like a chicken massacre had occurred and paper was strewn on every surface. Books stacked high enough to make walls and empty or spoiled jars of ink rolled about. One wall had been completely covered in sheets of paper and held a spider web looking design while another wall had multi coloured strings attached to different notes. Sticky notes filled every available space. Finally in the middle of it all sat a broken clock, glass broken and arm swinging back and forth as it occasionally let out a sad tick. He realized after a second that the broken glass was splattered in magenta.
“Rae!” He called into the fort of paper. Rae rounded a stack of books looking disheveled, arms piled to the brim with books and paper. Hair messed up and stuck full of quills and ink smears all over his skin. But what concerned Caspian the most was the magenta stained cloth wrapped loosely around his left hand. He bounced forwards as the books tipped and quickly took them before they spilled. He settled them on the ground before getting up to look at his boyfriend more closely. Rae smiled sheepishly as he scratched the back of his neck.
“Have you been sleeping?”
“Somewhat?” Rae tried but he sounded unsure of the answer himself.
“Eating?”
Rae opened his mouth to answer but his stomach spoke first letting out a hungry grumble. Caspian quickly handed over some bread before leading Rae over to the stairs to sit down. Rae munched on the simple food as Caspian dug his way through the assorted writing supplies to the med kit behind the front desk. He pulled out disinfectant, tweezers, a better bandage and a healing potion. While the last one probably wasn’t necessary he was going to have it anyway. As he made his way back to Rae the clock let out another sad click and Rae glared angrily at it. Caspian getting the idea flipped the clock over and shut it down before it could chime again.
“The clock?” He asked simply as he unwrapped the blood soaked fabric.
“Going too fast,” Rae mumbled between bites of bread. He nodded as he inspected the cut for shards of glass. Finding none he set the tweezers down, thankful his boyfriend at least had the common sense to manage the injury slightly. Disinfecting and re-bandaging were the easy parts. As he held up the shimmering pink liquid Rae shook his head.
“It’s a waste of a potion,” he argued.
“Sherbert can always make more and nothing is a waste on you,” he argued back. They both glared at each other for a minute before Ghosty pulled out the final card. “Drink it or no Atlas privileges, I’ll take him on a long walk somewhere.”
The potion was downed in seconds. The bread was finished not long after as they sat quietly on the stairs hand in hand.
“Home now, we’re going to bed.” Caspian stated, leaving no room to argue. Considering Rae didn’t even attempt to though was a true sign of how long he’d been awake. As they made their way to the door Rae glanced back momentarily at the mess.
“I’ll help you sort it out tomorrow,” Caspian promised. Rae nodded and trailed along without complaint. As they stepped outside the cold night air hit them and Rae shivered. Ghosty tried to hand over his jacket but Rae pushed it back.
“I’m fine, it's just a short walk.”
“It is a short walk so I’ll be fine without it.”
“I’m more immune to the cold, end blood or whatever.”
“Only half ender and I’m more immune due to traveling.”
“My shirt’s warmer, long sleeves and all.”
“It’s too light and flowy to be warm,” Ghosty bantered back.
“I won’t wear it unless you wear it,” Rae smirked.
“And how would that work huh?” Ghosty grinned back.
“It won’t so I won’t wear it and you will,” Rae concluded. Or well tried to conclude. Ghosty had other plans though and slipped his right arm through the left sleeve before extending the other.
“I’m wearing it now you too.”
“How?” Rae questioned. Staring at the jacket sleeve as if it was a difficult text to translate. Finally he shrugged the right sleeve onto his arm and the pair laughed at how ridiculous it looked but didn’t do anything to change it. It made the jacket basically ineffective but as they held hands and enjoyed the night on their walk home that was all the warmth they needed.
As they entered the house Ghosty quickly detangled his arm and went about shutting off every clock he could find. Rae instantly relaxed without the repetitive ticking and Caspian led him to the bedroom. They both changed into pajamas and Caspian helped detangle the quills and wipe off the ink splats.
“How’d this one happen?” He asked as he rubbed off one he’d almost mistaken as more ender stuff because of how large it was.
“The clock’s alarm startled me cause I thought it was broken after I punched it and I spilled the entire bottle of ink… down my arm,” Rae grumbled staring at the stained limb.
“Do you want to tell me about the clocks, they seem to really be bothering you and I might be able to help, or like steal them all or uh something,” Ghosty rambled.
“Steal them all?” Rae chuckled, “What you’re just gonna steal every single clock on the server? What happens when people make more?”
“Uh, could probably pay or even just ask Chaos to help. And for you the world.”
“Uh ya ah umm, hi. Damn it why do I always do that,” Rae grumbled as he face palmed in annoyance.
“Hi,” Ghosty whispered back, drawing Rae’s hand away from his face, then he burst out laughing at the new hand shaped ink smear.
“What?” Rae asked now concerned before looking at a mirror and joining in with the laughter. After the two caught their breaths they went back to scrubbing at the stubborn ink spills.
“You don’t have to talk about the clocks if you don’t want to just know I’ll always be here to help ok,” Caspian whispered.
“No no, it’s ok. It’s just uh. There’s already so much to do and so little time. It feels like everything is on a deadline. Hell, Athena is on a deadline and then there’s everything else too. How am I supposed to keep up with everything? The clock just kept ticking and ticking like a countdown to impending doom. It just added to the pressure. Each time another, second, minute, hour, day passed without results, answers, it just felt like the clock was getting faster and faster. I couldn’t deal with it.” Rae ranted.
“Hey it will be ok,” Ghosty whispered, rubbing circles on Rae’s knuckles as his hand squeezed Caspian’s. “You’re the smartest person I know and you’ll solve it, you always do but you don’t have to do it alone. We’re all here for you and you don’t have to do everything at once. Wings can wait, memories can wait. Everything can wait a night. You deserve a break too, otherwise you will break and it will take even longer. We all care about you and are here to support you. We’ll figure it out together at the right time, the right pace. For tonight we’ll sleep and tomorrow we’ll deal with the Archives and the clock situation,” Ghosty reassured.
“When did you get good with words,” Rae chuckled.
“When it’s important I can find the words that matter, er most of the time at least.” They both laughed quietly as they rested their foreheads together.
“Shoot you’re probably inky now too,” Rae realized after a second, pulling back. Sure enough a dark splotch smeared across Ghosty’s forehead.
“Does this stuff ever go away?” Ghosty grinned as he inspected the accidental face paint in the mirror.
“Maybe?” Rae shrugged, smiling. He grabbed a hand full of bubbles and blew them towards Caspian. Caspian glanced over just in time to swat most of the suds but a couple still landed on his face. He smirked back at Rae before scooping up a handful of bubbles himself and throwing them back. Tonight they’d deal with the never ending ink and rest. Tomorrow everything else could be figured out. Two brains were better than one even if they shared the same single brain cell.